Tales of the Reincarnated Lord: A Compilation
Author: Smoke Is A Path
Date: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Action; Adventure; Comedy; Drama; Fantasy; Harem; Mature
Description: In a world where magic is long but a thing of the distant past, where humans have the potential of harnessing a dormant power within them, called Battle Force… A man from modern-day Earth finds himself suddenly waking up in the body of Norton Lorist, a youth of noble descent that had been exiled from his homeland in the North by his family to Morante City, the capital of the Forde Trade Union on the pretext of pursuing his studies. Little did he know what would await him when he receives a summons from his family years later to return to the Northlands and inherit the position of the family he

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Tales of the Reincarnated Lord

(重生之领主传奇)

by

Smoke Is A Path

(烟本是道)

Synopsis

In a world where magic is long but a thing of the distant past, where humans have the potential of harnessing a dormant power within them, called Battle Force…

A man from modern-day Earth finds himself suddenly waking up in the body of Norton Lorist, a youth of noble descent that had been exiled from his homeland in the North by his family to Morante City, the capital of the Forde Trade Union on the pretext of pursuing his studies.

Little did he know what would await him when he receives a summons from his family years later to return to the Northlands and inherit the position of the family head…

This is the tale of his life before the summons…

This is the tale of his journey northward and the allies he gathers along the way…

This is the tale of his rebuilding his family’s dominion and keeping it safe from other power-hungry nobles…

This is the “Tales of the Reincarnated Lord”.

World Map

Prologue

Singwa hung high up in the sky as always, sending light and warmth down to the streets.

The massive statue of Singwa, the God of the Sun, Light and War, under the illumination of sunlight, stood shiny and gleaming at the shrine, exuding an air of magnificence.

Morante City, the capital of the Forde Trade Union, was the largest trade and port city in the Grindia Continent.

This city had the largest amount of shrines dedicated a pantheon of deities, earning the city the moniker: The City of Shrines.

It also had the most academies on the whole continent, among which included seven of the top ten highest ranked ones, causing it to also be known as the Academy City.

This was the most populated city on the Grindia continent; it had a population which numbered almost eight hundred thousand.

Over here, businesses flourished and people came and go. The amount of gold coins circulating in the daily economy of the city usually amounts to millions. Countless mercenaries, swordsmen, adventurers, artisans, peddlers as well as the common folk and slaves each with their own dreams and aspirations.

The bards often sang about how this city was a favored land of the gods, a land rich with wealth and prosperity…

The second largest waterway on the Grindia Continent, the Silver River, silently nourished the Falik Plains and entered the seas from the west part of the city, giving rise to a bay filled with hidden treasures and a great maritime armada.

The vast and rich Falik Plains, thanks to the abundant sunlight, produced various goods including honey, allowing the city to grow larger and larger thanks to the yearly harvest.

167 years ago, the Archduke of the old Falik Empire, Forde Morante suddenly announced a reform that led to the relinquishing of the hereditary feudal lord system and the adoption of the republic system. Serfdom was also abolished, liberating up to 400 thousand serfs. This reform greatly startled the various nations on the continent.

Greatly advocating trading as a means to develop the nation, Archduke Forde Morante rallied six other merchant guilds under one banner, forming the Forde Trade Union and began to trade with various other countries. This was later recorded in history as the Great Forde Reformation.

The newly-founded trade union embraced freedom and openness, causing hordes of wealth-hungry people to flock over as well as inciting jealousy from various other powers.

The Krissen Empire, one of the three great empires of the Grindia Continent, declared the Great Morante Reformation to be illegal and proceeded to invade the Falik Plains, starting a war the lasted more than a hundred years.

The newborn Forde Trade Union however did not yield. Rallying countless slaves under the banner of freedom, they met the invasion with similar appalling force. For more than a hundred years, blood stained across the Falik Plains.

Two Krissen emperors, more than ten dukes and countless elite soldiers fell at the Falik Plains to the forces of Morante City. However, the bright blue flag of the Forde Trade Union stood proud and tall.

Over the countless years of war, the trade union grew stronger. With 100 thousand warriors and clever plots, they dealt the empire a final blow that brought down the sole Sword Saint of the empire, winning themselves twenty years of peace and sending the Krissen Empire down the path of decay.

Following the Krissen Empire’s last emperor’s death by sickbed, the three princes started an internal power struggle for the throne, further crippling the already dying empire and allowing the trade union to be free of their threat and to rise and prosper. Within those twenty years, the trade union apexed and became the top superpower on the Grindia Continent. The influence the union had on trade throughout the continent was immeasurably great.

Morante City, the city that persisted, the capital of freedom. Originally, it was known as the Seaview Citadel. To commemorate the great deeds of Forde Morante for fending off the Krissen Empire’s invasion, the name was changed to Morante City. To accommodate for rapid economic development, the Forde Trade Union commissioned for thirty six other districts to be built outside the citadel’s walls as well as a new wall surrounding the newly-built districts, dividing the city into the outer walls and the inner walls.

But Morante himself didn’t call the different sectors of the city that. He termed the inner part the Upper City Sector and City Core. The west outer part was called the Academic Sector, which contained about twenty academies of various disciplines. The northwest part of the outer city contained the Naval Sector, the Port Sector the Business Sector, which occupied the most space, and the Camp Sector which was where non-residents usually resided. To the northeast of the city was the Garrison Sector and the rest of the east and south parts were the Residential Sector.

Although Morante City was the capital of the Forde Trade Union, the union’s highest council was not responsible for the city’s management. Instead, the city’s management was handled by a mayor in the City Core who was elected once every five years by the union council. After the mayor’s five-year term, the council collects evaluations from one representative from every district and decides if the current mayor will take on another term.

The Forde Trade Union was faced with powerful underworld syndicates which resulted in sky high expenditures during the time of its formation. So, to prevent corruption and to streamline the administration process, they set up a brilliant new policy from a mercantile perspective: They legalized the syndicates and put them in charge of the security, taxes and hygiene of the various districts of the city. This achieved multiple things. Firstly, each and every syndicate kept each other in check and prevented the rise of an uncontrollable major syndicate. Second, this decreased the city management’s expenditures and human resources by a huge fraction. Lastly, it also made the syndicates easier to manage. For example, should the citizens of a district be unhappy with the management of the syndicate in charge, the city council will remove said syndicate with the cooperation of other syndicates.

Initially, this policy was not met with much favor. However, that all changed within two years. The security of the area was greatly improved and the crime rate greatly decreased as well. The expenditures saved from having to suppress the syndicates went to the development of infrastructure, further improving the living standards of the city residents.

This result greatly surprised the naysayers of the union and it also prompted many kingdoms to reevaluate the management of the city. The conclusion was that the effectiveness of the syndicates’ management greatly surpassed that of the many kingdoms’ own officials, who were great embarrassments in comparison.

This was Morante City, a haven for merchants, filled with vigor and rife with many curiosities. Some called it heaven while others called it a city of devilish temptation and deprivation.

During the day, the streets were filled with the sound of rowdy merchants and the shrines resounded with hymns of prayer, while the nights were full of merry debauchery. This was Morante City, the city that never sleeps.

Chapter 1 Red Grace Inn (1)

Two large bags were slung on each of Norton Lorist’s shoulders, with another large shoulder-width rucksack hanging from his bag. His left arm held a yellowish-green rattan box while his right was wrapped around a bunch of rolled up beast skins which were resting on his shoulders. A red double door with a white wine glass painted on top of it was kicked open by him; he looked like a big, clumsy bear as he toiled and stumbled, struggling to squeeze himself through the doorway which was wide enough to let two bulky men go through at the same time.

It was three in the afternoon. This was the time when the inn was at its quietest. The main hall of the inn only had three people in it. The red-nosed bard old Mike, who’s had a little too much to drink, slept very soundly face down on the table. At the table beside the fireplace sat old Hope the cobbler and the retired postman old Tom, both of whom were previously immersed in a card game, stared wide-eyed at Lorist who had just barged in.

Nodding at Hope and Tom, Lorist laid his luggage on the ground in front of the counter and stacked them up into a pile. He placed his bear fur cap on the table and shed his black leather jacket and subsequently removed two swords of different lengths that were slung on his waist and laid them on the table. He let out a long sigh, knocked on the table and called out. “Old Char? You here? Where is he… Hey, your wine barrel’s being carried away!”

“My god, it’s Locke…” said Tom as he finally recognized Norton Lorist without his jacket.

Hope couldn’t resist anymore and stood straight up. “Hey, Locke. It’s been quite some time now, about… half a year? We thought something happened to you. Did you bring back some star-spotted deerskins that I wanted?”

Pointing towards the beast skins on the floor, Lorist said “I got three of them wrapped up inside. Go check it out yourself.”

A thin and tall old man emerged from the door behind the counter. Seeing Lorist standing at the counter, his glum face lighted up with a hint of a smile. “You’re back!”

This old man was the boss of the Red Grace Inn, Brennan Charlando, whom Lorish referred to as Old Char. Don’t take his limping walk for granted; nobody could even conjecture that this expressionless, quiet old man behind the counter was actually a One Star Gold Swordsman. Most of the patrons of that inn never had a clue.

“Hey, Old Char. Get me some blackcurrant ale. Oh, and ask McDuffin over there to cook me a big meal. For half a year I’ve been having meager rations… I miss the food here so much!” said Lorist without a shred of hesitation.

“I got it.” Charlando served Lorist a large mug of blackcurrant ale. “Drink some of this first. I’ll go wake McDuffin up.”

“Oh, and, could you check the goods out for me? I brought a bunch of things back from this excursion. I wonder if it matches up.” said Lorist as he watched Old Hope fumbling through the beast skins.

Charlando nodded and disappeared behind the door.

“Yawn…” A sleepy-eyed woman subsequently came out from the door. “Who is it? Don’t you see that everyone’s taking a nap? You must have a screw or two loose if you come at this hour for a meal, sheesh.”

That busty woman was dressed in tight clothing which accentuated her curvaceous figure. This was the head serving girl of the inn, Louise.

“Cough…” Lorist choked up and blushed. No matter who it was, there was no way of completely staying calm when faced with the first woman they had a physical relationship with. That was especially the case with Lorist, who was even more nervous in front of Louise. Back then during his twentieth birthday, the drunk Lorist had his virginity taken by Louise, who said that it was her gift for his “passage into adulthood”. Some amount of fear still lingered in Lorist’s heart even after all these years.

“Oh my! Our Locke’s back! I’ve missed you so much over these six months… Come, give your big sis a hug.” Louise’s eyes gleamed as she saw Lorist and all traces of sleepiness vanished from her eyes as she spread her arms and leapt towards him.

Louise hugged Lorist over the counter and forcefully planted two kisses on his cheeks.

“Did you return just recently? Look at you, poor Locke… You’ve gotten so much thinner and tanned during the past six months! All of were worried about you and couldn’t get our minds off you. You didn’t send us any letters for so long. We were really worried something bad happened to you…” Louise started chattering on.

“Come on, aren’t I back here safe and sound? This expedition to the Relic Islands brought me far overseas, there was no way I could contact you. And, don’t you know the ferry to the Relic Islands only operate once every six months? What are you worried about? Don’t you guys have any confidence in my abilities?”

“With your Three Star Iron power level? Haven’t you heard about all the Silver Swordsmen who perished on the Relic Islands… We hear a lot of stories like that in the inn.” said Louise without holding back at all.

“Eh? But I, a Three Star Iron Swordsman, has never lost a match to even one Silver Swordsman…” said Lorist as he scratched his nose, embarrassed.

“Those are just sparring matches in the academy! How could those compare to life and death battles with magical beasts? Your competitors were just going easy on you. I really don’t get what those old bastards at the academy see in you. They could’ve just picked one Silver Swordsman out of so many others… Why did they bring you along as a bodyguard instead?” Louise felt that it was extremely unfair to Lorist for him to be expected to carry out tasks meant for Silver Swordsmen given his rank as an Iron Swordsman.

Lorist could only laugh bitterly. Louise was only concerned about him. How could she understand the pain of having his Battle Force stuck at the Iron rank for so long? In order to join this expedition, Lorist had to pester and bug Academy Head Levins and was even forced to agree to multiple unfair terms including serving as the assistant for the whole expedition team before the old bastard agreed to bring him along.

The adventurers of the Grindia Continent all knew that it was suicidal to visit the Relic Islands without the power of a Silver Swordsman. Granted, non-combatant researchers who were protected by bodyguards were exceptions. Although Lorist had to serve the researchers throughout the expedition, he ventured just as much as the rest of the Silver Swordsmen. He managed to traverse a number of dangerous areas, even those that were potentially lethal to Silver Swordsmen.

The time taken for the trip to and from the Relic Islands took up two months while the actual time spent on them was four months. Lorist himself felt that his abilities had improved nevertheless after experiencing all those life and death battles with the magical beasts and walking the tightrope of life multiple times. His swordsmanship got sharper and his movements got more agile. Even the sensitivity of his senses improved. But the sole goal he had aspired to reach during this trip was never achieved; his Battle Force didn’t manage to break through the Iron rank. He was still stuck at the peak of the Iron rank.

How he had regretted his decision back then. For some reason unknown to even him, he decided to use Ki-refining principles he remembered from his previous life to cultivate his Battle Force. One focused on the meridians pathways while the other focused on the blood flow. One trained the internal parts of the body while the other trained the external. They were akin to oil and water! His brain must have cramped up for him to even decide to do that! In the end, even with the high class Blazing Battle Force technique passed down by his family throughout generations, he ended up at a dead end and has remained stuck at the Iron rank for three years now, unable to progress to the rank of a Silver Swordsman. Originally a universally praised genius in swordsmanship, he has become a joke in the academy.

“Hey, brother Locke, you’re finally back. So glad to finally see you again…” The fatty who snapped Lorist out from his self brooding was the head chef of the inn, McDuffin. Wearing a mottled blue apron, he struggled as he squeezed his large belly through the door behind the counter.

“Hi, McDuffin. Man am I glad to see you too.” said Lorist as he raised his cup of ale. “Do you have any nice food around? I just got back and haven’t even had my breakfast and lunch yet. The only thing I had back on the boat was a black wheat bar.”

“Oh my, why didn’t you say so earlier? Stop drinking that ale, it won’t go down well given your empty stomach. McDuffin, is there anything you can serve up quick?” Louise said.

“Hmm, there’s some roasted goose in the oven, but it’s still unseasoned. In the wok we have some bean and ribs but it’s still cold, I’ll have to heat it up so it’ll have to wait. Ah, right. I have some goat meatballs still steaming over there which I can get you right away. Louise, go into my room and look into the chest beside my bed. There should be some cream bread inside. I was planning on having that for tea, but I guess you can go get that down for Locke…” said McDuffin who seemed reluctant to part from his cream bread.

Louise went off in a hurried manner.

“Alright. I’ll have some roasted goose and ribs. McDuffin, fry me a herring, make me some green bean bloodwurst, fried eggs with shrimp, cabbage and mushroom as well as another glass of fruit ale.” said Lorist as he made his order.

“That much? Can you finish them?” McDuffin looked at Lorist with a hint of doubt.

“I’m so hungry I can swallow a cow whole. Go make the food, after that we’ll have a good drink together.”

Just after McDuffin returned to cooking, Louise brought a plate with some steaming hot goat meatballs and two pieces of cream bread over. “Eat these quick. You don’t want to upset your stomach.”

“Whoa, Locke… This is great! These are the skins I want! Look at all these star spots…” Before Lorist managed to stuff the bread into his mouth, Hope’s praises rang out from behind him. He was raining praises upon the three beast skins he cradled so very dearly in his arms.

“Oh, I better go back to get some cash. I’ll be right back.” Old Hope let the deerskins down and rushed out of the inn with a speed that was unfit for a man of his age.

“Eh, why’s he in so much of a rush?” mumbled Lorist with his mouth stuffed with meatballs. Louise only shrugged.

“This old bastard was talking about you nonstop that I actually thought he was worried for you. Turns out he was only looking forward to the skins you promised him…” said Tom the retired postman as he raised his ale cup and took a swig.

Just as Louise served up the green bean blood sausage, old Hope burst through the door, sweaty and huffing ragged breaths as he rushed over to Lorist’s table. He took out fifteen gold coins from an intricately striped leather purse, counted them meticulously and instantly got ready to take the deerskins home.

“Hey, wait a second old Hope. Are you sure you’re paying the right price?” Without others noticing, Boss Charlando appeared in front of Hope and pressed down on the skins on the table.

“What’s wrong with you Charlando? Locke doesn’t have any objections, does he?” said Hope, glaring fiercely at Charlando.

“Just because he kept silent doesn’t mean he doesn’t have any opinions on the price. Right now, a skin like this costs 7 gold and 8 silver Fordes. Don’t you think it’s a little much to take three away for only 15 gold Fordes?”

Old Hope’s face turned red. “But six months ago we set the…”

“You didn’t set any exact price when you ordered the skins at that time and arbitrarily decided it to be at the market price back then. You’ll have to have some rather thick skin to suggest a market price from six months ago. Right now, the supply of star-spotted deerskins on the market is getting lesser by the day, giving a significant boost to its value. I believe he can easily get eight gold Fordes for one of these skins in the market. The shoes you make with these can already sell for ten Fordes and you can make ten of theme with these. If you don’t agree, you better give up on buying it and I bet I can get a better price for Locke if I sell them at the market.”

“That’s right. Two days ago there were two mercenaries who said that purchasing the star-spotted deerskins from the Relic Islands would cost 5 gold Fordes a piece. Think about the shipping and import fees. Aren’t you just taking advantage of him? Locke got you three quality skins from so far away! You can’t just do this to him!.” said Louise as she rushed up to Hope with a fierce gaze and rolled her eyes.

Old Hope bitterly went back to Lorist’s table and took out another seven gold coins. “I didn’t bring any silvers with me…”

One gold Forde was worth twenty large silvers. Old Hope still owed four silvers.

“It’s alright.” Lorist shrugged with magnanimity.

Seeing Old Hope rushing to leave, Louise felt really dissatisfied. “You didn’t have to be so generous. That old one got away good. You could get a great meal with four silvers.”

Lorist smiled and said “What? Old Hope got on your nerves?”

Louise instantly exploded. “That miserly bastard… He feels up all of our serving girls and doesn’t even give them any tips! And he orders a cup of ale worth five coppers and stays at a table for the whole afternoon!”

It wasn’t weird for serving girls in the inn to be felt up by patrons. It’s just part of their job, to serve and to flirt. But patrons who don’t tip well was always met with the disdain of the serving girls. Those patrons were the most unwelcome kind.

Chapter 2 Red Grace Inn (2)

Brennan Charlando didn’t give off any impression that he was the owner of the inn. Ignoring the endless chatter of the head serving girl, Louise, he took a few beast skin parchments, knelt on the floor and rummaged around the rattan box, the beast skins as well as the bags, as he mused:

“Two pieces of Dark-scaled Rhinoceros skin, this is Throm the Armorer’s order…”

“Five pieces of Crimson-eyed Black Fox skin, for old Park from the leathersmith’s…”

“Three pieces of Gold Python skin, Jason from the weaponsmith’s needs these to make scabbards…”

“One Striped Wildebeest’s tendon, Jecks wants to use this as a bowstring…”

…….

“What is this?” said Charlando as he lifted up a greyish-white, meter-long bone.

Lorist put down the roasted goose and said, “It’s a legendary Razorbeak Owldragon’s humerus that is used by the indigenous Remandotu people on the island as staves. It’s both light and tough. I believe Sir Maleiff asked for this.”

According to legend, the Razorbeak Owldragon came about thousands of years ago from experiments conducted by ancient magi by cross-breeding nightowls and draconians, which resulted in the creation of a large flying beast that was savage and adept and combat. Only, it has already been extinct for a long time. The only complete skeletal specimen was only found a hundred years ago at the Relic Islands by an expedition team sent by the Magi State. It was named as such due to its seemingly large body and razor-sharp beak.

Sir Malieff was one of the more high-ranking regulars of the Red Grace Inn. Rumored to be a noble from some faraway republic, he came over to Morante City and lived a life of seclusion in a house near the inn, citing his hatred of war as the main for his leaving his country. He is a man who likes to collect weird and eccentric items.

“Oh.” That’s just another one of Sir Maleiff’s eccentricities. Placing the bone down on the floor, Charlando took out a leather pouch that contained several test tube-like glass containers which contained liquids of different colors. “What about this?”

“Seven types of magical beast blood, as request by Professor Simpkin of White Rose Academy. He said he got an ancient tome that detailed a recipe for a potion that required the blood of these magical beasts. He wanted to see if he could synthesize the potion mentioned in the book,” explained Lorist.

Only now did Charlando notice the small labels at the bottom of the containers, with names of various magical beasts, including, Dark-gold Pythons, Greenback Direwolf, Dark-scaled Rhinoceros, etc.

“That old guy Simpkin sure has a lot of money to throw around. Replicating a potion? That’s ludicrous! Mana doesn’t even exist anymore, and the magi are not faring any better. How can you make potions without mana?” mused old Tom as he shook his head incessantly.

“Then what about this thing?” Charlando waved around a large, sealed bamboo container that was almost a meter long. Sounds of flowing liquid could be heard as he shook it around.

“Erm……” mumbled Lorist, embarrassed. He hesitated a moment before replying “That’s some Terrence-donkey Whip I got for Els……”

The Terrence-donkey Whip was a native product of the Relic Islands which was famous for being a potent sexual stimulant. It was very popular among the nobles, especially the men whose sexual potency withered early.

“Pffft!” Upon hearing about Els’s request, Louise laughed her guys out nonstop.

Charlando looked grim. “What is wrong with him… This little runt using aphrodisiacs at his ripe young age… Skirt-chasing all day long without actually doing anything useful… I gotta teach him a lesson! Leave that with me and tell Els to see me when he asks about it.

Els, or Brennan Evanport, was one of the syndicate heads three districts away. He was a Two Star Silver Swordsman as well as Charlando’s one and only family member; his nephew.

The table was cluttered with utensils and plates. Finishing what’s left of his ale and burping in satisfaction, Lorist called for McDuffin to clear the stuff up. “Big sis Louise, go see if old man Luke from the back street is busy. If he isn’t, I’d like to get a haircut and a beard trim. Oh, and, get me a room upstairs and prepare the bath for me. And, please get the clothes in the rattan box washed and go buy me some new ones at Auntie Misha’s as well. Put that bill on my tab.”

Old Luke packed his tools and came over with little delay. At this hour, there was usually little to no customers for the barber shop behind the inn. Putting a black linen cloth around Lorist, and placing a shiny silver mirroring plate on the table that was just cleaned up by Louise, Luke took up his scissor and walrus tusk comb and asked, “Would you like your usual cut?”

On the Grindia Continent, nobles from certain countries were expected to wear a certain hairstyle to differentiate themselves from the commoners. There was no rule for commoners though and they chose whatever hairstyle they liked, though sometimes hairstyles like ponytails gained popularity and many people followed suit. Aside from the slightly inferior barber tools, everything else pertaining to hairstyles were pretty much the same with that of Lorist’s previous life.

Lorist has always preferred a crew cut for two reasons: In his previous life he served as a soldier for seven years and it has become something like a habit to him. It was also much easier when it came to styling his hair.

“Yup, I’d like the usual,” replied Lorist as he straightened himself in his seat.

Old Luke cleared his throat and said, “Actually, Locke, your hair is very lush and black. I bet you would be able to easily charm countless young maidens if you kept a ponytail.”

“Get out, that kind of hairstyle requires so much effort to maintain. It’s too much trouble. By the way Luke, why don’t you tell me about the things that happened here during the past six months?”

Old Luke loved to gossip when he gave haircuts. He was very well versed with the rumors and stories being passed around in the local grapevine.

Luke made a thoughtful expression as he continued tending to Lorist’s hair. “Well, it’s been pretty much the usual. Two months ago, Lind, the one who runs the roadside fruit stall, had his stall run over by a startled horse. Despite that, the owner reimbursed him with four gold Fordes and he even profited from that incident. Just last month, Watt the butcher’s wife got into some trouble with a mercenary. The funny thing is: the mercenary actually got slashed in the shoulder by Watt, a person who hasn’t even awakened his Battle Force! What a joke!

“Idle gossip aside, three months ago it was announced on the newspapers that the war in the north finally ended, most of it thanks to the various trade unions slaving away for two years nonstop. A peace treaty was signed and the northern market seemed like a gold mine to many. For two whole months the papers were filled with recruitment notices for mercenaries and northern business investment advertisements. There were also multiple reports of people getting attacked by bandits though.”

“Oh, the Krissen Empire finally stopped attacking?” Lorist really didn’t expect such a big historical event occurred in the six months he went on the expedition. As for the peace treaty, nobody really treated it seriously as the Krissen Empire had been enemies with the Forde Trade Union for more than a century, during which at least three major conflicts erupted between the two powers. Why would the Trade Union bother to settle anything, given that the empire had already began to tear itself up since the start of the power struggle between the three princes for the throne of the late Krissen Emperor six years ago? It was already a blessing that the union did not take advantage of the empire’s situation.

“What does the treaty entail, exactly?” Lorist was very curious about the specific agreements between the two powers. The northern empire’s princes and dukes has been at odds with each other for almost six years now, uprooting the once stable foundations of the empire and crippling the economy, causing much poverty and famine. Even the nobles had to rely on loans to maintain daily life. If anything, it was much more believable for the trade union to have been involved in putting the empire into this predicament.

“Hmm, I really didn’t pay much attention to the details of the treaty. I’m just a barber, you know. I’ve never really been into these confusing political things…” said old Luke with a blush.

“I know about it!” beamed old Tom with a bright smile. As a retired postman, he has always liked to pay attention to the political undercurrents on the continent. “There were three main clauses. First, the empire is to be partitioned into three kingdoms and seven grand duchies. In other words, the Krissen Empire has ceased to exist and there will no longer be any northern invasions. Secondly, the stability and security of the trade routes are to be maintained and taxes will remain the same for all nations, regardless of whether they are kingdoms or duchies. Additionally, the subsidiaries of the trade union shall be allowed to conduct business freely in any territory. The third clause states that the trade union is to give loans to the seven nations with different interest rates ranging from 13 to 70 percent depending on the nation.”

“Brother Locke, aren’t you a northerner yourself? I remember you riding in a carriage with some kind of insignia, usually the kind used by nobles. Given that the war is no longer ongoing, wouldn’t you like to go back to your hometown for a visit?” said McDuffin as he reminisced the time when he first met Lorist in front of the academy entrance ten years ago.

“Locke, are you really a citizen of the Krissen Empire? A noble at that?” exclaimed old Luke with a surprised tone.

Back when the Krissen Empire was still standing strong, conflicts between the empire and the Forde Trade Union were common and battles frequently happened on the Falik Plains. Many of the soldiers were led by the nobles who really caused the folks of the trade union a lot of grief. Although not everyone in Morante City would actually assault anyone of the empire, nobody had any good impressions on them either.

“To be precise, I came from the northern parts of the Krissen Empire; I’m a northern highlander. The highlands should be located thousands of kilometers from here, which is way too far and impractical for soldiers over there to come over. The march itself would take more than three months. My father was a baron and his barony was situated in the far north. I have an elder brother as well as a younger brother. I guess that makes me the second son, which means I won’t be inheriting the barony at any rate. The fact that I’m so far out here means that my family has abandoned me. I’ve had to rely on myself for seven whole years since I lost all contact with them. That’s why I now consider myself a Moranite and have nothing to do with the north or my family anymore,” explained Lorist.

“That’s right. Many nobles send away every child but the heir to the land to prevent infighting and strife, usually by means of exile, separation or marriage. Locke’s case is pretty common. After all, his family does have a hereditary title,” appended old Tom.

Luke worked quickly and finished the haircut as well as the shave. He ended the session by applying a final layer of oil to moisturize the skin.

Lorist stroked his clean-shaven chin with satisfaction and paid old Luke a small silver coin. He subsequently asked McDuffin to get Luke and Tom a glass of ale and put it on his tab. He took his swords and went upstairs with Louise.

There were eight rooms on the second floor of the inn, four on each side of the corridor.

As they arrived on the second floor, loud sounds of men and women during intercourse resounded throughout the corridor.

Lorist asked with much curiosity, “Who is the one getting it on at this kind of time?”

“That’s Jumile. She picked up the three Blackbear brothers from the streets for seven large silvers. They’ve been at it for three hours or so. I wonder if she can still get up tonight.”

“Jumile was also one of the serving girls of the inn. As for the Blackbear brothers, Lorist knew for a fact that all three of them were low-ranked mercenaries, usually only working on short escort missions and miscellaneous tasks for others. All three of them were burly and tanned and people started calling them the Blackbear brothers and eventually, the name caught on and stuck.

Louise brought Lorist to his room, which was situated at the far right end of the corridor. The bathtub was already set up and filled with hot water.

Taking out a pink fragrant bar of soap and a white linen cloth, she subsequently collected the clothes on the ground and placed the wallet, the sword belt and the waist bag on the table and was just going to leave, before turning back and asking, “Locke, are you free on the night three days from now?”

“I don’t know, what for?” Lorist popped out from the water and took a deep breath.

“There’s this girl from the village who wants to work here as a serving girl. She’s looking to sell her first time for quite the sum, about two gold coins. Since you’ve made quite a profit this time around, why don’t you help me out?”

“Hm? Doesn’t the inn already have you, Jumile, Shala and Nina? Is it going to hire another one?”

“Nina just got married last month and isn’t coming back. The girl from my village is also going to work here for two to three years for some money before going back to the village and finding someone to marry. I promised her that her first client would be a handsome and magnanimous young lad. Come on Locke, help me out, won’t you?”

“I… I’ll think about it later,” said Lorist in an awkward muffled voice and submerged his head back into the bathwater.

Chapter 3 Dawn Academy (1)

Lorist slept soundly the whole night until he was awoken during noon the next day by the noises in the main hall. Lazily lying by the bedside, he waited some time until the hall had quieted down before slowly pulling himself out of bed.

A set of new clothing lay beside the bed, among which included some grey linen undergarments, a dark green wool shirt, a black leather vest, a grey wool coat, some white socks as well as a pair of black pants. There was also a pair of black leather boots beside the clothes.

Lorist was very satisfied with Louise’s purchase; she knew what he liked best: clothes with dark, unassuming colors. He thought the other mercenaries who often wore bright colors looked even more ridiculous than clowns. However, that set of clothing shouldn’t have come cheap. It probably cost more than one gold coin.

Fully-dressed and wearing his new boots, he slot two daggers into his boots and equipped his mini-crossbow on his left arm. He then pinned his shorter sword to his belt buckle and slung the long one on his back. Ruffling his wallet and waist pouch, he checked if he left any belongings in the room before locking the doors behind him and heading downstairs.

The lunch hour is already over and there were only twenty or so people chatting and drinking in the main hall as they listened to Mike singing “The War of the Gods” in a wistful tone. This was an epic poem that depicted the conflict between the magi and the gods thousands of years ago. Only, the author of the poem was sympathetic towards the gods. The author described the humans who were led by the magi as the frenzied attackers, and mourned for the fall of the gods. Aside from this one flaw, the poem had beautiful language, unpredictable plot twists as well as brilliant pacing. The tale has always captivated the people of Grindia and has even been adapted into stage plays, musicals as well as other entertaining performances in bars.

Lorist went to an empty table and took a seat. Several acquaintances raised their cups and silently made a toast as a greeting, before refocusing their attentions on Mike’s performance.

Louise appeared before the table and said in a low voice, “When I saw you sleeping so soundly in the morning, I just couldn’t bear to wake you. You look great in these clothes. Do they fit right?”

Nodding, Lorist said, “They’re great. Many thanks to you. Anything I can have to fill my belly with?”

“We just got a fresh batch of cod just now. Do you want one?”

“Alright, get McDuffin to fry the fish for me. I’d like some rib soup, one omelette rice with some sausages and a cup of blackcurrant ale as well. I’m going to the academy later this afternoon.”

“Coming right up. I’ll get McDuffin to work faster since you’re gonna be busy.”

“Wait,” called Lorist as Louise was just about to leave. “I’m not in a rush to go to the academy later. Louise, I’d like the room for a few more nights, and leave my laundry inside when it’s done. Get Mike a cup of ale too and put it on my tab.”

Full and satisfied, Lorist exited the inn and waited for a little while by the street until he saw a horse cart taxi passing by.

Rapidly waving, Lorist said, “Get me to the Dawn Academy.”

“Alright, it’ll be fifteen coppers. Sit tight.” The brown-clothed driver flicked the thip and the Delemont Striped Horse raced towards the destination.

After ten or so minutes, the horse cart stopped in front of the entrance of the academy. Lorist paid the driver one silver coin, which was worth 20 coppers, with five coppers as a tip for the driver. The driver showered him with gratitude by as he got off the cart.

Dawn Academy was situated at the western part of the Academy Sector. It offered courses in multiple disciplines and was ranked the fifth among twenty or so academies in Morante City and ninth among all the academies on the Grindia Continent.

A statue of a girl who looked about twelve to thirteen years old slaying a gigantic dragon with a jeweled sword could be seen at the entrance. This brave young girl was the Dawn Goddess Loria. She is the daughter of Singwa, the god of light, sun and war, and Daphlyn, the Silvermoon Goddess. In the Grindia mythos, it was said that the Dragon King of Darkness hated the lights Singwa emitted as he patrolled the world. By means of a trap, it managed to send the five divine horses that were pulling Singwa’s chariot down the road to the Abyss. In this critical moment, Loria acted and successfully slayed the Dragon King of Darkness, returning the horses back onto their normal trajectory, allowing the god of the sun to once again illuminate the skies of darkness. It was at that moment Loria was granted the title of the Dawn Goddess.

The dawn, the time when the day breaks, the time that signifies the coming of light. In the Grindia mythos, Loria the Dawn Goddess was emblematic of bravery and hope.

Circling around the gigantic statue that was jokingly interpreted by some students of the academy as a lustful dragon pushing down a young girl, Lorist stood right in front of the main entrance of the academy. The entrance of the academy had no gates or doors. It only consisted of the statue and a boulevard that led straight into the academy.

Sighing, he reached into his waist pouch and took out an iron badge which was about one inch large and pinned it in front of his chest. On the black badge was an embossed image of a greatsword with three stars on top of the blade. That represented his Three Star Iron Battle Force rank.

There was nothing he could do about it: one had to wear one’s Battle Force badge in order to enter the academy. Aside from that, professors, teaching staff and students all have their own respective badges that must be worn at all times within the premises.

Lorist put on another badge beside his Battle Force badge. On it was an image of a long sword plunged straight into the ground with a half-risen sun beyond the horizon in the background. This badge was gold in color unlike his Battle Force badge. It represented his status as a dual instructor in both swordsmanship and Battle Force awakening.

A few teenagers wearing the uniform of the academy came over from upfront. They should all be freshmen. Lorist recalled that the recruitment day was almost one month ago. As he watched these teenagers jump around in excitement, he reminisced his own times as a student here ten years ago. Time really flows quickly and unceasingly.

At first, these students didn’t pay Lorist much heed. After all, there were many students of his age in the academy. But once they saw his golden badge, they all hurried to pay their respects.

Lorist merely nodded and smiled before continuing onward. At the Dawn Academy, students were required to pay the respects to the instructors.

Some sounds of chatter could be heard behind Lorist. “That must be Instructor Locke, the legendary Black Iron Gold-ranked Instructor of our academy!”

“He has a gold instructor badge even with his Battle Force at the Three Star Iron rank. The rumors were true… I even heard that he’s invincible against Silver Swordsmen, earning him the nickname of ‘Silver Undefeated’!”

“I really hope my Battle Force instructor will be him… I heard that all his students three years in a row have awakened their Battle Force without fail! They’re already at the Iron rank now.”

“I heard the seniors say…”

……

On the Grindia Continent, one’s Battle Force and swordsmanship represented one’s strength. The four different ranks of Battle Force included Bronze, Iron, Silver and Gold, which were further divided into three sub-levels for each rank. Beyond that was the level of Blademasters and Sword Saints. People like Lorist who were stuck at the Three Star Iron rank for more than three years were far and few. Aside from breaking through to the Blademaster level, which required deep levels of insight, when one reached the third star level of their rank, their Battle Force would usually break through to the next rank quite easily. This was why Lorist was so harshly berated in the academy.

Ten years ago, a carriage with an insignia of a roaring bear brought a 14 year-old noble youth from the Krissen Empire to Dawn Academy. McDuffin, who was selling food by the entrance of the academy with his parents, clearly remembered that scene. The youth that came down from the carriage had an ugly, unwilling expression on his face. He viewed McDuffin and his family with much disdain. That youth was extremely cold and prideful.

Not even one month later, McDuffin heard that that youth got into a fight with someone in the academy and got badly beaten up. He had to rest in bed for three whole months.

The next time he met that youth, McDuffin didn’t see any trace of who he was before; in front of him stood a smiling, bright young man whose face radiated endless curiosity. He stretched his hand out towards McDuffin and said, “Hi, nice to meet you. I’m Norton Lorist. What’s your name?”

In the coming months, McDuffin got to know that Lorist befriended him because he couldn’t stand the food provided by the academy anymore. Stale rice, black bread, potato mash and vegetable soup were served for all three meals every single day. Lorist had no choice but to go to McDuffin’s stall for some variety to sate his cravings.

McDuffin couldn’t forget the time when Lorist showed his culinary skills at his family’s stall for the first time. His parents stared wide-eyed at the dishes he cooked up that emitted wafts of mouth-watering aroma. Even his siblings had their eyes glued to the food.

At that time, McDuffin’s parents’ stall only sold baked apples and potatoes as well as smoked sausages, soybean and some other common dishes. They were quite satisfied with a daily income of a few large silver coins. But after Lorist’s arrival, their stall quickly became one of the must-visit places for food in the Academy Sector, reaching its peak of profit.

The young McDuffin quickly learned all the “hometown dishes” of Lorist, who was also happy to teach him everything. Lorist himself pointed out that McDuffin had a knack for cooking. The young McDuffin even believed Lorist’s hometown to be a haven for good food and was planning to go on a “pilgrimage” to the holy land of food.

When Lorist finally had enough with McDuffin’s annoying pestering he told McDuffin that those recipes came from a secret cookbook passed down only in his family and that nobody else in his hometown could make food like that. It’s a shame so many ingredients listed in the book could no longer be found. But Lorist easily improvised and cooked out dish after dish of delicacies.

It was at that moment when McDuffin relinquished his desire to visit Lorist’s hometown.

Time passed incessantly and five years passed quickly. Having saved up a hefty sum, McDuffin’s parents stopped running the food stall and bought a small farm in the countryside to do some farming and his siblings tagged along. McDuffin also got a well-paying job as the head chef for the Red Grace Inn. Lorist was only nineteen back then and his Battle Force was at the Two Star Iron rank. He was promoted to an instructor by the academy due to his stellar swordsmanship and was viewed to be a growing talent with a bright road ahead of him.

Five years after, McDuffin was still the head chef of the inn while Lorist became a legendary figure in the academy, due to his dual instructor qualifications. However, with his Three Star Iron Battle Force unable to break through, he became the laughing stock of the academy. With much mockery and disdain, his peers referred to him as the powerless genius swordsman.

Usually, academy sword instructors of higher ranking academies were usually of the Silver rank and above. That was even more so the case, given that Dawn Academy was ranked number nine out all other academies on the whole Grindia Continent with most other instructors’ Battle Force being at least at the Three Star Silver rank. Lorist was the only exception who was a dual gold ranked instructor with a Three Star Iron Battle Force, easily earning the envy and hostility of his peers.

The reason he got a gold rank instructor badge was due to the fact that all his students managed to awaken their Battle Force for three years straight. This 100% success rate was unprecedented. Even only 25 out of 26 students from noble families had their Battle Force awakened in one Blademaster’s Battle Force course. The one who failed was deemed to have little force circulating in his blood. At that time, that was the highest recorded rate of success for Battle Force awakening courses. Usually, only two thirds of students will be able to awaken their Battle Force.

However, the moment Lorist was put in charge of his first Battle Force awakening course, all 17 commoner students who no instructor wanted to help successfully awakened their Battle Force one year later. The second class which was attended by 31 other people also had a 100% success rate. During the third year, his course was attended by 59 people, among which included 10 students of noble descent who went out of their way to apply for the course. But, the most eye-catching ones were the three students who previously failed to awaken their Battle Force.

One would still stand a chance at awakening their Battle Force even after the failed first attempt, albeit with a lower success rate. However, a year later, all three of them successfully woke their Battle Force. This didn’t only stun the people of the academy, it also greatly surprised the whole of Morante City. Lorist had since become a legend who managed to awaken the Battle Force of three students who has already failed once, earning him his golden Battle Force instructor badge.

As for his gold swordsmanship instructor badge, Lorist got it from winning duels. He has battled students as well as instructors of the Silver rank more than a hundred times without a single loss, earning him the nickname “Silver Undefeated”.

Walking along the boulevard, Lorist thought back at every effort, gain, loss, bliss and grief throughout his ten years at the academy with an air of sentiment and nostalgia.

Chapter 4 Dawn Academy (2)

At the end of the boulevard was a crowded plaza. Lorist couldn’t help but wonder why the plaza would be so crowded at a time like this. What was going on there?

By the time Lorist arrived at the plaza, the sound of chatter rose audibly.

“Instructor Locke is here…”

“That’s Norton Lorist?”

“Where? Which one of them is him?”

“That one. That’s Instructor Locke……”

“……”

Lorist emerged from the crowd of people.

A rough looking man with a bearded face wearing an old leather armor ran towards him while unsheathing his two-handed greatsword. Raising his blade high, he roared, “Aha, Lorist! I’m here to request a duel with you…”

The two-handed sword emitted a glowing light that signified his power as a Two Star Silver Swordsman.

Different Battle Force ranks were easily distinguished. Bronze Battle Force gave one a slightly buffed look and greatly increased one’s strength, agility and endurance when it circulated through one’s body. Iron Battle Force mainly focused on the protection of the body. For example, it can be used to fortify the hands, causing them to radiate a faint glow and have the toughness of iron, greatly increasing their defensive capabilities multiple times more than that of an average person’s.

Silver ranked Battle Force excelled at the attacking aspect. Silver Swordsmen can project their Battle Force onto their weapons and make them emit various forms of sword glows, with the length of the glow indicating the Star rank of the swordsman.

As for Gold Swordsmen, they can gather their Battle Force to execute ranged attacks. Beyond that was the level of Blademasters, who could project their Battle Force onto anything from flowers to blades of grass and use them as invincible divine weapons to eradicate their enemies.

Sword Saints, however, were more like legends. Not much was known about them, though it was said that they can utilize something along the lines of a “domain”. There were only about four or five known Sword Saints on the Grindia continent. Nations which had the backing of a Saint had incredibly stable foundations. That’s why these Sword Saints were kept hidden from the masses and were shrouded in mystery and enigma.

Lorist looked at that man holding the raised greatsword with a look of admiration. That guy must have quite a few gold coins to spare for him to dare to draw his sword like this in the academy, he thought.

“Stop!” A loud cry rang out as a troop of black uniformed swordsmen marched towards the plaza.

Sword glows pointed at his throat, lower torso and chest, the brutish man stood still without moving an inch. The scary part was that two of the sword glows that were pointed at him were much longer than his own. The owners of those swords were definitely Three Star Silver Swordsmen.

The few other men who came with the brutish man hurriedly attempted to hide their weapons.

“You, you, you, and you, the one wearing a chainmail, yes you! And that other one in the blue clothes! And that one wearing the leather hat! You guys are really brave… For you to even dare to unsheathe your weapons in the academy! Bring them to the Enforcement Department!” A fat man appeared before the men and shouted loudly.

Those who were named by the fat man attempted to escape.

“You dare to run from me!? You guys, apprehend them and double their fines!” said the fatty with a cruel expression.

“Yes sir!” said the black robed men as they made the chase.

If the students of the academy were asked to name one most wretched people in the academy, that person would definitely be that fat man who was also the head of the Enforcement Department. His name was Charade and was called by many as the “Deathly Miser”.

As the head of the Enforcement Department of the academy, Charade never scolded or physically punished the transgressing students. Instead, he gave them a very huge fine. If the students couldn’t pay up, the department has got just the solution for them. The Enforcement Department provides loans for the fined students. And to make sure they repaid their loans, the department also found jobs for them and made them work until their debts and interests were paid up in full.

Once, there were two students who broke the rules and did not have the money to pay the fine. The fatty merely smiled and said, “Don’t worry about the money. As long as you can work, it’ll be fine.”

Without delay, they were sent to the mines for three whole months. It was also rumored that they almost got sodomized there. After the three month term, the fatty called for someone to go bring them back. A tear-jerking scene soon unfolded: the two students knelt and desperately hugged the ones who were sent to pick them up, refusing to let go.

After the black robed men apprehended the ones who tried to escape, the fatty walked towards the one who brandished the greatsword leisurely. He motioned for him to sheathe his sword, which the man soon did with much haste.

“Have you come to the academy to rob and kill?” asked the fatty with a “courteous”, wanting tone.

The burly man replied with a flustered look, “Umm, no-nope. I came here after seeing the notice issued by the academy.”

“Notice? What kind of notice allowed you to come terrorize our students? I don’t ever recall seeing anything like that,” said the fatty with an expression of intense curiosity.

“What?” the man let out a startled cry. “It’s that duel notice that you guys put up! It says that any Silver rank contestant who can defeat the Black Iron Gold-ranked Instructor Locke gets to take his place as gold-ranked instructor and will be rewarded a hundred gold coins! That’s the reason I came…”

“Oh, it’s that notice. That’s right, the academy did put up something like this. But, are you sure you checked it out properly?”

“Of course I did! The words on that notice were larger than my fists! How could I have missed anything?” roared the burly man loudly.

“Well, then. Tell me the fine print on the notice! It was never stated that you could come in randomly and just pull your sword out in public!” shouted the fatty, whose expression had suddenly turned dark, glaring at the burly man.

That man winked and coughed out, “I was just worried that someone would beat me to Lorist! I didn’t see no fine print!”

“It was stated very clearly on the notice. Didn’t you say that you had read it carefully?”

“You mean those words that were smaller than my fingernails? That was the fine print? Who reads those? I only read the words at the top…” The man’s voice grew softer and softer. He looked like he just realized his grave error.

“Did you think the academy would just let anyone barge in like that with a sword in hand? Of course there were terms and conditions! We at the Dawn Academy are the elites of the Grindia Continent. Everything we do has to follow strict protocol. It is stated that any Silver ranked individual who wished to challenge Lorist was to report to the Enforcement Department. You see that white stone building over there? That’s the Enforcement Department! You must go there and apply for a duel and pay a registration fee of ten gold Fordes. After that, we will notify you the time and place for the duel within two or three days. If you don’t show up at that time, it will be considered your loss by default and we will not return your registration fee.

“You won’t profit if you don’t invest. It might cost you ten gold Fordes, but think about it: your opponent Lorist is but an Iron ranked swordsman with somewhat better swordsmanship. If you had won, not only would you get a hundred gold Fordes, you will also be employed by the academy as a gold-ranked sword instructor! A gold-ranked instructor’s salary is ten gold Fordes a month. You can easily buy a house in this city and settle down here with that kind of money.”

Charade talked like a patient salesman with the brawny man nodding to every one of the points Charade made.

“It’s such a shame…” said Charade with his expression turning glum as his tone changed. “You actually ruined such a good chance by not reading the notice carefully and committed such an act at our academy. Not only have you broken the rules of our academy, you have also greatly insulted the academy and caused deep mental anguish in our students! That’s why, you must be punished before you will be allowed to register for a duel.”

“Punishment? What kind of punishment?” asked the brawny man, scared.

“Oh, don’t worry. According to our academy’s rules, we will not cause you any physical harm. We only ask you to pay a small fine. This matter will be settled if you hand over five gold Fordes,” said Charade with a pleasant smile on his face.

“What! Five gold coins?” The brawny man could never imagine having to lose five gold coins just for drawing his blade. “I… I don’t have that kind of money…”

“That’s perfectly okay. You can borrow it from some friends. If you can’t do even that, the Enforcement Department can find you some work which will guarantee the repayment of your debt.” The fatty got a little impatient after hearing the man’s reply. He waved for the men in black to bring the transgressing men back to the Enforcement Department.

By the time this ended, only half the people who were at the plaza remained.

Lorist turned to look at Charade with a grim expression.

“Deathly Miser! What are you up to this time!?”

The fatty replied with a face full of smiles, “Haha, isn’t this brother Locke? It’s so nice to see you again! I’ve missed you so very much.”

“Cut the crap. What’s with that notice you guys put up?” Lorist said while glaring at Charade.

The fatty let out a long sigh and said, “Brother, weren’t you troubled by the constant challenges you received from people last year? Didn’t I come out with a solution to that problem that also profited us both by charging anyone who wanted a duel with you for five gold coins, from which I took two and the rest went to you? Us brothers earned quite a bit after 57 duels last year. However, that old bastard took note of our little business…”

Charade pointed at the sky, hinting at the pressure from his higher ups. “Just two days ago the old bastard came looking for me and told me that you still didn’t manage to break through during your excursion at the Relic Islands. The other academies mocked that of all the people in Dawn Academy, you, a Three Star Iron Swordsman, was appointed a dual gold ranked instructor. To teach those people a lesson, we decided to put up that notice, mainly to attract the Silver Swordsmen from other academies to challenge you and see for themselves your ability.”

“Is that all it is?” Lorist didn’t believe for one moment that that was all it is.

“Erm……” the fatty hesitated. “And, we also wanted to earn some money from this. The old bastard said that I didn’t think far enough and that I was satisfied with only just a little over a hundred gold coins. He thought that if we offered a tempting gold reward, it would attract even more people, even if we raised the dueling fee by two times. Of course, the old guy said that since you’re the one doing most of the work, you’ll still receive your cut of three gold coins per duel. The enforcement division’s share got cut to only one gold coin per duel for arranging the dueling location and maintaining security during the duel. The rest of the money will go to the academy.”

Lorist understood that the “old bastard” referred to by Charade was no other than Academy Head Levins. “The old guy isn’t afraid that I’ll lose a match?”

“Hehe,” laughed the fatty, “I myself trust you wholeheartedly. Even though I’m a Three Star Silver Swordsman, I know full well that I will not last more than twenty bouts should I battle with you. Based on your 57 wins last year, we at the Enforcement Division don’t doubt you one bit!”

“But I find it weird that the old bastard has so much faith in you that he set the reward prize so high. Oh, did you spar with Instructor Claude during your trip to the islands? I heard you took more than 200 moves from him without losing. Is that true?” said the fatty as he recalled the rumor.

Instructor Kellen Claude was a Three Star Gold Swordsman and was heralded by most as a person who would one day break into the Blademaster level. He was the chief swordsmanship instructor and was the only other person in the academy other than Lorist who had a gold swordsmanship instructor badge. He got it because of his skill while Lorist got his by winning 30 straight duels against opponents of a higher Battle Force rank than him. Additionally, Lorist would lose his appointment as a gold ranked swordsmanship instructor if he loses even one duel.

Instructor Claude already wanted to spar with Lorist ever since he heard of Lorist’s 57 wins. However, he was hesitant to do so as his Battle Force rank was far beyond that of Lorist. The expedition to the Relic Islands, however, presented itself to be an opportunity for him to spar with Lorist. The excuse was that Lorist’s aptitude had to be assessed to determine whether he was fit to attend the expedition.

Lorist endured more than 200 moves and finally lost due to the sheer difference in Battle Force power, which was already an amazing feat in itself.

“How did you know?” asked Lorist, as there were only three people present during that duel.

“The old bastard himself told me,” exposed Charade without blinking an eye. “He said that even though he wasn’t well versed in the matters of Battle Force or swordsmanship, Instructor Claude’s high evaluation on your abilities, which included your undefeatable status among Silver Swordsmen and your swordsmanship that far surpasses most Gold Swordsmen made the old bastard very confident in you, so much so that he’s willing to bet such a large amount of money on you. Ever since his duel with you, Instructor Claude has also entered seclusion training to attempt to break through to the Blademaster level.”

“Huh……” Lorist was speechless. Just like that, he was swept into this money-making scheme by the academy head right after returning, causing him to feel incredibly annoyed. “I’m going straight to meet that old bastard!”

Chapter 5 Young Noble

“Excuse me, but may I have a little bit of your time?”

A man came up behind him and asked politely just as Lorist was going to turn around and walk away.

Lorist turned to his back and looked; it was one of the students who remained at the plaza. This young noble youth donned an intricately cut shirt under a white leather vest with baggy pants that were decorated with threads of gold. Numerous diamonds that were set on his boots could be seen gleaming in the sunlight while the collar of his shirt boasted two golden buttons. On the outermost layer was a refined black linen coat that was fastened tightly around his body by a black belt. The youth exuded an aura of elegance with a hint of defiance in his eyes.

The guy had a superficial smile that was typical among nobles which caused Lorist to feel a sudden impulse to throw a punch at his face. Although that person looked familiar, Lorist felt much disdain towards his condescending, prideful gaze which held no one else in any regard.

“What business do you have here?” asked Charade with a serious tone.

“Greetings, Instructor Charade. I’m only here to ask if Instructor Locke has missed me since we last met,” nodded the youth to Charade and subsequently turning his gaze to Lorist.

“My dear Instructor Locke, I, your former student, has come to pay my respects to you. I am eternally grateful for the guidance you have provided during these past few years. I heard that you’ve been unable to progress in your Battle Force training. That’s certainly too bad. As of late, I’ve managed to break through to the Three Star Silver rank and I have decided to return to the academy to offer my thanks for your lessons and advice. To my surprise, I’ve heard that you will be accepting duels from Silver ranked students, and that really awed me, since there’s a great disparity between your Battle Force and that of Silver Swordsmen. I got the news a little too late and ended up being placed behind a number of your other challengers. My only hope is that you defeat all the others so that I may taste your blade and receive your education again. Please try hard for this student’s sake.”

After saying all that, the noble youth bowed, before retreating a few steps and walking away.

What’s going on? He seemed sincere when he said all that, but something still felt off. What’s up with that guy, thought Lorist. He proceeded to ask Charade, “Who was that guy? He just came up to me with five or six other followers and said some really weird stuff. Somehow, he looks kind of familiar.”

Charade rolled his eyes. “Come on, you really don’t remember him?”

“Well, I kind of remember seeing him some time ago… But I really can’t recall who he is. He did seem like he was some kind of big shot though… He looks pretty loaded too,” answered Lorist honestly.

Charade clapped his hands in amazement and said, “He lost to you in a duel before. Remember three years ago?”

“Three years back? What happened at that time?” Lorist still couldn’t recall that incident.

“Sigh… Even if you can’t recall it now, that guy couldn’t forget it even if he wanted to. When you were first appointed as an official swordsmanship instructor three years ago, that bloke brought a group of other students to ambush you. He was the main perpetrator of the incident that occurred during the last dual elite course, and was also the one that you punished the hardest. He ended up bruised all over, with several broken ribs and got bandaged up like a large mummy,” recalled Charade painfully.

Oh, so it was that guy. Lorist finally remembered.

Every three years, the Dawn Academy has special training session for the students who excelled in both Battle Force and swordsmanship. It was called the “dual elite course” and was also regarded as one of the most difficult courses offered by the academy. Given that the students that attended the course were the top among their peers in both disciplines, and that most of them were nobles with their own unique Battle Force techniques passed down through their families, the students were extremely arrogant and prideful and would not accept an instructor who lacked the necessary qualifications.

Three years ago Lorist was just appointed as an official swordsmanship instructor and had been given the task of teaching the dual elite class. Naturally, there were students who looked down on him, but all of them were utterly defeated by Lorist. That youth just now was ranked one of the top two in terms of swordsmanship and was also an assistant instructor of the dual elite course. He was swiftly defeated in a duel with Lorist after merely three blows. Unable to suppress his hatred after his loss, he managed to manipulate the other students into attacking Lorist en masse while he himself attempted to strike at Lorist while he was occupied, desiring to put an end to Lorist’s life with the cruelest method available to him.

Lorist, unable to suppress his anger at that guy’s actions, utterly pummeled him to the point where he could not go through daily life without assistance and was bedridden for more than six months.

“Oh yeah, didn’t you say he went away to recover and even decided to leave school? Logically speaking, shouldn’t he be brimming with hate and desperately trying to kill me? Why did he even come to pay his respects?” asked Lorist as he stroked his chin, annoyed.

“Hahaha…” laughed the fatty, “This is a custom of the nobles. Even if they were facing their archenemy and was going to challenge them to a duel to the death, they would still extend their greetings and salute the enemy. This is called ‘being chivalrous’.”

“Who is he to come over like that and spout all that insincere nonsense about me not letting him down and fighting my way to him! So what if he’s a Three Star Silver Swordsman! I’ve defeated tons of people of that caliber!” said Lorist, disgruntled.

“Hehe, you better look out for that youngster. Do you know his family background?”

“I can’t remember anything else about him, not even his name…”

“You… Sigh, forget it. Let me tell you. That kid is called Sandoz Hirda and he’s the second son of the Archduke of the Kalia Kingdom, Sandoz Lyam. You do know about the Kalia Kingdom, right?”

“Of course I do. It’s one of the neighboring nations of the Forde Trade Union and was located somewhere southeast of the union, I think,” answered Lorist after contemplating for a while.

“To the east of the Kalia Kingdom is the Romon Empire and to its south lies the Khawistan Khanate. Do you know why there has been no conflict between the Kalia Kingdom and the two major powers right next to it?” asked Charade seriously.

“I don’t know,” replied Lorist honestly.

“That’s because the Kalia Kingdom has a Sword Saint. Neither the Romon Empire nor the Khawistan Khanate wishes to agitate that person. The Kalia Sword Saint is also known as the ‘Tempest Sword Saint’. According to rumors, he revealed his power once when he was still only a Blademaster: when the rain poured, he could pierce every single raindrop with his sword and after the shower, an area of three meters from the spot where he danced with his sword was completely dry, causing his name to instantly soar to fame.”

“That Sandoz Hirda whom you’ve beaten up has since become the disciple of the Tempest Sword Saint. Think about it, three years ago he was merely a One Star Silver Swordsman, Right now, he’s already at three stars. He must have trained very hard all this time to settle this grudge with you. Some rumors say that he challenged those of the same rank as him and defeated them with merely two to three strikes. It seems that he’s confident of being able to take that gold swordsmanship instructor badge from you. You better watch out, Locke, he’s not your average small fry. Let me check his number…”

Charade took out a few sheepskin scrolls and scanned through them for a while. “It’s here. He’s your 284th challenger. He must have registered just yesterday afternoon.”

“Huh?” Lorist exclaimed, starting. “Fatty! When did the registration start!?”

“Two days ago…” said Charade as he silently smiled. “As of now, there are more than 350 applicants. There were 30 others when I was walking over from the Enforcement Department just now. I believe it’ll hit 400 by today…”

Lorist flicked his middle finger at Charade. “I’m really gonna give it to that old bastard! Does he want me to die!? How is that even remotely reasonable?”

The fatty snickered like a fox who just stole a chicken. “The old bastard just rebuked me this morning for not being able to see the big picture. He said that we should open the registration to the whole of the Academy Sector, and after that, Morante City! Maybe when this gig gets big, we can even let challengers from the Falik Plains come! In time, news of this will spread throughout the continent and there will be more challengers than we can count! By then, the profit we’ll make from the registration fee will increase exponentially and our academy’s reputation as well as influence will also rise… I’ll be sending some students to go post the notices around the city later this afternoon, especially in the taverns and mercenary guilds… I’ll need even more notices for those places.”

Hearing that, Lorist staggered and almost fell face first to the ground.

The fatty delivered the final blow, saying, “The old bastard already said that he hopes that this year there will be as many as 3600 challengers. This way, he can arrange 10 duels per day for you. That’s actually going rather easy on you.”

“Bam!” Lorist fell straight to the floor, struggled to get up, flashed two middle fingers at Charade and walked away swiftly.

Charade was still yelling, “Locke, you better be careful of Hirda! Don’t be careless and lose to him!”

Hirda can just go to hell. He’s just a Three Star Silver Swordsman, thought Lorist as he dismissed the possibility of him losing to Hirda entirely. Lorist felt ever more confident in his abilities ever since his four months of training at the Relic Islands, Over there, a leader of some mercenary group who was a Two Star Gold Swordsman had been trampled and roughed up by a Dark-scaled Rhinoceros while he easily took care of that beast with a single strike.

Should he challenge Instructor Claude or any other peak Three Star Gold Swordsman to a duel, Lorist believed that it would take more than a 1000 moves before a victor can be decided, and he might just be the victor. Lorist wasn’t being conceited or boastful; although his Battle Force was only at the Three Star Iron rank, he gained much benefit from training in the Aquametal Ki Technique passed down in his past life’s family.

Just by squeezing his palms, he could easily pulverize a thumb-sized rock into fine grains. This was the power of the "Inch" component of the Aquametal Technique. In his past life, he had trained in the technique for more than 30 years, but he hasn’t even reached the peak of the Bright Stage of the technique; the Dark Stage was even further away. However, in this world, by training his Battle Force with the Aquametal Technique, he managed to achieve the Dark Stage within a short span of four years. Maybe this world was more suited for training the internal energies of the body.

Silver Battle Force could be projected onto a sword and cause a sword glow to form which can only be blocked by weapons that are also infused with Battle Force. Battle Force infused weapons could easily dominate and overcome common weapons or shields. While Lorist himself couldn’t form a sword glow, he could still infuse his weapon with Battle Force or internal energy and grant the weapon extraordinary strength and sharpness that rivals even those of weapons that emanated sword glows. Only, that effect was usually unnoticed by most other people as the energy was hidden from the eye and focused within the blade.

Currently, he could circulate his Battle Force with some methods from the Aquametal Technique at will and perfectly coordinate his body motion and his strikes, allowing him to execute forceful, fluid movements while maintaining a stable breathing rhythm, and every step he took was silent and stealthy as well as being firm and stable. His dantian contained boundless Ki energy which rapidly regenerated before he even got to use it up. That was the power of one who has reached the Dark Stage, as described by his family’s technique manual.

The only difference was that the Aquametal Technique manual states that at the Dark Stage, the meridian points at the temples would swell up. Lorist’s temple meridian points, however, were still flat and ordinary. He figured that it could be due to him training in the technique using Battle Force. Since that had no observable repercussions, Lorist didn’t worry about it too much. His was more troubled by that darned academy head who was treating him like a money printing machine. He didn’t mind dueling others himself and was already used to it. Furthermore, this body’s enhanced dynamic vision gave him quite an edge; Lorist had never considered Silver Swordsmen to be a threat.

Ten duels a day wasn’t strenuous for him either. It only took a few sword blows to end the duels; his usual swordsmanship classes required him to participate in ten or more mock battles to give his students some hands-on experience, and the fact that he had to point out his students’ flaws made that even more troublesome than simple dueling. The only kind of combatant who would pose an actual threat to him were those who were at least of the Two Star Gold rank. Then again, no self respecting Gold Swordsman would stoop so low to challenge him to a duel.

His main frustration was that he had been ordered to duel others rather than asking for the duels himself. To him, that wasn’t the same at all. That old bastard was profiting off his labor while he had to do all the work! Lorist solemnly cursed that old bastard to one day be buried and crushed to death by all those gold coins he made.

Chapter 6 The Origins of Battle Force

In front of him was the main lecture building of the Dawn Academy. Its design was like the form of a large bird spreading its wings, with both of the “wings” enclosing a central plaza; it looked like a bird that was embracing the central area. The main hall had five floors that served as the main offices for instructors of the various disciplines taught in the academy. The other two wings only had four floors which comprised 80 classrooms altogether and could fit up to 4000 students in total at any given time.

To the left of the mini plaza between the wings was a white stone building. Originally, it was a defense outpost, but in recent times it has been used as an office for the Enforcement Department as well as the Department of Student Affairs. To the right of the plaza was a small forest which was an ideal place for training and even romantic rendezvous.

To meet with the academy head, Lorist had to go through the main hall of the lecture building, circle around the assembly ground and canteen, pass through the herb garden and research building that were used mainly by the academy’s herbalists and finally the library before he arrived at the main administration building, which was previously an abandoned training ground. The academy head’s office was on the top floor of the administration building.

Despite being a multidisciplinary academy with more than 153 years of history, the Dawn Academy wasn’t famous for their Battle Force or swordsmanship courses. Most other schools that ranked above them usually had a Blademaster in charge for the two courses.

Rather, the academy was more famous for accounting, archaeology, language studies, herbalism as well as magical beast studies. They were also quite renowned for their painting and music composition courses.

To ensure that their students were multitalented and holistic, the Dawn Academy insists that all students choose two other professional disciplines and one arts course besides their main Battle Force and swordsmanship courses or they will not be allowed to graduate. On the other hand, the academy does not care about how long it takes to graduate as long as the fees are paid.

Besides the few renowned courses, the academy also has multiple other disciplines for students to choose from, namely, construction, sculpting, city management, business management, knight training, horsemanship, ship building, smithing as well as leather tanning. They even had one course specially designed for descendants of noble families among which included flower appreciation and fine-dining courses.

Although these other courses were not the academy’s best ones, they still held a certain standard and only hired qualified instructors. As these courses only taught the basics of the disciplines, students could easily pass them and graduate, provided that they put in a decent amount of effort into it.

Lorist took up accounting and knight training as his additional professional courses. This was chosen ten years ago by his uncle who also handled all of his family’s business affairs. His uncle thought that learning accounting would benefit Lorist even if he doesn’t end up inheriting the title of the family head as he can always inherit his position as the head of the family’s trading group.

As for knight training, that was chosen because his family had a glorious military history and considered martial prowess paragon. Lorist also showed tremendous talent as he had awakened his Battle Force at the young age of 14. Had it not been for the grave error he committed in the past, he would not have been exiled to Morante City by his father.

Being exiled meant not being able to receive the traditional knight training of his family. At that time, Lorist’s uncle thought that it was not good for Lorist to not have any training in this field and chose knight training as the other professional course he had to take.

What his uncle didn’t expect was that before even a month has passed since his precious nephew’s enrollment, due to his overbearing arrogance, Lorist had got into some trouble with several other students and ended up beaten to the brink of death. It was at that time that another consciousness took over young Lorist’s body.

Because of that, Lorist only took one year to complete the accounting course since to the current Lorist, the subject was merely some crude, simple arithmetic on the level of mathematics classes taught to fourth or fifth graders back in his previous life.

However, the current Lorist had some initial trouble with his knight training. Had it not been for his already fit body, he would’ve suffered quite a bit during the arduous three years of the course. He had to start of as a squire of other knights and carry out many miscellaneous tasks for his seniors as well as manage their armors and take care of their horses on top of attending his own physical exercise and training sessions in the skills of a knight. After three years of bitter training, he finally obtained his pass for the course.

Despite all that, he could only become a knight apprentice, unlike his other course mates. That was due to his Iron ranked Battle Force. Only Silver Swordsmen could become full-fledged knights.

That being said, the main cause for his stunted Battle Force training was due to a mishap in the cultivation of the Norton family’s Blazing Battle Force. Ever since inheriting the memories of the original owner of the body, he knew that he was in possession of a hand-copied version of the Blazing Battle Force manual that only allowed him to train up to the Three Star Iron rank. At that time, his Battle Force had just recently been awakened and it would take him a few more years to reach the Three Star Iron rank, so he wasn’t in a hurry to obtain the rest of the manual.

Battle Force training was very much different from the Ki-refining techniques he had encountered in his previous life. He was forced to train the Aquametal Technique passed down in his family by his grandfather at the young age of seven back then. Battle Force training, however, did not start until one reached the age of 15 or 16; one could not awaken one’s Battle Force at too young an age when the pulse wasn’t strong enough to agitate the magical beast factors present in the blood.

Legend says that thousands of years ago, the world was rife with magic and great magi and sages dominated the world. They called the Grindia Continent the ‘main plane’ and set off to the stars in search for other planar worlds. In one of their countless expeditions, the magi discovered a worrying problem. The magi usually travelled in small numbers and did not have much prowess in close combat to fight the warriors of the other planes. Thus, they returned to the Grindia Continent to figure out a solution for the problem.

Initially, the magi resorted to taming magical beasts, but they soon felt that it wasn’t that great of a choice, as the beasts had relatively low intelligence and could not efficiently comprehend the magi’s instructions. Problems solved with magical beasts usually ended up messy or bloody.

One day, after long periods of brainstorming, the magi got a spark of inspiration and injected blood from strong magical beasts into humans who could not train in the art of magic, and through the use of a magic formation, Battle Force was manifested.

Battle Force totally changed the world of humans. Possessing techniques to train in Battle Force, the magically inept humans could thrive against magical beasts without the protection of the magi. Not only did that greatly lessen the magi’s responsibilities to protect the normal humans hence allowing them more time to pursue their own interests, it also provided the magi with a formidable army.

Following that discovery, various other types of blood from different magical beasts were integrated into the human body and thus different types of Battle Force attributes were identified. At that time, Battle Force awakening and training occurred with the aid of magical formations. The magi also categorized the different ranks of power and their difference in abilities. With the extensive research conducted by the magi, Battle Force training got easier and faster and humans with Battle Force started showing up everywhere, with their training speeds getting faster and faster. In time, Sword Gods roamed the world and Sword Saints were littered all over the place.

Those thousand years were the most glorious era of the humans. The countless planes conquered by them supplied Grindia with an massive amount of resources and riches. At that time, the fairies sang for the humans, the halflings cooked them wondrous delicacies, the dwarves built them majestic palaces, the dragons served as their mounts, the minotaurs plowed their fields, the beastmen herded their livestock; all the other races revered the humans and treated them with utmost respect.

However, something happened and sparked the beginning of the end. Some magi explorers of the boundless void discovered the desolate ruins of a race of gods on an abandoned plane. The magi soon got to know that all the resources available in the countless planes did not even add up to an iota of the resources on the plane of the god race. On that plane were countless high grade magical materials, the purest of ore mines as well as the legendary, arcane secrets of immortality.

All of the magi turned their focus to the land of the gods. They formed large and powerful parties of magi and rallied armies of Sword Gods and invaded the plane of the gods.

The war waged by the magi against the gods lasted a thousand years. Countless different nations on that plane were eradicated and the blood of countless magi and Sword Gods tainted the battlefields. No side emerged victorious from the war; both parties were left crippled and ravaged. The event was just as described by ‘The War of the Gods’, blood stained the skies, countless brilliant stars fell like meteors, human greed triggered earth-shattering change and darkness enveloped the world……

The actual factor that kick-started the downfall of the humans was the gradual depletion of the once omnipresent magical force, causing the great magi to lose their main source of power. Nobody knew the cause of such a phenomenon, but all of them were convinced that the era of magic was coming to an end.

As the magi lost their last strands of power, the previously subordinate Sword Gods and Saints reckoned that their time had come, and that the main driving force in the near future of Grindia was the Battle Force that they possessed. For their own selfish ambitions, they began to fight among each other. No longer bound by a pact with the magi, they murdered, pillaged and destroyed to their hearts’ desires. They hated being under the control of the magi and vented their anger on the majestic structures built during the age of magical civilization. They would not be satisfied until every one of them were reduced to ashes.

Founding their own kingdoms or nations, they towered over the common folk and were worshipped by their subjects. But in their arrogance, they had forgotten that without the magi’s aid in the first place, they did not have the right to own what they had. As they grew older, they discovered that their descendants could not inherit their fantastical abilities and were only ordinary men as they didn’t know how to draw out the innate Battle Force in their blood. Their empires and legacies they built were left with no eligible heir.

When the last Sword Saint breathed his final breath, a thousand years of darkness descended onto the human inhabitants of Grindia. Having lost their ultimate means of defense, the humans could not fend off the dreaded magical beasts and were helpless against their assaults. They had no choice but to live in seclusion for the sake of survival.

The human population on the continent was reduced up to two thirds during the thousand years of darkness.

However, one lone warrior miraculously awakened his Battle Force in a battle to the death with a magical beast while he was hunting. Using the power of his newly-awakened Battle Force, he killed the savage beast and survived. Fortunately, the settlement he lived still had an ancient Battle Force manual that was passed down by his ancestors.

The curtains of the night were lifted and the rays of dawn once again shone upon the humans. The awakening of this sole warrior’s Battle Force was a silver lining and brought great hope to the human race, prompting the survivors to cooperate and research alternative ways to awaken Battle Force.

In the long years of battling against magical beasts, the humans slowly began to understand the dynamics of Battle Force and grasped the means of Battle Force awakening. Without the magical formations of the magi and given that the Battle Force manuals left by their ancestors were not applicable to them, the humans could only learn from their experiences in battle through the process of trial and error. Their progress was slow, but steady.

Another thousand years elapsed and the humans have once again become the overlords of the Grindia Continent. Battle Force was no longer an arcane discipline and has become common knowledge. Stimulating the innate magical beast factor in their blood to awaken their Battle Force and training to achieve higher levels of power allowed the humans to turn the tables against their once again thrive over magical beasts and become the predators instead.

No longer having any threats to their survival, the once unified humans broke apart again into different tribes and creeds and once again competed among each other for their own agendas and goals for hundreds of years up until present time.

Historians opined that the end of the magic civilization marked the end of magic age as the foundations for their technology had long been eroded. According to them, magical energy did not just disappear. It was actually replaced by another force that could resonate with the magical beast factors in the blood of humans that once again allowed the awakening of Battle Force.

It was thought that if a family had produced Sword Gods or Sword Saints in the past, their descendants would have a higher chance of awakening their Battle Force as the magical beast blood that their ancestors had assimilated were from stronger magical beasts, and that was believed to be the main factor of the relatively high success rate for Battle Force awakening of the descendants of such families.

That line of thought caused many noble families to pay more attention to their family’s marriages in the name of maintaining a purer bloodline, even forcing siblings into marriage in certain instances.

Chapter 7 The First Days since Reincarnation

To Lorist, that theory regarding Battle Force awakening couldn’t be more wrong and he held the opinion that research efforts into Battle Force awakening was heading down the wrong path. It was just like one of the Confucian sayings in his past life: everything starts off pure and unblemished until it is tainted by the whims and agendas of those in power. The sycophantic[1] Grindian historians were somewhat like that. For the sake of gaining favor with the nobles, they were willing to come up with nonsensical theories regarding the relationship between Battle Force awakening and noble family bloodlines to justify the necessity for the exalted, towering existences of the noble families.

That line of thinking was contradictory as well. If the history on the origins of Battle Force was true, then that would mean that the Sword Gods and Saints from whom the noble families had descended were merely cannon fodder created by the magi. In the battles depicted in ‘The War of the Gods’, army after army of Sword Gods were sent to die on the battlefield. There were easily thousands of Sword Gods in an army and most of them perished anyway. Even most Sword Saints could only barely survive should they possess miraculous luck. Lorist really wondered what the nobles thought about the fact that their ancestors were created to be expendable human shields.

Even though the original owner of Lorist’s body was a noble, having been raised in a society based not on familial heritage but rather individual merits in his past life, he could not appreciate the difference in status between the nobles and the common folk as the inhabitants of this world did. To him, he still felt like he was that small time urbanite craftsman past his forties who’s busy managing his little workshop.

That fateful night, he only met up with his former comrades for some drinks. How and why did he wake up in Norton Lorist’s body the next day? The small time workshop owner was shocked and frantic. Fortunately, the body unto which his soul had reincarnated had been badly hurt and could not move in bed for two whole months, giving him enough time to reorient himself and assimilate the memories of the body’s owner. And given the original owner’s detestable personality, his caretakers could not be bothered to pay much attention to him, allowing the sudden switch in behavior go unnoticed.

In his past life, he was born in a small town in the Jiangnan Province of China into a relatively well off family, which, incidentally, also had a tradition of martial cultivation. His grandfather was a practitioner in the ancient Chinese medicinal arts and was also a martial arts expert who had trained to the realm of the Dark Stage. He recalled that his house had an Eight-Immortals Table[2] that had a small bump on the surface with a diameter of a small winecup. In his childhood, a red-faced man from Henan came to challenge his grandfather. His grandfather poured himself and the man a cup of wine, made a toast, and slowly pushed the winecup against the bump on the table until the surface of the table was completely level and flat. The red-faced man stared wide-eyed, saluted his grandfather, and left without touching his wine.

His father has always had a weak body and his second and third uncles worked far away from home. His grandfather raised his father and his siblings very strictly and had forced them to learn Chinese medicine since their childhood. They trained incessantly: in the morning, they memorized the meridians of the body while in the night, they studied recipes for herbal concoctions. Their days were tough, but nevertheless fulfilling. During Lorist’s childhood in his past life, he was very playful and caused much trouble in that little town he lived in with his cousins.

But he got sick of his insipid lifestyle and wanted to explore the vast world around him. Given his poor grades in high school and his tendency to get into fights, he eventually quit school and joined the army.

His seven years in the army was not an uneventful one. He worked his way up to the rank of a sergeant. But the times have changed; the country desired peace and stability and society has shifted its focus towards the economy instead. The army, once beloved by the people, has fallen out of the citizens’ favor and gradually faded into the background, solemnly enduring and silently protecting their country. When the next conscription period arrived, he retired from the army after getting news about his parents’ ill health and returned home to inherit his father’s crafts workshop.

The transition from a soldier to a businessman wasn’t an easy one. From making souvenirs to forging antiques, he did whatever he could as long as it paid off. Thinking back, the hopes his grandfather had placed upon him to become a famed practitioner of Chinese medicinal arts and perpetuate the family’s traditions were never fulfilled. Years later, he made quite a bit of money off his business but gained quite a bit of weight. He couldn’t recall how long it had been since he last trained in the Aquametal Technique.

Even though he got married and had several kids, owned a luxurious car, and lived in a grand mansion, he still felt that his life was empty and devoid of any meaning. That was why occasionally, he would meet up with his old comrades to have some drinks and talk about the good old days while they got drunk on the nostalgia. Who knew, during one of these drinking parties, he woke up in the body of Norton Lorist the next day.

According to the memories of Lorist, also referred by many as Locke, his family had been enfeoffed a dominion in the northern highlands of the Krissen Empire. Although his father was only a baron, the land enfeoffed to the Norton family was incredibly vast, though most of it were desolate mountains and the population under their rule only numbered thousands. His family was not very wealthy, with only a small town and castle under their control as well as a small copper mine that served as their main source of income.

Originally a hunter, the progenitor[3] of the Norton family joined the army of the founding emperor, Krissen I, as a scout after hearing a call to arms echoed by a group of traveling bards. He has since experienced hundreds of battles and accomplished many deeds, winning the trust and favor of the emperor and granted knighthood, despite being of peasant birth.

Following the campaign that had stabilized the foundations of the empire, Krissen I asked his loyal vassal what he wanted. The Norton family founder said that he wished to return to his homeland and live out the rest of his life there. Looking at the old knight whose hair had already turned white, Krissen I let out a long sigh and took out a map. Seeing that the northern highlands were mostly desolate mountains, he drew out a large area and granted the territory to the knight, who was subsequently styled baron, and granted him the highly-ranked Blazing Battle Force manual, hoping that the baron’s descendants will continue to safeguard the northern borders.

In present day, seven generations had elapsed since the first ancestor of the Norton family. Lorist’s father had two other brothers. He was the eldest among them and had inherited both the land and the title while his second brother, Lorist’s second uncle, joined the royal guard in the capital. Lorist had never met this uncle of his. He only heard that his second uncle was doing quite well in the capital. His third uncle was the head of business affairs of the Norton family and also the one who brought Lorist to the Dawn Academy.

In his memories, Lorist’s mother was a pretty and gentle woman. His grandfather on his mother’s side was a great merchant who incidentally had used quite a sum of money to purchase a title for convenience in future business dealings. He also had another uncle, his mother’s brother, who was a hardcore bibliophile. Lorist had a strict father, a reckless and brawny elder brother and a loving mother. His childhood was a happy one until that day when his mother died from giving birth to his younger brother, causing him to lose her for good. He was only seven at that time.

Lorist, who was no longer the center of attention in his family, had always blamed his mother’s death on his younger brother. He felt that his younger brother had taken away his precious mother as well as the affection given to him by his family, and considered him to be the main cause for his woes. He despised his brother from the depths of his heart.

It only took one year for him to awaken his Battle Force at the age of thirteen after he started to receive the Norton family’s formal training, resulting in him gaining much praise from his usually strict and serious father for greatly exceeding his expectations. Happily walking into the garden, he saw his brother sitting near the well, playing with one of the female servants. Feeling a sudden rush of hatred, Lorist pushed his younger brother down into the well.

The servant screamed in terror and within a moment, he was instantly surrounded by people. Feeling great rage, his father slapped him hard and knocked him out cold.

He woke up in a small bedroom and saw the head butler, Gleis, looking in his direction with a contemptful gaze. He informed Lorist that he was grounded until his father decided on his punishment. Before he left, he told Lorist that his brother had been rescued and had suffered no physical injury but was in a state of shock and was down with a cold due to being submerged in cold water for too long.

Three days later, the verdict had been set: he was to be exiled from his homeland to Morante City where he would further his studies. Without any summons from his family, he was forbidden to return to his home.

Both his elder brother and the head butler pleaded for his sake, but his father was resolute with his decision, reasoning that in the harsh and desolate environment of the northern lands, the Norton family wouldn’t have survived this long without unity and harmony among the family members. “The thing Lorist did greatly shocked everyone; he had attempted to murder his blood-related, five-year-old brother! Even if he was forgiven this time, it would only sow seeds of conflict and disharmony in the family. That is why I have decided to exile him,” declared his father.

Frightened beyond his wits after waking up in a body of a fourteen-year-old youth, the confused workshop owner suffered from conflicting and intertwining memories and couldn’t reconcile his two contrasting identities. Ten days later, he managed to calm down and conjectured that maybe, he had crossed into a parallel world, much like the plotlines of the many webnovels he had read.

Although he had inherited the memories of the young Locke, the world in which he had reincarnated still awed and mystified him to no end. Given the extent of his injuries, he was wrapped up in bandages and looked very much like a mummy. Unable to move and wracked with pain, coupled with the longing for his folks of his past life, it wasn’t uncommon for tears to be streaming down from his eyes.

After more than ten days, the workshop owner finally accepted his predicament and steeled his resolve to continue to live on as Norton Lorist, or, Locke. To better understand this new environment, he paid his plump, freckled caretaker more money and requested her to read to him books about the history of this world. The original owner of the body took no interest such topics and had little information about it in his memories.

The plump female caretaker brought him a book titled ‘The Ten-thousand Year Annals of Grindia’. Lorist was initially shocked at the title because a civilization that could have ten thousand years of recorded history must be a rather advanced one. Though, after the caretaker started reading, Lorist understood that most of it weren’t proper historical records but rather a collection of myths and legends one after another. Only the final two to three thousand years sounded more accurate.

According to the legends, the fairy race ruled Grindia millenniums ago and humans were merely a small race that lived under the rule of the fairies. At that time, the fairy race had been in conflict with the dragon race for thousands of years and the humans, who were under their protection, also suffered as a result. Amidst the long years of war, a tribe of gremlins used their wisdom and intellect to create a never before seen type of magically-powered war machines and achieved victory for the fairy race.

However, the machines greatly polluted and damaged the environment and a faction of nature-loving fairies revolted, causing another conflict to erupt. The surprising thing was: the lofty, nature-loving fairies who vowed to teach the other faction a lesson were decimated under the might of the gremlin-made magical war machines. In the end, the gremlins rose to supremacy and became the masters of Grindia.

Despite that, the gremlins who were by nature curious and intrigued by the mysteries of technological discoveries and inventions had no intention of ruling the continent. After a hundred years of chaos and anarchy, the beastmen from the western part of the continent invaded and brought with them a bloody trail of death and destruction.

The gremlins’ mighty war machines fell one after another to the suicidal, savage assaults of the blood-drinking beastmen with their thick, tough hides, bringing an end to the rule of the gremlins.

The beastmen who had just ascended to the apex of the Grindia continent erected a reign of fear and violence, eventually prompting all the other races to unite and revolt.

This was the start of yet another war that lasted hundreds of years. The humans strived to learn every type of craft from the many other races who were struggling against the beastmen. They studied the arcane arts of magic and warfare from the fairies, construction and forging from the dwarves as well as trading and engineering from the gremlins, and, with their large numbers, became an indispensable force in the war against the beastmen. When their beastly oppressors had finally been chased back to the wilderness in the west, the humans took up the mantle of the strongest race of Grindia.

After that came the prosperous golden age of the magical civilization which lasted thousands of years until the mages initiated a large scale war with the gods. The end of the magical age came suddenly as the magical energy on the continent started to dwindle inexplicably.

[1] sycophantic: adj. behaving or done in an obedient way in order to gain advantage. Source: Google

[2] Ba-Xian Table: See Wikipedia.

[3] progenitor: noun. An ancestor or parent. Source: Google

Chapter 8 Battle Force and His Days as a Mercenary

During the two months he lay in bed recovering from his injuries, Lorist spent all his time to gather information about Grindia’s history, geography, folk tales as well as travel journals to gain a rough understanding about this new world he found himself in.

To Lorist, this world seemed quite similar to Medieval Europe at first glance, given that it had stuff like titles and knights. In his past life, he had also forged a number of knight armor replicas and sold them for a high price online.

The people here greatly resembled white caucasian Europeans, but according to his observations, the culture in this world was far more advanced than that of the people of the Middle Ages in his previous world. However, the food culture did seem quite primitive here. He was served oatmeal, black bread and mashed potatoes with salt almost every day and ‘suffered’ without end to the point where he suspected that the reason his caretaker was so plump was due to her sneaking away all the delicious stuff from his meals.

With his mind full of such thoughts, he asked one of his caretakers, Kelly, to see if he could have a different menu for his meals.

Kelly said that this was the staple menu for the sick students of the academy.

Lorist responded by insisting to be served the regular meals instead.

And so on the second day, Kelly brought over a piece of black bread, some mashed potatoes and a bowl of vegetable soup (with only two leaves in it) which replaced the usual oatmeal.

With a face full of tears, Lorist ate the food feeling utter anguish and despair.

One of the differences between the people here and Europeans was the way they put their surnames in front followed by their given names at the back in a way that was similar to the Chinese naming scheme. In a book covering the topic of noble family history, it was stated that during the thousand years of darkness, brave warriors who challenged the magical beasts on their own and returned alive would be granted a title by the village chief. Names like Whitemont, Tusk, Hawksoar, etc. would be appended before their names and, in time, those titles became family names. Norton, for example, meant raging bear in the ancient language of the fairies.

The most glaring difference between this world and his own was the presence of the two moons in the sky. The first larger silver moon was called Daphlyn and it was personified as the Silvermoon Goddess and also known as the Goddess of Love. The smaller, blood-red-colored moon which hung in the night sky like a crimson, crescent fang was called Sufanna the Bloodmoon Goddess and also served as the Goddess of Vengeance. According to the legends, when Sufanna reveals itself as a full moon, it would signify the beginning of another major conflict on the continent.

Both the Silvermoon Goddess and the Bloodmoon Goddess were wives of Singwa, the God of the Sun, Light and War. That was also the reason why in Grindia, marriage between a man and two women was permitted. But one could only be allowed to do so if one was economically able to support having two wives. The status of the second wife was not one whit inferior to that of the first wife and both wives were entitled to the same amount of love and care from the husband. That was why most people, even nobles, only took one wife to avoid too much hassle.

The more Lorist read about the history of the world, the more confused he felt. That was because the Grindia Continent was very large and humans only occupied a third of it. The rest of the uncharted territory were comprised mostly of desolate plains, forests or mountain ranges. But the many culture and history books he had browsed through had maps of the continent that were mostly similar to each other. It is said that these maps were left over from the age of magic and had been mapped by the magi during their travels around the continent.

The language used on the continent was known as the common language. All people on the continent spoke that language and no alternative dialects had ever developed. The script resembled alphabets and were comprised of 32 characters which could be formed into words by putting two or three characters into a diamond-like shape. In the books, it was said that this language had been developed by the magi specially for the humans’ use. The magi also knew several other languages of other races including that of the ancient fairies, dragons, gremlins as well as some other tongues that contained mysterious magical power.

The most surprising part was the maps shown in most books were drawn on a planet. The only difference is the planets in this world were known of as planar worlds. Some books from the age of magic described that there were other planar worlds and they were also sphere-like objects that were suspended in the empty void of space.

If the maps accurately depicted the Grindia Continent, then the legends about the magi must have been true; there was simply no other explanation. If that were the case, that meant that the civilizations on the continent evolved in a straight path that greatly relied on an individual’s training in magic followed by Battle Force, unlike the civilizations in his previous life which pursued advancements in science and technology instead.

It was at this moment when Lorist suddenly felt interested in the mysteries of Battle Force. After carefully researching his hand-copied version of the Blazing Battle Force manual and using it to train, he came to understand that the key to channeling Battle Force was blood circulation.

The people of Grindia call the points where blood vessels intersect ‘nodes’. The human body has 72 major nodes and 360 minor nodes as well as another 1080 miscellaneous nodes. Through sensing the elemental energy in the surrounding environment, one can increase one’s blood circulation rate and will the blood to circulate through specific nodes in the body, resulting in the generation of a unique, explosive life energy that can be harnessed to greatly increase one’s strength, speed as well as reaction time. This was the power of Battle Force.

To Lorist’s surprise, Battle Force also came in various types or attributes. Recalling the Chinese medical books he had memorized in his childhood, different parts of the human body corresponded to one of the five different elements. The skin, nose, large intestines and lungs belong to the metal attribute. The tendons, eyes, liver and gallbladder belong to the wood attribute. The bones, ears, kidneys and bladder were of the water attribute. The blood vessels, tongue, heart and small intestines corresponded to the fire attribute. And finally, the muscles, spleen, mouth and stomach belong to the earth attribute. However, Battle Force had more than 5 different attributes categories.

The nodes from the eyes to the jaw produced light type Battle Force. The nodes from the back of the head down to the tailbone produced dark type Battle Force. Water type Battle Force came from the nodes around the kidneys and bladder. Nodes from the right chest up to the gallbladder and liver produced wood type Battle Force while the nodes around the right abdomen corresponded to the fire type. The left chest trained in metal type Battle Force while the left abdomen nodes trained in the earth attribute. Finally, the several major nodes from the shoulders up to the upper thighs produced wind type Battle Force. Besides the more common attributes, some exotic kinds of Battle Force attributes like the blood attribute or the ice attribute existed as well.

In most cases, the training of Battle Force involved picking several major nodes on the body to form a pentagram (a five-pointed star) or a hexagram (a six-pointed star) and speeding up and isolating the circulation of the blood in the body through the minor nodes in between the star shape to manifest Battle Force. To reach the point where manifested Battle Force can be projected according to one’s will was the main aim of training. Lorist felt that the theory behind Battle Force training was very similar to the art of training the internal energy of the body that he had come across in his past life.

However, Battle Force training was not as flexible in that one cannot train in Battle Force of different attributes. For example, if one trained in an earth attribute Battle Force, one cannot train in any other Battle Force with different attributes. While training in other attributes would not cause one any serious harm, one would be forever stuck and be unable to advance to the next level. Then again, many different types of Battle Force techniques existed. There were roughly more than ten low-ranked null attribute basic Battle Force techniques that only allowed one to train up to the Iron rank at most; these were commonly used by armies to train their soldiers.

There were two main advantages that came with training null attribute Battle Force. First, there was no attribute requirement and anybody could train in them. Second, it was relatively easy to train in null attribute Battle Force techniques: one could quickly and easily sense the elemental energy, and the pentagram points used to manifest null attribute Battle Force only required the activation of a small amount of minor nodes, reducing the difficulty even further for practitioners to grasp the flow of the energy.

It is common practice to introduce students in Battle Force awakening courses to basic Battle Force techniques before allowing them to pick a mid-ranked or high-ranked technique with attributes that suit them when they reach the Iron rank. However, most Battle Force manuals on the market only allowed one to train up to the Silver rank. Gold rank Battle Force manuals were relatively rare and cost a small fortune.

Very much interested in the Blazing Battle Force technique he possessed, Lorist trained hard in that technique and was not worried about not having the rest of the technique from Silver rank onwards because according to his inherited memories, his third uncle comes to visit him once a year to check up on him and provide him with some money to pay for the school fees. That’s why, he thought he could ask for the rest of the technique once he trained to the peak of the Iron rank. But who knew right after three years he came to the world, his uncle stopped visiting without notice and vanished without a trace. The year after, the third prince of the Krissen Empire sparked a civil war and permanently cut Lorist’s contact with his family in the far north.

Lorist wasn’t too perturbed by the loss of contact with his family and was even a little thrilled, given that the original owner of his body was exiled from home in the first place. He would no longer have to worry about his identity being exposed anymore. The problem was his living cost: he probably wouldn’t have any trouble with food; he could always go to McDuffin’s roadside stall, or, in the worst case, eat the meals provided by the academy as all three meals of the day were already included in the school fees. The food provided definitely wasn’t delicious, but he could live with it. The real problem was paying the tuition fee.

At that time, Lorist had already been at the academy for three and a half years. Having obtained his certification for both his knight training and accounting professional courses, he could already graduate without problems. However, in the three years since Lorist had crossed over to this world, he had already formed close relationships and familiarized himself with the city and already considered Morante City his home. Where would he go even if he were to graduate? Having just broken through to the Iron rank at the age of 18, with Lorist’s abilities, it was indeed a little bit early for him to go exploring the foreign world.

Additionally, for the sake of better understanding the world of Grindia, Lorist applied for another two extra courses just last year in herbalism and magical beast studies. He subconsciously thought that the more he learned, the better off he would fare and adapt in this world. And, much to his advantage, he was reincarnated into the most developed and civilized city on the continent and not some run down village in the desolate wilderness, saving him much time and effort in learning about the world through trial and error. Who knew where he would end up should he be a little less fortunate as he was.

A professional course would cost around five to eight gold Fordes per semester. Magical beast studies was relatively simple: one studied the subject simply by looking at drawings of the magical beasts and memorizing any effective means to kill them as well as the valuable parts each beast had. One would not have much trouble passing the course if one’s memory was good enough. Herbalism, on the other hand, was much more demanding. One had to be able to differentiate one herbal plant from another, understand the appropriate methods of storing different herbs as well as experimenting with different combinations of herbs. The experiments usually took up quite a bit of money.

During the first three years, Lorist’s third uncle usually brought him some new clothing and delicacies every time he came over to visit him and also left thirty or so gold coins, sometimes even more when business was good, for him to cover his living costs and tuition. Lorist wasn’t reckless with his spending either. He only used the money on paying servants and buying books from time to time and ended up with up to thirty gold Fordes in his savings.

To McDuffin, thirty gold Fordes was a rather large sum. But to Lorist, it was only enough for about a year and a half to fund his studies and other necessities.

So, he searched for other means to earn money for the sake of remaining in the city. He was subsequently brought to a mercenary guild by some of his friends and successfully registered as a low-ranked Bronze Mercenary and started taking up missions.

Despite that, given Lorist’s experiences in his past life and his good eye for opportunity, he got a good idea for a business during one of his missions and roped a few friends in to gather some starting capital. Buying a large number of beast furs, he commissioned some tailors to sew them into backpacks that were very commonly seen in his past life. Being a new design that did not hamper movement and was conveniently and quickly equipped onto one’s back, his stock of 400 bags got sold out in an instant the moment he brought them back to the mercenary guild. Lorist and his friends each earned a share of more than ten gold Fordes and struck a few more times when the iron was still hot, earning him another seventy to eighty gold coins.

Right when he was about to start a leather factory with his friends to mass produce these backpacks, he noticed that there were a lot of ripoffs on the market which greatly lowered the price of each bag, causing Lorist and his friends immense anger and frustration as he gave up on the notion.

That business venture made Lorist quite a name among the people of the mercenary guild and earned himself some respect from his friends. In actuality, Lorist had a bunch of other ideas that could earn him more money, but he thought it was better to stay low-key and not attract too much attention to himself. The money he had on hand at that time was already more than enough for him to live without worries. Since then, he spent most of his time at the academy studying and occasionally took up some mercenary missions. During the holidays, he would form small teams with several close friends and go on expeditions to kill some low-ranked magical beasts. Spending his days rather leisurely, he was already among the ranks of the mercenary veterans within merely three years.

Chapter 9 Dynamic Vision

On the sixth year of his new life when his current body was 20 years old, Lorist discovered something troubling.

Lorist had fared pretty well for the past few years and had already grown from being a low-ranked errand running Bronze mercenary into an Iron ranked mercenary veteran.

Lorist was also quite well known in the Dawn Academy, given that he applied for another three professions after completing his magical beast studies and herbalism courses, among which included archaeology, ruin exploration as well as language studies. Having been among the ranks of the mercenaries for quite some time, he came to understand that the legends surrounding the magical civilization was not without basis and was true to a certain extent.

In one of his excursions with his buddies a year before, Lorist visited an already excavated small ruin that was said to be a tower that used to be a magus’s residence. The colossal tower that reached out beyond the clouds described in books was no longer standing, but the discovery of the three basement floors shocked them. Large, smooth walls made from stainless steel shone like a mirror, seemingly unworn from the passing of time. Lines stretched across the floor up to the walls and intersected to form a complicated, three-dimensional magical formation diagram and chunks of neatly-arranged rocks with archaic fairy script could be seen in the vicinity. These could be the cornerstones that served as the foundation of the magical formation.

Every one of them in his group dreamed about gaining boundless wealth and fame for discovering this ruin but felt it wasn’t too realistic. Most of the ruins that humans once inhabited had already been excavated and studied and were no longer of much value with only a few exceptions that possibly lay hidden somewhere in the lush, dense forests or the desolate mountains. Given their abilities and the magical beasts that lurked around such areas, however, it would have been a suicidal effort. They could only daydream in vain of the glory and riches that awaited.

Lorist however was ecstatic and marched forward with enthusiasm. Having read ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ in his past life, he had always been fascinated with magic and wanted to become a mage himself. Too bad he arrived on the Grindia Continent a little too late. Had he crossed over to a few thousand years earlier into the age of magic, his dreams in becoming a great magus might just come true.

At that time, Lorist, having just recently obtained his qualifications in magical beast studies and herbalism, was wondering which courses to sign up for next. Given that Dawn Academy’s archaeology, language studies and ruin exploration courses were quite highly-ranked, he decided to sign up for them during the following semester.

Ruin exploration refers to the research and study of the architecture and the purpose of buildings left behind from the age of magic as well as the means to excavate such ruins with as much care as possible to avoid damaging the ruins. Archaeology dealt with the distinguishing and handling of artifacts found in ruins and was concerned with determining the purpose and worth of such artifacts. Language studies was the hardest of the three, given that the languages of the fairies, dragons, gremlins that the magi used were said to contain mystical power and people without magical affinity could not truly grasp the language; even if someone did manage to learn a couple of words, he would only be able to make similar sounds but be unable to reproduce the archaic power contained within each word.

These magical languages by nature could not be easily passed down through the generations. But the magi of the time frequently inscribed the script of these languages onto stone tablets to record important information. These days, the field of language studies can only rely on the characters on the tablets to slowly decipher the actual meaning of the words by matching the drawings that was occasionally found next to the characters. So far, the largest achievement in the field of language studies was the ability to distinguish words of the fairy language from that of the gremlin language. Not much progress had been made however in understanding the language of the dragons.

These three courses were closely related. Lorist quite cynically summed up the essence of these three courses into two words: grave robbery. The only difference between this and actual grave robbing was that it was legally endorsed by the various powers on the continent and it was common practice for people to raid and explore such ruins, loot the artifacts inside and auction them off to gain wealth and fame. Archaeologists, however, were dissatisfied with such a phenomenon and deemed such acts destructive and unethical.

Lorist believed that once he obtained those qualifications, he would live a rather adventurous life as both a researcher and explorer, venturing around the continent in search of thrills. What he didn’t expect was that the act of applying for all three courses would draw so much attention to him. If he were to graduate with qualifications in seven professional courses, while he may not be the first in the academy’s history to do so, he wouldn’t be too far off from being the last one.

Attending these courses weren’t that much of a burden to Lorist. What he was truly worried about was his stunted Battle Force training due to the lack of the following Blazing Battle force manuals for the higher levels.

This wasn’t an uncommon occurrence in Grindia. Descendants of noble families intentionally brought Battle Force or swordsmanship style manuals in parts with them in fear of the techniques being leaked out and would only request for the rest of the manuals when they reached a certain level. But Lorist could not do so as he had already lost contact with his family for years. The Krissen Empire in the north was in much chaos due to the infighting among the three princes of the empire and caused Lorist to be unable to reach out to his family. Seeing that the conflict was likely to continue for a few more years, he wouldn’t be so stupid to wait and do nothing until the day he manages to contact his family finally comes.

Even if he had the patience to wait, he had to continue training to keep his body in peak condition. Already resigned to his situation, he motivated himself to train in some other abilities.

Just a few months after he crossed-over and started training in swordsmanship, he noticed that this body of his had a unique gift of dynamic vision: it was the ability to accurately focus and see the trail of objects moving in high speeds.

Lorist wasn’t too unfamiliar with the ability either. When he was still a soldier in his past life, in one of the training drills, he was in charge of leading his special ops team stealthily into the base of the other side, thinking that it was going to be a piece of cake. He didn’t expect all his team members to get eliminated from the simulation by merely one guy and decided to rush into him with a grenade in hand, intending to perish along with him. The sensors on their uniforms let out some smoke, which signified their ‘deaths’ in the training exercise. Offering that other soldier a cigarette, he curiously asked how he managed to avoid the concentrated barrage of bullets. Most people wouldn’t be able to survive such an assault.

That guy cockily told Lorist that he wouldn’t be able to pull off what he did and explained that his natural gift of dynamic vision made any fast moving object appear slow in his eyes. That’s why he was able to easily avoid the bullets and was practically invincible as he struck Lorist’s teammates down. The only thing he didn’t expect was Lorist’s suicide bombing and was trapped in a corner without being able to do anything in retaliation.

Lorist was really envious of that man’s natural talent but was told that it could be learned with sufficient training. He said that pilots would also need to have good dynamic vision but the training process was extremely nauseating to most people and encouraged Lorist to try it out and experience it for himself.

The man sighed and continued to say that his natural dynamic vision was unlike those that people could obtain from training in that it put a lot of stress on the mind. While the vision one could obtain from training was certainly inferior to his, it was more than sufficient for the average person for most intents and purposes.

At that time, Lorist didn’t understand why that man sighed and did some reading on the internet about the ability and discovered many training methods one could use to train one’s dynamic vision. One of the methods involved sitting on a chair that turned at extremely high speeds and having someone hold large cardboards with words written on them beside the chair and trying to read the words on the cards while spinning around. Within merely ten minutes of trying it out, he collapsed feeling intense vertigo and discomfort and couldn’t stomach any food for up to two days.

It is said that if one perseveres through the training, in time, one would be able to see clearly the faces of passengers through the windows of a speeding train.

But the intense discomfort caused by the training made Lorist think that such an ability wasn’t worth the pain. He subsequently gave up on the training.

The present Lorist, however, fully understood why that man sighed on that day.

Initially he was exhilarated to discover that his new body had this ability. Through intense focus, he could even see each distinctive flap of the wings of a passing fly. In sword battles, no matter how agile and quick the opponent, Lorist only perceived a slow moving sword and could easily come out with a counter to break his opponent’s move.

However, the utilization of this ability was extremely mentally taxing. Before, he wasn’t able to use it for too much a time. As he used this ability more and more, however, he noticed that his mental endurance increased in tandem with the amount of time he could sustain his dynamic vision. Even when he was not in deep focus, his sense of the environment around him had grown ever more sensitive; a fact he figured out during one of his magical beast hunts.

The main problem, however was that his body’s reaction couldn’t catch up with his senses’. When he first discovered this ability his Battle Force was at the One Star Bronze rank. For a time he could still keep up with his improving dynamic vision as his Battle Force grew and was unparalleled among his peers in swordsmanship, causing him to be appointed as an assistant swordsmanship instructor.

But ever since he got stuck at the Three Star Iron rank, Lorist found that his movements couldn’t keep up with his ever improving dynamic vision. In time, his body would no longer be able to keep up with his reaction time.

Given his performance as an assistant instructor a year before, he was then promoted to a full-fledged instructor. But that incident caused many Silver ranked instructors and students much dissatisfaction and even prompted many Silver ranked students to challenge him to duels. It was then when Lorist first encountered the problem of his body’s movement speed.

Given the complete defeat of the first few Silver ranked students who challenged Lorist on behalf of a swordsmanship instructor, that instructor decided to join the fray himself. When the duel started, Lorist began to feel pressure; this was a man who had rich experience in real life battles and was not like some people whose skills were visually impressive but outright impractical. Every strike of his was fast, damaging and straightforward. Some of his moves were even willing to suffer a small hit in order to land a bigger one!

Under Lorist’s intense concentration, the moves of the enemy were broken one by one. To the people watching the duel, Lorist’s moves were flexible and flawless. But he himself felt the opposite: there were a few times when he clearly found weak points in his opponent’s strike but his body wasn’t able to move in time. There were also a number of times when he could clearly see the trajectory of the sword but was only barely able to avoid them. That duel only ended with his narrow victory.

Chapter 10 Aquametal Technique

I can’t continue on like this, thought Lorist as he decided to use a very troublesome method to get out of his training limb: training in another mid-ranked Battle Force technique of the same attribute up to the Silver rank temporarily and return to the Blazing Battle Force once he obtains the rest of the technique.

This method of training was not unprecedented, but it really pushed the cultivator’s perseverance and concentration to the limit. Even if certain Battle Force techniques had the same attributes, there were fine differences between the nodes used to form the hexagram circulation path in the body. That was especially the case with the minor nodes involved in the circulation. If any unnatural changes occur, such as the formation of unintentional connections between certain circulation nodes, it would cause even more complications. The cultivator must first forget and suppress their previous training habits before training in another technique from scratch.

There really was no easy way to go about this.

By the sound of its name, the Blazing Battle Force seemed to be of the fire attribute. Lorist had no way of confirming the type, however, as the hand copy he possessed only had the name on the cover and jumped right into the hexagram circulation diagrams for the Bronze and Iron ranks, not containing any shred of additional information at all.

Therefore, he spent a small fortune and obtained a mid-ranked fire attribute Scorching Flame Battle Force technique. It is said that one could reach the peak of the Silver rank with it. But, when Lorist opened the page, he was dumbfounded.

The Scorching Flame Battle Force technique’s hexagram circulation diagram differed too much from that of his own technique. That was especially the case with all of the major nodes. How could he bring himself to train in that?

At first, he reasoned that the difference was due to the technique being mid-ranked while his own Blazing Battle Force being a high-ranked technique. But then again, no matter the rank, Battle Force techniques of the same attribute should not differ so much in terms of the major nodes. To further investigate the issue, Lorist purchased a few more mid-ranked fire attribute techniques and compared them. The rest of the techniques had node points that were largely similar to those of the Scorching Flame Battle Force but were all incompatible with those of his own Blazing Battle Force. That could only mean that the Blazing Battle Force was not a fire attribute technique.

Gosh, what other attribute could it be if it wasn’t a fire type technique?

Without a choice, Lorist got several other mid-ranked techniques of different attributes among which included water, wood, metal, earth, even ones with light and wind attributes. After some careful research, he concluded that the Blazing Battle Force had no connection to any of the attributes of these other techniques. This was a very worrisome conclusion for Lorist and made him reconsider whether the Blazing Battle Force was a fire attribute technique after all, with the cause for the different diagrams being the difference in rank.

But something happened during this time which removed the notion from his mind. Due to the lack of progress in his training, Lorist decided to focus his thoughts elsewhere during the academy holidays. He formed a small party with a few other friends and decided to go to the Sunset Mountains to hunt some low-ranked magical beasts.

The Sunset Mountains was the home of a rare magical beast called the Gold-horned Flamefox. Its fur could change according to the seasons: the colder the temperature, the redder its fur would turn, making the demand for its fur very high in the market. And the golden horn of the fox also emitted a fragrance which repelled bugs. It was also rumored that once the horn was ground to dust, it could improve the endurance and performance of the ‘male organ’. This caused the Gold-horned Flamefox to be hunted to the point of near extinction.

Lorist and his gang were fortunate enough to discover the trails of a Gold-horned Flamefox during that trip and had spent three days and nights before finally tracking down and slaying the beast. However, as they prepared to depart from the mountains, they discovered some people who lusted after their haul.

Places like the Sunset Mountains had always been lawless areas where the strong devoured the weak. It was common for adventurers or mercenaries to be on their guard for other humans as they hunted magical beasts.

Having been hunting low-ranked beasts around the outskirts of the mountains, Lorist’s group did not attract any unwanted attention from the other hunters. But that changed after they got the Gold-horned Flamefox.

The ones who blocked their path were seven Silver ranked mercenaries who belonged to a mercenary group with a reputation for robbery which was based at at a town near the mountains. That mercenary group probably started paying attention to Lorist and gang when they were purchasing some necessities at the town and decided to send seven Silver ranked experts to take the spoils by force.

Lorist’s group only had five people with three Iron ranks and two Silver ranks. Fully aware of the disparity in power, the robbers not only demanded Lorist’s group to hand over their haul, but also to leave every equipment they had on their hands besides their undergarments behind. Charade was also present in the group at that time and was at the One Star Silver rank. Being the miser he is, he got enraged by their demands and attacked without another word. The rest of the group soon followed suit and went all out on their attackers.

To the robbers’ surprise, three of them instantly fell to Lorist and his gang. Two of the remaining four were preoccupied with keeping Lorist at bay while the other two cried out for help under the relentless attacks of Charade and the other three of Lorist’s gang.

The struggle ended with Lorist sticking his blade through the back of an escaping robber. Of the seven Silver ranked mercenaries, two were dead and five others were hurt badly. This was the first time Lorist had killed since he crossed over to the Grindia Continent, and to his surprise, he did not feel an ounce of rejection or nausea following the act of killing.

The deathly miser stripped the seven mercenaries of all their belongings, staying true to his name and leaving them stark naked. The group of five profited a little from this fight and even found a high-ranked earth attribute Battle Force manual on the body of the guy who attempted to escape but was struck down by Lorist. It was called the ‘Myriad Mountains Battle Force’.

But nobody in his squad trained in the earth attribute and Lorist himself didn’t know what his attribute was. The Battle Force manual was useless to them and was better off sold off for a few hundred gold coins.

But Charade remembered that Lorist was collecting Battle Force manuals for research purposes in order to break through the Iron rank. Additionally, Lorist contributed most to the previous fight and handled five of the robbers himself. Had it not been for Lorist’s abilities, they would be hard-pressed fending off seven Silver ranked mercenaries. And so, the rest of the group came to a unanimous decision and decided to give Lorist the Battle Force manual.

After splitting the spoils and returning to Morante City, Lorist started to analyze the high-ranked earth attribute Battle Force manual. Comparing it to a mid-ranked earth attribute Battle Force, he discovered that they had many similarities. Most of the major nodes that constituted the hexagram circulation paths were roughly the same, with the only difference being the high-ranked technique having more complicated paths among the minor and miscellaneous nodes between the major nodes.

Scratching his head in futility, he understood that the Blazing Battle Force he trained in definitely did not belong to the fire attribute given the glaring differences it had with other mid-ranked fire attribute techniques.

On one hand, he could only train the Blazing Battle Force to the peak of the Iron rank and could not advance from there. On the other, he couldn’t figure out what attribute his technique belonged to and didn’t dare to rashly pick up any other mid-ranked technique to train in. In time, his body would no longer be able to keep up with his ever improving dynamic vision. He didn’t want his movements to be slower than his awareness during battle.

What should he do? How would he progress in his training? These thoughts kept Lorist awake for nights. Ugh… What’s with this accursed Blazing Battle Force technique…

As he tossed about in bed one night, Lorist suddenly recalled the sight of his grandfather training in the Aquametal Technique. Startled by his sudden insight, he thought, That’s right! Why don’t I try training in the Aquametal Technique? That technique held an even higher place in his heart than the Blazing Battle Force as it was the hereditary technique of his real family in his past life!

He remembered the scene when he struggled to maintain the horse stance with his cousins under the instruction of his grandfather. He was surprised that he could still recall the training methods, Ki pathways, the body meridian map, the Aquametal foundations as well as the Aquametal Sword Techniques. It was like they were imprinted upon his soul.

With his eyes tearing up in nostalgia, he got off his bed and took up the horse stance, basking in the moonlight that shined through the window in his room.

The first form of the Bright Stage of the Aquametal Technique: Immutability of A Thousand Cliffs.

Be focused with a calm heart, breathe in thrice and let it out all at once. Let me meld into the void and forget my physical existence.

All of a sudden, a red sun leaped up from the oceans, illuminating the world. For some time, the oceans and rivers remained calm without a wave. Without warning, a giant tide rose from the seas and formed a great cliff in the middle of the ocean. The peak resembled a blade which cut through the giant, crashing waves with unwavering and everlasting vitality.

After some time, the raging waves started to weaken and calm. The vast ocean quickly returned to its former tranquil state and was smooth as a mirror. Only that towering cliff stood unmoving, proudly overseeing this vast realm.

Full of delight and surprise, Lorist slowly opened his eyes. The training speed was too fast! In his previous life, it took him three years of training under his grandfather’s tutelage to reach the point when he could visualize that scene of the vast ocean in his mind. In this life, however, it only took him one try to enter that realm. This was unimaginable.

Now that he had mastered the first form, it would only take him two or three months of training for him to be able to start the second form, ‘Timeless Waterflow‘. In his previous life, he took three years to master the first form and six for the second. After that, he enlisted in the army but never quite reached the third form, the ‘Robust Warhorse’. After he retired and inherited his father’s workshop, he often neglected his training and only practiced half-heartedly. That was one of the greatest regrets he had in his past life.

The first three forms of the Aquametal Technique wasn’t actually that complicated. The first form focused on the twelve standard meridians whereas the second and the third prioritized the unleashing of the eight extraordinary meridians[1]. Once the eight meridians worked in concert with the twelve standard meridians to form the Major Cycle, one would reach the peak of the Bright Stage and had a chance to progress into the Dark Stage.

But training in the first form required one to be able to feel the Ki flowing through the twelve standard meridians as well as visualize the realm of the raging sea to train and fortify one’s mind and soul to the point that it would be unshakable by anything and be able to remain calm at all times, even if Mt Tai itself were to come crashing in front of oneself.

Lorist didn’t expect to be able to reach this point in only one training session. Even though his body was sweating heavily, he felt energized and refreshed like never before. In his excitement, he picked up his sword and started swinging away. His body moved as his mind willed as his sword soared through the air. This feeling was hard to put into words. The lag between his intentions and his movements did not exist anymore.

Sheathing his sword, Lorist decided to continue training and stabilizing his foundations by practicing in the first form once more. However, just as he went into the horse stance, he was startled to find that his Battle Force had disappeared.

The Battle Force that lurked in his veins could not be felt anymore. Lorist let out a cold sweat, quickly sat down with his legs crossed and started to meditate. He tried to manifest them like he usually did and felt the circulation of Battle Force within the hexagram circulation path in his body. Just as he was about to let out a sigh of release, the Battle Force dissipated from his body.

What is going on? Frustrated that his Battle Force kept giving him problems, he tried again for a few times but the same thing happened over and over. Sheesh. I don’t even want to care anymore. Let’s go back to training in the Aquametal Technique, thought Lorist, disheartened.

Just as he was preparing to visualize the small realm after he got into the horse stance, Lorist felt that his meridians was filled to the brink with some kind of energy. Huh? Why does this feel so familiar? He calmed himself down and continued his inspection. Wait, isn’t this Battle Force? Why has it gone inside my meridians? No wonder he trained that quickly in the Aquametal Technique. It was due to the presence of Battle Force.

But he didn’t know whether training in the Aquametal Technique using Battle Force was a healthy practice or not. Nevertheless, the increase in his body’s strength and agility that allowed his movements to synchronize with his will was beneficial. Lorist decided that he’ll keep on training like this and cross that bridge when the time comes.

[1]See this page to learn more about meridians. See Wikipedia.

Chapter 11 Incador Medal

After one year of cultivating the Aquametal technique, Lorist reached the second form of the Bright stage, Timeless Waterflow. The second and third forms of the Bright stage prioritized unleashing the eight extraordinary meridians and linking it with the twelve standard meridians to form the Major Cycle to achieve a state of robust vitality and harmonizing the polar energies of Yin and Yang within the body.

Following the unleashing of the eight extraordinary meridians, it would only take a few months to unleash the Yangwei and Yinwei meridians, after which one can train in the third form of the Bright stage, the Robust Warhorse. Lorist had not reached this level before in his past life. This technique he had inherited from previous family was pretty beneficial after all. The astonishingly fast training speed of the Aquametal Technique was so great a source of joy for Lorist that he forgot he was using Battle Force to train in it and made him feel extremely hopeful of his progress in the future.

But Lorist, deeply engrossed in his training, did not pay attention to the way others around him viewed him. He went to the academy as usual to attend his courses as well as coach his students in swordsmanship. Eventually, he stunned everyone in the academy with the 100% success rate of his first Battle Force awakening course.

Lorist met his first love since coming to this world around this time. Their similar history with their respective families served as a pivot for their growing intimacy and motivated them to strive and build their own happy future.

Nothing much changed until that day when Lorist had a talk with the fat, Deathly Miser.

“Hey, fatty… Aren’t you looking at me a little funny? Is there something on my face?”

“I feel sorry for you. I don’t know if you even know about it….”

“What are you feeling sorry for? Isn’t my life fine as it is right now? I don’t need your sympathy.”

“Is that so? You say you’re fine as you are? Locke, let me ask you. How long has it been since you’ve trained your Battle Force?”

“Umm, about that… It’s true that I’ve been neglecting my Battle Force training. But that’s hardly my fault. My family’s Battle Force attribute is totally different from that of a majority of Battle Force techniques. And, given that I don’t have the rest of the manual, I couldn’t train in it even if I wanted to.”

“Then what are you gonna do? Are you going to remain at the Three Star Iron rank forever? You’re gonna wait for the conflict in your homeland to subside before reaching out to them for the rest of the technique?”

Shrugging his hands in futility, Lorist said, “What else can I do? It’s not like that’s getting in the way of my current life so I’m not in too much of a rush.”

“Sheesh, you… Can’t you just try harder?” said the fatty solemnly. “Didn’t Instructor Claude say that you should continue to train in your Iron rank Battle Force until it reaches the peak density in your veins and go experience some life threatening battles? You might be able to stimulate the full potential of your Battle Force amidst the heat of battle and break through to the Silver rank even if you’re using the hexagram circulation path for the Iron rank. Brother, you’re already at the peak of the Iron rank. Perhaps, if you took another step and got a little push, you might just break through and become a Silver Swordsman! You can’t just give up like that!”

“That’s not the point. What are you so worried about? I’m passing my days just fine, why would I go out of my way to go fight life-and-death battles? I can afford to wait a few years. Who knows if I might encounter a high-ranked magical beast and perish if I did decide to go train… That’s not a decision I can make lightly.”

“Look at you… You’re still so young, where has your ambition gone? You were not like this before. High rank magical beast aside, you were fearless and not hesitant at all when you pulled out your sword and faced off with five Silver ranked attackers. Magical beasts should be even easier to handle than the likes of men. Let’s go to the mercenary guild and find a suitable date to go training and complete some missions in the meantime for some quick cash.”

Shaking his head adamantly, Lorist said, “I don’t have that kind of time now. I have my hands full with the academy and helping Wenna with her business.”

Wenna was Lorist’s girlfriend’s nickname.

Charade let out another bitter sigh. “Love and women are the downfall of great heroes. Didn’t you say that yourself? Look at the you now. Ever since you started dating Wenna, you’ve never left Morante City even once! You can’t go on like that! You are definitely a person with a bright future ahead of you. Don’t just idle about and waste your life away!”

“Haha, don’t don’t have such high expectations for me you cursed fatty. To be honest with you, I don’t have any great ambitions myself. I only desire to get a large house on Brinn Hill when I earn enough and settle down there with Wenna and live out the rest of my life in bliss,” said Lorist as he laughed.

Brinn Hill was located somewhere to the south of Morante City and was near the Golden Bay. It had great scenery and was one of the most expensive areas in the city to live in. Only the richest of the rich could afford to reside there.

Charade shook his head and said, “You’re talking about tens of thousands of gold for a mansion on Brinn Hill. I think you’re much better off spending only a few thousand gold coins to get a four-storey building in the southern sector of the city and collect some rent while you’re at it. There’s nothing good about the sea breeze on Brinn Hill either.”

Charade faced Lorist and continued solemnly, “Then again, brother, you should really make more effort in your training and get to the Silver rank quick so that nobody can say anything about your abilities. I’m only telling you this for your own good.”

Feeling a little suspicious, Lorist asked, “What’s going on? Is there something I should know about?”

“Sigh, the Silver ranked Instructors in the academy are probably plotting something. I think they want the academy to fire you as a swordsmanship instructor because of your Iron rank Battle Force. They think you’re not fit to be an instructor for an academy that’s ranked the top ninth on the whole continent. That’s all I have to say. You go back to see your Wenna if there’s nothing else.”

Surprised, Lorist exclaimed, “What the heck! What does my Battle Force rank have anything to do with them? They can’t make me resign as a swordsmanship instructor! Even with their Silver Battle Force rank, there’s no one among them who can match up to me in a duel!”

“It’s not uncommon for people to get jealous,” said the fatty faintly, “Even with your Iron rank Battle Force, they wouldn’t mind if you had better swordsmanship than them. What they didn’t expect was that all the students in your Battle Force awakening course successfully awakened their Battle Force. Not only was this a miracle, it made them feel even more worthless. How do you think they’d feel when they can’t even match up to an Iron rank instructor? They won’t be satisfied until they kick you out of the academy.”

If all of the SIlver rank instructor grouped together, the academy would probably be pressured to remove Lorist from his post.

“The best solution as it is now is for you to try breaking through to the Silver rank. Once you’re a Silver Swordsman, they won’t be able to do anything to you. That’s why I suggested you to go experience some life-and-death battles,” said Charade earnestly.

Letting out a bitter laugh, Lorist shook his head. He couldn’t bear to tell Charade, who was earnestly concerned about him, that he was training in the Aquametal Technique he got from his past life and that his Battle Force constantly leaked through his hexagram circulation path into his meridians. There was no way he could explain it to him.

“It’s too hard. Without my family’s Battle Force manual, there’s almost no way for me to break through without the following hexagram circulation path diagrams. You yourself said that the hexagram path of my Battle Force technique was like nothing you’ve ever seen. Even if I were to engage in life-and-death battles, there’s no guarantee that I would be able to break through within a short time frame.”

“Then there’s only one other way for you to secure your position in the academy. Have you heard about our academy’s Gold Instructor Badge?”

“I know about that. Didn’t Instructor Claude have one himself? Instructor Welledor who’s in charge of the knight training course, Instructor Wensen from the horse traning course and even Instructor Loboff from the herbalism department possess those too. Isn’t that badge given to anyone whose Battle Force is at the Gold rank?”

“No, I’m not talking about that badge. There’s another gold swordsmanship instructor badge in our academy. A hundred years ago, there was a One Star Silver rank student in our academy who had won 30 straight duels against Two Star Silver instructors and rose to fame instantly. The academy employed him as a swordsmanship instructor and even made him a gold instructor badge. However, the student joined the army and went to fight in the Battle of the Silver River and successfully killed three imperial knights who were all Gold ranked fighters during an assault on the town of Ried but subsequently died from his injuries after the fight. To commemorate his deeds, the academy preserved his gold instructor badge and decided that anyone who was able to gain 30 consecutive victories with opponents of a higher rank (even those 1 star above) would gain that instructor badge and receive the same treatment as normal Gold ranked instructors. But should one lose even once to anybody, one would lose the qualifications to wear that badge as well as one’s position as a Gold ranked instructor.”

Charade continued explaining, “Nobody within a 100 years has been able to get 30 consecutive victories like that student and the medal currently lies forgotten in the academy’s hall of honor. Why don’t you try obtaining that medal to avoid getting kicked out from the academy? I bet that it won’t be too hard for you to win 30 duels.”

“There really was such a thing?” Lorist rubbed his hands and continued, “I’m definitely getting this gold badge. Fatty, what was that student called?”

“His name was Raven Incador. Had he survived the battle with the Gold rank experts of the Krissen Empire, he could have become a Blademaster. It’s a shame he died so young. The special gold badge is called the Incador Medal,” said Charade while lamenting the loss of such a talented man.

“Alright, fatty, let’s figure out what I should do next. You mentioned there was a group of Silver ranked instructors plotting against me? Give me the names of all of them. I’ll challenge them one by one,” said Lorist as he licked his lips deviously, like a predator deciding on which part of its prey to enjoy first.

The following ten days in the academy was rife with excitement.

Lorist sent out letters of challenge to the instructors listed by Charade but none of them really cared much about it and even thought that it was a joke. Some of the instructors even tossed the letters into the trashcan, laughing and exclaiming, “You think he’s qualified enough to challenge us?”

Given their arrogant attitudes, Lorist no longer held back either. He barged into the class of several instructors and challenged them in front of their students. Feeling rage and humiliation, the instructors pulled out their swords and wanted to teach the impudent and disrespectful Lorist a lesson he would never forget. In quick succession, one by one the instructors were beaten and sent to the academy medical center.

The students of the academy were ecstatic. It wasn’t every day when one got to see a proud, aloof instructor get beaten up by an Iron ranked instructor. As Lorist marched towards his next target, a crowd of students followed behind him and even told him the other instructors’ locations.

“Instructor Locke, Instructor XX’s over there. Are you gonna challenge him?”

“Instructor XX and instructor XX are over there, hold them back! Instructor Locke is coming over for them…”

“Over here, quick, Instructor Locke..”

The crowd was stopped by ten or so Silver rank instructors from advancing and the other instructors insisted that the academy management come in to handle the situation and take care of Lorist, who has disrupted their courses and sent seven of their colleagues to the medical center.

Some Silver ranked instructors hated Lorist to the bone and even shouted for him to leave the academy and that he was not fit to be an instructor there.

Following that, several Gold ranked instructors including Instructor Claude came over and investigated the issue.

Lorist told them this, “I want the Incador Medal.”

The crowd was bewildered and didn’t know what it was.

Charade, who was maintaining the order of the student crowd, explained it to the other instructors.

Following that, the gold ranked instructors finally understood that it was an academy tradition and even they could not do anything about it. They could only report it to the higher ups and await their decision.

Lorist was unfazed and believed that this commotion wasn’t his fault. To begin with, he only did this because the instructors who ignored his letters of challenge and didn’t treat it seriously.

Those who understood the situation looked pitily at the Silver ranked instructors, who started to feel pressured and anxious.

Without much delay, Academy Head Levins announced his decision. “Lorist, keep at it. It would be a shame to see the Incador Medal continue to gather dust. I’m rooting for you.”

But he also mentioned that Lorist was not to disrupt the classes of other instructors and carry out the duels after work hours.

The Silver ranked instructors were stunned and made excuses to take some time off from work to avoid the calamity that was to come. Several others went to other academies and applied for jobs there. The remaining ones grudgingly agreed to duel Lorist under the witness of Instructor Claude and the other Gold ranked instructors and the jeering students. One by one, they lost to him and were finally let off.

Chapter 12 The Pawn and the Announcement

Instructor Claude rushed into the Academy Head’s room with a face full of worry.

Sitting behind a large desk and browsing through a document, Academy Head Levins lifted his head and asked curiously, “What’s wrong? You look very anxious. Has a fire broken out?”

“Um, there’s no fire, sir. Academy Head, are you going to just leave it be? Another three of our Silver ranked instructors have just resigned today,” said Instructor Claude.

“Oh, I know that,” nodded Levins as he stood up. “Would you like some tea or some macks?”

Macks was a beverage that was quite similar to a chocolate drink; the beans would let out a rich, fragrant aroma when ground and boiled with water. It was even rumored to be the favorite drink of ancient fairies as well as the legendary magi of the past and was quite highly priced.

“I’ll be fine with some plain water. Right now the Silver ranked instructors are extremely afraid of being challenged to a duel by Lorist. If this keeps on going we’ll be even more understaffed and will find it hard-pressed to maintain our usual classes. It’s one thing if the students only spectate the duels, but they are also eager to see Lorist beat the crap out of all the Silver ranked instructors in the school. Every day a whole bunch of them would follow him around in anticipation of such a scene; it’s quite pressuring and humiliating to the instructors Lorist challenges,” explained Claude.

Levins lifted a silver kettle on the table and poured some water for Claude and asked, “Has Lorist lost a match yet?”

“No. He’s fighting his 28th duel today and hasn’t even lost one match, and I don’t think he will either. I’ve seen a few of his matches and I believe those Silver ranked instructors wouldn’t be able to put up a fight with Lorist at all. Most of them lose within ten sword bouts when dueling Instructor Locke,” replied Claude.

“Then there’s no need to do anything. We can stop him after he gets the Incador Medal.”

“But Academy Head, 13 of the 28 instructors he challenged have already resigned due to the humiliation of losing to him in public. Even several of those who hasn’t received any challenge from him left in fear as well.”

“If they don’t even have the courage to face failure, I wouldn’t stop them from leaving. We don’t need spineless cowards like those in the Dawn Academy.”

Laughing bitterly, Claude continued, “Academy Head, say that as you may, but think about how we’re supposed to maintain our regular classes with the sudden loss of more than 20 Silver ranked instructors. There are already three swordsmanship classes that can’t continue anymore due to the sudden vacancy, with the students left with nothing to do but to wander around in the academy.”

Slowly moving up to the window and gazing outwards, Levins said, “Claude, don’t you feel that our academy has been stagnating for some time now, much like a pool of still water?”

“Hm?” Instructor Claude tilted his head as he did not understand what the Academy Head just said.

“While our academy has only 13 Gold ranked instructors, the Silver ranked instructors number a staggering 129 people! Even the rest of the Iron ranked instructors and the assistant instructors only number 42 people, with another 31 people being non-combatant professors who focus on other disciplines. The academy management staff consists of 45 people, the Enforcement Department has 68 and the other miscellaneous workers number 76 people. Apart from them are roughly 5000 students. Given that kind of ratio, don’t you think the Silver ranked instructors hold a little too much influence?”

Levins turned to Claude and said with a smile, “We have always put more focus on the actual abilities of a person when we intend to appoint someone as an instructor. Since when has it been based on their Battle Force? If it were like that, doesn’t mean that a cripple like me who can’t train in Battle Force should resign as the Academy Head as well? As Silver ranked instructors, not only do they not continue to strive for perfection, they harbored jealousy for people more skilled than them, banded together and formed their own hierarchies and even dared to put pressure on the academy when anything starts to go against their favor.”

“This time, the reason I let Locke do as he pleases was partly due to Charade’s support as well. It is time that we wake up the Silver ranked instructors of the academy and remind them that their status in the academy is not dependant on their Battle Force ranks but rather their actual skills. If there’s anyone who’s unsatisfied with this policy, they’re free to resign for all I care.”

Wiping sweat off his forehead, Claude said, “Then, what do we do about the suspended classes? Should we start recruiting new instructors?”

“There’ll be no need. I already negotiated with the city’s garrison general and will be having ten or so retired military officers who are all of the Gold rank to come over and be replacement instructors for a while. If we still lack people, we can appoint some promising students to be our new instructors, but only if they’re truly capable.”

“Duly noted. I suppose I’ll make my move now,” said Instructor Claude as he put down the cup on the table and turned towards the exit.

“Wait,” said the Academy Head. “There’s still two other things. First, when Locke gains his 30th consecutive victory, carry out a small ceremony to award him the Incador Medal. Second, put up a notice that states that instructors of the Dawn Academy cannot refuse challenges from other instructors or students. Those who do not comply should leave the academy. Hmph, if I don’t force them like this, they won’t continue to strive to improve their skills.”

“No problem. It will be carried out.”

“Oh, and you mentioned three classes having no instructors in charge at the moment?” Levins gave it some thought and continued, “When Locke gets the Incador Medal, assign him to take charge of these three classes since they lost their instructors because of him in the first place.”

“Wow, is that for real?” thought Instructor Claude, speechless.

In only three sword strokes, Lorist forced the instructor he challenged to admit defeat.

This was his 30th duel. There was a small stage about the height of a person beside the dueling venue. It was like they knew without a doubt that Lorist would win. Instructor Claude stood solemnly by the stage beside a beautiful female student who held a box that was about 30 centimeters wide, presumably containing the Incador Medal within.

Lorist was still in a rather good mood after his victory; he found the duels he initiated for the past ten days to be quite addictive. The feeling of owning the other Silver ranked instructors completely was quite pleasant. Maybe he could negotiate with Instructor Claude about whether he could continue dueling for another twenty or more times and create another record within the academy and rename the Incador Medal after him.

Too bad Instructor Claude rejected the proposal immediately and pulled him up to the small stage. All the students cheered as Lorist received the Incador Medal.

During the ceremony, Claude announced two things. He first congratulated Lorist for obtaining the Incador Medal and the history and explained the tradition behind the medal. After the long speech, he finally said something that is of direct relevance to Lorist, that is, Lorist was to be treated as a Gold ranked instructor in the academy and shall receive the same benefits and entitlements as a Gold ranked instructor.

The second announcement came directly from the academy administration. From that day onwards, no instructor is to refuse a duel from students or other instructors for no justifiable reason and the result of every duel would play a part in the yearly instructor evaluations. Should an instructor refuse a duel for no reason up to three times or should they lose too many duels, the instructor will have to relinquish their instructor badge. The rules and protocol of dueling was also announced to the crowd, namely, an instructor may not challenge a student, a person of a higher rank may not challenge those of lower ranks, etc.

But that special rule concerning challenges directed to lower ranks didn’t apply to Lorist because he was the holder of the Incador Medal. Since he got it by getting consecutive victories against opponents of a higher level in the first place, he must still accept challenges issued by Silver ranked instructors even though his Battle Force was only at the Iron rank. Lorist will lose both the Incador Medal as well as the Gold rank instructor privileges should he lose even one duel.

Unbeknownst to Lorist, he was serving as a pawn in the Academy Head’s plan to change the academy’s attitude and as a whip to pressure the Silver ranked instructors. He did, however, feel that the timing for the second announcement was a little too coincidental with his obtaining the Incador Medal.

Initially thinking of bringing his winning streak above 50, Lorist came to understand after the second announcement that there will no doubt be flocks of students and Silver ranked instructors coming to challenge him to take the Incador Medal from him. On the bright side, he would not lack opponents to battle against. But it was pretty unfair for others to be able to take the Incador Medal from him after winning against him only once while he had to get 30 consecutive victories against opponents of a higher rank.

Without giving Lorist too much time to figure out the implications, Instructor Claude went before Lorist and talked to him sincerely, “I have good news and bad news for you, Instructor Locke. Which would you rather hear first?”

Analyzing Claude’s behavior but not finding anything weird about it, Lorist said, “Let me hear the good news first. At least it’ll cheer me up a bit.”

“The good news is during this month, there will be ten retired Gold ranked military officers coming to the academy to take on posts as Gold ranked instructors.”

“Huh? I can understand that it is good news for the academy, but what does it have to do with me?” asked Lorist curiously.

“Because, the bad news is you have to take charge of the three classes that have lost their instructors because of you. You are to handle their swordsmanship classes until the end of this month before the new Gold ranked instructors come. This came from the administration so there is no ground for negotiations. Consider this a light punishment for stirring up so much chaos in the academy.”

Already crumbling, Lorist complained, “Where would I find a place to teach so many students at once?”

“Just use the school field.”

……

Looking at the noisy crowd of students that Charade brought over which easily numbered more than a hundred from the stone platform on the school field, Lorist exclaimed, “Gosh, didn’t you say there were only three classes? Why are there five classes worth of students over here!?”

Charade said as he laughed bitterly, “Don’t blame me for this. Who asked you to defeat all those Silver ranked instructors within only three or four bouts? Now, the students are starting to get picky about the standards of their sword instructors and no longer want the Silver ranked instructors to teach them. That’s why they’re here now.”

“Sigh, it appears that I have to go down for a bit. They’re taking so long just to get in line, talk about discipline…”

After making his rounds around the field, Lorist returned with a handful of letters of challenge. “I already received more than 20 challenges in a single class! How am I supposed to survive this!?”

Looking at him with a sympathetic face, Charade said, “What did you think the Enforcement Division is here for other than to regulate the students and maintain order? Now that you’re a well-known figure in the academy, the administration has sent us to make sure there won’t be a stampede.”

“I don’t think I can live on like this… Other instructors have almost nothing to do compared to the hundreds of challenges I’ve received within three days… Even the Iron ranked students want a part in that, I really don’t know what’s going on in their heads. Fatty, this brother of yours is starting to regret listening to you in the first place… The Incador Medal has brought me nothing but trouble,” said Lorist miserably.

Charade replied in an encouraging tone, “Keep it together, brother. Even though you got a lot of challenges, I bet most of them were made in the heat of the moment. They are no threat to you, given that you can easily take care of them in two or three strikes. Even taking on twenty of them is only a warm up session for you. These are just small fry. What you should watch out for are those with actual skills that will come later. Oh, the students have got into their lines. Aren’t you gonna start your class?“

Lorist looked at the students who were lined up messily across the field and savagely barked, “Practice the eight basic sword moves for a thousand times!”

Chapter 13 Academy Head Levins

Overlooking the vast school field, Lorist stopped in his tracks and reminisced the times when he stood on the old platform instructing the hundreds of students who attended his swordsmanship class…

“Huh? You want to learn a high-level sword skill, but not the basic sword moves? You’re saying that even three-year-olds can pull that off? Bullshit! You’re trying to run even before you’ve mastered walking! Do you know the difference between sword skills and swordsmanship? Yeah, you. Answer my question.”

“Wrong! Your explanation only barely scrapes on the surface of the truth! Listen up to what I have to say, no one else will be so good-hearted to tell you this in the future. Swordsmanship is about using the most suitable and efficient method to take down your enemy in the least amount of time. Sword skills on the other hand is the combined execution of several efficient sword moves. It’s still too early for you to start training in sword skills! To do so would be akin to trying to build a house without first laying the foundation. The house would crumble instantly once a strong wind blows by.”

“Now, as to why I asked you to focus on the eight basic sword moves, the answer is simple. No matter what kind of sword skill, it would definitely involve a combination of these actions: thrusting, slashing, raising, parrying, flicking, sweeping, swiping and guarding. I want you to train it to the point where all eight moves become a natural reflex movement of your body. This way, even if you can’t see the path of your opponent’s sword, your body would be able to react to the strike by using these basic moves and save you from certain death. Only when one trains to this point can one claim that they are able to defend themselves with swordsmanship.

“Oh, I forgot to mention that this is how I personally train as well. I believe you guys have seen how I took out those Silver ranked instructors. The main reason I won was because these eight basic sword moves have been ingrained into my body so deeply that they have become a natural reflex. What I relied on to win was the most reliable eight basic sword moves rather than some ‘ultimate sword skill’. That’s why I could win easily in only a few bouts.

“As for sword skills, I would only be harming you if I let you train in them before you master the eight basic sword moves. Without the basics, your sword skills are only good for spectacle and showing off and are of no practical use. Alright, enough of that. Focus and train in the basics seriously for a thousand times. Twenty of you whom I deem most focused will personally receive further instruction from me.”

……

Time really flies. It has already been three years since then. The Incador Medal had already been returned to the hall of honor and is awaiting its next owner. Ever since Lorist got the Gold ranked Battle Force instructor badge, he requested the academy to custom make a new badge which represented the status of a Gold ranked instructor in both Battle Force and swordsmanship and returned the Incador Medal to the academy. Anyone who wants that medal must once again gain 30 consecutive wins against higher level opponents.

When he asked for the special medal to be made, he said, “Wearing three different medals on my chest is way too unseemly. Someone might even take me for a badge seller! Why don’t the academy make another medal that will represent these two?”

The academy administration found his reasoning to be sound and agreed to the request.

What is the old bastard up to this time, Lorist thought. He didn’t believe what Charade had said about the academy desperately needing the money gained from the registration fee. If the academy was really that financially unable, it wouldn’t be able to stay among the ranks of the top ten on the Grindia Continent.

In the three years Lorist has been interacting with Academy Head Levins, he came to the conclusion that Levins was a cunning and devious person. If one was not careful, one might end up counting the money Levins gained from selling oneself out without knowing! It was always wise to keep one’s guard up when dealing with him.

Back when Lorist had decided to join the expedition to the Relic Islands to clear his mind of his relationship troubles as well as to take the opportunity to train against mid to high-ranked magical beasts and try to break through to the Dark stage from the Bright stage, he went to see the academy head to sign up for the expedition.

It ended up with Instructor Claude battling him to test his abilities. After that, Academy Head Levins used the excuse that Lorist didn’t qualify to join the expedition with his Battle Force rank and forced him to agree to several conditions before finally giving him the greenlight.

Standing outside the office of the academy head, Lorist took a deep breath, calmed his ragged breathing from climbing up five flights of stairs and knocked on the office door

“Come in.”

Lorist pushed the door open and walked into the room.

“Oh, Locke, you’re back.”

Nodding, Lorist said, “Yes, academy head. I’ve returned.”

WIth a sincere smile, Academy Head Levins said, “Come over here and take a seat. Let me make you a cup of macks. The macks beans this year taste pretty good.”

“Oh, academy head, you don’t have to be so courteous. I’m not thirsty at all,” said Lorist politely as he refused the offer.

“Just take a seat. You don’t have to show any restraint here. Just treat this as you would your own home,” replied Levins as he ground the macks beans in a small silver cup and poured the grinds into a silver kettle before adding some water to it and boiling it.

“Locke, have you heard about the duel notice the academy released on your behalf?”

“Yes I have. But, there’s one thing I don’t understand. Has the administration set this up just to collect registration fees from the challengers like Charade has mentioned? Is there some other reason that I’m not aware of?” Lorist was slightly dissatisfied as he was the one who had to duel all those people.

“Hehe, Locke, I know you have some thoughts on this, since the plan has been passed without your approval. I would feel the same if I were you. But I really have to trouble you as this is an urgent matter. I hope you can gain some face back for our academy and teach the other academies a lesson.”

Leaning towards Lorist from his chair, Levins said, “The situation right now is a little complicated. Let me explain it to your from the beginning. I hope you will understand my woes.

“Do you know about the Yellow Ribbon Academy that’s situated right next to us?”

“I do. They are quite famous for their butler training and bodyguard training courses,” replied Lorist.

“Two months ago, their academy head, Sir Knight Yarisborg, passed away from a heart attack. It happened before he managed to write a will and to nobody’s surprise, his children started squabbling over the inheritance. None of them wanted to succeed Yarisborg’s position as the academy head and they decided to sell the place and split the money among themselves. Our academy immediately sent some people to negotiate and acquired the academy for a price of 180000 gold Fordes.”

Levins seemed really proud of himself as he talked about the acquisition. Although the Yellow Ribbon academy was not particularly highly-ranked (it was ranked at the lower bottom among the twenty or so academies in Morante City), the academy did have a history of sixty years and the grounds it covered was one third of that of the Dawn Academy. 180000 gold Fordes for all that was a pretty good deal, even more so if one takes note of the fact that the Yellow Ribbon Academy is right next to the Dawn Academy. The Dawn Academy could easily assimilate the Yellow Ribbon Academy’s resources and facilities by removing the separating walls between them.

“Oh, that’s great. By assimilating that academy, ours will become more impressive as well. We might even rise in the ranks among the top ten academies on the continent,” praised Lorist.

“That might be the case, but the burden of emptying our treasury of 180000 gold Fordes puts a bit of pressure on us as well,” said Levins as he poured Lorist a cup of steaming hot macks.

“Here’s some milk and honey crystals. Add as much as you please. Being the old man that I am, I prefer the original taste more,” Levins said as he lifted his cup and gave it a light blow or two in an attempt to cool his drink a little.

“The tuition fee our academy collects amounts to about 70000 gold Fordes a year. The various societies also contribute roughly 30000. Including some miscellaneous business our academy owns, the yearly income of the academy amounts to 110000 gold coins more or less. It might look like a lot, but our expenditures aren’t a small figure either. Every year the academy pays about 60000 gold coins to our staff and instructors and use 10000 to 20000 gold on teaching materials, most of which goes to the maintenance of lances and swords used in our knight training and swordsmanship courses respectively.”

“Other than that, the academy provides up to 10000 gold in scholarships for needy students as well as up to 30000 gold for research, especially those conducted in herbalism. The expedition to the Relic Islands this year also cost us more than 4000 gold. In short, after deducting the upkeep from the revenue, the academy only ends up with about 10000 gold of profit annually. When times are bad, however, the academy might even sustain losses of several thousand gold Fordes.”

Letting out a long sigh, Levins continued, “The 180000 gold Fordes used in acquiring the Yellow Ribbon Academy was no doubt an astronomical amount, but it was an opportunity that couldn’t be missed to further strengthen and expand our academy. But from the day our academy was first formed till now, the highest amount of money the administration could bring out even after mortgaging several of our side businesses amounted to only 15000 gold Fordes. After the assimilation of the Yellow Ribbon Academy, some more money would need to be spent on modifying some infrastructure. That’s why I decided to go to the Association of Academies to apply for a loan of 50000 gold Fordes for our academy’s development.”

The academy head seemed a little agitated at this point. “What I didn’t expect was there was someone who dared to humiliate our academy! That bastard Weston said, ‘Why don’t you fire all your Silver and Gold ranked instructors? That way you’ll be able to afford the assimilation! After all, I heard your academy has a Gold ranked instructor whose Battle Force is merely at the Iron rank, maybe you should promote the rest of your Iron ranked instructors to Gold rank and make up for the deficit! I bet their salaries are certainly much lower than instructors with higher Battle Force ranks’.

“What the heck is with that guy! He’s just spewing rubbish! I immediately started arguing with him. You know what else he said? He accused us of making up a rumor about you, Locke the Silver Undefeated, for the purpose of attracting more students to our academy! He even said that several of the instructors that left after losing to you that year was actually forced to let you win on purpose so that you can get the Incador Medal to trick students into joining us!”

Seeing Lorist clasp his cup until veins showed up on his arms, the academy head’s expression showed a satisfied smile. “In a fit of rage, I made a bet with that bastard. I said that you wouldn’t lose even one match against all the Silver ranked instructors of the Saint Marceau Academy. Immediately after that, the rest of the academy heads wanted to join in the fray as well. In the end, the Dawn Academy made a bet against the rest of the academies, stating that if you defeat their Silver ranked instructors, we will get the loan of 50000 gold Fordes without having to repay it. If you are to lose even one match, we will have to pay back double the amount and even host a banquet to publicly apologize to them.”

“Locke, please forgive me for my recklessness. I am truly apologetic for having signed you up for so many duels. I really couldn’t swallow the insult and humiliation they were showing the Dawn Academy and carelessly agreed to the bet with that old bastard of the Saint Marceau Academy.”

The Saint Marceau Academy was ranked eighth among the top ten academies on the Grindia Continent and the fourth among the twenty academies of Morante City, just one rank above the Dawn Academy. All the students and instructors of the Dawn Academy held surpassing the Saint Marceau Academy in the rankings as their ultimate goal. By the same logic, the people of the Saint Marceau Academy are also striving hard to prevent that from happening. The two academies were natural enemies. And the old bastard Academy Head Levins mentioned was Academy Head Weston of the Saint Marceau Academy.

Lorist stood up and said, “Thank you for the macks. It really tastes quite good. I’ll take my leave now. Don’t worry, I won’t let you down.”

“Don’t be in such a rush. There’s another thing that I have to settle with you,” said the academy head as he tugged on a string that was connected to a bell. With little delay, a middle-aged female clerk came over from the neighboring room.

“Leanna, please bring me the file with Instructor Locke’s name on it from the archives,” instructed the academy head.

Receiving the file and opening it, he took out a copper key and said, “Lorist, as a dual Gold ranked instructor of our academy, you should have been given a residence by the academy administration. Before, we didn’t do so because our resources were limited, but ever since the acquisition of the Yellow Ribbon Academy, we now have much more land than we previously had. That’s why for the past month the academy has commissioned for a residential area for Gold ranked instructors to be built around the Moon Lake. Your house is labeled the 35th Moon. Just go over there and see Aunt Skali, the person in charge of your neighborhood.”

Just as Lorist was leaving after he took the key, Academy Head Levins stopped him again and said, “Oh, I almost forgot to tell you two things. Your Battle Force awakening course will start in seven days with many more students than the last time, so we have moved the venue of the course to the great hall of the Yellow Ribbon Academy. The other thing is the academy has already approved the formation of the Swordsmanship Society and you have been nominated to be its chairman. The society can carry out its activities in the training hall of the Yellow Ribbon Academy. So, please draft up the rules and regulations of the society and submit it soon. The Enforcement Division has also suggested to appoint some of the elite members of the society as their reserve staff. Don’t forget to discuss it with Supervisor Charade.”

“Alright, academy head. I know what to do.”

Chapter 14 Lakefront Residence

A cold breeze blew past and woke Lorist from his thoughts. He just noticed that he had been hoodwinked by the academy head yet again.

The acquisition of the Yellow Ribbon Academy, the request for the loan, the insult the academy received from the people at the Association of Academies and even the bet with the other academy heads were all caused by Academy Head Levins. Yet right now he had successfully retreated to the sidelines without having take responsibility for any of his actions and made Lorist shoulder all the burden.

Now that he had been put on the frontlines, he had to bear the responsibility of defending his Silver Undefeated title, fight for the future development of the academy as well as be the beacon of hope for the rest of the instructors and students of the academy. That old bastard laid it all out to him, dug him a large pit, and Lorist jumped into it himself willingly. He couldn't even take it easy on the duels. Otherwise, he would be drowned alive by the rebukes of his fellow colleagues should he cause the academy to lose the bet.

There really wasn't anything Lorist could say about the old bastard for betting against the rest of the academy heads. The problem was Charade, who was going all over to put up that duel notice and thinking of making a big buck from this affair. Even if Lorist went back to see the old bastard about this, Levins would only say that there was no harm in doing so and find some way to sweet talk him into accepting it anyway.

Turning his head to look back at that greyish-green tower, he saw the white curtains of the academy head's office flapping away in the wind and made a mental note to stay away from that old fox if there wasn't a good reason to go see him, lest he get fooled by him again.

Holding the copper key in his hand, Lorist decided to go check out the house the academy has allocated for him so that he can move over there if he likes the place.

In actuality, he had already been granted a room back when he got the Incador Medal. However, that room was at the instructor dorms and that was the headquarters of the Silver ranked instructors. Lorist knew that he wasn't liked by those instructors one bit and returned the room key to the academy. He decided he would be much better off if he shacked up with his girlfriend and stayed outside the academy.

The Moon Lake was located at the south of the academy. Favored by many students as a great place for relaxation and romantic rendezvous, it was a circular, crystal clear lake with a magnificent view across its shores. Originally belonging to the Yellow Ribbon Academy, the hill to the north of the lake was once a small mulberry forest. The mulberry trees were cut down and replaced by lofty villas with unique architectural design. According to Academy Head Levins, that was the newly-developed residential area for Gold ranked instructors.

With the walls separating the two academies having been knocked down, Lorist easily reached the hill by walking along the cobblestone path. He circled around the bamboo fence that surrounded the small hill and soon made his way to the entrance. Lorist was greeted by the sight of a two-storey wooden housing with a large double door.

A worker dressed in servant's uniform brought Lorist to the first room at the end of the wooden building. It was a large office with five tables within. A white-haired woman could be seen in the room with her head lowered, seemingly working on something. The worker pointed to her, indicating to Lorist that she was Supervisor Skali.

Taking Lorist's copper key and verifying the inscribed words on it that said '35th Moon', Supervisor Skali smiled sincerely and said, "So, you are our academy's legendary Gold ranked instructor Iron Locke. I've heard so much about you. Haha, I was in charge of several of the academy's shopfronts throughout Morante City before and wasn't at the academy often, so I never actually saw you in person."

Lorist wasn't too surprised at the fact. Having been at the academy for more than ten years and making quite a name for himself, he was familiar with most of the administrative staff of the academy.

Skali personally showed Lorist his new room. She was a rather talkative person. "Locke, your residence is quite near the shore of the lake, so it'll be rather quiet around there. House No.34 is quite a distance away, Instructor Marlin lives there. You should be acquainted with him, right?"

Lorist lightly nodded. Instructor Marlin was one of the retired military officers that joined the academy as a Gold ranked instructor three years ago to take over the SIlver ranked instructors that left. He was a frank person whose two favorite things in life are alcohol and his horse. He sometimes even jokingly referred to his horse as his second wife. Married to a beautiful gentle woman and father to a cute little daughter, he brought his family as well as his horse over to the academy when he first took the job. According to him, Jenny, his horse, had saved him on multiple occasions on the battlefield. That's why he dedicated so much of his time to care for it.

His residence was a small villa made of rock and wood and was two storeys high, with an attic on the top floor. Being at the far corner of the Moon Lake with not many buildings in the area, it was indeed quiet as Skali has mentioned. The roof of house no.34 could barely be seen from the courtyard.

The courtyard was pretty vast and took up most of the land of the surrounding area with a row of holly trees enclosing it. Although the house was near the lake, a well was built on the courtyard nevertheless. Lorist inspected the well and noted its square bluestone walls. The bottom of the well was covered with fine, white sand that was presumably used to cleanse the well water.

Two wooden structures could be seen on the courtyard as well. As Skali was unlocking the villa, she said, "That's the stable. You can keep up to two horses there. The other building is the garage where you can keep your horse cart when you're not using it. You can use it as a storehouse as well if you don't have any horses. Ah, it's finally open. I better grease this key, otherwise it won't turn easily... Come on in."

The first room they entered was the main lounge. In it was a fireplace as well as a sofa. On the walls hung several tapestries[1]. Although they were not anything expensive, they provided the house with a warm, homely atmosphere. Nodding, Lorist noticed that the furniture has already been prepared and he did not have to take care of it himself. As a person who hated troublesome things, he was really satisfied at how everything in the house had been prepared for him beforehand.

"The kitchen and dining hall are at the back. To your left are two servant rooms and to your right are the bathroom and storeroom. You can also use the empty space below the stairs as an extra storage space. Let's go upstairs," continued Skali.

On the second floor was another lounge along with one master bedroom with two other guestrooms. There was also another bathroom on this floor as well as a study room. The master bedroom was rather large and had its own bathroom and dressing room. The attic could be accessed from the stairs at the second floor lounge.

Smiling, Skali said that by the time Lorist starts a family and has his own children, he could even renovate the attic into a toddler's room. She thought the kids will definitely love it.

Lorist retorted by stating that he's single and won't be having any children soon.

Piqued by Lorist's statement, Skali asked Lorist about the type of girls he likes and so that she can recommend someone to be Lorist's wife.

Thanking Skali for her goodwill, Lorist rejected the offer by saying that he's in an important juncture in his training now and cannot shift his focus onto other things. He also had to duel all those challengers in the coming days. That finally diffused Skali's eagerness in finding Lorist a new partner.

Moving back to the lounge on the ground floor, Supervisor Skali asked Lorist what he thought about the house and mentioned that he could switch to another one should he not like the quietness of the area, as out of the 52 villas in the residential area for Gold ranked instructors, only 38 of them was occupied and there were 14 villas which he could pick from.

Lorist expressed his satisfaction with this particular villa and told her that he would be working to move his luggage over tomorrow.

The supervisor pointed at a green rope hanging by the fireplace and said, "Instructor Locke, this rope is connected to a bell in the management office. Should you need any assistance, just give the rope a pull or two and we'll send someone over. Given that you've just moved in, I believe that you don't yet have a servant yet. Please don't hesitate to ask the management to send someone over to help you with your tasks."

Pulling on the rope, she continued, "I have just sent for some cleaners to come over since you're moving in tomorrow or the day after. The place has started to gather dust after a while, especially the handrails on the stairs..."

"Supervisor Skali, isn't this building a little far from the management office? How is the rope tethered all the way to there?" Lorist asked curiously.

Letting out an enthusiastic smile, Skali explained, "That's simple, an underground bamboo pipe network houses the copper wires that are connected ropes like this. When you pull on the rope, it actually tugs on the copper wires underground that's linked to a bell with your room number on it. There is a wall in the management office that has over a hundred labeled bells. By checking the bell that rings, we are able to tell very quickly which house requires our assistance. I actually borrowed the design of this system from the ones that I've seen at some large merchant offices."

A little while later, some knocks could be heard on the door. A tough, burly female servant came in. Lorist broke into a smile the moment he saw her. "Kelly, it's you."

This servant was the one who had looked after Lorist when he had first crossed over into this world. Having not seen Kelly for a number of years, Lorist noticed that her previously plump figure had become more sturdy and fit.

In the beginning when Kelly first got the job, she didn't like the original owner of Lorist's body very much as he was a rather spoiled noble brat who looked down on everyone. Nevertheless, she carried out her caretaking task professionally as she had been paid to do so and did not bother to talk to Lorist much. But after the current Lorist crossed over and possessed that noble youth's body, he increased Kelly's salary and got her to read some books aloud to him as he yearned to learn more about this foreign world. In time, Kelly's sympathy for this poor young noble who had left his homeland at so young an age grew. It was like her maternal instinct kicked in and she started to show true concern for Lorist. Slowly, their relationship got better and better. Had it not been for Kelly's sudden family circumstances that prompted her to return home, Lorist would have wanted her to work for him for the long term.

"Ah, it's Young Master Locke!" Kelly greeted Lorist with much vigor.

"What happened to your family at that time? Back when I had just finished recovering from my injuries, I tried to ask the people at the management office but they only said that you stopped working there because of some family issues."

"Oh, at that time, my grandmother had fallen sick. I went back home to take care of her for half a year until she passed away. After that, I worked the fields at home and six years passed in a flash. By that time, my children had already grown up and I could leave the household to them without any issues. That's why I decided to come work at the academy again," explained Kelly as she struggled to count the years she stayed home with her fingers. Lorist wanted to laugh; he knew that Kelly wasn't good at arithmetic. Who knew that after all these years that habit of hers didn't change at all.

Turning to Skali, Lorist asked if he could have Kelly work for him. While the supervisor agreed to his request, Kelly herself wasn't willing with the reason being that she wouldn't get to do much for Lorist as he only lived alone, making her unable to earn enough money for her sons' dowries when they marry.

Smiling bitterly and shaking his head, Lorist mumbled, "My, how simple minded you are..."

They eventually settled with Skali's suggestion: hiring Kelly as a long term helper. She would be paid 5 large silvers per month for coming to tidy the house up twice a day. Kelly's eyes instantly lit up.

Kelly eagerly said that she could come over to clean the place tomorrow. Lorist gave her an extra key and subsequently sent Skali and Kelly to the door as they left. Looking back at his new residence, he thought, so, this is my new home, huh.

Having lived in the Grindia Continent for ten years, he has finally got himself a house. This was the place where he suddenly found himself in and it was the harbor for his troubled soul at that time. Taking a walk around his house to give it a look or two more, delight sprung up from within his heart. Even though his mood had been spoiled from his meeting with the academy head before this, he really felt like singing at the top of his voice right now.

There's still one thing I have to settle, thought Lorist as he stood by the window of the master bedroom on the second floor with his eyes focused on the Moon Lake, recalling the scene when he first met her. His felt a hint of pain deep in his heart. That relationship he had spent three years in had evaporated just like that. Was the title and power of a noble that important, so much so that she ditched him for another man despite all he had done for her, even at the cost of casting away the business they had built together?

Well, let bygones be bygones. I should probably settle this today. Grasping his fists and sending a forceful punch towards the wall, Lorist steeled his resolve.

[1]Tapestry: woven textile (cloth) art pieces. See Wikipedia.

Chapter 15 A Fleeting Moonlit Dream (1)

As the sky darkened, the streets gradually crowded with people rushing home. Lamp light and the smell of burning wax emanated from the buildings that lined the streets. Perhaps, the only thing it the minds of these people now was the desire for a nice, warm meal.

A horse cart-for-rent slowly traveled by. The driver pulled on the reins from time to time, steering the Delemont Striped Horse away from the pedestrians. The horse pulling the cart started to feel a little annoyed and snorted.

“Mister, we’ve arrived at Phoenix-tail Flower Street in the east sector of the city. Where would you like to be dropped off?” asked the driver respectfully.

Ah, thought Lorist as he looked around him. He pointed at a corner and said, “Just a little bit further. Do you see that four-storey building? Just drop me off at that alley near there.”

The horse cart stopped by the alley as instructed.

“How much is it?”

“It’s 30 coppers, sir.”

Receiving the two small silvers that Lorist handed him, the driver fumbled around for 10 coppers of change.

Lorist only took five and said, “Keep the rest. Take it as a tip for your great service.”

Happily removing his hat and bowing his head in gratitude, the driver said, “Thank you very much for your generosity. I wish you a good night.”

The people of Morante City predominantly used four types of coins issued by the trade union. The first one was the gold coin, also known as a gold Forde, which had the portrait of Archduke Forde Morante on it. The second type was a large silver coin that depicted a large ship. Officially, it was known as the ‘silver sailboat’, but most people just call it a large silver. The third coin was also silver, albeit only a third of the size of a large silver, and it depicted a picture of the city walls. Originally referred to as a ‘wall silver’, most people just call it a small silver due to its relatively smaller size to the silver sailboat coin. The last most circulated coin type was called the ‘yellow copper’ coin and it had a simple pentagram pattern on it. People simply referred to them as coppers.

A gold Forde was worth twenty large silvers, a large silver was worth five small silvers and each small silvers was equal to twenty coppers. The use of these coins have grown with the expansion of the Forde Trade Union’s influence and power. Many areas have already adopted the Forde coins as their de facto currency. Some kingdoms and duchies even stopped producing their own currency in favor of the trade union’s and sent their gold and silver reserves to the trade union in exchange for their coins.

The fruit seller by the roadside stared in a daze as Lorist approached and hurriedly greeted, “Hey, Locke. It’s been quite some time since I’ve since you, almost half a year I think. Come, try some strawberries. It’s really sweet.”

Smiling, Lorist returned the greeting, “Uncle Girald, how’s business? I went somewhere overseas on an assignment from the academy a while back and just got back recently.”

Taking a bite out of the strawberry, Lorist said, “Wow, this is great. Uncle Girald, give me two kilos of this. Oh, and I’d like a box of honey candy as well.”

“Coming right up,” said the stall owner as he packed the goods Lorist asked for. Inspecting his surroundings and making sure nobody was within hearing range, he quietly asked, “Locke, what happened between you and Miss Windsor? During the six months you weren’t here, I saw her bringing a middle-aged nobleman back to spend the night and leaving together the next morning. Oh, and, last month a group of bodyguards and knights came by and caused quite a ruckus by chasing away a few horse carts. They said that Miss Windsor and Master Birmingham was returning to their homeland to claim their dominions. Do you know about this?”

Half nodding and shaking his head, Lorist said, “I know some of it, but not everything. Uncle Girald, I’ve already broken up with her before I left. I’m only here today to move my stuff. If you need anything from me in the future, you can find me at the academy as I’m living there now.”

“Oh, so that was it… Sigh, it’s such a shame it didn’t work out for you two. Oh well, I’ll give you a discount! Three small silvers will do,” said the stall owner as he sighed and packed the strawberries and candy into a paper bag.

Lorist paid the man and said with a smile, “Sometimes people are meant to go their own separate ways and relationships can’t be forced. If it doesn’t work out, there’s no point in getting disappointed over it. See you, Uncle Girald.”

Lorist’s face darkened as his smile vanished once he turned away. She actually brought a man back to spend a night here and caused rumors to spread… This was done to force their relationship to a close. My, isn’t she ruthless…

The alley was quite narrow and only allowed for one horse cart to pass through at any given time. Beyond the ten-meter-long alley was a small lot with three four-storey crimson red buildings in the center with some other wooden houses beside it.

A four-year-old girl wearing a flowery skirt sat alone in a corner of one of the wooden houses with her head down, seemingly playing with something. Seeing Lorist come out from the alley, the girl blinked, stared in a daze, and rubbed her eyes before jumping up and down in joy and rushed towards him.

Her smile was as refreshing as spring water to a thirsty traveler and it warmed Lorist’s heart from deep down. Laughing, Lorist knelt down, held the girl up, and spun her around for a few times.

“Hey, little Loney. What are you doing here? Where’s your grandma?”

“I’m waiting for dad to come home. Grandma is cooking,” replied Loney with a childish tone.

“Hehe, my little Loney’s so cute. Come here, let brother Locke give you a kiss.”

“I don’t wanna…” complained Loney as she laughed and struggled to avoid Lorist’s kisses.

But Lorist managed to do it anyway.

“Ew!” Little Loney rubbed her face with her hands and pouted. “Brother Locke’s a bad man, you didn’t come visit me for so long and now you scrape my face with hair stubs on your face. I’m gonna tell my dad and have him smack your buttocks…”

“Hahaha,” laughed Lorist heartily. He took out the box of candies and said, “Look at what I’ve got here?”

“Ah! Those are Loney’s favorite honey candies! Brother Locke is the best!” Loney’s attitude changed immediately the moment she set her sights on the box of candies.

Handing the box to Loney, Lorist said, “Don’t eat too much of this at night, alright? Otherwise your teeth will start to hurt.”

“I know, thanks big brother! I’m going to show it to grandma!” Hugging the box of candies, Loney ran away at full speed.

Loney’s father was called Morandel and he was a Silver Swordsman that served in the city garrison. As Loney’s mother had passed away at a young age, Loney was brought up mostly by her grandmother. Everyday, Loney waited for her father to come home, but her dad only had three days off his shift every month, which he often used to spend time with Loney.

Seeing Loney’s silhouette vanish into the building, Lorist carried his paper bag and turned towards one of the four-storey crimson buildings. This was the place where he had lived for the past three years.

The door opened soon after Lorist used the knocker. The female servant gasped in shock as she was caught off guard by Lorist’s sudden appearance.

Showing a warm smile, Lorist asked, “Lina, may I come in?”

“Ah, of course, Master Locke.”

Closing the door, Lina the servant girl fidgeted about nervously behind Lorist, not knowing where to place her hands.

Handing her the paper bag, Lorist said, “I got this from the stall at the alley. It’s fresh and sweet, please help yourself to some.”

“Oh, thank you Master Locke. You’re always so generous,” thanked Lina hastily as she accepted the paper bag.

It has already been half a year since Lorist had been here. Feeling a pang of nostalgia, Lorist said, “Don’t be so nervous, Lina. I’m just here to get my stuff. It’s still in the room, right?”

“Ah, yes. After you left, the mistress locked the room up and no longer let us in. I’ve only seen her go inside it a number of times herself.”

“I see the furniture here has decreased quite a bit. Are you guys planning to move as well?” asked Lorist as he looked at the empty hallway.

“That’s right. The mistress has sold this place that she inherited from her family and is planning to leave by the end of the month.”

“Did she sell the shop at Rotary Street too?”

Shaking her head and shrugging, Lina said, “I’m don’t think so. But, I’ve heard Suzy say that they’ve already found a buyer and are still conducting negotiations.”

Letting out a big sigh, Lorist said, “I guess your mistress is planning to leave this place for good.”

Nodding, Lina said, “Master Locke, let me go get you a cup of tea.”

“Alright. Since I won’t be able to drink the tea you make anymore in the future, might as well savor it now while I still can.”

Lina brought the tea over in a short while. Lorist breathed the aroma in deeply and praised, “It still smells great. Lina, your tea making skills are still good as ever.”

Lowering her head, Lina whispered, “Master Locke, are you really breaking up with the mistress?”

Looking solemnly at the cup in his hands, Lorist replied after a short pause, “Lina, it wasn’t my intention to break up with her. She’s the one who’s forcing me to do this. I believe you know very well what your mistress has been up to in the past year I’ve been away. She is willing to cast everything away to reclaim her family’s dominion in her homeland. As for me, I can’t do anything besides wishing her the best.”

Lina hesitated for a bit before adamantly saying, “But… But I think that our mistress was wrong in this. She shouldn’t have broken up with you…”

“Lina, not everyone thinks the way you do. Your mistress has her own considerations as well,” Lorist replied with a smile.

Standing up, Lorist continued, “Alright, thanks for the tea, Lina. I’m going to go upstairs to arrange my stuff and move it away by tomorrow.”

“Ah, Master Locke, let me go get you a candle.”

Pushing the door open, Lorist stood outside the room he was so familiar with in deep thought. Lina approached him from behind with a candle in hand and asked, “Master Locke, are you okay?”

Breaking out from his trance, Lorist took the candle and said, “Oh, thanks Lina, Leave me alone for a bit. I need some time to think.”

Nodding, Lina replied, “Alright, Master Locke. Please pull on the bell rope should you need anything else. I will be downstairs.”

Placing the candle on the table, Lorist slowly sat on the chair by his study table and reminisced the old days: the days when he sat at that very table designing clothes nonstop with her…

The times when the both of them cut and sewed the cloth on the floor themselves to save cost on materials…

The arguments they had over the store decorations…

And on that fleeting moonlit night, when she shed her sleepwear in front of him…

When they lay beside each other with her flirtatiously licking his chest, pleading him to draw more clothing designs for her…

This was a rather old-fashioned love story.

……

That year, Lorist was only 20 years old and had just been appointed as a swordsmanship instructor for the academy. Charade prepared a feast for him at the Enforcement Division building as a celebration and both of them drank and ate merrily. After that, Lorist, in his sleeplessness, stepped out of the building and wandered around the academy. Gradually, he made his way to the Moon Lake and heard a faint sobbing. Intrigued, Lorist approached the source of the sound and discovered a lone girl bawling by the lake.

At that time, Lorist didn’t know what to do as he thought that consoling someone with a broken heart wouldn’t do much help. But that changed the moment the girl leapt into the lake.

Carrying the unconscious girl back to the Enforcement Division building, he woke Charade up and they both cared for the girl until she regained consciousness. That girl was rather beautiful, but she did not utter even one word. But that didn’t stop the fatty from finding out about her situation the day after.

That girl was the daughter of a viscount of the Jigda Kingdom. Her name was Windsor Prinna and she was 18 years old. For reasons unknown, two grand dukes of the Jigda Kingdom broke into armed conflict. The unfortunate Viscount Windsor had sided with the losing side and had his castle and dominion invaded, effectively becoming the first sacrifice of the conflict. His dominion was split up between several powers and the viscount heeded the war god’s call and left the mortal realm for the afterlife. Naturally, Madam Windsor and her seven-year-old son became captives.

In a conflict between nobles, while the losing side would not suffer any direct harm, it wasn’t uncommon to hear the women provide entertainment and companionship for guests at drinking parties. While Madam Windsor was middle-aged, she still retained the air and beauty of a lady and was quite popular in the soldier camps. Half a year later, the two grand dukes started peace talks and the conflict in the kingdom subsided. Having lost the influence over their dominion, the Windsor family hostages had been released as they no longer had any value. But Madam Windsor had already become pregnant with a child of someone she didn’t know. To spare herself from the shame and humiliation, she left the place and sought out her eldest daughter Prinna who was studying in Morante City for help.

The young Miss Windsor who had lived a life of ease and luxury could not ever imagine for something like this to happen. When her mother came over with her brother, she was like a majestic phoenix who had suddenly turned into a common hen as she had lost her father’s support as well as her source of income. The once prideful young mistress humbled herself and asked some of her admirers to lend a hand, hoping that they could reclaim her family’s land for her.

However, she was harshly humiliated; the nobles, knowing that the Windsor family had lost their dominion, did not extend any shred of help. The despairing young mistress couldn’t take it anymore and decided to end her life and slipped away from the dorms midnight to the Moon Lake nearby.

Charade also discovered that Viscount Windsor had some other properties in the east sector of Morante City, namely, a mansion and two shop lots. They could still live quite a comfortable life even without their power over their dominion.

Lorist noted aloud that the property could be used as capital to rebuild the Windsor family.

Suddenly, the girl who kept quiet the whole time appeared before Lorist, greatly startling him, and said with her charming eyes wide-opened, “Did you just say that the Windsor house could start over…?”

Chapter 16 A Fleeting Moonlit Dream (2)

The young miss Windsor, with her wide, charming eyes, was truly beautiful. At that moment, she seemed like a lone rice plant standing amidst a rice field that had been destroyed by a flood as she stared hard at Lorist with a hint of hope in her eyes despite her hopeless situation.

Being a person who had experienced many things in two very different worlds, Lorist was surprised to find that the desperate pleading of a weak, gentle girl had managed to shake him to the core and temporarily depriving him of his rationality. He gulped down a cup of water in one go, avoided the gaze of those mesmerizing eyes and said in a stuttering voice, "M-m-miss, if you do-don't mind... I... I can t-try to help you... a-analyze the si-situation of the Windsor family... and see if there's something w-we can do about it..."

Naturally, the young miss Windsor agreed. Charade handed Lorist another cup of water and said, "Drink up. You're already stammering."

Gulping another cup of water down and calming his mind, Lorist looked at the poor, fragile mistress of the Windsor house who had a woolen blanket wrapped around her. Feeling pity for the poor girl, he made a cup of hot tea, placed it on the table, and beckoned Charade to bring some snacks over.

Looking towards the blanket-clad girl, Lorist let out a warm smile and said, "Miss, why don't you warm yourself up and help yourself to some food first before we start our discussion?"

When Lorist brought the girl back from the lake yesterday, she was already unconscious, not from choking on water but rather her languish and suffering. While Lorist and Charade feasted their eyes on her beauty, they did not dare to change her into a new set of clothes and tried to dry them instead by laying her down beside two braziers[1]. After that, they wrapped a blanket around her to keep her warm.

Only just noticing her predicament, she clasped the woolen blanket and nodded her head lightly with a slight blush on her face. After she ate some food and tidied herself up in the bathroom, she changed into a female student uniform Charade brought her and showed herself in front of the two men, who were subsequently stunned by her refreshed, beautiful look.

Snapping out of his daze, Lorist noticed her lips curve slightly. That girl was obviously delighted at the men's reaction.

Taking out a white sheepskin scroll, Lorist started scribbling down the situation of the Windsor family. "Let me list out the troubles the Windsor family is facing according to what I heard from Charade. Please let me know if I miss something out."

Number one: The Windsor family lost their dominion due to the conflict and had it divided among four other neighboring families. The original garrison soldiers and the local officials have been relieved of their duties and the remaining members of the Windsor family has been chased out of the land. It was apparent that the new lords of the land wished to relinquish any influence the Windsor family members still had on the people of the dominion.

Number two: None of the nobles of the Jigda Kingdom, including the duke to whom the Windsor house pledged their allegiance, wished to lend the Windsor house any aid. Although the Windsor family had a rightful claim to that land according to the kingdom's laws, the other nobles have already unofficially recognized the four neighboring families as the rulers of the land and refused to say anything on the Windsor house's behalf.

Number three: As Viscount Windsor had perished due to his injuries from battle, there was no one else within the Windsor family that had the ability to lead the dominion's soldiers. As the heir of the viscount was still only a seven-year-old boy, he was of no direct use to the current situation. Madam Windsor, on the other hand, was busy worrying about who the father of her child she was pregnant with was. There were more than 45 suspects but there was no way to determine the father within a short period of time. The young mistress of the Windsor house was a girl who had not awakened her Battle Force, so she was of no immediate help to the situation either.

"She's actually my stepmother, not my biological mother. Right now, only I can call the shots in the Windsor house," proclaimed the blushing girl with a hint of anger and embarrassment.

After some more explanation on the young mistress's part, Lorist came to understand that the current Madam Windsor used to be a widow to another baron. She got to know Viscount Windsor and eventually had an affair with him and got pregnant with the current young master, after which she got married and officially became his second wife. She had lived in the capital with her son until she moved to the dominion three years prior when the first wife of the viscount passed away. She was only 35 this year.

Charade, before knowing of her actual age, joked about the desperateness of the invading soldiers who had managed to knock her up, as he had estimated Madam Windsor's age based on that of this young mistress. In actuality, she was still under 35 years old and was still in the prime of her womanhood.

The stricken young maiden did not even notice the thoughts of the two men wander. Both of them let their fantasies run wild as they imagined the 'pleasurable' life the current Madam Windsor must have led in the army camp. Both men looked at each other with a funny gaze and snickered in a low voice.

Suddenly, the young mistress declared, "I will not forgive them for tarnishing the honor of the Windsor house and will definitely reclaim my dominion. Those who stood idly as they witnessed our demise will definitely pay..."

Picking up the sheepskin scroll on the table, Charade gave it a light poke or two and interrupted the young mistress's declaration. "According to the description of the situation, the Windsor house is already beyond salvation. Even if you were to wait ten or so years for the young master to mature, it is hard to say whether the people in the dominion will still stay loyal to the Windsor family. Having lost the dominion and lacking an immediate heir, the Windsor family is in deep trouble. I think you should just let it go and live out the rest of your life pleasantly with the property your father had left you in Morante City.

Lorist fully agreed to Charade's statement.

The young mistress was stunned to hear that. But she could not refute even one word of what he said. Her large crystal-like eyes started watering as she stood there without uttering a noise, anguished, with her shoulders shaking involuntary...

Lorist felt pained when he saw that sight. He breathed a long sigh, stood up, and handed her a facecloth as he told her, "Actually, there is a way that might help you reclaim your dominion..."

Her quiet sobs suddenly stopped and she asked him with teary eyes, "Is that true?"

Looking at the scroll again, Charade said, "It's impossible..."

Lorist, taking out another sheepskin scroll and a pen, began to mumble as he jotted down several points on the scroll, "Number one, people. Number two, spying. Number three, goal. Number four, logistics. And finally, support."

Pointing at the words he wrote, Lorist looked towards the other two and started explaining. "The first main factor is the people. Although Viscount Windsor has passed away on the battlefield, many of his loyal subjects have survived and are scattered across the various villages around the dominion. Madam Windsor and her son only managed to come over to Morante City due to having a group of surviving garrison soldiers escorting them along the way. The Windsor family should not give up on the people who are still loyal to them and rally them up so that they can be sent into the dominion and seek out others who still hold the Windsor family in their hearts.

"These people who will eventually form a resistance against the current lords will serve as a reminder to the people in the dominion that the Windsor family has not given up on them.

"However, the leader for the resistance army must not be casually appointed. Ideally, it would be someone who is highly respected who used to serve under the viscount directly and is powerful enough to defend himself. Do you have such a person in mind?"

The girl gave it some thought and nodded, "I think Uncle Somm is perfect for this. He used to be a knight of our family and is of the Two Star Silver rank. He was a trusted subordinate of my father and served in his personal cavalry guard. Right before my dad died on the battlefield, Uncle Somm got wounded and was sent along with his family to my father's manor to undergo treatment. My mother's escort brought a letter from him that states that he had already mostly recovered still couldn't ride a horse properly yet. He will be coming over to join me in another one or two months. Oh, and Uncle Somm's daughter, Lina, used to be my personal handmaiden."

"Not bad. According to your description, he indeed is an ideal candidate for the leader of the resistance. Let's move on to the second point: spying," Looking at the slightly confused girl and Charade, he asked, "Do you know what spying is about?"

"I know," the girl scrambled to answer, "Isn't it about secretly hiring spies to gather information? They'll hang out at places like taverns and pay attention to any strangers that show up. The dominion lord in turn pays them for the information they gather."

Charade nodded and agreed to her description.

Lorist shook is head and disagreed, "No, not that kind. It's way too obvious. If it were me, I would pick the tavern owners, servants, smiths, fishermen, farmers, tailors as well as the guards to be my eyes and ears. These people are the ones who can really observe the enemy's every action, even their every meal, without arousing any suspicion."

"But what's the point of knowing what they eat? Wait, are you going to use poison!?" asked the girl with her face pale, as if she had come to understand the sinister truth.

Charade was surprised by the sudden enlightenment. "Of course! As long as we have these people working for us, nothing can escape us and we can easily respond to any of the enemy's moves!"

Looking at the confused young mistress, Lorist said, "Miss, did you hear what the fatty said just now? Think about it, if we have this network of people feeding us information, we can anticipate the enemy's every move and respond accordingly. This would also serve to cover the resistance army's tracks and set the enemy forces on a goose chase, hence allowing the resistance more freedom to expand their influence."

The girl blushed as she came to understand what Lorist had just said.

"The non-combatants, ex-officials and the ex-soldiers in the dominion who are still loyal to the Windsor family would be the perfect for this job. They can serve as your resistance's eyes and watch the enemy's every move and find the perfect opportunity for the resistance to strike.

"The next factor would be the goal of the resistance. The focus of the resistance army should not be on attacking the castles of the rulers nor their soldiers but rather their tax collectors, officials, spies, convoys as well as their storehouses. This would effectively blind the current rulers and make them unable to effectively take action against the resistance. Eventually, these attacks would serve to bleed out the current rulers and wear them out gradually. The army must be organized into many discrete units so that they can react to any situation swiftly and effectively.

"The fourth point we have to emphasize is logistics. To ensure the resistance has enough momentum to keep their operations going, there must be secret bases where the fighters can rest and recuperate. The Windsor family should provide them with resources such as weapons, food and even women. Only by setting up many bases across many locations can the resistance army hold together in the long run.

"Finally, you cannot neglect support. Forming the resistance army is not just about sending people there and ordering them around. To ensure that the army remains under the control of the Windsor family and remain dependant to it, the family must actively support them with resources and manpower. One way to do this is to hire Silver ranked mercenaries on a mission-by-mission basis for each major operation. This will allow the resistance army to put sufficient pressure on their enemies while minimizing the casualties.

"As long as this holds up for several years, the resistance army would become a nightmare for the rulers and they will come to regret their decision to split the dominion of the Windsor family among themselves and want to be rid of their responsibilities on governing the land. At that time, the Windsor family can just step in and negotiate with the current rulers and even offer them some form of reimbursement. I believe they would be glad to return the lands to the Windsor family," concluded Lorist.

"So there was a way to get it back after all..." mused Charade.

The girl, on the other hand, was revigorated and a hint of life returned to her gaze.

"But there are two repercussions by using this plan," Lorist said, dampening the mood once more. "With the existence of the resistance army, the lords of the dominion might let their frustration out on the people of the land. Even if the Windsor family does reclaim the land one day, a lot of money must be spent in order for the people and the economy to recover. Another thing is that the Windsor family will be on hostile terms with the four neighboring noble families after regaining power and must expend lots of money to hire a group of elite soldiers to ensure the protection and security of the dominion. My point is, this whole exercise would be futile if you don't have the money to fund it. According to my rough estimate, it would require at least a thousand gold coins to maintain this operation each year."

Gathering a thousand gold coins per year was definitely not an easy task. Even Lorist, who was recently appointed to be a swordsmanship instructor for the academy, only had a monthly salary of 3 gold Fordes. As for Charade, being the head of the Enforcement Division, he boasts a monthly salary of five gold Fordes. Their job was already considered to be among the most high paying ones in Morante City. McDuffin's family, before meeting Lorist, only earned up to six large silvers every day and even that was enough for them to live a comfortable life and have some plenty left over for savings.

How was the Windsor house going to reclaim their dominion given the state of affairs of their finances?

[1]A portable heater that works similarly to a fireplace.

Chapter 17 A Fleeting Moonlit Dream (3)

The young mistress of the Windsor house snapped out of her delusion, reevaluated her family’s situation and started to tear up again. “But… I’m already running out of money…”

Looking at those beautiful, tear-filled eyes, Lorist said in an attempt to console her, “Don’t cry. Doesn’t your family still own some property in the city? This is what you can use to start the whole operation! Once your business builds up and begins to make a profit, you can start the operation according to the five points I’ve highlighted. I definitely think that your family can once again reclaim your dominion one day.”

“Leaving that mansion of yours out, those two shopfronts owned by your family at Rotary Street is already worth a lot. They are situated at the city center of Morante City and the rent there is rather high. The fact that you own two shopfronts in that area gives you an edge over many others in starting a new business. Even the multi-million Gold Horn Merchant Guild started as a small establishment that did petty errands for others six years ago. I believe that with adequate management and a good business model, it would not be too hard for you to earn a profit of 1000 gold coins per year,” added Charade.

The girl lifted her face, rubbed her cloudy eyes, and asked, “Then what kind of business do you reckon would earn me 1000 gold coins per year?”

“Oh no!” The fatty seemed to have remembered something and left in a hurry. “I forgot that I have to patrol the academy. With the weather being so hot recently, I bet many of the students would feel way edgier than normal and start to cause trouble! The Enforcement Division should be rather busy during these days. Heck, now we even have people trying to drown themselves in the Moon Lake! Now, we can even take it easy at night! You guys keep talking, I’ll take my leave.”

The girl’s face reddened at the comment.

Gracefully bowing towards the girl, he whispered beside her ear, “He’ll have a way for you,” and whooshed outside the room.

Lorist was beginning to have a headache as it seemed very likely that the young mistress of the Windsor house already had her eyes set on him. She followed him in and out all day and even waited outside when he had to go to the washroom, attracting the attention of many students and causing rumors to spread.

“Come on, young mistress. Cut me some slack, will you? What do you want?” pleaded Lorist towards the stubborn girl.

“Who asked you to rescue me? Now, you have to take responsibility for it.”

“My gosh, what’s wrong with me saving your life? How should I fulfill that responsibility?”

“I want you to help me…”

“No way, that’s too complicated and troublesome.”

“Since you could think up a plan for me to get my dominion back, surely you could also figure something out for me to start my business…” the girl said coquettishly as she stomped her leg like a spoiled brat.

Lorist’s resolved wavered. “I won’t do it if there’s nothing in it for me…”

Smiling brightly with a hint of embarrassment, the girl said, “Then, how about I become your girlfriend?”

Lorist was instantly entranced by her seductive smile and yielded.

The suggestion Lorist gave his new girlfriend was to stop all business proceedings of the shops at Rotary Street with the Jigda Kingdom and to revamp them into a premium women’s boutique.

The girl stared wide-eyed at Lorist as he explained, not knowing what a premium boutique was. From her experience, noblewomen usually wore tailor made clothes by personal tailors or their handmaidens and never purchased them from anyone else. Most of the clothes at the stores focused more on utility rather than aesthetics and was usually marketed to smiths, mercenaries, office workers, housemakers, hawkers and other common city folk. No noble would ever lower themselves to wear clothes like that lest they want to end up walking jokes.

Lorist followed up with a patient explanation, “What we’re trying to do is not to make common clothes like most other clothing stores out there. We are trying to appeal to the noble market, especially the women. We will focus on party dresses and accessories that cost at least ten gold coins per set.”

“Is that really viable? Why would anyone in their right mind buy something at that price?” asked the girl to her new lover with much doubt in her eyes.

“Of course. As long as the designs are unique, a fashion trend would no doubt start. Given the nature of the nobles to only buy the best and most expensive things and their tendency to compare and compete with one another, we would succeed in no time.”

“Then, who will be in charge of designing the clothes?”

“Me, of course,” proclaimed Lorist with a face full of confidence.

In actuality, he had already come out with this idea for quite some time and only decided to start working on it for the sake of his girlfriend. Being a craftsman and a forger, he naturally had a certification for fashion design in his past life. It would not be an overstatement to even say that he was an expert in making dresses and gowns fit for even princesses.

During his time as a factory owner in his past life, he received a rather big business order. A rich businessman who wanted to throw a birthday party for his seven year old daughter had contacted Mattrel, one of the biggest toy companies in the world, to make 108 dolls that were about the size of his daughter at a price of 100000 RMB each (roughly 15000 USD) and specified that each of the dolls should have two different princess dresses that could be changed in and out of. In essence, he had requested for 108 dolls of the size of his daughter with another 216 sets of dresses and gowns.

The executives of Mattrel was left flabbergasted at the magnitude of the order. Did he come to them to order toys or clothes? If it were priced at 100000 USD each, then it would not be a problem for the company to hire professional fashion designers for the task. But 100000 RMB was not nearly enough for that kind of spending. So, they decided to just let one of their factories in China figure up a way to produce the clothes at a lower cost.

While the rich businessman wanted the original products produced by Mattrel themselves, he forgot that many of them were actually manufactured in China and that Mattrel was only responsible for branding, designing and marketing. Once the order reached the Chinese factory, the people in charge were also wracking their brains for a solution. While it would be easy to change a small part of the mold at a low cost to produce a new line of dolls, that wasn’t easily achieved with the dolls’ clothes. Should they resort to outsourcing this to clothing companies? It wasn’t an easy task, especially when the request specified for the clothes to each have a unique design. This also meant different materials for different clothes, especially when princess-themed clothing would require certain special crystals or materials to decorate them. In the end, one of the persons in charge who was coincidentally an old comrade of Lorist decided to call him up for help.

Within three months, Lorist spent all his time researching. He watched various films that featured extravagant dresses, read all sorts of fashion magazines as well as studied the various exotic dresses movie stars often wore to the red carpet. His research material stacked up all over his office and his coworkers even joked that his office had become an archive for the whole of humanity’s fashion culture.

Spending days and nights discussing and planning with several other fashion designers, he finally came up with more than 500 designs which he submitted to Mattrel’s factory in China which then sent it to the rich businessman to select from, after which the selected designs were sent back to Lorist’s factory to begin the production. This very order earned him more than 500000 dollars and he even deliberated whether he should change his factory’s focus to children’s clothing instead.

Having crossed over to Grindia for more than 6 years, Lorist already had a firm understanding of this world. Being the largest trading city on the continent, Morante City had visitors from all over the world and was also the central hub for the latest trends. However, to Lorist, most of these trends were nothing but jokes. What use did he have for popular things that ranged from soft beast fur shawls, well-written poems to durable, exquisite swords?

The nobles of this world had a custom of making their own clothes. But Lorist discovered that the designs of those clothes had not changed much from hundreds of years ago. The only noticeable difference was the improvement of the materials and the slightly different embroidery on the clothing. Most noblewomen, young or old, including the young Miss Windsor, had their personal tailors or handmaidens make their clothes which didn’t really differ much from one another. The only things the ladies talked about during parties or banquets pertaining to clothing was the intricacies or details of the embroidery.

That’s why Lorist firmly believed that the dresses he designed would definitely make most noblewomen go crazy for them. It was natural for women to continually beautify themselves. It’s a shame that Grindia’s fashion culture was so primitive and undeveloped unlike that of his previous world, where fashion designers brainstormed day and night to come out with a new, novel design.

So, to dispel any suspicions his new girlfriend might have about his ability that was painfully apparent in her gaze, he decided to show off a bit by drawing her a rough sketch.

The girl subsequently brought her new boyfriend back to her house in the east sector of the city, much to her two maidservants’ surprise, as the usual haughty mistress of theirs had picked someone who looked so average to be her boyfriend. They thought that Lorist’s clothes were rather ragged and that the Iron rank badge he wore on his chest was quite unsightly.

Not knowing of the thoughts his girlfriend’s maids had about him, Lorist went up to the third floor to a room with sufficient lighting and asked for a pen and paper to start drawing. Initially, the young Windsor was weirded out by the relative revealingness of the clothes that accentuated one’s body curves and thought that Lorist was a cheap pervert. But as the design neared its completion, the girl quieted down and had her eyes glued to the drawing, already fantasizing how she would look in that dress, much to Lorist’s surprise.

Lorist gave her face a light slap and woke her from her daydream. The girl, blushing, grabbed the design and said, “I’m gonna have one made right now…”, and rushed out to find her handmaidens.

Lorist shouted to her as she went out, “Then, what about me?”

“Just stay in that room and draw me more of those! I’ll have someone send some food up during dinner!” said the girl.

Chapter 18 A Fleeting Moonlit Dream (4)

Had it not been for his swordsmanship class at the academy, Lorist would still be locked in the young mistress's room and drawing more designs for her. The mistress's two servants, after seeing a number of Lorist's drawings, changed their attitudes towards him immediately and were suddenly more attentive towards him, making sure he had everything he needed, much to Lorist's surprise.

While he was still there, he let the three women pick out 24 dresses and 8 party gowns out of the fifty or so designs he had drawn and spent an entire afternoon teaching them how to cut and sew. The women would then be working on the 32 sets of dresses for the time being. Lorist named the lineup the Autumn Goddess collection and planned to use that as the debut clothing lineup for the store.

Before he left, he also encouraged the women to use their imagination and make any amount of changes they wanted to the clothes as they saw fit when they were making them. Lorist explained that it would help prevent people accidentally wearing the same dress. For example, wouldn't it be extremely awkward to dress identically to another person in a ball?

"Every woman was a unique angelic being that had descended from the heavens and it is only fitting for them to each wear different, unique clothing to bring out fully their magnificence and beauty. Even if the base design for the clothes is similar, with small alterations here and there, each dress would still remain unique, understand?" Lorist proclaimed.

After Lorist had left, Miss Windsor noticed that her two handmaidens were stunned by the speech and a look of admiration could be seen in their eyes. Feeling a little elated and grumpy, the young mistress rebuked them, "What's wrong? Have your hearts been stolen by him?"

Suzy repeated the line to herself in a low voice, "Every woman was a unique angelic being that had descended from the heavens... What a great saying..."

Lina sighed and scratched her head in frustration, saying, "Young mistress, I know it's wrong to think so, but Master Locke looked so gentle and handsome when he said that just now. I believe that he's the kind of person that charms you more the longer you get to know him... You have really found a great boyfriend."

The young mistress sighed lightly and said, "It's a shame most men out there are only all talk and pales so much in comparison to him. We should start working harder too. These clothes will determine the future of the Windsor house."

"Yes, young mistress. We'll give it our all," said the two women, nodding.

After two days, Lorist paid them another visit and was surprised at what he saw. Have they turned into rabbits? Why are their eyes red and why do they look so pale? Upon questioning them, he discovered that they had been pulling all-nighters and have only slept as little as eight hours all this time and often neglected their meals. Although they were worn out, they only managed to produce four sets of clothes over three days and nights of hard work.

With a palm to his face Lorist said, "Silly girl, can't you hire someone to help you out? At this rate, you wouldn't even finish the Autumn Goddess collection when spring next year comes! How are we supposed to start the business?''

"Aren't we supposed to keep the designs secret?" the young mistress argued with much fatigue in her voice.

"Weren't you planning to rent part of your mansion out? Why don't you make that a small workshop and hire some skilled seamstresses across the neighborhood to do the sewing after you guys finish cutting out the parts of the clothes. For the most part, you only have to monitor and guide them. What's the point of earning any money if you'll end up too sick to spend it?"

Nodding, the young mistress agreed, let out a big yawn, and went upstairs to get some rest. At that moment, the two servants only had one thought in their minds: Wow, Master Locke is looking manlier than ever!

Having given his instructions, Lorist monitored their progress for a few more days and was satisfied with the current production rate of the clothing workshop. He then started to plan how he would decorate the two shopfronts on Rotary Street.

After a period of brainstorming, Lorist had drawn up a rough plan for the decorations. His only concern was the cost was a little high at roughly 60 gold Fordes. He subsequently broke into an argument with his girlfriend over the issue.

The young mistress believed that they shouldn't spend so much money on the decorations of the shop and that it only had to be clean and simple. "We're only selling clothes. There's no need to poke a hole in our wallets for useless decorations!" said the young mistress.

Lorist pressed on and said, "We can only raise the price of the clothes if we decorate the shop lavishly. We must show that the clothes at our store have been spared no expense and deserve every gold coin listed on the price tag! To do that, we must ensure that our store looks elegant and classy. Besides, the money spent on the decorations would be earned back easily after selling one or two sets of clothing."

Why doesn't she understand such a simple principle? Lorist was rather frustrated at her adamant refusal. After that, Lina secretly told him that the young mistress was seriously lacking in funds and only had about 10 gold coins left in their savings. She wasn't even sure how she would finance the clothing workshop as well as her household with the amount of savings she had left.

Suddenly coming to an understanding, Lorist merely nodded and left. After several hours, Lorist returned with a large bag and placed it on the table. Gently gazing at the young mistress, he said, "You could've just told me that you lacked the money. I'm your boyfriend for Sol's[1] sake, there's no need to bear the burden by yourself. We should face issues like this together. These here are my savings, 160 gold coins. It should be more than enough to pay off the expenses of the clothes shop for two to three months."

Staring at the bag with her large, beautiful eyes, the girl leapt into Lorist's embrace and broke into tears of joy, tightly hugging Lorist as she cried.

Lorist lightly pat her on the back a few times. He understood that recently, she has been facing huge psychological stress ever since getting the news of her family's conundrum, was refused help from almost everyone she sought out and even contemplated suicide. After he had saved her, she started to see Lorist as a beacon of hope for her family and started dating him in hopes that he would participate and contribute to her family's resurgence.

While she was rather confident in the quality of the few clothes that they had produced, she was still worried about how to run the business. The extra money spent on hiring other workers only served to increase her anxieties and prompted her to be in a hurry to sell the clothes so that she will have enough money to keep the business going. Furthermore, she was hesitant to ask Lorist for help as she had dated him not out of true love but with the intention of using him to reclaim her family's dominion.

As her sobs intensified, she let out all the bottled feelings within. The two handmaidens could only watch as Lorist continued to calm her down. "Come on, stop crying. You'll start to look ugly when your eyes start swelling. What would I do with an ugly girlfriend?"

Breaking into a small chuckle, she slapped Lorist on the back and said, "Why you!", but continued to bury her face in Lorist's chest. Her crying slowly subsided and she fell asleep in the end.

From that day onwards, she asked Lorist to start calling her by her pet name, Wenna, as it was quite absurd for a boyfriend to have to refer to his girlfriend as 'young mistress' all the time. Lorist gladly did so as per her request.

Two months later, the newly renovated Windsor Apparels and Accessories started operation. However, within three days of its opening, it did not have even one customer. The reason was simple, the decorations and furnishings rivaled that of a palace's. Although the shopfront wasn't that big, it had four neatly-dressed Silver Swordsmen standing guard at the entrance. The goldcloud tiles on the doorstep only served to increase the store's imposingness and made most people subconsciously avoid the place.

Worried sick and not having any appetite, Wenna blamed Lorist for over-decorating the shop and causing the 32 sets of clothes in the Autumn Goddess collection to unsold. As she was about to break into another bout of tears, Lorist merely stretched lazily on his seat and said, "Calm down. It's just not time yet. We're not like other clothing shops. If we manage to sell even one set, we can last another month. We don't have to meet a daily quota like those other shops to even break even. The moment we get our first customer, our sales would instantly soar as well."

"Pfft, who would believe you..." grumbled Miss Wenna as she stared at the entrance with much anticipation.

On the fifth day, the one person came to check out the shop. It was the male owner from the jewel shop right opposite them. He has been quite curious about their clothing store ever since it opened, given that they even had four Silver Swordsmen guarding the place.

Having resisted his urge to find out more for a few days, he finally gave in to his curiosity. Upon reaching the entrance, the guards pointed at the sign on the entrance that said that men were not allowed to go in alone without being accompanied by a woman. Another line of words were written in gold below the first statement: This establishment serves high class ladies and the accompanying men are expected to behave gentlemanly at all times.

The man could only return to his store, annoyed. His wife was curious about his bad mood and asked him what had happened. He told her about how he was refused entry at the store and his wife offered to accompany him to the store later along with their daughter.

In the end, he managed to enter the store with his wife and daughter, but he regretted his decision immediately, as the two women in his family had already been entranced by the mystical dresses on the mannequins as well as the beautiful, reflective crystals on them that sparkled under the subtle illumination of candlelight.

"Oh blessed be the heavens... What a gorgeous dress..." mused the man's wife.

"I really want to own this... It's like it came right out of my dreams... It has to become mine..." said the daughter with clouded eyes, unable to see anything else but the glory of the dresses on display.

Gingerly, the jewel shop owner took a peek at the price tag of the clothes and it made him shiver in fear. Since when have dresses cost a dozen of gold coins? And gold Fordes at that?

He looked back at his wife and noticed her standing by a mannequin wearing a black velvet dress that was accessorized by crystals with a glow that rivaled that of the stars in the sky, exuding a mysterious aura of majesty. The dress, priced at 188 gold Fordes, snapped the boss out of his bafflement and prompted him to pull his wife out of the store.

However, his wife's feet seemed to have taken root on the ground and didn't budge no matter what he did. Pointing at the price tag and desperately trying to snap her out of it, he pulled on her arm and said that they couldn't afford it, only to have his hand shaken off as his wife said, "I can afford it with my own personal savings."

At this moment, a voice that sounded like an angelic hymn rang out beside the jeweller's ear. "I'm sorry, respected customers, this gown, 'The Chant of the Night', can only be purchased by those with noble titles."

Elated, the man quickly dragged his wife away from that dress and for the first time in his life, he thanked the existence of the nobles who had helped saved him 188 gold Fordes, which would usually take him an entire year to save up.

But his happiness was short-lived as his wife and daughter ended up spending up to 60 gold Fordes on some other clothes in the store. The man did not understand why a piece of female casual wear would cost more than one gold coin in this store. In other common clothing stores, that kind of money could easily get them more than ten pieces of the same thing. But he understood from the fervid eyes of his wife that should he stop her from buying anything, he would be spending the whole night kneeling by the bed instead of sleeping in it.

Though, the visit to the store had not been a total disaster. Having made a purchase of more than 60 gold Fordes, the whole family was invited to the second floor for tea and pastries as the tailors made special adjustments to the clothes so that they would better fit their new owners. The man, sitting on a comfortable, luxurious sofa, was rather pleased with the service the store had provided.

Three days later, the jeweler brought his wife and daughter to attend a banquet organized by a merchant guild and noticed that they had become the center of attention of the banquet. Like a majestic empress and a gorgeous princess, donning their awe-inspiring night gowns, they attracted the attention of countless people and became the main focus of the partygoers. The jeweler suddenly felt that the money spent on the dresses wasn't such a bad investment after all.

From that day onwards, luxurious carriages visited the store one after another, sending countless ladies of all ages flooding into the store. With the boutique being overcrowded, Lorist had to politely refuse entry to the accompanying men and set up some tables outside the store so that they may have some tea there while they waited. It wasn't an uncommon sight to see noblemen having tea under the sun at Rotary Street in the following days.

At the end of the month, Miss Wenna stared with her mouth agape at the pile of gold coins on the table. "That's our profit for this month!?"

Lina said in a restless tone, "Yes, my mistress, it's already my seventh time answering that question. For the last time, all the 3083 gold Fordes on the table is our profit for this month!"

Jumping in joy and leaping into the arms of Lorist, who was gently smiling at them nearby, she gave him a kiss and said unceasingly, "Thank you... thank you Lorist..."

"Ouch, that hurts! Silly girl, you're biting me, not kissing! Wait, don't tell me this is your first time kissing someone? Let me show you the ropes then..."

The two of them started to make out without giving any heed to anyone else.

"Oh, how embarrassing..." said Lina, as she shielded her eyes and stared at the two lovebirds through the gap of her fingers.

[1] As the top god of the Grindia Pantheon is Singwa, the solar god of light and war, characters often swear in his name. Sol is also latin for the sun.

Chapter 19 A Fleeting Moonlit Dream (5)

With the hard-earned money in hand, the revigorated Wenna purchased the three-storey building that was right next to their boutique. Completely renovating the place and linking the new building with the other two shops, the area of the boutique effectively doubled. Heeding Lorist’s suggestion, she also build a T-shaped stage and hired a few young maidens with decent figures to act as the models for their boutique.

One month ago, the ex-captain of the garrison of the Windsor house came over from the dominion, bringing back with him ten or so servants and guards who used to work in the Windsor Castle. The new rulers of the place had fired them and they had wandered in the dominion aimlessly until just recently, after hearing that Miss Windsor was willing to offer them jobs in Morante City.

Among them were a father-son duo who both happened to be cobblers that used to serve the Windsor house. Their arrival was a delightful surprise to Lorist and soon, Windsor Apparels and Accessories expanded their catalogue of items to include their own shoes, which naturally took Morante City by storm. While there were a number of shops that tried to replicate their products, most noble customers knew to seek out for the distinct logo of the Windsor brand, which depicted a small mermaid. Windsor, in the ancient language of fairies, referred to the mermaid. Even the Windsor house’s insignia depicted a warrior mermaid with a three-pronged fork.

Right now, it was almost customary to wear dresses and gowns by the Windsor brand to attend parties hosted by the elites of Morante City. There was even one such occasion where the daughter of a merchant guild chairman cycled through 17 different dresses and seven different high-heeled shoes throughout the party, effectively turning her father’s banquet into an advertising event for Windsor Apparels and Accessories.

Now that the business was running without a hitch, the young mistress assigned the task of managing the boutique to Suzy and the clothes workshop to Lina while she started to plan to reclaim her dominion.

Lina’s father, Knight Somm, had already arrived at Morante City a month before, bringing Lina’s two younger brothers and her mother along. However, Somm’s injuries were not fully recovered yet and he still had to rest and recuperate for a period of time.

Somm was a silent, well-built man. Lorist sometimes doubted whether he was actually Lina’s biological father given their totally different personalities. How does a solemn, loyal man like him have such a nosy and meddling daughter? Lina did resemble her mother quite a bit though, but her mother was more gentle and amiable, whereas she had a sharp tongue and never hesitated to speak out on anyone.

The ex-garrison caption also brought some news from the old dominion. As the new rulers of the place were harsh and ruthless towards the dominion folk, the people there longed to be under the rule of the Windsors like before. Additionally, many of the old soldiers and guards that had lost their jobs had resorted to survive through banditry and were causing quite a lot of chaos in the area.

This wasn’t an uncommon phenomenon on the Grindia Continent. Usually, when a new lord comes into power, he would introduce certain tax policies that greatly burdened the local folk to make up for the losses he has incurred throughout the conquering process as well as to make sure the people under his rule knew who’s in charge. When the people in the dominion finally revolt one day, the new lord would take the opportunity to eliminate the ones who opposed his current rule and make an example out of them. In time, the new ruler would loosen his iron grip on the people so that they will eventually naturally cast away their loyalty to their previous lord and fully devote themselves to the current one.

Lorist believed that this was the perfect opportunity to sneak a few of their agents into the old dominion, a sentiment that Knight Somm also shared. With that, Miss Windsor ordered Somm to bring a group of ten or so people back to the dominion to form the resistance army after her 18th birthday and her coming-of-age ceremony, with their first priorities being setting up several hidden bases throughout the dominion, recruiting the soldiers and guards who used to work for the Windsor family as well as forming their spy network to monitor the situation of the dominion. After the initial phase, she would then start sending martial and material support to the resistance so that they may begin to disrupt the new rulers’ affairs.

The coming-of-age ceremony was a tradition of the nobles in Grindia. It represented the entrusting of hopes and ambitions of the senior generation to the younger generation. For males, they would be bequeathed a ceremonial sword from a warrior in the family while females were crowned with a floral tiara. After some congratulatory words, the whole family would party and enjoy themselves at a banquet.

But Wenna’s ceremony was rather simple and had only a few attendees. Placing a floral tiara on his mistress’s head and sprinkling some sacred water unto her, Knight Somm expressed his wish that she would live a fruitful life and one day find someone she can truly devote the rest of her life to so that she would live on happily as a virtuous wife and a proud mother in the future.

After the coming-of-age ceremony, the Windsor house ceremony of succession was carried out. One by one, the old folks of the Windsor family walked towards the seated, tiara wearing girl and paid their respects, passing their hopes and responsibilities onto her as the new head of the Windsor house and pledging to her their unwavering loyalty. Even the pregnant Madam Windsor and her son went forward and bowed in respect.

When everyone present had paid their respects, the new head of the Windsor house stood up and summoned Hurd, the ex-garrison captain, drew a sword and tapped it against both his shoulders as he knelt, and proclaimed, “During the times of the Windsors’ fall from power, it was you, brave warrior, who held on to your duties and responsibilities to us and gave hope and protection to the people in the midst of chaos and despair. As an acknowledgement to your noble deed, I, the eleventh head of the Windsor house, Windsor Prinna, grant you the title of Knight Protector of the Windsor house.”

Knight Somm took a few steps forward and shouted, “Knight Hurd, are you willing to become the last line of defense of the Mermaid Castle?”

“I am willing!”

“Are you willing to die fighting under the banner of the mermaid?”

“I am willing!”

“Are you willing to march into battle without a shred of hesitation upon hearing the call of the mermaid?”

“I am willing!”

“Are you willing to devote the rest of your life in service of the house until you take your last breath?”

“I am willing!” shouted Knight Hurd, with each call louder than the previous as he trembled in fervor.

“Then I welcome your entry into the fellowship, my brother!” Knight Somm strided forward, lifted Knight Hurd from his kneeling position and gave him a big hug.

The onlookers broke into a thunderous round of applause.

Overlooking the ceremony as the main witness, Lorist recalled a similar scene from the memories of the body’s original owner, where the young Lorist officiated one such knighting ceremony in the Norton household. Only, there were much more people back then and the atmosphere was even rowdier.

After the ceremony, Lorist and Wenna finalized their plans before Knight Somm and Knight Hurd began their journey back to the old dominion. Refusing the two knights’ invitation for her to go back to the dominion with them to participate in the resistance, Wenna announced her plans to found the Windsor Trading Company that she would use to purchase weapons and equipment as well as hire Silver ranked mercenaries which the resistance will need.

Additionally, she also reminded Knight Hurd to train diligently in the high-ranked Battle Force technique that she had acquired for him as a gift for his knighting ceremony at a high price before working on anything else. With his current Three Star Iron, wood attribute Battle Force, it wouldn’t take him more than half a year to break through to the Silver rank. But Knight Hurd said that he could not sit around training when his comrades are busy working away. In the end, Wenna gave him the task of organizing the reception of the equipment and manpower that she would later provide.

Lorist also warned Knight Somm that their current objective was not to form a large military force to go against the dominion lords but rather to build a spy network and to set up several strongholds in the dominion. He instructed that they were to avoid all conflict with the forces of the current dominion lords and focus on survival and information gathering for the time being.

Deep in the night, Lorist found it hard to fall asleep. He noticed that he had an incorrect impression on the noble families of this world after witnessing the knighting ceremony just hours before. He found it hard to reconcile the noble, just and loyal qualities the knights of the family had displayed with the notion that nobles were prideful, blood-sucking and self-serving monsters that took advantage of their subjects as they were often depicted in the comics and novels he had read in his past life. What he witnessed today made him cast away that stereotype and acknowledge that there were in fact honorable. righteous nobles who fought for a just cause.

The door to Lorist’s room slowly opened and a girl wearing a floral tiara clad in white silk pajamas slipped in. Taking a look at the empty bed, she frowned and said to herself lightly, “Where has that fellow gone at this time of the night?”

Lorist let out a snicker from the balcony and greatly startled the young girl. She turned around immediately and said angrily, “What are you up to this late into the night? Shouldn’t you be sleeping?”

Without a word, Lorist pointed a finger towards himself, to the room, then to the girl, posing her a silent question of what she was doing in his room at this time of the night.

Swift as a breeze, the girl leapt into Lorist’s embraced and wrapped her hands behind his neck, saying in a whisper, “I was too overwhelmed by happiness to be able to sleep tonight. Lorist, thank you. Had it not been for your help, I wouldn’t be standing here today. Not only did you give me hope, you also gave me a future…”

Closing her eyes, she proceeded to give Lorist a kiss, to which Lorist responded passionately. As they continued, Lorist’s rationality slowly gave way to his instincts.

Pushing Lorist away, the girl said in a shy tone, “I want to… I want to dance for you.”

Under the illumination of the moonlight, the barefoot girl’s feet started moving about on the dark-red, wooden floor. Her pure white pajamas fluttered about in the calm of the night, seemingly emanating a soothing fragrance, as her body moved like the moon fairies of legend, offering a dance to the Silvermoon Mother Goddess.

When she finally stopped her dance and unmovingly basked in the moonlight, she seemed like a precious statue of unparalleled beauty.

Her face reddened again as Lorist gave her two thumbs ups. She proceeded to untie the knot of her pajamas and let it fall to the ground, revealing every inch of her bare, smooth skin in front of Lorist as her breathing intensified.

“Lo-Locke, do you think I’m pretty?”, she asked in a soft and stuttery voice. It was at that moment when Lorist finally lost every shred of self-control that remained in him…….

…….

During that fleeting moonlit dreamy night…

…….

Hehe, it really does sound like an old-fashioned love story…

Chapter 20 A Fleeting Moonlit Dream (6)

Lorist used to think that relationship of his would last forever and remain blissful and passionate for a long time to come. At that time, he happily moved out of the student dorms in the academy to live with his sweetheart, Wenna.

As he was not favored by many of the Silver ranked instructors of the academy for being appointed a swordsmanship instructor when here was merely at the Iron rank, he had been staying in the student dorms rather than the instructor dorms to avoid any unnecessary conflict.

When did their relationship start to change? Was it because of his stunted Battle Force training? Or was it from that one time when he called her a show-off when she wanted him to design two exclusive night gowns for her to wear to a party? Since then, she had moved to a luxuriously furnished residence located behind the boutique which she used as the headquarters of Windsor Trading Company. From that day onward, she would continue to live and host many parties there, causing it to become a rather famed gathering place for the rich and powerful of Morante City.

On the day before she moved, she lied lazily in his embrace and expressed the expectations that she had for him. She hoped that Lorist would quickly break through to the Silver rank and become a proper knight of the Windsor house so that he could be sent to support the resistance back in the old dominion.

Nowadays the resistance had already taken firm root in the dominion and it was causing the new lords tons of trouble with the costs of fixing the damage highly exceeding the amount of tax and revenue collected. Having no choice but to further squeeze the common folk for more funds, rebel groups formed by the oppressed mushroomed and further exacerbated the already dire situation.

A report from Knight Somm had stated that the resistance had decided to take direct action against the dominion lords and were preparing to attack the households of these lords in an attempt to deal some lasting damage on the rulers’ hold on the dominion.

Miss Wenna had hoped that Lorist would break through to the Silver rank soon and aid in the reclamation of the Windsor dominion as a Windsor knight so that he could more firmly establish his position as the benefactor of the family and she would not have to bear the embarrassment of being married to a petty Iron Swordsman. Following that, she can let Lorist manage the affairs of the dominion in place of her brother who had yet to inherit the family head title while she would be in charge of the boutique and the trading company to further increase the income of the Windsor house. She believed that the Windsor house would be more prosperous than ever.

Lorist really wanted to promise the beauty in his arms that he would do what she requested. But deep inside his heart, his pride and stubbornness made him refrain from it.. An apparition of a strong nobleman holding a two handed greatsword seemed to have materialized in his mind and declared proudly that Lorist would not pledge allegiance towards anyone other than the Krissen Emperor and the Norton house.

The stubborn insistence and noble pride carved deep into his soul was a vestige of the body’s original owner. Lorist understood that to become a Windsor knight was to shoulder the burden of defending the Windsor house for the rest of his life and to submit to the insignia of the mermaid.

Seeing her lover’s hesitant expression, she gently stroked his face and softly said, “Locke, won’t you do this for the sake of both of us? When your Battle Force finally breaks through to the Silver rank, nobody can stop us from being together…”

That’s right, there’s still the issue with my Battle Force, thought Lorist to himself cynically. He couldn’t bear to tell his lover that he had been training in the Aquametal Technique which he inherited from his past life up to the peak of the Bright Stage. This was something that he would never tell anyone, including this girl that he treasured so much. Possibly as a side effect of training in it, his hexagram circulation path was no longer able to hold a shred of Battle Force in it and he would possibly never be able to break through the Iron rank in the future.

He could tell Wenna that he was a dual Gold ranked instructor in the academy, or that he could easily defeat all the Silver ranked instructors and easily complete missions even peak Silver ranked instructors couldn’t accomplish, but would it be of any use? She did not understand the implications of any of those feats and only knew of the traditions and customs of the nobles. Only when one was a Silver Swordsman could one be entrusted with the hopes and responsibility of fighting for the family’s glory.

With the exception of certain special cases, most noble families would not let descendants who weren’t able to awaken their Battle Force or reach a minimum level of power in their Battle Force training inherit the title of the family head. Wenna thought that Lorist was one who distinguished himself not by his Battle Force training but rather his wits and intellect. That’s why she would rather Lorist not have awakened his Battle Force at all so that he doesn’t have to wear that ugly, black Iron ranked badge all over the place. Whenever Lorist was not at the academy or the mercenary guild, she would insist that he not wear his Battle Force badge so that she would be spared the embarrassment.

Hoping that she would understand him, Lorist had tried to convince her to ignore such things about face and public appearance and told her that it would be alright as long as they had each other to no avail. From her viewpoint, the reputation of the family was paramount and nothing should be allowed to undermine it. She could not endure having her family’s reputation tarnished even one bit. Wenna wanted to be able to show herself in front of her peers with Lorist without him being ridiculed for his rank of an Iron Swordsman.

A similar thing also happened two years prior, after Madam Windsor gave birth to the child whose father was unknown. Immediately after the delivery, Wenna sent for someone to give to child away to a local farmer in an attempt to cover up the embarrassing affair. Having not even looked at her newborn child even once, Madam Windsor eventually became depressed and was driven to the brink of her sanity. It was not until when Lorist arranged for a meeting between the mother and child out of pity that Madam Windsor’s state of mind returned to normal.

Lightly shaking his head, Lorist told Wenna that he would be willing to do anything for her. He even considered going to the dominion to provide support to Knight Somm and Knight Hurd in the resistance against the dominion lords. But with him having trained in his family’s hereditary Battle Force technique, he was unable to use any other technique to break through to the Silver rank.

Also, he also mentioned that he could not accept to serve as a knight under the Windsor house as he still had to heed the summons from his family should a time like that arise even though he was an exile. Though, that was more of an excuse for Lorist. Being the dimensional traveler he was, he naturally treasured unrestricted freedom and couldn’t afford to accept binding oaths of service like that of a knight’s. Just like Charade once said, it was Lorist’s dream to simply spend the rest of his life blissfully in Morante City after settling down there with Wenna.

Having heard Lorist’s reply, the girl stood up without a word, dressed herself and headed for the door. Before leaving, she said, “Lorist, you know very well that you don’t actually love me. You’re just like other men who talk about how much they cherish me but in fact, you only care about yourself…”

Laying on the bed, stunned, Lorist questioned himself whether he really felt true love for Wenna. Of course I do, you’re the only one I have ever loved in my current and past life. Having been forced into marriage by his father in his previous life, he didn’t truly feel any shred of true longing for his wife. While he did treasure the son he had with her, they merely spent their days in tepidity. It was not until he had crossed over that he discovered that the love and romance he had so often read about in novels were real after all, having experienced the burning passion and willingness to devote himself to Wenna. Feeling the intense connection of the heart, the heart-shaking whisper of his lover as well as her mesmerizing gaze, he came to understand that to love someone was to hold the other in the most important place in one’s heart and only have eyes for one’s other half.

Since when has his relationship become single-sided with only him giving it his all for both of their futures? Has his initial goals and determination changed as a result of that? Wasn’t love about mutual tolerance and acceptance? Was Lorist the selfish one for having his own reservations about devoting himself to the Windsor house? Or was it Wenna who had changed over the course of time? Sigh, I won’t get an answer no matter how much I think about this. It’s best to wait for us both to calm down before we talk it out with each other.

What Lorist didn’t expect was ever since that night, Lorist wasn’t able to meet Wenna in person anymore; even the collection of the designs for the dresses was handled by Suzy most of the time. Whenever he went to the head office of the trading company, he was given the cold shoulder by Wenna who often cited her occupation with her work as an excuse. Initially, Lorist thought that Wenna was only throwing a childish tantrum, until he saw her together with a middle-aged nobleman in the garden of the trading company, happily chatting and flirting away.

It was also on that night when she formally asked Lorist to break up with her. The pain and agony he had felt following the breakup had tore through his heart, greatly imprinting the suffering that could not be put into words into the depths of his soul.

The only thing that was on Lorist’s mind at that time was the cold, smiling expression on her pale white face as she hid behind that nobleman. The noble gentleman spread his arms to shield her and asked warily, “Mister, what’s going on?”

Looking at the girl who hid behind him and turning back to Lorist, the man’s expression turned grim as he said, “Who are you? What do you want?”

Without a word, Lorist only pointed a finger towards Wenna.

Her expression fluctuated briefly before she stopped hiding behind that man, and spoke. “Locke, I’m so disappointed in you. I know you have your own goals and you have never intended to sacrifice them for my sake. While you have indeed been a major help for me and my family, after much consideration, I still think that we’re not suited for each other. For the future of the Windsor house, I have no choice but to part with you. I know you’re a good person and hope we can still remain friends.”

Was this how it felt like to be betrayed? thought Lorist with his heart already in shambles.

Never would he expect to be friendzoned in his first romantic relationship in another world. That suffocating feeling made him want to sprawl on the ground to recover his breath. But, his pride prevented him from doing so and he turned around and left, staggering.

All that happened after that was a blur. He did not even know how he made it back to the house. He only remembered seeing Lina’s shocked expression after witnessing his pathetic, messed up state.

He woke up drowsily on bed the day after, following which Lina informed him that he had a visitor. It was that nobleman who was together with Wenna yesterday.

He spoke in a gentle and calm tone and informed Lorist that he had heard all about his situation. While he expressed his sympathy for Lorist’s plight, he said that he would not give up on Wenna as he truly loved her and deeply apologized. Now that he had already broken up with Wenna, Lorist made no to objection to the man’s courting of Wenna but neither did he offer them his blessings. The man also mentioned that it was quite unappropriate for Lorist to continue living at Wenna’s house and asked if he could do anything to reimburse Lorist for having to ask him to move away.

Lorist took note of the gold badge that depicted a fiery bird which signified the man’s prowess as a Gold ranked combatant with a fire attribute Battle Force. He did not expect that polite, gentlemanly man to be an expert, given his demeanor.

Shaking his head and refusing the man’s offer, Lorist thanked him and also mentioned that he would move away even if nobody told him to. The nobleman left after he exchanged another round of pleasantries with Lorist.

Casually packing away some clothes, he left the place that he lived in for the past three years for good. In there was countless memories of her smile, the oaths they shared, the laughter and happiness they experienced, the arguments they had as well as her cold, icy betrayal.

He went back to the Red Grace Inn and got a room there before asking his good friend Els to get a background check on that middle-aged nobleman. Els brought him the report rather quickly. That man was called Lorf Fustat, a 38-year-old One Star Gold ranked expert who was a marquis of the Jigda Kingdom that was greatly valued by the royal family. He came from a long line of distinguished military commanders with his father being the captain of the kingdom’s royal guard as well as the cousin brother of the Jigda king.

Having been sent to Morante City on a mission to exchange the Jigda Kingdom’s gold and silver reserves for the currency of the Forde Trade Union, Marquis Lorf got to know the mistress of the Windsor house on a shopping trip with his wife. Being of the same kingdom, they had a lot of common and got along pretty well. He had already been fervently courting Wenna for half a year following the completion of his mission.

“Does his current wife not know about it?” asked Lorist.

“Of course she does,” said Els, “She also seems rather supportive of it too. Apparently she is also a great friend of Miss Wenna who can share all their secrets together.”

Good Sol, that woman really has some issues.

Shaking his head, Els said, “Forget it, brother. I’ve witnessed tons of stuff like that. When the man’s feelings change, the woman suffers, but there is still a chance for them to get back together. But when a woman’s heart is swayed, there is almost no way for their relationship to ever work out again. Additionally, how would you be able to rival someone of the likes of him? From his family background to his wealth and strength, he beats you in almost every aspect. Having many powerful contacts and being a One Star Gold expert at the age of 38, it’s almost a given that his future would be bright. It’s no wonder your lover had her heart stolen by him.

“Let me tell you something you might not want to hear. That man is not like your average lustful greedy young noble that would ambush or challenge you to a duel after finding out that you were the young mistress’s ex. To him, you’re just a small-fry who’s not even worth his attention. Even if you were to challenge him, he would only cream you without breaking a sweat given the difference in Battle Force strength,” warned Els solemnly.

Lorist only kept quiet at Els’s warning. Three days later, he joined the academy’s expedition to the Relic Islands in hopes that half a year later, things over here might change. Though, in the end it still remained the same.

Chapter 21 A Fleeting Moonlit Dream (7)

With the candlelight put out, the silvery moonlight creeped onto the surface of the dusty table.

Sitting by the table quietly under its illumination, Lorist thought that the moon was really bright tonight.

Sounds of a horse cart could be heard approaching from a distance. Quickly, the sound stopped nearby and a high-pitched neigh of the horse followed by the sound of an opening door rang out. Lorist listened to the familiar sound of a set of footsteps thumping up the building at stopping outside the door.

The door slammed open and candlelight filled the room, dispelling the subtle, mystical illusion of peace created by the moonlight.

Miss Windsor stood by the door wearing a sleeveless white dress. This must be one of the dresses I’ve designed, but with a little more golden thread embroidery than I had drawn. The pure white dress somehow looked seductive and tempting when she wore it. Probably due to her rushing back from a party somewhere, she appeared to be breathing heavily.

Both of them understood that if they missed each other today, they would probably never be able to meet again.

With a calm voice, Lorist said, “Could you blow the candle out? I think I prefer the soft glow of the silver moon tonight.”

Blowing the candle out and placing it in a corner, the young mistress of the Windsor house silently walked into the moon’s gentle embrace and stopped still in her tracks, silent like a quiet moonlit night.

Neither of them made a sound. Lorist felt a thousand emotions as he looked at the girl before him who used to be the most important person in the world to him that had left him for another man. When he initially heard about the affair, he rushed to her side with a frantic heart. But now, while it still pained him to remember their past, he no longer felt any desire to be with her.

“Should I address you as Lady Marchioness?”, said Lorist, disrupting the silence in the room.

“You already know?” said the girl as she raised her head.

“When I was at the Relic Islands three months ago, I met a group of mercenaries from the Jigda Kingdom who said that the marquis of the Lorf house was going to host a banquet by the end of the year at the capital to celebrate the marriage between him and his second wife. They were on the islands on behalf of the Lorfs to obtain some precious materials for the banquet. During their free time, when they were guessing the identity of the second wife, I already knew it was you.”

Breaking into a light smile, Lorist said, “You did pretty well to keep the news hidden. I believe that no one else in the city knows that you’ve accepted the marquis’s proposal three months ago, including even your handmaidens. Lina even told me to not break up with you just now, hehe…”

“I don’t have a choice, Locke. I know you hate me for leaving you for power. It’s what I had to do for my family,” said the girl as she sat down on the floor, tears flowing down her face. “Ever since you left, he used his family’s influence to force the other four lords to return the dominion to the Windsor house. But the dominion was still under relentless attack from the lords and greatly wounding Knight Hurd in the process as well as throwing Knight Somm into disarray. They sent their forces masquerading as bandits and burnt our farmlands as well as sold the people they captured to the slave traders. There’s no way the dominion can flourish with all this going on.

“It was at this time when he offered me a suggestion. If I were to agree to marry him, he will mobilize the family troops to help the Windsor house out on behalf of familial ties. I have agreed to his proposal and the moment we complete the ceremony back in the Jigda capital, the Lorf family will declare war against the other four dominion lords. At that time, his armies would surround the dominions of the other four lords and wipe out the four family’s influence, giving the Windsor dominion time to recuperate and rebuild.”

The girl continued to chatter rapidly, seemingly in a hurry to finish what she had to say, “Only Suzy knew about my agreement to marry him, everyone else, even Lina, was kept in the dark so that the four dominion lords won’t know about the marriage alliance that is to be formed. He told me that it would only succeed if the marriage came as a surprise, and that once the marriage is announced, the Jigda nobles wouldn’t have time to react to the sudden attack. Once the four dominion lords have been defeated, we will get the official sanction from the royal family to rule over the dominions so that no other nobles can have a say in it. With the Lorf family as a backer, tragedies like the one that happened to my father would no longer occur to the Windsor house.”

Lorist struggled to hide his amazement at the delicate planning a setting up of the whole plan. His initial plan was to use the rebels to slowly bleed out the forces of the other four dominion lords and eventually overwhelm them with the full force of the resistance army when the time was right and send a representative from the Windsor house to hold peace negotiations with the other lords. After that, the Windsor house only had to maintain an elite military force to defend themselves from other invasions or attacks as their dominion spent time redeveloping.

But an intervention from the marquis had disrupted the whole operation and forced the four dominion lords to return the ruling rights to the Windsors and effectively got them to owe the Lorf house a favor. Following that, the Windsor house would then add the rebel soldiers to their military ranks to bolster the dominion’s defense. The four other families of the previous dominion lords would naturally be pissed at the affair and the damage done to their forces and would naturally cause as much trouble as they can to mess things up.

The situation at the dominion suddenly underwent a huge change: the resistance army had become the official dominion’s garrison force while the forces of the previous lords had become the rebel forces. Unable to cope to the sudden change, the Windsor family could only endure the situation. Suddenly, the marquis of the Lorf family would then descend like a messiah and propose a marriage alliance to the Windsor mistress and promise to mobilize their armies to defeat the enemies of the Windsor house and wipe the four families out, following which they will return the lordless dominions to the royal family and divide the remaining land between the Lorf and Windsor houses, gaining the Lorf house both a righteous name as well as making a loyal ally out of the Windsor family.

Was he going to kill five or even six birds with one stone? Lorist only let out a long sigh in his heart. As an outsider, he felt that the Lorf family may have been plotting this ever since the WIndsor house started the operations of the resistance. They had unnoticingly went with the flow and slipped themselves into the heat of the action and effectively took over the entire operation. It was clearly apparent that the Lorf family had the most to gain out of the whole affair. There was much more to the character of the marquis of the Lorf family than meets the eye.

Seeing the girl who earnestly thought that the intervention of the Lorf family was beneficial to the Windsors, Lorist suddenly felt disillusioned. Was this truly the girl that he had loved so much in the past? Was this the angel he held so dearly deep in his heart? Vain and clueless, she was still unaware that she had been used as a pawn in someone else’s plan. Poor young mistress, what are you good for other than your beauty?

Don’t act like you’re sacrificing your own happiness to enter this marriage alliance with the Lorf family. Isn’t this what you wanted in the first place? As the marchioness, you will be hanging around the likes of the royal family day in and out and stand high above so many others in a position worthy of much admiration and envy. Wasn’t this the life you had always desired? Oh naive little young mistress… this would not solidify your family’s power at all, nor will the parties you attend glorify your family’s reputation either. Fully relying on the Lorf family is akin to being unknowingly used by someone else and finding nothing wrong with it. There is no better ally than yourself. When will you understand that simple fact, young mistress?

Sigh, this has nothing to do with me anyway, thought Lorist as he shook his head lazily. He suddenly thought that the whole thing about breaking up with her was rather laughable. Now that he had finally let go, he felt much relief and catharsis, as if he had managed to set aside a great burden.

“What’s wrong, Locke?” asked the girl curiously after seeing Lorist shake his head.

“It’s nothing, I’m just feeling a little nauseous after a spending a month or two on sea. I’m still not too used to being on land yet,” said Lorist, excusing himself. “Oh, is that man good to you?”

“Yes, he is,” said the girl, nodding. “I feel like I’m being lovingly caressed by him in his warm embrace the whole time. He settles everything perfectly for me, unlike you, who always want me to figure out every little thing by myself. Seriously speaking, Locke, being with you is really tiring. I’m always doing so much work while you look like you have so much time on your hands. You always solve any problem that’s thrown to you like it’s no big deal. I was so envious of you for that.”

“Hehe, that’s because you’re just silly,” joked Lorist as he let out a soft laughter. “I’m really curious why his wife supports his proposal to you.”

“Oh, you’re talking about sister Fina? Having had a miscarriage from horse-riding sometime in the past, she can no longer bear any children. And she doesn’t like to attend parties to entertain the other nobles. That’s why she hopes that I can attend the parties in her stead and one day bear the descendants of the Lorf family,” said the girl with a blushing face.

Ah, I see. The first wife is planning to use you as a tool for child-making and entertaining guests. After delivering your first child, I bet she will offer to help you raise the child since you’re so busy entertaining the other nobles at parties and you will even thank her for it until one day when your children don’t even want to acknowledge you as their mother, thought Lorist cynically.

“Why have you stopped the businesses in Morante City and sold off the boutique and your mansion?” asked Lorist.

“The devastation done to the dominion is too great and according to Knight Somm, there isn’t one building there that isn’t damaged in some way. To rebuild the economy of the dominion would cost mountains of gold, approximately 10000 gold coins. Additionally, I will need to prepare some kind of dowry for the marriage so I am currently rather short on cash. That’s why that man encouraged me to sell all of it and begin my boutique anew in the capital. He said that the capital was his turf and that he would take care of everything for me,” she said with a satisfied expression.

Lorist almost couldn’t resist applauding in admiration at the marquis’s plan. Not only is he going to return to the kingdom with a beauty in his arms, he has also acquired the gold-laying hen that she had for himself. Once the business gets set up in the capital, the young lady would effectively be demoted from being the business owner to the position of a highly-paid worker, after which all the profits of the boutique would go straight into the marquis’s pockets. Lorist only hoped that the marquis wouldn’t eat everything up and at least leave something for the young mistress.

“So, why have you come today? Surely not to meet me for one last time? I’m going to move my stuff away tomorrow since you’re already going to sell the place. There’s nothing else here anymore but our memories together.” Lorist realized that he was being too spiteful to the girl. Even if he told her what he thought, she probably wouldn’t listen anyway and think that he was just being jealous and trying to cause discord between her and the marquis. Forget it, people have their own fates. My encounter with her was merely like two shooting stars passing by each other, leaving behind nothing but a distinct trail of memories together.

“So what if I wanted to meet you one last time? I have been in love with you for over four years after all. While you have made me disappointed, I will never forget you. You’re always like this, unwavering and merciless once you’ve made your decision. Don’t you still feel anything for me? Aren’t you going to say anything to stop me from leaving? Ever since the breakup, it’s like you lost all interest in me all of a sudden. I know you hate me and cannot forgive me because this was all my own doing. But I still wanted to see you just in case we would never meet again…” said the girl as she raised her voice, angered at what Lorist had just said.

If there’s anything she’s good at, it’s her unrelenting, open expression of how she felt.

“Sigh…” Standing up, Lorist continued, “Wouldn’t it have been better to only remember our good times? There really isn’t a point to meet up just to end up arguing…”

“There is. I want to see you, to hug you and to kiss you before I leave. I know I have wronged you and I appreciate all you have done for my family without asking for much in return. I know giving you money would just be an insult to you, so I got you a few Battle Force manuals instead. I hope they will be able to help you break through,” said the girl as she opened the table’s drawer and took out five high-ranked Battle Force manuals. She then turned back and hugged Lorist, burying her head in his chest.

“Can you hug and kiss me one last time?” asked the girl with her eyes closed.

Lorist only smiled bitterly. That girl didn’t know that those manuals wouldn’t be of help to him at all. Money would be much more useful for him in this case.

“Don’t forget that you’re the wife of the marquis now,” Lorist reminded her.

“The marriage is not officiated yet, so I’m still a free person,” she replied.

Seriously? What’s wrong with her…

“No way, I don’t want to make a habit out of kissing other people’s lovers,” said Lorist firmly.

“Locke, come on… Let me spend the night with you, okay? For old times’ sake…” said the girl as she tugged tightly on Lorist’s waist, refusing to let go…

“Do you think that Marquis who’s standing right outside the building can wait all night? I wouldn’t mind leaving one last memory with you tonight, but he seems to be rather impatient,” said Lorist as he looked at the horse cart parked at the entrance of the building and the Lord Marquis was circling the horse cart as he looked towards the third floor window from time to time instead of coming into the reception hall to wait for Wenna.

“Pffft!” the girl instantly broke into laughter and swiftly stole a kiss from Lorist’s lips. Loosening her arms around him, she said, “Alright, we’ve met, hugged and even kissed. I’m already satisfied. Farewell, Locke.”

Her rapid footsteps rang out as she went down the stairs, and shortly after that, the sound of the horse cart leaving slowly faded away.

Sitting back on the chair, Lorist waited for a good while before saying, “Els, how much longer do you plan on hiding there?”

Chapter 22 Locke and Els (1)

The curtains in the corner parted as a tall and slender silhouette slipped soundlessly out from the gap between the window and the bookshelf.

“Tsktsktsk, even the seduction of the alluring marchioness couldn’t budge you. You definitely have a resolve of steel. It’s not like there’s a rule that says that you can’t keep fooling around in bed even after a breakup… You’re such a disappointment, and I thought I would get to enjoy a nice show later tonight… Sigh…”

The silhouette shook his head as if he thought that Lorist just lost a once in a lifetime chance, walked a few steps forward before stopping and slapping his forehead as he said, “Wait, you couldn’t have known that I was there. Were you just bluffing? Maybe you wouldn’t have discovered me if I had stayed put…”

“Hehe,” laughed Lorist lightly. Before, Lorist indeed wouldn’t have noticed his presence. But ever since he broke into the Dark stage, his senses have become so sharpened that he could easily detect the presence of any living being that was even as small as a rat, not to say much about a human, within a radius of one or two meters. The shadow who had stood still and quieted his breaths was totally unaware that his beating heart and the circulation of his blood was like a bright light shining in the dark night that easily caught Lorist’s attention.

“I noticed you slipping inside the moment the young mistress put the candle away and sat down on the floor. You later sneaked around in the shadows before hiding behind the curtains. Was I right, Els?” Lorist described each and every action the shadow took when he slipped into the room.

“Huh? That can’t be… Weren’t you looking at your little lover just now? I even tried to avoid your line of sight,” said the shadow as he went towards the table and looked at the five high-ranked Battle Force manuals that were placed there, and continued, “Not bad, these Battle Force manuals are pretty rare on the market and it doesn’t look like they were copied recently too.The beast skin parchment used in the book looks at least a hundred years old. That ex-lover of yours really tried hard for your sake… She must have spent as much as three to four thousand gold to purchase these original copies from certain noble families.”

That shadow in the room was Lorist’s good friend, Brennan Evanport, or as most of his friends called him, Els. He was the nephew of the owner of the Red Grace Inn, Brennan Charlando. Having the prowess of a Two Star Silver combatant, he was also a syndicate boss who managed the affairs of the three districts around the area.

The circumstances in which Lorist got to know Els was rather comical. At that time, when Lorist was only 19, he frequently accepted missions from the mercenary guild to earn some extra cash. On one of the gathering missions he took with Charade, the two of them were fortunate enough to encounter a Black-horned Antelope, which was a low-ranked magical beast living in the mountains whose fur and horn fetched a rather high price. They spent several days of effort on tracking and hunting down that beast and brought their catch back to a nearby city with much haste.

Needing to take care of something back at the academy, Charade had Lorist go back to the house they rented to start tidying it up and wait for his return before they sell the catch away. The house they rented wasn’t really large and they only used it to store the tools that they might need so that they don’t have to go back to the academy that often and rest up whenever they needed to.

Lorist entered the house, threw the stuff in a corner and went straight into the washroom for a bath without remembering to lock up the entrance of the house. Having spent days out in the wilderness, he couldn’t resist jumping into the water right away. As he was washing away happily, he heard the door open and close. Thinking that it was Charade, he called out to him a few times but nobody answered. Feeling suspicious, he went out to take a look.

The moment he emerged from the bathroom, he saw a young brunette woman who was breathing ragged breaths. Upon seeing Lorist, the woman almost let out a large scream before she had her mouth muffled up by Lorist as she stared at Lorist’s privates.

Embarrassed and awkward, Lorist moved a few chairs in front of him to shield his bottom and put on his clothes swiftly. Before he even finished buttoning up, the woman crawled over to Lorist, hugged both of his legs and begged in a low voice, “Mister, please help me out… Save me, please?”

Having just come out of the bath and wearing nothing but a pair of undergarments covering his groin, given that the woman’s face was so close to his wang, it would only take the slightest rub to trigger the male physiological reaction as Lorist was at the prime of his youth. Understanding his predicament, he hastily tried to get the woman to stand up and asked her what was going on.

The woman refused to stand up and continued to sob as she told Lorist what had happened, all while having her arms wrapped around Lorist’s legs. According to her, right after she got married to her husband, she caught the attention of a syndicate boss who lusted after her body. She said the boss set her husband up so that he would incur a huge gambling debt which could only be paid off by selling him to the slavers and sending her to work at the brothel. Having no other place to hide, she came into a random house out of desperation to evade her pursuers.

That young woman, clearly noticing the change that was happening at Lorist’s lower body, said that she would do anything for Lorist if he would help her out and even licked her tongue flirtatiously.

It was at this moment when someone knocked on the door outside. Lorist helped the woman up, guided her to somewhere she could hide, and assured her that nobody would be able to take her away with him protecting her. Then, he took his sword out and went outside.

This was Lorist’s first meeting with Els. Baring his upper body and showing his lean, slender stature, Els had a shirt slung over one shoulder and a chicken drumstick in his hand. He stood there biting away as a distinct smell of alcohol emanated from his mouth; it was as if he had rushed out on short notice as he was feasting away. By his side were a few dejected men who were being scolded harshly by him.

Seeing Lorist come out, Els straight up demanded for Lorist to hand the young woman over. “Don’t play the fool on me. I swear I saw her go into your house just now. If you’re interested in her body, I don’t mind renting her to you for an afternoon for only one large silver. Come on, I know you don’t want any trouble too.”

Lorist instantly retorted, “Stinking thug, don’t think that I’m like the likes of you, always lusting after all women like you’ve never had one before. Get out of my sight or face the consequences.” Within but a few exchanges, the two screamed at each other and started to break into a fight. Much to Lorist’s surprise, Els was a rather upright syndicate boss who didn’t order all his henchmen to surround him at once but rather just picked one of them who was at the Iron Battle Force rank to take care of him. Maybe he had seen Lorist’s Battle Force badge and didn’t want to be accused of bullying Lorist.

Naturally, Iron ranks were far from enough to take care of Lorist, and all of Els henchmen lost one after another. Not willing to believe the scene transpiring in front of him, Els himself went up against Lorist, thinking that Lorist would surrender right away given his One Star Silver Battle Force rank. He then subsequently lost to Lorist.

Thinking that he probably lost due to bad luck or silly carelessness, he tried time and again and ended up losing even on the fifth time. In the end, he made the excuse that his footing was unstable due to being under the influence of alcohol. Lorist merely laughed at his relentlessness and his reluctance to accept his loss even though Els himself was the one who begged Lorist to stop thrashing him. Lightly kicking Els a few times, Lorist merely asked that he get out of his sight, but Els still refused to leave and even said that his reinforcements are coming while holding Lorist’s legs tightly. He said that if Lorist could defeat his reinforcements, he would leave that woman alone and no longer cause her any trouble.

Hearing that, Lorist could only stay there, given that his legs were being tugged by Els. He couldn’t bear to end Els’s life with one sword either. Since he wasn’t willing to let go, Lorist got back at him by stepping on him as he willed. Els didn’t mind it either and even chatted with some passers-by once in a while under Lorist’s heel.

Lorist felt that he was really unfortunate to have met someone like this and was embarrassed to have been seen with him by the people around them. However, he noticed that the old couple living nearby did not fear that syndicate boss at all and even teased him for being stepped on by someone else. Els merely made the excuse that he drank too much and wasn’t in his best shape today.

It was around this time when his uncle, Charlando, came over. Seeing Els being stepped on by Lorist, he was filled with rage and pulled his sword out without a single word. Lorist kicked Els aside and drew his own sword to face that One Star Gold combatant.

Lorist, initially thinking that Els’s reinforcement would only be Silver ranks at best, was rather unlucky to be facing a Gold rank expert. At that time, Lorist hasn’t reached the peak of the Iron rank yet and only trained in his family’s Blazing Battle Force and not the Aquametal Technique. It did not take Charlando more than eight moves to knock Lorist’s sword away and utterly defeat him.

Els stood up with a face full of bruises and gave Lorist’s stomach two forceful punches. “Aha, just now you were pummeling me so gleefully. Now it’s your turn!”

Taking the blows with much unwillingness, Lorist broke into a barrage of insults towards Els for attempting to force a poor woman into prostitution. Els returned the insults and said that Lorist didn’t know what was good for him and bullied people with his strength. Charlando, hearing the contents of the insults, felt that something was wrong, and forced those two to stop and explain the situation to him. After both of them told Charlando their version of events, they looked at each other with much bafflement as the things they had just described were totally different.

Els said with much agitation, “What do you mean I’m blinded by lust and set her husband up and made him incur a gambling debt? That woman’s husband was a sailor and is only home once in three to four months! She is also pretty disloyal to her husband and frequently spends nights with many other men. Additionally, she is also a gambling addict! Just last night, she attempted to cheat some money from my casino and was found out by my subordinate! She had already owed three gold coins by that time and wasn’t able to repay it. Seeing that she still looked young enough, I was sent her to the brothel to earn some money to pay the debt back. Who knew that this afternoon, she stole the money bag of one of the visitors to the brothel and made a run for it! That was why I was chasing her! With all those women willingly selling their bodies away, why would I go out of my way to force one woman into prostitution!? Just go ask the old couple living next door. They know the sailor, Sur, personally.”

Seeing the old couple nodding gingerly to what Els had said, Lorist really wanted to dig a hole and jump inside it to hide his embarrassment until Charlando reminded him to check if that woman was still hiding in the house.

Lorist tried to open the door only to find that it had been locked from the inside and even felt that it might’ve been barricaded by some furniture. She didn’t answer him when he called either. Having run out of options, Lorist circulated his Battle Force and knocked the door open only to discover an empty room. The woman was gone along with his money and valuables in the room. Even the fur and the black horn of the catch he had just brought back was missing.

Upon further investigation, they discovered that the woman had escaped from the window at the back of the house. But, how had she carried all the things she stole?

After another few hours, one of Els’s subordinates brought a horse cart driver over who said that the woman that came to him said that she had been locked inside the house by her husband who wouldn’t let her go visit her sick mother. She said that was why she had to leave the house with her dowry from the back window as the front door had been locked by her husband. When questioned about the weapons that she had brought along with her, she said that her husband used to be a mercenary who now only lays around at home and refuses to go take up some missions and that her husband had used her dowry to purchase these weapons. To prevent her husband from losing it through his gambling addiction, she said that she had to bring those things away and only hand it back to him if her husband would one day regret his ways.

The crowd merely sighed in admiration of her dauntless behavior of taking all those stuff with her and leaving through the back alley when the fellows were out there fighting. The alley was only ten or so meters away from the house and she could have been easily discovered should she make the slightest mistake.

Lorist wanted to cry his lungs out but couldn’t let out any tears. His attempt of saving a ‘helpless’ woman had cost him over 10 gold coins. Looks like he would have to starve himself quite often in the near future.

Didn’t the books always say that good people end up being rewarded for doing good deeds? Lorist had to admit that he was a little swayed by the woman as she looked rather good and also had a pretty nice figure. Given that Lorist still hadn’t slept with a woman at that time since he came over to Grindia, he reacted rather easily to that woman’s hug. He even thought that he might have been able to take the woman as his personal maidservant after he chased the thugs away. The stories in the books were lies… Not only did I not get the damsel, I lost all my possessions to her too, thought Lorist as he sulked on the ground with much regret.

The cart driver said that the reason he got here so quickly was because the woman had already got off the cart by the river two districts away. But, nobody had any thoughts of going after her as that river was a pretty well-known port in the area. Once she got on a boat, she would probably end up sailing to one of the many lake cities of the Falik Plains and would never be easily found again.

Els pat Lorist on the shoulder a few times as he felt a mix of anger and amusement, and said, “Alright, the merchants have a saying that goes, ‘losing money is better than losing one’s life’, which is usually uttered after an encounter with bandits. I wish the same to you since you are in such a predicament. I won’t hold today’s grudge against you since you’ve probably suffered enough. Alright guys, let’s go back.”

This marked the end of Lorist’s first meeting with Els. Both of them lost something during this encounter; Els lost the battle while Lorist lost his money and valuables.

Chapter 23 Locke and Els (2)

The second time he encountered Lorist, Els was naked and seemed like he was running away from something. Lorist could not find any words to describe a person who was covered in plaster and running around without any clothes on.

It has already been a month since the incident where Lorist attempted to save that thieving woman from Els. Charade had only just recently stopped bringing the whole matter up over and over again, much to Lorist’s relief. Additionally, he was fortunate enough to find himself be employed by a nobleman to train his son in the ways of the sword with a salary of three gold Fordes a month. Originally, that noble had wanted Instructor Claude to be the tutor but as Claude didn’t have any extra time, he recommended Lorist to the noble instead.

One night after he finished tutoring the nobleman’s child, Lorist was in the mood of getting some food on his way to the academy.

I recall that there’s a stall just around the corner that sells salted beef kebabs. Charade bought them for me once before and they tasted pretty good. Alright, let’s get some of those along with a barrel of ale before heading back to the academy to have it with that fatty. The moment he finished his thought, a naked person covered in a layer of white appeared to be rushing towards him.

Sol, I think I’ve just seen a lunatic. Lorist hurriedly took a few steps back and prepared to evade that crazy fellow.

Who knew that the moment that man passed by Lorist, he looked him in the eye and instantly stopped before saying, “Hey, it’s you, my brother! Thank goodness, help me out a little and lend me your jacket.”

Lorist was just about to shake that man off when he felt that he had heard that voice before. Huh? Isn’t this Els? Els, who was taking deep breaths beside him, was covered in white plaster from head to toe and looked like a piece of abstract artwork.

“What are you up to now?” asked Lorist with a hint of surprise in his voice. Since when had any syndicate boss ever shown any dedication or interest to street art?

“Don’t even talk about it. You just have to know that I lost a bet with someone. Now, quickly lend me your jacket for a while,” said Els with much urgency.

Oh well, since it doesn’t look like it’ll be raining tonight, I don’t see any harm in lending it to him, thought Lorist as he removed the jacket and handed it to Els before he immediately broke into a run and gave Lorist a warning, “You better make a run for it too, otherwise it’ll be too late.”

Why would I have to run? I’m not crazy like you, thought Lorist as he turned the other way only to find a group of people holding fire irons and metal buckets marching in his way. What are they planning to do? Are they going to help clean the streets at this time of the night?

Before Lorist even understood the situation, some people around him pointed to him and said, “He’s with that man!”

“He lent his jacket to that asshole!”

“Stop him! Don’t let him escape!”

“Beat him up!”

Utterly confused by the situation, Lorist was surrounded by the group of people who started to hit him with whatever they had in their hands. Shielding his head with his arms, he said, “Hey, stop! What’s going on?”

The crowd erupted into a cacophony of noise and not one of them could be heard clearly. Lorist wanted to retaliate but he hesitated as the people hitting him were only normal folk who did not have an ounce of Battle Force. He thought it would be better to hold back lest he accidentally commits manslaughter. Grudgingly, he could only circulate his Battle Force to absorb the hits from the crowd.

One old woman walked towards him with a bucket in hand and demanded that he disperse his Battle Force.

“Huh?” Lorist didn’t understand why she would say that.

“I asked you to stop using your Battle Force!” cried the old woman.

“Why should I?”

“If you don’t, how can I teach you a lesson? Otherwise, given my age, I would only tire myself out by continuously hitting you like this!” said the old woman with a tone that she used to lecture her grandchildren.

The surrounding people were also tired out and stopped the beating. The people beside the crowd continue to struggle to squeeze in to try to get a look at what was happening in there.

“Where’s that prick?”

“Have you got him?”

“Bring him out here!”

As the chatter around him quieted down, Lorist let out a breath of relief, dispersed his Battle Force, and said to the old woman, “Alright, why don’t you tell me what’s going…”

Before he finished his sentence, he could only see the bucket slowly enlarging before his face and land squarely on it, causing him to see nothing but stars. He let out a groan of pain and could faintly hear the old woman say something along the lines of “That’s what you get…”

Bam! Another noise rang out from the impact. “Who asked you to peek at the women’s bath…”

Badonk! “…while pretending to be a stone statue…”

Just as he was going to activate his Battle Force again to protect himself, he suddenly came to a realization at hearing what the old woman had said and understood why Els had been running around nude covered in plaster just now. Good Sol, Els… You better not let me find you…

“It wasn’t me! Sto– cough…” Lorist let out an agonizing voice.

Having landed on the ground from the swing of the bucket, he desperately tried to crawl out from the crowd as myriads of blows hammered down on his body. In the end, he managed to escape with his clothes in tatters.

Right as he was about to sit down at a corner to catch his breath, a stranger who thought that he was a beggar tossed him a copper coin out of kindness given his pitiful appearance.

Lorist held the coin in his hand and gnawed his teeth as he mused to himself, “Els… You really have done it this time… Just you wait…”

But where was he to find Els? Lorist recalled that Charade had said that Els seldom stayed in a fixed location and was almost impossible to find. While he held the position of a syndicate boss and had three districts under his jurisdiction, the affairs of the districts were usually handled by his subordinates. However, Els greatly feared that uncle of his, who happened to be the owner of the Red Grace Inn.

I know, I’ll just head to his uncle’s place. Given his upright demeanor, if he knew that Els was fooling around and peeking in the women’s bathroom by posing as a stone statue, I’m sure he would teach Els a lesson he would never forget.

Lorist spent quite a little effort to call for a horse cart as most of them thought that he was just a beggar and were unwilling to stop for him. When he finally got on one, he asked the driver to send him to the Red Grace Inn. The moment he got off the cart, the driver reminded him kindly, “Mister, while I’m sure there’s a reason why you’re dressed like that, you better change before going in or you’ll probably be chased outside. I wish you a good night, sir.”

Fortunately, Lorist wasn’t thrown out of the inn as Charlando recognized him from that time he beat up his nephew. The only question that lingered within that man’s heart was how did a person with Lorist’s abilities get roughed up to that point? While he wasn’t bleeding out from any wounds, his face had been covered in bluish-black bruises.

“How did you end up like that?” asked Charlando.

“Hi, mister. Have you seen Els? This was all his fault!”

Lorist subsequently explained the events that transpired to Charlando and expressed his regret from having offered Els his help and wished that he had just left him for dead.

With a grim expression, Charlando instructed the serving girl, Louise, to get Lorist a cup of blackcurrant ale before going out to look for Els

It didn’t take long for him to return to the inn with Els in hand. He was still dressed in his pajamas that had several boot marks on it; it was evident that he had been kicked out of bed and dragged over here by his uncle.

“So you’ve been peeking in the women’s bath while posing as a statue, huh? Instead of spending your time on something worthwhile, you’re going around peeping at the ladies?”

Els retorted and said, “That wasn’t peeking. I was only practicing my stealth abilities! Who’s interested at looking at a bunch of old women bathing…”

Pushing Els in front of Lorist, the old man said, “Speak, what happened just now?”

Els was shocked to see Lorist in such a state. “Oh my, what happened to you? Weren’t you looking fine just now?”

Struggling to resist the urge of smashing the cup against Els’s face, Lorist said, “What did you think happened? Why was the mob chasing after you? You still dare to ask what happened to me!?”

Els instantly understood. “Oh, so you were caught by them. Didn’t I warn you to run away as well? Do you regret not listening to me?”

“Good… Good Sol! It wasn’t me who went to peep in the bath!” screamed Lorist, enraged.

“Don’t get so angry, bro. Fine, I’m sorry. I’ll make it up to you. How about this, I’ll treat you to a drink tonight. Order as much as you like,” said Els graciously as he pat Lorist on the shoulder.

Sol… He thinks that I’ll be placated by a few cups of ale? Lorist suddenly felt more rage than ever before. Having seen Els’s character during the last time, he should’ve never bothered to come look for him here in the first place.

Stepping out of his bounds, Els instructed the serving girls to treat all the guests at the inn to a cup of ale and bathed in their praises, totally ignoring the grim expression of his uncle.

Giving him a heavy slap, Charlando said, “Where have you got the money to treat these people? You better settle this issue tonight or I’ll break both of your legs myself lest you go embarrass me even further!”

Finally entering a serious mood, Els admitted that he had sneaked into the bath as a result of losing a bet with someone. He told the people present of his dream to study the ways of a rogue from the magic era. The rogues of ancient times were not like the common thieves of this age but were people who specialized in stealth, lockpicking, tracking, investigation, traps and even assassination. There were also legends of powerful rogue guilds that struck fear deep into the hearts of many.

Els continued to say that given the dark attribute Battle Force passed down through his family, he believed that his ancestors might have been one of the enigmatic rogues during the era of the magic civilization and said that he aspired to train hard and one day rediscover the lost arts of the mysterious rogues.

One day during a drinking session with a friend, he bragged about how he was the descendant of the mystical rogues that once roamed the world. His friend said that if the skills of the rogue were that potent, it would definitely have been passed down throughout the generations. “Do you remember the book you showed me that told of a tale of a hero of the magic civilization?” asked his friend. “It was said that a rogue had sneaked into the bathroom of a princess from an enemy kingdom and overheard her discussing the plans to take down the hero with her lover. While I won’t ask you to sneak into a royal bath, you should at least be able to enter that bath house at that street over there. If you can stay there until the bath house closes without being discovered, I’ll believe that the ancient rogues were truly as powerful as you have claimed.”

Els accepted the dare only to discover that sneaking in was the easy part. The bath was a really wide room that had no corners for him to hide in and only had a number of bathtubs cluttered around in the middle. There was no blind spot at all.

Later, Els discovered a statue that had been discarded at a corner of the bath which looked more or less like a standing man in deep thought. So in the following night, Els creeped into the bath again, broke the statue into pieces and moved it out of the bath. On the second night, he covered himself in white powder and stood in the very same corner that statue was at.

Els was confident that he would not be discovered by the unsuspecting customers as long as he did not move about too much given the relatively low light in the bath house and the steam that further aided in blurring one’s vision.

While everything seemed perfect on paper, there was no way to account for unexpected situations. Coincidentally on that night, two young women walked over towards Els and stopped beside him to share some secrets.

The curvaceous girl told the story of the pleasurable night she had with her lover the night before while the other girl listened with much awe and envy. As the girl told her story, she accidentally knocked the towel that Els had wrapped around his genitals away.

He was startled to find the curvaceous girl pointing at his member as she said to the other girl, “Here, take a look. Men’s cocks usually look like that. While it’s small and harmless right now, you only have to give it a light rub to get it hard and long. It’ll enlarge even more quickly if you use your mouth.”

As she explained away, she used her hands to demonstrate it on Els’s junk. “Come on, try it out yourself like how I’m doing it. I guarantee that most men would get hard in no time.”

The girl merely stood beside the statue with her mouth agape as the well-endowed one continued on, “Pay attention. It’s done like this. It’s already turning hard. If you go at it longer, it will start to let out some secretions…”

She continued to stroke so hard as she chatted away until the male organ sprayed out a thick, white liquid.

“That was too fast! And this is even smaller than my boyfriend’s, how useless and disappointing…” commented the girl.

Els really couldn’t take it anymore, especially after the girl made that final comment, which greatly wounded his pride.

Pushing the two girls away, Els leaped towards the exit with a wounded heart as her comment reverberated in his mind.

“The statue’s alive…”

“Lady goddess, what in the world is going on?”

“No, wait. That’s a man!”

“There’s a naked man in the bath! Catch him!”

The curvaceous girl suddenly came to a realization and blushed heavily before saying, “Catch that asshole! I swear I will kill him!” as the whole bath house erupted into chaos.

The stocky women standing guard at the bath house entrance saw Els run past them without a single article of clothing on him and were totally dumbfounded. “Freeze! Stop, you pathetic peeping jerk!”

The rest of the people on the street soon joined the chase.

Having just came out of the bath house without anything to wear, he could only continue running until he saw Lorist nearby.

Their second encounter also ended with injuries to both sides: Lorist suffered physical blows while Els suffered mental ones to his pride and even sulked about the matter for quite some time.

Chapter 24 Locke and Els (3)

The skies looked crystal clear with the sun emitting its radiance high up in the sky as if it was foretelling the pleasant weather of the rest of the day.

It was the vacation season for the academy and Charade took up a private request which required Lorist to go all over the place for three whole days to finally obtain the things that they needed for the mission. These items were special trapping cages that were commonly used against small magical beasts. At the moment, Lorist and Yuriy were piling the cages up on a large four-wheeled horse cart.

Yuriy was a student of the Dawn Academy and was also an assistant instructor for their horsemanship course with a Battle Force rank of Two Star Iron. Like Lorist, he worked and studied part time and frequently joined up with other mercenaries to accept low-ranked missions for some extra money.

After loading all 14 cages onto the cart and fastening them on with a long rope, Lorist went over everything they had to bring with them once more to ensure that he didn’t miss anything out. Having finished all the checking, he took out a waterskin and drunk a few gulps and patiently waited for Charade to come over.

Private requests were different from normal mercenary missions as the requests were often not processed by the mercenary guilds and were negotiated personally between the requestor and the accepting party. While this allowed one to avoid paying the referral fee to the mercenary guild, it wasn’t without its risks. It wasn’t uncommon for occurrences like sudden mission cancellations, payment refusals or even threats of violence to avoid payment to happen. But the fee collected by mercenary guilds were often rather high, sometimes even up to 40% of the wages. If the rewards were favorable, certain mercenaries would opt to negotiate the request privately instead of having a guild act as a middleman.

“Hey, Locke my brother, what are you up to?” asked Els as he walked over, wearing a large overcoat and giving the cages on the cart and the carriage a curious look. “Oh, you’re going on a mission again, aren’t you?”

Lorist felt a headache welling up with Els’s arrival as the other two times when he met him had caused him much suffering. During the first time they met, he had lost quite a bit of money. While Lorist admitted that he was partly at fault for that, he believed that had Els not clung to him for so long, he would’ve been able to return to his room earlier and might’ve been able to catch the thieving woman red-handed and stop her in time. Their second encounter, however, ended badly even though all Lorist did was lend Els his coat. The part that most infuriated him was the fact that he had been pummeled by normal, non-combatant civilians without being able to resist in fear that he would critically injure them by accident.

Those two encounters left a deep impression of Els being a bringer of bad luck in Lorist’s heart. Lorist made a mental note to be on guard lest he get wrapped up in any more troublesome business.

Els was oblivious to how Lorist felt about him and even believed that they had already become close friends judging by the way he intimately referred to Lorist as his ‘brother’. Seeing the preparations Lorist was making, he thought that he would offer some advice as his ‘senior’.

“Hey, I say, Lorist, there’s no point going after small magical beasts like those. As a mercenary, you should set your sights further! Haven’t you thought about venturing to places like the Magical Beast Forest at the Sunset Mountains, the Doomsday Coast of the Jigda Kingdom or even the Urubaha Subterranean Caverns? While these places are much more dangerous without question, you’ll get much more benefits from those places. Didn’t you hear about the Unicorn Mercenary Corps who made it back from an expedition to the Magical Beast Forest? They really made a killing from that trip; all of the members earned up to 100 gold Fordes each,” babbled Els, occasionally letting out drops of saliva from his mouth as he spoke.

Lorist rolled his eyes as he heard Els name one dangerous place after another, as he thought, you want an Iron ranked mercenary like me to become the dinner of those savage magical beasts!? And I bet you didn’t hear the full story of the Unicorn Corps either. Of the 125 Silver-ranked people in their troupe who went into the Magical Beast Forest, only 43 returned alive a month later! The captain and vice-captain, who were Gold ranked experts, even broke down in tears at the hall of the mercenary guild like little children after making their mission report!

“How do you even have the free time to walk around like this with your position as a syndicate boss? What would you know about the matters of us mercenaries?” rebuked Lorist without holding back in the slightest.

“Heh, I bet your attitude would be different if you knew that I was in fact a mercenary myself, a Silver ranked one at that,” said Els as he casually took out a Silver ranked mercenary badge and pinned it on his chest.

“Eh? Why would a syndicate boss like you need a Silver ranked mercenary badge? It’s not like you would be using it,” questioned Lorist.

“He got his Iron ranked badge back when he was still in the academy taking up missions from time to time. He got a Silver ranked one from the mercenary guild after he became a syndicate boss,” answered Charade.

Turning his head towards Charade’s direction, Lorist saw that he had returned with Terman and two horses.

Terman was a member of the Enforcement Division with a One Star Silver rank and was also one of Lorist’s good friends in the academy.

Pointing at Els and turning his head towards Terman and Yuriy, Charade said, “Guys, this is Brennan Evanport. He’s an alumnus of the Dawn Academy and is also your senior. He used to be my classmate in the past but he graduated early to take up the position of a syndicate boss.”

“Nice to meet you, I’m Yuwen Ridest. Just call me Yuriy.”

“Good day, I’m Waprey Terman.”

Els nodded to the both of them and asked curiously, “Fatty, where are you guys going on this mission?”

“We’re going to the Calisto Hills to exterminate some Metal-eater Rats.”

Metal-eater Rats were, as their name suggested, rats whose main diet consisted of metals. With their size rivaling that of most dogs, they were classified as small magical beasts that lived in swarms in the lower levels of mines. Despite their small size, Metal-eater Rats were notorious for attacking relentlessly until their last breath once agitated. Upon encountering one of them, one should calm down and look as threatening as possible and slowly retreat to a safe distance. However, any person with a Battle Force rank of One Star Bronze could easily dispatch a lone Metal-eater Rat. However, most of the time the rats often appeared in groups and relied on their numbers to swarm their enemies.

Having taken the magical beast biology course offered by his academy, Lorist understood that lone Metal-eater Rats were far and few and would only wander off from their group during mating season. Legend says that the very first magical beast that the first human, who miraculously reawakened the long lost dormant Battle Force within his blood, had taken down was a lone Metal-eater Rat. Had he encountered a whole swarm of those critters, he would have perished undoubtedly and who knew how many more years the humans had to suffer during the dark times.

Given that the Metal-eater Rat was fed upon by many other dangerous magical beasts, they had to be eradicated immediately upon discovery because if the numbers of the rats increase, it would attract the presence of even more fearsome predators to the mines that preyed on the rats and bring further disaster to the mining operations there. One way to get rid of them was to hunt down all the Metal-eater Rat Queens so that the rest of the swarm would leave the area.

One of the more famous mining incidents that had been documented happened in one of the gold mines of the Romon Empire. As a result of not adequately managing the Metal-eater Rat crisis, two gigantic Single-horned Rock Pythons made the mines their home and caused more than 3000 deaths. In the end, the empire’s government had to dispatch a team of more than 60 Gold-ranked experts who were led by a Sword Saint to handle the situation, but it was not without a price: the members of the team had suffered quite a number of casualties as well. The aftermath was that more than 40 noble houses that had been placed in charge of the mines had been severely punished and relinquished of their ranks. Following that incident, the mining operations over the whole continent was always highly alert against potential Metal-eater Rat infestations and made sure to get rid of the problem before it becomes exacerbated.

“Why aren’t Steve and the others here?” asked Lorist.

“Sigh, do you know about the the nature drawing trip the second year art course students are organizing? Steve brought the Kell brothers along to serve as their guard. That’s right, he thinks that going on the trip to protect some beauties is more important than going to clear an infestation out with us,” said Charade with a tone of frustration. He had made so much effort to prepare the necessary equipment they would need for the mission but he had forgotten to invite enough people to join them.

Els’s eyes instantly lit up. “Hey, fatty, why not I go along with you guys?”

Surprised, Charade said, “Why would you want to come along? Aren’t you fine and dandy being a syndicate boss and all? There’s no need for you to go venturing with us. Additionally, this is a private request, so the risk involved is much higher.”

Lorist instantly objected, “Don’t joke around, Charade. Mr Syndicate Boss there only wants to go to places like the Magical Beast Forest and the Doomsday Coast, there’s no way he would want to exterminate some petty rats with us in some mines! He’s just kidding around.”

Els instantly responded in a serious tone, “I’m not joking, dude. To be honest, Charade there knows that I didn’t accept the position of the syndicate boss because I wanted to. It was my boys who forced me to take up that post, I really couldn’t help it. Since they’re handling all the work for me, I’ve been rather bored recently with nothing much to do. So, I thought that it would be a great idea for me to join you guys on this expedition! How I miss the days when I ventured along my fellow schoolmates. Charade, you’ve known me for years, so you should be able to tell what kind of person I am. Just let me come along, I’ll gladly make up for your lack of manpower! I’m sure I can protect myself well enough given my abilities.”

“This…” mumbled Charade hesitantly.

“No way,” said Lorist adamantly. If we let this disaster magnet join us, we might as well go laze around at home instead of having to bear the consequences!

“Fatty, you know the type of Battle Force I train in and my unique skills. I will be nothing but help for you guys at the mines,” persuaded Els.

Huh? What kind of skills is he talking about? Lorist’s curiosity was roused.

“Locke, why do you object to his joining us?” asked Charade.

“I…” It wasn’t like Lorist could say that Els brought bad luck just because of one or two encounters. “We haven’t been on missions with him before, so I’m worried about our compatibility.”

Relived that he thought up a convincing excuse, Lorist wiped the sweat of his face.

“I’ll definitely follow all orders,” said Els.

“You promise?” Charade asked.

“Promise.”

“Alright, welcome to the gang. I, Charade, will be the leader of this party. Go make your preparations and come back here within half an hour. This trip to the Calisto Hills will take about twenty days, you’re okay with that, right?” announced Charade.

“No problem. Um, fatt– I mean, leader, I think it would be better for us to meet up at the Red Grace Inn before we leave. We often get customers who make their private requests there and maybe I could ask my uncle to check whether your client has a credible background before we set out. Maybe we might even be able to accept certain requests that can be fulfilled on our way to the mines. Just tell my uncle that I sent you there, he’ll know about it the moment he sees Locke,” said Els who already offered the party a substantial amount of help the moment he joined.

Charade was instantly moved. He wasn’t aware that the Red Grace Inn secretly handled private requests such as these right under the noses of the mercenary guilds. Then again, it was a rather good operation to mercenaries, as accepting missions from the inn usually had much less risks since the owners wouldn’t vouch for people they didn’t know well enough.

“Alright then, we’ll gather at the Red Grace Inn.”

Even before Charade opened his mouth, the moment the owner of the inn saw Lorist and heard that they were going on a trip, he brought out a notebook that recorded the requests of many other clients and searched for some that Lorist’s party could complete along the way.

Having seen the contents of the notebook, Charade noticed that most of the requests were merely simple errands and ‘want-to-buys’. If these were submitted to the mercenary guilds, they would usually be taken up by Bronze or Iron ranked mercenaries. Given the fees of the guilds, there weren’t that profitable and so not many mercenaries would go out of their way to work on those missions. If these requests were made at the inn, however, people would be more willing to take them up as they would earn quite a sum without paying any extra fees.

After discussing with his team, Charade decided to take up 17 side missions that would earn each of them an extra gold Forde of income. Charlando also mentioned that while the payment wasn’t that high, they were quite abundant in number and he often found it hard to get trusted mercenaries who would be willing to carry them out. If the party was able to complete these without a hitch, he said that they would be welcome to come for more missions in the future.

Els later came over wearing a brand new Fire Salamander leather armor. The skin of the Fire Salamander had the peculiar quality of keeping one’s body warm as well as driving insects away and was particularly suited for underground excursions. However, the price of the material was rather high and was not something that most adventurers and mercenaries could afford. On the leather armor was a badge of a Silver ranked mercenary.

Els loudly introduced his new party members to the customers of the inn as if he was afraid that they wouldn’t notice that he was about to go on a mission. Lorist felt that it was weird that Els’s uncle didn’t mind the fact that his nephew was about to join their party and even treated all the party members to a cup of blackcurrant ale whilst wishing them luck on their mission.

Finally leaving from the city gates, Charade approached the cart on horseback and asked Els, who was in the middle of a conversation with Lorist, something, “Why does your uncle trust Locke so easily? He instantly brought the request notebook out the moment Locke showed his face.”

Lorist found this part weird too as he had only met Charlando twice, with their first meeting even ending up in them fighting. Why did that old guy treat him so well?

Giving Lorist a lazy glance, Els said unenthusiastically, “That old guy says that Locke was a person of good character, given how he foolishly protected that thieving woman that one time due to his sense of justice. He also didn’t resist the pummeling of the crowd of common folk the other time and would rather endure their blows than risk accidentally injuring them. My uncle said that people like that were rare and even asked me to learn from his behavior. What he didn’t take note of was how I, a Silver ranked combatant, would rather run away from that mob than simply beating them down in the first place. I believe that on that front, I was behaving way more graciously than Locke was.”

“Tsk…” Lorist clicked his mouth and said, “Don’t forget that you were running for your life stark-naked at that time.”

The gang instantly erupted in laughter.

Chapter 25 Locke and Els (4)

The Calisto Hills was situated at the borders of the Falik Plains and was connected to the Tedanini Mountains. It was also in the area between the Dwarven Kingdom and the Forde Trade Union. According to the old legends, the remaining magi at the end times of the magic civilization opened a dimensional portal and sent the other sentient beings on the Grindia Continent to different worlds to ensure that the humans would survive the oncoming tribulations and wouldn’t have to compete with the other races. For some reason, however, they missed out the dwarves who had been living around the Tedanini Mountains and slowly, with the passing of two thousand or so years, they had built up their very own kingdom.

Currently, this was the only other sentient being on the Grindia Continent apart from the humans. Given the tendency for the dwarves to reside within mountain ranges, however, they rarely had any conflict with the humans and was even on trading terms.

While the Calisto Mountains was technically in the territory of the Forde Trade Union, the union didn’t hold much governing power in the area. Given the nature of the battle-crazed mountain folk, the trade union treaded carefully and was careful not to offend them in the slightest, lest a large scale conflict erupts. At the moment, the council was considering splitting the Calisto Mountains into several districts in the future and letting those who had contributed to the union govern it.

After three days and two nights of travel, Lorist and gang finally arrived at their destination, Baca Village. The middle-aged village chief who was also the requestor and the owner of the mines, Bam, welcomed them.

Bam was also one of Lorist’s senior students in the academy. With his father having enlisted in the trade union army to fend off the Krissen Empire’s invasion, he retired to the village due to his injuries and resolved himself to make the village prosper after seeing all the progress that is being made at the outside world and barely managed to send Bam to the Dawn Academy. Bam took up two additional professional courses, namely, resource foraging and mine management. However, given that those courses were rather unpopular and the quality of the lecturers were subpar, he only managed to learn those things in theory and never got any practical experience. The academy subsequently discontinued those courses.

After returning to the village, Bam spent five to six years cultivating the skills he had learned and managed to discover several veins of silver and tin ore at a hill near the village. While the excavation amount wasn’t humongous, it was enough to support the livelihood of six other villages around it. The discovery of the mines wiped out poverty and famine from the surrounding villages. Additionally, Bam also used a part of the profit from the ore mines to fund several talented youngsters to go to Morante City for further studies.

The whole gang felt that Senior Bam was pretty impressive for his willingness to forsake the possibility of a grand lifestyle in Morante City for the sake of developing his village and community. Yuriy and Lorist were most impressed with how he used the extra money to sponsor the village youths as they understood that the costs of studying at Morante City wasn’t cheap.

Very frankly, Bam told them about how he first encountered traces of Metal-eater Rats within the vicinity of the mines. Being an Iron ranked swordsman, he formed a group to go take care of the pests. It was not until a while later that they discovered that the infestation wasn’t as simple as they had thought and over the past year, they had killed more than ten of those rats on multiple occasions already. Just two months ago, an attack by a swarm of Metal-eater Rats had killed three and injured five of the miners. That was when he finally decided to end it once and for all and summoned all the villagers who had Battle Force to go on an extermination mission down the mines; including Bam, there were three Iron ranked fighters and eleven Bronze ranked fighters in total.

However, the extermination did not succeed as the swarm of rats numbered more than a hundred and the party of 14 were hard-pressed and not one of them escaped unscathed. Even though they managed to wipe out 30 or so rats, they had struggled to retreat under the relentless attacks of the rat swarm and nine of them ended up with rather severe injuries.

Since that failed attempt, Bam understood the magnitude of the problem and had no choice but to seek aid from mercenaries. After treating all of those who had been injured, the village was only left with less than 30 gold coins and their dire financial straits was further exacerbated by the temporary closing of the mines. Being only able to offer ten or so gold coins as a mission reward, and given the referral fee of five gold coins charged by the mercenary guild, most mercenaries were hesitant on taking the mission up.

Recalling that the students of the Dawn Academy often went on mercenary missions, he reached out to the villagers who were studying there and managed to get in contact with Charade.

Having listened to Bam’s description of the situation, the party was convinced that this mission had relatively low risk asBam was a rather credible person. Charade went on to brief the rest of them about the situation: there was an estimated amount of two to three hundred Metal-eater Rats. With their forces of three Silver ranks and two Iron ranks, even if they couldn’t wipe out all of the rats, it shouldn’t be a problem for them to take out the rat queen and cause the rats to leave the mines.

While a reward of 18 gold coins for the rat extermination was a little lacking, it was already rather favorable for Charade’s party as Bam would also be bringing along two other Bronze Swordsmen to guide them in the mines as well as manage their equipment for no extra charge. The most lucrative point of the mission was that any loot or gains obtained during it belonged solely to the party. There might be a possibility of finding gold nuggets and other rare metals in the rat nests which could be sold for quite a sum. The party decided to rest up for the day before setting out tomorrow.

“While the meat of the Metal-eater Rat is a little sour, it is undoubtedly safe to consume and would taste even better if they were made into jerky. The organs and blood of the rat, however, had to be removed completely as high concentrations of toxic minerals resided within them. The rats’ most threatening feature are their front teeth which are really durable and can be sold for one small silver each on the market. Their pelt however was worthless as it had a distinct foul smell that attracted insects which couldn’t be removed no matter how it was treated, so they are normally discarded.”

Within the mines, Els was assigned the role of the scout and vanguard while Charade, Yuriy and Terman were positioned in the middle and Lorist, Bam and the other two swordsmen constituted the rearguard. At the moment, Lorist was telling Bam what he had learned about the rats from the magical beast biology lessons.

“The Metal-eater Rats hate the smell of pine trees, especially that of their roots. The concoction we sprayed around the entrance was to limit the range of activity of the rats and prevent them from running all over the place.

“This was the result of the research that was completed last year by Professor Snade Borg of our magical beast biology department. He was even rewarded 20000 gold Fordes for this. As long as you apply this pesticide on a regular basis at the mine entrance, you would be free from Metal-eater Rat infestations.

“To top that off, it’s not that expensive at all. A large bucket of it only costs about 3 gold Fordes and can last for as long as a month. After using this for a year or two, a natural pine smell will form around the mines and you won’t have to use it any longer. Senior Bam, please consider this quickly as we have a limited supply. You can only get these from academy insiders so please feel free to make your order with us.”

Lorist was really enthusiastic about promoting the pesticide as he stood to gain one gold Forde for every bucket sold. If he managed to sell 12 buckets per year, that would mean an extra 12 gold Fordes of income for him annually without breaking a sweat.

As they descended further into the mines, they wiped out two waves of rats along the way, which numbered up to more or less 200 of them. The performance and efficacy of the team greatly impressed Bam and the Bronze Swordsmen that followed along.

With Charade, Els and Terman standing at three points around him with him in the middle, Yuriy proved to be quite capable at supporting the team and allowed the rest to slaughter the rats without worry. Lorist himself was even more amazing; he moved separately from the rest of them and easily took care of as many rats as those in the formation himself without getting even a single bloodstain on him.

Senior Bam and his attendants were embarrassed at the fact that nine out of their group of fourteen had incurred severe injuries on their previous extermination attempt after seeing how Lorist’s group killed the rats easily and effortlessly, as if it were just a common training exercise.

After killing off the remaining rats in the second wave, the party decided to rest for a while as they removed the valuable parts of the rat that could be sold for money. Yuriy took out a large plier and used it to pluck the front teeth of all the rats. Having been told by Lorist that the meat of the rats was edible, Bam requested the group to give the meat to them to help alleviate the food shortage problem in their village.

Having rested up and eaten some dry rations, Charade instructed the group to split up and led Terman and Yuriy into the left cavern while Lorist and Els headed for the right one. Given that most of the rats had been exterminated, all that was left was to take care of the rat queen.

Slinging the bag filled with rat teeth on his back, Lorist casually smeared some of the pesticide on the walls of the cavern as he walked along the path.

“What are you up to?” Els asked.

Lorist responded by telling Els about the effects of the pesticide half-heartedly given that Els would not be interested in purchasing any of it from him anyway. Els doubted the efficacy of the pesticide however and they broke into an argument.

Having walked for quite some time and reaching the end of the road, they didn’t discover anymore rats. Els said, “Let’s go back. There’s no point in remaining here.”

Just as he finished his words, the rock wall in front of him suddenly jolted and cracked open with a loud sound. A head of a large beast emerged from the hole in the wall, sniffed the air around it and leaped in Lorist and Els’s direction.

“What is that!?” exclaimed Lorist in shock as he dropped the torch in his hand. “Isn’t this fellow a little too big? The head itself has a diameter of two meters!”

“Better run!” said Els loudly as he grabbed Lorist’s arm and turned to run the other direction.

“Sol, I knew that bringing you along was a bad call! The last two times were bad enough. For the whole of this mission, I’ve been worried that something terrible would happen. I can finally stop guessing, now that this critter has shown up in the middle of the rat extermination mission…” called Lorist as he ran behind Els.

“You haven’t even thanked me for saving you yet! If I were a little bit late, you would’ve been swallowed whole by now! You even dropped our torch!” replied Els.

“I was suddenly reminded of the Single-horned Rock Python that was said to live in the mines. That thing back there definitely had a long body and a really large head! If that isn’t the python, I don’t know what is!” said Lorist, slightly embarrassed at the fact that he had indeed been saved by Els’s quick thinking.

Els turned his head to the back before saying, “It doesn’t look like a Single-horned Rock Python to me. It has a round head and doesn’t seem to have any scales or eyes. Its speed isn’t that fast either.”

“How can you see in this darkness? Do I look like a child that would fall for your lies? And hey, don’t run so quickly! What if we run straight into a wall!?” shouted Lorist.

“Haha,” Els laughed lightly. “You know that I train in a darkness attribute Battle Force, right? I bet you didn’t know that people who trained in that type of Battle Force had night vision. I can see just as good in the darkness as I do in broad daylight! That’s my special ability! How is it? Are you envious? I can still see so well even without the torch you dropped.”

“Good Sol, I have enough money to buy all the torches I need. I don’t need that stinking ability!” Feeling rather envious, Lorist thought, This guy’s ability of being able to see in the dark is not at all inferior to my own dynamic vision… And it’s extremely helpful in poorly-lit environments…

“Then I bet you were enjoying the sights in the bath on that day. Even though the lighting is pretty bad in there, I bet you could see all of them with perfect clarity given your ability,” said Lorist as he panted heavily.

“Can you please not bring that up again? I was facing the wall at that time and couldn’t see even one of them…” Just as Lorist reminded him of that incident, Els recalled the cruel and demeaning remark by that girl that deeply wounded his pride and tripped on a piece of rock as he lost focus.

Lorist swiftly helped Els to his feet. “Eh? Locke, are you hurt? Why’re your clothes wet?”

Stunned, Lorist felt his body up and said, “Oh, that’s not blood. The waterskin holding the pesticide burst and released all of its contents on my body. That fall didn’t hurt you badly, right? We better hurry, I’m starting to hear that thing closing in.”

“I’m fine. Let’s go.”

In a short while, they went back to their previous resting place where Charade and the rest were waiting. Seeing Lorist and Els’s haggard looks, they broke into a stream of laughter until they heard the rumbling coming from the tunnel behind them and started running towards the cavern exit for their lives.

Despite having a stocky build, Charade was the fastest of them all and escaped the caverns and was followed by Yuriy, Terman, Bam and one of the Bronze Swordsmen with Lorist and Els trailing along at the end. The other Bronze ranked helper who was packing the rat carcasses onto the cart outside the mines looked at their panicked expressions with wonder. What had happened in the mines while he was away?

Charade screamed, “Get out of the way! A magical beast is coming out from the entrance!”

That instantly set the rest of the group into panic. Fortunately, the beast retreated into the mines as if it was afraid of the strong sunlight.

Letting out a relieved breath, Charade asked Lorist and Els what happened. “What was that? How did you end up encountering it? And, what’s that smell on you, Locke? Did your bladder go loose?”

Lorist explained, “No, the pesticide got splashed all over my body. It’s the one developed by professor Snade Borg. I brought some over cause I heard that we would be eradicating Metal-eater Rats.”

“Good Sol! Let me take a look at that pesticide! I think I know what that monster back there is!” said Charade as he walked towards Lorist angrily, seemingly wanting to give him a punch or two.

“Wait, what’s wrong? Wasn’t it a good idea to bring along the pesticide for the Metal-eater Rats?” asked Lorist as he dodged the fatty’s punches.

“Good idea my ass! While that concoction can indeed repel Metal-eater Rats, it would also attract Ground Wyrms! That thing back there was a Ground Wyrm that had been lured over by the smell of that pesticide!

“Do you even know how serious that was? Ground Wyrms are magically mutated versions of common earthworms and they are attracted to the smell of pine tree roots! If you don’t believe me, try digging out the roots of a pine tree and see if you find a nest of earthworms there! There are even people in the academy who are using that ‘pesticide’ of yours as Ground Wyrm lure!

“That professor even lost the 20000 gold Fordes that had been awarded to him after they found out about the unintended effect and caused lots of leftover pesticide to be stocked up at the academy, didn’t you know? Sol, only an idiot like you would fall for his schemes!” screamed Charade with all his breath.

Good Sol, no wonder that professor said that he would give me one gold coin for every bucket sold! So, it was a defective product! Holding his head and curling up on the ground, Lorist merely said, “All of you guys, please hit me to your hearts’ content. I deserve this.”

But nobody went over to beat him up and merely calmed down to figure out how they would solve the problem at hand. Relative to other magical beasts, the Ground Wyrm wasn’t too hard to take care of. They decided to lure it out with a large hook and rope after some discussion.

The Ground Wyrm was essentially an oversized earthworm; it was aversive to sunlight and water and was considered relatively harmless to most other magical beasts. It didn’t pose that much of a threat to small, agile targets given its large, imposing body and slow speed. Charade and his party spent six whole days with the cooperation of the Baca villagers to put together a hundred meter long rope with a large hook at its end and sent Lorist down the mine with the hook to atone for his grave mistake.

Before he left, Els walked over from the crowd. Lorist asked, “Are you gonna do it for me?”

“I’m going to accompany you down there. If Yuriy and Terman wasn’t assigned to hold the rope by Charade, they would’ve accompanied you as well. After all, we’re friends, aren’t we?”

It was at that moment when Lorist was moved to tears.

They put the hook down after walking a certain distance into the mines and wrapped it with a bundle of cloth that was soaked in the ‘pesticide’. Without much delay, a rumbling sound could be heard from the depths of the caverns and the both of them ran out of it at full speed.

On their way to the exit, the rope snapped upward tightly. Lorist said cheerfully, “It got hooked!”

Outside the mines, Charade was directing the villagers to pull on the rope with all their force. Even after busting their backs for the whole afternoon, the Ground Wyrm simply refused to come out. After a final heave, the people present witnessed blood splatter out of the entrance of the mines as the internals of the Ground Wyrm were pulled out of its carcass.

Looking at the scene with a hint of satisfaction, Charade said, “Not bad, given how its internals were pulled out, that Ground Wyrm’s dead for sure. We’ll go harvest its skin tomorrow.”

Given the amazing regenerative capabilities of Ground Wyrms, the only viable method of getting rid of it was to use a hook to pull the internals out. While the rest of the beast wasn’t worth much, its skin could be boiled to extract a strong adhesive which could be mixed with sand to form sturdy building material.

To further make up for Lorist’s error, Charade gave the skin to Bam, much to his delight, as he would be able to make new houses for his villagers with the skin of the Ground Wyrm.

After spending another three days clearing out the mines of any remaining Metal-eater Rats, the party put one of the small cages they brought around the entrance of the mines and with a rat corpse inside it. The decaying corpse would serve as an effective repellant for other Metal-eater Rats and keep them away from the mines.

Having wrapped up the whole affair, the gang bade farewell to Senior Bam and started their journey back to the city.

Chapter 26 Els’s Request

It was only after that incident with the Ground Wyrm when Lorist changed his impression of Els. Following that, they went on more missions together and eventually their friendship developed to a point where they could talk about almost anything.

The passage of time was indeed fast. He was only 19 at that time whereas in the present, he was 24. That span of five years was enough for Lorist to mature from a greenhorn mercenary to a veteran one.

Lorist wondered to himself why he recalled the events of the past all of a sudden for no reason. Was it the due to suddenly cutting ties with Wenna just moments before? After all, the relationship did last for four whole years and it wasn’t something he could forget quickly even if he wished to. Only the passage of time could slowly lift the layers of yearning he had for her. He only hoped that he would able to leave this all behind and start fresh when the sun rose on the next day.

“Why have you come to the room? To watch me sulk?” said Lorist as he felt his face for any tears. Good thing there wasn’t any, otherwise he would be laughing his ass off by now.

“Well, when I heard about the breakup from Uncle Girald, I thought I would be able to watch a funny scene right out of a melodrama, probably something along the lines of rekindled love and a rush of passion and lust that will end up in an affair between you and that little lady. Who would expect for you to act so cold and for her to be so casual about it and just part with you like that. How disappointing,” Els said, spewing a bunch of crap as usual.

“Hehe, I’m sorry I let you down then,” laughed Lorist lightly.

“Don’t be. I’ve always known that you’re no acting material and wouldn’t put up a good show. Oh, and, what’s with the duel notices that were put up all over the place? I was just planning to go to the academy and ask Charade what was going on,” said Els.

“Well, it’s nothing big. That old bastard Levins made a bet with the other academy heads that I could defeat every Silver ranked instructor from the other academies in a duel. He exploited that opportunity to take a registration fee for the duels earn some extra cash as well as to raise the reputation of the academy. That’s why he had Charade going all over the place to put up those notices,” explained Lorist.

Els did not show any sympathy for his friend’s plight and only mused to himself with an excited expression on how he could use this opportunity to make some profit too. Lorist merely said, “There’s no way you would be able to make anything in the academy sector. That old fox probably has everything covered and wouldn’t let any chance to earn money slip by under his nose. Who knows if he already plans to do something city-wide? Well, the only place where you might be able to set up your operations would be at the inns. Though, it probably would be at a much smaller scale than you had hoped.”

“The inns are more than enough. There are 48 districts in Morante City with 3 other new districts with a total of 27 syndicate bosses managing them. I only need to set up one betting operation in an inn across all the districts. As long as I’m willing to offer a cut to the other bosses, they would be more than happy to allow me to run it. Even if that old fox were to try to pull something similar off, without the connections I have, there’s no way that he can match the payout that I can provide. We’ll see which betting operation will attract more people,” said Els with much excitement, impatiently waiting for the days to come.

Sighing in his heart, Lorist thought back at the Els he knew from five years ago who didn’t care for any of his responsibilities and only wanted to go adventure to build a name for himself as a legendary mercenary. Right now, however, he had the air of a real syndicate boss who let no opportunity to profit slip by his eyes. It seems that these five years have not only changed Lorist but his friend as well.

“Now that you mention it, your plan seems like it would work out after all. But you didn’t even consider whether I was willing to go to duel them or not. Well, not like I have any choice in that matter. What if I were to lose for some reason, though?”

“Hehe, you think I don’t know you after all these years? If you were to truly lose, then it would really be the joke of the century. While my darkness attribute Battle Force is harder to train in and Charade has already overtaken me to reach the Three Star Silver rank, I believe that no other Silver Swordsman in the whole city can take either of us on. But against you, however, both Charade and I hasn’t even won a single match. Even that one time when we fought you two-on-one, we could only hold on for up to 100 moves before losing to you. I wouldn’t believe that you would lose to a Silver rank even if you beat me into submission,” Els told Lorist with much confidence.

Lorist could only roll his eyes.

“Alright brother, I won’t let you walk away with nothing. How about this, I’ll let you take a 10% cut? No? Then 15%! Still won’t do? Alright then, 20% is the most I can give you. I’ll have to use the rest to feed my men, you know,” said Els.

“Alright, deal,” said Lorist as he stretched his hand out lazily. “Go look for that fatty tomorrow and ask him about the dueling schedule and get an info sheet on the challengers. That will help you organize the betting better. Oh, and don’t forget that he’ll pester you for a share of the profit as well.”

“I know, he’s getting 10% at most. After giving the rest of the syndicate bosses and inn owners their cuts, I’ll be left with roughly 30-40%, which is still a rather good haul,” Els said as he slapped Lorist’s extended palm away. Already imagining the bag of gold coins in his hands, Els started to feel even more pumped.

“Oh, Locke, I almost forgot another thing. That’s… Ah, I got you a disciple,” Els wrinkled his forehead in thought and said.

“What? A disciple? Are you kidding me?” said Lorist, astonished. Come on, I’m not old enough to be someone’s master, am I?

“This…” Els hesitated a bit before grabbing his head in frustration and saying, “Well, it’s not anything that formal. You just have to let him follow you around and teach him some moves whenever you can. Treat him as your personal attendant if you’d like. He’ll be perfect for the job since he’s pretty well built and has rather good stamina.”

Hearing Els describe that person, Lorist started to get interested. “Just tell me what this is about.”

“Alright, Locke. You know that thing about my subordinates…”

Lorist understood how Els came to become a syndicate boss. Twenty years ago, both his parents were Gold ranked combatants and were a rather famous couple who lead a mercenary group. However, twenty years ago, Els’s parents joined the Battle of Whitestag Town. In that battle, the Krissen Empire lost their only Sword Saint, but the trade union’s forces did not emerge unscathed from that battle either. Most of the mercenaries hired to join that battle had perished, among which included Els’s mother. His father incurred heavy injuries and died of illness several years later. The only one left in their mercenary group was Els’s uncle, Charlando and several other Silver ranked mercenaries. Charlando was hurt in his leg and became a limp who was unable to progress from the Two Star Gold rank any further.

With their ace fighters gone, the mercenary group could only disband. Having considered the worst scenario, Els’s parents had previously made some arrangements for the remaining members of the group prior to their deaths: they provided the relatives of all members with housing in the same district. Even after the mercenary group had disbanded, the relatives of the members looked out for each other and they were also taken care of by the Morante City administration for the contributions of their family members who were in the mercenary group.

Having started an inn to be able to better educate and look out for the offspring of the members of the mercenary group, Charlando placed his hopes on the children and hoped that they would one day take up the banner of their group once again. Els was the unofficial leader of the group of children as he was the eldest and was also the strongest among them. He also cared for them a lot as if they were his blood-related siblings from a young age.

Seeing the kids grow and mature and given that Els was going to graduate from the Dawn Academy soon, Charlando was elated and predicted that the glorious days of the mercenary group will once again come. What caught him off guard was the event that made Els take up the position of a syndicate boss.

The Forde Trade Union had a unique governing system which handed the administration rights of the various districts to several syndicate bosses who had their own underlings and groups. While that legitimized the syndicates and greatly decreased the crime rate, bosses who operated beyond the law wasn’t unheard of. One such person was the syndicate boss in charge of the districts Els and his buddies lived in.

While the syndicate bosses have the right to impose taxes on the citizens on the district, this one was even worse in that he even collected taxes for clothes-drying, land-occupation and even for road repairs, and incited the rage of the citizens in the district and almost let a violent conflict erupt. Els’s gang even resisted and sent the tax collectors to the medical centers given their youthful recklessness.

However, the syndicate boss wasn’t pleased to hear that and believed that Els represented a bad example to the rest of the citizens of the district and was the main culprit of the resistance he was facing. Intending to forever remove the pain in his ass, the boss started to think of ways to handle him. It was at this moment when one of his subordinates brought him news that angered him greatly. It seemed that the whole district was planning to protest in an effort to force the city council to remove the syndicate boss from his position.

Having already paid a management fee to the city council that he hasn’t earned back from the taxes he collected, the syndicate boss racked his brains and came out with an idea: he planned to kill Els and make an example out of him to deter future protesters.

But his gang alone didn’t have the power to take Els down as he had a Gold ranked Swordsman standing behind him. Unwilling to hire professional killers for a large sum, the syndicate boss resorted to setting Els’s house on fire and hoped that he would perish in the burning embers.

Unfortunately, just when his subordinates arrived, they were discovered by Els and his gang and were beaten up to the point when they confessed their boss’s intentions. This incited the citizens and prompted them to surround the mansion of the syndicate boss to remove him once and for all. Unable to escape, the boss was captured by Els and had been clobbered to death by the raging citizens before Els could react.

With the position of the syndicate boss now vacant, the elders of the district discussed with one another and picked Els to succeed the position. Els, not wanting to disappoint the people, could only take it without complaint.

Given that he didn’t accept the position willingly, Els slacked off on the responsibilities of the syndicate boss. Luckily, he had many trustworthy subordinates who handled everything without problem and didn’t cause him any worry. In the years to come, Els only found out that the other two districts had also fell under his jurisdiction without him knowing. That was how Charlando’s ideal mercenary group morphed into one of the most active and developmental district syndicates of Morante City instead.

Back when the mercenary group disbanded, a Silver ranked member who was a good pal of Charlando prepared to return to his homeland in the Romon Empire. Before he left, he expressed his hope that the descendants of his comrades would one day take up the banner of the mercenary group again. Just three months prior, Charlando met a beggar from the Romon Empire who revealed that he was the son of that comrade from the Romon Empire.

Upon further questioning, Charlando got to know about the death of his comrade just the year before. After returning to his rural village, that Silver Swordsman joined the garrison there and settled down two years later and birthed a son that was the beggar in front of Charlando. Just two years ago, an epidemic broke out in the village and his mother passed away, followed by his father who held on for half a year. At his deathbed, he instructed his son to go to find Charlando in Morante City to join the mercenary group.

While it would only take less than half a month to go to Morante City from his village by way of a carriage, the son wasn’t aware of it and traveled for half a year on foot all the way and begged when he ran out of money for food and slept outdoors in the wilderness for the whole of the journey. It was already quite a feat that he wasn’t captured by slave traders for the whole time.

Having heard the arduous journey that the child of his comrade had experienced, Charlando let out a stream of tears and treated him with utmost care and even told Els to regard him as his own brother. After learning that the mercenary group would no longer be formed, however, the beggar flipped out and refused to join Els’s group. Troubled, Charlando could only send that child to school only to receive a notice that he had been expelled as a result of beating up all his classmates.

“This is already the third elementary academy that he has been expelled from. To think that we’ve hoped that he would be able to apply for a place at Dawn Academy after a year of the elementary course… It looks like that won’t be happening anytime soon. The old man asked him what he would like to study. He only said that he wanted to learn the ways of the sword and become a mercenary one day to venture about on the continent. The question wasn’t on whether he had the will to learn, but rather one of his talent…”

Els continued his rant, “That kid lived all his life in the rural village and played around in the forest a lot. Coupled with his carefree parents, he developed a stubborn and wild personality and will not stop after he set his mind on something. I believe that a stick would be more threatening in his hands than a sword at this point. He’s already a Two Star Bronze fighter at the age of sixteen and has a really large build that made him look almost twenty. Given his innate strength, you’d think that he would be a talent worth cultivating. But in actuality, he’s pretty slow and will forget a move he was taught within ten minutes. The way he swings his sword around like a crazed barbarian really irks me.

“Even the old man can’t do anything about it. That’s when I thought: if there’s anyone who can teach him the sword, that would be you,” Els declared.

Letting out a loud laugh, Lorist said, “Even a Gold Swordsman like old Char wasn’t able to teach him swordsmanship. What could an Iron rank like me do?”

“Locke, I know you’re different. Your swordsmanship skill definitely exceeds that of my uncle. Just do me a favor and give him a chance, if he’s really not swordsman material, you can send him back to me then,” begged Els.

Lorist thought deeply for a bit before nodding and saying, “Alright, I’ll give him a chance.”

Author’s note: Most high ranked academies in Morante City like the Dawn Academy doesn’t simply allow one to apply as a student. An applicant must be able to pass an entrance test that determines their level of intellect and cultural knowledge. That’s why there are many elementary academies in the city that specializes in preparing the students for the tests, much like the tuition classes that prepare students for university entrance tests in Lorist’s previous world.

Chapter 27 Final Preparations

"Thanks brother. Just let him work as your personal assistant and teach him some swordsmanship whenever you're free. While that kid is wild and stubborn, he's not that bad and gives it his best when he works. I'll feel more assured if he's by your side and not causing me any more worry," said Els with a face filled with gratitude.

Lorist waved his hand and said, "Hehe, no worries. It's not like we're strangers. Not to mention, I have just moved into the Gold ranked instructor residential area recently. Given the size of my new home, I could really use some extra help. It's thanks to you I won't have to hire anyone else."

"Oh, I feel like I'm forgetting something else..." Having thanked Lorist for agreeing to take that kid in, Els seemed like he was trying hard to recall something else.

"Hmm... When I was walking past here with Jindoz, Uncle Girald told me that you've returned. That's when I decided to come over. What did Jindoz say when he heard about your coming back? I think it was about brother Laude... The next district... Representative Wombart... Could it be about that perverted old freak!? Ah! I finally remember!" exclaimed Els.

"Hehe, my dear brother Locke, did you bring the goods I asked for back from your Relic Islands expedition?" said Els with a wide grin as he stretched out both his hands.

"Oh, you mean the Terrence-donkey Whip? I went through great lengths to get that for you... But that uncle of yours confiscated it. He said that you often neglect your training and play with women all day long and was quite pissed that you even dared to attempt to consume aphrodisiac... That's why he took that with him and asked you to go get it from him yourself," said Lorist as he repeated what Charlando had said to him.

"What? My uncle has the goods?" said Els as he started in shock. "Nonsense! My sexual prowess is still robust and well! That meddling old man... Causing trouble for me all the time... I actually got that for that lewd old man Representative Wombart! Now that the other two districts' boss, Isidor, is retiring, I have negotiated with him to take over the management of the districts. I only need to satisfy the council representatives' regulations to get things going."

Seeing Els freak out like that, Lorist laughed for a while and continued, "Sigh, Els... Didn't the city management set a rule that one syndicate cannot be in charge of more than three districts? You already have three under your wing, now you're thinking of taking up another two? Why would the city council agree to that?"

"This was all Jindoz's idea. He suggested that we have brother Laude take action and have half of our crew and Isidor's crew to form another syndicate to manage the extra districts. On the surface, it will be managed by two different syndicates. However, it will actually operate as one," explained Els all in one go. "That Wombart fellow is really hard to handle... Even though I've given him a hundred gold coins, he still won't promise me anything and only said that he'll give it a try. Later, after I heard about the miraculous effects of the Terrence-dokey Whip from one of my subordinates, I asked you to bring one back from the Relic Islands. I had really hoped that after consuming that medicine, Wombart would die after playing around with more women than he can handle."

While Els casually cursed Wombart to death, he naturally didn't mean it literally. If that were to happen, it would only cause more trouble to him and force him to bribe some other council representative instead.

Lorist thought for a bit and came up with an idea. When he purchased the Terrence-donkey Whip from the Relic Islands, he had heard that only a small, thin piece was enough for a man to get it up throughout the whole night. The amount he brought back was enough for 200 such slices. Lorist planned to cut them up into pieces, pack ten or so slices inside nice glass jars and pickle them with some other medicinal wines to make it a premium and expensive looking novelty that would also serve as an excellent as a gift. The most important part was only putting enough of the donkey whip in each jar, unlike Els, who had planned to give the whole thing to Wombart. The whole thing was enough to last a person for three whole years! It would be extremely hard to ask favors from Wombart anymore if his expectations rise from that extravagant gift.

"Wow, why didn't I think of that? I didn't know that you're quite the schemer yourself," said Els happily. Lorist's suggestion opened up a whole window of opportunity for him. He instantly came up with an even grander plan, "Maybe we can start a whole business out of this... Next time, we'll send people to the Relic Islands to buy up all of these Terrence-donkey Whips, even if they're at three times market price, slice them up, and package them nicely before selling it out! It would definitely be a money-making business. Only, procuring glass jars would be a little troublesome."

Lorist nodded at Els's concern. Only two kinds of glass could be found on the Grindia Continent. The first type was green glass: it was a murky green-colored glass that doesn't have good transparency and was commonly used for making windows due to its low price point. The other type, oil glass, was far clearer and transparent and was usually picked to make glassware such as wine glasses and bowls. Though, the price of that material was far more expensive in comparison.

These two types of glass were products produced only by the Forde Trade Union's southern neighbor, the Teribo Kingdom, because the material required to make the glass could only be found at the largest quartz mountain within the kingdom. The production method of either glass was a national secret and was tightly guarded to prevent leakage. According to the legends, back in the magic civilization, the magi used their mystical powers to produce glass which far exceeds glass today in terms of quality. It was a shame that the techniques used in the past had vanished in the end days of the civilization.

One magus, however, had managed to devise a method to produce green glass and oil glass without magical formations and passed the secrets of its creation to his descendants. When the Teribo Kingdom was formed, the descendants of the magus gave the production method to the king and had their family status elevated to that of a duke's. The Teribo Kingdom had been exporting their glass products to the rest of the continent ever since.

After inspecting the two types of glass, Lorist thought that the reason green glass had such a high opacity was due to the impurities that were not removed during the production process. Why then, had the glass production techniques of green glass not improved over the years to get rid of that problem? The fact that the quality of green glass had remained unchanging all these years was an intriguing mystery.

As for oil glass, it was something that Lorist had never seen before even in his past life. It looked a lot like the common, clear glass in his previous world, but it had a 'slippery' quality that caused nothing to be able to stick on it. It was said that the 'slipperiness' of the glass made it the ideal material to make laboratory apparatus for the magi given that it was easy to wash and clean. The see through quality of the glass also made it easy for the magi to observe the changes going on within the apparatus.

In one of the experiments Lorist did, he tried to coat an oil glass test tube with a strong adhesive. After it dried up, he picked the test tube up and gave it a light shake or two. It only took a while before the dried adhesive fell off the test tube like crumpled old paper.

This peculiar quality also caused Lorist quite a headache when he was deliberating between the two types of glass to use for the windows of the boutique. Green glass couldn't display their clothes with their full glory while oil glass couldn't be easily made into flat sheets. Lorist only managed to solve the problem by asking a few craftsmen to carve up a piece of large crystal into a flat sheet to be used as the window and used the crystal shards as decorations for the chandeliers inside the shop, spending more than ten gold coins in the process.

"Currently, oil glass test tubes usually cost around one large silver each while oil glass tea sets can go up to one gold coin per set. Maybe you can go ask someone to make a jar prototype and ask for a price quotation from the producers in the Teribo Kingdom? As long as it's lower than 1 gold coin each, it will be fine. You can just consider that part of the production cost. In marketing, the most important part is the packaging. As long as it looks expensive, people will be willing to pay a high price for it," said Lorist.

"Hm, now that you said it, it does seem like it will sell well. Alright, I'll be heading straight to the inn just in case that old guy uses up that medicine!" Els said impatiently and prepared to rush over to the inn to demand that item from Charlando.

Lorist laughed as he called out, "Come on, Charlando won't need something like that! While he may be quite harsh on you at times, he's actually looking out for you in his own way. Oh, and don't forget to hand 18 gold coins over to him when you take it. I'll get it from him later."

"Oh, there's one thing that you might have not heard about yet. Last month, that old uncle of mine actually proposed to Louise, and she agreed! In another two months, she'll be the female owner of the Red Grace Inn. To think that 60 year old man would decide to settle down, the fact that Louise agreed despite their age difference was surprising too. That's why I was so worried about leaving the aphrodisiac with him!" exposed Els.

"Is that true?" Lorist instantly sat straight.

"Of course. Everyone already knows since a month ago. Maybe they just forgot to bring it up while you were there," said Els.

Lorist sincerely felt happy for Louise when he heard that she was going to settle down. While Charlando was already rather old, he was a pretty good man who was still in decent physical shape given his abilities as a Gold ranked swordsman. Maybe Els would have another younger cousin brother or sister in the years to come.

"It seems that I'll have to go look for a congratulatory gift for the two of them," muttered Lorist.

"There's no rush, the ceremony's in another two months. Help me pick one out for them too. I'm too busy to be bothered with stuff like that," Els said. "I'm going to the inn now. Will you be tagging along?"

"Nope, I'll spend one last night in this room. Do send 2 coachmen here tomorrow to help me move my stuff back to the academy and get that kid who wants to learn swordsmanship to come along too."

"Alright, I'll take my leave now then." Els slipped into the shadows silently and the room returned to its former tranquility, as if no one else other than Lorist had been here all along.

......

The sky slowly brightened as the city dwellers woke from their slumber one by one. The streets slowly filled with people and horses as Morante City started the day with renewed vigor.

Lorist slept on the table throughout the night. He let out a smile after seeing the moonlight recede from the room as the twin moons disappeared in the sky whilst the bright morning rays shone through the horizon.

It was a new day for a fresh start.

The voice of servants talking could be heard downstairs. After a while, a knock resounded on Lorist's door.

Lina came in with another female servant. The two of them served Lorist a large helping of breakfast just like they did for the past three years.

Lina seemed like she cried for the whole night given her puffy eyes.

The other servant exited the room and left Lina and Lorist in the room together.

Lorist looked at those puffy eyes and resisted the urge to laugh. "Why didn't you rub your eyes with some eggs? It helps with the puffiness."

"I'm alright. I was just too busy that I forgot," said Lina as she turned away, not wanting Lorist to look at her face.

"Sigh..." Lorist stood up, went to his bookshelf and took out a thick book that was wrapped in a dust jacket. The book was titled 'The Fantastical Adventures of Knight Mingorak'. It seemed to be a fictional adventure tale.

Placing the book on the table in front of Lina, Lorist said, "Here, it's for you."

Seeing Lina's confused expression, Lorist explained as he laughed, "I know that you don't like to read novels like these just like your mistress. Just open the book up and you'll be surprised."

Carefully prying the book open, Lina clasped her mouth in surprise. Within it was pages and pages filled with designs for women's clothing.

"All of these were drawn by me during the past year. The mistress wanted to put all of these to production, but she was stopped by me. That's because if all of them were to be released to the market at once, it would cause lots of confusion and we'll lose the ability to control the fashion trends, which will ultimately lead to a decrease in profit. That's why for the past few years, I only allowed a little over than a hundred designs to be released, some of which that had undergone the creative changes that you lot have made. Within this book is 300 or so designs which haven't seen the light of day yet. I'm giving them to you, Lina."

"Does... does the mistress know about this?" said Lina as she hugged the book in her chest as if she was afraid that it would be taken from her.

"She knows, but she'll never expect that I've drawn so many. Do you see the mess in the room? That was all created by the mistress when she tried to search for the designs while I was away. Little did she know that they were hidden on the bookshelf, right under her nose. She didn't ask me for them last night though... Maybe she thinks that I still hate her," said Lorist with a hint of bitter pain as he let out a light laugh.

"What I will tell you later should not be made known to anyone aside from your father. Do you understand?" said Lorist as he looked deeply into Lina's eyes.

"I... I swear..." said Lina as she stuttered.

"Tell your father, Knight Somm, that I think that depending on the Lorf house is not a wise move. The mistress was willing to marry into the house because she thought they would be able to protect the Windsor house. If the Lorf house's intention is to take advantage of the Windsor house, however, then there will be nothing else for the Windsor house to rely on. This was especially the case given how your mistress sold away the businesses she had in Morante City. At this point, we can only hope that the Lorf Marquis truly loves her and doesn't have any hidden agendas.

"Your mistress told me yesterday that the marquis had a method of taking over the dominions of the four houses that were the enemies of the Windsors and would give the them half of the dominion that they have obtained. If that succeeds, then you might even become a noble yourself one day. Tell your father that he can agree to cooperate with the Lorf house on everything but these two factors.

"First, never let the 11-year-old Windsor young master accept knight education and training from the Lorf house just in case they plan to harm him under the pretense of an accident. Always let the young master be by your father's side and send him to Morante City for his studies when he matures. Second, when the young master grows up, the Lorf house might suggest a political marriage between the two families. To prevent that from happening, tell your father to prepare a suitable partner for the young master early on so that the Lorf house can't take advantage of that.

"The last thing is about you, Lina. Don't let anyone know that I've given you those designs, not even Suzy or the young mistress. This time, the young mistress plans to restart her business in the Jigda Kingdom with the aid of the Lorf house. I'm worried that they are targeting the young mistress's apparel business as well. Should that happen one day, these designs will help you and her start over from scratch. I'm afraid that you'll be in danger if word about you having the designs get out. That's why, don't tell anyone else, alright?"

Lina nodded fervently with her face flushed red as tears welled up in her eyes.

"If the Lorf house truly doesn't have any bad intentions towards the Windsors, then you can give the young mistress one or two designs once a month and tell her that you drew them yourself. It's okay. I've seen how talented you can be when you made the creative alterations here and there. When designing something, the most important thing is to have originality and individuality. As long as you can make your name as a talented fashion designer, it wouldn't be suspicious for you to release more of the designs gradually in the future."

Looking outside the window, Lorist said, "Oh, the horse carts are already here. It's time I bid you goodbye. Did you understand what I said just now?"

"Yes, I have, master Locke. I will do as you say."

Chapter 28 Selling Books And Requesting Help

The three horse carts quickly arrived at the Dawn Academy Gold ranked instructor residential area. Lorist stood waiting at the gate of house no. 35. It seems that Kelly has awoken and already started cleaning the place up. I better not give her any extra trouble. Lorist instructed the three coachmen to move the books and some other stuff to the stables in the yard.

Giving each coachman three small silvers and thanking them before they left, Lorist looked at the two stables stacked full with books and laughed. It seemed that he would have to spend quite some time to organize all that. Lorist has been using a lot of the money he earned from mercenary missions to purchase books. Before he noticed, his collection had already numbered more than a thousand and was enough for him to start his own mini library.

However, these books were unlike those that were published on a large scale in his previous life. There was no such thing as paper in Grindia and any kind of reading material was made with sheepskin or some other kind of beast skin while the contents were almost always copied by hand. That’s why the prices of books were rather rare in the market and often quite expensive. For example, each of the volumes of “The War of the Gods” trilogy that he had collected weighed more than 2.5 kg. He had spent his hard-earned 3 gold coins to purchase them as he really wanted to understand more about the magic civilization.

There was a small study on the second floor of his new house, but the room wasn’t as big as the one at Wenna’s place. Lorist sorted his book into several categories: history, geography, culture, and general knowledge, which he would later move into the room. The remaining ones about legends, fiction and poems would be placed at the two big bookshelves in the lounge. He made a mental note to pay more attention to the books he would buy in the future. It wasn’t uncommon for merchants to give the same book a new title and cover and resell it as another book. Lorist himself had fallen for this trick before a number of times in the past and only found out when he read the book at home.

Having greeted Kelly, who was busy cleaning up the furniture, he carried the books up to the second floor. Just as he was about to enter the study, he saw the door to his bedroom ajar with a fatty laying on his bed fast asleep.

Sol, that fatty had already beaten me to my new bed… Having been given a kick by Lorist, Charade drowsily got up and said, “What’s wrong with you, Locke? Why would you kick me awake?”

Lorist said, “You should know best. What are you doing sleeping in my room during the day? Don’t you have more important matters to handle at the Enforcement Division?”

Charade only just noticed that he had been sleeping on Lorist’s brand new bed and chuckled. “Even I would be worn out, you know? These days affairs of the academy has left me so busy that I just couldn’t resist trying out your new bed here. Little did I know I would fall asleep just like that.”

“What business do you have with me?” asked Lorist.

“Sigh, what else could it be but the matter about the Swordsmanship Society? Brother, you really have to help me out here. The Enforcement Division has been so busy that two of its members even fell asleep in the middle of patrolling the academy yesterday! At first, we thought it was some kind of enemy attack until we noticed that they were only asleep… Surely from that you can see how tired I am, can’t you?”

“What about the society? How can I help with that?”

“Siiigh…” Charade took out a deep breath and said, “Brother, don’t tell me you forgot about the plan that you have devised yourself. Just before you left for the Relic Islands, I gave it my all and finally convinced the higher-ups of the academy to permit the formation of the Swordsmanship Society, and that the Enforcement Division would be allowed to use the elites in the society as backup members in case we need more help. I’m super short on staff right now, so why haven’t you settled the matters of the society and quickly send someone over to help?”

Oh, I did say something like that. Scratching his head apologetically, Lorist recalled the scene when he drank with Charade when he complained about how the stingy academy higher-ups were, unwilling to assign more staff to the Enforcement Division that only numbered a measly number of 80 and was in charge of managing the discipline of the student body as well as patrol the academy grounds.

Citing the number of students in the academy to be more than 5000 people, Charade said that his division didn’t even have one-fiftieth the number of people of the student body and stressed that if he did not have enough members in a time of urgency, then all hell would break lose.

Lorist had rebuked Charade for not being aware of the happenings in the academy. He mentioned that there was a group of students who wanted to form a society that researched sword techniques, but the formation of the society was rejected out of consideration that a training venue, club funds as well as support for unexpected situations would need to be provided. The students stirred up quite some trouble and it was rumored that they were gathering quite a lot of support. There was a policy in the academy that stated if there was a demand for a society to be formed from more than one-tenth of the student body, the academy administration must agree to give their cooperation.

Lorist suggested Charade to go negotiate with the academy. Since the society was going to be formed either way given the growth of the numbers of prospective members, why don’t the academy administration strike first and make the Swordsmanship Society a subordinate organization of the Enforcement Division? This way, it would solve the problem of the lack of staff members for the Enforcement Division.

Charade was elated and praised Lorist for his wit for thinking up such a scheme in almost no time and started working on that plan just as Lorist left for the Relic Islands.

However, Lorist could never have expected that Charade would really get the administration’s approval with the plan that he himself had thought up on a whim. To appease the administration, Charade had to change something — the selection of the society chairman was entirely at the academy’s discretion — which essentially handed the management of the society to the administration. Nonetheless, the chairman also had to be someone with the necessary skills to be recognized and accepted by the members of the society itself. Charade brought the train of thought to its logical conclusion and nominated Lorist to be the chairman.

Wait, I am the chairman?! Lorist just recalled Academy Head Levins saying something about drafting out the regulations of the Swordsmanship Society at the meeting yesterday. Sol, are they trying to work me to death…

Lorist waved his hands and said, “Fatty, it isn’t that I don’t want to help you. It’s that I have just recently got back from the trip and had to move my stuff over here from the young mistress’s house. That’s why I didn’t have any time for the matters of the society. Additionally, I would need another few days to settle in and finish moving and focus on the dueling that is to come within the near future! I hardly have any free time! Why don’t you just delay that for a bit…”

Charade was almost at the point of tears, “Locke, you can’t do this to me… You’re essentially burning me on a stake here! In a few days, I would look so barely human that you might mistake me for a zombie… That is especially with the case after we posted the duel notices all over the place. The incidents in the academy has risen so much and further added to my burden. The members of the Enforcement Division are already slaving away like dogs. You can’t just ignore us and let us be!”

“You reap what you sow. Who asked you to push the position of the chairman onto me? Also, weren’t you the one who was so enthusiastically putting up those notices all over the place? You really deserve nothing short of a death from overworking.”

Having heard that, Charade came to a realization that he himself was the one who was responsible for Lorist’s troubles and tried to butter him up. “Oh, okay… It’s all my fault. I didn’t think that you would be overwhelmed like this. But you still have to understand my woes. If you don’t become the chairman, then there’s no way the administration will allow the society to be formed! The students wouldn’t be satisfied with anyone else as the chairman either! Only you can help our Enforcement Division solve our staffing crisis! As for the notices, you really can’t blame me for that. It’s all that old fox’s fault. If he were serious, he could easily grasp my weaknesses and make me suffer for them! As much as I’d like to spare you trouble, it really is beyond me…”

Lorist said, “Don’t give me that crying look. Sigh, let me think…”

Charade’s expression instantly changed. “Okay. Take your time to think up something that’ll get me out of this mess.” As he said that, he took out a book and used it to fan Lorist. “Tell me if you ever need anything. If you need someone to help, I’ll send some over to you. If you need money… Even I can’t help you with that.”

Lorist mulled for a while before saying, “How about this, let’s get Terman to help out. He’s a loyal and helpful friend who has a clear head. I shall appoint him as the vice-chairman of the society and assign the management tasks to him. Note this down. Let Terman form a committee for the Swordsmanship Society and get Yuriy and Steve to join it, followed by another three committee members of your choice. And isn’t there seven student leaders among the student body? Get them to join the committee as well and ask them to pick another 3 members. Including Terman and I, we would have a total of 17 committee members.

“Tell them that I will be the one to pick the committee members for this term and say that they will be allowed to nominate their own candidates three years later and let 12 with the most votes ones take over the positions at the committee. The Enforcement Division also gets to pick three people for the position of a committee member who will manage the events and activities of the society as well as the patrols and other tasks. After notifying the members I’ve appointed, get them to come up with a set of standards and regulations the society will operate by and don’t let them out of the discussion room until they have this settled.

“Other than that, tell Terman that he only has to oversee the proceedings and don’t have to engage in the discussion. Let the other 15 committee members discuss among themselves. You can make your demands known to your nominees so that they can fight for them in your interests. When they come up with a draft, tell them that each of the members have to suggest five elite students and fifty of them will be selected to become the reserve members of the Enforcement Division.

“Also, since the Swordsmanship Society’s authority is technically in the hands of the academy administration, the academy has the obligation to provide funds, helpers, as well as allowance to make up for the members’ time and effort. The chairman, vice-chairman as well as the 15 committee members should each get a remuneration of 3 gold coins for their service. The main office for the society would also need twelve people manning it. Pick the staff from the members of the Swordsmanship Society and give them a monthly salary of one gold coin each. It would probably cost around 10 gold coins to run the society per month, and get the vice-chairman to be the person in charge. Don’t forget to pay the reserve members of the Enforcement Division one gold coin per month as well for their services. The rest of the bonuses will be given according to individual contribution and performance.

“Additionally, every probationary member of the Swordsmanship Society have to pay a small silver for the membership fee every month while full-fledged members have to pay one large silver. The elite members don’t have to pay any fee. Probationary members will be allowed to spar when swordsmanship lessons are in session as well as participate in other affiliated activities. Official members can join the parties lead by elite members to participate in mercenary missions and other adventurer activity and half of the reward must be handed to the society. These funds will be used to run the society and its events as well as award outstanding members every year.

“Well, that’s basically it. Let me reiterate, first get some people to join the committee and have them discuss the regulations of the society. Don’t forget to ask them to bring up the suggestions I mentioned earlier and let me see the draft for the regulations before submitting it. I’m sure you’ll have 50 reserve members by the time you finish all that within the day,” concluded Lorist.

“Tsktsk,” Charade clicked his tongue as he looked at the notes he had taken on the sheepskin in his hand. “Locke, you really are quite something to be able to think up such a complete plan within such a short time. I didn’t even know where to start after brainstorming for three days. I’ll do all that according to your instructions.”

Lorist asked, “What’s the schedule for my duels like?”

“It’s not finalized yet. Currently, it is suggested for one dueling day to be held every two days and have each academy send twenty Silver ranked instructors during those days from the next month. We’ll let them decide which academy gets to challenge first. If there are some Silver ranked instructors that weren’t picked to represent the academy, they may come to challenge you on the non-dueling days, which is when we will open the challenge to any Silver ranked combatant. We’re still waiting for the academies’ reply,” explained Charade.

“Sol, that means I won’t have any rest days at all! Do you take me to be a machine?!” complained Lorist.

“About that… Haha, Brother Locke, this house is great, isn’t it? The scenery is so beautiful around here. I’m so envious, Gold ranked instructors are really treated pretty well,” said Charade.

“You’re envious? Work that fat off your body and train hard for two years and break through to the Gold rank. Then, you will get your very own house like this one,” reprimanded Lorist.

The fatty merely kept quiet and thought to himself, so much talk even though you’re just an Iron rank… It doesn’t make sense!

As the two of them went downstairs, Lorist said, “Els might pay you a visit in a day or two.”

“What business does he have with me?”

“He wants to make a haul off the duels and said that you’ll get a 10% cut off the earnings.” Lorist subsequently explained the details of the plan Els suggested.

“That’s great! I’m definitely up for it. I’ve already had enough of letting that old bastard profit from all our hard work. Needless to say, I will make sure Els’s operation will run without any issues.” Charade’s eyes instantly brightened when it came to earning money.

Just when they were about to leave the house, Charade suddenly said, “It’s okay, Brother Locke. You don’t have to escort me out, I’ll take my leave myself..”

Lorist retorted, “Who’s escorting you out? I’m going outside to move the books that are still in the stable!”

Charade’s interest was roused and he followed Lorist to the wooden shed. Seeing the mountain of books on the ground, he said, “Locke, why did you spend so much money on all these books? Why don’t you start a book-renting service in the academy? I’m sure you’ll earn quite a bit of cash from that.”

Lorist shook his head and said, “I won’t be renting out my books out just to have them ruined when they’re returned to me. These books are part of my precious collection.”

Charade looked downcast and said, “That’s such a shame… All these books… Why don’t you lend some of them to me?”

“I’m not lending them out either, especially to people who don’t return things they borrow,” said Lorist.

“Then surely you can sell me a couple, right?” Charade was quite pissed as Lorist wasn’t even willing to give him some face over a few books.

“Do you have the time to read them?” Lorist looked at Charade with a suspicious gaze.

Charade’s face reddened with frustration. “Can’t I at least use them as pillows even if I don’t read them?”

“Alright, just pick any you like from that pile.”

Lorist pointed at the pile of books that were extra copies he had mistakenly purchased.

Having taken his time to pick out several books, Charade finally selected seven of them and said, “How much for these?”

“Why do I feel like you’re not buying them to read but for some other purpose?” questioned Lorist.

“Well, the bookshelf in my office is pretty empty, so it helps to have a few books up there to show how much of a cultured and learned person I am.” Charade revealed his true intentions frankly without a shred of embarrassment.

Shaking his head in abandon, Lorist looked at those books and came up with a fair price. “It’ll be three gold coins and eight large silvers, no negotiation. I’m already selling these at a loss.”

Charade understood that the price was indeed pretty reasonable, as it would normally cost seven gold coins in the market for the books he had picked. “Alright, that price will do.”

Stretching his hand into his pouch for quite some time, Charade placed eight large silvers in Lorist’s hand. “Alright, I’ve already paid you eight coins out of eleven. I’m sure you won’t be so desperate to ask me to pay the remaining three. See you, brother.”

Charade quickly ran off with the stack of books in his arms.

Lorist only stared with a dumbfounded face…

Chapter 29 Settling Bills at The Inn

It was dawn and Lorist was training with his upper body bared at the yard. At the moment, he was practicing one of the core foundational teachings of the Aquametal Technique, the 18 Stances of the Savage Tiger. While the name sounded pretty traditional and awkward, it was a set of highly fatal unarmed fighting moves. While learning the basics was easy, actually training in the moves were hard. The style attempted to condense the essence of a tiger’s movements into 18 stances, such as when a tiger descends from the mountains, stalks its prey, engages in combat and goes in for the kill.

Aside from that, the Aquaheart School’s other two core basics were the 18 Stances of the Aquametal Sword and the 18 Moves of Wave-walking. The former was a set of 18 foundational sword movements while the latter was a set of movement techniques that enhanced one’s footwork that emphasized on the coordination of one’s perception, mind and body.

According to his grandfather in his past life, the Aquametal School originated from the Five Phases School of the dynasty of the Southern Song. One of their ancestors had found the teachings of the school to be overly complicated and had created a new set of simplified techniques with its main inspiration from the water and metal phases, thus forming the new Aquametal School. The principle behind the teachings of the Aquametal School was for the practitioner to be sharp as a metal blade, have unbeatable force, as well as be unstoppable and incessant as the flow of water. It remained that way until the post-revolutionary era in China during the 1910s, when firearms and cannons were starting to gain popularity in the country, when the elders of the Aquametal School decided to invert those principles and made the style an art that was as sturdy as a mountain that even lightning couldn’t faze and strike explosively like the force of the waterfall.

Engrossed in his training, Lorist repeatedly executed the 18 forms in sequence for three times to the point when his body was almost letting out steam before he returned to a neutral position to wipe off his sweat. Training in the martial art really served as a great warm up activity in the morning; his skin was flushed red with the improved circulation while his bones clacked and loosened as he prepared to go wash himself up.

A sound rang out from the backyard door. Lorist turned to look and saw Els clapping away as he walked closer.

“Why have you come?” Lorist asked while he looked around to see if anyone else came along with him.

Els knew why he had turned his head around to look like that and said grumpily, “That damned kid didn’t want to come along. After hearing that you were only an Iron rank, he said that he wasn’t willing to learn swordsmanship from you. He even bragged that he would be able to beat you down when he gets to the Iron rank himself within two years. That little rascal really doesn’t what’s good for him…”

“Hehe,” laughed Lorist. He, on the other hand, didn’t care about how the others saw him. He had only accepted Els’s request to take on a disciple because he owed Els a favor. In actuality, he was delighted that the other party had saved him quite some trouble.

“This new place of yours is pretty nice, if only a little too quiet. Why don’t I send two serving girls here to attend to you? They can take care of the house during the day and warm your bed during the night. I’ll definitely make sure they serve you however you want! Don’t worry, they’ll definitely be beauties, I assure you,” said Els as he walked around the lounge, checking out Lorist’s new home.

“Call it off. I need it to be quiet and calm whenever I train in the sword. I can’t afford to have two women yapping away at me when I’m preparing for the duels. Don’t blame me for losing during the duels when the time comes,” said Lorist as he refused Els’s offer.

“Then we’ll leave this for another day. The duels are your priority now. Oh, what were you training in just now in the yard? I think I saw a magical beast before my eyes for a moment there,” asked Els, intrigued.

“Oh, that was a body training method of my family. My ancestors analyzed the ways in which magical beasts fought and came up with a set of movements that mimicked their forms to raise the body’s coordination and reaction ability, further increasing the practitioner’s skills in unarmed combat.”

“Oh,” Els stopped asking as he understood that training methods like these were usually hereditary family secrets that could not simply be told to others.

“Do you have anything to do here at the academy this early in the morning?” asked Lorist.

“Sigh, let’s not talk about that already… How is it still early? Yesterday, I brought some ale and meat to see the fatty but he put my ale away and brought a barrel of fruit wine that he said he had just brewed. That wine really tasted really strong and thick… With him recommending it to me so enthusiastically, I couldn’t exactly let him down and not drink any either, so I downed several cups before I got myself drunk. I woke up this morning with a serious hangover and only managed to properly get rid of the drowsiness after drinking tons of water. Even now I still feel worn out… Charade had already gone out first thing in the morning and left me a memo that asked us to go to the Red Grace Inn later tonight to talk about the betting operation,” recalled Els with a hint of frustration.

Lorist tried his best to hold back his laughter as he had heard Charade say that he had discovered a number of berry plants at a corner of the newly-acquired Yellow Ribbon Academy that tasted strong and sour, they were left alone from the preying hands of the students of the academy. However, he was like a man who came upon a treasure chest and picked all of them to try to brew them into alcohol. It’s a shame that his brewing skills were poor and the liquor he had produced tasted rather poor; Lorist instantly spat it out upon taking a sip. Who would’ve expected Els to manage to drink a few cups of it… Lorist really respected him for his gut.

“Well, I originally wanted to invite you to come have a drink with us, but Charade said that you have been quite busy moving your stuff around these two days and wanted to let you rest…” complained Els.

Sol, the reason he didn’t invite me was because he was afraid that I’d go collect the rest of the gold coins he owes me! For the past two days, in fear of being asked to pay the rest of the money for the books, Charade had strived to avoid meeting Lorist face to face and had somebody else inform Lorist on certain matters in his place. Lorist decided to go to Charade’s office and reclaim the books the day after.

“Oh, and Louise asked me yesterday if you would still want to have the room at the inn reserved for you. And, you better go collect the reward money for the requests you have completed during your expedition to the Relic Islands. She has also collected your clothes from the laundry and has packed them away from you and also asked me to tell you to not forget your promise to her,” reminded Els as he recalled his visit to the inn the day before.

Lorist thought for a bit but still couldn’t remember what he promised Louise. Turning around, he asked, “A promise? Why don’t I remember anything like that? Do you know what it’s about?”

“How would I know? You just have to go there to find out. I really can’t think of anything else right now, the headache is killing me. Locke, let me sleep on your couch for a bit…” Unable to hold on, Els collapsed on the couch and instantly fell into the embrace of sleep.

……

At night, the Red Grace Inn was filled with a merry atmosphere thanks to all the customers who were gathered there to enjoy a good time and savor delicious meals.

With a large cup of blackcurrant ale in his hand, Lorist sat at the counter and chatted along with old man Charlando.

“Nineteen requests fulfilled with the total reward going up to 139 gold Fordes, 13 large silvers and 4 small silvers. The inn will be collecting a 5% fee of 7 gold Fordes as well as 5 large silvers and 3 small silvers for your expenses and the room rent, which leaves you with 132 gold Fordes, 8 large silvers and 1 small silver. Oh, and, I almost forgot about the 18 gold coins Els owes you for the Terrence Donkey-whip. Will you leave it here on your tab or do you want to collect it right now?”

“I’ll just leave it with you for now. Seeing them drinking away so merrily, I might have to pay for their rooms if they’re too drunk to go back. Just count the expenses for the night on my tab, lest Els causes more trouble for you by skipping out on the payment,” Lorist said as he pointed towards three tables at the corner of the inn where Els and the others from the academy were seated. Charade drank away with abandon after hearing that he wouldn’t have to pay a single coin for the night.

“Well, that’s okay by me. How’s the operation going?” asked Charlando.

“For now, it has been decided that I will be getting a 20% cut with another 10% going to Charade and the others from the academy. Deducting the costs and bribes for the other inn owners and syndicate bosses, Els would gain about 30% of the profit as well. I really hope that I will be able to make quite a bit this time so that I can buy myself some property in the city just in case. Honestly, old Char, you know that I don’t have any lofty ambitions or anything. However, I really have no say in this matter as it was all the fault of that old bastard academy head. Who knows how else he would exploit me in the future… I better start saving up and plan to leave the academy. After all, I’ve already graduated from there long ago. At least, I can make a decent living by collecting rent if I own some real estate in the city…” Lorist sounded like he was a little drunk, given how he had casually talked about the hidden desire in his heart.

“If you really think that staying at the academy is a pain, you might as well get out of there. Locke, given your abilities, you’re much better off as a full time mercenary, living freely without being subjected to the whims of others. Just look at the earnings you’ve got from the trip to the Relic Islands. That alone should amount to more than 60 gold Fordes after deducting your costs. As long as you do something like that once a year, that’ll be more than enough. Or, you could always get a few close friends and form a mercenary troupe.” Charlando was of the same opinion that the academy was going a little too far by having Lorist fight all those duels without first discussing it with him.

Lorist laughed heartily at how Charlando was still hung up on the notion of reforming his band of mercenaries and unconsciously pushed his hopes onto him. “Hehe, old man, things aren’t as simple as they seem. While being a mercenary certainly allowed one to live freely, it wouldn’t be an easy life either, having to camp out in the wilds and what not. Plus, it’s much riskier to go on such expeditions compared to those that are organized by the academy. Additionally, do you know that I’m a dual Gold ranked instructor at the academy? I get paid 30 gold Fordes a month there while Instructor Klaude, whose salary is the second highest in the academy, only gets 20. I can only force myself to go along with that old bastard’s plans given the benefits that I enjoy by being an instructor of the academy. Do you think that I will be so willing to part with a 30-gold-coin monthly salary?”

“The heck! Your annual earnings exceed the yearly profit of my inn! The academy really is spoiling you! It makes me want to get a position at the academy as well,” said Charlando as he swore. Before, he was under the impression that 60 gold Fordes was quite a big haul for Lorist. But after hearing about how he could earn that kind of money within two months, it seemed that he wouldn’t be so willing to resign from his position at the academy and become a full time mercenary.

“Oh, that’s right, I heard that you’ve proposed to Louise while I was away? I haven’t congratulated the two of you yet. I’ll definitely get a nice gift for you during the ceremony. Then again, why did you want to settle down all of the sudden? I thought you had resolved to live out the rest of your life single,” said Lorist to Charlando.

“Well, it’s nothing big. I just suddenly felt that it would be very lonely living out my older years alone. Also, Louise has already been working at the inn for more than ten years… To think that the 18-year-old lass from that time had already turned 28… Given that her parents had already passed away and how she isn’t willing to go back to live with her brother’s family, she plans to continue working at the inn. It was then when I decided that we might as well get married, so I proposed to her and she accepted right away. Oh, I remember that she said that she said that she had some business with you and is waiting for you at the room you rented upstairs. Go on, it’s definitely gonna be something good,” said Charlando as he winked at Lorist a few times with a weird expression.

“What the heck is with the look on your face?” Lorist finished the rest of his ale and headed for the stairs.

Then again, old Char doesn’t know that this trip to the Relic Islands didn’t cost me much either. The beast skins that I brought back wasn’t purchased from someone else but was something I had hunted and collected myself. I bet he doesn’t know that I can easily handle those high-ranked magical beasts… Hmm, which room was it again? What did Louise need to see me for? I really can’t remember… Lorist mulled about these thoughts as he climbed up the stairs and examined the hallway.

It’s this one, Lorist thought as he rubbed his face awake before knocking on the door.

Upon entering the room, he discovered that there was another voluptuous young woman in the room apart from Louise.

Seeing Lorist come in, Louise exclaimed joyfully, “Locke, she’s the girl from my village that I told you about the other day. Molly here is going to be a serving girl for the inn from today onwards. It’s actually her first time so go easy on her, alright?”

Lorist was suddenly struck with realization as he recalled the conversation he had with Louise the other day. It seemed that he didn’t reject the offer outright and Louise had taken the silence as a yes. Almost fainting, Lorist thought that it couldn’t be helped now that they were this far into it. Otherwise Louise would berate him for being stingy about paying two measly gold coins.

“Um, nice to meet you…” greeted Lorist to the girl with a slighty blushing face. The girl checked Lorist out from top to bottom boldly before smiling and nodding timidly, obviously satisfied at the man who was going to be her first.

Louise clapped her hands and said, “Alright, I won’t be bothering you lot now. The bath water is already prepared. Molly, make sure you give Locke a good time and don’t forget what you have learned at the shrine. Use all the techniques to please him and he’ll reward you for it.”

After Louise left, the round-faced Molly graciously invited Lorist to go into the tub as she stripped every article of clothing off him. Just as Lorist was about to enter the bath, she suddenly remembered something and took out a vial from her clothes that contained a mysterious red liquid and drank all of it up.

“What did you just drink?” asked Lorist, curious.

“It’s the Elixir of Mishla,” replied Molly.

“Oh,” answered Lorist, already knowing what that liquid was for.

Mishla, the Goddess of Desire and Pleasure, was the youngest daughter of the Solar War God Singwa and the Bloodmoon Goddess Sufanna who was infamous for her capricious temperament. Legend says that she resided in a haven that was filled with handsome men and beautiful women that lived their lives to the fullest there without any worry or care. It was believed that those who prayed to Mishla would enter that very paradise and gain an eternal life of bliss upon their deaths.

To allow the believers of Mishla to revel in their carnal desires without worry, the goddess herself created an elixir that allowed a woman to enjoy the pleasures of the flesh without getting pregnant. Should a person who has used the elixir wish to give birth once again, a different potion could be purchased from the shrine to restore fertility to one’s body three months after consuming it.

However, the Elixir of Mishla didn’t have any effect on those who have already given birth before. This potion has helped Mishla gain a large following of believers and profited the goddess’s shrine immensely to the point where it became one of the richest shrines on the continent of Grindia.

“Why have you decided to become a serving girl?” asked Lorist, lying on the bed with both his hands supporting his head on the pillow, looking at the girl take the his hardness into the midst of her own soft being.

“Ouch, it hurts…” The girl let out a soft cry as she sat there, stiffened. She started to move after resting for a few moments.

“I…. I want to earn… 20 gold coins to… buy ten acres of farmland… in my village… That will, b-be my dowry…” replied the girl, stammering as she struggled to move. The pain slowly faded and the pleasure soon took over, causing her to let out involuntary cries of gratification.

Lorist also gradually lost himself in the pleasure as he had not touched any other woman ever since the last time he had spent a night with the young mistress approximately one year ago. Having been aroused by the young woman’s movements, he got up to push her down and engaged in rough, passionate intercouse…

The morning of the next day, Lorist woke up refreshed and energized and went downstairs to order a hearty serving of breakfast. Having spent much of the night doing that vigorous activity, he was prepared to eat up and recover his stamina. It was then when Charlando brought him yesterday’s bil…

Sol… Els, you better watch out… Lorist thought as he grinded his teeth.

After hearing that Lorist would be paying the night before, the gang stopped drinking blackcurrant ale and instead ordered two bottles of fruit wine each!

Sheesh, that fatty really is going too far…

Charade even took a barrel of ale as well as two bottles of fruit wine home with him after breakfast…

It can’t be… I’m sure Terman isn’t that kind of person…

Lorist couldn’t imagine a person like Terman asking to spend a night with two girls after he got a little drunk.

That’s it. I’m not covering anybody else’s bills anymore…

Chapter 30 Battle Force Awakening Course

Lorist took out the Morante Daily News and the Falik Merchant Times from his post box and discovered that there was another letter within in. It was sent to him by the academy to notify him that the yearly Battle Force awakening course was going to begin soon and that he was appointed the head instructor of the course. It also contained the details of the venue and the time the class is held.

Head instructor? What kind of position is that? It’s not like I get paid extra for it… I guess it’s gonna be roughly the same as the last time when they sent a few other instructors to help me out. Lorist shook his head and didn’t take the notice to heart. He went back to his room and looked at the calendar. The next month was coming in several days and the duels were his priority now. Although he was confident in remaining victorious, he couldn’t slack off either as he had to make sure his body was in peak condition for the duels.

Tomorrow’s the 15th of the 2nd month and there’s still twenty days to the 3rd month. I should do my best to tell the other assistant instructors what to do within the next ten days and rest up after that to prepare for the duels, thought Lorist as he looked at the ornate bronze calendar he had on the wall.

When he had just arrived at Grindia, Lorist was quite unaccustomed to the date system of this world. Just like Earth, Grindia had 12 months within a year and every day was 24 hours. The difference was, each year was 423 days long and this had caused Lorist to mess up the dates very often when he was taking his accounting course at the academy, often resulting in him being screamed angrily at by his accounting professor. “Where has the other five days gone? Huh? Were they eaten by your dog?”

The most frustrating part of the date system in Grindia for Lorist was the existence of two different calendars.The first one was said to be used by the fairies tens of thousands of years ago which had 35 days in each month, with a total of 420 days and the other three were festival days that did not have a date. The first festival day was the day between the 35th day of the 12th month and the 1st day of the 1st month and was called the Day of Rest, or, more colloquially known as the 36th day of the 12th month. The second festival day was on the 36th of the 5th month and it was called the Day of Bathing. Everyone on Grindia was obligated to take a bath during that day. The third festival day was the 36th day of the 9th month, the Day of Harvest. These three days were holidays on every part of Grindia.

The elegant and refined fairies naturally didn’t use numbers and instead named each month after a flower. In the order from the 1st month to the 12th, they were called respectively the Redbud Month, Camellia Month, Crabapple Month, Lotus Month, Peony Month, Magnolia Month, Jasmine Month, Osmanthus Month, Yucca Month, Hibiscus Month, Chrysanthemum Month, and Plum-Blossom Month.

The idealistic fairies really caused Lorist a lot of pain and suffering; on top of the misaligned number of days, there was the name of all those months to remember! Lorist was particularly vexed with the fact until he came to a realization one day: if the Earth took 365 days to orbit the Sun, then it wouldn’t be that weird if Grindia orbited its Sun at 423 days because it had a larger orbital path. From that day onwards, Lorist never got the dates of Grindia wrong again.

The second calendar was the Magi Calendar and it was used by the Magi who regarded accuracy as paragon. All the dates described with the Magi Calendar were cold, hard numbers; that was the case with the months as well. However, it was even more troublesome as each month had a different number of days. For example, the 1st month had 34 days, the 2nd had the fewest: 31 days, the 3rd had 36 days and the month with most days was the 9th month at a count of 39 days.

The humans on Grindia didn’t appreciate the romantic ideals of the fairies nor were they as meticulous as the now extinct Magi, therefore it had become convention to fuse the two different systems into one which had twelve numbered months with 35 days each and adding the festival days without a date onto the month it directly came after, making a 36th day for the 5th, 9th and 12th months.

From the memories of the original owner of the body, the day he was exiled from the northern lands was the 21st day of the 6th month. He had arrived at Morante City on the 8th day of the 8th month and enrolled in the academy that day. That whole journey took more than 50 days; his hometown really was quite far from Morante City. On another note, that meant that Lorist had left his hometown for more than ten years and it has been seven years since they last contacted him. I wonder how it is like there nowadays… Maybe I should go there during this holiday season? I think the Blackmud Marsh was near that area and a rare magical beast, the Ironspine Crocodile, lives around there. Its leather fetches a rather good price on the market. Should I form a team of mercenaries under an alias to go there for a visit?

A sudden strong desire to return to his homeland suddenly gripped his heart. Sigh, let’s think about that after the 8th day of the 8th month. Having taken over the body, Lorist had inherited the remnant feelings and sentiments left behind by the original owner as well. Oh well, since it has already been ten years, I might as well take a leave from the academy before the holiday season to go back to the north. There should be enough time that way.

Lorist stood in front of the calendar and touched the box that had the date of the 8th day of the 8th month with his finger as he made his decision.

……

“Morning, Instructor Anfya. It’s a pleasure to work with you once again. I’m sure that with your help it’ll be much easier for me to organize this year’s awakening course.” The day after, Lorist went to the instructor’s office that was situated behind the great hall of the now defunct Yellow Ribbon Academy, which was used as a teaching venue for the Battle Force awakening course, ten minutes early. Upon entering the room. he saw Anfya, who was also known as the academy’s most beautiful instructor, correcting a large stack of documents at her table.

Instructor Anfya, aged 37, looked like a person who was only in her mid-twenties because of how well she took care of her body and was heralded to be the goddess of the academy by many of the male students there. Her husband was Instructor Claude, a Gold ranked instructor. Last year, Instructor Anfya had helped Lorist quite a lot as the vice head instructor of the Battle Force awakening course.

“Hey, Locke you twerp… Has your eyes been glued to the beauty over there? You didn’t even notice me standing over here.”

Lorist raised his head and said with surprise, “Brother Marlin, why are you here?”

Standing in front of Lorist was a large and burly man who lived at house no. 34 of the Gold ranked instructor residential area, Instructor Marlin. Lorist had gone to greet him once before on the day he moved in.

“I’m here too, Instructor Locke. It’s a pleasure to meet again,” a deep and low voice interjected.

Lorist turned his head to look and hastily returned the greeting, “Good to see you, Senior Hughes. Why have you come here?”

Hughes Pottermick, a Two Star Gold ranked combatant, has already been teaching in the academy for more than 30 years. Being a righteous and open-minded fellow, he was well received by most of the students at the academy.

Instructor Hughes nodded and said, “Instructor Locke, Marlin and I have been assigned by the administration to be the vice instructors of the course this year to assist you. Please don’t hesitate to inform me should you require anything done. Instructor Anfya will be the vice head instructor for the course as well.”

Lorist suddenly felt something was amiss. Turning back to look at Anfya, he asked, “Can you tell me how many people have enrolled for the course this time around?”

Instructor Anfya let out a bitter smile and pointed at the door, “Over there is a small doorway that’s connected to the platform of the great hall. Instructor Locke, feel free to go take a look.”

Sol, I’ve been taken advantage of by the academy head again… Didn’t he mention that the applicants have only risen by a small number? This is no small class… It is already a damned assembly!

Seeing the large hall packed full of students who were standing so close to each other because of the lack of space, Lorist understood that the Gold ranked instructors had been sent by the academy to accommodate for the greatly increased number of students.

Lorist rushed back to the office with a face full of sweat before asking with a troubled expression, “How many in total are there?!”

Instructor Anfya held out a stack of documents in her hand and said, “There are 879 people in total. Here’s the name list.”

Waving around the stack that was the name list, Lorist looked at Hughes and Marlin with a bitter smile. “Isn’t the academy going a little too far? In a normal Battle Force awakening course, there would be 40 students at maximum. 879 people can easily be fit into 22 of those classes! If one class required two instructors, we would need at least 44 of them! Even with you guys on board, there’s no way that we would be able to handle all the workload ourselves! The academy really is going too far. I think I better just resign.”

Marlin and Anfya were both dumbfounded at Lorist’s declaration that he would resign. If he really did so and left the Battle Force awakening course to fare for itself, then the reputation of the academy would definitely be ruined. Just as the both of them wanted to try to convince him otherwise, Instructor Hughes took out a document unhurriedly and said, “Instructor Locke, this is what the academy head wanted me to pass to you. It is the contract that you have signed yourself half a year ago. It states that should you cause the academy to incur any loss as a result of going against orders, you will have to reimburse the academy two times the amount. If you retire, you’ll have to pay back two times the amount of the money the students here paid, roughly tens of thousands of gold coins…”

Sol, I didn’t know that the agreement I signed before going to the Relic Islands would tie me down here! Lorist was infuriated, but Instructor Hughes actually handed the contract to Lorist and said, “The academy head said that the contract that time was just a joke. Here, you can have it back.”

Marlin and Anfya were anxious again. What if Lorist ran off with the contract?

Lorist was stunned to receive the agreement. What is the old bastard’s intention in handing this to me? Is he going to let me off that easily?

Instructor Hughes took out another sheepskin parchment and said, “This is the name list of all the Silver and Iron ranked instructors. The academy head said that you can select 24 of them to join the instructor team for this Battle Force awakening course. You will be responsible for assigning tasks to them and anyone who does not obey will be sacked by the academy. Also, given that the amount of instructors available in the academy itself is insufficient, you have the authority to choose 24 outstanding students to serve as assistant instructors.”

Instructors Marlin and Anfya both secretly clicked their tongues upon hearing that Lorist had been given so much authority. It cannot be understated how much the students want a position as one of the 24 assistant instructors. Even though the payment was only one gold coin a month, it was enough for one to live quite a lavish life. If they perform well and get appointed as official instructors, they will be able to earn three gold coins per month. That was a stable and high paying position for anyone to have.

Given the benefits of being an instructor, it could be said Lorist now held quite an amount of power and the students of the academy who would do anything for the positions would do anything he says.

It seems that the academy head really trusts Instructor Locke, thought Instructor Anfya.

Does the academy head have some sort of family relation with Instructor Locke? Or is he actually the academy head’s illegitimate… That was Instructor Marlin’s wild guess.

“Now that’s much better…” said Lorist, having turned that frown on his face into a bright smile. Taking the name list, he started scribbling and marking it.

“Additionally…” Hughes handed another document over. “Due to the unexpected amount of applicants that has caused you quite some trouble, to make up for it, the academy head has allocated a budget of 150 gold coins for you to distribute to the instructor team as an added bonus. You only have to sign here.”

“Hehe…” It was apparent that Lorist was in a rather good mood as he signed the document gleefully. However, he still let out a long sigh, “It really is pretty rare for the academy to be so generous…”

Instructor Anfya whispered, “I know the reason for their generosity. Ever since news got out about Instructor Locke’s Battle Force awakening course boasting a 100% success rate several times in a row, the applicants this time around specified that they wanted to enter Locke’s class. The academy head said that those who wanted to pick their instructor had to pay double the usual fee. All those students you see in the hall had paid two times the normal fee so that they can get a 100% assurance to awaken their Battle Force.”

Ugh… Lorist was really speechless. It’s no wonder that the academy head was so generous with the funding given the double fee the students paid. He even let Lorist manage the funding and staffing of the course to make sure he gives it his best to make sure everyone passes! The normal price for this course was 5 gold coins. With 879 students paying 10 gold coins each, the academy had already received an extra 4395 gold coins! With a monthly bonus of 150 gold coins, it would only amount to 900 gold coins after six months when the course ends. The academy would still earn well over 3000 gold coins. Sol, this old bastard really has it all thought out…

Lorist handed the name list back to Instructor Hughes and said, “I’ve already picked 9 instructors out of the 24. I’ll let the three of you pick five as well. As for the assistant instructors, leave 9 slots for me to pick and you guys can choose the rest. Instructor Anfya, please try to select as many female instructors and student instructors as possible for this course as there is a lot of female students this time around. It would be better if we let female instructors be in charge of them.

“As for the bonus, Instructor Marlin, Instructor Hughes and I will each be receiving 5 gold coins, Instructor Anfya and the other managing instructors will be receiving 3, the rest of the academy instructors will get 2 gold coins and the student assistant instructors will get 1 each. The remainder of the bonus will be distributed among everyone after the course ends.”

Hughes, Marlin and Anfya were all moved as they did not expect Lorist to relinquish his authority so willingly. Hughes even whispered, “The academy head was right. Instructor Locke really is someone who doesn’t have much greed or ambition.”

Lorist clapped his hands and continued, “Later, I will go greet the students at the hall and Instructor Anfya will explain the rules and regulations of the course to them. Just like last year, the course will officially start in another 3 days and the students will have to follow a strict diet and sleeping schedule that will be set by us. Those who aren’t willing to do so should go to the administration for a refund or they will not be entertained after the course starts.

“For the next two days, Instructor Marlin, please help Instructor Anfya inspect and prepare the training grounds as well as the dorms these students will be living in. Instructor Hughes, I’ll let you handle the other members of the instructor team. When the class starts in three days, we will have to inspect the conditions of every one of the students before assigning them to different classes with different regimens. That’s it for now. I’ll be heading on the stage.”

Chapter 31 Pulse Reading (1)

“Group 1.”

“Group 3.”

“Group 4.” Lorist looked at a very well dressed noble youth before shaking his head in resignation. That youth’s eyes contained no trace of energy and his face looked pale as a ghost. Another spoiled brat… Due to engaging in lustful coital activities, although his body looked youthful and strong, the internal energy of the body had been damaged. Without proper rest and recuperation, there’s no way he would be able to awaken his Battle Force. It’s no wonder he failed his first Battle Force awakening course.

“Go finish up the procedure. Your body has been greatly damaged, I’m sure you yourself constantly feel a pressing feeling in your chest and sweat lots as well as tire easily when you exert strength. You’ll also tire out quickly with only a little exercise and don’t have much appetite to eat, right? Do you have nightmares often too?”

“Ah? How did you know?” asked the noble youth with a face full of astonishment. It really was too wondrous. He did not think that the rumors about Instructor Locke being able to understand his body condition by using only three fingers to read his pulse on his wrist! He even knew about the nightmares he was having — something that he had kept even from his own family!

That youth stood up, looked at Lorist with a moved expression and left after respectfully bowing.

“Next.”

“Group 1.”

“Group 1.”

“Group 2.”

……

Within the vast hall, there were four tables lined up next to each other in the left corner. Lorist sat at the first table and small pillows could be seen on top of the table. Instructing each student to put their hands on a pillow with their wrist up, Lorist read their pulse one by one. If he put on a white coat, there’s no doubt he would look like a doctor giving a diagnosis.

At the three tables beside sat Instructors Anfya, Marlin and Hughes. Lorist often had them reread the pulses of the students whose pulses had been read by him. The three of them tried to mimic the way Lorist did it. Among them, Instructor Anfya looked like she knew what she was doing, Instructor Hughes seemed like he was getting an idea and Instructor Marlin could only scratch his head in confusion.

Behind the four of them were ten or so Silver and Iron ranked instructors. One of the female Iron ranked instructors wrote the names of the students according to their respective groups as decided by Lorist while the others around her looked at the pulse reading instructors with interest and started chatting away. Another ten or so instructors were distributing uniforms and other necessities at the right side of the hall to the students. The 24 other newly-appointed assistant instructors were the busiest. Not only did they have to maintain the order in the hall, they also had to guide the students to their respective dorms according to their groups, often having to respond politely to any questions they have on the way.

The school bell rang and signaled the time for recess. Lorist stood up and stretched himself before saying to the rest of the students, “Alright, that’s it for the morning session. We’ll start again at 2 in the afternoon. Remember your numbers and don’t be late.”

The students who were already in queue could only leave with frustration. Some of them even voiced it out, obviously disappointed at having to wait even longer even though their turn was so close.

“How many more are there left, Instructor Grisha?” Lorist asked the female Iron rank instructor who helped register the student names.

“Another 106,” she replied.

“Gah, we’re finally finishing up. I’m so tired… The schedule later will be a little tighter, we’ll have to assign the instructors to manage the different groups as well as decide on the regimens for each group of students.” Lorist turned his head and asked Anfya, Marlin and Hughes, “What about you three? Have you learned anything today?”

“I really can’t tell. I don’t feel anything when I touch their wrist,” said Instructor Marlin.

“That noble youth’s pulse from just now was quite weak and didn’t feel stable enough. The other students who were assigned to Group 1’s pulses were much stronger in comparison and could be clearly felt. Even though that noble youth looked quite well built and healthy, his pulse was hard to feel and I even had to press harder to only detect the slightest pulse,” described Instructor Anfya clearly. It seemed that Lorist wasn’t wrong about how Anfya was the most adept at pulse reading.

“You are correct. That kid has been fooling around with women since a young age and that has harmed the harmony of his internal energy, causing a disparity between his outer healthy state and his inner weak constitution, which was reflected in the feeling you got from feeling his pulse. The thirty or so students just now were mostly children of noble families and usually had quite a number of problems with their internal state. Many of them have engaged in carnal activities and have detrimental living habits, causing them to have a weak pulse and circulation which will cause them to have a low chance at awakening their Battle Force. That’s why, their meals and living habits will have to be strictly planned and monitored,” said Lorist as he praised Anfya’s appraisal.

“Instructor Locke, I can already feel the minute differences of the students’ pulses, but I can’t distinguish the small details like Anfya can,” said Instructor Hughes.

“Actually, Instructor Hughes, for you to be able to feel that within only three days is already quite an impressive feat. The reason Anfya is so good at it is because I’ve started teaching her this since the last course. As long as you train hard and feel the pulse with a calm mind, you’ll naturally be able to do it better with more experience. This time, the amount of students are rather high so you should try to take the pulses of 100 students each day to try to feel the differences of each one. You can even compare theirs to your own. By the time the course ends, you might even be able to surpass Instructor Anfya in this,” said Lorist with a smile.

“As for you guys, try it out if you’re interested and ask me if you have any questions. As long as you master pulse reading, then you will be able to easily tell the conditions of the students’ bodies and understand when the circulation of the blood is the strongest in each one. Only then can one successfully awaken their Battle Force with a hundred percent. This is the secret to how I managed to successfully help every one of my students awaken their Battle Force,” said Lorist towards the Silver and Iron ranked instructors standing nearby.

A few of them were really enthusiastic in trying it out while some others hesitated and didn’t bother trying. The failure of Marlin, a Gold ranked instructor, to grasp pulse reading only showed that it wasn’t as easy as it seemed.

That year when Lorist was put in charge of his first Battle Force awakening course, there were only 17 students from commoner families. Due to the theory that Battle Force had a higher chance of being awakened if one’s magical beast factors in the blood was higher, it was believed that the descendants of nobles, and by extension, the descendants of Sword Saints, had a much higher chance to awaken their Battle Force.

Lorist didn’t agree to that theory in the slightest. From his experience in training in the Blazing Battle Force, he understood that its key lay in the circulation of the blood and felt that Battle Force awakening definitely had something to do with it as well. As long as every one tried to awaken their Battle Force at the time when their circulation was at its peak, the chances of succeeding would undoubtedly rise. And, the key to good circulation was a good diet and healthy living habits.

The reason why more noble descendants manage to awaken their Battle Force was probably related to their better living conditions. Given that they had more access to food than other commoners, they naturally had taken in more nutrition than the others, hence boosting the chances of their success. From his observations, Lorist discovered that the reason those noble students who didn’t manage to awaken their Battle Force was not the low amount of magical beast factors in their blood but their tendency to live an unhealthy life of debauchery as every one of them were either sex maniacs or alcoholics. This was the main reason Lorist rejected the common theory about Battle Force awakening.

As for the reason why commoner students tended to fail in Battle Force awakening, that was because they had to live frugally and cannot afford to eat sufficient nutritious food on a daily basis, causing their circulation to weaken in the long run. Lorist at that time made a bold hypothesis and used the 17 students in his class as the guinea pigs to test his theories on.

But how would he be able to ascertain the status of the students’ circulations? Having been born into a family with a long line of traditional Chinese healers, even though Lorist did not personally receive instruction from his healer grandfather, he still knew about the basic principles of pulse reading. While he couldn’t diagnose individual diseases in the body, he could still use it to identify the strength of a person’s circulation and he employed this technique on his students.

Just like Lorist predicted, all of the students in his class were malnourished. Lorist thought back to his days at the army. The new recruits he had trained for three months had all transformed from sickly baby-faced fellows into healthy, able-bodied men. However, there was a small problem. How would he be able to provide these students with appropriate nutrition, given that they didn’t have sufficient money to buy good food in the first place?

It was then when he decided to let the students work part time to earn the money they needed. While they hadn’t awakened their Battle Force, there would be no problem for them to handle simple jobs like sweeping trash, watering flowers, washing clothes etc. Reaching out to the manager of the janitors at the academy, he had the students work under him and collected the money they earned and used it to prepare nutritious meals for them.

The equivalent profession to doctors in Grindia were herbalists, who were highly-skilled in creating herbal recipe combinations to heal various diseases. While most medicines could be created with herbs alone, quite a number required ingredients from magical beasts as well. Even though he was forced to remember all those Chinese herbal recipes in his previous life, he couldn’t find those ingredients on Grindia at all. Lorist could only rely on the knowledge he gained from the herbalism and magical beast biology courses he had attended to come up with the appropriate menu for his students.

After three months of arduous physical training and eating well, all 17 commoner students managed to awaken their Battle Force successfully, much to the shock and surprise of the academy. That resulted in Lorist being selected to be the instructor for a Battle Force awakening course once again the next year with a class of 31 students of different ages and family backgrounds who had not been picked by the other instructors. Once again using his pulse reading skills, he tailor made a regimen for each of his students and had all of them successfully awaken their Battle Force within a semester as well.

This time the academy administration was really astonished. They even suspected whether Lorist held some kind of secret technique that could help with Battle Force awakening. That was why on the third year, Lorist’s class had up to 59 students with 10 of them being nobles who specifically nominated him, 3 of which had failed once before in Battle Force awakening. The administration had also sent Instructor Anfya to be Lorist’s aide and hoped that she would be able to figure out how Lorist was able to be so successful.

The conditions of these 59 students were even worse than those of Lorist’s class in the previous year, especially those of noble descent. Half of them had weak constitutions. The three who had failed previously were even worse; they already couldn’t take it after running around the school field for two laps. Lorist was quite impressed that they even dared to try to awaken their Battle Force.

Adequate nutrition wasn’t enough to heal the bodies of the noble students as the damage was quite severe. Given that the nobles would naturally have quite an amount of money, he collected a fee from each of them and worked together with the herbalist researchers in the academy to put together a concoction made with several types of magical beast blood and some expensive herbs to boost their circulation. The noble students had to consume the concoction on a regular basis along with adequate physical training. Coupled with pulse reading, Lorist had every one of them successfully awaken their Battle Force when their circulation was in peak condition.

Throughout the whole process, Lorist made no attempt to hide the secrets of pulse reading and even generously demonstrated it to Instructor Anfya and enthusiastically explained every single detail of the method to her.

Lorist wasn’t expecting Anfya to be able to pick up the art that swiftly either because while pulse reading may look easy, he wouldn’t have been able to comprehend it had he not spent several years in his past life helping out and looking at his grandfather perform the technique himself. Even those university students who learned the art in theory or those foreign researchers who had studied the theories couldn’t actually put it into practice without actual guidance from a proper master.

Having grown up by the side of his grandfather in his previous life, Lorist only managed to learn but a small part of the complicated technique by observing his grandfather work. He himself didn’t dare to claim that he had a good understanding of pulse reading. The following things happened just as he had predicted. The other four instructors, including his good friend Instructor Yuriy who had recently been promoted to a horsemanship instructor for attaining the Silver rank, gave up learning rather quickly.

As for Anfya, she persevered and believed Lorist’s words and gradually came to be able to distinguish the more obvious differences in the pulses of the students. It was rumored that she even practiced it on her husband and children so often to the point where they ran away the moment she entered their sights.

Naturally, all the students in Lorist’s third Battle Force awakening course had passed as well, resulting in him being awarded the Gold ranked instructor medal for Battle Force awakening. Along with his Gold swordsmanship medal, he became the academy’s famed dual Gold ranked instructor.

Having gone to the Relic Islands for the expedition last year, Lorist wasn’t able to hold a class at that time. Presently, it was his fourth time as the head Battle Force awakening instructor and his students numbered up to a staggering 879 people, all of whom had specified Lorist to be their instructor for his fame as a Gold ranked Battle Force instructor and were even willing to pay two times the price.

Chapter 32 Pulse Reading (2)

“Phew……” Lorist let out a long sigh and raised his head to look towards the large sandglass hanging from the roof of the hall. This intricate and complicated contraption is the staple product of the Teribo Kingdom and it is said that not more than 100 units are produced each year with each one selling for up to 1000 gold Fordes. The sandglass operates quite niftily by exploiting gravity and magnetism with the it automatically tipping over when all the sand on the upper compartment has completely flowed to the lower compartment.

Beside the sandglass were two glass tubes of unequal sizes with the larger one filled with a distinct red liquid and having twelve markings on the outside. Every time the sandglass tips over, the liquid fills up in the larger tube by 1 marking’s worth to indicate the passing of an hour and resets once the sandglass tips over when the liquid indicator is at the 12-hour mark. The smaller glass tube has 6 segments with each one representing 10 minutes.

The sandglass hanging high up in the hall was originally a present from all the students and staff of the Yellow Ribbon Academy to their academy head for his 60th birthday. Having been installed in the great hall, it has now been bought over by the Dawn Academy along with the rest of the school’s property.

Lorist secretly laughed in his heart every time he saw the timekeeping sandglass that was given to the academy head at his 60th birthday. In Chinese culture, it is considered a taboo to give a timekeeping device of any kind to an elderly person as it could represent sending a person off to his or her afterlife. Coincidentally, the academy head who had received this sandglass had passed away half a year after receiving that gift. Maybe I should give Academy Head Levins something similar for his birthday as well?

The female Iron ranked instructor by Lorist’s side placed a name list on the table and said, “We’re finally done assigning the students to their respective groups.”

Lorist stopped daydreaming and nodded, “It’s already four in the afternoon. Everyone should take a short break and regroup half an hour later for a meeting to discuss the regimens and activities for the students. Instructor Anfya, arrange and organize the student name lists and give one to each student of every group. Just like the last time, leave some space after their names for remarks.”

Anfya nodded and instructed two other female instructors to start copying the name lists by hand.

“Hey, Yuriy, get me something to drink. I really don’t feel like getting up…” Lorist had asked his good friend Yuriy to help him out for this year’s Battle Force awakening course as well.

Just as Lorist was filling up his cup and preparing to have a chat with his friend, a middle-aged man who was dressed quite extravagantly entered the hall and approached Lorist before politely asking, “Is this the instructor team of the Battle Force awakening course?”

Instructor Hughes replied, “Yes, is there anything you need?”

The middle-aged went outside the hall and shouted, “Master, it is indeed this place. You can come off the carriage now.”

What’s going on? Lorist and the other instructors looked towards the door and saw the middle-aged man walk back, followed behind by a fat, stocky fellow. That fellow wasn’t just big-boned, he was truly filled with fat all over his body; his arm itself was as thick as Lorist’s upper thigh. The stocky man walked so slowly and breathed heavily every few steps, making Lorist sincerely fear for his condition as he looked like he was about to collapse at any moment.

That middle-aged man returned to Instructor Hughes and took out a student identification document before saying, “Excuse me, my young master here is a new student for the Battle Force awakening course. As it is a little convenient for him given his body, he has arrived a little late. I hope you will understand.”

Wait, what? Isn’t the total amount of students for the awakening course only 879 people? Why has another one appeared out of nowhere? How did he even pass the academy entrance test with a figure like that?

Instructor Hughes looked at the documents and gave Lorist a bitter smile. Lorist took the documents over and thought, Sol, this really is a genuine identification document and it even came with a letter addressed to me. The letter forthrightly stated that the fat youth was called Dorsedaus and he was the sole heir of one of the highest authorities in the Forde Trade Union, the Peterson family. Aged 18 this year, his father was also an alumnus of the Dawn Academy. The Peterson house was one of the academy’s largest sponsors who contributed up to 10000 gold Fordes every year.

Given that Dorsedaus was the eldest son of the President of the Peterson Merchant Group, he had been spoiled by his parents and ended up in the state he was today. Having felt that being in that condition wouldn’t be good for his son in the long run, President Peterson started worrying about how his son would be able to inherit the family business one day.

However, he started worrying too late. When he decided that his son should start cutting down his weight and instructed his family butler to only give him 3 meals a day as opposed to 5 meals he normally had as well as decrease the serving of each meal by half, within but a day, his son threw a huge tantrum and caused the president’s several wives to complain to him and added a few more dishes to his son’s meals.

Not knowing what to do, he hired a Blademaster and hoped that he would help his son awaken his Battle Force. President Peterson thought that if his son managed to awaken his Battle Force, he would be able to slim down naturally as he continued training in it. While the plan itself was rather sound, within but a month, the Blademaster he hired had come up to him and told him that it was quite impossible for his son to be able to awaken his Battle Force given his physique. He spoke quite candidly and even said that what flowed in his son’s veins wasn’t blood but pure fat and oil! In the end, he warned the president that his son would not have more than 3 years left to live should he continue to eat away with abandon and refuse to slim down.

The president was frantic and started racking his brains for a solution for his son’s problem. It was at that time when he heard about Lorist’s reputation as a Gold ranked Battle Force instructor as well as the success he had with his Battle Force awakening courses. The president was convinced that this would be the method to help his son slim down. Elated, he hurriedly got into contact with the academy head and got his son signed up for the course right away.

In the letter, Academy Head Levins described the condition Dorsedaus was in and requested Lorist to help the president out with this issue. For his son, the president was even willing to add 5000 gold Fordes to the yearly sponsorship he has been providing to the academy! The academy head stressed that no matter what, Lorist had to find a way to help the president out. He even promised that as long as President Peterson’s request was fulfilled, he would even award the instructor team as much as 1000 gold Fordes.

Sol, this old bastard is giving me even more trouble… Sheesh, this is a Battle Force awakening course, not a weight loss class! Without first shedding all his fat, how would that fatty even be able to awaken his Battle Force? Sigh, I guess I can’t be too harsh on that old bastard since the Peterson family is indeed a large benefactor of the academy and it would be quite difficult for him to turn down their earnest request.

Lorist kept the letter and said to the middle-aged man, “Let him come over here and place his hand on the pillow. I’ll examine his body condition.”

The fatty approached and curled up his sleeve as instructed and placed his hand on the pillow with his wrist facing upwards. Whoa, this is no hand! It’s a pig’s feet! Look at it, it’s even glistening with a layer of oil on top! Lorist sighed and stretched out his hand with three fingers extended and started reading the fatty’s pulse.

Huh? Where is his artery? Lorist lightly pressed downward but he couldn’t feel a thing. Does he have too much fat? Lorist furrowed his brows and pressed down even harder and finally felt a very slight and weak pulse.

After a moment, Lorist retracted his hand and gave a long sigh as he shook his head. The middle-aged man asked anxiously, “Mister Instructor, how’s the condition of my young master’s body?”

Lorist mulled about with a gloomy expression before asking, “Are you the family butler?”

“Ah, yes. I am the second butler of the Peterson house who’s in charge of all the young master’s personal needs,” replied the man.

“I believe you are not the right person to make this decision. It’s better if you ask the president to come over himself. Your young master first needs to lose all that fat before he can attempt to awaken his Battle Force. His body’s condition is already bad enough. If he doesn’t start losing weight, he’ll only have a few years to live at most,” Lorist said as he looked at the fatty. However, that fat kid was practically unfazed by Lorist’s conclusion and thought that Lorist was purposely exaggerating his condition and trying to scare him.

The middle-aged man however was genuinely shocked as Lorist wasn’t the first to have said something like that. While the Blademaster they hired had come to the same verdict, it was a confidential matter and hadn’t been leaked anywhere outside the house. The fact that Lorist came to the same conclusion signified how serious the matter was. “The head of the house is presently having some tea, I’ll go invite him over immediately.”

The middle-aged man quickly ran out of the hall and left in the carriage.

Without much delay, President Peterson was brought there and he looked at Lorist with an eagle-like expression. “So, you are Norton Lorist, the famed dual Gold ranked instructor of the academy, Instructor Locke?”

Lorist took a deep breath as he didn’t expect President Peterson, one of the most influential people in the Forde Trade Union, was a Gold ranked expert. Even though he dressed simply and had a pleasant face and looked no different from the usual kind old man and didn’t wear a Battle Force badge, Lorist could feel a faint pressuring aura emanating from that man’s body. Lorist had only felt this aura from another Gold ranked instructor, Instructor Claude before.

Looking at President Peterson, Lorist calmly said, “Good afternoon, President Peterson. I’m indeed Instructor Locke. I have invited you over to discuss the matter of your son. He has to start losing fat no matter what, not because he has to do that in order to awaken his Battle Force, but also for the sake of his life and it doesn’t look like he has much time to do it. I’d like to know your opinion on this matter. Are you going to have him lose weight before having him enroll here, or do you want him to join the class straight away and do that before he awakens his Battle Force?”

President Peterson was surprised at what Lorist had just said and asked agitatedly, “Do you have a way for my son to lose weight and awaken his Battle Force?”

“Well, I do, but the young master will have to suffer quite a bit for a long time, at least half a year,” nodded Lorist.

“Ah……” President Peterson thought to himself whether Lorist was lying to him. Last time, I brought my son to the most famous herbalist in Morante City and he said that it would take at least three years for my son to slim down… Half a year sounds rather short in comparison.

“What do you mean by suffering? Will he have any danger to his life?” asked the President.

“To others, things like restricting caloric intake and doing physical training might be normal. But for the young master, it will be nothing short of torture. And, to ensure that the young master completes the training regimen set for him every day, I might have to resort to some rather unpleasant, maybe even humiliating measures and some minor injuries or wounds will be inflicted. But I can assure you that there is absolutely no risk to his life whatsoever,” explained Lorist.

“If President Peterson can trust us with it, I’ll need you to sign an agreement that states that the family members of the young master would not be allowed to interfere with the training process at all. While you can have someone oversee the whole thing, you are not allowed to have any objections or opinions to how we treat the young master. Once the agreement is breached, please take full responsibility for your son as we will no longer continue with his training program and send him back to you,” Lorist stressed.

“This…” President Peterson started hesitating. After all, that was his flesh and blood that he had so meticulously spoiled ever since his birth who had not weathered any sort of hardship. He felt that the moment he agreed to Lorist’s conditions, his son would form some kind of enmity towards him.

“I see that you love your son a lot. Maybe you should have him lose weight before letting him enroll in the Battle Force awakening course,” said Lorist relaxedly. This was the most convenient solution as the instructor team did not have to be troubled with Dorsedaus’s matters.

“No, I’ll put him in your care. I hope you don’t disappoint me,” President Peterson said, having made his decision.

“Um, are you sure you don’t want to think this over?” Lorist asked, dejected.

“There’s no need. Let’s handle it your way,” said the president resolutely as he waved his hand.

“Well, alright. Please come over to sign the agreement as well as settle some other matters relating to the young master’s enrollment. Given his unique condition, we might have to ask for additional fees,” Lorist said. It looks like the following days will be troubling.

“I only have to sign the agreement, right? Have him arrange everything else. He will make sure you have what you need,” said the president as he pointed to the middle-aged butler and beckoned him to come over. “Bill, from this day onward, you will be stationed here and help Instructor Locke here with anything he needs. Also, you are only allowed to monitor the young master and cannot interact with him whatsoever without first consulting the instructor, understood?”

“Yes, master,” replied the man respectfully.

Having signed the agreement, the president let out a breath of relief. “Instructor Locke, my precious son has never left his home before nor experienced any sort of hardship. Now, I’m handing him to you. I hope you can try to ease him into the process and not be too harsh on him right away……”

Lorist paused for a while before saying, “Sometimes, the love of the parents can be harmful to the child……”

After a while, President Peterson finally said, “Since I’ve agreed to let you decide whatever’s best for him, I guess I shouldn’t worry too much. If you really can help him awaken his Battle Force within a year, I will personally reward you with 1000 gold Fordes.”

The instructors watching by the side all gasped.

Lorist merely shook his head and said, “I can’t guarantee anything at the moment. That will come after we have him slim down.”

“Two thousand!”

The breathing of the instructors nearby intensified.

“President Peterson, please trust our work ethic. Since we’ve accepted the task of training your son, we will definitely do the best in our power…”

“As long as his Battle Force gets awakened, I will give all of you 3000 gold Fordes!” interrupted the president, unwilling to back down until he hears some kind of promise.

Lorist could feel all the instructors behind shaking in their feet, including even Instructors Hughes and Anfya. Only Instructor Marlin still retained his calm.

“Alright, I’ll do my best. Please rest assured,” said Lorist, finally nodding his head.

———

Currently, all the instructors were having a meeting.

“Group 1 has a total of 352 students and their conditions are mostly fine. Most of them are healthy and have great circulation. With the usual training method and some boosts from herbal medicines, they will definitely be able to awaken their Battle Force within a month. Instructor Marlin, I’m sure you’re more familiar with large scale group training sessions like this given your experience in training new recruits in the city garrison. I’ll be handing the group to you. Pick four instructors to help you out as well, is that okay?”

“No problem Instructor Locke,” replied Marlin with a smile.

“Group 2 has 175 students who don’t have any problems with their bodies either, but they are still undergoing puberty, so their circulation won’t be at their best for the moment. Monitor these students for the time being and make sure they receive sufficient nutrition and training to boost their condition. I need someone patient to handle this class for the next three to four months to come before they attempt to awaken their Battle Force. Everyone, who do you think is the most suited for this group?” Lorist said.

Quickly, a Silver ranked instructor called Thorheim was nominated by the rest of the instructors and he picked two other instructors as well as two assistant instructors to be in charge of Group 2.

Lorist looked at the name list again and said, “Group 3 has 236 commoner students whose main problem is their lack of nutrition. Instructor Yuriy, you’ve done the same thing before the last time so I believe you know how to handle this class. I’ll be assigning this group to you.”

Yuriy nodded and picked two instructors and assistant instructors respectively to manage the group.

“Group 4 has 116 noble students. Apart from 5 who have incurred injuries that have harmed their condition, the rest of them have experienced intercourse while they were still too young and has harmed their internal energy greatly and will require a long time to train and nourish their bodies to heal the damage. This group will be handled by Instructor Hughes with Instructor Anfya assisting him, is that alright?” Lorist looked towards the two instructors who nodded their heads in agreement.

“Instructor Anfya, I’ll leave the collaboration effort with the herbalists to you. Make sure each student consumes the internal energy recovery medicine every day without fail,” Lorist instructed.

“I understand, Instructor Locke. I’ll make sure to chase them to the ends of hell if that’s what I need to do,” promised Instructor Anfya.

“The last class only consists of one student who has absolutely no problems with nutrition given his excessive eating. Before awakening his Battle Force, he has to lose at least two-thirds of his body weight. This student will be handled by me and the rest of the instructors and assistants. That’s all. We’ll be starting tomorrow so feel free to discuss among yourselves about your student groups.”

Lorist then waved towards the middle-aged man who was sitting in a corner. “Butler Bill, please come over here. I’m afraid i have to trouble you with something……”

Chapter 33 Journal Entries and The Duels

Bill’s journal:

Year 1767, 19th day of the 2nd month, Trade Union Calendar Weather: Sunny

Just this afternoon, I have sent the young master to enroll into the academy. Instructor Locke had said that the young master wouldn’t have more than a couple of years to live if he doesn’t start losing weight and continues his old eating habits, just like the Blademaster the master has hired just two months ago. I have brought the master to the academy and he has decided to let Instructor Locke conduct his fat loss course and even signed an agreement. The master has tasked me to remain at the academy and assist Instructor Locke wherever possible, but I am not allowed to interfere with the training course nor interact with the young master in any way and can only observe the situation from afar. Even though I agreed to comply, I can’t help but feel that things won’t go that well for the young master in the times to come.

As expected, after Instructor Locke finished briefing the other instructors, he asked me to go get a cart full of lettuce, carrots as well as celery. After that, he brought the young master away. When I returned with the things I bought, Instructor Locke brought me to a small building made out of bluestone and had me place the vegetables on the floor. The small room felt like a sword training room to me. Just as that impression entered my head, I saw the young master crouching in a corner crying. I couldn’t ask him personally what had happened nor could I talk to him, so I asked the instructor what was going on.

Instructor Locke gave a savage smile before replying, and said that this would be the place that the young master will be living at from this day onward. Good lord, that room doesn’t have a bed nor a furnace. How will the young master be able to sleep like that?

But Instructor Locke didn’t seem to think that was a problem and said that the straw mat and a woolen blanket would be sufficient. “If the young master feels cold at night,” he said, “then he should get up to exercise and warm himself up.” He also mentioned that the main feature of this room was that it was soundproof and no matter how the young master screamed, nobody would be able to hear a thing.

I then asked him what the young master would be having for dinner. He merely pointed towards the vegetables I have brought and said that the young master would be feeding on only those vegetables for the coming three days. I was greatly surprised; was he treating the young master like a pet rabbit? I tried to subtly tell him that the young master didn’t like to eat vegetables, especially raw ones. He merely laughed it off and tapped on my shoulders before saying that there wasn’t anything to worry about. He said that when humans were hungry, they would even eat the rotting corpse of another if they had to, not to say much about vegetables.

Instructor Locke is really disgusting, cold-blooded and iron-hearted. It is not an overstatement to say that he is the incarnation of evil himself. The young master really is unfortunate to have fallen into his hands. I have to record all of this down and report it to the master so that he doesn’t get away with this.

Bill’s journal:

Year 1767, 20th day of the 2nd month, Trade Union Calendar Weather: Sunny

Yesterday, the young master threw a huge racket and cried for the whole night, but nobody gave him any heed. I wanted to go there to calm him down, but the assistant instructors who were on night guard wouldn’t let me and warned me that I couldn’t go near the room without permission. I could only listen to the cries of the young master from afar and couldn’t do anything about it.

After the cries had subsided, I heard a crunchy sound of vegetables being chewed that originated from within the room. The young master bawled and cried as he bit down on the vegetables until finally, he fell asleep just before dawn.

In the afternoon, Instructor Locke came over with a few others to help clean up the room, help the young master bathe and gave him a set of garments made out of rough hemp. The instructor then took hold of the young master’s wrist and said that he was helping him read his pulse. The young master cursed and cried at Instructor Locke throughout the whole process but the instructor didn’t give it any heed and even said that he intends to have a cane made that wouldn’t be able to hurt one’s bones but still manage to inflict a lot of pain! Oh lord! Is he treating the young master like a slave now?

After that, he asked me to go over and gave me a drawing parchment which had some building designs on it. He said that he wanted a vast bathroom built in the academy that would be part of the necessary facilities the young master would have to use during his weight loss training. I heavily suspected that he was just trying to weasel additional benefit for the academy as I have never ever seen a bathroom that had a room within that was built entirely out of wood, which he called a ‘sauna’. Who does he think he’s tricking?!

Bill’s journal:

Year 1767, 21st day of the 2nd month, Trade Union Calendar Weather: Sunny

The young master had another vegetable-only meal yesterday, but he didn’t make as much of a racket like he did yesterday.

Instructor Locke came over again today afternoon. As usual, he had somebody bathe the young master before taking his pulse and cleaned up the room like he did yesterday. He also instructed me to go buy more vegetables this time around, during which I secretly sneaked in a few tomatoes inside the pile. I believe the master would be happy with that.

The bathroom design that Instructor Locke brought to me yesterday is estimated to cost more than 100 gold coins to be built. After I showed it to the master at the mansion, he instantly approved of it and sent people to the academy to work on it right away.

Bill’s journal:

Year 1767, 22nd day of the 2nd month, Trade Union Calendar Weather: Sunny

The young master had eaten nothing but carrots yesterday. It seems that I have bought a little too much of that last time around.

After bathing the young master and taking his pulse, Instructor Locke gave me a list of medicines that he wanted me to purchase for the young master.

Bill’s journal:

Year 1767, 23rd day of the 2nd month, Trade Union Calendar Weather: Cloudy

The young master only had celery to eat yesterday night as the carrots had already run out.

Instructor Locke had a few other assistants hold on to the young master and forced him to drink a medicinal liquid from a test tube. It must have been really bitter as the young master looked like he was about to cry.

It didn’t take long for the young master to start experiencing diarrhea.

……

Bill’s journal:

Year 1767, 31st day of the 2nd month, Trade Union Calendar Weather: Sunny

The young master had slept rather soundly without snoring or sleep talking throughout the whole night.

For the past few days, the young master has been fed a laxative medicine. Though, the frequency at which the young master had to go to the lavatory had decreased gradually. He also looked far more energetic than before, unlike the past few days when his face was pale from releasing all that waste from his body.

In the afternoon, the young master had his body weighed and the result was he had lost up to 8.5 kilograms within only just a few days! It seems that the young master really did have some hope losing weight after all. However, Instructor Locke remarked that the young master would have to lose at least 85 more kilograms to be at normal body weight. Will that really be possible? It’s really hard to imagine the young master having the same body weight as me at about 80 kilograms approximately.

This time, the instructor gave me another list of medicines to be purchased while mentioning that the young master no longer had to take the laxatives. Now that the young master had expelled all the waste he could from his body, Instructor Locke said that he could start doing physical training from tomorrow onwards and take a whole new type of medicine as a supplement.

Bill’s journal:

Year 1767, 32nd day of the 2nd month, Trade Union Calendar Weather: Sunny

The young master had a good night’s sleep the night before.

Instructor Locke came over early in the morning and had the young master run three laps around the field. Initially, the young master refused. But the instructor took out two buns about the size of fists and said that if the young master would run the laps, he would be allowed to eat the buns. Having eaten nothing but raw vegetables for the past few days, the young master instantly lost it and leaped towards the instructor in an attempt to take the buns for himself but was struck down to the floor as a result. Instructor Locke then said that he would toss the buns into the lavatory if the young master didn’t run and let him eat vegetables for another week.

For this crudely baked black bread, the young master ran around the field three times and collapsed in the middle of the last lap and had to climb the rest of the way to the finish line. Instructor Locke had a few assistants hold the young master up and walk half a round on the field for him to catch his breath before allowing him to come back to us. I was literally at the brink of tears when I saw the scene of the young master stuffing the bread into his mouth.

From today onwards, the young master’s menu had changed. In the morning, he was fed a bowl of porridge with two pieces of bread. For lunch and dinner, he only had raw vegetables. Additionally, the young master started working out every day. During the morning and the night, he had to run around the field for three laps as usual while he did other exercises in the afternoon. After every training session, the young master had to drink a large bowl of salt water to replenish the salt content in his body. Every night before sleep, he will have to consume another serving of a special medicine.

During today afternoon, the young master refused to exercise because the instructor had wanted him to jump like a rabbit and push up from the ground. Without hesitation, Instructor Locke took out a cane and sent a lash towards the young master. A loud sound rang out as the cane stroke the young master’s back, leaving behind a red mark on his skin. The young master had never been beaten all his life! I wanted to go stop him, only to be severely warned by the assistant instructors beside me that this would be indirect violation of the agreement the master had signed. I didn’t dare to bear the responsibility for voiding agreement and could only witness the young master suffer the lashings until the training was completed.

Bill’s journal:

Year 1767, 33rd day of the 2nd month, Trade Union Calendar Weather: Sunny

Having been caned all day the day before, the young master groaned for the whole night as he tried to sleep. Even though Instructor Locke had someone apply some medicine onto his wounds, he didn’t sleep well and was even dragged out of bed for training today.

The good news, on the other hand, was that the bath has just been completed not long ago. After having his daily dose of medicine, the young master was brought into the sauna and I was allowed to follow them inside.

The sauna was a small wooden hut with a cauldron of cobblestones that were heated up and then sprinkled with water for the steam to evaporate. The room quickly filled with steam the moment the water was splashed onto the hot cobblestones and I found it a little difficult to breathe due to the sudden influx of hot air. Everyone had to strip naked before entering the sauna. Instructor Locke had a magnificent physique while nothing but fatty meat could be seen on the young master’s body. Having been put in charge of putting the heated cobblestones into the cauldron and sprinkling water over it, I was sweating all over. The young master on the other hand sat at a corner unmoving as glistening oily sweat oozed out of the pores of his skin. After about 20 minutes, the young master lost consciousness. Instructor Locke said that it wasn’t anything to worry about and that he would slowly wake up upon being brought to somewhere with normal air circulation. The young master woke up after being sprinkled with some cold water. He was bathed and put to sleep soon after.

……

Bill’s journal:

Year 1767, 1st day of the 3rd month, Trade Union Calendar Weather: Sunny

Yesterday, the young master had yet another night of sound slumber. These few days, he has been training under the threat of the cane from Instructor Locke the whole time whenever he tries to slack off. Before going to sleep, he goes to the sauna every night. These days the young master seems much more revigorated than before: his strength has increased and he no longer starts gasping for breath after walking a few steps. When I was at the sauna with him just now at night, the young master suddenly grabbed on my hand and to my surprise, it hurt. The young master said that he wanted to eat meat so much that he’s going to go crazy over it and wanted me to sneak some smoked meat for him.

But I don’t dare do such a thing as Instructor Locke, who was standing behind the young master unnoticed by him, was glaring at me with a savage gaze in an attempt to warn me.

Instructor Locke wasn’t present this afternoon for the training as he had to prepare for the duels tomorrow. I really don’t understand what kind of person would attempt this kind of crazy feat and take on all the Silver ranked instructors from 27 different academies. I’ve heard that they number up to 1600 or more people and I don’t believe that a sole Iron ranked instructor like Locke can defeat all of them without losing. A tavern near the academy called ‘Sword and Beauty’ has a betting pool for the duels that are to come. I shall go bet 1 gold coin on Instructor Locke’s loss as I’ve heard that the payout for 1 small silver is 1 gold coin. If I win, I’ll instantly gain 100 gold Fordes! I really hope that Instructor Locke would lose tomorrow.

—————————————————————–

The 2nd day of the 3rd month finally arrived and the weather on that day was clear and bright. Lorist walked casually in the academy as if he didn’t mind the oncoming duels one bit.

He has already received the list of challengers a day before for the inter-academy duels. The open matches would start on the 3rd day of the 3rd month, which was tomorrow. However, he did not have a list of competitors for that as Charade had forgotten to give him one, or maybe he didn’t, as he believed that Lorist would defeat all of the challengers without exception anyway. On the other hand, Charade has provided Els with the list of all the challengers, both the instructors and non-instructors, with excruciating detail so that Els would spread rumors about the challengers’ abilities to easily defeat Lorist.

“It can’t be helped, if we don’t do that, we won’t be able to attract any customers for the betting pool. We must give the betters information as detailed as possible to make them think that the challengers have a chance against Lorist,” said Charade as he shrugged his shoulders.

Lorist didn’t really want to bother with the name lists anyway. The instructors today were from the Hoary Stock Academy that was ranked at the 21st place and didn’t have any famous Silver ranked instructors among their ranks, resulting in Lorist feeling no enthusiasm whatsoever for the duels to come.

The members of the Enforcement Division as well as the elites of the Swordsmanship Society could be seen receiving instructions from the fatty nearby. Seeing Lorist, who was looking around aimlessly, Charade said, “Don’t walk away just yet, there’s a good show that you should see.”

Without much delay, the ‘show’ that Charade had predicted was slowly unraveling. A group of people dressed in black entered from the academy entrance with the Silver ranked instructors who were wearing the instructor badge of the Hoary Stock Academy leading the other non-challengers from other academies who were here to witness the duels into the premises.

Academy Head Levins who was holding his walking stick was standing by the training hall which had just been completed recently after a month of rushed renovations. With a wide smile, he received the academy heads and brought them to the dueling hall, but he didn’t let the other people following behind enter.

“Rotten old man, what is the meaning of this?” asked the head of the Saint Marceau Academy with a grim expression.

Academy Head Levins was struck by a rather serious disease that had left his legs only partly functional for the rest of his life.

Smiling, Levins said calmly, “Old bastard, the Hoary Stock Academy is here to participate in the duels. Given that you academy heads have come to witness the spectacle, it’s only natural for me to receive you. The rest who were left outside can enter from the other door if they want to.”

As he said that, Levins pointed towards the other direction where a large sign could be seen hanging with the words ‘Ticket Counter’ on it. It seemed that the audience had to pay a fee to be able to view the oncoming duels.

“The price isn’t expensive, only one small silver per person,” said the academy head.

“Rotten old man, you’ve really been blinded by money to the point where you wouldn’t even let some small change like this go uncollected. Can’t you be more generous in your ways? I’ll pay for the tickets of the audience today, just tell me how much I need to pay in total,” said the Weston Academy Head magnanimously as he took out an intricate pouch and tossed it towards a Silver ranked instructor from the Saint Marceau Academy.

“The Weston Academy Head is so generous…” “Thank you, academy head…” Such cries and cheers could be heard coming from the audience.

Pretending not to see the Weston Academy Head’s gleeful expression, he stretched out his hands and motioned towards the inside of the halls and said, “Over here, my fellow guests.”

—————————————————————–

The newly-renovated training hall had changed a lot after the process. In the center of the hall was a 7m x 5m elevated platform with up to eight terraces of audience seats surrounding it which could seat up to 2000 people.

Lazily standing on the dueling platform, Lorist looked casually at the uniform-clad Dawn Academy schoolgirls who were walking around the audience seats and saying in a clear voice, “Get your betting tickets here! Is there anyone who wants to make a bet? The payout for Instructor Locke’s victory is 1 small silver for every large silver and the payout for his loss is 1 large silver for every small silver!”

The Weston Academy and the Hoary Stock Academy heads were infuriated at the scene on the seats. “Rotten old man, what’s the meaning of this?”

Academy Head Levins merely said, “What’s so weird about a few girls working so hard to run a betting pool to earn some cash for a living? Maybe they’re just very confident in Instructor Locke’s abilities and set the betting payouts to be so skewed. If you two are unhappy with that, why not buy some tickets for your victory and teach them a lesson?”

Only an idiot would believe that you wasn’t involved in it! The two academy heads glared at Levins furiously. The Weston Academy head said, “I have more than 10 gold Fordes in this pouch and I bet on the victory of the Hoary Stock Academy! I’ll make sure you go bankrupt from the payout!”

The Hoary Stock Academy head also said to the instructors and students of his academy, “Everyone, put some money in the pool and bet on our victory. It isn’t like that Iron ranked kid on the platform there has three heads or six arms, I doubt that not even one out of the twenty Silver ranked instructors can take care of him! With enough people, no matter how strong he is, he’ll definitely tire out near the end!”

The female students accepted the bets without hesitation even though almost nobody bet for Lorist’s victory aside from a few other Dawn Academy students.

The Hoary Stock Academy head held a handful of betting tickets and whispered to the Weston Academy head, “Even though Instructor Worbas is only a Two Star Silver, his swordsmanship is not something to be underestimated. I’m sending him out first to test out that kid Locke’s abilities. Even if his swordsmanship is superb, there’s no doubt that he’d fall after several tiring matches. Look, Instructor Worbas is already on the platform. With his rich experience and 17 wins out of all 18 duels he has had… Huh?”

Charade quickly walked up the dueling platform and announced after examining Worbas, who was lying flat on the ground, “The challenger was knocked out from blunt force trauma to the chin and is unable to continue battling. Next one.”

Within half an hour, all twenty of the Hoary Stock Academy instructors had been wholly defeated by Lorist, who still had the ‘energy’ to yawn lazily on the stage.

The beauties who were running the betting pool as well as the patrolling Enforcement Division members, who held their swords up high, let out cheers of joy and chanted, “Instructor Locke, Silver Undefeated!” over and over again.

The Weston Academy head was stunned speechless and ruthlessly tore up all the betting tickets that he had bought. Without even saying his farewells to Academy Head Levins, he turned towards the exit and left right away. The people from the other academies who came to cheer for the Hoary Stock instructors left disappointed as well.

The Hoary Stock Academy head’s expression was dark as the dirt on the ground. He didn’t even notice the tickets falling out from his grip. How could it be… The instructors from my academy were mostly defeated within one exchange… Even the best only lasted three bouts…

Lorist called Charade over and said, “How many challengers are there for tomorrow?”

“Twenty, just like today,” replied Charade.

Lorist said, “That’s way too less. Next time, increase the amount to 50 a day. It’s better if I can settle this sooner.”

—————————————————————–

Bill’s journal:

Year 1767, 2nd day of the 3rd month, Trade Union Calendar Weather: Sunny

I lost a gold coin in the betting pool today. Who would’ve expected that all the 20 Silver ranked instructors sent by the Hoary Stock Academy to be so useless and got defeated by Instructor Locke… However, I believe it will be different tomorrow, as the duels are open to all the famous combatants who are not representing any academy. They should be too much for an instructor who always spends his time in the academy teaching without much combat experience. It’s fortunate that the payout for the betting pool still stayed the same. It seems that I still have a chance to get the gold coin that I lost back.

The young master was in pretty good shape today as well. He bathed and went to sleep after training as usual.

Chapter 34 Dueling Period

Seeing the Silver ranked mercenary rush at him with a sword, Lorist instantly visualized more than ten ways to defeat the opponent, but he wasn't allowed to use any one those. That was because Charade said this to him the day before, "Oh Lord Locke, why don't you just let me call you that? You should always give them a fighting chance! Don't just take them out in an instant, alright?! At least pretend to fend away a few of their strikes and maybe even try for a close victory and make people think that you were just on the edge of losing and merely lucked out. This way, people will continue to bet against you! Otherwise, everyone will no longer bet on your loss and the betting operation Els is running would no longer earn as much, surely you understand that much?"

Fine, I'll just dance around and act out the fight the whole time. Though, I can't say I'm pretty good at it... This Silver ranked mercenary may be pretty ferocious, but he has lots of openings to strike at, thought Lorist as he tried to match the opponent's ragged movements and try to dodge in a manner that seemed difficult for him. This... this really is too hard...

The seven years he served in the military in his previous life had left too deep an impression on Lorist. He had been enlisted as an assault trooper and not a support troop, so he had witnessed all kinds of blood, violence and death that was not too uncommon on the battlefield. While the world as a whole was relatively peaceful during those seven years in his life, shootouts were still a common occurrence during anti-terrorism or drug busting operations. In those bloody fights, a single bullet would equal death to the soldiers and taking the least effort to eliminate the enemy was the most efficient and best way to protect oneself and one's comrades on the battlefield. They even had to make sure their enemies were not playing dead by shooting the corpse of the enemy in the head. That was why Lorist was finding it so hard to purposely not take the finishing move and end the duel there and then.

However, to the audience witnessing the battle from the seats, it seemed like the Silver ranked mercenary was slowly pushing Lorist into a corner as Lorist flailed around desperately trying to parry blow after blow. It really was rather rare for an opponent to not be instantly taken out by Lorist. Perhaps Instructor Locke is weak against rapid attackers, thought some of the people in the audience as they quickly made a mental note of this perceived weakness and determined to verify this fact in the future duels.

At that moment, the mercenary had exposed his chin and Lorist really couldn't resist it anymore. He planted his right foot firmly on the ground in front of him as his left foot instantly kept up and made a big step forward in a swift and agile manner, much like that of a fish swimming in water. Within but a moment, Lorist appeared before the mercenary and swung the sword in his right arm and lightly grazed the chin of the opponent. The Silver ranked mercenary reacted as if he had been struck by lightning and took a few unstable steps forward before falling flat on his face entirely.

Charade rushed up to the platform and checked the condition of the defeated mercenary before announcing, "The contestant has passed out from an injury to his chin. The next contender, please prepare for your turn on the stage."

After signalling for the medical team to take the mercenary away, Charade said to Lorist in a low voice, "That was great, just keep this up for the rest of the battles and let the audience think that the challengers have some hope in winning. However, please pay attention to not always hit their chins to end the duel so that they won't discover that you're holding back."

With 20 challengers in a day and each taking up about five minutes, it all totals up to 1 hour and 40 minutes. Add in another rough 20 minutes for things like announcements and medical checks, the duels would take around 2 hours per day. That should be enough for the audience to feel fulfilled from paying the ticket price of one small silver. Sigh... It seemed that Lorist still had to continue putting up an act for quite a while.

When the first dueling day with the Hoary Stock Academy ended, Lorist had asked Charade to increase the number of challengers per day from 20 to 50 so that he would be able to settle the duels within half the amount of time. However, it was rejected as the revenue generated from the tickets and other miscellaneous sales during each open dueling day easily reached 40 gold Fordes and more. That prompted the finances department of the academy to make sure that duels during those days were dragged on for as long as possible and shoot down Lorist's request without even considering it.

As expected, the next few challengers all employed the same tactic of attacking rapidly. However, with his dynamic vision ability, the sword strikes which seemed swift as the wind, clustered as rain and powerful as lightning could all clearly be identified by Lorist down to every single detail. If the duels were life-and-death battles, Lorist could break the momentum of the enemy with only one stroke and pierce their hearts instantly. Though, he had no choice but to hold back during these duels.

Many of the challengers attempted to use their superiority as Silver ranks to try to trump Lorist, who was only an Iron ranked fighter, and attempted to break Lorist's sword with the blade glows emanating from their weapons to render Lorist helpless. No matter how tough Lorist's sword was, with his Battle Force at the Iron rank, he wasn't able to manifest a blade glow to counteract that of the challengers' and his sword would break within a few exchanges.

But Lorist wasn't going to go along with their intentions either. Every time he crossed weapons with his opponent, Lorist aimed for the crossguards of the swords and cleverly put his blade out of the way of the blade glows, much to his opponents' annoyance.

The audience started gasping in anxiety as they witnessed Lorist win by a hair's breadth against one opponent after another. Most of those victories seemed to have been a result of Lorist taking advantage of the challengers' mistakes. Had they been more careful and lucky, it would be hard to say who would take the victory for each match. The audience seemed convinced that Lorist's weakness was indeed a crazed flurry of attacks.

That was until a One Star Silver mercenary started taking Lorist on with the standard rapid attack tactic. Sheesh, your Battle Force is of the earth attribute which makes you more suited for using a sword and a shield in battle, as a semi aggressive guardian. How in the world did you think you would win with rapid attacks while hiding behind your shield? Can you even see where I'm standing at?

Lorist merely took a few steps forward, sidestepped, and gave a low sweep to his opponent with his leg, tripping the whole guy over. Lorist then proceeded to step on the fellow and tapped his shoulder with his sword twice. Hearing the laughter coming from the audience, the Silver ranked mercenary's face reddened as he picked up his equipment and dashed for the exit.

Clang, clang... Clang! Sharp resounding sounds of metal clashing rang out from within the hall.

It was currently the final duel scheduled for today and the opponent was a Three Star Silver mercenary who looked in his forties. The main difference between him and the rest of Lorist's previous challengers was how he didn't bother to rain attacks on Lorist and instead took on a defensive stance while awaiting Lorist's move.

This was the most impressive challenger up to date as he had managed to perfectly hold his defenses against three of Lorist's aggressive assaults. With his curiosity piqued, Lorist circled around the defending challenger and started to observe him carefully.

The middle-aged man had an unfazed expression and calm and cool breathing. With one leg in front and the other behind, he seemed pretty relaxed and unconcerned. Every time Lorist made a dash to his side, he merely swiped his front leg to point it in Lorist's direction, not once exposing his back to him.

This person was a real expert who had the potential to break through to the Gold rank in the near future and must have experienced his own fair share of life-and-death battles given his calm and reactive disposition and the solid swordplay that he has displayed. During the last three bouts of savage attacks by Lorist, there were quite a number of strikes that would've been lethal to that mercenary but all of them were successfully deflected by him by relying on his great reflexes. It was as Lorist had said before, this person has mastered all the eight basic moves of swordsmanship to the point when every move was as natural as breathing which allowed him to emerged unscathed from the flurry of strikes.

Standing there, Lorist said respectfully to that middle-aged mercenary, "Nice to meet you, I'm Norton Lorist. It is an honor to be able to face you in this duel."

It was the first time Lorist had introduced himself on the stage as this middle-aged mercenary was definitely worth this respect. No matter who it was, as long as one managed to practice the eight basic swordsmanship moves to this level, one would deserve this kind of respect.

The middle-aged man was slightly surprised as a warm light flashed past his eyes. He slightly nodded his head and replied, "My name is Grei Potterfang. It's my pleasure to be able to fight you as well."

Lorist waved the sword in his hand and said, "Please watch out, I'm about to attack."

This time, Lorist didn't simply unleash all his force like he did the past three times but rather approached Potterfang gradually and planned to use a steady and firm approach against him. From his dynamic vision, he could see that almost all of the middle-aged man's moves had a small window of opportunity that he could exploit. As long as he suddenly changed his move mid-trajectory, there was a chance that the middle-aged man wouldn't be able to respond in time and create the decisive opening for Lorist's victory.

The experienced mercenary Grei Potterfang was retreating step by step and neutralized Lorist's blows one after another without leaving much of an opening. It was then when Lorist's move suddenly changed from a round of quick attacks to a leap towards him in an attempt to launch a close quarters move.

Potterfang's expression changed instantly as he let out a low groan, expanded the blade glow from his sword and quickly slashed downwards. Lorist's forward movement didn't slow down at all as the sword in his right hand came up and parried the downward moving sword. The middle-aged man quickly tried to move a few steps back only to hear a sound of a blade unsheathing. A light flashed out before his eyes and a short blade could be seen dangerously pressed on the side of his neck. It appeared that Lorist had pulled his sidearm; an action that was far beyond the mercenary's expectations.

Potterfang's body froze as he placed the longsword in his hand down before saying, "It's my loss. I've forgotten about that other blade you were carrying on your hip..."

Lorist kept the short blade and said, "You're pretty skilled. Nobody else has managed to force me to draw my other blade until now."

"Nevertheless, a loss is still a loss, I have no excuses," replied Potterfang with a bitter laugh. "Thank you for showing mercy. I have indeed learned much from this duel. I'll be taking my leave now."

Potterfang turned around and left the dueling platform right away as the audience let out jeers and sighs and tore their betting tickets to pieces. This has been a common sight for the whole of the month.

In actuality, had Lorist utilized the explosive power of the Inch Stage of the Aquametal Technique, he could have easily broken through the middle-aged mercenary's defenses but it would be difficult for him to control the amount of power he used and might end up injure the mercenary badly. Given that he had already reached the Dark Stage, that kind of power was easily way beyond what a Silver rank could handle. If he could, Lorist didn't want to hurt his opponent too badly and just try to knock the opponent out. That was why he liked to go for his opponents' necks.

Charade looked at Lorist's thoughtful expression asked, "What's going on? Are you thinking of something?"

Lorist replied, "That middle-aged mercenary just now was a true expert. If it were you or Els instead of me fighting here, I'm sure it wouldn't turn out good. He's far stronger than many of the Silver ranked instructors of our academy.

Charade repled, "You didn't have to tell me that. I could feel the tension when I was watching from the seats and was truly concerned about whether you have finally met the one who would defeat you. This match was really exciting. It's the first time I've seen someone who managed to hold out in so many moves against you."

"Well, I still think that I wouldn't lose either way, that much I'm confident in. I just dragged it on to make it seem more tense for the audience. The 20 duels today have really worn me out. I really shouldn't have listened to what you guys said about faking the duels," complained Lorist.

"Come on, just shrug it off. It's all for the golden bright future[1] that awaits us. Please bear with it for our sakes, would you? Oh, today's the academy payday. You haven't collected your salary from the finance department yet, right? We're having a party at the Red Grace Inn tonight," said Charade.

Thinking back at the day he covered for their bills, Lorist said in an annoyed tone, "Don't think that I'll pay for the bills this time. You even took so much food with you back home... You're really shameless you know!"

[1] This actually a pun between money (钱, qian) and future (前途, qian tu). Golden bright future (钱途, qian tu) reads the same as future (前途, qian tu) in Chinese.

Chapter 35 President Peterson’s Thanks

Lorist held a small, heavy pouch filled with 30 gold Fordes within it after returning from the finances department. He still has to go to the Swordsmanship Society next as the acting vice chairman Terman has been pandering Lorist to sign the document to finally be able to distribute the bonuses for the members. The situation was the same with the instructor team of the Battle Force awakening course as well.

Lorist had 3 gold Fordes incoming as allowance for running the Swordsmanship Society and another 5 gold Fordes for running the Battle Force awakening course. In total, his income for the month was 38 gold coins. He was very much satisfied with his current lifestyle, as he had made an interesting estimation of the price for the property and living cost in Morante City. If 1 copper coin was equal to 1 Chinese Yuan in his previous life, a small silver would be worth 20 Yuan, a large silver would be worth 100 and a gold Forde was equal to 2000. The salary he got for the month would consequently amount to about 76000 Yuan in his previous life! Including the extra cash he earned from mercenary missions, his annual income would be worth no less than a million Chinese Yuan. I'm kinda loaded now, ain't I, thought Lorist as he thought about the fact that he was living the life of a millionaire.

Lorist was the highest-paid employee of the Dawn Academy mainly due to his status as a dual Gold ranked instructor. It's no wonder Charlando cursed when he had heard about Lorist's salary given the annual income of the inn only amounting to 200 gold coins including the referral fee he collected from the private requests handled by the inn. Lorist, on the other hand, easily earned up to 360 gold coins a year.

The assistant instructors in the academy only earned 1 gold coin per month and could be appointed as a probationary official instructor for 3 months if they showed good performance, elevating their salary up to 2 gold coins. After the probationary period, Iron ranked instructors earned a salary of 3 gold coins. If an instructor had Silver ranked Battle Force, he would have to serve as an Iron ranked instructor for one semester before he can officially take on the position of a Silver ranked instructor with 5 gold Fordes as his salary.

There were several different pay grades among Silver ranked instructors as well. For the first 3 years of service, it was 5 gold coins. The next 3 years after that was 6 gold coins per month. When that period is over, the salary would rise to 7 gold coins for another three years. For any Silver ranked instructor that has served for more than 10 years, their salary would be fixed at 8 gold coins per month.

The Gold ranked instructors on the other hand had their salaries decided based on their star rank. One Star Gold ranked instructors earned 10 gold coins a month, Two Star Gold ranked instructors earned 15 gold coins whereas Three Star Gold ranked instructors like Instructor Claude got 20 gold coins every month. If Instructor Claude manages to break through to the Blademaster level, his salary would be no less than 50 gold coins each month.

When Lorist first obtained the Incador Medal, he was eligible to receive the same treatment as Gold ranked instructors do. However, the finances department of the academy was very divided on the matter of the salary. Some said that he deserved to be paid as much as the One Star Gold ranked instructors while some others questioned whether he should receive his salary as an Iron ranked instructor on top of the benefits of having the Incador Medal. In the end, the decision was passed on to Academy Head Levins and he decided that Lorist would be paid the salary equivalent to a Two Star Gold instructors without any other benefits. It was at that moment when Lorist's income became 15 gold coins a month. After acquiring the Gold Battle Force Instructor Badge, his salary doubled yet again.

This was the main reason why Charade and Lorist's other friends loved to take advantage of him as they were quite envious of the large salary he got. Every month after payday, they would find some sort of excuse to make him treat them to something. Charade had even said something like this before, "I have toiled so hard upon entering the Enforcement Division as a normal member to finally become the head of it for almost ten years now and my monthly salary is only a measly 12 gold coins, not even half of yours! If I don't at least get something at your expense, I would find it hard to sleep at night!"

Exiting the Swordsmanship Society building, Lorist came to the office of the instructor team of the Battle Force awakening course. As the one put in charge to manage the distribution of the bonus allowance for the instruction team, Lorist was approached by Instructor Anfya to sign the relevant documents. After signing the distribution authorization documents, he signed under his own name in the list as well and collected his 5 gold coins. As he was just about to leave, he was called out to by Instructor Marlin.

Instructor Marlin stretched his hand out and said, "Lend me some money, I'll return it tomorrow."

"Alright, how much do you need?"

"As much as possible, all of it if you don't mind. I'll definitely return it tomorrow," replied Instructor Marlin.

"Huh?" Lorist threw the whole pouch to Marlin and asked curiously, "Brother Marlin, what do you need the money for? And you say you're returning it tomorrow? Is there anything that urgent?"

Instructor Anfya who was standing nearby them overheard and tried hard to suppress her laughter. "He also asked some of us to lend him money and said that he would return it tomorrow. Every time he collects his salary, he has to pass it all to his wife and he wouldn't be left with any to go get drinks. That's why he just came out with a way to save some personal cash for himself so that he won't have to worry about drinking anymore."

"How would he make that kind of money in just a day? Can he really get enough to let him drink away without any worries? Even loan interests wouldn't get you that much!" exclaimed Lorist, still unable to figure out what Instructor Marlin was planning.

"Actually, that method has something to do with you," replied Anfya, smiling.

"Huh? How so?"

"Aren't you gonna go fight against the instructors of the 17th ranked Clearwater Academy tomorrow? Marlin plans to gather 100 gold coins to bet on your victory. Even though the payout rate is 1 small silver for 1 large silver, with 100 gold coins, he can easily get 20 more if he wins the bet. That would be enough for Marlin to drink as he wants for years," explained Instructor Anfya.

Lorist looked at Instructor Marlin with a complicated expression. That's the best idea you've managed to come up with? I believe that the academy head would go completely nuts over this. "Brother Marlin, you're really pushing your luck here. Have you ever considered what would happen if I were to lose somehow? If you really want to drink, why don't I just treat you to some tonight at the Red Grace Inn?"

Instructor Marlin laughed and replied, "If you lose, then I only have myself to blame. I'd rather take that risk and enjoy all the alcohol I can buy myself. Additionally, if you were treating once or twice, I wouldn't mind. But even I wouldn't have the face to ask you to treat me to drinks every single day."

"What about the academy head? You're practically making the academy betting pool incur a huge loss at this rate."

"I'll do it nevertheless for the booze! Even so, a few other instructors and I can still say that we're supporting you as fellow instructors from the Battle Force awakening course by placing a large bet on your victory. The academy can't do anything to us if that's the case."

"Alright, since you've already decided on it, I wouldn't convince you otherwise. You guys better not sleep tonight to pray for my victory instead," said Lorist as he headed out of the door, before suddenly stopping again when he remembered something. "Um, Brother Marlin, I seem to remember that you were unfazed at President Peterson's offer of the 3000-gold-Forde reward. Can you tell me why?"

"Oh, that was because I've seen things like this many times when I still served in the city garrison. Every time a certain group of soldiers was about to be sent out as cannon fodder, the commander would always shout that the first one ahead would get 100 gold coins to raise their morale. In time, I got used to it and no large sum of money can ever move me," explained Instructor Marlin nonchalantly.

"Ugh..." Lorist was truly speechless at that.

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Lorist then went over to see how the young master of the Peterson family's training was going. The young master, training hard under the threat of the cane for more than 50 days, has successfully lost more than 35 kilograms of his body weight, but he still weighed around 150 kilograms. After giving the fatty's pulse a read, Lorist received the report from the cane-wielding instructor who said that the young master's training was progressing really successfully, apart from the fact that he desperately craved for meat to the point where he actually tried to bite some off from the instructor's hand himself. Had it not been for his quick Battle Force activation, he would have lost at least half a kilogram of muscle from his arm. After that, he gave the young master a stern beating and finally snapped him out of his crazed trance.

No wonder the young master's so obedient when I tried to read his pulse... It's because he just got punished heavily, thought Lorist as he decided to once again revise the young master's meals. "How about this, from tomorrow onwards, his breakfast will stay the same, add about half a kilogram of steamed chicken for him during lunch and some steamed fish for dinner. These new dishes should not contain a trace of oil in it. Just season it with some salt. However, double the intensity of his training from now on as well. He'll have enough energy for that given his increased servings."

Seeing the young master doing sit-ups beside him like a flopping dead fish, Lorist felt that it was about time for him to leave for the great hall. Today was the day when the first 152 students in Group 1 of the Battle Force awakening course awakened their Battle Force. As the head instructor, he was obligated to attend the event.

He arrived at the great hall just in time. The 152 students were already gathered there and formed neat rows of people. Instructor Marlin invited Lorist to go on the podium to give a final debriefing to the students present.

Standing on the stage, Lorist pointed towards the gigantic pentagram diagram and said, "All this time you have been taught to memorize this diagram firmly in your heart. This is the basic major circulation path that you will have to master. When you enter the meditation room later, relax your bodies, focus your attention and imagine the blood flowing through the circulation points listed in the diagram in your own bodies. Sooner or later, you'll start to feel some kind of energy manifesting in your bodies. That is the sign of a successful Battle Force awakening. Right now, just relax and don't feel anxious. None of you here will fail as you have all reached the peak condition in terms of your essence, vitality and consciousness,[1] and I know that because I have personally read your pulses during the past two days and I feel really confident in all of you. That's why, relax, have more confidence and face your awakening with a tranquil smile."

Lorist's speech incited a round of light laughter from the students. After that, one by one the students were guided to the nearby meditation room by the assistant instructors where they will reside for one to two hours before emerging with their Battle Force awakened.

Actually, the awakening process of Battle Force itself wasn't that complicated apart from the fact that person with a body in bad condition couldn't feel the flow of internal energy no matter how much meditation is undertaken. After awakening their Battle Force, the students will be trained and familiarized with how to use it as the body adapts to the new circulation of energy in it until they reach the benchmark required of the One Star Bronze rank. After that, they will train individually like any other normal person and try to break through further ranks.

Having checked out on the other groups as well, Lorist prepared to head home himself until he was stopped by Bill the Butler who was running towards him hurriedly to inform him that President Peterson was at the academy and would like to meet up with him.

Lorist was led by the butler who took a roundabout route and only answered his questions grumpily. He couldn't help but feel that something was off. What is going on? I know that Butler Bill has something against my methods in training the young master, which should look like pointless torturing to him, but he was still a loyal man who responsibility carried out anything he was tasked with and probably wouldn't let his personal feelings get in the way of his job.

Little did Lorist know that Bill had lost more than 20 gold coins from betting against him. Had he not decided to stop betting altogether, he could've easily lost another 10. Having to meet the person that had caused him to lose more than 20 gold coins, it was no wonder that the butler behaved a little cold towards him. It was already quite an achievement for him to not lash out at Lorist there and then.

Having been led into the small tree-filled area beside the school field, Lorist discovered that President Peterson was hiding behind a tree and spying on his fat son who was exercising under the threat of the cane. Every time the cane snapped, the president would flinch for a bit as if he himself had been hit by it.

Lorist had a complicated expression on his face as he thought, President, I can understand why you don't want your son seeing you here, but why have you dragged me, his instructor, here to spy on him as well? It really feels like we're up to something no good here...

It appeared that President Peterson was pretty satisfied with his son's weight loss progress, which was quite evident to anyone who had observed the young master before he started. Seeing his son running and jumping around with so much vigor, the president couldn't be more delighted. When his son was at home, he was primarily known for his sloth as he would rather sit or lie around rather than stand up and walk. Every step he took seemed so tiring for him to the point he would start panting after walking a short distance. Even though the president wanted to be stricter on his son, his wife and mistresses couldn't bear to see the young master tire himself out and stopped him from doing so.

This time, even though he wasn't too pleased to see his son being caned by the instructor in charge, it was still better than having him lying about at home not doing anything at all. Naturally, the president also brought up some opinions about how the cane was too thick or how it was used all too often.

Lorist merely smiled and explained that the cane was made so that it wouldn't leave any lasting injuries on the young master's body and while it definitely hurt to be hit by it, it would only leave a slight bruise that would disappear after medicine has been applied after the training session. As for the caning frequency, that was entirely due to the fact that the young master would slack off whenever he could if he was not observed. If he was not supervised and punished the whole time, the training would never take effect at that rate. That's why the instructors can do nothing but steel their hearts and continue the caning.

Lorist let out a long sigh and said, "It would be better for him to suffer now than later. We're not only helping the young master to lose weight. In fact, we're also instilling within him the proper outlook on life. When the young master returns home with his Battle Force awakened, he will not return to his life of debauchery and lazing around anymore."

President Peterson gave those word some thought before saying, "Actually, I have another matter when I decided to come visit you today. It's about that sauna of yours that Bill told me about. I've been wanting to try it out since Bill said it was a rather refreshing and revigorating experience and I've come over to do just that as well as check out on my son. Having seen his progress, I really have to thank you for your efforts. I believe that you will successfully complete this task I have left to you."

Lorist nodded in agreement as well. The duel 'performances' throughout the morning had left him sweating all over and itching for a bath. Having spoken a little rudely when commenting on the methods he used on the young master, he quickly offered, "Why don't you come experience the sauna for yourself right now? Do I have the pleasure to invite you to come with me?"

President Peterson laughed out and said, "Of course you do."

......

"Ah, this is truly pleasant," said the president as he sat on the wooden seats with his whole body filled with sweat and a small towel covering his lower body.

As Lorist sprinkled even more water on the red-hot cobblestones in the cauldron, a rush of steam instantly arose and made the surrounding air a little difficult to breathe in.

"After sweating it out in the sauna, go wash yourself once before entering again. Repeat this for three times and you'll instantly feel more refreshed. The sauna really has many benefits to one's health and skin, but one shouldn't stay in it for too long a time. Ten minutes each time would be ideal," explained Lorist as his voice slightly echoed off from the walls of the compact sauna room.

"I think I'll have one built back at my home too. It would be a pretty good idea to host sauna parties once in a while where everyone will engage in naked communion, hehe," said the president as he came out with a rather fancy idea.

"That wouldn't be wise as you'll never know if any of your guests have any kind of contagious disease. It's best if the family sauna is not be open to anyone else. If you really want to have sauna parties, it's better if you start a high class sauna facility where you can also provide services like massages or other sorts of body care. It should be a pretty good business," said Lorist.

"That's actually a revolutionary concept! Why didn't I think of it myself?" said the president as he stood up in excitement with his eyes gleaming.

......

Before he boarded his carriage, President Peterson took out three palm-sized pieces of parchment and put them into Lorist's hand and said, "The first one is to thank you for coming out with a few great ideas for several businesses. I'll feel bad if I capitalize on those without somehow reimbursing you, so this represents my sincere thanks for you. The second one is my appreciation for the whole of the instructor team. The third one is for you personally for taking care of my son's training. I'll be leaving him entirely up to you."

The three pieces of parchment were gold coin tickets which was valued at 100 gold coins each. As long as it was brought to the shrine of the Goddess of Wealth, Zejin, Lorist would be able to exchange them for 300 gold Fordes. As expected of the man in charge of the Peterson Group, one of the largest merchant groups in the trade union. He was indeed generous with his rewards.

Lorist bowed down his head to say his thanks. "Thank you, president. Please rest assured, we'll definitely handle the matter of your son perfectly."

[1] This is a reference to the practice of traditional Chinese medicine where the Three Treasures are known as Jing (精), Qi (气) and Shen (神). See this link: Wikipedia

Chapter 36 Attendant and Carriage

It was nighttime and the Red Grace Inn was merry as usual. Instructor Marlin, having drunk a little too much, was telling Charade all about the plan for him to make tons of gold coins. The fatty’s eyes instantly gleamed as he gave Marlin another jug of ale to shut him up, after which he dragged Yuriy and Terman to a corner and started whispering away.

Just as Lorist pushed open the door and greeted Charlando, who was manning the counter, he sat beside Instructor Marlin. Having spent the afternoon with President Peterson in the sauna, he felt a little worn out and decided to take a nap in his room, only to wake up when the sky was already dark and rushed over right away.

Instructor Marlin looked at Lorist with his drunken eyes and said, “Brother Locke… Yo-you’re late… Here, have a cup of booze…”

“Brother Marlin, how much did you drink? You’re totally wasted!”

It’s over… I’ll definitely be nagged at by his wife when I send him back… Lorist tried to dismiss that thought and called the serving girl Molly over to take his order as he had yet to have dinner. As she took his order, Molly also complained to Lorist about how he hasn’t been coming over to the inn to spend the night with her and asked if he would want to do just that tonight.

Lorist was definitely moved after seeing Molly’s splendid figure. It has been almost a month since he last had any nighttime action as he really has been too busy in the recent days. He wouldn’t have come over to the inn either if it wasn’t payday. He also recalled that Charlando and Louise would be getting married within a month and he still hasn’t prepared a gift for them yet.

However, looking at how wasted Instructor Marlin was, Lorist turned down Molly’s offer. “I’m sorry, Molly. I’ve really been too busy recently. I have to send this guy over here back to his home later so I wouldn’t be able to stay the night. Maybe in another few days…”

Molly humphed with a tone of dissatisfaction. “Just you wait,” said Molly coldly, before she turned and left.

Even so, Molly didn’t forget her place as a serving girl and quickly sent the food Lorist had ordered to him. After getting a few bites, Charade sat in front of Lorist and swiped a piece of roast goose from his plate and started chewing away.

“Sol, did you wash your hands? Don’t dirty my food like that,” scolded Lorist.

“If you’re not going to finish it, let me help,” said Yuriy as he came over. He was even worse and took the whole plate of roast goose away from Lorist.

“I bet you guys are just here to make me pay for you again. I’m telling you beforehand that all of you aside from Marlin will have to settle your own bills.”

“That’s no issue,” said the fatty as he spit out the bones of the goose before waving at the serving girls and pointing at Instructor Marlin, who was lying flat on the table. “Brother Marlin here still wants… one, two, three… six, six more cups of blackcurrant fruit wine and another two barrels of blackcurrant ale. Oh, and let chef McDuffin make him a few more delicious dishes to go with all the alcohol.”

Upon hearing his name mentioned, Instructor Marlin who was lying flat on the table raised his cup and said, “Alright, let’s drink…” before falling flat onto the surface once again.

“Sol, I never knew that would work… It’s your win, fatty…” said Lorist with his mouth agape with the half-chewed food nearly falling out.

“Yeah!” Having successfully taking advantage of Lorist once again, Charade, Yuriy and gang clapped their hands in celebration.

In the midst of all the merrymaking, a person suddenly rushed over in front of Lorist and kneeled down. Very much stunned at this sight, Lorist asked, “What’s going on?”

That person said loudly, “I want to be your disciple! Please let me learn the way of the sword from you!”

……

Charade and gang were totally flabbergasted. What was this situation about?

“Having seen all your battles within the past month, I really want to learn swordsmanship from you. Before, it was totally my fault for saying that you didn’t qualify to teach me for just being an Iron rank. I am deeply sorry for that!”

“Brother Locke, that is the kid I was talking about. He’s regretting his decision terribly right now,” said Els, who suddenly appeared beside Lorist and swiped a bottle of fruit wine from one of the serving girls’ trays. “Get us another bottle.”

“I’m not paying for that, alright?” clarified Lorist. It was troublesome enough for Charade to have managed to order six more bottles of fruit wine which cost one large silver each under the name of Marlin.

“He’s just joking. Put the bill on his tab,” said Els to the serving girl before patting Lorist on the shoulder as he pointed at the kneeling youth. “Sit down, old friend. Let’s first talk about whether you will accept him as your student.”

Sigh, I really can’t do anything about the bills, Lorist thought, before turning his attention to the youth on the ground. Hmmm, Els was right about him having a rather nice physique. He’s only 16 and yet he looks so well-built and tall. I would have thought that he was 20 if I wasn’t told of his age beforehand… Blonde hair, straight nose and clear eyes, he actually looks pretty decent. At this moment, the youth on the ground had a perplexed expression as he clenched his lips and awaited Lorist’s decision.

“What’s your name?” asked Lorist.

“I… I’m called Reidy Gezeizidorf,” said the youth nervously.

“Hmm, then I’ll call you Reidy. Reidy, having watched my battles, then you should know that I’m both a swordsmanship and Battle Force instructor at the Dawn Academy. As long as you enroll over there, I’ll naturally be able to teach you swordsmanship without you having to kneel here like that. Also, I’m only eight years older than you, you know. I don’t plan on accepting a personal disciple just yet. I think it’s better if you and attend an elementary academy before applying to the Dawn Academy the next year,” said Lorist.

Reidy was disappointed at the response, but he remained kneeling. “No, I don’t want to attend school. All the people there laugh at me for being a country bumpkin and look down on me. I only want to learn swordsmanship from you…”

Having had vast economical development over the last twenty years of peace, Morante City has become one of the most advanced merchant cities on the Grindia Continent. Gradually, its citizens began to develop arrogance and pride for being born in the city. Just like how people in Lorist’s past life would look down on foreign laborers, many citizens of Morante City would berate outsiders for being country bumpkins and assume that all of them fit under the stereotype of thieves and robbers. It could be seen that the attitude of the trade union’s people has become intolerant and materialistic.

This kind of discrimination wasn’t too uncommon at the Dawn Academy either and it was usually the main cause for disputes between local and non-local students in the academy. Lorist was surprised at how Reidy has already experienced such a thing at an elementary academy. It’s no wonder Els said he had beaten up all the students in the whole class in one of the academies he had attended before.

“Brother Locke, just take him it. He’s just that stubborn and wouldn’t get up if you don’t accept him as a disciple. Well, it’s not like you have to actually teach him. Just treat him as your personal attendant and give him pointers from time to time. Since you’re still a person with a noble status, nobody would say anything if you had a retainer or two following you around,” encouraged Els as he sipped the wine from the bottle in his hand.

“This…” Lorist sometimes actually forgot that he came from a noble family. Even though he had been exiled from the family, he still bore the family name and had the right to use the Norton family insignia as proof of his noble status. If he were to mingle in high society, he would receive the treatment and service of a nobleman. It’s just that Lorist had never paid much attention to matters such as these.

“Oh,” Els sounded like he just remembered something. “Didn’t you just move into a new place? I’ve been thinking quite hard about what to give you as a housewarming gift. It so happens that a guy who owed me money went bankrupt and is auctioning his possessions away to pay back the debt. Jindoz already went and collected his horses and carriage as collateral. Since you don’t have a carriage yourself, I thought that I’d give that to you since I won’t be using it anyway. That’s why I think you should accept Reidy as he can help you take care of the carriage and the Zeno Horses.”

Lorist gave a bitter laugh. Since Els is going out of his way just to make him take Reidy in, he said to the youth kneeling in front of him, “Reidy, I’m sure you’ve heard what Els had just said. Would you be willing to be my attendant for now? If not, you had better get up as I won’t be taking in a disciple in the near future.”

Reidy instantly got up and said, “Of course I’m willing. I’ll make sure the horses and carriage receive the best of my care! I’ll be bringing my stuff over now.”

Seeing Reidy run off to pack his belongings, Els nodded and said, “This fellow will make a good attendant given his hardworking attitude and abundant energy. He’s also a pretty good coachman as well. I’ll be leaving him in your care, Brother Locke.”

Charade looked at them with an expression of envy. “Els, why did you gift Lorist a horse carriage but nothing to me? I was even your classmate at that time! Was our relationship that shallow?”

“Hey, Brother Locke has given me a couple of great ideas for businesses that’s worth thousands of gold coins. Jindoz said that if I didn’t give him anything, I would lose all my face. As for you, what have you done for me other than taking advantage of me? You still dare to demand gifts? Dream on,” said Els.

Still not convinced, Charade said, “I refuse to believe that Locke can come up with any ideas for a business that’s worth that much.”

Els told the whole thing about repackaging and selling the Terrence-donkey whip to the group since it wasn’t that much of a secret to begin with and managed to convince Charade.

Yuriy nodded and said, “This business really is quite profitable.”

When Els had heard about the idea from Lorist, he had someone sent to purchase all the Terrence-donkey whips available from the Relic Islands right away. The shipment will be arriving in another month and the medicinal wine and glass bottles were all prepared. Without the power and connections Els’s syndicate has, no normal businessman would be able to prepare all that within a short period of time.

Charade said bitterly, “This bastard really has a brain that’s much more wtty than most…”

Seeing Lorist about to finish his meal, Els placed the wine bottle back on the table and said, “Come, Brother Locke. Let’s go check the carriage out. I’ve parked it in the back alley.”

The group then went as a group to go see the horse cart. Its design wasn’t like that of the normal coaches that one could rent on the streets. It was a four-wheeled cart that boasted a complete dark brown-colored carriage which was suited for long distance travel with four green glass windows that helped the interior of the carriage to gain some illumination during the day. The roof and back of the carriage was fitted with bronze racks on which luggage could be placed. At the front of it was a seat that could fit two coachmen.

Els kicked on the cartwheel for a bit before he gleefully said, “This wheel, axle and bearing were all made in the dwarven kingdom from fairy steel and are incomparably tough and long-lasting. The metal bracket that’s securing the carriage is also fitted with a large shock absorber that will minimize the shakiness of the ride. With this carriage, you will no longer have to worry about transportation or shelter when you go on mercenary missions in the future.”

“Sol, who would use this kind of carriage to mercenary missions? Only nobles use carriages like this,” Charade interjected.

Ignoring Charade’s comment, Els said to Lorist, “Come, let’s check the interior out too.”

The carriage itself was fitted with two grey leather seats on the front and the back which faced each other. The back seat can also be folded downwards into a makeshift bed. Below the seats were four small drawers that could be used to store small items. The walls of the carriage were fitted with a light purple velvet cloth with two lamps on either side to help light up the interior at night.

Els knocked on the walls and said,” There’s a thin steel plate within these walls and over here…”

Els pointed towards the roof and continued, “Above are six pieces of light metal plates that are fastened by a velvet string that can be released to cover the parts where there are windows and provide some temporary defense towards any potential threat from the outside. There is also a trapdoor which is hidden under the carpet. You can use it for an emergency escape if the situation is dire.”

Terman was full of praise for the carriage. “The designer of the carriage has clearly considered most of the scenarios that one would encounter during long distance travel and has outfitted it adequately with certain necessary precautions. It must have been a pretty expensive one.”

Charade looked at it full of envy. “It should cost no less than 100 gold coins. Including the price of those two Zeno Horses, I believe the actual price is even higher.”

Zeno Horses were the most famous kind of mount on the Grindia Continent which were quite well known for their endurance, making them suited for long distance traveling even though their maximum speed was slightly slower than other kinds of horses.

Yuriy asked sheepishly, “Els, how much did you say that bankrupt merchant owe you?”

Els scratched his head in thought and said, “Should be about 30 gold coins, if not 40.”

“Ugh…” Everybody was speechless.

Lorist didn’t really mind whether the horses and carriage were taken by force since that was what the syndicates usually did anyway given their forceful management approach. Patting on the horse cart, he said satisfiedly, “Thanks, Els. I’ll take care of it well.”

Seeing Reidy carrying a rucksack on his back as he came over, Lorist called out to him and said, “Reidy, put the stuff into the carriage and prepare the horses. Fatty, come with me to get Instructor Marlin. I need to send him back.”

Charade asked, “Will you be coming back to drink?”

Lorist shook his head and said, “Nope, I won’t be. I still have to duel tomorrow and it’s getting rather late. Oh, and, are you leaving as well?”

Charade said, “No, we’ll be staying here for a bit more. The food still isn’t served yet.”

Lorist just remembered something and said, “Oh, I better go settle the bills lest you put your orders under my tab.”

“Sol, you’re so stingy, Locke. Didn’t Els just gift you a horse cart worth 100 gold coins? Surely you wouldn’t mind treating us something to commemorate that!”

“No way,” replied Lorist.

Chapter 37 Ambush on the Streets

The cartwheel which was layered with wood and resin rattled as the carriage traveled along the street...

Within the carriage, instructor Marlin lay upon the front seat and snored softly. Lorist felt incredibly satisfied with this carriage that he had just been gifted with as the build quality was impeccable and the ride was stable and comfy. The horses were well-trained and behaved as well. As for the Reidy, Lorist really didn't expect for his driving skills to be this good. It seemed that taking Reidy in to be his attendant was a good choice after all as Els had said.

Oh, there's a small handle here. The window can be opened after all! Ah, the feeling of the night breeze sure is refreshing, thought Lorist as he opened the window curiously as the scene of the nighttime streets passed by his view.

Huh? "Stop the carriage!" exclaimed Lorist.

"Easy, horsey..." commanded Reidy as he pulled on the reins. The carriage moved forward for another seven to eight meters before stopping completely as the Zeno Horses snorted in dissatisfaction.

"What's wrong, master?" asked Reidy.

Having been accepted as Lorist's servant, Reidy has changed the way he referred to him. In Grindia, calling someone 'master' wasn't a sign of being owned as per the relationship of a master and a slave but rather the sign of trust for the person who would make decisions for oneself to follow.[1]

"Turn back a little bit. Stop at the light pole beside the small plaza over there," instructed Lorist.

"Okay." Reidy pulled on the reins to turn the Zeno Horses in the opposite direction and steered the carriage towards the streetlights by the plaza.

Lorist got off from the carriage and walked towards the bench beside a flower patch in the plaza.

Sitting on top of the bench was an adult and two children who were huddled tightly together. At that moment, the adult moved a little upon hearing the footsteps of Lorist approaching and opened his half awake eyes. Seeing Lorist walking towards him, he couldn't help but exclaim in surprise. "It's you..."

"Hi. Are those two your children?" asked Lorist, looking like he suddenly understood something.

This middle-aged man was the last person that had challenged Lorist today who had left quite a deep impression given his skills relative to the other challengers. "Yes, this is my son Howard, he's 12 this year. Here's my daughter Alisa, she's 7," introduced Potterfang.

"Are you going to spend the night here with them?" Lorist didn't expect that a peak Silver ranked swordsman would be living homelessly like a wandering beggar. Had Potterfang not impressed him during the duel, he might not have even remembered his face let alone asked Reidy to stop the carriage.

Potterfang's face showed a pained smile as he said, "I have just come over here from the Krissen Empire, so I didn't bring much luggage with me. Also, I was too greedy and believed that I would definitely win against you in the challenge and get the reward money, so I bet the rest of my savings for the registration fee. Before arriving here, I relied on selling my belongings to survive. Up until today, I was quite confident in my abilities. I would never have expected to lose to your hands and disappoint my children. Having lost a large sum of money by betting on me and because of the overdue rent, the landlord kicked me out and left me homeless. Right now, I have nowhere to return to nor any identification documents, so I can only spend the night in this public space."

Lorist understood that had he been a normal Iron rank, he would definitely not be Potterfang's match. However, no one knew that he did not train mainly in Battle Force but rather in the Aquametal Technique from his previous life.

"Couldn't you just accept a mercenary mission?" Lorist asked. It was not rare for skilled mercenaries like Potterfang to be in high demand for various jobs from guarding a residence to helping out in a mercenary group. Many large mercenary groups would even accept an expert like Potterfang without asking him to pay the membership fee.

"I tried doing just that, but it still didn't work out," said Potterfang as he shook his head. "I'm already regretting my decision to travel to Morante City. I didn't expect the 'freedom and equality' I sought so much in Morante City was nothing but a mirage as the local citizens are extremely abhorrent and discriminatory towards us outsiders. I've witnessed several non local mercenaries having trouble finding requests in this city's mercenary guilds and are sometimes forced to accept difficult missions for an unfair price. That was especially the case for a citizen of the Krissen Empire like me, who is even more despised by the city folk among the other outsiders. Even though the war had ended over 20 years ago and the empire is already no more, the people of this city still treat us as enemies. I also have to consider the future of my children so I can't accept missions that are too risky... If I had won earlier today, I would've used the reward money to leave this place and go to another kingdom or nation. Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to receive the freedom and fairness that I had sought so much in futility in this city."

Potterfang explained his experiences in a tone that was both depressing and slightly laced with hatred and regret. If he had not been overconfident in his abilities and not caved in to the landlord's encouragement or be blinded by the luxurious prize money, he wouldn't have bet all his savings on the registration fee. Those 10 gold coins would have been enough for him to bring his children to leave this cold and materialistic city and settle down in another small village where he would be able to afford several acres of farmland and a small hut, which would be more than enough for his children to lead a stable life.

Sigh, I can only blame myself for being blinded by greed and losing my ability to think clearly, thought Potterfang as he lowered his head in frustration. No Iron ranked instructor in the right mind would challenge all the SIlver ranked instructors without a certain degree of confidence. Even Potterfang himself didn't dare to claim that he was the strongest among those of the same rank as him. He only understood that fact after he lost the battle, but it was already too late.

"Which part of the Krissen Empire did you come from?" asked Lorist.

"I am from the northern lands," replied Potterfang.

"Wow, that's a coincidence. My birthplace is also in the Krissen Empire. I'm sure they announced my name during the duels in the morning. I'm called Norton Lorist. Have you heard of the Norton family?" Lorist was delighted to have encountered someone from his homeland.

"Norton? The Roaring Bear of the Far Desolate North? I've definitely heard of them, the Nortons are famous nobles who were known for their military contributions. Many commoners joined the army in hopes of distinguishing themselves and gaining a noble title like the Norton family founder and be granted a dominion. But, how many among all those soldiers had managed to achieve that dream? Then again, why is someone like you at the Morante City and accepting challenges from Silver ranked combatants?" asked Potterfang, intrigued.

Lorist smiled and said, "Well, that is kind of a long story. To summarize, I have left my home to pursue my studies here in Morante City ten years ago. Ever since the internal disputes in the empire six or seven years ago, I have lost all contact with my family. You're a northerner too, right? Do you know something about my family?"

Potterfang seemed relieved but shook his head a little after a pause. "Sorry, I have also been away from home for more than 20 years. The northlands are vast. I come from Mond Town, which is quite far from your family's dominion. It would take approximately 3-4 days on horseback to even get there. When I was 21, I left my home to enlist for the army and worked my way up from a common soldier to a military officer and continued living my life in service. Given that I had no other relatives, I got married and settled down in the capital city. Never would I have expected internal strife to consume our empire. During the six years the three princes fought for the throne, the capital was totally decimated. After the chaos calmed down, I went back to the capital only to discover that almost everything I had was lost. With my wife dead, my two children had to rely on scraps and leftovers and somehow managed to survive. Had it not been for the care of certain neighbors, I might have lost even them. After that, I packed whatever I had and made my way to this city in hopes of being able to start a new life here..."

Oh, so he had a military background and is already accustomed to seeing the death and despair on the battlefield. No wonder he was so calm and firm throughout the whole battle. Given his strength as a peak Silver rank expert, he could've easily robbed the common folk and made a decent living for himself, but instead, he would rather live a harsh life with his children in the streets. It isn't easy to find a person that's as upright as him.

At that moment, Reidy came over to Lorist's side and gave Potterfang and his children a look before whispering, "Master, what's going on?"

Lorist looked at Potterfang and made his invitation, "Given that we already had crossed swords as fellow swordsmen, and the fact that we share the same homeland, Brother Potterfang, do I have the pleasure to invite you to come with us as guests? After all, I still have much to ask about the situation back at the empire and we can't be talking here all night long."

"This..." Potterfang seemed hesitant. He understood that Lorist made the offer with good intentions, however his pride wouldn't easily allow him to accept that gesture of kindness given the pathetic state he was in.

A cold breeze blew and the two children sleeping in his embrace sneezed loudly.

Lorist stepped forward and shielded them from the breeze. "Brother, I know that you have your pride as a soldier and isn't willing to accept people's kindness for nothing, but you have to consider the welfare of your children. Even though it's only spring, the nighttime air is rather chilly and your kids will easily get a cold that would cause you even more trouble given your predicament. Also, as a fellow northerner, I can't rest easy if I'm not able to help you in any way. You should know that northerners like us have a warm custom of providing our guests with top notch hospitality. What more is there to think about? Let's go."

"Alright then, please pardon my intrusion," said Potterfang resolutely as he accepted Lorist's invitation.

As Potterfang was about to wake his son with his daughter in his arms, Lorist placed his finger at his lips and shushed before saying, "Don't wake him. Let me carry him."

"I think you can leave that to me, master," Reidy said as he walked towards the child and lifted him up.

Hmm, a 16-year-old like him can carry a 12-year-old boy as if he weighed nothing more than a feather. Els really wasn't exaggerating when he mentioned Reidy's strength and vigor.

Potterfang bent down again to pick up his longsword and his small pouch. As it was his personal belongings, Lorist felt hesitant to help him take it.

"Let's get on the carriage first. My drunk colleague's in there though as I still have to send him home. I hope you wouldn't mind squeezing for a bit," said Lorist while pointing at the carriage.

"Mister Norton, you don't have to be so polite. I am already thankful for your kind generosity," thanked Potterfang.

Lorist turned and walked towards the carriage. "Just call me Locke. I'm not too comfortable with being referred to so formally. It's better if you just call me by name. Can I call you Pot..."

"Watch out! To your left!" Potterfang shouted urgently.

Lorist prepared to dodge as four 30 centimeter blades of light flew into his line of sight.

No, I can't evade these attacks. Otherwise, they would hit Potterfang who's carrying his daughter and Reidy who's holding the son. From the corner of his eyes, Lorist could see Potterfang already turning to his back and preparing to shield his daughter from the light blades. It was apparent that he expected Lorist to dodge and has braced himself to take the damage. Reidy on the other hand was completely stunned from suddenly being placed in a dangerous situation.

Sol, the attackers are Gold ranked combatants. Where's my sword? Lorist reached out for his longsword only to notice that he had left it on the seat in the carriage. It was fortunate that he still wore his short sword on his hip.

Shiiiing! The short sword made a sound as it was drawn out of the scabbard. Clang, clang, clang, clang! Within but a flash, the short sword danced mid-air and struck down the four blades of light. Judging by the strength and velocity of the blades, Lorist estimated that the blades were unleashed by a One Star Gold Swordsman. While an enemy of such caliber wasn't an inherent threat to him, he only had his sidearm with him and wasn't able to react well to the sudden attack.

"Bring the kids to the carriage. Reidy, drive back to the inn and let me handle this, quick!" exclaimed Lorist.

"Huh, you managed to parry my blades of light. I see that you're pretty resilient for a mere Iron rank." Two silhouettes emerged from the dark alley by the plaza and slowly walked towards Lorist's party.

"Relax, we're not here for your life. We did however receive a request from someone to take one of your arms. No worries, I'll make it quick so it'll be over in a second, hehe," said one of the approaching figures with his cynical, confident voice.

"You better be ready to put your life on the line if you want to try," Lorist replied coldly.

"Hehehe, we don't even fear Silver rank fighters. Killing you would be easier than slaying a chicken! At least a chicken would be able to hide somewhere tight. Where would you be able to hide?"

"Apprentice brother, let's not waste too much words on him. Who's attacking first? The sooner we settle this the faster we can return to the girls who are still waiting in our rooms," said the other in a rather frustrated tone.

Upon leaving his daughter in the carriage, Potterfang grabbed Lorist's sword and passed it to him quickly.

"They're here for me, you're not involved in this," said Lorist as he accepted the sword. Seeing Reidy leaving with the carriage, Lorist felt more relieved.

"The light blade just now also came towards my beloved Alisa," said Potterfang angrily as he drew the sword in his hand with a crisp sound. Had Lorist not struck down the attacks, Alisa would've been seriously wounded. Even though the assailants came for Lorist, they didn't care much for Potterfang and his daughter and had no issue with placing them in harm's way. There was no way that Potterfang would let them off with this.

"You better watch out, they're Gold ranks," reminded Lorist.

"Hmph, it's not like I haven't fought Gold ranks before. I've even killed a couple of them on the battlefield," said Potterfang.

"Hehe, you have a big mouth, don't you? I'll see how well you fare fighting against a Gold rank like me. Junior apprentice brother, there's one for each of us. I'll let you handle the Iron rank. Leave killing this Silver rank to me."

"Noted."

Having finished their discussion, the two assailants rushed towards Lorist and Potterfang with killing intent.

[1] This is a rather interesting play on the words for the term 'master'. In Chinese, the term master is 主人. The author mentioned that 主人 in Grindia does not refer to 'master' in the conventional sense but is actually a short way of saying 做主的人, which means 'one who makes decisions'.

Chapter 38 Counter Kill

A sword glow flashed as brightly as the stars in the darkness and approached at blinding speed. From Lorist’s point of view, the hastily created blades of light seemed to form a large net that sealed off all his surroundings.

The figure that rushed towards Lorist was the annoyed junior assailant. His strikes were lethal and aimed to take his life, despite what the senior assailant said to only take his arm.

Lorist let out a cold snort and drew his sword without backing down. The moment Lorist’s sword struck out, the countless light blade attacks that flew towards Lorist dissipated without a trace.

“Wha…” The opponent was caught off guard by Lorist’s successful attempt at deflecting the light blades. Not only that, Lorist instantly took the initiative and lashed out at the assailant without sparing a single moment. In but an instant, the assailant took a defensive stance as he struggled to block Lorist’s flurry of attacks.

The opponent tried to use brute force and take advantage of the disparity in power between a Gold rank and an Iron rank to break Lorist’s stance. However, Lorist’s swordsmanship was too unpredictable and managed to suppress the enemy’s move before it was even able to be unleashed and followed up with a flurry of incessant attacks like a rush of floodwater which forces its way through any gap, however small. The constant flow of strikes forced the opponent into a situation where he could only defend without being able to counterattack. Lorist’s swings also changed trajectory often before it landed and aimed for the attacker’s openings, forcing the attacker to gradually move backwards.

The enemy was already sweating all over. Had it not been for Lorist’s constant pressuring that didn’t allow him to catch any breath, he would’ve already called for help from his senior apprentice brother long ago. Not even while dreaming could he ever imagine fighting against someone with swordsmanship as fearsome as this that rendered the difference in raw power between a Gold rank and an Iron rank nonexistent. At this moment, Lorist’s performance wasn’t like that of an Iron rank’s at all. The assailant has only felt pressured like this when he sparred against his other Blademaster senior apprentice brother.

Behind Lorist, loud constant sounds of swords clashing rang out and stopped. Only Potterfang’s ragged breathing and the other assailant’s cry of despair could be heard.

“Ugh… Agh! It hurts… You madman! Ugh… It hurts as hell… Junior, how are you holding up? Quickly settle that bastard and come help me out! This Silver rank is a total madman I tell you! Ugh…” The senior assailant actually got a large cut and groaned away in agony.

Potterfang laughed softly before saying, “Come on. This was how I took care of Gold ranks on the battlefield. I take two of your strikes to deal one back. Three for one if I have to. Let’s see who can take more attacks before collapsing…”

That senior assailant no longer dared to attack Potterfang head on and only gritted his teeth as he circled around Potterfang while unleashing ranged light blade attacks as he called out for his junior to help out. He even berated his junior nonstop for taking so long to kill a mere Iron rank.

Little did the senior assailant know about the junior’s woes. Hearing that Potterfang got injured, Lorist increased the ferocity of his attacks and didn’t give too much heed to technique and forcefully struck towards the opponent’s chest. The junior assailant hastily took a few steps back while deflecting several waves of attacks with much fear in his eyes. Initially, he was happy that Lorist took the offensive against him and thought that he would be able to break Lorist’s longsword with his higher ranked Battle Force. Even if the sword didn’t break, he would still manage to make Lorist suffer a huge lost based on the pure difference in power.

Before, the assailant found it hard to parry Lorist’s swift and careful strikes. Currently, Lorist no longer cared much for finesse and technique and attacked with brute force. The junior assailant gladly brought his sword to meet Lorist’s only to discover that what he had expected to transpire didn’t happen and instead, he felt a strong wave of force passing through his own sword that caused him to loosen his grip on his weapon. The longsword was knocked out of the junior assailant’s hands and he instantly scrambled backwards in fear and somehow still managed to escape certain death.

Lorist was incredibly frustrated. Before, he had thought his opponent would take quite an effort on his part to defeat given how much he had boasted before. But now, all the assailant did was defend and dodge all over the place without any intention of counterattacking. No matter how formidable Lorist’s swordsmanship was, it wouldn’t be of much use against an opponent who didn’t dare to take a single one of his strikes.

This won’t do, thought Lorist as the junior assailant flocked around the place after picking his sword up like a frightened little bird. It seems that I must come up with some other way to take care of him.

Slowly advancing towards his enemy, Lorist swung his sword in an elegant manner like a peacock dancing under the lights of the lamps around him to attract the opponent’s attention. Without any giveaway, he slowly raised his left arm. Twang! A soft sound of a spring decompressing could be heard as a thin projectile flew out from Lorist’s left sleeve without a noise towards its target.

The junior assailant let out cold sweat when Lorist’s attacks intensified. The cries and curses of his senior apprentice brother from afar only served to increase his anxiety. As he prepared to take on the attacks from the approaching Lorist, he felt an urge to scream out loud in frustration. It was like the roles of a Gold rank and an Iron rank had reversed between them!

Lorist instantly leaped towards the junior assailant with his sword letting out a loud swishing sound as the light of the lamps reflected off its cold metal edge. Preparing to evade the flurry of attacks with no intention of parrying any whatsover, the junior assailant suddenly felt a blinding pain coming from his left foot. He quickly lowered his head to look at his leg only to discover that a thin, long black dart had buried itself into his foot and nailed him to the ground.

Terrified beyond his wits as he looked at Lorist’s approaching form, the junior assailant quickly begged for mercy to no avail. Lorist’s longsword hit his target and broke through the Gold ranked Battle Force aura’s defense with little to no resistance and with the sound of flesh being cut, the longsword dug itself deep into the assailant’s body.

“You… Ugh… Sh-shameless bastard…” groaned the junior assailant with all the energy left within his body while rolling both his eyes.

Not ashamed at all for using the hidden dart, Lorist said sincerely, “Thanks for the compliment.”

As Lorist pulled out his longsword, the body of his dying opponent slumped down to the ground like a sandbag that was leaking sand. Lorist turned to his back and moved towards the grumbling and shouting senior assailant as fresh blood slowly dripped all over the floor from the tip of his sword, creating a trail of crimson in the wake of Lorist’s passage.

The senior assailant had taken a slash to his inner thigh. While it wasn’t a lethal strike in itself, it sent waves of pain to the senior assailant and effectively decreased his mobility. That strike caused the senior assailant to stop taking Potterfang head on and circle around him instead while he waited for his junior apprentice brother to come back him up. This only served to worsen the wound as every step he took sent torrents of pain down his nerves. It wasn’t surprising that he would be grumbling and cursing from all that suffering.

However, Potterfang didn’t look like he held up well either as his left shoulder blade and right lower abdomen looked rather bloody. However, the former injury wasn’t as bad as it seemed as the cut wasn’t that deep. It was a different story for his right lower abdomen however as the injury was created from a piercing attack rather than a slash. It would be bad if that strike had pierced any of his internal organs. The senior assailant also sent one light blade attack after another which caused Potterfang to parry each of them; an action that further intensified the bleeding from his right abdomen.

The senior assailant stopped moving around and launched a few more ranged attacks before looking down to the injury on his thigh. He had already wrapped it with a makeshift bandage made from the cloth from his garments. Blood still leaked out from the bandage nevertheless. The assailant pulled on the bandage lightly and grimaced in pain.

As Lorist slowly approached him, the senior assailant was under the impression that his younger apprentice brother had come. With his head looking downwards, he complained, “What the hell is wrong with you for taking so long to take care of a mere Iron rank? Gosh! This fucking hurts! That Silver rank is a total madman. Watch out when you attack him as he’ll take your attacks with his body to land a hit on you! Don’t fall for– Ah! Ah! AHHH!!!!”

Upon raising his head, the senior assailant discovered that the figure approaching him was Lorist instead and his face paled in an instant. After stammering unintelligibly for quite a while, he finally exclaimed, “Why! Why is it you?! W-w-w-where’s my junior apprentice brother?!”

Lorist pointed to the back with his sword and said, “He’s lying on the ground over there. He really did end up paying his life for attempting to take my arm. Well, he failed at it anyway. It’s your turn now.”

The footsteps continued without stopping.

“You… Don’t come any closer…” said the senior assailant as he pointed his sword towards Lorist and scrambled backwards in fear. Having heard of the death of his junior, his mind was already in a chaotic state. Lorist’s form slowly morphed into that of a demon king in his vision.

The senior assailant retreated to the flower patch behind him before stopping and looking around. He threw his sword towards Lorist and circulated his Battle Force before stomping down to the ground and leaped, enduring the excruciating pain as he made his escape.

A sharp sound reverberated through the plaza as a longsword flew through the air like a javelin and penetrated the senior assailant’s back and reemerged from his front chest. The assailant let out a deafening cry as he crashed towards the flower patch in mid-jump before struggling to get up and finally exhaling his final breath. The longsword was actually Potterfang’s. When he saw that the senior assailant intended to escape, he flung his longsword without thinking and collapsed on the ground afterwards.

Lorist knocked the senior assailant’s airborne sword away and thought that that the assailant had successfully escaped. He was surprised to discover that Potterfang had thrown his own sword and taken the senior assailant’s life.

“That sword was very well launched. It was really impressive,” praised Lorist as he made his way towards Potterfang quickly.

Potterfang let out an unenergetic laugh as he said, “It’s nothing special. I learned back when I was in the military. Even so, I still couldn’t match up to you. Even though we both fought against Gold ranks, you actually emerged unscathed and helped me fend off my enemy whereas I got a few injuries myself and only got the kill when the enemy was frightened into escaping by you.”

Lorist helped Potterfang up and carefully placed him on the bench before inspecting his injuries. The slash on the left shoulder blade wasn’t that detrimental, however seriousness of the jab to his right lower abdomen couldn’t really be determined under the poor lighting of the street lamps.

Seeing Lorist so worried about his injuries, Potterfang felt moved and said weakly, “It’s okay. I’ve already taken that into consideration when the sword came at me. It shouldn’t have injured any of my internals and will recover after resting for a month or two. I’ve been hurt worse when I was in the military and still managed to survive to this day.”

Lorist removed his linen undershirt and used it to wrap up Potterfang’s injuries before going to check on the corpses of the assailants. He returned with two bags of money, two swords and two Gold ranked Battle Force badges.

“Weird, these swords are rather common but the badges have a different design compared to the ones issued by the trade union… They’re pretty rare around here,” said Lorist.

Potterfang also nodded his head helplessly, unable to recognize where the badges were from.

The two pouches of money contained more than 20 gold Fordes and 30 plus large silvers. Lorist put the gold coins and large silver coins into two different pouches and handed the one with the gold Fordes in it to Potterfang. “Brother Potterfang, let’s split the two pouches of coins among us. I won’t hold back and will be taking the one with more coins in it.”

As Lorist stuffed the bag with the gold Fordes into Potterfang’s shirt pocket, Potterfang was totally stunned as he wore an expression of immense gratitude. “Mister Norton… You…”

Lorist interjected and said, “Just call me Locke. The moment you fought alongside me as a comrade, you’ve already become my friend. And friends don’t speak so formally among one another.”

“Okay…” Potterfang’s face revealed a smile. “Alright, Locke. you can call me Pog. That’s what my comrades in the army used to call me.”

“Alright, Pog,” replied Lorist.

Sounds of horses galloping on the road could be heard. It turned out to be Reidy who drove the carriage with many people within it as well as several others holding on to the luggage racks on the roof and the back. Seven or eight people loudly rushed over with Els and Charade running at the front. They all let out a breath of relief when they saw Lorist unharmed.

“Where’s the enemy? Did they run away?” asked Charade as he breathed raggedly.

“No they didn’t. Look, they are lying down dead within the plaza,” said Lorist as he pointed towards the dead bodies. “Do you have any medicine?”

“Yes, yes…” said Charade as he scrambled to take the medicines out from his pockets. Els waved for Terman and the others to go inspect the corpses.

“Daddy, daddy!” A boy and a girl rushed over and held Potterfang’s hand tightly while letting out streams of tears from their faces. This was Howard and Alisa, Potterfang’s beloved children. They had been jolted awake during the carriage ride and saw that their father was no longer around. Had it not been for Charade who told them they were on their way to rescue their father, who knew how much harder they would’ve cried? Nevertheless, they still burst into tears upon seeing their father’s injured state.

“Don’t cry, Howard. You’re a boy. You must learn to be strong and protect your sister in the future. Boys can’t simply let out tears like that. Daddy’s fine. It’s only a couple of flesh wounds that aren’t really anything to worry about,” said Potterfang as he stroke both his children’s heads.

Charlando limped over with a cane in his hands and said, “I know these two. Just this evening, they were the first to arrive at the inn and sat at a corner by themselves and drunk without talking to each other. I’ve been eyeing them for quite sometime but I stopped thinking too much about them since they didn’t bother the other guests. They started to leave the moment Lorist came back in after checking the carriage out and even paid the money to Louise!”

Charade said, “Did they leave the inn early to ambush Lorist on the way? Lorist, do you have any leads from their corpses?”

“Other than the money pouches they carried, there were two of these badges and nothing else. Oh, the swords they used were pretty common too,” said Lorist as he tossed the two Battle Force badges over to Charade.

Flipping the badges around, Charade said, “The design is indeed different from the normal ones, but I can’t remember where these badges came from…”

As he passed the badges to Els, Charade grumbled, “Hey, this is your territory you know. Thank goodness Locke is fine. Otherwise, let’s see how you will be able to make up for it to the rest of us. Quick, bring these two bastards’ corpses away and try to see if we have any clues on where they’re from.”

Els took the badges and said, “Wow, they’re indeed One Star Gold ranks. I was rather skeptical when Reidy said that two Gold ranks ambushed Lorist… What’s more surprising is that both of them ended up dead! Sol, Locke. You’re truly a monster!”

“Hey, Brother Pog here is injured you know. Had it not been for his help, I wouldn’t have fared this well either. Help me bring him to the carriage first and send his children and him back to my house. By the way, where’s Instructor Marlin?” asked Lorist.

Charade replied, “He’s still sleeping very soundly within the carriage…”

Chapter 39 Aftermath

Escorted by Charade and Els, Lorist, Marlin, Reidy, Potterfang and his children all returned to the Dawn Academy Gold ranked instructor residence. After returning Instructor Marlin to his home and asking Charade to call the academy herbalist over to look at Potterfang’s wounds, Lorist let out a breath of relief.

Pulling on the rope that was connected to a bell in the management office, Lorist called Kelly over and instructed her to look after Potterfang and his children for the next three months. He let Potterfang and his children use the guest room on the first floor while Reidy took his luggage to the servant’s room on the ground floor and went to look after the Zeno Horses afterwards.

After everything was settled, an hour had already passed. Lorist also asked Kelly for supper to be prepared for the group before sitting down on the couch in the lounge. Bringing over the a bottle of unopened macks extract, Yuriy put an iron pot into the fireplace in the lounge and started making the drink and added milk and honey crystals into the pot nonstop. After a while, a thick, fragrant smell spread throughout the whole house and even lured the two children and their father upstairs to come down.

Pouring the children one cup of macks each and telling them to go check out what Kelly was cooking for supper in the kitchen, Lorist started describing the whole encounter with the assailants to the group, including the fact that one of the assailants said that their junior apprentice brother wanted them to take only one of Lorist’s arms. However, Lorist had no clue about anyone he had a grudge with.

“No one has has a grudge against you?” Charade said derisively before coldly laughing. “This isn’t about vengeance or anything you know. You might not have realized it, but you’ve already become a huge pain in the neck for many people, especially so with the case of the duels. Your relationship with most of the Silver ranked instructors of the academy was already bad enough, and right now, it’s not an overstatement to say that you’re an existence like that of a nightmare for the other Silver ranked instructors in the whole Academy Sector. After only dueling for a month, you have already defeated all the Silver ranked instructors from 13 academies. It’s quite possible that the ones whose turns are next wish to cripple you to end this whole dueling event prematurely.

“As for the challengers that don’t represent the academy, do you know how many people have lost fortunes for betting against you? During the last month itself we managed to get a profit of 18000 gold Fordes from the betting pool! I bet many of them are hoping that you will lose so that they can earn some of their money back. For that, they won’t hold back at all and will throw everything they can at you. From today onwards, you must be really careful for your safety. The Enforcement Division will have a group of people following you at all times to ensure that nothing bad happens to you. Terman, send some elites from the Swordsmanship Society to accompany Locke as well. With that many people following him around, I doubt that many will dare to cause any sort of trouble.

“Alright,” replied Terman.

“Don’t do that, it’s horribly inconvenient for me to have so many people following me in and out all the time! It’ll be fine as long as I don’t leave the academy right? I’m pretty sure that I can keep myself safe here at least,” said Lorist quickly. I can’t have a horde of people by my side all the time! Imagine how it would feel when I need to go to the washroom!

“While it is indeed safer in the academy, it is still not completely foolproof. Don’t worry Locke, I’ll just have the people follow you around in secret without crowding around you. If we don’t do at least that, the old bastard will really give us a harsh scolding by the time we report the incident to him tomorrow. Who asked you to be such a precious money-maker for the academy? The old bastard is quite fond of you, you know.” The group laughed out loud when Charade said that.

“You don’t really have to let him know about it, right? Can’t you not spread it at all?” asked Lorist.

“We must definitely let the news get out as best as we can! That way, we can let the others who are plotting against you to rethink their plans. If we were to keep this hidden, it’ll only let them think that you’re afraid of future attacks and they’ll try even harder to hurt you!” said Charade. “Also, Els, make sure you get rid of the corpses of the assailants and spread the word that they ran away after seeing reinforcements come for Locke, but still managed to injure him quite badly. Put a bounty of the two if you have to. Make sure nobody knows that they were killed by Locke.”

“Huh?” Els didn’t understand why Charade wanted that done.

On the other hand, Lorist already had an inkling on Charade’s plan. “Sol, the fatty’s going to rip people off again…”

As expected, Charade said, “If word gets out that Lorist managed to kill 2 Gold ranked fighters, then who would continue to bet on his loss?! Think about it, who would bet on a Silver rank’s victory against someone who has killed two Gold Swordsmen?!”

“Oh, I see,” said Els as he slapped his head in understanding. He then asked, “Fatty, would anyone believe that Locke survived the attack unhurt as he is?”

Charade suddenly had an idea and turned to look at Lorist, then to Yuriy before saying, “Yuriy, get me a chicken tomorrow morning. We’re going to help Lorist with his ‘injuries’. Brother Locke, I’m afraid that you will have to play along with us in this.”

Lorist furrowed his brows and said, “Hey, you guys are really too much!”

“”It’s fine, we’ll just say that you got injured during the assault and wrap you up in some bandages and sprinkle some chicken blood on it. Oh, and Terman, notify the herbalist to not tell anyone about Lorist’s condition unless they pay up. And in the event that they do, make sure the herbalist says that Locke got the injuries Potterfang currently has. Locke, try harder to show that you’re hurt in the duels during the morning and make them think that you’ll be unable to keep up. Hehe… Think of all that money that’ll fall into our pockets!” Charade and Els’s eyes radiated a golden light.

Even though this method was rather shady, Lorist didn’t oppose to it since he would be getting a cut of the profit anyway. As for the ones who would lose their money to the betting pool, he couldn’t care less about them and even believed that they deserve it for not having the eyes to discern his true abilities.

Charade poured another cup of macks and continued while sipping his drink. “I have two suspects in my mind who could have plotted the attack just now. One of them is the Saint Marceau Academy. The academy challenging Locke tomorrow, the Clearwater Academy, shouldn’t be much of a threat to him. However, the 15th academy that has accepted the challenge, the Saint Marceau Academy is our academy’s number one rival. That’s why they are my prime suspect. Then again, if they were involved in this, I doubt that they’d send those two losers to deal with it. It doesn’t fit the academy’s modus operandi.”

Lorist raised a voice of objection. “Hey, those two were One Star Gold ranks you know.”

“Even so, they are still losers for having been defeated by you. If I were there, maybe I would even manage to kill one of them myself,” boasted Charade.

“Ugh…” Based on the junior assailant’s performance, Lorist had to admit that Charade did make some sense and that he would probably win if he fought against the junior one. Apart from being very good at dodging, the junior assailant didn’t leave any other impression on Lorist.

“There is another person I suspect,” said Charade. “Do you remember Sandoz?”

“Who’s that?” asked Lorist while shaking his head.

“Oh, you…” Charade was totally frustrated. “Didn’t I tell you that once before? It’s that assistant instructor that riled up the dual elite course students to surround and attack you whom you later beat up, remember? After recovering, he got accepted by the Kalia Kingdom’s Sword Saint as a disciple and he’s now at the peak of the Silver rank. This time, he’s back at the academy to duel you for revenge! Sheesh, I even reminded you about him once before you know.”

“Oh, his name was Higuita or something, right?” said Lorist.

“It’s Sandoz Hirda, not Higuita,” said the fatty as he fervently shook his head. “You even got the name wrong… It seems that you really don’t hold him in any regard at all…”

Lorist’s face reddened in embarrassment. Due to being dragged along by a friend to watch a soccer match in his past life, the goalkeeper Higuita left quite a deep impression on him. Now, they very sound of Hirda’s name makes him think of that goalkeeper.

“It can be seen that this fellow is exceedingly ruthless in his methods from how he gathered all those people to beat you up three years ago. Even though he should be quite confident in defeating you during the duel, given his background as a noble, he should be quite adept at using some other underhanded plot to make his victory doubly certain. I wouldn’t be surprised if he dares to try something sinister. The next open match will be the 12th one and he’s on the challenger list of your 14th open match. He would probably be trying something within the next few days to weaken you before the match. The only thing that I still can’t figure out is the origin of those two Gold ranked Battle Force badges. It doesn’t seem like they were issued from the Kalia Kingdom either…”

“Oh well, let’s stop worrying our minds over something like this. With my capabilities, no matter what kind of trick this fellow pulls, it’ll be useless just like what happened with the assailants just now. It’s getting late, so we should all be getting some rest.”

“Sol, you’re only an Iron rank yet you dare to claim that you’re capable? For your safety, I will be staying over at your place tonight just in case. You do have an extra bed, right?” asked Charade. Now that Lorist was an important piece for his money-making scheme, Charade had to make sure that he would not come to any harm.

“Nope, the other servant room is already occupied by Kelly. You can either use the couch or sleep on the floor,” replied Lorist.

The next morning, Brad, the Clearwater Academy Head, heard about how Iron Locke, the Silver Undefeated, had been ambushed on the way home the night before by two One Star Gold Swordsmen. Even though help ended up coming for him and forced the two assailants away, Lorist didn’t fare that well either and had incurred some injuries.

This was music to the academy head’s ears. His only complaint was that they didn’t manage to take his life too. Should that have happened, the Clearwater Academy’s awkward problem would instantly vanish! What a shame! Academy Head Brad gave a long sigh and sent people to the Dawn Academy to check if the duels will still be held today or not, with the actual aim being to find out the extent of injuries incurred by Lorist.

Academy Head Brad decided that if Lorist really was hurt badly, he will not agree to postponing the duel to another day and insist that Lorist would lose by default for not showing up. If he didn’t do something like this in Lorist’s moment of weakness, there was no saying whether the Clearwater Academy would become laughing stocks like the other 13 academies before them. Given that Lorist had defeated all 260 of the Silver ranked instructors from the previous academies, Academy Head Brad was quite certain that his instructors wouldn’t fare much better either. He was rather pleased by the timely attack that had put Lorist at a disadvantage. It’s better if he doesn’t show up at all and concede his victory. Well, even if he plans to fight, I’ll have to make sure to encourage the 20 instructors representing my academy to do their best, thought the academy head.

If the 20 Silver ranked instructors couldn’t even defeated an injured Iron rank, then the logical conclusion would be that the instructors of the Clearwater Academy were useless weaklings. Academy Head Brad wallowed in frustration once again and decided that he would sack these Silver ranked instructors should they all lose to Lorist.

Without much delay, the people he sent came back with the news that Iron Locke would not be postponing the date of the duel despite the Dawn Academy’s advice to do so. He was quoted saying that he was only going to fight against Silver ranked instructors and not Gold ranked instructors so there was no need to move the duel to another day even though he was injured.

This news worried the Academy Head Brad as he wondered if it was intentionally leaked by that old bastard of the Dawn Academy. However, the people he sent to the herbalist paid 1 gold coin for information that stated he was indeed hurt. The herbalist even described the injuries Lorist had incurred: there was a slash wound on his left shoulder and a stab wound around his right upper torso. He even stressed that while those wounds posed no threat to his life, it would affect Lorist’s mobility quite visibly, especially the one on his right torso, which has made it hard for Lorist to even lift his arm and would require at least two months to recover completely.

Academy Head Brad excitedly brought the instructors of his academy to the Dawn Academy for the duels only to return in the afternoon filled with anger and frustration. Even though the battles were all pretty close and the Silver ranked instructors of his academy had gave the best of their efforts and performed far better than they would usually have, for some reason, all of them lost by a hair’s breath. For some reason, Iron Locke’s luck was just that good and he managed to gain victory by the narrowest margin despite his impaired mobility.

In the case of the last battle, he even managed to win by using the scabbard he had cast on the ground before the duel started. Who would’ve expected that with his longsword knocked away, he would be able to pick up his scabbard and sheath his opponent’s sword in it when the attack came and swing his shortsword to his opponent’s neck? Nobody would be satisfied with a victory like that! It was merely a stroke of luck!

Aside from Academy Head Brad, the other academy heads also wore unpleasant expressions when Levins received a report from the finance department of the Dawn Academy.

The report stated that a group of instructors lead by Instructor Marlin had purchased 100 gold coins worth of betting tickets while the members of the Swordsmanship Society had bought 300 gold coins worth as well with the Enforcement Division also chipping in 500 gold coins into the betting pool. The reason was that they wanted to show support for Instructor Locke who has so adamantly decided that he would continue dueling despite having been injured the night before.

After the duels in the morning ended, the finance department of the academy had to pay out 180 gold Fordes of reward for the 900-gold-Forde bet whereas the money earned for the audience tickets and the ones who bet on Lorist’s loss only amounted to 63 gold coins, 1 large silver and 3 small silvers. That meant that the academy had incurred a loss of over 116 gold Fordes for the day.

In the afternoon, the Dawn Academy Head issued a new notice that stated that the finance department would no longer be accepting bets for Instructor Locke’s victory. That meant that people could only bet on his loss in the future.

“Tsk, who would be so dumb to hand their money over to the academy like that?” said Charade as he threw the notice into the trash.

Chapter 40 The Duels Continue

To the audience who were spectating the duels, Lorist who was fighting on the dueling platform looked ragged to the extreme. The bandage wrapped around his left shoulder was stained red with blood while the bandage around the right torso had blood dripping out from it. Lorist was covered in sweat all over and his face looked so pale that it seemed that a single strike would manage to knock him to the ground with his sword cast away, resulting in an automatic loss.

However, Lorist still stood straight up like a mountain with an unwavering expression. Due to his injury on his right torso, his right arm hung limply from his shoulder and could only exert force occasionally when he gripped his sword with both his arms. On the other hand (pun unintended), his left arm had almost no problems in executing all the basic sword moves in a natural, practiced manner that wasn’t at all inferior to that of his right arm in its uninjured state.

Facing the ferocious flurry of attacks from his opponent, Lorist stood straight like a pine tree in a storm, not once lowering its head to the ferocious winds. His stance was also stable as an unmoving boulder near the coast that doesn’t budge at all no matter how forceful the wave.

The opponent was also panting rather heavily as the continuous attacks from Lorist pushed him into a corner. The opponent wielded a two-handed sword which was suitable for attacking but quite lacking when it came to defense. Lorist’s rapid, suppressive attacks for the last ten minutes had frightened him quite visibly. Despite his experience sparring against his colleagues in his academy or otherwise, no one has ever held up against him for that long a time, notwithstanding the fact that Lorist was only an Iron Swordsman.

“What are you doing, idiot! Don’t let him catch his breath! Circle around him and continue attacking! Go for his back! He’s already bleeding and he won’t be able to hold up for long! Don’t stop and heighten the intensity of your attacks! Go!”

The Saint Marceau Academy Head’s voice rang out loudly from the audience seat. The academy head was already panicking to the point where he couldn’t sit still and acted in a way that was not befitting of his status in front of all those people.

It was the 15th academy dueling day and the challengers were from the main rival of the Dawn Academy, the Saint Marceau Academy. It’s no wonder that Academy Head Weston totally lost his bearing and behaved like that as the current ongoing duel was the 20th and the last one of the day. The Silver ranked instructor on the dueling platform was the only remaining challenger for the day whereas all the others had already lost. To Academy Head Weston, his hopes on saving the Saint Marceau Academy’s face from losing the bet against the Dawn Academy were all laid on that instructor, whose opponent, Lorist, was still standing despite his haggard appearance.

The Silver ranked instructor heard his academy head’s bellows and started circling around Lorist and waited for an opportunity to attack. Lorist merely turned his left leg around with his right as the pivot to keep the opponent from facing his back.

“Attack! What are you still waiting for? That bastard is already out of energy! Quick, attack! We’re almost going to win!” cried Academy Head Weston as he stomped his feet on the ground.

“Gaarrgh!” cried the Silver ranked instructor as he leaped to attack.

“Hmph!” Lorist merely humphed coldly without taking a step back and pointed his sword toward the opening in his opponent’s move.

The Silver ranked instructor suddenly changed his maneuver from a stab to a sweep. Lorist’s longsword merely slanted and parried the move.

Clang, clang clang! The two swords let out clear, crisp sounds of ringing metal as they crossed. After ten-odd exchanges, the Silver Swordsman retreated to catch his breath while Lorist’s expression looked even more pained as his body swayed about unstably.

“Haha, attack! Quick, continue! He’s going to collapse! Haha!” Academy Head Weston was extremely pleased to see Lorist in such a state as he waved both his hands in the air with his face reddened with excitement!

The Silver ranked instructor pounced again using his two-handed sword to execute a wide horizontal slash.

Lorist’s defenses still held up without a flaw. However, each parry from his left arm grew weaker and weaker.

The Silver ranked instructor was elated and he put more energy into his strikes. Clang! Lorist’s longsword had already been knocked away and his chest was exposed.

The two-handed sword quickly slashed downwards with Lorist already unable to recover his stance to parry.

“It’s my win…!” screamed the Silver ranked instructor as he let out a breath of relief.

“He’s going to win!” Academy Head Weston gripped both his hands tightly.

……

Lorist took a slight step back…

This was the last duel with an instructor from the Saint Marceau Academy and it had already lasted for about 15 minutes. During the course of the duel, Lorist endured the Silver ranked instructor’s forceful rain of attacks without retaliating and defended without moving much from his spot. Everyone present was so focused on the flurry of attacks that they forgot that Lorist wasn’t glued to the ground, including his Silver ranked opponent.

With but a simple step back and the two-handed sword barely scraping his clothes and landing on the ground, his left hand that held the longsword which had been knocked out of the way drew a beautiful arc in the air and lightly tapped on the Silver ranked instructor’s neck.

……

“Instructor Locke wins!” exclaimed Charade on the dueling platform.

Rattle! The Silver ranked instructor let his sword fall to the ground and gripped his face with both his hands in despair as he instantly broke into tears.

Disappointed jeers and words of praise initially sounded from the audience until gradually a round of applause slowly drowned the whole training hall. This was the audience’s show of respect towards Lorist who had managed to fight till the end without losing despite his injuries.

Academy Head Weston balled both his fists and stared at the dueling platform, stunned. From high spirits to despair, from the heavens to the earth. The sudden change in the outcome of the duel had left him unable to accept the reality of the situation. With both his eyes bloodshot and the veins on his forehead popping, he grumbled to himself, “How could this be… Why did you step back… How could you…”

The other Saint Marceau Academy instructors and assistant instructors wanted to calm their academy head down, but they were unsure of how he would react and only stare at him idly.

The Silver ranked instructor on the platform started to feel embarrassed for crying out loud in front of everyone and wiped his face before he left the venue without even picking up his sword. Little did he know that after he stepped down from the platform, chaos erupted behind him. Lorist could no longer hold on and instantly collapsed on the ground unconscious. A few of the Dawn Academy students rushed up to support him and called out in urgency before hurriedly sending him to the medical center.

This scene really shocked the Silver ranked challenger. Had he not listened to the academy head’s beckoning and continued to stall for time, he would have been the winner. His emotions started to spiral out of control again as he started bawling nonstop.

Academy Head Weston was also flabbergasted at seeing Lorist hauled to the medical center like that. It was so close, so close! If he didn’t attack, he would’ve won! The academy head only felt regret to the utmost and couldn’t catch his breath for a moment. In a fit of rage, he suddenly picked his chair up and swung it at the other chairs around him, causing the people around him to back away in fear.

Terman instructed the Enforcement Division members to not let anyone else into the the medical center before going to check on Lorist. As expected, the scene within was nothing short of chaos. Lorist was pulling at the blood-soaked bandage while screaming at Charade for putting a bag of chicken blood mixed with pig urine within his bandage in an attempt to make his ‘injuries’ look real. Initially, Lorist wasn’t that opposed to that idea and agreed to it himself.

While it did have its intended effect, the clotting chicken blood started to make his body feel itchy and uncomfortable to the point where he almost couldn’t hold his urges to scratch himself to relieve the itch. What the audience perceived as a pale, pained expression from Lorist was actually him resisting the excruciating itch caused by the clotted blood.

Lorist heaved a sigh of relief after giving his itch a good scratch when the bandage was finally undone. “It’s freaking itchy… I never knew that it was that frustrating… I almost wanted to let my opponent slash the itchy part when I was dueling just now.”

Terman brought over a basin with warm water and a linen cloth, twisted and scrubbed the clotting blood off Lorist’s body as he said, “That’s because the bandage was tied too tightly around your body so the blood clot turned into fine powder when it rubbed against your skin. It’s amazing you managed to hold on for so long throughout the duels.

“Then again, your performance during the last one was very convincing. Had I not known that you were actually not injured, I would really have thought that you wouldn’t be able to hold on. How did you think of taking a step back at a moment like that? Nobody expected you to suddenly turn the tables by simply retreating like that.”

“Hehe,” snickered Lorist. “During the last match, I managed to make the audience and my opponent think that I wasn’t able to move around by standing still in the same spot and defending for a long time as if I would collapse the moment I moved away. No matter how ferocious the attacks were, I stood there without moving intentionally for a period of time. That created the misconception that I wasn’t able to move away which also allowed me to find an opening in my opponent’s moves. In sword matches, it’s not just one’s swordsmanship that’s put to the test. The mind is also very important. The more crucial a moment is, the more important it is to have a clear head.”

Terman absorbed the words for a while and understood that Lorist was giving him some pointers. He sincerely said, “Thanks.”

When Charade came into the medical center, everyone else had their own cup of macks which was a gift from Academy Head Levins to Lorist for defeating the Saint Marceau Academy which took a huge load off the academy head’s back. However, the macks was ‘confiscated’ by Terman and the others who intended to get a piece of Lorist’s harvest while letting him do all the work.

“Good news, good news!” said Charade excitedly.

“What good news? Let’s hear it,” said Terman.

“Didn’t Lorist pretend to faint after being declared the winner? That shocked the Saint Marceau Academy Head greatly and cause the last Silver ranked instructor to crumble and cry on the dueling platform like a little child. Academy Head Weston flipped out and started flinging his chair around crazily and ended up collapsing after coughing out a mouthful of blood and his condition only managed to stabilize after receiving some emergency treatment. Academy Head Levins then consoled Academy Head Weston for his loss when he was in his carriage and even said that he would send the invoice for the chairs ruined from his outbreak to the Saint Marceau Academy, which once again caused Weston to spit out another mouthful of blood and lose consciousness. I heard that he would take at least half a year to recover from the shock, isn’t that great?”

“Tsk, it’s good news to that old fox but what does it have to do with us?” said Terman, annoyed.

Lorist finished his cup of macks and said to Charade, “I’ve already been here for almost an hour. It’s about time you sent me back.”

The group then strapped Lorist to the stretcher and hauled him back to his house in the Gold ranked instructor residential area.

Charade said, “Academy Head Levins decided that he would call the open duels tomorrow off to let the others believe that you are truly hurt and send some people to discuss with the other academies whether they are willing to postpone the duels to a later time. Even though the academies would surely deny that proposal, the old bastard said that we’d have to do that anyway to make your injuries more convincing.”

Lorist closed his eyes and enjoyed the feeling of being hauled back to his home while cursing, “Gosh, both of you are really damned foxes who absolutely relish in scheming…”

—————————————————————–

“Injury to the back of the head, Instructor Locke wins. The next challenger, please prepare for your turn,” announced Charade on the dueling platform.

For some reason, that particular challenger had his attention focused solely on Lorist’s longsword and aimed all of his strikes to it as if he wanted to break the weapon into half. Lorist intentionally exposed several of his openings to bait the opponent but the result was still the same. Lorist then threw his sword upwards and the challenger stupidly turned his head to look up a the sword and Lorist gave the back of his head a palm slap.

This guy really lost too hilariously, thought Charade as he struggled to stifle his laughter while he instructed the Enforcement Division members to carry the person down from the dueling platform. In a low voice, he said to Lorist, “The next challenger is the disciple of the Kalia Kingdom’s Sword Saint, Sandoz Hirda. Be careful, the several challengers before him had received orders to keep attacking you nonstop to drain you of your energy. He is also pretty quick with his sword…”

The young noble youth held a longsword sheathed in an ornate scabbard and got up the dueling platform. Standing in front of Lorist, he executed an elegant bow and said, “My dear Instructor Locke, I really didn’t expect that you would be able to continue fighting through all those duels and give this student of yours a chance to face you. It really is a shame that the injuries that you have incurred would not allow you to show the full extent of your abilities in our duel.”

Lorist merely waved the longsword in his hand as a gesture for him to stop talking and start the duel quickly.

However, the noble youth kept on standing there and continued. “Instructor Locke, the lesson you have imparted in me three years ago has left a really deep impression in my heart. During all these years, every timeI remembered the lesson you taught me, it has caused me to be unable to get a good night’s sleep. To repay you for the gracious lesson you have taught me, I have been training without rest, only to think that…”

“Cough, cough, cough…” Lorist really couldn’t bear it anymore and kept clearing his throat to stop that youth from continuing his long speech.”Um, your name was… Hir-whatchamacallit? Oh, Higuita, are you planning to keep on going until I can’t bear it anymore and surrender?”

“Sol, for the umpteenth time, his name is Sandoz Hirda. Seriously, can’t you even get his name right?” scolded Charade from beneath the dueling platform.

The noble youth named Sandoz Hirda’s face instantly reddened. Instructor Locke never once considered me a rival and even got my name wrong… And to think that I thought that I would be able to give him some pressure and ended up embarrassing myself instead…

Shing! Hirda drew his sword and said, ” Since it is going to be like this, then your student won’t hold back.”

The moment he stopped talking the sword flash came over fast as lightning.

Lorist focused his gaze and lashed out the longsword in his left hand. Clang, clang! Sounds of metal colliding rang out nonstop and within but a short moment, their swords had crossed more than 10 times.

The speed of Hirda’s sword was indeed fast, however he only used thrusts and flicks and didn’t really use any slashing or sweeping moves. While this way of fighting was certainly fast, it resulted in rigid swordplay. From Lorist’s dynamic vision, no matter how fast the sword could move, he could discern each and every strike without fail and parried all of them one after another.

Hirda gave it his all and the sword flashes surrounded Lorist’s silhouette like clusters of stars in the night sky.

To the audience spectating the duel, Lorist seemed like he was on a boat sailing amidst savage waves and one small mistake could easily topple it over and result in his demise.

However, to Hirda, Lorist still had lots of moves to pull as his own lightning fast attacks did not seem to pose much of a threat to Lorist. Every time his strike was about to land, Lorist would move ever so slightly and dodge his move by a hair’s breadth.

Hirda’s emotional state sunk lower and lower. Initially, he believed that his painstaking three years of training would allow him to easily cream Lorist, however Lorist’s abilities far surpassed what he could ever imagine. His expression turned colder as he thought, it seems it’s time to use that move. He stared at Lorist with a deathly gaze…

Hirda’s move suddenly changed from a thrust to a slash. Lorist moved his hand to parry the strike and waited for Hirda’s next attack in anticipation.

The challenger gave his wrist a flick and knocked the spine of his sword against Lorist’s blade. With a clear ring of metal breaking, Hirda’s longsword broke off from the hilt.

Lorist was stunned and thought, why did his sword suddenly pop off? Despite being without a blade, Hirda held the sword hilt up high and leaped towards Lorist.

What’s he planning to do now that his blade is gone? While Lorist was still struggling to comprehend that bizarre action, a ‘whoosh’ could be heard as a small bluish blade shot out from the hilt towards him…

Nobody could believe what was happening even though it transpired right before their eyes. The fact that Hirda’s sword hilt had a hidden poisoned blade within was completely unexpected.

Lorist instantly backed away. He could see the poison blade slowly approaching with his dynamic vision. Taking in a deep breath, Lorist tried his best to move his head as the blade flashed past an inch away from his face, letting out a pungent smell into his nostrils.

Bam! Consumed by anger, Lorist propped himself up and gave Hirda, who was elated at the thought of killing Lorist with the poison blade, a savage kick in the chest which sent him flying down from the dueling platform knocked out with blood flowing out of his mouth and nose. He then called Charade to remove the poison blade which was stuck firm onto the ground of the dueling platform.

Charade said, “Brother, that kick of yours was far too ruthless. Hirda’s sternum is completely shattered and even if he recovered, he would be a cripple who can no longer train his Battle Force.”

Lorist’s expression remained cold as ever. “Where’s the next challenger? Send him up quickly.”

……

Chapter 41 Counting Earnings and Beggars

“How boring…” said Lorist.

Cups and plates could be seen all over the table. Lorist was leaning on the wall stretching and sighing after enjoying a nice, filling meal.

“Sol, you’ve already a become super rich man yet you’re complaining over something as small as this… How frustrating,” said Charade as he chewed on a toothpick and looked at Lorist with contempt.

“Hehe, fatty… Am I bothering you? Don’t forget that I treated you to breakfast today you know. Other people would be courteous after receiving a treat from someone, yet you start giving me that angry look after you’ve been treated.” Given that Lorist had nothing better to do, he started arguing with Charade.

“I’m not angry at you… I’m just despicably envious and jealous! Back then, you would join me to go on missions all over the place for a couple of gold coins. But now, you’ve already managed to purchase your own building that costs 5000 and more gold coins without batting an eye! With more than 40 rooms in it, you could easily collect up to 8 gold coins of rent per month! How am I supposed to stay calm about that?! Terman, Yuriy, Steve, don’t you all think so too?” said Charade as he attempted to drag the others to his side.

The others nodded and agreed at what Charade had just said.

Yuriy asked curiously, “Locke, how much money did you earn within this month?”

Lorist gave it some thought and shook his head. “I haven’t counted it yet, but there should be seven to eight thousand gold coins. I only noticed that I had so much saved up when Els asked me if I was interested in that building. Since I had nothing better to spend it on, I bought it right away.”

“I think you should leave the counting to me.” Charade was instantly piqued upon the mention of money. “Within the 3rd and 4th months, you’ve defeated all 27 academies in the Academy Sector and that old bastard promised you 100 gold coins per academy right? That should already amount to 2700 gold coins, correct?”

“Sol, how did you know about that?” Lorist gritted his teeth. The old bastard was afraid that the reward would cause other people to be green-eyed with jealousy so that’s why he only notified me personally… How did that fatty know about it?

“You don’t need to know how I got the news. That did happen, correct?” said Charade full of smiles as he held his nose high like he knew everything, making Lorist have an urge on giving his face a good punch.

Lorist nodded hesitantly.

“That’s only part of the story. You should have earned a decent sum from the challengers that don’t represent any academy as well. The number of challengers each month starting from the third is 240, 360, 680, 700 and within the last month itself, which is the 7th month, you had 520 challengers which totals up to 2500 people. By the end of each month, the finance department would give you a commission of 3 gold coins per challenger. Based only on that, you’ve got another 7500 gold coins down your pocket. So that’s already more than 10000 gold coins. It’s no wonder that you didn’t even blink when taking out all that money for that building,” recalled Charade with great detail.

Lorist suddenly remembered that Charade’s Enforcement Department also got a 10% cut for each challenger. That’s why he was so clear about the details.

“Also, within this month, there has been 18 open challenge days for those not affiliated with academies. Even though there are still tons who want to register, the academy has decided to end this dueling event when the challenger count reaches 3000. After the day after tomorrow which is an open challenge day, you should already have 380 challengers for this month. After defeating another 120 of them, you’ll hit your 3000th victory. That’s why, you still have another 1500 gold coins that you haven’t claimed from the finance department.”

Terman seemed to have remembered something as he asked, “I heard that if Locke manages to get a 3000 win streak, the academy would spend another 1000 plus gold coins to craft a life-sized bronze statue of him in the academy to commemorate that. I wonder if it’s true…”

“So what if it is? It’s not like the 1000 gold coins will go into Locke’s pocket, so it’s pointless. If it were me, I’d give him the 1000 gold coins and have him stand there all day in place of a statue.” Charade absolutely couldn’t bear the fact that the reward wouldn’t increase the money that they would get. That was the main reason why he was so opposed to the construction of the statue.

“Buzz off, I don’t have the time to stand around the academy pretending to be a statue. I’m not Els, you know,” barked Lorist. Upon hearing that, everyone recalled the incident when Els impersonated a plaster statue in the female bath house and broke into laughter.

Charade continued to count Lorist’s haul, “Locke’s largest earnings come from the betting pool Els set up. Though, he hasn’t got it yet, and lesser and lesser people are betting on Lorist’s loss. He can only collect the earnings by the time the dueling event ends. However, last time when I checked with Els, Locke has a share of an estimated 20000 gold coins at least! Good Sol! I really can’t stand the thought of Lorist swimming in a sea of gold coins… I’ll never make that much no matter how hard I work in my life!” Charade really felt that he was slowly going nuts.

“Hey, don’t say that like you deserve it. I am the one doing all the work up there on the dueling platform you know. Don’t forget that you’ve got quite a sum yourself without doing much to begin with, at least 10000 gold coins. Now that you mention it, each of you here already have made at least a few thousand gold coins yourselves. Even if you can’t purchase a building, surely you can afford a nice mansion, right? Fatty, if you want to swim in a sea of gold coins, why don’t you take my place on the dueling platform?”

“Sol, if I had the ability to do so I wouldn’t have let you take the spot in the first place,” said Charade bitterly.

“Then you better keep your mouth shut. Rather than grumbling about how much Locke is earning, you should be training your Battle Force and try to break through into the Gold rank. Brother Locke relied on his own skills to earn that money. You don’t know how much risk he has had to take by dueling all those people within the recent months. Do you lot think that any of you can last even one day up there? The people of Morante City don’t call him Iron Locke the Silver Undefeated for nothing you know,” a voice interjected and heavily rebuked Charade.

“Sol, Els… Since when has it been your job to nag at me?” said Charade as he jumped in anger.

The one who just arrived was Els. He stared at Charade with an annoyed expression and said, “What? You’re not content? Why don’t we go out and settle it with our fists?”

“Good Sol…” said Charade as he lifted his cup of ale and drank a few gulps in anger. “Your brother here is a civilized person and wouldn’t take what a ruffian like you say seriously.”

Two months prior, Els’s dark attribute Battle Force had finally reached the Three Star Silver rank which prompted him to go seek out Lorist for a duel, only to end up losing flat on the ground as usual. Given that Charade was talking down on him during his duel with Els, he got challenged by him right after that.

Having reached that rank a year before Els and seeing Lorist defeat him without breaking a sweat, Charade believed that he wouldn’t have much trouble defeating a newbie like him. Nobody would have expected Els’s dark attribute Battle Force to be far superior to normal ones. Coupled with the various rogue skills Els claimed to train in, Charade was totally creamed three out of three times. Not satisfied with his loss, Charade challenged Els for seven more times privately within the coming month. Even though Charade wanted Els to keep the results of the duels a secret, Els didn’t bother either.

“Here, it’s settled,” said Els as he handed Lorist a leather pouch. It contained a deed for the building along with a receipt for the management fees as well as taxes with a few gold coins and some gold coin notes left over.

Picking up a bottle of blackcurrant ale and removing its cork, Els drank directly from the bottle before saying, “The building is already registered under your name. The management fee is 0.5% of the price while the tax is about 10%. There will no longer be any other fees in the future and the change is all in the pouch. Give it a count to make sure it’s correct.”

Lorist picked up his wine cup and said, “Thanks, Els.”

“It’s no big deal, brother.”

This was the first piece of property that Lorist had purchased in Morante City and it was located at Rose Street which is near the Business Sector. It was a building with Gothic-like architecture that had four floors with 12 rooms on each floor. Originally, it belonged to a count from the Mobia Duchy who decided to sell it in a rush due to some personal circumstances.

When Els heard about that news, he recalled that Lorist had once mentioned that he wanted to buy some property in the city and invited him to go check that building out. Satisfied with the building, he had Els help him out with the purchase. Even though Els managed to seal the deal at only 5400 gold coins instead of the original 7000, the taxes and management fee still didn’t make Lorist feel any better. On the bright side, after paying off those fees, the building would truly belong to Lorist and he wouldn’t have to pay any other fees for the rest of his life.

“What are you planning to do with the building?” asked Els.

“I’ll leave that to Jindoz. Wasn’t he going to set up an organization that provides labor services? I’ll let him use the building and collect half of the rent from him every month,” said Lorist.

“That’s a good idea. I’ll get Jindoz to prepare the contract for you within the next two days,” said Els as he nodded.

“Uncle Locke, I want another large drumstick,” said Alisa as she ran over and tugged on Lorist’s arm. Before that, she was playing around with her brother Howard in the backyard of the Red Grace Inn.

Lorist’s friend from the same homeland, the peak Silver ranked mercenary Potterfang, had recovered after two months of rest. The two of them didn’t talk much, but their implicit mutual understanding made them intimate friends. As for Potterfang’s two children, Lorist spoiled and took great care of them. Howard was a studious and hardworking child. When Potterfang saw Lorist giving Reidy some pointers in swordsmanship, he told Lorist that he would like Howard to also become Lorist’s disciple when he awakens his Battle Force in a few years.

Originally, Potterfang only intended to mention it casually but Lorist reconfirmed it with him in a serious tone. Potterfang only nodded and Lorist instantly got Howard to bow down to him 3 times and had Reidy perform the same ceremony as well. That was how Howard officially became Lorist’s second disciple with his senior apprentice brother being Reidy.

As for Potterfang’s daughter, Alisa, Lorist cared for her very much and was often reminded of his own daughter back in his past life. That resulted in him granting every request of hers to the point where he had a craftsman hired to renovate the attic into a proper bedroom for the siblings, much to their excitement and joy. Potterfang was even a little jealous that his children were closer to their beloved Uncle Locke than him.

When Potterfang fully recovered and was about to leave with his children, he was stopped by Lorist with tons of excuses. Some of the main ones were the fact that the children absolutely loved it here and the city would be a better environment for the children to grow up as opposed to having them wander around with Potterfang. And, given that Howard is already Lorist’s disciple, there was no way that he would leave before he was taught anything right? The other reason was that since Potterfang didn’t really have a set destination to go to, he shouldn’t let his children suffer along the journey with him. The final reason was the most convincing, that is, Potterfang would be allowed to leave whenever he manages to defeat Lorist.

Seeing his two children so attached to Lorist, he could only reluctantly agree to stay for a little longer until he can decide where he will settle down in the future.

Lorist offered to recommend Potterfang as a Silver ranked instructor for the Dawn Academy, but that proposition was rejected by him as he did not intend to permanently settle down in Morante City. Lorist knew that there wasn’t a point in forcing it so he brought him to the Red Grace Inn and introduced him to Charlando so that he may accept private requests there in the future.

It was already the 8th month of the year and most of the courses in the academy had halted for the semester break, except for the Battle Force awakening course that Lorist was in charge of. There were tens of students in the last batch who would awaken their Battle Force by the end of the month, among which included President Peterson’s son who had lost more than half of his body weight from 180 plus kilograms to 90 kilograms. While that was still slightly overweight, it was no longer an obstacle in awakening his Battle Force.

Last month when President Peterson came over to check on his son, he shed tears of joy from seeing his son’s current physique and instantly took out a couple of gold bank notes as a sign of his gratitude. Had Lorist not stopped him before, he might have already got the 3000 gold Forde reward that the president had promised long ago. On that day itself, the president had forcefully stuffed nine such notes into Lorist’s pocket, which was worth about 900 gold coins.

The academic season on the Grindia Continent was rather peculiar and lax. Every year, there were two academic semesters with one longer than the other. The longer one starts at the 3rd month and ends around the middle of the 8th month. On the 9th month, the citizens of the continent celebrate the harvest festival so no activities in the academy would be carried out then. After that, school resumed on the 15th day of the 10th month and ends around the 15th day of the 12th month and the vacation period would start again until the 3rd month of the following year. Lorist figured that the long winter break was due to the culture of Grindians to stay cooped up in their homes during the winter.

Additionally, while the Dawn Academy boasted to have over 5000 students, it was already quite a good number if at least 2000 plus of them showed up for studies during a semester. Most others were usually registered students who worked part time in the academy or took some time off from school to earn some money to pay their fees. Some others were like Charade who took advantage of the cheap housing rent in the academy and even brought their families along to stay there with them, as evidenced by one survey Charade conducted some time ago which revealed some students who had already been there for 5-6 years and were unwilling to graduate because they wanted to live in the student dorms. The lax regulation of the students of the academy made Lorist feel that it was more of a commune than an educational institution.

As Els had mentioned before, Lorist had already become one of Morante City’s most well-known personalities with his moniker being Iron Locke the Silver Undefeated, a proud dual Gold ranked instructor with an Iron ranked Battle Force. Some rumors even said that during the year end academy assessments, the Dawn Academy’s rank would rise by one place, setting it ahead of the Saint Marceau Academy. The main contributor to that rise in rank was probably Lorist’s victories over the Silver ranked instructors from the 27 different academies of the Academy Sector.

After the 7th month, the number of Silver Swordsmen who came to challenge Lorist had decreased quite substantially despite the fact that Academy Head Levins raised the reward prize to 500 gold Fordes. Charlando, the owner of Red Grace Inn even said, “While 500 gold coins certainly seems appealing, most people knew that they wouldn’t be able to obtain it without enough skill. Rather than chasing after a pipe dream, people would probably grasp the 10 gold coins that would be required for the registration fee tightly within their hands instead.”

That caused Lorist to feel rather bored as he had already been accustomed to dueling people for the past few months. Now that the number of opponents had suddenly lessened, he felt like he had nothing else to do. Even though he wanted to go adventuring with his other mercenary buddies, he was unable to do so as he still had things to settle within the academy. That was why he brought the two kids and Reidy and invited his other friends from the academy to the Red Grace Inn for a feast once again.

Intimately scrubbing the nose of the little girl who was tugging at his arm, Lorist said, “Alright, alright. I’ll get my little princess her favorite chicken drumstick.”

Looking towards the counter, Lorist shouted, “Louise, ask McDuffin to make me another plate of fried chicken drumsticks.”

Standing behind the counter was the new female owner of the inn, Louise, who had just got married to Charlando three months ago. After purchasing another elixir from the Mishla Shrine to recover her fertility, she got pregnant pretty quickly despite not having been married for long. That caused many to praise Charlando for still having ‘it’ in him despite being of relatively old age. Though, Els privately told Lorist that the old man ordered quite a few jars of Terrence-donkey whip from him. “If that didn’t help him recover his sexual ability, then he would only have himself to blame,” said Els at that time.

The golden-brown chicken drumstick was quickly served on the table and Alisa took two of them and said that she would give her brother one and ran off. However, a little bit later, Alisa came back and took two more.

“Huh? Alisa, why are you eating that fast? I’ve only managed to get two bites out of my own during this short time. Could your mouth actually be bigger than mine?” said Els as he teased that cute girl.

“It isn’t! Alisa’s mouth is small unlike yours. Just now, I gave the chicken to a beggar who looked really pitiful,” said the little girl, dissatisfied at having been said to have a big mouth.

Lorist gave the girl another two drumsticks and said, “Now, don’t go giving these to the beggar again, okay? If he really needs it, you can ask your brother to give him two copper coins.”

The girl took the chicken and replied innocently, “But my brother has already given him his money. He said that he was from the Northlands who had come to Morante City to look for someone called Norton Lorite whom he referred to as his young master. Big Sis Louise said that she hasn’t heard that name before and gave him a bowl of porridge. Alisa only gave him her chicken because he didn’t have anything else to go with the porridge.”

……

Chapter 42 Arrival of the People from the Family

……

Lorist was totally stunned. What did Alisa just say? That beggar said he was searching for a person called Norton Lorite? It should be Norton Lorist, right? That’s the name of the original owner of this body. Given that everyone calls me by my nickname Locke, it wouldn’t be weird if they didn’t remember that my original name, Norton Lorist and that I am the second young master of the Norton Family of the Northlands…

“What’s going on? I think I heard Alisa mention your name just now,” said Els. Els was aware of Lorist’s full name as he had helped him handle the ownership documents when the building was purchased.

Lorist regained his composure and saw that Alisa had already hopped back to the backyard cheerfully. He stood up and said, “I think the beggar Alisa mentioned just now is looking for me. I’ll go take a look, they might actually be from my family.”

“Oh?” said Els curiously. He bit into the drumstick in his hand as he said, “I’ll go with you.”

The two of them reached the backyard and saw the beggar that Alisa had mentioned. Dressed in rags, he sat on a bluestone pavement at the backyard and was consuming a bowl of oat porridge. The chicken drumsticks Alisa had given him were wrapped in a piece of grey cloth. It seemed that he planned to take the chicken away with him.

Alisa chewed on the chicken in her hands as she asked, “Why aren’t you eating the chicken? Isn’t it a little bland to have the porridge without it? Chicken drumsticks are delicious you know…”

The beggar nodded towards Alisa and smiled. “Pretty little princess, thank you for giving me these delicious chicken drumsticks. However, I have another person accompanying me so I intend to share it with him later…”

After that, the beggar looked towards Lorist and froze up entirely. He put the bowl in his hand down and rubbed his eyes before inspecting clearly once again, as if he couldn’t believe that the one standing in front of him was indeed Lorist.

“Second young master… Sniff… I finally found you… Ueeerrrghhh….” That beggar desperately crawled towards Lorist and even ignored the bowl of porridge that he had knocked over and hugged Lorist’s leg tightly as he cried nonstop.

“Ugh…” Lorist wanted to pull his leg back but the beggar had a rather firm grip on it. “Um, please get up first. You are…”

“Young master, don’t you recognize me? I’m Shadekampf!” exclaimed the beggar with a face full of snot and tears.

“Shadekampf?” Lorist mulled deeply and a scene of a young, honest young servant who shouted as he ran towards him… Young master… Wait for me! At that time, the young Lorist was rather haughty and bossed around that young servant quite a lot…

No wonder he recognized me almost instantly… Shadekampf was actually Lorist’s personal attendant from a long time ago.

“Shadekampf… It’s been too long… Has it been ten years already? First things first, stop crying and stand up properly,” said Lorist as he smiled.

However, Shadekampf ended up crying even harder. “Young master… You must return to the Northlands quickly. The old master is gone… the first young master is dead… and the third young master as well… The Norton Family only has you now… Everyone’s waiting for you.. for you to go succeed the position as the lord of the dominion… Wuueerrghh…”

Lorist’s body suddenly shivered. Even though his consciousness was not of this world, he was unable to ignore the blood of the Nortons that flowed in his current body and the throbbing emotion from the depths of his being shook even the core of his soul.

Els walked forward and held Lorist up and said to Shadekampf, “Stop crying and say things clearly. What is going on?”

“Last year, the old master lead a group of people to fight against the barbarian pillagers but got ambushed and was badly injured. Ever since then, he was bedridden and finally passed away at the start of this year after instructing us to come here to look for the second young master to inherit the dominion. We know that the second young master had went to Morante City for his education but we were unaware of which academy he was studying at. And, given that 10 years had already passed, we weren’t sure if the second young master would still be here and could only try our luck. After we finally arrived at Morante City, we went to every academy to ask about the young master but nobody bothered to entertain us because we were from the Northlands. Patt mentioned that the heroes of legend usually gathered information in taverns, so we did just that. And finally, here at the Red Grace Inn, we finally found you, young master,” explained Shadekampf. The conclusion of his arduous journey that he had with Patt had caused him to shed tears uncontrollably.

Lorist managed to stand up properly again and said, “Shadekampf, why did you say that my father and two brothers are dead? And, who’s Patt? He sounds rather familiar. Also, doesn’t my third uncle know where I study at? What happened to him?”

“The first young master had died from battle three years ago after he was drafted into the army of Duke Loggins who was serving under the Second Prince of the former empire. When that news reached the old master, he fell sick and became bedridden. The matters of the dominion were handed to the third young master after that. But three years ago, when the third young master was on patrol, his mount got startled by a magical beast and he fell from horseback and incurred serious injuries and passed away despite three days of emergency treatment. The old master’s sickness got a turn for the worse, but he recovered a bit during spring last year. Even so, he had to go to the battlefield once again as the barbarian pillagers started causing trouble again. In the end… sigh. Second young master, don’t you remember Patt? He is the eldest grandson of the old butler Gleis who had played with you quite often when you were small. He’s quite an impressive youth and is already an Iron Swordsman. The old butler sent us to come look for you because we were the only ones who knew how you looked like.”

Having said that, Shadekampf started to hesitate. “Second young master, your third uncle Lodesieg died seven years ago after the family’s merchant convoy was attacked by bandits. There were no survivors. The news stunned the whole of the Northlands at that time and there were even rumors that the soldiers of the First Prince were masquerading as bandits to gather military funds and resources. That’s why the first young master pledged his allegiance to the Second Prince rather than the First Prince.”

The bad news that came one after another caused Lorist to be unable to think clearly. The fact that the once proud and strong Norton Family that was entitled by the Krissen Royal Family themselves was actually embroiled in so much conflict and misfortune to the point where they had to summon the second young master that had been exiled from his homeland for more than ten years was rather depressing.

After calming down, Lorist asked, “Then, where’s Patt? Isn’t he with you?”

Shadekampf said in an embarrassed tone, “Patt… Um… He’s working as a baggage carrier at the pier…”

“Baggage carrier?”

“Yes. Given that we had spent all our own money during the journey, Patt went to the pier and started working as a baggage carrier to earn enough for our living costs here,” said Shadekampf stammeringly.

Lorist called out in the direction of the inn. “Reidy!”

Reidy quickly appeared before him.

“Go ready the carriage and fetch Shadekampf to the pier to seek out his friend and bring them to the public bath. Let them wash up and give them some clean clothes before bringing them back to me,” instructed Lorist as he put two gold coins in the hands of Reidy.

“That won’t do, young master. We have our own money, we can’t use yours,” said Shadekampf quickly as he took out a black, dirty pouch. “Young master, I still have 20 imperial gold coins here.”

“Oh? Didn’t you say you ran out of money just now?” asked Lorist curiously.

“Young master, these are the funds for your return trip to the North. Now that we’ve found you, we don’t have to worry about using it anymore,” said Shadekampf as he entrusted the bag of coins to Lorist.

Lorist was somewhat touched at how they wouldn’t spend the 20 imperial gold coins they had and would rather have one work as a laborer and the other in charge of begging for food. Were they just stubborn or really that loyal to the family?

Lorist then handed two gold Fordes to Reidy and said, “Have them change into clean clothing.”

Reidy then brought Shadekampf along and went to seek out Patt.

Lorist returned to his table in the inn with a distraught mood and opened the black money pouch and emptied its contents on the table. 20 golden coins could be seen: these coins were slightly smaller than regular gold Fordes and had a picture of a crowned old man’s head on one surface.

Upon seeing the gold coins, Charade’s interest was instantly piqued. He took one up and inspected it before saying, “An old head of the former Krissen Empire… It’s no longer worth much… 1 gold Forde can be exchanged for 3 of these. Currently, the three kingdoms and seven duchies in the northern part of the continent have started to use the currency of the Forde Trade Union and started recalling these imperial currency to be exchanged for trade union currency instead. Where did you get these, Locke?”

“Some people from Locke’s family came here and summoned him to return to his homeland to inherit the dominion. These old heads are the money they prepared for Locke to use to travel back to his homeland,” explained Els.

“What? Locke, you’re going back to become a lord?” Suddenly, every one of Lorist’s acquaintances gathered around the table.

“What are you guys so surprised about? I haven’t decided if I would go back yet,” said Lorist as he furrowed his brow in frustration. Right now, he had already made quite a name for himself in Morante City and already considers himself a Moranite after ten years of living there. The sudden summons from his family was far too shocking for him. Even though the Northlands were technically Lorist’s hometown, he wasn’t too familiar nor attached to it given that he had left it at a very young age.

“What is there to hesitate about? Of course you should go back and inherit the land. In Morante City, you’re only an academy instructor but back at your homeland, you’re a mighty and respectable lord! In your dominion, you are the law!” The one who said that was Terman, whose homland was a place called Rigol, which was also well-known for their mercenary knights. Craving battles and adventures were second nature to most Rigolians.

“However, Locke’s life here is pretty good now and he even has his own property here in the city. Additionally, he’s a famous dual Gold ranked instructor of our academy. There really isn’t a point of going back to the desolate Northlands as life here in Morante City is definitely way better,” said Steve. Being a local of Morante City, he was rather proud of the city and being one of its local inhabitants.

“Maybe Locke can go back once, inherit the dominion and then come back. He can leave the managing of the dominion to his subordinates and live his life in Morante City as usual,” suggested Yuriy, thinking that it was the perfect solution for both spectrums of the issue.

Lorist gave a bitter laugh and thought, it’s not as simple as you think, Yuriy… The dominion in the Northlands is easily over thousands of kilometers away from here and traveling to and back on quick horseback would take 3 months at least. After all, Lorist wasn’t like the nobles who had their dominions on the Falik Plains or the neighboring kingdoms who could return to their dominions within a few short days from Morante City.

Charade asked, “Where are the people sent by your family?”

“Reidy brought him to go find his partner. Both of them split up to look for me in Morante City,” replied Lorist.

“Find you? But you’re so famous. Doesn’t your family know that you are an instructor at the Dawn Academy?” asked Charade in a surprised tone.

“I have already lost contact with my family for almost 7 years you know. The people who do know about me studying at Morante City had already perished from bandit attacks, including my third uncle, who was the one who sent me here in the first place. The rest of my family members know that I’m studying in Morante City, but not which academy I’ve enrolled in. After that, the 6-year-war made it even harder for us to communicate. Only with the recent turn of events in my family did they decide to send someone to come for me. However, none of them know of my reputation as Iron Locke here. They have asked people at many different academies but no one knew who Norton Lorist was. After that, they decided to gather information from different inns before they met Alisa, who then came over to tell me about them,” explained Lorist.

“I see… No wonder they had a hard time looking for you. While many people know you as the famous Iron Locke, those who know your full name don’t even number more than ten. So, what are you going to do?” asked Charade.

“I still don’t know…” Lorist shook his head and said, “I’m really confused right now and I don’t really know which is the right course of action. I’ll decide after I talk to them when they come back.”

—————————————————————–

A moment later, Reidy brought Shadekampf and Patt who were dressed in clean new clothes back to Lorist. At that time, he was hugging Alisa as he sat looking at Howard having his hair cut by old man Luke across the back alley of the Red Grace Inn. Alisa looked at Lorist and asked, “Uncle Locke, you said that that beggar just now was looking for you? Are they sent here by your family?”

Lorist nodded and said, “Yes, I really have to thank you, Alisa, for treating him to the chicken drumsticks. Alisa really is a good girl.”

Alisa furrowed her brows and thought for a bit before showing an enlightened expression. “I know, Uncle Locke’s family are people who beg for food! They’re beggars!”

Pffft! Els spit out a mouthful of ale at Charade who was sitting opposite to him. Ignoring Charade’s complaints and clutching his belly while laughing, Els said, “A… Alisa… What you said was… too funny! Locke’s family members… are beggars… hahahahahaha!”

Lorist showed a troubled expression and said, “Alisa, Uncle Locke’s family members do not work as beggars. Look, he’s in front of you right now. Does he look like one to you?”

Shadekampf who stood before them had a face that was as red as a baboon’s rear. He really felt like finding a small hole and diving into it. Patt, who was standing beside him wore a swordsman garb and looked rather valiant.

Lorist placed Alisa down and walked towards Patt. After comparing their heights, he sighed and said, “Patt, long time no see. Both of us have already grown up to be so different from the rowdy brats we used to be.”

Patt sighed as well and said, “That’s true, young master. We’ve really grown up haven’t we…”

In Lorist’s memories, Patt was his rival from the days of his childhood. When the both of them met, they always broke into a fight and one of them always went home crying. If they meet on the next day, the whole cycle would begin all over again. Now that the both of them had met after such a long time, a feeling of intimacy and nostalgia sparked between them instead.

Patting Patt’s shoulder (TL: pun unintended. Please don’t kill me XP), Lorist laughed and said, “That’s great. You’re even taller than me now. I really don’t know what you ate to grow so tall. This journey must have been tough on you. Let’s fill our bellies first before we talk about the rest. I’ve already got the cook to start preparing the food in the kitchen. Sister Louise, you can start serving the dishes now,” shouted Lorist towards the inn counter.

After that, he turned to old Luke and said, “Luke, after cutting Howard’s hair, take care of Reidy’s too, followed by Shadekampf’s and Patt’s. I’ll pay you two large silvers in total.”

“Thanks for your patronage. I’ll make sure that they will looked refreshed like never before,” said old Luke, elated.

Lorist noticed Shadekampf’s and Patt’s uncomfortable expressions for having their master pay for their expenses and said, “This is my turf, so you better leave things to me. I’m your young master to begin with, so just let me handle the things my way. I’ll bring you back to my house after we have a nice meal. We can start having a serious talk after that.”

Chapter 43 Troubles Within the Family

The carriage stopped in front of the entrance of Lorist's house. Reidy turned to Patt, who was sitting beside him in the coachman's seat, and said, "We're here. This is master's house."

After that, he got off the carriage and opened the door. Lorist came down with Alisa hugged in his arms with Howard, Els and Shadekampf following behind him.

Charade, Terman, Yuriy and Steve rented another coach that arrived a little later, after which they all got off one by one and entered Lorist's home. Patt didn't follow the group into the lounge and instead helped Reidy with bringing the Zeno Horses back into the stable.

Reidy asked curiously, "What's wrong? Why aren't you following them inside?"

Patt thought for a bit and said, "I have come here to look for the young master because it was my grandfather's wish. He instructed me that even if the young master refuses to go back to the dominion, I was to stay here by his side and watch out for him because he is the sole heir of the Norton Family from the main line of descent. No matter what, no harm can come to the young master."

Reidy laughed out loud before saying. "Brother Patt, it's not that I'm looking down on you, but given the situation, it should be you who gets protected by the master instead of the other way around. Given your ability as an Iron rank, it's already pretty commendable if you can take care of yourself and not become a burden for master."

Patt rolled his eyes and talked in an snappy tone, "In the Northlands, we have a saying that goes like this, 'even the most alert magical beast has a moment of weakness; even the strongest of horses have times when they slip'. I already know the young master's reputation as Iron Locke, Silver Undefeated. However, no matter how strong he is, he's still only one person. As long as I'm with him, it's enough if I can serve as a silent shield for him. Even if I'm only an Iron rank now, I believe that I'll be able to help the young master out much more when I reach the Silver rank."

"Well said, Patt." Suddenly, Lorist showed up beside them and said, "Did Butler Gleis really ask you to stay by my side and serve me?"

Patt nodded honestly and said, "If you are going to return to the dominion and inherit the place, then I will serve as your personal attendant. Even if you don't, I'll still stay by your side and offer whatever protection I can to you."

Patt laughed at what he said himself with a hint of derision before continuing, "Then again, after seeing you again for myself, you have changed way more than I could ever imagine. It's not only your skills... Even your personality has become totally different. You no longer need a person like me to protect you anymore. When the family lost communications with you, my grandfather Gleis and the rest of the elders thought that you might have been in a rather tight spot. It seems that they were wrong."

Feeling a little touched, Lorist nodded and said, "It's been ten years. The moment when I left the household has already passed for so long and I have been unable to contact the family for the past seven years as well. I had to adapt to survive. For me to have turned out like this today wasn't without its hardships. Alright, Patt, let's go in and have a chat about the family's situation."

It appeared that Shadekampf was more informed about the situation back in the Northlands that Patt. After the series of tragedies, the Norton Family's military might decreased by a whole lot. Even though Lorist's father was unable to advance from the One Star Gold rank due to an injury he had incurred from hunting magical beasts in his youth, he was still the main pillar of support for the family and his death had greatly destabilized the family's rule. Lorist's elder brother's death was an even heavier blow to the family. Being a Gold ranked knight, he had been struck with a poison arrow when he was leading a charge on the battlefield and had passed away soon after. As for the third young master, due to contracting a rather serious illness as a result of being pushed into the well at a young age, he was unable to awaken his Battle Force and had lost his life from falling off his horse which was startled by a magical beast.

Lorist truly felt rather unsettled at hearing all that. He understood that half the cause behind the third young master's death was due to the fact that he had fallen sick and wasn't able to train in Battle Force from an early age, which was chiefly the fault of the original owner of Lorist's body who had pushed his little brother down the well out of jealousy. Now that the current Lorist had inherited the body, he had also took up the fault and guilt for being half responsible for his little brother's death.

According to Shadekampf. when the third young master encountered the magical beast, the sole Three Star Silver Knight which was part of the young master's personal guard was present. While he had successfully slain the magical beast, he incurred heavy injuries and had to rest and recuperate for a period of time. Currently, the family only had one other One Star Silver female knight. Her name is Andrea Pesha and she is the daughter of Knight Andrea, who had served the family before his death, and was also the childhood friend of the first young master. While she was engaged to the first young master due to a the decision of the old master, she was never formally married to him as the first young master had perished in battle before that could happen. Shadekampf asked Lorist if he still remembered the face of that red-haired girl who always followed behind the first young master.

Lorist nodded. Within the memories he had inherited, there was indeed a red-haired girl who was as rowdy as most boys of her age. Lorist remembered the painful episode of her heavily pummeling him because he pulled on her ponytail once out of mischief.

Shadekampf continued and said that aside from Pesha, the rest of the main force of the family were a few Iron Swordsmen in the garrison squad as well as several other Iron ranked old men who lived in the castle. Currently, Pesha was in charge of managing the affairs in the dominion as Butler Gleis had stepped out of the limelight due to his age. That's why the family desired Lorist to return to succeed the position of the dominion lord as soon as possible.

Patt, who had been part of the personal guard of the late Baron Norton, described the events that led to Lorist's father's death. According to him, when the Lord Baron had heard about the attack from the barbarians, he quickly summoned the armored cavalry that was stationed within the castle which numbered only 18 people. This was all that remained of the main force of the family's military. Including the Lord Baron and Patt, they were a force of 20 mounted soldiers. As the barbarian pillagers had come with a force of about 50 people, the Lord Baron requested help from the garrison and was prepared to take out the invading barbarians.

As Patt and the Lord Baron had arrived at the enemy's base early, they discovered that the barbarians were not yet prepared for battle. As the agreed time for the joint attack with the garrison was nearing, the Lord Baron decided to launch the assault first and believed that the garrison would later arrive from the other side of the battlefield and join them in launching a pincer attack to wipe out the invading barbarians.

Patt said that he had tried to warn the baron to wait for the arrival of the garrison troops before launching the attack, but his warning was ignored and the baron initiated the assault immediately. At first, the surprise attack seemed to work and the barbarians weren't able to react in time. However, as they noticed the troops of the baron were far fewer than their own, their morale rose and they gathered for a counterattack. Had the garrison troops arrived at that moment, the barbarians would be completely defeated without a doubt. But no matter how long they waited, not a single garrison soldier could be seen on the battlefield. Seeing his troops starting to falter, the Lord Baron himself joined the fray even though he still hasn't completely recovered from his sickness. It was at that moment when the barbarians started cheering as their reinforcements of 50 more people joined the battle. The baron's troops quickly crumbled and Patt and the baron were the only ones who emerged alive from the carnage.

When Patt returned from battle, he got wind that the garrison troops were never dispatched in the first place. In a fit of rage, he went over to the main camp of the garrison and injured Malte, the commander of the garrison troops, which prompted the rest of the garrison members to go on a strike at the Norton Family castle and demand for Patt to be sent out for them to punish. The matter was only settled when Butler Gleis and Pesha tried very hard to calm them down on account of the relationship the family had with the garrison over the past hundreds of years. That was also the other reason why Butler Gleis had Patt leave with Shadekampf to look for Lorist so that he doesn't get into trouble with the garrison troops again.

Based on Shadekampf and Patt's explanation, it could be said that the Norton Family was in a rather tight spot at the moment. The first one was that every winter, a wave of migrating magical beasts would move to the dominion from the wilderness to look for a food source. If the magical beasts that come to the dominion were only herbivores like those magical bulls and goats, then it wouldn't be much of an issue. At most, the farmlands and orchards would sustain some amount of damage. However, what usually followed behind those beasts were carnivorous magical beasts like snow wolf packs or leopards which attacked even the towns and bastides.[1]

The second problem were the barbarians. The Norton Family dominion is located in the far desolate north. Further north was the limitless Blackmud Marsh and to its west was the Bladedge Mountains which separated the dominion from the sea. To procure salt, the Northlanders had to cross the Bladedge Mountains to boil seawater, which was needless to say, an arduous task. That was also why the price of salt in the Northlands have always been relatively high. To the south of the dominion was the Black Forests and the desolate hills, where the sole passageway out of the Northlands from the dominion was located. To the east was the Magical Dragon Mountains which was nothing but dense, primal forests and tall domineering peaks where the barbarians mainly resided.

It was said that the barbarians were the descendants of humans who had went into the mountains to lay in hiding for survival after the fall of the magical civilization during the dark ages. Having lost all contact with the outside world, their culture and customs deteriorated into a more primal form, among which included worshipping ancient totems, eating their food raw and not having any rules but the law of the jungle where the strong oppressed the weak. Even though in recent times they have started coming into contact with people outside of the mountains, they retained their old barbaric ways and made no effort for communication.

The barbarians had already started causing trouble when the first generation family founder of the Nortons was enfeoffed the dominion by plundering and pillaging. They were even harder to handle than the waves of magical beasts in the area. The family founder had once tried to set up 10-odd outpost villages to develop the dominion but had to abandon the plan as the attacks of the barbarians caused much loss of lives and property. The main reason for Lorist's father, the late Baron Norton in launching the attack against the barbarians was also because they had plundered the only livestock ranch of the Nortons and took almost all their cows and sheep.

The third main problem the Nortons had was the garrison squad in the dominion. Out of the 5000 citizens the Norton Family has in their dominion, almost 3000 of them lived in Wildnorth Town, the only town within the lands of the Nortons. The citizens there were mostly relatives of the garrison squad who occupied two-thirds of the safe farming areas within the dominion and only paid a tax of ten percent of their harvest and nothing else.

Back in the day, due to a low population in the Norton Family's dominion, the founding family leader invited vagabonds as well as purchased slaves and granted them freedom in his dominion so that he would have a workforce to develop the land. Those who joined the dominion garrison were also granted preferential treatment and privileges despite their meager salary, such as an exemption from all other taxes apart from 10% of the harvest they get and unconditional ownership over their farmland.

Other than that, as a dominion lord entitled by the Krissen Royal Family, the Norton Family had the responsibility of sending military support if the royal family requested it and also had to pay a yearly tribute of 10% of the harvests of their farmland to the imperial government. At that time, most other noble families levied a taxation rate of about 50% of the harvests of the citizens under their jurisdiction along with other taxes like per capita tax, trading tax, fishing tax, firewood tax, etc. It was already rather benevolent for the nobles to let the citizens of their dominion have enough to feed themselves.

The treatment that the garrison squad members received was as if the Norton Family didn't collect any taxes from them at all apart from the 10% that was required to be submitted to the empire. Initially, not many wanted to enlist as a garrison member, as that represented risking their lives to drive off the magical beast wave every winter season. However, as the safe zones in the dominion expanded and stabilized, a rising number of people could see the great treatment they would receive as members of the garrison and the garrison troop numbers rose quickly, much to the Norton Family's delight, until much later when they discovered a flaw with the system.

Normally, on the Grindia Continent, when a family's descendants became adults, they would leave their parents and start independent families of their own. However, these garrison members refused to leave their homes and lived together even though many of them had already married and started their own families. The main reason for that was so that the other family members get to enjoy the preferential treatment granted to their parents, who were members of the garrison. Some garrison members even demanded for their siblings who were not enlisted into the garrison to be granted farmland.

It wasn't until then that the Norton Family started regretting enacting a policy like that. However, at that time, due to the tremendous contribution the garrison had, instead of scrapping the policy altogether, the family only enforced a limit of roughly 6000 square meters of land per person, which can only barely sustain a family of three from the yearly harvest and believed that would limit the garrison family members from exploiting the policy. Little did the Norton Family know that the garrison family members were after the tax exemptions rather than the farmland and heavily fished and engaged in salt smuggling to the point where their lives were even more lavish than that of the Nortons.

Over the course of a hundred-odd years, the garrison members grew in number and many other families sprouted in Wildnorth Town with the smaller ones having at least 20 people and the larger ones having around 40, making them a force to be reckoned with in the dominion.

While the Nortons had wanted to wipe out the garrison troops at one point, they had to give up as the entanglement of the Nortons and the families of Wildnorth Town was too deep: many of the servants and soldiers of the family's main army had relatives living in Wildnorth Town. If there were any military movements, the garrison would quickly get the news about it. If the Nortons really wanted to use brute force to wipe the garrison out, the result would only be disastrous for both sides and the Nortons would become the laughing stock in the noble circles.

On the other hand, as long as the Norton Family doesn't touch the preferential treatment the garrison family members have, the garrison would still heed their orders. When the first young master was still alive, the garrison still remained loyal to him and were willing to participate in skirmishes here and there. But after the first young master's death and the old master becoming bedridden from an illness, the third young master took over and the garrison started to show signs of disobedience. For example, when magical beasts attacked the third young master's group, the garrison members fled immediately and allowed the beasts to startle the young master's horse, causing him to fall to his death.

That was also the case one year back when the old master launched the attacks against the barbarians. Due to the garrison not showing up for the battle, the old master incurred serious injuries. They even dared to surround the family's castle and demand for Patt to be handed over. In one way or another, that behavior could already be considered treason to the ruling family nobles. However, due to the Norton Family's deteriorated military force, they had to try to negotiate for peace with the garrison. Thus, the problem of the garrison is an undertaking that the next family head will have to solve.

The other issue was territorial disputes with the neighboring noble families, especially with Viscount Kenmays whose dominion was located south of the Norton Family's dominion. Given that the Northlands were mostly barren, disputes over territory rarely occurred. However, the Morgan Hills where the Norton Family's mines were located had drawn the Kenmays' attention. As the mines were the main source of the income for the Nortons, they engaged in several martial conflicts with the Kenmays, causing them to incur a huge loss.

In actuality, Viscount Kenmays had no jurisdiction whatsoever over that region as it was originally part of the Norton Family's territory as per the enfeoffment of the founding Krissen emperor himself. On the other hand, the Kenmays' territory was only recently granted to them by the Second Prince almost five years ago, which also included the Morgan Hills. Whether the mistake was intentional or not was debatable. Even so, the Kenmays should have conceded the territory and asked the Second Prince to redraw the borders as the land originally belonged to the Nortons. However, the Second Prince couldn't be bothered to settle the dispute and asked the two families to handle it themselves, which ultimately resulted in armed conflict with the Nortons emerging victorious.

However, now that the Norton Family's influence was declining, the Kenmays tried to claim the Morgan Hills for themselves once again. And this time, due to the cousin sister of Viscount Kenmays becoming the mistress of Duke Loggins of the Northlands, the Kenmays became even more bold and started another mine at another spot of the Morgan Hills and started taking the resources that rightly belonged to the Nortons, who could only swallow their anger and endure.

If Viscount Kenmays knew of the true predicament the Nortons were in, it wasn't hard to imagine him launching another attack at the Morgan Hills right away and take the mines of the Norton Family for himself. Should that come to happen, the Nortons would lose their main source of income and soon go bankrupt. This was the fifth issue the Norton Family had, an economical crisis.

Just ten years prior, while the Norton Family didn't levy heavy taxes on their dominion folk unlike most other nobles of the time, they relied on their own armed forces to hunt magical beasts for their furs traded them along with some other local products of the Northlands at Morante City through the family's own merchant convoy. Back then, the yearly income was rather great and the family had easily over 200 fully mounted and equipped soldiers in their famous armored cavalry.

But the good times came to an end when the whole merchant convoy led by Lorist's third uncle fell under the attacks of bandits, causing the family to lose its main source of income. After the first young master led the armored cavalry to war under the Second Prince's banner as well as the battle which the old master had fought with his barbarians, only tens of the original 200 soldiers of the cavalry remained with almost half of them crippled. The pension the family had to pay to the relatives of the dead soldiers cost the family another great fortune.

The Second Prince's order for the Norton Family to become the subordinate of Duke Loggins instead of the Krissen Royal Family further exacerbated the situation. Had the first young master been alive, he would have definitely refused to accept the order even if that meant making an enemy of all the other nobles in the Northlands as the Norton Family had pledged their allegiance to the Krissen Royal Family and not some random prince.

The Second Prince was still rather courteous when the first young master was still alive. However, shortly after his death, the Second Prince quickly tossed the Nortons to the duke and didn't reimburse the Nortons for their losses when they fought for him. Not only was this a huge blow to the Norton Family, it could also be considered a huge breach of etiquette and insult against them. But most of the nobles in the Northlands served the Second Prince at that time so the Nortons had no choice but to accept the situation.

Even though Duke Loggins wasn't of the Krissen Royal Family, the ridiculous taxes he levied on the lands under his rule easily rivaled half of the revenue of a noble family's dominion. While the other noble families could still somehow cope with it, the Nortons didn't collect as much taxes from the family members of the garrison troops and had to pay it from their own pockets. Had it not been for the mines, the family's accounts would have been in the red long ago.

Even though the wars in the empire had ended, the duke made no attempt to lower the taxes and instead introduced yet another country-rebuilding tax with bringing back the glory of the Krissen Empire being the main excuse. However, no one knew how long the collection of that tax would go on for. Given that the main transportation route for the Nortons were in the duke's territory, they could do naught but endure yet again.

When Shadekampf finally finished describing the whole situation of the Norton Family's dominion, everyone fell silent. Even Terman, who suggested that Lorist go back to inherit the dominion, was totally speechless. It was practically a pit of fire! Nobody would willingly jump into one and try to put the fire out.

Charade asked Patt and Shadekampf, "Did the family specify a deadline for Locke to return to the dominion?"

Patt replied, "The old master had passed away around the 3rd month of this year and we took about 3 months to come all the way here from the Northlands because we were caught up with bandits, slave traders and conflicts within noble dominions along the way. After arriving here, we took another month before finally finding the young master. My grandfather said that if the young master intends to inherit the position of the lord, he has to arrive at the Northlands before the 3rd month of next year or another successor will be picked from the illegitimate children of the old master."

Charade nodded and said, "That's great. At least there's still time to decide. For the two of you, you should stay by Locke's side and decide for yourselves which option will be better for him and give him some time to think about it as well. Let's leave it at this for today."

[1] Fortified medieval towns. See Wikipedia.

Chapter 44 The Fanatical Female Students

Lorist was starting to feel that his villa might not be as big as he had once thought as the attic was already remodeled into the two children’s bedroom and the guest room on the second floor was by Potterfang with only one guest room left vacant. The two servant’s quarters were occupied used by Kelly and Reidy as well. It seemed that Shadekampf and Patt have no other choice but to stay in the guest room.

He then decided to got to the storeroom on the first floor to move the things within out so that Patt and Shadekampf could each have one room. When Lorist told those two his intentions, they looked at him with a weird gaze and strongly objected to the idea.

Shadekampf said that he was only Lorist’s servant and not his guest, so he only needs to sleep on something during the night and didn’t need a room of his own since he was going to be following Lorist around all day. With his position and status, if Lorist were to let him stay in the guest room, it would become a huge joke among the nobles if word got out, as there has been no precedent where a noble would let a servant stay in a room on the same floor with the master. He suggested to have a simple mattress or even a rug be placed on the empty space beneath the stairs for him to lie on during the night.

Patt also rejected the offer to stay in the vacant guest room for same reason Shadekampf mentioned. Being the young master’s personal bodyguard, he could only stand guard outside the master’s room but couldn’t stay on the same floor as the master.

Having come from a world where people treated each other as equals, Lorist almost forgot that he is currently living in Grindia where nobles lorded over the common folk. The mercantile atmosphere in Morante City has also made Lorist forget his status as a person of noble descent, leading him to treat Patt and Shadekampf as guests, only to have his offer rejected and be reminded of the difference in status between them.

Lorist was at a little loss when Reidy gave him a satisfying suggestion, “Master, why don’t you remove the flower parterre in the yard and set up two wooden huts there?”

“That’s a brilliant idea, Reidy. We’ll do just that. Go to Supervisor Skali and have her send someone to come work on it as soon as possible. When the construction is completed, pick one of the huts for yourself and let Patt have the other one. Shadekampf will then move into your servant room.”

“Okay,” said Reidy as he dashed out of the villa and went looking for Skali.

“Master, you don’t have to spend any money on us. As long as we have a place to sleep, we’ll be fine,” said Shadekampf.

“Hehe,” laughed Lorist. “I have earned quite a bit lately, you know. Since the both of you have decided to follow me around, then let me handle this my way. Your treatment will also affect the image of the Norton Family. I will treat you the same as how I treat Reidy for now. Every month, you will each receive two gold Fordes. And Patt, I will have someone provide you with the appropriate equipment so you don’t have to worry about it.”

“Thank you, young master,” said Patt candidly.

“Master, aren’t you paying us a little too much?” Shadekampf was a little startled as two gold Fordes was equal to six imperial gold coins, or sixty imperial silver coins! When he was working at the Northlands, his salary was only five imperial silvers a month! It had instantly risen by a huge amount!

Lorist merely waved his hand and left no room for negotiation. “That’s what you deserve. But make no mistake, your tasks in the coming days will not be easy. Patt, I see that you’re already a Three Star Iron rank and can break through to the Silver rank within two to three months. Shadekampf, you haven’t been training your Bronze rank Battle Force for quite some time, have you?”

Shadekampf made a difficult expression and said, “Young master, I don’t know why but somehow I keep forgetting the major blood circulation paths I’ve learned… It was already quite a stroke of luck for me to have been able to awaken my Battle Force back in the day. It’s not that I don’t want to practice it, but I just keep forgetting those paths. The old master has said before that I don’t have any talent for Battle Force training and the successful awakening of my Battle Force is wasted on me…”

Like Patt, Potterfang and Shadekampf were both citizens of the Krissen Empire and practiced a standard middle-ranked Battle Force technique taught in the Krissen Imperial Army. It was a technique that allowed one to train to the Silver rank and allowed the practitioners to train further in any other higher-ranked Battle Force regardless of attributes. However, it was much more complicated than most normal Battle Force techniques and even had higher requirements if used to awaken one’s Battle Force.

The first reason why Potterfang came over to Morante City was due to the fact that the city allowed anyone to come and go as they wished because of the propaganda of freedom and equality propagated by the Forde Trade Union. It was his intention to let his children have a peaceful and blissful life over here. The other reason was because the standard army Battle Force technique he had trained in had already reached the peak of the Silver rank so he could no longer advance any further. WIth that in mind, he intended to continue working as a mercenary to save up some money and purchase a high-ranked Battle Force manual to break through to the Gold rank.

In Morante City, Potterfang had a much better chance of buying a high-ranked Battle Force manual as in the former Krissen Empire, such techniques were usually monopolized by the nobles. Unless Potterfang managed to serve under a noble family for more than ten years or have some kind of major accomplishment and get a high-ranked Battle Force manual as a reward, there was no way he could get his hands on one there. As such, Potterfang has been taking up some missions day and night to earn money and put his children in Lorist’s care.

Lorist smiled and said, “It’s alright. I have a much simpler Battle Force manual with me whose major circulation paths are much easier to remember. As long as you train hard for two to three years, it shouldn’t be a problem for you to reach the Iron rank.”

Lorist was referring to the basic Battle Force technique used by the students of his Battle Force awakening course. It was indeed a rather simple technique that was ideal for beginners who had just managed to awaken their Battle Force.

Shadekampf could only agree hesitantly to continue his training.

Lorist looked at him and said in a serious tone, “Shadekampf, as your young master, I won’t tolerate incompetent subordinates. If you don’t at least train to the Iron rank I won’t keep you by my side. In the future, I will give you a test every three months and every time I see no improvement in your Bronze Battle Force I will decrease your salary. If your salary gets decreased until there isn’t any left, then you’ll be sacked. Got it?”

“Yes, young master. I will definitely give it my all,” promised Shadekampf.

“As for Patt, follow me around for a bit to familiarize yourself with the Dawn Academy. When the wooden huts are complete, you can start training with Reidy. When I have some free time, I’ll come up with a training regimen for you to raise your combat potential.”

“Yes, master.” No matter what Lorist said, Patt agreed right away.

“I think you should stop calling me young master. Just call me Locke. I’m more used to it that way,” instructed Lorist.

“Okay, young master Locke,” replied Shadekampf and Patt in unison.

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First thing in the morning, Lorist got up early and was training as usual in the yard. Howard was exercising according to a routine Lorist had given him that had the effect of enhancing one’s fundamental capabilities and physique. Alisa, on the other hand, was still lazing around in bed. Reidy had his own training regimen which also included the eight fundamental sword moves. Lorist had him train along with Shadekampf and Patt.

After finishing his morning training, Lorist could see workers carrying building materials into the yard. When Reidy brought back the contractor the day before, Lorist had him measure the dimensions of the land on which the wooden huts will be built and the contractor said that they could be completed within seven short days as the design of the huts were rather simple. However, the cost for the labor and the materials would cost up to 18 gold Fordes.

Lorist agreed to it without a moment’s hesitation.

Now that he had finished the breakfast Kelly had prepared, he left Reidy at the yard to oversee the workers before bringing Shadekampf and Patt around the academy. Quickly, they arrived at the plaza where the Peterson young master, Dorsedaus, was training at.

Sol, I knew that it would be like this, Lorist cursed in his heart.

“Excuse me, please make way. I’m an instructor,” said Lorist. Looking emotionlessly at the wave of girls who were all dolled up staring at him with razor sharp glares while moving out of the way, he finally managed to pass through the wave of fanatical female students and made his way to join the other instructors.

“Young master, there are so many girls here that they’ve filled up the whole plaza! There should be at least a 1000 of them, right?” said Patt. He had never seen so many pretty young girls gathered at the same place at one time. His face was reddened from passing through so many of them for the first time in his life.

Lorist said in an annoyed tone, “All the girls in the academy who think they look somewhat decent are gathered here. Even if they aren’t 1000 people, there should be 800 at the very least.”

Yuriy then came over. The group of commoner students he was put in charge of had all successfully awakened their Battle Force and were allowed to enjoy their semester break after they familiarized themselves with the basic Battle Force circulation paths. When they return during the start of the semester, they will be taught the fundamentals of training and applying their Battle Force which wasn’t a huge problem and normal instructors could be put in charge of it. However, Dorsedaus’s training was far more important as it involved the bonus payment all the instructors were going to get. The 3000-gold-Forde bonus promised by President Peterson was far too alluring. Apart from some instructors who were still monitoring students whose Battle Force have not yet been awakened, the other instructors who should have already been allowed to take their vacation came over to work overtime of their own accord.

There were 30-odd instructors and assistant instructors surrounding Peterson Dorsedaus, essentially creating a record high instructor to student ratio that was unprecedented. Then again, there was no other way around that as the instructors had to prevent the fanatical fangirls from interrupting the young master’s training.

That’s right. The female students that were gathered all over the small plaza were there for the heir of the Peterson family. And each and every one of them had the same daydream, that was to get to know the young master better and form a relationship with him to marry into riches and live the rest of their lives in bliss and enjoy the delicacies, jewelries, dresses as well as inexpendable wealth that came with it. Most of the girls who held that pipe dream were of commoner families.

As for the girls from noble families who were far better dressed than the rest of their peers, they were probably smitten by Dorsedaus’s current handsome and dashing look, or the influence and power of the Peterson Family. Or, perhaps they were encouraged by their family elders to accost the young master so that their families may benefit from a relationship with the Petersons. Unlike most other commoner girls, these noble young ladies had at least a couple of bodyguards standing right behind them.

I’m really out of words. I didn’t expect for that fatty who’s trying to lose weight to end up becoming top grade bodybuilding material… Lorist sighed inwardly.

Not only was it far out of Lorist’s expectations, everyone who had seen the young master who couldn’t even run a single lap without breathing raggedly months ago were shocked as well. Nobody could have imagined that after shedding all that fat from the hellish training he had endured, he would have such a perfect and magnificent figure beneath.

Dorsedaus was already 190 centimeters in height in the first place; he was taller than Lorist by about 10 centimeters. But at that point, nobody paid any attention to that because of his obese body. But now that he had successfully slimmed down, his height and physique started to shine through. Coupled with the painful training under the threat of the whip for all that time, he had also developed nice muscles all over his body which gave his upper body a perfect inverted triangle shape, much to the envy of many. The two huge lumps of muscle on his arms only served to further display his strength. His skin even had a healthy tan having been training all day outdoors and gleamed and sparkled from the sweat that trickled down all over.

If Dorsedaus were still the fat lump he was a couple of months ago, even if the female students in the academy knew of his wealthy family background, none of them would even bother to give him any attention. But when he had successfully lost all that weight, the female students who passed by the plaza occasionally accidentally caught glimpses of his handsome form as he trained away all day and stayed there to admire his looks.

At first, the instructors didn’t mind that much as having a few girls around was quite a pleasing thing. It didn’t take long for those instructors to start telling the girls about his impressive family background.

So the man training nonstop in the plaza is actually the future heir of the Peterson Family, which is one of the seven most influential establishments within the Forde Trade Union! He even looks so handsome, bright and cheerful! Oh, he looked me in the eye and smiled! I can’t take it anymore! I’m going to faint, thought one of the girls who later became his first fangirl.

In time, the whole academy’s female students got to know about Dorsedaus’s looks and family background and started gathering around the plaza all dressed up, cheering him on and hoping to gain some of his attention for themselves. Even when one instructor told the girls that the young master was actually doing weight loss exercises and not some kind of strength training, they were all in denial and refused to believe that their prince had any need to lose fat given how he looked now. They even compared Dorsedaus’s physique to the instructor’s and said that he was the one who needed to lose weight more than the young master and laughed at the belly he had.

Any man would be unable to stand hearing all the praises the fangirls showered on the young master. Some went like, “Oh, he truly is the manliest of men! He’s the prince charming of my dreams,” while others sounded like, “Look at his magnificent body and muscles! How strong! I really want to jump into his arms and be spoiled by him! Oh… I think I’m drunk with desire…”.

Some praises were even more over the top. “Oh the heavens be praised! He is definitely the human incarnation of the Sun God Singwa! Look at his charming smile and deep, complicated gaze… His body radiates nothing but power! It seems that he could shatter a whole mountain with but a huge stomp to the ground…”

Whoa whoa whoa there, young miss… You’re talking about a man who only has muscles but not an iota of Battle Force you know, thought Lorist.

“What’s with the situation here?” asked Lorist.

Yuriy gave a bitter laugh. “It’s like this every day. Most of the instructors are at their breaking point. Why are there so many fanatical female students in the academy?”

“Even I don’t know the answer to that… It seems that I have to ask Charade to dispatch someone from the Enforcement Division to maintain the order around here. Also, when overseeing that kid’s training, make sure to also be alert and don’t let any one of the girls have a chance to get close to him,” said Lorist in a worried tone.

“Huh?” Lorist turned to look at Dorsedaus stopping and chatting to a girl who was sitting under a parasol.

“Who’s that?” Lorist asked Yuriy. “Why is no instructor punishing him from stopping his training halfway? Where’s the whip?”

“That’s the daughter of the Morosen Duchy’s duke and she bears the title of a princess. Rumor says that their family are quite close to the Petersons and she often stops by to cheer on the young master’s training.”

“As for the whip…” Yuriy shrugged. “It’s in this box. Nobody dares to use it now! Last time when an instructor tried to teach the young master who was slacking off a lesson, he was almost torn apart alive by the fangirls all over! Right now, they have no choice but to politely encourage him to continue training instead of whipping him like they used to.”

“Yuriy, bring Shadekampf to the great hall and let him see the basic Battle Force major circulation path diagram and have him memorize and copy it down before letting him train in it for about an hour. This fellow finds it hard to remember his own technique’s circulation path and it’s a waste of his awakened Battle Force! Just leave the situation here to me,” said Lorist as he took the whip from the box and walked over to Dorsedaus followed behind by Patt.

Dorsedaus was chatting away happily with the young princess in front of him and ignoring the warnings of the instructors around him about how he still had ten laps to run. Suddenly, the familiar sound of the whip cracked in the air and a searing pain could be felt by the young master on his back. He turned around only to see Lorist’s demonic form standing behind him and instantly balled up on the ground in fear and froze up.

As the crowd around the plaza started to get noisy, the cracking sound of the whip and Lorist’s loud roars resounded throughout the place. “How dare you slack off and ignore the instructors! Your training in the afternoon will be doubled and you’ll get only half the serving of your lunch for today! If you dare to do this again I’ll make sure to starve you for three whole days! Understood?! Now get up and start running!”

After whipping the young master for ten more times, Lorist couldn’t help but hear curses sounding from the crowd of fangirls. He turned and looked at their bloodlust-filled gazes as they seemed to want to rush over and tear Lorist into a billion pieces.

Whap! Whap! Whoop! Crisp sounds of the whip cracking once again reverberated in the air. Subsequently, Lorist’s deep and clear voice reached the ears of everyone present at the plaza. “If you crazy fangirls dare to interrupt the instructors from conducting the training, then don’t blame me for being merciless! I will ensure that the lash from this whip on your faces will remain forever and ruin your looks! Don’t forget that the Peterson Family will also make sure your families pay the price for interrupting the young master’s training! Who wants to give it a try?!”

Cracks from the ground near Lorist that was caused by his heavy whipping could be seen clearly. The crazed fangirls were finally stunned awake from their trance and looked at those cracks in fear before finally retreating backwards.

If the whip only broke the bones of their hands and legs, they would still be willing to try to enter the sights of the prince of their dreams. However, when Lorist threatened to whip their faces, they started to rethink their actions. After all, there wasn’t a point in showing up in front of the prince with a ruined face…

“How dare you treat my Brother Haus like that!” This time, the beautiful princess finally snapped out of the shock and started reprimanding Lorist before telling the bodyguards behind her, “Catch him and make sure you give him a good whipping.”

The four Silver ranked bodyguards instantly leaped over. Within but a single moment, two of them fell face first towards the ground. The one who was injured lighter was half kneeling and vomiting with a pained expression on his face while the more heavily injured one was twitching uncontrollably on the ground unconscious. The other two bodyguards were stunned frozen and their eyes finally widened as they recognized who Lorist was.

“Your Highness, that’s Iron Locke…”

“It’s precisely because he’s an Iron rank that I asked you to take care of him! Surely four Silver ranks can handle a measly Iron rank without a problem, right? Huh? What happened to the other two?” said the princess as she noticed the two guards lying on the ground.

“Your Highness, That’s Iron Locke the Silver Undefeated. The likes of us are from being able to take him on,” replied the bodyguard bitterly. It was evident that the princess only paid attention to the latest fashion trends and gossip going around the noble parties and didn’t pay attention to anything else, including the news about Iron Locke’s triumph. The bodyguards decided that it was better to not mess with Lorist at all and tried to persuade the princess.

“Hmph…” Since the Silver ranked bodyguards have already admitted that they weren’t a match for Lorist, the princess had no choice but to give up the notion and turned haughtily with a humph after giving Lorist a deathly stare and left. The other two bodyguards hurriedly nodded in apology to Lorist before taking their fallen comrades away without delay.

Lorist returned to the instructor group and appeared to be in deep thought as he looked at the young master training hard while ignoring the subtle curses directed at himself from the fangirls at the plaza.

“What are you thinking about?” asked Instructor Marlin as he came over.

“Look at all those fangirls gathered here to see the young master train… If we move the training venue to an indoor training hall and set up a ticket booth, don’t you think we’ll make tons of money?” mused Lorist.

All the instructors who heard that collapsed on the ground immediately……

Chapter 45 The Decision

On the third day Patt joined Reidy in his morning training session, he asked him, “Reidy, what’s that weird metal wheel with a chair strapped on it in the corner of the yard for? Is it a toy for Alisa and Howard?”

Reidy shook his head and said, “That’s not a toy. It’s something I used before for my training. It’s not like we don’t let the kids play with it though. They simply just don’t want to.”

“A training equipment? I don’t seem to understand how it works,” said Patt as he gave it another look and tried to imagine how it could be used for training.

“I used to play around in the mountains and forests a lot when I was small. And there was this one time when I accidentally knocked on a bees’ nest and naturally, they started swarming around me. I was so scared and started swinging a branch around and managed to kill quite a few of them, but I got stung by many more and had sores all over my body and only managed to recover after a month. Because of that incident, I’ve developed a phobia of sorts. Don’t laugh, that’s what master told me,” said Reidy, dissatisfied at Patt’s laughter.

“Alright, sorry. My bad… Please continue your story,” apologized Patt.

“Before, I used to learn swordsmanship from my father. When I came over to Morante City, I also got some lessons from Uncle Charlando, who’s the owner of the Red Grace Inn. Don’t be fooled by that limp he has, he’s actually a Gold Swordsman. When I’m only practicing normal sword moves, I would perform without a problem. However, when I start sparring with someone, the moment I see the flash of a sword, I will unconsciously be reminded of the shiny tails of the bees that have given me so much grief and uncontrollably close my eyes and swing my sword around randomly. At that point, I’ve already forgotten all the techniques I know. My father and uncle both came to the conclusion that I wasn’t swordsman material…”

“But you seem to have pretty good skills now, don’t you? I didn’t see any of that behavior when I sparred with you yesterday…” Patt couldn’t imagine how the current Reidy still had any of those bad habits that he had just mentioned. During the sparring match yesterday, he was surprised and quite dissatisfied with the fact that a Three Star Iron rank like him was evenly matched with Reidy who was at the Three Star Bronze rank. And during the duel, it could be seen that instead of closing his eyes, Reidy had both of them wide open and seemed like he was paying attention to every single move Patt was making. That made Patt doubt the story Reidy had just told him.

“Of course it’s no longer an issue for me. I’ve been treated by master using that training machine. The big metal wheel is called a hollow rotor while that metal chair is called a spinning chair,” explained Reidy.

“Hollow rotor? Spinning chair? These two things managed to treat that bad habit of yours? Tell me how it managed to do that,” asked Patt curiously.

“Alright. When I first started to train with master, he discovered that bad habit of mine and asked me patiently about the reason that made me develop that habit. I told him about the incident with the bees and he said that it has caused a phobia to develop within my psyche which causes me to unconsciously close my eyes every time I felt like I was in danger. He said it was something called ‘ostrich mentality. Don’t ask me what an ‘ostrich’ is, I don’t know that either. According to master, it’s a kind of bird that lives in desert that hides its head into the sand every time it detects a predator and believes that as long as it can’t see the enemy, it would be safe. Do you think there’s actually a stupid bird like that?”

“Then what happened after that?” asked Patt impatiently.

“Master said that it would take quite some time to treat the phobia through some kind of psychological treatment to slowly change that mentality of mine. But he also said that there was a quicker method that made one feel extremely horrible but could allow one to gain a unique visual ability that lets one see fast moving objects at a much slower rate. As long as I can see things moving slowly, I wouldn’t feel that I was in danger and the instinct to close my eyes wouldn’t kick in,” explained Reidy.

“So you chose the quicker way?”

“Of course. I decided to do that right away. After that, master had someone make the hollow rotor and the spinning chair. All my life I’ve never experienced something that dreadful. It took me almost two whole months to be able to get used to the sensation. After that, master said I was successfully treated and put some honey all over my body before releasing a couple of bees for me to strike down with my sword. At first, I was horrified at the notion. But when the bees came at me that time, I suddenly noticed that they approached very slowly. I could even see every flap of their wings clearly and managed to easily kill each and every one of them.” Initially, Reidy showed a pained expression when he talked about the treatment process, but he started to sound more eager when he reached the part where he fought against the bees once more.

“Master said that the ability I developed was called dynamic vision which allowed me to perceive fast moving objects at a slowed rate when I focus. When I sparred against you yesterday, I could see each and every one of your sword strikes clearly and could parry every single one of them without breaking much of a sweat, thus allowing a Bronze rank like me to match up to a Three Star Iron rank like you. That’s why our sparring match ended up in a draw,” said Reidy with a satisfied expression.

Patt looked at the hollow rotor and spinning chair and was instantly moved. “Then Reidy, if I use that chair to train like you did, will I develop that dynamic vision ability as well?”

Reidy was surprised before he said, “You should be able to. Master said that this equipment was built precisely for normal people to develop dynamic vision. If you want to try it out, I’ll go ask master for permission. However, let me warn you that when you first start, you’ll feel so horrible that you might even want to die. Are you sure that you don’t want to reconsider?”

Patt shook his head and said, “I’ve made up my mind. As long as I can have the same ability as you do, I’m sure that my skills will definitely rise and I will be able to better protect master. I think I’ll go ask him myself.”

“No, there’s no need. I’ll ask for you,” said Reidy excitedly as he turned and ran towards the house entrance.

Patt touched the equipment and thought, these two things look so simple. I wonder if it’s really as horrible as Reidy had described? He couldn’t just be trying to dissuade me from using it, could he?

Without delay, Reidy came back and said happily, “Brother Patt, master has already agreed to let you use it. But he said that you have to endure it no matter how terrible you feel and must absolutely not give up in the middle.”

Patt said, “Then I promise that I’ll never give up. No, I’ll even swear.”

“Alright, then would you like to start now? Master has said that as long as you train the way I did, you’ll definitely be able to develop dynamic vision,” said Reidy, who looked like he was about to enjoy a good show.

Maybe it’s just my imagination, thought Patt.

At that time, the sound of a horse galloping could be heard approaching the yard. Kelly had returned from the Business Sector from a shopping trip using the carriage shuttle service of the residential area.

Reidy and Patt went over to help her carry the luggage into the storeroom.

“Miss Kelly, what are we having for lunch today?” Reidy asked.

“I’m going to make steak, fish soup, salad, fruit pudding as well as Alisa’s favorite chicken drumsticks.”

“Alright. You should make one less portion of steak. Otherwise, it’ll go to waste,” said Reidy.

“Why? Is the young master not coming back for lunch?” she asked.

Reidy smiled and said, “Nope, it’s not the young master. You’ll know soon……”

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The dark night has come and a veil of silence blanketed the land. Even the frequent croaking of the frogs around the Moon Lake were significantly quieter.

Lorist got up and stood by the window of his room and looked straight at the night view of the Moon Lake. A chilly breeze lifted the curtains and let it dance under the illumination of the silver moon.

The sandglass on a table nearby showed that it was around two in the morning. But Lorist had no desire whatsoever to sleep and after pondering for a bit, he decided to go take a walk by the Moon Lake to calm his feelings down.

The 8th month has already passed and it was currently the 1st day of the 9th month. The academy semester break was officially here.

Few days back, President Peterson sent a box containing 30 gold coin notes to Lorist and thanked once again the instructors as well as the assistant instructors because his son Dorsedaus has successfully managed to awaken his Battle Force along with the last batch of students.

Academy Head Levins also issued the promised reward of 1000 gold Fordes to the instructor team. Coupled with President Peterson’s gift, there was at least 4000 gold coins in total. As the head instructor, Lorist collected 300 gold coins. Hughes, Marlin and Anfya each had a bonus of 200. The 24 other instructors each got 100 gold coins while the assistant instructors got 50 each. The remaining gold coins were used for a celebration at the Red Grace Inn where everyone engaged in fervent merrymaking during which Lorist was forced to drink so much that he puked over three times.

As for the aftermath of the duels, Lorist finally secured his title as the Silver Undefeated the moment he got his 3000th win. When the dueling event was finally over, the academy administration had Lorist’s physical proportions measured for the life-sized statue they were going to commission for him. Starting from the next semester, his statue will be erected within the academy, forever immortalizing the legend of Iron Locke the Silver Undefeated.

In a few more days, Els finally wrapped up his betting pool. By that time, Lorist will finally receive the 26000 gold Fordes he was entitled to, causing him to have a grand total of almost 30000 gold Fordes. In Morante City, a person with that kind of money could already be considered a tycoon who would be able to live in luxury for tens of years even if they stayed jobless.

And when the next semester comes during the 10th month, there would be no tasks at the moment that the academy can hand to Lorist, meaning that he could use that time to enjoy his life at home or go adventuring with a couple of friends as he has done so in the past. Even though the semester break had finally come, for some reason, Lorist still felt as if a burden could be felt deep in his heart which caused him to be unable to relax to the point where he didn’t have any appetite and started having sleepless nights.

The silver moon’s light made the lakewater seem to glisten. Lorist sat on a large rock by the bank and stared at the moon’s reflection as he thought…

Indeed, he was merely trying to run away. If it were the past few days, he could still use the dueling event and the Battle Force awakening course as an excuse to postpone the decision to return to his homeland. But now that everything was settled, he had no choice but to face the facts squarely.

Why should I return to inherit the dominion? That place is completely foreign to me and I don’t know anybody there at all. Also, the family is also in deep trouble and accepting the title of the lord is equal to jumping into a pit of fire… Lorist really couldn’t understand. He had lived at Morante City for the past ten years and formed connections with the people here and even got a stable job and was practically a living legend here. This was where he belonged.

Very much satisfied with his life here, Lorist was really unwilling to go to the Northlands to inherit the position. As Shadekampf had said when he first arrived, the standard of living in Morante City was far better than that of the Norton dominion; Morante City was practically paradise. When it came to food and many other necessities, Lorist’s homeland couldn’t even compare as it really was far too underdeveloped.

So, why, then did he feel a tinge of longing in his heart? It was as if a voice called out nonstop for him to leave Morante City to return to his dominion. Perhaps it was the blood and soul of the Nortons that was ingrained within him that prompted him to feel a deep desire to develop his dominion and strengthen his family. That was probably the deepest dormant instinct the descendants of the Norton family had.

Even though Lorist really wanted to stay in Morante City and not return to his homeland, that wish conflicted with the imprinting of his soul thus making him feel unsettled and bothered till symptoms of insomnia and lack of appetite even manifested. If he continued to go on like that, who knew how bad it would become should he choose to endure the torturous inconsistency within his mind? Maybe if I continue to endure it until the 3rd month next year, the feeling will disappear when the family picks the previous lord’s illegitimate child as the heir, Lorist thought.

So what if that person isn’t from a proper line of descent? Doesn’t he also have the Norton Family’s blood in him? The moment Lorist had that notion, a sudden intense wave could be felt within the core of his being, sending chills down his spine.

“Achoo!” sneezed Lorist.

Alright, fine… Illegitimate children still have a fundamentally different status from the bloodline of the official line of descent that flows within my veins… Oh little Locke… It truly feels like we are two people sharing one body… Now that my mind is living in your body, it wouldn’t be comfortable for any of us if you continue to struggle like this… Come on, I beg you… stop making me feel so bad… After his sincere pleading, the wave in his body finally calmed down. But a barely audible voice of someone crying could still be heard in his mind. “I want to go home… I want to go home…”

That’s right. I want to go home too. Little Locke, your homeland is still within reach but there’s no way for me to return to mine……

Lorist silently teared up as he sat alone on the rock by the lake. As the first rays of dawn broke the veil of the night sky, a trail of dried tears could be seen on his face. Lorist stood up and faced the rising sun before saying, “Little Locke, let’s go back home together.”

Chapter 46 Convoy Plans and the Oath of Allegiance

That’s right, why don’t I just head back? I can treat this trip back to the Northlands as an adventure and also resolve the inner conflict I have with the desperate desire to return home this body has. Whether I will inherit the position of the lord is a whole other matter altogether. If things are really that bad there, it’ll never be too late for me to return to Morante City and live my life out in luxury. I wonder why I have been losing sleep over something as small as this…

Lorist’s mood instantly turned for the better as if a huge burden had been lifted off his shoulders. Now that he had decided to go back, he couldn’t just visit empty-handed and had to plan and prepare carefully and also wait for Patt to recover from the spinning chair…

On that day, Lorist stood by the window of his study seeing Reidy drag Patt across the yard like a dead dog and strapping him onto the spinning chair before pulling the rope and spinning it faster and faster. Patt, who had been tortured quite horribly for the past few days didn’t have the ability to resist at all and didn’t even have enough energy to scream for help. He only made a grunt or two from time to time in protest…

Hehe, he’s reaping what he sowed. Did he think that dynamic vision is this easily acquired? Back in his previous life when Lorist was still serving in the military, his comrades who could endure unspeakable hardships without batting an eye and were even able to joke around as they used their knives to dig out bullets from their body, couldn’t withstand more than two days on the spinning chair. The moment they tried it, they were scared shitless and didn’t dare to get on the chair ever again.

The unpleasant feeling after getting on the spinning chair came from the intense vertigo that could turn a 7-foot burly man into a limp noodle within minutes. When Lorist used Reidy as his guinea pig four months back, it took him two whole months for him to be able to get used to the sensation. He also had Potterfang try it out once after he had just recovered but that was also the last time Potterfang used that chair. It seemed that unless one was forced to keep going on to the spinning chair, one would instantly lose that determination to continue using it.

Reidy was doing that exact thing to Patt just as Lorist had once did to him. It was no wonder he was so elated when Patt showed some interest in the training method. For some reason, it was in a human’s nature to wish for someone else to experience what one had suffered from before. When one fell into a pit, one would also hope that someone else would suffer the same fate as well.

It had been seven days since Patt started training with the chair. It seemed that he would take at least two months to recover just like Reidy. Lorist decided that he wasn’t going to return to his homeland with Shadekampf and Patt empty handed. He recalled that the merchant group led by his uncle was at least worth 1000 gold Fordes or more. Even though the scale of their operations were quite small when compared to the other merchant guilds in Morante City, they were able to earn about 300 gold coins of profit each expedition: that was more than 1000 imperial old head gold coins. Even though Lorist’s annual income was close to that, that amount of money would easily boost the family’s financial and military strength by a lot.

Now that Lorist did not lack any money, he decided to bring out a few thousand gold coins to form a merchant group or a supply convoy to alleviate the family’s grim situation. Even though he still wasn’t set on inheriting the position of the dominion lord, the least he could do was to contribute some resources to make up for the fact that he was currently occupying the original owner’s body.

However, the process of actually forming a merchant group wasn’t simple. The scale of the group and the goods to be delivered had to be carefully considered. Otherwise, if the family a certain type of supplies he brought, the whole trip would end up a waste of time.

He was thankful for the presence of Shadekampf for that. While he wasn’t the most talented person when it came to Battle Force training, Shadekampf was quite well-informed of the status of the dominion and understood what type of resources would be most beneficial to the family given his prowess in management taught to him by Butler Gleis. Every night, Lorist had Shadekampf go to his study to tell him more about the dominion to make a list of the things that the family is really in need of.

Now that the question of the resources was settled, what about the manpower required to run the merchant group? Currently, apart from Lorist, Shadekampf and Patt, it was still uncertain whether Reidy would want to follow him back. After the new year, he would only just turn 17 and the highest he can reach while training within these few months was the One Star Iron rank. Lorist was also a little worried about Reidy joining as the trip to the Northlands would no doubt be filled with various risks and dangers. I guess I’ll cross the bridge when I come to it. At most, I’ll hire a few laborers for a high price. Lorist was quite confident that he would be able to accomplish that with the amount of gold Fordes he had.

The next problem was the route they would take. According to the map, there were three paths that lead to the Krissen Empire’s capital from Morante City and there was only one route from the capital that lead to the Northlands. Lorist recalled that the journey when he traveled to Morante City with his third uncle’s merchant convoy took about 57 days. The merchant convoy mostly had four-wheeled carriages and could travel about 50 km per day. That meant that the distance of the Northlands from Morante City was about 3000 km.

Before the fall of the Krissen Empire, it was much easier to travel to and fro. Now that the former empire’s territory had been split up between 3 kingdoms and 7 duchies, various complications would arise when they cross borders and customs. Given that I’m a noble who’s on the way back to inherit my position and my convoy isn’t planning to conduct any business, I shouldn’t have to pay a lot for the toll costs, right? I better make sure of that before I start the trip. Maybe I should try contacting President Peterson, thought Lorist, as the Peterson Group also had business connections with certain companies in the former empire’s capital. If Lorist were to join them on the way to the capital, it would save him lots of trouble.

The last concern Lorist had was the issue of defense and security. Given the volatile state of the former empire’s territory, it was not uncommon for convoys to be attacked and pillaged by bandits along the way. After deciding that he would hire a group of mercenaries for a high price to protect his convoy, Lorist went to the mercenary guild to get an idea of the fees required, only to return later on that day with a grim expression. Nobody would have expected that a team of 45 mercenaries would cost 1000 gold Fordes to hire. There was even a restriction that the convoy couldn’t be too large. The Gold ranked mercenary band leader was very clear that the price was the best they could offer. If there were to be more than 12 carriages or if the convoy transported weapons and equipment, the price would have to rise even more as it couldn’t be helped.

After 6 years of constant conflict, the territories that once belonged to the Krissen Empire lacked resources so much to the point where certain nobles even impersonated bandits to pillage unknowing merchant groups. If the bandits were to get their eyes on the weapons or equipment, the convoy would instantly become a lucrative target and cause the mercenary protectors to inevitably incur losses and casualties.

Coincidentally, Lorist intended to transport some weapons and armor as Shadekampf had listed that as a resource that the family was in dire need of. The 2000 gold Fordes required to hire a mercenary group was far more than the price he used to procure the resources. Instead of hiring mercenaries, Lorist figured that it would be better for him to form a group of 100-odd armed force to protect the convoy and believed that many Silver ranked mercenaries would be willing to tag along for the trip to the Northlands for a couple of gold Fordes. Sigh, let’s settle the issue of security when the time comes.

That was how busy Lorist had been in the recent times, going around the city’s Business Sector frequently to check on the prices of the resources he intended to transport to his homeland. At any rate, Lorist didn’t plan to stay at the Northlands for long. He could be said to have fulfilled the least of his responsibilities to the family by sending them resources to make his contribution. He would later return to Morante City again to enjoy the rest of his life.

—————————————————————–

What Lorist didn’t expect was the suggestions from a few people to him when he was busy with the preparations. The first one to approach Lorist was Reidy. “Master, are you planning to return to the dominion?”

Lorist nodded and said that he was indeed going back for a while, but he wasn’t sure if he would inherit the position yet. Now that Reidy was here, he was about to tell him that he had planned for Reidy to stay at the city. “Reidy, I think you should remain at Morante City. The journey to the Northlands will no doubt be a long and arduous one, not to mention the risks involved…”

“No, master. I’m definitely following you along,” Reidy replied resolutely, cutting off the rest of what Lorist had to say. “I’m your personal attendant. How can I ever leave your side? I will not let you leave me behind.”

Lorist felt rather surprised and said, “What if Old Char and Els object to it? It’s going to be a rather dangerous trip, you know…”

“The main reason I came to Morante City was to join a mercenary group. But for some reason, it had morphed into a syndicate instead and I have no intention of hanging with the likes of them. I already have no other relatives so I am free to go wherever I want, including following master along, so other people’s objections don’t matter!” exclaimed Reidy with a resolute face. It seemed that he had already set his mind to it.

“Alright, then you can come along,” agreed Lorist. He didn’t want Reidy to feel that he had been left behind. Since this attendant of his was stubborn and loved challenges, Lorist thought that it wouldn’t be too bad for him to experience an adventure like this and thus allowed him to follow along.

—————————————————————–

The moment Shadekampf left the study, he bumped into Potterfang outside and hurriedly apologized to him. He has always been quite curious about the mercenary who his master had cared so much about. When Potterfang came back and finished his mercenary mission, he even called for Shadekampf to talk about the situation of the Norton Family. It was then when Shadekampf got to know that Potterfang was also a Northlander who even used to be a military commander in one of the former Krissen Empire’s most prestigious armies.

“Is Locke in the study?” asked Potterfang.

“Yes, he is,” he replied.

“Thanks.”

Lorist was currently looking over the list of items and resources that he intended to bring back to his homeland which he had gone over once with Shadekampf just moments ago. It could be seen from the list that the homeland was really bereft of even the most basic resources to the point that it was questionable how the family could survive till now. The amount of resources required posed quite a problem to Lorist as it required over 100 horse carriages to transport, which was something he couldn’t afford to do at the moment. It seems that I have to cut down on some of them and only bring the essentials. It’ll be much easier to take care of the convoy with only 20-30 carriages.

“When are you leaving?” Potterfang asked Lorist.

“Ah, Pog, you’re here,” Lorist greeted as he stood up and stretched for a bit. “Well, the soonest I can leave is when Patt fully recovers, which is in another two months or more. I hope that I’ll be able to depart around the 20th day of the 11th month.”

“Oh…” Potterfang merely nodded. “Two days ago, I asked Shadekampf about the situation of your family and it does sound pretty dire. I was under the impression that you wouldn’t go back there.”

“I don’t have a choice, my family needs me now. As a descendant of the Norton Family, I have the obligation to go back and share the burden with them,” said Lorist as he smiled and shook his head in futility, feeling that he sounded a little too pessimistic when he said that, as if he was going to give up on everything here in Morante City and actually go back to help his family out for real.

“Oh, Pog, you’re just in time. I have something to give you,” said Lorist as he changed the subject.

He reached into his drawer and took out a high-ranked Battle Force manual with five other gold coin notes and placed them on the table.

“Pog, your Battle Force is of the metal attribute, right? Here is a Battle Force manual that I’ve prepared for you that’ll enable you to train all the way up to the Gold rank. It even contains some insight from the original owner of the manual who had managed to break through to the rank of the Blademaster. This was given to me by my ex-girlfriend as a memorial gift before breaking up with me, but I have totally no use for it. I’m giving this to you in hopes that you will be able to break through into the Gold rank. As for whether you can become a Blademaster, it’ll have to depend on your ability and effort. Don’t even bother rejecting this gift. Count it as a parting gift from me.”

Potterfang looked downwards to the manual and his whole body was shivering uncontrollably……

However, Lorist didn’t take note of any of that. He continued to tell Potterfang his plans, “As for these 500 gold coins, it’s not for you. It’s my gift as a teacher to my precious disciple, Howard and my cute Alisa for you to hold on to. While Howard’s physical qualities are rather good, don’t neglect his nutrition as well as his physical training and teach him some of the basics of Battle Force when he finally awakens his own. If his Battle Force attribute is different from yours, then I will find a way to help him acquire a high-ranked Battle Force manual.

“Also, I believe that you won’t be willing to continue staying here after I leave no matter what I say. I’ve already had Els purchase a house near the Red Grace Inn for your family to move in in the future. This way, Charlando, the owner of the inn, can help you take care of Howard and Alisa when you’re out on mercenary missions and private requests. Actually, Pog, I hope you can reconsider letting me get you a place as an instructor at the academy so that you will be able to continue living here when you become a Gold Swordsman. It’ll be better for the kids too…”

Before Lorist finished, Potterfang suddenly stood up and left the room without saying anything.

“Erm…” Lorist was stunned. What’s the meaning of this?

In a moment, Lorist heard footsteps from the corridor outside followed by a knocking sound on the door. Potterfang had returned to the room.

However, he was dressed very differently than before. He was currently wearing a ceremonial military officer outfit of the former Krissen Empire with a sword strapped to his side. Potterfang move forward solemnly and knelt before Lorist on one knee before raising his sword over his head and announcing, “I, Grei Potterfang, captain of the 9th Brigade of the 3rd Heavy-Armored Corps, am willing to take Norton Lorist as my lord and liege and pledge my allegiance to the Norton Family. Under the witness of the War God, I am willing to give my utmost to contribute and serve under the banner of the Nortons and will absolutely not let my lord down.”

Lorist was so surprised he jumped in his seat. This was the oath of allegiance which was commonly initiated to represent the pledging of one’s service to an emperor, a king or a grand duke of a duchy. If this ceremony was carried out to nobles not of that rank, it signified that the initiator of the ceremony was willing to share the fate of whom he was pledging his allegiance to, regardless of good or bad times and be loyal for the rest of one’s life and even be willing to follow one’s lord into rebellion if necessary. This relationship was even closer than that of a lord and the knights of the family.

“Pog… This… this is…” Lorist was totally without a clue on how to respond.

Potterfang remained kneeling with his head lowered without a single movement.

Aren’t these ceremonies only carried out after communication between both parties? Coming at me all of a sudden is unfair! Not being able to do anything else, Lorist stepped forward and received Potterfang’s upheld sword and unsheathed it before tapping the longsword on Potterfang’s head, followed by each of his shoulders as he announced, “From today onwards, our fates will forever be intertwined. You shall see me as your liege and serve as my arms and feet. Let the War God be the witness of this oath and may time engrave this relationship in the prestigious future that is to come.”

Lorist had no choice but to respond as such. If he had hesitated for a little too long, the person who initiated the ceremony would feel that he was ignored and this was a grave insult to the initiator. If it was serious, the initiator would slit his own throat on the spot. Otherwise, he would view the other party as a sworn enemy for the rest of his life.

Taking the sword back from Lorist, Potterfang stood back up and made a deep bow towards him before saying, “My lord.”

Lorist gave a bitter laugh. “Pog, is there really a need for that? You could’ve been so much better off here in Morante City. Why did you choose to jump into that fire pit with me?”

Potterfang also laughed lightly before saying, “I wouldn’t have stayed in Morante City either way. To be honest, I’ve been wanting to go back to the Northlands for quite a while. Since I would have to serve some family one way or another to make a living there, I might as pick you. It makes even more sense considering all that you have done for me.”

“Then what about the two kids?” Lorist was already starting to worry about them……

“I’ve already asked Howard about that. He said that you’re his master, so he definitely wants to accompany you on this journey. As for Alisa, she’s like a redbud flower that grows in the wild and not a weak flower that grows in the safe shelter of the greenhouse. I personally think that you, my lord, pampers her far too much. As a daughter of the Northlands, she’ll definitely need to go back and experience the polishing of the harsh wind and snow there,” replied Potterfang.

“Sigh……” Alright. I guess Potterfang’s family is coming along to the Northlands as well.

Potterfang then took the high-ranked Battle Force manual and said, “Great, I can finally accept this proudly with my head held high. I hope that I will be able to break into the Gold rank within two months so that I will able to better serve you.” He then turned and left the room.

“Pog, please don’t call me ‘lord’ and use my name like you always do,” said Lorist.

“Alright, Lord Locke.”

……

Chapter 47 Knights and Gifts

Ever since Potterfang referred to Lorits as ‘lord’ in public, Lorist suddenly felt a trend brewing in the academy. He didn’t know if it was Kelly spreading rumors around, but the workers at the Gold ranked instructor residences started greeting him rather cheerfully. Sometimes, when they saw him walking by, they would step aside and bow when he passes by and bow deeply as they say, “Good day, lord,” which Lorist was horribly not used to.

Then came Terman. It was already getting rather late that night when Shadekampf reported that Terman had come to visit.

Lorist felt that it was rather weird as Terman usually wouldn’t visit alone without anybody else, especially that late in the night. Maybe something’s wrong? Or perhaps it’s something about the Swordsmanship Society? Then again, there shouldn’t be any activity since it’s the semester break…

Lorist then went downstairs to receive Terman at the lounge.

He asked Terman to have a seat only to be ignored. Instead, Terman stood in front of Lorist rather respectfully and said something that startled him badly. “I’ve resigned.”

“Huh?” Lorist was totally stunned…

He’s just joking, right? Terman’s the vice captain of the Enforcement Academy and is also the vice chairman of the Swordsmanship Society… Why didn’t I get notified about his resignation even though I’m the Swordsmanship Society’s chairman? Who permitted it?

“I’ve thought about it for the past few days and finally made my decision this afternoon. Charade doesn’t know about it yet. I went to talk to the academy head about it and he has agreed to my resignation,” said Terman solemnly.

“What made you want to do that?” Lorist got more confused the more he thought about it. Terman’s position at the academy earned him roughly 9 gold Fordes every month. That was a salary that many would be envious of. Why did he suddenly resign?

Terman lowered his head and said, “I’m starting to feel that my days in the academy are far too uneventful and boring. I’m starting to crave some real battles. My father told me that as a knight, the greatest shame he had was that he didn’t perish on the battlefield but to an illness instead. Being a knight myself, I don’t intend to succumb to the same fate as my father’s. I believe I should go all over the place to seek conquest and battle.”

What… What kind of reason is that? Are you still the cool, collected and reliable Terman that everyone loves and trust? Don’t tell me someone got transmigrated over here and took over your body? As Terman’s good friend, Lorist felt that he had the responsibility to at least try to stop him from making such a rash decision before everything can no longer be taken back.

Before he could think of something to convince Terman to reconsider his decision, Lorist saw Terman kneeling in front of him on one knee. “Locke, this is the last time I will refer to you as such. Would you be so kind to take in a friend who has nowhere else to go with you on the journey north?

“I, Waprey Terman, am willing to pledge myself as a knight of the Norton Family and take you, Norton Lorist, as my lord and liege. I will follow in your steps and conquer your enemies for you.”

Lorist was shaken yet again……

He suddenly noticed Potterfang standing beside them with Lorist’s longsword in hand which he passed to him.

Drawing the sword out of the scabbard, Lorist tapped Terman on each shoulder twice and said solemnly, “Rise, my knight.”

And thus the simple knighting ceremony was completed. Potterfang received Terman with a hug and said, “Welcome, my fellow brother.”

Oh, it’s the good old welcome speech. At least that part is normal, thought Lorist.

Shadekampf happily greeted Terman with a bow. As expected of the young master. Yet another Three Star Silver Swordsman joined us. Something like this would be unimaginable in the Northlands… The Norton Family will definitely prosper under the young master’s leadership!

Shadekampf suddenly recalled something important and hastily reminded his young master, “Young master, you still haven’t had a family knight badge made. I’ve brought you the design……”

“Give this to Reidy and tell him to order it from the badge makers. Oh, and prepare one Gold ranked one as well. Pog’s going to break through really soon,” said Lorist.

I really don’t get why Terman would decide to pledge himself to me as a knight… Maybe that’s the difference between this world and the one where I came from… In Lorist’s previous world, the attitude of the people there were quite individualistic in that they often seeked accomplishments by their own ability to showcase their merit. However, the Grindians mostly racked up their accomplishments in service to a noble family instead. This was the main difference of the different cultures.

Lorist was starting to get more and more frustrated at the glaring differences between the two cultures. “Oh, Terman, you have a high-ranked Battle Force manual that’s passed down in your family already, right?”

“That’s true, milord,” replied Terman.

“Then I won’t give you a Battle Force manual. Shadekampf, go to my study and get that piece of Mizek Stainless Steel Armor for Terman as his knighting gift,” instructed Lorist.

The Mizek Stainless Steel Armor was the staple product of the Mizek Sector of the Temanda Kingdom and was well-known for its relatively higher defense compared its counterparts which allowed it to withstand piercing strikes better than most other armors. However, the supply for the armor was rather low and it was really hard to even purchase one as it sold out rather quickly. Lorist had gotten one from President Peterson for 300 gold coins because he wanted to be protected any hidden attacks on the trip to his dominion. Never would he have expected that he would be giving it away just three days after getting his hands on it.

“Thank you, milord,” said Terman as he accepted the armor thankfully.

Lorist then went upstairs and let Potterfang and Terman by themselves to celebrate the newly-formed brotherhood. “I’m going up to take a rest, I can already feel a headache coming. Terman, there’s still a vacant guest room upstairs so you can move over for now.”

Since Terman had already resigned from his post as a Gold ranked instructor, he could no longer stay at his villa at the instructor residences. It was fortunate that Lorist still had an empty room.

“Alright, milord,” said Terman,

—————————————————————–

The news of Lorist’s departure to the north to become a dominion lord spread like wildfire overnight in the academy. When Lorist was returning to his villa from doing some errands, he bumped into Supervisor Skali who gleefully forced Lorist to come with her to her house where she advised Lorist to pay close attention to his health as the Northlands were desolate and much colder than the rest of the continent. After that, she took out a hand-knitted fur coat and gave it to him before wishing him all the best on his journey to become a great lord.

Lorist accepted the coat but he was still curious about how she got to know all that even when he didn’t mention a word of this to anyone else……

After dinner, Instructor Marlin came to visit and brought along a large chest which he said contained the things his wife always used and said that it was his gift to Lorist as he believed that it would prove pretty useful during his journey.

Lorist almost fainted when he heard that and desperately tried to reject the gift. Why would he need the things Marlin’s wife used on the trip? His misunderstanding persisted until Marlin opened the chest. In the box were a set of horse armor, a saddle and some stirrups. Apparently, Instructor Marlin often referred to his treasured horse Jenny as his second wife.

Carefully caressing the items, he told Lorist that since Jenny was getting old and losing its ability to gallop, the items weren’t much use for it and he only kept them for old times’ sake. Now that Lorist would no doubt be riding on a horse or two on the journey north, these items would prove quite useful, especially the armor, which would give a horse a decent boost in defense.

Thanking Instructor Marlin, Lorist opened a couple of bottles of wine and drank together with him.

Instructor Marlin chatted with him quite cheerfully as he bragged about the heroic antics in the days when he served in the city garrison. In the end, he was sent back home totally wasted.

During the afternoon of the next day, it was Instructor Anfya’s turn to come pay a visit. She brought with her yet another large chest. First and foremost, she told Lorist about her husband, Instructor Claude’s successful breakthrough to the Blademaster level after gaining some insights following more than half a year of training. This was an event that would forever change the Dawn Academy’s status, position and their reputation.

Lorist hurriedly congratulated her. Instructor Anfya then told him that within the chest were seven good quality swords which were part of Instructor Claude’s collection. He had heard that Lorist was about to leave for the Northlands to inherit his position as the lord and believed that these swords would come in useful. While he was confident in Lorist’s swordsmanship, he was concerned that Lorist’s longsword wouldn’t be able to handle the constant battles that he would no doubt experience in the future. That’s why he decided to present these swords to him to aid in his journey.

Lorist thanked her again and started to think about what to gift to Instructor Claude to congratulate him for his recent success. Already seeing through Lorist’s intentions, Anfya politely declined the kind sentiment. She mentioned that the main factor for her husband’s breakthrough was the duel he had with Lorist one year back which gave him many insights to ponder over. As for herself, she said that she had already learned the art of pulse reading from Lorist so he didn’t need to trouble himself over something like that.

Hearing Instructor Anfya put it like that, Lorist laughed out loud. While he couldn’t think of anything to give to Instructor Claude, he had the perfect gift for her wife. Asking for her to wait downstairs, Lorist went up to his study and came back down with an intricate box in hand a gave it to her.

Instructor Anfya opened the box and was incredibly delighted. Just as she was about to take it out to closer inspect the gift, Lorist told her to take her time at home and also reminded her to not tell anybody else that she got it from him to save himself some trouble.

Instructor Anfya nodded and carefully made her way back with the box safe in her embrace.

In the following days, Lorist received tons of gifts that filled his study whole. Almost every one of his acquaintances came over to give him a parting gift that ranged from weapons, gloves, shoes, cloaks as well as cold-resistant clothing. Instructor Hughes gifted him a good set of leather armor while Welledor, the knight training instructor, gave him a pair of golden horse spurs. Instructor Wensen from the horse riding course gifted Lorist a fine Illinoihaus Horse. The breed of the horse was the favorite of heavy-armored knights as it was large in stature and was able to withstand a relatively heavier load as well as being quite intelligent and had one of the fastest acceleration times. The only drawback was that it wasn’t suited to long distance gallops and was rather picky with its food.

Loboff from the herbalism faculty gave Lorist a set of test tubes and lab apparatus commonly used in the concoction of herbal medicines. The chest that contained the tools was even cushioned properly so that the things within wouldn’t easily break. Lorist really didn’t know what to say. It’s not like I’m going back to be a herbalist, am I? What would I be able to use it for?

—————————————————————–

Next came Charade and Yuriy. Lorist felt relieved when he saw that the both of them came empty-handed and seemed that they were not here to send him off with gifts. He invited them to the lounge and Lorist was shocked the moment he heard what Yuriy had said.

“Locke, I have come here today with Brother Charade to join you on your journey. We have both resigned and are ready to become your knights.”

Charade merely stood there pouting without saying a word.

Yuriy stared at Lorist go into the washroom and come out with a mirror-like silver plate in his hand. After looking into his reflection for a few moments, he finally let out a long sigh.

“Locke, what are you up to?” asked Yuriy, weirded out by Lorist’s erratic actions.

Lorist replied, “I was checking if something had suddenly grown on my face and gave me a domineering air that caused the two of you to join my cause. Good thing there wasn’t anything weird, cause you guys are just messing with me, right?”

Yuriy laughed out and said, “Locke, we’re serious about this.”

Lorist didn’t want to believe it. “It’s alright, stop kidding around. I still have lots of things I need to work on and I’m already exhausted. To joke around with me at a time like that is really not what friends do, you know?”

Yuriy’s face turned solemn as he said, “Locke, I’ve really resigned from the academy. You know that I’m from the plains of the Khawistan Khanate’s, right? Had it not been for the fact that my parents saved a count’s life before, I wouldn’t be studying at Morante City now. Just a while back, that count came back to me and asked whether I would like to become a knight under his family. I’ve turned him down as my father had perished under his service. While I’m the horsemanship instructor at the Dawn Academy, the students of my course don’t respect me as I’m originally from the grassy plains. You should know this as well. Had it not been for you and our friends, I would have left this place long ago. Now that Terman has chosen to follow you, I would like to as well. I believe that he made the right choice to become your knight. This way, we can all be together even after you leave for the north.”

“Alright, your reasoning has left me fully convinced. I welcome your participation, Yuriy. But what about the fatty? Since when was he the kind of person who would be willing to serve under another?” asked Lorist as he looked at the pouting Charade.

Yuriy laughed before saying, “It’s like this. He received quite a bit of shock during this afternoon.”

“Shock? What kind of master was able to pull that off? I should really pay that person a visit to learn that from him,” said Lorist curiously.

“It was Terman,” Yuriy replied.

“There’s no way. How did Terman even do that?” Lorist was intrigued. Terman has always been a straightforward fellow who had always been messed around by the fatty instead of the other way round.

“Didn’t Charade’s father come over a couple of days ago?”

“Yup, I know about that. I even paid him a visit,” nodded Lorist.

Charade was also not a local of Morante City. His family came from the Teribo Kingdom which was famous for its green and oil glass products. His father was a merchant who had property in both Morante City and the capital of the Teribo Kingdom. Other than that, he was also the cousin brother of Academy Head Levins and also contributed quite a lot financially to the academy. This was also why Charade was able to act so unrestrainedly as nobody dared to find any trouble with what he did.

During the two days Charade’s father came to visit, he treated Academy Head Levins to a meal. After the meal, they decided to wander around in the academy, only to bump into Terman and Yuriy.

At that time, Yuriy was conflicted as to whether he should resign just like Terman. When he left his quarters, he saw Charade’s father and Academy Head Levins and went forward to greet them. Just as he was about to wave hello, Terman approached while wearing the Norton Family’s knight badge with Charade following him. As Charade was laughing at Terman’s newly-obtained badge, Charade’s father quickly pulled him away and gave a deep bow to Terman and asked extremely politely, “Good day, milord. Is there anything I can help you with?’

Terman, Charade, Yuriy and Levins were all stunned speechless……

Suddenly, the atmosphere turned weird in an instant. Charade’s father then asked carefully, “Milord, you…”

Terman instantly ran away…

After snapping out of his trance, Charade shouted at his father. “Dad, that’s my friend! Why did you do that?! That’s super embarrassing! Gah!”

However, Charade’s father knocked his head harshly and said, “That guy is a noble! Did you not see that badge on his chest? What a domineering Raging Bear! The sides of the badge also have a laurel design, which means that the family has at least 200 years of history. Even if he is your friend, you still have to act respectfully. There is nothing embarrassing about that, got it?

“In this world, there are two things that is worth one’s respect. The first is a noble title and the other is knowledge. For example, your Uncle Levins here is respected for his extensive knowledge and the status of an academy head. However, knowledge can only awe a person for so long before it ceases to be inspiring once a certain amount of time passes. However, noble titles that can be passed down through generations can even raise the status of the whole family. Don’t think that just because I’m wealthy, I don’t have to abide by these customs. Even the richest man would need to show utmost respect when seeing a noble from a rural area, because they have the right and power to kill any commoner that dares to disrespect them, and that includes you as well.

“Don’t even bother getting pissed off now. Are you thinking that you got away with getting on the bad side of some nobles before? Those people are different from landed nobles. They are mere honorary nobles whose titles are empty and hollow as they don’t have a proper dominion, just like Uncle Levins. His title is only honorary and it can’t be passed down to his descendants. You can easily tell the difference from the badges they wear. Why is your uncle not wearing his noble badge, you may ask? That’s because he feels that it’s embarrassing as he doesn’t have a dominion nor does he have subordinates of his own. Without those, what kind of influence would one have anyway?”

Academy Head Levins was still speechless…

“It’s my fault for not being able to procure a noble title for you to inherit. The titles you can purchase with money are merely honorary titles which don’t really mean much. If you can manage to get a hereditary noble title for family, then I would die without any regrets! Your status in the academy doesn’t count for crap in the real world. In the end, you’re only a tool for your uncle’s use to settle his problems. Think about it, aren’t you just like the bodyguards of the high-ranked officials of the Trade Union? Even though they seem high and mighty and earn lots of money, they are but useless tools that can only follow orders.”

Academy Head Levins started freezing all over again…

Charade’s father sighed once again before continuing, “Back then I placed my hopes on you to help the family gain a noble title. But looking at you now, I only hope you can live out the rest of your life peacefully. Let’s hope that your sons and grandchildren will try harder to achieve that dream for our family…”

After saying that, Charade’s father turned and walked away alone, leaving Academy Head Levins, Charade and Yuriy standing amidst the leaves that were blown up by the twirling gust……

The three of them were completely silent. At that moment, Yuriy used the opportunity to tell the academy head about his resignation, to which he agreed immediately.

Seeing the fatty who was standing there flabbergasted, Yuriy added, “Charade here is also going to resign……”

Academy Head Levins merely turned to his back and started to leave. But he still said one thing, “Go… All of you, leave as you please. I hope that your ambitions will be achieved and wish you a safe journey.”

……

“And that was what happened earlier. Locke, if you don’t accept us as your family knights, then we’ll have no choice but wander around as lordless knights,” said Yuriy.

Chapter 48 Northbound Journey Strategy

Ever since Charade and Yuriy became Norton Family knights, Lorist suddenly realized that the current situation was more and more out of hand.

When Lorist brought up the resources that he would transport back to the homeland during the meeting with the other knights, Charade started to laugh out loud at the plan. Even though he was Lorist’s knight, he didn’t even bother to give Lorist any face. He grabbed the map of the Northlands from Lorist and said that his focus should be on cleaning up the mess the Norton Family was currently in and give them a chance to start afresh instead of sending them resources to merely help them survive.

According to Charade, a prosperous family with huge potential for development should have the ability to change and reform to adapt to whatever situation they may be in instead of holding onto old detrimental traditions and customs. The sad part of Lorist’s current plan was that it focused only on sending resources back just to make do for the moment instead of considering how to develop the family further in the long run.

Lorist was a little embarrassed and even felt a little guilty as Charade had nailed his original intention: that was to return to Morante City after delivering the resources and live out the rest of his life without worries. However, given the situation now, there was no way he would dare to say something like that, otherwise Charade would instantly leap over and kill him for that. Imagine what the reaction of his friends who were willing to cast away their comfortable lives in Morante City to jump into the pit of fire that was the Norton Family’s dominion when they hear that Lorist was planning to return to Morante City from the beginning…

Charade continued giving his opinion. He believed that the main reason that the Norton Family had fallen to such a predicament was the severe lack of manpower. As long as that problem was addressed, the Nortons would no doubt be able to rise again.

For example, when it came to the magical beast horde during the winter, it wouldn’t be a problem for the family if they had the human resource to expand and fortify the defensive infrastructure of the dominion and could probably even profit from slaying the beasts and selling their meat and fur.

As for the mountain barbarians, Charade said that he has talked to Shadekampf about it before and he discovered something that had been overlooked by everyone else: ever since the first conflict between the Norton Family and the barbarians, the family has been on the defensive side and only retaliates when the barbarians invade without taking the initiative to wipe them out even once. If they could afford to start an expedition or two to annihilate the barbarian tribes, they wouldn’t be constantly harassed by the barbarians for so long. That’s why the main solution against the barbarian threat was to launch an attack on their home bases and kill all who resist while capturing the rest to use them for road building and developing the desolate lands. Charade was filled with bloodlust and excitement when he talked about that solution.

The other issue was the one regarding the garrison troops that many people working for the Norton Family had close relations with. This was a difficult and delicate situation to handle as the Nortons couldn’t afford to wipe them out yet given that the territories of the former Krissen Empire had just emerged from the ashes of six years of civil war and the land was in peril with the citizens living harsh, tormenting lives and bandits popping out all over the place. During this northbound journey, it was imperative that the convoy destroyed bandits along the way as they raised and trained their own elite army. By the time they arrive at their destination, they would have an experienced elite fighting force that would no doubt be able to easily crush the rebellious garrison troops. The members of the army could also become citizens within the dominion, thus further boosting the available human resource of the Nortons.

Regarding the territorial squabble with the Kenmays, Charade didn’t believe that to be a real problem as the Viscount would obediently give the mines back to the Nortons or be prepared to be completely annihilated by the army that was forged along the journey. Should that come to happen, the Nortons would have yet another piece of land they could rule over.

The real distressing problem was the presence of Duke Loggins, who was notorious for his avaricious nature that was obvious from his frequent schemes to swallow up the riches of the noble families under his rule. That person was like a blood-sucking leech to the Norton Family who could do nothing but endure as they had no ability to resist him at present. Charade said that it was up to Lorist how he wanted to handle this matter. He recommended that if their forces were strong enough by then, they should just crush the lord duke in one fell swoop. However, if they don’t yet have the abliity, staying low and waiting for an opportunity to strike was the wiser move.

Taking a map of the territory of the former Krissen Empire, Charade pointed to it and said, “Everyone, look. The former Krissen Empire is currently divided into three kingdoms and seven duchies, among which, the Lormo Duchy neighboring the Falik Plains has already sided with the Forde Trade Union. The next one is the Redlis Kingdom, ruled by the First Prince of the former Krissen Empire, that occupies 7 of the 29 provinces that used to belong to the empire, making it the power with the most territory and might in the area. Next, we have the Farkel Duchy, Forund Duchy, Handra Duchy and the Shabaj Duchy that occupy the center and most prosperous area of the territory that used to belong to the empire. These four duchies even formed a military alliance and they are currently entangled in incessant conflict with the Redils Kingdom.

“The kingdom of the Third Prince of the former Krissen Empire, the Andinaq Kingdom, only has power over 3 provinces. However, the capital of the former empire is under his control and he is the officially sanctioned heir to the empire named by the former emperor himself, and his status is much higher than the other nobles because of that. Had it not been for the Forde Trade Union inciting the First and Second Prince to rebel, the Third Prince would have ascended to the imperial throne. Due to the constant pressuring of the trade union, the Andinaq Kingdom’s power is currently the weakest among the rest and can’t even compare to some of the other duchies. The Third Prince should be the ones the Norton Family should have good relations with, or even pay allegiance to, as he is the true heir to the Krissen Royal Family.

“Lastly, let’s pay attention to the Second Prince’s Iblia Kingdom which is situated near the territory of the Nortons. The Second Prince has always had a rather bad reputation among the nobles of the empire and he is often regarded as a cold, selfish, lustful, opportunistic schemer who doesn’t have any outstanding achievements whether it be in governance or the military. In actuality, the nobles in service of the Second Prince are a divisive mess. They only pledge their allegiance to him in name and frequently fight among each other and even ignore his orders outright. If the Second Prince did not have the backing of his father-in-law, Duke Fisablen who rules over the northeastern grassy plains, there is no way the Second Prince would be able to found his own kingdom.

“Occupying the northeastern area of the former Krissen Empire, the Iblia Kingdom rules over 5 provinces including the Northern Highlands, as well as the Madras Duchy which is subordinate to the kingdom in name only. The current power the Iblia Kingdom is fighting against is the Melein Duchy, which is the loyal supporter of the Third Prince’s Andinaq Kingdom and serves to defend the former royal capital from the Second Prince’s forces. For the Second Prince to be able to conquer the royal capital, he would have to first find a way to handle the Melein Duchy. The problem is, Duke Melein used to be the commander in chief of the armies of the former empire and his troops are among the most experienced and skilled. The Second Prince has been quite unsuccessful in his attempts to defeat the duke’s forces for the past two years.

“The nobles under the Second Prince include 2 dukes, 7 marquises, 19 counts, more than 40 viscounts as well as 100-odd barons, among which 90 nobles are newly-entitled by the Second Prince himself, essentially giving away titles for more funds, resulting in the hilarious situation of some counts having territories that are even smaller than the neighboring barons. One of the 2 dukes under his service is Duke Fisablen who used to be the general of the Border Defense Army of the empire that was mainly responsible for keeping the barbarians of the plains out of the nation. During the power struggle among the three princes, he supported his son-in-law the Second Prince and he’s so influential that he can be even said to be responsible for the founding of the Iblia Kingdom by himself.

“The second duke under his service is Duke Loggins. Look at the map here, the Northern Highlands take up about half the area of the Iblia Kingdom’s territory. The only thing about it is its relatively low population. Now, look at the Norton Family’s dominion. It occupies a third of the Northlands that is mostly desolate and undeveloped. Duke Loggins’s dominion is the most prosperous part at the south of the Northern Highlands, right across the Watar River. The duke actually has ambitions to make the whole of the Northlands his dominion to form his own duchy. But due to the lack of military force as well as the pressure from Duke Fisablen, he had no choice but to accept becoming a part of the Iblia Kingdom. Right now, he is occupied with the formation of his Northland Army so that he can have some leverage against Duke Fisablen’s army that he will also use as his main force to form his own duchy in the future.

“During the formation of the Iblia Kingdom, the Second Prince has agreed to make Duke Loggins the overlord of the nobles of the Northern Highlands to gain his support. This is the main reason why the Norton Family is currently subordinate to the him. However, the Second Prince also granted more than 90 titles to some new nobles, among which more than 40 of them had been enfeoffed land in the Northern Highlands. Viscount Kenmays is also one such noble.

“The sudden entitlement of so many nobles was because the Second Prince had hoped that the Northern Highlands would develop faster with the new nobles in charge. But in actuality, it has caused quite a bit of trouble for Duke Loggins. After gaining their titles, the nobles have been involved in countless conflicts for territory and 3 newly-entitled noble families and 1 old noble family have already perished. The duke has since changed his plan on taking the whole of the Northlands by force and is instead secretly fanning the flames of war among the nobles to reduce their power and force them to rely on him. This is why the current situation of the Northlands is incredibly volatile and no noble is safe from it.

“That concludes the report on the political situation in the Northlands. It is currently the perfect chance to reap some profit over there. As long as we manage to raise a strong military force, the unification of the Northern Highlands is also achievable. This is why I believe that Lord Locke’s plan of transporting resources over there is completely unviable. If anything, bringing too much resources with us would only make us a tempting target for bandits and even some local hegemons. If we raise an armed convoy, however, the local lords would instead worry about being attacked and think twice before acting. As for the bandits, they would serve as the perfect target to train our forces with. In fact, we should minimize their deaths and make the strong and able ones members of a suicide camp that we will later use when we lay siege. For those unfit for battle, we can even use them as a labor force to develop the Northlands with.”

A loud applause erupted from the audience, and Lorist was no exception. Charade has always been a person who looked at the bigger picture. Lorist already noticed that back in the day when they took up mercenary missions together. Charade would never accept missions that was beyond their party’s capability and his record of not having a single member in the group die on his watch was testament to his abilities.

Too bad Charade didn’t know about Lorist’s original intention to bail after transporting the resources to the Northlands. He must have been quite shocked by his father’s lecture and is probably trying his best to secure a noble title in the Northlands.

Lorist raised a small objection and said that while Charade’s strategy was praiseworthy, the cost of bringing refugees into the Northlands was too large, as they would cause quite a bit of issues there, mainly because of the lack of farmland in the dominion as well as the lack of food to sustain the refugees’ livelihoods.

Charade merely snorted at that notion and said that it didn’t make any sense, because Lorist’s original plan involved transporting enough resources to last the people in the family for up to five years. Did he plan to have his family members stay in the comfort of their castle and never venture out? It would be much better to use the food they were transporting to tempt the refugees into joining and procure more food and provisions on the way. He believed that they would have enough food for up to 2 years by the time they reach the Northlands and they could use that timeframe to develop the land. Yuriy asked, “What if the locals don’t intend to sell us any food? How would we sustain the refugees then?”

Charade replied, “Do you think we carry swords and spears for nothing? If they don’t want to sell it willingly, we’ll force them to! After all, we’re just a group of traveling refugees and are not there to occupy their dominions. The nobles wouldn’t bother to gather their armies to deal with us because even if they do, their own forces will be severely depleted and that would leave them vulnerable to the neighboring dominion lords. That’s why the best thing they can do is to appease us and pray that we leave their dominions for the Northlands as soon as possible.”

“What if there isn’t enough farmland when we reach the Northlands, some of you might say? That is a non-issue, as we can have these refugees do other tasks like mining, building roads, constructing castles as well as hunt magical beasts. Given the size of the Norton Family dominion, are you worried that we’ll run out of land to develop?” Charade also mentioned that there was a lot that could be removed from the list of items they would transport. For example, the ten carriages worth of iron ingots can be left out as they are heavy and difficult to transport. Instead of purchasing iron ingots, it would be better for them to recruit people who know how to scour the land for ore veins as well as metallurgists. Charade believed that the vast lands of the Norton dominion would definitely have resources waiting to be found.

He also asked Lorist how much money he intended to use to purchase the goods in his initial plan, to which he replied 10000 gold Fordes.

“What would you do with the remaining 20000? Leave them to rust? All of us here are prepared to go through thick and thin with you without a thought of coming back. We can’t afford to skimp on the preparation! Hand me all your money and I’ll use them to purchase the things we actually need.”

Sol, this fatty knows my wallet like the back of his hand… His share of the profit that Els just sent him two days ago as well as the rest of his savings all went to Charade’s hands just like that. Lorist accepted his current predicament and sighed, how would I be able to come back to Morante City and live out the rest of my life in leisure now that it’s come to this?

Having gained the authority to manage the funds, Charade started discussing with the rest of the group about the resources they would need. Mainly, they required weapons and equipment, food and clothing as well as enough carriages to transport all that. However, that was secondary to building a formidable armed force they could rely on to escort their convoy. Charade thought that it wouldn’t be good to rely fully on mercenaries as he understood their nature well: when the fight was to their advantage, they would give it their all, but when things start turning unfavorable, they were the first ones to flee.

“Here,” said Potterfang as he pointed on a black spot on the map. He was pointing at Port Nupite.

Potterfang said, “The Hanayabarta Kingdom rules over this archipelago and the slave trade is not forbidden by their government. Port Nupite is the largest slave trading harbor on the Grindia Continent. We can go there to purchase some slaves to form an armed force with.”

Charade replied, “Oh, I know of that place. But I’ve never went there myself so I do not know the finer details about the situation there. Though, I’ve heard that that place is extremely chaotic and lawless.”

“One of the mercenary missions I have done involved escorting a group of slaves at the port. It is indeed rather chaotic but I’ve also met several close acquaintances whom I got to know back in the days I served in the army. Currently, they are working as guards for the port and I think I can get them to give us more information about the place. It would be best if we could wait a few days before doing so as I’m just about to break through to the Gold rank.”

Breaking through Battle Force ranks wasn’t inherently difficult. As long as Potterfang familiarized himself with the Battle Force circulation diagram and was able to circulate his Battle Force according to that route flawlessly, he would naturally be able to break through to the Gold rank.

Charade nodded and said, “Alright, then I’ll be coming along with you by then. As for the things over here, I’ll leave it for our lord to handle.”

Potterfang suddenly had a question to ask, “Knight Charade, I know for a fact that you’ve never been to the Northlands before. How, then, are you so well-informed about the situation over there?”

“It’s simple,” Charade replied, “The ambassadors sent by the Forde Trade Union to mediate the conflict between the Third Prince and the other powers have just returned. I managed to get ahold of one of them through my contacts and used a high price to purchase a journal of what he had seen and experienced over there.”

Potterfang lowered his head as a sign of respect, “Knight Charade, you truly have contributed a whole lot.”

Charade returned the nod. “Don’t be so polite. It’s only natural to do that for the sake of the family.”

At that moment, Yuriy made a suggestion. “Hey, since the academy has quite a number of old students, especially the ones in the Swordsmanship Society, shouldn’t we go ask some of them if they want to join us on the journey? This way, it’ll be much easier for us to form the armed force with their help.”

“Great idea. Terman, you help Yuriy out with that matter. The only requirement is for them to have good attitudes and be at the Silver rank. Do tell them that this expedition will be dangerous and risky and that anyone who wishes to return after they reach the Northlands will also be given 20 gold Fordes. If there are any who are willing to join the Norton Family, tell them that Lord Locke will knight them when we finally reach our destination,” said Charade.

He also asked Terman and Yuriy to try to seek out any professionals who wish to join the journey and help develop the Northlands. Anyone with some sort of skill or trade like herbalists and smiths were welcome. He mentioned that the development of the dominion cannot lack people with skills like those.

Potterfang nodded in agreement to that idea.

The knights then gave Lorist a salute before leaving after the meeting concluded. Potterfang quickly went back to continue his training while Terman and Yuriy started to handle the task Charade had given them. As for the fatty himself, he was quite busy haggling around with various merchants to get a good deal for the resources they would require for the northbound journey.

Sitting alone in his study, Lorist sat as his desk thinking before he finally realized something. It’s over… Now I really have no choice but to go back and inherit the position of the dominion lord…

Chapter 49 The Academy Armory

Raising his head to look at the greenish-grey tower, only to see Academy Head Levins standing at the balcony, Lorist put his hand to his chest gave a deep bow to him before turning and leaving.

The day before, Lorist received the academy head’s letter that asked him to go to the academy head’s office.

When Lorist entered the room, Academy Head Levins behaved politely and courteously towards him. Kknown that Lorist was about to return to his homeland to inherit the dominion, the academy head wished him good fortune and expressed his hopes that Lorist would one day become a great leader. After that, he told Lorist that the academy had a bunch of old equipment that were gathering dust which he could buy should he need them for the journey.

Thanking the academy head, Lorist removed the Dual Gold ranked instructor badge and placed it on the table. Given that he didn’t know how long it would take for him to return to Morante City once again, Lorist said that he would forever remember the ten years worth of good times he spent at the Dawn Academy.

Holding the badge in his hand for quite a while, the academy head gave it back to Lorist and said, “Keep it as a memento. And don’t even get started about your resignation. You are our academy’s pride and legend. At the very least, you can be the honorary instructor of our academy. The Dawn Academy welcomes your return whenever.”

After saying his farewells to Academy Head Levins, Lorist went to the armory where the training equipment for the knight and swordsmanship courses were kept. Even the training swords used by Lorist’s students had to be obtained from the armory before the classes start.

The supervisor of the armory, Kurzim, was expecting Lorist’s arrival. After greeting him, he brought Lorist to one of the warehouses which was packed full with various equipment.

“In here is a total of 320 training cavalry spears which will work perfectly well like a normal spear after installing the speartip. There’s also 700 training swords which is usable after some sharpening. Aside from those, there are 500 diamond-shaped training shields, 150 crossbows as well as 24 full body knight armors and 220 plate armors used by heavy-armored troops. Oh, and there are also 82 sets of cavalry armor suitable for scouts,” said Kurzim.

Lorist was quite delighted and surprised as all of the items were mostly new and weren’t in need of any maintenance. Two days ago before Charade brought Potterfang to Port Nupite, he reported that there were no issues when he purchased provisions and horse carriages, but it wasn’t the case when it came to weapons and equipment. First, the price was rather high. Secondly, most of them were not complete. While they were able to get quite a number of longswords and greatswords, they weren’t able to get good armors as most of the protective equipment in the market were leather armors which were usually favored by mercenaries. Metal armors were low in supply and each set cost quite a sum as well. Additionally, there wasn’t enough time to order some to be made. Now that Lorist had been given access to the academy’s armory, this problem was essentially solved.

“Uncle Kurzim, why does our academy have so many sets of plate armor? I recall that our academy doesn’t train any heavy-armored swordsmen. Also, what’s with those cavalry armors? I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Lorist.

“Hehe, Locke, have you forgotten that our academy has merged with the Yellow Ribbon Academy? These plate armors originally belonged to them. Due to the exceedingly few applicants for the heavy-armored swordsman course, the academy had it cancelled, rendering these equipment useless. They wanted to sell it off at first, but the academy head said that you might have some use for it,” explained the old supervisor.

Lorist laughed out shyly as he had totally forgotten that the Yellow Ribbon Academy mainly offered training courses for armed guards as well as supervisors. It wouldn’t be weird for them to have some plate armor.

“As for these cavalry armor……” Kurzim stroked his chin and tried to refresh his memory. “It seems that these were the result of a failed experiment and they have been in the warehouse for more than ten years. But the condition is definitely brand new as they have been well-maintained over the years.”

“A failed experiment?”

“That’s right, it must have been fifteen years already. At that time, there was a book published about the knight occupation that raised a lot of controversy. The author boldly claimed that the end of heavy-armored knights was coming and that cavalry in the future would be quick, agile and be able to employ hit-and-run tactics from far away, unlike the current fashion of battle which involves two armies charging straight on into each other. The author used the scout as an example. In one of the battles he described, a scout cavalry unit was able to totally dominate the battlefield and far exceed heavy-armored troops in both speed and performance. The author then posed a thought-provoking question: should an army unit be composed entirely of light cavalry that primarily employs hit-and-run harassment tactics on heavy-armored knights, who would win?

“Back then, the arguments between the knight training course instructors about that topic were really heated. The academy administration also got interested in the theory and believed that if they could realize the concepts described by that book, the whole occupation of the knight would change forever and thus grabbed the opportunity to begin research into lightweight cavalry troops. A research budget was then allocated to a professor that specialized in protective equipment to come out with a new type of armor suitable for lightweight cavalry. The original plan was to have 150 sets manufactured for a cavalry company to be formed to carry out the first test drill. However, the Battle of Mount Blanco happened and the 30000 mighty lightweight cavalry troops of the Khawistan Khanate were totally decimated by the Lormo Duchy’s heavy-armored knights with only less than 4000 of them surviving. As a result, the book was regarded as a huge joke and the academy also stopped the production of the armors midway, leaving the completed ones here ever since,” explained Kurzim.

“Oh, so that was the case,” said Lorist as he opened the box and took out a set of lightweight cavalry armor. Upon inspecting it, Lorist got a rough idea about it.

The heavy-armored knights that were so popular in armies donned chain mails before wearing full body plate armors and had extremely good defense. Lorist has also heard from Instructor Marlin once that the city garrison scouts were basically issued a chain mail and a leather armor to wear over it, and the scouts of the different nations on the Grindia Continent were no different.

But the lightweight cavalry armor Lorist held in his hand was an amalgamation of a plate armor and a chain mail. The chest and shoulder parts were protected by the breastplate and pauldrons while the arms and lower torso were covered by chain mail. One advantage of this combination was that its defense was superior to the common armors worn by scouts and lighter than the full body armors knights usually wore. The one drawback was that the design was not practical as it was inferior to full-plate armor in terms of defense and another layer of chain mail couldn’t be worn with it because it would increase the load borne by the wearer by too much. It’s no wonder nobody had found a use for it for the past 10 years. However, Lorist didn’t mind it and believed that the armor was indeed quite suited for scouting troops.

“Alright, I’ll take all of these, Uncle Kurzim. How much would all of these be?” Lorist asked.

Kurzim was momentarily stunned and exclaimed, “You’re buying them all?! The academy head was prepared to auction them if you didn’t want any, but it seems that he was worried for nothing after all. This will save me a lot of trouble from having too. Wait for a bit, let me give you a figure.

“The grand total for 320 training spears, 700 training swords, 300 training shields, 150 training crossbows, 24 knight training plate armors and 82 lightweight cavalry armors is 3836 gold coins. I’ve already given you a great discount for the lightweight armors at 10 gold coins each; they cost about 30 gold coins each to make back then.” Kurzim’s arithmetic ability was quite good given the speed at which he got the total cost.

“Oh, that’s right. Uncle Kurzim, can I have the equipment maintenance facility fix up these items for me? I want the training spears to have the speartips installed, the swords sharpened, the shields coated with a layer of stainless steel and all the armors be engraved with the insignia of my family. I will pay for the extra cost,” said Lorist thankfully. The price offered by Kurzim was already a third of what it would normally cost according to market price.

“Of course. The academy equipment maintainers have nothing better to do anyway and are either gambling or drinking away during the semester break. I’m sure they would be happy to be able to earn some extra cash,” said Kurzim as he smiled.

“That’s great. I’ll bring someone over in the afternoon who knows how the insignia is made. I’ll also be giving the maintainers a bonus when they complete the work. Also, can I settle the bill 3 days later?” asked Lorist.

“Of course, Locke,” said Kurzim, nodding.

…….

Sol, that fatty only left me with 3000 gold Fordes to buy the equipment and weapons we need. The 300-odd weapons and several tens of armors have already cost me about 1000 gold coins.. I guess I have no choice but to sell of that building I just got to be able to afford the costs, thought Lorist as he grit his teeth at the thought of having been forced by the fatty to have no choice but to inherit the position of the dominion lord.

That afternoon, Lorist brought Shadekampf to the academy armory and briefed him about the engraving the insignia on the equipment before heading to the Red Grace Inn to see Els. After a while of waiting, Els showed up and was surprised to hear that Lorist was about to sell off his newly-acquired building and asked him why.

Lorist then told him about the situation and Els asked him to wait before running off somewhere. He returned later with a small box in hand that contained 50 gold coin notes worth 5000 gold Fordes in total.

“Brother, this is the entirety of my savings and about half of them came from the betting pool you helped out with. I know you wouldn’t accept my money for nothing, so let’s consider it a loan with that building as the mortgage. Write up a contract that states that you will transfer the ownership of the building to me should you be unable to pay me back 10 years later. Aside from that, the yearly rent from that building that amounts to 70-odd gold coins will be my interest for the loan. How’s that?”

“Alright, we’ll do it your way. Els, thank you. You’ve really saved me big time,” said Lorist thankfully.

Els sighed and said, “There’s no problem. After all, I don’t have anywhere else to spend my money anyway. If I did not have so many attachments over here, I would’ve loved to follow you to the Northlands, especially after seeing that damned fatty show off in front of me.”

He was referring to Charade who came over to the inn two days ago with Potterfang and 10 other senior students of the academy who were willing to join the expedition to throw a welcoming party. When Els arrived, Charade told him this, “From today onward, you shall refer to me as ‘Honorable Knight’ because I’m now a noble and you’re just a commoner. You shall show me respect,” which, needless to say, enraged Els to the max.

—————————————————————–

After bidding Els goodbye, Lorist rushed back to the Dawn Academy and settled the bill with Supervisor Kurzim as he was afraid that the maintenance of the equipment would somehow be flawed if he really paid them three days later.

Kurzim laughed and said, “And there I thought that you didn’t have enough money on hand. It seems that you really need these equipment quite urgently.”

Lorist gave a bitter laugh and said, “Uncle Kurzim, you should know that the trip to the north won’t be a peaceful one. Charade intends to form an army to escort the convoy back to the Northlands. It is a huge help for the academy to be able to sell me these equipment.”

Kurzim gave it some thought before saying, “Then, come with me. There are still two storehouses that I think you should see. Maybe they’ll be quite useful to you as well.”

He brought Lorist to two stone rooms that was situated behind the warehouse and opened the door to one of them. Lorist was greeted with a whole pile of scattered equipment that was about half a person tall.

Kurzim said, “This is where we store all the broken equipment that are deemed too much of a hassle to repair. We only clean this place up once every few years. Some of them gets recycled while others go to the incinerator. I believe there should be something that you can use here. For example, look at this spear blade here. You can use it as the sharp tip of a javelin. If you need anything from here, Locke, feel free to take it. It’s all free. Just tip the maintainers a bit and they’ll be happy to fix them up for you.”

Lorist was exhilarated and he took Kurzim’s hand and shook it fervently. “Thank you, thank you. Uncle Kurzim, you have truly helped me out immensely.”

Kurzim laughed loudly and said, “Don’t shake so hard! This set of old bones won’t be able to handle the stress! Here, this is the key for the rooms so that you can have somebody come sort it out later.’

……

After having dinner, Lorist asked Terman and Yuriy to go into his study and told them about the storehouses in the armory.

Terman was excited to hear that. So far, there were 38 senior students of the academy who were willing to join the expedition to the Northlands and Charade and Potterfang brought 20 of them to Port Nupite some days back. He suggested that Yuriy, who was planning to bring a few others to the Khawistan Plains to purchase some war horses, to leave a few people behind to go sort out the usable items in the storehouses.

Charade had also given Yuriy 3000 gold Fordes before he left to buy 200 war horses. But the price of one horse in Morante City was at least 30 gold coins. That was why Yuriy planned to go back to his homeland with a few others to purchase the horses from the breeders directly instead of letting the darned horse merchants profit.

Lorist was against Yuriy bringing lesser people as he would be gone for at least a month. It was safer to go in a larger group just in case something were to happen. He said that he can just hire ten students from the academy part time to clean up the storehouses and mentioned that he would go monitor them personally from time to time since he wasn’t going to leave the academy anytime soon.

……

After sorting out the items in the storehouse for three days, Terman sent someone to ask Lorist to come over.

Lorist could see that the pile was cleaned up halfway and expected that the sorting process could be completed within 3 more days. The equipment that Terman deemed still usable piled up rather high.

Seeing Lorist inspect the items, Terman said a little reservedly, “Milord, this pile contains the things that seems usable after the first sorting. I think that after going through it again, only about a third of this will actually be useful. The reason I asked milord to come over today was because we discovered a few ballistas within the pile that’s still in perfect condition. I really don’t know why it had been put in here. I wonder if we can take this along with us as it will no doubt be incredibly useful during the journey.”

It was only after being told that Lorist noticed the 12 ballistas arranged neatly in a row at a corner. Other than lacking a bowstring, the rest of the parts were in good condition, especially the bowstave, which was made of some unknown type of wood coated with a glossy shine. This type of weapon was usually installed on war chariots for ranged support. It was weird how they were left in the storehouse for broken equipment.

Lorist asked for Supervisor Kurzim and after looking at the ballistas for a few moments, he flipped the beastskin book in his hand and said, “Ah, it’s here.”

According to him, these 12 ballistas were designed and constructed by a crafting professor and his students for the use of the city garrison. However, even though they were of good quality, they required too many people to operate. Each one needed one man for aiming and firing, one for driving the chariot and another to load the ballista. That was why they were left in the storehouse with the other retired equipment.

Kurzim said, “You can take them if you want. There’s even a label on the ballistas that says ‘defunct’. Though, you’ll have to string them up yourself.”

Both Lorist and Terman were extremely delighted. With the 12 ballistas, the armed convoy would have yet another method at their disposal.

Chapter 50 In Which Els Reports for Duty

Lorist regretted spending 1400 gold Fordes to purchase the 300 plus weapons and sets or armor from the market. After buying the old equipment off the Dawn Academy, he had Els go check out if any other academies had some old equipment up for sale as well. Unsurprisingly, after bribing a supervisor of a couple of swordsmanship academies with 100 or so gold coins, he managed to get up to 120 sets of used plate and scale armor as well as near a thousand spears for only 500 gold Fordes.

Lorist also told Els that this was a great opportunity for profit and encouraged him to get to know these armory supervisors better so that he would be able to purchase the used equipment for a low price regularly. "Look," said Lorist as he held up one of the plate armors, "It may look a little old, but if you have it polished and maintained, it would look and function almost as if it's brand new. If you do that and sell them in bulk at a reasonable price, there's no doubt that it'll be super popular with the mercenaries."

Spending money as if it were water, Lorist noticed that the 3000 gold coins he had was about to be completely used up. However, he still couldn't bear to let the old equipment of the other academies go unpurchased and wasted. Now that he had already spent quite a bit to bribe those supervisors, there's no way that he would leave those equipment alone, would he?

After giving it some thought, Lorist decided to go with it and auctioned off some of his belongings. They were mirrors handmade by Lorist himself. Back in the day when Lorist was still designing clothes for his ex-lover, he spent ten-odd gold coins to obtain a number of transparent crystal slabs. Some were left over and he intended to use them to try to make a telescope, but gave up after failing for a few times.

When Louise and Charlando were getting married, Lorist was thought hard about how to present them with a unique gift. That's when he used the crystal slabs to make 9 mirrors. Having been the head of a craftsman factory in his previous life, it wasn't hard for him to make those mirrors. He gave one of them to Louise and another to Anfya just a few days before and was left with seven of them.

The process of making the mirrors were not hard and the materials were easy to obtain as well. Worried that the mirrors would cause quite a stir on the market and garner unwanted attention for him, he didn't let anyone know that he made them. Now that he lacked the funds, he decided to sell a couple of them and asked Reidy to call Els over.

Lorist decided to offer 4 of them up for sale. When Els saw the mirrors on the table, he let out a surprised gasp. "Oh, so that mirror Louise had was your present..."

"How did you know about her mirror?" asked Lorist.

"Oh, that Louise treasures the mirror so much that she wouldn't let anyone see it. But I, the stealthy Els, have been playing around with it for quite a while. Just two days ago, I used it to shave my face! It's definitely much better than looking into my reflection on a silver plate. Of course, I placed it back in place so well that Louise wouldn't suspect a thing," boasted Els shamelessly.

Lorist told him that he hoped that he could arrange for someone to have the mirrors auctioned and instructed Els to say that the mirrors were found within some ruins and that they might have been magical mirrors that have lost their powers and have been in the collection of a rich family until they decided to sell them off recently to bring the family back from its dire financial state.

The mirrors Lorist made all had their own unique characteristics. The first one was circular with a diameter of about 15 cm with an intricate silver frame around it. Lorist spared quite a bit of effort and carved quite a number of English alphabets on the mirror to give it a simplistic, yet enigmatic feel.

The second one was a rectangular mirror with dimensions close to that of a book. Wrapping a random book with golden foil, he emptied the middle of the book and placed the mirror within. He even used gold to engrave the Chinese poem 'Quiet Night Thought' onto the page before the mirror, believing that there would be someone who would end up spending their whole lives researching the eccentric and foreign Chinese characters.

The third mirror was oval-shaped and Lorist fashioned a handle for it so that it could be used as a hand mirror. It was made of a special black-colored wood only found in Grindia which he obtained from dismantling a chest that was said to have been passed down through thousands of years. Lorist only spent a few gold coins to buy the chest from the market and used its wood to make the base and handle of the mirror. On the back and handle of the mirror, Lorist carved an intricate pattern of the Five Blessings found in traditional Chinese art.[1]

The fourth mirror was the one Lorist spent most time on. He used bronze to replicate a mirror used by the ancient Chinese and set a transparent crystal onto the reflective surface. He even tried to make it look old and slightly rusted to give it an air of ancient mystery. Beneath the mirror were the words 'Bright Moon Looking Glass' engraved in common Grindian script.

After agreeing to Lorist's request, Els kept the mirrors for himself and admired them for about half a day before he was willing to put them to auction.

Ten days later, all four of them had been sold without any incident and generated a revenue of 13000 gold Fordes. After deducting the auctioneer fee, Lorist was left with more than 10000 gold Fordes.

When Els delivered the money to Lorist, he told him that the four mirrors had caused quite an uproar in Morante City especially with regards to the weird engravings found on them. Some experts truly believed that they used to be magical mirrors that have lost their powers and the words found on the them could very well be what the magicians used to activate their mystical powers. When the auction for each of them started, the price increased exponentially. Els even said that he made quite a number of bids intentionally to raise the price.

Lorist was extremely happy with the outcome of the auction. However, that ploy would only work once and he rejected Els's proposition to make a few more.

With the money in hand, Lorist purchased almost all of the used equipment from the other academies. By the time Yuriy returned with 353 war horses, they had enough weapons and equipment for a whole army.

There was an estimated number of 50000 spears, 2000 sharpened training swords as well as a little less than 1000 two-handed greatswords and shortswords. As for the shields used for training, there were roughly 600 while there were 800 other shields of various designs. Additionally, they had 700 crossbows, 2000 plus cavalry lances, 1500 javelins, 71 sets of full body knight armor, 583 sets of plate armor used by heavy swordsmen, near a thousand sets of chain mail and scale armor, 2000 and more sets of leather armor as well as 12 ballistas mounted on chariots.

All these equipment have already been maintained and fitted for battle, the process of which consumed materials up to 2000 gold Fordes' worth. The shields and armors also have the Norton Family's insignia engraved upon them. Lorist paid the four academy equipment maintainers 10 gold Fordes each and the other students from the academy 5 gold Fordes each. They were eternally grateful for getting so much from only working for a month.

At times, Lorist would daydream about the 10000 more gold coins of profit he would get by selling the refurbished equipment off, but he dismissed that notion almost instantly. Charade's letter had returned and it stated that he and Potterfang had successfully acquired 700 strong, young slaves and 2800 others who were their family members and were currently on the way to the Lormo Duchy's Armatrin Harbor and is awaiting Lorist and the rest's arrival. The only weird part of the message was that Charade asked Lorist to not forget to bring the spinning chair and the hollow rotor along.

What is Charade thinking about? Lorist was completely clueless about it as when Charade had tried out the spinning chair for the first time, he started crying for his parents nonstop after getting off it. No matter how Lorist tried to convince him that training with the spinning chair would help him develop dynamic vision and give his swordsmanship a huge boost, Charade said that he refused to do that even one more time, even if doing so would give him the ability to fly. What would he do with that now? Don't tell me he's going to train with that on the way to the Northlands... We'll never make it in time if that's the case. Sigh, I guess I'll find out sooner or later since bringing those along would only require one more carriage.

Now that Patt had recovered, he had developed the initial stage of the dynamic vision ability. However, even though he would be able to react better when compared to normal fighters, it was still quite far off from Lorist's natural born ability. Every time Patt was reminded of his experience on the spinning chair, he would shiver in fear due to being tormented countless times by Reidy over the course of the training.

I guess it's about time we made a move. Lorist went to visit President Peterson once again and rented three large ships through the Peterson Merchant Guild which he would use to transport the equipment, personnel, horses as well as the thousands of sets of clothing Charade had ordered before he left. While the amount of clothing was no small number, it cost the least when compared to the rest of the things they bought at only 700 gold coins. Terman has been put in charge of having somebody pack the clothes up for the past few days before they depart.

I guess I'll have to wait for another two days... Due to Yuriy having to order the saddles and other items the horses needed, it cost Lorist another 1000-odd gold coins, thus making him feel that raising an army was extremely costly. Within but a few days, he had invested over 40000 gold Fordes and was left with less than 2000 for himself. He still haven't paid the cost for renting the ships either.

The day before they left, Lorist visited Instructor Claude, who had just recently become a Blademaster and handed his book collection to him for safekeeping. Lorist only took 100 of the ones he thought was most important on the journey and left the rest to Claude so that he could one day send it to the Northlands when there was an opportunity. Both he and his wife accepted the request happily.

Finally, it was the day of the departure. All three boats of the Peterson Merchant Guild slowly left the Golden Bay. Raising their sails, the ships sailed northward.

Looking towards the Golden Bay and the shrinking image of Morante City, Lorist felt a torrent of different emotions that were hard to express with words. I'm finally leaving the city I consider my second home. I wonder how long would it be until I make my way back here once again, thought Lorist as he let out a sigh. Given the uncertain nature of his future, he was worried about whether he would do well with his companions when they arrive at the Northlands.

At this moment, Alisa's clear laughter could be heard nearby. That girl thought that the journey was all fun and games and jumped around on the deck playfully, anticipating reuniting with her father after days of not seeing him.

Seeing Lorist a little downcast, Howard asked, "Teacher, what's going on? You don't seem too happy..."

Lorist smiled and replied, "It's not that. I just feel a little sad because your Uncle Els didn't come send us off today."

After he said that, Lorist heard a familiar voice ring out by his ear. "Milord, your knight, Brennan Evanport is here reporting for duty."

A silhouette suddenly jumped down from the ship's mast and landed on one knee, kneeling in front of Lorist. "I, Brennan Evanport, am willing to take Norton Lorist as my lord and liege and become a knight of the Norton Family. I shall struggle and fight to my very last breath under the banner of the Raging Bear."

Lorist was surprised and delighted. "Els, why have you come?"

Not saying anything, Els merely pointed towards his shoulders, indicating for Lorist to complete the knighting ceremony.

Lorist took out his sword and tapped on each shoulder twice and tossed the sword aside before lifting Els up and giving him a big hug, "I welcome your participation, my knight and brother."

After that, Els started feeling Lorist up and said, "Badge. Where's my knight badge?"

Lorist pushed Els away and said, "Sol, why would I have a badge on me? Don't touch me all over like that. Don't tell me you swing that way?"

"You're the one that swings that way! I was only trying to see if you have the badge on your person. Stop ruining my reputation," said Els exasperatedly.

"Alright, alright. Shadekampf, go get a knight badge and give it to Knight Els," instructed Lorist.

"So, tell me why you're here. Was Old Charlando willing to let you come?" asked Lorist.

"He doesn't know, I snuck out secretly. I've left him a letter though and have made arrangements for Jindoz to take over as the syndicate boss in my absence. The old man won't have time to bother with me anyway as he'll be busy staying home taking care of his newborn children soon enough. And Jindoz is quite a capable guy. I believe the syndicate will prosper even further under his management. I personally feel that coming to the Northlands with you to venture around is the best choice for a person like me," said Els as he looked towards the cabin, secretly complaining about how long Shadekampf was taking.

After a few moments, Shadekampf came back and presented the badge to Els. As he was putting it on, he asked Lorist, "Why didn't I see Terman and Yuriy around here?"

Lorist pointed towards the other two boats and said, "They're on each of the boats respectively and are tasked with transporting the equipment and horses. You'll be able to see them when we reach Armatrin Harbor. I'm sure they'll be damned shocked to see you here."

Having put his badge on, Els looked down at his chest with much satisfaction. "I don't really care about their reactions. What I'm interested in is the look on Charade's face. Let's see who's the 'Honorable Knight' now."

[1] Five Blessings Wikipedia link. Here's an image.

Chapter 51 The Sloph Slavers

After four days of travel on sea, the Armatrin Harbor was within sights.

“Meh, this place looks rather small. The size of the harbor itself is at least ten times smaller than that of the Golden Bay’s.”

Lorist laughed and said, “How can you compare a place like this to Morante City? Originally, this place started off as a group of fishing villages. Had it not been for formation of the Lormo Duchy, nobody would even bother to come here after six years of war. Rumor says that the smuggling operations run by the Forde Trade Union in the empire were mostly carried out here. For it to be developed into a small town right after the war is already a rather amazing feat. I bet that in a few years it would evolve into a rather populous port city.”

“No matter how populous it becomes, it has nothing to do with us anyways. Milord, you said that the fatty is waiting for us there?” asked Els.

“He told me in the letter that he would set up camp outside of town. We’ll get to know more when we ask around after we get off on the port,” replied Lorist with uncertainty.

While the harbor was already within viewing distance by noon, they only managed to dock their ships around three in the afternoon due to the curvy waterways which made it hard for anyone to reach the harbor safely without getting stranded on shallow sea if they didn’t have a guide.

Lorist, Els, Alisa, Howard, Reidy and Patt all got off the boat and noticed that nobody was at the harbor to receive them and felt that something was off. That’s weird, Charade said that he would send someone over to the harbor in the letter, but why haven’t I seen a single one of our people?

Els nodded towards Lorist without saying a thing and headed towards a tavern nearby with a sign that depicted a beer cup and a fish to gather some information.

Lorist waited for a while and the tax collector got off the boat with Shadekampf following behind. Lorist waved towards him and the tax collector came over respectfully. “Milord, how may I help you?”

“I believe that around 3000 people got off at this harbor around ten days ago. Do you know where they have set up camp?” asked Lorist as he stuffed a gold Forde into the officer’s pocket.

The officer’s face instantly gleamed as he said, “Of course I do. They’re within a small pine forest to the south of the town. They must be your subordinates, right? The raging bear symbol on their flags is identical to yours.”

Lorist nodded at that statement.

The officer continued, “Milord, I’m afraid that your people have run into some trouble. The place where they set up camp is near the Sloph Slavers’ camp. I heard that some sort of conflict had sparked between the two parties and your people have been stranded within the vicinity of their camp for four days now.”

“Oh? And who is this Sloph fellow?” asked Lorist.

“This……” The tax collector started hesitating.

Lorist tossed him another gold coin and his expression changed. In a low voice, he said, “Milord, Sloph is a famous leader of a mercenary group. He is really formidable and he is closely affiliated to the people at Port Nupite. If it’s possible, I advise you to send someone to visit him with a gift and apologize for your subordinates’ actions to settle the issue.”

“Oh, I see. Thank you for your kind advice,” said Lorist, unmoved.

The officer gave a bow and replied, “You’re welcome. Then, I’ll take my leave here.”

……

“Everyone, get back onto the boats. Reidy, ask Terman and Yuriy to come over,” instructed Lorist.

……

Els quickly got back to the boat and told everyone the news he had obtained from the people at the tavern. According to him, the mercenary group leader called Sloph was in actuality the head of a slave trading syndicate and is currently the local hegemon whose power and influence rivals even that of the local lord’s. The lord had no choice but to come to a concession with Sloph that states that as long as his slaver group doesn’t impede the businesses in the area so that he can collect taxes from the business owners, he would leave the group alone.

Els said that Charade had arrived 11 days ago at the harbor and had set up camp within the pine forest south to the town, which was within vicinity of the syndicate’s own camp. For some reason, they have attracted the slavers’ attention and battles broke out between them. Having not enough weapons and armor for his forces, Charade could only quickly have someone cut down several trees to block up the entrance of their camp. It also seemed that several people have already been captured with a few more dead.

Sloph’s syndicate also had a formidable fighting force at their disposal, including three Gold ranks, more than forty Silver ranks as well as at least two hundred Iron and Bronze ranks. It was no wonder that the dominion lord didn’t dare to find trouble with them. There were even rumors that a brother of Sloph was a Blademaster, however he rarely spent his time with them.

Everyone was sullen at hearing the news. None of them would have expected to run into an obstacle that early in the journey.

“Patt, Reidy and Shadekampf, you guys stay on the boat and take care of Howard and Alisa. Yuriy, make sure you have at least twelve other guards with you and protect our goods. Even though the boats fly the flag of the Peterson Merchant Guild and not many people would dare to get on their bad side, we must prepare for the worst. Set up the carroballistas and make sure they are well shielded. If anyone attacks, kill them.”

Currently, Lorist was filled with an air of bloodlust. “As for the rest of you, suit up in your armors. Terman, prepare five carriages and load a large amount of crossbow bolts onto it and follow me to the camp. We’ll kill anyone that dares bar our way.”

There were 38 senior students from the academy that were willing to accompany Lorist on this journey, among which 12 departed early with Charade, another 12 stayed behind with Yuriy and 5 of the 14 left wore full body armors like Terman. Another 7 of them and Els were equipped with the light cavalry armor purchased from the Dawn Academy, each armed with a crossbow and five javelins. Lorist picked a scale armor that only protected his upper torso and tried moving around in it. Satisfied that it wasn’t impeding his movement and agility, Lorist got on his horse with 12 javelins within the quiver hanging from side of the saddle.

Renting five transport carriages from the port at a high price of one large silver each, Terman had the coachmen follow them to Charade’s camp and promised that they wouldn’t be held responsible if they lose the cargo should an attack break out.

With six fully-armored knights as the vanguard and Terman riding at the very front, they set out towards the south and quickly exited the city and proceeded towards the highway that led to the pine forest.

After traveling for a while, they could see a simple roadblock up ahead which was formed by a few trees stacked up together. A few other people could be seen standing around the area and one of them signaled for Lorist’s group to stop.

Without a single word, Terman lowered his lance and pointed it towards the front. The other knights behind him soon followed suit with exception of the one in the middle holding the battle standard of the Nortons up high in the air.

All five lances of the knights emitted a blade of light as they charged forward. “Gah! They’re all Silver ranked knights!” The road blockers didn’t dare to stand in front of them and hastily moved to the side and started running to their grazing mounts as they cursed out loudly.

The first one to crash against the trees blocking the way was Terman. Bang! A loud sound erupted when the trunk was smashed into smithereens, clearing up the path ahead. All five of the carriages and the rest of the group rushed forward without delay.

Pointing at the carriages while swearing in loud voices, some of the enemy got on their mounts and gave pursuit while the others fired at Lorist’s group with their bows in a fit of rage. In the midst of all that chaos, a sudden cold, crisp voice could be heard. “Men, ready your javelins! Kill them all!”

Screams of agony rang out on all over the place. Els’s group dashed around the battlefield and the ones closer to the enemy fired their crossbows with some further away launching javelins in the enemy’s direction, killing ten or so overwhelmed fighters in but an instant. The few archers of the enemy were the first ones to fall, followed by two mounted fighters with their horses nailed to the ground from the javelins aimed at them. The shrieks of the fallen horses were extremely unpleasant to hear.

Holding his horse by the reins, Lorist picked up a javelin with his left hand, focused on his target and let the javelin fly. In a few moments, 12 of the road blockers died beneath the lightning-bolt-like javelins. Upon seeing Lorist run out of javelins, one Silver Swordsman who was playing dead rushed towards him with a loud cry and jumped high up in the air with both his hands raised as he prepared to unleash a downward slash, aiming to strike Lorist off his mount and escape with it himself.

A blade of light started emanating from the assailant’s sword. When the assailant saw Lorist drawing his sword and preparing to parry his own, he didn’t give it much heed as Lorist’s blade did not have a glow on it. Hmph! An Iron rank like him wants to block a strike from me, a Three Star Silver rank? He’ll die instantly after I break his sword in half and then the horse will be mine.

Beyond the assailant’s expectations, Lorist’s sword didn’t break and instead, a strong force could be felt passing through his own sword into his hand. His weapon was sent flying far through the air as he helplessly stared at Lorist’s agile sword strike slither like a snake through the space between them and going for his throat before everything turned pitch black…….

Corpses could be seen scattered all over the road. Of all the people who dared to block their way, more than 30 of them were lying on the ground dead with four or five others frantically escaping whereas Lorist’s group of nine were completely unscathed. The result of the battle was really satisfactory to Lorist. He didn’t expect to kill 13 people just at the start of the battle, as well as 10-odd of the 20 plus people that followed later. Els and the rest of the group didn’t even have to face one person each of the remaining enemies.

One senior student came up to Lorist and saluted him respectfully with an expression full of admiration.

“Check the bodies again and make sure to drive a blade down the ones who are still alive. Collect their belongings, I’ll join you guys shortly,” instructed Lorist.

The belongings referred to the enemies’ mounts, weapons, clothes as well as provisions and other resources. Lorist believed that he was already quite generous for not taking their undergarments. Had Charade been the one to manage this, he’ll leave the bodies stark naked on the ground after stripping them of everything they had.

“Yes, milord,” replied the senior student.

“Els, when we arrive at the camp later, give them the mounts, weapons and armor that you’ve collected. As for the money, you guys can divide it among yourselves. Don’t forget to leave some for Terman,” Lorist told Els.

“Milord, the way loot is divided is already set by Charade. You can’t just decide by yourself to change the regulations like that,” reminded Els.

“Oh, apologies. I’ve forgotten. Then let’s divide it according to the regulations,” said Lorist.

—————————————————————–

After taking a turn at the road, the flag of the Raging Bear could be seen within the camp. There was another encampment two hundred plus meters away from the aforementioned one, fortified by a rampart made of mud and stone, making it look far more secure and tidier than Charade’s camp that was constructed with simple wooden trunks. That must be the slavers’ camp.

When the main gate of the camp was finally open, a cheer erupted when the ones inside saw Lorist. The slavers in the other camp gathered to see what was going on with some of them riding to where they set up their road block, obviously curious at how a small convoy of five carriages managed to make their way to the pine forest.

Getting off his horse, Lorist told Terman, “Secure the area and distribute the spears and the crossbows.”

A senior student from the academy with a bandage on his head hurriedly came over to salute them. Lorist recognized this fellow: he was one of the 12 academy students that set off with Charade’s group.

“Ah, you must be Dulles. How did you get injured? Is it serious?” asked Lorist worriedly.

Dulles replied gratefully, “It’s just some bruises, nothing big. Lord Locke, you’re finally here. Charade is within that tent over there and he has been injured while Knight Potterfang is resting up because he was on patrol last night. I’ve already sent someone to notify him.”

“Alright. Bring me to see Knight Charade,” said Lorist.

……

Pushing open the tent entrance, Lorist saw Charade sitting down all wrapped up like a dumpling.

“Hey, fatty. Somehow, you don’t look as fat when you’re all wrapped up!” joked Els.

Staring at Els, Charade pouted before saying, “I knew that you would come along. It’s a shame I didn’t make a bet with somebody, otherwise I would’ve won myself quite a bit of money.”

“Sol……” Els was completely speechless.

“How are your injuries? Are they grave?” asked Lorist.

“It’s fine, I only got slashed a few times and lost some amount of blood. Lundmorde told me that I’ll fully recover within 20 days. Lord, I really didn’t expect for us to falter right at the start of our journey,” said Charade.

Lundmorde was one of the 12 senior students of the academy that went to Port Nupite with Charade and he was a beginner rank herbalist.

Els sat down by Charade’s side and patted on his thigh as that was the only part that wasn’t wrapped up in bandages. Els said, “Fatty, who did this to you? Your brother will definitely make him pay.”

“The likes of you? Drop that notion. That fellow’s a Gold Swordsman! I already got seven wounds from fighting against him for only a while. If you were there, you would’ve been stained red with your own blood in no time,” Charade replied.

“Sol, don’t forget that I’m stronger than you. I’ll show you how I take care of that guy,” said Els, dissatisfied at being looked down upon.

“Alright, cut that. Charade, tell us more about the situation,” said Lorist.

Basically, after Charade and Potterfang arrived at Port Nupite, the latter got in touch with several of his old comrades. One of them was working as a bodyguard for a slave trader and Potterfang managed to easily purchase over 700 young and fit slaves from him without a hitch. It was worth mentioning that all of them had awakened their Battle Force and most of them were of the Iron rank with the rest being Bronze ranks. Many of them used to be troops of the former Krissen Empire or garrison troops from different cities who have been taken captive during the conflict and sold to slave traders. They were mainly held back from escaping due to their captured family members.

Charade said that he managed to get the slaves for a total cost of 16000 gold coins and also spent quite a bit on clothing and food. However, after paying the downpayment for the food he ordered, he noticed that he was only left with around 4000 gold coins and he still needed to pay around 3000 gold coins to settle the whole bill as well as transport the food. That’s why he was hesitant to purchase weapons and armor to equip the slaves he had just obtained, since he expected Lorist to bring those over when the time came to meet. It ended up with the Sloph Slavers setting their preying eyes on them due to the slaves not being armed.

The slavers had been paying attention to Charade’s group for two whole days after they set up camp and believed that they were another rival slave trading group due to the slaves they bought. That being said, Sloph’s group weren’t going to let them off that easily and sent someone to notify Charade of their conditions. First, they were to pay 5000 gold coins of toll. Second, they must leave at least half of the slaves they had behind.

Naturally, Charade refused those conditions and explained that they weren’t slavers but rather the army of the Norton Family. However, the other party was completely ignorant of the existence of the Nortons and even said that even if the Nortons were nobles, they must also heed their demands.

Originally, Charade would still try to negotiate peacefully with them if that was an option. However, the moment the Norton Family was humiliated like that, Charade instantly killed one of them and beat up the rest before chasing them away. It was after that when Charade noticed that something was wrong as the folks of the town viewed them in hostile light and refused to sell them any weapons, even down to the smallest kitchen knives.

Unable to do anything about the fact, Charade quickly went back to the camp and tasked the soldiers to fortify their it with an ad hoc wall made from tree trunks. With less than a hundred sets of equipment and more than 3000 people, they almost crumbled under the forces of the slavers. It was fortunate that Potterfang and his two ex-colleagues managed to hold back the enemy’s Gold rank fighter. Coupled with the 12 academy students’ rampage, they managed to cause the slaving group roughly 30 casualties and forced their forces to retreat.

For the past three days, 17 slaves have already died with 50 more injured and 40 others captured. 7 of the 12 academy students were also wounded from the battle and were currently recuperating from their injuries. The slavers have also changed their tactic and started to besiege Charade’s camp and waited for them to run out of food and other resources before finishing them off. Thankfully, Lorist’s group arrived just as the provisions were about to run out.

At that point, the tent’s flaps were pushed open and Potterfang came in with two other men.

Upon seeing Lorist, Potterfang said, “Milord, you’re finally here.”

After that, he introduced the two men beside him to Lorist. “Milord, these two are my former comrades in the army. This one here is Lode Wales and he’s a Two Star Gold Swordsman and this is Mons Malek and he’s at the peak of the Three Star Silver rank. Both of them would like to follow us to the Northlands to check that place out.”

What Potterfang meant was simple: these two wanted to find a family to serve, but they didn’t understand Lorist’s demeanor well enough. That’s why they decided to join the journey to see whether Lorist would be a good fit with their principles before deciding whether to join the forces of the Norton Family. Potterfang hoped that Lorist would allow them to tag along.

Standing up and saluting the two, Lorist said, “I thank you two for helping us out. Had it not been for you guys, the camp might have been breached long ago. The Norton Family will definitely not forget this favor. If there’s anything the Norton Family can help the two of you with, we will try our best.”

The shorter guy, Lode Wales, smiled and said frankly, “My, you’re far too polite. It goes without question that we would help our comrade Pog here out when he’s in trouble. There’s no need to go out of your way to thank us.”

Mons Malek wore a serious expression without saying anything and merely nodded.

Just as Lorist was about to continue speaking, Dulles rushed into the tent from the outside with a nervous look on his face. “Lord Locke, the enemy is preparing to attack us again!”

Chapter 52 Slaughter

“Oh, the slavers are here already? Well, I guess it’s a given since we destroyed their roadblock and killed 30 plus of their people. I’ll go check it out,” said Lorist as he turned towards the tent exit.

“Oh? Milord you managed to kill so many of them?” asked Charade. Potterfang and the other two were stunned.

“That’s right. What other fate would they have for daring to obstruct our passage? Milord ordered us to obliterate the roadblock right away,” answered Els proudly as he followed behind Lorist.

“But milord, you’ve just arrived. Shouldn’t you take a short rest?” Potterfang asked. Lorist understood the hidden meaning in Potterfang’s words: Potterfang was suggesting that he not act rashly and analyze the situation at hand first. He didn’t know that Lorist already had a clear grasp of it from asking around at the port and already had already made a decision.

“That’s not needed. It wouldn’t be too late for me to rest up after wiping them out,” Lorist answered. He then instructed, “Dulles, go to the carriage and get me a few quivers’ worth of javelins. Remember to stick close to me later.”

It was much more efficient to eliminate the enemy by throwing javelins infused with internal energy. Even a fully prepared Silver Swordsman couldn’t take it head-on, not to say much of one who is unwary of the threat the javelins posed. During the battle at the roadblock, two riders and their mounts were nailed to the ground by javelins thrown by Lorist.

“Pffft…” Lode Wales who was following Potterfang laughed out loud. He said, “Pog, your lord is quite the bloodthirsty one. He can even say something like wiping all of them out like it’s the easiest thing in the world. Don’t forget that they have three Gold ranks.”

“If Lord Locke says so, he’ll be able to accomplish it,” said Potterfang without turning back as he headed towards the camp’s main entrance.

Arriving at the entrance, Lorist told Terman, “Organize these fellows and get those who are armed and equipped to follow me. Also, prepare the knights for a charge. Els, bring a few mounted soldiers with you and carry more javelins. We’ll definitely kill the rowdy bunch of slavers who dared to mess with the Norton Family.”

Upon hearing what Lorist had said, the whole group of people around him started cheering out loud while waving their weapons in the air. “Kill them all!”

The entrance of the camp was opened and Lorist rushed out as the vanguard towards the attacking slavers.

The two camps were only 200 meters apart and at that moment, the group of slavers numbered around 240 people. They had just crossed the middle of the battlefield and were shouting something along the lines of avenging their fallen comrades. Seeing the camp’s door open and Lorist rushing out, they stopped in their tracks. There was only a distance of tens of meters between the attackers and the camp now.

Seeing the horde of slaves holding spears and crossbows, the attackers’ expressions changed.

“Damn! We really shouldn’t have stopped attacking a few days before. Now that they are armed, they’ll be far more troublesome to dispose of and cause us even more casualties,” said a yellow-faced man who was wearing a One Star Gold Battle Force badge.

“There’s no point mulling about it now. It’s all the fault of the useless ones we sent to block the road. If they were half as competent, they wouldn’t have let them transport the weapons back to their camp. Oh well, I’m sure they’ll rush back into the safety of their camp once we kill a number of them,” said another bulky middle-aged man beside. On his chest was a Two Star Gold Battle Force badge.

“It’s not just that! Only 5 of them managed to come back with the rest all dead. The main reason for that was I didn’t expect the enemy to have any reinforcements and only intended to stop them from going to the town to purchase food and other provisions. I thought that we could crush them after they run out of resources. What I’m more worried about now is whether we have actually mistaken the forces of the Norton Family for another slaver group. If that’s the case, then the aftermath definitely isn’t something to look forward to,” said yet another old man who wore a Three Star Gold Battle Force badge in a worrying tone.

“Stop worrying about it, old chum. Didn’t the ones who returned tell us that they only had 5 Silver ranked knights and 10 other Silver Swordsmen? They said that the main reason they lost was because they were caught off guard. It’s still not too late to hold them off right now. Also, when Master Pike and boss come back in ten days, the enemy will no doubt be crushed. Even if we don’t manage to break into their camp, at least we can still hold them here,” said the middle-aged man confidently.

Currently, Lorist by himself was already within 20 meters of his enemies. The first thing he said instantly enraged the attacking slavers.

“So, trash like you dare to obstruct the Norton Family’s way? Do you have a death wish? You guys had better kneel and expose your necks so that you may enjoy the luxury of a painless death.”

The yellow-faced man was the first one to succumb to the provocation. He said, “I don’t know how you got the galls to spout bullshit like this. I’m anticipating the look of your face when you beg for mercy the moment I defeat you.”

“Since you came over to die on your own accord, I’ll grant that wish of yours,” said Lorist as he drew his sword and rushed forward.

“Hahahaha……” The middle-aged man standing at the back starting laughing uncontrollably. “Damn, I even though he was some kind of Sword Saint judging by his attitude and the way he spoke! But in actuality, he’s just an Iron rank who doesn’t even have a blade glow! You gotta respect him for being brave enough to come forward to offer his life. Third brother, make sure you make a good example out of him so that the enemy attackers will think twice before acting.”

Even though Lorist didn’t wear a Battle Force badge, the absence of the blade glow on his sword gave his rank away. The group of slavers started laughing out loud at the incongruous situation.

The yellow-faced man readied himself and with a gleaming flash of his sword, he sent a light blade projectile towards Lorist’s silhouette. But the shadow of Lorist suddenly jerked and the light blade passed his body by a hair’s breadth. By that time, his longsword already slammed hard into that of the yellow-faced man, burying it deep into the ground. The distance between the two closed within an instant.

Badly startled, the yellow-faced man attempted to retreat only to discover that he wasn’t able to move from his spot from having his sword stuck in the ground from Lorist’s previous strike.

With a loud swish, Lorist’s left hand drew a short sword from his waist and traced a path with it across the yellow-faced man’s neck. After the blade reemerged from the other side of the neck, the head of the man flew off and landed on the ground with blood spurting all over and the body still standing slumped and unmoving.

All that happened within a time frame so short that the observers only saw the two figures clash once before witnessing the gruesome death of the yellow-faced man.

The Two Star Gold rank standing behind was shocked into a stupor. Before he recovered, he heard Lorist say, “It’s your turn next.”

Seeing Lorist rush over like an unstoppable storm, the middle-aged man scrambled to draw his sword and infuse it with Battle Force to parry the incoming strike.

Like a raging tempest, the sword in Lorist’s hand lashed out in a series of attacks nonstop, with each strike creating a loud, crisp sound of clashing metal.

Clink! The sword of the middle-aged man which was radiating a faint blade glow snapped into two from Lorist’s attack. Unable to believe what just had happened, the man stood there unmoving and in but a flash, one of his arms was severed and was sent flying through the air.

“Arrgh!” cried the man in much agony, before Lorist decapitated him and silenced him permanently.

“You…” The Three Star Gold ranked old man standing nearby was retreating nonstop as if he had just seen a wraith. Seeing Lorist turn his attention to him only served to unnerve him even more.

“Old man, now it’s your turn to pass on,” said Lorist with a smile. In the old man’s eyes, the smile looked ever so sinister and terrifying. The contrast between Lorist’s low voice and his light-hearted laughter sounded like the cry of a bloodthirsty demonic being. For two Gold ranks to fall under his blade within but a moment was something that old man could never dream of. Given his knowledge of the abilities of the two other swordsmen, one of whom had a sword style that was even more devious and aggressive than his own, the old man understood that to face Lorist head-on was akin to suicide.

Scared beyond his wits from being targeted by Lorist, that old man backed off until his way was blocked by the people behind him.

As he approached, the old man shouted loudly, “Everyone, let’s attack together! He’s only one person! Turn him into mincemeat……”

After that, the old man disappeared into the crowd.

Even though the slavers at the front witnessed Lorist slaughter the other two Gold ranks, the ones behind were not aware of the situation and started rushing towards him at the sound of the old man’s shout, pushing the ones in front forward as well.

Lorist laughed and said, “Just in time!”

The sword in his hand whooshed as it arced through the fabric of space. Lorist completely abandoned his usual principle of keeping his abilities hidden and engaged in total massacre. After all his friends joined him on the journey despite having to forsake their comfortable lives at Morante City, nobody would have expected for them to be oppressed by the slavers right after their departure. If he still wanted to hide his abilities at this point, there was no doubt that his soldiers would lose their morale and cause many issues to surface in the future.

To foster the confidence of his forces and take action in response of his injured family knights and the other senior students of the academy, Lorist steeled his resolve to not spare any one of these slavers. Thus, the first battle on the journey north broke out.

At that moment, Lorist felt extra energized and focused. From his dynamic vision, the incoming enemies looked like a horde of slow, stunted puppets. With a low grunt, Lorist danced with his sword into the sea of people…….

Blades flashed all over with chunks of meat airborne as fountains of blood stained the whole battlefield. Amidst severed heads and limbs as well as broken weapons, Lorist was akin to a tiger that had gotten into the middle of a herd of sheep. Chaos broke out wherever he went: everything could be summarized into a series of agonizing screams, swords clashing and surprised gasps. The enemies started to retreat as quickly as they had rushed over, much like the coming and receding of a wave at the shore of a beach.

The slavers all backed off from Lorist, leaving him standing alone in the middle of a circular space. Bathed all over with blood, his whole form was dyed dark red with about twenty seven or twenty eight corpses lying on the ground beside him, some of which were headless or had their limbs separated from their body.

The whole battlefield fell into complete silence with everyone looking at Lorist, speechless at the gruesome sight. The slavers were all dumbfounded by that scene while the Norton Family’s forces looked upon him with crazed fervor, admiration, and respect.

Wales and Malek both had their mouths agape. Looking at Potterfang, Wales asked, “Is… Is he really an Iron rank like you said……”-

Wiping some blood off his face, Lorist could see the Three Star Gold ranked old man gingerly moving away from him.

“Hehehe…” Lorist started laughing lightly. “Old man, where do you think you’re going? You better stay there obediently so that I don’t have to waste so much energy on you.”

The old man instantly broke into a run……

Lorist quickly followed and slayed those who dared to impede him. The slavers who got out of the way had temporarily survived while some who were still dumbfounded found themselves on the ground the next moment with their necks slit.

The slavers’ group quickly collapsed as most of their members tossed their weapons and ran back in the direction of their camp, terrified.

Terman waved his hand and his group of knights leveled their lances and started their charge……

Riding over with ten other senior students of the academy, Els shouted loudly on horseback, “Norton!”

Their other students responded by shouting in unison, “Norton!”

The cheers were echoed by the multitudes of slaves as well. They all shouted the name of Lorist’s family spiritedly.

…….

That old fellow was rather sharp as he didn’t return to the slavers’ camp but instead circled around it to escape to the town. He believed that he would be able to blend in like a fish in the sea the moment he reached and escape that horrifying youth.

Huffing and panting, the town was already within sight. The old man stopped and breathed a sigh of relief. But the moment he turned to his back, his soul almost fled his body.

Behind him was that freakish youth who still had blood dripping all over his body. With a face full of smiles, he said, “Go on, keep running. I’d like to see for how much longer you can last.”

That old man felt both his legs give out at that moment and he couldn’t do anything about it. He even felt the irresistible urge to relax his bladder and let out the contents within.

Kneeling in front of Lorist, the old man said, “I… I surrender…”

“Hey, old man, you think that we’re playing pretend war like little kids? Do you think I will spare you just because you said you’ll surrender? It doesn’t work that way, you know.” Lorist felt that the old man’s action was pretty laughable.

“I, I’m already pretty old and I’ve been thinking of quitting for some time now. I only stayed with them because I had no other choice. Also, I didn’t even kill one of your men and only managed to wound that fat one lightly in the first battle, which isn’t anything he shouldn’t be able to recover from…” The old man kept kneeling as he tried to find excuses for himself.

Oh, so Charade was hurt by this old guy.

“Then you’re implying that I should be thankful to you for that and let you go?” laughed Lorist.

“I wouldn’t dare…” replied the old man while he shook his head.

Sounds of horses galloping could be heard. It was Dulles who came over with two horses and some other javelins.

“Milord, sorry I’m late,” he apologized.

“Hehe, it’s no big deal. These slavers turned out to be quite a piece of cake. They’re all bark but no bite,” replied Lorist. He looked over to that old man and said, “Oldie, no matter the circumstance, you’re still a Three Star Gold rank you know. Shouldn’t you at least draw your sword and die from a glorious death?”

The old man shook his head fervently and he said, “That’s merely suicide, I don’t want to do that at all. I only ask for you to spare my worthless life.”

Alright, this old fellow seems like a pretty laid back fellow. Taking out a javelin from his quiver, Lorist hurled it towards that old man and it landed only inches beside him. The old man’s body twitched as he wet his own pants on the spot.

“Sol, oldie… You actually got so scared you wet yourself… You truly bring shame to Gold Swordsmen…” cursed Lorist.

“I… I’ve always been the cowardly sort… I couldn’t hold it in after seeing milord’s mighty form,” stammered the old man with a face reddened from embarrassment.

“Well, I wouldn’t mind sparing you, but what’s in it for me?” asked Lorist.

“I… I’ll give half of my savings to you, milord. There should be at least 1000 gold Fordes,” said the old man after considering it for quite a while.

Lorist shook his head and said, “It’s not enough. You’re a Gold Swordsman, and it’s not like I lack any money either. I’d rather cut your head off and show it off to the others than take your measly amount of money.”

“I’ll even give you my high-ranked Battle Force manual,” added the old man.

“Hehe, it’s already a given that I’ll get it after I kill you,” said Lorist as he readied another javelin.

“It is not with me right now,” said that old man stubbornly.

“Relax, I’m sure there’s someone who would recognize you. I’ll just have them lead me to your home and take that whole place apart if I have to,” consoled Lorist.

The old man despaired and he finally said after hesitating, “I… I have a granddaughter and she’s really beautiful. She’s only 18 and is still a virgin… I’ll… I’ll let you have her, milord.”

“Sol, old man… You’re too shameless you know. For you to offer your own granddaughter to others for your own life is the worst thing you can do as someone’s elder!” shouted Lorist angrily.

“That’s not the case. My granddaughter can only survive if I am alive. The only reason she’s not being oppressed is because people take into account that I am her grandfather. If I die, she’ll be helpless on her own and might even suffer a fate worse than death. That’s why at the very least I have to survive to ensure her safety and well-being,” declared the old man forthrightly.

“Oh, you do have a good point. However, that still doesn’t cut it. I can easily get your daughter the same way I get your other belongings after I kill you,” said Lorist.

“Milord, I beg you… What can I do to make you spare me?” The old man couldn’t help but break into tears.

“Dulles, what do you say?” asked Lorist as he made a hand sign to him.

Dulles got the message and started playing along. “Milord, that old man is so pitiful, and it’s not like he actively acted against us and killed any of our comrades. Why don’t you let him live?”

“That won’t do. Those who dare go against the Norton Family must be punished without exception,” said Lorist as his killing intent filled the surroundings.

“Then, how about this? Milord, why don’t you take him in as a slave? Let him serve you for 10 years and if he does well, he’ll be able to regain his freedom by then,” suggested Dulles.

“But do you think he’ll be willing?” Lorist pretended to be interested and shook his head. “I think killing him will be easier though, otherwise I’ll be worried that he’ll act against me one day.”

At that moment, the old man started kowtowing and said, “Of course I’m willing! I’ll definitely serve milord to the best of my ability and be loyal at all times!”

“Alright, then I’ll you live. Dulles, tie him up and make him sign a slave contract once we get back to the camp. After that, take his gold coins, Battle Force manual as well as all his family members along. Don’t forget that pretty granddaughter of his,” said Lorist.

“Yes, milord.”

……

Chapter 53 Occupying the Bastide

Seeing Lorist and the other two return to the battlefield, Els rode over to greet his lord.

“Milord, the battle was a huge success. We even managed to conquer their main camp,” said Els excitedly with a face reddened with excitement as he shouted towards Lorist’s group of three.

Lorist asked, “What are you doing? Walking the horses?”

“Nope, Knight Potterfang had me scour the area for any slavers that might have escaped,” Els answered.

“Did you just say that we conquered their camp?”

“That’s right. Locke, when you unleashed the beast within and started slaughtering nonstop among their ranks, the slavers’ forces broke formation and rushed back towards their main camp. We have successfully taken advantage of that and occupied their base in one fell swoop. Just now, Charade had someone carry him to the enemy base so that he can help manage the loot and asked me to call you over.” Even though Els was a Norton Family knight, he was pretty casual when he talked to Lorist and frequently forgot the formal nature of their relationship and behaved as he would when they went on mercenary missions.

But Lorist didn’t mind it as it made him feel less awkward around him. He asked, “How are our casualties?”

“Casualties? There were none, other than two slave soldiers who accidentally tripped and fell during the charge and sprained their ankles and got some bruises here and there. The two of them instantly became the laughing stock of the whole camp. As for the slavers, at least half of them perished and the rest were all apprehended by our forces. Oh, and you better head there quick. There are still another 2000 plus captured slaves waiting to be handled based on your decision,” Els said.

“There’s no rush,” said Lorist. He turned to the old man behind him and asked, “Hey, old man, where did you guys get the slaves in your camp from?”

The old man looked rather pathetic as he was tied up all over with a long rope with its end held in Dulles’s hand. A quiver with five javelins was also hung on his back because Lorist was worried that the horse would tire out quickly from the load. Lorist said that even though the captured fighter looked aged, he was nevertheless a Three Star Gold rank and had incredible physical endurance. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to run all the way to the town in one breath. Having just escaped the fate of certain death, the old man could only accept his treatment without a single complaint.

The old man replied, “Master, these slaves had all been purchased or captured from the Redlis Kingdom during the past half year. I heard that some of my colleagues had razed several villages and killed all the elderly while enslaving the young and able.”

Life in troubled times truly is akin to that of a dog’s. As a common peasant, not only did they have to labor tirelessly to pay the unreasonable taxes levied by their lords, they also had to survive invasions from enemies, especially slave traders. The common folk could be carrying out their daily routine like any other day only to end up as slaves with their family members killed overnight from slaver attacks.

Lorist said disdainfully, “Old man, as a Three Star Gold Swordsman, why are you hanging around these scum that are no better than foul beasts?”

The old man said, “Master, I did not have a choice in that matter. Six years ago when I was on the way to Morante City with my granddaughter, she fell ill when we were resting at Armatrin Harbor and I didn’t have enough money to give her the appropriate treatment. She only managed to survive because I relied on the slaver group. During these six years, I have never harmed a single slave and even helped quite a number of people……”

The old man was originally a garrison captain of a small city back in the days of the Krissen Empire and lived quite a decent life. However, when the three princes started the struggle for power, the first wave of battles engulfed his hometown. WIth his son and daughter-in-law both dead, his own wife soon passed away from extreme depression. Worried about his daughter’s livelihood, the old man deserted the army and brought his 12-year-old grandchild to Morante City, only to be forced to stop at Armatrin Harbor due to severe seasickness. When he found that he had no way to overcome that hurdle, he met the leader of the slaver group, Sloph and joined their group to ensure her daughter’s health and safety and has remained within it ever since.

The old man said that the leader of the group knew that he didn’t like to do dirty work, so he was tasked to stand guard and protect their army camp instead. He explained that he managed to stop some others from needlessly hurting the slaves during his years of service there.

“But in the end they were still sold off, right?” said Els in a dissatisfied tone. “Old man, since you are of the opinion that slavery is an unethical business, why didn’t you leave right after your granddaughter recovered? For you to have stayed there for 6 whole years… They say birds of the same feather flock together. Since you stuck with them for so long, don’t pretend to be a good person.”

“Do you think they’ll let me leave just because I want to?” said the old man bitterly. “When my granddaughter recovered, they moved us to the Sloph Bastide right away and we have stayed there ever since. That is Sloph’s main base of operations and the security there is nothing to laugh at. It would still be fine for me to escape alone, but there was no way I would be able to pull that off with my granddaughter. Aside from that, Sloph himself is also a Gold ranked fighter with his cousin brother Pike being a Blademaster. At that time, I could only accept my fate.”

Lorist’s expression was a little heavy as he said, “Old man, tell me about Sloph and his bastide as well as that Blademaster cousin of his. I’ll need as many details as I can get.”

Having spent six years with the slavers, the old man was quite informed about their situation. He said that in the early days, Sloph used to be a mercenary who somehow got to know a slave merchant at Port Nupite and started catching slaves for him. The internal conflict within the empire was a golden opportunity that he exploited and over the years, his band of slavers had expanded quite a lot with over 300 men in present day. Even the local lord couldn’t do anything about Sloph.

When Sloph started profiting quite a bit from the slave trade, he commissioned for a bastide to be constructed over a large plot of land and made it his home base. Within it lived the family members of the slavers as well as 800 other slaves who worked at the vineyard within the bastide. The wine produced by Sloph had started gaining quite a reputation in recent years.

There were two main factors that contributed to the bastide’s strong defense: terrain and manpower. However, just last month, Sloph intended to get a noble title and establish himself as a landed noble and brought a couple of people to the capital for that purpose before proceeding to Port Nupite to handle some other business dealings and would only return after around 10 days. Now that most of the slavers were at the camp in the pine forest, the bastide’s defense was currently at its weakest with only 10-odd Silver Swordsmen and 50-odd Iron ranked constables who were put in charge of patrolling the town and keeping the slaves in check.

Even though Sloph was a Two Star Gold Swordsman, his recent successes had caused him to gain quite a bit of weight and his combat ability to even deteriorate. Right now, his main backing was that Blademaster cousin of his.

“Have you sparred against Blademaster Pike before?” asked Lorist.

Nodding his head, the old man answered, “Yes, I have. It was almost half a year ago during a banquet held in celebration of the harvest festival. I was picked to be his sparring partner and fought for about 10 bouts and dropped my sword and surrendered when I saw his displeased expression. I estimate that I can continue on for a hundred more moves and might even stand a chance to win.”

Nodding, Lorist already had an idea about the Blademaster’s skills.

“Oh, that’s right. I forgot to ask for your name,” said Lorist.

“Milord, I am called Engelich,” replied the old man.

……

After arriving at the main camp, Lorist saw that the the main entrance was open. As he was about to bring his horse to the stable, he saw Charade sitting on a cushion in the middle of the camp plaza, enraged. It turned out that Charade was angry because the scribe he tasked to write down the things he said because his hand was injured had terrible handwriting and kept getting the words wrong. The senior student who was helping him out also had a rather bad temper; after being scolded, he threw the pen and beastskin down and said that his hand was meant to wield a sword, not to write and that Charade should be grateful that he bothered to help out in the first place. After that, that man left and Charade started blowing up again.

Trying hard to suppress his laughter, Lorist picked up the stuff on the ground and handed it to Dulles. “Dulles, go to the slave camp and pick a few of them who can write well and let them serve Charade. Els, bring Knight Potterfang and Knight Terman over, I have something to discuss.”

Without delay, Terman, Potterfang and his two comrades came over hastily.

After briefing the knights on the situation of Sloph, Lorist suggested that they attack the bastide right now as it is at its most unguarded state and handle Sloph and his cousin Blademaster Pike when they returned ten days later.

Lorist planned to have Engelich, who had just surrendered to him, trick the guards of the bastide to open the gates before having Terman bring his troops to quickly wipe out any resistance that sparks. Finally, he would have Dulles lead the slave soldiers to clear out the bastide while Els would lead another group of slave soldiers who could ride to seal off the entire bastide to avoid letting anyone from within to escape. When the trouble settles, the group would then abandon the camp in the pine forest and move over to the bastide entirely.

And while they attack the bastide, Potterfang was to stand guard at the camp and make sure nothing out of the ordinary happens.

Everyone agreed to Lorist’s plans except for Potterfang who was worried Lorist would run into trouble by bringing the Three Star Gold ranked old man alone with him to trick the enemy to open their gates. However, Wales said, “Why don’t I accompany Mister Norton here on that trip? I’ve been feeling quite bored and don’t have anything better to do anyway.”

Potterfang was extremely pleased that Lode Wales had offered himself to help and thanked him while patting his shoulder. Lorist politely saluted him and expressed his gratitude as well. “Mister Lode, I shall be troubling you to help me out. I’m really grateful for your assistance.”

Wales quickly returned the greeting. “Mister Norton, you’re being too polite. If you don’t mind, you can call me Loze just like Pog does.”

Lorist laughed out loud and stretched his hand out for a handshake. “Alright, Loze. You can refer to me as Locke too. That’s what my friends call me.”

……

After taking a bath and changing out of his bloodstained garments, as well as letting Engelich wash up and change his urine-stained pants, he got the rest to complete the preparations and rode off to Sloph’s bastide with Loze and Engelich.

The bastide was approximately 7000 meters from the slaver camp. Several buildings could be seen on the hills west to the main highway near the town. Lorist and Loze chatted and laughed along the way to their destination.

In actuality, Loze was quite a candid and proud youth. He said that his father used to be a mercenary and had left him a high-ranked Battle Force manual, hoping that he would one day become a legendary mercenary. However, due to having been exposed to stories of knighthood and chivalry at a young age, Loze enlisted for the army without letting his father know. His dream was to become a knight instead of a mercenary and that enraged his father to the point where he almost got a stroke.

In the Whitelion Legion, Loze was known as a fearless and unparalleled general. However, the legion was disbanded after the civil war tore the empire apart. Loze returned home only to find his family and friends all gone. Suddenly losing everything he cared about, he no longer had any attachments and formed a group with a few other of his comrades to go venture the world. On one fateful trip, he rescued a slave trader from a bandit attack and got hired as a bodyguard and followed him all the way to Port Nupite. It was then when he bumped into Potterfang who was there to purchase some slaves to form the main force of the Norton Family on the journey to the Northlands. Intrigued by the prospect of adventure, Loze brought another friend who was unwilling to continue working as a bodyguard for a slaver, Mons Malek, along to see Potterfang.

The conquest of the bastide went without a hitch with Loze not even having to fight himself. Any sign of resistance was settled swiftly by Lorist using his javelins. Upon reaching the gates, the guards who were on duty dropped their guard entirely after seeing Engelich and lowered the drawbridge for them to enter. After Lorist slit the guards with his sword, the other Silver ranked guards all rushed over to swarm Lorist’s group, thinking that they had an edge because of the disparity in numbers.

At that moment, Lorist took a javelin out of his quiver and with lightning speed, flung it out one after another, unleashing a rain of javelins unto the enemy forces. Of the ten Silver ranks that rushed over, easily half of them fell from the first volley with the rest preparing to cut down the javelins with their swords, only to be met with following waves of incessant javelin fire and ultimately experiencing gruesome deaths from being pierced straight through. After Lorist expended three quivers’ worth of javelins, not one enemy remained standing.

Having witnessed that terrifying scene, Engelich started shivering and felt extremely fortunate that he recognized the might of that man and surrendered quickly, thus having his life spared in the end. Loze on the other hand was admirably praising Lorist’s skill.

Terman subsequently brought the rest of his troops into the bastide and successfully occupied it, followed by him cooperating with Dulles to clear out the whole bastide of enemy troops. Even though the Iron ranked slave supervisors attempted to retaliate, under the assault of Terman and the senior academy students, they gave up entirely after ten or so of their own died with not even one of Terman’s men injured in the slightest. Dulles commented that the supervisors were digging their own graves for being crazy enough to take on a fully-armed group of Silver Swordsmen with only a few whips and shortswords.

Lorist then instructed Terman to bring a group of people to go back to the camp and inform Charade and Potterfang to move over to the bastide and have some carriages go to the port to transport their other resources and equipment.

After that, he told Dulles to gather the slaves in the bastide together before detaining the other family members of the slavers and kill anyone who dares to resist. He also instructed Els to increase the level of security at the bastide. The tasks he had to do just kept piling up.

Wistful cries at the residential area of the bastide could be heard as the fierce, imposing slave soldiers marched inside and gathered the residents per Lorist’s orders. Some sounds of battle and conflict rang out as well.

However, the resistance was short-lived and was soon quelled, resulting in a few lavishly-dressed corpses littered around the pavements and yards of the houses. It could be seen from the state of the corpses that the pent up rage and hate harbored by the slaves was no small matter.

During all that, Lorist followed Engelich to his granddaughter’s residence. Along the way, the patrolling slave soldiers all greeted him respectfully and the families of the slavers looked at him with hateful glances.

Lorist was relieved that the slave soldiers didn’t break any regulations, and only killed the ones who resisted without harassing the women nor taking the slavers’ belongings as they pleased. Though, perhaps that was because the knew that they would have to hand in the loot anyway and would end up being punished for any attempt at embezzlement. After forcing the family members out of their houses, they patiently awaited their next order.

Engelich’s granddaughter was quite the beauty, being quite fair-skinned and having a quiet air about her. She stood in front of the yard with a slight look of terror on her face beside a 16-year-old handmaiden. After seeing her grandfather, she leaped forward and hugged him tightly, unwilling to let go.

Nodding towards a saluting slave soldier nearby, Lorist checked out Engelich’s granddaughter before saying, “Let’s talk when we’re inside.”

Even though the hut was small, it was quite well-kept. Lorist saw a half-written beastskin on the table and picked it up to take a look. The words on the beastskin were organized and neat except for the last one, which ended in a very long stroke. It was apparent that she was in the middle of writing the document when the slave soldiers attacked.

“Are you copying a book?” asked Lorist. The girly shyly nodded.

“Your words are pretty neat,” praised Lorist.

“Engelich, it’s time you handed over your goods,” Lorist continued.

The old man’s expression turned downcast as he entered a small room and took out a small box with a beastskin book. Upon opening the box, a pile of glimmering gold coins could be seen.

“This… This contains all my savings over the years. There are 1437 gold Fordes within,” said the old man with a pained heart.

Taking out one gold coin, Lorist said, “Old man, do you know how much blood and tears have been spilled for these gold coins? These coins are unclean and tainted. If you spend them, you will one day face the consequences. If you don’t get punished, eventually, your descendants will. I think it would be better for both of us if I take it away and resolve that problem for you.”

He then took out a pouch from his pocket and tossed it to the old man. “Within that is 10-odd gold coins which are clean and rightfully earned and isn’t the product of anyone’s suffering. You can spend them with a good conscience, knowing that nobody has been harmed for those gold coins. I’ll be giving them to you.”

“As for this water attribute Battle Force manual……” Lorist flipped through the manual and tossed it to the young girl beside. “Have your granddaughter make me a copy and keep the original for yourself. During these two days, you are to stay here with your granddaughter and her handmaiden while I think about how I should handle you. If you need anything, just tell the patrolling soldiers outside, understood?”

The old man quickly saluted and said, “Thank you, milord. I will await your further instruction.”

Lorist then took the box full of gold coins and left the hut.

Chapter 54 Reorganization and Maidservants

At the central plaza of the Sloph Bastide was a sea of people. It was the third day since Lorist’s group occupied the bastide.

In the middle of the plaza stood around 700 spear-wielding slave soldiers with their family members all gathered up beside them in the square, along with another thousand plus slaves who worked in the bastide’s vineyard.

Appearing before all of them on the balcony of a building that faced the center of the plaza was Lorist who could be seen holding an iron bullhorn in his hand. On the second day the bastide was conquered, his armed forces have moved over entirely to the bastide from the camp in the pine forest. WIth the miscellaneous matters out of the way, what followed was the force’s reorganization. Lorist intended to give a speech to the slaves present and inspire hope and dreams within them as well as confidence for them to join him on the journey to the Northlands.

Putting the bullhorn to his mouth, he said, “I’d like to introduce myself. I am Baron Norton, the head of the family of the Roaring Raging Bear of the Northlands.” Lorist introduced himself while shamelessly adding that he was the head of the Nortons even though the official ceremony of succession hasn’t been carried out.

“I believe that many of you here understand back then that my knights have paid quite a heavy price to liberate the likes of you from the grasps of the slave traders at Port Nupite along with your family members to join us on the journey to the Northlands and promised your freedom when we reach there. However, what I didn’t expect was for us to run into the assault of these asinine slavers who wished to deprive you of your birthright and treat you people like nothing more than products and property whose sole purpose is to make them profit.

“Before I could send reinforcements to your side, you have managed to fend of the attack of the slavers despite being not properly equipped and managed to keep the camp secure before my arrival. After that, you have also successfully swarmed the camp of the slavers and even occupied this bastide, which is their main base. During the whole process, you all have managed to fulfill your responsibilities and obey the regulations that we have set up and completed the tasks we have assigned you. Your performance has truly won my heartfelt respect, as well as earned yourselves the freedom you deserve.

“As the head of the Norton Family, I, Baron Norton, hereby declare that from today onwards, you are no longer slaves and are instead proud and noble soldiers of the Norton Family……”

“Yeaaahh! …….” All the slave soldiers at the plaza gave a loud cheer that shook the eardrums of everyone present.

Lorist waited for a while and gestured for the crowd to quiet down. “By the time we reach the Northlands, your families will be treated as free citizens and will be eligible to enjoy benefits that are entailed to family members of the Norton Family Armed Forces. You will also be assigned houses and farmland and will be able to lead the rest of your lives in peace……”

At that moment, the family members of the slave soldiers cheered loudly together as well.

“During this resistance against the slavers, 17 of our heroic soldiers has sacrificed their lives for our victory with four others injured and handicapped as a result. However, the Norton Family will not forget the contribution and loyalty of our soldiers. The family members of the fallen soldiers will still be entitled to the treatment of that of families with members in our army and will also receive 1 large silver every month as a pension for up to twenty years. This applies to disabled soldiers as well, but they will be able to continue receiving the pension for the rest of their lives. This policy of mine will definitely not change.”

The soldiers of the family were all moved by the speech with some of the family members of the fallen soldiers breaking out in tears. It was apparent that they were quite worried about being abandoned by the lord as they would effectively be a burden on the convoy. For normal foot soldiers who lived their lives walking on tightropes, their biggest worry was the fates of their family members after their deaths on the battlefield. If they served under a generous lord, their family might receive a few silver coins as reimbursement for their loss. But for selfish lords who didn’t care about the welfare of their families, not only would they blame the loss of the battles on their own soldiers, they might even sell the family members of the fallen soldiers to slave traders for a small profit.

The promises that Lorist had made were completely unprecedented in the history of the Grindia Continent. It was common knowledge that as the number of fallen soldiers reach the tens of thousands, the pension fee would add up to a rather large sum which would become an unbearable burden on the ruler. In the midst of a war-torn age, there was no lord who dared to make promises like that to their soldiers.

In actuality, Lorist had gotten into quite a big argument with Charade over the issue. Even Potterfang was against Lorist’s decision, citing his experience in the Whitelion Legion that the family members of the fallen soldiers were only paid a year’s worth of the soldier’s salary in a lump sum and not throughout the span of twenty years like Lorist had decided.

Lorist then brought up the battle with the slavers. By the time he had killed more than 30 people alone, which was not even half of the number of people the enemy had, the slavers crumbled and retreated right away. After Terman and Els’s assault, they killed another half of their forces but didn’t sustain any casualties at all, apart from the two jokers which had hurt themselves from tripping.

Lorist told Charade and Potterfang back then that he wanted to foster the kind of army that was willing to fight until their last breath and wouldn’t give up even during the gravest of circumstances, to the point that they would gladly sacrifice their own lives just to give their own forces the slightest age in battle, unlike the slavers they had fought who turned and ran the moment the battle was to their disadvantage. Only an army like that could become a force to be reckoned with and deter any other powers from preying on the Norton Family and make them think twice whether it would actually cause them more loss than gain should they decide to provoke the Nortons.

And to build that army, Lorist said that the first thing that should be handled was the alleviation of the soldiers’ worries and attachments so that they would not hesitate to perish for the sake of their families, which was what the whole point of the pension plan he had in mind was centered around. He also told Charade and Potterfang that the pension fund wouldn’t be that big a burden that they had thought: twenty years worth of pensions for a fallen soldier would only amount to 240 large silvers, which was equal to 12 gold Fordes in total.

Even though 12 gold Fordes might not seem like a huge amount to a soldier on the battlefield, it would be able to provide their families with 20 years of security and comfortable living. Additionally, the pension was to be handed out gradually and not all that once. It was akin to the Norton Family borrowing 12 gold Fordes and paying an interest of only one large silver a month and the money could be used to develop many things in the dominion. A large silver of interest per fallen soldier was actually a relatively small amount.

It was at that moment when Charade and Potterfang realized the real benefits of the plan and felt that they didn’t think as far as Lorist had. Lorist also mentioned that this was only the first step, and that there were still many things to be managed within the family’s armed forces such as educating the soldiers to obey orders and regulations, as well as developing their sense of pride and belonging to the armed forces of the Norton Family. However, that wasn’t something that could be done in a short amount of time and had to be gradually nurtured and polished from long periods of training and participation in battles.

As the cheers from the people at the plaza started to quiet down, Lorist once again raised his bullhorn and said, “Soldiers of the family, the Northlands are still far away and the journey will no doubt be arduous. Before we resume our march, you will have to undergo reorganization and further training. I will provide you with helmets to protect yourselves and sharp weapons for you to cut down anyone who dares to bar our way. Whether they’re bandits or greedy lords who dare to set their sights on us, they will no doubt end up as ash and dust beneath the wheels of our chariots! Nobody can stop us from going home! I promise that I will not abandon any single one of you in the name of the Raging Bear! We will definitely return to the Northlands and live the rest of our lives in bliss!”

The crowd in the plaza instantly erupted and began chanting, “Norton! Norton! ……”

Once again raising the horn to his mouth, Lorist addressed the slaves who had been liberated from the bastide and the enemy camp. “There are no slaves in the Norton Family, and the family will also never deal with slaves. Hence, I am declaring the slaves who were liberated by us from the camp and the bastide free men and women!”

Once again the people at the crowd broke into loud cheers.

“However, even though you’ve regained your freedom, you will not be allowed to leave just yet and will temporarily have to remain in this bastide until the day we depart for the Northlands. At that point, we would also provide the ones who wish to leave with funds for transport and food. If you have nowhere else to return to, we also welcome you to join our army and let your families enjoy the benefits of being one of our soldiers. For those who do not wish to stay, you shall be assigned work and be paid for your efforts before we depart.”

He then placed the bullhorn down and waved to the crowd, triggering loud applauses and cheers once again before he turned and left the balcony.

“Giving a speech in front of so many people is still a first for me. I was nervous as heck,” Lorist muttered, before receiving the linen cloth Shadekampf passed over and wiped his face with it.

The lounge on the second floor of the building was currently fully-seated with Charade leaning on a soft couch and Terman and Yuriy seated beside him. Opposite to them sat Potterfang and his two comrades with the rest of the people in the room being the 38 senior students from the Dawn Academy, some of whom were still wearing bandages from the injuries they had sustained.

Els and Patt were absent from the meeting as they were tasked with patrolling the area while Reidy brought Alisa to the park in the bastide for a walk. Howard on the other hand, stood beside Lorist as his personal attendant with a solemn look on his face.

Aside from them, Engelich could be seen leaning on a wall at a corner of the room with his beautiful granddaughter beside him, patiently waiting to hear what Lorist had in mind for them.

Lorist sat down on his seat and Shadekampf stood at his place beside Howard.

“So, we’ll be executing it according to what we’ve discussed for the past two days,” said Lorist. “Knight Pog, I will assign the task of reorganizing a 500-strong heavy-armored battalion to you.”

Potterfang stood up and saluted before he said, “I will not let milord down.”

“Yuriy, the reorganization of the 60 men light cavalry must be hastened and not taken lightly as that unit will serve as the eyes and ears for our army.”

“Yes, milord. Please be assured,” replied Yuriy as he got up.

“Terman, your knight brigade is a little too small with only 14 men in it. How about this, let every one of your knights pick two attendants who will be granted the rank of a squire when their Battle Force reaches the Silver rank. Should they earn an achievement, they will also be allowed to join the ranks of the family knights.”

Of the 38 senior students from the academy, only 13 others and Terman have formally received training to be a knight. As knights served as the main assault force on the battlefield, Lorist decided to add a couple more to their ranks even if they weren’t properly trained ones so that the brigade would seem more domineering and threatening on the battlefield.

“Understood,” replied Terman.

“Dulles, I’ll leave the 12 carroballistas to you. Assemble some people to operate them as soon as possible.”

“Yes, milord,” saluted Dulles.

“Lundmorde, how’s the formation of your herbalist unit going?” asked Lorist.

“Milord, I have found a beginner rank herbalist as well as two herbalist apprentices from the slave camp. Unfortunately, those three were the only ones who had remotely any knowledge in the field. I’ve already recruited them into the unit. However, there seems to be a man and his daughter in the bastide who are respectively mid-ranked and beginner rank herbalists who were employed by Sloph and are currently in detention. Milord, how about it?” said Lundmorde, standing. He was one of the senior students at the academy who had the qualifications of a beginner rank herbalist, but had somehow gotten into an argument with a herbalism professor in the academy, Nate Borg, and had his own status as a herbalism instructor revoked. He was then convinced by Charade and joined the northbound journey in the heat of the moment.

“Hmm, go ask the slaves and see if the father and daughter have committed any atrocities towards them like their masters. If that is not the case, then release them and return their belongings before asking them if they want to join us. Should they be reluctant to do so, do not force them and let them leave as they please,”said Lorist.

“Yes, milord. I will do as you will.”

Sigh, we’re still quite lacking in capable people, thought Lorist as he started to set his sights on Potterfang’s two other comrades.

“Mister Mons and Loze, can I ask the two of you for a favor?” asked Lorist politely.

Loze gave a carefree smile and said, “Lord Locke, please do not hesitate to state your request. We’ll be honored to be able to help you out.”

Mons Malek also nodded in agreement.

“Well, the thing is, I want to form another 360-strong company of crossbowmen with another pike infantry regiment. Can I temporarily invite the two of you welcome guests of the family to serve as the officers in charge of these two units? I believe you also know that many of my mates from the academy have no experience in the army and wouldn’t be too appropriate for the role of an officer at the moment. Given that the two of you are experienced military officers, would you mind lending me a hand in this matter?” asked Lorist.

“No problem. How about you, Malek?” Loze answered quickly without hesitation and looked at his partner for his response.

Mons Malek merely nodded.

“How about this, since Malek was originally the military judge of the Whitelion Legion, let him take charge of the crossbowman company. I’ll lead the pike infantry regiment since getting up close and personal with the enemy is more of my thing,” said Loze.

“Then I’ll be relying on you two from now on,” said Lorist with much joy.

“Currently, we only have about 700 official members in the family’s armed forces. But we have liberated over 3000 slaves just recently and most of them are strong youths whose families have been either killed or captured by the slavers. That’s why I hope that you guys will do your best to encourage them to join our army. But make sure you do not force them to join unwillingly, alright?”

“Yes, milord,” replied everyone in the hall.

“Knight Charade’s task will be the heaviest of all of you. He’s the chief supervisor of our convoy and all matters large and small must be handled by him. I have also appointed Shadekampf to be his aide. Other than that, I will also have Knight Els recruit some people to form a constable unit that will be in charge of maintaining the order of the people of the convoy,” said Lorist. He then looked towards Engelich who was leaning on the wall and his granddaughter before waving for them to come over.

“You guys are really lucky,” said Lorist as he looked at the pair intriguingly. “I have just made an oath publicly that the Norton Family will not have slaves, so you two are still free people. However, the fact that Engelich had participated in the fight against our forces still stands true. Even though I’ve spared your life, you must still pay for the consequences of your actions. I have here two contracts for you and your granddaughter to sign. Don’t worry, they’re not slave contracts but servant contracts instead. After ten years of service, the two of you are free to leave the Norton Family.”

Shadekampf came over from the side holding two beastskin parchments and a pen and handed the items to Engelich and his granddaughter.

Staring at the contract with his face twitching for quite a while, Engelich gave a large sigh before signing his name and putting his fingerprint on the contract. His granddaughter followed suit with a pale look on her face.

“So, you’re called Molise?” Lorist asked as he looked toward that pale-faced girl.

“Yes, milord,” replied the girl in slight fear.

“Your handwriting is really neat and the Battle Force manual I had you copy for me was nicely done without any errors. Don’t worry, I won’t be letting you do menial chores like serving drinks and the such. Do you see that fatty over there? He was hurt by your grandfather and is unable to write due to his injuries. That’s why from today onwards, you will be his personal maidservant and act as his right hand. Not only would you have to look after him and attend to any of his needs, you’ll also have to write down whatever he needs you to. Your role is to basically be his assistant and secretary, understood?” said Lorist as he pointed at Charade.

The girl bowed and said, “Yes, milord. I will do as you wish and serve as his maidservant and secretary.”

Charade had a stunned look on his face. “Milord, milord… Locke, stop kidding around. I don’t need any maidservants. Why don’t you keep her by your side?”

Charade was so flustered to the point he called Lorist by his nickname.

Lorist responded with a straight face, “This is my decision and it is final. It’s not like I need a scribe following me around anyway. I’m sure you’ll appreciate the extra help as you’ll get pretty busy soon enough. Also, your tent is as messy and dirty as a pig’s sty! You’ll definitely need to have someone help you keep the place orderly. Also, you can also use the other slaves who helped you out with the writing to carry out your errands and help you out with the matters of the convoy.

“Oh, and Molise here also has a maidservant herself. According to what I’ve heard, her parents were both killed by slavers and Molise was the one who purchased her from the slavers. Right now, she has regained her freedom. Charade, you may also get her to sign the servant contract and have her serve you together with Molise. Engelich, please stay by Knight Charade’s side for now and obey his instructions.”

“Understood, milord. Your will is my command,” said Engelich as he breathed a relieved sigh. He was satisfied as long as he would be able to be by his granddaughter’s side.

……

Everyone had left after the meeting, including Howard who had gone to look for Alisa. Rubbing his temples gently, Lorist thought, gosh, it’s so tiring being the head of the family… I need to manage almost everything. Thank goodness I have Charade helping me out. Otherwise, I’ll definitely go crazy from doing every little thing by myself.

“Hey, Locke, I heard that you gave a beautiful young lass to that fatty.” The only one who dared to speak like that to Lorist was no other than Els.

“Ah, you’ve come,” said Lorist as he raised his head to see Els rapidly approaching.

“Just now, I heard Yuriy and the gang talk about how jealous they were of Charade when I passed by.”

“Surely they can search for their own maidservant, right? I heard from Shadekampf that we have liberated more than ten beautiful virgin girls from the slaver camp who were originally going to be sold for high prices at Port Nupite. Shadekampf even tried to get a few of them to be my personal maidservants but I’ve rejected that offer. Later, you can tell Yuriy and the others that they are allowed to let any of the girls sign a servant contract, but only if they do so willingly,” said Lorist.

“Huh? Something’s not right. Locke, are you not feeling well or something?” asked Els curiously.

“Hmm? What about me?” Lorist was also confused as to why Els asked something like that.

“Let’s see, there was that one time you did it with Louise on your birthday, and then there were five times with Nina over the years, four times with Sala, three or four times with Jumile and finally, we have the new girl Molly, whom you did it with the most, somewhere around seven times. You’ve basically bedded almost every girl in the inn. It’s not like you’re impotent or against having intercourse with women. But this time, not only did you give such a great beauty to Charade, you also refused to take in the pretty, young girls as your servants. Is something wrong your junk?” said Els as he looked at his hands and recounted the times Lorist engaged in coitus.

“Good Sol……” Lorist really didn’t know what to say and freaked out by grabbing hold of Els and gave him a good pummeling. “I’m a man who has needs too you know. At that time, I’ve just broken up with my girlfriend, so where else do you think I could have gone for some intimacy? The brothel you’ve opened? Who asked you to peep, huh? Who gave you the permission?”

Needless to say, the fact that Els was so informed about the matter was because he was observing every one of Lorist’s encounters in secret. Even Lorist himself wasn’t that clear about the number of times he had intercourse with a woman.

Lorist felt much better after giving Els a good beating. Sitting back on his chair, he said, “Sigh, Els, you should understand best… We haven’t even started heading north, but we’ve already run into our first obstacle. Who knows how much tougher it will be on us during the rest of the journey? What do you think others will think of me if I lust after women at this point in time? Wouldn’t they be disappointed and leave me in disgust? You’ve also been the leader of a syndicate yourself. Surely you understand how the people who follow you think. If I’m really that desperate for women, I wouldn’t be leading this convoy in the first place.”

Els stood up again and nodded. “You do have a point. But still, a girl that pretty is really a shame to not have by your side.”

Even though he pummeled Els in the face, Lorist didn’t use too much force and Els got up looking fine without showing any sign of pain nor injury. Then again, it wasn’t the first time Lorist hit him like this.

“That’s hardly anything to feel unfortunate about. Beauties are all over the place. During this journey north, I must also make sure the senior students that followed me get some benefits as well. It is my hope that they find their soulmate during the journey so that they may settle down in the dominion when we finally arrive there. Also, Els… You’ve reminded me of something. Didn’t we also detain the concubines of Sloph and Blademaster Pike? You should go get Loze and Mons Malek and let them pick one girl each to be their maidservant. Let the rest of the senior students choose from the remaining ones after that. Actually, you can pick one yourself too,” said Lorist.

“Understood, milord,” Els answered as he bowed and saluted.

Chapter 55 Ambush and the Yields

"Milord, I really don't have the guts for this... The moment I stand in front of you, I lose all my will and energy to swing my sword. I don't usually feel this frightened even when facing a Blademaster like Pike. However, the moment I see you, I have the urge of dropping my sword and surrendering right away. I... I really don't know why I feel like this as well..." stammered Engelich.

Sol, this old man has had his balls burst from fighting against me that one time and wouldn't spar with me at all... Lorist lazily waved his hand and said, "Fine, you can leave."

The old man felt like he had been spared a death sentence and left hurriedly after saluting Lorist.

Currently, the most important thing on the list was handling Sloph and Blademaster Pike when they return ten days later. Lorist was confident that he would be able to take care of Gold ranked combatants, but he's never fought against a Blademaster before, so he still wasn't sure if he would be able to tough this hurdle through.

He recalled that time when we went to visit Instructor Claude back when he just broke through to the level of a Blademaster. Back then, Instructor Claude felt the increase in his abilities and confidently stated that should he fight against Lorist in a duel, it wouldn't end up like the last time on the island when Lorist managed to last more than 200 moves.

Even though Instructor Claude considered Lorist at the Iron rank of power, he was unaware of Lorist's cultivation at the peak of the Bright Stage when they were on the islands, not to mention that Lorist had already broken through into the Dark Stage by the time he made his visit, which would make it even harder for Instructor Claude to completely dominate him in battle. During the visit, Lorist asked Instructor Claude about the differences between a Three Star Gold Swordsman and a Blademaster.

Scratching his head in thought, Instructor Claude then took out a few cups and made a simple demonstration for Lorist. He first placed the smallest cup on the table and said that upon the awakening of Battle Force, it was as if the body had a vessel that was like that cup which could store and release Battle Force. He then took out a larger cup and said that if the smaller cup was the Bronze rank, then the larger one would be the Iron rank. Lorist nodded to signal his understanding.

Claude then placed two bowls, one large and the other small, on the table. He pointed at the smaller one and said that it represented the Silver rank while the larger represented the Gold rank. He then proceeded to explain that the difference between the various Battle Force ranks, Bronze, Iron, Silver and Gold, was a quantitative one rather than a qualitative one. For example, there wasn't a difference between the size of the blade glows at the Gold and Silver rank, but rather the amount of time the blade glows could be generated. An Iron rank could circulate their Battle Force for tens of minutes while a Gold rank would be able to easily reach one hour of Battle Force utilization.

That's why, it wasn't too surprising for an Iron rank to defeat a Gold rank if the difference in swordsmanship of the Iron rank makes up for the relatively lesser amount of time the Battle Force could be used. Claude then took out a large plate and said that it represented a Blademaster. According to him, Gold Swordsmen and Blademasters didn't differ much in terms of Battle Force capacity. For example, both the bowl and plate could contain the same amount of water as each other.

The main difference was that the area of coverage of the plate was far larger than that of the bowl. When one fights against a Gold Swordsman, as long as one stayed outside of the bowl, one wouldn't be affected much. However, during combat with a Blademaster, one would inevitably be within the range of the plate and each and every action would no doubt be restricted within that area of influence. Instructor Claude took the bowl that represented a Gold Swordsman, placed it on top of the plate and spun it around. The bowl moved around within the plate but not once did it move outside the range of the plate onto the table.

It was then when Lorist felt enlightened and fully comprehended what Instructor Claude was trying to express. The qualitative change that came from breaking through to the Blademaster level from the Gold rank was akin to having a three dimensional solid spreading its volume flat over a larger surface area. While the actual surface area of the object didn't change, the range of influence definitely increased.

"Then, how about Sword Saints?" Lorist asked.

"Hmm, I believe they will be like the table on which the bowls and plates are placed. This table is like a Sword Saint's domain and we are like the tables and plates on the table. No matter how we move around the table, we will still not be able to escape the influence of the domain," said Instructor Claude resignedly.

According to Instructor Claude's explanation, Lorist came to the conclusion that the difference between a Gold rank and a Blademaster was the field of influence they had. Instructor Claude added that when he sparred with his wife, Instructor Anfya, right after he broke through, no matter which direction or method she swung her sword, he seemed to have a precognitive instinct that allowed him to predict his wife's every move, even when she attempted to change her fighting approach entirely.

To Lorist, it sounded this ability of Blademasters was on the same level as his dynamic vision. However, that ability was not as specific as his own in that it only gave one a general 'feeling' instead of true visual feedback that his dynamic vision provided him. That was to say, a Blademaster would be able to predict the direction a strike was coming from and react to it, but Lorist could even perceive the velocity and force of any incoming object.

Engelich also said that he was confident in being able to withstand up to a hundred strikes when confronting Blademaster Pike. That's why Lorist wasn't that worried about being defeated by him and felt that they would arrive at a draw at most. Even so, that didn't mean that Lorist didn't intend to exploit the fact that he knew about a Blademaster's range of control that was far superior to that of a Gold rank. With a plan in mind, he decided to see whether his 'range of influence' was far superior to that of the Blademaster.

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Lorist stood at a balcony which was the highest one in the entire bastide that allowed one to oversee each and every corner of the place with absolute clarity. Rumor also said that this was Sloph's favorite hangout. Perhaps it was because it offered him a sense of control and domination over the whole area.

At the plaza opposite the main building, Dulles could be seen directing the twelve carroballistas around. Even though each only required three men to operate, Dulles had up to five people on one and cited that the larger chariots allowed for more people to be on board and the extra two could help with shielding the rest from enemy fire or stabbing enemies with halberds, thus effectively increasing the defensive and close combat capabilities of each unit. The extra people also allowed for the injured to switch out with someone else to retain the core functionality of the carroballistas, ensuring that their assault wouldn't be stopped halfway just because one or two men got injured from enemy resistance.

On a small hill not far from there was Terman and 13 other knights who were coaching their 28 Iron ranked attendants to remain within formation when they charged toward their enemies. 40 plus horses could be seen racing around the small hill, causing a cloud of dust to cover the whole area.

On the far end was an even larger vineyard plot which Potterfang had repurposed into a training field. The sight of 600 men who were equipped with black helmets, black plate armor as well as black shields standing within formation seemed like a large black beast from afar and gave others a feeling of danger and distress. Satisfied with the results of the training, Lorist felt that Potterfang was indeed perfect for the job given his military background. Within but a few days, he had managed to train the 600 men which constituted the heavy-armored battalion into tip top condition.

The slaves they had managed to liberate this time from the camp and the bastide numbered around 3000 and many of them were more than happy to join the armed forces. Other than a few who yearned to return to their homelands, all of the youths and their family members had decided to join the convoy on the journey. The total number of Iron ranks including the soldiers they had bought at Port Nupite was around 900 with 400 more being of the Bronze rank.

That was why Lorist had decided to reorganize the various types of units he had. Firstly, he increased the number of soldiers within the heavy-armored battalion from 500 to 600. After that was Dulles's carroballista unit which totaled around 65 people with 60 assigned to the 12 ballistas and the remaining five including Dulles acting as messenger troops which were in charge of relaying orders within the group for them to be able to effectively function as a unit.

And then there was Terman's knight brigade. While the number of knights didn't actually increase, the 28 attendants they recruited all had Three Star Iron ranked Battle Force. As for Yuriy, he had expanded his light cavalry scouts to 80 people who were each equipped with chain mail and leather armor and were given two mounts each. Other provisions included 24 javelins, one crossbow with 24 bolts, a scutum shield[1] and longsword as well as some makeshift tools such as nets or throwing axes which could be used as weapons according to their preferences. Even Potterfang was envious of the equipment the light cavalry scouts were getting; they were far better equipped than the troops of the Whitelion Legion back in the day.

Most of the soldiers who joined these army units were of the Iron rank with the remaining 100 or so were recruited by Els into the constable unit he led along with 7 other Silver Swordsmen who were forced into slavery from being threatened with their family members' lives. The rest of the Bronze ranks formed the basis of Mons Malek's 420-men-strong crossbowmen company with only a few Iron ranks and Bronze ranks joining Loze's pike infantry regiment. Loze complained that even though the unit he led was the largest, their actual combat potential was the weakest of them all. They were only equipped with pikes and leather armor and most garrison troops in other dominions were far better equipped than they were.

Lorist apologized for that and said that the main function of the pike infantry regiment was to maintain the order of the convoy during the journey and that the main force on the battlefield would be the heavy-armored battalion, the carroballista unit, the knight brigade and the light cavalry instead of them. The pike infantry regiment's participation was actually only limited to bolstering their numbers to make their fighting strength seem much higher than it actually was and to clear up the battlefield after each skirmish.

The original plan was for Engelich to be the officer in command of the pike infantry regiment as he had experience being a garrison officer back in his day. However, Lorist was worried that the old man wasn't completely loyal to him yet and decided to hold off giving him a position for a period of time while he observed his behavior and made sure of his intentions.

At present time, Yuriy had led his light cavalry scouts somewhere outside the bastide and their location was currently unknown. In the vineyard far away, volleys of arrows could be seen being fired as the training for the crossbowmen company was being conducted. On the walls of the bastide stood the members from the pike infantry regiment and the others who were not on wall guarding duty were split into small companies and were training under the instruction of their respective officers in charge.

Lorist's armed forces now numbered 2300 people with 3000 others being the family members of the soldiers. If the near 6000 people convoy were to depart for the north without any training or regulation, chaos and confusion would no doubt ensue. That was the main factor behind Lorist's decision to continue his stay at the Sloph Bastide for a couple more days before restarting the journey.

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That night, the injured Charade brought his maidservant Molise over to report the gains they had acquired during the recent days. Ever since occupying the Sloph Bastide, the main supervisor of the place was most reluctant to give out the location of the hidden treasuries. As a result, he was put onto the spinning chair before being spun around on the hollow rotor. After that, the old supervisor confessed the location of Sloph's two secret treasuries after he emptied the meals he had that day from his mouth, bladder and intestines uncontrollably.

The two treasuries increased their total assets by a staggering amount. The larger one was for the use of the bastide administration and it was filled with various coins from different currencies which amounted to around 50000 gold Fordes in value. The smaller one belonged to Sloph personally and the gold coins and gold Forde notes within totaled up to 70000 gold Fordes. The armor and equipment stored within the treasury was also distributed by Lorist to his knights whereas the other expensive items like rare paintings or treasures were kept just in case he would need them as a gift to improve his relationship with some other party in the future.

To sum it up, the convoy gained an extra 100000 plus gold Fordes, thus solving their financial bind at the moment. The other resources within the armories, taverns and food warehouses further replenished their resources. Els even personally suggested to Lorist that they resort to raiding bastides should they run low on resources in the future.

However, that was not all. When Lorist brought Engelich's box of gold coins to Charade, he realized a huge fact that he had neglected the whole time. Charade quickly got all the family members of the slavers and put them through the same process they did to the old supervisor of the bastide and had them confess the locations where they hid their gold and other valuables.

"Milord, after three days of searching and questioning, we have gathered around 30 to 40 thousand gold Fordes' worth of assets from the 300 plus households in the residential area as well as 7 high-ranked Battle Force manuals and some other treasures, which I have already handed to Shadekampf for safekeeping and sorting. The only remaining issue now concerns the treatment of the slavers' family members," reported Charade.

There wasn't a simple solution for that as they wouldn't be allowed to join the journey north nor could they be released scotch-free. There wasn't a doubt that they harbored seething hatred for Lorist's group for ruining their livelihoods. However, Lorist wasn't willing to kill them off as the ones who did wrong were their family members who joined the slavers rather than them. Even though they could also be considered partly responsible for the slaves' woes, they were not the main cause and thus didn't deserve the death sentence. A few days prior, Els suggested that the families of the slavers to be sold to slave traders so that they may have a taste of their own medicine.

However, Lorist was hesitant about that idea as there was no way that he could trade slaves after announcing that the Norton Family does not endorse slavery. Gosh, what a headache. I guess I'll figure something out later since there would be some time left before we leave, thought Lorist as he irresponsibly postponed the issue for another time and decided to temporarily detain the families of the slavers for the moment.

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A three-masted barque[2] flying the flag of the Sloph Slavers could be seen approaching Armatrin Harbor. This was Sloph's personal ship that he used for his excursions. As the crew of the ship were the locals of Armatrin Harbor, there wasn't a need for them to use a guide to navigate shallow waters.

"The harbor is much deserted than usual. There's not even a shadow in sight," Sloph said to Blademaster Pike who was standing beside him. Sloph's figure had bloated up like a barrel after two years of nothing but indulgence.

"Well, you should be aware that the people of the town use your name to scare their children into obedience or face the consequences of being caught and sold by you. It isn't weird for there to be nobody at the harbor if you consider that fact." Blademaster Pike was an aged man of tall build who usually wore an expression of pride and arrogance.

"Hehe, I guess that's true. Then again, I suppose it's a good thing to be feared. If I show a little bit of kindness, that might come of as a sign of weakness in these lowly folks' eyes and they'll start to think of ways to weasel more benefits from me. It's better to have them fear and revere me and not cause me any trouble," said Sloph, snickering as he shared his experience in dealing with people with his cousin.

As the barque docked at the harbor, the sailors on the ship jumped off and tied several ropes around the stakes at the harbor before placing a walking board as a makeshift bridge. Sloph and the Blademaster got off the ship with twenty other sailors who hauled large chests following behind them.

Sloph looked around the harbor and started cursing vilely. "Did I leave for too long this time around? Those bastards at the bastide should be coming here to receive me by now! I'll make sure to give them a lesson that they'll never forget when I get back."

At that moment, Blademaster Pike inspected the surroundings and his expression tensed up. "Be careful, something doesn't feel right......"

The sound of a pair of hands clapping could be heard as Lorist approached the harbor followed by Reidy and Patt who were each carrying three quivers of javelins in their hands.

"Who are you?" asked Blademaster Pike as he narrowed his eyes to stare at Lorist with the sharp gaze of a hawk.

Ignoring him, Lorist continued to clap and 600 heavy-armored soldiers who carried black diamond-shaped shields in their hands showed up behind him and surrounded the harbor. After that, 400-odd other crossbowmen appeared behind the ranks of the shield-wielding soldiers.

If the heavy-armored battalion had not shaken the Blademaster, the crossbowmen definitely did. The400 crossbow-wielding soldiers would without question be a serious threat to even a Blademaster like Pike.

"Who are you and what are you up to?" shouted the Blademaster. The fat slob who stood beside him had a pale look on his face. Sloph retreated behind two of his chain-mail-wearing men and revealed a fierce expression.

"My identity is of no importance. What you need to know instead is that I intend to take your lives," answered Lorist calmly with a tone full of confidence.

"If you want my life, you'll need to be capable enough to take it," said Blademaster Pike as he drew his sword from his scabbard.

Lorist waved his hand and the twangs of hundreds of bowstrings could be heard. Within but an instant, more than 400 arrows were airborne and headed towards Sloph's group......

The sword in the Blademaster's hand danced frantically, shattering many of the arrows that came its way......

The rain of arrows stopped and Blademaster Pike looked extremely haggard. However, not one injury could be seen on his body and it was apparent that he had managed to deflect all of the arrows that threatened to harm him.

Taking advantage of the crossbowmen who were reloading, Blademaster Pike let out a loud grunt and dashed towards Lorist with near-lightning speed......

As the two were only twenty meters apart, Lorist smiled coldly and took out a javelin from the quiver......

The sharp sound of the javelin being shot out at breakneck velocity reverberated throughout the area. The javelin's velocity caused the Blademaster to be unable to avoid it and be forced to deflect it head on......

Bam! The javelin was shattered into smithereens with the Blademaster staggering a few steps back from the force of the impact. His expression instantly changed as he had never felt a javelin thrown with that much energy. However, before he managed to complete that thought, Lorist sent a fusillade of javelins in his direction.

Bam! Bam! Bam! Series of sounds of javelins being smashed apart could be heard as the Blademaster was forced to retreat from the successive impacts of the javelin......

"Agh!" Cried the Blademaster in agony.

"Ugh," grunted the Blademaster with much suffering.

After all six quivers of javelins was expended, Lorist exhaled loudly with his face flush red and his hands and legs relaxing from having used all that energy. He had launched 72 javelins packed with his internal energy in quick succession and that has sapped up most of his energy reserves and left him in a difficult position. He made a mental note to not perform this kind of feat ever again so that he would have enough stamina for emergency situations.

While Blademaster Pike was still alive, a large javelin had found its way through his thigh and another could be seen infused within his right shoulder. The most serious injury came from the javelin that hit his torso and went straight through his body and reemerged from his back. For him to be able to block off the 69 other javelins was already testament to his abilities as a Blademaster. It was too bad that he wasn't able to do the same to the remaining three.

"You... You didn't give me a chance to utilize my skills......" grumbled the Blademaster as blood flowed out of his mouth.

"I'm not stupid enough to fight you head on. That's far too risky and dangerous." Even though the Blademaster's voice was exceedingly soft, Lorist heard it clearly and waved once more to signal the crossbowmen to fire. The Blademaster ended up looking like a huge porcupine by the time the arrows stopped flying.

As for Sloph and his other followers, they had long perished from the first volley of arrows and died miserable deaths.

"Clear up the battlefield and occupy the ship. Also, cut off Sloph and Blademaster Pike's heads and bring them with us," instructed Lorist.

[1] A long rectangular shield usually wore on an arm. See: Wikipedia.

[2] A classification of boats. See: Wikipedia.

Chapter 56 Baron Miranda

At the harbor, the family’s soldiers detained all the sailors who manned Sloph’s ships and brought the captain and the three vice captains back to the bastide for vetting.

Sloph and Blademaster Pike’s heads were impaled on stakes and held up high in the air. Lorist displayed their heads at the town for three whole days to let the townsfolk know who’s currently in charge. If the same situation where Charade was denied access to weapons and other provisions were to come again, Lorist didn’t mind punishing a few of the townsfolk in case his message wasn’t clear enough.

Sloph’s henchmen had carried down three large chests and one small one from the ship before they died. The first large chest stored various goods such as tea leaves and macks. In the second one was Blademaster Pike and Sloph’s personal belongings. The third large chest contained cosmetics and clothes for women. It was apparent that Sloph was rather fond of his concubines and often spoiled them with gifts. Too bad he wasn’t alive to see that the women had already been distributed among the senior students of the academy back at the bastide.

Lorist opened the small chest and found around 10000 gold Fordes within and thought, Charade would definitely be delighted to see this.

After that, Potterfang and Loze got off the ship and said to Lorist, “Milord, the rest of the stuff on the ship is mostly food, mainly rye flour and bran, that is probably meant for the slaves. There are also a few piles of rough linen and a couple of spears and armor.”

“Alright, transport all these stuff to the bastide. Loze, have a pike infantry company stationed here to watch these ships,” said Lorist.

“Yes, milord.” Potterfang and Loze saluted and left.

Dulles rode over on a horse and dismounted. He appeared quite downcast as his carroballista unit didn’t get to show off their might. Lorist had originally planned for them to fire at the Blademaster along with the crossbowmen company if his javelins weren’t having any effect on him. It was a ‘shame’ that the Blademaster couldn’t last until that moment.

“Come on, don’t look so down. Get these chests onto your carroballistas. One of them contains stuff for women. Go pick some stuff from it to gift to your maidservants. I’m sure they’ll return the favor graciously during the night,” teased Lorist.

Suddenly, a cavalry scout could be seen riding quickly into the plaza. Stopping in front of Lorist, he said, “Milord, there’s an armed group heading towards the Sloph Bastide. Sir Yuriy believes that they’re the forces of the local dominion lord. They number around 1500 to 2000 people, with most being civilian farmers and a few knights. Sir Yuriy asks if he should attack them. Currently, the light cavalry scout unit is only observing from afar.”

“Tell Knight Yuriy not to be reckless and send someone over to communicate with them. If the other party is hostile, use hit-and-run tactics and try to keep the casualties low. If they’re not here for a fight, tell their commander that I’ll meet up with him and explain the situation right away,” said Lorist to the scout.

“Yes, milord.” The scout quickly left the way it came.

Scratching his chin, Lorist was thinking that the dominion lord’s reaction to this situation was a little too slow. He had already wiped out the slavers and occupied the bastide for eight whole days. And during the last two days, he had also enforced a curfew on the citizens at the town to make sure that no word of his ambush spreads out. In normal circumstances, the dominion lord should be aware of a situation right away. However, not one of their scouts could be seen during the past few days at the bastide until after he sealed up Armatrin Harbor. The lord probably assembled an army to come inspect the situation as the harbor was probably pivotal to the dominion’s economy.

“Patt, put those two heads into boxes and pack them up nicely. We’re going to give the local lord a gift,” instructed Lorist.

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Lorist quickly arrived at a small hill, guided by Yuriy and his scouts, who then took got into formation and lined up neatly.

“Milord, look. If we charge over from here, I’m sure those people would definitely turn into shambles right away. They’re just farmers, not true soldiers,” said Yuriy, full of confidence in his own unit.

At a hill in the distance, groups of farmers with pitchforks and woodcutting axes as weapons loitered around in a disorderly manner. Yuriy must have already sent someone to inform them that they were not the forces of the slave traders but rather the personal armed forces of another baron. That was why they looked so relaxed and didn’t bother to get into formation. Some even sat down to rest and and chat with the others around them.

On the top of the hill were a group of armored knights who looked straight in Lorist’s direction. Behind them was a flag that depicted a small white flower. Lorist didn’t recognize the family from the insignia, however.

“So, tell me. What comes after you beat them into shambles? You want to cause trouble with the rest of the nobles around here and prompt them to form an alliance against us? Here in foreign lands, we have no one else to rely on. From an ethical and legal standpoint, we are in the wrong as this is not our home dominion,” said Lorist.

“Ugh……” Yuriy stopped talking right away. He merely felt the unbearable urge to attack the disorganized farmers without thinking too much about the implications.

“Patt, bring the family flag with us. Reidy, carry the boxes with you. We’re going over there for a bit,” said Lorit as he got on his horse and wanted to leave right away.

Yuriy pulled on the reins of Lorist’s horse and said, “Milord, wouldn’t it be dangerous for you to go personally with so few people…”

“I’m fine. We will appear more sincere and less hostile with lesser people. And don’t forget to look to your back. Potterfang’s heavy-armored battalion is almost here and Terman’s knight brigade is already stationed there. The crossbowman company as well as Dulles’s carroballista unit is also on the way. Trust me, they wouldn’t dare try to mess with the likes of us,” said Lorist as he pointed to the back. Yuriy turned his head to look and saw Terman’s knights arriving at the foot of the hill.

“Then, may your departure be swift and safe,” said Yuriy as he let the reins go. Lorist then led Patt and Reidy to the opposite hill in the distance.

When they reached the foot of the hill, Lorist dismounted and handed the reins of his horse to Reidy and paced towards the group of people clad in extravagant-looking armor quickly. Patt followed behind on his horse while carrying the battle standard of the Nortons with Reidy at the back with Lorist’s horse.

“May I know which one of you is the dominion lord?” said Lorist to the group of armored men.

“I am Baron Miranda, Lord of Armatrin Harbor. May I know who you are?” said a fully-armored man at the front of the others as he removed his helmet to reveal his exhausted looking, middle-aged face.

“I am here to pay my due respect, Lord Baron. I am Norton Lorist of the Northlands,” said Lorist as he bowed and saluted the baron.

“Norton? I think I’ve heard that name somewhere before……” said the baron as he stared hard at the battle standard with the symbol of a raging bear that Patt was carrying.

“Oh, I remember now. The Roaring Raging Bear of the Northlands. The Nortons are a nobles who have been entitled by the emperor because of military merit. I’m curious as to why someone from so far in the north would be here in my dominion and even seal off my harbor?” asked Baron Miranda as he stared hard at Lorist.

Lorist shrugged and said, “Lord Baron, my army is just here to escort me back to my homeland to inherit the position of the family head. I myself didn’t expect that they would get attacked by hostile forces within your dominion who intended to capture them and sell them off as slaves.”

Baron Miranda’s expression darkened as he cursed, “That damned slaver group…”

“However, they didn’t know that we were actually an army and we wiped them out entirely after our reinforcements arrived and occupied their main camp. I think it was called, um, Sloph Bastide or something… As for sealing off the harbor, Lord Baron, I deeply apologize for that as we had no choice and had to ensure that we remove the enemy entirely. Reidy, bring me the box.”

Lorist opened the box and showed the two heads to the baron. “Lord Baron, these are the heads of the leaders of the enemy who dared to provoke us, Sloph and Blademaster Pike. We neutralized them at the harbor just one hour ago.”

“What? You managed to kill Sloph and Blademaster Pike?” said Baron Miranda, shocked. He then revealed an ecstatic expression and asked, “Is that for real?”

The baron’s men also started chattering out loud and gathered to look at the heads within the box.

“The heads are right here. You’re free to check them as you please, Lord Baron.”

Baron Miranda personally dismounted and took the box from Reidy without even bothering to ask his subordinates to do it.

“Hahaha, it really is Pike and Sloph. These damned bastards, I didn’t expect that they would ever end up like this.” Baron Miranda was so elated that he started laughing out loud and lost all composure. It seemed that the rumors and reports that he received about the death of Sloph was true after all.

At that moment, the baron’s men started a commotion again, as on the opposite hill, rows and rows of heavy-armored soldiers, crossbowmen, knights and carroballistas could be seen. The look on Baron Miranda’s face instantly changed as he asked, “Is that your army?”

“That is right, Lord Baron,” replied Lorist.

“Your army looks like it can even rival that of a kingdom! Why would the slavers even dare to attack you in the first place?” No sane person would dare to challenge an army such as that and expect to escape unscathed. Baron Miranda suspected that Lorist was merely using the slavers as an excuse to pillage the bastide.

“Lord Baron, when we first arrived at your dominion, we didn’t intend to cause any trouble and wanted to keep a low profile. That is why I ordered my forces to disarm and not bring any of their equipment over. But, that made the slavers think that we were another slave trading group and demanded that we give them half of the people we had. We tried to explain who we really were but they didn’t believe it and even sent people to attack us. I had no choice but to give the order to exterminate them. You can go ask the citizens of the town. We were truly unarmed when we first docked at the harbor.”

After listening to the explanation, Baron Miranda understood that there was no way that Lorist could be lying as the truth could easily be discerned by asking the townsfolk. It would seem that the slavers truly did look for trouble themselves this time and ended up being completely eradicated.

Looking at the heads in the boxes again, Baron Miranda revealed a smile and waved for two of his knights behind him and told them to ransack seven or eight different shops that he listed.

“These shops are all owned by Sloph’s relatives. The lot of them completely monopolized the whole market at the harbor to the point that I, the dominion lord, couldn’t collect even a single copper of tax from the sales they make, causing me to be unable to develop the harbor at all,” explained Baron Miranda.

Lorist nodded and thought that this baron did indeed have a knack for business and management. He called Reidy to accompany the two knights to the town so that their pike infantry company don’t attack them by mistake.

“You said that you already took over the Sloph Bastide?” asked Baron Miranda.

Lorist smiled and understood what the baron was getting at. “That’s right,, Lord Baron. Please rest assured as I will be staying here for another month at most. As there are many family members of the soldiers in my army, it would take quite a bit of time for us to prepare before we can leave. We should be leaving for the north during the new year and will hand over the management of the bastide to you.”

The baron’s face reddened with embarrassment as according to the traditions and customs of nobles, the bastide rightfully belonged to Lorist as he was the one who had occupied it and he had no obligation to return it to the local lord. Normally, if the lord wanted to reclaim the place, he would have to pay a sum of gold in return. However, Lorist was prepared to give it back unconditionally and only asked to be given a month’s time. This made Baron Miranda feel a little bad for gaining Lorist’s favor without paying any remuneration.

“How about this? Let me pay for all the resources and expenses you would incur during your stay at the bastide. I will definitely fulfill my responsibilities as the Armatrin Harbor’s lord,” said Baron Miranda.

“Thank you for your consideration,” said Lorist gratefully. “If you have the time, why don’t you come over to visit the bastide and let me offer you some hospitality while I’m here?” he offered.

Baron Miranda eyed the rows of soldiers on the opposite side and looked back at his subordinates before nodding and saying, “Alright, Your Excellency. Let me disband my men before I go to visit you at the bastide.”

As Lorist had yet to officially succeed the title and position of the family head, he couldn’t be addressed as ‘Lord Baron’, so Baron Miranda could only refer to him respectfully as ‘Your Excellency’. But it wasn’t undeserved given the amount of soldiers Lorist commanded.

Lorist saluted respectfully once more and said, “Then I will await your arrival at the bastide.”

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Baron Miranda only brought five knights and fifty other members of his personal guard during his visit to the bastide.

On that day, Lorist organized a grand banquet to receive the baron and his four knights and introduced his own knights to them as well, causing Baron Miranda to be envious of the talent Lorist had under his wing. However, he noticed that Lorist’s servants behaved quite oddly, specifically, their mannerisms. Lorist laughed bitterly and said that the servants were actually family members of many of his subordinates who only worked for the sake of the banquet. He mentioned that he didn’t feel comfortable with handing the task to the servants of the bastide just in case something goes wrong and has detained them along with the other family members of the slavers. He said that he would leave their judgment and treatment to the baron.

Baron Miranda was glad at that proposal and said that he would send some of his own servants over to help out within the bastide for the time being. Lorist also handed the family members of the slavers to his disposal. Whether he sold them or used them, the baron would profit either way.

When the banquet ended, Baron Miranda asked Lorist a question. Given that only three of Lorist’s subordinates were Gold ranks, how did he manage to take care of Blademaster Pike? He mentioned that if Sloph didn’t have the Blademaster backing him up, he would have taken the slavers out long ago as a lord like him couldn’t let some other power call the shots within his own dominion.

Lorist thought for a bit before he took a silver cup and placed it into a small basin. “If one fights against a Blademaster in close combat, one would be like the cup inside this basin and would find it hard to escape the control of the basin. The method I used to counteract that is much easier.”

He put the basin back on the table and tossed the silver cup towards it. With a clang, the basin shattered into many pieces.

“It’s just that simple,” said Lorist. He credited the death of the Blademaster to his crossbowman company. “Even if someone is a Blademaster, when faced with a fully-equipped and properly trained army, he wouldn’t even stand a chance.”

Baron Miranda nodded incessantly with a look of understanding on his face.

Chapter 57 Various Preparations for the Journey

Lorist really required the help of Baron Miranda as without his permission, no matter how strong his army or how wealthy he was, he wouldn’t be able to gain the support he needed from Armatrin Harbor in terms of human and material resources and that would have a huge effect on restarting the journey north with so many new people in their convoy.

Lorist, Charade and his other knights have carried out various discussions and came to the conclusion that the largest tribulation for the northbound journey was the 1000 km route they had to take through the Redlis Kingdom. If Lorist only crossed the kingdom with ten or so people, that wouldn’t pose much of a problem. However, he now had 6000 plus people in his convoy as well as a huge amount of precious resources.

The Redlis Kingdom was founded by the former First Prince of the Krissen Empire. During the days when the empire still existed, the First Prince had already been known to be a violent, untrustworthy and avaricious person who has had his right to succeed the imperial throne revoked by the emperor himself and was relegated to the Bodolger Province which was very distant from the imperial capital. However, that seemed to work in the First Prince’s favor as he quickly managed to gain control of the military forces of the province and plundered the citizens of their wealth in the masses to form his own personal army. Sometimes he even had his soldiers masquerade as bandits to rob traveling merchants, making him the prime suspect for the demise of the Norton Family’s merchant convoy.

When the emperor passed away, the FIrst Prince was also the first one to fly the flag of rebellion and effectively plunged the empire into chaos and civil war. Currently, only one year and a half after the peace treaty was signed, the First Prince started to look for an excuse to start another conflict with the Forund Duchy as that used to be one of the wealthiest provinces during its days under imperial rule. Fortunately, the various powers in the central part of the former empire’s territory, the Farkel Duchy, the Handra Duchy, the Forund Duchy and the Shabaj Duchy were aware of the First Prince’s intentions and have since formed a military alliance to resist the Redlis Kingdom’s invasion. Various skirmishes were already going on at the mid-southern area of the border between the four duchies and the Redlis Kingdom.

What Lorist and his knights were worried about was now that they were at Armatrin Harbor, which was a territory of the Lormo Duchy, they would have to enter the border of the Redlis Kingdom to be able to reach the Northlands. Given the amount of people and resources the convoy had, there was little doubt that they would become a target for the First Prince. Though, the First Prince didn’t have it easy either as after he had plundered his own territory clean, bandits groups have mushroomed in response to the hard times the citizens were experiencing.

Additionally, with the incessant conflict between the Redlis Kingdom and the four duchies and the frequent plundering of the duchies’ citizens by the First Prince’s forces, not one of them did not hate the First Prince to the bone. That was why even if the First Prince were to retreat back into his own territory, the allied army wouldn’t let him off that easily and would fight their way beyond the Redlis Kingdom’s borders. There were even rumors that the First Prince was relying on loans to keep his army operational so that the front lines do not crumble.

Charade believed that if they were to take the main highway to the north, no matter how strong their army, they would no doubt be targeted by the First Prince’s forces. Given that the First Prince had a grudge against the Nortons, he would probably want to use that opportunity to wipe the northbound convoy out and also take all the resources they had.

Potterfang and Charade both suggested that the convoy take a roundabout route to the northwest that was 150 km longer than the main route and pass through various other dominions of other noble families. The reason for that was because they would easily be able to suppress the various smaller nobles and force their way through with military might if necessary. The dominions were also plagued with bandits and that would serve as decent training for their soldiers as well as earn the favor of the nobles.

Potterfang also said that if they wanted to escape the fangs of the Redlis Kingdom, they would have to travel at a rate of 25 to 30 kilometers per day. That way, even if the First Prince were to receive word of their presence, his soldiers wouldn’t be able to catch up to the convoy.

“If we manage to occupy this place, then we will no longer have anything to worry about,” said Potterfang as he pointed to a spot on the map. That place, Benz Citadel, was at the border between the Third Prince’s Andinaq Kingdom and the Redlis Kingdom. Potterfang was quite well-informed about that area because he used to participate in battles over there back in the days when he was in the Whitelion Legion. He mentioned that the Whitelion Legion had defeated the First Prince’s army before at that place but due to the support in the form of resources the prince had from the Forde Trade Union, they managed to siege the place and wait until the Whitelion Legion ran out of provisions and had no choice but to retreat, causing the crucial citadel on the border to go to the hands of the First Prince.

Potterfang said that ever since that event, both nations couldn’t afford to keep fighting and were forced to sign a peace treaty. The Whitelion Legion was subsequently disbanded. As the First Prince wanted to focus his forces on the central area of the former empire’s territory, he only left 1000 or so troops to defend the citadel. Potterfang discovered half a year back when he was passing through the area with his two children on the way to Morante City that the security at there was extremely lax. If they could take advantage of that situation and attack the citadel, they will be able to easily conquer the place without sacrificing too many of their soldiers.

Lorist understood Potterfang’s intentions: if they manage to conquer the citadel and hand it to the Third Prince, they would be able to gain his favor and will also be able to avoid pursuit from the First Prince’s forces and continue their journey to the Northlands without worry.

After deciding on which route to take, the next issue was to think about how they would be able to let the convoy travel at least 25 kilometer each day. It seemed that they had no choice but to rely on carriages. Otherwise, the children and the elderly among the family members of the soldiers wouldn’t be able to keep up with the speed. According to Charade’s plan, they would group four to five families together and fill up each carriage with around 12 to 13 people each, totalling up to 250 carriages solely for the use of non-combatants. Including the carriages for the main convoy, Charade concluded that they would require at least 600 carriages before they would be able to start the journey.

During the course of their stay at the bastide, Charade utilized the manpower of the non-combatants to the maximum and categorized them according to their various skills to start building their own carriages. However, the most they could build within a month was estimated to be only 200. Including the ones they already had, they would only have 300 by the time they had to leave. The horses required to pull the carriages was also lacking. A four-wheeled carriage required two horses to pull, so 600 of them needed at least 1200. However, even after taking over the bastide, Lorist only had around 600 horses.

Lorist really didn’t have much time to spare. He had to return to the Northlands to inherit the position and the title before the 3rd month of the following year. It was already the 11th month right now and he only had three months left to bring the whole convoy across a distance of over 2500 kilometers to reach the Northlands.

Even so, the decision to stay at the Sloph Bastide for another month was inevitable as they needed the extra time to prepare the rest of the carriages they needed before the start of the journey. As long as they manage to go through the Redlis Kingdom, the convoy would be able to proceed onward without any worries and Lorist can leave the convoy and bring a few others with him to go back to the dominion first to make it in time for the succession ceremony.

That was why Lorist really needed the aid of Baron Miranda. As long as the baron agreed to let the citizens within his dominion help out with the construction of the carriages, they would be able to leave on time within a month. Originally, Lorist was still troubled over thinking of a way to convince the baron to help. What he didn’t expect was for Baron Miranda to offer aid of his own accord, much to Lorist’s delight. The act of giving up the bastide for free as well as the families of the slavers to the baron was probably the main factor for his decision to help out.

During Baron Miranda’s stay at the bastide, Lorist announced that he would rename the place into the Miranda Bastide much to the baron’s delight. He then pledged that he would aid Lorist however he could and agreed to have his citizens help out with the carriage building and also provide up to 1000 horses for the convoy. Though, the main motivation behind the baron’s actions might have been because he wanted the convoy to depart as early as possible so that he can truly take over the bastide.

The baron told Lorist candidly that he intended to make the Miranda Bastide his new home and headquarters of the dominion as its location was strategic and easy to defend, but incredibly hard for people to siege given the advantageous surrounding terrain as well as the defensive fortifications within. Secondly, he believed that his control over the Armatrin Harbor would be strengthened even further and expressed his intention to invest and develop the place further. He said that he could already smell all the coins that would be rolling into his pocket in the near future.

Lorist truly admired the baron’s eye for business and thanked him for his kind favor of providing the carriages and horses for free. He presented the three ships that belonged to Sloph to the baron as a gift in return, thus fulfilling the baron’s long dream of owning his very own small fleet. In actuality, the price of three hundred carriages as well as a thousand workhorses was about the same price as the barque that Sloph came in. But the nobles usually wouldn’t engage in trading that straightforwardly like merchants would because it was considered uncouth. That was why the baron offered what he could for free and Lorist reciprocated by returning the favor.

As promised, three days after Baron Miranda left, he sent his main supervisor and almost a hundred servants to help out at the Miranda Bastide and specifically sent two young and beautiful maidens to serve Lorist personally. The supervisor even told him that the girls had already consumed the Mishla Elixir so he wouldn’t have to worry about leaving behind any unintended offspring.

Naturally, Lorist quickly had his knights move out from the central building of the bastide to some of the other vacant houses so that the supervisor could start planning the renovations as that would be Baron Miranda’s mansion in the near future.

Baron Miranda was quite impressed at Lorist’s ability to read between the lines and thought that if Lorist didn’t have to go back to his homeland to inherit the title, he would definitely love to have him as his subordinate.

Probably due to having gained quite a bit from ransacking the shops of Sloph’s relatives, the baron also signed a contract with Charade during his stay. The clauses of the contract were as follows: First, Lorist will have to help Baron Miranda train a 720 men personal guard, a 120-strong heavy-armored soldier unit, 240 crossbowmen as well as 360 pikemen within a month.

Second, the personal guard will be assembled within three days and stationed at the former slavers’ camp south to Armatrin Harbor and the equipment of which shall be provided by Lorist. The fee for the equipment and training of 20000 gold Fordes will be paid by Baron Miranda.

Third, Lorist will offer the extra weapons the convoy didn’t need for sale at 60% of the market price to Baron Miranda.

Fourth, the baron will provide Lorist with 300 cows and 2000 sheep, the fees of which will be deducted from the sum he had to pay to Lorist.

After signing the agreement, the baron left the bastide to collect the funds and conscript people into his personal guard. Lorist and Charade called Els and Terman over and told them to head to Morante City right away to purchase all the worn out equipment from the other academies. Back then, Lorist only bought old equipment from 7 academies but there were a total of 28 academies within Morante City and there was still much profit to be made.

Charade then regretted that he didn’t think about this ploy beforehand. If he had started to buy up all the used equipment and refurbished them for sale, he would already earned over 1 million gold coins! The armors that the heavy-armored soldiers only cost up to 10 gold coins each to buy and fix up. If he were to sell them at 40 gold coins each to the baron, he would turn a huge profit and the baron would still be under the impression that he got a good bargain.

Els and Terman then left for Morante City with 50000 gold Fordes to purchase not only the used equipment from the academies but also to order the axles needed for the construction of the carriages. Lorist also had them deliver a letter to request President Peterson to help them up with acquiring the axles.

Currently, the Miranda Bastide was bustling with activity. Lorist finally understood the true difficulties that came with managing a group of over 6000 people. In terms of clothing, Charade already had it covered as he had ordered quite a lot back in Morante City as well as confiscated quite an amount from the bastide’s residents. They already had enough for the whole group.

As for food, it mainly concerned dry provisions that they could bring along on the journey. The whole group already consumed more than 5000 kilograms of food every day courtesy of Baron Miranda during their stay, along with quite an amount of treats like fruits, vegetables and meat, causing the supervisor of Baron Miranda to freak out and be forced to import more to curb the shortage.

Given that their needs were provided for by the baron during their stay, the food that they brought over could be saved up for the journey ahead. Charade decided to make black bread with the ingredients they had. Black bread was usually used to feed soldiers and it was different in that it was almost half a meter long and was thicker than Lorist’s arm. Upon removing it from the oven, the bread cooled down and hardened quite a bit to a point where Lorist thought that it might even be harder than bricks.

Each black bread can last an adult ten whole days and the way one usually consumed it was different than that of normal bread. Should one attempt to bite it as it is, one’s teeth would undoubtedly fall out. There were a few ways one could eat black bread. If there was ample time, it could be roasted over a fire and cut into half for meat to be sandwiched in between. If there wasn’t enough time to roast it, the bread could be hammered into powder and cooked with water to make some gruel. It could also be consumed after simply softening it up with water and chewing it slowly before swallowing the clump.

It was relatively easy to prepare black bread. Using a mixture of rye, bran, salt and some optional additions, it only had to be allowed to ferment and baked. Potterfang said that during one food shortage, the Whitelion Legion even mixed sawdust and tree leaves into the mixture. Additionally, the bread wouldn’t spoil for at least half a year. Charade planned to have 10000 long black breads made and have each soldier carry two and one for each family member. Lorist even joked that if a soldier’s weapon were to break during a battle, he could still use the bread as a mace to hammer the enemy to death.

Other than black bread, Charade also planned to have the 300 cows and 2000 sheep given to them by Baron Miranda to be made into dried meat and jerky. He also ordered a large amount of pickled fruit and vegetables so that the convoy would have some snacks to spice up their meals.

When it came to shelter, there was only one solution. Tents. There was no way a group of 6000 people could stay within inns. Charade had considered the problem of accommodation quite extensively and had decided to allocate one tent for every carriage of people. The camp would then be set up in the center with the carriages forming a wall and surrounding it.

As for transport, they would primarily rely on four-wheeled carriages. However, the journey to the Northlands was unlike normal trips undertaken by normal convoys. Given the risks and dangers, the army that escorted the convoy would further complicate the process as the transportation of equipment, rations as well as the herbalist unit to go around to provide aid would need to be considered.

On the 23rd day of the 12th month, Els and Terman returned on a large ship of the Peterson Merchant Guild to Armatrin Harbor and brought back 700 sets of carriage axles with them. They reported that the President Peterson had his people buy up all the axles for sale in Morante City and even dismantled more than 100 of their own carriages to make up for the demand.

Aside from the axles, they also spent nearly 20000 gold Fordes and emptied eight other academies of their used equipment. They didn’t approach every academy, however, as they were worried that they wouldn’t have enough time and space to ship all those equipment back.

Els and Terman said that the amount of equipment was truly too much. When Charade asked the baron to fulfill his end of the bargain to purchase the equipment, he was instantly flabbergasted as he realized that all his money could only afford a third of the equipment, and that was already discounted at 60% of the market price.

He could only use 60000 gold coins to purchase a quarter of the equipment. However, he still managed to turn a profit in the end by selling them to the neighboring nobles at a higher price.

That prompted Charade to realize that the number of carriages needed for the convoy would have to grow again to 800 to accommodate the increased baggage of the equipment. Thus, he decided that he would offer the equipment up for sale to the other nobles on the way to the Northlands and use the profit they would earn for the development of the dominion in the future.

Time passed quickly and it was already the new year. All the preparations for the journey had already been completed and the convoy would depart within another three days.

To celebrate the coming of the new year, Lorist announced that he would give every soldier one gold Forde and every one of their family members one large silver. He also decided to organize a large festival, causing everyone of the convoy to cheer with excitement.

It was already getting late into the night and Lorist found it difficult for him to fall asleep. He took a walk outside the yard and looked towards the stars hanging high up in the heavens, subsequently losing himself in his thoughts. Now that the northbound journey is about to begin, I wonder how I will fare as a lord when I finally return to my homeland?

Chapter 58 The Journey North Begins

On the 3rd day of the 1st month, Lorist bid farewell to Baron Miranda and began his journey.

The massive convoy used the main road and traveled up to 60 kilometers within that day.

On the 4th day of the 1st month, the convoy traveled another 20 kilometers before noon and left the main road for a forest path detour. Having just crossed a small hill, they arrived at the territory of the nobles of the Redlis Kingdom.

On the third day of the journey, just when the convoy was about to start moving again, Yuriy sent someone over to report that the local dominion lord, a viscount, has led more than 20 knights to the convoy and said that they would attack the convoy should they not leave ten percent of whatever they had as toll.

Lorist merely laughed and asked the scout who made the report, “Did Knight Yuriy tell the viscount that this is the army of the Norton Family and we’re only making our way back to our dominion without doing any business on the way?”

The scout replied, “Sir Yuriy has already told the viscount many times, but he refused to listen and stubbornly insisted that we are a smuggling group that is pretending to be a noble family. He even said that if we were going to impersonate nobles, we would be better off if we used a flag from some well-known one and not the flag of the Norton Family, a family that he hasn’t heard of before at all.”

Loris turned to his back and called out, “Terman, go forward to invite that viscount over. I’ll let him know personally what our family is made of.”

Without delay, Terman came back with the viscount as his prisoner.

Terman said that when he led the knight brigade on a charge, the viscount’s men either turned back to escape or got off their horses to surrender, leaving the viscount himself staring in disbelief as Terman and his knights took all 27 of the viscount’s men prisoner.

However, the viscount still retained the proud, unyielding demeanor that was expected from a noble; even though he was taken prisoner, he still held his head up high and cursed, “You actually dare to go against me, the family head of the Mestre Family? Are you looking to start a war with us?!”

However, he also said that if Lorist was willing to reimburse him for his loss and apologize, he would be willing to let the convoy off due since he was a benevolent and forgiving person. “You are to offer a huge tribute to me as an apology and… Ooooh… This maidservant looks pretty decent…” He was referring to Molise who was standing by Charade’s side.

Lorist gave a bitter laugh and turned to Potterfang and said, “I suspect this guy doesn’t have a brain.”

The stuck up and arrogant viscount was instantly strapped onto the hollow rotor on the orders of the enraged Charade. Reidy had him go through more than ten minutes of the excruciating vertigo-inducing experience, after which the viscount was let go. He then answered every single question Lorist’s group had with tears and snot all over his face.

It appeared that Viscount Mestre was in the midst of a war with a neighboring baron. Just yesterday night, the viscount and his men had intended to raid a small village nearby but they returned empty handed. As they were on their way back to the castle, however, they saw the northbound convoy and the viscount tried to make up for his loss by demanding for a toll fee to be paid. He also mentioned that his castle and the rest of his forces was only 30 kilometers away at a lake nearby.

Lorist said happily, “Oh, so the viscount has come over to invite us to his castle as guests. Terman, bring this Viscount Mes-thingamajig to his castle and have his men surrender. Otherwise, have him hanged right outside his castle. Also, have Dulles and his carroballista unit accompany you as well. If they refuse to surrender, besiege the castle right away. We’re going to lodge there tonight.”

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Currently, Viscount Mestre felt extremely cold. Having just opened his eyes and still feeling a little woozy, he thought, that cursed fatty, he actually dared to treat a noble personage such as me in that fashion… When I get back to the castle, I will gather the citizens of my domain and teach them a lesson… Wait, where is this? It seems quite familiar…

The viscount gave his face a pinch and felt much more conscious of his surroundings. He found that he could oddly recognize that place. Finally, he noticed that this was his castle and the room he was in seemed to be his bedroom. But why had his bedroom changed so much?

The viscount propped himself up from the floor and noticed that he was stark naked with not one piece of garment on his body. What is this, thought the viscount as he inspected the piece of cloth that was covering him when he was unconscious. It seemed to be a rough linen bag that was used to store wheat.

Ridiculous! What did they do to me? The viscount cursed and walked quickly towards the empty spot where his bed once was and pulled on the bell rope to summon his maidservant to help him dress up. However, when he pulled on the rope, it merely slipped downward with the other end having fallen on the ground. The rope was disconnected.

Pinching his nose at the smell of the linen sack, he brought it up to his waist and used the rope to fasten it and walked towards the exit barefoot. Looking along the walkway, he couldn’t see a single soul. The viscount called out loudly for his servants, but no one answered.

Going over to an adjacent room, he noticed that it was completely empty just like his bedroom without a single article of clothing, furniture or footwear left behind. All that remained was an icy cold wall. He checked the other rooms only to find that the furnishings and decorations that used to be there all but gone.

Wandering around his castle, the viscount noticed that even the torches on the walls were all missing and started fearing for the worst. What in the world happened? Where is everyone else? He then rushed towards the balcony and felt the sunlight warming his skin up before breathing a sigh of relief.

From the balcony, he swept his gaze over the rest of his castle and noticed that it was surprisingly clean, so clean that not even a single carriage, metalware, textile, livestock or person could be seen. The castle was only left with nothing but the stones and wood that it was constructed from.

“Is anyone around? Is there anyone left?” cried out the viscount in despair from the balcony.

“Milord, you’re finally awake. That’s… that’s great.” A silhouette could be seen leaning on the castle walls from afar. The viscount narrowed his eyes and thought, isn’t that my loyal butler? Why is he half naked with nothing but a sack covering him like me?

The viscount quickly made his way to the yard where his butler was at and was met with the butler’s emotional ramblings. “Milord, you’re finally awake You have been out cold for two days already!”

The viscount rested his hand on the butler and asked, “Where is everyone? What happened to my castle? I can’t see a single thing anywhere!”

“Milord, did you forget? Two days ago, a group of bandits threatened that if we do not surrender and let them in the castle, they would have you hanged. We had no choice but to comply for the sake of your life and surrendered without resistance. The bandits said that they were the army of some Norton Family and complained that you have delayed their journey and also caused them to suffer a blow to their morale. They demanded that we pay them back for their losses. But, milord, you understand too that our family doesn’t have much gold coins left. The bandits then consumed all the livestock within the castle and took every single thing within it, not leaving even a single piece of cloth behind and also dismantled all the doors and took it with them,” explained the butler.

The viscount was already going crazy with rage. “Then, what about the servants? Why don’t I see anyone here?”

“They have all left with the bandits, milord. Before they left, they gathered everyone in the castle and a fatty asked all of us whether we wanted to leave with their group. I refused and they instantly stripped me naked and left me here while the others followed them and left long ago,” said the butler.

“Milord, they only left me two sacks after I desperately pleaded. I have only managed to find a porcelain bowl after two days of searching and I just used to cook up some oatmeal. Milord, do you want to have a meal first?”

Having heard that there was food, the viscount suddenly felt the emptiness within his stomach. “Alright, get me some then.”

At that moment, sounds of horses galloping could be heard approaching the main gates of the castle. The old butler’s face instantly changed as he said, “Milord, this is bad! The Bocchi Family’s men have come to attack us!”

“Shut the gates immediately,” said the viscount anxiously.

“But, milord, the bandits took away the castle gates as well! During these past two days, I only managed to build a wall of rocks to shut the entrance of the castle…” said the old butler.

“We’re finished……” said the viscount as he knelt down in despair.

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Charade wasn’t concerned in the slightest about their encounter with Viscount Mestre at all. To him, the viscount was a complete imbecile. He truly wondered how a person like him became a landed noble in the first place. The viscount thought that he could boss anyone around just because he was a noble without even bothering to consider the actual capability of his forces. He even wanted to take my Molise… Good thing we didn’t let him off lightly.

At that moment, Charade was standing in front of the castle of the third noble they ran into during their journey. The dominion lord, a baron, was currently haggling over the price of a pile of weapons. When they passed through another noble’s territory the day before, Charade sent a messenger to state their intent on doing business with the dominion lord. However, the lord was frightened by the military might of the convoy and had turtled up within his castle, refusing to respond to anything they said. Charade could do naught but give up on the notion of selling their goods to that noble.

Charade had learned his lesson after that and when they passed by the current baron’s castle, they only bought three carriages and offered some of the stuff they took from Viscount Mestre’s castle as gifts for the him. The reason the things were given away was because it was too much for the convoy to bring along on the journey.

Seeing the gifts dangling before his face, the baron appeared on the walls of his castle and asked Charade of his intentions.

Charade made a knight salute and stated that he came to represent the Norton Family’s convoy and asked whether the baron would be able to offer their group with some provisions in exchange for some weapons and equipment.

Upon hearing about weapons, the baron quickly got out of his castle to take a look and picked 100 pikes, 20 chain mails, 20 round shields, 20 two-handed greatswords as well as 3 full sets of knight armor. All the items totaled up to around 500 gold Fordes, but since the baron did not have that much money at hand, he decided to offer some other resources he had for trade.

In the end. the baron spent 100 gold coins and ten carriages with two horses for each all filled up with wheat as well as 5 cows with another 50 pigs to be exchanged for the weapons. To commemorate his first sale, Charade offered the items at 80% of the original price and even treated the baron to a bottle of wine produced by Sloph’s vineyard.

The baron was quite happy at having been treated to some fine wine and kindly advised that once the convoy leaves the mountain range, the convoy would no longer be in his dominion and warned for them to be on their guard as that area was rife with bandit activity. He also told them to be wary of attacks from Count Cobry’s army.

Charade hastily thanked the baron for his advice and invited the baron over to the convoy’s campsite near the mountain range for a banquet.

The baron thought it over and said that he would attend it and hoped that his presence would not cause too much trouble for the convoy.

Charade quickly responded that having the baron over to join them for the night was an honor and said that he would go back quickly to prepare for the banquet that night.

In the evening, the baron came over with his eldest son, a Three Star Silver Knight, and four other attendants. Upon entering the campsite, the baron expressed his wonder and praise at the Norton Family’s military might.

Charade, who was seated at a table that they had took from Viscount Mestre’s castle, introduced Lorist and the family knights to the baron. The baron was called Charles and his son’s name was Soria. After that, they all started eating and chatting merrily.

Charade said that the main reason he invited Baron Charles over was to get an understanding of the situation of the areas where the convoy would be passing through. The baron and his son thus started telling the group everything they knew.

According to Baron Charles, the mountains where the convoy had set up camp at was the border between his and Viscount Debonar’s territory. However, not only was Viscount Debonar dead, the neighboring Baron Anlar, Count Bajri as well as Baron Omador also suffered the same fate. That was to say, Lorist’s convoy would be passing through lands that were currently without rulers. He said that there would not be any place where Lorist can resupply as the cities and villages there had all been raided to ruin.

And the cause of it all was Count Cobry’s private army. It was said that in his younger days, the count was a morally bereft knight who was also a serial womanizer whose favorite pastime was to travel around within his dominion to force the women he fancied into bed with him. No matter whether they were in their teens or their late forties, he didn’t let even one of them out of his grasp, thus causing the women in his dominion to stay cooped up within their homes or leave it altogether.

Due to his lifestyle, the count had over 60 illegitimate children. Though, he didn’t mind that fact at all and adopted all of them, thus causing the neighboring nobles to give him the moniker, ‘Count Ravenous’. On one occasion when Count Cobry went to the imperial capital for some merrymaking, he got to know the First Prince and the two of them quickly became close friends. Two years later when the First Prince was exiled by the former emperor, the count returned to his dominion and stayed within his bastide to nurture all of his illegitimate sons.

After a couple of more years when the First Prince raised the flag of rebellion at Bodolger Province, the count responded by bringing his thirty other grown up illegitimate sons to pledge their allegiance to the First Prince. After the civil war, the count returned with his army and loads of loot and gold back to his dominion, but only ten of the thirty sons still survived.

At present day, even though the count was already in his sixties, his ambitions still hadn’t waned. Soon after his return to the dominion, he used various excuses to start conflicts with the neighboring nobles and has successfully expanded his territory to twice its former size. The 13 noble families who had resisted him all perished. The men were culled with the women suffering fates worse than death: they were either abused to their last breath or sold to slave traders when their oppresors were done with them.

There was one noble who made complaints about the count’s cruelty to the First Prince so that the fallen noble families may be avenged. However, the First Prince stated that he was unaware of the full picture and would investigate the matter further before taking any action. But no follow up was done even though the noble had waited for more than three months. It was after that when he ran into one of the count’s sons who was one the way to the Redlis Kingdom’s capital to pay their taxes and tributes.

A fight erupted between the two with it ending with the noble’s death at the hands of one of the servants of the illegitimate son. It was described that the servant was angered by the noble who insulted his beloved master to the point where he couldn’t contain himself and started lashing out violently. This led to the servant being given the death sentence for killing a noble with the count’s son remaining unscathed from the whole affair.

When word of that matter spread to the territories of the noble families near that of the count’s, a chain reaction occurred. People started to accuse the First Prince of favoritism towards the count. At that moment, one of the aides of Count Cobry revealed a stunning fact when he was dead drunk at a tavern: before the count returned to his dominion, the First Prince had promised him that he would grant the count the title of ‘Duke of the Northwest’ if he was able to make the nearby nobles submit to him and that the lands of the nobles would become part of his dominion.

That was why Count Cobry was so fervent in looking for trouble with the nobles around the area without heeding any of the customs and traditions of nobles when it came to war. He even purged every single one of the opposition, down to every single family member, so that they wouldn’t cause any problems to him in the future. The whole of the kingdom’s nobles all lost faith in the First Prince upon hearing that revelation and almost 40 of those families banded together to form an alliance to curb the threat of Count Cobry, vowing to support each other should any one of them be troubled by the count. Even so, given the past grudges some of them had with others, it was not uncommon for some of them to stab another family in the back from time to time. During the past half year itself, two families have already fallen to Count Cobry’s clutches. The alliance also suffered quite a number of losses in battles, causing some of the members to leave it and join the count’s side instead.

Baron Charles then downed another large glass of wine before he said now that Count Cobry’s army has wiped out the Debonar Family, his own would undoubtedly be the next target. Recently, other than expending his efforts on raising an army of his own, he has also sent some of his sons and daughters to Morante City to some relatives living there to minimize the damage Count Cobry would cause should he succeed in his next conquest. That was also why he purchased so much military equipment from the convoy.

The baron’s eldest son, Soria, told Lorist all he knew about the count’s forces. Having gotten quite a great haul from the recent conflicts. the count brought over a thousand mercenaries when he returned to his dominion. These men were all mounted and equipped with leather armor and pikes. They called themselves the Spear Cavalry. Adept at chasing down and surrounding their enemies, they were the main force of Count Cobry’s army. Other than that, the count also had a local garrison that numbered around 2000 people which was led by a couple of his illegitimate sons who had joined him in his previous expeditions and also helped him manage some of his other territories’ security and administration.

Whenever the count defeated an enemy, he would raze the whole territory that belonged to his fallen foe and bring the surviving citizens of the land back to his dominion to serve as slave laborers to build infrastructure for his dominion. Rumor has it that Count Cobry intended to build a city that rivaled that of the kingdom’s capital as his main base as the Duke of the Northwest.

Soria also said that in the dominions of the noble families who have been eliminated, small resistance groups formed by the locals that numbered from ten to a hundred people were all over the place and they caused the count quite a bit of trouble. Due to the lack of resources and provisions, they often acted as bandits from time to time and pillaged not only the count’s dominion but also the territories belonging to the other nobles as well. In an attempt to wipe out the resistance, the count had sent his forces to the lordless dominions to kill the insurgents as well as capture some strong young men for extra labor.

Among the ranks of the insurgents, there was a famous knight called Josk who was a One Star Gold rank that was famed for his superb archery skills. In one of his exploits to avenge his former master’s family, he snuck into Count Cobry’ dominion alone and managed to snipe two of the count’s illegitimate sons as well as hurt the shoulder of the count himself, causing a large bounty to be of 100 gold coins to be placed on him. Currently, Josk leads a force of over a few hundred men and has even threatened some local nobles to provide them with weapons and equipment. Soria expressed his hopes that Lorist’s convoy won’t run into him as he crossed that area.

He advised that Lorist take a detour and not pass through the area that was within the count’s influence. Otherwise, should the count or the insurgent groups set their sights on the convoy, no matter how strong they were, there was no doubt that they would suffer quite a huge loss. Other than that, when Soria and his father were passing through the area, they noticed a huge number of refugees which followed armies around in hopes of being able to get some food. They would also become a potential burden to the convoy.

After sending the baron and his son off, Lorist’s expression turned solemn. Should we continue on the original path or go back the way we came? This was indeed a matter that required extensive consideration.

Chapter 59 Kill Them All

Lorist decided to let the convoy continue on its original path as he agreed with Charade’s rationalization: the convoy was only passing through the area and not intending to fight for the right to rule the place. Besides that, the convoy was being escorted by an elite military force. Based on the military might they had, Count Cobry would definitely think twice about whether he would attack them, as, if he ended up being crippled from all the casualties he would get, wouldn’t that open up an opportunity for the other scheming nobles to cause him even more grief? They believed that the count wouldn’t make such an irrational decision.

Charade also said that if the count didn’t give them any trouble, they could also trade weapons with him so that he may be able to unify the lands under his rule more swiftly. As for the livelihood of the other nobles, it didn’t have anything to do with the convoy. No matter what kind of person Count Cobry was personally, it didn’t matter much to Lorist and his gang as they were only passing through the area.

That reasoning had Lorist convinced to take the original route that they had planned. Potterfang also mentioned that given the family’s forces, there was no need for them to fear the insurgent groups as they were mainly concerned with fighting the count. As long as they didn’t band up together to attack the convoy, Potterfang was confident that he would be able to protect its safety.

However, Lorist didn’t expect that he would actually run into such an arrogant and brutal bunch that didn’t even bother to communicate before they attacked, much to his anger and dismay.

The convoy was divided into three battalions, namely, the vanguard battalion, the main battalion and the rearguard battalion. The vanguard battalion had up to 100 carriages with Yuriy’s scout cavalry squad and a company of pikemen traveling ahead of them. Their task was to ensure the safety of the area in front of the convoy and notify the ones behind them about the best road to take or where to set up camp as well as prepare the appropriate measures for the defense and safety of the convoy.

The main battalion had 600 four-wheeled horse carriages that transported the convoy’s provisions, weapons and equipment as well as the family members of the soldiers. It was guarded by Terman’s knight brigade, a company of crossbowmen, the heavy-armored battalion, a company of pikemen as well as 160 other guards.

The rearguard battalion had up to 100 carriages with only Dulles’s carroballista unit and a company of pikemen guarding it. The main reason for that was the condition of the muddy road they traveled on. To prevent any damage to the carroballistas, such as having their wheels stuck in a pit, the former two battalions served to stamp the roads flat and sturdy by traveling ahead of the rearguard battalion. The main role of the rearguard battalion was to provide support for the carriages that needed maintenance and transport some miscellaneous baggage, such as the stuff they had taken from Viscount Mestre’s castle. The people from the viscount’s castle were also escorted by the rearguard battalion.

Having crossed the hills that marked the border between Baron Charles’s and the other nobles’ territories, Lorist instructed the convoy to be on high alert. On the first day, the journey went smoothly, but there were reports from pikemen that stated that some people have been sighted inspecting the convoy’s campsite from afar. Lorist ordered for the crossbowmen company to make defense preparations and kill anyone who entered the camp. Fortunately, no such incident occurred during that night.

Noon on the second day since leaving the border, Dulles who was stationed at the rearguard battalion, reported that there was a group of people who followed the convoy from behind. Lorist instructed him to ignore them if they had no hostile intentions and let them do whatever they want. On that day, the convoy traveled more than 30 kilometers.

The third day since their departure, they passed through an abandoned town along the way. The buildings were noticeably burnt with many walls broken down and stained with soot and blood. From time to time, pieces of rotten body parts and shattered bones could be spotted on the grassy ground by the roadside.

That day afternoon, when the main battalion was passing through a forest, 100 mounted men equipped with leather armor and pikes charged straight towards them.

The main battalion with its 600 carriages stretched around 1.5 kilometers from head to tail with Lorist at its front. Upon hearing about the approaching horsemen, he brought Terman along to the encounter site right away. This happened the moment they were about to travel across a small hill.

Given that the main battalion was the middle section of the convoy, its security was managed by one of the senior students of the Dawn Academy. Seeing the 100 men galloping towards them, he brought three others on horseback and signalled for them to stop so that they may engage in negotiations. To show his sincerity, he didn’t even bring his sword with him and ordered his attendants to not be in defensive formation.

Usually, when one was met with such a situation, one would stop and get off one’s horse and send a representative, given that the convoy wasn’t their enemy and there was no need for them to engage in conflict.

The group of horsemen slowed down, much to Lorist’s relief. However, when he was about to get off the horse to get closer, something unexpected happened.

The horsemen quickly arrived before the senior student and a loud whistle could be heard. Two large nets were tossed by some of the horsemen and the senior student was trapped and was pulled off his horse. The hundreds of men then continued riding forward, stamping the senior student into meat paste. The three attendants of the senior student were also caught off guard and got impaled to their deaths…

The horsemen let out a loud cheer and started killing everyone within their sights. As there were only around ten pikemen who were patrolling that section of the convoy, they were all obliterated within seconds.

The whole place was pure chaos with a few carriages that carried the family members of the soldiers banging into each other. Screams of terror and cries of agony constantly echoed in the air.

One of the horsemen grabbed onto the hair of a girl on a carriage and pulled her out savagely, before stripping her naked, pinning her on the ground and taking his pants off. He was actually about to commit such a bestial act in broad daylight.

Another horseman grabbed a baby from its mother’s embrace, causing the mother to leap forward in a desperate attempt to save her child. The horseman merely laughed and tossed the baby to another one of his mates, who readied the tip of his pike and let the baby land onto it, before letting out a wild, ghastly laughter, obviously elated at his accurate ‘catch’. The baby stopped crying right away and the young mother stood there unmoving, as if she couldn’t believe what that which had just happened before her eyes. It was not until the horseman who took her baby grabbed her when she snapped out of it and gave his arm a huge bite. Screaming in pain, the horseman lifted his pike and nailed the mother down to the ground with it and trampled all over her body on horseback with his mate.

Another white-haired old man could be seen desperately shielding his grandchild from harm. One of the horsemen rode over and used his pike to nail both of them to the ground before brandishing his sword and lopping off the head of the old man.

The actions of the 100-odd horsemen had managed to create what many would consider a hell-like scene within minutes…

Lorist, who was still on his way from the small hill, was so enraged that he felt like his blood was boiling as he prompted his mount to go faster, leaving Terman and his knights far behind. It was then when the rest of the convoy started to react to the attack, with Potterfang mobilizing his troops and heading to the place where the attack occurred.

As he approached, Lorist let fly several javelins, nailing down the two horsemen who were trampling around the body of the young mother and her dead infant.

Just as the savage man’s member was about to penetrate the young girl’s body, a javelin sent him flying for three to four meters from where he originally was and pinned him securely on the ground. That horseman desperately clutched on the javelin before gurgling out blood nonstop and writhing on the floor in pain.

Having only brought a quiver of 12 javelins with him, Lorist managed to kill 12 horsemen before they noticed his arrival and started rushing towards him.

Drawing his longsword, his first slash severed the head of the horse as well as the whole upper torso of an incoming horseman. Blood gushed out unceasingly from the neck of the headless horse with the man who was cut in half still alive and letting out screams of pain while clawing about insanely on the ground.

One of the horsemen who followed behind the first one was greatly startled by the sight in front of him. But before he could react, Lorist’s longsword swiftly melded through his neck like a knife through butter, sending yet another head flying through the air.

The third horseman aimed his pike forward and charged forcefully towards Lorist, who twisted his body on horseback to an inexplicable angle in response. The pike passed through the space where Lorist’s body once was hitting nothing but air. A sword flashed as the two horses dashed past each other and the third horseman fell off his mount with a huge opening in his chest.

The fourth and fifth horsemen tossed a net towards Lorist. Seeing it land on him, the two laughed gleefully. However, as they were about to pull it in, they only heard a low grunt before feeling an irresistible force pulling them forward instead, sending them flying towards Lorist. He actually managed to use his internal energy to turn the tables and pulled his adversaries towards him.

At that moment, the pike that the third horseman had intended to pierce Lorist with was still airborne. Lorist used his right foot to hook it up and held the pike in his hand before using it to make a fine kebab out of the two horsemen who were flying towards him.

Within but an instant, five people died without being able to put up a decent fight. It was then when the rest of the horsemen noticed the fearsome adversary who had just arrived. The leader of the group whistled loudly and tens of other mounted men surrounded Lorist from a distance. Given the length of his longsword, he couldn’t lash out at the horsemen who circled him and attempted to stab him with their pikes. At that moment, he was trapped from all sides.

The loud sounds of the horses’ hooves thumping on the ground intensified as Terman’s men approached. They split into two units with one going for the horsemen who were surrounding Lorist and the other charging at the direction of the other horsemen. Twenty of the enemy soldiers instantly fell to the lances of the charging knights, with only two of the knights suffering light injuries thanks to their excellent defensive equipment. In the midst of the chaotic battle, Lorist grabbed at a random pike that was coming at him and impaled a few more of the enemy riders with it.

The 100-men-strong horsemen group was only left with 60-odd men. Upon seeing Lorist and Terman’s fierce counterassault, they banded up and started retaliating as well. Having already been enraged by the scene before them, Terman and his fully-armored knights all rushed toward their enemies with bloodshot eyes and quickly incapacitated the incoming horsemen. With a longsword in his left hand and a pike in his right, Lorist rushed towards wherever the enemy was and began slaughtering away without holding back, causing ten other horsemen to die by his hand.

The pained cries of man and beast intermingled as the attackers crumbled. Never did they expect for the convoy’s forces to be that powerful. In only a few moments, only 30 of the original 100 were left. The remaining foes understood that they have run into an insurmountable wall and quickly turned to retreat. At that moment, Yuriy’s scout cavalry squad came over with Reidy, Charade and Patt to offer their support.

With a dark expression on his face, Lorist got off his horse and jumped onto another one that Reidy had brought over. He instructed Charade, “I’ll let you handle this place. Let Terman and his knights help you out.”

“Where are you heading to?” Charade asked.

Lorist responded by pointing towards the 30 men who were escaping as he radiated a murderous killing intent. “I’m going to kill off every single one of them, even if I have to chase them till the ends of the earth!” He then rode towards the escaping men without waiting for a reply.

Charade shouted towards Reidy and Patt, “What are you guys waiting for?! Go follow him quickly and bring a few more horses and javelins with you! Also, get Yuriy and his scouts to go support him as well!”

……

The chase only lasted within half an hour before Lorist managed to catch up to the escaping horsemen as they were slowing down due to their mounts having run out of stamina. While they could still travel at a slower speed, it was far from their maximum performance when they were in their peak condition.

Having just gotten on a fresh mount which has yet to be tired out, the distance between him and his prey narrowed ever so gradually.

It was at that moment when a few of the horsemen who were lagging behind decided to turn over and face Lorist. Either they had already accepted their fate and wanted to put up a last fight, or they had not seen Lorist in action on the battlefield moments before.

Even though there were two quivers’ worth of javelins hanging by his mount, Lorist didn’t intend to use them as he felt that killing these fiends with those would merely be giving them a swift, painless death. Within his mind flashed the images of a head that was full of white hair flying through the air and a despairing young mother looking at her child impaled upon a pike, along with the numerous other corpses that laid unmoving back at the convoy. Lorist’s eyes were currently bloodshot. Now that the fiends were slowing down, he felt an uncanny patience as he prepared to make these humanoid demons regret that they were ever born into the world.

“Agh!” cried a horseman as both his upper limbs were sent flying through the air with his body tumbling down his mount, contorting in agony. Lorist carefully maneuvered his horse around the corpse so that he wouldn’t die instantly from being stepped on.

“Ugh!” Another horseman’s voice rang out as Lorist forcefully parried his pike and used his own pike to pierce through the horseman’s chest. Lifting him up from his horse with the pike, Lorist carefully lowered the it so that the impaled man wouldn’t slip off the tip and dragged him along the floor, causing him to continue letting out ear-piercing wails.

Another two horsemen flanked Lorist from both sides with their pikes aimed straight at his body like insidious vipers. Within an instant, Lorist’s silhouette vanished from the horseback and the pikes only pierced through air. Under the impression that Lorist had already got off his horse, the two horsemen turned their heads downward to look, only to see Lorist appearing on horseback yet again like a phantom. With an explosive slash, the horseman on his left was severed into two at his waistline and screamed in sheer terror. The horseman on the right let out a more heart-wrenching shriek after both his legs parted from his body with his horse also cut into two. The blood gushing out from the stumps of the slashes dyed Lorist and his horse crimson red.

The fifth horseman let go of his pike and sat on his horse unmoving, with both his hands clasped as he begged for forgiveness and mercy. Without a change in expression, Lorist leaned downward and picked up a pike from the ground, rode forward with it in hand, and thrust it into the horseman’s mouth through the back of his head. Since you bothered to beg for mercy, I’ll let you die a painless death, Lorist thought as the horseman’s lifeless body slipped from his horse.

The sixth horseman had long been scared shitless upon seeing Lorist cut the horsemen that flanked both his sides into halves and he instantly turned tail to run. But in time, his horse slowed down to a much slower pace. He quickly noticed that Lorist had started approaching him from the rear. No, it was more like Lorist was riding his horse at a leisurely speed without any rush at all. Seeing a ghastly sneer appear his bloodied face that revealed two rows of shiny-white teeth, this horseman was frightened to the point of desperation and charged forward with his pike unexpectedly.

Lorist stretched his hand out and grabbed the incoming weapon and gave it a strong pull. Using the hilt of his sword, he knocked on the back of the head of the horseman and caused him to lose all his ability to resist, lying slumped and unconscious on Lorist’s horse’s saddle. He then took the nets they brought with them and fastened it to the horseman’s neck with the other end tied to his saddle and threw the man to the back of his horse before resuming his pursuit.

Everytime he caught up to a group of horsemen, he would use that cruel method to make these damned souls hope that they would be granted death and eternal rest, further causing the horsemen in front to want to grow ever more anxious. Some even pierced the rears of their horses, hoping to jolt them to increase their speed in the face of injury and death.

However, the horses soon collapsed from complete exhaustion with the weapon still stuck to their rear ends and no amount of beating could bring them to life again.

Lorist slowly approached the enemy with his horse dragging the long dead chunks of the corpses of the doomed horsemen. At that moment, Lorist appeared to be smiling serenely, but his mind was rapidly devising a method to cause his adversaries the most amount of pain before killing them off. He truly hated the assailants to the utmost and he had not a single iota of empathy or mercy to spare on them.

Seeing the nightmarish being gradually creeping up to them, the horsemen looked at Lorist’s bloodshot eyes with a despairing expression. Knowing that no salvation would come to them, they all cursed Lorist loudly in unison before gritting their teeth and plunging their pikes into their own chests.

Sol, they even committed suicide, Lorist thought as he cut the dying enemies into half before resuming his chase.

Leaving the small forest, Lorist noticed a military encampment not far away while the remaining 8 horsemen suddenly regained their vigor and started shouting loudly towards the camp as they started stabbing their mounts from time to time with their weapons.

Not a single one of you will be able to escape, Lorist thought, after which he prompted his horse to gallop faster to continue his onslaught.

Chapter 60 Camp Intrusion and Takeover

The horseman who was lagging behind the most turned and thrust his pike wildly towards Lorist. He didn’t expect for any of the thrusts to actually connect and only hoped that it would help stave off his punisher for the slightest bit longer so that reinforcements from his camp would arrive and save him in time.

Catching the wildly flailing pike with his bare hands, Lorist gave it a firm tug and swung his sword toward the despairing horseman. “Aggh!” cried that man loudly as his left leg separated from his body while he fell on the ground head-first.

Lorist caught up to another horseman who had already lost his pike midway during the chase. He could do nothing but stare at Lorist approaching and impaling him straight through the chest.

Shaking the body off the pike, Lorist saw that there were still six inhumane beasts riding in front of him. The camp not too far away had already noticed the situation and opened the main gates. Ten other similarly-equipped horsemen rushed out of the camp.

At that moment, one of the remaining escaping horsemen noticed that his mount that was slowing down. Suddenly, it lost its footing and crashed to the ground head first, rolling on the ground due to the inertia. When it came to a stop, it merely twitched a couple of times before it ceased moving entirely. The horseman, however, was pretty quick to respond to that as he had jumped off his saddle the moment his horse fell, and rolled on the ground to break his fall before recovering and standing up with his pike still held tightly in his arm. Seeing Lorist nearing him on horseback, the horseman made a savage expression, gave a war cry and rushed forward with his pike. His target wasn’t Lorist himself, but rather his mount.

Giving a cool laugh, Lorist waved the pike in his right hand to meet the blow. The moment before the two pikes collided, the dismounted horseman gave a smug look and a blade glow suddenly extended out of his weapon.

Oh, so he’s a Silver ranked combatant. Lorist still remembered that during the catastrophic scene back at the convoy just now, he noticed that there were two Silver ranks among the attackers, one of which had been struck off his horse by Lorist with the other one killed by Terman. He didn’t expect that there would be another one among the escaping horsemen. However, his intention of hitting Lorist’s horse with his blade glow was a futile one when; Lorist gave his pike a flick, causing it to collide against the other pike and knocked it out of trajectory.

Not only did Lorist’s pike not break from hitting against his blade glow, he also felt a strong wave of energy conduct through his weapon, causing him to unwittingly let go of it. Looking up with disbelief, the horseman could only see Lorist’s pike dig its way through his chest at lightning-speed.

The other five horsemen used their spurs to jolt their horses even faster the moment they saw the ten other reinforcements who were approaching from their front with Lorist quickly closing in behind them. Their horses shrieked from the pain and lurched forward even more quickly like an arrow that was just fired from a bow.

Thinking that they were already in the clear upon seeing the reinforcements, the five horsemen breathed sighs of relief. Just as they were about to greet the incoming soldiers, some of them noticed the stunned expressions of those coming to aid them and turned to their backs. Much to their surprise, Lorist had already caught up to them. Drawing a large arc in the air with his pike, Lorist swung it towards one of the horsemen and caused him to fall soundlessly off his horse with the back of his skull fractured.

The shadow of the pike moving at high speeds could barely be seen as it swished around while making an audible sound in the air. Another two horsemen had their backs sliced open seven or eight times with Lorist and fell off their horses right away. The remaining two horsemen lowered their bodies to lean on their horses to avoid being hit while the reinforcement soldiers cursed and charged at Lorist upon seeing three of their comrades slain so easily.

The first one of the reinforcement soldiers who had made his way in front of Lorist, a Silver ranked combatant, raised his pike that radiated a blade glow and pointed it towards Lorist’s upper torso. After swinging his own pike to misdirect that of the enemy’s, Lorist traced the weapon back to the horseman’s neck and decapitated him.

Raising his pike and spurring his horse, Lorist rushed towards the ten incoming horsemen. Loud booms rang out as the pikes collided, with Lorist’s occasionally finding its way into some of the horsemen’s bodies, causing various shrieks to echo and mix. Within just one exchange, among 7 of the 13 horsemen reinforcements, 2 were on the ground struggling in pain with the other 5 already long dead. The remaining six of the reinforcements got back into formation, however, none of them dared to rush forward to attack.

Seeing two of the remaining horsemen that initially attacked the convoy distancing themselves from him, Lorist quickly continued his chase while the six other horsemen behind him felt insulted that they were totally ignored and started cursing loudly as they followed behind Lorist.

But, Lorist paid it no heed as if he wasn’t aware of the rest approaching him gradually from behind at all. When one of them finally got near enough and prepared to stab him with his pike, Lorist suddenly twisted his body and hooked that man up with his pike and swung it towards another horseman. Before the second horseman could decide whether he should catch his incoming comrade, he noticed Lorist suddenly change direction, and within a flash, two other of his comrades had fallen off their horses.

The horseman was greatly startled and could no longer care less about his approaching ally. As he dodged the airborne body, a sudden flash of the blade of the pike could be seen enlarging before his very face, followed by the feeling of cold metal on his nose before everything turned black as he lost all awareness.

Without taking too much time, Lorist had successfully dispatched the six horsemen who were chasing him. Turning back to the direction where the other two had escaped, he noticed that they were only 100 or so meters from the main gates of the camp, with 40 plus other horsemen riding out to fight him.

Even though the encampment looks pretty big, there are only so few soldiers coming out, thought Lorist with much curiosity. By right, hundreds of soldiers should have rushed out like a horde of hornets by now given that they had seen tens of their comrades slaughtered right in front of their camp.

Once again rushing towards the enemy, Lorist laid his pike horizontally on the saddle and reached for his javelins with his right hand. Seeing 40 or so horsemen approaching, with a couple of grunts within a short period of time, he expended all 24 of his javelins, with each taking the life of one horseman with them. As the remaining 20 were still stunned at the sight and hesitating whether to continue the charge, Lorist lifted his pike once again and dove right into their midst. With the horse maneuvering like a swimming dragon and the pike lashing out like a lightning bolt, one horseman after another fell in quick succession. After a while, the remaining 6 or 7 horsemen screamed and turned back towards their camp to escape.

The two who had a part in attacking the convoy had just made it to the gates of the camp and the guards manning the gates desperately tried to close it. If they hadn’t been so desperate to close the gates, Lorist would have still remained outside to fend off the other horsemen while letting the two escape, However, the moment he took note of that, Lorist figured that the main force probably wasn’t at the camp after all. Otherwise, why have only tens of people come out instead of hundreds? Even if they didn’t have enough horses, there could still be infantry units.

Now that he had a hunch, Lorist stopped hesitating and followed behind the escaping horsemen and quickly arrived before the gates. The guards at the gates quickly took up their pikes that had been leaning on the walls in an attempt to block Lorist, only to end up dead by the side of the gates with holes dug deep into their chests.

After entering the camp, Lorist noticed that it was in fact quite empty. It seemed that the ones who came out to fight him just now were coincidentally near the gates at that time. Further away, the two fiends could be seen getting off their horses and entering a tent, presumably to report the encounter to their superior officers.

There was not one soldier standing guard outside the tent the two entered. Lorist got off his horse, tossed his pike aside and drew his sword before walking towards the tent.

The tent looked to be quite spacious from the outside and loud scolding voices could be heard.

Pushing the tent entrance open, Lorist could see the two escaped horsemen kneeling down to him and begging for mercy. Wonderful. I won’t have to waste so much energy now that they won’t resist. With his sword flashing, Lorist diced the two people’s limbs into small parts, causing them to roll all over the ground and begging for a quick death.

Fwing! The sounds of two swords being drawn from their scabbards could be heard. It was then when Lorist lifted his head to check out the two men who stood up in the middle of the tent.

Standing in front of a bed within the tent was a plump man with dark brown hair and gray-colored eyes who had his upper body bare, wearing a fierce expression. In front of him was a stool on which stood a man half-dressed in a chain mail. The two of them currently had an expression on befuddlement with both their swords pointed to Lorist.

“You… Who are you? How did you get in here?” stammered the chain mail-wearing middle-aged man. Looking at the two limbless horsemen who were twitching in pain on the ground and turning his gaze back to Lorist, he broke out of his trance and breathed a deep breath before saying, “You actually dared to injure my men in my presence? How foolish of you!”

Without waiting for Lorist to reply, the brown-haired man regained his composure and leaped towards him like a raging storm, sending two blades of light flying towards Lorist with his two-handed sword.

Clang, clang! With but two light swings of his sword, Lorist knocked the blades of light away and said, “Hmm, a Gold rank?”

“Are you afraid now, boy? It’s too late to have any regrets. I will let you understand that daring to go against us within our own camp is nothing but a death wish!”

“Ptooey!” Lorist displayed a completely unconcerned expression and said, “So what if you’re a Gold rank? It’s not like I’ve never fought one before. Since you said that these two fiends were your subordinates, then I guess you should be their leader? Then I guess I’ll have to make you pay for the sins of your men who actually dared to attack my people. Even though they’ve already been wiped out by me, you still hold responsibility as their leader for not disciplining them well enough. How do you intend to make up for my loss?”

“What? You want me to pay you back even though you’ve killed my men? Let your mother roll in hell, what impudence! I will not rest until I skin you alive!” screamed the brown-haired man. With a heavy kick, he sent the brazier that was on the ground flying towards Lorist and rushed behind it with his sword readied.

Sol, Lorist cursed in his mind. Even though the man looked brutish and slow, he was in fact really quick-witted and sharp. While he looked like he was rushing towards Lorist in a fit of rage, it was actually a deviously calculated move that aimed to catch Lorist off guard by using the flaming hot brazier as a distraction. The man equipped with a chain mail had also moved to Lorist’s back and prepared to engage in a pincer attack with the brown-haired man. So you think that by shouting, you can draw my attention to you and I wouldn’t notice that guy behind me?

As the red-hot charcoal was flying towards him, Lorist noticed a 30-centimeter-long blade glow emerge from the sword behind him. That plain-looking man was actually a peak Silver rank combatant. With the burning brazier and charcoal as well as the brown-haired man on one side and the Silver ranked chain mail-wearing man on the other, Lorist seemed like he had his escape routes sealed and had no choice but to face the full brunt of the force head on. Both the assailants revealed a sly smile as they thought that Lorist would definitely lose to them if he dared to take their strikes head on. After all, they had even successfully killed Gold ranked fighters with their plots and tricks before.

However, Lorist slumped downwards suddenly and stuck close to the floor as he moved out of the attack range of both the men before standing up again almost 2 meters away. Now that he was no longer between the two of them, their attacks headed towards each other, much to their disbelief. The brown-haired man desperately retracted his arm, but that had disrupted his circulating Battle Force and the backlash caused him to breathe heavily as a result.

On the other hand, the man with the chain mail managed to cut the brazier apart, but he wasn’t able to deflect each and every one of the charcoal pieces, some of which landed on his face and hissing sounds could be heard accompanied by a smell of burnt flesh drifting in the air. Having been scalded right in the face, the man tossed his sword away and clawed at the spots where the charcoal had landed while letting out a ghastly shriek.

Flashes of the light reflecting off the blade could be seen within the tent as Lorist suddenly creeped up to the Gold ranked fighter and stood straight up. Thinking that the brown-haired man’s shadow had suddenly come to life, the Silver ranked man who had been jumping around just a moment ago pointed his finger towards the Gold rank’s back wordlessly with his mouth agape. Still not recovered from the backlash he received from suddenly retracting his Battle Force, the brown-haired man could only leap behind the middle-aged man in hopes that he would be able to buy himself some time to regain his composure. However, his movements couldn’t match the speed of Lorist’s sword.

Three sword swings flashed and both the arms of the brown-haired man fell to the ground with another one of his legs parting from his body. With a loud thump, the man landed flat on the ground and still managed to roll behind the man with the chain mail as he had wished. But when he noticed his missing limbs, he started crying out in pain uncontrollably.

The middle-aged man stammered, “17th… 17th brother…”

However, the brown-haired man had long lost consciousness from all the blood he had lost. The middle-aged man once again picked up his sword and a blade glow quickly manifested. Under the impression that the middle-aged man would fight to his death, Lorist witnessed him swinging the sword twice before he dashed out of the tent right away.

Sol, do you think you can escape? Lorist followed the man out of the tent quickly, only to find the middle-aged man swinging his weapon towards him rapidly with a loud grunt.

Lorist lightly groaned in dismay. He had often experienced such desperate attempts when he was dueling all those competitors back at the Dawn Academy. However, now that he didn’t have to hold back unlike the days when he was dueling, he raised his sword, aimed it carefully and moved into the rain of sword strikes like an agile fish swimming swiftly in a pool filled with blades…

“Ugh…” The sword pierced the man at his left chest as he voiced out his pain and slumped onto the ground with both his eyes opened wide in disbelief.

Lorist only used one sword strike. Without parrying any of the middle-aged man’s strikes, he thrust towards the opening amidst the storm of swords and killed that man with only one move while only sustaining a few light scratches on his shoulder.

As he pulled his sword out and was about to head to the larger tent, Lorist detected sounds of people breathing from the tent before. Turning back and re-entering the place, he pushed the curtains around the bed aside and saw two naked young girls huddled together, shivering in fear. Trails of tear stains could be seen on their faces with numerous bruises all over the rest of their body as a result of the abuse they had received.

Lorist sighed and let go of the curtains and searched the tent for the girls’ clothes, but he couldn’t find them. He had no choice but to get two sets of clean men’s robes and tossed it into the curtains before leaving for the larger tent.

Upon exiting, he saw that a battle was going on: it appeared that Yuriy, Reidy and Patt had led the scout cavalry to the camp after seeing Lorist rush in recklessly without regard for his own safety. However, they were only met with up to 70 soldiers who weren’t even properly dressed in their armors, with some of them even coming out half-nude or barefoot. Faced with that comical sight, Yuriy and gang started slaughtering away in delight. The scout cavalry was just like Lorist in that they used their javelins to take down nearby enemies while opting for the crossbow to shoot ones that were further away. Before Lorist left that tent, they had already managed to gain control of the whole camp.

Seeing Lorist emerge from the tent, Yuriy quickly rode over. Getting off his horse, he said, “It seems like the main force of this camp has left only a few of them to guard the place.”

Lorist said, “Ask your men to leave some alive so that we can question them later.”

Yuriy relayed that order to a scout near him and that scout nodded before heading off again.

At that moment, Reidy and Patt could be seen approaching. “Master, 400 people are being held prisoner at the middle section of the camp. Also, we’ve discovered a large amount of food and other provisions at the back as well.”

“Oh,” mumbled Lorist as he looked towards Yuriy. “It seems that the camp is not an ad hoc one, but rather a long term outpost. Yuriy, send some men to follow Patt to go back and inform Charade to bring the convoy here. We’ll be staying here tonight. Patt, make sure you stay safe.”

“Alright,” Patt said as he left the camp with three other light cavalry troops.

“Reidy, release the prisoners and have them stay together at that area. Make them some food as well. We’ll handle the other stuff once Charade gets here. Yuriy, have the light cavalry sweep the camp once more just in case there are any soldiers who have managed to escape our grasp. Make sure you secure the food as well just in case anyone intends to burn it.”

“Yes,” said Reidy and Yuriy.

Walking to and fro around the large tent, Lorist waited patiently for the rest of the convoy to arrive. Several light cavalry troops could be seen searching the tents one by one. Just as Lorist was planning to ask someone to clear out the corpses in the large tent, he saw a blade glow flash from within a tent in the distance followed by two light cavalry soldiers flying out of the tent with blood coming out of their noses and another one falling on the ground outside the tent with his head severed. A tear opened up at one part of the tent as a silhouette emerged and got on a horse of the cavalry troops and escaped from the gates of the camp.

Sol, so there was still one Silver rank hiding there, Lorist thought, before he got on a horse nearby and started his chase.

Chapter 61 Arrival of the Convoy

Two light cavalry soldiers were guarding the main gates of the camp. From afar, they could see a rider approaching quickly. Curious about what orders that rider might have received, one of the guards got closer to check it out. However, upon closer inspection, he noticed that the rider wasn’t one of his comrades and quickly raised his pike to intercept him, only to have it broken by the Silver ranked rider’s blade glow. Had it not been for the fact that the the enemy was in a rush to escape, the two light cavalry guards might have been killed already.

The rider on the stolen mount whooshed past the two light cavalry soldiers who had been dismounted and successfully went out of the camp. Cursing as they tried to prop themselves up from the ground, the two soldiers then got back on their horses with one readying his crossbow and the other taking out his javelin, but they could do naught but watch as the enemy galloped out of their firing range.

Lorist quickly arrived and took the javelin in the soldier’s hand before continuing on the chase. At that moment, he was about 40 meters apart from that Silver ranked rider and he wasn’t confident that he would be able to hit his mark from that distance. Seeing the distance between him and the enemy increase gradually, he decided to try his luck by throwing the javelin.

Suddenly, his horse staggered and started wobbling unstably as if it were about to crash. Greatly startled, Lorist quickly got both his feet out of the stirrups, jumped and somersaulted in the air before landing and rolling on the ground, escaping the fate of tumbling to his death with his mount. Seeing his horse on the ground, Lorist threw his javelin down angrily. Sol, why is my luck so bad… The horse he had taken at a whim in fact belonged to one of the two soldiers he was chasing to the camp before. It’s no wonder the horse slowed down right after exiting the camp early on, having been exhausted beyond its limits.

Seeing the Silver ranked soldier escape from his grasps, Lorist started fuming with rage. The silhouette of the man seemed like a dot hundreds of meters away. Sounds of horses galloping could be heard from behind: they were the light cavalry troops who had reacted to the sudden deaths of two of their comrades. However, they were far too late.

At that moment, Lorist heard the twang of a released bowstring and saw a green stream of light traveling out from the wilderness about a hundred meters away from the camp. As if he was struck by lightning, the escaping Silver rank got knocked off horseback and landed heavily onto the ground. His horse continued running for a while before stopping and turning back towards the camp.

Lorist stopped the few scouts who had just arrived from entering the forest to search for the source of the arrow and pointed towards the place where the Silver ranked soldier fell. “Go inspect that area and bring him back over here. Be careful, that Sol-damned bastard may be playing dead for all we know. I’ve already had one of my men die at his hand.”

Once again looking towards the spot in the forest from which the green ray of light originated, Lorist saw a man holding a large green bow with some leaves and twigs covering him to serve as camouflage and felt that the man was paying attention to his every move.

Waving towards the direction of that man, Lorist made a gesture of invitation. However, that man made no response and slowly retreated into the trees, eventually disappearing completely from sight.

Letting out a breath of relief, Lorist thought, what an impressive archer… For him to be able to shoot someone from 80 meters away and also manage to knock him off his horse for about 6 meters… The strength of the bow is indeed great. The velocity of the arrow was also incredibly fast given that Lorist could only barely see its trail through dynamic vision.

While Lorist himself wasn’t worried about that mysterious archer attacking his base, he was still concerned for the wellbeing of his light cavalry troops. That man was possibly Josk, the Gold ranked knight that Soria had mentioned a couple of days before. After all, Lorist found it hard to believe that just anybody could have such fine archery skill as that man did. It was a shame that person’s identity couldn’t be verified as he didn’t accept Lorist’s invitation.

The cavalry troops have secured the body of the Silver rank and were on their way back to the camp. When they approached, Lorist really didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. The cavalry troops were too cautious and each of them made sure to shoot the corpse with their crossbows twice to make sure the Silver rank wasn’t playing dead, effectively turning him into a huge human pincushion.

The cause of death of the Silver rank was pretty obvious: there was a long, green arrow that entered the man’s right upper torso and re-emerged from his left armpit. Pulling the arrow out and ripping a piece of the corpse’s clothing off, Lorist wiped the blood off the arrow and noticed a small, unclear inscription that read ‘Joe’. As expected, that man who carried the green bow was in fact Josk, the Gold ranked knight.

Once again looking at the arrows embedded in the corpse, Lorist sighed and said, “Gosh, don’t you guys have eyes? He’s already long dead, yet you wasted so many crossbow bolts on him and even ruined his armor. Oh well, just cut his head off and display it by the road of the main camp entrance. After stripping the body of anything that’s still usable, toss it in the pyre and burn it with the other corpses.”

After returning to the large tent in the middle of the camp, Yuriy came over and reported that he has already swept the camp once more with his troops and discovered three more enemies who have been hiding, two of whom was captured alive with the other one killed. There were no casualties apart from two of the troops incurring light injuries. Including the one who died and the other heavily injured from being ambushed by the Silver ranked rider as well as those who got hurt from the initial assault, the whole of the light cavalry troops only have 3 casualties, 7 heavily-injured with 10 others with light injuries in total.

However, Yuriy mentioned that they also discovered quite a number of women who were badly abused during their search numbering around 30 of them in total. There were two completely nude women who had their necks snapped from the tent the Silver rank rushed out of previously.

Nodding silently, Lorist pointed towards the large tent behind him and said, “There are two others within. Ask the prisoners who are locked up in the middle of the camp about the women’s origins and have someone assigned to look after them. When Charade and the rest of the convoy arrives, we’ll have some herbalists take a look at them and save the ones who can still make it and end the suffering of those who are already beyond saving.

“Other than that, cut off the heads of the enemy horsemen and put them up on stakes to be displayed all over the camp outside. Strip them of their equipment and burn their corpses after that. Make sure to note the number of people we have killed. Bring the prisoners we captured alive over here, I want to question them personally.”

Lorist’s interrogation method was pretty straightforward. First, he stripped them naked and had Reidy bring a hammer over. Those who refused to answer each time would have one of their toes hammered flat. After the first stubborn one was made an example of, the remaining five were so terrified that they answered whatever question they were asked with swift cooperation.

True to Lorist’s hunches, the ones who attacked the convoy were indeed part of Count Cobry’s troops, his elite pike cavalry troops to be exact. This time, the count had mobilized two pike cavalry companies and one garrison regiment in total, amounting to almost a third of all his forces, with the aim of completely wiping out the insurgents based within his territories as well as enslave young and strong men to work as hard laborers. The people leading this undertaking was his 11 illegitimate sons, three of which were Gold ranks with the rest being Silver ranks. However, three of the sons had already perished under Lorist’s hand.

According to the prisoners, the brown-haired man and the middle-aged man with the chain mail as well as the Silver rank who stole a horse and attempted to escape were all the sons of the count.

As for the camp, the prisoners said that it was a long term encampment that served as a bridgehead[1] and was normally guarded by a company of garrison troops. It was used as a place for the main force to resupply their rations and provisions. As the main force had to cross the mountains during the most recent expedition, they had their garrison troops that were supposed to be stationed there follow along and only left a company of pike cavalry troops to guard the encampment.

On Grindia, there was a particular way in which the military was organized. The one at the top of the hierarchy were legions, which consisted of divisions of several types of troops, such as heavy-armored divisions, pike infantry divisions, etc. And each division could in turn be further subdivided into regiments, companies and squads, in decreasing order of size. Commonly, a squad numbered around 80 to 120 troops. 4 to 5 squads formed a company, and 4 to 5 companies constituted a regiment, with a division containing at least 4 to 5 regiments in total. For example, in the Whitelion Legion, one of the three main armies of the former empire which Potterfang used to serve in, the total amount of soldiers numbered up to 80000.

The forces of Count Cobry were mainly bolstered by the pike cavalry troops, which have received quite a generous amount of support and funding. In total, there were five companies of pike cavalry troops, each consisting of four squads of 120 soldiers each. For two of the companies to be sent out for the expedition was already quite a large force.

The prisoners also mentioned that the main force that had went to wipe out the insurgents would return in a day or two because they only brought 15 days’ worth of supplies with them and it was already the 13th day. The brown-haired commander even sent one squad of pike cavalry to receive them when they return with the two other squads that having left to hunt due to having nothing better to do. The ‘hunt’ that the prisoner referred to was the patrolling of the surrounding area to capture refugees to force them into labor. The 400-odd people who were kept locked up in the middle of the camp was the result of such ‘hunts’.

However, never would the pike cavalry have expected that Lorist’s convoy’s military might far outranked their own, leading to their total demise as well as the ones who stayed guard at the camp, resulting in the camp being captured by the convoy.

Lorist questioned them very detailedly and asked a final question, that was, why did the hunting squad not check their targets properly before deciding to attack it?

Only then did the prisoners understand the reason that prompted Lorist to come slaughtering his way in with the rest of his troops and started cursing their dead comrades unceasingly. However, one of the prisoners who looked in his thirties stayed quiet and looked at the Norton Family’s flag with a meaningful gaze.

Noticing the prisoner’s odd behavior, Lorist asked, “Have you seen this flag before?”

The prisoner shook his head and said, “No I didn’t, but one time when I was summoned by the count to his room, I saw two boxes which had the same symbol inscribed on it. Also……”

The prisoner suddenly quieted down.

Lorist asked, “Also what? Feel free to tell me about it, I promise to spare your life if you do. As for the others……”

Lorist made a gesture to his subordinates, signalling them to give the other prisoners a swift death.

The prisoner kneeling in front of Lorist was scared out of his wits upon hearing the agonized pleading of his other comrades. He quickly mentioned that he only joined the pike cavalry troops recently and used to be a mercenary and only joined by coincidence because one acquaintance of his who was a member of the count’s forces had invited him.

According to the prisoner, when he was drinking with his acquaintance and a few other pike cavalry soldiers, he heard about the count’s rise to fortune and power. Back during the day before the First Prince publicly rebelled against the empire, the count was already partners in crime with the First Prince in some shady business. Word was that during the days Count Cobry was said to be cooped up in his territory and nurturing his illegitimate sons, he was actually having some of his grown up sons disguising themselves as bandits to pillage traveling merchant convoys to gather funds and resources in preparation for the First Prince’s rebellion as well as amass a huge wealth for himself in the process. When the former emperor was at his sickbed, the First Prince had requested for the garrison forces of the Bodolger Province to be strengthened to keep a bandit called Redbeard at bay; Redbeard was actually the identity the count took up when he was pillaging merchant convoys. Every time before he started a raid, he would put on a large, red, fake beard to disguise himself. The hunting group that Lorist had encountered today were actually part of the forces Count Cobry led to pillage the merchant convoys as Redbeard. They probably recalled the days when they disguised themselves as bandits and decided to relive it and attacked the convoy without much giving it much consideration.

Lorist also asked the prisoner to describe the size and design of the boxes he had seen in the room of the count before making a sketch of them and showing it to the prisoner for confirmation, to which he nodded with certainty.

After that, Lorist ordered that the prisoner be locked up and started pacing around outside the large tent, seething with anger. He drew his sword and completely pulverized the bed that was within the tent.

Astonished at Lorist’s sudden outburst, Yuriy waited for him to calm down before asking about the reason why he was so mad.

Lorist thought quietly for a moment before saying, “Those two boxes were ordered and made by my Third Uncle from Morante City. Originally, he had intended to use them to store the dowry he prepared for the woman he wanted to marry and bring back to the dominion. Who would have expected that the trip would be his last! I could never forget the look my uncle had when he brought me to retrieve the boxes. I could tell that he truly loved that woman from the look he had on his face when he looked at them. That’s why I’m so familiar with the design of the boxes. Count Cobry, you truly have did it this time. Just you wait……”

Lorist’s voice sounded so venomous that it caused Yuriy and Reidy to shiver a little upon hearing it.

Even though Lorist had only met his Third Uncle once every three years after he found himself in the noble youth’s body, the concern and care his uncle had shown him made him feel cherished and warm. It truly saddened him that the first piece of news he got of his uncle after 7 years of silence had been that of his death. Now that he was certain of the main perpetrator, there was no way that he would let that person scotch free. He decided to put the journey to the back of his head and focus his priorities on settling his grudge with Count Cobry.

At that moment, a light cavalry soldier came to report that Charade and the rest would be arriving soon as the Norton Family battle standard was visible from the camp from afar.

Yuriy and Reidy breathed a sigh of relief and led Lorist out of the large tent towards the main entrance of the encampment.

Charade came to Lorist with another piece of bad news the moment he arrived. He said that the pike infantry company of the convoy vanguard had encountered another attack from a squad of pike cavalry troops after Yuriy and Reidy had left with Lorist and the light cavalry scouts to storm the camp. It was fortunate that the senior students realized that they wouldn’t be a match for the enemy if they faced them head on and got the convoy into a defensive formation by arranging the carriages into a circular defensive perimeter to buy time until Terman’s knights arrive to reinforce them. Coupled with the crossbowman company under Malek’s command, the convoy successfully fended off the enemies with only 30 of them managing to escape. However, the pike infantry company had lost 22 people with the remaining hundred injured.

Sounds of chatter and curses erupted from within the camp. Lorist handed the other matters for Charade to handle and instructed Reidy and Patt to boil him some water so that he may take a bath and wash off the coagulated blood on his body that was causing him much itch and discomfort.

After dinner, the large main tent was brightly illuminated with the whole main cast of the convoy present within.

“……47 of the soldiers’ family members died with another 130 of them injured, all 21 of the pikemen who were in charge of the security of that part of the convoy perished as well and Chivos……” Charade’s voice turned deep at the mention of that name. Chivos was one of the senior students of the academy that had been sent to communicate with the enemy’s pike cavalry squad but only ended up trampled to death after the ambush.

“Including the second assault we suffered, a total of 43 infantry pikemen died with 58 others sustaining heavy injuries, 7 of which ended up handicapped and will be unable to recover fully with the remaining 86 sustaining light injuries. Yuriy reported that the light cavalry troops suffered 3 casualties, with 7 heavily-injured and another 13 lightly-injured with none of them crippled. Terman’s knights on the other hand only had 6 people who got light injuries with no casualties in their unit. That concludes the report on the damages and losses of the troops.”

Lorist followed up with introducing the rest at the meeting about the situation of the prisoners as well as the possibility that Count Corby was possibly the one who had caused the demise of Lorist’s Third Uncle and the rest of the Norton Family’s merchant convoy.

“I believe that you guys are well aware that the original plan of crossing this area without getting into huge conflicts will no longer be possible. Based on the modus operandi of the count and his troops, it can be seen that they are nothing but inhumane fiends who cannot be reasoned with and have nothing but thoughts of slaughter in their heads, as can be seen from the death of our beloved comrade, Chivos. For his sake, and those of the innocent family members and the brave soldiers of the family who perished, I have decided to avenge them! We will not rest until we stomp the Cobry Family flag under our feet!” said Lorist resolutely.

The whole tent was silent after Lorist stopped talking, but quiet chatters and murmurs gradually built up. Some of them approved of Lorist’s decision while others were still a little hesitant. According to the testimony of the prisoners, Count Cobry’s forces could possibly far exceed that of the convoy’s. Was this truly a battle the convoy could afford to fight in?

Just as the group of people within the tent were discussing the matter, a light cavalry soldier rushed in from outside and reported to Lorist that a knight called Josk wanted to meet him and said that he came at the invitation of the new master of the encampment.

Lorist slapped on his thighs and said, “Quick, invite him in! No, let me go out to receive him…”

Chapter 62 Offense and Defense

Marksman Josk looked to be in his thirties. With his head of blonde hair and well-defined physique, he looked exceedingly handsome and wore a resolute expression on his face. However, Lorist could detect a faint hint of grief between his eyebrows.

After receiving him from the entrance and introducing him to the rest of the family knights, Lorist gave a brief summary of the convoy’s situation and told Josk about how he captured the camp out of retaliation from the attack earlier that day. He also asked Josk the main reason he decided to visit them.

Knight Josk also spoke rather frankly and said that he had come to check whether the military might of the convoy could withstand the attack from the count’s regiment of garrison troops as well as another company of pike cavalry. His original intention of lurking around the area in the afternoon was to sabotage and burn the count’s supplies as the security was more lax than usual and force the count’s army to retreat to their main base to resupply and give the insurgents of the western mountains some time to rest and recuperate.

Now that Lorist had conquered the camp, he had unintentionally helped the insurgents out. Josk confessed that when he saw Lorist bringing less than 100 soldiers to attack the camp, he thought that Lorist’s forces wasn’t really trying to conquer it given the disparity of his forces and that of the camp. He also said that he was anticipating the arrival of the other company of pike cavalry to come back to defend that place before he met Charade and the rest of the convoy when he was leaving the forest and understood that the pike cavalry unit had probably clashed with the convoy already. Worried that Lorist wouldn’t be able to handle the full brunt of the count’s forces and incur a huge loss, Josk felt that he should warn them just in case.

According to him, Count Cobry had a total of five companies of garrison troops with each having a bowman squad, an infantry squad as well as two pike infantry squads with each squad having 120 people each. All the soldiers in the garrison troops numbered around 2400 people. Including the company of pike infantry that was patrolling the outer areas of the mountains, the count’s rebel-sweeping troops had up to 2900 people.

Charade interjected and mentioned that according to Soria, they only had 1000 pike infantry and 2000 garrison troops and wondered how the count had managed to expand his forces that quickly.

“Who’s Soria?” Josk asked. Charade proceeded to tell the knight about their encounter with Baron Charles and his son.

Curling his lips, Josk said, “I know Baron Charles and I’ve even met him a couple of times. Knight Soria’s information isn’t totally wrong, but the information only describes the count’s forces a year ago. At that time, the count had only returned to his dominion for a short while. Given that he has been fighting battles here and there and wiping out several landed nobles, he definitely would have expanded his forces by now. Other than the troops that were dispatched to wipe out the insurgents in the western mountains, Count Cobry still has around three companies of pike infantry back at his dominion as well as a regiment of garrison troops and two other newly-formed companies of garrison troops.”

In the recent times, the troops of the count have successfully wiped out a few insurgent strongholds in the mountains and obtained a substantial amount of food and other supplies. During the past two days, they had turned their attention to the largest insurgent group in the area who were based at Hiddenbull Stronghold. While the insurgents at the stronghold have managed to resist due to the advantage of terrain, they were at their breaking point due to the sheer number of casualties they had sustained. That was why Josk intended to burn the supplies of the camp to ensure that the assault will stop temporarily. However, now that Lorist had occupied the encampment, the count’s forces will definitely return to recapture the place when they get wind of it.

Josk suggested to Lorist that if their forces would not be enough to defeat that of the count’s, they should quickly leave the area and burn the whole camp down to force the count’s forces back to the dominion. Given that the western mountains was only one day of travel away from the camp, they would definitely get news about the conquered camp and return by the evening of the next day. If the convoy doesn’t hurry up, they wouldn’t be able to escape in time.

Shaking his head, Lorist said, “No, the convoy cannot leave. They’ll definitely catch up to us if we try because the convoy travels so much slower than a single military unit. As long as the pike cavalry manages to stall the convoy, their regiment of infantry garrison troops will definitely catch up eventually. Instead of giving the enemy the advantage of attacking us head on in an open field battle, it would be wiser to secure the camp and use the terrain to our advantage to minimize our losses.”

Filled with killing intent, Lorist said, “If we’re going to fight, let’s give it our all! I want to use this camp to wipe out all the 3000 men of their rebel-sweeping army and teach that damned count a lesson.”

He also elaborated that even though the count’s forces outnumbered them three to one, their actual battle prowess was far inferior to that of the convoy’s forces. According to the testimonies of the prisoners, the only unit of the count that posed a threat to the convoy was the pike cavalry unit which were constituted mainly of soldiers who have had their Battle Force awakened. However, if their cavalry lost the advantage of charging and had to engage in close combat with the convoy’s heavy-armored soldiers, they would definitely be wiped out without question. As for the remaining 2000 garrison troops who can’t utilize Battle Force, wouldn’t they just be like a herd of sheep thrown into the midst of a wolf pack that was Terman’s Battle Force-trained knight brigade?

As for Yuriy and his squad of light cavalry scouts, they will ensure that not one of the count’s soldiers manage to escape. Lorist also mentioned that they also had crossbowmen, pike infantry as well as a carroballista unit and he couldn’t imagine how in the world the convoy would lose to the count’s forces.

“As for how we would bait the enemy into our trap, that’s easy. Knight Josk has mentioned that even though the sweeping troops have breached a few mountain strongholds and have gotten ahold of a batch of supplies, it would only last them for up to 6 days at most. After receiving news of their camp being conquered by us, they will only be left with two choices. Either they return to the count’s dominion or come here to try to recapture the camp. I’m sure they will choose the latter, because if they choose to return to the count’s dominion, they would definitely be severely punished by the count for the deaths of three of his illegitimate sons. The officer in charge will have no choice but to try to recapture this place to make up for the losses he has incurred.

“When we defend the camp, we must lure them into a false sense of security and let them feel that they have a chance at taking the camp back. After two days of stalling, we’ll open the gates and let all of their forces in and use various obstacles to limit their efficiency and deploy the heavy-armored soldiers to give them a fatal blow and wipe them out entirely.”

Everyone in the tent looked as if they had been struck by enlightenment. All of them knew that there was no way to avoid this conflict and agreed with Lorist that they would fare better by defending the camp rather than being pursued on an open field. To Lorist’s credit, he also came out with a rather viable plan that could potentially cause the enemy a loss of 3000 men.

Bringing the map of the area surrounding the camp over, Charade started to discuss with the rest about how they would set up their traps and contraptions to shave down the enemy’s forces.

Josk seemed like he was a little envious of Lorist and his knights’ solidarity. Seeing the group talking about how to set up the defensive fortifications, he turned to Lorist and offered to lend a hand in the upcoming battle.

Lorist naturally agreed to that proposition and told Josk that the Norton Family’s convoy will definitely be sparing no resource in the battle to come and that if Josk was able to gather some people to ambush the enemy’s rearguard, he would definitely be a huge help to the convoy.

Upon hearing the suggestion, Knight Josk agreed to it excitedly and said that he would head back to rally up the insurgents and trail the count’s rebel-sweeping forces from behind their backs and launch their ambush when the forces are being lured into the camp. He then left the camp hurriedly.

—————————————————————–

Evening on the day after, Count Cobry’s forces appeared nearby the camp as expected with the pike cavalry company leading the charge. When they arrived at the camp entrance, the soldiers witnessed the display of severed heads that were impaled on stakes with the head of the brown-haired man placed at the foremost front.

The pike cavalry all started freaking out and cursed loudly towards the encampment. Some of them even tried to rush to the entrance directly, only to be shot down by the crossbowmen stationed at the walls, causing 10 casualties to their side in the opening volley.

When the garrison infantry arrived, they sent out four squads that were fully-armed with shields to protect them from the crossbow bolts while they retrieved the heads before setting up their camp in the distance.

Standing on the walls and nodding, Lorist commented, “The officer in command seems pretty level-headed and his troops are pretty disciplined. Fatty, let’s go. Els, there won’t be any more attacks tonight. The real show starts tomorrow.”

Charade said in a worried tone, “What if they don’t use the main entrance and start attacking from the other parts of the walls of the camp? For the record, we have most of our forces stationed here at the entrance.”

“They won’t,” said Lorist as he pointed towards the walls. “Look, Count Cobry didn’t choose this place to build an outpost arbitrarily. First, the terrain around here is flat without any elevated lands around the area apart from a slight two-meter-high slope outside the camp that makes it easier for cavalry to gain momentum and charge downwards as well as make it hard for the enemy to observe the situation within the camp. Second, other than the three-meter-long road leading to the main entrance, there is no other way to enter the camp as it is surrounded by a two-meter-wide moat that has a depth of around two meters. Even if they manage to cross the moat, they will be met with a barricade that is two meters tall with a 1.5-meter-tall fence right up on the main walls. When defending the surrounding areas, one can hide behind those fences for extra protection.

“So, if they want to attack from the other sides, they will have to first fill up the moat before they remove the barricades to make some space for ladders, which in turn have to be at least 5 meters tall to overcome the fence. I’m sure they understand that attacking from the main entrance of the encampment is the optimal way as it they were originally stationed here anyway. And given the amount of time their supplies would last them, I doubt that they’ll resort to such time-consuming methods by circumventing the main entrance. To be honest, the fortifications of this camp may actually be stronger and better than that of some other castles that I’ve seen. I bet the count didn’t expect that his forces would have to siege the encampment that he had built to protect his forces from insurgent assaults. It’s like they’re digging their own graves by attacking this place.

“Apart from the main entrance, there is also a smaller one at the rear of the camp, but to get there, the drawbridge would have to be lowered so that soldiers would be able to cross the moat. I believe the most they would do would be to send a pike cavalry squad to secure that drawbridge from the other side so that we won’t be able to escape. As for the main force, they would fare much better by attacking directly from the main entrance. I’m sure that they are under the impression that victory would be theirs the moment they breach the camp. Have some old men and children wear armor and patrol the walls tomorrow to make them think that we’re short on personnel and lower their guard.”

Els asked, “Then, what if they send a Gold rank expert to sneak into the camp at night?”

Lorist laughed and said, “Els, do you think everyone is a nightcrawler like you? The prisoners said that there were 11 illegitimate sons leading the sweeping operation and only 3 of them are Gold ranks with the others being Silver ranks. I’ve already killed 1 Gold rank and two other of the Silver ranks, so I bet that they definitely wouldn’t dare to sneak inside again. Know that one-on-one fights and all out battles are different: on the battlefield, you can swarm the enemy with your subordinates if you aren’t able to take out your opponent. But if anyone dares to sneak in like you mentioned, that person would not be able to bring many people with him or he will risk being discovered by us. Being all alone, the odds of the person returning alive are slim, so they definitely wouldn’t bother doing that. Additionally, we have Potterfang and Loze on night duty today, so what is there to fear?”

……

The whole night passed without incident. Given that the count’s forces have spent a full day rushing back to the camp, it wasn’t weird for them to rest and recover their energy for the night. And Lorist’s side didn’t send anyone out to harass them either. Coupled with sightings of old men and children wearing armor on the walls, the enemy also came to the conclusion that Lorist’s forces were severely undermanned to the point where they were even forced to conscript the children and elderly.

During noon, the count’s forces sent several loud-mouthed garrison troops over and they started shouting for Lorist’s group to surrender the camp or face certain death. Annoyed at their loud ramblings, Lorist ordered the crossbowmen to turn them into human porcupines and quickly ordered for the old men and children to leave the walls as the battle was about to start.

As expected, the deaths of the soldiers who had come to demand the occupants’ surrender had greatly angered the rebel-sweeping troops, causing hordes of men to emerge from their camp with the swordsmen in front and the bowmen following closely behind. The crossbowmen in Lorist’s camp reacted by open-firing right away. Given the advantage of being able to take cover behind the fence and the stronger firing power of the crossbow, the efficacy of Lorist’s crossbowmen far exceeded that of the enemy’s bowmen who had to fire the arrows in a parabolic trajectory to be able to even shoot remotely close to the crossbowmen on the walls.

The bowmen were currently in a very awkward position; they would suffer huge casualties from the crossbowmen if they approached too closely, but if they didn’t, they wouldn’t be able to cause the enemy any harm. After shooting a few volleys of arrows, aside from planting a couple of arrows onto the wooden fences, they didn’t manage to kill even one crossbowman.

They were subsequently ordered to retreat and the enemy tried to employ a different tactic. They sent their shield and sword infantry troops forward to attract fire from the crossbowmen in an attempt to cause them to waste their crossbow bolts. At that moment, Lorist ordered the crossbowmen to stop firing and let the enemy’s infantry arrive at the main gates before he ordered for it to be opened. Terman’s knight brigade that had been standing by beyond the gates instantly charged towards the enemy’s infantry troops like a tiger pouncing towards its prey. Chaos ensued and blood was spilled with only 50 of the 200-odd infantry soldiers managing to return to their camp alive.

The pike cavalry units of the enemy had wanted to intercept Terman’s knights, but they were fended off by the constant firing of the crossbowmen. By the time the count’s forces mobilized their bowmen in response, Terman’s knight brigade had already returned to the camp. That exchange alone caused the rebel-sweeping troops a loss of over 150 infantrymen whereas Terman and his knights weren’t injured in the slightest.

Even though the enemy had incurred quite a loss, their commander believed that it wasn’t for naught. According to the reports of the pike cavalry soldiers who had attacked the convoy while it was on its way to the camp, the convoy’s forces was estimated to have around 100 crossbowmen who were currently guarding the camp from the walls, the 40-odd knights who had rushed out just now and only a few hundred other infantry pikemen. Seeing the old men and children on the walls of the camp earlier that day, the commander’s belief that the convoy had lost quite an amount of soldiers when they fought against the forces that were stationed at the camp was reaffirmed once again.

In the afternoon, the enemy stopped their attacks and only sent some pike cavalry soldiers to spy on the convoy’s movement from afar. The rest of the infantry soldiers were sent to fell some trees in the forest and move the logs back to the camp. Lorist could see the soldiers working together to make large wooden shields and battering rams out of the wood they have obtained.

“It seems that the main attack will be launched tomorrow. Are the fuel jars ready?” asked Lorist to Charade who was standing beside him.

“Yeah, we have 55 of them in total. I wonder if they’re enough,” said Charade in a worried tone.

“That’s more than enough. Tomorrow, we’ll burn down their siege engines and initiate our counterattack,” said Lorist as he laughed.

……

Just as Lorist was about to wipe his body of his sweat after completing his training routine in the morning of the next day, Charade ran over and said that the enemy has started their assault.

Sol, it’s still so early! The sun’s not even out yet! Lorist looked towards the sky and discovered that the weather was rather dark and cloudy. It seemed that there may be snowfall coming either in the afternoon or the evening. It was currently the 1st month, so a number of heavy snowfalls was to be expected. The rebel-sweeping troops might have picked up on the change in weather as well and decided to launch their attack earlier.

Looking at Charade, Lorist said, “Go check on the family members of the soldiers and make sure they have enough to wear to accommodate for the changing weather. I don’t want any of them falling sick due to the cold and cause us any trouble. I’ll handle the matters concerning the battle, so don’t worry about it.”

……

Standing on the walls, Lorist could see the enemy soldiers lining up side-by-side behind rows of wooden raft-like shields and marching forward step by step. Behind the rows of shielding were three simple battering rams that were pushed by tens of other soldiers. The whole group traveled along the road rather slowly.

Lorist, standing beside Potterfang, who had been on night guard duty during the night, laughed out loud. “It would appear that today’s battle will turn out to be quite ferocious. They seem so desperate.”

Potterfang nodded and said, “The change in weather must have affected their plans as well. If they were to stay there for the next few days amidst the snow, they would be better of retreating right here and now. They probably have no choice other than trying to recapture the camp given that their resources wouldn’t be able to sustain them for long. They must have no other option aside from forcing their way through without regard to their casualties for the sake of taking the camp back. I believe that we will be able to launch the trap without having to wait until tomorrow.”

Lorist replied, “Alright. If they continue the assault with full force, open the gates and lure them inside. I doubt postponing it for another day would make much of a difference.With the weather looking like this, even if they want to retreat, they wouldn’t be able to go far. Reidy, notify the rest that we’ll be giving our foes there a huge surprise…”

……

Chapter 63 Breaching the Camp

The battering rams that Count Cobry’s rebel-sweeping corps have constructed overnight were exceedingly crude and simple with only a couple of wooden tripods and a huge trunk that hanging between them. After setting it up by the main gates of the encampment, it would then be able to smash against it repeatedly like a pendulum. The platform on which the tripods stood had four wheels underneath it. Tens of garrison troops were pushing it towards the entrance with several others holding up their crudely-made rectangular wooden shields to prevent the pushing soldiers from being killed by the rain of crossbow bolts.

Naturally, the crossbowmen stationed on the walls of the camp had their attention all focused on the battering ram. Within but a moment, volley after volley of crossbow bolts rained down on the enemy, taking out numerous men and horses as well as causing shrieks and cries to echo throughout the battlefield. However, that allowed the bowmen who were hiding behind the crude wooden shields some opportunities to aim from behind the gaps of the shields towards the crossbowmen, sometimes even knocking them off the walls with several taking an arrow to the face and dying instantly.

The remaining crossbowmen refocused their attention to suppressing the enemy’s bowmen. With one side using wooden shields while the other ducking and using the walls as cover, they were currently in stalemate. Now that the bowmen had managed to reduce the distance between themselves and the defensive walls, they posed quite a huge threat to the crossbowmen. Crossbows were slow but they offered much better penetrative power. On the other hand, longbows shot three times as fast as crossbows, but longbowmen had to rest for a period of time after firing 7 to 8 arrows due to the lack of the crossbows’ mechanical advantage.

While the crossbowmen on the walls were occupied with suppressing the longbowmen, the soldiers pushing the battering ram gave it their utmost and quickly moved it towards the entrance. Just as they were inches away from their destination, several glass jars were tossed from beyond the walls with some landing on the floor and a couple shattering against the battering ram, releasing a sticky substance all over the ram’s body.

One of the soldiers touched the substance and suddenly freaked out and screamed, “It’s fuel! Fuel!”

Subsequently, one torch after another landed onto the battering ram, causing the soldiers on the spot to stare with a despairing gaze as the flames erupted and effectively turned the construct into a glorified bonfire. Several tens of soldiers who were in charge of pushing the battering ram into place were engulfed in flames and ran around frantically and aimlessly like countless flies, with some of them who have managed to get out from the fiery mess quickly rolling on the ground at the first opportunity, only managing to have the fire on their bodies extinguished with the help of their comrades. Three soldiers with flames burning all over them jumped desperately into the river; while the flames were extinguished, they still ended up frozen and dead within the dank, watery depths of the ice-cold river. Four others who had been covered by too much fuel instantly turned into human torches, letting out ear-piercing screams in agony until some of their comrades decided to end their misery by giving them a pierce from their lances.

“Oaaghh!” Yet another crossbowman got hit by an arrow on the shoulder. A few pike infantry troops quickly pulled him from the walls. The enemy’s commander finally started going all out and sent five squads of bowmen to suppress the crossbowmen. Even though hundreds of bowmen on their side had perished, the remaining 500 or so managed to pressure the crossbowmen on the walls to the point when they couldn’t even raise their heads without being taken down by an arrow.

Lorist noticed that only 70 of the 100-odd crossbowmen were still alive and still being pressured by the suppression fire of the enemy bowmen. For every crossbow bolt they managed to unleash, five to six more arrows came in response. After considering his options, Lorist had Reidy bring him a large shield and intended to attract the attention of the bowmen to give his crossbowmen a chance to retaliate.

Taking in a deep breath, Lorist suddenly exited his cover. The sudden appearance of a man standing straight up exposing himself briefly stunned the enemy bowmen. Right after, ten or so arrows were sent flying in Lorist’s direction, only to be intercepted by the shield in his hand before hundreds and hundreds of other arrows followed suit……

Sol, thought Lorist as he suddenly ducked behind the cover of the walls. He initially thought that it would be a rather simple affair: given his dynamic vision, he should have been able to deflect or strike down each and every arrow heading his way. But, while ten to a hundred arrows wouldn’t pose much of a problem, five hundred arrows was really no joke. He could have easily been turned into a human pincushion. There’s simply too much. Had it not been for this shield, I would’ve been struck long ago. I almost lost my life due to this foolish bet. How did I forget the simple fact that strength in numbers is nothing to laugh at?

Looking at the shield that had over a hundred arrows embedded within it, Lorist could still feel his hand shaking. The combined energy of the arrows passing through the shield to his hand was hard to defend against even when he used his internal energy. He was practically dancing with death on a tightrope just now. The only thing that he could be happy about was the fact that he managed to buy some time for his troops who have just managed to take out another 40-odd enemy bowmen.

The rebel-sweeping corps sent out some infantry troops to throw some mud onto the burning battering ram and quickly pushed it aside when the fire was extinguished to make way for the second and third battering rams that were being pushed over. The second battering ram was slightly modified in that it had wooden barriers on both sides where the soldiers who pushed the battering rams were positioned. There were also a couple of soldiers who were prepared to extinguish any fires with their buckets of water and mud.

Within thirty minutes, the second battering ram was pushed to the front of the entrance, rumbling as it went along. Ten infantry troops ran over and started pulling onto the rope fastened onto the ram and let it go with a unified cry. The humongous log smashed towards the gates of the encampment, causing the walls to shake from the savage vibrations.

As Reidy was passing a fuel jar to Lorist, he was unaware of the impending strike and fell off the walls from the vibration. Had it not been for Patt who grabbed his arm in time, Reidy might have suffered severe trauma from a fall from that height.

Sol, thought Lorist as he hurriedly steadied his feet. The moment he threw the fuel jar just now, a number of bowmen noticed it and shot the fuel jar in mid-air, causing its contents to fly all over the place and covering his face. Not having expected that to happen, Lorist could only stand there stunned and wasn’t able to react in time to the incoming fuel.

“Pog, I’ll leave this part to you. I have to go wash up for a bit,” shouted Lorist. Currently, it was of utmost importance that he removed the fuel from his face and body, otherwise he might just end up as a human candlestick.

Lorist hastily got off the defensive walls with Reidy and Patt and sent the former to bring a basin of hot water with some soap over for him to clean his face up. He also removed his scale armor and grabbed a pile of mud to rub it on the parts that was stained by the fuel. After that, he took a piece of linen cloth and started wiping the fuel off. Patt quickly headed towards the large tent on horseback to retrieve a change of clothes for Lorist.

The sound of the camp gates being hammered at rang out at a steady rhythm. Lorist seemed to be unable to accept the incredulous situation of him practically bathing and changing into a fresh set of clothes in the midst of a siege.

“It’s on fire!” cheered Loze from the walls.

Turning his head to look, Lorist could see clouds of soot and smoke rise from outside the walls. However, the sound of the hammering continued incessantly.

Wiping his face dry and getting his new clothes on as well as donning his cleaned up armor, Lorist quickly got back to the walls and saw that the battering ram was indeed aflame, but that didn’t stop the infantry who were operating the ram from behind using the rope that was fastened to the hammering log.

“Reidy, get me two fuel jars. Patt, hold a torch ready for me,” instructed Lorist.

This time, Lorist aimed for the infantry troops at the back of the battering ram. Hurling both of the fuel jars to the midst of the soldiers and following it up with a torch, a choir of agonized cries rang out in unison as the smell of charred flesh once again wafted through the air.

The hammering sound finally stopped due to the rope of the ram having been burned away. And so, yet another glorified bonfire was created in front of the camp gates.

“Master, I think the gates won’t hold up for much longer,” said Reidy.

Lorist went down the walls and inspected the double gates only to see that it had been hammered so badly that it was bent inwards for almost half a meter. A man of slight build could probably even fit through the opening of the dented gates. The top one of the three iron bars that held the gate shut was the most malformed, having been bent into a bow-like shape. The rod in the middle had a slight dent while the bottommost rod still looked perfectly fine.

“Let’s stop defending the gates. It’s not like we need it to secure the camp anyways. To be honest, I doubt that it would be easy for us to even open it ourselves… Just look at that distorted shape! I’m only worried that the enemy will stop attacking and leave us trapped within here,” joked Lorist.

It was ‘fortunate’ that the enemy still wasn’t willing to give up after that. They sent yet another group of garrison troops to extinguish the burning battering ram and moved it aside to make way for the third one this time.

The third battering ram was fortified even more meticulously; it seemed almost like a wooden longhouse given its roofing and the wooden barriers that surrounded it by the sides, offering protecting to the soldiers within. A layer of thick, moist mud was also covered all over the wooden surface to help with fire resistance.

This battering ram moved even slowlier than the former two and took almost two hours of pushing before it arrived at the gates, giving Lorist and his men enough time to rest up and have their lunch. Potterfang and Loze even managed to take a short nap during that time.

Worried about the situation with the camp gates, Charade went over to the walls with Els. Seeing its miserable state, Charade asked Lorist with a pale face, “You’re just gonna let them push the battering ram all the way here without bothering to stop them at all?”

Lorist felt like laughing out loud on the spot as he thought, Charade, based on your martial prowess at the Three Star Silver rank, you’ll be a peak Silver ranked fighter soon and will break through into the Gold rank in the near future. Even though Charade was currently swamped with all sorts of tasks and also had to accompany that pretty little maidservant of his at night, he still managed to find some time to train in his Battle Force. His dedication to his training was really something to be admired.

In terms of ability, even Potterfang himself graciously took a few steps back and let Charade take the position as the chief knight of the Norton Family, thus making him the main supervisor of the northbound convoy. The man himself also did not let anyone’s expectations down and managed almost every affair, big or small, within the convoy. Back then, Baron Miranda once personally told Charade that he thought of him really highly and was appalled at his management skills. He even said that a man of Charade’s caliber was fit to be a high-ranking official in a kingdom’s government. It was worth noting that Charade was injured at that time and had to be carried around by others on a chair all over the place to get things done.

Even so, while Charade spoke quite a bit of sense during the war council meetings, when he was actually on the battlefield, his weaknesses would start to flow out ceaselessly. His hands and feet sweated incessantly and his face would turn utterly pale as he pranced around the battlefield in a state of panic, frightened by every little sound. His battle prowess in that state was not even comparable to a soldier who did not know how to utilize Battle Force!

Lorist felt intrigued that the usual beast-like calm and courage of Charade would instantly vaporize in the heat of battle. It wasn’t like he was not accustomed to seeing dead bodies; he had taken quite a few lives himself. Why, then, was he like that on the battlefield?

Charade could only sigh in exasperation. He said that for some reason, seeing so many people die at once and hearing the savage cries of the warriors made him feel nauseous for some reason. Potterfang and Loze, however, didn’t feel that it was a weird thing and concluded that it was because of Charade’s lack of exposure to large scale skirmishes such as these. One time, they said that if Charade were to use corpses as stools and dip his bread in their blood before biting into it, he would eventually stop feeling so affected by the surrounding atmosphere.

“Ueergh…” Charade quickly ran away to throw up upon hearing that comment.

Poor lil’ Charade… He knows that he can’t stand being in the frontlines of battle, yet he still comes over to mingle in spite of that…

Lorist patiently responded, “There’s no need to do that. When it comes to defense, we must not only focus on one aspect and must look at the bigger picture. We would be able to stop the battering ram from approaching the gates, but it would come with a heavy price. It isn’t wise to do so when we have a better alternative. Look at the fortifications they have made to the battering ram. You will soon be able to see how it would actually work in our favor later.”

However, that did not transpire as quickly as Lorist had mentioned. With but one strike of the ram, the iron bars that held the gate shut were knocked flying, leaving behind a large hole that revealed the surprised faces of several garrison troops.

Lorist ordered a few of his crossbowmen to shoot volley after volley of projectiles towards that hole, causing screams to echo from outside the gates. Only after a few moments were the enemy able to close that hole up with several shields. There was no activity for the later half hour as the enemy was presumably adjusting the position of the ram before the hammering started all over again.

Lorist’s brows started to twitch with impatience when the hammering begun once more.

This time, it only took 20 impacts for the gates to crumble, causing its hinges to go loose.

“The gate has fallen!” The soldiers within the wooden barriers surrounding the battering ram all cried out in joy. At the same moment, Els and Lorist rushed like raging storms towards the wooden barriers that flanked the battering rams. The soldiers who were in charge of pushing the whole siege engine and operating the hammering log were truly in a pinch as they did not have even one weapon on their hands due to having been preoccupied with operating the war machine. More than 60 of the soldiers perished from Lorist’s and Els’s massacre with only a couple at the back of the ram somehow managing to make a run for it. Corpses were littered all over within the enclosure of the wooden barriers with a large amount of blood leaking out, forming a small, crimson stream…

The main reason why Lorist refused Potterfang’s offer to go with him and brought Els instead was due to the fact that Els’s dark attribute Battle Force was best suited for tight spaces like the inside of the barriers of the battering ram. The night vision his Battle Force granted him also put him at more advantage in the low light conditions within the barriers, allowing Els to efficiently chase down each and every foe without accidentally harming his allies.

While Lorist and Els were keeping themselves busy within the barrier enclosure, the people in the camp were not slacking off either. Reidy and Patt brought a few thick ropes and fastened one end of each of the ropes to the battering ram and the other ends to several stakes that were hammered flat into the ground, effectively turning that battering ram into yet another obstacle for the enemy. Upon seeing that, Charade finally understood what Lorist had meant previously.

The enemy commander was instantly enraged at seeing that happen. This really is going too far! Why aren’t they abiding by the common conventions of warfare? Don’t people usually assemble their soldiers in formation while waiting for the enemy to move the battering ram away after the gates have been breached? Why did they use it to bolster their own defenses instead? This is truly beyond reason!>

And so, the enemy’s garrison troops started operating the ram again to clear out the remnants of the gates while removing the corpses of their comrades. However, the battering ram was still stuck firm on that spot.

A pike cavalry company could be seen assembling at the battering ram facing towards their own camp and tying their own ropes onto the ram. Before long, a game of tug of war had begun between the two sides.

The struggle lasted for more than 30 minutes before another squad of pike cavalry that acted as the rearguard of the enemy was roped into participating. Coupled with 1000 other horses that they had brought out of their main camp, the rebel-sweeping corps won out in the end. But it did not end well, for Lorist had waited for the ropes to be at its most tense before he cut them loose, causing the battering ram to roll towards the enemy troops unimpeded and down the road, resulting in the deaths of tens of soldiers and horses who were too late to react.

When the enemy stared flabbergasted at the situation that was unraveling before them, Lorist quickly instructed for his men to bring over a wooden cart and secured it vertically at the entrance. When the enemy broke out of their trance and attempted to rush over to stop it, the wooden cart had already been firmly planted to the ground, creating yet another obstacle for them to take down.

“The heck?! They’re not done yet?!” Countless curses and complaints sounded from the group of enemy soldiers outside the gates with some even ignoring everything and ramming towards the wooden cart recklessly. The defenders of the cart weren’t merciful either. There were three spear tips installed at the front of the wooden cart. The enemy soldiers, thinking that it was affixed to the cart and only served as a deterrent, believed that it wouldn’t be able to harm them. As the soldiers rushed towards the wooden cart, the spears suddenly shot forward and impaled the sorry soldiers who had attempted to ram against the cart, causing the others to not act recklessly nor approach the cart.

The few illegitimate sons who were in command of this rebel-sweeping unit were steaming with anger. It had already been almost a day ever since they launched the attack during the early dawn, but their forces still hadn’t been able to breach the camp even after sustaining near 600 casualties. Now that the battering ram was gone and the makeshift wooden gate wasn’t completely undefended, what would they be able to do?

“Set that wooden cart aflame.”

Several garrison troops hurled a few sacks of fuel onto the cart and quickly set it on fire.

Since you’re going to start a fire, I will do it too. “Come, guys. We’ll be setting up a bonfire here tonight,” Lorist said.

When the enemy soldiers reported seeing Lorist’s men hurling wood towards the burning cart and using it as a bonfire, Count Cobry’s illegitimate sons almost went insane. At that moment, flecks of snow slowly drifted downwards from the sky. The illegitimate son that led the group instantly cried out, “Aha! The weather’s turning to our favor today! It’s snowing! Let’s see how they keep the fire up now!”

Lorist, on the other hand, sighed and said, “It seems that fate intends to reap the lives of the enemy sooner. I had planned to let them live for one more night for us to have enough time to prepare, but it seems that we wouldn’t be able to avoid bloodbath tonight.”

As the bonfire finally went out, tens of garrison troops rushed towards the camp and moved the pile of wood aside as the sounds of horses galloping gradually got louder outside the camp. When the pike cavalry arrived at the entrance, the garrison troops cheered loudly in unison, “Go in there and kill them all!”

Chapter 64 Winter Night Massacre

Having been taxed heavily for the whole day, the pike cavalry unit felt extremely worn out especially due to the tug of war match during the afternoon. Being the elite soldiers of Count Cobry, never once have they been assigned such a laborious task. To add salt to injury, given that the camp was on higher ground and they were pulling it off the slope, when the battering ram came crashing down, the 40 of them who couldn’t react in time got ground into meat paste along with their mounts. This incident had further incited the already fervorous rage of the pike cavalry soldiers.

Now that the main gates have finally been opened up, they rushed directly into the camp filled with killing intent. A company and a squad of pike cavalry joined up together to a total of around 600 men and prepared to rush into the camp and slaughter anything in their sights to release their pent up frustration and rage, thinking that nothing could stand in their way.

After entering the main camp, the cavalry soldiers all got into a charging formation with 500 Silver ranked soldiers ready in the vanguard as they knew that the enemy had tens of knights who also have had their Battle Force awakened.

However, not a single soul or thing could be seen within the camp, save for a path that was 10 meters wide that led into the middle section of the camp. Some of them felt that something was off. The soldiers riding in front eventually slowed down to a gradual trot. They were unable to stop completely because there were six hundred more people following behind them. Gradually, the soldiers slowly filled up the 10-meter-wide ‘corridor’ like sardines in a can.

The pike cavalry could all feel that something weird was happening. They had imagined that they would be greeted by the familiar sight of the tents once they entered the camp and had wanted to use their enemy’s blood to wash off their humiliation. However, all they could see was the 3-meter-tall walls surrounding them on both sides blanketed by a layer of snow . The pike cavalry could naught but continue onwards on the corridor path.

The skies started to darken once again as the snow gradually fell, blurring the vision of the pike cavalry quite significantly.

“Check these walls out and tell me what they are,” someone instructed.

Two soldiers nearby poked their pikes toward the walls and said, “These are wooden walls, sir.”

“Weird, they couldn’t have possibly gotten so much wood from within the camp…” said one troubled soldier.

“Continue onwards. I refuse to believe they have enough materials to build such a long corridor.”

Not even one of the soldiers could have imagined that the ‘walls’ were actually carriages placed on both sides with their bottoms facing each other horizontally to form a corridor-like structure, an idea though of by Charade. Even though it wasn’t perfectly sealed and there were occasional openings here and there, they usually weren’t big enough for the pike cavalry soldiers to pass through.

Some of the soldiers attempted to topple the walls, but their efforts ended up in futility. Even though the walls would budge a little after being pushed, the sides of the carriages that served as a stand on the ground gave them even more stability when compared to normal wooden divider boards because of the larger base area.

As the soldiers at the front approached the end of the corridor, they could see a wooden platform in the area in front of them. Suddenly, countless torches lit up at the same moment, illuminating the whole area within.

Upon seeing the spectacle in front of them, the soldiers at the front instantly turned pale.

Finally, someone started shouting out loud. “It’s… It’s a trap! Quick… Retreat!”

On top of the wooden platform was a group of black-armored soldiers in a square formation equipped with jet-black shields and lances. It was common knowledge that cavalry troops wouldn’t stand against heavy-armored troops such as those when they lost the advantage of charging. However, that was not the main threat the pike cavalry faced. The light from the burning torches reflected off the 12 ballistas, causing them to glimmer in a chilling manner in the midst of the dark night…

The pike cavalry instantly erupted into chaos. Some wanted to go back the way they came only to find that it had been blocked off by their own comrades, who were unaware of the situation at the front. To add fuel to fire, there were 2000 or so garrison troops following behind them.

Dulles’s excitement instantly soared as it was finally his turn to show off the might of his carroballista unit. Seeing the crazed pike cavalrymen, he waved his hand and shouted, “Release!”

Initially, the 6 ballistas on the second floor of the wooden platform let out a thunderous sound as their strings snapped forward to propel the ballista darts at breakneck speeds towards the enemy, instantly skewing them alive and causing a wave of blood to surge out of their impaled bodies. After that, the other 6 ballistas on the lower platform fired while the ballistas above reloaded. The cycle then repeated itself……

The 12 ballistas fired 20 volleys in total before they stopped due to their strings being overly worn out. The last volley completely paled in terms of power and accuracy of that of the first.

Standing on top of the wooden platform, Dulles himself was stunned at the effectiveness of the unit he commanded. He could smell the thick iron-like smell of blood that lingered in the air and see the corpses of the cavalrymen and their mounts clustered together. The 12 ballistas have fired 240 darts in total, wiping out the majority of men who emerged from the carriage corridor. The first darts even pierced through 5 to 6 men in one shot! Currently, only tens of the enemy were still alive and standing amidst their fallen comrades.

“Ueergh!” That was the sound of a soldier of the heavy-armored unit vomiting from witnessing the bloodbath that had just occurred in front of his eyes.

“Heavy-armored troops, onward!” ordered Potterfang. Having long been baptized by the blood and corpses battle after battle, the sight in front of Potterfang’s eyes did not disturb him in the slightest.

“Ooeergh! Barf!” More soldiers of the heavy-armored unit started vomiting one after another.

“Heavy-armored troops! Charge forward!” shouted Potterfang again. He was suddenly reminded that his current heavy-armored unit was comprised of mostly new recruits and was far inexperienced than battle-hardened soldiers that he had once commanded in the Whitelion Legion. If he allowed them to take their time, it was entirely possible that more of them would start vomiting and decrease the overall efficacy of the whole unit.

Most of the troops did end up rushing forward in the end, only leaving behind several who were still in the puking their guts out.

In actuality, there wasn’t a real need to deploy the heavy-armored soldiers as the remaining cavalrymen had already lost all their will to resist. Potterfang also lost interest in the battle after ten or so of the enemy were killed and ordered that the remaining soldiers be captured alive instead and relieved them of their equipment. After that, he led his units towards the corridor where sounds of battle could be heard.

While the pike cavalrymen suffered such a huge loss from the ballistas, the garrison troops that followed behind them did not fare much better either. Initially, they were assaulted by 400 or so crossbowmen without being able to fight back as their bowmen could not grasp the location of their enemy. The convoy’s crossbowmen all hid behind the carriages and fired their bolts through the small openings. Being shot at a close range, the bowmen couldn’t retaliate at all.

The remaining garrison troops could only surround themselves with their shields, but that did not stop them from the incessant torrent of crossbow darts.

The ground between the carriages was littered thoroughly with corpses. The snow that fell from the skies eventually froze the blood on the ground, creating a thin layer of bloody ice.

Having nowhere else to go, one of the count’s sons who commanded the garrison troops ordered them to retreat immediately. At that moment, the walls near the entrance of the camp quickly collapsed: these were made of normal wooden separators instead of carriages. Terman and his knight brigade quickly rushed in and barred the way of the garrison troops. And behind him were hundreds of pike infantry troops who brought with them many wooden barricades and quickly erected a simple defense perimeter around the area.

At that moment, Loze was already in combat with the Gold ranked commander and both of them were quite evenly matched. Terman on the other hand led his knights on a rampage through the corridor, causing many soldiers to fall beneath his lance.

Several garrison troops soldiers attempted to escape from the spaces between the walls that could fit a person in, but shortly after they did that, their pained screams resounded throughout the area. Even one of Count Cobry’s Silver ranked sons suffered the same fate. What they did not know was that two senior academy students and several pikemen had been stationed there just to take care of the soldiers who slipped through the gaps.

When Potterfang’s heavy-armored troops rushed to the middle of the corridor, the already battered garrison troops finally despaired, with some dropping their weapons and kneeling down to await the inevitable and others struggling desperately to make their last stand. They were either killed by swords and spears or shot to their deaths by incoming crossbow darts.

Lorist gave the order to Reidy and Patt, “Pass down the order to spare anyone who drops their weapons and surrenders and kill the rest who resist.”

Without delay, multitudes of garrison troops within the corridor quickly let go of their weapons and kneeled down in subservience. The battle was already over. Loze had managed to take the head of the Gold rank illegitimate son by countering after taking a sword blow to his shoulder. However, he was still energetic enough to wave that head around while laughing heartily. Potterfang on the other hand was worried as there should have been another Gold rank within the ranks of the enemy just now.

What he did not know was that the other illegitimate son had been pierced by one of the ballista darts at the very beginning when he was sandwiched between the soldiers to his front and back at the corridor.

At that moment, smoke could be seen rising from outside the walls of the camp, signifying the rebel-sweeping corps’s camp being set on fire from the assault launched by Yuriy’s light cavalry troops. Not long after, Yuriy sent a messenger back to report that the enemy camp had already been taken over and also mentioned their discovery of over 2000 prisoners who lacked food and other basic necessities. He was currently awaiting Lorist’s order on how to deal with them.

How did the 2000 prisoners come about? After questioning a few of the surrendered garrison troops, Lorist came to know that the prisoners had been captured by the rebel-sweeping corps after they had taken down a mountain fort that belonged to the rebels to be used as slave laborers.

What should I do with them, thought Lorist as he shook his head with a bitter laugh. “I guess I can only bring them here for now since they wouldn’t be able to survive given the night there without resources. They might just freeze or starve tomorrow in the snow if I leave them be. Send Reidy and Patt to go look for Charade and inform him about this issue. Let Terman and his knights as well as a company of infantry pikemen escort the people here and don’t forget to collect the wooden boards they used as shields on the way. They will make good firewood to warm us up during the night.”

He also instructed Charade to set up a couple of more tents at the northwestern area of the camp and start a bonfire there so that the 2000 captive youths would be able to keep themselves warm throughout the night and be provided with some wheat porridge. After that, he also got them some garments to stave of the chilling winter night air.

The northwestern area of the camp was originally intended for the 400 captives they liberated within the camp and the people who came over with them from Mestre Castle as well as the vagabonds that had ended up tagging along with the convoy. There would be nowhere more appropriate for the 2000 captives to be allocated to in the camp other than there.

The mutters of the men could be heard as they entered the gates of the camp. However, they eventually quieted down with nobody daring to even take a loud breath as the first thing that had greeted them was the grim sight of the bloodstained roads. Beside the path were multitudes of bodies stacked up together. The enemy soldiers who had already surrendered were currently stripping off any usable equipment from the bodies and stacking them on top of each other after that.

The 2000 young men crossed the crimson red path without uttering a sound and only managed to regain their vigor after they arrived at the northwestern area of the camp. Lorist was satisfied with the shock the men had been given from seeing the corpses as he was worried that the prisoners would make a ruckus and cause trouble for the convoy.

The snowflakes continued to fall gently to the ground, covering it with a snow white veil of tranquility.

Within the camp, bonfires were burning bright all over. Standing in front of the large tent, Lorist looked at the falling snow before exhaling deeply. Now that the slaughter fest was over, he wondered what other battles the convoy would have to partake in on the way to the Northlands.

Chapter 65 Conclusion and Reorganization

The snow continued to fall. However, it wasn’t like the feather-sized flakes like before but rather tiny flecks of white that gradually painted the ground white.

It was as warm as spring within the tent as a large brazier had been placed in the center of it with a piece of burning charcoal within that let out wave after wave of heat. On the brazier was a large bronze kettle with steam coming out of its spout.

Shadekampf lifted the bronze kettle and filled the teacup in front of him and handed it to anyone else who needed it. When the kettle was emptied, it was refilled with water and macks and was placed back on top of the wire gauze on the brazier. In a few moments, the aroma of macks filled up the whole tent once again.

Lorist, Charade, Terman, Yuriy, Els, Potterfang, Mons Malek, Lode Wales as well as the 37 senior students of the academy were assembled together within the tent. In a corner also stood Engelich and her granddaughter, Molise. They were currently talking about the gains they had obtained following the battle yesterday.

“In terms of logistics, the gains we have obtained from the battle were outweighed by the cost. Even though we only lost 17 crossbowmen to take out all 3000 of the enemy troops, not only were our profit quite low, we also inherited a huge burden. We have killed over 1600 enemy soldiers and captured another 1200 and also saved more than 2300 youths in the process. Even though our victory was quite magnificent, we did not gain much food or other supplies from it. Therefore, it would be quite hard for us to provide all these men with the necessary amount of food and clothing to sustain them throughout the winter. I estimate that our resources will last us up to a month at most.

“Apart from losing 17 crossbowmen yesterday, we also have 48 injured men, 34 of which are crossbowmen as well. Others include 4 from Terman’s knight brigade, 7 from Yuriy’s light cavalry scouts as well as 3 from the infantry pikemen. While it is quite fortunate that our casualties were relatively low, it must be noted that the resources we expended during the battle yesterday is nothing to scoff at. For example, of the 20000 ballista darts we have prepared, we are only left with 8000 of them, and that includes the ones we managed to salvage from the battlefield after they have been used once. The rest were all damaged beyond repair and must be reforged.

“Also, Dulles’s carroballista unit also wore out all their ballista strings. While we do have some reserves of that, we still lack ballista darts nevertheless. If we don’t procure more of those, I’m afraid the carroballista unit won’t be able to contribute much in future battles. While we didn’t get any consumable supplies from this skirmish, we did however obtain more than 3000 sets of weapons and armor as well as 2000 war-trained horses that used to belong to the count’s pike cavalry. It is fortunate that the camp has quite a decent amount of hay. Otherwise, we will have to consider killing off some of the horses.

“Other than that, we have found almost 10000 gold Fordes’ worth of money as well as approximately 1000 pikes, 300 longswords, 600-odd longbows, almost 1000 arrows as well as 500-odd bucklers. We also got 132 four-wheeled horse carts, 341 two-wheeled horse carts as well as 1252 work horses to pull those carts with. According to the prisoners, the horse carts had been left over since their latest supply shipment from the count and hasn’t been sent back due to our attack on the camp. Aside from all those, we’ve also got a number of miscellaneous items.

“Right now, we’re facing three main problems. One, what are we going to do with the 1000 plus war prisoners? Should we leave them or bring them along when we set out? Two, at least half of the captives within the camp that we have rescued wants to join our army to take revenge for their family members who have been killed at the hands of the count’s forces. Having wiped out the rebel-sweeping corps, we have become their symbol of hope. Should we let them join our forces or not? The third issue is about a man who claims to be the son of a viscount and plans to bring a few hundred men away with him. He has requested that we provide him with some weapons and equipment. Should we adhere to his demands?”

After Charade finished giving his report, chatters and murmurs reverberated throughout the tent as the people present discussed the issues. When it came to the war prisoners, some were of the opinion of setting them free to avoid having to spend any resources to keep them alive while others brought up the possibility that they would once again return to the count and provide him with precious military intelligence. Given that they couldn’t just kill them off, they could just bring them along on the journey and have them help out with rough labor.

As for the youths who wish to join the convoy’s army to avenge their family members, most of the people were of the opinion of letting them join for the time being. However, when it came to the man claiming to be a viscount’s son, the consensus was that he had no right to demand free equipment from them no matter whether the convoy needed the surplus weapons or not.

In the midst of the discussions, Lorist clapped his hands and signalled for everyone to quiet down. He then said, “After listening to your opinions, I feel that we shouldn’t free the war prisoners just yet. Even if we do, it’ll have to be after we exit the area of influence of the count so that they don’t add any unnecessary trouble for us. As for the youths who wish to join our army, ask them if they would like to follow us all the way to the Northlands and inform them regarding the treatment our soldiers get. Also, don’t force anyone to join against their will so that we won’t have any deserters in the future.

“As for the last issue, I think we can’t just refuse that man’s request outright. I will first go and see him and decide whether we have a good reason to fulfill his request. If it isn’t a sound one, I will definitely not consent to giving the equipment to him. Alright, the next thing I’ll be telling you about will be a summary of the battle yesterday, so I hope you guys pay attention. This is only the first large scale battle we have participated in since the journey started and there is no way for me to know whether things will continue to be like this for the rest of the journey. I hope that you will all learn from any mishaps from this experience and make sure not to commit them again in the future.

“We only paid a small price to win the battle yesterday and managed to wipe out an enemy force of over 3000 men. This battle could easily be one of the most impressive and perfect victories ever to be recorded in the history books. However, let’s not forget that victories like this is a result of a number of unlikely coincidences that just so happened to be in our favor. First, we have the sudden snow that forced the enemies to attack us even though they were at a disadvantage because they were already running out of resources. As a commander of an army, it is extremely unwise to pour every bit of your forces into a situation with so many unknown variables like the enemy commander did yesterday. That was why they fell for our trap so easily.

“Additionally, we also had the terrain working in our favor as well as the necessary defensive fortifications that were already present at the camp, making it easy for us to defend it and extremely difficult for the enemy to besiege. Coupled with our apt response, we have managed to stall them during the day and only let them into the camp when their vision was obscured by the low light and snow. The frustration of having been held outside of the camp also fueled their recklessness and caused them to fall for the bait. Had they managed to breached the camp during the day, what do you think they would’ve done when they encountered that wooden corridor? Would they have let their troops rush straight into it in that situation? I’m sure you’re all aware that if that had happened instead, even if we were able to eliminate their forces, our casualties would be far worse than that. That is why luck was a huge factor when it came to our victory last night.

“Finally, the trap we devised using the carroballistas has produced an unexpected result and caused most of the pike cavalrymen of the enemy to be completely wiped out. Our victory was also mostly in part of our crossbowmen who have attacked from the gaps of the wooden walls; an action that allowed us to take control of the tide of battle that ultimately led to our victory. However, if we consider this victory along with the battle when we were occupying the camp as well as the time when our convoy was first attacked by the pike cavalry, we have lost quite a number of people including one of our cherished comrades.

“Throughout all these battles, I have discovered that our family’s forces is heavily dependent on certain units. That can be seen in the fact that our heavy-armored units weren’t able to shine during this battle as we have mainly relied on the light cavalry scouts, the knight brigade as well as the crossbowmen and carroballistas to secure our victory. This is not Knight Pog’s fault; he has done very well to train his soldiers to make them the elite unit of our family. However, when we first set up the heavy-armored unit, we forgot one important thing: the convoy is mobile, therefore to protect the convoy effectively, that unit has to have sufficient mobility to back it up, and that is exactly what the heavy-armored unit lacks.

“The impressive performance of the light cavalry scouts and the knight brigade has been quite a surprise for me personally, however, their weaknesses also show there too. The main shortcoming of the knight brigade is that it lacks the manpower it requires to be completely able of changing the tide of battle. The scouts on the other hand can’t undertake assault operations due to the same reason. For instance, when the light cavalry scouts attacked the enemy camp when they were at their weakest, seven of them were injured even though they only faced off with a squad of infantry troops. That is definitely an undesirable result. That’s why, I will be reorganizing the unit structure during these two days while waiting for the frost on the roads to clear up.

“Firstly, the knight brigade needs to expand. Including the sets of armor and saddles the knight brigade currently has, the convoy has a total of 88 sets. The knight brigade will thus be expanded to a full squad of 120 people. Each knight will be allocated 3 mounts which include 1 warhorse, 1 travel horse and another spare mount. Every knight will also be assigned a squire who will be picked from the family members of another knight of age 15 to 16 as well as an attendant that will be in charge of managing the horses and armor of the knight. Both of them will also have one mount, but they will not be required to go on the battlefield. Knight Terman, I’ll leave the reorganization to you. I hope you build a stellar knight brigade for the Norton Family.”

Terman quickly stood up and saluted. “Milord, I will definitely not let your expectations down.”

“Other than that, Knight Yuriy, your light cavalry scouts will be expanded into a full company comprising four squads with 120 people in each one. Each scout will be assigned 2 mounts, a crossbow, javelins, a pike, a longsword, a shield as well as mail and leather armor. There will also be another squad of attendants accompanying the scouts that will be responsible for managing the mounts and equipment. You must give the scouts strict training so that they will not only be able to fight from afar, but in close range as well.”

“Yes, milord,” said Yuriy as he stood up and saluted.

Lorist glanced towards Potterfang and he nodded slightly in response. Lorist continued, “Next, I will talk about the reorganization of the heavy-armored units. The assault from the pike cavalry has given us a huge realization. After discussing with Potterfang and some others, I have decided to change the heavy-armored infantry into heavy-armored cavalry and intend to have two companies set up for the time being. Each company will be made up of four squads which will each also have 120 people. Each soldier will have two horses and each company will have a squad’s worth of attendants. The new heavy cavalry unit will be commanded by Knight Pog and Knight Loze.”

Potterfang and Lode Wales stood up and said in unison, “Your will is our command, milord.”

Lorist smiled with satisfaction and gestured for them to sit down. After spending some time with the convoy, Loze seemed like he was very keen on joining the Norton Family and it is only a matter of time before he joins the ranks of the family knights. “Currently, we’ll prioritize the soldiers who have already awakened their Battle Force in the reorganization of the different units. Other than that, we will also set up a constable unit to maintain the order and security within the convoy that will be equipped with armor, axes and halberds. It is my hope that Knight Mons Malek will accept the position of the leader of the constable unit.”

Mons Malek stood up and saluted before saying, “Milord, it is my pleasure to be of service to you.”

“Other than that, the main camp’s guards will also be expanded into a company, but they will have to be in charge of looking after the war prisoners as well as maintaining the security of the convoy. Els, I’ll leave that part to you.”

“Understood, milord.”

“Lastly, I have decided to fuse the crossbowman unit with the pike infantry regiment. Every company will be made up of 5 squads, namely, 1 swordsmen squad, 1 crossbowmen squad, one longbowmen squad and 2 pikemen squads. Every squad will have 120 members. I will leave the command of this reorganized regiment to…”

Lorist’s gaze fell on Engelich before he continued, “Engelich, it’ll be your responsibility.”

Engelich didn’t expect that Lorist would actually nominate him to be the commander of the pike infantry regiment, which has the most amount of people when compared to the other units of the convoy. With his face flushed with surprise, he said, “Milord… I… I don’t think I can…”

“Why not? Not only do you have the necessary experience, having been a commander of a city defense garrison before, you have nothing better to do around the convoy other than leaning outside of Charade’s tent to eavesdrop. Don’t bother denying it, I’ve seen that a couple of times. As a Gold rank, you can’t just sit around doing nothing. As for your granddaughter, don’t worry. Knight Charade has told me that he intends to marry her once we get back to our dominion. For your granddaughter’s happiness and safety, you’ll have to put in your part as well.”

After saying that, Molise, who was standing just beside her grandfather, blushed profusely. Charade on the other hand walked up to her and pulled her in his embrace, causing the men in the tent to laugh out loud. Some of them teased Engelich while others congratulated Charade for having found his true love.

Engelich was embarrassed that his behavior had been exposed by Lorist. He was merely worried that Charade would force himself on his granddaughter. However, now that Molise truly had mutual feelings with Charade, there was nothing he could do to stop them. However, he brightened up when he heard of Charade’s intention to marry her and said, “Okay, I will definitely do all I can.”

Lorist faced the rest of the men in the tent and waved his hand. “Alright, meeting adjourned. We’re rather pressed for time and we only have two days to carry out the reorganization. Make sure to make the best use of your time and cooperate with one another.

“Patt, ask that guy who claims to be a viscount’s son to come over. I’d like to hear what he has to say.”

Chapter 66 Mister Tim

The one who followed Patt into the large tent was a man who looked to be in his forties that wore a loose-fitting grey cloak that did not quite fit his physique as well as a set of brown breeches; they were obviously the clothes the convoy provided for the people to withstand the winter cold. Even though this middle-aged man wanted to present himself as a noble, his eyes that looked all over the place unnervingly gave his nervousness away.

Lorist had a bad impression of that man on first glance. Even though he seemed rather sharp, he lacked the refined air of a noble and seemed more like a merchant or a butler, as could be inferred from his eyes that kept on moving nonstop as if he was plotting something in his mind.

“I, the heir of Viscount Tebri, Tebri Tim, give you my congratulations on the victory, great sir,” said the man as he bowed deeply to Lorist, who still remained seated.

Lorist started laughing out loud right away. No descendant of nobles would address oneself as the successor when making an introduction and would only state their family name and their dominion’s location. While this might be able to fool the common folk, any noble who had received proper education for etiquette will be able to see through it right away. It seemed that the man’s identity was quite questionable.

“I am Norton Lorist of the Norton Family from the Northlands and I am the person in charge of this convoy. May I know who you really are?” Lorist didn’t bother to hide his suspicion at all.

“I, I really am Viscount Tebri’s son. If you don’t believe me, you can ask the ones whom you’ve saved. Many of them know me personally and have grown up with me together. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be willing to heed my instructions and want to leave with me at all…” said the middle-aged man with a flustered look, as if Lorist had struck his most sensitive part with his question.

“Is that so?” said Lorist indifferently.

The man slumped downwards like a ball that had lost all its air. “That is definitely true, sir. I am indeed the eldest son of the viscount. However, I’m the only one who’s still alive that bears his blood as my family members have all perished. That’s why I’m his sole successor.”

Lorist suddenly came to an understanding. That man was in fact an illegitimate son of the viscount, whose family had probably been wiped out by Count Cobry just recently. That’s why this man dared to call himself the successor of the family head.

“What kind of post did Viscount Tebri assign you?” asked Lorist.

“The Lord Viscount had me manage the business of the three orchards within his dominion. Due to spending most of my life among the common folk, I haven’t had much interaction with people of noble standing,” said the man honestly without hiding a single thing.

“Alright, how about this? Mister Tim, I’m not the least bit interested in whether you’re truly the heir of Viscount Tebri. I heard that you requested us to give you some weapons and equipment for free. Let me ask you this then: why do you think we have the obligation to fulfill that unreasonable request?” Lorist said as he stood up and stared at the middle-aged man.

“S-sir… Isn’t there an obligation between nobles to help each other? And… I-I also want to equip my men to go up against the count’s forces…” From Tim’s point of view, Lorist’s aggressive speech and gestures pressured him greatly and made him forget all the arguments and excuses he had thought up before. Flustered, he could only resort to that traditional reasoning.

“Haha, Mister Tim, first things first, you, are not yet a noble. Don’t think that just because you’re his son and heir that you will automatically become one. You must have the recognition of at least three other landed nobles to be able to officially lay claim to the position of the viscount’s heir. Only then can you go to the capital to obtain a birthright certificate from the senior noble that the Tebri Family has pledged allegiance to. The aforementioned method is the proper, more traditional route to ensure one’s noble status. The other method is to assemble a strong army and force the local lord to cede their title and the right to rule the dominion to you. I believe that second method is what you’re trying to achieve. Am I right, Mister Tim?

“It could also be possible that Viscount Tebri did not register your name in the family registry as his eldest son. That should cause you quite a lot of trouble if you were to attempt the first method. Then again, Mister Tim, you should not forget your status as a war prisoner of Count Cobry. And we, the Norton Family has managed to defeat the count’s forces, so we have the rightful claim to the spoils of the battle. In theory, we have all the right to kill you or sell you to a slave trader, unless you are able to pay a suitable ransom for your freedom like other nobles would should they be captured.

“And when it comes to the obligation between nobles to look out for each other, Mister Tim, do you really understand what that entails? That clause only applies when the neighboring nobles of a region get attacked by invaders or waves of magical beasts. And as it stands now, I am a noble from a different nation entirely. Even if you were a noble, there’s completely no obligation for me to lend you a hand. Heck, I can even have your head lopped off and offer it to my senior noble for a reward because you’re from a different nation. Your excuse of wanting to help us resist the count is also really pathetic, you know that?”

The middle-aged man was currently shivering and sweating all over. Back then, the moment he called himself the successor of Viscount Tebri, the citizens of the dominion would instantly bend to his will and not offer any sign of resistance. Even when he was captured, he still had some degree of influence among the other prisoners there. He did not expect that his self-proclaimed status of a heir would be instantly torn down by a true noble within moments.

Lorist merely walked around that man and examined him carefully before saying, “Mister Tim, personally, I don’t care if you’re trying to impersonate a noble or whether you’re really the viscount’s son. It’s a good thing to have ambition: it helps motivate one to strive hard for one’s goals. If you can offer a favor of equivalent value to me, then I will forgive your ignorant transgressions. However, if you think that you’ll be able to take from me without offering anything in return, then I will really have to consider how I should punish a charlatan like you. Should I hang you or behead you? You’re free to make the choice.”

Tim instantly slumped limply to the ground as he recalled how his father, Viscount Tebri, so casually ordered someone to be beaten to death with a gentle and smiling expression as well as how his other brothers who were the legitimate sons of the Tebri Family caned some of the dominion’s citizens to death for having startled their mounts. From a young age, he had been taught how to live his life humbly given his status as an illegitimate son and slowly gain his father’s trust to become an official in the dominion by his mother who was one of the count’s maidservants. He was also instructed to take advantage of his status as the illegitimate son of the viscount to glean some advantages for himself from the dumb common folk.

But when his father and brothers were all killed by Count Cobry’s forces, he was struck with the sudden revelation that he was the only person who still carried the blood of the viscount. Even though he hadn’t received any etiquette lessons for nobles nor awakened his Battle Force, he had been allowed to learn how to read and write as he had gained the favor of his father. But his hardships didn’t stop him from building his reputation as the sole heir of the viscount among the dominion’s citizens and he capitalized on his experience and wit from his days as a traveling merchant as well as his skills as an orator to form an insurgent force by recruiting the citizens of the war-torn land and had managed to erect a stronghold within the western mountains. However, that all ended when the count’s forces crushed his own and made him their captive.

Originally thinking that there would be nothing more waiting for him other than death, he was quite surprised to discover that the powerful rebel-sweeping forces would actually be defeated by a convoy’s military escort, thereby liberating him from his predicament. After having his fill of food on the night of the camp’s occupation, he went around to ask about the convoy and suddenly realized the potential benefits he could gain from that opportunity. He thought that the moment he introduced himself as the heir of the viscount, the master of the convoy would treat him like a person of exalted status and adhere to his every request. At that time, he had already thought up a number of proposals and even planned to use the convoy to crush Count Cobry and fantasized about his glorious return to the viscount’s dominion with a large military force and become the noble that everyone admired and respected.

But when Lorist prompted him to choose the way in which he would be put to death, all those fantasies vaporized within an instant. So this is what a real noble is like. Sociable, yet cruel, and having subordinates that would be willing to do anything for him, unlike my own who can only be swayed by fear or the promise of a reward. To Tim, Lorist reminded him of the fearful side of his father that had the life of the common folk at his fingertips.

Shriveling up on the ground and crying out loud, Tim pleaded, “Sir, please have mercy on me… I shouldn’t have ever dreamed about gaining the title for myself… Please spare this pathetic life of mine! To you, I am but an existence that only compares to that of an ant… I’m not worth your attention at all…”

Lorist took a step back and said, “Please get up, Mister Tim. If you would like to become a noble, you should at least have some degree of self-respect. No noble would ever humiliate oneself like what you just did. A proper noble would never submit to anyone, even in the face of certain death. Perhaps, you have misunderstood my intentions. I’ve mentioned that I don’t care whether you’re the viscount’s son or not. What I want to know is what status were you assuming when you made that request of me?”

Seeing the dumbfounded look on the kneeling man, Lorist gave a bitter laugh before proceeding with his explanation. “MIster Tim, if you think that you will be able to get what you came for without any reciprocation, then I can kill you for being a fraud and liar, because that act would have insulted the Norton Family name. You should know that nobles hate nothing more than petty tricks and being insulted.”

Tim felt a chill down his spine and once again had a flashback of the moment he witnessed his father ordering for a fisherman to be hanged for attempting to hide his catch in order to avoid paying his fair share of tax. That fisherman lost his life just because he dared to try to trick the viscount. He could clearly recall what his father had said back in the day, “I don’t really care about the fish you were trying to hide from me. But I can definitely not forgive those who dare to lie to my face.”

Tim nodded in agreement to Lorist’s previous statement.

“Mister Tim, if you’re not approaching me as a conman but as a noble, then I should offer you a helping hand as well. However, nobles don’t give their help without expecting anything in return. Are you prepared to pay the price for my assistance?” Lorist asked.

“I can help you form and army, take the dominion back for you and even give you the proper training and lessons necessary on the customs and traditions of nobles so that you will act and behave like one and not embarrass yourself in front of other nobles. However, this will not come cheap, Mister Tim,” Lorist said.

“I… I have some money and supplies that I can offer you for your help…” Tim was gradually getting the drift of what Lorist was hinting at and he was even more excited after Lorist said that he would provide him with the training necessary to become a proper noble, or at least, behave like one.

“That’s the spirit, Mister Tim. It’s great that you intend to cooperate with me. However, can you tell me where you would get the money and supplies from as payment for my assistance?”

Tim then told Lorist with absolute honesty about the location of the funds and resources he had. He mentioned that when Count Cobry’s initial assault began, Viscount Tebri had brought Tim along with him to bury a stash of gold coins in a secret location so that he would one day be able to use it to regain his power. He also instructed Tim to not return to the castle and head to the areas within the dominion that had yet to be taken over to move the food and supplies to a cave within the mountains which he had discovered when he went out on a hunting trip with Tim. It was an abandoned bear cave that only the two of them knew of.

Having carried out the viscount’s instructions properly, he returned to the dominion only to find that the castle had already been taken over and the viscount as well as all the rest of his family had all been put to death. Tim said that there were almost tens of thousands of imperial gold coins as well as enough food to last 3000 people for up to six months.

Looking at the map, Lorist noticed that the hiding place that Tim told him about was only 1 day’s worth of travel away. He then called Reidy to bring Els over and instructed him to bring Patt, Tim and several other soldiers to head to that location to bring the gold coins and supplies back to the camp.

Before they left, Lorist wished them a smooth journey and promised Tim that he would arrange for someone to start the etiquette training when he got back.

When he returned to the large tent, Reidy came up to him and reported, “Milord, Knight Josk has come over with a group of people and has requested to meet with you.”

Chapter 67 Josk’s Wish

Upon seeing Josk, Lorist noticed that he looked rather haggard glum. There were a large group of people behind him numbering around 400 people of ages ranging from their mid-teens to their fifties. Every one of them held held makeshift weapons or farming tools in their hands.

“Milord, I have let your expectations down…” said Josk humbly before he saluted.

Lorist laughed and said, “Don’t worry about it. The tide of battle is really hard to predict, so accidents like these really can’t be blamed on you. Moreover, we have troubled you so much to go all the way there and back. So let’s cut the pleasantries short and enter the camp first. We’ll talk after we get you something warm to eat.”

The aromatic smell of cooked meat wafted around the camp. Charade had ordered to have the dead mounts of the pike cavalry to be skinned and cooked in a big cauldron into stew, providing a hearty serving of meat for all within the convoy.

Upon hearing what Lorist had just said and taking a whiff of the mouth-watering smell of food, Josk’s men instantly let out a loud cheer as their stomachs growled aloud.

Embarrassed, Josk said, “Milord, to be honest, we haven’t eaten for the past day. Everyone’s pushed to the brink of hunger already.”

The near 400 men settled down in the camp pretty quickly after thirty or so tents were set up in the northwestern section. After that, Shadekampf had someone bring over some horse meat and potato stew for them to fill their stomachs with.

Within the tent, Josk could be seen wolfing down his food: he almost instantly finished the whole bowl of horse meat stew and the tens of pieces of bread Reidy had brought for him. After having his fill, he started to recount his experience after returning to the stronghold.

Among the insurgents who fought against Count Cobry, Josk could be considered as a rather influential person with almost 700 men under his command and a total of 2000 people including the soldiers’ family members. However, he didn’t have the intention of setting up his own stronghold and instead chose to let the family members stay at the largest stronghold, the Hiddenbull Stronghold, while he led the soldiers to cause trouble for the count, enabling him to be one of the most active insurgent groups in the area.

The recent skirmish between the Hiddenbull Stronghold and the count’s forces had caused Josk to lose nearly half of his own men and drove him to try to burn the supplies of the count in an act of desperation, resulting in him getting acquainted with Lorist. When he left the convoy to rally up the other insurgent groups, he had imagined that they would be thrilled to join the war effort.

However, when he arrived at the western mountain area, he was only met with rejection and ridicule. To the people living in the mountains, the fact that the count’s rebel-sweeping corps had left the mountains was already considered a victory for them. They believed that they should take advantage of the peace that was to come to rest up instead of provoking the rebel-sweeping corps, lest they once again fall into their sights. They even suggested to Josk to let the convoy and the count’s forces wipe each other out.

Some of them even suspected Josk for entering into a secret agreement with the convoy. Otherwise, why would he bother asking the rest of them to attack the count’s forces? Given that they had struggled so hard just to protect their strongholds from the rebel-sweeping corps, to take the initiative to attack them was like knocking an egg against a rock.

And some others even hoped that the convoy and the count’s forces would mutually obliterate one another so that they will be able to take advantage of the whole situation. Given that Josk had told them about the size of the convoy, they inferred that it would definitely own a huge amount of resources that would instantly make them filthy rich.

Toiling away for three whole days at the mountains to try to negotiate with the insurgents, Josk ended up heavily disappointed that nobody bothered to join his cause to aid the convoy in attacking the enemy’s main camp. To make matters worse, the leader of the Hiddenbull Stronghold invited Josk over and told him that they would no longer be able to sustain the 2000 family members of the soldiers and Josk’s men due to the losses they sustained during the recent skirmish with the count’s forces and suggested that they either join the stronghold and survive on some meager amount of rations until spring the year after or bring them away from the stronghold to find other means of survival.

Josk was angered beyond belief as that signified that the Hiddenbull Stronghold intended to take advantage of Josk to make up for their own losses without even taking into account their contributions in resisting the count’s forces. In fact, the stronghold did not lack any supplies at all as they had obtained two-thirds of the supplies pillaged from the count’s warehouse that was just recently conquered by Josk’s forces.

The prideful Josk instantly exposed the lies of the stronghold’s leader and left with his men that very night. After that, he brought them to another stronghold within the mountains that had been ravaged by the count’s forces. Josk was starting to feel a headache welling up when he saw the pained and crying old people and children as well as the 100 or so injured men. The mere thought of the leaders of the western mountain insurgents caused him to grit his teeth in anger. These short-sighted ambitionless bastards who only dare to hide in their little corner will never be able to help me avenge my family. They are completely satisfied with staying at the strongholds for the rest of their lives within the mountains.

When he recalled his arrangement with Lorist and the way the stronghold leaders treated him, for the first time in his life, Josk felt like rushing into battle and dying to end it all. That was why he left all of his rations with the women and children at the abandoned stronghold and rushed all the way to the encampment with 300 of his able-bodied men to the camp. He thought that as long as the convoy was still fighting with the count’s rebel-sweeping corps, he would sacrifice himself and do whatever damages he could to the enemy to fulfill his promise with Lorist.

However, when he arrived at the battlefield with an empty stomach, the fight had already ended for two whole days. At that moment, Josk instantly regretted that he had spent so much time to convince the stronghold leaders to no avail.

Lorist gave him a brief summary of the battle that had occurred and said that the convoy was only able to obtain victory due to a series of unlikely coincidences. After that, Lorist suggested that Josk move his men and their family members to this camp as the convoy would leaving in the next two days, citing the reason that the camp was much easier to defend and incredibly hard to besiege with ample land for farming as well. He said that as long as he occupied the camp, his days in the future would be much easier and he wouldn’t have to face the likes of the mountain insurgents ever again. If Josk was willing to do as he suggested, Lorist said that he would have some of his carriages help out with the moving and even leave enough equipment and supplies for them.

After considering it deeply, he shook his head and turned down Lorist’s goodwill and gave a response that greatly shocked him. “Milord, I would like to join the convoy and follow you up to the north. However, when we arrive at your homeland and dominion, I will come back here after everything is settled down to kill the count and all his illegitimate sons before returning to serve you completely.”

Lorist wondered why Josk would end up at that decision as well as his history with the count.

Josk sighed and said, “Milord, I’m truly, very tired. I really gave it a lot of thought on the way here and I realized that I may not be as good a leader as I had hoped. I even ignored the feelings of my own men to go through such lengths to resist the count due to a personal vendetta. After all this time they took me as their leader, I still can’t give them and their families the care they deserve. I only realized all my mistakes when I led these men away from the Hiddenbull Stronghold. I really have wronged the warriors who have fallen in battle under my command for not being able to provide their families with a sustainable and peaceful environment to live in… I really can’t do it…

“Milord, I’m really grateful that you were willing to give the camp to us. But I understand that even if we were to stay here for the time being, we wouldn’t be able to avoid the inevitable conflict and battles that are to come. That’s why I would like to entrust you with my men so that they can have a peaceful life when they reach the Northlands. I believe that you will definitely be able to let them have the comfortable and blissful life that they deserve.”

After that, he told Lorist about why he hated the count so much. To Lorist, it all seemed like a children’s tale of happiness as well as one of revenge.

Josk’s father was a Gold ranked knight who had left his newlywed wife around twenty years ago to answer the call to arms of the empire to resist the invasion of the trade union, only to die on the battlefield and never return. After Josk was given birth to, his mother soon left the world from a sickness that has ailed her since she had gotten wind of her husband’s death. Orphaned from young, he had only managed to survive thanks to the goodwill of his neighbors. During one fateful day when he was twelve, he managed to save Baron Omador from a raging wild boar and was brought back to the castle of the thankful baron.

Among the landed nobles in the area, Baron Omador was considered to be an eccentric person. First, he was extremely devoted and never had any illegitimate children nor affairs with his maidservants and has remained single after his wife passed away and lived with his precious daughter ever since. Additionally, the baron also had a great relationship with the citizens of his dominion and rarely punished them for no good reason and usually laughed it off when anyone committed a simple mistake. He would even distribute food and clothing to his citizens during festivities, earning him the reputation of the most benevolent noble in the area.

After understanding Josk’s family history, the baron decided to adopt him and trained him strictly in hopes that one day he would become a Gold ranked knight like his father. Josk himself also trained zealously and successfully became a One Star Gold Knight who was well-versed with the bow and arrow under the baron’s tutelage at the age of 24.

During the 14 years Josk lived at the baron’s castle, the baron’s daughter also gradually grew up and the two of them fell in love to nobody’s surprise. The baron was extremely pleased with the relationship and let his daughter get engaged with Josk and said that they would officially become husband and wife when his daughter reached 20 years old.

Up to that point, the whole story seemed like it came right out of a children’s storybook. However, on the day when Josk was supposed to get married to his lover, the count sent someone to request the baron’s daughter’s hand in marriage for one of his illegitimate sons. During that time, the baron was incredibly furious and chased the messenger away. Who knew that right after that, Count Cobry and his army invaded the baron’s dominion and surrounded the whole castle and declared war with the baron using the excuse that the act of chasing away his messenger was a grave insult to his status.

The castle that was prepared for a wedding ceremony was naturally not a match for the count’s army and was breached within two short hours. Josk, who was defending the castle at the frontlines, had ended up severely injured and only managed to survive from having been rescued by his subordinates. On his trip away from the castle, he regained consciousness for a moment and witnessed a scene that he would never forget: the castle that he had lived in for the last 14 years had been set on fire with black fumes rising high up into the sky, with his betrothed plunging to her death from the highest floor of the castle in her snow white gown.

Josk let out an inhuman shriek before falling back into the indifferent embrace of unconsciousness. It took another half a year before he completely recovered from his injuries and infiltrated the count’s mansion in an attempt to kill the count and his illegitimate son. However, of the three arrows he had managed to unleash, two of them managed to take the illegitimate sons’ lives while the third only hit the count’s shoulder. After that incident, he was under constant pursuit of the count’s forces. Due to his seething hatred for the count, he eventually formed an insurgent group that aspired to cause as much trouble to the count as possible.

In the middle of telling his story, Josk broke down into tears and suddenly knelt in front of Lorist. He said that if Lorist was willing to help him take revenge, he would definitely accept him as his lord and will be willing to serve the Norton Family for life.

Quickly helping Josk up from the floor, Lorist expressed that he had always admired Josk’s skills and said that he would definitely be glad if Josk was willing to serve him. However, he said that he couldn’t agree to exterminating the count lightly as the main objective of the convoy was to head to the Northlands and the whole convoy’s wellbeing will be affected by that decision. However, he assured that the convoy’s travel plans was still not set and he would definitely see how he can help out if it was within his abilities, as the Norton Family also had a grudge against the count for killing off their merchant convoy.

After that, Josk finally calmed down and was led by Reidy to a nearby tent for some rest. After all, even a Gold ranked knight would be exhausted after traveling such a long distance without food or sleep.

Lorist stroke his chin as he drowned himself in his thoughts. He strongly believed that Josk would be a great addition to his forces and would make a stellar subordinate. However, he had to fulfill his wish and exterminate the count and his family in order for that to happen. Hm? I suddenly feel like I’m in an RPG game. The Gold ranked marksman Josk is like a quest reward for exterminating the count.

Alright then, let’s think hard about how I can complete this quest, mused Lorist to himself as he sat down on a desk and started analyzing the map of the area.

Chapter 68 Strategizing

When Charade, Potterfang, Terman, Yuriy and Loze hurried over, they saw Reidy bringing a few of the surrendered garrison troops out of the tent. Upon entering the large tent, they noticed several maps, large and small, were littered all over the place as well as a table that had half of its surface occupied by beastskin books that were marked with all sorts of symbols by Lorist.

“What are you doing?” asked Charade curiously as he approached. After looking at it for some time, he still couldn’t understand what Lorist was trying to achieve.

On the other hand, Potterfang instantly had a hunch about what was going on. “These look like the distribution of soldiers and supply lines…”

Upon hearing what Potterfang had said, Charade looked back at the side and got a shocking realization, “Are you planning to take on Count Cobry?”

Lorist nodded and took out a small map and circled a part of it, “Look, this is the count’s area of influence.”

He subsequently drew a single line outside the circle and said, “This is the path that we were going to take and it just so happens to circumvent that area of influence. If we manage to travel up to 35 kilometers a day, it’ll take us around 12 to 14 days to leave this area. However, we’ll only be passing through the wilderness or the places where the count’s forces have ravaged and that would make it hard for us to resupply and do business.

“But if we take this route…” Lorist drew another line that passed through the circle and continued, “It’ll only take us 7 days and it’s far more convenient for us to procure resources along the way. However, the precondition of using this route is that we have to first defeat Count Cobry.”

“Then, have you thought of how you would go about achieving that?” asked Charade.

“Nope. I’ve just got the count’s garrison troops over and questioned them about the situation at hand. I do have some thoughts about it, but I’m not sure how the count would respond to our actions, so I’m not too confident if that’s the best way,” said Lorist as he shook his head. He then took out a book and placed it on the table.

“You guys should join me in planning this too. After all, I can only consider so many scenarios by myself. Reidy, get me the Kirov War Chess set,” Lorist said.

Kirov War Chess was a war game created by the General Kirov from the Romon Empire about a hundred years ago. Lorist felt that it was quite similar to the modern chess back in his world. However, the chessboard was more similar to that of monopoly board game rather than the traditional checkerboard.

“Count Cobry has a new city in development that is modeled after the capital called Geldos City,” said Lorist as he pointed towards the book he placed on the table before he put two cavalry chess pieces and four infantry chess pieces atop the book. “Currently, Geldos City has two cavalry companies and one garrison regiment defending it. It is worth noting that one of the pike cavalry companies as well as two companies within the garrison regiment were only recently formed and don’t have any real battle prowess. According to the surrendered troops, the count only has one personal guard made up of a squad with members that are at least at the Iron rank equipped with heavy armor to look out for his safety.”

After that, Lorist placed a plate onto the table and put a cavalry and infantry chess piece each onto the plate. “Williamiles Castle is defended by a cavalry company and another garrison company and the soldiers number almost 1000 in total. Even though the allied noble armies that are currently in a conflict with the count have around 4000 men, they’re still gradually being pushed into a corner by the count’s forces and are currently passively defending themselves. What a useless bunch.”

Casually commenting on the allied noble armies, Lorist put down another cup on the table and placed an infantry chess piece within. “Over here is Burdock Bastide, which is situated within the count’s original territory and there is a company of garrison troops stationed there. Now, pay attention to Geldos City, Williamiles Castle and Burdock Bastide. If you connect all three points to each other, you get a triangular shape. So, if one side is attacked, the other two will be able to go back it up as quickly as possible. Unless our forces far outnumber that of the count’s, we will not be able to take down the forces stationed at Williamiles Castle and Burdock Bastide to reach Geldos City.

“Fortunately for us, the pike cavalry company and garrison regiment that were supposed to be stationed at Burdock Bastide has already been annihilated by us and they only have one company of garrison troops sent there from Williamiles Castle stationed there. Taking into account that the pike cavalry from the rebel-sweeping forces have also been wiped out by us, their forces have weakened quite a lot and no longer pose much of a threat to us. What I have in mind is we take the opportunity when Burdock Bastide is only weakly defended by a single garrison company and disguise ourselves as insurgent forces and start causing trouble in the dominion of the count to lure him to deploy his soldiers from Geldos City so that we can occupy the city posthaste. As long as we manage to get Geldos City and Burdock Bastide within our control, the count’s foundation will have crumbled and there will be no way he can rise up to power again.”

“Milord, your plan sounds really viable. Why, then, are you hesitating to do so?” asked Potterfang.

“It’s mainly because we still don’t exactly have enough soldiers to gain a victory without incurring a heavy loss at the same time. If that were the case, not only would we lose the control over the situation, we might also get attacked by others who are preying on the convoy. That is why I’m currently trying to come out with some way to minimize the losses our forces will incur. If only we can somehow get rid of another pike cavalry company…” said Lorist with a bitter laugh.

“But milord, I think that our forces are more than enough to handle the count’s army. Why do you say otherwise?” asked Loze curiously.

“We have to consider the security of the convoy as well and cannot send all our forces without leaving some behind. After doing some calculations, I found that we can only afford to dispatch three pike infantry companies, one heavy-armored cavalry company and the carroballista squad as well as the knight brigade. We have to leave behind one heavy-armored cavalry company and two pike infantry companies to be able to ensure the convoy’s safety. With the constable squad having to remain to regulate the convoy and the camp guard company being in charge of watching the war prisoners, even if we were to draw some forces from those units, we would only have 2000 extra men give or take. And Yuriy’s light cavalry scouts will have to leave a squad behind to patrol the surrounding area and can only spare three squads to join our main attacking force and two more squads for the group that will ambush Geldos City.

“We also have to consider how the count will respond to our movements. If he hears that insurgents have come to attack his dominion, then he might possibly deploy all his forces, meaning that he will send two companies of pike cavalry and the garrison regiment of Geldos City, a staggering number of 3000 people, to exterminate the ‘insurgents’. If we include the nobles that have allied with him, he can easily raise an army of around 5000 people. That’s why I’m worried that we will suffer heavy losses if we fight head on with his main force,” explained Lorist patiently.

Lorist gave a long sigh and said, “Actually, I was considering using the opportunity provided to us by the defeat of the count’s pike cavalry to prompt the insurgents to cause trouble in the count’s dominion when Josk said that he would rally them from the western mountains to attack the enemy’s main camp and give the count no choice but to deploy his troops. That way, we can focus our forces to deal with the disorganized enemy and use the insurgents as our scapegoat to lessen our casualties as well.

“Who would have expected that the insurgents would be so cowardly and not dare to take any risks. That’s why Knight Josk felt disillusioned and came over with his men to join our side.”

Lorist then briefly told the rest about the history between Knight Josk and Count Corby. “I would really appreciate a Gold ranked talent like Josk and would definitely love to have him join the ranks of the Norton Family Knights. That’s why I’m so eager to wipe out the count to avenge the family’s merchant convoy while fulfilling Josk’s wish at the same time. That’s also the main reason why I’m sitting here going through the maps and trying to formulate a plan that will entrap the count’s forces and avoid going into direct confrontation with them.”

“Knight Josk really is a devoted man! It’s nothing but good news if he intends to join us, We should definitely help him out,” said Charade sympathetically after hearing about Josk’s experience. “But Lord Locke, you seem to have missed out on an important piece of information.”

“What is that about?” asked Lorist.

“Yesterday when Els was questioning the surrendered garrison troops, I overheard one of the soldiers saying that when they received news at the western mountains about the occupation of the camp, the illegitimate son that was in command sent some pike cavalrymen back to Count Cobry to report that incident before ordering for them to go take the camp back, bringing along the captive youths with them. Given that it takes four days to travel from the western mountains to Burdock Bastide, Count Cobry will only receive the report of the camp’s occupation by today and will still think that the rebel-sweeping corps is in the process of recapturing the camp. Lord Locke, what you missed was how the count would behave given that he had only received the news of the occupation today,” said Charade.

“Huh?” Lorist’s eyes instantly brightened. “If I were Count Corby, upon receiving the report and taking into account the less than ideal snowy weather for the past two days, I will definitely worry about the rebel-sweeping corps. I will send them some reinforcements straight away and the fastest unit that is available to me is the pike cavalry company. It will take them around 4 days to travel to this camp by horse from Geldos City, which is to say, the count’s reinforcements will arrive within 3 to 4 days. We still have a chance to take out their pike cavalry.”

“That’s correct. Also, didn’t Knight Josk mention that some of his men’s family members are still at the abandoned stronghold? We should go there openly to escort them back and spread the news of the pike cavalry’s demise while we’re at it. Even if they don’t believe us, they will definitely send someone to check out the situation for themselves. We can then invite the people they send to witness us defeating the incoming pike cavalry company and tell them that without the pike cavalry, the count’s might will effectively be halved and there is no better opportunity to raid the count’s dominion like now. I believe that the insurgents will definitely spare no expense and send out all the forces they can muster to the count’s dominion. When the insurgents throw the dominion into chaos, we can then sneak our way to conquer Burdock Bastide. Or, if the count decides to send his main force over there, we can have the insurgents’ forces keep them busy and secretly send our elites to ambush Geldos City,” added Charade.

“Good, that is exactly what we’ll do,” said Lorist excitedly with both his fists clasped. “Reidy, we have no time to waste. Quickly invite Knight Josk over.”

After giving Reidy that order, Lorist looked at Charade, Yuriy, Terman, Potterfang and Loze and suddenly felt that something was off. “Oh, you all came together at the same time. Is there something I should know?”

The gang suddenly remembered why they came to Lorist in the first place. Charade laughed bitterly and said, “Milord, the reorganization plans that you have drafted were mostly carried out smoothly. The only issue is the lack of war horses. The various units have already started quarreling over the remaining war horses we have right now.”

According to Charade, the convoy originally only had more than 700 war horses. They obtained a few dozen after raiding Viscount Mestre’s castle as well. Coupled with the 2000 war horses obtained after eliminating the rebel-sweeping corps, the total number of war horses they had was still less than 3000. Based on Lorist’s reorganization plan, a total of 4000 horses would be needed and that did not include the mounts needed by the camp guard and the constable unit. Currently, Terman, Yuriy, Potterfang and Loze had already argued day and night over it and finally settled to go to Lorist for a solution.

Lorist laughed out loud before continuing, “There isn’t a need to quarrel over something like that! Just endure it for the moment. Don’t we have some people sending horses to our doorstep in another four to five days? How shameless for you to be arguing over something so trivial like this. When we defeat Count Cobry’s forces, we will have all the horses we want.”

What Lorist was referring to was the reinforcements sent by the count. Given that each cavalryman had two mounts, the convoy would definitely not be short on those by the time they defeat the reinforcements.

After that, Josk entered the tent with Reidy and overheard about the lack of horses. He said, “Milord, if you are willing to trade weapons and equipment with the insurgents in the western mountains, I estimate that you will be able to get around 600 war horses.”

Lorist nodded and said, “That’s good. I’ll be counting on you for that.”

After that, he briefed Josk on the plans they had gone through just now.

Surprised and delighted, Josk said, “Milord, are you really going to exterminate Count Cobry?”

“That’s right,” said Lorist. “Since we have already destroyed so many of his troops, we might as well finish the job thoroughly and uproot the foundation of his power, lest he cause more trouble for us in the future.”

“Milord, it is my pleasure to be in your service,” said Josk as he deeply bowed to Lorist.

Chapter 69 The Battle Begins

“Milord, we’ve returned,” said Patt as he entered the large tent with Els and Tim.

“Oh, you’re back. Reidy, ask Charade and Shadekampf to come over. Oh, don’t forget Dulles as well,” said Lorist as he rubbed his face to refresh himself. He did not have any sleep last night as he was planning hard on how to minimize his losses in the upcoming fight against the count’s pike cavalry company that was en route to reinforce the rebel-sweeping corps.

“Sit down. Was the journey smooth? Patt, get Mister Tim some macks; I’ve been smelling its fragrant smell since this morning when Reidy was making it,” said Lorist.

Charade and Shadekampf came over quickly and Lorist had them do an inventory check and record on the food and money that has just been brought over.

Without delay, Charade came back into the tent with a cheerful expression and said, “Milord, there are 100000 kilograms’ worth of refined flour.”

“Huh? Mister Tim, why does Viscount Tebri have so much of that?” asked Lorist.

Tim stood up and bowed before he said, “MIlord, the 100000 kilograms of refined flour is made from two years’ worth of produce from the viscount’s land. The crop has been converted to flour for ease of trading. Every two years, there will be a merchant convoy that goes to the viscount’s dominion to purchase that flour for a price of around 1000 gold Fordes. I have been in charge of dealing with the merchants all this time.”

“Oh, so that was the case. With this stock of refined flour, we can loosen up the rationing of the supplies of the convoy by quite a bit. Mister Tim, thank you for this. Rest assured that I won’t take your things for free and will purchase them according to market price,” said Lorist as he nodded in satisfaction.

Dulles then entered the tent and saluted to Lorist. Lorist asked him to wait for a while because he had something he needed Dulles to do later.

Subsequently, Shadekampf came into the tent with a large book and reported to Lorist, “Milord, within those seven large chests, there is a total of 17000 gold Fordes as well as 11000 imperial gold coins.”

“Mister Tim, as the heir of Viscount Tebri, I believe that 1000 gold Fordes will be quite suitable as the ransom for your freedom given your status as a prisoner of war. The remaining gold coins will be taken care of by our convoy for the time being until you officially inherit your title and your expenses will be deducted from the figure. We will definitely return what remains of that sum to you when the time comes. Are you okay with that arrangement?” asked Lorist towards Tim.

Tim deeply bowed and said, “Milord, let’s handle everything at your discretion.”

“Good, that’s a wise decision. Mister Tim, how many men do you have in your command at the moment?” asked Lorist.

“Um, I’m not too sure about this myself. There should be around 600 people. I should probably ask Knight Gemors about the exact number…” said Tim without confidence.

“Knight Gemors? Who’s that?”

Tim quickly explained to Lorist that Knight Gemors was a Two Star Silver ranked knight that had served the viscount. Only, his age was rather high at 53 years old and he had a carefree personality and frequently commented on the viscount’s way of handling things without holding back, thus making him not favored by the viscount. Had it not been for the fact that his family was a long line of knights that served the Tebri Family, the viscount would have sacked him long ago.

Consequently, he was sent to guard the refined flour business with Tim and was also the one that helped Tim to move the stock of refined flour to a secret location. When he realized that the viscount and his family had all been wiped out upon returning to the castle, he quickly took Tim as his lord and made an oath to secure the Tebri Family line throughout the generations. He also played a large part in rallying the citizens of the viscount’s dominion to join Tim’s insurgent force.

Given that Tim had passed the order to surrender when the rebel-sweeping corps broke through their stronghold, the force of the stronghold had not diminished by much. After being saved as a result of the convoy’s occupation of the camp, the people under Tim’s stronghold gathered together with several others from neighboring insurgent forces and quickly formed a group of 600 men. However, Tim said that he wasn’t well-versed when it came to military matters and left it all to Knight Gemors’s jurisdiction.

“How about this, Mister Tim, I will find your men later and provide them with some equipment. You can then go over to the camp of the rebel-sweeping corps that we have just taken to set up your own camp. I will allow you to use the flag of the Tebri Family. After that, send some people who are good with words to the western mountains to spread the news of our victory over the count’s forces and encourage the insurgents to join the war effort. Tell them that they will not only be able to cripple the count forever but also make a good haul by raiding his dominion and that the things they manage to obtain will remain in their possession. After your unit receives the weapons, have Knight Gemors start their training before you return to start your noble etiquette lessons.

“Dulles, let me introduce Mister Tim to you. He is Viscount Tebri’s heir. Due to certain reasons, he wasn’t given training for noble customs and etiquette. I understand that you have been a temporary instructor for the etiquette course for the Dawn Academy when we were still at Morante City. I am now entrusting Mister Tim’s training to you. Make sure to turn him to a prim and proper noble within the shortest time possible, understand?” instructed Lorist to Dulles.

“Yes, milord,” acknowledged Dules. He then turned to Tim and said, “Come on, Mister Tim. I will observe your behavior and start correcting you when you carry out the assignments given to you by our lord. The training has already begun.”

When Dulles left with Tim, Lorist said to Charade and Potterfang, “Make a new account for Tim’s gold coins as well as the food he brought back and give him a copy of that as well. Tell him that if he needs anything, he can claim it from the main camp and the expenses will be deducted from his account. When allocating equipment to his men, use the ones obtained from the garrison troops that surrendered to us and sell it to him at a rate of 70% of the market price. As for the resources he will require to set up a new camp, sell it at a normal market rate. You two, while it’s okay to sell it to him at a slight profit, don’t go overboard.”

Charade started laughing out loud and said, “I was just considering whether I should raise the price by a few times, but it was shot down by you immediately. Oh well. Shadekampf, we’ll do as your young master says and sell the weapons and equipment with a 30% discount and charge a normal price for the supplies Tim will need. I’ll leave it to you.”

“Yes,” said Shadekampf as he hurriedly left the tent.

The only ones who currently remained within the large tent was Lorist, Charade, Els, Patt and Reidy. Patt couldn’t withhold his curiosity anymore and decided to ask Lorist, “Milord, why were you so lenient with Mister Tim and even bothered to help him become a noble? Isn’t it a little too much to assist a con like him? If this were the Northlands, he would have his head lobbed off and displayed to the public for attempting to impersonate a noble.”

Lorist laughed and said, “Patt, whether Mister Tim is a conman or not is not up to us to decide. It is not completely unprecedented for a family to be inherited by an illegitimate child. If we were at the Northlands, I would definitely kill him and swallow up his dominion just as most other nobles would. However, we are now in the Redlis Kingdom and the Northlands are thousands of kilometers away. Why would I bother to take something that I won’t be able to benefit from? Killing Mister Tim does not profit us in any way. On the other hand, if we give him the appropriate nurturing and let him become a bona fide noble with an army to be commended within the area, then he would owe us a favor. In the future, whenever we have anything we need help with, we know who to look for. Understand now?”

Charade also offered his opinion on the matter. “Also, helping Mister Tim form his own army will also serve as a reminder to the insurgent forces as to whether they should become our friend or foe. If they ally with us like Mister Tim did, we will provide them with weapons and equipment and help them gain their dominions back. If they go against us, then we will not show them a shred of mercy and wipe them all out. The important thing is that we don’t lack funds nor equipment but rather people who would be willing to purchase the gear from us. That’s why we didn’t prey on Mister Tim’s gold and food. As long as we show ourselves to be fair and trustworthy, we will naturally be able to attract some of the insurgent forces to do business with us.”

……

Just as Charade has stated, ever since Tim brought his men to set up camp under the banner of the Tebri Family and after Josk brought the family members of his subordinates back from the mountains in a grand and public fashion, coupled with the men Tim sent to spread the news about the count’s rebel-sweeping corps’s demise, the insurgent forces have started sending people to the convoy to trade for weapons and equipment. Charade has managed to exchange many unused items for war horses in a short period of time due to the fair prices and quantity of the weapons offered, temporarily alleviating the desperate lack of mounts the convoy faced.

As for the ones who came to trade their war horses for food, they were rejected by Charade with the reason that the convoy themselves were also lacking in that resource. However, Charade invited the insurgent forces to plunder the count’s dominion after the the defeat of the count’s reinforcements that were on their way. Even though the representatives of the insurgents were rather dubious of the invitation, they still left some of their people to monitor the situation to ascertain whether the convoy was really going to take out the count’s reinforcements.

After another two days, Yuriy sent someone to report that Count Cobry’s reinforcements have finally been spotted. As expected, they were a company of pike cavalrymen that were escorting tens of other carriages that seemed to be transporting some supplies. It seemed that the reinforcements had traveled at a rather slow pace for the past 6 days and it would take another day for them to reach the camp. Lorist had originally expected for them to arrive within four to five days.

The process of surrounding and ambushing the count’s forces proceeded without much difficulty: when the pike cavalry company noticed that they had been surrounded from all sides, Knight Josk went all out and showed off his divine marksmanship in front of everyone by taking down three of the Silver rank commanders of the company with only three arrows. After the battle, it was discovered that two of the commanders were the illegitimate children of Count Cobry; Knight Josk had managed to inch ever so closer to his goal of revenge.

After that, Terman’s newly-formed knight squad and the heavy-armored cavalry company led by Potterfang and Loze started their assault. The pike cavalrymen who had been traveling in the snowy weather for up to six days had no way to resist such a ferocious attack, especially given that their leader had already fallen in the beginning of the battle. It didn’t take long before they ceased all resistance and surrendered.

After the battle, Lorist and his knights got to know that while their forces only sustained light injuries, the only casualty had been accidentally knocked off his horse by one of their own and stomped to death by a horse in his chest. The other soldiers’ injuries were also due to accidental friendly fire while the ones actually hurt by the enemy numbered less than ten. After that report was concluded, Terman, Potterfang and Loze all had faces as red as a baboon’s rear and were completely speechless.

However, the insurgents who were monitoring the battle did not notice that discrepancy and were completely enthralled by the fearsome manner in which the convoy’s forces obliterated that of the count’s. They all came to the realization that the count had actually lost three of his pike cavalry companies as well as one regiment and one company of garrison troops to the convoy. That meant that the count only had half of his military might left. Currently, the count’s dominion was akin to a scantily-clad and defenseless girl who practically couldn’t resist anybody’s forced advances.

Without much delay, several of the insurgent forces of the western mountains quickly sent their troops to gather at the camp, effectively filling it up to the brim. Lorist and Charade called for their leaders and discussed for a whole day, promising that the convoy would support them with their own forces to give the 3000-strong insurgents a chance to pillage the count’s dominion within the coming days.

The first place to fall was the count’s original territory, Burdock Bastide. Within a single day, the bastide administration had received tens of reports of their citizens or warehouses being plundered by bandits and was thrown into severe disarray. The Gold ranked illegitimate son that was stationed at the bastide angrily rallied three squads of garrison troops in an attempt to squash the impudent ‘bandits’ who dared to ravage their dominion. When they broke through the ranks of two of the insurgent groups, Potterfang and Loze led a company of heavy-armored cavalrymen to the forefront of the battle and completely vaporized the three squads of garrison troops, with the head of the Gold ranked illegitimate son severed and paraded around on a pike.

Upon seeing the severed head, the last squad that was defending the bastide chose to surrender and the control of Burdock Bastide was officially transferred to Lorist.

“Onward!” shouted Charade on top of a huge and majestic Zeno horse as he waved his horsewhip valiantly.

Near a thousand horse carriages lined up into four columns headed out of the camp. Within it, the flag that bore the insignia of the raging bear was lowered and a flag that depicted a horseshoe belonging to the Tebri Family was raised.

After receiving Lorist’s report of the bastide’s capture, Charade ordered the convoy to set out for it. Before they left, Charade even transferred the ownership of the camp to Tim for 1000 gold Fordes. Tim agreed to that transaction happily as he felt that the strong defensive fortifications of the camp was far better than the ravaged dominion of Viscount Tebri.

Having received days of training in noble customs and etiquette, Tim seemed to have a slight air of nobility emanating from him and has started to dress more presentably. With the support of the convoy, he has managed to rally 1000 young and strong soldiers as well as 2000 non-combatants under the banner of the Tebri Family and had become a force on par to the other insurgents. However, there was one thing that still caused Tim quite a bit of worry: the amount of the money he had entrusted to the convoy was depleting rather quickly. As of now, he was only left with around 10000 gold Fordes.

This wasn’t due to the convoy taking advantage of Tim’s funds. In fact, he was extremely grateful for the convoy’s help and support as well as the reasonable prices they charged for the items sold to him. His financial issues mainly stemmed from the upkeep required to sustain the thousands of people under him, causing him to eagerly look forward to the day when he can go get a big haul from the count’s dominion. During the latest expedition, he brought eight hundred of his men to join the convoy’s forces and even gave each of them a large bag to take as many valuables as they can.

Chapter 70 Troop Deployment

Count Cobry was fuming with rage as he squeezed yet another golden cup in his hand into a crumpled up chunk. All his servants didn’t dare to take loud breaths lest they end up like that unfortunate sob the day before, who had returned to the embrace of the Earth Mother Goddess having been struck on the head with a similar chunk that used to be a metal cup that was thrown by the count after he had accidentally made a loud noise when the count was irritated from hearing about the bad news.

The count unconsciously squeezed his fist and turned the cup into a plethora of different shapes. He only noticed that the cup had been squeezed into a small golden ball of metal when the jewel inlaid on the cup fell out of his palm. Placing the golden ball on the table, the count stood up and paced around in frustration before going to the veranda, causing all the servants to let out a breath of relief as nobody was hurt in his presence.

Count Cobry was already 63 years old that year, but he still looked like a strong and healthy middle-aged man. Even though he had been criticized for his bad character among the noble circle, his talent in Battle Force training was definitely top-notch. Not only was he a Two Star Gold rank, he had managed to bring up 17 Gold ranks and 38 Silver ranks out of all his illegitimate sons. If the count were at the Morante City’s academy sector, he could use those results to earn himself a Gold ranked Battle Force instructor badge without much difficulty.

Relying heavily on his illegitimate sons, Count Cobry has managed to expand his territory by quite a huge margin and solidified the Cobry Family’s position as the hegemon of the northwestern area of the Redlis Kingdom. However, just when the rank of a duke was within his reach, his plans had been overturned all of a sudden. How could he not be pissed?

Since he first became good friends with the First Prince ten years ago at the capital, the count has always served him well by disguising his troops as bandits to raid merchant convoys. The count had sacrificed over 6 Gold ranked and 13 Silver ranked sons in hopes of being granted the title of the Duke of the Northwest by the First Price. But that could only be achieved if he manages to make the former nobles of the Krissen Empire submit to the First Prince.

The northwestern area of the Redlis Kingdom was the place where nobles who had military achievements were enfeoffed land. While the nobles there were loyal to the First Prince in name, none of them actually took him seriously. When the First Prince first raised the flag of rebellion, only a few of them actually joined the war effort enthusiastically. And when it came to taxes and administration, all of the First Prince’s attempts to raise the taxation rate has been suppressed either openly or secretly by the nobles.

The count understood that his reputation in the northwest was not that impressive. Back in the day, having a less than ideal reputation as a branch family spawned from a birth outside of wedlock, not a single noble family wanted to form marriage alliances with the Cobry Family. The First Prince had wanted the nobles of the northwestern area to give 20% of their earnings as tax, but the count understood that they would definitely not agree to that proposition. Thus, he resorted to using military force to subdue the nobles since he believed that the northwestern area would one day become his dominion and the lesser nobles there area there, the better he would fare.

How, then, did everything start to go haywire? Count Cobry stood at the veranda and looked towards the site where the new city was being built that was blanketed by a cloud of dust. The layout of the city before his eyes had been inspired largely by the design of the capital and he planned to have it be his headquarters when he becomes a duke in the future and use it as the center of administration for the northwestern area.

In the past, the count frequently felt proud and full of himself when he witnessed the city’s construction from the veranda. Even though life was fleeting, his name and legacy would forever live on in the form of the city and weather through the indifferent passage of time. He had even planned to erect a large statue of him when the main construction of the city was completed and hold the ceremony of his ascension to the title of the duke there.

His dream would only require two more years to come true! The count grasped both of his fists and steeled his resolve to not allow anyone stop him in his tracks of realizing his long-held desire. The current situation was looking pretty good for the count as the allied noble armies had been forced into a corner and had no way to resist him whatsoever, as could be seen from the fact that many of the nobles had started writing private letters to him stating that they would be willing to switch sides and obey his orders. And with the gradual increase of the count’s power, he had managed to wipe out many of the neighboring nobles and had turned their dominions to uninhabited wastelands that housed no one apart from some insurgent forces or bandits who probably had death wishes.

When the count thought about the insurgent forces, he was once again reminded about the merchant convoy that his rebel-sweeping corps had attacked out of habit from the old days when they masqueraded as bandits. Until now, they were still entangled with the convoy and seemed to have forgotten his order to capture people from the mountainous strongholds to be used as laborers.

The count could never even imagine that the forces he had sent out had been all wiped out. He truly believed that his force that consisted of two companies of pike cavalry and five companies of garrison troops was completely invincible in the northwestern area of the Redlis Kingdom. He reasoned that his men probably didn’t dare to send reports back to him because they were worried that he would be further angered by the fact that they were having a hard time taking back the camp as the convoy’s forces had a defensive advantage. Then again, he had sent yet another company of pike cavalry along with a sizeable amount of food and supplies as reinforcements, so he believed that he would receive the good news in a couple more days.

He was angry yet curious at the same time about the convoy that spread so far that one couldn’t see the end of it from the other end, as reported to him by one of his men who had participated in the second assault on the convoy. Which merchant guild could the convoy belong to? It was glaringly apparent that they did not put the count in any regard from the manner in which they decided to cross his lands unannounced.

What he didn’t expect was that the entanglement between his rebel-sweeping corps and the convoy’s forces had given the pests from the western mountains a chance to occupy the Burdock Bastide when his forces were spread thin. That place was the original dominion of the Cobry Family! Had it not been for the reports of the citizens who had evacuated the area, he probably would’ve been unaware that the bastide was being ravaged by the insurgent bandits for five whole days already.

At first, the count didn’t believe the report of the citizens at all and even gave them a savage round of caning. However, even under the painful strokes of the cane, the citizens’ testaments still stood firm and they even swore that all of what they said were true. Half-believing the reports, the count sent a squad of pike cavalrymen to check the situation out. According to their reports, they had encountered Divine Marksman Josk and many other bandits that numbered around a company’s worth of men. After engaging in a brutal skirmish with the enemy, only a few of the pike cavalrymen managed to make it back alive.

Upon the mention of Josk, the count felt a chilling sensation on his shoulder where Josk’s arrow had once pierced. Given Josk’s participation, it wasn’t hard to guess that the illegitimate sons stationed at Burdock Bastide had met their demise. Based on what the citizens’ and his cavalrymen’s reports, he estimated there to be around 3000 rioters, which was about the number of the insurgent forces that hid themselves in the mountains. It seemed that they were going all out for that attack.

Alright, I guess it’s time I made my move. Don’t think that just because I’m 63, I would be easy to mess with. However old a lion is, it would always retain its savagery and majesty and will retaliate when it is threatened. If I don’t quell these rioters as soon as possible and word about this gets out, others would think the Cobry Family is on the way to its downfall to the point where it couldn’t even handle some petty rioters. The count made an oath to himself that he would teach the insurgent pests a severe lesson and will not rest until every single one of them pays for their transgressions.

The count could afford to deploy a regiment of garrison troops numbering around 2000 people as well as one company of pike cavalrymen from Geldos City given that he had one newly-formed squad of pike cavalrymen and two squads of garrison troops which was more than enough to defend the city with. Coupled with the other pike cavalrymen he had stationed at Williamiles Castle and the soldiers of the nobles who were on his side, he easily rallied a force of 5000 people that was powerful enough to completely crush the insurgents of the western mountains, not to say much about a disorganized bunch of rowdy bandits. I guess this arrangement is fine. I’ll deploy my soldiers within three days.

After finishing his thought, Count Cobry called out loudly, “Heed my orders…”

—————————————————————–

Lorist started pointing all over the map and said, “Here, here and here. Yuriy, send some people to be stationed there. These are the ideal places to monitor the road that connects Burdock Bastide to Geldos City. The count will definitely have his men use that road if he starts mobilizing his troops and we will be able to make our preparations the moment we see something going on. Josk, you did pretty well yesterday and managed to eliminate half of the squad of pike cavalrymen they sent over without relying on the forces of the convoy. However, the insurgents have lost quite a bit of men too, right?”

“That’s correct. They have lost around 200 men. If I didn’t happen to pass through that area with a squad of light cavalry scouts, they would probably have been wiped out entirely. However, I left the equipment and weapons of the defeated soldiers of the count to them and they were quite thankful and pleased with that arrangement despite their losses,” reported Josk.

“That’s the main reason why I praised you. Now that news of his soldiers’ defeat has gone out, he would definitely mobilize the rest of his troops. We are prepared to face off against him at this spot. If we didn’t have the insurgents fleshing out our numbers, we will not be able to stave off the full-force, head-on assault of the count and might even incur huge losses even if we emerge victorious.

“Where is the convoy led by Knight Charade located at now?” Lorist asked.

Potterfang pointed to a point on the map and said, “They’re already here and will arrive at Burdock Bastide by tomorrow afternoon. I’ve already sent Knight Loze and a company of heavy-armored cavalry to receive and escort him along the way so I believe that the convoy would not have any problems reaching the bastide unharmed. Pleased rest assured, milord.”

“How can I not be worried when the convoy hasn’t arrived yet? I’m afraid that everyone will have to be quite busy within the next two days. Yuriy, make sure your scouts increase the patrols in the surrounding area, but try to shut an eye to what the insurgent forces are doing to minimize the conflict we have with them. Don’t get into fights just because of their despicable behavior, alright?” said Lorist.

“Yes, milord. I will make sure to inform my subordinates to be careful,” replied Yuriy.

“Just hold it in for now. When the convoy arrives, we will be able to send Malek to gather up the insurgents that are causing trouble and enforce military discipline on them. If they don’t obey, then we will kill a few to make an example out of them for the others to follow suit. We have no choice but to endure for the first few days as we don’t have enough manpower right now,” said Lorist as he shook his head while laughing bitterly.

In actuality, the actions of some of the insurgents were even lowlier and more detestable than things common bandits would carry out. Incidents like robbery, murder and rape was rather common within the count’s dominion at the moment, but it was an understandable consequence. Given that the insurgents have been fighting against the count for so long, they would naturally desire to cause as much havoc as they can within the count’s dominion as a form of payback. However, it would be too extreme to allow them to vent all their hatred for the count onto his innocent citizens. As Knight Josk had put it, some of the insurgents used to run away on the mere sight of the count’s soldiers. Currently, they were laying their hands on the defenseless citizens of the dominion and that had caused several fights to break out between the convoy’s soldiers and the insurgents’.

“Josk, how fares the formation of your mounted cavalry unit?”

“Milord, the people who fit the criteria of that unit is exceedingly hard to find. Not only do they have to be good at riding, they must also have a talent for marksmanship as well as have some mastery in Battle Force. So far, I’ve only managed to find tens of men who fit that bill,” said Josk in a downcast manner.

“It’s alright, take your time. I believe when the unit is properly formed, it will definitely take the battlefield by storm,” consoled Lorist with a smile.

……

On the next day, Charade arrived at Burdock Bastide with the rest of the convoy, causing everyone to be in a cheerful mood.

That night within a large hall, Lorist looked at the map and announced, “Today, Knight Yuriy brought us some news that the nobles who are allied with the count were leading their armies to gather at Geldos City. That means that Count Cobry is already rallying his forces and will possibly deploy his troops in one or two days to take the bastide back. Since we don’t have much time, we’ll rest up for the whole day for tomorrow and I’ll have Potterfang lead a heavy-armored cavalry squad and three pike infantry companies over here to set up camp. Terman’s knight squad and Dulles’s carroballista squad will also leave at the same time.

“We’ll leave two companies of pike infantry to defend the bastide with Charade being in charge of them. Knight Malek, you will be tasked with patrolling the surrounding area and gathering up the insurgents who have been exploiting the citizens of the dominion quite excessively. Make sure the insurgents obey our orders and ask them to gather up at Potterfang’s camp. If there’s anyone who refuses to comply…”

Lorist suddenly radiated a killing intent at that moment. “Knight Loze, you should know what to do…”

Lode Wales’s face showed a sinister snicker. “I understand. I’ll let them have a taste of my heavy-armored cavalry company if they dare to break their word…”

“Great. Mister Tim, you don’t have to worry. As a true friend and ally of the Norton Family, you only have to let your men rest up and recuperate. When our forces start confronting Count Cobry’s army, I will let you lead the ambush on Geldos City,” said Lorist.

Chapter 71 Success

Geldos City was situated not far from Burdock Bastide and a pike cavalry unit would be able to travel from one place to the other within one day and one night. However, when it came to infantry garrison troops, they required at least three days and two nights of travel. The presence of the disorganized farmer militia of the other vassal noble families of the count only served to slow down the whole process even further. Currently, the count was regretting his decision on bringing them along and ordered for the two of his cavalry companies to leave for the bastide sooner.

Just as the army was setting up camp after one day of travel, Count Cobry received news that two of his illegitimate sons had perished yet again, one of whom was Gold ranked with the other being a Silver rank. The soldier who made the report stammered in fear when facing the count as he had drawn the losing lot to be the one to make the report.

Just that afternoon, the two companies of pike cavalry noticed an enemy stronghold at the Motz Hills that just so happened to be on the path to Burdock Bastide. The leader of the pike cavalry that was reassigned from Williamiles Castle was also a Gold ranked son of the count. When he observed the enemy’s stronghold, he noticed that while they had advantage being on higher terrain, being the common bandits they were, their fortifications were full of holes. It was crude and far from perfect.

As a result, the Gold ranked commander believed that he only required a company of pike cavalrymen to break through the stronghold to massacre the bandits within. And so he did just that only to notice that the defensive fortifications up front were merely a facade and the true line of defense was deeper within. Not only that, the bandits had also set up a trap and ambushed the pike cavalry company from all sides with concentrated volleys of arrows, crossbow bolts as well as huge ballista darts.

The messenger then handed the count a long javelin-like ballista dart that was retrieved from the illegitimate son commander’s corpse. Even though he was at the Gold rank, there was no way he would be able to deflect all 12 ballista darts aimed directly at him, resulting in his death as well as another Silver rank stepbrother of his who was also standing nearby.

The pike cavalry company that rushed straight into the stronghold had suffered heavy losses and only two squads’ worth of soldiers returned, among which more than ten were even injured. Fortunately, the bandits only stayed put and defended their stronghold without giving chase, causing yet another Gold ranked illegitimate son to regroup the soldiers and set up camp outside the stronghold without taking any rash actions and await reinforcements.

“This is a ballista dart…” Given Count Cobry’s vast experience on the battlefield, he quickly recognized what the spear-like object was. However, what made him frustrated was how the bandits had managed to acquire a weapon of such caliber.

While ballistas were definitely powerful, they were also heavy and immobile and cost a lot of gold to maintain. For example, even if a ballista wasn’t used, every two years, its arms had to be switched so that the durability of the wood wouldn’t decrease its performance. When it came to the string, it had to be switched out after firing ten darts, and also cost quite a lot to be order-made. Apart from proper armies of kingdoms or garrisons defending large cities, no armed force, especially that of landed nobles, would choose to utilize ballistas as the upkeep was too high and it was troublesome to maintain.

As if one troubling incident occurred one after another, a few other reports caused the baron to lose sleep for the whole night. Before the sky had started to brighten from the first rays of the sun, the count left the farmer militia behind and mobilized his garrison regiment to hurry onward to rendezvous with the pike cavalry at the camp they had set up and managed to arrive there by noon.

After getting two hours of rest, the count ordered the sword and shield soldiers of the garrison regiment as well as the longbowmen to cooperate with the pike cavalry company to test the strength of the bandits’ stronghold. He later discovered that while breaching the first line of defense of the stronghold was relatively easy, they ended up on a vast flat field that allowed them to be easily targeted by the bandits who used projectile weapons from the far side, raining down volley after volley of projectiles towards their forces. Count Cobry’s men hurriedly retreated, leaving another hundred or so corpses behind as they left the stronghold.

This time, however, the count didn’t notice any sign of ballistas being used. It seemed that his inference that bandits couldn’t afford to maintain ballistas was correct and that the ballistas used yesterday must’ve been out of commission. That was music to the count’s ears. Even though he had lost hundreds of men during the test battle that noon, it had allowed him to understand how the stronghold was defended. So they only have the terrain and projectile weapons to their advantage. When the farmer militia from the vassal noble families arrive in the afternoon, I can use them as enemy fodder to take the projectiles for my troops and easily crush the stronghold.

During that night, the count had the farmers help him construct near a hundred carts with simple wooden shielding. On the next day, the count had them push the wooden carts to block of the arrows while his units quickly made their way to the back of the stronghold. Seeing that the situation had turned against their favor, the bandits quickly shot out another volley towards the cavalrymen before fleeing the place quickly.

This time, the operation to capture the stronghold went well with only minimal casualties. However, the count noticed that around 100 meters along the path, there was another stronghold waiting for them.

Motz Hills was a collective name for a group of more than ten small hills around the area. Nobody knew why it was named as such, so the people merely called it according to what the maps that was passed down since ancient times stated. The path that connected Geldos City and Burdock Bastide passed through the middle of these nondescript hills was craftily utilized by the bandits to set up many simple strongholds that managed to effectively hinder the passage of the count’s army.

To the count’s dismay, he discovered that there were easily over ten more of those strongholds blocking his way on the path to Burdock Bastide, causing his face to contort badly with rage. Unable to directly stop the count’s vanguard, the bandits had wittily set up various strongholds that allowed them to shoot at the count’s forces from afar and retreat to the next when their defenses were about to be broken through. Not only would the count lose quite an amount of his forces along the way, it would also cost him a lot of time.

Even though he desperately wanted to flatten the strongholds with his forces, the traveling speed of the makeshift wooden shield carts was so slow that it took a few hours to move even a few hundred meters. Given that the farmers didn’t have any sleep whatsoever the day before, the prior attack had completely drained them of their energy. On the other hand, the count was unwilling to let his own soldiers sustain casualties to attack the stronghold and was forced to rest for the night.

On the second day, tempted by the promises of riches, the farmers once again toiled away and enabled the count to conquer three strongholds within one day. Even though about 200 of the farmers perished during the attacks, the count did not care much for them and only tried to minimize the casualties of his own troops.

However, on the third day, the farmers started to dawdle around and refused to obey their orders as the count’s pledge that each of them would be awarded one imperial silver for each stronghold conquered was left unfulfilled. The count had no choice but to promise to give them the money when he returns to his castle as he did not have that much coins on hand. However, the farmers only felt that they were being cheated and only managed to conquer one stronghold on that day due to their low morale. Even though the losses on that day was far lesser compared to that of the day before, the count was still pissed as there were still seven to eight strongholds left to be conquered. If they progressed at this rate, it would take them at least five to six days before they leave the Motz Hills.

Thus, the count wrote an order and sent a pike cavalry squad back to Geldos City to ask for more supplies to be sent over as he had only brought seven to eight days’ worth of supplies given that he didn’t expect the presence of so many strongholds along the path. The other reason he did not bring much supplies with him initially was that he was afraid that he would end up a laughingstock by preparing so thoroughly just to deal with a rowdy bunch of bandits.

What weighed the most heavily on the count’s mind was that if his supplies were exhausted by the time he conquers the final stronghold, he would have no choice but to lead his army back to the city and truly become the joke of the century. To prepare for the worst, the count had ordered for around 15 days’ worth of supplies to be transported over.

His second order was a request for some coins to be brought over so that the farmers would once again be convinced and motivated to become arrow fodder willingly. Naturally, Count Cobry planned to ‘pay back’ the farmers by the time he makes his way out of the Motz Hills and show them that his money would not be so easily taken.

In his third order, he planned to have his Gold ranked illegitimate son that was stationed at Geldos City recruit more soldiers within the dominion as he had a sense of foreboding that a big conflict was about to break out, as if the current situation was only the calm before the storm. That was partly due to the fact that the bandits who mainly relied on guerrilla hit-and-run tactics had learned how to resist his forces in a head-on battle all of a sudden. What had transpired for them to be able to change their tactics in such a short time?

—————————————————————–

It turned out that the squad of cavalrymen sent back by the count with the letter had been surrounded by Lorist’s forces. The first few vanguards of the company that rushed out had their horses caught by a rope trap that caused them to tumble like there was no tomorrow. They were further greeted by the assault of Terman’s knight squad along with thirty or so javelins that had been thrown by Lorist. The few of those cavalrymen who were fortunate enough to escape from the encirclement of the several hundred men ended up being shot to death by Josk, who was circling the area from a higher vantage point. The twenty or so riders only managed to survive after getting off their horses and surrendering.

Looking at the letter written by the count with satisfaction, Lorist laughed and said, “With this letter, Geldos City is already our possession.”

Tim, wearing a suit of armor, congratulated Lorist and said, “Baron Norton, you truly are very thorough with your plans. You even guessed that the count would send a letter for extra supplies and planned for us to ambush his forces here. I had thought that we would be attacking Geldos City right away after circumventing his forces.”

“Hehe, it isn’t that difficult to figure out. Given that he didn’t bring much supplies with him when he first set out and the fact that we managed to defer his forces at the Motz Hills for a couple of days, he was bound to run out of supplies at some point. It is only logical for him to send someone out to request for more. With this letter, we will be able to casually walk up to the city and have them open the gates without any trouble.

“Alright, you guys, change out into the clothes of the count’s troops. We’re going to head to Geldos City. Els, I’ll leave the prisoners on your watch. Kill any who attempts to escape,” instructed Lorist.

This time, Lorist formed the ambush unit with only Josk, Els and two squads of camp guards, Terman’s knight squad, Yuriy and his two light cavalry squads as well as Tim and his 800 men who were carrying a large sack each.

When Count Cobry was still held back at the first stronghold, Lorist spent two days carefully circumventing the count’s forces and hiding themselves in the area to prepare for the ambush.

In the evening, a squad of pike cavalrymen and a company of garrison troops arrived at the gates of Geldos City. The garrison squad in charge of guarding the city did have any suspicion whatsoever of their presence and lowered the drawbridge and opened the gates to the city without hesitation after receiving the count’s letter. The ‘squad leader’ of the pike cavalrymen who had just arrived then asked the guards of Geldos City where the son of the count was located. Immediately after the guard answered, the garrison troops walking in from behind hastily rushed in and tied up the rest of the guards and even stuffed their mouths with bloody cloths that caused the guards to feel irresistible urges to puke.

Lorist instructed, “Yuriy, Els, quickly go and take control of the other three city gates and leave a squad of people behind to guard each gate. Terman, bring your knight squad with me to the duke manor in the middle of the city. Josk, you should come along too. Mister Tim, make sure you withhold your men and make sure they don’t start raiding before we successfully take over the city, understand? Don’t let their impatience ruin the whole plan.”

“Milord, please be assured that I will not let you down,” Tim replied.

Probably due to the absence of the usually strict count, the Gold ranked illegitimate son was irresponsibly not carrying out his duties and was instead busy hosting a nude party within a hall of the duke manor. Upon hearing the report of a manor guard about the count’s letter, the drunk son stood up stark-naked and ordered for it to be delivered to him as he chugged away at his wine.

Lorist and Josk subsequently entered the hall as the one guarding the door had his neck snapped by Terman.

The two of them felt a chill down their spine as they witnessed the stark naked men and women within the hall engaging in indecent acts and debauchery with reckless abandon without a care in the world.

The stark-naked man before them lifted his wine cup and laughed in a drunk manner before he mumbled, “Enough looking around… Give… give me my father’s letter… You should strip down as well… and… have fun with us… It’s alright… You can… have all the women… you want… Or men, if… if that’s your thing…”

Lorist and Josk gave each other a glance before they both wordlessly drew their swords……

Chapter 72 Freiyar

Fresh blood flowed all over the ground as a thick, nauseating, iron-like stench permeated the hall. The tens of people who were just fornicating before had already become cold, pale corpses.

Lorist let out a big sigh and patted on Josk’s shoulder to wake him up from his trance. Just now, Lorist had only killed the men within but Josk went out of control and lashed out towards every person without regard to their gender. When Lorist came to notice it, everyone within the hall had been killed by Josk.

Exiting the hall while emitting a murderous air, Lorist walked around at a casual pace within the newly-built duke manor. After a while, Terman came to him to report that the manor had already fallen under their control and everyone within from guards to servants had all surrendered and were kept in captivity.

“Let Yuriy send a squad of light cavalry scouts to guard the four city gates and have another squad ready on standby. Order Mister Tim to send out four squads of his soldiers to help out with guarding the city gates as well and have him send the remaining men over here. Have Els bring his two guard squads to the duke manor to defend the place and order your knight squad gather up over here. We still have lots to do,” instructed Lorist.

Terman hurriedly sent some men to pass out the orders as Josk approached Lorist and said with an embarrassed voice, “I’m sorry… I was being far too rash just now.”

Lorist looked at him and said, “Joe, don’t forget that you’re a stellar marksman. A marksman must always keep his cool in any situation. Don’t let hatred cloud your eyes.”

“I understand… I will definitely take that to heart,” said Josk as he nodded.

When Els made his way to the duke manor with his men, Lorist had already asked a few of the captured supervisors of the manor about the situation of Geldos City. He had Els leave one squad of his men behind to take over the defense of the duke manor and had a supervisor guide the other squad to take control of the city’s food warehouses and stables. After that, Lorist brought Josk, Terman and his knight squad to the army camp to dispatch the remaining squad of garrison troops as well as tens pike cavalry that remained within the city before rushing over to the laborer camp.

The main issue Lorist now had was the lack of manpower. The citizens of Geldos City was filled with hostility and enmity towards his forces as the count had arranged for the family members of his men to live within the two newly-built street sectors to solidify his standing there. Even though Lorist was currently using stealthy ambush tactics to slowly wrestle the control of the city to him, he was worried that the moment he was discovered, the civilians there would instantly break out into chaos and cause his plan to fail. That’s why Lorist had his hopes placed on the laborers that were forced to help out with the construction of the city.

After removing tens of guards, Lorist easily conquered the slave laborer camp. The next step was to utilize the hundreds of men Tim had sent to gather up slaves that were acquainted with them. They ended up with 2000 or so men.

Terman picked a thousand or so strong youths and brought them to the armory that they had just taken over to give each of them a pike and picked a few senior soldiers from Els’s men and had them form two companies of pikemen. One of the companies was sent to the gates to replace the men that had been sent over by Tim and Yuriy while the other company was allocated to defend the warehouses and armories under Els’s leadership.

Lorist finally breathed a sigh of relief now that he had two more companies of men. However, he knew that the laborer pikemen were only good for looks as it was hard to say whether they were trained sufficiently for battle or not. Even so, now that the city gates were staffed with the laborer pikemen, it allowed for two of Yuriy’s units to be reallocated to form a subjugation force with Terman’s knight squad, effectively relinquishing Lorist’s worry of a civilian revolt.

At the moment, the slave laborer camp was under watch by 800 of Tim’s men with another thousand or so laborers who were tasked by Tim to move food from the warehouses and start cooking up a big pot of meat porridge for the rest of the men in the laborer camp. This was done to placate them and fill up their growling stomachs.

Els subsequently sent someone to report that after a rough inventory check, he noticed that there was equipment enough for two companies of pike cavalry and one regiment of garrison troops. After asking the supervisor about that, he found that those equipment was gathered up by the count to prepare for the expansion of his troops. Els had already let the laborer pikemen company change into the complete sets of equipment from the armory and had the guard captains allocated suitable weapons for them. Aside from a few laborers who were allocated pikes as they didn’t know how to wield anything else, the rest of the laborers were given the standard loadout of garrison troops and were split into squads of longbowmen and sword and shield users.

Els needed Lorist to send him someone well-versed in making inventories for the rest of the armory and more people to help the laborers that were stationed at the gates to change into the new equipment as well as some men to carry out miscellaneous tasks like making food for the soldiers who had been working throughout the day on nothing other than dried rations.

Lorist facepalmed as he had completely forgotten to let his men rest and recuperate while he was busy managing the affairs of the laborers. Had it not been for Els’s reminder, he would’ve been unaware of that situation until the next morning. It made him feel even more impressed with how Charade could always seem to handle so much without missing out on any small detail. He understood that he wasn’t as capable as Charade when it came to management given his tendency to gloss over the less significant but nevertheless important details even though he was quite adept at planning a long-term general strategies.

Lorist asked for Tim to come over and instructed him to pick several men who could do accounts and three hundred others from the laborers who were busy making meat porridge to report to Els and also had one of Els’s light cavalry squads escort them there. The laborers who were picked parted unwillingly with the pots of meat porridge and looked towards the food wistfully.

Tim angrily pushed and rebuked them, “Why are you still here? Don’t you know that I’ve just done you a favor? While the amount of food you get here will be rationed, you can eat all you can over there! What are you still waiting for?”

Tim’s outburst caused Lorist to laugh out loud. At that moment, Josk suddenly appeared out of nowhere. “Milord, please come over, there’s something that needs your attention.”

Josk brought Lorist to a corner of the laborer camp that was surrounded by a wall that seemed to be used for defensive fortifications of cities. There was a building that was even more sturdily-built from a combination of rocks and metal bars than the wooden housing that was used to accommodate the laborers outside.

“What is this facility for?” Lorist asked.

Josk responded, “Milord, this is the hard labor camp whose main purpose is to keep the slaves who have already awakened their Battle Force captive with their family members. Most of these slaves are soldiers who had been captured on the battlefield. The reason the count kept them locked up with their family was because he wanted them to change sides and serve under him. Most of the members of the count’s new pike cavalry company are people who have been picked from the slaves locked up in this area. As long as they agree to serve the count, their family members will be allowed to move out to the new street sectors and live there without having to experience any hardships.”

“How do you know about this?” Lorist asked.

“Milord, the guards that were in charge of watching the area told me about it,” said Josk as he pointed towards the stone building where two people in uniform could be seen standing. These men carried out their instructions faithfully under the watch of Tim’s men.

“How many people are locked up in there?” asked Lorist as he walked towards the building.

A chubby man walked over and bowed before looking at a thick book in his hand and saying, “Milord, there are 734 captive soldiers within this facility with 3151 others who are their family members, totaling up to a number of 3885 people.”

“Why is there so many?”

“Milord, this number is already considered pretty low. The record number of soldiers being held captive here was above 2000 with more than 7000 other family members. Currently, the men who had been locked up the longest was captured sometime a year ago with the most recent prisoners being captured about a month ago. According to the regulations here, those who submit to the count have to work three months of physical labor as the count reasoned that the people would not be completely loyal to him without experiencing some form of punishment,” replied the chubby man.

“I see,” said Lorist as he rubbed his chin in thought. The count really had his own way of messing with people. If they wanted their families to have better lives, they have no choice but to work for three months before they were allowed to serve the count! No wonder Count Cobry had managed to gather soldiers so quickly and easily.

At the same time, Josk asked the guards about the slaves who still had yet to submit to the count. The guard then flipped the book to the last page and showed it to Josk, to which he exclaimed in surprise, “So, it’s him… No wonder he still hasn’t submitted yet.”

With his curiosity piqued, Lorist went over to take a look.

Josk said, “Milord, you should definitely go see this person. His name is Chino Freiyar and he’s a 31-year-old Gold ranked mercenary who has quite a reputation in the northwestern parts of the Redlis Kingdom. It is rumored that he was orphaned from a young age and was raised by a kind female neighbor. When he grew up, he eventually got married to the neighbor’s daughter who gave birth to a pair of twins soon after. It was said that when the count’s pike cavalrymen raided his town, they broke into his home and ended up killing the woman who had raised him. In a fit of rage, he killed almost 20 of the pike cavalrymen but was later subdued by two Gold ranked illegitimate sons of the count who took his wife and kids hostage. Ever since, Count Cobry has been waiting for Freiyar to submit and serve him but he still hasn’t accepted the offer and has remained locked up here.”

“Alright, I’ll go meet this Freiyar. Hey you, bring me there. Tell me your name,” said Lorist towards that chubby man.

“Milord, I am called Tarkel,” he replied.

As Tarkel led Josk and Lorist around, he started talking about his woes. “Milord, even though he’s our prisoner, Freiyar is even more arrogant and bossy than the warden himself. He’s the true leader within the prison camp and there’s no way an Iron rank like me would dare to boss him around. Even when a few of the guards were beaten up quite severely by him, the warden didn’t bother to take any action; he was satisfied as long as he didn’t attempt to escape. To be honest, if it were not for his blind wife and his twins, he would’ve killed his way to the count for revenge long ago. Even though the count admired his abilities, doesn’t he know that there’s no way Freiyar would serve him given the grudge he held for his adopted mother’s death?

“Oh, Freiyar’s cell is just right ahead. Please be careful, there’s a ditch on the road,” said Tarkel as he led the way with a torch in hand.

The light illuminated the depths of the cell and revealed a tall, big-built man who was cautiously looking at the three who were approaching.

“Freiyar, it’s me, Josk. I believe it’s been two years since we last met during the martial arts competition at Kessads Castle,” greeted Josk.

“Josk?” said Freiyar in a surprised voice. “Marksman Josk? It’s you…”

After that, his expression returned to normal as he spoke in a low voice, “Are you serving the count now?”

“Ptooey! I can’t wait to feast on his flesh and drink his blood! Why would I ever serve that bastard?! You must be crazy,” said Josk with bloodshot eyes. The grudge he had with the count was so deep that it caused it to freak out at the mere mention of him serving the count.

“Oh, then why are you here?” asked Freiyar curiously. He inferred that Josk wasn’t brought here as his prisoner given the way the torch-holding guard treated him.

“Tarkel, open the door,” instructed Lorist.

“Freiyar, this is the man whom I serve now. He is my lord, Norton Lorist of the Norton Family of the Northlands. Geldos City has already been conquered by us under his lordship’s leadership,” introduced Josk.

“The Norton Family of the Northlands? The Roaring Raging Bear? I’ve heard of that family a few years ago when I visited the Northlands. However, why is he all the way here conquering Geldos City?” asked Freiyar suspiciously.

“I think it’s better if you let me explain,” said Lorist before he greeted Freiyar. He then told Freiyar about his journey to his homeland to inherit his title and position as well as the reason why they were in conflict with Count Cobry as well as the current status of the occupation of Geldos City.

“That pretty much sums it up. Even though the city is under our control, we don’t have enough manpower to manage it effectively. When Josk saw your name on the prisoner records, he brought me here right away. To be honest, I also hope that you, Mister Freiyar, will be able to lend me a hand in this matter,” said Lorist sincerely.

Chapter 73 Trust

Maybe it was because he felt Lorist’s sincerity, Freiyar accepted the invitation without thinking for too long. “Lord Norton, I can agree to temporarily serve you, but it’s only limited to the conflict with Count Cobry to avenge the death of my adopted mother. However, I hope that you can agree to let my family and I leave if I wish to.”

Lorist laughed out loud and said, “Of course. Even if you don’t help me out, you are still free to leave with your family. I can promise you that on the Norton Family’s name.”

“Thank you for your magnanimity, Lord Norton,” said Freiyar as he bowed to indicate his respect.

Lorist stretched out his hand to shake Freiyar’s and said, “Please call me Locke. That’s what all my friends call me.”

Now that he had agreed to help Lorist for the moment, Freiyar didn’t hold back at all. “Lord Locke, you said that you lacked manpower, right? Can you tell me about the status of your troops?”

Lorist then briefly described the number of troops he brought to ambush the city and also told him about the two new companies of pikemen that were formed from some of the laborer prisoners. “And that pretty much sums it up. Right now, we’re still holding up well. But I’m worried that once the count finds out that the city has been conquered, he will have his soldiers come back here right away to retake the place. Given the size of Geldos City, as long as the count manages to gather one pike cavalry company and one garrison regiment led by his Gold ranked sons, they will easily be able to take the city back in one go. After all, the two laborer companies are only good for show and don’t have any real combat ability.”

Freiyar understood what Lorist had meant and turned back to look at the prison facility. “Lord Locke, do you intend to rally them up?”

Lorist laughed out and said, “I’ve heard Josk mention that the people locked up here are all either veteran soldiers or garrison troops that have awakened their Battle Force. That’s why I intend to rely on them to form a temporary unit. I don’t need them to be the vanguard and take the full brunt of the count’s forces. Instead, I only require them to defend against a few waves of the count’s attacks to allow my family’s armed forces to arrive.”

“Lord Locke, I understand. Please be assured. I, Freiyar, understands best what the people who are locked up there want. Had it not been for the damned count, they wouldn’t have to be imprisoned for so long. Even those who went to serve him did so only to let their families live better lives and are not truly loyal to the count. Now that they know Count Cobry is on the verge of falling, I’m sure they’ll be happier than most and try their best to add as much oil to the fire as they can. Trust me, I will gather them up right away. Um, you, hand me the keys. Lord Locke, I will send good news your way in a short while,” said Freiyar as he took away the keys hanging from Tarkel’s waist and set out to free the prisoners.

Having had his keys taken, Tarkel felt a little dissatisfied and was mumbling something softly.

Lorist looked at him and said, “Do you have anything you’d like to say? I can’t hear you that well, Tarkel.”

Tarkel turned to look at Lorist hesitantly before saying out loud, “Act-actually… You can defend Geldos City without using these people. Milord, if the prisoners don’t obey their orders when they are let out, it’ll cause even more trouble for you…”

“Oh, Tarkel, tell me then about the plan you have in mind to defend the city,” said Lorist curiously.

“Milord, half of the garrison regiment and the pike cavalry company that had set out with the count are fresh recruits that haven’t been in service for more than two months. Their names are recorded in a listing at the duke manor. You only have to hold their families hostage according to the list and bring them to the city gates when the count arrives. I’m sure the soldiers will definitely panic and might even fight back against the count on the spot. Then, you can easily obtain your victory…” said Tarkel.

“Erm…” Lorist really didn’t expect that the chubby man in front of him could really come up with an effective plan. “Tarkel, tell me more about your family and your experiences.”

Lorist suddenly felt interested in the man whose face was filled with flabby meat.

“Milord, I have a family of four that consists of me, my wife, my dumb daughter-in-law as well as my son. Other than that, I have a brother who’s a blacksmith and he lives in the city as well and is in charge of making the count’s weapons and equipment. Our family used to be serfs during the days of my grandfather and we were only granted the status of free men when my father joined the count’s garrison troop. After that, my father had passed away during one of the count’s excursions to eliminate mountain bandits and I have been chosen to fill his position. After the count’s return to the city, he had suddenly started to expand his military forces. Not wanting to be enlisted, I spent quite a sum to bribe my way to become a prison guard and have been doing this job ever since and got promoted to the position of a warden,” said Tarkel honestly.

“Then, do you understand the big and small matters of this city?” asked Lorist.

“That’s a given, milord. I don’t want to sound too arrogant, but there isn’t a corner of the city that I’m not familiar with,” boasted Tarkel.

Lorist naturally didn’t take it at face value and started questioning Tarkel about the area. To his surprise, Tarkel really could describe almost every place he named with great detail. He was even familiar with the rough number of resources that were stored in the various warehouses.

“Tarkel, you have truly surprised me today. While the method you proposed earlier is indeed effective, but there are some things that you can do but I cannot. If I obtain victory using the method you mentioned, I will effectively taint the reputation of nobles and lose the honor of knights. No noble would ever use the enemy forces’ family members as hostages to win a war. That would constitute to shame and humiliation for the family that chooses to do so. That’s why, I can only thank you for trying to suggest an alternative for me,” said Lorist.

“Milord, it’s my fault for not considering your status well enough. I’m just an uneducated man after all. I didn’t consider the honor and reputation of nobles at all,” Tarkel said in a horrified manner.

“How about this? Follow me around in the future. Naturally, I will want you to go to the Northlands with us when the matters here are concluded. I also want your blacksmith brother to tag along when the time comes,” said Lorist.

“This… Milord, can I refuse?” said Tarkel with an agonized face. He didn’t expect that his showing off would cause Lorist to start to fancy him.

“Of course you can. I won’t agree to it though,” Lorist said while laughing.

At that moment, the laborer camp was illuminated by various bonfires with groups of people gathering around the plaza and making merry like a sudden flash mob. Sounds of laughter and chatter could be heard throughout the night.

Lorist brought Tarkel to the plaza and saw Josk leading a group of men approaching from the front.

Josk said excitedly with a flushed face, “Milord, this is the garrison captain of the territory of Baron Omador, Nors. Over here is the knight of the baron’s family, Lind. And these over here are guards Hawk, Marius, Eite and Saibert. I thought they were all dead. I didn’t expect for them to be imprisoned here for the past half year…”

Lorist looked towards them and nodded in greeting. At that moment, Freiyar squeezed into the group and said, “Lord Locke, I have already briefed them about the situation and they are all happy to serve you. Oh, before I forget, many people within the laborer camp are their subordinates. As long as you provide them with arms and equipment, a regiment’s worth of soldiers can instantly be formed.”

“Good work, Freiyar. How about this, let’s form a company of pike cavalrymen and three companies of garrison troops first. Freiyar, you will be the commander of these companies with Joe as your second in command. Start allocating the laborers into their respective companies as you see fit. I want them to be battle-ready as soon as possible. After forming all four companies, leave one garrison company to defend the laborer camp as the family members of some of the prisoners here are still at risk. The other three companies will be stationed at the city’s army camp and begin training right away,” said Lorist as he made his decision.

Freiyar and Josk stood straight up and made a salute. “Milord, we will do as you wish.”

“I will ensure that the necessary equipment be delivered as soon as possible. Freiyar, Josk, I am counting on you two. Don’t hesitate to report to me if anything urgent comes up.”

“Yes, milord.”

……

Lorist brought Tarkel back to the duke manor, only to cause him to puke uncontrollably after he witnessed the bloody scene, causing Reidy and Patt to look at him with curious eyes. It wasn’t only Tarkel; ten other laborers who were also present had thrown up their meals cleanly.

“Sol, how can anyone eat with this smell in the air?!” Lorist was incredibly pissed as the group of people had puked while he was just about to have his meal.

“Reidy, please close the doors and windows. Remember to have them clean up after they finish puking,” said Lorist.

……

The busy night was over and Geldos City still remained the same with the count’s flag that depicted a bull’s head flying up high. To the citizens, there was no other change apart from the increased presence of soldiers on the streets as well as the curfew order they were given the laborers’ halting of the city’s construction with the official reason being that an assassin was on the loose in the city. Nobody knew that the control of the city had already changed hands overnight.

The next day was pretty uneventful as well.

During the night, the duke manor’s main hall was brightly illuminated by candlelight.

Lorist, Josk, Freiyar, Terman, Els, Yuriy, Tim as well as the several officers from the newly-formed laborer companies all sat at a round table on which a large beastskin map was placed and were listening to the pale-faced Tarkel who was revealing the secrets of the Cobry Family.

“… Count Cobry has 67 illegitimate sons in total and under his training and nurture, 17 of them became Gold ranked and 38 others managed to get to the Silver rank. That was the situation ten years ago. After that, the count brought 38 of his illegitimate sons to serve the First Prince and 6 Gold ranks and 13 Silver ranks died in the process. However, two years after his return, there was 1 son who had just broke through to the Gold rank with 4 others making their way to the Silver rank. However, this wasn’t publicized so nobody outside the family knows about it.

“Ever since the count began launching his attacks on the neighboring nobles that didn’t submit to him, 2 Gold ranked sons as well as 5 Silver ranked sons have perished. These include the two sons Josk had assassinated when he infiltrated Geldos City once. When the count sent the rebel-sweeping corps to the western mountains, he still had 10 Gold ranked sons and 24 Silver ranked sons. The remaining nine are either not at the Silver rank yet or have not awakened their Battle Force altogether and held administrative posts in Geldos City.

“The rebel-sweeping corps that the count had sent out was led by 3 Gold ranked sons and 8 Silver ranked sons. However, I heard that milord’s convoy has completely wiped them out. The reinforcement sent by the count to recapture the camp that was led by 2 Silver ranked sons was also decimated. The Gold ranked son that was stationed there when the count set out for Burdock Bastide was also killed as well.

“After the count set out, he was entrapped at Motz Hills by our lord and I heard that one of the captive pike cavalrymen who were on their way to deliver the letter said that when they first started to attack a stronghold. one Gold ranked and another Silver ranked had fallen. After that, during the operation to conquer Geldos City, 1 Gold ranked and 2 Silver ranked illegitimate sons perished. Among 9 of the illegitimate sons who were not even Silver ranks, 7 were killed within the hall of the duke manor and only two remains by the count’s side with his army currently.

“Other than the 1 Gold ranked and 2 Silver ranked illegitimate sons stationed at Williamiles Castle, the count only has 3 Gold ranked and 9 Silver ranked sons remaining. If we include the count himself, they only have 4 Gold ranks on their side. Given that our lord has already prepared the city appropriately for defense, there is no need to worry that they will be able to recapture it based on their forces,” said Tarkel as he concluded the report on the count’s forces, calming down the restless minds of the ones present.

Lorist laughed out loud and said, “I’m not worried about his forces though. I believe that by the time the count comes back to attack the city, his soldiers would have to deal with the desperate lack of resources as well as the allies that are closing in on them from behind. I’m sure their morale would be extremely low. I am however considering whether I should take the chance to conquer Williamiles Castle as well now that news of Geldos City being conquered still hasn’t spread out yet,” said Lorist as he pointed to a spot on the map where Williamiles Castle was located.

His plan was rather simple: he would first bring a company’s worth of soldiers wearing the count’s equipment and request access into the city in the name of helping out with the city’s defense and sneak into the castle. As long as he manages to kill the three illegitimate sons that are stationed there, Lorist’s group would be able to absorb the garrison forces by telling them that Geldos City, where many of their family members are living in, was under their control. He believed that there would not be much resistance on that front.

Els gave an alternate opinion in that there wasn’t enough time. Given that Williamiles Castle was around 1 day of travel on horseback away from Geldos City, a journey to and fro would easily take two days. And the coming two days was the most crucial moment as the count might run out of resources and retreat to the city during that timeframe. If Lorist wasn’t able to make his way back at that time, the situation might very possibly turn for the worse.

Lorist disagreed and explained that if he let Williamiles Castle be, the count would still have a place to escape to and be able to recover his forces, causing Lorist’s group to be delayed there even further. “That’s why I believe the best way to settle the matter quickly is to remove all of the count’s foundations and cause him to have nowhere to fall back to. After that, we can swoop in and finish him off to end this conflict. Currently, the defense at Williamiles Castle is at its weakest. When would we attack if not now?”

Lorist then instructed Yuriy, Terman and Josk to get a light cavalry squad, a knight squad as well as the two newly-formed pike cavalry squads to change into the count’s pike cavalry equipment and each bring two horses along to prepare for departure within an hour. Lorist will also take Tarkel along the way. As for the defense of Geldos City, he entrusted it to Els, Freiyar and Tim.

Freiyar hesitated in agreeing to that order as he believed that Josk would be a better choice for defending the castle and said that he would instead prefer to follow Lorist to conquer the castle.

Lorist laughed and said, “It cannot be you, Freiyar, as the illegitimate sons of the count will recognize you. Given that they know that you definitely won’t submit to the count that easily, your presence would only serve to bring their guards up. That’s why I picked Joe instead. The reason I left you behind to defend the place is precisely because I trust you, as should any lord or leader. Els and Tim, Freiyar will be the first in command during my absence, alright?”

“Yes, milord,” Els responded.

“Please be assured, milord. This one will definitely not disappoint you,” said Tim as he bowed.

Lorist patted on Freiyar’s shoulder and said, “I’ll be counting on you during these two days. Once I take WIlliamiles Castle, I’ll definitely rush back immediately.”

Freiyar stood straight up and saluted Lorist. “Milord, as long as I am here, the city will remain ours.”

……

Chapter 74 Surprise Attack Successful

Afternoon on the next day, Lorist stood within the great hall on the first floor of Williamiles Castle. Sitting in front of him was a hawk-nosed, eagle-eyed man in fully-armored ]knight attire, wearing a breastplate that depicted a black bull’s head. This man was one of the Gold ranked illegitimate sons of the count that was stationed at WIlliamiles Castle. Sitting further away from him was four Silver ranked men in armor. The two at the front were Silver ranked illegitimate sons of the count with other two being garrison squad captains of the castle.

“You mentioned that this pike cavalry company you brought over has only been formed 3 days ago, and that you were sent here by my 21st brother?” said the hawk-nosed man as he stared hard at Lorist.

Lorist made a confused face and said, “That’s correct. I don’t know the reason myself, but the order I received clearly stated that our company was to make our way to Williamiles Castle to bolster its defense. I myself thought that there was some sort of battle going on here. It seems that our journey here was a complete waste. Oh, and, will you be letting my men into the castle? If not, we’ll have to go back to the city.”

“Go back? Yeah, right. Now that you’re here, you better stay put. What’s your name and Battle Force rank?” snorted the man.

Lorist nodded and said, “Milord, this one is called Lorist and I’m at the Three Star Iron rank.”

“Pffft!” A man with a receding hairline started to laugh out loud. “Soldiers nowadays really have no standards… For a puny Iron rank like you to be able to become a pike cavalry company captain… It’s a little too unreasonable for us Three Star Silver ranks to only be squad captains of garrison troops… It truly is ridiculous.”

“14th brother, I think that 21st brother is just trying to mess with us. Otherwise, there’s no way he would appoint a Three Star Iron ranked captain. We still have to face the allied noble armies on our front. Even though the recent situation has been quite stable, we might be more prone to enemy attacks if there is no pike cavalry stationed here at the castle. That must be why our lord father sent us this newly-formed company to make sure we’ll be well-defended from any potential threat,” said another man who wore a mail armor.

“Right, 19th brother’s words make sense. Heed my orders, let the pike cavalrymen outside into the castle and order them to gather at the plaza in front. You… Lok-something, you’re unfit to be the captain of the company, so train hard till you’re a Silver rank first. I will reorganize the pike cavalry in the afternoon, so you will be assigned to be a captain of a garrison troop squad instead,” said that hawk-nosed man.

Lorist stood there without making a sound as if he was dissatisfied with having his position taken away from him. The hawk-nosed man didn’t bother with it and started discussing with the other men beside him. “Which one of you will go command the pike cavalry company? Pick two among yourselves and mix some of our own troops into the cavalry company so that we’ll be able to better control the unit…”

At that moment, the hawk-nosed man once again looked towards the shivering Tarkel. “Oh, aren’t you Tarkel? What’s a coward like you doing in the pike cavalry company? Are you sick of being a prison guard?”

“8-8th master, thi-this one does not dare to disobey the 21st ma-master… And he said that an Iron rank li-like me should j-join the cavalry company… So I got al-allocated here,” stammered Tarkel.

Tarkel was currently regretting his previous actions a lot. How did he manage to make Lorist take a fancy on him? He wasn’t that much of a talented person and only loved to pay attention to gossip and analyze the situations surrounding them. Now that he had been picked to be Lorist’s personal attendant, he was even brought along to Williamiles Castle to participate in the surprise attack operation.

The one guarding Williamiles Castle was the 8th illegitimate son of the count, a Two Star Gold rank who not only excelled at combat, but was also a devious and attentive person who was not so easily dealt with. This could be seen from how only a small group including Lorist had been allowed into the castle for verification while the other soldiers they brought had been denied entry and were left outside.

Of all the people available, you had to pick me to follow you inside! Marksman Josk would’ve been so much more helpful for this purpose! Tarkel really didn’t understand why he was asked to come along. Was it because he had greeted some of his former colleagues outside the castle? Those were his acquaintances and it would only be more suspicious if he didn’t greet them. Lord Norton is also a really careless person. Even though he’s only an Iron rank, he actually came inside the castle with an Iron rank like me! It’s basically suicide for 2 Iron ranks to go up against 1 Gold rank and 4 Silver ranks!

The more Tarkel thought about it, the more afraid he got. At the moment when the 8th master instructed for Lorist’s men to be allowed into the castle, he feared that they would attack right away and cause their intentions to be discovered and set his demise in stone. When he first entered the great hall, Tarkel tried his best to not utter a voice nor attract any attention to himself. But, just because he coughed once, he was discovered by the 8th master. It was fortunate that he was witty enough to come out with an excuse on the spot.

“Hmm, 21st brother must’ve been drinking a little too much. Then again, Tarkel you coward, are you really that afraid of fighting? If you’re this nervous now, I wonder if you’ll faint when you’re on the battlefield! Hahaha…” laughed the hawk-nosed man out loud.

Lorist turned his body sideways slightly and looked outside the window of the great hall of the first floor from the corner of his eyes and saw that his men were already making their way into the castle. Good, the gates are already under our control. Right now, Terman is making his way to the two side gates with Yuriy’s light cavalry scout squad making their preparations at the plaza. Josk is also making his way here already.

The garrison troops of Williamiles Castle were not fully-armed for some reason and only gathered together to watch the spectacle. Maybe they had just finished their lunch and were still slacking off. Some of them were even sunbathing on the side of the walls. This was the perfect opportunity to launch the attack…

Lorist drew his sword and said, “He’s afraid because you are all about to die. He’s allergic to corpses, you see…”

The hawk-nosed man was surprised and enraged at the same time. “How dare you go against a superior officer? Your ambitions must have turned you crazy. For you to actually dare to draw your sword in front of me… Settle him, make an example of him for the other pike cavalrymen to see…”

Even though the 8th master was sharp, he actually misunderstood the situation. He thought that Lorist was rebelling because he wasn’t satisfied with being demoted from his position as a company captain.

Two of the Silver ranked garrison troops rushed over immediately without bothering to draw their swords. One of them thought, hmph, a mere Iron rank… My hands are enough to subdue him…

Tarkel instantly crouched on the ground and thought, it’s over. Is Lord Norton insane? Why did an Iron rank like him even draw his sword in front of 1 Gold rank and 4 Silver ranks? It’s like saying, ‘Please come and kill me!’ He even boasted that they were about to die… I think the first ones to die will be Iron ranks like me and Lord Norton… Why couldn’t you wait for your men to arrive first before lashing out? Now you even dragged me into it as well… Oh my poor wife and precious son… What would he do without me, his father, beside him?

Tarkel shut his eyes in despair, only to hear two instances of agonized cries. The first cry slowed into a moan while the other was swift and short. Eh? That didn’t sound right. Why was it two cries instead of one?He then opened his eyes only to be surprised by the scene of Lorist standing unscathed with the first Silver rank that leaped towards him rolling on the ground in pain with both his arms severed and asking for a quick death. He also found that Lorist’s sword had been embedded in the throat of the second Silver ranked squad captain that came after the first.

The hawk-nosed man and his two brothers jumped up in befuddlement. Nobody would have expected an Iron rank to be able to dispatch two Silver ranked garrison squad captains with only three strikes of the sword.

“Who the heck are you?” asked the hawk-nosed man as he stared at Lorist intensely while slowly drawing his sword.

Lorist laughed in a light tone and said, “My identity doesn’t matter. You only have to know that I’ve come for your lives…”

“19th, go sound the alarm! The pike cavalrymen are not on our side! They’re enemies!” shouted the hawk-nosed man to the one dressed in mail armor immediately after his realization.

“Okay…” he answered as he drew his sword and paced carefully towards the exit and broke into a run.

An arrow flew over in a flash and pierced through his chest, sending the man flying for three whole meters before he fell back down on the ground and spit out large mouthfuls of blood with both his hands clasped tightly onto the arrow in his chest as if he was trying to pull it out, before he let out his final breath and stopped struggling altogether.

At that moment, Josk showed up at the door of the great hall with a green longbow in his hand.

“Marksman Josk…” said the hawk-nosed man in stupor.

“Long time no see, 8th master….” said Josk with his bloodshot eyes. The hawk-nosed man, Count Corby’s Gold ranked 8th illegitimate son, also referred by others as the ‘8th master’, was the very person that had attacked Baron Omador’s castle during the wedding and was one of the main perpetrators that had caused the demise of Josk’s loved ones.

“Hold him down!” shouted the hawk-nosed man to the man with a receding hairline as he rushed towards Lorist while drawing an arc in the air with his sword.

“Just what I needed!” exclaimed Lorist as he raised his sword to meet the incoming blade. The moment the two collided, sharp sounds of metal clashing echoed rapidly throughout the great hall.

The 8th master had intended to let the half-bald man hold Josk back while he took care of Lorist before moving onto suppressing Josk together with his partner. That way, they would have a better chance to turn the tide of the battle, since Lorist was only an Iron rank. He thought that no matter how good Lorist’s swordsmanship was, it would only allow him to take on Silver ranks at most. Given the 8th master’s Gold ranked Battle Force, he would be able to easily defeat Lorist by brute force alone regardless of the level of swordsmanship given the disparity of raw power between their ranks.

That was the 8th master’s first mistake. Never in his wildest dreams would he expect that the moment he first crossed blades with Lorist, his Battle Force felt like it didn’t have any effect at all, causing a Gold rank like him to stagger backwards against a supposed Iron rank and even almost getting slashed. Even the half-bald man who was busy with Josk stared dumbstruck at the result of the first clash.

Tarkel was looking at the fight with his mouth wide agape with saliva leaking out of it, making him seem like a dumb idiot. So Lord Norton wasn’t insane and was confident in his abilities all along! This swordsmanship is truly godly… So much so that he is able to hold back a Two Star Gold Swordsman like the 8th master to the point where he had no choice but to be on the defensive!

The half-bald man snapped out of his stupor and noticed that Josk was still entranced by the battle between Lorist and his stepbrother. Extremely delighted, he carefully inched backwards and intended to escape. This was the 8th master’s second mistake: he overestimated his subordinates’ loyalty to him.

As a stellar marksman, Josk had noticed the half-bald man’s slight movement immediately. He quickly held his green bow up, stretched it wide like a full moon and unleashed three arrows in quick succession.

The first arrow had been blocked by that man, but it took him a lot of effort to do so and he had retreated 3 steps backward as a result. The second arrow broke that man’s sword into two and caused the man to cough out some blood. By the time the third and final arrow arrived, the baldy had already lost all his power to resist and could only stare at the arrow expand within his field of view until it inevitably entered his mouth and lifted him into the air, nailing him onto the wall nearby behind.

Having witnessed the death of the middle-aged man, the 8th master started to panic. He already had his hands full with fighting Lorist. Now that Josk had taken care of that half-bald man and had started aiming his bow towards him, the 8th master started to feel even more nervous. In his disturbed mental state, his hands missed a beat and allowed Lorist the opportunity to inflict the final blow. With a flash of a blade, the savage looking 8th master let out a pained grunt before his head separated from his body and flew through the air. Lorist backed off quickly to avoid the fountain of blood that had erupted from the stump of the man’s neck.

“How long are you going to stay flat on the ground like that, Tarkel? Quickly get up and hang these heads on the veranda and announce to the soldiers that Geldos City is already under our control,” instructed Lorist.

By the time the five heads were put on display at the first floor veranda, the whole castle broke into a panic that was quickly suppressed. That was especially the case after 7 or 8 soldiers who were dead loyal to the count started to fight back against the pike cavalrymen entering the castle, only to be shot to death with one arrow each by Josk, further accelerating the surrender of the castle’s garrison troops. By the time evening came, Lorist’s men had already taken full control of Williamiles Castle.

“Yuriy, after resting for one hour after dinner, I’m going to bring Terman’s knight squad and Knight Josk back to Geldos City. I will leave Williamiles Castle in your care. Make sure you let your light cavalry scouts patrol the surrounding area from time to time, but don’t attack the surrounding allied noble armies unless they initiate the attack, in which case you may retaliate. Tarkel, stay here and placate the garrison troops’ mental state and tell them that by the time the soldiers that are coming to take their place to guard the castle arrives, they will be allowed to go back to Geldos City to check on their family members. Don’t worry, it won’t take too long. I’m confident that I’ll be able to send a messenger over within ten days,” said Lorist as he bit into a piece of bread in his hand.

“Milord, I understand. Please leave the place to me,” said Yuriy before he continued his meal.

Tarkel placed the piece of bone in his hand onto his plate, rubbed his mouth with his sleeve and said, “Milord, as long as I’m here, I’ll ensure that the garrison troops don’t cause any trouble.”

Chapter 75 The Final Assault

Count Cobry was currently raging nonstop outside Geldos City…

Ever since he sent out the pike cavalry squad to deliver his request for more supplies, he had been experiencing an inexplicable feeling of worry from the depths of his heart as if it was foretelling the misfortune that was to come.

The situation of the battle he was in wasn’t ideal either: of the 2000-odd farmer soldiers rallied by his vassal noble families, almost 500, a quarter of the total number, had already perished. On the other hand, his five pike cavalry companies and garrison troop regiment had only sustained tens of casualties for the past two days and still maintained their battle power.

During the past two days, he had conquered three more strongholds and only five still stood in their way. The farmers he relied mainly on to conquer the strongholds were already on the verge of revolt as their numbers diminished quite quickly and the money just wasn’t worth that sacrifice. Whenever they received orders to mobilize, they would loiter around and waste as much time as they could until they were pressured and forced to act by the pike cavalrymen.

Count Cobry knew that he couldn’t keep this up, given that the knights from the vassal noble families were giving him odd looks, as if they believed that the count was only using this opportunity to try to diminish the strength of the noble families that served him.

With the remaining supplies in their camp only able to last them for three more days, the count started to worry about the absence of any communication from Geldos City after he sent his troops back there two days ago. This shouldn’t be the case! Geldos City is not that far away from the Motz Hills and it would take 8 hours at most to get there on horseback! My pike cavalry squad should have been able to make it back here with the response from Geldos City about when the resources and supplies would arrive! Something must be going on.

Unable to continue waiting, the count decided to return to the city after giving it some thought. He left the remaining supplies to his garrison regiment and gathered the knights from the other families for a pep talk to encourage them to continue guarding the camp until his return.

Count Coby then brought his five and a half companies of pike cavalrymen to Geldos City with the intention of replenishing their numbers over there. At the same time, Lorist had just completed his matters at Williamiles Castle and was on the way back to Geldos City with Josk and Terman’s knight squad.

During daybreak, the count arrived at the gates of Geldos City with his soldiers and breathed a sigh of relief after seeing his family flag still flying on the flagpole. He then instructed some people to go request for the gates to be opened so that his exhausted men may rest after a long day of traveling.

Little did he know that no matter how loudly the soldiers announced the return of the count and requested for the drawbridge to be lowered and the gates to be opened, the garrison troops on the walls of the city made no indication of doing so at all and instead started cursing back towards the soldiers below and even armed themselves with their bows as if they were going to defend the city from invaders.

At first, Count Cobry was quite satisfied with how alert and careful the soldiers who guarded the city was being. But after half an hour, he noticed that something was off and saw a large group of people showing up at the city walls led by Freiyar, whom he had imprisoned for being unwilling to serve him.

When Freiyar announced to the count that the city was under his control, Count Cobry thought that this was all just a bad dream. Nowhere in his wildest imaginations would he think that a prisoner like Freiyar would be able to take over the city. The raging count then pointed towards the flag and asked why it wasn’t taken down if the city was truly under his control.

Laughing in an embarrassed manner, Freiyar told the count that he had forgotten to use the flag to wipe his ass after going to the lavatory as he had way too much things requiring his attention. He then apologized for neglecting the flag and assured the count that he would have someone take it down to be used at the lavatories.

In response, the count was enraged to the point where his veins were almost going to pop. One Gold ranked son who stood by his side started cursing back at Freiyar and said that despite how well the count had treated him, he still dared to go against the count when he was away from the city like a savage who doesn’t know how to repay other people’s favors.

Losing his temper, Freiyar instantly cursed out loud. “You call killing my adopted mother and imprisoning my family and I a favor? You’re so sick and deluded!” Not wanting to continue the conversation, Freiyar ordered the bowmen to fire and the Gold ranked son got wounded by three arrows as a result. Had it not been for the pike cavalrymen who protected him fervently, the count would have lost his life there and then.

Leaving tens of corpses of the pike cavalrymen near the city gates, the count managed to make it out of the bows’ firing range unharmed. He quickly ordered his soldiers to log and construct siege ladders in preparation for attacking the city.

However, the count had forgotten an important fact, that was the pike cavalrymen companies that he had brought with him were formed only recently from the people at laborer camp and wasn’t the ones who had accompanied him during the years he masqueraded as a bandit. The moment some of them recognized their comrades at the city walls, they started to chat with them and got to know that their families members were in safe hands.

On one side, there was the count who was preparing to attack the city in a fit of rage. On another, the soldiers felt relieved when they got to know that their family members were alright. That’s why the count’s men came to a tacit understanding to resist the count’s orders as best they could and took a whole afternoon to construct only 3 siege ladders at an excruciatingly slow place.

The fuming count angrily caned a few of the men that he thought were slacking off and appointed tens of other soldiers who resisted orders to be the first ones to attack the city.

The result ended up almost knocking the count out form vomiting too much blood. The soldiers he had punished to participate in the first wave of attacks used the ladders they brought to climb up the walls without any resistance from the city walls’ defending troops. The moment they got on the walls, they tossed their weapons to the ground and hugged their comrades before starting to curse at the count.

Within a flash, the pike cavalrymen that had made their way up the walls surrendered to the enemy and even helped to pull the siege ladders they brought with them up the walls. The count who had just witnessed such a scene spat out a mouthful of blood with his face red with rage.

At that moment, the count’s other Gold ranked son started cursing towards the city walls in an even more vulgar manner when compared to the former son who had been injured by three arrows. Seeing the count faint from bloodloss, and the pike cavalrymen seeming too tired to be able to accomplish anything, the Silver ranked illegitimate sons ordered for the mounts of the soldiers who had surrendered to the enemy to be killed and butchered to make some meat dishes to fill the rest of the men’s stomachs for the moment. Having been traveling at a rapid pace without rest for the whole night, the men were all hungry and spent.

After that, the brothers discussed how they should placate the pike cavalrymen. Among the 600 soldiers they had, the ones actually loyal to the count numbered below 50 and were mostly old soldiers who had followed the count for years.

By the time the count regained consciousness, he was faced with two choices. Attacking the city was no longer an option as he couldn’t predict how his pike cavalrymen, who were on their verge of changing sides, would react. The first choice he had was to return to the camp at Motz Hills to rejoin his garrison regiment and bring the whole army back to retake the city. The only drawback to this plan was that his garrison regiment would probably run out of food by the time they made their way back to the city. The last thing he wanted was for his desperate soldiers to turn their backs on him.

The other choice he had was to retreat to Williamiles Castle where he could temporarily stay to rebuild his army and regain his power. However, that amounted to giving up on the garrison regiment he left at the Motz Hills as well as Geldos City. But, he believed that as long as he could get into contact with the rebel-sweeping forces who were at the western mountains, he would be able to take everything that he had lost back.

When the count was pondering on which path to take, sounds of horses galloping from afar could be heard. It seemed that a group of soldiers was incoming from the path that led to Williamiles Castle. The return of Lorist and Josk with Terman’s knight squad only served to entrap the count at Geldos City.

Josk approached the count’s men at a distance of 30 to 40 meters away and tossed over three heads that landed at the feet of Count Cobry. Upon seeing the three heads of his illegitimate sons who were stationed at Williamiles Castle, the count felt that he had been struck by lightning. The deaths of his sons could only mean that Williamiles Castle had already fallen under the control of the enemy.

Seeing Marksman Josk turn away to head back to Lorist’s side, the count stood up and headed towards them before stopping ten meters away. Staring at Josk with a savage look, he turned his gaze to Lorist and said, “Who are you and why are you going against me?”

Sitting on horseback, Lorist looked at the well-built 60-year-old man with strands of white hair on his head, who had taken the northwestern area by storm, and said coldly, “I wonder if I should address you as Count Cobry, or Redbeard, the bandit whose infamous name and savagery is well-known throughout the Bodolger Province?”

The count shivered uncontrollably and revealed a shocked expression on his face. He then calmed down without refuting Lorist’s accusations and continued as he pointed to Geldos City and then to the three heads that were on the ground, “Who the heck are you? Is this the result of you plotting against me? You’ve managed to cause my Cobry Family to sink into such depths…”

“Plotting against you? Who do you think you are? Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten your sins already. When you were masquerading as Redbeard, the people of the merchant convoys you raided were all killed without mercy; women and children were no exception either. Did you think you would be able to live out the rest of your life in peace just because you disguised yourself when you did all that? Today, my arrival signals your end. I will uproot the whole Cobry Family just like the way you did to the other nobles in the area, and kill all your male descendants…”

Seething hatred could be felt from Lorist’s words. He signalled for Terman to come over and pointed towards the raging bear badge on his chest and said, “I’m sure you’ve seen this insignia before on the two red wooden boxes in your chambers. My Third Uncle had intended to present those boxes to the girl that he loved. However, the convoy he led had met with the bandit Redbeard and not a single one of them survived. All these years, my family has been searching high and low for this bandit. Who would’ve expected that the attack on my convoy by your troops would finally lead me to you…

“Oh Lord Count, you must be surprised to find out that the rebel-sweeping corps that had intended to prey on our convoy had been wiped out entirely and some of the troops that had surrendered to us revealed that Redbeard had been you all along. One of them even mentioned that he recognized our family insignia from the two boxes you have in your room… That’s why I have come for you.”

“You are from the Norton Family of the Northlands…” stammered the count. He could recognize the insignia from the time when he raided their merchant convoy. He even remembered that he had lost one Gold ranked and one Silver ranked illegitimate son from that incident. The people of the merchant convoy who went all out to fight until their last breath had left quite an impression on him. That was also the reason why he kept those two boxes as a memento.

Now that the evidence had been presented in front of him, there was no point for him to deny the allegations any longer. Staring hard at Lorist, he smiled and said, “So what if I was the one who did it? I’ve raided far too many convoys in my time. Now that you’ve come for retribution, I’ll definitely entertain you. Let’s see who will emerge out of this alive.”

The count then turned away to walk back to his soldiers with Lorist not bothering to stop him at all. Count Cobry then donned his armor and got onto his horse before he pointed his lance towards Lorist’s forces. Behind him, his illegitimate sons and the senior soldiers who were still loyal to him got on their mounts and arranged themselves into a charging formation.

Lorist waved and ordered calmly, “Anyone who’s not at the Silver rank may fall back. For those who are, follow behind me and get into a charging formation.”

Josk and Terman rode to Lorist’s back and subsequently, Terman handed Lorist a pike for his use. The various Silver ranked knights also lined up neatly behind Josk and Terman.

Including Lorist who was at the very front, there were 27 knights in total, who were lined up in a triangular formation. On the opposite side, there were 58 cavalrymen including the count.

During that moment, everyone outside the city stopped whatever they were doing jointly paid attention to the spectacle that was unfolding before them. The atmosphere was heavy and grim with nobody daring to utter the slightest sound.

At the same instant, Lorist and Count Cobry began their charge and the two groups of mounted men rushed towards each other at breakneck speeds.

Lorist’s pike let out no blade glow while Josk, who was behind him, had a golden blade of light emanating from the point of his pike. The rest of the knights including Terman all had silver blade glows shining out from the point of their riding lances.

Only seeing one golden blade of light from the ranks of his foes, the count felt elated and trailed his lance that was also letting out a golden blade of light towards Lorist. It seems that the twerp over there is not even a Silver rank… As long as I manage to take him down, I will definitely be able to turn the tables of the whole situation…

In the blink of an eye, the two groups collided and chaos soon ensued…

Count Cobry brutally thrusted his golden lance towards Lorist’s left arm with the intention of knocking him off his mount before finishing him off.

In response, Lorist flicked his pike upward and caused it to collide with the lance. The golden lance was knocked horribly out of trajectory and Lorist’s pike swiped in quick succession towards the count’s upper torso, causing him to fall off his mount with a dumbstruck look on his face. With but a swipe, the count who had not yet fallen to the ground was once again knocked flying into the group of frantic soldiers before he landed ten or so meters away. Two stab wounds could be seen on the count’s shoulders as he lay on the ground squirming and screaming, unable to get up.

Lorist then rejoined the chaotic battlefield while thrusting and slashing with abandon. In but a few moments, tens of cavalrymen had lost their lives to his pike.

After Lorist went to and fro the battlefield three times, not a single cavalryman remained on their horses. However, only 10 of the 26 men who had followed him were still mounted.

Terman waved for the Iron ranked knights who had retreated further away before the charge to come and help out his dismounted men. As for the enemy soldiers who had yet to die, they were graced with a swift, merciful slash that spared them from having to experience further pain in the face of death.

Terman soon came over with a bandaged left arm to report their status. There were 8 heavily-injured soldiers with 14 others lightly-injured including himself. That was partly thanks to the armor they had been equipped with that provided excellent defense. As for Count Cobry’s side, the men who had followed his lead had all but perished, including his 6 Silver ranked illegitimate sons. The other Gold ranked son had fought with Josk until the last moment only to die as well. The only person who was still alive after all that was Count Cobry himself.

Seeing the count who was groaning and groveling on the ground in pain, Lorist said, “Have a cross constructed. I want to nail him to death on top of it…”

Chapter 76 Rounding

Count Cobry ended up being pinned to the cross that Lorist had ordered to be made and died after half a day of moaning and wailing. Before his death, he also witnessed the beheading of his illegitimate son who had been struck with three arrows back at the city gates. That son of his died without any suffering as he had been out cold the moment he was injured.

After the beheading, Lorist had the heads of all the illegitimate sons of the count that had died by his hands stacked up before the cross. He also requested for an artisan to craft a fitting stone tablet that described the count’s deeds and sins, including the ones he had committed during his time as Redbeard the bandit, and how the untimely discovery of his identity had caused his downfall. Perhaps in the far future, the tale of Count Cobry and his 67 illegitimate sons would become a folk tale of the Grindia Continent much like the story of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves in Lorist’s previous world.

After resting for the night, Josk took the initiative to lead the two newly-formed garrison troop companies with members recruited from the laborer camp to the Motz Hills to sweep up the remaining troops of the count. There were still 1 Gold rank, 3 Silver ranks and 2 other illegitimate sons whose Battle Force has not yet been awakened there and Josk did not intend to let any one of them slip away from his grasps.

Lorist himself didn’t mind as the pike cavalrymen who had surrendered to him had mentioned that the soldiers there only had three days’ worth of supplies with them and would crumble eventually even without any outside intervention. What Josk was going to do was no more than speeding up the process.

After three days, Charade and Josk returned to Geldos City.

Josk brought six heads back with him which were also placed in front of the cross. He said that the moment he was spotted by the enemy when he was blocking off the road to Motz Hills, the first ones to panic were the farmers. They instantly broke down and started crying and shouting out loud while running all over the place, effectively turning their whole camp into a huge mess. After that, Potterfang and Loze brought two of their heavy-armored cavalry companies into the camp and slaughtered the enemy, securing their victory.

After the Gold ranked illegitimate son died in the hands of Loze, the remaining ones attempted to run away, only to be sniped one by one by Josk with his bow and arrows. Currently, all of the illegitimate sons of the count had reunited with him at the stone tablet and not one of them was spared.

Charade said that Potterfang would only arrive in the afternoon on the next day as he had to escort the prisoner soldiers who had surrendered to them during the battle. He also mentioned that for the next three days, the family convoy would make its way to Geldos City. Charade then asked Lorist about what to do with Burdock Bastide after the convoy’s departure.

Lorist replied, “Hand it to Tim then. For the past few days, I’ve been thinking about the preparations we need to make before the convoy leaves this place and already have a general idea on how to go about it. You’re here just in time to discuss the finer details with me.”

What Lorist lacked right now was time. When the convoy first left Armatrin Harbor, there was a distance of 2500 kilometers to travel before they reach the Northlands. Their original plan was for them to travel 1000 or so kilometers through the lands of the Redlis Kingdom to reach the borders of the Andinaq Kingdom. However, it had been postponed when the convoy was prompted to retaliate and wipe the count and his family after the attack of Count Cobry’s rebel-sweeping forces. It was already the 23rd day of the 1st month, but the convoy had only traveled a little more than 300 kilometers so far.

After taking control of Geldos City, the riches and supplies that the count had accumulated over the years from wiping out the defiant nobles had all ended up in Lorist’s hands. He understood from Charade’s ecstatic and gleeful look when he looked at the inventory that the convoy’s departure would have to be delayed yet again until the resources were properly managed and sorted out. Otherwise, there was no way Charade would agree to leave the place.

That was why Lorist had decided to head for the Northlands first at the end of the month with only a handful of people with him and leave the convoy behind so that he would arrive at the family dominion before the 3rd month to be in time for the inheritance ceremony. After that, he would wait for the arrival of the convoy at a later date while he settled some more pressing matters of the family. He also appointed Charade and Potterfang to be in charge of the convoy during his absence.

However, there were still quite a number of things that he needed to handle personally before he would be able to leave with a peace of mind.

He first instructed Potterfang to lead a heavy-armored cavalry company to Williamiles Castle to guard it in place of the reorganized garrison troop that used to be the count’s and also had Yuriy send some representatives to the allied noble armies to tell them the news of the count’s demise and to request them to send some representatives to Geldos City to discuss certain matters on trade.

When the garrison company came back to Geldos City, Lorist gave a cold and cruel order. He instructed the soldiers who had surrendered to him to bring their family members to another street and imprisoned the remaining family members of the soldiers who have resisted him and died in battle in the slave laborer camp.

Looking at the now empty streets, Lorist said, “Mister Tim, this street belongs to you now. You can finally put the sacks your soldiers were carrying to good use.”

Tim was incredibly grateful at Lorist’s proposition. Ever since he knew that Lorist was going to give the Burdock Bastide to him unconditionally, he quickly met up with a few stronghold leaders and sold 1300 gold Fordes’ worth of weapons to them which he had obtained from Charade for only 1000 gold Fordes. After that, he sent somebody to instruct Knight Gemors to move the people and resources under him to the bastide before returning to Lorist’s side after all of that was accomplished. He understood that the longer he spent time with Lorist, the more benefits he would get. As expected, before he could finish processing the fact that he got the bastide for no cost, Lorist presented him with yet another huge boon.

Seeing Tim who excitedly went to pillage the empty houses and stores lining the streets, Lorist couldn’t help but laugh out loud. He had decided to aid Tim the best he could so that he would have someone to reach out to should he need anything done in the Redlis Kingdom.

When Tim returned, Lorist said, “Tim, I also got you a wife.”

Unrolling a beastskin map of the area, Lorist continued, “Look here. This is Viscount Tebri’s territory and Burdock Bastide is over here. Between the two locations is Baron Anlar’s territory. Even though all the male descendants of the Anlar Family had all been killed off by the count, we have managed to rescue his only daughter from the duke manor. I have decided to let you take her as your wife so that you will be able to absorb Baron Anlar’s territory and unite it with that of Viscount Tebri as well as Burdock Bastide.”

Lorist then tossed a few documents onto the table and said, “Look, these are the deeds for the lands of Viscount Tebri, Baron Anlar and the bastide. I found them all in the duke manor. With these documents, I will also be able to have the neighboring nobles recognize you as the legitimate successor of Viscount Tebri so that you will have no problems ascending into the noble peerage. What do you think?”

Tim bowed deeply and responded, “Lord Norton, as long as it is your arrangement, I will definitely go by it. You can have me marry a few more wives if you please.”

“Sol, only in your wildest dreams. You must have sufficient power to back up your greed and ambition. The bare minimum for defending the lands you hold right now is a garrison regiment. And given the desolate state of Viscount Tebri’s and Baron Anlar’s dominions as a result of the conflict, you will also need quite a bit of resource to redevelop them,” rebuked Lorist jokingly.

Upon hearing that, Tim suddenly turned downcast and looked to Lorist with pleading eyes. “Milord, I don’t have so much money… I’m already finding it hard to sustain the 1800 men under me, not to say much about rebuilding the dominion. The money spent on maintaining an army is truly too large.”

Charade who was standing nearby laughed and said, “Tim, come over here. After seeing the map, I have an idea for you. I know you are quite adept at doing business from your past experience. Now that you have this large piece of land, if you manage it carefully, you’ll definitely be able to sustain three whole regiments of garrison troops.

“There is a corner of the viscount’s dominion near the shores and I believe that it would be a good place for a port to be built there. And the eastern part of the viscount’s dominion that is near Baron Anlar’s dominion has flat lands and forests which are ideal for agricultural development. Given that you used to manage the viscount’s farms, you should have a good idea on what to do with these places. With the port built, you will be able to stimulate the dominion’s economy. Coupled with the yearly harvest from the farms, you will also be able to sustain your own dominion’s food demand and hold firm to your citizens’ support by providing them with peaceful, sustainable lives.”

Charade continued pointing around the map and said, “Now, look here again at Baron Anlar’s dominion. The many hills and forests there will allow you to make quite a bit of money from the lumber and building material as these resources are rather highly demanded on the market. Coupled with the port at the viscount’s territory, you no longer have to worry about not having enough funds to run or develop the dominion. If you have a large seafaring ship, you will also be able to transport these raw materials to Morante City for them to be sold there. However, you can already contact a merchant guild over there right now to establish a maritime trade route so that their ships can come over to your dominion to do business. Even after considering the commission you have to pay them, you’ll still make quite a bit from the exchange. You can also have someone forage the baron’s dominion to see if there are any other natural resources that can be exploited.

“As for Burdock Bastide, I’m sure you don’t need me to mention that. This used to be Count Cobry’s dominion and it is well-developed with a substantial population living there, so you don’t need to use too much resources on that place to profit from it. The economy of the bastide will make you enough money to sustain a garrison regiment. Your only focus would be to rebuild and develop the baron’s and the viscount’s territories. Naturally, you have to be wary of other threats during times of war like these. You can construct five citadels at these places and station each of them with a squad of garrison troops. That will be more than sufficient to ensure the safety of your combined territories.

“The key to successfully developing your land is manpower and finances. You don’t have to worry too much about manpower as I have just discussed with Lord Locke that apart from the prisoners of the laborer camp, we will have the rest of the people who are not willing to go to the Northlands with us settle down in your territory. Given that the number of people isn’t a small one, I’m sure that as long as you utilize them properly, you’ll be able to quickly make your dominion prosper. Other than that, you can also start looking for people to serve as your family knights so that the elites of the disbanded pike cavalrymen and garrison soldiers don’t leave your dominion to join other nobles,” said Charade.

Tim felt a little stunned and said, “Milord, you’re truly going to leave this place? Are you going to give up Geldos City?”

Lorist laughed and said, “Yes. While this is a great place to be, it is too far away from my family’s dominion. If I were to forcibly occupy it, I would be nothing more than those despicable bandits. The last thing I’d want is to take over a place unrightfully and become an eyesore for the local nobles, nor do I want to stay put obstinately and face the First Prince’s army one day. Even though I can still leave should that ever happen, the First Prince will definitely use this as an excuse to swallow the local nobles in the area whole and take over the whole territory by himself.”

“Milord, couldn’t you just use a marriage alliance to have a claim over this land? If the First Prince really comes over, I’m sure that we can rally the nobles to resist him with an allied army,” said Tim.

Lorist shook his head and replied, “Tim, you don’t understand. The First Prince can be considered to be one of the enemies of the Norton Family because our merchant convoy had been wiped out as a result of him ordering Count Cobry to masquerade as Redbeard for him to raise funds for his rebellion. From a certain perspective, the First Prince can be said to be the true perpetrator of the Norton Family merchant convoy’s demise whereas the count is only a means to an end. Now, we have only managed to relinquish the prince of his tool, Count Cobry, and we still hope to be able to settle the grudge with him one day. If I were to become the dominion lord of this place, I would have to kneel down and swear my allegiance to him as my senior noble, and that is far from what I want. That is why I have decided to leave Geldos City and head back to my family’s dominion.”

Charade said, “Tim, don’t worry. Even if we are going to the Northlands, we will make sure that your three dominions will be properly stabilized first so that you will be an influential noble in the lands of the Redlis Kingdom and the Norton Family would definitely be able to benefit from having a powerful ally here. As long as it concerns your dominion, we will not brush it off lightly. Just now, I have told you how to manage your manpower. Right now, let’s discuss your finances and resources. I have a suggestion that you may want to consider.”

Charade gave him four suggestions in total. First, he should set the tax rate for the produce to 70% for normal citizens and give farmland to the family members of the garrison troops for free and only collect 40% from them to encourage people to enlist without needing to spend too much money on their salary. He believed that it would easily be enough for TIm to form two garrison regiments with that plan given the amount of undeveloped or ravaged land he had at Baron Anlar and Viscount Tebri’s dominions.

Second, Charade promised that when the convoy departs for the Northlands, the supplies they wouldn’t be able to bring with them would be left at Geldos City and given to Tim for him to use to develop his dominion.

Third, Charade would be willing to sell the weapons and equipment he had at a very low profit to help lessen Tim’s financial burden of having to arm his garrison troops.

Lastly, Charade said that he could help Tim get into contact with the Peterson Merchant Guild to start a collaboration between them to develop Tim’s dominion to make up for Tim’s lack of funds.

Thankful to the point of tears with snot leaking out of his nostrils, Tim accepted every one of Charade’s suggestions and pledged that he would never forget the grace the Norton Family had bestowed upon him and that he would never refuse any request for help from the Nortons in the future.

After Tim left, Josk came and announced that he had decided to serve Lorist and become a Norton Family knight and also said that several of his friends wished to bring their families along to leave the area and head for the Northlands.

Elated at Josk’s decision to join their ranks, Charade asked him to encourage the other members of the now disbanded pike cavalry and the garrison troops as well as the liberated slave laborers to join the convoy as manpower was a crucial resource for the development of the Northlands.

Lorist furrowed his brow at that point because he felt that the more people the convoy had, the longer its journey to the Northlands would take.

Charade however was confident that as long as he formed another pikeman infantry regiment from the people of Geldos City and expand Potterfang’s heavy-armored cavalry to four companies, even if the convoy traveled slowly, their journey would no doubt be a safe one with such a huge force escorting them. After all, they did have a little too much extra equipment. And if any fool dares to bar their way, they would no doubt be decimated and their resources would only help nourish the convoy’s own supply.

Chapter 77 Conference of the Nobles

Yuriy escorted seven representatives of the allied noble armies to Geldos City with his squad of light cavalry scouts.

Respectfully and politely receiving them, Lorist and Charade invited the representatives into the duke manor to start the discussion.

However, Lorist quickly noticed that something was off as the representatives did not seem to be too happy about Count Cobry’s demise and had instead put the convoy in a bad light. They believed that the convoy had overstepped its boundaries by attacking and conquering the count’s domain and it wasn’t something the allied noble were willing to tolerate.

The representatives then demanded that the convoy leave Geldos City at once and surrender Burdock Bastide, Williamiles Castle and Geldos City as well as all the resources within to the noble alliance. One old representative who sported a long goatee even said that Lorist’s act of crucifying the count was a huge insult on the dignity of all nobles and could be considered an act of aggression towards the whole of the Redlis Kingdom’s nobles. He even said that no noble would allow for any of their own to be killed and publicly displayed on the cross like a lowly bandit.

“Who do you think you are?” said Lorist angrily as he glared at the flailing old man who was so passionate in his accusations that he spat out saliva with every word he uttered.

“I am Viscount Snaff and as a noble, I demand you, the person in charge of this merchant convoy, to give me the due respect. What authority do you have to be able to punish a person of noble birth?” responded the old man proudly.

“Very well, Viscount Snaff,” said Lorist as he stood straight up. “I will take that as an insult to the Norton Family. And that, is something I can never forgive. I hereby declare war on behalf of the Norton Family against the Snaff Family. May the stronger prevail and the weaker perish.”

“Knight Loze…”

“Milord, I’m awaiting your orders!” said Lode Wales as he stepped forward.

Looking at the map, Lorist smiled and said, “Viscount Snaff’s territory is not far from Williamiles Castle. I give you 3 days to lead your heavy-armored cavalry company and the soldiers stationed at Williamiles Castle to flatten the viscount’s dominion. Don’t let anyone in his family escape. I won’t mind completing what Count Cobry left unfinished.”

“Yes, milord. I will definitely carry out your orders without fail!” said Loze as he gave the 7 noble representatives a harsh glare before taking wide steps and leaving the room immediately. Without much delay, the loud sounds of soldiers gathering and horses galloping away from the manor could be heard from the outside, gradually fading away.

Only silence remained within the hall as the arrogant Viscount Snaff slumped to the ground with a pale expression without being able to utter a single word.

The remaining 6 representatives looked at each other with weird expressions as if they had noticed that they had neglected something important.

Finally, a white-haired old man broke the silence and asked, “Sir, may I ask if you’re a m-merchant convoy or not?”

“Hehe, I’m glad someone noticed this point. Didn’t you guys bother to find that out when you came into the manor? We are not just some merchant convoy. I am Baron Norton Lorist, the head of the Norton Family of the Northlands. This convoy is led by me on the way back to our homeland,” said Lorist.

“But sir, as a noble yourself, it’s still not appropriate for you to nail the count on the cross. I believe that Viscount Snaff was not mistaken on that part,” said the white-haired old man bravely.

“You have a point. However, I was not punishing him as a noble. The reason he was nailed on the cross is because he had disguised himself and masqueraded as the infamous bandit Redbeard and raided countless merchant convoys in the Bodolger Province years back. If you people don’t believe it, please look at this journal over here. This is the count’s personal journal during his days of raiding merchant convoys. There are a few others like this as well. Reidy, let these representatives see the rest of the entries,” said Lorist.

With stone-cold evidence presented to them, the six representatives were at a loss of words.

“May I ask if your family is the one that had been enfeoffed territory in the Northlands during the founding days of the Krissen Empire, the family of the Raging Roaring Bear? And, how has the count wronged you?” asked another representative who had a chubby body.

Lorist nodded and said, “That’s right, our family is the Raging Roaring Bear of the Northlands. I formed the convoy after receiving a letter of summons from my family to return to the dominion to inherit the position of the family head after 10 years of studying at Morante City. However, as I was passing through the area, my convoy was attacked by the forces of the count out of nowhere. Fortunately, the force I had assembled to escort the convoy was strong enough and managed to wipe the attackers out and even allowed me to catch a few prisoners alive.

“It was some of the prisoners who told me that they had been involved in serving the count during his days of raising merchant convoys as the bandit, Redbeard. If you may be so inclined, please refer to the records of the exploits of Redbeard in the Bodolger Province 7 years ago. That was the time when the merchant convoy of the Norton Family perished by the hands of the count. After all these years, my family has been searching for the bandit and we have finally found him only recently. It was precisely because of that the Norton Family declared war against the count and successfully eliminated him and his 67 illegitimate sons.”

“Sir, it is our fault for misunderstanding the situation and thinking that your convoy was just a normal merchant convoy. The ignorant commit no sin, please forgive Viscount Snaff. He will definitely be willing to make up for his rude behavior towards your family.”

“Hehe, it is not me the viscount has to apologize to, but you guys instead,” said Lorist with a laugh as he took out a few letters from the box on the table.

“Please check these letters out. After conquering Geldos City, we have discovered them within the study of Count Cobry and they actually contain intelligence reports of the allied noble armies’ military movements sent by Viscount Snaff to the count. He also mentioned in these letters that he would try his best to disrupt the unity of the various nobles in the alliance and cause as much trouble as he can. I had originally intended to give these letters to you so that you can take care of him yourself. I really didn’t expect him to hand himself up on a platter to me. He must have a death wish.”

The six nobles held the letters in their shivering hands as they read through the contents…

All of a sudden, the white-haired noble tossed the letter away and leaped towards Viscount Snaff to give him a sound pummeling and even savagely bit the viscount’s ear off, causing Viscount Snaff to scream out in agony.

The rest of the nobles quickly stopped the white-haired man from continuing his beating with much difficulty. But, that did not stop him from swallowing the ear of the viscount whole into his stomach. With blood trailing out of his mouth, he sat down and started crying out loud. “My poor son… Benny… You’re death was completely in vain!”

The chubby noble started explaining, “Baron Douglas is far too pained from the death of his son, Knight Benny, from an enemy ambush during an operation he led to ransack the count’s warehouse. Just now, the letter he read was the one the viscount sent to notify Count Cobry about the plans on that day.”

Sympathizing with Baron Douglas, Lorist said, “Having one’s most beloved sacrificed as a result of an ally’s betrayal is one of the hardest things for a person to accept. Please pass my condolences to Baron Douglas when he calms down. As for Viscount Snaff, I will hand over his territory to your alliance. Since so many unexpected developments had happened today, let’s adjourn this meeting and continue two days later.”

The chubby noble bowed to Lorist and said, “Respected Lord Norton, forgive me for asking, but, what kind of business did you intend to discuss with us?”

Lorist nodded back in response and asked, “May I know your name?”

The chubby noble patted on his belly and introduced himself. “I am Baron Henderson and my family crest is that of the razor-sharp spearhead.”

“Respectful greetings, Lord Baron. I wish to discuss with the army about the handling of the count’s dominion. Because the Norton Family convoy has to continue the journey to the north, I don’t wish to leave any loose ends for the nobles here to clear up. Also, I’ve also rescued 7 noble ladies whose families have been decimated. As a noble myself, I would definitely help another fellow noble out in times of trouble. After finishing arranging these matters, we will leave Geldos City,” said Lorist.

“Hmmm…” The baron was a little stunned as according to the customs of nobles, the victor in a fight between two noble families had the right to all the properties of the loser. Given Lorist’s status as a noble, it was only right for him to be the one to manage the properties of the count as he saw fit. Lorist’s decision to invite the representatives over for discussion was quite unlike the behavior of normal nobles. That’s why they had mistaken the convoy for being a merchant convoy and behaved so arrogantly given their higher status to the point when they thought that the raging bear flag was only an insignia of a merchant guild.

“Lord Norton, you’re saying that you’re willing to give up Geldos City and leave the area?” Even though Baron Henderson was a chubby fellow, he had quite the sharp mind and recovered from his astonishment quite quickly.

“That’s correct. My family’s dominion is in the desolate Northlands and we have never forgotten the oath our ancestor had sworn to protect the northern borders of the empire. Even though the Krissen Empire is no longer present, we still have to return to the Northlands. We only wiped out Count Cobry because of an old grudge we had with him as well as the despicable way in which he was treating the other landed nobles in the area. Now that the Cobry Family is already no more, we should discuss about what to do with the 13 territories the count had conquered as well as Williamiles Castle, Burdock Bastide and Geldos City. After all, the allied noble armies did play their part in resisting the count as well.”

To the noble representatives, Lorist’s statement was akin to having gold coins fall right out of the sky. Even Baron Douglas who was crying his eyes out before stopped and stared at Lorist with his mouth agape.

Charade came over from the side, made a knight salute, and lifted the baron up before asking for a servant to bring over a basin and a towel for him. After that he instructed the guards to lock up Viscount Snaff who was moaning in pain on the ground from having his ear bitten off.

Baron Henderson was the first one to snap out of it and he deeply bowed again before saying, “Respected Lord Baron Norton, your generosity has truly captivated us and truly outshines both the sun and the moon. I wonder if the allied noble armies can assist you with anything? Please don’t hesitate to request anything of us.”

At that moment, Baron Henderson had completely forgotten the fact that Lorist had yet to formally inherit the title and called him Lord Baron right away. He also understood that there was no free lunch in this world and offered any assistance he could give for the benefits the alliance was about to receive.

Looking at Baron Henderson with a gaze of admiration, Lorist said, “Actually, I only have a small request. First, Viscount Tebri is an ally of the Norton Family, but his family has almost been wiped out entirely due to an unfortunate turn of events. With Mister Tim as the sole person alive that inherits the viscount’s blood, and the fact that he had been a huge help to our fight against the count this time around, I have decided to acknowledge him as the formal heir of Viscount Tebri to perpetuate the Tebri Family line. I hope that the noble alliance would recognize Mister Tim’s birthright so that he has a smooth transition to nobility.”

“There will be no problem. Many of us know Mister Tim. Since he is the only one alive with the blood of the Terbris, we will naturally accept him as the heir to the late viscount’s dominion and title,” agreed Baron Henderson.

“Second, the Anlar Family, whose dominion is beside Viscount Tebri’s dominion, has also been wiped out due to the count with only the daughter of the late Baron Anlar surviving the whole ordeal. Having rescued the Lady Anlar, I have decided for her to form a marriage alliance with Mister Tim and I hope that their union will receive your blessings.”

“That is a given. We will definitely congratulate them on their marriage and send them fitting wedding gifts,” said the six representatives unanimously.

“Third, as both Baron Anlar’s and Viscount Terbi’s dominions have been ravaged as a result of the count’s attacks, I will be giving the control of Burdock Bastide to Tim and his wife so that they would have something to rely on to redevelop their dominions. I hope that the noble alliance will accept that proposition and promise to not violate this arrangement and disrupt the lives of this couple. Naturally, to make up for that, I intend to hand over Williamiles Castle and Geldos City to the noble alliance as well as the deeds for the lands lost by the 13 noble families to the count as well as the six noble ladies that were kept in captivity by the count. Oh, and the treatment of the family members of the count’s dead soldiers will also be handed to the alliance.”

Baron Henderson felt his throat run dry and found himself to be unable to utter even a word in response. He gave the rest of the representatives a glance and said, “Lord Norton, please state any other requests you have so that I will be able to relay it to the rest of the members of the noble alliance as this is no longer a matter that us seven can decide on our own. I will invite them over here to further talk about this matter, is that alright with you?”

“Of course, my final request is for our convoy to be allowed to stay at Geldos City for a while longer, about another month. Due to the scale and size of the convoy, we need to prepare for some time before we can leave and continue on our journey. I hope that you will be able to understand that. That aside, our convoy has brought along with us quite a large amount of weapons and equipment. So, if any of you wish to purchase some, we can offer them to you at a discounted price.”

……

After Baron Henderson and the rest of the representatives sent word about the issue back to the alliance, various nobles have been pouring into Geldos City nonstop to purchase weapons. Potterfang and Loze had also successfully destroyed Viscount Snaff’s territory in one fell swoop and demonstrated the military might of the convoy to the allied noble armies.

Seven days later, the noble alliance meeting finally began. On the first day, all the nobles agreed to Lorist’s requests. Lorist had also handed half of the administration rights of Williamiles Castle and Geldos City to the alliance and also returned the 13 land deeds, the six noble ladies that they have rescued, as well as the family members of the dead soldiers who had served the count, including the family members of Viscount Snaff.

Ever since that day, the nobles of the alliance kept arguing over the things that have just gained. The only thing they managed to agree on was the labeling of Viscount Snaff as a traitor and the execution of him and his family members. However, that in itself sparked yet another dispute among the nobles on how to divide the viscount’s territory.

Charade, on the other hand, spent the following days in absolute bliss. He hoped that the relations between the nobles would be as bad as possible, as the increased tension between the members of the alliance had increased the sales of the weapons, mounts as well as supplies. The current state of affairs had already spurred countless nobles to come to the convoy to make large amounts of purchases.

As of now, Lorist had 4 heavy-armored cavalry companies and 2 pike infantry regiments under his command. Even the Gold ranked mercenary, Chino Freiyar, had been persuaded by Josk to follow Lorist to the Northlands. Thus, Lorist named him the colonel of the newly-formed garrison regiment. As Charade had mentioned before, given the convoy’s military might, no normal noble family would be able to pose a threat to them. And any fool of a noble that dared to provoke them was not even worth putting into consideration.

The coming of the 2nd month signalled Lorist’s departure from the convoy to head to the Northlands accompanied only by Shadekampf, Patt, Reidy and the relentless Josk who wanted to tag along no matter what. They departed after saying their goodbyes to Charade, Potterfang, Els and the other family knights.

Chapter 78 On the Road

The clattering sound of the wheels of the four-wheeled carriages repeated on and on as the carriage traversed the muddy mountain path.

Reidy, who was driving the carriage, shouted out, “Milord, I think we should find somewhere to rest. It’s really hard to travel on this road right now. Even if we could hold on, I doubt the horses can continue for long. We also have to maintain the carriage for a bit, I think the axle might have been damaged as the carriage is getting quite difficult to control.”

Lorist got off his horse and approached the carriage before shouting out, “Please hold on for another half an hour. After passing through the Plate Mountain Pass, we will arrive at a small hill city where we can rest for two days.”

Lorist and the other four had traveled for almost seven days straight. With 12 strong and endurant Zeno Horses as well as a carriage suited for long distance travel that they had obtained back in Geldos City, the group only rested for an hour for every 20 kilometers they traveled and switched the horses that pulled the carriage between the breaks. Easily moving a distance of up to 150 kilometers in a day, they had traveled for around 1000 kilometers so far, causing the whole group to feel rather worn out.

Whoosh! Suddenly, a crude, long arrow scratched the side of the carriage and landed onto the ground nearby.

“Sol…” cursed Lorist as he got off his saddle and agilely climbed onto the carriage beside the coachman’s seat while he withdrew a javelin from the roof of the carriage and prepared to cover Reidy, who was occupied with controlling the carriage.

Was this the 16th or 17th time they had encountered bandits after they departed from Geldos City? Lorist had already lost count as they ran into two to three groups of bandits each day. At first, the bandits that had attempted to rob them looked to be extremely impoverished and famished and didn’t seem like they intended to harm Lorist and his men for its own sake, so he simply gave them light punishments before leaving some food behind. However, as the encounters got more frequent, Lorist decided to simply outrun their unmounted pursuers.

The interesting thing was that the bandits they had encountered within the Redlis Kingdom were mostly old and hungry refugees who demanded food and money and were equipped with only farming tools used as makeshift weapons. However, when Lorist and gang entered the Andinaq Kingdom, the bandit encounters grew less frequent. But those that had showed up usually were much better trained and equipped and behaved in a cruel and heartless manner. Lorist didn’t bother showing these bandits who raided for a living any mercy at all.

A few agonized cries rang out from afar as a result of Josk’s sniping. Poking his head out of the carriage, Shadekampf asked, “Young master, what’s going on?”

Lorist replied with a low voice, “Don’t poke your head out. We’ve just encountered another group of bandits. Prepare your crossbow just in case.”

With a swing of his hand, the javelin shot out like a bolt of lightning into the trees by the side of the path and pierced a bandit bowman who was aiming at the carriage squarely in the chest.

Within the trees by the side of the road, a loud angry group of voices could be heard as 30 or so bandits rushed out with various weapons in hand.

The javelins shot out one after another in response, causing ten or so bandits who were rushing at the forefront to be nailed flat to the ground within moments.

The remaining twenty plus bandits were so frightened by the sudden death of their comrades and instantly retreated. However, Lorist’s javelins had just run out at that exact moment.

“KIll him!” shouted a bearded bandit who was pointing angrily towards Lorist. Upon seeing Lorist run out of javelins, the attackers steeled their resolves and rushed over once again.

“Sol! There were 200 javelins when we left, but it all ran out within only a few days!” exclaimed Lorist as he got off the carriage. “Reidy, be as quick as possible in dispatching them so we can start traveling again within the shortest time.”

Following that, one bandit after another fell in front of Reidy with crossbow bolts stuck to their foreheads that had been fired by Shadekampf from within the carriage.

“Hey, don’t take my prey!” shouted Reidy in a dissatisfied manner towards the passenger’s compartment.

With another flash of the blade in Lorist’s hands, four bandits fell to the ground with blood spluttered out of the slits on their throats.

It was then when the bandits finally realized that they had ran head on into an iron wall. With only two exchanges, only 5 to 6 of the 20 remaining bandits were still alive. As the survivors attempted to escape, they were hunted down and slayed by Lorist and the bloodthirsty Reidy.

“Agh!” shouted a bandit who had played dead and attempted to escape into the trees only to end up shot in the back by Shadekampf. It did not take long for him to let out his last breath.

The result of this encounter ended with the bandits’ complete decimation. Shadekampf got off the carriage and started looting the bodies of the bandits while Reidy stayed by the carriage to inspect the conditions of its wheels. Lorist on the other hand was checking if any of the javelins he had thrown were still in usable condition. It was a shame that javelins were mostly one-use items that either lost their sharpness or had their handles broken after Lorist uses them, often rendering them unusable.

Patt quickly returned from further up the path on horseback and reported that the bandits had dug up a large pit ahead that the carriage was unable to pass through. GIven that Josk had shot the other four bandits to death, Patt had no choice but to return to get a shovel to fill up the pit.

“What’s wrong with the wheels?” asked Lorist as he approached Reidy.

“Milord, look. One of the bolts over here had fallen off. It’s no wonder I felt that the wheels were slightly misaligned as it was quite difficult for me to control the carriage when I was making turns. I guess I’ll make a temporary bolt out of some wood for now and get it properly repaired when we reach town at a blacksmith’s,” said Reidy as he pointed towards the hole in the wheel.

“Very well, we’ll do just that,” said Lorist as he turned back, only to see Shadekampf coming over with a couple of things in his hands.

“Young master, look. These bandits are quite well-off. Normal garrisons of common nobles won’t be able to afford mail and scale armor like these. There are three of them here with another 6 sets left on the ground back there. Each of these bandits also carried two to three imperial gold coins with them and half of their weapons are standard military issues. Young master, if we can find their stronghold, then we will definitely gain even more…” said Shadekampf excitedly.

Lorist looked at the armor Shadekampf brought over and was nothing short of impressed. It was fortunate that when Lorist was killing the bandits, he primarily relied on slitting their throats, so the armor sets were mostly undamaged.

Seeing Shadekampf carry the armor sets into the carriage, Lorist cleared his throat before asking,”Um, Shadekampf, we need to rush to the dominion as fast and possible and have to travel light. Are you sure you want to bring these back?”

Shadekampf said in a troubled manner, “Young master, our family lacks decent sets of armor like these. In the Northlands, people mostly rely on leather armor instead of metal armor. I’m sure a mere few sets wouldn’t set us back that much.”

Sigh, fine. If you really want to bring it back, then go ahead. Lorist didn’t say anything else as he felt that after Shadekampf spent more than a month by Charade’s side, he had adopted most of the greedy and stingy habits Charade had. Even though the Northlands lacked metal armor, Shadekampf didn’t consider that it would no longer be the case by the time the convoy made its way there. Though, he couldn’t be bothered to lecture Shadekampf on that as worrying for the family’s future was a commendable behavior.

The rest of their journey was rather uneventful. After half an hour, the walls of Fenyata Town that was stacked up from stones was within their sights.

The guards by the gates of Fenyata Town looked towards Lorist’s group of 5 men, 12 horses and a carriage with curious eyes as it was quite uncommon for a party that small to be traveling long distances. However, right after Lorist showed the badge of the Norton Family to the guards, they stopped worrying instantly and even let them into the town without collecting any fees.

Lorist then asked the guards where the smithy was in Fenyata Town before tipping them with one imperial old head gold coin each, causing them to thank him reverently.

Fenyata Town was a rather small place that housed only five to six hundred households with a population of around 2000 people. A long street split the small town into two from the middle. On one side, the neat-looking multi-storey buildings that were constructed out of stone could be seen with shopfronts mostly occupying their lower floors. On another, residences constructed from both wood and stone could be spotted, but the lack of organizational planning made that part of town look like the slums.

Lorist’s group stopped at an inn called the Wine and Weary Birds and reserved three rooms on the third floor. After having a decent meal, Reidy brought the carriage to go look for a blacksmith whereas Patt went to the stable of the inn to instruct the horse caretakers on how to manage the 12 Zeno Horses they had brought. Shadekampf moved the nine sets of armor to the room he and Patt shared and even got some sand, cloth and butter in preparation for polishing the armor. Lorist and Josk on the other hand returned to their respective rooms after instructing the servants of the inn to prepare some warm bathwater, after which they took their baths and went into deep sleep.

On the second day, Lorist didn’t feel like he wanted to get out of bed and told Patt to instruct the food server to leave his breakfast on the table before returning to sleep. Shortly after that however, the town bell started ringing incessantly.

“Sol, what the hell is wrong? It’s not even the new year’s festival yet…” mumbled Lorist as he tucked his head under his pillow in an attempt to drown out the sound of the bell.

“MIlord, I think this is an alarm bell…” said Patt.

Quickly feeling more energized already, Lorist got off the bed and went to look out the window, only to see the townsfolk panicking and running around frantically on the streets with looks of terror on their faces.

“Oh, it really is the alarm bell. The last I heard, there wasn’t any wars going on in the Andinaq Kingdom. What’s really happening here?” Lorist muttered as he got dressed.

Giving the map a glance, he saw that Fenyata Town was still 250 kilometers from the Madras Duchy. Don’t tell me the Madras Duchy has declared war against the Andinaq Kingdom and the conflict had spread over here? That doesn’t sound plausible… The Madras Duchy is more than capable of protecting itself, but attacking others is another matter altogether. Even though it was considered part of the Iblia Kingdom in name, the Duke of Madras had never paid the Second Prince much heed. Perhaps he’s already unable to bear the political pressure and started sending his troops to fight the Third Prince’s Andinaq Kingdom?

The more Lorist looked at the map when he was eating, the more confused he got with his theories. Subsequently, knocks could be heard on the door of the room. Looking at Patt, Lorist gestured for him to go open the door.

Reidy came in and said, “Milord, the garrison captain of Fenyata Town wishes to meet you.”

“Oh,” said Lorist as he placed the map down and said after giving some thought, “Please let him in.”

Well, might as well ask him about the alarm while he’s here.

The captain of the Fenyata Town Garrison was a grim-looking, middle-aged man who looked to be in his forties. The way his hands fidgeted around as if he didn’t know where to place them while he stood in front of Lorist only served to show his anxiety. Even though Lorist asked him to take a seat, he said that there wasn’t a need and that he was perfectly fine with standing.

Alright, keep standing if you like it so much, Lorist thought. He had never liked to force others to do what they were not uncomfortable with. After leisurely taking a gulp of tea, he asked the captain what business he had for him to request a personal meeting. The middle-aged captain stammered, “Milord, may I ask if you used the Plate Mountain Pass to arrive at our town?”

“That’s right,” said Lorist as he nodded.

“Then, were you the ones who met with a group of bandits and killed them all?”

“We were. What’s wrong?” Lorist asked. He felt a little wary that the captain asked such a question as killing bandits wasn’t something that uncommon.

“Milord, misfortune has really descended upon us. Just this morning, the bandits have barred the town gates and said that if we don’t hand you over by noon, he would massacre all the people in the town…” said the captain with a pained expression.

“Bandits? You’re saying that the alarm bell just now was sounded because of a bandit attack?” asked Lorist.

The garrison captain merely nodded.

“Then tell me what sort of bandit actually dares to be that audacious to even dare to threaten to kill all the residents of Fenyata Town. Doesn’t the local lord care about the situation?” asked Lorist curiously.

“Milord, it’s not that the local dominion lord doesn’t care, but he just isn’t able to. He’s tried to take action against the bandits twice, but it only ended with his loss on both occasions with heavy casualties on his side. The lord even got injured himself during the second attempt. That’s why the bandits dare to be so arrogant. For the past few years, the area has been affected by the ravages of war and many deserters, vagabonds as well as bandit groups gathered over time at the mountain forests about 50 kilometers from the pass. Around three years ago, a Gold Swordsman who called himself the Wolf of Plate Mountain brought a group of people and started ruling over the bandits and set up a stronghold within the Blackrock Mountains nearby to collect toll and rob the people who pass through that pass.”

“Oh, so the head of the bandits is a Gold ranked swordsman… This is interesting. It’s the first time I’ve heard of a person who’s capable of reaching the Gold rank becoming a bandit,” said Lorist as he laughed.

The garrison captain started to seem even more anxious as he said, “Milord, I truly am speaking the truth. The local lord has lost 3 Silver ranked knights to him. You can easily verify this by asking around, almost everyone knows about this. The Wolf of the Plate Mountains is cruel and lustful. Three villages near the mountain pass have already been wiped out as a result of his whims. That’s why our dominion lord decided to act against him in the first place but has failed in both attempts.”

Looking at the middle-aged man, Lorist asked, “Since the bandits have blocked off the entrance of the gates, then what is your intention as a garrison captain to come see me? Are you going to hand me over so that they don’t start massacring the townsfolk?”

“N-no, milord, it never even occurred to me to send you out…” said the middle-aged captain with a panicked look on his face. “Milord, the reason I’ve come to inform you about this is so that you can make preparations to escape. This town only has one garrison squad and we don’t even number 80 people. Of all the soldiers in the garrison, only I, the captain, has reached the Silver rank. On the other hand, the bandits have at least 500 members. Apart from the Wolf of Plate Mountain who’s a Gold rank, they also have up to 70 Silver ranked experts. The disparity in our strength is far too much and we won’t be able to hold them back for long. I only hope that you will take the opportunity to leave the town sooner and notify the authorities of the kingdom so that they will send some soldiers over to wipe the bandits out. This way, I’ll be able to rest well even if I perish in the midst of battle.”

“That’s not right, if the bandits are so much more powerful than the town garrison, then why haven’t they attacked the town long before and only decided to take action after we killed some of their own?” asked Lorist coldly with a solemn look on his face.

“Oh, milord, to be honest with you, our dominion lord has come to a compromise with the bandits,” said the captain embarrassedly. “After the two attempts at erasing the bandits ended up in failure, the lord was worried that they would come over to occupy the town right away and cause his reputation to fall to the point where his title would be revoked. That’s why he had a large merchant guild show up to sign an agreement with the bandits stating that in exchange for Fenyata Town to be open to bandits for them to purchase supplies and use the facilities in the town, the bandits would sell the items they pillaged to the merchant guild. And as long as the merchant guild pays the toll, they would not be touched by the bandits. As for other people who use the Plate Mountain Pass, even though it was unfortunate that they would be robbed, the dominion lord would turn a blind eye to those matters. And as long as the bandits don’t carry any weapons into the town, they would be allowed entrance to feast and have fun here. If they don’t cause any trouble, the garrison troops would close one eye towards their presence…

“The main reason the bandits are blocking the town gates is due to one of the bandits you have killed yesterday being the younger brother of the Wolf of Plate Mountain. That’s why he’s completely lost it and came to attack the city despite the agreement with the lord and the merchant guild. Milord, I’m sure that when the bandits attack, they’ll start pillaging anything they can find and chaos a lot of chaos. That’s when you can take your chance to escape.”

“Hehe, it’s only a group of 400 to 500 bandits with a Gold ranked fighter as the leader. I believe it’s a good opportunity to broaden my horizons,” said Lorist as he picked up his longsword by the table. He then looked towards Reidy and Patt and said, “Let’s go meet these bandits for a bit. Reidy, have Joe bring a few extra quivers of arrows. It’s best if we don’t let a single bandit escape today.”

Chapter 79 A Withered Tree Crumbles Easily

When Lorist picked up his sword and said that he would go confront the bandits, the gloomy garrison captain brightened up for a moment, but started worrying right away after that. He believed that even though it was quite impressive that Lorist would exit the town to prevent the massacre of the townsfolk, he felt that the young noble youth didn’t understand how serious of a situation this was and the few people in his party was far from enough to take on the bandits who numbered approximately 500.

Not wanting to see Lorist give his life away, he really wanted to stop him from going out. However, thinking of the threat the bandits posed, he couldn’t bring himself to do so on the account of the citizens’ lives, lest Lorist changed his mind about confronting the bandits. It was, after all, the lives of more than 2000 people.

Seeing the garrison captain’s conflicted state of mind, he smiled and consoled him that it wasn’t a big deal, and since this incident was partly caused by him in the first place, and given his status as a noble, he wasn’t going to back out of this and cause the innocent townsfolk of Fenyata Town to die as a result of his actions.

After a while, Lorist walked over to the town walls with the garrison captain and took a look outside. Much to Lorist’s relief, clusters of disorganized bandits could be spotted loitering all over the place wearing armor or beastskin robes. There were even some who wore women’s skirts on their shoulders as if they were some kind of cape.

Perhaps due to the fact that there was still some amount of time before the deadline, the messy-haired, savage bandits were still acting relaxed as if they were on a field trip. With three to five of them gathered around different bonfires, some boiled water to make drinks with others could be spotted roasting some food. Some bandits could even be seen lazily staring at the mountains and chatting, occasionally letting out loud bursts of laughter. A few of the more bored bandits even approached the town walls and started cursing while making funny faces towards the town guards, threatening to break into the town once they received their orders.

……

“What a bunch of rowdy fools…” said Lorist as he sighed. He really wondered how the dominion lord couldn’t even handle a useless bunch like this after two attempts, causing him to overestimate the bandits for a moment, thinking that they probably knew an army formation or two that would give him quite a bit of trouble. Their unprepared and lax manner was really a pleasant surprise for Lorist.

“Where’s the Wolf of Plate Mountain that you’ve mentioned? What does he look like?” asked Lorist.

“Milord, look at the group in the middle that has the most people where a goat can be seen being roasted on a bonfire. The one with a bearded, scarred face wearing a silver mail with a blue gown is the Wolf of Plate Mountain. The tens of people by his side are the vice leaders of the bandit group and most of them are at least of the Silver rank,” said the garrison captain as he pointed them out to Lorist.

“Reidy, prepare the mounts. Joe, follow behind me later and clear a path for me with your arrows to the bonfire in the middle; we’re gonna go for the beast’s head first. As long as we can wipe out the Wolf of Plate Mountain and his vice leaders, the remaining bandits will definitely crumble and cease to be a threat. Patt, lead Reidy and Shadekampf to circle the surroundings of the bandit group and take out as many as you can with your crossbows. When we wipe out the leaders, shout out loudly that you will spare anyone who ceases to resist and kill anyone who dares to bar our way!” said Lorist.

The garrison captain almost fainted upon hearing that. There are up to 500 bandits outside! WIth only five people, you actually plan to take out their leaders and even have the audacity to ask the bandits to surrender? Aren’t you overestimating yourselves? They’re bandits, not sitting ducks…

As the captain was pondering on whether he should give Lorist another warning to discourage him from acting, Lorist turned towards him and asked if he had any javelins that he could use.

Thinking that he probably had some lying around, the garrison captain hastily left and returned with 20 or so of them, all packed up in a sack and given to Lorist. During that time, Lorist and the rest had already finished their preparations and were already on their horses waiting for the town gates to be opened.

Fenyata Town didn’t have a moat around the walls nor did it require a drawbridge to cross; the gates of the town opened directly to an open field. Spurring his horse along, Lorist rode straight towards the bandit group with a pike placed on his saddle.

Josk followed slightly behind Lorist and started shooting his arrows from horseback successively, taking out the two bandits who blocked Lorist’s path and sending them flying. Within moments, a bloody path lined with corpses seemed to have been paved with Lorist at its forefront heading for the center bonfire.

With the bandit leaders being more than 300 meters from the town gates, they only spotted Lorist and Josk after they had traveled half that distance with thirty to forty bandits dead in their wake from the flurry of arrows. Suddenly startled to alertness, they stood up in preparation for the two incoming attackers.

The scar-faced Wolf of Plate Mountain shouted out in rage as he pointed towards Lorist and Josk, “Onward, my men! Turn these good for nothing twerps into mincemeat right away!”

Apart from a few idiotic bandit leaders who rushed forward with their weapons, the others quickly scrambled for their shields. The threat that Josk and his bow posed to them was very real.

As expected, the few bandit leaders who attacked without a thought had been spotted by Josk. With a flash in his eyes, the green longbow in Josk’s hands let out successive thunderous twangs as five green-colored arrow trails appeared in the air with breakneck speeds. The five bandits merely stopped in their tracks and collapsed to the ground in orderly unison.

“Gold ranked…” mumbled the Wolf of Plate Mountain as he quickly drew his sword and awaited his adversaries.

Lorist had already reached within 50 meters of the bonfire with two waves of bandits blocking his way ahead. After he spurred his horse with his boots, his mount let out a loud neigh and rushed forward as if its life depended on it. The pike in Lorist’s hands transformed into hundreds of afterimages that surrounded the space around his mount. By the time Lorist rode past the cluster of bandits, 30 or so of them spun around, revealing the numerous blood-spurting cuts and wounds on their throats and torso and fell to their deaths without being able to let out so much as a cry of pain.

Four other bandit leaders ran towards Lorist with their swords in hand that emanated Silver blade glows. Two shield-bearing bandits thrusted their swords towards his mount while protecting their bodies with the other two standing ready in front of him. One of them raised his two-handed sword and jumped upwards with a loud roar while the other leaping over the horse with the tip of his longsword aimed towards Lorist’s chest…

Making a light humph, Lorist let the pike in his hands dance left and right and two gut-wrenching sounds of flesh being pierced resounded. The two shield-bearing bandits had their shields pierced right through by Lorist’s pike and were crying out in agony as blood gushed out of their bodies. Subsequently, the pike was lifted to meet the two-handed sword, causing it to be parried upward and creating an opening for the pike to find its way to the sword user’s body. The bandit who was turned into a kebab and held high in the air grunted and let out his last breath as his eyes turned cloudy.

Lorist then swung the pike down forcefully, causing the body of the dead bandit that was hanging from the tip to be thrown towards the bandit with the longsword. Surprised, the incoming bandit rapidly changed his trajectory only to find the pike digging itself into his throat like a agile python hunting for its prey…

Within such a short time, Lorist had dispatched four bandit leaders before he made his way in front of the Wolf of Plate Mountain.

“How dare you!” screamed the bearded man who had just witnessed four of his own subordinates killed by Lorist. Seething with rage, his hand trembled and three crescent-shaped blades of golden light were unleashed in Lorist’s direction.

Without bothering to respond, Lorist waved his pike lightly and knocked away the blades of light and quickly dashed and thrust his pike towards the chest of the Wolf of Plate Mountain. With a smile on his scarred face, the man said with a sly smile, “Just in time…”

Turning his body slightly, he evaded the incoming pike before manifesting a golden blade of light on his sword and swinging it towards the pike’s handle. “Little boy… Do you have a death wish?”

Lorist quickly withdrew his pike but it was too late as it had already been cut into two by the bandit leader’s sword. The Wolf of Plate Mountain let out a smile and said, “Kiddo, surrender and… What’s this?”

The Wolf of Plate mountain was shocked to notice that Lorist was already so close to him and with a sword flash, his head was sent flying through the air. Lorist had taken the opportunity to ride closer to the bandit whose attention had been focused onto the pike and decapitated him with his sword.

“You talk too much…” Lorist finally said.

The surrounding bandits who saw Lorist sweep past and eliminate the five bandit leaders including the Wolf of Plate Mountain within moments all stared wide-eyed in disbelief and stupor.

The sound of the bowstring rang out again followed by the deathly grunts of the three shocked bandits as they fell while clutching the parts where they were hit. The remaining seven to eight bandits snapped out from their astonishment and turned tail to escape.

It was at that moment when Lorist took out the javelin quiver he slung onto the horse’s back and tossed them out like spears of lightning, nailing six of the escaping bandits flat to the ground. One of them managed to get onto a horse only to be shot off it by Josk within moments. The last remaining one was a bearded bandit who threw his longsword away and kneeled down to beg for mercy upon seeing Lorist arrive in front of him.

Sigh, we have another Engelich over here… With a swing of his hand, the javelin flew right above the head of the kneeling bandit and nailed another one not far away to the ground who was rushing over and waving his axe just in a raging frenzy. The kneeling bandit breathed out in relief and thought that it was fortunate that he took the chance to prostrate himself before his indomitable foe.

Lorist stopped his horse in front of the kneeling bandit and said coldly, “Get up and quickly get your other comrades to drop their weapons and kneel down to surrender! Otherwise, they will not be spared!”

A seething killing intent could be felt emanating from Lorist at that moment, causing the kneeling bandit to jump in fear and shout towards his comrades. “Drop your weapons! Quick, everyone kneel!”

Another bandit asked curiously, “Brother Oss, why do we have to drop our weapons?”

The bearded bandit walked up to his subordinate and gave him a heavy slap before taking the pike from his hands and throwing it to the ground before he said, “Quick, kneel and drop your weapons! I’m trying to save your sorry lives…”

Another wave of bandits rushed up from behind with the leader screaming out loud, “Ovidis, what the hell are you doing? Have you turned traitor and surrendered to the enemy? My brothers, don’t listen to him! Otherwise the boss will never forgive you all… Ah!”

The leader of the group stopped talking and instead made an ear-piercing grunt after being nailed to the ground by Lorist’s javelin. Lorist then rushed into the rowdy group with his longsword ready and within but two bouts, almost all of the bandits had been killed with only five to six who were quick to drop their weapons and surrender.

The bearded man said towards the kneeling men, “Didn’t I tell you? He truly is a god of slaughter to have killed more than 30 men out of the 40 plus that rushed at him. The boss didn’t even last a few bouts against him before dying by his hand. Had I not asked you guys to discard your weapons, you would’ve ended up like them…”

Lorist rode up to that bearded man and said, “Hey you, take up your weapon and ask someone to collect the head of the Wolf of Plate Mountain and parade it around. Make sure you tell them that anyone who doesn’t surrender will be killed without exception.”

Having been frightened out of his wits by Lorist, the bearded man nodded respectfully and said, “Yes milord. Your will is my command.”

……

Even though Lorist and Josk started killing off multitudes of bandits incredibly swiftly, the ones that were gathered further away from the central bonfire were unaware of the sorry situation of their comrades and gathered towards where the commotion was being caused. When the bearded bandit put the head of the Wolf of Plate Mountain atop a pike and held it up high to warn the rest of the bandits and ask them to surrender, many of them thought that the boss’s death was caused by infighting within the bandit group and even said swayed some of their comrades to avenge their boss.

These blind fools soon became corpses beneath the hooves of Lorist’s horse with the remaining ones who managed to escape Lorist’s massacre shot to death by Josk. It did not take long until the rest of the bandits were put into perspective, causing almost half of them to discard their weapons and kneel on the ground with a small minority scattering and running away in all directions.

Coming over from afar, Patt, having just broken through to the Silver rank recently, rode on top of his Zeno Horse into the crowd of bandits holding a pike that emanated a silver blade glow and managed to cut the few escaping ones into two halves. Reidy and Shadekampf who were following behind took care of the rest with their crossbows. In the end, only twenty to thirty of them managed to escape into the woods.

At that moment, the gates of Fenyata Town opened up with the garrison captain bringing tens of other garrison soldiers outside to assist in finishing the remaining bandits off after seeing the situation that was far less dangerous than before.

With almost 300 bandits kneeling without making a move on the ground, the bearded bandit leader walked towards Lorist to express his felicitations and asked if he should tie the surrendered bandits up and confiscate their weapons.

Lorist agreed because he felt that it would save him far more trouble should any of the bandits attempt to escape. Upon hearing the response, the bearded bandit called out to ten people from within the crowd to ask them to help out with tying the rest of the bandits up.

Lorist felt that the bearded bandit leader was a pretty interesting fellow and even considered him to be one of his loyal subordinates already. That man also tied up the other bandits in a peculiar way: He first removed the bandits’ belts and used them to tie their hands behind their backs so that their pants would fall off should they attempt to run away.

However, some of the bandits were enraged at the bearded man and attempted to resist him, only to be beaten savagely by his subordinates to the point of calling out in vain to their moms. Lorist and Josk felt something was off and asked one of the bandits about it. “What’s going on over there? Aren’t you a unified group?”

The bandit nervously replied that the men over there weren’t his comrades and gave a more comprehensive explanation. Lorist and Josk then understood that while the bandits considered the Wolf of Plate Mountain as their leader, there were actually different factions beneath him. The bearded bandit was called Ovidis and he was the leader of thirty other men. Not wanting to serve the Second Prince during the civil war in the empire, Ovidis led some of his other fellow soldiers to desert the army and secretly made his way to his homeland nearby.

However, he did not get to live in peace for long as the Wolf of Plate Mountain later showed up in the area after a few years and coerced him into serving him through martial prowess and force. Even though several other bandit groups have been united under his leadership, conflicts still existed between the different factions within. Given that the people Ovidis had selected to help him tie up the rest were part of his faction, the bandits from the other factions were naturally not satisfied and even tried to fight back at the risk of their lives.

Patt and the rest brought the tens of other bandits who attempted to escape back and Ovidis quickly had his subordinates tie them up as well. After finishing his tasks, Ovidis asked Lorist if he would like him to lead them to the stronghold of the bandits and mentioned that there was no one else there apart from the elderly, women and children. He also said that the riches the Wolf of Plate Mountain had acquired over the years were accumulated there and that if Lorist didn’t take advantage of that, it would only benefit somebody else.

Giving Josk a glance, to which he nodded in response, Lorist said, “Alright then, I’ll be troubling you to check that place out for me, Joe. Um, big beard, bring several other men with you as well. Patt, you can tag along if you want to.”

Ovidis brought three others with him and instructed the rest of his subordinates to listen to Lorist’s orders during his absence before he mounted and went to look for Josk, Patt and Shadekampf before departing for the stronghold. Lorist then ordered Reidy and Ovidis’s subordinates to look after the captives while he went over to where the garrison troops of Fenyata Town was.

Chapter 80 Forming yet Another Convoy

Lorist just noticed that a new problem had arisen; he had up to 300 captives from the defeated bandit group. Even though they participated in the barring of the town gates, they haven’t actually killed any townsfolk yet nor did they clash with the town garrison’s soldiers as their forces had been crumbled thoroughly by Lorist’s group. All the leaders were killed except for Ovidis, who had surrendered to him and became one of his loyal subordinates before he left for the bandit stronghold with Josk and the others.

That all resulted in the 300 or so surrendered bandit captives becoming Lorist’s personal property. That meant that before he could decide what he wanted to do with them, he would have to be responsible for their food and shelter.

The garrison captain who was despairing just moments before was now full of smiles, causing Lorist to grimace in disgust. He circled around Lorist and made sure he had everything he needed as if he owed him hundreds of gold coins.

Currently, Lorist was seated on a sofa that the garrison captain had brought over and was drinking a cup of fragrant tea that he had been served. Beside him, the garrison captain was rinsing a cloth with warm water for Lorist to use to wipe the grime and sweat off his face…

Had that all happened on the veranda of the inn they were staying in, Lorist would no doubt feel incredibly pleasant with the hospitality and care he had been shown. However, in front of him at that moment sat the 300 captive bandits, causing him to feel more like a circus freak instead from the bandits’ awkward stares.

“Are you sure you can’t take the bandits into your hands?” asked Lorist once again.

“That’s a given, milord. These are your captives and they’re your property. I wouldn’t dare to have any designs for a noble’s property…” exclaimed the garrison captain solemnly.

Lorist waved his hand in frustration and continued, “Then what the heck do I do with them? If you don’t take them captive, would I have to spend my money to feed them? Wouldn’t it be better for me to simply release them?”

“Milord, whether you release them or not is up to you. However, I must remind you that these are bandits. If you release them, they’ll only be of harm to the people. I’m sure your reputation would be impacted if word of this got out…” said the garrison captain with a feigned expression of concern for Lorist.

“Sol, if I had known that earlier, I would’ve killed them all instead of having them cause trouble for me while alive…” Lorist complained.

The garrison captain was merely taking a gamble. He knew that the noble youth before him was not a person to mess with. However, he did not doubt that Lorist would really have killed the bandits if he knew that it was going to end up like this after seeing Lorist’s group wipe out the 500-strong bandit group, especially that Gold ranked Wolf of Plate Mountain that had caused the local dominion lord huge losses for two separate instances along with the several Silver ranked bandit leaders.

Including him, the whole of the garrison soldiers respected Lorist like he was some sort of war god. The demise of the Plate Mountain Bandits within a single morning was nothing short of a pipe dream for them before Lorist’s arrival.

The garrison captain walked up to him and said, “Milord, you don’t have to be in such a rush. I’ve already informed the local lord on the matter when the town gates were first surrounded. I’m sure that the lord would arrive at this town within two days. At that time, you can hand the bandits to him and I’m sure he would provide you with some remuneration for your contributions here. To me, the bandit captives are actually sacks of gold coins.”

“I don’t lack any gold now. I just don’t want any more trouble. Tell me, where would I keep these captives? Maybe you could lend me your garrison camp for that purpose at least?”

“Oh, that won’t do, milord. The garrison camp is actually really small and it definitely wouldn’t be able to hold that many people. If a small incident breaks out, chaos would definitely ensue. I think the best option we have now is to set up a separate camp,” explained the garrison captain.

While setting up another prisoner camp would be a comparatively better idea, it did cost quite a substantial amount of money. Aside from the materials required to set up camp, a management fee had to be paid to the local lord for the consumables they needed to sustain the prisoners like firewood and clean water. This was another person’s dominion after all; even the smallest rock was the property of the local lord and it definitely couldn’t be used without an appropriate fee payment or remuneration. Even though that wouldn’t cost him much, Lorist hated to deal with the paperwork that usually followed.

“Sol…” mumbled Lorist as he stood up and took a pouch of coins out of his pockets and handed it to the garrison captain. “I’ve never heard of a person having to feed the bandits he captured after defeating them… Whatever, I don’t care anymore. I’ll be going back to take a rest. Here’s 20-odd gold coins that should be enough to cover whatever is needed for the camp. If there’s any left over after all that, split it among your men as bonus for looking after the prisoners.”

The garrison captain bowed respectfully and said, “Milord, please be assured that I will handle this properly.”

“Reidy…” Lorist called out. “I’ll leave this place to you, so be careful. Also, don’t forget to clean up the weapons on the ground as well as the Wolf of Plate Mountain’s head which we will need to claim the bounty.”

“Yes, milord,” said Reidy casually.

“Freaking hell… If only I can kill a couple of them to cut my costs…” mumbled Lorist.

…….

After returning to Wine and Weary Birds, Lorist ordered a large feast that included a bottle of the famous local wine. Even though the skirmish in the morning didn’t take long, he felt very worn out after that especially having to care for his mount after riding it around all day. Lorist slept for the whole night soundly after finishing his meal.

He woke up the next morning feeling refreshed and free of the fatigue from seven days of travel and the battle the day before. Halfway finishing breakfast in his room, he suddenly recalled that Shadekampf came by in the middle of the night to inform him of something, but he went straight back to sleep after telling Shadekampf to do whatever he saw fit.

And so he headed to the room shared by Shadekampf and Patt, but those two were not there. After going to check on Reidy’s and Josk’s rooms, he noticed that Reidy wasn’t not present as well with Josk sound asleep in his own room.

Lorist understood that Josk was probably worn out like him after the battle and closed the door carefully without bothering him. He then decided to go check on the situation of the bandit captives.

The moment he exited the city gates, he saw the full-bearded Ovidis leading 100-odd fully-equipped men doing military drills…

Huh? What the heck is going on?

Looking at the surroundings, he noticed tens of other garrison soldiers observing the training.

Upon noticing Lorist’s arrival, Ovidis hastily ordered his men to stand at rest and quickly ran over to Lorist and bowed respectfully. “Milord, the guard squad is currently undergoing training. Please give us your orders!”

Since when did we have a guard squad? Why don’t I know about this? Without revealing his inner thoughts, Lorist pointed at the hundreds of men looking in his direction and asked, “Where did you rally the people from?”

Ovidis puffed out his chest and replied loudly, “Reporting to milord, 38 of those men are my own subordinates. When we went to the stronghold yesterday to plunder the goods, Shadekampf also managed to get thirty other people to join us. After we returned, Patt suggested that we form a guard squad with the people that had joined us so that milord will look far more impressive upon your return to your homeland escorted by one. That’s why he picked another 30 men from the bandit captives to fill up the numbers required for a full squad and appointed me to be the captain of these men. I believe Shadekampf had already notified you about this the night before.”

“Yes…” said Lorist as he nodded. What the hell did Shadekampf say to me when I was half-asleep? Pointing towards the equipment Ovidis was wearing, Lorist asked, “Are the men loyal and reliable? Also, I know a Silver ranked like you won’t have problems with wearing mail underneath a layer of scale armor, but will your men be able to endure the burden?”

“Milord, there is no such problem. I know these men really well: they had been forced into banditry to survive the harsh days after the war and didn’t do much evil across the years. I’m sure they’re more than happy to cast away their status as bandits to be in your service, especially after you’ve shown them your true abilities on the battlefield yesterday. I guarantee that they will definitely be loyal to you at all times. As for the equipment, those have been issued on the orders of Shadekampf. Given that the men have all awakened their Battle Force, two sets of armor isn’t too much of a burden. Patt also said that the better armored they are, the less likely they are to die, thus being able to better protect you, milord.”

“Sol, you people should worry about yourselves first. I don’t need your protection…” humphed Lorist in a dissatisfied tone.

“Where is Shadekampf right now?” Lorist asked.

“Milord, Shadekampf has left with Reidy to town to do some shopping. Patt is within the army camp,” replied Ovidis.

It was at that moment when Lorist discovered that the camp in front of him was separated into two sections, one large and one small. The large section was where the captives were kept and it was secured by the garrison troops while the smaller camp was where the guard squad stayed.

“Alright, since you’re willing to serve me, I consider you as one of us now. So, don’t be so polite all the time. Tell me, why are there women and children within the camp?” Lorist asked.

“This… MIlord, the ones within the army camp are the family members of some of the soldiers in the guard squad. The ones who are within the large camp are the family members of the captives. Sir Josk acted really benevolent yesterday as he allowed the family members to reunite with the captives the moment we returned to town. The family members of the killed bandits and the several wives of the Wolf of Plate Mountain are also staying there. Some of them are really beautiful, if you’re interested, I can have my subordinates escort them over here to serve you…” said Ovidis with a serious look.

Whap! Lorist gave Ovidis a strike with his horse whip and said, “Mind your own business! I don’t need you to look out for me on that front!”

“Yes, milord!”

……

Riding his horse into the army camp, Lorist saw Patt bringing an old man respectfully out of the tent.

Seeing Lorist come over, Patt hurriedly introduced the man to Lorist, “Grandmaster Sid, this is Lord Locke that I have mentioned to you…”

The old man did not even turn to look and passed by Lorist with his head held high.

Getting off his horse, Lorist looked at the man who had walked far away and asked Patt, “Who’s that old guy? He’s so rude.”

Patt shrugged and said, “It can’t be helped, he’s a grandmaster after all. It’s only natural for him to be pissed for being brought here against his will…”

“What kind of grandmaster is he? Did you have to bring him here by force?” Lorist asked curiously. Did Patt and the others go too far when they brought the bandits over?

“Milord, that old guy truly is a gem! He’s a grandmaster armorer. The 100 plus armor sets we managed to retrieve from the defeated bandits were actually made by him over the past three years! He’s also well-versed with looking for metal ore veins. The iron mine near the bandit stronghold is said to have been found by that old guy. He uses the materials gathered there primarily for making weapons and armor for the bandits.”

“That’s why you forced him to come with you?:”

“Ugh… About that… Shadekampf said that the family would desperately need someone like Grandmaster Sid, so we brought him and 10 others within his family all the way here,” said Patt in an embarrassed fashion.

“Oh well, there’s no point thinking too much about it now that he’s here. After all, he can be considered to be part of our spoils since he was serving the bandits and is subject to whatever we have in mind for him. On another note, what did Shadekampf go to buy with Reidy?”

“Milord, we need to transport the resources we’ve obtained from the stronghold back to the dominion. Along with the new guard squad and their family members as well as Grandmaster Sid’s family, we will need several other long-distance horse carriages and more horses. That’s why Shadekampf went to town to search for some more,” Patt replied.

Gosh… It’s another convoy all over again…

Lorist looked at Patt with an exasperated look and said, “Patt, we have to rush back to the dominion as quickly as possible. What you’re doing down isn’t quite suited to that as the arrangements that are required might end up delaying us.”

“That’s not the case, milord. I’ve already discussed this with Shadekampf. During the past 7 days, we managed to travel up to 1000 kilometers and there’s only around 1000 plus kilometers left before we reach the Northlands. However, we have more than 20 days of time before the inheritance ceremony. If we manage this carefully, and travel 75 kilometers per day, we will definitely be able to arrive at the dominion before the 3rd month. Due to leaving the convoy in a rush the last time, we didn’t bring enough supplies with us to be transported to the dominion. Now that we have gained so much from the bandit stronghold, we might as well bring it back to there to fulfill the family’s desperate need for them!” Patt beckoned.

“But aren’t we bringing back lots of gold coins?” asked Lorist.

Patt gave a bitter laugh and said, “Milord, you’ll soon come to learn that in the Northlands, even if you have money, you might not be able to get what you want due to stock availability. Even if there was stock, the price would easily be double that of the market’s, and that could already be considered cheap in the Northlands. In normal circumstances, you should already be thankful for being able to purchase an item you want for three times the market value.”

“Oh well, do whatever you want,” said Lorist. From Patt’s description of the situation, he now knew the severity of the lack of resources that plagued the Northlands and his family’s urgent need for them. He really wondered if Charade would be disappointed to return to a dominion that was in that state…

Lorist decided to leave those matters to Shadekampf and Patt since they were so enthusiastic about it. When lunchtime came, he recalled the wine he had at the inn yesterday that tasted pretty good when coupled with the roasted goat and decided to go back to there to check on Josk before having his meal.

However, Josk was still fast asleep, so Lorist could only enjoy the meal by himself.

Just as he was tasting the wine, a feminine young woman clad in a waistcoat worn over a tight-fitting black gown came over to his table and made a lady’s curtsy before she said, “Milord, may I have some of your time?”

Lorist nodded in response to the greeting and pulled over a chair for her to sit. “Excuse me, young lady, how may I help you?”

“I’m really sorry for interrupting your meal like this. I heard that you have been looking for carriages to transport things to the Northlands. Can I request to come along on the journey? We would like to go there as well, however we haven’t been able to find a suitable person to travel with and were left stranded here. I wonder if you, milord, can grant me this small little boon?” The young woman’s voice carried a hint of magnetic charm that made one feel pleasant upon hearing it.

“Oh, you’re heading to the Northlands as well? That place is rather large, you know. Which part of it is your destination? I wonder we would pass through the area on the way,” Lorist replied.

“We would like to head to the Norton Family’s dominion, the family of the famous Raging Roaring Bear. I wonder if you’ve heard of them before?” asked that black-clad young woman.

Chapter 81 Telesti

Lorist froze up the moment he heard that just as he was reaching for his bottle of wine. Snapping his fingers, he gestured for the waitress to come over and smiled towards the black-clad woman. “I wonder if you had lunch already? Would you like some mutton steak? The steak tastes magnificent when accompanied with the red wine they serve. Do I have the honor of dining with you?”

The black-clad woman’s surprised look could be seen from the semi-see-through black veil she wore on her face, as if she was wondering what Lorist was plotting for suddenly offering to treat her to lunch the moment she mentioned the dominion of the Norton Family. But when Lorist spoke of the deliciousness of the food, she could be seen swallowing twice in anticipation.

However, she resisted the temptation of food and nodded slightly in apology. “If it wouldn’t be convenient for you to let us travel along with your convoy, then so be it. It’s my fault for interrupting your meal, please forgive my transgression.”

“Wait a second…” said Lorist as he stretched his hand out to stop her. “Please wait a moment, miss. Let me introduce myself. I am Norton Lorist of the Norton Family of the Northlands. My men are looking for more horse carriages to form a convoy to return to my family dominion. Here is my family badge.”

Lorist then placed a golden badge onto the table that had an engraving of the insignia of the Roaring Raging Bear on top of it with a complicated laurel pattern on its back surrounding Lorist’s name. This was the proof of Lorist’s identity: any noble who had received formal education and training as one would be able to tell whether it was genuine or not at first glance.

The woman uttered in surprise and clasped her mouth from behind the black veil. She didn’t expect that she would meet a person from the family of the dominion she wished to head to and didn’t know how to react.

“Miss, are you okay?”

“Miss…”

A butler who looked to be in his fifties and a maidservant looking to be in her mid-teens stood up and came over from a table nearby.

Quickly hugging the black-clad woman, the maidservant glared at Lorist with a fierce expression as if he had committed some unforgivable sin.

That butler on the other hand stood in front of the two girls.

“Hehehe…” Lorist started to laugh as he thought, this old man’s aura… Hmm, he’s of the Iron rank. What a loyal person, not bad…

The woman hurriedly snapped out of her stupor and said, “I’m sorry, milord, they’re only worried for my safety…”

Lorist waved casually and said, “It’s alright, I understand. Now, can you sit down and tell me what business you have at my family’s dominion?”

The maidservant narrowed her eyes and looked at the badge Lorist had placed on the table. “Is this badge really made of gold?”

After that, she took it up and gave it a huge bite.

“Don’t…” said Lorist with much urgency, but it was too late.

As expected, the moment the maidservant’s teeth collided with the badge, she tossed it away and started groaning in pain.

“Milady, this man is a fraud! His badge is not made of gold at all..” accused the maidservant in a pained voice.

The woman in black facepalmed as if she didn’t know what to do with her rowdy maidservant…

Resisting the urge to laugh, Lorist picked up the badge the maidservant had dropped and circulated his Battle Force before saying to the maidservant, “Young lady, no family badge will be fully made from pure gold only. There are two proper ways to distinguish real badges from fake ones. First, look at the patterns and engravings at the back of the badge. The second way is this…”

Lorist allowed the Battle Force that flowed within his veins to slowly enter the badge. After a while, a thick black mist gradually formed above the badge and morphed into a shape of a bear roaring towards the skies.

“How mysterious…” said the young maidservant as if she had forgotten the pain in her teeth as she stared wide-eyed at the smoke projection of the bear within the air.

“This happens because a special material that allows for Battle Force to circulate is present within the badge. Coupled with the intricate patterns carved onto the surface, this phenomenon occurs easily when Battle Force is input into the badge. Every noble family badge can be differentiated using this method as each family has their own unique combination of materials and carvings that is kept secret from everyone else to prevent fraud from being easily committed. That’s why, impersonating a noble is definitely no easy task,” explained Lorist with a smile as the smoke projection of the raging bear floating atop the badge slowly dissipated.

“I’m really sorry, milord. Little Vinny was really too rude…” said the woman while she removed the black veil that covered her face, revealing her long maroon hair, delicate and pretty face, her large, intelligent-looking eyes, small, thin lips as well as her smooth, rounded chin. However, her skin tone was slightly paler than most.

“It’s no big deal, she’s a cute little maidservant. So, beautiful lady, do I have the honor now to treat you to lunch?” asked Lorist politely once again.

“Food? Count me in! I want some roasted chicken drumsticks, some beef steak, bacon and some egg tarts with pudding…” Before the black-clad woman could reply, the little handmaiden by her side had already started ordering what she wanted excitedly.

“Vinny…” said the woman as she gave her maidservant a glare.

“But mistress… Vinny has been eating nothing but potatoes for half a month! Vinny wants to eat meat…” said the little maidservant as she looked at her mistress with her large and pained puppy-dog eyes.

The woman’s face instantly flushed red with embarrassment.

“Little Vinny, go sit down with the butler at that table and order whatever you like, okay? Don’t worry, I’ll pay for it,” said Lorist as he motioned for the waitress nearby to come over. “Please get this lady here a set of roasted mutton steak, some fruit salad with buttered mushrooms and a bottle of red wine. Also, please satisfy the demands of that little girl over there as well, okay?”

“Yes, milord. It will be done promptly, please wait for a bit.” The change in the waitress’s attitude was quite apparent after she got to know Lorist’s status as a noble.

“Oh, I haven’t asked your name yet, young lady.”

The black-clad woman had already returned to her previous calm and said, “It’s my fault for not introducing myself first. I’m Nico Telesti, adopted daughter of Nico Albess. I’m also her student…”

“Nico Albess? That name sounds familiar, let me think…” Lorist sunk into deep thought for a moment and said, “She’s a famous scholar back in the days of the former empire who specialized in ruin exploration. Being an influential professor, she is also awarded an honorary title of nobility as a dame and has written many research publications concerning the relics of the Age of Magic…”

“Ah, why are you so informed about her, milord?” said Telesti with an astonished expression.

Lorist laughed and said, “That’s simple. When I was studying at Dawn Academy back in Morante City, ruin exploration was also one of the courses I had picked up. Most of the material we used in the course were written by your mother. To pass the course, I had to memorize so many of the books your mother wrote by the word! Thinking back, the days of book-memorizing were rather painful ones…”

“Hehe…” Telesti laughed out. “That’s because you only did that to pass your course. If you were truly interested in the subject, there would be no need to memorize the books by way of rote at all. The books my mother wrote were incredibly well-structured in a way that would allow you to understand most of the concepts by deriving them from the foundational ones. The fact that you had such a hard time memorizing them meant that you were not properly interested in learning about that field at all.”

“You have a point. After I passed the exams, I forgot almost everything that I had memorized. Oh, how is Dame Albess doing by the way?” asked Lorist.

Telesti’s expression suddenly turned sullen as she started tearing up. “My mother is no longer of this world. Three years ago during the First Prince’s ambush and the Third Prince’s retaliation, the imperial capital had been totally decimated. During that conflict, my mother had encountered some raiding soldiers and died in an effort to protect the results of her research. After that, I collected the manuscripts of my mother and some other research documents and left with Vinny and my butler to the War God Shrine’s nunnery and managed to evade the effects of the war. When the war ended, I went back to my residence only to notice that it had been completely pillaged with nothing left. The situation has been quite terrible in the imperial capital during those two years and there was no way I would be able to survive there as a scholar. That’s why I decided to heed my good friend’s advice to head to the Northlands.”

Lorist said solemnly, “Please accept my condolences.”

“It’s okay…” Perhaps it was due to the hardships she had experienced, the pale-faced scholar managed to acquire a strength of perseverance that not everybody had. “Actually, the other reason I decided to go to the Norton Family’s dominion apart from my friend’s advice is to continue my mother’s research. My friend is called Norton Glacia. According to her, despite the relative ruralness of the Norton Family dominion, there is no need to worry about the flames of war encroaching that place and that it would be safe for me to continue my mother’s research over there.”

“Norton Glacia? My cousin sister?” At that moment, an image of a chubby little girl showed up in Lorist’s mind. However, it wasn’t a pleasant memory as at that moment, that girl was grabbing at his cheeks and twisting it to make different weird faces. In his memories, he was crying really hard at being played around by that girl.

Back then, Lorist’s mother was still alive and he was only 5 years old. That chubby girl was the daughter of his Second Uncle and she had come along with her mother to visit the family. That was when Lorist ended up being her beloved toy.

What a terrible memory! Lorist shook his head and shoved those memories back to the depths of his mind and said, “Do you have any news about my Second Uncle’s family? Can you tell me how they are doing right now?”

Telesti shook her head and said, “It’s been two years since I split up with them, so I have no idea how they’re doing right now. However, milord, I can tell you that your Second Uncle has already passed away. 7 years ago when the First Prince started his rebellion, the royal guard knight legion your Second Uncle had served in as its vice captain was ambushed by the rebellion army and had been completely wiped out. Your Second Uncle wasn’t exempt from that either. When the news got to your aunt, she cried herself to sleep for quite a number of times.”

Lorist clenched his hands so hard that veins started showing up on his arms. “It’s that damned First Prince again. I’ll definitely remember this and settle it with him one day…”

“Glacia is a genius in Battle Force training and she had already reached the Two Star Silver rank at a young age of 20. My family was a neighbor of your Second Uncle and Glacia came over to my house frequently to play. She was like an elder sister to me. After the death of your uncle, Glacia joined the army and said that she wished to avenge her father. However, she came back within a year and angrily complained that the Third Prince only wished to retain his position as the king of the Andinaq Kingdom and didn’t take any real action against the First Prince’s forces. She felt that a person like that wasn’t worthy of her service. But after a while, she got quite close to the second son of the Third Prince, the Second Highness, and formed a small squad with him whose only purpose was to cause trouble for the First Prince.

“The last time I met her was two years ago when the civil war was about to end and the Third Prince was already having peace talks with the other dukes. When she returned to the capital, Glacia came over to my house and told me that the Third Prince had disbanded the Whitelion Legion that the Second Highness commanded to prevent further conflict between the Second Highness and his elder brother, the First Highness, and also exiled the Second Highness to his own dominion. Glacia said that she was going to follow the Second Highness back to his dominion together with her two brothers and her mother,” explained Telesti.

“Why didn’t she invite you to go along?” Lorist asked, curious at how his elder cousin sister had asked her scholar friend to travel to the Northlands instead of following her along to the Second Highness’s dominion when the risks of traveling to the Northlands were far higher.

“She did, but I refused,” Telesti said. “Two years ago after the peace treaty was signed, the citizens of the imperial capital thought that the days after the conflict would be much better and peaceful. But in actuality, it was much worse as the price of food and other fundamental supplies had risen to unimaginable heights due to a huge shortage. The security of the capital also got progressively worse as many people gradually started to make a living as bandits or thieves. And even though the war had ended, the conflict between the dominion lords didn’t stop at all but rather increased instead. That’s why I decided to seek refuge from the Norton Family given the terrible state of affairs at the capital.

“One huge factor for my decision to go to the Northlands was its benefit to my mother’s research. There is a place called the Black Swamps within your family’s dominion, right?” Telesti asked.

“Are you talking about the Blackmud Marsh?”

“Yes, the Blackmud Marsh. After many years of research, my mother theorized that the Blackmud Marsh could have some remains or relics from the end days of the Age of Magic. However, she couldn’t pinpoint exactly where they were. I hope to be able to go there to see that place for myself and also restart her research too. If I manage to find the relics she had mentioned to be there one day, I’m sure I would’ve fulfilled the hopes she left to me before she departed to the afterlife.” Telesti’s eyes let out a completely different aura the moment she started talking about her mother’s research.

Upon hearing that, Lorist pursed his lips in doubt.

“It’s true, I’m not kidding you! I also believe my mother’s hypothesis about there being relics at the Blackmud Marsh that has yet to be discovered by anyone. Glacia knows about my mother’s works as well, that’s why she wrote this letter of recommendation for me,” said Telesti in an annoyed tone as if she was about to cry from Lorist’s doubt towards her mother’s findings.

“Oh, it wasn’t that I doubted your mother’s findings,” said Lorist hastily to console the young female scholar. “I only think that the Blackmud Marsh might not be as accessible as you may imagine it to be. It is one of the most dangerous places in the Northlands as it is the main habitat of thousands of Ironspine Crocodiles. I recall that someone back in my family had reported a sighting of one that was easily over 40 meters in length. There is no way that you’ll be able to approach the Blackmud Marsh without having at least a Silver rank in Battle Force training.”

“Is that so…” said Telesti with a stunned look after hearing what Lorist had to say.

Did you think that you would be able to enter the Blackmud Marsh as you please to search for ancient relics? If it were that easy, wouldn’t someone else have found the relics long ago? What a naive young girl…

“How about this, Miss Telesti, as the family head of the Nortons, I welcome your joining us on our journey to the Northlands with our convoy and consider you a guest of my family. You will be allowed to stay for as long as you please in the family dominion to work on your research however you please and we will provide for everything you may need during your stay as best as we can to your satisfaction,” said Lorist.

At that moment, Lorist saw the bitter-faced garrison captain rush into the inn hurriedly. Upon seeing Lorist, the captain made a respectful greeting and said, “Milord, the local dominion lord, Viscount Kermas has just arrived. He wishes to have a meeting with you.”

Lorist gestured for the garrison captain to wait and said, “Miss Telesti, the convoy will be leaving within two days. Because of some reasons, we might need to travel far without resting. If you have anything you need help with, please don’t hesitate to tell us about it to avoid slowing down the journey, okay?”

The young female scholar’s face turned flush-red again as if she was unaccustomed to asking help from others. After hesitating for a while, she finally said that her party of three had two horse carriages, but they still required 3 work horses to pull them.

Lorist nodded and said, “Please don’t worry, Miss Telesti, I will definitely arrange that for you. You just have to wait for news of the convoy’s departure. Please forgive me from excusing myself as I have to go meet the local dominion lord right now. Oh, your meal is here. Please enjoy it. If you need anything else, please don’t hesitate to tell it to the waitress over there. Don’t hold back, the bill’s on me.”

Lorist then stood up and made a gesture of apology before informing the inn owner to take special care of his three guests and leaving with the garrison captain.

Chapter 82 Viscount Kermas

Viscount Kermas was a tall, thin man. He was directing his farmer soldiers to set up camp outside the town walls when Lorist went to see him.

Lorist came to a realization why the baron had failed for both attempts in taking out the bandits.

Having received word that Fenyata Town was being threatened by the bandits at the gates, Viscount Kermas couldn’t just sit and wait things out as he was the lord of that area. Thus, he brought his men with him with the possibility of there being a battle in mind. However, his soldiers looked pretty poorly-equipped and trained with most only wearing rags and tatters that wouldn’t even keep one warm throughout the night. Given that they did not even have proper weapons, armors and shields were definitely out of the question. Most of them were either holding a long stick or some farming tool and using them as makeshift weapons. Some of them improvised by using metal cooking pans instead of shields.

This… this is the force Viscount Kermas used to fight against the bandits? Lorist was completely taken off guard by that group of men who he would believe to be vagabonds had he not known better. It’s fortunate that the bandits had already been long taken care of by Lorist. Otherwise, the viscount’s third defeat would no doubt come to happen.

The viscount was a rather cheerful person who was extremely grateful to Lorist’s efforts as could be seen from the way he shook Lorist’s hand heartily and reluctance to let it go, despite multiple of Lorist’s own efforts to pull his hand from the viscount’s grasps.

Viscount Kermas then started to praise Lorist for almost half an hour. In his words, Lorist was an incarnation of a magnificent and just war god and the savior of the troubled from the hands of evil.

To Lorist’s surprise, during that half an hour of praising, not once did the viscount repeat what he said. Lorist believed that the viscount would’ve made an excellent bard with his way of words.

After that, Viscount Kermas, possibly worn out from saying all the good stuff about Lorist, or maybe even running out of good things to say, finally took a sip of tea to curb his thirst. Lorist finally managed to pull his right hand back and used it to wipe his face that was full of the saliva of the viscount.

Afraid that the viscount would launch into yet another long-winded conversation, Lorist quickly asked him what the reward bounty was for the extermination of the bandits.

However, Viscount Kermas only responded to the question with a weird look, as if Lorist had asked something that was unfit for a war god like him, causing Lorist to feel a little weirded out.

“Cough, cough…” After clearing his throat, the viscount apologized deeply for the lack of a reward for the bandits’ extermination and said that the bounty had been lifted ever since the day he signed the agreement with the merchant guild as a witness.

Then does that mean all my efforts had been in vain?! Lorist gave the awkward-looking garrison captain a glance and looked back to the smiling viscount and came to a realization. So this viscount is only good for his way with words but is actually a freaking stingy bastard! I guess I should’ve realized this from the gloomy expressions of his farmer soldiers. I’m sure they aren’t having a good life under the rule of this stingy dominion lord.

However, when Viscount Kermas heard from the garrison captain about Lorist being on his way to the Northlands to inherit his position as the family head, he quickly paid his respects to the well-known family of the Roaring Raging Bear and apologized even further about how the incident with the bandits had delayed his journey. He also mentioned that on account of the principle of mutual assistance between nobles, he would receive the prisoners of war from Lorist at no cost at all to relieve him of his troubles.

Other than that, the viscount asked for people to take the head of the Wolf of Plate Mountain down from being displayed, citing that the hot weather would cause it to rot and stink and attract disease-spreading insects to the area and prove detrimental to the health of the nearby residents. Even though he said that, Viscount Kermas tightened the bear fur jacket he wore around his body as a cold gust had just blown by which caused him to sneeze in response.

Hehe, this viscount is really too shameless. He actually has his eyes set on the prisoners and even wanted to get the head of the leader of the bandits for free. Even though Lorist was currently smiling, his eyes were radiating a cold light.

He first thanked the viscount for his kind intentions and expressed his admiration for the viscount’s altruistic offer. But he then mentioned that he already had a way of dealing with the prisoners so that he wouldn’t have to cause the viscount any trouble on that front.

As for the head of the bandit leader, Lorist said that he has decided for it to be made into a decoration to commemorate his victory over the bandits at Fenyata Town. He added that he wanted to show the people that the bandit who had caused Viscount Kermas so much trouble now ended up in his hands as a tool that would help to spread his fame and solidify his reputation as the magnificent and just war god who is the savior of the troubled from the hands of evil that the viscount said he was.

Lorist also mentioned that an iron ore mine was found near the bandits’ lair and that it would also become his as he had defeated the menacing bandits and owned the right to the spoils. Lorist said that he planned to have the prisoners work at the mine for him and maybe even build him a castle at Plate Mountain Stronghold so that he would be able to live there after inheriting his position at the Northlands as this place was far better than his desolate dominion there. Also, he would then be able to collect toll from the people who used Plate Mountain Pass as he had to keep it safe from bandits in the future.

“I really like the scenery of Fenyata Town, especially that of the difference between your forces and mine.” Lorist then pointed to his guard squad that was training not far away and said, “I believe this town will soon prosper in the future. Maybe the Norton Family will be able to gain another dominion…”

Upon hearing all that, the viscount struggled bitterly to maintain the smile on his face. He swallowed in anxiety after taking a look at his own soldiers and Lorist’s and realized that he had made a wrong call. He had imagined that Lorist would happily agree to leave everything in his hands after some flattering given his young age and urgent need to return to his dominion to inherit the position. That way, the viscount would be able to trade empty praises for actual gains.

What he didn’t expect was that Lorist was unlike those young and inexperienced nobles that would be too full of themselves and lose sight of everything after being praised a time or two and would be willing to give up on material benefits for the sake of petty reputation. The thought of Lorist making the head of the bandit leader into an ornament and telling everyone of his exploits made the viscount fear for his own reputation as well. What would people think of him if they knew that he had been defeated twice by the bandits that only took Lorist one attempt to exterminate?

The mention of the iron ore was nothing to scoff at either. That equated to a huge amount of wealth! If he allowed the young noble to take over the mine and build a castle there, what influence would he still have at his own dominion in the future? While Viscount Kermas wasn’t worried about the bandits, Lorist was different. He had already hinted to the viscount that he had some plans on the viscount’s territory and that he would have no problem defeating the viscount with his superior forces should there be a need for it.

I can definitely not let Lorist stabilize his influence in my dominion, no matter the cost. Viscount Kermas then pulled at Lorist, who was already preparing to leave, and requested with a smile on his face for the ownership of the mines to be handed to him, arguing that his citizens were suffering because they lacked access to iron ore and added that if he had the mine, he would definitely be able to improve the standard of living of his citizens and be able to better defend his dominion and not let the same bandit problem manifest again. He expressed his hopes that Lorist would reach out to his sense of justice and fairness to help him on this matter…

Lorist stopped the viscount’s ramblings and said, “Lord Viscount, are you saying that you’ll redeem that mine?”

Redemption was a non-conventional transaction that could be carried out among nobles. Should a noble’s dominion be taken over as a result of a hostile invasion and be unable to take it back by his own abilities, he can request another noble for military help to reclaim his land and offer a fitting and proportional price as a remuneration to redeem it.

VIscount Kermas wanted to weasel his way out of it, but was unable to find a reasonable argument and hesitantly admitted that he wanted to carry out redemption. Given that it was a huge transaction of its own right, there would naturally be necessary procedures and protocols. Thus, Lorist asked Shadekampf to represent him while the viscount asked his personal accounting supervisor to estimate the value of the mines as well as the area around the bandits’ stronghold. After some period of bargaining, both sides finally came to a price they could agree on.

However, Viscount Kermas started complaining again and said that he wasn’t able to pay such a huge sum given the poor state of his dominion. But he did mention that he would be able to make up for that with the resources he had.

What other resources or supplies do we need? Lorist looked at Shadekampf and he stated that the convoy needed more work horses, carriages, mounts, food and textiles.

And so Lorist started to negotiate once again with the viscount and he finally agreed to provide 350 work horses and mounts, 50 four-wheeled long distance carriages, seven carriages’ worth of food and three carriages’ worth of textiles to trade for the ownership of the iron mine and the area around the stronghold. Lorist will also hand the jurisdiction of the prisoners as well as the bandit leader’s head to the viscount as part of the trade.

Thus, the viscount joyfully stated that the resources would be prepared by noon tomorrow and Lorist would have to pass the prisoners and the decapitated head over by then.

In Lorist and Shadekampf’s presence, Viscount Kermas ordered the garrison captain to gather the horses and carriages of Fenyata Town as well as the resources he had promised. He mentioned that the stores within a 50 kilometer radius of Fenyata Town would definitely have the necessary amount.

The garrison captain looked at the viscount hesitantly and asked how he would pay back the owners of the stores for the resources they were about to take for themselves, to which the viscount replied, “What payment? We just have to promise them tax exemptions worth the value of the resources they give to us!”

Lorist sighed in admiration at the viscount’s method of gaining resources for himself without paying a single coin out of his own pocket and made a mental note to learn it from him. After saying his goodbyes, Lorist returned to the army camp and asked Ovidis and Patt to pick some people among the prisoner bandits who did not do too much wrong to join the convoy as coachmen for the carriages before turning in the remaining ones to the viscount the day after. He also instructed that the wives of the dead bandit leader and the younger women to be allowed to mingle and form families with the rest of his men to prevent a mismatch of numbers between men and women in his dominion and cause a disparity between Yin and Yang.

Even though they did not understand what Lorist meant by Yin and Yang, they hurriedly went to carry out his orders anyway.

……

That night at the Wine and Weary Birds Inn, Shadekampf was making his report to Lorist. “We’ve managed to obtain 13 carriages from the bandit stronghold and purchased 11 more around the town. Coupled with the ones we brought ourselves and Telesti’s, we will have 76 of them in total.

“Originally, we brought over 12 Zeno Horses and we purchased 53 more in town and got another 48 from defeating the bandits. The trade with the viscount will also add another 350 horses to that number and total up to 463 horses. That is more than enough for each carriage to have 4 horses pulling it and the remaining ones will be given to the guard squad as mounts.

“Just now, Patt and Ovidis have also selected 111 youths from the prisoners to serve as coachmen with 23 of them having family members of their own, among which include 39 young women. The guard squad consists of 120 men with 46 of them having families of their own as well. The young women and the other family members total up to 274 people. If we factor in Grandmaster Sid and his family, we will need a total of 30 carriages for them.

“The things we got from the bandit stronghold also occupy quite a lot of space. Just talking about the coins, there are 12742 gold Fordes, 34261 imperial old head gold coins, more than 70000 imperial silvers, around 18000 imperial coppers as well as five chests’ worth of silver and copper coins issued by the Trade Union. There are also two additional chests filled to the brim with other jewelry and ornaments. All of that will require 5 carriages to transport.

“We’ve also got 3 carriages’ worth of silk, six carriages’ worth of linen as well as 11 carriages’ worth of food from the Plate Mountain Stronghold. Miscellaneous goods also take up another eight carriages, four of which have been used to store the equipment Grandmaster Sid uses in his craft. There are also 5 carriages’ worth of iron ingots with another 3 carriages’ worth of assorted weapons. If we include the other resources the viscount will be bringing over tomorrow, we will require 81 carriages in total to transport them all. However, we only have 73 right now…

“Milord, I’ve decided to go to town again tomorrow to see if I can buy a few more carriages and ask the shops around the area if we can exchange the 18000 imperial copper coins for silver or gold coins to save more space. If it still doesn’t work out, we can let the family members squeeze into a smaller number of carriages and have some resources carried by the work horses to make enough space so that we can start traveling again as soon as possible.”

Lorist shook his head and thought, this Shadekampf actually considers resources to be more important than his own life! Even though we could’ve solved the lack of carriages by leaving some resources behind, he wants to transport them all back. He’s really looking for trouble where there isn’t any to be found.

“Have you heard about Miss Telesti’s matter?” Loirst asked.

“I got a rough idea about it. She came to Fenyata Town roughly three months ago with her maidservant, butler and two other coachmen with two carriages and 4 work horses. I heard that they had split up with a merchant convoy after traveling with them to the border of the Madras Duchy and stopped here for a month to look for another convoy that is heading to the Northlands before the incident with the bandits happened. After their coachmen found new jobs and left, they have been living at the inn and barely making a living by selling their work horses and occasionally helping others to copy books. Currently, they are left with only one work horse with one of the two carriages filled up with nothing but books,” said Shadekampf.

Lorist nodded and said, “Prepare some horses and coachmen for them tomorrow and notify them to start preparing for the departure. We have already been delayed here for two extra days and must leave by tomorrow no matter what. Make a final check after the transaction tomorrow and ensure that we will be able to leave by the afternoon.”

“Yes, milord,” said Shadekampf as he turned and left.

“Wait, one more thing. Tell the inn owner to make three people’s worth of food during these two days and send it to Miss Telesti,” said Lorist.

“Alright, I’ll do just that.”

Chapter 83 River-Crossing and Arrival

Probably because he wanted Lorist to leave his dominion as soon as possible, Viscount Kermas didn’t cut any corners on the items he promised to deliver, much to Shadekampf’s delight. The 7 carriages of food and 3 carriages of textiles had all been brought over in one go and the 10 carriages that came along was also given to them as a gift, causing Shadekampf to be relieved as he didn’t manage to procure as many carriages as he had hoped.

Now with 10 extra carriages in hand, Shadekampf wouldn’t have to worry about not having enough to transport all the goods. After another night of checking and finalizing, Lorist’s group finally departed Fenyata Town on the 11th day of the 2nd month.

Three days later, Lorist’s convoy arrived at the border between the Andinaq Kingdom and the Madras Duchy and rested for one day at the Nadgas Border City around the area before entering the duchy a day later.

Compared to the Andinaq Kingdom, the Madras Duchy seemed to fare much better after the conflict in terms of both civilian standard of living as well as order and security. This was much in part of Duke Madras’s efforts who had taken a defensive stance during the civil war within the empire and only defended himself against invaders without lashing out at anyone else, allowing for his duchy to be in better shape in comparison to the lands of other powers. He paid meticulous attention to the borders as well, earning him the title of ‘The Hedgehog Duke’.

Lorist’s convoy traveled along the duchy’s border from the south to the north for a distance of around 650 kilometers and only encountered two groups of mountain bandits and another cavalry bandit group within 7 days. Naturally, these ignorant fools soon regretted their decision to prey on the convoy and by the time it arrived at the border between the Madras Duchy and the Northern Highlands, the Metropoulos River, the number of carriages filled with resources and loot had already increased by 6 with another 70 or so prisoners.

“Milord, after crossing Metropoulos River, we will arrive at the outer regions of the Northlands and will only have around 350 kilometers left to travel. We no longer have to travel at night anymore as we will be able to reach the family dominion well before the third month if we travel for 50 kilometers a day,” said Shadekampf as he breathed a sigh of relief at the fact that his decision to bring along so much resources had not delayed Lorist’s arrival at the dominion before the inheritance ceremony.

The Metropoulos River was calm and tranquil as the clear water quietly flowed downstream.

Beyond that river, elevated lands could be seen in the far distance with a number of lush-green mountains filling out their field of view.

This was the Northlands, the homeland of the original owner of Lorist’s body.

Lorist looked towards the distance and thought, so this is my homeland…

“I recall that ten years ago when I left the dominion with the merchant convoy, there was a bridge somewhere here and the stream under it was rather turbulent unlike how calm it is now.”

“Milord, I believe the bridge you are talking about is the Hendliff Suspension Bridge which is located upstream the Metropoulos River around 50 kilometers from where we are. The Freist Castle, which is one of the territories of the Duke of the Northlands, Duke Loggins, is just beyond that bridge. Because you said that you didn’t wish to deal with the duke before we embarked on our journey, I have decided to cross the river over here instead. This place is one of the two crossings to the Northlands from the Metropoulos River. After we cross it, we will arrive at the dominion after passing through 7 territories of other nobles,” explained Shadekampf.

“Where is the crossing then?” Lorist asked.

“It’s just a little further up ahead. That is the territory of Baron Silas. I’m sure he would earn quite a bit from the toll we have to pay given the size of our convoy,” said Shadekampf.

“Well, we have to pay what we ought to. Let’s go. After we cross the river, we’ll set up camp to rest for another day,” said Lorist.

……

As a noble, one would normally be entitled to cross another noble’s territory at no cost whatsoever. In normal circumstances, Lorist only had to use his badge to demonstrate that his convoy wasn’t a merchant convoy to be allowed to cross the territories of other nobles without having to pay a fee. However, when it came to crossing rivers, it was different as the fees for the ferry service had to be paid regardless.

Baron Silas’s harbor wasn’t large and only held two boats. A plaque was erected near the harbor that indicated the pricing for crossing the river: it would cost 1 imperial silver for a person, 10 imperial silvers for a horse, 1 imperial old head gold coin for a carriage filled with goods, etc. Even if one was a noble, the price would still remain the same with the only benefit of being allowed to cross ahead in line should there be others waiting to use the ferries as well.

What’s the point of being allowed to cross earlier? It’s not like there’s anyone else waiting here… According to that old guy who’s repairing the oars, the boatmen are also away as well…

The arrival of the convoy had turned the once serene surroundings to be filled with merry chattering that even caused the baron to personally bring a squad of garrison troops over to calculate the total cost for all the people, horses and carriages of the convoy. When he received the bag full of gold coins from Lorist as payment, he smiled so hard he couldn’t shut his mouth for quite a while. The baron who was in a cheerful mood even especially asked his servants to bring some bottles of wine from his precious collection back at the castle and treated Lorist to a drink.

However, Lorist felt quite troubled at that moment as one boat could only ferry 4 carriages and a few people at once and each trip across the river easily took up to one hour. His convoy had near 100 carriages, 600 horses and many more people. How much time would he need for the convoy to be completely brought over to the other side of the river? There were only 8 boatmen after all and they needed to eat and sleep as well. Lorist estimated that it would probably take seven or eight more days before it could all be completed.

Baron Silas apologized deeply for the inconvenience given the amount of payment he had received for the convoy’s crossing and said that it couldn’t be helped as he only had two boats with eight boatmen.

Lorist then asked, “Do you happen to have any rope?”

Baron Silas nodded and said, “Yes, of course we do. Due to the fact that my dominion is near the river, we are easily able to harvest the reed that grows at the banks which we will then make into ropes. This can be considered one of the unique local products my dominion has to offer.”

Lorist then asked Baron Silas to procure a lot of rope for him which he connected one end to another and linked them to the front and back of each boat. He then tasked his men on both sides on the river to make large pulleys which can be used to guide and pull the boats to and fro the riverbanks. That way, not only could the boatmen save much more energy for each trip, the stability of the boats when it neared the shores could be better managed, thus shortening the time for each trip from one hour to only thirty minutes.

Even with the increased efficiency, it was already evening of the second day when Lorist got onto the last boat. Looking at Baron Silas who was seeing Lorist away and waving nonstop from the other side of the bank, Shadekampf said in a dissatisfied tone, “That baron actually got 150 imperial gold coins from us as toll… It’s no wonder he’s so eager to come over to see you off even though it’s already getting this late.”

Lorist waved back to the baron on the riverbank and recalled the night before when he brought Ovidis along with him to the baron’s castle after having been invited there as a guest, much to the full-bearded former bandit’s surprise. The reason Lorist brought him along was because Josk and Patt were busy managing the matters of the camp on the other side of the river, leaving only Reidy and Ovidis together with Lorist. After receiving the invitation, he instructed Reidy to monitor the proceedings of the crossing and was only left with Ovidis to bring along to the banquet.

At that night, Lorist presented Baron Silas with an upper body plate armor that was decorated with golden engravings which was part of the loot he got from the bandits they encountered along the way. Lorist didn’t know which unfortunate noble the bandit stole it from, but due to it being too eye-catching on the battlefield, the bandit leader who was wearing it got shot in the throat by Josk at the start of the battle.

As it had no noble family insignia on it, it was the perfect gift to present to someone. Lorist reasoned that the armor was probably order-made by someone as a gift for some young noble’s ceremony of coming of age. Lorist himself didn’t take a fancy for that flashy armor as wearing it was just like saying to one’s enemies, ‘Hey, I’m here, quick, shoot me!’ That kind of suicidal thing was definitely not what Lorist wanted to do.

However, the baron absolutely loved Lorist’s gift to the point that he wasn’t willing to let it go. After the banquet, the full-bearded Ovidis excused himself and returned to help Reidy organize the crossing as he felt a little out of place. Baron Silas on the other hand invited Lorist to go sample even more well-aged wines from his precious collection.

When they were in his study, the baron thanked Lorist once again and said that even though there were many merchant convoys of the northern nobles wishing to cross the river, due to the lack of manpower and boats, the convoys usually didn’t want to wait and went straight to the Hendliff Suspension Bridge to make their crossing, causing him to lose quite a bit of potential revenue. Now that Lorist had improved the system they had at his crossing and greatly increased its efficiency, he believed that it would spur many of the convoys to choose to cross the river at his dominion instead.

Lorist felt weird at the fact there were convoys that would even think of crossing the river at Baron Silas’s dominion to begin with. In the first place, Lorist’s convoy only traveled to the baron’s territory because he wanted to avoid dealing with Duke Loggins. But, why would the other convoys go out of their way to try to avoid using the Hendliff Suspension Bridge?

“Isn’t the toll for crossing the Hendliff Suspension Bridge half as cheap as using your ferry service? Why would the convoys even want to cross the river at your dominion?” Lorist asked.

Baron Silas laughed out and said, “Duke Loggins of the Northlands is quite famed for his immense greed. Even though the fees paid to cross Hendliff Bridge is half of what I charge here, they would end up at Freist Castle the moment they cross the river. The duke has set up a strict customs in that area. Even though nobles would usually be allowed to pass without paying a fee, if the duke discovered anything he liked in any of their convoys, he would forcefully purchase it at half of the market price. If one is fortunate, one would only lose one or two carriages to the duke. The ones who have it worse could lose up to half of their convoy. That caused the nobles of the Northlands to complain to no end and choose to cross at my place instead.”

……

Lorist stood atop the boat and felt refreshed by the chilling gust that just blew by. Thinking back at what the baron had said the day before, even though the Northlands was huge and had the Metropoulos River as a natural border, there were only two places where one could enter or leave it. The first place was the Hendliff Suspension Bridge, however, that place was under the duke’s control. The second place would be Baron Silas’s ferry crossing, but due to the large width of the river at that part, it was difficult to construct a bridge there and crossing with boats took far too much time.

The main reason why the Metropoulos River was considered a border for the Northlands was this: aside from Baron Silas’s crossing, the river mainly flowed through high cliffs or rugged terrain where the current was far too turbulent to allow for any crossing with boats to be done.

Lorist suspected that the population of the Northlands was so sparse because the main locations of entering and leaving it was under private control of people like Duke Loggins and Baron Silas and served as their main source of income.

Even if Charade and the rest of the convoy managed to make their way back to the Northlands, with the entrances being under the control of others, the family could easily be locked at the Northlands without being able to do anything about it thus limiting its development. There was a saying Lorist had heard of in his past life, ‘Building the road is the first step to becoming rich’. But with the main paths of entry to the Northlands beyond his control, how would he be able to bring his dominion to prosperity?

I guess one of the first things on my agenda once I return to the dominion is to find a way to pave a new entry point so that I won’t have to be at the whims of others. Sigh, I guess the day we will be able to do as we please is still far off. Lorist looked at the distant mountains and once again fell into deep thought.

Having been delayed for yet another day due to crossing the river, Lorist’s convoy continued their journey on the 25th day of the 2nd month. He decided to cross the remaining 300-odd kilometers of distance during the next five days to reach his dominion by the 30th day of the 2nd month.

After setting his foot on the Northlands, Lorist noticed the reality of its war-torn state that was first brought up by Charade during the meeting they had some time ago.

After only passing through three dominions of other nobles, they have already witnessed 5 conflicts between the landed nobles in the area. Some older noble families acted against new ones while others called for their neighboring families to invade the territories of their enemies. There were even some who invaded others to settle old grudges with many others engaging in conflict over a myriad of reasons. Fights broke out everywhere and the sounds of killing and slaughter could be heard at every corner.

But perhaps due to the low population of the Northlands, the conflicts between the various nobles were only on the scale of skirmishes between different small villages. Usually, the forces of those nobles only numbered around hundreds of farmer soldiers with tens of garrison troops and less than five knights. The largest force Lorist had seen only consisted of four to five hundred farmers in tattered clothing.

The most laughable part was that one of the nobles actually had his eyes set on Lorist’s convoy and demanded for half of everything they had to be given up as a toll. Given that an act like that violated the sacred right of nobles of being allowed to pass through each other’s territories without any cost, Lorist mobilized his guard squad and completely crippled the opposing army without a single casualty, causing the ignorant and arrogant noble to prostrate before Lorist and pleading for his freedom while crying profusely. Lorist released him after receiving 50 Northlander Horses and 4 carriages’ worth of food as ransom.

To prevent further incidents like that from happening again, Lorist instructed his guard squad to be fully-equipped at all times to escort the convoy in as high a profile as possible. As expected, nobody dared to cause the convoy any trouble in the following days with two warring nobles even stopping all activity to make way for the convoy to pass.

On the fifth day, the convoy arrived before an ancient, ever-reaching forest and a long-stretching mountain range.

Shadekampf and Patt cheered out loud before explaining, “Milord, we have arrived at the dominion of the family. That over there is the Black Forests and the mountains in the distance are known as the Magical Dragon Mountains. Beyond all that is where the Morgan Hills is located. From there, it would only take another day of traveling before we will be able to arrive at the family’s bastide.”

After another half day of travel, the convoy circled around the sides of the Black Forests and arrived at the Morgan Hills.

However, Shadekampf and Patt were stunned by the walls that could be seen blocking the pass through Morgan Hills. On top of it was a flag that didn’t belong to the Norton Family but instead depicted three all-encompassing golden rings…

Chapter 84 Takeover

The fortified walls that had appeared before them caused Patt and Shadekampf great surprise.

“Three gold rings… This is the Kenmays Family’s insignia… Don’t tell me that our family…” said Patt as his expression turned exceedingly gloomy.

“Huh? Shadekampf, why didn’t you tell me that there’s a barrier wall over here?” asked Lorist as he rode over.

“Milord, this is indeed the dominion of our family. How-however, the barrier isn’t constructed by us… When Patt and I were first sent to seek you out at Morante City, this fort wasn’t here. Also, there’s no way the family has enough resources to build something like this,” stammered Shadekampf.

“Oh, so you’re saying that this fort was built within our lands but not by us?” Lorist felt a bad omen as this was a situation he had not conjectured even once when he was thinking about the family’s current situation.

Commonly speaking, something like this happening would signify that the Norton Family had already been defeated by a foe and had their lands conquered by them. From the sturdy and slightly rugged look of the fort, it seemed to have been completed months ago. Right now, there were two options Lorist could choose from. Either he stealthily leaves the area, or start an all out war to take back the family dominion.

The guards on the walls have already noticed the group below that was flying the flag of the Norton Family. One leather-armored man pointed towards the convoy and started to call out loudly for battle preparations.

“One, two, three. Huh, they really did put quite a lot of money in their fortifications. They’ve actually equipped a simple barrier wall like that with three ballistas, how unexpected…” mumbled Lorist as he checked out the defensive infrastructure the barrier wall had.

“Which family uses that three-ringed insignia?” Lorist asked.

“Milord, that would be the Kenmays Family with whom we’ve had conflict back when they attacked us for the copper mines in our dominion…” said Shadekampf.

“Then does this mean that the Norton Family has been defeated by the Kenmayses? Otherwise, there would be no way for them to build this fort here,” said Lorist with a wry smile as if he was about to leap into battle at any moment.

“No, I don’t think so, milord,” said Patt as if he had thought of something else.

“Hmm? What’s on your mind?” Lorist asked.

“Milord, if your family had lost to the Kenmayses in an all out battle and lost control of the dominion, then there wouldn’t be a need for the Kenmayses to build a barrier here as the dominion would already be theirs. I haven’t heard of anyone who would make a barrier in their dominion. Isn’t that just causing more trouble for themselves?

“Also, back then when the former family head led our family’s forces against that of the Kenmays’, they mainly relied on hired mercenaries which don’t have much battle prowess. Even if the family army is decimated, there is no way that the Kenmays would be able to take our our family’s bastide. Additionally, the Wildnorth Town isn’t that far off from the family bastide, so no matter how shitty their garrison is, they wouldn’t shrink out on a matter like this that their survival depended on. Should the family truly fall, they will definitely follow as well. That’s why they would definitely not sit back and watch the Kenmays Family take over the castle.

“I think that Viscount Kenmays built this wall here to cut off the family’s communication with the outside world for some reason. They must be planning to lock us in the desolate Northlands and force us to one day lower our heads to them,” inferred Patt.

“What you said makes sense. When we take this fort, we will know the truth right away,” said Lorist as he nodded.

“Milord, you’re going to launch your attack now?” said Shadekampf, astonished. “But we haven’t made any preparations yet. Without siege ladders, how would you be able to conquer the fort? There are three ballistas on the walls you know…”

“Siege ladders? I don’t need any. Look, the walls are only 4 meters tall and there are only roughly 30 small fries guarding it. It would be giving them too much credit to even bother constructing siege ladders. While the three ballistas are certainly powerful and would definitely prove to be a threat to large groups of people, it would be far too slow to operate for it to be able to hit me, as I can easily avoid the bolts. Patt, tell Ovidis to ready the guard squad and ask them to follow suit right after I make my way up the walls,” said Lorist.

“Yes, milord,” Patt replied, before he said, “Milord, you should be careful. Why don’t I accompany you up there as well?”

“Hehe…” Lorist started laughing out loud. “You should know my abilities better than anyone and getting up this wall shouldn’t be much of a problem to me. However, you’re in full armor, so the weight should give you quite some trouble when you try to get up. Additionally, if I go alone, the ballistas will have fewer targets to shoot at. Don’t worry, the guards up there are nothing to me.”

After that, Lorist rode alone straight towards the walls. When he was within 70 meters of it, a loud twanging sound rang out as one of the ballistas on the wall fired. Lorist quickly pulled his horse to the side and avoided the bolt that flew past his flank and buried itself a few inches into the ground.

Within but a short moment, Lorist had already gotten so close that the ballista wasn’t able to aim at him anymore, at which point he took out a javelin from his quiver.

Whoosh! Three javelins were thrown by him towards the wall and all of them embedded themselves firmly onto the surface, causing the guards on top of it to laugh out loud, thinking that Lorist had failed miserably in an attempt to shoot them.

What they did not expect was that when Lorist arrived at the wall, he started to travel along its sides, causing a few of the guards above to try to shoot him down with their longbows to no avail as the walls had blocked off the ideal firing angle entirely.

Lorist then turned in the other direction and started removing his boots from the stirrups and knelt on top of his mount. When he saw the javelins that he had embedded into the walls, he jumped and grabbed the lowest javelin with both his hands like an agile monkey and used the momentum to perform a spin to launch himself up to the top of the walls.

Upon witnessing the crazy circus stunt, the guards by the walls were all thrown into stupor with their mouths agape. By the time they had snapped out of it, Lorist had already steadied his footing and started to draw out the longsword on his back.

After the officer in command cursed and called out a few names, the few guards beside Lorist lifted their pikes and shields and leapt towards him, thinking that they would be able to defeat him with sheer numbers.

With a few sword flashes, the five guards who had rushed over all had their throats cut open as they fell towards the ground with blood spurting out of their necks. Swiftly leaping over the dead bodies on the ground, Lorist rushed towards the leather-armor-wearing commanding officer.

Cursing in disbelief at the sight of the five fallen guards and seeing Lorist coming in his direction, the commanding officer quickly drew his sword and picked up a shield from the ground as he retreated backwards gradually while shouting for the other guards to fight Lorist together with him.

Two other pike-wielding guards stealthily approached Lorist from behind and thrusted towards him at the same moment. Delighted that an opportunity like that had shown up, the commanding officer manifested his blade glow and just before he was about to attack, he saw Lorist suddenly fall back like a gust of wind and circle between the two thrusting guards. His sword flashed once again and both the guards dropped their pikes and fell as croaking sounds resounded when they tried to scream with their slit throats from which blood was gushing out.

Panicked beyond reason, the commanding officer turned tail and ran. You think you can escape? Quickening his steps, Lorist quickly caught up to the the officer, who suddenly turned his body while shielding himself as he swung his right sword-wielding arm diagonally downward.

Where’s he, thought the guard in surprise after discovering that his sword slashed nothing but thin air. He took two steps to recover from his stance and just as he was about to look for Lorist, he felt a cold blade pressed to his neck as a raspy voice sounded from behind him, “Drop your sword and surrender and you’ll be spared.”

With a clanging sound, the frozen officer dropped only his shield and slowly turned towards Lorist.

With a press of the blade to his neck, Lorist indicated for him to drop his sword as well. The officer gradually lifted his longsword into a throwing position and tried to draw Lorist’s attention to it away from him. All of a sudden, he jerked backward and freed himself from Lorist’s hold and quickly tried to escape.

However, he didn’t know that he wasn’t as quick as Lorist’s reaction and the longsword eventually found its way through his neck.

“You truly have a death wish…” cursed Lorist.

He only wanted to ask that officer about the fort, but he didn’t expect that he would resist even though his life was clearly at stake. Lorist didn’t have the time to deal with fools who didn’t know what was good for them and decided to kill him to save himself some trouble. Turning back to the corridor of the walls, he saw eight bodies littered around the ground with the remaining tens of guards having long escaped from the walls.

Looking at the direction the guards were running towards, Lorist cursed, “Sol…” He noticed that the Kenmayses didn’t intend to build just a border fort here, but rather a whole city. 300 meters away from the walls he stood on was another even taller and better fortified wall.

Hearing Ovidis and some of the guard squad members shouting from the outer side of the walls, Lorist said, “Wait a second.”

He then got down to the inner side and opened the gates. The first one to enter was Josk.

“Milord, that was far too reckless of you. You should’ve at least waited for me to disable those ballistas, you know,” said Josk as he came over while carrying a ballista bolt in his hands.

“Am I not in perfect condition now? Don’t worry, you’ll have your chance later. Look ahead, there is another wall there,” said Lorist as he pointed in the far direction.

“No problem, leave it to me! Hiyah!” Josk gave his mount a kick and subsequently sped towards the direction of the wall with Ovidis and the guard squad following behind.

“Sheesh, Joe… I didn’t ask you to attack it now! Sol, he’s pretending not to hear me again and is even increasing his speed…” said Lorist in an irritated tone.

The walls further ahead was far taller than the previous one and it looked far better fortified as well. It was quite worrying for Josk to just bring a squad of men and rush in like that as they may incur heavy losses from attacking recklessly.

Intending to go out of the walls to retrieve his mount, he discovered that it had already returned to where the convoy was. At that moment, it was being pulled by Patt as he slowly approached the walls with Shadekampf and Reidy, who was currently driving a carriage.

Lorist waved for them to hasten their speed, but Patt, Reidy and Shadekampf thought that he was cheering for his solo victory at the walls instead. So, they cheered and waved back cheerfully.

Pissed beyond reason, Lorist thought, normally these fellows are quite witty, but all of a sudden they turn into idiots when you really need them. I really wonder how those geniuses manage to confuse my beckoning for a victory cheer…

When they were finally within shouting distance, the three only realized their mistake after they heard Lorist’s enraged roar. Patt quickly brought the horse over and Lorist gave him a deathly stare. Just as he got onto his mount and prepared to rush to the second wall, an excited guard approached him from the direction he was about to head to and said, “Milord, milord! We’ve successfully taken over that wall!”

“Wha–” mumbled Lorist as he almost slipped off his mount.

“What are the casualties?” asked Lorist anxiously.

“Casualties? There are none, milord,” said the guard before he hesitated and continued, “There are no casualties among the enemy too.”

Lorist was confused. The heck does that mean? If both sides have no casualties at all, then how have we managed to occupy the walls? Is this a children’s game or what?

With a wall as tall as that, the defenders only have to keep shooting from above to chase the attackers away. Even if Josk’s marksmanship was unparalleled, with him being on flat ground, he would still be quite disadvantageous when facing off guards who are stationed up high. Also, with only one bow, it wouldn’t be hard for the defenders to suppress Josk and pressure him away with pure numbers.

Even though Lorist managed to take over the former wall by himself, that was actually due to his bet that the enemy would be caught off-guard by his solo assault. The other factor was the element of surprise that he had employed by swinging himself up onto the walls that was only 4 meters tall.

“How did Knight Josk pull that off?” Lorist asked curiously.

“Oh, milord, Sir Josk only shot three arrows. The first one broke their flag pole, the second one destroyed one of their ballistas and the third shot through the mercenary captain’s two-handed axe. The moment the mercenaries discovered that Josk was a Gold rank, they surrendered right away,” said the messenger.

It was absolutely ludicrous: Lorist could imagine the face of the mercenaries that were stationed there as they discovered that Josk was a Gold ranked archer who was leading a troop of fully-armored soldiers heading their way. It was no surprise that the mere Silver and Iron ranked mercenaries knelt down to surrender without bothering to resist.

But back when Lorist first killed off the 5 guards that rushed at him, the commanding officer thought that he was merely an Iron rank with excellent swordsmanship and didn’t even try to launch a sneak attack and resisted him head-on. Even when the Silver ranked officer was at knifepoint, he would rather take his chances to escape than die an embarrassing death in the hands of an Iron rank.

Upon realizing the reason why the officer had not chosen to surrender, Lorist wore a brilliant smile on his face while actually trying really hard to restrain the frustration in his mind. Thank goodness I didn’t attack the second wall, otherwise the mercenaries wouldn’t surrender until almost all of them are killed. Josk on the other hand only had to show his abilities as a Gold rank to make the enemies surrender. He only had to relaxedly unleash three arrows to cause them to stop all resistance…

“Cursed Battle Force… Cursed Blazing Battle Force… Stupid hereditary Battle Force technique of my family…” mumbled Lorist in annoyance.

“Oh, milord, Sir Josk asked for your presence over there. It seems like he has discovered something important,” said the messenger as he recalled the other matter he was tasked to report.

“Okay, I’ll be on my way now,” said Lorist as he calmed himself. He turned to Shadekampf, Patt, and Reidy and said, “Let the convoy settle down. We’ll set up camp over here today. Make sure to shut the gates and have someone be stationed on the walls, alright?”

“Yes, milord, we understand.”

Chapter 85 The Plan of the Kenmays Family

Lorist felt that the second wall was on a totally different league than the first one he managed to takeover himself. The latter was merely a simple 4-meter-tall pile of rocks whereas the one before him right now was double-layered with a 7-meter-tall outer wall and another inner wall that was easily above 10 meters in height. The surface of the walls was even covered by a layer of green clay, making it smooth and sturdy.

Upon getting up onto the walls, Lorist discovered that the 10-meter-wall he saw from the outside was actually a building that was erected on the walls that had its roof linked to the outer wall which was augmented to a saw-like pattern to match it. Within that building were some military equipment, living quarters for soldiers as well a room in which a broken ballista was kept; that was probably the one that Josk had destroyed previously.

Josk had already been waiting for Lorist for quite a while on top of the walls and greeted him when he saw him approaching.

Lorist said with dissatisfaction, “You were just lucky this time that the defenders were unmotivated mercenaries who only worries for their own lives. Had a proper garrison unit been stationed here, you wouldn’t have been able to take this place without a single casualty.”

Josk laughed and said, “You are right, milord…”

“Also, next time, don’t even dare to pretend that you didn’t hear me. You have to give me some face too, you know?” Lorist continued to complain.

Josk merely snickered in response.

“That aside, I heard that you discovered something important?” said Lorist after he remembered the main reason he rushed over in the first place.

Josk pointed further ahead and said, “It’s all in that room over there. You’ll know what I’m talking about once you see it for yourself, milord.”

Josk was pointing at the five buildings that were built by the side of the walls where a few guard squad members could be seen watching over a few prisoners.

The building in the middle of the five was the largest among the rest. It was about 6 meters in length with a width similar to the buildings beside it at 3 meters. Several large wooden gears and a huge winch could be seen within the room.

“Is this the mechanism used to open and close the portcullis[1][1]?” Lorist asked.

Josk nodded.

Usually, in large cities or cities ruled by a rich lord, a heavy iron portcullis would be installed beyond the main gates. Normally, they will be lifted up and left as is and only be lowered whenever the main gates are breached to serve as a secondary defense.

“Sol, is Viscount Kenmays showing off his wealth? To spend so much money to construct such an expensive fort… It doesn’t sound too practical to do this just to lock the Norton Family within the Northlands… What in the world is he up to?”

“Milord, look behind you. The answer to your question is right there,” Josk replied.

Turning to his back, Lorist could see a small room to his right within which several maps could be seen hanging on the walls. In the middle of the =room was a large sand table on which several castle replicas were placed.

On the sand table, a hill city beside a waterway could be seen surrounded by large spans of farmland. Further away was a mine and beside it was a model of a large factory facility. And at the end of the hill where the city was located was a heavily fortified citadel base.

“This sand table is pretty well-made. Where is that hill city?” Lorist asked.

Josk shook his head and said, “Milord, I don’t know about that. What I wanted you to see was not the whole sand table but rather that castle replica over there. I think the fort we are in right now is a castle in construction.”

Beside the sand table was a semi-complete model of a castle. But upon closer inspection, Lorist noticed from its double walls that was the exact replica of the one he was standing on.

“Heh, Viscount Kenmays really spent quite a lot of money on this project…” said Lorist as he stomped his foot. “Look, the floors and the walls outside are all covered with green clay! If he really intends to complete the construction of this castle, just based on the cost of the green clay required, it would go up to tens of thousands of gold Fordes! Wait, where is that big-bearded fella?”

Green clay was one of the main materials used for construction in the Grindia Continent. It is a lot like cement that was used in Lorist’s previous world and its compositions are quite similar too: both of the materials required lime, sand and clay to be mixed and heated at high temperatures. The main difference was that cement was cheap but green clay cost far more. Cement was usually mixed with water whereas green clay required a special type of glue to be added to the mixture.

Lorist’s attendant, Reidy, had come from the Romon Empire. Within it was a mountainous area where most people were forbidden from entry and trespassers were killed without a question because that was the place where the glue vines were planted. It was said that glue vines were originally not native plants of the Grindia Continent and was actually brought over by the magi from another planar world thousands of years prior. These vines only grew in dark, damp conditions and each one was as thick as a large barrel. When a cut was made on its stem, a light-green liquid would flow out.

While that liquid seemed to be almost as clear as water, when it was heated up, it would turn really viscous and sticky and become exceedingly hard once solidified. That liquid would usually first be diluted with ten times the amount of water and heated before it was mixed with clay, lime and sand to form green clay, the best and most expensive building material on the whole of Grindia. Each bucket of glue would sold for 1 gold Forde and the Romon Empire reaped a yearly profit of up to 1 million gold Fordes from the sales of that green glue.

On the Grindia Continent, the less wealthy would purchase glue that was produced by boiling the skin of a Ground Wyrms to construct their homes (see chapter 25). However, the completed house would have a faint smell of the earth that would easily attract insects and insecticide must be sprayed once in a while to keep it infestation free. Another method was to cook a kind of black glutinous rice and mix it with lime, clay and fine sand to make it into a paste for building. However, buildings made with that allowed for moss to easily grow on it during the rainy season, so it had to be cleaned very often.

The ideal building material one could find was thus green clay that was hard as rock when it solidified and had a slight fragrance that aided to repel insects. Having lived in Morante City where green clay was frequently traded and sold, Lorist wasn’t a stranger to the properties of the material. He was really impressed with the ability of Viscount Kenmays to be able to afford using green clay for a castle in the Northlands.

“Milord, Ovidis has left with half of the guard squad to go capture some people,” said Josk.

“Capturing people?”

“That’s correct. According to the surrendered mercenaries, due to a lack of materials to make green clay, the main construction supervisor of this castle had sent early a thousand slave laborers to go collect lime, clay and sand. Ovidis has left to apprehend these laborers,” explained Josk.

Lorist then recalled that he did in fact not see any workers on the construction site when he came in earlier as they had been away for the aforementioned reason.

“Are the prisoners outside mercenaries? Get their leader to come in here, I want to ask him something,” said Lorist.

The leader of the surrendered mercenaries was quickly brought before Lorist.

What Lorist wanted to know from him was the current situation of the Norton Family.

The mercenary gave it some thought before he answered, “Milord, we have only been hired by Viscount Kenmays less than two months ago. However, I’ve heard that around half a year ago, Viscount Kenmays’s men had taken over the mines and went to attack the bastide of the Norton Family. However, they’ve lost tens of people and failed to conquer the bastide after besieging for up to half a month. After that, the viscount withdrew his troops and started the construction of this fort. By the time I made my way here, it had just been completed. For almost two months I’ve been stationed here, I’ve never seen a person from the Norton Family come by, nor did the scouts patrolling the area detect any of their spies. But, when I was on an assignment to send some supplies to the people at the mines, I heard a mercenary there say that he’s seen someone from the Norton Family back when the viscount was withdrawing his troops. After they discovered that their mines had been taken, there was no other news nor sightings of them.”

“Then do you know how the people who were managing the mines for the Norton Family are doing?” Lorist asked.

The mercenary leader shook his head and said, “I’m not too informed about that, but I believe they are probably forced to mine for the viscount. I remember there being a delivery of half a tonne of iron ore from the mines to the storehouse over here last month.”

At that moment, distant chatters could be heard outside the room before a guard came in to report that Ovidis had returned with the slave laborers.

Lorist and Josk went back out to the walls and could see a long line of slave laborers traveling towards the castle gates flanked by the guard squad troops on both sides with Ovidis leading at the front.

Letting almost 1000 slave laborers settle down took a number of hours, and that was after they had been escorted over obediently. It was fortunate that the camp that they had lived in before they set out to collect building materials was not dismantled yet.

Lorist gathered Josk, Shadekampf, Patt, Reidy and Ovidis and prepared to discuss what to do next.

When Shadekampf and Patt entered the room and saw the sand table, they both let out a gasp of exclamation. They said that it showed part of the dominion of the family and the area that the sand table was modeled after was the terrain of the Morgan Hills.

“Milord, look. That’s our copper mine! And here…” said Shadekampf as he pointed towards the citadel replica that was placed at a corner of the table. “That is where we are at right now. However, there isn’t a city on the hills here. The farmland they have on the table is nothing but forests at the moment. And that waterway on the sand table isn’t anywhere to be seen either…”

Upon hearing Shadekampf’s comments, Lorist’s curiosity piqued and he instructed Ovidis to bring the grand architect and the supervisor of the construction site to him.

The grand architect was a man in his forties and he claimed credit for the design of the castle without even being asked. However, he refused to answer some of Lorist’s question about the castle and even cursed Lorist for cowardly assaulting and taking over the construction site when their side was unprepared. He demanded for Lorist to leave the area or face the consequences.

Lorist and his men all stared wide-eyed at the architect as if he had a screw or two loose in his head. In the end, Lorist was furious at the constant bickering of the middle-aged man and said, “You guys came to my backyard to build your own little building. Don’t you think that I, the master of this land, should be pissed instead? Men, tie this fool up on the flagpole and give him 50 canes to make sure he knows his place.”

After that, the elderly head supervisor of the construction work who sported a goatee, Boris, was recognized by Shadekampf to be the head butler of Viscount Kenmays. He had met that old butler a couple of times during the negotiations between the Nortons and the Kenmayses about the issue of the right to ownership of the copper mine. He had unexpectedly been tasked to serve as the main supervisor of this construction site by the viscount.

The goatee-sporting Boris was actually quite a coward. The moment the pained cries of the architect outside entered his ears, he quickly answered every question that was asked of him without hesitation, swiftly revealing the reason the castle was chosen to be built here as well as many other information about the Kenmays Family.

Viscount Kenmays’s family actually had a merchant background. His father was the chairman of the largest construction merchant guild in the Krissen Empire. During the civil war, he had joined the Second Prince’s side and donated huge sums of money to fund his war efforts. When the Iblia Kingdom was first founded, the viscount’s father had managed to urge the Second Prince to grant his son the hereditary title of a viscount and a dominion in the Northlands in exchange for 200000 gold Fordes.

With the dominion in their hands, the Kenmays Family invested huge amounts of money into building a bastide at Redriver Valley. Being the chairman of the largest construction merchant guild in the empire, the father of Viscount Kenmays had an incredibly profound insight on the current situation. He believed that given the raving ambitions of Duke Loggins and his casual granting of titles to new noble families, the Northlands would definitely be in a long period of chaos before everything settles down. Even though the Kenmays Family had their bastide at Redriver Valley, it didn’t have a terrain that was advantageous to them and would easily fall to enemy attack. That was why the Kenmays Family sent lots of people to survey the area and finally discovered the Morgan Hills, which was near the Kenmays Family’s territory and within the dominion of the Norton Family. It was the ideal place to build a castle given the beneficial terrain. So, the Kenmays Family spent another huge sum to bribe the official that was in charge of drawing the borders between dominions to include the copper mine of the Norton Family into their own and used that as an excuse to start a war with them to force them away from the Morgan Hills so that they could start building the new settlement there.

According to Boris, even though the model of the castle is not yet finished, its blueprints were already completed and was beneath the sand table. When the construction finishes, the castle could house at least 10000 residents and the Kenmays Family intended to make it their main base of operations. As long as they station it with 3000 garrison soldiers, there was no way an enemy would be able to take the castle even if they had a force that was ten times that of the defending side..

As for the hill city that was depicted on the sand table, that was where the Kenmays Family intended to have their citizens live in. WIth it being able to house up to 60000 people and the ease of access to copper ore and timber from areas nearby, it would able to build an industry and economy around those resources. By the time the logging activities free up more land around the area, the waste area could be converted into farmlands. By that time, they could set up farming villages around the city and open up new irrigation channels to be able to sustain the demand for food in their dominion just from their yearly harvests.

To fulfill their grand development plan, the Kenmays Family had invested up to 300000 gold Fordes for the next five years of development to solidify its foundations in the Northlands. However, little did they know that only four months after the plan was started, Lorist had arrived.

“Do you know what the Kenmays Family intends to do with the Norton Family?” Lorist asked.

Boris replied, “I’ve heard the old master discuss it with the young master before. He said that he wouldn’t totally annihilate the Norton Family as they would make a good target for the barbarians of the mountains so that the Kenmays Family’s development will be unimpeded. The old master even said that he would offer the Norton Family help and support to withstand the barbarian attacks if necessary. He has mentioned that he is impressed with the martial prowess of the Norton Family and might consider making them a vassal noble house of the Kenmays Family.”

“If that’s so, then why did they attack the family bastide half a year ago?”

“Half a year after the former head of the Norton Family passed away, the young master sent someone over to negotiate if the Nortons would sell the Morgan Hills to the Kenmayses and end the conflict between the two families. However, the messenger that the young master had sent was insulted by the Nortons, and according to him, the Nortons have torn the young master’s letter apart and said to the messenger that they wouldn’t consider selling the smallest rock on Norton soil to the Kenmayses before chasing him away. That was why the young master besieged the bastide in a fit of rage, but he didn’t succeed anyway. After that incident, he decided to carry out the development plan early and seal the Norton Family off from the rest of the world so that they will one day come out begging him to be forgiven,” said Boris.

“Okay, then what’s with the grand architect?” asked Lorist as he thought of the middle-aged man who must’ve been insane.

“Milord, Grandmaster Ciroba is the most accomplished architect in the Iblia Kingdom! Two years ago, the Rose Palace which he designed had received critical acclaim and that project had caused the grandmaster’s name to soar to fame. He’s a treasured talent of the Second Prince. The old master has spent quite a lot of money to hire Grandmaster Ciroba to come over here to plan the construction of the young master’s city. Now that the main blueprints are complete, he should’ve been preparing to leave for the royal capital. Sigh, given his arrogant temperament, he even dares to not show any respect to dukes and marquises of the Second Prince’s royal court. I believe milord’s decision to punish him like that will definitely cause a lot of uproar,” said Boris awkwardly.

“Hehe…” Lorist laughed lightly and thought, so that grand architect does indeed have a couple of screws loose in his head. The dukes and marquises he dared to disrespect are merely honorary nobles that have no real power. But he is truly looking for trouble for being brave enough to act like that in front of a landed noble like me…

[1] Vertically-closing gates at a castle gateway. See: Wikipedia

Chapter 86 Construction Staff Appointment

During morning the next day, Josk, Shadekampf and Patt brought fifty guards and 24 carriages with them to the copper mine. The main reason for that excursion was to rescue the members of the Norton Family as well as eliminate the thirty or so mercenaries hired by the Kenmayses to be stationed over there.

Ovidis and Reidy on the other hand repurposed the coachmen into a garrison squad which was tasked with maintaining the security of the two walls of the castle in construction. The remaining 70 or so guard squad members were subsequently assigned to watch over the thousands of slave laborers and the surrendered mercenaries.

The plan had been drafted out the night before. Originally, Lorist wanted to go to the mines himself, but that idea spawned unanimous disapproval from his subordinates. Josk said that they couldn’t let Lorist, their leader, do all the heavy-lifting and said that his frequent handling of every matter, large or small, caused a family knight like him to feel pathetic and useless. Lorist thus agreed to allow Josk to bring Shadekampf and Patt with him to the mines while he stayed put at the construction site.

After sending Josk and the rest off, Lorist patrolled the surroundings for a bit before returning to the building atop the inner walls. The more he stared at the sand table, the more questions surfaced within his mind. Having only obtained their dominion for less than two years, the Kenmays Family was able to carry out their expansion plan within such a short time. However, even though the Nortons have been enfeoffed their dominion for two hundred or so years and have had 7 generations of family heads, not only were they unable to successfully develop their land, they even ended up being sealed in the Northlands. Given the dire state of the family, they could only turtle up and hide in their bastide without being able to retaliate.

Lorist really troubled himself over the fact that his own family had allowed the Kenmayses to do as they pleased within their dominion without taking any action. Given that the Nortons have successfully repelled the assault on their bastide by the viscount half a year ago, and taking into account that the viscount himself had lost tens of men during that assault, it showed that the Norton Family still had quite a bit of military power. Logically speaking, the moment Viscount Kenmays started to retreat, the Norton Family would’ve sent some scouts to monitor the situation of the enemy’s soldiers. However, not even one scout has been sighted during that span of time. What, then, had happened to the family?

It could be that the family had sent out scouts already on another target other than the Kenmays Family, but according to the leader of the mercenaries, one such scout had quickly left after discovering that the copper mine had been taken over. Sigh, I really shouldn’t be thinking about the potential income the mine would bring during a situation like this. Additionally, even if the mine was being occupied, they should at least worry about the wellbeing of the Norton Family members who were working there. However, not even a single messenger was sent to the Kenmays Family to negotiate their release. It was truly too weird.

Even though Lorist was only 1 day of traveling away from the family bastide, he couldn’t just leave everything here and depart without the others. He would still have to consider how he would manage the 1000 or so slave laborers as well as the 40-odd surrendered mercenaries as well as what to do with the semi-complete castle that he had just conquered. Lorist really missed Charade’s presence; if he were there, Lorist would be able to leave everything to him without any worries.

Upon thinking of Charade, Lorist’s thoughts drifted onto his fellow knights and friends, Potterfang, Loze, Els, Terman and Yuriy. I wonder if they’ve started the journey again with the convoy and how long they will take before they arrive at the Northlands. Gosh, there’s the trouble of making the preparations for the arrival of the convoy as well…

Lorist’s head started to hurt when he recalled the large group of people that was traveling to the Northlands. Given Charade’s temper, how many of them would still remain by the time they reach the dominion? 20000? Or 30000? Thinking of how to let the people of the convoy settle down after they arrive was also quite a huge undertaking.

Looking back at the sand table, Lorist’s gaze suddenly brightened up as he thought, isn’t this the perfect place for them to settle down? I only have to take the plan of the Kenmays Family and implement it myself! If I choose to continue the construction of the castle here, the slave laborers would also have retain their jobs and I won’t have to trouble myself to think about what to do with them. And when the castle is complete, I can have them go work on the hill city, after which they will be granted freedom and allowed to become citizens of the family’s dominion.

Lorist wasn’t worried about the costs involved to build the castle, as he wasn’t lacking in money. There were only two things that he had to carefully consider. First, was the staff he would appoint to supervise and manage the construction project. Second, he would have to find a way to procure the materials required for the construction. Being the founder of one of the largest construction merchant guild of the former empire, the Kenmays Family naturally would have their own ways of finding materials and workers for their project. However, Lorist didn’t have that ability and the Kenmayses may even prove to be an obstacle to the project’s continuation.

“Men, get that old man with a goatee, what’s his name… Ah, I remember. Get Boris to come here,” instructed Lorist to the guards outside.

Butler Boris was quickly brought over and Lorist started to ask him about further details on the blueprints of the castle as well as some more information on the Kenmays Family.

According to Boris, Viscount Kenmays wasn’t living at the Redriver Valley Bastide but rather the most developed city in the Northlands that was within the dominion of Duke Loggins, Gildusk City, where he owned a large viscount manor. Ever since Viscount Kenmays’s cousin sister had become a mistress of the duke, the relationship of the Kenmays Family and Duke Loggins had gotten pretty close. The Kenmayses has also helped out quite a lot with the formation of the duke’s Northland Army.

Viscount Kenmays preferred to stay in Gildusk City because he was a man who revelled in the parties and social gatherings of the nobles there and loved the company of the other noble ladies which his rural bastide castle was completely devoid of. The other reason was to maintain his good relationship with the duke. His presence during the return of his family’s convoys when it entered the customs of the duke’s dominion also made it harder for the duke to brazenly purchase too many items for half the market price.

The Redriver Valley Bastide of the Kenmays Family was currently only serving as a transfer point for the resources and supplies they transported around. And the butler also revealed that there would be a large shipment of around 3000 buckets of green vine glue, construction tools, an estimated 250000 kilograms of food as well as some other necessities like clothes to the construction site on the 10th of the next month. There might even be around 1000 extra slave laborers with another 200 or so female slaves.

“Are the female slaves the family members of the slave laborers?” asked Lorist curiously.

“Um, they aren’t, milord. The slave laborers are mostly strong and virile youths. So, to stop them from causing trouble, we must placate and reward them once in a while. These female slaves are for that specific purpose. If the laborers perform well in their work, they would be allowed to spend a night with a female slave. This is a tried and true method the Kenmays Family has used to manage their slaves over the years,” said Butler Boris.

Sol, that means that the women are there only to serve as sex slaves. Shaking his head, Lorist asked, “Are the Kenmayses that rich? I heard that they got their dominion by donating 200000 gold Fordes to the Second Prince. They should’ve spent quite a bit on the construction of Redriver Valley Bastide during the last two years. And now, they are prepared to allocate another 300000 gold Fordes for the development of the Morgan Hills. They must have at least millions of gold Fordes in hand to be able to accomplish all that.” Lorist then pointed to the sand table.

Butler Boris explained, “Milord, from my experience of working at the Kenmays Family for 40 plus years, they are actually doing worse than before. I’ve always believed that the old master had decided to develop the Morgan Hills as a final lifeline for the Kenmays Family. They haven’t made much money after the civil war broke out in the empire a few years prior. And ever since the founding of the Second Prince’s Iblia Kingdom, they have been using their reserve funds. Even though the budget for the development of Morgan Hills is 300000 gold Fordes, 100000 of that is allocated to the construction of the castle and the city while the rest will be used to help the citizens settle down after the completion of the construction.”

“100000? That shouldn’t be possible. Based on my estimations, the construction of the castle should cost at least seventy to eighty thousand gold Fordes. There’s no way that 100000 gold Fordes would be enough for both the castle and the hill city,” said Lorist.

“Milord, in actuality, the cost for the construction of the castle is only 30000 gold Fordes, with most of the money being used to purchase the 12000 buckets of green vine glue and the rest to be spent on the resources and food required by the workers. Given that the main labor force of this construction project will be the slaves of the family, it wouldn’t cost them anything. And, some of the building materials can be foraged from the surrounding area. For example, the completion of this wall only used up 2000 buckets of green vine glue: the other materials used to make green clay were mostly gathered from the surroundings.”

Oh, so according to Boris, apart from the green vine glue, the rest of the building materials can be harnessed elsewhere. This is good news indeed.

“Then, Butler Boris, you should understand how much supplies is left over here right?” Lorist asked.

Given that they had just conquered the castle the day before and Josk having just set out during the morning to the copper mine, Lorist’s group still hadn’t made an inventory of the supplies at the construction site.

“Milord, during the past four months, there have been 3 shipments of resources to the construction site that mostly comprised of green vine glue and food. With every shipment having 3000 buckets of green vine glue and given that 2000 buckets have been used to construct the walls, there are currently 7000 buckets remaining. By the time the next shipment on the 10th of the next month arrives, the 12000 buckets required for the construction of the castle will have all have been delivered and the following shipments after that will mainly concern food. If there are no changes, the shipment should come as planned. Nowadays, the food we have in the warehouse is running low with around 20000 kilograms left. The next order for food is supposed to be carried out after the following shipment, but now that you’ve conquered the site, there is a chance that it wouldn’t come anymore. So, you will have to provide food for these laborers.”

Boris looked at Lorist for a while before he continued, “Milord, The food available to the slave laborers is really limited. Given the tiresome nature of their work, each person requires 1.5 kilograms of food that will be split up into three meals a day. That means that the 1000 slave laborers would consume more than 50000 kilograms each month[1]. Milord, if you intend to use the slave laborers, you must make sure they have enough food to sustain them.”

Lorist stood up, went beside Boris and gave his shoulder a pat before saying, “Butler Boris, you’re pretty good at what you do. If you continue to give it your best, the Norton Family will definitely not mistreat you. Alright, you may go back for now.”

“Yes, milord,” said Boris as he bowed and started to leave. Just before he exited the room, Lorist suddenly thought of something else.

“Oh, wait, Butler Boris, where did the Kenmays Family buy so many of these ballistas?”

Boris replied, “Milord, these ballistas were order-made and not purchased. Three years ago when the Kenmays Family went to purchase slaves, they bought a father and son who used to be famed ballista craftsmen of the Teribo Kingdom who was sold into slavery as a result of offending a noble. Even though the Kenmays Family was a landed noble family, they did not have good family knights nor did they have a proper garrison, so they could only hire mercenaries to defend their territories. To strengthen their castle’s defense, they sent the father and son over here to craft some ballistas to be installed here.”

“Where are the two that you’ve mentioned right now?”

“They’re together with the slave laborers,” said Boris.

“How about this, Boris, please make sure the father and son have everything they need. They will be of good use to me in the future. And you, accompany Butler Boris on this errand and make sure to cooperate with him in completing it,” said Lorist to a guard standing nearby.

“Yes, milord.”

……

As Lorist circled around the sand table within the room, he thought about what Boris had said. The issue with the food wouldn’t be a problem as the smaller convoy he had returned with had more than 50000 kilograms of food which would definitely be able to last the workers a whole month. By the time he returns to the dominion, he would then be able to send more food over to the construction site. Or, he could try to take the food shipment that will be coming the next month, though that was still some time away so there wasn’t a need to worry.

It was currently the 32nd day of the 2nd month and Josk and the others would be returning the next day. The day after that would be the 34th day of the 2nd month and Lorist had to depart for the family bastide no matter what on that day. However, who would be in charge of the construction of the castle after his departure? There was no way Josk could, as he was a lone ranger who wasn’t that good at working with others and hated troublesome matters like this, as exemplified from his previous performance when Lorist once asked him to form a mounted cavalry unit only to have Josk quit after a few days due to lack of interest after sending the men back to Yuriy’s light cavalry scouts.

Shadekampf must also return together with him as Lorist would need him as a guide given that he had not been there in person even once before as he had transmigrated when the original owner of the body was studying at Morante City. He could have Josk, Reidy and Ovidis stationed here to watch the place and he believed that the guard squad would be more than sufficient for the castle’s defense. However, Lorist needed someone to be in charge as he didn’t know how long he would spend at the family bastide before he would be able to return to the castle here.

“Bring the grand architect over here,” instructed Lorist.

The architect who had been given 50 canes had been brought before him. The once arrogant looking man currently looked incredibly haggard with his hair tousled all over his face and his garments torn and stained with blood. With a body full of cane marks, he slowly limped into the room.

“Grandmaster Ciroba? It was pretty rude of me the day before. I am the dominion lord of this land, Norton Lorist and I intend to have the construction of this castle continue as planned. I wonder if you would be willing to oversee the construction for me? I will definitely give you the appropriate remuneration for your efforts,” said Lorist sincerely.

Grandmaster Ciroba merely gave Lorist a venomous glare without saying a word, having learned his lesson the day before. But he still spit on the floor and looked high up to the roof, indicating that he did not intend to give Lorist any heed.

Bursting out in laughter, Lorist told the guard, “Since he dirtied my room, should I have him lick his own spit clean?”

“Milord, that sounds like a good idea,” replied the guard with a serious look.

Grandmaster Ciroba’s face tensed up as he shivered at that moment…

“Oh well, let’s not give him a hard time. For someone of his age to still behave so uncouthly… Just bring him back to his quarters,” said Lorist.

[1] Each month on the Grindia Continent is 35 days long. See Chapter 30 for an explanation of the calendar.

Chapter 87 Homecoming

Lorist went out of the room and looked downward from the side of the wall.

The surrounding terrain was actually a valley. The distance between the two walls at either end of the valley was easily over 300 meters. The first wall that sealed off the entry of the valley into the Northlands was 70 to 80 meters long. Beyond that wall was a large empty meadow spanning 800 meters surrounded by mountains on each side, with another opening on the other end that was around 200 meters wide. Now that the walls were completed, the two valleys were effectively shut off.

This truly is a great place to build a city. The lands within the valley was flat and even, making it an ideal spot for a mountain fort. Even though there was nothing but hills on one side, the mountainous terrain that stretched deep into the Black Forests had formed a natural barrier that prevented entry to the valley from anywhere other than the two openings where the walls were constructed.

Within the valley, the slave laborers gathered together under the sun and chatted in their respective groups with the occasional brawl breaking out. To them, days like these when they didn’t have to work were exceedingly rare opportunities to rest. The tens of guards who were standing guard even gave the slaves looks of envy from time to time.

At another corner of the valley were rows of decrepit wooden buildings that were surrounded by a wall constructed from tree trunks lined up side by side. That was the warehouse that Butler Boris had referred to where the 7000 buckets of green vine glue, food and other construction materials were stored.

A little further away from the warehouse was a large camp where many carriages could be seen. That was the camp that the convoy Lorist brought over had set up. A few of the family members of the guard squad soldiers could be seen bringing buckets of clean water from a nearby lake to wash their clothes with.

At that moment, a little girl could be seen capturing bugs within the bushes near the convoy’s camp as her ponytail swayed like a pendulum from her running around.

Isn’t that Miss Telesti’s maidservant, Vinny? Lorist started to think of Telesti upon seeing that young maidservant and slapped his forehead. I now have my construction manager.

“Go invite Miss Telesti over here and tell her that I have something I need to talk to her about,” instructed Lorist to a guard nearby.

After a while, Telesti brought Vinny and her Iron ranked butler to the 200-meter-long wall at the other end of the valley and Lorist brought them into the room with the sand table and subsequently told her about his plans to continue the construction of the hill city and sincerely requested for Telesti to become the person in charge of the project.

“Why was I picked to be the person in charge for this undertaking?” asked Telesti curiously.

Lorist shrugged and said, “Sigh, I don’t have a choice. None of my men are suited for this task. The fortunate thing is that the blueprints have already been completed with the replica model of the castle being finished halfway. Apart from some details that may need to be ironed out, there is no need to redesign everything from scratch. And you, Miss Telesti, the adopted daughter and student of the famed scholar Nico Albess, must have inherited the knowledge and intelligence of your mother and have become an accomplished scholar yourself. Since you can understand the complicated routes of the ancient ruins, there’s no one more suitable to work with these blueprints than you, right?”

Telesti still appeared hesitant. Lorist said that he would naturally assign some subordinates under her to work on the project together. And given his absence, Josk and Ovidis would be in charge of the defense of the area. He said that Telesti only had to focus on the construction of the city and that he would let her manage Boris, Reidy and the 1000 slave laborers as she saw fit.

Now that the Northlands was in turmoil, Lorist had no choice but to return to his dominion to quickly settle things. He promised Telesti that if she were to help out, after he stabilizes the family’s situation in the Northlands, he would definitely bring her to the Blackmud Marsh for a trip. And after the completion of the city in the valley, he would allow her to pick her own villa where she would be able to continue her research for the rest of her life with the funding provided by the family.

It was not known which of the conditions had caused Telesti to change her mind, but she accepted the position as the manager of the project right away.

Letting out a relieved breath, Lorist instructed someone to bring Boris and Reidy over and ordered them to cooperate with Telesti with regards to the construction project. After that, he said that he would let her use the five buildings on the inner wall as her main office for the construction work.

Morning on the next day, Lorist noticed the 1000 or so slave laborers leave the valley in a neat line escorted by Reidy and Telesti’s Iron ranked butler and another 40 plus guards to collect more building materials.

Upon entering the main construction office, he saw Telesti talking to Boris with the latter nodding fervently.

Seeing Lorist enter, Telesti asked him what business he had there.

Lorist mentioned that there were a few parts of the design that he’d like to augment and started showing the both of them by using the model of the castle.

The Kenmays Family had intended to develop the valley into a military stronghold that housed only the members of the Kenmayses, the garrison soldiers as well as their respective family members. That was the point that frustrated Lorist the most.

Pointing to the model, he said, “Look, they even prepared to erect another castle in the middle of the valley. Given that we already have the two walls at both ends, there would be no need for the castle in the middle, so we can do without it. Using the mountainside castle walls as the main base of the city will be more than enough. Now that the castle in the middle is removed, we can use the empty space for a plaza and build residential areas and marketplaces around it.”

Telesti agreed wholeheartedly to the change as she personally hated the design of the city where another castle was placed flat in the middle and thoroughly destroying the landscape of the valley. Now that the plan to build castle had been abolished, not only would the difficulty in constructing the city decrease, it would also save them a lot of work.

The second thing Lorist wished to change was the four-meter-tall rock wall. The Kenmays Family had spent three months to construct that taller wall that faced the dominion of the Nortons and simply slapped together the 4 meter one with a couple of rocks at the entrance of the valley that bordered their own dominion.

Now that Lorist had already taken over this valley, he decided to revamp the shorter rock wall into a first line of defense for his dominion. Before Lorist entered the room, Telesti and Boris were discussing how to strengthen the fortifications of that wall.

What Lorist had in mind was not to have a common flat wall. He took out a blank beastskin and started drawing an arc with a protrusion in the middle of it and requested for the wall to be built like that. If the wall spanned more than 200 meters like the one they were standing on, it would take a long time to complete the changes. However, the shorter wall on the other side was only around 80 meters long and it would only take up to one month of intensive work to completely change it according to Lorist’s design.

Seeing Telesti write his requirements down, Lorist bade farewell and left.

In the evening, Josk, Patt and Shadekampf returned from the copper mine after the successful completion of their mission. They brought back tens of mercenary captives and saved over 70 members of the Norton Family who had been put in charge of the mining operations.

Shadekampf brought over a white-haired man who was in his sixties and said, “Milord, this is Old Man Balk, the supervisor of the family’s copper mine.”

Balk greeted Lorist in an elaborate manner as his eyes teared up and said, “Milord, thank you for remembering and rescuing us from there…”

Lorist helped Balk up and said that he would never forget about the people of his family and that it was his obligation to look out for them, so there wasn’t a need to be that polite. Now that the toughest times had passed, the family still had to develop in the future and he mentioned that he would require people like Balk to give their best efforts to ensure that happened quickly. However, he told Balk to rest up for a period of time as he had just been saved from forced labor within the mine.

Balk was extremely moved when he heard that. “I know that many things haven’t gone too well for the family during the last two years, especially after the Third Young Master passed away. This time, our copper mine has also been forcibly occupied by the Kenmays Family and we were thrown into the it to work as captives. I never expected for anyone from the family to come rescue us and thought that I would be mining there for the rest of my life. I really didn’t expect that Master Lorist, you would delay your return to the bastide to inherit your title for the sake of rescuing us…

“That’s why, don’t worry about me! My body is in great condition, so please give me some work to do as I can’t just sit around doing nothing!” Lorist subsequently gathered the rest of the group and made his arrangements and also sent Old Man Balk to help Telesti out with her work.

On the 34th day of the 2nd month, Lorist left for the family bastide along with Shadekampf and Patt on a carriage after bidding their farewells.

In Lorist’s memories, he recalled that there were a lot of maple trees around Norton Family bastide and every autumn, the leaves would turn fiery-red and paint the whole landscape in a beautiful, nostalgic red. Within the midst of the maple tree forest was a grand, white hill where the Norton Family bastide was located.

The young Lorist’s memories contained a brief impression of the bastide. It was a really large place with vineyards, livestock farms as well as a large crescent-shaped lake where children would have fun in during the summer. Opposite the lake was the stable of the family that housed the handsome horses that the young Lorist used to admire so often in a daze. At that time, his mother was still alive and lovingly referred to him as little horse lover…

Seven hours after they departed, Shadekampf stopped the carriage and knocked on the door of the passenger compartment. “Milord, we’ve arrived.”

Lorist stepped out of the carriage and discovered that he was standing in front of a greyish-white castle. The drawbridge has yet to be let down for them.

“What’s wrong, Patt? Shouldn’t the drawbridge be lowered by now?” Lorist asked.

Patt said, “Milord, there’s nobody standing guard outside at all. I think that the people within still don’t know that we’re here…”

Shadekampf went back into the carriage and reemerged with a horn in his hand before he gave it two loud blows.

“Who goes there?” said a voice as two people appeared on the walls of the castle and looked at the ground below.

“It’s me, Shadekampf! And there’s Patt! We’ve brought the Second Young Master back!” shouted Shadekampf.

“What? The Second Young Master is back? Wait, let me report it to Butler Gleis and Milady Pesha…” said the voice before the two silhouettes on the walls disappeared. After a while, Lorist heard another sound of a horn from the top of the walls before the drawbridge was steadily lowered. The moment the main gates opened wide, a red-haired female knight carrying a horse whip walked outside with wide steps.

“Shadekampf, so you’ve returned after all. I thought that you’ve died in some corner of nowhere,” said the female knight as she gave Shadekampf, who was standing at the side respectfully, a whip with a laugh.

Shadekampf lowered his head and said, “Thanks to your blessings, we’ve successfully found the Second Young Master and brought him back, as per our orders.”

The female knight replied, “You two are pretty lucky…”

After that, she turned to Patt and said, “Huh, you’ve changed so much after returning from this excursion. I can barely even recognize you anymore…”

Patt didn’t answer and merely nodded towards the female knight.

She didn’t mind his silence and walked up to Lorist before staring hard at him. “Second Young Master?”

Within Lorist’s memories, apart from his father, the one he most hated was that red-haired girl who frequently took his elder brother away from him and followed him around all day. Once, he curiously tugged on that girl’s red ponytail and ended up getting pummeled very harshly as a result…

Now that the girl from back then had grown up, she turned into a tall, bright-looking female knight.

Lorist broke the silence and said, “Si-sister Pesha…”

Seeing that Lorist still remembered the respectful way he addressed her as a child, the red-haired female knight nodded in satisfaction. “Not bad. Little Locke, you’ve grown up so much and have become so tall. It’s great to have you back. You must’ve suffered quite a bit on the way here, huh. Come in, Old Butler Gleis is already waiting for you.”

Gleis was already at a very senior age; back when Lorist left his homeland, he was already 63. Now that ten years had passed, he had aged even more quickly and already lost his ability to walk. However, his Battle Force training still lingered and even though he wasn’t as strong and capable as he formerly was, his gaze was still cool and sharp.

Holding onto Lorist’s hand and not willing to let go at his sickbed, the old butler made a happy, yet melancholic expression and said, “Child, I don’t know if I should be happy that you’ve returned or not. The current state of the Norton Family is like a sinking ship. We might just be sending you to your doom by pulling you into the same boat as us…”

Lorist laughed and said, “Grandpa Gleis, as a descendant of the Norton Family, it is my duty to come back and help out during times of trouble. I will definitely not let our family that has weathered through the last 200 years fade into the ashes of time just like that. The Norton name will one day become one that fills the whole continent with awe.”

Gleis looked at him admirably and smiled. “Child, it is good to have some ambition. However, we should always take things step by step. Go have something to eat and rest up. We’ll prepare you for the inheritance ceremony tomorrow. The family has been squabbling over this issue of inheritance for quite some time. I’m sure the matter will be put to rest now that you’ll be inheriting the position of the family head.”

Lorist stood up from the butler’s bed and bade him goodnight before he left with Patt and Shadekampf to the dining hall.

Chapter 88 Power Struggle Rumors

Within Lorist’s recollections, the dining hall should be the largest place within the castle of the Nortons. Every time his father hosted a banquet, the hall would always be filled to the brim with people enjoying delicious food and big mugs of ale. The partygoers that made merry throughout the banquets would always leave the floors in a terrible mess.

Lorist realized that the dining hall Shadekampf and Patt were leading him to wasn’t the one within his memories after they took a different turn. He asked curiously, “Isn’t the dining hall over there? Why are we heading here instead?”

Shadekampf asked, “Young Master, you still remember where the dining hall is at?”

“Naturally, I’ve only been away for ten years you know. I can still recall bits of my childhood,” said Lorist.

“Young Master, we’re not heading to the main dining hall. After the Old Master passed away, it hasn’t been used ever since. We’re heading to the smaller one,” said Shadekampf.

The smaller dining hall Shadekampf was referring to was a small wooden hut that was built outside the kitchen. With the walls and flooring all constructed from wood and a large wooden long table within, it could house around ten people. Beyond the long wooden table was a bricked fireplace that was currently lit with several pieces of meat on metal sticks sizzling above the brazier that was right next to it.

A chubby cooking lady brought a large basin on the table within which a large, steaming bread was placed. On it was a saw-toothed knife. Taking the knife out, Shadekampf cut off three smaller pieces from the bread and handed them to Lorist. “Young Master, eat them while they’re hot. It tastes pretty good, especially with some salt and honey that you can find on the table.”

The cooking lady then brought another large bowl of potato and rib stew before she served the meat that was being grilled atop the brazier. Lastly, she put a bowl of baked apples onto the table and sprinkled it with some maple syrup.

“Dinner is served,” said the cooking lady coldly before she left with a gloomy expression.

“What’s up with her? Did I wrong her in some way?” said Shadekampf in a surprised tone as he looked towards Patt.

Patt merely shook his head.

“You didn’t wrong her in any way. But she’s unhappy that you brought back the Second Young Master,” said Pesha as she entered the room.

“Why would that piss her off?” Shadekampf continued to question.

“She used to be one of the Old Master’s personal maidservants and she bore him a son. Even though he was merely an illegitimate one, the blood of the Nortons still flows within his veins. If the Second Young Master didn’t make his way back, the next family head would naturally be chosen among the other illegitimate sons,” explained the red-haired female knight as she pulled out the knife that was stuck within the bread and used it to cut a maple syrup-covered apple she took out from the bowl into several small pieces.

“That’s only a pipe dream of hers,” Patt commented.

“LIttle Locke, what is your Battle Force rank?” asked the female knight casually as she stuffed a piece of the apple into her mouth.

“Iron,” Lorist replied.

“You’re still an Iron rank after spending ten years at Morante City? Sigh, I guess you truly are the most useless one among you three brothers. Little Locke, let me put this out first, it’s not that I am against you being the family leader, since there is nobody other than you have the most rightful claim to the position. However, you should remember this. First, don’t even dare to mess with my affairs as you have no right! Second, the Norton Family is in a bad state, so we can’t afford to have you messing around with it. That’s why you should stay in the castle obediently after you inherit the position, understand?” said the female knight as she glared at Lorist.

“Mistress, you don’t understand… The Young Master is…” uttered Shadekampf.

“Shut up! Know your place!” Pesha roared.

Lorist merely nodded.

As if she had won the argument, the woman humphed in satisfaction and took wide steps out of the room with her chest puffed out.

“The mistress thinks too much of herself,” said Shadekampf.

“She’s merely a frog at the bottom of the well who can’t even fathom the existence of the world outside it,” said Patt.

Lorist said, “Shadekampf, Patt, after you’ve finished your meals, go gather some information about the situation here in the castle. I feel that something is off and that the people here isn’t too fond of my return.”

……

“Young Master, we’re here,” said Patt as he took out the key Gleis had given him and unlocked the door to the study.

Having been closed off for quite a period of time, the air in the study smelled stuffy and stale. Patt quickly opened the windows to let some fresh air into the room.

After that, Patt said, “Young Master, I’ll be leaving now. If you have anything you need, I’ll be waiting by the stairwell.”

Lorist nodded and headed for the desk at the back of the study.

He recalled that his late father, Baron Norton, used to give out orders while sitting behind that exact desk.

Opening the drawer of the desk, he found some old account books and notes as well as another iron box. He remembered that within the box was the Battle Force manual that was passed down within the family. After opening the iron box, a thick beastskin book was revealed before his eyes and on its cover were four large words with an ancient air: ‘Crimsonblood Battle Force’.

Lorist was stunned. Wasn’t the hereditary family Battle Force the Blazing Battle Force? Since when has it become the Crimsonblood Battle Force?

As his mind sifted through the memories of the young Lorist, he recalled a peculiar scene. As the young Lorist was copying the Battle Force manual, he asked his elder brother, “What are you doing?”

His brother replied, “I’m making a new book jacket for Pesha. The one she had is already in quite a sorry state, so I’m making another for her.”

The young Lorist then said, “I want one too, brother. You must be fair to both Pesha and me.”

“Alright, good thing I have two over here. I’ll give the smaller one to you,” his brother replied. He then handed Lorist a beastskin book jacket with the words ‘Blazing Battle Force’ on it for Lorist to cover his hand copy of the first two stages of his Battle Force technique with.

What the heck! That stupid child and his stupid brother! Lorist didn’t know whether he should laugh or cry at the blunder that had caused him to think that his Battle Force was of the fire attribute and made him waste so much time researching other Battle Force manuals, only to end up with him deciding to train in the Aquametal Technique that was passed down to him in his previous life.

Had he known that the technique he trained in was called the Crimsonblood Battle Force, Lorist would have purchased the Burning Blood Battle Force manual that was put up on sale at the mercenary guild of Morante City. Given that it was a blood attribute high-ranked Battle Force technique, it was considered a rare treasure by the mercenary guild and was priced at a staggering 15000 gold Fordes.

The main difference between blood attribute techniques and that of other attributes was that no matter what attribute one’s original awakened Battle Force was, upon training in a blood attribute technique, one’s Battle Force attribute would irreversibly change into the blood type as well. That was also why Lorist didn’t bother to buy a blood attribute Battle Force technique in Morante City during his days of research, as apart from the one one sale at the mercenary guild, there wasn’t any other place where he could find a blood attribute technique.

Flipping the manual open, he saw the first two chapters that detailed the basic hexagonal blood circulation map that he was familiar with. After that was the chapter for the Silver ranked stage of the technique. Reading the main points and memorizing the differences between nodes of the Iron rank circulation path and that of the Silver rank, Lorist circulated his Battle Force and moved it according to the Silver ranked path…

He then drew his sword and a blade glow emanated from it after he injected the sword with his Battle Force. Giving a bitter laugh, he thought, I’ve finally broke through the Silver rank. However, my blade glow won’t be able to hold for long as my Battle Force still dissipates into my meridians and dantian region. Without the Battle Force circulating in my bloodstream, I won’t be able to sustain the blade glow for long. Oh well, I guess I’ll still pass myself off as an Iron rank to catch people off guard with my Dark Stage power.

A few knocks rang out at the door of the study.

“Enter,” said Lorist.

A girl dressed in a white gown entered the study and gave Lorist a quick glance before lowering her head. “Second Young Master, your bedroom is already prepared. Just take a turn when you get up the stairs and you’ll reach it. Oh, your bedsheets have also been switched as well. When you want to take a bath, please ring the bell with the blue rope beside your bed and I’ll start preparing the bathwater quickly…”

The girl’s voice gradually grew softer and softer until she was less audible than a mosquito.

Lorist felt that it was funny how the girl was so afraid of himself. He waved his hand and said, “You may leave now. I will call for you when necessary.”

As if she was granted amnesty, the girl bowed her head another time before she left hastily and almost bumped into Shadekampf who had just entered from the door.

Shadekampf looked at the girl and said, “Irina, it’s you?!”

When Shadekampf closed the door to the study, Lorist asked him, “Do you know the girl from before?”

“Yes, she’s called Irina and she was originally the Third Young Master’s personal maidservant and she’s older than him by one year. She’s the one who grieved the most at the passing of the Third Young Master and cried day and night,” Shadekampf replied.

“Do you have any news for me?” Lorist asked.

“Yes, Young Master. You wouldn’t be able to imagine how heated the quarrel for the position of the family head has been among the various factions in the family. However, the moment you returned, the fight suddenly died down as they had no more hope for it,” said Shadekampf with a smile, as if something funny had happened.

“What’s so funny about that? Tell me.”

“Young Master, despite dating the First Young Master for a couple of years now, not only did Mistress Pesha not bear any children for him, he even found another maidservant which he had a son with immediately after merely two encounters. Mistress Pesha had intended to make that son inherit the position of the family head, but that notion had been struck down by the rest of the family. Being put in an awkward position, your return has made it easier for Mistress Pesha to step down.”

“Why would the others be against the son of my brother being the next family head?” Lorist asked.

“Young Master, that child is only 4 years old and can be considered your junior by a whole generation. That’s why the mistress’s claim was disapproved by many.”

“Who are the ones who didn’t agree with her?”

“Well, you should be wary of Molocinque, who’s the first illegitimate son of your father and is the eldest of the bunch. I heard that he has obtained the support of the families of the garrison of Wildnorth Town, which was the main reason why he wasn’t approved as a candidate for the next family head. Also, half a year back when the Kenmays Family surrounded our castle with their troops, the 7th illegitimate son of your father, Wellickson, has shown his bravery and performed very well in fending off the enemy. He has quite a lot of support from the elderly within the castle. The last one is the son of the cooking lady from before. She had tried to get the rest of the servants to support his son to become the next family head. Two other of your father’s other personal maidservants also felt that their sons would be fit for the family head, however, causing the servants to split into three factions which argued all the time.”

“Stop… Shadekampf, how many illegitimate sons and daughters does my father have?” Lorist’s head started to hurt. The situation he was in was not much different from the dramas in his previous life that depicted the squabbles of rich families. He didn’t expect that even his illegitimate brothers were also gunning for the position of the family head.

“There are 17 illegitimate children. If we include you and your two brothers, the Old Master had 20 children in total,” replied Shadekampf hesitantly. “Including you, there are only 11 that are still alive.”

“Are they all males?”

“No, milord. There are four illegitimate daughters, two of which are already married with the other two still only in their teens.”

“Then does that mean all the living illegitimate sons are part of the power struggle?”

“Yes, milord.”

“I understand now,” Lorist said. “I’ve been wondering why the family hasn’t taken any action and allowed the Kenmays Family to do as they please. So the bastards have all decided to pretend to not notice these matters until the family head is decided and even ignored the wellbeing of those working in the mine… How ridiculous.”

Shadekampf felt curious and asked, “Why did Old Butler Gleis leave them to squabble among themselves without doing anything about it?”

“It’s simple. Gleis himself wasn’t sure if I would come back to the dominion to inherit the position. What if Patt and you couldn’t find me or something bad happened to us along the journey? That’s why he let them do as they pleased so that the tallest among the dwarves will be picked just in case I wasn’t able to make my way back so that the family bloodline can still continue,” explained Lorist.

“It’s fortunate that you’ve returned. Now, they no longer have a reason to continue that squabble,” said Shadekampf with joy.

“So that’s why the people here aren’t too happy of my return at all. I was the one who caused all the drama to cease. Oh well, it’s getting late. Where will you and Patt be sleeping tonight?” Lorist asked.

“We’ll be using the guest room by the stairs. I’ll be alternating with Patt for patrolling during the night, so please rest well, milord.”

Chapter 89 Inheritance Ceremony

Even though that maidservant called Irina seemed really timid and shy around Lorist, she was very hardworking and helpful. After preparing a comfortable hot water bath for him, she silently carried the wooden bathing tub as well as the bath water away and even tidied out the room right after Lorist went to bed.

Probably because of the relief of his journey’s completion, Lorist managed to get a real good night’s rest.

The clear chirps of the birds prompted Lorist awake during the morning. He got out of bed, went to the window and saw two birds perched onto a branch on a tree not far away, fervently singing without a single worry in the world. A slight fog could be seen blanketing the bastide and the whole of the maple forest in the distance, causing the buildings within the bastide to give out a strange, astral-like feeling.

A brand new robe was placed at his bedside: it was probably brought over by Irina. After he put the robe on, he noticed that the young maidservant was lying curled up on the floor mat beside the couch using a rough rag as a blanket, seemingly sound asleep. I wonder what she’s dreaming about, thought Lorist as he looked at the satisfied smile on her fair little face.

After standing there and observing her for a moment, Lorist took a clean blanket and lightly put it onto Irina’s body before quietly leaving the room.

Down the flight of stairs was the living room and the study. Lorist had placed his sword on the table in the living room the night before. After retrieving it, he walked to the end of the corridor and just as he was about to go down one more floor, the door right beside the stairwell opened. Patt poked his head out and said, “Milord, good morning. Are you going to train? I want to join too.”

Lorist nodded and went downstairs with Patt to start their morning training.

A well-built man stared at Lorist and Patt as they executed the eight basic swordsmanship moves until he got bored and yawned before taking up another wooden plank and started sawing away at it.

“Milord, that’s the son of the cooking lady,” said Patt as he looked towards that man.

Lorist turned his head to look. Seeing the man who was diligently sawing at the wood, he nodded towards Patt, signalling his understanding.

Shadekampf also made his way outside and gave that man a greeting before he went to the yard to wash his face at the well. After a while, a servant went up to him and said something to him for a few moments before Shadekampf nodded and sent the servant away.

After Lorist and Patt finished their session, Shadekampf came over to report that Butler Gleis had sent someone to notify him that there will be a feast at the main dining hall that night during which Lorist will formally inherit the position of the family head. He also told Lorist that he could only look around nearby the bastide without traveling too far away because of the event that night.

Lorist nodded and after he had his breakfast, he brought Patt and Shadekampf as well as three Zeno Horses before the three of them rode at a leisurely pace around the bastide.

The Norton Family bastide was built on a large, white-colored stone hill. Aside from the main road leading from the family’s castle, the elevation of the ground on which the castle was built was around ten or so meters, making it easy to defend but hard to attack. It’s no wonder that Viscount Kenmays had failed to breach the castle during the attack half a year ago and had to leave empty-handed following the death of tens of his subordinates.

Shadekampf led his way up a small hill and pointed to the east before saying, “Milord, look. That is Wildnorth Town.”

Wildnorth Town was located not too far away from the Norton Family castle and it was built upon a small rocky hill. The weird thing about the hill was that it had a blowhole in the middle of it. The earlier citizens of the town had probably settled on that hill for that exact reason.

“How many people are there in that town?” asked Lorist as he looked at it from afar.

Shadekampf shook his head and couldn’t even answer a simple question like that. “Milord, I myself am not too sure about it as a population check has not been conducted in the town for years.”

Normally, a large town like that should be able to support the bastide with manpower and resources. However, the founding ancestor of the Norton Family had left quite a huge problem for the future generations given the Wildnorth Town’s questionable loyalty. As Lorist stroke his chin, he thought, sigh, how should I handle the garrison of Wildnorth Town…

“Huh? Isn’t that Wellickson? What’s he doing there?” Shadekampf asked curiously.

Lorist turned his head in that direction and saw Wellickson and another servant placing several baskets over the edge of a short cliff. The contents of the baskets couldn’t be seen from where Lorist was.

“Let’s go and check it out,” said Lorist.

The three of them rode down the hill they were on, circled a few vineyards and ended up at the edge of the cliff where Wellickson was.

“Where the heck is this? I didn’t know there was a place like this within the bastide,” exclaimed Shadekampf with both his arms covering his mouth as he gasped.

Lorist was also surprised to see that as well. However, he thought that it was only natural for them to miss out on that place given that it had been hidden beyond the cliff. From their current vantage point, a low-lying terrain that was really close to the white hill where the castle was built could be seen. Having been shielded from view by the trees in the forest, not many knew of that place’s existence.

Over there, row after row of wooden houses could be seen where several women and children wearing old and torn clothing could be seen collecting the baskets that had been passed down. Within those baskets were bread that were distributed among the people there.

The ten baskets which they brought over each contained a 30-centimeter-long black bread. Wellickson was talking to someone below the cliff at that moment. “That is the food ration for the next two days. We will send you more in the future. I will be quite busy at the bastide for a while, so I won’t be coming over. What am I busy with? Oh, it’s just that the Second Young Master of my family has returned to the dominion to inherit the position of the family head. Everyone in the castle is feeling rather finicky…”

At that moment, Lorist showed up beside Wellickson and caused him to jump in surprise. However, Lorist merely ignored him and looked at the people beyond the cliff for a bit before asking, “Who are you and how did you get here? Why are you hiding at this spot?”

The man who was being stared at by Lorist had stopped distributing the bread and handed the basket to a person beside him before he looked up the cliff.

“He’s… He’s called Pajik. You… why are you asking him that question instead of me?” said Wellickson timidly.

That man called Pajik quickly climbed up from below the short cliff and clapped the dust off his body before he said, “Wellickson, he has a better eye than you and knows that I’m at the Silver rank. That’s why he asked me instead of you.”

Wellickson said curiously, “Even I know that you’re a Silver rank. How is that significant?”

Shadekampf came over and said, “But milord hasn’t met Pajik before. Milord, I know this person. Technically, he used to be a captive of the First Young Master; The First Young Master admired his talent and said that he wanted to ask him to become a knight of the family before he set out for battle. However, he never did come back alive. We wanted to give him his freedom, but Pajik said that he wanted to uphold the promise he had with the First Young Master, that was to stay at the family dominion for three whole years unless the First Young Master comes back to make him a family knight.”

After introducing Pajik to Lorist, Shadekampf asked, “Pajik, hasn’t it already been three years? Why are you still here?”

With a bitter look on his face, Pajik replied, “It’s all because of Mistress Pesha…”

Being informed about his situation as well, Wellickson started to explain it to Lorist.

Half a year before the date he would regain his freedom two years ago, Pesha gave that man a personal maidservant, much to his delight. However, three months right after that, the maidservant’s belly started to swell, revealing that she was in fact pregnant. After doing some digging around, Pajik only found out that the maidservant used to serve the First Young Master personally and Pesha intended to adopt the child the maidservant had with the First Young Master as her own stepson. That was why she felt distressed that the maidservant, who was the child’s biological mother, to continue staying at the castle and decided to give her to Pajik so that he would bring her away when he leaves after his term as a captive is over.

However, that particular maidservant had been impregnated by Pajik. Given that he wasn’t some sort of noble, there wouldn’t be any problems for him to have an illegitimate child or two. In fact, he was quite elated that she was willing to bear him a child. That’s how he suddenly become a loyal ‘slave’ of the mother-to-be and her unborn child and did his best to take care of the maidservant.

Now that the child had been delivered, Pajik had properly become a 24-year-old father whose every action seeks the best for his child. To make more money for a better living, he went to see Butler Gleis and took over the management of the slave camp. Last time when Viscount Kenmays attacked the bastide, Pajik was the one who had defended quite a number of attacks from several Silver ranked mercenaries and even killed two of the viscount’s knights who were stronger than Pesha in the process.

Lorist nodded and said to Pajik, “Knight Pajik, if you’re willing to become my family’s knight, then please attend my inheritance ceremony tonight. It will definitely be an honor of the Norton Family for someone of your abilities join our ranks.

……

That night within the candle-lit dining hall, a flag bearing the emblem of the former Krissen Royal Family that was shaped like a rose could be seen hanging on one wall of the hall. To the left of the flag was the Norton Family flag with the Raging Bear depicted on it and to the right of the Krissen Royal Family flag was a large map which detailed the range of the Norton Family’s dominion, as enfeoffed by the founding emperor. In front of the flag was the longsword which the founding emperor had used to grant the title of a baron to the founding ancestor of the Norton Family around two hundred years ago.

The inheritance ceremony was far simpler than Lorist had imagined.

At Butler Gleis’s beckoning, Lorist walked to the front, knelt before the longsword and recited, “Under the witness of the myriad divinities, I, the eighth generation descendant of the Norton Family, Norton Lorist, shall once again recite the oath of the founding ancestor before the banner of the Krissen Royal Family. I shall defend the northern borders in the name of the empire and will always silently await the summons from the royal family. I will bring the family back to the olden days of glory as it used to be during the days of the founding ancestor, and the Norton Family will never submit to anyone’s will other than that of the members of the royal family and the elders of the Norton Family.”

Lorist stood up, took the longsword that was placed on the table in front of him and raised it up high, before he turned and faced the rest of the people within the hall.

The sounds of applause gradually increased in volume until everyone within the hall was clapping and cheering. From that moment on, Lorist would be the new family head and is officially a baron.

Pesha was rather mad as Pajik and Patt had stolen her spotlight and got knighted by Lorist before she was. She merely made a rushed salute when it was her turn and became the third family knight to be knighted.

After that, Lorist announced three things. First, the castle defense unit of the bastide will undergo a reorganization. The current members of the unit are mostly veteran family soldiers who were in their late thirties to forties. Some of them had even returned to service after their retirement as the Nortons had lost quite a lot of their men during the stormy years that have passed.

Lorist said that he wished to recruit around 120 people from the bastide aged between 16 to 25 and promised that he would help them awaken their Battle Force within a time span of three months to six months.

However, Pesha was the first one to speak out against that plan. “It’s impossible! The cost of forming a castle defense unit of 120 people is not something the family can afford.”

Lorist laughed out and said, “Even though I might not have much, money is definitely something I don’t lack!”

It was at that moment when Shadekampf and a few other servants carried two large chests into the room. After they were opened, the gleaming golden light that emanated from within filled the eyes of everyone present. Both the chests contained 10000 gold Fordes that Lorist had brought along in the carriage and it was time to put it to good use.

After seeing the money in front of her, Pesha was speechless. Lorist then ordered Patt to be in charge of the recruitment and training of the new unit.

Before Lorist made his second announcement, he gathered the illegitimate sons and daughters that the Old Master had fathered as it was something that concerned them.

“As the illegitimate children who shares the same father as me, you can still be considered descendants of the Norton Family. The least I can do for you is to provide you with the proper education and training for nobles. If anyone of you can also reach the Silver rank in Battle Force training, you may choose to roam the world or serve the family. Should you choose the latter, you will be allowed to use the Norton name and even form a branch family for the Nortons in the future.

“The last announcement I have is, Pajik, the newly-appointed family knight, will be in charge of the slaves in the camp to build a citadel at another location. The location of the building site will be kept secret for now, but I encourage anyone within the bastide who is interested in helping out to follow along as well.”

After announcing everything he had to say, Lorist sent Butler Gleis back to his room, much to the immense dismay of Pesha, who had wanted to complain about Lorist’s actions to him after the ceremony.

Chapter 90 Three Chief Supervisors and Irina

As Lorist was pushing the butler on his wooden wheelchair back to his room, he noticed Patt standing outside it. Within the room was Shadekampf and three other middle-aged men.

The men all saluted towards Lorist to show their respect to the family leader.

Butler Gleis patted on Lorist’s hand and introduced the three chief supervisors of the family to him. Without them, the family bastide couldn’t be effectively controlled and managed.

The first one who swore his loyalty to Lorist was a middle-aged man with a receding hairline. His name was Hansk and he was the finance supervisor of the family and was in charge of the accounts and budget planning of the family’s spending.

The second person was called Spiel and he was mainly in charge of the warehouses within the bastide and was well-versed with the amount of supplies the family had.

The last middle-aged man, Kedan, looked a little chubby, but he had really good social and conversational skills and managed the human resources within the bastide. Gleis secretly hinted at Lorist to pay more attention to that man, because the words he used to swear his loyalty felt really roundabout and insincere.

Lorist didn’t mind that, however, as he believed that the hearts of people will eventually be revealed by time. What he needed now was subordinates that would aid in his development of the dominion. He would naturally weed out the less loyal ones as he went along. Lorist had the three supervisors brief him on the various issues in the dominion so that he would get a rough grasp on the situation.

Just as Lorist had expected, the state of the family seemed rather grim. According to Hansk, the family only had a meager amount of money left. Half a year back, one of the Gold ranked knights sent over by Duke Loggins had collected a sum of over 3000 imperial gold coins as tax and almost sucked the family treasury dry, leaving less than 100 imperial gold coins within it.

Lorist waved his hand to signal Shadekampf to give the two chests of gold Fordes to Hansk for safekeeping in the treasury. However, Hansk also frankly mentioned that gold coins wouldn’t do much good to the family in its current state as what it truly needed were connections and trades with the outside world. Given that the entry and exit from the Northlands of the family was within the hands of other dominion lords, the taxes levied on the trades the family conducts will be too much for the effort to be worth it.

After Hansk’s turn to speak was Spiel’s. According to his report, the family still had quite a lot of food. Even though crops were only harvested once a year in the Northlands, the Norton Family could already more than sustain itself based on the stretches of farmland it had. Additionally, the garrison of Wildnorth Town sent 10% of their yield as tax. That’s why the family had a huge surplus of food amounting to more than 5000 kilograms. Without trade, it would only continue to pile up as its consumption in the bastide wasn’t that high.

Aside from food, the second most abundant resource the family had was copper ingots. Given that the family used to have control over the copper mine, the copper ores that were mined there were refined into ingots and stored at the bastide. As money was something the family had lacked before Lorist’s return, Spiel had intended to arrange for more imperial copper coins to be minted using that resource to temporary relieve the financial burden.

The other thing the family had in a fair amount was various types of furs which were mostly collected during the past few years. Given the deteriorated state of the family’s fighting force, there was no way an expedition to hunt magical beasts could be organized. Other than that, the warehouse had quite a number of ropes, wooden buckets and some other production tools. The family was in a dire need of iron, weapons, armor, mounts as well as seasoning and spices.

Kedan was the last to speak out and he announced something that everyone was surprised to hear: the family members of the fallen soldiers within the bastide already numbered up to 1000, and that was taking into account of the fact that three to four hundred of them had already left the bastide for Wildnorth Town. The ones who remained within the bastide were mainly those whose children had already grown up and those who were still able to live quite comfortably with their relatives and work as paid laborers. The ones who went to Wildnorth Town had it even worse. They weren’t able to count on their relatives to sustain their livelihoods and could only rely on the occasional provisions of the bastide.

The death of hundreds of people during the elimination of the family’s merchant convoy a few years back and the First Young Master’s participation and death in the Second Prince’s military campaign where only tens of the 200 family soldiers returned alive from, as well as the Old Master’s death from the ambush of the mountain barbarians due to the absence of the Wildnorth Town garrison reinforcements, the family members of the deceased soldiers in the bastide started nearing 1000. These people put the family under a great burden. While the family was still able to give them enough food, it was still unable to pay them the pensions for the deaths of their relatives.

Other than that, Belnick, a Three Star Silver ranked family knight who had incurred serious injuries during his attempt to save the Third Young Master from a magical beast, was absent from the inheritance ceremony as his wounds had worsened all of a sudden. Kedan hoped that Lorist would pay that knight a visit at Wildnorth Town tomorrow as it was his obligation as the new family leader, to which Lorist agreed.

Old Butler Gleis had the group take a seat before he told Lorist that he was stunned to have heard about the happenings during the journey on the way to the Northlands from Shadekampf. He hoped that Lorist would once again tell it to everyone present.

Lorist started his story right from Morante City when his close friends had pledged themselves as family knights, to their eradication of the Sloph Slavers and their conflict with Count Corby and how he had decided to avenge his Third Uncle and the rest of the merchant convoy after he had found out the truth about the count’s involvement in the incident years prior.

After describing the killing of the count and all his illegitimate sons at Geldos City, he recounted his departure from the main convoy with Shadekampf, Patt and several others to make it in time for the inheritance ceremony, which led to their extermination of a group of bandits at the border of the Andinaq Kingdom and the formation of another convoy followed by their return to the dominion, during which they discovered the construction site at the valley in Morgan Hills as well as his occupation of it. He also told them of the rescue mission of the captured family members who were being forced to work at the mines by the Kenmayses.

Unrolling a map of the Northlands, Lorist told the rest about the plans Viscount Kenmays had for the valley at Morgan Hills and his intention to take it for himself to build a strong defense for the Norton Family.

The people present wore expressions of wonder as if they had just been told of a magnificent legend. Not one of them expected that the return of the Second Young Master during such troubling times would allow the family to be able to go into a new phase.

Lorist also agreed to Hansk’s request and told the three supervisors that he would personally head to the construction site at Morgan Hills and bring the 500 or so slaves who had been loitering at the hidden camp within the bastide with him there and said that he would grant them freedom upon the completion of the development project. He also mentioned the need for a shipment of food to be made to the site and that he would notify the rest of the convoy over there to be ready to receive it and also told the three supervisors that they would be free to check that place out at their leisure.

Also, he requested the supervisors to keep the development project at Morgan Hills a secret for now, to which they promised and left excitedly. Butler Gleis started making his thoughts known to Lorist after the three left about how he believed that the development project at Morgan Hills was a waste of manpower and resources. He thought that Lorist should bring the rest of the convoy back to the bastide and build a settlement nearby instead.

Lorist wondered why the old butler would have an opinion like this. Gleis explained that the founding ancestor’s oath was to defend the northern borders and the Morgan Hills could hardly count as part of it!

However, Lorist merely laughed it off and consoled Gleis and said that he had no intention of forsaking the bastide. As the saying went, one must first retract one’s fist before it can be launched out again. Lorist said that the Morgan Hills would become the fist of the family upon its completion and also mentioned that he had further plans to use it against others in the future.

By the time he left the butler’s quarters, it had already become rather late.

Lorist made his way to the veranda above his bedroom that was located at the main building of the castle and took in the nighttime view of the bastide from his vantage point.

This place is really quite decent. The founding ancestor must have spent quite some effort to select this place to be the headquarters of the family 200 years ago and used another tens of years to build the bastide I see today. It’s no wonder that the old butler is so protective of this place and even suspected whether I was going to abandon it for Morgan Hills, thought Lorist as he recalled the look the butler had that seemed like he was staring at a hideous sinner just before.

“Master, your bathwater is ready…” said a timid voice that broke Lorist’s train of thought. He turned back and nodded to Irina before he went down the stairs to where his bedroom was.

After taking a comfortable bath, Lorist half-leaned on his bed and looked at the hard-working Irina pour away the bathwater within the wooden tub before carrying it out of the room and returning to clean the floor. After that, she put on her greyish-white sleeping gown and took out a leather sleeping pad which she placed behind the couch. Just as she took out a rug and prepared to lie down…

“Irina, please come over here,” said Lorist as he licked his lips.

The young maidservant’s body stiffened. As she made her way in front of Lorist, she didn’t utter a single sound, silently shivering away…

“Are you really that afraid of me? Why is that so?” Lorist asked as he stretched out his hand to stroke her chin before he raised her head up to look her in the eye.

Her face had a look of panic, but part of her expression revealed her resignation and acceptance of the situation.

“Do you know what maidservants do with their masters?” Lorist asked.

The young girl started shivering even more, but she silently nodded to signal her understanding.

Lorist then traced his fingers around the girl’s cheeks before it passed her nose, lips, chin and then to the knot on her gown…

The greyish-white gown fell to the ground and revealed the slender and fair body of the nervously shivering girl.

Lorist hugged her in his chest and started stroking the two protrusions on her breasts. “Irinia, I won’t have you sleeping on the floor in the future. Half of the space on this bed is reserved for you, understand?”

Irina didn’t respond and could only continue to shiver in place as her body slowly warmed up from Lorist’s careful caressing. Gradually, she started to let out involuntary moans.

Positioning the girl on his bed, Lorist lowered himself and allowed his blazing-hot member to enter the depths of the warmth between the girl’s legs…

The girl struggled and flailed as she shivered vigorously and clawed away at Lorist’s back while tears flowed down her face, all the while crying out, “It hurts… so much…”

Lorist halted and stopped all movement and waited until the girl stopped uttering any sound before he wiped some of the tears off her face and said, “I’m sorry, I thought you’ve done it before. I didn’t expect that this would be your first…”

The girl cried and mumbled, “The… the Third Young Master was only… seventeen… The Old Master said that he could only touch me when he reaches the age of 18, or his Battle Force won’t be able to be awakened…”

It’s my fault, I shouldn’t have pushed him into the well and caused him to have a frail constitution for the rest of his life, thought Lorist as he heard about his younger brother. He then said to the girl beneath him, “It will hurt a little during your first time, but it’ll gradually fade away when the pleasure comes in… You’ll understand later…

“Don’t keep shivering like that, otherwise I won’t be able to restrain myself from moving… Stop, or I’ll really lose it…”

……

Sounds of carnal pleasure echoed throughout the peaceful and tranquil moonlit night.

Chapter 91 Sword Crisis

Lorist awoke the next day from the ear-piercing sound of wood being sawed. As he opened his eyes, he saw the young girl lying asleep beside him, grunting and furrowing her brows occasionally with the trails of her tears from the night before still visible on her face.

Carefully drawing his arm out from beneath the girl’s head, he put a blanket over her and got out of bed naked. After putting on his sleep robe, he went to the window and saw the cooking lady’s son sawing away at the logs. Hmmm, this guy is pretty hard-working. It’s pretty decent of him to start working that hard this early in the morning.

He had completely released the tension he had from inheriting the title and the family dominion on the young maidservant, Irina, the night before. Currently, Lorist felt a mystical clarity and eagerness within his mind.

He silently stepped into the washroom to take a short shower and freshened himself up. After he dried himself, Lorist got into his garments and went to take his sword for his training.

However, when he arrived downstairs at the living room, Lorist was baffled by the sight before him. Where are my swords? They’re not here!

Lorist had discovered that the two swords he had placed on the blade rack was no longer there. Only the ornamental sword that was used during the inheritance ceremony yesterday was in place. This is weird, who would take both of my swords away?

He went to the end of the corridor and knocked on the door of the guest room. Shadekampf yawned as he opened the door as he had slept rather late after drinking with the three chief supervisors last night. Knowing that he was the confidant of the new family head, the three supervisors tried their best to get on his good side. Shadekampf on the other hand talked about Lorist’s likes and dislikes and couldn’t help but drink to his content, causing him to wake up relatively late due to a hangover.

Upon knowing that Lorist’s swords went missing, Shadekampf was stunned awake from his hangover and quickly aided in the search.

Lorist asked, “Where’s Patt?”

Shadekampf said, “He’s been gone since dawn because you just announced the formation of a new defense unit for the family…”

Patt shouldn’t have taken my swords, he has his own after all. What would he do with mine? Just as Lorist was thinking, the sound of sawing resounded near him again.

Oh, I should go ask that sawing guy. Lorist and Shadekampf went to the yard and Shadekampf asked, “Eidelwoke, have you seen anyone else who’ve entered our building?”

Eidelwoke thought for quite a while before he stopped sawing and said, “I think Mistress Pesha did…”

Pesha? What did she come here for? Lorist hurriedly asked, “Then, did you see her take anything away?”

Eidelwoke nodded and said, “Yes, she took both of your swords with her. I could recognize the scabbards…”

Now, why would Pesha take my swords? Just as he was wondering, Eidelwoke said, “Mistress Pesha has been wanting to have a personal weapon crafted for her use, however she was unable to procure any good materials and there wasn’t any weapon in the family armory that suited her needs. I think she took your swords to Old Smith Alba…”

Upon hearing that, Lorist punched the wall in anger as he thought, what’s the meaning of this, Pesha actually dares to take the swords of me, the new family head, and have them used as materials for her own weapon? She’s clearly looking down on me. The reason Lorist called her ‘Sister Pesha’ respectfully was because that was what the original owner of the body remembered her as. But that didn’t mean that the current Lorist, a transmigrator, was afraid of her. If he let this incident slide, then would anyone still take him seriously as a family leader?

“Bring me to see Old Smith Alba,” said Lorist to Shadekampf in a cold tone.

Lorist was very clear about how much money and precious materials he had used to make his two swords. For example, each Metal-eater Rat teeth that was among the materials of the swords cost one small silver each. Lorist had spent almost ten gold Fordes on nearly a thousand of them and used them to increase the hardness of his swords so that it would be strong enough to be able to withstand strikes from blade glows without prior infusion of any Battle Force. His friends all knew that even though his swords didn’t look fancy or amazing, the cost involved in their making greatly exceeded that of most other priceless weapons.

Back in the days when he had just gotten used to his new life in Grindia, he was very confused about the Battle Force ranks of this world. According to his common sense, the ranking of precious metals should start from gold being the most precious, followed by silver, bronze and lastly, iron. However, why was the Iron rank placed above Bronze rank instead? Shouldn’t it be the least rare metal of them all?

That bewildering question Lorist had was left unanswered until he attended the knight training course offered by the Dawn Academy. Even though the civilization of Grindia was very similar to that of the Middle Ages on Earth, the main difference was the existence of Battle Force. The lances of the knights in Grindia were also not made of applewood like they were on Earth; the situation of lances shattering into many pieces upon collision as seen on Earth by Lorist from a movie was not possible in this world. Due to Battle Force, the lances in Grindia were more similar to those often seen in video games with the blade in front easily longer than 30 centimeters in length, with some even going up to 60. Upon reaching the Silver rank, a knight would be able to manifest a blade glow and use it to cull weaker enemies easily on the battlefield.

It was when he attended the course that he learned that after the magi invented Battle Force, they discovered a problem. Battle Force practitioners usually didn’t have any issues during the first two stages, however when they reached the third stage, they were heavily reliant on weapons. The magi at the time found that common metals were rather bad conductors of Battle Force as they crumbled too quickly after light usage.

Thus, the magi found three types of materials that were suited for Battle Force conduction, namely, Jadebronze, Raresilver and Darkgold. However, the blade glow formed after Jadebronze was infused with Battle Force was rather chaotic whereas Raresilver and Darkgold were exceedingly precious magical materials. Given that the magi themselves didn’t have enough of those to experiment with, how would they be able to mass produce weapons for Battle Force practitioners?

That’s why the magi started yet another round of experiments and finally found that an alloy of tungsten and Damascus steel was able to withstand infused Battle Force and produce a stable blade glow. The magi thus named that alloy Blackiron and derived the four Battle Force ranks as Jadebronze, Blackiron, Raresilver and Darkgold. Following the end of the magical civilization, materials like Raresilver and Darkgold have faded into obscurity and were nothing but myths of the past. That’s why the following generation of people eventually came to know the four simplified ranks as Bronze, Iron, Silver and Gold.

Even though what was known of the magical civilization was often considered mythical, the records on Battle Force research somehow managed to survive the erosion of time and smiths knew that adding tungsten into weapons would allow for blade glows to be stably manifested. As more and more other materials that can efficiently conduct Battle Force were discovered, the craft of forging began to branch off into many varieties. Forging a stellar weapon was no longer as easy as just adding tungsten to the mix.

Sometimes, Lorist felt quite melancholic at the fact that even though the Norton Family dominion was large and vast, there were little to no mineable resource there at all. For the past 200 years, the only place that was discovered to have a copper deposit was the Morgan Hills. However, Charade has once mentioned that given the size of the dominion, there should be more mines just lying in wait to be discovered, since the family has been plagued with problems from the mountain barbarians and the yearly magical beast horde and couldn’t spare as much manpower and expense on the forage for resources. Even now, the family didn’t even have sufficient materials to craft a single decent weapon.

Pesha’s eye for weapons was not bad however, as she had noticed the peculiarity of Lorist’s two swords. However, her actions basically amounted to thievery and Lorist was definitely not going to let her off the hook for what she did, especially on his second day as the family leader. This was a form of provocation, and it would set a precedent for her future transgressions against Lorist, who was hierarchically superior to her. It was akin to slapping Lorist straight in his face.

Shadekampf led Lorist to the northwestern corner of the bastide where the smithy was located. A white-haired old man was currently checking out Lorist’s swords while shaking his head from time to time. It was obvious that the smith, Alba, was far better at evaluating the quality of weapons than Pesha and understood that it definitely wouldn’t be easy for him to melt the weapons down given the equipment he had in his smithy. Pesha was clearly getting more disappointed the more Alba shook his head.

Without saying a word, Lorist took the swords from the smith’s hand with a solemn look on his face. Upon seeing the new family leader, Alba quickly paid his respects. Pesha on the other hand gave him a furious glare and shouted, “What the heck are you doing? An Iron rank like you wouldn’t need weapons made from quality materials like those. Quickly have it melted down and fashioned into a suitable weapon for me so that I can better protect the family.”

Giving the stuck-up young lady a look, Lorist started to feel really annoyed. “On behalf of my late elder brother, I will forgive this error of yours, Mistress Pesha. Also, before the men of the Norton Family all die out, there will be no place for you to defend the family, so you better remember that.”

“What are you saying? How dare a trashy Iron rank like you talk to me in that tone? Give the swords to me. Also, the reason I went to see you in the morning was to tell you to let me lead the new defense unit that you just formed. Patt isn’t qualified for that position as he has only just broke through to the Silver rank not long ago…” commanded Pesha in a really obnoxious manner.

“Fuck off to whence you came! Don’t just stand there and block everyone’s way!” shouted Lorist, full of rage.

“Alright, you think you can simply do as you please because you’re the family leader? Let me teach a shitty Iron rank like you the power of a Silver rank. I will make sure you remember it,” roared Pesha unyieldingly as she drew her sword.

Shadekampf hastily attempted to stop her and said, “Mistress, don’t do it. Milord is…”

Wham! A crisp sound rang out as Pesha gave Shadekampf a harsh slap on the face. “Buzz off! Know your place!”

As a saying went, before hitting a dog, one must first gain the agreement of its master. Despite knowing that Shadekampf was Lorist’s personal attendant, her act of giving him a slap signified a huge disregard for the authority of the family leader. It seems that she is used to behaving as she likes in the family, thought Lorist, enraged, as he decided that he would definitely put her into place and see if she would dare to piss him off in the future as a mere Two Star Silver rank.

Even though the smithy was at the northwestern part of the bastide, Lorist and Pesha’s argument had attracted a lot of attention from surrounding passers-by as numerous servants and soldiers had started to gather around the area. Lorist understood that if he didn’t harshly reprimand her for her actions today, his authority as the family leader would definitely fall apart in no time.

Lorist slowly drew his sword and said, “Come, as long as you can take three of my strikes, you will be the one who calls the shots in the bastide in the future.”

“Three strikes? You really think too highly of yourself. Let’s see how I rough you up…” scoffed Pesha as a blade glow manifested on her sword before she waved it as she rushed over.

Clang! The sword in Pesha’s hand instantly broke into two while Lorist had his longsword pressed onto her neck.

“You… You’re just relying on your superior blade!” said Pesha as she fervently tried to deny the results of the duel by using that as an excuse.

“Fine, I won’t even use a sword. Come,” said Lorist as he sheathed his longsword back into its scabbard and tossed both his swords to Shadekampf before he found himself a 1-meter-long wooden stick which he wielded in place of a sword.

Pesha then rushed into the smithy, rummaged around for a large two-handed sword and once again manifested her blade glow and swung it in Lorist’s direction.

Pang! The wooden stick clashed into the two-handed sword mid-air and knocked the latter flying off into the distance before it was once again pressed against Pesha’s neck.

“Aaah!” Pesha let out a sharp scream which started Lorist. During his bewilderment, she took the opportunity to go back into the smithy before coming back out with a pike and had its point aimed for Lorist…

With but a slight movement of his body, Lorist evaded the pike and swung his wooden stick and knocked the pike out of Pesha’s hand. However, she scrambled around for an axe once again…

Losing his patience, Lorist evaded the axe swing and used his stick to strike Pesha in the neck. The axe-holding, red-haired demoness gradually lost her balance and fell towards the ground face-first…

When she regained consciousness, she noticed that she was sitting on the floor with her back against the wall. Alba, who was in the middle of his work, said, “Mistress, even though I’m also an Iron rank trash, even I can tell that the family leader’s swordsmanship is superior to yours by several magnitudes. You are far from being his match. According to Shadekampf, the family leader had challenged over 3000 Silver ranked swordsmen without a single loss at Morante City and is known as Iron Locke, the Silver Undefeated…”

……

After giving Pesha the lesson she deserved, Lorist started to make his way back with Shadekampf. Just as they turned at a corner, they saw Supervisor Kedan, who hurriedly paid his respects and said, “Milord, are you heading to Wildnorth Town now?”

Chapter 92 Knight Belnick

“Why would Knight Belnick spend three whole years just to recover from his injuries?” Lorist asked.

He was currently within a roofed, two-wheeled horse carriage with Shadekampf. Supervisor Kedan was personally driving and guiding the two Northlander Horses in the direction of Wildnorth Town.

“Milord, that’s because our family bastide doesn’t have a herbalist. The only herbalist within our dominion is the family head of the Dunbarsen Family of Wildnorth Town. He is mainly responsible for Sir Belnick’s treatment,” replied Kedan.

“The Dunbarsen Family? Tell me about their background,” said Lorist.

Kedan started explaining as he drove. “Milord, when the Norton Family first started recruiting for the garrison force, the first generation family leader of the Dunbarsens, an apprentice herbalist, was one of the first people who joined. When the standard of living of his family started to get better, he sent his son to his former herbalist teacher to learn the craft. Ten years later, his son returned as a rank 1 herbalist to the town and followed in his father’s footsteps to join the garrison. After that, it had become a family tradition for the descendants of the Dunbarsen Family to become herbalists or apprentice herbalists.

“The Norton Family has tried several times to recruit the people from the Dunbarsen Family, but all of those attempts have been refused. The Nortons couldn’t force them either because they were the only herbalist family in the whole of the dominion. However, we made an agreement so that they would help treat our injured family soldiers. The relationship between the Dunbarsens and the Nortons have been like that for the past 200 years or so. That’s why Knight Belnick was sent to Wildnorth Town to recuperate from his injuries.”

“What is the situation of WIldnorth Town right now?” Lorist asked.

“Milord, it is currently being controlled by the four great families of the garrison force. For the past 200 or so years, the garrison force have weathered over the years and it was common to see different families’ being in charge of it. Currently, Wildnorth Town’s garrison is jointly controlled by the Dunbarsen Family, the Mollin Family, the Hassen Family and the Qubim Family. The first illegitimate son of the Old Master, Molocinque, was born of a woman of the Mollin Family. This is why the Mollins and the other three families are supporting Molocinque to become the next family head with the precondition that after he gains power, he would take in the four families as vassal nobles and grant them the title of knights and officially enfeoff the land of Wildnorth Town to them as their dominion so that the town will be able to lawfully escape the control of the Norton Family.”

On the Grindia Continent, noble families usually didn’t grant their knights their own pieces of land, but rather a bastide and a yearly salary. That was also dependent on the knight’s Battle Force rank. Silver ranked family knights were usually paid a yearly bonus and only those who have served a family for ten years would be able to obtain a bastide for themselves, which can be inherited by their descendants along with the noble title of a knight. That was why on Grindia, becoming a family knight of a landed noble was akin to being granted quasi-nobility.

When a noble family recruits a Gold ranked knight, or when one of their Silver ranked knights break through to the Gold rank, the family will have to start considering granting them with one such bastide. Normally, a knight’s bastide included a castle, more than 600000 square meters of farmland as well as large lands for livestock grazing or mountains or lakes. Some knight bastides even had small villages or towns.

Even though that Lorist had recruited many good friends as his family knights, he would definitely have to start planning for their bastides to be built the moment they reach the Northlands and start settling down. However, he wasn’t too worried about it as he believed that Charade would be able to take care of that matter for him flawlessly.

However, noble families granting their knights proper dominions were not without precedent. But it was usually only restricted to knights who have entered the realm of Blademasters or those who have made great achievements during their service. For example, the two Blademasters working for the Second Prince each have a small city or town that they were given total control of. The other reason for granting a proper dominion was due to the large size of the noble’s own dominion. Usually, nobles with high ranks would grant their knights with lower-ranked noble titles and smaller dominions to make them their vassal noble families.

The families of the garrison of the Wildnorth Town actually had their eyes on knight dominions. Their explicit ambitions and intentions could be seen as a challenge to the authority of the Nortons. Should their plan actually work out, they would be able to leave the status of peasants and step into the realm of nobility. Even if they were still vassal nobles of the Norton Family, they had near-complete autonomy over their lands and could even ignore the orders of the Norton Family.

“Their ambitions are but a pipe dream,” commented Lorist coldly. Given how well-informed Supervisor Kedan seemed to be about the situation of Wildnorth Town as well as their plans and intentions, he should’ve been quite wary of them for some time now.

Even though the walls of Wildnorth Town was within sight from the family bastide, it took up to 40 minutes of travel by a horse-pulled carriage to arrive at the area. Currently, the gates of the town were wide open and four unenthusiastic pike-wielding garrison soldiers could be seen chatting away. Seeing the carriage approach, they intended to stop it from passing. However, upon seeing Kedan at the coachman’s seat, they merely waved and let them into the town without question.

“Milord, not one of the garrison soldiers were present during your inheritance ceremony yesterday. During your visit to Knight Belnick, if you see any of those garrison troops, please restrain yourself and endure it as we are currently in their territory…” reminded Supervisor Kedan earnestly.

Lorist lightly humphed to indicate that he had his own plans as he looked at the scenery of the town from within the carriage.

Like most small towns, Wildnorth Town only had two main gates, one at the north and the other at the south. A large road connected the two gates and effectively split the town into two halves. In the middle of the large road was a small plaza and at its south was a large mansion usually for the use of the Norton Family members built from wood and stone which gave off a bold and rugged look. However, during the years when the Nortons did not make their way into the town, it had started to deteriorate due to lack of maintenance.

At the northern part of the plaza was a small, grey-colored hill where the blowhole, which served as the town’s main water source, was located. Deep waterways were made along the hill so that the water from the blowhole could be transported to various parts of the town for the use of its citizens.

Lorist noticed that many of the buildings atop the hill were made of stone and the roads there were far cleaner than the rest. There were even a couple of shops opened there. However, at the south of the plaza where the dominion lord’s mansion was located, the houses were mostly constructed from miscellaneous materials with some being mere shacks rather than proper buildings.

“Milord, most of the residents of the stone houses of the northern part of the plaza are the family members of the garrison soldiers whereas those at the south are family members of deceased soldiers of our family. Even though many of them have familial relations with the garrison soldiers of Wildnorth Town, they didn’t receive any aid or care from them and are instead treated like second-rate citizens of the town. Apart from them, the descendants of the previous ruling families of Wildnorth Town are also there. Their treatment within the town was the worst, causing many of them to join our family force during the past few recruitment drives,” explained Kedan.

“Right now, what is the population of the town?” Lorist asked.

“The last population survey that the family had conducted was around 100 years ago, and the town had 3459 residents at that time. On the other hand, the people of the town who worked and lived in the family bastide numbered around 1842 people, making the total population of Wildnorth Town around 5000. In present day, there are more than 2700 people of Wildnorth Town living within the bastide, and the residents of the town itself is estimated to be around 5000 people. However, according to my observations, there should be a total of 7000 residents of WIldnorth Town. Just the four great families of the town alone have around 400 people each. Other than the official garrison soldiers, they can still rally more than 100 private soldiers. That’s the main reason why the four families are able to reign over Wildnorth Town.”

“Where did the four families get all that funding?” Lorist wondered.

“Milord, they’ve occupied half of the farmable land of the town, given that 80 out of the 200 members of the garrison troop are from the four great families. The families who have lost their right to be in the garrison either faded into obscurity or became serfs of the four great families to manage their farms for them. Also, they’ve been conducting a smuggling operation because the family refused to give them a proper permit to form a merchant convoy. The main commodities they smuggle are the salt they produce as well as the fur and pelts they get from hunting. Milord, we’re here. Sir Belnick resides within the dominion lord’s mansion,” said Kedan as he stopped the carriage and helped open the doors.

After Lorist and Shadekampf got off, Supervisor Kedan went up to the closed door of the mansion and called out to the people within, prompting a young man to come out to receive them.

“Casey, move the carriage to the backyard. I’ve brought the lord to meet Sir Belnick,” said Kedan to the young fellow.

“The lord?” The young man was stunned and he took a look at Lorist, before he quietly went to tend to the carriage without asking any more questions.

“Milord, this way,” guided Kedan. They went into the mansion from a side entrance and passed through a corridor and a courtyard before they arrived at a small hut to the left of the mansion.

“Sir Belnick is staying here to recover from his injuries, milord,” said the supervisor.

Lorist pushed the door to the hut open and saw a white-haired youth struggling to stand up.

“It’s you… Big brother tough guy…” Lorist’s memories of that man during his childhood suddenly flashed past his eyes. The white-haired young knight repeatedly tossed and caught the 8-year-old Lorist up and down in the air, causing him to laugh out ceaselessly. That knight was one of the most favored squires of Lorist’s father and was also the person who Lorist loved the most to spend time with. The young Lorist frequently called him big brother tough guy because he thought that being able to toss him high up was a great display of strength…

Belnick tried hard to stand up, but later discovered that he was unable to get off the chair no matter how hard he tried. “Little Locke, it’s been long since we last met. I didn’t expect that during our first reunion in so long, you have already become the dominion lord. I should address you as milord now.”

“Yeah, it’s been more than ten years. Back when I was 10, you’ve already vanished. I cried so hard back then,” said Lorist as he got to the side of the chair and sat down on a stool.

“That’s right, I was young back then and wanted to venture to all sorts of places. That’s why I left the dominion for my travels. However, I didn’t know that you’ve been exiled to Morante City until after I returned 5 years later,” said Belnick as he laughed.

“Big brother tough guy, what’s going on with your body?” Lorist asked.

“Milord, just call me Beck. You’ve already grown up into a magnificent dominion lord, the way you call me will make you a laughing stock,” said Belnick seriously.

“As for my body, it’s already ruined. Didn’t you see it yourself just now? I didn’t even have enough energy to stand up. Ooof…” said the white-haired young knight with an extremely melancholic expression.

“But, big brothe– Alright, Brother Beck, I’ve never heard of anyone who still couldn’t recover after three years. Can you tell me about your injuries back then?” Lorist hurriedly asked.

“Back then, I was riding tens of meters behind the Third Young Master. Nobody would’ve imagined that a Northlander Bear, a ferocious magical beast, would show up at a forest nearby the livestock farm of the dominion. That bear was easily over four meters tall and it suddenly rushed over to our group, greatly stunning all of us. The Third Young Master’s horse was so startled it stood right up and shook him off its back. However, one of the young master’s feet was still in the stirrups, causing him to be dragged along as the horse ran around rampantly in fear. I quickly tossed my pike and nailed the horse onto the ground to stop it.

“However, the scent of blood from the dead horse stimulated the Northlander Bear and it rushed towards it instantly. The Third Young Master’s feet at that moment was still caught in the stirrup and his whole body was also pressed to the ground by the dead horse. The garrison soldiers around us all fled in fear and I had no choice but to throw my only sword over to stop the bear. That sword dug into the bear’s lower rib and enraged it even further and caused it to change its target to me instead. After being chased around by it for quite a while, I was knocked flying with only one hit from its paw. As I laid on the ground and looked at the incoming bear, I picked up a pike that was dropped by one of the garrison soldiers that escaped and infused the last of my Battle Force into the blade and managed to give the Northlander Bear a finishing stab before I lost consciousness.”

Even though Belnick sounded very casual when he recounted the events of that day, Lorist could already imagine the danger and terror that he must have been in. Northlander Bears were the most fearsome beasts in the Northlands. Normally, the best move a Silver rank could make was to escape the moment one was encountered. Otherwise, he would most probably not be able to return alive.

“By the time I awoke, I got to know that three days had already passed. Master Dunbarsen said that it was practically a miracle that I managed to survive at all. Due to getting a hit from that magical beast, all of my ribs on the right side broke and many of my internals were pulverized. The Lord Baron had ordered for me to be sent to Wildnorth Town to recover and my condition only managed to stabilize after a year. Even so, during the past two years, my injuries kept acting up and caused me to be unable to continue training in Battle Force. Even though I wanted to attend your inheritance ceremony last night, I spat out black blood after only a little movement. Milord, sometimes I wonder why I didn’t die along with that bear… That’s far more straightforward. To be alive in this state is to some degree, torturous…”

Lorist furrowed his brow and said, “What did Master Dunbarsen say about this?”

Belnick lied back down onto his chair and said helplessly, “Master Dunbarsen also said that there was nothing he could do to help me because most of my injuries are internal and many of my organs are already ruptured. That’s why even though my bones recovered rather quickly, the internal organs didn’t and I’m not able to do any exercise at all, not even jogging. To prevent the recovery of my organs from being affected, I can’t even eat bread or beef and can only have two bowls of oatmeal with salt every day with one small bowl of meat soup every three days. Milord, I’ve really had enough of days like these…”

Lorist expressed his sympathy and lifted up Belnick’s hand before he lightly patted it as a gesture of consolation while he secretly tried to read his pulse.

Suddenly, Lorist’s face flushed red from anger and a seething killing intent oozed out of his being. His voice suddenly turned deathly cold, causing the hairs of the people present to stand up as he said, “That cursed bastard…”

Chapter 93 Enticement

Lorist had already been rather suspicious of the situation even before he arrived at the town. What kind of injury could cause a Three Star Silver knight of the family to be unable to recover even after three whole years?

Given that he had taken the herbalist course at Dawn Academy before, even though he didn’t have proper certification as a rank 1 herbalist because that would require one year of practical training in the field and Lorist didn’t have the time for that, the fact that he had been able to complete the course meant that he was already a qualified apprentice herbalist. Combined with the ancestral medical techniques of his former life, Lorist wasn’t a stranger to the inner workings of the body.

During his herbalist training, Lorist understood that in this world where Battle Force exists, no matter how serious the injury sustained, with proper treatment and the use of Battle Force, most injuries to the body would be able to recover. Even if one’s arm or leg were to be cut off, as long as it wasn’t missing, it could be reconnected. Even if the whole of the body’s bones were broken, it wouldn’t leave a permanent trauma on the body after recovery. There was a case where two Blademasters engaged in battle with the loser sustaining serious injuries to the point where his body was almost completely pulverized with him barely able to breathe. But after a year and a half’s time of treatment, the loser could once again move freely without issue and was able to retrain his Battle Force to its previous level before the injury.

When Lorist was reading Belnick’s pulse just before, he noticed that his physical injuries had long recovered and the reason he was so weak and frail was because he was being poisoned for the long term with force-dispersing toxin!

Thinking back at the food that was served to Belnick, Lorist didn’t have to be a genius to figure out that Master Dunbarsen was behind all this. Even though he’s only a rank 1 herbalist, he dares to call himself a master… Ptooey! How shameless. After regularly feeding Belnick with force-dispersing toxin, he caused him to be completely unable to recover his Battle Force. The meager meals he’s been having has also made him extremely feeble! Just by blaming all the symptoms on Belnick’s ‘ruptured internal organs’, he’s managed to trick a Three Star Silver ranked knight like him for this long a time!

Three years ago, Belnick, one of the Norton Family’s most important military backbones, had been put out of commission just like that. Had he recovered quickly enough, father might have survived the battle with the barbarians! And if he were still protecting the family, then the Kenmayses wouldn’t have dared to set their sights on us.

And just because we didn’t have a Three Star Silver ranked knight to rely on, the garrison forces dared to not heed the orders for reinforcements of the family during father’s expedition to repel the barbarians and even started to dream of breaking free from their status as peasants… At that moment, Lorist started to get angrier and angrier as the air around him turned cold from the killing intent he emanated.

“Curses…” Lorist really felt like killing Master Dunbarsen and culling the rest of his family in one fell swoop. He solemnly swore that he would definitely not let any one of the Dunbarsen Family off unscathed.

Even though Belnick was currently very weak, given his experience during his travels, while he was startled at Lorist’s sudden change, he still thought that it was because Lorist was grieving at his body’s current state. He smiled and patted the back of Lorist’s hands before he said, “Don’t feel too down, milord. I’m already used to this. One day, all this suffering will come to an end…”

“Brother Beck, you can no longer stay over here. I will bring you back to the family bastide and find a way to cure you,” said Lorist.

Belnick looked at him in a confused manner before he took a deep breath and said, “Alright, milord. I’ve also gotten sick of staying here. For the past three years, I feel like I’ve been imprisoned within this small hut. I’ve always dreamed of going back to the bastide…”

“Without my permission, you won’t be going anywhere…” said a rough voice which sounded from behind Lorist and Belnick.

“Oh, Master Dunbarsen, you’re here,” said Belnick softly.

Lorist turned exceedingly slowly to his back and saw a proud, arrogant old man with eyes as deep as the abyss itself wearing a black long gown with a grey leather vest over it.

“So you’re the herbalist they call Dunbarsen?” said Lorist as he carefully enunciated each syllable of his question.

The old man gave Lorist a glance and didn’t pay him any heed as if he didn’t even acknowledge his existence before he circled around Belnick and said with his unsettling, crow-like caw, “Beck, your body is in a real terrible state now. Yesterday when you wanted to go back to the bastide to attend the inheritance ceremony, due to your unstable emotional state, the positions of your internal organs have once again shifted, rendering months of treatment and effort wasted. For your own sake, you’d be better off staying here without going anywhere.”

“Dogshit!” Lorist roared. “Old man, why don’t you just admit that it’s your treatment’s inefficacy that’s at fault?! Three years ago when Brother Beck was injured from his encounter with the Northlander Bear, he could still travel to the bastide and to Wildnorth Town for treatment with some help. However, after your years of ‘treatment’, why would he be unable to take a single step on his own? Isn’t his current state worse than before he came here at all? I think it’s because of the incompetence of a self-proclaimed herbalist master like you that Brother Beck is in his current state. Brother Beck, I am bringing you back. At most, I’ll be spending a couple of gold coins to hire a proper high-ranked herbalist to treat you. Don’t worry, money is not something I lack.”

The moment Lorist let out his outburst, the old man started to look disturbed. “Who are you? What are you doing here? Who allowed you to enter this hut?”

“Hahaha… Who am I? Brother Beck, introduce me to that old geezer,” said Lorist.

“Master Dunbarsen, he’s the new dominion lord and this town is within his dominion. It would do you good to pay him your respects…” said Belnick.

“This… this one gives his respects to the dominion lord,” said the old man in a forced manner.

“Good thing you understand your place, old man. Otherwise, I would’ve ended you personally with my sword. Considering the effort that you must’ve made to help Brother Beck, even though he didn’t get better at all, I’ll forgive your transgression. Now, you shouldn’t be against me bringing him back to the bastide, right?” announced Lorist with his hand on the handle of his sword.

The old man’s started sweating more profusely as he said hesitantly, “Since milord believes it is the best course of action, I have no further comments. Please allow me to excuse myself to prepare the necessary medicines that Beck will need to consume back at the bastide so that his injuries don’t worsen…”

“Alright, I give you one hour to prepare it,” Lorist said.

Seeing the old man quickly exit the hut, Lorist looked at Belnick, who was currently wearing an extremely confused expression. He lightly squatted down and whispered, “Brother Beck, from this moment onwards, do not consume any food or drink unless I say you can, understand?”

Belnick’s body shook with realization as he said, “You’re saying… I understand.”

One hour quickly passed, but Dunbarsen still hadn’t returned with the medicine.

Supervisor Kedan then came to report, “Milord, a few of the squad leaders of the Wildnorth Town garrison and the other family heads of the four great families have come to pay their respects. Please be wary as they probably didn’t come with the best of intentions.”

……

“These here are, the Mollin, Hassen and Qubim family heads as well as garrison squad leaders, Mollin, Hassen and Qubim. Oh, please watch out for that pothole on the ground. This one is Squad Leader Dunbarsen, and Master Dunbarsen, which you have just met previously,” said Kedan as he introduced the people present one by one to Lorist.

Every one of them greeted Lorist respectfully with Lorist returning their greetings by nodding subtly.

When the last one came over, Lorist laughed and said, “Master Dunbarsen, did you bring the medicines? Oh, it must be in this bag. Shadekampf, take it and don’t forget to ask the master on how it should be consumed. What? You’ll demonstrate right now? Hehe, there’s no rush. Come on, master. Sit over here. We’ll get to that after we discuss some stuff.”

When everyone was seated, Lorist looked at each one of them before he began, “Given that you have all assembled here, there must be something that you want to tell me. I’ll be returning soon to settle some other matters, so please get straight to the point.”

A fat old man stood up. According to Kedan’s introductions, he was the family head of the Mollins. The fat man made a greeting and explained their intentions.

The Mollin family head first apologized for their absence during Lorist’s inheritance ceremony and cited the reason that they didn’t have the face to show up as they had not managed to prepare a congratulatory gift in time. That’s why the moment they heard that the dominion lord had come over to visit, they all rushed over to offer their respects and mentioned that they would once again send someone to the bastide to deliver their gifts at a later date.

Lorist magnanimously said, “I don’t really mind things like that, but I thank you for your kind intentions. I will naturally be glad to receive your gift by the time it arrives.”

After the pleasantries, they started talking about the core issues. The Mollin family head represented the garrison force to voice an objection to the Norton Family for their lack of communication during the last two years and the salary they owed the garrison force during that timeframe. Even though one garrison soldier’s payment is only 1 imperial silver coin per month, 200 of their salaries over 2 years amounted to 48 imperial gold coins and that was not a small sum.

The second issue concerned the promise of the founding Norton Family ancestor with the garrison force of Wildnorth Town on the granting of roughly 7000 square meters of farmland per family member of a garrison soldier. Now that most of the farmable land around Wildnorth Town had been allocated, many family members of garrison soldiers did not obtain their fair share of farmland. They hoped that Lorist would rectify the issue as the new dominion lord so that the promise of the first ancestor doesn’t get violated.

The third issue was about the relative size of the population and the amount of land they had. According to the Mollin family head, many of the family members of the garrison soldiers did not have much to do within the town. He requested Lorist to give them a few permits so that the citizens of the town who have nothing better to do can form their own merchant convoys to conduct trade. Naturally, the merchant convoys would still pay 10% of their profit to the dominion lord as per the agreed upon tax rates.

Lorist kept smiling and nodding throughout the proposals as if he agreed wholeheartedly to the points made by the Mollin family head. But within his mind, a cold resolve was slowly building up. So they’re actually treating me as a complete idiot. You really think I don’t know the true reason you lot of trash have come to see me? The real thing you want are the trade permits so that you can use the Norton Family name to form your own merchant convoy. Without the permit, no other merchant convoy would agree to trade with you and you can only secretly smuggle and profit on a much smaller scale.

Also, the ‘agreed upon tax rates’ of 10% is complete bull. While it is not unprecedented for dominion lords to give their subjects trade permits, the tax rates are usually around 30 to 50 percent. Some greedier dominion lords even charge up to 70%, which is not that uncommon. Did they think that the tax rates for trading would be the same as that of being a citizen of the dominion?

When the family head of the Mollins finished up, Lorist expressed his apologies on the issue of the delayed salary and explained that he only got to know about it just now given that he had just inherited the position. He promised that he would definitely look into the matter once he returns and make the appropriate reimbursements. Lorist also mentioned that he brought 10000 gold Fordes on his trip back to the dominion, and, according to the exchange rates, 48 imperial gold coins were only worth 12 gold Fordes. He assured them that a small figure like that was no issue and that it would definitely be paid out.

As for the second matter, Lorist said that the main problem was with the flawed system his ancestor had established. However, he said that he was confident that he would be able to solve it and asked them to listen to and consider his proposal.

“Supervisor Kedan, how much farmland does Wildnorth Town have?” Lorist asked.

“Milord, there are around 18 million square meters of farmland, or around 18 square kilometers, in the whole of Wildnorth Town,” replied Supervisor Kedan.

“Here’s what I think…” Lorist said. “I plan to expand the garrison force of Wildnorth Town to 400 people.”

“What?!” The several family leaders and squad leaders jointly let out a cry of surprise. The past few Norton family leaders had tried their very best to limit the scale of the garrison force, or even outright disband them altogether. Why, then, did Lorist make a proposition like that?

“Milord, how do you plan to make up for the lack of farmland?” the Hassen family head stood up and asked.

“Farmland? Farmland is everywhere,” laughed Lorist as he said, “Using Wildnorth Town as an example, say that there are 18 million square meters of farmland at Wildnorth Town. For a garrison force of 400 men, let’s assume every one of them and their direct family members include their parents, two wives, and two children, and that each person is given around 7000 square meters of farmland, each family would only need a little more than 40000 square meters of farmland, right? So 400 garrison soldiers only require approximately 16 million square meters.”

“But… But milord, those garrison soldiers have other family members as well, like their siblings…” shouted the Mollin family head.

“There’s no need to shout, I have a solution for that. Supervisor Kedan, bring me the map of the dominion,” instructed Lorist.

The map was quickly unraveled on the table for everyone to see.

“Look here, the land around this area is relatively flat and is not too far away from Wildnorth Town. I plan to have a new town built here. When it is complete, the area of the land around the town is more or less equal to that of Wildnorth Town’s. So, if I set up another garrison unit there, then I can distribute the land just like we did at Wildnorth Town, right?” said Lorist casually.

“But, milord… That place occasionally gets attacked by mountain barbarians…”

“So what? I’ve hired a well-known mercenary group over here just for that purpose. It’s fine and dandy if the barbarians don’t attack. But if they do, we can catch and enslave them to aid with the construction of the new town! Nobody complains about free labor! Also, just because there are barbarians there, you plan to turtle up in Wildnorth Town for the rest of your lives? Look at this vast land. There is so much potential for development! Also, the expanded garrison force must also be stationed at the town construction site for the long term. Given that the remaining 2 million square meters at Wildnorth Town that are still without owner, I plan to split it into three parts of 666 thousand square meters each and enfeoff them to three honorary knights respectively and let the citizens of the town pick one from the three to be the mayor of Wildnorth Town with the other two being the vice mayors,” said Lorist as he dangled his bait before the eyes of the family heads and the squad leaders.

“Mi–milord… Is what you’re saying… true?” Quite a number of them started to get excited about the proposition.

“Of course, I’m sure you guys know that I’ve been studying at Morante City for the past ten years. This method of government is quite popular over there as it is one of the most democratic ones to ever exist. I plan to slowly implement that in the dominion as well. Supervisor Kedan, for the next few days, stay at Wildnorth Town and make a registry of the family members of the deceased family soldiers as well as the citizens who don’t have any farmland. I plan to have them help out with the construction of the new town. What do you think, gentlemen?” Lorist said.

“This… This sounds pretty good. We definitely agree to that proposition…”

It’s a given that you do. Heck, maybe you can’t even wait for those people I asked Kedan to check on to leave Wildnorth Town for good, thought Lorist. With a calm look on his face, he said, “That’s great. I’ll leave the expansion of the garrison force to you. It’s best if you start allocating farmland to the candidates for the new garrison force. As for those who don’t have farmland allocated to them, let them help out with the construction effort of the new town as well. This way, there will no longer be any problems. I’m counting on you guys and will definitely remember your efforts.”

“Milord, what about the trade permit?” said Master Dunbarsen with his rough, unpleasant voice.

“About that, I apologize but due to being in conflict with the Kenmays Family, Viscount Kenmays has sealed off all our routes to exit the Northlands. Let’s discuss it again after we defeat the Kenmayses and gain control of the pathway to the outside world,” Lorist said.

Chapter 94 Midway Skirmish

“Milord, what are you being so careful about?” asked Belnick, who was currently leaning against the walls of the horse carriage.

Having bid the four family heads and the garrison squad leaders farewell, right after the horse carriage exited the range of vision from the town, Lorist ordered Shadekampf to slow down and gave him a shield before instructing him to be careful. After that, he took another shield and covered Belnick’s body with it before he took out a few javelins and placed them within hand’s reach and patiently waited.

“Sigh, if Patt were here with me, it would’ve been so much easier. Shadekampf, even though I’ve been forcing you to train your Battle Force, you’ve only just made it to the Iron rank not long ago. You’re not of much use on the battlefield at all,” complained Lorist.

Shadekampf responded, “But milord, you’ve just said not long ago that I was better suited at management tasks rather than battles. Why are you calling me useless now?!”

Lorist said, “Even so, you should learn from Charade’s example. He’s definitely up to par with you when it comes to management, but he’s a Three Star Silver rank nevertheless. In another two years, I believe he’ll be able to make another breakthrough.”

“Milord, how can you compare me to Sir Charade? He’s someone who’s fit to become a prime minister! I can only manage a bastide at best,” said Shadekampf, obviously understanding the extent of his skills relative to Charade’s.

Seeing the two arguing casually as they made their preparations, Belnick, who was bandaged all over and even covered with a shield, couldn’t help but ask what was going on.

Lorist replied, “Hmmm, Brother Beck, don’t you think something’s fishy? Even though I didn’t let you drink Master Dunbarsen’s medicine, your condition is still stable as it was just now. What was that about not being able to move your body in fear of unsettling your organs? That’s nothing but bullcrap. You’ve been hoodwinked by that so-called master for two whole years. He’s been feeding you force-dispersing toxin for the whole time, causing you to be unable to circulate your Battle Force to restore your body. It’s like you were being imprisoned at Wildnorth Town for three whole years.”

“Cough… Cough cough…” After Belnick listened to what Lorist had said, before he managed to say anything in reply, the cold breeze outside had caused him to cough rather severely.

Lorist helped to readjust Belnick’s coverings and patted on his back to soothe the coughing. “Don’t talk, Brother Beck. I know what you’re trying to say. Why would they do this to you, right? Shadekampf, tell him about the current situation of the family from the moment Brother Beck left the bastide three years ago to Wildnorth Town.”

Shadekampf started from how the Old Master died from the refusal of the garrison to heed their orders and the attack of the Kenmays Family as well as his journey to Morante City to find Lorist to return to the Northlands to inherit the dominion. Just as he was about to get to the part about the convoy, several people appeared within their field of vision.

6 riders with black cloths veiled around their faces emerged from the forest further up ahead. Armed with their crossbows, they started aiming at Lorist’s group as they diverged and attempted to flank them.

“Shadekampf, disperse the horses and secure the carriage to the ground. After that, get back in here to make sure Brother Beck is protected,” instructed Lorist.

Shadekampf quickly stopped the horses and pushed the sharp-tipped rod that acted as a handbrake for the carriage deep into the ground to secure it. After that, he quickly untied the harnesses around the horses so that they don’t destabilize the carriage should they get startled and run around frantically. Following that, he jumped back to the passenger seat and lifted his shield up to protect himself and Belnick.

Lorist had already gotten on horseback after Shadekampf untied the harnesses and prodded the horse’s abdomen by tightening both his legs and rushed forward to one of the riders at his right. With one hand holding tight to the horse’s reins, he used his free hand to grab a javelin and managed to knock away an incoming crossbow bolt.

Aside from the rider who was rushing at Lorist, the other 5 had their attention on the carriage and within but a short moment, the shields set up around the carriage had taken more than 10 hits from the crossbow bolts.

Having deflected two arrows heading his way, Lorist neared his enemy as time went on. Noticing that his crossbow was not having any effect, the opposing rider humphed coldly as he put it away and drew his sword in preparation for the collision. A blade glow manifested around his sword: the enemy was actually a Silver ranked combatant. However, Lorist was curious about the unstable blade glow of the assailant which flickered from time to time unpredictably.

As the two were but meters from each other, the enemy raised his sword high and aimed for Lorist’s head. On the other hand, Lorist used his javelin as he would a lance and successfully parried the incoming slash. Just as the enemy was wondering why the javelin had not broken into two from being struck by his blade glow, it had already found its way deep into his throat…

With a kick, Lorist knocked the dead rider off his horse and jumped onto it, effectively switching from an ill-equipped workhorse to a properly saddled mount.

Having noted that their crossbows were not able to pierce the shields set up around the carriage, the frontmost rider drew his sword as he approached. At that moment, a javelin soared through the air and pierced that rider before it knocked him off his horse with its momentum. Having had his chest punctured, the rider on the ground took his last breath after struggling for a moment in pain.

The remaining four riders were greatly surprised and turned to the direction where the javelin came from, only to see Lorist approaching at high velocity. The leader pointed to Lorist and roared, “Let’s take care of him first!”

Even though three of the four riders’ swords had blade glows, Lorist charged among their ranks fearlessly…

In an instant, the five of them crossed swords and thunderous sounds rang throughout the battlefield.

Lorist turned his horse in the other direction as he witnessed three of the four riders wobble and fall from their horses. The lucky surviving one had a pale look on his face as he stared at his fallen comrades before he snapped out of it and attempted to escape while screaming at the top of his lungs upon seeing Lorist catching up to him.

Lorist let out a cold smile and said, “Do you think you can run?” He took out the crossbow that was slung from the saddle, loaded it, aimed and pulled the trigger. The crossbow bolt pierced squarely through the back of the escaping rider and with a loud grunt, he fell off his horse.

He then returned to the carriage and knocked onto the shield with his sword. “Shadekampf, come out and go clean up the battlefield.”

The shield moved apart and revealed Shadekampf’s face. “Milord, is it over?”

“Yup, none of the 6 who attacked us escaped.”

“Alright. Milord, I’ll be on it right away,” said Shadekampf before he climbed up and excitedly headed towards the corpses.

Lorist got back onto the carriage and helped Belnick sit up, only to notice the streams of tears that were streaking down his face.

“Brother Beck, what’s wrong?”

“How… How can they do this?! This is rebellion! Without the Norton Family, they wouldn’t be able to enjoy their current lives! How can they have no gratitude at all?!” mumbled Belnick.

“Gratitude? Haha…” Lorist started laughing out loud before he continued, “Brother Beck, you think far too well of them. 200 years ago when the ancestor of our family accepted them as citizens of the dominion, most of them were con men, vagabonds, criminals, thieves, gamblers and debtors. It was precisely because those people had nowhere better to go that they accepted the ancestor’s invitation to live in the desolate Northlands. The founding Norton ancestor took them in as folks of his dominion and even aided in the construction of their town so that they could settle down. However, have they ever showed any sign of appreciation for his efforts? No. In fact, they even exploited the loopholes in the flawed conditions my ancestor offered to take advantage of my family. Had it not been for the benevolence of my ancestor, something like that would never have been allowed to continue. From their point of view, the absence of the Norton Family might even give them more freedom.

“It’s a shame that the society here on the Grindia Continent is dominated by nobles, and there are no rewards for people who don’t put in any effort. Their ancestors have effectively sealed off any chance of the people of Wildnorth Town to be able to work their way up the ladder of society, as they prioritized the short-term benefits too heavily to the point that our family doesn’t treat them as our own and even put up our guard towards them as we would our enemies. For example, even though they were able to train in Battle Force, nobody from our family gave them any proper training and instruction about it. They couldn’t even acquire a merchant’s permit. However, given their peasant status, they should be thankful that the Norton Family doesn’t exploit them like most other nobles would their own citizens. That’s why they are so desperate for a quasi-noble title from our family.”

“But didn’t you just allow them to expand their forces and even said that you were prepared to grant them three honorary knight titles?” Belnick asked after recalling the proposition Lorist had made to the four families of Wildnorth Town.

“That’s right, I’ve mention that I would prepare to do that, but I didn’t say when. If they really want that title, they must carry out my orders without question until I am satisfied. And to satisfy me can take up to tens of years. Maybe their family wouldn’t exist anymore by then,” said Lorist.

Well, their extermination is a given. When Charade and the rest of the convoy arrives, the first thing I on my to-do-list would be the extermination of Wildnorth Town, thought Lorist hatefully.

“Milord, you will definitely make a great dominion lord,” said Belnick.

“Naturally. That’s what I think too,” said Lorist narcissistically as he nodded with full seriousness.

……

“Milord, it’s done,” said Shadekampf as he brought five other mounts back to the carriage. On the saddles of the mounts were the armor and weapons as well as other miscellaneous supplies of the attackers. Not far away, 6 buck naked corpses could be seen completely stripped of all their belongings. Shadekampf hurriedly tied two of the horses to pull the carriage.

By the time Shadekampf was almost finished, Belnick said, “Shadekampf, drive the carriage over there and let me see if there is anyone I recognize.”

Shadekampf agreed and fastened the harnesses of the other 5 horses to the back of the carriage before he drove it to the pile of bodies.

Lorist helped prop up Belnick so he could look at the faces of the six corpses.

“I know two of them. The one to the farmost left is Master Dunbarsen’s nephew. Two years ago while I was still recovering, Casey and him helped me with my baths. He frequently asked me about Silver ranked Battle Force training as well. In the beginning, I answered quite a number of his questions. However, after I noticed something was amiss, I stopped entertaining him completely. Thinking back, it was from that point onwards when he stopped visiting and my ‘injuries’ started to worsen, which Master Dunbarsen blamed on the damage of my internal organs,” said Belnick.

“And that bearded guy in the middle is some relative of Master Dunbarsen. He came to the hut quite a number of times and even brought me fruits. He was the one who told me about the death of the Old Master, however, he didn’t mention anything about the outside world other than that. I really don’t understand why they didn’t do anything when the Kenmays Family attacked. They definitely had the ability to defeat the viscount’s forces… Don’t tell me they don’t understand that without the Norton Family, they would lose their only backbone for survival?”

After Lorist helped Belnick back into his sitting position, he pointed towards the arrow-filled shield and said, “Didn’t you see that? Their target was you. They want to wipe you out so nobody will be able to find out that you’ve been poisoned by Master Dunbarsen once you recover from not consuming the toxin. I’m sure they’ve been plotting to kill you for the past two years to deal a fatal blow to the forces of our family. The people of Wildnorth Town don’t even consider themselves as the citizens of the Norton Family dominion and never had any intention to weather the good and bad times with us from the very beginning. The moment they noticed that they weren’t punished for their first betrayal, they took the benevolence and forgiveness of our family as a sign of weakness and began to go even further to the point that they consider an act of ambushing us like this to be the most natural thing to do without batting an eye.

“Brother Beck, surely by now you understand why I had your squire Casey and Supervisor Kedan stay back at Wildnorth Town. I can no longer trust anybody there. Apart from Shadekampf, I don’t even trust Supervisor Kedan fully. Given your state, you can even be fatally injured by an eight-year-old child. Even though Casey is your squire, given the time he had spent at the town, there’s no guarantee that he hasn’t been bought over by the people there already. For your safety, I’ve decided to return to the bastide with only the three of us.

“And to my expectations, Master Dunbarsen had no choice but to resort to an ambush like this. However, I bet he wouldn’t dare to imagine in his wildest dreams that the six he sent out would be killed by me so easily. Hehe, there’s a saying that goes, ‘swallowing one’s teeth after having them punched loose by another’. They won’t even be able to mourn for their losses publicly. Sometimes, I feel like a bully for even bothering to plot against those of Wildnorth Town. Their intentions and ambitions were practically written all over their faces for me to read! There’s no challenge in that at all! Shadekampf, what are you still standing there for? Let’s get back home as soon as possible.”

Chapter 95 Family’s Forbidden Area

By the time the carriage returned to the bastide, it was already past two o’clock in the afternoon and lunch hour was already over.

Lorist personally carried Belnick on his back to a guest room on the floor where Shadekampf and Patt stayed and went downstairs after helping him settle down.

The young maidservant Irina was currently mending a white gown with a sewing set. Upon seeing Lorist get up the stairs, she started shivering all over again as if she had been standing for hours outdoors during a cold, rainy night.

Lorist sighed in his heart and used the kindest voice he could muster to avoid startling the maidservant to say, “Irina, please go downstairs with me. I have something I need your help with.”

He brought Irina to Belnick’s room on the second floor and said, “Irina, I will leave the care of Brother Beck to you. Later, please go look for Butler Gleis and ask him to assign another maidservant for you to help out with his care. Also, set up a small kitchen downstairs and make Brother Beck’s meals according to the recipes that I will give you. In fact, I think I will have my meals cooked at the small kitchen as well. If you don’t have enough people helping you out, you can find a cooking lady or another maidservant to help out. But remember to look for only the most loyal ones who have no ties to Wildnorth Town whatsoever. Also, make sure to let the maidservants taste everything that will be fed to Brother Beck just to make sure there’s nothing wrong, understand?”

Irina carefully glanced and Lorist before she nodded.

Lorist continued, “If there’s anything that you need, please make a list and hand it to Supervisor Spiel so that he can prepare it for you. You can also leave the setting up of the new kitchen to him.”

Shadekampf entered the room at that moment and said, “Milord, Butler Gleis has sent for me to get you. He seemed to be in a really urgent mood.”

“Alright. Irina, I’ll leave the matters I mentioned to you. Tell me about any problems you have at night, okay?”

Irina bit her lip before she nodded.

“Okay. Shadekampf, go look for Patt. Get him to send a few guards over and have them follow Irina’s arrangements. Brother Beck, please get some rest first. I’ll go see the old butler now,” said Lorist.

……

Butler Gleis was in a furious mood for two reasons. The first was the fact that Lorist had went to Wildnorth Town without any guards. The old butler kept nagging on about the consequences that would befall the Norton Family should Lorist come to any harm. He mentioned that given that he was already in his final years, a shock like this would be very bad for his heart and pleaded that Lorist pay more heed to his own safety in the future.

Lorist understood the old butler’s worries for his own good and recounted the events that had happened at Wildnorth Town to him as he pushed the butler’s wheelchair along. The old butler was especially enraged at what had happened to Belnick. Had Lorist not had any knowledge in the field of herbalism, the injured knight of the family might have had to suffer for far longer than two years from being fed force-dispersing toxin without anyone knowing better.

However, the old butler made an objection to the expansion of the garrison force and believed that they couldn’t be allowed to further strengthen themselves. Lorist shook his head and thought, perhaps stubbornness is just innate in old people. Though, given that he’s been on his guard against them for such a long time, it wouldn’t be weird for him to be unable to accept this sudden change. Lorist chose to not comment on the butler’s words as he thought it would be hard to explain that his move was made in an effort to lower the enemy’s guard.

Currently, Lorist was pushing the old butler towards the forbidden area of the family. This was the other reason why he was so mad at Lorist. Ever since the day after the inheritance ceremony, the old butler had been nagging nonstop that during Lorist’s first day as the family head, he had to go to the forbidden area to pay his respects to the heroic souls of his ancestors. But Lorist had ended up returning at night after visiting Wildnorth Town instead, causing Gleis much grief and disappointment.

As Lorist pushed the wheelchair forward while listening to the ramblings of the old man, he wondered, what is the forbidden area like? I can’t seem to remember anything like this from the young Lorist’s memories and only heard of the place for the first time when Gleis mentioned it to me yesterday. What is inside? Don’t tell me it’s like the mysterious caves often shown in fairy tales or TV shows where treasures and riches, high-ranked technique manuals and godly weapons are kept? Would there be a spirit of an old sage there as well?

That train of thought only left Lorist disappointed when he arrived at a derelict cliff behind the mountain where the castle was built. Looking around, Lorist thought, the forbidden areas depicted in novels usually have high-ranked experts secretly guarding them right? Why don’t I see even half a soul around here? Is the Norton Family’s forbidden ground really left unguarded?

After fumbling around on the wheel chair for quite some time, Butler Gleis finally brought up an old bronze key which he gave to Lorist and indicated for him to use it on the small keyhole on the wall of the cliff. After turning it twice as per the instruction of the butler, a clack rang out from beyond the wall.

“Push that huge rock away to the right…” said the old butler.

After the rock was pushed aside, a hole could be seen from the wall of the cliff. A slight smell of rotten flesh drifted into Lorist’s nostrils, causing him to sneeze involuntarily a couple of times.

As if he didn’t smell anything weird at all, the old butler rolled the wheels of his wheelchair on his own and entered the dark cave. Lorist hurriedly caught up to him and continued pushing the wheelchair.

After that, the old butler instructed Lorist to light up all the torches on the walls the cavern.

With the torches lit, Lorist was finally able to get a good look at the interior of the cave.

Good Sol… So this is the forbidden area? It’s practically a cemetery! Within the cave were several platforms which were stacked up from stone on which corpses were placed.

A strong stench wafted all over the area, which Lorist soon realized to be coming from three of the corpses that were still in the early stages of rotting.

Thoroughly grossed out, Lorist could barely take it anymore and felt an urge to vomit. The scene before him was like something that came straight out of a movie he had seen that was about a person who went to Italy in search of a treasure that had been hidden by the Nazi and somehow found his way into an underground graveyard where skeletons and groups of rats could be seen all over the place…

Phew, good thing there aren’t any rats in here, thought Lorist.

Further away, Gleis was waving for Lorist to come over to a platform where a large, intricately-patterned metal box was placed. Following its opening, a thick beastskin book was brought out by the old butler who then passed it to Lorist.

“Little Locke, this book holds the records of the heroic exploits of the 327 seniors of the Norton Family throughout the 248 years of the our reign at this land. Now, the seniors are all at eternal rest within this cave. This book also has their respective numbers which indicate which body on the labeled stones belong to who. I will now pass the ownership of this record of the glorious history of the Nortons to you and hope that under the blessings of your ancestors, you will be able to become a magnificent dominion lord that will not put the family’s name to shame and lead it to a brighter future.”

Lorist stretched out his hand with a serious look and accepted the thick book, effectively completing the task he had come to the cavern to do. Finally, I can leave the cave now. The moment Lorist thought that, however, the old butler had him push him around the cave and excitedly recited the stories of each ancestor that was enshrined within the cave.

At that moment, Lorist suspected whether the old butler had spent most of his free time loitering around the cave, as he could casually tell the story of each ancestor within it just by memory! After enduring an arduous one hour plus storytelling session, Lorist was delighted when the butler finally said that he was tired before he instructed him to push the stone back and lock the place up before returning to the castle.

“Grandpa Gleis, why are the ancestors of the Nortons’ bodies placed within that cave instead of being buried in the ground like that of most other people?” Lorist asked.

“Well, this goes all the way back to 200 or so years ago when the first Baron Norton was enfeoffed this land and picked this location to build his bastide. Just when the bastide was nearing its completion, the mountain barbarians attacked, causing the first ancestor and two of his sons to die a heroic warrior’s death. His eldest son naturally succeeded the title and the land and led the family’s warriors to resist the barbarians. It was around winter during that time, so the frozen earth was hard as steel. Due to the difficulty of digging into the ground and the fear that the magical beast migration would cause the animals to dig up and mutilate the corpses of his father and two brothers, the second Baron Norton decided to place their bodies within a cave that was behind the family’s castle, with the intention of giving them a proper burial when spring came along. Later, he felt that the cave was not so bad after all and decided to change it into a mausoleum for the descendants of the Norton family and it soon became tradition for anyone of Norton descent to be given eternal rest within. You will not be exception to that as well, Little Locke,” said the old butler.

Lorist suddenly felt that having his body placed within the stuffy cave and allowing it to slowly rot inside was a very scary and disgusting thought. I don’t want to be buried like that! He then made a mental note to think of a way to change the family’s traditions. Nevertheless, the visit to the mausoleum had upset his appetite, causing him to feel rather unenergetic.

Upon returning to the main building of the castle, Lorist noticed that Patt had sent over eight guards who have already awakened their Battle Force. Even though they were only of the Bronze rank, they could be considered to be elite soldiers of the family given the state of its military force.

He went upstairs to check on Belnick only to see him sound asleep with Irina not being in the room. Lorist got down and asked two of the guards to inform Shadekampf, Patt and Supervisors Spiel and Hansk to meet up at the night for a meeting.

After a while, Lorist saw Shadekampf, Irina and three other girls pushing a trolley over. It seemed that Shadekampf had decided to allocate the eight rooms downstairs for the new guards who had just arrived and renovated another two into a kitchen and small dining hall. One other room was to be used as living quarters for the two new maidservants with the last one being converted into a pantry for the small kitchen. Among the three maidservants, the taller one of the bunch was apparently Belnick’s new personal maidservant.

Lorist nodded in satisfaction with Shadekampf’s considerate arrangements that he would have neglected.

That night, Patt reported that among the 2245 people within the bastide, aside from the women and the elderly, there were only about 400-odd youths who were fit to join the family’s forces. With Supervisor Hansk’s help, he had temporarily recruited 248 of them, 8 of whom were the ones who were just now sent to Lorist with the remaining 240 divided into two squads. However, among the 240, fewer than 20 had awakened their Battle Force. In actuality, it was akin to only having two squads of farmer soldiers as both of the squads did not have much combat ability given their lack of proper armor and weapons. They couldn’t even obtain a pike and had to settle for only one wooden stick each.

Lorist told them that the meeting that was scheduled for the night would mainly concern Wildnorth Town and instructed Shadekampf to bring a few men with him there to conduct a population survey. He also stressed that the family members of the deceased family soldiers who have lost their farmland to be sent to the construction site at Morgan Hills and also reminded that the garrison soldiers who have been expelled by the four great families to be registered separately to be sent to build the new town to appease the four great families as their allegiance was still not yet certain.

Supervisor Hansk on the other hand was given two tasks. The troops currently protecting the bastide were mostly retired soldiers in their forties. Lorist instructed him to not disband them and instead select ten from the bunch to become trainers for the newly-formed squads. As for matters relating to Battle Force, Lorist said that he would personally take charge for their classes.

The second task Supervisor Hansk was handed was similar to Shadekampf’s: he was to do a survey on the number of family members of dead soldiers within the bastide as well as any others who were available for labor and prepare to send them to the construction site at Morgan Hills.

Lorist also instructed Patt to look for Knight Josk the next day to tell him to send over some unused armor and weapons as well as the 60-odd captive mercenaries to the bastide before the 4th day of the 3rd month.

Lastly, Lorist gave Supervisor Spiel a beastskin that contained recipes for meals and tasked him to prepare food for the new squad recruits according to his instructions. Additionally, Lorist also reminded him to help Irina with anything she needed for taking care of Belnick.

With all that said, he clapped twice and adjourned the meeting before telling his men to get some rest for the busy day ahead.

Chapter 96 Whitedeer Mound, Bread and the Slave Camp

Lorist went upstairs and noticed that his maidservant, Irina, was staring listlessly to the distance from the window.

Approaching her quietly from behind, he looked in the direction in which she was staring. Lorist let out a slight voice of surprise as he saw the small mound not far away in the distance which was illuminated by the light of the silvermoon. Upon the mound stood several long blades of grass which swayed with the gentle night breeze and several white-colored deers could be seen jumping and playing around in the night; the whole scene was like witnessing a group of magical white fairies having fun.

Irina noticed his presence and tried to pretend that she was still unaware. However, her body started to shiver uncontrollably again.

Lorist wrapped his hands around the girl and took her into his embrace. He laughed lightly as he said, “Am I that scary? I won’t eat you, you know? Why are you shivering? Oh, why are there white deers on that mound? What a weird sight.”

After hearing his calming voice, the maidservant gradually calmed down and started to lean deeper into Lorist’s chest. Upon hearing his question, she meekly replied, “That… That is Whitedeer Mound. Every time when the silvermoon hangs high in the sky, white deers will appear there. In… In the past, some people within the family had wanted to hunt those deers down, but they couldn’t find them no matter how long they camped. Right after they left, however, the deers magically reappeared. That’s why the people within the family believe that the white deers are the of Daphlyn, the Silvermoon Goddess herself. It’s already fortunate for mortals like us to be able to see them from afar, much less touch them.”

Giving Irina a light kiss on her cheeks, Lorist said, “Irina, you did pretty well during the afternoon. Keep this up tomorrow as well. Go ahead and sleep first tonight. I still have other matters to attend to.”

……

Lorist was once again awoken by the ear-piercing sound of wood being sawed. He stretched his hand to his side only to notice that Irina had already long awoken and went downstairs before him. Sitting up on the bed and dressing himself, he looked out of the window and saw the illegitimate son of his father and the cooking lady, Eidelwoke, sawing away. However, Lorist noticed that he was currently sawing a tree stump now instead of a wooden plank like he did yesterday.

The first thing Lorist did after leaving his room was to visit Belnick. Seeing that he was in good spirits, he read his pulse while the both of them chatted. After telling the tall maidservant to take good care of his knight, he left the room and went downstairs to retrieve his swords. At the yard outside, four guards could be seen training hard: the Iron ranked squad leader, Moss, was showing the other three Bronze ranked guards the basics of sword and shield combat.

Lorist nodded towards Moss and went to the well nearby to wash his face with the bucket of water he had retrieved. Just as he was about to start his training, he noticed Eidelwoke watching the guards’ training enviously as he continued with his task.

Lorist went up to him and asked as he pointed towards Moss, “Do you want to train like them?”

Eidelwoke gave him a look without making a sound and merely sped up the rate of his sawing.

“Oh, I’ve been wanting to ask you what you wanted to achieve by sawing every day,” said Lorist.

“Nothing in particular. I only need the sawdust,” he replied.

“Sawdust? What would you do with it?” asked Lorist curiously.

“For food. It can be mixed into flour and made into bread,” Eidelwoke said.

“Mixing sawdust into bread?” Lorist almost fainted upon hearing that. What’s the meaning of this? Is sawdust supposed to be edible? Whose idea is it? Also, does the bread I eat have sawdust in it?

“Wait, stop sawing. Tell the one who instructed you to gather sawdust to meet me,” Lorist said.

At that moment, Supervisor Spiel appeared before Lorist and said, “Milord, this is a tradition of the family. Roughly a hundred years ago when the barbarians laid siege to our bastide, the family was short on food. The Lord Baron of that era ordered for sawdust to be added to the bread of the soldiers defending the bastide so that their hunger will be sated for a longer period of time. In the end, the family’s forces managed to outlast the barbarian army as they had run out of supplies and had no choice but to retreat. It was then when the Lord Baron gave chase and managed to cause the enemy’s forces to be largely annihilated, thus earning himself a magnificent victory. Ever since then, the mountain barbarians could no longer muster an army of more than 1000 people to face the Norton Family’s forces. To commemorate that glorious event, the Lord Baron ordered that the ratio of flour to sawdust when making bread to be 9 to 1. It is also a great method to save supplies.

“That’s why, ever since then, the post of a sawdust collector whose only purpose is to collect them for bread-making was created,” explained Spiel.

“Does the bread I eat have sawdust in it too?” Lorist asked.

“Milord, your bread naturally doesn’t contain any. Bread with sawdust is only handed to the guards and servants,” answered the supervisor.

“Sol, they only did that out of desperation because the family was short on food back then. Now that the family has so much excess food in store, only the insane would continue that practice to save food. Supervisor Spiel, heed my orders. From today onwards, I forbid the addition of sawdust into the bread of our troops and servants so that they can have a proper and wholesome meal. Also, Eidelwoke, your position as the sawdust collector is now revoked. You don’t have to saw wood anymore,” said Lorist as he made his decision.

“Milord… This is… This is against the tradition of the family…” said Supervisor Spiel hesitantly.

Lorist gave him a cold stare and said, “Supervisor Spiel, what I’m doing now will also be tradition for the future generations of the family. Do you have any other questions?”

“No… No, milord. I have no questions at all and will carry it out as you say,” said the supervisor respectfully with his head lowered.

Lorist touched his chin and continued, “Even so, we cannot forget the glory of our ancestors. How about this, Supervisor Spiel, go check on the date my ancestor attained that huge victory. Every year, we’ll celebrate that event on that day itself by eating sawdust bread. This way, we won’t forget the glorious victory of our family, right?”

“Milord, that was a very wise decision,” he said as he bowed down deeply.

“Then, what about me?” asked Eidelwoke, who had just lost his job.

“Go report to the new defense unit. You have a rather good physique and it’s a shame if you don’t become a soldier of our family. I will personally be in charge of the Battle Force training of the unit too. Eidelwoke, when you break through to the Silver rank, I will allow you to bear the Norton family name and let you form a branch family. What do you think?” Lorist asked.

Eidelwoke scratched his head and thought before he said, “Then… Alright. I will do my best.”

……

That afternoon, Lorist went to the camp of the two newly-formed defense units which was located at a plaza near the vineyard behind the castle. Hansk had already been waiting over there and had picked 12 retired soldiers of the family to carry out simple drills for the new recruits.

Pajik walked over at that moment and saluted Lorist before he said, “Milord, the slave camp is already prepared to leave at any time.”

Lorist nodded and said, “Knight Pajik, tell me more about the slave camp.”

“Milord, there are 382 people in the slave camp with 67 soldiers who have had their Battle Force awakened and 244 non-combatants, most of which are family members of the soldiers. They’re already geared up for travel. Where are we headed for, milord?” Pajik asked.

“Don’t worry, we’re in no rush. We’ll set out in another two days,” Lorist responded. “Also, Supervisor Hansk, I recall that our family didn’t practice slavery. Where did these slaves come from?”

Hansk gave a bitter laugh and said, “Milord, in actuality, nobody in the bastide treats them as slaves. These slaves were mostly gathered up during the military campaigns of the First Young Master. Like Pajik, many of them are surrendered soldiers who have been brought to the bastide after they were taken captive.”

Pajik nodded and added, “That’s correct. These ‘slaves’ are mostly prisoners during the civil war years ago like me. After I was captured, the First Young Master had once told me that he intended to use the people within the slave camp to construct a new town where they can live in and become free citizens of the Nortons. That’s why the First Young Master paid so much attention to them and even bought over many slaves from other nobles as well. He once said that once the slaves form their own families, they can settle down in the dominion. The First Young Master had originally planned to start the town construction project once the slave count reached 3000. But, he passed away far too soon…”

Supervisor Hansk said, “Milord, after the passing of the First Young Master, nobody knew what to do with the slave camp. These past few years, we’ve had them help out with some farming and grape-plucking at the vineyard. Other than that, they mostly have their free time to themselves. As long as they remain within the dominion and not cause any trouble, we won’t intervene in their activities and even provide them with food and clothing. It was later that Butler Gleis felt that leaving them without supervision was not ideal. That’s when he allowed Pajik to manage the camp.”

“Since that’s the case, let’s not call them slaves from now on. Treat them as the citizens of our dominion and provide them with more food and better shelter,” said Lorist.

“Also, I’ve just noticed that there are some flaws in the arrangements that I’ve handed you yesterday. I was too rushed when I planned them and only considered the formation of the new defense units while neglecting the staffing of various other activities within the bastide. It was entirely my fault. Supervisor Spiel, I shall trouble you to come up with a new estimate that details the manpower needed to effectively run the bastide. This time, include Pajik and the people managed by him into your calculations as well as the youths who have joined the defense units including their family members. This way, we can get a rough grasp of the population within the bastide and can send the extra people to the construction site at Morgan Hills. That will definitely be an important place to the family in the future.

“Knight Pajik, help Supervisor Hansk out with his task and combine the original retired soldiers of the current defense unit with the new recruits who have awakened their Battle Force to form a new defense squad of 120 people which you will lead. Other than that, let the retired soldiers who are above the age of 40 to be instructors for the newly-formed defense units. From tomorrow onwards, I will personally supervise the Battle Force awakening of the new recruits of the defense unit as well as anyone from the guard squad who wishes to participate as well. Don’t stop them from joining, they’ll reintegrate into the guard squad once their training is done. Understood?”

“Yes, milord,” said Pajik as he stood straight and saluted.

On the other hand, Supervisor Hansk thought for a bit before he nodded in agreement.

The next couple of days saw Lorist working up and down without rest as he read the pulses of anyone who wished to awaken their Battle Force within the bastide and organized the 400 or so people who did come to participate into more than 20 groups which he allocated to the elderly instructors to be trained. Lorist also designed meals according to the needs of the different groups and also had Pajik monitor the progress of the trainees intensely. By the time Lorist was finished for the day, Josk and Patt had already arrived at the bastide with their convoy escort.

This time, Josk brought over 124 four-wheeled carriages and 67 surrendered mercenary captives to Lorist as well as 20000 imperial silvers, 100 buckets of green vine glue, more than 700 assorted leather armor sets, 170 chain mails and more than 1000 weapons.

Lorist and Josk hugged passionately before he asked him about the situation at the construction site. Josk said that everything was going fine and that Telesti had already started having the slaves dig the moat for the castle and started the construction of the castle walls and told him not to worry too much about it.

He then asked Lorist why he was requested to come over to the bastide. Lorist said that he wanted Josk to escort a couple of people to the construction site after two days of rest. He also mentioned that he would be going along, but only after he settled the matters of the family bastide and the mercenary captives.

Chapter 97 Mercenaries and Metal Armor

The 67 surrendered mercenaries were currently having their meals at an open space within the bastide. They were each given only two pieces of black bread, but there was another huge pot of meat soup which could be refilled as they pleased.

When Lorist and Josk went over, two mercenaries greeted their arrival.

Josk introduced them and said, “The older one is Hausky and the one with the blonde beard is called Jim. They are the leaders of this mercenary group.”

Hausky and Jim approached and saluted Lorist and Josk, to which Lorist waved and said, “Alright, the two of you, follow me into the castle. I’ll tell you what I’ve decided for your mercenary group.”

Upon entering the castle, Lorist picked a room and brought the two mercenaries inside. After all of them were seated, Lorist said straightforwardly, “Even though your mercenary group surrendered to us without resistance, you still gave me quite some trouble when it came to deciding your fates. Killing you would defeat the point of accepting your surrender in the first place, but to not do so would be wasting resources and manpower on keeping you fed and under supervision, given that most of your men have already awakened their Battle Force and are at least of the Iron rank. Even if you want to join our side, we wouldn’t be able to trust you either since your lot has surrendered to us so easily. What’s to say the same won’t happen again?”

The two mercenaries started blushing as they looked downwards in shame speechlessly because Lorist had just told them the cold, hard truth.

“I can’t kill you, nor can I let you go scotch-free. There is always the possibility of you joining the enemies and giving us more trouble after all. And locking you guys up would waste too much of my resources. After giving it some thought, I’ve decided to… hire you with money,” Lorist said.

The two of them lifted their heads up in great surprise. “Mi… Milord, you’re going to hire us?”

“That’s correct,” said Lorist as he nodded. “However, don’t worry. I’m not hiring you to go fight against your previous employer. I believe that your pride wouldn’t allow it, and there’s no point in forcing you to do so since you’ll probably not make any effort in it anyway. I even have to worry if you would backstab me for making that arrangement.”

The two mercenary leaders nodded in an embarrassed manner as Lorist had read their intentions perfectly. Hausky, who was the elder and more experienced one, asked, “Milord, what are you hiring us for then?”

“Someone, get me the map of the dominion,” shouted Lorist.

After retrieving it from a servant, Lorist spread the map out on the table and motioned for the mercenary leaders to take a look. “This is the family’s bastide and over there is Wildnorth Town. I’m prepared to build a new town over there at Poplar Coast which is situated right next to a river. I believe that you know that the Northlands is plagued by the mountain barbarians who love to come over here to plunder and pillage. To prevent the construction project from being interrupted, I have decided to set up a military base at the entrance of the valley over here.

“I’m hiring you so that you can defend this military base. Naturally, I won’t ask you to do the impossible. If there are too many barbarians, just hold your position and start a smoke signal and the Norton Family will send out necessary reinforcements. If the barbarian troops are low in number, just wipe them out. Given that your men are mostly Iron or Silver ranks, it shouldn’t be too much trouble. Naturally, I won’t be asking you to do this for free. For every mountain barbarian you capture alive, I will reward your group with one imperial gold coin. And for every barbarian killed, you will get 50 imperial silvers.”

The two mercenaries looked at each other before Hausky asked, “Can we survey the terrain over there first? Also, what kind of military base do you wish to construct?”

“Of course, go check out the terrain as you please. You can even pick where the base will be constructed. I will definitely not do his half-heartedly; if we’re going to build a base, we’ll make sure it lasts. The 100 buckets of green vine glue that I’ve just received will be used for the construction of the base,” Lorist said.

“Okay, we’ll accept your request,” said Hausky. “However, how will we come to an agreement of our fees?”

Lorist laughed and said, “Don’t worry. I’m far more generous than Viscount Kenmays. Every Silver ranked mercenary will receive 1 imperial gold coin each month whereas each Iron rank will receive 50 imperial silvers. The reward for catching or killing barbarians will be given out as an additional bonus. The term of employment will be 1 year, and after that, you’re free to either continue working for us or leave. Other than that, the construction of the base is not that urgent and we can start planning for that in the coming 10 days. After all, I have to get the materials ready as well. However, if you sign the agreement with us today, we’ll start paying you from this month onwards.”

Hausky and Jim stood up from their chairs and said, “Milord, we’re honored to be in your service.”

“Good. Then, I’ll ask for someone to draft out the contract and after signing, you can bring your men to Poplar Coast and start setting up camp there. I will have someone lead you there and send the necessary supplies over as well,” Lorist said.

“But, milord, we’ll be needing weapons and other equipment, as well as horses…” mumbled Hausky in a stuttering voice.

Lorist slapped his forehead and thought, how can I forget something this basic? After surrendering as captives, they’ve already handed every piece of their equipment to us… “How about this? After signing the contract, you can let your men collect the weapons they are most proficient with. I will also be providing you guys with 30 sets of chain mail, 50 sets of leather armor, 50 mounts and 4 large carriages. These items will only be loans, but you can claim them with the reward money you get. Also, I’ll be giving you clothing, bedding, tents and other miscellaneous supplies for free. Is that acceptable?”

Hausky revealed an ecstatic expression before he bowed deeply to Lorist. “Milord, your grace and generosity is akin to that of the great sun in the sky, giving warmth to the hearts and souls of us lowly mercenaries…”

“Buzz off! If you don’t know how to flatter, don’t. Did you think I wouldn’t know that you plagiarized the words of the Song of Singwa to praise me? Supervisor Hansk, send these two fellas away and I’ll be leaving the contract signing to you. After that, ask Supervisor Spiel to provide them with the equipment.”

After the two mercenaries left, Lorist let out a breath of relief and said, “It’s finally settled. Josk, let’s go. I’ll bring you to see Old Butler Gleis.”

……

That night in the study, Lorist was chatting with Josk about the matters of the dominion while savoring some fine wine. Lorist mainly complained about how the methods he used that was perfectly fine at Morante City was frowned upon in his own dominion, which caused him to feel uncomfortable and restrained sometimes.

“I really don’t understand why the family holds the traditions spo close even though they’re already in this state. Didn’t you notice when we went to see Gleis just now? He was even lecturing me to not let the servants learn to awaken their Battle Force. According to him, it was supposed to be some kind of reward for loyal servants when they are promoted and the way I’m freely teaching them the basics is against tradition. If it were me, I would even not hesitate to help all the maidservants awaken their Battle Force right away. Otherwise, how else would the family regain its power? Only 2 to 3 servants get taught how to awaken their Battle Force per year according to the old ways. And whether they succeed in doing so or not is a completely different story altogether. What would that even accomplish?”

It was apparent that Lorist had drunk quite a bit from his crass speech pattern.

Knocks sounded on the door at that moment and Lorist responded with, “Come in.”

Patt entered the room and said, “Milord, Supervisors Spiel and Hansk are here.”

Lorist rubbed his face to freshen himself and said, “Let them in.”

What Lorist didn’t expect was that both the supervisors have come to raise an objection because Lorist had agreed to give the mercenaries thirty sets of chain mails.

“Milord, metal armor is far too expensive in the Northlands. Many families even treat them as treasured assets and refuse to use them! Even though we only have 170 with us, you gave the mercenaries 30 sets all at once! That’s too wasteful! Milord, do you think there would be a way to get them back?” said Supervisor Spiel without holding back.

Lorist and Josk gave him a stare before the both of them laughed out loud uncontrollably. Lorist laughed so hard that he was arching his back in pain, causing the two supervisors to feel rather befuddled at that response.

After struggling to keep his laughter in check, Lorist said, “Let’s put that matter to rest and not ever mention it again in the future. Supervisor Spiel, you should understand that metal armor is only a very basic and common piece of equipment. If you go to the construction site at Morgan Hills, you will see that most of our troops there are equipped with a chain mail inside and another scale armor on the outside. To our family, the most important thing is the lives of our soldiers and not the armor themselves.

“I should also mention that the armor were all produced by a Grandmaster Armorer we picked up along the way. My only worry now is that the family dominion still doesn’t have an iron mine, Otherwise, we can definitely produce armor and other equipment nonstop and will be able to fill up our warehouses within a short year. Should that happen, your main worry would definitely be the lack of soldiers to use the armor we have stocked up.”

The two supervisors gave themselves another look of confusion. They would never have dreamed that the armor had been produced by the family itself. And the fact that Lorist got a Grandmaster Armorer to work for him was even further out of expectations. This was extremely good news to their ears.

“I forgot to ask, Supervisor Hansk. How many sets of armor did our family use to have?” Lorist asked.

“Milord, the warehouse currently has 17 sets of armor. Among them include 2 full body armors for knights which belonged to the Old Master and the First Young Master, 12 chain mails, 2 scale armor sets, and 1 plate armor,” reported Hansk from the back of his mind without referring to any written record.

“Tomorrow, bring 6 chain mails and 2 scale armor over for the eight of my personal guards. The six Bronze ranks will be given chain mails as well as leather armor to wear on top of it. The Iron ranks, Moss and Yajj will be given scale armor instead. Other than that, notify Knight Pajik to pick one set of armor for himself from the warehouse. Oh, and don’t forget to tell Patt the same as well. After giving the mercenaries 30 sets, the 170 sets of chain mail included within today’s shipment should be left with around 140. I plan to use them for the new 120-man-strong defense squad, so distribute the armor to them tomorrow. As for the remaining 20, keep them in the warehouse for now. I will have some more armor sent back from the construction site at Morgan Hills and will reward each of the soldiers above 40 with one set for staying with our family during such difficult times,” Lorist said as he stood up and paced about the study.

Supervisor Spiel nodded and said, “Alright, milord. I will do as you wish.”

“Also, didn’t we also have a shipment of around 700 sets of leather armor? Pick out 400 sets that have a similar design and prepare 400 pikes and also pack 4800 imperial silvers into a chest before loading them all onto carriages. Joe, I need you to accompany me to Wildnorth Town tomorrow to urge the garrison force for the new recruits soon so that no ‘accidents’ will transpire if they drag on for too long,” said Lorist as he touched his chin.

“Milord, aren’t you giving Wildnorth Town too many benefits by presenting all these equipment to them?” Hansk asked.

“If we don’t do this, they wouldn’t let their guard down. It’s just like fishing. To catch a fish, you must first use some bait. These weapons and equipment are exactly that. When they take the bait, we will have a way to wipe them out. For now, we can only wait and endure. Worry not, when the time comes, I will make sure we get everything back with interest. Additionally, our family soldiers are already equipped with metal armor, so keeping these leather ones around is kind of pointless. It’s better to use it to placate the garrison force,” Lorist explained.

“Alright, as you will, milord.”

Chapter 98 Lorist’s Plan

Lorist and Josk stopped their horses on top of a small hill and looked towards Wildnorth Town from afar.

The gates of the town were currently open and streams of carriages could be seen moving out of the town as cries and chattering resounded throughout the open fields.

“Milord, I’ve never seen such an arrogant and disrespectful garrison force that even dares to be so calculative while negotiating with its overlord. No wonder you said that they were a troublesome one. However, I don’t understand how you were able to tolerate their existence and didn’t wipe them out for treason long ago when you first arrived at the dominion,” said Josk.

Lorist laughed and said, “So now you see it for yourself. It’s been 200 years and the Norton Family would never have dreamt that the loophole in the regulations made in the past to benefit the citizens would be exploited to the point that it would cause the descendants of the family so much trouble. Even so, our excursion this morning was not for naught. Look, aren’t they sending those people out already? As for their punishment, that will have to wait for now. When Charade and Potterfang gets here with the convoy, we will have the necessary force to wipe them out.”

……

The first thing that morning, Lorist and Josk went to Wildnorth Town with 5 carriages carrying the pikes and leather armors as well as the imperial silvers. However, the Dunbarsen family head was not present at their reception. According to the Mollin family head, he has been struck with a cold and has to rest and recuperate since two days ago and could not be present.

But when the Mollin family head handed over the name list for the garrison force members, Lorist noticed that part of his plot had failed. Most of the names on the list were people from the Mollin, Hassen and Qubim families with not one of them being Dunbarsen family members. Even the previous vice captain from the Dunbrasen family had left the garrison force.

Pretending to be concerned, Lorist asked why the vice captain had left the force. The Mollin family head’s reply was that the Dunbarsen Family had decided to move over to the new town and that the Dunbarsen squad leader would serve over there as the leader of the garrison there.

Lorist greatly praised the Dunbarsen Family for its generosity and grace to allow the other families’ members a chance to join the garrison force. And after many pointless pleasantries, Lorist handed the equipment to the Mollin family head and told him that it was meant to be used for the formation of the new garrison force. He also mentioned that he brought the salary the family owed the force as well before showing him the chest filled with imperial silver coins. However, he also said that the garrison force’s pay would be given once every three months from now on because he had too many matters on his hands and couldn’t be bothered to make a trip to Wildnorth Town once a month to pay that small sum of money and hoped that the people of Wildnorth Town would understand his troubles.

After that, Lorist asked Supervisor Kedan whether the population survey was completed. Kedan reported that the records for the family members of the fallen family soldiers as well as the citizens who had lost their land had all been accounted for: approximately 1400 people can leave the tonw right away. However, he mentioned that due to the reshuffling of garrison members, many people of the town related to the people who were kicked out of the force had been emotionally affected by the change and were not willing to cooperate with the survey and he could only estimate their numbers to be around 2000 people.

It was at that moment when the Mollin family head asked Lorist to empathize with those who had been deemed unfit to continue their service in the garrison and tolerate their unwillingness to cooperate and suggested him to build a new garrison force at the new town so that those people who had been kicked out would be able to serve there. By then, he said, the people would definitely be placated and will cooperate with the population survey.

Lorist gave a cold laugh and thought, they actually do have a pretty good plan up their sleeves. They must be aiming to let their family members sneak into the new town and prompt me to form a new garrison so that they can enjoy the same benefits they already do in Wildnorth Town. Hmph, don’t think you’ll be able to hit the jackpot without putting in any effort.

Lorist responded by shaking his head in futility and said to the three family heads that due to the current situation the Norton Family was in with Viscount Kenmays’s forces, the family has decided to build a border wall at Morgan Hills to keep the Kenmayses out of the family dominion. That’s why the family needed a lot of manpower and the people to be sent out of Wildnorth Town will be helping out with the construction at Morgan Hills instead and that the workforce for the construction of the new town will have to be sourced from the people of Wildnorth Town who are not members of the garrison force nor their family members.

Lorist continued that the reason the family decided to allow the garrison force to expand was not so that they could stay cooped up like cowardly turtles at Wildnorth Town but instead help out at several other areas where they are needed. However, he assured the family heads that he would not ask the garrison to face the forces of Viscount Kenmays because he knew that the garrison force would definitely not be willing nor have enough strength to overcome the viscount’s forces anyway.

His insult had caused the three family heads to redden with anger. However, the cunning, thick-skinned Mollin family head pretended that he didn’t hear anything and instead asked where the garrison force members would be asked to serve.

Pointing at the map of the dominion which was laid out on the table, Lorist said that he has already hired a mercenary group to defend Poplar Coast, where the new town would be constructed. As long as Wildnorth Town was able to send out 200 garrison troops, they will be able to setup a new military base at a valley there. The mercenaries will mainly be responsible for defending the base while the garrison force members only had to help supply them once every ten days and watch over the construction of the town at Poplar Coast.

Naturally, Lorist said that the Norton Family will definitely reward the people of Wildnorth Town for their efforts and increase the salary of the garrison members who go to Poplar Coast to 10 imperial silvers per month, which is easily ten times their normal pay. Other than that, the bonus which the mercenaries had for capturing barbarians alive or killing them would also be applicable to the garrison force members.

That declaration caused the three family heads to argue for quite an amount of time without giving Lorist a clear answer. In the end, Lorist got annoyed and said that he would give the three family heads one month’s time to consider the issue and mentioned that the family would not force them to do that if they weren’t willing. But he added that the construction of the new town will have nothing to do with Wildnorth Town anymore should that happen and stressed that the family did not care about what the townsfolk had to say about that matter.

Lastly, Lorist requested that he be allowed to borrow some carriages to help move the people who were leaving Wildnorth Town to the bastide, but he didn’t expect that it would be met with the joint refusal of all three family heads. This caused Lorist to fume with rage and question whether the three family heads were intent on committing treason against the family. If that was the case, he said that the family was willing to surround Wildnorth Town with their forces and wipe them out regardless of the cost.

His sudden aggressive attitude deeply shocked the three family heads to the point that they quickly begged for mercy as they stammered to explain why they had refused to sell the carriages: they were worried that once the carriages were used to transport the people back to the bastide, they wouldn’t be returned and cause the town to incur heavy losses.

Lorist didn’t expect that the reason would be something as trivial as that. It was extremely ludicrous that the three family heads had dared to risk offending their dominion lord for the sake of tens of carriages and Lorist didn’t know if that was a sign of bravery or merely a foolish focus on short-term gains and losses.

“Alright,” Lorist said. “Then I won’t force you to lend me any. But you’ll be fine if I rent them, right? It’s only a short trip of one hour and I will pay a rent of one imperial silver for each carriage per trip made to the empty fields outside the bastide. Other than that, I promise on the name of the Nortons that I will definitely return your carriages after transporting the people to the bastide.”

Upon hearing Lorist say that, the three family heads started arguing again. However, this time, it was about how many carriages each family would provide so that they would not miss out on this chance to make extra money. After a couple more moments, the family heads finally agreed on the carriage arrangements and proceeded to order their men to organize the transport of the 1400 or so people.

……

“Milord, I still have something I don’t understand. I feel that with our current forces, we’ll definitely be able to destroy the garrison force of Wildnorth Town. There’s no need for you to placate them like that. The more you let them be, the more they will take you for granted,” said Josk as he looked towards the town.

Lorist nodded and said, “You’re right about that, Joe. If I wasn’t troubled with Viscount Kenmays’s forces and the construction at Morgan Hills, the soldiers I brought back to the dominion would definitely be enough to wipe out Wildnorth Town. However, we can’t afford to do that now as the garrison over there is unlike those within other dominions. They have a history of over 200 years. The 200 garrison force members is only the official number; they may be able to rally up more than 2000 fighters should we actually decide to take them out. And all of those people will definitely not surrender easily and fight to the death as their family members and livelihood depend on it. Even if we manage to wipe them out, our losses would definitely be huge and we will not be able to spare any more soldiers to defend the construction site at Morgan Hills.

“As the Wildnorth Town is the only problem in the dominion, we can afford to delay their demise and compromise with them for now. My decision to expand the garrison force of Wildnorth Town so that we can make the population of the town decrease as people leave it and cause strife within their own ranks. The true aim of my decision to construct a new town at Poplar Coast was to tempt the ruling families to send out the dissidents within the town so that the ruling families will be able to take complete control over Wildnorth Town. That way, I can effectively halve their fighting force as well.

“And providing with the pikes and leather armor as well as paying the salary we owe them is mainly to placate them as well as to let them think that we’re not prepared to antagonize them so that they won’t cause trouble for me in the dominion. What we need most now instead is time, especially with the case of the construction of the castle at Morgan Hills, the issue with Viscount Kenmays, the training of the new defense unit within the bastide as well as waiting for the main convoy led by Charade to arrive. What I’m trying to do now is to stabilize the situation within the dominion first.”

“Milord, are you really serious about building the new town at Poplar Coast?” Josk asked.

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Lorist said as he laughed. “My father and brother had long had a plan to build a new town within the dominion so that we can build the foundations to one day shake off the burdensome Wildnorth Town. It’s a shame that they weren’t able to complete the plan when they were still alive, and the place they had decided to build the town at before they passed away was at that very spot. Building a new town there is akin to expanding the area of influence of the family within the dominion by two times. The main problem with that place is the occasional attack from mountain barbarians and that is exactly why I hired the mercenaries to be stationed at the military base there.

“But I have to admit that until very recently, the construction of the new town was merely an afterthought of mine that was also a very convenient to use as an excuse to cause the people of Wildnorth Town to turn against each other. For now, I will still be prioritizing the construction of the castle at Morgan Hills and following that, the mountain city within the valleys there according to the Kenmayses’ original plan. After the completion of the castle, I plan to use that as my headquarters and proceed with the construction of the city, defeating the Kenmays Family, and finding a way to connect the Northlands to the outside world so that we can start trading as well as await the arrival of the main convoy. Those will be the main goals I plan to accomplish in the near future.

“As for the construction of the town at Poplar Coast, if the people at Wildnorth Town are willing to fork out some manpower, we will be able to start the preliminary work such as gathering stones, wood, green clay and other building materials which will take at least two years. Within that time period, the people from the town who had been sent out to work will definitely have some conflicts with the garrison soldiers watching over them. After that, Wildnorth Town will definitely be in chaos and much easier for us to deal with.”

“Milord, you’re a devious one, aren’t you?” Josk said.

“Oh my, you truly flatter me,” replied Lorist.

Chapter 99 Maplewoods Bastide

At that moment, Supervisor Kedan and Shadekampf arrived at the top of the small hill and approached Lorist.

Lorist asked, “Do you know why the Dunbarsen Family left the garrison force?”

“Milord, last time when you brought Knight Belnick away from their town, something seemed to have happened within the Dunbarsen Family. However, we were unable to find out what as they had tried rather meticulously to keep it secret. However, I do remember that back then, the Mollin, Qubim and Hassen family heads had visited Master Dunbarsen to discuss something. It was after that when the members of the Dunbarsen Family left the garrison force,” replied Kedan.

“What about you? Did you notice anything of interest?” Lorist asked as he turned to Shadekampf.

Shadekampf shook his head and said, “Yesterday night, I had invited an ex-member of the garrison force who had just left it recently to have some drinks together and after he downed quite a few cups, he told me that the four families were actually hiding their true military might and that each of them had several Silver ranked members as well. That is also the reason why they had the galls to test our family’s patience. However, their Silver ranks did not have any access to proper Battle Force training methods above the Silver rank and had no choice but to rely on themselves to research it. That man even told me that this time, the Dunbarsen Family had incurred a rather heavy loss as for some reason, they had lost 4 out of 5 of all their Silver ranks all of a sudden as well as two other Three Star Iron ranks, causing them to fall from the second most powerful family to the last overnight. I believe that they had left the garrison force because of pressure from the other three great families.”

Lorist laughed out loud and thought back at the six who had come to assault him when he was on the way back to the bastide with Belnick and Shadekampf. Originally, he had thought that all four families had been involved in that attack as Belnick had only recognized two of them who belonged to the Dunbarsen Family. Little did he know that the other four were members of the Dunbarsen Family as well, causing them to instantly suffer a huge loss as if they had been crippled from having their spine broken. He even thought that the four families would scramble for the three knight titles that he was going to give out and didn’t expect that one of them would be out of the race so quickly as a result of his own actions of killing off every single attacker at once back then.

“Then, is there reason enough to suspect Belnick’s squire, Casey?” Lorist asked once again.

Shadekampf replied, “I’ve asked a couple of people and most of them only knew him but never really interacted much with him. I also talked to a few of the former garrison soldiers and all of them said that they weren’t close with Casey nor did they know which family he was aligned with. According to them, Casey only spends his time taking care of Belnick at the dominion lord’s mansion. Other than Master Dunbarsen, he has never met the other family heads either, so I believe he should be clear.”

Lorist mumbled in a low voice, “What I’m curious about is during the two years Knight Belnick was poisoned by Master Dunbarsen to the point where he couldn’t leave the dominion lord’s mansion, didn’t Casey suspect anything was going on? That’s the main reason I can’t be certain of his loyalty. However, since both of you didn’t notice anything strange, when we return to the bastide, I’ll have Casey join the squire unit and teach him how to awaken his Battle Force as a reward for his two years of care for Knight Belnick.”

“Milord, this time, you were really too generous with Wildnorth Town’s garrison force. Not only did you pay them the salary, you even gave them weapons and armor. What I’m worried of is that they won’t do according to what you have told them,” said Supervisor Kedan.

“They will, because they have no other choice. Did you forget that I changed the regulation for the allocation of farmland?” Lorist said.

“Do you mean the one that states that each garrison force member’s family will be allocated around 40000 square meters of farmland?”

“That’s right. 400 garrison force members will need around 16 million square meters of farmland, which is the area of most of the farmable land of Wildnorth Town. The Mollin, Hassen and Qubim families already occupy all the garrison force positions, so do you think they will not jump at the chance to claim the farmland? That way, the garrison soldiers which were kicked out would also be deprived of their share of the land as well. What do you think would be their response?”

“To cause trouble?”

“That’s a given. The three great families had originally intended to send those they kicked out to the new garrison force that they expected to be formed with the construction of the new town to placate them while spreading their own influence there as well. However, what they did not foresee was that I won’t be forming a new garrison force for that town right away and told them that I would only do so after the completion of the town. That way, these people would lose their hopes of getting back their positions as garrison soldiers. Given that they had lost their previous benefits, do you think they would sit still and take it silently?”

Lorist gave a cold laugh and continued, “The reason I gave the three families 3 months to decide was because I hoped that this would cause the people who were kicked out to turn against the three families, which will in turn result in the three families sending their garrison soldiers to force the people who cause trouble to go to Poplar Coast to participate in the construction of the new town so they don’t continue to cause trouble within Wildnorth Town, effectively halving their population there. I expect that all that’s left of the three families within Wildnorth Town would be only three to four thousand people. Take the women and elderly out of the equation and they will at most have a fighting force of 1000-odd people. By then, the family only has to face a force of over 1000 instead of the original 7000 people.”

Supervisor Kedan was stunned at that revelation.

Lorist looked back at Wildnorth Town and saw that the last carriage had already exited the gates. “Let’s go. Supervisor Kedan, you will be put in charge of settling these people down at the empty field outside the bastide. Shadekampf, inform the family members of the dead soldiers of our forces about our new pension policy and ask them not to worry as the family will definitely not abandon those who are loyal to us, understand?”

“Yes, milord. I understand,” replied Shadekampf.

……

Currently, the fields outside the bastide was packed with people with Supervisor Kedan making arrangements for tents to be set up and Supervisor Hansk calculating the cost of renting the carriages from Wildnorth Town whereas Supervisor Spiel was reporting something to Lorist.

“Milord, Sir Josk has brought over 124 carriages to the bastide. The bastide on the other hand has 87 carriages available to use which were mostly utilized by the family merchant convoy and military force in the past. However, the family also has a lot of two-wheeled carriages which were mainly used to transport supplies in short distances or workers to the farms. If milord needs them, we can provide up to 135 units.”

“Supervisor Spiel, how much extra manpower does the bastide have?” Lorist asked.

“Milord, Supervisor Hansk’s survey reports around 748 people.”

“That means that including the 1427 people who have just arrived from Wildnorth Town, we can send 2175 people to the site at Morgan Hills, which mean we will require around 200 four-wheeled carriages. How much food and supplies can the remaining carriages transport?”

“Milord, the supplies you need to transport there are mostly food and textiles. While we do have food in abundance in the warehouses, the opposite is true for textiles. However, we can still use them to make some clothing to be sent over. If we use the two-wheeled carriages as well, we will be able to transport 5000 kilograms of food and a bunch of clothes,” replied Spiel.

Lorist turned his head to look and saw that Josk, who was beside him, was spacing out as if he was thinking of something.

“Hey, Joe, what do you have in mind?”

“Oh, milord, I was just wondering about something. I remember seeing a large plaque with ‘Wildnorth Town’ engraved on it at the gates of the town when we visited this morning, but I don’t remember seeing something similar at the bastide. Why doesn’t this place have a name?”

That’s right! Lorist suddenly recalled that most people only referred to this place as the ‘family bastide’ as if it didn’t have a name of its own. That’s weird, the family has been around for more than 200 years, why didn’t anybody name this place?

“Supervisor Spiel, do you know the reason for this?”

Spiel shook his head. At that moment, Supervisor Hansk was just walking by them after completing his task and Lorist asked him the same question.

“I recall that someone else asked the same question before. At that time, the Old Master’s response was there was no need to go through so much trouble to name the place as the family only had one bastide within the dominion. He believed that calling this place the family bastide would be more affectionate,” explained the supervisor.

Lorist shook his head and said, “That won’t do. The family will have many more territories in the future, so this one needs a name to avoid confusion. Let me think of one then. Since the surrounding mountains are filled with maple trees, let’s call this place Maplewoods Bastide from now on. Seek out a stonemason immediately to have that name carved on the castle.”

“Milord, what an apt name for the place! It is definitely fitting of the landscape around here. I will instantly ask for someone to start carving the name up,” replied Supervisor Hansk.

Lorist then called out to Spiel, who was just about to leave. “Hey, I’m afraid I’ll have to trouble you to prepare the supplies and carriages as soon as possible during these two days. It’s already the 5th day of the 3rd month, and I hope to be able to depart on the 7th. That way, we’ll be able to arrive at the construction site by the 8th day of the month.”

“Milord, please be assured that it will definitely be ready by the 7th,” said Supervisor Spiel before he left in a hurry.

“Milord, there’s plenty of time for you to prepare, you don’t have to be in such a rush you know,” said Josk.

“No, Joe, did you forget what we had talked about with Butler Boris back there? Around the 10th day of the 3rd month, there will be a shipment from the Kenmays Family to the construction site as well as an escort of many more slave laborers there. I plan to arrive by the 8th and see if we’ll be able to swallow up all that for ourselves,” Lorist said.

……

On the 7th day of the 3rd month during 9 o’clock in the morning, a supply convoy formed from 211 four-wheeled carriages and 135 two-wheeled carriages left Maplewoods Bastide for the construction site at Morgan Hills.

This time, Lorist was accompanied by Supervisors Hansk and Kedan. Hansk also picked the 200 or so youths who were previously preparing to awaken their Battle Force from the bastide to be coachmen for the moment. After the trip, they will once again return to the bastide to resume their training.

Patt on the other hand brought 60 soldiers from the newly-formed defense unit that had all awakened their Battle Force along with them while Josk returned with the 60 guard squad members that came with him and served as a scout unit for the return trip.

Lorist was currently complaining to Shadekampf, “Why do I feel that I’ve been entangled with nothing but convoys recently? You see, I formed a convoy back at Morante City to head to the dominion. After leaving it behind at Geldos City to travel lightly and quickly, Patt managed to get another formed for me at Fenyata Town. And now, after only spending a couple of days at the dominion, I’m leaving it with yet another convoy. I’m so sick of convoys, you know?”

Shadekampf knew that Lorist was only joking around and merely laughed it off without bothering to continue the conversation.

Josk however laughed out loud and said, “Milord, you know you could always depart a day later. I can lead the convoy and wait for you to catch up tomorrow.”

Lorist waved his hand and said, “No way, I’ve noticed that I’m a workaholic who can’t leave anything unattended. I wouldn’t be able to sleep soundly at night if I’m not here with you on an important occasion as this.”

The trip Lorist had taken with Patt and Shadekampf back then with only one carriage from Morgan Hills to Maplewoods Bastide had taken up to 7 hours. Given the size of their convoy, it would take up twice as much time for them to complete their journey.

After traveling for six hours, it was already two in the afternoon. Josk who was at the front of the convoy sent someone to the back to ask Lorist whether they should stop the convoy to rest at a small lake up ahead.

Just as Lorist was about to head to the front to check that lake out for himself, he suddenly noticed smoke signals coming from the mountains around them as ten riders emerged from the mountains while brandishing the weapons in their hands and screaming out an eerie war cry as they approached…

Chapter 100 Barbarians, Gold Mine and Plotting

“Barbarians!” screamed some at the front of the convoy. The convoy instantly broke into a huge chaotic mess…

“Shadekampf, help restore order to the convoy. There’s nothing to fear about 50 or so barbarian riders. Guard squad, march forward on my lead!” roared Lorist.

Just when the 120 mounted guards scattered throughout the convoy gathered into a line formation near Lorist, a chestnut brown horse rode out from the group towards the barbarian riders with its rider holding a great green longbow. When he was around 150 meters from the barbarians. the thunderous sound of the bowstring rang out repeatedly…

One barbarian rider after another was struck down by the emerald-colored arrow-bolts. After both parties traveled for another 30 meters towards each other, more than 20 barbarians had fallen from their mounts…

The remaining 30 or so barbarian riders stopped their mounts in terror. All of a sudden, another savage cry sounded from far away, causing the riders to turn back and retreat…

Josk breathed in a huge gulp of air while lightly shaking his hand which was slightly numb from all that firing before he once again lifted his longbow and circulated his Battle Force. But this time, he didn’t shoot rapidly and instead relaxedly shot at the 3 barbarian riders who were at the back of their retreating group, swiftly ending their lives. Seeing the rest of the barbarians escape into the trees, he kept his longbow and stopped his assault.

However, one of the riders turned around and started cursing and gesturing. Even though Josk didn’t hear that barbarian from far away, he figured that the savage was probably saying something derogatory to him and shot out another arrow in rage.

That barbarian immediately tried to evade the incoming projectile and successfully did so, with Josk’s arrow taking the barbarian’s feather-decorated helmet off and pinning it onto a tree not far away. The tree shook so hard from the force of that arrow that it actually snapped into half and gradually fell towards the ground.

After seeing Josk’s arrow snap a huge tree’s trunk, the barbarian who had managed to evade certain death looked up and locks of long golden hair could be seen falling over that person’s shoulder now that the helmet was absent. It appeared that the barbarian rider was a woman. Even though that female barbarian rider had escaped with her life, she fainted from sheer terror of almost losing her life and laid unconscious below the shade of the tree. However, a few other barbarians helped to carry her to safety and led her mount deeper into the forest.

The slowly falling tree eventually crashed onto the ground, causing a cloud of dust to obscure the area from sight. When the dust settled, there was no longer any trace of the barbarians at the edge of the forest.

Apart from the 20 or so barbarian corpses and their riderless mounts, the scene from before seemed to have been nothing but a dream.

Josk turned his horse and returned to the convoy, only to be received by a sudden loud cheer, “Divine marksman! Divine marksman!”

Lorist went up to Josk to receive him. He patted his shoulder and said, “You did great!”

Then he raised Josk’s right hand and cheered towards the convoy, “Josk! Josk!…”

The people of the convoy responded with great fervor. “Josk! Josk! Divine Marksman Josk!……”

Josk rubbed his nose and said embarrassedly. “Milord, this is a little too much…”

Lorist said, “Joe, you deserve it.”

……

Due to encountering the patrolling barbarian cavalrymen, Lorist decided to not rest at the lake up ahead and continue their travels just in case the escaped barbarians called for more reinforcements.

Shadekampf brought a few guard squad soldiers to rally up the dead barbarians’ mounts and loot their corpses. Lorist on the other hand called Supervisors Hansk and Kedan over and asked them whether barbarians were commonly sighted in that area.

Hansk shook his head and said, “Milord, I’ve never heard of any barbarian sightings here and there is no such instance stated in the family records either. Commonly speaking, barbarians are usually seen around the Magical Dragon Mountains. This place is quite far from there and is actually closer to the Black Forests and the Desolate Hills and the family troops have never noticed the presence of barbarians here for the past 100 years even though not many from the family ventured much to this area. I believe it must’ve been a rare coincidence for us to have encountered those barbarian cavalrymen.”

After cleaning up the battlefield, Shadekampf let the guard squad members continue collecting the mounts and rode over to where Lorist was.

“Milord, take a look at this,” said Shadekampf as he handed over a small leather pouch.

After opening it, Lorist reached his hand inside and took out a handful of golden dust.

“Gold dust!” cried out Supervisors Kedan and Hansk.

“Milord, the barbarians that were killed by Sir Josk mostly had a pouch on them that was filled with gold dust like this, I even noticed this on one of them,” said Shadekampf as he took out yet another piece of gold that was about the size of a thumb.

“A gold nugget!” exclaimed Lorist as his eyes brightened.

“Milord, I suspect that there are some gold deposits around the forest or the hills which is also the reason for the presence of the barbarians. I suggest we send some people here to conduct a survey of the land. If we really do discover a gold mine, then the family will definitely not lack any funds to develop the dominion in the future,” said Supervisor Kedan passionately.

Lorist took the gold nugget from Shadekampf, weighed it in his hand, before he gave it a closer look. He then looked towards the mountains in the distance and then to the forests where the rest of the barbarians had escaped to and shook his head. “At this point, we still don’t have enough military prowess nor manpower to start developing this area. Even if there is a gold mine, there is no guarantee that we will be able to sustain the mining operations and may even cause the family to be entangled with the barbarians because of this. There is a possibility that the price we pay for the gold mine will far exceed what we actually get from it, so let’s put that idea to rest for now. It’s not like that mine will one day leave the place anyway, so it won’t hurt to wait for a while until the northbound convoy arrives. By then, we should have more than enough manpower and resources to do so.”

……

Lorist’s convoy only managed to reach the construction site at around 10 in the night. Having been given an early notification, Telesti had already instructed the laborers to set up a camp and also prepared some food to receive the people who had traveled for almost a day straight.

As Lorist was biting into a piece of bread, he asked Reidy, “Where’s Miss Telesti?”

“Milord, she has already gone to sleep at 10 o’clock and left me in charge of the place. Do you need me to wake her up?” Reidy asked.

“It’s alright, I only wanted to ask about the progress of the construction. I’ll be able to see it tomorrow anyway, so there’s no need to bother her right now. Oh, and, ask for Butler Boris to come over. I have something I want to ask him about,” Lorist said.

Butler Boris was brought over to Lorist without much delay with a sour look on his face.

“Huh, Butler Boris, what’s with you? You look like you’re about to cry. What’s going on?” Lorist asked curiously.

The butler instantly kneeled before Lorist and said, “Milord, please save my family members. If Viscount Kenmays knows that I surrendered and started working for you, he’ll definitely prey on my family.”

Shocked, Lorist said, “Please stand up, Butler Boris. Tell me where your family is and I’ll see if I can help reunite you with them.”

But the butler refused to stand up and continued to kneel. “Milord, my family are all living at the Redriver Valley Bastide within the viscount’s dominion and the shipment convoy will be coming over within two days. If they notice that this place has already been occupied and send word back there, it will be the end for my family. They will definitely be punished in my stead by the viscount! Given that I’ve failed my responsibilities as the chief manager of this place, he’ll definitely release his anger onto my family regardless of whether I’m still alive! That’s just how his temperament is! I’ve already lost sleep for the past couple of days because of this… Milord, I beg you…”

“Please get up first, Butler Boris. The reason I asked for you was to get some information about the incoming shipment convoy. How many carriages would they have and how powerful is their escort? I need that information in order to know if I can swallow them whole. After that, you can tell me more about the bastide so that I can see if there’s some way I can save your family,” consoled Lorist.

Now that his family members’ lives were at risk, Butler Boris revealed every detail he could about the shipment convoy. According to him, the convoy that would arrive on the 10th would have around 400 carriages and based on their previous shipments, 200 of them will be carrying 3000 buckets of green vine glue with each carriage holding 15 buckets and each bucket weighing around 50 kilograms, so each carriage would weigh around 1000 kilograms including the weight of the wooden buckets. The remaining 200 carriages would mostly transport food ranging from smoked meat to alcohol and other supplies like clothes and building tools.

The escort that was in charge of the shipment was the Feathersoar Mercenary Crew. They were considered to be one of the more active mercenary crews during the time of the civil war and had around 200 members in total with their insignia bearing a white goose feather. The crew leader Adams was an old Three Star Silver veteran with tens of other members of the crew being Silver ranks as well with the rest being at the Iron or Bronze rank. They had been paid quite a huge sum by the Kenmays Family to serve as their main fighting force.

The Redriver Valley Bastide of the Kenmayses was approximately 1 day of travel away from the construction site at Morgan Hills and it would take around 6 to 7 hours on horseback to cover the distance. Now that the bastide had become a central supply distribution point, a huge amount of resources were stored within and was managed entirely by the head butler of the Kenmays Family, Pelador, who was aided by tens of other guards of their family.

Not far away from the bastide was the immigrant town the Kenmayses had paid a huge price to recruit vagabonds to build, which had a population of around 2000 people that was defended by a garrison squad of 100 soldiers. However, if the Kenmays Family intended to send the 1000 slave laborers along with the shipment to the construction site, the garrison soldiers would join the escort as well.

After Butler Boris told Lorist all that information, he was asked if there was a possibility of baiting the escort of the shipment convoy into the area of the construction site and force the mercenary crew to surrender so that the Norton Family can obtain all the resources of the shipment.

The butler replied that it would definitely be difficult as Crew Leader Adams was a cunning and careful man. Given that he knew many of the mercenaries who were previously stationed at the construction site, if Adams noticed their absence when he approached, there was a huge possibility that he wouldn’t enter the site.

Lorist looked at Josk who was chomping down at a bone and asked, “How about it? Are you confident with being able to trick them?”

Josk placed the bone down, wiped his mouth, and said, “Milord, there’s no need to do so much plotting like that. Just give me a squad of guards and I will be able to eradicate the whole mercenary crew in an open field battle and take the whole shipment for ourselves.”

Lorist laughed out loud and said, “No way, I worry that our losses would be huge if we were to engage in an open field battle. Think about it, most of the guard squad members used to be common bandits who have never received any formal military training or drills and know nothing about strategic formations other than rushing straight at the enemy like how most bandits fight. If we were up against weaklings, then there wouldn’t be a problem. But our enemy is an experienced mercenary crew which has weathered many battles, so it is almost guaranteed for the guard squad to be at a severe disadvantage given their lack of understanding of military tactics.”

Ovidis, who was just sitting beside Josk, exclaimed in a dissatisfied tone. “Milord, we’re your family’s soldiers, not a band of lowly bandits.”

Lorist waved towards him and said, “Come on, don’t be sour about that. I was just making an example.”

Lorist continued, “If we manage to trick the Feathersoar Mercenary Crew to enter the construction site, it would be akin to us locking up a rabid dog before beating it. We could even use the ballistas on the walls to pressure them into surrendering. Doesn’t the leader of that crew recognize some of the mercenaries who have yielded to us? It wouldn’t be too hard to carry this out. Patt…”

Patt stood up in response and awaited his orders.

“Rush to Poplar Coast tonight itself and ask the mercenaries there if they want to make some quick money. As long as they manage to lure the Feathersoar Mercenary Crew into the construction site, each one of them will receive 10 gold Fordes. I only need twenty people, and no matter if they accept it or not, I want you to make it back here by the morning of the 9th, which is tomorrow, understood?” Lorist instructed.

“Yes, milord. I will set out right away.”

“Good, I’m counting on you. Please be careful on your way there.”

Chapter 101 Mistakes

By the time the sky brightened up, Lorist exited his tent to do some stretches. Shadekampf who was standing right beside brought over a linen cloth for Lorist to wipe his face with. When Lorist was done, Shadekampf handed him some gargling water.

“Milord, breakfast is ready,’ said Shadekampf.

Lorist waved his hand and said, “There’s no need, I only want two pieces of bread to bring with me when I go take a quick look at the wall ahead.”

As he slept quite late the day before, Lorist woke up in the late morning. When he got to the walls, he noticed Old Man Balk standing there. Upon seeing Lorist approach from afar, Balk bowed and greeted him.

As Lorist went up the walls, he saw the slave laborers working away to dig up a moat. After the laborers dug out the earth for the moat, they placed it within a rectangular wooden mold before they sprinkled some water within and covered it up with another wooden board on top. Following that, the laborers would then step on the wooden board repeatedly to compress and flatten the mixture within before dismantling the wooden mold to create a block-shaped piece of clay. After that, the slaves would stack the clay blocks together and repeat the whole process again.

“What are they doing?” Lorist asked.

Old Man Balk replied, “Milord, they are making clay bricks. After adding some green vine glue and letting them dry for a day or two, they will be nice and tough. By then, building structures is just as easy as stacking them up. As long as a proper foundation is built, the toughness of walls made with bricks like these is not one whit inferior to those made from stones. It is worth mentioning that a slave came up with this idea and he has already been selected to become Miss Telesti’s personal aide…”

Lorist nodded and said, “If one has talent that serves the family well, then they naturally should be rewarded. Telesti made a good call on this matter. Hm? What are those people doing?”

Lorist then pointed towards the scaffolding by the walls where a couple of laborers could be seen working.

“Milord, they are evening out the surface of the walls to prevent enemies from being able to climb up and pose a threat to the defenders. This was also the idea of the aforementioned slave laborer. The rocks that are chipped off in the process can also be used to fill up the internal walls. It really is a pretty nifty idea,” said Old Man Balk.

“Not bad, I see that the moat is almost done too. When does the wall construction officially start?” Lorist asked.

“In another two days. The foundation for the walls can already be laid. We already sent some laborers to start collecting the stones that we need for establishing the foundation,” said Balk. He then pointed at a line drawn on the ground with limestone and said, “Look, milord. That will be where the foundation will be laid.”

“Good work. That aside, doesn’t Miss Telesti come to the site in the mornings?” Lorist asked.

Balk shook his head and said, “She usually doesn’t come over in person as most of the workflow has already been established. I’m the one who supervises all work in this area, so unless there is any urgent matter, Miss Telesti usually wouldn’t come to the site itself as it is too messy and dirty around here.”

“Alright, I’ll leave you to your business and go discuss something with her,” said Lorist as he patted Balk’s shoulders before he turned and left.

……

Lorist went up to the rear wall and headed towards the middle of the 5 buildings. Upon entering, he saw the busy scene of four laborers carving away at something delicately using small chisels. Beside the table that was placed in the middle of the room lay Telesti’s maidservant, Vinny, who was currently looking intently at a model house she held within her hands.

“Little Vinny, what are you up to?” Lorist asked.

Vinny gave Lorist a look and quickly stood up. “Milord, this is a model house I made! Look, isn’t it pretty?”

Lorist gave it a quick look before he noticed that the sand table in the middle of the room had been replaced by another one which had another replica of the city layout. It seemed that Telesti had remade the model of the mode according to what she had in mind.

Lorist recalled that the main purpose of the city was to serve as a citadel, but the model seen on the table right now seemed more like a trade city than a military facility. Aside from the two walls on each side of the valley as well as the castle that was built along one side of the mountain range, Telesti had remodeled the whole replica of the valley into vast stretches of trade sectors and residential areas, which were even separated by small parks. Lorist could already imagine that if the city was built according to Telesti’s plan, it would definitely be a beautiful place.

However that was not what Lorist had intended the city to be. He praised the beauty of the replica of the city before asking Vinny where Telesti was.

Vinny pointed to the door of the next room and Lorist went over to give it a knock. “Come in,” Telesti’s voice rang out almost instantly.

“Lorist opened the door and noticed that there were three tables within the relatively small room. The sand table that was originally placed in the room outside was at the far corner of the wall, with Telesti’s workdesk placed right beside it. On the workdesk was a beastskin book and some writing materials. Beside the workdesk was a square table on which several pieces of blank canvases were placed. Telesti’s Iron ranked butler and another short-haired, tanned middle-aged man were standing beside the square table.

“Milord…” said Telesti and her butler in unison as they made a deep bow and greeted Lorist. The middle-aged man beside them on the other hand looked a little panicked and didn’t know what to do.

“Who’s that?” asked Lorist as he looked at the middle-aged man.

“Milord, he is Zanben. He was originally one of the slave laborers who I picked to become my aide after I noticed his decent drawing skills and deep understanding in construction methods. Zanben, quickly greet the lord,” explained Telesti.

Zanben hurriedly paid his respects to Lorist, who waved and said, “It’s alright, you don’t have to be so courteous. I heard Old Man Balk praised you quite highly. As long as you give it your best as a loyal subject, the family will definitely reward you for your efforts.”

Telesti then asked, “Milord, did you see the replica of the city and the moat outside?”

Lorist nodded and said, “Miss Telesti, I was just about to discuss that matter with you. I’ve already seen the replica outside and to be honest, I’m not too happy about it. The main reason for that is because you’ve misunderstood the purpose of this place.”

“But milord, you didn’t explicitly tell me what you wanted this place to serve,” she interjected.

“And that is admittedly my fault. Since it’s your first time doing city planning, I didn’t tell you the aims I had for the city in detail and I don’t blame you for getting it wrong. Let’s go outside to talk more about it.”

Lorist and Telesti walked outside together and he pointed to the replica and said, “Miss Telesti, look at the construction site here. This is an important opening for our dominion and it is one of the ways the people within the dominion can leave for the outside world. As long as we can take control of this place, our family will be able to control what and who goes in and out of the dominion. However, if we lose it to our enemies, we will be trapped within the Northlands for sure. Back then, Viscount Kenmays had intended for it to be a complete military installation, but that doesn’t suit my needs perfectly. What I wanted it to be was a defense citadel and also a normal city, but I didn’t expect you to decorate the residential and trade sectors so much to the point that it basically seems like a recreational park now. While its beauty is definitely undeniable, it doesn’t do anything for the defense of the place at all, leaving our only line of defense to be the two walls. The moment an enemy captures either wall, the whole city will effectively have been occupied.”

Telesti breathed a sigh and said resignedly, “Alright, milord. Tell me how you want the castle and city to be constructed. It is fortunate that it is currently still at the planning stage, so it wouldn’t be too late to change it now.”

Lorist then overhauled the whole layout of replicas on top of the table. “The core of this valley city will be a castle, which will serve as the final line of defense for the city. The location of construction will still remain unchanged at the mountain side, but it definitely has to be able to hold its ground against all invaders. As for how it will achieve that, I will leave it to you, and you can even beautify it how you want as long as it doesn’t compromise its defensive capabilities. In front of the castle will be the main plaza and two walls will stretch out from the left and right of the castle that will connect with the walls at the two ends of the valley. That way, should either of the walls at the valley’s openings fall, we only have to lower the portcullis of the walls from the castle within the valley to cut off the enemy’s route and entrap them, giving the defense force of this area ample time to resist and even retaliate.

“On either side of the castle, there should be some storehouses for supplies and weapons. There should also be some stables outside of the castle walls. And in the middle of the walls here will be the main route to pass to the other side of the city where two thirds of that spot will be used as the trade and residential sectors, the specifics of where to allocate will be left to you. I have no further specific requests, aside from by the time of completion of this valley city, it should be able to house up to 15000 people. Oh, you should also pay some attention to how you organize the underground waterways. That should be all.”

Telesti’s old butler has been noting down all the specifics the whole time and handed the document to his mistress. After taking a brief look, Telesti put her signature on the document after making sure it was as Lorist had instructed and gave it to Zanben as she said, “Zanben, let’s change the design according to the lord’s requests.”

“Understood,” Zanben said respectfully.

Little Vinny on the other hand was tearing up upon seeing her precious little replica city messed and moved around by Lorist to the point that it was already unrecognizable. She said in a crying voice, “Mistress, the lord is a mean person! He messed up all the models there…”

Lorist said, “I’m sorry, Vinny. I wasn’t paying much attention…”

Telesti rubbed Vinny’s tears off with her napkin and said, “It’s okay, we can always make a new, more beautiful one. And milord, didn’t you say you had something else you wanted to tell me about?”

Lorist brought Telesti back into the room she was in before.

“It’s like this…” Lorist started explaining his intention to lure the forces of the Kenmayses into the construction site and try to force them to surrender and hoped that Telesti would cooperate with him on that by changing the schedule for the construction.

“Sigh, milord, you know I hate to dabble in matters of killing and whatnot. You men are all about wars and battles. Why can’t you just sit still quietly and focus on the construction of the castle first?” said Telesti as she sighed loudly.

Lorist shrugged and said, “I don’t really have a choice. If I don’t exterminate this escort of theirs, the Kenmays Family would definitely find out that we have already occupied their construction site and will instantly send more of their forces to take it back. And given that the first defensive walls haven’t completely been constructed yet, it will be extremely difficult for us to hold our ground and we will definitely incur huge losses. Whereas if we manage to exterminate them, we will be able to keep news about this place being occupied from them a little longer. By the time they find out, we will have already completed construction on the walls and will have a much easier time defending ourselves from their soldiers.”

“Alright, milord. I will do as you wish and amend the schedule,” said Telesti.

“There’s also another matter that needs your attention. I have a supervisor from our family, Hansk, who is well-versed with inventory and supply management and he will be helping you with this construction project. I will ask him to report to you later,” Lorist said.

Telesti nodded and suddenly seemed like she has remembered something. “Milord, what will you name this castle when it is completed?”

Lorist gave it some thought and said, ‘Let’s call it Firmrock Castle. I hope it will be as stable and firm as a rock and will not shake no matter what is thrown at it.”

Telesti suddenly seemed rather unhappy and pouted.

Lorist was stunned at the sudden change in her expression, but he understood why almost immediately. He smiled as he said, “Miss Telesti, I see what you are getting at. I’m really sorry, but as this will be a really important base for the family, its naming will also be a really serious matter. If you are willing to take charge of the construction of the castle, I will allow you to name the valley city after your family name, Nico City, or even Telesti City if you prefer, what do you think about that? If you have anything else in mind, i will even leave the naming of the city to your complete discretion. Is that okay with you?”

……

Chapter 102 Trap

Currently, Lorist was standing on top of the outer, less fortified wall and looking towards the plains in the far distance.

Now that they had everything in place, they only had to wait. As long as they manage to trick the escort of the shipment hired by the Kenmays Family into the valley beyond the wall, Lorist was confident that he would be able to make the Feathersoar Mercenary Crew surrender and let him take over whatever resource they brought along the way. He believed that when the resources that the Kenmays Family had painstakingly shipped over fell into his hands, Viscount Kenmays and his father, the Kenmays family head, would definitely be wearing amusing expressions.

At dawn yesterday, Patt brought over 20 of the surrendered mercenaries back to the construction site. After having their afternoon meal, the 20 mercenaries went to get some rest while Patt reported what had happened during his visit to Poplar Coast to Lorist.

According to him, when he made his way to the coast, his announcement of Lorist's intentions had caused an uproar among the mercenaries stationed there. One of the mercenary leaders, Hausky, argued that an act like that violated the basic etiquette mercenaries should have, but his men had all been swayed by the lavish pay of participating in that mission and scrambled to join in. After hours of debate, they finally settled on 19 people who had been picked by a ballot who were joined by the vice leader, Jim, before they rushed back to the site.

Lorist breathed a sigh of relief as it seemed that there would no longer be a problem on the side of the mercenaries. It's no wonder that the mercenaries would cooperate with that plan. Given that most of them were rather poor, the payment of ten gold Foredes was more than enough for them to settle down for a peaceful life. And all they had to do was to chat and wave to their fellow mercenaries to lure them beyond the walls.

The slave laborers had all stopped working outside the walls and were sent away by Telesti to collect more building materials such as sand, stones and clay. Only 200 of the more common laborers continued to clean up trash around the site so that they may aid with moving the stuff that would come with the shipment later.

Naturally, the convoy that had come along with Lorist to the construction site as well as the people Lorist brought over from Wildnorth Town had all retreated to a camp beyond the inner walls that faced the Norton Family dominion so that they would leave no trace on the outside of the construction site where the shipment and its escort would arrive at, lest they trigger the suspicion of the leader of the Feathersoar Mercenary Crew. He also had Jim doublecheck everything just in case he missed anything out.

Jim circled the area for a bit before he returned with a suggestion: Lorist should have the soldiers who wore metal armor to go into hiding as mercenaries are commonly poor folk who wouldn't be able to afford something like that. If three of such soldiers were to be discovered, Crew Leader Adams would easily notice the disparity.

The flag that was being flown at the construction site currently bore the Kenmays Family's three-ringed insignia and on the walls were 12 ballistas which were covered with a waterproof green cloth to prevent them from being discovered.

At that moment, Josk was currently standing at one of the crenels[1] of the walls equipped poorly with leather armor while chewing a dried grass stalk within his mouth. His main task for the day was to watch the area from the walls to make sure that not a single person escapes after the escort is drawn into the construction site.

Lorist was also equipped with a grey leather armor himself and he was playing the role of the personal attendant of Butler Boris. He would also be accompanying him to receive and greet the Feathersoar Mercenary Crew to complete the transaction.

"Don't be so nervous," Lorist said to Boris. "We're extremely well-prepared and they will definitely not notice anything amiss. You only have to act as you usually do. Isn't it as easy as luring them inside and having some smalltalk with the leader of the mercenary crew? After you're done, you can retreat somewhere so we can take over. Be assured that I will guarantee your safety."

Lorist's opinion of that old butler was a good one in that he was a capable person that handled most of what he was instructed without trouble and was a talent in human resource management and administration. The only flaw he had was that he was extremely fearful for his own life. If the opposite was the case, there was no way that he would surrender to Lorist's forces so easily and work so earnestly for him in the first place.

"Butler Boris, after this operation, I will send some people to the Redriver Valley Bastide to save your family members. That is my promise to you in the name of the dominion lord," said Lorist seriously towards the butler.

"Milord, thank you... Thank you. I will definitely do my best to play my part," said Boris thankfully to the point of tears.

......

At around ten in the morning, two mercenaries of the crew came on horseback from the convoy before the rest to check on the situation. One of the horsemen was an acquaintance of Jim, thus they chatted for quite a bit before they mentioned that the convoy would take another two hours to arrive and requested the people at the construction site to prepare food and drinks for them. After refusing an offer from some of the mercenaries stationed at the walls to rest up first before the convoy arrived, the horsemen rode back to join the rest of them.

The slow and tormenting wait slowly passed as the sun gradually rose to its highest point in the skies with clouds of dust building up from the approaching convoy in the distance.

In another half an hour the Kenmays Family shipment convoy could be seen with tens of men on horseback wearing helmets decorated with white goose feathers riding over more quickly towards the gates of the walls. They stopped at a distance from the gates and got off their mounts before they all started to call out.

"Where are you guys?"

"I'm so worn out!"

"I want water..."

Reidy went forward with a few other guard squad members who were masquerading as slave laborers to quickly help the mercenaries with their mounts. Reidy pointed towards the tables and chairs which were set up beside the tents and said, "Fellow gentlemen, please head over there to enjoy some smoked and grilled meat, wheat porridge and meat and potato stew. Butler Boris even ordered us to prepare a few barrels of ale for your enjoyment. If you are tired, you can also rest in the tents and please don't hesitate to tell us if any of you want to take a bath. We can get the hot water prepared right away..."

One of the Feathersoar mercenaries said in surprise, "Wow, your chief manager really thought this out well. I say, apart from the lack of women, you are almost like an inn already..."

Another mercenary said, "Come on, what are you still waiting for? Instead of talking idly like that, why don't you go get yourself some ale before the rest finish it before us?"

That's great, thought Lorist as he looked at the men who were led towards the tents by Reidy. So far, everything was under control and the mercenaries that had arrived early didn't notice anything suspicious and didn't know any better.

The rest of the shipment convoy finally arrived and when they were about 300 meters from the walls, a group of around 100 Feathersoar mercenaries departed from the convoy and arrived at the walls where they got into formation. A middle-aged man wearing a chain mail underneath a layer of leather armor and a cape walked towards the wall gates with two other attendants following behind him.

When the leader of the mercenaries saw Jim standing by the wall, he called out loudly, "Hehe, if it isn't Razoraxe Jim! Where's Hausky?"

"The boss is at the other wall all the way at the other side of the valley. He went there right after he heard that you were coming. You know how he feels about the Feathersoar Mercenary Crew, right?" Jim said casually. He then asked, "What are you doing? Get in! Butler Boris spared no effort in preparing the food and ale for you guys! The rest are already enjoying it as we speak! Darn it, if only it wasn't my shift today... Maybe I'll go sneak a few drinks myself..."

"Then how about if I bring a barrel up to the walls to drink with you later?" Adams asked.

Jim started laughing out loud and said, "Then you better be quick! Don't just bring ale, get me some food too..."

At that moment, the other mercenaries beside Jim were greeting some other members of the Feathersoar Mercenary Crew as well.

"Oh, Jim, I heard that you suffered quite a loss at that family's bastide... Ah, the Nortons, was it?" asked Adams from beyond the wall.

"Tch, don't mention it anymore... We lost tens of people. But it was fortunate that only a few of my mercenaries were killed, mainly because we noticed the bad situation and didn't try too hard on our part. The farmer troops rallied by that viscount also lost 30 or so men. To be honest, the Norton Family bastide is really tough to take on. Why did you ask?" Jim asked.

"Hmm, us Feathersoars will later be stationed here. It's already been almost half a year since we started escorting shipment convoys, so it's about time we stopped for a while. During our shipment next month, the viscount's family's main force will also arrive and by that time, he will launch another assault on the Nortons and force them to submit," said Leader Adams as he nodded.

"The viscount's main force? It couldn't be those farmer troops, right? If that is the case, then the viscount might as well not make that attack and let them defend this place instead, lest they suffer even more losses," said Jim as he started laughing out loud.

"Nope, this time the Kenmays Family had spent quite some money at the royal capital to form a 2000 men unit over there which is mostly comprised of retired military officers and soldiers and they're also rather well-armed. By the time that army makes it back to the Northlands, the Kenmays Family will definitely be one of the top families in this area. Brother Jim, do your job properly and you may just be taken note of by the Kenmayses and be recruited into the ranks of their family knights. That way, you won't need to work as a mercenary anymore," suggested Adams.

Jim waved his hands and said, "Ptoooey! I would never want an opportunity like that. You know that I just loathe dealing with nobles like those. Nobles are all greedy bastards who take advantage of everyone that's weaker than them. To them, us mercenaries are nothing but lowly beasts who are willing to do their bidding for a little bit of their money. I, Razoraxe Jim, won't bend myself over and look at those nobles' expressions when I decide to do anything and is born for the life of a mercenary. As long as I'm able to earn some money to find a wife and raise a healthy child, I will die happy. Don't you think so, guys?"

The other mercenaries on the wall started laughing out loud and showed their fervent agreement. Some even said that one woman was not enough for Jim and suggested he find two...

Adams laughed out loud and said, "You darned bastards..."

......

Lorist and Butler Boris went down the walls to see Leader Adams.

"Crew Leader Adams, it must've been a tiring journey. There shouldn't be a problem with the cargo during the shipment, right?" Boris asked.

"Hehe, Butler Boris, good to see you. The cargo is in perfect condition, so don't worry. The reputation of my Feathersoar Mercenary Crew is nothing to laugh at and we won't secretly sneak some of the goods away like the third-rate crews out there. Here is the list of items in the shipment. Feel free to check if it's all in place," Adams said as he brought out a few beastskin documents.

"Hmm? Butler Boris, you don't look too well. Is there anything wrong?"

Lorist stepped forward and received the documents from Adams before he said, "Crew Leader Adams, Butler Boris was worried sick for the past few days about the safety of the shipment before its arrival. To be honest, we're only left with 3 to 4 days' worth of food. His worry had caused him to lose sleep and catch a cold. He's basically forcing himself to see you here. Look, he's already shivering a bit... I even asked him to take a rest before this but he wouldn't listen..."

"Oh, is that so? Butler Boris, you should really take better care of your body. Try not to get sick next time," said Adams as he stared at Lorist. "Then, who are you?"

Lorist had already been prepared for that question and saluted the mercenary leader before he said, "Crew Leader Adams, I am Locke and I used to be a mercenary myself. Butler Boris noticed my talents and picked me to be his personal attendant."

"Hmm, not bad. You must be a quick-witted person for you to be able to catch the attention of Boris. This is a great chance for you, so do your best and you will definitely have a bright future," said Adams as he nodded in praise at Lorist.

The rest of the convoy finally arrived and Boris said a little impatiently, "Leader Adams, I will go back into the walls first. You should let your men enter too. The food and tents are already prepared, so make sure to give them some proper rest."

Adams nodded and said, "Alright, I will bring them in right away..."

Boris left before Adams finished his sentence, and that matched his demeanor of not liking to deal with mercenaries perfectly, leaving Lorist behind with the list of items while Adams and his two attendants led the rest of the convoy past the walls.

At that moment, Adams and the hundreds other mercenaries had already went into the valley and the rest of the mercenaries who had dismounted were led by Reidy and his men into the tents to rest and have their meals. On the other hand, Adams and his two attendants stood by Lorist after they dismounted and chatted from time to time as they monitored the rest of the convoy as carriage after carriage flowed through the gates and lined up neatly at an empty space.

There were 400 carriages in total and it took two hours before all of them entered the valley. However, the presence of Adams and the other two attendants beside him made Lorist feel a little uncomfortable.

"Leader Adams, you should go to the tents to take a rest as well. There's no need for you to stand here personally. I'll notify you if anything happens," Lorist said as he tested the waters.

"There's no rush. The ones left outside is the rearguard comprised of my men. It won't be too late to rest when all of us are assembled," said Adams with a laugh.

Alright, then let's play the waiting game together then. Seeing the carriages filled with resources arranged neatly within the valley, Lorist gradually calmed down. There were only around 60 carriages left outside the valley and by the time all of them entered, the mercenaries would definitely all be near the tents. By then, he only had to give a single order to set the ambush in motion.

Right at that instant, a sudden ear-piercing cry rang out from within the valley. "Don't come in! You guys were tricked! They are the enemy! They are the Nortons' men!..."

[1] Crenels are openings on defensive structures that allow for ranged attackers to fire from behind the safety of a wall. See Wikipedia.

Chapter 103 Melee Outbreak

Everyone present was stunned and unwittingly turned their heads towards the middle-aged man dressed in rags who was jumping up and down within the valley ahead.

“Isn’t that… Grandmaster Ciroba?” stammered Adams.

It was indeed Grandmaster Ciroba… But wasn’t he in confinement? Why would he appear on this hill? Would his cries and rambles cause Lorist’s plan to fail?

Grandmaster Ciroba continued to scream with all his might. “They are the enemy! The men of the Norton Family! Why aren’t you attacking? Eradicate them… Ugh…”

Ovidis who was equipped with metal armor came up behind the architect and knocked him out cold with the pommel of his sword, causing silence to return to the valley once again.

“Hehe… Hehehe…” chuckled Lorist. “Gosh… That Grandmaster Ciroba is showing symptoms of his, uh, sickness again… He never calms down if he doesn’t get to scream like that…”

Adams looked at Lorist with a gaze of a hawk and said, “Is that so… But I don’t think he looks like a sick person. Can you also explain who that man wearing the metal armor is? I don’t think mercenaries can afford something like that…”

Adams ordered his two attendants, “Capture him.”

Capture me your ass. Lorist backed away and instantly drew his sword. Since we’ve already been exposed, let’s launch the ambush now. Most of the mercenaries have already entered the tents anyway… As for the remaining thirty or so mercenaries who are still outside the walls, given that Josk is up there on the walls watching, I doubt they would be able to escape. The people outside wouldn’t know what was happening inside here anyway.

At that moment, most of the men of the Feathersoar Mercenary Crew had dismounted and were enjoying their meals. Some of them even went into the tents to take a short nap. Apart from Lorist, Adams and his two attendants, there were only seven to eight mercenaries who had just entered the valley and were still mounted, causing Lorist to not have any worry at all as he believed that he would easily be able to handle them.

As for Adams and his attendants, Lorist felt that they wouldn’t even survive more than ten bouts in a fight with him, and that was after he had taken into consideration the two shield-wielding attendants who were usually more trouble to deal with.

At the empty space at the right corner of the valley were the carriages that had been driven into the valley. The coachmen of the carriages had parked them according to their types and untied the horses before bringing them to rest and feed. Lorist knew that those coachmen were the slaves of the Kenmays Family who had received formal training on coachmanship and were put in charge of transporting the Kenmays Family’s goods.

Apart from the coachmen, each carriage also ferried 2 to 3 slave laborers which the Kenmays Family had sent over to increase the speed of the construction as well as to help out just in case any carriage met with any accidents during the shipment. As each carriage only had one coachman, should the carriage be damaged in the middle of the shipment, the slave laborers would be able to help out with the goods as opposed to having the coachman abandon the cargo.

Now that the horses had mostly been brought away for feeding, the slave laborers that came with the carriages slowly gathered into small groups and sat silently on the ground while waiting for the rest to gather together, as their food would only be served after that. Some of the laborers obtained the position from their managers and brought a few waterskins to the well beside the stable to temporarily quench their thirst.

While the coachmen and laborers was on Lorist’s mind, he doubted that they would pose much of a threat as they weren’t armed and probably wouldn’t put their own lives at risk for the Kenmays Family. That was also with the case with the slave laborers who were already at the construction site when Lorist took over it: they didn’t really care about the sudden change of who was in charge and continued to do their share of work as they usually would.

Lorist drew his sword, balled his left hand into a fist and lifted it high up in the air. That was the the signal for the beginning of the ambush.

A few of the guards on the walls noticed the signals and raised their horns to their mouth. A loud honking soon followed and resonated throughout the whole valley.

200 or so guards equipped with dual-layered metal armor appeared from deeper within the valley and surrounded the tents. Ten or so ballistas could also be seen being pushed up a hill in the distance. Combined with the ballistas that were hidden on the walls, there were around 20 of them which all had their aims trailed towards the tents with their lines of fire crossed.

Like Lorist had expected, the coachmen and slave laborers panicked for a bit before they settled down and some coachmen even continued to feed the horses like nothing was going on. However, some of them would turn their gaze over from time to time while the laborers who were sitting neatly in rows on the ground had their eyes opened wide with excitement as if a play was going to be enacted live in front of their eyes while they chatted away about the surprising developments that had just transpired and their anticipation of the battle to come.

“Just surrender and cease any futile resistance. Lay down your weapons and I will definitely treat you fairly,” Lorist said as he slowly approached the two shield-bearer attendants.

“Who exactly are you?” Adams asked.

Lorist sidestepped to avoid entering the range of attack of the two shield-bearers and said, “I am Baron Norton, the Norton family head. If you surrender, on my name and title of the dominion lord, I will ensure your personal safety as well as your right to keep your belongings.”

“Hahaha… Baron Norton, instead of saying that we’ve fallen into your trap, isn’t the opposite the case with you right here at our fingertips? I really don’t understand why you dared to show your face in front of me. Is it courage or just plain old idiocy? Go! Capture him so we can turn this whole situation around…” roared Adams with delight.

Wanna catch me? Think again. Since you don’t want to do this the easy way, you shall pay for the consequences of your actions. Lorist dodged the shield charge of the shield-bearer on the left, swerved his body, and reappeared at the right flank of the shield-bearer, before his sword pierced towards his enemy’s right lower rib like an agile snake…

Here we go, thought Lorist. After he dispatched this shield-bearer, he would only be left with two enemies who would easily be at his mercy.

Clang! A longsword was suddenly swung in front of the right chest of the shield-bearer and intercepted Lorist’s sword. That sword had belonged to the shield-bearer on the right who had appeared before Lorist before anyone noticed. At that moment, the swords of both the shield-bearers shined bright gold as their blade glows materialized.

Sol! These two are Gold ranked shield-bearers! Lorist was stunned for a moment and thought, I didn’t hear anything about the Feathersoar Mercenary Crew having any Gold ranked experts! And they’re shield-bearers to boot! This will be troublesome.

However, Lorist did not mind it too much as he had already killed a couple of Gold ranked fighters in the past, so two more shouldn’t pose too much of an issue for him. Even though his opponents were shield-bearers, they were only slightly better at defense than those Lorist had faced before and should probably require just a little more time for Lorist to handle them.

However, Lorist only got to know the true obstacle those two posed to be after fighting for a while: the two shield-bearers had extreme synergy and frequently alternated the attacking and defending roles. Even though the attacks were not much of a threat to Lorist, their defense was almost impregnable and managed to fend off most, if not all, of Lorist’s strikes. During that period of time, Lorist had been entangled with the two shield-bearers and it would definitely take far more time before the victor could decided.

When the horns were blown, the outer part of the gates were spurred into total chaos.

The 30 or so Feathersoar mercenaries who felt that something was amiss instantly rushed towards the valley, but they were blocked by the carriages which were still on their way inside. The coachmen driving the carriages had panicked and left the carriages for a safe place to hide at. Without the coachmen, the horses had all huddled together and even caused a carriage to be flipped over, blocking the entire entrance. None of the mercenaries were able to find their way in given the situation.

Given Josk’s understanding of Lorist’s tenacity, he wasn’t worried at all for his safety. Even though their trap had been partially-ruined by Grandmaster Ciroba, Josk still felt that nothing would go wrong given that Lorist was present. That’s why he didn’t pay any attention at all to whatever that was happening within the walls and believed that the mercenaries would surrender without much resistance. But what he didn’t expect was that Lorist would be held down by the two Gold ranked shield-bearers.

Given that Lorist had not briefed Josk about the possibility of that situation happening, Josk decided to make sure that no one would be able to escape from the walls and called for the 30 or so mercenaries outside to surrender, dismount and discard their weapons.

However, none of them heeded his words with some even attempting to shoot Josk with their bows, only to be shot off their horses by Josk himself. In but a single moment, 7 mercenaries had already lost their lives, causing the remaining 20 or so to give up and surrender.

Lorist was still pestered by the two Gold ranked shield-bearers and couldn’t be bothered to care about what was happening around him. On the other hand, Adams was secretly admiring Lorist’s skill with a sword and believed that he had no way of besting him in single combat. He also didn’t think that he would be able to help out in the battle between the three and gathered the 7 to 8 startled mercenaries who were still mounted to go aid their comrades near the tents.

The guards who were wearing double-layered metal armor had all awakened their Battle Force while those who wore only one layer had not. None of them had expected that Adams would attack them from the rear, given that the ballistas on the walls and a hill further away had the whole tent area covered and probably would’ve killed anyone who attempted to leave. Faced with Adams’s sudden assault, the guards’ formation crumbled within moments.

That was especially the case given Adams’s Three Star Silver rank. As he brandished the sword in his hand which was covered with a silver blade glow, more and more enemies standing in his way were mowed down helplessly.

“Kill them all!” roared the mercenary leader.

All of a sudden, the 70-odd mercenaries within the tents armed themselves swiftly and rushed towards the guard soldiers that surrounded them.

“Fire!” shouted Ovidis from atop the hill. Ten gigantic ballista bolts were unleashed instantly, pinning down 8 mercenaries to the ground, causing most of them to die instantly with the rest writhing and crying in pain. Following that, the ballistas on the wall also fired and killed six other mercenaries near the tents.

But, the ballistas proved to be quite limited in its ability to turn the tide of battle as ally and enemy soon meshed together within the chaotic sea of people.

“To hell with this!” cursed Ovidis as he rushed down from the hill to join the fray.

Jim lifted his two-handed axe and started descending from the walls. One of the mercenaries near him noticed and asked, “What are you doing, Jim?”

Jim replied, “To help, dumbass! If the Feathersoar Mercenary Crew prevails, do you think we’ll be spared?”

With the aid of the mercenaries on Lorist’s side, the guard squad began to fare much better against the counterattack of the Feathersoar mercenaries.

Adams was forcing Patt into a defensive position when he noticed Jim join the battle. Enraged, he cursed out uncontrollably but Jim and the rest didn’t pay him any heed and merely continued to take on the Feathersoar mercenaries.

Lorist was started to feel more and more annoyed at the clingy shield-bearers who troubled him to no end. In the beginning, they underestimated Lorist and fought at a more relaxed pace. But once they started to grasp his real strength, they changed their fighting style to full-on defense and focused their efforts on keeping Lorist occupied so that he wouldn’t be able to aid his allies.

At that moment, Lorist was fighting with both his swords, but even with that, he had only managed to land a light wound on one of the shield-bearers which didn’t even hamper him. Starting to feel restless, Lorist thought, I can’t afford to be messing with them any longer. Here goes nothing!

Before, one of the shield-bearers rushed towards Lorist from behind while the other one slashed his sword in front of him, causing Lorist to be unable to retreat to the back and having to dodge the relentless sword strikes coming from the front. However, right now, Lorist had stopped all efforts to dodge and instead bumped into the shield behind him while unleashing his charged up internal energy, sending that shield-bearer 5 to 6 meters away into the distance. He then parried an incoming attack with the shortsword in his left hand before he turned his body to face the attacking shield-bearer head-on.

Seeing Lorist leap at him with crazed fervor, the shield-bearer raised his shield quickly in front of his body and believed that as long as Lorist was unable to get past his defense, he would be able to hold out until his partner comes to aid him out of this predicament.

However, infused to the brim with internal energy, Lorist’s longsword pierced directly through that shield and penetrated the torso of the shield-bearer.

“Little Brother!” The shield-bearer who had been knocked away screamed out in agony and discarded his shield before he rushed straight forward with both his hands brandishing his longsword at Lorist.

Like a spinning top, Lorist spun his body and barely evaded the incoming attack as he didn’t have the time to draw his longsword from the body of the other shield-bearer. Seeing an opening, he swung the shortsword in his hand towards the neck of the other attacker…

The two Gold ranked shield-bearers currently laid on the ground on a pool of their own blood, which soon seeped deep into the ground and left nothing but a large crimson mark.

It was apparent that Lorist felt extremely exhausted from the way he swayed as he stood on the ground. However, he still couldn’t afford to catch a breather as the battle was still going on. Expending quite an effort to retrieve his longsword from the body and shield, he headed towards the tents without delay.

Chapter 104 Bloodshed and Remorse

A mercenary wearing a goose feather-decorated helmet appeared before Lorist and snickered as the blood of his enemies dripped downwards from his hands. There were 3 bloody guard squad members beside him with one of them lying silent and unmoving while the other two’s bodies twitched uncontrollably.

Seeing Lorist approach with a solemn expression, that mercenary ceased his grinning and roared when Lorist was just inches from him as he swung his flail downwards.

Clang! The flail was sent flying onto the ground with a flash, beating up a cloud of dust and making a dent on the ground.

Stunned, the mercenary looked around and thought, where is he? Where did that young fella disappear to all of a sudden? Before he recovered from his shock, a shadow flashed past in the corner of his eyes and a sudden pain filled his mind before he was able to turn to look, causing him to shiver uncontrollably. Opening his eyes in pain, he noticed that his stomach had been cut open with his innards slipping outwards from within.

“Uggh…” The Feathersoar mercenary’s vision gradually darkened as he gradually slipped powerlessly to the ground. By the time he landed, he had already lost all signs of life.

Was that the 10th or 11th mercenary? Lorist had already lost count. When he first rushed into the horde of people, he noticed that the situation was far worse than he had predicted given the number of bodies of his troops that were on the ground. With but a quick check of the area, Lorist counted at least 30 corpses that were part of his guard squad and defense unit.

With his silhouette razing like a savage storm to the next crowd where a group of 8 Norton soldiers were struggling to hold their ground against 4 Feathersoar mercenaries who were fighting in a practiced formation, the enemy mercenaries quickly fell to the ground with their throats slit one by one. The 8 family soldiers were stunned, but upon noticing that the silhouette was Lorist, they all cheered “Norton!” in the loudest voice they could as they followed him to the next area to wipe out the rest of the Feathersoar mercenaries.

Wherever Lorist showed himself, the guard squad and defense unit members would fight like there was no tomorrow, having had their morale raised. It was apparent that victory was gradually shifting to Lorist’s side.

However, the Feathersoar mercenaries weren’t going to back down that easily. Lorist even had to admit that they were far more courageous than the ex-bandit guard squad members and used a more effective fighting style as well. The crucial difference was that all of the Feathersoar mercenaries had awakened their Battle Force and one of their Bronze ranks could easily take on four non-Battle Force users from the defense unit. Had it not been for the guard squad members who also could use Battle Force taking most of the brunt, the losses for the defense unit might be even worse.

Lorist was merciless in his culling and none of the Feathersoar mercenaries who had encountered him managed to escape alive. Lorist was currently struck deeply with remorse as he never would’ve expected that the Feathersoar Mercenary Crew would still resist despite the threat of more than 20 ballistas. What’s worse was that the ballistas ceased to be effective after a little more than ten kills. The soldiers who had surrounded the tents didn’t expect that conflict would truly break out as well and were surprised that the mercenaries didn’t surrender in the end.

This is all my fault… Lorist suddenly halted and made a backhand slash before pushing his sword through the back of the mercenary who had been staggered by his former strike.

I was far too careless. I really should’ve planned for the worst and not expect these mercenaries to surrender without putting up a fight. Lorist dashed forward yet again and decapitated a mercenary who was just about to thrust his sword down onto a guard squad soldier that was knocked to the floor. The stump of the severed neck spurted out huge volumes of blood which painted the whole of Lorist’s body crimson red.

Lorist didn’t bother to evade the blood and let it cover him all over. It was definitely my fault for being so arrogant. My previous victories have made me far too careless to the point that I thought that everything would go according to my plan. I even forgot the most basic principle that anything can happen on the battlefield. I even got held back by the shield-bearers for so long without being able to do much about it.

Back when Grandmaster Ciroba revealed their plot, Lorist was still confident that he had everything under control and since Josk would handle the mercenaries outside the gate. Given that Patt’s 280 men had the tents surrounded with Ovidis’s ballistas ready to attack, he believed that as long as he was able to take out Adams, he could then swiftly take care of the rest who were resting at the tents.

But what he didn’t expect was the two Gold ranked shield-bearers who had stalled him for nearly 20 minutes, during which many things started to turn downhill. Josk, Patt, Ovidis, Shadekampf and Reidy had all played their parts well, but Lorist himself messed up and let Adams attack rampantly while rallying his allies to resist the entrapment of the family soldiers, causing all the previous preparations to go to waste and triggering an all-out battle.

It was the serious casualties of his own men that made Lorist so conflicted and remorseful. Before Charade and Potterfang arrive, he believed that the lack of men was one of the most serious problems the dominion faced. Wildnorth Town still hadn’t been taken care off, yet he’s planning to develop a city at Morgan Hills to stave off the Kenmayses. The dominion was also under the threat of the barbarians from time to time. Even though Josk went all out and chased the barbarian riders away, it was unknown when they would retaliate and cause even more trouble for Lorist.

One cause of worry for Lorist was the allocation of the workforce. It wasn’t that there was insufficient people, but rather not many of them were suited for the job. For example, at Maplewoods Bastide, only 130 or so people of the 2000 plus living there had awakened their Battle Force and among them, 40 of them were aged above 38 and had retired from the family’s forces due to various reasons ranging from old injuries to disabilities. The defense unit Lorist had just formed could only reach 120 people with their inclusion.

Lorist was so adamant on teaching every willing youth how to awaken their Battle Force despite the insistence of the old butler not to was because he understood that the dangers the family would have to face would only increase in the future. He had also wanted to move the main base of the family to the Morgan Hills because he had hoped that it would bring them further away from the threat that was Wildnorth Town for the moment. That was the hidden intention that Lorist had told nobody apart from Shadekampf.

During his stay at Wildnorth Town, Shadekampf’s task was not like that of Supervisor Kedan to do a survey on the population there but rather befriending the garrison soldiers and family members who had just recently been relinquished of their positions and benefits. After getting a couple of them drunk, Shadekampf obtained a rather surprising piece of intelligence: the four families had up to 600 Battle Force awakened youths at their disposal. Even though most of them were Bronze and Iron ranks, each family had at least five Silver ranks as well. How else would the four families carry out their smuggling operations without any fighters of their own? Otherwise, they would’ve long been swallowed up by the crooks of the black market or been wiped out by the time they encountered garrison troops of other dominions.

For the last 100 years, the commoner families of Wildnorth Town had put heavy emphasis on their children’s upbringing. Even though they only had the former Krissen Empire’s military Battle Force technique, which was far harder to train in than higher-ranked Battle Force techniques, given their relatively good standard of living, there was no fear of problems like malnourishment which would hinder the awakening of Battle Force, thus allowing the four families to have more and more Battle Force users over time. One of the main factors the four families managed to prevail and rule over WIldnorth Town was because they had the most number of Battle Force users among the other families there.

Lorist thought that it was fortunate that the four families’ smuggling operations were only contained within the Northlands given that there was no way that they would be able to go past the natural barrier that separated the Northlands from the outside world that was Metropoulos River. If the four families somehow managed to reach Morante City and got their hands on any basic or high-ranked Battle Force manual, the Nortons would find it much harder to resist the ambitions of the four families.

By that time, the four families would have sufficient power to wipe out the already weak Nortons and let their descendants marry into the defeated Norton Family. That way, the Norton Family would legitimately be replaced by someone from the four families. Luckily, the four families didn’t plan that far ahead and were nothing but short-sighted money hoarders in the end and had all their focus on the petty farmland in front of their eyes and were calculative to the last copper piece. Now that Lorist had returned to the family, the end of the four families was definitely near.

If Wildnorth Town really only had a little more than ten people who have awakened their Battle Force, then Lorist would definitely jump to the chance to wipe them out with whatever people he had that could use Battle Force to clear out all the problems in one fell swoop. However, after he received news of the true might Wildnorth Town had, Lorist thought that if he were able to recruit those men under his banner, then the Norton Family would be able to defy even the orders of Duke Loggins in the future.

However, that was but an afterthought of his. Even though Wildnorth Town was technically under the rule of the Norton Family, they still posed quite a threat to it. Given that the disparity between the family’s force and that of Wildnorth Town was rather large, Lorist could only resort to placating them for now as he awaited the arrival of the main convoy. For instance, the incident with the population survey had caused Lorist to be quite annoyed. While the four families were busy letting their own members fill out the spots for the expanded garrison force, they also stopped the garrison soldiers who were kicked out from cooperating with the survey while building their hate for the Norton Family to prevent them from potentially being used.

Among the family members of the deceased Norton soldiers Lorist brought back from WIldnorth Town, less than 10 out of the 1500 of them had awakened their battle Force. It was due to that and many other factors that Lorist decided to endure and wait for his plan to rile up the various families of Wildnorth Town of which moving the ex-garrison members and their families to construct a new town at Poplar Coast was a central part to take fruit, thus allowing Lorist the opportunity to make his move.

As Lorist slaughtered his way through the battlefield, he dwelled quite a lot on his plans. Every time he saw a blood-covered guard lying on the ground, his remorse increased even more. They had all perished because of his inadequate planning. The more he witnessed, the more he started to loathe himself and Crew Leader Adams. What made him curious was the reason Adams still choose to resist despite having been put in a disadvantageous situation. Even if they managed to wipe out the soldiers surrounding the tents, they would still have to face the brunt of the ballistas. Did they really think that they could retake the construction site by themselves?

Two streaks of green arrows flew past Lorist’s vision and pinned two Feathersoar mercenaries on the ground. Having seen Josk’s heroics from atop the wall, the guard squad and defense unit members cheered loudly and within moments, not a single standing Feathersoar mercenary could be seen.

Lorist shook his head and recovered from his depressed mental state. In the distance, two groups of people could be seen gathering together for some reason.

As he walked in that direction, the people beside him moved aside to make a path for him. When Lorist arrived, he saw Reidy and a Silver ranked Feathersoar mercenary fighting. Reidy had wounds on his left rib and his chest and was bloodied all over. However, he still moved relaxedly whereas his enemy was breathing raggedly with a look of panic on his face. Even the silver blade glow on his sword was flickering from time to time: it seemed that the victor had long been decided.

Lorist left the crowd and headed for the other group. Right after he took a couple of steps away, a cry of agony rang out from behind him that was later followed by loud cheers of praise……

Chapter 105 Repercussions

The other group of people were surrounding Crew Leader Adams who was currently fighting against Patt and Jim. Patt was currently uninjured given the fact that he was a shield-bearer: while he excelled at defense, his offense was no doubt slightly lacking. However, the reason Patt was so out of breath was because he was busy providing Jim support and shielding from the incessant blows of the enraged Adams. It was clear that he loathed Jim for his betrayal.

"Stand down, you guys. Let me take him on," said Lorist as he walked among the three and parried Adams's strike towards Jim with his longsword.

Patt and Jim both felt relieved and quickly retreated. Even though it was a two-on-one battle, the Three Star Silver ranked Adams obviously held overwhelming advantage over Patt and Jim, who were One Star Silver and Two Star Silver ranked respectively. Had Patt not been a shield-bearer who had trained in dynamic vision, the two of them would have been defeated long ago.

"It's you?" said Adams as he recognized Lorist's blood-covered form. Surprised, he quickly turned to look behind him but his line of sight was obscured by the multitudes of soldiers surrounding him.

"There's no point in looking. The two Gold ranked shield-bearers have already died by my hand," said Lorist calmly. "Now that your crew has lost most of its people, you're satisfied right? My family's soldiers also suffered quite a loss. These people have all died because you stubbornly refused to surrender. It's now your turn, so I ask you. Are you satisfied?"

"Stop bullshitting. How could you have killed them? You must be lying..." said Adams in a fit of denial. The moment Lorist mentioned the death of the two shield-bearers, he had been shocked into a trance before he snapped out of it and rebutted.

"Why would I bother lying to you? Look at your surroundings and you will understand. You guys, make some way so this bastard can have a good look," ordered Lorist.

The soldiers from the two squads all retreated ten steps back, allowing Adams to see the bloodstained floor littered with corpses of the mercenaries as well as the metal armor-equipped Norton soldiers who were rummaging around the battlefield and dragging the bodies of their comrades to one side while driving a sword into other mercenaries who were on the verge of dying. From time to time, a cry of agony could be heard...

"How... How can this be?" Adams was completely baffled by the scene before him to the point that his face turned completely pale. Originally having the advantage after he started leading his men during the battle, he was reminded of Jim's betrayal when he joined the fray with his other comrades. Had it not been for Jim, he wouldn't have let his guard down so easily and allow his men to rest at the tents and fall into the trap.

At that point, Adams had already lost all notion of guiding his men and only wanted to chop Jim into a thousand tiny pieces. Thus, he gave up on fighting Patt and went to settle the score with Jim. It was fortunate that Patt didn't give up the chase and continued to pester Adams before he joined forces with Jim and held him back for the whole time. By the time Adams had snapped out of his fury, he was already facing Lorist and was once again shocked to hear the revelation.

"My brothers... My Feathersoar Mercenary Crew..." Adams had already fallen to the lowest depths of despair. Staring at Lorist, bloodlust once again filled his eyes. This darned baby-faced Baron Norton... I'll slaughter him even at the cost of my life!

"I will end you!" roared Adams as he speedily approached with his sword raised up high.

Lorist rushed right at him and after the instant the both of them passed each other, Adams's head could be seen flying through the air as his headless body continued taking tens of steps forward while spraying fresh blood all over the place before it plummeted to the ground with an audible thump.

It had finally ended. Lorist started to feel both physically and mentally worn out and could only support himself with his sword pushed to the ground to stop himself from collapsing.

......

Shadekampf came down from the walls to Lorist's side and said, "Milord, you..."

Lorist said in a tired voice, "Shadekampf, I'm fine. I'm just a little too tired. Carry me to someplace where I can sit down..."

A chair was brought in front of Lorist without delay and after sitting down, Lorist said, "Shadekampf, I need you to get someone to call Supervisor Kedan and Butler Boris over here. I have some instructions to give out. Also, get me an estimate of our losses on the battlefield as soon as possible."

"Milord, what do you need us to do?" asked Supervisor Kedan after he came over with Butler Boris. While Kedan was not too bothered by the smell of blood and corpses of the battlefield, Boris on the other hand had his face drained pale by the spectacle and was stifling the urge to vomit.

"Supervisor Kedan, go to the camp outside the walls and rally up the youths that have come with us into a few temporary defense units with 120 people in each squad. Form as many as you can with the people you have and allocate weapons to them as needed. I need them to take charge of defending the walls as soon as possible."

"Yes, milord. I will go carry that out right away," said Kedan before he saluted and hurriedly left.

"Butler Boris, I'll be leaving the new slaves that have just arrived under your care, so help them settle down into their quarters and arrange for their meals to be served. Make sure they don't cause any trouble, alright?" Lorist instructed.

"Understood, milord. I will make sure that they stay within the camp quietly," said Boris before he bowed and headed for the place where the slaves gathered to watch the bloody fight that had just ended. However, after taking a few steps, he could no longer stand the stench of blood in the air and puked on the spot.

A sound of crying resounded not far away. Lorist lifted his head to take a look only to see Reidy supporting Ovidis, whose body was wrapped with several bandages, over to where Lorist was. Ovidis was currently grief-stricken and crying like a little child with snot and tears muddled all over his face.

When the both of them finally reached Lorist's front, Ovidis kneeled down and hugged Lorist's leg before he cried out, "Milord, they're all dead... Pete, Mark, Ankor, Wessen..."

Lorist recognized the names that Ovidis had mentioned: they were Ovidis's comrades who had deserted the army and joined the bandits together with him.

Lorist patted Ovidis's shoulder and said, "It's all my fault. I shouldn't have been so naive to think that everything would go according to plan. I was so fixated on the idea of the mercenaries surrendering that I forgot that even a desperate animal would not hesitate to jump off a cliff...

"Reidy, you did pretty good today. How are your injuries holding up?"

"I'm fine, they're just superficial scratches that will recover in a day or two. Milord, I've killed a Silver ranked mercenary just now. It's my first time defeating someone of a higher rank, so I'm incredibly happy," said Reidy, obviously satisfied with his performance during the battle.

Lorist laughed and said, "I've seen it. You did great. However, you shouldn't think too highly of this as this time, the enemy was forced into desperation and the tides of the battle had shifted to our side. It is possible that your enemy made a mistake from being forced into that desperate situation. Had he been in perfect condition both in form and mind, he might've been able to put a couple or more wounds on you. So, you still need to train hard, alright?"

"I will, milord," promised Reidy.

"Come here and help me move this guy over there and lay him on a mat. Seriously... For him to cry himself to sleep..." said Lorist as he looked at Ovidis who was snoring away with his head on his knee.

"Milord, this guy was just bragging that he had killed 7 enemies. Initially, I thought he was just bluffing, but it seems that it might've been true. There are three long wounds on his body which he had just received treatment for, and he has just consumed some medicine as well. So, it's not weird for him to fall asleep like that. Had it not been for the fact that he got to know about the death of his comrades, he would've went to get some sleep long ago," said Reidy before he asked someone to carry Ovidis into a tent so that he may get some good rest.

Josk walked over and lowered his head before he said, "Milord, I've let your expectations down and let two to three escape..."

"What's going on?" Lorist asked. He was quite confused that Josk had mentioned 'two to three' ambiguously instead of a fixed number.

According to Josk, he had forced the mercenaries outside the wall to surrender according to the original plan. But after the sounds of battle rang out followed by Shadekampf ordering the ballistas to be fired, Josk noticed that something must have went wrong. By the time he turned back to look, the situation outside the walls had already turned chaotic. He only understood that a huge change had occurred after seeing Lorist entangled with the two shield-bearers.

Without hesitating, Josk quickly fired his arrows and managed to kill two mercenaries in the beginning before the rest managed to rush among the ranks of the Norton soldiers, causing him to be unable to aim properly without worrying about hitting his own allies. Thus, he could only focus his attention on looking for mercenaries who were not engaged in battle with any one of his own allies. Due to the sudden change and the diversion of Josk's attention, the mercenaries outside the wall who have surrendered took the chance to slip away on their horses.

However, it did not go unnoticed by Josk and he quickly fired at them in response. But due to the cunning plan of the mercenaries to split up into different directions as opposed to traveling in a group, especially some experienced mercenaries who frequently zig-zagged around the field, it became even harder for Josk to snipe all of them down.

Having shot out 32 arrows during a short span of time, only 26 mercenaries were knocked off their horses. Two of them had managed to escape from Josk's range of fire while another had been hit by an arrow but managed to get away slumped on his horse and it wasn't known whether he survived the hit or not. That's why Josk gave an uncertain count to Lorist in his report.

"It's not your fault. It's because I didn't consider the possibility of the mercenaries choosing to resist despite being under the threat of ballistas..." said Lorist as he shook his head while letting out a sigh.

"How are the casualties?" Josk asked.

"I'm still not certain of that at the moment, but I've already asked Shadekampf to conduct a rough estimate for me. We will know in a few moments. I really hope that we haven't lost too many men..." replied Lorist in a pained voice.

After a few more moments, Shadekampf returned to Lorist's side along with Patt.

"Tell me..." said Lorist.

"Milord, our forces have lost around 50 to 60 men with 89 injured, among which 17 soldiers were handicapped, with 38 others sustaining heavy injuries and are still in an unstable condition... The casualties of the guard squad number 14 men and the rest are all members of the defense units... It was fortunate that they were wearing metal armor. Otherwise, it would've been much worse," said Shadekampf as his voice got softer from his grief.

Lorist's mouth twitched as he stood there speechless. Aside from the 80 soldiers on the hill and the walls who were manning the ballistas, more than half of the 280 Norton soldiers have either died or gotten hurt. Given that a squad's worth of soldiers were incapacitated in that fight, it was no wonder Ovidis was crying so profusely.

Lorist only managed to control his emotions after a while before he asked, "How about the casualties of the Feathersoar Mercenary Crew?"

"Milord, of the 172 mercenaries that were within the walls including their leader, 23 have surrendered to us as prisoners with the rest being all dead without a single survivor," replied Shadekampf.

The reason that there are no surviving injured enemy mercenaries was because all living Feathersoar mercenaries found on the battlefield regardless of the extent of their wounds were slaughtered by the hate-filled Norton soldiers who had lost so many of their comrades to them. Had it not been for the 20 mercenaries who were on the Norton Family's side stopping the soldiers, the 23 surrendered mercenaries wouldn't have been spared as well.

"What is that you have in your hand?" Lorist asked.

Shadekampf took out a few documents with the first one being the casualty report, the second one being a record of the surviving Feathersoar mercenaries and a third document that was filled to the brim with many words. Lorist had casually asked Shadekampf about it because he was curious about its contents.

"Milord, this is the kill count as recorded by Patt," explained Shadekampf.

With his curiosity piqued, Lorist asked, "What are the statistics? Tell me more about it."

Shadekampf referred to the paper and said, "Milord, you've killed the most among all of us with 41 Feathersoar mercenaries having died by your hands, including the two shield-bearers you defeated earlier. The next on the list is Sir Josk. who single-handedly shot 15 of the enemy mercenaries dead. His kills were the easiest to determine as every corpse had an arrow on it. Ovidis killed 7, Reidy killed 5 while Patt killed the least at 2 people. However, that was because he had long been encumbered by the squad leader ever since the start of the battle. Other than that, the ballistas managed to kill 14 mercenaries and the 20 mercenaries on our side killed 7 and captured another 23."

Lorist made a quick calculation in his mind and came up with a conclusion quickly. "That means that the total number of enemies killed by us is 91. Including the 23 captured prisoners, there are 114 people in total of the 172 men of the Feathersoar Mercenary Crew. The extra 58 people were killed by our guard squad and defense unit, which have both lost 130 plus men in total. Considering the fact that most of their kills have been done when they were cleaning up the battlefield after the main fight, the losses of our men to theirs is near a 3 to 1 ratio. This level of battle prowess is far too weak."

Upon hearing Lorist's words, Josk, Patt and Reidy all showed apologetic expressions. Even though the guard squad and defense units were usually equipped with metal armor and seemed rather imposing and impressive, when actually deployed on the battlefield, they weren't as effective as they seemed at all. Even though they had the support of the ballistas as well as the superior equipment compared to the Feathersoar mercenaries who only had leather armor, the outcome of their losses in relation to that of their enemy was quite disappointing, even after taking into account of the the substantially higher number of Battle Force users of the enemy.

"We should carry out more drills and tactical training runs in the future," Lorist concluded quickly so that the rest wouldn't focus too much on the setback.

Chapter 106 Reward

Second sponsored chapter of the week also thanks to Sundarsan L. from the UK. Merry Christmas everyone! More coming later today!

"Patt, please invite Jim and his fellow mercenaries to come over. Also, bring the surrendered Feathersoar mercenaries here as well. I have something I want to ask them," Lorist said.

"Understood, milord," said Patt before he turned and headed for the group of the surrendered mercenaries not far away.

Jim and the rest of his mercenaries helped Patt to escort two of the captives over. What made Lorist wonder was that the closer the mercenaries approached Lorist, the more respectful their gazes became as if they revered Lorist for some reason.

"What's with you guys?" Lorist asked Jim.

Jim pointed towards the corpses of the two Gold ranked shield-bearers not far away and licked his lips before he said, "Milord... Those two... they..."

"What's with them? Aren't they just two Gold ranked shield-bearers? Oh, that's right, why would those two be in the Feathersoar Mercenary Crew? I've never heard you guys mention them before," said Lorist with a dissatisfied tone in his voice. The presence of those shield-bearers had not once been mentioned by Jim and his crew nor Butler Boris when they first came up with the plan and the mercenaries said that the Feathersoar Mercenary Crew only had around 10 Silver ranked fighters as one of the three most famous mercenary crews in the Iblia Kingdom. Even though Butler Boris probably wouldn't know the details within the crew, news about two Gold ranked fighters within their ranks shouldn't have escaped his ears, given that they had worked together for multiple occasions.

"That's not it, milord," said Jim in a slightly frantic voice, afraid that Lorist would misunderstand their intentions. "I had no clue at all that those two had returned. It's been over a year since we last heard of them. When I was hitting the pubs, I've met Adams once or twice and he said that those two had traveled far away to become someone else's disciples without mentioning any other details. The rest of us usually wouldn't mind small matters like that and continued feasting away without considering the two to be part of their crew."

"You mean to say that they're rather famous?" Lorist asked interestedly.

"That's right, milord. These two shield-bearers are pretty famous in the Royal Capital of Windbury City. The elder of the twin brothers has a fire Battle Force attribute while the younger has a water Battle Force attribute. It was rumored that they have some degree of telepathic communication ability with each other that was the source of their excellent synergy and teamwork. Combined with the excellent combination of their Battle Force attributes, these twins have managed to defeat two Gold ranked fighters in a team battle when they were at the Three Star Silver rank. That battle ended with only one of the Gold ranks escaping with the other being killed by the twin brothers, thus greatly boosting their reputation.

"The twins were orphans who have been discovered and adopted by Crew Leader Adams when they were around the age of 12. To raise the twins, Adams had spent lots of effort and resources. I have just heard a few Feathersoar mercenaries say that the twins had just recently broke through to the Gold rank after training in seclusion for around a year and only returned to the crew two months ago, during which they dueled with one of the Second Prince's subordinates, Blademaster Luins, for more than 300 bouts before they lost due to lack of stamina. The Second Prince was so fascinated by their abilities that he had wanted to hire them as his personal bodyguards for a high fee, but they rejected the offer in the end. This escort was their first mission ever since they returned to the crew, but who would've expect that it would also be their last and end up dying at your hands, milord..."

Jim stammered the longer he continued. Had he not been present when that happened, he definitely wouldn't believe that those two corpses belonged to the most famous twin shield-bearers of the Iblia Kingdom, who were both Gold ranked fighters. Jim and his mercenary comrades conceded without much trouble back then was because Lorist had Josk, a Gold ranked marksman, on his side. None of them had took the dominion lord, Lorist, seriously and believed that he wouldn't have been able to take over the construction site by himself given his power as an Iron rank without Josk's help.

However, these mercenaries finally understood that the seemingly mediocre Lorist was an existence on par of that of fearsome dragons. Even if they hadn't seen his battle with the twin shield-bearers, the mere sight of the speed and efficiency at which Lorist mowed down the rest of the Feathersoar mercenaries with one or two strikes each shook their hearts to the core. That was even more so the case during his battle with Crew Leader Adams, in which Lorist had taken his head with only one strike. Even Silver ranked mercenaries like Patt and Jim were shaken by that scene: the crew leader that the both of them had so painstakingly defended against had so easily been decapitated by Lorist in one swift stroke. Witnessing all that had cemented the difference between Lorist's and the mercenary's abilities, causing them to have a newfound respect and awe for him.

"I agree, those two had held themselves quite well in battle. No wonder they were able to stop me for so long and made me use so much energy in defeating them," said Lorist as he nodded. Little did he know that his words had almost made the mercenaries around him faint in disbelief. If the twin shield-bearers merely 'held themselves quite well' during that battle with Lorist that lasted less than 30 minutes and even died at his hand, given that they were capable of fighting a Blademaster for more than 300 tiring bouts, didn't that mean that Lorist was stronger than Blademasters? That fact had caused the looks of the mercenaries to be even more fearful.

"Jim, thank you and your comrades so much for aiding us when we were under the assault of the Feathersoar Mercenary Crew. I thank you on behalf on the whole Norton Family. I have decided to double your payment today as a sign of gratitude. Shadekampf, go to the warehouse and bring out a chest of gold Fordes. Give each of these fine men 20 gold Fordes each," said Lorist.

"Yes, milord," said Shadekampf before he quickly retreated. The mercenaries all let out soft cheers of delight upon hearing about the doubling of their pay as they didn't expect that Lorist would be so generous. Their initial guilt about betraying the Feathersoar Mercenary Crew had all been melted away as all of them felt that it was definitely a worthwhile job.

"Also, I'd like to ask..." Lorist said. "Jim, would you be willing to join the Norton Family as our family knight?"

The surrounding men all quieted down as they focused their attention on Jim.

With a reddened face, Jim looked back at his comrades. Some of them had eyes filled with envy as they believed that becoming a knight of a noble family was the best possible outcome for men like them. However, some felt that the current state of the Norton Family didn't seem to promise a bright future for its subjects and felt that it was far better being a free mercenary that was not held down by any obligation. Others were even jealous and felt that it was unfair that Jim was the only one who was offered that chance even though all 20 of them also had a part in that battle.

After giving it some thought, Jim lifted his head and regained his calm before he said, "Milord, I'm only a mercenary and I have nothing in mind right now but to fulfill your tasks..."

Lorist felt disappointed with that response, but he waved his hand and said, "Don't worry about it, I understand how you feel. But since I've already given you the invitation, the doors of the Nortons will always be open for you should you ever change your mind."

"Thank you, milord..." said Jim as he bowed deeply.

"Then what about the rest of you? Would you be interested in joining the Norton Family's forces?" Lorist asked the remaining 19 mercenaries.

After a moment, six of them approached Lorist and said in unison, "Milord, we are willing to be in your service."

Delighted, Lorist said, "I appreciate your commitment. It is my wish that you rack up some achievements for yourselves so that you may one day become knights of the family."

Of the 6 mercenaries, there was 1 One Star Silver rank, 3 Iron ranks and 2 Bronze ranks. Their enlistment into the forces of the Nortons was much needed to relieve the loss of the men who were sacrificed on the battlefield.

At that moment, Shadekampf brought over a chest filled with small pouches each containing 20 gold Fordes. Satisfied with Shadekampf's considerate inclusion of the sachets, Lorist gave the approval to distribute them to the mercenaries. However, one Silver ranked mercenary who had just joined the Norton forces said that since he was already part of them, it was only natural for him to fulfil his duty and urged that he didn't require any payment.

Lorist laughed and said, "Take it, my friend. The Norton Family doesn't lack that kind of money. This is your reward for doing good work for the family, so I insist that you take it. After this, rest up well. I will ask for you guys if I need anything else."

The mercenaries all left happily with their money with some even opening their sachets to count the coins as they admired them while they walked back to the camp before unwillingly putting them back into the sachets. Only Jim remained, seemingly having something to say to Lorist.

Upon noticing Jim's hesitation, Lorist asked, "What's wrong, Jim? Did you change your mind?"

Jim responded respectfully, "Milord, I've stayed to plead for the lives of the surrendered Feathersoar mercenaries. I know many of them and they are all my good friends who also didn't act against your men during the battle just now and only fought casually against us. They finally surrendered when you made your way there. I hope that you will show them mercy and allow them to serve you along with the rest of us mercenaries."

Lorist stroked his chin while he thought before he said straightforwardly, "Alright then. Since they didn't cause the family any loss, I am willing to spare them on your behalf. I will also hire them on the same conditions as I hired you and your crew, would that be acceptable?"

"Milord, I am grateful for your benevolence and grace. I thank you on their behalf as well," said Jim gratefully.

"You should stay for a little more. I still want to ask them some questions," said Lorist as he motioned for the two surrendered Feathersoar mercenaries to come forward.

First, he asked them why they still decided to resist even after they found out that they had been trapped and surrounded by ballistas. That wasn't the usual behavior of mercenaries, who only cared about their own lives unlike soldiers of proper armies or nobles families.

The two of the captives gave a simple answer: before they left the dominion of the Kenmayses to deliver the shipment, Viscount Kenmays had promised to make Crew Leader Adams a baron if they were able to cooperate with the Kenmays Family to make the Nortons submit as well as enfeoff him part of the territory of the Norton Family's dominion. As the Nortons' dominion spanned a large area, there was more than enough land for five baronies. Adams would then become an official vassal noble house of the Kenmays Family. He had also promised his fellow mercenaries that he would recruit them to become his family knights. That was why they were so willing to fight despite the risks involved.

Good Sol! Lorist was really struck speechless after hearing their response. The Kenmays Family were truly too devious in their plots; for them to use the territory of the Norton Family which had yet to fall into their hands to entice Crew Leader Adams... it was no surprise that the Feathersoar Mercenary Crew was so desperate during that battle! Darn it! As expected of a family of lowly, devious merchants!

His second question was to verify the truth about the rumor about the Kenmays Family's new army of 2000 men at the Royal Capital of Windbury that Adams had mentioned during his chat with Jim before the battle.

According to the captives, all that was said by Adams was true. The elder one even revealed some insider information: the Kenmays Family had secretly received the support and permission of the Second Prince to form their army. When the Feathersoar mercenaries got to know about that, they expressed their worries about the crew leader's future position in the Kenmays Family as they may no longer be as integral to the Kenmayses now that they had a force of their own. However, Adams said that there was no need to worry and mentioned that the reason the Second Prince supported the formation of the army was to put some pressure on Duke Loggins. Additionally, the Kenmays Family and the Second Prince were still in the process of negotiating with the duke to let the force of 2000 enter the Northlands.

Lorist's third query was about the status and defenses of the Redriver Valley Bastide.

The captives said that they had taken ten days of rest at the bastide before the shipment mission to the construction site began as they had spent the last month traveling from the royal capital to the Kenmayses' dominion. The two of them answered every single question that Lorist brought up about bastide, much to his satisfaction.

After sending Jim and the two mercenaries away, Lorist looked and Josk and Patt before he said, "Joe, Patt, do you have any energy left?"

"Milord, please don't hesitate to give us your orders," said the both of them energetically in unison.

"You've heard what the mercenaries had to say. The dominion of the Kenmays Family is very weakly defended right now, especially so at the Redriver Valley Bastide. The immigrant town they have nearby only has a garrison of 100 plus people at most with no defensive walls or fortifications. It would be extremely rude for us to not pay them a visit after what the mercenaries they hired have done here, so I've decided to let the two of you do the honors. I give you one hour to prepare a squad of men including the ones in charge of the ballistas just now as well as some uninjured guard squad members. If they're tired, bring some carriages with you and let them rest on the way there. After occupying the Redriver Valley Bastide, send someone to notify me about it and move everything that you think we can use over here. I want to make sure that the place is burnt to the ground so that the Kenmays Family will have nothing that they will be able to use against us there," ordered Lorist.

"Your will is our command, milord."

Chapter 107 Supply Transportation

Lorist sat back down on his chair to rest for a while and by the time he recovered some energy, he circulated his internal energy according to the Aquametal Technique for one minor cycle. Feeling refreshed, he sent Josk and Patt off to their expedition with their troops before he headed for the medical area within the camp.

Around the area of the 12 large tents, the injured soldiers of the family could be seen lying and occasionally letting out moans of pain. It was quite fortunate for them that some medical supplies had been found within the construction site. Having had their injuries wrapped up and after consuming some medicinal concoctions that would hasten their recovery, the ones with light injuries fell asleep not long after. However, those who were injured more heavily had a much harder time as they couldn't embrace the peace of slumber due to the pain they were suffering from.

Lorist's herbalism knowledge that he had picked up at Dawn Academy had also been put to good use. After giving the more heavily injured soldiers another check, he had someone else slaughter a goat and used its intestines to make threads that were later used to seal up the open wounds of some soldiers. After that, he cleaned up the wounds and applied some more medicine onto it before he wrapped them up with some bandages. Lorist also came up with a few medicinal prescriptions according to each soldier's needs.

He hoped that these men who had so bravely served his family wouldn't lose their lives due to insufficient treatment. That's why he had refused to listen of the advice of his subordinates to get some rest and worked ten hours nonstop. By the time he was finished, dawn had already come.

When Lorist got up, he felt a sudden dizziness from being seated for too long a time and weakly leaned on Shadekampf to support his body. Shadekampf hurriedly said, "Milord, you really should get some rest. Otherwise, your body won't be able to take it..."

With a pale, but happy face, Lorist said, "I'm fine. I'll feel much better after getting some sleep. I've already came up with a few prescriptions for the respective patients, so make sure they consume it so their injuries don't worsen. For now, help me to my tent so that I may rest. Oh, right, you've also only got around 4 hours of sleep, right? You shouldn't push yourself too far either and rest if you need to..."

However, after only sleeping for two hours, Lorist was awoken by a messenger that Josk sent. Even though he didn't manage to rest for long, more than half of the fatigue that had built up during the battle yesterday had vanished. After hurriedly washing his face to refresh himself, Lorist asked for the messenger.

Looking at the hourglass on the table nearby, Lorist thought, Josk had only left for 14 hours. Considering that it takes only 6 hours to get to the Redriver Valley Bastide, didn't they return far too quickly? After all, they did bring with them tens of carriages...

The messenger who was sent over to deliver the news was rather elated. He mentioned that the Redriver Valley Bastide and the immigrant town nearby had both been taken over successfully. According to him, Josk had left the convoy to Patt and went forward by himself with another 40 riders and spent less than 6 hours before they arrived at the bastide. After killing seven guards and taking over the Kenmayses' castle, Josk and his men rushed to the immigrant town and their garrison troop surrendered without resistance after a few of their squad leaders were killed. Following that, Josk had ordered for the messenger and two other men to return to the construction site to send the good news.

The messenger also said that various supplies and resources were in abundance at the bastide. After Josk ordered his men to conduct a rough estimate of the resources contained within the rows of warehouses, he concluded that most of the items were green vine glue and food. Additionally, the messenger also reported that the head supervisor of the Kenmays Family that attempted to set the warehouses on fire, but he had been shot dead once Josk discovered his intentions. Josk was currently awaiting Lorist's instructions on how to deal with the resources as well as the 2000 plus people of the immigrant town.

Lorist instructed some guards at the camp to fetch Miss Telesti, Supervisor Hansk, Butler Boris, Shadekampf, as well as Paulobins, a One Star Silver mercenary who had just joined the Norton Family's forces, to discuss the matter.

Within a few moments, all of the aforementioned people gathered within the tent. After they were seated, Lorist announced the news of the occupation of the Redriver Valley Bastide and the nearby immigrant town, much to Boris's surprise and delight, as he no longer had to worry about the safety of his family members.

Lorist decided to utilize all the carriages that were available at the construction site for the transportation of the resources from the bastide, including the ones they had obtained from the shipment the day before. According to Hansk, there were around 800 carriages which were all equipped with the necessary horses. The only issue they had was the lack of reliable coachmen. Even if they were to use the members of the temporary defense units that they had just formed recently into the number, they would at most be able to mobilize 500 or so carriages and leave the construction site undefended.

SIgh, what we lack most is still personnel in the end, thought Lorist as he smirked. Hmm, couldn't we just use the coachmen that came with the shipment convoy and pick out some slave laborers who also know how to drive to solve the problem? I don't think that I need to worry about whether the slave laborers and coachmen would take this chance to run away... Given the immense area the Northlands covered and its sparse population, the slaves wouldn't have anywhere to run to nor will they be able to travel far as they wouldn't have enough food to last them long enough. There was also the possibility that they might be recaptured should they ever reach the dominions of other nobles and they might even be punished by the nobles of that land for escaping servitude as all the slaves of the Kenmays Family were branded with a mark behind their left ear. They might even be put to death for that offense.

Additionally, Lorist was going to announce to the slaves that he would restore their freedom after they finish transporting the goods by using a special concoction that would help heal the scars behind their ears over time. Initially, Lorist had planned to free them three years later after the construction of the wall fortifications as well as the other castle within the valley was complete. However, now that his family lacked manpower, especially youths, he chose to restore their freedom earlier and believed that they wouldn't run away if that was the case.

Lastly, Lorist also ordered Reidy to bring a group of men from the temporary defense units to participate in that operation to take the place of the soldiers who were at Redriver Valley Bastide. During the next shipment course, another group would take Reidy and his men's place to guard the bastide.

Butler Boris and Shadekampf would also join the convoy to the Redriver Valley Bastide. The reason for Boris's participation was so that he could reunite with his family and help Shadekampf out with finding the hidden storehouses throughout the bastide so that they wouldn't miss anything out.

Shadekampf on the other hand would be in charge of prioritizing which resources to ship over first. Lorist specified that he wanted the immigrants to be the first to be transported over to make up for the severe lack of population the Norton Family's dominion had to aid the development of the dominion.

He also tasked him with burning down the immigrant town as well as the Redriver Valley Bastide following the transportation of all the resources to the construction site so that the Kenmays Family would lose a location for their troops to be stationed and also teach them a lesson for daring to mess with the Norton Family.

Lorist said that given the decimation of the Feathersoar Mercenary Crew as well as the occupation of the Redriver Valley Bastide and the immigrant town, the Kenmays Family would lose all their standing within the Northlands, unless they manage to convince Duke Loggins to send his private army to retake the bastide as soon as possible. However, according to the surrendered Feathersoar mercenaries, the duke was extremely wary of the Kenmays Family and their inability to obtain permission from the duke to send in their own 2000-strong army was proof of that.

It would take at least another 3 days before the Kenmayses would be alerted to the eradication of the Feathersoar Mercenary Crew. And by the time their men at Gildusk City found out, it would take another week or so before the message would be able to reach the viscount. By then, it would take another 4 days approximately before Viscount Kenmays will be able to convince the duke to send out his army, and that in itself wasn't guaranteed either as the duke might secretly delight in the setback suffered by the Kenmays Family. Even if the viscount did manage to convince the duke to help him take back his dominion, it would take at least a month and a half before his army would be able to reach the bastide as mobilizing an army involved many procedures and protocols.

In conclusion, the 50 or so days to come would be relatively safe and the transportation operation would most likely be completed without interruptions. Lorist also instructed Shadekampf to tell Josk to have his men patrol the surrounding area after transporting the immigrants over to the construction site. Ideally, they would be able to catch the scouts of the Kenmays Family to further delay the information from being spread. Should the Kenmays Family's army somehow make their way to the Northlands earlier than Lorist had predicted, he would still be able to order his men to retreat in time even if the resources were not yet fully transported and burn the bastide and the immigrant town down.

"Milord, what do we do if the soldiers of the nobles in the area come over?" Shadekampf asked.

"Those people? Just have Josk get rid of them. They would at most have a couple of knights with the rest of the soldiers being disorganized farmer troops anyway. I believe that Josk would have no hard time showing them their place," said Lorist. He also wondered why the Kenmays Family chose to go against the Nortons instead of eradicating the nobles surrounding his dominion to claim their lands.

What Lorist didn't take into account was that before his arrival, the Norton Family was indeed one of the weakest families in the area with one of the largest dominions which also encompassed the location where the Kenmays Family intended to build their castle. Who else would they target other than the Nortons? However, Lorist's arrival had caused them a huge loss which they didn't even get to know about yet.

"Miss Telesti, I truly am sorry that we have to delay the construction process yet again," said Lorist after he finished managing the affairs of the transportation operation.

The young woman sighed and said, "Milord, I understand that you didn't have much of a choice in that matter. Now that the slaves have mostly been assigned to carry out the shipments, what would we do about the incomplete wall? If the Kenmays Family's forces come knocking a month and a half later, we would definitely have a much harder time defending the place without proper fortifications."

"I've already taken that into account. Aside from the slaves participating in the transportation operation, there should be around 800 laborers left behind here. I intend to utilize every single one of them including the women to help out with the construction. The elderly and children can also aid with the preparation of food. Supervisor Kedan and Old Man Balk, I'm afraid the days to come would be tough on you. Kedan, you will be in charge of managing the elderly, women and children and assigning tasks for them. Balk, I will leave the supervision of the construction of the walls to you. What you must remember is to prioritize the quality of the wall even if that would take a longer time," said Lorist.

"I understand, milord," replied Supervisor Kedan.

"Milord, please be assured that I will ensure that the wall will be as tough as it can be," Balk said confidently while thumping on his chest.

"Supervisor Hansk, you should also make some preparations to store and record the resources that will be shipped over."

"Yes, milord," said Hansk as he nodded.

"Um, Paulobins, since Ovidis is still recovering from his injuries and Reidy is busy escorting the shipment convoy, I am leaving you in charge of the temporary defense units, alright? You will be in charge of their training and managing the wall patrols. Are you confident you can handle that?" Lorist asked.

The young ex-mercenary jumped with a face red with excitement and exclaimed, "Milord, don't worry! I will definitely not let you down!"

Chapter 108 The Pitiful Grandmaster Ciroba

Later that day, Lorist had something at the back of his mind that he couldn't quite remember.

After the shipment convoy had been sent off to the Redriver Valley Bastide, Jim bade Lorist farewell and returned to his post at Poplar Coast with the rest of the mercenaries. However, he also asked Lorist nervously if they would be allowed to buy a few chain mail as the mercenaries were quite envious of how well-equipped the Norton soldiers were.

After asking for Hansk about the amount of armor they had, Lorist decided to sell 20 sets at 70% of the price at 6 gold Fordes each before sending the grateful mercenaries off.

With the resources at the Redriver Valley Bastide being unexpectedly plentiful, Lorist had no choice but to delay his plan to have every available person work on the walls and slow down the construction process to carry out the transportation.

The first few shipments that were sent to the construction site were mostly green vine glue because Shadekampf believed that it was one of the most important resources the dominion needed for its development. He understood that it was even more paramount given Lorist's choice to continue building a city in the valley.

Lorist had once asked Butler Boris why the Kenmays Family stockpiled so much green vine glue. The butler replied confidently that the Kenmayses had an contract with the Romon Empire to purchase 100000 buckets of green vine glue from them every year. That was why it was only natural for there to be around 30000 buckets of it at Redriver Valley Bastide, which was supposed to be the home territory of the Kenmayses.

There was one small accident during the transportation of the glue though. One carriage filled with buckets of those had its axle damaged right in front of the construction site, much to Old Man Balk's dismay as it was directly in the way of the supply route for the materials around the site. He responded by finding a few other people to attempt to push the carriage to aside, but the force and vibration had caused one huge bucket of green vine glue to splash all over the place including Old Man Balk's face, causing him to get a good smell and taste of the material.

All of a sudden, Old Man Balk stood there with his whole body drenched with glue before he quickly went to look for Lorist and pulled him to a corner where there wasn't anybody else. Carefully checking his surroundings to make sure they were alone, he secretly told Lorist, "Milord... I think I know where this glue can be found..."

Initially weirded out by Balk's sudden erratic actions, Lorist laughed in understanding once he heard the explanation. "I also know that. It's made in the Romon Empire, isn't it? You don't have to be so secretive about that. Isn't that common knowledge?"

Balk once again looked around before he said in a low voice, "That's not it, milord. I mean to say that I know where we can find green vine glue within our dominion."

"You mean we might be able to find and produce green vine glue in our own dominion?" said Lorist in a surprised tone.

"Yes, milord. A little more than 10 years ago, when I was on my way to boil seawater to harness salt for the family, I came across some herbs. But when I started picking them, I accidentally fell into a cave somewhere around the area. I thought I was a goner for sure, but fortunately for me there were huge vines with intertwining leaves all over that cave which allowed me to climb out and somehow retain my life. Before I started climbing, I lied down on the ground for some rest and noticed a peculiar quality of those vines. For some reason, it was moister than most plants I've seen and there weren't any insects around them. Apart from some decaying leaves on the ground, I couldn't even see a single ant. I was quite hungry at that time and had nothing better to eat or drink, so I bit into those vines and sucked out some of its secretions to sustain myself, but I stopped after tasting its extreme bitterness.

"That cave was a rather large one and I couldn't find the exit after walking around, so that's when I decided to try climbing those vines and halfway up the deep cave, I cried out for help. It was fortunate that some of my friends were looking for me, so they dropped a rope for me to hold on to while they hoisted me up. Due to consuming some of the secretions of the vine, my stomach hurt for quite a long time and I only managed to recover after spending quite a sum to purchase some medicines from Master Dunbarsen of Wildnorth Town. From that day onward, i've never forgotten the taste of that liquid that caused me so much pain. And just now when I got a slight taste of the green vine glue, it was exactly the same as that liquid I drank so many years ago..."

"You mentioned that it was very moist down the cave?"

"Yes."

"And that there weren't any insects or even a single ant at all?"

Balk continued to nod earnestly.

"The vines were also rather huge relative to others you've seen elsewhere?"

The old man then stretched his arms upward, indicating that it was easily taller than he was.

Lorist stroked his chin in deep thought. According to Old Man Balk's description, it does seem that those vines are similar to those found in the Romon Empire. If that is true, then the dominion will have one more resource to capitalize on for its development. We can also sell or trade them with others for some other resources if we have a surplus...

"Old Man Balk, keep this secret between us for now and don't tell anyone else. When we finish construction the outer wall of this valley, I will accompany you to that cave you mentioned and verify whether those vines were indeed glue vines," Lorist said.

Balk nodded and replied, "I understand, milord. I didn't tell anyone else about it just now either and went straight to you first."

"Good, let's leave it at that. For now, we have to complete the wall first."

......

By the time Butler Boris returned with his family to the construction site along with the convoy, he also brought Lorist some good news: he and Shadekampf had discovered a hidden room back at the bastide which stored up to 100000 gold Fordes and 120000 imperial god coins. Coupled with the multitudes of silver and copper coins within, there was at least 200000 gold Fordes' worth of money over there. That report had caused Lorist immense joy as he thought, the quickest way to wealth is indeed taking it from others... And merchant families like that should have the most amount of money...

......

After resting for around 20 days, Ovidis had returned to his former energetic state. Given that he was sick of lying around in bed for days, he pestered Lorist endlessly to allow him to go to the Redriver Valley Bastide for some exploration and even did a few somersaults to show Lorist that he had completely recovered. Having no other choice, Lorist arranged for Ovidis to lead the next batch of carriages and soldiers to take Reidy's place.

......

After seeing Ovidis, Lorist suddenly remembered the one thing he had neglected to do: he had yet to punish Grandmaster Ciroba, who had ruined his plan before it was put into motion. After asking some guards, he got to know that before the ambush, the metal armor equipped soldiers had all forgotten about Grandmaster Ciroba after being told to find a place to hide from sight. That was why he had managed to sneak out to alert the Feathersoar Mercenary Crew on that day.

Currently, Grandmaster Ciroba was dragged in front of Lorist like a sack of dirt by two other guards. Seeing the kneeling and shivering old man, Lorist asked, "What's up with him?"

One of the guards replied, "Milord, I think he's terrified of you..."

"Me? How is that possible? I've only just thought about him earlier today, how would I have the chance to go out of my way to frighten him?"

"It's true, milord," replied the guard. "Right after the battle that day, a few of us wanted to look for this cursed old guy to give him a good beating. But when we found him, he was crouched on the ground muttering something about seeing a demon. It was not long after that we understood that he was referring to you, milord. After giving him a sound thrashing, we tossed him back into his cell. Some of my friends reported that this pile of crap of a grandmaster was having severe nightmares that caused him to spring awake screaming about demons in the middle of the night while also begging for your forgiveness so that you wouldn't eat him alive... After that, some of us used your name to frighten him when we had nothing better to do and every single time it caused him to cry nonstop. It was fun while it lasted..."

Grandmaster Ciroba's experiences had been quite unfortunate during that span of time. Initially, he was naturally elated to find out that the Norton Family was going against the Feathersoar Mercenary Crew. Being a famed architect of the Iblia Kingdom and a citizen of Windbury City, he had long heard about the reputation of the Feathersoar Mercenary Crew and had even worked with them on several occasions. He believed that the Norton Family's forces would definitely not be able to match that mercenary crew given that they had went out of their way to set up such an elaborate plot to ambush them.

He thought that if the Feathersoar Mercenary Crew was able to defeat the Nortons, then he would soon be able to regain his freedom. That was why he was willing to take the risk to reveal the ambush to the crew before he was knocked unconscious by Ovidis.

The real crux was Ovidis's relatively light strike, which caused the grandmaster to wake up before the battle had ended. As he had wished, the Nortons were in full-on conflict with the mercenary crew. Having learned not to reveal himself so easily lest he get knocked unconscious again, the old man didn't go out of his way to cheer for the mercenaries and opted to spectate the battle while hidden.

As a person who had no experience on the battlefield whatsoever, Grandmaster Ciroba had only just found out about the cruelty and bloodshed present in any conflict. The only things he knew about war was those depicted in novels about fictionalized knights and heroes who gloriously led their armies to defeat their adversaries and returned home with beauties in their arms to live out the rest of their lives in happiness and bliss. But when he heard the agonized cries and saw the blood spurting out of the slaughtered mercenaries, he puked on the spot. To avoid having to see that sight again, he turned backwards just in time to see Lorist killing the two Gold ranked shield-bearers.

After that, the grandmaster witnessed Lorist rushing into the crowd of people and killing the mercenaries without breaking a sweat. Quickly losing count of the mercenaries who had died by Lorist's sword, Grandmaster Ciroba felt a chill down his spine. Quickly, he realized that he had made a grave error in offending a fearsome being like Lorist.

By the time Lorist had decapitated Crew Leader Adams, Grandmaster Ciroba had completely despaired. The image of the blood-covered Lorist had been burned deep within his mind, causing him to constantly fear his retribution for spoiling the plot. Deep within his psyche, he had already considered Lorist to be some kind of fearsome demon...

After he was beaten up by some guards and tossed back into his cell, he never had a good night's sleep as every time he tried to close his eyes, he would start to imagine the countless soldiers without heads or limbs crawling up to him, eventually melding together to form Lorist's blood-covered silhouette that would proceed to torture him endlessly.

The first time Grandmaster Ciroba awoke from that nightmare, he quickly begged for mercy and forgiveness. But that didn't stop the dreams from continuing. Had he been by the side of his family, there was little doubt that his mental condition would recover over time.

But at that time, he was locked up alone in a cell and the guards that watched over him were mostly ex-bandits who delighted in tormenting him after they discovered the one he was so desperately begging forgiveness from was Lorist. Their mean antics included pretending to have received Lorist's orders to cut off his legs, genitals, nose or ears and even fry him in boiling oil, all of which caused the old man to be terrified to the depths of his soul. Eventually his nightmares grew to be even more fearsome, causing the state of his mind to become even more brittle to the point that he lost all will to move after being told that he was being brought to see Lorist.

Conflicted, Lorist felt that he wouldn't be able to punish Grandmaster Ciroba given that he was already in such a fearful state that his bladder and rectum had relaxed and released their contents before Lorist even said a word.

Lightly fanning the stench away from his nose, Lorist said, "Take him away and help him wash off..."

But before he finished, Grandmaster Ciroba seemed to have misunderstood and quickly hugged Lorist's leg before he begged, "Milord... Don't... Please forgive me and don't fry or grill me! I'm not tasty at all! Milord, I can be very useful to you alive... I can build... Yes, I can build castles... Houses... Anything you want! Please don't eat me......."

As his pleading got louder and louder, the people at the tents not far away scrambled over and thought that something had happened. Reidy and Paulobins even thought that Lorist was in some sort of trouble and was in need of help.

With a grimace on his face, Lorist looked at the guards and said in an exasperated voice, "Look at you guys... You've really gone too far with this..."

The guards all had an innocent look on their faces as one of them said, "Milord, this is not our fault... Who asked him to be so much of a coward..."

Tired of arguing with them, Lorist shook the groveling old man off his leg and warned, "Get up. If you don't, I'll really start grilling you alive."

"Please milord... No..." said Grandmaster Ciroba as he quickly stood up.

"I'll give you a chance to make this up to me," said Lorist. "First, go take a bath to clean yourself up and report to Miss Telesti when you're done. Help her with the construction of my castle and I'll forgive you if you do well. Otherwise..."

Lorist revealed his two rows of gleaming white teeth and said, "You know what will happen..."

With an audible thump, the old man kneeled quickly and said, "Milord, I will definitely do my best until you're satisfied..."

"Reidy, take him away for a bath and bring him to Miss Telesti. Grandmaster Ciroba will be her subordinate in the future," Lorist instructed.

Chapter 109 A Meeting with Telesti

It was a rather pleasant day, at least to Lorist, as the first outer wall had been completed. Currently, Lorist was standing atop the new wall which was around 7.5 meters tall and 3.5 meters wide. Its length was around 86 meters with two other walls extending at right angles from both ends, effectively forming into a '|_|' shape.

The main difference between this outer wall and the one at the other end facing the Norton Family's dominion was that Lorist had borrowed elements from Ancient Chinese architecture to build blockhouses[1] on the face of the walls with each extending outwards from the wall by 2 meters and having a width of 5 meters while extending upwards to 1 meter above the wall itself, causing the whole stretch of the wall to look rather imposing.

Patting on the crenels of the wall, Lorist felt rather satisfied. Now that they had completed the construction of that essential defensive structure, there was no worry that the construction site would fall into the hands of others easily. What made Lorist curious was the fact that not a man from the Kenmayses have been detected recently according to Josk's reports, even though they had just increased the frequency of the patrols recently. It was as if the Kenmays Family had completely forgotten about the Redriver Valley Bastide. Logically speaking, upon getting to know that the viscount's bastide had been occupied, it only made sense for the Kenmayses to be wary and scout the surrounding area for any more of the Nortons' movements. The fact that Josk hadn't found anything like that was definitely a sign that something fishy was going on.

That shouldn't be possible... Unless... The Kenmays Family still haven't received news about the occupation of the bastide. Was that even possible? Lorist thought as he laughed. That would be too good to be true... Oh well, I shouldn't ponder upon it too much. We'll cross the bridge when we come to it. It's already fortunate that I managed to get so many benefits from their bastide, so it would be going too far to hope for such an ideal scenario.

"Old Man Balk, have you finished planning the arrangements of the construction of the second wall with Miss Telesti?"

Balk who was standing beside him replied, "Miss Telesti had tasked me to first lay the foundations for the wall but stopped me from doing anything else as the details of its design still hasn't been confirmed yet."

"I see. Then I guess I should go pay her a visit," Lorist said.

Telesti was within the center of the 5 buildings on the wall as usual. When Lorist went inside, he bumped into Grandmaster Ciroba. Letting out a frightened cry, the old man ran to the corner of the room and curled up into a ball as sounds of dripping water could be heard. It seemed that his bladder had loosened from his terror once again.

Annoyed and feeling a little awkward, Lorist thought, how many times has it been? Every time I come to visit Miss Telesti, Grandmaster Ciroba would become like that. And then there's Little Vinny...

As he had expected, Lorist heard Vinny's startled gasp. "Mistress... Not good! The man-eating demon is here again..."

A snicker rang out within the room...

Lorist walked into the room with a gloomy expression without giving Grandmaster Ciroba any heed. Ever since that old man started working under Telesti, he would keep repeating that Lorist was a man-eating demon, and the others all knew that the old man behaved as such because he was completely terrified of Lorist. However, Telesti's young maidservant, Vinny, thought it was funny and even secretly went up to ask Lorist whether human flesh was delicious. At that time, he was in a rather playful mood and opened his mouth wide to pretend to bite Vinny, only to send her scurrying away in terror. Ever since that time, Lorist had properly cemented himself as a demon in Vinny's mind.

"Ouch!" Vinny's pained cry rang out from within the room. "Mistress, why did you hit me?"

Telesti said, "Why else would I hit you? How can you believe in something as ridiculous as that? You even ran inside my room and messed up all my models!"

"Mistress, I'm really not kidding. At that time, he almost ate me alive... Oh no, he's coming in..." said Vinny before she crawled under Telesti's chair to hide.

While Telesti was initially seriously trying to reprimand her maidservant, upon seeing Lorist's defeated expression, she gradually let muffled chuckles until she could no longer hold back and laughed out loud.

"Am I really that funny?" Lorist said, dissatisfied.

"Haha... Hahaha... Man-eating demon... Hahaha..."

Lorist could see Vinny poking her head around from underneath the chair and suddenly felt in the mood to make a scary face while raising both his hands clawed, as if he was about to leap straight at her...

"Eeep!" Vinny squaeled in a terrified voice. Feeling unsafe despite being behind her mistress, the young maidservant took the risk and ran straight out of the room and closed the door tight behind her.

Seeing that, Telesti's laughter got even more severe to the point that she was banging on the table involuntarily.

"Hey, have you laughed enough now?" Lorist asked Telesti who was laughing so hard that tears were coming out of her eyes.

"Enough... Hoho... I want to stop... too... Pffft! But... Every time I look at you... I can't... Stop laughing!" stammered Telesti as she tried her best to catch her breath.

Annoyed and slightly pissed, Lorist started thinking of what he could do to make her stop.

Circling the table and pulling Telesti up suddenly, Lorist planted a kiss onto her luscious lips before she managed to react.

Her laughter finally stopped, but she was equally stunned as well. With both her eyes opened wide, she continued to stand there in a daze and only managed to react when Lorist teased her tongue with his own.

"Ouch!" exclaimed Lorist in pain. "What did you bite me for?"

Telesti pushed Lorist aside and breathed raggedly with her cheeks flushed red and said, "Milord, that's far too rude of you."

"Just call me Locke," he said. "Well, at least I managed to get you to stop laughing..."

"Locke, you should give up on any notion on courting me..." said Telesti with an embarrassed expression. "I've already taken an oath in the name of Siminglyde that I would continue my mother's research and will stay single for the rest of my life. I want to become an impressive scholar..."

Siminglyde was Grindia's God of Knowledge and Wisdom and his shrine was rather special even among the other deities worshipped by the people of the continent. It was shaped like a circular tower that was rumored to be based after the Magi's towers in the ancient times.

"Alright," Lorist said. "Then I give my best wishes that you will fulfill your dream one day and become the most influential scholar that you want to be so much. Can we now talk about the serious matters?"

Telesti sat down with her face still blushing and said without looking directly at Lorist, "Milord, what have you come here to talk about?"

"I've heard Old Man Balk that you still haven't decided on the design of the second wall. Why is that so?"

Upon hearing Lorist's serious tone, Telesti forgot about what had happened previously and said, "It's like this. The main reason is that Grandmaster Ciroba feels that if we continue to build the second wall as we have planned, the protruding part of the blockhouses would be a little troubling. Let me bring you to the models so the grandmaster can explain it to you."

"Forget it, he has already wet himself after seeing me once. I don't wish for him to have to change into another pair of pants again," Lorist said.

Telesti giggled as if she had thought of something and rolled her eyes at Lorist before she stifled her laughter and reached out for her tea cup, only to notice that it was already empty.

"Locke, please ask Vinny to pour me some tea." Telesti had used Lorist's nickname without much thought, but after she noticed it, her face flushed red again and she avoided looking directly at him.

"Alright," said Lorist as he opened the door to do as she said.

But right after he pushed the door open, Vinny's head almost bumped straight into Lorist's chest.

"What's wrong, Little Vinny?" said Lorist as he caught her to stop her from falling.

But this time, Vinny wasn't afraid of him anymore. After seeing Telesti safely sitting behind her desk, Vinny let out a breath of relief and said, "Sniff... Mistress... Vinny shouldn't have forgotten about you and left you alone in the room with him... Thank goodness you weren't eaten! Oh no! Vinny is caught by that monster! Mistress... save me..."

Upon noticing that she had been 'captured', the maidservant started making quite a ruckus.

"Stop fooling around, Vinny. Pour me some tea and bring me a basin of water for me to wash my face. After that, call Zanben to bring the model of the wall over here," Telesti said.

Seeing Vinny carefully circling around Lorist as she brought the tea, Telesti almost broke out into laughter again. Lorist on the other hand was suppressing his desire to tease Vinny once more and stayed seated without messing around.

"Oh, mistress, why is your face all red? It looks rather pretty this way..." said Vinny.

"It's all your fault for closing the door. The heat that caused my face to flush up..." said Telesti in an attempt to cover it up.

Lorist shook and chuckled upon hearing that while Telesti rolled her eyes to Lorist again in a fit of embarrassed rage.

......

After Zanben brought the model over, Lorist came to understand that his plan for the blockhouses had caused them quite some trouble. Castles in Grindia usually didn't have blockhouses that protruded from the walls itself but rather ones built atop the walls. Most city walls had blockhouses built on the front and back of the top part the walls to increase the their defensive capabilities.

The blockhouses protruding out of the wall that Lorist had asked to build wouldn't be a problem if it was only one wall, but they would definitely impede the construction of the second outer wall. The fact that the second wall had to be three meters taller than the first wall was even more of a problem.

The model Zanben brought over was modified to accommodate for that structure by giving a slight slant to the stairs that connected the blockhouses to the walls. While it did not impact its defensive capabilities much, it did look less aesthetically appealing.

Telesti said, "Look, milord. This design looks rather ugly. That's why Grandmaster Ciroba was very against it and believed that the blockhouses should be built individually instead of having them connected to the walls. But that would significantly lessen the defense..."

Lorist pointed at the model and said, "Then just build it like that. What I want is strong defense and not looks. If the second outer wall gets breached, we can easily close the main gates of the blockhouses of the first wall and effectively lock the enemy out. That way, we will also have more time to retaliate against those who have made their way beyond the second wall. If we separate the blockhouses, once they get conquered, the first inner wall wouldn't be able to hold out for long."

Telesti furrowed her brows and said, "But milord, it does look far less appealing like that."

"That's alright, just build it according to this model as I say. I will allow you to decorate the valley city as you please when we start working on it, but this wall only needs to be practical and tough. I will look forward to how beautiful you can make the city in the future," Lorist said.

"Okay, milord. Then we will begin construction according to this model," said Telesti while looking a little crestfallen as she waved for Zanben to put the model back.

"Milord, do you have anything else you need me for?" Telesti asked.

"Of course I do," Lorist said. "Vinny, you don't have to be so scared of me you know. Why don't you leave the room for a bit?"

"Nope, Little Vinny can stay here," said Telesti as she denied Lorist's suggestion without waiting for Vinny's response.

"But mistress, Vinny is really scared..." said Vinny.

Telesti held her arm and said quietly, "Um, Little Vinny... I am a little scared myself. So, I need you to accompany me..."

"Alright, mistress. Vinny will stay by your side..." said Vinny bravely before she gave Lorist a look and scrambled behind Telesti's back.

"Milord, if you have anything to say, don't hold back," said Telesti while lightly thumping the table to stifle her laughter after she looked at Lorist who was squeezing his eyes in an attempt to frighten Vinny.

"Oh, I was thinking whether you could spare some manpower to build two taverns in the area planned for the business sector," Lorist said.

Telesti widened her eyes in curiosity while awaiting Lorist's explanation.

"It's like this. didn't I say that I would give the slave laborers their freedom after the shipment operation is completed? That means I will need to pay them a salary when the time comes. But how would they spend the money at the construction site? That's why I think building some taverns and gradually developing the business sector would be important for the laborers to have a taste of true freedom," Lorist said.

"Milord, even though freedom doesn't only include being able to spend the money you earn, I will seriously consider your proposition. But at the moment, the immigrants forced by you to move from the Redriver Valley Bastide are currently staying there. Where do you think we should move them?"

Lorist pointed at the map on top of the table and said, "Over here right behind this first inner wall. Set up a camp site over here. Apart from the defense unit soldiers, have the rest of the people move outside the walls to camp during the night and have them move back into the wall when the construction begins during the day. This way, not only can we continue the construction without interruption, you will also be able to start developing the business sector. That will also increase the security by preventing any thefts during the night as it is getting harder to monitor the resources that are being shipped over as they increase day by day."

Telesti nodded and said, "Milord, even though it will still increase our workload, you've finally come up with a reliable plan. Good for you."

Lorist was completely speechless at that remark.

[1] A defensive fortification with holes to allow defending troops to fire at enemies from cover. See Wikipedia

Chapter 110 Intermission

Lorist however was speechlessly staring at the carriages of the last convoy that was slowly entering from the gates at the walls that seemed to be carrying broken metal pots, dirty clay apparatus as well as some worn out old rugs, dismantled windowsills and broken mops...

"What are you collecting all these junk for?" Lorist asked

"Milord, even those worn out and old things can still be used as cleaning supplies..." said Shadekampf.

"Then what are those carriages over there carrying? The stuff looks rather heavy..." Lorist said as he pointed to a few carriages in the distance.

The last few carriages seemed to be far slower than the rest and appeared to be carrying things of substantial weight.

"Those, are tiles milord... I removed them from the main hall of the manor and thought that we could use them for our own castle when it is completed," said Shadekampf.

Lorist made a thumbs up and said, "I say, the next time you see Charade, you can proudly tell him that you've learned everything he has to teach and has graduated from being his disciple!!"

Seeing Lorist turn and leave, Shadekampf got hold of Reidy and asked, "What did milord mean by that? It's not like I took Sir Charade as my master... What did he mean by graduating?"

Reidy burst out in laughter instantly. Having been by Lorist's side for quite a long time, he wasn't a stranger to his complaints about Charade's petty and stingy attitude and understood Charade's personality very well. After giving it some thought, Reidy said seriously, "That is milord's way of praising you for being as calculative as Sir Charade and being a great supervisor..."

......

Lorist and Josk were currently within a large tent enjoying some steaming-hot macks. That was also something they had in abundance as the Redriver Valley Bastide had quite a huge supply of it. Apart from giving Telesti two large jars of it, Lorist claimed the rest for himself.

"During the past month, the 7 people I've caught nearby the Redriver Valley Bastide were all ambassadors of noble families from the surrounding area ranging from those who were interested in starting friendly relationships, those who wanted to engage in trade and some who came to request for help. there were even a couple of them who were there to request marriage alliances with the Kenmays Family. I locked them up and only released them before we set fire to the bastide," reported Josk.

"Weird, why hasn't the Kenmays Family sent any scouts yet? That really boggles my mind. Don't tell me that they still haven't received news of the Feathersoar Mercenary Crew's demise and still doesn't know that we've occupied the bastide? That can't be..." Lorist said as he scratched his head in confusion.

......

In actuality, Lorist was correct. The Kenmays Family did indeed not know about the bastide's occupation. Of the three unfortunate mercenaries that managed to get away, the one who got shot by Josk's arrow died moments later while the other two split up during their escape. One of those unlucky fellows actually somehow made his way into a warzone between two noble families. The soldiers who were hiding and preparing for an ambush thought that the mercenary was one of the enemy's men and ordered for the archers to turn him into swiss cheese.

The other mercenary traveled for a day and found a village where he could rest for a bit. It didn't take long for him to notice that there were only women, the elderly and children among the inhabitants of the village as most of the youths and men were forcefully conscripted into war. Taking advantage of the absence of men, the mercenary coerced the villagers to provide him with delicacies and women for his pleasure. To the Iron ranked mercenary, the people of the village were not his match and there wasn't anything he had to worry about.

What he did not know were the customs of the people of the Northlands. Northlanders were usually friendly and welcoming to guests and would offer them decent hospitality. But people who were less than welcome usually wouldn't be able to leave alive. While the mercenary thought that he was completely in control of the village and was flirting with two women after the hearty meal he had, one of the women got up and poured him a tea. Feeling quite burned from all the alcohol he had consumed but still not letting his guard down, he only drank the tea after seeing the woman drink some herself.

However, right after he finished his drink, he could see two cold smiles from the women's faces. Even though he understood that something was wrong, his arms and legs suddenly felt numb and wasn't able to exert much force. In the end, that mercenary was buried alive by the seemingly defenseless people of the village who even managed to profit a little from the weapons, armor, mount and other belongings he left behind.

That was how the famed Feathersoar Mercenary Crew of the Iblia Kingdom vanished without a trace. Under the impression that the crew was guarding the bastide, the viscount didn't feel worried at all about its safety and only focused his efforts on negotiating with Duke Loggins in hopes that his force of 2000 would be allowed into the Northlands.

If they split the force up into multiple smaller parts, they would've been able to enter the Northlands discreetly long ago. However, the Kenmays Family didn't do that because of the Second Prince's suggestion to use the presence of the force as a warning and obstacle to the duke's unification of the Northlands. The Kenmays Family also wanted their army to arrive at the Northlands glamorously to impress upon the other nobles the rise of the family so that they would no longer set their sights on taking advantage of the Kenmayses.

The greatest flaw of Duke Loggins was his indecisiveness. However, for some reason, this time he had stood firm on not letting the Kenmays Family's 2000-strong force enter the Northlands. Even though the duke's very own Northland Army had about 20000 soldiers and was easily ten times more numerous than that of the Kenmays Family, and not to mention that the Kenmays Family had always been on rather respectful terms with the duke given that the cousin sister of Viscount Kenmays was the duke's mistress, he was quite unyielding of his decision and the two parties had already been negotiating for more than three months.

Given that Viscount Kenmays was a busy man, he didn't have the time to pay any attention to the happenings within his own domain. For the past three months, he had been busy gifting valuables and women to the duke's subordinates so that they may help put in a good word for him. During his stay at the duke's mansion, he had also humbled himself to butter the duke up by doing menial chores such as pouring his tea. In the end, due to the pressure from the Second Prince and the Kenmays Family's efforts, the duke had finally signed the agreement to allow the Kenmayses' army to enter, with the condition that the army would listen to the duke's every command.

After receiving the permit, Viscount Kenmays sent it to his father who was residing in Windbury City so that their army may proceed to the Northlands as soon as possible. On the other hand, he instructed his attendants to send a message to his dominion to notify the head supervisor of Redriver Valley Bastide to make preparations to receive the force and its deployment to the Norton Family dominion to make them submit to him once and for all.

By the time the three of Viscount Kenmays's attendants arrived, all of them were stunned speechless upon seeing the burnt remains of what used to be the Kenmays Family's headquarters. Not a soul could be seen: even the immigrants living at the town nearby had all vanished. The attendants looked at each other before the eldest and most senior of them decided for one of the attendants to return and notify the viscount of the bad news and the other to check on the construction site to see if it was still under the control of the Kenmays Family while he himself would go investigate the surrounding area to find out who the perpetrator was.

......

"Milord, you no longer have to worry so much about the Kenmays Family. After all, we've already taken everything they have. Since news doesn't travel fast in the Northlands, it's far better to sit tight and wait to see how things turn out. What will come, will come. And if it doesn't, it's not like we have nothing better to do than wait aimlessly for it, right?" said Josk before he took a sip from his cup.

Lorist tapped on his thigh and said, "You're right, Joe. I'm just not used to this. Back in Morante City, I was able to know what happened around the continent clearly by reading the papers. But after returning to the dominion, it's like I've suddenly turned blind: other than the small piece of land around the area, I am not informed of anything going on outside it at all. It really isn't pleasant to sit and wait for the enemy to arrive. I really dislike this feeling of leaving everything to fate."

Josk placed the cup in his hand down and said, "Why don't we talk about something else? Milord, I've heard rumors that you've been courting Miss Telesti. Is that true?"

Seeming a little down upon hearing that, Lorist said, "Yes, but I failed. Telesti's dream is to be a venerable scholar and she has decided to remain single for the rest of her life to stay focused and doesn't want to have any children to take time away from her work..."

For the past month, Lorist had visited Telesti on multiple occasions in an effort to woo her. But Telesti was far from defenseless: she would always be with either her butler or her maidservant Vinny. Once when they were both alone, before Lorist was able to try anything, Telesti called Zanben into the room with them, much to Lorist's frustration. During that visit, Lorist brought the two jars of macks to Telesti's place. Determined to wait for Zanben to leave the room, he started making some macks for himself. In the end, after consuming so many cups that he had lost count, Lorist gave up and left because he could no longer hold his bladder. It was from that day onwards that the rumor of the dominion lord courting Telesti started to spread.

"Being single, huh... It sounds rather good. I want to be single for life as well..." mused Josk.

"Forget it, you better find a wife and form a family to pass down your legacy. I don't want the Divine Marksman to be history during the generation of my heir. Also, after I announce the freedom of the slave laborers, I want you to pick out a company's worth of men to be trained into longbowmen and crossbowmen. Currently, one of the most glaring weaknesses of our force is our underwhelming ranged attack capability. While many of our soldiers know some degree of archery, it is far from reliable to be employed on the battlefield. If we had a squad of longbowmen or crossbowmen back when we faced the Feathersoar Mercenary Crew, we would have had far fewer casualties," said Lorist in a serious tone.

Josk nodded and said, "Milord, I understand. However, most of the slave laborers are common folk who haven't awakened their Battle Force. I'm not sure my training regiment would suit them..."

"This is no issue. I will still stay here at Firmrock Castle for around 20 days. Even though the situation at Maplewoods Bastide is a little urgent, I can still afford to delay my return for a bit. I will use this time to teach the slave laborers to awaken their Battle Force. As they have been working rough labor for long periods of time, most of them have strong and healthy bodies. WIth a little more physical training, there is a good chance that a huge number of them will be able to awaken their Battle Force. You can then pick a couple of them from the ones who succeed to train. As for longbows and crossbows, I've already asked the father-son arbalists[1] to prepare some. They promised to make me some simplified crossbows that can be used in training within a month. Proper crossbows would require more time to make and won't be ready until next year," Lorist said.

"Alright, simplified ones will do. Even though the range, power, durability and accuracy are considerably lower, it would be more than enough for its intended purpose. Milord, it's a shame that the main convoy still hasn't arrived yet. Otherwise we would have as many weapons as we need," Josk said as he sighed.

"That's right. I kind of miss them too. Darned fatty, I haven't received any news about the convoy for more than three months already. You'd think they would send someone to notify us about their status..." complained Lorist.

......

"Achoo! Achoo! Achoo!" Elsewhere, Charade let out three loud sneezes.

"Hehe, and you just said that fat people don't feel cold. You should wear some more clothing just in case you get sick," teased Els.

"I'm not cold at all. It's just that somehow my nose started to itch. Someone must be talking bad about me behind my back," said Charade as he took the blanket Els handed him to wipe off his snot.

"Good Sol! Fatty! Don't be so gross!" said Els as he snatched the blanket back from him and handed it to a guard who was passing by and said, "It's a reward for your hard work."

"We only have enough for one each person. Don't you go take one more after giving it away," said Charade while eyeing Els.

"I'll see if you dare to stop me. If you don't give me another one to replace the one you dirtied, I will even take your wife's," Els replied.

"..." Charade was troubled as he knew Els was definitely capable of doing what he just said. "Gosh, I give up. Go take another one then by the time we set up camp."

"But still... Those sneezes of mine were definitely not normal. Somebody must have been cursing me," said Charade, not willing to let the subject go.

Els laughed and said, "Why would you think that people wouldn't? During the three months we were at Geldos City, do you know the moniker the nobles gave you? Charade the Skinner. You won't believe how many of them were cursing you day and night for taking so much of their stuff that you're practically skinning their family alive. Do you recall the nobles who gathered up to send us off on that day that even hired drummers to make a grand spectacle? They weren't cheering for our safe journey but rather their salvation from a miserly demon like you..."

"Those nobles can say whatever they want. It's not like what they say or think will actually hurt me in any way. I am a knight of the Norton Family, it's only natural for me to put the family's interests first," Charade said righteously.

"Hey, do you think that the person who's talking behind your back might be Locke? It's already been three months and we're still wandering around the Redlis Kingdom. We've really took too much time to depart. Even though it's been a month since Potterfang conquered Benz Citadel[2] with our army, it would still take us at least 20 days before the convoy will be able to reach there," Els complained.

Upon hearing Lorist being mentioned, Charade went silent for a while before saying, "We had no choice in that matter. After occupying Geldos City, the amount of supplies we have to manage has only increased. There was also the training of the newly-formed combat units and the reorganization of the convoy as well as the collaboration with Viscount Tim and the Peterson Merchant Guild to handle. We also had to deal with the conflicts between the various nobles..."

"That's right. And you managed to weasel some more stuff from them, right? Right now, apart from weapons and equipment, they are already on the brink of running out of food. I bet they were itching to fight each other for it the moment we left..." said Els sarcastically in an effort to ridicule Charade's methods.

"But if we didn't do that, would we have been able to sustain all 50000 people of the convoy? I'm sure that Locke would understand this as well as the delayed date of departure for the convoy considering its huge scale of over 4000 carriages," Charade said.

"Fatty, I miss Locke. I wonder if he's doing well right now. If we arrive at the Andinaq Kingdom without issues, do you think I can leave first and head to where Locke is?" asked Els.

Charade nodded and said, "I guess that would be fine. It is about time we sent someone to tell him that we're fine and the journey is progressing without problems..."

......

[1] Arbalists: Crossbow makers. See Chapter 86 for mention of the father-son ballista/crossbow craftsmen.

[2] Benz Citadel: See Chapter 57.

Chapter 111 Breakthrough

The first thing Lorist did after arriving was to go see Butler Gleis to give him a brief on the situation at Firmrock Castle. After the completion of the wall, Lorist had a few stonemasons carve out large characters of the castle's name onto it, hence officially setting the name of the place in stone quite literally.

To the old butler, it was already a great shame for the Norton Family bastide to have been under siege by the Kenmays Family that one time. After hearing about the resources they had taken and the state of the burnt down Redriver Valley Bastide, the old guy couldn't help but drag Lorist to the family's forbidden area to let the Norton Family ancestors know that the current heir did not let their hopes down and had successfully wiped clean the humiliation they had been forced to endure.

Slightly regretting informing the butler of the good news, Lorist could only push the butler's wheelchair into the cavern hesitantly and tried his best to not breathe the stench in. After listening to the old butler's ramblings for a whole hour, Lorist was finally allowed to leave.

Arriving at the building he usually stayed in, Lorist noticed that Supervisor Spiel was standing at his door and waiting for his return with a big stack of beastskin documents in his hands, obviously eager to report to him about the happenings within Maplewoods Bastide during the past three months of his absence.

Waving his hands in annoyance, Lorist said, "Don't you see that I'm quite worn out after my travels? Tell me about that tomorrow. Also, Supervisor Spiel, I've brought back lots of supplies on this trip so you should go see Shadekampf and make an inventory of those first. Additionally, don't interrupt my rest for tonight. Notify Knight Pajik and Supervisor Kedan to come here tomorrow as we will need to meet up to discuss something. I also want to be briefed on the status of the defense squads as well. Oh, and if Supervisor Kedan is at Poplar Coast, I want you to ask him to return to tell me about the situation there."

"Um, milord, would you want to ask Lady Pesha to come over as well?" Spiel stammered.

"Why would I call her over? She has given me nothing but trouble so far..." said Lorist as his gaze sharpened. "Did she cause any more trouble during the three months I wasn't here?"

"She didn't..." said Spiel in a panic. "That's definitely not the case. Ever since she was taught a lesson by you, Lady Pesha has been cooped up within her quarters. Apart from accompanying the illegitimate son of the late First Young Master, she has been practicing her swordsmanship day and night. Well, I only mentioned her because she is technically a knight of the family. It wouldn't be good if... Um... If she were to miss an important meeting like this..."

"Supervisor Spiel, I hope you understand that the child you mentioned is the bona fide descendant of my elder brother and not just some illegitimate child. Also, it's not that I'm leaving Pesha out of the important matters of the family; raising my brother's son is definitely a great contribution. As for her swordsmanship practice, I am pretty satisfied with that. At least she is not ignorant of her shortcomings and understands that she has still room to improve. Do you have anything else you want to say?" Lorist asked with a solemn expression.

"That's all, milord. Your subordinate shall leave now," said the supervisor as he bowed and left.

......

Pushing open the door to the guest room, Lorist saw Belnick, who was previously reading a book by the window, getting up hurriedly and paying his respects.

Lorist said, "It's alright, cut the pleasantries. Sit down. Let me see how much you've recovered."

Belnick sat down once again and placed his right hand on the table. Having been acquainted with how his lord checked for ailments and illnesses, he was quite curious with the technique Lorist used. However, he was under the impression that pulse-reading was a new medical technique that was being commonly used in Morante City, so apart from some fascination, he didn't think too much about its eccentric approach.

Lorist took a glance at the book Belnick was previously reading; titled 'The Journey of the Sage', the book was about one of the many legends that were passed down from the age of the Magic Civilization. It was part of the collection Lorist had brought back when he first arrived at the Northlands.

"Milord, I apologize for borrowing this book without permission. Recuperating alone in this room is really far too boring, so I couldn't help myself when I saw Irina dry some of the books under the sun," said Belnick.

"It's alright, you can read it as you please. Just make sure you don't lose it," Lorist said as he took the book and used it to prop up Belnick's outstretched arm before he proceeded to read his pulse.

"Your condition has gotten far better than before. Have you started training your Battle Force already?" Lorist asked.

"That's right, milord," said Belnick. "When I felt my energy returning last month, I tried to give Battle Force training a try and was surprised to notice that it has already returned to normal. I've been doing that daily ever since."

"It's better if you stop training in the standard military Battle Force technique. Right now, your body is still a little weak, and the Battle Force technique taught in the military taps into one's innate potential. Your current condition is less than ideal for it. You have a wood attribute Battle Force, right?" Lorist asked.

"Yes..." said Belnick as he nodded.

Lorist placed a high-ranked Battle Force manual on the table and said, "In the future, train in this technique. I trust that you'll be able to break through to the Gold rank within a year."

Surprised and elated, Belnick looked at the Battle Force manual on the table that was titled 'Viridian Battle Force' and said, "Milord... I... I..."

"What? Touched? Take it and train hard in that technique. I heard that the wood attribute Viridan Battle Force has a great healing property and will definitely be ideal for your condition. You can start serving me well when you reach the Gold rank."

"Yes, milord. I will definitely not let your expectations down," Belnick said with a resolute expression as he made a knight's chest salute.

......

After going upstairs, Lorist saw the maidservant Irina bow to greet him. "Milord, welcome back."

"Thanks, Irina. Prepare some bath water for me and notify the staff at the small kitchen to get some food prepared," Lorist said as he placed his two swords onto the table. Ever since Pesha attempted to snatch his swords away, Lorist had refrained from putting them onto the blade rack and carried both with him everywhere he went, not letting them out of his sight.

"Yes, milord," said Irina before she went into the mini bathroom in the bedroom to bring out a huge maple wood bathtub and ignited the fireplace before placing a kettle on top of the metal rack to start boiling some water.

Seeing Irina's busy form, Lorist started to wonder if he could try to build a solar-powered water heater. The principle was simple: he only had to get his hands on a large metal water tank and paint it black so that it absorbs the heat from sunlight more easily. The only problem is that he did not have access to any iron or copper plates. It wasn't possible with this world's current technology to make thin metal sheets, so the water tank he had envisioned would definitely be nothing short of a super heavy steel slab if he really commissioned one from the local smith. Forget it, he thought. Given that he had his own personal maidservant, there was no need for him to personally prepare all those things and go out of his way to make a new invention.

Within a few short moments, the bath water was prepared and as Lorist comfortably squeezed and settled into the bathtub, he saw Irina cleaning up the clothes he removed.

"Irina, come here," Lorist said.

Irina started shivering and caused two of Lorist's garments fell out from her arms.

"Come help me scrub my back," Lorist instructed.

With a flushed face, the maidservant gingerly approached as her petite body shivered ever so faintly.

Arriving by the side of the tub, Irina carefully took a bar of soap made from soap pod and started rubbing Lorist's back with it.

Soap pod[1] was a kind of plant that was commonly available on the Grindia Continent. It was said that the plant had been used to make soap bars since ancient times. Soap made from that plant had a kind of fragrance that also helped to refresh the body and mind after using it in a bath.

After applying some soap, Irina used a fine linen cloth and started cleaning away...

"Irina, it's about time you cleaned the front..." Lorist said.

The maidservant did not make a single sound.

Lorist turned himself around only to see Irina shivering by the side of the tub.

With a sly smile, Lorist pulled Irina straight into the tub with him.

"Oh no, my clothes..." said Irina as she shivered.

"Oh, now that your clothes are dirty, I think they need some cleaning too," said Lorist as he stripped the wet garments off her body.

Closing her eyes and biting her lips, Irina allowed Lorist to continue working her clothes off without a sound. When she was completely stripped, she continued to shiver on in Lorist's embrace.

As Lorist's hands started caressing her body all over, the young maidservant laid her head on Lorist's shoulder and felt her body getting hotter by the moment. Every time her master's hands passed her sensitive spots, she would let out soft moaning sounds.

Finally unable to hold it back, Lorist stepped out of the tub stark naked and carried Irina towards the bed.

With her face flushed and eyes closed, Irina reminded Lorist, "Mi-milord... You still haven't had anything to eat yet..."

"Hmm, I've decided to have you first..." Lorist said.

......

By the time Lorist awoke, the sky had already gone dark with the silver moonlight passing through the window and illuminating Irina's sleeping form on the bed, making her seem like a serene jade sculpture masterpiece. Already fast asleep on the bed, remnants of her tears could still be seen on her fair face.

Putting a blanket on her and wiping her tears clean, Lorist started to reflect on his previous actions. The girl wasn't like him and didn't have her Battle Force awakened, so there was no way she would be able to endure intense intercourse with him. Even though she teared up as she neared her physical limits, Irina still had to accept Lorist's lust that was pent up for 3 whole months before she fainted out of exhaustion.

I really can't be so reckless anymore in the future in case she starts developing a trauma towards intercourse. Even though this should've been a pleasurable thing for both parties, there wouldn't be a point if it always ends up like this... However, Lorist wondered why he somehow felt an urge to bring Irina into bed every time he saw her shivering look and found her reluctance rather stimulating.

Gosh, I gotta stop thinking about that. It must be all those mature movies I've seen in my previous life. Otherwise, why would thoughts about bondage, whips and dripping candles pop up in my head, thought Lorist as he slapped his forehead twice while chanting 'I'm not a pervert' a couple of times to calm down. Putting on a sleeping gown and going to the windowsill, Lorist stared outwards into the distance.

Further away, Whitedeer Mound could be seen blanketed with a veil of silver. A number of white deers could be seen hopping around in joy while displaying their grace and beauty, as if they were acting out a silent play. As Lorist continued to witness the breathtaking scene, he felt his emotions calm down and his restlessness seep away into nothing. Almost subconsciously, he got into the horse stance and started training in the Aquametal Technique.

When Lorist was still at the Dawn Academy, he took advantage of the life-and-death battles during the expedition to the Relic Islands and finally broke through from the Bright Stage to enter the Dark Stage. However, Lorist had no clue how to progress his training from the Dark Stage onwards as he had not reached that level even in his past life nor had he received any instruction from anyone who had. Without a single clue, he could only fumble in the dark and find the way to train for himself. Lorist believed that it might take a couple of years, maybe even more than ten, to reach the latter part of the Dark Stage. There was not much Lorist could do except for training with his usual routine as often as he could to hope for some improvement. As for reaching the legendary Transformative Stage, Lorist didn't hold much hope for it.

But at that night, as Lorist started training and circulating his ki according to the Aquametal Technique, it was as if he had been transported the bank of a limitless azure lake. The water within the lake was tranquil without a single ripple to the point that it even seemed reflective like a mirror which caused Lorist to feel boundless freedom. From the mirror-like lake surface, Lorist could view from a third-person perspective his battles with the Silver ranked instructors on top of the dueling platform. Gradually, the mirror kept on dividing and each one of them showed scenes of Lorist's battles which eventually displayed the scene where Lorist killed the two Gold ranked assailants back in Morante City and gradually shifting to the battles he had experienced during his journey north.

As he silently watched the battles, Lorist started gaining new insights. Never had he been able to so clearly seek out every weakness he had displayed from his past battles and improve upon his own mistakes. The scenes even included those of the defeat of the twin Gold ranked shield-bearers and the decapitation of Crew Leader Adams.

A loud sound of breaking glass could be 'heard' by Lorist from the core of his being, and following that, he felt a sudden wave of bliss and relaxation as if his body had been rejuvenated after shedding its old husk. He could hear the whispers of the wind around him and upon opening his eyes, he could see every detail of Whitedeer Mound in the distance with perfect clarity.

Gradually standing up, he noticed that his whole body was covered with sweat with a slight stench emanating from his drenched sleeping gown.

Seeing Irina sleeping soundly in bed, Lorist took a couple of new clothes and silently went downstairs to the well in the yard to give himself some good wiping down to clean himself up.

Just as he was returning upstairs, Lorist bumped into Patt, who was just about to exit his room. "Milord, it's you. I was wondering who just went outside. Huh? Milord, you look a little different..."

Lorist smiled and asked, "How so?"

Patt furrowed his brow and gave it some thought before he said, "Well, somehow you look far more invigorated than usual. That's right, invigorated and energetic are the best words to describe how you seem right now."

[1] Soap pod/Soap bean (Gleditsia sinensis) See Wikipedia.

Chapter 112 Blissful Night Life

Feeling bored, Lorist resisted the urge to yawn. He wasn't too interested in the details about the farms.

"Milord, the warehouse has an abundance of food, fine and rough textiles as well as furs..."

As Spiel's voice echoed throughout the room while he read out the whole ledger, Lorist sighed inwardly and thought that it would probably be lunch time by the time he finished hearing all of Spiel's reports. Looking to his side, he saw Patt letting out a huge yawn and thought, that darned fellow...

At another corner, Pajik could be seen toying with the tea cup within his hand and seemed as if he wasn't focused on what Spiel had to say. Supervisor Kedan on the other hand was looking at the wall opposite them as if there were a blooming flower growing out of it. What about Reidy? Huh? Where did that kid disappear to? Gosh it sure is easy to get away when you're sitting by the door... Whatever. Out of everyone present, only Shadekampf seemed to be paying attention and even mumbled as his fingers flicked nonstop like he was taking into account what Spiel had reported.

After Lorist finished his third cup of tea, just as he was about to go to the lavatory to relieve himself and slack off for a bit, Supervisor Spiel finally finished reporting everything he needed to from the thick pile of beastskin documents. Letting out a relieved breath, Lorist was disappointed to see Spiel take out another pile of beastskin documents out of nowhere.

Ugh, will this ever end? Lorist finally stopped the supervisor and said, "Ahem, Supervisor Spiel, as the dominion lord, I am very satisfied and appreciative of your efforts. After that, you can report the rest of the inventory to Shadekampf and only give me a summary of that when you're done.

"Knight Pajik, tell me about the status of the defense units."

Regaining his focus and sitting straight, Pajik said excitedly, "Milord, the basic Battle Force technique that you taught is far too convenient for helping others awaken their Battle Force, so much more so than the Krissen Empire's military Battle Force technique. During the past three months, aside from the men who followed you out of the bastide to serve as coachmen, 173 out of the 300-odd men who remained have successfully awakened their Battle Force. However, the way to practice the technique you taught is a little different from that of the military Battle Force, so I hope you can show us what to do next to progress forward."

"I understand, I will personally go and teach them the rest every afternoon starting three days later. Even though the basic Battle Force technique is simple, it can only be trained to the peak of the Iron rank. They must train in the military Battle Force if they want to progress further. After all, the Krissen Empire's military Battle Force allows one to train up to the Silver rank. Knight Pajik, I need you to pick out some men from those who have awakened their Battle Force to form a unit for longbow and crossbow training. The local defense company must have at least one ranged attacking squad. We will use the crossbows we have within the bastide for them to start some preliminary training before we send them off to Knight Josk at Firmrock Castle for some further instruction," Lorist said.

"Yes, milord. I will do as you instruct," acknowledged Pajik.

Turning to Supervisor Kedan, Lorist asked, "what's the current situation at Poplar Coast?"

During his stay at Firmrock Castle for a little more than a month, Lorist received some news about the coast from a messenger. According to the man, Wildnorth Town had already sent out somebody to the bastide to prompt Lorist to begin the construction of the new town as soon as possible and mentioned that the people of the town had prepared lots of resources and manpower to contribute to that undertaking. Supervisor Spiel told the people of the town that the lord was overseeing the construction of the fortifications at Morgan Hills to resist the Kenmays Family and said that it would take some more time before a decision could be made.

As a result of that, half a month later, a messenger from Wildnorth Town visited Lorist at Firmrock Castle to request the construction of the new town to begin. Lorist thus sent Supervisor Kedan to start gathering construction materials at the site of the new town in preparation for the construction.

Supervisor Kedan laughed and said, "Milord, it was just as you had expected. Poplar Coast is currently as chaotic as it can be and the four great families of Wildnorth Town have started antagonizing the smaller families to the point that diplomacy and negotiation would no longer help. That is especially so with the garrison force members who have been kicked out. Most of them feel strongly that they have been cheated by the four great families and hate them with a passion. Just as you had instructed, I didn't bother to settle any of the conflict as I managed the preparation work so that the four great families can handle it themselves. There was even a small riot two days ago which ended with a couple of people getting injured..."

"What of the mercenaries?" Lorist asked.

"The mercenaries are doing quite well themselves. Apart from defending the spot they are stationed at, they didn't mingle much with the people of Wildnorth Town. Aside from some trouble from flirting with the town's womenfolk, there isn't anything to worry about. After Jim and the rest returned, they started scouting the area to familiarize themselves with the terrain," Kedan reported.

"After a few more days, I will also head to Poplar Coast. Supervisor Kedan, you can put the issue of WIldnorth Town aside for now and tell the mercenaries to finish scouting the terrain as soon as possible to pick out a suitable place to build the military base. Only after we finish constructing the base can we further divide and conquer the smaller families of Wildnorth Town to be able to use them in our favor," Lorist said while stroking his chin.

"Yes milord. I understand what I have to do," Kedan nodded and said.

"That settles it. Let us have lunch before we adjourn the meeting."

......

"Reidy, where were you all this time? Help me carry that box on the carriage into my room," Lorist instructed when he saw Reidy walking into the yard of the building.

"Yes, milord."

When Lorist reached his room upstairs, he noticed that Irina had awoken and was currently scrubbing the floor. Upon seeing him, she hurriedly got up and lowered her head to greet him. "Milord... How are you..."

"I'm fine, Irina. But you don't look too good yourself..." Lorist said as he took the cleaning cloth from Irina's hand and tossed it into the wooden bucket nearby.

"Mi-milord... Did... Did I... Do something wrong again?" asked the girl as she started shaking in fear.

Using the bridal carry to hoist the young maidservant up, Lorist got to the chair beside the windowsill and sat down. "Irina, I don't think that you did anything wrong. In fact, I like how you always try so hard, and that's fine. But remember, you're my woman, so you should leave rough chores like these to other servants. It'll be enough for you to dust off the study table and make the bed. If you have nothing better to do, you can take a nap or try doing some makeup. Or if you're bored, you can even learn to make some desserts..."

"But mi-milord..." stammered the young maidservant who was still in Lorist's embrace. "I... I'm just a maidservant... and doing these i-is perfectly normal... The things you s-said just now are things no-noblewomen do..."

"Even though you're my personal maidservant, to others, you're not that much different from a noblewoman, understand? I will find another two maidservants who will do what you tell them to."

"But mi-milord... We ca-can't house two more pe-people within this room... And... The bed is a little too s-small for three people..."

"Hehe..." Lorist started to chuckle out loud before he flicked Irina's nose and said, "I wonder what goes on in that head of yours. Do you think that I'm some kind of sex demon? I won't go to bed with just any maidservant. I lay with you only because I like you and you're special. The two maidservants I will find can sleep in the guest room. I think there are two empty guests rooms on the second floor, so we can use one of them for their lodging. In the future, let them handle the cleaning work. You only have to supervise them."

After seeing the girl's ears turn red from his laughter, Lorist playfully gave one of them a little bite, causing the maidservant to stiffen completely within his embrace before she started to shiver again.

Irina's meek state caused Lorist's urge to rise, but after recalling how rough he treated her the day before, he tried his best to suppress it and said, "Irina, I'm really sorry about yesterday. You must have had it rough. In the future, please tell me if you're at your limits and don't endure it silently. I feel like a beast every time I see the tears on your face. Once again, I apologize."

The maidservant stared at Lorist frozen at that sudden, unexpected apology. "N-no... It's my bad for being so useless... There's no need for milord to apologize..."

"It's only right for me to apologize for my mistakes. Irina, I will no longer treat you that roughly. I really don't want to see you cry anymore..."

The young girl didn't say anything more and only snuggled herself tight against Lorist's chest...

"Ahem, milord. I've brought the box upstairs."

Lorist had actually long noticed the sounds of Reidy coming upstairs, but he was too lazy to move and thought that hugging Irina felt rather nice. The girl on the other hand was like a frightened rabbit who squeezed out of Lorist's arms and stood beside him, not knowing what to do in that awkward situation.

"Put the box onto the table. Irina, give that kid the chain mail I removed yesterday. Reidy, go downstairs and polish the mail for me before bringing it back up and accompany me to check on the defense unit later," Lorist said.

"Hehe, milord... How long do you want me to polish it? I'm afraid that I'll be too quick and bother you two once again..." Reidy teased.

Lorist gave him a stare and said, "You've interrupted us already. We'll be leaving as soon as possible. Go do your thing and mind your own business, sheesh..."

Opening the box and bringing out an intricate jewelry case, Lorist said, "Irina, this is a gift for you. Put it on and let me have a look."

That was one of the spoils they looted from the Redriver Valley Bastide. There were quite a number of chests filled with women's clothes and jewelry that seemed to be erroneously delivered to the bastide. It was meant to be used as gifts for some of Viscount Kenmays's noblewomen guests during his parties to win their affection, but it had been accidentally shipped to the Redriver Valley Bastide by the Feathersoar Mercenary Crew. WIth the viscount being so busy obtaining permission from Duke Loggins for his army to enter the Northlands for the past couple of months, he didn't have time to host any parties or banquets and left the items at the bastide, causing them to be shipped back by Shadekampf after the bastide's occupation.

Lorist opened the box and took out a necklace and motioned for Irina to take it.

With her glazing eyes filled with yearning transfixed at the sapphire necklace in Lorist's hands, Irina still said unwillingly, "Mi-milord... That... that is far too precious for me to own... I... I can't take it..."

"Something like this is nothing precious. Remember, you're my woman, so it's just natural for you to dress up to impress. The clothes within the larger box over there mostly contain clothes that I've picked according to your figure. Try them out. You can give them away if they don't fit you. Also, these jewelry are yours as well so take care of them," Lorist said as he smiled.

"O-okay... Thank you.... Milord..."

"Then I'll be leaving now. Oh, don't forget to look for two other maidservants to help you out. If you don't know who to pick, you can ask Supervisor Spiel to do it." As Lorist headed downstairs, he could hear the maidservant's surprised cheers of joy that she tried her best not to let out in his presence.

......

Irina seemed in a pretty good mood for the whole day and it was still evident from her expression after Lorist returned that night.

After helping out Lorist with his bath, the girl wrapped herself up in a towel before she snuggled into Lorist's chest on her own accord.

A little surprised, Lorist asked, "What's going on? Aren't you usually pretty hesitant about this? Why so proactive all of a sudden?"

Still snuggled against Lorist's chest, the maidservant muffled, "Thank you... milord..."

Taking the towel off her with a smile, Lorist gently put his member into her body and moved slowly as he teased her little ear...

The girl gradually let out soft moans of pleasure...

And their joyful cries resounded throughout the whole room...

......

Awakening from the chirps of the birds from outside the window during dawn the next day, Lorist noticed a weird feeling on his lower body. Opening his eyes slightly, he saw Irina inspecting his erected member and lightly poking it with her finger once in a while as if she was wondering how something like that managed to send her to heaven and back the night before. Probably reminded of how the whole thing could enter her body, she measured the length with her fingers and placed it against her crotch only to widen her eyes in surprise and disbelief that something that huge could fit wholly into her body.

Unable to hold it in, Lorist exploded with laughter.

Noticing that Lorist was awake, the maidservant blushed and tried to leave the bed only to be stopped by Lorist. "Don't go, let me teach you how to make me happy..."

"Open your mouth and go closer... Yes, wrap your tongue around it like you would a sausage... Move up and down...

"Ouch, don't bite it with your teeth, idiot... It hurts... Do it like before, yes, that's good. go on...

"Tired? Alright, let me continue..."

Lorist put the girl on the bed and once again entered her...

......

Bringing his two swords with him downstairs as he head to the yard, he saw Patt and Reidy busy training the guards.

"Alright, time for my second morning exercise..." Lorist said in a good mood before he looked at the sky and thought, the weather's great today...

Chapter 113 The Chosen Location and the Duel

Stopping his horse, he saw Supervisor Kedan and the two mercenary leaders, Hausky and Jim, heading his way.

The reason Lorist had visited the place was to decide on the location of the construction of the military base near the intersection point of the two mountain ranges so that they can start building it immediately. According to Kedan, the mercenaries have already picked a spot and were waiting for Lorist's agreement.

Upon entering the tent, Hausky brought out a beastskin map to show Lorist where they picked to have the base built. However, the maps the mercenaries used which they made themselves and were rather nonstandard, causing Lorist to take quite a while before he was able to figure out that it depicted the terrain of the mountains.

"Let's go check it out on site," Lorist said.

It took 3 hours of travel on horseback to arrive at the intersection point from Poplar Coast. Unlike the terrain of the opening at Morgan Hills, one of the mountain ranges stretched over the other from the front with the opening sandwiched between the two overlapping sides. Beyond the opening was a small river and a dense forest which stretched all the way into the area of the Magical Dragon Mountains.

The place the mercenaries picked was a cliff which was nearby the small stream. However, Lorist shook his head and revoked that decision entirely and said, "Hausky, did you think that I would pay you mercenaries so much just to have you guard a surveillance outpost all the way here? Did you think your job would be finished after lighting a signal fire upon noticing the barbarians? What I want you to do here is to form the first line of defense. If you detect a small number of barbarians, you should take the initiative to eliminate them, hence the reason for the reward bonus I offered. While the spot you chose is no doubt good for defense, you would lose all ability for the first strike since the barbarians would have run off far away by the time you descend from the cliff."

With a slightly flushed face, Hausky argued, "Milord, our numbers are few and it will definitely be an insurmountable task to defend against large scale barbarian invasions. Surely you wouldn't wish for us to all die over here... If we're up there, even though we wouldn't be able to mobilize that easily after discovering signs of the mountain barbarians, at least we will have a better chance at survival."

Lorist laughed out lightly and said, "Wrong. The true danger only presents itself if you are stationed on top of that cliff. Let me ask you a simple question. Where do you intend to obtain water from up there?"

"Milord, isn't there a small stream not far away from the spot? That was the main factor which prompted me to choose that place in the first place. If we get besieged by the mountain barbarians, we will be able to retrieve water from the stream to hold out longer periods of time..."

"Don't think that your enemies are idiots. Even though the mountain barbarians are savages, that doesn't mean that they can't think. Where would you get your water if they block or redirect the stream?"

Hausky only listened without being able to offer a counter argument.

While they would still be able to tough out a food shortage by killing and feeding on their horses, they wouldn't be able to last more than three days without water. Lorist's point instantly pointed out the fatal flaw in the mercenaries' choice.

"Check out that spot," Lorist said as he pointed at the couple of small hills that were in the distance.

The largest of the hills still seemed to have some signs of habitation from some time ago. Supervisor Kedan explained that for the past hundred or so years, the Norton Family had wanted to build a military base and an alert outpost at the intersection point just like Lorist had wanted so that they would be better prepared to face the barbarian threat. However, they had failed for three times in total and the signs on the largest hill was what was left of one such attempt to set up a base roughly 60 years ago in which only 4 out of the 20-odd family soldiers returned alive.

"Then, we'll pick that spot. It's not more than 80 meters from the stream and it would be quite easy to secure a water source by building a well nearby. Thus, the largest problem is solved," Lorist said as he made his decision.

"Milord, what would we do about the defense then?" asked Hausky whose expression had turned dark after hearing what Kedan told Lorist just moments ago.

"Hehe, don't you worry. I won't have you defending a poorly-built base. I'm prepared to build two towers over here and surround them with a wall roughly 8 meters tall. You also don't have to worry about the manpower and materials required to build it and only have to be in charge of the security during the construction. Within a month, you will have a strongly-fortified base at your disposal," Lorist said.

Even though Hausky wanted to say something else, Jim thumped his chest in a salute and said, "Milord, as long as you build a base here, we will definitely defend it to the best of our ability and not let the barbarians invade your dominion."

......

After deciding on the location to build the base, everyone took some time off to relax. Lorist was prepared to rest up for 2 hours before returning. As expected, the mercenaries were skilled in surviving in the wilderness as shown by their hunting and fishing prowess. It didn't take long before they returned with quite a huge haul and started grilling food by the stream.

With an impatient expression, Jim dragged Hausky and brought the other mercenaries to Lorist.

Jim said agitatedly, "Milord, I've told them that you managed to defeat Crew Leader Adams with a single move but they didn't believe me and even said that you probably caught him off-guard and exhausted after the long battle he had fought. They also wouldn't believe that you were able to kill so many Feathersoar mercenaries because you aren't even a Silver rank and dared to challenge you to a duel..."

Lorist tossed the chicken bone from his hand and stood up before he laughed and said, "They can believe what they want. Why should I care?"

"But milord..."

Hausky stopped Jim from saying anything else and bowed to Lorist before he said, "Milord, please don't fault Jim for this. That happened because he kept praising you for days after his return and nobody else was willing to believe him. Adams was a very formidable and famous mercenary within our circle and his two adopted sons have an even more fearsome reputation than he does as the twin shield-bearers. It's only natural for the rest to find it hard to believe that you have defeated the two of them together in combat according to Jim. That's why, if you don't mind, could you show us lowly mercenaries your swordsmanship that is so highly praised..."

"You guys..." Patt was already enraged and ready to reprimand the mercenaries harshly.

"Patt!" Lorist shouted for him to stop and waved his hand. "Alright, I happen to have extra time on my hands after all. Let's have a duel. Leader Hausky, mercenaries are not lowly at all, I hope you remember that. Back in Morante City, I also worked as a mercenary for around 6 years. How about this? I want you to pick out ten men whom you think have the best swordsmanship to duel with me. It's okay if they are Silver ranks as well."

Under the impression that Lorist would face them off one-by-one, Hausky and the rest of the mercenaries started picking the participants and felt that even if Jim had exaggerated the facts, Lorist must have some sort of ability after all for him to dare to accept the challenge.

Given that they understood the abilities of their comrades well, it did not take long for nine mercenaries to be picked out to stand together with Hausky. The rest of the mercenaries surrounded the group and started betting on how many Lorist could defeat with Jim as the dealer. The rest of the mercenaries who participated in the operation at the construction site alongside Jim had all bet on Lorist's complete victory.

"Reidy, lend me your sword," Lorist said.

Given Reidy's above average strength, Lorist had fashioned a heavy sword for him. As it was only a friendly duel with some of them being Iron ranks who still weren't able to infuse their Battle Force into their weapons, Lorist didn't intend to break their weapons with his more durable swords lest any of them have hard feelings left over after the duel. Using Reidy's heavy sword which was far less durable than his own would prevent any damage to the mercenaries' weapons.

After giving the heavy sword a few swings, Lorist said with a satisfied tone, "Come at me all at once."

"Huh?" The mercenaries were all stunned to find out that Lorist hadn't challenged them to one-on-one duels but instead wanted to fight them all at once.

"Since milord has requested it, we will act accordingly. Everyone, don't get distracted and show milord the best of your abilities lest we disappoint him..." said Hausky while feeling rather pissed. He's underestimating us too much, isn't he? He chose to fight the ten of us all at once and even went out of his way to not use his own weapons... He probably doesn't even consider us to be a threat at all...

As their leader, Hausky took command during this duel. He first sent a few of the mercenaries to test Lorist out so that he would be able to gauge his true abilities to be able to formulate a proper strategy to use against him.

However, with but a few moves, the four mercenaries who were sent to engage with Lorist had all slumped to the ground. It happened so quickly within sheer moments that Hausky wasn't able to clearly see what Lorist did.

Right after that, Lorist rushed over to the six remaining mercenaries and the two in front hurriedly slashed at his silhouette. This time, Hausky managed to get a close look at the scene: Lorist parried the two of their strikes and moved in between the two mercenaries right after that. The mercenary in front fainted and wobbled to the ground after Lorist struck the back of his head with a backhand flick using the flat of his blade.

The mercenary behind suddenly noticed that Lorist was too close for comfort and quickly attempted to retreat backwards to regain some distance. Unexpectedly, after the mercenary stepped a few inches back, the sword which Lorist had previously retracted flashed past the chin of that mercenary, causing him to fall face-first towards the ground unconscious.

Surprised, Hausky thought, that's way too fast! Within moments, six of the ten mercenaries had already collapsed with only four including Hausky still standing. Hausky quickly commanded the Silver rank and the two other Iron ranks to quickly get into a defensive formation to face Lorist's assault head-on.

The formation was diamond-shaped with the two Silver ranks lined up front and back and the two Iron ranks flanking the two of them. If the one at the front of the formation got attacked, he could retreat backwards to allow the two diagonally behind him to flank the attacker and switch places with the one directly behind him and take turns to hold off the enemy. That formation was only normally used when fighting against magical beasts.

But being a human being and not a magical beast, Lorist definitely wouldn't attack only one target at a time. He circled around the formation quickly in an unpredictable manner and lashed out against the two Iron ranked mercenaries instead. As a result, Hausky and the other Silver rank were put in an awkward position of trying to help the Iron ranks defend against the strikes, thus rendering the formation useless. It ended up becoming a battle between Lorist and the three mercenaries with the other one not being able to do anything due to being blocked off by the rest.

As Lorist fought, he started to move to his right faster and faster and one of the Silver ranked mercenaries could no longer hold up against his incessant strikes and took a mistaken step backward, causing the whole formation to reveal a fatal weak spot which Lorist didn't hesitate to budge into.

Sensing that something was off, Hausky intended to strike with his sword but was obstructed by his comrades. The moment he hastily moved aside to get into a better position, he saw the three of his comrades falling to the ground with the only one left standing in front of him being Lorist.

Looking to his left and right, Hausky dropped the sword in his hand and said bitterly, "It's our loss..."

During that duel, Lorist didn't use an ounce of internal energy and relied mainly on footwork and swordsmanship to gain victory. He could have used his internal energy to completely crush the mercenaries head-on, but that would be causing them to lose to much face. Lorist wasn't too keen on hurting their confidence and pride as it was merely a friendly duel and not a life-and-death battle.

......

After witnessing that amazing battle, the mercenaries who were watching with amazement disbanded. However, Hausky remained and asked, "Milord... I have a question..."

"Go ahead and ask away," Lorist said as he tapped on the rock beside him, signalling for the mercenary leader to sit down.

Without giving it much thought, Hausky took his seat and said, "Milord, I understand that the Norton Family is rather formidable right now and the Kenmays Family really poked their noses in the wrong spot this time. I am really thankful that my crew managed to get out of that hellhole early so that we didn't have to face off against you. What I don't understand is why the formidable Norton Family want to hire a crew like us? I've always been wondering if your true intention is to send us to our deaths..."

"Was that why you picked that spot on the cliff to build the base? Tell me the reason you think the Norton Family is formidable. The reason I decided to hire your crew is precisely because I have nobody else who are better suited for this purpose," Lorist said.

"No other people? That can't be the case. Milord, among the laborers building the town at Poplar Coast, over 200 of them have awakened their Battle Force, not to mention the garrison squad of 200 men which have a few Silver ranks among them as well..." Hausky said agitatedly, obviously doubting what Lorist had just said.

Letting out a bitter laugh, Lorist said, "Leader Hausky, no wonder you suspected me. But didn't you notice how weirdly those men you mentioned behaved towards the Norton Family? I can tell you the real reason, but I need you to promise that you won't spread it around as it's quite embarrassing for the family."

After hearing Lorist explain the nature of the relationship of the Nortons with the people at Wildnorth Town, Hausky seemed to have understood it all. "Mi-milord... I really don't know what to say. I've never heard of anything remotely similar to this situation... Your ancestor was far too gracious and benevolent to those people. It was truly their fortune for having met a dominion lord like him. Conversely, it's precisely because he was a dominion lord like that which allowed a garrison force as audacious as that to be formed."

"I, on the other hand, can understand the intentions of my ancestor for making that concession. Surely you know that the Northlands lack people the most among many other things. Even if they were the lowest dredges of society ranging from thieves, bandits and murderers, they were one of the most precious resources in the Northlands. What my ancestor intended was for them to settle down and lead a stable and peaceful life under his rule while serving the family. That was why he set those favorable conditions. Nobody back then expected a loophole like that to cause a problem that would exacerbate generation after generation into what we have today..." Lorist sighed.

"But I'm sure that with your power, you can wipe out the garrison force of Wildnorth Town, right? Knight Josk can hold off their Silver ranked fighters and we will be able to help out as well..." Hausky said.

"If I rally up all the soldiers of the family and have your cooperation, there's little doubt that I'll be able to wipe the garrison force out. However, I feel that the price of doing so will be too high for us to bear. Don't look at me like that. No matter how strong I am, do you think I can take on more than a thousand people solo? There's also the fact that many people of Wildnorth Town is quite close to some of the members of my family. Many of those living within Maplewoods Bastide have relatives among the residents of Wildnorth Town. I'm worried that a forceful approach would cause even more strife among those within the family. Even though the garrison force is rather impudent, they're still subjects of the Norton Family in name and we can't justify wiping them out if we have no concrete evidence on their treason. That's why I can only endure and cross the bridge when the time comes. I for one can't wait for them to rebel so I can have an excuse to wipe that cancerous tumor once and for all.

"Then, I'm sure that you have a plan in mind, right? I understand. A couple of days ago, a number of youths with awakened Battle Force asked to join our crew to become mercenaries. I was worried that it would cause some conflict so I declined their request," Hausky said.

"It's alright. If they're willing to live the tough lives of mercenaries, you can allow them to join. After a certain amount of time, the family will also pick a number of them to form a new defense unit. Letting them build the military base here is but a test for them..." Lorist said.

"Okay. Thank you, milord. Please be assured that we will definitely stay firmly nailed on this spot to become the first line of defense against the barbarians for the Norton Family," pledged Crew Leader Hausky.

Chapter 114 News of the Mountain Barbarians

The construction of the base proceeded rather quickly. First, huge logs that were used to construct the framework of the turrets and wall before three moats were dug at the foot of the mound which was in turn connected to the small stream nearby. Lorist tasked his men to use the mud that was dug out to make mud bricks using the technique he had seen back at Firmrock Castle. The finished bricks were then lined up around the wooden framework before a thick layer of green clay was slabbed onto the surface to further strengthen and solidify the structures. Even though the wall was only 5 meters in height, Lorist had made the angle of the small mound around the wall to be slanted at a 45 degree angle, causing the total height of the mound and wall to be around 9 meters, further adding to the difficulty of besieging the place.

The busy days passed quickly and one month elapsed within the blink of an eye. The primary sections of the base including the main wall, the three moats, the two layers of wooden barricades, the drawbridge, and the turrets had already been constructed. What remained was fine-tuning the smaller details. Lorist even ordered his men to transport 4 ballistas over from Firmrock Castle for them to be installed at the top floor of the turrets.

Back when he was at Firmrock Castle, Lorist went to visit the father and son arbalists once. After listening to the father, Grandmaster Fellin's explanation, Lorist came to understand that the tens of ballistas used at the castle were merely simplified versions and not proper defense ballistas. Proper defense ballistas had a firing range of 150 to 200 meters whereas the simplified ones at Firmrock Castle could only shoot 80 to 100 meters away, which is easily half of what proper ballistas could achieve. The accuracy of the simplified ones is also vastly inferior and it would already be considered good if it could hit a target 3 out of 10 times.

According to Grandmaster Fellin, it takes a lot of time to make a proper ballista. Choosing materials for the ballista frame and setting its shape will take two years at least. The ballistas the grandmaster were currently making were merely simplified ones which would break or malfunction after firing more than ten times and their frames had to be replaced frequently to keep performance up to par. Thankfully, wood was abundant in the Northlands, which allowed the grandmaster to construct a few extra frames for each ballista he made.

Apart from the construction, the simplified ballista bowstring was usually made of cow sinew and horsehair and would loosen after approximately 8 shots. However, that disadvantage is compensated by its swift construction and easily-obtainable materials which also cost far less to procure. And while the shooting range is far less than that of proper ballistas, the momentum and force of the simplified ballistas were still enough to threaten Gold ranked fighters who were within range.

That was already more than enough for Lorist. During that visit, he also made a suggestion to Grandmaster Fellin to add a wheel-like component to the back of each ballista for it to act as a pulley so that it would take much less force to load them. It would also decrease the number of people required to operate it by two, prompting the grandmaster to gasp in admiration at that innovative upgrade.

Actually, the ideal ballistas within Lorist's mind were the ones he saw in the movie titled 'Rise of the Werewolves'[1] in his past life that were used at the vampires' castle. Each ballista could fire up to three arrows and was also equipped with a pulley system, a base rotator as well as some sights, which increased its overall flexibility, ease of loading and accuracy. The werewolves seen in the movie that were the size of bulls were easily nailed to the ground with the bolts fired from those ballistas and they only required one person to operate.

He recalled that he once tried to replicate a ballista like that in his workshop and sell it to collectors to earn some extra cash, only to have it confiscated by the local authorities and fined 5000 bucks for possessing what was basically a lethal weapon. He still remembered the warning given to him by the officer of the police: without a proper order request and permit, he wasn't allowed to manufacture ballistas like that. Had he broken those regulations regularly, he definitely wouldn't have been let off with a simple fine.

Even though that plan to make some quick cash from back then had failed before he even started, Lorist could distinctly remember the parts he used as well as their relative sizes. The only problem now was that he did not have any materials to make those parts nor did he know where to procure any and could only make a mental note to do more research into that matter when he had more time.

......

What made Lorist wonder was that during the past month of the construction of the base, the border of the intersection point was relatively peaceful and there wasn't even a single instance of barbarian assault. So, the mercenaries gradually widened their patrolling area over time and finally managed to catch a barbarian old man and a child who were collecting herbs not far away. Even though they were obviously non-combatants, they were still living barbarian captives, so Lorist still had to pay the mercenaries a bonus of 2 imperial gold coins.

After seeing the restless barbarian child calming down from being given a maple candy, the old man showed a relaxed expression. He used a variant dialect of the Grindian common language to tell Lorist that the current year was the year of the Kubawesson Festival and all of the tribe chiefs of the mountain barbarians had brought their Wolers to Smormilgen Mountain to participate in the ceremony and attend the Bywessi Conference.

I see, so that was the case. It was a fortunate coincidence for him to have picked that time frame for the construction of the military base. Lorist understood that the Kubawesson Festival was a year-long celebration which was celebrated once every 12 years that commemorated the birth of the barbarian's most worshipped mountain deity, Kubawesson. During the festivities, the barbarians would sacrifice livestock to the god once every month.

'Woler' and its related terms were titles created in the barbarians' own dialect to honor the warriors of their society. Smormilgen Mountain was considered to be a holy mountain by the savages and was also the birthplace of the deity Kubawesson according to their legends and myths. The ceremonies that were conducted during the Kubawesson Festival involved blood sacrifices at the peak of the mountain as an offering to the mountain deity. And the Bywessi Conference was a meeting between the tribe chiefs to pick the next overlord, otherwise known as the Themussen in the dialect of the barbarians. The selected Themussen would then proceed to allocate domains for the various tribes to prevent large scale conflict among themselves and determine the general goals of the united tribes such as focusing their efforts on invading the other Grindian people, or flatlanders as they called them. The other tribes must also make their fair contribution to the current Themussen.

There was a famous book in Grindian literature titled 'Adventures of the Knight' that documented much about the culture and practices of the mountain barbarians. The book was written by a knight who had accidentally ventured into the territory of the mountain barbarians when he traveled to the Magical Dragon Mountains approximately 100 years ago and was held captive for more than 30 years. He had experienced two Kubowesson Festivals during his captivity and managed to escape from the Magical Dragon Mountains in the end with his barbarian wife and children and made his way back to his hometown. The book was later written by him which also served as his debut thesis as one of the most reputable mountain barbarian scholars.

During his years studying at Dawn Academy, Lorist had read quite a number of books written by that knight and 'Adventures of the Knight' was one of his most coveted books. The description of the culture of the mountain barbarians was detailed and thorough: according to it, during the Bywessi Conference, other activities such as fighting competitions, unarmed combat and hunting events would be carried out.

From the map of the whole Grindia Continent, one could see that the Magical Dragon Mountains stretched more than 50000 meters across the center of the continent and covered a huge amount of area. Two of the three greatest rivers on the continent which were the cradles of life of Grindian life have their headwaters located on the mountain range itself. According to the legends, that mountain range was also the home to the ancient dragon race.

In present time, however, dragons were no longer anywhere to be found and the Magical Dragon Mountains was mainly inhabited by mountain barbarians. Other than the Norton Family dominion, other dominions near the mountain range also suffered from the same fate of being pestered by the mountain barbarians.

The old barbarian told Lorist that the tribe that was in power near the dominion of the Nortons was called the Habibaba. That tribe had a strong force of more than 1000 Wolers and had an iron rule over the seven smaller tribes in the area as well.

The tribe the old man belonged to was one such small tribe which only had around 400 members. He mentioned that when the tribe chief of the Habibaba tribe returns after the festival, he might very well become the Jambassen, or the regional chief, of the nearby area, which means that the other minor tribes there would become subordinates to the Habibaba by force as in the case of the tribe of the old man and child.

Whether the Habibaba Tribe would consume the tribe of his two barbarian captives didn't matter to Lorist, nor did he intend to interfere with it. To him, he couldn't care less about whether the barbarians harm other nations or kingdoms at all as long as they didn't cause trouble in his dominion. However, he definitely wouldn't tolerate them should they ever dare to poke their hands into his lands and would definitely reciprocate in kind if that ever happens.

The intersection point between the two mountain ranges was the precise route that the mountain barbarians took to invade the Norton Family dominion. Hence, setting up a base here would allow the Nortons to have ample time to react and retaliate to any future attempts. Small scale barbarian expeditions would be handled by the mercenaries who will in turn depend on them for the extra income while the mercenaries only had to stay put and stall for time for the reinforcements of the Norton Family to arrive if a large scale invasion was imminent.

......

The construction of the military base went on mostly without a hitch, apart from a small issue that surfaced while building the well: even though the stream was only 80 meters away from the mound on which the military base was built, when the hole for the well that was dug to reach the groundwater beneath reached a depth of 14 meters, a huge spring burst all the way out with high pressure. The whole situation was rectified after a waterway was made to connect the spring site to the moat, saving the interior of the base from the fate of being turned into a swamp.

On that day, Lorist was discussing whether to build a hidden passage with Hausky, Jim and Supervisor Kedan. He proposed the idea to have a hidden passage dug underground to connect the two turrets. Even though the two turrets were connected by a wooden log bridge above the surface, there was a risk that the barbarians would burn it down using fire arrows and cause the two turrets to lose all connection if the wall is occupied as well. Being stuck in two separate towers would definitely be greatly disadvantageous to the mercenaries, so that was why having a hidden passage would allow them to continue aiding each other to hold their stations while waiting for the support of the Norton Family troops.

Hausky and Jim thanked Lorist for being considerate for their safety but believed that building another hidden passage would be too cumbersome for it to be worth the effort. Supervisor Kedan on the other hand thought that they must build it as he felt that the barbarians would come in numbers of thousands when they invade instead of the hundreds he had initially thought after he had heard what the barbarian captive had to say. Given that the Habibaba tribe alone had more than 1000 Wolers, it would definitely be able to easily overwhelm the 80 or so mercenaries stationed there.

Lorist also added that the hidden passage had to connect to the well as well so the mercenaries would not lose access to their water source if they really end up having to retreat into the turrets. Additionally, he also suggested that the secret passage be extended to where the nearby stream was so that the mercenaries would be able to escape during the most dire of circumstances. However, the passage had to be secretly dug by the mercenaries themselves lest its existence gets leaked by any of the laborers.

Lorist's insistence on the passage was due to the fact that the base only had one main entry. The mercenaries would be completely stuck at the base should the enemy ever breach the main wall. Even though Hausky and Jim said that they would definitely fight to the last man, Lorist said that he definitely wouldn't want them to do that and mentioned that he did not station them there to sacrifice them. According to Lorist, it was more than enough for the mercenaries to be able to signal the Norton Family about any attacks so that they would have enough time to react to the situation and also said that he wouldn't blame the mercenaries for abandoning the base if they ended up being overwhelmed by their foes.

Just as the discussion was getting more heated, a mercenary standing guard outside reported that Squad Leader Mollin of the Wildnorth Town garrison had come to meet the dominion lord.

[1] The author is actually referring to 'Underworld: Rise of the Lycans' but I didn't want any direct reference to any franchise in recent years if possible to avoid complications. Here's a video that showcases the ballistas in action. See Youtube.

Chapter 115 An Unwelcome Guest

The reason for the squad leader's visit was to make his objection to Lorist heard. He had come with several other people from the smaller families of Wildnorth Town who had been chased out of the town by the four great families.

The reason for the objection was that during the time the base was being constructed, Supervisor Kedan had quietly recruited more than 150 laborers who have awakened their Battle Force to join the Norton Family's forces and also brought the family members of the new recruits back to the Maplewoods Bastide.

In actuality, Lorist had personally come out with a new set of benefits for soldiers of the Norton Family. Apart from receiving a generous salary, recruits would also receive many chances to be trained. As long as a soldier was hardworking enough to raise his Battle Force rank, he would be able to receive a status promotion and might one day even become a knight of the Norton Family.

The new conditions also instituted a new change in policy regarding the remuneration paid to the families of dead soldiers. Family members of soldiers who sacrifice themselves for the Norton Family would not only be able to receive tax cuts, their direct descendants would also be able to receive education and training from the Norton Family until they reach adulthood. As for soldiers handicapped from battle, they would also receive pension and training opportunities for administrative positions to help the Nortons govern the dominion, thus ensuring their future livelihoods.

Other than that, it was specified that the benefits would only apply to the direct family members of the soldiers, namely, their parents, spouse, and children. Any siblings of the soldiers who have yet to reach adulthood would be allowed to live together with the family, but they would not receive any of the benefits. The siblings of the dead or handicapped soldiers will also be required to move out of the house to establish their own families three years after they reach adulthood. As for the children of said soldiers, apart from their eldest son, the rest of the children will also have to move out of the household three years after they become adults.

These conditions had caused many of the people who were forced out of the town by the four great families to have a great argument. Many leaders of the minor families had either taken over their respective families by their own abilities or had inherited the position from the previous family leader. Ever since they were chased out of Wildnorth Town, they had hoped that they would be able to continue their previous way of life after the completion of the new town with some of them even dreaming of becoming among the ranks of the new 'great families' of the town. However, Lorist's new policies had effectively caused a huge number of their men to flock to the Norton Family instead.

Even though these commoner families have existed for more than 100 years like certain noble families, their foundations were not as firm and the youths within those families usually didn't have much of a choice but to obey the instructions of the family elders as they were the military cornerstone of those families and usually didn't have a chance to strive for their own success.

That was why the benefits offered by the Norton Family was so well-received among many of those youths from the minor families. Human nature is one of greed and self-interest after all. To the youths, the distant relatives within their family didn't matter as much as their direct family members and being in such a large family meant that they would share their gains with the rest of their relatives and also bear their burdens since they were part of the family. That policy left many of the youths deeply frustrated and caused them to jump at the chance for the better opportunity offered by the Nortons almost instantly.

As a result, the initial 2000 plus workers had decreased by about 600 people and many of the smaller families of WIldnorth Town had already broken apart to the point that there was no turning back. The protesters cited that their reason for objection was Lorist's breach of the agreement and violation of the traditional benefits and conditions set by the Norton Family's ancestor. Squad Leader Mollin represented the four great families of Wildnorth Town as well as the many minor families at Poplar Coast to demand Lorist to revoke the policies that he had set and restore it to the previous ones used throughout the rule of the Norton Family and promise them that he will form a similar garrison at Poplar Coast upon the town's completion.

Lorist made a cold smile and thought, you think I'd let you make another Wildnorth Town? Well, you can continue to dream on.

He refuted the protesters' arguments and said that the conditions he offered for potential recruits of the family soldiers had nothing to do with the benefits given to the WIldnorth Town garrison. And as the subjects of the Norton Family, the people of Wildnorth Town only had to obey the dominion lord and had no right whatsoever to question the lord's decision. Lorist also stressed that it was already very benevolent of him to let the Wildnorth Town keep their former traditions.

He also added that the reason the recruitment was launched was precisely due to the refusal of the Wildnorth Town garrison to obey the orders of the family. And during such a bleak time of conflict against a foe like the Kenmays Family, the garrison still hadn't agreed to Lorist's proposition for them to act as supply troops to support the family's forces from the sidelines against the barbarians to this date, prompting him to have no choice but to try to recruit more soldiers himself. Lorist angrily rebuked the Wildnorth Town garrison soldiers for being no more than cowardly rats that only knew how to cower in fear within Wildnorth Town and said that it was a waste for the family to continue funding such a useless force, indirectly threatening to disband them.

After hearing Lorist's enraged outburst, the squad leader and the rest of the minor family leaders no longer said anything else and walked away. Thinking that he had managed to put an end to the troubles caused by those people who didn't know what was good for them, Lorist felt rather delighted at himself. However, three days later, he received news that the garrison troops at Poplar Coast had brought a number of the minor families back to Wildnorth Town and didn't respond to any of the family's orders.

Just as he was getting madder the more he thought about the incident, another piece of news arrived stating that the Wildnorth Town representatives who were in charge of paying the taxes to the Norton Family merely left their crops at the entrance of the Maplewoods Bastide and departed without so much as a single notification. Accompanying the crops was a letter that stated that the reason they still paid the crop tax was because they did not want to rebel against the dominion lord and only merely wanted to protest the new policies that disrespected the age old traditions of the arrangement between the residents of Wildnorth Town and the former Norton Family lords and stated that they would not obey any of the family's orders until the previous policies are restored.

The more lenient I'm on them, the more they dare to oppose me, thought Lorist with much hate in his heart as he made an estimation of the family's forces and considered wiping Wildnorth Town out in one fell swoop to release his pent-up frustration. It was a relatively peaceful time at the Norton Family dominion at that point as the mountain barbarians were busy celebrating their festival while the Kenmays Family's forces still haven't attacked Firmrock Castle yet. It was indeed a pretty good opportunity for the family to strike at Wildnorth Town.

What was troubling was how careful and cunning the leaders of the four great families were, for them to have sensed that something was wrong not long after he changed the recruitment benefits of the family's forces. Their instant withdrawal back to their town had caused many of Lorist's plans to be unable to play out properly, further making it harder for him to solve the problem of the town.

So, you think you can protect yourself if you turtle up in your little town? Lorist grinned as he thought of the 500 new recruits that the family had just got from the laborers at Firmrock Castle recently which was almost enough to form a company of troops. Coupled with the existing three guard and defense squads which numbered around 600 plus troops with the company of guard troops at Maplewoods Bastide as well as the 150 plus laborers at Poplar Coast who had just joined the family's forces, he had around 1200 soldiers at his disposal. And that figure didn't even include the 80 plus mercenaries stationed at the coast as well as Lorist, Josk, Patt, Reidy and the rest. It should be more than enough for him to crush the Wildnorth Town garrison once and for all.

I didn't expect that I would have so many soldiers in such a short amount of time. The only other thing I have to consider is the amount of casualties we will incur since it's the first siege I will be conducting. Unlike Lorist's previous battles in which he relied on surprise attacks to render the moat of his enemies' forts useless, this time, he had no other choice but to attack head-on. The wall surrounding Wildnorth Town was at least 9 meters tall and there were up to 600 Battle Force-awakened troops defending the place. The garrison also had the upper hand in terms of terrain advantage. Sigh, this battle will be rather tough. I might lose at least half of my 1000 plus troops...

What Lorist was most worried about was that his attack would force the four great families into desperation and send their elderly and womenfolk to defend the place as well. Even if he was extremely skillful in combat, how many of those defenseless noncombatants could he kill? Josk himself had said that he only had enough stamina to shoot a couple of hundred of arrows before he would become totally wasted. And if the battle caused both sides to suffer huge losses, how would he proceed to face the impending threat of the 2000-strong Kenmays Family forces?

The only way to get out of that situation without losing too many men was to employ a long term besiegement tactic but what Lorist lacked most currently was time. And Wildnorth Town had also finished their crop harvests only recently. Coupled with the food they already have in their stores, how long would they be able to last without venturing out of their town? Three years? Or maybe five? It definitely wasn't practical to besiege them for that long. And there was no doubt that the mountain barbarians would begin their attack during the next year after their celebration ends. Sigh, thought Lorist as he felt that it would really be a waste to expend all of his forces on a small threat like Wildnorth Town even though he did have a reasonably large force at the moment.

As he pondered on, Lorist thought, darn it... Just give me a few more months... All of a sudden, a man on horseback sped into the military camp and the rider quickly dismounted and reported, "Milord, the ambassador of the Duke of the Northlands is at the Maplewoods Bastide. The old butler has requested for your immediate presence..."

......

Weird, doesn't that dipshit of a duke only come to collect his taxes during the 10th month? It's only the beginning of the 8th month. What business does he have so long before the tax collection date? While he was on the way back to the bastide, Lorist asked his messenger whether the duke's ambassador had stated a reason for the visit.

The messenger shook his head and said that he didn't hear anything about the reason and mentioned that he saw quite a substantial number of people arriving at Firmrock Castle not long ago and that Josk had led a fully-armed squad of guards to serve as an escort for the visitors before he was tasked to send the message to Lorist by the old butler.

That's odd. Why would Josk do the escorting with a fully-armed squad? Upon thinking back at the huge number of people the messenger had mentioned, Lorist believed that the duke must have heard rumors about the Norton Family's looting of the Redriver Valley Bastide and had sent his men to threaten his family for a cut of the profit. It seemed that Josk believed the family would have a hard time handling the issue and decided to bring his men to keep an eye on the people of the duke in the name of escorting them. Otherwise, he could have simply sent somebody else to handle it without having to lead a fully-armed squad personally.

After a whole day of speedy travel on horseback, Lorist arrived at the bastide by the evening and a small camp had already been set up outside the castle of the Maplewoods Bastide. The messenger mentioned that the camp was where approximately 200 of the soldiers of the Northland Army which accompanied the duke's ambassador resided. Since the family had refused to let them into the castle, they had no choice but to set up camp outside.

Seeing the castle being completely fortified, Lorist understood that the old butler also found the timing of the ambassador's visit to be weird and suspected that they didn't come with good intentions, and raised the alert level of the troops stationed at the castle.

Supervisor Spiel hurriedly came out to greet him and said, "Milord, they are all currently within the great dining hall and have feasted for the whole afternoon already. The duke sent a baron over and he brought along one Gold ranked knight and twenty other Silver ranked knights with him. Old Butler Gleis is accompanying them there along with Sir Pajik and Sir Josk."

Lorist stopped and asked, "Did they say why they made a visit during this time?"

Spiel shook his head and replied, "They didn't say anything about that. I only remember hearing them ask the old butler about the date of your return and they sounded rather impatient about it too. Lady Pesha was there originally, but she left after the men said some rather disrespectful things to her. That Gold ranked knight even asked her to accompany him for the night. Had it not been for Sir Josk's presence, they might've laid their hands on her already..."

Lorist sighed and said, "Does she even know what's good for herself? Why did she even go to a place like that? With her Silver rank power, she will only be taken advantage by others..."

Lorist took huge strides with Reidy and Patt into the grand dining hall and the chatter within it instantly quieted down upon their entry.

In the middle of the hall were two long tables at which 20 or so soldiers with flushed faces wearing grey leather armor could be seen. It was evident that these knights Spiel had mentioned have had quite a huge amount of alcohol. At the far corner of the wooden table was a light blonde-haired, skinny middle-aged man dressed in formal robes and beside him was a huge man equipped with chain mail. That should be the Gold ranked knight. On the other side of the table was Old Butler Gleis sitting on a wooden wheel chair with Pajik standing beside him and Josk sitting next to him.

Upon seeing Lorist enter the hall, Josk hastily stood up and bowed with Pajik before they both made a respectful salute.

Old Butler Gleis looked towards the skinny man and the burly knight and said, "This is our newly-appointed dominion lord, Baron Norton Lorist."

According to the tradition and customs of nobles, the skinny middle-aged man and the burly Gold ranked knight should stand up and announce their identities before returning a salute. However, both of them merely sat there quietly with the skinny man even sarcastically saying, "It seems that the dominion lord is so busy that he had to make us wait for so long. However, without the permission of our Lord Duke, your title as the baron will not be recognized by us simply because you say so..."

As if he didn't hear any of the vitriolic words the skinny man had just uttered, Lorist walked up to Gleis and said, "Grandpa Gleis, you must be tired. Why don't you go get some rest and let me handle this?"

The old butler waved his hand and said, "It's okay, I'm not tired at all. Just do your thing, I will just sit here and watch."

Having been ignored by Lorist, the skinny man lost his temper and banged the table before he roared angrily, "Hey! I was talking to you! You deaf?!"

Lorist turned around instantly and looked at him with a berating gaze before he said, "Which alley did you crawl out from? You dare behave so impudently in the presence of the family of the Roaring Raging Bear?"

Lorist's seething killing intent that radiated from his gaze caused the skinny man to feel a chill down his spine. He was stunned to the point of speechlessness before he was once again awoken by a tap on the shoulder from the Gold ranked knight that stood beside him. With a face flush with embarrassment, the skinny man stood up so quickly with a humph so forceful that it caused his wig to slant. As he adjusted the wig on his head, he gritted his teeth and said, "I'm Baron Camorra. You better show me the respect nobles deserve..."

"Hehehe... You, a noble? You're nothing but an impostor. I've never met a noble that's so unrefined and ill-behaved like you. The way you dress even makes you look kind of like a clown..." Lorist ridiculed, causing Reidy, Patt and the rest to laugh out loud.

"Show me the certificate of your nobility to prove your authenticity. Otherwise, I'll have an impostor like you hanged at the gates of the bastide as a warning for anyone else who dares to pretend to be nobility!" Lorist suddenly raised his voice so loud and caused everyone within the hall to start in surprise and focus their attention on the situation.

Lorist's sudden change in tone and expression had frightened the man so much that his face instantly turned pale. He quickly stuck his hand into his robe and said, "It's... It's here... My certificate of nobility is here..." The panicking man quickly took out a bunch of documents and placed it onto the table.

At that moment, the burly knight said, "I can also testify to the authenticity of his nobility. Even though it has only been three months since he was entitled by the Lord Duke himself, he is indeed a noble..."

"Oh, so you were just recently entitled by the duke... No wonder you look so much like a clown. What an embarrassment to us nobles... Since you are sent here by the Lord Duke, tell me why you brought so many soldiers to the dominion of the Norton Family," said Lorist unconcernedly as he gave the skinny man a contemptuous gaze.

Chapter 116 Baron Camorra

Thinking that the Norton Family was completely different from what he had heard before, Baron Camorra thought that there was a high chance that he wouldn't be able to fulfill his mission this time around. Didn't Viscount Kenmays tell me that the Nortons had already become weak and incompetent? I heard that he had brought hundreds of farmer soldiers to attack the Norton Family bastide and even besieged them for three whole months and only had to stop because they ran out of food... I believed that if it were possible, he would've liked to continue the siege longer...

Even though Viscount Kenmays sounded rather casual when he said that at that time, within a short six months, the Norton Family managed to plunder the Redriver Valley Bastide all of a sudden and left it burning to ashes after everything was taken. Baron Camorra still recalled the scene when Viscount Kenmays went to see the duke about the issue: the usually elegant and refined viscount's face was purple with rage and he even fainted after spitting out mouthfuls of blood as he muttered, "My gold coins... my gold coins..."

Most people thought that the viscount was agonizing over the gold coins that he had used to purchase all the goods that were taken at the bastide. The massive amounts of shipment that the viscount brought into the Northlands some time ago had caused so many people to be green-eyed with jealousy. It was then when the people of the Northlands wondered whether the wealth of the Kenmays Family could actually rival that of a kingdom, as they could manage to bring in so much resources all at once.

Right after the incident of the bastide burning down, while others were secretly delighting in the viscount's loss, Baron Camorra had been spending money to bribe one of the personal attendants of Viscount Kenmays and got to know that the viscount had fainted on that day because of the loss of his secret stash of money that he had stored at the bastide. It had already become the loot of the Nortons.

According to that attendant, there were exactly 100000 gold Fordes stored at the bastide and he was certain of that figure because he had filled up those chests himself within the secret room at the bastide. He remembered clearly that there were 5 chests that each stored 20000 gold Fordes stacked neatly together.

That sum of money was actually the result of the efforts and methods the viscount had meticulously employed over the years ever since he first joined the family's trading group at the age of 16. Aside from the three of his personal attendants, nobody else including his own father knew about the money. Now that it had been taken by the Norton Family, the viscount could only despair: even if he could eradicate the Norton Family by the time his 2000 soldiers arrive, the existence of the money had already been revealed and it would no longer be his personal cash as it would have to be handed to the family itself. It would never make its way back into the viscount's hands.

Baron Camorra was shocked to hear the figure of the private savings of the viscount: that amount was easily six times the annual income of the duke's dominion. He was really familiar with the duke's income and expenses and the formation of the duke's Northland Army of at least 20000 people would add another 40000 imperial gold coins to the duke's upkeep. The duke's annual income was just around 60000 imperial gold coins which was roughly equivalent to around 16000 gold Fordes. That was the main factor that limited the duke's ability to further expand that army.

To most other people, Baron Camorra was merely someone who had lucked out to gain his position today. Looking like a monkey-faced clown, most people felt that he had managed to gain the duke's favor by mere coincidence. What they didn't take into account was that while the duke had many weaknesses and shortcomings, he wasn't a ruler that could easily be swayed around like that. The reason he trusted Camorra and even granted him the title of a baron was because of the achievements he had gained by his own ability.

Baron Camorra was originally a commoner born in Gildusk City and he had spent most of his life in the slums among the lowest dredges of society. He did everything he could to survive including being a liar, a thief and a gangster. However, he was finally caught for stealing at the age of 16 and just as he was about to have his hand amputated as punishment, the local dominion lord intervened out of nowhere and forgave Camorra of his crimes and even gave him a small fortune and some clothes.

That benevolent dominion lord said to him, "I can't have a young boy like you dying from having your hands cut off on the day my son is born. That will forever taint this auspicious day of mine. That's why I forgave you and even graced you with this little gift. You don't have to thank me, this is the fortune that my little angel has brought to you. I can only advise you to change your way of life and find a proper job so that you can secure your own happiness and livelihood with your own efforts. If you don't listen to what I have to say, you will definitely be captured again and die a dog's death from having your hands amputated. However, at that moment, your death will no longer have anything to do with my precious son."

As if he had gained a sudden revelation, Camorra went to the Shrine of Singwa and carried out all sorts of chores there during the day to earn his share of two pieces of black bread. During his free time, he also spent his time learning as much as he could from the priests of the shrine and after three years, he had gained the trust and admiration of the priests of the shrine and one of the senior priests promoted him to become a warden. From a position at the jail, Camorra spent 10 short years to be promoted to the level of a security captain and spent another 10 years to become the chief tax officer of Gildusk City and caught Duke Loggins's eye.

If one were to pick the poorest duke out within those of the Krissen Empire, the Duke of the Northlands would definitely fit the bill. One of the duke's ancestors had once took the post as the prime minister during the time of Krissen III and had a reputation in the history books as the virtuous prime minister. Back then, the Krissen Empire was fraught with natural disasters as well as internal and external conflict and it was the leader of the Loggins family at that time that had used every method at his disposal to unify the empire and grant it peace and stability. In the end, he died from overwork at his work desk and that prompted the emperor of that time to elevate the title of the Loggins Family from a viscount to a duke and grant the southern part of the Northlands to their family as a hereditary dominion.

However, the Loggins Family could not have hated Krissen III more. Even though their dukedom was 10 times larger than their previous viscounty, the profit the family made had decreased more than 10 times. Krissen III had actually claimed the profitable viscounty for himself and ceded the desolate northern lands to their family as their dominion instead. To the Loggins Family, that was a stab in the back that they didn't deserve considering the contributions the family had made to the empire. Perhaps it was the emperor's way of punishing the family for hogging so much power within the empire for so long and making the emperor feel like he's nothing more than a figurehead.

During the reign of the former Krissen Empire, the revenue of the Duke of the Northlands was merely around 100000 imperial gold coins. That amount was akin to the profit that a common baron earned in the most prosperous areas of the empire. The previous leaders of the Loggins Family had tried to develop their lands before, but none of the leaders were as talented as the former viscount and they were mostly plagued by their limited funds and the natural hazards of the Northlands. Surprisingly, the Loggins Family had produced a number of family leaders that excelled in the military, causing them to be known by some as the family that had relinquished their scholarly brilliance to become military brutes.

When compared to many of his predecessors, the current Duke Loggins was not accomplished in both academic and martial prowess and was only average at whatever he did. He also had lots of shortcomings like lust, greed, indecisiveness and a fond liking for spending on unnecessary luxuries. However, one redeeming factor that he had was his ability to judge people. He had picked Camorra to manage the taxes of his dukedom and organize the formation of the Northland Army as well as manage the logistics and supply of the army.

Camorra, not letting the duke's expectations down, had spent three whole years revamping the taxation system of the dukedom and helped the chaotic dominion recover its revenue by up to six times like it used to be in the old days, thus allowing the duke to no longer have to save up just to make ends meet as well as allowing for the original 3000-strong garrison of the dukedom to be expanded into a staggering 20000-strong Northland Army. The income of the dukedom also ensured that the army would be able to sustain itself in terms of equipment and supplies.

After merely three years, the duke was extremely satisfied with Camorra's performance and fulfilled his promise to make him a baron. Naturally, it was merely an honorary title that didn't come with a dominion. That meant that Baron Camorra was only an honorary noble.

The night he was given the title, Camorra locked himself in his room and cried himself to sleep. He knew that most of the people around him treated him like a joke and didn't know how much effort he had put in to get to where he was. Even though he wasn't even 45 years old, he had lost half of the original volume of his hair over the years of stressful toiling. He was extremely thankful for the duke's favor towards him and he continued to believe that as long as he served the duke well, he would one day gain a dominion for himself and become a proper landed noble.

After receiving the report from Viscount Kenmays's attendant, Baron Camorra secretly told the duke about it. The duke was absolutely staggered by the sum of 100000 gold Fordes and was even considering sending out the entire Northland Army to get the whole amount for himself. However, Baron Camorra said that he shouldn't make such large movements lest he attracts the attention of others. Duke Loggins understood that Camorra was referring to the Second Prince and that man was even greedier than the infamous duke himself.

On the other hand, it would be easy to come out with an excuse to pester the Norton Family: ever since the Second Prince's Iblia Kingdom had decreed for all landed nobles of the Northlands to be under the jurisdiction of the Duke of the Northlands, the Norton Family had not made a visit to the duke himself for a single time even though they paid their taxes regularly. They could also argue that the Norton Family's lack of notification to the duke when they selected a new family leader was a disrespectful act to the duke as he was their senior noble and not reporting the fact meant that they were treating him as if he didn't exist. It could also be said that among the old noble families of the Northlands, the Norton Family had become a rogue family that did not have any associations to a senior noble.

After deciding on the excuse with his trusted subordinate, the duke decided to send none other than Baron Camorra himself to the Norton Family as his ambassador. To pressure the Nortons to submit, the duke had also sent one of the five Gold ranked knights he had to accompany the baron on his journey as well as an escort of 20 Silver ranked knights and two small squads of elite soldiers of the Northland Army.

The duke also instructed Baron Camorra that if the Norton Family knew what was good for them, not only did they have to hand over the 100000 gold Fordes, they also had to give two thirds of the resources they had plundered to the duke to gain his forgiveness for the Norton Family leader's disregard. And if the Norton Family refuses to abide to those conditions, the escort that the baron brought with him would be more than enough to wipe the family out.

Ever since the First Young Master and the previous family leader of the Norton Family died, the Nortons no longer had any Gold ranked fighters. One Gold ranked knight, twenty Silver ranked knights and another two squads of Iron ranked elite troops should be more than enough to frighten the wits out of the Nortons already. What other choice did they have but to obey the will of the duke? At the time, that was what Duke Loggins and Baron Camorra believed. The duke even joked that the real reason the escort of that might was sent was to ensure that the 100000 gold Fordes would be transferred back to the duke's dominion safely.

Not knowing the true situation of the Norton Family, the duke and the baron even laughed about the conflict between the Kenmays Family and the Nortons because there wasn't even much of a point to fight for lands as desolate as their dominions' as most of the more developed places of the Northlands was at the south where the duke's dominion was located.

If the duke knew about the decimation of the Feathersoar Mercenary Crew, then he definitely wouldn't have underestimated the might of the Nortons. Had he known that Lorist managed to single-handedly defeat the twin Gold ranked shield-bearers, the duke might have considered sending all five of his Gold ranked knights along with the baron as well as another 6000 of his troops. However, if he truly did that, then everyone would know that he was going to rob the Nortons of their gold.

During all his time in service to Duke Loggins, Baron Camorra had seen many nobles who would endure any and every kind of insult he threw at them and try their best to please him. As the duke's ambassador, Baron Camorra had been to many dominions of other noble families to provoke, to mediate, to threaten, to extort, and most often to collect taxes. Before he was even given the title of an honorary baron, the landed nobles were already extremely respectful to him. Camorra had even met some nobles who were willing to send their wives and daughters to accompany him in bed for some extra perks like a small tax cuts.

Before he arrived at the Maplewoods Bastide, Baron Camorra had assumed that the Nortons were just like the usual noble families he dealt with. But nobody would've expected for him to run into trouble the moment he arrived at Firmrock Castle. At the foot of the newly-constructed defensive wall, the Gold ranked Knight Tabik who had accompanied him shouted for everyone within the Norton Family to show up and receive them. But a young knight merely peeked over the wall and bluntly asked the arrogant Tabik to shut up.

The Nortons' construction of a castle at Morgan Hills was news to the baron and he didn't expect that they would have a Gold ranked marksman among their ranks as well. When he was making his way through Firmrock Castle, the baron had also noticed the ballistas which were set up on the wall as well as the metal-armored soldiers who were manning them and felt that he had neglected to investigate the true military prowess of the Norton Family and started to worry whether he would be able to successfully complete his mission,

By the time he arrived at Maplewoods Bastide, he noticed something different about the place when compared to Firmrock Castle. The people of Firmrock Castle, no matter whether they were soldiers or workers, weren't remotely bothered by the presence of the men sent by the duke: apart from a few curious looks, most of the people didn't even show the slightest interest in the duke's men. However, at Maplewoods Bastide, the moment the duke's name was uttered, everyone there either panicked or showed their deepest respects. Even though the entry of the 200 or so soldiers into the bastide's castle was denied, Baron Camorra noticed that they were being served the best food the bastide had during the reception feast.

The one who was present at the feast was the old and cunning Butler Gleis, whom Baron Camorra didn't manage to glean the slightest information about the family from despite his incessant questioning. The baron decided to test them out by secretly asking Knight Tabik to flirt with the female knight of the family and noticed that even though the other members of the Norton Family were mad at that act, they did not dare to take any action. At least, that was the case until the Gold ranked marksman who escorted them humphed in annoyance, causing Tabik to cease whatever he was doing.

The baron was also keenly observing the situation when the Norton Family's new leader entered the hall and he saw that the Gold ranked marksman and the Silver ranked knight that was beside him were extremely respectful to that young family leader from the very bottom of their hearts. Thus, Baron Camorra decided to test the young leader's reaction with his usual arrogant and rude act: most other nobles usually attended to him more respectfully after the commotion he caused and the baron expected the family leader of the Nortons to react the same as well.

But he was extremely taken aback by the huge reaction the young man exhibited which involved his questioning of the baron's legitimacy as a noble. The baron could also feel the seething killing intent which radiated from the eyes of the young man when he turned his gaze to him. What deep, black eyes... They seem like an unending abyss of darkness... After he was gazed at, the baron felt like he was being eyed by a high-ranked magical beast as if he were its prey and found himself frozen and unable to move before his train of thought got disrupted entirely as he awaited his impending doom.

That kind of desolation and helplessness had caused the baron to lose his usual cool and rationality to the point that he even hurriedly took out his nobility certificates when Lorist demanded him to prove his legitimacy. Having one's legitimacy as a noble questioned was the paramount insult one could experience no matter whether one was a landed or honorary noble.

By the time Tabik was calmly attesting to the baron's identity, Baron Camorra only felt a pang of humiliation. He understood that he would definitely become a laughing-stock among the noble circles and that would only serve to reinforce his reputation as the clown who merely got lucky.

Baron Camorra silently kept the certificates and documents he had placed on the table and readjusted his robes and removed the light blonde wig from his head to reveal his bald, shiny scalp. With a pale face, he performed a standard noble greeting towards Lorist and said with a serious tone, "With utmost respect, Lord Norton, I represent my liege, Duke Loggins, to ask the Norton Family a question and to discuss two other matters..."

Chapter 117 Tabik's Demand

Once again wearing a solemn expression, Lorist stood up straight and said in a strict fashion, "I welcome your arrival. As the head of the Norton Family, I, Norton Lorist, represent the family to receive the greetings of the duke."

Baron Camorra observed Lorist carefully and no longer dared to look down on that young man. Lorist was different from the other nobles he had encountered in a way that even though he sounded rather polite, there was not a shred of respect towards the duke that could be picked out from what he had just said. In fact, the tone of speech Lorist used seemed to suggest that he considered the duke to be on the same level as he was. Instead of the much detested arrogant pride nobles usually had, it was self-confidence that was oozing out of Lorist's being.

"Lord Norton, as the overlord and Duke of the Northlands, Duke Loggins would like to know why the Norton Family haven't paid a single visit to him even though it has already been three years since the Second Prince designated all the nobles of the Northlands to be under his rule. Isn't that against the common conventions of nobility? And after the passing of the previous baron, why didn't the new family head pay a visit to the duke to gain his permission to succeed the title? The Lord Duke has already waited patiently for three years and could no longer withstand an insult like that. That's why he would like to know if the Norton Family considers him as an enemy." Since Baron Camorra didn't recognize Lorist's claim to the title of a baron, he addressed him as Lord Norton instead.

Lorist laughed slightly and said, "The Norton Family has never once considered Duke Loggins and his family as an enemy, and also acknowledges his rule over the Northlands. Otherwise, the we wouldn't have bothered to pay the taxes on time in the first place. However, we do not acknowledge the duke to be our senior noble as it is publicly known that the Norton Family has been entitled by the Krissen Royal Family themselves. Let me ask you, Lord Baron, since when has Duke Loggins been a member of the royal family?"

"Didn't the Second Prince already order all the nobles of the Northlands to take the duke as their senior noble?" Baron Camorra asked.

"Lord Baron, can the Second Prince be considered a representative of the royal family? I think not, as all the nobles know that the only one who can do so is the Third Prince of the Andinaq Kingdom who has been nominated as a successor by the emperor himself. So since when did the Second Prince have any authority to will the Nortons to become a subordinate noble family of the Loggins Family? What he did was just as laughable as a neighbor selling your house without gaining your permission. Naturally, if Duke Loggins is able to gain the agreement from the Third Prince, then we will immediately pay our due respects to the duke. But right now, just as you have mentioned, I have many things to settle as the new dominion lord and I can only hope that I will have some free time to visit the duke in the future," Lorist said.

"Ugh..." Baron Camorra didn't expect Lorist's answer to be that reasonable. "That means that the Norton Family is intent on going against the Lord Duke?"

"Whether I am going against him will depend on his own judgment. If he thinks that my reasoning is fair, he should go see the Third Prince and gain his approval to govern our family. If he thinks that the Norton Family is antagonizing him, he can simply send his Northland Army to force us to submit. Even though the Norton Family's might is pretty small in comparison to the duke's Northland Army, we are still the Roaring Raging Bear of the North and we will still have the ability to cause the duke a substantial loss," said Lorist as he casually threatened the baron.

It seems that the issue with the Norton Family's allegiance will be a troublesome one. The Nortons are really different from other nobles, they are not even bothered by the threat of the duke's army. Having no other choice, Baron Camorra decided to skip the issue and move on to something else. His true goal that day was not to force the Nortons to submit to the duke but rather to get the 100000 gold Fordes from them.

"Lord Norton, I think it's best if we solve that issue at a later date. I will definitely tell the duke your words exactly. We will just have to wait and see what he decides," said Baron Camorra. "Can we move on to talk about the other two issues?"

"Naturally. Sit down, I'm all ears." Since it was a negotiation, there was no need to be so formal. Lorist heartily asked the baron to take a seat before talking about the issue.

Lorist's impression of the baron had took a huge turn after the short conversation they had. He observed that the baron had quickly changed the subject upon noticing he was at a disadvantage since he wasn't able to force the Norton Family to submit.

"I need to first ask you to not spread this issue out. The duke wishes that the Second Prince doesn't find out about it as the Second Prince has been secretly suppressing his plans to build the Northland Army by setting up a huge number of obstacles. That was why the duke had secretly gathered a huge amount of gold and gave it to the Kenmays Family so that they may help him to secretly purchase a bunch of military supplies. However, he didn't expect that the Kenmays Family would store the gold at the Redriver Valley Bastide. Following the result of the conflict between your family and the Kenmayses, which ended with the bastide being set on fire, the gold must have come into your possession. The duke hopes that you would return the gold to him and also offers his heartfelt thanks for your cooperation.

"The sum of gold coins that were taken is 100000 gold Fordes exactly and they were stored within five huge iron chests," said Baron Camorra as he instilled some truth to his lie to make it more palatable. The might of the Norton Family had far exceeded his expectations, so he dropped his approach to threaten them and tried to test the waters first.

Lorist really wanted to applaud at what the baron had just said. What a talent he is! He could actually spin such a convincing lie that would definitely sound perfect to those who don't know better. He even knows about the sum of the gold, and that fact reinforces that the money could have belonged to the duke. Too bad the duke doesn't know that Butler Boris had already joined the Nortons and he knew almost everyone at the Redriver Valley Bastide, allowing him to easily pinpoint Viscount Kenmays's personal attendant who was in charge of watching the money as well as his family members. After only 50 canes, the attendant had obediently revealed the location where the gold was stored.

I don't know where the duke got the information and sum of the gold... But for him to stretch out his claws of greed so quickly and even send such a powerful escort along with his ambassador... He definitely doesn't have any good intentions. It's too bad that he had underestimated us. Right now, he's stuck in a difficult position.

Lorist looked at Baron Camorra with a weird look on his face that basically said, 'come on, keep on spinning more stories for me to hear'.

Baron Camorra's face flushed slightly from being stared at so intensely and he asked gingerly, "Lord Norton... What do you think about the matter..."

Lorist hummed a few times before he said, "Let's put that aside first and talk about the other issue. What does the duke want to negotiate with us about?"

"Oh, due to the years of internal conflict within the former territories of the empire, the duke's manor is in a really bad state and the Gildusk City's fortifications have not been maintained for quite a while: the walls have even started to crack up. As the duke is a little short on funds, there is no way for him to commission for any repairs to be done. I heard that the your family had won a huge victory against the Kenmays Family and got all the construction materials they have stored at the bastide. That's why the duke hopes that you will be able to provide half of the loot to him so that he may renovate his manor as well as begin the repair works..." said Baron Camorra as he decided on his own accord to reduce the original amount of two thirds to only a half.

"Is that all?"

"Yes, that was all," the baron said as he nodded.

"Hehe, only those two requests?" Lorist asked as he laughed.

Baron Camorra once again nodded and said, "Yes, only two requests."

"I haven't mentioned it yet, but I have a request as well..." said Tabik, who was angered that Lorist had completely neglected his presence before he decided to interject between Lorist and Camorra's conversation.

Lorist looked at the Gold ranked knight with surprise and said, "Then, oh-so-admirable and respectable knight, please tell me about your request..."

"I see that your family has a rather abundant supply of metal armor. Even the most common soldiers you have are equipped with those. However, our Northland Army has 20000 soldiers but we have less than 100 sets of armor for ourselves. That's why I want your soldiers to remove their sets of armor and let us bring them back..."

Tabik had always looked down on Baron Camorra and he didn't understand why the duke was so fond of a mere baron who did not even have a dominion like him. This time, Tabik only reluctantly joined the expedition to the Norton Family dominion as he felt that it was very embarrassing for him to be seen together with that clown of a baron and the baron's earlier flustered reaction only served to prove his point. It was fortunate the baron managed to pretend that nothing had happened before and conversed with Lorist normally. Secondly, Tabik felt that he didn't need to be there as he doubted that the Norton Family would resist the orders of the duke given the looming threat of the Northland Army.

However, after seeing the lightning bolt-like green arrow nail his mount to the ground back at Firmrock Castle, he understood that there was a Gold ranked marksman that he couldn't afford to offend, causing him to stop his overbearing behavior and do his best to not cause any trouble. When he was teasing the female Silver ranked knight earlier, he stopped immediately after hearing the marksman grunt with dissatisfaction.

Given that Tabik managed to make it to the Gold rank, he was definitely no idiot. However, the moment he saw the Norton Family's young leader enter the room, he thought that an opportunity had showed up before him. Firstly, the Gold ranked marksman within the room had let down his guard by laying back in his chair and staring towards the roof. Secondly, the Norton Family leader was sitting right in front of him and it was almost too easy for him to lash out if he needed to. From Tabik's observation, he could tell that the Norton Family head was not even a Silver rank. Otherwise, the Battle Force flowing within his bloodstream would definitely be detected by a Gold ranked fighter like Tabik. At most, the youth could only be an Iron rank.

As Baron Camorra carefully negotiated with the Norton youth, Tabik grew even more impatient and thought, why does the duke's ambassador have to talk so respectfully to a mere commoner? Shouldn't he be spouting orders instead? Even if the Nortons have a Gold ranked marksman, what could they do against the Northland Army? If everyone in the army spat out a mouthful of saliva, the Nortons would easily be drowned alive already...

The reason Tabik was being in his best behavior was because he feared that the Gold ranked marksman would intervene and challenge him to a duel. While he wouldn't necessarily die from a conflict with the marksman, it would still be rather embarrassing to be pummeled for no good reason. The last thing Tabik wanted was to become a huge joke after his return to the duke's dominion with the clown.

However, due to some kind of luck, the young Norton Family leader who didn't know what was good for him was seated right in front of him. As long as he held him hostage, the Norton Family would have no other choice but to yield. Even the Gold ranked marksman would have no choice but to submit unless he wanted his lord to die, and that was hardly possible. Taking into account of the 20 other Silver ranked knights he brought along with him, Tabik planned to force the people in charge to open the castle gates to allow his 200 or so soldiers enter the castle to set the situation in his favor.

As long as I can hold that Norton kid hostage, then the duke's demands will definitely be satisfied and I would take most of the credit while that clown over there will remain nothing but a joke. Maybe the duke might even strip him of his title and let him return to being a dirty commoner and I might stand a chance to receive a title and dominion myself and my status will ascend to that of landed nobility...

Even though Tabik was busy fantasizing, he was also very wary of his surroundings. However, his worries quickly evaporated as the Gold ranked marksman had actually fallen asleep within the room. I really don't get how he's able to sleep so calmly in a situation like this. The guards of the Norton kid are also not paying attention and are whispering about something among themselves. I just need an excuse to act right now.

Even though Tabik had considered lashing out to catch them off-guard, that would be far too unrefined and undignified of him given his status as a Gold ranked knight. He would definitely not be able to feel proud for his own success if he had to rely on ambushing to deal with a puny Iron rank and that act would forever taint his reputation for the rest of his life. The best solution was for Tabik to cause the Norton Family head to argue with him so that he would have a perfectly reasonable excuse to take him down.

Having thought through his plan, Tabik told Lorist of his unreasonable request.

As expected, Lorist started laughing, but his laughter got softer as time went on.

"What are you laughing at?" Tabik asked, dissatisfied.

"Do you see the door over there?" Loirst asked as he pointed at the door of the grand hall.

"What about it?"

"You will find the gates of the castle after exiting the hall and taking a right turn..."

"Why would I do that?"

"Are you an idiot? Don't you understand that I'm asking you to fuck off? I really don't get how a bird-brain like you managed to become a Gold ranked knight. I guess idiots have their own kind of luck too..." Lorist said.

Even though Tabik expected a backlash from his suggestion, he really didn't expect the young master of the Nortons to manage to enrage him to the core of his being. Lorist's brutally honest insults were something a Gold ranked knight like Tabik had never needed to endure ever in his life.

"You will pay for your words today..." said Tabik with a hoarse voice before he thumped on the long table and broke it into half. As the bowls, wine glasses and wine barrels flew all over the place, Tabik leaped over to Lorist with both his hands outstretched...

Chapter 118 The Issue of Compensation

The two guards behind the Norton Family leader was also laughing out and weren't inclined on protecting their dominion lord either. What if this guy isn't the real family leader of the Nortons? No matter what Tabik suspected, he felt that since he had taken action, he might as well hold that person hostage first and see what would happen next. Since the youth had insulted him, Tabik was intent on making him pay and teaching him a lesson that a Gold ranked knight should not be so easily provoked.

One more step, and I'll be able to get hold of that kid's shoulder. There's nothing much an Iron rank like him can do once I restrain him. Let's see if he dares to insult another Gold ranked knight like me in the future once this matter is settled... However, Tabik noticed that the Norton Family leader didn't even make any moves and merely stood there like a log. Shouldn't he be trying his best to flee now? Wait, he's actually smiling. Has he turned silly from the fear?

Tabik lashed his hands out to grab at the man, only to notice that he had grasped nothing but air. That kid's shoulder was previously right in front of him! Thinking that he probably saw mistakenly, Tabik reassured himself that the youth would no longer be able to escape his grasp the next time.

Right after Tabik swung his hands forward once more, somebody was caught. But Tabik's expression was that of surprise and terror: he had not actually caught Lorist by the shoulder. Instead, his right arm was clasped tightly in Lorist's hand. A sudden pain burst forth from Tabik's arm, causing him to scream out loud in pain. He could clearly hear the crisp sound of the bone within his arm cracking. After the jolt of pain, Tabik could no longer feel his right arm.

Having discarded the notion of taking Lorist hostage, Tabik pushed his left hand outwards and tried his best to get away from him, only to have his left arm held again...

"Aaagh!" Another cry of pain louder than the former rang out as Tabik witnessed Lorist somersault a few times in the air before his left hand lost all feeling as well.

At that moment, the Gold ranked knight's mind was completely blank and he couldn't feel either of his arms and was only barely standing. However, Lorist didn't spare him just yet and rammed his knee against Tabik's stomach and all of the stuff he had eaten just before were expelled with a loud barf, staining one side of Lorist's pants in the process.

Within the next few moments, Tabik's chin, left cheek and right cheek turned numb all of a sudden before he spat out a mouthful of teeth. As Lorist continued kicking, he roared, "Gosh, why did an idiot like you have to ruin my pants..."

Tabik currently felt like he had become a piece of metal on an anvil that was being hammered nonstop. Right before he lost all consciousness, he finally understood why the Gold ranked marksman and the two other guards were laughing. They were mocking him for jumping straight into boiling water without knowing any better.

Baron Camorra witnessed with fear the scene of the Gold ranked knight Tabik being pummeled by Lorist like a sandbag looking as helpless as a damsel who had run into a group of ruffians whose cries were unheard by anyone else. That was something the baron had not dared to conjecture even within his wildest dreams. While he knew that Tabik hand a fond distaste for him and frequently called him a clown, there was nothing the baron himself could do about it as he was merely an honorary noble while Tabik was one of the five Gold ranked knights working for the duke. He had no other choice but to endure Tabik's harsh treatment.

But currently, Knight Tabik was completely powerless against Lorist. Back when Tabik launched himself towards Lorist, the baron secretly praised that act as once the family head was captured, the Norton Family would definitely cooperate with whatever demands they had. But the scene following that had quickly extinguished the baron's previous excitement, causing him to see Lorist as a being that was even more fearsome than the fiercest high-ranked magical beasts.

Even though the baron felt some sort of pleasure from seeing the knight who had so often berated him being beaten so badly, as the ambassador of the duke, he still had to do something to stop the current commotion lest all negotiations break down into full-blown conflict. But by the time he finally decided to take action, Tabik had already turned into a lump of mud beneath Lorist's feet and was blissfully out cold, no longer having to feel the pain Lorist was causing him.

Baron Camorra then watched Lorist bend down to his knees and search the fainted knight in a practiced manner. Taking out a heavy beastskin coin pouch, Lorist opened it before he tossed it to one of the guards behind him and said, "Take it and give it to Supervisor Spiel for him to log it into the accounts later. Let's consider it compensation for the table and the cutlery he broke."

Feeling a chill run down his whole body, Baron Camorra noticed that his knees were shaking uncontrollably. This... What kind of upbringing did this family leader have? He robbed Tabik like it was the most natural thing to do in the world and even seemed to be able to justify his banditry with perfect conscience! The baron knew well about Tabik's beastskin pouch as he had heard the knight brag about it once before that it stored the 60 plus gold Fordes that he had managed to earn over the years. He took all that as compensation? With that kind of money, he could fill the whole castle full of tables like the one Tabik broke!

Loud clanging sounds suddenly filled the hall as the 20 Silver ranked knights who had accompanied the baron and Tabik flipped their tables and kicked away the benches before they drew their swords and prepared to engage...

The battle before had happened too quickly for the Silver ranked knights to react in time. By the time they turned their heads over, the scene of their boss, a Gold ranked knight, being pummeled like that had shocked them completely as they had never seen a Gold ranked knight looking that pathetic all their lives. By the time all of them snapped out of their trance, Tabik was already slumped at Lorist's feet completely out cold. The 20 Silver ranked knights all had a joint thought that if word of their boss's defeat and their inability to do anything about it got out, they would definitely turn into laughing-stocks when they return. So they decided to avenge their boss in front of everyone present within the hall so that someone would witness them correcting the wrong.

"No, you guys,,, Stop..." said Baron Camorra hastily. But nobody paid him any heed. The knights had all heard their boss Tabik call the baron a clown too often and naturally didn't even bother to listen or even consider what the baron had to say.

"Reidy," Lorist called out.

Reidy removed the quiver of javelins that was slung on his back and put it in front of Lorist.

Following that, six javelins were launched flying through the air in a mere moment before they landed in a neat row all spaced out evenly in front of the 20 knights to form a barricade.

"Anyone who walks past the javelins will be killed without a doubt. I have with me 18 javelins and your lot has 20 people. Let's see which two of you will be fortunate enough to survive and return to report this incident to your duke..."

While Lorist wasn't the least bit loud when he said that, his voice resounded clearly through the ears of everyone that was within the dining hall.

Everybody present within the hall all quieted down and only Baron Camorra's ragged breaths could be heard. Even he couldn't do anything about this indifferent subordinates of his.

The few knights who were standing behind the javelins had a change in their expressions as the blade glows on their blades flickered unstably while they hesitated on whether to cross that barricade of javelins. After that, a hoarse voice sounded from behind them and broke the silence of the hall. "Why should we be afraid?! Come on, all of you! Let's cut that twerp into pieces!"

"Kill!" The Silver ranked knights at the forefront raised their longswords and no longer hesitated to cross the barricade of javelins.

The javelins shot out like lightning bolts and struck the knights who had just went beyond the barricades. Within moments, agonized cries filled the whole hall...

One Silver ranked knight quickly retreated two steps back and went behind the barricade once again. 7 of his comrades had already fallen in front of him with all of them having a huge javelin pierced through their chests and nailing them to the ground. 4 of those men were still alive and spitting out mouthfuls of blood as they struggled in pain.

The knight who stepped back suddenly noticed that his teeth were chattering uncontrollably as his whole body shivered from immense fear. It had all happened too quickly: the knights who went beyond the javelin barricade were less than ten steps away from Lorist, and yet that small distance was the difference between life and death. The fastest of his comrades just now had only taken four steps before he was nailed to the ground and the shivering knight would have become the 8th person to share the same fate had he not hurriedly stepped backwards after witnessing the death of one of his comrades directly in front of him.

It was extremely fortunate for him to have dodged backwards without a moment's hesitation the moment he saw his comrade dying. The knight who had barely escaped the clutches of death felt all the energy seep out from his body before he noticed a distinct stench wafting through the air and heard a sound of trickling water. Taking a slight glance to his side, he noticed that the knight beside him had been so terrified that his bladder let loose involuntarily.

"Who was the one who shouted just now? Step out this instant." Even though Lorist said that in a casual tone, the javelin he held in his hand seemed to indicate his intention on taking care of the guy who instigated the knights' charge.

The Silver ranked knights were all very clear on the identity of the one who shouted out loud in the beginning as they were all quite acquainted with the voices of their own comrades. A few of the Silver ranked knights standing at the front backed away and revealed a large, man with a goatee and moustache who was holding a longsword in his hand.

That burly man didn't expect that his own comrades would back away to reveal him like that. Faced with Lorist and the javelin in his hand, the burly man screamed before he dropped his longsword and dashed in the other direction.

Just before Lorist threw the javelin, a green arrow whooshed past him and sent the burly man flying through the air and nailed him to the wall, causing him to struggle and expel his last breath within moments.

Josk said, "You want to escape? I'm afraid you'll need the permission of my bow..."

It was at that moment when the knights remembered the presence of the Gold ranked marksman. Now that their own Gold ranked ally, Tabik, had been utterly defeated, the remaining 12 Silver ranked knights didn't dare to make a single sound lest they drew the attention of the two fearsome beings within the room.

"Joe you bastard, taking my spotlight again..." Lorist complained before he looked at the remaining 12 knights who instantly lowered their heads the moment Lorist's gaze fell on them.

"Alright, I can spare you guys and forgive you for your rude transgressions. However, you must compensate for the trouble you have caused. I want you to cast your weapons down on the floor and line up over there. Reidy, Patt, collect their weapons as well as their money pouches..." Lorist said.

"You! This is pure banditry! I'm going to complain about the shameless acts of the Norton Family in front of all the nobles if you do this!" Baron Camorra could no longer stand it and accused Lorist in a fit of rage.

"Banditry? Shameless acts? Lord Baron, don't compare us Nortons to your Lord Duke. I'm ashamed to be praised so highly by an ambassador of the duke, the incarnate of banditry and shamelessness himself. Did you come here with the holiest of intentions in mind? Even though I treated you as guests with the finest food I had, you didn't give the host, me, any amount of due respect at all. Not only did your men attack first, the guy just now even shouted his intentions to chop me into pieces! Don't tell me that we have to let ourselves be killed just because you're our guests?" Lorist said.

The pitiful Baron Camorra instantly got 12 glares of hate from the surviving knights.

Reidy came over and said, "Milord, here are the 12 money pouches."

"Have you turned into an idiot too?" said Lorist as he slapped on the back on Reidy's head. "There are 7 more on the ground and another nailed onto the wall! Go clean those up. Since they're all dead, they won't be needing their stuff anymore, so strip them clean..."

"You! Lord Norton! They are already dead, show them some respect! They are after all courageous warriors..." Baron Camorra could no longer hold back. If the flames of anger in his eyes were real, Lorist would have been burned to ashes already.

"So you're implying that the ones who died are heroes while those who survived are cowards?" Lorist asked as he pointed at the 12 surviving knights.

The baron once again got hated stares from the knights.

"I... did not... mean it like that..." stammered Baron Camorra.

"I understand what you're trying to say. They are courageous alright, but more than that, they are idiotic. Their deaths are one thing, but they also broke so many things and dirtied the floors of my hall. I need to pay somebody to clean it all up you know; manpower is pretty expensive after all. If I don't clean it up properly, I'll be reminded of their corpses every time I smell the stench of blood and that would definitely affect my appetite when I eat. Should that happen, then I would fall sick and need to spend even more money to get medicine. And you know that medicine isn't cheap in the Northlands. That's why I have decided to take all their belongings as compensation for my loss..." Lorist reasoned.

As Baron Camorra reached into his robes, Lorist stared at him curiously and thought, if you manage to take out an AK47, I'll kneel down in front of you and surrender immediately...

However, the item the baron had retrieved was his own money pouch which he tossed forcefully to Lorist, who caught it with relative ease.

"I'll pay you back with my own money! Now everyone of us who are still alive have given you our money pouches! So, as a noble, can you show the dead the least bit of respect they deserve?" pleaded the baron as he bowed deeply.

"Alright, sheesh. Why am I such a soft person?" Lorist said before he turned to face Reidy who was searching the bodies of the dead knights. "Alright, just take their weapons and money pouches. Why would we need their smelly socks anyway... It's better to just buy new ones than to let our workers wash them clean. Put it back onto their feet. Same goes for the shoes, we don't need it."

Baron Camorra sat back down on his chair powerlessly and thought, Lord Duke... You've finally met your match...

Chapter 119 The Decision to Deploy

If the Second Prince was a hungry wolf, then the baron could be said to be a jackal. While wolves were ferocious and savage, jackals were cunning and suspicious. Even though almost everybody knew about the duke's desire to form his own Loggins Duchy, Baron Camorra understood that the real reason the duke wasn't able to accomplish it was due to his untrusting and indecisive personality.

The original reason for the formation of the Northland Army was so that the duke could defend himself against the Second Prince's father-in-law, Duke Fisablen and his Frontier Legion as well as to be the foundation of the main military force for his duchy in the future. However, the Northland Army had now become nothing more than a tool Duke Loggins used to threaten the landed nobles of the Northlands. Even though the duke's dominion's revenue did not exceed 60000 imperial gold coins, the wealth he had pilfered from the other landed nobles was enough for him to build three more armies the scale of the Northland Army. However, the duke did not do that and instead used the wealth to indulge in a life of luxury and debauchery.

One of the duke's current favorite pastimes was to use his imposing Northland Army to force the landed nobles of the Northlands to obey his orders and instructions as well as supply him with various provisions. However, being the person who played a huge part in the formation of the army, Baron Camorra understood that the biggest weakness of the army was its lack of actual experience on the battlefield. During the past two years since the army's formation, not once has it been deployed in actual battle.

It was further exemplified by the incident that happened earlier from the reckless behavior of the Silver ranked knights of the Northland Army at the Norton Family's bastide. Some of them were literally scared shitless from seeing their comrades die in front of them. All that time, the nobles of the Northlands had feared the terrifying reputation and the numbers of the Northland Army. But on that day, the army finally ran into somebody who wasn't afraid of their empty provocations. Not only did Lorist beat up the duke's Gold ranked knight severely, he even killed 8 Silver ranked knights belonging to the army and robbed the remaining survivors. That was a huge act of humiliation to the army as well as the duke himself.

Baron Camorra sighed and raised his head before he said to Lorist, "Lord Norton, aren't you afraid that the Lord Duke will lead his army straight to the Norton Family dominion? Aren't you afraid of the Northland Army tearing your bastide apart? I can only say that what you are doing now will cause serious consequences for the Norton Family. As the leader of the family, you really should be more considerate of your family's future and not ruin it in a rush of reckless behavior. If you're willing to hand the 100000 gold Fordes you got from the Kenmays Family to the Lord Duke, then I believe that I can convince him to restrain his anger temporarily and forgive you for your offensive behavior..."

Lorist snickered and said, "Oh-so-respectable Lord Baron, you really are a talent to be cherished. I really admire the way you can tell a lie like that as if you yourself believed it earnestly. In actuality, both of us already know the true origin of the 100000 gold Fordes, isn't that so? Since you say that the gold is given to the Kenmays Family by the duke for them to help him purchase military equipment and supplies, then he is no longer responsible for taking care of the money. Instead, it's the Kenmays Family's responsibility. Shouldn't the duke go to the Kenmays Family and prompt them to deliver the resources they promised in exchange for the sum of money he paid? Why would you come over to the dominion to ask us to return the money we took instead? That kind of practice doesn't abide to the rules and norms of us nobles, you know?"

"Then can I take that as an indication that the Norton Family is intent on opposing the Lord Duke?" Baron Camorra asked as he stared hard at Lorist.

"Hehehe, isn't the Norton Family not at fault here? Lord Baron, perhaps you have heard of a teaching that is passed down through the generations within the Norton Family. Aside from the Krissen Royal Family and the seniors of the Norton Family, every single member of the family will never kneel and submit to another person. The duke should have already expected this the moment he decided to stretch his greedy hands towards us. As for the Northland Army, if their ability is nothing more than those good-for-nothing knights over there..." Lorist said as he pointed at the 12 knights, "Then please, I sincerely welcome the army's arrival. Don't forget to tell them to stuff their money pouches with more coins the next time as well. Trust me, those coins will definitely be really useful for the preservation of their lives."

Baron Camorra stood up angrily and roared, "I will definitely tell the duke about your attitude and the exact words you said today! Lord Norton, since you insist on being so stubborn like this, you better pray that you have enough luck to bail you out from the consequences!"

"Hehe, Lord Baron, thank you so much for your kind wishes. I also think that I'm a rather lucky person myself. For instance, didn't I earn a small fortune from your visit today? Many thanks to you for that. It seems that it's getting rather late, so I would advise you to stay within the bastide for the night. Tomorrow, I'll send an escort to accompany you for your departure," Lorist said with a smiling face as if he wasn't the least bit bothered by the baron's threats.

Baron Camorra was already so exasperated that he could no longer even muster the energy to be angry. The leader of the Norton Family before him was even more ridiculous than Duke Loggins himself and was far more arrogant. The baron merely nodded with a cold expression and said, "I will take my leave now," before he exited the hall.

Lorist then looked at the 12 knights who were standing there obediently and told them, "What? Do you think that you'll be served dinner if you stay? Quickly drag this idiot on the ground and the corpses of your comrades out and buzz off! Did that dogshit duke think that we, the Norton Family, wouldn't dare retaliate at his greedy claws?"

......

"Sigh, Little Locke, that's far too reckless of you. Since Duke Loggins had already stated his conditions, we could've tried our best to negotiate to pay to a lower price.. There's no need to completely turn them down and piss them off to a point like that..."

The one who said that was Old Butler Gleis. Even though he didn't say a single word when Lorist was arguing with Baron Camorra, he felt that Lorist shouldn't have picked the worst possible choice from the get go. He felt that the best course of action was to use money and other material goods to placate the duke and his ambassador.

Lorist smiled and started pushing the butler's wheelchair before he said, "Grandpa Gleis, I've already thought through it. If we don't give all of the 100000 gold Fordes to the dogshit duke, he will never let us off that easily. And if we yield even once, he will take that as a sign of weakness and come even more often in the future to make his demands until we are completely sucked dry. Since we would eventually become enemies anyway, I don't see why we shouldn't give him a much needed wake up call and remind him that his Northland Army is not as fearsome and invincible as he thinks it is."

"Even if all the soldiers of the army were as useless as the Silver ranked knights that showed up today, there are still 20000 of them. The forces of our family are still far from being able to resist them..." said the old butler in a worried tone.

"Hehe, it will be fine. With the Firmrock Castle completed, they will never be able to enter our family dominion. No matter how many people they have, if they all run straight towards the castle walls, they will only crash flat into their deaths without being able to hinder us in the least," Lorist said as he expressed his confidence in the defensive capability of the newly-completed wall of the castle. That was also one of the main reasons he dared to go all out to turn against the duke.

"Oh, and, Grandpa Gleis, now that everyone is here, I'd like to discuss something important. I've decided to ready our troops to attack Wildnorth Town," Lorist said.

"Are you sure you'll succeed?" said the old butler in a surprised tone.

"I'm reasonably sure that I will, but I can't say that the casualties that we will incur will be small..."

Lorist then gathered everyone within the room and started briefing them on his plan to attack Wildnorth Town.

After hearing Lorist's explanation, Josk opined, "It'll be a tough battle. We are too short on time. Unless we attack without any regard to our casualties and reduce the fighting power of Wildnorth Town, there is no way that we will be able to take over it within a short period of time."

Lorist believed that by the time Baron Camorra returns to the duke's dominion, it would not take more than 15 days before the duke's army arrives at Firmrock Castle. He had proposed to occupy Wildnorth Town within that time frame to remove the tumor that was causing so much trouble for the family.

Lorist was prepared to mobilize one company and one squad of soldiers from Firmrock Castle and leave two squads of defensive unit soldiers to guard the place. Including the company of soldiers at the Maplewoods Bastide and the mercenaries at the base at Poplar Coast, they would have around 1000 men to attack the Wildnorth Town with.

Pajik expressed his objection to the plan and said that it was best if the family waited for another 6 months before attacking the town. He mentioned that Lorist had forgotten the most crucial factor that would cause their failure: the 1000 men he had wanted to mobilize were all new recruits who had little to no battle experience and military training and was not that much stronger than average farmer troops. On the other hand, the enemy had a huge fortified wall to hide behind and also knew the terrain well. They also had an advantage in numbers as the scenario of the women and elderly helping out with the defense that Lorist once mentioned was extremely possible.

Lorist laughed bitterly and said, "We don't have that much time. Even if the duke doesn't deploy his troops after hearing Baron Camorra's report, he will be more than happy to let the 2000-strong force of the Kenmays Family attack us first. Since we can only train elite soldiers by letting them fight actual battles, the casualties we will get is a price we have to pay. When compared to Duke Loggins, the people of Wildnorth Town are relatively easier to handle, so it's better to tackle that problem first. And we should also take into account that the conflict with the Northland Army will not end that swiftly, so we must also make preparations for a long, drawn-out battle."

"Is there no chance for us to take the gates of Wildnorth Town by way of a surprise assault and catch them off-guard?" Patt asked with a hint of dissatisfaction.

Lorist merely shook his head.

Old Butler Gleis explained to his grandson, "Deploying our troops to attack the Wildnorth Town will not happen instantly. We have to rally the soldiers and prepare the supplies we need during the expedition which will take at least two to three days to get done. Given how close the family bastide is to Wildnorth Town, any such movements we make will definitely be taken notice by them in no time. There are also many of the servants within the bastide who have familial relations with those of Wildnorth Town and it is entirely possible for them to notify the enemy in advance of our mobilization. By the time we arrive, they will have made their preparations long ago. That's why there isn't much we can plan for this assault; there is only one way and that is attacking head-on with full force."

Lorist announced, "Alright, it's decided. Pajik, you will be in charge of rallying and training soldiers here in the Maplewoods Bastide. Joe, when you escort Baron Camorra to Firmrock Castle tomorrow, lead the company of troops formed from the slave laborers as well as one of the defensive squad troops we have stationed over there back here and leave Ovidis in charge of defending that place. Paulobins will accompany you on your trip. Reidy, I need you to make a trip to the military base tomorrow and tell Hausky and Jim to bring their mercenaries over here and let Supervisor Kedan take charge of the construction work."

After making a few final thoughts, Lorist said, "All is set. We will mobilize our troops three days from now to attack Wildnorth Town."

......

When Lorist and the rest were discussing the plan of attacking Wildnorth Town, the atmosphere outside the Maplewoods Bastide castle was extremely merry and hectic. About 40 bored Northland Army soldiers started shouting at the guards on the walls of the castle and made many demands such as wanting more meat and alcohol as well as some allowance from the Norton Family for making them travel so far. They also demanded for women to be provided to serve them and to console their lonely hearts through the stillness of the night.

The soldiers gradually shouted their demands rhythmically as protesters would their slogans. "Give us money! Give us meat and wine! Give us women!..."

As their shouting got louder and louder, the gates to the castle opened and the ambassador and the knights that had went in earlier that morning emerged looking crestfallen and down. They didn't even leave with the mounts they had rode into the castle and some of them were even carrying corpses on their backs. The Gold ranked knight, Tabik, was being carefully carried by four knights who were using their capes as a stretcher.

The soldiers of the Northland Army were all dumbstruck at that sight before they were awoken by one of the Silver ranked knights who ordered them to quickly take care of the corpses as well as the unconscious Tabik. It didn't take long before the men realized that they had messed with the wrong people and the merry atmosphere within the camp returned to its former seriousness as they started to wonder whether the Norton Family would allow them to return unscathed.

After eating a simple meal, Baron Camorra paced around within his tent impatiently. He wasn't worried at being attacked in the middle of the night by the Nortons as traditional noble families like them had their own brand of pride and they usually wouldn't resort to underhanded methods like that.

Since that Norton Family leader is even more arrogant than the duke himself, he definitely would disdain doing something as devious as that.

Before the baron left for this expedition, he had never expected that he would actually fail. Given that the Norton Family had turned against the duke completely and had become his enemy, it was a given that the duke would mobilize his army in response.

Even though it was already rather late into the night, the baron still didn't feel like sleeping. He was troubled because he still didn't understand the true might of the Norton Family given that they had dared to choose to become the enemy of the duke. No matter how good the Norton soldiers' equipment were, it would only have limited efficacy against the 20000-strong Northland Army. Aren't the Nortons afraid that they will be attacked? What in the world are they planning?

At that moment, a soldier of the Northland Army peeked into the tent. Baron Camorra asked, "What's wrong?"

The soldier replied, "Milord, a few people have arrived outside the camp and they said that they would like to meet you. They are respectively the squad leader of the Wildnorth Town garrison force and one of the elders of Wildnorth Town, which is located within the Norton Family dominion..."

Chapter 120 The Days of the Expedition

The distance that would have taken 1 hour to traverse on horseback had taken the whole troupe 3 hours to travel before they arrived at their destination, causing Lorist to laugh out bitterly while shaking his head.

Just as he had expected before he launched the operation, Wildnorth Town was already ready to defend against the siege. On the walls of the town, blades glinting from the light of the sun and rows of people could be seen. It seemed that the four great families had prepared themselves for the incoming assault and a few of the garrison soldiers even cursed at Lorist and his men from the walls.

Lorist sent Patt to the walls of the town to send a final warning to them: he would request for the garrison force of Wildnorth Town to discard their weapons and open the gates to surrender and if they do that, Lorist would take into account the 100 plus years of relation that the Norton Family had with Wildnorth Town and forgive their act of treason and will only request the townsfolk to obey the new regulations that were set up. He would also promise not to punish even a single person for this incident.

However, before Patt even reached the walls, a volley of arrows had been set flying in his direction, causing his mount to be turned into an arrow pincushion. It was fortunate that Patt responded quickly enough and jumped off his mount before he returned to the rest of the group on foot.

Lorist and the rest were enraged at that action as it represented that the people of Wildnorth Town did not even bother to take the Norton Family into consideration and wasn't even willing to even communicate. The act of attempting to attack a messenger was far worse than normal treason.

Resisting his seething rage, Lorist refused his subordinates' request to attack the town right away and ordered them to guide the men to set up camp and start making food.

Wildnorth Town had two gates with one being at the front and the other at the back. Logically speaking, Lorist should have set up two camp sites to surround the town's exits. But as he only had 1000 men, the troops would be spread too thin if he decided to split them up. That was why Lorist had his men set up camp and sent another troupe of scouts to monitor the rear gate. If the people of the town attempt to send a bunch of troops to attack the Nortons from the back gate, then Lorist would be able to take that opportunity to wipe their forces out.

Lorist couldn't help but wish for the soldiers of the garrison force to do just that. He hoped that he could wipe out all his enemy's forces in an open field battle. Not only would that be a great blow to the town, it would also increase the morale of his troops and lessen the number of enemies defending the town, thus making it much easier for the siege to succeed. It was too bad that the garrison force of Wildnorth Town were famed for their cowardice: they only seemed to be shouting out curses at the Nortons' men who were setting up the campsite without any sign or intention of attacking.

By the time everything was completely readied, the sky had already turned dark. Lorist checked the arrangement of the patrols and lookouts before he went to rest so that he would have enough energy for the siege the day after. Thus, the first day of the expedition concluded just like that.

On the next day, after having his breakfast, Lorist rallied his men and assembled them into formation. The plan for the morning was to have Josk lead a group of mounted archers to circle the walls while releasing volleys of arrows to expose a weak point in the enemy's defense so that Lorist may take the opportunity to attack the spot to take over a part of the walls, thus paving the way for the rest of his forces to eventually overwhelm the town's defense and take over it.

Having circled the walls twice, Josk only lost four of his men and that was a rather fortunate outcome. Upon his return, Josk reported, "It won't work. When I was on the other side, I noticed that they had broadened and deepened the moat, so there is no way we can attack from there if we don't fill it up first. Other than that, I tried firing an arrow towards their rear gate and noticed they have it clogged shut from the inside, indicating that they have no intention whatsoever to launch a surprise attack by sending their troops out from the back. We have no other choice but to attack up front. Just now, I also noticed that they were mostly using hunting bows which will not pose too much a threat to us."

Lorist was feeling rather annoyed. The last time he visited the town, the moat was shallower than Josk had described. Who would've expected for them to deepen and broaden it all of a sudden. According to Josk, it was approximately two meters deep and roughly three meters wide. Due to the terrain, the depth of the moat wouldn't be visible from afar and could only be determined up close.

Lorist personally rode his horse around the walls of the town and wondered, where did they take the mud and dirt that they dug out from the moat? Then again, the depth of the moat is just as Josk had mentioned. There's no way that we can attack from here unless we fill it up first.

On one hand, he instructed Reidy to return to the Maplewoods Bastide and have Supervisor Spiel send over some grass sacks and digging tools. On the other, he ordered his subordinates to lead their soldiers to fell some trees which he would then use to make some large wooden shields and a transport cart which he would need to move the dirt required to fill the moat.

On the third day of the expedition, the plan was to fill up the moat which stretched tens of meters to the left from the main town gates. Lorist planned to launch a strong attack from that spot. Josk commanded a company of soldiers to plant the large wooden shields used defend against arrows onto the ground within 50 meters from the town walls. After that, he ordered his longbowmen squad to fire at the walls from the cover of the wooden shields to suppress enemy fire.

The squad of longbowmen used bows of the simplest design. These training longbows were made from firm and flexible yew wood and its construction method was relatively simple. A yew branch with sufficient thickness could easily be made into a longbow by carving the shape out and drying it. This kind simplified of longbow was slightly longer than proper longbows, however its firing range was inferior to that of a proper longbow by 30 or so meters, being only at approximately 70 meters. Not to mention its power and accuracy was also vastly inferior. The bowstring of a simplified longbow also had to be switched out after 180 or more arrows were fired and the bow itself had to be checked whether it was still in proper shape for continued use. While it was effective when used in training, simplified longbows like these wouldn't do much actual damage to the garrison soldiers on the walls.

Proper longbows on the other hand were made out of a kind of wood that was even more firm than yew. The wood had to be dried in the sun for a period of time before it would then be submerged in a special kind of oil for up to three months before it must once again be dried at a place out of reach of sunlight. During the submersion process, the wood also had to be shaped and strung before it could be adjusted, fixed and sanded. Lastly, the bow had to be painted a few times over before a layer of leather would be affixed to the bow's body. A proper longbow like that would require at least one and a half to two years of time to make. The firing range of such bows could go up to 100 meters easily and pose a serious threat to even Gold ranked fighters.

The construction of the cart was also rather simple. Its basic form was nothing more than putting together two large wooden planks to form an A-frame roof with four wheels fixed to its bottom and coating the roof with a layer of wet mud to prevent it from being set aflame by fire arrows. As the soldiers push the carts towards the moat behind the cover of the wooden panels, they can easily fill up the moat by opening the hatch located at the front of the enclosed cart and toss grass bags filled with soil into the moat.

The operation during the morning went on without a hitch: under the leadership of the Divine Marksman Josk, the squad of longbowmen were successful in their attempt to suppress the garrison soldiers on the wall to the point that they were unable to even stand up to take proper aim and could only fire from the small crenels on the walls. Needless to say, their firing accuracy was rather bad and it was unable to cause Lorist's side much damage and the garrison soldiers ended up with more casualties than the attackers. Currently, the moat was already half-filled and the operation would be complete by noon.

Lorist was rather relieved and believed that taking the town would not be as difficult as he had previously imagined given the lackluster intensity of the garrison force's counterattack. His troops might even emerge from this conflict with relatively few casualties.

However, after the lunch break, the soldiers of Wildnorth Town had also erected wooden barriers upon their town walls, which allowed them to mount a proper resistance. Additionally, after noticing that the fire arrows were ineffective against the transport cart, the soldiers of Wildnorth Town poured a huge amount of flammable oil onto the cart when it was near the wall and finally managed to set it aflame.

Josk finally showed his prowess by knocking down a few of the wooden barriers on the walls with his arrows in successive order. However, it was to no avail as the destroyed wooden boards were quickly replaced by new ones.

"6 of the longbowmen have died with 21 others injured. Also, more than half of their longbows are worn out to the point that it's already useless. Fortunately, we brought along another 100 plus extra ones which we can use as replacements. 8 soldiers among those who were sent to fill the moat have died and more than 26 of them returned injured. Should we construct another transport cart to replace the destroyed one?" Shadekampf asked Lorist after he reported the number of casualties from the failed attempt to fill out the moat.

"Send another company of family soldiers to fell some trees. Make sure that the soldiers of Wildnorth Town will be able to see us constructing the carts so that they will think that the soonest time for our next attack is tomorrow and let their guard down. Tonight, we will make our preparations for the time when the clouds obscure the moonlight to have our men bring the sacks to the moat by hand to fill it overnight," instructed Lorist.

Lorist's arrangements far exceeded the expectations of the Wildnorth Town garrison as by the time they noticed the movements beneath the walls, the moat had already been almost completely filled. Seeing the startled garrison soldiers drop their torches from the wall, Lorist smiled and said, "Come, let's go back. We're already almost done. When we attack tomorrow, we just have to bring a couple of more sacks of soil to fill the rest up. I hope that we will be able to take the town all in one go after that."

On the fourth day of the expedition, the weather was sunny with clear skies stretching to the far horizon.

Lorist organized all his soldiers into seven squads of troops with each bringing a siege ladder with them as they rushed towards the walls of Wildnorth Town.

Accompanied by Patt and Reidy, Lorist approached the walls gradually as he followed the tracks of the charging soldiers. As long as one of the ladders was placed on the walls successfully, Lorist believed that he could rush up the walls and massacre away to occupy part of the walls. If his reinforcements also manage to make their way up there, then their victory would almost be assured.

The distance slowly shrunk from 100 meters, to 80 meters, 60 meters... By the time the walls were right in front of their eyes, the wooden barriers on the walls were suddenly lowered in unison to reveal a row of bowmen and longbowmen in firing positions...

"Fire!" The moment the order was made, arrows and crossbow bolts rained down from the walls in a manner similar to that of a humongous tidal wave, obliterating many of the soldiers at the front within seconds...

As one soldier after another fell, Lorist neared his limit and he shouted, "Retreat! Quick, retreat!"

The green longbow in Josk's hands let out a thundering roar as it sent one green arrow after another flying straight towards the walls of the town which sent one soldier after another flying off into the air. The situation on the walls broke into a chaotic mess within moments. In response, a group of soldiers who were in formation moved sideways to make way for four ballistas that were pushed towards the edge of the walls from behind.

With four deafening booms, four gigantic ballista bolts soared in Josk's direction.

The moment Josk saw the four ballistas appear on the walls, he knew that something went wrong and jumped off his mount without a hint of hesitation. With a loud whoosh, a huge ballista bolt scraped past his back, ripping off the armor and undergarments he wore and tearing a huge, deep wound on his back from which blood oozed out profusely. Within an instant, Josk was covered wholly with his own blood.

Josk's mount on the other hand had already been split into a number of chunks as a result of being struck by three of the bolts.

Rolling on the ground twice and standing up quickly, Josk resisted the pain in his back and once again drew his green longbow. With a flash, a green arrow was shot towards one of the black ballistas on the walls, causing it to break and splinter into many pieces. Some of the soldiers standing near that ballista were hurt from the flying shrapnel. The remaining soldiers on the walls quickly pulled the 3 ballistas back from the walls in response.

After releasing that last arrow, Josk's whole body slumped to the ground. Lorist quickly rushed to him and carried him back to the camp on his back.

Bam! Lorist hatefully pounded on the makeshift wooden table made from a split log and left a deep indentation of his fist on its surface.

Damn! Damn it all! Nobody had saw it coming. Not one of them had expected that the garrison force would be so cunning and devious. During the past two days, they used hunting bows to attack the Norton soldiers and allowed them to fill out the moat, causing Lorist to have a mistaken impression that they didn't have much ability to retaliate. They only revealed their trump cards today when Lorist planned to take the town in one go and successfully caused huge losses to the Nortons.

A couple of beastskin documents were placed on the table. Those were name lists of the dead and injured soldiers which was compiled by Shadekampf. Within a short 15 minutes, more than 300 of their forces have been put out of commission with 83 of them dead and more than 200 injured. Even Reidy got hit by an arrow when he was rushing to help out. Had it not been for the fact that the soldiers at the front were wearing chain mails, the casualty count would have been far larger.

Josk on the other hand wasn't injured too badly. The cut on his back from the passing ballista bolt was easily treated with some medicine and bandaging. However, the final shot he took to destroy one of the ballistas damaged the blood vessels at his back and caused the wound to rupture and he would require more than ten days of rest before he would completely recover.

"Milord, the morale of the soldiers is really low. I think that we will be unable to continue the attack tomorrow. Today's battle really surprised me. How did the people of Wildnorth Town get their hands on so many longbows and crossbows as well as the four ballistas?" Patt said.

"I might know where the crossbows came from," said Pajik. "Four years ago when the First Young Master led the family's armored cavalry to war under the orders of the Second Prince, there were around 100 garrison soldiers of the Wildnorth Town who tagged along with him. They were in charge of the supply line for the First Young Master's armored cavalry as well as foraging the battlefield after each skirmish. During the battle I was captured by the First Young Master, I noticed that the garrison force soldiers were really focused on collecting weapons and equipment, including even the broken ones. I know that they have handed the metal armor and money to the family, but I didn't expect that they would smuggle and hide all the bows, crossbows as well as the ballistas they found..."

"What a deeply thought out plan... It seems that they have been preparing to rebel since four years ago. No wonder their attitude towards us had gotten worse in recent years. Do they think they will be able to protect the town just because they have ranged weapons? I will not stop until I successfully remove this tumor from the dominion," said Lorist as he grinded his teeth.

"But we're still unable to enter the town!" Patt exclaimed.

"We'll attack during the night. As long as I manage to get up on the walls, we will be able to occupy Wildnorth Town!" Lorist said as he looked towards the walls of the town.

Chapter 121 Duke Loggins's Plot

"Deploy! Deploy the Northland Army to the Norton Family dominion immediately! I want the Nortons to be vaporized and that family leader kid to beg for mercy while prostrating in front of me like an insignificant bug! After that I will hang him publicly for all the nobles in the Northlands to see the ending of someone who dares to resist me!" roared the count with bloodshot eyes as he breathed ragged breaths.

When Baron Camorra returned and reported the Norton Family's refusal to hand over the 100000 gold Fordes, the duke's anger gradually built up. Upon hearing that they do not acknowledge him as their senior noble, he became even more furious and started thrashing around, enraged. By the time Baron Camorra informed Duke Loggins about how the Norton Family leader incapacitated Knight Tabik and killed 8 of their Silver ranked knights, and even took all their money pouches and withheld their mounts, the duke completely lost it and flipped the desk he was sitting behind while muttering nonstop, "How dare they do this... How dare a puny bug like him resist my will..."

Standing beside the entrance to the study were three people. They chose that spot because the objects flying about in the room wouldn't easily reach there and they would also get a clear look into the study, so if something were really to fly out, it wouldn't be too hard for them to dodge and not become collateral damage of the duke's fit of rage.

Apart from the expressionless Baron Camorra, the other two were armored knights with huge physiques. The one with the beard was Duke Loggins's chief family knight, Wesson Chevany who also served as the chief commander of the Northland Army. The younger Gold ranked knight beside him was Hennard.

Hennard looked with an expression of excitement and envy at Duke Loggins who was sitting amidst broken chairs and messed up books while breathing raggedly. He said, "I really wish I could afford to smash a study up like that... It must feel so liberating..."

"Stop talking crap..." said Chevany with a humph. He turned to Baron Camorra and said, "Milord seems to be losing his temper more easily recently... That doesn't seem to be a good sign."

Baron Camorra replied quietly, "It has been like that since he met with the Second Prince the last time. I heard that he had been provoked and humiliated by one of the Blademasters serving the Second Prince. Oh well, at least milord will return to normal after he lets off some steam..."

Chevany sighed and said in a self-blaming tone, "It's all my fault for being unable to grasp the intricate insights required to break through to the Blademaster level and caused our lord to be humiliated in front of the Second Prince like that..."

"That can't be blamed on you. You've already tried your best and did pretty well. If only the Second Prince did not have two Blademasters serving him, then he would have come groveling to our lord for help long ago..." consoled Baron Camorra.

By the time Duke Loggins raised his head, his expression had already cleared up. Looking at the mess he made, he laughed out and said in a self-ridiculing fashion, "Gosh, it really is hard to control my anger at this age of mine. Come on, let's go to the small meeting room. Camorra, tell me the details of the happenings once again from the top and let's discuss how we should handle the Norton Family."

Following that, with Baron Camorra's excellent memory, he described the happenings without missing a single detail to the duke down to the attitude, intonation and expression of Lorist when he spoke.

"How are Tabik's injuries?" Duke Loggins asked.

"They shouldn't be anything serious. Mainly, his two arms which were rather severely twisted. The herbalist said that it would require around 1 year of rest for him to be able to recover," said Knight Chevany.

"Then, do you think that the Norton Family leader is strong? What rank is he at? How was Tabik unable to hold his ground against him?" asked the duke.

The two knights looked at each other before Chevany replied, "Milord, after receiving a notification from the guards, I went to visit Tabik. According to him, the twerp of the Norton Family should only be at the Iron rank. That was the reason why Tabik dared to act in the first place. But what he didn't expect was that the twerp excelled in unarmed combat. Tabik said that his loss was probably due to him having underestimated the Norton Family leader and let down his guard and lost the advantage during the first exchange. When he was aware of the situation, he was no longer able to fight back and that's how he ended up so severely injured."

"What a load of crap... I guess Tabik still isn't that honest of a chap yet. How is it possible for an Iron rank to injure him so badly? If he lost, he should just admit it and not come out with so many excuses..." Duke Loggins said as he knocked onto the tea table with his fist angrily.

"No, milord. That is indeed within the realm of possibility. The ancient legends from the Magical Civilization spoke of a profession called the combat monk. They were devout believers of the gods and also cultivated amazing fighting skills that could even take down dragons. However, they eventually died out during the war between the magi and the gods. Hundreds of years ago, some combat monk techniques were also excavated from some ruins and they were all cherished by the shrines like precious treasures. In present day, some of the shrines have practitioners who train in the revamped techniques of the combat monks from the days of old which also frequently allowed them to defeat opponents of a higher rank. I suspect that the Norton Family twerp had managed to get his hands on one such technique that specializes in unarmed combat. If that were really the case, then it isn't weird for Tabik to have lost at all," explained Knight Chevany.

"However, please be assured, milord. Even though techniques like these are extremely effective in one-on-one battles, in a battlefield scenario, the Norton kid will never be able to defeat a fully-armored Tabik charging at him from his mount," added Hennard.

"I see. Then I suppose this will serve as a good lesson for Tabik. I've heard that he's been getting more and more out of control lately. Hopefully this will change how he behaves in the future so that he doesn't get on the bad side of others and cause all sorts of unnecessary trouble," said the duke as he breathed out loudly twice from his nose.

"Chevany, can you defeat the Norton Family's forces if I let you command a regiment of troops?" the duke asked.

Chevany shook his head and said, "It won't be possible, milord. I've already checked the map and according to Sir Camorra, the Norton Family has built a new castle at the Morgan Hills. The fortifications at the castle according to Sir Camorra seems to indicate that a 2000-strong regiment wouldn't be enough to occupy it."

Baron Camorra took out a beastskin map from the pouch beside him and said, "Milord, please take a look over here. The route at Morgan Hills is the only one that leads into the Norton Family dominion. On my way back, I've came to a conclusion that the reason the Norton Family was daring enough to go against milord was because they believed that if they can defend the castle at Morgan Hills, even the Northland Army wouldn't be able to force their way into the dominion. I also have a few other drawings depicting the fortifications of the main defensive wall of the castle which Sir Chevany has also seen. He thinks that we can only conquer it if we continuously exhaust our soldiers in successive waves of attacks. However, the casualties will no doubt be huge and is estimated to be around 6000 people."

Duke Loggins looked at the map passed over by the baron carefully and could not help but admit that the terrain was severely disadvantageous to them in that it was easy to defend but extremely hard to attack. Just as Chevany had mentioned, a 2000-strong regiment was definitely not enough to conquer the castle.

"Then do we have no choice but to let the Norton Family off scot-free?" Duke Loggins was severely bothered by that notion. The fact that the Norton Family had managed to resist the duke's will was a bad example for the rest of the nobles in the Northlands and it would definitely affect his control and influence over the area negatively. He had to make the Nortons pay and use them as a warning for the other nobles who were unsatisfied with his rule so that they would not even think of rebelling.

"Milord, there is actually another route that leads to the internal part of the Norton Family dominion which will enable us to circumvent the pass at Morgan Hills," said Baron Camorra.

"Oh? Then where is that route you mentioned?" asked the baron as he looked intently on the map but failing to see anything of note. He thought that the Norton Family dominion was truly placed at a strategic location. The Blackmud Marsh at the north of the dominion sealed it off from any attempt at entry from there. At the dominion's west was the Bladedge Mountains and the open seas, at its south was the Morgan Hills and the Black Forests and to its east was the Magical Dragon Mountains. Apart from the pass at Morgan Hills which the Norton Family had constructed their castle to seal off, the duke couldn't find any other place where he could allow his soldiers to enter the Norton dominion.

"To be honest, I don't know where it is myself," said the baron. "However, the night I left the Norton Family's headquarters, I met with some visitors. They were the elders and the squad leader of the garrison of Wildnorth Town, the only town within the Norton Family dominion. The reason they came to me was that they wanted to complain about how the Norton Family leader changed the governing policy his ancestor first instilled to cause unfair treatment to the people of Wildnorth Town. That was why they came to me to offer help and said that they would stand at our side to aid in the defeat of the Norton Family when milord's forces come to punish them.

"According to them, the new Norton Family leader has always been a cruel person even from the days of his childhood. In one instance, he even pushed his 7-year-old younger brother into a well and almost killed him. In the end, someone from the family could no longer stand it and exiled him for ten years and he had only returned a few months ago to succeed as the dominion lord. After becoming the family leader, his behavior worsened and he went all over the place to instill conflict and tortured the poor citizens of Wildnorth Town. As a result, the citizens of the town who have had enough of the harsh treatment started planning to rebel in secret. They said that if the Lord Duke is willing to punish the Norton Family to right the wrongs they have done towards the citizens of the town,they will definitely be more than happy to help guide our forces into the Norton Family dominion through that secret route to catch them off guard..."

"Oh. I see..." said the duke as he breathed a long sigh. "Then did he say how the Norton Family kid changed the policies of his ancestor to oppress the people of the town?"

Duke Loggins had always been rather interested with how other nobles reaped benefits at the expense of their own subjects. He believed that learning more methods from others would enhance his own way of squeezing the last copper coin from the hands of his poor subjects.

Baron Camorra's face contorted in response to the weird situation. "It's like this..."

Baron Camorra was an intelligent individual and he had seen all too often how the nobles outsmarted each other for the slightest additional gain. The methods he learned was also put to good use by him. That night when he received the visitors from Wildnorth Town, he put on a friendly smile and personally served his guests to ease them up. Coupled with his expertly subtle questioning, it didn't take long for him to make the visitors reveal the truth completely and unknowingly.

By the time Baron Camorra finished describing the relationship between Wildnorth Town and the Norton Family, he was faced with three men who looked at him with expressions of bewilderment.

"That kind of situation actually happened? So there are nobles who are like that as well..." mused Knight Hennard.

Knight Chevany thumped on the table and said, "Ridiculous! Those heartless ingrates deserve death! Were the ancestors of the Norton Family idiots? They should've slaughtered people like that long ago! Why have they let them propagate until now?"

"Oh, so the taxes the Nortons paid to us actually came right out of their own pockets instead of their subjects... It seems that the Nortons are rather wealthy. After all, they have near 300 years of history and their foundation should be rather steep..." The duke was instead focused on the financial aspect the situation that was just revealed. To him, morals and righteousness were merely secondary to monetary profits.

"Did the people from the town request anything in exchange for their guidance?" asked the duke calmly.

"This.... Um..." Baron Camorra started to hesitate.

"Tell me. I want to hear what kind of ridiculous request they made," prompted the duke.

"They... They said that since the Norton Family dominion was rather large and they weren't that greedy, they hope that after you exterminate the Norton Family, you will assign four baronies to them from a small part of the Norton Family's territory..." Baron Camorra was embarrassed to even recite the request of the four great families of Wildnorth Town. They were thinking too far ahead of themselves.

"They dare to request that in exchange of merely being a guide?" said Knight Hennard in with his jaw agape after hearing that.

"They said that the four great families combined have more than 600 Battle Force-awakened people and up to 10 of them are Silver ranked. Other than that, they also have more than 2000 youths. According to them, if they side with the Norton Family, milord will never even stand a chance. Other than that, the secret route leading into the Norton Family dominion is also a something that was kept untold for hundreds of years among the leaders of the great families which they also use to smuggle their goods. They said that if they reveal it to milord, it will be exposed and they desire compensation for that..." explained Baron Camorra.

"Hehe, a smuggling operation that has been going on for hundreds of years... And they only had to pay the Nortons 10% of their harvest. It seems that the town is pretty wealthy after all. Promise them that after we enter the Norton Family dominion, we will agree to their conditions if they can conquer the castle of the Nortons. Let them be at the frontlines so that they will decrease the casualties of the Northland Army," decided the duke.

"But milord, are you really going to make them barons after they manage to take over the main castle of the Norton Family?" asked Knight Hennard with displeasure in his voice.

"Do you really think that a noble title is that easy to obtain? We are not as... kind... as the Norton Family. By the time the Wildnorth Town troops successfully conquer the Norton Family's castle, that is when we will strike..." said Duke Loggins as he let out a sly smile.

"What if they refuse to attack the Nortons?" asked Knight Chevany.

"Refuse? Hehe, then invite them to our main army camp and tell them that we are going to carry out the entitlement ceremony to grant them their baronies. That is when we will strike and grab all the wealth of Wildnorth Town for ourselves. As for the citizens... Kill all the elderly, the youths and the children. Leaving them alive will only spawn trouble in the future. Spare the young women and don't lay a hand on the virgins. I've heard that prices for female slaves have risen recently, just in time for us to make a killing," said the duke.

"Then how many troops are we going to mobilize? And, do we have to lockdown the pass at Morgan Hills where the other castle is located so that nobody gets out?" Knight Chevany asked.

Duke Loggins gave some thought before he said, "We'll send out two regiments of 4000 troops. That should be enough. The regiments will be led by Hennard and you. Don't forget to pay attention to that Gold ranked Divine Marksman. If he's willing to defect to our side, bring him back here. As for the castle at Morgan Hills, there's no need to pay attention to that. Viscount Kenmays has just departed with his 2000-strong force yesterday to take back the gold that was stolen from them. Hehe, let's just sit here and wait for them to wear their own numbers down by attacking the castle at Morgan Hills."

"Oh, before I forget, Camorra, contact the representatives of Wildnorth Town and tell them to supply us with the necessary provisions and food for the expedition. After all, they won't believe that we've accepted their proposal that easily if we don't even attempt to negotiate the conditions in our favor a little."

"Yes, milord," said Baron Camorra as he bowed deeply.

Chapter 122 Return in Futility

At that particular night during the 8th month, the cool night breeze took away the scorching heat of the day, causing most to feel exceedingly refreshed.

It had already been eight days since Baron Camorra's departure and it was currently the fifth day of Lorist's expedition to defeat Wildnorth Town.

Within a small forest roughly 200 meters away from the town, Lorist could be seen leaning against a thick yew tree looking towards the moon with a long wooden stick placed beside him.

Hausky and Jim arrived at Lorist's side and looked at the distant town before they focused their gazes on the wooden stick.

"Milord, can you really get up the wall using this wooden stick?" Jim asked with a whisper, already unable to restrain his curiosity.

Lorist nodded and said, "I can. You guys should start moving as well after I get up on the walls. Are you all ready?"

Hausky patted on his metal breastplate and said, "Don't worry milord, we won't disappoint you."

"Why can't we act together? Isn't it better that way?" Jim asked.

"The more people at one time, the easier it is for them to discover us. Just wait for me to get up the walls and cause some trouble first. By then, the guards will have their attentions focused on me, which means you guys will have a much better chance getting up there alive instead of being struck down midway."

"Milord, thank you..." Hausky said in a touched voice.

"Hey, why is a big guy like you crying? How shameful..." said Lorist as he laughed.

"It's not shameful at all. Milord, we're willing to do anything for you. Seriously, not only do you not look down on us mercenaries, you've always treated us fairly. If it were the other nobles, they would've asked us to be the first to attack the town and fill the moat while they remain in safety and enjoy the spectacle..."

"To be honest, I've never given it much thought..." said Lorist as he shook his head. "I believe that mercenaries like you are definitely very experienced and far stronger than the soldiers of my newly-formed units. That was why I had planned to use your crew as shock troops to rush into the battlefield and seize a sudden victory by the time my forces are at their limits. I've never expected that the garrison force would be so cunning and cause so many casualties among our men though, so I have no choice but to use you guys right now."

"Milord, we're doing this of our own wills. Not only have you prepared double-layered metal armor for us, you're even going into battle yourself. It's an honor for us mercenaries to go into battle with someone like you..." exclaimed Hausky passionately while Jim nodded nonstop beside him.

"Milord, look at the sky..." Patt reminded.

A large dark cloud gradually moved into place and obscured the light coming from the moon, blanketing the ground below with a veil of near complete darkness.

"Let's get ready, Patt," said Lorist as he grabbed one end of the wooden stick.

"Yes," said Patt as he grabbed the other end of the stick.

By the time the Silvermoon was completely blocked off by the cloud, Lorist and Patt ran forward with one at the front and the other at the back out of the forest. They passed through the plains, crossed the main path and quickly made their way to the bottom of the walls of Wildnorth Town.

Lorist didn't slow down at all and when he saw the wall right in front of his eyes, he suddenly leaped upwards and stepped quickly with his feet firmly planted onto the surface of the wall. Borrowing Patt's forward charge momentum, he held on to the stick tightly as it was gradually pushed vertically upwards and seemed like he was running up the walls in a gravity-defying manner all the way up there.

On the corridor of the wall, a few of the garrison guards were chatting. "The moonlight was just blocked by that huge cloud. Can someone toss a few torches down there to see if there are any movements? We must be careful to not let the enemy get up here..."

"Oh, come on... Their casualties yesterday was so huge that I doubt they'd even dare to mount another surprise attack..."

"I'm just afraid that they don't know when to quit. Come on, don't be so lazy. How much effort does it take to toss a torch down there anyway..."

At that moment, Lorist descended from mid-air and landed on the side of the wall just as he had planned. With a few flashes of his sword, the five garrison soldiers instantly had their throats slit with some of them even wearing expressions of disbelief.

"Enemy attack! An enemy is on the wall!" A loud cracked voice called out loudly and broke the silence of the night.

Torches were rapidly lit within the town and slowly turned it into a shining beacon of light. Children were frightened awake from the commotion and their cries could be heard from afar as the sounds of the gong signalling for the people to gather reverberated around the area before a numerous swords and spears meshed into a chaotic mess of screams and shouts.

"Over there!" Someone quickly saw Lorist standing on the corridor.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Countless arrows flew in the darkness towards Lorist...

After ducking, Lorist moved a couple of steps to his side while laying low onto the floor while the spot where he originally stood become laden with passing arrows. However, the stream of arrows did not last long as right after that, Lorist had already rushed straight towards the attacking garrison soldiers and started slaughtering away.

"Kill!" Four spears lashed out towards Lorist in a fashion similar to that of attacking poisonous snakes.

"Ah..." Two garrison soldiers fell to the ground while holding their injuries while Lorist's sword found its way to the left shoulder of another one and emerged from his right rib. By the time Lorist pulled out his sword, that soldier's innards leaked out from the gaping hole that just created, causing him to cry out in agony before he stopped breathing altogether.

One other soldier was stabbed in the chest by Lorist and writhed in pain on the ground. However, his comrades behind him merely pushed forward and trampled him all over, causing him to promptly lose his life.

Bending backwards all of a sudden, Lorist managed to dodge the four pikes that barely passed by above him.

Clang! With the passing of Lorist's sword, the four pikes broke and the soldiers holding them felt a shudder from their hands. Stunned, they looked at their broken pikes and before they could react, they noticed the silhouette rush towards them followed by a glint from a blade in the corner of their eyes. Everything turned black for the soldiers before they felt a wound open up in their bodies. A stream of intense pain assailed their minds before they all lost consciousness.

"Kill" This time, the attacker was a Silver ranked knight who rushed at Lorist with a bright blade glow radiating from his sword. As Lorist spun around, he thrusted out his longsword into the left eye of the Silver ranked knight.

"Get into the wave charging formation!" shouted a person from not far away.

"That voice is familiar..." mumbled Lorist as he blocked an incoming pike with his sword and slit two garrison soldiers' throats right after.

"Kill..." This time, eight pikes were headed Lorist's way with four coming from above and the other below, not allowing Lorist any way to dodge by jumping or ducking.

However, Lorist merely stepped back and used his right leg to kick a pike on the ground towards the soldiers in front of him. The airborne pike found its way into the chest of one of the soldiers and caused him to drop his pike and fall to the ground as he clutched the one that had just pierced his abdomen tightly while crying out in pain. Lorist moved like an agile fish swimming in the ocean and entered the opening created by the soldier who had dropped his pike...

The remaining seven soldiers all fell onto the ground one by one.

"Attack from his front and back! Pay attention to the distance of the two groups! Get closer..." said that voice again.

"That is Malte's voice... It's that damned squad captain of the Mollin Family..." mused Lorist the moment he recognized who that voice had belonged to. Enraged, he scooped up the pikes on the ground and tossed them in the direction of the voice, causing pained shrieks to surface once again.

"Kill..." This time, another group of garrison soldiers rushed towards Lorist from one direction with another group rushing towards him in the other.

At that moment, a shadow jumped off the walls. Jim's voice rang out. "Milord, we managed to get up..."

Another two silhouettes could be seen getting atop the walls as well.

"You guys take care of that side. Let me handle this spot," instructed Lorist before he sheathed his longsword in the scabbard on his back. Following that, he took one of the pikes on the ground and rushed towards the garrison soldiers in front of him. The distinct sounds of slaughter continued to resound through the night...

"There's people down there! They're coming up!" A panicked garrison soldier said as he noticed the mercenaries who were currently climbing up the walls.

"Don't panic! Throw some oil jars and have the bowmen shoot some fire arrows downwards!" roared Malte once again. "Brothers, this is our home! Our ancestors have toiled for 200 years to build up Wildnorth Town! Our parents, our wives and our children live here! For them, we will fight!"

"Kill!"

"Fight!"

More and more garrison soldiers rushed up the walls...

"Sol, now I'm the bad guy..." Lorist said in a pissed voice as he lashed out without mercy with his pike in quick succession, causing one garrison soldier after another to collapse into the river of blood that was beneath them. But, after one was killed, two more soldiers rushed forward to replace the fallen one. There was no end to their numbers.

An injured garrison soldier slowly crawled his way to Lorist's feet and tightly clasped on Lorist's left leg. Pulling his pike back, Lorist stabbed harshly towards that soldier's head and instantly shattered his skull and spilled his brains. However, the soldier's death grip didn't loosen at all.

"Sol..." Lorist kicked his left leg out twice, but he wasn't able to shake the body off. The rest of the garrison soldiers present no longer cared about escaping alive and only wanted to give Lorist at least one stab before they would die satisfied. Some of the soldiers even held hard onto the pike that Lorist had pierced them with so that their comrades could avenge their deaths. The remaining ones who rushed towards Lorist were all willing to perish alongside him.

Lorist could only drag the body that was caught onto his left leg with him as he retreated. Hausky's voice rang out from behind him, "Milord, we're at our limits..."

Lorist stabbed two garrison soldiers before he took a peek to his back. Surprised, he noticed that that only 4 to 5 of the original 10 plus mercenaries that he thought had come up to the walls remained after only a short time of fighting. Jim was fully drenched in blood and breathing raggedly while Hausky was holding an unconscious bleeding mercenary. In front of him were two other mercenaries who were fending off the attacks of the garrison soldiers.

"What happened to the rest? Why are they not up there?" Lorist asked.

"They couldn't get up. One of the siege ladders had already been set aflame and there are bowmen guarding some other sides of the wall. Anyone we send up die before he reaches the top..." said Jim while breathing harshly.

Just as Lorist was about to say something, he suddenly noticed that the skies were getting brighter. The Silvermoon had once again returned to its full brilliance and shed its light onto the ground below.

Given that he had killed so many garrison soldiers, bodies could be seen scattered all over the ground and the blood that had pooled up submerged part of his feet. The incoming garrison soldiers were also stunned at the number of bodies on the ground. Given that the moonlight had been blocked out just now, most of the soldiers just realized the true terror of the scene before them as well as the fact that many of them had been stepping on the corpses of their comrades.

Lorist stepped hard on the body that was stuck to his leg to break its arm before he finally managed to free himself from its grasp. Looking at the distant archers, Lorist said, "Please hold on for a little more. I will go kill the archers over there so that the people beneath the walls can make their way up here..."

Before he finished saying what he wanted, Lorist felt a chill down his spine as he flattened himself onto the ground to duck. Feeling the three gusts of air whoosh past above him, Lorist heard the delayed echoes of the three bowstrings followed by a loud crash as a crenel on the wall near him got smashed into smithereens, causing the debris of stones and rocks to shower all over him.

"Agh!" The gigantic ballista bolt struck the two mercenaries who were holding up their shields to defend against the garrison troops and sent them falling down from the walls.

Three ballista bolts were fired in total with the first passing by Lorist's head by a hair's breadth, another shattering one of the crenels of the wall, and the last one killing the two mercenaries who were standing behind Lorist. Had Lorist been later in the slightest to duck, he would've been killed as well.

"Kill!" The morale of the garrison troops who were fighting the mercenaries soared as they continued to rush over.

Lorist sprung back up from the ground and brandished his pike as he charged into the midst of battle, resulting in even more terrified moans of pain as the mercenaries gradually fell dead one after another.

After eliminating that group of garrison soldiers, Lorist turned to face the direction where the ballista bolts came from, only to see an 80-meter-tall platform in the middle of the town that wasn't there before. On top of it were the three ballistas as well as tens of other men who were busy loading it.

"You guys, retreat! Fast!" shouted Lorist.

Jim was the first to descend the wall by sliding down the siege ladder, followed by Hausky and the hurt comrade he was carrying.

"Shoot him..." Malte's voice once again rang out.

Whoosh!

With a somersault, Lorist clasped the wooden stick that was laid against the walls with both of his legs and slid downwards with his back to the ground before he let go when he was about 2 meters in the air and landed safely. Patt quickly rushed over and used a large shield to cover Lorist and grabbed the wooden stick with his other hand before he ran. Just after the both of them ran tens of meters from the walls, the shield that Patt held up had already been struck with numerous arrows.

In the end, 13 mercenaries died with 21 others injured from the battle, effectively halving the battle prowess of their crew. Lorist grinded his teeth with rage from his depressing failure to occupy the walls. He didn't even fathom that the town had set up three ballistas on a platform so far away from the walls which posed such a huge threat for him and his forces, allowing the Wildnorth Town garrison to be able to successfully fend off the attackers and successfully defending the town.

After a night of bloodshed, Lorist felt more tired than ever and went to rest right away.

......

During the 7th day of the expedition, Lorist once again attacked the walls on Wildnorth Town. On that day, the fog thick fog in the area managed to reduce the line of sight of the garrison soldiers and provided cover for Lorist and Patt to once again use the wooden stick method to ascend the walls.

This time, Lorist attacked alone with no one else following him apart from Patt who was standing by beneath the walls. Lorist's aim was to rampage and kill as much as he could to terrify the soldiers of the town. He believed that after he did that a couple of more times, their forces would eventually crumble and weaken and allow all his forces to easily take over the town later.

After massacring away on the walls, Lorist was once again forced to escape after the ballistas were loaded. However, he wasn't disappointed with the results as he had managed to kill up to 200 soldiers on that run while he remained completely uninjured. After a few more runs, victory will be ours.

However, something had happened up on the walls at that time which Lorist didn't pay too much heed to. An old white-haired man leaped towards Lorist barehanded and screamed for him to pay for the death of his son. Lorist didn't kill him because he couldn't bear to. The old man had coincidentally been on his way to bring some food for his precious son who was on duty, just in time with Lorist's assault. In the end, the son of that man died from fulfilling his duty, causing the old man to enter a maddened frenzy and lashing out at Lorist with everything he had in his disposal including his teeth. Lorist had no choice but to knock him unconscious.

......

On the 9th day of the expedition, Lorist once again attacked the walls. But what surprised Patt was that Lorist had went down from the walls the moment he reached the top. Enraged, Lorist cursed at how shameless the people of Wildnorth Town were for letting the defenseless old people, womenfolk and children offer their lives on the wall.

Before Patt could react to what Lorist just said, he noticed many white-haired old people, women and children looking downwards from the edge of the walls while cursing out harshly at Lorist and shouting for him to pay for the lives of their family members that he had taken.

Lorist could only escape without any results along with Patt.

Perplexed, Patt asked, "Milord, these are all family members of traitors. Why didn't you just kill them off?"

"Sol, if it were you, could you do it?" Lorist said as he looked at Patt. "Why don't I send you up there then to kill them off in my place? We are warriors, not murderers or executioners. Warriors are all prepared for the possibility of death the moment they step onto the battlefield. However, if I were to kill these defenseless people, I would definitely find it hard to sleep when the night comes. Even if they are family members of traitors, we must also have a line we must not cross. They are people after all, not livestock!"

"Then, how would we attack the walls again?"

"Let's go back first. There must be a way if we think hard enough."

Chapter 123 Urgent Reinforcement Request

Everyone looked at each other with confused gazes, not knowing what to make of the situation.

"That's far too shameless of them, milord. In the 30 years I've been a mercenary, I've experienced more than 100 siege battles but I've never heard of anything as atrocious as that. This..." said Hausky as he didn't know how to continue the conversation. He was currently wrapped up in many bandages; the injuries were the ones he sustained during that night when they had to retreat from the walls. At that time, the injured comrade he was carrying got showered with arrows and died while Hausky himself got hit by a couple as well. Had it not been for the fact that the metal armor he was wearing stopped the arrows from penetrating too deeply, he might've been beyond saving.

"The family leaders of the four great families of Wildnorth Town are all cunning old bastards. I suspect that they came up with this method after that one time when I didn't kill the old guy on the walls. The most laughable part is that they treat Wildnorth Town as their own territory and label us as the horrible invaders. That was why the civilians were so willing to give their own lives up to protect their town. Even those old people were willing to die if it meant they could take me with them..." said Lorist as he sighed.

"That's not right, milord. Didn't you say that they were unarmed? How did they plan to die with you?" Patt asked.

Lorist pointed to Patt and said, "Are you really asking that or are you playing dumb? Those old people wanted to hold tight onto me and stop me from moving or dodging so that the three ballistas can fire and obliterate me along with them. The moment I saw the ballistas aimed in my general direction and the old people who were scrambling to hold me down, I understood their ploy. That was why I got down so quickly."

"Milord, even though the defenseless citizens of Wildnorth Town are the family members of traitors and deserve nothing less than death, and that their relatives soldiers died because they resisted us directly, I think that what you did was right. If it were me, I would also be unable to lash out at those defenseless people," Pajik said.

"Then, how would we be able to continue the siege? Should we close one eye just because the scum family leaders are using the elderly, women and children as their shields?" said Paulobins in annoyance. Even though he was merely a squad captain, he was currently serving as a temporary company captain and he had hoped that he would be able to get Lorist's recognition by raking in some achievements during this expedition and be promoted to become a family knight.

"On my way back, I thought of a method we can use. From today onwards, every two hours. I'll go take a stroll on the walls of the town and unsettle the soldiers of the garrison force as well as the civilians up there. You guys can also bring a squad of family soldiers nearby during the night to make some noise. Stand beneath their walls and strike at your drums while screaming that you're going to attack the town or something so that the people up on the walls won't be able to get a good night's sleep. I am pretty sure that within two days, when I get up on the walls again, those civilians will definitely be so soundly asleep that even if you play a drum beside their ears, they wouldn't wake up," Lorist said.

"Haha, I knew that milord will have a way. That method sounds rather good. I will be the first to harass them tonight," said Jim excitedly. He had been pretty lucky during the night of the retreat. After he slid down from the siege ladder, he ran like an agile rabbit and didn't incur any injuries much to the surprise of others.

"Milord, must we attack only from the front wall? Right now, the forces of their garrison are mostly concentrated there. If we attack from the back wall without warning, then surely they would struggle to respond and send reinforcements there in time..." The one who said that was Reidy and he suggested for the location of the attack points to be switched.

Patt smiled happily and said, "Reidy, you little idiot... If we change the point of attack, wouldn't we have to fill up the moat like before? By then, the soldiers of the town would definitely know that we are going to attack from there. When we finish our preparations, they will already be ready to receive us. That's why changing a location is quite a futile exercise..."

"Why do we need to fill out the moat?" said Reidy in a dissatisfied tone.

"How would you be able to cross it if we don't? It is 3 meters wide you know. Can you jump over there in one go?" Patt was thinking to himself of how stupid Reidy had sounded.

"Can't we just lay a few wooden boards on the moat when we attack? That way we can easily cross it," Reidy said.

Stunned, Patt mumbled, "This... um..."

Nobody present had a clue that there would be an easier way to overcome the moat and were all stunned by Reidy's suggestion.

Lorist clapped his hands and said, "That's right. Reidy, good job coming up with this idea. This way, we will definitely be able to catch them off-guard. And given how their ballistas are positioned to face the front wall, it would definitely take them some time to reorient it. Alright, the next time we launch an attack, we'll mobilize all our troops and finish this in one go."

"Then, do we still have to harass them during the night?" Jim asked.

"Of course we have to. We need to let them think that we're still going to attack from the front so that they will focus their attention and distribution of their forces there. For these two days, we'll bother them nonstop to tire them out and secretly move our forces to the other side. We'll also send a squad to frighten them from the front wall so that they will congregate their forces there in preparation to receive the 'attack' while we launch the true assault from the back wall. I will be the first to go up and kill off the remaining troops who stay behind at the back wall and subsequently destroy the three ballistas on the platform. The key focus of this plan is speed. By the time they get an understanding of the situation, we should already have victory within our grasps."

Lorist effectively combined his and Reidy's plans into a cohesive whole that would be perfect for conquering Wildnorth Town's walls and was met with the unanimous applause from everyone within the tent. Within another two days, the town would be conquered.

......

On the 12th day of the expedition, the dinner served was more plentiful than usual. Everyone knew that they were going to have a sleepless night that would determine whether they would triumph over Wildnorth Town.

During the past two days, the soldiers of Wildnorth Town had already been tired out severely. Not only were they unable to rest well during the night, they had to deal with Lorist's surprise visits during the day as well. Lorist would occasionally use the same wooden stick method to scale the walls and kill a number of soldiers and escape before the civilians made their way to him, causing the garrison soldiers to be unable to anything about it. They have already seen Lorist's abilities for themselves and understood that there was no way to force this new dominion lord of theirs to leave their walls apart from using human wave tactics after some of them witnessed a few of their Silver ranked fighters getting killed within one exchange with Lorist who seemed so relaxed as if he were merely slaughtering chickens.

Had they not discovered that Lorist wouldn't harm their elderly, womenfolk and children and used them to hold Lorist back, the garrison troops' morale would have crumbled and they might have surrendered after Lorist's continued solo rampages. Nowadays, the four great families of Wildnorth Town could only use the propaganda of protecting their homeland and relatives to motivate their troops. On one hand, they fanned the flames among the civilians to invite them to avenge their loved ones who had died from Lorist's hands. On the other hand, they were hoping that Duke Loggins's forces would arrive as soon as possible to reinforce them.

Even though they understood that the enemy was harassing them on purpose, the garrison force couldn't afford to slacken their defense just in case the attack was real. After only two days, the garrison soldiers were mostly tired out. A few of the leaders noticed that it wasn't faring well and wanted to have a part of the troops take tests rests in shifts, but they were worried that they wouldn't have enough forces to push Lorist back when he attacked again and had no choice but to continue as they had. L

......

Pajik, Paulobins, the both of you will lead squads to the hill near the town's back wall by circling from behind our camp. Make sure to reach there by ten o'clock at night and ensure that the troops are disciplined and quiet at all times so that the soldiers of the town don't discover us, understand?" said Lorist as he finalized the plan.

"Yes, milord. We understand."

"Jim, are you clear on your role?"

"I am, milord. I will bring the mercenaries to hide the wooden boards and siege ladder in the nearby forest and set it up after you get up the wall so that Pajik and the rest can lead their forces to ascend the wall," Jim replied.

"Reidy, you will be in charge of leading the lightly injured troops to carry out the usual harassment."

"Yes, milord."

"Shadekampf, please watch the main camp. Hausky, tonight's camp patrols will be up to you. Be alert, I'm worried that the people of Wildnorth Town will be forced to desperation and take the initiative to attack us instead."

"Don't worry, milord. Even though I'm all bandaged up, my movements are not affected in the least. I will definitely not spare a single one of them if they come," replied Hausky.

"Good. Tonight, we occupy Wildnorth Town. We..." Before Lorist finished what he had to say, sounds of a horse galloping towards the camp could be heard. The rider stopped his horse and the mount neighed in response.

A guard rushed into the tent all covered up in dust while breathing raggedly. Before he recovered his breath, he saluted and reported, "Re-reporting to milord... Ken-Kenmays Family's 2000 plus force has arrived at the Firmrock Castle today and started their assault. Our forces have sustained huge casualties defending it and Sir Ovidis has asked me to request for reinforcements."

The people in the tent instantly broke into a chatter. Everyone knew that Firmrock Castle was the most important citadel that sealed off the Norton Family dominion from the rest of the Northlands. That is also where Lorist intended to build the main city of the dominion in the future.

Lorist recognized the guard who had came to make the report as he had seen him hanging around Ovidis a number of times and was confident he wasn't an impostor to deliver a false report. "Calm down and speak slowly. Did Ovidis only send you alone?" asked Lorist as he passed a cup over.

The guard received the cup gratefully and drank huge gulps of water before he rubbed his mouth dry and said, "Yes, we are far too short on people. The enemy has launched two attacks that we successfully fended off. About a squad of people were injured or killed in the process and Sir Ovidis could only send me to come as we were too short on men. When I arrived at Maplewoods Bastide, they said that you were still here so I rushed over immediately."

"What's going on? Firmrock Castle should be quite well fortified. Why are the casualties so high? How is Ovidis commanding his troops?" Lorist was very troubled as he thought, don't tell me Ovidis went outside the castle to receive their attack in an open field battle? That can't be, he's not that stupid...

"No, milord. The Kenmays Family forces have two squads of properly trained longbowmen. The 200 or so bows are really too fearsome and they can shoot much further than the ballistas of the castle. We couldn't defend the outer wall at all and most of the casualties came from their longbowmen units. However, not everything is going well for the enemy either as they have failed twice in their attempts to take the inner wall due to the ballistas we have hidden within the turrets on that wall. It is estimated that their casualties are at least double of ours," said the guard, finally reporting a piece of good news.

"Sol!" Lorist smashed his fist onto the table and flipped the cup over. What horrible timing! If the Kenmays didn't attack now, I would've been able to conquer Wildnorth Town! What should I do now?

Lorist paced around within the tent as the rest stared at him and awaited his decision. Even though the occupation of Wildnorth Town was within sight, the urgent call for reinforcements from the messenger had worried all of them.

"I have decided..." said Lorist after he finally made his choice, "...to call off tonight's operation and recall all troops to the Maplewoods Bastide. Paulobins, when we return to the bastide, pick a company of the family troops for deployment. Shadekampf, have Supervisor Spiel ready some carriages when we get back for the troops Paulobins pick to use to travel to Firmrock Castle, alright?"

"Yes, milord."

"Understood, milord."

"Pajik, let the injured soldiers rest when we arrive at the bastide and increase the training of the remaining ones. I will leave the defense of the bastide to you."

"Please be assured that the bastide will be fine with me there," promised Pajik.

"Reidy, pay a visit to the military base and ask Supervisor Kedan to move the laborers back to the Maplewoods Bastide so that they won't get attacked by the forces of Wildnorth Town."

"Yes, milord." Reidy's shoulder was still bandaged. That was the wound he had incurred when he saved a number of family soldiers during the first attempt to take the town.

"Hausky, Jim, I want to give you and your mercenaries a task."

"Milord, please instruct us," said Hausky.

"Go back to Maplewoods Bastide ahead of us and make sure to have someone pay attention to the movements of the Wildnorth Town garrison. If you are confident that you can eliminate the scouts of the town, please do so as often as possible so that the town will be blind to the affairs outside. The reward is similar with the one for the mountain barbarians. Do you think you can do it?"

"Milord, we will definitely give it our best."

"Milord, are we going to leave Wildnorth Town just like that?" Jim asked while seeming a little reluctant.

"Wildnorth Town will remain here and it's not like it will suddenly grow legs and run away, right? When we fend off the troops of the Kenmays Family, we will come back to get rid of them once and for all," Lorist said. "Patt, make your preparations. We will depart straight for Firmrock Castle."

"Milord, can I follow you as well?" Jim asked in a worried tone.

Lorist smiled and said, "Naturally. Jim, do come along with us."

Chapter 124 Warzone Merchants

A huge camp outside Firmrock Castle was lit brightly with torches and loud chatters could be heard from afar.

Upon receiving the notification of the guards, Butler Boris and Old Man Balk rushed out to receive the trio.

"What's the situation of the walls like?" Lorist asked.

Balk replied, "Milord, currently it's still fine. Ever since the Kenmays Family attacked twice and failed yesterday, they've stopped attempting and set up their camp roughly 1 kilokemeter from the walls which they completed by yesterday evening. Last night was rather peaceful as well as there weren't any warnings from our lookouts at the walls."

A kilokemeter was a unit of length used in the Grindia Continent. In the old legends, the fairies were said to have used a unit of length called a 'marke', which denoted the distance between two horsemen in a fairy light cavalry unit. But when the Magic Civilization rose, marke was changed to be called kemeter by the magi and 1000 kemeters was equal to 1 kilokemeter. After 2000 years however, even though the units of measurement from that time still remained in use, the contraction of the unit names, meter and kilometer, have gotten more popular overtime and are used in most cases.

Lorist sighed in relief and asked, "Why does it look so busy within the camp?"

Boris said, "Milord, we're making wooden sheds."

"Wooden sheds?"

"Yesterday, the longbowmen of the Kenmays Family had caused a lot of casualties on the forces stationed at the outer wall. So, Grandmaster Ciroba came up with a plan to build a shed on top of the walls that will shield our forces from the long distance parabolic shots of the bowmen. If they attempt to wreck our sheds by shooting straight, their firing range will be far shorter and they will have to enter our firing range, which means we will be able to retaliate with our ballistas as well as use our walls as cover since we won't have to worry about arrows falling from above us," said Old Man Balk.

"Grandmaster Ciroba? Can his plan be trusted?" Lorist asked suspiciously.

The two other men laughed out loud before Boris said, "Milord, we only chose to use it after we discussed it with the rest and found no problems with the plan."

"Then, what if the enemy uses fire arrows to set the wooden sheds on fire? How would we retaliate if the smoke clouds our vision?" Lorist asked.

"That won't be an issue. After we finish the sheds, we will cover them with a layer of green clay to make them resistant to fire arrows. Another benefit of that is that our forces will still be able to fight under the shelter of the sheds when snow starts to fall," explained Balk.

"Then that's fine. Resume your work. I'll go check out the outer walls for myself," said Lorist as he continued to ride his horse towards the walls.

......

Ovidis was currently leaning on the walls of his room sound asleep while equipped with full armor. Nevertheless, he remained on alert and opened his eyes wide the moment Lorist entered.

"Feel free to rest up, you don't have to pay me any heed," said Lorist as he patted twice on Ovidis's shoulder. "It must've been tiring."

"Milord, I'm fine. I already slept for two hours just now. I only came back to take a slight nap after patrolling for a while and finding nothing wrong..." said Ovidis as he forcefully opened wide his bloodshot eyes.

Lorist didn't press the issue and asked, "What's the rough estimate of the casualties?"

"Milord, the Kenmays Family's two longbowmen squads are too powerful. They attacked the troops we stationed at the outer wall from 300 meters away, causing the arrows to practically fall like raindrops. Our soldiers had nowhere to hide at all and cover was useless against arrows falling from above. Within only 15 minutes, 1 whole squad was wiped out. Only 27 died from being shot at their vitals while the others were out of commission. That was when I sent another squad equipped with shields to save the rest and 30 more got hurt as a result. It was fortunate that we were equipped with metal armor. Otherwise, the casualties would have been worse..."

Ovidis continued to describe the situation of the battle yesterday. "After we retreated to the inner wall, the Kenmays Family's forces took the opportunity to occupy the outer one and were flabbergasted by the metal gates beyond it and could do naught but slash at it with their swords. From the turrets, we used the ballistas to retaliate. Given the density of enemies at the outer wall, one ballista bolt easily killed up to three enemies and within moments, they crumbled and made their retreat.

"But, that Viscount Kenmays acted both stupidly and cruelly at the same time. He actually beheaded a few of the soldiers who retreated and forced the rest to mount a second attack. That time, they brought their siege ladders to the outer wall and were prepared to use them to climb up to the second one. However, I brought tens of other soldiers to guard it and killed every enemy that managed to make their way up while mowing down their numbers with our ballistas at the same time. Even though the second attack lasted longer than the first, they retreated in the end nonetheless. There were around 260 corpses at the outer wall. Including the injured soldiers who managed to retreat, I estimate their casualties to be around 4 to 5 hundred people.

"Despite that, the viscount was still intent on having them continue the assault yesterday, causing some of his own men to grow desperate and draw their swords towards their own allies. The situation only managed to settle down after they argued for a long while before the viscount yielded and ordered his men to set up camp. I have asked Old Man Balk to bring the laborers to collect the corpses of their dead soldiers. Originally, I was going to bury it somewhere, but the messenger that came later that night requested for us to return their bodies. So I had some men strip them clean before I gave the bodies back to save us the trouble of burying them..."

Lorist was completely speechless. As expected of the former bandit Ovidis. Stripping corpses of all their belongings was already second nature to him.

"How did the defense unit fare during the two attacks?" Lorist asked.

Ovidis smiled and said, "They were fine for the most part. During the first attack. we were all within the turrets so they couldn't reach us. On the second attack the defense unit soldiers I brought with me had the protection of the wall and were wearing metal armor while we attacked enemies who were climbing upwards towards us. As the enemy soldiers had to watch out for ballista fire, they didn't pose much of a threat for us. The two longbowmen squads only fired back at us after their own men retreated from their line of fire, but we were already prepared for that. Everyone of us brought our own shields before we set out and laid them on the walls to block the incoming arrows; apart from an idiot who got shot by exposing his leg, most of us were unhurt."

......

Old Man Balk had led his laborers up to the walls. The wooden sheds he had wanted to build were rather simple. First, a wooden pillar had to be built every three meters on the wall with a rectangular support structure installed on top of it. Following that, a wooden board was laid in a downward-slanting angle. Finally, the laborers had to use safety ropes to ensure that they don't fall when they apply the thick layer of green clay onto every one of the wooden boards.

Lorist went to take a look at the sheds from one of the turrets and noticed that they did not obscure the aim of the ballistas at all. After that, he went to the roof of the turret, which was at the higher part of the wall and noticed that the were laborers building sheds which were more slanted on the higher inner wall than the ones below. Balk said, "The upper sheds have to be able to withstand snowfall during winter, so we have to make them slant more steeply to allow the piled up snow to slide off more easily. While the lower sheds would be easy to clean, the ones up here is much harder to reach, hence the steeper slant."

Lorist nodded and headed for the direction of the father-son arbalists.

A few arrows were stuck on the ballista the two were working on. They were most probably fired by the Kenmays Family's longbowmen squads during the second assault when their comrades retreated.

"What's wrong with this ballista?" Lorist asked.

"Oh, milord. This unit is almost completely ruined. Look, these arrows were manufactured during the time of the former empire and they are used to specifically wreck defense machinery like these. The arrowheads are all squared like a little shovel and are much heavier than normal ones. When these arrows are fired in an arc, their heavier weight allows them to gain more momentum as they land. Look at this ballista: after being hit by only four of these arrows, cracks can already be seen all over it. While it may still be able to fire a few more bolts, every shot represents a risk of it exploding apart splintering apart in small fragments that would harm the operators..." replied Grandmaster Fellin.

"Oh..." Lorist said as he sighed. All 14 ballistas on the outer wall had been ruined without even having the chance to fire a single bolt. Even though they were merely simplified versions, it was still a rather substantial loss.

The 1000 or so laborers worked at fast speeds to construct the sheds and managed to finish up by the time the morning sun was at its brightest. The reason for the quick completion was that the outer wall was only around 80 meters long and the materials that only had to be assembled had already been gathered at the camp outside the walls.

The forces of the Kenmays Family also noticed the situation and sent out their longbowmen squads hurriedly. When they were around 300 meters away from the walls, the longbowmen shot their arrows up high which curved and fell towards the walls from above. The first and second volleys of arrows all landed very densely on the wooden sheds. On the third volley, they started to employ fire arrows. However, given the thick layer of green clay on the wooden sheds, the fire on the arrows were extinguished the moment they penetrated the clay.

Not long after, a person wearing extremely intricate armor brought more than 10 of his attendants to approach the castle walls. After taking a good look, he went back and said something to the longbowmen squads before he returned to the camp without being able to do much.

Lorist thought, that must be Viscount Kenmays himself.

Given that their shots weren't effective, the two longbowmen squads returned with Viscount Kenmays to their camp. Old Man Balk instructed the laborers to also apply a layer of green clay onto the wooden pillars and supports that held the sheds up before asking them to collect the arrows that were stuck onto the sheds and re-applying green clay to cover up the holes the arrows made.

That whole day, Viscount Kenmays didn't order any attack at all while their camp seemed to be rather busy and chaotic.

During the evening, Paulobins and Shadekampf arrived at Firmrock Castle with a company of family soldiers. Lorist finally relaxed and believed that the castle would definitely be strong enough to resist the enemies now.

That night, the Kenmays Family showed no signs of attacking either.

Noon on the next day, three groups of soldiers numbering hundreds of troops arrived at the front of Firmrock Castle and set up camp near the Kenmays Family's army camp. Balk recognize one of the insignias which was used by one of the groups and said that it belonged to an old landed noble family of the Northlands, Count Spenseid. Before the Second Prince entitled the new landed noble families in the Northlands, the Spenseid Family could be considered as the nearest neighbors of the Nortons.

Butler Boris recognized the other two insignias on the flags of the other two groups. Those families were just like the Kenmays Family which were given a dominion at the Northlands by the Second Prince. One of the insignias that depicted a pegasus was rumored to belong to a traveling knight who had sided with the Second Prince during the power struggle within the empire. He was said to have performed really well during his days of the conflict when he led his knight brigade and had even saved the Second Prince's life once. After the internal struggle ended, he presented the riches he had earned to the Second Prince and got enfeoffed a barony by the him.

The other insignia depicted a golden three-petaled flower. Butler Boris laughed out as he saw it as the head of that family used to be an honorary noble whose beautiful wife ended up having an affair with the Second Prince. To 'repay' him for his 'contribution', the Second Prince gave him a piece of land in the Northlands but requested for his wife to remain at the Royal Capital.

Everyone laughed out loud that instant. According to Boris, that story was quite well-known in the capital and many even thought that trading a wife for a hereditary noble title and dominion was quite a good deal. That was when a sudden surge of nobles brought their female siblings, daughters and wives to meet the Second Prince, causing the atmosphere of the royal palace to be a total mess.

During noon on the next day, another four families brought hundreds of soldiers to the battlefield. Among them, three were hereditary nobles of the Northlands with the other remaining one being a new landed noble.

Lorist was quite troubled as he thought, does the Kenmays Family intend to form an alliance to go against my family? Given that the soldiers the 7 families brought are less than 2000 people, what good would that do? Don't tell me that they intend to use the nobles' troops as fodder to take the brunt of our retaliation?

While Lorist was still brainstorming about the situation, he saw another large convoy with many carriages and roughly 2000 people. However, he wasn't able to clearly see their flag.

What was surprising was that the convoy did not set up camp near the Kenmayses and instead chose another spot further away. The three camps looked like vertices of a triangle on the map.

Even though Lorist found the presence of the third group of people to be odd, Jim instead said happily, "Alright! Now we can finally have some fun!"

"What do you mean, Jim?" Lorist asked.

"Milord, those people are the Warzone Merchants. They are a neutral force that doesn't participate in conflicts and only appear near battlefields to sell products like food, provisions and equipment. Naturally, the price will be higher than the usual market rate. They also purchase loot from the winner's side as well. The camp they set up also provide numerous services in the form of food establishments, brothels as well as casinos. No matter which side one belongs to, as long as one abides by their rules, one can go enjoy their offerings without worry. Also, look at that Bloodmoon flag. It belongs to one of the three most famous mercenaries in the Iblia Kingdom, the Bloodmoon Mercenary Crew and they are on par with the Feathersoar Mercenary Crew. Then again, now that the Feathersoars are no more, there are only two famous mercenary crews left in the kingdom.

"Milord, you might have noticed that the Bloodmoon flag is being flown the highest. That indicates that the safety and security of the Warzone Merchants camp is being managed by the Bloodmoon Mercenary Crew and any side that attacks the camp will incur their wrath and retribution. The Bloodmoon Mercenary Crew also conducts a lot of business there and I've heard that they own a huge share of the Warzone Merchants organization. Four other flags of other mercenary crews can be seen beneath the Bloodmoon flag and those represent mercenary crews that can be hired by either side to fight in battles. Let me see, there's the Razorpike Mercenary Crew, the Nightbat Mercenary Crew, the Cromwell Mercenary Crew and the Pentasword Mercenary Crew. Ah, many of my acquaintances are there," said Jim excitedly.

"Are those mercenary crews powerful?" Lorist asked.

"They're about the same as us, just with more numbers among their ranks. The four crews combined have around 700 people. If Hausky and I had more than 100 people under us, we could've formed a crew ourselves as well. It's too bad that Hausky only wants to recruit trustworthy and dependable comrades, so we could only form a mercenary squad with 60 plus people," Jim replied.

Lorist gave it some thought and asked, "Do you think that Viscount Kenmays will hire them to attack our castle?"

Jim shook his head and said, "Even if he wanted to, the crews would definitely not agree to it. Attacking this castle is akin to committing suicide and not one of the leaders of the crews are idiotic enough to let their men sacrifice themselves for naught. The most he can do is to employ the crews to manage their supply lines or monitor our movements."

"Alright then, you should go there and see if you can get any information on what the Kenmays Family was planning during the past few days when they didn't attack us. I believe that some of their men will be there to relax as well, so I'm sure you can get them to spill their beans by treating them to a few glasses of alcohol," instructed Lorist.

"Yes, milord."

Chapter 125 Battles of Nobles

Patt looked at Jim and struggled to stifle his laughter. Lorist laughed as well and asked, "Did you just climb out from under a pile of women?"

Stunned, Jim said, "Milord, how did you know? Were you there yesterday as well?"

Lorist looked around only to notice that there wasn't a silver mirror in the room, so he took out his dagger and let Jim see his own reflection on the blade. "Look at your face..."

Jim hurriedly wiped his face with his hands and said, "Apologies, I was in too much of a hurry and forgot to wash my face..."

"Tell me, what did you hear?" Lorist asked.

"Milord, the reason the Kenmays Family no longer continued their attacks was because their soldiers refused to listen to the orders of the viscount and almost defected. Yesterday night when I was treating some of my mercenary acquaintances to some drinks, I happened to run into the people Viscount Kenmays sent to negotiate with the mercenary crews. According to them, the viscount wanted to hire the crews for a huge sum to attack our castle. However, the four cunning mercenary crew leaders, only said that they would consider it and didn't agree immediately.

"At that time, a huge group of Kenmays Family soldiers came to drink and upon their noticing of the men sent by the viscount to negotiate with the mercenaries, they started to curse out loud and proclaimed that the viscount should attack the castle himself and not send them to commit suicide. They also mentioned that had the viscount not made all the decisions himself, their 200 plus comrades wouldn't have died and the other 200 plus wouldn't be injured either. The soldiers spouted many other horrible stuff including how they originally thought that they would be able to enjoy life after joining the Kenmays Family's forces only to be sent to their deaths at the Northlands.

"After listening to what the soldiers said, the four mercenary crew leaders instantly refused the offer of the viscount and treated the soldiers to some alcohol. After that, the soldiers recounted that the viscount had wanted to attack the walls the day before yesterday and even wanted to kill some of the soldiers who had retreated, causing many of them to straight up choose to quit and prepare to go against the viscount himself if they had to rather than being sent to their deaths at the practically impregnable wall. In the end, the viscount had no choice but to have them set up camp and rest before he paid the soldiers some bonus salary to calm them down.

"I also heard that the 7 dominion lords were invited over by Viscount Kenmays to help out with conquering Firmrock Castle, but they are still having their negotiations. One of the soldiers who was standing guard outside the tent of the viscount said that the 7 nobles wanted the viscount to be the first to send his forces to attack the walls before their own forces tag along from behind. However, the viscount's own soldiers didn't want to follow that order, and that was what prompted him to attempt to hire the mercenary crews. Consequently the viscount's own soldiers warned the mercenaries so that they would not fall into that trap," said Jim as he finally finished his long report.

"Oh, if I knew that, we wouldn't have rushed back all this way and should've taken care of Wildnorth Town first..." said Patt in frustration.

Lorist said, "When I received the report, I also didn't know that it would come to this. At that time, the situation seemed pretty urgent. Half of the 3 defense unit squads had been wiped out in one go. How else would I gauge the situation?"

At that moment, loud sounds of a blaring horn could be heard coming from outside the walls.

"It seems that there is a challenger? Let's go and see..." Lorist led the rest out to the outer wall.

In front of the walls of the castle were three riders with one in the middle being a knight who wore a black bullhorn helmet and a black chain mail. On his chest was a silver insignia of a pegasus which was spreading its wings in flight. The knight was mounted on a chestnut green Northlander Horse and his hand held a riding lance.

To the left of the knight was an attendant with a large build who was equipped in greyish-white leather armor and held a swallow-tailed flag depicting the same pegasus insignia of the knight in one hand and a blow horn in the other. It seemed that the tune of challenge had been blown by that man.

To the right of the knight was a middle-aged man dressed in dark blue robes. He was currently loudly praising the knight and telling everyone present of his previous exploits and achievements.

"My master, Knight Lamboway, has obtained victory for three consecutive Weiss Cup tournaments and has been given the moniker of the Lion Cub Knight by Duke Pupadra himself. Master has also attended the Minasevic Battle and more than ten famous knights have fallen to defeat before the mighty hooves of my master's mount... Today, he has come to this impressive, gigantic castle wall to challenge the famous family of the Roaring Raging Bear, the Norton Family, to a duel... Knights of the Norton Family, do you dare to accept my master's challenge? My master Knight Lamboway will let you all know what a true chivalrous hero should look like and he will dedicate his victory and glory to the utmost fair Lady Stephanie, incarnation of all that is perfect and flawless..."

When the middle-aged man finished up, the leather armor equipped attendant once again blew the tune of challenge with his horn.

"Milord, look..." said Patt as he pointed towards the distance.

Lorist raised his head to take a look and saw that many people had emerged from the camps of the 7 noble families and the Kenmays Family. However, they did not seem to be marching into battle; instead, they were coming out to witness the duel. Some servants even quickly set up a number of bright-colored cloth shades and proceeded to bring the lavishly-dressed noble ladies to their seats.

"Mi-milord... What are they doing?" asked Jim, confused.

"Attacking. They are making a knight's challenge to our family," Lorist said.

The middle-aged man dressed in robes was once again repeating the things he had said before loudly.

Many mercenaries and women also exited the Warzone Merchants campsite to watch the commotion. When the people who gathered around increased in number, the middle-aged attendant once again repeated the things he had said with a higher volume.

"Why is that man repeating what he said? Wasn't he clear enough the first time?" Jim asked.

"The horn has to be blown followed by the introduction and the whole process must repeat thrice. If we don't accept the challenge, that knight can proudly proclaim to others that his reputation had made the Norton Family knights cower in fear and rather shiver behind our walls than face his overwhelming courage," Lorist said.

"Then let me see if he dares to be so arrogant after I put a bolt into him..." said Jim as he was just about to head to the ballista nearby.

"Are you crazy? Do you want to make us the laughing stock of everyone out there? If you really fire that bolt, all the reputation the Norton Family has built up for the past 200 plus years will have been for naught. We will be ridiculed as cowards and forever be targets of the humiliation of others," said Patt as he held Jim tight.

"Jim, this is a battle between nobles and this has been the traditional way it has been conducted since long ago. Every knight will be taught this first and foremost during the earliest days of their training. To a knight, this method of battle is sacred and glorious. If you interrupt this battle, then you would have become public enemy number one of all the knights in Grindia," explained Lorist.

"Ovidis, do you want to accept the challenge?" Lorist asked as he turned towards the silent bearded man.

"Ah, milord... But I'm just a commoner..." Ovidis replied as he lowered his head.

"Apologies, I should've given this to you long ago. I just kept forgetting," Lorist said as he held out a badge depicting an insignia of a raging bear which Patt had just tossed over.

Technically speaking, Ovidis could still be considered to be Lorist's prisoner and 'property' and he didn't have any personal freedom. The captives also included the former bandits who were currently serving within the guard squad.

"Ever since you started following me, you have won my trust with your efforts and sincerity. You have also performed rather well, recently in particular. Ovidis, are you willing to become my knight and fight under the banner of the Raging Bear?" asked Lorist solemnly.

With tears of gratitude filling his eyes, Ovidis kneeled on one knee in front of Lorist and held his chest with his right arm. "I, Zelan Ovidis, am willing to pledge my loyalty to my lord. Let the God of War witness me oath in the name of my life. I will forever walk under the banner of the Norton Family and fight at the beckoning of the Roaring Raging Bear until the moment I breathe my last breath..."

Lorist took out his sword and tapped it twice on Ovidis's shoulder. "Rise, my knight."

He then pinned the badge of the raging bear to an indentation on Ovidis's breastplate. Patt hugged Ovidis dearly and said, "I welcome your participation, brother."

After the knighting ceremony, Ovidis rushed down from the walls after saluting Lorist. Lorist shouted, "Let Shadekampf accompany you! He knows about the necessary proceedings!"

By the time the horn blew for the third time, the drawbridge of Firmrock Castle was lowered and the gates were opened. Ovidis brought Shadekampf and another guard who held the battle standard of the Norton Family out from the castle. At that moment, the crowd broke into a thunderous cheer and anticipated the upcoming battle greatly.

Old Man Balk, Butler Boris and Sueprvisor Hansk all went up the walls and jointly looked at Shadekampf as he negotiated the terms with the man dressed in robes. The two of them then explained the terms to Lamboway and Ovidis respectively and an agreement was formed quickly. Shadekampf and the guard who held the battle standard retreated backwards as the two attendants of Knight Lamboway did the same.

"Milord, what were they doing just now?" Even though Jim didn't make a noise when the knighting ceremony was carried out, his envy and admiration showed on his face nonetheless. Ever since Lorist agreed to let him follow him to Firmrock Castle a few days ago, he understood that as long as he performed well and gain enough achievements, he would be knighted in the same fashion as Ovidis had.

"They were discussing on how the challenge would be carried out whether it be on horseback or on foot as well as the kind of weapons they would be allowed to use. Since they are the ones who requested the challenge, we can request for battles that are in our advantage. For example, if Josk were the one accepting the challenge, he can request for an archery competition. That's why the challenger must ensure that they understand their own capabilities well in case their opponent requests a mode of competition that they are not familiar with and lose as a result.

"For some truly great knights, the types of challenge wouldn't matter as they are confident enough in their own abilities. However, the guy Ovidis is going to face off against is obviously overestimating himself. If Ovidis requests for an unmounted battle, he will definitely be struck dumb," Lorist said.

Going against everyone's expectations, Ovidis didn't pick to battle on foot. Instead, he had chosen to duel on horseback; perhaps it was due to his excitement of having just been made a knight of the Norton Family. The two contestants both retreated backwards until they were 30 meters apart. After Knight Lamboway lowered his helmet visor and Ovidis readied his riding lance, the both of them raised their left hands to indicate that they have completed their preparations and were waiting for Shadekampf to drop his handkerchief on the ground to signal the start of the battle, after which the both of them would begin charging towards each other at full speed.

However, a small slip up happened as the moment Shadekampf tossed his handkerchief out, it had been blown up by a fleeting gust just as it was about to land. Everyone watched the handkerchief as it twirled and danced in the air...

Lorist struggled so hard to stifle his laughter that his stomach was hurting. Jim didn't care about his surroundings at all and banged his head against the wall as he laughed out loud. Patt and the rest were also laughing, but they weren't acting as crazily as Jim was. What was originally a sacred and glorious battle had turned into a joke because of a handkerchief.

After a while, the audience once again focused their attention on the handkerchief as it gently landed onto the ground...

"Kill!" roared Ovidis as he clasped both his legs and prompted the horse to charge forward. He would not allow his enemy to win against him on the first day he was knighted.

Lamboway's lance glowed bright silver as he rode; he was a Two Star Silver ranked knight just like Ovidis.

When the two blade glows clashed against each other, a thunderous ear-piercing sound rang out before the two mounts circled around continuously while the knights ferociously struck out at one another.

That jousting match was a little different from the ones Lorist remembered seeing in his previous life where the two knights rushed towards each other wielding lances made from applewood with the intent on ending the match in one strike. In a world with Battle Force, a jousting match between two knights was more similar to the one-on-one battles between generals Lorist had read about in the 'Romance of the Three Kingdoms' which were far more exciting as well as heated and usually garnered more cheers from the surrounding audience.

In terms of technique, Knight Lamboway was far more practiced than Ovidis and his years of arduous training showed during the battle. However, Ovidis had more real world fighting experience on the battlefield and he attacked in a more savage way. Sometimes, he would even be willing to take Lamboway's strikes just so he could land a square hit onto him. That self-harming way of fighting quickly put Lamboway at a disadvantage as he had to withdraw his hands and feet as he parried Ovidis's strikes. Lamboway was eventually forced into a defensive position.

Ovidis shouted loudly all of a sudden and suddenly raised his lance up and swung it down like a stick towards the helmet of Knight Lamboway multiple times in quick succession. Unable to parry the flurry of strikes, Knight Lamboway fell from his horse. When he raised his head, Ovidis's blade glow had already been held by his throat.

Knight Lamboway shrugged and waved his hands helplessly as he sat on the ground before Ovidis withdrew his weapon. Subsequently, Lamboway's attendant placed the flag on the back of his horse as he blew a depressing tune with his horn to indicate the loss of his liege and their eventual departure from the battlefield.

Shadekampf quickly talked in a low voice to the loud-mouthed attendant before he saluted and left. Knight Lamboway on the other hand had stood up from the ground and saluted towards the mounted Ovidis, who in turn knocked his fist onto his left breastplate. That was a knight's salute that indicated the acknowledgement and admiration of the courage displayed by one's opponent.

"Milord, is that it? Why didn't Ovidis kill his opponent?" Jim asked.

"Normally, battles between nobles like that have no casualties unless any accidents happen. In most cases, the winning side would stay their hand and not carelessly harm their opponent who was also a knight like them. In exchange, however, the losing side would have to offer up a ransom that was equal to his worth and status. The ransom given will be the akin to the self-valuation of the status of the knight himself. If the losing knight cannot afford to pay the ransom, he has to offer up his armor, weapons and mount. The ransom was agreed upon when Shadekampf talked to that attendant just now. If there are no issues, the knight's attendant will come again later to pay it," explained Lorist.

Jim shook his head and said, "Milord, why does it seem to me that battles between nobles seem like the pretend war games played by children?"

Lorist responded with an unexpectedly philosophical answer. "That's because life itself is also pretty similar to a game..."

Chapter 126 Knight Carnival

The horns outside the city once again sounded: another knight had come for a challenge.

Yesterday afternoon, three challenges were carried out with Ovidis winning two of the matches and gaining a total of more than 30 gold Fordes from the ransom money. However, he was unable to continue after the second match as he had sustained a light injury to his arm. The one who replaced him was Patt who had picked to fight on foot and used his shield-bearer skills to his advantage to wear down his Two Star Silver ranked opponent who gave up in frustration after one hour of not being able to defeat Patt.

During dawn just now, when Lorist was patrolling the walls, he noticed that there were tents set up by the other noble families near the empty space in front of the castle walls and felt that his side would definitely receive a few more challenges from them. As expected, at 9 in the morning, a knight showed up and blew the tune of challenge.

Patt once again headed out and fought on horseback. However, given Patt's acquired dynamic vision, he was able to strike a One Star Silver knight which was of the same rank as him off his horse within a little more than ten minutes.

Normally, a knight would be allowed rest for an hour before accepting another challenge to ensure fairness. However, when Patt was on his way back to the castle, a wandering knight emerged from the campsite of the Warzone Merchants and issued a challenge to the knights belonging to the side of the various noble families. That was when many other lordless, wandering knights showed up all of a sudden to compete with each other in front of the castle walls, effectively turning the battlefield into a carnival for knights, causing the knights of the Norton Family to be pushed aside and forgotten.

As the wandering knights, the lordless freelance knights and the knights of the noble families faced off against each other, the whole situation became confusing rather quickly. During the afternoon, a few other noble families arrived at the place. They were not requested to come over by Viscount Kenmays to help him defeat the Nortons; the real reason they came was because they heard rumors of a knight challenge carnival being held nearby. The family knights of the newly-arrived nobles didn't even bother to set up camp and joined the fray of challenges instantly.

"Ugh... We've been forgotten," said Ovidis as he sighed and looked at the chaotic scene before the castle walls with his left arm all bandaged up.

Currently, three pairs of knights were fighting each other in front of the walls.

"Milord, I really don't understand why so many wandering knights and freelance knights came over to participate in matches over here. Usually, they would only join fighting tournaments organized by other nobles, right? This scenario, however, unfolded on the battlefield. The knights have effectively occupied the place for themselves," said Butler Boris a look of fascination on his face.

"This..." Lorist paused in thought before he continued, "As the Northlands are relatively poor compared to other territories, dominion lords here usually wouldn't organize tournaments like that because that would cost quite a bit of money. Given the chaotic situation of the Northlands for the past two years as well as the countless conflicts that broke out here, many of the lords have lost their riches or their lands, so many knights no longer continued to serve them as they had lost their means of securing a stable life.

"You should know that knight challenges like these are a lucrative source of income. If they win, the ransom they would gain was almost equal to the salary a family knight would receive for three years combined. That was why most of them scrambled right over the moment they heard that a challenge bonanza was being held here and couldn't care less about whether this was a battlefield or not since the challenges would be conducted according to very stringent rules. If they perform well during the competitions, they might also be noticed by the nobles present and gain employment. Why would they miss out on a chance like that?"

"Erm, during noon just now, Jim came and told me that there were 4 knights who had lost all their belongings and had no choice but to join his mercenary squad," Patt interjected.

"That's right, where has Jim gone?" Lorist just remembered that he hadn't seen Jim even once ever since the morning.

"Look, he's over there at the Warzone Merchants campsite and running a gambling pool for the competitions. It seems like he's earned quite a bit," Patt said.

"Sol, that bastard still can't change his old habits. While it wouldn't be a problem if they were betting on small stuff, betting on the honor of knights is a huge taboo. When he comes back, I need to find someone to teach him the proper etiquette and customs of knights," Lorist said.

"Milord, do you want to see if you want to recruit any of the wandering or freelance knights into our family?" said Old Man Balk, expressing his thoughts on the situation.

"Well, I can definitely consider that. But I still haven't seen any knight that managed to pique my interest ever since the morning and most of them seem rather plain and have only normal fighting skills. Look at the three pairs of knights who are fighting down there: none of them would be able to best Ovidis in a fight. Well, the freelance knight Waxima who fought earlier this morning still seemed okay... Patt, go with Shadekampf to visit him later tonight and see if he's willing to spend some time with us as a probationary knight," Lorist instructed.

"Yes, milord," replied Patt.

A freelance or wandering knight didn't have to accept or reject outright the recruitment of a noble family. Instead, the noble family was merely a party who was offering those knights an opportunity and choice to change their lives in the future. To both the noble family and the knight being recruited, that was a huge choice to make. Once a dominion lord gives an offer of recruitment to a knight, the knight can choose to follow the lord for a period of time ranging from one month to half a year to see if their goals and values aligned with each other before a proper decision is made. During that time, the probationary knight would receive the same treatment like the other knights serving the noble family. As a saying that Lorist had heard in his past life went, 'A ruler can pick his subordinates. However, the same is true for a talented individual in that they can pick the ones they pledge allegiance to'. Similarly, if the dominion lord is not satisfied with the knight, he can also ask him to leave the family.

Old Man Balk shook his head and said, "Milord, that Waxima might be hard for us to recruit. He is a freelance knight that is unlike wandering knights who have nothing better to do than to travel the land. Waxima is quite famous in the Northlands and he also has a rather extensive family background: his father was a Gold ranked knight who had perished in the final battle between the empire and the Forde Trade Union. At that time, he was only 7 years old and he had inherited the manor and land of his late father. However, he was known to be 'Waxima the Slow' as many people believed that he was unfit for combat and slow in his wits. But Waxima was the tenacious sort and managed to awaken his Battle Force in the end at the age of 23 using the Battle Force manual his father left for him. Currently, he's 29 years old now and he has already reached the Three Star Silver rank and it is even rumored that he had once refused an offer by Duke Loggins before. I don't think that he would even consider the Norton Family..."

"No wonder I felt that he was far more stable than the other contestants of the duels. After hearing your explanation, I now know that he is a person who has very firm foundations that came as a result of hard work and preservation. Nevertheless, we should still try to recruit him. How would we know if he will refuse or not before we even ask?" Lorist said as he nodded.

"Hehe, I'm trying to imagine the look on Viscount Kenmays face right now. At first, he wanted to attack our castle. But it ended up turning into a knight carnival. His anger must be off the roof by now," said Patt as he suddenly laughed.

Lorist said, "Those nobles are not idiots either. If we had taken over the Redriver Valley Bastide of the Kenmayses, then the noble families the viscount invited might have gave it their best to drive us away. However, now that we've burned that place to the ground and returned to our own dominion, what do you think the other nobles would choose? They can't say that they are fighting to liberate the Kenmays Family dominion from us as we don't even have a single soul on their lands. Given that they have absolutely no chance of conquering our walls with only their family knights, a number of guards and farmer soldiers, they have chosen to only make knight challenges. With that, not only would they be able to stall the viscount, they also managed to avoid thoroughly offending us. What a perfect way to resolve the situation.

"However, I bet that even those nobles didn't expect that this would blow up to become a full-fledged carnival beyond their control. Look, another group of people have arrived. It must be another noble family that has come to join the party," Lorist said as he pointed in the direction of the newly-arrived group.

......

Viscount Kenmays was so enraged that he felt like he was going to explode. Currently, he was thrashing and smashing everything he could get his hands on within his tent.

Not only did he reject the invitations of other dominion lords to watch the knight challenges, he felt that the invitations were insults to his family. The main reason he invited the other noble families over was that he wanted them to help conquer the Norton Family and not organize a knight carnival. Though, the other nobles knew that the Kenmays Family did not have any family knights which meant that they could not issue any knight challenges either. Is that their way of ridiculing my family for having a merchant background instead of a traditional noble background?

Naturally, Viscount Kenmays was also a Two Star Silver ranked fighter and he could go into battle himself. However, he understood his own temperament and abilities as the reason he so painstakingly raised his Battle Force rank was not because he wanted to compete against others but rather to put on airs to seduce women into bed with him. While he could still command his troops on the battlefield, there was no way he would be willing to lead a charge.

What Viscount Kenmays didn't expect was that the 2000 or so soldiers the family had tried so hard to recruit almost rebelled against him after two failed attacks on the castle and were still unwilling to follow his orders while accusing him of not knowing how to properly lead an army. The viscount's efforts to invite the other 7 noble families were also for naught as they had turned the war into a 'battle between nobles', letting his enemy, the Norton Family, sit back and relax as they watched the proceedings from their castle. Other than that, the sudden influx of wandering and freelance knights had further fueled the viscount's anger. If he could, he would kill all the soldiers who refused to listen to his orders as well as the knights who had disrupted the battle.

"I see you're doing quite well as a dominion lord smashing things around alone in your tent," said a cold voice from outside the tent.

Viscount Kenmays seemed like he was struck by lightning as he hurriedly stood up straight and said, "Father... You're here."

"If I don't come right away, did you think I would just sit back and watch you ruin the future of our family?" Three people entered the tent with the person at the forefront being a well-built elderly man with a benevolent expression. However, his face was rather stiff with a savage aura leaking out from his eyes. He was the true family leader of the Kenmays Family, the chairman of the largest construction merchant guild in the former empire, Viscount Kenmays's father.

The Kenmays Family leader went before his son and gave him two slaps on the face before he said anything else.

Even though the viscount was a Two Star Silver rank, he felt a chill down his spine when he faced his Iron rank father. He didn't dare to move and obediently took the slaps without resisting.

"Do you know why I'm hitting you?" asked the family leader.

"I don't..." replied the viscount.

Slap! Slap! Another two harsh strikes on the face caused Viscount Kenmays's lip to crack and blood to flow from his mouth.

"Let me ask you... Why did you force our soldiers to attack the Norton Family's castle?" the Kenmays Family leader asked in a loud voice.

"Di-didn't they burn down our bastide and take all our resources? They also conquered our construction site... I-I just wanted to take it all back for the family..." stammered the viscount in response.

"Is that so?" Slap! Slap! Six more slaps landed on the viscount's face.

"You still dare to talk back! Did you think that I wouldn't know about your personal little fund of 100000 gold Fordes that you lost to them? I'll tell you what: that money has already entered Duke Loggins's sights and he had already sent someone to the Norton Family to demand them to hand over the money and resources to him. In the end, they were chased out of the dominion and that arrogant Knight Tabik had also had both his hands crippled, not to mention all the other injuries he suffered that would take him at least one year to recover from." The Kenmays Family leader just revealed a shocking piece of news to his son.

The viscount instantly said happily, "Then... Then we should take this chance to conquer them and take back the gold before the duke gets it..."

"Idiocy! On what grounds do you think you'll be able to defeat them? They don't even put the duke in their eyes and even managed to cripple Tabik! How do you think you'll go about getting all that back?"

"But... But I've already reached their main castle during my previous attempt and even managed to besiege them for three months..." said the viscount, dissatisfied.

"Then do you know why the Nortons were so stubborn towards the duke this time? Do you know why we lost contact with the Feathersoar Mercenary Crew? Do you know why our bastide fell to them in the first place? I bet you don't. That's because the Second Young Master of the Norton Family has returned and brought a group of people with him within which includes a Gold ranked marksman! To top it off, Tabik was personally injured by the Second Young Master himself! Now do you still have the confidence to be able to fight your way to their main bastide?" said the Kenmays Family leader before he drew a deep breath and sat down on a chair near him.

"This... Is the news reliable?" the viscount asked suspiciously.

"Duke Loggins's butler told me all that personally. I even spent quite a sum to bribe the Silver ranked knights of the Northland Army who had been there as well and they told me that they had witnessed it all with their own eyes. By the time I was rushing back here, the duke was already preparing a large force to punish the Norton Family," said the Kenmays Family leader.

"Then that's great, we can attack the Nortons along with the duke," said the viscount.

"Imbecile!" roared the family leader loudly. "Do you have a pig's brain in that head of yours? Are you seriously that fixated on beating the Norton Family or are you just trying desperately to get your 100000 gold Fordes back? By the time the duke's army comes, our forces will officially be used as projectile fodder. Do you intend to end the last hope for our family? Right now, the first thing we need to do is to avoid the army of the duke and find other targets. We must abandon our original plans."

"But our losses are so huge and the Nortons took so much of our stuff..." said the viscount weakly.

"Then consider that a lesson you paid a huge sum to learn! If we run out of slaves, we can buy new ones with money. If we lose our resources, we can gather more in time. If our goals far exceed our current ability and we strive towards it desperately past the point of no return, that would spell our true downfall. Now that we've lost, we should accept it. We just picked the wrong people to mess with. The Norton Family is a family with 300 years of heritage after all. I thought at first that they have depreciated over the years, but who would've expected their Second Young Master to turn the whole family around all of a sudden? This situation is not all that bad for us either. With the Norton Family occupying the duke's attention, I believe he would not be able to find out about our other movements. I am looking forward to them tearing themselves apart..." said the family leader.

"Then, what should our family's next course of action be?" the viscount asked.

The Kenmays Family leader took out a beastskin map of the Northlands and thumped his fist on one spot. "Over here. That is where we will attack next..."

Chapter 127 The Plot of the Kenmays Family Head

"Fa-father... Are you crazy? That is Count Lopez's dominion and he is one of the most prized subjects of the king... Have you forgotten the king's words? He wants our family to work well with Count Lopez... We're supposed to distract Duke Loggins on the surface while the count works in the dark and sends the duke a critical strike with his elite troops, right? Even if we were to decide to attack him, what would we use against him? Our disobedient soldiers? Also, Count Lopez has quite a number of Silver ranked knights..."

"The king? Are you talking about that idiotic Second Prince? Right now, he already has his hands full with other stuff, so there's no way he would have time to care about the happenings in the Northlands. Before I departed towards here, I received a piece of news that the army of the Second Prince suffered huge losses at the Melein Duchy and has almost crumbled completely. Duke Melein led his army on a counterattack at the borders of the Iblia Kingdom and he is currently sweeping three districts within the royal capital with his forces. I think that the Second Prince will have to prostrate himself in front of his father-in-law, Duke Fisablen, to save his arse this time. Otherwise, he might even lose the royal capital..." said the Kenmays Family leader as he snickered.

"As for Count Lopez, do you think he is truly loyal to the Second Prince? Even though the Second Prince asked the two of our families to work together, has the count done his part? After he got his dominion from the Second Prince, he has been doing nothing but flattering him. The count only knows how to demand our family to help him out with something, but never once has he reciprocated the favor on the occasions when we requested for some additional forces from him and used the barbarians in his dominion as an excuse. Ironically, the barbarian threat he kept musing about actually dealt him a rather fatal injury and a few of his Silver ranked knights even perished in battle. Look at this," said the family head as he took out a letter.

"This is the letter requesting reinforcements sent by the count himself. With this, we can even bring all our troops in the open into his dominion and castle without the slightest resistance! When we arrive, the count will simply 'die on his sickbed' from the injuries he got. After that, we can swallow up his dominion and men and attack the surrounding nobles until we conquer the whole of the eastern part of the Northlands."

"But father, that area is quite close to the Magical Dragon Mountains... The barbarians are bound to be a threat to us... Didn't we give up on taking over the eastern Northlands so that the count can resist the barbarians for us?" asked the viscount.

"The current situation has changed completely from that time. After the return of their Second Young Master, the Norton Family's strength has increased by leaps and bounds and their land is no longer something we can aspire to take for ourselves. The plan to develop Morgan Hills will also have to be scrapped. While our losses are still minimal, let's head east and let the Nortons face off against Duke Loggins while we wipe out the rest of the nobles in the eastern Northlands and take their dominions instead."

"Father, even if we unite the eastern Northlands, the mountain barbarians will still remain a problem. The barbarians there are far more active than those of other places and they would be quite the obstacle for the family's plans for the eastern Northlands..." said the viscount, unconvinced by his father's reasoning.

"Hehe, did you forget the barbarian slaves I bought some time ago? Weren't you curious why I treated them like important people and gave them whatever they wanted? This is where they finally come into play. I can start relations with the mountain barbarians of the Magical Dragon Mountains and trade with them. I could even hire some of their troops for our own ends as well. I promised the barbarian slaves that as long as they can satisfy my requests, they will be able to continue to live their lives in luxury. With their aid, I believe the barbarians of the Magical Dragon Mountains will become a new source of wealth for our family," said the Kenmays Family head as he pointed on the map.

"Look closely at the map. If we continue our plan to force the Norton Family to submit and develop the Morgan Hills, then our route outside the Northlands will be within the grasps of Duke Loggins and he'll continue to suck out the blood and wealth of our family like a damned leech. However, if we take over and develop the eastern Northlands instead, we will be able to construct a new metal bridge across Metropoulos River to link the eastern Northlands to the outside world. As a result, our family will no longer have to rely on that duke's Hendliff Suspension Bridge and hand a part of our profits to him. Based on these reasons, I believe that focusing our efforts on the eastern Northlands will be the most optimal route for our family to take..."

"But the forces we have is not enough to carry out your plan. The soldiers are still against following any of my orders..." said the viscount while he looked rather crestfallen.

"That's because you ordered them to march forward to their deaths!" said the Kenmays Family leader angrily. "I, on the other hand, am glad that they didn't follow your orders. Apart from women and your personal fund of 100000 gold Fordes, what else do you have in your head? Did you think that you would be able to conquer those extremely well-fortified walls with only 2000 soldiers? If that were the case, the Second Prince would have reigned supreme long ago. I already thought that we were rather lucky for our forces to have arrived at the Northlands before the Second Prince suffered his recent losses. Otherwise, they would've been ordered by the Second Prince to become fodder for the forces of the Melein Duchy! I didn't expect that the first thing I heard when I came over would be bad news... 500 people! A quarter of our forces have already been wiped out within one afternoon... I... I really want to pummel you to death..."

The family leader took some deep breaths to calm down and retained his calm. "From now on, these soldiers will no longer be under your command. Muribad..."

"Sir!" One of the men who entered the tent with the Kenmays Family head stepped forward and replied out loud. He was a big-built man with a military air about him and looked to be over his thirties.

"Muribad, I hereby appoint you as the Regiment Commander of the Kenmays Family forces. Take command of that unit from now on."

"Yes, Old Master. I will not let your expectations down."

The Kenmays Family head nodded and said to the viscount, "Muribad was originally the Regiment Commander of the Local Defense Army of the Romon Empire and is a Three Star Silver rank. However, his whole family had suffered as a result of offending the nobles of his nation. I brought him and his family over and he has agreed to serve the Kenmays Family as our knight."

"Sully, come over."

The other man stepped forward. He was a dark-skinned man who was at least one head taller than Viscount Kenmays at a height of 2.2 meters. His bulging muscles seemed to give of a metallic sheen and made him look exceedingly tough.

"He is called Suleimos and he used to be a gladiator of the Hanayabarta Kingdom. A Two Star Silver rank, he was forced to fight countless death battles for the entertainment of the people. I spent a huge sum and used some favors to purchase him and had someone else teach him the ways and practices of a knight. He is also willing to serve our family as a knight. Now, you will perform the knighting ceremony on the two of them," instructed the Kenmays Family leader.

After the ceremony, the family leader asked Viscount Kenmays why he was smashing everything within the tent with abandon when he entered the tent.

Viscount Kenmays proceeded to explain the issue of the knight carnival to his father.

The Kenmays Family leader shook his head and said, "You really need to use your head more. You could have participated in the carnival without necessarily having to fight yourself and used the chance to see if any wandering or freelance knights were willing to join our family. To the Northlanders, we are outsiders who are not familiar with the land. That's why we will be able to better integrate ourselves here with the help of the knights who are willing to serve us and assimilate into the ranks of the Northland nobility..."

"Father, I think that these wandering knights are nothing more than savage dogs with poor upbringing who will leap at the slightest chance to grab a piece of meat. They are not so different from mercenaries and don't have better fighting prowess than them either. I think we should not recruit them into the family." The viscount voiced his full objection to his father's suggestion.

"You're wrong. While one or two dogs won't amount to much, if we have a whole pack of them, even ferocious wolves will have to retreat and be on their guard. Our family can't only rely on our soldiers. Even a person will need two legs to walk stably. While these wandering knights are not excellent if you consider them individually, they are perfect candidates for a knight brigade. Afterwards, bring Suleimos with you to participate in the carnival and let him pick some candidates to join our family. Other than that, spread the word that the Kenmays Family is intent on forming a small knight brigade and that we welcome wandering knights to join us."

"Do we accept everyone who applies?" the viscount asked.

"No, we will only recruit Silver ranked knights. When we begin our plan to unite the eastern Northlands, a Silver ranked knight brigade will make sure that the mountain barbarians think twice of offending us. Let any knight who comes to join us stay within the camp. I will bring Muribad and Suleimos with me to the dominion of Count Lopez tomorrow afternoon while you will mingle around here with the other nobles and focus on recruiting the wandering knights. If anyone asks, tell them that we have mobilized our forces to answer the count's plea for reinforcements," said the Kenmays Family head.

"Alright, father. I understand. You mean to say that we're not recruiting the wandering knights to become our family knights, but rather only to join our knight brigade, right?"

"Yes. You can also tell them that anyone who performs well will be promoted to a family knight one day," said the family leader as he nodded.

......

Lorist was currently watching the battles of the knights from the walls while Telesti accompanied him.

"Milord, I really don't like to witness violent acts like that..." complained Telesti. She had unwillingly accepted Lorist's invitation to watch the carnival battles moments ago. On the other hand, Vinny looked at the battles with an expression of excitement and fascination.

"My dear Telesti, you can't stay cooped up in your room all day only to analyze the construction models. That will affect your health you know. There are lots of benefits to taking a walk now and then in the sun. Don't tell me it's a waste of time. If you fall sick and can do nothing but rest in your bed, you would waste even more time as a result," Lorist said.

"Sigh..." Telesti looked at the battles with a furrowed brow. "Why do men love to fight and compete like this? Isn't it much better to sit down and chat while drinking tea?"

"That is a good idea. I have some fine tea leaves within my room. Should I invite my beautiful Miss Telesti for a lengthy chat on life while we enjoy some drinks?" said Lorist with a brilliant smile on his face.

Telesti rolled her eyes and said, "It's just another one of your tricks again... I will not be tempted by it..."

Ah, it truly is wonderful being able to flirt with a beautiful woman... Just as Lorist was about to resume his advances, Patt rushed over hurriedly with a solemn look and said, "Milord, a messenger has arrived."

Sigh, I guess I have no choice. Urgent matters come first. Lorist could only bid Telesti goodbye and head to his room with Patt.

The messenger was a mercenary who was sweating profusely. Anyone who traveled 7 hours straight switching between 3 different mounts would no doubt look like that. Lorist recognized that mercenary as one of the guys who had dueled with him back at the construction site of the military base near Poplar Coast.

Upon seeing Lorist, the messenger revealed a startling piece of information which shocked him deeply. "Milord, a military unit flying the flag of Duke Loggins appeared outside Wildnorth Town this morning. The people of the town opened their gates to receive them and there is an estimated number of 3000 to 5000 soldiers within the unit that had set up their camps outside the town. Boss Hausky has already led some scouts to try to find the route the duke's men took after he ordered me to come to report the news to you..."

"What did you say?!" Lorist refused to believe what he had just heard. He was not unfamiliar with the terrain of his dominion. Given the presence of the Bladedge Mountains, the Blackmud Marsh, the Magical Dragon Mountains, the Black Forests as well as the Morgan Hills, there was no route through which an army could enter the Norton Family dominion without passing through Firmrock Castle. He really couldn't fathom how a unit that huge could have made its way undetected into his territory.

Thinking that Lorist had not heard him clearly enough the first time, the messenger repeated what he said once more.

"Patt, bring me the map of the family dominion."

Lorist turned to the mercenary and said, "Have you notified the people at Maplewoods Bastide?"

"I have when I was on the way here. I shouted the news to the guards of the walls without going inside and traveled here right away," replied the mercenary.

"Shadekampf, bring this comrade of ours to get some rest. Make sure he has a good meal before he sleeps. It's best if he takes a quick hot-water bath as well," said Lorist as he tossed a small money pouch to the mercenary.

Patt then placed the beastskin map on top of a table.

The two of them looked closely at the map and didn't spot a single route which could allow for thousands of men and horses to cross. However, Lorist did not discount the possibility of one such route existing.

"Milord, when I was a child, I heard that Wildnorth Town had a smuggling merchant convoy but I've never seen a trace of them all my life. I think the people of the town must have used that secret route. Otherwise, they would've had to pass through Maplewoods Bastide if they wanted to reach the outside world. Unless the soldiers of the duke somehow flown their way into our territory, they must've taken that secret route," said Patt angrily.

Lorist nodded and said, "We already know that Wildnorth Town has been preparing to rebel for some time now, but since when have they got in touch with Duke Loggins? Also, the messenger must have taken at least 7 hours to get from the Maplewoods Bastide to this place and we still don't know the status of the bastide. Is that army heading for Firmrock Castle right now? Patt, get Paulobins to immediately to lead some scouts for some reconnaissance and make sure to monitor the duke's army from afar. I will also have to ask someone to let the soldiers who are camped outside of the walls into the castle before I do anything else."

Chapter 128 Request for Peace

Butler Boris and Supervisor Hansk came to Lorist's side. Hansk asked, "Milord, why did you suddenly order the people within the camp to enter the castle and stop all the construction work outside?"

"A group of soldiers of Duke Loggins's has made its way into the inner part of our dominion. There is a huge possibility that the people of Wildnorth Town were the one who guided their entry," Lorist replied.

"What?! Is that true?!" Both the butler and the supervisor revealed faces of shock and surprise.

"That's right. Even I wouldn't dare to joke about this. Ovidis, when everyone enters the castle, recruit another group of soldiers from the ranks of the laborers and form a defense unit company," Lorist said.

"Yes, milord. I'll be on it right away," Ovidis said as he rushed away.

Hansk took out a beastskin account book from his sack and flipped it as he asked, "Milord, what are you going to arm the new soldiers with?"

"What's wrong?" Lorist asked.

"While we have a lot of leather armor within the storehouses, we only have around 10 chain mails remaining. During the past four months, Grandmaster Sid, his son and his other laborers who had been recruited because of their smithing experience had produced around 1200 sets of chain mails using the 'assembly line method' that you suggested. The two companies stationed here at Firmrock Castle and over at Maplewoods Bastide respectively have all been armed with chain mails. However, we're running out of iron ingots and only have a total of around 5000 kilograms left as an emergency resource..." reported Supervisor Hansk.

Understanding the supervisor's concern, Lorist said, "How about this? We'll arm the new soldier company with leather armor, pikes, wooden shields and shortswords. Will there be a problem that way?"

"No, milord. We have more than enough of those within our storehouses," replied Hansk.

"Also, Hansk, reward Grandmaster Sid with 10 gold Fordes on my behalf and don't forget to give his other smiths one gold Forde each. Let them take a short break in the meantime. I will need them to forage the area for mining resources after we defeat the soldiers of the duke," Lorist said.

"Understood, milord."

"Butler Boris, you will be in charge of the people I've asked Old Man Balk to bring inside the castle construction site, alright? When they finish moving, bring a group of laborers and Old Man Balk outside to sweep the surrounding area clean of any stone and wood construction material. After letting them rest for another two days, begin construction on the residential area inside the castle, understood?"

"Milord, please be assured that I will carry that out flawlessly," said Boris before he left.

"Shadekampf," Lorist called out.

"Milord, what are your instructions?"

"I want you to join the other nobles over there at the Kenmays Family's camp and tell them that after seeing the hectic battles from the walls, I would like to organize a proper knighthood contest and am ready to use some equipment and prize money as rewards for the victors. Tell the Kenmayses that if they are still intent on attacking us, wait until the contest is over since they won't be able to do anything given the current situation anyway," Lorist said.

"Ah, milord... You mean to do..."

"I want you to stall the Kenmayses and the other nobles so that they don't know about the presence of the duke's army within our territory to prevent them from launching a pincer attack from both inside and out. Currently, the enemies within our dominion is the priority and I'm prepared to gather all our forces to face them first."

"Milord, I understand. I will be going there shortly," Shadekampf replied.

"Patt, escort Shadekampf on his mission later. Also, send someone to bring Jim over here. I have something I need him to do," Lorist said.

......

Ever since he received the news from the mercenary messenger, Lorist moved his place of residence from the outer wall to the inner wall at Telesti's room. Telesti on the other hand moved down from the wall and picked two newly-built houses in the planned business sector with the larger one being the main headquarters for the construction operations and the smaller one which was situated at a quieter area as her residence.

Shadekampf and Patt entered the room only to see Lorist comparing large and small maps, seemingly in an effort to find the route that allowed the duke's regiment to make their way into the Norton Family dominion.

"Milord..."

"Oh, you're back," Lorist said as he tossed the map in his hand onto the table in futility. "It can't be possible... There isn't a road they could've used at all. While two or three people could've crossed the mountains without too much trouble, how did they bring thousands of them over? Oh, and Shadekampf, what was their reaction when you went there?"

Shadekampf thought for a while and replied, "Milord, when we arrived, Viscount Kenmays was holding a welcoming feast for the nobles who had just arrived. When I announced our plans right there and then, many nobles agreed to the proposition. However, the viscount made an unpleasant look and the 7 nobles which the viscount had personally invited over didn't make a single sound. After that, the viscount said he had to excuse himself for a while and by the time he returned, he announced that the Kenmays Family was willing to make up with the Norton Family and organize the knighthood contest jointly with us..."

"Make up? What does that mean? I burned his bastide down as well as his immigrant town and took all their resources and citizens. They should be hating us to the bone... But now they're willing to let go of all that for a knighthood contest? How is that possible? What is the Kenmays Family leader planning... Don't tell me that he's planning on attacking our castle during the knighthood competition?" Lorist asked as he stood up and paced around in thought.

"Milord, I believe they are indeed sincere about their request. That's because I've met with Viscount Kenmays's father, the family leader of the Kenmays Family," Shadekampf said.

"Oh?" mused Lorist as he looked towards Shadekampf.

"Milord, after the viscount announced his decision, he invited us to the tent nearby to discuss the details of organizing the knighthood contest and quickly made a draft of the plans for the nobles to see. Suspecting that something was amiss, I went to the next tent only to see the Kenmays Family leader waiting for us within," Shadekampf said.

Lorist looked towards Patt and saw him nod, indicating that what Shadekampf just said was true.

"Then what did the family leader say?" Lorist asked.

"He looked really angry and said that the actions of the Kenmays Family against the Nortons were purely his arrogant son's fault. Originally, the Kenmays Family had a mercantile background and they had just become a noble family recently, so he said that they weren't too familiar with the traditions and customs of nobles yet. He mentioned that as someone who ascended into nobility after the Norton Family which had hundreds of years of history behind it, their family should have treated us with respect. But due to his son's aloof ambitions and short temper, they have mistakenly wronged the us and have learned their lesson ever since.

"The family leader also said that the Kenmays Family did not wish to make an enemy out of the Norton Family, citing that during the three-month-siege by the viscount's forces on the Maplewoods Bastide, they have suffered huge losses as well. He stated that as fellow neighbors, our two families should help each other out instead of becoming arch-enemies. He wishes that our families would put our past grievances behind us and look towards a better future of cooperation in the long term. He added that the Kenmays Family was willing to forfeit and concede all their territorial arguments with the Nortons so that there would be no more room for conflict.

"Milord, the Kenmays Family also revealed two important pieces of information," Shadekampf said.

"What are they?"

Shadekampf said, "First, they said that they would bring their forces to heed Count Lopez's call for reinforcements first thing tomorrow afternoon as the count's dominion had come under serious assault from the mountain barbarians. I think that's the main reason for their sudden proposal for peace."

Lorist nodded and thought, that's right. There was no way in hell the Kenmays Family would be so gracious and let us go for nothing. The reason they made that action was because they would profit from it somehow. No merchant family would do anything unless the profits involved were high enough. However, Lorist still did not understand the overall situation of the Northlands as he was almost blind to any happenings outside his own dominion.

Lorist asked suspiciously, "What is the second piece of information?"

Shadekampf said, "The Kenmays Family leader said that when he passed through the duke's territory to arrive at Firmrock Castle, he noticed that the Northland Army was being mobilized and heard that they were coming for you, milord, the new family leader of the Nortons who had chased away the ambassadors the duke sent to threaten us and even hurt their arrogant Gold ranked knight Tabik severely, causing the duke to enter a terrible fit of rage as a result. The Kenmays Family leader mentioned that since he was able to travel faster with few people, he was able to make it in time to warn us a few days in advance of the arrival of the duke's army so that we may make our preparations."

"Hmmm..." Lorist was currently in deep thought. Why would the Kenmays Family leader bother to warn us? Originally, they were the ones that wanted to take over Firmrock Castle in the first place. I think that also indicates that they still don't know that they duke's army is already within our territory. Then again, he did mention that he was going to help Count Lopez out and bring his forces away... Is he trying to avoid the duke's army? And if so, why?

If I were the Kenmays Family leader, the duke would be someone whose good side I have to get to no matter what. That means... that the Kenmays Family's forces would become enemy fodder for the duke's army when they arrive! Lorist's eyes gleamed as he came to the realization. That's right. When the duke's army arrives, Viscount Kenmays would have to heed his orders, and if I take into account the difficulty the Kenmayses experienced to get authorization for their army to enter the Northlands... There's no reason why the duke wouldn't want the 2000 soldiers to become the vanguard of his attacks! Given the duke's personality, that much is a given...

The more Lorist pondered on that issue, the more he felt it was possible. The main reason the Kenmays Family wanted peace at a time like this was so that they could escape the worse fate that lay ahead as well as stand at the sidelines while the duke's army and the Nortons ripped each other apart. On the other hand, it would also save the remainder of their forces. That was why they chose to use helping the count out as an excuse to have their army leave the area so that their soldiers wouldn't get caught up in the crossfire. Gosh, they're all old, cunning foxes... Despite his losses, he told us about the duke's arrival and retreated his forces to not cause us any worry so that we would be able to cause as much damage to the duke as possible, which would also become beneficial for him...

"Milord, these are the rules of the knighthood contest which the Kenmays Family leader provided. He said that their family had organized quite a number of such competitions before and had lots of experience with them. As long as we are willing to supply the rewards, the Kenmays Family will be sponsoring all the costs involved to run the event. He wants the function to be called the 'Amity Cup' to commemorate the renewed good relations between the Kenmayses and Nortons. The family leader also mentioned that the longer the contest could be carried out, the better and that anyone who dares to interrupt the proceedings will become the public enemy of all knights. That's why, even if the duke's forces arrive, they would have to wait until the whole thing is over..." said Shadekampf as he passed a stack of beastskin documents to Lorist.

Lorist smiled. The Kenmays Family leader was doing his best to put Duke Loggins in as tough a position as he could and decided to organize the contest despite thinking that the duke's troops were on their way. How would the soldiers have any morale or motivation remaining to attack the castle after the contest? It was a shame that the Kenmays Family leader was unaware that the duke wouldn't be showing up at Firmrock Castle as they were already at Wildnorth Town.

Lorist took out a feather pen and dipped it into some ink and started writing as he said, "I agree to most of the stuff in the regulations, but I want to split up the category of the Silver ranked knight competitions into three according to the star rank so that there will be winners for the One Star Silver rank, Two Star Silver rank and the Three Star Silver rank respectively. Also, only competing in foot battles and mounted battles is far too plain. Let's add another archery competition for each rank. Shadekampf, pay them a visit tomorrow morning and tell them that the Norton Family is willing to forget the grievances of the past and be at peace with the Kenmays Family and mention that we absolutely cannot let them bear the whole cost of organizing the contest. Since it's a collaboration, we will split and bear half of the organizing cost and sponsor the prize money for the knighthood competition while the Kenmayses only have to pay for half of the labor cost."

"Yes, milord."

Patt stepped up and said, "Milord, when Shadekampf was discussing the details of the contest, I loitered around the area and discovered two things."

"Oh?"

"First, the Kenmays Family already have to family knights. One of them looked to be someone who had been in the military with an air that's similar to Potterfang's. The other was extremely tall and huge with a sturdy look and emitted a heavy killing intent that would intimidate anyone at first sight. Other than that, the Kenmays Family is preparing to form a small knight brigade by recruiting the wandering knights. I found out about that because I saw 20 wandering knights within the camp and had a short chat with them," Patt reported.

"Oh, it seems that they have other stuff up their sleeves as well. I really wonder what they'll be up to next. Patt, find two guards tomorrow to spy on the forces of the Kenmays Family. Let's see what they intend to achieve by using 'aiding Count Lopez' as an excuse," Lorist said.

"Also, I will not show up during the knighthood contest and it will mainly be organized by you and Shadekampf. Make sure to pay attention to the knights who get the first few places in their categories and recruit them if you can. However, I want you to focus on the archery competition specifically. It's okay if the knights there are lacking in other respects. As long as they're good at archery, ask the participants whether they want to serve in our military force and tell them that there will be opportunities for promotion if they perform well."

Commonly speaking, knights seldom cared about the art of archery as they believed that true knights would face each other off in a bloody melee battle as attacking from afar was often considered an act of cowardice. However, Lorist understood that his forces' ranged units suffered as he wasn't able to effectively train them. That was why he had no choice but to secretly place his hopes on the knighthood contest's archery competition to find him a few good archers. Also, the Kenmays Family might think that the additional competition segment was merely the Norton Family's attempt at showing off their Gold ranked marksman, so there really was nothing to lose.

"Yes, milord. we will do as you have instructed," said Shadekampf and Patt in unison.

Chapter 129 Knight Waxima

"Who?" Lorist asked, having not clearly heard him.

Shadekampf explained, "Milord, when we left the camp of the Kenmayses, Patt said he wanted to recruit Knight Waxima as a family knight as he had won three straight challenges in a row in the morning. That was why we headed to his tent to pay him a visit. But when we were there, the men sent by the Family of the Pegasus and the Kenmays Family were already there to make their invitations."

"Oh..." The more Lorist heard, the more interested he got. However, he had never heard of a 'pegasus' family. "Wait, what noble family bears the moniker of the Family of the Pegasus? Why haven't I heard of it before?"

"Milord, did you forget? Yesterday, the first knight who challenged our family, Lamboway, wore a silver pegasus crest did he not? He was a knight of the Family of the Pegasus. Milord, do you know about the Newmoon War and the Felim Family?"

"I know about those. Hundreds of years ago, an artifact was excavated from one of the ancient ruins. It was a Silvermoon-shaped stone that was said to be filled with magical power. That stone had caused Krissen IV to go to war for it against 7 other noble families and it was termed the Newmoon War or the Newmoon Chaos. In the end, Krissen IV won a hard-fought victory and eradicated the other 7 families. However, the magical stone had disappeared and was never seen by anyone else ever since. Having ruined half of his empire and gaining nothing, Krissen IV was often ridiculed for expending so much effort on something he did not get his hands on in the end. I recall that the Felim Family was one of the 7 families that rebelled, right?" Lorist asked as he recalled.

Shadekampf said, "Milord, your memory is indeed great. The insignia of the Felim Family does indeed depict a silver pegasus. Like how we are called the Family of the Roaring Raging Bear, they are colloquially known as the Family of the Pegasus. One of the wandering knights who paid the Second Prince a huge sum to be made into a noble is Baron Felim Chalvode. According to the ambassador of the Felim Family that was sent to recruit Knight Waxima, the baron is one of the descendants from the Family of the Pegasus and he wishes to one day return his family to its previous glorious position. As long as Knight Waxima joins the Felim Family, they might actually stand a chance in the future..."

"Also, the ambassador of the Kenmays Family said that they were willing to offer Knight Waxima two times the yearly salary other families paid their knights as well as giving Waxima his own personal manor which will be complete with all the necessary infrastructure if he made it to the Gold rank," Patt added.

"Oh, then why did Knight Waxima come back with you guys? What kind of conditions did you make?" Lorist asked curiously.

"This..." Shadekampf said as he shook his head in a troubled manner.

Patt scratched his head and said, "To be honest, we don't know why he followed us here either. We didn't even make any conditions. Milord, when we went there, the other two ambassadors from the other families were already there. When we met Knight Waxima, we went straight to the point and asked if he was willing to come to our family. After we said that, the ambassadors of the Family of the Pegasus and the Kenmays Family tried to convince him otherwise and made better conditions of their own. Thinking that we didn't have a chance, we bid our farewells and left. Who knew that after hearing the offers of the two ambassadors, Knight Waxima merely shook his head and refused them before he brought his sword and mount and followed us back..."

"Then where is he now?"

"Milord, Knight Waxima is waiting right outside. I had wanted him to come inside with us, but he said that it would be impolite to enter milord's room without first being invited and that it was against the code of chivalry practiced by knights. That was why we had no choice but to allow him to wait outside..." Patt said.

"Sol, you should've said that first when you came in. It really is quite rude for me to have made him wait for so long..." Lorist complained as he hurriedly rushed outside.

......

Waxima was a tall and slender guy who acted with utmost politeness. His almost ceremonial behavior instantly revealed his traditional knight family upbringing, given that he was a little uncomfortable with how friendly Lorist treated him and even hesitated to receive the cup of tea that Lorist poured him.

"Knight Waxima, please forgive my prying, but why did you refuse the invitations of the Family of the Pegasus and the Kenmays Family? Their conditions were not bad at all from what I've heard..." Lorist paid attention to the knight as he was quite interested in him. After witnessing Waxima fight with other knights with his practiced and stable fighting style that allowed him to aptly receive and parry any strike headed towards him, Lorist felt that the knight gave of a dependable and reliable aura, similar to that of Mt. Tai. For some reason. Lorist chuckled at somehow remembering the famous saying about a mountain from his previous life.

Knight Waxima continued to stay silent before he brought out a small golden badge bearing the insignia of the Raging Bear and put it on the table. "I have come because of this."

The badge of the Raging Bear? Lorist picked out the badge and flipped it around and saw the characters spelling out 'Abelyde' engraved upon its back.

"Big brother?" Lorist looked at Knight Waxima and thought, how did the badge of my elder brother end up in his hands?

"Seven years ago, Sir Abelyde was a One Star Gold ranked knight and he traveled the Northlands to challenge all the famous knights within with none of them being his match. When he was on his way back to his own dominion, he passed through my manor. At that time, I was trying the third time to awaken my Battle Force. If I had failed back then, I would have nowhere else to go and would have no choice to leave the manor that was left to me by my father. It was because I had Sir Abelyde's guidance that I was able to awaken my Battle Force successfully in the end. Before he left, when I asked if I would be able to meet him again, he left this badge behind and smiled as he said that I could go find him with this badge when I reach the Silver rank and he would make me his knight. But when i finally broke through, I received the news that he had perished on the battlefield...

"Not knowing what I should do, I decided to visit the Norton Family anyway when I reach the Two Star Silver rank even if Sir Abelyde was already no more. However, my mother passed away by coincidence at that time and my wife also birthed me my son, causing me to be unable to leave as I had planned. Just last year, I broke through to the Three Star Silver rank and my father's liege's descendant, Viscount Beseth, went under the attack of two other new noble families, so I had no other choice but to help resist the attacks and we only managed to defeat those dominion lords earlier this year.

"I then spent three months to settle the issues within my manor like laying-off my servants before I returned it to the viscount and brought my wife and son along with my attendants over here. I only just arrived yesterday and planned to visit you this morning, but the other wandering knights in the area thought that I was planning to challenge them, so I had no choice but to defeat those two challengers. Then I thought that if I showed up at the castle walls, I might be mistaken to be challenging your family, so I returned once again to think things over. I didn't expect that just now during the evening, you would've sent your men to find me... So I followed them back here right away..." explained Waxima in a rather calm tone as if he was talking about his past like the most common things of everyday life.

Lorist, Shadekampf and Patt, however, were rather moved by his experiences...

"You've returned the manor your father left you back to the dominion lord?" Lorist asked in a surprised voice.

"That's right, milord," replied Knight Waxima calmly. "The lord my father pledged himself to is the grandfather of the current dominion lord. When I failed on my second attempt to awaken my Battle Force, the current Viscount Beseth even asked me to leave the manor and said that their family cannot afford to support a piece of useless crap like me. That's why I've decided not to follow the Beseth Family like my father did when I broke through to the Silver rank, considering that I also promised Sir Abelyde that I would become a knight of the Norton Family. This time, the reason I fought off the two noble families that attacked Viscount Beseth's dominion was to return the favors my family owes Viscount Beseth's grandfather. After returning the manor, we no longer owe each other anymore and I can leave without any lingering attachments."

"Knight Waxima, I'm really touched by the behavior that you have shown which is exemplary of a most respectable and glorious knight. Your firm belief on fulfilling promises is the best reciprocation the Norton Family can hope for. However, you should know that our family is currently in a rather dire situation. To be completely honest with you, a group of Duke Loggins's soldiers have already managed to invade our dominion. If you join us, you will have to face his men on the battlefield and nobody can guarantee your safety. Your child is also still young, so I hope you can think it over by taking your family into consideration. Joining the Norton Family now is not the most optimal choice you can make," Lorist said as he made a bitter smile.

"Milord, the path of knights is supposed to be fraught with dangers. My only regret is that I couldn't come here earlier and I do not wish to have the same regrets for the remainder of my life. If I shirk out now, my son will probably be ashamed for having a father like me..." said Waxima as he stepped in front of Lorist and kneeled down on one knee. "Milord, if you are willing to take me as a knight of the Norton Family, then can you allow me to join your forces as a regular foot soldier so that we may resist the enemy together?"

"This is the most touching pledge I have ever heard. Rise, my knight," said Lorist as he tapped onto Knight Waxima's shoulder twice with his sword. "Patt..."

Patt brought out a Silver Raging Bear badge and gave it to Lorist before he hugged Waxima heartily and said, "I welcome your participation, comrade and brother of mine. Your arrival is the best honor the Norton Family could ever receive."

......

Waxima, who had just become the knight of the Norton Family, excitedly went to fetch his wife, son and attendants while accompanied by Shadekampf. As Lorist was playing around with his elder brother's badge, Patt entered and reported, "Milord, Jim is back."

"Oh, let him in quick."

"Jim, what did the four mercenary leaders say?" asked Lorist impatiently before Jim even managed to catch his breath.

Jim wiped the sweat off his face before he replied as he panted, "Milord, the price you gave them is more than enough and all of them are willing to accept your employment. However, they have a small request..."

"What is it?" Lorist asked.

"They want you to provide them with some weapons and equipment..."

Lorist's expression darkened as he said, "Do they want metal armor as well?"

"No, not metal armor..." clarified Jim hurriedly. "Milord, if they did, I would've scolded them furiously when I was there myself. What they've requested is to be allowed to masquerade as the forces of our family while they work on the mission you gave them. That way, if anything goes wrong, they will be treated as soldiers of the Norton Family and not mercenaries from their crews. Milord, you should understand that if they were captured as mercenaries by the duke's men, they would be beheaded right away and the duke would know which mercenary crew helped us out. If they pretend to be our men on the other hand, even though they might have to endure some torture, they have a better chance to retain their lives and their crews wouldn't offend the duke on the surface either..."

Lorist's expression calmed down and softened before he nodded and said, "Alright, I can give them a couple of leather armor and weapons that have our family's insignia engraved on them. However, they have to prepare their own mounts. Also, after they sign the agreement, let them lead their men into the castle in small groups to collect their equipment before they head outside the castle once again to set up camp there. Once we receive news from Paulobins, that will be when I will depart with them."

"Alright, milord. I will go back there to get them to sign the agreement and have them collect their equipment tomorrow night," said Jim as he hurriedly rushed back.

"Milord, can we really count on those mercenary crews?" Patt asked.

"Regardless of whether we can or not, having their men on our side is still better than nothing. In terms of individual battle prowess, the mercenaries should be better than the soldiers of the Northland Army. However, if an all-out battle breaks out, there is little doubt that their coordination will be worse when compared to properly-trained armies. Other than that, we don't have enough men on our side to resist the forces of the duke with the aid of Wildnorth Town head on. In terms of numbers, they beat us hands down and we have no choice but to resist them defensively. Then again, we can't coop ourselves out in a castle for the whole time and we have to retaliate once in a while so that our forces can push the enemy back slightly and last longer. When using the mercenaries, we have to let them do what they are best at: using hit-and-run tactics from the sidelines to wipe out the enemy's scouts, ambushing their rearguard, and intercepting their attacking troops so that they will be distracted and not be able to effectively besiege the castle," said Lorist as he explained the tactics he was going to employ using the mercenaries he hired.

"But the cost of hiring one crew is far too high at 100 gold Fordes. And you will also have to pay them one imperial gold coin for every enemy they kill as well as provide them with leather armor, weapons and food supplies. Milord, I feel that it's not worth spending so much money on the mercenaries," said Patt, worried about the huge payment involved.

"If we don't at least spend that much, then the mercenaries will not fight with all they have. After collecting around 200000 gold Fordes' worth of wealth from the Kenmays Family, gold coins is not something we currently lack. If we can squash Duke Loggins's army with money, then that would've been money well spent," Lorist said.

Chapter 130 Troop Deployment

What Lorist could do now was to muster all his forces to resist the duke's army. For instance, the reason he hired the mercenary crews was so that they could help him wipe out the scouts of the enemy and withhold part of their battle strength by way of ambushes and harassment attacks so that they wouldn't be able to effectively besiege the bastide of the Norton Family.

What Lorist was most worried about currently was whether the duke had already launched his attack against Maplewoods Bastide. Even though it was defended by a company's worth of family soldiers, they only numbered around 600 people and up to 200 of them were injured to some degree. Even if the family had ten times the amount of troops stationed there, it would still find it rather hard to resist the duke's force that numbered among the thousands. The only fact that Lorist could find relief in was that Josk was at the bastide. With a Gold ranked marksman like him there, Lorist was confident that the bastide wouldn't fall to enemy attack just yet.

As the sky gradually brightened during the dawn, Lorist awoke in a rather drowsy state as he had slept rather late the night before.

"Milord, Paulobins has sent someone back..." Ovidis's voice rang out from outside Lorist's room. He had been on night patrol duty since yesterday.

Lorist got out of bed and said, "Ovidis, get someone to bring me a basin full of water that I can use to wash my face with..."

The one who was sent back to make the report was one of the former bandits that had joined the guard squad. Having traveled for the whole night, he looked rather worn out as he said, "Milord, Squad Leader Paulobins ordered me to report to you that the enemy have yet to make their move and they stayed within their camp for one whole day. Yesterday, we also eradicated a group of ten plus enemy troops who were felling trees and caught some of them alive as well. The captives told us that the duke mobilized around two regiments with up to 4000 soldiers to 'punish the Norton Family for their rebellion' with the Gold ranked knight Chevany taking the lead as their commander..."

"Did the prisoners say how they entered our dominion?" Lorist asked.

The guard nodded and said, "Sir Josk questioned them already and I was among the men he brought along with him. The captives said they were not too clear about it as the whole army had been guided by someone else and that they merely followed along. However, they mentioned seeing a white beach as they traveled by the coast and passing through a few caverns with the last one taking them one whole day to traverse. Also, they also said that they crossed a very long suspension bridge. After the journey that took them four days, the worn out soldiers were allowed to rest for two days after they set up their camp..."

"Was Knight Josk with you as well?"

"Yes, milord. When were sneaking around Wildnorth Town, we met with Sir Josk who led his men to spy on the enemy camp, so we simply joined up with him," replied the guard.

"Alright, you should go take some rest. You did good," said Lorist as he tapped on the guard's shoulder in a good mood.

Lorist exhaled and relaxed as he thought, even though what we lack most right now is time, I didn't expect that the duke would allow his troops to rest for two days. This is the best case scenario I can hope for.

"Ovidis, have you finished picking the men for the company I asked you to form yesterday?" Lorist asked.

Ovidis nodded and said, "Milord, the company has already been formed and equipped. I had them finish building the training ground behind the business sector and they can start their basic training drills first thing today."

"Good. During their breaks, don't forget to teach them about how to awaken their Battle Force. Since you have been in the empire's army before, I'm sure you can easily teach them the basic Battle Force technique to help them awaken their Battle Force quickly. I'll be leaving this company to you."

"Yes, milord," replied Ovidis as he straightened his body.

"Alright, that's all. Good work working the night shift since yesterday. You better go get some rest for now," Lorist said.

......

After having breakfast, Shadekampf, Patt, Jim and Waxima arrived at Lorist's room.

"Jim, later during the morning, let the mercenaries enter the castle in small groups to equip themselves before they return to the camp outside. I will be bringing them with me tomorrow morning, understood?"

"Yes, milord. I will start working on it immediately," Jim said before he left.

"Shadekampf, I will leave the matter of the communication with the Kenmays Family about the knighthood competition to you. Supervisor Hansk will also help you out with this. You're clear on what I want you to pay attention to, right?" Lorist asked.

Shadekampf replied, "Milord, don't worry. I will make sure to satisfy your demands."

"Patt, pick one squad from the guard company and two squads of family soldiers later today for Knight Waxima to command. They should meet a few criteria like having awakened their Battle Force as well as knowing riding and archery."

"Understood, milord."

"Also, after I bring the three squads away, the castle will only have two squads of guards and two squads of family soldiers remaining. I will leave these men under your command, Patt. As for Ovidis's newly-formed company, you won't be able to use them as of yet, so let Ovidis train them up first. Four squads' worth of soldiers should be enough to defend Firmrock Castle. However, make sure to be vigilant even during the duration of the knighthood competition lest we get attacked by surprise," Lorist instructed Patt.

"Milord, don't worry. I will definitely keep my eyes wide open," Patt promised.

Lorist patted on his shoulder twice and said, "Alright, I'll leave it all to you. Waxima..."

"Milord, please give me your instructions," said the knight as he stepped forward.

Lorist turned to him and said, "I'm really sorry that you have to accompany me to the battlefield the moment you joined us..."

Waxima interjected, "Milord, the battlefield is the second home of the knight. It is my honor to be able to serve the family. Please don't hesitate to give me my orders."

"Alright, Waxima. Go with Patt to pick the men you will bring to battle. You will be in charge of overseeing the preparations and equipment of the soldiers. For the guards, let them take double-layered metal armor, pikes, riding shields, a quiver of javelins as well as one sidearm of their choosing. For the family soldiers, they will be allocated chain mail, pikes, bucklers, training longbows, a quiver of arrows and a longsword. Every man will have a pair of mounts, three days' worth of food as well as a wool blanket. Begin the preparations today for our departure tomorrow."

"Yes, milord," said Waxima as he clenched his fist and knocked onto his left breastplate in a knight salute.

"Alright, you guys go work on your tasks. Notify the guards at the door to call Butler Boris, Old Man Balk and Supervisor Hansk over."

"Yes, milord."

......

"Locke... You're far too shameless..." said Telesti with a flushed face while wearing an annoyed expression with hints of embarrassment and anger.

When Lorist went to bid her goodbye, he hugged her the moment he entered the room and gave her a French kiss, causing Telesti to gasp softly as she slumped down powerlessly in surprise.

"My dear Telesti, I will be going on the battlefield soon. This time, the enemy I face is really formidable and I truly feel that this might be the last time we meet. That's why I've decided to bid my farewells in hopes that your kiss will grant me the courage I need to defeat my fearsome foe. When and if I return, I will definitely present my spoils of battle to you..." said Lorist as he read out a classic line from one of the chivalric tales he read.

"Alright, alright. There you go again plagiarizing the lines you read in some knighthood novel. I don't know about the others, but I'm pretty sure that sooner or later you'll appear before me without a single scratch on you. I can only hope to pray for your enemy who have used up all their luck for them to have met you," said Telesti as she interjected in the middle of Lorist's recital.

"As expected, my dear Miss Telesti understands me best. But even though you hold so much confidence for me, this expedition will no doubt be a rather dangerous one as the men of Duke Loggins outnumber ours by two to three times. I have already ordered Patt to notify you to move if the worst comes to happen," Lorist said with a solemn expression.

Telesti fell silent for a while before she raised her head and said, "I believe that nobody will be able to defeat you and that you will return swiftly. You should go now, after all, you've hugged and kissed me already and said all you wanted to, right? What are you waiting for?"

Lorist smiled and said, "I was thinking if I should kiss you once more..."

"You..." said Telesti angrily as she looked around to look for something to pummel Lorist with.

Lorist dashed swiftly out of the doorway and gave Vinny an imperial gold coin when he passed her by. "You did well, this is for you."

Telesti sat down powerlessly on her chair and said, "You darned..."

Upon thinking back on the kiss moments before, she felt her face heat up as her vision blurred for a bit.

"Mistress, look! Lord Locke gave me a gold coin!" said Vinny happily.

Looking at Vinny's genuine smile, Telesti couldn't even get mad at her even is she tried. "Little Vinny, you sold me out for a single gold coin?"

"I didn't, aren't you sitting here just fine right now?" said Vinny with an innocent expression.

"Then why did you close the door just now?"

Vinny replied with a touch of naivete, "Lord Locke said that he wanted to give you a surprise and didn't want anybody else to see it. I thought it made sense so I closed the door and got rewarded by him with one gold coin! Oh, what was the surprise Lord Locke gave you just now? Can you show me?"

Telesti shrugged and buried her head within her arms as she laid flat on the table. Frustrated, she said, "Nothing..."

"Sheesh. Mistress, you're so stingy..." said Vinny.

......

"Milord, it's about time we departed," said Waxima as he showed up in front of Lorist.

Patt brought over a huge Northlander Horse which Lorist subsequently mounted.

"Milord, are you fine like that?" said Waxima in surprise as he looked at the simple chain mail Lorist wore.

"Well, Waxima, even though I'm a knight myself, the techniques I trained in is different from yours and the others. Wearing heavy armor will only serve to limit my abilities instead," Lorist explained.

With an expression of understanding, Waxima got onto his own horse and followed behind his lord.

One guard squad and two family soldier squads were already standing by. All of them numbered to more than 360 fully-equipped men in metal armor who were lined up in three long rows. Beside them were mounts without riders which they could switch to when their current ones tired out. Even though it was a relatively small group, the troops gave off an indomitable feeling, especially when compared to the unorganized mercenaries standing beside them not far away.

"Have the scouts been sent out?" Lorist asked.

"Yes. All 30 plus of them left early this morning. They were split into groups of three with several groups sent in front, to the left and to the right respectively," replied Waxima.

"Alright, let's depart. You'll be leading the march."

"Yes, milord."

"Jim, come here," Lorist said.

"We're going to leave now. Tell the four mercenary crew leaders to follow our troops from behind and organize themselves. When they are ready, bring the four crew leaders to me. I'd like to meet them," Lorist said.

"Okay, milord. I will head there right now."

Among the four mercenary crews, the one with the most members was without a doubt the Nightbat Mercenary Crew. They were the last crew who signed the agreement with Jim as they believed that given that their numbers were the highest, they deserved a pay of at least 150 to 200 gold Fordes. In the end, Jim ridiculed them for ranking only number three among the four crews even though they had so many members and said that they didn't have the right to ask for a raise and were free to not sign the agreement if they so pleased. In the end, the crew leader caved and signed it anyway.

The 260 plus Nightbat Mercenaries didn't seem to have any discipline at all and moved at their own pace. When Jim brought the Nightbat Crew Leader to meet Lorist, he was ordered to reorganize his own men who didn't look the least bit like the rest of the Norton Family soldiers and instead resembled a motley crew of rascals.

The leader of the Nightbat Mercenary Crew, Ulampmaxin, was an old, slick and cunning Two Star Silver ranked mercenary. Having been rebuked by Lorist, he looked at the soldiers of the Norton Family as well as the other three mercenary crews before he returned to his own group in embarrassment and started scolding away. It didn't take long for his men to behave and look more like proper soldiers.

The Cromwell Mercenary Crew was the strongest among the rest due to their leader, Cromwell Richard, being a One Star Gold ranked swordsman. It was rumored that his grandfather used to be a knight who had been stripped of his status for having angered his lord and was chased out of the family to become a lowly mercenary. Even so, he managed to have some fortuitous encounters during his life as one and managed to earn quite a fortune, which he used to form his own mercenary crew which he often employed to explore ancient ruins in search of artifacts. In the end, the grandfather of the current Cromwell leader left behind a will that stated that his descendants had to inherit the crew he had formed. Even if one was a commoner, as long as one was strong enough, one would be able to live the free and unchained life of a mercenary without worries.

The group that ranked number two in terms of strength was the Razorpike Mercenary Crew which numbered more than 170 people. Lorist paid the most attention to that crew as they were formed from retired commoner military officers and soldiers who adhered to standard military discipline and regulations as was seen in the way they marched. Their leader was a Three Star Silver ranked mercenary called Sandro who used to be a garrison officer for a town which had been eradicated during the civil war within the empire. For the survival of his family and comrades, he had formed his own mercenary crew so that they would be able to support themselves financially while not being oppressed by nobles at the same time.

The weakest mercenary crew was the Pentasword Mercenary Crew. As the name implied, the crew was formed jointly by five Silver ranked swordsmen. Even though their numbers were the least at only 132 people, they still looked more disciplined and united than the messy Nightbat mercenaries.

Lorist remained behind his own troops and chatted heartily with the mercenary leaders. Given that he had been a mercenary for up to 6 years back at Morante City, he didn't run out of topics to talk about with the rest of the mercenaries. Lorist also didn't put up any arrogant airs nobles usually did and occasionally even mocked himself just to cause the rest of them to laugh out loud without restraint.

Just when the conversation was getting heated, a mounted soldier rode over from further ahead and said, "Milord, Knight Waxima requests for your presence at the vanguard. Squad Leader Paulobins has returned."

Chapter 131 The Massacre and the Suspension Bridge

"Milord, I don't know if this is good or bad news. After that incident, Sir Josk didn't know what to do next either and could only order me to come back to make a report and await your decision," Paulobins said with a pale face.

"What in the world happened?" Lorist asked.

"It's like this. Yesterday evening at around 7 o'clock, Wildnorth Town was bustling with noise and many soldiers wearing the attire of the duke's army went inside the town from their camp. Sir Josk secretly sent some men to sneak near the town and after a while, they came back and reported that the people of the town were having a celebratory feast for the entitlement of the four great families as barons. We were all really mad and wanted to cause some trouble so that they wouldn't be able to successfully carry out their ceremony..."

Paulobins looked to the sky as he reminisced and said, "After that, Sir Josk once again brought a few of us to sneak to the enemy's camp. However, the lax security there greatly surprised us as even the soldiers stationed up at the tower outposts focused their attention on what was happening within the town, allowing us to swiftly make our way to the barricade surrounding the camp without too much trouble. Originally, we wanted to set their tents on fire, but Sir Josk stopped us and said that he felt that something was off. So, he ordered us to be patient until we could ascertain what was going on...

"After we passed through the gap in the barricades, we saw that in the middle of the empty space were the people of Wildnorth Town gathered around a huge bonfire while consuming wine and meats. After a while, two metal-armored knights showed up and some citizens of the town dressed in luxurious robes went to greet him. The knight with the long goatee said something as he smiled, which caused the people of the town to all kneel down. After that, the knight said something so terrifying that caused the townsfolk to stand there stunned and unable to move. Another knight who was nearby drew his sword and instantly pierced it into the chest of an old man from the town...

"As we witnessed that from afar, we also stood there completely flabbergasted. We heard a blaring of a horn before fully-armed soldiers emerged from the tents nearby and started slaughtering the citizens of the town. It was a complete massacre and the unarmed townsfolk could do nothing to retaliate at all; even those who had kneeled down to beg for mercy were not spared. Sir Josk said that there were at least 2000 or so townsfolk who had participated in the ceremony and all of them were male. However, not a single one of them were spared, even the elderly and the children were killed off. There was so much blood that it even flowed out of the camp. In the end, around 600 of them gathered up and started fighting back with some flaming sticks that they got from the bonfire. But they only managed to set a few of the tents in the army camp on fire before they were all culled by the Silver ranked knights...

"Quickly following that, the men of Duke Loggins split up into two groups and one of them to launched an attack on Wildnorth Town. It didn't take long for them to bust open the town gates and rush inside to kill, causing cries of terror and agony to resound from within the town. At that time, we were all stunned beyond recognition and didn't know how it came to end like that... In the end, Sir Josk snapped us out of our stupor and led us away from the enemy camp. The next morning, we went back and saw that some of the duke's soldiers had dug a huge pit to toss the bodies of the townsfolk into which they set on fire before they packed up their camp and moved into the town. A little while later, a few other soldiers emerged from the town and started digging another huge pit for even more bodies that were to be burned. Sir Josk with his good eyesight recognized that most of the bodies were that of the elderly and children of the town...

"Milord, right now, the soldiers of the duke have occupied WIldnorth Town completely and Sir Josk doesn't know what he should do next, so he sent me back here to seek your advice," said Paulobins as he finished reporting the incident that happened a few days prior. Perhaps he still hadn't snapped out of the shock from witnessing the massacre firsthand as he had shivered all the while he recalled the incident.

Lorist placed his cape on Paulobins, who didn't know what to say to express his gratitude and merely clasped tightly on the cape.

Raising his head, Lorist looked at the direction of Wildnorth Town and saw two greyish-white pillars of smoke rise up into the sky. Even though hearing about the massacre of the town has greatly shocked Lorist, he couldn't help but feel a trace of happiness from the depths of his heart. Betraying the Norton Family, openly resisting with an army, conspiring with Duke Loggins and allowing the enemy to enter the dominion of the family; the Wildnorth Town had already went beyond all lines of tolerance for any noble family and their untimely demise could be said to be well deserved and not worth anyone's sympathy.

Even though Lorist wanted to laugh out loud in happiness, he resisted that urge. While the list of problems he had decreased by one and even though he hated every one of the Wildnorth Town folk to the bone, given that he had grown up in a relatively peaceful era in his previous life, he would never have been able to kill the elderly and the children of the town even though they were relatives of the enemy.

The family leaders of the four great families were truly spoiled under Norton rule. Did they think that other nobles would be so easy to negotiate with like the Norton Family? The great families of Wildnorth Town had aided the duke so that they would be able to become landed nobles. But they must've forgotten that it was extremely rare for commoners to be elevated to the status of nobility. Having not seen the truth of the outside world, the people of the town actually believed in the false promises of the duke and didn't know that rebelling against one's dominion lord was a huge taboo in the eyes of nobles. The massacre could only be blamed on their own foolishness and were the consequence of their rebellion.

To Lorist, Paulobins's report on the massacre of the town was indeed a piece of good news and the duke's men had actually helped him solve one of his problems. Otherwise, Lorist would still have to wonder how to deal with the town who exploited their own noncombatants for defense; he couldn't kill them outright as that would affect his reputation given that many people at the Maplewoods Bastide had familial relations with the folk at Wildnorth Town. Then again, he couldn't just let them be as they would propagate their hatred for the Norton Family in the following generations to come and allow the town to become a hidden landmine within the Norton Family dominion that would become a huge source of uncertainty that could severely undermine the security of the dominion.

Even though Lorist felt that half his burdens had lifted, he still didn't understand why the men of the duke did something that irrational like massacring the folk of Wildnorth Town. Not only did they remove a formidable ally, that also put themselves in a precarious situation in the dominion of the Norton Family. Lorist had already intuited numerous methods he could use to overcome the men of Duke Loggins now that Wildnorth Town was out of the picture.

Don't tell me that the duke's men thought that their victory was secured the moment they made their way into our dominion? Otherwise, why would they decide to wipe out the people of Wildnorth Town who had conspired with them in the first place? If that were really the case, Lorist couldn't wait to give Duke Loggins a lesson he would never forget.

From Lorist's point of view, that massacre brought the Norton Family many advantages. If that hadn't happened, the rebellious soldiers of Wildnorth Town would be able to act as a firm supporting force for the duke's men and manage their supply lines and even guide the duke's soldiers to attack the more weakly defended places of the Norton Family. For example, Lorist was worried that the security of the Maplewoods Bastide would be compromised from within due to the people who were related to the Wildnorth Town residents causing sabotage.

After the massacre, there was little doubt that the rest within Maplewoods Bastide would hate the duke without question and resist his forces all the way. Also, given the things that happened to Wildnorth Town, they would understand that rebelling against the Nortons would only lead to their demise anyway. Given all that, there was little possibility that the duke would be able to take over the bastide within a short period of time. And the longer Lorist would be able to resist the enemy, the more chances he had to secure his victory.

From a military standpoint, the duke would actually disadvantage himself if he killed all the townsfolk who were originally willing to help him. That was the most frustrating part that Lorist didn't understand. Why didn't the duke placate the people of Wildnorth Town temporarily? The least the townsfolk could do with their 1000 or so men would be to defend Wildnorth Town itself and manage the logistics and supplies of the duke's army, allowing all 4000 men of the duke to attack the Norton Family without having to worry about their rearguard. Now that the townsfolk had been completely eliminated, at least 1000 of the duke's soldiers would have to be stationed at the town just to protect it, leaving only 3000 plus to attack the Norton Family. And if the assault on the Maplewoods Bastide span a long period of time, more men would have to be allocated to handle the logistics. At that time, Lorist would definitely jump at the chance to wipe out the defenseless supply transporters.

The more Lorist continued to think about it, the more excited he got. At that time, he felt rather confident that he would be able to beat the duke's army as opposed to the 'cross the bridge when he came to it' mentality he held earlier in the morning. He looked forward to his arrival at the bastide dearly.

......

It has already been 3 days since Lorist arrived at the bastide, but he didn't receive any news from Josk about any attacks breaking out. Lorist didn't understand what the duke's men were delaying for. Don't tell me that they plan to secure the place and wait for more reinforcements to come? That way, the family will be in real trouble and we must be prepared to face long days of war and conflict.

Just as he was about to head to Wildnorth Town himself to take a look, a guard came in from outside and reported, "Milord, Hausky has returned."

The busy-looking Hausky was dressed rather shabbily as he came in with a tired look. After saluting Lorist, he brought out a beastskin map and said, "Milord, I found the route the enemy used to enter the dominion..."

Opening the map, Lorist saw a curvy line drawn by Hausky using a charcoal block.

"It's here..." said Hausky as he pointed at the Bladedge Mountains. "We followed the trail left by the enemy's forces and arrived at the mountains where we found a cave through which we discovered a valley. After another half a day's travel, we discovered another dark tunnel which took us around one day to pass through. Beyond that, we found ourselves at the edge of the cliff that had multitudes of vines growing downwards and to the opposite of it was another cliff. The people of Wildnorth Town had managed to use the vines to make a suspension bridge that was around 200 meters in length and 1 meter in width. However, it was exceedingly stable and it could even allow passage for four-wheeled carriages.

"After crossing the bridge to the cliff on the other side, we found a path that lead to a huge beach where we rested. However, we were attacked during our rest but we managed to fend off our enemy while taking two of them alive. After questioning the prisoners, we found that they were the men of a nearby dominion lord, Maillard, who noticed Duke Loggins's men using this path and also wanted a piece of profit for themselves. Maillard sent up to 300 men to follow the duke's troops from a safe distance and the ones we defeated back then were part of their scouts. Thinking that we were only 2 to 3 mercenaries, they wanted to kill us for our spoils, but little did they know we had another 20 plus people resting at the beach not far away and ended up being wiped out by us instead."

As Hausky reported, he started to snicker. "Then again, we didn't fare too well either. After the scouts went back to make their report, the remainder of the 300 men came forward to seek vengeance for their dead comrades and among them included 3 Silver ranked knights. We could only retreat hurriedly while the enemy chased us frantically, causing us to lose 4 men of our own in the process. By the time we reached the suspension bridge, I opened a few oil jars and poured their contents all over the bridge as I crossed and set it on fire when all of us made it to the other side, burning it down completely. Fortunately for the enemy, half of their men managed to run back to their side of the cliff before the bridge collapsed completely, but only 1 Silver ranked knight among the 3 managed to escape the fate of falling to certain death. However, even he was set on fire and even if he didn't die from the burns, he would be severely injured. It truly is unfortunate for him to have been among the ones who were chasing us at the very front."

Lorist said delightedly, "So you're saying that the bridge is already burned down and the route is no longer usable?"

Hausky gave it some thought and replied, "That should be the case. The bridge was up to 200 meters long and there is virtually no way for anyone to cross the cliff other than using it. Well, unless they wait for another 4 years for the vines to grow back and make another bridge to cross with..."

"That's wonderful. Hausky, you have truly did a great deed for the Norton Family. Now, I no longer have to worry about Duke Loggins sending more reinforcements into our family dominion. As for his troops at Wildnorth Town, they have nowhere else they can escape to. Hahaha..." Lorist said as he patted on Hausky's shoulders heartily.

"Oh, Hausky, do you want anything as a reward for your accomplishment? If you want, I can even make you a family knight of our family and promote you immediately," Lorist said.

Hausky made a forced smile and said, "Milord, I think you should forget that thought. This achievement wasn't accomplished through my personal effort alone; my 24 other comrades also played a huge part with 4 of them even dying in the process. If I become your knight now, it would be like I've betrayed them instead. Another reason for my refusal is my age. I'm already 45 now and am far too old to be your knight. Having been a mercenary for 20 years already, I also feel rather worn out from all my ventures and feel like retiring sooner or later. Before, I dreamed of forming a mercenary crew which I will pass to Jim when I reach the age of 50. However, now that he has decided to follow you instead, I think I should forget that and start working for my retirement."

Lorist nodded and said, "Alright, Hausky. Even though I think you're young enough, I respect your decision on this matter. I will present every person who accompanied you with a reward of 10 gold Fordes and the families of your dead comrades will receive 20 gold Fordes each. What do you think?"

"Milord, thank you for your generosity and understanding," Hausky said as he bowed deeply.

"Also, after this conflict, I plan to build a few towns in the family dominion. If you're willing, you can bring your family members to live within the dominion and I will even let you be a garrison captain at one of the towns. As for your other mercenary comrades, if they want, they can join the forces of my family as well. I believe they will have bright futures there with us," Lorist said.

"Thank you for your kind intentions, milord. I will relay your offer to the rest," Hausky replied.

Chapter 132 Josk's Fire Arrows

After the three companies left the town gates, they were followed by about 50 four-wheeled horse carriages which carried various goods like tents and some other supplies. The group of carriages also seemed to be ferrying a company's worth of soldiers. Apart from two soldiers driving each carriage, around 8 more could be seen seated within them.

After the convoy exited the gates, a company of pike cavalry troops followed behind. What made Lorist wonder, however, was that the company of pike cavalry troops didn't seem as disciplined and orderly as the leather armor-wearing cavalry company that came before. The soldiers were not in proper formation and they were even chatting and laughing out loud on their mounts.

The town gates finally closed up after the cavalry company exited the town. A row of soldiers carrying blow horns showed up at the walls of the town and started blowing the tune of deployment. A few men within the last pike cavalry company seemed to turn back and curse at the soldiers at the walls before they followed the troops that were marching in front of them.

About an hour after the deployment of the troops, the town gates of Wildnorth Town remained tightly shut and the security on the walls seemed rather thorough. Lorist lightly leaped off the tree he had been on and said to Reidy, who was holding the horses and waiting for him further ahead, "Let's go back to our camp."

The two of them only mounted their horses after they left the forest grounds. Before they traveled far, they saw 6 riders rushing in their direction from a mound nearby. Upon seeing Lorist and Reidy, the riders raised their pikes and shouted, "Slay them!"

At that moment, tens of other riders revealed themselves from beyond the mound. At the sight of those new riders, Lorist smiled: the 6 riders were actually running away from the mercenaries he had hired. However, Lorist didn't expect that the mercenaries would be so aggressive and would start hunting down the duke's men at an area that is not even 500 meters away from Wildnorth Town.

Six javelins flew through the air and slaughtered the 6 bloodthirsty light cavalry scouts in cold blood. The mercenaries who chased them from behind got off their horses and saluted Lorist before they returned to staring at the dead scouts with a yearning gaze.

"Reidy, go and check what the corpses have on them..." Lorist was a little bothered why the mercenaries stared at the corpses with such hungry gazes.

Reidy returned quickly while holding the reins of 6 horses and retrieved 6 longswords and a few throwing axes and flails as well as 6 money pouches that seemed to be filled to the brim.

Upon opening up one of the money pouches, tens of silver coins as well as more than 10 imperial gold coins could be seen within. There were 2 to 3 gold Fordes within each pouch. After a moment of thought, Lorist finally came to a realization: the folk of Wildnorth Town were actually rather wealthy, but had nowhere better to spend their money on. That was why their money only piled up within their households. Now that the duke had massacred all the citizens within the town and took control of it, the soldiers naturally ransacked every building they could find and each of them earned quite a bit from the spoils. No wonder the soldiers that left in the morning didn't look too enthusiastic about being sent to battle as they were hoping they would be able to spend their newfound wealth as soon as possible. It was quite possible that after being deployed, they might not survive long enough to be able to enjoy their spoils.

That also explained why the mercenaries were so persistent on chasing down those scouts. Perhaps in the eyes of those poor mercenaries, each of the duke's soldiers was nothing more than a moving coin chest. Lorist smiled and felt quite confident that he would be able to defeat the duke's troops this time around.

"Which mercenary crew are you lot from?" Lorist asked.

"Milord, we are from the Nightbat Mercenary Crew," replied the leader of the group. Given that he recognized Lorist as the rich person that hired their crew as well as having witnessed the scene of him killing off the six soldiers with the javelins, the mercenary had no choice but to admit that even he wouldn't necessarily be able to take that javelin head-on given the force at which it was thrown.

"You did rather well. I'll leave the corpses here for you to handle," Lorist said as he continued to ride away with Reidy.

Even though Reidy took the money pouches, mounts and weapons of the dead soldiers, the mercenaries were still rather happy as the armor, boots and other accessories on the bodies were still untouched and they were worth quite a good sum. Other than that, the bodies might also be hiding other surprises waiting to be discovered such as rings or necklaces. The heads of the six bodies could also be exchanged for one imperial gold coin each as per Lorist's promise.

Lorist was currently heading towards the camp at a small hill within the forest. That was the location where he was ambushed after his first visit to Wildnorth Town during which he retrieved Belnick. The reason he chose that place was so that he could isolate the troops that were just deployed from the town with the rest that were guarding it.

That place was also the midway point between Wildnorth Town and Maplewoods Bastide and it was well hidden thanks to the small forest around it as well as the hills in the area. Even if Lorist were to intercept the messengers that passed through the area and be discovered in the process, it would take well over 20 minutes for reinforcements to be sent over and that was more than enough time for Lorist and his men to make it to safety.

Waxima came over as Lorist got off his horse. Upon seeing the relatively empty camp of the mercenaries, he asked, "Where is everybody?"

"Well, milord..." Waxima replied, "Early this morning, the Pentasword Mercenary Crew set out on their patrols and happened to bump into tens of the duke's scouts. They managed to take them all down with 7 of them getting injured in the process and discovered that the scouts all carried huge sums of money on their persons. When they came back and told the rest about it, the mercenaries all went out on a hunt for more enemy scouts."

"Sigh, nothing moves the hearts of people more efficiently than money. If I were to order them to rush at the vanguard of a charge, they would all scramble to be placed at the back of the formation. However, now that money is in the equation, they rushed forward without even thinking twice," Lorist said as he sighed.

"Milord, mercenaries are fickle people who can't be trusted: they only care about their own lives and interests and don't hold loyalty and honor in high regard. We shouldn't have hired them in the first place," Waxima said. As a knight, he was naturally quite prejudiced against mercenaries.

Lorist shooked his head and said, "The disparity between our forces and the duke's is truly too large. With these mercenaries, we can at least make up for the staggering difference in numbers. Even though they're a rowdy and unorganized bunch, they are still pretty useful against the reconnaissance troops of the enemy. Also, the experience and ability each of their men far exceeds that of our own soldiers. For now, we have not choice but to rely on their help to be able to stand a chance against the duke's army. By the way, did Paulobins leave as well?"

"Yes, milord. He is currently monitoring the soldiers the duke deployed and he will return after they finish setting up their camp," replied Waxima.

"The duke's men finally emerged from the town. It has already been five days since they occupied it. Now that they've shown themselves, we just have to find the right chance to strike. I really don't know how much longer this conflict will last though," Lorist said as he sat down within his tent.

"Milord, we will definitely be victorious over the duke's army," Waxima assured.

......

The attack the duke's men launched on Maplewoods Bastide went on with a fair share of trouble.

On the first day, the soldiers left Wildnorth Town at nine in the morning and only arrived at the bastide after two hours of marching before they began to set up their camp after having their afternoon meals. One Silver ranked knight who was sent to the bastide to shout for the Nortons to surrender. However, he was killed on horseback near the drawbridge from an arrow fired by Josk who was standing atop the castle walls, thus painting the duke's campaign with an ominous start. Now that the enemy soldiers knew that the Gold ranked marksman was within the bastide they were about to besiege, all of them prayed to the war god so that they wouldn't be the ones to die from the marksman's terrifying arrow.

During the night, only 14 of the scouts returned and they reported to their commander, Knight Chevany, that the other scouts have all fallen under the attacks of the Norton Family's light cavalry troops. Chevany furrowed his brow and wondered how the Nortons managed to get so many light cavalry troops to the point that they were able to cause more than 80 of his scouts to be wiped out. It was not until one of the scouts reported that even though the light cavalry troops were wearing leather armor bearing the insignia of the Norton Family, their behavior somewhat resembled that of mercenaries, that Chevany understood the situation and conjectured that the young family leader of the Nortons must have hired mercenaries to do battle for him. That theory wasn't too far fetched either since he had also gained the hidden personal sum of gold belonging to Viscount Kenmays.

On the second day, Chevany split his soldiers into two divisions: one company of leather armored cavalrymen led by ten Silver ranked knights was sent to sweep the surrounding area for enemy troops, especially the mercenaries that the Nortons hired. The other division was to be commanded by him to attack Maplewoods Bastide.

However, even after one whole afternoon of searching, the leather armored company didn't find a trace of the mercenaries. That was due to the fact that they traveled in a huge unit: no mercenary would be stupid enough to run straight into the group and most would sneak around and observe them from afar. In the end, the company rested by a stream for two hours only to discover when they were regrouping that tens of their own comrades have vanished. Judging from the trail, they appeared to have been forcefully abducted by the enemy. The Silver ranked knight who led the group was infuriated and he rallied his men to follow the trail, only to stop when they noticed that they had almost been lured into the Blackmud Marsh. Had the other Silver ranked knights not noticed that fact, the consequences of venturing into the marsh would have been unimaginable.

On the other hand, the group that attacked the bastide didn't fare too well either. Back then, Knight Chevany had ordered for the three ballistas to be brought out. Even he didn't expect that the town would've been able to procure three of those war machines which he found convenient to use during the siege as an added support to their assault. Little did he know that before the ballistas even fired a bolt, one of them was destroyed by an arrow shot by Josk from the walls of the castle. Fortunately for Chevany, the other two ballistas were retrieved rather swiftly and didn't suffer the same fate of destruction.

Greatly enraged, the knight commander ordered his longbowmen company to rain arrows on the castle. Naturally, the Norton troops were ready for that and they brought out their wooden boards and quickly set up a few parapets. Josk also took the chance to shoot from the cover of the parapets at the soldiers beyond the wall. After a long while, he managed to take out 53 foes while he didn't even get so much as a scratch.

Having had five days to prepare from the safety of Wildnorth Town, Chevany had already tasked someone to prepare some siege engines for his perusal, such as two mobile bridges and one mini battering ram, all of which were disassembled and shipped over the night before with their assembly being completed just that morning. The mobile bridges we actually flat pushcarts with a long wooden gangplank installed on it which could be extended outwards. Upon being pushed to the edge of the moat, the gangplanks could be extended to reach the other end of it so that soldiers could cross it and start attacking the main gates.

However, the terrain around the Maplewoods Bastide was rather hazardous as most of the land around the bastide aside from the two main walls were sloped and there was no way to launch a full-on attack from those sloped sides. Knight Chevany commanded his men to attack the main gates of the bastide three times already and lost up to 200 soldiers without achieving any significant results. The two mobile drawbridges and mini battering ram have also been set aflame with the help of incendiaries used by the Norton Family soldiers.

On the third day, Chevany did not continue his assaults on the bastide and instead sent a huge group of soldiers to fell some trees to start constructing more siege engines. In the afternoon, he received a report that the woodcutting soldiers were attacked and the casualties numbered below the hundreds. Having no other choice, Knight Chevany led a company of leather armored cavalrymen to guard the woodcutting soldiers and escorted them back to the camp when they were done.

After a whole day of work, just when the duke's soldiers were about to get a good night's rest, they were greeted by a surprise attack and lost another 100 or so of their own. That was mainly due to the separated attacks that were spread out throughout the night. The worst part of the attacks was that the wood that they had cut down during the day had been set aflame and rendered useless.

Knight Chevany was a resolute knight who followed his orders down to the last letter and he had promised his lord, Duke Loggins, that he would make the Norton Family submit and surrender. That was why he definitely wouldn't give up just because he suffered some initial setbacks. He believed that the fact that the Norton Family had to resort to guerilla tactics was due to them having been forced to their wits' ends and it represented their fears of being severely outmatched in terms of numbers to the point that they had to resort to underhanded methods like that to extend their numbered days.

That's why on the fourth day, Knight Chevany brought another group of soldiers to fell more trees and fortified the defenses of his camp when he returned before he was comfortable enough to relax and rest up.

However, not long after he laid down, he heard voices outside his tent calling out 'enemy attack' or something along those lines. Getting up from his bed and opening his tent, Knight Chevany thought, can you call this an enemy attack? He could see a flash from the distant walls of the bastide before a flaming arrow landed straight on the ground with an audible thump with the soldiers looking expectantly in the night sky while wondering where the next arrow would land.

This all stemmed from Josk's boredom which was in turn a result of the lack of attacks from the duke's men, causing him to have tons of unexpended energy which he didn't know how to use. Yesterday night when Lorist set the timber on fire, Josk was reminded that using his Battle Force and his specialized longbow, he could fire an arrow up to thousands of meters away. Naturally, the arrows were far from accurate and Josk himself wasn't aware of how much force the shots would possess. However, given that the camp of the duke's army was located around 1 kilometer from the bastide, Josk only needed to know the general location of the camp to be able to shoot some fire arrows there and if he was lucky, he might be able to set a couple of tents on fire as well. It was also quite a good idea to cause the enemy to be unable to rest well during the night, so Josk decided that he would fire ten fire arrows every night and see the extent of the damage he could cause.

By the time Josk finished firing, Knight Chevany could no longer go back to sleep peacefully as he had been left with a dull feeling of hopelessness that stemmed from things not going well for his expedition.

On the fifth day, the duke's men didn't attack the bastide either. Despite having dark eye circles from lack of rest, Knight Chevany mainly watched over the soldiers who were busy constructing siege engines.

On the sixth day, the construction of the siege engines continued. Due to the fact that the Northland Army was a proper army unit, the soldiers within weren't willing to use simple and improvised siege ladders. The siege engines they were trying to construct were basically siege towers that were equipped with gangplanks which could easily be laid onto castle walls to allow their men passage when the tower was close enough to the walls. Usually, soldiers would have to be stationed on top of the towers to defend it from enemy fire as it was pushed towards the walls before the gangplank could be lowered.

Knight Chevany was prepared to have four of those siege towers constructed as the castle walls had enough space for four of those at once. He believed that at least one of those towers would be able to successfully reach the walls and he would definitely be the first one to rush up to take care of that darned Gold ranked marksman that gave him so much trouble all this time.

That night, Josk fired 10 arrows at the same time to the enemy camp as usual.

On the 7th day, the construction of the siege towers were complete and the soldiers only went to rest after seeing all 10 of the arrows fall within their camps, feeling assured that there would be no more heading their way.

On the eighth day, Chevany decided to let his men take a good day's rest before tomorrow's full-scale attack on the bastide.

At the same time during the night, all the soldiers looked towards the sky and started counting.

"One arrow... two arrows... three arrows... four arrows... five arrows... six arrows... Here comes the seventh..."

Suddenly, Josk felt bored for no apparent reason. Seeing that the enemy had mostly finished the construction of their siege towers, he reasoned that they would be attacking the day after and thought that it was better for him to stop firing any more arrows and get some good rest for the ordeal that was to come the next day without bothering to complete his usual routine.

The soldiers in the enemy camp, however, continued to look up at the sky in stupor as they mumbled, "What about the 3 remaining arrows? Why hasn't he fired it yet? When are they going to come?" They continued to wait like that for two more hours...

Chapter 133 Rolling Boulders

Had it not been for his position of authority as the commander of the army, Knight Chevany would have went to the bastide walls and challenged the Gold ranked marksman to a one-on-one death battle. Even though he had participated in many battles before, he had never once encountered something so extraordinary like three unshot arrows causing a whole army to lose sleep for the night. It truly was exceedingly humiliating for him. What can I do now... thought the knight as he looked at the tired soldiers and felt that they weren't in good shape to attack the bastide that day either.

After giving it some thought, Knight Chevany finally made up his mind to move the camp 200 meters away where the marksman of the Norton Family would not be able to fire his arrows. It was also better that way as it would allow the soldiers to rest unworried. They might as well do some work to move the camp away since they were not attacking and make the Nortons pay after they were properly rested up.

Josk, Belnick and Pajik were currently standing atop the castle walls and looking towards the camp of the duke's army. They expected a bloody battle to commence on that day given that the enemy had finished constructing their siege engines and already had a whole day of rest.

It could be said that the Maplewoods Bastide was situated at a rather advantageous location. The whole bastide was built upon a hard rock mound and the area surrounding it was mostly flat and level. Aside from using a 200 or so meter long slope which was only tens of meters wide, there was no other way the enemy could attack the bastide because the cliffs of the mound was easily near 20 meters in height which couldn't be reached even with the aid of siege ladders.

Apart from the main drawbridge, the walls of the castle do not have any large openings or windows. However, they were laden with firing holes which could be used by defenders to shoot at enemies from the safety within. The first assault of the duke's army failed because of that: the jars of oil that caused the siege engines to burn them were also thrown from the firing holes.

"That's weird, it's already ten but they aren't making any indication to attack... They really like the dawdle, don't they?" Pajik said.

"That's right. Are they planning to come in the afternoon?" Josk also felt that something was off. Even though they have finished making their defense preparations, the enemy was still lumbering about slowly without a hint of urgency.

Belnick looked at the enemy camp and said, "Don't tell me they're doing this on purpose? Are they planning to make us let our guard down before they attack us? That shouldn't be the case though, pushing the tall siege towers should take quite some time and we would've finished our preparations by then."

"Who cares? No matter how many comes, we'll just kill them all. We only have to focus on the four siege towers. Also, those towers would block the line of sight of their bowmen, so that would work to our advantage as well," Josk said. As a person who specialized in longbows and archery, he knew the extent of the capabilities of the longbowmen unit of the duke. Even though he managed to kill 50 or so of the longbowmen during the last skirmish, he was left completely tired out by the end of it.

"The enemy commander really has a good eye: he managed to discover the weakness of our defenses after just one attack. The top of the castle is indeed our weak point. That's where they plan to aim using their four siege towers that would allow them to evade any damage from the firing holes that are only at the lower section of our walls; firing arrows at their towers are pointless with the huge wooden boards they have in place. We won't be able to toss our oil jars over the moat either as the tower wouldn't need to approach the walls that much to lower their bridges for their soldiers to cross. Currently, they have around 3000 men which is five to six times that of ours. Even if we manage to kill three for every one we lose, we still won't be their match. I only hope that the morale of their soldiers right now is not high so that they don't try so hard during the actual attack. Otherwise, we might find it exceedingly hard to overcome this obstacle today," Belnick said.

"The only opportunity we have to retaliate is the moment the siege towers lower their gangplanks. If we manage to toss one of our oil jars into the opening and have Sir Josk shoot a flaming arrow into it, then the whole siege tower would be rendered useless. If we manage to do that to two towers, we will be able to severely lessen the burden on our men as well. With that, 400 or so family soldiers might be enough for us to defend the top part of the castle," said Pajik as he looked at the bundle of oil jars beside him.

Supervisor Spiel and Pesha got out of the stairwell while breathing raggedly at that moment.

Pesha asked, "The enemy still hasn't attacked?"

"That is the case, mistress," said Pajik as he saluted Pesha. He had no choice but to do so as his wife who had birthed him a son had been 'given' to him by Pesha.

Belnick merely nodded to Pesha as he was only acquaintances with her. On one hand, he knew that Pesha was the fiancee of the late First Young Master. On the other, he understood that Lorist didn't like her that much.

Josk, however, didn't pay her any heed and pretended he didn't notice her arrival at all. After hearing about how Pesha had taken Lorist's weapons without his permission to melt them down to fashion a weapon for herself from Reidy, he grew to have a really bad impression of her.

"Mistress, why have you come here?" Pajik asked.

"Is there anything wrong with me being here? I'm a knight of the Norton Family as well. It's all Little Locke's fault for angering the Duke of the Northlands. Just look at this, the duke can easily send thousands of people over here without breaking a sweat. Is that a foe that our family can afford to anger? They even managed to kill off the people of WIldnorth Town. I was right all along when I told Grandpa Gleis that he shouldn't have let Little Locke return here. He's not fit at all to become a dominion lord," said Pesha as she started complaining about Lorist in front of everyone present.

"What did you say?!" roared Josk as he turned around to glare at Pesha with a furious expression.

"Did I say anything wrong?! Didn't all this start to happen after he returned to the dominion? If he didn't go and rob the Kenmays Family of their gold, would the duke have come to our doorstep? Had he not changed the regulations to anger the people of Wildnorth Town, would they have bothered to guide the men of the duke into the dominion? If Little Locke didn't become the dominion lord, then we wouldn't have to dip our hands in conflict either and the folk of WIldnorth Town will be respectful to us as always like the old times... And they wouldn't have been massacred either..." argued Pesha, obviously satisfied with her own reasoning.

Caught off-guard by the inane statements Pesha had just uttered, Josk was so angered that he was left completely speechless.

Belnick shook his head and thought, I've heard that the mistress was a stubborn person, but I didn't know that she would actually say something that ridiculous. Then again, she's been spoiled by the old butler ever since her childhood, so I think we know who to thank for her haughty behavior... Belnick didn't feel like debating her either as he believed that Lorist's eventual victory would make it even harder for the mistress to retract the statements she just made.

"Don't bother with her. She's just letting her mouth run even though she knows little about the whole situation. I'm sure that milord will teach her a lesson when he gets back," advised Belnick as he held onto Josk's arm to stop him.

"She really doesn't know what's good for her... I don't understand why milord didn't punish her for her transgressions back then. She should've lost her status as a family knight from that so that she wouldn't cause trouble for anyone else in the future... I really wanted to beat her up for talking bad of milord behind his back..." said Josk angrily.

Pajik on the other hand was put into an awkward position. He didn't expect that Pesha would actually dare to say something like that. Beside them, Supervisor Spiel made a bitter smile and said, "Mistress, how can you say things like that when our enemy is just about to attack? Milord will definitely not be happy to hear about it when he gets back..."

Upon the mention of Lorist, Pesha humphed with dissatisfaction before she quieted down and headed for another spot on the walls to continue to look towards the enemy camp.

"Supervisor Spiel, why have you come here?" Belnick asked.

"Oh, it's about this... Old Butler Gleis heard that the enemy had built four bridged siege towers and wanted me to remind the three of you that you can use the rolling boulder tactic as a countermeasure for that," Spiel replied.

"Rolling boulders? Are you talking about the 8 huge spherical boulders that are placed within the garden of the bastide?" Belnick asked. Right after, he jumped with realization and continued, "Darn, why did I forget about this..."

"Rolling boulder tactic? What is it?" asked Josk and Pajik curiously in unison.

"Haha, Brother Joe, Pajik, come over here and take a look. It's those 8 boulder balls that are placed over there," said Belnick with a smile after he headed to the other side of the castle walls and pointed downwards.

Beyond the main gates of the castle were a few flower beds where 8 huge boulders could be seen.

The moment he laid his sight on them, Josk understood and said, "So those 8 boulders can be used like that as well... I thought that they were just decorations at first. I even wondered once why they weren't sculpted into some other shape and believed that you guys were simply unable to find a good sculptor within the dominion."

Still confused, Pajik asked, "What would we do with those boulders?"

Belnick smiled and said, "Those 8 boulders each weigh over thousands of kilograms and they have all been carved to be able to fit through the castle gates so that they can roll straight down the drawbridge. Think about how the spectacle would look like the moment we push the boulders down after the enemy has pushed the siege towers halfway up the slope!"

Pajik stood there stunned the moment he heard it, but he recovered rather quickly and said, "Haha! To think that the family would still have this up their sleeves! I can't wait to see how the siege towers will fall... With this, we will be able to teach the duke an unforgettable lesson! We are definitely going to win the battle..."

"You may not know it, but the boulders have been there for at least two to three hundred years..." Belnick told Josk. "After the first ancestor of the Norton Family built the family bastide, it was frequently attacked by the mountain barbarians. The longest siege even lasted for half a year, but the barbarians incurred quite huge casualties themselves. That was when the rolling boulder tactic was thought up and one huge boulder was carved into a spherical shape. During the last siege the barbarians laid on the bastide, the result of the tactic was absolutely devastating. According to the family records, the slope outside the main gates was full of flattened corpses. There was so many that one would bloody one's whole leg the moment one stepped onto it.

"After that, the family spent tens of years to carve up the rest of the boulders in case we would need them once more. It would be the second time we use it since almost 300 years ago. We can finally behold the might of this tactic with our own eyes."

Josk thought for a bit before he said, "I hope that these rolling boulders don't frighten the enemy all the way back to Wildnorth Town. That way, milord's plan might have to be changed entirely again."

"The enemy has started to move..." said Supervisor Spiel from not too far away. The three knights ran over there immediately only to be flabbergasted by what they saw.

"What's going on? The enemy looks like they're moving their camp further away. What happened?"

The three knights looked at each other but they couldn't figure out the reason for the sudden move of the duke's army.

......

Knight Chevany's eyes were completely bloodshot as he stared at Maplewoods Bastide. If stares could set things on fire, then the bastide would be completely consumed by raging flames of hatred by now...

On the slope leading to the main entrance of the bastide were countless flattened bodies of the duke's soldiers who had toiled incredibly hard to push the siege towers halfway above the slope only to have two of them knocked off the slope with the other two lying flat on the slope itself. Between the two toppled towers was where the bloody spherical boulder lay.

It was the 10th day of the expedition led by Knight Chevany to conquer Maplewoods Bastide. After getting a good rest the day before, the soldiers were all energized and ready to attack to take over the bastide in one fell swoop. Chevany had also resolved that he would continue the assault and force the Nortons to submit no matter the casualties as long as the siege towers manage to reach the walls of the bastide.

After finishing breakfast, the soldiers got into their lines orderly behind the four siege towers and were led into battle by Knight Chevany. By the time the siege towers were pushed halfway up the slope, one hour and a half had already passed and it seemed that the attack would not truly begin until late in the afternoon. However, the knight thought that he would continue the assault throughout the night if it was necessary.

Having rested for half an hour, the soldiers began pushing the siege towers up again. However, after only advancing tens of meters, a few loud cries could be heard. "Milord, the city gates are open! The drawbridge is being lowered!"

That was something that Chevany had predicted all along. He thought that the Nortons would have no choice but to send their men on a suicide mission to stop the siege towers. He was confident that the Norton Family's soldiers understood that all would be lost if they allowed the siege towers to reach the walls.

Knight Chevany raised his hand calmly and said, "Have the longbowmen aim forward. Sword and shield infantry, enter a defensive formation. Pike infantry, be ready to receive the assault."

The well-trained soldiers of the duke's army entered their stations orderly. The moment the soldiers rushed out of the gates, they would definitely be in for a harsh treat.

However, not a single one of their enemy emerged from the castle gates. Instead, Chevany and the surviving soldiers were presented with a scene that they would never forget for the rest of their lives: a huge boulder rolled out from the castle gates down through the drawbridge and headed for the slope as it accelerated more and more...

Everyone there were completely terrified and stood there motionless as the boulders rolled closer and closer in their direction...

Finally, someone shouted, "Run!"

The formation instantly crumbled into smithereens with soldiers running all over the place into and over each other, especially with the four siege towers blocking their way. Some more clear-headed soldiers no longer gave a damn and jumped straight off the slope despite the risk of falling and injuring themselves while the rest could do nothing but scream as they stared at the giant boulder that encroached them by the moment...

Boom! The rolling boulder rammed straight into the two siege towers at the front, causing wooden splinters and body parts to fly everywhere while the bloodied boulder continued to push the siege towers down the slope.

Before Knight Chevany regained his composure, he heard another soldier cry out, "There's one more..."

Raising his head, the knight saw another boulder rolling down in his way...

With his quick wit, Knight Chevany ordered, "Topple the siege towers to block the boulder!"

Miraculously, the siege towers managed to be pushed down before the boulder reached them. While it smashed its way through the first toppled tower, the boulder stopped when it reached the second tower as it had lost all its momentum.

As the soldiers that narrowly escaped death let out a cheer of relief, Knight Chevany was dripping cold sweat atop his mount. He could only stare at the bastide atop the slope as he thought, as long as they have more of those boulders, I will never be able to attack them from the front...

Chapter 134 Surprise Takeover

The beastskin was a report submitted to him by a logistics officer. According to it, the light cavalry scouts had 83 casualties, 120 patrol troops were missing and more than 40 soldiers who were felling trees were killed. The casualties for the first attack on the bastide numbered at 74 people and 103 of them got killed during the night assaults on their camps by the Nortons. Combined with the 131 soldiers who died from being crushed by that huge boulder. the total number of casualties had soared above 550 people.

"What other things do you have to tell me?" Knight Chevany asked the logistics officer.

"Um, sir, the soldiers who were injured today number more than 200, among which tens of them might be handicapped for life. Combined with the heavily-injured soldiers, the casualties are at around 300 people. I think that letting them stay within the camp will negatively affect the morale of the soldiers... Sir, you might want to consider sending them to Wildnorth Town to rest up and heal from their injuries..." said the logistics officer.

"Hmmm..." Chevany mused as he stopped pacing around. "You're right, the Norton Family is indeed a family with more than 300 years of history and they are by no means easy to deal with. Our war with them might be drawn out for a long time and it is indeed not good to let the injured continue to stay within the camp. Send them back to Wildnorth Town tomorrow then. Right now, Wildnorth Town might become an extremely important base for us to recover and regain resources. The supplies we got from taking over the town will also last us long enough for a one-and-a-half-year-long siege against Maplewoods Bastide."

The logistics officer said, "Milord, if we're planning a long term siege, we should transport some more supplies back here after we send the injured soldiers to the town. We only brought 15 days' worth of supplies when we first set out and what remains can only last us for 6 days at most."

Knight Chevany nodded and said, "It's better to be prepared. After all, it won't hurt us to have too much supplies. As for whether we will besiege them for the long term, it's still not final until I go over all the strategies we can use first."

......

"Is what you told me true?" Lorist said with a surprised look.

"Yes, milord. It would take them around 20 minutes to get from there to here. There are 40 horse carriages filled with injured soldiers and which are escorted by three pike cavalrymen squads. Combined with the coachmen, they have a total of 350 plus people. We've been monitoring their camp for the whole time and we received the information the moment they departed."

Lorist made his decision and said, "It's finally time for us to swallow them up. We've been camped out here for 8 days straight and it's finally time to move. Paulobins, notify the four mercenary crews that if they are willing to follow me, they should take the rear so that they don't startle the enemy.

"Waxima, have the rest get ready within ten minutes to set out with me."

"Yes, milord."

To the soldiers of the Northland Army who were returning to Wildnorth Town, it was merely a short journey that would only take them around 90 minutes. They were looking forward to their return as there were quite a number of women within the town. Even though around 400 of them were virgins and were not to be touched as they were to be sold for a high price by the duke, the rest of the 600 or so married women were free for their picking. After being deployed for 10 days, they felt that it was due time for them to enjoy their share of women that their enviable comrades who stayed back at the town have no doubt relished in.

Seeing the defenseless soldiers of the duke approaching, Lorist tugged on the reins and clamped his legs to dig his heels into the abdomen of the horse to spur it forward.

"Kill!" He was the first one who rushed out of the forest.

Javelins flew out like lightning bolts and in the time he traveled the 60 plus meters of distance between the forest and the path, Lorist had killed off more than 20 of the pike cavalrymen escorts before he held up his own pike and started slaughtering away at the rest.

Following closely behind him was Waxima and Paulobins and the three guard squads and family soldiers that they led. The guards were equipped with javelins while the family soldiers were using training longbows. Under the command of Paulobins, they did not rush into the scene of battle and merely attacked from a distance with their arrows and javelins.

The situation around the duke's soldier's convoy descended into chaos almost immediately as the armed escorts struggled to fend off the assault. Hundreds of pike cavalrymen surrounded Lorist while the other hundred plus headed in the direction of the guards and family soldiers that were attacking them from afar.

Sounds of killing, horses neighing and people crying out in agony reverberated throughout the battlefield.

Lorist swung his pike in circles up in the air, covering a circular area around him with a radius of three meters as he rushed forward. Wherever he went, cavalrymen would fall from their mounts with injuries all over them.

Waxima brandished his riding lance which was emanating a brilliant silver blade glow as he rode to Lorist and protected his right flank. The two of them circled around each other like a wheel as they proceeded forward to crush any semblance of resistance the duke's men showed.

One could see a distinct path that was carved straight through from the beginning to the end of the convoy. Apart from the ten or so escaping cavalrymen, no other resisting enemy could be seen across the area. Lorist turned his horse back only to see that less than 100 cavalrymen were still desperately fighting for their lives with the others either lying on the ground or trying to flee in all directions from the rowdy mercenaries that chased them from behind.

The moment one cavalryman fell from his mount, four to five mercenaries leaped towards him right away. By the time they dispersed, only a headless, naked corpse remained on the ground.

The rest of the resisting pikemen were soon killed off by the mercenaries. Having no more enemy to fight, they rushed straight at the injured soldiers within the carriages and caused even more cries of pain and terror to ring out.

Lorist looked at Waxima who was trying his best to keep quiet.

"I thought that you would stop them from harming the injured soldiers," Lorist said.

Waxima shook his head and said, "Well, normally I would, but not this time."

"Why?" Lorist asked curiously.

Waxima sighed and said, "Even though they are injured and defenseless, they are still the ones who have preyed on and killed the citizens of Wildnorth Town who were equally as defenseless as they are now. It is only retribution for them to be killed by the mercenaries..."

"..." Lorist had nothing else to say about the matter.

At that moment, Paulobins brought a number of guards and family soldiers over.

"How are our casualties?" Lorist asked.

Paulobins replied, "Milord, apart from three idiots who were injured by the pikes that were thrown by the enemy, the rest of us didn't even get so much as a scratch as we were attacking from a safe distance without engaging in melee combat."

Lorist was quite satisfied with the results. While eliminating the enemy forces was one thing, ensuring that one's own soldiers survived was also important. Given that the family was situated at the Desolate Northlands, manpower was the thing it lacked the most.

"More than 10 of the enemy have escaped and it would take them around 20 minutes to return to their camp from here. The reinforcements would take another 20 minutes at least to arrive. I give you all 10 minutes to clear up the battlefield. At least the mercenaries seem to be obeying the regulations and not touching our spoils. We only want the mounts, the money pouches and the weapons," Lorist said.

"Yes, milord," replied Paulobins before he ordered his men to start collecting the spoils.

With bodies lying all over the path after the battle, the guards and the family soldiers could be seen busy picking up the javelins and arrowheads that were stuck onto the enemies. The projectiles that they used to attack served as clear markers to indicate to the mercenaries that the soldiers were killed by the family troops and the right to claim the spoils belonged to the family. The bodies that had Lorist's javelins pierced through them were also left untouched. Only the tens of corpses that were killed by him and Waxima which didn't have a clear marking were stripped naked by a few greedy mercenaries.

......

By the time Knight Chevany led his 50 plus leather armored cavalrymen to the scene, one hour had already passed by. All he could see were naked, headless bodies and severely damaged carriages. All of the coachmen, injured soldiers and the 3 squads of pike cavalrymen were stripped naked and decapitated.

All 700 of them! Apart from tens of pikemen who managed to escape, the rest were all lying there. Knight Chevany was so enraged that he felt like he was about to explode. The soldiers he brought over also looked onto the scene with bloodshot eyes. Resisting his angst and dread, Knight Chevany ordered his men to get off their horses to dig a pit to bury the bodies in before they themselves headed to Wildnorth Town.

After telling the Gold ranked Knight Hennard who was stationed to protect Wildnorth Town about the situation of the battle, Knight Chevany departed after staying for one hour and left behind 200 leather armored troops that would send the supplies from Wildnorth Town over to his camp.

On the afternoon of the next day, the gates of Wildnorth Town opened and more than 20 four-wheeled carriages exited the town. The carriages each carried huge piles of supplies which would be able to last Chevany's troops for 20 additional days. On the flanks of the small convoy, the 200 plus leather armored cavalrymen could be seen. Due to the incident that happened the day before, Knight Hennard also sent along 300 longbowmen along with the convoy to ensure its safety.

Lorist, Waxima and Paulobins were mounted and looking at the group of soldiers from a distant hill.

Paulobins could no longer hold it in and asked, "Milord, aren't we attacking them? They're transporting food and supplies! If we leave now, we might be able to ambush them in time..."

Lorist shook his head and said, "We will not ambush them. That's because our true aim is Wildnorth Town itself."

"Wildnorth Town?"

"That's right. Do you know why I ordered you and the other four mercenary crews to not approach the town and merely observe it from afar?" Lorist asked, before he answered, "That's because I was afraid that you would alert them. The citizens of Wildnorth Town could already defend itself well against us the last time with only 1000 men. And taking into the fact that the mercenaries only fight for money and aren't willing to put their own lives at risk, even if we have up to 1200 people on our side, if the mercenaries aren't willing to give it their all, I'm worried that the burden of facing off against the troops defending Wildnorth Town would fall onto us instead. Even if we manage to take over the town, we wouldn't be able to withstand the counterattack of the enemy outside the town and end up being chased out of it in the end."

Pointing at the supply transport troop of the enemy, Lorist smiled and said, "Right now, our provocation on the enemy worked and they sent 300 of their longbowmen out to accompany the transport convoy. That way, there will be only roughly 700 troops left within the town for defense. If we attack at night, even if the mercenaries aren't willing to fight at the frontlines, we can still take the town with 300 of our own men and the casualties won't be huge either. As long as we manage to reach the walls, the mercenaries will definitely follow along as well if they see that the battle is progressing in our favor. Given that they have already made quite a sum from the duke's army before, I'm sure they wouldn't mind making some more."

Even though the troops of the duke that were escorting the supply convoy arrived at the camp near Maplewoods Bastide safely, Knight Chevany still felt rather troubled. He had brought the 300 of his leather armored cavalrymen to camp within the forests for an ambush before dawn. In the end, the Norton Family troops didn't show up to pillage their convoy. So, they could only follow their convoy back to the camp.

......

"You all know the rules, right? If any of the members of your crew breaks them, you must punish them yourselves, okay? Don't make me dirty my hands," said Lorist candidly.

The four crew leaders that stood in front of him nodded jointly. Richard, the Gold ranked mercenary from the Cromwell Mercenary Crew said, "Milord, please don't worry. All of us understand the rules. The loot on the enemies we kill will belong to us but the other spoils within the town all belong to you. We will definitely not lay our hands on them."

Lorist nodded and continued, "Our family troops will follow me to take over the walls and open the gates. You guys will only have to rush in and attack. Do pay attention to our signals. Paulobins, it's time to make our move."

The moment the silvermoon was obscured by a passing cloud, Lorist rushed out of the forest with Paulobins following behind him with the both of them holding a long wooden stick on both ends as they rushed towards the town with speed and silence.

Lorist resembled a huge black bird as he scaled the walls. Two of the guards who were dozing off on the walls were startled awake, but the moment they wanted to report the enemy presence, they felt their throats running out of air before they were assailed by a sudden pain. Losing consciousness, both the guards slumped to the ground powerlessly.

Lorist stepped forward and held both the shoulders of the guards whose throats had just been slit by him as he laid their bodies gently onto the sides of the walls to make it seem like they were merely slacking off and taking a nap.

The soldier distribution on the walls of the town was sparser than Lorist had expected given that he only killed 14 guards after traveling near 80 meters from the spot he ascended the walls to the gates of the town. To top that off, most of the soldiers were half asleep and were not aware of their surroundings in the least. Beside the drawbridge mechanism above the gates stood six guards who had all unknowingly had their throats slit by Lorist before they were able to make any noise.

As he raised a torch and swung it thrice high up in the air in a circular motion, Lorist sighed and thought back at the density of the soldiers back when he first attacked the town walls which ended up with tons of heads rolling all over the ground, much unlike the current situation where the walls were hardly defended and attacking it was merely a walk in the park.

Six patrolling soldiers came over from the other side of the wall and seemed to be complaining about something. Lorist silently sneaked near them and in a quick explosion of movement, the six soldiers fell to the ground one by one.

With audible 'thunks', three siege ladders were laid on the walls and Waxima was the first one to climb up, followed by Paulobins, the double metal armored guards and lastly, the family soldiers.

Seeing the tens of people get up the walls, Lorist whispered, "Paulobins and I will bring some guards to open up the town gates. Waxima, be alert and lower the drawbridge."

Waxima knocked onto his left chest lightly and said, "Yes, milord."

Within the tunnel leading to the gates, ten or so guards could be seen sleeping rather soundly. Lorist actually accidentally stepped on one of the soldiers who was lying on the ground when his eyes had yet to adjust to the darkness. The soldier got up and grumbled, "You blind..." before he was stabbed to death by Lorist while Paulobins and the rest of the guards rushed in and killed off the rest.

However, two soldiers managed to cry out loud during the whole commotion.

Lorist said hurriedly, "Quick, open the town gates and let the mercenaries in..."

The gates were opened wide and the drawbridge was subsequently lowered, causing the mercenaries who were hiding in the forest to rush towards the town en masse.

However, their movements managed to attract the attention of some enemy troops as one of them shouted, "Who opened the gates?!"

It was soon followed by a loud, panicked cry. "E-enemy attack! The enemy has entered the town!"

Sounds of horns blaring to signal an enemy attack could be heard immediately while the mercenaries let out their war cries as they rushed towards the enemy soldiers who hastily arrived at the town gates.

Complete chaos broke out in Wildnorth Town as Lorist smirked and thought, Wildnorth Town is finally in our hands...

Chapter 135 Completion

Sounds of killing and blades clanging rang out on top of the walls as well, signifying the purge of the defenders of the walls by the guards and family soldiers who were led by Waxima. The mission that was given to him by Lorist was to eliminate all enemies that were stationed at the wall to take control of and defend the other gates within the town so that not a single enemy could escape. As long as nobody ran out of the town to report to their main force which was attacking Maplewoods Bastide, Lorist would have more than enough time to finish dealing with the soldiers within the town.

After another 30 or so minutes, sounds of well-coordinated steps could be heard as three squads of fully-armed Northland Army soldiers marched to the town gates in three neat rows. A few Silver ranked knights at the front looked at the wide-open town gates from a distance as well as the two wooden sheds beside it that were set aflame. Around 300 leather armored troops of the Norton Family could be seen suppressing the rest of the Northland Army soldiers who were desperately fending for their own lives. By the time the enemy reinforcements arrived, about 100 leather armored Norton troops split off and headed their way...

The few Silver ranked knights let out breaths of relief as they thought that the number of enemies heading for them were not numerous. Taking into account the three squads they brought with them, they would have no problem dispatching the group that was headed for them. The Silver ranked knights rode to the side of the street on their mounts and one of them raised his riding lance towards the leather armored soldiers and ordered, "Longbowmen, prepare... Ugh..."

One javelin had nailed the knight and his mount onto the ground out of nowhere.

"Fire!" A voice resounded in front of the three Northland Army squads all of a sudden as soldiers appeared above the two buildings by the roadside with their bows fully drawn. Arrows hailed down densely from above with numerous javelins between their barrage towards the three squads of the duke's soldiers, causing their formation to disintegrate completely. The longbowmen formation was hit the worst: having been attacked without having enough time to react and retaliate, half of them perished instantly from the rain of projectiles while the lucky survivors balled up in fear on the ground.

The rain of projectiles continued for three volleys and it was followed by a voice screaming out, "Kill!"

Near 100 silhouettes jumped down from the buildings and joined the mercenaries who were on their way from the gates in a bloody massacre.

It was indeed a massacre as the soldiers of the Northland Army who survived the volleys of arrows and javelins had lost all their will to fight. They didn't regroup after the initial attack at all as the Silver ranked knights that were leading them had all died from Lorist's javelins. Coupled with the terror they experienced from being suddenly ambushed by the soldiers who showed up on the buildings all of a sudden, all they could think of was defending themselves individually and running away as soon as possible to preserve their lives.

The mercenaries who leaped down from the rooftops sealed off all the escape routes and engaged in a pincer attack with the mercenaries who were rushing over from the gates against the Northland Army soldiers that were sandwiched between them. Regardless of whether they kneeled down and begged for mercy or resisted, they were killed by the bloodthirsty mercenaries who regarded them as nothing more than small, mobile chests of gold coins for them to claim.

A few torches from the walls could be seen gradually being lit and the sounds of killing gradually subsided. The torches twirled multiple times in the air to signify that the gates have already been secured and that the enemy guards were completely eliminated.

Lorist looked at the twirling torches from afar and started counting in his mind; there were more than 100 guards on the walls. Including the 20 plus I personally killed, it would total up to around 150 people. The guards within the gate corridor that were killed also numbered more than 10, and more than 150 soldiers rushed at the mercenaries when they saw them approaching. Taking into account the three squads that later arrived as reinforcements, there should only be around 100 enemy soldiers remaining within the town out of the original 700 or so as well as the Gold ranked knight stationed here to protect the place. Weird, why hasn't he shown up yet? Did something go wrong?

"Reidy, let's go," Lorist said as he jumped lightly down from the second floor of a building and landed on the ground as lightly as a leaf.

Reidy, however, took a roundabout route and jumped onto a lower rooftop nearby as he was carrying two quivers of javelins on his back. He even got some blood and mud splattered onto him as he hit the ground.

Paulobins appeared out of nowhere, bringing over tens of war horses with him. He said on horseback, "Milord, I found a stable nearby..."

Lorist and Reidy picked one horse each and mounted them. Reidy also called for a few double metal armored guards to follow Lorist and him.

"Paulobins, send someone to give Waxima a message. Tell him to lead two squads of family soldiers to guard each of the town gates respectively. Also, have him bring some guards to regroup with me. You will be leading two squads of family soldiers to collect the weapons and spoils and switch out the training longbows of our men for the proper ones you find," Lorist said.

"Yes, milord."

......

Knight Hennard could feel nothing but a severe headache after having consumed huge amounts of alcohol on that night.

During the tens of days he was at Wildnorth Town, he had experienced the time of his life. Never had he dreamed that in the rural corner of the Northlands, there would be a small paradise like Wildnorth Town. The citizens of the town were all rather wealthy with every one of their households having meat and wine, not to mention being fully-furnished. Aside from the gold and silver ware the soldiers pillaged from the houses, he even found some silk clothing that belonged to the citizens he massacred there: most poorer dominion lords didn't even have the opportunity to enjoy such luxuries.

They really are far too wealthy. Even that dogshit herbalist's family has a secret room that kept over three chests filled with imperial gold coins to the brim! Each of them had 50000 gold coins! Based on only that, my guess is that the four great families combined together have up to 200000 gold Fordes in currency only, and that doesn't include the gold and silver ware they have which number among the hundreds. Needless to say, their house decorations were worth quite a lot as well and the amount they have is enough to fill up three large rooms...

The Lord Duke really made a huge profit this time... That was what Hennard kept saying all the while he was at the town. Even so, he also got his share of the riches as well. Apart from Knight Chevany, who Knight Hennard thought was a stubborn old fool who refused to glean the slightest riches for himself, Hennard and the other Silver ranked knights intentionally recorded a slightly lesser amount of items and swiped them for themselves. The Gold ranked knight himself got around 30000 gold Fordes while each of the Silver ranked knights had around 10000. Those transactions were all kept secret from their leader Chevany, because they thought that he would definitely hand all the things they took to the duke as he believed that the duke would reward them for their efforts in the end.

Tch, everybody knows that the duke wouldn't give us much anyway. It would already be considered extremely generous for him if he gave us 1% of all the things we took. That was the main reason Hennard was willing to let the issue of swiping the wealth for themselves slide and also didn't force the soldiers to hand up the gold and valuables they took from the other households, so long as they also gave a part of their loot to the Silver ranked knights that led them. After all, things were better if they were shared and that would encourage the soldiers to better follow their orders after all.

It sometimes occurred to Knight Hennard that the Norton Family were a bunch of idiots. They think that everybody would fear their reputation as the Family of the Raging Bear just because they have a bear on their insignia? I really don't understand why they would allow their own subjects at Wildnorth Town to act so freely like this... Other dominion lords would levy a tax simply because their subjects used the leaves of the trees within the dominion as fuel, whereas the Nortons only asked for 10% of the harvest from the citizens of this town and didn't bother to tax their other income-generating practices like fishing, hunting and trading... This truly is quite appalling...

The ones who are dumber than the Nortons would be these folk at Wildnorth Town... Even though they have such a benevolent and generous dominion lord, not only did they not pledge their undying loyalty to him, they even drove him into a corner and refused to listen to the lord's orders. To think that they would rebel and conspire with another power just because of their over-ambitious plans of wanting to receive a noble title... To Hennard, while the Nortons were the enemies of the duke, the citizens of Wildnorth Town who betrayed their dominion lord were even more dastardly, causing him to be feel justified in killing them off without even batting an eye. He even believed that it was only right for a Gold ranked knight like him to punish traitorous citizens like that even if they were women and children and that it didn't go against the chivalric code at all.

After killing off all the men, elderly and infants of the town, all that remained of its folk were three types of women. The first category were girls aged from 10 to 15 which were extremely popular in the slave market. Some nobles with girl-raising fetish would spend a huge sum to purchase young girls like that so they can train them into their personal maidservants. The second category were for virgin women of age 15 to 20 which, needless to say, fetched a tremendously high price as well. The third category were the married young women and they were the favorite of the soldiers who would use them to release their pent up feelings and stress and were free for the soldiers to toy around with however they liked. Even if they caused one of them to die, they only had to pay a small penalty fee as those women didn't sell well on the slave market and the duke didn't want anything to do with things that won't bring him any significant profit.

After getting a huge haul from occupying Wildnorth Town, Knight Hennard and Knight Chevany got into an argument. Hennard believed that it was best to send the loot back to the duke to placate him for the moment and take their time to settle the Norton Family. However, Knight Chevany was dead against it and said that since the duke's orders were to eliminate the Norton Family specifically, the loot they got from the town was only a second priority and that the duke would only be satisfied if they were sent back after the Norton Family was defeated.

Since Knight Chevany was the main commander of the expedition, Knight Hennard could do naught but follow his instructions and let him lead 3000 troops to attack the Norton Family while he stayed behind at the town to enjoy himself without even bothering to take note of Chevany's battles. To him, if Chevany's attacks succeeded, he could claim half the credit for guarding the town. If it didn't, that might cause Chevany to retreat to Wildnorth Town and once again reconsider Hennard's advice to send the loot back to the duke before continuing on with the conquest. In the end, Hennard believed that the stubborn old Chevany would be rebuked by the duke for not sending all the riches back in the first place while he would be credited for securing the loot and making sure that they ended up in the duke's hands.

The day before, Knight Chevany went back to the town and told him about the unfruitful battles as well as the casualties they incurred from being ambushed. He also warned Hennard to raise the defences of the town. While Hennard appeared to agree on the surface, he didn't take any of Chevany's words to heart because he thought that the Nortons were already being really defensive and the 300 or so mercenaries they hired were not that fearsome in the first place. To him, as long as the Norton Family's men were carefully kept within their bastide, the mercenaries they hired to do the surprise attacks outside wouldn't be able to continue their ambushes for long. Without the mercenaries' support, how could the Nortons even cause any trouble? As for the construction site at Morgan Hills, it was even simpler to deal with: as long as they conquer Maplewoods Bastide, the men over there would naturally surrender and the duke's forces didn't even need to send a single man to attack it.

Hennard also thought that Chevany's plan to use the supply convoy to bait for the Norton Family's forces into attacking them was nothing but a joke. Even if you are going to ambush them, do you think that you'll be more familiar with the terrain than the mercenaries? If they discover your men when they are in hiding, then they simply just won't attack the supply convoy. That way, all your plans will be for naught. However, Hennard did not mind lending Chevany the 300 longbowmen as he believed that a few hundred mercenaries would never have the guts to attack Wildnorth Town.

Currently, Knight Hennard took residence in the most luxurious mansion within the town that he had heard belonged to the leader of the Mollin Family. It's so laughable... For commoners like them to even mimic nobles and form families of their own without even considering whether they're worthy of being called as such... Having slaughtered all the people within, Hennard occupied the mansion without hesitation. Given his status as a Gold ranked knight, he was allowed to bring his personal attendants and servants along with him into battle. That was why he didn't require any of the original servants within the mansion. Apart from that, he picked four great beauties from the younger women within the town to wait on him.

The eldest of the four beauties was a maidservant that one of the garrison squad leaders had purchased for a high price while the other three were descendants of the four great families. With the four women as his companions, Hennard spent his days in Wildnorth Town with ultimate bliss and joy. Just that night, he drunk himself into stupor and rolled around in bed with the four naked beauties.

All of a sudden, the door to his room was hammered onto urgently as a man called out loudly, "Sir... Sir! Wake up!"

Hennard snapped out of his drunken daze and curled his arms around the four women who were startled awake from the knocking while copping a feel in the meantime. Annoyed, he grumbled, "What are you doing screaming out loud like that? What's going on?"

The knocking finally stopped as the man outside said, "Sir! There's an enemy attack! They're already within the town!"

"What did you say?" The slightly hungover knight pushed the beauties away and got out of his bed. Without caring about the fact that he was nude, he opened the door and said, "Did you say that the enemy infiltrated the city?"

......

Looking at the grand mansion, Lorist thought, we're finally here at the spot where the last enemy is located. He knew that the house used to belong to the old fellow of the Mollin Family as Supervisor Kedan had personally told him about the it in detail. Thinking back, Lorist had wanted to send someone to infiltrate the town before. However, within a few short months, everything had changed so much. I'm willing to bet that the old Mollin fellow didn't expect that his own family would have this kind of ending.

The doors to the mansion opened and a metal-armored knight walked out with a group of other knights. The knight had a sword which radiated a golden blade glow while the other Silver ranked knights behind him held out their swords which emanated a silvery glow.

"I am Knight Hennard! Who dares to challenge me to a duel?"

Lorist dismounted and drew the longsword he had slung on his back as he walked forward.

"Milord..." Waxima said worriedly. Given that he didn't know about Lorist's battles in the past, he was really concerned as his lord was about to face off against a Gold ranked knight.

"Don't worry, milord will kill him like a chicken in no time," said Reidy as he stopped Waxima who was about to rush in and fight in Lorist's stead.

"That is the new family leader of the Norton Family," said one knight who had met Lorist once before when he accompanied Baron Camorra to Maplewoods Bastide.

"Oh..." mused Hennard as he started to look more energized. If he were able to take down the family leader of the Nortons, then he might have a chance at rectifying the whole fiasco which he had allowed to happen. Looking at the Norton Family soldiers that surrounded them, it was the only path he had left.

"Kill!" roared the Gold ranked knight as he waved his sword and sent three semilunar golden blades of light in Lorist's direction before he stepped forward speedily.

With a flick, a swipe and a flash of his sword, Lorist disintegrated the three light blades before he paid attention to the incoming knight and identifying the countless openings he had. Given his shoddy footwork, it seems that he is still under the influence of alcohol and is unable to grasp his center of gravity properly. Sigh, there's no honor in defeating an alcoholic like him...

Lorist casually dodged Knight Hennard's strike and planted his knee firm into the abdomen of the knight.

"Urk!" Hennard instantly collapsed onto his knees as he started vomiting nonstop without being able to catch his breath. With his sword cast aside and him wriggling on the ground as he vomited, the knight looked quite pathetic like a curled up shrimp.

"Tie him up," Lorist ordered, before he turned his gaze to the men who came with the knight.

With a loud clang, the knight who had met Lorist before dropped his sword and said bitterly, "I surrender..."

Chapter 136 Out of Options

Leaving the room and closing the door, Lorist thought to himself, the citizens of Wildnorth Town were actually saving up their wealth for the past 200 or so years within these four rooms... The hearts of people are truly difficult to fathom. To protect their hard-earned wealth, they were actually willing to conspire with the Duke of the Northlands to rebel against us, their own rulers, only to be sent to their deaths as a result of their own actions...

"Seal these rooms. Make sure to assign some guards to overlook this place," Lorist told Reidy.

Reidy nodded and said, "Understood, milord."

"Waxima, how's it going over at your side?" Lorist asked.

Waxima replied, "After some checking, 631 young and virgin girls had been discovered to be kept within the yard nearby. The surrendered Silver ranked knight told me that the duke had ordered for those girls to be sold to slave traders for a huge sum. Other than that, there are up to 800 young women within the army camp and they look to be in a rather bad state from the treatment they received from the enemy soldiers... I also found quite a number of women within the houses of the Silver ranked knights which they have claimed for themselves. How should we deal with this?"

Lorist patted his forehead and said, "Bring the young women out of the camp and let them live with the girls. Given that the town is quite huge, I'm sure that many of them are relatives and it would probably be easier on them if they received consolation from each other. Give them some space to live in and supply them with food and water and let them take care of themselves. After this battle, we will bring them away. Given that there are so many youths at Firmrock Castle, it wouldn't hurt to add some women to the population there to balance things out. I hope that when these women form new families in the future, they will be able to forget about the nightmare that is Wildnorth Town and start their new lives afresh..."

"Yes, milord. However, there were four other women within the mansion who were serving the Gold ranked knight. They're quite beautiful too, do you want..."

"Just send them away. I have no intention of doing that. As for the loot you guys find, pass them to Reidy so that he can process them after the whole conflict ends. Also, make sure the security at the place where the women will be staying at is tight. Don't let the mercenaries do any harm to them..." Lorist instructed.

"Yes, milord. I will pay extra attention to that," Waxima replied as he stood straight up.

"Milord, Jim has returned," reported Paulobins.

Surprised, Lorist said, "Why hasn't he entered yet? Doesn't he usually rush in without a second thought?"

Paulobins laughed before he said, "Jim said that after learning the etiquette of knights from Waxima, he would also act like one in the future..."

Lorist joined in the laughing and said, "Let him in. It sure is quite surprising that a guy like him would go out of his way to learn etiquette... And to think that I was planning on getting him a tutor for that after the conflict... It seems that it's no longer necessary."

Even though he still looked a little rough around the edges, Jim's accurate standing posture that was unlike his former relaxed slump impressed Lorist greatly.

"Milord, we have made sure that the secret route taken by the duke's men is no longer usable. This is a detailed map that we have drawn according to the terrain over there," Jim said as he passed a beastskin map to Lorist.

A few days back when they were camping within the forest, Jim complained that he was bored and had nothing to do and kept on bugging Lorist to be allowed to once again attack the enemy's main camp. Lorist then gave him a mission to investigate whether the path that Hausky had discovered is rendered completely unusable and survey the surrounding terrain in the meantime to construct a map.

Jim brought a few guards with him and returned within 6 days.

"Milord, you really attacked far too soon. You didn't bother to wait for me at all. I only just discovered that we've conquered the town after seeing the family flag flying at the walls," Jim complained.

"Hehe, opportunities like that don't come often you know. When the time comes to attack, there can be no hesitation. Who asked you to complain about boredom a few days back when we were at the forest? Then again, your survey of the area is quite a big accomplishment as well and the next step we have to take is to deal with the soldiers that are besieging Maplewoods Bastide. I want ensure that they won't get to depart from the route they came from. While entering the dominion was easy for them, I definitely will make it as hard as possible for them to leave. Jim, go take some rest and return to Maplewoods Bastide later tonight. Tell Knight Josk and Knight Pajik to bring two squads of family soldiers to tail the enemy from a distance if they decide to move their camp. If the enemy comes back to attack Wildnorth Town, have our forces from the bastide attack their camp from behind, understood?" Lorist asked.

Jim straightened his back and said, "Yes, milord."

"Paulobins, bring the surrendered Silver ranked knights over here. I have something I want to ask them," Lorist said.

The knights were rather honest and they replied to every question that was asked of them. They even revealed the arguments between Knight Hennard and Knight Chevany without missing out on the slightest detail.

"Then again, you said that the duke ordered Hennard and Chevany to bring two regiments of soldiers here, right? Then why are there only 4000 plus men in total? What about the other two companies?" Lorist asked.

One Silver ranked knight said, "Sir, each regiment left a company behind to watch over their main camp, so, only 4000 plus people were deployed for the expedition."

"I see," said Lorist as he nodded. "Why were the citizens of Wildnorth Town massacred? Weren't they the ones that led you lot into the dominion in the first place?"

"Sir, that was the Lord Duke's order," replied the knight. "The duke thought that traitorous and untrustworthy people like them were better off dead. He also believed that the people of the town have been stockpiling their wealth given that they've had access to the smuggling route for up to 100 years, so, he wanted to take it all for himself. Even though Knight Hennard and Knight Chevany didn't wish to kill them that soon and planned to use them to help attack your family bastide, they were extremely uncooperative and came up with multitudes of excuses like being attacked by your forces and weren't willing to send any soldiers out. That's why Knight Chevany felt that it was better to wipe untrustworthy people like them out as soon as possible in one go by tricking all of them to gather in one place using the entitlement ceremony as an excuse."

Oh, so the townsfolk have themselves to blame for their untimely deaths as well, Lorist thought as he sighed inwardly. "Alright, you may go back. I will instruct the guards to treat you well."

"Wa-wait, sir. Can I pay a ransom to reacquire my freedom? I still have some savings left on myself and at home..." asked the knight hurriedly.

Lorist gave it some thought before he said, "Let's talk about this after the battle. I will consider your proposition."

"Then... Thank you, sir..."

......

Two days had already passed by the time Knight Chevany received news of Wildnorth Town's fall. Hilariously, they only found out about it because a few patrolling leather armored cavalrymen wanted to sneak off to the town to have fun with some women only to discover the Norton Family flag being flown at the walls of the town, causing them to rush back as quickly as they could to make the report.

At that time, Knight Chevany was in the middle of drinking some water and when he heard of the news, he dropped his cup in stupor. Within moments, he reasoned that the true reason they didn't receive any attacks for the past two days was due to that. The mercenaries who had been attacking their troops with guerilla tactics were all gathered at Wildnorth Town.

Whether Knight Hennard was okay at Wildnorth Town was none of Chevany's concern. He was instead considering whether there was a chance he could take the town back. Otherwise, the wealth gained from the massacred citizens of Wildnorth Town would never end up in the hands of the duke. While he would definitely be rebuked if he failed to punish the Norton Family, his fate might end up being worse than that if the duke found that all the riches that he could've had ended up in another party's hands. The enraged duke might even strip him of his status as a knight and exile him from the Loggins Family. To Chevany, that was a humiliation he couldn't afford to bear for the rest of his life.

"Wrap up and get ready to move. Pack up all the camping gear and be prepared to attack Wildnorth Town," Knight Chevany ordered.

After keeping all their stuff, the whole group of soldiers headed towards the town and by the time they arrived, it was already the evening. Ignoring the cries of fatigue of his soldiers, the anxious knight commander ordered his men to fell more trees to construct siege ladders during the night so that they could besiege the town on the next morning.

After having breakfast the next day, Knight Chevany rallied his men into formation and marched towards the town with 20 siege ladders. From his estimates, even if the Norton Family took over the town with the aid of mercenaries, they must have lost quite a number of their own men considering that over 700 soldiers of the Northland Army, one Gold ranked knight and a few other Silver ranked knights were stationed there. No matter whether the Nortons used a surprise attack or some other tactic to occupy the town, it was hard to imagine the few men they have left would be able to defend it effectively. That way, Chevany felt that the 2000 plus soldiers led by him would be enough to put pressure and break through the defense of the Nortons and allow him to take the town during the first wave of attacks.

Lorist stood on the walls and stared coldly at the enemy that was approaching gradually from a distance. Further away near a small hill, a green smoke signal could be seen spiraling towards the sky. That was the signal they had agreed on and it signified that Josk and the others were already near the enemy camp and were ready to attack at any time.

"Hehe, they really plan to take back the town in one fell swoop? They only have a measly 2000 plus people... I really don't know where Knight Chevany got the confidence for that..." Lorist mused before he turned back to the four mercenary leaders and said, "Have your men come back up here. I no longer need him to stay hidden. Back when we took the town, our victory has already been set. Tell your crew members that I will reward one gold Forde for each enemy killed during the first wave of attacks."

The four mercenary leaders were rather satisfied with that arrangement as they had earned quite a huge sum of money from working for the Norton Family this time around. Other payments aside, the loot that the mercenaries collected were enough to make them smile with joy uncontrollably. The soldiers of the duke were nothing but moving crates of money to them and each of their money pouches contained at least 4 to 5 gold Fordes. To mercenaries like them who fought with their lives on the line for a living, that was already one or two year's worth of income.

Even though the riches were gained from the massacred folk of the town, according to the original agreement, the loot of dead soldiers belonged to anyone who killed them. That's why the mercenaries did not fear the superior number of enemies at all and were delighting in the thought of the extra money they could make.

Upon seeing more and more troops equipped with grey leather armor appear on the walls, Knight Chevany's confidence sunk and he thought that the situation had far surpassed his expectations. Are these really the mercenaries the Norton Family hired? No way, given how desolate the dominion of the Norton Family is, how did they find so many mercenaries to employ? There's almost a thousand of them... However, if they really are the family soldiers of the Nortons, then the duke really has made a huge mistake this time and has severely underestimated their true might...

"Stop advancing!" ordered Chevany as he raised his hand. "Longbowmen, march forward and suppress the enemies who are defending the walls. Sword and shield infantry, ready your defenses..."

As the longbowmen shot their arrows in parabolic arcs at the walls, the guards defending it raised their shields and wooden boards. Another 100 or so soldiers on the walls counterattacked with their own longbows.

While the duke's longbowmen were suppressing the soldiers on the walls, other soldiers holding long siege ladders quickly approached it. As they placed their wooden boards and used them to cross the moat, their allied longbowmen stopped firing and rushed forward along with the sword and shield infantry. The guards on the walls then shot their arrows directly downwards at the sword and shield infantry and the pikemen of the enemies.

Having lost the defensive support of the sword and shield infantry, the casualties beneath the walls soared all of a sudden, however that was still worth it in Knight Chevany's eye as 10 plus of the 20 siege ladders have already been laid with soldiers ascending upwards to the walls.

Contrary to his expectations, however, the guards on the walls cheered as each soldier of the Northland Army reached them. Normal guards would fight for their lives to make sure that none reached the top of the walls instead, causing Chevany to feel both confused and intrigued at the same time.

The situation on the walls seem to already be set. The four mercenary crews each took a side of the wall where five or six of siege ladders were placed. Every time an enemy soldier got up, there would be up to 5 mercenaries waiting for him. Given their superior combat abilities, it didn't take long for the Northland Army soldiers to perish under the blade and pike of the mercenaries. After killing off the invading soldiers, the mercenaries stacked the bodies together for loot collection after end of the battle.

"Sol, are they treating the ladders like a monster spawners?" Lorist stared at the whole situation, dumbfounded. Currently, Waxima, Jim, and tens of other guards were completely unharmed despite the enemy rushing up onto the walls so relentlessly.

Knight Chevany was getting even more confused. Why does it seem like chaos is not breaking out on the walls even though so many soldiers have went up? Even the Silver ranked knights I sent up seemed to have disappeared completely...

The more he waited, the more anxious he got. The bad omen he felt got worse the longer he waited. Just as he was unsure of whether the battle was going well for him or not, loud, savage cries rang out from behind him. Turning to his back, the knight saw a group of soldiers slaughtering away at his camp and setting fire to the tents. The single squad of pike infantry soldiers were so terrified that they were running desperately away from their enemies within the sea of flames like cowardly rats.

"Blow the horn! Retreat! Everyone, retreat and save the main camp!" shouted Knight Chevany who was at his wit's end.

......

The casualties were far too huge. The original 2300 plus soldiers were only left with 1700 and the first attack took the lives of more than 500 of their men whose bodies were nowhere to be found. The Silver ranked knights that served Knight Chevany were also mowed down to fewer than ten people.

"More than half of the supplies in the camp have been destroyed within the fires and the remaining ones that we managed to salvage can last us at most 5 more days at two meals per day. Sir, if we don't turn this around by taking the town, we are going to be completely crushed..." reported the logistics officer.

Knight Chevany let out a long sigh before he said, "You may go back. I need some time to think..."

After sitting in deep thought for a long time, Knight Chevany took out a blank beastskin and started writing a letter. He described every detail about the expedition from the massacre of the Wildnorth Town citizens and the riches he found there as well as the fortifications of the walls of Maplewoods Bastide and the trap which he fell for that caused him to lose control of the town. The whole letter was so lengthy that it took up a number of beastskins. After that, he rolled them all up and put them into a silver tube which he then sealed with candle wax before he called for his two other attendants.

"I will bring the army back tomorrow. The two of you should hide yourselves well and when nobody is scouting around this area after our departure, try to sneak out from the entry at Morgan Hills. Make sure the contents within this silver tube reach the hands of our Lord Duke, understood?"

One of the attendants asked curiously, "Sir, why do we need to do it this roundabout way?"

Knight Chevany sighed again as he said, "I suspect that we will no longer be able to return. The Norton Family has already forced us into this predicament and they'll definitely not let us off so easily. I myself am not sure of what would happen during our trip back, so I have decided to send you two to return to the duke using the route through Morgan Hills as insurance. Make sure to be extra careful; this letter must definitely reach the hands of the duke so that he will be informed of the true strength of the Norton Family..."

......

When Lorist saw the enemy pack up and leave for the direction of the hidden path they used to enter the dominion, he was elated. They're heading the way of their deaths. It appears that the enemy is still unaware that the route had already been destroyed. Lorist brought Josk and the mercenaries from the four crews and two squads of family soldiers to tail the duke's men from their rear.

When the enemy entered the long caverns, Lorist had his men seal off the entrance and awaited their eventual return.

After two days, a huge battle seemed to have erupted within the caverns and during the afternoon, a Silver ranked knight holding up a white flag could be seen walking towards Lorist.

Chapter 137 Aftermath Matters

Knight Chevany froze up as his hand lost all its grip and released his sword, letting it fall to the ground...

Lorist looked at him with a sympathetic gazed and said, "What was the point in doing this?"

As blood started flowing out of his mouth, Chevany said, "A fai-failure of a commander like me... Doesn't de-deserve any sympathy. I-it's all because of my impotence th-that caused the expedition to f-fail and the whole army t-to be decimated... Only... only with my death c-can I atone for my mistakes for the d-duke..."

"It's not your fault," Lorist consoled. "The real mistake was the duke's decision to stretch out his claws to the Norton Family after his eyes were clouded by his greed. Actually, you've already done pretty well and even caused me to be unable to find any opportunities to deal with your main camp. If it wasn't for the lax soldiers within the town that allowed us to conquer it, I don't know how long this battle would have lasted..."

"Is... is that so..." said Knight Chevany as his speech started to slow. After that, he spread both his arms as he fell to the ground with his face looking skyward while wearing a tranquil, smiling expression on his face.

Lorist looked at the knight who had collapsed solemnly before he said softly, "I wish you a pleasant journey..."

......

On the 29th day of the 8th month in Year 1767 of the Grindian Calendar, of the 4000 men sent by Duke Loggins of the Northlands to eliminate the Norton Family, only 1279 survived after they surrendered to the Nortons at a nameless cavern within the Bladedge Mountains. The expedition of the duke ended with his complete loss.

The commander of the Northland Army, the head of the family knights of the duke and the head of that expedition, Three Star Gold ranked Knight Chevany, was forced into a corner by the forces of the Norton Family and requested for an honorable duel to the death from the newly-appointed head of the Norton Family, Norton Lorist, and passed away at the age of 53.

......

Back then, the Silver ranked knight who held the white flag told Lorist that Knight Chevany was willing to order his men to surrender to the Norton Family without any resistance on the condition that he be allowed a chance to challenge Lorist to a life-and-death duel. Despite the objection of Josk, Waxima and the others, Lorist accepted that condition.

To Lorist, it wasn't difficult for him to face off against a Three Star Gold ranked knight like Chevany. His aim was to force the knight to give up and admit defeat. However, Chevany fought with the intention of dying in the first place and didn't care about his own safety. Taking risky moves that put himself in harm's way to attack Lorist incessantly, he gave Lorist quite a bit of trouble.

It was also the first time the other people present there witnessed Lorist's skill with the sword and his tenacity. Waxima and the other four mercenary leaders were flabbergasted by Lorist's performance; nobody could have imagined that the Iron ranked Lorist who couldn't even manifest a blade glow would be able to match up against a Three Star Gold Knight and even take the upper hand, as was shown with his constant suppressing of the knight's attacks. Had it not been for the fact that he had shown mercy as he was unwilling to take the knight's life, Knight Chevany would have been crushed in the beginning seconds of the duel.

The longer he fought, the more hopelessness Chevany felt. He understood that he wasn't Lorist's match and he felt that being shown mercy by the enemy was a humiliating thing. That's why when Lorist stabbed forward with the intention of forcing Chevany to duck backwards, Chevany chose not to and rushed straight into the sword. Lorist, unable to retract his blade in time, watched as his sword pierced through the abdomen of the knight.

......

The 1000 plus men of the Northland Army who surrendered were disarmed and swept of their belongings completely before they were placed under the supervision of the family soldiers and were ordered to set up their camp. The surrendered Silver ranked knight told Lorist that many of the soldiers went nuts and started killing each other within the dark cavern when they noticed that their only escape route had been destroyed, resulting in the deaths of more than 400 of their own. That was why Chevany had decided to surrender for the sake of allowing his men to live while he resolved to die himself. Even if he had managed to defeat Lorist, Chevany had planned to end his own life.

Lorist on the other hand stayed near the nameless cavern for three more days and he ordered the surrendered soldiers to once again enter it and retrieve the bodies of their comrades and bury them within the cavern and had the surrendered logistics officer make markings of their names on makeshift gravestones so that their family members could one day pay them tribute. He also had a marker stone erected with the new name of the cavern, 'Chevany Cave', carved into it as a memorial to remember Knight Chevany by.

To Lorist, the battle itself was fairly straightforward; the troublesome part was the aftermath. That was especially the case given the massacre of the folk of Wildnorth Town which had led to numerous problems which he had to settle. The moment he returned to Wildnorth Town, he met with a messenger sent over from Firmrock Castle bearing Shadekampf's letter that reported that the knighthood competition would end in another three days and according to tradition, the organizers, Viscount Kenmays and Lorist, had to show up at the closing banquet to show their respect for the victors of the competition. Shadekampf hoped that Lorist would attend even if the battle was still ongoing so that they wouldn't be accused of being disrespectful.

It was fortunate that the battle had ended within 20 or so days. Lorist instructed Josk and Paulobins to bring two squads of family soldiers to escort the surrendered troops back to Firmrock Castle while he stayed at Wildnorth Town for another two days so that he could settle some more matters before he returns to the bastide. He also sent a few orders to the supervisors at Firmrock Castle: he ordered Butler Boris to move the laborers and their family members who were within the castle back outside the camp as the battle was over and there were no longer under threat outside. Their moving out would also allow for the construction work to continue.

He ordered Old Man Balk to bring someone to accompany Grandmaster Sid to forage the nearby mountains for iron veins and other construction materials. Supervisor Kedan's task was to manage and delegate work for the surrendered soldiers when Josk and Paulobins bring them over. Lastly, Lorist sent a letter to Telesti to inform her that the threat is already no more along with some cringey flirtatious statements. He also stated that she could start designing the valley city after she finished making arrangements for the construction work.

Lorist honestly felt that Telesti was a great candidate for being the wife of him, the baron of the Norton Family. While she wasn't among the ranks of the most stunning beauties in Grindia, she definitely looked quite pleasant with her decent figure and fair skin. The most important point of hers that Lorist admired was her wise and knowledgeable aura that fit Lorist's tastes. Moreover, Telesti was unlike most other noble ladies who only knew how to dress up and demand to be spoiled; she was also a scholar. Just like a certain saying in Lorist's previous life, while Telesti could definitely progress far in her life by relying on her looks, she didn't do that and instead focused on her studies and research. Her independent and headstrong personality was what attracted Lorist the most.

As he spent time with her, Lorist knew that she felt some attraction for him, given that she tolerates his insolent acts like hugging and kissing her once in a while. Even though it always ended with her being mad, it was more of a kneejerk reaction due to her being too ashamed to admit her hidden desires. She wasn't willing to renounce the oath she made to stay single and strive only for truth and knowledge. That was also a rather troublesome issue for Lorist. He was quite frustrated that she would take that kind of inhumane oath out of all other oaths that could be made.

Having received his order, Supervisor Spiel rushed over as soon as possible to take charge of making an inventory of the supplies and wealth gained from Wildnorth Town. Lorist was prepared to move everything that he could use to Maplewoods Bastide and abandon Wildnorth Town altogether. What he had to focus on was constructing a proper valley city at Morgan Hills. As for the acres of farmland that was cultivated at Wildnorth Town, while it was a waste to not utilize it, there was nothing much he could do about it but think of it as giving the land a period of time to recover. He would make a proper decision when Charade and the rest of the convoy arrives.

The four mercenary crews were also paid in full. All the crew leaders felt that working for the Nortons was an extremely worthwhile effort as they got paid quite highly and didn't lose many men throughout the battles. Compared to some other dominion lords who only used mercenaries as enemy fodder to take the brunt of battle, the young Norton Family leader himself frequently rushed into battle with the mercenaries following tightly behind him. Taking the last battle at Wildnorth Town for example, even though the mercenaries were utilized as the main defense for the town, they had done so willingly because the money pouches of the enemy soldiers were filled to the brim with coins.

Waxima and Jim on the other hand escorted the surviving womenfolk of Wildnorth Town back to Maplewoods Bastide. No matter their past, they were still relatives to many of the people within the bastide. Lorist planned to let them rest up for a bit before sending them to Firmrock Castle where they will be free to form new relationships and families with the youths over there and start their life afresh, effectively leaving their torturous past behind.

There was still one remaining problem to be solved, and that was the disbandment of Hausky's mercenary squad. 20 or so of them were willing to join the forces of the Norton Family while 30 plus others and some injured mercenaries were not willing to leave their life of freedom and joined the four mercenary crews within the past few days. However, that caused the intersection point at the Magical Dragon Mountains to be unguarded. If the Norton Family sent a squad of soldiers to defend it, that would affect Lorist's future plans. After giving it some thought, Lorist decided to pick one from the four mercenary crews and contract them for the defense of that area.

The crew that Lorist favored the most was the Razorpike Mercenary Crew as they were formed by retired military officers and commoners and were the most disciplined among the rest. It could be seen from the results of the battle that they have the lowest number of casualties while also being the ones who raked in the most gains. However, their leader Sandro refused the offer as he had already agreed to take up two other missions and had to go fulfill them.

The second person Lorist seeked out was Crew Leader Richard of the Cromwell Mercenary Crew. Similarly, he refused to accept the contract as he was worried that his crew would lose quite a bit of men from fighting the barbarians. Lorist then offered the same contract to the Nightbat Mercenary Crew Leader Ulampmaxin. As the oldest of the mercenaries, he didn't refuse Lorist's offer outright, but he stated that the pay offered was too low and demanded for 100 gold Fordes every month as well as an increase in the bonus for the number of barbarians killed.

That demand was so laughable that Lorist couldn't even get angry even if he wanted to. The price at which he paid Hausky's Silver ranked squad members in the past was 1 imperial gold coin per month while Iron and Bronze ranked members got 50 imperial silver coins each month. The total would only amount to a little more than 100 gold Fordes per year. It was quite ridiculous for the Nightbat Mercenary Crew to request for 10 times the price even though they only have twice the members of Hausky's squad.

The Pentasword Mercenary Crew on the other hand accepted Lorist's offer without a second thought but they also brought out a condition of their own. The leaders hoped that the family members of the crew members would be allowed to move into the Norton Family dominion and become subjects of the Nortons, which caused Lorist to be quite surprised.

The leaders of the crew said that there was no other choice. They mentioned that the crew was originally formed from members from a few different villages with the aim of earning enough to pay off their oppressive dominion lord that demanded huge amounts of tax. Recently, the taxation got even worse and the citizens of the villages could no longer hold out. While the mercenary crew could defend the citizens from military oppression, taxation was not something they could avoid. To add to that, their villages were near Windbury City and they frequently got harassed by the soldiers of the kingdom.

After participating in the operation with Lorist, the five leaders of the crew made up their minds as they found the way the Norton Family treated their own subjects to be exceedingly benevolent. After seeing the abandoned farmlands of Wildnorth Town, they felt that it was a good opportunity for them to move over.

Lorist was elated at the proposition as the dominion lacked people the most. He expressed his welcome to not only the family members of the crew but also the rest of the citizens of the villages to move into his dominion with the promise that they would be granted farmland as long as they move over and that he would only tax them 30% of their harvests as well as 10% of other miscellaneous economic activities such as fishing, hunting, firewood gathering, etc. If any household had members serving in the Norton Family's military, they would also receive many tax exemptions.

One of the leaders, Doboff, was extremely excited to hear that as his village had to pay a tax of 70% of their harvest and 50% in other categories as well, causing his family and friends to be unable to live comfortable lives and being unable to sustain themselves for the long run. Lorist threw in another offer and said that all the mercenary crew members would receive the same benefits that the family soldiers did in that there would be a regular pension should any member of the crew perish from facing off against the mountain barbarians.

With that settled, it was time to consider how to free the villages from the grasps of their dominion lord. Doboff said he was quite confident that he could pull that off and Lorist gave him two months' time and 50 gold Fordes as a deposit, causing Doboff to rush to begin his plan excitedly.

After handling all those matters, Lorist let out a breath of relief and handed the task of moving the supplies and riches at Wildnorth Town to Waxima, Spiel and Pajik while he returned to Maplewoods Bastide with Reidy. After greeting the old butler and checking on Belnick's health condition as well as spending a steamy night with Irina, he left for Firmrock Castle with Reidy and Jim on the next day.

Chapter 138 News of the Kenmays Family

Looking back at himself, he had been running all over the place to complete his tasks like a dog and there was still so much to do. Even though he had many subordinates, most of the things had to be settled by him personally as they involved decisions that only he, the lord, could make. In the case of battles, he also participated in them personally and rushed at the very front. According to the books, I'm no dominion lord. I'm just a coolie!

Besides that, before he even rested after he arrived at Firmrock Castle, a huge group of people were lined up outside his room waiting to make their reports.

The first group was Telesti and her Iron ranked butler, who stated her intentions after giving a respectful bow: Telesti hoped that Lorist would see her in one or two days to solve the problem of the wells and the castle's water supply.

Curious about the issue, Lorist asked about it and understood after hearing the explanation. The new residential area had two solutions for their water supply. The first was to make a well at every household, which would mean that the workload would be huge. The second was to have a well for each street district. But that might cause some congestion when the residents line up to get water. There was also the fact that wells were hard to construct given that the castle was built right beside the mountain. Telesti hoped that Lorist could make his decision as soon as possible.

Sigh, they're even asking me about matters like this... My head hurts! The next person who entered was Supervisor Kedan who had seen the captives Josk and gang brought over. He had no idea what to let the captives do.

Lorist said tiredly, "What do you have to hesitate about? Just let them gather building materials since they're energetic soldiers. The hardworking ones will get better food while the lazy ones will get the whip. If some try to escape, just hang them. Let the laborers who were originally doing all that be their managers to monitor and correct their work. After that, have Ovidis send some family soldiers there daily to do surveillance on the captives."

After that was Butler Boris. He reported many trivial matters like how the liquor stores of the castle were nearly empty. Ever since the business sector was completed, two taverns started operating and the laborers who had recently gained freedom and payment would go there to drink a cup or two to pass time. Similarly, the family soldiers and the immigrants also did the same, causing the two taverns to boom with business. However, given that the alcohol sold there had been taken from the Redriver Valley Bastide, it was bound to run out sooner or later. Coupled with the knighthood competition organized jointly by the Nortons and the Kenmayses which required them to provide a huge amount of free alcohol, the remaining stock within the warehouses could only last for five days at most.

"Gosh, if we're running out, then start producing some. Common ale is the easiest to make. Just go check if any of the immigrants or laborers have any experience in producing ale and the problem will be solved," Lorist said.

"But, milord, last time you mentioned that food supply was the most important resource in a battle and put Supervisor Hansk in charge of it. Now that we are still constructing the city, no agricultural work has been done and there wasn't any harvest for the past two years. The food we took from Redriver Valley Bastide would only last us for one year or two at the most and given the increasing population within the castle, consumption would increase as well. How can we spare any more of that to make ale with?" asked Butler Boris.

Wow, he even quoted my words... Lorist held his forehead and said, "That's no longer an issue. Let Hansk make more ale with the food we have. I'm sure you've heard that the duke slaughtered the folks at Wildnorth Town and after defeating them, we discovered enough food within the town to last us for 5 years. Thus, the food problem is solved and I will have Maplewoods Bastide send some over after a period of time.

"Oh? You haven't left yet? Is there anything else?" Lorist asked.

"Um, it's about this..." Butler Boris said hesitantly. "We've arrested a few women who were working as prostitutes within the camp..."

"Huh..." Lorist mused as he focused his attention on this topic as any man would. "Where are these women from? Why would they work as prostitutes within the camp?"

"Two of them are new immigrants who came over from the Kenmays Family's dominion and they started seducing men after they were brought over here. Another five were originally slaves who felt that the work delegated to them was too tiring after regaining their freedom and returned to their old jobs."

Lorist had heard Butler Boris mention once that the 200 or so female slaves were originally meant to be 'rewards' for the laborers of the Kenmays Family in that the workers that performed well could spend a night with one of the women.

"Milord, according to their testimony, there are tens more women who are like them that fortunately weren't arrested by us. How should we deal with this? I need your advice..." the butler asked.

"Sigh..." Lorist crept back to his table and said, "Why the heck would we punish them? If they are willing to do it, let them continue. Men need women and the opposite is true as well. We need each other. Given that the men far outnumber the women at Firmrock Castle, and most of them are healthy and virile youths, they require an outlet for their sexual needs. How about this, Butler Boris, go build a brothel so that the prostitutes can be managed by us more easily. We will offer them protection from harm and a safe environment for their work in exchange of 30% of their earnings."

"Milord, other dominion lords would collect 70% of it..."

"Forget it. They work hard to earn their money and it's already enough for us to take 30% of it. Also, issue a notice that private prostitutes who are found to be operating without permission will be punished for one year of unpaid labor in the brothel if they are captured."

Sheesh! What's wrong with this world... A dominion lord like me is actually managing prostitutes like a pimp, how agonizing... After Butler Boris left, Lorist started to sigh again. However, he had no choice but to meet the rest of the people outside.

This time, two people entered the room at once. Lorist seemed to recognize the two.

The elder one stepped forward, stood straight and reported, "Milord, the both of us have been sent by Sir Patt to check on the forces of the Kenmays Family. We only just returned yesterday."

Lorist finally recalled that they were the members of his personal guard who used to be bandits and understood why their faces seemed so familiar to him. However, Lorist still couldn't remember their names.

"Ah, yeah. Don't just stand there, grab a seat. There're chairs right there. Your mission must have been tiring. Fortunately, you were careful enough to not be detected and returned here safely. Sit down and tell me about your findings."

"Thanks, milord," said the two guards. The first thing that came out of their mouths startled Lorist quite a bit. "Milord, the Kenmays Family forces have successfully conquered the dominion of Count Lopez."

"What? Count Lopez's dominion? Where is it?" Lorist said as he searched frantically around the beastskin map of the Northlands but was ultimately unable to find it.

"Get Butler Boris, Shadekampf and Old Man Balk here. Oh, Balk has gone with Grandmaster Sid to search for resources... Oh well, just get Boris and Shadekampf here first."

......

"I recall that there was a map at the Redriver Valley Bastide that depicted the locations of the new noble families that were just recently entitled by the Second Prince. It should be somewhere around here, go look for it," said Boris to Shadekampf who didn't know who Count Lopez was.

Seemingly recalling something about a map thanks to the reminder, Shadekampf searched around and found it in the end.

"Look, milord. The small hill over here is on the border of Viscount Kenmays's dominion and Count Lopez's dominion. It's only ten or so meters tall without any water source and is quite barren. After the forces of the Kenmays Family entered the bastide of Count Lopez, we mingled with the civilians by disguising ourselves as a group of mercenaries who were tasked to collect medicinal herbs near the Magical Dragon Mountains and infiltrated the bastide. We heard that the count did indeed request Viscount Kenmays for help to resist the barbarian invasion. It seems that the count fought a battle with them and incurred huge casualties while he himself got injured pretty badly. The citizens within the bastide were all afraid that the barbarians would succeed in their invasion as well," the elder guard said.

"Hm? That's weird, isn't this year the Kubawesson Festival? The mountain barbarians shouldn't be invading Count Lopez's dominion at all," said Lorist, wondering curiously about the situation.

"Milord, it was said that Count Lopez attacked them first. One day, the troops he led encountered a group of barbarian farmers and they launched an attack to steal all their livestock. In the end, they were attacked by a lot of barbarian cavalrymen when they were on their way back and that hard fought battle caused the count to be injured and many of his men to be sacrificed. The barbarians didn't continue their chase and merely said that they would settle the debt once the festival is over, so Count Lopez called Viscount Kenmays to send some troops over to prepare him for the upcoming invasion."

Oh my, even if you had a death wish, this doesn't seem like a nice way to go... Can it be that the count doesn't know that it's the Kubawesson Festival this year? Those livestock were sacrifices to their god for their ceremony at Smormilgen Mountain. Uncultured people like the count sure are scary... For him to even dare to violate their sacred traditions and steal their sacrifice without knowing... Lorist really didn't know whether he should praise the count for his bravery or be awed with his greed.

"Back then, I also thought that the viscount was truly going to help the count out, so I had prepared to return on the second day," said the younger guard. "But as I had drunk quite a bit of alcohol on the first night, I got up rather late the next day and discovered that a curfew has been enacted by the forces of the viscount and while entry to the bastide was allowed, nobody could leave. Also, the bastide of the count was also flying the three-ringed flag of the Kenmays Family..."

"Up until the night before, we received some news at the tavern that Count Lopez had passed away from his serious injuries. Before he died, it was said that the count had willed for the dominion to be passed on to the hands of Viscount Kenmays as the count didn't have a son of his own and his two daughters were far away at the royal capital. The viscount even managed to inherit the noble title of Count Lopez. Ever since, the Kenmays Family has sent some people to officially apologize to the mountain barbarians and compensate for the count's mistakes. Rumors said that the compensation even included Count Lopez's head...

"The non-citizens within the bastide were only let out after three days of curfew and the Kenmays Family also announced that they wanted to recruit new soldiers and would offer a tax exemption for those who sign up. They seemed intent on having all the youths within the bastide join them and the both of us were even held and questioned for two whole days. However, using our cover as mercenaries who were sent on a mission, they didn't do anything to us.

"When we left, we noticed that the guards within the castle were no longer the soldiers the viscount brought over at first. After searching around, we found a trail left by a huge band of people heading in another direction. We followed it and spent a day to reach this spot here and it seemed to be a dominion of another noble. However, it has also been conquered by the Kenmayses as the castle was also flying the flag of the Kenmays Family."

"Viscount Sartre..." Lorist mused as he looked at the marked location on the beastskin map.

"I know Viscount Sartre. He was a noble back during the days of the former empire and all his family members died during the years of civil war. His dominion had also been laid to waste during the chaos. After the formation of the Second Prince's kingdom, his original dominion was occupied by the Second Prince. To avoid being criticized by other nobles, the Second Prince gave the viscount another dominion somewhere in the Northlands as a replacement. He was simply an old and lonely noble," said Butler Boris.

The elder guard hurriedly continued his report, "We no longer dared to enter the bastide again and we stayed in the wilderness to keep watch from afar. Three days later, the Kenmays Family's forces set out and headed east. Tailing them from behind, we ended up at Baron Ankaport's dominion where the Kenmayses set up camp outside the castle. We saw a group of people who seemed to be the leaders of the army entering the town for a visit, so we remained near them. All of a sudden during midnight, sounds of killing and fighting broke out from within the castle, followed by the opening of the gates and the lowering of the drawbridge. The forces of the Kenmayses subsequently rushed in and during daybreak, the flag of the Kenmays Family replaced the original one of the castle.

"So we stayed outside the town for another 5 more days and discovered that the Kenmays Family's forces have left a company of guards at the castle of the baron and headed back to the dominion of Viscount Sartre and left another company of men there too. The remaining forces then returned to the dominion of the Kenmayses and we followed them back here."

Lorist opened his drawers and took out two grey-colored money pouches which were made from goat leather. Those were actually prepared by Shadekampf for Lorist to use as rewards and each of them contained five imperial gold coins.

Lorist handed the pouches to the two guards as he said, "Thank you for your hard work. This is your reward, take it. Make sure to rest up and relax when you go back."

"Thank you, milord," said the two guards before they left.

Sol, the Kenmays Family really did make a great move... Lorist finally understood the real reason why the Kenmays Family wanted to make up with the Norton Family despite the losses they had suffered. Given that the Norton Family had antagonized the duke and were occupied with him, they used the opportunity to solve their other problems while the duke had his attention focused on the Norton Family. So they targeted the dominion lords of the Eastern Northlands... What a wise move they have taken...

"Milord, I still don't understand why the Kenmays Family did what they did. Viscount Sartre and Count Lopez are both newly-entitled nobles of the Northlands like them, and Count Lopez is also favored by the Second Prince. Doesn't the Kenmays Family fear the backlash of swallowing up the count's dominion?" asked Butler Boris.

"Hehe, they definitely have their own reasons for daring to do so," Lorist said as he smiled coldly. "Their plot was definitely well-executed. Knowing that Duke Loggins had his attention on us, they used the opportunity to conquer the eastern area. Look at the map here, the dominion of Viscount Kenmays, Count Lopez, Viscount Sartre, Baron Ankaport already make up the most of the Eastern Northlands. I'm sure that the smaller nobles there will also fall to the Kenmayses as well...

"When the Kenmays Family take over the whole of the Eastern Northlands, they will be free to reign and even Duke Loggins wouldn't be able to do anything to them. I'm sure that the Northlands will once again descend into a period of chaos."

"Then, milord, should we also cause some trouble for the Kenmays Family so that they don't complete their conquest of the Eastern Northlands so quickly?" Shadekampf asked.

Lorist lowered his head and made some quick calculations before he said, "It's already too late, and we don't have the manpower and resources for that either. Don't forget that after Duke Loggins hears about the decimation of his 4000-strong army, he will be completely enraged and send more men over here as payback. What we have to focus on now is to complete the construction of Firmrock Castle as soon as possible and train our family forces while also making some other preparations for the invasion of the Northland Army."

Chapter 139 Celebratory Banquet

It was the closing ceremony of the knighthood competition that the Norton Family and the Kenmays Family jointly organized. Wandering knights, freelance knights and family knights were all seated at the tables regardless of status, heartily munching away at the food and enjoying the alcohol. Some of them were even offering food to the commoners that were serving them.

All of the wandering and freelance knights were wearing a knight badge made of iron while the family knights mostly wore a silver knight badge. In the Battle Force-driven world of Grindia, that was an invisible wall that clearly differentiated the statuses of the various knights.

It was also rather difficult for one to obtain the certification required for a knight badge. In most cases, only landed noble families, huge armies, Gold ranked knights and academies that had the qualification for knight training could issue such badges given the authority and status it provided to the bearer. If wandering or freelance knights passed on their skills to their successors, they could also pass on their knight badges as well. Lorist himself owned a knight badge as he had completed the knight training course back in his days at the Dawn Academy.

Once one reached the Iron rank, received training for the skills and etiquette of a knight as well as having a bit of family background and paying some fees, one would receive a knight badge and become a squire. If one reached the Silver rank, one would become a proper knight and be able to choose the path of wandering and freelance knights or pledge oneself in service of a lord. Naturally, most poorer commoners could choose to become attendants to a knight and slowly rise to the ranks of a proper knight as well.

For example, the leader of the Cromwell Mercenary Crew, Richard, was a One Star Gold fighter but he didn't have a knight badge. That would mean that he didn't have the right to join the other knights at the table. However, as a One Star Gold Mercenary, he naturally received invites to the banquet from other dominion lords and didn't have to sit together with the knights anyway.

As for poor old Jim, he was merely a Silver ranked mercenary and given that he didn't own a proper knight badge, not even that of the Norton Family, he could only pout and lie on the walls of the castle as he looked at the ex-bandit Ovidis and Patt bring their badges to enjoy the food that was served there. Given his merrymaking-loving personality, Jim hated that he couldn't join in the festivities and was nagging and cursing bitterly at the other two to spoil their teeth and hurt their stomachs from overeating.

Lorist on the other hand was dressed in formal garments. The formal attire for nobles of the Krissen Empire had a rather simple design: it was a large white robe with a straight collar which was worn with a V-shaped sash which was draped over the head. The sash was rather wide and it extended down from each shoulder all the way to the knees. An intricate belt was then wrapped around the waist to fasten the sash with the robe.

The sky-blue sash looked really grand as its sides had laurel leaves that were embroidered with golden thread with a blooming jasmine flowers amidst them. That was the insignia of the Krissen Royal Family which identified that the Norton Family was under the jurisdiction of no one but their members. In the middle of the sash was a golden roaring, raging bear and a small golden sword. The bear was the insignia of the Norton Family while the golden sword represented the status of the Norton Family as one that became landed nobles due to military achievements.

Shadekampf said, "Milord, you look extremely good in this attire, very noble and exalted..."

This was actually Lorist's first time wearing those clothes and he felt quite uncomfortable in them. Even so, he had no choice as he had to attend the banquet of the nobles later and he had to be in formal attire for the function.

"How is Miss Telesti's health?" Lorist asked.

Shadekampf shook his head and said, "She's still down. I've asked Vinny but she said that the young miss was unwilling to get up from her bed."

Lorist originally wanted to invite Telesti to attend the banquet with him. The night before, he went to her room to brainstorm a solution for the matter of the wells as well as make his invitation. Unfortunately, Telesti was experiencing her period. Upon noticing that she was still suffering from contractions, Lorist 'sincerely' thought of telling her about a method that would 'help' her...

"Cough, cough... Ahem. Um, it has been said that after having intercourse for the first time, the contractions would go away eventually..." The moment he uttered that, Lorist was chased out of the room by the embarrassed and angered young lady who was tossing everything she could get her hands on in his direction.

Sheesh, as the proverbs say, 'the dog bites Lu Dongbin and was unable to recognize his goodwill', instead of appreciating my suggestion, she chased me out of her room like that![1] It's not like I was lying about it. In my past life, I had a secretary who had problems with her husband because of this... Back in his past life, Lorist's secretary who had unbearable menstrual cramps during her university days went to the doctor for some help. But no matter what medicine she consumed, the pain was still unbearable for her. In the end, the doctor gave her that exact suggestion and the secretary casually gave her first time to a guy that was wooing her and her problems ended. Naturally, she broke up with that man after graduating university, but her relationship with her husband back then was always rather awkward as she was no longer a virgin when they married.

When the secretary told him that story, she was naked in Lorist's embrace, basking in the afterglow of interourse. However, back then Lorist wasn't interested in her relationship problems with her husband but rather how she solved the problem of the cramps in the first place. The secretary merely said that her symptoms faded after her first experience and gradually, her periods didn't hurt anymore. Back then, Lorist thought that the secretary couldn't be lying as there was not a real reason to, given their casual, yet intimate relationship.

Since Telesti didn't believe in that method at all, Lorist couldn't do anything about it either as there was no way he could use an example from his past life to prove his point. Having been shut out of the room, Lorist returned to his own residence, crestfallen.

Josk stood at the castle gates and awaited Lorist's arrival. Waxima was still at Maplewoods Bastide, so among the rest at Firmrock Castle, only Josk, Patt and Ovidis were qualified to attend the banquet as family knights. Paulobins and Jim were still not yet knights of the family, so one of them took Ovidis's place to train the new recruits while the other was pouting and nagging on guard duty atop the walls.

Lorist, Shadekampf and Reidy got down the walls. Upon seeing Josk, Lorist wanted to curse out loudly. This guy actually looks far better than me, his lord! Lorist wore the formal attire of nobles while Josk was equipped with a shiny, silver knight armor that was immensely attention-grabbing. Coupled with his handsome features and slightly woeful gaze, Lorist understood that there was no way the attention of the other noble ladies would be focused on him.

Reidy bore the banner of the Norton Family with Shadekampf leading the group in front. Lorist and Josk on the other hand were mounted and they rode towards the camp grounds at a leisurely pace. Along the way, jesters could be seen performing comedy sketches, servants ran around busily with various dishes in their hands and the dancers gave a stunning performance as they were immersed in the festive music. Some bards even climbed up to high platforms and sung of ancient legends whereas certain magicians staged fire-breathing shows. Upon seeing Lorist passing through, all of them halted their performances and bowed to pay their respects.

From time to time, some knights would stand up from their benches and salute Lorist by patting their hands on their chest. As Lorist gave nods of acknowledgements to the saluting knights, he asked Shadekampf, "Who are they? I don't know them, so why are they saluting me?"

Frustrated that his lord was such an absent-minded person, Shadekampf said, "Milord, did you forget the report I made to you yesterday? 29 wandering knights were willing to serve our military force and hope to be promoted to become our family knights one day after they gain some achievement."

"Oh, my apologies. I really did forget," Lorist said. "Are they all Silver ranked?"

"Sigh... Milord, if you didn't add the criteria for them to be good at archery, we wouldn't have accepted so many of them in the first place. In actuality, there are 17 of them who are still Iron ranked and they've just received their knight badges not long ago. Originally, they just wanted to watch the competitions, but upon discovering that the archery competition didn't have a Battle Force requirement, they joined immediately. Patt said that they were quite good with the bow and arrow and recruited them right away."

"Hehe," Lorist chuckled happily. "Patt did the right thing. While they are Iron ranks now, they will soon break through to the Silver rank. Hopefully, we might have another Gold ranked marksman like Josk in the family one day..."

"Impossible," Josk interjected. "Not one of them will have the talent at archery like I do. And there is only one Green Benny, so they will only be 'good' archers at best."

'Green Benny' was what Josk called his green longbow. It was rumored that the longbow was originally made from a bone of a magnificent dragon that had been excavated from an ancient ruin which took the grandmaster up to 10 years to craft. One fateful day, it was acquired by Baron Omador who later gifted it to Josk as an engagement gift between Josk and his daughter.

"Shut up, Josk. I will have someone make a bow that's better than your Green Benny. You better bet on that," said Lorist in a dissatisfied tone.

"Oh, didn't Viscount Kenmays say that he was recruiting knights for a knight brigade as well? How many did he get?" Lorist asked as the thought occurred to him.

"Milord, there were 89 wandering knights who joined the side of Viscount Kenmays and entered his brigade," said Shadekampf with a solemn expression. "Aside from the Kenmays Family, the Felim Family, also known as the Family of the Pegasus, recruited around 50 wandering knights. Some other dominion lords also recruited one or two knights themselves while the remaining knights didn't pique any of the other nobles' interest and weren't recruited."

"Then, how many knights have participated in the competition?" Lorist asked as he looked at the tens of long wooden tables and benches that were lined up and seated to the brim with a rough estimated headcount of 1800 people.

"Milord, the knighthood competition was ongoing for 27 whole days and over 37 dominion lords came over due to the fast and strong rumors. It was said that two dominion lords who were at war halted their battles and led their knights here just to join in. Around 600 wandering and freelance knights came over as well. The noble families should have also brought roughly 800 knights of their own."

37 noble families was roughly half the total number of all the nobles within the Northlands. News of the competition really did spread far and wide. However, Lorist didn't expect that there were actually that many wandering and freelance knights within the Northlands. 600 was a bit too many.

It didn't take long for the group to reach the tent where the banquet for the nobles was being held. The Kenmays Family did live up to their reputation as the owner of the largest construction merchant guild within the former empire given the size of the tent they prepared which could easily accommodate hundreds of people within for a grand ball.

After their arrival was reported, Lorist, Josk and Shadekampf headed inside the tent while Reidy stood guard outside and looked after the horses with the banner of the Norton Family in his hand.

Shadekampf reminded, "Milord, the person who is coming forward to greet us is Viscount Kenmays himself..."

It was Lorist's first meeting with Viscount Kenmays: he was a person of slightly shorter height that Lorist and the length of his blonde hair reached his shoulders. He looked rather handsome and his face was cleanly-shaven with a rather pointy chin. His face bore a bright and graceful smile which gave him an elegant bearing which fit his image of a good-looking guy well.

Lorist turned to his back and looked and Josk as he thought, only that fellow can compare with the viscount's looks...

Josk on the other hand was quite confused and asked, "What's wrong? Do I have something on my face?"

Lorist didn't answer him.

The viscount was also dressed in the same noble robes as Lorist, with the only difference being that his blue sash had silver embroidery of the stonecrop plant that enveloped the three-ring-insignia of the Kenmays Family and the rose which symbolized the royal family of the Iblia Kingdom.

Viscount Kenmays laughed out and greeted them. WIth both his hands opened wide, he said, "I finally get to meet the Lord Baron. I've long heard about your reputation and it's about time I get to meet you in the flesh. It truly is my honor."

Lorist on the other hand observed carefully and could detect the flash of seething anger from the viscount's eyes. Smiling, he thought, this guy is still holding a grudge about the 100000 gold Fordes I've taken. Similarly, Lorist opened his hands to give the viscount a passionate hug and said, "Haha, I myself have also been anticipating our meeting. However, I've been rather busy recently and couldn't find any time. Fortunately, I got to see you here today as I have long wished."

After the two exchanged false pleasantries, the viscount brought Lorist around and introduced him to the nobles that attended the banquet as well as the many noble ladies there. Lorist admired the viscount's ability to perfectly memorize and recite the family backgrounds and history of all the nobles there. He could even recall the heroic tales each family had. No wonder that guy can mix well in situations like these so freely and get the attention and liking of those noblewomen.

When Lorist felt a little fatigued from keeping his smile up, the introductions finally ended and everyone got to their respective seats to enjoy the delicacies prepared by the cooks hired by the Kenmays Family.

Among the dominion lords that attended the banquet, Lorist paid attention to two in particular: one was the viscount who was pretending to be friendly and amicable with him even though Lorist detected the hint of hatred from his eyes. The other was Baron Felim Chalvode, the head of the Family of the Pegasus. While the baron seemed harmless and friendly enough on the surface, Lorist could feel a ferocious savagery from the baron who was also a One Star Gold ranked knight.

[1] It is a Chinese proverb based on the immortalized poet Lu Dongbin. See: Wikipedia

Chapter 140 Shock

In total, there were 20 long tables lined up into two rows. On either side of each table were 12 chairs in total. Lorist took a few looks before Viscount Kenmays told him that since the knight competition was organized by their two families, there was no master seat. It was possible that he merely didn't want the Nortons to use the opportunity to steal the spotlight. Even so, Lorist felt that this arrangement was apt as it symbolized the equal standing between the two families.

The few tables in the middle were reserved specifically for dominion lords. Apart from Lorist and Viscount Kenmays who were seated face to face at the first table given their status as the organizers of the competition, the rest of the seats were arranged according to the relative titles of the attendees with some noble ladies sandwiched in between. The side-most tables were prepared for the guests or Gold ranked knights who were invited to the banquet by the dominion lords. Lorist noticed that apart from Josk, only two other Gold ranked knights were brought over by their lords. Shadekampf on the other hand had a seat for himself over there as he had played a large part in the committee of the competition.

Given that it was Lorist's first time attending a formal nobles' banquet, he tried his best to behave cordially and seriously. That aside, Viscount Kenmays who was seated directly opposite him was chattering away, impressing his listeners with the vast knowledge he had. They were especially enraptured with his unique interpretations of the major events that had happened during the course of Grindian history.

As he cut the steak with his silver utensils and brought them to his mouth while listening to the incessant tales of Viscount Kenmays, Lorist heard a mention of Morante City. All of a sudden, Viscount Kenmays turned to Lorist and said, "I've heard that Baron Norton had left the Northlands and studied at Morante City for more than 10 years. Something quite major happened over there last year, didn't it?"

Last year? I don't remember anything particularly significant. I don't think anything noteworthy happened before I left. Lorist shook his head and said, "Last year, after I received the summons from my family, I began my journey back immediately, so I'm afraid I'm not informed about what you are referring to."

"Oh, then you must've made your move too early. Back at the Dawn Academy within Morante City, there was an Iron ranked instructor called Locke who dueled all the Silver ranked instructors within the academy sector. Up to 30 Silver ranked instructors were defeated by him during that time. After that, the Iron ranked instructor Locke stepped down from the dueling platform and has gained a fearsome moniker of Iron Locke the Silver Undefeated for beating all his challengers without losing even a single duel. It's a shame that I had something else on my hands back then and wasn't able to make my way to the city to witness the wonder myself, what a shame..." said the viscount with utmost regret.

No worries, this one is sitting right in front of you. You can open your eyes wide and observe to your heart's content.

"Oh, I know about that. Instructor Locke's swordsmanship truly is profound. He is really deserving of that moniker," said Lorist without the slightest hint of embarrassment nor shame.

Viscount Kenmays changed the subject quickly and said with a smiling face as he raised his silver cup, "This knighthood competition lasted 27 whole days and Baron Norton, you only showed up today on the closing banquet. Don't tell me that you got bored of seeing fights like these back in the city and can't be bothered to witness the competitions between the knights? Baron Norton, shouldn't you at least try to explain the reason for your absence?"

Lorist raised the silver cup in his hand in a similar fashion and said, "Haha, I really didn't have a choice as there were really too many matters I had to settle within my dominion. I'm sure all of you here know that I've just succeeded the dominion and the title recently and I hope you can tolerate my absence because of that. Even so, Lord Viscount, no, I should address you as Lord Count now... I've heard that Count Lopez has passed his title and dominion to you. I really have to congratulate you for this. Here's a toast to your amazing achievement."

Even though Lorist didn't say it that loudly, every person within the tent didn't miss a single word and chatters resounded throughout the tent. By the time it finally quieted down, the gazes of everyone within the tent were focused on Viscount Kenmays. A few dominion lords even seemed rather restless on their seats as if they wanted to return to their dominions right away. Baron Felim of the Family of the Pegasus even seemed like he was in deep thought.

Viscount Kenmays's face froze up with a smile, but he quickly recovered and made a pained expression as he said, "Sigh, I'm sure that most of you know that I've been here for the most part of the competition, so I really didn't expect that something of that magnitude would happen. All of you know about the close and intimate relationship between Count Lopez and my father. It truly is a tragedy for the count to have been injured during an encounter with the mountain barbarians. Didn't he write me a request for help some time ago? After I received it, I brought my family's forces to his dominion right away so that he may command it to defeat the barbarian threat. Not in my wildest imaginations would I have thought that the count would entrust his title and dominion to me on his deathbed and request that I take care of his two sisters from the threat of the mountain barbarians. While taking care of his family is something is definitely an obligation I intend to fulfil, I still have the issue of the barbarians to worry about. How troublesome."

Lorist tried to console him and said, "The Kenmays Family is indeed one with a rich mercantile background. I'm sure that you will manage to find a way to make up and coexist with the mountain barbarians. As long as they don't launch any assaults, then I'm sure that you'll be able to bring the dominion the count left you to prosperity within no time."

"Thank you for your kind words, Lord Baron. Then again, I've heard that you refused the demand of Duke Loggins not long ago and even hurt his Gold ranked knight who was sent there as an ambassador and incited the duke's rage in the process, causing him to announce his deployment of the Northland Army to punish your family. I wonder if you need our help to console the duke and put in some good words for you... Perhaps he may consider sparing the Norton Family..." Viscount Kenmays retorted.

"There is no longer a need for that," Lorist said in a dissatisfied tone as he chugged a few gulps of wine. He continued, "That dogshit Duke Loggins has sent two regiments of the Northland Army numbering around 4000 people led by Gold ranked knights Chevany and Hennard to invade the dominion of my family. After they entered the dominion, they massacred all the folk of Wildnorth Town right away..."

Lorist paused and could clearly see the look of perturbation and delight that flashed past quickly on the face of Viscount Kenmays.

"A massacre... of the whole town?" Viscount Kenmays muttered stammeringly.

The part of the announcement that made the viscount feel delight was the fact that the duke's men had already entered the Norton Family dominion using a new, yet undiscovered route. The part that made him perturbed was the massacre of the townsfolk; given the scarce population within the Northlands, even if two lords were to start an all-out war with one another, they wouldn't lay their hands on the non-combatants and would at most pillage them for their goods. Duke Loggins on the other hand massacred a whole town at the Northlands and news of that would definitely incite strong animosity and objection from the other nobles in the Northlands. Nobody liked to deal with a greedy and cruel superior noble.

Soft chatters once again filled the tent as the various nobles discussed with one another the things Lorist had just said. Knowing that Josk was a knight of the Norton Family, the noble ladies gathered around him and offered their condolences, causing Josk to feel awkwardly uncomfortable and struggle to respond while sweating out in anxiety.

Many nobles looked at Lorist with sympathetic gazes as the two regiments numbered around 4000 men and the Gold ranked knights of the duke would definitely give the Norton Family a hard time. Even though Lorist was attending the banquet like nothing was happening, in the eyes of the other nobles, he might probably have to surrender and be stripped of all his belongings to be able to escape the predicament he was in. They believed that the only reason Lorist was there was so that he doesn't lose any face as most of them knew the temperament of the duke quite well.

However, Baron Felim was the only one who looked at Lorist with suspicion as he found that Lorist's face didn't have the slightest indication of worry at all as well as the audacity Lorist showed when he insulted the duke in front of all the nobles. A person who was getting ready to surrender to the duke's forces would definitely not be able to utter something like that.

"That's right. The males, the elderly and the infants were all killed with only 1000 or so women and young girls remaining to be sold to slave traders. That son of a bitch of a duke can't be human, for him to even be willing to do something so heartless. The reason I wasn't able to be present during the competition was because I had to deal with all that. I only managed to settle all of it during the past few days, just in time for today's banquet," Lorist said as he used his fork to stuff yet another piece of steak into his mouth and accidentally smearing some oil on his cheeks. "Wow, your family's chefs are really great. This taste is wonderful."

"Urk... Sold to slave traders... How terrifying..."

Lorist turned his head and saw one lady beside Josk who pretended to faint sickly into his embrace, perfectly emulating what a model benevolent noblewoman would do once she heard about the cruel and indifferent nature of reality. Poor old Josk didn't know what to do as he couldn't hold her tightly nor let her fall to the ground and had no choice but to gaze at Lorist and signal for help.

Hah, it's your own fault for looking so good and dressing up so flashily like a peacock, Lorist thought as he pretended to not see anything.

"If Lord Baron, you, are enjoying the steak, why don't I order another serving for you?" said the viscount as he twirled the silver cup in his hand nonstop. After arduously waiting for Lorist to have another gulp of meat and wine, he asked impatiently, "What happened next?"

"Huh? What about it?" Lorist asked while he seriously considered whether he should get another steak.

"Well, didn't you say that the duke sent 4000 men into your family's dominion and massacred the citizens of Wildnorth Town? What happened after that?" Viscount Kenmays had the sudden urge to smash his silver cup into Lorist's face as he thought, can't you finish your story before you take another bite? How long has it been since you had any steak? Don't tell me the forces of the duke sweeped your dominion clean to the point that you can't even get some yourself?

"Oh, you were talking about the duke's force of 4000. Hehe, they're completely decimated. While they entered the dominion quite easily, there's no way I would just sit back and let them waltz out," Lorist said candidly.

Clang! The cup Viscount Kenmays was holding fell straight to the floor. Directly following that, a few other clangs could be heard as the nobles stared blankly at Lorist.

"You... What did you say? What was that about decimation?" Viscount Kenmays couldn't care less about the cup he had dropped and pestered Lorist for a more detailed explanation.

"Come on, what's so surprising of the duke's men being completely wiped out? You're already this old and yet you couldn't hold a cup properly, how uncouth... And to think that I was planning to have you do me a favor... It seems that I have to seriously reconsider it," Lorist said slowly and calmly.

"How can that be..." Viscount Kenmays cried out loud.

Back then when the new nobles that were just entitled by the Second Prince, the one who had the most military might was one of the Second Prince's Gold ranked guards. Due to being entangled in an affair with the queen of the Iblia Kingdom, the guard was exiled to the Northlands and demoted to a baron. Probably due to the sponsorship of the queen, the Gold ranked guard managed to bring around 1000 soldiers into the Northlands and wasn't willing to submit to the duke. In the end, the duke sent 2000 Northland Army soldiers led by Knight Chevany and conquered the new baron's castle within a mere three days. The head of the Gold ranked guard could still be seen hanging from a wall within the duke's mansion in Gildusk City. Viscount Kenmays could recall the times he saw the head for himself during his visits to the duke.

That was the reason why all of the nobles within the Northlands feared the duke so much and didn't dare to antagonize him lest they had to face the brunt of the Northland Army, causing the duke to grow ever more arrogant and dare to reap more profits from the nobles. Now that Lorist mentioned that he had defeated over 4000 soldiers of the Northland Army, the nobles were all filled with shock and doubt.

"Oh, that's right, what about Knight Chevany and Knight Hennard?" asked Viscount Kenmays hurriedly. Even though Lorist said that he had wiped the duke's men out, if he said that the Gold ranked knights leading the soldiers managed to escape, then there was a huge possibility that Lorist was lying. Hennard might have managed to run away... Given that Viscount Kenmays was an acquaintance of Knight Chevany, he understood that the knight definitely wouldn't leave his men behind given his stubborn and old-fashioned personality.

"The favor I was about to ask of you is in part related to that," Lorist said. He asked the viscount in a steady tone, "I heard that you have quite a close relationship with the dogshit of a duke?"

"It's... it's passable. What did you mean by the involvement of the favor with the knights?" asked Viscount Kenmays as he once again felt the unbearable urge to tear Lorist's mouth open. Can you not dally around when talking about something so serious?!

"It's like this: Knight Chevany had sacrificed himself heroically on the battlefield. I have his body and I hope that you can help me transport it to his family. Other than that, we have captured Knight Hennard and ten plus other Silver ranked knights. They hope that they will be able to pay a ransom for their freedom, so I will pass the name list to you later. Tell their family members or friends within the army to come here and pay the ransom," Lorist said.

"Sho-shouldn't you be giving the name list to the duke?" Viscount Kenmays asked curiously.

"Well, I've thought about it before," Lorist said. "Those Silver ranked knights think that the duke wouldn't bother to pay their ransom. So, they'd rather pass the word to their family members and friends for their help."

Viscount Kenmays listened in shock before he thought in realization, what a great, calculative move... If rumor of that spreads within the Northland Army, who would still be willing to serve the duke? His marvel aside, the viscount was more than willing to help out with that task as causing the duke trouble would be good for the formidable reputation he was trying to build up for his family.

"Very well, I'm more than happy to help you out with that," said Viscount Kenmays. He looked at Lorist and asked sincerely, "Given that you've wiped the men of the duke out, I'm sure that you've sustained quite some amount of casualties. Don't hesitate to come to me should you need any help."

Lorist looked at the viscount and thought, hehe, are you still pining for the return of the 100000 gold Fordes? Are you trying to see if you're able to launch an attack if my family is weak from weathering the duke's assaults?

"Oh, the casualties truly are horrible..." Lorist said as he sighed deeply. "We actually lost up to 30 brave men with almost 100 injured soldiers... It truly is horrible..."

Viscount Kenmays turned and left immediately as he had better things to do than listening to Lorist's bullcrap.

"Hey, don't go just yet! Didn't you say you want to help out?" Lorist called out from behind him.

Chapter 141 The Whereabouts of the Convoy

"Yesterday, Shadekampf has already transported the remains of Knight Chevany to Viscount Kenmays and the freedom of the Silver ranked knights and Knight Hennard will have to be negotiated with the duke. I believe that we will have about three months to rest and recuperate, since it will take some time before the duke finds out about the defeat of his troops. He'll definitely be unable to launch an attack on us right after that since he has to both consider how many soldiers he has to send over lest they get wiped out by us once again. If the number is large, I doubt that the duke would be willing to spend so much funds on the expedition," Lorist said.

The people within the tent instantly broke into laughter.

"It can be seen that Viscount Kenmays is not on the same side as the duke. Given that the Kenmays Family is focusing their attention on the eastern Northlands, they need us to keep the duke's hands tied and also hope that us and the duke will wipe each other out. That's why they will definitely try to stir something up after we hand them the name list. Even if the duke is willing to pay the ransom for the Silver ranked knights, I believe that he definitely won't bother about the 1000 plus surviving soldiers that we have captured. I know that the Kenmays Family will definitely take this opportunity to spread that around to affect the morale and loyalty of the duke's soldiers.

"Even if the duke sends his soldiers to attack us, he will have to wait until the issue of the captives, which we can even intentionally delay, to be settled first. However, that doesn't mean that we fear the attack of the duke. As long as he dares to come, we will make him run away with his tail between his legs. I, on the other hand, would like to see if the duke will be able to weather through the loss sustained through the defeat of his army this time around. If the Northland Army has to be downsized, I wonder if he can still act so brashly in the Northlands. I believe that by then he should be unable to control the other landed nobles and will find it tough to even protect himself," Lorist said with a cold smile.

"Next, I would like to use this period of temporary peace to reorganize our forces and give them proper training to increase their combat efficacy to prepare for the tough times to come. Shadekampf, do read out the plan you drafted for the reorganization of the family's forces to everyone," Lorist said as he nodded towards Shadekampf.

Shadekampf stood up and took out a beastskin document and said, "The guard squad will be reorganized to include 120 people who fit the criteria of having Iron ranked Battle Force. They will be equipped with a riding shield, a pike, hauberks and chain mails, a side arm of their choosing, a quiver of javelins and two mounts. The squad leader will be Patt and the vice squad leader will be Paulobins.

"A squad of mounted archers will be formed with the leader and trainer being Josk. During the recent knight competition, we have recruited 29 wandering knights and 22 of them have shown themselves to be quite capable in archery. They will be added to the 120 man squad and the requirements for other recruits will be having Battle Force of Iron rank and above, good archery skill and good horse handling. They will be equipped with hauberks, leather armor, longbows, three quivers of arrows, a longsword, an arm shield and two mounts."

Lorist then turned to Josk and said, "Joe, I will leave the mounted archers squad to you. This will be the main offensive unit of our forces, so you must train them well..."

Josk knocked his fist onto his left chest and said, "Milrod, I promise to make the mounted archers squad the sharpest blade we have in our arsenal."

Shadekampf continued, "A company of cavalrymen will also be formed. The company will contain four main squads with another supply squad with the total number of men being a full 600 people. The commander of the company will be Waxima and the only requirement for recruits would be having Battle Force at the Bronze rank and above. They will each be equipped with a hauberk, a chain mail, a riding shield, a riding lance, two mounts, and one side arm of their choice.

"The guards will also be reorganized into two companies. The commander of the first company is Pajik and the commander of the second is Ovidis. Similarly, each company will have four main squads and one supply squad at a total of 600 people. Each company consists of one sword and shield infantry squad, one longbowmen squad, two pike infantry squads and one supply squad. They will be equipped with hauberks, square shields, bucklers, pikes, longbows, longswords, throwing axes, javelins, etc.

"Additionally, two more defense units will be formed and the members will be recruited from those who don't make the criteria of the aforementioned units. Each squad will have from 100 to 120 members and they will be equipped with grey-colored leather armor, pikes, longswords, longbows and various types of shields."

Shadekampf then placed the beastskin document down before he bowed to Lorist and went back to his seat.

Lorist looked at his seated subordinates and said, "Did you all understand that? I hope that you all can come up with your own methods to carry out the training and reorganization and show them to me for approval. Other than that, I will be stationing one of the defense units at Maplewoods Bastide with Pajik being the sub-leader for now. This unit will be responsible for the defense of the bastide. As for the defense unit here at Firmrock Castle, it will be in charge of regulating order, ensuring security, patrolling, and guarding the warehouses. Ovidis will be the sub-leader of this unit. Given that we don't have enough soldiers for now, begin the training even if the units are not yet filled up.

"I will set up another camp for new recruits at Firmrock Castle which will be left to Shadekampf, Patt, and Paulobins. I will be the chief instructor over there. The recruits will learn to awaken their Battle Force within the camp as well as basic military regulations. After they receive basic training, they will then be sent to different units depending on their own individual capabilities until the space for the units are filled up.

"Other than that, Supervisor Hansk will be the chief finance and resource officer of the family and will be in charge of our supplies and finances and its distribution. Butler Boris will take charge of civil and business matters, Shadekampf will manage the arsenal of the family's forces and Supervisor Kedan will manage the camp of the captives. When Old Man Balk returns, he will take over production and manufacturing while Supervisor Spiel will work on agriculture. I will be leaving the food supply and the family's sustenance to you.

"By the time we defeat Duke Loggins, the Northlands will no doubt fall into another period of chaos. Without the iron grip of the Northland Army, the ambitious dominion lords will start to act. We can't do much apart from preparing for the worst so that we will be able to survive during the troubled times to come and lay a firm foundation for our family's strength. This will have to depend on you all," Lorist said as he rose to his feet and bowed to his men.

The rest of them got up and returned the bow as they said in unison, "Milord, we will definitely do our best to serve you."

Lorist clapped his hands and said, "Alright, go do your stuff. Jim and Reidy, stay back for a while."

Everyone left the tent with the exception of the two. Jim said in a troubled fashion, "Milord, why didn't you give me any assignments?"

Lorist laughed and said, "Haha, you must have been quite impatient just now. The reason I didn't give you any task is because I have a mission for both you and Reidy. Reidy, when we left the convoy, it was the 2nd month. And now, it's almost the 9th month already but the convoy still hasn't arrived yet. That's why I will leave the task to locate the convoy to Jim and you. Find out the why they have been delayed for so long. Jim, bring a few of the mercenaries that joined our forces over with you as well and pretend to be a group of mercenaries on a mission. Do be careful on your journey and get anything you need from Shadekampf. I've also written a few letters for Charade, Potterfang, Els, Terman and Yuriy. Tell them I miss them. Oh, and these letters are for Alisa and Howard."

"Yes, milord. We will definitely carry out the task successfully," said the two of them as they saluted in unison.

......

"The castle is down! We have entered the gates!"

"It's our victory!"

"We have won!"

"......"

As they let out their excited cheers, the guards tossed their sun hats high up in the air.

The banners at the foot of the hill were waved frantically as the soldiers cheered for yet another one of their victories. Charade who was mounted looked from his vantage point at the top of the hill towards the flag of the dominion lord in the distant castle get lowered and replaced by that of the Norton Family. However, the expression he wore was a displeased one as he solemnly said to the guard beside him, "Come, let's go back to the tent."

Within the tent, Els was lying down on a soft couch and reading a knight novel. His left leg was wrapped up by a huge and thick bandage: he had gotten hurt two months ago when he was impaled on the leg by a Silver ranked knight with his riding lance. It would take at least half a year to recover from an injury of that degree.

Charade went into the tent with a gloomy face, prompting Els to ask out of curiosity, "What's wrong? Didn't we succeed in taking the castle? Why the long face?"

"Sigh..." Charade let out a long tired breath. "I'm not happy about this at all. Even though I know this is a pithole, we had no choice but to jump straight into it. It really feels super bad to be used by others like this."

Els also quieted down at that statement. Originally, they thought that the journey through the Andinaq Kingdom would be a mere walk in the park. However, it actually turned out to be a road filled with countless thorns and the northbound convoy had to carve a bloody passage out with their own hands.

Three months prior, they had already arrived at Benz Citadel that was located at the border between the Redlis Kingdom and the Andinaq Kingdom which Potterfang had conquered with his heavy-armored cavalry. However, they received a piece of bad news during their stay.

Charade had planned to give up Benz Citadel to the soldiers of the Andinaq Kingdom as that would relieve the convoy of any baggage before they resume their journey up north through the Andinaq Kingdom quickly. However, Potterfang, who arrived one step earlier at the former imperial capital, now the royal capital of the Andinaq Kingdom, didn't manage to meet the Third Prince, Andinaq I. After asking around, he found that the Third Prince had fallen sick and the matters of the kingdom were currently managed by his son, the First Highness.

That was why Potterfang decided to visit the First Highness, Delwick, but Delwick refused to send any soldiers to be stationed at Benz Citadel and told Potterfang that currently, the influence of the royal family was only limited to the royal capital as many nobles of the kingdom had formed an alliance to resist and grapple with the royal family and he had no other choice and couldn't spare any help to the convoy even if he wanted to.

Potterfang subsequently went to contact his acquaintances from the Whitelion Legion and the news he got shocked him deeply. The Andinaq Kingdom was truly in a dire state: given that the Third Prince had been at his sickbed for more than a year, the First Highness who had relied so much on the stronger nobles within the kingdom had become their plaything. Among the three most reputable armies within the empire, the Whitelion Legion had been disbanded, the Fiercegale Legion had joined the Melein Duchy and the royal family's local defense guards only had one regiment of troops remaining and were barely able to defend the royal family with the meager amount of taxes collected from the capital.

The former population of 500000 of the capital had declined to a mere 50000 with the once merry business districts turning into abandoned slums. Back when the empire got divided into many powers, the Third Prince faced the most brunt of the Forde Trade Union as he was the one who was officially named by the emperor as the true heir of the imperial family. Even though the Andinaq Kingdom was founded on three of the most prosperous provinces of the empire, without any trade and business going on, and given the fact that the agricultural produce wasn't enough to sustain its own population, the kingdom began its steady journey to decline. Following that, the dominion lords tightened their choking grip on their citizens to squeeze more out of them and even fought each other to expand their territory.

The Third Prince's Andinaq Kingdom was merely an afterthought after that. The First Highness's claim that the royal family didn't have power outside the capital was also true. Having received that information, Potterfang quickly returned to Benz Citadel to discuss the state of affairs with Charade. He didn't expect that information about the resources and wealth the convoy had would actually be leaked by one of the First Highness's retainers to the alliance of dominion lords who turned their gazes to the convoy.

Charade decided right away to leave Benz Citadel unguarded and departed with the whole convoy. On the 5th day of their departure, however, the convoy encountered the forces of the alliance at the Green Plains.

The alliance that was formed by 37 different noble families had around 30000 troops and they had come to rob the convoy. But after their first few defeats, they changed their approach and demanded that the convoy give up two-thirds of everything they had in exchange for safe passage.

Charade refused the unreasonable demand outright and the two parties were at a stalemate. Back then, the noble alliance had 30000 soldiers. Even though the convoy was made up of more than 50000 people, only 15000 of them were combatants and they were severely outnumbered.

After 20 days, conflict broke out once again. The alliance launched their attacks first followed by counterattacks from Charade and Potterfang. What was surprising was that the soldiers of the alliance broke formation almost instantly when the convoy's soldiers charged and given their far inferior gear, the first battle was completely dominated by the northbound convoy. With minimal casualties, they even managed to capture 17000 enemy soldiers.

Upon discovering the true might of their own troops, Charade and Potterfang were elated. Charade instantly ordered his men to pay the noble alliance back for the trouble they have caused and as the convoy passed through the dominions of each noble, they took the castle of those dominion lords and hung the nobles who joined the alliance publicly and took everything they had to replenish the supply of the convoy.

The attacks the convoy launched didn't deplete its forces in the least. Of the 17000 captive soldiers, Charade had the ones who knew useful skills such as smithing, crafting, cobbling and tailoring assimilated into the members of the convoy and had the remaining 14000 or so men split into four different suicide units which were given simple equipment and sent to attack the castles of the other dominion lords with the promise that they would regain their freedom if they were victorious. They would also be offered the chance to join the convoy on the journey to the Northlands to start their lives anew.

At first, things progressed smoothly and the castles of two dominion lords were successfully conquered. But it did not take long for something troubling to occur: a group of vagabonds started tagging along the convoy from behind in hopes that they would be able to receive protection as well as going to the Northlands to live the peaceful and blissful life there that Charade had so loudly proclaimed.

When Charade was busy brainstorming a solution for that issue, a group of people arrived at the main camp of the convoy's forces and their leader was the second son of the Third Prince, the Second Highness, Auguslo. Accompanying him was the Gold ranked female knight, Norton Glacia.

Chapter 142 Charade the Demon

The aim of the Second Highness in coming over with his group of 20 was to try to mediate between the convoy and the alliance of nobles so that they could come to a truce and stop battling. After all, that was the request of his most intimate and loyal subordinate, Norton Glacia. Secondly, he wanted to see if he could purchase some food supplies as the kingdom had been struck with a severe lack of resources due to the trade embargo of the Forde Trade Union.

The Second Highness believed that the alliance would give him some face as he was the one who led the Whitelion Legion and the Fiercegale Legion during the times of the civil war and kept the First and Second Princes in check so that they didn't reach the imperial capital. Many of the dominion lords within the alliance had received help from him before and thus owed him some form of favor.

However, as he was on his way to the convoy, he heard that the convoy's forces managed to utterly crush the soldiers of the alliance. This news filled the Second Highness with shock as he didn't expect that the convoy's escort troops would actually be that powerful. Upon seeing Glacia's elated and excited reaction, Second Highness Auguslo started contemplating his next move.

While the Second Highness had gained some stellar achievements in the military, he wasn't favored by the other nobles within the Andinaq Kingdom. To them, having great achievements translated to being willing to achieve anything regardless of the cost. While the Third Prince did rely on the Second Highness to lead the two armies to resist the assaults of the First and Second Princes, it had drained the kingdom of its much needed resources and caused it to become a desolate husk of what it used to be. Additionally, the Second Highness was a rather stubborn person and nobody liked an impulsive and forceful king. That was why the nobles gave their support to the First Highness and caused the Second Highness to be exiled back to his own principality at an island near the western coast of the kingdom by the Third Prince, Andinaq I.

Being drained of resources and vitality from the constant battles of the civil war, the Andinaq Kingdom could no longer sustain three large armies, resulting in the Whitelion Legion being disbanded and the Fiercegale Legion joining the Melein Duchy to resist the Second Prince with their aid. The royal family's local defense guards had also been downsized quite substantially given the state of finances of the kingdom to the point that they were left with only one regiment of troops.

Having lost the military power necessary to control the kingdom, the nobles no longer took the Andinaq Royal Family seriously. Coupled with the Third Prince falling sick due to an unknown disease, the weak-willed First Highness got pushed around by the nobles when he took over and that allowed the pride and arrogance of the nobles to inflate even more. They began to blatantly ignore the laws of the kingdom and oppressed the citizens all the while forming their own private armies and dividing the territory of the royal family among themselves, which eventually resulted in the formation of the alliance for the sole purpose of putting pressure on the Andinaq Royal Family.

Having witnessed the state of the kingdom, the Second Highness resolved himself to one day unify the Krissen Empire and restore the imperial family back to its former glory. It was too bad that he didn't have a reliable force of his own at the moment and even his personal guard and the garrison soldiers within his territory numbered to only 300 people. And while his elder brother the First Highness wasn't the best at resisting external threats, it was the opposite when it came to internal threats given the almost paranoid awareness he had towards his own younger brother which he deemed a potential hazard to his own regime to the point that he stopped giving any subsidies to the Second Highness using the excuse that the kingdom was running severely low on funds.

Even if he had the will, the Second Highness couldn't do much without any soldiers and power of his own. But when he saw the might of the convoy of the Norton Family, he started having his own plans. The sole reason he went to the convoy was to borrow food and troops to restore stability to the Andinaq Kingdom by way of eliminating the noble alliance and forcing the First Highness to abdicate and grabbing the throne for himself. But Charade saw through his intentions right away and refused his request immediately.

"Is Abelyde the family head right now?" Glacia asked.

"Abelyde? Who's that?" Charade asked the beautiful female knight with a curious look on his face.

Glacia's expression suddenly changed as she shouted, "Who the heck are you? Why are you impersonating the people of the Norton Family?" She already had her hand to the hilt of her sword.

"We are no doubt knights of the Norton Family. Our lord is indeed Baron Norton. Oh, the current Baron Norton is Norton Lorist," Charade said as he brought out his knight badge and infused his Battle Force into it to manifest the misty form of the roaring raging bear.

Stunned, Glacia asked after she hesitated for a moment, "Lorist? Are you talking about Little Locke? That crybaby? The one who has snot all over his face? Wasn't he exiled to Morante City?"

"Pfft..." Everyone within the tent burst out in laughter at hearing the childhood nicknames of their lord.

Resisting the urge to laugh, Charade replied, "Yes, milady. Locke was indeed exiled to Morante City but he received summons from the family a year ago. Currently, he is the only person left within the direct line of succession and he had no choice to return to the dominion to inherit the dominion and his title. Many of us here are friends of his back at Morante City and we were accepted into the family as knights by him and are on a mission back to the dominion with this convoy. May I ask who you are and what relationship you have with the Norton Family?"

"What did you say? Little Locke is the only one left that can succeed the Norton Family? Then what happened to Abelyde and Norwesk?" Glacia asked hurriedly, before she regained her calm and realized her abrupt behavior. "Apologies, I am Norton Glacia, Lorist's elder cousin sister. My father is Lorist's Second Uncle and he used to be the vice captain of the knight brigade of the empire's local defense force."

"I offer you my greetings..." Charade said as everyone within the tent saluted Glacia.

"The names you mentioned just now referred to the First and Third Young Masters, right?" Charade asked. "It's like this..."

Charade told Glacia everything he knew about the state of the Norton Family, causing Glacia to burst into tears. The Second Highness hugged her as he tried to comfort her.

"I thought that losing my father was one of the worst things that could have happened to me... But to think that the family had gotten even worse over the years..." Glacia mumbled.

"Mistress Glacia, please calm your feelings and trust that the Norton Family will once again return to glory under the leadership of Locke. The journey of the convoy will be an important cornerstone to restore the family, so I am afraid that I cannot accept Your Highness's request as I have to ensure that the people and resources within the convoy arrive at the Northlands safely," Charade said.

"If that's the case, there's even more reason to accept His Highness's request. With the military might of the convoy, you'll be able to easily wipe out the forces of the nobles who are going against him. Just capture their bastides and take their resources so that you'll have enough to last the whole journey back. I've been to the family dominion before and I know that it is a desolate place deprived of every kind of resource. That's why the more you bring back to the dominion, the more beneficial it will be to the family," Glacia argued.

"If you agree to help me out, when I take control of the imperial capital, I will instantly raise the rank of the Norton Family from a Baron to a Count," promised the Second Highness. "I also won't take your supplies for free. I can offer you the equipment and gear of the Whitelion Legion that was disbanded long ago in exchange for your help and supplies. I believe the Norton Family will stand to benefit quite a bit from gaining these equipment."

Charade started to hesitate as he couldn't think of a reason to refute the offer. While a rise in rank was nothing of note, the equipment of the Whitelion Legion was a different story altogether. Being the main offensive force of the Krissen Empire, the Whitelion Legion used quality equipment which boasted excellent offense and defense that were crafted by the best smiths of the empire. They were easily two times better than usual equipment and the armor Charade wore was garbage in comparison. Other than that, the Whitelion Legion had 89000 members which were fully equipped and divided into four regiments. Including the stuff of the supply units, Charade estimated that there would easily be 100000 sets of gear in total.

If they could obtain all the gear of the Whitelion Legion, then the Norton Family would not have to worry about weapons and gear for more than ten years. As long as they were able to form an army and provide it with those equipment, the family would unquestionably be able to reign supreme within the Northlands and develop the dominion with the peace and security that came with it without the slightest worry about the chaos and turmoil of the lands.

The Second Highness didn't have much of a choice either as the Whitelion Legion had been disbanded and all that remained was their equipment. Even so, many sets had been used and worn out over the course of the conflict within the empire and the sets in good and bad condition combined only numbered around 70000 instead of the 100000 Charade believed it to be. Originally, the Third Prince, Andinaq I, had planned to sell those gear for a high price to purchase the much needed food and other resources to stabilize the kingdom. However, the Forde Trade Union was only willing to offer less than a tenth of the cost required to manufacture the gear to take advantage of the Andinaq Kingdom's desperation. In a fit of rage, the Third Prince stopped all negotiations immediately and even cut off trade ties with the Forde Trade Union.

The people of the trade union were also infuriated by that response as during the past 100 or so years, the Whitelion Legion was involved in all the invasions the empire made on the Falik Plains and they were even the biggest contributor to the empire's successes! To them, it was already very generous of them to offer to purchase the equipment at that price. They had intended to have the equipment melted down and made into a monument to commemorate the dissolution of the Krissen Empire with the insignia of the Whitelion Legion placed at the very bottom to symbolize the complete triumph of the trade union. Since the Third Prince wasn't willing to sell the gear, they gave up and didn't bother to convince him otherwise anyway.

Without trade, the once lively imperial capital started to regress as the quality of life gradually worsened. The embargo also caused the nobles of the Andinaq Kingdom much distress and some of them even lusted after the gear that was left unused in the warehouses of the empire.

The Second Highness himself didn't have any other choice either as the Andinaq Kingdom's finances are in the red and he had to offer an appealing proposition for the Norton Family for them to be willing to help out. After brainstorming, he came up with two methods, the first of which being granting the family more territory and land as well as a higher-ranking title. That was something the Second Highness was extremely unwilling to do as the Andinaq Kingdom only encompassed three of the provinces of the former empire with the already limited land split between many noble families. Given that there were more than 100 noble families within the kingdom, even the royal family's territory had to be reduced. That was why he planned to eliminate the nobles that were causing trouble and only spare the ones who were loyal to the kingdom to lay the foundation for the restoration of the Krissen Empire.

Giving the Norton Family a higher title and part of the territory taken from the purged nobles was akin to luring in yet another tiger after chasing away a pack of wolves. As the Second Highness was still unsure of the loyalty of the Norton Family, he refrained from that thought to save himself some trouble. The second method he could use was to offer the equipment of the Whitelion Legion as he observed that the convoy took their defense and security very seriously with even the most basic foot soldier being equipped with metal armor. He thought that the gear of the mighty Whitelion Legion would prove very alluring to the convoy, and he was right.

Even though Charade was able to keep his calm when he heard that offer, the three within the tent that had relatively high positions in the convoy stared straight at him. Those three were Potterfang, Lode Wales and Mons Malek respectively. As they were former members of the Whitelion Legion and were all commoner officers, the Second Highness couldn't recall their faces even though they have met before. Upon hearing that the Second Highness was willing to give them the equipment of the Whitelion Legion, the three felt completely ecstatic, but they couldn't reveal their thoughts openly and could only stare hard at Charade in hopes that he would accept the offer.

In the end, Charade nodded.

The results of the negotiation were as follows: the convoy would use 100000 gold Fordes to help fund the formation of a 20000-strong army for the Second Highness and supply them with equipment and food. The new army would accompany the northbound convoy and cooperate with them to defeat the nobles of the alliance and the spoils of war would be split evenly among the two parties for the whole period until the Second Highness ascends to the throne. The Second Highness on the other hand would agree to raise the rank of the Norton Family to that of a count when he goes into power with no change or addition to the size of the dominion. Additionally, the gear of the Whitelion Legion would be completely handed to the Norton Family and it was promised that there were no less than 70000 sets in total and any additional sets would be given to the convoy for free.

Even though the convoy was biting the short end of the stick given that they had to go to battle almost immediately and the Second Highness only had to make promises without actually putting anything up front, Charade agreed to the deal in consideration for Glacia's standing. Other than that, he also had plans of his own that would ensure that the convoy wouldn't suffer much losses either. Also, he felt that it was a good opportunity to get on the good side of the Second Highness and pave a way for the family's influence into the Andinaq Kingdom, allowing the family's trade convoys to one day be allowed passage through the territory of the Andinaq Kingdom to Viscount Tim's dominion at the Redlis Kingdom.

Charade's plan was simple: he would use the convoy's main force in the open field battles and scouting missions as he was confident that the armored cavalry unit of the Norton Family would be able to utterly crush any enemy resistance without trouble. He also considered it to be a good chance for the soldiers to gain experience. The battles which would cause the most casualties were the sieges and he planned to have the convoy's ranged units aid in the effort. That way, he could minimize the casualties of the convoy's forces and also resupply the convoy with the loot they took. What was there for them to lose?

After the expedition began for two or so months, the forces of the convoy swept past the Hanstmost Province and the Central Province of the Andinaq Kingdom under Charade's leadership, forcing 35 dominion lords to submit and swear their allegiance to the Second Highness in the process and earning him the moniker of 'Charade the Demon'. He also used the youths among the captives and vagabonds to form a 20000-strong army for the Second Highness as per the agreement which was used to encircle the imperial capital, giving the First Highness no choice but to abdicate and pass the throne to the Second Highness.

The Second Highness also fulfilled his side of the bargain and gave all 73645 sets of gear of the Whitelion Legion to the convoy and also signed the certificate of the entitlement that was testament to the elevation of status of the Norton family leader from a baron to a count, complete with the official imperial seal. On a side note, the Second Highness also hoped that the convoy would continue to fight for him and help him restore the empire.

Charade refused the request without hesitating and the Second Highness merely laughed it off without stirring up any fuss. But when Charade announced that they would be departing immediately to resume their journey back to the Northlands, the Second Highness asked for a favor: since the convoy was headed for the final province of the Andinaq Kingdom, the Welbassia Province, which was also the main stronghold of the noble alliance which the Second Highness couldn't reach his hands into no matter how hard he tried, the Second Highness made an optimistic request for the convoy's troops to clean up the rebellious nobles as they had done during their passage through the previous two provinces.

Charade shook his head and said, "My apologies, Your Highness, the convoy has already been delayed for too many times and we have to head for the Northlands immediately. As long as the nobles don't stop us on our tracks, we won't act against them for no reason."

The Second Highness laughed and said, "But there is a lot of food within that province... Well, no matter if you can't help it."

In the end, the convoy parted with the Second Highness on friendly terms and Glacia had even written a couple of letters meant for Lorist and entrusted them to Charade.

And so the convoy continued its journey north, but Charade and the rest quickly felt that something was not right. By the time the convoy reached the Welbassia Province, the vagabonds that followed behind them numbered more than 100000.

After making some inquiries, Charade found that he had been duped. As the population within the Andinaq Kingdom was quite dense, the food shortage that plagued it caused the citizens to wander around to forage for food for their survival. And somehow, rumors that the northbound convoy was handing out food and bringing people to settle down within the Northlands spread and caused many of the vagabonds to seek it out.

Enraged, Charade wrote a letter to the Second Highness about the issue to which the Second Highness responded, writing, 'The Andinaq Kingdom has roughly 400000 vagabonds. Due to the efforts of the convoy which freed up more land in the Hanstmost Province and the Central Province, I have only managed to settle 100000 of them down despite the best of my efforts. I cannot do much about the rest who chose to follow the convoy. However, if the convoy is willing to clean up the Welbassia Province, the extra land might be enough for another 100000 or so people to settle down..."

It was at that moment when everyone's face froze up. There was no way that they would be able to travel quick with so many vagabonds slowing them down! However, they couldn't just leave them be and ignore them as they might be prompted into attacking and robbing the convoy out of desperation. 100000 desperate and hungry people was no small threat. On the other hand, if Charade chose to feed the vagabonds, the food source that would last 60000 people for three months might run out within only one month. The only solution was to attack the bastides and castles of the dominion lords within the province to attain more food to feed the vagabonds as well as help the Second Highness settle some of them down within the province.

That was the main issue that plagued the convoy which caused Charade much grief and frustration as he had no option but to jump into the abyss despite knowing what lay below.

Chapter 143 The Experiences of the Messengers

That was because the slave laborers were integral to the profits of the Kenmays Family, so it's understandable that they were well fed. These immigrants are different in that it's already considered for them to have infrequent meals that allowed them to barely survive. After being brought to the Northlands by the Kenmays Family, the immigrants were given some farmland and small amounts of supplies before they were left to fend for themselves and they would also be required to pay a tax after two years, so it wasn't weird that they couldn't even afford regular meals.

It'll take at least 6 months before they can be put to good use, Lorist thought as he stroked his chin. After that, he saw the Iron ranked butler of Telesti entering the new recruit camp and hurriedly rushing towards him.

The butler greeted him and said, "Milord, my mistress had requested that you go over to the construction site's base of operations. She has something she needs to discuss with you."

The reason Telesti asked Lorist to go over was to talk about the construction of the residential areas. Given that the main castle was constructed next to the mountain range, it was as high as six storeys and that allowed it to be defended easily and be exceedingly hard to attack. Three out of six storeys of the castle was already completed.

However, there were two large expanses at both the mountain ranges beside the castle and residential areas for the knights and the staff of the castle were planned to be built over there. Currently, the blueprints for the residential areas had been completed and it was awaiting Lorist's approval.

The slope of the mountain range to the north of the castle was larger and had relatively more level terrain and Telesti had come up with two plans with the aid of Grandmaster Ciroba. The first was to construct larger houses which the land could only fit 38 of. The second was to make the houses smaller so the area could fit 58 of them, 20 more than the former plan.

The slope of the mountain range to the south of the castle was steeper in comparison and it could only fit 11 such houses at most. Lorist had to decide which housing arrangement they were going to use.

Looking at the completed replica for some time, Lorist felt that he wasn't too satisfied with it. After giving it some thought, he told Telesti, "How about this? The slope to the northern side of the castle can be split into four levels, so construct larger houses atop the first two levels and build smaller ones at the lower levels. As for the southern slope, I recommend constructing multi-storied buildings, maybe about three floors each. I hope that the base area of these buildings can be larger and each room shouldn't be as small as the ones within academy dorms, maybe around 4 to 5 rooms the size of the small houses in each building would do."

Just as he left the base of operations, he saw Paulobins approach him. Paulobins said, "Milord, two beggars showed up and they claim to be the messengers of the convoy and requested to meet you..."

Messengers of the convoy? Delighted, Lorist asked, "Where are they?"

"They are waiting outside your room," said Paulobins as he handed over the reins of the horse to Lorist.

Even though it hasn't even been ten days since Reidy and Jim left, news of the convoy is already here. It seems that they'll be here soon, thought Lorist happily as he rode quickly to the southern walls of the castle.

Upon getting into the building, he saw two haggardly-dressed men whose faces were completely smudged in grime and one of them was even wrapped in a dirty bandage. No wonder Paulobins thought they were beggars.

Seeing Lorist come over, the two beggars burst out in tears as they kneeled down and cried, "Milord, we're finally able to meet you again..."

Lorist said, "You are..?"

"Milord, I am Ruhr and he is Mort and we are part of the guards for the convoy. Have you forgotten us?" said the uninjured guard as he sobbed.

Ruhr and Mort, hmm, they are Els's subordinates. Then again, their current form looks horrible...

Lorist squatted down beside a busybody guard who was doing nothing but snickering and said, "You blind fool, what are you doing sitting there and laughing like that? Go get your brothers some water for them to wash themselves. Get Shadekampf to come here as well."

After washing their faces and changing their clothes, the two messengers looked more familiar in Lorist's eyes. Shadekampf who just rushed into the room recognized them right away as he was the one who used to bring the guards around to make an inventory of the things the convoy obtained. "Ruhr, Mort, why have you come here?"

"Sir Shadekampf, we're here to pass a message.." Upon the mention of their mission, the two started to cry again.

The letter was given to Lorist and there were five pages in total. Charade mentioned in the letter that the battle on the Green Plains was a huge success and that Els had injured himself. The letter also described the meeting of the convoy with the Second Highness and Glacia and their agreement in much detail as well as Charade's intention to gain the equipment of the Whitelion Legion.

After reading the letter, Lorist felt both happy and perplexed. He was glad because his elder cousin sister who was quite fat back in the day and bullied him frequently had become a Gold ranked knight. However, he was troubled that the convoy was still caught up within the Andinaq Kingdom and it didn't seem that they would be arriving anytime soon. It was possible that snow would start to fall after Charade and gang cleaned up the rebellious dominion lords of the kingdom. Given that it was already the 9th day of the 9th month, winter was coming and the snowfall would definitely make it much harder for the convoy to travel.

Looking at the date of the letter, Lorist was shocked to see that it had been signed on the 28th day of the 6th month.

"You guys took two whole months to travel here?" Lorist felt weird at that time frame as he had only taken one month to travel from Geldos City to the Northlands. Why did it take so long for the messengers to arrive?

The two messengers continued their sobbing as one said, "Milord, when we left, there were 12 of us. But now, only the two of us remain..."

Lorist asked concernedly, "What happened?"

"Milord, the 12 of us were fully-armed and had two mounts each. When we passed through the Andinaq Kingdom, we came under frequent bandit attacks and by the time we reached the Madras Duchy, there were only 7 of us left. Within the duchy, things mostly went on fine until we arrived at Whitestone Town which was near the Hendliff Suspension Bridge. Just as we were about to cross the river, we heard some merchants who came from the other side mention that Duke Loggins intended to send his troops to punish the Norton Family who have disrespected him, so we didn't dare to use that route and headed for the ferry port downstream.

"After we crossed the river there, just as we were about to get some food and rest within a town, the garrison force of the town labeled us bandits and wanted to arrest us. As a result, only five of us emerged alive and we lost all our luggage and mounts. Those garrison soldiers were also frightened by our tenacity and no longer dared to chase us. Having no choice but to travel on foot, we traveled for another 5 days to the dominion of Baron Farad. Initially thinking that we could get some help from him, we didn't expect him to treat us as vagabonds and capture us while also taking all our armor, weapons and money.

"After working a month of forced labor under the baron, we were enlisted by him into his forces because he had gone into conflict with some other viscount. We were shoved to the battlefield with nothing more than a pike. After two days of fighting, Waylin and Azk perished and I, Mort and Gilson managed to escape in the midst of chaos. However, Gilson had gotten hit by three arrows and didn't make it. Ever since, Mort and I didn't dare to enter anymore towns and wandered in the wilderness for six days before we finally arrived here..." said Ruhr as he delivered his experiences while sobbing all the way.

Lorist thumped on the table in anger and said, "Unbelievable... What did you say that baron was called? And what's the name of that town?"

Needless to say, the baron was one of the new nobles that had just been entitled by the Second Prince. Northlanders were usually very amicable to guests, and travelers to towns would usually get aid from the townsfolk. For messengers like them, Northlander nobles would treat them to dinner like honored guests apart from providing the basic necessities like accommodation and supplies. Naturally, they stood to benefit from getting news from outside the Northlands from visitors and some more generous nobles might even give some money to reward them for the information.

Ever since the entitlement of the new nobles at the Northlands, the atmosphere and culture there had degraded. When they lacked resources, the new nobles would impersonate bandits to pillage others and if they didn't have enough citizens, they would kidnap people from nearby villages. Many old landed nobles of the Northlands were currently in conflict with the new nobles because of those issues. During the knighthood competition, one noble who participated was recognized by some to be one of the bandit leaders who robbed another noble family's merchant convoy.

So, Baron Farad, huh, Lorist thought as he looked at the map and found the dominion of the new dominion lord which was only two days of travel away from the Firmrock Castle and next to Count Spenseid's dominion. As for the town that Ruhr mentioned, it was under the jurisdiction of Viscount Darwof and that town may be an immigrant town that was constructed only recently given that the members of their garrison were merely ruffians that dared to prey on messengers. That town was slightly further away and it would take 5 days to travel there by horse, so Lorist made a mental note to settle them at a later date.

"Ask the guards outside to get Knight Josk and Knight Waxima to come here," Lorist instructed Shadekampf.

"What's the status of the convoy right now? Is Els recovering from his injuries well?" Lorist asked Ruhr and Mort.

Ruhr replied, "During the battle of the Green Plains, our forces' losses were low and less than 1000 of the soldiers were killed or injured. Had Sir Els been fine, he would have led us back on our mission to deliver the letter. Back then when we were at Benz Citadel and preparing to send some information here the first time, Sir Els had volunteered to be part of the messenger team but he later changed his mind when Sir Potterfang returned..."

"Wait a second, you said that a message was sent back when the convoy was still at Benz Citadel?"

"That's right..." Ruhr replied, before he recalled something and asked, "Don't tell me... That you didn't receive the first message and didn't see any of our messengers?"

Lorist merely shook his head.

Ruhr and Mort looked at each other with expressions of surprise.

Ruhr continued, "Milord, they left one month before our departure and Sir Charade's message contained a report on the status of the convoy as well as the news Sir Potterfang received at the imperial capital. The leader of the 12 messengers was Krimor and he's one of the guards that milord may remember. However, if they haven't arrived yet, then based on our experience, they might have got into some trouble..."

"If they're alive, we'll find them. Even if they're dead, we'll locate their corpses. Nobody will be able to get away scot-free for harming the messengers of the Norton Family. I will definitely make sure you lot have a satisfactory answer to this," Lorist said as he ground his teeth. No wonder he felt that Charade's letter seemed to not be extensive enough given that the rest of the information had been in the previous letter he sent which had disappeared along with the first group of messengers.

"Brief me on how the convoy is doing. It isn't mentioned in these letters," Lorist said.

Ruhr and Mort began to explain what happened with the convoy after Lorist had left.

"What? The convoy now has more than 4000 carriages and 50000 people? And the escort force has grown to 15000-strong?" Lorist was so surprised that he almost jumped in shock. No wonder the convoy was able to take out more than 30000 soldiers of the noble alliance and even received a request from the Second Highness to help him root out the rebellious nobles of the kingdom.

Lorist now understood why Charade was so confident in accepting the request of the Second Highness. The convoy's strength had actually grown so much that they could play a pivotal role in deciding the future of a whole kingdom. It seemed that Lorist did not have to worry about the safety of the convoy. Given that it had already been more than 2 months since the letter was written, the convoy had probably completed the assignment given to them by the Second Highness.

At that moment, Josk and Waxima reported their arrival before they entered the room.

Lorist pointed to the dominion of Baron Farad on the beastskin map and had Ruhr and Mort tell the knights about their experiences, causing both of them to fume with rage.

"This noble is truly shameless..." Waxima said.

"Milord, we must give Baron Farad the retribution he deserves. Nobody should ever be allowed to treat our messengers like that," Josk proclaimed.

"Heed my orders. Bring the mounted archers squad and a cavalrymen company to that dominion and hang this Baron Farad at the entrance of his bastide. Burn his castle down and make a huge wooden plaque to explain why we did all that. Perhaps the new nobles would stand to learn something about the traditions and customs of the Northlands as well as the regulations between nobles from the baron's mistake," Lorist instructed.

"Your will is our command, milord. We will exercise it with utmost precision," said Josk and Waxima in unison as they saluted.

"Don't leave just yet. This time, you will have to make your passage through the dominion of Count Spenseid. I will write him a letter so he doesn't misunderstand the reason our forces are approaching his dominion. Also, Ruhr and Mort said that there was a group of messengers before them that never managed to arrive here. Make sure to ask around to see if you can also get some information about them..."

"Understood, milord," Josk and Waxima replied.

Ruhr and Mort then stood up.

Mort said, "Milord, please allow us to accompany them. We want to bring the bodies of our comrades home."

"You've just arrived after a long journey. Are you sure you can handle it?" Lorist couldn't force them to stay either as their reason was extremely compelling.

"We can handle it, milord," Ruhr said.

"How about this... Rest for a day and depart tomorrow. I will also check Mort's health for a bit and if you're fine, I'll allow the two of you to go together and even let you be the ones to personally hang Baron Farad. I'm sure you'd be happy to do that. Shadekampf. bring 20 guards with you and tag along to help them find the bodies of their heroic comrades. We will have a funeral for them and bury them at the Martyrs' Graveyard at Firmrock Castle when their bodies are sent back," Lorist said.

"Yes, milord," replied Shadekampf.

The Martyrs' Graveyard was built on a hill opposite the Firmrock Castle's main building. All family soldiers and guards would be buried there when they pass on so that future generations can easily honor them and pay their respects there.

"Thank you, milord..." mumbled Ruhr and Mort emotionally.

Chapter 144 Hennard's Ransom

Lorist was currently taking a walk on the walls with Baron Camorra who had hurriedly rushed over from far away. The reason for his visit was to negotiate the release and ransom of the captured Gold ranked knight Hennard and the other ten plus of Silver ranked knights.

"Camorra, is my hearing getting worse or did you mistakenly tell me a wrong number? I really can't fathom that a Gold ranked knight's ransom would only be 100 imperial gold coins. That's not a ransom, that's just humiliation to the Gold ranked knight in question as well as an insult to the Norton Family. There's no way I will accept the price offered by the duke."

Lorist was also quite shocked as he had even prepared to negotiate for a higher price. But never would he have thought that the duke would offer such a ridiculous figure. If word of that laughably low sum truly spread out, then Knight Hennard would have no other choice left to him but to commit suicide.

As an example, during the knighthood competition, defeated knights had to offer up their mounts, armor, and weapons to the victors or pay an equivalent ransom. Normally, those were worth somewhere from 30 to 40 gold Fordes which was equal to 100 to 150 imperial gold coins. However, the case with the duke's knights was that they were captured as enemies on the battlefield as opposed to being defeated in a friendly competition.

If a Silver ranked knight was taken captive on the battlefield, all the belongings he carried with him would belong to the victor by default and if he wanted to regain his freedom, he had to first buy his equipment, mount and attendants back. If the price of all that was 50 gold Fordes, it would be multiplied by 2 and the resulting 100 gold Fordes would be the ransom that had to be paid separately for the knight's freedom itself.

In conclusion, a Silver ranked knight would have to pay around 150 gold Fordes in total to regain his freedom, attendants, mounts and gear to be allowed to leave. The one who captured the knight might even host a banquet to get to know the knight better before sending him off.

Additionally, if a captured knight had a noble title, he would have to pay another ransom that is fitting of the status of the title as true nobles were worth far more than quasi-nobles like normal knights. This was an agreed upon convention on the battlefield and no noble would dare to violate it. But the main point was that it only applied to Silver ranked knights.

Few Gold ranked knights would actually end up being captured on the battlefield due to their far superior battle prowess. In terms of Battle Force, Gold ranked Battle Force would last longer on the battlefield and had superior attack, defense and endurance. It wasn't possible to subdue a Gold ranked knight unless a huge sacrifice of troops was made or the knight was caught off-guard by surprise.

The best method to deal with a Gold ranked knight was to use another Gold ranked knight. Battles between two Gold ranked knights would always become the focal point of the battlefield and unless one was far superior than another in terms of technique, the loser would usually end up dead with the victor heavily injured and not faring much better.

Then again, Gold ranked knights being held captive was not without precedent: the Forund Duchy's Gold ranked knight Bisya was a prime example of this as he had collapsed unconscious after sustaining injuries from fighting against the forces of the Redlis Kingdom and became the captive of the First Prince. Duke Forund had to offer 3000 gold Fordes as well as a precious treasure sword to be able to sway the First Prince to release the knight and that incident was frequently mentioned among the nobility for some time.

Duke Loggins's offer of 100 imperial gold coins only converted to roughly 30 plus gold Fordes and that made Lorist very troubled. Even though Hennard wasn't captured on the battlefield and was instead apprehended while he was drunk, it wasn't like Lorist asked for 1000 gold Fordes in exchange for his freedom. But at least 500 to 600 gold Fordes would be fair, right? After all, the ransom was in a sense the measure of worth of the Gold ranked knight.

This 'wonder' of a duke really has no brains... Offering a price like that is really just an act of digging his own grave. If word of this got out, who would still be willing to serve him? What the heck is going on? The more Lorist wondered, the more curious he got.

"Camorra, please don't joke around with me, alright? This is crucial to the pride and dignity of the knight and it isn't something that should be treated lightly. I don't believe that Duke Loggins is that uninformed to be able to make that laughable offer..." Lorist told Baron Camorra solemnly.

Apart from showing a bitter smile, there was nothing Baron Camorra could say in response.

Ten days prior, Viscount Kenmays made a visit to the mansion of the duke at Gildusk City. He brought with him the corpse of Knight Chevany as well as news of Knight Hennard's and the other Silver ranked knights' capture and the loss of contact of the duke's 4000-strong army, which shocked the entirety of the citizens of the duke's dominion, causing the word to spread all over the Northlands. In a fit of rage, Duke Loggins once again smashed up his just-cleaned-up study and shouted maniacally that he wanted retribution and cursed loudly at the Norton Family. He even swore to kill off everyone who was related to the Norton Family.

Baron Camorra and another Gold ranked knight, the vice leader of the Northland Army, Bitson, expended great effort to calm the duke's rage and got him to start plotting another expedition against the Nortons.

By the time the duke calmed down and started to plan, all three of them were dumbstruck as they found that they no longer had enough soldiers they could mobilize to mount an attack. It was quite shocking that the once 20000-strong Northland Army which had been reduced to only have 16700 plus people left could only mobilize 5000 plus men of two regiments. Given that the 4000-strong troops were already completely defeated, there was no way another 5000 could make that big of a difference, was there?

There were many reasons for the inability of the duke to deploy more troops. The main one was that the Northland Army could be considered to be a relatively small army in that there were only 21000 members that were split into 2 divisions. Additionally, the Northland Army wasn't optimized for full scale open field battles and was instead modeled after a defense army. The southern part of Duke Loggins's duchy had a capital city, a citadel, three bastides and seven towns as well as the entry at the suspension bridge. These places had to be defended to ensure the security of the duchy, especially the capital city, the Hendliff Suspension Bridge as well as Fresde Citadel near the bridge. Those three locations were crucial points of defense against the forces of the Second Prince and every one of them only had a regiment of troops which was just enough to keep those places secure.

The other factor was due to the duke wanting to save his military costs. After the formation of the Northland Army, he had disbanded the various garrison forces all over his dominion because he felt that the Northland Army was more than enough to keep the dominion in check and could be used to fill the place of the garrison forces of the towns and bastides, thus saving him more money. Additionally, he believed that no dominion lord in the Northlands that caused him trouble would ever require him to mobilize the entire army. Usually, he only needed to send 2000 soldiers to take care of such minor insurrections.

Now that over 4000 of his soldiers were wiped out, it was like he had gotten a waking slap straight to his face as he realized that he didn't have any means to retaliate against the Norton Family. The other problem was that of the five Gold ranked knights that served the duke, Knight Tabik had been injured by Lorist and needed over one year of rest to recover, the most accomplished Knight Chevany had died on the battlefield, Knight Hennard had been taken captive and only two Gold ranked knights remained. Knight Aordem was tasked with defending the Hendliff Suspension Bridge and the Fresde Citadel. The vice commander of the Northland army, Bitson, was busy defending the capital of the dominion. Even if the duke deployed his troops, there was nobody suitable to lead them.

As he pinched his nose to stop the blood from flowing out, the duke instructed Baron Camorra to negotiate for the release of Knight Hennard and painfully took out 400 gold Fordes for the ransom. As for the Silver ranked knights and the captured soldiers of the Northland Army, he felt that they could wait until his troops defeat the Nortons and free them later.

Knight Bitson however felt that 400 gold Fordes was far too less and the Nortons definitely wouldn't release Hennard for that kind of sum and requested the duke to raise the ransom so that they may get Hennard back as soon as possible and have him report what he had witnessed from the battles within the Norton Family's dominion so that they may be able to better prepare themselves.

But the duke insisted that 400 gold Fordes was already the most he was willing to pay. As the three of them continued to discuss the matter, the butler of the mansion reported that one of the attendants of Knight Chevany had returned with a report about the happenings throughout the expedition.

The attendant of Knight Chevany looked really haggard. He explained that he had experienced much trouble while crossing the Morgan Hills with his comrade due to having met a magical beast, a Blackback Iron-toothed Leopard, during their travels. His comrade had sacrificed himself to kill the beast while he managed to escape the mountain range after many other life-threatening encounters and made it back to Gildusk City in one piece. Even though he was injured and worn out, he still fulfilled the task given to him by his master out of loyalty and made his way to the duke's mansion immediately to pass the silver tube which contained the letter to the duke immediately.

Duke Loggins took out a stack of rolled up beastskin documents from the tube and started reading. Knight Bitson and Baron Camorra were both rather interested with the contents of the letter, but since it was in the duke's hands, they had no choice but to wait patiently. As for the attendant who delivered it, he was sobbing in a corner after hearing about his master's death.

The things that happened next would forever be ingrained within the psyche of Baron Camorra: he saw the duke's face redden with rage as both his eyes seemed to be about to fall out of their sockets with steam seemingly gushing out of his nostrils. All of a sudden, the duke totally lost it and started rampaging about. This wasn't like his usual fits. This time, he was stomping all over and hurling anything he could get his hands on including the tables within the meeting room as he cursed at both Knight Chevany and Knight Hennard. "Those two bastards! I want to kill them so badly! I want to tear their corpses into a thousand pieces! How did the two of them manage to lose all that gold?! My 300000 gold Fordes! My gold coins! Chevany, it's all their fault! Why didn't they send my gold coins back first?! Hennard! Why did he fuck up his job in protecting the gold?! My money! My money..."

Baron Camorra was completely dumbstruck. Seeing the beastskin documents fall to the ground, he picked them up and hid at a corner where he would be safe from the airborne objects hurled by the duke and started reading. Knight Bitson also joined him to take a look.

They quickly came to understand why their lord reacted the way he did. It's all your fault, Chevany! If you had merely reported the decimation of the army, then that would be the end of that. Why did you have to tell the duke about the massacre of the Wildnorth Town citizens and the amount of wealth they had there? You even specified that it amounted to roughly 300000 gold Fordes! For that kind of wealth to have fallen into the duke's hands only to be taken away again... How else would he react but freak out completely?!

Perhaps because he was not able to resist hearing his master being berated by the duke so senselessly, the attendant spoke out and said, "Lord Duke, Knight Chevany has already sacrificed himself heroically on the battlefield..."

The duke whose bloodshot eyes had been completely clouded by the wealth that had escaped his grasps turned to look at the attendant as he started rambling unintelligibly, causing everyone within the room to feel a chill down their spine.

"Died on the battlefield? He thinks that his mistakes will all be rectified with his death? Even if he's dead, I won't spare him! He lost all my money, my 300000 gold Fordes! He has erred greatly! He must pay for his mistakes! Men... Men!" roared the duke loudly as his voice echoed throughout the halls of his mansion.

"Destroy Chevany's family completely right now! Confiscate all their goods, exile his family members and feed his corpse to wild dogs! He actually dared to lose my 300000 gold Fordes!"

"Milord, you can't do that..." Knight Bitson and Baron Camorra said in shock and unison as they hurriedly attempted to stop the duke's order.

"I can't? Why not? It's Chevany's fault. Why didn't he transport the gold back first and insisted on attacking the Norton Family's castle? Why did he bring the 300 longbowmen with him away from Wildnorth Town and caused the town's defenses to weaken, thus allowing for the ambush to succeed and causing my gold to fall into the hands of the enemy?! Why did he give up after only one failed attack at Wildnorth Town after it was captured and and retreated even though he had 1700 soldiers under him? He actually sat on his arse and witnessed the gold being taken away by the enemy! How could he have done that? Tell me, if he wasn't at fault, then who is?" shouted the duke back to the two of his subordinates, causing the both of them to be completely speechless.

"And you..." said the duke as he turned his attention back to the poor attendant. "You are a shameful deserter and a coward just like your master. You have betrayed my trust and lost my gold... My men... Hang him right away! Hang him this instant!"

The attendant who had labored tirelessly to complete his mission was completely shocked by the loss of the duke's temper and didn't even make a sound as he was dragged outside. Baron Camorra could only feel his heart shudder as his whole body shivered from the sheer terror. He suddenly realized that the duke before his eyes now looked more foreign than ever.

When a guard entered the mansion again to report that the attendant had been hanged at the flagpole outside the mansion, the duke started to calm down.

"Camorra, go to the Norton dominion tomorrow and tell them that I intend to pay the price for Hennard's and the Silver ranked knights' ransom. Remember, Hennard's ransom will be only 100 imperial gold coins and the Silver ranked knights' would be 10 imperial gold coins each..." said the duke while his eyes remained bloodshot with rage.

Baron Camorra's expression changed as he said, "Mi-milord... That's still far from enough..."

Duke Loggins said in an eerily calm voice that caused Knight Bitson and Baron Camorra to shiver in fear, "Tell the Norton Family that I won't be spending a single copper coin more for those sinners' release. The reason I want to pay their ransom is not because I want to help them regain their freedom but rather because I want them back here so I can punish them thoroughly. They shouldn't have lost my gold coins..."

After that, Baron Camorra stepped out of the duke's mansion in a daze and saw the corpse of the attendant that was still hung up high. As he turned back and exchanged his gaze with Knight Bitson, the two of them stood there without uttering a single word.

Finally, Knight Bitson broke the silence and whispered ever so quietly, "The Lord Duke has truly gone insane this time... You better look out for yourself... And you might want to tell Hennard that staying as a captive of the Norton Family is far better than coming back here..."

Chapter 145 Release

"Is that the army of your family?" asked Baron Camorra.

Lorist merely nodded.

"What have they set out for?" he asked again.

Lorist laughed and said, "They went to teach the newcomer nobles of the Northlands a lesson on the customs of the people here. One noble actually dared to capture and give trouble to the messengers of the family, so I had my soldiers hang that guy in front of his own castle."

"And who may that be?"

"Some guy called Baron Farad."

Baron Camorra furrowed his brow in thought before he said, "I know that guy and he's very good at horse-breeding. Originally, he was the breeder of the Second Prince and he even saved his life once during their second attack against the Melein Duchy. After that, he was made a baron and sent to the Northlands. That guy is rather stubborn and the moment he arrived, he attacked the nearby Baron Slaydor and even killed all his family members before taking over the dominion."

Lorist gave a surprised look at Baron Camorra before he asked, "Why did Duke Loggins leave him be without doing anything about it? Isn't he supposed to be in charge of the dominion lords of the Northlands?"

"Well, Baron Farad was a noble entitled by the Second Prince so it wouldn't do the duke any good to antagonize him," said the baron as he shook his head. "The duke said that since the old noble of the Northlands don't really treat him with respect, he'll lord over the new ones. As long as they pay their taxes to him, he wouldn't give them any trouble. That way, the Second Prince won't have anything to pick with the duke as well."

"So the duke does fear the Second Prince after all..." Lorist said as he chuckled. "No wonder even though everyone in the Northlands know the duke's ambition of forming his own duchy, he hasn't made any concrete moves just yet. So that was the reason. With that small, little gut of his, there's no way he's gonna achieve anything great."

Baron Camorra no longer continued to speak. He regretted running his mouth too much and allowed Lorist to guess the truth of the situation without too much trouble.

"Camorra, forgive me for being candid about this, but as nobles, we have to have the behavior and pride befitting of one. I'm sure you understand as well that the values the duke holds is considered a violation against the traditions of nobility and I really find it hard to understand the duke's intentions. Can you enlighten me about them?" Lorist asked as he once again changed the subject to the ransom of the knights.

"Sigh... Actually, the duke isn't planning to pay the sum as a ransom for their freedom but rather as a reward for apprehending criminals..."

If a criminal who escaped from Count A's territory was captured at Viscount B's territory, Count A can send someone to Viscount B's dominion to bring the criminal back for punishment. At the same time, Count A had to pay Viscount B a fitting bounty as a sign of gratitude and that was an unspoken convention among the nobles.

"Wait, what did you say? A reward for handing back the criminals? What does that even mean? Don't tell me Duke Loggins thinks that Knight Hennard is a criminal?" Lorist cried out in surprise.

Baron Camorra merely nodded bitterly.

Lorist widened his eyes as he said, "That's far too ridiculous, right? Isn't this just the duke trying to save himself some money on the ransom by exploiting this tradition? I've long heard that the duke was quite the miser, but he actually used this method to free his Gold ranked knight? Does he think that others are idiots? Nobody in their right mind would label someone a criminal just because they lost in the war..."

"It's true. The duke truly thinks of Knight Hennard and the other Silver ranked knights as criminals and the reason he sent me here was to bring them back for their punishment," said Baron Camorra as he stared to the ground, seemingly wanting to bore a hole in it and jump inside to hide his embarrassment.

"I can't believe this..." Lorist said as he shook his head. "Unless, your duke has truly gone insane. It's just not right for anyone to be labeled as a criminal just because they lost in a war."

Sigh, I guess I better make it clear. It's only a matter of time before word of the duke's actions spread across the Northlands anyway. I was bound to be humiliated the moment I was sent here. I only hope that this young lord of the Norton Family will refuse to release Knight Hennard for it will be far worse for him to return to the dominion as a criminal than to stay here as a captive, thought Baron Camorra. The duke's actions against the family members of Knight Chevany had completely stoned the hearts of his men to the point that even the baron himself lost all confidence and hope.

"It's not because he was defeated. He is going to be punished for losing the money of the duke," Baron Camorra said.

"Huh? They lost his money? What does that mean?" Lorist asked as he got even more puzzled.

Baron Camorra snickered cynically before he continued, "Didn't they take over Wildnorth Town already and gathered up the 300000 gold Fordes' worth of wealth only to lose it to you? The duke was extremely mad at that fact and he thinks that the 300000 gold Fordes' of wealth already belonged to him and losing it was tantamount to causing him to lose his money. That to him was unforgivable. That's why the duke sent me here to bring buy them back to punish them..."

Good Sol! What kind of reasoning is that?! Lorist finally came to a realization. He asked, "How did Duke Loggins know about that sum?"

"It's all Knight Chevany's fault. After failing to take back Wildnorth Town, he was worried that he wouldn't be able to make it back to the dominion and decided to write a letter about the details of the battles in your dominion and sent his two attendants back to deliver it. Only one of the attendants survived the trip and managed to pass the letter to the duke. Chevany really shouldn't have written about the gains they got in Wildnorth Town. The duke was enraged upon seeing it and started to blame Knight Chevany and Knight Hennard for losing the gold that could have been his because they didn't focus on sending it back first. Not only did the duke hang the attendant by labeling him a deserter, he also exiled the family members of Knight Chevany and left them to starve on the streets without any belongings whatsoever."

"That's..." Lorist was completely flabbergasted at what he had heard. He did not have a single doubt that the duke had gone completely insane.

Understanding what Lorist was about to say, Baron Camorra continued, "The duke even ordered the corpse of Knight Chevany to be tossed into the wilderness to be fed to wild dogs. However, Knight Bitson had already secretly sent someone to sneak the body away and give it a proper burial. We will also secretly take care of Chevany's family members and help them leave the Northlands when the duke forgets the matter and is no longer paying any attention to it..."

"Your duke is truly the incarnation of greed itself. Given his almost maniacal fixation on wealth, he'll definitely want to vent his frustrations on the family members of Knight Chevany. While he isn't doing it now, one day he might think of selling them to the slave traders. You had best help them move away from the Northlands as soon as possible," Lorist said.

That was indeed within the realm of possibility. The duke who had lost it no longer cared about the opinions of others and if he truly did that, the Northland Army was bound to crumble from the chaos. Fortunately for the duke, the presence of Knight Bitson still managed to hold the army together. However, it was only hanging by a thin thread that could snap at any moment given the rumors that were spreading around which caused the army's morale to drop significantly. As the commander of the army, Knight Chevany had always acted rather righteously and he was beloved by his subordinates. Many soldiers felt that the duke's treatment of Knight Chevany was ridiculous and were already at their boiling point. If the family members of the knight were really sold to slave traders, then it was possible for the soldiers to even revolt.

Oh Lord Duke, do you have anything in your sights other than money? Without the Northland Army, no matter how much money you have, you won't be able to keep it safe! Baron Camorra nodded towards Lorist gratefully for the warning and decided that he should head back to the dominion quickly so that he can help the family members of Knight Chevany move as soon as possible.

"I think what happened to Knight Chevany was truly a shame. He was a magnificent leader. Even though we were enemies, I have to agree that he is a stellar Gold ranked knight. He had already did all he could. The true irreversible mistake was made when the duke sent his soldiers against us and gave Chevany an enemy he could not defeat. Originally, he didn't have to die, but for the sake of asking me to spare his subordinates and atoning for his failure to the duke, he decided to put himself in harm's way when he dueled me and upheld the pride of a knight till the very end. I deeply respect him for doing that and he is a true, chivalrous knight," Lorist said.

"If anything, the only mistake Knight Chevany made was pledging his allegiance to a madman like the duke. Sane people can never reason or converse with the insane, especially the paranoid ones. Duke Loggins is an embarrassment to all the nobles of the Northlands and he had dug his own grave this time. I believe that even now, he is still obsessed with the 300000 gold Fordes that were never his in the first place and is dreaming of getting it from my hands..." Lorist laughed as he pointed at the soldiers who were entering the castle and told Baron Camorra, "These are the forces of my family. If the duke wants the money, he will have to ask them for permission first..."

Looking at the soldiers from the walls, Baron Camorra felt conflicting emotions assailing him and didn't say a word.

After receiving news that 4000 plus Northland Army soldiers had lost, they thought that the Norton Family forces must have sustained heavy casualties as well. However, Baron Camorra discovered that the Nortons' forces seemed to have increased even more after visiting Firmrock Castle. From the walls that were fully-staffed by patrolling guards and the sight of the new recruits who were practicing military drills, all of them were fully-equipped and armed with metal armor. The most surprising part was that the Norton Family was still able to send out soldiers to deal with the noble that had did ill to their messengers. Baron Camorra could only laugh cynically as he was forced to admit that the Norton Family's power was going to be a huge hurdle even for someone like Duke Loggins.

Josk, Waxima and Shadekampf ascended the walls followed behind by Ruhr and Mort.

"Milord, we have completed your assignment and hung Baron Farad at the front of his own castle," reported Josk after he saluted.

"How are the casualties?"

Josk shook his head as Waxima started to laugh out loud. The two of them looked rather delighted.

"Milord, we didn't have any casualties..." Shadekampf stepped to the front as he reported. "Well, apart from a few soldiers who injured themselves when they fell from horseback because they still weren't used to being mounted. Sir Josk said that they would only get used to riding after falling a couple more times, so it's nothing to worry about. Everything went perfectly well."

"Tell me what happened in detail," Lorist instructed.

"Milord, when we arrived, Baron Farad was leading a few hundred men to fight against a nearby noble, Viscount Skim. Josk and Waxima ordered the soldiers to intercept the baron's forces immediately and crushed them within an instant. As Baron Farad attempted to escape, Josk used an arrow to kill his mount from afar and managed to capture him. He was quite the feisty guy and even said that he was a favored subordinate of the Second Prince and warned us to watch our backs. We ignored him and took over his castle before Ruhr and Mort personally hung him from a wooden rack. Sir Waxima also erected a wooden plaque beside it and stated the reason he was put to death," Shadekampf concluded.

Lorist nodded with satisfaction as the mission was completed without any casualties with the best possible outcome.

"Milord, that Baron Farad was actually quite a poor guy. We ransacked his whole castle and only found 300 imperial gold coins. On the other hand, his stable was rather plentiful and there were more than 400 fine horses there as well as two herds of goat and tens of cows. An interesting fact is Baron Farad had constructed his own castle at another noble's dominion because his own dominion was in fact a desolate place devoid of any resource. It was only later that Viscount Skim told us that Baron Farad had occupied the dominion of Baron Slaydor and everything within the dominion belonged to the Slaydor Family in the past.

"Viscount Skim also said that Baron Farad also kidnapped his subjects from their villages to force them into labor for the construction of his castle, so we returned the citizens of the viscount back to him. The rest who remained were the former subjects of Baron Slaydor, but we weren't able to find the baron himself and we heard that his whole family had been eradicated by Baron Farad. That's why we brought the citizens back here along with their livestock and left the castle and its inhabitants to the discretion of Viscount Skim," Shadekampf said.

"Good, you did very well. Have you found the bodies of the messengers of our family?" Lorist asked.

"Yes, we have. We brought them back after we cremated them and put their remains into urns," Shadekampf replied.

"Alright. We'll have a burial for them at the Martyrs' Graveyard tomorrow morning. Ruhr and Mort, you two should really get some rest now that your task is complete."

"Thank you, milord," said the two messengers gratefully.

"Also, Shadekampf, get Patt to escort Knight Hennard and the other ten plus Silver ranked knights over here. Baron Camorra, let's settle the issue today. We'll wait within the room for now. After you," Lorist said.

After that, Patt brought the knights to the walls and entered Lorist's reception room, filling it to the brim.

Knight Hennard was delighted to see Baron Camorra as he quickly called out, "Sir Camorra, did the duke ask you to come to pay our ransom?"

Baron Camorra responded by making a forced smile.

Lorist clapped his hands to call for the attention of the others before he said, "I apologize, but I have to tell you all some bad news. I believe that the ransom offered by Duke Loggins is completely unacceptable, so I refused Baron Camorra's request."

The whole room erupted into chatters right away and a Silver ranked knight could even be heard saying, "You see? I knew the duke would be stingy and offer a low price for our ransom."

Some even said, "Lord Norton, tell us how much you want. If it's okay with you, we'll make up the difference for ourselves..."

Some of them made a wild guess and said, "I think the Norton Family must have asked for a ridiculous price..."

Knight Hennard approached Baron Camorra and asked him in a low voice how much the ransom offered by the duke was. But the baron merely stayed quiet.

"Please quiet down, everyone..." Lorist said.

The room returned to its former tranquility with everyone's eyes trailed on Lorist.

"To clarify, the reason I refused the duke's request is because the price offered is a complete insult to knights like you as well as our family."

"Can I ask how much the duke offered?" Knight Hennard interjected.

Lorist looked at him before he pointed directly at him and said, "Yours is 100 imperial gold coins and theirs are 10 imperial gold coins each."

"What did you say?!" Knight Hennard was so shocked that he almost jumped with the rest of the knights being stupefied as they thought, nobody would accept that kind of price...

"I'd also like to mention that the money offered was not as a ransom for your freedom but a gratitude fee for sending you lot back to him as criminals," Lorist said.

Knight Hennard's eyes turned bloodshot as he turned to Baron Camorra and asked, "Is what he said true?"

Baron Camorra nodded with much reluctance.

"Why? What crimes did we commit? Are we considered criminals just because we became captives?" Knight Hennard bellowed as his voice turned hoarse with rage.

"Becoming a captive is not a crime. But the duke believes that you are at fault for losing the wealth at Wildnorth Town to us which was worth about 300000 gold Fordes and cannot forgive you no matter what. He thinks that the 300000 gold Fordes' worth of wealth already belongs to him. Baron Camorra, should I continue or do you want to say it yourself?" Lorist said as he turned to the baron and feigned a smile.

Baron Camorra looked at Lorist with a complicated expression as he replied exasperatedly, "Let me tell them the rest."

He understood that if Lorist was allowed to continue, he might intentionally infuse some provocative statements as he explained away. It was better for the baron himself to tell it as it was and let the others understand that the duke had only made those rushed decisions because of his anger. Sigh, I really didn't want to make this visit, but the duke forced me to come here so I had no choice...

......

"...and so Knight Bitson thought that it was better for you guys to stay with the Norton Family as captives instead of returning to the dominion. When the duke regains his calm, we will once again come to negotiate for your release." That was the only way the baron could have consoled the knights.

"There's no need to negotiate anymore. I plan to restore their freedom without collecting a random as an act of opposition to the despicable actions of the duke. He only wants money and is willing to throw away even his pride and standing as a noble for it. But the Norton Family believes that a knight's pride and dignity is not something that can be infringed upon so lightly and I don't want to receive any more insulting offers from the duke. That's why I hereby proclaim that you are all free to go. You can collect your mounts and belongings later and if you have any attendants, you can also tell us about them for their release. It's already getting late, so I request that you gentlemen stay for one more night before leaving tomorrow."

Lorist then took out a sack filled with coins and said, "Baron Camorra, here is 100 gold Fordes. Please pass this to the family members of Knight Chevany. This is my way of showing respect to a true knight like him. I hope you can help me out with this."

Baron Camorra looked at Lorist before he finally let out a long sigh as he received the sack and said, "Lord Norton, you've won completely and thoroughly. I will definitely pass this on to his family members on your behalf."

Chapter 146 Departure

Lorist stood at the southern gates as he sent off Baron Camorra. Occasionally, the freed Silver ranked knights would show up before Lorist to pay their respects before following their attendant to the side to wait for the rest of their comrades before leaving.

Baron Camorra looked at the Silver ranked knights that gathered in the distance with a solemn expression. Eventually, he could no longer resist and said, "Your move was truly a stroke of genius. Even though I already know that the knights would stir up a storm for the Northland Army when they return, I was unable to come up with a suitable contingency plan even after pondering over it for the whole night. Sigh, the Lord Duke has truly made a huge mistake this time. Without the suppression of the Northland Army, I'm afraid the Northlands would fall into another period of instability and chaos..."

Lorist laughed lightly as he said, "The time of peril has long descended upon the land, and it's only a matter of time before the Northlands become embroiled within it. On my journey back from Morante City to the family's dominion, I've seen much of the artifacts of war from hungry peasants, rising bandit groups and homeless vagabonds. I initially thought that with the natural borders the Northlands has, it would remain the haven for the people in chaotic times like these and would be able to stay unified throughout. But I was wrong. After arriving here, I discovered that the Northlands was faring even worse that the outside world and is rife with conflict and wars. You can even seemingly hear the cries of and sufferings of the people carried by the distant winds that blow by..."

Lorist stopped smiling and continued, "As the Duke of the Northlands who has formed the Northland Army, Duke Loggins had the responsibility to pacify the Northlands and restore peace to it by unifying the nobles here and make this place to be the exemplar for the other nations across the continent. But what did the duke do? He used the Northland Army as the instrument of his reign of terror and even waged wars with it to expand his wealth. Even though he took so much resources from other dominion lords, what did he use them on? All of it was used to fund his luxurious and wasteful life of debauchery without even benefitting the Northlands in the slightest...

"Sometimes, I feel that it truly is laughable that the duke even has ambitions to form his own duchy. While having grand ambitions is a commendable thing, his fault was in his lack of courage and self-awareness. Who would ever truly support him in his endeavors? Even if the nobles of the Northlands are currently loyal to the duke, it's only because they fear the Northland Army. Nobody likes an incompetent, self-centered and morally-bankrupt person lording them around. Now that your duke has truly run into our family and crippled his own army as a result, he should've been trying his best to console his troops and buy back the freedom of the captives and learn from this lesson...

"But what did he do instead? His heart and mind is filled with thoughts of nothing but gold coins to the point that he angered even the knights who had sworn fealty to him. Did he really think the money was his? What an unreasonable, heartless, stubborn and unrighteous fellow. Baron Camorra, is such a person really worthy of your loyalty and service? I believe that if he were given a choice between a bag of gold coins and your survival, he'll definitely choose the former without hesitating even a bit and leave you for dead. I really feel that you're worth more than that, Baron Camorra. You are a talented person. While the duke has definitely given you your current position and privilege, it's only because you're of use to him and not because he appreciates your true capabilities and potential.

"Also, you are right in that I have benefitted from releasing Hennard and the other knights so that they can mess with the Northland Army and cause the duke to be unable to pose any threat to the Norton Family in the future. Without the Northland Army, I'd like to see how that duke of yours plans to get the money he craves so much from my hands. You should know that the funds are the spoils my family got rightfully from the result of the conflict, so I will definitely use it on developing my dominion. While the outside world is filled with chaos and strife, I will make the Norton Family's dominion a haven on this land of suffering."

"Developing a dominion requires more than just money: talented people and resources are equally as important," interjected Baron Camorra. Having been listening to Lorist's lecture for so long and being unable to counter any of his points, he had to find some way to vent his frustrations. "You only have money, but you don't have the ability to convert that money into resources that you can use. What you need most right now is a way to establish a trade route with the outside world and a peaceful environment that will allow you to foster your dominion. Otherwise, no wonder how resolute you may be, your words will remain as only empty promises."

Lorist nodded and smiled before he said, "You're right. I am currently trying my best to build that safe environment that my dominion requires to flourish."

He turned to his back and pointed to Firmrock Castle before he continued, "You can already see it for yourself. This is the fruit of our recent efforts. Even though we were at war, I've never stopped the construction of the cornerstone of my dominion's safety. Gold coins are useless if I can't convert them into resources and the family does lack an established trade route. But don't forget that merchants are beings who are inherently drawn to profit. When word of the family requiring goods and having more than enough money to pay for it spreads out, the merchants will naturally come knocking at our doors to make trade. I believe that as long as we continue to work hard, we will definitely be rewarded for our efforts."

At that moment, Knight Henard with his two attendants and four servants left the southern gates of Firmrock Castle and arrived before Lorist and nodded to Baron Camorra. He saluted Lorist and turned around before he lightly prodded his horse with his boots, causing it to let out a soft neigh before it rode towards the path in the distance. The rest of the Silver ranked knights also started to follow behind with their respective attendants and servants...

Baron Camorra let out a sigh before he said, "I should take my leave now. I only hope that they won't cause too much trouble when they return..."

Lorist laughed out once again and said, "The Northlands is like a dam at its breaking point. Duke Loggins who had been serving as the dam wall thought that he could go on standing without any worries. The hole I just made on that dam is only a small defect; as for when it will collapse into rubble, even I don't know the answer to that. Since we're going to part here, let me give you some advice: if things don't go well for you, prioritize your own safety. The doors of the Norton Family will always be open to you."

Having received such a frank invitation, Baron Camorra was shocked. Feeling the urge to say something, he resisted it and got back up on his horse and waved to the four guards who had escorted him to Firmrock Castle and rode towards them quickly.

As Lorist ascended the castle walls slowly, he saw Josk leaning on the crenels of the walls as he looked at the cloud of dust rising in the distance as a result of the mounts of the people who were traveling away.

"Aren't you going to train your troops today?" Lorist asked.

"Nope, I let Pete handle it," Josk replied.

Pete was one of the knights who had joined the Norton Family after the knighthood competition. His full name was Peake Pulliste and he was one of the more famous wandering knights of the Northlands. Being only 25 years old, he had already reached the Two Star Silver rank in Battle Force training and was also the winner of the archery section of the knighthood competition. Shadekampf only managed to successfully recruit him after telling him of the presence of Josk, a Gold ranked marksman, who was serving the family.

Josk had once praised Pete in front of Lorist, saying that Pete was the second most talented person in archery only inferior to himself, to which Lorist said sarcastically, "Sol, are you really praising him or are you just praising yourself?"

Josk sighed as he passed over a thick beastskin document.

"What's this?"

"Knight Hennard handed it to me before he left without saying anything else."

Lorist opened that document and saw a hand-drawn map with details like bridges, castles, bastides, cities and towns with rows of other text at the side of the map.

The longer Lorist studied it, the wider his eyes got before he finally laughed out loud.

"Isn't it merely a military planning map? What are you so happy about?" Josk asked.

"No..." Lorist said with a tone full of admiration. "Joe, look. We no longer have to worry about the duke sending more troops to attack us. The suspension bridge, the citadel and the capital of the Northlands, Gildusk City, all require three regiments of troops in total to defend while the three bastides and seven towns require at least ten companies. Hehe, I didn't think that the duke would also use the Northland Army as a makeshift garrison force for his territories... I really have to hand it for him for thinking of such a method...

"Of the 20000 soldiers of the army, more than 4000 have been wiped out by us. Now that he only has around 16000 left, deducting the 12500 soldiers he needs for the defense of his territory, he can only send around 5000 soldiers at most. Could the 5000 soldiers really accomplish what the previous 4000 couldn't? Even though I bet that the duke would definitely not be satisfied with this turn of events, even if he were to decide on sending out more soldiers, he would still need someone to lead them. I don't have to worry about Hennard going back to serve the duke now that he has done this. Heck, he might even backstab him for a change. Tabik would still need another year at least to recover and the other two Gold ranked knights of his won't be able to leave their posts either. Haha, the duke couldn't touch our family even if he wanted to..." Lorist said.

"Then we won't have to be going into battle anytime soon, right?" Josk asked.

"Perhaps. The Kenmays Family have already turned their attention to the eastern Northlands and have also expressed their desire for peace with us. You also know that the duke's situation looks quite dim as Hennard and the other knights will definitely try to rile up as much trouble as they can when they get back. The Northland Army might even revolt with all the recent incidents and the duke will definitely have lots of stuff to settle. Before restoring the situation of the Northland Army soldiers, he definitely wouldn't be able to start more expeditions against us.

"If nothing out of my expectations happens, we should have a period of peace in the near future. But that doesn't mean that we can relax and Viscount Kenmays must still be holding a grudge at the fact that his money had been taken by us, so he definitely wouldn't let a chance to cause us some trouble slip by. As for Duke Loggins, being a madman, there's no telling what he would do based on our common sense. Perhaps he might even rally up the whole of the army without caring about his own dominion to launch another expedition against us for the sake of mere gold coins.

"That's why we have to always be alert and prepared just in case something goes wrong. Also, Joe, I am thinking of leaving Firmrock Castle for some time. I can only be at peace if you're in charge of this place," Lorist said as he looked at Josk.

"Where are you planning to head to?" Josk asked.

"I was thinking of going to seek out the convoy. Ever since I read the letter delivered by Ruhr and Mort, I've been rather worried that something else has happened to the convoy after they sent the letter and have been losing sleep at night because of that. I can't help but feel unsettled by all that, so I plan to use this period of peace to seek them out..." Lorist said as he looked into the distance.

"Then who are you going to bring with you?" Josk asked again.

Lorist gave it some thought before he said, "I guess I'll have Patt come along with me. Everyone else is busy with their own tasks. I can only have Patt come after having Paulobins take over his duties at the new recruit camp."

"That won't do..." Josk said as he shook his head. "With only Patt and you, there are only two people. That's far too dangerous. Think about it: Ruhr and Mort initially traveled in a group of 12 and only 2 of them survived the journey. How about this? I'll agree to your request to stay here to guard the place, but you must bring the mounted archers squad with you. Only with Pete leading them will I be able to rest assured. If you refuse, I will start packing my luggage right away to tag along with you."

Lorist said frustratedly, "Alright, alright. I will bring the mounted archers squad. Well, you should understand that with my skills, I shouldn't run into any trouble anyway. Don't you think that bringing the whole squad along is a little too high profile?"

Josk said solemnly, "Milord, the outside world is rife with dangers and if you travel in a pair, you'll definitely attract a lot of unwanted attention. However, if you bring the mounted archers squad with you, then trouble will actively try to move out of your way. Only with that will you be able to make a swift and uninterrupted journey and find the convoy quickly enough."

Lorist nodded and said, "Fine, you've convinced me thoroughly. Instruct the guards to notify the mounted archers squad to make preparations for departure tomorrow."

......

Outside Nadegas City which was located at the border of the Andinaq Kingdom and the Madras Duchy were tightly packed tents and the main camp of the northbound convoy was in the middle of those tents.

Everyone within the large tent looked crestfallen and sullen.

"Why did the Madras Duchy refuse our request for passage? They even sent the Ironguard Legion to secure the border to prevent every single person from entering..." Charade said to the rest of his comrades within the tent.

Potterfang gave it some thought before he replied, "I don't understand it myself. Nadegas City is only 50 or so kilometers from the border of the Madras Duchy and we should have been able to cross the border after passing through Lichtana Citadel. But when our vanguard arrived there, we noticed that the forces stationed at Lichtana Citadel were on high alert as if an enemy invasion was about to happen. The defense troops at the citadel forbade our entry and a few days after that, the Ironguard Legion was mobilized to secure the border. When we sent someone to inquire about the matter, the Ironguard Legion's commander sent an officer who said that the convoy will not be allowed to enter the Madras Duchy under any circumstances."

Charade was incredibly troubled by that matter. In actuality, everyone knew the reason why the convoy was refused entry into the duchy, but they didn't mention it to save Charade some face. The reputation of Charade the Demon had long spread far and wide ever since the convoy's voyage through the Andinaq Kingdom which resulted in the deaths of more than 80 dominion lords followed by the eradication of their families. It was only natural that the Madras Duchy would reinforce the border the moment they heard about Charade's approach. Other than that, the 100000 plus vagabonds that followed behind the convoy were akin to locusts that would sweep everything clean in their wake.

"We can't even enter if we pay a toll fee?" Charade asked as he clung onto the slightest glimmer of hope left.

Potterfang looked back at him and shook his head.

"What if we only send a few across? Can't we form a merchant convoy in the name of the royal family of the Andinaq Kingdom to send in tens of carriages?"

"It's pointless. The officer from the Ironguard Legion already mentioned that they are planning to seal the border off completely for no less than a year and a half. Don't mention merchant convoys, even smaller groups of people won't be allowed entry," Terman interjected.

"Sigh..." Charade turned to an accountant he had recently promoted and asked, "How much food do we have left?"

"Sir, after sweeping the whole of the Welbassia Province clean, the food we have will be able to last the convoy and the vagabonds for three months at most. However, it's already the 9th month and winter is coming in another one month or so. Many of the vagabonds lack the necessary clothing to survive the winter and if we don't make preparations to weather through the season, the old and weak will freeze to death en masse when the snow starts to fall..." replied the accountant respectfully.

"Pass these instructions down that the family soldiers' treatment will not change and every member of the convoy will receive three meals a day, but the amount will have to be rationed. As for the vagabonds, they are allowed only 2 meals a day with each person getting one bowl of porridge per meal. It's fine as long as they don't starve to death. When the convoy is able to move, we will feed them just enough so that they have sufficient energy to travel along with us. Potterfang, increase the surveillance of the vagabonds and instantly quell any trouble the moment you see it. Also, have the vagabonds collect some firewood and dig pits in the ground to start preparing for winter. Additionally, we will have to send some men out to purchase more food and clothing just in case."

Charade's hatred for the vagabonds that followed the convoy was deep-seated. Had it not been for them, the convoy would have never fell into such a predicament. Perhaps they might even have arrived at the Northlands by now and met up with Lorist. Originally, he thought that bringing the vagabonds to the Northlands as human resource would be a good thing, but now Charade hated himself for his greed and tendency to overthink things. Couldn't he have waited for the convoy to reach the Northlands first before sending people out to bring the vagabonds in? It was primarily his fault that the convoy ended up in so much trouble.

"It's not good, Sir Charade!" Dulles of the carroballista unit cried as he entered the tent. Taking ragged breaths, he continued, "Edma and Wamp both went to join the Second Highness and brought two companies of family soldiers with them..."

Edma and Wamp were both the old students of the Dawn Academy and were acquaintances with Lorist, Terman and Charade. They currently held the positions as company leaders within the forces of the convoy.

Ever since the convoy's forces started eradicating the nobles of the Welbassia Province, the Second Highness followed behind them with his own force of 5000 to help some of the vagabonds settle down. Had it not been for him cleaning up all the trouble, the convoy would have far more than 100000 vagabonds following behind them now.

However, after the Second Highness found that Potterfang and several others used to be ex-officers of the Whitelion Legion, he had frequently visited them at the convoy to try to recruit them, but Potterfang and the rest refused his advances. On the other hand, Charade's father-in-law was moved by the offer and privately asked Charade himself to join the Second Highness's side, only to end up being severely reprimanded. In the end, Charade only had to say 'If milord Lorist finds out about this...' to cause Engelich to shiver in fear and kneel down to plead for forgiveness immediately.

Since the Second Highness wasn't able to recruit the higher-ranking officers of the convoy, he proceeded to turn his efforts to the former students of the Dawn Academy and within but a month, 7 of them had already defected to his side. However, this instance today was going too far as the two members left with the two companies of soldiers which were placed under their command.

"What kind of bullshit is this... Deploy our forces and have them surround Nadegas City! If the Second Highness isn't willing to return the soldiers of our convoy, we will declare war with him immediately and turn back to the imperial capital and fuck up the entirety of the Andinaq Kingdom!" roared Charade as he smashed his fist onto the table.

Chapter 147 Dilemma

"Terman, write a letter to the Second Highness and request him to send our family soldiers back. Otherwise, if word of this gets out, I believe that the reputation of the Andinaq Royal Family will definitely suffer," Potterfang told Terman.

"Alright, I'll be on it now," Terman said as he got up and left the tent.

"Alright, it's settled. This is nothing too serious and there's no need to get that mad over it. I suspect that it's merely Edma and Wamp's fault for being over eager and the Second Highness doesn't know about this matter either, since this incident will damage the reputation of the Andinaq Royal Family more than it will ours," Potterfang told Charade.

Potterfang was correct. As a superior noble, the Second Highness can instruct the Norton Family to some degree and things like borrowing soldiers or resources were always within the realm of negotiation. Even if he did poach the ex-students of the Dawn Academy, it wouldn't be much of a problem either as they weren't sworn knights of the Norton Family. In the first place, they only agreed to head to the Northlands with the convoy and whether they wanted to pledge their allegiance to the Norton would come after their arrival. That's why the Second Highness had all the right to recruit those men and they can't be blamed either for joining him for the better incentive.

However, the troops they brought with them were the soldiers of the Norton Family and the Second Highness must have some screw loose if he chose not to return them. On the Grindia Continent, revolt is one of the biggest taboos among nobles. A junior noble who directly went against a senior noble without just cause would automatically be ostracized by other fellow nobles whether he was punished or not. And should that really come to pass, there was no way that the noble family would ever rise back into power.

For example, the Family of the Pegasus, the Felim Family, had joined an alliance of 7 families to go against Krissen IV for the sake of the Silvermoon-shaped stone, but they weren't considered to have revolted and the descendant of the Felim Family, Baron Felim Chalvode, was even praised and encouraged to restore his family. The reason for that was simple: what the Felim Family did was not considered revolt because the reason they were at war with Krissen IV was becauses they refused to offer up the Silvermoon-shaped magic stone to the Krissen Imperial Family and Krissen IV was the one who waged the war to try to forcefully obtain it in the first place. The alliance of the 7 noble families were just fighting in self defense. Even though they were defeated in the end, Krissen IV did not announce them as traitors because in the eyes of the other nobles, the Newmoon War was merely an act of bullying by Krissen IV against the few unlucky noble families.

When a senior noble was powerful enough, the junior nobles had no choice but to do the very minimum required of the senior noble's instructions. However, when the power of junior nobles exceed that of the senior nobles, they could outright ignore the instructions of the senior nobles because of a simple clause: if the junior noble felt that the senior noble's actions or instructions harmed the interests of his own family, he could refuse to carry out the instructions of his senior noble. That was the sacred right of every noble and senior nobles couldn't infringe upon it no matter what. However, Charade's near-declaration of war would be exempt from the clause and be considered an act of treason.

Similarly, it was a huge taboo for a senior noble to obtain the resources or men of a junior noble without the latter's agreement and that action itself would cause incite the scorn of the other junior nobles and cause them to leave the senior noble en masse. Now that the strength of the northbound convoy surpassed that of the Second Highness, the Norton Family could turn their backs on him and join the side of the First or Second Prince without any repercussion. If that were to happen, it would already be too late for the Second Highness to show any regret.

In conclusion, antagonizing the convoy was an act that only an imbecile would dare to dream of doing. Additionally, the Second Highness did not lack troops at the moment as he could simply recruit more vagabonds into his army, given that the kingdom's arsenal had quite a substantial amount of gear left. It truly was far from worth it to antagonize the convoy over two small companies of soldiers.

Terman raised the tent flap from outside and said, "The Second Highness is here."

Charade said in an annoyed voice, "Ask him to buzz off. I don't feel like seeing him."

Even if he didn't, Charade still had to meet the Second Highness. Even though Charade was the chief of the northbound convoy, he was still a family knight of the Nortons and the Second Highness was the senior noble of the Norton Family. Unless Lorist was here, nobody could stop the Second Highness from entering the tent, especially when he had Norton Glacia following beside him.

The Second Highness had come to apologize for the issue regarding the two companies of soldiers and even graciously returned them. However. the more Charade looked at the Second Highness, the more disgruntled he became as he thought that most of the troubles the convoy now faced was thanks to the him. Even though Charade was usually a calm and rational man, he was toyed around by the Second Highness's ploys and only noticed it after he was exploited.

Potterfang on the other hand made an open objection to the Second Highness's act of poaching the members of the convoy at perilous time like that. Even though the members who were recruited were not the family knights of the Norton Family, they held important positions within the convoy. Their departure would create a lot of trouble for the convoy. While Potterfang was not against the Second Highness recruiting talented people from the convoy, the least he could do was to tie up loose ends first and allow them to accompany the convoy back to the Norton Family dominion before asking them to serve him.

The Second Highness also expressed his apologies for that matter and said that he was too rash because talented men were truly hard to find and the Norton Family's convoy had an unexpected number of them. To restore the glory of the Krissen Imperial Family, he said, he had to recruit as many talented people as possible. That was why the people within the convoy was too tempting for him to resist. However, he promised that he won't allow the troops of the convoy to join his side and also agreed with Potterfang's suggestion to let the ones he recruit accompany the convoy back to the Northlands first before allowing them to start serving him.

In the end, there was not much Potterfang could do as only a few including him, Terman, Charade, the injured Els, and the patrolling Yuriy had been accepted by Lorist as the knights of the Norton Family. The likes of his old acquaintances from the Whitelion Legion like the Gold ranked Lode Wales, the Three Star Silver Mons Malek, who was in charge of the vagabond camp, and the Gold ranked mercenary, Chino Freiyar, the Gold Swordsman Engelich who filled in for Els temporarily, the captain of the carroballista unit, Dulles, the captain of the herbalist unit, Lundmorde as well as the rest of the former students of the Dawn Academy who formed the backbone of the convoy's forces were not yet Norton Family knights. So, there was nothing that could be done if they were recruited by the Second Highness.

To the ambitious former students of the Dawn Academy, the status of a knight of the royal family was far more alluring than that of a family knight. Even though the state of the Andinaq Kingdom despite all the work the convoy has done under Charade's leadership was still rather indeterminate given that apart from the sea to the west of the kingdom, it was surrounded by enemies on all sides and the embargo the Forde Trade Union placed on it was also quite problematic. However, with greater risk comes greater reward, and joining the Second Highness now represented a chance for them to gain achievements for themselves and hopefully be elevated to the status of nobility by way of those achievements. Should that ever happen, they would be able to stand on equal grounds as Lorist and have higher status than most normal people.

Fortunately, most of the men who were poached by the Second Highness were only average at best. For instance, Edma and Wamp were merely company captains and the more accomplished former students had already been promoted to become regiment captains, thanks to Charade's keen oversight on the staffing of the convoy. With more than 20000 soldiers, 5000 carriages and more than 60000 members in total, coupled with the 100000 plus vagabonds that were following behind, it was plain to see that the rather desperate circumstances of the convoy had forced many to adapt and improve themselves till they were fit to be appointed for a higher post in the convoy.

The Second Highness also came for another reason: he wanted to know when the convoy would start traveling north again.

Charade told the Second Highness without a shred of hesitance that the convoy had been forced to stop as the Madras Duchy forbade its entry by securing its border with the Ironguard Legion. It was possible that the convoy would have to weather through winter at the Andinaq Kingdom and find another way to pass when spring comes next year. That's why Charade hoped that the Second Highness could supply them with more food and clothing so that the vagabonds tagging behind the convoy would be able to survive the winter.

However, the Second Highness refused that request and frankly told the rest of them that the Andinaq Kingdom cannot afford to bear the burden of sustaining more than 100000 vagabonds. Even though he had collected half of the spoils the convoy got from wiping out all those noble families from the former two provinces, the recruitment drive for the Second Highness's forces had sapped much of his resources dry. As for the spoils the convoy obtained from the Welbassia Province, Charade didn't offer any of it to the Second Highness and most of it went to the sustenance of the vagabonds instead. Currently, the convoy had only one choice and that was to attack the Madras Duchy to get enough resources to sustain its livelihood.

According to the Second Highness, if there really wasn't a way, the convoy could engage in a path of slaughter and perhaps even fan the vagabonds' rage and use them to attack Lichtana Citadel. Even if 100000 vagabonds couldn't take over the citadel by themselves, they would be able to at least wear the soldiers of the Ironguard Legion down to their breaking point. By that time, the convoy only had to give the Madras Duchy a little shove with its own forces to be able to conquer the citadel and allow the convoy to continue their journey towards the Northlands unimpeded.

Upon hearing that, everyone within the tent felt their hairs rise. While the Second Highness said that with a casual tone, the moment any of them thought about sending the 100000 vagabonds to face off against the Ironguard Legion, they couldn't help but imagine a mountain of bloody corpses that would surface as a result. With the obviously phenomenal death count that the vagabonds would suffer, even an abyss wouldn't be able to fit all the corpses of the vagabonds that would die from the conflict. Even 'Charade the Demon' felt a chill run down his spine when he imagined the fearsome possibility.

"No, there's no way we can do that," Potterfang said as the first one who made his objection heard. Even the ruler of the Redlis Kingdom, the First Prince, who was known for his mercilessness and brutality, only conscripted vagabond youths to become enemy fodder. If the convoy were to force even the women and children into a siege, the name of the Norton Family would forever be tarnished across the whole of the Grindia Continent. Not only would they be stigmatized by the other nobles, they would also be scorned by the commoners. 200 years of proud family history would spiral to ruin just like that.

The Second Highness waved his hands in futility and said, "Well, I don't have any better solution that that. You can either try to besiege Lichtana Citadel or starve to death while waiting for winter to pass. If you really don't intend to utilize the vagabonds, the least I can do is to offer 10000 of my men to aid your convoy in taking the citadel. However, this battle won't be an easy one as the Ironguard Legion is famed for their defensive tactics. Back then VM, they managed to hold out against my lord father's 60000 soldiers for more than half a year with only 8000 troops. Now that their numbers have been expanded to 28000 people by Duke Madras and given the fortifications of Lichtana Citadel, occupying it with only 20000 from the convoy and my 10000 soldiers is practically an impossible task..."

It was true that if things continued like this, the convoy would be stranded there and be unable to head up north and the supplies they had could only last them and the vagabonds for three to four months at most. By then, the convoy would no doubt implode and disintegrate. On the other hand, if they picked another route, they would have to enter the Iblia Kingdom. With the vagabonds being a huge burden on the convoy, there is no doubt that they'd be sitting ducks on for the Second Prince's ambitions. Additionally, the Iblia Kingdom's state was even more chaotic and the Second Prince's plundering had deprived most territory within the kingdom of food and other resources, causing the convoy's future to be even more uncertain. The 3 months of additional travel during which they wouldn't be able to resupply as well as having to defend against the attacks of the Second Prince was nothing short of a one way road to death. So, changing routes was out of the question.

The best route to head to the Northlands was still the route through the Madras Duchy which had a distance of around 650 kilometers. If the convoy traveled 15 kilometers per day, then it would only take them 40 to 50 days to reach the Northlands. The only issue was the securing of the Madras Duchy's border which stopped the convoy and the vagabonds from crossing it entirely. If they did not use the method the Second HIghness suggested, even with the support of his 10000 troops, they weren't confident that they would be able to occupy Lichtana Citadel which was defended by the famed Ironguard Legion.

As the realization settled upon those present within the tent, the atmosphere within turned solemn and heavy.

At that moment, the flaps of the tent were pushed apart as Yuriy rushed inside with an excited expression as he said, "Guys, guess who's here?"

Following behind Yuriy were Reidy and Jim. The moment Charade saw Reidy, he was utterly delighted and asked, "Rei-reidy... You're here? Where's milord?"

"Our lord misses you all very much and has instructed me to bring you a couple of letters while also checking on your status. Oh, and this is Jim, a former Silver ranked mercenary who has been recruited into our ranks by our lord. Come, Jim, let me introduce you to the others..." Reidy brought Jim around and introduced him to everyone within the tent. However, when he saw the Second Highness Auguslo and Glacia, Reidy was confused as he didn't recognize the two of them.

Terman hurriedly informed Reidy of the identities of the two, one being the Second Highness of the Andinaq Kingdom and the other being Lorist's elder cousin sister, causing Reidy and Jim to hurriedly bow and salute them.

"Reidy, and, um, Jim, save the pleasantries for later. Wasn't the border of the Madras Duchy sealed up? How did the two of you make your way here?" Charade asked impatiently.

"Oh, it's all thanks to Jim. We heard that 'Charade the Demon' caused the border of the duchy to be sealed up. However, Jim knew some folk at the fishing village near Egret Lake who helped the seven of us cross the lake with their fishing boats," replied Reidy with a face full of smiles.

Charade blushed in response as he didn't expect that his reputation had already spread so far. "You came in a group of seven?"

"That's right. The other five are guards of the family who used to be mercenaries. That's why we traveled under the pretense of traveling mercenaries and made our way here without much incident. Right after crossing the lake, we bumped into the light cavalry scouts of Sir Yuriy who brought us back here," Reidy replied.

"Reidy, is milord doing well these days? What about the situation of the family dominion?" Potterfang asked.

"Milord is doing great. As for the situation of the dominion, well, it's a long story. Ever since we followed milord back to the family dominion, all sorts of developments unfolded... It all began like this..."

Chapter 148 The Mounted Archers Unit

Well, using battle to describe this situation is indeed a little too much... At most, it's only a village-scale skirmish... Only four to five men were mounted and the troops they led were mostly farmer soldiers who were dressed rather raggedly and only equipped with farming tools.

As the neutral side, Lorist was prepared to enjoy the show from the sidelines. But it was a shame that the two dominion lords didn't share the same sentiment as they merely trashed talked each other instead of going straight into battle.

Getting more impatient, Lorist thought, just start fighting already and make way for us to pass. What's the point of sitting there and doing nothing and being in the way like that? Isn't that like going to the lavatory and occupying it so that others can't use it?

"Patt, go ask them if they're going to start fighting or not. Otherwise, demand them to make way for us to pass."

Had it not been for the five carriages full of supplies he brought along with him, Lorist would have chosen to cross the wilderness instead of taking the main path. But it just couldn't be helped as the mounted archers' arrows and the rest of the food and camping gear for the 100 plus people as well as the hay for their mounts had to be brought along. It was only thanks to Shadekampf that they were able to stuff all that into five carriages. Lorist couldn't help but lament that he only needed two rucksacks and mounts if he traveled with only Patt and regretted agreeing to Josk's proposition to bring the mounted archers squad with him.

The squad that was led by Pete only had 97 people instead of the usual 120 of a full squad. However, due to the rest of the supply carriages, Lorist had to bring along another 20 guards. Since Ruhr and Mort were so willing to tag along, he appointed them to be the captains of the guards to manage the security of the supply carriages.

Patt came back with a troubled look and said, "Milord, they want us to continue to sit here and even said that they would come to collect a toll fee from us after they settle their differences..."

"Huh?" Lorist looked back at the five supply carriages and realized that the two idiotic dominion lords had mistaken his group to be a guard escort for a merchant convoy.

"Sol... They want to collect toll from me? Lorist said as he smiled.

"Pete, bring the mounted archers with you. I'll give you ten minutes to chase them away. Capture two of them and ask them what they're fighting over," ordered Lorist calmly.

"Yes, milord," said Pete, before he whistled to signal for the mounted archers behind him to get into two neat formations and led them to begin the charge.

As they approached the spot where the two dominion lords and their men were, the mounted archers stopped their horses and drew their longbows wide. Without delay, Pete gave the order to fire and sent out a volley of arrows towards the two factions.

The two dominion lords were completely befuddled as merchant convoys usually didn't interfere with battles like that. As the volley of arrows blanketed their troops, all hell broke loose with cries of pain and agony resounding throughout the battlefield.

Patt had ordered his men to fire three volleys in total and whistled once more to instruct them to put away their bows. Subsequently, they drew their swords and split into two groups that charged towards both factions. As expected, the soldiers of the two factions crumbled instantly and the two dominion lords were the first to ride away as they saw the mounted archers approaching. The soldiers they left behind fared even worse as they melted into an undisciplined mess.

"Our mounted archers are truly quite formidable. They managed to defeat a few hundred people without even incurring a single casualty. No wonder milord requested for their formation at that time..." Patt praised.

Before he finished, an audible thump could be heard. Turning his head back, Patt saw that Lorist had actually fallen from his mount. Surprised, Patt asked, "Milord, what's going on?"

Lorist wiped the dust off his face as he stood back up from the ground. Waving his hands, he said, "I'm fine. I slipped off the horse cause my legs weren't in the stirrups...:

By the gods, that isn't the 'mounted archers' I had in mind! When he saw the troops in action, he was so shocked that he actually fell off his horse. Those are not mounted archers... They're just bowmen on horses! How did that idiot Josk train his men?

Pete brought a few captives over and reported, "Milord, according to them, this path is frequently used by merchant convoys and Viscount Darwof set up a customs point nearby to collect toll. The two dominion lords near here also wanted a part of the profit and decided to set up another customs on this path for themselves. However, this path is at the border of the dominions of those two nobles and both of them insisted that the area belonged to them. The battle that was supposed to occur back then was to be used to decide which family would own that area."

Well, it's too bad that their settlement had to be disrupted. Then again, it's their fault for picking the wrong place and barring my way.

"When was the customs point further ahead formed? How many guards are there and what is their estimated battle strength?" Lorist asked the captive that seemed to be a squad captain given his wearing a half-body leather armor that most of the other captives weren't equipped with.

"Since half a month ago, milord," replied the captive quickly. "There is a squad of garrison soldiers stationed there and they were originally part of the garrison of Viscount Darwof's newly-built town. Just recently, they were also appointed to guard the customs point and collect toll. I really don't know how formidable they are, but they're quite well equipped with some of them even having metal armor..."

Metal armor, recalled Lorist suddenly, before he called out, "Ruhr, Mort, come over here for a bit."

"Ah, milord, when we passed by this place and were about to enter the town next to the customs point to get some rest, the garrison soldiers came to apprehend us and even called us bandits..." Ruhr said.

"Pete, bring your mounted archers squad and capture all of the garrison soldiers there. Patt, accompany Ruhr and Mort over there to see if they are indeed the garrison soldiers that attacked them. If they are, hang them at the customs point on the spot," Lorist instructed Pete and Patt. He was not prepared to witness another performance of the so-called 'mounted archers'.

"Alright, milord. We'll head out now," Pete said. "Um, what do we do with these captives?"

After hearing that question, the captives all started to shiver. The moment they heard Lorist instruct for the garrison soldiers to be hung, they felt that their fates had been set in stone.

"Milord, please have mercy..." said the captives as they kneeled and cried for Lorist's forgiveness in front of his mount.

"Just release these guys. Um, you there, go to the carriages and get some bandages and medicine for them so that they can help fix up the injured ones over there. Let's go," Lorist said.

Just as they were a few kilometers away from the customs point, Lorist and the rest of the carriages were greeted by a scene of the corpse-filled ground with a few other captives who were clutching the back of their heads with their hands and kneeling on the ground. Ruhr and Mort were currently constructing wooden frames with the help of a few other mounted archer troops.

Lorist noticed that a few of the archers were bandaged up. Seeing Pete and Patt coming over, Lorist asked, "What's wrong? Are there any casualties?"

"Just 6 lightly-injured men. It won't be a problem and they'll recover in another ten days. It was mainly due to some of the enemy guards who had been hiding within the building. They got hurt when we were trying to flush them out," Pete replied.

"Milord, we finally managed to get the ferries on the other side of the shore to come over..." Patt said.

Lorist took a look around the area that he had once traveled by during his initial journey back to the Northlands and noticed many changes. The main thing that caught his attention was the ferry port which had two additional ferries. Over there, a group of half-naked boatmen were giving their best at cranking the windlasses to help the ferries dock at the bank of the river. Hmm, it seems that Baron Silas had earned quite a bit of money from the service and even added two new ferries to accommodate the increased demand.

"Just now when we were fighting off the garrison soldiers, the boatmen all jumped into the river in fear and we spent quite a bit of effort to call them back. I promised to give them one imperial silver coin each..." Patt said.

Lorist nodded and thought that the boatmen did indeed deserve a tip given how hard they worked.

Back then, the place was but a piece of desolate land. But after only half a year, a town had already been built on a hill in the distance. However, the town seemed rather tightly fortified and numerous people could be seen wielding weapons and pointing towards the customs point. It was apparent that the battle at the point had alerted the garrison troops within the town of the presence of Lorist's forces whom they believed to be enemies. They were currently doing their best to prepare for the imminent attack.

Ruhr and Mort had already erected tens of tall wooden frames and were hanging the captives by force. After only a few were hung, the rest of the captives frantically begged to be spared and some of them even started running in the direction of the town in desperation. However, Pete had long been prepared for such a possibility and ordered his dismounted archers to fire a volley of arrows in the direction of those who tried to escape and turned them into human porcupines.

The soldiers on the walls of the distant town started shouting and screaming out loud at what they had just witnessed. Lorist however ignored all the fuss and was currently lecturing Ruhr and Mort. "Are you guys idiots? Not only did you not tie them up, you didn't keep the rest at a spot where they couldn't see the wooden frames and hanged their comrades in front of them! Even pigs would try to escape after seeing that! What do we now given that they're all dead? Whatever, just hang their corpses up anyway. They actually dared to rob my messengers, I wonder how they got the guts to do that... Pete, make a plaque and carve the reason why we put these men to death on it!"

"Understood, milord."

On the opposite bank of the river, another squad of armed guards showed up. Given that they had just witnessed the spectacle over at the other side, it was only natural that they would be on alert.

"Patt, bring some men across the river first and tell Baron Silas that an old friend has come to visit to calm him down for a bit. I will pay him a visit later after I cross the river."

"Milord, I think you should just cross the river now," Patt said.

"There's no need," Lorist said as he pointed at the town in the distance. "Those people over there seem to be up to something. I'm prepared to go teach them a lesson."

The 100 plus men and the 5 carriages took more than 3 hours to be ferried across the river. Lorist was one of the last people to be transported across. Just as the ferry was approaching from the other side for the last remaining 8, more than 100 soldiers within the town on this side of the bank exited the town gates and rushed towards them as they brandished their blades and spears with the intent to kill.

Lorist's javelins and the arrows of Pete and his men instantly skewered more than 20 of the bravest soldiers of the town who rushed at the front. Following that, Lorist and Pete got mounted and raised their riding lances as they charged into the remaining group. After a the flurry of thrusting spears and slashing swords, only 30 lucky men of the original group managed to survive and ran towards the town again with their tails between their legs before shutting the gates entirely. It seemed that they wouldn't come out anymore no matter what.

"That was refreshing!" Pete said as he waved his lance around to shake off the fresh blood that coated it.

"Let's go. The ferry is approaching," Lorist said.

......

"Pete, back when I was at Morante City, I read a book that mentioned that during the dark ages that followed the fall of the magical civilization, a type of mounted archer unit emerged. Those archers were able to fire their arrows from horseback and could even shoot backwards while their horses rushed forward to eliminate any enemies that dared to give them chase. Anyone that fell into their sights would never be able to escape and they never engaged the enemy up front. Instead, they were skirmishers who rode their horses near their enemy's flank and used hit and run tactics to harass them until the enemy formations crumbled..."

Lorist was using this opportunity during their time on the ferry to impart upon Pete what he believed mounted archers should be, just like the Mongol mounted archers he had read about in his past life. "They could regroup and disperse at will and their mobility allowed them to show up on the battlefield or vanish within moments. In one instance of those legends, they even managed to obtain victory over an enemy which had ten times their own numbers after four months and didn't have many casualties. Every time their enemy sent out a group of soldiers to pursue them, they would entrap them and lead their enemies along as they shot from afar until they wore the enemy numbers down. According to the books, that tactic was called kiting because it was much like how a person would pull a kite along and never getting close to it."

"Milord, I understanding what you're trying to say. You want a mounted archer unit that can do all that, right?" Pete asked.

Lorist nodded happily at Pete's quick understanding.

"However, it's a shame that it is not possible with our troops. The mounted archer unit that you described can only exist in legends and it's not possible to pull off in real life," Pete said regrettably.

"Why?" Lorist asked with a surprised tone.

"Milord, firstly, we don't have suitable bows for that purpose. While the bows that some nobles use when they hunt can be shot from horseback, the firing distance is not far and can only reach around 40 meters ahead because they're relatively weak don't fire with much force. While that is sufficient for hunting animals like turkeys and rabbits, it's completely useless against magical beasts or soldier formations. Of all the bows available to us, the one with the strongest force and the farthest firing distance is the longbow. It can fire arrows that hit targets 100 meters away and even pose a threat to Gold ranked knights. Even though the bow itself has weaker tension than a hunting bow, hunting bows can only shoot as far because of the heavy arrowheads that are used to hunt magical beasts."

Pete continued to educate Lorist about archery, "The longbow is recognized by most, if not all, as a bow that is able to fire the fastest and deadliest arrows which makes it one of the most crucial ranged attacking methods for offense and defense alike. However, it's not suited to be used on horseback even if the horse is not moving because it's exceedingly hard to draw it and maintain balance on the horse at the same time. Sir Josk had spent huge amounts of effort to even make sure that our men can fire when their horses are stationary. Of all of us, only Sir Josk can continually fire arrows on horseback without falling off while the rest of us would lose balance after only three shots.

"Additionally, if we don't use longbows, we won't be able to match the enemy's firing distance, and if we approach them too much, we would be attacked instead and be unable to retaliate. That's why, to form the ideal mounted archer unit that milord had described just now, the first problem that has to be solved is creating a type of bow that can be used on horseback that can also rival the firing distance and strength of a longbow. Other than that, we also lack the horses that can perform like those used by the mounted archers you described. Of all the horse breeds on the Grindia Continent, none of them would be able to fit those criterias," Pete explained.

"...Hmm?" Lorist mumbled in puzzlement.

Pete continued, "Milord, the mounts of the mounted archers you read about must be robust and have excellent endurance and stamina. They must also be able to recover their energy quickly to be able to run long distances as well as being agile and reactive enough to be able to travel on both flat and mountainous terrain to be able to escape enemy pursuit. They must also be hardy enough to be able to resist cold and hot weather as well as having high resistance to diseases. Perhaps the most important requirement they must have is to be able to consume huge amounts of feed and also digest them at a quick speed. No horse on all of Grindia is capable of that."

Is this guy talking about the Mongol horse?[1] The horses the Mongols used were quite common across the Eurasian Continent, but to think that Grindia doesn't have this kind of breed... That's just a real shame, thought Lorist with much frustration.

Pete further dulled Lorist's hopes as he said, "Milord, look at our mounts. These Northlander Horses are different from other breeds and they can be considered to be the more balanced type among their kind. While they are easy to raise and take care of, they are far from being able to serve the role of those horses used by the mounted archers you talked about. Also, the reason three out of five of our carriages are filled to the brim with grain and oats is because we are worried that we won't be able to find enough feed during our journey. If we don't have enough, the horses would lose weight and when coupled with a long distance journey, these Northlander Horses would end up completely useless.

"If the mounted archers that you mentioned rode Northlander Horses, each rider would have to bring at least 7 to 8 mounts with him so that he would always have a fresh mount to switch to and loads of horse feed to be able to maintain the horses' physical condition. Using the battle you mentioned as an example, two regiments consisting of 2000 riders would require at least 10000 Northlander Horses. While Zeno Horses and Baligali Horses are better for long distance trips and have great endurance, the way to feed and maintain them is even more complicated than that of Northlander Horses."

Lorist had no choice but to admit that Pete made quite a few good points. Lorist wanted to form mounted archer units after all, not horse-breeders. Even if each rider could take care of 8 horses on his own, there was also the problem of them being mistaken as a horse merchant.

Stroking his nose, Lorist suddenly felt rather embarrassed as he had made the decision to form a mounted archer unit without even understanding the basics of archery and horsemanship. Had it not been for Pete's explanation, he might have blamed Josk for not trying hard enough to make the unit of his dreams. It was primarily the fault of the knight training course instructors back in the Dawn Academy who always said that knights should be brave and courageous during a charge and that using a bow is an act of cowardice. That had caused Lorist to neglect archery training almost entirely to the point that he could only use javelins to attack enemies at a distance.

Oh well, I guess after I settle most of the pressing matters and have enough time, I can go find some people to start research on whether we can make bows that are shorter than longbows that they can be used on horseback. I'm only worried about whether its firing range and strength can compare to that of a longbow though, pondered Lorist during the rest of the journey.

[1] A special breed of horses native to Mongolia. See: Wikipedia.

Chapter 149 Blockade

The moment the baron saw Lorist, he broke into a smile. Having not met him for more than half a year, Lorist noticed that the baron had gotten a little fatter: originally, the plate armor was a little too big for the baron. However, some fatty meat could be seen protruding from the opening at his waist. On the other hand, the baron had quite a bad memory as he had forgotten what Lorist's name was.

Naturally, Lorist didn't take any offense as he understood that it wasn't easy to remember the name of someone whom one didn't get to meet often.

"I'm called Norton Lorist. As an old friend, feel free to call me Locke," Lorist said.

"Ah, that's right, you're Baron Norton. I recall that you've gifted me with a nice carton of wine before..." Baron Silas said with delight.

Lorist was completely speechless.

Pointing at Baron Silas's armor with his horsewhip, Lorist reminded in an unsatisfactory tone, "Baron, that armor you're wearing is given to you by me. Don't tell me you forgot..."

Blushing with embarrassment, the baron seemed to finally recall who Lorist was and said, "Hehe, old brother of mine, I'm really sorry about that. It's because far too many nobles come to visit and this one is always busy receiving them as guests... I'm also getting a little old and you know what that does to one's memory, so I hope you bear with me. Back then you brought a convoy through here to get to your dominion to inherit your title, right? You look far better than you were back then. I'm sure that things have been going well for you?"

"Hehe, it's alright. Your business also looks like it's flourishing. You even got two new ferries. As they always say, money will come knocking if you're at the right place and at the right time..." Lorist said as he laughed.

The baron shrugged and said, "Those two boats weren't purchased by me... Oh, right. Just now I saw you and the rest fight on the opposite bank. Did you get into trouble with the garrison soldiers of Viscount Darwof's customs point?"

"It's nothing serious. The soldiers at the custom point dared to rob my messengers because they took a fancy to their metal armor. It's fortunate that two of them managed to get back to report what happened. On the way here, I figured I might as well clean up scum like them by hanging them all to death," Lorist said candidly without batting an eye.

Baron Silas clapped his hands in admiration and said, "Great. It's only right that those fools who don't know what's best for them to be taught a lesson. A few months back, Viscount Darwof even sent his men here to demand me to share half of the transport fee for the ferries to him and threatened that he would seal off the banks from the other side if I didn't. Did he think I was an idiot? That Viscount only occupies half the area of the opposite bank and I can easily move my port to another spot. Naturally, I refused his demand and changed where my ferries docked. It would only take the passengers a little more time to reach the main road anyway."

"Then why was it switched back here?" Lorist asked as the current port was the same one he used back then.

Baron Silas pointed at the two new boats and said, "You've noticed the new additions to my inventory, right? After noticing that I ignored his demands, the viscount commissioned for someone to build him two new boats to set up a new ferry port to compete with my business. However, when the ships were complete, he realized that more than 50 kilometers along the western bank of the river was within my dominion and he had no place to dock his ferries. In the end, he sent someone to negotiate for him to have a share in the profits of the dock in exchange for investing the two ferries with me. Even so, I didn't give him the slightest damn and in the end, he had no choice but to gift the ferries to me so that I would move the port back to the original location. That way, he can also profit a little from collecting a toll at his newly-formed customs point over there.

"Old friend, you should know that I am quite lacking in academic and martial disciplines... My only redeeming point is my generosity and eagerness to help to others. Hearing his plight, I decided to accept his ferries and move my port back to the old spot. However, many merchant convoys came to complain to me that the viscount is getting more overboard with the toll as of late. I've been long worried about something like that happening as it would deter merchants from using my ferry service. How would I survive then? Just as I was about to send someone to warn them, you came over and taught them a lesson. How fortunate..."

To show his welcome and accentuate his friendship with Lorist, Baron Silas gave him a 'hugely generous' discount of 5% off for the ferry service.

However, he wasn't able to invite Lorist back to his bastide for a meal as he had no choice but to stay put at the port. That was because many merchant convoys would use his ferry service to cross the river for a rather huge sum of money and he was willing to sit there and collect the sum himself rather than let his subordinates handle it in fear of them embezzling his money.

Since that was the case, Lorist decided to set up camp on the spot and depart the next day. He also invited the baron to have dinner with him, to which the baron gleefully accepted; he even had his servants bring a few bottles of fine wine over.

With the tables and chairs were laid alongside the riverbank, 'scales' of sparkling silver could be seen blinking within the river due to the light of the Silvermoon, giving the scenery an almost ethereal quality. Lorist felt that enjoying his meal there was an extremely soothing and tranquil experience. It's no wonder that Baron Silas mentioned that he was satisfied even though he only had normal bread every night at the port.

The cool breeze from the river washed away the heat and drought brought upon the land during the day. Even though it was already autumn and cool breezes blew rather often, the heat of the sun was not one whit inferior to that of summer. After bathing by the river and refreshing himself, Lorist donned nothing more than a loose robe and dined together with Baron Silas.

Since it wasn't a formal banquet, the baron didn't mind Lorist's casual appearance. Instead, he expressed his envy for Lorist's healthy and lean physique.

"Back when I was studying at the imperial capital, I also had a figure like yours... Those days were good... We would leave the academy after class and mess around all over the place to hook up with beauties..." Baron Silas rambled nonstop as he started to recall the good old days of his youth and misadventures.

"I apologize for letting you see such an embarrassing side of me. When one gets old, one can't help but reminisce the days of one's youth..." said the baron apologetically. After all, it was only his second time meeting Lorist, so he felt that it was slightly inappropriate for him to be talking about himself on such friendly and informal terms.

"It's fine. Your stories were rather interesting as well. Everyone has a tale or two of their rowdy youth that they'd love to share," Lorist said as he raised his silver cup to toast the baron,

Baron Silas downed half the cup before he asked, "By the way, why have you brought so many men with you this time? Would you mind telling me about it?"

"Well, Viscount Tebri Tim is a good friend of mine whose dominion is in the northwestern part of the Redlis Kingdom. His family has always had business relations with ours and we have been trading with him using the produce from the Northlands for other resources that we need," Lorist recited out an answer he had long prepared beforehand.

"The Redlis Kingdom? Where is it? I feel like I'm forgetting something..." said the baron as he scratched on his head. Still unable to figure out what was on the tip of his tongue, he ordered one of his attendants to bring him a beastskin map.

Upon seeing it, he recalled the thing he was struggling to remember. "Aha, brother, I think you have to take a detour around here. Look, the route starting from Vanades City all the way to the Lichtana Citadel at the border of the Andinaq Kingdom has already been completely sealed off. Apart from army supply convoys, other merchants or people are forbidden to use this route."

Lorist took a look at the map and there was indeed a red line along the path from Vanades City to Lichtana Citadel. The border between the Andinaq Kingdom and the Madras Duchy was also colored red.

"What's going on? Did the duchy go to war with the Andinaq Kingdom? Why has the border been sealed off as well?" Lorist asked.

"No, it's something more fearsome than war. Brother, have you heard of a man called Charade the Demon and his misdeeds within the Andinaq Kingdom?" Baron Silas asked as he lowered his voice mysteriously.

"No, I haven't. You should know that my dominion is located within the Northlands that has always been rather isolated. News of the outside world hardly travel all the way there within a short period of time," Lorist said as he shook his head curiously. Feeling troubled, he thought, Charade the Demon couldn't possibly be referring to that fatty, right? What did he do to cause such a big stir to the point that he was labeled a 'demon'?

"Charade led an armed convoy and even gathered more than 100000 vagabonds as he rampaged through the Andinaq Kingdom while spreading his poison throughout all three provinces within the kingdom and paving out a path of blood in his wake. Like locusts, the people of the convoy killed wherever they went as well as pillaged and devoured whatever they set their sights on, leaving behind only a piece of desolate wasteland. Of the 130 plus noble families within the Andinaq Kingdom, less than 50 of them remain thanks to the effort put in by the Second Highness. The other nobles have all been sent to the gallows by Charade the Demon.

"Right now, the Andinaq Kingdom is practically completely sapped dry. That's why the demon turned his sights on our Madras Duchy. It's fortunate that Lord Duke Madras noticed the threat early on and sent out the Ironguard Legion to secure the borders to stop Charade the Demon from entering our duchy. If he does get in, it'll be over for all of us. Thinking back at the fate suffered by the Andinaq Kingdom, it truly would be a fearsome nightmare if the same were to happen here!"

Baron Silas continued his embellished account of the rumors he had heard from the merchant convoys that crossed the river, which painted Charade as a green-faced, fanged demon boasting a huge size of 3 meters in height and breadth, complete with horns on his head and a demonic tail sprouting from his hind. The worst part was that Baron Silas actually believed that Charade had to consume at least 99 human hearts during every single one of his meals coupled with hot sauce made from fresh human blood.

Resisting the urge to laugh out loud at hearing the baron's description of Charade, Lorist thought that even if Charade morphed into a demon like that, he still wouldn't lose all rationality and go on a rampage. However, as it was the first time Lorist heard of news of his convoy from another party, he looked at the red line on the map with worry as it meant that the convoy was prevented from advancing towards the Northlands. The more he thought about his friends a tthe convoy, the lesser he smiled.

"How long has the blockade been enacted?" Lorist asked.

Unhappy that Lorist had interrupted his imaginative story, Baron Silas replied, "It should have been around 1 month already. 30 days more or less."

"Then is there word on when it will be lifted?" Lorist asked again.

"I don't really have much of a clue about that. The merchant convoy that came along yesterday was originally on its route to trade within the Andinaq Kingdom and they stayed at Vanades City for more than 10 days. After hearing that the blockade would be around for at least a year and a half, the merchants decided to turn back and return. I say, brother, if you're heading to the Redlis Kingdom, you'll have to take another route. First, get to Vanades City and head to the Farkel Duchy from there. After that, travel through the Handra Duchy to arrive at the Forund Duchy and you can enter the Redlis Kingdom from there. However, that route is more than twice the original distance you have to travel and you will be passing through war-ravaged lands, so there are many variables to look out for," Baron Silas said as he looked at his map.

"That's right. That was why I was worried that the blockade would be upheld for a long time. This is the route that we've always used; if we use another, we won't be familiar with it and our safety would also be put at risk. That's far too much trouble," Lorist agreed as he nodded.

"Actually, I believe that staying within your own dominion is much safer. In times like these, it's quite dangerous to bring your merchant convoy outside even if your family soldiers are capable. Things can still go wrong one way or another," Baron Silas said as he sighed.

Lorist shrugged his shoulders and said, "Well, unlike you, I don't have such a profitable service which allows you to earn money just by sitting still and collecting transportation fee. My dominion is in the Northlands and without making trading trips like these, I wouldn't have any income at all. I'm not in the position to sit still and do nothing, am I?"

Baron Silas raised his wine cup again and said, "Then, here's a toast to your safe journey and the profits you will make from it."

The two of them continued to make merry before they parted.

Upon returning to his tent, Lorist asked Patt, "Hey, do you remember the flag and family insignia Tim gave us? Did you bring it along?"

Surprised, Patt said, "We should have brought it... I remember Shadekampf putting those two items in a chest somewhere. He said that with those two items we will be able to pretend to be Mister Tim's men when we need to do something that is inconvenient for our family."

Lorist nodded and said, "Spread the word to everyone to not refer to themselves as soldiers the Norton Family but rather escorts for the merchant convoy of the Tebri Family. Also, hang up the flag Tim gave us on the horse carriage."

"What's going on, milord?" Patt asked.

"Charade and the northbound convoy have gotten into some trouble. The Madras Duchy actually blockaded their borders to stop them from entering. I have a feeling that they already know that the convoy belongs to us, the Norton Family and I worry that trouble will find us if we travel so openly without hiding our identities," explained Lorist.

Chapter 150 Small Mountain Village

Lorist and his mounted archers squad had traveled for 5 days straight and covered around 500 kilometers of ground to arrive at the city.

Right now, they had no choice but to stay within the city for a day for two to gather some news and information as well as let the horses rest, since they had worked hard to travel up to 100 kilometers of distance every day for five days straight and were already reaching their limits.

After renting a campsite at the southern suburbs and settling the mounted archers down, Lorist left Pete in charge and brought Patt and 5 other guards to enter the city and look for an inn.

The last time when Lorist brought Ovidis and his smaller convoy to the Northlands, he had stayed outside Vanades City for only one day and left in a hurry after Shadekampf bought the necessary supplies. This was Lorist's first time entering the city. Compared to Morante City, where he had stayed for ten years of his life, Vanades City wasn't all that big. However, the mercantile atmosphere there was not one whit inferior to that of Morante City as evidenced by the narrow streets that were filled up with stalls on the side with crowds so dense that brushing against others while walking through the streets was but a common occurrence. The incessant bargain calls of the stall owners made Lorist feel that he had returned to the familiar Morante City.

Perfume Beauty Inn was located at the southern district of the city along with many other high class inns. It was also a favored gathering spot for nobles and big merchants. Even though the cost of the services provided was rather high, it was still able to attract a healthy number of customers.

Lorist reserved four rooms within the side building of the inn. After taking a bath, he sent two of the guards to inform Pete of his place of residence within the city and brought Patt and the four other guards downstairs for a meal. They occupied two huge tables and listened to the conversations around them as they enjoyed their food.

After listening for a while, Lorist was rather disappointed because even though the merchants were talking about how the road to the Andinaq Kingdom was sealed off, it was mostly filled with complaints and guesses of when the blockade will be lifted. The rest of the conversations were mostly about the goods they were trading and whether to return the way they came.

Lorist continued to eat and raised his head occasionally. After a while, he noticed that Patt was looking at the spot behind him. Surprised, Lorist turned back to look before breaking into a smile.

Behind him was a small lounge where many elaborately dressed women sat. From time to time, the guests of the inn would pick the ones of their fancy and negotiate a price for their services before they brought them into their rooms.

"Hehe, you're feeling the urge? If you'd like to do it, you can go pick one. It'll be fine as long as we leave by 11 tonight," Lorist said as he looked at the sandglass on the counter and continued, "It's only 7 right now, and 4 hours is plenty of time..."

With a blushing face, Patt said, "I wasn't... I was just curious so I looked..."

"You really don't want to?"

"No, I have to protect milord by staying by your side," Patt said as he shook his head resolutely.

"It's really safe here and we're just a 'merchant convoy'. Nobody here recognizes me and as merchants, if you don't pick a woman when you're at an inn, you'll stand out even more. Look at those other four. The moment they saw the women, they fell into a daze. If you really don't want to have some fun with them, you can accompany me out on the street for a stroll. I was thinking of getting a few more detailed maps for our travels. Give the guards one gold Forde each to pay for the services of the women so that we look and behave like normal merchants," Lorist said.

Patt handed the four guards one gold Forde each, causing their faces to redden with excitement. Patt reminded them to not expose their cover and told them to leave the inn by 11 at night, to which the four guards nodded fervently. Had Lorist not been there, they wouldn't have held back and would be rushing to pick one woman to accompany them for the remainder of the night.

Lorist then left the inn along with Patt and visited two night markets and bought a few maps and travel journals when he reached the bookstore. What surprised Lorist was that the bookstore actually had the blueprints of the fortifications of Lichtana Citadel for sale. The owner of the bookshop said casually that after the blockade was put in place to restrict entry for people outside, Lichtana Citadel became a hot topic for many and some who liked to theorize about battles would buy one of those blueprints and discuss how the citadel would be defended or attacked.

"This fortification blueprint is replicated directly from the one within the archives and it's a bestseller. Mister, would you like one yourself?" asked the owner of the bookshop.

"Alright, I'll have one too so that I can think of the best way to attack the citadel when I have nothing better to do," Lorist said.

"Well, the citadel is only an inanimate structure. The real defenses are managed by the guards who are alive and adaptive. As long as the Ironguard Legion is there, the Lichtana Citadel will not be conquered," said the bookshop owner proudly and confidently as he rolled up the blueprints along with the maps and handed them to Lorist.

Lorist merely nodded at the owner's remarks.

When he returned to the inn, Lorist holed himself in his room for two whole days as he analyzed the terrain and maps of the path from Vanades City all the way to Lichtana Citadel. He also instructed the server of the inn to find him a guide who was familiar with the route to the Farkel Duchy so that he may better understand the situation over there. On the other hand, he had the guards visit the many inns within the city to gather more information about the situation of the blockade without drawing too much attention.

To the servers of the inn and the other merchants staying there, Lorist was merely a noble of the Redlis Kingdom who was worried about how he would return home.

On the third day, Lorist checked out of the room and returned to the southern suburbs where the camp of the mounted archers was located.

At night within the tent, Lorist gathered Pete and Patt to plan for the journey to come.

"We will be leaving tomorrow morning and will be heading west along this road towards the Farkel Duchy. This is a mountainous area with rather complicated terrain and I've heard that bandits would show up near that area. However, ever since the border was closed off, this route has been seeing quite a lot of traffic from mainly merchant convoys and the Madras Duchy also stationed a regiment of garrison soldiers there to police the area and maintain its security. So, there has been no news about bandit encounters for a month or so.

"It will take us about half a day to arrive at the small mountain village here. According to the information I've gathered, a company of garrison soldiers is stationed there because there is a path near the village that stretches through the forest to a hilly area. Over there, the path forks into two new roads, one of which leads directly to Lichtana Citadel and the other to Egret Lake.

"We have two choices at the moment. First, we can choose to cross Egret Lake to reach the Andinaq Kingdom. I'm just worried that we won't be able to find a ferry when we reach there and our numbers, horses and carriages would definitely pose a problem. Fortunately, the paths along the way is wide enough for all of us to travel on. The other choice is to use the path heading to the citadel and make our exit through there.

"Lichtana Citadel is constructed upon the Liden Mountains that stretch all the way to the coast at the west and that is a route we won't be able to use. At the eastern slope of the mountain on which the citadel stands is the route connecting the two nations. That path is sandwiched between a few small hills and it is around 500 meters away from the citadel. The hills are called the Bread Hills by the locals because they resembles small pieces of puffy round bread right out of the stove of an oven. There are reports that a military base is built there with a regiment of Ironguard Legion soldiers stationed to guard it from both sides of the path.

"Further ahead the Bread Hills is the Egret Lake which is around 50 kilometers wide. That is the natural border between the Andinaq Kingdom and the Madras Duchy. However, apart from the route through the hills, the rest of the place is covered by a huge forest. I didn't hear anything about a second path leading to the lake.

"Currently, quite a number of tower outposts have also been erected at the 500-meter stretch between the Liden Mountains and the Bread Hills to completely secure the border. Patt told me that the base at the Bread Hills is also equipped with ten proper ballistas just like those at Lichtana Citadel which have a firing distance of up to 300 meters. Even if the tower outposts are destroyed, the citadel and the base can still cover that path with their ballista fire.

"That's why, we will not use this path unless worst comes to worst. If we do, we will definitely be paying a huge price at our own expense. When we arrive at the village in the mountains tomorrow, we have to make sure to inspect the security of the patrolling guards and check whether we can slip by the place without being noticed. If we truly can't, then we have no choice but to cross it by force and abandon our mounts and carriages to cross the lake."

......

During noon, Lorist brought his men to the village and was allowed entry after showing the badge of the Tebri Family to the garrison soldiers there. Outside the village, three merchant convoys could be seen parked there as their men had their lunch.

After finding an empty spot, Pete instructed the mounted archers to start cooking. The villagers also brought out their homemade liquor and food and offered them up for sale. It seemed that the blockade had unexpectedly given the village a huge boom in business as the villagers had profited quite a bit from the merchants who were willing to purchase their hunted or picked goods, thus putting smiles on all the villagers' faces.

After having lunch and resting for about an hour, Lorist instructed his men to pack up and prepare to depart. That was actually a secret signal to make battle preparations as there was no way they would be able to slip by the path that was defended by a squad of garrison soldiers unnoticed. They were about to barge their way through.

As they were packing up, loud noises poured out from the gates of the village as a squad of proud garrison soldiers marched out with 8 captives who were dressed like mercenaries.

Patt went over to look and his expression stiffened all of a sudden. Heading back to Lorist, he said, "Milord, bad news. The captives are actually Reidy, Jim and the rest..."

"Huh? What did you say?" Lorist asked, shocked. He turned to look and saw that the captives who were restrained and tied up were indeed Reidy and Jim. Jim's shoulder was even bleeding. It seemed that they were not apprehended without a fight as the rest of the men who dressed like mercenaries seemed injured as well.

The company leader of the garrison soldiers emerged from a wooden hut with unkempt clothing as he muttered and complained. Two crimson-red kiss marks could still be seen on his exposed chest and it was obvious that the apprehension of the captives had disrupted his pleasant time.

The company leader looked at the crowd of people who were taking interest and told the squad leader something before ordering Reidy, Jim and the other captives to be locked into a nearby stone building.

Lorist walked up to them and asked with a curious voice, "Hey, captain, what's up with these captives? Are you catching slaves?"

"Slaves your ass..." cursed the company leader, before he suddenly recalled that he was talking to a noble. Even though Lorist wasn't a noble of the duchy, he was, after all, a 'viscount', and his status far exceeded that of the company leader. Quickly adjusting his clothes, the man said, "I pay you my greetings, Lord Viscount. These men have actually attempted to sneak past the border by crossing the Egret Lake. They were captured as per the Lord Duke's orders."

"How do you plan to deal with them? Sell them to slave traders? They look like healthy young men and I think they would fetch quite a good price," Lorist said.

Darned noble, to think that you're also a part time slave trader, thought the company leader before he said, "We don't engage in slave trade. People who sneak through the border like that will be given a trial during the night and beheaded in front of a crowd. Look, milord. The tree to the east is where the heads of such people are hung."

Lorist only just noticed a huge tree at the east of the village where no less than 30 heads were hung.

"It's such a shame, and to think I was going to offer a good price for them..." Lorist said as he made a disappointed expression.

"Please forgive me, Lord Viscount. We can do naught but obey the orders of the Lord Duke. I'll have to take my leave now and I wish you a swift journey as well," said the company leader as he saluted before he left.

Lorist walked back with a dark expression and told Pete and Patt, "Think of an excuse for us to stay here until the night. Inspect the defenses of the village during the afternoon and we will act at night to wipe them out and rescue Reidy, Jim and the others."

Pete said, "Milord, why don't we just attack now?"

Lorist shook his head as he said, "We can't, there's too many people right now. There are already about six merchant convoys nearby and we will not be able to prevent news of our assault from spreading out if that's the case. The guards near this area will be able to react instantly the moment they hear about our attack and surround us completely. We only have a squad of men while this place is defended by a whole regiment of soldiers. I don't wish to sacrifice the lives of hundreds just for saving the lives of a few men.

"However, during the night, the convoys will have left because there's only half a day's worth of travel from here to Vanades City. Most of the people coming to this village wouldn't be staying for the night. That way, we won't have to worry about alerting the rest of the soldiers in the area when we wipe out the enemies here."

Within the hut the company leader entered was the most beautiful woman of the village who was a young widow. Usually, many young men of the village would flock around her, but they stopped doing so after the arrival of the company leader.

Just as he was about to resume his quality time with the woman, he heard his door being banged on loudly once again.

"What the heck is going on this time?!" roared the company leader in rage. His formerly erected member had been startled into limpness from the sudden banging on his door.

"Captain, the Lord Viscount who was talking to you just now fell off his horse just as he was about to leave and seemed to have broken a few bones. Now, they can't leave because the viscount is out cold. His men have already sent someone to Vanades City to look for a herbalist and the rest want to set up their camp within the village," reported the guard outside.

"Haha, that's great news. That cursed slave trader viscount got what was coming for him," said the company leader happily. "Make sure to inform the men to behave within the village. I will visit the viscount myself during the night. If there's nothing else, stop interrupting me and scram!"

After that, he lowered his head and said to the lustful widow beneath him, "Now, precious... Help me up again with that wonderful mouth of yours..."

Chapter 151 Bypass

Feeling refreshed after stretching his body, the company leader checked his surroundings out and noticed that the soldiers that should have been standing guard outside his door were not there. After a while, he remembered that he had asked them to scram and thought, so those bastards actually went to slack off after that...

"They better not let me find them... Otherwise, I'll definitely give them a good whipping..." mumbled the company leader, before he noticed that his surroundings were abnormally quiet. While it wasn't weird for the villagers to go to sleep early, the army camp should still be generating quite a bit of buzz. Why, then, was it so quiet?

However, when he saw the silhouettes of soldiers walking about in the distance, he regained his calm and believed that he had merely overslept and that the time was probably around 3 or 4 in the morning.

Even so, there was a slight stench of blood wafting around in the air. The company leader pinched his nose and felt like scolding someone. The mercenaries who were trying to cross the border must have been beheaded given the smell... Curses, couldn't they kill those men at the spot where the tree is outside the village?

When he saw the extra tens of tents at one corner of the village, the company leader recalled that those belonged to the guards of the viscount who had fallen off his horse. Seeing the campsite that was illuminated by a bonfire with people going in and out of it, the company leader thought that a herbalist from Vanades City must have already been invited over to give treatment to the viscount and felt that he should go over there to pay a visit.

Before he entered the campsite, a guard came out from it and said respectfully, "Sir, the viscount invites you inside to have a chat."

Not suspecting a thing, the company leader walked inside and asked, "I see that the Lord Viscount is conscious now. He shouldn't be too badly injured, right? If he can still move, I believe you lot should go to Vanades City now. That place is far better for the Lord Viscount to recover than this small village."

The guard merely nodded in agreement as he led the company leader to the entrance of Lorist's tent.

Pushing the folds of the tent and entering it, the company leader was stunned by what he saw. The viscount whom he thought would be lying in bed and moaning in pain was actually sitting right in front of him and smiling like a fox towards him.

When he looked around, the company leader saw two people who were dressed like mercenaries wolfing down food at a corner within the tent. The one on the left was even eating as another guard helped him to remove his armor and bandaged him up.

Huh, these two look rather familiar... All of a sudden, the company leader suddenly realized that those two were the mercenaries he had captured just that afternoon.

"Tsk!" The company leader grunted as he drew his sword and generated a silver-colored blade glow and said, "You... Who the heck are you?"

"Shut up and just sit there obediently. I have something to ask you later," Lorist said as a murderous glint flashed past his eyes, causing the company leader to feel immense dread that made his arms and legs wobble and shiver as if he, a small ant, had appeared before a great dragon and could not muster the slightest will to resist.

"Continue your story, Reidy," Lorist said he he turned to his disciple who was still eating.

"Milord," Reidy said before he swallowed the piece of meat in his mouth. "The fatty is so troubled that he already ran out of ideas. The rest didn't know what to do either. That's when I suggested that I would make my way back to you for instructions. So, four days ago, I brought Jim and tens of other guards to cross Egret Lake and reached the forest nearby here by using the small path along the swamp. Yesterday, we thought we would be able to arrive at the main route to Vanades City by crossing the hilly area before traveling straight to the Northlands. However, we did not expect to encounter a group of bandits hiding within that forest and our battle alerted the nearby patrol troops. The bandits escaped swiftly but as we were not familiar with the terrain, we ended up being captured..."

"You're really lucky to have bumped into us. Otherwise, your head would've been hung up at the tree over there already," Lorist said. After that, he waved to the company leader and beckoned him to get closer. "You, come here."

The sword-wielding company leader was shivering all over. "You... Don't you fear that I will alert the so-soldiers in the camp...? At th-that time... You wo-won't be able to escape even if you try..."

"Go ahead then. Call out to them as loudly as you can. As for all 427 soldiers within the camp, hmmm, that's roughly a company, isn't it... Well, if you can wake them, then I'll kneel and start praying to you right this instant," Lorist said.

"Pfft!" Reidy and Jim broke into laughter immediately with Jim even spitting out a whole mouthful of ale.

"Im-impossible..." The company leader quickly recalled the stench of blood within the air and experienced complete despair. If the ones he thought were decapitated were sitting there dining as if nothing happened, then who were the ones who were killed? As for the ones he saw in the distance making their patrols, he only caught a glimpse of their silhouettes and didn't get close enough to recognize who they were. Thinking back at the 100 plus men of the viscount's escort...

Clang! The sword of the company leader fell to the ground. He proceeded to ask with a voice filled with despair, "Is there a chance for me to be spared?"

"That will depend on your behavior," Lorist said as he looked at the company leader. "I'll be honest and tell you this: the convoy that is stranded at the border actually belongs to my family. My purpose is to travel there and meet up with them. So, I want to use the small path branching from the fork nearby to reach Egret Lake. If you help me arrive at my destination safely, I promise that I will let you go in the name of my family."

The company leader shook his head and said, "It's pointless. Even if you release me, I wouldn't be able to avoid certain death anyway. Losing a company of men is already punishable by death and there is no chance that the duke will spare me or my family..."

"Well, then it's even more straightforward. You can follow me across the lake and when we reach the Andinaq Kingdom, I'll give you 100 gold Fordes. You can take on a new identity and begin your life anew there. If they don't find you here, they'll think that something bad befell you to cause you to go missing in action. That way, Duke Madras will not act against your family either," Lorist advised.

After thinking for a few moments, the company leader said, "I want to bring a person with me."

Lorist smiled and asked, "Is it that young widow you were with?"

The company leader nodded.

"Alright, it's a deal. I thought that a brute like you wouldn't be so sentimental, it truly is worthy of praise. In the name of the Norton Family, I pledge that as long as you help me get across Egret Lake, I will definitely fulfill my due obligations to you."

......

As the first light of dawn seeped in from the ends of the horizon, Lorist and his men disguised themselves as the garrison soldiers of the Madras Duchy by donning their equipment and headed to the fork. When they arrived, they got into a neat formation.

The garrison squad leader stationed there walked over in a hurry and asked with a surprised tone, "Huh? Company Leader Bose, why are you here? Isn't it a little early for you to switch with us for your shift? There should be two more days left, right?"

"Gah, I don't even want to talk about it... These bastards here harmed two women within the village and caused quite the commotion. I brought them out on patrol duty as an excuse to toss them here so that the villagers don't find them for now. Quickly gather up and tell your soldiers to keep quiet about this when they get back. Just say that you were sent on patrol duty instead of being switched out for your shift," said Bose the company leader in an annoyed voice.

"Understood," said the squad leader as he rushed back excitedly to rally up his men as he thought, hurray! Nobody would want to stay at the middle of nowhere here where we won't be able to even enjoy ourselves! That group over there actually got into trouble by messing with some women and came here to hide it out... Who knows how long they will have to stay here? Hmph, they're getting what they deserve!

Quickly, the squad of garrison troops stationed there gathered and got into their formations. After taking the roster, the squad leader returned and said, "Reporting to the company leader: the 7th Squad of the garrison soldiers has gathered with all 104 members present!"

However, the company leader merely said, "My work here is done."

What did that mean? Before he comprehended the meaning behind those words, the squad leader heard a loud "Fire!"

Arrows fell like rain on the defenseless squad of soldiers, causing cries of agony to ring out incessantly.

"You..." cried the squad leader in shock before he felt a cold, searing pain that caused his body to shiver uncontrollably.

"Apologies, I'm merely doing this for the sake of my own life. I had no choice..." said the company leader. The savage face of the company leader would be the last thing the squad leader saw before his untimely death.

"Double check if they're really dead by giving each of them a stab. Toss the corpses into the entrenchment over there so that they won't be discovered too quickly," instructed Lorist.

"The next patrol over here is at 8 tonight and even if they discover this, they will have to report it to me back at the village. After discovering the situation there, it will be another two hours before word of this can reach the main troop. That's why, we have the whole morning for us to make our haste. However, the fork up front is stationed with a company of garrison soldiers who are in charge of patrolling the lake. I can get them to open the gates of their camp, but after that will be up to you. Also, you promised me that you will not let them discover that I helped you out on this," said the company leader as he told Lorist about the situation while using the map as reference.

Lorist nodded and said, "Don't worry, I will make sure that any garrison soldier that sees you doesn't live to tell about it."

Receiving the map the company leader handed him, Lorist told Patt and Pete, "The moment the gates are open, start killing right away when they still don't have a grasp on the situation. After conquering the campsite, use the logs of the fence of the camp and make them into rafts. Additionally, assume a defensive position at the hill between the campsite and the lake just in case reinforcements arrive. That's all. We will depart immediately."

......

By the time they arrived at the camp near the lake, it was already the afternoon. The four guards at the gates recognized Bose and thought that he was there to deliver supplies given the five large carriages that he brought with him. Without making any report, they opened the gates only to have their throats slit by Reidy and the others.

Pete and Patt led the 100 plus mounted archers into the camp and got into position at the very middle of it before they started shooting their arrows in every direction, causing one garrison soldier after another to fall to the ground. Sounds of slaughter and demise intertwined within the camp.

To the company of garrison soldiers camped over there, their main duty was to patrol the bank of the lake as well as the small path that led to Lichtana Citadel and take care of the illegal entrants into the duchy as per the orders of the duke. They were never prepared for such a large scale assault and some of the soldiers were even unaware of what was happening even at the moment of their deaths.

Lorist led Jim and Reidy on horseback and rushed straight into the camp and began to slash at the tents with their pikes just in case they missed out any soldiers who were hiding within.

As for the company leader and the few squad leaders who were in charge of the camp, they were nailed to the ground without being able to react by Lorist's javelins the moment they emerged from their tents.

Given that the campsite wasn't that huge, it didn't take long for the sweeping operation to be completed.

Patt came over with a serious expression as he reported, "Milord, there are a total of 308 corpses of the garrison soldiers within this camp. One squad is still missing."

Lorist furrowed his brow and looked at Company Leader Bose who was standing by his side.

After giving it some thought, the company leader said, "Perhaps they went on a patrol already. However, I have no idea whether they went to the bank of the lake or the small path heading to the citadel..."

Before he finished his sentence, Jim called out and pointed into the distance, "Over there..."

Lorist turned his head to look and saw a hill in the distance where a squad of garrison soldiers could be seen heading towards the camp. However, they stopped all of a sudden, probably because they were able to see the corpses within the camp given their higher vantage point and didn't know what to do next.

"Pete, bring your mounted archers to exterminate them quickly. Try your best to not let too many escape," Lorist ordered.

With but a whistle, the mounted archers rushed towards that hill under Pete's lead.

"I'm going too," Jim said before he and his guards mounted their horses and gave chase.

"Alright. Reidy, Patt, use these horses to uproot the logs used for the fence of the camp. We need to work fast." Lorist then instructed the remaining mounted archers to tie a rope to each wooden log and fasten the other end to a horse before prodding the horse forward to pull the log from the ground.

"Wait, milord," Company Leader Bose said as he stepped forward to stop Lorist.

"Hmm? What's wrong?" Lorist asked.

"Milord, the part of the logs that are embedded in the ground is not needed. The upper parts of the log have already long dried up but the ones beneath the ground are still moist. If you make a raft with the whole thing, it would be hard to get an even buoyancy. It's better if the moist parts of the logs are cut off first so that the rafts can be more balanced and able to sustain heavier weights..." explained the company leader.

Lorist understood immediately and said, "Cut off the lower parts of the logs as he just said."

"Milord, please give me a sword. I'd like to help out too. Also, the wooden warehouse can also be dismantled to be made into a raft," said the company leader.

"Return his sword to him," Lorist told Reidy.

Bose drew his sword and circulated his Battle Force to generate a blade glow which he used to hack at the wooden logs. By the time he cut off the 4th log, the blade glow dissipated and the longsword was stuck in the middle of the log.

"Not bad, it seems that using Battle Force for logging is rather fast," Lorist said. "Patt, have the Silver ranked troops focus on chopping off the logs. Reidy, bring some men to dismantle the warehouse."

By the time the warehouse was mostly dismantled, Jim and Pete returned.

"Milord, more than ten managed to escape into the forests and we didn't continue to pursue them," Pete reported.

"How are the casualties?"

"There are none. The moment they saw us approach, they ran immediately. Given that they were near the lake, there wasn't anywhere else to run to and more than half jumped into the lake in desperation only to be shot to death by our arrows. However, a lucky few managed to sneak into the forests. As we didn't have any way to cross the swamp, we could only watch them run from afar..."

"Sir," Company Leader Bose said as he approached while wiping off some sweat. "It will take around one hour to travel from here to Lichtana Citadel on horseback. Assuming the escaped soldiers take two hours to get there, the reinforcements will arrive here one hour after that. We have three hours of time left at most."

"Alright. Everyone, make the best use of your time. Have the horses pull the logs which have their bottoms severed straight to the lake bank and construct the rafts there. Reidy and Jim, search the camp again to find more materials we can use to make the rafts with," Lorist said as he clapped his hands a few times.

Five huge rafts were constructed in total with each being able to hold one carriage on it. The rest of the horses including those found within the camp were rushed into the lake so that they would swim across to the other side.

The 100 plus men on their respective rafts pushed against the bank with their oars and gradually paddled their way to the other side.

As the skies turned darker, a thin layer of mist blanketed the lake. Occasionally, sounds of horses neighing could be heard amidst the silent sound of the paddling oars pushing against the water of the lake.

The distance between both banks of the lake was about 500 meters. Just as the five rafts passed the midsection of the lake, sounds of soldiers and horses arriving at the bank behind them could be heard.

Well, they sure did take their time, Lorist thought as he laughed out loud. They quickly arrived on the opposite bank and were about to rejoin with their stranded comrades. The next step Lorist had to take was to figure out how to get them back home.

Chapter 152 Noble Rank Elevation

Lorist pushed open the tent's flaps and entered it.

At that moment, everyone was stunned followed by a burst of excited laughter.

"Mi-milord... Why have you come?" Charade cried out excitedly as he jumped in surprise. He was so shocked by Lorist's surprise visit that he had knocked the table in front of him over when he jumped, causing a mess of ink, pen and beastskin to manifest on the ground.

Lorist laughed before he said, "I'm here to bring you all back home."

Even though it was just a simple sentence, it caused half of the people within the tent to tear up immediately. Some of them were so moved that they even cried uncontrollably.

Dulles was one of the Dawn Academy students who had willingly followed Charade to join the northbound convoy. He was also appointed by Lorist to fill an important role and was made into the captain of the carroballista unit. He had traveled and weathered through the hardships with the rest of the convoy from the 2nd month to the 9th month, 7 whole months. Having been stuck in their current predicament, Dulles started to feel even more hopeless. However, when he heard Lorist's words, he had been so moved that tears trailed down all over his face.

Lorist gave Dulles a hug before he told the rest within the tent, "Nothing and nobody can obstruct us on our way back home. It must've been rough for you guys to have made your way here. Right now, the only thing between us and the Northlands is the Madras Duchy. I'm not bothered by a single Ironguard Army. Even if they're all iron men, we will still bash them into smithereens."

Lorist continued to hug the rest of them one after another. By the time he reached Potterfang, the man who was the first to pledge his loyalty to Lorist, Potterfang teared up and said, "Milord, it's all because of our incompetence..."

Lorist interjected and said, "No, you have all done very well."

The last one Lorist greeted was Charade. When he saw the fatty, he noticed that the pot belly he used to have had vanished and the once rounded and puffy face had become slightly more firm and chiseled. Charade's cheeks also seemed to have sunk deeper inside and he no longer looked bouncy and chubby. Wrinkles could be seen on his forehead with a few strands of white hair growing out from his bangs. It was apparent that the stress and burden he had bore had a lasting effect on him.

Lorist spread both his arms and hugged Charade tightly before he said, "Brother Charade, it must've been tough..."

Charade merely sobbed quietly without saying a single word.

After they all calmed down and returned to their seats, Lorist announced his decision that he would hold a grand banquet tomorrow to knight the officers of the convoy who have made significant contributions to officially make them the knights of the Norton Family.

Lorist smiled as he said, "Originally, I planned to award you guys after you all arrived at the Northlands. However, now that the convoy has expanded this much, it really can't be excused if I don't promote those who have done well into the ranks of our family knights. For now, I will knight a group and there will be another knighting ceremony once we return to the family dominion. I hope the rest of you can come up with a list of candidates with contributions and discuss whether they qualify with Charade. However, you must also notify them in person if they are selected. If they believe that better opportunities lie elsewhere, we won't force them to join us.

"After tomorrow, the convoy will undergo a reorganization and it will start to get really busy. However, our efforts will help ensure that our journey ahead will be a less arduous one. Everyone, I hope you can persevere for a little bit more. Even though we still have quite a number of troubling things to settle, they shall not obstruct our journey back to the Northlands, our home. I have confidence that I will be able to bring all of you back. However, I'm only a single human and not a gigantic titan nor a flame-breathing dragon. I will need all of your help and assistance to bring a convoy of this size back home. So, I am in your care."

Lorist stood up and the rest within the tent bowed towards him respectfully.

......

As night encroached upon day, the once noisy campsite gradually quieted down. Countless people fell into deep slumber while basking in the gentle light of the Silvermoon.

Only Lorist, Charade and Potterfang remained within the tent. Reidy had left once he made them some macks and stood guard outside the tent.

"Your biggest mistake was your greed which the Second Highness didn't fail to exploit. Had you refused the Second Highness's request after the battle at the Green Plains and led the convoy up north, I'm sure that no one would dare to bar your way. I know that part of the reason you agreed to it was because of my elder cousin sister. Additionally, I'm sure you have benefitted quite a bit back from the time and Geldos City and thought that the convoy can't hurt to have more resources. However, you forgot one important thing: the more resources you have, the more burden it will be on the convoy..."

Lorist was currently analyzing and criticizing Charade's mistakes.

"Our convoy is not unlike a gigantic snake. Even though it is huge, it is also quite agile. Occasionally eating a rabbit or a goat wouldn't cause it to lose its agility. However, if you force it to swallow a few bulls at one go, it will stop moving altogether. In that situation, our convoy would become the ideal prey for other predators.

"Disposition determines fate, Brother Charade. You are a talented man and I've personally witnessed it back at the Sloph Bastide. Baron Miranda was also extremely full of praise for you. However, your greedy and miserly personality has caused you to miss out on the big picture. You were only focused on getting all the benefits without being willing to give any of the opportunities up and that trait is ideal for the Second Highness to exploit you to his advantage.

"The other mistake you made was that after you cleared up the nobles of the three provinces of the Andinaq Kingdom, the Second Highness got all the benefits while you had to shoulder all the fault and blame. Did you know how surprised I was when I heard rumors about 'Charade the Demon'? Even if the nobles had obstructed the convoy and even attempted to rob it, you shouldn't have acted to emotionally. Think about it, if you hadn't hung the nobles personally and merely captured them and handed them to the Second Highness, he wouldn't have been able to lay all the fault on the convoy and would instead have to trouble himself over how to take care of the rebellious nobles himself."

Lorist lifted his silver cup and took a sip of the macks that was slightly cooled.

Charade muttered, "It's completely my fault. I've always felt that something was off and had a hint that the Second Highness was exploiting me somehow. However, I wasn't able to see where went wrong myself and only understood after you explained it to me. Locke, you've changed quite a bit as well and you've started to see things so distant in the future from now. You're turning more lord-like by the moment."

Lorist laughed out and said, "I have no choice, people change after all. After becoming the dominion lord, I experienced the burdens and pressure firsthand that came with the position and all that forced me to adapt. Brother Charade, you don't have to feel too bad about yourself either. As the chief supervisor of the convoy, you are no doubt the best candidate I could ever hope for. However, as the leader of the convoy, you're still rather lacking because you lose sight of your goals a little too easily just like Potterfang here. While you, Potterfang, may be a great general, you wouldn't be a fitting leader. I can see that the two of you have already done your best to bring the convoy all the way here by yourselves and even expanded it into what it is today.

"Then again, I am also partly at fault for this. If I had given you guys a deadline to arrive at the Northlands, all this might not have transpired. I understand that you have gathered the vagabonds because you considered the lack of manpower the family was having. Given the current situation, as long as we are able to bring them all back, within a few years, we will be able to turn the dominion into a haven amidst the chaotic times of war where people can live without worry."

"Then, what should be our next step?" Charade asked excitedly. Lorist's arrival made him feel that burden he bore lightened up significantly. The past half a year of planning and worrying had fatigued him both mentally and physically. He was worried that If he were to go on like that for another 6 months, he would first die from the exhaustion before arriving at the dominion.

"There's no rush," Lorist said. "I've already heard about the situation of the convoy briefly from Reidy. It's fortunate that you guys are here to ensure that the convoy hasn't disintegrated in the midst of all this trouble. The reason I am going to promote a few members of the convoy is to calm their hearts and minds for now. Start working on the list tonight and ask the candidates tomorrow about what they think about joining the family knights. 'Know yourself and your enemy, and you will never be defeated'[1], these are the words of an ancient scholar who lived a few millenia ago. I personally think that it makes a lot of sense."

......

Upon hearing that the new family leader of the Nortons had arrived at the convoy, the Second Highness left at noon the next day with Glacia to the campsite.

Lorist held his right fist to his chest with his left arm behind his back and bowed down slightly to the Second Highness. This was the traditional salute of a junior noble to a senior noble.

The Second Highness was extremely elated and he hugged Lorist after he returned the salute to express his friendliness.

After that, it was Glacia's turn. She still remembered how Lorist looked back then but she couldn't bring herself to believe that the crybaby from her childhood had grown into a fine young man with such a stellar physique who had also assumed position of the Norton Family head.

After hearing about the recent situation of the family and recalling the harsh experiences of the past, Glacia hugged Lorist and cried for a while. In the end, Lorist teased her by asking when she would marry the Second Highness and give birth to a healthy baby, causing her pout and stretch her hand to pull onto Lorist's ear, forcing him to beg for mercy.

After messing around for quite a while, they started to talk seriously about the matters at hand.

The Second Highness sounded casual and straightforward as he told Lorist about the troubles the convoy was facing and gave his opinion that the convoy would only be able to last four more months with its food supply. He also stated that the Andinaq Kingdom would not be able to sustain more vagabonds in its current state. When food runs out completely, the convoy would no doubt crumble and the chaos that resulted from so many people panicking would cause the Andinaq Kingdom that had just settled down from the recent conflict to fall into another period of instability. The Second Highness requested that Count Norton solve the problem of the convoy right away lest the worst case scenario comes to happen and cause both parties grief and loss.

Lorist merely laughed and politely pointed out that he had only inherited the title of a baron and cannot be called a count. He even instructed Reidy to return the certificate that signified his status as a count back to the Second Highness.

At that moment, everyone within the tent was completely flabbergasted. Lorist's refusal of the elevation in rank from the Second Highness was something that no one had been able to predict. Could that be a gesture that signified the Norton Family's refusal to continue serving the Second Highness, and by extension, the Andinaq Royal Family?

After recovering from the shock, the Second Highness asked Lorist whether he had done something wrong or disrespectful or if the Norton Family had refused the promotion because it intended to dissociate itself from the Andinaq Royal Family altogether.

Lorist said with a serious face, "The Norton Family prides itself in its oath that any of its members would not bend their knees to anyone apart from those of the Krissen Imperial Family or the elders of the Norton Family. The Andinaq Royal Family is indeed the rightful heir to the legacy of the Krissen Imperial Family, and that is recognized publicly as well. So, the Norton Family will not go against its oath and will naturally continue to serve the Andinaq Royal Family. However, the Norton Family is unable to accept the elevation conferred upon us by you, the Second Highness, because that is akin to sullying the pride of a landed noble family like us with an honorary title. To us, this is not an elevation but rather an insult. That's why we humbly refuse your offer."

Charade was the first one to understand the implications of that statement and he hurriedly gave himself a harsh slap to his cheek as he had made a grave mistake in accepting the elevation in rank conferred by the Second Highness on Lorist's behalf the first time around. Had it not been for Lorist's reminder, he would have accepted the title of the count on behalf of the family and that would potentially cause the Norton Family's status to fall from that of a landed noble family to an honorary one.

Els and Terman gave Charade weird looks and wondered why he slapped himself so hard. Charade proceeded to explain his mistake to them in a low voice.

Normally speaking, a landed noble's elevation in title must be followed by either enfeoffment of another piece of land to add to their original territory or a complete move from the original territory to another bigger one befitting of the new title with the original territory returning to the hands of the senior noble.

Currently, the conferment of the title of a count to the Norton Family would cause it to bear a count's title without having the territory to back it up. If Lorist had accepted the title, in accordance to the law of nobility, that would be equal to surrendering his original status as a landed baron back to the Second Highness in exchange for the honorary title of a count which had no real bearing and right over any dominion or land.

Sol, this fellow really is devious, Lorist thought. Apart from Charade whose impression of the Second Highness could only worsen at this point, Els, Terman and the rest within the tent gave the Second Highness looks of distrust.

The Second Highness himself on the other hand was shocked as it was not his intention to lay such an elaborate trap for the Norton Family and it was nothing more than a silly mistake on his part. He believed that if the Norton Family dominion was not so desolate, the area it actually covered could be considered to be equal to the combined areas of two whole counties. He had elevated the status of the Norton Family because he believed that given the existing territory of the Nortons, they could be considered to be ruling over a county and the Second Highness himself wouldn't need to enfeoff any additional land of the kingdom to them. He also thought that giving the Norton Family a higher title would allow them more freedom to act within the Northlands so that they would be able to aid the Second Highness to act against the Duke of the Northlands who was under the rule of the Second Prince.

The fact that such a loophole that allowed a senior noble to claim a junior noble's dominion by means of conferring a title with no substance to a landed noble existed completely eclipsed the Second Highness. That kind of elevation was nothing but an insult to landed nobles and some who reacted more strongly over something like that might even bear a furious grudge against their senior nobles for such a transgression. Lorist's behavior could already be considered rather courteous and low-key.

The Second Highness himself stood up and bowed towards Lorist as he apologized. "This is completely a mistake on my part and I wholly apologize to you for it. As a token of my misgivings, I am willing to enfeoff the whole of the Northlands to the Norton Family..."

Lorist rudely ignored the Second Highness and continued to twirl the silver cup in his hand nonstop.

Glacia, who was seated behind the Second Highness could no longer stand it and stood up as she said, "Locke, you're far too insolent. His Highness has already admitted his mistake and apologized and is even willing to give the whole of the Northlands to the family! What more do you want?"

Lorist laughed and said, "As expected of a good woman who sticks up to his man! Alright, Cousin Glacia, please ask the Second Highness whether the Northlands is under the rule of the Andinaq Kingdom."

An atmosphere of silence filled the whole of the tent and even Glacia was made completely speechless. The gazes of everyone present were currently focused on the Second Highness as they awaited his response.

At that moment, the Second Highness felt like slapping himself in the face just like Charade did as he had made yet another grave mistake. Given that he had long wanted to reunite the empire and restore the Krissen Imperial Family back to its former glory, he had unconsciously promised the Northlands to the Norton Family and forgotten that the Northlands was in fact part of the territory of the Second Prince's Iblia Kingdom and not his Andinaq Kingdom.

As he pondered over the issue frantically, cold sweat built up on his forehead. If word of him promising the land of another kingdom to a noble family spreads out, the Andinaq Kingdom would definitely become the joke of the decade. Additionally, that promise of the Second Highness would be taken as an example of how empty his words were which don't hold any real weight. More importantly, that would further push away the Norton Family which was currently of most aid to the Andinaq Kingdom.

With a flash of insight, the Second Highness suddenly came up with a solution. Slightly smiling, he said to the rest within the tent, "Of course. I intend to offer up the whole of the Northlands to the Norton Family as a token of my apology."

Everyone was surprised with Glacia even exclaiming in shock, "Your Highness... You..."

The Second Highness waved his hand before continuing. "I haven't finished what I have to say yet. That was just to make up for my mistakes and it is not an additional enfeoffment. I have also decided to enfeoff my own principality to the Norton Family to add to their existing territory to fit the elevated title of the count. As for the Northlands, while it is still not under my rule yet, I promise that when I exterminate the Madras Duchy, if the Norton Family has already taken control of the Northlands, I will confer upon the Norton Family the title of a duke and make the Northlands the inheritable dominion of the Norton Family for generations to come."

Lorist smiled as he thought, so this Second Highness is quite quick-witted after all. He managed to turn the whole awkward situation around with but a few words. If the Madras Duchy truly were exterminated and taken over, then the Northlands would be able to connect directly to the Andinaq Kingdom and if the Norton Family has taken control of it by then, then the Northlands would naturally fall under the rule of the Andinaq Kingdom. That way, the promise of the Second Highness to grant the title of the duke to the Norton Family would no longer merely be an empty one.

However, Lorist was quite curious where the principality of the Second Highness was. Given that the territory might be even larger than that of a count's, why was the Second Highness willing to give it away?

Charade handed a map over to Lorist and pointed to a spot on the map while silently cursing out. "This Second Highness truly is devious. Milord, it would be wise for you to be more careful."

Lorist turned to look at the map and saw that the principality was actually a small island separate from the main continent. While the area was indeed roughly that of a county's, more than half of the island was covered by mountains and beaches and not much land could be used for agriculture. It was no wonder Charade was still mad.

Lorist laughed before he said, "Alright, since the Second Highness has already said so, then the Norton Family will accept the conferment of the title of the count by the Andinaq Royal Family."

The Second Highness proceeded to wipe off his nervous sweat and returned to his seat as the atmosphere within the tent returned to its former calm.

[1] Words by Sunzi in his work, 'The Art of War'.

Chapter 153 Trivial Problems

"Your Highness, can you tell me more about the military strength of the Madras Duchy?" Lorist asked.

The Second Highness nodded and cleared his throat before he said, "Alright, let me tell you all I know about the situation of the Madras Duchy."

Lorist stood up and pushed the table in front of him aside and helped Reidy hang a large beastskin map up for everyone within the tent to see. That was an enlarged map of the Madras Duchy which Charade had hurriedly tasked somebody to copy from a smaller map the night before.

"Your Highness, here you go," Lorist said as he passed a thin wooden pointer to the Second Highness.

While this method of presentation was new to him, the Second Highness quickly understood the use of the pointer which was thin on one end and thicker on the other. He walked up to the map and started his presentation in a similar fashion as a teacher giving a lesson.

"The Madras Duchy is formed by three provinces in total. First, we have the Yungechandler Province to the south of the duchy which is directly linked to the Andinaq Kingdom. To the east of that province is the Farkel Duchy and the Shabaj Duchy. I'm sure all of you can see from the map that this province is mostly covered by mountainous areas and swamps as well as the Egret Lake. So, it doesn't have much farmland and only houses 35 landed noble families there.

"The Delamock Province is the largest province of the Madras Duchy and it is separated from the Northlands by the Metropoulos River. It is connected to the Iblia Kingdom to its south and its southern area is mostly grasslands with the exception of the Sanderson Hill Range. This province is known for being the largest food producer of the duchy and its production alone can sustain even three of the most populated provinces back during the time of the empire of about 2 million people. As long as we are able to take control of this province, we will be able to easily sustain more than 400000 vagabonds, not to say much about 100000.

"Ever since the founding of the Madras Duchy, a group of landed nobles were moved to the Delamock Province and right now there are more or less 100 plus noble families over there. Only Kobo City remains the personal territory of Duke Madras within that province.

"Lastly, we have the Sidgler Province at the east of the duchy and that is the main base of Duke Madras. The Sidgler Province is only connected to the Yungechandler Province and it has been under the personal rule of the duke ever since the moving of the landed noble families to the Delamock Province.

"The Madras Duchy is estimated to have a population of about 1700000 people and they mainly use defense troops. Most of the dominions of the landed nobles and their towns use garrison soldiers as the main defense force and if a huge battle comes, the Madras Duchy will gather up the garrison forces of multiple territories to form a temporary army to be deployed on the frontlines.

"Other than that, the Madras Duchy has also formed two general purpose armies. The first one is the Seamountain Legion which is the local defense army that was formed back in the day of the earliest ancestor of Duke Madras. The Seamountain Legion boasts a number of 24000 soldiers who are fully-equipped and they are stationed at the Sidgler Province for the whole year round and are the most trusted troops of the duke.

"The other one is the Ironguard Legion which is responsible for securing the border by guarding the Lichtana Citadel. They number about 28000 soldiers in total and have a reputation of being one of the strongest armies in terms of defensive strength."

The Second Highness smiled as he continued to speak to the rest within the tent. "Actually, the battle that brought the Ironguard Legion to fame involved my lord father. During the 4th year of the civil war in the empire, the once hesitant Duke Madras received encouragement from many and finally decided to form his own duchy. Back then, I was leading troops in the Whitelion Legion and fighting back against the troops of the First Prince while the Fiercegale Legion of the Melein Duchy continued to push back the Second Prince's forces time and again. All looked well and we thought at that time that the rebellion of the First Prince and the Second Prince would be eventually quelled.

"However, none of us expected that Duke Madras would found his own duchy back then and even chose to maintain neutrality and aid no one in particular. They also sealed off their borders and that caused the imperial capital and the four duchies of the central empire to be cut off and we were no longer able to receive any support in terms of resources from them. The food supply from the Delamock Province was also stopped and the situation at the frontlines changed all of a sudden. We could not press our attacks and could only resist defensively.

"Back then, only by breaking the blockade of the Madras Duchy could we stand a chance to reunite the empire. Thus, my lord father led more than 63000 troops of the royal family's local defense guards and managed to take over the whole of the Yungechandler Province. However, when they arrived at the Delamock Province, all 60000 plus soldiers were stopped in their tracks at Kobo City.

"Back then, the only force defending the Kobo City were garrison soldiers that were gathered from different nearby areas and they only numbered a little more than 8000. However, those garrison soldiers actually managed to stop my lord father's assaults and caused him to be unable to enter the Delamock Province even after 6 months of battles to the point that he coughed out blood in rage.

"In the end, due to my lord father's refusal to retreat despite the fact that the Second Prince had sent his forces to engage in a pincer attack with the Madras Duchy's Seamountain Legion, only less than 20000 of the original 63000 troops managed to survive.

"The garrison force that defended Kobo City was also only left with less than 1000 people. However, Duke Madras who was enthralled by their performance termed them the Ironguard Legion and reorganized them into a formal army that excelled in terms of defensive power.

"Ever since that battle, the empire's situation suffered even more and due to the lack of food and other supplies to sustain the army, we had no choice but to retreat from the frontlines, only to be surprise attacked by a division of the First Prince's forces that went around the frontlines to attack the imperial capital. While we rushed there the moment we heard of the news and eliminated that division, the imperial capital had already been devastated. The former glory and grandeur of the imperial capital was lost completely and it had turned into a desolate, lifeless mess of burning buildings and homeless vagabonds.

"From that point of view, it could be said that the true perpetrator that caused the imperial capital to head down the path of ruin was Duke Madras. However, no matter how much I loathe him, I didn't have the ability to punish him for that grave misdeed. Now, I believe he had sealed the borders because he wants the vagabonds to once more ravage the Andinaq Kingdom. After all, the worse shape we are in, the less he has to worry about.

"That's why we have to use the vagabonds to attack Lichtana Citadel while we still have enough food. Even if we're unable to take it in the end, the deaths of the vagabonds will also save us a lot of trouble.

"It's not like I want to leave the vagabonds for dead. However, it is beyond my ability to do otherwise as I cannot sacrifice the rest of the 1500000 citizens who have just recently settled down in the Andinaq Kingdom to resume their former lives."

Lorist laughed as he stood up to interject the Second Highness's long speech. "Your Highness, there's no need for us to do this nor is there a need for us to attack Lichtana Citadel. In fact, time is on our side and there are many ways to save the 100000 vagabonds without having to resort to sending them to their deaths."

A buzz of chatter resounded throughout the tent. The vagabonds were the biggest burden of the convoy currently and the amount of food they consumed was truly too enormous. Even though the Second Highness's suggestion to use them to take over the Lichtana Citadel sounded cruel, many of them also believed that there was no other way to solve the issue.

"Could you enlighten us about that method of yours?" asked the Second Highness in surprise as he looked at Lorist and wondered why he believed that he had more than enough time.

Lorist took the wooden pointer from the Second Highness and walked up to the map and started pointing to it. "Look over here. You seem to have forgotten about Egret Lake. It is the largest lake within the borders of the empire and it is also the natural border between the Madras Duchy and the Andinaq Kingdom.

"Let's talk about the first problem: the lack of food. Given that the lake has many fish, couldn't we solve it by fishing? Other than that, there are many vegetables and herbs like seaweed which we can obtain from the lake. By relying on just that, we will be able to sustain the vagabonds with minimum expense on our own food supply.

"While it was forbidden to fish there as it is the border between two nations, we don't have to give a damn about it now. I believe that Duke Madras wouldn't care about this either as long as we don't approach his side of the lake bank.

"You all should also be aware that winter is coming within two months. By the time the freezing cold descends upon us, the Egret Lake will become frozen. That way, we will be able to cross it without having to go past Lichtana Citadel and continue our journey north. That's why I mentioned that time was on our side."

After Lorist finished what he said, the whole tent turned abuzz. At that moment, many thought, that's right, why didn't we think of crossing the lake after it has frozen up and fixated ourselves with the path through Lichtana Citadel? And if our food can only last us for three months, the Egret Lake has plenty of fish and seaweed to meet our needs. Since they've forbidden fishing over there for quite some time, there must be a healthy population of fish within the lake now! The catch will definitely be plentiful and we might be able to get enough food to last us half a year, not to say much about only a month or two!

The Second Highness patted on Lorist's shoulder warmly and said with a brilliant smile, "As expected of Count Norton. I heard that you were a talented student back at Dawn Academy and it seems you have not failed to live up to your reputation and managed to solve two huge issues in one go. That way, we no longer have to worry about the vagabonds, haha..."

"Your Highness, I think it's better if you just called me Locke. Calling me count all the time is a little too formal," replied Lorist with a laugh.

"Alright, I'll call you Locke if you call me Aulo," the Second Highness said.

"Sure, Aulo. I'll have to rely on your help for the fishing. I will need some fishing boats and nets and I myself will also get some men to make more nets. We have to proceed as soon as possible so that we can dry the fish in time for easier preservation," Lorist said.

The Second Highness nodded and said, "Alright, that will do. You truly have the whole thing thought out well. I'll get to it right away."

Lorist pulled on the Second Highness's arm to stop him and said, "Well, it's not like I need everything done right this instant. There will be a banquet here tonight and I hope that you can attend it. I will be knighting a few members of the convoy and I'd like you to be a witness for the ceremony."

Surprised, the Second Highness laughed out and said, "Alright, I will stay to witness the splendor of the knights of the Family of the Raging Bear."

The banquet during the night was very merry and plentiful. Apart from the people of the convoy who were all given a nice meal with meat and some alcohol; even the vagabonds could let themselves loose and eat as much as they liked.

There was a total of 48 people with contributions who were made into knights of the Norton Family. What made Charade pissed was that 26 of the original 74 candidates had refused the offer as they had already promised the Second Highness that they would join the knights of the Andinaq Royal Family and would leave after the northbound convoy completes its journey. 7 of the 26 were even the senior students of Dawn Academy.

Lorist however didn't mind that as everyone had their own goals and nothing good would come from forcing them to stay. All was fine as long as the ones he prioritized, namely, Mons Malek, Lode Wales, Chino Freiyar, Dulles and Lundmorde, didn't leave. To sum it all up, apart from one senior student, Zivos, who had perished in combat, 16 of the remaining 37 joined the Second Highness and only 21 of them became the knights of the Norton Family.

Charade, Terman, Yuriy and Els, who was still recovering from his injuries, stood beside the Second Highness and intentionally spoke in an audible volume about how the Second Highness had repaid the convoy's help by sabotaging it and poaching its members, causing the Second Highness to feel awkward beyond measure. In the end, Glacia could no longer stand it and had Lorist bring the four troublemakers away.

The first ones to make their oath of allegiance were the Gold ranked knights, Lode Wales and Chino Freiyar, followed by Mons Malek, Dulles, Lundmorde and the remaining 19 senior students of the Dawn Academy. The 27 Silver ranked knights who have made significant contributions were next and they were mostly knights who used to serve the noble families that were wiped out by Count Cobry. They joined the convoy after being rescued and managed to distinguish themselves from the rest by making significant contributions during the rest of the journey and were selected as family knight candidates as a result.

When the last knight pledged his loyalty to Lorist and the Norton Family, Lorist turned to Jim who was standing beside Reidy with an envious face and waved towards him. Thinking that Lorist had something he needed him to do, Jim ran in front of him and saluted before he said, "Milord, what do you need me for?"

Lorist stepped forward and tapped onto Jim's shoulder as he said, "Jim, you've followed me along for quite some time now. Even though you still behave like a mercenary now and then, your loyalty, hardworking attitude and bravery definitely stands out more than the others. Are you willing to become my knight and fight under the banner of the Roaring Raging Bear?"

"Naturally," Jim replied without hesitating as he looked at Lorist with a solemn expression. "Milord, you didn't even have to ask."

Els and Potterfang burst out in laughter uncontrollably.

Reidy then came over and gave Jim a kick before he said, "Idiot, milord is going to accept you into the ranks of the family knights. What are you still doing? Kneel down and make your pledge!"

"Oh," Jim said excitedly. "Milord, can I truly, really, become a knight of the Norton Family?"

Lorist nodded with a smile.

Jim hurriedly tidied up his attire and kneeled on one knee in front of Lorist. Just as he was about to make his pledge, he saw Reidy make a facepalm as he said, "Idiot, it's not that leg. It should be the other one that kneels..."

The pledging of a knight also had certain standards to abide by. The proper way to pledge was to kneel on the ground with both hands or with one hand placed on the left knee.

Jim blushed as he changed his posture once more and recited the pledge as many knights before him did. "I, Jim, am willing to pledge my loyalty to the Norton Family and follow milord Lorist from now on. I will carry out my duties to shield the honor of the Norton Family Knights. I am willing to become the sword of Lord Lorist and fight until my last breath under the banner of the Raging Bear."

Lorist drew his sword in a formal gesture and tapped onto both shoulders of Jim twice before he said, "Rise, my knight."

Potterfang then came over with a silver raging bear badge and put it on Jim's left chest before he gave him a tight hug and said, "I welcome your participation, my brother."

The knights who just joined the order were making merry during the banquet.

Lorist went to the Second Highness's side and toasted him with his wine cup before he noticed Glacia beside him who was silently crying.

"What's up with her?" Lorist asked.

"She's so happy for you that she started shedding tears of joy after seeing so many talented men take you as their lord. It seems that the day the Norton Family returns to its former glory is no doubt nearing," explained the Second Highness.

"Hehe, Your Highness, actually, you've deprived me of 29 fine knights from your poaching, you know," Lorist teased before he raised his cup to toast him and took a gulp of his wine. "Your Highness Aulo, you can just bring them away with you when you leave later."

"Why? Didn't you need them to escort the convoy back to the Northlands first?" asked the Second Highness.

Lorist shook his head and said, "There's no need for that. I don't wish to hinder their future careers. Your Highness, you should also be busy restoring the Andinaq Kingdom and I'm sure you could use the help of those extra hands. I'll let them join you early so that they can rack up some achievements for themselves. It will take too much of their time for them to follow the convoy. Also, I've already recruited quite a number of family knights and I'm going to reorganize the forces of the convoy soon, so there's little point in having them stay with us any longer."

The Second Highness didn't hesitate as he nodded and said, "Alright. I will bring them with me when I leave later."

Chapter 154 Lorist's Strategy

"Just a bunch of blind, cruel and inhumane wolves..." Charade muttered as he watched the Second Highness and Glacia leave with the rest of the knights who have joined their side.

Lorist laughed out loud and patted on Charade's shoulder as he said, "Let's go. We have to go back and discuss something really important. We don't have much time..."

"Huh?" Charade was stunned. He quickly caught up to Lorist and asked, "Wait, Locke, what are you planning? There's still one month from winter right now and it'll take another two or three months for the surface of Egret Lake to freeze. We have more time than we need. Why are you saying that we don't have time all of a sudden?"

Lorist stopped in his steps and turned to Charade before he whispered, "Did you think I would really let the convoy wait until the lake freezes over before we move?"

"Huh?" Seeing Lorist turn and continue walking, Charade said anxiously, "You have to explain it more clearly..."

"There are too many eyes here. Let's talk about it when we get back."

When they arrived at a tent beside the main tent, Lorist instructed Reidy, "Get Potterfang, Lode Wales, Freiyar, Malek, Els, Patt, Terman, Yuriy and Dulles to come and ask Engelich to gather the guards to patrol around."

Even though Engelich was a Gold ranked swordsman, in terms of status, he was more like Lorist's attendant and servant because he had signed a servant contract for ten years to preserve his life back then. While Lorist had wanted to promote him into a family knight, Engelich had refused and said that given his old age, he was not too fond of any more fighting. Additionally, his granddaughter Molise had already gotten pregnant with Charade's child, so he can't wait for the arrival of his great grandchild.

The elderly Engelich was pretty open-minded and he doesn't think that being Lorist's attendant despite being a Gold ranked swordsman was an embarrassing thing. Instead, he thought that it was rather good as he was more free to do what he wanted. Additionally, Potterfang and the others treat him rather well for being Lorist's attendant and would even give him a friendly greeting when they met. When Lorist was not present, Engelich was basically a free man that was not restricted by anyone and he thought that it was also quite a decent way to live.

Of all the knights Lorist had summoned, Lode Wales seemed to have drunk quite a bit of alcohol, but he was still sober. When everyone was seated, Lorist had Reidy pour each of them a cup of tea before he announced the reason he called for another emergency meeting.

"In another 15 or 20 days, I am prepared to lead the convoy and the vagabonds into the Madras Duchy to reach the Northlands as soon as possible."

Everyone within the tent were stunned to hear that proclamation. Even Charade couldn't help but cry out, "Milord, how are we to cross the blockade? The Ironguard Legion has sealed off the border completely and if the convoy is going to attack Lichtana Citadel, there's no way we would win..."

"Who told you that I was going to attack Lichtana Citadel?" Lorist questioned back.

"But... but how would we be able to enter the duchy without first going through there?" Charade asked as all eyes within the tent gazed at Lorist with a curious look.

"Hehe..." Lorist started laughing out as he shook his head and said, "You guys... How do your brains work? What is our goal? Isn't it to bring the convoy and the vagabonds back to the Northlands? What business do we have in taking over Lichtana Citadel? To let our livestock graze over there? You guys have forgotten that our aim is not to conquer the Madras Duchy but only to pass through it. That's why we do not have to consider our supply line and taking over Lichtana Citadel is of even less importance to us."

Lorist brought over the frame with an enlarged map of the Lichtana Citadel and the area around it.

Using the wooden pointer to trace on the map, Lorist said, "Look here. Right now, army bases have been set up at Lichtana Citadel and the Bread Hills to seal off this space in the middle as well as the main highway. If we take over the Bread Hills, then how would the Ironguard Legion within the citadel react? They will definitely believe this to be a precursor to a much larger attack by us and they definitely wouldn't act rashly and would secure the citadel even more.

"Let's say we take over the Bread Hills. If the ballistas are set up high at the citadel, they would have a firing range of roughly 300 meters and it could cover the main highway completely. But who said we have to use the main highway? We can use this 200-meter-broad path over here beside the Bread Hills. After all, we only need around 100 meters of width for our convoy and vagabonds to be able to pass through. Even though the Ironguard Legion is famed for its defensive capabilities, we're not going to engage in a siege with them. If they come out, I'd like to see how well they do in an open field battle..."

"Milord, your words ring true!" Potterfang said as he slapped his forehead in realization. "That's right, as long as the convoy and the vagabonds are able to make it through, it's enough. Only the Second Highness's troops would have to conquer the citadel to make sure that they have an established supply line that wouldn't get cut off. Since we're only passing through, there's no need to factor that in and we only have to defeat the obstacles that are ahead of us!"

"This is all the fault of the cunning Second Highness. He had already pulled us into this troublesome situation and now he's pushing the suggestion that we can only pass through the Madras Duchy by conquering the Lichtana Citadel! And we were restricted by his train of thought and didn't think of looking for any other way!" Charade exclaimed as he approached the map and gave it a close look. "Hahaha, that Madras Duchy considers us an army... So that's why they made those kinds of arrangements. If we just circle around the citadel like milord says... the rest of the journey would be swift and smooth!"

The atmosphere within the tent heated up once more as they all realized that their troubles had been for naught and that was another option for them that they weren't able to see.

Lorist waved his hands to signal to the rest to quiet down and used the wooden pointer to point at the map as he said, "The Bread Hills is the place we truly need to conquer. As long as we occupy it, then the convoy and the vagabonds can depart immediately. For now, there is a regiment of Ironguard Legion troops stationed there and there is an army camp at the Bread Hills. I heard that the camp has at least 8000 Ironguard troops and they are stationed there so that they can be switched out regularly to defend the Bread Hills.

"When it comes to the terrain, the Bread Hills is not a good place to defend because it lacks a secure water source. If we can take the main camp, we could effectively cut off the water supply of the troops stationed up the hill and within three days, they will definitely crumble without us having to even put up a fight. Either they surrender to us or they come at us in a suicide attack.

"That's why, the focus of this operation should be this army camp near the Bread Hills. Look here, if we attack from the front, we must risk being in the firing range of the ballistas that are positioned up at the hills and we must first take them out before we can reach the army camp. However, taking over the base at the Bread Hills won't be easy either because the army camp will continue to reinforce them incessantly. That's why attacking from the front is a bad idea that will cost us innumerable casualties.

"You guys remember that I proposed for us to fish for food, right? Actually, my true aim is not to fish but to use the fishing boats to establish a floating pontoon bridge so that the family's forces can cross the Egret Lake at night. After that, our forces will launch a surprise attack against the base at Bread Hills using this route and as long as we can occupy it, we will have succeeded halfway.

"After that, we will use the blockaded route from Lichtana Citadel to Vanades City to head north. Naturally, we will have to attack Vanades City on the way. However, it's alright even if we don't conquer it. The main priority is over here on the route towards the Sidgler Province, the Xith Castle. As long as we can occupy this castle, we will be able to seal the Seamountain Legion of Duke Madras within their home base and we will be free to traverse the other two provinces."

As Lorist finished his explanation, the rest within the tent got more excited. This was a strategy that had a really high success rate and as long it progressed smoothly, it would be simplicity itself to let the convoy and the vagabonds continue the northbound journey through the Madras Duchy.

"The main priority for us now is to secretly cross Egret Lake. Secondly, we have to be quick and gain battlefield superiority before the enemy even notices us so that we have the initiative to be able to decide the flow of battle," Lorist reminded.

Charade made some rough calculations and said, "Milord, we might not have enough soldiers on our side. The Ironguard Legion has around 28000 people and 18000 of them are stationed at Lichtana Citadel with the remaining 10000 stationed at the Bread Hills. Our convoy's forces only number around 20000 and even if we conquer the Bread Hills base, we still need to protect the rest of the convoy and the vagabonds when they cross and stop the Ironguard troops from the citadel from attacking. We won't have any more forces to attack Vanades City like that."

"That won't be a problem. After this, I will be reorganizing our forces and start an enlistment drive. We can even borrow some soldiers from the Second Highness," Lorist said as he signalled for the rest to halt their discussions. "Everyone, please quiet down and I will proceed to explain the gist of the reorganization. First, the number of soldiers that constitute a squad will remain the same at 100 people and five squads will make up a company. Five companies make a regiment and five regiments in turn are collectively referred to as an army. In the future when we have five armies, we will form them into a legion.

"Currently, we have almost one regiment of light cavalry scouts. Yuriy, I'll leave it to you to see how many companies you can form it into and Jim will be helping you out on this. You will be the regiment leader of the First Light Cavalry Scouts Regiment and the extra companies will be handed to Jim. Also, pick out your men who are good at archery and send them to Pete over here so that he will be able to form a company of mounted archers."

Yuriy stood up and said, "Yes, milord. I understand."

"You will be the focal point of this strategy, Yuriy. The responsibility you have is not light and you'll have to be able to sweep the whole battlefield with your troops so that the enemy will be blinded and won't be able to communicate effectively with each other," Lorist said.

"Milord, please be assured that my light cavalry scouts will not let you down," Yuriy said as he knocked onto his chest confidently.

Lorist nodded and waved for him to sit down. Next, he said to Terman, "I hear that you already have more than a company of men in your knight brigade now, right?"

"Milord, including the attendants and stablemen, our numbers approach two whole companies," Terman replied.

Lorist fell deep in thought for a while before he said, "Your knight brigade will be organized a little differently from the rest of the family forces. You can organize it as you see fit. But the basics of one knight having two attendants, one servant and a stableman will not change. I believe you have a whole regiment of men taking into account that a company of 500 Silver ranked knights would have 1000 attendants, 500 stablemen and 500 servants. The company of Silver ranked knights will lead the charge with their attendants while the stablemen and servants provide rearguard support."

"Yes, milord."

"Pog, your heavy-armored cavalry is already as large as 2 and a half regiments, right?" Lorist asked.

"Milord, if we exclude the logistics troops, we should have around 2 full regiments. If we're reorganizing according to the unit system you proposed just now, we would have two regiments and another two extra companies. Our original number for each squad is 128 men per squad," replied Potterfang.

"How about this... Transfer command of the heavy-armored cavalry to Loze and have the logistics troops return to the main camp. Loze, organize the troops into three regiments of 7500 people. I give you five days to accomplish this and the heavy-armored cavalry will be the main driving force of this operation."

Lode Wales stood up and saluted excitedly before he said, "Milord, please be assured that I will definitely complete my mission to your satisfaction."

"Freiyar, your pike infantry has around four regiments of 10000 plus men, right?" Lorist said as he looked at Freiyar.

"11358 men to be exact, milord," Freiyar said as he reported an extremely concise number.

Lorist nodded in admiration before he said, "The command of your pike infantry will be transferred to Pog. Pog, reform them into a heavy-armored infantry army with five regiments of 12500 people. You have 5 days to complete it."

"Yes, milord," Freiyar and Potterfang said in unison.

"That's right, don't forget to arm the troops mentioned just now with the gear of the Whitelion Legion. We don't have to ship all the good stuff back to the dominion. It's better to put them to use right now. That will also serve to lessen the casualties of our forces. As for the old equipment that will be switched out, I'll be leaving it to Freiyar and Malek. The two of you shall recruit 25000 soldiers from the vagabonds and form a garrison legion which is split into two armies. The first army will be led by Freiyar, who will be appointed the Commander of the garrison legion and the second army will be led by Malek, the Vice Commander of the garrison legion. Make sure to finish all that within 15 days.

"The enlistment will follow usual procedures and prioritize the vagabond youths with families. The main purpose of the garrison legion is to maintain the security of the convoy during the northbound journey, understood?" Lorist said as he looked at Freiyar and Malek.

"Understood, milord."

"Roger, milord."

The two of them stood up and acknowledged their order.

Lorist then turned to Dulles and asked, "Dulles, how's the situation of your carroballista unit?"

Dulles hurriedly saluted before he said, "Milord, the carroballista unit now has 627 soldiers. Apart from the original 12 carroballistas we have, we managed to obtain 27 defense sentry ballistas and we've already modified them for use on a combat chariot. However, they are still slightly heavier than the ones we have and aren't as flexible. The firing speed is also slower and they require more people to operate as well."

"Among the gear of the Whitelion Legion there are 78 siege ballistas which we can modify for the use on war chariots. We can also expand your unit to have a full regiment of people with that."

The main advantage a siege ballista held over a defense sentry ballista was its mechanic that allowed it to be raised higher so that the bolts will be able to be fired into the defensive walls of a castle or citadel. Originally, the Whitelion Legion's carroballista regiment had up to 240 of those siege ballistas but many were ruined throughout the civil war and weren't maintained well. It was already quite fortunate for 78 of them to remain intact.

Dulles was quite happy to hear that as he was long frustrated with the lack of ballistas that caused his unit to be unable to expand. Now, that issue was solved.

"How many people within the craftsmen camp know how to construct boats?" Lorist asked Charade.

Charade said in a troubled voice, "There are around one to two thousand people who know carpentry but I don't know how many of them would actually know how to make boats."

"That shouldn't be a problem. What we need are only small boats so I believe it won't be too hard. Just have the carpenters nail wooden boards into a box like shape and fill some parts out with a thick layer of green clay so that water doesn't seep in from the seams. We will only use those makeshift boats for fishing and making the floating pontoon bridge and we don't need it to be long lasting or aesthetically pleasing. Also, Charade, you should also have the family members of the convoy troops and the womenfolk among the vagabonds start to make nets. We must act that we're only going to fish so that the enemy doesn't suspect us and strengthen their defense at the opposite bank of the lake," Lorist said as he consoled the fatty.

"I understand. I'll have the people start felling trees and making nets tomorrow," said Charade.

Chapter 155 The Citadel's Weakness

After 5 days, the Second Highness once again visited the campsite of the convoy and he brought more than 40 old and worn fishing boats and tens of small fishing nets for Lorist.

"Apologies, Brother locke, this is already all the fishing boats and nets we have within a 50 kilometer radius of this area. Perhaps we might be shipping more here in a few more days. However, that shipment will definitely be lesser than what we have now because there aren't any lakes or rivers nearby the vicinity of Egret Lake," said the Second Highness apologetically.

"It's alright, Your Highness Aulo. We're already very grateful that you were able to help us out on this. We just started fishing this afternoon, why don't you go over there to take a look while we bring the boats and nets there?" Lorist said thankfully.

It didn't take more than 30 minutes before they reached the lake and many people working away at the banks could be seen from the distance.

Tens of meters from the lake bank was an empty space where a thick reed mat was laid on which tons of fish from the lake could be seen. More than ten women in their forties could be seen picking out the fish. They placed the larger fish into a basket which would be carried away when it was filled up for others to start processing the fish by removing their scales and innards and washing them before they would be laid on a wooden rack for to be dried.

As the smell of fish was rather pungent, the Second Highness pinched his nose and sneezed.

Charade came over excitedly with his face flushing red before he said, "Locke... Oh, milord, I bet you wouldn't be able to guess how much we got... The first fishing excursion netted us thousands of kilograms and there have already only been three excursions so far. We have already caught up to 10000 kilograms of fish in total. At this rate, we would have up to 50000 kilograms by today."

Currently, only a company of reorganized heavy-armored troops who were chosen for their swimming capabilities fishing within the lake. As they stood half-naked on their 30 plus boats, they flung a huge net deep into the lake.

The boats they were using were nicknamed 'Locke Fishing Boats' after Lorist who had designed them. It was basically a wooden box with a sharp point at the front that was supported in the middle by an intersecting piece of wood. The inner side of each boat was also coated with a thick layer of green clay to waterproof the boats and when the green clay dried, a makeshift deck was nailed over the middle supporting wood. To prevent the boats from flipping over, Lorist had someone install a vertical one-meter-long wooden fin beneath each boat to better balance them.

However, those boats caused a number of experienced boat makers among the work smiths to sigh in disappointment because while the boats were able to be constructed quickly, they definitely didn't last long enough and would fall apart after only one or 2 months of use. It took at least 2 months to construct a proper small fishing boat and good wood for boats like those were hard to come by. Those boats were far superior to the makeshift boats Lorist designed.

However, Lorist insisted on the idea and instructed the 2000 plus work smiths to make 200 of those boats within only 10 days. Hence, the boats were termed Locke Fishing Boats by the work smiths. Even so, nobody knew whether it was a sincere compliment and recognition of Lorist's ingenuity or whether they were merely being sarcastic.

At that moment, Charade noticed that the Second Highness had brought over the boats and nets. He clicked his tongue before he said, "Hmm... These nets are too small and I've already had some people make bigger ones. I've noticed that the more area of the lake we cover with those nets, the more fish we can get."

"You can always stitch these nets together. That way, you can shorten the time required to make those nets. Just make sure to check if they are stitched together tightly enough," Lorist said.

Charade clapped his hands as he said, "I see, that's a fine idea," before he turned and left in a hurry after asking someone to bring the fishing boats and nets away.

At that moment, the soldiers within the lake were starting to pull back the nets that they've cast and judging by the difficulty they had when pulling the net up, the harvest this time around must've been quite substantial.

The Second Highness said in admiration, "I really didn't expect that the Egret Lake would have so much fish. I recall that there was a kind of fish within the lake called the Longtail Whitefish which is quite thin and fine-scaled with less bones and quite a lot of meat. It also tasted rather good and was a staple dish within the imperial capital. However, the price of that fish was really expensive because the supply was rather scarce. Ever since the civil war broke out within the empire, lesser and lesser fishermen fished at Egret Lake as they had either been drafted into armies or have been oppressed by dominion lords into becoming vagabonds.

"And after the formation of the Madras Duchy, this lake was chosen to serve as a border between our two nations, so fishing here was naturally prohibited, resulting in these fishing boats being used at other rivers nearby. It really surprised me quite a bit that this lake would end up becoming the very thing that could save the vagabonds from the fate of starvation and death... Hahaha..."

"Well, we can pick out a few of those fish you mentioned for a meal later tonight," Lorist said as he laughed.

"Alright, but don't take too many. Personally, I prefer eating seawater fish because freshwater fish like those in these lakes have relatively more bones that prick my tongue rather easily when I eat them. Just have your men pick the bigger fish, especially those that aren't too bony," said the Second Highness.

After that, the Second Highness turned to his back and saw the newly-constructed makeshift fishing boats that were being laid in the sun for the green clay to dry before he asked, "How many boats did you order to be made?"

Lorist replied, "Around 200 of them."

"Why would you need so many?"

"So many? Your Highness, the Egret Lake is quite immense. We can't only fish at one spot, right? If we don't have enough boats, we won't be able to venture far into the lake. We can only gain the most haul if we fish at multiple places at once," Lorist said.

The Second Highness gave it some thought before he nodded and said, "I see, you truly are thorough with your plans. Personally, I'm not too knowledgeable about matters on fishing."

......

That night, Lorist accompanied the Second Highness for dinner and the main dish was a Longtail Whitefish.

The Second Highness agilely used his fork to get hold of another large piece of meat and placed it within his mouth with his silver spoon with his eyes narrowing in satisfaction. "This truly is good stuff. I wonder how many years has it been since I last tasted this fish..."

"This time, we got quite a huge haul. I've already had a few other fish like these placed in a water bucket for you to bring back. Make sure to let my cousin sister Glacia have a taste of these fish. It's a shame she didn't come here with you today," Lorist said.

"How thoughtful of you, Locke. Thank you. Glacia was training the newly-recruited soldiers, so it wasn't convenient for her to come over today. That's right, didn't you also draft new soldiers from the ranks of the vagabonds?" asked the Second Highness.

Lorist nodded and said, "I recruited around 20000 people. Since I plan to head up north after the lake freezes up, the convoy would need a substantial force to be able to fend off threats during our passage through the Madras Duchy. These 20000 soldiers were formed so that they could maintain order of the convoy during the journey and they will be disbanded after we arrive. Given the resource-starved state of the Northlands, there's no way I can afford to feed so many soldiers. If they don't work their share, they won't get any food either."

The Second Highness sighed and said, "Darn, that Duke Madras mobilized his Ironguard Legion to defend the Lichtana Citadel, forcing our Andinaq Kingdom to have to station some soldiers at Nadegas City to watch out for them. Now that the Welbassia Province has once again returned to the hands of the royal family, it's up to us to ensure its safety from the invasion of the Ironguard Legion. Had it not been for some good news I received just now, I would have had to trouble myself over filling the void of military strength left after the departure of your convoy."

"Oh, what news did you receive?" Lorist asked.

"It's about the Fiercegale Legion. They've assisted Duke Melein in mowing down the Iblia Kingdom's forces at the southern part of the Ienord Province, which is divided into three commanderies by the Second Prince. Their forces have already arrived at the royal capital, Windbury City, forcing the Second Prince to request his father-in-law, Duke Fisablen, to send out reinforcements to defend the city. The two sides have battled for a number of times and victory still seems undecided. Given that winter is approaching, Duke Melein decided to pull his soldiers back to his duchy and the Fiercegale Legion will also return," said the Second Highness.

Lorist raised his silver cup and said, "A toast for you, Your Highness. I believe that the Second Prince has been taught a harsh lesson by Duke Melein this time around and will have to rest and recuperate his forces for a few years. That way, there won't be able conflict between them and your kingdom so you can start building up your own forces."

The Second Highness furrowed his brow before he shook his head and said, "Originally, I was prepared to station the Fiercegale Legion at Nadegas City to defend against any attempts by the Ironguard Legion to invade. However, I received another piece of information that the Four Allied Duchies which used to attack the First Prince's Redlis Kingdom recently have signed a peace treaty with the First Prince. Even though the First Prince lost some land to them, he didn't lose too many of his forces and is still a force to be reckoned with. That is one of the larger factors that prompted him to agree with the peace talks.

"What I'm worried about is that the First Prince and the Four Allied Duchies would turn their sights on my kingdom after they cease hostilities. Before this, my kingdom was rather unstable and the First Prince was not interested with us and chose to attack the Four Allied Duchies instead because there was more for him to gain by doing that. That's also the reason my kingdom didn't prioritize the defense of the border near the Redlis Kingdom and it's also why my elder brother refused to take over the Benz Citadel back then: mainly, we didn't have any extra soldiers nor did we see a need for defending the place.

"Currently, the citadels around the border there are manned by only a few garrison forces. If the First Prince stops all conflict with the Four Allied Duchies, then I wIll have to send more men to defend that place as well. When the Fiercegale Legion returns, they can at most keep only the First Prince at bay. That way, Nadegas City will have a shortage of soldiers and we'll need to start yet another recruitment drive and that in turn requires more food supply as well. How troubling..."

Lorist smiled and said, "If you require some food, then our convoy can leave the nets behind before we leave and you can catch some fish within the lake to use for yourself."

The Second Highness toasted Lorist to thank him for the kind gesture.

"However, in the long term, I believe that if Your Highness can occupy Lichtana Citadel, you will be able to hold the initiative to act against the Madras Duchy. As long as you modify it a little bit, this citadel can be a source of worry for Duke Madras and you might even get the chance to take the whole of Yungechandler Province for yourself and add it to the kingdom," Lorist said as he looked at the Second Highness optimistically.

The Second Highness made a bitter laugh before he sighed and said, "You're right about that. However, even if I'd like for that to happen, I do not have the ability to carry it out. Even if we ignore the fact that the terrain around Lichtana Citadel makes it hard to besiege but easy to defend, the presence of the Ironguard Legion itself will be troublesome enough. Without more than 10 times their numbers and a long period of besieging, I think it will be hard for me to take the castle."

"How about this... If you can lend me 20000 soldiers, I might be able to help you conquer Lichtana Citadel and hand it straight too you," Lorist suggested during the pause after the Second Highness expressed his worries.

"What did you say? You have a way to occupy Lichtana Citadel?" said the Second Highness wide-eyed with surprise. He didn't even notice that he had dropped his silver cup onto the table unconsciously.

Lorist nodded and said, "I discovered a weak point of the citadel and I have a plan that I think will work. However, I don't have enough soldiers myself. If you can lend me 20000 men, I am rather confident that I'll be able to conquer the citadel."

"I'll lend you 30000! If you can conquer it for me, it doesn't matter even if you have to sacrifice all 30000 of them!" said the Second Highness emotionally as he started pacing around excitedly.

Lorist laughed out before he said, "The casualties won't be so bad either. I estimate that we will lose 6 thousand in the worst case."

"That's impossible. The ones defending the citadel are the Ironguard Legion. They are famed for being the best at defending against sieges! How will you be able to attack the citadel and succeed by only losing 6000 men?" asked the Second Highness as he looked at Lorist with doubt.

"Your Highness, I won't be attacking the citadel. In fact, I'll have them come out to attack me. We will be on the defending side," Lorist said.

"Wait, what do you mean by that? The Ironguard Legion will attack while we defend? Where would we defend? Unless they've gone insane, they wouldn't abandon the castle to come and attack us..." said the Second Highness. He believed that Lorist was merely bullshitting as he thought that if he put himself into the shoes of the commander of the Ironguard Legion, he definitely wouldn't send his men out to attack Lorist's forces at the cost of leaving the citadel unguarded.

"Hehe..." Lorist started to laugh out loud before he said, "Reidy, bring the fortification blueprints of Lichtana Citadel out here."

Reidy quickly retrieved the blueprints Lorist bought from the bookstore of Vanades City and laid them on the table.

"Your Highness, come here to take a look. This is the situation of the internals of the citadel."

The Second Highness was quite surprised that Lorist was able to obtain documents like that, but Lorist didn't tell him that he got them for one imperial silver coin a piece and thought, I better just let him imagine how I got these without telling him...

After studying those blueprints, the Second Highness was still unable to figure out how to attack the citadel and felt that the least amount of soldiers they would need was 10 times that of the Ironguard Legion that was stationed there.

Lorist pointed at the small pond within the citadel's map and said, "Your Highness, don't you have any thoughts on this pond over here?"

The Second Highness shook his head and said, "While this pond is a little on the small side, it's still enough to sustain the water needs of the soldiers within the citadel and can even be used to extinguish any fires within. I believe that this spot wouldn't be the weakness that you just mentioned."

"Your Highness, look here. The Lichtana Citadel is constructed upon a steep slope and the pond's water is sourced by rerouting a waterfall nearby the mountain peak through the swamp. That's why the water within the pond can last them indefinitely and can even fill up the moat around the citadel. If we can find the rerouted waterway within the swamp and dam it up, we will be able to make sure that the citadel would use up all their water within ten days. Do you think the soldiers there can continue to defend it at that time?"

Initially, Lorist's words made the Second Highness feel a tinge of excitement, but after looking at the map once more, he shook his head and said, "We won't be able to reach the waterfall from our side and must first pass through the citadel and hike the mountain from there. Now that there is also another blockade between the Bread Hills and Lichtana Citadel, we will still have to lose quite a bit of people to be able to break our way through."

Lorist said, "You don't need to worry about that and our convoy will eliminate the forces at the Bread Hills. As long as the Bread Hills fall into our hands, we will be able to dig out a trench to build mud walls just outside the firing range of the ballistas at the citadel to surround it. When we cut off their water source, it will be their turn to attack us. That's what I meant when I said that we would be defending against their attacks instead. I wonder how potent they are at attacking..."

"Alright, Locke. Your plan sounds reasonable and viable. What do you need me to do?" said the Second Highness as he agreed.

"It's simple. Your Highness only has to send your troops to the citadel and station them outside it to attract the attention of the soldiers within. When I occupy the Bread Hills, your troops will only have to dig out a trench. After that, I will leave the defense against the Ironguard Legion's attacks to you. Does that sound fine?" Lorist asked.

"Yes, of course it does. I also want to see the Ironguard Legion's offensive capabilities for myself," said the Second Highness as he knocked onto the map with his fist. "Ten days, Locke. I only need ten days to bring our Royal Local Defense Guard over here. Since the Ironguard Legion shot to fame from battling them, I will use the guards to defeat the Ironguard Legion this time around..."

Chapter 156 Kill During the Darkness of the Night

The clouds once again obscured the Silvermoon, causing the realm to be completely blanketed in darkness. The once sparkling surface of the lake returned to its former dimness and the view of the opposite bank could no longer be seen.

'Kill during the darkness of the night, burn when the winds are strong.'[1] Lorist wondered why he suddenly recalled that saying and felt that it described their current situation a little too well.

Currently, he was standing at the bank of the lake. A breeze from the lake could be felt blowing in his direction and causing the cape he wore around his armor to flap around in the air.

Standing behind him was Patt and Reidy who were both holding two horses each. Three of the horses were mounts for them while the extra one served as a reserve. To the sides of those horses hung quivers of javelins that shook from the blowing wind.

Behind the three were rows and rows of soldiers assembled neatly in their formations. They were all equipped with the same purple and brown armor which had a silver-colored insignia of a white lion on the left of the breastplate. In their right hands were long pikes of similar length and their left hands held the reins of their respective war horses. The soldiers all donned the same purple and brown cape with similarly-colored riding shields strapped to their left arm while a sword sporting the similar color scheme could be seen hanging to the left of their waists just beside the tassets near their thighs. They were also equipped with riding boots which were mounted with stirrups.

This was the elite force of the Norton Family which served as the main escort for the convoy: the heavy-armored cavalry. After switching to using the gear of the Whitelion Legion, they looked even more imposing than before.

Every soldier stood disciplined and silent as if they were nothing but iron sculptures. Their silence was only broken by a few occasional horse neighs.

A whiff of killing intent could be sensed emanating from the companies of soldiers that would send a chill down one's spine, especially so if coupled with the cold breeze of the lake.

The Silvermoon once again revealed its face, shedding a gentle moonlight that once again covered the land.

While the lake started sparkling again from the moonlight, the distant bank of the lake was still covered by a dense layer of fog which blocked the view of the opposite side.

The Locke Fishing Boats were placed within the lake one meter apart from each other, with each connected by a two-meter-broad wooden board which effectively made them into a path that stretched indefinitely into the fog amidst the lake.

Further away, two silhouettes could be seen, one running faster than the other, causing the pontoon bridge to shake slightly from their quick steps.

The two were Ruhr and Mort who stopped in front of Lorist while breathing ragged breaths. "Milord, the pontoon bridge has already connected to the opposite bank. Sir Els had us come here to report that it's already time to cross."

"You did well," Lorist said while he nodded, before he stepped onto the bridge. Ruhr and Mort helped take the mounts from Patt and Reidy before they followed behind Lorist onto the bridge.

The soldiers on the bank started to make their move as well. One soldier after another got into a line with their mounts and started boarding the bridge.

Lorist had walked for more than ten minutes on the bridge that was 400 plus meters long and he could feel it shaking slightly behind him and the resulting vibration caused waves to form in the lake beneath it.

Within moments, one heavy-armored cavalryman after another arrived at the opposite bank and gathered at a spot under the guidance of the guards. Soon, they got into their two respective companies and were all mounted.

Lode Wales got off the bridge and came to Lorist before he said, "Milord, should we depart now?"

Lorist said in a soft voice, "Yes, let's go."

The whole group proceeded to travel through a dark forest path. On the way, they would occasionally make markings on the trees that shone under the illumination of the moonlight with limestone chalks.

All the hooves of the horses were also fitted with thick leather coverings to muffle the sound, causing low and heavy thumps to ring out as they traveled.

After one hour and a half, three hoots like that of a night owl could be heard in the distance. Els who was at the very front of the group stopped his horse and caused the rest to follow suit.

Three figures emerged from the trees of the forest and the foremost figure said something to Els before he brought his two comrades back into the forest.

"Milord, the enemy camp is around 1 kilometer from here. I believe we should ride the rest of our way there. Even though we've muffled the horse hooves, the slight vibrations we are causing might alert the enemy anyway. We must be able to catch them by surprise before they can react," Els told Lorist.

To ensure the success of the surprise attack, Els had led half of the elite guards of the main camp of the convoy to secretly cross the lake and eliminate the sentries over there and successfully locked down the path from the camp to the base in the hills.

"Pass my order down. Everyone dismount and put on the bridles on the horses. Lead your horses along with the reins as you walk and make sure to not make any sound," Lorist instructed Patt.

After an hour of traveling, outside the enemy camp, some guards could be seen leaning on the walls while taking a nap with the sentries on the two tower outposts also seated and relaxing. Perhaps due to the soldiers not being stationed at the frontlines, the security of the camp was surprisingly lax.

"Milord, I will bring some men to take care of the sentries on the watchtowers and open the gates," Els said, before he disappeared into the darkness.

"Everyone, stand ready and follow the plan." After Lorist finished giving his order, he kneeled down and untied the leather cloth covering the hooves on his horse.

Within but a quick moment, a few figures suddenly reappeared near the camp gates and slain the four napping guards within a flash, causing them to slump down against the wall powerlessly and entering their eternal slumber.

One of the figures nimbly climbed up one of the watchtowers like a tiger and quickly descended from it before he climbed the other one...

As a result, the gates of the camp quietly opened...

Raising his pike in his hand, Lorist shouted, "Kill!"

The sound of the running horses broke the former silence and tranquility of the night and the mounted troops traversed the 100 plus meters of distance towards the camp gates within seconds. Lorist was riding at the forefront of the troops and began slaughtering away at the still dormant soldiers within the camp.

Countless heavy-armored cavalrymen squeezed their way into the camp and before long, sounds of conflict, pain and despair intermingled.

One tent after another within the camp was set on fire. As the mounted cavalrymen rushed out of the smoke towards the half-awake and unarmed enemy soldiers within the camp, they began their slaughter without a shred of mercy. The metal hooves of the cavalrymen's mounts hammered onto the ground, leaving behind their wake, flames, corpses and flowing fresh blood.

Lorist on the other hand rode straight towards the largest tent within the camp. According to the Second Highness, the Madras Duchy had one Blademaster and seven Gold ranked knights. Naturally, the Blademaster served the duke by his side while four of the Gold ranked knights held posts within the Seamountain Legion. The Ironguard Legion was instead managed by three Gold ranked knights.

Lorist believed that there definitely would be at least one Gold ranked knight stationed at the Bread Hills given that there were over 10000 soldiers here. As long as he could take out the Gold ranked knight, the surprise attack would have been a complete success.

With a harsh swing of the pike, Lorist broke the central pillar of the main tent into two, causing the tent to collapse flat on the ground. Apart from the tens of guards within the tent who had died by Lorist's hand, the Gold ranked knight was nowhere to be seen.

Just as Lorist was going to ride around the tent and stab his pike downwards to check for any people who were playing dead beneath the tent, a loud clang could be heard from a distance, which was accompanied by a bright burst of golden light. Lorist turned his head only to see the mounted Lode Wales swinging his riding lance with a golden blade of light at the tip against the longsword that sported the same golden glow of a figure standing on the ground. The clang from before had resulted from a clash between the two weapons.

"Oh, so the Gold ranked knight is over there. No wonder I couldn't find him within the tent... Good thing Loze picked up what I missed," muttered Lorist, before he rode towards the site of battle at a leisurely pace while he reached to his back and held a javelin in his hand. After that, he paid attention to the battle between Lode Wales and the Gold ranked knight just in case he would be required to give Loze a hand.

Lode Wales danced like a rampaging tiger across the battlefield, using his mounted superiority to slash down at the enemy with his riding lance, trailing a sole line of gold within the air as the blade rushed towards the Gold ranked knight.

The knight didn't hesitate either and he continually used his glowing sword to parry one strike after another. However, as he was unmounted and using a weapon with relatively short reach, he was at a disadvantage and every parry he made caused him to move a step back.

Roaring out loud, Lode Wales struck out so harshly that the enemy knight was forced a couple of more steps back.

Repositioning his horse, Lode Wales pushed his stirrup against the abdomen of his horse and caused it to neigh loudly as it rushed forward, with him shouting out, "Kill!" at the loudest volume possible as he raised and slashed his riding lance downward.

The knight had just regained his posture when he saw Lode Wales approaching and grunted as he quickly got into a stance. He quickly raised his longsword in preparation to parry the incoming blow.

The riding lance slashed downwards with lightning speed, and just as it was about to clash with the sword, it suddenly twirled slightly into a semicircular arc that went around the longsword and its motion turned from that of a slash into a stab. The golden blade of light on the riding lance shone even brighter...

The knight hadn't expected that his opponent would suddenly switch the attacking motion like that. He suddenly detected something fishy after his sword didn't receive any feedback from the parrying motion, but it was already too late and he couldn't retrace his moves. His expression changed all of a sudden from surprise to despair before the distinct sound of blade cutting flesh resounded as the blade of the lance pierced into his chest.

"Just die," Lode Wales said as he raised the corpse of the knight into the air with his lance and flung it to the roadside, causing blood to drip down slowly from the lance.

"Well done!" Lorist praised loudly. "You're fierce as a tiger and witty and agile at the same time, allowing you to kill your enemy by landing only one strike. You shall be called Fiercetiger Loze henceforth."

Lode Wales snickered before he said, "Thank you for praising me, milord. I shall be known as Fiercetiger Loze in the future."

"That's so unfair. I've also contributed quite a bit myself, you know. Locke, give me a moniker as well," said a voice from behind Lorist.

Lorist turned his head only to see Els appear out of nowhere beside him.

"Alright, your moniker will be... Darkshadow Els," Lorist said.

"Darkshadow Els? Not bad, I like it," Els said happily, apparently quite satisfied with his new sobriquet.

"Oh, that's right. I came here for something else. Milord, look up there," Els said as he pointed his finger upward.

Lorist raised his head to look and saw that the Ironguard Legion troops defending the base at Bread Hills have been alerted by the attack at the camp below and were grouping up and heading down the mountains as was seen from the moving torches. They have already descended halfway down the slope.

"Judging by the number of torches, there should be more than 1000 people. Our guards only have tens of people sealing off the pass nearby... I'm worried they won't be able to resist," Els reported.

"They're merely seeking their deaths. I thought that they would surrender after we surround their base for two or three days. Now that they've come out, we might as well slaughter our way up to the stronghold at the hills and occupy it," Lorist said as he looked at the torches at the distant hills.

"Blow the horn and notify the Second Highness on the opposite side to launch a diversionary attack. Loze, the aftermath of this camp over here will be left to you. Rally a regiment of soldiers to dismount and follow me up the mountains for a fight on foot. Els, let's go," Lorist said as he rode his horse to the back of the army camp followed by Els who quickly grabbed a horse and rode towards Lorist.

Loud blares of horn signals proceeded to echo through the air...

The Second Highness who was pacing around incessantly at the army base stopped and listened intently before he said, "Did you hear that signal, Glacia?"

The blonde female knight replied excitedly, "Yes! It's definitely the horn signal!"

"Locke and the others succeeded!" exclaimed the Second Highness. "Men, blow the horn to send a reply. Get ready and head towards the border..."

Not too far from the barricades of the Madras Duchy at the border, countless torches were lit like the countless stars in the sky. The soldiers all shouted their war cries and the loud sound shook even the large expanse of land.

Torches around the Lichtana Citadel were also being lit by the moment, causing most of the citadel to be illuminated brightly. One leather-armored soldier after another appeared before the walls of the citadel and stared nervously towards the countless torches in the distance and thought, as long as they cross the wooden barricades, we will fire at them with our ballistas...

The route downward from the Bread Hills passed through a sparse forest. Roughly 50 meters from the soldier camp near the forest were a few tower outposts, but they had been taken care of by Els and his guards when they secured the area.

The mountain route was not wide with a breadth of only 2 meters at most. Lorist could tell that the reinforcements from the base up at the hills were about to arrive as he could already hear their curses and chattering when he neared the area.

Given that the downward route was curved in an 'S' shape, Lorist still wasn't able to get a view on the enemy forces. However, he rushed up the route with his sword drawn without saying anything else and encountered into the torch-holding Ironguard Legion soldiers at the first corner. Upon seeing Lorist, they thought that he was a messenger of their own and one of them even asked, "Stop! What happened there at the camp below?"

Lorist didn't make a sound and as he approached, he cried out "Kill!" all of a sudden.

As he swooped into the group of soldiers, he swung his longsword in quick flashes, causing one enemy after another to fall and roll down the slope.

Lorist's killing spree continued against the flow of people uphill...

Not long after, the enemies further uphill shouted, "It's the enemy! It's an enemy attack!"

At that moment, the soldiers at the lower section of the slope had broken down into a complete mess. They had to watch their feet for any fallen comrades as well as be on guard for the attacks of their enemy and were unable to pose any meaningful resistance to Lorist's assaults. In fact, their futile attempt to resist only served to further expose them to Lorist's assaults.

The enemy at the upper section of the slope quickly began their retreat while those below couldn't even if they wanted to. Lorist's moved at a quick pace and he was already halfway up the slope within moments. With nothing but enemy soldiers filling his line of sight, he killed to his heart's content.

Those Ironguard Legion soldiers were completely outclassed by Lorist alone. Their inability to work as a unit opened up even more opportunities for him to mow their numbers down one strike after another. The most depressing part was that the mess of soldiers he left in his wake still had to deal with the attack of Els, Reidy, Patt and the rest, causing some of them to even toss the bodies of their fallen comrades off the slope in desperation so that they could get some proper foothold.

As he fought his way through his foes uphill, Lorist prioritized acting against those who held torches. Without any illumination, the Ironguard Legion soldiers weren't aware of how many enemies there were and could only run all over the place in a fit of panic. Occasionally, screams of some unlucky few could be heard as they stumbled their way off the edge of the hill.

The clouds once again blocked off the light of the Silvermoon, causing the hills to once again be shrouded by the former darkness.

A little bit later, a familiar voice rang out from behind Lorist. "Milord, milord... Where are you?"

Following that, a few torches were lit at the slope and Patt and the rest could be seen ascending the hills.

Just as Lorist was going to reply, he suddenly felt an ominous, bone-chilling sensation, which caused him to lie flat on the ground instantly as he shouted, "Careful! Get on the ground right now!"

[1] Words of a Chinese poet Ouyang Xiu of the Song Dynasty. It roughly means: make your move during the best opportunity.

Chapter 157 Burn When the Winds Are Strong

Whoosh!

Six loud thunderous twangs ran out simultaneously as numerous razor sharp bolts whooshed past Lorist's body, causing a few cries of pain to ring out nearby him.

The Silvermoon once again revealed her face from beyond the clouds.

Lorist's mind was thrown into turmoil: he didn't know who behind him had gotten hit. Using the dim moonlight, he saw that roughly 20 meters away was a stone gap about 3 meters wide on the ground beyond which rows of tents were placed. Ironguard Legion troops crouching behind sandbags and rocks near the tents could be seen. Further away at the foot of the hills were countless torch fires gathered together: those were probably the men of the Second Highness who had come to aid them after receiving the signal.

Beyond the gap, a row of torches were lit and the illumination allowed Lorist to see the six sentry ballistas that were operated by a few nervous soldiers. Lorist could also see that one bow-wielding enemy soldier after another approached the gap with some orders being shouted out for the bowmen to engage in suppression fire against the soldiers of the convoy to prevent them from advancing.

"Gaaargh!" With a loud roar, Lorist leaped up from the ground and covered the distance of 20 or so meters within a blink of an eye, crossing the gap and slaughtering away at the bowmen.

Among the chaotic crowd or people, Lorist bathed in blood from head to toe as his longsword culled one enemy after another like a knife cutting through butter all around him, causing the surviving bowmen to run away in all directions with their tails behind their legs.

"Die!" A flash of silver light emanated from a pike that was thrust towards Lorist's back like a vile and devious snake. However, it was almost as if Lorist had eyes behind his back as he moved his left leg slightly and turned backward, parrying the strike with his longsword. Following that, he jumped into the air and slashed his longsword downward as he fell.

The pike-wielding Silver ranked knight didn't space out either. With but a flick of his hand, he moved his pike to intercept Lorist's strike.

As the sword collided with the pike, a loud clang rang out before the pike broke into two. With a lightning-fast slash, the sword streaked across the knight's body from his left shoulder to his right.

As if the knight had gotten struck by lightning, he slumped to the ground immediately with his body split into two before blood spurted out everywhere.

"Kill... Kill this demon... Demon..." said a stuttering voice from behind Lorist.

At that moment, blood that was not his dripped all over from Lorist's body. He currently seemed like a demonic god of slaughter that had walked out of a sea of blood in the eyes of the enemy.

Blade glows manifested on two pikes as two other Silver ranked knights rushed at Lorist at once from both of his flanks with the pikes aimed towards Lorist's two hands.

"Let's... Let's attack together... Kill him..." As the stuttering soldier said that, a blade glow manifested on his longsword before he raised it up high and rushed towards Lorist, making a vertical downward slash when he closed the distance...

Just as all that was happening, a silhouette appeared by Lorist's side holding a sword with a silver blade glow and thrusting it towards Lorist's heart.

Even though it was four men on one, Lorist didn't feel anxious at all. From his point of view with his dynamic vision, he could see the attacks and predict the trajectory of each and every one even though they were really fast in actuality. The slightest opening during those attacks revealed a huge opportunity for him to strike back at his foes.

The first attack that was about to connect was the pike headed for his left arm. Lorist stepped back slightly and angled his body from the waist up backward slightly as if he hadn't moved at all, causing the pike to miss his body by a hair's breadth. Subsequently, Lorist grabbed onto the handle of the pike and pulled it towards the other pike coming from his right, intercepting the incoming attack.

As the two pikes collided, Lorist pushed the pike in his hand upward, causing it to knock the other pike upward as well, forming a cross-shaped guard that blocked the incoming sword strike from the top with a loud clang.

Having released the pike in his hand, he jumped forward and flicked the longsword in his right hand, knocking the glowing sword of the silhouette beside him, and with another twist of his hand, the longsword headed towards the chest of Lorist's sneaky assailant.

The silhouette had jumped forward with all the force he could muster and had intended to strike when Lorist was occupied with the two other attackers. However, he didn't expect that Lorist would start retaliating by targeting him first. With his sword knocked away, his chest was exposed completely.

The silhouette attempted to stop only to find that his momentum continued to propel him forward as he cried out, "Ahh... No, don't! Ugh!"

Not much had to be said; Lorist's longsword pierced straight through the chest of the assailant and emerged from his back.

Within a short moment of two eye blinks, Lorist had already killed one of his attackers.

The other three Silver ranked knights still had their weapons entangled together and were frantically trying to pull themselves apart. To save time, Lorist didn't pull his sword out from the body of the first one he killed and merely swung it with full force, causing the sword to rip apart the former assailant's body and travel towards the other longsword user.

The sword-wielding Silver ranked knight hurriedly pulled his sword away and positioned himself to intercept Lorist's strike. However, Lorist suddenly changed his slash into a thrust, causing the knight to react by swaying his sword around in a panicked attempt to knock Lorist's sword away. Just before the two swords crossed, Lorist's longsword stopped just ever so slightly, causing the Silver ranked knight's sword to not hit anything, creating an opening for Lorist to push the longsword into his foe's throat.

"Agghhh!" As the Silver ranked knight was dying from the blood flowing out of him, the blade of a pike suddenly emerged from his body and headed towards Lorist. It was the first pike-wielding Silver ranked knight that had pierced his pike through his comrade's body without any regard the moment he saw him dying from the wound at his throat in an attempt to catch Lorist off-guard.

Naturally, an attack like that didn't pose a significant threat to Lorist. However, he was shocked that the Silver ranked knight would be so cruel as to use his fallen comrade's body as a shield. In a fit of rage, Lorist's body jerked and avoided the blade of the lance before he drew his longsword with his right hand and swung it forward. The blade of his sword flashed like lightning as it decapitated the pike-wielding knight with one blow.

The other pike wielding knight was already shivering non stop. Even though it had only been a short while, he noticed that the rest of his comrades had died off the moment he awoke from his stupor.

Seeing the knight holding the pike with shaky hands, Lorist said in a deep voice, "Discard your weapon and kneel if you want to be spared!"

That Silver ranked knight crumbled mentally completely before he tossed the pike at Lorist and ran off immediately.

Lorist's body swerved to avoid the airborne pike and he grabbed onto its handle before throwing it back in the direction it came from.

That escaping Silver ranked knight's body shook as the pike pierced his body and emerged on the other side before he landed flat on his face on the ground and let out his final breath.

After the soldiers nearby witnessed the deaths of the four Silver ranked knights, they ran towards the barricaded area frantically while letting out panicked cries. In their haste, they had cast away their helmets, armor and even their torches, pikes and shields.

"Milord! Milord!" Patt's shouting voice could be heard coming from behind.

Lorist was glad that Patt hadn't been hurt. He called out, "I'm here. Watch out for the gap on the ground."

After taking a few steps, he picked up a still-lit torch that was on the ground.

A huge group of people followed behind Patt as he jumped over the stone gap. The next person to do so after Patt was Reidy.

"Are you guys alright?" Lorist asked excitedly, before he turned and pointed to the enemies that were running away behind him and said, "Patt, bring some men with you and don't let them get into formation to resist."

Patt waved his hand and called out, "Kill them! Go!"

The group of people rushed forward and headed towards the area of the tents before they cursed out loudly. It seemed that there was yet another stone gap over there and the first few heavy-armored pikemen didn't notice it and fell into it. It was fortunate that the gap wasn't too deep and the soldiers who fell were merely injured but managed to retain their lives.

"Reidy, go and light up the tents over there, both to illuminate the area and to signal for the Second Highness's reinforcements. We will take this base with a pincer attack!" Lorist instructed Reidy before he called out to the guards nearby and said, "Hey, turn the sentry ballistas around and push them over there..."

One tent after another was set aflame, sending thick waves of smoke up into the air. The fire burned ever more brightly with the strong winds, sending out a wave of light that dispelled the darkness around Bread Hills.

Reidy didn't set all the tents on fire as Lorist had instructed but instead asked some men to dismantle the other tents and toss them into the fires that were already burning. Without delay, ten bonfires could be seen at the Bread Hills.

"There's a wooden bridge here!" With the illumination of the burning fires, some soldiers discovered that a few wooden planks were placed over the gaping stone gap on the ground. They quickly crossed it and resumed their pursuit towards the enemy who were trying their best to assemble in a fit of panic.

It was only now that Lorist was able to get a clear view of the Bread Hills. The terrain was truly true to its name: there was not a single tree nor grass on the hills and the whole hill area seemed like a round, long bun that was placed on the ground. It was estimated to be around the size of two soccer stadiums and its most striking feature was the two large stone gaps that made the hills look like scored buns.

At that moment, Lorist was standing near one of the largest bonfires. That spot was the tallest part of the Bread Hills and the Ironguard Legion had probably set up their base there where rainwater didn't gather up.

At a barricade not far away, there was still an estimated 1000 soldiers, around 800 of which whom were getting into a line formation and preparing to intercept the incoming heavy-armored pikemen. So far, less than 200 of the pikeman had crossed the stone gap with the wooden bridges and they were assembling into a square formation under the orders of their commanding officers to march towards the enemy. However, as more soldiers crossed the bridge, the square formation eventually turned into a line formation. The distance between the two groups of soldiers was around 60 meters now and they would clash within the first moments of a charge.

Some soldiers at the enemy lines could be seen moving the tens of sentry ballistas from their original positions. However, it took much effort and time for them to do so and just as they were halfway done, they noticed more soldiers coming from the bottom of the hills when a horn tune was blown for them to begin their charge uphill, causing the Ironguard Legion soldiers who were moving the ballistas to argue on whether they should put the ballistas back where they were to fend off the enemies coming from below the hill or continue to move it forward to aim it against Lorist's troops who were about to begin their charge at any moment.

Lorist saw Patt step out from the formation in an attempt to give the enemy a final ultimatum as the soldiers behind him cried out, "Kill! Kill! Kill!"

Gradually, the soldiers standing at the front of the Ironguard Legion's formation dropped their weapons, causing the rest to follow suit. In the end, all of the enemy soldiers cast away their weapons and surrendered completely.

The heavy-armored pikemen let out booming cheers as Patt led them forward to apprehend the enemy soldiers, thus occupying the main base area.

"Well done!" Lorist exclaimed. He continued to give an order, "Blow the horn to indicate that we've conquered the Bread Hills and hang the Raging Bear Flag of our family up at the base."

The tune of victory blasted throughout the night sky as the flag of the Raging Bear flapped proudly at the base, illuminated brightly by the burning fires.

A blonde female knight quickly rushed up the slope and dismounted before she sprinted towards the barricade that was constructed from stacked up rocks and vaulted over it, landing beside a ballista nearby. Just as she drew her sword and readied herself for battle, she was greeted only with the sight of the heavy-armored pikemen who wore the equipment of the Whitelion Legion.

Seeing the blonde-haired knight arrive, Lorist stepped forward and greeted her. "Cousin Glacia, why have you come?"

Glacia, noticing the blood all over Lorist's body, cried out in surprise. "Why do you look so bloody? Are you hurt anywhere?"

"Hehe, I'm fine. This blood is not mine. I'm not hurt in the slightest," Lorist said, before he noticed a crestfallen Reidy walking towards him.

"What's wrong, Reidy? Did something happen?" Lorist asked.

"Milord... Just now, when we reached the peak of the hills, Brother Els fell off it..." Reidy reported the shocking news to Lorist.

"What did you say? What happened to Els?" Lorist said as he started in surprise. At that moment, he recalled the ballista bolts that whooshed past him back at the first stone gap...

"When we first arrived at the peak and were calling out to you, we heard your warning and Patt and I got on the ground right away. However, the rest that followed behind us didn't manage to react in time and many got knocked off the peak by the ballista bolts. Ruhr also got hit by one bolt and as he was sent flying back, he banged into Brother Els and the both of them fell down from the peak. At that time, Patt and I were so shocked from the ballista bolts that came flying that we were unable to get up. However, we managed to get ourselves together after we thought of your safety and didn't yet know that Els had fallen off the hill. We only got to know this after two guards that followed behind Els before he fell told us about it when we were setting the tents on fire," said Reidy with an almost crying expression.

"Send a search party out immediately! If he's alive, we have to find him! Even if he's dead, we must find his corpse! If anything happens to Els... I will definitely bury the Ironguard Legion alongside him!" Lorist shouted his orders with a solemn face. At that moment, his mind was only fraught with worry for Els's well being and he no longer felt any of the joy from conquering the base.

"Yes, milord," Reidy said before he gathered some men to begin his search, only to stop when he heard sounds of battle and a horn blowing the tune of charge.

"What's going on over there?" Glacia asked as she looked towards the distant, dark army camp.

One torch after another in the distant valley lit up and allowed the rest on the Bread Hills to observe the situation. From Lorist's vantage point, Terman could be seen leading his knight brigade in a charge straight up the slope of the other mountain valley with no one being able to obstruct them whatsoever.

The Silver ranked knights at the front of the charge manifested their silver blade glows on their riding lances and cut through their enemy relentlessly. Within moments, the enemies that gathered at the middle of that valley got completely smashed apart as cries of pain and despair resounded throughout the battlefield.

"The enemy is finished," Lorist said without much emotion.

Seeing Glacia's confused expression, Lorist explained, "We have already made arrangements for an ambush at the valley over there for the reinforcements of the troops from Lichtana Citadel. First, we had our mounted archers release some volleys of arrows to thin down their numbers before we had the knight brigade charge in and break their formation with the mounted archers securing the other side of the valley. That's why, cousin, you don't have to worry about any of the reinforcement troops escaping."

"Locke, I really didn't think that you would be able to form a knight brigade like this... Can you..." Glacia said as she stared at Lorist with a pleading look.

"Cousin, if there is a request that will leave the both of us with hard feelings, please refrain yourself from bringing it up. I formed this knight brigade through the best of my efforts with the benefits of the family in mind. In the future, I would even expand it into a Silver ranked knight brigade. However, if you are willing to leave the Second Highness and return to the family, I will let you lead and command this knight brigade," Lorist said, diminishing the hopes of Glacia.

"Stingy fellow..." Glacia mused before she stopped saying anything else.

Within an hour, another horn tune could be heard coming from the valley.

"The enemy has been eradicated," Lorist said as he released a breath of relief. "The sky is already brightening up. Cousin, you can have your men start to form a defense line right now. I'll leave the sentry ballistas to you. Aim them in the direction of the citadel so that we have something to fall back on just in case. I need to go now."

Chapter 158 Worriless Journey North

Lorist felt really worn out as he had firstly killed his way up to the base on the hill and eliminated the Ironguard Legion soldiers who were guarding the base with ballistas. In the end, he even eliminated five Silver ranked knights and he was completely drained after that. That's why he later ordered Patt to lead the heavy-armored pikemen who had just arrived to help out in the efforts of conquering the base.

But even so, Lorist had no choice but to wait within the main tent as he still had some matters to settle, especially given that Els had fallen off the hill and was yet to be found, causing Lorist immense worry.

Lorist's whole body was still covered in blood that was half-dried up from the mountain breeze, resulting in an itchy and sticky mess which caused him much discomfort. The moment he returned to the newly erected main tent at the army camp at the foot of the hills, Lorist stripped his bloodstained clothes off and donned only a loose robe as he waited for the news.

At that moment, Yuriy, Terman and Potterfang walked into the tent.

"Milord, the enemy's 5000 troops were eliminated and we managed to catch up to 3000 of them alive. Potterfang already killed the Gold ranked knight commander," Yuriy reported.

"Good work, Pog," Lorist praised.

Potterfang said as he smiled and shook his head, "Well, it wasn't completely due to me. Had the Gold ranked knight not suffered three arrow shots already, I'm afraid I might get tangled up with him much longer."

Lorist nodded and asked, "How are the casualties?"

Terman stepped forward and said, "We lost 7 Silver ranked knights and hundreds of other soldiers."

A shroud of silence descended onto the tent after that report.

After some time, Lorist sighed and said, "Collect their bodies and cremate them so that we can bring them back to give them a proper burial at the Martyrs' Graveyard back at the dominion. That place is where brave warriors who have sacrificed themselves for the sake of the family are enshrined."

"Yes, milord," Terman replied solemnly.

Yuriy then asked hesitantly, "Milord, I heard Els is..."

"He fell down from the hill and I've sent a search party to look for him. It's already nearing dawn and I believe we should be receiving word of it now. Well, the Bread Hills isn't that high up compared to other mountains... Don't worry, I'm sure Els will be fine," Lorist said in an attempt to console both Yuriy and himself.

"And Yuriy, your role in the next battle is an important one. Head to the route towards Vanades City and make sure to seal off the entire road. We must not let news of this incident tonight spread out. Remember what I said before: we must make the enemy blind and deaf to all that is happening. We'll have to depend on the performance of your light cavalry scouts this time around," Lorist said as he patted on Yuriy's shoulder. "Don't worry, I will definitely tell you all the moment I receive any news about Els. Trust me, he'll be fine."

"I understand, milord. Please be assured that my light cavalry scouts will definitely carry out the mission properly," Yuriy replied in a serious tone as he stood straight up.

"Pog, the next phase of the plan will be up to you. I'd like you to try to impersonate the men of the Ironguard Legion to attack Vanades City. If we are successful and manage to occupy it, seal off the city and head towards Xith Castle immediately. As long as we can take that castle, we will be able to keep the Seamountain Legion of the Madras Duchy within the Sidgler Province. That way, our convoy won't have to worry about being obstructed by them when we cross the duchy.

"If it fails..." Lorist paused as he furrowed his brow before continuing, "We must at least keep Vanades City within our control. That way, we can prevent our convoy and the vagabonds from being stranded at the Yungechandler Province. Yuriy and his light cavalry scouts will surround the Vanades City and Pog, you shall lead the heavy-armored cavalrymen and the mounted archers to engage in stalling warfare. When the heavy-armored infantry and the carroballista unit arrive, we can attack it with full force to conquer it.

"If surprise attacking Vanades City doesn't work, Loze will have to bring his two regiments of heavy-armored cavalrymen to face off against the castle. I believe that even if the Seamountain Legion comes, they wouldn't dare to engage in an all out battle with us. If it's the contrary, I'd like to see how their soldiers perform against our heavy-armored cavalry..."

In Lorist's original plan, after taking the base at Bread Hills, he would have his men to attack Vanades City and Xith Castle immediately to ensure that the convoy would have nothing to worry about during the rest of the journey.

The first group to depart was Yuriy's light cavalry scouts, Pete's mounted archer company and Lode Wales's three regiment of heavy-armored cavalrymen with Potterfang as the chief commander of all those units. As for Potterfang's newly-formed heavy-armored infantry army, they would leave with Dulles's carroballista unit.

Hence, Lorist would only have Terman's knight brigade and the main camp's guards by his side. He still had to stay behind to assist the Second Highness with cutting off the water source of the Lichtana Citadel and Charade would be busy leading the convoy's members and the vagabonds to the space beneath the Bread Hills with the aid of Freiyar and Malek's garrison legion to prepare for the continuation of the northbound journey.

"That's what we'll do. Be careful and godspeed to you," Lorist said.

"Thank you, milord," said Potterfang and Yuriy before they saluted and left to prepare for departure.

"Let's go and check out on any news of Els. Why haven't they reported anything yet?" Lorist told Terman in a worrying tone.

After exiting the tent and walking for a while, Lorist saw a guard rushing over hurriedly. "Milord, we found him... Sir Els is still alive..."

Ruhr however was dead. There was still a huge ballista bolt sticking out of his body.

Els was quite fortunate that he wasn't struck by a bolt and was instead knocked off the hill by Ruhr. At that time, he still wasn't aware of the danger and just as he was two steps away from arriving at the top, Ruhr suddenly flew backwards towards him. He even tried to catch Ruhr but was instead knocked flying along with him. As he was falling from the height of around 50 meters, he hurriedly circulated his Battle Force to shield his body and fell towards a huge tree branch that broke his fall before he landed to the ground. He was severely injured with many of his organs injured by the fall, but he still managed to cling onto his life and would require no less than four months to recover.

When Lorist met Els, he was still conscious. With a pale face, Els made a bitter laugh and said, "Why am I so unlucky... I had only recovered from resting three months after the battle at Green Plains... Now I'll have to sit tight for four more months... Sigh..."

Letting out a relieved breath, Lorist smiled and said, "Maybe it's just your fate to be injured greatly during every large scale battle. Hehe, alright, you better go get some proper rest. Don't worry about the rest of the stuff here, I'll handle it."

Els's main injuries stemmed from his damaged organs, so he had to rest and was forbidden to ride on a carriage nor a horse. Lorist had no choice and could only have someone carry Els back to Nadegas City where he would live within a rented house to recover. He also instructed some guards to stay back there to watch over Els and bring him to the Northlands when he's better.

After settling the matter of Els, Lorist returned to the camp and instructed Reidy to get him some bath water with which he could wash off the dried up blood on his hair and body.

After that, Lorist fell asleep half-leaning on the bath tub.

He slept soundly and only awakened noon on the next day.

Noticing that he was currently in bed, he believed that Reidy must have moved him there during his sleep. After stretching and yawning, Reidy entered the tent and said, "Milord, you're awake. The Second Highness visited during the afternoon yesterday and waited until the night. After seeing that you were still asleep, he left without wanting to bother you. I believe he'll be coming back later today."

Just as Lorist was having his meal a little while later, the Second Highness did in fact come. Seeing Lorist awake and well, he was incredibly happy. However, he declined the offer to dine with Lorist and settled with a cup of wine and waited patiently for Lorist to finish his meal.

In actuality, the Second Highness didn't have anything important to say during his visit to Lorist. He came over mainly because he heard about how Lorist rushed into the base of the enemy alone and started slaughtering away at the troops, something which, even the Second Highness himself, a Two Star Gold fighter, felt that it was an impressive feat. Given his Battle Force prowess, the Second Highness could feel that Lorist only radiated an aura of an Iron rank and he originally thought that Lorist was only good for his strategizing and planning and didn't take note of Lorist's Battle Force ability at all.

Even though he was quite envious of Lorist's many Gold and Silver ranked subordinates, he believed that Lorist had won them over only with his charisma and understanding of the human heart alone. Now that he reconfirmed that Lorist's Battle Force was really at the Iron rank, he thought that it was indeed possible for Lorist to have led his men at the very front but refused to accept that Lorist had personally went up there before the rest of his men arrived and thought that the rumor was possibly fabricated so that Lorist, the new family leader of the Norton Family, would have a legendary and heroic image.

After finishing his breakfast, Lorist went up to the Bread Hills again with the Second Highness and witnessed the busy scene below. Countless noncombatants were currently digging out trenches outside the firing range of the ballistas at Lichtana Citadel to build a mud wall that would circle and surround the citadel.

"Tomorrow... Tomorrow, we will cut off their water source up at the mountains," said the Second Highness excitedly.

"Didn't the Ironguard Legion send out anyone to harass the crowd down there?" Lorist asked.

"They did once yesterday but they were driven off by our ballista and longbow fire and even lost 300 of their men. Seeing that we were prepared, they also decided to begin their preparations for a siege. I'll see how they react when they notice their water supply has been cut off," said the Second Highness as he laughed.

When the night came, Lorist received Potterfang's report that Vanades City had already been occupied and sealed off by them. Entry was allowed into the city but nobody was permitted to leave. Right now, he was about to bring his men to launch a surprise attack on Xith Castle and was making preparations to disguise themselves as a merchant convoy to take the castle gates. Potterfang believed that the company of garrison troops at Xith Castle wouldn't be able to resist the fearsome assault of two regiments of heavy-armored cavalrymen.

After asking around, Lorist discovered that the heavy-armored infantry and the carroballista unit had departed during the afternoon hours ago and had headed towards Vanades City. They were estimated to arrive at the city by tomorrow evening and after helping Potterfang's forces take the castle, there was no longer anything to worry about for the journey back to the Northlands for the convoy and the vagabonds.

Afternoon the next day, the Second Highness brought two Gold ranked knights and tens of other Silver ranked knights as well as a company of longbowmen up to the Liden Mountains. After circling around it, the waterfall that served as the main source of water for the Lichtana Citadel could be seen near a slope halfway up the mountain. With a Battle Force enveloped sword, the Second Highness easily made an opening at the pool of the waterfall to redirect the water. He also found a hidden pipe under the water and blocked it up before he left the mountain with only one Gold ranked knight, leaving the rest of his men camped there to deal with the citadel soldiers that would no doubt come up to investigate the cause of their exhausted water supply.

On the third day, Charade led the convoy's people and the vagabonds towards the border to begin the journey towards the Northlands. When the soldiers at Lichtana Citadel saw all the people using the route along Bread Hills to head to the main route to Vanades City, they noticed that their plans to keep them out of the border had failed. But they still didn't realize the true magnitude of their predicament.

On the fourth day, the soldiers at Lichtana Citadel finally noticed that their water supply was cut off and when they sent someone up to the mountains to investigate the cause, their men were fended off by the attacks of the longbowmen stationed uphill. It was at that moment when they knew that their backup plan had failed completely and there was no way for them to defend the citadel in the long term.

On the fifth day, the Ironguard Legion soldiers at Lichtana Citadel sent out two regiments of 5000 plus people to launch three test attacks against the mud wall defense lines that surrounded the citadel only to be beaten back into hiding by the Andinaq Kingdom's Royal Defense Guard.

Afternoon that day, Lorist once again received a report from Potterfang that stated that the Xith Castle had been successfully conquered and the three regiments of heavy-armored cavalrymen and the mounted archers had entered the castle, hence sealing off the route to Sidgler Province completely.

Lorist was extremely delighted as he thought, now, we finally have nothing to worry about on the journey north...

At night during the sixth day, Lichtana Citadel mobilized all its forces and launched a night assault. Their main focus was attacking the northern part of the defense lines and hopefully being able to break through it.

The ones that manned the defense lines were two regiments of the Second Highness's newly-formed Royal Defense Guard. They didn't expect that the Ironguard Legion would go all out and engage in a near-suicidal attack. With the Ironguard Legion frantically attacking without regard to casualties, the two regiments of the Royal Defense Guard also fended horribly. With every squad leader and company leader of the Royal Defense Guard units there dead, their soldiers quickly crumbled and the Ironguard Legion's forces managed to find an opening outwards.

Just when the Ironguard Legion soldiers thought that they had hope of escaping, Terman, who had just been instructed by Lorist to come over, brought his knight brigade along and gave the Ironguard Legion's forces a full-frontal attack. With them being on flat terrain without any cover nor ranged weapons whatsoever, the Ironguard Legion soldiers stood no chance against the mounted knights. It was basically a massacre and only less than 3000 of the original 10000 plus soldiers from the citadel managed to retreat inside again with more than half of them injured in some way.

On the seventh day of the encirclement of Lichtana Citadel, the citadel had a desolate and dark atmosphere. Apart from that, Lorist and the Second Highness were busy cleaning up the battlefield and helping to rescue the wounded. During the era of cold arms, night assaults like that were extremely cruel and terrifying. Of the 10000 Ironguard Legion soldiers that left the citadel to attack, more than 5000 of them turned into corpses with hundreds more so badly injured that they weren't able to return to the citadel.

Only less than 1000 out of the 5000 Royal Defense Guard soldiers survived with all of the military officers dead, some of whom were the former students of the Dawn Academy. Terman was the one who cried the most as two of the students were the elite members of the Swordsmanship Society of the academy and used to be his close friends and subordinates.

On the eighth day, the remaining 3000 plus soldiers within the Lichtana Citadel opened the gates wide and sent a messenger out who held and waved a white flag. That messenger stood before the Second Highness as he shivered and said, "Water... water..." with his dried out mouth.

The Second Highness's men proceeded to occupy the Lichtana Citadel without any resistance. However, the funny part was that the men that went to occupy the citadel arrived with wooden buckets filled with water from the Egret Lake instead of weapons in their hands.

......

On the 24th day of the 10th month of Year 1767 of the Grindian Calendar, the Ironguard Legion that was known to be the strongest in terms of defensive capability raised the white flag to surrender to the Second Highness of the Andinaq Kingdom, Auguslo. The battle for Lichtana Citadel ended within ten short days with the decimation of the Ironguard Legion with the citadel ending up in the control of the Second Highness.

Even though it was one of the shortest battles to ever happen which concluded within only 12 or so days in total, the casualties on both sides were huge with the defending side being almost entirely wiped out. The casualties of the attackers that numbered fewer than 5000 men caused many other nations much shock and awe, rocketing the reputation of the Second Highness to fame overnight as a rising star on Grindia in terms of military exploits.

The battle began as a result of a convoy belonging to one of the nobles subordinate to the Second Highness that was refused passage through the Madras Duchy on their journey back to their homeland. The blockade created by Duke Madras using the Ironguard Legion to restrict access to the people of the convoy and the vagabonds spurred the Second Highness to mobilize his troops to eliminate the Ironguard Legion to remove the obstacle faced by the convoy and the vagabonds.

Here is a recounting of the events with respect to their chronological order: The Second Highness first stationed the 30000 men of his Royal Defense Guard at the Lichtana Citadel while secretly constructing a bridge at the Egret Lake with the newly-formed Whitelion Legion. The soldiers of the Whitelion Legion then proceeded to attack the army camp at the Bread Hills, allowing the Royal Defense Guard to set up a defense line around Lichtana Citadel. The Second Highness then cut off the water supply of the citadel and forced the Ironguard Legion to emerge from the citadel to try to penetrate the defense line in a desperate attempt, which ended ultimately in their defeat.

At the same time, the Second Highness also ordered the Whitelion Legion to continue their advance and attack Vanades City and Xith Castle, causing the Seamountain Legion of Duke Madras to be sealed within Sidgler Province, establishing the foundation which the Andinaq Kingdom used to absorb the Yungechandler Province of the Madras Duchy.

The various military chroniclers and historians of the continent called this battle 'The Miracle of Egret Lake'.

Author's note: Due to Lorist's forces using the equipment of the Whitelion Legion, his men were seen as the soldiers of the Whitelion Legion by the chroniclers and historians. That's why the historical records of the continent described them as the newly-formed Whitelion Legion.

Chapter 159 Assault During a Snowy Night

By the time the snowflakes started falling to the ground, Lorist suddenly recalled that he had forgotten something really important, that was, the arrival of winter.

It was the 11th day of the 11th month. In his previous life, that day was celebrated as Singles' Day in his country. However, on Grindia, it was just another normal day like any other. For him, it was also the day the last batches of vagabonds arrived at Vanades City.

Lorist's face was incredibly glum as the coming of winter foiled his plans for the convoy to continue its journey back to the family dominion. His current priority was to secure a safe place for the convoy and the vagabonds for them to weather through the winter season for now.

"We took 25 whole days to get to here from the border... A short distance of 70 plus kilometers took us so long to travel... How much longer would it take us to reach the dominion? One year? Or two? How much food would we consume within a single day with more than 100000 people? I'm sure that after you make some calculations, you'll find that it's something that we can't afford to bear..." Lorist said with a stern look.

"It's all the fault of the vagabonds for slowing our journey down. If we traveled with only our convoy, we can travel up to 30 kilometers each day," Yuriy complained. As the leader of the light cavalry scouts who could travel more than 100 kilometers in a day, he was the one who couldn't bear the slow speed of the convoy the most.

"Look here, there is still around 500 kilometers of distance from Vanades City to Metropoulos River and at our rate, it will take us another 200 plus days to arrive and that definitely won't do. A round of snow has already fallen. Eve though Vanades City is the largest trading city of the Madras Duchy and we have obtained a bunch of food and supplies after occupying it, it's still rather tough for us to be able to sustain 100000 people comfortably through the winter. Thus, we must take certain measures to travel to Kobo City before the snow blocks off the road completely!"

Lorist pointed at Kobo City on the map and said, "This city is under the control of Duke Madras himself and it is the largest food storage location within the Delamock Province where most of the duke's produce is stored. We can see from the administrative documents we got in Vanades City that the food trade that goes on here is fully supplied by Kobo City, and last year, the duke even lent the Second Prince 40 million kilograms of food which was shipped over from Kobo City.

"Another document here that shouldn't have been announced officially yet states the estimated amount of food the duke currently owns as well as another agreement between him and the Second Prince to lend him 75 million kilograms of food with the condition that the Second Prince first pay back what he owed him. It seems that the Second Prince is pretty drained as well," Lorist said as he tossed a stack of beastskin documents on the table.

"We've got a huge burden of 100000 vagabonds on ourselves and winter is already at our doorstep. However, we're still unable to procure the necessary clothes, food and shelter for them to survive through the winter. It's already the 11th day of the 11 month and we must occupy Kobo City before the 12th month when the snowfall begins to intensify. After that, we will be able to move all the people of the convoy and the vagabonds over to spend winter there," Lorist said.

"Milord, taking Kobo City will be rather difficult. Back then, the Third Prince led 60000 plus soldiers of the Royal Defense Guard to attack that place but still had to return due to their complete defeat at the hands of the Ironguard Legion. The news of our occupation of Vanades City and Xith Castle must've spread all over Delamock Province by now and I'm sure the soldiers there must've began to make their preparations. We will no longer be able to rely on the element of surprise and a long term attack on the city might wear down the numbers of our convoy even faster," Potterfang expressed his worries.

"To allow the 100000 plus people to survive, we have no choice but to occupy Kobo City. That was then and this is now. We are not the Third Prince's Royal Defense Guard, and neither are the ones who are currently defending Kobo City the Ironguard Legion. According to the captive officers, there is only one regiment of garrison troops defending Kobo City right now, and that's why I'm confident that we'll be able to take it without problems. However, I'm still worried that even if we manage to conquer Kobo City, the 100000 vagabonds will travel too slowly to arrive there. We must find a way to transport them there as soon as possible and not let them delay us any further," Lorist said worryingly as he tapped onto the table with his fingertip repeatedly.

"I believe we can use military discipline to manage the vagabonds like the family members of our soldiers who are now within the garrison legion. We can also give them the same treatment as the relatives of our convoy's forces and allocate some carriages for them. That way, at least 60000 of them will be able to travel at the same speed as our convoy," suggested Freiyar as he stood up. As the new commander of the garrison legion of the convoy, he was well aware that his men were quite envious of the treatment received by the relatives of the formal soldiers of the convoy escort.

"That's a pretty decent idea," Lorist said as he nodded.

"But milord, we don't have enough carriages for that. We only found around 2000 carriages within Vanades City itself," Charade said with a troubled tone.

"How about this... Charade, do your best to gather vehicles within the city but leave the things of the merchants untouched. We can't afford to be transporting any supplies here and there because our priority now is to travel as quick as we can. During the expedition to conquer Kobo City, I'll leave you in charge over here. Make sure to instruct the work smiths to construct as many carriages as they can and if we don't have enough horses, use one horse for one carriage. I don't expect the vagabonds to be able to travel 30 kilometers per day like the convoy, but they must at least be able to cover 15 kilometers of distance a day."

Lorist understood Charade's behavior rather well. He noticed that the moment Charade arrived at Vanades City, his old ways began to surface and he was prepared to expropriate one third of the goods of the merchants at Vanades City to bring it back to the dominion. That's why Lorist warned him sternly to not neglect the convoy and the vagabonds for the sake of acquiring those resources.

"Pog, has the Second Highness's Royal Defense Guard been stationed at Xith Castle yet?" Lorist asked.

Potterfang replied, "They've already arrived, around 10000 of them. After I completed my mission, I handed the castle to him and returned. Loze left a little bit later with our heavy-armored cavalry regiment and mounted archers and will be arriving here by tomorrow afternoon."

"Weird, Duke Madras's reaction to this seems a little slow. Hasn't he noticed that we've stopped all traffic outward from Sidgler Province?" thought Lorist as he stroked his chin.

Potterfang laughed and said, "Milord, Duke Madras must have long known about the Xith Castle's occupation because when the light cavalry scouts entered Sidgler Province to do some probing, they noticed that the bastides there were more fortified that usual. I believe that the duke is merely unclear on whether we would attack the province or only defend the Xith Castle for the moment. That's why he didn't send out the Seamountain Legion to attack us, fearing that we will take the whole province by surprise if he leaves it undefended."

"That sounds about right," Lorist said as he nodded. "Well, since the Xith Castle is already under the Second Highness's control, we would have to hand Vanades City to him as well. That way, he can reconstruct this place into a citadel city as a main base for him to swallow up the Yungechandler Province. Right now, the Second Highness only lacks an excuse for us to give this place to him earlier. I believe that all he is wishing for right now is for us to get out of the way as soon as possible before we suck this place dry, resulting in him being unable to benefit from any resources or recruit any manpower from here.

"I want to move us to the Kobo City mainly because there is a huge stockpile of food there and it is much closer to the Northlands than Vanades City. That way, we can return to the dominion quickly when spring time comes next year. Also, I don't wish to stay over here for long because this place would no doubt become a battlefield when spring comes. I'm worried that we will be involved in the battles if we stay here for too long."

"Then, when should we depart to attack Kobo City?" Potterfang asked.

"Tomorrow morning. We will leave with Yuriy's light cavalry scouts and Terman will bring the knight brigade and follow us from behind. Loze shall also lead the three regiments of heavy-armored cavalrymen towards Kobo City. We must move quick as the time we have is limited. We will gather again when we arrive," Lorist said.

......

Six days later, Lorist was riding on a carriage with ten plus guards and arrived at a castle at the heart of Kobo City. The carriage he was in was flying the flag of the Tebri Family.

The one who received Lorist was a white-haired officer in his sixties.

"Lord Viscount, I am Chief Officer Bloom. I truly apologize because even though Kobo City is under the direct control of Duke Madras, it is both a military base as well as a warehouse area and usually doesn't allow guests within it. Lord Viscount, if you'd like to find a place of residence, you will have to travel around 5 kilometers from here where Count Kelock's bastide is located. The count is a friendly man who's extremely welcoming towards guests and I'm sure, Lord Viscount, you, will receive the best hospitality and treatment over there. As for your request to purchase some food, I'm sorry to say that I can't make the decision to approve or deny it. Usually, we are not allowed to provide any food without the authorization of the duke," said the officer as he respectfully declined Lorist's request.

"Oh, I see. It's my fault for not knowing better of the situation. Chief Officer Bloom, I also have to apologize for making such a request as this is my first visit to the duchy. I only heard that Kobo City was the central area for food trade within the duchy so I thought that it would be like the other mercantile cities where trade is usually carried out on the spot," Lorist said sadly, fully putting on an act of a disappointed noble who had traveled all the way for nothing.

"It truly pains us as well for your wasted trip. In actuality, we usually conduct our trade at Vanades City. We would only ship the required amount of food according to the orders made there. However, I've heard that the city is occupied by vagabonds now, so we can only allow the purchase if the duke himself permits it," said the old officer as he bowed down deeply.

"Oh. Then I have no other choice but to find a way to meet with the duke or wait for a little longer until the situation changes. I really thank you for your guidance, Chief Officer Bloom. I shall take my leave now," Lorist said as he nodded to the officer before he reboarded his carriage and left Kobo City.

As he looked at Lorist's carriage depart, the old officer muttered curiously, "Why would a noble from the Redlis Kingdom come all the way here to buy food? Would he be able to transport it back even if he was allowed to buy some? The Second Prince will definitely expropriate more than half of it anyway when he returns... It'll be fortunate if he's even left with a third of it..."

Lorist's carriage continued towards the east and left the range of Kobo City's security force. Within 30 minutes, they arrived at a thick, lush forest. Past the forest was a huge army outpost.

Lorist entered the tent with a gloomy face. Potterfang, who was looking at some maps, asked curiously, "Milord, why are you back here?"

"The plan didn't work. I was prepared to get a residence there so our main force can have a conspirator within the city before the attack, but I didn't expect that they didn't allow visitors to stay, even if they're nobles," Lorist said with a deep voice.

Taking a blank beastskin and an ink pen, Lorist started drawing while he talked. "Kobo City has two walls. The first one is as described according to the intelligence we gathered. It's around 10 meters high while the second wall is roughly 20 meters from the first wall and standing at a height of 12 meters. There are a few sentry towers on the two walls, but I didn't see any defensive machines of any kind. Those are probably protected within the towers. At the middle of the city is a 5-storey castle too. Even if the walls outside were breached, the soldiers can still retreat into the castle to put up resistance. As expected of Kobo City, the City of Forged Iron! What a befitting name!"

Potterfang shook his head as he watched Lorist draw the layouts of the defenses as he couldn't think of a good way to attack the place either. He turned his attention towards the outside of the tent and exclaimed, "Milord, look! It's snowing again. This is the second snowfall of the year. If we don't have a way to attack Kobo City, we'll have to move our troops back to Vanades City..."

The snow fell from the darkened skies ever so gently, before wetting the ground outside the tent.

Lorist's eyes suddenly gleamed with excitement as he thumped onto the map and said, "Gather all the Silver ranks among our troops! I will bring them on a night assault against Kobo City!"

Lorist's plan was simple: during snowfall at night, the moon wouldn't be visible in the sky and the darkness made it difficult for one to even see one meter ahead of oneself. The defending troops at Kobo City would also be more laid back than usual given the weather, as, in Grindian history, battles conducted during snowing nights was without precedent.

Having gathered the Silver ranked soldiers, they rushed to Kobo City while the skies were still dark and Lorist himself scaled the walls before he let down a rope ladder, which allowed the rest of his men to climb up the walls. After they took control of the four sentry towers, they were able to open the gates of the city and lower the drawbridge to let the rest of the troops into the city.

The second inner wall was also taken over rather quickly. As a group of men were opening up the main gates of the inner wall, the other group began their assault on the castle within the middle of the city. As long as they were able to control both of the gates, by the time dawn arrived, the regiment of soldiers would have ample time to take care of the rest of the defending enemy troops on the walls and the sentry towers who were still unaware of the situation.

Even so, attacking during the night was not without its difficulties. Mainly, one couldn't see one's own five fingers clearly as the snowfall limited the visibility of each individual to only one meter ahead. Secondly, Kobo City had a 6-meter-broad moat. How would they be able to cross it? It wasn't like they could just get a 10-meter-long wooden plank out of nowhere. It was doubtful that a board of that length even existed anyway. However, they were still able to utilize the long siege ladders, but that would increase the risk of some soldiers missing their foothold and falling through the holes of the ladder, shaking off the rest who were also on the same ladder.

Lorist's solution to that was relatively simple: the soldiers would use ropes to tie them up together like a daisy chain. Even though they would move slower as a result, it wasn't much of a problem as the enemy troops weren't able to see them either. Using that method, they managed to to reach the walls of Kobo City without any soldiers losing their way in the darkness.

"As for crossing the moat, we'll use goat skin rafts; the rafts are used by the local fishing folk to cross the river. Given their relatively light weight, they're easy to transport and there are quite a number of them within the bastide we had conquered yesterday which were used as makeshift roofs by the residents. We only need one of those rafts for this operation. After ferrying the first group of people to the opposite bank of the moat, we'll use a rope to pull the raft back from the other side for the next batch of people to cross. We'll be able to move our men across the moat quickly that way.

"When our night assault troops take the two gates and let down the drawbridges, they will blow the horn two times long and one time short. That's the cue for the regiment to light their torches and advance towards Kobo City.

"And, we're done!" Lorist said as he concluded the briefing confidently. "This is a risk that we have to take. Everyone, go make your preparations!"

Before he left, Lorist thought of Els, who was currently resting up for his injuries to heal at Vanades City. That guy has extremely good night vision and he's actually the best pick for operations like these. It's a shame that he was hurt and won't be able to join us on this operation...

Chief Officer Bloom, who was residing within Kobo City, wasn't able to sleep well given his old age; he only slept for three hours during the night before he woke up and couldn't go back to sleep no matter what. That's why he decided to wake up and light a candle to read a book to pass time until dawn. Seeing the snowflakes falling down from the dark sky above through his window, the old officer muttered to himself, "Yet another year passed just like that..."

At that time, he thought he heard three horn blaring sounds. "Those patrolling soldiers must be drunk and fooling around again... They'll be in for a beating tomorrow morning."

After that, sounds of thunder rang out repeatedly without pause.

The old officer was quite surprised that there would be thunder during a snowing night. A storm might be brewing for tomorrow... I better go to check the warehouses and see if there are any leaks that need to be fixed... Sigh...

Hearing some ruckus going on at the floor below his room, the old officer was quite mad and thought, what's going on tonight? Why is it so noisy? If the servants aren't sleeping right now, how would they work effectively tomorrow?

The old officer then put on his robe and prepared himself to head downstairs to give his servants a stern scolding. However, just as he opened the door, he saw three to four people rush up from beyond the castle walls with a ladder. They appeared before him not long after.

With the light of the candle, the old officer could see that one of them was the young noble 'Viscount Tebri' from the Redlis Kingdom that had visited just yesterday. However, that man was covered in mud and blood and he even seemed quite oblivious about it. The young man revealed his two rows of teeth and let out a standard noble's smile before he said, "I'm really glad I got to meet you again, Chief Officer Bloom..."

Chapter 160 Strategies and Plans

After receiving the report on the successful occupation of Kobo City, Charade spent 29 days to lead the convoy and the 100000 plus vagabonds from Vanades City over to Kobo City. That level of efficiency truly surprised Lorist as they had managed to traverse a distance of over 340 kilometers within a month with more than 100000 people.

Charade's method was simple: apart from the resources they transported as well as the elderly and children who rode carriages straight to the destination, he had 7 temporary campsites set up along the 340 kilometer route from Vanades City to Kobo City with each camp having 1000 transport carriages. Each camp would then focus on shipping the people from one camp to the next camp and the carriages would return to the camp to fetch the next batch, allowing everyone to travel using carriages by taking turns, shortening the length of transport as a whole by magnitudes.

The Second Highness's near 10000 Royal Defense Guard soldiers occupied Vanades City after that and headed for Kobo City with the aim of procuring some food.

Lorist on the other hand didn't mind that request at all since the city had more than what they needed. After making an inventory of the warehouses within the city, they found roughly 150 million kilograms worth of food, much to the awe of the rest. The Delamock Province did indeed live up to its name as the largest warehouse for food of the former empire. With that amount of food, there was no longer any worry for the harsh season that was to come and the people of the convoy and the vagabonds would spend it within Kobo City.

However, the Second Highness's plan to borrow some food was stopped by Charade, who said, "While lending you some food is fine and dandy, you should at least have some kind of mortgage, right? Even if you're of the royal family of the Andinaq Kingdom and have the status to rule the country, you must still act according to the nobles' traditions and customs. Surely you aren't going to think that we'll just hand out whatever amount you specify, right?"

In actuality, the Second Highness was currently even poorer than the convoy and Charade's actions were made on purpose to cause him some trouble. Even so, the Second Highness did not get mad over it and merely returned to Vanades City with a smile. Ten days later, he came back to Kobo City and shipped a large bunch of resources to them. Upon seeing those resources, Charade wanted to cry, but he didn't have any tears to shed.

Those resources were in fact the stuff of the merchants at Vanades City that Charade himself had wanted to acquire for a third of the market price. However, the Second Highness was even worse as he had taken the resources in the name of 'confiscating enemy goods' and used them as a mortgage for the food he was about to borrow. In the end, the Second Highness left Kobo City with 50 million kilograms of food and continued to have people transport the food out of the province despite the harsh winter weather.

Curious about why the Second Highness was in such a rush to ship the food, Charade went to ask Lorist privately about the matter.

Lorist's explanation was simple: the Second Highness wanted to recruit more soldiers to prepare for war.

Taking a beastskin map of the Andinaq Kingdom out, Lorist explained that when spring comes next year, the Second Highness would face two huge battles. Naturally, one of them would be the retaliation of the Madras Duchy. Lorist then pointed at the border between the Redlis Kingdom and the Andinaq Kingdom and mentioned that he had heard about the First Prince's signing of a peace treaty with the Four Allied Duchies and that the First Prince still had quite a huge military force at his disposal. With his insatiable personality, he would definitely turn to the Andinaq Kingdom as his next unlucky prey.

"Thanks to you," Lorist said as he looked at Charade and laughed, "the Second Highness managed to resolve the issue of the problematic nobles within his kingdom and stabilized the kingdom's situation and began production and development. If they can be left at peace for two to three more years, the Andinaq Kingdom will definitely rise to be a local hegemon. If we give them another 10 years to develop, the Second Highness's dream of reuniting the empire might even be possible.

"What the Second Highness lacks most now is time. So far, he's employing the strategy to conquer more land step by step in the north and defend his territory in the south. As for the First Prince's Redlis Kingdom, the Second Highness will leave the borders of the two kingdoms under the care of the Fiercegale Legion. However, given that the Fiercegale Legion has been mobilized for many battles over the years and given that they've had to weather the Second Prince's attacks, they've incurred quite a huge loss themselves. The Second Highness must replenish the soldiers of the Fiercegale Legion so that they can continue to defend the border in the long term, hence the need for more food supplies as well as equipment.

"As for the Madras Duchy, the Second Highness would definitely love it if he could conquer it. However, even though he has the will to do it, he's far from having enough military strength to take it. His plan right now is to first take the Yungechandler Province so that he can contact the Four Allied Duchies to hopefully gain some support while he suppresses the forces of Duke Madras over here. That way, he can take over the whole duchy after two years of preparation."

Charade looked at the map in deep thought before he suggested, "Milord, why don't we stay here and don't leave and have the Second Highness give Delamock Province to our family? In exchange, we can help the Second Highness take over the Madras Duchy. It's a win-win solution that I believe the Second Highness would be happy to agree to."

Flabbergasted, Lorist stared at Charade for a while before he asked, "Are you the only one who has this notion or does the rest think so as well?"

Charade gave it some thought before he said, "Two days back when I was on the walls to check out the condition of the defensive fortifications of the walls, I saw a bunch of vagabonds gathered up near the moat of the castle, so I went down to see what was going on. They were actually telling stories and folklore about the Delamock Province and Kobo City. The moment I heard that the province has tons of farmland and that was the reason it was the greatest producer of food in the former empire, I was moved. If we can take over this province, it would definitely be a great help to the family!"

Lorist laughed bitterly as he shook his head before he said, "Don't daydream so much in the future. Good things like this don't really happen."

"Why? Even if the Second Highness refuses to give the province to us, we can at least ask for the area around Kobo City since it was taken by our forces. That way, we can have the 100000 vagabonds begin farming and make a firm footing for our family within the Delamock Province," Charade said, still not satisfied without an explanation.

"Sigh..." Lorist said after he took a deep breath, "Brother Charade, your vision of things to come is too optimistic. The Second Highness will definitely not give us Delamock Province nor Kobo City, even if we help him take over the entire province. Even if we forcefully occupy a place, it would not be recognized by the Second Highness.

"Had the Second Highness been a king that was content with what he had and didn't yearn for anything else, then what you think might have a possibility of coming true. However, it can be seen that he's a person who's full of ambition given that he wants to reunite the former empire one day. That's why, even though he's willing to give the whole of the Northlands to our family, he definitely won't let us touch Delamock Province.

"If you study the map properly, you'll start to understand the strategy of the Second Highness. Why did he leave so many nobles alive within the two provinces of the Andinaq Kingdom? The reason is simple: the two provinces are to be buffers to resist the First Prince's attacks and he wouldn't bat an eye even if they are ravaged from the battles that go on there. However, when you sweeped the Welbassia Province, the Second Highness didn't say a single word and let you hang all the nobles over there. That's because he wants to take the whole of the Welbassia Province into the direct control of the Andinaq Royal Family and use that as the basis for the restoration of his family's power. He will definitely not enfeoff any part of that land to any landed noble.

"Now, take a look at the map of the Madras Duchy. Essentially, the Yungechandler Province is already under the Second Highness's control. Even though the province is desolate and barren right now, the Second Highness has already eliminated the 20 plus noble families here using treason as an excuse for their punishment and left only 7 dominion lords who were earnest and willing to follow the orders of the Second Highness and serve him.

"Why would the Second Highness kill off so many nobles in the Yungechandler Province all of a sudden then? That doesn't fit his usual way of doing things. That's mainly because he wishes to also take the whole province into the territory of the royal family. Next, he will have to face Duke Madras and the Seamountain Legion which is currently at Sidgler Province. Given that the Sidgler Province is under total control of the duke without any other landed noble based there, as long as the Second Highness can take this province, he will start to deal with the other landed nobles at Delamock Province.

"Food is the most important resource for war to a kingdom after all. Without food, a kingdom wouldn't be stable at all. The Second Highness had once got the short end of the stick in the past because he lacked exactly that resource. As the province that produces the most amount of food in the former empire, there's no way that the Second Highness will let it fall into the hands of any other noble and he'll also wipe out the noble families within this province while he's at it. Either that, or he'll move the nobles that join his side to the Sidgler Province. Now, take a look at this again. If these provinces all fall into the hands of the royal family, what do you think will happen?"

Lorist took out a map of the former Krissen Empire which was divided into three kingdoms and seven duchies and drew a line across the Welbassia Province within the Andinaq Kingdom, the Madras Duchy's Yungechandler Province and the Delamock Province before he drew a circle on the Northlands.

Charade was confused as he pointed to the Northlands and asked, "What's with that circle?"

"Did you forget what the Second Highness said? When he eliminates the Madras Duchy and takes over the land up to the border of the Northlands, if us, the Norton Family, manages to take over the whole of the Northlands, he will grant me the title of the Duke of the Northlands in the name of the Andinaq Royal Family. That circle represents our family," Lorist replied.

"Under such circumstances, where do you think the Second Highness will turn his soldiers to next?" Lorist asked Charade.

Charade pointed to the Iblia Kingdom and said, "The Second Prince."

Lorist nodded and continued, "Right. This is also the other reason why the Second Highness definitely won't give the Delamock Province to us or any other noble. Only when the province is under the direct control of the royal family would he be able to move manpower and resources to the frontlines effectively. The Delamock Province and the Iblia Kingdom is split by the Sanderson Hill Range. As long as the Second Highness mobilizes his troops, he'll be able to easily breach into the territory of the Iblia Kingdom and there's no way the Second Prince will be able to hold out for long.

"We all know that the Second Prince mainly relied on his father-in-law, Duke Fisablen who commands the Frontier Legion of the former empire to establish the kingdom. If the Second Highness launches an expedition against the Iblia Kingdom, there's no doubt that Duke Fisablen will mobilize the Frontier Legion in response. That is when the Second Highness can rely on us, the Norton Family. If we deploy our soldiers from the Northlands, and coupled with the assistance of Duke Melein, Duke Fisablen will be assaulted from three fronts and be forced to order his men to retreat and sit still as he watches the Second Highness sweep past the Iblia Kingdom without being able to do a thing."

Understanding what Lorist was going to say next, Charade recited the inevitable moves the Second Highness would take. "If the Second Highness really manages to defeat the Iblia Kingdom, then the plan to reform the empire will take form and he will definitely order us to face off against Duke Fisablen while he would force the Four Allied Duchies to return to the empire. After that, he'll rally up forces to eliminate the Redlis Kingdom of the First Prince and nobody would be able to stop him. The Second Highness will thus be able to complete his ambition to reunite the empire and take the throne as the next emperor and be remembered as a heroic legend in the history books...

"The Second Highness is really playing a big game here. He has already made up his mind to use us to face off against the Frontier Legion of Duke Fisablen so that we wouldn't be able to play a bigger part in the reunification of the empire so that he doesn't have to reimburse or reward us for our troubles... He's really calculated that far ahead in his plans..." finished Charade before he sighed.

Lorist smiled and said, "This is his master plan. With everything being done so openly, he's made it so that others can have nothing to say about it."

"Then, don't we have any way to glean more benefits for ourselves in this situation?" Charade asked, dissatisfied.

Lorist shook his head and explained, "From the Second Highness's request to borrow food from us, you should be able to understand this. The Second Highness could have taken all the wealth within the radius of Kobo City to trade them with us for food. However, he chose to use the stuff he took from the merchants as mortgage instead. Even if we are able to conquer the Delamock Province, by the time the Second Highness defeats Duke Madras, what would we do if he orders us to leave the Delamock Province and hand it back to him?

"Should we disobey? Or rebel? Does that sound realistic? Don't forget that the 100000 plus vagabonds we have were originally citizens of the Andinaq Kingdom. If you have them start working away here, the Second Highness can take them back into his kingdom with but one order and no one will give so much as a damn to us because we are not the rightful rulers of this place. Only if we bring them back to our dominion can they truly become the subjects of the Norton Family.

"The Norton Family doesn't lack land at all. Don't forget that the principality the Second Highness gave us is currently unmanaged and unutilized as well. The highest priority for us now is to bring the vagabonds back to our dominion. Don't think that our convoy's escort is that mighty; in actuality, it's still far from the truly elite armies out there. The main reason they were willing to join the convoy and follow us in the first place was because they wanted a chance to allow their families to live peaceful lives in the Northlands. If we lead them into battle for the sake of land that doesn't rightfully belong to us, would they be satisfied? And how would we reimburse these brave warriors for the casualties they sustain? No one is truly an idiot, you know.

"In fact, I think that the Second Highness would be more than eager to have us stay behind at Delamock Province. That way, he can clean up the nobles in this area without staining his reputation like you did back in Welbassia Province. He'll also be able to force us away after that using all sorts of reasons and excuses. What's worse is that he can legitimately order us to support him in battle against Duke Madras.

"I don't wish for the forces of the Norton Family to become fodder for the enemy for the sake of the Second Highness's ambitions. In actuality, many others will be able to figure out his moves just like we did based on the placement of his soldiers and manpower. If he wants to succeed, he'll have to see if the other powers will give him a chance. I bet that during summer next year, the Madras Duchy will definitely turn into a chaotic battlefield. If our convoy doesn't leave by spring, we'll definitely be dragged into the conflict as well."

Lorist then stretched out his finger and pointed at the location of the Iblia Kingdom on the map.

"You're saying that the Second Prince will mobilize his forces to attack the Delamock Province?" Charade asked.

"It's not just an assault. He'll definitely want to occupy the whole place," Lorist replied. "I just said that no one's really an idiot, and neither is the Second Prince. Anyone can see what the Second Highness is planning with his obvious movements. Even if the Second Prince can't, Delamock Province is still akin to a juicy piece of meat. Do you think that with his greedy personality, the Second Prince wouldn't want to give that meat a huge bite? Even if it isn't him, I'm sure someone else will be thinking the same thing.

"Before this, the Madras Duchy had managed to keep the Andinaq Kingdom out of the province. However, now that the duchy had suffered quite a loss, someone will definitely persuade the Second Prince to join in the fray. Think about it, before this, the Second Prince was planning to borrow some food from the duke. Now that he can get the food as well as the land that produces it, do you think he wouldn't jump for the opportunity?"

"Locke, who is the someone you keep referring to?"

"Those who don't wish for the Krissen Empire to be restored as well as those who don't want the Second Highness to come into power."

"Didn't the Second Prince just incur a loss not long ago? Where would he find enough soldiers to attack the Delamock Province with?"

"He can just borrow them. Don't forget that his father-in-law, Duke Fisablen, owns the Frontier Legion which has not seen battle and has had quite a lot of time to recuperate and prepare themselves. The Second Prince just has to borrow 30000 of the 78000 soldiers to be able to conquer the Delamock Province."

"How are you so sure that the battle here will break out next summer instead of spring?"

"The Second Prince still won't be able to get enough food for his army during spring. After harvesting the wheat during summer, he'll definitely mobilize his forces right away."

"It truly is a shame to give this place up... Such a big food-producing province..." Charade said before he sighed.

"This place is kind of overrated if you ask me. Aside from being able to produce food, what else is it good for? There's no horse-breeding going on here nor are there any ore mines. The biggest disadvantage of this province is that it's completely sealed off from the rest of the world," Lorist said as he shook his head in disagreement.

"Sealed off? How so? This place is directly connected to the Northlands and the Iblia Kingdom. And past Vanades City, it is connected to the Sidgler Province and the Andinaq Kingdom. Other than that, the Four Allied Duchies can be reached through the route through Yungechandler Province. It seems pretty connected to me," Charade said curiously.

"What I meant by that was that the Delamock Province is only accessible from the territories within the former empire. Look at our family dominion over here," Lorist said as he brought out a map of the Northlands, "If we can find a bay where we can build a harbor somewhere at the Bladedge Mountains and develop our marine corps, we will have access to the sea routes and be able to reach our other dominion, the island principality that used to belong to the Second Prince. From that island, we'll be able to travel to the port at Tim's dominion as well as Morante City. From Morante City, we can travel to the Relic Islands and the Romon Empire. The degree of connectivity is quite high and we can go many places from there. Now, you understand why I'm so fixated on bringing the convoy and the vagabonds back to the family dominion, right? Over there awaits our lands which we will develop into a haven for ourselves and our people!"

"Locke, you're far more far-sighted than any of us can aspire to be..."

"Naturally. Haha, now you know why I'm the dominion lord and you all are my knights."

"Locke, don't get too full of yourself. I was just trying to butter you up with some flattery. To think that you'd actually take it all seriously..."

Chapter 161 The Long Wintery Night

Lorist put the ink-dipped pen down and looked at the crystal sandglass on his table. It was already around five at dawn, but the sky outside the windows still seemed rather dark. Past the green glass windows, he could see dense amounts of snow, each probably the size of a goose's feather, falling gently down to the ground. It has already been snowing for three continuous days and a huge pile of snow had gathered outside.

On Lorist's table were stacks of wordy beastskin documents which were mostly written by him throughout the night. When he was talking to Charade recently, it suddenly occurred to him that he still didn't have a comprehensive plan to develop the family dominion. His dominion was located at a rather desolate piece of land; while that allowed the advantage of having to defend only the Firmrock Castle to prevent the rest of the dominion from being embroiled within the flames of war, it cost them isolation and impermanence in the minds of others, both of which stemmed from not having a proper method to communicate with the outside world.

The Northern Highlands was wide with a very sparse population and spanned an area of roughly three to four times that of the Delamock Province with only less than a million inhabitants. Even the southern area of the Northlands which was the most prosperous and under the control of Duke Loggins only had around 40000 citizens at most. The main factors that had held back the development of the Northlands were the inconvenience of travel and transport as well as the lack of manpower.

From the map, it could be seen that the Northern Highlands is not situated to the north most point of the Grindia Continent. Instead, it was located at the mid-upper part of the continent. The center of the continent was considered by its inhabitants to be the Magical Dragon Mountains, which incidentally, happened to be the intersection point for three mountain ranges.

The reasoning behind the place being called the Northlands was because it represented the furthest north humans have ever developed and settled themselves in. If they wanted to go even further northward, they would have to cross the Magical Dragon Mountains and according to the maps, beyond that was the long-stretching wilderness which humans have yet to set foot on.

However, the word 'highlands' in the 'Northern Highlands' was used in a slightly different sense from the conventional meaning. Even though the Northlands is also considered a highland area, the elevation of that place relative to the rest of the flatlands of Grindia was only around 100 meters with little difference in terms of climate and weather. In actuality, in the Grindian Basic Language, 'highlands' didn't refer to the elevated terrain of the Northlands but rather its ruralness and wildness relative to the other civilizations on the Grindia Continent and it was used in a derogatory sense.

According to Lorist's plan, as long as he was able to bring the 70000 plus members of the convoy as well as the 100000 plus vagabonds back to his homeland, he would be able to alleviate the manpower crisis of his dominion and bring in huge waves of development and progress. If he was able to accomplish that, as long as he guarded Firmrock Castle tightly, he would be able to develop his dominion amidst a time of chaos without having to worry about the conflict and battle going on outside.

Personally, Lorist approved of the Second Highness's ambition of reuniting the empire. However, he wasn't inclined in the slightest to join in the effort and he didn't really care for the title of the Duke of the Northlands the Second Highness had promised him either. To him, there wasn't a point even if he managed to conquer more land as he would still be locked within the Northlands as long as the upstream and downstream passes at Metropoulos River were blockaded.

In the end, Lorist was forced to place his hopes with the western coast of his family dominion where the Bladedge Mountains was located. He refused to believe that he wouldn't be able to find a single place where a seaport could be built. If he does find one, the family would be able to establish diplomatic and trade relations with the other powers from the sea routes which were far more convenient to traverse than the land routes. He could even have his armada ship more vagabonds to his dominion for more manpower and citizens instead of using the convoy method which still hadn't completed its first run after one whole year of traveling.

Lorist noted down the stuff he intended to implement on those beastskin documents, among which included research into making proper glass, improving metallurgy, foraging for more mines, constructing cities, preparing farmland, establishing transportation routes, training elite troops and so on. Right now, the forces of the convoy and the dominion combined had around 70000 men. Lorist was prepared to lay off many youths from his forces so that they can become the main source of manpower for the development of the dominion's many infrastructures.

For the sake of ensuring the safety of the convoy and the vagabonds on their journey to the dominion, many youths were enlisted into the escort force. Lorist believed that he only had to retain a fraction of that force and reform them into an elite fighting force. With every soldier having at least Iron ranked Battle Force capabilities, even if he had only 20000 soldiers, it would be more than enough to ensure that the Norton Family dominion can be kept untouched from the conflict in the outside world.

Lorist made a mental note to himself that In another few years, when the family dominion has established a proper foundation, he would then think of expanding his influence to cover the whole of the Northlands. He recalled that he read some book in his past life that had a saying that went like this: 'without a stable foundation, no matter how magnificent the building constructed on gravel, it wouldn't to be able to weather a gust of strong wind and would collapse without question', much like the Yongle Emperor who strengthened the defense of his nation and expanded the growth of crops.

He then raised his pen and started writing down a few other things that he'd like to try to make when he returns to the dominion, namely, gunpowder and catapults. With castles being all over Grindia, using only ballistas for sieges was not the ideal solution. With armaments like gunpowder-powered weapons and catapults, however, he would have a much easier time attacking traditional castle fortification structures around the continent.

For example, Charade was only capable of conquering over 100 castles within the Welbassia Province because he had the support of the carroballista unit and the longbowmen troops. He also had the captives he caught along the way serve as troops to take most of the brunt of the enemy's retaliation. Lastly, the landed nobles within the province were not that strong in the first place, resulting in only a little more than 10000 of the captive troops ending up as casualties along the way.

Lorist himself also had a few experiences in siege warfare, but mainly, he relied on surprise attack tactics and night attacks to succeed. The only time when those tactics failed him was during the battle against Wildnorth Town. If he succeeds in developing those weapons, when the dominion is built up to a point for him to start stretching his claws out from the Northlands, tightly-fortified structures like the Lichtana Citadel would no longer prove to be an obstacle.

Ever since he returned to the dominion during the 3rd month and inherited the title of the dominion lord, Lorist had been going to and fro settling various matters without having the opportunity to sit down and quietly ponder on the future developments of the dominion. Only when he was cooped up within his residence waiting for winter to pass did he have any time to properly draft out his plans.

After looking through some of the beastskin documents within his hands, Lorist gave it some thought before he appended a few more rows of words on one document: cultural education, basic Battle Force training and papermaking.

Cultural education was rather straightforward as it only involved teaching the general populace to read and count. Even though many people knew how to speak the Grindian Basic Language, most of them couldn't read as they did not recognize the characters. As most of the inhabitants of Grindia were of the peasant class who only had to work physical labor to ensure that they were able to sustain their families, they didn't have the ability nor awareness to let their children receive good education, and that situation continued within families for generations to come.

As for basic Battle Force training, while the dominion of the Norton Family was rather huge, it was constantly under threat from magical beasts and the mountain barbarians from the Magical Dragon Mountains. Only when the citizens of the dominion awaken their Battle Force at the basic level would they have a means to defend themselves. Other than that, people with awakened Battle Force tend to have better health and vigor with higher life expectancy. To the Norton Family, it was a rather fast method to develop the dominion.

On Grindia, the common paper that Lorist was so accustomed to seeing in his past life was nonexistent and the only thing they had to serve the same purpose were beastskins, which were used ever since the days of the magical civilization. According to the legends, the magi used beastskins to make magic scrolls to record their arcane texts and grimoires. That was because only beastskins could contain the magical power that were embedded within the words of the magi. That's why the magi did not consider developing a cheaper and easier to produce material to write on for the common people.

Making beastskins was a simple and widespread process. However, large numbers could not be made as it was also incredibly tedious. Firstly, the skin of an animal had to be cut into a rectangular shape before being dipped into water for a whole day before it could be cleaned and dipped into a kind of limestone solution for more than ten days, with it needing to be beaten and stirred in the solution three times a day. That process had to be repeated three times and after 30 days, the skin would be brought out to be dried and the blood vessels and other unnecessary parts on the skin had to be scraped off manually with a small knife, leaving behind only a thin membrane which had to be immersed into a liquid grass mixture for another two days. After that, it had to be dried but not under direct sunlight before it would be smoothened and fastened to a wooden rack for three more days to be firmed. Lastly, it had to be cut into a document form factor.

This was also the reason why books on Grindia were so expensive. If Lorist intended to improve the cultural education of the citizens within his dominion, he had to first find a way to make writing material that was easier and cheaper to produce. The family would never have enough funds to let everyone use beastskin for their studies after all. In Morante City, the daily newspaper they had would be returned to the publishers so that the beastskin may be washed and cleaned for new content to be printed upon it. They would be reused until the beastskin itself spoiled from wear.

If he could make the kind of paper that was widely available in his past life, not only would he be able to further the education level of the citizens within his dominion, he could also sell the paper to the rest of the continent as the staple product of his dominion.

It was Lorist's long held belief that there was no empire nor family that would last thousands of years undefeated. The common folk of Grindia normally distinguished themselves by the place they came from instead of their nations. For instance, Lorist was from the Northlands while Charade was from the Teribo Kingdom. Lorist felt that if he could let the people of the convoy feel a pride in being the subjects of the Norton Family, he believes that the glory of the Norton Family will be able to be passed down for generations to come.

Lorist's plan for that was to use long term propaganda and indoctrination to make the hearts of the convoy members and the vagabonds stay loyal to the Norton Family. The Han Dynasty of ancient China was able to achieve such a feat, resulting in the Chinese people also being known as the Han. Lorist wanted to try to emulate them so that the folk within his dominion would be proud of their rulers and call themselves Nortons instead of Northlanders.

However, that would only take form after a very long time. Lorist thought that maybe he could even dramatize and immortalize the journey of the convoy in the history books so that the generations to come would be able to empathize with the hardships their ancestors had to weather to arrive at the Norton Family dominion. Even though Lorist had many plans to go about that, he still required easily-produced paper to be able to jump start this operation. That's why, researching how to produce paper was a rather high priority for Lorist.

As he was the owner of a small workshop back in his past life, Lorist was well-trained in many crafts such as glass working, designing and even making collecter ship replicas. However, Lorist had no proper idea on how to make paper and only knew the basic principle and materials required to do it without understanding the exact process. Thinking of the difficulty of the task he was about to undertake, Lorist sighed and thought, I guess I'll have some craftsmen work on it by trial and error when we arrive at the dominion... I'm sure they'll succeed one day...

The door of his room was knocked on lightly, prompting Lorist to say, "Come in."

Reidy pushed open the door and came in with a basin of warm water and said, "Milord, you got up quite early today. Even though it's already six in the morning, the sky outside is still as dark as it was during midnight."

Lorist washed his face and said, "Reidy, even though the weather is like this outside, you must not slack off on your training and continue working hard indoors. Training one's fighting skill requires constant practice and intense dedication. You're already at the Two Star Iron rank this year. I hope that you'll be able to break through to the Silver rank in another two years."

"Yes, milord. I understand," Reidy said.

"Alright. Do I have anything else scheduled for today?" Lorist asked.

After giving it some thought, Reidy replied, "Yesterday, Knight Charade said that you wanted to join him to patrol the residential area of the vagabonds."

"Oh, then bring me my breakfast at seven thirty. After finishing my meal, I'll go meet up with Charade," Loirst said.

"Yes, milord," Reidy said before he left.

Usually, from six to seven thirty, it was Lorist's morning training session. After training in the Aquametal Technique for one Major Cycle and moving his body for a bit, his time was up.

To Lorist, the most difficult part for his training right now was the fact that he wasn't able to grasp the progress of his own cultivation. In his past life, he didn't even reach the Dark Stage of the Aquametal Technique. Given that he didn't understand what laid beyond and didn't hear much about it from others either, he could only rely on himself to slowly find the proper way to progress in his training. Right now, even though he understood that he was in the Dark Stage, he had no clue at which point of the stage he was at. For example, back when he was at Maplewoods Bastide after he laid with Irina, he suddenly felt a rush of power that made his body feel light and refreshed. While he did not completely understand what had happened back then, he reasoned that he must've progressed a little further in the Dark Stage.

Sometimes, Lorist also felt that using Battle Force to train in his ancestral technique was a little ludicrous. However, he hasn't noticed any glaring disadvantages with that; in fact, the rate at which he progressed in the Aquametal Technique felt a little too fast. Lorist was quite confident in his current abilities and most Gold ranked fighters could no longer match up to him. However, he still didn't have the opportunity to spar against a Blademaster properly. Lorist was eagerly anticipating the chance to find out how he would hold up against a Blademaster in a proper fight.

Given that the Kobo City wasn't big, it was filled to the brim by the people of the convoy and the vagabonds. Fortunately, the Second Highness had transported a third of the food away, emptying near a hundred warehouses in the process. Coupled with the broad drying fields for the food within the city, it was just barely enough to accommodate the whole group of people.

It was still snowing and Lorist and Charade both wore a black leather mantle as they walked along the road that the patrolling soldiers had cleared up to the camp of the vagabonds.

"Locke, how did you get the idea of setting up the tents within the snow houses? Not only is it quite warm inside, that method of yours solved the problem of the vagabonds' housing almost right away. The snow houses are also cheap and easy to build, it's far too convenient," Charade said as he walked. "Did you know that if we used logs to build temporary houses, the gathered snow on the roofs would eventually collapse the whole structure? That would also require us to have people periodically clean the snow off. I didn't expect that the snow houses didn't have that sort of problem and if we pat the snow tight, it will further reinforce the structure as well."

Lorist replied, "Don't you remember that I bought lots of books during my time at the Dawn Academy? When you were busy looking for people to fine, I was reading. I learned this method from the journal of an adventurer who had lost his way in the wilderness and he used this way to survive the harsh winters. I didn't know whether that account was real or not nor did I know how effective it would actually turn out, but I drew a design anyway and you really managed to implement it..."

"You..." Charade was struck speechless. "How could you simply draft out something like that?! Good thing you were lucky this time. If the designs didn't work, it might've cost us some lives..."

Lorist laughed and said, "I was just messing with you. It's your fault for looking down on books like these and saying that the authors made the stories up to make a quick buck and refuse to even give the authors a chance. Let me tell you, that book was a proper biography and it was the work of the most prestigious adventurer around one hundred years ago, Carmen Pride. The designs I gave you were copied from that book. Some time after that book was published, some experts even tried experimenting with snow houses according to the design he provided and found that they indeed did have an insulating effect."

"......"

After a while, Charade asked, "Locke, in another few days, it will be the 36th day of the 12th month, which is the day of celebration for the new year. Do you have anything planned for that?"

Lorist thought for a few moments in silence before he said, "Sigh, on that day last year, we spent the whole night at the Red Grace Inn with the rest of our buddies, but right now we're so far away from them at Kobo City. Fate truly is unpredictable. Do you have any good ideas for the celebration?"

"You're right, none of us last year would have even imagined that we would be here today, leading so many others towards the north... I'm thinking that since we have an abundance of food now, it's better if we give them something extra to eat for the festive celebration. Also, let's throw in 500 grams of meat per person with another cup of ale while the kids can have some sweets and cookies instead. What do you think?" Charade asked.

Lorist nodded and said, "It's really thorough of you. Let's do it your way. If the snow stops falling, we can even organize some physical activities for them and let them spend the new year in happiness."

Raising his head and looking at the dark, gloomy skies, Lorist muttered, "After another month of waiting, we can finally resume our journey home."

Chapter 162 Gentle Spring Rain

"No, Uncle Locke... I took a wrong step just now... Let me redo it..." The one who said that was Pog's beloved daughter, Alisa. She was currently playing a game of magical beast chess with Lorist.

Magical beast chess was a game on Grindia that was similar to monopoly. The chessboard depicted a confusing maze where several hundred magical beast-shaped pieces were placed. The boss of the dungeon was represented by a red dragon piece in the middle of the maze. The players on the other hand were knights whose movements were restricted to the number of the dice roll during each player's turn.

It differed from monopoly in that players required good arithmetic ability to play the game because each piece had a 'score'. For instance, if a knight with a score of 10 encountered a magical goat piece which had the number 5 carved underneath it, then the knight would kill the goat without taking any damage and the knight's score would become 15 as a result. Consequently, if a knight with a score of 10 encountered a magical wolf that had a score of 9, the knight would be able to defeat the wolf but its score won't be the sum of those of the two pieces. Only when the score of the knight is double that of the beast would the knight be able to absorb the complete score of the piece it defeated. Instead, when the battle scores of both pieces were close, the knight would only get to add the difference of the knight's score and the enemy piece's score. In the case of the knight with score 10 and the wolf with score 9, the knight would end up with score 11 after defeating the wolf.

There were many junctions in the maze, each of which were guarded by various magical beasts. Hence, every choice had to be made based on evaluating the battle potential of one's piece so that it would survive and arrive at the middle of the maze to defeat the red dragon. That was why magical beast chess was also known as the dragon-slaying game.

Just now, Alisa had picked the wrong direction and encountered a magical tiger. Given that her knight's score was 37 while the tiger's score was at 42, that meant that the young girl's knight had become the prey of the ferocious tiger, resulting in Alisa having to start all over from the beginning of the maze and return all the monster pieces her knight had defeated back to their original positions. However, she wasn't satisfied with the result and wanted to roll her move back.

Lorist pinched on Alisa's face lovingly and allowed her to take back her move.

Sitting on a chair near the window was the girl's elder brother, Howard. At that moment, he was intently reading a book he had took from the bookshelf nearby. In the middle of that room sat the Gold ranked mercenary Freiyar's two twin sons who were stacking up blocks in an attempt to build a castle while chewing on some snacks.

Right now, Lorist was being hogged by Alisa as the both of them hadn't met for more than six months ever since Lorist left the convoy to travel to the dominion. During all that time, Alisa had missed her kind uncle that would spoil her from time to time. Other than that, given that it was snowing rather heavily and she wasn't able to go out to play within Kobo City, the girl brought her two playmates, Freiyar's twin boys, to play within Lorist's wide room which was located at the top floor of the castle every single day.

Initially, Potterfang and Freiyar were worried that their children would bother Lorist and wanted to stop them. However, Lorist halted their attempt as there wasn't much to do during winter and having a few children play around in his room helped liven the atmosphere. Given that he had others working on most of the tasks of managing the convoy and the vagabonds, Lorist didn't have much to do other than showing his face to the people from time to time.

He also took the opportunity to test if Howard had neglected his studies during the northbound journey. To prevent the other children from feeling bored, Lorist even had some craftsmen make a few toys based on those he saw in his past life so that the children would be kept humored and busy, indirectly converting his room into a children's playground.

A few knocks could be heard on the door to Lorist's room. The one who came in was Patt.

"Milord, Knight Yuriy has just returned and Sir Charade requests for your presence for a meeting at the great hall," Patt said.

"Uncle Locke, since you're busy, let's stop playing for now," said Alisa before she stood up and tossed her chess pieces and scorecards back onto the chessboard before Lorist even said a word.

"You feisty girl, I would've won in another two moves. You're sneaking your way out again..." Lorist complained.

However, Alisa paid him no heed and cheerfully went to the corner where the twin brothers were and shook her head as she commented on how crude-looking the castle they were building looked.

"Let's build a garden instead," said Alisa before she started taking the castle apart.

The two brothers were pissed at her actions and started quarreling with Alisa.

After exiting the noisy room and walking downstairs with Patt, Lorist asked, "What did Yuriy say about it?"

"Yuriy said that the road is still in bad condition for traveling as it is still very wet and muddy. The mud would reach all the way up to one's shin. Well, that much is a given since the snow's just starting to melt and the spring rain isn't helping the mud dry either. There's no way that we will be able to cross with our carriages. Without ten or more days of blazing sunlight, the road will not dry up quickly enough for travel," Patt replied. "Also, Yuriy said that he went to the river nearby and asked an old boatman there who said that there is no way to cross the river before the 25th day of the 2nd month because a lot of ice pieces will be flowing down from upstream and blocking that part of the river. It won't be able to clear up until the end of the 2nd month."

"Sigh, I guess there's still another month of waiting... If I have to stay here any longer than that, moss and rust will start to form on my body. Since we're not able to continue our journey yet, why did Knight Charade ask for me?" Lorist said.

"I'm not too clear about it myself. He said that he had something he needed to discuss with you..."

......

In stark contrast to Lorist's lax schedule, Charade was incredibly busy most of the time. The management of the 70000 plus convoy members and the 100000 vagabonds were all rested on his shoulders and he would be troubled by even the smallest squabbles and conflicts day after day. Even though he had more than 50 officers he picked during the course of the journey helping him out with the matters, he was still bothered by many other things that required his personal attention, causing him much frustration.

"He's not willing to hand it over? On what grounds? Send the patrol guard over there. I don't care if he used to be the town mayor. Give him ten harsh canes! I don't care if he's older than 80! If he goes against our regulations, he has to be punished! And it's his fault if he dies from it! Whoever sympathizes with him can buzz off along with that old guy! We don't need to feed a useless parasite like him! Quick! Ten canes, that's an order!"

Lorist and Patt could hear Charade's roaring as they descended the stairs to the third floor and wondered what could possibly make him so furious.

When they arrived at the hall, they saw the officer Charade had chased out of the hall run out in terror with Charade fuming with rage.

"What's going on?" Lorist asked.

"It's nothing big... An old guy past his seventies old insisted that he used to be a town mayor in the past and picked two females from the vagabonds to become his maidservants and even took ten percent of the supplies we handed them from those who used to be his townsfolk! Didn't we just carry out a cleanup and check of the camps recently? It was then we noticed that he had stockpiled huge amounts of resources which he took from others. Just when we were about to confiscate them, he started an outburst because he thought that we would let him have his way given his age. That's why I ordered him to be caned ten strokes so that he would remember this lesson. He thinks he still has any status over others despite being a vagabond, how ridiculous," Charade said.

"Wouldn't it be easier for us if we just hanged him? I mean, given his age, he's nothing but a burden and will only consume our supplies without contributing. What say you, milord?" said the seated Yuriy as he sipped on some hot tea.

Lorist thought for a bit before he said, "Forget it. Since Charade has already handed down his punishment, there's no longer a need for that. However, make sure to kick out these sneaky and cunning parasites who only take and don't give by the time we leave lest they spoil the community spirit we have. Just leave them here to fend for themselves when we depart."

The reason Charade asked for the meeting was to discuss the matter of the departure with Lorist. Unlike Lorist who wanted to return to the dominion as soon as possible, Charade was relieved to hear that they had to wait at least another month before they could start their journey again. Given that there was much to prepare for the journey including repairing the carriages, letting the horses warm up and preparing the clothing and food supplies for more than 100000 people, the convoy and the vagabonds couldn't just leave on short notice.

The other important factor was that Charade intended to transport the remaining 85 million kilograms of food back to the dominion, which would undoubtedly displace some people who were originally traveling on carriage, resulting in a slower traveling speed overall.

Lorist was quite troubled by that as he preferred to return to the dominion earlier rather than spending more time to bring the food with them. However, the figure that Charade told him instantly convinced him.

Charade said that during the two and a half month stay at Kobo City which numbered roughly 80 days, the 170000 or so people at Kobo City had already consumed more than 15 million kilograms of the food stored there. If they didn't bring the food back with them to the dominion, a food shortage would no doubt occur within three months of their arrival. Charade believed that the food reserves back at the dominion would definitely not be able to accommodate the huge influx of people.

Lorist felt that Charade's reasoning was rather sound as well. He recalled that Supervisor Spiel had reported to him that the food reserves at the dominion amounted to roughly 30 million kilograms and the laborers at the construction site also relied on the food there as well. Now that the Wildnorth Town had been abandoned, the yearly food produce of Maplewoods Bastide only amounted to about 4 million kilograms of food. If they did not bring the food in Kobo City back, the convoy members and the vagabonds would no doubt have to starve within six months of arriving at the dominion.

"Let's bring the food along," Lorist said helplessly. Suddenly recalling something else, he said, "Don't forget that it will be quite troublesome when we attempt to cross the river. Since we still have to wait for a month, have the work smiths make some small boats and planks which we can use to make a floating bridge for the crossing."

"Are you referring to the Locke Fishing Boats?"

"Well, something like those. However, since we need to transport the carriages across as well, the floating bridge has to be around 5 meters wide and each boat has to be filled with two layers of green clay. Also, the distance from one bank to another of the river is roughly 300 meters, so make enough boats so that the bridge can stretch long enough to the other side," instructed Lorist.

......

On the 10th day of the 2nd month, the Second Highness once again rushed to Kobo City despite the rainy weather. He came for two reasons: to borrow more food and to request Lorist to delay his departure until the 5th month after the harvest of the winter wheat.

The Second Highness's reason for his request was so that Lorist would be able to guard Kobo City as he brought his troops to suppress the landed nobles of Delamock Province so that they wouldn't give him trouble during his battle with Duke Madras. He was confident that he would be able to completely take over Delamock Province and have Duke Madras bow down before him.

Lorist refused it immediately and said that he hadn't contacted his family since the 9th month of last year and couldn't bear to stay any longer. Ever since the winter passed and the spring rain started falling, he was already rather impatient about leaving for his dominion. He apologized for not being able to accept the request of the Second Highness.

Lorist then mentioned that when the convoy departed, he could hand control of Kobo City to the Second Highness who only had to have around 10000 of his Royal Defense Guard soldiers stationed to protect it. Lorist also insisted that he believed that the nobles of Delamock Province definitely wouldn't act recklessly. As for the matter of food, Lorist was willing to hand 10 million more kilograms of it to the Second Highness as an early celebratory gift for his defeat of Duke Madras.

However, no matter what Lorist said, the Second Highness merely furrowed his brow and said that if he had to use 10000 soldiers to guard at Kobo City, he wouldn't be able to muster enough military strength to face the Seamountain Legion and that the best method to overcome that was to have Lorist leave at least half of the convoy's force there while he leads the rest of the convoy back to the dominion.

Lorist still refused nevertheless and insisted that he had promised every person of the convoy to lead them home and that he wouldn't leave a single one behind. He was obligated to fulfill his oath and there was no reason for him to leave his soldiers there either as the city was not part of his family's dominion anyway and he had no obligation to guard it.

In the end, the both of them parted on bad terms.

Seeing the silhouette of the Second Highness leaving in the distance, Lorist nudged Charade with his elbow and said, "Now, you understand, right? If he doesn't give Kobo City to our family, any other benefits he promises will merely be shallow ones. You can already see how hard he tried to convince us to stay without mentioning anything about that."

Charade laughed bitterly before he said, "I think we have to hasten our preparation work and leave as soon as we can. I suspect that the Second Highness came to ask us to stay because he received word of the Second Prince's eventual campaign on the Delamock Province. That's why he hopes that we will be here to block the Second Prince so that he has enough time to rally his forces. Perhaps, the Second Highness might even be hoping that our forces and the Second Prince's soldiers would wipe ourselves out so that he can reap all the benefits."

"Your analysis is correct," Lorist said as he nodded. "I also think the same. That's why he's unwilling to station his own Royal Defense Guard soldiers here. I refuse to believe that having 10000 men here would affect his battle against the duke anyway. Didn't you read the letter Els sent to us?

"During winter, the Second Highness didn't sit idly at all. With the 50 million kilograms of food he got from us, not only did he replenish the numbers of the Fiercegale Legion to 56000 people, he also managed to expand his Royal Defense Guard into a 83000-strong force. Other than that, he also renovated the Lichtana Citadel and formed a 20000-strong garrison army there. Only idiots would believe his claim of not having enough soldiers. Even if he can't send his Royal Defense Guard out, what about his garrison army? Does he take us for fools?"

"I feel that the Second Highness is a little too ambitious. Even though we've helped him out so many times, he was willing to give us the short end of the stick without batting a single eye. Does he think that we wouldn't be able to grasp his true intentions?" Charade said emotionally. "Compared to him, you are too soft, Locke. Sometimes, I really don't understand why you're so kind to the point of being taken advantage by others. You should know that you're a dominion lord now and no longer just an instructor of the Dawn Academy. You should act with pride and dignity."

Lorist laughed out loud and recited a saying that Charade found to be very weird. "Being cold and calculative doesn't necessarily make one a hero; being kind and considerate doesn't make one any less of a ruler..."

Lorist then turned and started walking towards the castle as he asked, "Do you feel that following a dominion lord like me or a hero like the Second Highness is better?"

"Oh, you must've read that saying from some obscure book again. It does sound pretty insightful though," Charade said as he hurriedly started walking to keep up. "Needless to say, of course I'd follow you! You're my little brother Locke, so I have to make sure you don't screw up and become a joke of a dominion lord! Also, I'd never join the Second Highness no matter what. Otherwise, I might end up helping him count the money he got from selling me out without the slightest clue! How bad for me would that be?!

"I only feel sympathy for the former students from our academy and some other Silver ranked knights that decided to join his side... Even though our convoy didn't suffer any major losses for more than half a year of traveling, within ten days of joining the Second Highness, so many of them had died... Also, Locke, I think you should remind your cousin sister Glacia that she definitely wouldn't stand a chance to become the queen or empress given the Second Highness's ambition and personality..." muttered Charade nonstop.

Lorist sighed and said, "Fatty, you have so much to say, don't you? It's alright. Everyone has their own path and even if we try, it would be incredibly hard to change the paths they've set their minds on. I'll definitely remind my cousin sister of that. As for whether she'll take my advice to heart, that's up to her."

Chapter 163 River Crossing

On the 18th day of the 2nd month of Year 1768 of the Grindian calendar, the vanguard of the northbound convoy led by Fiercetiger Loze and the light cavalry scouts led by Yuriy started leaving for the Metropoulos River ahead of the rest towards Baron Silas's dominion where the crossing point was located at. They planned to build the floating bridge there and set up their camp before receiving the rest of the convoy and vagabonds and help them with crossing the river.

Els also rushed to Kobo City to report to Lorist on that exact day. He had just recovered completely after resting for the whole winter at Vanades City and rushed there impatiently the moment he was fit enough to move with his four other guards. Els brought two pieces of intel for Lorist, the first being his sighting of the Second Highness's Royal Defense Guard unit that he encountered on the way back numbering around 10000 people that would arrive at Kobo City within two more days.

The second piece of information was about the Second Highness's mobilization of around 5000 laborers to begin construction of a citadel at the steep mountain path towards Lichtana Citadel which was within 5 kilometers of Vanades City.

Lorist took a look at the map and felt that something was up.

Charade, Potterfang and Terman proceeded to debate about the issue. Charade felt that the 10000 plus soldiers that were heading to Kobo City must be waiting to receive control of it from the convoy. Given that Kobo City was the central location of Delamock Province and is also a fortified city which was easily defended and difficult to take over, the Second Highness definitely wouldn't leave the city unattended. With the 10000 plus Royal Defense Guard troops, he should be able to hold off the forces of the Iblia Kingdom's Second Prince for a period of time.

However, not one of them understood the intent behind the Second Highness's citadel construction project near Vanades City. Practically speaking, he should reinforce and fortify the defensive faculties of Vanades City instead and renovate it into a fortified city. As long as they occupied Vanades City, they would be able to control the transportation route there and maintain the attacking initiative on the battlefield, allowing them to advance or retreat as they pleased.

In the end, they settled on Potterfang's guess. He believed that the Second Highness's construction of another citadel was to ensure that he had another place to retreat to. Other than that, the additional citadel could aid in restricting the enemy offense in that they would be able to prevent Vanades City from being completely surrounded. Another advantage that citadel offered them was that even if their forces weren't able to hold Vanades City, they would be able to retreat to that citadel. It also ensured that the Yungechandler Province which had just entered the control of the Andinaq Kingdom would be kept safe from enemy attacks.

Lorist could understand why Potterfang came to those conclusions. However, as the convoy and the vagabonds were about to leave Kobo City for the family dominion, Lorist no longer cared about what would transpire over there and felt that they should be more worried about the journey ahead of them.

Two days later, the troops the Second Highness sent arrived at Kobo City and Charade passed the defense of the city to them as well as the 10 million kilograms of food there.

Out of Lorist's expectations however was how the troops didn't increase the fortifications of the city; on the contrary, they proceeded to dismantle the fortifications. They spent around ten days to completely remove the defensive walls and ruin the tens of sentry towers before taking the food and leaving.

"Good Sol..." Charade cursed. "What a devious move... He's practically using our convoy as bait now..."

With a gloomy face, Lorist said, "We have to increase our traveling and transportation speed. It's fortunate that we sent some of us off a few days ahead of schedule. If we only started our departure now, it would've been too late. Order the light cavalry scouts to scan the area and watch out for the movements of the noble families within Delamock Province, especially the ones near the southern border next to the Iblia Kingdom. Transport the rest of the people and goods to the river crossing point..."

Nobody would've expected that the Second Highness would actually send his troops to render the strongly-fortified Kobo City useless. The road from Kobo City to the crossing point was around 150 kilometers long. Given the scale and size of the convoy which was hindered by the additional 100000 plus vagabonds, they would have to spend at least three months to travel that far under normal circumstances. With the crossing of Metropoulos River further bottlenecking their progress, it would take them even longer to arrive at the family dominion.

It was already near the end of the 2nd month and even if the Second Prince led his troops to attack Delamock Province one month later, it would take only 15 days for his troops to make their way from the border to Kobo City. When they notice that the city's defensive capability had been crippled, they would be faced with only two options: to advance towards Vanades City or to tail the convoy and attack them while they're stuck crossing the Metropoulos River.

Given the amount of resources the convoy had and the Second Prince's insatiable greed, it was easy to guess which choice he would make.

Lorist was currently filled with rage. He had been willing to unconditionally hand Kobo City to the Second Highness and even provide 10 million kilograms of food in hopes that he would defend the city and face off against the troops of the Second Prince, thus allowing the convoy more time to cross the river and arrive at the Northlands. However, he didn't think that the Second Highness would be that savage and sabotage Kobo City intentionally to put the convoy in further danger.

"Good Sol!" Lorist cursed towards the skies. In actuality, he wasn't afraid of the Second Prince's forces given the current military strength of the convoy. While it wouldn't be impossible for them to be able to completely fend off their assaults, if they were able to wipe out 3000 enemies, how would that justify their own losses of around 800 because of the Second Highness's actions? Even if they defeated the Second Prince, what benefits would they get? Nothing! They might even anger the father-in-law of the Second Prince, the mighty Duke Fisablen, as a result.

In truth, none of them were fools; Lorist wasn't one and neither was the Second Highness. The reason Lorist wanted to make his way out of the Madras Duchy was so that he wouldn't be taken advantage of by the Second Highness in the first place. He could also head to his dominion and start developing it as soon as possible. However, the Second Highness insisted on involving Lorist in this conflict in hopes that the convoy's forces would be able to buy him some time to prepare for battle and even hoped that the two clashing forces of the convoy and the Second Prince would result in heavy losses on both sides so that he could reap all the benefits easily.

As expected of a person who would do anything to realize his ambition! Lorist was forced to accept that he had miscalculated gravely and shouldn't have placed his hopes on the Second Highness in the first place. Now that the Second Highness had pulled a move like this, all the convoy stood to gain from it was losses.

"Heed my orders..." Lorist said after thinking solemnly for quite some time.

"Potterfang is to lead his heavy-armored infantry to reach the river crossing point as soon as possible and begin setting up camp as well as have some men start building some defensive fortifications.

"Loze, Terman and Pete will each lead the heavy-armored cavalry, knight brigade and mounted archers respectively to expropriate the carriages of the landed nobles of Delamock Province as well as some goat skin rafts and fishing boats. Try to get as many as possible. If anyone dares to put up any resistance..." Lorist paused, before coldly saying, "Kill them without question!

"After Malek leaves with part of the garrison legion, Freiyar will maintain the security and order of the convoy members and the vagabonds. If anyone dares to cause trouble, kill them off!

"Also, the work smiths must use whatever method they can to construct enough boats for us to make at least four floating bridges across the river. If we lack materials and tools for that, have Loze and his men be in charge of expropriating them."

Reidy recorded every order Lorist barked out on a piece of thick beastskin before handing it to Lorist to be signed. Patt dripped some hot red wax onto the location of the signature for Lorist to seal with his ring. After that, Patt rolled up the beastskin and put it into a silver tube and sealed it with more wax before stamping on the seal of the raging bear and handing the tube to the guards to be passed on.

"We have to hasten our plans as well. By the end of this month, no matter what, we have to finish moving the food within Kobo City and leave this place," Lorist said as he turned towards Charade.

Charade merely nodded.

......

By the time Lorist made his way to the crossing point within Baron Silas's territory, it was already the 6th day of the 3rd month. Apart from roughly a thousand troublemakers who were excommunicated from the convoy and the vagabond group, the rest of the people were traveling to the crossing point at that very moment.

Three floating bridges had already been built across the Metropoulos River with the fourth one being halfway done. On the opposite shore, a convoy camp could be seen and the convoy members who had arrived were already crossing the river using two of the floating bridges. The third floating bridge was being used to transport the resource-carrying carriages to the other side. The coachmen carefully led their horses and carriages across the river from the bridge.

"Milord, you should go rest at the bastide nearby," Potterfang said as he approached Lorist.

Lorist looked at the direction Potterfang was pointing in and understood that he was referring to Baron Silas's bastide. He then asked, "Where's Baron Silas?"

"Who?" Potterfang asked curiously.

"I was talking about the local dominion lord," Lorist replied.

Potterfang revealed a surprised look and pointed towards the port as he said, "He's over there..."

Lorist turned his head to look only to see a high wooden frame where four to five corpses could be seen hanging in mid air.

"Whose work is that?"

"Yuriy and Loze," replied Potterfang.

"Why?"

"That dominion lord didn't allow us to build the floating bridges and said that a hundred kilometers within the range of the crossing point was his territory and that we had to pay if we wanted to cross the river. Angered, Yuriy and Loze hung him up right away and occupied his bastide in the meantime."

Lorist was speechless as he thought, yet another fellow who has a death wish... Is he blind? Did he not notice the number of soldiers we had? He still thinks that it is peacetime within the empire and that nobody dared to offend nobles... To think that he insisted on collecting toll instead of withdrawing back into his bastide to defend it... It's his own fault for being so money-minded to the point of being willing to risk his own life for it.

Yuriy and Loze were not the most diplomatic if Lorist's men. One was among the earliest followers of Lorist since the days of Dawn Academy and the other was a person who had just been given the moniker of 'Fiercetiger' by Lorist. Given that they had hung more than 100 nobles as they traveled through the Andinaq Kingdom, they had long lost all respect they had for nobility. Since Baron Silas was considered to be a subordinate of Duke Madras, he was considered to be an enemy and Yuriy and Loze didn't have the slightest reservation about sending him to the gallows.

"Whatever... Get him down from there and bury him. Since we knew each other, it wouldn't be right to leave him hanging so unsightly like that."

"Yes, milord."

After another ten days, Loze, Terman and Pete returned. It was already their third expropriation run and they had long taken whatever they could from the nearby territories. So, they had to venture further this time around and brought back around 1000 huge carriages as well as more than 100 goat skin rafts and tens of small fishing boats along with 200 or so resource-filled carriages. These were all the loot they obtained from wiping out three noble families that dared to resist.

Lorist noticed that the rafts and boats they got as well as the ones the work smiths constructed were sufficient for six floating bridges, so he stopped the passionate Loze and gang from any further expropriation attempts. He also allocated more carriages to Charade so that he could increase the rate of sending the rest of the people to the other side while also letting the soldiers rest for two days. After that, they only had to make the wooden planks to quicken the construction of the floating bridge.

On the 18th day of the 3rd month, Yuriy rushed to the port and told Lorist something surprising. On the 12th day of the 3rd month, the king of the Iblia Kingdom, also known as the Second Prince of the former empire, Krissen Iblia, proclaimed that on the grounds of sending reinforcements to the Madras Duchy to defend them from the Andinaq Kingdom's invasion, he would send his 70000-strong force to attack the Andinaq Kingdom's forces through the land of the Madras Duchy.

This time, the Second Prince borrowed three armies from his father-in-law, Duke Fisablen. Combined with his own garrison army as well as the subordinate nobles' soldiers, he managed to rally up 70000 men and led them into the Delamock Province.

"Sol, where did he get so much food to sustain an army like that? Aren't they only beginning to harvest the winter wheat?" Lorist asked curiously, before he came to an instant realization. "Darn! They're getting more cunning one after another! He's planning to rob the food of his enemies' forces to sustain his own army!"

However, Lorist wasn't too concerned about the Second Prince's army because the construction of the five floating bridges had already been completed with the 6th already in the works. The convoy members and the vagabonds that were still on their way no longer had to wait and could cross over to the camp on the opposite bank to rest right away.

The only thing that troubled Lorist was the 60 million kilograms of food. If each four-wheeled carriage carried 1000 kilograms of food, then 10000 of those carriages could only transport 10 million kilograms of food each round, meaning that they had to make six trips to and fro the river to completely ship everything to the other side.

Lorist called for Potterfang and had him lead the heavy-armored infantry soldiers to the opposite bank first so that they could guard the camp over there. As the people and supplies they had increased, it was already beyond the ability of Terman's knight brigade and one company of light cavalry scouts to maintain security over there.

Potterfang however expressed his worries on how he wouldn't be able to defend against the Second Prince's forces' attacks after he moved the heavy-armored infantry to the other side of the river.

Lorist merely laughed out loud and said that there was currently no need to worry about the Second Prince's forces as the Second Prince was planning to get more food to sustain his own army, so there's no way he would be able to catch up to the convoy at the river so quickly. Even if he did send some forces over, it would only be a small squad at most. With Loze's three regiments of heavy-armored cavalry guarding the place, the small group of cavalrymen the Second Prince would hypothetically send posed no threat whatsoever.

"Also, when you cross the river, conquer the town on that side as well. Get that viscount... Erm, what was he called again... Something-wof... Well, just hang him in front of his town," instructed Lorist.

"If I may ask, milord, why? It's just a shabby old town," Potterfang said curiously. Ever since the convoy arrived and started building the floating bridges and transported their supplies across, the people of that town merely stayed cooped up within without even bothering to send someone over to ask about the situation, causing Terman's knight brigade to not even bother to go check that town out.

"The messengers you guys sent from the convoy were accused of being bandits and most of them were killed by the garrison soldiers of that town with only five of the messengers managing to escape. Back when I crossed the river to seek out the convoy the last time, I've already hung the garrison soldiers that were collecting toll at the customs point nearby. Today, I feel like pulling out the roots of that damned place once and for all," Lorist explained.

"Your will is my command, milord."

The moment Potterfang and his troops crossed over to the other side, they launched into a full-on charge and managed to conquer the town without a single casualty. After half an hour, Potterfang grabbed a horse and rushed back without delay.

"Milord, that shabby town didn't have many people there at all. I heard that Viscount Darwof brought the men of his town to join up with Duke Loggins's forces to attack the Norton Family... I believe that transpired more than a month ago..."

"What did you say?" Lorist was so shocked by the news he almost jumped in response. Was the duke unable to accept his loss? Did he start plotting against us again?

"Order Yuriy to mobilize the light cavalry scouts to gather some information about the situation within the Northlands. Also, have Jim bring a squad of men there to check out on the family dominion. Since he used to be a mercenary, he should be rather well-versed with the terrain of the Northlands. Patt, you should follow him there as well," said Lorist as he calmed down and realized that there wasn't a need to be so disturbed at all.

Lorist himself understood how well-defended the Firmrock Castle was. Additionally, with Divine Marksman Josk guarding the place, he felt that he didn't have to worry much about their safety. Additionally, the route heading towards the middle of the dominion that the duke's men used previously had already been destroyed, so there was no way for them to attack the Norton Family dominion without first going through Firmrock Castle. Is the duke seriously going to challenge Firmrock Castle with the farmer soldiers of his junior nobles? Hehe, what a joke...

Lorist felt that he should first get a better understanding of the situation and come to a decision when the rest of the people and supplies get sent over to the other side. I definitely have to give that dogshit of a duke a serious slap in the face. For him to dare to provoke me again... Does he think that I would only defend without taking the initiative to attack?

This time, Charade employed the same method he used to send the people from Vanades City to Kobo City. He set up multiple convoy camps spread out 50 kilometers from each other along the route to Metropoulos River from Kobo City that acted as interchange stations and the carriages only had to travel to and fro between their stations to transport the people and resources to the next stop. Before long, they were able to begin crossing the river right away.

On the 3rd day of the 4th month, the light cavalry scouts sent to check out on the Second Prince's troops had returned with the news that the Second Prince's forces were busy harvesting the winter wheat while suppressing the resistance of the nobles within Delamock Province. So far, only a fraction of the nobles in that province still survived. Most others had already been hanged by the Second Prince on the basis of collaborating with the Andinaq Kingdom and refusing to send reinforcements to aid Duke Madras's ally, the Second Prince himself.

On the 5th day of the 4th month of Year 1768 of the Grindian calendar, Lorist himself was one of the last people to cross the river and he ordered for the six floating bridges to be destroyed. Thus, the convoy and the vagabonds finally made their way to the Northern Highlands.

Chapter 164 Conditions and Request

Within the wide tent, everyone present was listening to Lorist speak as he pointed towards the beastskin map of the Northern Highlands.

"So far this is the situation of the Northlands. Given that Duke Loggins covets the riches of our family but lacks the military force to take it, he has rallied up the various nobles of the land and managed to gather a force of 50000 plus men to attack Firmrock Castle. So far, the soldiers have been there for about one month and has attacked our castle three times, sustaining heavy losses without any substantial gains in the process. The nobles who lost much of their soldiers are already quite frustrated and it seems that they're even trying to avoid attacking the castle by using a ballot method to decide which one would be the next to send their forces ahead..."

Everyone within the tent laughed out heartily at that comment.

Lorist stopped laughing as he continued, "We have already contacted Knight Josk who is defending Firmrock Castle and he said that we shouldn't need to worry about those shambled and disgruntled nobles and that even if they had another 100 years to prepare, they wouldn't be able to take down Firmrock Castle. He's also really glad that our convoy has already arrived at the Northlands and expressed his anticipation finally meet the rest of us.

"Right now, we are at the western part of the Northlands and it will take us 5 days to travel to the family dominion on horseback. If we're traveling on foot, I believe the time required will be longer than that and given the scale of the convoy and the supplies it is transporting, it will still take us more or less one month to arrive. On the way, I've decided to conquer this place over here..." Lorist said as he pointed to a point on the map. "Count Spenseid's dominion. It is half a day of travel on horseback from Firmrock Castle and it's a great transit point for the convoy members, vagabonds and supplies.

"What troubles me is how erratically Count Spenseid has been behaving. To be honest, they've been rather good neighbors to our family. Even though our relationship was not too amiable, our two families have always maintained an unspoken mutual respect. I don't understand why this time the count has so passionately responded to the duke's call to arms and was even the first one to lead his forces to attack our castle. This really just came out of the blue..."

Lorist scratched his head and continued, "Well, we don't really need to know the reason anyway. Since he's willing to become the enemy of the Norton Family, then he must be prepared to receive our retribution as well. I have already ordered Yuriy to attack his bastide and start scouting the land around it. Pog..."

Potterfang stood up and said, "Milord, I'm awaiting your orders."

"Set out later with your heavy-armored infantry and head to Count Spenseid's dominion to take charge of the castle and start setting up a camp there. The supplies of the convoy and the vagabonds will head there later and you are tasked to maintain order and security there."

"Yes, milord."

"Freiyar, Malek, your garrison legion shall ensure the safety of the convoy and the vagabonds as they travel towards the count's dominion. Terman's knight brigade will also be there to be the main force to respond to any emergency situations. If anything happens, Freiyar will be in charge with Terman and Malek being his aides, understood?"

"Yes, milord. We understand," said the three of them in unison as they stood up and saluted.

Lorist continued to give his orders. "The camp over here and the transportation of the people and supplies will be managed chiefly by Charade with their safety being put in the care of the guard division. Dulles's carroballista unit, Pete's mounted archers and Loze's three heavy-armored cavalry regiments will be led by me personally. We will sweep the whole of the southern area of the Northlands and suck the rich lands of the duke dry. I want to let him understand the consequences of offending the Norton Family. Finally, we will gather up at Count Spenseid's dominion before we give the idiots attacking Firmrock Castle a huge surprise and taste of our family's military might.

"Pete, you shall lead the mounted archers to blockade the area from Bing Mountain to Somm River so that word of our attack against the southern area of the Northlands doesn't spread to the soldiers that have gathered up before Firmrock Castle. I will order Yuriy's light cavalry scouts to cooperate with you on that matter as well."

"Yes, milord."

"Loze, you will bring two of the heavy-armored cavalry regiments over to the Hendliff Suspension Bridge's crossing point where Freist Castle is located and force the soldiers defending it to turtle up within the castle. Originally, that area is defended by four regiments of the Northland Army numbering around 10000 soldiers. However, the duke has mobilized around two regiments of 5000 men with him to attack Firmrock Castle, leaving only 5000 plus men facing off against two regiments of our own heavy-armored cavalrymen. You can try to bait them out and eliminate them, but do not besiege the castle under any circumstances. I don't want our soldiers to be sacrificed for no good reason, understood?"

"Your will is my command, milord. I won't disappoint you," Fiercetiger Loze said as he stood up straight.

"The remaining heavy-armored cavalry regiment and the carroballista unit will be commanded by me personally. Coupled with another squad of guards, we will begin our attack against the dominion of the duke himself. I want to move everything from riches, food, weapons and equipment, carriages, Northlander Horses and various kinds of livestock to farmers, work smiths and artisans to our own dominion. Confiscate the riches of the nobles and we will also expropriate all the goods of merchants for half of the market price. Charade, you will also need to prepare a small convoy to ship all our loot from there," Lorist said as he made the decision to deprive the duke's dominion of every resource he could get his hands on.

"Milord, please wait. You seem to have forgotten that there is a unit of the duke's army stationed there. I'm a little curious why all 5000 soldiers of the Northland Army would be stationed at the manor at the duke's dominion's border? The two other bastides and seven towns within the dominion are each only defended by a squad of Northland Army soldiers. Even the duke's own manor is policed by a mere company of men. Could it be that there is a trap waiting for us there instead?" Potterfang asked.

Lorist laughed out and tapped on the spot Potterfang mentioned before saying, "It's my fault for not explaining it properly to you. In actuality, this unit here no longer obeys the duke's orders. The leader of this unit is Knight Hennard. You guys should know that he has been captured by me before. Due to the duke's insane outburst and accusation of Hennard for not shipping the riches they obtained after the massacre of Wildnorth Town back, he attributed the fault of the loss to the two knights. Even though knight Chevany died in battle, Duke Loggins still resorted to exiling the knight's family members and tossed his corpse into the wilderness. This action caused some soldiers of the Northland army to revolt.

"Additionally, the duke even wanted to get Hennard back by paying a reward fee for a convict instead of the full price of a knight's ransom. I couldn't stand the obscenity of the duke's actions, so I released Knight Hennard and the other Silver ranked knights. According to some reports, when Knight Hennard returned to the dominion, he relied on the other Silver ranked knights to contact the subordinates of Knight Chevany who were not happy with how their dead leader was treated and proceeded to take over two regiments of soldiers on his own and conquered this manor for themselves and began to ignore the orders of the duke completely. The duke couldn't do anything about that situation either and was forced to accept the status quo.

Even though they're still technically part of the Northland Army, Duke Loggins no longer holds any power over them. Otherwise, he wouldn't use the soldiers he stationed at the Hendliff Suspension Bridge and Freist Castle to attack Firmrock Castle. I plan to visit this conquered bastide tomorrow and meet Knight Hennard to try to convince him to just sit by and allow our forces to roam through the dominion without resistance. If he doesn't know what's good for him, I'm pretty sure our forces will be able to wipe his men out completely in an open field battle."

Potterfang nodded and said, "Alright, if that's the case, I no longer have anything to worry about. I pray that your plan will run smoothly."

"Okay, that will be all. Let's all make our respective preparations to make the flag of the Norton Family known across the Northlands and show the Northlanders how the Roaring Raging Bear vents its anger..."

"Yes, milord!" shouted the rest within the tent energetically before they left.

......

Cherry Blossom Ridge was the name of a manor which was located at a place of impeccable scenery. It was said that the third Duke of the Northlands had built the manor there to be used as a vacation house because he loved the view of the cherry blossom trees. However, at this moment, two groups of soldiers were in confrontation with each other at that location.

Upon seeing Lorist emerge from the midst of his force, Knight Hennard said in a surprised voice, "Why have you come over here? Isn't the duke attacking Firmrock Castle?"

Lorist laughed and said, "I'm here to see you, my old friend. Well, the other reason is that I'm here to attack the duke's dominion. However, I'm a little concerned by your troops which are stationed here. If you can pretend that you don't know what is going on outside your territory, then I will be relieved. Tell me, Knight Hennard, what conditions do you have so that you will not interfere with my forces?"

Without answering Lorist's question, Knight Hennard said, "Lord Baron Norton, you should refer to me as Baron Shazin. Last year, I inherited the barony of my father and he has already retired from the position as well."

Using his finger to point at another direction, he said, "That is where my dominion is at."

Surprised, Lorist said, "Oh, congratulations, Lord Baron Shazin."

"Well, you can call me Hennard like usual. That's what I like my friends to call me."

"Hehe, then please call me Locke as well, friend."

Lorist gave it some thought before he asked, "Why didn't you bring your troops back to your dominion?"

"I can't, the dominion is too barren to be able to support all 5000 of my men. In actuality, this place used to be within the territory of my family as well. However, the third Duke of the Northlands liked the scenery of the cherry blossoms here and forcefully took half of my family's dominion, forcing us to become a vassal family for them. Now that I have my men stationed here, isn't that the same as having taken my family dominion back?" Hennard said.

"Then what do you think of my proposal just now, Hennard?" Lorist asked.

Revealing a sly smile, Hennard said, "Locke, you've brought up a tough call for me to make. After all, no matter what, I'm still a retainer of the Lord Duke. The men I have under me are also the soldiers of the duke's Northland Army. If I sit still and allow you to ravage the duke's dominion, how would I uphold my honor as a knight?"

Lorist furrowed his brow and said, "Are you saying you want to engage in a battle with me?"

Shaking his head, Hennard said, "I'm not stupid. Look at your men's equipment and the leather armor my soldiers are wearing. I'm not a big fan of smashing an egg against a rock. How about this, I'm sure you wouldn't want to fight against us either, right? Just accept three conditions of mine and we'll think of a way to prevent conflict between us."

"Tell me those conditions of yours then."

"First, don't touch this manor as well as Evanson Town nearby here. My men rely on these two places for sustenance."

"Agreed," Lorist said as he nodded.

"Second, I want to send some of my men along with you on your operation. They want to move their family members back to my dominion so that my soldiers can truly become part of the Shazin Family's forces."

Lorist pondered for a bit and said, "You're saying that the duke is threatening you with the lives of the family members of your soldiers?"

Hennard nodded and replied, "After I inherited the land and title of my father, I wrote the duke a letter to inform him that I was no longer his family knight but a vassal noble of his now. However, the duke didn't want to recognize the legitimacy of my birthright and didn't want to give me a certificate of verification and said that if the soldiers 'leap' to my side, he would punish their family members. That's why we're currently at a stalemate."

If a family knight of another family was granted a title by his own family, then he would no longer remain a family knight and his status would change into that of a vassal noble instead. In Hennard's situation, as he had inherited the noble title and land of his father, he no longer had to unconditionally obey the orders of the duke. Hennard's father actually made the decision to pass down his title to his son so that he wouldn't be labeled a rebellious knight by the duke, allowing Hennard to resign himself and become a vassal noble instead.

'Leaping' was a term for a knight who left his dominion lord to become a wandering or freelance knight due to disagreements in policy. Becoming a vassal noble to leave the position of a family knight could also be considered leaping.

"Then, didn't the duke ever think of sending his soldiers to attack you?" Lorist asked curiously.

"Of course he did, but he couldn't do it. My men are still technically part of the Northland Army and nobody would be able to fight against their own. Even if Duke Loggins gave that order, nobody in his army would bother to obey it. That's why he diverted his attention against your Norton Family. Why aren't you worried about the situation at Firmrock Castle and came here to attack the duke's dominion instead?" Hennard asked Lorist.

"Hehe, I'm sure you've seen the defensive fortifications at Firmrock Castle yourself. Do you seriously think that the duke's soldiers and the personal forces and farmer soldiers of the noble families he rallied up would be able to pose so much as a threat to us?"

"You do have a point. So, do you accept that condition of mine?"

"Sure thing. You can send your men to escort their family members back," Lorist said. "What's your third condition?"

"I want to send a regiment of soldiers to join your men and disguise themselves as soldiers of the same unit so that I can launch a joint assault on the dominion as well. I want half of the loot we get," Hennard requested audaciously.

"Buzz of. You'll get ten percent at most," Lorist bargained.

"Come on, don't be so stingy. The 5000 plus men of mine who defend this place only have their bare necessities satisfied and don't have any additional benefits at all. No matter what, I have to consider the future of my subordinates, right? You can't swallow up all the benefits for yourself you know. If you consider me a friend, you should leave some for me," Hennard reasoned.

"I have more than ten times the number of subordinates you have. At most, I'll give you 20 percent of the cut. If you're not satisfied with that, it's better if we just fight it out," Lorist said.

Hennard revealed a look of surprise and said, "You're just bluffing... I don't believe you have so many men..."

However, as he noticed Lorist's gloomy expression, he agreed reluctantly and said, "Fine, 20 percent it is. I agree. However, I have one final request."

Angered, Lorist said, "Is there even an end to your requests? I'm sure it'll be much simpler if we just fought it out."

Hennard hurriedly waved his hands and said, "This is a personal request of mine. It's fine if you don't agree to it..."

"Fine, let's hear it," Lorist said in annoyance, before he saw Hennard fidgeting around in an embarrassed manner.

"Um, ahem... Locke... I was wondering if you'll be okay with sending Mina, Honey, Glise and Molina back to me... I've been missing them for the past half year..."

"Wait, who are those people you just mentioned? How would I know who they are? I don't recognize any of those names..." Lorist said in confusion.

"Well... Back during that night when I was caught by you at Wildnorth Town, they were the four women who were in the room with me. I really fancy them a lot... You must've kept them for yourself to warm your bed, right? Can you return them to me?" Hennard explained.

Thinking hard to recall that moment, Lorist did in fact remember seeing a few women during the night of Hennard's capture. Shaking his head, he said, "I didn't take them as my concubines. They must be with the other women we rescued from Wildnorth Town. I even ensured that they wouldn't be bothered by anyone else. However, I am quite curious how you're able to take fancy to them even though you killed their fathers and brothers. Aren't you afraid that they would kill you in your sleep for revenge?"

Hennard clicked his tongue and said, "I wasn't the one who wanted to kill their family members. It's the duke's orders and it has nothing to do with me. In fact, it was me who protected them from being ravaged by the other soldiers and it was them who wanted to thank me for my benevolence with their own bodies. I'm quite glad that you didn't lay a hand on them, Locke. You're really the best brother one could ever ask for. So, when can you send them back to me?"

"You can go pick them up yourself as long as they're willing to follow you back. If they don't consent, you can't forcefully bring them back either. I'm sure you understand that nothing good will come from doing everything by force. Also, if you don't resist my forces as a vassal noble of the duke, aren't you worried about what others might think about this?" Lorist asked.

"That's a small issue. Just watch and learn," said Hennard as he turned his horse around and rode back to his camp before blowing the horn signal for battle preparation. He then drew his sword, pointed it at Lorist and announced loudly that he was going to declare war on them for the sake of the duke's honor.

However, when Hennard was charging forward on horseback, his mount fell head first and 'injured' its rider, causing Hennard to be brought back into his manor by his subordinates to defend it and 'recover'.

Lorist and the soldiers of his heavy-armored cavalry merely stared in stupor as Hennard played out the battle scene he wrote and directed himself, including his glorious fall in battle and retreat into the manor.

"Is this really okay?! What the heck was that?!" Lorist exclaimed.

......

An excerpt from the War Chronicles of the Continent, Northlands chapter:

On the 11th day of the 4th month on Year 1768 of the Grindian Calendar, the new lord and leader of the Norton Family, Norton Lorist, led his men to attack the dominion of the Duke of the Northlands. The leader of the 5000 Northland Army troops, Gold ranked Knight Hennard, charged into battle gloriously to resist the enemy attack. In the midst of battle, Knight Hennard's mount lost control and caused him to fall off it. Despite being badly injured from the fall, the brave knight persisted and continued to fight until he was forcefully dragged back into the manor by his own subordinates, causing him to have no other choice but to defend the manor without being able to continue resisting the enemy forces. As a result, the Norton forces swept past the dominion of Duke Loggins and demolished the prosperous lands that the Loggins Family had spent so long to build up and nurture. That event would eventually be known to historians as 'The Plundering of the Southern Northlands'.

Chapter 165 Plunder, Move, and Destroy

"Kill anyone who resist! Kill anyone who resists!" roared the heavy-armored soldiers loudly all over the village. One poor farmer after another brought their meager belongings, farming tools and livestock with them as they squeezed into the small carriages which brought them to an empty space within the village. After that, they were assigned to three different groups by a middle-aged man holding a beastskin name list.

The group at the southernmost area of the village had the fewest number of people, among which included the village chief, the security officer, the tax officer, the mill owner and some other managerial officers who were the basis of Duke Loggins's government of the southern Northlands. However, that group looked to be the worst among the three as their assets were all confiscated and they were only allowed to bring their families with them along with some dried food to head towards the manor of Duke Loggins in Gildusk City.

The group of people facing the west also had a relatively small number of people. Most of them were the family members of the soldiers of the Northland Army soldiers and they were to be brought to Cherry Blossom Ridge per Hennard's agreement with Lorist.

The group facing the north was the largest of the three. Their destination was a camp roughly 50 kilometers away where they would be divided into smaller groups to be sent to a refugee camp at Count Spenseid's dominion before finally being brought to the Norton Family dominion to begin their lives anew.

"You can start setting the fires..." ordered a heavy-armored officer before his ten subordinates tossed flaming torches towards the straw huts within the village. The whole village soon became immersed in a sea of flames, from which a thick pillar of smoke emerged skyward.

Some of the farmers began to cry. Those were the huts that had sheltered their family from the harsh rain and wind throughout the years.

A fearsome escort soldier rushed to the crowd and shouted in a loud voice, "What's there to cry about? 'If the old doesn't go, the new won't come'. We've already told you that after we arrive at the family dominion, everyone will receive new farmland and houses which are much better than your pathetic straw huts!"

Countless pillars of smoke continued to rise from the dominion of Duke Loggins which was considered to be the most prosperous area of the Northlands. Under the instructions of Lorist, they spent only 16 days to sweep through the duke's dominion. The two manors of the duke, the six towns and Gildusk City had already fallen into Lorist's hands.

Within the whole of the duke's dominion, apart from Hennard's soldiers who were defending Cherry Blossom Ridge and the nearby Evanson Town, only a around 5000 soldiers of the Northland Army were guarding the Hendliff Suspension Bridge customs point and Freist Castle.

The duke's Gold ranked knight, Aordem, who led the troops, mobilized around 2500 men to mount an attack against the Norton forces which were forcing the villagers to move away. However, they were met with an ambush by Fiercetiger Loze and his two regiments of heavy-armored cavalry. Aordem himself fought Loze on the battlefield and got gravely injured. However, he managed to escape with roughly 600 soldiers and abandoned the customs point at the bridge and retreated into Freist Castle with the rest of the soldiers with the intent of turtling inside it and defending it.

After eliminating most of the remnant Northland Army forces, the Norton Family's soldiers no longer had anything to worry about and focused on ransacking the duke's treasury, food warehouses, and armories as well as confiscating the wealth of the duke's vassal nobles and expropriating the goods and carriages of the merchants who had arrived at the duke's dominion. Following the order to migrate by Lorist, the Norton Family forces then turned their attention to the villages within the duke's dominion.

......

Below is an excerpt of a book titled 'Northlands Journal' which was written by a merchant who had been conducting business in the Northlands during that time. The journal caused quite some commotion a few hundred years after it was written as it described 'The Plundering of the Southern Northlands' from a different perspective in great detail, eventually becoming the primary subject of study for the rise of the Norton Family.

"This was an unprecedentedly huge, organized and carefully planned maneuver. The forces of the Norton Family were known to be even more fearsome than the worst of bandits. They emptied the city's warehouses completely, confiscated all the property of the nobles and didn't even leave behind a single piece of crude pottery.

"My merchant convoy toiled for an extremely long time to transport our goods to the Northlands, only to be robbed when we were about to check in to the inn within the capital of the southern Northlands, Gildusk City. They forced us to sell our goods for half the market price. Even though I personally didn't incur any losses from that exchange, the profit gained is incredibly miniscule compared to what I had envisioned. Poor little Tini... my heart pains at the thought of my incompetence for not being able to buy you that beautiful dress so that you can show up at the ball like a princess to grab the limelight...

"Originally, my merchant convoy planned to sell our goods at the Northlands and buy some local goods there to be sold back at home as well. However, given the chaotic situation there as well as our suppliers who had suffered our fate at the hands of the Norton Family's forces, I couldn't get my hands on any local goods. Given the situation, I decided to escape the area. Unfortunately for us, my convoy's carriages required maintenance and our horses needed new horseshoes before we could leave.

"And so, I tried to find a blacksmith. However, I didn't expect that there wasn't even one among the 100000 people of Gildusk City. After spending some money to get some information, I got to know that the Norton Family's forces had forcefully moved all blacksmiths and their family members away from the city. They didn't even spare the common peasants or servants and only left behind the elderly and merchants within the city. Other than that, they also brought many other village chiefs and officers to the city...

"When I returned to the inn, I realized that I no longer had to worry about my carriages as the Norton Family's soldiers once again showed up before me and were here to expropriate them. I didn't bother to resist or object and let them have their way. But they were much better this time around as they paid for the carriages and horses according to the full market price using gold Fordes as currency.

"That day afternoon, we left Gildusk City and began our journey back home on foot. It was only after we left the city that we noticed the villages of the friendly Northlanders had been set on fire with smoke forming everywhere. The villagers who were hefting their belongings and protecting their wife and children were tearing up as they were escorted away by the forces of the Norton Family.

"Along both sides of the road we took were numerous tall crucifixes where the nobles within the villages or the brave men who resisted the Norton soldiers' violence were hung. We didn't dare to collect their corpses as there were mounted Norton patrol troops passing us by from time to time. When we left the city, we already obtained a permit to travel, so the soldiers didn't pay us any heed. However, the regular checks we received caused us much trouble and frustration.

"As we no longer owned any carriages, we could only travel on foot while carrying our luggage on our backs. We even used some wood to make a sledge which we stored our camping gear on and pulled it along with us, resulting in an even slower traveling speed. If we were on horseback, we would be able to arrive at the Hendliff Suspension Bridge within a day of travel. However, it seemed that we wouldn't be able to arrive there within three days at this rate...

"When we halted to camp at night, a group of patrolling soldiers stopped by and borrowed our campsite for some rest. I noticed that there was an insignia of a white lion on each of the soldiers' breastplate. A mercenary leader traveling with us secretly told me that those were the equipment that belonged to the famed Whitelion Legion of the former Krissen Empire.

"And so, I brought out a few bottles of fruit wine and treated those soldiers to some drinks and pretended be surprised and asked them whether they were the soldiers of the Whitelion Legion. Those soldiers merely shook their heads and said that they were the soldiers of Count Norton. I exclaimed that I thought that the head of the Norton Family was only a baron and not a count.

"The soldiers then told me proudly that along the way on their journey to the Northlands, the Norton Family's convoy helped the Second Highness of the Andinaq Kingdom to wrestle control of his kingdom, hence stabilizing the state of the kingdom. That's why the Andinaq Royal Family, being the recognized heirs of the legacy of the Krissen Imperial Family, elevated the rank of the Norton Family from that of a baron to a count. The Second Highness even enfeoffed his own principality to the Norton Family. The equipment of the Whitelion Legion was also offered as a reward for their efforts.

"I then asked the soldiers why they were forcing the poor villagers to leave and even burned their villages, to which they replied angrily that it was to teach the greedy Duke of the Northlands a lesson so that he doesn't cause any trouble for the Norton Family again. Due to wanting to develop the Norton Family dominion into a haven during chaotic times so that its people would be able to leave blissful and stable lives, the Norton Family leader ordered that everything and everyone within those villages to be moved to the Norton Family dominion as well as the destruction of infrastructure within the duke's dominion so that the duke would no longer be able to recover his power to once again cause the Norton Family and their citizens any more trouble.

"Perhaps because they were grateful for my fruit wine treat, the soldiers left an old horse for me before they departed and even wrote a document for our group to signify that we were merchants who had treated the Norton forces well. That document later saved us lots of trouble during the rest of the journey. Before he left, the squad leader even informed me of a business opportunity: after crossing to the other side of the river from the Hendliff Suspension Bridge, we could get our hands on some carriages which we could resell to the Norton soldiers at the campsite near Freist Castle for a high price.

"That was indeed a good idea. Originally, I was planning to purchase more carriages when I crossed the Hendliff Suspension Bridge to make my way home. However, I thought that the squad leader's idea made sense and decided to try to see if I could make up for the losses my convoy sustained during this trip. And so, I instructed the rest of my men within the group to leave immediately to head for the Hendliff Suspension Bridge..."

......

"That felt great!" exclaimed Knight Hennard delightedly as he put down the wrecked chair within his hand and looked at the mess within Duke Loggins's study which was created by him during the last half hour.

Raising his head, he saw Lorist looking at him like he was a madman.

A little embarrassed and mad, Knight Hennard said, "What kind of gaze is that? Why are you looking at me like that? Let me tell you something... Wrecking the duke's study has always been something I wanted to do very badly. In the past, when we reported to the duke and said something that angered him, he would start smashing this room up in front of us in a fit of rage, causing us to have to wait nervously until he calms himself down. That's how I eventually started imagining how good it would feel for me to smash this room up myself. Today, my wish has finally been fulfilled."

Lorist snorted from his nostrils and said, "I didn't know you had this side to you. Being by the side of the duke must've caused some sort of trauma or complex to develop within your mind... That's why you feel so fulfilled after smashing up the room like a kid..."

Hennard jumped and said, "I'm not afraid of him at all. It's only because he was my lord and as his knight, I couldn't disobey his orders. Now that I'm Baron Shazin, I can ignore the unreasonable orders of the duke openly as a dominion lord..."

Lorist said in an annoyed voice, "Alright, did you have your fun? Let's go if you're done. I have many other things to handle."

"Fine, fine... What's so important that you have to attend to them personally? Can't you just let your subordinates do it? You don't look like a dominion lord at all being almost as busy as a lapdog..." Hennard said as he put a grey-colored linen scarf around his face. "Wait, I need to cover my face up so that others don't recognize me..."

As Hennard was the rumored 'heroic knight who had attempted to resist the forces of the Norton Family before he was injured and forced to retreat', he had to disguise himself when walking beside Lorist. The night before, he showed up at Lorist's tent and said that he wanted to follow Lorist back to the dominion to look for his four concubines, when in fact, he was to act as a guide through the dominion of the duke for the Norton Family forces.

Lorist also treated him rather well. Seeing that there was an opportunity to be taken advantage of, Hennard didn't hold back and brought a whole regiment of troops to collect their metal armor, leaving behind only less than 300 men defending Cherry Blossom Ridge. By the time Hennard's men emerged from the campsite of the convoy, they had already donned a set of metal armor which was previously used by the convoy's forces.

After donning the guise of the Norton Family soldiers, Hennard's men behaved even more savagely and made sure to plunder the dominion of the duke thoroughly and were especially cruel to the nobles and officers within the villages. With the 5000 men who were familiar with the area, Lorist led his men to sweep through the duke's dominion without much resistance.

The only downside was that Hennard's Silver ranked knights went to recruit another 2000 soldiers of the Northland Army from various areas and went to Lorist's convoy's campsite and shamelessly asked to be allowed to switch their gear for metal armor.

The company of Northland Army soldiers that defended Gildusk City had also surrendered because of Hennard, who had tasked his Silver ranked knight to inform the company leader to not put up any futile resistance and make pointless sacrifices. He advised the company leader to surrender first so that they would be able to retain enough strength and retreat to the Cherry Blossom Ridge for now and unite under the leadership of Hennard himself to reestablish the glory of the Northland Army.

With only that, Gildusk City fell into Lorist's hands, followed by Hennard's pestering of Lorist to go to the duke's manor because he had a dream that he absolutely wanted to fulfill. Lorist only just realized that smashing up the duke's study was that dream...

At that moment, Reidy approached them and said, "Milord, we discovered someone within the water dungeon of the duke's manor..."

After hesitating for a while, Reidy said, "It's Baron Camorra..."

Stunned, Lorist exclaimed, "Who? Did you just say Baron Camorra?"

Hennard who had his face covered started as well. "Why would he be locked up in the water dungeon? No wonder I couldn't get hold of him no matter how many messengers I sent... Bring him here, quick..."

Naturally, Reidy also knew who that masked knight was and he nodded to Lorist before heading off into the distance.

Chapter 166 Battle Preparations at Firmrock Castle

Baron Camorra was quickly brought over. According to the guard who was tasked to watch him, he had been placed in the water dungeon for more than a month. Had it not been for the guards' secret care of the baron, that is, allowing him to rest somewhere dry during the night, the baron's legs might have long been wrinkled to the point of rotting by the constant submersion in water.

Currently, Baron Camorra was still unconscious. After reading his pulse, Lorist noticed that even though the baron was currently very weak, he only needed some time to recover and let out a breath of relief. He then instructed Reidy to let the baron rest and recover for two days while he himself would find some time to concoct some medicines to help boost the baron's recovery.

After finding the butler and servants of the duke and asking for some information, they got to know the real reason behind Baron Camorra's incarceration in the water dungeon. It all began from the mistake made by Knight Chevany. When the duke first decided to send Knight Chevany and Knight Hennard to go on an expedition against the Norton Family, he told a slave trader acquaintance of his that he would be getting a group of young female slaves sometime in the near future to be sold to him.

In the end, that expedition of his ended up with more than 4000 casualties with one Gold ranked knight dead and another captured. Angered beyond belief, the duke decided to exile the family members of Knight Chevany so that they would live their lives as beggars. After that, he sent Baron Camorra to the Norton Family dominion to pay a fee to bring Knight Hennard and the other Silver ranked knights back as criminals because he intended to punish them, only to be refused by Lorist who instead was unable to accept the fact that the duke had so casually humiliated the knights that served him and released Hennard and the rest without demanding anything in return.

When Baron Camorra returned to the duke's dominion, he was harshly scolded by Duke Loggins who thought that the baron had failed because of incompetence on his part. Hennard and the other Silver ranked knights instead rallied up two regiments of roughly 5000 soldiers of the Northland Army and took over the Cherry Blossom Ridge to protect themselves. That act caused the duke to be even more infuriated, but he was unable to do much about it, so he vented his anger on Baron Camorra instead.

At that moment, the slave trader acquaintance of the duke rushed over excitedly for his purchase, but the duke didn't have any slaves on hand because of the failed expedition. In the end, Duke Loggins ordered that the beggars, the farmers who had lost their farmland as well as the unemployed people in his city to be captured and made into slaves. He even made sure to specify for the family members of Knight Chevany to be among those people as well.

In the end, the duke's guards were unable to locate the family members of Knight Chevany and upon seeking out some information, they got to know that they had been evacuated from the Northlands by Baron Camorra. And so, they made their report to the duke much to the misfortune of Baron Camorra, who was in a rush to the duke's manor to stop him from carrying out such a ridiculous order as catching his own citizens and selling them to a slave trader as he believed that an act like that would definitely tarnish the reputation of the duke and cause the rest of the citizens to lose all their loyalty towards him.

In the end, the angered duke who had just heard about the evacuation of the family members of Knight Chevany saw Baron Camorra, who dared to rush into his manor to stop him from making slaves out of his own citizens. Not only did Duke Loggins rescind the honorary title he had given Baron Camorra, he even tossed him into the water dungeon for him to starve and rot to his death.

After waving for the butler and servants to leave, Lorist shook his head and sighed before he said, "Duke Loggins really has gone insane this time. However, the guards of the water dungeon weren't lying about secretly taking care of Baron Camorra all this time. Otherwise, he would have starved to death already. Reidy, give each of those guards 5 gold Fordes as a reward for taking care of the baron. Also, give them an invitation to bring their family members to follow us if they're willing so that they won't be punished by Duke Loggins by the time he comes back."

"Yes, milord," Reidy said before he left.

Hennard who was standing beside Lorist said hurriedly, "Locke, you aren't planning to take in Baron Camorra, right? I was about to bring him back to the Cherry Blossom Ridge's castle..."

"Forget it," Lorist said as he glared at Hennard. "If he follows you, his talent and potential will be limited. Think about it yourself, would Camorra have a bright future with you? He will at best be used as a butler or manager. As for me, I appreciate his talent and will definitely allow him to reach his full potential; heck, maybe I'll even be able to make him a landed noble one day."

Hennard was rendered speechless as he understood that Lorist was already a count and not a baron like him. As the aide of the general of the Northland Army, Knight Chevany, Hennard understood Camorra's talents well and knew that without Camorra's support in management and logistics, there was no way that the Northland Army would be able to maintain a scale of over 20000 people. That's why, unlike the Gold ranked knight Tabik, Hennard didn't look down on Camorra one bit.

However, now that Lorist had set his sights on Camorra and has further plans for him, Hennard believed that it was best for him to back down for now as there was no need to offend his benefactor for Camorra alone.

"Alright, you can have Camorra. However, I want some compensation for that," Hennard said with a dissatisfied tone.

"Buzz off... You still want more compensation? Tell me how much benefits you have received from me so far. You even managed to get 2000 more subordinates and had my force equip them with metal armor..." Lorist said as he ignored Hennard's request.

"Hehe, we're friends, right? Good friends shouldn't be so calculative... I just want one person... Is one woman okay with you?" Hennard said with a smile.

"A woman? Who else have you fallen for now?" Lorist asked curiously.

Hennard looked around his surroundings and just as he was about to lean on Lorist's shoulder to whisper to him...

"Hey, don't get too close. If you have something to say, be more candid about it. You're a grown man, so don't be so creepy like the way you're behaving now. Sheesh, I really don't know how a secretive person like you managed to become a proud and glorious knight..." Lorist said as he pushed Hennard away.

"Fine. The one I want is the Lord Duke's most coveted mistress. However, I need you to help me out and send some men to 'kidnap' her before I rescue her heroically as she passes through the Cherry Blossom Ridge..." said Hennard shyly as he shamelessly recited his plan for him to be the hero that would save the beauty and be thanked with her love and affection for his deed.

"Sol, I bet you will one day die because of a woman. When Reidy returns, you can discuss with him how you want that little act of yours to play out. However, I must advise you to wait for a while for now. Don't forget that you're still 'injured' and resting up within the Cherry Blossom Ridge. There's no way you can be both an injured knight and a hero at the same time..." warned Lorist even though he agreed.

Elated, Hennard rushed away to look for Reidy instantly.

Two days later within one of the guest rooms of the duke's manor, Baron Camorra awoke on his bed and looked at Lorist with surprise. "Why are you here?"

Lorist smiled tranquilly and said, "Why wouldn't I be? The duke personally rallied up the various nobles within the Northlands to attack my family. Naturally, I noticed how scarcely guarded his dominion was, so I took the opportunity to make a visit..."

Baron Camorra laid back on his bed exasperatedly and said, "The Lord Duke is far too stubborn... I have warned him time and again to not disturb the Norton Family... Why wouldn't he listen to me..."

"You shouldn't bother worrying about that duke of yours anymore. The sane can never reason with the insane. He even revoked your honorary title and tossed you into the water dungeon... Had it not been for the few guards who pitied you and fed you enough to keep you alive, I wouldn't be sitting here talking to you right now. Don't think too much about it. Just rest up and recover. In two days, I will gather my soldiers to meet that duke of yours. I will also be bringing you along," Lorist said.

"Wa-wait... Lord Norton... You have already conquered the duke's dominion. Why would you leave now? This land is the most prosperous area within the Northlands. Are you really willing to give it up?" Camorra asked.

"Hehe..." Lorist laughed before he continued, "Given the distance between here and my dominion, it would take 5 days for a messenger to be able to get from one place to another. In essence, occupying the duke's dominion would be akin to splitting the might of the Norton Family into two. I am not that irrational. Before the Norton Family builds up a stable foundation, there's no way that I will set my eyes on the rest of the Northlands. As for how this area is the most prosperous area of the Northlands... Hehe... That's already a thing of the past."

"Milord, Knight Freiyar has arrived," reported Reidy.

"Alright. Camorra, rest well and recover. When we return to the family dominion, there's quite a number of things that I would require you to help out with. If you have anything you need, just tell the guards and don't hold back," Lorist said before he waved goodbye and left.

Within the lounge of the duke's manor, Lorist asked, "Freiyar, how are the workers and villagers that we have moved feeling? Are they causing you any trouble?" Lorist asked.

Freiyar shook his head and said, "Milord, the situation of the villagers are still fine. Instead, the skilled workers from the city are causing more problems relatively."

"Is there a reason for that?"

"Milord, I believe you are unaware of this, but, Duke Loggins collects 60% of the harvest of the farmers within his dominion. To the farming folk, the remaining 40% of their income is not enough to raise their family, so they usually have only two meals a day. To add to that, half of their livestock produce automatically belong to the duke and the other half will be sold to pay the rest of the taxes with the meager remains of that money being used to purchase other living necessities; they are definitely no stranger to hardship. However, this time we appeared and purchased their livestock with cash and even provided them with three meals each day during the migration process. That's why the farmers are the first to believe our sincerity and were the most cooperative of the bunch."

Freiyar sipped some tea before he continued, "After receiving your orders for us to form another garrison squad to maintain order, Malek and I decided to recruit the men for the squad from the migrating villagers. Those villagers were also really eager to join and we already have enough men for the new squad and we have equipped each of them with a pike and leather armor, which will be more than enough to maintain security and order during the migration process."

Lorist nodded and said, "You and Malek have done well, I am incredibly happy with the results. My intention for you to lead your 5000 mounted garrison soldiers here was so that you can replace Loze and his soldiers who are stationed near Freist Castle. For now, Freist Castle still houses around 3000 Northland Army soldiers who are still defending it from within. Knight Loze and his two regiments of heavy-armored cavalrymen are stationed outside to suppress them.

"After this, we will be attacking the enemy soldiers who are attempting to take over Firmrock Castle. That's why I need Knight Loze and his two regiments of heavy-armored cavalrymen to be my main force for that operation. Your task is to make sure that the enemy within Freist Castle don't come out and harass our men who are busy with the migration process. Even though Knight Aordem, the leader of the Northland Army soldiers within Freist Castle, has already been injured, you shouldn't be careless, understood?"

"Milord, please be assured that I will carry out my task properly," Knight Freiyar said as he saluted.

Three days later, Fiercetiger Loze brought his two regiments of soldiers and headed back to Gildusk City.

"Let's go into the last battle prior to our arrival home," Lorist said to Els, Loze, Reidy and the rest as he mounted his horse.

The disguised Hennard looked at the empty duke's manor behind him and said, "Locke, why didn't you just set fire on that building like you did the rest?"

"There's no need for that. When the duke moves back and fills that place up with valuables again, I'll be able to loot it when I return. If I burn that place down, the duke will no doubt move and it'll be troublesome for me," Lorist said as he laughed.

Today was the day they retreated from Gildusk City. Lorist pointed with his horse whip towards the distance and said to Knight Hennard, "On our way there, we will pass through the dominions of seven noble families. Since they have decided to side with the duke to declare war with the Norton Family, we don't have to spare them either. We will sweep past their lands as usual. Hennard, I will leave the bastides and towns of these nobles for your men to occupy and I will also have Dulles's carroballista unit provide support for your men."

Knight Hennard merely nodded. For this operation, Lorist would lead three regiments of heavy-armored cavalry himself, Dulles would lead the carroballista unit and Els would lead a company of guards. Compared to Hennard's one regiment of men who were pretending to be the forces of the Norton Family, they were definitely not ideal for the task of taking over the towns and bastides.

Seven days later, Lorist brought his troops and arrived at Somm River.

The Somm River was a small river within the Northlands which connected to the Metropoulos River at the south with its origin being the Bing Mountain.

After crossing Somm River, one would arrive at Firmrock Castle within one day of travel.

Yuriy and Pete stepped forward to deliver their reports.

"During the past month, you have done really well and managed to stop the enemy from noticing our recent exploits. What is the situation of the enemy camp right now?" Lorist asked.

"Milord, we didn't do as well as you said we did... Before the end of the 4th month, many of the letters of the 37 messengers we captured were love letters of some knight with only a small fraction of them being official documents. The duke did write a few letters himself to reprimand some nobles who did not send any troops to join him on his expedition against our family and demanded for them to come right away. However, we managed to intercept these messengers without issue.

"During the 5th month, however, the enemies seemed to have begun suspecting something. During the past few days, some of our scouts encountered ten plus enemy scouts whom they battled but weren't able to stop completely. Four of them managed to escape in the end and I believe the enemy is now aware of our presence," Yuriy said with his face facing the ground.

"It's fine," Lorist replied as he patted on Yuriy's shoulder. "With our victory already at the horizon, it would make no difference even if they discover the truth. Don't worry, they are no longer able to turn the tables on us. What of Potterfang's side?"

Yuriy replied, "Milord, Sir Potterfang already left with the heavy-armored infantry army yesterday. Following him are Terman's knight brigade and Malek's second division of the garrison legion. They will rendezvous at noon tomorrow at Firmrock Castle. Also, Sir Potterfang sent a message saying that he had captured Count Spenseid and his hundred plus men who were attempting to return to their dominion."

"Count Spenseid? Wasn't he the first to join the duke to attack our castle? Why is he heading back now? Whatever, have him apprehended for now. I'll settle this issue after the battle."

Lorist then looked at the map and said, "Have the soldiers rest earlier tonight. We will have breakfast at five tomorrow and set out at six so that we will arrive at Firmrock Castle by noon."

"Yes, milord."

......

On the 9th day of the 5th month of Year 1768 of the Grindian Calendar, the great battle at Firmrock Castle that shocked the whole of the Northlands commenced.

During noon at Morgan Hills where the Firmrock Castle stood, the Norton Family's forces that were at the southwest of the area began their assault. The heavy-armored infantry legion led by Potterfang got into five square formations, one for each regiment, and began their march towards the camp of the allied nobles at the east.

The allied noble army of roughly 46000 people led by Duke Loggins was evenly matched in number against the Norton Family's forces which had roughly 43000 men.

In the early moments of battle, the Northland Army's thousand plus longbowmen fired their arrows towards the heavy-armored soldiers of the Norton Family. However, after three volleys, they realized that their arrows weren't able to pierce the Whitelion Legion armor and cause any harm to the Norton forces, plummeting the allied noble army into distraught and confusion.

Immediately following that, Lorist ordered Pete and his company of mounted archers to dismount and begin their suppression fire along with Hennard's thousand plus longbowmen. After three volleys of arrows, the allied noble army sustained huge casualties.

Terman's knight brigade and Fiercetiger Loze's three regiments of heavy-armored cavalrymen began their charge, causing the remnants of the allied noble army to disband before both sides even clashed.

Baron Felim Chalvode was the first one to escape with the rest of his men, followed by one noble after another. Within moments, the head-on clash transformed into a pursuit instead.

The whole battle at Firmrock Castle lasted for three days, that was to say, the forces of the Nortons pursued their retreating enemies for three days. However, most of the nobles managed to escape in the end. This time, the number of nobles who answered Duke Loggins's call to arms was above 60, which included roughly two thirds of all the nobles within the Northlands. After the battle, 11 nobles perished in the midst of their escape with 16 others being taken captive by the Norton Family forces, with the rest of the nobles managed to make their escape.

The Duke of the Northlands, Duke Loggins, managed to escape to the territory of Count Lopez which was ruled over by the Kenmays Family thanks to his Gold ranked knight and second in command of the Northland Army, Bitson. Knight Bitson himself was turned into a pincushion by the arrow rain of Pete's company of mounted archers and sacrificed himself on the battlefield.

The battle of Firmrock Castle resulted in roughly 8000 casualties for the allied noble army with another 30000 plus men captured with less than 50 nobles and knights dying in battle. The Norton Family on the other hand suffered miniscule losses and triumphed completely, much to the shock and awe of the rest of the Northlanders.

The migration had lasted from the 5th day of the 4th month to the 27th day of the 8th month. Countless resources and food were brought to the Norton Family dominion. Other than that, more than 300000 people were moved into Firmrock Castle.

After receiving news about the Nortons who had returned to their dominion and ceased all aggression during the 8th month, Duke Loggins who had been hiding at the Kenmays Family's castle was finally willing to return to his own dominion.

Upon arrival at his dominion, the duke's face paled instantly as only the burnt remnants and ashes of the buildings that once lined the streets of his land remained with not a single soul to be seen. Other than that, the fact that all the valuables within the duke's manor being taken as well as the nobles and officers who demanded compensation for their losses caused the duke to be so enraged that he vomited blood on the spot and fell sick without being able to recover.

Viscount Kenmays sighed and muttered, "It's the end of the road for Duke Loggins."

After that, he left the duke alone and the Kenmays Family no longer had to obey the orders of the duke in the future.

------

Author's note that was included in the chapter text:

A great big thank you to all my readers of your support, praise as well as recommendations to others. I deeply appreciate all your fervent love for my story. To be honest, I'd like to post more chapters myself as well but one can only write so many words within 9 hours. If I sat there for two straight hours, I can indeed write another 1000 characters to split this chapter into two. (Ryogawa: In case you didn't notice, this chapter was super long.) However, you, my readers, have paid to read this VIP novel, so I personally can't find it in my conscience to screw you up. That's why I believed that it was better for me to compact the story into one chapter with roughly 5000 characters. Once again, I apologize for not being able to churn out more chapters as my hand is quite sore and that impedes my typing quite a bit, so I hope you all will understand.

My writing process doesn't finish right after I complete the typing of the chapter either. After I finish typing, I have to check the chapter with my draft to make sure that there are no errors or anything that I have missed out. These corrections require quite a lot of rewrites as well.

As for the map, I won't be posting it. Given that my computer is relatively old, I only have the map drawn roughly on paper for my own reference so that I don't make any mistakes. If anyone is interested in making one, please tell me your QQ email so that I can tell you more about the map...

Once again, thank you very much.

Chapter 167 Auguslo's Counterattack

After the convoy forces led by Lorist that had crossed Metropoulos River towards the duke's dominion to pillage it and subsequently defeated the allied noble army, when they were moving all the wealth and people of the duke's dominion towards the Norton Family dominion in the Northlands, various new developments occurred in the Andinaq Kingdom.

On the 25th day of the 4th month of Year 1768 of the Grindian Calendar, the king of the Redlis Kingdom, the First Prince of the former Krissen Empire, Krissen Redlis, announced that the Crown Prince of the Andinaq Kingdom, Second Highness Auguslo, was a vile person who had went against his own brother and made his father a puppet leader and said that he would punish the Second Highness on the grounds of tarnishing the name of the Krissen Imperial Family.

After the First Prince's declaration, many people laughed cynically at it and felt that it somehow sounded familiar. After someone did some research and checking, they found that that the Third Prince of the Krissen Empire, then the regent ruler of the empire, had used the exact same reasoning as justification to act against the First Prince at that time. This time around, the First Prince merely changed a few words before throwing it back it to the Andinaq Kingdom.

Even though that declaration was treated as something of a joke, the First Prince's 70000 soldiers were not fooling around. Within but ten days, the Andinaq Kingdom lost up to 7 citadels situated near the border of the Andinaq Kingdom and the Redlis Kingdom and the Fiercegale Legion could only retreat one defeat after another from their heavy casualties and rely on the bastides owned by the landed nobles to resist the First Prince's army.

On the 32nd day of the 4th month that year, the Madras Duchy's Seamountain Legion incurred more than 5000 casualties to take over the Xith Castle that was defended by two regiments of the Royal Defense Guard of the Andinaq Kingdom, thus opening up the route from Sidgler Province towards the outside world once again. The duke eventually received help from the Second Prince, the ruler of the Iblia Kingdom, and managed to retake Vanades City.

At that time, the Royal Defense Guard that had roughly 5000 men retreated from the Xith Castle back to Vanades City right away after losing around 1000 men during the siege. With the soldiers stationed within Vanades City numbering more than 5000 men and the enhanced fortifications of the city, the Second Highness believed that he would be able to resist the joint attack of the Seamountain Legion of Duke Madras and the Second Prince's forces.

However, nobody would've been able to predict that just before the soldiers of the Second Prince and Duke Madras finished constructing their siege engines, the soldiers of the Andinaq Kingdom abandoned the moat of the city and headed for the highway towards the newly-built citadel in the mountains.

When Duke Madras and the Second Prince realized that Vanades City was undefended, tension built up between the two forces as they scrambled to occupy the city. In the end, the Seamountain Legion took two-thirds of the city with the remaining parts of it going to the Iblia Kingdom's troops.

After that, the Madras Duchy and the Iblia Kingdom entered a period of dispute, completely ignoring the forces of the Andinaq Kingdom which were at the citadel not far from Vanades City as they fought over control of the city.

In the end, after some mediation between the two parties, Duke Madras and the Second Prince came to an agreement. After being paid a huge sum as compensation, the Iblia Kingdom's forces left the city, leaving behind the remaining ravaged territory that they occupied for Duke Madras's forces to take over.

Immediately following that, Duke Madras and the Second Prince both led their forces towards the new citadel built by the Second Highness and were prepared to press on until they conquer the whole of the Yungechandler Province. Under the leadership of Duke Madras, the soldiers launched two attacks against the citadel, after which the Second Highness wrote a personal letter to Duke Madras himself.

In the letter, the Second Highness to reminded the duke that the Second Prince is constantly on the watch for an opportunity like a hungry wolf. The Second Highness said that if the duke was hell bent on resisting him, he would withdraw the forces of the Andinaq Kingdom and even give up Lichtana Citadel. If that were to happen, by the time Duke Madras decides to bring the Seamountain Legion into the Yungechandler Province, the Second Prince might just conquer the citadel on the mountain path which he will use to seal off the duke and his forces within Yungechandler Province.

After reading the letter, Duke Madras began to worry and understood why the Second Highness had constructed a new citadel merely a few kilometers away from Vanades City. The Second Highness had intended to swallow up Yungechandler Province and establish the new citadel and Vanades City as the new border between the Andinaq Kingdom and the Madras Duchy.

It was then when the duke began to hesitate. Of the three provinces within the duchy, the Yungechandler Province was easily the most impoverished and undeveloped one with not much farmland available as most of the province was covered by mountainous terrain and swampy forests. If he gave the whole province to the Andinaq Kingdom as remuneration, he believed that he would have given the Second Highness face and cause him to cease the hostilities happily. To Duke Madras, he could even shed a burden that did not benefit him much. The cost of stationing his soldiers to defend both borders of that province was also tremendously high given that he would require the logistic and resource support from the other two provinces within the duchy. That was no small spending to the duke.

While the duke would lose some face and pride by presenting the Andinaq Kingdom with the Yungechandler Province, he would gain peace. To the duchy, the most important thing was the production of food within Delamock Province as well as Vanades City, which was the commercial center of the duchy. Even though he had completely recovered Vanades City, a large part of the Delamock Province was still under the control of the Second Prince. While there was little possibility that the Second Prince would actually forcefully take over the whole of Delamock Province, Duke Madras didn't really trust the Second Prince given his understanding of the latter's personality. Additionally, every day some landed noble within the province would send messengers to the duke to complain about the troublesome actions of the soldiers of the Second Prince. Given that the Second Prince didn't make any indication to stop despite the complaints, it was obvious that he didn't consider the duke in any serious light.

Duke Madras pondered on his decision while holding the letter of the Second Highness in his hand. If he were to rely on himself to take back the Yungechandler Province, then the Second Highness would retreat from the new citadel on the mountain path to the Lichtana Citadel. If that were to happen, then the Second Prince's forces would be able to conquer the citadel on the mountain path when the duke's men besiege the Lichtana Citadel, the result of which would spell the end of the Madras Duchy.

That's why on the next day, Duke Madras requested an audience with the Second Prince, during which he requested the prince to help him recover Yungechandler Province with the reason that even though the Second Prince claimed to send his troops over to aid the Madras Duchy, they have never once actually went into combat with the forces of the Andinaq Kingdom and were merely following behind and providing superficial support.

The Second Prince was not an idiot either as he had come to 'help' the duke out because he merely wanted to glean as many benefits as he could. By helping out, he would no longer have to pay the debt he owed the duchy for the food he bought. He might also attend to gain the gratitude of the duke along with some other rewards. Also, there was a chance that he would be able to take control of Delamock Province in the midst all the chaos. However, he was quite unhappy with how the Second Highness didn't defend Xith Castle properly and allowed the duke's forces to leave Sidgler Province, causing the Second Prince to only be able to conquer half the area of province as a result of the duke's timely intervention.

If both the Delamock Province and Vanades City fell into the Second Prince's control, Duke Madras would have lost his standing as there was no way that he would be able to pay the appropriate ransom to regain control of the conquered areas, thus allowing the income generated from those areas to fill the Second Prince's pockets.

That was also why the Second Prince was pissed to hear Duke Madras's request for him to attack the mountain citadel to retake the Yungechandler Province. He instantly refused the duke's request and pointed out that he merely brought over a support army and not a vanguard force. He mentioned that his turn would only come if the forces of Duke Madras were completely defeated.

After hearing that, Duke Madras felt an immense urge to cull the shameless and thick-skinned Second Prince with a stroke of his sword. Even though the Second Prince was obviously trying to take advantage of his predicament, he worded it in a way that it made it seem legitimate. However, after remembering the fact that he was currently within the army camp of the Second Prince's forces, he resisted that urge and took his leave. "Haha, there's no way that I would fall for that guy's sly trap," said the Second Prince to his general audibly for the duke to hear.

After that, the Second Prince truly got the full brunt of the duke's rage. Nobody would've expected that Duke Madras would lead his soldiers on an assault against the army camp of the Second Prince, completely crushing the 30000-strong force of the prince in the process. Apart from a few nobles and the Second Prince as well as some knights who managed to escape, the rest of the forces of the Iblia Kingdom was wiped out completely.

That event was known as the 'Daybreak Assault'. On the 7th day of the 5th month during seven in the morning, Duke Madras annihilated all 30000 troops of the Second Prince that had been sent to reinforce his own. Fortunately, the Second Prince managed to escape under the protection of a few of his personal guards.

This sudden incident flabbergasted everyone who was paying attention to the ongoing developments as they didn't understand why the duke had suddenly turned against the Second Prince. However, Duke Madras later claimed at a later date that the Second Prince had conspired to entrap him and swallow up the duchy for himself as a justification for his turning against the Second Prince.

The Second Prince who had escaped to the Delamock Province fumed with rage. He had never suffered such heavy losses and humiliation before. Apart from the complete defeat his own 20000 soldiers that he gathered from his various vassal noble families, a division of the Frontier Legion that his father-in-law Duke Fisablen had lent him was wiped out as well. And before he could even say anything, Duke Madras had painted the Second Prince in a wrongful light and accused him of many other transgressions as well.

In the end, it could only be blamed on the Second Prince's personality that didn't inspire any others to trust him. On one hand, he appeared to be helping out Duke Madras while in actuality, he was always ready to take advantage of the duke should an opportunity have presented itself.

Enraged that the duke had shaken him off so blatantly, the Second Prince announced that he would not let Duke Madras off scot-free and said that he would summon more soldiers from his kingdom and allow the men he had left stationed within Delamock Province to start pillaging and destroying the surrounding settlements.

At the same time, Duke Madras strengthened the defenses of Vanades City and Xith Castle while also rallying the other nobles within his duchy together to form an alliance whose purpose is to chase the ravenous Second Prince and his bandit-soldiers out of the duchy as soon as possible. It didn't take long for those two sides to completely neglect the forces of the Andinaq Kingdom that were stationed at the citadel of the mountain route during all the conflict that ensued.

At the same time when Duke Madras was about to turn the tables to his advantage, however, the Andinaq Kingdom's Bolimo Citadel which was at the border near the borders got conquered by the troops of the Redlis Kingdom led by the First Prince. The Fiercegale Legion's Gold ranked knight commander, Knight Nedram, and 5000 other Fiercegale Legion soldiers died heroically on the battlefield, taking almost 20000 casualties among the First Prince's forces with them before their deaths.

Nevertheless, upon conquering the citadel, the rest of the expedition of the First Prince would sail smoothly without obstruction. The First Prince led his 30000 soldiers gleefully towards the imperial capital.

Little did he know that just when his forces were around 50 kilometers away from the imperial capital at Flowater Creek, the First Prince and his 30000 troops fell into the trap set by the Second Highness who had long been anticipating their movements. Near 70000 warriors of the Royal Defense Guard circled the soldiers of the First Prince. While they managed to surround and entrap the First Prince and his forces, they didn't launch any attacks and merely took a defensive approach using the terrain to their advantage with the aim of waiting for the supplies and resources of the First Prince's men to run out which would no doubt lead to the eventual starvation of all 30000 men.

In ended with the Second Highness's complete victory at Flowater Creek after he commanded his recently-expanded 70000-strong Royal Defense Guard using a passive-aggressive approach by exploiting the terrain to defeat the 30000 soldiers of the First Prince within a month with only a casualty count of roughly 20000 men. The First Prince on the other hand managed to escape by casting away his armor and helmet and donning an old, torn farmer outfit as a disguise to sneak away through the mountain paths with his two attendants.

On the 3rd day of the 7th month, the Redlis Kingdom's 70000 soldiers had been completely decimated, followed immediately by the Second Highness leading 40000 Royal Defense Guard soldiers straight to the Redlis Kingdom to fight against the landed nobles there. Under the leadership of the Second Highness, the Andinaq Kingdom's forces managed to rush unabated all the way to the capital of the Redlis Kingdom, the Royal Capital of Frederika.

On the 15th day of the 8th month at the Royal Capital of Frederika, the Redlis Kingdom and the Andinaq Kingdom signed a peace treaty with the First Prince handing the two southwestern provinces of his kingdom to the Andinaq Kingdom as compensation for being the side to take up arms first. With hostilities ceased on both sides, the Second Highness brought his soldiers back to his kingdom.

On the 21st day of the 8th month, the Battle of Kobo saw its end. That battle had occurred within the Delamock Province at Kobo City, involving the 50000 allied noble army led by Duke Madras and the Second Prince's 40000 soldiers that had invaded the duchy. The Second Prince was forced to retreat from the duchy with his forces in utter shambles.

Against the wishes and objections of his vassal nobles, however, Duke Madras signed a peace treaty with the Andinaq Kingdom after recovering Delamock Province and allowed the Yungechandler Province to become under the jurisdiction of the Andinaq Kingdom in exchange for the tolerance of the Andinaq Kingdom and 5 years of peace.

Immediately following that, Duke Madras began to construct defensive fortifications within his two provinces on a large scale. Not only did he construct multiple citadels at the border of the duchy and the Iblia Kingdom, he even erected a long barricade roughly 50 kilometers away from the deceased Baron Silas's ferry port near Metropoulos River, thus sealing off the Northlands from the Madras Duchy completely.

In the historical records of the Grindia Continent, the conflict that had began with the assault of the Andinaq Kingdom's Royal Defense Guard and the Whitelion Legion (which were in fact the forces of Lorist's convoy unbeknownst to many on the continent) during the 10th month of Year 1767 lasted up to the 8th month of Year 1768 which was the month when the peace treaty between the Madras Duchy and the Andinaq Kingdom was signed. The events that spanned that year would be henceforth known as 'Auguslo's Counterattack'.

The series of battles have shown the military and strategizing prowess of the Second Highness Auguslo. Not only did he manage to stabilize the Andinaq Kingdom from within, he also managed to cause strife between Duke Madras and the Second Prince and force the Redlis Kingdom and the Madras Duchy to cede some land to the Andinaq Kingdom for reconciliation, effectively doubling the territory of the Andinaq Kingdom and allowing it to become a local superpower.

The reputation of the Second Highness instantly skyrocketed, causing him to be known throughout the continent as one of the most brilliant military minds of the new generation.

Chapter 168 Female Unit

Lorist currently felt that he was the biggest idiot in the world and was trying his best to resist the urge to give himself two harsh slaps on the face.

When he made that order back then, he couldn't care less about anything else and didn't consider the consequences. Only now did he understand that having too many people with him did not directly translate to more power; in fact, they became a huge burden for the moment.

When Lorist ordered the people of the duke's dominion to be moved to his own dominion, he only thought about how taking them all was soon to giving a slap to the duke in the face so that he would know the true power of the Norton Family while also turning the so-called 'most prosperous area of the Northlands' into nothing but a wasteland so that Duke Loggins wouldn't forget the lesson Lorist wanted to teach him.

What Lorist didn't expect was that his soldiers completed their mission in perfect fashion. Coupled with the support of Hennard's Northland Army soldiers that were disguised as Norton Family soldiers, the total number of people moved from the duke's dominion was more than 280000.

By the time Lorist got to know the actual figure, he was shocked into a daze. He has neglected to consider the scale of number people he was moving when he said, 'I want to deny that dogshit duke from finding even a single smith to make his weapons, a coachman to drive his carriages, a farmer to plant his crops, a tailor to mend his clothes and a servant to pour his drink. Apart from his old vassal nobles and officials as well as the merchants, I want every else to be brought away from his dominion so that he wouldn't have anyone serving him...'

The northbound convoy had around 70000 members and the vagabonds from the Andinaq Kingdom added up to around 100000. Combined with the 280000 people moved from the duke's dominion as well as the 30000 plus captive soldiers as well as the citizens within the dominion, there was an estimated population of more than 500000 people.

It wasn't that space would be a problem for them either. The area of the Norton Family's dominion could easily accommodate another one million people if needed. However, the problem was that most of the dominion were mostly rural wastelands which had not been developed much at all. It wasn't quite possible for the dominion to suddenly be able to support such a large population and that was the root of Lorist's problems.

Right now, what Lorist regretted was that he shouldn't have given up on occupying the duke's dominion. Even if he occupied it, as long as he had sufficient military force on hand, who, if anyone at all, could challenge his rule? He only knew that he didn't consider these factors much back when he made the decision to take what he could and destroy what he couldn't bring with him with a single-minded focus on returning to the family dominion. If he had known that this was the result earlier, he wouldn't have gone through all the trouble of moving everyone and everything to the dominion. Now that they're already on their way, I can't really have them travel back there, can I... thought Lorist as he let out a long sigh.

Charade reminded Lorist sternly, "Locke, we still have around 350 million kilograms of food that we got along the way from the various nobles because the harvest for the winter wheat was just over recently. Coupled with the food we already have, we have a total of 400 million kilograms of food. While that number seems huge, feeding more than 500000 people each month will cost more or less 20 million kilograms of food. That's why right now we must arrange for some farmland reclamation to be done. Otherwise, we will run out of food within 20 months' time, which is to say that we don't have much time at all. We won't be able to accomplish that within this year, so we will have to focus on it next year. If we don't develop enough farmland to sustain us until the winter wheat harvest of the year after, then we really will have to starve."

"Do you have any ideas?" Lorist asked.

Charade took out a map of the Norton Family dominion and pointed at a spot for Lorist to see. "From Firmrock Castle to Maplewoods Bastide along the Bladedge Mountain Range is a huge piece of wasteland. It is enough for around 100 land development villages to be built with each village housing up to 500 households. allowing us to settle down more than 200000 self-sustaining farmers to decrease our burden.

"It's already going to be the 6th month soon, so we only have one month's time to measure the wasteland and decide on where the villages are to be built as well as arrange for the transport of the villagers there. After that, we have three months to build them some living quarters to develop the farmland there. If we can plant the winter wheat during the 11th month, we will be able to harvest them next year. These 200000 farmers should be able to sustain themselves so that we don't have to bear the burden of feeding them."

"Then what about the other 300000 plus people?" Lorist mused.

"I've already checked on Firmrock Castle and the valley city in construction and I believe that if we can find some right spots for three or four towns to be built, it'll be enough to accommodate all the people. The construction will only take one to two years," Charade said as he revealed his well thought out plan without hesitation.

Lorist nodded and said, "Then I'll leave the construction of the reclamation villages and the development of the dominion to you. Please try to come up with a proposal within a month and I will have it passed so that everyone can help you out with it immediately."

At that moment, Shadekampf walked inside and said, "Milord..."

"What's going on?"

"Milord, Irina is pregnant and she's about to deliver..."

"What? Irina?"

"Her pregnancy was discovered around the 10th month last year. However, milord has already went to search for the convoy at that time and we weren't able to contact you. It seems that she's going to give birth within another few days," explained Shadekampf.

Lorist fell into deep thought and realized that Irina might have gotten pregnant during the two days when he laid with her back at the Maplewoods Bastide after he had defeated the 4000 plus soldiers of the Northland Army the duke sent.

Lorist was starting to get a little restless. Since the 9th month of the previous year, he had went on a journey to seek out the northbound convoy and only returned during the 5th month of this year. After more or less nine months of absence, his first child in this world was going to be born.

"Charade, I'll be leaving you in charge of everything and heading back to Maplewoods Bastide right away. If there's anything urgent, just send someone to notify me about it," Lorist said as he prepared to mount his horse and rush back.

"Yes, milord. Also, congratulations!" shouted Charade as he watched Lorist ride off.

Irina was only Lorist's maidservant and her child would only be Lorist's illegitimate son or daughter. Even so, regardless of status, the child would still be the first offspring of Lorist.

On the way to the Maplewoods Bastide, Lorist encountered a messenger that was on his way to send some good news. Irina had birthed a healthy boy after nine months of pregnancy during dawn that day and both the mother and child were in stable condition.

Why is it only nine months? Shouldn't it be ten? After pondering it for a while, Lorist realized that in Grindia, each month had 35 days and Irina's pregnancy of nine Grindian months was already slightly on the long side.

The moment Lorist returned to the bastide, he rushed to check on Irina and the newborn. However, the two of them were fast asleep from fatigue. Not wanting to interrupt their sleep, Lorist left the room on light steps after taking a hurried look at the child.

In the courtyard nearby, Belnick was waiting for Lorist. As he approached, Belnick saluted and said, "Milord, your knight awaits your commands."

Surprised, Lorist hugged Belnick and said, "Brother Beck, you're already a Gold ranked knight?"

Belnick nodded and said, "Yes, milord. I broke through to the Gold rank during the 2nd month this year and have already been waiting to serve you for three whole months."

Back when Lorist first returned to the dominion, one of the first things he did was to check on the injured Belnick who had been recovering within Wildnorth Town, he realized that Belnick had been secretly poisoned over time by the town herbalist, Master Dunbarsen, causing his injuries to take far longer than needed to recover. The reason the four great families had chosen to do something like that was so that the Norton Family would lose their only Three Star Silver ranked knight. But Lorist had foiled their plans and brought Belnick back to his quarters at Maplewoods Bastide. Not only did he treat his injuries and detoxify Belnick, he even gave him a high-ranked wood attribute Battle Force for him to practice and break through to the Gold rank to serve the family when he recovers.

Roughly one year had passed since then and Belnick was already a Gold ranked knight, meaning that Lorist had yet another high-ranked fighter under his command.

"There's no rush at the moment. The family dominion will enter a development stage and there will be more than enough opportunities for you to serve the family," Lorist said.

Before he finished, however, Supervisor Spiel rushed over and said, "Milord, the old butler wants to see you..."

After the passage of one year, the old butler had aged yet again. He stopped Lorist and nagged him for quite some time. However, he wasn't concerned with how Lorist defeated the Duke of the Northlands or the amount of resources and people he had brought into the dominion. Instead, the old butler was worried about Lorist's marriage affairs as he urged Lorist to quickly get wedded to a lady of decent standing so that the Norton Family could have a successor as soon as possible.

Only managing to shake away the old butler after much difficulty, Lorist sought out Spiel and asked, "What's up with Grandpa Gleis?"

"Milord, after the first round of snowfall during winter last year, the old butler said that he wanted to visit the family's forbidden area and didn't allow me to follow him along. However, he didn't return even during the night, so we hurriedly sent someone to search for him only to find that he had slipped from the snow and his wheelchair ended up in a ditch nearby. The old butler himself on the other hand had passed out in the snow for quite some time and when we brought him back indoors, he started having a bad fever. It was fortunate that milord had left enough medicines and herbs behind that we used to treat the old butler. However, after recovering, the old butler's memory seemed to have deteriorated and he often recognizes people wrongly or forgets what he's doing all of a sudden," explained Spiel.

"Sigh, it can't be helped. In the future, don't bother him if there's nothing urgent and let him have the time he needs to rest," Lorist said with a heavy heart. Just last year, the old butler was still quite witty and cunning like an old fox. However, right now, his mental state seemed to have regressed to that of a child and he would forget anything he said himself rather quickly, causing him to often repeat himself. Before they finished the conversation, the old butler even asked Lorist to wed Pesha and said that they had been engaged for a long time already.

It was apparent that the old butler had mistakenly thought that Lorist was the deceased First Young Master, Norton Abelyde. Troubled by what the old butler was saying, Lorist tried to explain that he wasn't the First Young Master only to cause the old butler to be even more confused. In the end, Lorist merely excused himself to stop the painful conversation.

It's all because of that cursed family's forbidden area, Lorist thought. If that stupid corpse cave didn't exist, the Grandpa Gleis wouldn't have visited it alone and fall into the snow like that... It was obvious to Lorist that the old butler had suffered a stroke that was mentally crippling. Lorist finally resolved himself to abolish the practice of sealing the bodies of the Norton Family leaders in that cavern as he wasn't willing to have his corpse placed there to rot after he died either.

After leaving the old butler's residence, Knight Hennard showed up before Lorist with bruised eyes and a swelling nose.

"Huh? Why are you here?" Lorist asked curiously.

Three days ago when Hennard went to Maplewoods Bastide to pick up his lovers excitedly, Lorist thought that he would have left right after that. It truly surprised him when Hennard showed up before him looking so haggard and beaten.

"Locke, didn't you say that if they're willing to follow me back, I can take them with me?" Hennard said angrily.

Nodding, Lorist said, "I did. What happened?"

"I've already met with them and it appeared that they've been suffering over here for quite some time as they were almost too elated to see me. I've already asked them whether they were willing to go to the Cherry Blossom Ridge with me and they all agreed. However, your people didn't want to let them leave and even began to hit me. I gave it my all to resist the urge to retaliate out of my respect to you, hence my injuries," Knight Hennard complained.

"Who was it that didn't allow them to leave?" Lorist asked as his expression turned gloomy. He had explicitly ordered for the surviving women of Wildnorth Town to not be bothered and allowed to rest so that they could hopefully recover from their physical or mental wounds. After that, he would bring them to Firmrock Castle so that they may find partners they like and form new families to start their lives over.

"Supervisor Spiel, tell me what's going on. Also, what did Knight Hennard mean by his lovers' suffering? Did you not regard my instructions seriously? Tell me, who was it that caused them to suffer and even refused to let them go?" Lorist asked Spiel with a solemn expression.

"Mi-milord... It's not my fault. it's Mistress Pesha..." stammered the supervisor under Lorist's angry threats.

"Pesha?" Lorist said, stunned. "What did that woman do this time?"

Turning to Hennard, Lorist asked, "Was it a red-haired woman that refused to let them follow you home?"

"Yes, yes!" said Hennard as he nodded furiously. "That woman was extremely short-tempered! Even if she didn't like what I was saying, she shouldn't have lashed out at me just like that! While I'm a Gold ranked knight, I would never allow myself to hit a woman. Additionally, there were other women who joined her in beating me, so I could only leave as fast as I could..."

Lorist wanted to laugh after hearing about Hennard's hardships. I bet it must've been your frivolous mouth... Haha, you deserve it...

At the same time, Lorist was relieved that the men within the bastide weren't giving the women any trouble.

"Tell me, Supervisor Spiel, what did Pesha do to cause those women to suffer?" Lorist asked in a cold voice.

"Milord, it's like this... Even though Mistress Pesha is a Silver ranked knight, she's never given any assignments and she isn't associated with the garrison force of the family as well. After the women arrived at the bastide, Mistress Pesha managed to get permission from the old butler to be in charge of taking care of them. She then had some basic Battle Force technique diagrams copied and sent to the women and told them to not forget how badly they were treated and encouraged them to start training in Battle Force to become independent and be able to stand up for themselves should they experience the same hardships in the future..." Spiel explained.

Lorist and Hennard listened with much wonder.

"During the past half year, more than 100 women managed to awaken their Battle Force and Mistress Pesha grouped them together to form a female-only garrison force unit and had them train with blades and pikes all day long. There was even once when the mistress wanted to train the courage of his force members by forcing them to kill some livestock at the compound over there, causing some of the animals to go wild and run all over the bastide. Some of the family's garrison force soldiers even had to put the poor animals out of their misery...

"Even though the old butler is a little dazed after recovering from his sickness, he agreed with pretty much anything Mistress Pesha wanted. And given that milord wasn't here, we didn't think that it would be in our place to tell the mistress off. Right now, the women who have awakened their Battle Force are getting more and more furious and some men were even pummeled to the brink of death for simply teasing and flirting with them. Knight Pajik even went to see Mistress Pesha for that incident only to be beaten all the way back, so right now, none of us dares to mess with the women anymore...

"As for the suffering you mentioned, I believe that it's because Mistress Pesha forced the women to train in Battle Force and help out with the farming and livestock raising. Some of the women who were born in families of higher social standings naturally couldn't bear to work in the field all day..." Spiel theorized.

"That's exactly it. My beauties all complained to me that their work was really tiring and that they even had to wash clothes and cook during the winter, causing blisters to form on their hands. I was so pained by their hardships and wanted them to follow me back, only to have the red-haired woman with her other fanatic followers come to stop me. They even started hitting me when all I did was try to communicate with them," Hennard said furiously.

"Sigh, let me bring you there to fetch your beauties," Lorist said as he laughed bitterly. It seemed that he had to settle the issue personally.

'People are all unique and different; for every type of grain there would be 100 more types of people.' Lorist thought that this saying from his past life made a lot of sense. Not every person would be able to handle the pains of training oneself just because they have experienced some hardships. For instance, the lovers of Hennard had all been brought up in relative comfort and they had never needed to work hard for their own livelihoods. It was merely a pipe dream of Pesha's to convert them into independent people overnight.

The female survivors of Wildnorth Town were situated at a courtyard at the northern part of the bastide. There was a wide open space in front of it which the women used as a training ground. Led by Spiel, Lorist arrived at the courtyard and instructed the women who were standing guard to gather everyone together and said that he had something he wanted to announce.

Pesha was the first one to rush out only to be stunned at the sight of Lorist.

"Stand aside, Pesha. I will see you after I settle the issue here," Lorist said coldly.

In response, Pesha bitterly stepped to the side.

It didn't take long for all the women to gather within the courtyard. While Lorist didn't speak in a loud voice, all the women were able to hear everything he said clearly.

"As some of you may recognize, I am Count Norton Lorist. From my point of view, you are all relatives of the traitorous people of Wildnorth Town and I have all the right to sell you off to the slave traders and treat you how I will. However, considering that your husbands and fathers have banded together and let the wolf that was Duke Loggins into the dominion and ultimately caused their own demise and your suffering, I am extremely sympathetic of your experiences and decided to forgive you for your mistakes. From today onwards, you are free people.

"As for your future, you are free to choose from the following choices. You may rely on your relatives within the Maplewoods Bastides or try to make a living for yourself here. Alternatively, you may choose to follow me to Firmrock Castle and find a partner there to start a family and begin your lives anew or choose to become maidservants of the knights of my family or find some other kind of work. As for the third option, I have decided to officially form a female garrison unit for those who have awakened their Battle Force to join if they want to. Their treatment and benefits will be the same as that received by the garrison force soldiers of our family. Naturally, even those who haven't awakened their Battle Force will be welcome to join that unit. However, they will only be given food and living quarters and won't receive the full benefits of being a garrison force member unless they manage to awaken their Battle Force one day to qualify as a formal member of the unit.

"I will give you all three days to decide which path you want to take and have Supervisor Spiel record your choices. You can also ask him should you have any further questions. Alright, that's all I have to say. You may disband."

"Hennard, you can bring your lovers with you now. Spiel, don't forget to ask the women if they are willing to follow Hennard back. If they are not, then forget it," Lorist said.

After Hennard left with Spiel, Lorist turned to Pesha and said, "I will also give you two choices. You can choose to be the leader of the female unit. However, I will take charge of raising and caring for my elder brother's illegitimate son. Alternatively, you can raise the son however you see fit and not interfere with the matters of the family."

"Why can't I lead the unit and raise him at the same time?" Pesha asked, dissatisfied.

Shaking his head, Lorist said, "Given your personality, you're not a real good fit to be a mother. You also haven't given birth before, so you wouldn't understand the pains of bearing a child and wouldn't be able to truly give the child the motherly love and care he deserves. What I'm saying is, either you become a great general or a caring mother. You're free to pick either choice."

"I can find him a caretaker..." Pesha said.

Sighing, Lorist said, "I understand your choice. The female unit will be left in your charge from now on and I will have the regulations and other documents sent to you in a few days. I will bring the child with me tonight and you will have to get my permission if you wish to see him in the future. If you cause any more trouble, I will even revoke your status as a family knight, so think well before you act. That's all."

Chapter 169 Felicitas Settlement

The flickering candlelight illuminated Lorist's furrowed brow. Before him stood Belnick, Pajik and a voluptuous young woman who held a two-year-old boy in her bosom. The child had just awoken and was looking around with his two wide, round eyes.

That woman and child was in fact Pajik's wife and son. The couple were also quite curious about the reason they had been summoned by Lorist to have dinner together along with their child. Not only was Belnick there, in front of them stood also Molocinque, Eidelwoke and Wellickson, all of whom were Lorist's half-brothers and the illegitimate sons of his late father.

The door to the hall opened and four middle-aged maidservants brought four adolescent boys and girls into the room. At that moment, the curiosity of Pajik and his wife were roused as they recognized the four children. All four of them were in fact the illegitimate children of the late Baron Norton like Molocinque, Eidelwoke and Wellickson. In other words, all of them were the half-siblings of Lorist.

After a few moments, the door to the hall opened again and this time, the ones who came in were Supervisor Spiel and Reidy. In Reidy's arms was a 6-year-old child and behind him was Pesha.

"Wonderful, everyone is here," Lorist said, before he waved to Reidy and instructed, "Carry the child over here."

Not intimidated at all, the child questioned, "Who... who are you?"

Lorist laughed out loud and kissed the boy's cheeks before he said, "I'm your uncle, and you better remember that. Now, tell your uncle your name and age."

The child thought before he said, "I-I am He-Helias and I'm five and a half this year."

"Good boy," Lorist said as he stroked the boy's face. Raising his head, he looked at Pajik and his wife who was clasping her mouth with surprise and said, "Pajik, madam, can you please come over here?"

Lorist placed Helias on the ground and stood up before he bowed to Pajik's wife and said, "I apologize, madam, for your painful experiences. Today, I shall return your child to you."

Pajik's wife passed the child in her arms to Pajik before hugging Helias tightly and saying, "Child... Oh, my child..."

Pajik on the other hand hugged his own son as he stared at the situation with confusion.

"Knight Pajik, may I request you to be the stepfather of Helias?" Lorist said towards Pajik solemnly.

"Milord, this is..." Pajik didn't know how to respond. He knew that his wife was previously the maidservant of the First Young Master and had birthed him a son whom Pesha took to be raised as her own son, forcing Helias to be parted from Pajik's wife. Pesha was also the one who established their marriage. This was why Pajik usually didn't dare to act against Pesha.

In the beginning, his wife missed her son dearly and often cried herself to sleep in the middle of the night. However, she gradually recovered after giving birth to her and Pajik's son. Even so, her first child was still Helias and no mother would ever forget their firstborn.

"Knight Pajik, in my eyes, you have always been an upright person who upholds his oaths. Helias is the sole offspring my elder brother left behind and I hope that he can obtain the love and care of a father and mother that a child like him deserves as well as siblings for him to grow up with. The reason I want you to be his guardian is because I hope that you will be able to raise him into a trustworthy and noble person. When he reaches 12 years old, I will fetch him back and begin training him into a magnificent knight like his father," Lorist said.

Pajik passed the child that was in his arms back to his wife and saluted towards Lorist. "Milord, I will gladly become the adopted father of Helias. Since my wife is her mother and the First Young Master had also treated me well, I will definitely raise him as I would my own son and won't let milord down."

"Thank you, my knight," Lorist said as he bowed towards Pajik gratefully.

Pajik and his wife stepped aside with the two children and Lorist returned to his seat before he said, "Molocinque, Wellickson and Eidelwoke..."

The three of them stepped forward and bowed towards Lorist to show their respect.

"Honestly speaking, I don't really mind your statuses. To me, the blood of the Nortons also flow in your veins and you are my brothers by blood. However, due to the customs and traditions of the family, I am unable to let you train in the hereditary Crimsonblood Battle Force technique. However, I've gotten you these..." Lorist said as he took out three high-ranked Battle Force manuals.

"Molocinque, your Battle Force is of the earth attribute, right? This is for you. Wellickson, since your Battle Force is of the metal attribute, this one is for you. As for Eidelwoke, I believe that you are quite talented in Battle Force training. Within only one year, you managed to train up to the Two Star Bronze rank. I hope that you will continue to strive hard. This fire attribute Battle Force manual is for you. Other than that, all three of you will also be receiving training in noble and knight etiquette.

"This is the least I can do for you as your brother. I hope that all of you will continue to train hard and break into the Silver rank to become knights of the family, after which you will be allowed to bear the Norton family name. When you rake in enough achievements for the family, I will also make you all landed nobles so that you can form branch families for the Nortons. I look forward to the arrival of that day," Lorist said.

The three of them once again saluted Lorist as they said in unison, "Thank you, milord."

Lorist then waved to the four middle-aged maidservants to bring the children forward.

He said to the maidservants, "You all used to be the personal maidservants of my father and have graced me with four other siblings. Since you've been taking care of my siblings rather well even after you have formed your own families, I will allow them to continue staying with you so that they may experience the joy of being raised in a normal family. However, when they reach the age of 12, they must begin receiving training for noble etiquette and knighthood. As long as they are hard working enough, they will definitely have the same prospects of their three brothers here. You will also be receiving a yearly sum to improve the quality of life within your families so that my half-siblings will be able to live better lives."

The four maidservants paid their respects and said, "Thank you, milord."

"You may return for now," Lorist said.

When the maidservants left with his half-siblings, Lorist said, "Pesha..."

Pesha stepped forward without any fuss. She felt that Lorist behaved rather differently tonight and got the same vibe she received when she looked at the late Baron Norton in the past: strict, confident and dominating.

"Pesha, since you have chosen to become the leader of the female garrison unit, I hope that you will give it your best to fulfill that role and obey the regulations of the family and become a fine female knight. However, you must remember that without my permission, you are not allowed to act as you please and change the organization or regulations of your unit, understand?" Lorist said as he stared at Pesha.

She merely nodded painstakingly.

"Today, with Brother Beck, Knight Pajik and Supervisor Spiel as witnesses, I will entrust you with the responsibility of being the leader of the female unit. Similarly, you must uphold the promise you have made to me. Otherwise, don't blame me for being ruthless. Also, if you receive an invitation, you may go to Pajik's home as a guest to visit Helias. However, I forbid you from going there on your own accord to disturb the calm and harmony of their lives. Remember my words well. You may leave now."

......

"Irina, thank you for birthing this wonderful child. He's so cute..." Lorist said as he hugged his son gently as the child narrowed his eyes quietly, wanting to go back to sleep after being breast-fed.

At that moment, Irina was leaning on the bed and looking at Lorist hug the child lovingly with the warm smile of a new mother on her face.

Reidy silently opened the door and whispered from the outside, "Milord..."

"What's up?"

"The Pentasword Mercenary Crew leader is here to collect the rewards. He heard that you were back so he wanted to pay you a visit."

Lorist nodded and placed the child back into Irina's bosom. "Shhh, be careful. He's asleep..."

Irina rolled her eyes at Lorist jokingly and said, "I know, just go."

The Pentasword Mercenary Crew had brought their family members and friends from their village over to Firmrock Castle during the first round of snow on the 11th month of the previous year and they were settled down at Wildnorth Town by Supervisor Kedan. The tale of their migration was rather dramatic: they used the opportunity during the celebration of the 36th day of the 9th month when everyone else was heading to Windbury City to participate in the harvest festival and traveled by river and carriage to the Northlands. Using the cover as immigrants which the Kenmays Family were bringing into the Northlands to develop their dominion, they managed to pass the customs point at Hendliff Suspension Bridge within the duke's dominion and headed for the Norton Family's dominion right away.

The crew leader Doboff respectfully greeted Lorist before he was invited to have some tea together.

This time around, Doboff and his various subordinates brought more than 50 heads of the mountain barbarians to claim the bonus from Supervisor Spiel and also requested for some support in terms of weapons and other equipment.

Doboff reported the developments of the past few months starting from the 3rd month to Lorist. During the time the Pentasword Mercenary Crew defended the intersection point at the two mountain ranges near the border of the Norton Family dominion and the Magical Dragon Mountains, they have encountered the cavalry of the barbarians a number of times. In the beginning, the mountain barbarian cavalry units numbered less than ten and eventually grew in number to a few hundred. Doboff expressed his suspicion that they would be facing a large-scale barbarian attack some time in the future.

Lorist agreed to Doboff's request for weapon and equipment support right away and also promised that each mercenary of the crew would receive one metal armor to increase their defensive capabilities.

Incredibly grateful, Doboff thanked Lorist three whole times before bidding his leave.

Lorist then spent another month of bliss with his child before receiving an urgent letter from Charade that called for his presence at Firmrock Castle.

......

Currently, Lorist, his family knights and other administrative officers were gathered within the wide hall within Firmrock Castle, which was only used for the first time since the completion of the castle. Even Belnick, Pajik, Supervisor Spiel and Pesha who were usually stationed at Maplewoods Bastide came over to the castle to attend the meeting.

This time around, Pesha was finally able to come to terms with the true might of Lorist, causing her to develop a sense of respect and fear towards him. As the only female knight within the family, she also received curious stares from the other family knights and when some knights came over to introduce themselves, Pesha instantly hid behind Belnick shyly.

Lorist and Charade then entered the hall, followed behind by Reidy and Patt who were booth holding a wooden rack and a huge beastskin scroll in their arms.

The chatters in the hall gradually quieted down as everyone understood that the fate of the Norton Family's 500000 plus subjects would be discussed during the meeting.

Patt and Reidy placed the rack firmly on the ground and hung up the beastskin scroll, which was in actuality an enlarged version of the map of the Norton Family dominion.

After Charade saluted Lorist, he proceeded to tell everyone within the hall about the problems the family was facing that had to be solved as soon as possible. Holding a wooden stick, he started pointing it towards the map.

"This plan involves the area from the valley city all the way to Wildnorth Town. The family is in favor of developing these wastelands into the main food producing area of the dominion. As everyone may have noticed, the wasteland is divided into seven sectors which are painted in different colors. Within each sector, one town will be constructed and each town will be surrounded by around 10 villages with each town housing roughly 1000 to 1500 households and each village housing from 300 to 500 households. This way, the seven sectors can hold up to 500000 people and roughly 12000 square kilometers of farmland will be cultivated.

"This map was brought to you by the painstaking month-long effort of the light cavalry scout regiment and the sacrifice of tens of family soldiers. Right now, on these lands are huge groups of magical beasts which have crossed over from the Magical Dragon Mountains into the family dominion last winter that haven't yet returned to their habitat. If we are to develop these lands, we will first have to deal with these magical beasts.

"We plan to use three years to develop this wasteland so that we may be able to establish a haven for our loved ones, unaffected by the perils of war going on outside. This year, our plan is to first clear out the magical beasts within the dominion and settle the folk down into the seven sectors to start sowing the seeds for the winter wheat as well as construct temporary living quarters and build roads and other infrastructure. We will also be readying the supplies the folk will be needing to survive the winter and all the preparations must be finished before winter comes in the 11th month.

"Next year, we will widen the roads and improve the transportation infrastructure as well as launch a large-scale irrigation project for the farmlands and distribute farmland to the folk. Each household will receive up to 30000 square meters of land and we will also provide farming tools and one horse for each household. In the future, our lord will fulfill his promise and construct new stone houses for each household so that all the people who have followed us back to the dominion will be able to live in warm, safe homes.

"The three years of development is estimated to cost millions of gold Fordes. After distributing the farmland, our lord also promises to give a discounted tax rate for three years. During the first year, the commoners will only have to pay 10% of their harvest. During the second year, they have to pay 20% and during the third year, 30%. After that, the tax rate will stay at 40% and that is the highest it will go. As for the family members of our soldiers, they will even get a discount of 10% in their taxes. We believe that after three years, we will be able to convert this wasteland into an earthly paradise for all."

Charade then turned to Lorist and said, "Milord, you should name this piece of wasteland."

"Alright," Lorist said as he stood up. "In hopes for the plentiful harvests produced by the land and the bliss of those who settle within, I will name this place the Felicitas Settlement.

"I'm sure all of you have heard Knight Charade's description of the plan. It's already the 7th month now and there's only 4 months remaining before the 11th month, so we don't have much time. I hope all of you will cooperate and give this effort your all," said Lorist as he made a knight salute towards the rest.

Everyone within the hall stood up and said in unison, "Milord, we pledge to give nothing but our best efforts!"

"Knight Josk..."

"Milord, I am awaiting your instructions," Josk said as he stepped forward.

"Where is my Fiercetiger Knight?"

"Milord, your Fiercetiger Knight awaits your orders!" exclaimed Lode Wales passionately as he stood beside Josk.

"Where's my knight brigade?"

Terman stepped forward and said, "Milord, your knight brigade will always serve as your sword loyally."

"Where are my eyes and ears, Knight Yuriy?"

"Milord, the direction in which you point will be where we head!" Yuriy said as he stood up.

"Good. The mounted archers, knight brigade and light cavalry scouts... I order you all to clean up the magical beasts that are still roaming the wasteland before the coming of the 9th month!"

"Yes, milord!"

"Knight Waxima..."

"Yes, milord," Waxima said as he stepped forward.

"Your heavy-armored cavalry company will be fused with Loze's heavy-armored cavalry unit with you becoming his second-in-command. You shall join him in this mission as well."

"Yes, milord."

Lorist then looked at the rest within the hall and said, "Knight Potterfang's heavy-armored infantry unit will be in charge of policing the immigrant camp. Ovidis's guard company will be stationed at Firmrock Castle as usual and Pajik's guard company shall defend Maplewoods Bastide and reinforce the two army bases of the Pentasword Mercenary Crew should they need any help. Freiyar's three garrison legions will escort the immigrants to their settlements and each village shall be defended by a company of troops with each town also being defended by a regiment. Els, you shall bring your guards to oversee the captive laborers who will be constructing the roads. The rest of the units will be managed by Knight Charade."

"Yes, milord."

"Knight Malek, please step forward," Lorist said.

"Milord," Malek said as he stepped in front of Lorist.

"Knight Malek, as your dominion lord, I order you to take a break from your duties until you break through to the Gold rank," Lorist said with a smile.

"But milord, the family will be quite busy and I have to work my share as well..."

"Nonono, you have already been held back far too long during the journey with the northbound convoy. I have already ordered Knight Belnick to replace you as the second-in-command of Knight Freiyar and take over your garrison legion. You shouldn't worry too much and go on your vacation. It won't be late for you to contribute when you reach the Gold rank. Not only is this my personal request to you, it's also an instruction by me as your dominion lord, so there is no room for negotiation."

"So be it. Thank you, milord," said Malek as his ever-stoic face revealed a touched expression while he made a knight salute to Lorist.

Chapter 170 Ridden with Matters

Charade was laid down on the bed and according to the herbalist Lundmorde, he had collapsed from overworking for a few nights straight. Even though Charade had Battle Force of the Three Star Silver rank, he still couldn't take that kind of fatigue and had to rest for three days before he would be able to recover.

Lorist was incredibly regretful, especially when he witnessed the sight of Molise carrying Charade's son, Charade Libert, as she stared at her husband worryingly. He realized that he had put too heavy a burden on Charade to the point that he did not have enough time to be with his own wife and child.

Molise's pregnancy had been discovered during the 6th month of the previous year and Charade was ecstatic when he was notified of it. When the convoy was going through the Andinaq Kingdom just before it reached the imperial capital, he had Potterfang, Terman, Yuriy and the other Dawn Academy students bring Molise and her grandfather, Engelich, to the War God's Shrine and he got officially married to Molise with the blessings of a priest there.

During the snowy night of the 8th day of the 2nd month at Kobo City, Molise delivered a healthy son for Charade.

Lorist recalled that moment when he suggested for Charade's son to be named Snobby with a devious smile on his face. The others who were unaware of what it really meant praised that it was a good name. However, even though Charade didn't understand the word either, he rejected that name right away as he understood that Lorist was never up to any good when he revealed a smile like that, much to Lorist's dismay.

At that moment, Charade was still worrying about the management of manpower and resources for the wasteland development even though he was bedridden. Lorist patted on his hand and asked him not to worry about the other matters and rest well and told him that he would take over the work so that Charade could have a month of vacation to rest and accompany his family.

While Lorist did promise to take over the work, it was easier said than done. Only after he started did he realize the true complexity of the work handled by Charade. He had to deal with tons of reports even to the most trivial ones and had to come up with a solution for every one of them. Busy to the point of exploding, Lorist could only catch a breath of rest after burning the midnight oil for three whole days.

No... Charade's breakdown is my own fault. He's basically a living Zhuge Liang who can handle all matters, big and small. While he had no choice but to be in charge during the convoy's journey, I can't let him continue without rest anymore.

Lorist understood Charade's frustration. Given that they only just arrived at the dominion and were short on time, Charade couldn't afford to familiarize himself with the officers within the family dominion and could only make do with the ones he had worked with during the northbound journey, which was a very limited number of people, causing him to eventually collapse from fatigue.

As the dominion lord himself, Lorist wasn't as attentive and adept at working long hours as Charade and his eyes were already bloodshot from working for three days straight. Right now, the only thought on his mind was how he could lighten his burden. He notified Supervisor Hansk, Supervisor Kedan, Supervisor Spiel, Butler Boris, Shadekampf and a few other officers that used to work for Charade within the convoy to gather for a meeting.

During the meeting, Lorist got to the point straight away and said that he would form a development committee for the Felicitas Settlement comprising everyone present. The committee would be made up of multiple departments with Hansk being the manager of the allocation department which would approve requests for resource and manpower.

Spiel would be the manager of the finance and resources department and would be in charge of managing and distributing said resources.

Kedan would take the role as the human resource department's manager and everyone within the development villages would fall under his jurisdiction. Additionally, he was also tasked with setting up a comprehensive registry for the citizens of the settlement.

Butler Boris on the other hand would take charge of the main development projects of the seven sectors and manage where the manpower and resource be distributed and the various farmland development tasks. In other words, he was the main lead of the project.

Shadekampf would represent Lorist in checking on the three supervisors and the development of the seven sectors. Additionally, he had complete authority regarding the handing out of punishment for any transgressions in regulations. Apart from having to report anything he deemed deserving of a death penalty to Lorist, he was free to hand out any other punishment or solution he pleased.

As for the other officers who worked for Charade during the days of the convoy, they would be allocated to the various departments according to their respective capabilities. Lorist gave them three days to set the departments up, after which they would begin the development according to Charade's plan.

In the end, Lorist clapped his hands and encouraged for them to work hard and said that he awaited the completion of the settlement which would be only the first of the many good things that would come. He told them that the settlement would be divided into seven administrative districts according to the seven sectors and that the district chief would be recommended by the managers of the various departments before being appointed officially by Lorist. He also said that as administrative officers, they would be given an honorary noble title if they performed their duties well so that they may enter the ranks of nobility. Also, there would be a yearly bonus which would be given according to what Lorist thought about their work performance.

Faced with the 'encouragement' Lorist had just given, every officer present felt incredibly excited. They quickly bowed and pledged that they would give it their all for the family and the successful development of the Felicitas Settlement and assured Lorist that they wouldn't give up regardless of the difficulties involved and asked him to be assured and wait for their success.

Lorist then returned to his quarters and slept for a day and night straight. After waking from his long sleep, he leisurely sipped on some tea as he read some books before he entered his office during noon only to find that a stack of beastskin documents had piled up on his desk.

What's going on? Why are there be so many documents? Didn't I allocate the workload already? Which department are these reports from? Lorist thought as he picked up a few documents in annoyance.

The first beastskin document was actually submitted by Supervisor Kedan and according to him, there wouldn't be enough beastskins within the whole family dominion to make a registry for more than 500000 citizens and also noted the extreme costs involved. That's why, one of the subordinates of Kedan suggested that thin wooden sheets be used temporarily instead until the beastskin requirements could be fulfilled.

Kedan suggested in his letter for that subordinate of his to be awarded five gold Fordes and also submitted an estimate of the cost of making the thin wooden sheets which included the building of a factory and the cost of paying the woodworkers. It would amount to roughly 100 gold Fordes a year and the proposal had already been submitted to Supervisor Hansk.

Hansk was of a similar opinion that the solution was a good one. However, he didn't dare to make the decision himself and waited for Lorist's approval.

What's there to hesitate about? I can only have 5000 beastskins made within a year for 100 gold Fordes whereas I can have 15000 wooden sheets made each month with that money. That's obviously the better choice! Lorist then signed the document, indicating his approval before stamping it with his seal, thus resolving the problem of the registry.

Lorist felt that the remaining few documents were mostly trivial matters. Some of them were merely reports of things that had already been settled while others were decisions that the departments hesitated to make which was sent to Lorist for the final say. Even though the number of documents was easily half there previously was, Lorist still felt rather frustrated for having to deal with all that paperwork.

"Sol, why is such an important matter stuffed all the way down here?" Lorist exclaimed angrily.

That was a report about Loze who was cleaning up magical beasts in the wasteland. Josk and the rest submitted that report that stated that they had already swept their way to the third sector and killed many magical beasts in the process with near 10000 carcasses already piled up. However, most of the beasts were herbivores like magical bulls and goats and they submitted the report because they wanted a solution to manage the animal carcasses so that they don't rot to waste from the harsh tempering of the natural elements.

To Lorist, the so-called magical beasts were not much different from animals. While they had some amazing powers according to the legends, with the end of the magical civilization, the magical beasts had also lost many of their amazing magical abilities. The surviving ones to this day only retained their bestial ferocity along with their tough hide and stunningly aggressive physical features.

The reason they were still distinguished from normal animals was because of their aggressive tendencies. Putting the carnivores aside, even herbivore magical beasts would attack right away the moment their territory was infringed upon.

"Reidy, call the three supervisors to come over," Lorist said angrily.

The three of them soon arrived at Lorist's office. Lorist tossed the report to them and asked, "Tell me what's going on with this. Why hasn't a report as important as this been seen to already?"

"Milord, we haven't even seen this report before either," replied the three supervisors in unison.

"Huh?" Lorist mused, before he took up the report and checked the date once again only to notice that he had made a mistake. The report was submitted only three days ago when the departments had yet to be formed and it wasn't weird that they didn't get to know about its existence. Lorist had missed the report because he was too worn out from three straight days of work previously.

"Fine. Then, do you have a solution in mind?" Lorist said hurriedly to change the subject.

"Milord, we should mobilize any workers with butchering skills to deal with the carcasses right away. We might also have to allocate some female leather workers as well as those well-versed in meat preservation to handle them as the beasts can also be a good source of food for us," suggested Hansk.

"Not bad. The three of you should prioritize dealing with this for now, especially with the mobilization of resources and workforce to the three sectors. Have Shadekampf guide you along with this process," Lorist said as he nodded.

"Milord, we might not be able to mobilize any of our family's forces as escorts," noted Kedan worryingly.

"There should be no problem. The three sectors have already been mostly cleared up and there shouldn't be any magical beasts left," Spiel said.

"What if there's one or two that managed to escape? These workers don't have the ability nor courage to face off against those beasts. If we really did encounter any, chaos would break out."

"Alright... Send my orders to Pesha for her to lead the female garrison unit to escort these people to the third sector. Right now, only her female garrison unit is not occupied with anything else. Additionally, she is already at the Two Star Silver rank, so she shouldn't have any problem handling those magical beasts. After settling this matter of the three sectors, there are four more that still have lots of magical beasts roaming around that must be dealt with," Lorist said.

"Yes, milord."

During the next morning, just a while after Lorist entered his office and looked at a few documents, Potterfang entered the room.

"Milord," said Potterfang as he made a knight salute.

"Oh, Pog. How's the transport of the resources going at your side?" Lorist asked as he raised his head cheerfully.

Lorist was actually referring to the various goods left at the transit point at Count Spenseid's dominion. The important resources and immigrants had already long been moved into the family dominion through Firmrock Castle.

While they were of lesser importance relative to the things that had been moved first, the value of those goods were not to be underestimated. For example, among the furniture plundered from the duke's manor was a huge bed which was enough for six people to sleep in that was crafted intricately by an experienced artisan. It was left behind to be transported last because it wasn't convenient to ship it first.

"Milord, it should be done in another month or so. Currently, only two companies numbering around 1000 men and near 1000 carriages are left there. At the rate of one shipment per two days, we would still require tens of more shipments to ship everything over," Potterfang replied.

It was currently the 26th day of the 7th month and Potterfang had stated that the transportation of the items would only be complete by the end of the 8th month. Potterfang's forces were also stretched rather thin as well. Currently, most of his available men from the heavy-armored infantry unit were stationed at the immigrant camp near Firmrock Castle to maintain order there. Even though near 100000 of his men had been sent to develop the wasteland, the 400000 plus immigrants placed an immense burden on the 10000 or less men Potterfang had left.

"Is there anything you need since you came all the way here?" Lorist asked.

"Oh, it's not that, milord. The transportation of the goods and the immigrant camp is posing no problem. I just wanted to know how we should deal with the nobles and knights that we have captured during the last battle," Potterfang said as he placed a huge stack of documents on Lorist's desk.

"Gosh... Yet another huge pile of documents," Lorist complained, before he flipped the first page open only to see a familiar name on top of it: Count Spensied.

"Oh, Pog, did you find out what this old fellow's problem was? Why did he suddenly choose to antagonize our family? Did you interrogate him yet?" Lorist asked.

"I've already asked him. Milord, this old count said that he had answered the call to arms of the duke for justice and to defend the honor of nobles. That was also the reason he was the first to lead the charge towards Firmrock Castle. After incurring 400 casualties with only a company of men, he became akin to a toothless tiger and got oppressed by the other nobles to a point that he returned to his own dominion after being unable to stand the disgraceful treatment he was receiving. In the end, he fell straight into our hands," Potterfang replied.

"For justice and the honor of nobles?! Bullshit!" Lorist exclaimed.

Potterfang laughed and said, "In the end, his subordinate revealed the truth. Milord, didn't you hang a person called Baron Farad for harming our messengers?"

Lorist nodded and said, "Oh, come to think of it, I did."

"The butler of the count said that Baron Farad had always been really respectful to the count and he even wanted to wed his daughter to the baron. However, the baron was hanged by you, milord. Angered beyond his wits, Count Spenseid believed that you didn't have the right to punish another fellow noble for the sake of a few messengers. Had it not been for the troops you brought with you at that time, the old count would've launched his assault on you long ago.

"That's why he was the first to heed Duke Loggins's call and ended up losing his forces at Firmrock Castle. Milord, how should we deal with this count? We've already imprisoned him for two whole months and given how busy we all are, no one else can really afford to spend any time on him. Now that the transportation of the goods is almost done, it's about time you made a decision," Potterfang said.

"How many people are there among the nobles we have in captivity?" Lorist asked as he ran his finger through the stack of beastskin documents like they were poker cards.

"There are 16 nobles and 123 knights in total."

"Where are the family members of Count Spenseid currently?"

"They're imprisoned together with him. The old count has two wives, one daughter and one son. His 25-year-old daughter is a widow and his 14-year-old son was birthed by his second wife. He also had a family knight who perished during the charge towards Firmrock Castle," explained Potterfang in great detail.

"How are you so familiar with his situation?" Lorist asked curiously.

Potterfang blushed and said, "That daughter of his is really thoughtful and she tries her best to take care of her father and younger brother even though she's a prisoner just like them. I've seen her myself when I went over there..."

"Oh..." Lorist said with realization as a smile surfaced on his face.

Stretching his hand out to the bell rope beside him, Lorist called for Reidy to come in.

"Reidy, get Supervisor Kedan to come over here. I have something I want him to do."

Kedan quickly appeared before Lorist after being summoned.

"Supervisor Kedan, I'll leave this matter to you," Lorist said as he handed a stack of beastskin documents to him. After that, he took out Count Spenseid's file and said, "Go ask this old guy's daughter if she's willing to become the maidservant of our very own Knight Potterfang. If she's willing, we'll let her parents and brother return home."

Kedan revealed a smile and said, "Congratulations, Knight Potterfang."

Sweating with embarrassment, Potterfang thanked Lorist shyly. "Thank you, milord. However, the count won't be able to return home as their castle and town walls have already been taken apart by us with everything of value taken, including their citizens..."

"What? Why would we take apart their castle and town walls? Who made that call?" Lorist said as he thought, I would understand if they took the valuables, but I really don't get the point of taking down even their town walls.

"It was Shadekampf. He said that the construction of the seven towns within the wasteland will definitely require a lot of rectangular-shaped rocks. Seeing that the soldiers stationed at the count's dominion had nothing to do, he ordered them to dismantle the castle and town walls for the stones to be shipped back to be used as building material. Right now, almost nothing is left but a piece of flat, empty land," Potterfang said in a troubled fashion. He personally felt that the matter was going too far as well.

Sol! Shadekampf is even better at being a miser than Charade now!

"Oh well... Supervisor Kedan, tell the count's daughter that if she agrees, we will provide them with a residence within Firmrock Castle and pay them 100 gold Fordes yearly as reparation. If we are able in the future, we will once again construct a new castle at their dominion or move his dominion to another more prosperous area. That will be it for now," Lorist said.

"Milord, a few other nobles' dominions have also been ruined by the passing of our convoy," Potterfang reminded.

"Have those poor misers buzz off. Why would we waste food on feeding them? As for the rest, if they are willing to pay a ransom, let them go. If they don't have money, they can trade some resources instead as well. Settle this matter as soon as possible. Pog, you should follow Kedan there lest he gets the wrong person," Lorist said as he laughed.

"Milord..." said Potterfang with a flushed face.

"Understood, milord," Kedan said as he saluted respectfully before he left.

Chapter 171 Female Secretary

"Milord, Old Man Balk is here," Reidy said as he pushed open the door.

"Oh, have him come in," Lorist said. Currently, he was busy organizing the various documents on his table.

Old Man Balk entered with a beastskin scroll clasped by his side.

"Milord, good morning," he said as he saluted to Lorist.

"Drop the formalities," Lorist said as he waved his hand. "Old Man Balk, did you bring the things I asked for?"

"They're all here," Balk said as he rolled the scroll open and laid it on the table. It was a detailed map of the area around Morgan Hills.

"I rushed over the moment I received your order. Milord, we started the first stages of surveying the area around Morgan Hills. Under the guidance of Grandmaster Sid, we discovered a silver deposit, a tin deposit, a clay pit, a limestone quarry and three granite deposits. This year, the production of copper within the dominion have already recovered to its previous amount and we have started to begin early work on silver mining. So far, around 60 kilograms of silver is mined every month," reported Balk.

"You did well," Lorist praised. "Oh, and what is Grandmaster Sid up to now?"

"Milord, Grandmaster Sid is currently researching the equipment of the Whitelion Legion like crazy. It's a shame we didn't discover any iron deposits near Morgan Hills. That is what the family lacks the most right now," Balk said.

Nodding, Lorist said, "Originally we had two factories, one for armor making and another for ballistas. However, I've already ordered them to stop all manufacturing, mainly because we don't lack any good equipment ever since the return of the convoy and the rest of the iron we have left are to be made into farming tools. We will expand our farmland greatly next year so we will need a lot of those tools.

"Since the equipment we make cannot rival that of the Whitelion Legion in quality, I don't plan to have them continue manufacturing either. I have already tasked Grandmaster Felin to start research into new types of ballistas and longbows. Notify Grandmaster Sid that I am also willing to sponsor his research effort so that we may one day be able to make armor of better quality than the Whitelion Legion ones we have now.

"The reason I asked you to come here today was to tell you that I intend to reorganize all the factories and mines within the dominion by setting up an industrial and mining department with you as its chief manager. You will be in charge of everything pertaining to mining as well as starting new factories within the dominion. Take a look at this first," Lorist said as he passed a thick beastskin document to Balk.

"This is a list of personnel picked from our 500000 plus citizens who have prior experience starting and managing mines and you should pick some of them to become supervisors of our mines. After introducing them to the general matters they have to pay attention to, have them report to you regularly on the development efforts."

Lorist then gave another beastskin document to Balk and said, "In here is a similar list with those experienced in running factories as well as the ones I intend to have built within the dominion. I have already readied the manpower, resources and funds required for the construction, so you will only have to pick them from the list to get things going."

Balk took the document and mused, "A pottery workshop, a leather factory, a clothes factory, a wooden writing sheet factory, a beastskin processing factory, a furniture factory and a blanket factory..."

Raising his head in confusion, Balk asked, "Milord, why do you want to start so many factories and workshops to produce daily use products?"

Lorist smiled bitterly and shrugged. "This year, we have to solve the issue of having our citizens spend the winter in the new development villages. Since Loze and Josk led their men to kill off lots of magical beasts, we've ended up with quite an amount of fur that we can use to make leather outfits and blankets which we must distribute before the coming of winter. Additionally, when most of the new citizens settle down next year, apart from supplying them with products for daily use, we have to also consider their increasing consumption of the products as well."

Lorist patted the thick documents held by Balk and said, "Many among the list are merchants and factory owners who have gone bankrupt for various reasons which caused their eventual fall into the ranks of the vagabonds. I've decided to give them another chance to pick up their former careers again. Tell them that if they manage these factories well, they will be able to borrow a sum from our family to gain personal ownership of those factories and are free to manage them however they please provided they adhere to our regulations. Tell them to be bold and do their job well and that the Norton Family will definitely support their efforts."

Balk nodded and said, "Milord, I understand what you're trying to say. I'll do my best to fulfill it."

Lorist then pointed on the calendar on the wall and said, "It's already the end of the 7th month right now. You have around 1 month to get things ready. After that, we'll head to the Bladedge Mountains to visit the valley that you mentioned before to see if there's really green clay vines over there. Oh, and we'll have Grandmaster Sid follow us along as well to check if there are any minable resources over there."

"Acknowledged, milord."

......

Lorist noticed that his work increased once again with the formation of Balk's new department, causing him to look at the calendar on the walls as each day while he waited for Charade's return from his vacation to take over the mountain of work seemed as long as a year to him.

I feel so stupid! Lorist thought. Why did I give Charade 1 whole month of vacation even though Lundmorde said that he only needed ten or so days of rest... Had it not been for what I said, I would've been able to return to Maplewoods Bastide to see my darling son...

Once again taking a glance at the calendar, he thought, Sol, there's still 15 days before Charade's vacation ends... How agonizing...

Lorist could no longer sit still, so he stood up and walked towards the map detailing the seven sectors. The migration of people to the first three sectors had already been completed and construction of the temporary villages and towns were under way. The fourth and fifth sectors were in the migration process with the sixth and seventh still being cleared of magical beasts. The seventh area was where Wildnorth Town was and the sixth was the most troublesome with its high magical beast count as it was more mountainous than the other sectors. However, Lorist was confident that the culling could be completed by the 8th month.

Bam! The door to the office was slammed open by Telesti who rushed within with an angered, flushed expression and both her eyes wide open.

"Locke, how can you go back on your promise like that?!" shouted Telesti incredibly angrily.

Lorist merely patted on his forehead as yet another headache began to manifest.

Lorist gestured for Reidy to close the door to the office.

"My beloved Telesti, sit down first and let's talk about this civilly."

"Locke, you've promised me that the construction of the valley city will go according to my plan and supervision. This, however, isn't what I wanted," Telesti said with anger still filling her voice.

Sigh, this is because of Charade, thought Lorist as he laughed bitterly.

He remembered promising Telesti that she would have full control of the planning and building of the valley city, causing her to give it her best for her work. After brainstorming for days and nights, she designed an almost fairytale-like garden city and even drew quite a number of pictures of its completed form.

From an aesthetic standpoint, Lorist couldn't help but admit that it was definitely one of the best he has seen. However, when Charade checked the designs, he almost fainted.

"There isn't even a city wall! In the mountainous area of Morgan Hills, any carnivorous magical beast can just jump into the city to hunt for prey! Also, the roads of the city should be constructed with practicality in mind so that things can be transported to their destination as quickly as possible. This road layout is so complicated and winding that 9 out of 10 people will definitely lose their way in it! Also, with the huge windows these buildings have, did she even consider the problem of retaining heat during winter?"

Charade critiqued the design for a whole half hour before abandoning the crystallization of Telesti's hard work altogether.

As for the already completed Firmrock Castle, Charade laughed at how it looked rather run down for a castle.

"Locke, my brother, you must understand that you now have around 500000 people under your rule and you're not like most other smaller nobles which only have thousands of subjects. You should convert Firmrock Castle into the Firmrock City Fortress so that it will be able to match the prestige of the Norton Family name," Charade said.

"However, there's only so much space within the valley. We can't just expand it because we want to," said Lorist in a troubled manner.

"That won't be a problem," Charade said as he took a map of the Firmrock Castle and drew rectangles outside each of the two walls. "We only have to build two more sectors here with the first one being the army base and business sector that deals with transactions outside the walls. The sector inside here will be the residence of the family members of the soldiers. Right now, it's used for the camp of the immigrants. However, we can always reclaim the land around that area after building the sectors. This way, the valley city in the middle will become the central city sector for the administration of our family as well as the central base for military operations. By the time these changes are made, we can proudly call it the Firmrock City Fortress."

Lorist had to admit that Charade made quite a lot of sense and he allowed him to redesign the layout of the city and reallocated all the personnel of Telesti to him.

Telesti was more of an introvert that disliked crowded places. That's why after she finished the design of Firmrock Castle, she returned to her hermit-like lifestyle and stayed within her home all day to analyze the materials her mother left her. She didn't mind the fact that her personnel had been allocated to Charade. However, she eagerly awaited the beginning of the construction and deeply hoped that she could name the city after her mother.

As for Charade, he couldn't care less about Lorist's personal promise to the young lady as the family's priority was to first settle down the 500000 plus subjects by developing the reclamation villages and new towns.

The first of the seven sectors of Felicitas Settlement had the planned valley city as the main town at its center. Charade abandoned the design Telesti made and found someone else to remake a simple, yet pragmatic layout and the construction had already begun only recently. That's when Telesti noticed the changes and stormed to Lorist's place for an explanation.

Recalling that Charade had tossed Telesti's design up to the top of the nearby shelf, Lorist got a stool and used it to reach out to the dust-covered plans.

Seeing her painstakingly drawn design thrown in a corner doing nothing but gathering dust, Telesti started to cry with droplets of tears streaking down her face.

"Sigh, don't cry. I was just about to tell you the reason we didn't use your design," said Lorist hurriedly in an attempt to console her.

Lorist repeated every one of Charade's reasonings that he could remember, only to be refuted by a single line of Telesti's. "But, Grandmaster Ciroba himself said that my design was brimming with spirit and genius and even said that he looked forward to its completion... He also thought that my reputation as a designer of the city would skyrocket after its completion..."

"Sigh, Miss Telesti, Grandmaster Ciroba was praising you from an artistic standpoint. While it is definitely a beautiful piece of work, the family has to first settle down 500000 of its subjects. Do you think that we can afford to appreciate your artistic talent? What we need now is to settle them down as soon as possible. Simple and quick is what this city needs to be. I'm really sorry about this, Miss Telesti... As the dominion lord, I have not been able to fulfill my promise to you. However, I didn't have a choice in that matter as well."

Lorist pointed at the documents stacked up in his rooms and said, "Look around. Knight Charade had already collapsed from the burden of his duties and it's up to me now as the dominion lord to make the decisions based on the torrents of documents coming in every single day. I'm really worn out as well, but I have to endure it so that we can pass this hurdle for the sake of the future of the Norton Family. I truly apologize for my inability to fulfill my promise and hope that I can make it up to you when the situation of the family dominion is stabilized..."

Telesti wiped her tears and looked around the office before she said, "I can see that you're quite busy... Then, how do you plan to make it up to me?"

Lorist stepped towards the map of Felicitas Settlement and pointed towards the seven sectors. "Look. These seven towns will be completed in three years. By then, I plan to build a basic school within each of these towns to train people to read and write. I also plan to have an academy built within the dominion. If you are willing, we can name the academy after your mother. That will be my compensation to you, is that alright?"

Telesti's face flushed with excitement once again. "My mother was a scholar and to her, using her name for an academy is the most honorable thing she can dream of... Thank you, Locke."

Telesti then propped her feet up to kiss Lorist on the cheek slightly to express her gratitude.

Lorist quickly turned his face around and planted his lips onto Telesti's before using his tongue to push open her mouth and began sucking. At the same time, he ran his hands all over her body, causing her to slump powerlessly in his embrace.

They were currently within Lorist's personal office and not Telesti's operating headquarters. Ever since he impregnated Irina some time during the 9th month of the previous year, he hadn't had the chance to release his pent up lust and right now, he was already at his tipping point. With a flip of his arms and a tearing sound, he stripped Telesti naked like a shaven sheep.

WIth her clothes torn open, Telesti snapped back from her daze and attempted to push Lorist away, only to have her body once again twitch involuntarily as Lorist lowered his head to suck on her pink, ripe 'strawberries', sending her into stupor from Lorist's fervent teasing.

Lorist then hoisted Telesti onto his work desk. With a sweep, the thick stack of beastskin documents fell to the ground before he placed Telesti onto the table and pushed her two fair legs apart. He then inserted his member deep into her forbidden zone gently.

With a slightly pained moan, a crimson red flower bloomed on Lorist's work desk as Telesti finally parted with her pristine, maiden state...

When their bodies parted, Lorist breathed heavily with Telesti reprimanding him in a worn out manner, "Locke, you're taking advantage of the situation..."

Lorist merely continued to lick on the two peaks on Telesti's chest before the humping resumed.

"Locke... You're... you're so despicable..." muttered Telesti who was currently sweating all over.

Lorist once again engaged in another round of intercourse...

Having given up with a teary look on her face, Telesti said, "Locke... My lower body feels a little numb... Help me out..."

Lorist embraced her and massaged her gently with his internal energy.

"Telesti, since we're already like this, will you marry me?" Lorist asked.

"I can't..." Telesti said as she shook her head resolutely. "I've taken an oath to remain single for the rest of my life... I won't marry anyone."

"But you're already mine..."

"I can only consider you a lover. Locke, it's not that I don't like you, but I really can't go against my vows..." Telesti said as she continued to shake her head.

"Locke, you've completely ruined my clothes..."

"I'll give you another chest full of new ones."

"Did you mean it when you said that you'll let me name the academy after my mother?"

"Yes, I did. However, it'll take three years for the development to complete. Why don't you help me out as my secretary? That way, you can remind me constantly about my promise to you."

"Alright, I'll help you out and keep an eye on whatever you're doing this time..."

Chapter 172 Messenger and Alliance

The Bladedge Mountains was like a huge wall that blocked off the Norton Family dominion from the open seas.

Lorist was currently standing atop a cliff and looking towards the incoming waves bashing onto the black-colored, razor-sharp bedrock with a solemn expression.

"Are the shores of the Bladedge Mountains all so reefy?" Lorist asked.

"They are, milord," replied Balk. "The coast around the family dominion is mostly like this. The only way we can reach the coast is through the three ways I brought you past just now. The other sides are so steep that there is virtually no way for us to get down the mountains to the coast. We've always headed through the three ways with some firewood and cauldrons to procure some salt from the seawater and each trip would take us tens of days to complete...

"Milord, I think I know what you're thinking. You're planning to find a place to build a port, aren't you?" asked Balk.

Lorist nodded.

"Milord, please follow me," Balk said as he traveled with Lorist across the mountains to another cliff further away.

"Look, milord..."

In the distance, part of the mountain could be seen sloping into the seas. What piqued Lorist's curiosity was the presence of a few wooden structures that were left over there.

"Milord, in the past, the four great families of Wildnorth Town had once attempted to contact the outside world through the sea and spent around one year to construct a very long floating bridge that stretched all the way into the sea over the reef near the shores. At that time, the lord of the family was your grandfather and he attempted to discuss this with the four families of Wildnorth Town and requested for half of the rights to use the bridge. However, before the negotiations were completed, a huge storm tore the bridge apart, causing the four families immense losses as the money they had invested into the project had all gone to waste. All that remains is that over there..." explained Old Man Balk, who knew many things within the distant pass in the that Lorist had no idea about.

"Are these storms common?" Lorist asked.

"Not really. Huge twisters usually appear in the sea only during the 4th and 5th months. During other times, there would be huge winds and waves, but storms are far rarer," replied Balk.

"Oh well. Let's go back now. We've already visiting the Bladedge Mountains for two months, so it's about time we headed back," Lorist said.

After Charade ended his vacation and resumed his work, he really couldn't stand Lorist's attitude; when he had work, he would let his secretary do it. But when he didn't, he would 'do' his secretary. So, he forced Lorist to form a group of people to head towards the Bladedge Mountains to search for potential resources they could use to solve the resource crisis.

One of the things Charade found that they lacked was salt. In the past, the population within the dominion wasn't high and whenever salt ran out, they would bring some cauldrons and firewood to the coast near Bladedge Mountains to make some like Balk had described and that would be enough. However, there were now about 500000 people within the Norton Family dominion and if each person consumed 500 grams of salt per year, each year would cost the family 250000 kilograms of salt. Additionally, the production of furs and preservation of meat required huge amounts of it as well.

Charade also received a report from Spiel that stated that the salt stored up within the warehouses would run out by the 7th month of next year, prompting him to rush to Lorist and ask him to go to the Bladedge Mountains to conduct a survey as soon as possible to find a way to mass produce salt instead of humping with Telesti all day long within the office.

To Lorist, the two months he spent at Bladedge Mountains was quite beneficial. Mainly, he managed to confirm the presence of green vines within the cavern that Balk once found himself in. Even though the amount wouldn't be able to allow them to produce more than 1 million buckets of green vine glue yearly like the Romon Empire, they would still yield around 100000 buckets and that was more than enough for the developmental plans of the family.

Other than that, Grandmaster Sid discovered a black iron mountain which has huge deposits of black iron. Additionally, tungsten and chrome silver deposits were also found nearby, causing Sid to dance in joy and even proclaim, "As long as I have time to do my research, I will definitely be able to make a set of armor that is even better than that of the Whitelion Legion!"

Lorist also felt quite surprised by the discovery as the three minable resource deposits seemed pretty unlikely to occur near each other naturally. Even so, given the infinite vastness of the universe, it wasn't weird for something as outstanding as that to occur, so he put that thought aside for now.

As for the salt crisis Charade was so troubled about, Lorist already had a method to resolve it, that was to use the solar evaporation method. Boiling seawater to gain salt was far too troublesome. Before this, Charade allocated 3000 personnel to boil seawater and managed to gather up to 1 million kilograms of salt within the span of two months. However, they didn't continue to do so after that.

While Lorist didn't personally work in salt production before, he understood the basic procedures and concepts and chose a wide valley and designed a layout for salt evaporation pools to be handed for Balk to manage. While the cost of setting up the infrastructure for the first time was rather high, it didn't require too much manpower at only 100 or so people. However, this method would allow them to produce an estimated 50000 kilograms of salt monthly, solving the shortage of salt within the dominion considerably.

"Also, the salt evaporation pools must first be pressed tightly with mud before applying a layer of green clay to flatten them. When the tide rises, open the valves to allow for the seawater to flow into the pools. After letting the seawater to evaporate for roughly three days, transfer the thick salt water to be cleansed with spring water and allow for the impurities to settle at the bottom. After that, filter the solution for impurities and empty it into the evaporation pools on the next level and allow them to continue to dry. What remains will be edible salt," Lorist explained to Balk one last time.

Balk had asked quite a number of questions as for the past thousands of years, no such method for salt production was ever used. This method also allowed for huge savings as no firewood had to be brought to the coast to boil seawater and the problem of transporting the wood there didn't have to be considered either.

The Bladedge Mountains was not an easy terrain to tread and only smaller plants and grass grew without any trees within the vicinity. Even if there were, they would've long been cut down to be used as firewood for seawater boiling. After descending from the gentler slopes, people would be greeted with one tall cliff after another and had no choice but to circle around them to leave the Bladedge Mountains.

Currently, Telesti and her young maidservant Vinny were at a slope picking flowers to make a flower crown. They jumped around joyfully as if they were innocent, young children.

Since Lorist had intercourse with Telesti for the first time, she began to shed her introverted lifestyle and showed more interest in the matters between men and women. That was especially the case after she discovered that her cramps no longer hurt as much as they did before. She even began to seduce Lorist of her own accord and did it within the confines of their office.

One thing that troubled Lorist was that no matter how many times they make love or try out new and exciting stuff, Telesti wouldn't agree to marry him no matter how hard he tried to convince her. While she wouldn't mind being his lover, becoming his wife was out of the question.

Originally, Telesti wasn't so keen on going along with this trip to the Bladedge Mountains. However, Lorist told her that walking thousands of kilometers was always more enlightening than reading hundreds of books. He then supported his argument by reminding her that her mother frequently visited ruins and ancient forests in person and didn't stay at home all day long merely doing some reading, thus convincing her to come along on the trip.

Seeing Lorist's sullen expression, Telesti understood that Lorist was disappointed. That spot was the end of the stretch of the Bladedge Mountains and beyond that was the Blackmud Marsh. Lorist still wasn't able to find a suitable location to build a port.

Lightly kissing Telesti on the face, Lorist said gently, "Darling, we should head back. To be honest, I was surprised you were able to last two whole months during this trip here. You must've gained quite a bit from the experience."

As opposed to finding a port location like Lorist, Telesti was busy checking out the flora and fauna within the area as well as the geography and herbs of the Bladedge Mountains.

Humphing proudly, Telesti said, "I'm not just another soft, weak, girl you know. I can do whatever my mother could."

Holding Lorist's arm as they descended the slope, Telesti continued, "Locke, to be honest, after two months of research over here, I formed a hypothesis that I'm quite confident about. The terrain of the Bladedge Mountains couldn't have been formed naturally. It was as if the gods used their divine power to build a dam facing the sea to stop the stormy weather and the other dangers they may come with. It is nothing short of miraculous..."

Lorist smiled and merely listened quietly as he thought that his lover had quite the imagination from all the reading she did.

......

By the time they returned to Firmrock Castle, it was already the 28th day of the 10th month. Lorist had considered stopping by Maplewoods Bastide for a day or two to check out on his son. However, he didn't expect that a few messengers were there waiting for Lorist's return and notified him to go to Firmrock Castle as soon as possible.

The last trip Lorist made to the Bladedge Mountains lasted up to 10 days and within that period of time, various messengers had gathered up within the bastide. The gist of their news was that many ambassadors from various noble families were at Firmrock Castle, among the more noteworthy ones included the ambassadors of the First and Second Princes. On another note, Viscount Kenmays also paid a visit to the castle and had already waited there for half a month.

The first person Lorist met with after his return was Viscount Kenmays. After all, among the people who were there at Firmrock Castle, he was considered a guest and thus had the highest priority. However, the viscount himself advised that Lorist meet up with the ambassadors of the two princes first as his matter wasn't urgent and said that it could be left for later.

The ambassador sent there by the Second Prince was a middle-aged noble who radiated charisma from the core of his being. He introduced himself as Viscount Zinderson and mentioned that he had arrived on the Second Prince's behalf to send Lorist a letter and requested Lorist to draft a personal reply without saying anything else.

Lorist opened the letter curiously and noted its length which spanned a few beastskins. The first two beastskins described the intimate camaraderie between the Second Prince and he Norton Family and contained the his condolences for the death of Lorist's elder brother on the battlefield. However, the last beastskin revealed the Second Prince's true ravenous intentions.

The Second Prince said that the conflict between Duke Loggins and the Norton Family was something that pained him deeply. He argued that the conflicts between nobles like that was the main reason why the Iblia Kingdom wasn't able to gather the forces of all nobles to reform the glorious Krissen Empire. The Second Prince stressed that he has punished Duke Loggins for instigating conflict but also mentioned that he intended to punish the Norton Family for pillaging the dominion of the duke dry.

First, the Norton Family was to hand in the near 300000 gold Fordes' worth of property obtained from the duke's personal treasury to the Second Prince as reparation for ravaging the duke's dominion. In exchange, the Second Prince would forgo the penalty for moving all the citizens of the duke's dominion to the Norton Family's dominion.

Second, as the new leader of the Norton Family, Lorist must head to Gildusk City where the duke's dominion was located to pledge allegiance to the Second Prince and said that he would consider elevating the noble rank of the Norton Family as well.

Third, the Norton Family must also supply the Second Prince with two fully-equipped armies so that he can stabilize the chaotic situation of the Northlands. He said that the Norton Family must launch an attack against the Madras Duchy under his lead before the 7th month of next year to contribute towards the reformation of the Krissen Empire.

Lorist laughed out loud after seeing the conditions the Second Prince made. He had to admit that the Second Prince was far more despicable than the dogshit duke. While the three conditions seemed really loose and didn't harm the Norton Family's foundations on first sight, once he agreed to them, they would become a leash with which the Second Prince would use to drag the Norton Family into the abyss.

Lorist didn't even bother to think too much about the devious snake that was the Second Prince. Ever since his elder brother died on the battlefield in service to the prince, the Second Prince stopped caring about the Norton Family and merely watched as they clashed with the Kenmays Family and didn't even settle the territorial disputes between the Nortons and the Kenmayses. Lorist would rather believe that pigs would one day fly than the words of the Second Prince.

Right now, Lorist's main priority was the development of his dominion and he didn't have any intention of conquering more of the Northlands or restoring the former glory of the Krissen Empire. Taking out a blank beastskin, he wrote only a few short symbols and after some deliberating, used his stamp as a count to seal the letter. After that, he rolled the letter up, sealed it in an envelope and handed it to Viscount Zinderson, who bid his farewell right after receiving it. He had already stayed at Firmrock Castle for more than ten days and was raring to return as soon as possible.

After that, Lorist received the 8 ambassadors of various nobles. The ambassador of the Felim Family represented them to express their similar intentions: to purchase some weapons and equipments like ballistas and metal armor from the Norton Family.

Lorist agreed to the requests almost instantly and even said that if they didn't have enough money, they could trade for the equipment with food and other resources before asking them to discuss the matter of price with Charade.

Finally, he invited Viscount Kenmays over and asked him why the nobles of the Northlands were so keen on purchasing weapons and other war equipment.

The first thing he said to Lorist was, 'the time of chaos of the Northlands has come.'

After that, the viscount briefed Lorist on the current situation of the Northlands. Ever since Duke Loggins returned to his dominion, he fell sick. After Knight Hennard had taken control of most of the soldiers of the Northland Army, he stopped at nothing to tempt the remaining soldiers of the duke who were holed up within Freist Castle to join his side. In the end, more than 3000 men joined Hennard with less than 1000 defending the castle and the customs point at the suspension bridge. When faced with the soldiers of the Second Prince, they were scattered almost instantly, allowing for the Second Prince to take full control of the two strategic locations.

The Second Prince who was actually heading back after his defeat at the Madras Kingdom had actually heard about the situation of the Northlands from the merchants who were traveling away from it. Seeing an opportunity he could take advantage of, the Second Prince sent a group of troops belonging to the Frontier Legion that incurred relatively few losses to conquer the two points at the Northlands, causing the Second Prince to decide against returning to the royal capital and instead to occupy the duke's manor and even had someone send Duke Loggins to the royal capital of the Iblia Kingdom on the grounds of treating his sickness.

The Second Prince didn't stop at that and began to set his sights on the rest of the nobles within the Northlands, only to be annoyed by Knight Hennard who had occupied the Cherry Blossom Ridge and led a skirmish against the his troops, causing him to lose around 2000 people from the defeat.

That was the main factor that prompted the rest of the nobles of the Northlands to head towards Firmrock Castle in hopes that they would be able to purchase weapons and equipment. Even though the Norton Family managed to chase away the tiger that was Duke Loggins, a hungry wolf like the Second Prince appeared there instead. To the ambitious nobles of the Northlands, this was also an opportunity for them to expand their influence and power.

The reason Viscount Kenmays wanted to see Lorist was simple: he wanted to form an alliance with the Norton Family and brought a piece of news to Lorist as well. After spending five months and countless amounts of money, the Kenmays Family have managed to set up another metal suspension bridge connecting the Northlands to the outside world and said that they no longer had to use the Hendliff Suspension Bridge that was under the control of the Second Prince to transport resources out of or into the Northlands any longer.

That was incredible news for Lorist, especially after he wasn't able to find a suitable spot at the Bladedge Mountains to build a port to reach the outside world. Lorist said that he would discuss that proposal with his knights and officers before giving the viscount a response.

Chapter 173 Top Kek

The king, Krissen Iblia, held the letter in his veined hands as his body shivered with rage.

As the Second Prince of the Krissen Empire, as well as the current king of the Iblia Kingdom, he felt that he had been insulted like never before. He would never even dream that the reply of the Norton Family leader would contain only two words: Top Kek.

The Second Prince had actually went to great lengths to collect intelligence about the Norton Family. When he first attacked the Madras Duchy, he received word that the Norton Family had a huge convoy that helped the Second Highness of the Andinaq Kingdom to tighten his hold on the kingdom and stabilize it. They also assisted the Second Highness in conquering Lichtana Citadel, ultimately helping them take the Yungechandler Province.

However, the Second Prince merely laughed it off and doubted the authenticity of the information. Even though the Norton Family was indeed known as the Family of the Roaring Raging Bear of the Northlands, after the previous successor of the family, Gold ranked knight Abelyde, died while serving him, the family had begun to spiral into one trouble after another. They were even pressured by the Kenmays Family, a merchant family he had personally entitled only recently. Since the Norton Family was no longer of any use to him, the Second Prince couldn't be bothered to care about their trivial squabbles with other nobles. To gain the support of Duke Loggins, the Second Prince even made the other nobles of the Northlands vassal nobles to the duke without their consent on his own accord.

Only after he conquered Kobo City did he get to know from the vagabonds that were left behind there that the Norton Family did indeed have a huge armed convoy of about 10000 carriages with more than 100000 vagabonds traveling with it. By that time, the convoy had already crossed Metropoulos River and the troops he sent could only watch them leave in futility.

After that, the Second Prince focused his efforts on sucking the other nobles of Delamock Province dry by putting them to death with the reason of siding with the Andinaq Kingdom and resisting the Second Prince's reinforcement army for the Madras Duchy. He also went around the province to fight the smaller personal armies of the various landed nobles and by the time he arrived at Kobo City, he had already put the Norton Family at the back of his mind.

His excursion to the Madras Duchy had yielded him quite a number of benefits. Not only did he manage to settle his debt with Duke Madras in one go, he also got lots of riches such as money, food and other supplies to fill his treasury with from ravaging the nobles of Delamock Province.

After losing the battle at Kobo City, the Second Prince had no choice but to give the order to retreat. Having experienced failures during the 'Daybreak Assault' and the 'Battle of Kobo', the casualties of the Second Prince numbered more than 50000. While most of the casualties were from his personal force, his father-in-law Duke Fisablen's Frontier Legion also lost somewhere around 20000 people, much to the dismay of the Second Prince.

In the time of chaos, military power reigned supreme. The Second Prince understood this principle deeply and he was prepared to use the spoils he got from the excursion to form another legion belonging to his kingdom to secure his position as the king as well as lay the foundations for the next time he attacks. However at that time, the Second Prince didn't consider the fact that there was no place in his kingdom where he would be able to train his soldiers in peace.

When the Iblia Kingdom was formed, it encompassed five provinces of the former Krissen Empire. The province of the Northlands itself already took up more than half of the area of the kingdom and was governed separately in its own right. Apart from suppressing the Duke of the Northlands to stay within the kingdom, the Second Prince had never found a way to truly integrate the Northlands into his control.

As for the Eastern Wasteland Province and the Wild Husbandry Province near the Great Eastern Plains, those belonged to Duke Fisablen himself and was also the home base of the Frontier Legion. Unless the Second Prince had gone insane, he would never even attempt to take those provinces for himself.

In other words, all that remained within the Iblia Kingdom was the Southern Province as well as the Winston Province where the royal capital, Windbury City, was located. However, the Southern Province was already ravaged really badly by Duke Melein and his Fiercegale Legion. If the Second Prince planned to train his soldiers there, Duke Melein might think that it would be a great opportunity for him to strike first to gain the upper hand. There was no way the Second Prince would allow Duke Melein to once again crusade his way to the royal capital like before.

When the Second Prince formed his kingdom initially, for the sake of his pride, he split up the Southern Province into three commanderies and the Winston Province which had a larger area was split into four commanderies. And to sustain his lavish lifestyle, he had long sold off his personal land to other nobles at a high price to the point that he wasn't able to find a place for himself to train his troops.

Just when he was worrying about his next step, one of the scouting teams of his vanguard brought him a few merchants. The Second Prince once again got intelligence from the merchants about the convoy of the Norton Family. According to them, the Norton Family convoy had defeated the allied noble army which had Duke Loggins as its leader and were completely victorious. To pay the duke back for what he did, the Norton Family even robbed the duke's dominion clean, which was one of the most prosperous areas of the Northlands, and even forcefully migrated the population away from there to their own dominion. Currently, there was no central power within the Northlands and it was in an anarchic state.

That situation was practically a godsend for the Second Prince's predicament and he sent his soldiers towards the Hendliff Suspension Bridge immediately. Without even sparing any effort, they managed to conquer the two strategic locations including the bridge and Freist Castle and proceeded to occupy Gildusk City. He also got to see Duke Loggins who was unconscious from vomiting too much blood from his anger.

The Second Prince waved his hands and ordered for the duke to be moved to Windbury City with the excuse that he would receive better treatment for his illness there. Everyone else understood that there was no way that the duke would be able to make it back to the Northlands during the rest of his lifetime.

Only after the Second Prince took control of the duke's dominion did he realize how badly it had been ravaged. He was actually unable to find even a single blacksmith or servant within the capital of the duke's lands, not to say much about the burnt remains of the villages nearby.

At that time, the Second Prince received a report that when his regiment of 2500 soldiers and another 3000 soldiers from the private armies of some nobles were about to raid the still-intact Evanson Town, their forces were assaulted by the former soldiers of the Northland Army that emerged from Cherry Blossom Ridge nearby, causing the Second Prince's forces to incur heavy casualties with more than 2000 soldiers dead.

Enraged beyond belief, the Second Prince mobilized his soldiers right away only to be faced with no less than 10000 soldiers that formerly belonged to the Northland Army with each of them mounted and equipped with a suit of metal armor. They were even led by two Gold ranked knights, one of them being Knight Hennard, the duke's former family knight, who referred to himself as Baron Shazin, and the other being Gold ranked knight Tabik. Being among the former five Gold ranked knights of the duke, they knew the Second Prince rather well. In fact, they could even be said to be old acquaintances.

Seeing his own disorganized men and the towering killing intent of Hennard's soldiers, the Second Prince understood that a battle would not go down well for him. So, he rode out from his troops and decided to talk. It was then when he found that Knight Hennard had actually inherited his father's title of a baron and currently, Cherry Blossom Ridge was part of the dominion of the Shazin Family. Tabik had also become the family knight of Hennard.

Thus, the Second Prince could only apologize towards Hennard for the fact that his men had trespassed upon the territory of the Shazin Family and told him that because of the condition of the duke, he had already taken over the management of his dominion in his place and even extended an invitation to Knight Hennard to join him.

Knight Hennard, the current Baron Shazin, also gave the Second Prince face and accepted his apology, saying that he was not mistaken as he was unaware of the situation. However, he said that he couldn't accept the Second Prince's invitation without the personal order of the duke and said that the duke has done him a huge boon by giving him control of the Northland Army in a time of crisis like that. Not only did he allow Hennard to inherit the title of his father, the duke also allowed Tabik to become his family knight and Hennard said that he was infinitely thankful for that. That's why Hennard said that if the duke personally willed him to serve the Second Prince, he would definitely do so without another word and would even be willing to die for the Second Prince.

Having had to endure his anger from listening to Hennard's excuse to not join him, the Second Prince returned to Gildusk City with the rest of his soldiers. The only benefit he got out of that trip was when he asked Knight Hennard curiously about the metal armor worn by his men. The knight then told him that he had traded them with the Norton Family.

And so the Second Prince once again began to gather more reports on the Norton Family. By the time he had read various smaller reports and information, the Second Prince got to see the bigger picture behind everything.

He found that the Second Young Master of the Norton Family who had been exiled for ten years since the age of 14 had actually learned a bunch of useful skills during his time away from the family. Even though his Battle Force was only at the Iron rank, he was able to defeat Gold ranked knight Tabik and caused him to spend one year in bed to recover from his injuries.

The moment he inherited the position of the family head, the Second Young Master intentionally instigated conflict with the Kenmays Family and burned down their Redriver Valley Bastide and even erected the Firmrock Castle at Morgan Hills. Faced with the harassment of Duke Loggins, he even eliminated the 4000 troops that managed to enter their dominion and even sent out soldiers in retaliation, all the while hanging the former horse breeder of the Second Prince, Baron Farad for harming one of the messengers of the Norton Family.

It was also rumored that the Second Young Master of the Norton Family had made quite an amount of wealth during his time away from the family. After he received summons from the family, he formed his own northbound convoy and had many Gold ranked family knights under his command, one of the most famous being a Gold ranked marksman who had headed to the dominion early with the young master before the convoy arrived. During the time the marksman guarded Firmrock Castle, the allied noble army formed by the duke wasn't able to penetrate it at all and ultimately suffered a defeat from the arrival of the convoy's main force.

After digesting the information about the Norton Family, the Second Prince understood three points. First, the Norton Family was incredibly wealthy right now. The wealth they pillaged from the duke's dominion was easily worth more than 1 million gold Fordes, not to say much about the huge northbound convoy of theirs with around 20000 carriages as well as their escorts who could afford to wear metal armor. Hennard even said that the armor he traded for his 10000 men were only less than a tenth of what the Nortons had.

Second, the Norton Family's forces were incredibly mighty with an estimated total soldier count of around 50000. They were far better equipped than the soldiers of the Iblia Kingdom and the Frontier Legion. So far, the Second Prince couldn't afford to antagonize the Norton Family and it was best if he could get along with them for now.

The third point was one the Second Prince found most laughable. The new family head of the Norton Family, the Second Young Master, had zero ambition and only shriveled within the dominion to defend it. If it were anyone else who had the forces the Nortons currently possessed and the least bit of ambition, they would've long devoured the delicious meal that was the rest of the Northlands, unlike the current Norton Family leader who retreated back into his dominion after defeating the duke and taking his wealth.

Looking at the map of the Northlands and the marker that denoted the Firmrock Castle which segregated the Norton Family dominion from the outside world, the Second Prince really wanted to laugh as he believed that the mighty Roaring Raging Bear of the Northlands had turned into a cowardly tortoise that withdrew back into its shell. Even though their dominion was vast, most of it was merely wastelands. The Second Prince reasoned that they must be trying to develop the land based on all the people they recently just brought into the dominion.

However, he merely felt thankful that the new Norton Family leader didn't have any ambition. Had it not been for the fact that he had defeated the duke and left the dominion unguarded, the Second Prince would never have been able to occupy it so easily. He didn't really mind the lack of citizens either as the seven commanderies which he controlled within the Iblia Kingdom had more than enough refugees and farmers who had lost their lands. He had already ordered his men to have them brought over to utilize the farmland there properly. As long as the Second Prince was patient enough, by the time the refugees and farmers settle down, he would be able to convert the dominion of the duke into a place that produced much manpower and resource.

By occupying the duke's dominion, not only did the Second Prince extinguish all chance of Duke Loggins breaking free from the Iblia Kingdom to form his own duchy, he was also granted a place to train his soldiers and generate wealth. Brimming with ambition, the Second Prince resolved himself to hold tightly onto this land and force all the nobles nearby under his command to one day aid in his plan for complete domination.

However, the Second Prince believed that he still had time and didn't have to rush things all of a sudden. When it came to the Norton Family which he couldn't afford to anger for now, he didn't plan to just leave them be. He believed that the cowardly leader of the Norton Family wouldn't be able to resist his manipulation. He even thought that the Norton Family leader would be even easier to deal with than the Duke of the Northlands.

The letter he had sent was written after careful deliberation. The three conditions were also there as a test. The first condition which asked for the wealth of the duke worth 300000 gold Fordes was essentially a chance for the Norton Family to 'legalize' their raiding of the duke's dominion. Of the 1 million gold Fordes' worth of wealth they gained, the Second Prince felt that it was pretty reasonable for him to demand only thirty percent of that and believed that the Norton Family would jump at that opportunity so that they can proudly hold on to the wealth they've obtained without having to be held accountable for the loss the duke's dominion sustained. He was confident that the Norton Family would gladly hand the 300000 gold Fordes to him.

The second condition asked the Norton Family leader to pledge allegiance to the Second Prince as he had only just inherited his noble title in exchange for an elevation in his noble rank. This was both a good offer and a trap. As long as he could get the Norton Family leader in his presence, no matter how many Gold ranked knights followed along, he could pressure them with his own two Blademasters. That was also one of the reasons Duke Loggins didn't dare to break off from the Iblia Kingdom to form his own duchy despite the fact that he had five Gold ranked knights serving him.

The third condition for the Norton Family to send two armies to help the Second Prince stabilize the Northlands is also a test for the ambition of the Norton Family leader. Additionally, the Second Prince couldn't feel at peace with a mighty military force like that slumbering within the Northlands with his own. If that condition was accepted, that meant that the Norton Family leader is truly loyal to the Second Prince from the bottom of his heart. By that time, the Second Prince could slowly think of a way to reap enormous benefits at the expense of them.

The Second Prince felt that his mention of the bravery of the First Young Master of the Norton Family, Norton Abelyde, who had died on the battlefield, before mentioning his three conditions, was incredibly logical and sentimental. He could already imagine the sight of the Norton Family leader kneeling before him to pledge his allegiance, allowing himself to profit from the manpower, weapons and equipment and other resources the Nortons had in the meantime...

Just as he was smiling and daydreaming about that possibility, he opened the reply of the Norton Family leader which contained only two words: Top Kek[1].

A phrase like 'Top Kek' didn't exist in the Grindian language and nobody had used the word 'top' and 'kek' together like that. In the first place, 'kek' didn't even mean anything in their language. The letter didn't state 'fuck off' or 'buzz off', but the Second Prince could feel the seething mockery behind those words in the letter, as if he had been slapped squarely in the face.

The Second Prince slowly folded the reply. As a senior noble, he was sensible enough to feel the intent of the Norton Family leader. Sending Viscount Zinderson away, he gritted his teeth and swore that he would definitely make the Norton Family suffer through hell the moment he got an opportunity. After enough time for preparation, he would definitely force the new Norton Family leader swallow the letter down his throat. Ever since his childhood, he had never received so great an insult given his exalted status. He made a mental note to remember those words firmly within his mind...

[1] In actuality, the words Lorist wrote in his letter are '滚粗', which is Chinese netspeak for something along the lines of fuck off. It literally means 'roll' and 'rough' and is also wordplay on the phrase '滚出去' which means roll out (of this place). Here's an explanation of the phrase in Chinese for those interested. Link. I used 'top kek' as a replacement for that because it is an internet slang and it perfectly captures the thought of Lorist along the lines of 'What a joke! You think I'm going to agree to your conditions?! Top Kek(lol)!' A short explanation of top kek can be found

Chapter 174 Magical Beast Wave

Dark clouds filled the skies, giving the atmosphere a pressing presence, causing Lorist to think of a Tang poem he memorized in his previous life. 'Dark clouds encroach upon the city, threatening to enclose and overwhelm it'.

Snow clumps the size of goose feathers drifted all around them and the mountains had already been covered with a thick, white blanket.

Even though Lorist wasn't able to see far with the sky being so gloomy and dark, he could hear the grunts and roars of the magical beasts not far away amidst the sounds of the wind blowing as well as the thudding of their steps as they crossed the land.

Not long after, the wave of magical beasts encroached towards Maplewoods Bastide and headed towards the direction of the Felicitas Settlement like a wave that crawled inwards to the shores of a beach.

"Milord, it was our mistake. We neglected to take into account that every winter, the magical beast in the wildlands would cross over from the Magical Dragon Mountains to the dominion to seek food," Belnick and Pajik apologized.

With a glum expression, Lorist waved his hand and said, "It's not your fault. Instead, it's mine for not doing proper research on this and rushing for the developmental plans to advance."

Even though he said that, Lorist was still disappointed. It was only the first winter since the development of the Felicitas Settlement and he had already arranged for 300000 people to settle down and spend the winter there within 83 villages and 7 towns. While the initial fortifications and walls have been constructed, there was still the risk of the magical beasts running wild and attacking the settlements.

Given that the beasts had come from an area with little to no humans, they were rather aggressive. They hadn't seen humans before and didn't understand how terrifying they could truly be. That's why if a human being encroached on what the beasts considered to be their territory, they would attack right away and wouldn't stop until their last breath.

"According to the family records, the magical beast wave from the wildlands will cross the Magical Dragon Mountains to the family dominion and travel all the way from the north past the family bastide, now known as the Maplewoods Bastide, to the southern wastelands to feed. The herbivorous magical beasts would push apart the snow to consume the wild plants and algae beneath it while the carnivorous ones would hunt the herbivorous ones for food, always seeking out the weaker or singled-out ones who wouldn't be able to resist them. Every winter, there would be no less than 1 million magical beasts that cross the family dominion.

"As for why the magical beasts come here, the ancestors of the family believe that it's because the dominion is near the sea according to their research. While we have the Bladedge Mountain shielding us from it, the breeze from the sea carried its smell to blanket the dominion, causing the plants here to have a salty taste, thus attracting the herbivorous magical beasts over here.

"To prove this hypothesis, the ancestors even carried out an experiment by placing some salted algae with some animal feed. It was discovered that the livestock within the dominion first consumed the algae before moving on to the animal feed when the algae was finished. After that, they even captured some herbivorous magical beasts and prepared three types of food for it, namely, dried grass sprinkled with some salt, some algae obtained from the wilds, and the normal animal feed for the livestock of the dominion. The result was that the herbivorous magical beasts preferred the salted dried grass most, followed by algae with animal feed being the least favored.

"That's why the ancestors concluded that the reason the magical beast wave comes to the dominion during winter was to sate their salt consumption requirement. This practice is so common over the years that it is already second nature to the magical beasts. Apart from eliminating the beasts that numbered at least a million, there is no way to prevent them from coming over during winter. This is also one of the reasons why the family wasn't able to reclaim this land for agriculture and settling.

"It's fortunate that these beasts only stay at the wastelands without going anywhere else within the dominion. Some beasts who are left behind after winter are also a good source of furs and leather for the family, which frequently organized hunting festivals that brought in much meat, fur and leather. However, some carnivorous magical beasts also stayed behind as well, and their presence posed quite a risk to the hunting activities of the family.

"The family records also state that when WIldnorth Town was first built, it also suffered quite a bit from the magical beast wave. It was not until most of the land around it was converted into farmland that the magical beasts stop showing up there. However, the first tens of years of the town's formation were the times when the beasts caused the most trouble, even almost driving the family dominion to a famine."

The one who explained the family records was Telesti. This time along, she had accompanied Lorist to Maplewoods Bastide to spend the winter there, with her main goal being to read the records and writings of the Norton Family about their understanding of the land. Even though she was snuggled in a large, leather cloak with only her face revealed, her face was chilled red as she was currently standing on the topmost floor of the castle.

Even though Lorist wanted to cry, he didn't have the tears for it. Everyone had worked so hard for almost a year and managed to complete the preparations by the 11th month to ready enough food and supplies for the people to settle during the winter as well as finish construction on the wooden barricades and houses with some farmland already developed as well. Had it gone on as planned, everyone would've been able to enjoy a long period of vacation and rest before resuming work after the winter.

However, nobody mentioned that the magical beast wave would come during the winter. Either they were too busy they forgot or it just didn't occur to them at all. Only during the night Lorist held a banquet to celebrate the coming of winter after he brought some people with him to the Maplewoods Bastide to spend the winter did he hear one of the retired family soldiers he invited tell him that the magical beast wave will be coming after the second snowfall after witnessing the snow falling from the sky.

It was then when the elders of the family realized that they had missed out on such an important issue with Lorist being no less surprised. In actuality, this was the first time Lorist spent winter within the family dominion. During winter last year, he had left the family dominion to seek out the convoy, so he didn't experience the magical beast wave himself. After interviewing some of the elder people within the dominion and doing some of his own research into the records and writings did he realize that the issue was far more serious than he had initially imagined.

With thick snow covering most of the roads, there was not much anyone could do about the situation. After some brainstorming, Lorist designed a ski-like device to travel on snow and tasked some work smiths to have a few sets made. However, before he himself managed to get accustomed to them, the second round of snowfall had come and the magical beast wave followed suit.

"Mountain-climbing magical antelopes, big-horned wild goats, iron-horned magical rhinoceroses, single-horned magical goats, striped wild horses, green-eyed wild bulls and crimson-back magical wolves..." Lorist mused as he tried to account for the various types of animals that passed by beneath the castle walls. The magical beast studies course he did at Dawn Academy had finally been put to use. Lorist didn't even dream that he would actually get to see the beasts from the pictures within his text books in real life.

"Why are the magical beasts merely passing by the bastide without attacking it?" Els asked curiously.

Without waiting for Belnick to explain, Telesti who was snuggled in Lorist's embrace referenced another one of the writings of the family and explained to Els. "According to the records, during the first tens of years of the construction of the castle by the first Norton ancestor, the magical beasts attacked every winter. However, not only did they not succeed even once, their numbers were also harmed greatly. There was only one instance where a pack of winter wolves managed to enter the bastide taking another route using the slope of the nearby mountains, during which they killed a lot of livestock. After that incident, the family leader spent lots of manpower to reshape the slope into a steep cliff and that incident no longer repeated itself. As time passed, the magical beasts just ignored the presence of the castle and passed through it to their destination."

Belnick could only shrug his shoulders in admiration for Telesti's good memory and understanding of the records of the family.

Lorist hugged Telesti even tighter and rubbed the fur cap she wore with his face lovingly.

"Gosh, what in the world is that?" exclaimed Josk. Being the one with the best vision among the rest, Josk had long detected the approach of another group of beasts from the distance.

Raising his head to look, Lorist shouted out immediately, "Good Sol! Magical mammoths! What the heck is going on?"

The few beasts that neared the castle slowly were roughly 5 to 6 meters in height. The one leading the rest was easily the tallest of the group with its body covered wholly in fur. The beasts all had long and strong trunks with two curved tusks sprouting upwards from their mouths, which contained razor sharp teeth which glinted even in the snow.

While these beasts seemed to travel rather slowly, they were immensely huge and were not much slower than the magical antelopes and goats around them. One immature mammoth of roughly four meters in height even rushed towards the Maplewoods Bastide. Raising its trunk, it trumpeted loudly as if it was letting out a provocation. It was not until an elder mammoth patted its butt with its trunk that it returned to its herd unwillingly.

Lorist slammed onto the crenels of the castle wall with his fist as he imagined the wooden barricades that had been constructed throughout various areas of the Felicitas Settlement being smashed to smithereens by those humongous magical beasts as if they were paper before they rushed into the village. The mere thought of it greatly disturbed Lorist.

Telesti then said, "No sightings of these magical mammoths can be found within the records of the past ten or so years. Further back, they were only documented to show up once in a few years. For some reason, they joined the magical beast wave this time around and every time they appeared, they would cause immense damage within the dominion. The things they hate most are buildings constructed by us humans and the family records state that they have reduced even stone houses in the wilds to nothing but a pile of rubble on the ground. Even the small wooden huts built within forests for anyone to take shelter would be destroyed without exception..."

Magical mammoths were omnivores and were documented as one of the most aggressive magical beasts in the field of magical beast studies. Given the fact that they lived in herds, angering one would be akin to antagonizing an entire group. To add to that, they held grudges and were exceedingly savage. Even the fiercer carnivorous magical beasts didn't dare to meddle with them. The moment one disturbed a magical mammoth, there was no doubt that the mammoth wouldn't stop in its tracks until its aggressor was dead.

Among the various adventure records of the Grindia Continent, a rather notable one recorded the exploits of a famous mercenary crew that had accepted a mission to hunt a few mammoths for their tusks. They ambushed a herd of tens of magical mammoths in the wildlands and successfully completed their mission. However, seven years after that, the mercenary crew once again received a request near the borders of the very same wildlands where they once hunted the mammoths. In the end, their camp was assaulted by near 100 magical mammoths during the night and of the 200 plus mercenaries that parrticipated in that mission, only ten managed to escape alive.

With the occurrence of that incident, the scholars and researchers hypothesized that it was possible that the mercenaries did not adequately clean up traces of their trash within their camp after their mammoth hunting mission, causing the mammoths that rushed over to help to be able to remember the smell. It didn't take long for them to attack once the same smell drifted into the sensitive noses of the same group of mammoths within the same area years later, causing them to gather their fellow brethren to exact revenge for the dead members of their herd, thus resulting in the tragic deaths of all those mercenaries.

"How long will this magical beast wave take to travel across the dominion?" Josk asked.

"The records state that a wave of roughly 1 million magical beasts will take roughly 15 days to pass. That metric can also be used to calculate the time required for waves of different sizes to pass," Telesti said.

"Locke, don't worry. In actuality, the development of the Felicitas Settlement this year still spans less than a quarter of the entire wasteland. And after entering the wasteland, the beast wave will disperse into smaller groups to graze. When they finish the algae in one area, they will move to another and their speed of travel isn't fast either. It's been recorded that they take roughly one month to travel from the north end of the wasteland to the south and they will turn back towards the wildlands when spring comes," Telesti consoled, well aware her lover's troubles.

"Did the records state the rough area of the wastelands where the magical beast wave passed?" Lorist asked with a low voice.

Telesti gave it some thought before she said, "There isn't. Following the tracks of the beast wave during winter to mark it was far too dangerous. However, it shouldn't be too hard to guess where they passed through. The first sector of the wasteland where Morgan Hills is located has never been touched by the magical beasts. As for WIldnorth Town in the seventh sector, after years of agricultural development, there is little to no algae growing there which the herbivorous magical beasts are attracted to. Apart from a few smaller groups of magical beasts that stray apart from the main wave that would make their way to that area, there isn't really anything to worry about. Instead, the riskiest areas are the second to sixth sectors. That's where the majority of the magical beasts will pass.

"Locke, we've already made various preparations to pass the winter. Don't forget that we've stationed one squad of family soldiers at each village, each accompanied by one Silver ranked fighter. They will probably be able to hold on within the short term. You must trust that your own men will be able to protect the villages just fine."

Lorist shook his head and said, "That's not what I'm worried about. It's one thing if the people lose their wills and motivation to develop the area if something terrible happens during the winter. But what do we do about the magical beast wave next year? We must think of a way to curb the yearly waves of beasts properly. This is the first time we've waged a war against the magical beasts for territory! For the sake of the 500000 citizens within the dominion for them to be able to settle down into their new lives, this is a war that we absolutely have to win!"

Lorist then turned to his back and said to the rest of the people who were observing the passing of the magical beast wave, "There will be another few days before the wave passes completely. Within that span of time, I want all the family knights and the Silver ranked fighters to familiarize themselves with using the snow skis. When the beast wave leaves this area, no matter whether the snowfall stops or not, we must head towards the wastelands to ensure the safety of every single village."

Everyone stood up straight and said in unison, "Yes, milord!"

Chapter 175 Central Town

The sky looked dark and grey and occasionally, some snow could be seen drifting downwards gently to the white, empty plains against the whistling wind that blew past it.

27 Silver ranked and above family knights and fighters lined up neatly into three rows in front of Lorist, each donned in chainmail and a leather cloak with one pole in each of their hands and skis strapped to their boots. After tens of days of slipping and falling at the Maplewoods Bastide, the people present had finally managed to grasp the basics of skiing.

Lorist checked each and every one of the equipment they carried as well as their skis. Everyone of them knew that leaving the warmth of the bastide during such a harsh winter was a big risk. However, they had no choice. For the sake of the 300000 citizens who would be spending their winter at the Felicitas Settlement so that they don't get threatened by the passing of the magical beast wave, these 27 fighters all volunteered to follow Lorist along towards the settlement.

Josk, Belnick, Els, Yuriy, Patt, Jim, Pete, Pajik and 5 other Silver ranked family knights as well as 12 other Silver ranked fighters from the family forces joined in. Lined at the back most were Fiercetiger Loze and Pesha.

Loze looked at Lorist with a mischievous look happily while Pesha was slightly embarrassed and looked to the ground without daring to meet Lorist's gaze.

Lorist was completely speechless.

Only the heavens knew why those two fell for each other and started sticking around. No wonder when Lorist said he wanted to return to the bastide, Loze insisted on following no matter what. He even said that he wanted to view the beautiful scenery of the bastide and handed all his responsibilities of managing the heavy-armored cavalry to his second-in-command, Knight Waxima.

When they arrived at the bastide, Loze disappeared almost instantly, causing Lorist to be so busy that he didn't have enough time to visit his son for the first two days. When he finally got some free time, he noticed that Loze had vanished and had everyone else search for him together. In the end, the rest realized that Loze was busy getting close and intimate with Pesha that he didn't leave the bedroom for days, completely unaware that everyone outside was frantically searching for him.

Lorist guessed that they probably met and kicked it off when the female garrison unit led by Pesha helped out with managing the magical beast corpses. No wonder Lorist felt something was off when Loze said he wanted to follow him to the bastide to spend winter there. After all, what scenery is there to see at the bastide during winter? In actuality, the only scenery he wanted to relish was that of Pesha lying on the bed...

Lorist himself wasn't too fond of Pesha. In terms of status, she was the fiancee of Lorist's late elder brother and he was obliged to treat her with respect. However, the memories Lorist inherited when he was transmigrated didn't contain any familial love for Pesha. Instead, Lorist only remembered being bullied by her during his childhood. Additionally, when Lorist first returned to the dominion to inherit the position of the family head, he had quite a few unpleasant encounters with her, causing him to have an impression that she was a proud person who didn't know what was good for herself and did whatever she pleased.

Nevertheless, it did not change the fact that she was a beauty. Not only did she have a head of beautiful red hair, her figure was also rather admirable and she also had a pleasant-looking face. However, Lorist wasn't the type to fall head over heels to just any beauty he met. He had his own unique sense of aesthetics. For instance, he graced Charade with the beautiful granddaughter of Engelich, Molise. It was only natural that he would stray even further away from a prideful beauty like Pesha.

The types of women Lorist preferred were the cute, meek ones like his own maidservant Irina and intelligent ones like Telesti. That's why when Lorist heard that Pesha had gotten shacked up with Loze, he let out a breath of relief instead as there would be one less matter to worry about within the dominion.

If this didn't happen however, Pesha could still be considered the betrothed of Lorist's late brother and Lorist had to treat her with some degree of respect because of that. This was why he didn't punish her despite the number of times he had crossed Lorist. Now that she and Loze had gotten together, she only had two choices: either she marries Loze or she remains as a normal family knight. There was no way she could retain her status as the fiancee of Lorist's departed brother, Abelyde.

Lorist patted on Loze's shoulders twice without saying anything else before heading back to the front.

"Jim, Pete, Wilson, Manjez."

Jim, Pete and two other Silver ranked fighters stepped forward.

"The four of you will head to the Firmrock Castle straight away. The safety of the 300000 plus citizens within the whole of Felicitas Settlement depends on whether you are able to make it there in time. You absolutely have to deliver news of the magical beast wave's approach so that Knight Charade and Knight Potterfang can send out soldiers to defend the villages and towns before the beasts arrive. I will be counting on all of you," Lorist said before he saluted the four in the fashion of a knight.

"Please be assured, milord. We will definitely deliver news to Firmrock Castle as soon as possible," said the four in unison as they saluted back.

Even on horseback, the fastest one could travel from the Maplewoods Bastide to the Firmrock Castle was within six to seven hours with the distance being somewhere around 50 kilometers. Given that it was winter and the paths were bound to be filled with snow, coupled with the fact that they had to travel on foot with skis in the rather dim winter sunlight, there was a good chance that they would lose their way. However, despite the risks involved, the four didn't hesitate one bit to go on their mission.

"Loze, Pesha, Pajik..."

The three of them stepped forward.

"You three will bring five other Silver ranked fighters to the seventh sector where Wildnorth Town is. What you have to pay attention to is the three new villages set up near the east of the sector. That is the place which is most probable to be subject to an attack by the magical beasts. I'll be counting on you," Lorist said.

"Yes, milord."

Loze thumped on his chest and said, "Please be assured, milord. With me, Fiercetiger Loze, over there, the villagers will be completely fine."

Lorist nodded and looked at the rest before he said, "The others will leave with me. First, we will head to the central town in the sixth sector before heading to the eastmost village."

"Milord..." Irina called out. With Lorist's and her son hugged in her chest, she bowed deeply to Lorist before saying, "I wish you a swift journey, milord. Please be safe."

"Locke... You must take care of yourself," Telesti said.

Lorist waved goodbye to the two of them before he said, "Put on your skis! Let's depart!"

......

The wind howled incessantly as it seemed to be unleashing one ephemeral blade after another.

Even if one wore a thick scarf and a mask that covered one's face almost completely, one could still feel the chill on one's skin. One's eyes would also feel a slight sting looking at the endlessly white scenery.

Lorist pointed towards a tall mound which was covered completely in snow and was prepared to bring his men up there to check for any activity in the area nearby.

"Awooooooooo..." Chilling howls could be heard as tens of green winter wolves each the size of a young cow climbed to the peak of the mound from the other side.

Sol, Lorist thought. He didn't think that the carnivorous magical beasts that stalked the herbivorous magical beasts had long chosen that mound as their spot for waiting out any potential prey. Lorist's gang had no choice but to evade them for now.

With a wave of his hand, the skis he wore swerved in another direction and he traveled towards the forest near the mound to avoid being ambushed by those winter wolves so that their journey would not be obstructed. He understood that given that they had already encountered a pack of winter wolves, it was obvious that the rest of the magical beasts were also not far away within the area. It seems that they had to take a detour to circle around the beasts so that they could make their way around them to continue their journey.

Even if humans do not antagonize the wolves, it was in their nature to attack humans. While Lorist did try to avoid the wolf pack, they ended up surrounded by roughly 20 winter wolves that laid in waiting within the forests followed by the thirty plus more that came down from the mound. They easily rushed down the mound with their light steps. While their bodies were no doubt huge, they had a peculiar rhythm to them as they rushed downwards with their paws not even sinking down an inch into the snowy ground. It was obvious that they were used to traveling in such conditions.

Lorist pulled his mask down and said softly, "Joe, I'll leave the front to you. Yuriy, Patt, give me your javelins. Belnick, continue heading forwards."

Josk swerved his skis and stopped in his tracks before he removed the green longbow hung on his back. After he took his aim, one green arrow after another streaked past the trees within the forests, causing tens of other wolves to sink lifeless onto the snowy ground.

Belnick pressed his ski poles hard on the ground and propelled himself forward, promoting three wolves to leap into the air in Belnick's direction. Josk fired his last arrow which pierced the head of one of the wolves, sending it flying away lifelessly. However, the other two wolves were blocked by Belnick's body and couldn't be aimed by Josk.

Belnick himself didn't panic and passed his right ski pole to his left hand and drew his sword with his right. With a gold flash of light, the two leaping wolves were cut into pieces, staining the pure white ground red with blood.

The howls coming from the direction of the mound intensified as the wolves coming from that direction quickly neared Lorist and the two others who were only standing still.

When the first wolf at the front of the group was within 40 meters of Lorist's group, Lorist made his move and tossed out one javelin after another, causing pained howls to ring out among the group of incoming wolves.

All 34 javelins found themselves in 34 winter wolves with the last javelin pinning the last wolf down only seven meters away from the three.

The howling continued upon the mound. However, it wasn't as spirited as before as the low-pitched whine sounded as if the wolves were mourning for their fallen comrades.

Carrying the two javelin quivers onto his back, Lorist told Patt and Yuriy, "Let's go."

"Won't the rest of the wolves pursue us?" Patt asked.

Yuriy responded, "They won't. Magical wolves are rather intelligent beasts. Given that the wolves that camped within the forests and the ones that came later from the mound are all dead, the rest on top of the mound will realize that we far outstrip them in terms of might. They realize that if they decide to continue their pursuit, it would no doubt end with their deaths. Based on the mourn-like cries you heard just now, you can already tell that they won't continue to chase us. Otherwise, they would bark in quick succession instead to indicate for the other wolves to take action faster so that us, their prey, don't escape."

As Yuriy was born in the Khawistan Khanate into a herding family, he was really familiar with the temperament of wolves. While the one he had more interaction with was magical wolves that lived on the plains instead of northlander winter wolves, their basic instincts and vocal responses were roughly the same and there wasn't much difference in that regard.

Lorist himself didn't expect that after taking that detour around the mound, he would need another two days to arrive at the central town of the sixth sector. That was because the magical beast wave had dispersed into various smaller groups that spread all over the place to graze for algae underneath the snow, causing Lorist's group to have to tread carefully.

When Lorist and the others eliminated a lone Gold-striped Snow Panther on a high cliff and looked into the distance, the sight they were greeted with was no longer the seemingly-infinite stretches of snow-covered land but rather one of magical beasts scattered all over the land, grazing.

The Silver ranked knight who defended the central town of the sixth sector was called Nors and he was an old acquaintance of Josk. Originally, he was the garrison captain that served Josk's adopted father, Baron Omador, and he had been injured rather badly and imprisoned by Count Cobry within the laborer camp along with his family members. He was rescued when Lorist and Josk snuck into the main camp of Geldos City with the disguise of messengers for an ambush. Having witnessed the death of Count Cobry, Nors brought his family with him along the northbound journey and was promoted to a family knight for his achievement at Nadegas City while serving the convoy.

In actuality, Nors was greatly surprised by Lorist who had brought his men to travel in the harsh snowy weather to the town to bring news of the danger. Upon hearing about the magical beasts, he quickly looked for a map of the sixth sector detailing the layout of the town and villages.

"Milord, since the east of this place is a mountainous area, we only set up four villages there. If the magical beasts will really begin feasting from there, it will take them a few days to cross the mountainous terrain, so we still have enough time to notify the four villages..." Before Nors was able to finish his sentence, a loud warning horn signal could be heard from the town walls not too far away.

One member of the garrison rushed into the room hurriedly and exclaimed, "Mi-milord... The magical beasts... They're here..."

Lorist breathed an annoyed sigh and thought that the four villages were finished.

This time, the feeling he got from seeing the magical beast wave was completely different from the first time he witnessed it from the Maplewoods Bastide. Over there, he was standing at the top of the castle whereas the walls of this central town was merely 7 meters high and built mostly out of mud bricks. As he looked towards the magical beasts approaching the central town gradually, he could hear the chattering coming from the terrified garrison soldiers nearby.

"We must think of a way to strengthen these walls!" Lorist exclaimed.

"However, milord... The cold winter makes it exceedingly hard for us to dig to get more mud. Also, we don't have any more materials we can use to strengthen the walls," Nors said as he looked towards the incoming beasts with a look of despair on his face.

Lorist desperately looked around him and noticed that there was a wooden house not far away which had icicles forming downward from the side of the roof.

"Use water! Spray water onto the walls. Mobilize everyone within the village to splash water on the walls so that ice can form to strengthen it. That way, the magical beasts won't be able to do anything to it," Lorist ordered urgently.

The rest of the people were energized as they thought that the plan was rather sound. Hope for their survival was revitalized.

There was a total of 13000 plus people within the town. Apart from the elderly and the children, the two companies of family soldiers and one company of garrison soldiers as well as 6000 young men and women which were fit enough to help out all worked together to carry buckets filled with water to the walls where they would be trickled down carefully from the top.

"Brother Beck, Joe, Yuriy and Els, the four of you should head towards the 8 remaining villages within the sixth sector to notify them about this method before heading to the fifth sector's central town and villages. Have them all mobilize their citizens to strengthen the walls with water and encase the towns and villages within walls of ice. That's the only way we have to ensure the safety of the citizens," Lorist instructed.

"What about you, milord?"

"I will stay here as I cannot leave. The moment of my departure would cause their morale to fall," Lorist replied in a soft voice.

"Then I won't be leaving as well and will be staying by milord's side," Josk said.

"Locke, I'm the leader of the guard division. How can I leave you, the head of the family, here?" Els interjected.

"Then, I'll stay as well..."

"Cut the crap. We must grasp whatever time we have to notify the other villages to make their urgent preparations. It's enough to have Joe, Els and Patt with me here. The rest of you will group up and have Brother Beck as first-in-command and Yuriy as second-in-command. You shall discuss among yourselves how you would go about notifying the rest of the villages and towns. Don't forget, right now, only you guys are able to travel around with skis to traverse the snowy lands. Whether we will be able to notify the rest will depend on you. Hurry, leave before the magical beasts surround this town completely! Make sure to stick together at all times on the way and pay attention to your own safety. I'll be counting on you all!" Lorist said as he made a respectful salute to his subordinates.

Belnick, Yuriy and the rest of the members from the Maplewoods Bastide stood ramrod straight and saluted Lorist solemnly while saying in unison, "Milord, take care..."

Chapter 176 Goats in the Town

Lorist was standing on the town walls while looking at the sight before him of the magical beasts outside. The sixth area's central town was like a small raft floating in a sea of monsters, constantly at risk of being flipped over and sunk.

After three days and nights of nonstop water splashing, the former mud wall had already turned into a thick, sturdy ice wall, causing the people of the town to let out breaths of relief. Some of them were so tired that they even fell asleep on the ground right away.

"Milord, you should go get some rest too. It's been three days since you slept," Nors said as he approached Lorist with an incredibly respectful attitude.

Had it not been for the fact that Lorist brought his men to the town and thought up a method to strengthen the walls by letting water freeze over it, the defenseless central town of the sixth sector would long have fallen to the magical beasts, causing more than 13000 lives to turn into ashes beneath the paws and hooves of the beasts.

Lorist's eyes were slightly bloodshot from fatigue. He shook his head and said, "I'm fine, I can still hold on for a while longer. I wonder how the beasts will react to the frozen walls."

Currently, the group of beasts that was closest to the walls right now was a few gigantic magical yak. These yaks easily weighed more than 500 to 1000 kilograms and they were extremely aggressive. With a humongous body covered completely with long, brownish-black fur, and fearsome horns, it was heralded as one of the most troublesome magical beasts to deal with. Apart from defensive ballistas, only Gold ranked fighters could cause these yaks harm.

The central town was surrounded by farmland in the early stages of preparation which only had sparse amounts of algae the herbivorous magical beasts loved so much. That's why the beasts within the vicinity of the town were few and far between. However, that didn't stop them from eating the winter wheat saplings, with the guards on the walls being able to do anything about it other than watch in futility.

"Sigh, all the winter wheat saplings we sowed are gone... These stupid beasts have eaten them all..." Nors said exasperatedly.

"We can still find other sources of sustenance apart from winter wheat. There's potatoes and millets which don't have to be planted during the winter. What matters is that we stay put within the area and think of other methods to struggle for territory with the magical beasts. This year, we've been taken off-guard by the sudden arrival of the beasts. However, it won't be so easy for them next year. Since they've destroyed our winter wheat saplings, they must pay it back with the meat on their bodies..." Lorist said with a tone of seething hatred in his voice.

One of the 3-meter-tall gigantic yaks approached the walls and rubbed its back against it in a satisfied manner, causing Lorist to be completely speechless.

After the afternoon, the magical yaks near the walls left, causing Lorist to feel much more relieved. He had some food before going to take his long-deserved rest.

He slept rather soundly for the remainder of the day. However, he was still woken up mid-sleep. Opening his eyes, he saw Patt's troubled expression as he shouted, "Milord, milord... Wake up! The magical beasts started climbing the walls!"

Huh? Climbing the walls?

Lorist wasn't able to completely process the sentence he had just heard as he was still half asleep. Els, who was sleeping on the next bed blinked slowly to clear his vision and said, "Stop bullshitting... The magical beasts don't have ladders... How are they supposed to scale the 7-meter-tall walls?"

Patt picked Els up and brought him to the window before carefully opening it and said, "Open your eyes wide and take a good look. What else can you call this?"

When the window was opened, a draft of cold air entered the room. Everyone within felt the sudden chill and was awakened by it as a result. Josk who was next door also put on his clothes and came over. After taking a look from the window, he said, "Weird... How are the magical goats able to climb the walls?"

Lorist laughed out loud and said, "What's weird about that? That breed of magical goat is called the mountain-climbing horned goat. As its name implies, it climbs tall mountains to avoid predators. To them, our 7-meter wall is only child's play. Let's leave after we get ready. We'll be having mutton tonight! Free food has just showed up within our territory, so don't let it go to waste! Also, be careful not to be rammed to the ground by these goats. It's said that when the goats aren't able to escape from their enemy, they would abandon all notion of escaping and ram straight into its aggressor in hopes that it would be able to push it down a cliff alongside itself in a suicide attack."

"Are they easy to deal with?" Josk asked. It was the first time he saw goats like that.

"Well, on flat land, a Bronze ranked fighter can take care of three or four of these," Lorist replied.

"Tsk, that was a pointless scare. So they're only small fries whose only redeeming quality is being able to climb up our walls..." Patt said embarrassedly as he had awoken everyone within the building for a matter as small as that. Had he known about their capabilities, he would've went there and took care of them himself.

"It's fine. Are you guys ready? Let's go goat hunting," Lorist said before he left the building first.

The skies were still dark, but it wasn't pitch black either. The wooden cottage Lorist and the others rested within was quite near to the walls and the moment they left it, they could hear the bleating sounds the goats were making.

"We don't have to go up to the walls. Just deal with them on this empty space. Light some of the torches up," Lorist instructed.

As expected, the moment the torches were lit, the goats bleated more urgently and it even seemed that they were annoyed by the sudden illumination.

Sounds of hooves thumping rapidly on the ground could be heard as a bunch of black silhouettes rushed down from the slope from the walls. As the goats rushed straight towards them, Patt held his shield up and received the charge of a goat with a loud thump. However, he stood firm on his ground whereas the goat was sent flying from the force of the collision.

"Begin," Lorist ordered. Within moments, the carcasses of thirty or so goats were laid flat on the ground.

"Even though they're so weak, they actually took the initiative to attack. I really don't know what to say about these goats..." Els commented.

Lorist laughed and said, "They may be weak, but they are still magical beasts. Can't you see their red eyes? They attack humans once we enter their sights. However, within the wildlands, they are known to be one of the most cowardly beasts that run the moment they encounter their natural predators. We can ascend the walls now. There are still some up there, so be careful."

"Upon climbing up the walls and taking a look around, everyone was speechless. Multitudes of magical goats were gathered around the outside of the walls. In fact, they were merely seeking out a tall place to spend the night out of habit. From time to time, some of those goats made their way onto the walls.

However, the moment the goats noticed Lorist and the others' presence, they would rush towards them straight away, only to be put down moments later.

After circling around the walls and killing near 1000 of those goats, Lorist's group had alerted the town guards and Nors brought his men and rushed up the walls right away to combat the remaining goats.

The slaughtering continued all the way till daybreak and the rest of the goats only left the town walls after their numbers had been depleted by half.

Lorist and the rest were currently covered in goat blood from top to bottom and the carcasses of the dead goats were also beginning to freeze over atop the walls.

Nors himself was also covered in blood as could be seen when he approached Lorist and said, "Milord, it is my fault for being too lax and not arranging for a night watch..."

Lorist waved his hand and said as he laughed lightly, "No worries. We're only facing magical beasts, not enemies who are besieging the town. Given that I had ordered for your men to not startle the magical beasts during the night, it's no surprise that no night watch was arranged. Also, you guys have also worked tirelessly for three whole days, so you need to rest up as well. There's also no harm done from these goats coming up the walls to be turned into food by us. Let's get everyone to clear the dead goats up and prepare the meat. I heard that these mountain-climbing horned goats taste pretty good. We'll be having quite the meal today, haha!"

There was a harvest of more than 5000 goats, much to everyone's delight. Nors had some people bring out ten plus huge cauldrons to the central plaza of the town and made some gruel with the meat they got. Everyone could eat as much as they wanted during that night.

Lorist on the other hand enjoyed a delicious lamb chop dish. It was apparent that the chefs within the central town of the sixth area were quite skillful and were able to cook up a juicy piece of meat. Els had already eaten six servings and he proceeded to order one more even though his stomach was practically bloating already.

Lorist himself also finished five servings of the food before something occurred to him all of a sudden, causing him to instruct Nors hurriedly to have the chefs keep the rib bones of the goats for his use later. After that, he took out the map of the town and started pondering deeply.

Josk walked to Lorist's side with a smoked goat's leg in his hand and asked, "What's up? Do you have another idea?"

Lorist replied, "I was thinking if we should let the magical beasts enter the town..."

"What?! Have you gone insane?!" exclaimed Josk.

"You're the insane one! I was thinking that we could set up some traps within the town and let some herbivorous beasts into the town like today to clear them up conveniently. I'm sure you've noticed that during these past two days, the folk of the town were feeling rather worried and down. But right after we killed so many magical goats, they look much more energized and happy. I'm worried that if we only stay put and defend, that will internalize the fear and dread the townsfolk have for the magical beasts. However, if we can let some of the beasts into town and set up traps in advance, we can turn the magical beast wave into an opportunity for hunting so that the townsfolk will no longer have to fear them," Lorist explained hurriedly.

"Gosh, you really scared me," Josk said bashfully. "Milord, since you're so confident, go ahead. I don't really understand complex things like that, but I'll support your decisions anyhow."

At that moment, Nors entered the building and his hands held a plate on which a rib bone with some meat still stuck on it was placed. "Milord, do you want to eat this? How would you like it cooked? Smoked or steamed?" Nors asked.

Lorist took the rib bone into his hand and shaved off the meat with a dagger before proceeding to sharpen the two ends of the bone. After that, he said, "Get me a basin of hot water."

Some hot water was quickly brought to Lorist which he used to submerge the rib bone with. After that, he twisted the rib bone gently inwards into a circular shape and had Patt get him a string which he used to tie the two sharp ends of the bone together. He then took some meat that he shaved off the bone just now and pasted it on the circular rib bone before tossing the whole thing on the snowy ground.

Everyone present merely stared curiously. Lorist proceeded to explain, "I have just made a trap with that rib bone that we can use to take care of the carnivorous magical beasts."

"Milord, you're not kidding, right? How would we be able to take care of the carnivorous beasts with just that?" said one of them. The rest also didn't seem to believe that it would work.

After the rib bone froze over, Lorist asked someone to bring it back.

"Look. When the carnivores notice these on the ground, they will definitely swallow them whole," said Lorist as he removed the string tying the two ends of the rib together. The frozen rib still retained its curled shape.

"Think about it... The stomachs of those beasts should be rather warm, right? Just like this basin of warm water," Lorist said before he tossed the rib bone into the basin.

Not long after, the frozen meat on the bone began to melt and fall away from the bone. After that, the rib gradually uncurled again and returned to its former slightly curved shape with its two sharp edges pointing outwards.

"If rib bones like these revert back to their original shape in the stomachs of the beasts, hehe... No matter how savage they are, they would die all the same. Do you guys understand now?" Lorist said as he looked at the rest with a confident smile.

"Whoa! Milord, you're a genius! Using this method to deal with the carnivorous beasts really saves us a lot of trouble!" Patt praised, with Nors nodding in agreement.

"At the end of the day, Locke, you're the only person who can actually think of something as devious and insidious as this... But, I like it," Els said as he took the rib bone and inspected it.

Lorist stared at Els and thought, was that supposed to be a compliment?

"That doesn't seem right," Josk said as he furrowed his brow. "Milord, usually, these carnivorous magical beasts would their food a bite or two before swallowing it. Given that their teeth is sharp and hard, wouldn't the bone be ground to pieces before it is even swallowed?"

Lorist clapped his hands and said, "Joe, you have a point. The sample trap I made just now was only a makeshift one with some meat plastered onto it. The actual traps we will use will be covered in goat fats. Since goat fats will melt the moment it enters the beasts' mouths no matter how frozen it is, the beasts would just swallow the bone whole straight away because there's no need for them to chew on the fats.

"In fact, this trap was not invented by me. It was actually designed by one of the most prominent adventurers who lived roughly 100 years ago, Carmen Pride. Having been trapped on an uninhabited island for two years, he used this trap to hunt for carnivorous magical beasts which helped him sustain him until the day of his rescue. Due to the fact that magical mountain-climbing horned goats liked climbing to high places, their rib bones were rather elastic. Hence, the rib bones of the goats were the ideal material for these traps."

Lorist looked at the rest within the building and said, "In another two days, the magical beast wave will leave the sixth sector and head for the fifth. Following behind the main group would be the carnivorous beasts, which are very different from the herbivorous beasts we see now. While herbivorous magical beasts only attack if we're in their sights, carnivorous ones will hunt us down the moment they get a hint of our scent. Even though we have the ice walls protecting us, we must still be careful. Just in case, it's better to make more of these traps and there would be no harm having a little more than we need either."

"Yes, milord," said the rest in unison.

"Also, I was thinking of opening the town gates to let those aggressive but weak goats inside so that we can gather more meat. What do you guys think?" Lorist asked.

"Milord, I have no issue with that. I will await your instructions," Nors said.

During the last two days of the magical beast wave at the sixth sector, Lorist opened the town gates twice at opportune times and let in huge groups of magical mountain-climbing horned goats, big-horned wild goats and striped deers into the town. However, during the first time, the gates were closed a little too late, letting in around 20000 of them as a result, causing everyone to be busy killing them off all the way till midnight. Some unlucky fellows were also injured from the wild ramming of the goats. It was fortunate that the soldiers that participated in the slaughter were equipped with metal armor, ensuring that none of them incurred lasting injuries.

The atmosphere during that time was exceedingly wild with most of the soldiers that participated in the hunt running all over the streets of the town, either chasing the beasts or being chased by them. Sometimes, the soldiers who were chasing a small group of goats would turn their backs when they noticed a larger group up front, resulting in them being chased for a change, until another group of soldiers came to their aid and began their counterattack.

The other townsfolk that didn't participate in the activities instead got up to the roofs of their houses and cheered nonstop excitedly. When the hunt came down to the last magical goat, the soldiers didn't kill it right away either and instead took up their shields and made a game out of resisting the goat's charge. Some were knocked flying by the goat and were laughed at by the onlookers while others were cheered for after knocking the goat flying and even received air-kisses from some of the womenfolk.

At that time, Lorist would never have imagined that the practice of letting the magical beasts into town would evolve into a local holiday known as the 'goat ramming festival', which prohibited the use of weapons against the goats they captured and only allowed participants to ram the goats with their shields until they lost consciousness.

Originally, after opening the gates for the first time, Lorist didn't want to do it a second time. However, that decision was received negatively by of the townsfolk, causing him to have to once again open the gates and let in a few thousand magical striped deers to keep the festivities going.

The magical striped deers were the last of the herbivorous magical beasts and what came after were the carnivorous ones that stalked the herbivores from afar, the most common of which being the various types of winter wolves.

From the walls of the town, Lorist discovered that the largest group of winter wolves numbered around 1000. He then instructed for the goat rib traps to be tossed outside the town and made preparations for the collection of the carcasses two days later.

Chapter 177 Wrapping Up

"Milord, why did the wolves leave the carcasses of the ones who had swallowed the traps right there just like that? Didn't you say that magical wolves often cannibalize one another?" Nors asked curiously.

The sight before them was rather shocking with magical wolves dead all over the plains in all form and fashion after being trampled upon by some other magical beasts. Hundreds of their carcasses could be seen with some of them even having their mouths wide open as if they were in great pain. However, not one of them had a visible wound on their body. Had it not been for the fact that they already knew about the situation, the people would no doubt find that sight extremely odd and terrifying.

However, the ones who followed Lorist outside the town already knew about the rib bone traps and were merely shocked at how effective they were despite their simple design. Before them were hundreds of winter wolf carcasses. If they were alive, they would pose a huge threat to everyone who set out of the town and could even potentially wipe out a whole army.

"Magical wolves are rather intelligent beasts. Some scholars have hypothesized that their intellect were on the level of children aged five to six years and they were one of the magical beasts that knew how to coordinate with each other well. They only cannibalize out of necessity when the pack is too huge for the prey they hunt to be able to support the population, causing them to even feast on the corpses of their dead brethren to ensure the survival of the pack.

"However, they are also incredibly sensitive and suspicious. During the magical beast wave, they don't lack any food source. And the fact that many of their own collapsed due to reasons unknown to them should prove quite frightening as well and cause them to want to leave the place as soon as possible. Just like humans, when one or two of us dies, we would stop and investigate the cause. However, if one after another collapses dead, there is no doubt that the rest of us would prioritize our own survival and leave the area before doing anything else. The wolves are the same with us in that regard," Lorist explained.

"Alright, let's keep moving. We have to transport the wolf carcasses with our carts to be back. Hunting them this way really keeps their fur in perfect condition. I wonder how the fur merchants' faces will look like when they see all the fur we have for them," Patt said towards the rest of the garrison soldiers on the carriages.

After half a day of work, Nors came over to report to Lorist., "Milord, there are 745 wolf carcasses in total. Are we going to return to the town right now?"

Lorist furrowed his brow and said, "Hmmm, that doesn't seem right... We tossed out a total of more than 2000 goat rib traps. This number is a little too low. Josk, bring a group of people with you on patrol to check if we have any other gain. Be careful."

After Josk searched the area once more with his men, he discovered a few hundred other dead carnivorous magical beasts. Some beasts like cloud panthers and patterned panthers were discovered to be dead hanging from tree branches while others like ligers collapsed on top of mounds. There were also some tracks that led to a rather large catch.

It was a humongous iron-sideburned wild boar which weighed almost 1000 kilograms. It was apparent from the fallen trees and toppled rocks in the vicinity that the gigantic beast had rampaged around from the pain of the bone piercing its stomach and ended up in a snowy trench after breathing its last breath.

Seeing the state of the trees leading up to the boar's carcass, Lorist couldn't help but let out a cold sweat as he imagined whether his javelins would be of any use should he encounter a beast like that. The meter-long javelins seemed like a toothpick when compared to a beast of that size.

Els came over to Lorist side to look at the soldiers who were prepared to use tens of horses to pull the boar out of the trench. He asked Lorist, "Locke, are we going to tail the magical beast wave to the rest of the sectors?"

Lorist shook his head and said, "We won't be able to make it. When we departed from Maplewoods Bastide, the magical beast wave had just started to disperse, so we could still circle around them to reach the town ahead of them. Just look at the state of the land now: wherever the magical beasts passed, all that's left of it is muddy ground which we can't travel on even with our skis. Right now, we can only hope that the beasts will leave when spring comes."

"Locke, don't worry. With Knight Belnick and Knight Yuriy sending word, I believe that the magical beast wave will not cause too much damage to us. In fact, nobody here is afraid of the coming of the magical beast wave anymore," Els consoled.

"Els, to tell you the truth, I'm scared. I'm afraid of seeing how the other four villages fared when we visit them later. These people have toiled hard to follow the convoy all the way to the Northlands and thought they could start their peaceful lives anew. However, none of them knew that what awaited them was the magical beast wave. I truly have wronged them, so I feel really bad for that," Lorist said as he shivered slightly.

"Locke, this is not your fault. I'm sure none of us would have envisioned that things would turn out like this. But, since what's past is already past, we have to face the future with courage. Come on, let's head back to town. The soldiers have already hoisted the boar up with their horses," Els said as he patted on Lorist's shoulder. "Brother, don't forget that no matter what happens, I will always stand by your side."

Lorist and the rest were quite surprised when they visited the other villages in the sector later. The villages that they thought had been utterly destroyed were not in that bad a state they originally imagined. Faced with certain demise with the approach of the magical beast wave, some of the villagers had all thought up various means to struggle for their survival.

The fourth village was located atop of a small mound and the Silver ranked fighter stationed there was one of Lorist's old acquaintances, Paulobins. He currently held the position of a squad leader of one of the light cavalry scout squads and had been sent along with his men to that very village during the winter season. When he realized that the magical beasts were on their way, he had the villagers build a wall with snow to surround the village which was later strengthened by the freezing temperature, causing the magical beasts to have a hard time climbing up the walls, thus securing the lives of all the villagers.

However, after the herbivores passed by the village, tens of snow panthers attacked and ten plus villagers were either hurt or killed. Even Paulobins himself was injured, but they still managed to chase the panthers away. Greeted with such an optimistic outcome, Lorist was so elated that he knighted Paulobins as a family knight on the spot, thus fulfilling his long time wish.

The third village however didn't share the same good fortune as the casualties were rather bad. The womenfolk and the elderly managed to escape the horrors of the beasts by hiding within an underground tunnel. The rest of the youths and the garrison soldiers as well as the squad of light cavalry scouts led by a Silver ranked fighter had perished in a fight with a huge group of big-horned bulls that assaulted the village.

The second village contained yet another surprise for Lorist and the gang. Apart from the fact that the buildings of the village were completely razed down, the people there and other resources were completely fine. The main reason for that was that the village had been built upon a mountainside where a cave was located not far away. The moment they detected the coming of the magical beasts, the villagers escaped into the cave and sealed the entrance, thus managing to evade a catastrophe.

Even so, the first village fared the worst among the rest with only 17 survivors out of the original 3000 plus people. When the magical beasts arrived there, it was only midnight and the guards on the walls thought that only a small group of magical beasts were trampling the farmland they had cultivated. As a result, they shot fire arrows from the walls and provoked the whole group of magical beasts which proceeded to launch a full-on assault on the village. The remaining 17 villagers only managed to survive by hiding amidst the rubble of the wooden houses.

......

On the 18th day of the 3rd month was a gentle spring rain. Many people were gathered within the main hall of Firmrock Castle. Every family knight and administrative officer listened carefully to the report given by Charade about the passing of the magical beast wave.

"During winter, the magical beast wave caused the family to lose near 10000 citizens and more than 1000 heroic soldiers, including 7 Silver ranked fighters and three family knights. The one who should shoulder most of the responsibility for this is me as I have began the development of the wasteland without first doing proper research and understanding the situation of the family dominion, causing us to suffer from something we could have planned ahead for.

"When I received milord's urgent warnings about the magical beasts from his messengers, I still didn't take it seriously and even gathered the soldiers to form a defense line in the third sector's central town to resist the magical beast wave. Had it not been for Knight Belnick and the rest who informed us of the idea of securing the town walls by letting water freeze over it, I would've sacrificed even more of our forces to fight against the magical beasts. My failures for this incident cannot be excused and I hope that milord will give me a fitting punishment..."

Lorist currently wore a very stiff expression as he never would've dreamt that Charade would perform so terribly in the onset of the arrival of the magical beast wave. After Jim and the other three traveled two days and one night to Firmrock Castle to report on the news of the wave's approach, Charade didn't take it seriously and believed that the magical beasts they mentioned were merely weak little herbivorous ones like magical goats and deers with their only advantage being their numbers. He even boasted to Potterfang that the magical beasts came just at the right time to help the dominion relieve its food shortage problem.

After spending seven days preparing, Charade and Potterfang left with their troops and they spent tens of more days to travel to the third sector because of the road conditions from the snowfall, only to meet Belnick and the rest who were splashing water on the town walls urgently. After that, despite the objection of Potterfang and Belnick, Charade even ordered more than 20000 family soldiers to erect a snow wall and get into position in preparation to fight the magical beasts.

When Lorist heard about that, he could only laugh bitterly. Charade had underestimated the magical beasts severely and treated them as if they were human enemy troops who wouldn't be able to withstand even one assault from them. He didn't even stop to consider whether the longbows and crossbows his soldiers were equipped with would even be able to cause the magical beasts significant casualties.

When the magical beast wave eventually made its way to the defense line, the longbows of the family troops were still able to harm the smaller herbivorous magical beasts. However, when the magical bulls and 6-meter-tall mammoths showed up from behind, everyone was shocked into stupor. Fortunately, Potterfang managed to take quick action and ordered the soldiers to retreat to the third sector's central town to fortify the walls using the water freezing method, thus ensuring the survival of the 20000 plus troops.

In the end, the 20000 plus troops that Lorist had placed his hopes in were trapped within the central town for more than a month. Not only did they consume the food reserves of the town incredibly quickly, they were also forced to starve for days until the magical beast wave thinned and allowed them to hunt some scattered beasts for sustenance. They eventually returned to Firmrock Castle with the last bit of morale drained out of them.

"I hereby renounce Knight Charade's position as chief officer of the Felicitas Settlement development project and also his title as the chief knight of the Norton Family Knights. Shadekampf will temporarily be in charge of the development of Felicitas Settlement," Lorist stood up and announced his decision.

"It's only the first time that we've witnessed the magical beast wave within the dominion. However, does that mean that we've lost confidence to develop Felicitas Settlement? In actuality, we shouldn't fear the magical beast wave. While we aren't able to prevent it from happening, we can still give it our all to make the best of this situation," Lorist said.

After that, he briefed the rest about the methods they used within the sixth sector's central town and even demonstrated how to make the rib bone trap. "It is apparent that as long as we have a secure and stable wall to protect us, the magical beast wave is actually a good hunting opportunity. With enough preparation, we can even make the walls into a trap for hunting magical beasts. However, we must also be careful and not provoke them when the gigantic ones are around. When the time is right, we can even let some of the weaker beasts into the town. Not only can we obtain more fresh meat and furs, we can also decrease the fear the folks have for the magical beast wave so that they will be confident in their future lives here."

Lorist then proceeded to describe the situation of the four other villages within the sixth sector. "From these examples, it can also be seen that the villages can also survive the magical beast wave, provided they have good defensive preparations and an escape route to a cave or an underground tunnel. That way, they can survive the winter without any worries.

"That's why, with the coming of the new year, the family will focus on developing the defensive walls and other necessary infrastructure of the towns and villages within the second to seventh sectors for the well-being and safety of the citizens. Even though the magical beast wave has receded, huge groups of magical beasts still remain within the dominion. So, from tomorrow onwards, the family forces will be tasked to eliminate those magical beasts both to ensure the safety of the citizens within the dominion as well as to replenish our food stores so that our hard-working citizens can live with a peace of mind without worries.

"Shadekampf, this year, you must focus on developing the six central towns. I will have Telesti arrange for her designers to draw up some plans for the towns soon. Additionally, make sure that walls are built around the villages and plan a reliable escape route should anything go wrong. As for the farmland, we can plant some beans to relieve the food consumption temporarily. The family will also try to help by purchasing huge amounts of food.

"Also, the 16 Silver ranked fighters that have performed exceptional feats will also be promoted to family knights. The others who have contributed will also be rewarded. I hope that all of you here will brainstorm hard for more methods that the family can use to mitigate the damage brought by the magical beast wave. You can send your thoughts in a letter to me personally. The prosperity of the family dominion will depend on the our combined efforts. So, I will be counting on you all."

After the meeting adjourned, Lorist had Charade stay back. Even though he had relieved Charade of his duties, that didn't mean he didn't intend to give him other tasks.

"Brother Charade, I will leave Firmrock Castle and the valley city in your hands because those parts didn't incur any damages from the magical beast wave. You have to work hard on the development of the valley city and the nearby farmland as well as plan for the development of the wasteland near Firmrock Castle. Before Felicitas Settlement can be free from the harm brought by the magical beast wave, these two locations I want you to work on will be the cornerstone of the family's survival by ensuring a continuous food output. I am prepared to set up another town at the intersection of the Bladedge Mountains and the Morgan Hills. That will be where the smiths and miners of the family will live and it will become the main industrial city of our dominion that will produce most of the weapons and equipment for our family forces. Do you understand the importance of this place now?"

Charade nodded and said, "Locke, I thank you deeply for this opportunity. As your brother, I promise that I will no longer let you down."

Chapter 178 Ballistas and Metal Materials

"Milord, a top quality ballista can fire up to 300 meters away with a margin of error of less than half a meter. Only with that will it be able to pose a real threat against the enemy. During the time of the former empire, Krissen V drafted a standard for the construction of defense sentry ballistas, causing the ballistas produced during that time to be among the best ones ever made. However, the standards were later slackened and the empire never produced ballistas as good as those ever again."

Grandmaster Fellin was currently giving a lecture to Lorist about his knowledge on ballistas. Before them were a number of ballistas of differing types used by the Norton Family forces. Even the original 12 ballistas obtained from the armory of the Dawn Academy that were used by the carroballista unit were there.

"The most important part of a ballista is its arm. In actuality, no matter what kind of wood used to make it, a ballista should be able to shoot 300 plus meters away. The only shortcoming of using arbitrary wood is that the arm will not last long. That is to say, the second shot from that particular ballista will be magnitudes nearer than the last. In other words, elasticity is the most crucial criteria when deciding which material to use as the arm for a ballista. That material must be able to return to its former shape quickly so that the second shot can match the first shot in both distance and accuracy. Based on that alone, many other types of wood won't even make the list for consideration."

Grandmaster Fellin then brought Lorist in front of two small ballistas and said, "Milord, these two ballistas can be considered to be one of the finest ones I've seen in the last ten years. They are almost half as small as usual defense sentry ballistas and are easy to operate and aim with with their firing distance reaching around 260 meters. I've asked Dulles about it and he said that they were part of the original set of 12 the convoy bought from the Dawn Academy. I heard the reason they were abandoned and sold to you was because they were too hard to operate?"

Lorist nodded as he recalled reading the log of the armory that recorded that exact reason.

Grandmaster Fellin laughed and said, "They were mistaken. Milord, think about it. A normal ballista would take up to 5 people to operate while this smaller one only requires 3. It wouldn't make sense for the ballista that requires a smaller number of people to use to be more complicated. The real reason it wasn't used was because the price of production was too high and these ballistas couldn't be mass produced.

"Milord, do you know what material was used to make the small ballistas?" the grandmaster asked Lorist as he pointed at the small ballistas whose arms seemed to have properties of both wood and metal from the look of them.

Lorist merely shook his head.

"The arms of these ballistas were made of Arrowdragon Wood, a material that is only found on the Relic Islands, which gains an elastic property after being treated by three submerging processes. According to the ancient records, Arrowdragon Wood was a plant that the magi transported from another dimensional plane during the time of the magical civilization and were used in construction of magical ballistas. Wood the size of the ballistas' arms would take roughly hundreds of years to grow. The Dawn Academy must've expended quite a sum to get their hands on so much Arrowdragon Wood. It's a shame that the future generations couldn't recognize quality goods even when they see it, hence leaving them unutilized and gathering dust within the armory."

Grandmaster Fellin stroked the dark-colored wood of the ballista arm as he sighed and said, "In terms of ballista construction, Arrowdragon Wood is indeed the ideal material to use for the arm of the ballista. However, the exorbitant price of the material and the troublesome preparation works against its favor. Even the submerging processes alone requiring six different solutions would take up seven years to complete. Affordable prices and mass production availability with the emphasis on easily replaceable spare parts are important things to consider for military gear. Additionally, given the additional complications involved in siege equipment like that, there isn't a perfect solution for adopting the use of such high quality gear for widespread use.

"Milord, I've already analyzed the ballista designs you drew before and if we can make it, it will definitely be a revolutionary upgrade to any existing ones. However, I am not sure if I will be able to find someone to make the kind of elastic metal you specified. Without those metal plates for the ballista arms, your ballista that is designed to be used against magical beasts cannot be constructed," Grandmaster Fellin said. While he understood Lorist's intentions, he was only familiar with employing wood to make ballistas. Given how much work required to process wood, it would be difficult to suddenly supply a huge number of ballistas for their forces.

"How about this, Grandmaster Fellin, why don't you accompany me to Bladedge Mountains tomorrow? The family has built a metal refinery over there. We'll go there to see for ourselves whether Grandmaster Sid can fashion a suitable material for the ballista," Lorist said.

......

After leaving the ballista workshop, Lorist returned to his office on the second floor of the Firmrock Castle.

Upon entering, he noticed Telesti laughing uncontrollably while slumped on his work desk.

"Darling, what's wrong?" Lorist asked curiously.

"Locke, didn't you ask your family knights and other officers to come up with methods to deal with the magical beasts? The letters are already collected over here. Look, haha! This letter suggests that we open a path through the Bladedge Mountains to the sea so that the magical beasts can travel straight into the sea and drown there... Hahaha... It's too funny..."

Lorist also laughed out loud. Just recently, he had forced his subordinates to try to come up with methods to deal with the magical beast wave. However, not one of them had any practical ideas, so they merely submitted whatever they could write up with their ridiculous imagination.

"Well, at least this is still more plausible than another letter I've read that suggested a wall be constructed all the way from Firmrock Castle to Maplewoods Bastide to seal off the Felicitas Settlement," Lorist commented.

That person who came out of the idea was preoccupied with the notion of keeping the magical beasts out of the Felicitas Settlement. However, he didn't even consider the distance between the two places and the costs, manpower and time involved in building a wall of that length. The idea made quite an impression on Lorist because it reminded him of the great wall in his previous life.

Telesti laughed out loud again as she said, "Locke, do you remember that one of the knights even suggested to gather up everyone within the dominion to dig up an enormous trap hole for the magical beasts to fall into? I replied to that knight and asked him what we would do with the dirt we get from all that digging. His reply just came in and he said that we can just dig out another hole to be filled with the extra dirt, hahaha..."

Lorist laughed bitterly as he shook his head in futility. Quite a number of knights within the family were muscleheads who didn't like to think about complicated stuff like that, so it was quite troubling for them to be requested to come up with a countermeasure for the magical beasts.

Picking up a few letters from the table, Lorist began reading. The first letter suggested that the algae be completely eradicated from the lands of the Felicitas Settlement so that the magical beasts would no longer head there if there was nothing for them to eat. Sigh, why doesn't he think about how huge the settlement really is... And is it really possible to root out something like algae? I bet that a new patch would sprout the moment one was removed... How clueless...

The second letter sounded even more ridiculous. The writer of the letter suggested that a large amounts of poison be sprinkled all over the lands of Felicitas Settlement so that the magical beasts would die from consuming the poisoned algae. Well, I'll leave it to you to come up with a poisonous solution that will be effective even after being exposed in the air for a few days. As a rank one herbalist, Lorist felt that if anyone really came out with a solution like that, he would definitely receive a reward from the Forde Research Fund of 200000 gold Fordes for such an achievement.

The third letter described an isthmus that was located near the Maplewoods Bastide. That place was rather wide and if there was a way to lure the giant-class magical beasts such as magical mammoths to that place, then it would be far easier to deal with the smaller herbivorous beasts.

Oh? This is a rather sound plan, Lorist thought as he looked at the name of the writer. The person who wrote that was called Tarkel, whom Lorist thought to be rather familiar. Was there such a person among the family knights? Lorist really couldn't recall that person.

He then pulled on the bell rope to summon Reidy.

"Reidy, have this person come over here," Lorist instructed.

After a while, somebody knocked on the door of his office. However, that person was Charade.

"Milord, Knight Ovidis sent someone to report to me that the Second Prince sent you an invitation to attend a gathering for nobles at Gildusk City on the 15th day of the 5th month. Do you think we should attend?"

"Why would I go to a stupid gathering for nobles? In the end, it's just all a ploy of the Second Prince to siphon some money from the nobles who attend. I wouldn't want that now, would I? Just send a letter to refuse the invitation. I have no time to play games with the Second Prince," Lorist said in annoyance.

"Alright, I'll send someone to notify Knight Ovidis to have the messenger of the Second Prince scram," said Charade.

"Also, come with me to the metal refinery at Bladedge Mountains tomorrow. I have something I want to discuss with Grandmaster Sid. We can also check out on the plans for the industrial city I left in your hands," Lorist said.

"Okay. I'll wait for you tomorrow then," Charade said before he left.

Reidy only managed to find Tarkel in the evening and brought him to see Lorist.

"Oh, it's you?" Lorist said as he laughed. "No wonder I felt that your name sounded familiar. I'm really sorry, I've completely forgotten about you due to being so busy."

The man standing in front of Lorist was one of the guards of Count Cobry's laborer camp within Geldos City. Tarkel, who looked burly and uncultured on the outside, was discovered by Lorist to have a knack for noticing the more obscure details and being able to handle matters effectively. Thus, he forced Tarkel and his family to travel with him to the Northlands despite the latter's objection, only for Lorist to end up forgetting about him after he left with a few others earlier to head towards the dominion to inherit his position.

On the way north, Tarkel had endured quite a bit of hardship, as could be seen from how unpleasantly silent he was when he looked at Lorist.

"Fine, Tarkel. I once again apologize to you for forcing you and your family to move over and forgetting to take care of you as I have promised. How about this, no matter what you're working on right now, why don't you become my personal attendant? Oh, Reidy, arrange a residence nearby for Tarkel and his family and give him ten gold Fordes as my token of apology," Lorist told Reidy.

"Who's that? You seem to regard him rather highly," Telesti asked when Tarkel left with Reidy.

"Hehe, while that fellow looks rather burly and brutish, he's incredibly keen on picking up on the smaller details most people ignore. He has a great talent for information gathering and spying, but he's a tad too cowardly for that and also treasures his family a lot. I've noticed his talents sometime back and forced him to come with us to the dominion, but I forgot about him after I left the convoy to inherit my position at the dominion. Had it not been for the letter he wrote me, I wouldn't have been able to recall him either. Here, have a look. Of everyone who has written to us, his idea is the most viable," Lorist said as he handed Telesti the letter.

"I see. Locke, are you heading to the Bladedge Mountains tomorrow?"

"I am. This time, I think I'll be staying there for quite a while. When I finish my affairs over there, I will check on the development of Felicitas Settlement. I will leave the matters here to you and Charade. Just send me a letter if there's something you need me to deal with. Well, it's getting late, so let's get some food."

......

The refinery that was built near the black iron mine made the atmosphere of the Bladedge Mountains much rowdier than before.

"Milord, we've set up seven blast furnaces in total and the daily production is around 1500 kilograms." As the chief supervisor, Grandmaster Sid was showing Lorist, Charade and Grandmaster Fellin around the refinery.

Lorist discovered that the furnaces they used at the refinery were rather primitive with the main difference between them and those used in Lorist's past life was that the main refining chambers were located underground with pillars of smoke emanating from the holes of the floor. The black iron ore would be brought to the refining chambers underground with chunks of charcoal placed next to them. After that, air would be blown into the chamber to aid in the combustion process, thus raising the temperature high enough so that the ore could be melted down before it would be funneled into casts where it would be made into black iron ingots.

"I believe I've seen a different method for refining metal in a book somewhere that would produce stainless steel right away without first having to refine the ore into black iron ingots," Lorist said as he started drawing a design of a blast furnace from his past life and handed it to Grandmaster Sid. "I recall that the combustion material they used was a kind of black-colored rock which emanated extremely high temperatures."

Holding the beastskin design in his hand, Grandmaster Sid wore an awkward expression as he said, "Milord, your widespread knowledge is truly admirable. However, we're not able to construct a furnace of this design."

"Why?" Charade asked.

"That's because this kind of furnace must be made from a kind of brick that is incredibly resistant to heat. Otherwise, it would crack right away during the smelting process. We do not have the ability to make bricks like that," Grandmaster Sid said.

Lorist nodded and thought, so he really does know his stuff... Grandmaster Sid had already noticed the key flaw of the furnace design. However, even Lorist is unaware of how to make the heat-resistant bricks that the grandmaster mentioned, so he made a mental note to experiment on it in the future.

"As for the black rocks which are combustible that you mentioned, I've seen them before. They're called blackfire rocks and they let out a pungent stench when ignited. Additionally, ingots smelted using blackfire rocks are not good enough as they are rather brittle," Grandmaster Sid explained.

Oh, so coal is called blackfire rocks in this world. Even so, he couldn't recall the process of coking which was used to make coke, which was in turn commonly used as fuel in blacksmithing. If one were to use sulfur-rich coal instead of coke, the end product would no doubt be brittle.

"Then, how do you guys make steel?" Lorist asked.

"Well, you can take a look over there, milord. That is the blast furnace we use to make steel. First, we put some iron ingots into the furnace as well as some other ingredients according to prescribed recipes. After that, we heat it up long enough and start the stirring process before finally pouring the molten metal into casts. Then, we take it out and start hammering to remove impurities until we are satisfied with the product," explained Grandmaster Sid.

"I see. Then, I have a something I want to build which will need a particular kind of steel. I wonder if you can make it," Lorist said as he unrolled the ballista design he drew and Grandmaster Fellin proceeded to describe the properties of the ballista to Grandmaster Sid.

After looking at the design, Grandmaster Sid furrowed his brow in thought before he asked someone to bring an old guy to him.

"Milord, this is Master Julian and he has worked in the field for most of his life back during the days of the empire in the imperial capital. If even he can't make the kind of metal you want, no one can," Grandmaster Sid said.

While Master Julian looked rather meek and gentle, the moment he heard about the request from Grandmaster Sid, he nodded fervently and said, "It is possible. Back then, His Majesty Krissen VII commissioned for an even more elastic metal to be made for the spring absorbers on his carriage and I still remember the recipe. However, we must repeat the hammering process and remelt the material multiple times and employ the quenching process, which will no doubt require a lot of manpower. While we would be able to make it in small amounts, it'll be hard for us to mass produce the material as we don't have enough experienced blacksmiths to do the hammering. If the hammering is done wrong, not only will the end product be useless, it will also waste the precious material."

Lorist laughed and said, "There will be no issue with that. I can design a water-powered hammering machine for you. I was just thinking that it was a waste not to utilize the waterfalls at the cliffs nearby. Let me draw it for you..."

Within moments, a simple water-powered hammering machine blueprint was drawn. It was a really basic design which utilized a water wheel that was connected to a series of gears powered a hammer that banged against an anvil. The design blew the minds of everyone present who had only seen it for the first time.

Master Julian cried out in surprise, "Milord, you're a genius! With this, no matter how much material you need, I will be able to make it for you..."

Chapter 179 Daily Life Within the Dominion

Lorist traveled with Reidy and Tarkel to check out the development of the Felicitas Settlement, especially the defensive infrastructure that was just constructed within the various villages and towns. By the time they returned to the refinery at Bladedge Mountains, it was already the end of the 7th month.

Within the span of two months, many changes at that valley could be observed. Firstly, Grandmaster Fellin had moved his ballista workshop somewhere nearby the valley. He was currently inspecting a few ballista parts that were made according to Lorist's design and was discussing them with Master Julian quite audibly.

Other than that, a row of water-powered hammering machines of differing sizes and complexity could be sighted near the waterfall by the cliff. It seemed that the people at the refinery had also modified some of the machines to better suit their needs.

When Lorist approached Grandmaster Fellin and Master Julian, they both welcomed him gladly.

Grandmaster Fellin said, "Milord, the elastic steel plate you wanted is already complete. We've already used one to make a ballista to test the steel plate as well as decide on the final design of the prototype."

Master Julian smiled satisfactorily with his mouth wide open, revealing the whites of his teeth.

"Not bad. I'm really satisfied with your progress. Reidy, after this, reward Master Julian and Grandmaster Fellin 100 gold Fordes each. The others who have contributed will receive 10 gold Fordes each." In terms of rewarding skilled workers, Lorist was not one bit stingy at all.

"Thank you, milord. However, you should take a better look first. We discovered that the ballista we made according to your design has two problems," said Fellin.

The ballista Lorist designed was not made wholly out of steel. Apart from the arm, eccentric wheel and the loading mechanism which utilized steel parts, the rest of the ballista was still constructed from wood.

"Oh? What problems are there?" Lorist asked.

"Milord, the elastic steel arm allows the ballista's firing distance to increase to around 320 to 350 meters with a margin of error of 2 meters. During testing, we discovered that using wooden ballista bolts caused the bolt's center of gravity to be a little off, hence increasing the error margin. This is why it's difficult to aim with this new ballista. So, we made an iron ballista bolt and while the distance the iron bolt could be fired was only at around 280 to 300 meters, the error margin is far smaller with it being less than half a meter. The problem is that the iron bolts cost twice as much as the wooden bolts to produce. That's why we need your thoughts on which bolts to use for this ballista in the future," Fellin explained.

"Then, which type of bolt has more power?" Lorist asked.

"Naturally, it's the iron one," Fellin replied.

"Then we'll use iron bolts. I'll have a ballista bolt manufacturing plant set up with Master Julian as its head then," Lorist declared right away.

"The second issue is the rate of wear for the string on the steel ballista, which is far too staggering. The wooden ballistas could fire up to 20 rounds before needing its string to be replaced. However, the vibration caused by the steel arm of this ballista causes much more damage to its string, meaning that it has to be replaced after every seven to eight shots. Even so, we've started working with Master Julian to make a string that combines metal fibers, fur, and cow sinew. We'll be able to see the results in a while," Fellin reported.

"Good. Grandmaster Fellin, Master Julian, I'm assured that the two of you are working on this. I'll be leaving the matter of the new ballista to you and I hope you'll be able to finalize its design soon enough and put it into mass production. It's already the end of the 7th month and I hope that we'll have around 3000 of these ballistas by the 10th month so that we can be better prepared to deal with the magical beast wave," Lorist said as he nodded.

"Milord, we will not disappoint you," said Fellin.

Seeing Grandmaster Fellin order his apprentices and descendants around to conduct the tests, Lorist looked around him and asked Julian, "Why isn't Grandmaster Sid here?"

Julian pointed to the waterfall and said, "Milord, ever since these water-powered hammering machines were built, Grandmaster Sid got obsessed with them. The other machines over there were actually augmented by him. Currently, he's trying to make a water-powered wire-drawing machine so that we can take advantage of the waterfall to make some tight-fitting mail armor."

Lorist laughed out loud and said, "That's great. Grandmaster Sid truly is sharp and quick-witted as seen from his ability to apply the concept to something else so quickly. Reidy, don't forget to reward him with 100 gold Fordes as well and 10 gold Fordes for each of his subordinates."

"Yes, milord."

......

After a round of rewarding his subordinates, Lorist returned to Firmrock Castle while feeling elated about the progress. Following a few days of making out with Telesti, Lorist finally thought of something important and climbed out of his love nest to instruct Reidy to summon Dulles from the carroballista unit to him.

"Milord, did I do something wrong? Why are you decreasing the number of troops in the carroballista unit?" Dulles said desperately. He was incredibly pained that the unit he had poured his sweat and blood into building was going to be downsized.

It was no wonder Dulles would react like that since Lorist had ordered that the 12 small ballistas be transferred to Els's guard division. Apart from that, only the best ballistas from those of the Whitelion Legion's would be kept with the remaining 300 plus ballistas being sold away.

To Dulles, there was no point of the carroballista unit's existence without those ballistas. He was so sad that tears formed at the corner of his eyes as if he was about to cry at any moment.

Lorist on the other hand was surprised at Dulles's overreaction and thought, what the heck is this fellow imagining?

"Dulles... Dulles!" Lorist shouted.

"Ah, milord..." Dulles said as he snapped out of his stupor and paid attention to Lorist.

"After gathering up the ballistas that are to be sold and handing them to Supervisor Spiel, begin recruiting more men. I plan to organize the carroballista unit into a full-fledged division containing five regiments in total with each regiment having 2500 soldiers equipped with 500 carroballistas within three months' time. By the 10th month, these preparations should be completed and you will then receive the new steel ballistas. I've already assigned ten plus family knights some posts within your carroballista division and the equipment for the recruits are mostly in place. Now, I only need your signature to distribute the equipment. This coming winter, the carroballista division will serve as the main force against the magical beast wave, understood? Don't screw this up, alright?"

"Mi-milord... So you're not downsizing my unit but expanding it instead?" Dulles asked, now with an incredibly bright expression on his face in stark contrast to his previous one.

"That's right, you fool. Did you understand what I just said?" Lorist asked as he looked at Dulles with annoyance.

"I-I understand, milord! I will begin work right away," Dulles said as he hurriedly rushed out of the door, before sticking his head into the doorway again to ask, "Milord, are you really going to give us so many new ballistas?"

Lorist nodded and said, "Of course I am. Additionally, these new ones are far better than the defense sentry ballistas you're using now. Otherwise, I wouldn't allow you to sell those away."

"Yahoo!" exclaimed Dulles before he rushed off again.

"That idiot..." Lorist mumbled as he shook his head and continued to browse the documents that had piled up on his table during the months of his absence.

......

During the end of the 8th month, the family dominion fared rather peacefully with one piece of good news coming after another. The potatoes that were planted during the 4th month were just harvested during the 7th month and totaled up to around 35 million kilograms, almost completely replenishing the food stores of the family. The various kinds of millet that were planted during the 5th month would also be ready for harvest on the 9th month. The weather was mostly pleasant for most part of the year, allowing for the crop to grow with abundance. Even though the area of the farmland wasn't that huge and wasn't able to accommodate the food consumption of over 500000 people within the dominion, it was still heartening news.

Other than that, the clearing out of the remaining magical beasts within Felicitas Settlement had completed during the 6th month, with more than 100000 magical beasts becoming the main source of meat for the dominion. According to some reports, magical beast meat with potatoes had already become the staple food of the people of Felicitas Settlement. However, hundreds of family soldiers had either died or gotten injured while hunting the carnivorous magical beasts. Had it not been for the numerous Gold and Silver ranked knights that were helping out, the casualties might have been even worse.

However, Lorist believed that the addition of Dulles's expanded carroballista division will further decrease the casualties of the family soldiers during the extermination of the magical beasts next year. According to Potterfang's report, apart from Josk's mounted archer unit and Pesha's female garrison unit, the other units have been temporarily disbanded so that the soldiers could help out with the construction of the defensive fortifications within the various villages and towns of the settlement.

As the chief supervisor of the mining operations within the dominion, Old Man Balk submitted the most reports and was also the one to bring most of the good news. Currently, the Bladedge Mountains' salt farms were outputting huge amounts of high quality salt. Not only did the production manage to match the consumption of the dominion folk, there was extra left over that could be exported to other areas. Additionally, the green vines within the valley had also started producing lots of green vine glue. However, most of the supply of the glue was being used by the construction operations within Felicitas Settlement. Given the developing state of the dominion, it was foreseeable that the family would require all of the supply within the next five years. They would probably have to import more to accommodate the need.

What pleased Lorist the most was the fact that the factories managed by Balk to produce daily use products for the dominion folk were incredible successes. The reports indicated that up to 50000 people were hired to work in those factories, with the beastskin processing factory having the most workers at roughly 10000 people. With the recent gain in leather and furs from the magical beast wave, the estimated production of beastskin documents that year was as high as 500000 pieces that was worth about 20000 gold Fordes. There was more than enough beastskin documents to satisfy the number required for the administration of the dominion.

When it came to managing the factories, Balk used a competitive model; he set up two of each type of factory with their own unique specialties and allowed them to compete mutually. For example, there were two pottery workshops. One of them produced bowls and plates while the other produced pots and jars, hence eliminating the possibility of monopoly by either firm.

While the daily product factories within the dominion was still young and were only run on a rather small scale, it was quite impressive for them to be able to sate the demand of more than 500000 people. By the time everything stabilized, the factories would be further developed. As long as they can come up with a product unique to them, the dominion would have yet another staple export which they could trade with other areas.

The next reports Lorist read were from the three main administrative departments of the family. Supervisor Kedan from the human resources department submitted a report that expressed his immense satisfaction for one of his managers and even recommended heartily for the manager's promotion.

Lorist smiled when he saw the name written on the report as that manager was in fact Camorra.

After Camorra was rescued from Duke Loggins's water dungeon, he refused Lorist's offer to serve as one of his aides and insisted that he wanted to live the rest of his life as a commoner. However, his talents didn't go wasted for long as he had signed up to be one of the administrative workers when he arrived at the dominion and started his career as one of the lowest ranked administrative officers. It didn't take long for Camorra to show his impeccable performance that even earned him the trust and recommendation of Kedan.

Lorist then wrote a message that authorized Kedan to promote Camorra as he saw fit. In actuality, Lorist had other plans for him. For now, he allowed Camorra to work for his subordinates. But he believed that there would be a time when he would need to rely on Camorra's abilities for something important in the future.

The last report he read was submitted by Charade. Having experienced his failures, Charade got his act back together and spared no effort in the tasks he was given. Within only half a year, he had finished the plans for Firmrock Castle's rear city, the valley city as well as the industrial city located between the Morgan Hills and Bladedge Mountains and even began construction on all the projects. The finer details of relocating the people as well as agricultural and industrial development had also been arranged perfectly.

With the industrial city being the most important equipment production hub of the dominion in the future, everyone related to the production had already been moved to where the city would be built to help out with the construction of the means of production and residences. The valley city at Firmrock Castle on the other hand was planned by Charade to be a hybrid location for agricultural and industrial production, with most of the daily life product factories being located there. Additionally, the family members of the miners working at Morgan Hills were also moved there. Coupled with up to 30000 farmers, the valley city was easily one of the most populated locations within the dominion with a combined citizen count of around 70000.

The main immigrant camp near Firmrock Castle that was packed to the brim before had only around 40000 people left who were family members of the soldiers after the various citizen relocations. The rear city that Charade had planned was to be built on the location of the camp and that project was also the one that progressed the slowest. However, more than 70000 square meters of farmland had already been developed outside the rear city. Charade's plan involved the construction of irrigation routes in the following year so that the rear city would become the main food producer for the family dominion.

......

When Tarkel entered the room, Lorist was reading a report about the mountain barbarians.

Perhaps it was due to the passing of the magical beast wave that caused large numbers of carnivorous magical beasts to be left within the dominion, the barbarians haven't trespassed the family dominion's borders for an attack for the past half year. According to the leader of the Pentasword Mercenary Crew that was stationed there, even though they did detect traces of barbarian activity within the vicinity, they deduced that they were only there to hunt. So far, no signs of any imminent barbarian attack had been discovered.

Lorist humphed softly as he recalled the time last year when the mountain barbarians mounted a large scale attack with roughly 1000 troops with the intention of taking control of the army base that controlled the area where the river could be accessed. The Pentasword Mercenary Crew lost 13 members during that assault, but the smoke signal they made summoned Josk and his mounted archer troops as well as Pajik's garrison company to the scene, causing the barbarians to incur huge losses as a result with half of their numbers culled before the rest were able to escape. Lorist hoped that the barbarians had learned their lesson and thought that he would first focus on wiping out the magical beast wave with the barbarians being next in line.

"Milord, I'm back," Tarkel greeted respectfully.

"Oh, how are things going on your side?" Lorist asked as he put down the report.

When he surveyed the Felicitas Settlement a couple of months ago, Lorist brought someone with him to inspect the isthmus that Tarkel had mentioned where the gigantic magical beasts would be trapped and left with much satisfaction. The reason Tarkel knew about that place was because he had joined Yuriy's light cavalry scouts to make a living and had traveled throughout the family dominion during his service.

"It's already completed. When winter comes, we can begin strengthening of the walls at the front lines. I promise you that once the magical beasts enter the isthmus, they will no longer be able to leave," Tarkel replied.

Lorist stood up, walked to Tarkel's side and patted on his shoulder as he said, "You did well. When the magical beast wave comes this year, we can begin our plan. Whether we succeed will determine whether we can stabilize the family dominion for further development. Tarkel, continue to work hard. When you reach the Silver rank, I will recruit you into the ranks of the Norton Family knights."

"Yes, milord. Thank you for giving me this opportunity," Tarkel said.

Chapter 180 Count Kenmays's Visit

"Milord, Count Kenmays is here," Reidy reminded as he walked into the room.

"Alright, I'll go receive him," Lorist said as he stood up and headed towards the main gates of the castle.

Count Kenmays had brought around 100 men with him on his excursion to Firmrock Castle this time around with him being seated in an extravagantly-decorated carriage, much unlike half a year back when he only came with ten plus attendants.

It is worth noting that while Lorist was busy settling down the 500000 citizens within the dominion and making all those development plans, the Kenmays Family didn't slack off either. They had also made a plan to develop the eastern Northlands. Ten plus other noble families had also been drawn into the plan whether they agreed or not, with the 7 who had resisted exterminated and the rest who knew what was better for them or didn't have the ability to rebel signing the agreement to cooperate with the plan that effectively handed their territory for the Kenmays Family to manage while they only had to wait for the profit to roll in to support their lavish lifestyle.

To summarize, the Kenmays Family had taken full control of the eastern Northlands, causing even the Second Prince to be unable to do anything about it apart from accepting the reality of the situation, however unwilling he was to do so. Additionally, by pressuring the Second Prince with their wealth, the Kenmays Family got elevated from the status of a viscount to a count by the Second Prince during the noble gathering that had occurred during the 5th month with the reason of that promotion being their contribution to improve the connectivity of the Northlands to the outside world by building the metal suspension bridge. Naturally, with the promotion in rank, the Kenmays Family officially gained control of Count Lopez's dominion as well, thus completing the grasp of control of the Kenmayses on the eastern Northlands.

The radiant Count Kenmays was the first one to get off the carriage, followed by two extravagantly dressed female attendants. The Norton Family's policy of not providing their guests with women to warm their beds caused the count to have to spend 3 lonely nights during his former visit. This time, he had learned his lesson and brought his own female attendants along.

Lorist stepped forward and casually greeted the count. "Hey, why have you come here this time? Based on what I see, you plan to stay here for long?"

Already used to Lorist's antics and noticing Lorist staring at his attendants, Count Kenmays said, "Oh? You're interested in them? Do you want me to present one of them to you as a gift? Tell you what, they have received professional training in the finer arts of pleasure and can absolutely bring you to paradise when you're in bed..."

"Nope, not interested," Lorist said as he turned away from the women. "I was just a little curious... Can your body really handle those two? How long have they tended to you? Why haven't you been sucked dry of your vitality yet?"

The matters of sexuality was a soft spot for all men, Count Kenmays included. Putting his hands to his hips, he said, "Hmph, my body is far tougher than you think. Don't get the wrong impression just because those two look like small little kittens. I can easily do them two to three times in a single night."

"Yeah, boast all you can. Let's go have a real chat in my study," Lorist said as he smirked before he led them inside.

Lorist himself found the relationship between his family and the Kenmayses to be rather weird. Even though they had made peace between one another, the Kenmays Family no doubt lost quite a bit from their interactions with the Norton Family and they should secretly feel hateful of that. And given that the Norton Family profited quite a bit off the Kenmayses, they should also be rather vary of them. The two families should only be friendly on the surface. However, the more Lorist interacted with Count Kenmays, the better friends they became, to the point that they were able to tell one another anything down to the most private matters. Lorist felt that there was no way he could truly hate the count even if their families were to be on hostile terms.

"Every time I walk into here, I feel like I've entered a bandit's lair. Heck, even this castle was taken from me by force," Count Kenmays said as he started to bring up the matters of old.

"Let me state clearly once again that this castle was built within Norton Family grounds. I've only chased away a bunch of bandits who tried to occupy my land and taken control of their lair," Lorist said.

"Fine, this castle was indeed constructed on the lands of the Nortons," Count Kenmays conceded. "But you have to admit that the manpower, resources, funds and the designer of the castle himself were taken from my family, right? Poor old Grandmaster Ciroba... Even now, we don't know his whereabouts."

"Let me warn you upfront, just state what you came here for and don't even think of trying to weasel the location of Grandmaster Ciroba from me. There's no way I will restore his freedom until he has served the family for ten years as penance. He's also incredibly busy on many things right now, so if your family wants a castle to be built, you should look for another designer," Lorist said as he exposed the count's intentions right away.

Count Kenmays shrugged his shoulders and said, "Well, personally, I couldn't care less about what the grandmaster is doing right now. However, my old chap back at home wanted me to try to get some information about him and ask you whether we can pay his ransom to have him back at our dominion to help us build some castles. Since you've been so clear about your intentions, I'll give up on it. It's not that I didn't try, I wouldn't have been able to do anything about this anyway."

"Pffft!" Lorist couldn't control his laughter. "Fine. Just tell me what you're up to by traveling so extravagantly with so many people."

"Where else would I go but Gildusk City?" Count Kenmays said as he took out a large bottle of wine from a corner of the study. "Huh, just look. One bottle of fine wine after another. And you said you weren't a bandit... Which one of these were bought by you with your own money? Didn't you get them all from robbery? The wine aside, look at the sofa you're sitting on. This is a prized item of the Mijis Royal Family which Duke Loggins spent more than 1000 gold Fordes to obtain back then at the Royal Capital of Windbury City. Within but a few years, it has already made its way to your study without you having to spend even a single coin on it..."

"If you shut up about the bandit thing, I'll let you take two bottles of wine back with you," Lorist said.

"Really?" exclaimed the count happily.

Lorist merely nodded.

"Fine, I won't mention it from this moment onward," said Count Kenmays as he started to pick the wine from the rack.

"I'm still curious why you're setting out even though it's the 11th month already. Don't tell me you don't plan to stay within your dominion to spend the winter?" Lorist asked.

"Haha, brother, nobles don't 'spend winter' cooped up within their homes. Only commoners do that because they don't have enough food and clothing to endure the cold weather. Nobles like us have to continue living our luxurious lives regardless of the seasons by holding banquets which span night after night, attending balls to recite poems and invite the beautiful and gentle noble ladies to a dance and even have a secret rendezvous with one of them during the cold winter night to get to know each other more 'deeply', if you know what I mean. That's how nobles like us should spend winter...

"And you, my friend, shouldn't be cooped up within this cold and lonely castle of yours. You should come out to see the city. The Second Prince will be holding a grand event during the winter there and all nobles of the Northlands are invited to attend. By that time, the city will no doubt be incredibly merry with beauties all over the place and that's not an opportunity you should miss. If you attend, I bet the Second Prince would be happy as well. He's been wanting to meet the terrifying Raging Bear that shocked the whole of the Northlands," Count Kenmays said as he tried hard to convince Lorist to join him for the festivities in Gildusk City.

"I'm not interested in attending pointless events like that. I'm also really busy during winter, so I don't have time to play games with the rest of you. Also, you don't have to be too courteous to the Second Prince on my behalf. I have a feeling that he doesn't have good intentions about the Norton Family. So, I am very straightforward in my attitude towards him: no matter what he desires from me, I will refuse it. If he asks why I didn't attend the festivities, just tell him that it's because I'm still bearing a grudge for the fact that he abandoned the family after the deat of my elder brother who had served him and tell him that the Norton Family has drawn a clear line to not want to be involved with him any further," Lorist said calmly.

"Whoa, you're really going all out to sever relations with the Second Prince, huh. I really think that there's no need for you to go that far. As long as you be polite on the surface, you will be fine. And if the Second Prince has any unreasonable requests, you can just pretend to be really bothered by it and refuse. As long as you have power, the Second Prince can't do much about you but endure silently," Count Kenmays said as he objected to Lorist's course of action.

"That's far too troublesome. It's better if I let him choose outright whether he wants to be the enemy or ally of the Norton Family. Either way, the Norton Family will always continue the tradition of our ancestors to defend the borders of the empire and will not be interested in the petty power struggles of others. As long as others don't mess with us, it's fine," Lorist said.

"Sigh, your family truly is one of a kind. It's currently a time of chaos where heroes have the opportunity to shine. Doesn't your family have the slightest ambition?" Count Kenmays said as he looked at Lorist.

Lorist shook his head and replied, "No, we don't. The primary objective of the family is to establish a peaceful and stable life for our citizens within the Northlands. We don't have the slightest desire to fight for supremacy and territory and it's not something a small family like us can afford to involve ourselves in. If things don't go well, our family will only head to ruin. I only wish to propagate the glory and honor of the family as that is my main duty as the head of the family. However, your Kenmays Family has deep roots as one of the largest construction merchant families in the old empire. I'm sure you'll have something to gain from all this."

"Haha, you really praise us too much. Our Kenmays Family definitely isn't as sophisticated and deep-rooted as the Norton Family is. To be honest with you, I only wish to stand with the victor. Right now, I'm still deliberating who to side with," said Count Kenmays as he laughed.

Lorist laughed out as well and said, "If you have a good candidate, don't forget to tell me about it. After all, good things must be shared, right? Alright, let's not talk about pointless things like this. Since you've stopped here on your way to Gildusk City, you must have a reason for doing so. Tell it to me right away."

"Well, the Second Prince did ask me to invite you to Gildusk City, but you've already refused it. The other reason I came was to notify you about the green glass and oil glass you ordered, which will be arriving in another half month. My father also asked whether you need any green vine glue. We can sell you 50000 buckets for a low price and if you're lacking in funds, you can trade some metal armor with us for it. We'll definitely give you a great rate for the armor," said Count Kenmays seriously.

Lorist thought solemnly before laughing out loud and saying, "So your family is after my metal armor... How many do you need?"

Count Kenmays lifted three fingers.

"Three thousand? No problem," Lorist said.

"What? No. I want 30000 sets," Count Kenmays corrected.

"Huh? 30000? Putting aside whether you can afford that many, what would you do with all that?" Lorist asked curiously. Even if he sold one set of metal armor at 40 gold Fordes, 30000 would cost more than 1 million gold Fordes. Did the Kenmays Family intend to bankrupt themselves?

Count Kenmays took a deep breath before saying, "I have no choice, friend. My family wouldn't do that either if we had a choice. One of the biggest gains of our family's conquest of the eastern Northlands was a gold mine. Before this, the smaller noble families mined the gold there privately and we've taken over and started proper mining operations. Each year's output is estimated to be around 20000 plus gold Fordes' worth. That's why, you don't have to worry about us not paying back. You can even send someone to audit the mine if you wish."

After a short pause, the count continued, "Do you know how much wealth the Second Prince has siphoned from our family? 120000 gold Fordes. We paid that price so that we would be able to rule over the dominion of Count Lopez legally as well as get promoted to the rank of a count. I've also received reliable intel that the Second Prince intends to form the First Army of the Iblia Kingdom at Duke Loggins's dominion that will number around 56000 soldiers. To avoid being pressured by the Second Prince into giving him more money when the time comes, my family has also decided to form a force numbering 30000 soldiers to make sure that the eastern Northlands will be free from the Second Prince's influence."

Count Kenmays laughed bitterly and said, "The time of war has come and without our own army to rely on, there's no way that our family will be able to survive. The moment the Second Prince makes his move, the eastern Northlands will face assault from both sides. You should know that the iron suspension bridge built by my family is linked to the Wild Husbandry Province that is controlled by Duke Fisablen. In other words, we have also gained another potential enemy as a consequence of building the bridge.

"That's why my family has decided to spare no effort in forming a reliable force and equip it as well as we can regardless of the price so that we can ensure the survival of our family. However, I'm sure you know that the only two iron refineries within the Iblia Kingdom is controlled by the Second Prince, so it's very hard for the equipment that is produced there to make their way into the hands of noble families like us. The Northlands lack metal the most and only you can supply our force with decent equipment right now. No matter what, I really need your help this time, please," pleaded Count Kenmays before he bowed to Lorist sincerely.

Lorist stroked his chin in deep thought for a moment before he said, "I agree to sell your family 30000 sets of armor and weapons. You can negotiate with Knight Charade about the price. You can also use food and other resources to trade for the equipment as well. Also, I can provide around 100 units of military grade ballistas produced in the former empire if you require it."

......

Count Kenmays stayed at Firmrock Castle for five whole days, with each day being round after round of sharp-tongued bargaining with Charade. In the end, the total price was settled at 1.8 million gold Fordes. The agreement stated that the Norton Family must provide the Kenmays Family with 33000 sets of metal armor and weapons including 143 military grade ballistas. The Kenmays Family would pay the Norton Family 500000 gold Fordes in cash with the outstanding balance being paid with food and other resources of equal value. After signing the agreement, Count Kenmays left with his attendants and resumed his journey to Gildusk City.

After sending the count off, Charade let out a breath of relief and said, "Half of the metal armor and weapons of the northbound convoy has already been sold out. It would be great if there's another person who wants to buy them all up. Now that we have the equipment of the Whitelion Legion, the old metal armor is taking up space unnecessarily. We even thought of smelting it down for the metal to be used in other places..."

Lorist laughed out loud as he said, "Don't worry. I'm sure that business will boom after this year passes. Count Kenmays said that the Second Prince plans to form an army of 56000 soldiers next year within the duke's dominion. To ensure their own survival, the various noble families within the Northlands will definitely be desperate to arm themselves so that they don't end up as free lunch on the Second Prince's plate."

Chapter 181 Facing the Magical Beast Wave Again

"Steady... Don't panic. The magical bull herd is incoming. Aim for the ones at the very front and lure them here. Alright, fire!" Lorist said as he flung his hand forward. The three steel ballistas let out three thunderous twangs as the bolts were fired across a distance of 300 meters, piercing deep into their targets' bodies.

Blood splattered all over as the deathly cries of the bulls echoed throughout the gorge. The magical beast wave seemed to have stopped in its tracks all of a sudden as the other bulls around the two collapsed ones looked around to seek out their enemy.

"Reload and keep firing."

After the second volley was shot out, the confused bulls finally noticed that the bolts had flown over from the top of a cliff nearby.

Loud grunts could be heard as the herd of magical bulls rushed towards the cliff with breakneck speed. In a few moments, the originally snow-covered surface of the hill slope had been run over by multitudes of stampeding bulls.

However, the bulls later noticed that the cliff they climbed up was not where the bolts had been fired from. Instead, the cliff where their attackers were was further down the other section of the mountains. Also, it wasn't actually a rock cliff but rather a huge wooden rectangular structure. By that time, the bulls which had low intelligence soon forgot about the 'ants' that had attacked them from the top of the rectangular structure and instead had their attention captured by a bright red cloth that was hung at the top of the wooden structure.

The stark contrast between the crimson cloth and the white snow-covered land instantly captured the attention of all the bulls there.

Angry moos and grunts soon erupted and echoed throughout the mountains. Anyone with common knowledge of bulls knew that they should never be shown the color red as that would cause them to go berserk and rampage around until they obliterate the red cloth altogether.

The bulls on top of the slope started to move. Lowering their heads and positioning their razor-sharp horns, they rushed straight towards the red cloth. However, not one of the bulls realized that the closer they were to the cloth, the steeper the slope got. By the time the bulls reached the ground, they were 2 meters beneath the red cloth they had loathed so deeply.

Some bulls at the front then raised their heads and realized that there was another red cloth not far ahead seemingly there to welcome their arrival. Needless to say, the bulls rushed towards it with abandon with their heads lowered.

That was how roughly 30000 magical bulls were lured to part with the magical beast wave. Upon being teased by red cloths, they lost all sense and rushed straight down the steep slope. By the time the ones at the front regained any semblance of 'reason', there was no way they would be able to make their way back up the steep slope. There was a tall 7 meter snow wall in both directions that completely blocked off their way. And there was no way for the other bulls that were still rushing down from the slope to head back up either as the other bulls behind that were not aware of the situation merely went with the flow and pushed downwards the slope.

When they all snapped out of their frenzied rage, the bulls realized that they were within a gorge that was bordered by tall cliffs in all directions. Those bulls still didn't know that they had fallen into a trap and continued rushing for tens of kilometers before stopping to rest and graze at the algae on the ground to replenish their energy. Thus, the group of magical bulls dispersed into smaller groups and headed their own ways within the gorge with some occasionally stopping to graze at the algae beneath the snow.

This was the Crewe Circular Gorge which was located within the Norton Family dominion. The whole gorge was shaped as if a child had dug a circular ring deep into the ground. While there were a few gaps that could be used to leave the gorge, those very gaps would spell the end of the magical bulls.

A few of the magical bulls headed towards the gaps and finally managed to step onto higher ground. However, what greeted them there were loud twangs of ballistas firing. Within a flash, the bulls were hit squarely by the bolts and killed within an instant.

"Quick, move those carcasses away. More bulls are coming from behind. Get ready!" said Dulles energetically as he ordered his carroballista division to proceed. This gorge was his battlefield, and the magical bulls, his enemy.

A few of the family soldiers stepped forward quickly and tied up the dead bulls in a practiced manner before they gave a signal to prompt the horses tied to the rope to move forward and haul the bulls away to an empty spot not far away. The carcasses that weighed hundreds of kilograms were rather easy to move as the the snow-covered ground decreased the overall friction. After being left at the empty spot, the carcasses of the bulls quickly froze over in the cold weather and would be dealt with at a later time.

A loud boom resounded as the rectangular structure shook, causing snow to slip all over the place. That green-eyed wild bull that rammed into the structure shook its head furiously and paced about in circles as it was a little disorientated from the collision. Regaining its balance, the bull retreated a few steps and readied itself for another charge.

"Good Sol!" Lorist exclaimed as he took control of one of the steel ballistas to aim at the bull. In the end, the green-eyed bull died from a ballista bolt just before it managed to ram into the structure again.

Lorist and the rest were on top of a rectangular structure that was 12 meters wide and 8 meters tall. To avoid letting the bulls ram at the base of the structure, Lorist intentionally decreased the amount of red cloth at the bottom of the structure so that the bulls would be lured to pass through the middle of the two pillars at the side which were the foundations of the structure.

However, somehow, that particular green-eyed bull fixated itself on the left pillar and began to ram into it time and again. The only option available to Lorist and gang was to shoot it dead on the spot. Otherwise, things would've turned out far worse if the structure had collapsed from the bull's incessant ramming. It was fortunate that the ballista fired by Lorist didn't attract the attention of the other bulls that were running towards the red cloth and passing beneath the rectangular structure.

"When this group of green-eyed bulls pass below us, pile up some snow around the pillars and splash some water onto it. We have to better secure the stability of the structure by letting it freeze over so that the frightening situation from before doesn't happen again," Lorist said.

"I think so too," Els said as he leaned on the wall nearby.

To deal with the magical beast wave this year, Lorist had mobilized almost all the forces available to him within the family dominion.

First, Lorist had made preparations to divert the larger herbivorous magical beasts away from the main group such as the various types of magical bulls into the Crewe Circular Gorge. That way, the rest of the magical goats, horses, etc. would be easier to deal with.

Lorist wasn't over ambitious about his plans either. If there was around 1 million magical beasts in the wave this winter, he only hoped that half would remain behind so he could deal with them when spring came at Felicitas Settlement. That way, only 300000 to 400000 beasts would be able to return to the wilderness. Lorist believed that if they repeated this process for a couple of years in succession, they would be able to thin the numbers of the beasts so much that the beast march will no longer occur and cease to be a threat.

To achieve his goals, he ensured that his family knights and soldiers had received proper training. The defensive structures at the second to seventh sectors of the settlement had also been built up properly. Additionally, the second to sixth sectors which would be the first to be engulfed in the beast wave each had a Gold ranked knight stationed at their respective central towns. The towns would also let the weaker magical beasts into the city periodically, effectively turning the winter into a crazed festival of in-town beast hunting.

As for the seventh sector where Wildnorth Town was located, it would not be visited by the magical beast wave, so there was no need to pay extra caution to the preparations there.

As for the sixth sector's central town, Beastguard Town, which was named by Lorist himself, chief Gold ranked knight Potterfang was stationed over there to defend it.

The central town of the fifth sector that was still unnamed was guarded by Gold ranked knight Fiercetiger Loze.

As for the central town of the fourth sector which was also nameless, it was guarded by the silver-haired Belnick.

The third sector's central town was guarded by Gold ranked mercenary Chino Freiyar.

And finally, the second sector's central town was guarded by the Gold ranked knight which had just broken through recently, former Whitelion Legion officer Iron-faced Mons Malek. After the convoy arrived at the Northlands, he was given a vacation by Lorist to focus on his Battle Force training. After one year of hard work, he finally broke through to the Gold rank and became the sixth Gold ranked knight under Lorist's command.

By the time everything was in place, everyone awaited the coming of the magical beast wave with full confidence and anticipation. As for Divine Marksman Josk, he followed Lorist and Els, the head of the guard division, to camp at a small mountainside. They carried out the most difficult part of the whole plan there, which was to lure the magical bulls away from the main wave into the Crewe Circular Gorge.

"This should be the third group to enter the gorge, right? How many bulls are there roughly?" Patt asked.

"There should be around 60000 of them, at least that's what I can see," Els replied.

Lorist said, "That should be about right. After this group enters the gorge, we'll head over to the camp over there for some rest. Have Josk bring someone to replace us for our shifts. Also, don't forget to have someone move the dead bull over there back to the camp. I feel like having some fresh meat after two days of eating nothing but dried food up here."

"Alright, milord."

A temporary camp was set up at a small hill not far away from the slope where the rectangular structure was built. There was a waterfall over there which was the main reason it was chosen to be the campsite as water could be easily obtained there. However, when Lorist and the rest arrived at the camp, a heated battle was occurring. Around 100 winter wolves were surrounding and attacking the camp. Even so, under the fire of Josk's bow as well as four steel ballistas, the wolves didn't fare any better either. Many carcasses of wolves were littered all around the camp.

The temporary camp didn't span a huge area and it was surrounded only by a wooden fence that was five meters tall. At four corners of the camp were four lookout towers which were each equipped with a steel ballista.

Josk laughed bitterly and said, "Milord, it seems that we've neglected to weed out the carnivorous magical beasts around the area. It's fortunate that only a hundred plus wolves attacked us this time. We would've fared much worse if there was more than a thousand."

Within the camp lived around 100 elites of the guard division along with Josk, Els, Patt and Jim. In the coming days, the snowfall was rather heavy, so Lorist instructed his men to construct another 5-meter-tall snow wall surrounding the camp which was completed within three days. After solidifying the walls using the water splashing technique, Lorist led the rest up the other slope and began to lure more beasts away from the main wave again.

Within the span of a little over ten days, Lorist and Josk alternated their shifts and managed to lead 7 groups of huge magical bulls into the gorge. They now numbered around 100000 and the main wave seemed to have passed the area already. The only beasts that remained were the carnivorous ones. Following that, Lorist and the rest were held back at the camp for 7 days as they defended the camp against a few waves of attacks by magical wolves and panthers. Only after having their numbers culled substantially did the carnivorous beasts cease their attacks on the camp, allowing Lorist and his group to finally leave the camp and head to the gorge.

By that time, the gorge had already turned into a huge bull slaughtering center. The bulls that found their way to the gaps at the gorge numbered thousands daily as opposed to the hundreds in the beginning. The carroballista division commanded by Dulles set up multiple defense lines outside the gaps and fired whenever any bull made its way through them. The moment when each bull struggled to regain balance after stepping out of the gap, the ballistas were fired and that bull would fall dead to the ground. The process then repeated as one bull after another squeezed out of the gaps.

The carcasses had already piled up so high that it started to seem like a small hill that was roughly seven to eight storeys high, thus establishing the need for more piles to build up at the empty lot. Dulles had already sent Firmrock Castle an urgent request for an additional thousand plus people and horses to move the carcasses of the bulls away to make more space.

The land around the gorge had long been stained crimson from the blood of the dead bulls. Even so, with the constant influx of bulls into the gorge day after day, the algae within started to run out and some bulls which weren't able to find any were forced to find a way out of the gorge. Some of them even turned back and wanted to leave from the way they came.

While Dulles's whole unit had 2500 ballistas in total, only 400 were situated at the gaps. Lorist had arranged for another 1800 plus ballistas to be placed at both sides of the road which the bulls used to enter the gorge. As a result, the bulls that attempted to exit the gorge through the way they came were completely lacerated by the ballista bolt storm. The carcasses of the bulls only continued to stack up, with their leaking blood forming a small river that flowed downhill.

During the whole winter season, Dulles's newly-expanded carroballista unit had spent the whole time killing bulls at the Crewe Circular Gorge. Within two months time, they had finally exterminated around 170000 of those magical bulls. Everyone in the unit was completely worn out with over a thousand steel ballistas going out of order from overuse.

By the time the last group of bulls collapsed dead on the spot after being shot when they made their way out of the gaps, Dulles, who was seated on a carriage and operating the ballista on it said to Lorist, "Milord, I don't think I want to shoot a bull ever again for the rest of my life. I already feel a little sick after looking at these bulls."

With the coming of spring and the departure of the magical beast wave, one piece of good news came after another. Firstly, the sixth sector's central town, Beastguard Town, was one of the first areas to face the magical beast wave. Thanks to Lorist and the rest's efforts to redirect most of the bulls from the magical beast wave, Potterfang managed to open the town gates more than ten times to let in around 200000 weaker magical goats and deers, causing Beastguard Town to be the town that profited the most from the magical beast wave. Following that, they made large amounts of goat rib traps and managed to get a haul of thousands of carnivorous beasts.

Following that, the fifth to second sectors' central towns also had huge hauls. Most of the herbivorous magical beasts had already been wiped out by them with only less than 300000 of the original million plus magical beasts returning to the wilderness.

Incredibly delighted by the results, Lorist predicted that the magical beast wave would be completely wiped out within another two years. By then, he can finally begin to develop the farmland without any worries.

Patting Dulles on the shoulder, Lorist said, "Alright, let's head out now. Josk's mounted archer division will escort your carroballista division to wipe out the magical beasts that remained within Felicitas Settlement. Fiercetiger Loze's heavy-armored cavalry troops are already waiting for your arrival at the third sector. While there might be some bulls within the settlement, most of the beasts there will be carnivorous ones, so you have to watch out for your own safety. When you return from your mission, I promise that you will have new ballistas waiting to replace your broken ones."

"Yes, milord," Dulles said as he saluted.

Chapter 182 Military Reorganization

Lorist said, "As long as we come up with adequate countermeasures, the magical beast wave will no longer pose a threat to us."

"I think that the magical beast wave brings some advantages to us too. At the very least, they provide lots of fresh meat. Burp. Apologies, I've had a little too much mutton," said Potterfang.

"I want some vegetables... Even potatoes would do... Don't feed me any more beef... I've been eating beef and drinking beef soup for two whole months now and I already feel like puking the moment I smell it," Els complained.

"I agree with Els, I want some potatoes too," Patt said.

"Haha, the magical beasts didn't even stand a chance against the carroballista division!" exclaimed Dulles excitedly.

Josk said, "I think that the ballista milord designed changed our situation entirely. We wouldn't have been able to defeat the beasts with only courage and passion and no good equipment."

"The creation of the steel ballistas did in fact prepare us well for the coming of the magical beast wave. This truly is a mighty revolution in the field of ballistics. After that, we will start working on more improvements on the current ballistas. Our goals for now are to increase the firing distance, firing rate, accuracy, and strength of the shots," said Grandmaster Fellin.

"I suggest that the ones who contributed a lot to the resistance against the beasts be rewarded 50 kilograms of magical bull meat. What do you guys think?" Charade said.

"The quality of the skin of the bulls are great for making leather products as long as we dry and preserve them well. The skins of lower quality can also be made into beastskins. Additionally, the meat can be dried and preserved or made into sausages. As for the bones, we can use them as soup stock and even burn them to ash to be used as fertilizer. We must use all we can with as little wastage as possible. However, it definitely will be a little hard to clear up so many bull carcasses. Milord, can you please send a few thousand more family soldiers to help out? It's not possible for the current workforce of over 10000 men to deal with all those carcasses within a month..."

Due to the sheer amount of beasts they had killed, Lorist mobilized near 100000 men within the dominion and managed to take care of the matters before the 5th month.

......

On the 10th day of the 5th month, Lorist organized the first meeting of the year at Firmrock Castle with the family knights and officers of the dominion. Like the previous year, Charade was in charge of giving a summarized report about the happenings within the dominion.

"The magical beast wave that came during the winter brought us countless amounts of furs and leather as well as near 15 million kilograms of bull and goat meat. It can be said that the dominion will no longer have any problems with food for the next three years. The most encouraging piece of news is still the fact that the magical beasts will no longer pose any threat to us and will instead be an opportunity for us to gain big hauls."

Everyone applauded as they regained the hope of settling down in a harsh and desolate place like the Northlands based on the harvests and hauls in recent times.

"After enduring a year of hardship, the construction of the defensive facilities at the towns and villages of Felicitas Settlement is finally completed. That's one of the main reasons we were able to survive the magical beast wave. This year, our focus will be on building more roads to make the villages and central towns more interconnected as well as building proper residences so that the people at the settlement can live within warm and safe homes. Not only is this the promise of our lord, it is also his way of rewarding the hard-working citizens who had accompanied the convoy to the dominion despite the things we suffered on the way.

"Other than that, we will also form several departments for the seven sectors of Felicitas Settlement. Each department will have to maintain and improve the living standards of the sector they are put in charge of and contribute to the family in the coming year.

"Even though last year was a tough year, it was also a plentiful one. The factories and workshops set up within the dominion has also made us self-sufficient. I believe that the Norton Family's future will shine under milord's leadership!"

The room once again erupted with applause, ending the meeting on a grand note.

After the meeting, Lorist had six Gold ranked knights and Charade, Yuriy, Terman and a few other knights stay back for another meeting focused on military reorganization matters.

The military distribution of the various powers on Grindia were mainly organized as armies. Each army would have multiple divisions with each division containing a few regiments. A regiment on the other hand would contain a few companies which in turn was made out of a few squads. The various units would also be classified according to the types of soldiers within, such as a longbow regiment, a heavy-armored company and a pike infantry squad, etc.

A squad usually consisted of 80 to 150 people and the squad leader was the most basic commanding officer who was aided by a few vice squad leaders who would each be put in charge of tens of other soldiers.

Lorist was quite dissatisfied with this arrangement as whenever a squad leader and his aides fell on the battlefield, the whole squad would fall into disorder. However, Lorist did not want to overhaul the organization completely and instead divide each squad into smaller teams.

As a solution to that, Lorist devised a new, more discrete organizational structure with ten people for one squad of mixed types of soldiers unlike the former structure which had soldiers of the same training and equipment in the same unit. Each squad would have sword and shield infantry, pikemen and longbowmen so they can better adapt during times of battle.

Lorist hoped that his troops would one day be able to form the 'mandarin duck formation' of the 'Qi Family Troops' he had heard of from his previous life. Even though he wasn't too well-versed in the military tactics of old and didn't understand the specifics, he felt that he could slowly experiment around with trial and error until he found the perfect balance. In the era of cold arms, only with coordination and tactics can a unit be effective in combat as well as survive the chaotic situation of the battlefield.

Potterfang and the other family knights on the other hand felt that Lorist was trying to incorporate the tactics of smaller mercenary groups into the family forces, which was not a completely foreign thing to them. It was a known fact that a small group of elite mercenaries were more effective and versatile than huge numbers of family soldiers.

Above the newly-revamped squads of ten men were companies. Each company would include ten squads, totaling at a member count of 100. Five companies would form a battalion of 500 men and five combat battalions and one logistics battalion would form a brigade of 3000 men. Lorist made it so that a brigade would be a singular, full-functioning unit capable of acting independently.

WIth the aim of completely reorganizing the military of the family, Lorist first disbanded the three garrison divisions. Each of the 80 plus villages within Felicitas Settlement would have a company of garrison soldiers of 100 men formed and each of the central towns of the seven sectors in addition to the industrial city at Bladedge Mountains would have a garrison battalion of 500 men stationed there. Similarly, Maplewoods Bastide and Firmrock Castle each had a battalion of 500 garrison troops stationed there.

These garrison troops were mainly responsible for the security and stability of the towns and the areas surrounding it. The task of restructuring the garrison force was handed to Gold ranked knight Freiyar to be completed within the year.

Lorist then ordered Gold ranked knight Malek to form a patrol company of 100 men at each town that will be responsible for solving civil disputes, maintaining order as well as hygiene of the towns. The members of these patrol companies would be picked from the ranks of the retired family soldiers and the disbanded garrison troops.

Following that, Lorist turned his 'scalpel of reorganization' to Potterfang and Loze's heavy-armored division and requested them to reform their organizational structure into 2 brigades, each numbering 3000 men. The ones to be picked for the brigades must be of Iron ranked Battle Force at the very least ranging from the age of 20 to 25. As for the officers, they can be as old as 35. Lorist stressed that he didn't want to focus on quantity but rather quality.

Dulles's carroballista division was also restructured by Lorist into three brigades of 9000 men. The steel ballistas had replaced the longbow troops as the main ranged attacking force of the family and Lorist didn't intend to change that.

Yuriy's three regiments of light cavalry scouts was changed into a brigade of 3000 men. Apart from the ones who were disqualified based on their age or Battle Force rank, the men who were not included into the light cavalry scouts brigade formed companies of 100 men and were absorbed into the logistics battalions of various other brigades. Lorist felt that every logistics battalion should have one light cavalry scout company, one heavy-armored infantry company, one logistics company as well as two cargo guard companies. Only by having 500 men supporting the main force of 2500 men within a brigade could it function independently.

Josk's mounted archer unit however wasn't affected by the changes. Lorist was already working with Grandmaster Fellin to work on a new riding bow that would eventually replace the longbows used by the mounted archers. Even so, the prototypes so far still weren't able to emulate the strength of the longbow. It was apparent that a proper replacement would only come at a later date.

Terman's knight brigade wasn't touched either, but Lorist still had it reorganized into a brigade of 3000 men according to his new standards, causing Terman to have to recruit a few hundred others to fill in the extra vacancies.

The guard division led by Els on the other hand underwent a huge overhaul. Originally, the division numbered around 5000 soldiers and their duties, according to Els, were all over the place. Some were in charge of escorting the convoy, others were guarding the mines and factories with some even monitoring the laborers. Additionally, Lorist's personal guard was also part of Els's guard division. They were basically something like duct tape, which was used to patch up all sorts of smaller problems.

The guard division was split into two in the end and the first would cease all their activities and only answer to Lorist and Els's orders. The newly-formed guard brigade would take over the duties of securing the warehouses, refineries and other jobs. Lorist also planned to have the other soldiers who were removed from their respective units as a result of the reorganization to join together and form a second guard brigade which would be in charge of monitoring the 30000 plus laborers.

Apart from that, the former-bandit Ovidis's defense company was revamped into the first local defense brigade that would defend Firmrock Castle. Knight Pajik on the other hand was tasked with forming the second local defense brigade to defend Maplewoods Bastide.

Pointing at the map, Lorist said that he wanted to build a new citadel at Hidebull Mound where the mounted archers were stationed so that the two other citadels at the border of the dominion and the Magical Dragon Mountains could be better provided with support. Additionally, it was a strategic location with the river valley and two citadels to its east, the Blackmud Marsh to its north, and the Poplar Coast to its west. As long as Hidebull Mound could be occupied, even if the two mountain citadels were to be taken over, the barbarians still wouldn't be able to launch an attack on the dominion. Also, the magical beast wave had to pass through that area, meaning that attacks could be launched from there if their numbers were small to wipe them out before they even set foot into the Felicitas Settlement.

While the family did plan to build a citadel at that location, it lacked the manpower and funds at that time and was also bogged down by the troublesome folk of Wildnorth Town. The citadel constructed at Hidebull Mound had to be huge; small ones wouldn't be that reliable and sufficient for the purposes of the family. Now that the family had stable foundations and additional resources, the project could be realized and Knight Pajik's second local defense brigade would be able to guard it to ensure the safety of the family dominion.

Finally came Pesha's female garrison unit. They performed exceedingly well during the past two magical beast extermination operations at Felicitas Settlement. Lorist allowed Pesha to expand her unit to 3000 women but also requested her to have her subordinates be well-versed in first aid and medicinal skills so that they can also play the role of a medic unit on the battlefield.

As for the medic squad of the northbound convoy, Lorist disbanded it and tasked Lundmorde to set up medical centers within the various towns and distribute the medics around to manage the centers and tend to the sick and injured.

Lundmorde himself was given two choices. Either he takes up his post as the manager of the medical center at Firmrock Castle or he becomes a medical instructor for the female unit.

Needless to say, Lundmorde happily chose the latter went to report to Pesha for his new post.

Potterfang asked, "Milord, since our forces will mainly be using brigades as the largest unit, we won't have legions and divisions in the future, right?"

Lorist laughed out and said, "How can that be? So far, the military trend right now is for legions to be formed. Even the Kenmays Family formed a legion of 30000 soldiers, not to mention the Second Prince's Iblia Kingdom's First Legion that he recently formed with around 56000 soldiers. My plan is for five brigades of 15000 men be put under a division, with five divisions of 75000 men forming a legion. So far, the point of the reorganization is to cement this new structure into our forces so that future expansions will be much more convenient."

"I see, so that is what you have planned. I understand now. I will definitely train an elite troop of soldiers for the family according to your orders, so please rest assured," Potterfang said.

"But milord, why didn't you give me any tasks?" Belnick asked as he stood up.

"Calm down, I was just going to get to that," Lorist said as he waved his hand. "I plan to set up a new recruit brigade at Maplewoods Bastide for those aged between 20 to 25 with Battle Force beneath the Iron rank. There, they will continue to train until they meet the conditions to join the other units of our forces. In the future, we no longer have to recruit soldiers from our citizens. The men we need can be sourced from this brigade.

"Other than that, every male citizen below the age of 18 will be required to join the recruit brigade to accept training to awaken their Battle Force. This will be optional for female citizens of the same age range. Each course will last three months and those who haven't awakened their Battle Force can attend these courses three times in succession. In the future, the candidates for recruitment will be chosen from these people who pass the course. The main force of the family will be required to have at least Iron ranked Battle Force with the garrison troops having the Bronze rank as the base requirement. When we have enough soldiers in each unit, we can begin expanding. I will leave this recruit brigade for you to manage, Brother Beck."

"Yes, milord," Belnick said as he saluted.

......

Not including the garrison troops of the villages and towns, the family forces had a total of 16 brigades with almost 50000 troops in total. To Lorist, that was only barely satisfactory with the ratio of soldiers to citizens at around 1 to 10, and even then, that ratio was obtained by including the garrison and patrol troops as part of the family forces. Even if Lorist disregarded those two units, the family still had to spend quite a bit on the salary of those soldiers.

While the northbound convoy didn't do much trade on its journey to the Northlands, it was fortunate that they did quite a bit of pillaging, garnering the family up to 3 million gold Fordes in wealth. Given that the equipment of the Whitelion Legion were given to him, Lorist was still able to sustain the current family force.

Now that the various industrial activities within the dominion was owned by the family, it wasn't too hard for Lorist to offer special bonuses to the family soldiers either.

By the time he finished drafting the regulations of the family forces with Charade and the others, it was already near the end of the 6th month. Just when Lorist was about to set out to Maplewoods Bastide for two months of vacation to spend some time with his son, Count Kenmays came to visit.

The reason for the count's visit was to fulfill the agreement they signed the last time. Not only did the count ship away the 33000 sets of metal armor from Firmrock Castle, he also struck a bargain and bought 200000 gold Fordes' worth of salt and 1 million kilograms of smoked magical bull meat from Charade.

Charade was incredibly mad by the time the negotiations concluded as he understood that the count could sell the stuff he bought with 200000 gold Fordes for 600000 gold Fordes simply by reselling them to another party and marking up the price.

However, Lorist felt that there was nothing they could do about it as the suspension bridge was controlled by the Kenmayses and there was no point in keeping the extra meat and salt stored up anyway. Since those were local products of the dominion, Lorist felt that it was a rather good source of revenue despite the slightly low price offered by the count.

Charade on the other hand felt that they absolutely had to find a suitable place to build a port within the dominion as the furs they had could be sold at Morante City for a high price.

Lorist agreed to that suggestion and made a mental note to continue to look into it more when he had more time.

Chapter 183 Sid Steel Armor

At the end of the 7th month, Lorist who was spending his time at Maplewoods Bastide received a letter from Charade. The letter stated that Baron Felim Chalvode had sent a messenger over with a request to purchase 5000 sets of metal armor from the Norton Family. Additionally, Baron Shazin, also known as Knight Hennard, wrote a letter to Lorist that asked to be sponsored 3000 sets of metal armor and other weapons.

As a result, Lorist had no choice but to return to Firmrock Castle. Old Man Gleis's sickness worsened over the months and he could no longer get out of bed. Patt had been spending the past two months staying by his side and serving him.

Taking a look at the map, Lorist thought for a bit before starting to write his reply to Charade. He wrote that he agreed to sell the armor to the Felim Family since he had nothing to lose and stated that they could trade other resources if they didn't have enough money for the purchase. As for Knight Hennard, Lorist wrote him a personal letter to invite him over for a talk.

By the time Knight Hennard arrived at Maplewoods Bastide, Old Man Gleis had just passed away. Before his death, the old man miraculously regained his clarity of mind and grasped onto Lorist's hands as he stated his final wish to Lorist: to be buried within the family's forbidden area so that he may be with the former family leaders even in death.

Lorist nodded, before shaking his head later. Gleis didn't understand the meaning of Lorist's gesture and died without ever finding out.

Patt on the other hand broke down completely. He had lost his parents from a young age and had been raised by Gleis, his grandfather, all his life. Now that his only relative had died, Patt was in incredible pain. He also didn't understand why Lorist refused his grandfather's last wish since Gleis had served the Norton Family for his whole life and even managed to hold the family together during the recent time of crisis by withholding the succession ceremony until Lorist's return to the dominion. It was a given that he should have the honor to be buried in the family's forbidden area.

Lorist explained that he planned to build a new mausoleum for the family on Whitedeer Mound, stating that the place was a gift from the Silvermoon Goddess to the Norton Family as a final resting place for the elders of the family that was unfortunately neglected by those who came before. He also stated that he intended to move the remains of the people buried within the forbidden area to the new mausoleum so that they can truly get their final rest within the embrace of the ground. He also said that Old Butler Gleis would be buried there as one of the treasured members of the Norton Family.

That caused Patt's emotions to change completely and he even said that he wanted to work on the construction of the mausoleum as well. Lorist on the other hand ended up incredibly busy managing the project. He decided to first cremate all the remains of the ancestors within the forbidden area so that their ashes could be buried at Whitedeer Mound and have proper tombstones made for them by hiring stonemasons.

Knight Hennard stayed at the bastide for 12 days and also attended the funeral and cremation of Old Butler Gleis. All that remained was erecting a statue of the butler as a memorial which Lorist was naturally in charge of. However, that didn't have to happen right away. Despite that, Lorist managed to find some time to have a formal discussion with Knight Hennard.

In actuality, Knight Hennard was facing huge amounts of pressure and stress as the threat of the Second Prince's newly formed First Iblia Kingdom Legion of 56000 soldiers that were stationed near his dominion was looming over him. Hennard had no choice but to gather up all his men to defend the place. Even though he had 20000 men who were formerly part of the Northland Army, he tried his best not to engage in conflict with the Second Prince despite the latter's constant aggressive and provocative actions.

During the gathering of the nobles that year during the 5th month, the Second Prince expressed some passionate and bold statements. He said that he wanted to rebuild the former Krissen Empire starting with the Iblia Kingdom and hoped that the other landed nobles would cooperate with him as only when they act as one would they be able to actualize his dream of returning the empire to its former glory. However, he said that there were quite a number of nobles who refused to heed his orders and avoided him as best as they could.

That was why the Second Prince said that he would give them a chance to right their wrongs. As long as they were willing to pledge allegiance to the Second Prince and contribute to the restoration of the empire, the Second Prince said that he wouldn't seek retribution for their past mistakes. Otherwise, the Second Prince threatened that he would bring his First Legion of the Iblia Kingdom to show those rebellious nobles the cost of infringing upon his royal pride and refusing to heed his orders.

That was also one of the reasons Knight Hennard decided to expand his forces and better equip them as well. However, while it wasn't too hard to recruit more soldiers, it was really troublesome and difficult to secure equipment for them. The dominion Hennard's father left him was relatively barren and he could only rely on Cherry Blossom Ridge and Evanson Town to sustain the livelihoods of his 12000 men. Had it not been for the fact that he had pretended to be one of Lorist's men to raid the dominion of Duke Loggins's two years ago, he would've gone bankrupt long ago. This time around, he decided to expand his forces to 15000 people and hoped that he could rely on his connection with Lorist to be sponsored some equipment and weapons.

Lorist was a person who treasured his relationships and he felt sympathy for Hennard and agreed to his request by sponsoring 3000 sets of metal armor and weapons and even told him of a way to generate income before asking him to see Charade for the specifics. He let Hennard be the middleman to sell around 500000 kilograms of salt produced within the Norton Family dominion. If Hennard was successful in his venture, he could earn up to 1 million gold Fordes, which will be enough for him to fund his soldiers for half a year.

After sending off the incredibly grateful Hennard, Lorist began to pick the members for a team to survey the terrain of Hidebull Mound and draw designs for the citadel that was to be built there. Hidebull Mound was mainly formed from granite and it was around 15 kilometers away from the point where the two other mountain ranges intersected. The mound got its name because it was shaped like a bull crouching down on the plains in hiding. For now, Josk and his mounted archer brigade were stationed there.

By the time the designs for the Hidebull Mound's citadel was completed, it was already the 9th month and the mausoleum at Whitedeer Mound was nearing its completion as well. Lorist then conducted a formal cremation ceremony for the Norton Family's ancestors' remains and buried them properly at Whitedeer Mound.

The mausoleum was built at a very scenic and relaxing location. The various trees that were on the mound were cut down and the first Norton Family ancestor was buried at the very top of the mound, with his grave marked by a stone statue of a knight with a drawn bow accompanied by the a stone tablet beneath the statue detailing his founding of the family and contributions to it.

Apart from that statue, many other gravestones could be seen on Whitedeer Mound. The statues honoring the others were not yet complete and would be installed at a later date. Apart from that, the mound was covered with a nice coat of green grass with the mausoleum surrounded by a short fence made with maple wood of the highest quality. Whitedeer Mound itself was also surrounded by a thick, maple forest.

When the night came, white deers appeared on the mound and played around the statues and gravestones. Under the illumination of the silvery moonlight, they added another layer of peacefulness to the pure and mysterious atmosphere of the mausoleum.

Everyone who witnessed that agreed with Lorist that the Whitedeer Mound was indeed the perfect gift from the SIlvermoon Goddess to the Norton Family as a final resting place for the ancestors. The mausoleum was also called the Whitedeer Sanctuary because of that.

After the mausoleum was settled, Lorist received a piece of good news: Grandmaster Sid had successfully made a set of armor that was superior to that of the Whitelion Legion. The messenger said that he had been sent to the bastide to make a report the moment research was completed.

Hence, Lorist went to the refineries at Bladedge Mountains right away with a few others.

Grandmaster Sid's smile was as radiant as a Chrysanthemum flower. Now that he had made a set of armor that was better than the one created by tens of elite blacksmiths back in the Krissen Empire for the impressive Whitelion Legion, he no longer had any lingering regrets.

It was not until Lorist actually saw the armor that he understood that the Whitelion Legion's armor couldn't even compare to it!

The Whitelion Legion's equipment were mostly made of fine iron that was slightly purplish-brown in color as the blacksmiths of the Krissen Empire had infused certain other ingredients into the mix to improve Battle Force transfer. The ideal ratio of ingredients was found only after countless experiments before the metal mix could be cast into their molds, and have the final touches added at the end. The defensive capability of the Whitelion Legion's armor was a whole level superior to that of normal metal armor, as was witnessed during the battle at Firmrock Castle where Duke Loggins's bowmen's arrows did not harm a single Norton soldier that was equipped with the armor of the Whitelion Legion, ultimately resulting in the latter's triumph.

The armor plate made by Grandmaster Sid was silvery white in color which was made using black iron reinforced into steel after being processed using the various water-powered tools.

Lorist inspected the armor and noticed that it had the same three-layer design. The outermost layer was the steel plate itself followed by grey-colored magical bull leather and another tight mesh of steel wire mail in the innermost layer.

"Milord, the unique combination of ingredients for this steel was only discovered after long experimentation by me and it is at least two times stronger than the material of the Whitelion Legion's armor, with it also being able to distribute Battle Force more evenly overall. In our tests, the Whitelion Legion armor breaks from an arrow fired from a longbow 80 meters away whereas our armor can get as close as 60 meters before breaking. If this armor is reinforced with Battle Force, the distance where a longbow would pose a threat would shrink down to 30 or 40 meters.

"The whole set of Whitelion Legion armor weighs around 19 kilograms while ours only weigh 14 kilograms, a staggering 5 kilogram less. That is a lot less burden a soldier has to bear and our armor even covers more area of the body than that of the Whitelion Legion's, providing even better coverage and defense. Not only that, this armor allows for better freedom of movement for our soldiers too..." Grandmaster Sid continued to show off the perks of his steel armor and it seemed that he was extremely satisfied that his creation was able to completely best the Whitelion Legion armor in all areas.

"Find someone to wear and try it," Lorist said.

Excited and intrigued, Els put on the steel armor impatiently. When he was done, Lorist almost fainted. This seems familiar... Wait, isn't this the imperial stromsoldier armor from the Stellar Wars universe?[1] Apart from the helmet and the faulds at the waist which replaced the triangular crotch armor of the stormsoldiers, the rest of the armor seemed remarkably similar. At that moment, Lorist almost suspected that Grandmaster Sid was also transmigrated from his world.

The helmet Grandmaster Sid designed was a pointed, conical type with a neck guard equipped with a visor that could be pushed down to protect the wearer's face, giving the wearer a ferocious impression. Wearing the armor, Els took out his sword and practiced some fighting maneuvers. After getting used to it, he even called a guard or two to spar with him for quite a while before he returned with ragged breaths.

"Locke, this armor set is definitely far lighter and agile than the Whitelion Legion armor. Also, it's form-fitting so it doesn't feel like it bogs down your whole body. I want my guard brigade to be the first to change into these!" Els requested excitedly.

Lorist looked at Grandmaster Sid and asked, "Grandmaster, how many sets of these can you produce within a day?"

"Milord, there are 21 parts required in the construction of this armor. Even though that's 7 parts more than the Whitelion Legion armor, with the aid of the water-powered tools, it isn't too hard for us to make them. Over here, we only focus on the production of the parts which we will ship to the industrial city to be assembled together. Given our slightly lacking manpower, we can only produce and estimated number of tens of sets per day. If you can increase our workforce by a thousand more people and have a few more kilns made to increase production of steel, we would be able to make around 200 sets per day," Grandmaster Sid replied.

"Good. Grandmaster, I will assign another 1000 people to your workforce. Other than that, we will name this armor after you. Let's call it the Sid Steel Armor. This will become the standard equipment for our forces. The only change I require is for the pointed helmet to be flattened into a circular surface and for the Raging Bear insignia of our family to be put onto the breastplate. Is that alright?" Lorist asked.

Upon hearing that the armor would be named after him, Grandmaster Sid widened his mouth in joy as he would be forever remembered in the annals of history for his contribution. "Milord, please be assured that I will definitely make the changes you request so that our forces can wear this armor as soon as possible and ditch the heavy and clumsy Whitelion Legion armor."

"Why do I get the feeling that the grandmaster somehow loathes the armor of the Whitelion Legion?" Els mumbled.

Lorist laughed out loud upon hearing that as he had once heard Ovidis mention that Grandmaster Sid had worked as an apprentice armorer for the Krissen Imperial Forces in his youth. During one of the times he was tasked to repair a set of armor, he had a hunch that he could improve the armor's defense if he made some adjustments. In the end, he secretly conducted some experiments and ruined three sets of armor, causing him to be punished severely and stripped of his job and position in the imperial armory.

After that, he toiled hard and learned from many other masters all over the place and only attained the rank of a grandmaster armorer 20 years later, only to be embroiled into the chaos caused by the power struggle within the empire and being forced to make armor for the bandits of Plate Mountain to ensure his family's safety.

Els was right in that Grandmaster Sid harbored a deep hatred for the armor of the Whitelion Legion. That was why he conducted his research like a crazed madman without pause after the discovery of the black iron mines at Bladedge Mountains and ended up fulfilling his dream of making a set of armor that was far superior to that of the Whitelion Legion.

"Reidy, heed my orders," Lorist instructed. "To award the contribution of Grandmaster Sid for creating the Sid Steel Armor, the family will award him 1000 gold Fordes with 100 gold Fordes for each of his aides. Naturally, get the list of aides from the grandmaster himself. The rest of the people here will all get 10 gold Fordes each."

"Yes, milord."

"Grandmaster Sid, don't forget that the Whitelion Legion's equipment is more than just a set of armor. They also come with shields and other weapons, so you will have to continue to work hard as well."

"Milord, I'll definitely keep that in mind and work on weapons and shields that will fit nicely with the armor I created," said Sid.

Lorist then ordered Shadekampf to have 1000 of the 20000 laborers that were building roads at Felicitas Settlement to be brought over to the refinery before returning to Firmrock Castle with his guards.

......

When Lorist reached the castle, before he even got to take a short rest, Pesha forcefully brought Lundmorde to him to lodge a complaint.

As Lundmorde was familiar with the field of medicine, he was sent to teach Pesha's female garrison members some medicinal knowledge. And during the span of 5 months from the 5th month to the 10th, he had managed to impregnate 7 of the female soldiers there.

The moment Lorist heard about that, his jaw dropped, before he broke out of his stupor and pushed it back in.

What a beast.... Lorist looked at Lundmorde with a gaze of admiration and wondered why he didn't realize how promiscuous Lundmorde truly was during the days at the academy.

Pesha on the other hand was furious as 3 out of the 7 Lundmorde slept with were squad leaders, two of whom were Pesha's aides. There were two others who were rather capable as well and were just about to be promoted. However, they had all bore Lundmorde's child.

Despite that, all 7 of the female soldiers said that they approached Lundmorde willingly and that he didn't force himself on any of them. That's why Pesha couldn't do much no matter how angry she was. In actuality, she couldn't wait to lop Lundmorde's head off with a blade, but with the those 7 women who were pregnant with his child protecting him, Pesha had no choice but to look for Lorist to settle the issue.

After flipping through the regulations of the family forces, Lorist didn't find any ruling regarding that matter either. He then asked, "Where are the 7 female soldiers?"

Pesha replied angrily, "They're at the lobby on the ground floor accusing one another for seducing their lover... This Knight Lundmorde..."

"Go bring them up here. I'll ask them what we should do."

In the end, Lorist's whole office got turned into a noisy marketplace with each of the seven women shouting at the top of their voice, all wanting to become Lundmorde's proper wife and give birth to his child. Lundmorde on the other hand hugged his head meekly in a corner without making a sound.

"Alright!" Lorist shouted as he thumped on the table to stop the argument. "Enough already. How about this? All 7 of you should just get married to him and he'll have seven wives. If anyone makes any more fuss, they will be excluded from this arrangement."

At that moment, Lundmorde looked at the seven women he knocked up and started crying.

Full of sympathy, Lorist looked at him and said, "Knight Lundmorde, as a man, you have to bear the consequences of your actions. Since you've gone and done it, take responsibility. How about this, I'll allow you to have a long vacation so that you can spend quality time with your wives until they give birth to your children."

That was the only solution Lorist could think of for the situation. After Knight Lundmorde left with his wives, Lorist say back down in his chair in a tiredly and started to think.

Pesha was not too satisfied with the arrangement as her force had just lost 7 capable women and she said that Lundmorde got off easy and even got to marry the 7 in one go without receiving any punishment.

"She said he got off easy?" Lorist muttered as he laughed coldly. "No, on the contrary, getting married to seven wives is the biggest punishment he'll get... His 'blessed' days will be filled with fights and arguments... How befitting of a man who can't keep his junk inside his pants..."

[1] Name slightly altered so that this stays copyright safe. But I bet most of you guys can recognize which franchise this is, right?

Chapter 184 Princess Sylvia

Soon after, Count Kenmays came to visit again and from the size of his escort, it could be inferred that he was planning to spend winter at Gildusk City, Duke Loggins's dominion.

"Lord Baron Norton, this time, I have received the order of our king to invite you to Gildusk City to attend the new year's celebration and matters relating to marriage..." said Count Kenmays in a formal tone.

Given that Lorist had not bothered to pay the Second Prince a visit yet, his title of a count was not recognized and the Second Prince still considered Lorist to be a baron. Additionally, even though the Norton Family's dominion was technically within the area of the Iblia Kingdom, Lorist had accepted the title from the Andinaq Royal Family.

Lorist's hand shook and he almost spilled the macks in his cup onto the table before him. Just a few days back, he had blessed the marriage of Lundmorde and his seven wives. But now, Count Kenmays was going to talk to him about that again, causing him to wonder if karma is here to bite back at him.

"Come and have some hot drinks, my friend. Tell me, what's our king up to this time? For him to have a count to come talk to me of matters relating to marriage... It seems that the family of the bride is quite influential," Lorist said as he invited Count Kenmays to try the macks he had just made.

"Even though I know this messenger duty will be a pain in the butt, I have no choice but to carry it out. The Second Prince has written me a personal letter and it's a pretty long one at that," complained the count as he relaxed himself by pacing about.

"Aren't you gonna address him as 'His Majesty the King'?" Lorist said as he snickered.

With a smug tone, Count Kenmays said, "Does he behave like one to be deserved to be called that? Ptooey! Definitely not!"

"I don't understand why the Second Prince bothered to write you a letter just to have you come over here... Instead of being so roundabout, couldn't he have just written me a personal letter?" Lorist said, annoyed.

"That's because he has his pride, you know. You've already refused his invitations a number of times, even though most of those invitations were also made through me... Now that the Second Prince has such a strong army, his arrogance has gone through the roof. If you had refused his personal messenger outright, how would he be able to step down from the humiliation? Apart from punishing you with his soldiers, he has no other way to save his face.

"Quite a number of other nobles within the Northlands can't wait for you to start fighting against the Second Prince so that both of you will end up crippled. That would be the ideal outcome for them. The might the Norton Family had shown two years back made quite a deep impression in their hearts. To those nobles, they can't wait for the hungry wolf that was the Second Prince to fight against the Family of the Raging Bear and wear each other out."

Pausing to take a sip of macks, Count Kenmays continued. "The Second Prince understands that as well and even though he has an army of 56000 troops, if he can't make your family submit to him, the other nobles will remain loyal to him only on the surface. Even the taxation orders he issued recently was resisted by those nobles, some publicly with most others doing so behind his back. Even so, the Second Prince still wouldn't dare to antagonize your family which is famed for having defeated the duke in one fell swoop.

"The reason he wanted me to pass his message to you on his behalf was because he knew that the relationship between our two families decent. He wants me to encourage you to at least visit him once at Gildusk City so that he doesn't have to lose face over this issue. The other reason was because he wanted to check on my family's might. I'm sure the rumor of my family's formation of a 30000-strong force has already reached his ears. That's why his messenger was accompanied by many other attendants who snuck around in my army camps and even gathered information in the taverns. Did he think I wouldn't notice?

"You wouldn't even be able to imagine the expression of the Second Prince's messenger when I told him straight up that my family formed the force to defend against unpredictable mountain barbarian skirmishes. Hehe, it's still funny now that I think about it," said Count Kenmays triumphantly.

"Haha, every noble in the Northlands know that you have good relations with the barbarians. Your trade with them and have exclusive monopoly on the goods the barbarians produce, causing many merchants to be incredibly jealous. Nobody would believe that the barbarians were the reason for the formation of your army," Lorist said as he shook his head in laughter.

"It's their problem whether they believe it or not. That will be the official reason used by my family anyways. Also, here's the letter the Second Prince wrote to me. Read it yourself," said the count as he brought out a thick bunch of beastskins and handed it to Lorist.

In the letter, the Second Prince expressed his greetings to Count Kenmays as well as his feelings of apology towards the Norton Family after he recounted the death of their First Young Master, who was Lorist's elder brother, Gold ranked knight Abelyde, who had so valiantly fought and died for the Second Prince. He sincerely requested Count Kenmays to invite the current head of the Norton Family, Baron Norton Lorist, to attend the new year's celebration he would be holding at Gildusk City. He added that he heard that Lorist was single and that he would be willing to introduce Princess Sylvia to Lorist and encourage them to form union in marriage.

"Huh? Who's this Princess Sylvia? I thought the Second Prince only had three illegitimate daughters who are not of marriageable age yet," Lorist said curiously.

"Tsk tsk tsk..." Count Kenmays clicked his tongue. "The Second Prince has truly went out of his way to make a huge offer for your family's sake and even put Princess Sylvia on the table! To be honest, Locke, you really should head out and see the world instead of staying cooped up in your dominion, ignorant of all else that is going on like a little bug in a small corner.

"Princess Sylvia is one of the most prominent roses of our Iblia Kingdom and is even known as the brilliant pearl of the grasslands," Count Kenmays said grandiloquently.

"Never heard of her," Lorist said.

"You..." Count Kenmays was speechless as he turned to Lorist and stared at him. "As expected of a bug. Do you know who Duke Fisablen is?"

"I do," Lorist said as he nodded honestly.

"Duke Fisablen has 3 sons and 1 daughter. That daughter of his is the beautiful queen of our Iblia Kingdom and is also the Second Prince's wife. Duke Fisablen's eldest son passed away at a young age, leaving behind his only daughter, Princess Sylvia. She is the beloved granddaughter of the duke and is the only niece of our queen and was given the title of a princess by the Second Prince. Do you understand now?" Count Kenmays said angrily as he schooled Lorist about the princess.

"Gosh, why are you so agitated?" Lorist asked in confusion.

"You wouldn't understand... Princess Sylvia is the goddess that holds an absolute place in my heart. With the incredible beauty and impeccable bearing she showed during the time I was fortunate enough to see her at Windbury City, she has made a lasting impression in my heart and I always find myself missing that mysterious, forlorn smile she showed at that time, as well as her enchanting, emerald-green eyes," Count Kenmays described.

"And then you proceeded to expel your desire and lust for her onto the noble ladies you met with in secret, right?" Lorist interjected.

"You..." Count Kenmays was struck speechless yet again.

"Since you're still single, I'm sure that you can afford to ask for Princess Sylvia's hand in marriage given your family's influence," Lorist said nonchalantly before he took another sip of macks.

"Sigh, you wouldn't know..." Count Kenmays said, crestfallen. "That time I met her was already four years ago. Back then, she was only 16 and was already one of the most beautiful women I've seen my whole life. A family with a merchant background like mine definitely wouldn't impress her one bit. She is the glowing pearl of Duke Fisablen and according to some of the rumors told by the princess's handmaidens, the princess had always wanted to be wedded to a peerless hero since long ago. Do you know why so many young knights were willing to follow the Second Prince to the battlefield? They wanted to rack up some achievements there so they can gain the favor of the princess."

"Oh, so there's something like that going on, huh..." Lorist said, before he suddenly thought of something. "I thought the Second Prince was a person who was too lustful for his own good. How could he bear to not touch a person as beautiful as Princess Sylvia?"

Count Kenmays looked around the study to make sure there wasn't anyone else near by. Even though he ascertained that only Lorist was within the room with him, the count still lowered his voice as he said, "The Second Prince doesn't dare. It's no secret that his relationship with our queen is not that good and the both of them have various affairs of their own. However, if he ever dares to stain Princess Sylvia with his filth, then it will be the end of him as Duke Fisablen will definitely not forgive him.

"Let me tell you something. The Second Prince and the queen have never really bothered with one another and they both lead their own private lives. The Second Prince has three illegitimate children while the queen has given birth to two children, both of whom are not the Second Prince's offspring, and they are being raised by the knight families of the duke himself. There was once when the Second Prince went to the duke to request for aid against Duke Melein who had crippled his forces badly. In the end, he was locked up together with the queen and Duke Fisablen didn't let either of them out until the queen had gotten pregnant with a successor.

"You must understand how painful it must be for them to be forced to have intercourse despite their hatred for one another. Even so, the duke steeled his heart for the sake of the continuation of the royal bloodline Iblia Kingdom and even provided some sexual stimulants for them. This was also the reason the duke lent the Second Prince his three Frontier Legion units to the Second Prince to fight against the Madras Duchy.

"Just last year, the queen gave birth to a boy who is destined to be the successor of the Iblia Kingdom in the future., However, that child is neglected by both the Second Prince and the queen and was only brought up by his nursemaid. It was like the Second Prince and the queen had fulfilled their duty by giving birth to him and left him to fend for himself. Right now, the one in charge of raising the child is Princess Sylvia."

"Hehe, nobles truly are a confusing bunch!" Lorist exclaimed.

"What do you mean?" Count Kenmays said before he scratched his head in thought, only to slightly comprehend the meaning of Lorist's statement.

"Don't forget that you're part of that bunch as well," Count Kenmays said in annoyance.

"I'm different from you lot. I'm a proper landed noble and my family has hundreds of years of tradition and virtues which we hold very highly," boasted Lorist.

"Tch, don't think that I don't know that you have something going with that scholar Miss Telesti. I could tell from a glance by the way you looked at each other," Count Kenmays said as he exposed Lorist's affair and dispelled his claims of virtue.

Pointing at the Second Prince's letter, Count Kenmays said, "Well, you should at least give me some face this time around and pay a visit to Gildusk City, even if it's only for the sake of meeting Princess Sylvia. The Second Prince said that he would encourage the union of the both of you. If you can pick this rose for yourself, you'll definitely profit big time and have Duke Fisablen at your back. That way, the Second Prince will really cease to be a threat to you."

"I won't go," refused Lorist flatly as he thought, hmph, with my power and might, why would I need Duke Fisablen's support? He's looking down on my family a little too much.

"My friend, can you at least tell me the reason for your refusal? After all, the Second Prince did invite you sincerely for a number of times already. It'll be a little too much to refuse without a good reason, right?" Cout Kenmays said as he couldn't figure out what Lorist was thinking.

"If you're worried about the two Blademasters by his side, you don't have to. The Second Prince only wants to use his Blademasters to teach your Gold ranked knight subordinates a lesson using 'educating' them in battle as an excuse. However, they won't go too far since the Second Prince only wants to show off the superiority of his Blademasters to suppress the ambitions of the other nobles by reminding them he that has the might to keep them under control.

"In my case, I didn't bring any of my knights there, so the Second Prince couldn't use that as an excuse to teach me a lesson. Naturally, you would want to bring some of your Gold ranked knights with you for safety, so you just have to endure it for a bit while you're there. With me there watching over you, you have nothing to worry about. I promise that you won't regret this trip. Even if you don't kick it off with Princess Sylvia, I can still introduce you to many beautiful and great noble ladies. Even though they're far from Princess Sylvia's level, they are cute and gentle all the same and are very adept at soothing your mental scars by spending a sensual time with you through the cold, lonely night," said Count Kenmays with a teasing and magnetic tone in his attempt to entice Lorist to go to Gildusk City with him.

Laughing out, Lorist said, "My friend, thank you for your kind intentions. However, I have my own reasons for refusing your offer. Perhaps you are unaware of it, but while you spend your time enjoying magnificent wine with those fine noble ladies as you witness the beautiful snowflakes fall from the sky with music playing in the background, I will be bringing my knights with me at great risk to fight for our lives within the wilderness of my family dominion..."

Seeing the count's surprised look, Lorist continued. "My friend, where do you think the 1 million kilograms of magical bull meat came from? You should ask your barbarian friends about the magical beast wave, they should know about it. Every winter, there are almost 1 million magical beasts that come from the wilderness into my dominion to lay our yearly farming efforts to waste. That is why we were willing to trade metal armor with you for huge amounts of food."

"Magical beast wave? I think I've read about it from some book before," Count Kenmays said. "I think I read a journal written by someone who traveled around the Northlands before. That book described that during winter, huge numbers of magical beasts from the wilderness would travel to the wildlands of the Northlands, causing the people there much fear and grief. Our family however has never noticed such a phenomenon during our time in the Northlands, so I thought that it was just something the writer of that journal made up. So, the magical beast wave only passes through your family's dominion and not the whole of the Northlands..."

"That's right. For two years back to back, my family forces have been busy fighting against the magical beasts in the wildlands for domination and this year won't be any different. I will have to leave in another 20 plus days, so, I hope that you understand that I have no choice but to refuse your offer. As the dominion lord, I can't stand back and party when my soldiers are out there fighting against those ferocities. I must stand there at the frontlines with them so that my forces will have the courage and morale they require to hold on," Lorist said with a solemn expression.

"Your family forces must suffer quite a huge casualty yearly, right? Should I skip out on the celebration as well and see the beasts for myself then?" Count Kenmays said after he gave it some thought.

"While I appreciate your kind intentions, it's best if you forget it. It's nothing but a barren wasteland with us having nothing but dried rations to eat and icy-cold water to drink, not to mention the freezing weather. In the darkness also lurks countless other magical beasts and you'll never be able to imagine how it feels to be chased by tens of thousands of those red-eyed magical bulls as well as the sight of those 6-meter-tall mammoths that crumble our formations. Just thinking about it sends chills down my spine! However, I have no choice. This is the dominion of my family, and, by extension, the territory of humankind. The Norton Family will not allow the beasts to roam free within our lands!" Lorist proclaimed.

"It's especially tough because we can eat nothing but dried preserve food. The moment we light campfires to cook meat, we will attract the carnivorous magical beasts like the magical wolves and panthers, causing us to be unable to sleep well at night! Winter is definitely not a good time for the people of our dominion!"

Count Kenmays lost all interest in going along all of a sudden. While he personally didn't mind the cold, not being able to eat and sleep well was something he would never be willing to subject himself to at any cost. He then said, "I guess it's better for me to go to Gildusk City and enjoy some fine food, wine and music. That kind of lifestyle definitely suits me better..."

Lorist laughed out as he said, "No worries my friend, this is but the burden the Norton Family has to bear. Back then, our ancestor pledged to protect the borders of the empire. Naturally, as his descendant, I must carry out my responsibilities according to that pledge. That is the ultimate calling of our family which we will not abandon. As your friend, I only hope that you can remember that I am engaging in bloody fights against the magical beasts while you enjoy your time during winter. That much is enough for me."

"No worries, my friend, I will definitely spread the heroic tale of the Norton Family to the rest of the world so that they don't forget the contributions your family has made to protect the borders of the empire," Count Kenmays said as he thumped on his chest to reassure Lorist.

Chapter 185 Count Kenmays's Letter

"Those magical bulls lowered their heads and stared with their glowing red eyes as they roared and rushed over with crazed frenzy with a cold glint emanating from their horns, furiously ramming against the mud walls reinforced by ice. The ice cracked all over as a result and the mud walls started to shake, but the soldiers desperately stabbed towards the crazed bulls from the walls with their pikes. For every bull that fell, many more rushed over. From a higher vantage point, one can only see nothing but bulls, constantly rushing over. The way they covered the wide expanse of land gave off a feeling of pressure and despair..."

Count Kenmays paused to take a sip of amber-colored fruit wine before he continued to tell the others present about his imagining of the scene of the Norton Family soldiers battling against the hordes of magical beasts. Next to him listening to his story were tens of elaborately dressed noble ladies who were completely absorbed in the count's tale.

"One particularly huge magical bull rammed harshly onto the tough face of a shield, causing it to rupture into pieces with the shield-bearing soldier being knocked flying into the air. By the time he landed, he had already lost consciousness and fainted. Beside him, a few other soldiers managed to stop the bull's charge using their pikes to stab at it. However, with a twist of its body, the bull shattered the pikes with relative ease. It was at that moment when a horn signal was blown, causing the soldiers to breathe a sigh of relief. This was the signal to retreat to the second line of defense, which prompted some soldiers to fend of the remaining bulls as their injured comrades made their way up another tall stone wall.

"This stone wall was far larger and tougher than the wall at the first line of defense and many ballistas were also installed on this wall. After the order to fire was given, bolt after bolt as long as pikes were fired, causing the bulls at the front to fall, much to the soldiers' delight. But at that moment, another loud roar resounded from the distance and out came several gigantic animals around 6 meters tall from the snowstorm. Each of them had thick fur and two large, curved tusks sprouting from either side of their mouths as well as a long and strong trunk. With each step they took, they left a deep imprint onto the snowy ground."

Currently, the count was at the duke's mansion at Gildusk City which had been taken by the Second Prince to be used as his own residence.

It was the last day of Year 1770 on the Grindian Calendar. The Second Prince and his queen were receiving the coming of the new year with the other nobles of the Iblia Kingdom by having a grand celebratory banquet.

While the weather outside was harsh and cold, it was nothing but warm and comfort within the mansion as the various fireplaces and steam pipes within the walls continuously gave off heat to keep the temperature from plummeting. Elegantly dressed noblemen and noblewomen could be seen all over the mansion, with some of them talking in low voices in smaller groups and others trying hard to expand their network of acquaintances as they awaited the chime of the clock that signified the coming of the new year.

It was at this time that Count Kenmays fulfilled his promise with Lorist to spread the heroic tale of the resistance of the Norton Family soldiers against the magical beast wave to his audience who comprised mostly of beautiful noble ladies.

"These great magical mammoths continued their charge despite the fact that there were countless ballista bolts buried deep within their skin. When they neared the walls, they flung their trunks around furiously and smashed against the ballistas, causing the soldiers operating them to be tossed into the air. The formation had completely collapsed and the soldiers could only fend for themselves by running all over the place in panic while the magical mammoths easily caught up with them and stomped at them with their feet, turning the unfortunate soldiers into flattened meat pies on the white, snowy ground."

"That's horrible..." muttered one of the ladies who was huddled up and shivering with a few other noblewomen.

At that moment, a voice rang out from behind the count. "My dear Count Kenmays, what tall tale are you telling now to frighten these beautiful ladies?"

Count Kenmays hurriedly stood up and put down the silver cup he held and bowed respectfully. "Greetings to Your Majesty, the king and his beautiful queen, as well as the goddess which will always have a place in my heart, Princess Sylvia. Your humble servant pays his respects."

The noblewomen who were listening to the count's story also hurriedly made their greetings one after another.

The Second Prince revealed a gentle smile and hurriedly asked them to drop the formalities while the queen merely kept her mouth shut and nodded coldly towards them. Princess Sylvia who stood behind the queen smiled as she curtsied to return their greetings.

"I seem to have heard you describe a huge battle just now. What epic poem might that be from, Lord Count?" asked the Second Prince casually.

"Oh, no, my king. What I was describing was not from a poem at all. It's a true story. As I enjoy this peaceful night with these beautiful ladies here, the soldiers of the Norton Family are engaging in a bloody battle within their dominion against the magical beast wave," replied Count Kenmays.

"Magical beast wave? The Norton Family? Can you tell me more about this?" asked the Second Prince as he narrowed his eyes with scorn.

The queen then interjected. "Are you referring to that Baron Norton who has refused the kind invitations of the king for a few times? It's as if he doesn't even have any respect for our king..."

The Second Prince's face twitched as he laughed awkwardly and said, "If his dominion is truly facing a wave of magical beasts, then I suppose he has no choice but to refuse my invitation. I believe that when his dominion calms down, Baron Norton will definitely come forward to me to pay his respects. Isn't that so, Count Kenmays?" As he asked that question, he glared at the queen furiously. The queen on the other hand merely humphed and turned her face towards the roof without even caring about the Second Prince's glare.

"Naturally, my exalted king. Baron Norton expresses his regrets for being unable to attend the celebratory feasts of the past few years as well. During every winter, his dominion will be assailed by the magical beast wave and he has no choice but to remain there to keep things together. It was definitely not his intention to neglect Your Majesty's invitation.

"Personally, I've read about the magical beast wave from a book titled 'The Northlands Journal' written by Count Fogland. According to him, the magical beasts travel from the mountainous wastelands to the wildlands of the Northlands every winter. However, since I didn't witness this for myself when I moved to the Northlands, I believed that this phenomenon no longer occurred.

"It was only recently that I found that it was because of the Norton Family's resistance against the magical beasts that they didn't spread to the rest of the Northlands. I've asked a few older Northlanders and they said that the magical beasts that the Norton Family face number up to one million," Count Kenmays said as he improvised to make his words sound more convincing.

"I see... My Lord Count, please greet Baron Norton and his soldiers on my behalf and tell them of the respect I have for them for facing off against the magical beast wave. It's about time now and I should head to the main hall for the countdown to the new year. I hope the rest of you beautiful ladies will have a pleasant night. We'll take our leave now, see you during the ball," said the Second Prince politely towards the others.

However, Princess Sylvia stepped forward and asked, "Lord Count Kenmays, can I make a request of you?"

"Why, naturally, princess. Your will is my command. As long as it is within my capabilities, I will definitely fulfill your request," Count Kenmays said as he bowed deeply while the other noblewomen looked at the princess curiously.

With a slight blush on her face, Princess Sylvia said, "It's like this... Even though I just heard about those bloody battles between the Norton soldiers and the beasts, I've never actually seen a magical beast myself and don't know how they look like. If it's possible, can you write a letter to Baron Norton and have him send over a few magical beast carcasses to satisfy my curiosity? I understand that the beasts are the spoils of battle for the Norton Family, so I'm willing to offer 100 gold Fordes to them as reparation for the beasts. I wonder if this is too much to ask..."

"Oh, it's definitely fine, my goddess. Beloved princess, your request is but a small task for me to accomplish. I believe that Baron Norton will also be happy to comply and send a few beasts over as your new year's gift. Please rest assured, I will send my messenger there first thing tomorrow morning to fulfill your request," promised the count.

"Thank you for your trouble, Lord Count. I will take my leave now," Princess Sylvia said before she curtsied and left.

"We should head to the main hall as well. The clock is about to ring at midnight," Count Kenmays said to the other beautiful ladies there.

"Shouldn't you be following that goddess of yours? Why are you mingling with mere mortals like us?" mused a voluptuous lady unhappily. It was apparent from her expression that she was a little jealous of the attention the count showed Princess Sylvia.

Count Kenmays held that woman by her waist as he smiled and said, "Goddesses are only to be worshipped and put on a pedestal. On the other hand, you, my darlings, are far more suitable for a mortal like me, isn't that right? Us mortals should hang together to find our own happiness..."

The clock in the main hall sounded loudly as the snow continued to paint the lands in white, indifferent to the coming of the new year.

......

As the nobles were celebrating the new year at Gildusk City, Lorist was laying flat on a snowy slope with his men, spying on the rear of the magical beast wave.

"Milord, this year's wave seems to be half of last year's. There were only around 70000 magical bulls which were lured into the Crewe Circular Gorge this time and that's even less than half the number of last year," Josk said. Being a stellar marksman, he was easily able to notice the difference with his sight when compared to the rest.

Lorist nodded and said, "We should leave now. Otherwise, the magical wolves and panthers that are circling around in this area will come for us. There should be only around 500000 magical beasts remaining. Order Dulles to bring his three carroballista brigades to exterminate the bulls at the gorge as soon as possible before heading to the fourth sector. We will meet up there. We must force the remaining magical beasts to stay within the Felicitas Settlement so that the magical beast wave will not show up next winter."

15 days later, Lorist brought around 30000 family soldiers to the central town of the fourth sector to build three ice walls around it so that they can use the town as a stronghold to wipe out the magical beasts there.

Knight Waxima, who was stationed to guard Firmrock Castle, sent a few soldiers to escort a messenger to Lorist.

"You are the messenger sent by Count Kenmays and came all the way from Gildusk City?" Lorist asked the man whose nose was bruised either from a fall or the extreme cold and wondered what prompted the count to send a messenger to him in that kind of weather.

"Yes, yes I am... Milord, here is the personal letter of the count," said the messenger as he shivered and labored to take out a letter from his breast pocket.

After reading it, Lorist felt like screaming out in anger. Despite knowing that I'm fighting for my life here, that Kenmays fellow actually wants me to send some carcasses over there for him to show off to the ladies? And what's this about sending the carcasses as a new year's gift for Princess Sylvia? He really has nothing better to do, huh...

Wait a second, Lorist thought, as his lips curved into a sly smile.

"I apologize, mister messenger. I'm sure you've seen that this is already our last line of defense with only three layers of walls. With the magical beasts almost at our doorstep, I really can't afford to send any of my men to fulfill the count's request. How about this, I have to trouble you to return and have someone from your dominion come over. My soldiers will move the carcasses in front of Firmrock Castle so that your men can transport it to Gildusk City, is that okay?" Lorist said with a troubled expression to the messenger.

"Is that so..." said the messenger with a sullen look. Normally, it would only take five to six days to travel from Gildusk City to Firmrock Castle on horseback. The snowy weather however caused it to take more than 14 days. The messenger and the rest were already really worn out from the long period of traveling and really didn't feel like returning again after asking for someone to come.

Lorist on the other hand fully understood why he was so bothered.

"How many people came with your group?" Lorist asked.

"Seven of us, with 10 horses. The rest are waiting at Firmrock Castle for the reply," said the messenger.

"How long did it take you to travel here?"

"14 days. We even lost one horse on the way."

"It must have been tough for you to have to travel in this weather to send this letter. But as you can see, we really can't spare anyone else. Count Kenmays also said in his letter that you would cooperate with us in any way you can so that the carcasses can be transported to Gildusk City as soon as possible. The quickest way for that to happen is for you to find more men from your dominion to transport the carcasses there. I will have my men prepare a sledge for you so that your horses can drag you back to your family dominion. I believe this mode of travel will be much faster. Also, I'll give you five gold Fordes and two gold Fordes to each other person in your group for your troubles. I really have to thank you for your effort to deliver the message in this weather."

Lorist's sudden generosity surprised the messenger and he suddenly felt energetic and forgot about the cold altogether. However, he still asked something before he left. "Milord, how many people should I bring over to transport the carcasses?"

Lorist stretched out a finger and said, "One thousand men with horses should be sufficient. There are many carcasses and I'm prepared to send one of each magical beast to your count."

Five days later, the magical beast wave arrived at the central town of the fourth sector and began to make its way towards the walls of the town with abandon. However, the three thousand plus steel ballistas installed on the walls caused one beast to fall after another, covering the land with more and more dead magical beasts. Even the hundreds of magical mammoths collapsed under the incessant fire of the ballistas.

When the last single-horned magical rhinoceros fell, the family soldiers dropped their weapons and started cheering. Lorist and the other knights were smiling at the sight too. The magical beast wave had finally been annihilated, removing the threat that has bothered the family for hundreds of years.

"Dulles, regroup your carroballista brigades and replace the broken ballistas. We will be heading out to wipe out the remaining carnivorous magical beasts.

"Fiercetiger Loze, escort the carroballista brigade with your heavy-armored cavalry brigade and help them out with the extermination of the carnivorous beasts. Terman, your knights will head out together as well.

"Josk, bring your mounted archers to secure the area around the Crewe Circular Gorge and Maplewoods Bastide. I don't want a single beast to escape and return to the wilderness.

"Pog, your two heavy-armored brigades will stay guard here and protect the area to ensure that the people collecting the magical beast carcasses don't get attacked by the carnivorous beasts.

"Charade, I'll leave the collection of the carcasses for you to manage.

"Yuriy, after taking care of the carnivorous beasts with your light cavalry scout brigade, make your way to the first sector and try your best to round up the beasts that escaped their doom and minimize the damage they can cause to our farming efforts next spring."

After giving the chain of orders, Lorist recalled Count Kenmays's letter and asked Els to come over. "Els, pick some magical beast carcasses and remove the ballista bolts from their bodies and make the wounds look like sword and spear wounds instead. Make sure that nobody will find out that the cause of death for the beasts are from the ballista fire. You may even embed some broken swords and spears into their bodies to make it seem like it took us a lot of effort to exterminate these beasts. After that, send these bodies to the empty space in front of Firmrock Castle and wait for the men of Count Kenmays to collect them."

Els laughed out loud before he said, "Locke, are you up to something devious again? Alright, leave the shady stuff to me. I promise that nobody will be able to find out about this..."

Chapter 186 A New Sea Port

After 28 days of difficult hauling, the carcass delivery team finally arrived at Gildusk City. Part of that was thanks to Lorist's considerate and appropriate preparations by tying up the frozen carcasses securely onto the sledges so that they could be transported more easily. Otherwise, it would've taken far longer for Count Kenmays's order to be carried out if they had resorted to normal carriages.

One panicked lookout guard blew the horn accidentally at the sight of the arrival of the team and woke the whole of the city, causing many to flock to the square outside the duke's mansion to take a curious look.

Over 200 magical beast carcasses of roughly 40 different types were arranged into a few rows at the square, the most eye-catching of which being the four-meter-tall mammoth carcass which radiated a tense air of savagery. Had it not been for Lorist's worry that the city gates wouldn't be able to let a bigger carcass through, Lorist would've sent them a mammoth that was over 5 meters tall.

Count Kenmays was so excited that his face flushed red as Lorist truly had gave him a lot of face by sending over so many carcasses per his request and even wrote him a personal letter. Apart from stating that he had sent the carcasses as a gift to Princess Sylvia, Lorist said that he would leave the rest for Count Kenmays's keeping. The moment he finished reading the letter, the count instantly came up with a few ways to use the carcasses to improve his relationship with the other beautiful noble ladies and expand the Kenmays Family's network.

The Second Prince walked forward with the queen and Princess Sylvia along with a large group of nobles and observed the magical beast carcasses up close. As the rest of the nobles were chattering about, the Second Prince was instead observing the wounds on the bodies of the magical beasts.

"Count Kenmays, where is the person in charge for the transport of these carcasses? Call him over so that I can reward him. Now that I've seen this, I forgive Baron Norton for refusing my invitation. It seems he has indeed been busy battling magical beasts. That person in charge should be aware of the situation of the battle, right? Have him brief me on it," instructed the Second Prince.

Count Kenmays held his chest and saluted as he said, "I deeply apologize as the ones who transported the carcasses were the soldiers of my family and not those of the Norton Family. According to my messenger, the Norton Family could not even send out so much as a guide as almost all of the soldiers of their family are caught up in the massive battle."

"Oh, I see. Then it's fine," said the Second Prince, a little crestfallen.

"My Lord Count, I'd like to have that huge snow leopard and those two green-colored winter wolves. Oh, and that antelope over there catches my eye too. I wonder if you would be so kind to part with these carcasses..." Unlike the Second Prince, the queen was instead intrigued by the furs of the beasts.

"My beautiful queen, your servant will be more than happy to satisfy your demand. However, that white snow leopard and antelope is meant to be a new year's gift from Baron Norton to Princess Sylvia, so it is truly not my decision to make. As for the two winter wolves, I shall present them to you as a sign of my apology, my beautiful queen," Count Kenmays said apologetically.

The queen merely nodded before heading to Princess Sylvia and whispering something to her.

......

The Second Prince sat in his study with a middle-aged man standing before him.

"Did you manage to find out about it?" asked the Second Prince.

"I have, my king. That messenger said that when he met with the baron, he was leading his family soldiers and building a defense line at the plains using frozen ice walls to stop the charge of the magical beasts. The messenger reported clearly that all of the Norton Family soldiers were stationed at that defense line to the point that they couldn't afford to send even a single one of them to help out with the transport of the carcasses. That was why they messenger had no choice but to return to the dominion of the Kenmays Family to arrange for another transport convoy to complete the operation," replied the man respectfully.

The Second Prince then tapped on the table with his finger in deep thought.

"Your Majesty, the messenger also said that he had estimated that the soldiers at the defense line numbered only around 30000 people. He was quite worried that a small number of men as that would be unable to withstand the assault of the magical beasts."

"Oh, are you certain?" asked the Second Prince as a gleam shone through his eyes.

"Yes, Your Majesty. That messenger has long worked to deliver messages for the count and he is already used to the sight of their own troops of 30000 plus men training. That was why he was able to get a rough estimate of the number of soldiers of the Norton Family."

The Second Prince pondered for a while before changing the subject. "Have you seen the magical beasts at the square just now?"

"Yes, I have. The fatal wounds on the beasts' bodies were probably the cause of their deaths. That mammoth I saw seemed to have been struck by 3 ballista bolts before being attacked by infantry troops all over and collapsing with the fatal strike possibly coming from a spear thrust by a Gold ranked knight from the look of the wound on its forehead. I also noticed traces of blood at the bottom of the feet of the mammoth and that could be an indicator of the price the Norton Family paid to take down the beast.

"Those magical bulls also have sword and spear wounds on them, leading me to conclude that the Norton Family possibly does not have that many ballistas. Apart from the mammoth and a few larger magical bulls that have ballista wounds, the other magical beasts seem to have been killed with swords, pikes and axes. However, the smaller magical beasts looked like they were killed by a longbow instead," the middle-aged man expressed his detailed observations.

The Second Prince asked another question, "Have you found out where Baron Shazin obtained so much salt from?"

"Your Majesty, Baron Shazin purchased around 5 million kilograms of food from the duke's dominion during the 9th month of last year and shipped those to the Norton Family's dominion. That's why I suspect that the salt was produced in the land of the Nortons as there is a coast near the Bladedge Mountains. Also, the only parties that are selling salt are Baron Shazin and Count Kenmays. Both of them have good relations with Baron Norton and have a history of trading with their family."

The Second Prince stood up and started walking in circles in his study.

"Three years ago, the Norton Family's 40000 plus forces raided the duke's dominion and even defeated the Allied Noble Army led by Duke Loggins at Firmrock Castle in one fell swoop, thus forcing around 200000 citizens of the duke's dominion to move into their own. Ever since then, they have cast a strong presence on the tides of the Northlands...

"Ever since my arrival here, I've felt a little unsettled by the Norton Family's mysterious attitude. Not only did he decline my invitation and refuse to obey my orders, he even accepted a title from the Royal Family of the Andinaq Kingdom! That is outright treason! Even though I now command the First Legion, I still don't dare to prod the bear that is resting at a corner of the Northlands, because I'm worried that the army that I've toiled so hard to build up would end up in shambles in the aftermath of the conflict with the Raging Bear and allow others to have an opportunity to take a bite at my expense...

"On the other hand, I'm worried that if I allow the Norton Family to settle down their 200000 new citizens in peace, they would grow stronger gradually. However, today's news has made me really glad. Hahahaha..." The Second Prince started laughing out maniacally without warning.

"It seems that the Norton Family also has to deal with the magical beasts! Their 40000 plus troops three years back are only left with less than 30000 now. I wonder how many more men they will continue to lose for the rest of the winter. With the magical beasts attacking their dominion yearly like that, there is no way they will be able to settle the 200000 citizens down. That's why they have resorted to increasing their salt production to trade it for more food and even decided to sell off the precious weapons and metal armor of their family just to be able to sustain their population...

"I've never heard of a dumber dominion lord all my life. He truly is an embarrassment to us nobles. I've never understood why the Raging Bear chose to hide in a corner like a frightened turtle, but now I see that it was because they have took on a burden they couldn't sustain. Hehe, they think they can protect their dominion with only Firmrock Castle? In actuality, we don't even have to attack them up front. We can instead choose to surround them and cut them off from the outside world so that they lose access to food and sustenance. I'm sure that they will crumble after 6 months of encirclement, unless, they resort to cannibalism... Otherwise, they will be groveling before me to ask to be spared... Hahaha..."

"Your Majesty truly is wise," praised the middle-aged man.

The Second Prince continued in circles within his study before stopping entirely and said, "Have Viscount Zinderson visit the Norton Family's dominion again as my messenger to plant a spy there when the snow melts around the 15th day of the 3rd month. You will pretend to be a normal attendant and try to uncover more details about the Norton Family to see if they are truly crippled by the onslaught of the magical beasts."

"Your will is my command, Your Majesty," said the middle-aged man before he left.

......

On the 15th day of the 3rd month within the grand hall of Firmrock Castle, Lorist delivered his speech of gratitude to his knights and administrative officers. "During the 5th month last year, we were seated here within this exact hall when we laid out our plans for the rest of the year. However, it's only the 3rd month right now and we've gathered here once again. 'Why is that so?', some of you may ask... That's because we have already persevered through the long and grueling battle with the magical beasts and have eliminated the magical beast wave! From today onwards, we will be able to live calm and peaceful lives...

"I thank you all for your sincere efforts. As for the brave soldiers who have sacrificed themselves for this endeavor..." Lorist proceeded to bow deeply to the knights and the officers of the family, who quickly got up and returned the bow.

"Norton... Norton... Norton..." A chant started to brew within the hall.

Lorist waved both his hands downwards to gesture for the chant to quiet down for him to continue his speech. "For the past three years, we have been dealing with the magical beast wave as well as developing the dominion. During this time, we have constructed new houses, roads, and even started multiple factories. We have developed the empty wasteland from nothing into the one we see today. As your dominion lord, I feel proud for all of your achievements and the talent you all have."

The hall once again erupted with applause.

"That's why we will begin mass agricultural development in Felicitas Settlement, beginning first with building the irrigation, thus fulfilling one of the family's promises to our citizens by assigning them some farmland so that they can start their peaceful and blissful lives here with us," Lorist announced.

Reidy and Patt stepped forward and hung a huge map in the middle of the hall.

"Now, I will brief you all on the focus of the family for the coming years," Lorist said as he took a small wooden stick and walked towards the huge map.

"As everyone of you know, the Northlands is rural and isolated from hugely populated areas. Originally, there were only two routes in and out of the Northlands and a new suspension bridge at the eastern Northlands have also been built recently. Despite that, one of the routes at Metropoulos River has been sealed off by Duke Madras, preventing anyone from crossing the river there. That can be said to be our fault as the northbound convoy did indeed act a little out of hand while crossing the duchy," Lorist joked.

Quite a number of ex-convoy members within the hall laughed out loud as well.

"With the crossing point downstream blocked off, the Northlands only has two exits. However, we must be aware that both of these routes head towards the border of the Iblia Kingdom. For example, even though the Kenmays Family controls the suspension bridge at the east, they have to face the pressure of the troops of Duke Fisablen's Frontier Legion and arm themselves as a precaution.

"As for our family, we have never really placed our interests in these routes as it would take far too long to reach the central nations of the Grindia Continent by traveling on land. There are also too many variables to look out for using that mode of travel. I trust that all of you don't want another experience of traveling with a huge convoy.

"For now, we will focus our attention towards the sea. Look over here. If we are able to find a suitable place to build a port at the Bladedge Mountains, we will be able to form a trading fleet and have access to the Madras Duchy, the Andinaq Kingdom, the western part of the Redlis Kingdom, the Lormo Duchy, the Hanayabarta Kingdom as well as reach Morante City within one month of travel using a sea route. We can even reach the Relic Islands as well as many other nations that are near the coasts.

"However, we still haven't been able to locate a suitable place to build a port at Bladedge Mountains. But, that doesn't mean that there isn't one within the dominion. Look at this map here," Lorist said before he instructed Reidy to hang out a different map.

"This map details the most dangerous terrain within the family dominion: Blackmud Marsh," Lorist said.

The people within the hall gasped in unison before they began to chatter.

"Everyone, please quiet down. Perhaps some of you have heard that anyone below the Silver rank should not even enter the marsh. That is in fact true because there are savage magical beasts living within the marsh such as Ironspine Crocodiles. Only blade glows of Silver ranked fighters can injure those beasts. But, if you take a closer look at the map, you will realize why I chose Blackmud Marsh to be where we build our port."

Lorist pointed at a spot on the map with his wooden stick and said, "This here is the Azure River. It stretches from the depths of the Magical Dragon Mountains to the ocean coast and splits the marsh into two parts. The marsh on the side of our dominion is only a fourth of the whole Blackmud Marsh. And over here near the border of the marsh and Bladedge Mountains is a bay. That is the perfect place for us to build the port!

"In actuality, after doing some research on the documents archived by the family, the real Blackmud Marsh is actually on the other side of the Azure River. It is because during winter, the ice that forms on the river often blocks off the river opening to the sea, causing the overflowed river water to flow onto the bank of the Azure River on our dominion's side frequently, eventually turning that part of the dominion into part of the marsh.

"Right now, we will try to change the marsh on our side for it to serve as a home to our port. Near the river is a tortoise-shaped mound which we call Tortoise Hill. We will build a wall from Tortoise Hill all the way to Hidebull Mound to connect those two places. That way, no magical beast or barbarian will be able to pose a threat to the family.

"After that, we will build an embankment along the Azure River all the way from the Tortoise Mountain to the border of the Bladedge Mountains to prevent the Ironspine Crocodiles from attacking that wall as well as the river from overflowing. Upon completion of the embankment, the rich land around the Blackmud Marsh can be developed into rich farmland and a thriving port city..."

Chapter 187 Development Plans

"Milord, I have a question..." said Supervisor Hansk who was the head of the allocation department as he stood up. "If we were to build a 10 plus kilometer wall and another embankment that stretches around 50 kilometers, as well as build a port and clear out the magical beasts within the part of the Blackmud Marsh near our dominion, this will be a huge undertaking and will definitely span a long time. How much manpower and resources does the family plan to invest and where would we get all these resources?"

Lorist nodded towards Supervisor Hansk before pointing the wooden stick to the map of Blackmud Marsh. "I have come up with this plan with the future of the family in mind. To realize this plan, we will have to rely on everyone's efforts. Not only that, this plan will even affect the prosperity of the family for the coming hundreds of years. Once we achieve it, our family dominion will no longer merely be in a rural corner of the Northlands and will be the main cornerstone for humanity's venture into the wildlands and unknowns.

"This plan to build a port will definitely have a long term effect on the family's development. As for manpower and resource allocation, the family is definitely committed to it. We will support this venture with all we can regardless of the cost. No matter how long it takes, we have to complete this venture. Now, may I have Grandmaster Ciroba and Mister Zanben stand up for a bit..."

At the back of the hall, Grandmaster Ciroba and the slightly tanned Zanben both stood up.

Telesti had gotten two maidservants to take care of the grandmaster perhaps due to her pity for his experiences. Because of that, Grandmaster Ciroba looked rather well and no longer shivered in absolute terror when he saw Lorist like before. Even though he still seemed a little stiff, it was quite commendable of him to be able to retain his calm when faced with the many curious stares of others within the hall.

As for Zanben, the former talented slave laborer among the 2000 plus laborers bought by the Kenmays Family that was promoted by Telesti, he had already gained Lorist's trust after his involvement with the construction of the defense infrastructures of the many towns and villages within Felicitas Settlement. That was why he was allowed to attend the family meeting along with Grandmaster Ciroba. But because it was his first time, he felt a little unnerved being the center of attention.

"I must first thank Grandmaster Ciroba and Mister Zanben for their efforts of surveying the land from Blackmud Marsh all the way to the bay at Bladedge Mountains which took up to half a year. Even though they have experienced some potentially life-threatening experiences, their efforts still resulted in the culmination of the method and procedures of this development plan.

"From today onwards, I intend to form a construction department headed by Grandmaster Ciroba with Mister Zanben as his aide to manage this huge project of constructing the sea port. The other departments of the family shall aid and cooperate with them in all construction-related matters," Lorist said as he waved his hand to gesture for Grandmaster Ciroba and Zanben to sit back down. Since they were already introduced to the others within the hall, there was no longer a need for them to remain standing.

Lorist once again pointed to the map with the stick and said, "For the next five years, we will work on gaining control of this part of the Blackmud Marsh to set up the foundation for the plan. There will be three main components which we will have to focus on. The first component is the completion of the initial stages of construction for the citadel at Hidebull Mound as well as the foundations of the 20-kilometer wall from Tortoise Hill. The surrounding area of Tortoise Hill will be cleansed and a defense camp will be set up there.

"The second component is to build a path from the middle of the Blackmud Marsh connecting it to the Highlands over here.

"The third component concerns the Bladedge Mountains. We will start collecting rocks and earth here to fill up the gullies and the swamp around the parts from Bladedge Mountains to the place where the Azure River meets the ocean. By filling up the reefs and connecting them to the bay, that place will be able to serve as the departure point for the ships of our family."

Lorist then shook his head and laughed bitterly before he said, "There is no doubt that this undertaking will cost us lots of manpower and resources. However, as long as we take this first step and continue down the journey, there will be a day when we complete it. No matter whether it will take 10 or even 20 years, we must definitely achieve that milestone! As long as we have this port, we will definitely have a bright future ahead of us!

"Old Man Balk, your task this year will be really important. Not only do you have to gather up the carpenters who have experience building ships to begin research and development into constructing large sea vessels, you also have to head to the Black Forests to find some wood that will be suitable material for those ships and have them dried in the shade. The moment we connect the Bladedge Mountains and the sea port with the highland hills, you will have to find a suitable spot to build a shipyard. I hope that by next year, we will be able to use the bay to begin training our sailors and navy troops."

Balk stood up and said confidently, "Please be assured, milord. I will definitely complete this task. It is also my earnest wish to one day see the magnificent sight of the ships flying the Norton flag being sent out to sea..."

Lorist laughed out loud said, "Things occur because people act. That day will definitely come. As long as we put in effort, there is no unachievable goal."

Lorist turned his attention back to the map and said, "As for the future plans of the family, I'm sure that all of you are aware of the three components I've just mentioned. As for our security during the development process, I will have the carroballista brigade be the main force to defend us from the Ironspine Crocodiles in the marsh. I will also have all the Silver ranked swordsmen and knights form smaller groups to escort the carroballista brigade when they travel.

"Since the roads within Felicitas Settlement are almost completely built, I will use the 30000 plus laborers there as manpower for the three main components of the plan. Apart from some of them whom I will assign to help out with the mining efforts, the rest of them will all be sent to the Blackmud Marsh."

"Wait, milord, you seem to have forgotten a key point," said the human resource department head, Supervisor Kedan, as he stood up.

"What's wrong?" Lorist asked.

"Milord, some time back, you have promised the laborers that you would free them after three years of labor. And that term will end by the 5th month of this year. We will have no choice but to let them go," Kedan reminded.

"Ugh..." Lorist said as he facepalmed. "I apologize, I have indeed forgotten about that. Thank you for your reminder. That means that they only have two months of service left?"

"Yes, milord. Should we extend their term by one year?" Kedan suggested.

"There's no need. We must definitely not go back on our word. This is a matter that concerns the reputation and prestige of our family and we cannot treat it lightly. For now, have the laborers finalize the construction of the roads at Felicitas Settlement and carry out the final touches. After that, let them take a break," Lorist said.

"However, milord, some laborers already have their family members moved into the dominion by us, and a good number of them have decided to remain within the dominion and also hope that they can bring their families here. Others who have awakened their Battle Force also want to join our family forces," Kedan said.

"Hmmm, then let those who want to remain do so. You will be in charge of registering the family members of the laborers who have decided to stay that come into the dominion. Now that the Felicitas Settlement has a stable foundation, let's allocate some farmland and houses to these laborers and treat them no different than we would our own citizens. Help those with other skills find jobs as well and we can also offer loans to those who wish to start their own production workshops. Remember, don't look down on them just because they have been our prisoners, okay?" Lorist reminded as he made his decision.

"Milord, what about those who want to join the family forces?"

"Take them in as long as they satisfy the Battle Force requirements. The Iron ranked ones can first be accepted into the new recruit camp for three months of training before being assigned to more specialized units according to their individual skills."

"Milord, I was just about to report to you that from last year to now, the new recruit camp has produced around 5000 soldiers with awakened Battle Force apart from those who were disqualified because they couldn't keep up. All of them are eager to be enlisted into our official forces," Belnick said as he stood up.

Even though Lorist specified that the formal soldiers of the family had to have at least Iron ranked Battle Force, 75 percent of the 16 brigades of the family don't meet that requirement with most of them still being at the Bronze rank. That's why he had no choice but to have the respective leaders of the brigades organize regular training sessions every day so that they rise up to the Iron rank as soon as possible.

When the family forces were first reorganized, there were around 10000 youths around the ages of 20 who have been removed from the forces because they didn't meet the minimum Battle Force requirement. They were subsequently sent to train within the new recruit camp. Surprisingly, many of them awakened their Battle Force within a short half year.

After some consideration, Lorist felt that there wouldn't be a point for those soldiers to remain within the new recruit camp and decided that it would be better for them to be assigned to other units.

"How about this," Lorist said. "Since the carroballista brigades will play a huge role in the development of Blackmud Marsh, we will expand it by two more brigades into a total of 5 with a soldier count of around 15000 men, essentially making it a complete division. Gold ranked knight Mons Malek, you shall pass on your duties on managing the patrol companies of the seven central towns of Felicitas Settlement and take up the position as commander of the carroballista division with Dulles as your second in command."

The emotionless Malek stood up and said, "Yes, milord."

Dulles also stood up at the same time. He understood that his Battle Force was still at the Three Star Silver rank and he also had some trouble controlling and disciplining some experienced soldiers within the three brigades he commanded. Given that complaints of discontent were already floating around among his troops, there was no way that he would be able to shoulder the burden of the two additional brigades. The reason Lorist appointed Iron-faced Malek to become the commander of the new division was probably because he had heard of such troubles and decided to reinforce the discipline of that unit.

That was why Dulles didn't feel at all discouraged by Lorist's decision. In fact, he was even a little thankful. "Milord, I will definitely help Knight Malek to the best of my ability in the management of the carroballista division."

Lorist nodded and said, "It is one of the main forces of the family troops and I have high hopes for you all."

"It is in safe hands, milord," Malek and Dulles said as they saluted.

Lorist then turned to Belnick and said, "If the number of laborers who want to join the army is enough for two brigades, make one brigade of armored pike cavalrymen and another brigade of heavy-armored infantry soldiers. However, make sure that they receive the basic three month training and understand the regulations of our army well before assigning them to their respective units."

"Understood, milord," Belnick responded.

Potterfang and Loze also stood up and said, "Thank you, milord."

"The two of you will have to work hard too. Pick a few experienced soldiers from your troops and have them serve as instructors in the new recruit camp to help Knight Belnick with training the fresh recruits. Pog, I am especially satisfied with the attack formation you devised with small teams of ten. However, you still have to practice and improve upon any weaknesses you may find."

"Yes, milord. I will work hard on it," Potterfang replied.

"Alright. Back to the main topic. Since we're no longer able to utilize the manpower of the 30000 prisoners, we will have to turn to our own people. I hereby order that our family forces who are off-duty to work in shifts of three months to develop the Blackmud Marsh. Whether they be of the main family forces or the local garrison forces, they have to participate in this endeavor. The garrison of each village and central town will have to take turns to work there. Naturally, the soldiers of the main family force will have to serve too as this concerns the future of the whole dominion," Lorist said.

"But, milord, why don't we just recruit laborers from the citizens of Felicitas Settlement? It won't be hard to find 100000 free laborers from our 500000 citizens. They'll work as long as we feed them well," Terman said as he felt that letting his knights work as measly laborers was extremely demeaning.

Lorist's expression turned sour right away. He gave everyone within the hall a look before turning his attention back to Terman. "I hope that all of you can understand a simple principle. The forces of the Norton Family is not a tool we use to oppress our citizens, nor are they superior to those citizens who are not enlisted in our forces. Instead, they are their protectors. They should be the ones whom the citizens of our dominion place their trust in as well as the ones who pave the way for the development of the future of the dominion. Additionally, they are the most reliable force available to the dominion lord who are willing to even climb mountains of blades and enter seas of fire to achieve the lord's goals. In other words, they are the most resilient executors of the lord's will.

"Now, do you still honestly think that serving the family by contributing to the construction work is an insult to your personage? My hope is that everyone within the dominion, no matter they be family knights or family soldiers, will become the constructors of our own home so that tens of years later in the future, you all can be proud of the prosperous cities and rich farmlands and stand tall when you tell your children and grandchildren that it was you who had turned the wastelands into the grand spectacle they see before them. It was you, who have put in your efforts in turning the Blackmud Marsh into the haven they live in.

"As your dominion lord, I will also accompany you and work alongside you at the development site itself just like any common soldier so that I can make my own contributions to the family's future."

"Milord, you don't have to say anything else. It was my mistake. I will definitely strive towards becoming one of the constructors of the dominion's future myself," Terman said as he sat back down in shame.

"In actuality, you're not entirely wrong, Terman. I have no doubt that many others will have the same opinion you did and question why I don't just use the citizens as my workforce instead," Lorist said with a solemn voice. "It's not that I didn't think about it. However, the citizens of Felicitas Settlement has just managed to settle down and wouldn't be able to handle the additional burdens this project will place on them. We, the Norton Family, can't just make decisions based on what we see now. I'm sure you all know that since the magical beast wave is eliminated, we must proceed to develop farmland at the settlement to be able to sustain the food consumption of the dominion.

"Starting from next year, we will start collecting taxes from the citizens that settled there. That's why, we must also work harder to ensure that they can begin their peaceful new lives here without a hitch. Apart from criminals and prisoners of war, the Norton Family will not use our own citizens as free laborers. While we can offer to pay them to work on the construction when most of the farming is done, we will definitely not force them to work as unpaid laborers so that they don't feel like second class citizens of the dominion. That is a small insistence of mine as the dominion lord."

The hall quieted down before erupting into a torrent of applause.

"Milord, we are grateful for your benevolent intentions," said the family knights of common birth like Potterfang as they stood up and saluted Lorist in unison.

"Alright, now that the general direction of progression for the family's development has been decided, let me brief you all on the specifics. There will be an administrative department formed for each central town of the seven sectors of Felicitas Settlement. These departments will collectively form the administrative institution of the family dominion which will be led by Knight Charade with Butler Boris as the vice head. Other than the seven central towns, the Maplewoods Bastide and the rear city at Firmrock Castle will also fall under the jurisdiction of the administrative institution.

"Mister Camorra, please stand up," Lorist said.

The current vice head of the human resources department, formerly known as Baron Camorra, stood up.

"I hereby appoint Mister Camorra as the main supervisor of the military resources department. From today onwards, the management of the military provisions will be done separately from that of the citizens. The military resources department will be in charge of the allocation of weapons and equipment, food and other consumables as well as the benefits and salaries of our family soldiers. As you all know, Grandmaster Sid has just developed a set of metal armor that is far superior to that of the Whitelion Legion. Therefore, Mister Camorra's first assignment will be handling the replacement of the Whitelion Legion equipment of the family forces with the new armor across the various brigades of our forces. I hope everyone will be patient as well, your turn will definitely come," Lorist said as he laughed.

"Alright, meeting adjourned. The various department heads and brigade leaders will have to stay back for a little longer. The rest of you may rest today and tomorrow and we will set out to the Blackmud Marsh the day after. Let's all put in our fair share of work as one into the development of the dominion for the prosperity of the family."

"Yes, milord!"

Chapter 188 The Ultimatum

Viscount Zinderson departed from Gildusk City on the 15th day of the 3rd month as the Second Prince's messenger. As the snow was still melting, the roads were muddy and hard to traverse and he arrived at Firmrock Castle by the 23rd day of that month. At that time, Lorist had already brought around 40000 of his forces to the Blackmud Marsh to begin gathering stones and earth in preparation for laying the foundations for roads to be built there.

Charade, who was in charge of various miscellaneous tasks at Firmrock Castle, received Viscount Zinderson. Upon hearing that he had come as a messenger of the Second Prince, Charade asked him to rest for a few days so that he could contact Lorist and ask him to return.

On the morning of the 25th day of the 3rd month, Lorist was standing before the carcass of an Ironspine Crocodile that was almost ten meters long and inspecting that beast's weakness. The crocodile's body was impaled with more than 30 iron ballista bolts and it was one of the largest they have encountered during the past few days. Even though it had sustained the strikes of more than 30 bolts, it still struggled intensely like a lively tiger and rushed towards the carroballista brigade with its fangs and claws bared.

Had it not been for the good fortune which allowed one of those bolts to pierce through its tail and nail it on the ground almost 30 meters from the carroballista brigade, that reptile might have began a massacre at the defense lines of the brigade. It was not until the crocodile breathed its last breath that everyone let out a breath of relief.

"Milord, look. This Ironspine Crocodile died because of this bolt that pierced its lower jaw into its head. At that time, it was nailed to the ground at its tail but it was still rushing forward with all its might with its head raised, allowing us to fire a bolt to its underjaw. As for the 30 plus bolts on its body, even though they did injure the beast, they weren't fatal nor effective and only served to provoke it further. We were quite lucky this time around to have not lost any men to this ferocious beast," said Malek, who was the current commander of the carroballista division.

"During the past few days, we've killed around tens of those crocodiles and even the largest one was only 5 meters long and died from 5 ballista bolts. We were too careless and thought that those crocodiles were the worst the marsh could throw at us and that there was nothing to worry about. To think that an even larger one showed up... It seems that our steel ballistas won't be that effective against these larger ones. The bolts on its body seem like small toothpicks," Els described the situation imaginatively.

"Given the size of Blackmud Marsh, there might just be crocodiles that are even larger than this. Milord, even though this one is already around 2 meters tall, I've read in the family records that they can be as tall as 5 meters as well. I wonder how long would a crocodile of that height be... I heard they were essentially as large as a small mound," said Patt worryingly.

Lorist nodded and said, "That said, the development of the marsh must continue. We must best the obstacles no matter how large they may seem. However, I will be wary of your warnings as well. To be honest, even I didn't imagine that we would have so much trouble with the beasts given that we have our steel ballistas. Reidy, make a trip to Grandmaster Fellin's and ask him if he can construct an even larger steel ballista for use against these Ironspine Crocodiles. It doesn't have to adhere to the strict military standards of those used in the carroballista division, so it's fine if it takes more time to operate. I only need it to have at least twice the power."

"Yes, milord. I'll depart right now," Reidy said before he left.

"Alright. Malek, have someone deal with this carcass. Even though it looks ferocious and savage, its meat tastes pretty good, you know. Tell the rest that we're having crocodile meat today. Don't forget to keep the leather as well. This leather is the ideal material for the leather armor of our navy troops," Lorist instructed. "Also, tell the others to pay attention to pay attention to their safety when they work later. It's okay for them to work at a slower pace. If the sky starts darkening, have them stop for the day lest they be ambushed by crocodiles."

"Alright, milord. I will caution them well," Malek replied.

At that moment, Jim brought a few others over. He was currently a regiment leader of the guard division. "MIlord, Knight Charade sent someone over to pass the message that Viscount Zinderson has come to visit again as the messenger of the Second Prince and he hopes that you can return to Firmrock Castle sooner."

Huh? Lorist was a little shocked as he thought, what's the Second Prince up to again? Even though I've already refused him so many times, he still hasn't given up. Isn't he worried that I will once again refuse him this time around? I have no time for the silly games of nobles. How annoyingly persistent.

After a pause, Lorist said, "Have Viscount Zinderson stay there for a few more days. I will head there within two days."

......

"My deepest apologies, Viscount Zinderson, for making you wait for long. I've really been far too busy with various matters."

Lorist only made his way back to Firmrock Castle on the 28th day of the 3rd month. Without bothering to take a bath to wash off all the sweat and dust from traveling, he met with Viscount Zinderson right away.

"I suppose it's understandable. After all, your family must be busy fending off the magical beasts during the whole winter. To be honest with you, Baron Norton, I have seen the carcasses of the magical beasts back at Gildusk City and I truly express my deepest respects to your family's efforts. It's no wonder the Norton Family is also known as the Raging Bear of the Northlands. Only a family like yours can bear *Ryogawa: pun unintended* to resist the fierce assault of beasts like that," Viscount Zinderson praised.

"I appreciate your compliment. Might I enquire why you've made your visit?" Lorist asked, not even bothering to put up with the pleasantries and going straight to the point.

"Oh. This time around, I have come on His Majesty's behalf to deliver a letter to you and inform him of your response. The letter is here with me and I believe he expressed his worries and concerns for your family's heroic battle against the magical beasts within it," Viscount Zinderson said as he passed the letter over.

Lorist received the letter with a smile and said, "Oh, isn't it a little too much to send a viscount like you all the way here for a small task like this? Couldn't he have sent a normal messenger? It's a little bit of overkill for His Majesty the King to send you here just to deliver a letter."

Viscount Zinderson mocked himself in a joking manner and said, "Oh, Lord Baron, you truly give me too much credit. I'm merely an honorary noble and not a landed noble like you. Also, I don't really have much on my plate, so doing various errands for the king is the least I can do."

"Lord Viscount, you're being far too humble," Lorist smiled before tearing the envelope open.

Sol! This Second Prince must have gone crazy. There's definitely something wrong with that head of his!

Even though Lorist felt like cursing out loud, since Viscount Zinderson was right in front of him, he had no choice but to resist the urge.

The tone of the Second Prince in the letter was unlike the pleasant one within his previous letter. In fact, the Second Prince launched into three demands straight away.

First, Lorist was to head to Gildusk City before the 5th month to meet the Second Prince to pledge his allegiance to him and present a fitting gift as a sign of respect.

Second, the Norton Family must pay 500000 gold Fordes to the Second Prince as a punishment for the disrespect they have shown the Second Prince.

Third, from that year onwards, the Norton Family must provide the Second Prince with 5 million kilograms of salt without any cost annualy.

At the end of the letter, the Second Prince stated that he was already unable to bear the Norton Family's refusals to his numerous gestures of goodwill. He stressed that if the Norton Family refused these demands of his once more, he would form an allied noble army and march towards the Firmrock Castle. He warned Lorist that the fate of the Norton Family hung on his decision to accept the demands or not and advised him to choose wisely.

Only a madman would dare to imagine that this would go his way. He must've received some kind of stimulation that prompted him to issue an ultimatum to the family like this. That letter was akin to a declaration of war as there was no way that Lorist would agree to those unreasonable terms. Where did that bastard gain his confidence from? His First Legion that has only been formed for one year? Hahaha...

Lorist raised his head with a cold smile and asked, "Lord Viscount, are you sure you want my reply to this?"

Viscount Zinderson nodded and said, "Yes, His Majesty stressed that I must have a reply from you before I return."

"Alright, please wait a moment," Lorist said before he sat down on his desk and quickly drafted a response.

"Tarkel," Lorist said as he pulled onto the rope bell to summon Tarkel into the room.

"The Lord Viscount has traveled far and must've suffered quite a bit to get here. Go get a few magical beast furs and give it to him as a sign of our gratitude for his troubles," Lorist instructed.

"Yes, milord," Tarkel said before he left.

Lorist handed the letter he wrote to Viscount Zinderson and said, "Please forgive me, Viscount Zinderson. The Norton Family's dominion is located in the rural, far ends of the Northlands and there isn't anything valuable that we can present to you. The most fitting gifts that I can think of are these furs which I present to you as an apology for not being able to offer anything better. I am also really sorry for the troubles you have went through to carry out this errand."

Viscount Zinderson happily accepted the letter and said, "Thank you, Lord Baron, for your gift. Actually, I do fancy these furs quite a lot."

......

Bam! The Second Prince smashed his chair right on his desk in front of Viscount Zinderson. On the desk was a beastskin which was Lorist's reply to the Second Prince's letter, on which only a single, huge 'Ptoooey!' was written.

The Second Prince was so mad that his face flushed completely red. The response he received was akin to a square slap in the face by Lorist. When he first saw the letter, he recalled the last letter Lorist wrote him which contained only the words 'Top Kek' which evoked a massively humiliating feeling in his mind and couldn't control his anger any longer, causing him to unwittingly stand up and smash his chair onto the desk despite being in the presence of Viscount Zinderson.

The loud bang snapped the Second Prince out of his fury. Even though the chair was completely shattered, the letter Lorist wrote was still in pristine condition, causing rage to well up in the Second Prince once again. However, he managed to suppress himself and waved towards Viscount Zinderson as he said, "Buzz off. And don't you go around blabbering about this."

Viscount Zinderson retreated with a pale face as he hurriedly said, "Yes, Your Majesty."

The only ones who remained within the study were the Second Prince and the man who had disguised himself as Viscount Zinderson's attendant during the visit to Firmrock Castle.

"How dare he... How dare the Norton Family disrespect me so dismissively? Do they think that they will be safe just because they have Firmrock Castle locking us out? Well, I will crush their naive dreams and will never forgive them. They will pay this price in blood. Only their fresh blood can wash away the humiliation I have received..." roared the Second Prince as he paced around in his study.

After a while, the Second Prince stopped in front of the silent man and said, "Tell me, what did you manage to find out during the visit?"

The middle-aged man bowed down and said, "Your Majesty, as you have predicted, the defenses at Firmrock Castle is extremely lax and I estimate that they have only 3 companies of roughly 1500 men defending that place. Three companies of troops are responsible for the defense of the front, middle and back walls of the castle respectively. Regrettably, I didn't encounter a single Norton Family soldier when I visited the taverns and inns over there. Apart from the walls and the army camps, the soldiers were not allowed to go anywhere else."

As the middle-aged man didn't know about Lorist's reorganization of the military structure, he could only see the Norton Family soldiers through the mold of the First Legion's organizational structure. He wasn't aware that almost all the family soldiers of the Norton Family had been deployed to develop the Blackmud Marsh and at least half of the soldiers defending Firmrock Castle had been sent away as well with their shifts rotating every three months.

"I've heard one of the tavern owners complain that after every winter, some magical beasts will remain in the dominion even if the wave has passed and that seriously affects the agricultural development and the spring harvests. That's why the Norton Family soldiers will still be occupied with killing the rest of the magical beasts. That's also where they get their source of meat. The tavern said that the effort usually lasts till the 5th month. I believe this year will be similar as well."

Apart from informing the family knights and administrative officers of the dominion, the development of the marsh to build a port was not publicly announced. The fact that the family soldiers were mobilized to work on the project also made the citizens within the dominion think that they were being deployed for the usual hunt for the magical beasts post the yearly wave.

"Your Majesty, I also discovered that the Norton Family's second line of defense, which are the garrison soldiers that are responsible for the security of the place, number only very few. Even the warehouses were only guarded by ten plus people each, far less than a usual squad. Additionally, behind Firmrock Castle, a new city has been constructed and is defended by only less than 300 garrison soldiers. Also, I used the excuse to visit the Martyrs' Graveyard to climb up a hill that was near the rear city walls of Firmrock Castle and discovered that there was not even one defense ballista atop those walls. It seems that they have lost a huge number of ballistas from their battles with the magical beasts."

The middle-aged man was indeed a talented spy. However, he didn't know that Lorist had actually reformed the command units of his forces with the smallest squads numbering only 10 men. When it came to keeping an eye on the warehouses, that arrangement was in fact ideal as before the reformation, the 100 plus men of each squad was far too large a number for a menial task like guarding a warehouse, resulting in many of them sitting around having nothing better to do. Also, almost half of the soldiers from the garrison regiment at the walls of the rear city of Firmrock Castle were deployed as laborers for the marsh development project with the middle-aged spy to know no better.

Thus, the middle-aged man took the drastically small number of soldiers there to be a sign that the Norton Family was extremely lacking in military might. The absence of any ballistas at the wall of the rear city also seemed to convince him further about the theory that the Norton Family lost a lot of men and equipment from battling the magical beasts. That's why he believed that the reason the Norton Family refused the Second Prince's demands was due to their pride as a noble family and not the fact that they could back themselves up in terms of military might.

"Hahahaha..." After hearing the conjectures of the middle-aged man, the Second Prince laughed out maniacally.

"After the winter harvest concludes in the 5th month, I want to deploy my soldiers in a campaign against the Norton Family," said the Second Prince coldly.

"Coincidentally, the various nobles of the Northlands will gather for their regular alliance meeting. At that time, I only have to announce that the Norton Family has disrespected me and showed signs of rebellion with Baron Norton's acceptance of the title granted by the Andinaq Royal Family as proof to declare war against their family with the aid of the noble alliance."

"Your Majesty, you should also be vary of Baron Shazin and Count Kenmays. Those two have had business relations with the Norton Family and they also have strong forces of their own. It's better if you be on guard towards them as well," reminded the middle-aged man.

The Second Prince nodded and said, "I am well aware of that. When they come to the alliance meeting, I will forcefully hold them back to make them contribute to the campaign. Baron Shazin shall give me at least 10000 soldiers and since the Kenmays Family has a force of 30000 men, they will naturally have to send 20000 of them to me at the very least if they want their count to survive that ordeal.

"There's also Baron Felim from the Family of the Pegasus. That guy also has quite a formidable force in his hands, so I'll have him send 5000 of them my way as well. Apart from the Norton Family, these three noble families are the most powerful ones at the moment. This time around, not one of them can hope to sit back idly and must all do their part in this campaign. Then again, Baron Felim has always been rather respectful towards me, so I might just raise his title after this campaign if he performs well..."

"Your Majesty truly is wise," praised the middle-aged man. "So, how many soldiers does Your Majesty plan to deploy against the Norton Family?"

The Second Prince fell into deep thought before he said, "This campaign will be a good chance to show off the prowess of my kingdom's army, the First Legion, to these backwater nobles. The First Legion shall deploy 50000 troops for this campaign and leave behind 10000 troops to guard the main camp. The remaining two regiments will be in charge of the supply lines."

"Your Majesty, isn't that a little too much for a small family like the Nortons?" asked the middle-aged man.

"You don't understand. The Norton Family doesn't even consider me a worthy adversary. But, we only need to lock them in their dominion for half a year to win without even engaging in a single battle with them. I'd like to see how the Norton Family plans to feed their 200000 plus citizens without access to food from outside their dominion. I won't be that stupid to have my First Legion attack the Firmrock Castle head-on and cause any unnecessary losses.

"The deployment of the First Legion is mainly to pressure Baron Shazin and Count Kenmays's forces to attack the castle in our stead. With the might of the First Legion, let's see how many nobles of the Northlands dare to hold any reservations about serving me. I hope that after this victory against the Norton Family, the situation of the Northlands will be able to stabilize, causing it to become a rich provider of food and soldiers for me in the future," said the Second Prince.

"Your Majesty truly is wise!"

Chapter 189 The Onset of War

Lorist wasn't aware at all that the Second Prince had made his decision to deploy his troops against the Norton Family; in fact, the reason he believed that the Second Prince was crazy in making his ludicrous demands known was because he felt that there was no way that the Second Prince would willingly engage in a full-on conflict against him and believed that the Second Prince's letter was merely an empty threat. Lorist thought that the word 'insane' wouldn't even be able to aptly capture the essence of the Second Prince's mania.

Had it not been for the fact that most of the elite troops of the Norton Family were occupied with developing Blackmud Marsh, Lorist would've taken the initiative and mobilized his troops to teach the Second Prince a lesson himself. However, seeing that the Second Prince had nothing else to say in his letter, Lorist didn't take it seriously and even confidently wrote his insulting reply in hopes that the figurative slap on the face his letter represented would wake the Second Prince out from his pipe dream.

At that moment, Lorist was standing atop a huge wooden 'tank', which was what Lorist called this new carroballista devised by Grandmaster Fellin to satisfy Lorist's request. Apart from its size that is easily three times that of the normal steel ballistas, the 3.6-meter-long, cone-tipped, armor-piercing bolts it used were far heavier than the riding lances used by Terman's knights.

For the convenient installation of the humongous ballista, Grandmaster Fellin also had some experienced master carpenters fashion a large flat cart for ease of transportation. When Lorist first saw the 5 pairs of wooden wheels beneath the cart, he immediately named the 7-meter-long contraption a tank.

It's a shame that the tank wasn't able to move by itself. Given its size, it also took 15 days, a staggeringly long time, to be transported from the ballista workshop at Bladedge Mountains all the way to the Blackmud Marsh with the aid of ten huge work horses. After that, the tank's wheels got caught in a pothole at the marsh, causing Lorist to have to gather 50 family knights and tens of horses to spend half a day hauling it out of the pothole.

"There wasn't any other choice. Due to the incredible recoil generated by the firing of this ballista, normal carts would easily be torn apart from the recoil. That's why this platform cart is not hollow and weighs around 2500 kilograms," Grandmaster Fellin explained in a slightly embarrassed tone.

"Grandmaster Fellin, what you've made is nothing short of a road roller! Didn't you notice that the paths this carroballista traveled through have all been flattened nicely?" Lorist joked. "Tell me more about the might of this ballista."

After that debacle, Lorist still felt that it was better to just call it a carroballista. Even though it did have five sets of wheels, the lack of autonomous mobility is a huge disadvantage.

"The main problem we're facing now still comes from the custom made ballista bolts. Bolts as long as those are a little too heavy and the weight will severely impact the accuracy of the ballista. Despite that, the force of the bolt is indeed increased and it has a firing range of around 500 meters. I can assure you that even a crocodile of 20 meters in length will be killed if hit by a single bolt," Grandmaster Fellin praised his creation confidently.

"Ironspine Crocodile! Careful, they're here! Three of them from the left! There's a huge one and two smaller ones! Carroballista units, prepare to engage!" shouted one of the scouting soldiers at the front. Reports like these were already a common occurrence since two months back, so everyone returned to their usual jobs without bothering with the presence of the magical beasts as they were confident that the carroballista units would protect them well.

Of the three components of the development project drafted by Lorist, the first one which involved the construction of a wall from Hidebull Mound to Tortoise Hill so far hasn't encountered with any troubles with Ironspine Crocodiles. The other component involved filling out tens of meters of the marsh to connect the marsh to the highland hills where the port is near. Given that rocks and earth were constantly rolled down the Mountains, the Ironspine Crocodiles naturally didn't interfere. Additionally, the crocodiles showed little to no interest with the sea and usually wouldn't approach its vicinity, so there was no need to worry about the safety of workers there.

So only the central component of the plan, which was constructing a road from the Blackmud Marsh all the way to the highland hills, was under constant threat of Ironspine Crocodile attacks. There, the carroballista division has already eliminated over 200 of those magical beasts.

Lorist jumped down from the gigantic carroballista and ran forward to take a look. A little over a hundred meters into the marsh, three faint ripples in the mud could be seen approaching. Based on the displacement of the mud, Lorist estimated that the two crocodiles on the left and right are not that big, being only around the 4 meter range. The crocodile in the middle however was slightly larger at around 7 meters. Wonderful, just right on time for us to test this gigantic carroballista out.

"Stand back and move the carroballistas to the side of the gigantic carroballista and lure the crocodiles over here. I'll leave the small ones to you. The big one will be our test subject of this gigantic ballista's might," Lorist instructed.

Lorist had no choice but to order for the other carroballistas to be moved as the gigantic carroballista truly took too long to mobilize. Luring the crocodiles in the direction of the gigantic carroballista would be much faster.

The soldiers manning the five smaller carroballistas happily complied to their orders. To ensure that the ballista bolt was forceful enough to kill the crocodiles, the soldiers usually waited for the crocodiles to be within 5 to 10 meters before firing away. That way, the collection of the crocodile carcasses would also be much easier as the carcasses would slowly sink back into the mud given enough time. However, that method was not without its shortcomings: the larger crocodiles would pose a real threat to the carroballistas. With their much thicker hide, they could still attack with full vigor even after being pierced by a couple of 2-meter-long bolts. They could only be stopped if a bolt pierced them squarely in the head.

At that moment, every one of those soldiers was looking forward to witnessing the might of the huge carroballista and quickly moved beside it and waited.

After the three Ironspine Crocodiles got onto land, their travel speed was significantly slowed by the uneven terrain. Given that they were far less agile on land than in the muddy waters, that made them easier targets to aim at.

Twang! A thunderous sound rang out followed by the unnerving hum of the vibrating ballista string as Lorist saw the ballista bolt silhouette whoosh past his side from the corner of his eye, nailing the forwardmost, 7-meter-long crocodile onto the ground. The crocodile struggled for a few breaths before ceasing to move entirely.

"Great!" Lorist roared excitedly. WIth a super ballista like that, they wouldn't even have to fear crocodiles that were over 5 meters tall!

Just as he was about to turn around and praise the grandmaster, the sight before him shocked him quite a bit.

The soldier who had aimed and fired the ballista was shivering nonstop as the other two assistants by his side gave him massages to his upper body muscles.

"What's up with him?" Lorist asked.

"Milord, this is also one of the weaknesses of the gigantic ballista. One person can only fire it once. Due to the vibration of the steel fiber wire, every archer who fires it will become like that and will have to rest for more than half an hour before being able to recover. Additionally, the archer should not attempt to fire this ballista another time to make sure he doesn't suffer from long term injuries. However, you don't need to worry about this as we have over 10 archers trained to operate this ballista to take one another's place," Grandmaster Fellin explained.

Lorist inspected the ballista closely again and noticed that the steel ballista mounted on the wooden platform was slightly different from the normal ones. Even though the ballista was only mounted with one support pedestal, it was three times as thick as that of the normal ballistas. At the top of the pedestal was a large steel sphere bearing which was clipped nicely into a semi-spherical hole at the bottom of the ballista itself which allowed for ease of movement across multiple axes for aiming. However, the archer had to use his shoulder to prop up the ballista from the rear end to aim before firing. It was no wonder the archer would be that severely affected by the recoil of the ballista.

Lorist breathed a huge sigh and thought that it was probably a mistake to have Grandmaster Fellin to come out with the huge modified ballista. Recalling that the assignment he gave him on researching a new type of bow that could be fired from horseback wasn't progressing well, Lorist concluded that Grandmaster Fellin was not a creative or innovative person.

Even though Lorist had asked for a larger ballista to be built, Grandmaster Fellin merely used the exact same design and enlarged it threefold without thinking about possible optimizations he could've made with some tweaks to the design. What irked Lorist most was the fact that the scale of the enlargement of the design was so perfectly done that he didn't know whether he should praise the grandmaster for his close attention to detail or not.

Oh well, I guess I can't do much about the archers only being able to fire one shot per day. After all, we have a division of soldiers at our disposal. At most, we'll just have to get them to line up for their turn to fire the ballista. I'm sure that we'll eventually wipe the Ironspine Crocodiles out.

"Grandmaster Fellin, I'm rather satisfied with what this super ballista can do. So, manufacture two more of these. I believe that with 3 of these at our disposal, the family soldiers will no longer be under threat from the magical beasts during the development project," Lorist said.

"Understood, milord. We will definitely build the other two ballistas as soon as possible and have them delivered here to the marsh." Grandmaster Fellin on the other hand was quite elated that he had gained Lorist's approval and instantly agreed to the request.

......

At the end of the 5th month, Ovidis, who was the current commander of the first local defense brigade, sent Lorist an arrow letter.

According to the messenger, the arrow letter was sent by a knight who had appeared before Firmrock Castle yesterday afternoon. The letter was tied to an arrow which was shot up by the knight to the walls of the castle. After seeing the knight leave, Ovidis noticed the letter tied onto it and saw that it was addressed to 'Baron Norton', before he immediately sent the messenger along with a squad of men to Lorist right away.

A 'Z' shaped insignia could be seen on the letter. Thinking that it seemed rather familiar, Lorist recalled that it was the insignia of Knight Hennard's family, the Shazin Family. Upon opening the letter, Lorist was enraged. Even though he hadn't went seeking trouble with the Second Prince, the latter had already began to make his move.

Knight Hennard's message was simple: he stated that when he attended the Northlands noble gathering at Gildusk City, the Second Prince declared that he would launch a military campaign against the Norton Family with the reason being the disrespect they have shown for the Iblia Royal Family and their refusal to heed the orders of the Second Prince by not paying a yearly tribute to him as well as their acceptance of the entitlement by the Andinaq Royal Family. 'Because of that treasonous act', Hennard quoted, the Second Prince decided that he would deploy his forces to mete out punishment.

Knight Hennard also added that he had already been imprisoned by the Second Prince and was forced to provide 10000 soldiers in the battle against the Nortons and that this letter was written by him in secret and sent back to his family along with the order to deploy the soldiers so that it could be relayed to Firmrock Castle after that. He also said that he would do his best to delay the proceedings and estimated that with the hesitance of the other nobles of the Northlands, the Second Prince would not march to Firmrock Castle with his troops before the 20th day of the 6th month and hoped that his timely warning would give Lorist enough time to make his preparations. Additionally, he mentioned that Count Kenmays has also been imprisoned and forced to contribute to the campaign as well.

Sol! Can't you let me farm in peace? Even though I have completely no interest in playing the game of war and domination with other nobles and only want to develop my dominion, why does trouble always come my way? Do they really think that the Norton Family is that easy to bully? It seems that the lesson I taught Duke Loggins wasn't impressionable enough. This time around, I better make an example out of the Second Prince. Let's see if anyone will dare to wake the Raging Bear that is the Norton Family after this incident...

"Pass my orders down. From today onwards, all development work at Blackmud Marsh will be put at a halt. Have all the knights assemble here as soon as possible. I want to host an emergency meeting," Lorist instructed the guard nearby, quickly sending more messengers to rush to deliver the message as soon as possible.

During the night, a small tent was filled to the brim with tens of Norton Family knights with many of them still covered in dirt and grime. Every one of them was curious why Lorist had called for a meeting on such short notice and wondered what was going on.

Reidy pushed the tent entrance open and Lorist marched into it with a solemn expression.

"Greetings to our lord!" Potterfang announced. All the knights within the tent stood up straight and saluted.

Lorist nodded and said, "There's no need for pleasantries. Take a seat. Today, I have gathered you here to tell you of some bad news. The Second Prince has gone insane and wrote me a letter that demanded me to pledge allegiance to him and also for our family to pay 500000 gold Fordes to him as well as supply him with 5 million kilograms of salt yearly without cost. Naturally, I have rejected all of them. Now, he has issued a call to arms to the other nobles of the Northlands to launch a campaign against our family and they will bring their soldiers to Firmrock Castle soon."

The people within the tent instantly broke into loud chatters. What surprised Lorist was that everyone seemed to look rather excited. He really didn't understand why they were so happy even though they were going to war.

"Locke, your plan truly is amazing. You had us fake the wounds on the magical beast carcasses before and now, idiots have come to our door knocking," Els said happily.

Lorist grimaced the moment he heard that. He had asked had the sword and spear wounds on the beasts to be faked back then because he didn't want outsiders to know that the family had such advanced steel ballistas. After all, Lorist understood the principle of not showing all your trump cards to your opponent. The other reason was that Lorist wanted to show the outside world the might of the Norton Family forces that could crush even those ferocious magical beasts with only the sword and spear.

Contrary to Lorist's expectations, however, the Second Prince had interpreted that as a sign that the Norton Family lost a lot of soldiers as a result from the battles with the magical beasts, which was the deciding factor for his declaration of war against the Norton Family. Had Lorist known about that, he would definitely sigh in regret that his smarts had brought another needless conflict to his dominion.

"Milord, please don't worry. Given the might of our family forces, it is a given that we will defeat the allied army of the Second Prince and the nobles of the Northlands. In fact, not only do we have to defeat them, we have to catch as many prisoners as we can," Potterfang said, representing the other knights by expressing their dedication and determination to win the upcoming battles.

"Catch more prisoners? Prisoners take food to sustain, you know!" Lorist rebuked jokingly even though he didn't mind the idea. It was a good thing for them to be confident in their victory. What worried him was their battle lust, which was a little too high for his tastes. For them to all look so happy despite hearing about an inevitable battle ahead, how weird... Why didn't I get this vibe from them on usual days?

"While it's great that you're all confident in our victory, we still shouldn't be careless. I know that our forces are incredibly mighty and we must take this opportunity to teach the Second Prince and the other nobles a lesson they'll never forget to quench their thirst for the riches of our family dominion. However, the variables on the battlefield can change at any moment, so we must still take the necessary precautions lest we suffer any unnecessary losses at the brink of victory. I hope you all will heed my caution well," Lorist reminded.

"Since the enemy is almost here, we must make our preparations as well. I have ordered the work at Blackmud Marsh to be halted for now. Have the garrison soldiers return to their respective posts within the dominion within the next five days and make sure they're ready to mobilize at a moment's notice. As for the formal soldiers of the family, have them gather at Firmrock Castle to make preparations. The new recruits who have been training for two months or longer shall be enlisted into their respective units as soon as possible and make sure they are ready for battle and familiar with the new command structure," Lorist instructed.

"Yes, milord!"

Chapter 190 Before the Battle

By the time Lorist arrived at Firmrock Castle, he met up with the messenger of the Kenmays Family right away. The messenger said that he was sent over by the head of the Kenmays Family, Count Kenmays's father. In the letter, the count's father stated that Count Kenmays had been held hostage by the Second Prince and the Kenmays Family had no choice but to send them huge numbers of soldiers to help out with the war effort. However, he promised that the 20000 plus soldiers sent by the Kenmays Family will definitely not attack the castle with their own initiative and would only provide moral support from the rear lines.

"Cunning old bastard," Lorist commented after he saw the messenger leave. However, he understood that even though the Kenmays Family had no choice on that matter, things could change at any moment. While the head of the Kenmays Family promised that his forces would not actively participate in battle, would that really be the case? The moment the situation turns bad for the Norton Family, there's no way the Kenmays Family who has a mercantile background would pass up the opportunity to backstab the Nortons for even more profit.

And given that Count Kenmays was being held hostage by the Second Prince, he would be an idiot to not utilize the 20000 soldiers that were forcefully provided to him. It was extremely possible that he would use the 20000 plus soldiers as the main force to attack the castle. However, what the Second Prince didn't expect was that the Norton Family didn't intend to defend from within the castle. Instead, Lorist wanted to defeat the First Legion of the Second Prince in an open field battle as a grand show of might of the family's forces. The silver lining of that was that the Kenmays Family's forces no longer had to be needlessly sacrificed by besieging Firmrock Castle.

At night time the next day, two mysterious grey-robed men entered Firmrock Castle and announced themselves to be the messengers sent by Baron Felim of the Family of the Pegasus. After confiscating their weapons and giving them a thorough search to ensure that they didn't bring along anything dangerous, Ovidis brought the two to see Lorist.

When one of the men removed his hood, Lorist was so shocked that he jumped off his chair. "Baron Felim, why have you come?"

This man was indeed Baron Felim Chalvode of the Family of the Pegasus.

"Just call me Chack. Even though it's our first time meeting, I have a good feeling about our Family of the Pegasus forming an alliance with the Family of the Raging Bear. That's why I have come to express the intention of my family to befriend your family," Baron Felim said as he laughed while extending his right hand towards Lorist.

Lorist stepped forward and shook his hand firmly.

"It is my pleasure to receive the amicable intentions of the Family of the Pegasus. However, right now, the Norton Family is in quite the predicament. I'm sure that you understand that well. Why, then, did you come here and even offered your assistance?" Lorist asked.

"Well, let's get straight to the point. Our Family of the Pegasus has had enough of that buffoon of a Second Prince. The reason I've come is to propose an alliance between our two families and cause the Second Prince to sustain a huge loss. That way, he will have an even harder time suppressing my family as well so that we can take our time to recuperate and develop," Baron Felim said straightforwardly.

Upon seeing Lorist's questioning gaze, the baron laughed and said, "To be honest, I'm actually quite reluctant to come all the way to the Northlands. As I'm sure you understand, the original dominion of the Family of the Pegasus is within the Southern Province of the former empire, which has been divided into three commanderies by that buffoon ever since he came into power. During the days of the civil war, I've become the Second Prince's subordinate and battled along his side for five whole years, hoping that I can receive a noble title and be enfeoffed the former land of my family.

"However, I didn't expect that during the formation of his kingdom. the buffoon sent his messenger to me and asked my family to provide a huge sum of funds, citing the reason that the formation of the kingdom has caused them to be quite tight on money, and saying that I will only receive the title if I agree to help out. I trusted the words of the Second Prince and agreed to help him raise some money, with the condition that my family will be enfeoffed our former land when we are given a noble rank again, to which the Second Prince agreed.

"In the end, on the day when I was entitled, I found out that the land I had been given was actually in the Northlands. When I asked the Second Prince why, he said that he wanted to deploy his troops against the Melein Duchy and explained that the three commanderies of the Southern Province would be the frontlines of battle.

"I only found out later that it was the sum of money I had given him that prompted him to have suspicions about my family's wealth. He thinks that hundreds of years ago when my family fought Krissen IV in the Newmoon War, we hid a lot of our wealth within our family dominion and believes that to be why we were able to procure such a huge sum for him so easily. And so, the Second Prince sent his men throughout our old dominion and dug all over the place to look for the so-called treasures and even desecrated the tombs of our ancestors."

As he said that, the baron's eyes were reddening with rage. "I only discovered the ruined graves when I paid a visit to the old dominion a few years ago. When I confronted the Second Prince about it, he insisted that he wasn't behind it and put the blame onto the Melein Duchy's forces when they invaded. Naturally, I had to hold my temper back then since he was a king after all.

"Before I came to the Northlands, the Second Prince encouraged us nobles who had been enfeoffed land here to start fighting against the old noble families of the Northlands and promised that no matter how much land we obtained as a result, he would acknowledge our ownership over it. That's why battles broke out all over the Northlands a few years back. Even though I was only a baron, I still managed to conquer the lands of a nearby viscount and two other barons. After linking the four dominions together, I no longer sent out any more troops and wanted to focus on managing my territory.

"Two years back when the Second Prince launched his assault against the Madras Duchy, he ordered me to send some support. So, I had my cousin brother bring 1000 soldiers there only to have them completely killed off by that buffoon with not even one of them returning alive. My cousin brother who had fought with me for over ten years and was a Three Star Silver ranked knight who could've become Gold ranked like me, gone, just like that, and that buffoon didn't even attempt to address that matter and pretended that it didn't even happen!"

The longer the baron told his story, the angrier he got. "That buffoon then occupied the dominion of Duke Loggins who was defeated by your family and the moment he got a foothold here it the Northlands, he instantly dropped all attempt at diplomacy. After I paid my yearly taxes to him, he sent a tax officer to demand for extra money that was due from the lands of the two barons and viscount I've conquered! Not only that, he sent his soldiers to ransack the houses of the citizens of my dominion. Even though I argued that I've already paid the due taxes, the officer said that it was only for my own barony and not the other two baronies and viscounty.

"Thus, I went to look for that buffoon again and he said with a straight face that the situation has changed as the Northlands, which was under the rule of Duke Loggins formerly, is now under his personal rule. That's why he forbade battles between nobles from that day onwards and even said that he would take the lands of the defeated noble families back into his own hands. The hard work I put into conquering the three extra territories had all gone to waste! What would I take to feed my 10000-strong army and my citizens?!"

Clutching Lorist's hand emotionally, Baron Felim continued, "That's why I have decided to join hands with the Norton Family and give that buffoon a lesson. I have an idea that can allow you to defeat the buffoon's First Legion within a single battle."

The baron's idea was a rather simple and straightforward one: ambushing during the night. As the Family of the Pegasus had been forced to lend 5000 soldiers to aid with the war effort, Baron Felim wanted to reenact the 'Daybreak Assault' that Duke Madras had managed to pull off. He believed that if Duke Madras could pull it off, then there was no doubt that an allied effort between the Family of the Pegasus and the Family of the Raging Bear would succeed.

Lorist smiled as he shook his head and told the baron that there was no need to go out of their way for a night ambush as he was confident that he would be able to crush the Second Prince's First Legion in an open field battle and also show the might of the Family of the Raging Bear to the world at the same time.

Lorist told the baron that he did not need the latter to do anything aside from ensuring that his 5000 troops wouldn't rush into the battlefield lest they get involved in the assaults of the Norton Family forces.

A little bewildered by Lorist's confidence, Baron Felim reminded Lorist that while the Second Prince was a first rate buffoon, the First Legion he commanded still numbered up to 60000 people. With the addition of Baron Shazin's 10000 soldiers and Count Kenmays's 20000 plus family forces. as well as his own family's 5000, coupled with a ragtag combination of the various forces of the smaller noble families in the Northlands, he estimated that there would be a little over 100000 soldiers in total. He wondered if Lorist actually thought that facing off against a threat as huge as that in a single open field battle was possible.

Lorist merely laughed and told Baron Felim that Count Kenmays and Baron Shazin had the same thoughts as he did and that they would definitely not willingly march head-first into the battlefield. With only the First Legion and the combined forces of the smaller noble families actively participating, Lorist merely dismissed them as a disorganized mess.

"But, I should at least contribute in some way, shouldn't I? I won't feel satisfied just sitting down idly doing nothing," said Baron Felim unwillingly.

"How about this," Lorist said before he went into deep thought and brought out a map of the Northlands. "You ought to include as many cavalrymen as you can among the 5000 soldiers you're sending to the Second Prince. The moment the First Legion he commands is defeated, your troops can take advantage of the chaos and travel to conquer the Hendliff Suspension Bridge and the Freist Castle when they least expect it. That way, the two towns and three bastides nearby will be under the control of your family. I believe with that, you'll be able to sustain your family forces and possibly even expand it."

"What you're saying is...?" Baron Felim said hesitantly.

"That's right. I'm also prepared to drive the buffoon of a Second Prince out of the Northlands with this battle so that he doesn't cause any more turmoil over here and keep everyone on edge," Lorist said confidently.

Baron Felim continued, "Then, what about Gildusk City?"

"Of the dominion formerly belonging to the duke, I plan to hand half of it which includes Gildusk City to Baron Shazin. Essentially, you'll be splitting the dominion with him equally in half," Lorist said without hesitation.

"Alright, then it's a deal." Even though he wasn't able to gain Gildusk City for himself, with the Hendliff Suspension Bridge under his control, he would still be able to profit somewhat from collecting toll there, and Baron Felim was more than satisfied with that arrangement. Right now, he only had one worry, and that was whether the Norton Family could actually defeat the Second Prince's forces.

"Don't worry. In ten more days, you will get to see with your own eyes where all my confidence came from," Lorist said while smiling as he sent the baron away.

"Milord, did you reject his suggestion because you feared that he would be a spy sent by the Second Prince?" Tarkel asked hesitantly. As Lorist's personal attendant, he was there the whole time during the discussion between Baron Felim and Lorist.

Lorist shook his head and said, "Tarkel, you don't understand. As a noble, Baron Felim will definitely not work as the Second Prince's spy. Even if the Second Prince were to emerge victorious as a result of his efforts, if word of him being sent here as a spy spreads out, the Family of the Pegasus's hundreds of years of reputation will have evaporated. Everyone will be going on about how they sabotaged us and they will be isolated by the other noble families. To them, that fate is even worse than complete decimation."

"Then, why didn't you take him up on his suggestion? With Baron Felim's men sending crucial intelligence to us, wouldn't we be able to achieve victory far more easily?" Tarkel asked.

"Tarkel, I want to use this battle to show the world the might of our family. And fighting in an open field battle instead of turtling up in the castle will be the best way to do that. While it is indeed much easier to achieve victory by launching an assault at night, it will let others think that we won only because we used cheap tricks and nobody will truly be convinced of our might. I want to use this opportunity to kill the chicken that is the Second Prince for all the other monkeys to witness[1], that is, to make an example out of him so that the others will think twice before even considering provoking the Norton Family!"

"The Second Prince is a chicken and the others are monkeys? Milord, your words are too deep for me to comprehend," Tarkel said as he scratched his head in thought.

......

On the 14th day of the 6th month at the Somm River within the western part of the Northlands, the Kenmays Family forces that have arrived there were setting up their main camp. Near 10000 tents were erected in neat order, forming quite the magnificent army camp.

The Second Prince was currently riding a big, green-colored Zeno Horse with a proud air about him as he marched into the camp.

"I am very satisfied with how the Kenmays Family forces is operating," the Second Prince praised Count Kenmays with a haughty tone.

"As your faithful subordinate, this is the very least that I can do," Count Kenmays replied exasperatedly. He didn't think that the Second Prince would actually imprison him and force him to mobilize 20000 of his family forces for the campaign and even had him supply the resources needed for the Second Prince and the allied noble army as well as handle the logistics.

He had thought that with 30000 soldiers in his control, the Second Prince would think twice about messing with him. It was completely out of the count's expectations that the Second Prince would abandon all decorum and shamelessly hold himself hostage to force his family to comply with the demands. The moment he recalled that fact, the count felt so humiliated that he wanted to die. However, he held that urge back and could only grind his teeth in secrecy.

"Hahahaha, with a force of 100000 soldiers, is there anyone within this realm that would dare to bar my way?" the Second Prince said as he laughed out loud. He had completely ignored the presence of Baron Shazin, Count Kenmays, Baron Felim and the other nobles and treated those soldiers as his own already. In fact, the Second Prince has decided that after taking care of the Norton Family, he would once again attack the Madras Duchy on the following year. With a force of 100000, the grudge-holding Second Prince couldn't wait to pay back Duke Madras for the troubles he has caused.

"Heed my orders. We will rest for two more days before packing up and departing. Our 100000 soldiers shall march to Firmrock Castle in the grandest fashion possible to wake that dumb bear out of its stupid delusions. Perhaps, upon seeing our arrival, that dumb bear might actually come out and surrender! That way, it'll save us far more trouble," instructed the Second Prince as he waved the horsewhip in his hand.

Noon of the 17th day of the 6th month, the 100000-strong army finally arrived within the line of sight of the guards of Firmrock Castle.

The Second Prince brought the various nobles of the Northlands to a spot that was roughly 600 meters away from the castle to check it out. The Second Prince nodded and said, "This castle is indeed easy to defend and hard to besiege. No wonder the Norton Family dares to be so arrogant. However, they'd never expect that I have 100000 men under my lead. I can already imagine the leader of the Norton Family curling into a ball while crying out profusely within that castle and regretting his pathetic decision. Hehehe... Heed my orders! Begin setting up camp right away. We have all the time we need, so take it slow."

"Your Majesty truly is wise," said the few other Northland nobles beside the Second Prince in unison.

The moment the praise of the nobles stopped, a loud, resounding sound of a horn could be heard coming from Firmrock Castle.

"This... This is the tune of assault!" cried a surprised noble out loud.

The others were all dumbstruck by the scene that were unfolding before their eyes. Did the Norton Family go insane? For them to come out for an open field battle instead of hiding within the castle and fighting defensively, what in the world is going on?

Just when the nobles finished that thought, the gates of Firmrock Castle opened and countless soldiers clad in shiny, silvery armor marched outward and charged in the direction of the Second Prince's forces.

The Second Prince's expression changed immediately. Even though he had 100000 soldiers, he had only just arrived and still required some time to gain a proper foothold. If the Norton Family forces manages to rush over and catch his troops off-guard, then he truly would become a laughingstock.

"Baron Shazin, Baron Felim, Count Kenmays, order your troops to assemble immediately!" The Second Prince made his decision swiftly to have the troops of the three families intercept the first wave of the Norton Family's forces.

"Yes, milord." Only Baron Felim responded to the Second Prince's order before he headed out immediately.

Knight Hennard and Count Kenmays on the other hand merely looked at each other.

"Your Majesty, without me personally leading them, my forces will definitely not heed any orders," Knight Hennard said.

"It's the same for me too," Count Kenmays said.

Both of them understood that if the Second Prince continued to hold them hostage by his side, even though their forces would follow the order to go into battle, who knows what they would do once they were on the battlefield? If they did not act upon their orders, the Second Prince would be ultimately responsible for what would transpire.

"Fine, both of you can go lead your troops," said the Second Prince. He figured that since those two were already so deeply involved, he didn't have to worry about them secretly working with the Norton Family. It was also true that there was no guarantee that their troops would carry out their orders perfectly without them personally being in the lead. However, the Second Prince was still worried that the two nobles would only help out superficially and won't really put their best efforts into it, so he decided to send someone to follow and supervise them.

"Wait a second. The two of you shall bring two of my guards with you. Baron Shazin, you will protect the left flank of my army along with Baron Felim. Count Kenmays, your family forces shall defend my right flank. After that, I will transmit additional orders by blowing the horn, understood?"

"Yes, Your Majesty," Knight Hennard and Count Kenmays said before they left hurriedly with two of the Second Prince's guards.

"Heed my orders! The First Legion shall march forward and assemble into the assault formation. Have the longbowmen make firing preparations. As for the troops of the other nobles, stay behind the ranks of the First Legion to await further orders and be prepared to intercept the enemy." No matter what others said, the Second Prince did in fact emerge from battle during the vicious civil war. Even though he hasn't fought that many battles, his orders reflected his experience and mastery over troops.

The First Legion of the Iblia Kingdom were well-trained as they responded to the orders rather quickly. After receiving the Second Prince's orders, the sword and shield infantry stepped forward followed by the pikemen behind them while the longbowmen completed their preparations. The two cavalry divisions of the legion surrounded both flanks of the army and were prepared to intercept the enemy soldiers that were charging straight into them.

Loud drumming sounds rang out as the forces of the Norton Family began assembling into their formations 400 meters away from the Second Prince's forces. They took on a similar formation with their infantry being in the middle, flanked by two cavalry troops on either side. The troops assembled into one square formation after another lined up next to each other within the line of sight of the 100000 enemy troops.

The battle was ready to break out at any moment...

1. The author used a Chinese idiom here that literally states 'killing the chicken to frighten the monkeys'. It essentially means to make an example out of someone as a warning for the others.

Chapter 191 Ballista Storm

400 meters away from the Second Prince's army, the Norton Family arranged themselves in a weird manner with three square formations of silver-armored infantry soldiers lined up next to each other, forming a straight line of sorts, with cavalry troops flanking both sides of each of those three square formations.

Even though the Second Prince had experienced many battles, he was also confused by the odd formation. While having cavalrymen flanking both sides of the infantry troops would allow quite a bit of flexibility in that they would be able to both attack and defend, lining up three square formations in a row decreased the overall defensiveness. Additionally, the space between each of the three square formations were a little too wide and if they were closer together, they could form a larger rectangular formation instead.

Eventually, nine square formations were formed neatly with each one having roughly one regiment of troops at a total troop count of roughly 20000. It seems like the Norton Family had indeed sustained huge casualties from fighting the magical beast wave. But despite having only 20000 troops, they chose to fight an open field battle... What's going on here? Are they so desperate that they lost all their wits? Or are they going to engage in a suicidal battle to make sure we suffer even more to retaliate against me no matter the cost, the Second Prince wondered.

And so, the Second Prince decided not to mobilize his troops and have his First Legion assume a defensive formation. If the Norton Family troops don't show any movement in the coming moments, the Second Prince would order Count Kenmays or Baron Shazin to send out part of their forces to test the waters. Since the Norton Family only have that many soldiers in contrast to the Second Prince's own 100000, which was easily five times as much as the former's, the Second Prince figured that the Norton Family wouldn't be able to fight their way out of this predicament no matter what.

At that moment, the Second Prince was already considering whether to move the soldiers of the allied noble army to the front of his First Legion troops so that he would be able to sustain far less losses.

"Your Majesty, the Norton Family does seem rather wealthy. Look, all of their soldiers are wearing a shiny, new metal armors that cover their whole body for optimal defense. Tsk tsk tsk..." The one who said that was a high officer in the court of the Iblia Kingdom, who was in actuality the personal guard of the Second Prince, Blademaster Louinse. Had it not been for his presence, Baron Shazin Hennard, who was a Gold ranked knight, wouldn't have stayed by the Second Prince's side so obediently for such a long time.

The Second Prince turned his attention back to the forces of the Norton Family and instantly felt a mix of hate and jealousy. Even a normal soldier of the Norton Family was equipped with defensive armor more complete than that of his own knights, causing them to look far more impressive in comparison. All of them looked like shiny, gleaming tin men.

"Hmph! Even if they have money, they have nowhere else better to spend it apart from the defense of their own soldiers. After all, they have to rely on these soldiers to fend off the assaults of those magical beasts. If they don't arm them enough, how would the soldiers be willing to stand off against those ferocious beasts? However, it won't matter. These shiny armor will eventually be mine anyway and I will form a personal guard that will be given the armor we take for ourselves today. Just follow me closely by my side," the Second Prince said before he gripped his horsewhip and waved it in the air harshly, as if the armor of the Norton Family would belong to him in mere moments.

"Your Majesty, look, what is that? A war chariot?" Blademaster Louinse said urgently as he called out to his liege. The battlefield had been introduced to yet another variable.

The Second Prince snapped out of his daydream and raised his head only to see one chariot after another fill up the ranks of the Norton Family. Countless black chariots traveled between the space of the square formations and took their place at the very front to form a defensive line. It was as if they didn't even consider complementing the square formations and decided on the spot to line up in a straight line. In fact, the row of chariots even blocked the cavalrymen behind.

These chariots looked like wide-open wooden boxes with one fully-armored coachman for each controlling the horses and two fully-armored pikemen equipped with kite shields and two other soldiers at the back. Each chariot was manned by 5 soldiers in total.

"Haha, so this is the vanguard of the Norton Family?" the Second Prince said before he laughed out loud. "Does he really think his chariots stand a chance against my 100000-strong army? Is the dumb bear treating us like magical beasts? They must be brain dead... Hahaha... This is far too idiotic. Have they been isolated from the world of men for far too long?"

"Your Majesty, what do you mean?" Blademaster Louinse asked as he didn't understand why the Second Prince was ridiculing the Norton Family troops.

"My dear Louinse, as a Blademaster who concentrates all your attention on the path of the blade, it's understandable that you're not well-versed in the art of war. It is obvious that the Norton Family intends to take advantage of the wide-open battlefield by surprising us with the war chariots. They intend to use the chariots which have good defense and mobility to break through our defense line to massacre away as well as allow their troops at the rear to follow up with the assault to gain victory in one fell-swoop," explained the Second Prince.

"So what's the problem then?" the Blademaster said, still confused.

The Second Prince felt a little tired and annoyed from having to explain the basics of military strategy to the fool. "My dear Louinse, you don't understand... Hundreds of years ago, humankind has already abandoned usage of war chariots on the battlefield because of its impracticality. No matter how good the defense or mobility, as long as the chariots enter the firing range of longbow troops, the horses would definitely be the first to be shot at.

"As long as the horses are killed, the chariots will no longer be able to advance would even become obstacles to the troops that are charging up from the rear. And usually, if only a single chariot is stopped, a chain reaction would occur causing the other chariots will crash into one another as a result. To prevent that from happening, the distance between each chariot must be increased. However, that in itself will decrease the impact of the chariots' charge.

"Also, the use of chariots are also really situational with terrain being the most important aspect. A simple ditch of 1.5 meters deep can easily stop the advance of those chariots. The most crucial point here is that we have a large number of cavalrymen. As long as the cavalrymen circle around to the back of those chariots, the soldiers riding the chariots will be defenseless against our cavalrymen's attacks. The reason I was ridiculing them was because the Norton Family treated us as magical beasts. Using chariots against magical beasts is indeed a valid strategy because those beasts don't have ranged attackers and don't know how to circumvent the approaching chariots to attack them from the back. However, it's downright delusional to think that this tactic will work against us."

"I see, I didn't know that chariots had so many downsides. I even thought that riding on a chariot seemed pretty imposing. Your Majesty, after we defeat them, let me have one of those chariots to play around with. Hmm? Your Majesty, look over there. Are those two huge things chariots too?" Blademaster Louinse said curiously after seeing two huge 'chariots' appear at the ranks of the Norton Family's forces that were each pulled by tens of horses. It advanced slowly between the three infantry square formations before stopping entirely.

......

It was entirely Lorist's fault. As he had felt that victory was already at bay, he didn't bother to give the family knights specific instructions. The strategy he had initially chosen to employ was to fire a few waves of ballista bolts to crumble the morale of the enemy before letting the other units charge into the disarrayed enemy ranks.

It wasn't that Lorist underestimated the Second Prince's 100000-strong allied noble army, but he truly had access to far too many ungodly powerful ballistas -- five whole brigades of them. Each brigade had 500 carroballistas with a grand total of 2500 of them within the division, each with a firing range of 320 meters. The only thing that piqued Lorist's curiosity was how many volleys of ballista fire the Second Prince's First Legion could endure.

That's why Lorist made a careless mistake. What he truly underestimated was the battlelust of his subordinates. The moment the tune of assault was blown, Potterfang's 3 heavy-armored brigades, Fiercetiger Loze's 3 pike cavalry brigades, Terman's knight division, Yuriy's light cavalry scout brigade and Josks's mounted archer brigade all rushed out of Firmrock Castle, leaving the carroballista division that was making preparations to be the main attacking force at the rear. Lorist, who didn't expect that to happen, was flipping mad when he saw that unfold before his eyes.

At least those fellows didn't turn stupid from the battlelust and know how to get in formation first before rushing into the enemy lines, thought Lorist before he hurriedly ordered Malek to direct the carroballista division to get into formation ahead of the other soldiers.

On the other hand, Els himself was up to some other mischief and insisted that the supersized carroballistas Grandmaster Fellin built to be deployed as well. He ordered his guards to painstakingly bring the gigantic carroballistas out from the castle gates past the drawbridge out to the battlefield.

"Locke, I'm not being stubborn. i just want to see how far these super ballistas can fire. According to Grandmaster Fellin, they can shoot as far as 500 meters. Think about it, by launching only two bolts to the enemy's command center, we will be able to shake this battle up quite a bit. Maybe, we might even wrap this battle up before it even beings, just like that 'shoot through the brain'[1] tactic you mentioned, with which the enemy forces will crumble in confusion and mayhem from the loss of their leader," Els said.

Fine, I'll let him do as he likes since we're gonna win anyway, thought Lorist, too lazy to continue arguing with Els.

"No matter what, just make sure you clean up the mess after playing around with it," Lorist said as he yawned. Incidentally, he had 'worked' himself quite tirelessly with Telesti the night before and didn't get enough sleep.

"Alright, Malek, if the preparations of the carroballista division is ready, you may begin. The sooner we finish, the sooner we'll be able to rest. After this, we still have to go back to developing Blackmud Marsh," Lorist said to Malek, who was mounted and riding forward beside the super carroballista.

"Yes, milord," Malek said as he made a knight salute and headed to the front.

Having nothing better to do, Lorist sat down on the super carroballista and looked at Els give his commands. "It's that spot over there in the middle with the huge rectangular flag with the royal crest on it. That represents the Second Prince. He must be beneath that flag, so just aim there..."

"But sir, I really can't see it clearly enough," complained the archer who was operating the super ballista. It couldn't be helped as average humans couldn't see a spot 500 meters away with perfect clarity. Perhaps, only eagles were capable of that.

"Sheesh, what a useless idiot you are... How did you become an archer with that eyesight of yours? Have someone else who has better eyesight take your place," Els reprimanded with dissatisfaction.

After finally settling on the right person to make the shot, Els jumped down the super ballista and headed for the other one. Before he left, he had a few guards stay to give instructions in his stead. "When I finish the preparations over there and give the order to fire, you shall follow suit. Understood?"

The horn resounded once more and the carroballistas at the front row advanced tens of meters before stopping once more, followed by the second and third rows. After that, all three rows of carroballista units adjusted their aims.

Subsequently, the drums began to pound. For as long as the drum beat went on, the ballistas must continue firing without stopping unless the ballistas malfunctioned for some reason.

The two shield-bearers at the front of each 'chariot' squatted down, revealing the loaded steel ballistas behind them, before one loud twang another rang out across the battlefield in a constant, repetitive rhythm.

Countless bolts whooshed through the distance that separated the two armies, heading straight for the First Legion's formation, causing one cry of agony after another to be heard. The frontmost row of soldiers collapsed within an instant with black, iron ballista bolts piercing through their bodies. Some ballista bolts even skewered a few soldiers in one shot.

The First Legion also responded rather swiftly. The blow of a horn could be heard as the two cavalry brigades on each flank rushed forward with the obvious intent of taking out the ballista troops as they were busy reloading to spare their own comrades from the fate of being impaled once again by the powerful ballista bolts.

Lorist who was seated on one of the super ballistas clicked his tongue and thought that the Second Prince did indeed have some military experience after all. However, what the Second Prince didn't expect was how advanced the steel ballistas of the Norton Family were compared to normal ones. It only took less than 40 seconds for the next bolt to be loaded, and that time even included the time an archer required to take aim.

The pulley-like mechanism Lorist included when he designed those ballistas allowed the next bolt to be easily loaded by a simple tug of a lever at the side of the ballista to cock the string followed by an assistant placing the next bolt into the slot, similar to the mechanism used in older machine guns in Lorist's world.

Another round of twanging rang out as the second volley was launched straight into the cavalry brigades that were charging straight for the carroballistas, completely decimating their ranks.

Apart from a few hardy war horses that neighed out loud from the searing pain, the whole battlefield was almost entirely quiet. Even the cavalrymen who were following the first wave behind stopped advancing altogether. There was still a 300 meter distance to cover, and the time that they required to reach the enemy ranks would be well enough for another four to five volleys of ballista bolts. To them, this wasn't a battle. It was a massacre.

Another honk of the horn rang out, prompting the longbowmen of the First Legion to step forward and begin firing in rage right next to their fallen comrades.

Perhaps due to the lackluster quality of the longbows of the First Legion, thousands of arrows landed straight on the ground with only a couple managing to reach the ranks of the carroballistas. However, with the shields protecting the soldiers on the carroballistas and the armor the horses were equipped with, apart from one unlucky horse that got struck in its rear, there were no other results to show for the volley of arrows fired by the First Legion.

Due to their short firing range, the longbowmen of the Second Prince's army marched forward to make up for the deficit, only to be hit squarely once again when the third volley of ballista fire began, easily crippling half of the ranks of the longbowmen. The lucky ones that managed to avoid being perforated by the iron bolts stared at the fallen corpses that littered the battlefield before letting out cries of panic as they abandoned their bows and fled. They had lost all hope.

Twang, twang! This time around, Els finally ordered the two super ballistas to fire. Unsurprisingly, the two archers that fired the super ballistas were stunned from the recoil of the shot.

However, something out of Lorist's expectations occurred. After the two super ballistas fired, the flag representing the Iblia Royal Family collapsed, causing the rear of the First Legion to break into mass confusion.

Baron Shazin, also known as Knight Hennard, and Baron Felim's troops that were stationed at the left flank of the First Legion, also began to leave the battlefield. In a mere couple of moments, all that could be seen in their direction was the dust that had been kicked adrift from the movement of man and horse. As for the Kenmays Family forces that were positioned at the right flank of the First Legion, they retreated two hundred meters before beginning to set up their camp, taking up a neutral stance.

The twanging resumed as the fourth volley of ballista fire began. After that, three short honks of the horn could be heard accompanied by a continuous drum beat. That was a signal for the carroballistas to advance 30 meters forward before resuming fire.

By the time the fifth and sixth volleys were released, the remnant enemy troops that managed to survive already turned tail to escape.

The drumming finally stopped before a loud, sharp honk was heard, signalling for the troops to pursue the fleeing enemy soldiers.

"Norton!" A loud cheer rang out as the pike cavalrymen, light cavalry scouts, mounted archers and knights charged towards the enemy.

Els jumped down from the other super carroballista and got onto his mount before shouting out, "All mounted guards, charge forth! Let's go catch ourselves some prisoners!"

"Gosh, what's up with you guys? Are you really that excited for battle? Also, shouldn't your war cry be something simpler like 'kill'? Why are you so specific about catching prisoners?" Lorist said with a hopeless expression before turning around only to see Reidy trying hard to hold back his laughter.

Reidy had followed Lorist along when he was 16 and 4 years had already past. As Lorist's eldest disciple, he had just broken through to the Silver rank ten or so days ago and was just recently knighted by Lorist. He was currently the youngest knight of the Norton Family.

"What are you laughing about?" Lorist asked.

"Milord, did you forget that you said that the Norton Family could only use prisoners and criminals as unpaid laborers?" Reidy reminded.

Good Sol! Lorist suddenly realized the real reason his knights were so eager to do battle and why they were so happy when they heard war was about to break out. In actuality, they had wanted to catch prisoners to take their place in the development of Blackmud Marsh. No wonder back then Potterfang said that the knights of the family would do their best to capture more prisoners, not to mention Els's weird war cry.

Lorist laughed out loud and grumbled, "What do I do with you guys, sheesh..."

1. I did some googling and I believe the author was referring to J.F.C. Fuller's work, 'Military History of the Western World'. More details here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan_1919#The_Plan

Chapter 192 The Unfortunate Blademaster

On the 17th day of the 3rd month in Year 1771 of the Grindian Calendar, the battle that transpired at the Northlands would henceforth be known as 'The Raging Bear's Massacre'. The allied noble army led by Krissen Iblia (the Second Prince), King of the Iblia Kingdom, to admonish the Norton Family who refused to submit to him, engaged in a short-lasted conflict outside Firmrock Castle. Of the 100000-strong army, half of them left the battlefield at the early stages of the battle while the rest were completely wiped out. King Krissen Iblia only managed to flee the Northlands along with tens of his personal attendants.

Of the soldiers that remained on the battlefield to fight the Norton Family forces, there were up to 51000 men of the First Legion of the Iblia Kingdom. The Norton Family on the other hand had up to 45000 soldiers on their side. However, they made use of their arsenal of an estimated 3000 ballistas to launch ranged attacks. By the time the sixth volley was fired, the morale of the First Legion's troops had completely crumbled, with them being ordered to retreat after sustaining more than 10000 casualties. Subsequently, the Norton Family launched their pursuit and ended the battle in a landslide victory.

The various historians and military scholars of the Grindia Continent only had these words to say about that battle: unexpected victory. The Norton Family had relied mainly on their advantage with ranged weaponry to launch an attack against an enemy that was not well-prepared. The tight defensive formation the First Legion soldiers were in only boosted the effectiveness of the ballistas. Additionally, the First Legion troops were also unable to react well because they were almost constantly suppressed by ranged fire, causing them to eventually fall into ruin. Apart from the disparity in technology, the military tactics used by both sides were roughly on par and there was nothing else about that battle that was too eye-catching.

......

Count Kenmays rode over on horseback with two of his attendants from the distance and greeted Lorist. "Brother, that attack of yours was amazing! I can finally breath a sigh of relief now that the Second Prince is defeated. He actually imprisoned me for more than a month and even threatened my family! Gosh, you can't believe how frustrated I was."

As Count Kenmays's force of 20000 didn't leave the battlefield and merely set up camp nearby to take up a neutral position, Mons Malek commanded two carroballista brigades to watch the camp of the Kenmays Family cautiously and let the other three brigades partake in the pursuit of the enemy forces.

Lorist greeted the count with a smile and even gave him a hug after he got off his horse. "Well, I'm just relieved that no harm has been done to you. Now, you understand why I refused the Second Prince's invitation, right? I already knew long ago that he didn't hold any good intentions. If I had gone there, who knows if I will be able to make it back to my own dominion..."

Count Kenmays spat on the ground angrily and said, "Who would expect that a king with exalted status would actually resort to underhanded methods like that? He's nothing if not an insidious thug. What an embarrassment to us nobles. I will definitely not trust him in the future."

Lorist laughed and said, "Don't worry, you won't have to see him in the Northlands ever again. Also, bring a squad of troops with me to Gildusk City for some matters."

"Umm..." Count Kenmays was stunned. After a while, he recovered and stammered, "Lo-locke... You... Are you really going to kill him off? No-no matter what, he's still our king... Ki-killing a king is definitely not something you want associated with your family..."

Lorist shook his head and said, "I am not that irrational. I only want to chase him out of the Northlands. I will capture him before sending him off officially. However, if he does die on the battlefield for some reason, then that would save me a lot of trouble. The reason I want to go to Gildusk City is to bear witness for Baron Shazin and Baron Felim's signing of the agreement to split the city up so that they won't have any disagreements about territory in the future."

Count Kenmays asked curiously, "What's going on between those two?"

"I have divided the dominion of Duke Loggins into two halves for those two. They left the battlefield so quickly just now because they're afraid that they would get the short end of the stick if they're late to arrive," Lorist explained casually.

Upon hearing that, Count Kenmays's mercantile instinct to take advantage of every opportunity he could find tingled. He objected and said, "It's a little too much for only them to take the dominion, right? As your friend, I demand to be treated as an equal. You must also care for my family too, you know..."

Lorist faked a laugh and said, "My friend, your family has already taken over the whole of the eastern part of the Northlands, yet you want to stretch your influence over here? Listen to yourself, sheesh..."

"This..." Count Kenmays was speechless as that was indeed a fact. There wasn't really any more incentive for his family's dominion to expand. At most, they could take over two other dominions further to the east and connect the Kenmays Family dominion to that of Baron Felim. However, those two dominions were quite impoverished and would require lots of funds to develop. Count Kenmays felt that it would be better to leave them to be buffer zones between the Kenmays's and Felim's dominions.

"How about this, you ought to split some of the land you conquered in the eastern Northlands among the nobles who are living off your family and send those traditional nobles of the Northlands to me. I will take charge of assigning new dominions to them. As for the new nobles that have only come recently, we will send them out of the border. That way, the whole of the eastern Northlands will belong to the Kenmays Family. How does that sound?" Lorist suggested.

"I have to go back and discuss this with my father first. If he agrees with your proposition, then we will do it your way," Count Kenmays replied after giving it some thought.

At that moment, four horses could be seen approaching from the distance. It was Els and his two guards.

"Lock--, milord, you should see the results of firing the super carroballistas..." Since Count Kenmays was there, Els referred to Lorist formally instead of using his nickname.

Els headed to the fourth horse and heaved the corpse on it onto the floor. That corpse had a huge hole bore through the torso. It was obvious that it had been caused by the bolt fired by the super ballista.

Who's that old guy? Well, at any rate, it definitely isn't the Second Prince. He's not that chubby-looking. From the look of this corpse, the Second Prince should be at least ten years younger. This fellow looks to be around 60...

As the cheerful Els inspected the corpse, Count Kenmays's face turned completely pale once he recognized it. "This... this is Blademaster Louinse. H-how was it possible for you to have killed him?"

"Why isn't it possible?" Els said seriously. "This old guy was such a big idiot that he actually attempted to stop the bolt of the super ballista with a single sword! Even though he managed to divert the first bolt, he spat out blood on the spot and the second bolt that headed his way pierced him through completely and even knocked down the battle standard of the Second Prince, causing him to fall into a stupor. His guards feared that we would fire another one of those bolts and quickly brought the Second Prince with them to escape. That's how the whole legion's morale collapsed immediately.

"Look, milord. Wasn't my decision to use these two super ballistas worthwhile? You heard that guy say it too, right? This old guy is a Blademaster! A freaking Blademaster! Haha, with but a shot of our super ballista, the Second Prince lost a Blademaster. Hahahaha, I'm just so pumped up right now! To tell you the truth, I wasn't willing to believe the prisoners who said that this old man was a Blademaster at first! Haha, our super ballista is truly unparalleled!"

"It's just a fluke!" Lorist cursed to snap Els out of his giddy laughter. Lorist himself probably wouldn't have believed that they managed to kill a Blademaster with the two super ballistas before the battle even began, but the proof was right in front of him. It's no wonder Els was in such high spirits given that the alleged Blademaster's corpse was on the ground like that.

This result was completely out of anyone's expectations. The unfortunate Blademaster Louinse had actually sealed his own fate. The first bolt fired by the super ballista was actually slightly off course and it would have flown over the Second Prince and the rest and missed them entirely without causing any casualties. However, Blademaster Louinse, perhaps feeling that letting a ballista bolt fly past him like that was humiliating, decided to leap and parry the ballista bolt with his sword.

It's just that even the Blademaster himself underestimated the velocity at which the bolt was flying at. While he did manage to divert the bolt mid-air, as he wasn't able to pass the momentum to the ground in the air. All the force contained within the bolt was transferred through his sword into his body, badly injuring his internal organs and causing him to vomit blood. The truly unfortunate part was that the Blademaster had landed right in the trajectory of the second bolt.

Had the Blademaster stood still and not react, those two bolts fired by the super ballistas wouldn't have harmed anyone and would at most only cause some distress among the troops. But fortune is fickle by nature. Perhaps, it was the old Blademaster's fate to have died on that day. Needless to say, everyone else on the battlefield was dumbstruck as a mighty Blademaster had died that easily. If two more bolts like those before came again, who would be able to deflect them? Without much consideration, the Second Prince's guards hurriedly evacuated with their master, leaving the entire legion of troops to fend for themselves.

"Hey, what are you doing?! You can't get up there! Come down this instant!" Els shouted as he pointed to the super carroballista.

Lorist turned his head only to see that Count Kenmays had climbed his way up the super carroballista. At that moment, he was caressing the steel ballista as he would a stunning beauty, mumbling, "What a godly weapon..."

"Pull him down right now!" Els shouted angrily.

Count Kenmays was brought down from the carroballista by two guards in the end.

"What are you doing?" Lorist asked with a solemn look.

"Brother... Oh Brother Locke... You must sell me one of these godly weapons no matter what..." Count Kenmays said frantically as he clutched Lorist's hands.

"No way," Lorist said, shaking his head.

"Come on," pleaded the count once again with a wanting look.

"Nope, I'm serious," Lorist replied.

"Sigh..." Count Kenmays also understood that Lorist wouldn't sell him such a powerful weapon. But he knew that he had to try no matter what.

"Why are you sighing like that? These two super ballistas are made just for use against magical beasts. It's not like your family dominion is near the wildlands anyway, what would you do with one of these?" Lorist asked curiously.

"To defeat Blademasters of course!" Count Kenmays answered, much to Lorist's surprise.

"Do you know how many Blademasters are there in the Iblia Kingdom?" Count Kenmays asked.

"I have no idea," Lorist said. "I only know that the Andinaq Kingdom has two working for the Third Prince. I also heard that Duke Melein himself is a Blademaster. As for the Iblia Kingdom, I only know of two who work for the Second Prince, that's about it."

Count Kenmays stretched his palm out and said, "The Iblia Kingdom has a total of five Blademasters."

After saying that, he kicked the corpse of the old guy and said, "However, there's only four remaining. The Second Prince himself has two by his side, one of whom was the Second Prince's tutor when he was younger, Zarinan. However, that old fellow had always wanted to become a Sword Saint and often secludes himself to train and research the path of the sword. Before the new year, he visited the Northlands, and that was the only time I've seen him. He then left for Windbury City at the end of the 3rd month to escort the queen there. The other Blademaster is this old guy here, Louinse. He can be considered Zarinan's junior apprentice brother. Since Zarinan is busy training to become a Sword Saint, Louinse is the one who guards the Second Prince."

Count Kenmays kicked the corpse of the old man a few more times and said, "This old guy truly is the worst. The Second Prince relies on him to toy with the Gold ranked knights of the other nobles and he happily complies and doesn't stop until his opponent is completely humiliated. Not only that, he's a greedy prick who is also extremely lustful. That time, he forcefully took poor Viscountess Justine from me and even forced me to give him a gold Forde note worth 10000 gold coins! Oh, I better check if he still has it on his person..."

Count Kenmays searched the corpse so thoroughly that his hands were covered in blood, but he still couldn't locate the note.

Lorist turned to look at Els only to see the latter smirking. He instantly understood that Els had long searched the corpse of the Blademaster and took all his belongings.

As his attendant wiped the blood off his hands, the count said, "Apart from the aforementioned two Blademasters, the others usually stay with the Second Prince's father-in-law, Duke Fisablen. That's also one of the main factors for the Second Prince's fear of the duke. Firstly, Duke Fisablen himself is a Blademaster, as well as his trusted subordinate and family knight, Viscount Kristoph. The last Blademaster is a woman called Xanthi, but I don't know her family name. She's also Princess Sylvia's adoptive mother and is also rumored to be Duke Fisablen's lover. However, she had a miscarriage for some reason after her pregnancy and that was just around the time Princess Sylvia's parents passed away, causing her to decide to raise the princess as she would her own child.

"Currently, the suspension bridge built by my family connects to Duke Fisablen's sphere of influence, the Wild Husbandry Province. So, you can understand how much pressure the duke's Frontier Legion and his three Blademasters put on me. I can't even sleep well at night because of that. But, if I have that killer weapon of yours, I would feel much better..." Count Kenmays explained as he begged.

Lorist smiled and shook his head before he said, "My answer is still the same, I cannot afford to let this weapon out of my hands. But you shouldn't need to worry. Now that the Second Prince is out of the picture, the affairs of the Northlands will only be dictated by us four families. As long as we form an alliance, nobody will dare to cross us. We will definitely help each other as one no matter which one of us gets into trouble. Even if Duke Fisablen plots against you, he will have to take us three other families into consideration. If you're still worried, you should just destroy that metal suspension bridge of yours. I believe the Blademasters wouldn't bother to jump across a ravine just to cause trouble for your family."

"Hmph, in your dreams." Count Kenmays knew that Lorist was only joking as there was no way that they would destroy a bridge they had spent so much to build. Additionally, the toll collected from the bridge was also a good source of income.

......

Lorist remained at Firmrock Castle for another day and ordered Potterfang to have his three heavy-armored infantry brigades set up a prisoner camp in front of the castle to process the prisoners before transporting them to work at Blackmud Marsh. He also made sure Els dealt with bringing the two super carroballistas back to Firmrock Castle. After Count Kenmays had his forces head back to his family dominion, Lorist brought him along with a few other guards to Gildusk City.

After three days of travel, Lorist received word that the Second Prince was still on the loose and nobody had any idea where he had gone. Additionally, Baron Felim assaulted Freist Castle and Hendliff Suspension Bridge according to his agreement with Lorist and was currently attacking the two other towns and three bastides near that area. He reported good progress and it was only a matter of time before he conquers those places.

The dominion formerly belonging to Duke Loggins consisted of Gildusk City, Hendliff Suspension Bridge and Freist Castle, as well as three bastides and seven towns. Knight Hennard occupied Cherry Blossom Ridge, which was one of the bastides, and Evanson Town. Only two bastides and six towns remained for the taking.

As for the three bastides Baron Felim conquered, apart from one which used to be part of the duke's dominion, the other two belonged to some nearby landed nobles. As the three bastides were not too far apart from each other, Lorist assigned them under Baron felim's control. Since the landed nobles joined the Second Prince's war effort, Lorist didn't bother to show them any mercy.

On the other hand, Knight Hennard wanted to occupy another bastide and four other towns within the duke's dominion, as well as Gildusk City, the capital of the dominion. The messenger that came before noon reported that Baron Shazin Hennard's progress was much faster than that of Baron Felim. So far, apart from Gildusk City, he had already taken control of the four towns and bastide.

Along the way, the group witnessed batches of prisoners being escorted to Firmrock Castle, causing Lorist to marvel at the potential of men. In but a few short days, the remnant soldiers of the allied noble army had actually managed to flee that far before they were captured.

That night, Lorist had a few cups of wine with Count Kenmays at the campsite and chatted for quite a while. Just as he was about to take a rest, a messenger came riding into the camp.

The moment he entered the tent, he knelt down and said, "Lord Norton, please save our two leaders!"

What's going on?

After hearing the messenger's report, Lorist gasped in shock and said, "What? Did you say that Gold ranked Knight Tabik was captured and imprisoned in the duke's manor by Princess Sylvia? Knight Hennard was captured as well from attempting to save him?"

"That's right, Baron Felim has already surrounded the manor with his troops and requested the princess to release the two of them, but the she refused and threatened that she would kill those two should Baron Felim's troops dare to enter the manor. Right now, they're in a stalemate and Baron Felim urgently requested for you to hurry to Gildusk City to solve the problem and save our two leaders," said the messenger as he sobbed.

Chapter 193 Confrontation with Princess Sylvia

Even Lorist couldn't have predicted that things would turn out this way. Just that morning, he received a report that Knight Hennard had occupied Gildusk City with his troops, and just now during the night, he got wind that Knight Hennard had become a prisoner. That was too drastic a development! And so, Lorist had no choice but to head straight for Gildusk City.

By the time he arrived there, it was already the evening of the next day. Baron Felim who had his troops encircle the duke's manor came forward to receive Lorist and Count Kenmays had one of Knight Hennard's subordinates explain the details of the situation.

It all began because of Gold ranked Knight Tabik's rude mouth. As he had received orders to take control of the duke's manor, when he met with Princess Sylvia, perhaps because he believed that the Second Prince had completely lost and the princess no longer had anyone to rely on, he began to flirt with her. That caused the princess's rage to well up before she challenged the knight to a fight immediately. In an unexpected twist, the princess actually knew how to use Battle Force and was a Gold rank at that. It must be known that Princess Sylvia was only 20 years old that year, and 20-year-olds who had trained up to Gold ranked Battle Force were few and far between. It was something that usually wouldn't be possible even with exceeding talent.

The poor Knight Tabik never would have dreamed that the stunning beauty that was the princess was actually akin to a female dragon in strength, causing him to be caught completely off-guard. Not only was he captured by her, he was pummeled thoroughly first in front of everyone present.

When Hennard heard about it, he instantly rushed over to negotiate with Princess Sylvia for Knight Tabik's release and apologized on his behalf. He also promised that he definitely would not touch the princess's residence and would allow her to roam freely as she wills within the Northlands.

Initially, the talks went well. However, the princess suddenly drew her sword and pointed it at Hennard and said that she would only release Tabik if Hennard defeated her in a duel. Having no other choice, Hennard accepted the duel reluctantly.

As Hennard was an experienced knight that had partaken in many battles with Two Star Gold Battle Force, his techniques were naturally superior to that of the princess, allowing him to gain the upper hand right away. Even though he was fighting at a disadvantage because he was afraid to accidentally wound the princess, he believed that she would eventually give up, so Hennard's family knights merely watched the duel calmly.

But, when Hennard decided that he wanted to knock the princess's sword away with one blow to force her to surrender, his foot suddenly slipped. Not only did his strike miss, he even exposed his chest completely, causing Princess Sylvia to be able to have the chance to put her sword up to his neck.

Seeing that, the other Silver ranked knights immediately drew their swords and rushed forward, only to see Knight Hennard toss his sword away and shout at them to look for Baron Felim and Lorist to come over to solve the problem before being guided into the duke's manor with Princess Sylvia.

When Baron Felim first heard about it, he was greatly shocked and instantly sent his troops to surround the manor and demanded the princess to release the two hostages. However, the princess said that she would only comply if she was defeated in a duel and said that if the baron dared to send his troops into the manor, she would kill off the two knights immediately.

The reason Baron Felim didn't want to confront the princess himself was because he felt that he wouldn't be able to take her on. He was also warned to refrain from doing so by Knight Hennard's subordinates because if he was captured as well, there would no longer be anyone there to take charge of the situation. Additionally, Knight Hennard's loss was a little weird as making a simple mistake like that was unlike the performance of a Gold ranked knight.

"And that's how we arrived at a stalemate here. Princess Sylvia has sent someone to request for some fresh fruits and vegetables and we've satisfied that demand of hers," said Baron Felim as he laughed bitterly.

After patting his attire, Lorist turned to leave and said, "I will head to the duke's manor to take a look."

At that moment, Baron Felim and Count Kenmays hurriedly stopped him and said, "Lord Norton, Locke, don't be hasty. We must discuss this in detail..."

With a mere turn of his body, Lorist evaded Baron Felim's outstretched arm and said, "Don't worry. Princess Sylvia is a Gold ranked swordswoman and she wouldn't go out of her way to cause trouble for an Iron rank like me..."

On the other hand, Count Kenmays was being restrained by Reidy.

The count shouted angrily, "Are you going to just watch as your lord walks to his death?"

Reidy snickered and said, "Don't worry, Lord Count. My lord has yet to lose a single battle so far. And, Gold ranked Knight Chevany had died because he was defeated in a duel with my lord..."

"Is that true?" Count Kenmays said, shocked. Baron Felim who was beside them also had his interest piqued. Both of them knew that Knight Chevany and Knight Hennard were the ones who were ordered by Duke Loggins to lead the 4000 Northland Army soldiers to invade the Norton Family dominion. In the end, their army was utterly defeated with Knight Chevany dead on the battlefield and Knight Hennard captured. Apart from that, no other detail was made known to anyone else.

Reidy pointed to the guards beside them and said, "It's true. Just look at our guards who are not even nervous in the slightest. That shows the confidence they have in our lord. Before this, our lord led the soldiers himself in every single battle we fought and usually charged at the very front. We're already used to seeing him slaughtering the helpless enemies while not even getting injured himself. That's how we managed to capture Knight Hennard in the first place and that's also why he's thoroughly convinced of his loss."

In a few moments, Lorist arrived at the entrance of the manor and he lightly pushed open the main gate.

Beyond that door was a small courtyard where the guards of the manor trained and changed shifts.

Standing at the gates, Lorist took a deep breath and announced his presence. "I, Count Norton Lorist of the Norton Family, have come to pay Princess Sylvia a visit! Please grace me with your presence!"

Even though Lorist wasn't shouting, his voice was clear as thunder and echoed throughout the skies of the manor.

All of a sudden, a commotion seemed to have occurred within the manor before a large group of guards scrambled out of it to face Lorist as if they were going to fight a formidable enemy.

Not long after, a loud call could be heard. "Princess Sylvia of the Iblia Kingdom has arrived..."

This was Lorist's first encounter with the princess and he finally understood Count Kenmays's obsession with her looks. She did in fact possess beauty that rivaled that of a goddess. Despite the fact that Lorist had lived two lives and met his fair share of beauties, he was still quite impressed when he saw the princess. Only one word popped up within his mind at that moment: fairy.

She did indeed look as beautiful and elegant as the fairies depicted in ancient folklore. Lorist sighed in marvel slightly and calmed his mind to stop focusing his attention on her stunning looks.

Princess Sylvia was also checking Lorist out herself. Ever since she arrived at the Northlands, she was curious about this dominion lord who had yet to show himself publicly and her first impression of Lorist was that he looked really common. He didn't wear the shiny Sid Steel armor that his family soldiers wore and was only dressed in a common grey-colored linen short coat on the outside with a black shirt underneath. He wore a pair of long black pants and a pair of black leather boots. He also donned a layer of silver wire mesh armor on his upper body.

At a height of 1.8 or so meters, Lorist was considered of slightly above average height among the people of the Grindia Continent and his looks didn't stand out at all. He didn't look particularly handsome nor was he any ugly, just normal. Princess Sylvia who has definitely seen her fair share of handsome men would definitely not even be able to recall how Lorist looked like had she met him on the street. He practically looked like a forgettable extra in a movie scene.

However, what made Princess Sylvia feel that Lorist was more than meets the eye were his rich, black eyes that were filled with spirit which inspected herself with perfect clarity, radiating a sense of calm and security, much unlike the glazed stares of other nobles which seemed respectful on the surface but actually gave off a lewd vibe. Lorist's long, black hair was tied up in a ponytail at the back of his head, and his brows seemed to give off a sense of confidence, giving him a unique aura that made others feel that he would never cave from any challenge, which was quite unusual among nobles.

Lorist lowered his head and bowed down slightly with his right hand clutching his chest to make a salute among nobles of equal standing and said, "Your Highness, revered Princess Sylvia, the current head of the Norton Family, Norton Lorist, pays his respects."

"As a noble of the Iblia Kingdom, how dare you not submit yourself to the princess? Are you refusing to acknowledge her superiority?" Before Princess Sylvia even said anything, one of the guards harshly reprimanded Lorist.

"May I inquire since when has the Norton Family been a noble family of the Iblia Kingdom? Why don't we know about it? If the Norton Family did in fact pledge allegiance to the Iblia Royal Family, then please show me the document of proof! Otherwise, shut your pathetic mouth!" Even though Lorist still remained smiling, the rage in his eyes forced the guard to take two steps back without being able to make a retort.

Princess Sylvia stepped forward in front of the guard with a cold expression and said in a cold tone, "Does that mean that Baron Norton does not acknowledge that he is a noble of the Iblia Kingdom?"

"Naturally. Your Highness, everyone knows that the Norton Family of the Northlands only promised the Krissen Royal Family to defend the empire's borders and we have carried out our duty for the past 300 years without rest. After countless generations of effort, we brought peace to the Northlands. However, the empire fell into chaos with the three kings fighting for power, breaking what we used to know as a strong, formidable empire into shambles. Despite that, the Norton Family continues to carry out our mission to protect the borders of the empire and refused to participate in the chaotic internal affairs of the empire. Let me ask you then, Your Highness, whether the behavior of the Norton Family qualifies and unswerving loyalty?"

"Are you sure? Don't forget that your family pillaged the duke's dominion like bandits a few years back. Even though the empire has fallen, does that allow you to act wantonly like that?" Princess Sylvia retorted coldly with a smile.

"Your Highness, even though the empire is gone, the Norton Family is still fulfilling its mission and is upholding the burden by defending the rest of the lands from the magical beast wave. As for the unfortunate incident that occurred a few years back, it was sorely due to Duke Loggins's reckless greed that prompted him to stretch his claws maliciously towards the Norton Family. What we did was merely self defense. As for the citizens of the duke's dominion, they have followed us back to our own dominion on their own accord to flee from the flames of war ad begin their peaceful lives anew. Your Highness, think about it, has the Norton Family occupied any inch of land that rightfully belongs to others? No. We have only stayed within our dominion and continued on with our lives. Even so, there were some that didn't want to let us rest in peace, forcing us to retaliate in kind," Lorist argued.

Princess Sylvia's fair, white cheeks reddened as her anger welled. "You truly have a cunning mouth, Baron Norton. Did you rely on that mouth of yours to fight against the magical beasts, I wonder?"

Even though her insult was harsh, Princess Sylvia had already been embarrassed to the point of rage and could no longer care less.

Lorist merely smiled calmly and said, "Don't forget, Your Highness, that I have already satisfied your request for some corpses of the magical beasts. You should know how much our heroic warriors have suffered after seeing the corpses yourself. Need I remind you that the Norton Family currently holds the rank of a count as well? Because of the efforts of our generations of ancestors in protecting the borders, the Andinaq Royal Family, true heir to the blood of the Krissen Imperial Family, has entitled us with the rank of a count, and we have accepted it as we believe our efforts merit the promotion."

Even though Princess Sylvia didn't have anything to say about the first part of Lorist's statement, when she heard the rest, she snorted and said, "I see that your family has colluded with the Andinaq Royal Family... No wonder you dare to be so defiant to the King of the Iblia Kingdom and has refused his demands multiple times..."

Lorist burst out in laughter before he took out a piece of paper from his breast pocket and said, "Your Highness, perhaps you should hear for yourself the three demands your king issued to my family."

So Lorist recited the demands word by word out loud, and with each sentence, the face of the princess paled. She understood that no noble would ever agree to demands as preposterous as those. Those demands in essence wanted the Norton Family to jump blindly into an endless abyss! This time around, the princess truly felt utterly humiliated.

"No, I don't want to hear it anymore! I don't wanna..." muttered the princess as she stomped her feet on the ground repeatedly, throwing a massive fit.

"I've finished reciting them, Your Highness. Let's put aside the grudge between the Second Prince and I, since the 100000 soldiers he brought to attack us has already been wiped out and his whereabouts are currently unknown. The reason I'm here is to discuss with you about the release of Knight Tabik and Baron Shazin, both of whom you have imprisoned. On what conditions will you grant them their freedom? You should know better that there is much to attend to after a huge battle and that there are many responsibilities waiting for them to fulfil," Lorist said.

Now that they have returned to the topic at hand, the princess regained her calm and said, "It's simple. As long as you can defeat me, I will let them go."

After taking a closer look at Lorist, Princess Sylvia clicked her tongue and said, "Count Norton, you shouldn't have any business here since you're an Iron rank. Have a Gold ranked knight of your family fight in your stead."

Lorist merely laughed out loud and drew his sword. "I might as well give it a try..."

"How dare you?!" shouted the guard who stood by the side of the princess as he charged over with his longsword that emitted a silver blade glow.

Thud! A moment later, that Silver ranked guard fell flat on his face right at Lorist's feet.

Swoosh! Two other Silver ranked guards rushed forward with their swords as well, only to suffer the same fate as their comrade.

By the time there were tens of guards by Lorist's feet, he got annoyed and said, "Your Highness, how many more guards do you have? You might as well have all of them come at me so that I can save more time..."

With a serious expression, Princess Sylvia drew her sword and waved it at the guards who wanted to rush forward and said, "You're not his match. Let me..."

"Neither are you, Your Highness Princess Sylvia. Have that person hiding behind you step out. Don't think that I didn't notice it just because that person is hiding beneath the shade of the tree," Lorist snapped candidly before turning to look at a huge tree near the walls of the courtyard.

"I've never seen a sword style such as yours and I don't know how you managed to discover me. I can only say that your style must be of a very peculiar origin," said a woman with a hoarse voice as she stepped forward from the tree, dressed in a loose, black robe.

It was the first time Lorist revealed a nervous look. His dynamic vision was actually unable to pinpoint the location of the person, who seemed to be standing beneath the tree. He just couldn't sense the human presence from under that robe.

Lorist licked his lips and said, "I believe you're Her Highness's adoptive mother, Blademaster Xanthi. No wonder Knight Hennard had lost during his fight with her. I see that you have been giving her a hand. I knew that something felt weird... The princess is definitely talented, no doubt, but given her young age and her One Star Gold Battle Force, how could she have defeated a Gold ranked knight who had experienced multitudes of battles?"

"You dare to look down on me? En garde!" shouted the princess in rage as she launched herself towards Lorist with her sword drawn, emanating a golden blade glow.

"Stop!" shouted the woman wearing the black robe. It was unclear whether she was asking the princess to stop or for Lorist to not resist and allow the princess to expel her rage by striking him.

Naturally, Lorist did not pay that voice any heed. Bending his body backwards, the princess's sword pierced only thin air. And as if he was a spring, Lorist bounced back up and approached the princess quickly.

The princess was shocked as she previous thought that Lorist would dodge or parry her strike. But she didn't expect that he would remain at the same spot despite dodging and even spring back up to get so close to her. The poor princess had never had another man so close to her face within her personal space and instantly lost her cool and panicked with the only thought in her mind being to stretch out her hands to push Lorist away.

Lorist's body swerved once more and now, he appeared behind the princess and caught the sword-hand of the princess with his own. His other hand reached for his own sword and pressed it against the fair face of the princess, causing her to stand completely still upon feeling the cold flat of the blade against her face.

A glint from a sword suddenly manifested mid-air and headed straight for the princess's pale face...

Chapter 194 Victor of the Duel

But the glint dissipated as the black-robed shadow landed lightly on the ground 5 meters away from Lorist and Sylvia.

"Release Sylvia right this instant!" said the robed woman in her enraged, hoarse voice.

Lorist seemed serious, but unhurried, as he smiled and said, "I believe you'll be willing to release Knight Tabik and Knight Hennard now, right?"

The black-robed woman didn't hesitate as she turned to the stunned guards nearby and instructed, "You guys, bring those two Gold ranked knights over here and tell them that they're free to go."

"Yes, revered master," said the guards as they stared at Lorist who was holding the princess hostage before entering the manor hesitantly.

Lorist kept his sword and took a few steps back, releasing Princess Sylvia in the process.

Now that she was free, Sylvia wasn't flustered at all and instead turned to look curiously at Lorist.

The moment the black-robed woman saw that Lorist had released Sylvia, she immediately leaped to her side and as she did so, Lorist stepped back another four meters to ensure that there was at least 7 meters of distance between them.

"You truly have keen senses. However, aren't you afraid that I will turn back on my word now that you've released the princess?" asked the robed woman with a haughty tone.

Lorist shrugged casually and said, "I didn't have a choice. Senior, you are a Blademaster and the pressure you're applying on me is too much. Only by maintaining our distance can I be confident that I will be able to receive your blows. And if a Blademaster like you can't keep a promise, I can only blame my bad luck."

"Good..." The black-robed woman hugged Princess Sylvia in her bosom and said, "I will release the two Gold ranked knights. However, you will have to stay."

"No problem," Lorist replied. "I'm of the intention of sparring with you as well, senior..."

At that moment, Princess Sylvia regained clarity of mind and plucked her face from the robed woman chest and asked, "Um, Count Norton... What's your name?"

Even though there was a slight breach of etiquette on the princess's part, Lorist nevertheless responded. "Norton Lorist. Your Highness, my name is Norton Lorist."

The princess nodded and said, "Regardless of our status as nobles, as a swordswoman, I will definitely defeat you to wash myself of the humiliation I received."

Lorist broke out in laughter uncontrollably at the princess's childish temper that caused her to behave like a sore loser.

"Your Highness, you're a Gold ranked swordswoman. Do you really have to stoop that low for an Iron rank like myself?" Lorist asked.

"I don't believe that you're only Iron rank. You must be hiding your true abilities," Princess Sylvia retorted.

"You should note that I only used my skills without circulating the slightest ounce of Battle Force when I defeated your guards and caught you just now," Lorist said.

After hearing that, the princess gave it some thought and was shocked to realize that what Lorist said was completely true.

"Hehe..." snickered the black-robed woman. "Sylvia, he's merely misguiding you. While he did in fact not use any Battle Force, he's using some kind of energy that we are completely unfamiliar with. Even though this kind of energy is less noticeable than Battle Force, it is actually more explosive than it. As it is stored within the internals of his body, he can react and move much faster and more agilely than normal people. I bet it's also because of the mysterious energy that he's able to detect my hidden presence. You are definitely not his match right now. I will be testing his true strength shortly."

Lorist started letting out some cold sweat in awe of the Blademaster that had so quickly discerned the anomalies during his quick fight with the princess to the point that she was able to feel the internal energy flowing within his body. The acuity of her senses was far too frightening.

At that moment, Knight Hennard and Knight Tabik walked out of the manor and let out a look of joy the moment they set eyes on Lorist. However, they quickly discovered the black-robed woman and Princess Sylvia, causing their expressions to return to their former seriousness.

"Are you confident?" Knight Hennard asked.

"It's hard to say, I think I stand a 50 percent chance. You guys should leave first so that I will have one less thing to worry about and can fight more freely," Lorist said in a low voice.

"Do you need us to apply some pressure?"

"No need, just leave. Women are fickle and they change their minds for reasons men like us can never fathom. If you leave, even if I lose, you'll still be able to escape. But if you stay and I lose, this trip I made will have been in vain," Lorist whispered quickly.

"Alright, then we'll head out first. Be careful," Knight Hennard said with a nod and left with Knight Tabik without any hesitation.

"Hehe... You said that women are fickle?? I see that you have quite a peculiar view on us women. Since you said that, Lord Count, I suddenly feel like going back on my word. Since you're so confident, I'll chase them down once I apprehend you first..."

Even though Lorist said that in a very low volume, it was still audible to the black-robed woman.

As he concentrated all his attention, Lorist smiled and said, "Your reaction to that only serves to prove my point."

"Ugh..." The black-robed woman groaned, speechless at Lorist's statement. "Sylvia, stand back. Look closely at how I teach this bastard a lesson!" roared the woman in her hoarse voice.

"Okay. Godmother, please be careful..." Princess Sylvia said before she stepped to the side obediently.

All of a sudden, biting, cold flashes of the blade filled the area around them and the darkening sky seemed as though it had been sliced clean apart by a blade of light. Lorist was slightly stunned as he thought, so this is what happens when a Blademaster goes all out? It does cause me to feel a kind of despair and hopelessness of not being able to escape...

Biting his tongue and using the pain to snap himself out of his daze from gazing at the beautiful arcs traced by the Blademaster mid-air only to be faced with the countless blade strikes coming his way, Lorist said, "Here I go..."

Not only did he not retreat backwards, Lorist stepped forward into the storm of slashes, becoming one with his sword as he charged straight for the eye of the storm.

Clangclangclangclang!

Loud clashes of swords could be heard nonstop. Sparks could be seen where Lorist's sword parried the slashes as his body occasionally shifted in and out of focus, leaving behind an afterimage or two. The Blademaster's posture was graceful as ever as she landed lightly on the ground while Lorist took a few steps back as he hurriedly parried another four blade attacks coming his way before regaining his stability.

"No wonder you're so arrogant. With swordsmanship like that, it's easy to see where your confidence came from," said the Blademaster calmly with not one trace of anger from before.

"You're quite formidable as well. I've finally experienced a Blademaster's strength for myself," Lorist said with a forehead full of sweat with a few sword cuts on his coat. Even though his body wasn't harmed in the slightest, the mere sight of the cuts on his clothes showed how dangerous that exchange had been. However, Lorist still wore a relaxed expression as he understood that while it would be difficult for him to defeat the Blademaster, escaping wouldn't be a problem at all.

Even though Lorist and his subordinates had killed two Blademasters before, it was the first time Lorist faced off against one in a melee. The case with Blademaster Louinse was merely a result of bad luck on the Blademaster's part. The other time was when Lorist first led the northbound convoy towards the Northlands and encountered the Sloph Slave Traders at the Lormo Duchy who were backed by a Blademaster. In the end, the Blademaster was wiped out during the conflict with the convoy along with the organization he tried to protect.

The moment that Blademaster whose name Lorist had already forgotten got off the ship, he was killed from the combined fire of the 400 plus crossbowmen and Lorist's 72 internal energy-infused javelins and didn't even get an opportunity to show off his sword skills.

Lorist has always kept the words of Blademaster Claude of the Dawn Academy close to his heart. 'A Blademaster's area of influence in which he can observe with perfect clarity was spread out like a plate. As long as one was within that area, the Blademaster would hold an advantage of over ten times. Fighting against a Blademaster was like placing a cup onto a plate. The cup will always be within the area of influence of the plate and be put under pressure. That's why the optimal way to defeat a Blademaster was to stay out of the plate and defeat him with ranged attacks.

And that was exactly what Lorist had done in the past. However, after experiencing a head-on fight with a Blademaster in close combat, Lorist truly understood the degree of their abilities. When compared to a Gold ranked swordsman, a Blademaster was completely in a different league. When Lorist fought against Gold ranked swordsmen, Lorist was able to gain the upper hand early in the duel and obtain victory quite easily. But when he fought Blademaster Xanthi just now, he was constantly at a disadvantage and preoccupied with defending like a turtle trying to withdraw into its shell.

Perhaps due to Blademaster Xanthi's gender and physique, she trained in a swordsmanship style that was quick and swift. Her sword strikes were fast as lightning and the constant streams of strikes gave off a feeling of invincibility. However, in terms of pure strength, Lorist felt that her strikes were on par with most Gold ranked knights. That's why they didn't pose any real threat to Lorist.

Despite that, Xanthi's strikes were truly too fast. If Lorist didn't have the aid of his natural gift of dynamic vision, he definitely wouldn't have been able to resist the torrent of blade glows like he did just now. The 'sense' of the Blademaster within her area of influence was nothing to scoff at and she reacted by changing the trajectory of her strike the moment the previous strike was parried to have it come from an unpredictable angle, forcing Lorist to fight defensively without being able to launch a counterattack.

If the Blademaster didn't knock herself and Lorist apart after her first torrent of attacks, Lorist probably would've been unable to continue resisting. As he was already sweating all over, he believed that the Blademaster was probably having a hard time as well, but he couldn't be sure as she was wearing a black robe that obscured her face.

Lorist subsequently widened his legs and got into a horse stance that seemed as stable as a mountain. With a serious gaze, he stared at the Blademaster and said, "Senior, if you may..."

"Heeaaargh! En garde!" shouted the Blademaster as she leaped forward. This time around, she used a different attack pattern and moved like a black butterfly, circling Lorist gracefully nonstop as she snuck in one swift strike after another.

On the other end, Lorist held his treasured sword with both hands tightly and blocked the incoming strikes in a seemingly slow fashion with the least possible movement. He was defending with all his might without the slightest intention to attack.

Clangclangclangclang!

Loud clangs rang out once again as the swords clashed, but it was unlike the clear, crisp sounds from before and instead carried with them a low hum.

This torrent of strikes lasted shorter than the previous one as Blademaster Xanthi somersaulted backwards in the air. But when she landed, she seemed to stagger as if she didn't find a good footing.

"Gah, you..." mused the Blademaster in rage.

"Senior, if I don't return your strikes, it would be disrespectful of me! Here I come!" Lorist roared before he smiled and shifted his feet. His figure was approaching Blademaster Xanthi at breakneck speed with his sword slashing diagonally downwards.

At that moment, Lorist seemed to have transformed into a fierce general on the battlefield, cutting down two sword strikes at once with the sword not diverting from the original trajectory in the slightest. On the contrary, the Blademaster's wrist shivered as the stream of internal energy passed from Lorist's sword to hers, causing her to be unable to continue holding onto it. The sword slipped out of her hand and landed on the ground with Lorist's sword pointed at her chest.

What followed was complete silence. Nobody expected Lorist to defeat a Blademaster at all. Even Xanthi herself was unwilling to accept the result and merely continued to stare at the sword pointed towards her while shivering in fear.

"Thank you for going easy on me, senior," Lorist said before he sheathed his sword and turned to leave.

"Wait... Can you tell me what that energy within your body is called?" said Xanthi with her hoarse voice.

Lorist stopped for a bit before he said, "To be honest with you, I am indeed not training in Battle Force. I call the energy I use 'internal energy'."

"Internal energy? Energy brought out from within the body? What a fitting name. This style sounds similar to the training method used by the ancient martial monks of legend..." mused the Blademaster who no longer cared about the fact that she had lost to Lorist.

"Milord, milord..."

It was then when Lorist realized the presence of Reidy, Els, Patt and Josk within the manor. They had been observing his fight with Xanthi the whole time with Josk having drawn his bow in full alert.

"Don't say anything. Let's leave first and chat later," Lorist instructed in a low voice.

All of them complied and left quickly with Els even going out of his way to close the gates of the manor.

After walking several meters away from the manor, Lorist's body slumped weakly right onto Els, much to the others' shock.

"Don't panic, I'm not injured. Just tired. I already don't have enough energy to walk, so carry me back. Reidy, prepare some hot water for me to bathe in. I should recover after taking a long rest, so don't worry," Lorist said with the last of his breath.

Josk said, "Follow milord's orders and bring him back first. Look..."

Everyone lowered their heads to look at the footsteps Lorist left on the ground which were wet from all his sweat...

As a result of having gone all out, the internal part of Lorist's dantian had been deprived completely of all energy. The match that lasted a whole hour was one of the riskiest fights that Lorist had ever been in. If he didn't decide to end the fight by expending all his internal energy during the second clash to shake up Blademaster Xanthi's Battle Force, causing her to drop her sword and be unable to parry the next strike, he might have lost the battle in the end.

The main factor Lorist was able to win was his explosive use of internal energy to suppress the Battle Force of his opponent. By the time the Blademaster dropped her sword, Lorist no longer had an iota of internal energy that he could circulate and use, hence his brief departure from the manor without much of a word. With him being exhausted as he was, he would have collapsed right there on the spot if he had stayed any longer. It was fortunate that Josk and the others were there for him to carry him back while he was immobilized.

Chapter 195 Four Family Alliance

After stretching his body, Lorist no longer felt any desire to sleep. At that moment, he was filled with energy and he unconsciously recalled the scene when he fought against the Blademaster. Back then, it felt like the whole area was a completely separate space cut off from the outside with a wave of cold that swept away everything... Lorist couldn't help but feel the urge to spar against the Blademaster again.

However, he was surprised to find that he no longer felt the previous subconscious uneasiness and alertness when thinking of Blademaster Xanthi. Instead, he regarded her as a fighter on the same level as if that was the most natural feeling to him.

Now that he had slept for a long period of time, his body was well rested and completely rejuvenated.

Lorist got off his bed and assumed the horse stance to circulate the Crimsonblood Battle Force of his family before switching to the Aquametal Technique. With each cycle, internal energy was restored to his dantian and he only stopped when it was completely filled.

Even though Lorist had expended all his internal energy during his fight with the Blademaster, he realized that his internal energy capacity had increased despite being stagnated for quite some time. He now understood that only by using up all his internal energy would it benefit his training. As he thought that, Lorist continued to analyze the internal constitution of his body.

At that moment, sounds of familiar footsteps could be heard coming from outside the door. Lorist only just realized that the sky had already darkened.

Reidy pushed open the door and saw Lorist standing by his bed. Elated, he said, "Milord, you're finally awake?"

Lorist nodded and said, "Reidy, get me something to eat. I think I can swallow a whole cow right now."

"Milord, you've been asleep for two days and three nights! It's no wonder you're hungry! Wait for a bit, I'll go cook something up," Reidy said before he left hurriedly.

"Huh? Did I really sleep for that long?" Lorist mused in a shocked manner. However, Reidy had already left and he didn't get to ask for a more detailed explanation.

Fortunately, Patt, who had heard the commotion next door, came over and explained that Lorist was so deeply asleep that he couldn't be woken up no matter how loudly they called. He also said that Josk theorized that given the drawn-out breaths Lorist was taking in his sleep, he was fine and would wake up naturally when he was rested enough.

Reidy returned soon with a few pieces of white bread and a cup of macks. "Milord, fill your stomach up with these first. I've already woken the cooks and they'll be cooking up a feast for you."

"Did anything significant happen during the two days I was asleep?" Lorist asked as he bit into a juicy piece of roast chicken leg. That chicken was roasted early in the morning and it was already cold and hard. But Lorist couldn't care less as he was far too hungry.

"Yes. Yesterday, Princess Sylvia sent a messenger to inform us that she will be returning to the Wild Husbandry Province two days later and appointed milord to be her escort. Also, Count Kenmays and Baron Shazin have been arguing for the past two days about salt trading. Count Kenmays said that Baron Shazin didn't know how to do business at all and competed directly with his family's business while Baron Shazin said that the Kenmays Family were devious merchants that slipped sand into their salt so that they could sell less for the same price. The argument got real bad while Baron Felim merely watched without doing anything," Reidy reported.

"Those two fellows..." Lorist muttered. "When I finish eating, I'll go and settle this with them."

......

Baron Shazin Hennard had gotten on rather bad terms with Count Kenmays from the arguments during the past two days. Actually, he understood why Lorist had him, the count, and Baron Felim meet at Gildusk City. After chasing the Second Prince out of the Northlands, the four families will be the local hegemons. As long as they entered an alliance, there was no longer a need to worry about others taking advantage of them.

However, Knight Hennard didn't think that he would be reprimanded by Count Kenmays with the reason being how he resold the 500000 kilograms of salt Lorist sold to him for 10000 gold Fordes for only twice the price, earning himself 10000 gold Fordes in the process to relieve his military costs, much to his delight. But that act of his caused him to be berated by Count Kenmays who thought that the same amount of salt could be sold for 30000 gold Fordes as well as the fact that the sudden influx of salt in the market harmed the Kenmays's own salt business.

That being said, Hennard didn't give the count any face either. Even though they've met a few times at the noble meeting hosted by the Second Prince, they didn't socialize much. To Hennard, Count Kenmays was a useless heir to the family who only knew how to mess around with women, but he still tolerated his behavior on account of his relation to Lorist. After all, he knew that the Norton Family and the Kenmays Family were on good terms.

Even when Lorist arrived, those two argued nevertheless like two enraged cockerels, one of them berating the other as a brainless brute while the other laughed at the former as a babyface who only knew how to mess around with women.

Lorist looked at Baron Felim who was enjoying himself as the argument continued. It almost seemed like he would clap his hands in amusement. Lorist sighed as he had no choice but to sort out the trouble between his two allies.

"You two, can't you save others some worry? To think that the two of you are practically related..." Lorist said in a raised voice.

"What did you say? He's related to me? How did I not know that?" Hennard said as he pointed at Count Kenmays.

Count Kenmays also tapped his chest and said, "Who said we were relatives? Our families have never interacted. Locke, don't just go around spouting crap..."

Lorist sighed and looked at Count Kenmays before saying, "Didn't you say before that if your cousin sister didn't go missing, you would've sent her to me as a concubine? You even said that apart from Princess Sylvia, your cousin sister is the most beautiful woman you've ever seen, right?"

"I did, so what?" Count Kenmays said as he recalled the time when they chatted in private, not knowing the relevance of that conversation to the current situation.

Sometime back, when the count was chatting with Lorist, he mentioned how difficult it was to prove himself in the circle of nobility as a family that had recently just been given a rank with their merchant background. He also talked about his cousin sister Olivia who had been sent to Duke Loggins to be his lover at the young age of 21. She had also gone missing by the time the Norton Family razed the duke's dominion to the ground.

At first, the count suspected that the Norton Family had imprisoned her, but when Lorist allowed him to check if she truly was anywhere within the Norton Family dominion and look through the newly-made registry, the count's cousin was nowhere to be found. Count Kenmays mentioned that his father was too short-sighted to have used such a beauty to appease the duke in hopes that it would gain the family a better standing among the nobles. In the end, the storm that was Lorist swept his father's plan under the rug without warning at all.

Had his father been able to plan further and waited more patiently, he would've united Olivia and Lorist in marriage so that they would no longer have to worry about their position in the future. Count Kenmays felt extreme regret for what his cousin went through and even though she was already the duke's lover, he had still intended for her to become a concubine for Lorist so that their families would have a better relationship.

Concubines were usually maidservants of nobles who have physical relationships with nobles but couldn't be officially married. Even though children given birth by concubines would be considered illegitimate, there was still a good chance for them to be included in the official family roster and enjoy same benefits as direct descendants.

Count Kenmays also swore that his cousin Olivia's beauty was only second to that of Princess Sylvia, causing her to be cared for extremely well by his father. His father had mentioned that Olivia would become an insurance for his family in a political marriage. It's too bad that she was seen by the duke who appreciated his cousin's beauty a lot and indirectly forced the hand of the Kenmays Family to send her to him.

When the Kenmays Family first arrived at the Northlands, they didn't have a good foothold yet, so the count's father wasn't able to resist the pressure and had no choice but to present Olivia to Duke Loggins. According to the count, if Olivia didn't go missing after the conflict between Duke Loggins and Lorist, then he would've had her become Lorist's concubine instead since that was not a bad position to be in and it was probably the only thing the Kenmays Family could do to make up for the bad experiences she suffered.

"Just go ask this fellow over here. Wasn't the concubine that gave birth to his most beloved child called Olivia? He even included that child in his family roster and allowed him to become the heir of his family," Lorist said as he pointed to Hennard, who had even written a letter to Lorist one year back asking him to become the godfather of his son.

"Huh? This babyface is the cousin brother of Olivia?" Hennard said with his mouth agape from the shock.

"So you only care about her body without bothering to check out her family background? Even though she warmed your bed for the past two years and even gave birth to your child, you didn't even bother to find out?" Lorist questioned.

"This, this... Olivia never mentioned her family background in detail to me and only said that she came from a mercantile family and was forced to become the duke's mistress because of his threats... I thought that it was a pretty common occurrence so I didn't bother to ask anything else," replied Hennard abashedly.

Hennard was quite the romantic person. Ever since he secretly escorted the favorite lover of the duke away with the help of Reidy and brought the other four beauties from Wildnorth Town back with him, he declared that all five of them would be his concubines and even pledged that he wouldn't take an official wife for the rest of his life. All children of his five concubines would also have a chance at being the heir of the family.

However, the first three children were all daughters. It couldn't be overstated how happy he was when the duke's former lover gave birth to his first son. Delighted that his family finally had a successor, he even asked Lorist to be his godfather.

It was not until Lorist heard from the count that he had a cousin that he understood that the concubine that had given birth to Hennard's son was in fact the missing cousin of Count Kenmays. Initially, he had planned to inform the count of that fact in private soon, but he didn't expect the two of them would get into such a fierce argument before he found the chance.

At that point, Count Kenmays and Hennard both looked at each other awkwardly without saying a word.

Breaking the silence, Count Kenmays said, "Um... Is... is Olivia doing well?"

Hennard quickly replied, "Yes, definitely... She's a good mother..."

It wouldn't be a stretch to say that Hennard's act of secretly bringing Olivia out of the duke's dominion was the sole reason that caused the count to be unable to locate her. When Hennard realized that, he was so embarrassed that he kept his gaze on the ground the whole time like an ostrich.

Even though Lorist wanted to laugh at that hilarious situation, he had to resolve it nevertheless. He knocked on the table a few times and said, "Alright, settle your family issues later. Let's first discuss the reason I had our four families gathered here. Now that the Second Prince has escaped with his whereabouts still unknown, the Northlands has basically fallen into the control of our four families. From this day onward, there will be none that will take advantage of us and I will also not permit anyone to even try. That's why I am here to propose an alliance between our four families to maintain complete control over the Northlands as well as back each other up in times of need. What do you guys think of it?"

None of them had any objections as an alliance was beneficial to all of them. In fact, they were all eager to enter one. Baron Felim laughed exaggeratedly before he said, "I suddenly feel that the skies look brighter than before now that I'm free from the grasps of others. The taste of freedom is delicious."

"Alright. Next, we will decide the area each family will rule over so that we will not have any territorial disagreements in the future. As the Northlands is huge with abundant land, develop it as you please. But, I only have one condition. While I won't oppose it if you desire to conquer more territory, you must develop the lands you conquer. If you don't, I will not recognize your ownership over that land, so I hope you all remember this point," Lorist said resolutely.

Hennard, Count Kenmays and Baron Felim all agreed to Lorist's condition as there was no point in conquering more land without developing it to generate income. Add to the fact that it would also piss off the Norton Family, only an idiot would do something like that.

"I also have a suggestion," Lorist said. "The disagreement between Count Kenmays and Hennard about the sales of salt made me believe that we should also form a trade agreement. I have decided to establish a salt merchant committee dedicated to managing the sales of salt. The Norton Family will be selling 500000 kilograms of salt to the committee at a price of 10000 gold Fordes for it to be resold. Are you guys willing to take part?"

"How will we split profits?" Count Kenmays asked.

"Each of your families will own 30 percent of the shares by investing 10000 gold Fordes as capital and manage the committee's operations. I, on the other hand, will only take 10 percent of the committee's shares and I will not be sending anyone to be part of the management. If you guys can agree on it, I suggest that we let the Kenmays Family be in charge of the main business decisions while the other two families send accountants to monitor the operations. Profits will be split according to the respective shares we hold," Lorist said.

"I agree," Baron Felim said right away.

With a great opportunity like that, Baron Felim naturally agreed as quickly as he could. In fact, he was so grateful that he had the urge to hug and kiss Lorist to express his gratitude.

"I agree as well," Hennard said. He understood that Count Kenmays was not wrong that he was not a good businessman and the salt business was merely a side job for him to make more money for the bonus salary of his troops.

Currently, only Count Kenmays remained in deep thought. In actuality, his family had the most to lose from Lorist's suggestion as his own salt business could earn up to 40000 gold Fordes for every 10000 invested. If he agreed to join the committee, his profits would naturally be lesser in comparison. Coupled with the fact that he had to split 70 percent of the profit with the others, it wasn't worth it at all no matter how he looked at it.

But when he raised his head and saw Lorist smiling, he suddenly understood Lorist's intentions. The formation of the salt merchant committee was a necessary component for a functional and beneficial alliance for all. Only if the other families stood to gain something from the alliance would they truly be willing to help the Kenmays Family out with utmost sincerity in time of need. Compared to the extra profit of a few ten thousand gold Fordes, the loyalty and aid of the other families were far more valuable.

"I'll be part of this as well and I'll definitely earn all of us good money," Count Kenmays said.

"Then it's decided. We just have to sign over here to agree to the terms we've discussed," Lorist said as he took out a document.

......

With but a short meeting, the four families of the Northlands formed an alliance. Historians in future generations would come to praise the alliance as it allowed the Northlands to constantly develop and have lasting peace, drawing many people all over the war torn lands to move to that peaceful haven.

The four families would also continue to honor the alliance for the millenia to come with not a single one of them betraying it or regret being a part of it. Whenever there was trouble for one family, the other three families would definitely do their utmost to help, turning even the most dire situations around so that the alliance members could continue to propagate and flourish. The alliance was such a long-standing one that it was even heralded as the pinnacle of trustworthiness and unity by all.

Chapter 196 Prisoners and Letter

With the four family alliance settled, Lorist breathed a sigh of relief. After all, the Northlands was far too large; the area it covered was easily as wide as that of two duchies combined. To travel from Firmrock Castle all the way to Hendliff Suspension Bridge took at least 7 days on horseback. However, given that it was occupied by Baron Felim's forces, there was no longer a need to worry about troublesome outsiders like the Second Prince entering the Northlands without warning.

Lorist hoped that Baron Felim and Hennard would reorganize their troops and build up combat ability by routinely sending them to the Second Prince's Winston Province for some excursions to bring in more commoners to the Northlands while pillaging some nobles who didn't cooperate. The point was to cause as much turmoil as possible within the area around the Iblia Kingdom's capital to sabotage the Second Prince's chances of forming yet another army to once again threaten the peace of the Northlands.

Baron Felim and Hennard both agreed to that request right away but they also stated one of their own. As they were quite impressed by the performance of the Norton Family's soldiers, they requested Lorist to provide them with the same stainless steel armor that they thought Lorist's soldiers were using. However, they didn't know that the armor used by the Norton Family forces were actually made from an extra durable steel which was only coated in silver.

Initially, Lorist had planned to distribute some of the metal armor taken from the prisoner soldiers of the First Legion to the other two nobles. However, Baron Felim and Hennard perceived those armor as inherently inferior and believed that the low quality only provided slightly better defense than normal leather armor. Having witnessed the performance of the armor used by the Norton Family forces, they naturally didn't hold normal iron armor in high regard.

At that moment, Count Kenmays came to join the conversation and also decided to outfit his own troops with better equipment. In the past, no matter they be plate armor, scale armor or chain mail, he would be satisfied as long as they were metal armor. However, after seeing the armor of the Norton Family, he felt that his own troops were poor beggars in comparison. Putting aside other factors, just based on looks alone, the Norton Family troops looked far more imposing. Additionally, he felt that getting new sets of identical armor for his troops would improve their uniformity as well as give a slight boost to their morale.

Seeing the other three pleading nonstop, Lorist told them that Grandmaster Sid was the one who redesigned the armor for his troops. He also mentioned that while he naturally couldn't offer the armor used by his own troops for sale, he could have Grandmaster Sid design other custom-made armor sets for each of the three families which would have no less defensive capability than the armor of the Whitelion Legion.

With that, the other three revealed expressions of joy. But before saying anything else, Lorist snapped them out of their daydreams and asked them how they would be able to pay for the cost as each set of armor cost no less than 40 to 50 gold Fordes to make alone, not to say anything about profit yet.

Upon mention of funds, Baron Felim and Hennard's expressions both turned sour. Fortunately, Baron Felim had some wealth on his hands valued around 100000 gold Fordes from his successful conquest of the two bastides of other landed nobles. But Hennard was practically broke and couldn't pay out more than 20000 gold Fordes. Initially, he thought that he could raid the treasury in the duke's manor to gain quite an amount of wealth, but out of his expectations, Princess Sylvia and her Blademaster godmother was still there and had captured Knight Tabik and himself before he could start. Had it not been for Lorist's timely arrival, both of them would still be imprisoned within the manor.

By the time Princess Sylvia leaves the manor, there shouldn't be any valuables remaining within it. Hennard sighed in resignation at the depressing thought. But at that moment, Count Kenmays approached him and gave him a novel idea as his cousin-brother-in-law.

Count Kenmays said, "Right now, what do you think you can do to gain the most amount of money? The answer is, selling off military equipment. Before this, us three families bought a huge number of metal armor from the Norton Family, right? We can just resell that armor to others and use the funds we obtain from that to buy new equipment. As long as Lorist cuts us some slack and doesn't profit too much at our expense, we might even have some funds left from selling the old gear."

Upon hearing that idea, Baron Felim and Hennard turned their frowns upside down and praised Count Kenmays for his keen insight. They followed up and asked who they should sell the old equipment to.

Count Kenmays answered, "I believe the ideal person to sell them to is Duke Madras. These past few years, his forces suffered huge casualties and the Madras Duchy doesn't have any copper mines. Most of the equipment purchased by the duke is either done at a high price from the central four duchies or traded with using food. Currently, as the four central duchies are arming themselves for war, Duke Madras wouldn't be able to buy any equipment from them to refit his army. If we can get into contact with him, I believe he'll offer a good price for our equipment."

The three of them continued to discuss the matter for the rest of the day before finalizing it and handling it to the salt merchant committee since Count Kenmays was in charge of it anyway. However, since they had just split the duke's dominion, Baron Felim and Hennard had things to settle within the area, so the meeting was scheduled one month later at Firmrock Castle, during which Lorist would present the armor designed by Grandmaster Sid to the three other families.

......

Now that the matter was handled, Lorist intended to return, only to remember the troublesome task that awaited him. Princess Sylvia said that she wanted to return to the Wild Husbandry Province and even appointed him personally to be her escort. Even though the Second Prince's territory is on the other end of the Hendliff Suspension Bridge, can't you go back yourself? Why would you go out of your way to use the suspension bridge built by the Kenmays Family at the eastern Northlands? It seemed that Lorist would have to spend at least ten or so days to accompany the princess all the way to the territory of the Kenmays Family.

Even though Lorist had planned to drag Count Kenmays along with him on the trip with the princess, the moment the truth about Hennard's concubine being the count's cousin sister was revealed, he insisted on meeting up with her first. Coupled with the fact that he would be a little busy meeting up with his other lovers at Gildusk City, the count couldn't leave that area during the days that followed, so Lorist had no choice but to escort the princess himself.

What a useless friend, Lorist thought helplessly. Fortunately, Josk's mounted archer unit had just arrived at Gildusk City. Coupled with the guard brigade led by Els, there would be around 6000 men joining the trip. But when it came to dealing with the princess, Lorist was the only one who could handle it.

Princess Sylvia's own escort consisted of around 400 soldiers, including a fully-armed squad of mounted guards of 120 plus soldiers, split into equal halves of men and women, with most of them being Silver ranks. Combined with the princess's own Gold ranked Battle Force and her Blademaster godmother, Lorist couldn't imagine an imbecile that would dare to provoke them.

Apart from that, they had more than 80 four-wheeled carriages as well as around 300 attendants and maidservants. Given its large scale and status as a noble's convoy, it was the least Lorist could do to show respect by providing a suitable escort.

Just a while after they departed, Lorist's expression had already changed, because along the way he saw many of his own family soldiers escorting groups of poorly-dressed people who were carrying their belongings with them heading in the direction of Firmrock Castle. As Lorist could no longer withhold his curiosity, he stopped one of the squads of soldiers and asked them what was going on.

The squad leader who recognized Lorist frantically saluted before replying seriously, "Milord, these are all prisoners..."

Enraged, Lorist pointed to the elderly folk and women and shouted, "Are you blind? Who told you that these elderly people and women are prisoners? Do they look like they would be sent to the battlefield?"

The squad leader said in a panicked manner, "Milord, I didn't have a choice either. If we don't classify them as prisoners of war, the supply stations on the way won't provide us with any food to distribute to them. How else would we feed them? Additionally, they are family members of the soldiers that joined the allied noble army who have become our prisoners. These people here are worried about their captured family members and willingly followed us as prisoners to be brought back with us. Just now, they were even singing aloud happily as they traveled..."

"Ugh..." Lorist was completely speechless as the people he saw did indeed not look like they were forcefully captured. Instead, they seemed to be in high spirits. However, Lorist found something weird about the guard's statement and questioned him about it. "What's that about supply stations along the way?"

"Milord, I'm not too informed about this either. The orders from the top was for us to transport these 200 or so people to the main camp at Firmrock Castle and the supply stations that were set up along the way was there for us to rest at night and resupply," replied the squad leader.

Lorist finally understood that the supply stations were not that much different from those that were set up during the days of the convoy's travels. The reason the supply stations were set up was to facilitate the transportation of so many people, which the squad leader wasn't aware of.

After waving for the soldier to return to his duties, Lorist called for Els and said, "Els, bring some people along with you to find out why the convoy situation is repeating itself even though all we did was win a battle."

After Els left with ten or so guards, Lorist heard a clear, crisp voice asking, "Count Norton, what's going on? Where are they going? What are your family soldiers doing to those people?"

Turning his head, Lorist saw Princess Sylvia with her face veiled by her scarf, riding atop a snow-white Zeno Horse with a few mounted female guards by her side. She was observing the people who were passing them by intently.

Lorist took a deep breath and replied with a sycophantic tone, "Oh my dear revered princess, ever since the Second Prince entered the Northlands, he raised the tax rate heavily and oppressed the various landed nobles and commoners in that area, causing everyone there to be displeased. Not only that, the Second Prince even ransacked the property of the citizens to raise supplies and funding for his own army for his ambitions of conquest, further pushing the commoners into lives of poverty and suffering.

"But upon hearing that I've defeated the Second Prince, the commoners from all over the Northlands were incredibly elated and celebrated us for chasing the Second Prince out of the Northlands. But they were worried that he would one day return. Coupled with the word that our family provides free housing and farmland to newcomers into the dominion and enforcing only a low tax rate, these commoners made up their minds to follow our family forces back to the dominion in hopes that they will be able to live more peaceful and happy lives.

"Sigh, I didn't get a say in that matter given that they all came willingly. Just look at their happy faces. No matter how hard we tried to dissuade them, we weren't able to shake them off. Operating with such a benevolent policy is harder than I thought and their presence only serves to make it harder for my family forces. Not only do I have to task some soldiers to escort them along the way, I also have to feed them. What do you think, Your Highness? Does a benevolent and peace-loving noble family like us, the Norton Family, deserve any praise for our efforts?"

Reidy and Patt who were listening to Lorist's speech nearby found it incredibly hard to suppress their laughter.

Princess Sylvia on the other hand was completely shocked at what she heard. When she rode away with her horse, she said in a low voice, "Count Norton, you're truly thick-skinned, you know that? How shameless..."

However, Lorist didn't blush at all and merely snickered at that comment.

......

Els returned after a day had elapsed since his departure. He said, "Milord, I've met a messenger along the way."

According to the messenger, he had been sent to deliver a letter to Lorist by Knight Potterfang, Knight Charade and Knight Loze.

Lorist understood the situation after he opened the thick envelope and read the letters within.

It actually began ten days ago when the various nobles fled the battlefield with their remaining soldiers the moment they saw that there was no hope for them to overcome the waves of ballista bolts. To capture more prisoners, Fiercetiger Loze, Terman, Yuriy and the rest led all their mounted forces and gave chase. A couple of nobles who managed to retreat into the castle of a local noble family along with their shambled forces put up quite a fight for their survival, causing Fiercetiger Loze's forces to sustain tens of casualties from sheer carelessness.

Enraged, Loze called for a brigade of carroballista troops as reinforcements and after flurries of ballista fire, he managed to take over the castle and had the 7 nobles who resisted hanged. After that, he cleared out the dominions of the respective nobles and shipped everything he could find ranging from food, supplies, and money to Firmrock Castle, including even the citizens of those dominions.

Coincidentally, Charade had just arrived at the prisoner camp outside Firmrock Castle and he, Loze and Potterfang had a joint meeting. They concluded that the development of Blackmud Marsh required lots of manpower and given that most of the nobles within the Northlands had participated in the Second Prince's campaign against the Norton Family, apart from Count Kenmays, Baron Shazin and Baron Felim's families, all the other noble families were to be considered enemies of the Norton Family. Thus, they decided to wipe them out all in one go so that there would be no one remaining to cause trouble for the Norton Family in the future.

As the order Lorist gave his subordinates was to pursue the shambled enemy forces, the nobles were considered by Loze and the rest as their target so they decided to carry out their orders thoroughly by pulling the weed out at its roots. If said nobles had surrendered without resistance, their lives might've been spared and their treatment would've been left to Lorist. But those who resisted were hanged along with their family without exception. It was as if Charade, Potterfang and Loze were reliving the days when they exterminated noble families as they traveled with the convoy through the Andinaq Kingdom.

After receiving news about the three wiping out the resisting nobles and sweeping their valuables clean, Yuriy, Terman and the rest supported those actions and split their forces into four, with the leaders of each being Loze, Waxima, Yuriy and Terman respectively, all bringing around one carroballista brigade with them to raid the rest of the Northlands. They destroyed castles, burned towns and took all the resources and commoners along with them.

Lorist had stayed at Gildusk City for a total of five days and that included the two days and three nights when he was out cold while recovering from the duel with Blademaster Xanthi. Before that, he took around 5 days to travel from Firmrock Castle to Gildusk City. Within the short ten days Lorist left Firmrock Castle, the Norton Family had already cleared out the landed nobles in the surrounding area, leaving only tens of noble families within the eastern Northlands temporarily untouched. It was estimated that within another half a month, apart from the Norton, Kenmays, Shazin and Felim families, there would no longer be any other noble family within the Northlands.

What troublesome bastards! Lorist put the letters away helplessly and understood why the messenger took so long to arrive. His subordinates had twisted his order to pursue the fleeing enemy into exterminating all the other nobles in the Northlands they considered to be their enemy! That's why the three responsible, Charade, Potterfang, and Loze, intentionally delayed the news from spreading to Lorist lest they receive the order to stop. And even if Lorist pressed the matter later, the others who didn't oppose the operation would all be held jointly responsible.

The problem was that most of the nobles within the Northlands had supported the Second Prince's campaign because they didn't dare to do otherwise. Now that most of their forces had been captured as prisoners, the remnant forces that defended the dominions of those nobles were naturally unable to resist the attacks of the Norton Family forces, allowing the dominions to be pillaged clean.

Whatever, I'll handle the issue of the other Northlander nobles when I get back, Lorist thought. What truly troubled him was that the others approved the actions of Charade, Potterfang and Loze. The main factor the knights were so keen on capturing prisoners and moving more commoners to the dominion was because they weren't willing to be part of the development effort of Blackmud Marsh. In the past, Lorist used the reason that the dominion didn't have enough manpower to convince them to help out. But right now, while the dominion definitely had more than enough manpower, it might come to lack food next.

Those bastards, always causing me to worry like that, Lorist cursed in his mind.

Chapter 197 Escort

"Your Highness, Battle Force is contained within the bloodstream of our bodies. The various blood circulation nodes within the body are used to form a pentagonal or hexagonal star. The key to training in Battle Force lies in controlling the speed of the flow of blood to generate a rhythm. That's why people who have awakened their Battle force can move at explosively fast speeds, gain increased strength, vitality and endurance as well as various other boosts in the body's condition.

"The technique I train in however, should be one of the ancient techniques passed down by the eastern martial monks within the legends like your godmother speculated. However, my technique manual was an incomplete one, so I myself don't know where this training method will take me in the future. As the ancient chronicles state, after a millenia of dark times since the fall of the magical civilization, too much information had been lost. The best we can do in our time is to speculate the wonders they could achieve during the age of the magical civilization based on the artifacts we find within the ruins.

"While Battle Force exists within our bloodstream, the energy I use to train exists deeper within my body compared to Battle Force. For example, Your Highness, you should be know a bit about the vital organs, right? Just like how Battle Force forms a pentagonal or hexagonal star from the various circulation nodes within the body, my technique connects my vital organs into a cycle along which I circulate Battle Force. That is the reason why I say my internal energy exists deeper within the body.

"Why am I training in internal energy, you ask? Well, it's a long story. I left my home to head to Morante City for my studies at the age of 14 and back then, I only had the first part of my family's Battle Force manual and could only train up to the Three Star Iron rank. Right after that, civil war broke out within the empire and I lost all contact with my family. I was only 17 at that time, so to make a living, I worked as a mercenary. Oh, are you surprised that a noble like me actually worked as a lowly mercenary before?

"Your Highness, you don't have to apologize. It's fine, I don't mind. With no one to support me, I could only rely on myself to survive and earn enough money to pay off my tuition. While life was definitely hard back then, I managed to live through it. The only problem I had was that I wasn't able to find a Battle Force manual that was suited for my Battle Force attribute. Back then, I wasn't aware that my family's Battle Force technique was of the blood attribute, so most of the high-ranked Battle Force manuals I bought to research didn't fit me. As I was unable to continue training, I couldn't break through to the Silver rank and was truly depressed back then.

"But when I first arrived at Morante City, I came across a worn-out little book which contained a diagram of the human body, much like those seen in Battle Force manuals, but there wasn't any pentagonal or hexagonal star diagram to be seen. Given that it had piqued my curiosity, I bought it and placed it on my shelf once I was done browsing through it. Little did I know that it would come in handy later. As I was unable to find a suitable high-ranked Battle Force manual suited for me to train in, I was extremely frustrated and annoyed. And one night when I was at my tipping point, I pushed all the books off my shelf in a fit of rage before going to sleep.

"When I woke up in the middle of the night, I regretted my outburst and proceeded to pick those books up. I didn't even have a candle back then so I could only rely on the moonlight coming in from the window to see. And when I picked that old, worn-out book up and held it under the illumination of the moonlight, I noticed that the page where the human body diagram was on seemed to have several layers. I then peeled of the outer beastskin layer of that book and found a thin silk cloth hidden within that beastskin page which had a picture of a bald martial monk with a training method inscribed beside it...

"Your Highness, you should know how frustrated I was back then from my stunted progress in training. I couldn't hold my curiosity back after seeing a novel technique like that, so I gave it a try, only to find out later that I would no longer be able to advance in Battle Force for the rest of my life, causing me to be stuck at the Iron rank forever. Despite that, my internal energy training progressed rather well. Even so, I've already trained to the peak level as described by that piece of cloth and even I don't understand how much further I can progress with that technique."

Lorist inspected the princess's expression and confirmed for himself that she was incredibly entertained by his story of a young boy who was exiled to a faraway place from home and eventually lost all connection with his family and had no choice but to struggle and work as a mercenary to make ends meet. Driven to despair by the inability to progress in Battle Force training, a miracle occurred and conferred upon that boy another chance. It was a tale filled with adversity and hardship that ended on a happy note.

When Lorist heard Blademaster Xanthi describe his training technique as the ancient technique of the eastern martial monks of legend, Lorist gained a sudden inspiration. That's right, why can't I just say that the Aquametal Technique is something like that? Even though nobody directly asked him about it after witnessing him defeat so many strong enemies, they were indeed curious what training technique Lorist used. As he couldn't possibly reveal that the Aquametal Technique was a hereditary one passed down within his family in his past life, he could still pass it off as a lost technique of the ancient martial monks.

Thus, Lorist retold his story in a fashion similar to those chivalric novels by mixing fact and fabrication intricately. Princess Sylvia on the other hand didn't have a single doubt for Lorist's story as she believed that he had no reason to lie to her.

Lorist thus decided that he would use that explanation for his odd technique in the future as well. At that moment, Princess Sylvia asked, "What's the difference between Battle Force and internal energy?"

"Well, the main ones I can think of are the observable effects and explosiveness," Lorist said after giving it some thought.

"Your Highness, Battle Force practitioners are able to manifest a blade glow to increase the damage of their weapons starting from the Silver rank, right?" Lorist said as he dismounted and approached a nearby boulder. " I believe you can easily split this boulder with your blade glow."

"Let me try," said the princess as she dismounted and approached the boulder with her sword drawn. Upon manifesting her golden blade glow and slashing, the boulder was split into two cleanly.

Lorist also took out his sword and said, "In that regard, we can say that there isn't much difference between Battle Force and internal energy. The only visible difference is that Battle Force gives off a blade glow while internal energy doesn't. However, infusing internal energy into my sword will also generate the same result, only without the flair of the blade glow."

Lorist then slashed downwards and split one half of the boulder into two separate pieces.

"Based on looks alone, it can be said that blade glows give off a more imposing impression. But in terms of explosiveness, internal energy is superior than Battle Force," Lorist said a he picked up a fist-sized rock. "Your Highness, if you don't use your sword, can you use your Battle Force to crush this rock?"

Princess Sylvia thought for a bit before shaking her head.

Lorist then clasped the rock with both his hands as he infused a little bit of internal energy into them, causing the rock to disintegrate within his grip with its powdered remains falling to the ground. Princess Sylvia widened her beautiful, big eyes in shock as she witnessed it.

"That is why I consider internal energy to be more explosive than Battle Force," Lorist concluded.

Princess Sylvia nodded and said, "My godmother told me before that the ancient eastern martial monks prioritized bringing out the inner potential of the human body from the inside like you said. According to her, their martial arts were more plain and trod a different path from Battle Force. As it was hard and arduous to train in, it was eventually lost in the passage of time. It must be fate that you managed to acquire a surviving copy of the technique."

"Perhaps. Never would I have imagined that my reckless action in the past would produce the results today. As I'm no longer able to train in my family's own Battle Force manual, many people look down on me because they think that I'm merely an Iron rank. Just like you did previously, princess, when you asked me to step down and have a Gold ranked knight duel for me," Lorist joked.

"You're still bringing it up..." Princess Sylvia muttered as she blushed. She then pouted and said, "You're the biggest liar of us all. Even though you can rival a Blademaster, you pretended to be an Iron rank to duel against a puny Gold ranked swordswoman like me... How shameless..."

After spending some time with Princess Sylvia, Lorist realized that the 20-year-old Gold ranked swordswoman wasn't the haughty and prideful noble mistress he initially thought she was but rather an incredibly curious, naive child. Having lost her parents at a young age and being spoiled by her grandfather and godmother, she trained hard in Battle Force and eventually matured into a most beautiful flower of unparalleled charm. But, as she hadn't experienced any turmoils of the outside world before, she was extremely curious about Lorist's own experiences and kept on questioning him about it. Even though she still acted a little spoiled, Lorist thought that she was merely a noble lady that hasn't truly matured through experiencing trial and adversity.

In another day, the group would arrive at the dominion of the Kenmays Family. In fact, they were already technically there, but ever since the Redriver Valley Bastide was burned down by the Norton Family. the Kenmays Family have given up on their original viscounty and focused all their efforts on their new territory in the eastern Northlands.

During most of the journey, the princess spent lots of her time pestering Lorist and asking him to tell her more stories about his days working as a mercenary at Morante City. Sometimes, Lorist would intentionally piss her off by talking bad of the Second Prince in front of her and saying things like how her grandfather Duke Fisablen was a warmongering lord, causing her to leave angrily as she couldn't make a retort. It became apparent that she was inferior to Lorist in both the sword and the word. But usually, she would come back after a while when her anger calmed to continue bugging Lorist for more stories.

Naturally, Lorist also got to hear quite a bit of rare intelligence from the princess, such as the fact that Blademasters were categorized into four ranks. For example, Blademaster Louinse who died from the bolt fired by the super ballista was merely a rank 1 Blademaster and he could be considered fortunate to have been able to reach that rank. But, his chances of actually becoming a rank 2 Blademaster was almost nil.

The princess's godmother, and her current teacher, Xanthi, was a rank 2 Blademaster while her grandfather Duke Fisablen was a rank 3 Blademaster, similar to the Blademaster serving the Second Prince, Zarinan. Princess Sylvia proudly declared that while Lorist managed to defeat her teacher and godmother, he would definitely stand no chance against her grandfather and would definitely lose within less than a hundred strikes.

Lorist said that it didn't matter because he was still young and could potentially outlive her grandfather. He said that he would challenge Duke Fisablen when he was so old that he could no longer hold a sword properly so that his victory would be assured.

Naturally, that statement pissed the princess off and caused her to call Lorist names like 'shameless' and such, which Lorist pretended to not hear.

Additionally, the princess also mentioned that age was not a factor for the various ranks a Blademaster could reach. Instead, profound insight was required. For instance, while Blademaster Xanthi did lose to Lorist in their duel, she did gain lots of inspiration from the duel and spent most of her days during the escort trip within the carriage to meditate upon them. That's why the princess was not obstructed from interacting that often with Lorist.

Ah, I see, Lorist thought as he came to realize that the reason Blademaster Xanthi did not meet him wasn't because she held hard feelings for losing but rather because she was meditating upon her insights within the privacy of her carriage.

Lorist laughed and said, "I believe that it would be quite difficult for her to gain any benefit from the insights she gained from the battle with me because the style of her swordsmanship is inherently quick and agile. When I realized that, I changed my approach to one that was as stable as a mountain and used weight to combat her lightness and accuracy to match her rapid strikes. While my sword style seemed slow to the eye, it was the perfect counter for her quick and incessant strikes, ultimately causing her to lose. If she intends to improve, I would recommend her to experience the wind. Be it a light gust or a windy storm, as long as she can comprehend the irregular flow of the wind's rhythm, I believe she will definitely benefit quite a bit from it and be able to improve her swordsmanship."

Princess Sylvia was stunned for a while when she realized Lorist was giving her godmother free training advice. When she recovered, she said, "Thanks, Locke. I will tell her about it right now."

......

The head of the Kenmays Family had been waiting for the group's arrival at the border of his dominion. After greeting Princess Sylvia, he told Lorist that five days ago, the Second Prince brought tens of guards to cross the metal suspension bridge of the Kenmays Family, presumably heading to the dominion of Duke Fisablen to borrow more soldiers from his father-in-law before returning to the Northlands for revenge.

Lorist said that it didn't matter since the four families had already formed an alliance. He told Count Kenmays's father that if the Second Prince came, he only had to stall him on the other side of the suspension bridge and within less than two days, the reinforcements from the three families would back him up so that the Second Prince never sets foot into the Northlands again.

When they were in the presence of the head of the Kenmays Family, Princess Sylvia was very conscious of her own behavior and no longer sought out Lorist that often as she did previously, once again putting on her polite princess persona, much to Lorist's delight as he hasn't had such a quiet and relaxing day for quite a while.

On the next day, Princess Sylvia set foot on the metal suspension bridge and the moment she crossed the river, she would be at the Wild Husbandry Province and Lorist's mission to escort her would end. He returned to the family dominion right away after bidding the princess goodbye.

On the way back within the carriage, Princess Sylvia sulked. Her godmother, Blademaster Xanthi, pulled her into her bosom and asked, "What's wrong? Did he move your heart?"

"Of course not, godmother... I only feel that Count Norton is quite different from the other nobles I've met. His stories are really interesting," said the princess as she started to blush.

"He is indeed a weird one. I couldn't read him at all. Sylvia, did you take a close look at the forces of his family? A little more than half of the soldiers are Iron ranked with the rest being Silver ranked. A random squad from his forces could even match up to your personal guards. Additionally, his soldiers are veterans that have experienced true combat and each of them radiate a strong killing intent. It is obvious that their combat ability far supersedes that of your personal guards.

"But here's the weird part. Even though the Norton Family has such competent and loyal soldiers equipped with quality equipment, rivaling even the personal guards of your grandfather, the count only stays within his dominion. If it were some other noble, they definitely would've conquered the whole of the Northlands right after exterminating the 100000-strong forces of the Second Prince. But what did he do? He actually formed an alliance with the three other families and let the land that would rightfully belong to the Norton Family remain in the hands of others!

"I really cannot fathom how he came to that decision. Even though I can't necessarily call him an idiot for doing so, he definitely lacks even the tiniest shred of ambition. Given the recent times, the various factions within the former empire are all gearing up for war. In another year or so, the peace treaty between the kingdoms and duchies will expire and the times of chaos would come again, spreading the flames of war all throughout the land. Even a person like your grandfather is worried for the future of the family.

"Your grandfather is an extremely prideful person. Had it not been for the fact that he was a general of the Frontier Legion, he definitely wouldn't have supported a wolf like the Second Prince. Additionally, the young generation of the Fisablen Family doesn't have any talent apart from you. Your grandfather also knows that he has made lots of enemies, so he places his hopes for the family on you. A person like Count Norton who doesn't have the slightest ambition is not even worth the attention of your grandfather, so he definitely wouldn't approve of you getting into a relationship with the count."

Blademaster Xanthi continued to stroke the princess's hair lovingly as she sighed inwardly. Even though this girl has always set her sights high, why would she be smitten by such an unimpressive person like Count Norton? This is going to be troublesome...

"Godmother, that's not true at all. I've never thought of having him as my partner... He's far too detestable and keeps bad-mouthing grandfather. He even said that he would duel grandfather when he's too old to hold a sword properly and win, how despicable..." Princess Sylvia muttered as she buried her face in her godmother's bosom. After that, the two no longer talked and only the rattling of the carriage's wheels could be heard.

Chapter 198 Settling Down

With a stern expression, Lorist was seated within the tent and looking at the crestfallen knights of his family.

"Well, explain. Why aren't you saying anything even though all of you dared to go overboard? While having more manpower will add to our might, do we have enough to feed them all? The Felicitas Settlement has only just recently stabilized and we still need to send food there for this year as they can only begin to sustain themselves starting next year after the first harvests. I'm sure you've heard what Supervisor Spiel and Supervisor Camorra said just now. The food stash within the family dominion can only last us 8 more months at this rate.

"It's already the 12th day of the 7th month right now and there's only 4 months before the 11th month comes. And all of us will have to survive the winter for three whole months from the 12th month to the 3rd month next year. What comes after that? We'll run out of food by the 4th or 5th month. For two whole years, we've spent so much resources and funds to develop Felicitas Settlement and our future seemed so bright that I thought we could even relax for a bit. But you lot on the other hand gave the family another huge burden!"

Lorist was incredibly troubled as he had much to worry about. The Northlands had a total population of around 800000 people. During the pillaging of the duke's dominion, they moved another 300000 people. This time around, the family knights had swept clean all of the dominions of other noble families within the Northlands apart from those of the Kenmays, Shazin and Felim families and brought in another 280000 people into the dominion. Right now, apart from the original 200000 plus people within the dominion and the 800000 people that the Second Prince brought to the duke's dominion for the past two years, almost the whole of the population of the Northlands had been gathered up.

"I bet you thought that you could gain a lot of food from the dominions of those other noble families, didn't you? You all know how that plan turned out. The Second Prince has already sucked the whole of the Northlands dry. And do you know how much the nobles taxed their citizens during the reign of the Second Prince? 70 percent! 50 percent of that alone would go to the Second Prince. The commoners only had the bare minimum of food to survive. Otherwise, why would they be so willing to follow our soldiers back to the dominion as prisoners of war? The food we brought along with us was akin to something that they hadn't even had the chance to taste for a year or so. They also got to eat until they were full..."

Lorist laughed bitterly and thought back at the supply stations he passed by when he escorted the princess to the Wild Husbandry Province. During mealtime, the supply stations would be really crowded with elated commoners that were traveling to the Norton Family dominion. It was like they were holding a large banquet. When Lorist went to check out what was going on, he found that the magical beast meat porridge was a delicacy that those commoners didn't get to eat usually. Not only that, the porridge was cooked with salt, a rare commodity for commoners, and they also each received a piece of thick black bread.

If the commoners remained under the rule of their original lords, this season would be when they conducted the yearly potato harvest. Even though more than half of the crop was going to be taken away by the nobles, they would still be able to survive on some wild vegetation through the cold season in time for the winter harvests.

But the Norton Family forces arrived and captured their ruling noble, ransacked the castle, and forced all the commoners to leave with them. While some of them were unwilling in the beginning, upon hearing mentions of free housing and farmland, not to mention the relatively low tax rate, everyone was eventually convinced. And when the commoners saw the soldiers cook their porridges with thick slices of dried magical beast meat, they all scrambled for their share and happily accepted the status as a prisoner of war.

If Lorist had enough food, there would be absolutely no reason for worry. Without the 280000 commoners, even if they were to gain an extra 60000 prisoners, the family's food stocks could sustain the population of the dominion for up to 15 months. Even if some natural disaster were to happen, they would still be able to fare well. But with the extra 280000 mouths to feed, the supervisors estimate that their available food stash could only last another 8 months. Even if the year end potato harvests at Felicitas Settlement were to be taken into account, that would at most buy them another three months.

Settling down the 280000 commoners by allocating housing and farmland to them would also take up to two years at the very least. During that time, they will be dependent on the Norton Family for food. Add to the fact that a lot of manpower was required to develop Blackmud Marsh, those commoners would not be able to produce food for the next few years. For the next three years at the very least, the commoners were nothing but a burden to the family.

Taking a deep breath, Lorist looked at his knights with a stiff gaze and said, "What's wrong? Have you all turned mute? Where would we get food to feed all those people?"

Charade said with a hint of sobbing, "Milord, it's our fault. We've committed a mistake... Please punish us however you see fit..."

"Hand me the map of the family dominion as well as the map of the lands originally belonging to Count Spenseid," Lorist instructed Reidy.

"How many prisoners did you manage to capture this time?" Lorist asked.

"There are a total of 63248 people. Every soldier of the allied noble army that isn't dead has been captured by us. The First Legion of the Second Prince sustained around 11000 casualties with 8000 dead and around 3000 injured. We've already given them treatment and they can begin working after they recover within a few months," Charade said. While feeling awfully repentant, he still had a good grasp of the statistics.

It was no exaggeration that the allied noble army of the Northlands numbered around 100000 soldiers. However, after they had been completely defeated, not a single managed to escape capture. Even their base was wiped clean completely.

"How many of those nobles are still alive?" Lorist asked.

"47 of them. There were 20 who resisted and were hanged by us," Charade said in a low voice.

"Sigh..." Lorist thought deeply in silence before saying, "Supervisor Camorra, you will bring Tarkel with you to deal with these nobles and hang those who don't behave well. Send the nobles entitled by the Second Prince out of the border. As for the original nobles of the Northlands, treat them the same we do the Spenseid Family and give them a yearly pension. As their castles have been destroyed by us and their commoners moved to our domain, sending them back would be equal to sending them to their deaths. We can only postpone the assignment of new dominions to them for the future."

"Yes, milord," said Camorra.

Reidy came back with the maps and laid them up on the table.

"Since the three of you were the main cause of the trouble, you will be in charge of fixing it. Knight Potterfang, lead three heavy-armored infantry brigades to escort the prisoners to Blackmud Marsh to begin their work term. Remember two things. First, the defensive walls and entrenchments from Tortoise Hill to Hidebull Mound must be completed before the 11th month. Just use the dirt dug out for the entrenchments as material for the defensive walls and pour water over them during the winter to freeze them up. I don't want to mess around with the magical beasts again during winter this year, so we'll bar what remains of the magical beast wave outside the walls.

"Second, the construction of roads at Blackmud Marsh can be slowed down for now. I will have the carroballista division cooperate with you to eliminate those Ironspine Crocodiles. However, the construction of the roads near the coast have to be sped up so that we can have a pathway to the highland hills soon. I hope that we can begin searching for a suitable place near the coast to build a shipyard, understood?" Lorist said as he tapped the map with his finger.

Potterfang straightened his body as he said, "Yes, milord. I will definitely fulfill your two demands."

"Don't agree to them so quickly before hearing the whole thing. The width of the wall I mentioned just now must be increased until we can at least fit two rows of chariots lined side by side," Lorist said. As two rows of chariots occupied up to 5 meters of width, the workload of the construction of the wall would be almost doubled.

Stunned, Potterfang asked, "Milord, why do we need it to be wide enough for two rows?"

"The distance between Tortoise Hill and Hidebull Mound is more than 10 kilometers. Are you going to have our family soldiers run that distance every single day? We must make it so that it is wide enough for two rows of chariots so that during emergencies we can mobilize the carroballista division to defend ourselves, understood?"

"Yes, milord," said Potterfang as he lowered his head in embarrassment.

"Knight Charade, you will have a lot on your hands to do. First, the distribution of farmland to the citizens of Felicitas Settlement must be completed by the end of this year. Don't forget to get the planting going as the land is being distributed. There is still enough time from now to the 11th month to plant some potatoes. We must definitely make use of as much planting area as we can as food is of critical importance right now. After harvesting the potatoes, you have to have the citizens there begin the planting for the winter wheat and tell them that magical beasts will no longer come this winter so that they won't have to worry about their crops being ruined and can plant without worries. Next year, the family will only collect 10 percent of their harvest, so the more they plant. the more they have remaining for themselves."

"I understand, milord. I will definitely do it well," Charade said.

"You can leave small matters like these to Butler Boris. What you have to focus on is not that," Lorist said, before he pointed to the commoner camp outside the tent. "You will be forming a labor team of youths from the 200000 plus commoners that have just arrived to begin building a town at Poplar Coast. I want to use the town there as a supply center to facilitate the development of Blackmud Marsh. So, transport the related development resources there.

"Additionally, we also have to prioritize the construction of the rear city at Firmrock Castle. Both the defensive facilities as well as the residential areas must be completed before the end of next year to spare me from seeing half-completed rubble all day. After these two projects are complete, you can prepare the construction of the Firmrock frontal city.

"Lastly, come over to take a look at the dominion formerly belonging to Count Spenseid. Loze, you come over here too," Lorist said as he tapped on the map on the table.

Both of them walked towards the table obediently.

"The land encompassing the dominion of Count Spenseid as well as several other nobles around the area is one of the rare places within the Northlands which is rich with aquatic plants. There are also 8 lakes in total, with three of them being larger ones, which are extremely suited for reclamation for agricultural production. I have decided to call this place Salus Settlement and from today onwards, that land belongs to the Norton Family.

"Salus Settlement can be divided into eight sectors similar to Felicitas Settlement. Knight Charade, you will be responsible for settling the 200000 plus commoners there. I will have Supervisor Kedan assist you with arranging for their residence as well as making a registry of their households. Supervisor Spiel will be in charge of the distribution of food while Supervisor Hansk will aid you with surveying and planning. I need the place to be managed like the towns of the seven sectors of Felicitas Settlement.

"But, after you divide the Salus Settlement into eight sectors, only focus the developmental efforts on three or four sectors first. The remaining ones shall be developed when we have a bigger population. Make sure to take the soonest opportunity to have the commoners plant potatoes on the reclaimed farmland. It's always better to have some extra food. As for Loze, all three brigades of your pike cavalrymen will be stationed at Salus Settlement and be responsible for the security of the area," Lorist explained. He had spent much of his recent time in coming up with the plan to handle the extra citizens.

"Milord, why don't you just move the commoners into the dominion? Look, along this path from Firmrock Castle to Maplewoods Bastide, the Felicitas Settlement on the left that is near the Bladedge Mountains has already began developing. On the right side, we have the Black Forests and that land is even wider than the Felicitas Settlement. It would definitely be able to house more people than Felicitas Settlement," Charade said.

Lorist shook his head and said, "We still haven't ascertained the safety of that area. I don't plan to develop that piece of wasteland just yet. While we could still use it for husbandry, forget building towns and reclaiming farmland for now. Do you remember that three years ago, our supply convoy transporting resources from Maplewoods Bastide to Firmrock Castle was attacked by barbarians near that area? Fortunately, Josk was there and used his divine archery skills to kill more than 30 barbarian soldiers in one go, sending the rest scurrying back into the Black Forests in fear.

"Until we deal with the mountain barbarians, it's better to leave that wasteland untouched for now. If they show up there and are discovered by us, we will use our forces to eliminate them. But if we start developing the area and the barbarians attack during that time, the laborers will sustain quite a lot of casualties. At that time, we will have to divert more military force to ensure the safety of the developers and stretch ourselves thin, so it is far from ideal.

"Now that only the four allied families remain within the Northlands, we are relatively safe from outside threats and don't have to rely as much on the defense of Firmrock Castle to ensure the safety of our dominion. As long as we can build reasonably good defense infrastructure at the towns and villages of the Salus Settlement like those of Felicitas Settlement, even if enemies invade us, the garrison there will be able to withstand the first wave of attacks. After that, our family forces will go to reinforce them and wipe the enemy out.

"That's why, the development of Salus Settlement is one of our top priorities. The invasion of Duke Loggins and the Second Prince have boosted the reputation of us, the Family of the Raging Bear, and it's about time we stretched out our claws towards more territory lest we be regarded as turtles who only know how to hide within our comfort zone. Do you guys understand now?"

"Understood, milord," replied the knights within the tent in unison.

"Also, there are two other things. The first is to make sure some plot of land is set for the construction of a bastide in each of the eight sectors of Salus Settlement. That will be left to Knight Charade," Lorist said.

"Milord, what is that for?" Charade asked curiously. He wondered why there would be a need for a bastide when there was already a central town in each sector where soldiers could be stationed.

Lorist laughed and said, "The family already has 6 Gold ranked knights. According to tradition, each one of them should already be given their own bastide. I've been delaying that right of theirs for the past two years as there were too many matters in the family that had to be settled first. Now that the time is right, it's about time they be given their own manorial estate bastides. The construction of two of those manor bastides is due to Terman and Yuriy's quick progress in training during the recent years. Since they left the academy a few years ago, they've already trained to the peak of the Silver rank from the Three Star Silver rank. Within two or three years, I believe that they'll be able to break through to the Gold rank. At that time, we should have those manors ready for them.

"Knight Charade, you also have to train harder and not fall behind. Also, Dulles, don't be so smitten by the might of the carroballistas. You should not neglect your training as it is also quite important as well. If you're able to reach the Gold rank, then you'll definitely have your own manor as well. I can even help you form another carroballista division which you will be the commander of."

"Really?" said Dulles excitedly.

"I won't lie to you," Lorist said as he nodded.

"Alright, then I'll begin training hard tonight when I get back," Dulles said as he patted his chest, causing everyone present to laugh out loud.

When the laughter died down, Lorist's expression turned serious again when he said, "Yuriy, I heard that you were the most enthusiastic one during the pillaging of the other nobles. This second matter will be handed to you. During the 8th month, Old Man Balk will be bringing the woodworking masters to the Black Forests to look for suitable wood. You shall lead your cavalry troops to serve as their escort and make sure that not one of them get injured, understood?"

"Yes, milord. Just like you said, these masters are all valued talents of the family. I will definitely give it my all to ensure their safety. If I knew that beforehand, I would've picked up woodworking myself in the past," said Yuriy, whose voice gradually lowered as he continued.

"It's not too late if you start now, you know. I can give you two years of vacation for that and when you come back, you will become the first knight carpenter of the family. When we go to war in the future, I will make sure to send a group of soldiers to protect you too," said Lorist, who had heard what Yuriy muttered.

"Milord, there's no need for that. Otherwise, I think you'll ask me to carry a saw instead of a sword into battle..." Yuriy responded with a bitter look.

The people within the tent broke into another bout of laughter.

Chapter 199 Master-Disciple Conversation

It was a good day for Howard as he had managed to awaken his Battle Force successfully after receiving permission from Lorist. Howard would be 17 years old in another six months' time.

In actuality, he had long been hoping that he would be able to awaken his Battle Force sooner and stay by his master, Lorist, to receive his teachings like his senior apprentice brother Reidy. But after Lorist gave his body's condition a check, Howard was prevented from awakening his Battle Force. Due to being birthed into an era of war, he and his sister Alisa spent two whole years living on the bare minimum of necessities before they were located by their father Potterfang. Because of that, Howard's body condition wasn't in an optimal state.

That was why Lorist felt that there wasn't a need for him to awaken his Battle Force so early and instead focus on building up the basics first so that he could travel further in the path of Battle Force training in the future and become a Gold ranked knight like his father. Being incredibly respectful of Lorist, Howard followed the routine his master drafted for him very strictly for two whole years before he was allowed to awaken his Battle Force.

Following behind Reidy, Howard entered the study and bowed respectfully to Lorist who was sitting at his desk. He greeted, "Master."

Lorist, who was in the middle of contemplating something, raised his head and smiled when he saw Howard. He was very satisfied with that second disciple of his that was witty, passionate about learning, hard working and upright. As he had to take care of his sister and survive in the war-torn imperial capital, Howard matured much faster than ordinary youths of his age.

Time really flies. Four years back, Lorist was still at the Dawn Academy being pushed around by the academy head to fight against Silver ranked instructors from other academies, eventually including even all the Silver ranked swordsmen and mercenaries within Morante City to spread the name of the academy. It was then when Lorist met with Potterfang on the dueling platform and defeated him. After that, he took Reidy in as his attendant when Els gifted him with a luxurious carriage. During the same night, he saw Potterfang and his two children sleeping at the public park.

And so he went to have a chat with him, during which two Gold ranked swordsmen wanted to cause trouble for Lorist. With Potterfang's aid, Lorist managed to kill the two assailants. Given that Potterfang was injured from battle, Lorist had Reidy bring Potterfang's two children back home and after living together for half a year, he even took Howard in as his disciple. Currently, that quiet youth who liked to read had already grown up, just like Reidy who came before.

"Howard, why isn't your rowdy sister Alisa here today?" Lorist asked with a warm smile.

"Master, did you forget? Alisa brought the Chino brothers with her to follow Miss Telesti to the Bladedge Mountains," Howard said.

Patting his head, Lorist thought, darn, I've forgotten about this completely.

For the past two years, Telesti kept Lorist's promise to build an academy in her mother's name in her mind. Before that happened, Lorist gave Telesti a task, and that was to gather up the various young children of the family knights, boys and girls of ten plus years of age, to educate them in basic cultural education.

Among these children, the 11-year-old Alisa was a boss-like figure who led around the Chino brothers as her minions. The Chino brothers were actually the twin sons of Gold ranked knight Chino Freiyar and one of their favorite pastimes was following Alisa around to mess with other kids.

Of all the children, Telesti's favorite was Alisa and she had intended to raise her into a scholar like herself just like how her adoptive mother, Lady Nico, passed her knowledge onto Telesti and trained her as a scholar. However, Telesti's efforts and attention on Alisa had all been in vain.

Even Lorist could not have imagined that Alisa's idol was Pesha instead. It all happened when Alisa witnessed Pesha leading a few other female soldiers on horseback passing through the central highway of Firmrock Castle. It was at that moment when the elegant form of horse-riding was imprinted into Alisa's head, causing her to make an oath to be a female knight on the very next day.

Alisa's relationship with her father as of late had also turned a little awkward. Two years back, Count Spenseid's widowed daughter had become Potterfang's maidservant. Just recently, she had been impregnated, and Potterfang focused his attention on his maidservant and her unborn child while neglecting her daughter in the process. Feeling that she had been forgotten by her father, Alisa promptly ran away from home, and when she traveled to Telesti's residence, she made up her mind to stay there for good.

Back at the beginning of the year when they first eliminated the magical beast wave, Lorist told Telesti happily that the preparatory work for the construction academy could begin. That was why Telesti set out with her students during the 6th month to Bladedge Mountains to find a scenic place on which to build the academy.

However, the choosing of the place took quite a long time. Even though Lorist had already defeated the Second Prince's 100000-strong army, and even wiped out most, if not all, of the nobles aside from the families in alliance with the Nortons, Telesti's trip would take two more months according to the messenger. The operation was progressing at a rather slow rate as Telesti and her students didn't hold back on having fun at the mountains and only managed to survey half the area so far.

"Come, Howard, stretch your hand out so I can read your pulse," Lorist said.

Howard placed his hand on the desk in response. Pulse-reading was no longer foreign to him as it was through using that technique that Lorist had managed to identify the condition of his body.

"Not bad. Your body's in great condition. Howard, for the next three months, you must focus on your Battle Force training from morning till noon and serve as my attendant in the afternoon. Three months later when your Battle Force stabilizes, you will also have to go through an arduous test just like your senior apprentice brother Reidy did and use the spinning chair to hone your dynamic vision. You better be prepared," Lorist said satisfiedly. Not only was Howard's body in perfect health, his foundations for training were also rather firm.

"Master, I've long been ready," Howard said with a look of seriousness.

"Alright. As there's only the three of us, master and disciples, here today, let's not be too formal. There's still much time in the days ahead. If there's anything you don't understand, Reidy can inform you about it. You can also ask me about it too. When we're in the presence of others, just call me milord like everyone else. But when we're together in a private setting, just refer to me as master," Lorist said.

"Master, I've always had a question about the family's military strategy and plans and I don't know why you chose to do what you did. Can I ask something about that?" Howard said, not holding back.

"Go ahead," Lorist said with a smile.

"Master, with the might of the Norton Family, we can already rival a kingdom in terms of military force. Ever since the convoy arrived at the Northlands, we've managed to defeat the Duke of the Northlands without much difficulty and that time, you have already accepted the entitlement of the Andinaq Kingdom and have been was considered an enemy of the Iblia Kingdom. We could've taken over the whole of the Northlands rightfully. But why did you not do that and insist on staying within the family dominion and allow the rest of the Northlands be occupied by the Second Prince, leading to the battle we fought with him recently? I really don't understand your intentions, master..."

Howard looked at Lorist with a straight face and earnestly wished that his question could be answered.

Lorist smiled and thought that it was interesting that the first person who had actually questioned Lorist's decisions was his own disciple. He nodded approvingly and said, "Howard, let me ask you a question. What do you think a person who has traveled far for an extended period of time would wish for when he returns to his homeland?"

"He should be visiting his home as soon as possible, I suppose," Howard responded after giving it some thought.

"That's right. He wouldn't think of having a drink first nor meet up with his old friends for a chat. Similarly, he wouldn't bother with the fact that his enemy's territory was conquered by another person. All he would care about is to return home as soon as possible, take a warm bath, and experience blissful time with his family. When everything calms down later, only then would he go get a drink at a tavern and tell the tales of his travels to his old friends. Or, he could go find trouble with his neighbor against whom he bears a grudge.

"In a way, our northbound convoy is that homesick traveler that just experienced a long and arduous journey filled with hardships and bloody battles, before finally arriving at the Northlands after walking a path of slaughter. Do you know the real thing that held everyone together the whole time? Do you remember how we encouraged the people of the convoy to persevere?"

Howard hesitated before he said, "The slogan for the northbound convoy was 'free housing and farmland to restart peaceful lives'..."

"That's right. Most of the people within the convoy had never been to the Northlands before. But because of our slogan and promotion, they have started to believe that our family dominion is the haven they have always craved. That's one of the main reasons why everyone was able to endure the journey with us and hate Duke Loggins in unison as he was the one who attempted to invade our haven. It was because of that hate that the morale of our soldiers were able to be so high as to allow us to easily crush the duke's forces.

"Come over here and look, Howard. This is the map of the Northlands. What thoughts do you have about this?" Lorist said as he stood up and headed to the wall on which a map of the Northlands was hung.

"The Northlands is incredibly large, master," Howard said.

"That's right. The Northlands is indeed large. Let's see, if we had proceeded according to your thoughts and conquered the duke's dominion, what do you think would happen?" Lorist asked as he pointed at the surrounding area of the duke's dominion. "These landed nobles would take mainly two actions. Either they can try to get on our good side, or resist us. Regardless of the choice they make, it will cause our family to be unnecessarily tangled up with them. The family forces will also have to be spread out. Not only do we have to defend the Hendliff Suspension Bridge and eliminate the nobles hostile to us, we will also lose the ability to act on our own initiative.

"Just like this," Lorist said as he opened his hand, "we would be spreading our fist into several fingers and put each finger against the fists of others in a fight. Not only will that cause harm to us, it will also cause us to lose the most important things, the spirit of the people and morale, mainly because we didn't fulfill our promise and dragged the commoners and soldiers into another era of war.

"That's the main reason I gave up on taking the duke's dominion for myself and focused on bringing everyone into the family dominion. During the past three years, we've developed the Felicitas Settlement, eliminated the magical beast wave and fulfilled our promise to distribute houses and farmland, granting them the peaceful lives they deserve. That's why, even though the Second Prince brought his troops of 100000 to face us, we were still able to gain victory within a single battle."

"But master, even though this time around we gained a huge victory in battle, you didn't even think about taking the duke's dominion and instead formed an alliance with the other three families and gave them so many benefits while not gaining any for ourselves. I believe that your decision wasn't too logical," Howard said.

Lorist laughed out loud and stroked Howard's head before he said, "How bold of you to say that to me.

"My explanation is still the same. The Northlands really is too big. Look here, traveling from Firmrock Castle to Gildusk City would already take 5 days, 7 days if you're planning to go all the way to Hendliff Suspension Bridge. Even if we take over the whole Northlands, information alone would take lots of time to transfer from one part to another. Additionally, those three families have also been on rather good terms with us. While it would be easy to turn our friends to enemies, our family stands to lose quite a lot by doing that. I know that our family soldiers are mighty, but needless sacrifices are nothing but wastage. Even if we take over the duke's dominion, will we still have enough resources to develop Blackmud Marsh?

"The future of our family and by extension, that of the Northlands, does not lie with those two suspension bridges. If the enemy seals off the other side of Metropoulos River, we will be effectively locked out and be unable to contact the outside world. Forming an alliance with the other three families is akin to passing that burden to them so that they can defend the two bridges while our family can use the bridges to procure more food and resources from the outside world as well as sell our own produce to them like salt and other goods.

"I believe I've already mentioned why I'm so focused on my own dominion, and that is because only our family dominion has access to the sea among all the other places in the Northlands. When we form our fleet, we will be able to travel to the other coastal nations of Grindia and that will be when our family's development will truly take flight. After that, the Northlands will one day be truly dominated by the banner of the Raging Bear."

"But master, what if the three families don't allow that to happen?" Howard asked.

"They will have to agree. By the time our family's might puts pressure on them, they will look for the soonest opportunity to leave the Northlands. Maybe we can even help them obtain new dominions of their choice. Howard, it is praiseworthy that you are ambitious for conquest. But your current thoughts are almost identical to that of the various powers struggling for domination right now in that you want to alpha strike[1] everything, and that is not to be encouraged," Lorist said.

"Master, what's an alpha strike?" Howard asked.

"In war, one has to consider not just the military aspect. There are lots of other factors that seem unrelated at first but will actually decide one's victory. War is actually a struggle for supremacy between two nations and it involves an incredible number of profound plots and tactics. The victor is always the one who makes the best preparations.

"However, it's a shame that there has yet to be any military experts in Grindia that has noticed this fact. All they know is to wage battle using the grandest of maneuvers. They are in a way similar to chess players. The winning player will no longer have the pieces necessary to face off against other opponents.

"Take for instance the Second Prince. During the three years he was at the Northlands, he put in lots of effort and finally managed to form his First Legion. Combined with the soldiers of other nobles, he has a force of about 100000 men. If he didn't cause any trouble for the Norton Family, who do you think he would target instead?"

After Howard gave it some thought, he said, "The Madras Duchy."

"Not bad. His target is very likely to be the Madras Duchy as our Second Prince is a person who holds grudges deeply. Naturally, there's no doubt that he hates our family the most now. But if he didn't act against us, he would definitely have sent his 100000 soldiers to the Madras Duchy. Needless to say, the duchy would have made their own preparations as well, so an intense battle would break out causing both sides to be crippled in the end with not one of them being able to continue any further. They will eventually have to sign a peace treaty for a few years to lick their wounds. After that, they would rebuild their army and have another conflict a few years later. That's the alpha strike I was talking about.

"If you have a constant stream of reinforcements however, no matter how many casualties you sustain, do you think the other side would be able to hold on? The result is obvious in that the side without reinforcements would definitely end up defeated. But take a look at the various duchies and kingdoms that have split from the Krissen Empire right now. Most of them build up their forces, engage in battle, and either gain or lose a little before signing a peace treaty that lasts only a few years. That is the alpha strike in action. Apart from worsening the standard of living of the commoners, there is completely no long-lasting benefit to it," Lorist explained.

"Master, I think I understand what you're trying to say. War is not chess and it requires might and power to fall back and rely on. And as you said, the more our family develops the dominion, the stronger our family will end up being, and the more victories we will obtain in the long run, right? That's why you focus on developing the dominion unlike other nobles who think that conquering more territory is automatically better," Howard said with a tone of realization.

"Not bad, that's exactly it. Howard, you'll definitely become a stellar strategist in the future," Lorist said as he laughed.

[1] Alpha strike: Putting all available resources into one attack. A little similar to a zerg rush. Read more.

Chapter 200 Reidy's Request

"Come on, Reidy, don't just stand there laughing. Howard will be relying on you in his training from now on and it's your duty to guide him as his senior apprentice brother. Oh, and I just remembered that I haven't given you a reward yet since you broke through the SIlver rank a few months ago and I took you in as a family knight, right? What do you want as that gift?" Lorist asked with a smile.

Lorist was quite satisfied with both his disciples. Reidy was a quiet person who was earnest and loyal and was gifted with strength that was better than most. His body's condition was one of the best available with his mind also being keen and insightful. In other words, he was pretty talented on both the physical and the mental. During his four years journeying with Lorist, he trained from the Two Star Bronze rank all the way to the Silver rank, meaning that he broke through one rank every year and was progressing at breakneck speed. The ignorant youth from back then had already become a magnificent and prominent Silver ranked knight.

However, Reidy did something that was completely out of Lorist's expectations. He approached Lorist's study desk and suddenly kneeled down, saying, "Master, I want to train in the internal energy method you mentioned..."

Lorist was shocked as he came to realize that while he wasn't sure whether Blademaster Xanthi and Princess Sylvia truly believed that his technique originated from the ancient martial monks as his story suggested, Reidy definitely fell for it hook, line and sinker.

"Cough... cough, cough..." Lorist almost choked himself to death as he was in the midst of swallowing some tea. After clearing his throat and standing up, he said, "Reidy, you must understand that if you train according to the high-ranked Battle Force manual I gave you, you'll definitely become a Gold ranked knight in the future. And when you reach the peak of the Gold rank, you might be able to gain some sudden insights and become a Blademaster.

"It's not that I don't want to teach you the technique, it's just that training in internal energy is much too different from training in Battle Force. For you, it's like learning a whole new set of things that is totally unrelated to what you have done before. As I'm not sure whether you'll be able to take it all in, I cannot guarantee whether you will succeed or not. Right now, you are already far more fortunate than I was before and don't have to take so many risks like I did in the past. And just like what I said to Princess Sylvia, I'm still unsure of how I would continue improving down the road with my technique.

"Are you sure you want to train in internal energy? When I began training in it, I was still at the Iron rank and it was only done out of desperation. After beginning internal energy training, you will also no longer be able to rise in rank in Battle Force training. Right now, you're already at the Silver rank and I'm not sure what will happen if you begin training in internal energy from there. As this heavily concerns your future, I really don't recommend that you to train in this art."

"Master, I really want to learn it," Reidy said while raising his head and looking at Lorist resolutely.

While Reidy had many good points, his stubborn attitude was definitely not one of them.

Lorist gave it some thought before waving his hand and telling both Reidy and Howard, "Both of you should leave for now. Give me some time to think. Reidy, I will give you three days to reconsider. After that, I will give you my answer."

"Okay, master," said both of them before they left.

Lorist fell into deep thought as he tapped onto the surface of the table with his finger. He understood Reidy well; that disciple of his was someone who would not turn back after making his decision. During the past four years, Reidy had already become one of Lorist's most trusted people. Putting other things aside, based on Reidy's personality alone, Lorist was sure that his grandfather from his past life would definitely like him quite a lot and take him into their school of training without the slightest hesitation. Currently, Lorist wasn't hesitating about whether to teach him the technique, but rather whether Reidy will be able to learn it properly. He was worried that venturing into uncharted territory like this would heavily affect Reidy's future.

After all, the two paths were completely separate and distinct methods. As the Aquametal Technique was a hereditary technique, Lorist couldn't teach it to anyone except his own kin. It wasn't that there were any other internal energy schools within this world, but it was best if Lorist kept a trump card like his family's hereditary technique to himself in a foreign world like Grindia.

If Reidy really insisted on wanting to train in internal energy, Lorist was prepared to teach him the Dan Ocean Ki-Refining Technique. In comparison to the Aquametal Technique, the Dan Ocean Ki-Refining Technique was more stable and calm. It was one of the internal energy techniques that the ancestors of Lorist's family in his past life had modified based on another cultivation school's technique and it was split into five stages, each with increasing difficulty. The first two levels were rather easy and focused on guiding the ki into the body, cultivating the practitioner's grasp and mastery over it, and refining the body itself, further enhancing one's physical qualities. The latter three levels would compound in difficulty and anyone who managed to train successfully to the peak was definitely blessed with unparalleled talent.

Lorist had heard his grandfather of his past life mention before that one of his ancestors in the Qing Dynasty had took in an orphan as a disciple. After 30 years of painstaking training to reach the 5th stage of the Dan Ocean Ki-Refining Technique, that orphan was able to contend with one of the most powerful martial masters within the republic that succeeded the dynasty and his reputation was quite well known in the martial world. After that when the enemy invaded the republic, that man went to the battlefield for his country and gained one achievement after another in battle. But in the end, that person disappeared during one of his battles and was never heard from again.

Perhaps it was a rather good idea to teach Reidy the Dan Ocean Ki-Refining Technique. Firstly, that act would leave a lasting mark on the civilization of this world and be able to differentiate the training method of the Norton Family from other people's in the future. Also, if Lorist chose to teach the Aquametal Technique to his descendants in the future, they wouldn't be the only ones training with internal energy. Additionally, the Dan Ocean Ki-Refining Technique was indeed used by Lorist's past life ancestors to teach disciples of their school that didn't belong to their bloodline and unlike the Aquametal Technique, there wasn't a restriction on teaching it to others.

Aside from that, Lorist was also quite curious to see what results would take shape after Reidy trains in the technique. He could also use this chance to understand the effects of melding Battle Force and internal energy training. Little did Reidy know that if he insisted on training in internal energy, he would essentially become a guinea pig for Lorist's experiment.

After making his decision, Lorist no longer hesitated and took out a pen and a piece of beastskin and began drafting.

Three days later, Reidy appeared before Lorist again.

"Have you made your decision? Are you sure you won't regret it?" Lorist asked.

Reidy didn't say anything and merely nodded.

Lorist opened his drawer and took out a beastskin on which a diagram of the human body was drawn and handed it to Reidy. "I will give you three months to memorize everything on that diagram."

Receiving the diagram, Reidy asked curiously, "Master, what is meant by the 'pressure points' you drew in this diagram? Also, what are 'meridians'?"

"You can think of pressure points like the circulation nodes of the bloodstream in Battle Force training. However, it's completely unrelated to them. And while meridians aren't really visible to the eye like blood vessels, you can think of them as an imaginary blood circulation system. However, what flows within is not blood but internal energy. Right now, you have to remember the position of the pressure points and meridians within the human body."

Lorist sighed before he continued, "Reidy, this is a completely different training method to Battle Force and you have to unlearn all the concepts you used and remember all you see on that diagram by heart. Only after that will I teach you how to guide ki into your body and circulate the internal energy. This is an extremely risky move and I have no idea whether you will succeed at all. Are you truly sure you want to train in internal energy?"

Reidy nodded resolutely and said, "Master, I really do. If I continue to train in Battle Force, I will eventually become a Gold ranked knight and perhaps even a Blademaster like you said, but that will take far too much time and I would probably be around 50 years old by then. But if I learn internal energy from you, I might be able to defeat Blademasters before the age of 30 like you."

Lorist was struck with realization as he recalled that he told Princess Sylvia that he had begun training in the 'technique of the ancient martial monks' at the age of 18 when he could no longer make any progress to break through to the Silver rank. Right now, he was only 20 and within 10 short years of training in internal energy, Lorist was able to defeat Blademaster Xanthi. It was no wonder that Reidy was so motivated.

Right now, Reidy was already 20 years old and he had just broken through to the Silver rank recently. If he continued to train in Battle Force, he might be able to become a Gold ranked knight but he definitely wouldn't be a Blademaster at that age. But if he trains in internal energy, he might turn out to be another Lorist within ten years and be able to kill Gold ranked knights as easy as he killed chickens and even take a Blademaster head on. Given Reidy's unyielding personality, it was a given that he would insist on wanting to train in internal energy.

Lorist laughed out loud and stepped to Reidy's side and ruffled his hair. "Just give it your best effort. As long as you can remember everything on the diagram, you can take your first step into internal energy training. I will pay close attention to your progress in the near future, so don't let me down."

......

Howard knocked on the door twice and heard Lorist say, "Come in."

Pushing open the door, Howard reported respectfully, "Milord, Grandmaster Sid and Grandmaster Fellin are both here. They even brought with them a few sets of armor."

Lorist stood up and said, "Come, let's go take a look."

Upon reaching the reception room on the second floor, they saw Grandmaster Sid leading a few servants around to place the armor down properly.

Before Lorist left Gildusk City to become Princess Sylvia's escort, he had already written Grandmaster Sid a letter with a request to design a few armor sets for the Kenmays, Shazin and Felim families. However, he didn't expect that before one month even elapsed, Grandmaster Sid was able to come up with 7 sets of armor that were ready for production.

Seeing Lorist and Howard arrive, Grandmaster Sid received them and said, "Milord, according to your orders, I have come up with these stainless steel armors, 3 of which are traditional types while the other 4 are the newer full-body ones."

"How are their defense capabilities?" Lorist asked. That was the main thing he was worried about because if they were too weak, he wouldn't be able to sell them.

"Milord, don't worry. Even though they're only half as tough as our own steel armor, they are still comparable to those of the Whitelion Legion. We've conducted experiments by shooting at these armor with the steel ballistas of our family and the bolts could only penetrate the armor if fired at a distance of 260 meters, 10 meters closer than the Whitelion Legion armor's 270. I suspect that is because the quality of the black iron produced by our family is too good," said the grandmaster. When it came to these armor, he spoke incessantly and enthusiastically.

"How much do they each cost to make?" Lorist asked.

Grandmaster Sid took a look around him before raising two fingers in the air and whispered, "Milord, they cost below 20 gold Fordes to make..."

Incredibly satisfied, Lorist replied quietly, "We'll quadruple the price when we sell them, understood?"

Grandmaster Sid laughed out loud and said, "Milord, I was just about to tell you that each set of Whitelion Legion armor cost 150 imperial gold coins to make in the former empire! Back then, the empire was still strong and the exchange rate of imperial gold coins wasn't as low as it is now at 3 imperial gold coins for 1 gold Forde. It should've cost around 108 gold Fordes according to the rates today. As you specified in your letter to prioritize controlling the cost to make the armor because you were prepared to sell them for 40 or 50 gold Fordes each, I felt that the profit margin was too low. I thought that we had to at least triple that amount."

Lorist laughed and said, "Alright. Grandmaster Sid, you should rest well these two days. When the people from the other three families come, brief them about these armor and try to sell it for more than 80 gold Fordes. For each set sold, I will give 10 gold Fordes to your armor development department as commision for you to distribute to the smiths who worked hard for this."

Grandmaster Sid stroked his goatee and happily said, "Rest assured, milord. I will show you what I can do when the day comes."

And so, when Baron Shazin, Baron Felim and Count Kenmays learned that they wouldn't be dealing with Lorist but instead the stingy Grandmaster Sid, they were all flabbergasted.

Lorist merely shrugged and said, "I had no choice. Even though I'm the dominion lord, I cannot oppose the grandmaster's wishes. He's the sole armorer that serves my family and he has a really high status. I can only abide by his wishes. Otherwise, if he leaves the family, my tears would all dry up before I even get to cry."

All the three other nobles nodded in unison as they understood that armorers were people whom even noble families couldn't exert total control over as they were the cornerstone of the might of their military force. They believed that Lorist truly had his own troubles and decided to first listen to Grandmaster Sid brief them on the armor.

When the grandmaster gave the presentation, he went all out and praised his creations like they were forged in the heavens themselves. To better convince the three dominion lords, he even had three sets of Whitelion Legion armor brought over so that they could compare and contrast them against his own creations.

The armor Count Kenmays took a fancy to was the one that was coated in a bright layer of silver. That armor had three unique features, with the first being its smooth surface. The second feature was the tight and encompassing protection it afforded to the body as a result of being a hybrid between plate armor and ring armor which gave it an incredibly sturdy look. Among the seven sets of armor, Grandmaster Sid praised it as the one with the highest defense which surpassed that of the Whitelion Legion armor by at least 10 percent. That was one of the main factors why it caught Count Kenmays's attention. Third, it was the most expensive one and each set was to be sold for 100 gold Fordes with no room for negotiation whatsoever.

However, Count Kenmays had one question, and that was why the armor was coated so brightly in silver while the Norton Family's armor was colored dull greyish silver instead.

Grandmaster Sid looked at Lorist with an insulting gaze and said to Count Kenmays, "That is because that lord of ours is too stingy and diluted the silver concentration with a ton of lead..."

Count Kenmays laughed out loud and said, "Fine. I will choose this set of armor and place an order for 20000 sets for now. Depending on the situation, I might want to add another 10000 more later."

Since Count Kenmays had made his offer, Baron Shazin and Baron Felim no longer held back. Shazin Hennard ordered 10000 sets of armor which was priced at 80 gold Fordes each while Baron Felim chose an armor that cost 85 gold Fordes and ordered 10000 sets as well. Lorist was surprised that the two didn't even attempt to bargain and made their orders so quickly.

Curious, Lorist asked, "Why didn't you even try to haggle? Did you find a gold mine or something?"

Count Kenmays laughed out loud and said, "You don't understand, Locke. Just a while ago, we managed to get into contact with Duke Madras and sold the armor we bought from you previously. The good ones sold for 80 gold Fordes each while the ones in worse condition sold for 45. It's a shame we didn't have enough as the duke plans to form two legions of soldiers and will require another 10000 sets of armor. After paying with the money we got from the duke, the order we just made will only cost our families around 20000 to 30000 gold Fordes."

Lorist stretched out his thumb and said, "Good for you. Since there's such a good opportunity, why don't you help me sell off our old armor for a ten percent commission? In the meantime, I'll need you to use that profit to buy some food for my dominion. I will also pay you ten percent of that price for that. Just by doing this, you'll be able to get a commission of 20 percent. You in?"

Count Kenmays clapped his hands and said, "Only an idiot wouldn't take this opportunity. However, why don't you contact Duke Madras and handle this transaction directly?"

Lorist laughed bitterly and pointed to Hennard before he said, "He knows the best that back then, the forces of us, the Norton Family, defeated Duke Loggins's forces because we were able to fight our way through the Madras Duchy and cross Metropoulos River from his dominion, causing him quite a bit of losses. That's why he later sealed off that crossing point and prevented anyone from crossing the river there. If my family intends to send a merchant convoy there, I'm afraid the duke will send his soldiers after it."

Hennard merely nodded and smiled.

"Alright, then I'll accept your proposal as a job for the salt merchant committee. However, Locke, you're far too stingy. You're already selling the committee your salt for 10000 gold Fordes per 1 million kilograms. Even though you're already making money off that, why are you still taking 10 percent of the profit by involving your family in the committee?" Count Kenmays said as he recalled the agreement they had made previously.

Lorist shrugged and said, "Well, I could leave the committee if you want. I just have to double the price of the salt I sell you."

"Then forget it, it's better if you stay in the committee..." Count Kenmays said exasperatedly.

Chapter 201 A Failed Experiment

Black-colored powder could be seen gathered in a clump around which an oil-soaked rope circled. The rope stretched meters away like a long snake with Lorist near its other end holding a lit torch and looking at the black powder clump as if he was deep in thought.

This was his final attempt at that experiment. Lorist lit the oil-soaked rope with his torch and the flame traveled down the rope, quickly surrounding the clump of black powder.

Pssshhh! After letting out a sound and a flash of light, the black powder vanished altogether.

The result remained the same, causing Lorist to sigh in resignation. If he was back on Earth, that clump of black-colored gunpowder should explode. The danger of the explosion was what caused him to stand so far away in the first place. However, Lorist really couldn't understand why the gunpowder mixture from Earth based on sulfur, nitrate and coal, didn't react as intended on Grindia.

Lorist had collected the nitrate off the corners of the walls. As for sulfur, it was obtained by refining a herbal plant on Grindia which the herbalists use to make snake repellant to be sold to adventurers. The plant could be commonly found at places with volcanic activity and it was priced rather cheaply. As for coal, they were even easier to obtain. After getting the ingredients he recalled from his past life's experience, Lorist mixed a huge bucket of black powder and began experimenting with smaller portions before deciding to use them all up to carry out his final experiment. The results were still the same with the powder emitting a flash along with a hissing sound without anything else happening.

There was no explosion or loud noise. The air around the ignited powder didn't even heat up and expand.

That shouldn't be the case, Lorist thought as he scratched his head. Back when he was studying at Morante City, he had heard that the dwarven kingdom soldiers' main weapon was a firearm. Even though the power of those firearms were only slightly stronger than that of ballistas, they were still firearms nevertheless and Lorist felt that as long as he could synthesize some gunpowder, he would be able to shake up the era of cold arms and usher in a new age of domination of the Norton Family.

What he didn't expect was that actually making functioning gunpowder was more complicated than he had imagined. The recipe he remembered from his past life was of no use whatsoever, causing Lorist much frustration. Are those weapons used by the dwarves really firearms? What do they rely on to propel the projectile?

This wasn't Lorist's first attempt. Two months back, Lorist's attempts to make glass, porcelain, paper and cement, had all failed without exception. That caused him to realize that on Grindia, the chemical interactions between the particles were different than that of Earth.

Originally, he thought that making glass would be the simplest to achieve. As the owner of a crafts workshop back in his past life, Lorist was extremely well-versed working glass. He could fashion all sorts of shapes to make animals or other artistic pieces with glassblowing. On the Grindia Continent, the Teribo Kingdom is famed for their production of green glass, so Lorist felt rather confident that glass would be the first thing he would be able to replicate as the materials were simple, requiring mainly quartz.

But the results were like a strike on the head for Lorist. On Earth, after the quartz was melted, it would take a colloid form. After that, it would be relatively simple to use glassblowing techniques to split off a part of the molten glass and press it flat to make glass panes. That was the simplest method of making glass. However, in Grindia, Lorist discovered that the melted quartz turned into liquid form instead without any viscosity whatsoever and it would cool easily into droplet-shaped pieces. Even though they were hard, they were too fragile and there was no way to apply glassblowing to shape the material.

Not knowing why that was the case at all, Lorist went to seek out Charade as he felt that it was probably an issue with his materials. Perhaps, there was another material that he needed aside from quartz to make glass. Charade on the other hand was far too busy as he had been assigned by Lorist the daunting task of settling down the 200000 plus commoners that had just entered the dominion and couldn't be bothered to listen to Lorist's ramblings.

Seeing Lorist trouble him for such a trivial matter, Charade was enraged. Even though he was so busy that he was almost at the brink of death, Lorist had so much free time that he even tried his hand at glass making. Additionally, glass making is a highly protected secret of the Teribo Kingdom and Charade was merely born there and wouldn't know that method anyway. In the Teribo Kingdom, if one were to be found to be snooping around for the method of production and recipe for glass, one would no doubt be hanged.

Lorist laughed bitterly and told Charade that the green glass that cost only ten coppers in Morante City would be sold at 1 large silver each after the Kenmays Family shipped it from over there, with the price hiking up to almost ten times the original amount. Each gold Forde could then only be used to purchase 20 pieces of green glass within the Northlands. Upon mention of money and cost, Charade started to treat the matter seriously and he quickly wrote a letter to his father who was a merchant operating in the Teribo Kingdom and requested him to pay attention to what the glass factories usually purchased. As it doesn't directly involve seeking out the formula for glass production, it wasn't that risky. Additionally, once the materials were known, the mysteries of glass production could then slowly be researched.

Thus, the progress on glass research was put to a halt. After that, Lorist tried to begin making porcelain, only to fail again. In his past life, he had made replicas of various antique porcelain vases and Lorist was pretty sure he remembered the method for that quite clearly. As there has yet to be any porcelain products in Grindia, Lorist figured that he would try his hand at it and possibly come up with a new industry for his dominion.

At first, the porcelain vases and tiles he fashioned seemed fine. But after 7 days of drying, the results disappointed Lorist greatly. Take for instance a porcelain bowl. It should've been smooth and rounded. However, the surface of the bowl he made had a rugged surface and would crumble on touch, completely different from how porcelain should be. Lorist continued the experiments for one whole month and had no choice but to give up in the end to acknowledge his failure.

The same was the case with the attempt at reproducing paper. Two years ago right after the northbound convoy arrived at the dominion, Lorist gave Old Man Balk some instructions on paper production based on the information he remembered from his past life. But throughout these two years, the most they could come up with was borderline useless paper that was only good for use in the toilet. That kind of 'toilet paper' was already being produced at Morante City with the main ingredients being reed and rice stalks, which is priced at 1 copper coin per stack.

Lorist on the other hand tried using many other different materials, but the result was still the same soft and mushy paper with the only benefit being that it was slightly whiter and finer than the paper produced at Morante City, but cost way more to make with a far more complicated method of production. Even if that paper could sustain the demand of toilet paper within the dominion, causing the commoners to no longer have to use wooden rods to scrub their bottom clean after using the latrine, it didn't solve Lorist's need for the white writing paper at all.

And lastly there was concrete. In most fantasy stories, transmigrators like Lorist usually brought with them three of the greatest inventions, namely, glass, cement, and gunpowder. After the failing at glass production, Lorist figured he should give cement making a try. As the dominion was still in development, there was a great need for green vine glue and the 100000 buckets produced yearly at the Bladedge Mountains was not enough, causing Lorist to have to order 100000 more from the Kenmays Family. This year alone, the demand for it was 180000 buckets and that was no small burden for the family to bear. That's why Lorist wanted to see what he could do to decrease the reliance on green vine glue for construction.

The production of cement was actually rather easy. Lime and clay were first to be calcined before being powdered and mixed with sand and water. After the cement set, it would become concrete. Lorist had a few of his subordinates experiment around and managed to make a pile of cement. The problem was, the cement made was unable to harden. Even though it was mixed with water, it still didn't harden after three days passed and would crumble into pieces upon being kicked at lightly.

But one of his subordinates brought a bucket of green vine glue and added it to the cement mix before moulding it into a few sculptures. After only half a day, the sculptures did harden and were as sturdy as iron, being also far sturdier than green clay structures. But the reason Lorist wanted to reproduce cement in the first place was to replace green vine glue, not green clay.

And now, his latest research venture into gunpowder had failed as well. Was it because the chemical reactions of this world was markedly different from those of Earth? Lorist stroked his cheek as he began to sink into deep thought.

"Milord, what is it that you want to do?" Howard asked.

"Oh, nothing. I was just trying to make an explosive," Lorist replied.

"Explosive? What's an explosive?" Howard asked, confused.

It was at that moment when Lorist realized that there wasn't a term for explosion in the lexicon of the Grindian Language. While there were similar terms like eruption or bursting open, they didn't quite describe the phenomenon of explosion.

"Hmmm, how do I describe it... An explosive is a thing that explodes and an explosion describes a phenomenon in which an object bursts outwards in all directions from the inside when it expands too suddenly, releasing a huge burst of energy and damaging the surroundings in the process," Lorist defined.

"Oh, there's that sort of thing?" While Howard couldn't quite imagine it, he didn't forget to carry out his duty and reminded, "Milord, we should be heading to the ballista workshop of Grandmaster Fellin soon. We are scheduled to meet with him today."

"Alright then, let's go," Lorist said as he suppressed his frustration for now and got on his mount.

The only good news amidst his chain of failures is that the catapult he designed has been successfully implemented by Grandmaster Fellin. The presentation was scheduled for noon that day at the ballista factory situated near the Bladedge Mountains.

"Milord, based on the design blueprints you provided, we have ran all sorts of experiments and finally decided on the appropriate dimensions of this catapult that can throw a 50 kilogram rock at least 600 meters away. Congratulations, milord. You have successfully invented a new ranged weapon! This is the first catapult in the history of Grindia!" Grandmaster Fellin said excitedly.

However, the catapult in front of him looked rather displeasing. Not only was it huge, it was also incredibly heavy and looked far too different from the design Lorist drew on the beastskin blueprint.

"Milord, we had no choice but to do that. If it is not at least that heavy, we will be unable to ensure its stability," Grandmaster Fellin said after understanding Lorist's hesitant look. He quickly explained, "Milord, the hardest part of your design to implement is the arm of the catapult which has to be both tough and elastic. If the arm is too thick, it would cause the base of the catapult to rupture, but if it is too thin, it will break easily. We've tried making over 200 different catapult arms with different wood and discovered that the one we're using now is the most suitable. However, it still has to be switched out after ten shots or it will crack and snap."

Loirst nodded without saying anything else. What came next was seeing the catapult in action. That catapult had a rather simple construction and used the principle of levers. The huge catapult arm was suspended on a crossbar with the thick end of the arm bearing several heavy, filled boxes to serve as a counterweight with a leather pad tied at the thinner end in which a rock could be placed. A rope was used to fasten the thin end of the arm to the ground and after loading the payload, the rope would be cut and the thick end would be brought down by the counterweight, sending the thin end rocketing into the air and propelling the payload forward.

Lorist was finally assured as catapults were actually rather useful. Even though they weren't that accurate and the firing range wasn't always consistent with a margin of error of around 100 meters, it was considered a success as it was able to hurl rocks weighing near 100 kilograms into the distance. The next logical step was to find ways to improve upon the current design.

Lorist understood that the task of improving catapults couldn't be given to Grandmaster Fellin as he was not a good and insightful researcher despite being a good implementer. Lorist still felt that the most suitable person for the task is Grandmaster Sid. Even though he was an armorer, his mind was quite flexible from the fact that he also designed the various water-powered machines that occupied the space below the waterfall. It was that aspect of the grandmaster that truly caught Lorist's eye, and Lorist figured that since he designed those machines, he could try working on the catapult since it was a machine as well.

After a while, Howard brought Grandmaster Sid over and as expected, the grandmaster was instantly deeply occupied with trying to understand the principle of the lever and began his research immediately.

Directly following that, Lorist also invited Old Master Julian over and included him in the catapult research group along with Grandmaster Fellin and Grandmaster Sid. The reason Lorist had Julian in the team was because he hoped that the old master would be able to use the elastic steel he researched as material for the catapult arm. The base standard Lorist set for the catapults was for them to be at least as easy to aim and operate like the steel ballistas, requiring less than 10 operators per unit. It also had to be able to fire 500 meters away with a payload of above 25 kilograms and couldn't be too large lest they hinder the march of the army.

......

Within the Rose Palace located at the capital city of the Iblia Kingdom, Windbury City, the Second Prince made his return.

The Rose Palace, formally known as the Rose Provisional Palace, was called as such because the Second Prince felt that a true palace fitting for a descendant of the Krissen Imperial Family like him should be built at the imperial capital. That's why he called the palace he built at Windbury City a provisional one to symbolize his ambition to one day retake the imperial capital and return there.

Even though the Second Prince had made his way back, all the servants within the palace were unnerved because their master had completely changed in both act and appearance. He was volatile, unstable, decadent, manic and developed chronic alcoholism. Every day, he would seclude himself within his royal chambers and drink as much alcohol as he could while fooling around with women, losing himself in hedonistic pleasures of the flesh with abandon.

With his 100000-strong army gone within but a single battle and his peerless Blademaster being slaughtered right in front of him by a thick and long ballista bolt, the Second Prince was shocked completely out of his senses. He never would've even dreamed that the Norton Family's might would be that staggering and that Baron Felim and Baron Shazin whom he thought he had control over would rebel. When he was on his way back to Gildusk City, the Second Prince got news that the duke's dominion was under siege by the forces of those two families, forcing him to have no choice but to head to the dominion of the Kenmays Family and leave the Northlands using the suspension bridge.

Originally, he thought he could borrow three legions of soldiers from his father-in-law to fight his way back into the Northlands. But he wasn't aware that Duke Fisablen had already lost all hope for him as there was no way he could use three legions of soldiers to take the Northlands given that he had already lost 100000 within a single clash. That was something that would only happen in the Second Prince's dreams. Duke Fisablen had made up his mind to not let his three legions which he had spared no effort to build to march to their deaths with the Second Prince.

Having been refused entry to the city by his father-in-law, the Second Prine secretly made his way back to Windbury City as news of his complete defeat spread throughout the kingdom. Without any more soldiers under his command, none of the nobles of the kingdom treated him seriously. This sudden chain of events had caused the Second Prince to lose all his ambition and hole up within the Rose Palace to drink away his pain all day.

Sounds of music and laughter could be heard from far away. That was the hall where the queen stayed and a ball was being held there.

"That damned woman!" the Second Prince cursed with bloodshot eyes. While nobody even bothered to check out on him, his consort was actually hosting a ball that would progress into an orgy afterwards! The Second Prince really wanted to carry his sword and slaughter the rest of the frivolous men and women there.

"Fuck off!" he roared as he kicked a nude woman lying by the table aside. That was the maidservant who served alcohol to the Second Prince, but she had just been forcefully ravaged by her master to the point that she was barely able to move.

The woman was relieved that her life wasn't taken and hurriedly crawled aside. The Second Prince then took a few more gulps of alcohol and tried to drink himself to the lowest depths of drunkenness so that he could take his mind of the matters.

"Your Majesty, you cannot continue to waste away like this," a voice rang out from the corner of the hall.

"What do you think I can do at this point? I've left all my wealth at Gildusk City. All the resources I took from the Madras Duchy is gone! And the First Legion I spent three years building is gone too! No money, and no soldiers! Am I still fit to be king? Nobody looks at me in the eyes anymore... I'm finished... I've lost everything..." the Second Prince muttered.

A tall figure appeared before the Second Prince. That was his swordsmanship teacher, and the only remaining Blademaster by his side, Blademaster Zarinan.

"Your Majesty, no matter what, you're still a king. If you don't stand up again, the kingdom will truly lose its future. If you don't have soldiers, you can always recruit more. If you don't have money, you can always find ways to make more. Don't you still have your two iron mines? You can think of cooperating with that trading guild from the Trade Union that came back then and let them handle the iron mines. That way, you will have a source of income and can begin building another army..."

"No, no way... Half the produce of those mines must be provided to my father-in-law to replenish his own troops," said the Second Prince as he shook his head to freshen himself up. "Teacher, you are right. Since that old guy no longer cares about whether I live or die, then why would I help replenish the the equipment of his forces?! Tomorrow, I will send someone to seek out those from that trading guild and begin a cooperative relationship with them. As long as I can get the money to rebuild my army, I will even deal with a demon!

"Oh, and teacher, can you please make a trip to the Northlands? I want the head of the Norton Family's leader. If I don't kill him, I will never be able to eat and sleep in peace. If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't have been chased out of the Northlands and lose everything..." said the Second Prince with a manic look in his eyes.

"Your Majesty, assassination is not an action befitting of a king. There has never been a case where a king ordered the assassination of a dominion lord. If word of this gets out..."

"I don't care!" roared the Second Prince. "I must kill him! Teacher, you must bring me his head! I want to use it as my wine cup! Teacher, you can definitely fulfil this sole wish of mine just by making a single trip. Even if it's not for my sake, think of your junior apprentice brother, my Uncle Louinse, who died so horribly... Don't you want to avenge him?! Did you forget what your own master said about looking out for your junior apprentice brother?!"

The large man turned silent and after a long while, he opened his mouth and said, "Your Majesty, I shall agree to go to the Northlands and bring you the head of the Norton Family head. But I hope that you will never make a request of me that's so unfitting of a king again."

Chapter 202 Assaulted [Cliffhanger 1 of 5]

The fair, slender figure twitched continuously from Lorist's thrusts accompanied by ecstatic moans. In the end, amidst the loud, long moan, Lorist's hot desires were emptied onto Irina's body.

After giving birth to her child, Irina got more plump and she was no longer small girl she used to be. Lorist took a page out of Hennard's book and made Irina his concubine as well as included her son into the family registry as his first successor candidate.

He continued to toy with Irina's breasts while basking in the climactic afterglow. After a while, she pushed Lorist away and said, "Milord, let me get some water to wash you down..."

Lorist said, "There's no need. Just stay put here before we go for another round..."

"Well, milord, can't we leave it for tonight? It's still only noon right now, aah..." Irina's words were cut short as Lorist once again shoved his manhood into her body...

After giving birth, Irina insisted on staying at Maplewoods Bastide to raise her child and refused to follow Lorist back to Firmrock Castle. She said that it was because she had spent all her life there and had long been used to the scenery and wasn't willing to go to somewhere foreign. Naturally, Lorist didn't force her to come along and allowed her to do as she pleased. However, whenever Lorist went to Maplewoods Bastide, he would spend a few nights there and get intimate with Irina as well as check on his newborn son.

In the 10th month, Lorist was much freer than he usually was mainly because the failures in his experiments had demotivated him quite a bit, causing him to stop his research efforts temporarily. After resting for almost a week at Maplewoods Bastide, Lorist was reminded by Howard that he had to head to Bladedge Mountains to bring Telesti back to Firmrock Castle. So, Lorist bid farewell to Irina and his son and left for the mountains with his guards.

Telesti and her ten plus students had picked a spot to build the academy that was not that far off from Wildnorth Town. There was a hill there where chrysanthemum plants prospered as well as a serene stream flowing nearby. Telesti liked that place a lot because of the beautiful scenery and ordered her guard escorts to set up camp there so that she could give her students some lectures on nature.

Just as Lorist arrived at the campsite, Alisa rushed straight to him and gave him a firm hug before she said, "Uncle Locke, you're finally here!"

Lorist stroked the girl's head affectionately and brushed some grass off her hair as he said, "You rowdy lass, where were you messing around at? Your hair is full of grass!"

Alisa giggled and said, "The Chino twins are real idiots. They couldn't even differentiate between chickweed and fiddleleaf plants and insisted that there were the same and could both be eaten. They were then given a long lecture by teacher..."

Chickweed was considered to be a medicinal plant that was slightly toxic while fiddleleaf could be consumed as a normal vegetable. As the two plants looked rather similar, it was quite common for careless or uninformed people to think that they're both the same thing.

"Since Alisa is so smart, you can definitely tell them apart, right?" Lorist said as he laughed.

"Of course! I'm definitely the fastest to learn. We had to differentiate such a large pile of plants and I was the one who finished first. Teacher even praised me for that," Alisa said proudly as she waved her arms to indicate how big the pile of grass was.

"Wow, Alisa is so amazing. I'm sure you'll definitely be a great scholar like your teacher when you grow up," Lorist praised.

Alisa then pouted and said, "Hmph, I don't want to be like teacher. She's so timid. One time, she was so terrified after seeing a grey mountain rat that she screamed like her life depended on it. I want to be a female knight like Auntie Pesha when I grow up and ride on horses elegantly and kill magical beasts with my lance in one strike..."

"Oh..." Lorist was quite surprised to find out that Pesha had actually gained such a young follower as he wondered how that busty but slow-witted knight managed to impress Alisa. Then again, he felt that it wasn't a bad idea for Alisa to go on the path of a knight. Given her boyish, rowdy personality, it was hard for Lorist to imagine her as a serene scholar like Telesti.

"Go greet your brother. Have you forgotten about him after not meeting him for a few months?" Lorist said as he ticked Alisa's nose.

"Hmph, you're a bad uncle, always messing with my nose like that... Brother!" Alisa said as she jumped towards Howard who was standing behind Lorist.

.......

"Teacher, look who I brought here," Alisa exclaimed as she pushed open the flap of the tent and squeezed through the entrance. Lorist also followed her into the tent.

Telesti, who was in the middle of writing and drawing something, raised her head and said with a smile, "Locke, you're here."

"Yup. I'm here to bring you back to Firmrock Castle. The weather will start getting colder in another month and your trip with the kids have taken quite some time already," Lorist said as he approached the easel and assessed the drawing.

"Is this your design for the academy?" Lorist asked.

Telesti stood up and hugged Lorist before giving him a light kiss. She then said, "Yes, that's just the first draft of the design I have in mind. I will have to give it to Grandmaster Ciroba later and let him modify it before the blueprints are to be drawn."

"Alright. We'll leave tomorrow then. We'll first head to Poplar Coast before going to Blackmud Marsh. Grandmaster Ciroba should be at either of those places right now. I also have to check out on the development of the construction of the roads over there before we return to Firmrock Castle together," Lorist said.

"Will we be bringing the children along with us?" Telesti asked.

Lorist thought before he replied, "Let's bring them with us. Since I have so many guards with me, they will definitely be cared for well. Also, the construction effort there is a quite a large scale project and it can't hurt to show these children the might of manpower which can even shape the landscapes and change a swamps into homes."

......

Poplar Coast had already been turned into a bustling construction site through the recent developments. With more than 20000 laborers working on building the new town, the foundation for the town walls had already been completed. Currently, the workers were digging out a moat and using the mud they unearthed to make bricks for the wall. The one in charge of the site was a thin, dark-skinned, middle-aged man whom Lorist remembered to be one of the staff promoted by Supervisor Hansk. He wasn't sure whether the man was promoted due to his own merit or the lack of staff to supervise the site.

"Milord, the work here is progressing smoothly and we will finish the first part of the construction of the wall before winter as well as the warehouses. Next year, we can begin gathering various resources for further work," reported the man respectfully.

"Not bad, you've done great. Continue to work hard. Oh, and, is Grandmaster Ciroba here now?" Lorist asked.

"Milord, Grandmaster Ciroba just left two days ago to Tortoise Hill. I heard that something about the drainage system is problematic and requires a redesign," replied the man.

"Oh," Lorist mused as he nodded. "The day is still young, so I won't stay here to interrupt your work. Please get me some clean water and fill up my water flask. I'll head to the Blackmud Marsh right after that."

"Alright, milord. Please wait for a bit, I'll call someone to get the water."

Slightly further away from Lorist and that dark-skinned man, a few large pots could be seen at a resting spot. Within the pots were large bull bones floating amidst the soup. That was actually one of the benefits the Norton Family provided the laborers. No matter who, one could have some soup to drink the moment one turned thirsty. Not only was the bone soup thirst-relieving, it was also rather nutritious.

The ones taking care of the pots of soup were a fat man and his similarly plump wife. They added some more salt into each pot after a few bowls of soup were served from each.

A tall old man could be seen standing near the pot taking small sips out of his bowl of soup.

"Old man, do sit down and drink slowly. You can even stay here tonight and I'll get you some bull bones to chew on. Don't think that just because they're meatless, they're not good. Just crack the bone open and the good stuff's in the marrow. It's also very nutritious for a person of your age," said the fat cook warmly as he handed the old, largely-built man a piece of black bread.

"Have this, old man. Dip the bread in the soup and it'll soften right away. Fill yourself up with it for now," said the cook before he went to stir the pot of soup a little more and called his wife to remove some firewood so that the fire doesn't burn too strongly. After that, he went back to the old man's side and sat down.

"I've seen types like you quite often in the recent times. Seriously, I'm not kidding. From time to time, some family members of the war prisoners will come here to seek them out and hope to find their husbands or brothers here. Most of the family members of the captured Northlander soldiers would be able to meet up without issue. But since you said that you're from the Winston Province, this will be a little bit more difficult. Most of the soldiers of the Second Prince's First Legion are people from the Winston Province. But after the battle with the forces of the Norton Family, they lost more than 10000 men. That's why, old man, I pray that you are ready for whatever outcome and hope that your grandson didn't get unlucky...

"Then again, the Norton Family forces are not like the forces of those other savage and violent nobles. They don't kill senselessly or take the belongings of the commoners. That, I can assure you. Like my wife and I, even though we were forced to move here, we didn't have much to complain about. Before that, we were working as cooks for our previous master and we would be beaten and scolded for the smallest mistakes. Only after we came here did we experience true freedom. When the construction work of this town is complete, the Nortons said that they would even give us homes and farmland. I am prepared to start a small restaurant to live the rest of my days in peace. I never would've dreamed that we would be able to spend days like this in the future...

"If you could read, you can easily check the registry to see if your grandson is listed there. But sadly you don't and you only know that he is called 'Silo' without knowing how it is spelled. There are many people with similar or identical sounding names, so you have no choice but to travel from one place and another to find him. Since he's a prisoner, he should be at Blackmud Marsh. There are three spots there and you have to spend some effort to find him. In fact, this is the wrong place for you to come to. The people here are laborers and they are paid for their work while those laborers at Blackmud Marsh are war prisoners who are serving their 3-year term without pay for their own freedom."

"Who's that?" asked the tall old man as he raised his head and looked at the distant group of people and carriages.

The fat cook stood up and exclaimed happily, "That's the dominion lord! It's so rare for us to be able to see him. I think he's passing through this place to head to the Blackmud Marsh for an inspection..."

"Which one of them is the lord? Is he sitting in the carriage?" asked the tall man.

"No, he's the one riding a horse at the very front. Our lord doesn't like to wear full metal armor. He has long black hair and eyes, so he's quite easy to recognize. Look, it's that one wearing the black cloak. I've seen him once before when he was inspecting the commoner camp back at Firmrock Castle," said the fat cook energetically.

"Oh..." mumbled the tall old man as he stood up. It was at that moment when the fat cook seemed to visualize the tall old man as a razor-sharp sword.

However, Lorist had already traveled far with his guards. The tall old man sat back down and looked no different from his frail self before.

"Thank you, my kind friend. Oh, I really worry for my pitiful grandson... If something bad happened to him, I really don't know if I can bear to continue living... Ah, you said just now that there are three spots at the Blackmud Marsh where I might find him, right? Can you tell me more about those places?" asked the tall old man.

"Hey, old man, were you a mercenary when you were young?" asked the cook, troubled. For some reason, he perceived that man beside him to be a sword. Realizing that the tall man had a large build and was even strong enough to head to the Northlands to seek out his grandson, the cook reasoned that he must've been a mercenary during his younger days given his demeanor.

The tall man nodded and said, "That's right. I was a mercenary for 40 years. Because my grandson's parents died early, I had to head home to raise him. But that kid couldn't resist enlisting into the king's army and said that he wanted to become a knight. After hearing about the king's army's defeat, I rushed my way here to see if I can find my grandson..."

The cook said, "Don't be too agitated. Old man, I'm sure that Singwa will protect your son from all ills. I think that our lord should be heading to Blackmud Marsh to make his inspections. The nearest part from here is the part where the Blackmud Marsh meets the Bladedge Mountains. The next part would be at the central road of Blackmud Marsh while the last part will be near Tortoise Hill. These three places are where the prisoners were sent to work. However, I think that most of the laborers should be at Tortoise Hill. I heard that the work there is in a bit of a rush as it's really important."

"Oh, then I ought to head to Tortoise Hill to check first. If he isn't there, I'll go to the other two places. Thank you for your bone soup and bread," said the tall old man as he stood up and prepared to leave.

The fat cook hurriedly stopped him and said, "Old man, it'd take you forever to get there on foot! Do you see the carriages filled with stuff over there? Those are the resources that are scheduled to be delivered to Tortoise Hill. I know a few of the coachmen and I will ask them to let you ride with them at noon."

"Oh, I am incredibly grateful," said the tall old man with thanks.

"What's there to thank for? I understand how hard it can be to have no one to rely on outside your home like this. I'm just doing what I can to help. I hope you will find your grandson soon and maybe settle down here to spend the rest of your days in bliss," said the fat cook with a smile.

......

Lorist brought Telesti and the children with him to first check out the land reclamation operations at the intersection point between Bladedge Mountains and Blackmud Marsh. After staying for a day, they continued on to the middle road construction site. The work there was progressing rather slowly mostly because it was frequently under attack from Ironspine Crocodiles. While not many people got injured, the work was slowed nevertheless.

The moment Lorist arrived, he managed to see the three super ballistas show their might by shooting a 20-meter-long Ironspine Crocodile to death. This was the largest crocodile he had seen so far. The children all gathered beside the huge carcass excitedly and the rowdy Alisa was the first to climb up on top of the carcass along with the Chino brothers.

Lorist decided to make that Ironspine Crocodile into a display specimen and thought that the huge beast would be more effective in frightening others than the gigantic mammoth specimen he had. For that, he stayed there for two days to arrange for it to be carried out before heading to Tortoise Hill.

Potterfang who was in charge of managing the prisoner camp was there to receive Lorist on his arrival. Seeing that the mud wall had been completed with the rest being on schedule to finish before the arrival of winter, Lorist was extremely satisfied.

When he reached Tortoise Hill, Lorist headed straight for the army camp while Telesti sought out Grandmaster Ciroba by herself. Lorist took strolls around the area and bossed people around, satisfying his desire to act like a true dominion lord for once.

On the third day, Lorist decided to head to the other end of Tortoise Hill where the stream was located to hold a grill party in the wilds. As Lorist arranged for his guards to hunt some food for the party, Telesti taught her students to draw the various sights of nature.

Holding two fat, juicy pheasants as he walked out of the forest, Lorist walked to the side of the grimacing Telesti and asked, "Hey, what's wrong? You look down."

"It's nothing... I was just brainstorming for the design of the academy's insignia," said Telesti.

"Haha, what's so difficult about that? Reidy, go to the carriage and get me that small box at the lower storage compartment," Lorist instructed. Without delay, the box was brought to Lorist right away.

Lately, Reidy had been struggling to memorize the diagram Lorist gave him and even frequently forgot the things he had read before. Sometimes, he would zone out and look like an immobile scarecrow.

Lorist opened the box and said happily, "Here, my dear, look at my collection."

Within the small box was a thick velvet cloth that covered many different academy badges.

"Look here, these are the academy badges I've collected during my time at Morante City. These two here are respectively the badge of the Dawn Academy and my dual Gold ranked instructor badge," Lorist said as he caressed his two most precious badges before caving in to the urge to put on the two badges on his clothes. He said excitedly, "Back then when I wore these badges and entered the academy, the students would all make way for me respectfully..."

Before he finished, a loud cry could be heard from afar. "Stand there, old man, agh!"

"There's an enemy attack! Ugh..."

Lorist turned back only to see a tall old man rushing out from the forests with a longsword in hand heading in his direction. Behind the man, three collapsed guards with blood gushing out of their throats could be seen.

"Norton Family leader, I will have your life!" roared the tall man as his body became one with the sword before he approached at a terrifying speed...

Chapter 203 Grueling Battle [Cliffhanger 2 of 5]

Back when the distance between Lorist and the old man was around 50 meters, the three guards that had stepped forward to intercept him, only to have their throats slashed open with only one stroke, allowing the old man to further close the distance to 30 meters. When the old man's body seemed to fuse with his sword, he closed the remaining distance in a flash with the after-images of his sword filling Lorist's line of vision.

Lorist expression changed immediately. At first, he wasn't too bothered by the appearance of that man. But the instant Lorist felt the pressure as heavy as a mountain emanate from that old man encompass him, Telesti and Reidy, Telesti fainted immediately with a pale look while Reidy fared slightly better and only spat out some blood and retreated three steps.

Lorist drew his sword and rushed forward after saying only, "Bring her away right now!"

Clang! The fearsome clash of the swords shook Lorist's eardrums as he was knocked roughly 10 meters away. He felt a sudden ominous feeling in his chest and staggered, almost falling directly to the ground.

Exhaling thoroughly, Lorist straightened his body and looked at the tall old man as he mused, "A Blademaster?"

That old man himself was stunned that Lorist was able to take one of his sure-kill blows, but that allowed Lorist some time to recover.

"A Blademaster, huh? Let me guess who you are..." Lorist said as he stared at the tall old man. "You can't be Duke Fisablen, a person of high status like him won't resort to underhanded measures like this to assassinate me, and neither does he have a need for that. If he wanted to crush me, he would simply lead his Frontier Legion here and settle it all on the battlefield. Blademaster Xanthi on the other hand is a woman and I've met her before. As for Viscount Kristoph who is a subordinate of Duke Fisablen, he shouldn't look as old as you do and he's also a knight who won't be willing to carry out a dirty assassination...

"Since there are only 5 Blademasters in the Iblia Kingdom, that leaves only the two serving the Second Prince. Since Louinse is already dead, you should be Blademaster Zarinan. Given the Second Prince's temperament, it's not surprising for him to send a Blademaster to dirty his hands with something like assassination. While the other kingdoms and duchies might have Blademasters as well, I doubt that they'd want to assassinate me given that I've no qualm with them. Am I right, Blademaster Zarinan?"

The guards not far away had already been alerted and Els was the first to rush over. But Lorist was worried as he knew that the guards that were at most at the Silver rank definitely wouldn't be a match for that old man. No matter how many guards showed up, they were only as threatening as a flock of chickens to the Blademaster who could kill them with a casual sweep.

Just as Els and a few other Silver ranked guards were about to rush towards the bold old man, Lorist barked his orders to stop them. "Get back! He's Blademaster Zarinan and you're not his match!"

While doing that, Lorist signaled for his subordinates to seek out Josk so that he could pressure the Blademaster with ranged attacks. Even though Josk was only at the Gold rank, his archery skills would still be able to pose a threat to the old man. Otherwise, Lorist's subordinates could also mobilize the carroballistas which even a Blademaster would find hard to fend off en masse.

The observant Els understood Lorist's intentions right away and shouted for his men to stop. As he retreated, he instructed his men to put Lorist's plan into action. Relieved, Lorist inspected his surroundings and saw that Howard had already led his sister Alisa and the other children away from the stream near the hill and was on the way to the Tortoise Hill army camp using a detour. Reidy on the other hand had two maidservants take care of Telesti and sent them away from the zone of conflict using a carriage.

"It is not my wish to cause unnecessary deaths. It was wise of you to stop your men from giving their lives needlessly. Your guess was right, I am Zarinan and I have come on my king's orders to claim your head for him," said the old man all of a sudden as he took big steps in Lorist's direction.

"Is that so? Then let's see if you are able to take my head with you," Lorist said with a cold smile. With both his hands gripping his sword, he had already made his preparations to engage.

"I really didn't expect that you were able to receive my sure-kill blow. It seems that your defeat of my king wasn't a fluke. However, it's a shame. If you won't serve my king, then you shall die!" Jerking his body forward, Zarinan held his sword high. Countless illusory lightning bolts seemed to materialize around his sword and enveloped Lorist from all directions.

While Lorist sounded relaxed before, he wore an incredibly solemn expression. WIth his two hands grasping his sword and ready to guard his body, he proceeded to flick, wipe, parry, block, slash, drag, stab, obstruct, withdraw, sweep, hack and pierce, using the simplest basic sword movements to defend against the torrent of rapid sword strikes of Blademaster Zarinan.

Clangclangclangclangclang... The swords clashed so often that it almost sounded like it was metal was raining heavily from the sky.

From Lorist's dynamic vision, the sword strikes seemed like countless bolts of lightning that increased in intensity with each following wave. At that moment, Lorist seemed to have turned into a reef amidst the roaring sea, almost being submerged completely by the incessant waves.

Compared to Blademaster Xanthi's light and agile attacks, Blademaster Zarinan's sword strikes were both vigorous and heavy despite being as fluid and quick as Blademaster Xanthi's rapid attacks. Lorist only had one word within his mind at that moment: despair. It was as if he was thrust into a world of unlimited blade storms that barraged him with one strike after another nonstop. During that long and grueling time, Lorist could only painstakingly defend.

"Break!" Lorist suddenly roared as he knocked himself and the Blademaster apart. After making some distance quickly, Lorist struggled to stand with a pale, white look on his face and some blood in his mouth. The silver wire mesh armor he wore had a long strike across it that revealed his bloodied black undershirt within.

It was then when Lorist recalled the words of the princess. She said that while Lorist did defeat Blademaster Xanthi, her teacher and godmother, he definitely wasn't a match for her grandfather and wouldn't be able to survive more than 100 strikes from him. Duke Fisablen was a rank 3 Blademaster while Xanthi was only a rank 2. As for Blademaster Zarinan, he was a rank 3 Blademaster just like the duke.

Gosh, the gap between rank 2 and rank 3 Blademasters is really too wide! Even though I was able to keep up with Blademaster Xanthi, I have almost no chance to retaliate against Blademaster Zarinan and was busy defending for my life! When Lorist thought that he had discovered a weakness in the old man's strikes, he decided to land one strike in himself to force the old man backwards, only to discover that the opening had vanished and that he had fell into that old man's trap. Had Lorist not reacted quickly enough to parry with his sword and retreat with all his might, his body might've already been cut in half.

Lorist smiled bitterly and thought, today will definitely be tough... I can only circle around that old man from a distance for now and hope that the carroballista brigade arrives quickly...

"Brilliant swordsmanship! Your moves are not bad and it is definitely hard to imagine that someone at your age is able to fight with such astounding skill. If my master was still alive, he definitely would've taken you as his disciple and spent all his effort cultivating your talent. Perhaps, you might even become a Sword Saint some tens of years later. But it's a shame that you've chosen to go against my king. You will definitely die today!" Zarinan exclaimed before he rushed forward with his sword again.

Lorist retreated one step after another and noticed that the stream was already behind him and there was no way to run. WIth a flash of inspiration, Lorist leaped into the stream directly.

When Zarinan reached the stream, he found that Lorist was already on the opposite bank on the other side of the stream five meters away.

"If you let me kill you obediently, I will make sure that you don't suffer any pain. There's no point in running away since I'll definitely get to you," said the old man as he shook his head, as if he thought that Lorist's final death struggle was irrational and unsightly.

"Oh, is that so, old man? Well why don't you come over here and try then? Even if I were to die, I will make sure to take a nice bite out of you. Don't forget that you couldn't do anything to me either just now, so it's still unclear who will win. Let's see who'll be the victor in the end," Lorist said as he gritted his teeth.

Blademaster Zarinan did not say anything and leaped before landing lightly on a rock that was 3 meters away from Lorist.

With a grunt, Lorist kicked his right leg out and sent some internal energy-infused stones and cobblestones on the bank propelling towards the Blademaster. Right after that, he jumped forward to take the offensive since he wasn't able to do much by defending. At worst, he would take the Blademaster down with him even if it cost him his life.

Zarinan didn't expect that Lorist had that move up his sleeves. While his face was covered by the dust and grime Lorist kicked off, he managed to block half of the stones that were infused with internal energy. But those that he didn't get to deflect hit his body and tore his clothes apart, causing him to feel immense pain. That was especially the case with the few cobblestones that brushed by the old man's face, causing two long, bloody scratches to form.

Without waiting for Zarinan to react, Lorist pounced forward like a tiger and attacked without bothering to defend. His sword strikes seemed to overturn the Milky Way itself as they shot forward unimpeded. It was a double-edged sword style that harmed both him and his opponent, causing the old man to struggle haggardly.

Clangclangclangclangclang... The swords collided with each other rapidly once again.

"Ugh..." It was already Lorist's third time being struck flying and this time, he didn't remain standing and instead crashed right onto the bank of the stream, dyeing the water of the stream red with his blood.

Zarinan on the other hand retreated a few steps back. He wasn't in the best condition as his left arm and right leg both bore wounds from which blood spurted out. But worst was his left cheek which was a complete, bloody mess. Even half his ear was shaved completely off.

After trying hard to stand back up straight, Zarinan felt up his injury on the left part of his face and said in a venomous tone, "Good, good... Nobody has managed to wound me in the past 20 years... I really didn't think that you would able to hurt me for real. Anything that can go wrong truly will go wrong... Kid, I bet you can't move now, right? When I get you, I will definitely make you regret that you were born. I will deal with you ever so slowly that you will cry for mercy to have your life ended in one swift blow..."

Lorist struggled on the ground for a few moments before finally getting up, half-kneeling. His body was covered completely in slash wounds, some of which revealed even the whites of his bones with the blood washed off by the stream water.

"Kill!" A Silver ranked guard with only the thought of saving his lord charged forward with a silver blade glow emanating from his sword. The old man lightly waved his sword and the head of the Silver ranked guard landed into the stream, further coloring the water red with blood.

However, ten other guards rushed forward after the first was killed. These guards had been making their way forward when Lorist was busy attacking Zarinan and they planned to overwhelm the Blademaster with numbers without regard for their own lives. Despite that, within a few moments, around 40 of the guards landed straight into the stream, turning the stream into a bloody river.

These self-sacrificing guards of the family only managed to buy another ten minutes, during which Lorist recovered some energy and managed to stand up. However, it pained Lorist to witness the deaths of those guards. Silver and Iron ranked alike, they all rushed towards Blademaster Zarinan. That was not bravery. It was suicide. Of the company of 100 guards Lorist brought along with him, half of them had already died from Zarinan's blade.

Further off in the distance, an alert horn signal could be heard blowing at the army camp near Tortoise Hill and the regiment of soldiers would be able to arrive within another 30 minutes. But that was time Lorist didn't have.

"Release!" Els commanded loudly. Tens of arrows and crossbow bolts headed in Zarinan's direction as well as a few other thrown axes and javelins.

Unfortunately, Lorist's guard unit wasn't the longbowman unit and they only brought with them a few hunting bows and crossbows that didn't shoot far, failing to effectively suppress Zarinan completely.

Standing on top of a corpse of one of the guards that attacked him at the stream, he deflected the various projectiles headed his way easily with a few waves of his sword as he laughed eerily and said, "Hehe, your family soldiers are rather loyal. Since that's the case, I'll kill them off first before I deal with you..."

Els and the rest were only around 50 meters away from Zarinan and that old man would only take ten minutes to kill off the whole group. By the time the reinforcements coming from afar arrive, Zarinan would've long captured Lorist and fled.

Lorist stood up straight with all his ability and thought, no... I can't let that old man kill Els and the others. I'm already heavily injured and I doubt that I can deal with that crazy old man... Better think of another way, quick.

Looking back at the forest behind him, Lorist feigned laughter and said, "Kill them nice and slow, okay? I'll take my leave first."

Using all the energy he could muster, Lorist rushed straight into the ancient forest behind him.

Zarinan turned back and cursed. Killing those guards was only a small matter to him, but if he were to let Lorist escape, that would pose to be a large problem. If word got out that a rank 3 Blademaster let an Iron ranked dominion lord escape, then what pride or face would he have left? Additionally, this was his first assassination attempt and if Lorist really did manage to get away, Zarinan definitely wouldn't get a second chance at killing him. It was obvious that Lorist would increase his defenses so that the old man would never be able to get near him again. If Lorist chose to mobilize 3000 fully-equipped veteran soldiers to get back at Zarinan, he would have to run and hide for his life even if he was a Blademaster.

Zarinan hurriedly changed his direction and charged like a ghost within a blink of an eye into the forest Lorist had escaped into.

Seeing the old man enter the forest, Els and the other guards slumped to the ground. Despite facing a Blademaster, one that had massacred half their unit at that, the fact that they were able to continue to launch ranged attacks was already an amazing feat. Half of their bravery had come from their long and arduous training to instinctively follow orders while the other half stemmed from the depths of their beliefs that they had to save Lorist no matter what even at the cost of their lives.

After tens of minutes, the carroballista brigade arrived rather late along with Josk, Potterfang and more soldiers.

Reidy hurriedly jumped onto one of the carroballistas and cut off the support of the steel ballista, before planting his sword on the chariot's floor and taking three ballista bolts with him before he rushed straight into the forest.

With a flash in his eyes, Els said, "That's right. Take the steel ballistas off and form small teams of 3 ballistas each before following them into the forest..."

Josk dismounted and tugged on Els harshly before asking, "Where's milord?!"

Els pointed at the forests and said, "Milord has lured that old assassin there. That old man Zarinan is actually a Blademaster and I think he was sent here by the Second Prince. Quick, go look for milord! He seems to be badly injured..."

Josk mounted swiftly and spurred his horse forward as he said, "Depart!", before charging into the forest with his mounted archer brigade without the slightest hesitation...

Chapter 204 Bloody Battle [Cliffhanger 3 of 5]

After Blademaster Zarinan zoomed into the forest, he quickly discovered the footprints and blood tracks left by Lorist. With those as his lead, he believed that his prey wouldn't be able to escape him. Even though he was indeed surprised by the skill in the sword showed by that kid from the Norton Family as well as the weird energy that he used that caused him to gain three extra wounds, Zarinan was sure that his counterattack caused quite a bit of damage to Lorist. Even if those tens of strikes weren't critical, they should be enough to ensure that Lorist no longer has any ability to resist.

All of a sudden, his left cheek pulsed in pain while his left arm and right leg felt a burning sensation near the wounds. Blademaster Zarinan knew that blood had stopped flowing from the wounds only because he used Battle Force to temporarily seal them. But right now, his three wounds started bleeding again.

After cursing venomously, the Blademaster brought out a small, circular, silver box and felt relieved that he had some medicine left. Back then when he departed for the Northlands, even though he didn't think that he'd get injured, he brought along some healing supplies just in case, much to his relief.

Taking off the circular cover, some semi-translucent, green-colored gel could be seen within. Blademaster Zarinan applied some of the gel on his wounds before tearing his undershirt into a few smaller cloth pieces to bandage himself up. He only relaxed after he felt the cooling relief of the gel on his wounds. Very well, Norton kid... When I catch you, I will make you beg for death...

After following the footsteps for another hundred meters, he heard a stream flow not far away and suddenly felt that something was off. Quickly stepping forward past the shrubs to check, he noticed that the trail ended at the edge of the bank of the stream.

This forest was actually near the Azure River, which led straight to the ocean and was located near some hills. So, it wasn't weird for there to be a long stretch of the bank there, where footsteps were harder to spot amidst the scattered stones. That caused Blademaster Zarinan much frustration as he didn't know whether Lorist walked upstream or downstream. But he was certain that Lorist was still nearby and could possibly even be behind the boulder near him.

"Don't let me catch you... Or I'll definitely skin you alive!" roared Blademaster Zarinan angrily. After cursing, he listened intently and hoped that Lorist would be unnerved by his scream and run further away instead of staying put.

But unfortunately for the Blademaster, apart from startling some birds within the forest, his screams did not have any other effect.

"I don't believe that he can get that far away from me just because he entered the forest only a few minutes earlier," Blademaster Zarinan mused. Right now, he could only use his Blademaster senses to search his side of the bank to look for Lorist whom he presumed was hiding nearby.

Blademaster Zarinan had heard about many assassinations back during the time of internal strife within the empire. Most of them happened between the First and Second Princes. It wasn't known which one of them began using such measures first, as both of them did things openly with a chivalrous style and it was weird for them to utilize underhanded assassination methods. But after one incident or another, both of them went all out. Since the First Prince was cruel and insidious with the Second Prince being venomous and cunning, the two of them considered each other to be their biggest rival and were willing to do anything at all for even the smallest advantage and frequently hired lowly mercenaries to carry out their dirty assassinations in hopes that they would be able to wipe their rival out without a huge conflict.

Those years were rather rowdy and most people have lost count how many times the First and Second Princes were involved in assassination attempts. The only thing Blademaster Zarinan knew for sure was that the Second Prince used to send mercenaries on assassination missions with the promise that if they succeeded, they would be able to become true landed nobles and leave their lowly status as mercenaries. However, not a single one of those mercenaries returned alive. Given that the Second Prince had two Blademasters protecting him, the First Prince was also quite cautious for his own well-being.

Bribing the servants and attendants to apply poison for assassinations is one of the most commonly used methods. Blademaster Zarinan remembered very clearly that time when the First Prince got hold of the most beautiful female dancer and sent her to the Second Prince through another noble who attended the Second Prince's banquet. The dancer's soft and gentle movements along with her slender figure caused the Second Prince to be rather excited to the point that he brought her to his chambers before that banquet even ended.

But what the dancer didn't expect was that Blademaster Zarinan was hiding within the Second Prince's chambers even when the two of them were having intercourse. When the Second Prince finally released his pent up desires on the body of the dancer, she believed that the time was right and removed a beast tooth hairclip from her hair. What was worth noting was that the hairclip's blue-colored needle was coated with deadly poison.

Just before the needle pierced the Second Prince's neck, Blademaster Zarinan stepped in and stopped the dancer.

The Second Prince who got out of his bed no longer had his previous gentle expression. The dancer then suffered a horrible fate which included being ravaged by hundreds of ravenous guards for three days and nights. Despite receiving medical care every time she was abused, she still died eventually. The moment news of her death reached the Second Prince, he had the dancer minced into little pieces to be fed to wild dogs.

That was the only assassination attempt that got so close to taking the Second Prince's life. Angered, he began his revenge against the First Prince and the two of them continued to plan one assassination after another, with neither having any success. Later, the mercenaries who were recruited for these missions knew that the chance of success was so low that they didn't bother to participate for the sake of their own lives. Eventually, the two princes had to stop because there wasn't anyone who bothered to carry out the assassinations for them.

But the one who suffered most during the assassination spree of the First and Second Princes was the Third Prince because while the First and Second Princes only had to deal with each other's assassins, the Third Prince was assaulted by killers from both sides because they didn't want the Third Prince to profit from their mutual destruction. And so, the poor Third Prince suffered a spear stab when he was asleep once and even got hit with a poison arrow in the following attempts. Even though he was rescued and attended to in time, he was reduced to only being able to lay resting in his bed weakly.

This time around, it was like the Second Prince returned to those days by sending his only remaining Blademaster to assassinate Lorist. It was apparent that his hate for Lorist was bone-deep. Given his temperament, the Second Prince thought that the sole reason he lost his whole army was due to Lorist. Having been chased out of the Northlands and humiliated so deeply, there was no way he would be able to rest well until Lorist was killed.

The Second Prince believed that as long as Blademaster Zarinan was sent, there was no chance of failure. The Sword Saint of the former Krissen Empire had already fallen 30 or so years ago in the last battle between the empire and the Forde Trade Union. Right now, among the many Blademasters of the kingdoms and duchies, Blademaster Zarinan was the only one who was closest to the level of a Sword Saint and his ability could be described as being on the borderline of the Sword Saint level, with him requiring only a final piece of insight to break through the bottleneck. It was within the realm of possibility for him to ascend to the level of a Sword Saint within as soon as the next ten years.

Apart from a few Gold ranked knights, the Norton Family didn't have any other Blademasters. That's why there was a 90 percent chance for Blademaster Zarinan to succeed retrieving Lorist's head. While the Second Prince was practically insane, he had his own reasons for doing so. First, taking Lorist's head was a form of release for him.

Second, it would be a good show of force for the other dominion lords. Even though he no longer had an army, he still had a Blademaster by his side, so that would cause the other nobles to think twice before they decide to not follow the Second Prince's orders, lest they lose their heads as a result.

As for the vengeance of the Norton Family that would come after the assassination, the Second Prince treated it as nothing more than a joke. He believed that as long as he could maintain his hold on Windbury City, he could simply wait for his father-in-law's reinforcements to defend him from the forces of the Norton Family. If they were to resort to assassination, that would basically amount to suicide as the Second Prince had Blademaster Zarinan by his side, keeping anybody with ill intentions far away from him.

Even if the Norton Family's forces were so strong that they would cause the Second Prince to lose hold of Windbury City, he could still escape to Duke Fisablen's dominion under the protection of Blademaster Zarinan. And if the Norton Family forces give chase, it would be even better because the Second Prince would be able to sit back and watch the forces of the Nortons clash against his father-in-law's. To the Second Prince, it would be ideal if both of them depleted each other's forces so that he would have an opportunity to make a sweeping comeback at their expense.

Blademaster Zarinan also held the same thoughts as the Second Prince and believed that he was only making a simple trip to the Northlands and that taking the head of the Norton Family leader was merely a small feat. He thought that his trip would only take him one short month and treated it like he would a relaxing walk in the park.

Even though the Second Prince was merely his swordsmanship disciple, Blademaster Zarinan had long considered him to be his own son. As the Blademaster was obsessed with researching the way of the sword, he didn't settle down to form a family. Apart from his junior apprentice brother Louinse, the Second Prince who had begun learning swordsmanship from him since the age of eight was one of the few people who were closest to him. Even though the Second Prince developed various ill habits and attitude problems, he still maintained a good degree of respect to Blademaster Zarinan and after spending time with each other over the course of 40 years, the two had already developed a pseudo-parent-child relationship.

But Blademaster Zarinan never would've imagined that the Norton Family leader would be so hard to deal with. Not only has he not succeeded yet, he even suffered three injuries from that kid's strikes that were infused with a weird force. While Lorist himself wasn't faring that well either and even escaped into the forests with a body full of wounds, if Blademaster Zarinan failed to claim his head, then this matter would become a mark of humiliation that would earn him to scorn and ridicule of the others for the rest of his life.

Not far away in the distance, sounds of people shouting and horses neighing could be heard. They were the reinforcements of the Norton Family forces who had begun their search within the forest. Blademaster Zarinan himself did not really mind them. If he were on a flat plain, he might've needed to retreat when faced with thousands of men and horses. But in the dense forest like this, the Norton Family soldiers did not really pose a real threat to him and he could just kill as many that dared to come at him as he can.

However, he still had no idea where Lorist was hiding and wondered if he chose the wrong direction and deliberated whether he should go the other way upstream.

In actuality, the displacement from Lorist to Blademaster Zarinan was only around 30 meters. He wasn't hiding behind the boulders around the bank or the forests. When he arrived at the bank, he saw a hanging vine and quickly climbed down it. After that, he swung himself on top of a branch nearby to make his way as far from the bank as possible. When he felt tired, he sat on the tree branch and rested after he felt that he was safe enough.

As expected, Blademaster Zarinan began searching around the boulders near the forests and bank and focused all his attention on the ground in hopes that he would be able to locate some tracks without bothering to raise his head to check above.

Breathing a relieved breath, Lorist tended to his injuries after he recovered some more energy. When he was escaping, he had temporarily tapped his pressure points to stop the bleeding, but when he climbed up that tree, his wounds started bleeding again. It was a terrible thing to be bleeding within the forest as some magical beasts that have great sense of smell would quickly be able to locate oneself based on the smell of blood. It was even harder to hide from the magical beasts than from the eyes of Blademaster Zarinan.

Lorist on the other hand carried far more healing supplies than the Blademaster did. There was a hidden pouch on his outer robe in which three or four different types of medicinal ointments were kept. The only troublesome thing was that he had to remove his wire mesh armor to access them. In his last clash with the Blademaster, he had received more than ten sword strikes and his wire mesh armor had been torn to shreds with some of the wire even piercing into his flesh.

Lorist gritted his teeth and managed to remove his wire mesh armor with much difficulty, causing his shirt to be stained red by his blood once again. Since his clothes were also wet, Lorist removed them altogether. After that, he tapped a few more of his pressure points again to stop the bleeding and began to apply some medicine before taking out a curved needle and some goat intestine thread from a small silver box. Following that, he broke off a piece of tree branch and bit on it with his teeth and shivered as the searing pain from sewing his injuries shut assailed his mind.

After cleaning his wounds, he wrapped up his injuries and began to sweat profusely. Lorist was also feeling rather light-headed when he retrieved a small silver flask from the pouch of his outer robe which contained some rank 2 recovery medicine and poured two drops of it into his mouth. Following that, he shut his eyes and rested for a bit before feeling refreshed when his body began to regain some energy.

Lorist then put his outer robe back on before wrapping another piece of cloth torn from his under garment on his body. It was then when he heard the sounds of conflict and death coming from the bank of the stream. When Lorist stood up on the branch and looked, he was shocked to see that it had already turned into a bloody battlefield with hundreds of family soldiers and war horses lying dead all over the bank who were defeated by only one enemy, that ghostly Blademaster which seemed to appear out of nowhere before disappearing altogether.

However, Blademaster Zarinan at that moment looked exceedingly haggard with his hair being all messed up and a few more additional wounds that were previously not visible on his body. There was even one arrow stuck onto his back. No matter how many he killed, when faced with waves of Norton Family soldiers who did not fear death, Zarinan himself couldn't afford to let his guard down and had to give it his all to deal with them.

Just now, the soldiers Blademaster Zarinan were fighting were a bunch of mounted longbowmen. The hundred or so arrows that flew his way weren't much of a threat as he even began to slaughter away at the bowmen. But before he managed to kill the bulk of them, a green arrow caused him quite a lot of harm. He initially thought that the green arrow was similar to the others and he used his sword to lightly block it, only to feel the Battle Force infused within the arrow explode all of a sudden, causing his longsword to be knocked away. With tens of arrows still heading his way, he had no choice to dodge, but he was still struck by one arrow on his back nevertheless.

Having fallen into that trap, Blademaster Zarinan's rage rose sky high and he proceeded to seek out the person who had gotten the better of him. It was then when he noticed that the one who fired that green arrow was a Gold ranked marksman and every time he drew his bow, it made the Blademaster feel that a formidable enemy was coming. With much difficulty, Zarinan managed to wound the Gold ranked marksman, but just as he was about to deliver the finishing blow, another Gold ranked knight parried it away and had his subordinates rescue the marksman.

It was only then when Blademaster Zarinan truly understood why the Second Prince's army of 100000 had been crushed utterly by the forces of the Norton Family. The soldiers he faced were so well-trained that he had never seen any like them and they rushed at him courageously without the slightest hesitation. The Gold ranked knight who had received his finishing blow to save the marksman also had pretty solid swordsmanship that allowed him to defend against close to a hundred strikes from Blademaster Zarinan with much difficulty before he was finally struck once.

Despite the two Gold ranked knights' injures, the Norton Family soldiers weren't the slightest intimidated and continued to rush frantically at Blademaster Zarinan. They were even willing to trade their lives for the chance to land the shallowest injury on the Blademaster. A few of the soldiers even gave their lives just to hold the Blademaster in place after abandoning their weapons and hoped that their comrades would avenge their deaths.

After killing more than 300 men, Blademaster Zarinan already lost count. His Battle Force was also slowly running out. Even if he was a rank 3 Blademaster, his Battle Force was still limited in amount and could not be used indefinitely; he could only last longer than the average Gold ranked knight. When faced with the Norton Family soldiers' frantic assault, his Battle Force was drained even more quickly as the armor the soldiers wore required more Battle Force than usual to cut through.

After that, the tens of ballistas that joined the fray caused Blademaster Zarinan even more grief. He never would've expected that the bolts fired by the ballistas would have even more force than the arrow fired by the Gold ranked knight, causing him to suffer two more injuries as a result with one of the bolts brushing against his left arm and the other boring its way through his right calf, leaving a gaping, bleeding hole behind.

The heavily battered Blademaster understood that if he did not make his escape, he would be overwhelmed by the Norton Family soldiers. So, while he still had some Battle Force remaining, he rushed deeper into the forest and headed towards the location where Lorist hid unknowingly.

Blademaster Zarinan resolved himself to give the Norton Family soldiers a good lesson when he recovered some more Battle Force and cursed internally throughout his escape. He then leaped over the shrub that was blocking his way and made his way up one large tree with the last remnants of his Battle Force before sitting limply on the tree branch.

Blademaster Zarinan was rather satisfied with the large tree as it had thick branches and dense foliage. There was no way anyone would be able to locate him from beneath the tree. After that, he looked around to inspect his surroundings, only to see a pair of eyes burning with anger and a sword gleaming with cold light heading his way, accompanied by a vicious scream. "Bastard! Give me your life!"

Chapter 205 Executed [Cliffhanger 4 of 5]

Clang, clang, clang!

"Ugh!" cried the Blademaster as he fell from the tree.

That old guy didn't think that he would actually make his way to where Lorist was hiding. If he still had enough Battle Force, he would've been elated, but right now he deeply regretted his actions instead and felt that he shouldn't have wasted so much time and energy on the Norton Family soldiers, causing him to fall prey to this sudden surprise attack when he was at his most vulnerable.

Despite that, Blademaster Zarinan still managed to react at inhumanly quick reflexes. However, as he had used up his Battle Force, he only managed to deflect three of Lorist's sword strikes before he revealed an opening for the fourth which left a wound on his left chest. The old Blademaster's rich battle experience dictated him to fall off the tree without resisting to avoid having his chest pierced through completely. Otherwise, he would've been nailed to the tree by Lorist's sword.

Thud! Blademaster Zarinan smashed flat onto the ground by the tree.

"Ack!" The old Blademaster coughed out a mouthful of blood and he looked incredibly bloody, especially since his left chest had been pierced quite deeply. Even though he had removed the shaft of the arrow that had planted itself on his back, the arrowhead was still within his body and the fall just now caused the arrowhead to burrow itself even deeper, sending waves of pain that caused the Blademaster to grit his teeth hard.

Raising his head, Blademaster Zarinan stared at Lorist who was still on top of the tree with a sharp gaze and said, "Kid, so you were hiding here and even know an ambushing trick or two... But as long as I don't die, I will definitely get my payback from you..."

Lorist was also breathing raggedly while he clutched the tree trunk and leaned his body on it. The attacks he launched just now had tugged onto his wounds and caused him to sweat profusely from the pain. Seeing Blademaster Zarinan below the tree, Lorist's mind filled with rage as he said the following with a cold, icy tone filled with killing intent, "You think you'll get away alive? Dream on! You will die today no matter what. Come haunt me as a ghost if you want your payback so much..."

Darn it all. All the way from Morante City to the Northlands, I've never suffered anything as bad as this! My injuries aside, the family forces also got so many casualties, Lorist thought as he recalled the corpses of the hundreds of soldiers who sacrificed themselves littered all over the stream, causing anger to flare in his mind once again. Given that the Blademaster was at the brink of death, Lorist felt that it was time for him to end it right that instant.

Just as he was about to leap downwards from the tree, the sounds of Norton soldiers searching the forest could be heard in the distance, causing Blademaster Zarinan who was on the ground to quickly roll and crawl away from Lorist's leaping range. After standing back up, he said coldly, "I'll spare you for now, kid... Catch you later..."

After saying that, he stumbled his way deeper into the forest and tried desperately to make his way out regardless of the thorny shrubs that nicked away at his skin.

"Good Sol! Aren't you a fucking Blademaster?! You're even willing to ditch your pride to escape?!" shouted Lorist from the top of the tree.

But Blademaster Zarinan didn't pay him any regard and continued to make his way forward while shielding his head.

Having no other choice, Lorist jumped down from the tree and rushed towards the Blademaster, ignoring his injuries. If he had waited for his soldiers to come first, it might allow the Blademaster to escape. He figured that it was best if he ended the Blademaster while he could lest his family suffers even more harm later on. The old Blademaster had to die!

After tens of minutes, Reidy came over with tens of other guards who brought along with them four steel ballistas. Apart from Reidy, who was blessed with extraordinary strength that allowed him to carry one ballista by himself, the rest of the guards had to carry each ballista with one person holding the front and another at the back, with the third ready to load and fire at a moment's notice.

It didn't take long for the guards to identify the footprints and blood trail left on the ground and a few of them climbed up the tree to find the wire mesh armor Lorist discarded, a few scraps of cloth and a silver medicine box that was completely empty.

"Milord is still fine," Reidy said, glad and reassured. "This silver box is the one our lord carries around in his hidden pouch for use in emergencies. It seems that he has managed to treat some of his wounds. Let's continue our search and see if we can find any more clues."

"Over here. There are tracks here left by two people who passed through not long ago." Without delay, one of the guards who used to be a hunter found the trail left behind by the two. "Look, cloth scraps of different types can be found on the twigs. It seems that they've passed through the shrubs and are headed in the direction of the wildlands..."

"One of you shall inform Sir Els about this. The rest shall go along with me to follow the trail," Reidy decided.

The sky was darkening gradually and Lorist didn't know how long he had been chasing behind the Blademaster's nor how many mounds or streams they passed through. His chest felt as if it was on fire as he struggled to take in one breath after another. The Blademaster in front of him also began to slow down and was only barely stumbling forward.

"Old... Old man... Did you freaking... Dope yourself with some kind of drug? You're... you're still able to run so far..." Lorist muttered as he struggled to keep up.

Not far away from him, a stream could be seen. Blademaster Zarinan rushed towards it immediately and dipped his head right inside, anxiously taking in one mouthful of fresh water after another.

Lorist also followed suit and stopped at the bank around 10 meters away from the Blademaster and began drinking away. The cool and refreshing water seemed to put out the burning feeling within his chest. After filling himself up with all the water he needed, Lorist looked at the Blademaster and cackled as he said, "Run, old guy... Continue running. Aren't you supposed to be good at that?"

Even though Zarinan wanted to get up, he found that he had not a single shred of energy left. After trying for a few times, he realized that he wasn't able to move and said, "Ki-kid... Don't be so full of yourself... I... I bet you can't move anymore either... J-just wait until I recover some Battle Force... I'll sh-show you..."

Lorist tried hard to sit straight and thrust his sword into the ground to stabilize himself before saying, "Alright. then let's see wh-who's able to recover faster... and who will be the fi-first to die..."

Blademaster Zarinan stopped talking altogether as if he wanted to save the slightest bit of energy that the act would cost him. And so, the area around the stream returned to its former tranquility.

Lorist also stopped talking as he had already begun to calm his breathing so that he may recover his energy sooner.

Time ticked by slowly and after a few moments, Lorist stood up and retrieved the sword he thrust into the ground before heading towards the Blademaster who laid sprawling by the bank of the stream.

When he was around 6 meters away from his nemesis, just as he was about to rush in, Lorist's expression changed suddenly and he began to retreat cautiously.

A gigantic, beige-colored python could be seen within the stream, slowly swimming towards Blademaster Zarinan.

Seeing Zarinan in front of it, the python prepared itself to land a savage bite. Perhaps, it considered Zarinan as a free meal that the heavens had gifted it with; an unmoving prey, just like a sheep with its legs broken so that couldn't escape and could only be swallowed whole while still conscious...

A gold flash of blade glow flared, after which the python's head got split into countless pieces. Blademaster Zarinan had already stood up. As his glowing sword cut the gigantic python into shreds, the blood spurting from its body colored the whole Blademaster blood-red.

At that moment, Blademaster Zarinan was incredibly frantic as the Battle Force he had spent so long to save up had been wasted on the gigantic python. He had originally intended to give Lorist a surprise attack the moment they were close enough.

But Lorist had already leaped forward. After seeing the old man having enough energy to cut the gigantic python apart, he understood that his energy recovered at a rate slower than that of the old Blademaster's. Had it not been for the 'brave' python that sacrificed itself, Lorist might really have fallen into the Blademaster's trap. But since the latter's Battle Force had obviously been used up on the python, Lorist hesitated no more.

Clangclangclangclangclang...

The crescendo of clashing swords built up slowly once again. But this time around. the one who was knocked flying was Blademaster Zarinan. While the two extra shallow cuts he got wasn't of much consequence, he was sent flying by Lorist's vicious kick and landed on the ground before curling up like a cooked, red lobster while coughing out blood nonstop.

Lorist held his sword with both hands and propped himself up with it as to not fall down. The previous flurry of attacks had completely burned him out and it was already fortunate that he didn't collapse right away. With sweat flowing all over his body carrying traces of blood and a few reopened wounds, searing pain began to assail Lorist's senses.

Blademaster Zarinan struggled to get up before making his way towards the forest in the distance at a staggeringly slow pace while coughing out blood. Lorist was already using the last remnants of his energy to control his breathing; he couldn't even move a single finger and could only look at the figure of the old man fade into the forest.

By the time Lorist recovered enough to move, he followed the blood trail into the forest. The sky had completely darkened by then and the growls of beasts could be heard not far away. What Lorist had to do now was not to find the Blademaster, but rather to find a spot for himself to spend the night safely.

He eventually encountered a large tree and climbed up on it. The tree trunk was so thick that would require more than 10 people linking hands to be able to circle it completely, and that was just what Lorist needed. Knocking onto the surface of the trunk with the hilt of his sword, he heard an echo which indicated that the insides of the trunk was almost hollow. Infusing some internal energy into his sword, Lorist pierced it into the tree and cut out an oval shape with his other hand clutching the bark before pulling it apart, revealing an empty hole within.

This was one of the survival skills Lorist learned back in the days he worked as a mercenary in Morante City. Usually, trees of that size would have holes of differing sizes within which could be used as a temporary shelter. The hole within that tree wasn't too big, but it was just enough to fit Lorist within. After climbing inside, he made two breathing holes on the bark piece he was holding before carefully closing it back and blocking the makeshift door with his sword. That way, the bark door wouldn't fall outside the tree to the ground.

Within the darkness, Lorist felt deathly tired. But he understood that there was no way that Blademaster Zarinan would lose his life in the forest that easily. He knew that he had to end the old man's life once and for all when he was at his weakest. After I take care of the Blademaster, I will definitely go to the Second Prince and to him my 'thanks'...

Lorist then sat down cross-legged to begin activating the Aquametal Technique by circulating his internal energy despite the pain it caused him. Only by doing that could he recover enough strength and internal energy by dawn to seek out the Blademaster.

The forest at night was a rather noisy place with roars and growls of beasts all over. Sounds of knocking and scratching could frequently be heard from beyond the tree bark door. However, the spot Lorist found was rather special as it was above the 1.5-meter mark of the tree trunk. While that was not an obstacle at all to humans, it was definitely inaccessible to four-legged magical beasts.

When Lorist saw the sunlight seeping through the seams at the entrance of the hole, he knew that dawn had come. After a night of circulating his energy, the internal energy in his dantian had recovered up to a third of its full capacity. Feeling assured that he felt no presences outside, Lorist pushed away the bark door and made his way out of the hole.

I definitely have to find that old Blademaster and kill him today, Lorist pledged to himself.

The beasts that crossed the forest during the night had long messed up the tracks the Blademaster left behind. Lorist could only use his senses and intuition to continue his search.

Meanwhile, Reidy looked at 4 dead guards while shaking his head in futility. During the night, they set up camp on top of a mound and were attacked by many magical beasts that came without pause. Even though they managed to fend them off in the end, they still suffered heavy casualties as a result.

Looking at the four remaining unharmed guards, Reidy said, "You guys, bring the injured and the dead back first. I will go look for milord myself. Don't worry, I grew up in the wilds and it's easier for me to travel alone. I will leave some tracks for you to follow when you're done."

......

Currently, Lorist had just found Blademaster Zarinan, who didn't make it far during the night. The old Blademaster had also hid atop a tree throughout the night, but he didn't crawl into a hollow one like Lorist did and instead climbed all the way to the top and cut off the tallest branch and carved a spot for himself to lay within.

The difference between his experience the night before and Lorist's was that he was continuously harassed by magical beasts. From time to time, magical pythons and different kinds of magical panthers would launch attacks on him, with many other carnivorous magical beasts waiting beneath the tree as they chewed away at the beast flesh chunks cut off by the Blademaster. That was why Lorist was so easily able to spot Blademaster Zarinan who was perched at the very top of the tree from rather far away.

As if he had a premonition, Blademaster Zarinan turned to look at Lorist from the distance. Even though he had been bothered by magical beasts throughout the night, given his abilities as a Blademaster, he had still managed to recover up to half of his Battle Force. Seeing Lorist appear before him even though he didn't explicitly conduct a search the Blademaster roared before he jumped from the tree he was on to the next tree in Lorist's direction.

Lorist quickly drew his sword and awaited the clash. Both of them understood that if they wanted to take each other's life, it had to be done on this very day. If they let each other go, there might be little to no chance for them to have another encounter in the future. Blademaster Zarinan only cared single-mindedly about bringing Lorist's head back with him because he wanted to release his frustration and humiliation from being injured by Lorist so badly and to fulfill the mission given to him by the Second Prince. Lorist on the other hand only wanted to kill the Blademaster for a simple reason: he had to avenge the hundreds of heroic soldiers who had sacrificed themselves, and what better time to do it than right now, when the Blademaster was gravely injured?

Clangclangclangclangclang...

During this clash, the one who was forced to retreat backwards was Lorist. It was a shock to him that the Blademaster managed to regain so much vigor within only one night, as if the wound to his left chest and left arm, the hole in his right calf and the arrow wound on his back didn't affect him at all after he bandaged them up for a bit, forcing Lorist to struggle bitterly to defend.

"Good Sol, even though you're already almost 80, you cursed old man, how are you able to recover faster than me?" Lorist barked, not understanding what was happening.

"Hehe, kid, did you think that people call me a quasi-Sword Saint for nothing? I only need to take one more step to actually become a Sword Saint. To think that you would be so dumb to seek me out only to have your life ended here..." Zarinan said gleefully while he took one step forward after another.

"Graawr!" Behind Lorist, a Savage Magical Bear around 4 meters tall appeared and waved both its paws in a slashing motion towards Lorist.

Still able to retain his calm, Lorist quickly fell flat on the ground before kicking his legs and pushing himself backwards through the two hind legs of the upright-standing bear.

"Ugh, it stinks..." Having whoosh through the bottom of the magical bear, Lorist almost felt like vomiting from the stench. But right now, he couldn't be bothered to care about such things and pushed himself up from the ground with both his hands and sending his legs kicking against the bear's back, sending it stumbling forward towards Blademaster Zarinan.

The old man who was elated just before after seeing that Lorist was about to be crushed by the bear's paws was shocked to see the it coming in his direction. But as he was not as agile as Lorist, he was forced to deal with the bear first.

After expending lots of effort, the Blademaster cut the bear into pieces. But before he managed to catch his breath, he saw Lorist stare at him with a sly smile. Without saying anything else, Blademaster Zarinan turned to run immediately.

"Good Sol, is that what a quasi-Sword Saint should be doing?" Lorist complained as he began to give chase.

Now that he had a chance, Lorist immediately grasped it. As the old man's right leg was injured, it was hard for him to dodge and evade the bear, so he could only waste his Battle Force to take it down. Lorist believed that he only had to strike the old man from a distance before retreating repeatedly to take the old man down.

Even though the Blademaster only had one leg to give him the push, he was still able to move relatively fast and Lorist still wasn't able to catch up to him despite that. Thus they ran all the way to a cliff below which a jade-green river could be seen.

"Well, keep running! Oh, wait, you've made your way into a dead end, didn't you?!" Lorist said as he gasped for air after the tiring chase.

The old man was also breathing raggedly, but he revealed a ghastly smile and said, "Hehe, did you... really think I was trying to run?! This... this spot is a good one... Over here, you won't be able to circle me around... and strike me before shrinking back repeatedly... I finally found the ideal place after so much effort! Kid, this is where your life ends!"

Even before he finished, the old man sent himself flying towards Lorist.

Clangclangclangclangclang...

This time around, their positions were reversed and Blademaster Zarinan was gradually forcing Lorist towards the edge of the cliff. In a few more steps, Lorist would fall all the way down to the river below.

"Hehe, kid, there's no doubt that this will be your end... I..." All of a sudden, the old Blademaster froze as his sword fell from his hand towards the ground. An iron ballista bolt had pierced through his stomach at that moment, leaving behind a large, gaping hole.

"Milord, milord..." Reidy cried as he hurriedly rushed forward to support Lorist who was about to collapse at any moment.

Letting out a breath of relief, Lorist slumped into Reidy's arms. Just as he was about to say something, his expression changed all of a sudden as Blademaster Zarinan whom he thought was dead jumped towards the both of them while crying out, "Let's all die together!"

Both the palms of the Blademaster struck Reidy's back, sending him flying towards the edge of the cliff with Lorist in his arms. In a desperate move, Lorist hurriedly raised his sword and pierced it through the old man's heart, but it was already too late as he was dragged down the cliff in Reidy's embrace...

Chapter 206 Enslaved [Cliffhanger 5 of 5]

One guard rushed into the tent hurriedly with a grim look on his face. "Sir, we followed the trail Sir Reidy left us and arrived at the edge of a cliff where we found the steel ballista he left behind, the Blademaster's corpse and Milord Lorist's sword. But milord and Sir Reidy were nowhere to be found! The marks left on the edge of the cliff seem to indicate that they've both fallen into the river below..."

The four Gold ranked knights within the tent, Fiercetiger Loze, Malek, Belnick and Freiyar, all stood up and said in unison, "Bring us there!"

The nearby area around the cliff had long been searched thoroughly by the guards and when the four Gold ranked knights arrived, they were greeted by the sight of Els, Yuriy, Jim and a few other Silver ranked knights looking at the flowing river beyond the cliff.

"So this is that Blademaster? Milord said he was called Zarinan... Was he sent here by the Second Prince?" Loze said as he inspected the corpse on the ground.

"That's right, Knight Josk and Knight Potterfang had both been injured quite severely by him. The family forces also lost more than 400 good men because of him, among which 11 were family knights," Els said as he approached with a grim expression.

"Did you not locate any trace of our lord?" Malek asked.

"No... He must've fallen straight into the river. This river flows inland towards the wildlands and connects to the Azure River over there. I've already sent someone over to search." Els said.

"We must definitely find our lord. Have the other search parties come here and make sure to search both sides of the banks of this river carefully. I shall take the lead, so you guys can send this corpse back first and look after it. We'll deal with it after milord returns," Belnick decided grudgingly.

......

Lorist was currently experiencing a fever and he only managed to regain consciousness for a bit only to barely hear some people say, "Woke up...... This guy...... incredibly lucky...... Fell straight into the...... Tell the young mountain chief......"

Feeling someone place a cool water sack at his mouth, he took in large gulps of the liquid within before losing consciousness.

The next time he regained consciousness, he realized that he was within a large cloth sack which was being shaken around really hard. Lorist realized that his whole body hurt so much that he almost felt numb from the pain. The insides of the sack was filled with the stench of blood and sweat that caused Lorist to feel like vomiting, but he couldn't even if he wanted to. His head hurt so much that it felt to him like it was about to explode while he kept on sweating. Even though he wanted to cry out, he couldn't do so as his throat felt inflamed and painful with his lips so dry that it cracked. His whole body was also bereft of energy.

The cloth sack continued to shake indefinitely and before long, Lorist realized that the people who were transporting him seemed to be in a rush and believed that he had been stuffed into a sack and hung to the side of a horse, just like how the merchants hung loads on both sides of workhorses. As the shaking continued, Lorist fainted once again.

The next moment Lorist opened his eyes, he was no longer within the large cloth sack and could see the star-filled night sky above him. The chatter of people and horses could be heard nearby and it seemed that they had stopped at some kind of resting stop. Lorist found that he was tossed amidst a pile of grass and left there just like that. But he couldn't move a single muscle, not even being able to raise his head, and could only stare at the night sky quietly while laying sprawled on the ground.

This doesn't seem good, I think I've fallen into the hands of the mountain barbarians, Lorist hypothesized after hearing the noise around him. But what made him curious was why he was rescued and taken away. According to his understanding on mountain barbarian culture and behavior, when the barbarians met a heavily-injured person in the wilds, they would usually kill that person to end the suffering, or rob that person and leave without doing anything else, instead of wasting effort and resources to save that person.

He also wondered where Reidy, who had fallen off the cliff with him, had gone. Was he similarly rescued by the barbarians? If so, where would he be now? Lorist could barely remember that he was fed some kind of bitter medicine when he was still half-conscious. While the medicine did seem to treat some of his injuries, it made him completely weak and powerless with his dantian being completely empty without a single shred of internal energy within. Right now, Lorist was even weaker than the common person and couldn't kill a chicken even if he wanted to.

For now, he could only lie unmoving. Even though he wanted to activate his technique to recover some internal energy, he found that he wasn't able to do so as his body didn't react at all and only let out a bunch of sweat.

Sounds of giggling approached from the distance as two male and female barbarians approached Lorist. Perhaps they found the place to be nice as it was quiet and sheltered. Not long after, the male barbarian began to make his move, but the female barbarian said something that Lorist wasn't able to hear. But he was able to hear clearly the male barbarian's reply, "That one is gonna die soon, he can't do anything. We don't need to care. Come on..."

Even though the female barbarian wanted to push him away, she was pressed to the ground by the male barbarian and the humping soon ensued.

Lorist smiled bitterly as he couldn't even turn his head to look even if he wanted to. That was what the male barbarian meant when he said that Lorist was on the brink of death. The two continued their 'vigorous exercise' and they had already switched to another position, with the male barbarian having his mate get on all fours with her backside raised. Incidentally, the female barbarian faced Lorist and saw his opened eyes when she raised her head.

"He's awake, he's awake... I have to tell the young mountain chief," said the female barbarian before she pushed the male barbarian away and ran off into the darkness. The male barbarian remained in his ready-to-thrust position for a few moments before looking at Lorist and cursing savagely when he left.

After a while, Lorist was surrounded by a bunch of people whose faces were painted with various patterns, causing Lorist to recall a documentary he watched in his previous life about a few explorers who made their way into a cannibal settlement within a forest. There was a shot where the primitive people gathered around the camera and it was exactly like the scene he saw before him, as if he had become a meat dish ready to be served.

Do the mountain barbarians eat people? Lorist wondered as he tried to recall everything he knew about the barbarians. It was said that during the winter seasons, if the mountain barbarians lacked food, they would cook up the people who starved to death and consume them for sustenance. Given that winter was already on the way, were the barbarians going to bring Lorist back as reserve food?

At the very least, Lorist felt that it was fortunate that he wasn't about to be eaten by the primitive, hairy-looking cavemen as they were often depicted in media of his past life, but mountain barbarians who differed little in appearance to himself. Those barbarians also seemed to be more cultured than those he saw in documentaries in that they would season their food as they were cooking it, unlike the cavemen who probably didn't even know about washing their food before tossing it into a cooking pot.

Lorist shut his eyes and ignored the incessant chattering of the barbarians. Even though they also spoke the same common Grindian Language, after a millennia of living in isolation within the mountains and forests, their language evolved in their own way and included much vocabulary specific to their weird barbarian dialects. Coupled with the slightly different intonation and pronunciation they used, it almost hurt Lorist's head to listen to so many of them speak at once.

All of a sudden, the voices quieted down and Lorist opened his eyes curiously, only to see that the heads that gathered around his face had dispersed with only a young female mountain barbarian within his line of sight. She had a head of long, brown hair with a shiny, golden tiara on her head. Had it not been for the three streaks of painted tiger stripes that covered her face, she would've been considered quite the beauty based on her facial features.

The female barbarian stared at Lorist for a while before asking whether he could already talk.

Another bushy-haired barbarian appeared beside her and it was unclear whether that person was male or female. That person began to feel Lorist up and took out a stick on which some disgustingly sticky substance was stuck and poked on Lorist mouth with it. After being carefully inspected, Lorist was almost choked to death from the stinky breaths of that barbarian.

Before long, the barbarian raised his or her head and said roughly that Lorist wasn't beyond saving and mentioned that the reason he couldn't move right now was because of the side effect the medicine they fed him, and that it would wear off naturally after a while.

The crowned barbarian woman looked rather happy to hear that and instructed them to save Lorist's life. Before leaving, she looked at him and said, "This is my first flatlander prisoner who has an important position... I will bring him back for daddy to see..."

The things that happened soon after caused Lorist to feel extremely embarrassed and angered. After the crowned woman left, five to six female barbarians beside him stripped him naked. One of them was surprised when she saw Lorist's flaccid member and pointed at it with her finger while saying something that basically amounted to, 'If his member is already so big while soft, then wouldn't it be quite impressive if hardened?' And so the few barbarian women crowded around Lorist's lower body and prodded his junk from time to time.

Lorist was so embarrassed that he wanted to die. Fortunately, his junior didn't react as Lorist himself didn't have any shred of energy left. Otherwise, he was sure that he would be group raped by the barbarian women. The one who got Lorist out of his predicament was the bushy-haired barbarian from before, saying something that caused the barbarian women to leave him alone, but not before they each grabbed his member one last time before leaving, angering Lorist so badly that he almost fainted.

After that, the bushy-haired barbarian got a huge basin filled with a greenish-black paste and proceeded to apply it all over Lorist's body, with extra layers padded onto Lorist's injuries, before feeding Lorist a bottle of sticky, bad-smelling, black-colored medicine, causing Lorist to faint from all his built up anger.

The next time he awoke, he felt his whole body hurt and itch as if he had been encased in concrete. The soreness, numbness and pain he felt in his wounds were especially unbearable. Even though he wanted to scratch them, he wasn't able to as he was still so weak that he was unable to move.

At that moment, a female barbarian with thick lips appeared beside him and her face was full of circular, black tattoos. Seeing Lorist wake up, she fed him a large bowl of meat soup. Not long after finishing the soup, Lorist felt his stomach hurt badly. In the end, he could no longer hold it in and emptied the contents within his stomach while lying down.

As if she knew that Lorist would have that reaction after drinking the soup, the thick-lipped woman had made sure to stand far away before it all happened. When Lorist finally stopped, she called two male barbarians to bring Lorist to the side of a stream and they placed him on the cobblestone bank before washing his body clean.

Even though the cold water made Lorist shiver quite badly, he couldn't move at all and was at the mercy of the thick-lipped female barbarian. When he was finally washed clean, the barbarian woman wiped his body all over with some kind of beastskin before letting him dry under the sun while she began toying with Lorist member, causing him to wish for death to spare him from the embarrassment.

As the thick-lipped barbarian played around with Lorist's thing, she even mocked the other two male barbarians, saying that their manhood wasn't nearly as big as Lorist's, causing the two of them to feel rather dissatisfied and begin lifting their beastskin kilts to compare their manhoods with Loirst's. After a while, the thick-lipped woman finally let go of Lorist's member and began comparing those of the other two men with her hands and gradually engaged in a bout of pleasurable intercourse with the men.

When they finally finished, the two men brought Lorist back to their camp and tossed him into a dark tent. The bushy-haired barbarian once again appeared before Lorist and prodded his body for a bit before nodding with satisfaction. But this time, the barbarian didn't apply the green mud from before and only fed Lorist a bowl of bitter medicine before leaving.

In the middle of the night, Lorist woke up all of a sudden and realized with surprise that energy had returned to his body and he could sit up normally again. His throat no longer hurt and he tried clearing it and realized that he could speak. Even though Lorist was completely undressed, his body was covered by a strong-smelling beastskin. With his stomach rumbling in hunger, he tried to get up but found that his legs were still far too weak.

Lorist then tried to stand up by using his arms to hold onto the support of the tent, but the unexpectedly brittle support cracked and snapped before he could react and the whole tent collapsed with Lorist under it.

A pair of hands soon raised the tent above Lorist and he realized that it was the thick-lipped woman from before. Barely able to sit up properly, Lorist said, "Thank you. Do you have something to eat? Also, my clothes..."

The thick-lipped woman stared at Lorist for a while before leaving and returning with a huge basin that contained a big piece of roasted meat along with four palm-sized, black-colored biscuits as well as a flask with clean water.

Lorist wolfed down his food and quickly finished it within moments. Even the flask of water was drunk completely without a single drop remaining. However, he was still troubled as his clothes still weren't there...

And so, Lorist turned to the thick-lipped barbarian woman and said, "Clothes, my clothes..."

But that woman didn't move a single finger in response.

Thinking that she probably didn't understand the word 'clothes', Lorist tried to mime it with his hands, only to accidentally have the beastskin covering him slide off. The thick-lipped woman's eyes flashed all of a sudden and she stared at Lorist with a hungry look.

This reminded Lorist of the scene when she toyed with her manhood not so long ago. Already panicking, he clutched the beastskin tightly before retreating into a corner like a helpless little girl.

Fortunately, the sky was brightening by the moment, causing the thick-lipped woman to leave. Not long after, two male barbarians wearing beastskin kilts came to Lorist and signalled for him to follow them.

When the beastskin-covered Lorist was brought outside a large beastskin tent, he found that many other barbarian women came over to see him and whispered that the flatlander that was Lorist was awake and could already stand up.

After waiting for a while, he was brought into the tent and sitting within the middle of it was the gold-crowned woman with tiger stripe facepaint. Before her was a small wooden table on which Lorist's outfit and pants were placed.

"Who are you? What's your name? Where are you from?" asked the barbarian woman with a weird dialect of the Grindian Common Language.

Lorist narrowed his eyes and saw that she was toying around with his Gold ranked instructor badge that he had put on back then as he reminisced his glorious days at the Dawn Academy when he was showing Telesti his academy badge collection to give her some inspiration in designing the emblem for her academy. It was at that point when the cursed Blademaster Zarinan launched his assassination, causing Lorist so much trouble that he had no time to even remove his badges.

"I pay my respects to you, beautiful lady. I am called Locke and I come from the Dawn Academy of Morante City. I am a Gold ranked instructor for that academy," Lorist greeted the woman politely.

"Are you not from the Mordon Family?" asked the crowned woman.

After some deliberation, Lorist realized that she was referring to the Norton Family. But her weird pronunciation caused it to sound like 'Mordon' to Lorist.

"No, no," Lorist said hurriedly as he shook his head. If he had messed up his reply, he was certain that his head would soon end up upon a stake at the barricades outside. After all, the Norton Family had nursed a grudge with the mountain barbarians for more than 200 years.

"Respected lady, take a look at the badges on my clothes. The silver one is the emblem of the Dawn Academy and the gold one represents my status as a Gold ranked instructor there," Lorist replied with a straight face. It's not like he was lying. After all, what he said was technically true a few years ago.

"I guess you aren't lying. The people from the Mordon Family wear no such badges and you do look like someone from an academy. But what does a Gold ranked instructor do? Why have you come to the Northlands and why are you so badly injured?" questioned the crowned barbarian woman.

Thus, Lorist began to tell the tale he spun up. "Respected lady, I am a Gold ranked instructor from the Dawn Academy and I have come here because I've received the invitation from the Norton Family to help them design a castle. I ended up injured like this because I encountered with someone who bears a grudge against me. Initially, I accepted the Norton Family's invitation so that I could avoid my enemy, but who knew that he would chase me all the way here and I kept running away to no avail. Fortunately, I was saved by you, respected lady. Please accept my gratitude. I will definitely return the favor in the future..."

"I don't need your thanks or your favor, and I'm no respected lady. I am the mountain chief of Whitesnow Mountain. Since I've saved you, your life now belongs to me. From now on, you're my slave, understand?" said the crowned barbarian coldly before raising her head to signal for her servants.

Two huge barbarian men came over from the side and restrained Lorist before putting a thick collar around his neck that was connected to a long chain.

Already despairing, Lorist said, "Then, may I have my clothes back..."

Whap! A whip struck Lorist's back harshly, sending waves of pain down his nerves. One of the men yelled, "Darned pig, you shall address her as master!"

After giving it some thought, the crowned barbarian woman tossed Lorist his clothes and said, "You can have them. But these two badges, I will keep..."

Chapter 207 Mortification

At that moment, Lorist felt like he was within hell on earth. The mortifying humiliation he was receiving was enough to make him wish for suicide.

Being a slave was not a big deal in itself and the humiliation that came with it was still something that he could tough through. Additionally, when the gold tiara-wearing woman who called herself the chief of Whitesnow Mountain returned his clothes, Lorist was surprised to find that the medicine and ointments kept within the hidden pouch of his outer robe was still there. That robe of his also contained many useful tools which the barbarians didn't discover.

It wasn't that the barbarians were careless. Lorist's robe was basically a cloak with two long sleeves by the side and it was easy to see that its two outer pockets were empty. Additionally, it was also strengthened for defense and that was rather common, with metal plates or thick leather patches being appended onto the shoulder parts being the norm. That's why the weight of the robe wasn't an indicator that it contained anything else and after the barbarians checked the two outer pockets, they made no more attempt to look deeper.

Originally, Lorist had planned to endure being a slave temporarily and wait until he was left alone to treat his injuries and activate his technique to recover some internal energy. After that, he would be unstoppable and the party of hundreds of mountain barbarians wouldn't be able to prevent him from leaving for home.

While he was a slave, as he had just recovered from a grave condition as well as the fact that he was the first person of status captured by the female chief of Whitesnow Mountain, those other barbarians didn't treat Lorist badly and only tied his collar chain to a wooden post outside the main tent. It was worth mentioning that two other huge wolfdogs that were also chained to that wooden post.

For some reason, these two wolfdogs displayed keen interest in Lorist, licking and sniffing him from time to time. He later realized that those were not signs of friendliness as he noticed that the wolfdogs looked at him with the same look they gave the bloody bony meats the barbarians fed them. At that time, Lorist understood the true meaning of the phrase 'a tiger that leaves its mountain gets bullied by the dogs' quite literally.

In the evening, the thick-lipped barbarian woman came over and brought Lorist to the riverside before giving him a piece of linen cloth, indicating for him to wipe himself clean. Having been licked all over during the day by the wolfdogs, Lorist ignored the stares of the barbarian woman as he stripped naked and jumped straight into the river to wash himself thoroughly.

After he finished bathing, he was brought into a small tent by the barbarian woman and served a huge piece of roasted meat, three biscuits and a huge bowl of meat soup. When Lorist finished all his food, the woman cleaned up after him and brought him back to the tent's entrance.

That night, the barbarians threw a bonfire party with the main attraction being the bushy-haired barbarian who danced and sung around the fire alone, mumbling something unintelligibly for almost half an hour, causing Lorist to be impressed with that barbarian's stamina. In the end, the barbarian tossed a pinch of shiny powder into the fire, causing it to suddenly burst outward and let out lots of sparks. The barbarians that witnessed the show intently cheered out right away before singing and dancing around the fire freely.

It was then when Lorist realized that the women in the barbarian party far outnumbered the men, with each male barbarian having at least two women dancing beside him. Frequently, some of the barbarians disappeared from the dancing grounds before a repetitive thumping sound could be heard behind some bushes.

As the people dispersed, the thick-lipped barbarian woman came over and brought Lorist into the tent. She pointed at a pile of grass and instructed him to sleep coldly before leaving.

Finally being left alone to his own devices, Lorist was elated. If he could activate the Aquametal Technique to recover some internal energy and consume two drops of rank 2 medicine, his days of freedom would be guaranteed.

Patience... I must wait for a little longer... Finally, no sound could be heard outside. Lorist then sat up cross-legged and got into position. Just as he was about to begin circulating a major cycle, the tent flaps flipped open and through the candlelight, Lorist could see the face of the thick-lipped barbarian. She entered the tent, stripped herself bare before she headed towards Lorist.

Terrified, Lorist said, "What are you going to do..."

The thick-lipped barbarian said with a threatening voice, "To do you...", before leaping straight for Lorist.

Even though he tried to resist, he didn't expect that the thick-lipped woman would train in Battle Force, allowing her to easily suppress all his attempts at retaliation. Lorist was then stripped bare and both his hands were tied up using the chain on his collar. She dragged him to a nearby tree and fastened the chain before suppressing both Lorist's legs with her hands and proceeded to use her mouth to take in Lorist's member. With only but a few sucks, Lorist's manhood stood hard as steel against his own desires.

After that, she gripped onto his meatstick, positioned it against her privates before sitting herself down while letting out a moan of pleasure.

Lorist incredibly frustrated about that. What humiliation he had to endure! However, there was no way he was able to prevent the barbarian woman from straddling him over and over. In the end, Lorist fainted from the sheer anger he felt.

When he woke up the next morning, he was tossed a palm-sized biscuit by the thick-lipped barbarian woman and realized that the other barbarians were already packing their tents and were preparing to depart.

During the journey, Lorist was chained to a Northlander horse that was also carrying other loads by its side. They only stopped in the evening after traveling for the whole day. However, the barbarians didn't set up their tents and planned to rest out in the open under the night sky. While Lorist wasn't able to activate his technique to recover internal energy, he felt relieved that at the very least he wouldn't be forced into having intercourse with the thick-lipped woman since he was out in the open with the other barbarians.

During the next three days of traveling, Lorist got to eat two meals a day with the first in the morning being a large biscuit, followed by roasted meat and meat soup for dinner. He also got a flask of drinking water. By the time the fourth blister on Lorist's feet popped, the barbarians finally stopped to set up their camp properly. Upon hearing some of their conversations, Lorist got to know that they would rest for the next few days before continuing to their meeting point.

During the night, the thick-lipped woman brought Lorist to take a bath again and seeing the smile on her face, Lorist felt troubled the whole time. As expected, before the bonfire party ended that night, that barbarian woman pushed Lorist into the tent once again. His resistance was futile as he was once again taken advantage of by the barbarian woman as she pleased.

On the next day, Lorist tried to make the best of his time to execute a minor cycle when he was confined and nobody was around. He also took two drops of rank 2 medicinal mixture and by the time night came, he felt that his empty dantian refilled with the slightest bit of internal energy. If he had not been injured or not consumed the weird medicine the barbarians gave him, his internal energy would naturally recover. But right now, his condition was akin to a normal person who didn't train in any martial arts.

The thick-lipped woman came over again at night. Even though Lorist already had a very small amount of internal energy within his dantian, he was still unable to resist the woman's Iron ranked Battle Force. Surprisingly working against his favor, the rank 2 medicine he took before caused him to last even longer, allowing the woman to do Lorist three whole times throughout the night.

On the next day, Lorist sat without moving within his tent and secretly activated his technique again to recover. By the time night came, he already saved up slightly more internal energy than he did yesterday. He planned to ambush the female barbarian by knocking her unconscious with his internal energy and utilize his technique to recover more of it throughout the whole night in peace. If he succeeded, he would have at least a quarter or third of his dantian filled when dawn breaks and he should be able to make his escape.

That night, the thick-lipped woman brought Lorist to take a bath before bringing him the same meat soup she did the days before. However, the soup tasted a little weird with traces of bitter herbal taste. Even the meat within was cut into odd, round shapes with them tasting a little raw despite being cooked.

Initially, Lorist thought that it was due to the barbarians' inappropriate handling of the ingredients and he felt that it was already quite fortunate for him to have something like that to eat as a slave. But by the time he finished his food, he only realized that the oddly-shaped meat was in fact slices of some kind of magical beast's male sexual organ. And the herbal taste he detected within the soup reminded him of a few kinds of herbs with aphrodisiac-like effects. He rebuked himself internally for not recognizing it at first even though he was a trained herbalist himself. That soup was served to him to enhance his sexual prowess.

Raising his head and looking at the thick-lipped barbarian, Lorist saw her wearing a lewd smile as if she was looking forward to their activities during the night. Cursing in his mind, he consoled himself by thinking, that the aphrodisiac soup would give me more energy, if anything. When the bonfire party starts later, I will take all the time I have to recover my internal energy... By then, I will show you what I can do...

The bonfire party proceeded as usual. When it was about to end, the thick-lipped barbarian woman went to look for Lorist again.

Lorist had already made his preparations and plotted how he would go about not raising the woman's suspicion when entering the tent and knock her unconscious when she least expected it. Tomorrow, I will be free, like a released cage-bird that soars freely in the sky...

However, the thick-lipped barbarian woman didn't enter the usual tent and instead brought Lorist to another larger beastskin tent. She opened the flaps and pushed Lorist inside.

He was surprised to find that within it were three barbarian women with lustful, green eyes waiting for him. Two of those women were rather largely-built and their physiques differed not much from that of men's.

Lorist had to admit that the aphrodisiac soup was pretty effective as his lower member didn't get a shred of rest for the whole night. He forgot how many times he did it, only that he had fainted when the women were busy humping him nonstop. The internal energy that he had so painstakingly saved up had also been used up and he could no longer move in the slightest.

The next night, Lorist was also served with a large bowl of aphrodisiac soup, but he refused to take any food. And so, four barbarian women came up to him, two of whom included the ones who had done it with Lorist the night before. They forcefully pressed him on the ground, chewed on the meat within the soup before force-feeding the chewed pieces by mouth. After that, they emptied the soup into Lorist's mouth. Truly, it was a cruel sight to witness.

That night, five of them ganged up on him.

Lorist really felt like committing suicide as there was no way he could continue to live life as is.

Never had he suffered this kind of humiliation that would put even a pig to shame. Oh wait, that's not right... Pigs wouldn't feel ashamed and would simply hump away happily, Lorist thought. But he definitely wasn't a breeding pig and he didn't expect that he would be treated as such after being captured by the barbarians. He only had his large member to blame for his misfortunes...

After he was tossed underneath the sun, Lorist recalled two of the martial arts classic novels he read in his past life and considered whether he should endure the pain for his livelihood or kill as many of those barbarian women as he can before dying himself. It was truly a difficult choice.

Wouldn't it be easier to kill myself? He never would have even dreamed that he would end up in this kind of predicament. Lorist was so embarrassed at the fact that he wasn't able to resist in the slightest when the demonic barbarian women humped him night after night.

A few figures blocked the sunlight that was shining upon Lorist and with a loud whap, he felt searing pain in his back. He then heard a hateful barbarian cry out, "You darned pig... Stand up..."

Just beat me to death already, Lorist thought as he played dead without saying a thing.

The barbarian woman wearing a golden tiara, also known as the chief of Whitesnow Mountain, came forward and asked, "What's wrong with him?"

After some whispers, the few barbarians around Lorist left.

At night, he was bathed, fed aphrodisiac and stripped again in a routine manner. He was then laid onto the familiar grass patch before one of the barbarian women began teasing Lorist's member. On the other hand, he didn't resist at all and let them do as they pleased. He scanned the tent before closing his eyes and thought, well, two more barbarian women just showed up... I think I won't be able to sleep peacefully tonight...

The aphrodisiac soup he consumed moments ago worked its wonders again and Lorist's manhood stood up tall and high. The barbarian women felt the massive rod up as if they were unwilling to let it go for even a second before one of them prepared to sit upon Lorist's body.

Right at that moment, the woman who wore the golden tiara marched into the tent with four other attendants, each holding a long, black whip. All of a sudden, cries of begging and forgiveness resounded within the tent.

Lorist opened his eyes slightly and saw that the woman chief and her four attendants were whipping the seven kneeling barbarian women who were crying and begging nonstop but did not dare to run. After a drawn-out whipping session, the crowned woman shouted for the other women to scram and walked up to Lorist who was lying on the grass patch and inspected him before glancing at his erect member. After that, she ordered the four attendants to bring Lorist into her tent.

Oh no, just after escaping from a wolf's mouth, I fell right into a tiger's? However, he didn't expect that he would be brought to a section of the tent that was separated with a beastskin divider and tossed onto a grass patch there. After throwing Lorist his clothes and pants, the barbarian men left him alone.

He finally got some much-needed sleep without being bothered.

The next day, one of the attendants of the crowned woman entered and kicked Lorist awake before bringing him outside the main tent and giving him a biscuit. After that, he tied Lorist to a wooden stake, but this time around, the two wolfdogs weren't there with him. At night, that same male attendant gave him another biscuit and a flask of drinking water before bringing him back to his corner within the large tent to sleep.

Two days passed and Lorist felt that he regained a little more vitality. The time when he was oppressed by the barbarian women had drained him so much that he felt completely empty. So, he secretly took another two drops of rank 2 medicine and prepared to activate his ki technique to regain some internal energy to escape. Only, the barbarians began to pack up and leave on the next day itself and their destination was not another rest stop but rather their main settlement...

Author's note from chapter 210:

I'm really sorry I have to say this, but the recent experience of the main character with the barbarians was not a result of me receiving emotional shock that caused me to mess the story up, and neither it is an expression of my dissatisfaction with my dear readers. In actuality, I have detailed this plotline as far as two years back and I am only writing according to the draft I prepared back then.

This is one of the main character's personal experience with the mountain barbarians and unlike most other novels, I don't want to make the main character rule over the barbarians for no good reason nor give him another beautiful female character out of nowhere. To the main character, this experience is terribly horrifying for him as he had encountered a group of barbarian women whose men have gone out to war for almost a year. As the main character was injured and couldn't resist, he was subjected to that horrifying treatment as many readers have so kindly pointed out. Originally, I could have skipped this story thread. But in the interest of meaningful character development for the main character that will shape his eventual attitude towards the barbarians, I have chosen to keep it the way it was planned and wasn't able to change it.

To many, this will be a horrible turn-off much like poison and it is your choice if you choose to drop this story. As a writer, that is not something that I can force. But to me, telling a good story and bringing my readers more of the rich cultural differences of the Grindia Continent and its exciting and magnificent history is what I am really trying to do.

-Smoke is a Path, Author of Tales of the Reincarnated Lord

Chapter 208 Wooden Shack

This time around, the barbarian troupe traveled for five days straight. Along the way, Lorist managed to gather a good amount of thatch which he used to make a pair of grass sandals for himself. After that, he requested one of the male servants of the female chief to cut off two pieces of beastskin from the one he used to cover himself at night to be used as padding for his sandals, thus solving his problem of having to travel bare-footed.

That male servant actually seemed rather fierce. Even though he wasn't that old, being at around 15 or 16 years of age, his large size would suggest otherwise. He was quite curious when he saw Lorist working on his sandals and squatted down to look for a good amount of time. That skill was actually learned by Lorist during his days as a mercenary and the sandals he made were based on the cloth shoes from his previous life, meaning that the left shoe was slightly different from the right, unlike most other grass sandals worn by the commoners of Grindia.

The finished grass sandals was taken by the male servant for him to satisfy his curiosity. But he didn't claim them for himself and returned them to Lorist after giving them a good look, with the condition that Lorist teach him how to make those sandals. Lorist was quite eager to do so as well and he chatted with the barbarian throughout the lesson.

According to the barbarian servant, the gold-crowned barbarian woman saved Lorist because she was worried that he would be ravaged to death by those ravenous women. If he had died, she wouldn't be able to show him off to her father, since Lorist was the only flatlander that wore a gold badge that signified his relatively high status.

This explanation made Lorist understand why the female mountain chief had ignored him even though she bothered to save him. He took that chance to ask that young male servant whether there was another person alongside him when he was first found. He really wanted to know where Reidy was.

The male barbarian nodded and said that there was an idiot with great strength that caused even two Six Ringed Ulay to be unable to hold him down. However, apart from his strength, that idiot wasn't good at anything else, so they tossed him to the rear end of the troupe and had him take care of the workhorses.

Ulay was a term made by the mountain barbarians to describe warriors. The number of rings was an indication of their Battle Force power level. The barbarians believed that Battle Force was actually a gift from their mountain deities and they divided the 'power of the mountain spirits' into 12 different 'ring levels'. Each 'ring' represent a unit of strength and the more rings one had, the stronger one would be. A Six-Ringed Ulay was roughly equal to a Three Star Iron ranked Battle Force user.

Lorist was really agitated as he finally got some news about Reidy. However, he didn't understand why that barbarian called him an idiot.

The barbarian then explained that 'the idiot' was also a mute and when they found him, he was injured all over his body and had even used his teeth to bite a magical wolf to death. However, he behaved rather well and was rather obedient as long as he was fed. Apart from being really strong, he didn't do much to cause trouble.

Lorist felt like that description didn't quite fit Reidy, but if it was really him, then something bad must've happened. Even so, Lorist had to prioritize his own safety for now and he was only allowed to roam around the main troupe where the female mountain chief was, so he couldn't go to the rear troupe to check if that idiot was truly Reidy and had to be patient until the time was right.

Perhaps because he had taught that young barbarian how to make grass sandals, his dinner that night was far more luxurious than usual. That barbarian male brought Lorist a meaty thigh. Even though half of it was charred, it was still meat, and Lorist was incredibly glad to be able to have some as he had eaten nothing but the black, musty biscuits for the past few days.

During the night when they camped out in the open, Lorist leaned on the luggage that was offloaded from the horses and covered himself with his beastskin blanket, seemingly asleep. In actuality, he was seated cross-legged and slowly circulating a minor cycle to recover some more internal energy. His current situation prevented him from executing a major cycle as he was worried that some barbarian would come to give him a kick when he was in the middle of it. If that really happened, in the best case, he would lose control of his cultivation. In the worst case, his body would be paralyzed partially and he would truly be beyond salvation.

In the distance, a volcano that resembled Fuji Mountain could be seen. All the barbarians cheered out excitedly as they were about to reach their meeting point.

After another half a day of walking, the volcano seemed incredibly near. However, the troupe didn't travel directly towards it and instead took a turn and headed towards a slightly shorter mountain.

Halfway up that mountain, they arrived at a settlement at the bottom of a large cliff which was surrounded by a wooden stockade. The gates of the stockade were already open and the barbarian troupe marched into it proudly as the elderly and young watched and cheered.

After entering the derelict-looking stockade, Lorist realized that there was a large cave at the bottom of the cliff and that was where the barbarian troupe was heading. However, just as they were about to enter it, Lorist was dragged out of the troupe. According to the male barbarian servant, Lorist wasn't allowed to step into their sacred cave since he was a slave.

That's why Lorist could only stand by the cave entrance and could only watch as the every barbarian from the troupe gradually entered the cave.

This was the first time Lorist got to see the full barbarian troupe. When he was traveling, he only knew that the troupe had hundreds of people and around thousands of work horses. But he didn't know why they ventured into the wildlands in the first place. Now however, he understood that the barbarian troupe was sent to hunt and collect enough food for the barbarians to survive the winter. It became obvious to him when he saw the dried meat packed into beastskin bags that were hung on both sides of the work horses.

"Sol, even though these savages can enter the cave, someone like me can't?" muttered Lorist softly outside the cave. He was quite curious what the insides of that large cave looked like, but just at that very moment, he saw Reidy.

Reidy looked incredibly dirty and was almost completely naked, save for a beastskin kilt that he wore around his waist. He was bare-footed and his hair was completely messed up. Apart from the lack of face paint and tattoos on his body and face, he looked no different from the other barbarians. But the Reidy he saw before him truly looked like the idiot described by the male barbarian attendant. He was quite aloof and only moved when the people in front of him bickered at him.

At that moment, Lorist instantly jumped and called out to Reidy as he tried to run over to him, only to feel a harsh tug coming from the collar he wore, causing him to fall flat onto the ground. One whip-wielding barbarian male immediately rebuked Lorist and began whipping him, causing him to shield his head with both his hands while enduring the searing pain.

After the barbarian whipped Lorist four to five times, the blank-eyed Reidy began to growl all of a sudden before leaping and pushing the whip-wielding barbarian to the ground and trying to bite at his throat, causing the barbarian a huge fright. But with his quick reflexes, he hurriedly stuck the whip into Reidy's mouth and listened to the squishing sounds as it was chewed to pieces by Reidy's teeth.

A few other barbarians came over from the side and pulled Reidy away from the male barbarian, who then got up from the ground with his face reddened with anger. He pointed to Reidy and scolded loudly before having the other barbarians release Reidy with the intent on teaching him a lesson himself.

But out of their expectations, Reidy didn't attack that barbarian after he was released and instead rushed straight to Lorist's side.

With all fours on the ground, he prodded onto Lorist's body with his head much like a dog trying to get its master's attention, though without actually licking Lorist.

Everyone who witnessed that sight was flabbergasted and the male barbarian realized that Reidy had attacked because of the flatlander slave. Lorist sat up and gave Reidy a tight hug as he let out streams of tears. The reason Reidy was like that was because he had suffered heavy impacts to his head. From the look in his eyes, it seemed that he couldn't recall anything else apart from his attachment to Lorist.

"What is going on here? Why is the entrance to the cave blocked?" asked the tiara-wearing woman as she came over with a group of attendants.

The male barbarian hurriedly reported, "Mountain chief, that idiot seems to recognize that flatlander slave and the slave also hugged him while calling him Reiti or something. The slave was blocking the way of our troupe and I wanted to pummel him, but then that mute idiot leaped over and tried to bite me..."

The woman with the golden tiara waved her hands to signal that she understood the situation. Looking at the hugging guys on the ground, she asked Lorist, "Oi, who is he to you?"

With a face full of tears, Lorist raised his head and said, "He's my student and is also my attendant. If he didn't save me back then, I would've been killed by my nemesis., But I didn't expect that we would separate after falling into the river and right now he's become an idiot like this and can't even speak..."

The crowned woman nodded and said, "Since he's your attendant, I will allow you to bring him with you. Don't block the way into the cave. You are my first flatlander slave of high status, so you can bring your attendant with you as proof of it."

Lorist really didn't mind that he was being treated like a flatlander slave as being able to stay with Reidy was already a huge surprise for him. He hurriedly brought Reidy away to the side of the cave to stop blocking the entrance as he wondered how he should inspect Reidy's condition. He needed to know specifically which part of his head was injured.

By the time the sky darkened, everyone from the barbarian troupe were finally inside. After that, the male attendant approached Lorist and brought him to an old wooden hut within the stockade and called an old barbarian man out. After being told something, the hunchbacked old man nodded before he proceeded to bring Lorist and Reidy to a small wooden shack not far away and signalled for Lorist and Reidy to enter it.

But the male attendant from before stopped Lorist and said seriously, "You will be spending winter within this shack and if you might die if you are not careful. Since there's still a little time before winter, go collect some dried grass or something to keep warm. If you need anything, tell me, I will try my best to aid you. Oh, and I'm called Ashu and you can have the guards standing outside the cave to deliver a message to me when I'm inside."

After Ashu left, the hunchbacked old man smiled and said to Lorist, "A flatlander slave with status? Hahaha, how ludicrous. I've never heard of something this laughable., But no matter, since you will no doubt die during the winter. The mountain chief won't bother with two frozen corpses after all."

After saying that, the hunchbacked old man asked Lorist to follow him back to the wooden hut and tossed an old beastskin sack to Lorist. "Take it, this will be your food for the whole month. I hope that you will survive it, haha... Now scram back to your little shack."

The sack contained many kudzu roots. They were plants that were similar to potatoes and contained a high amount of starch. They tasted a little bitter and were harvested from a kind of vine plant, making it a great meal substitute when food was scarce. That sack weighed around 25 kilograms and Lorist finally understood how the biscuit he had been eating for the past few days were made. Basically, the kudzu roots were ground into powder and mixed with meat chunks and vegetables before it was cooked atop a hot rock surface, resulting in the biscuit that was suited for long travels.

The shack was rather small, not exceeding 5 square meters large. The ground within the shack also had a hole that was almost one meter deep. Fortunately, they were halfway up a mountain and the altitude was rather high. Otherwise, if rainwater got into the hole, it would be stay there and be incredibly hard to remove. The shack was basically constructed by a chaotic assortment of wooden branches of different lengths plunged into the ground, forming a wall that was roughly 1.5 meters tall with a makeshift roof on top. Not only was the shack not insulated from the air outside, the starry night sky was also visible from within. There was also a patch of dried grass within the shack that stank with a rotting smell. The ground within the shack was also rather muddy and some feces could be spotted at the corners of the shack. Some shameless person must have used the shack as their latrine just recently.

It didn't even have a door and its entrance was only covered with a piece of torn, old beastskin. Lorist recalled what Ashu said as well as the old hunchbacked barbarian's snickering laugh. It was true that if he truly planned to spend winter within the shack, he and Reidy would end up becoming two frozen corpses by the end of winter.

However, Lorist didn't put that matter to heart and thought, only people with something wrong with their heads would spend winter in a shack like this. Since there was no longer anyone to watch over him, Lorist could finally begin his internal energy recovery undisturbed. By the time he recovers, he would bring Reidy back to the dominion right away and wouldn't bother to continue staying there as a slave.

Even though it was rather cold at night, he decided that it was better to stay outside in the open using his beastskin cloak as a windbreaker than stay within the smelly old shack. Lorist found a few broken pieces of earthenware and brought some water from the water pool nearby and began washing some kudzu roots to make food for Reidy and himself. Lorist consumed two of those biscuits while Reidy ended up eating five.

When dawn was breaking, he walked back into the shack with a solemn look and sat down beside the snoring Reidy. Lorist's condition wasn't that simple as he had thought because after he completed a major cycle circulation throughout the night, he recovered far less internal energy than expected. Additionally, he noticed that the meridians within his body were incredibly withered and dried up with many places requiring recuperation and repair, causing him to have much difficulty activating his ki technique. His internal organs also still hurt quite a bit.

Having successfully executed a major cycle during the night, Lorist had recovered up to 10 percent of his full capacity. On days he wasn't injured, he could execute three whole major cycles within that span of time and could at least recover half of his internal energy capacity even if he had previously used it all up. Right now however, it was as if he had returned to the days when he just began to train in the Aquametal Technique and he had to clear out his blocked meridians and repair the damages they sustained. Lorist estimated that it would take at least two months' time for him to recalibrate his body's condition to return to his former state.

If one were to quantify internal energy, the ten percent of it recovered by Lorist during the night would be more or less equal to 100 'threads'. It was no wonder Lorist had only managed to recover one or two threads after executing minor cycles during the past few days given the level of internal damage he sustained. At that time, he was already incredibly excited at the fact that he could recover any internal energy at all and didn't consider why the rate of recovery was so slow. He finally understood what it meant to lose everything he worked for over the years within one single night.

Lorist sighed deeply before lifting Reidy up and leaning his body against his own. Reidy opened his eyes and looked at Lorist without a shred of hostility and was told to keep quiet and stay still. Lorist then placed his right palm onto Reidy's back and activated his technique and sent in his internal energy into Reidy's body to inspect his state.

Reidy's body turned out to be in a rather bad condition; the Blademaster's double palm strike he sustained on the back before he was pushed down the cliff had destroyed a few circulation nodes of Reidy's hexagonal circulation diagram, causing him to be unable to use Battle Force altogether. And given that he had fallen from the cliff of roughly 20 meters of height, his head sustained severe impact without the protection of Battle Force when he rolled down the sides of the cliff before falling into the river, causing internal bleeding and clotting within his brain. Lorist theorized that it was these blood clots that caused Reidy to lose most of his memory and it was already a small miracle that Reidy had still been able to recognize Lorist.

To treat Reidy, there were two ways. The first involved restoring his Battle Force circulation and using it to clear out the blood clots within his brain. But since Reidy had lost his memory, even if his body was restored, he wouldn't be able to remember the proper method to circulate Battle Force for the recovery. The second method involved using Lorist's own internal energy to first clear out the blood clots within Reidy's brain to restore his mental faculties. However, the effects of that method would take much longer to manifest.

Perhaps, I have no choice but to spend winter in this shack with Reidy, Lorist thought as he turned to look at the derelict walls of the shack.

Chapter 209 House-building

Lorist was prepared to build a new house to spend the winter. During the morning, just as he was about to look for Ashu, the latter came over to look for Lorist and brought with him two magical goat skins and a sack of dried meat.

He apologetically said that as he had no other valuables and that those resources were the most he could offer and he hoped that Lorist and Reidy would be able to survive the winter.

"Thanks, Ashu. I also plan to build a house over here since we will definitely die if we spend winter within that shack. I wonder if you can help me borrow some tools?" Lorist asked.

"Build a house?" Ashu mused curiously. "But winter is coming in less than 20 days. Do you have enough time? It took tens of people two whole months to build that hunchbacked old man's old wooden house. Do you think the two of you can do better?"

Lorist nodded and said, "Don't forget that I'm a Gold ranked instructor for architecture from the Dawn Academy. If I can't do it, then no one can."

Given the straightforward personality the barbarians usually had, Ashu believed Lorist's words without much debate and nodded before he said, "Alright. I will go tell the mountain chief about it and if she agrees, I will bring you some tools."

He left and returned quickly and said that the mountain chief had agreed to Lorist's request to build a house. But apart from being allowed to borrow tools, the two wouldn't be provided any manpower. On the other hand, Ashu was tasked to supervise Lorist and Reidy while they built the house.

Lorist looked at the building tools Ashu brought with him. Apart from an axe, a shovel, a hoe and two rusted saws of different sizes, the rest were farming tools like sickles and pitchforks. According to Ashu, the barbarians usually didn't farm and would at most would only grow a few vines which they would use for their travels. He also mentioned that the tools were left behind from a long time ago. Apart from seeing them once when he was still small during the construction of the old man's house, Ashu said that the tools were usually left within their storehouse unused.

If Lorist could use his internal energy and Reidy could activate his Battle Force, building a house that would allow them to survive throughout the winter was an easy task. But right now, both of them could only be considered stronger than average normal people. With Lorist also having lost his sword, he could only improvise with the tools he had on hand.

During the first day, Lorist dismantled the shack with Reidy. With the hole within it as the center, they drew up a plot of land of 3 meters wide by 5 meters long and started digging. Ashu watched in stupor before he stopped Lorist and said, "A house this large with so much space would be hard to keep warm! The smaller it is, the warmer it will be."

Lorist laughed and said, "No worries, my house will be warm even though it's large. You'll understand when it's completed."

Ashu could only hold his doubts and wait.

On the second day, Lorist asked Ashu where he could get some clay before sending Reidy to a stream nearby to dig up some of it during noon. In the afternoon, they mixed the clay with the mud that they dug out the night before and added some fibrous vines and dried grass into the mix to make some bricks.

On the third and fourth days, Lorist and Reidy cut down more than 50 trees with diameters up to 30 centimeters under Ashu's supervision. Ashu himself also helped out a lot and brought four work horses to help move the logs into the stockade. Had he not contributed, Lorist and Reidy would have taken at least four more days to move them all there.

On the fifth and sixth days, Lorist and Reidy sawed the tree logs into two halves under the curious gazes of the people of the barbarian settlement. They looked at the both of them work as they wondered what kind of house those 'dumb slaves' would build.

On the seventh day, the both of them stacked up the almost-dry bricks and filled the seams between the bricks with more wet clay. Following that, Lorist had the logs that were cut in half all sharpened and one end before lining them up along the insides of the brick walls. Soon, the wooden logs circled from one end to another and a conical wooden wall could be seen within the hole they had dug out. Apart from the entrance which was left unblocked, there weren't other windows or openings on the walls.

Ashu wondered as he asked Lorist, "Why do you need another wooden wall inside the clay brick wall?"

Lorist was applying some clay into the space between the logs as he said, "When winter comes, the clay wall will freeze up and won't be able to retain as much heat. By adding an extra wooden wall just behind the clay wall, it can prevent more heat from escaping. This is called double insulation."

Ashu nodded as if he understood Lorist's explanation before asking two more questions. "Why don't the walls extend straight up from the ground but slanted towards the middle instead?"

Lorist then drew an inverted v shape on the ground with a stick and said, "If the house is built slanted like that, it won't collapse from the weight of the gathered snow. That's why the walls are built with a similar angle to the roof."

It was then when Ashu's doubts had been cleared.

On the eighth to tenth days, Lorist worked almost entirely on the roof. It extended all the way from the top to the ground at a slanted angle and the whole house looked like a triangle when viewed from the side with a hole right in the middle where the entrance was.

On the eleventh day, Lorist started to work on the fire pit and stove, with the smoke channel having already been dug in the ground beforehand. However, there was no cover above the fire pit and Lorist couldn't just put a piece of wood atop it either as it would easily catch fire. He had to somehow find a way to separate the wood from the fire.

And thus, he tore apart his outer robe and took out the six thin steel plates that were embedded within it to provide better defense for the wearer. Lorist had Ashu ask for the help of an Eight Ringed Ulay, a wielder of the 'power of the mountain spirit', that was roughly equal to a Two Star Silver rank in terms of Battle Force cultivation, and had him use his blade glow to cut out a 1-meter-long, 0.8-meter wide and one inch thick stone slab with which Lorist placed upon the fire pit. He paid the Ulay two of the steel plates for his services.

After that, Lorist traded two more steel plates with Ashu for 30 kilograms of kudzu root, some lamb and a large earthen jar, because the food he had been given by that old man which was supposed to last for that month was almost finished.

Lorist then gifted the last two plates to Ashu as thanks for his help thus far. Troubled by the fact that he received something for free, Ashu got a dagger and gave it to Lorist in return.

The next few days saw Lorist being incredibly busy working on the door of the house, some clothes for Reidy, collecting enough charcoal as well as making two sets of wooden bowls and spoons. Most importantly, he also had to get some food that he will need to survive through winter as well as some salt.

Upon the completion of the house, Ashu fostered a deep-seated respect for Lorist. Never would he dare imagine that a shabby shack like that could be changed into a cosy house within a little more than 10 days. He was especially impressed with the fire pit Lorist installed into the floor and was shocked to find that it could be used to also heat up the bed during the night. Additionally, the whole house was able to maintain its internal warmth, much to his surprise.

During the time he spent constructing the house, Lorist had already understood most of the things about the barbarian tribe that was led by the chief of Whitesnow Mountain. According to Ashu, it was originally called the Nubik Tribe, and Ashu and the mountain chief were originally people of the Habibaba Tribe. A few years ago, the leader of the Habibaba Tribe went to the Smormilgen Mountain to participate in the Kubawesson Festival that was held once every 12 years during which they will make offerings to their mountain gods. And during the Bywessi Conference, a Jambassen would be chosen to be the leader of the tribes in the nearby area.

After that, the leader of the Habibaba Tribe declared himself the Jambassen and led his warriors to conquer the other seven tribes within the mountainous area, one of which being the Nubik Tribe. However, unlike the other tribes that were absorbed into the Habibaba Tribe, the Jambassen had his beloved daughter become the new leader of the Nubik Tribe and gave her control over the nearby barbarian territory before declaring her the chief of Whitesnow Mountain. And so, the Nubik Tribe changed its name to the Whitesnow Tribe.

Ashu was the playmate of the Whitesnow Mountain chief since his childhood and he had naturally become her attendant when she became the leader of the tribe. Ashu told Lorist that there were around 1300 people within the Whitesnow Tribe, but Lorist doubted it because he didn't even see that many people and remarked that he only saw the elderly, women and children when they collected wild fruits and firewood. Apart from the men that Lorist traveled with in the troupe, he didn't see any other barbarian males.

Ashu said that it was to be expected because the Ulays and 400 plus men of the Whitesnow Tribe followed the Jambassen to war. One year ago, the Habibaba Jambassen got into conflict with the Jambassen of another area and both of them plotted to take over each other's territory, causing disputes between the two factions. The Whitesnow Tribe had also sent 400 men to join the war effort and they would only return after the first round of snow that year.

Lorist finally realized that the reason the family's development during the past two years didn't get disrupted by any barbarian attacks was due to that. Apart from the 1000 plus barbarians who attacked the army camp at the intersection point of the two mountain ranges two years ago before they were driven away by Josk's mounted archer brigade and Pajik's garrison company, there were no other reports of barbarian skirmishes. He now understood that it was because the barbarians had changed their target. At that moment, Lorist hoped that the barbarian tribes would be in conflict for as long as possible.

What he found most laughable was what Ashu said about his fate. While Lorist was the first flatlander slave of high status of the mountain chief, he was also the first flatlander slave she caught. And right now, she had no idea whatsoever about what she would do with Lorist.

It wasn't like the barbarians didn't own slaves; the shabby wooden shack was built for the very purpose of housing them. However, as those slaves were other barbarians, after two or three months of foraging and hunting with the tribe, they would quickly assimilate into it and become one of its members.

However, Lorist and Reidy were known to them as flatlanders and after they become slaves, they wouldn't be allowed to join the tribe. Currently, they were waiting for the Habibaba Jambassen to return from his military expedition, after which the chief of Whitesnow Mountain would show Lorist off to him. But in the meantime, she had no idea what to do with Lorist.

Quickly, winter arrived and the barbarians of the Whitesnow Tribe all entered that large cave to spend the winter. And as flatlander slaves, Lorist and Reidy were forbidden from entering their sacred cave. Because of that very reason, the female chief granted Lorist permission to build his house without any objection because she was fine as long as Lorist didn't escape when they were within the cave. In actuality, given Lorist and Reidy's current condition, if they tried to leave during the winter, they would no doubt die, so there wasn't really much of a difference.

Had it not been for their status as slaves, Ashu would have moved into the newly-built house with them right away. According to him, the cavern extended quite deeply and there was even a small subterranean stream within it. But during the three months the barbarians stayed within the cave, the air within would smell progressively worse even though it might be hard to realize it in the beginning.

While there was quite an extensive network of smaller caverns within it and even a few openings for ventilation, the combined waste excretions of the thousands of people and livestock would cause the stink to permeate the whole cave. After winter, everyone who came out of the cave would smell absolutely horrible. While the hunchbacked old man couldn't enter the cave because of his injuries and had to stay outside to monitor Lorist and Reidy, many other barbarians actually envied the fact that the old man didn't have to spend winter in the cave.

Ashu then pointed at the other derelict shacks within the stockade and said, "Look. Apart from your old shack which was built to house slaves, the other shacks here aren't that much better. While they are still habitable during summer and autumn, nobody would be able to survive in those shacks during winter period and the spring rainy season and can only stay within the cave. I hope that after this winter, the mountain chief can order the other people of the tribe to aid you to build more houses like that for us..."

I don't want your help, thank you, Lorist thought. When I recover my internal energy, I will return to my family dominion right away. Who would want to stay here for a few years to help you build your houses? Despite that, Lorist maintained his smile and asked Ashu how he could get enough food and salt for the winter.

Ashu said that the tribe can't give Lorist and Reidy food from their public food stores given their status as slaves and it was already quite hard for them to bring out the month's worth of kudzu roots before. If Lorist needed more food, he would have to get them himself. Ashu said that hunting was one of the best ways and whatever Lorist caught would belong to him. As for salt, he suggested Lorist to travel to a saltwater lake across the mountain where there would be ample salt chunks scattered around the bank. He also added that some people would be sent there for a trip later and he would ask them to bring Lorist an especially large chunk for the time being.

Sigh, so slaves have to rely on themselves to survive too... Even so, Lorist still found it surprising that being a slave of the barbarians was far better than being a citizen of most other dominions of nobles. As a barbarian's slave, the prey one hunted would belong to oneself whereas commoners who hunt within the dominion of a lord are obligated to give at least half of their gains to the dominion lord as tax, with some worse rates going up to as high as 75 percent. For example, if a commoner killed a wild boar, it would be fortunate if he was still left with even the boar's head after the lord came to collect the tribute.

I wonder how many commoners would come running here to become their slaves if this spreads, Lorist thought, before he shook his head and stopped thinking unnecessary thoughts. As a slave, he should be aware of his own status. Since he was a flatlander, he wasn't allowed to venture too far and couldn't carry any weapons with him. The prey he could hunt in the nearby area were also very sparse, with only some wild hares and pheasants which he could catch.

He did however not require any weapons to catch those two animals. Lorist recalled a practical method he learned during his days as a mercenary to make hunting traps. Using a vine and some goat skin, Lorist managed to make more than ten traps which he laid within bushes and shrubs. When he checked the traps on the next day, he found that he had gotten quite a good harvest of three pheasants and four hares. As winter was just days away, these animals were all plump with fat. Lorist was elated and thought that if his gains continued for the rest of the days at that rate, he would quickly be able to gather enough food.

Lorist used a pheasant and a hare to trade 25 kilograms of kudzu roots with the hunchbacked old barbarian and two other hares for a few more magical beast skins. Additionally, he gifted Ashu with a pheasant and cooked one for himself that night for dinner. He then smoked the remaining hare meat to save it for the winter.

After another night, Lorist went to check those traps again and found three captured pheasants and three hares. This time around, he used one of each animal to trade for a wooden bucket with which to carry water and just like that, the house was equipped with the basic daily necessities.

Seeing Ashu looking at the traps curiously, Lorist casually taught him how to make them. However, he didn't expect that after Ashu learned the skill, it spread to all the other barbarian children and when Lorist checked the trap site two days later, he realized that the whole bush was laden with traps belonging to others. With so many traps cramped together, how would the pheasants and hares of the mountain not notice them?

However, after he saw Ashu's innocent expression, Lorist was so frustrated that he didn't know if he should even get mad at him. Without the hares and pheasants, Lorist turned his attention to the stream around the mountains.

The barbarians didn't eat lots of fish were because they didn't have any nets, didn't know how to fish them, and also because fishes had too many fine bones, making them relatively hard to consume. Even if they did want to catch some, they only used the spearing method and could only catch the larger varieties of fish, albeit with little success.

While Lorist didn't have any fishing tools with him, that didn't stop him from using his wit. After spending a day digging a large pit with Reidy at the riverbank, Lorist made a small bypass from the river to the pit he dug and allowed water from the stream to flow into it. On the next day, he made a small wooden 'gate' with the twigs he found and installed it in the middle of the small stream to redirect the fish to swim into the pit. Following that, he cut the pit off from the river before removing the water within with a wooden water scoop and caught more than 100 fish in one go, among which 20 were of rather large size.

Seeing that his method worked great, Lorist woke up the next day with the intention of repeating the process. But just as he was bringing the wooden gate to the stream, he saw the female chief of Whitesnow Mountain head there with her attendants. She then told Lorist and Reidy, "Come with me. I will bring you two to see my daddy."

Chapter 210 Barbarians

This time around, Lorist and Reidy did not have to walk and instead rode a Northlander Horse surrounded by the rest of the troupe. Perhaps the barbarians were shocked at how skilled they were at building that house and began treating them more nicely. Even the ration of meat they were given during the travels were the same as the other barbarians.

'Perspectives can be deceiving'. Lorist found that saying to be especially true. Even though that Fuji Mountain-like volcano seemed really close to them, the troupe spent more than half a day to arrive at its foot. They had to pass through a black pine forest before circling around two smaller hills before Lorist was able to see their destination. Halfway up the mountain was a large military base which was fortified with a wall constructed from messily stacked up rocks.

As the troupe of the Whitesnow Mountain chief approached the base, a blowing horn could be heard coming from the walls of the base. Ashu, who was riding behind Lorist, told him that the horn signalled that they were welcome and that the base was the meeting point for the Habibaba Tribe. The Jambassen who returned yesterday from his military campaign had impatiently sent for someone to notify his daughter, the mountain chief, to meet him.

When they arrived at the entrance of the base, Lorist realized that it only had a wooden gate sealing the entrance. When he entered, he saw that the setup of the base was not unlike that of normal flatlander settlements with the houses on both sides of the streets having stone walls. But what intrigued Lorist was the structure of the roofs of the various houses which were all over the place.

The talkative Ashu spared Lorist the trouble of asking and explained the origins of the base to him. It was said that tens of years ago, there was a brave, young warrior of the Habibaba Tribe that had always wanted to venture to the flatlands and understand how the people lived. And so, he left the tribe on a journey to explore the world.

But the world he soon found himself in was a cruel one. The moment he arrived in flatlander society, he was captured and turned into a slave and was forced to construct buildings for the towns and cities of the flatlanders. After 40 years of toiling away, he was abandoned due to his old age and disease. But he managed to survive as a beggar and made his way back to the Habibaba Tribe despite the odds.

The former warrior barbarian, now old and sick, regretted his past decisions greatly and felt horrible because he wasn't able to contribute to the tribe that had raised him. So, he decided to use his experience and knowledge of building that he gained during his 40 years of slaving away to construct a mighty base for the Habibaba Tribe. Unfortunately, right after he finished building the main palace and was halfway done with the rest of the base, he passed away and returned to the embrace of the mountain deities. Having lost the guidance of the barbarian architect, the other barbarians improvised and made roofs of all kinds of styles, resulting in the lack of uniformity for the buildings that Lorist saw.

Ashu proudly said that the base, Balibak Citadel, was named after the barbarian architect.

While Lorist was not the least bit interested in what the base was called, he was curious about the palace Ashu mentioned as he didn't know that barbarians would be able to construct one.

After walking for more than half an hour, the palace was right in front of Lorist's eyes.

"Pffft!" Lorist couldn't hold his laughter back and thought, can you even call this a palace? This is obviously a canteen built for the construction workers! The only difference is that the wooden building in the middle is two times bigger than those in normal canteens!

The building in the middle was actually a wooden steeple. Using the wood they got from the Black Forests as its square base foundation, it was built with a pointed roof. On the sides of the steeple were two long wooden buildings that resembled the sleeping chambers of construction laborers, with the only difference being that they were built using timber. Normal construction laborer housing wouldn't use materials that expensive.

Ashu furrowed his brow and said, "What are you laughing about? We're here at the palace, so be more serious..."

Lorist shut his mouth immediately and managed to stop his laughter. What a joke! This is the palace of the barbarians? I really did learn something interesting from this trip after all...

The chief of Whitesnow Mountain at the front dismounted and nodded to her few attendants before pointing towards Lorist and Reidy and telling Ashu to get another attendant to hold both of his prisoners and escort them into the palace.

Lorist later confirmed that the 'palace' was indeed modeled after a canteen. Before they even entered the building, the loud chattering from within could be heard clearly. Once inside, he saw what resembled a large canteen hall. The whole place was lined with 4 long tables arranged in parallel on each side with only a 2-meter-wide walkway between the tables for people to cross. Each of the tables sat 20 or so people and kudzu roots, fruits and roasted meat were served to them. There was an estimated 200 people feasting away within that room, with some getting so drunk that they began to cause trouble by harassing the barbarian waitresses who were serving the food and others standing on their tables and singing out loud. Lorist even witnessed a few big-built barbarian men humping away with a few barbarian women in the corner.

The walkway was rather long and at its end was an elevated platform on which a wide table filled with food stood. Behind it sat a lion-like muscular man who looked at the chaos within the hall with a lazy gaze, occasionally smiling as he drank more alcohol from his silver cup.

Seeing the mountain chief approach him, that huge man revealed a loving smile and began to laugh out loud. His laughter reverberated throughout the canteen, or 'palace' hall, and caused the chatters and laughters to stop. "Oh, my dear, the most beautiful flower of Fire Spirit Mountain and shiniest pearl of Whitesnow Mountain... You're here! Hahahaha, come over quick. Let daddy take a good look at how my beloved songbird is doing..."

The mountain chief said in an annoyed voice, "Daddy, why are you being so loud? You frightened the rest of them," before she leaped into the bosom of the huge man and said, "Daddy, this time you left for such a long time... I wasn't able to see you for a whole year..."

Patting on the shoulder of the mountain chief lovingly, the man said, "My little princess, it's not that daddy doesn't want to get back here sooner, but that old lion Bilulu just didn't want to admit his loss. Had it not been for the winter, daddy here would have stayed there longer and take that old lion's den. I will spare his life for now and if is still defiant to me, I will go there to teach him another lesson next year. Haha, daddy also found a nice husband for you this time around. My beautiful songbird is already an adult and it's about time you got married. Alik, come here."

On the table left to the mountain chief's father, a tall and large barbarian youth stood up and stepped before the mountain chief and her father. With both hands crossed at his chest, he bowed to the mountain chief and said, "I've long heard about the great name of the chief of Whitesnow Mountain. I, Alik, am a fond admirer of yours. May Kubawesson bless you with protection, the prettiest moon of my heart..."

The mountain chief looked at Alik curiously, causing him to lower his head shyly under her intense gaze.

The large man laughed out loud and said, "My beloved songbird, Alik here is really famous and he's already a leader in the Enbri Tribe and is also a Ten Ringed Ulay. If he did not lead his 300 Ulays to penetrate that old lion's defense line, daddy here might have fallen into the lion's trap and won't be able to return. That's why I brought him here to see you, so bring him around and show him our mountains and livestock, understood?"

The mountain chief blushed as her father had called her to show her future husband the livestock they would be offering as dowry. If all went as planned, her wedding with Alik was basically set in stone.

"Huh? Who are those two?" asked the huge man after he saw Lorist and Reidy who were surrounded by four of the mountain chief's attendants.

"Daddy, they are the flatlander slaves with high statuses that I captured. Look, this is his badge," said the chief of Whitesnow Mountain as she gave Lorist's academy and instructor badges to her father before stealing a glance at Alik to see his expression, obviously feeling that her capture of Lorist and Reidy was a praiseworthy achievement.

Her father laughed out and said, "My darling, flatlanders are really cunning, so don't you go around getting tricked by them. Bring them before me so that I can ask them myself."

The mountain chief said, "Daddy, this flatlander is quite skilled and said that he's an architectural instructor and knows how to build houses. But the house he built wasn't as big as the palace and it even looks weird, like a steep mountain."

Lorist and Reidy were promptly brought forward. As the man played around with the two badges, he looked at Lorist like a predator did its prey. "Tell me about who you are... Hmmm..."

Stepping forward, Lorist bowed before reciting the lies he told about his career as a Gold ranked architectural instructor from the Dawn Academy, his grudge with his enemy who chased him all the way into the river up to his rescue by the mountain chief and his reunion with his student that was currently mentally ill and mute.

The large man stopped Lorist before he finished and asked, "What kind of thing is an architectural instructor?"

"Well, respected Jambassen, an architectural instructor is not a thing... You can think of it as a person who teaches others how to build..." Not knowing how to answer the Jambassen, Lorist changed his phrasing to better explain what he meant.

The large man laughed out loud and said, "You? Teaching others to build? Are you fitting enough for that task? You're still so young, who would believe that you can teach others to build? Also, how can you prove that you do know how to teach if that was the case?"

One annoying thing about the barbarians was that they only believed in things they could see.

Lorist looked at the large man's table and saw a huge bowl with one cooked kudzu root within. Taking it from the bowl and placing it on the table, he flipped the bowl over and took the dagger that was pierced into the roasted meat. After that, he cut a few fruits into cubes and placed them on the upwards-facing bottom of the bowl. He then removed the skin from the piping hot kudzu root and gradually turned it into paste form before applying some to the fruit cubes on top of the bowl. In a few short moments, a mini castle could be seen.

The large man, Alik and the mountain chief were flabbergasted when they saw Lorist use nothing but a simple dagger to make a small white castle on top of the bowl.

Lorist then put the dagger back down before retreating a few steps. After bowing again, he said, "Great Jambassen, this is how I teach others to build."

The huge man scratched his head as he looked at the kudzu castle on the table before looking back at Lorist, seemingly at a loss for what to say. Just before, he had mocked Lorist for being young and inexperienced, but he didn't expect that Lorist could build a small beautiful castle like that out of nowhere, proving him wrong without giving him any face. Understanding how awkward it was for her father, the mountain chief said, "Not bad, this castle looks really nice. Can we build something like that too?"

Lorist nodded and said, "Respected mountain chief, it is definitely possible. However, it will no doubt require lots of time, manpower and some resources only obtainable from the flatlanders."

"How long will it take?" she asked.

"Based on your conditions here, I estimate that it will take at least three to four years and more than 10000 workers," Lorist said, greatly exaggerating the magnitude of the project.

Furrowing her brow, the mountain chief said, "If it'll take that long, forget it. What about building a palace like this one that belongs to my daddy?"

Lorist replied, "Oh, this won't take long. You only need three months and 1000 workers. However, respected mountain chief, it is not the right time to build right now and we have to wait until summer comes to begin our work. It is not possible to do so in the snow and rain."

The huge man patted on his thigh and said, "When I was still small, it took Balibak one whole year to build this palace for my father. Since you said that you're almost as skilled as him, then build another palace like this when summer comes next year. It will serve well as my daughter and Alik's new home. Then, it's decided."

The mountain chief began acting spoiled again with her father, who merely laughed out and waved for Lorist and Reidy to be brought away.

In the following five to six days, Lorist and Reidy were kept locked inside an old stone house. Ashu visited them a few times and said that the mountain chief had been bringing Alik around to see the sheeps and cows and their relationship was developing fast after spending most of their time together. In a few more days, Alik would return to his tribe and move them here to merge it with the Whitesnow Tribe before getting married with the Whitesnow Mountain chief.

Lorist noticed that Ashu seemed quite down when he talked about the matter, as the playmate from his childhood was going to marry another man. While jealousy and envy was hard to let go off, when compared with Alik, a Four Ringed Ulay like Ashu really wasn't appealing enough. It was the sad case of a plebeian falling in love with his master.

Two days later, snow started falling near the mountains, marking the arrival of winter. Lorist and Reidy were released from the stone house by Ashu and were told that they would return to the Whitesnow Tribe on that day. He and a few other attendants brought Lorist to a high vantage point where hundreds of people gathered and said that those people were the men of the Whitesnow Tribe who were sent to fight with the Jambassen who would also return to the tribe with them. Currently, the mountain chief was bidding farewell to Alik and after she sent him off, they would begin the journey back to the tribe.

It didn't take long for Lorist to spot the two lovers who were embracing. The mountain chief hugged Alik so tightly as if they were meeting for the last time in their lives. After a long moment, Alik finally got on his horse and left with his attendants while the mountain chief waved her hand nonstop towards him in the distance and only ceased when he was out of her sight.

On the way back, the mountain chief suddenly called for Lorist and asked him about the construction of the 'palace' in the following year over and over again. It was not until Lorist promised that he would build a far bigger palace (canteen), than her father's that she stopped pestering Lorist.

Looks like this lass just can't wait to get married and is already looking forward to her palace even though winter just started... How impatient...

When they returned to the stockade, Lorist realized that the hunchbacked old man had occupied the house he and Reidy built. When Ashu reported that to the mountain chief, she had the old barbarian man whipped. Ashu then told Lorist that taking possession of other people's belongings without permission from the leader was a grave crime. He also said that it was a shame that Lorist was a slave. Otherwise, he could make the old man his personal slave for that transgression.

I finally have some time for myself, thought Lorist as he shut the door of his small wooden house. From that time onwards, he would be spending three months there during the winter. He wanted to use the chance when nobody would bother him to properly treat his injuries and begin restoring Reidy's memories before returning to the dominion.

Chapter 211 Departure

So it's already the 1st month of the year 1772, Lorist thought as he looked at rows of stars drawn on the wall. The barbarian that was responsible for keeping time was the bushy-haired barbarian witch doctor. Even though Lorist wanted to know only the date, he had spent lots of effort to get it out from the witch doctor who frequently talked in riddles, much to Lorist's frustration.

During the past 30 or so days, Lorist and Reidy basically stayed within the small wooden house, apart from occasionally going out to clear the snow or empty the latrine, as well as one occassion when they went on a fishing trip when the snow stopped temporarily. Despite getting up to 50 kilograms of fish, they met with a barbarian patrol group on the way back and half of their gains were confiscated.

But it was precisely because of that encounter that Lorist discovered a huge weakness of the barbarians. Their military force during the winter was incredibly lacking. During the past two years around this time, Lorist was leading the family forces in their struggle against the magical beast wave and it was quite common for them to operate within the snowy lands at temperatures around negative 20 to 30 centigrade. The main reason his forces were able to do so was their emphasis on winter gear that had incredible heat insulation, which included a fur coat, fur cap, a pair of gloves, an outer windbreaker as well as a face mask. They could be said to be equipped fully from head to toe.

Naturally, a large part of that success was thanks to Lorist's experiences in the frozen frontiers during his past life and his willingness to use the precious furs of the magical beasts to make warmth-retaining clothing for his soldiers without the slightest hesitation. Even though the cotton plant didn't exist on Grindia, these magical beast furs were far better than them in regards to retaining heat. In addition to the fact that the Norton Family soldiers have awakened their Battle Force, their increased circulation also helped to stave off the heat.

Compared to the fur winter gear of the Norton Family soldiers, the barbarians only wore a few layers of beast fur casually tossed over their upper body. They merely hung a few of them on their upper body but left their legs bare. Not only that, the fur clothes they wore also had large sleeves. It was no wonder that an Eight Ringed Ulay, which was the equivalent of a Two Star Silver Battle Force user, was so cold that he felt like dying. They were already complaining badly about how they had to come out to patrol in that weather.

During the days when the snow didn't fall, the barbarians who hid within the cave would send out around a hundred people to patrol the stockade during morning and night, mainly to check if there were any carnivorous magical beasts hanging around. That's why when they met with Lorist and Reidy who were returning from their fishing trip, they were incredibly surprised because the both of them left the stockade without permission. Lorist told them that he had no choice because they were running out of food and had to capture more fish to sustain themselves.

The barbarians were troubled as leaving the stockade without notice was considered to be a grave crime. But it wasn't that they wanted Lorist to starve to death either. After the bearded leader of the patrol team discussed with his teammates, he decided to confiscate half of the fish as punishment. Even though they disliked fish because of the bones, it was still quite pleasing for them to be able to drink a huge bowl of fish soup during the winter. And so the matter was settled and the bearded leader even sent someone to bring Lorist a huge sack of kudzu roots after he returned to the cave. In that regard, the barbarians weren't that bad.

With the passing of the 30 or so days, Lorist had almost recovered halfway from his injuries and managed to save up a third of his full amount of internal energy within his dantian. In another ten plus days, he would be able to completely repair his damaged meridians, and the thought of that relieved him greatly. Also, of the many blood clots within Reidy's brain, only one large one remained as Lorist had been using his internal energy to gradually remove them over time. He believed that Reidy would return to his former self after that last one was removed.

The weather outside on that day was rather bad with a huge snowstorm covering the whole area.

Lorist sat cross-legged above the fire pit on the stone slab with the temperature within the house was as warm as spring. He had just finished another round of treatment for Reidy and the latter was already sound asleep in a corner. After every treatment session, Reidy would turn really sleepy and sometimes would be out cold for tens of hours a time, causing Lorist to sometimes worry that he would never wake up again.

After circulating another major cycle to recover the internal energy he expended on Reidy's treatment, Lorist shut his eyes and recalled the moments when he was fighting Blademaster Zarinan. He found it really laughable that he had felt so confident after defeating Blademaster Xanthi. At that time, he truly believed that no one else within that world would be able to force him into a corner when it came to swordplay and was really full of himself. But an assassination by an old Blademaster had been able to shake him up so badly with no warning. Not only was he personally injured, many loyal soldiers of the family also perished, causing Lorist regret that was hard to put into words.

He had believed that with his good swordsmanship and mighty family forces, he would be invincible and would be able to mess around unabated. But in retrospect, Lorist found that he had been too arrogant and ignorant. If a rank 3 Blademaster was able to push him into a grave corner, what would he do if he was faced with a Sword Saint? He would no doubt lose everything he cared about. He realized that only with personal strength could he be confident and without worries in this world.

Having acknowledged his errors, Lorist gained a newfound realization to take himself seriously from now on and train even harder than before. Currently, even when he was sitting cross-legged to rest, he was recalling every strike of the Blademaster with clarity and mentally simulated how he would block them and make counters.

Bam bam bam! The door of the house was knocked on loudly and Lorist opened his eyes immediately. Weird, who would be coming here on a stormy day like this? I should be careful, it may be some magical beast that's banging on the door. I'd be dead meat if I really opened the door for a magical beast.

"Who's this?" Lorist shouted out.

"It's me! Open the door!" said the person outside.

Lorist then opened the door and the one who rushed within was the hunchbacked old man who wrapped himself with so many furs he looked like a huge meatball.

"So cold... so cold..." he muttered with his face almost green like rusted iron. Some frozen streaks of mucus could also be seen near the old man's nose as he stomped around to rid himself of the cold.

"Why have you come here?" Lorist asked coldly.

"Why? Hehe, kid, this place belongs to me now! You two, scram!" said the old man as he snickered wildly.

As the old barbarian man could no longer resist the cold within his shabby old house, he had decided to get his hands on Lorist's own small wooden house.

"Have you forgotten that time when you were whipped? Also, with the furious snowstorm outside, where would we go?" Lorist said as he stared at the old man without actually considering him a threat.

"I don't care where you go. It'll be even better if you freeze to death. I still haven't paid you back for that time I was whipped. You actually dared to rat me out... I'd like to see if you can find anyone to complain to right now! There is no way that the mountain chief will leave the cave in this weather. You'll have to wait for another two months if you want to complain to her! Now, get out quick!" roared the old man as he raised a thick whip up with his right hand.

The old barbarian man swung the whip against Reidy's back, causing him to wake up and look at the old man, confused at what was happening.

"Are you still gonna stay here?!" shouted the man angrily at Reidy as he raised his whip again for another swing.

It was then when Lorist stepped forward and held the whip tightly with his hand.

"Cursed slave, you dare resist me?!" shouted the rage-filled barbarian man.

Without saying a word, Lorist landed a harsh punch right onto the old barbarian man's chest where his heart was.

"Ugh..." groaned the man before he stopped moving altogether.

Lorist did not use that much internal energy when he punched that old man as he only needed him to stay put for ten minutes or so. After removing the two thick cow skins the old barbarian man wore without any regard, he tossed the old man outside the house onto the snowy grounds. After closing the door, Lorist said to Reidy, "Don't worry, get back to sleep."

"Oh..." Reidy muttered as he lied back down.

After half an hour, Lorist put on one of the cow skins and opened the door to take a look. The hunchbacked old barbarian man had already frozen to death and Lorist removed the snow from the old man's corpse before he brought him back to the shabby old house.

The old house was freezing cold and there was a broken earthen pot within that the old man used as a brazier, but the firewood inside were all cold and wet. Lorist also realized that there were a number of large holes around the walls of the house. Originally, they were covered up by mud and clay, but they had probably fallen off after being frozen stiff, allowing the snow and wind outside to gush into the house from the holes. No wonder the old man wasn't able to stand being in his house and desperately tried to occupy the one Lorist built.

There was a pile of dried grass where the old man probably slept and Lorist tossed his corpse upon it and placed the cow skin he brought with him on the corpse, making it seem like the old man was sound asleep.

After that, he searched the house for a while and discovered that under the pile of grass was a rusted longsword. Apart from some trash and random goods within the house, there wasn't anything else worth noting. The old man still had quite a lot of food remaining, but Lorist didn't touch that and only cut off a wooden plank from the house with the longsword and used it to smudge his tracks when he returned to his own house.

The snowstorm continued for four days and three nights. When it cleared up, Lorist and Reidy immediately proceeded to clean off the snow that had gathered on the roof and after a long while of work, they saw the patrol team emerge from the cave.

The leader of the team was the same bearded man who led the previous patrol. He greeted Lorist when he approached.

Lorist pointed to the hunchbacked old man's house and said, "During the past few days, the old man would ask me to help clean the snow off his roof every time the snow stopped falling. But this time, he still hasn't come out yet. I wonder if something has happened to him..."

And so, the bearded leader made his way to the old man's house and it didn't take long for a commotion to break out.

Lorist went there to join the fray and when the bearded leader saw him, he waved his hand and said, "The old man has already frozen to death. Come here, there are a few skins and furs that you can use as well as a few sacks of kudzu roots. Take them."

Lorist happily returned to his house with the furs and kudzu roots before bringing Reidy along with him to clean up the snow around the broken old house. After that, he dug a huge hole in the ground and buried the old barbarian man within it.

Now that the old barbarian man was gone, only Reidy and Lorist remained within the stockade as all the other barbarians stayed within the cave. Had it not been for Reidy's current state, Lorist would've left the place right away since nobody would be able to stop him.

During the chilling-cold days wrought with snow and storm, apart from helping Reidy heal and further repairing his damaged meridians, Lorist also used the skins obtained from old barbarian man to make leather pants, gloves, cloaks, masks as well as some eye shields to prevent the eyes from freezing over using a small, razor-sharp blade, a long needle and a few fish hooks which he kept hidden within his old outer robe.

Even though his sewing skill wasn't that good, Lorist did manage to make leather equipment for two people in less than ten days. After that, he preserved some food for the upcoming journey and also made some wooden skis for his travels. All he had to do next was to wait until the day Reidy returns to his former self.

In the following days, Lorist would train his swordsmanship in a borderline insane fashion even during stormy days. Even during nights when snowstorms ravaged the stockade and covered the ground completely white with snow, the moment he recalled a scene during his battle with Blademaster Zarinan, he felt as if he gained some insight and would work himself to exhaustion outside in the snow. Just like that, Lorist refined his swordsmanship step by step as the days passed.

By the time the wooden wall within the house was filled with three other rows of small stars marking the days, Reidy's treatment had already reached its last stage. As Lorist tapped on Reidy's pressure point behind his head with his left hand, he used his right palm to support Reidy's back from behind and injected some of his internal energy into Reidy's head in small pulses against the last remaining blood clot. When it was finally disintegrated, Reidy lost consciousness.

But this time around, he woke up within only four short hours. When he opened his eyes, he saw Lorist sitting beside him and said, "Milord, it was as if I was dreaming for a long period of time..."

Lorist laughed out and said, "Do you remember what you dreamed about?"

After furrowing his brow for a few moments, he shook his head and said, "I can't really recall. I think there were many other people around us, but you were always by my side, milord. Oh, weren't we on that cliff back then? I remember shooting that old bastard in the back once. After hitting my head when we fell off the cliff, I can't recall anything else. Milord, where are we right now?"

"We are currently the slaves of the mountain barbarians." Lorist proceeded to briefly explain the recent events to Reidy before he ruffled his head and said, "If you didn't lose your memory, we would've back at the dominion long ago."

Reidy shook his head and said, "Milord, I think you made a mistake. You should've returned to the dominion as soon as possible. While the family can do without me, it definitely can't go on without you..."

Passing the small silver container with rank 2 medicine to Reidy, Lorist said, "Don't worry about things that don't concern you. Do I look like the kind of lord that will abandon my own family knights? Within the container holds the last two or three drops of rank 2 medicine. After you drink it, circulate your Battle Force immediately. I will give you three days to prepare and we will head back to the dominion when you recover. After all, you won't be able to survive the cold outside if you can't use your Battle Force."

Catching the container, Reidy said, "Milord, have your injuries recovered?"

"Don't worry, I'm already fine. All that's left is for you to patch yourself up. Consume the medicine and begin quickly," Lorist said with a smile.

Three days later, Reidy looked at his silver blade glow excitedly and said, "Milord, look! My Battle Force seemed to have grown with the blade glow even lengthening a bit."

Lorist however continued to draw on the wooden wall with a piece of charcoal without saying anything.

Putting his sword down, Reidy asked, "Milord, what are you drawing?"

"Oh, I promised the leader of the barbarians here to build a canteen for them. But since we're leaving soon, I won't be able to fulfill that promise. That's why I'm drawing up a set of diagrams and procedures for the construction here. I only hope that they can understand it well enough to finish the canteen on their own. I'll be done soon, so you should go pack up. After this, we will make our leave," Lorist said as he continued drawing.

When Lorist placed the charcoal in his hand down and brought up the torch to get a better look at his drawings, he told Reidy, "Even the mountain barbarians should be able to understand these simple drawings, right?"

Right after that, a loud knocking on the door cut their conversation short.

Reidy opened the door and saw a person wearing thick furs walk inside. After that person removed the furs, Lorist realized that it was that thick-lipped female barbarian.

Feeling the humiliation well up in his mind, Lorist looked at her with a cold gaze and asked, "Why have you come here?"

The thick-lipped barbarian woman smiled as she said, "I'm pregnant. The witch doctor said that it's your child..."

As if a bolt of lightning had struck him, Lorist began shivering all over. Reidy was completely flabbergasted by what he has just heard.

The barbarian woman continued, "My husband died last year in battle and now I even have your child. That means, I can get married to you and you won't have to be a slave anymore! You can join our tribe and I'll definitely treat you well..."

Before she finished, Lorist's figure swerved to reach for his sword that was placed above the fire pit before he pierced it straight through the thick-lipped barbarian woman's chest.

She lowered her head gradually and looked at the longsword that had passed through her torso before slowly turning her gaze back to Lorist with an expression filled with despair and agony as life slowly left her body. Her pale lips twitched as she struggled to say something with great difficulty. "W... Why..."

Lorist was still shivering as his grip on his sword loosened. He stepped backwards slowly before collapsing into a sitting position atop the fire pit and said, "You... you are the cause of the greatest... humiliation I have ever suffered in all my life..."

As the thick-lipped woman fell backwards, Reidy stepped forward to catch her, only for her to say one last thing before she breathed her dying breath. "My... my child..."

The atmosphere within the small wooden house was so chilling that it almost felt like time itself was frozen. After a long while, Lorist raised his head and said, "We'll leave immediately..."

Reidy looked at the corpse of the barbarian woman in his hands and said, "Mi-milord... What... What do we do about her..."

Sighing, Lorist said, "Bring her with us and find a place to bury her."

Atop a lone mound, Lorist dug through the frozen earth without regard to amount of internal energy it consumed to make a pit to bury the barbarian woman within. After that, he sat by the grave marker for a long while.

"Forget this matter. This has been a long nightmare for me as well," Lorist said as he finally stood up.

Reidy merely nodded.

"Let's go. We should be heading home," Lorist said, before he swung his hands to gain some momentum to ski down from the hill, with Reidy following behind. The two of them streaked through the snow-covered plains as quickly as lightning...

Chapter 212 Setting Out

From the depths of darkness came a voice that whispered, "My... my child..."

Started awake from sleep, Lorist sat straight up on his bed. He was relieved to find that he was in a familiar room. Oh, I've already returned to the dominion for a month or so and I'm here at Firmrock Castle... I'm no longer that pathetic, oppressed slave. Bu-but... why do I keep dreaming about the last words of that thick-lipped barbarian woman?

But the kid is not mine! Lorist denied with a fervent rage. He still recalled the days when the barbarian woman forced herself upon him. During that time, she also did it with two other barbarian men when she brought Lorist near the stream to bathe. There was no way that the child could so coincidentally be his, and her claim that it was his was based on the witch doctor's arbitrary reading.

It was as if there were two different people arguing within his mind. One of them maintained the view that the child was not his and that it wasn't wrong for him to kill her for leaving a mark of eternal shame on him that will last his whole life.

The other kept doubting himself. She's only a barbarian woman who had lost her husband, and without a child, she wouldn't have any status within the tribe when she gets old. No matter who she does it with or how she forced me to do it with her, she only did it to have a child for herself. What's wrong about that?! She only wanted a child for herself! I shouldn't have killed a poor widow like her! All she wanted was a child...

Leaning on the headboard of his bed, Lorist couldn't help but tremble while sweating profusely.

"Locke? What's wrong?" asked Telesti who was sleeping beside him.

"Nothing, I just had a nightmare," Lorist said as he lowered his head and gave Telesti a kiss on her forehead. "I'm going to start training my swordplay soon. You should get more sleep since you're pregnant right now. Take better care of your health, alright?"

"Okay..." Telesti mumbled before she turned and fell back into deep sleep.

Lorist made a bitter smile and thought, this must be my punishment. When Lorist returned to the dominion, he heard that when he was being assassinated by Blademaster Zarinan, the fainted Telesti was discovered to be pregnant one month later. At that time, Lorist's whereabouts was still unknown, causing her much pain and worry. Every moment she thought of Lorist, her face would be covered in tears. It was so bad for her that she almost had a miscarriage.

By the time Lorist returned to the dominion, the pregnant Telesti who was also emotionally sensitive was especially insistent on staying by Lorist's side, and he also treated her with utmost care and even agreed to her request that the child she was bearing would also inherit the name of her adopted family, Nico, instead of being registered as a member of the Norton Family.

At the same time, every time Lorist saw Telesti's bloated belly, he would recall the pregnant thick-lipped barbarian whom he killed and even dream about her dying words only to wake up shocked and sweaty.

Perhaps, I was wrong and shouldn't have killed that barbarian woman. While Lorist was a little regretful for his actions, he had felt incredible shame when he heard the woman say that she was pregnant with his child back then. With the desire of killing her being fostered throughout the time when she forcefully bedded him, Lorist only knew how to react by feeling anger from the pain and humiliation he suffered, causing him to take up his sword from the fire pit and pierce it into her chest without a second thought.

It was only when he had killed her that Lorist snapped out of his wild fervor and realized that he had just taken a human life, no, two human lives. And that child she bore could possibly be his. That's why he slumped into a blank stupor by the grave marker of that woman after he buried her.

I can't continue like this, Lorist thought as he rubbed his face. Removing his sleeping robe and changing into his normal attire, Lorist left his bedroom and took his sword with him before heading downstairs. I should do something to keep myself occupied and forget this matter as soon as possible. Since it has already happened, there's no point for me to continue wailing like this in regret. If I continue to have nightmares like this, it won't be surprising if I eventually lose my mind.

......

Back then, Lorist's journey home with Reidy was a rather smooth-sailing one. In fact, they actually bumped into a few guards who were looking for them. Upon seeing Lorist and Reidy returning safe and sound, those guards who had searched painstakingly for three months let out loud cheers of joy.

The ones who led the guards were Gold ranked knight Belnick and Els, who both welcomed Lorist and Reidy into the main tent with tears of joy streaming down their faces. After that, they informed Lorist about the situation of the family during his three months of absence.

Upon knowing that Lorist had suffered an assassination attempt by a Blademaster, as well as the injuries sufferd by Gold ranked knights Josk and Potterfang, the four Gold ranked knights, namely, Fiercetiger Loze, Freiyar, Malek and Belnick, headed to the assassination site immediately and began to search for Lorist and Reidy. When they realized that the two couldn't be located and had possibly fallen down to the river below, they had a meeting with Charade, Terman and the others and decided jointly to hide news of Lorist's disappearance from the three allied families. At the same time, they sent a battalion of 500 men to Maplewoods Bastide to ensure the safety of Irina and her son.

"Milord," Belnick said embarrassedly, "During the meetings, we also discussed that if something bad truly happened to you, we would let the young master inherit the position of the Norton Family head and give him authority over the family after he is raised until the age of 18..."

Lorist nodded and said, "It's alright, I can understand that. You guys have planned for this quite thoroughly. How are Josk and Potterfang doing?"

Belnick replied, "Knight Josk's injuries are rather light and they pose no restriction to him at the moment. A few days ago, he even said that he wanted to join the search for you. Knight Potterfang on the other hand is more badly injured and has to rest bedridden for at least two more months. Blademaster Zarinan had managed to make a deep cut from his left shoulder to his chest and Potterfang almost couldn't be saved. That fellow Fiercetiger Loze was incredibly pissed and kept saying that he wanted to go to Windbury City to capture the Second Prince to avenge you, but he was stopped from doing so by Knight Charade."

Els added, "At that time, Charade told Loze that our priority was to find you first and that revenge won't happen right away, managing to stop Loze from pursuing the matter temporarily. We have already been searching around the wildlands for three whole months and were just about to give up hope. Thankfully for the protection of War God Singwa, you returned to us safe and sound, milord."

Lorist suddenly recalled something important and asked, "What is the date today?"

Els replied, "It's the 19th day of the 2nd month of Year 1772 of the Common Grindian Calendar."

"Then was there a magical beast wave within our dominion during winter?" Lorist asked.

Belnick and Els laughed out and Els said, "Milord, are you still worried about the magical beast wave? It's already gone. During last winter, only a couple of magical bulls arrived at Hidebull Mound and even then, they were blocked from entering the dominion by the wall stretching all the way from Tortoise Hill. We mobilized the family forces and killed all the bulls in one go. However, I heard that recently, the number of magical wolves beneath the walls was increasing and the patrolling soldiers complained that the howls were too noisy for them to bear."

As the magical beast wave that had plagued the family had truly been exterminated, Lorist let out a breath of relief for the successful resolution of that huge problem. After he returned to the camp of the guards who were searching for him, he made his way back to the dominion after spending a night there.

When he arrived at the dominion, he received news about Telesti's pregnancy and judging by the time, the child should've been conceived during the 10th month of the previous year when he went to Bladedge Mountains to bring Telesti back to Firmrock Castle. After he heard that she almost had a miscarriage from her grief, Lorist hurriedly went to comfort her and had been stuck with her ever since. He was also constantly reminded of the barbarian woman he killed when he saw Telesti's belly and was haunted by the nightmares frequently.

......

During the meeting held a few days ago, Lorist discussed his experience of the assassination attempt by the Second Prince's Blademaster and expressed his condolences for the family knights and soldiers who had sacrificed themselves heroically. After receiving requests from some within the family to take revenge, Lorist appointed Loze as the head of three pike cavalry brigades and two heavy infantry brigades with Malek as his vice along with two carroballista brigades and the light cavalry scouts led by Yuriy to capture the Second Prince, effectively sending up to 24000 soldiers to Windbury City.

The next thing Lorist discussed during the meeting was the reinitiation of the development of Blackmud Marsh as well as the development of the dominion formerly belonging to Count Spenseid that was renamed the Salus Settlement. Within the next two years, he would prioritize settling down the commoners. If they were able to successfully develop the Felicitas Settlement and the Salus Settlement into the main food providers of the dominion, only then will the Norton Family have a stable footing on their path to prosperity.

Apart from that, another high priority project was the construction of the shipyard. So far, the intersection point between Bladedge Mountains and Blackmud Marsh, which was a shallow swamp, had been filled in and made into level ground. With the path heading to the highlands near Blackmud Marsh already available, the next step was to expand the area of the highlands by carrying out land reclamation on the shallower areas by the coast. It was estimated that the reclaimed land would be enough for a small port for ships to stop within as soon as next year.

Lorist requested Old Man Balk to begin the construction of the shipyard right away alongside the construction of the port instead of delaying it until the port to be completed so that they could learn to build smaller ships in the meantime. He hoped that the Norton Family would be able to set sail on the seas as soon as possible that way.

As for Gold ranked knight Freiyar, he was tasked by Lorist to handle the formation of the navy and said that he would rather having the trained soldiers wait for the completion of the ships than beginning training only after the ships were completed. If they begin training after the shipyard's completion, that would be a little too late. Lorist believed that he had to first have a batch of navy marines ready so that they could set sail right away.

......

After Lorist trained for an hour or so, he saw Howard waiting outside the gate and asked curiously, "Weren't you taking care of your father? Why have you come back here?"

Howard said, "Father said that I'm your attendant, milord, and I have to be by your side at all times. His injuries will recover completely in another month and he can already make some slight movements, so he won't need me to take care of him all the time anymore."

Lorist agreed with that assessment as he had visited Potterfang two days ago and saw that he was indeed recovering well.

After pondering for a while, he asked Howard, "How many days has it been since Fiercetiger Loze and Malek left?"

"They left two days ago and will arrive at the Hendliff Suspension Bridge in another six days. From there, they will launch their attack on Winston Province and will be able to reach Windbury City in roughly 15 days." Howard understood the geography of the land well and was quite accurate at estimating the traveling speed of the family forces.

After stroking his chin in thought, Lorist decided that he would leave the pregnant Telesti alone for now and said, "Howard, after I have lunch with Telesti later, you'll act like you've received an urgent letter sent by Baron Shazin and Baron Felim that calls for my presence at Gildusk City to meet up with them to discuss the deployment of soldiers to the capital, understand?"

Stunned, Howard retreated warily and asked, "Milord, what are you planning?"

"Nothing, really. I only want some time for myself. Dumb child, just listen to what I say and I will bring you with me to the royal capital of Windbury City for a trip. Otherwise, the two of us will be staying here and won't be able to go anywhere else," Lorist rebuked.

After deliberating for a while, Howard agreed and said, "Then you have to promise me that you won't leave me behind. I also want to go there with you to get to know the place."

......

While Telesti didn't suspect Howard's lie at all, she cried out sadly at the thought of Lorist leaving her for somewhere far away. Lorist tried hard to console her for days and said, "My dear, even if you don't care about your health, you have to think about the little Nico that's in your belly. Don't worry, I'm not going to war or anything, I'm just going to meet those two idiot barons. It's not dangerous at all and I'll return quickly. At most, it will take up to 20 days or a month."

Howard clicked his tongue and thought, ah, milord's lying again... It will take at least one month or more for our trip to Windbury City...

After expending a lot of effort to finally calm Telesti down, Lorist sighed as he exited the door and said, "Howard, you should remember this well. The more intelligent a woman is, the more troublesome she will be, especially when she's pregnant when she will be more emotionally sensitive than usual. You should learn from my example and not get in a relationship with a female scholar in the future..."

Howard merely looked at Lorist with a distasteful expression.

Els, Patt and Reidy had long received word of Lorist's plan to leave and had already prepared the guard brigade to accompany him.

Lorist said, "Patt, bring a few guards with you to take Blademaster Zarinan's body with us. Fiercetiger Loze and Malek forgot to bring it with them when they left a few days ago. We will bring this cursed old man's body to Windbury City and let everyone know that the Blademaster sent by the Second Prince was killed by our family forces. With the corpse of the Blademaster, let it be known that others who side with the Second Prince and has hostile intentions towards the Norton Family will end up like the Blademaster!"

"Long live the Nortons!" cheered the guards after hearing Lorist's speech.

Howard thought as he cheered, great, milord has also come up with a good excuse to head to Windbury City...

Chapter 213 Analysis

When Baron Shazin and Baron Felim got the report from their messengers, they thought that something was off. A few days ago, the Norton Family forces passed through their territory to head towards the royal capital of Windbury City to capture the Second Prince. Right after that, they got word that Lorist wanted to meet with them and wondered what was up.

However, that didn't stop them from welcoming Lorist's arrival. But when the two barons saw the corpse of Blademaster Zarinan nailed upon a crucifix, they were stunned speechless.

This time around, Lorist came within a four-wheeled carriage upon which the crucifix was installed and had Blademaster Zarinan's corpse nailed upon it so that it could be paraded around as he traveled. Since the Blademaster's corpse had already been embalmed, it wouldn't rot within the next two to three months.

"Locke, it's a little too excessive for you to be doing this, right? After all, he's a rank 3 Blademaster and is even considered to be a quasi-Sword Saint. Nailing his body on the crucifix is a little in bad taste..." Baron Felim said as he looked at the body.

"Chack, I've never treated him as a Blademaster. He's but a lowly assassin that was sent to kill me. Since he can disregard his reputation as a Blademaster and sink so low to carry out an assassination, I can naturally treat him as a common assassin since he failed," Lorist said disdainfully. Baron Felim's full name was Felim Chalvode, and Chack was his nickname.

"I heard your family forces suffered huge losses, right?" Baron Shazin asked. He had seen Blademaster Zarinan twice before and knew that his abilities far exceeded those of Blademaster Louinse. It was said that Louinse wouldn't be able to last more than 100 strikes when fighting against Zarinan. Additionally, when Baron Shazin was still serving as a Gold ranked knight of Duke Loggins, he had been toyed with by Blademaster Louinse twice when they sparred and could only endure the anger he felt at him, so he can only imagine how much stronger Blademaster Zarinan could be.

Lorist sighed deeply before he said, "This old fellow killed up to 500 of my good men and 11 Silver ranked family knights. Even Potterfang and Josk were injured heavily and I had to heal for two months myself. That's why I've decided to no longer let the Second Prince off on this matter. I nailed the old guy on the crucifix so that I can spread the word about how the Second Prince actually used an underhanded method like assassination against me by employing a Blademaster so that everyone else can see that he isn't fit to be king. That way, even if I capture him, the Norton Family won't be considered to be rebelling against a royal family."

"So what if you capture him? The reputation of a king-killer is definitely not something you want to bear..." Baron Felim said worryingly, with good reason. Even if the Second Prince did not deserve to be a king, he was still technically one and in Grindia, killing a king brought no good reputation to a noble family.

"It's fine. I will first imprison him for a period of time and send him to be judged by the Second Highness of the Andinaq Kingdom since his family is the rightful successor to the Krissen Imperial Family. This is their family matter," Lorist explained his decision, to which the two barons thumbs-upped in agreement.

"This method of yours is savage. Not only does it leave nothing to be criticized, it also allows you to get your revenge. The Andinaq Royal Family hates the Second Prince to the bone because if the Second Prince and his associates did not raise the banner of rebellion, the great empire wouldn't have perished and shattered just like that. If the Second Prince falls into their hands, it would already be considered humane if he was simply hanged to death," praised Baron Felim.

Baron Shazin pointed at the corpse of the Blademaster and asked, "Locke, are you going to march into Windbury City just like that? Do you need any help from us?"

Lorist sighed and said, "Hennard, Chack, you idiots... The reason I'm here is to ask you to mobilize your forces..."

Baron Shazin's full name was Shazin Hennard and he had no other nickname. Before this, he used to be one of the five Gold ranked knights serving Duke Loggins and even led a military campaign against the Norton Family. Ever since he was captured by Lorist, his fate took a completely different turn.

Baron Shazin was stunned by what he heard and asked, "Why do you need us to do that?"

"Didn't you three other families say that my forces swept the land barren without leaving even a single commoner for you to take? I'm presenting a huge opportunity to you guys now yet you're still unable to see it... What can I say about you? During this excursion of my family to capture the Second Prince, do you think anyone within the Winston Province can stop our advances? What are you doing sitting and watching by the sidelines instead of reaping some benefits for yourselves?! Send your soldiers to raze the place you idiots! People, money and food, they're all up for the taking!" Lorist exclaimed with an annoyed look.

"Ugh..." Baron Felim had already understood Lorist's intentions. But with a face blushing with embarrassment, he said, "Locke, it's not that we don't want to mobilize our forces... It's..."

"It's alright. I understand your concerns. You're just worried about the two Frontier Legions stationed at Pedro City, right? I heard that you sustained some losses the last two times you sent your soldiers to the Winston Province," Lorist said with a laugh. After that, he waved to Howard and said, "Howard, bring me the map of the Iblia Kingdom."

"He's called Howard and is also my disciple like Reidy. His father is Potterfang, which the two of you should be acquainted with. Right now, he has just awakened his Battle Force and is accompanying me as an attendant, so look after him for me, alright?" Lorist said as he introduced Howard to the two other barons.

"That's a given," said the two barons in unison. Hennard even took out a jeweled sword and gave it to Howard as a meeting gift.

As Baron Felim himself didn't have anything fitting to give, he started suggesting that Howard and his illegitimate daughter meet up sometime. He praised his daughter to the heavens and said that she was not only beautiful but also obedient. And given their similar age, with her being 15 that year, one year younger than Howard, the baron thought they would be a good fit. Even though she was only the baron's illegitimate daughter, she was also included in the registry of the Felim Family.

The more he got to know Howard, the more Baron Felim liked him. In stark contrast to the rough and quiet Reidy, Howard looked more refined and had an intelligent and calm aura. As Baron Felim had been looking for a suitable husband for his beloved daughter, he found Howard to be the ideal candidate, given his Gold ranked knight father and his status as Lorist's personal disciple. With his looks and charisma being better than most, Howard's future was sure to be a bright one and the baron felt that having his daughter marrying Howard would be a great idea.

Howard himself was dumbstruck by that as he didn't expect to be introduced a wife just because he was asked to fetch a map. He so embarrassed by Baron Felim's actions that his face was completely reddened as he panicked on how he should respond. In the end, Lorist saved him from the predicament and said, "Alright, Chack, finding a son-in-law is not an urgent matter. Perhaps you would want to discuss this with Potterfang when we finish things over here since Howard and your daughter are still young. If both of you agree, then maybe we can let them be engaged first. It won't be too late to officiate their marriage when they reach 20."

Baron Felim said, "She's not that young. When my daughter was born, her mother was only 16..."

Hennard and Lorist both shoved a middle finger in Baron Felim's face as they both thought that it was far too predatory of him to lay his hands on a 15-year-old girl, causing him to be completely speechless.

Lorist then proceeded to spread the map of the Iblia Kingdom open before tapping on the two provinces belonging to Duke Fisablen and said, "Duke Fisablen was originally the second son of a viscount from the Wild Husbandry Province. After that, he joined the army and was promoted to be the commander of the Frontier Legion for his stellar military achievements and at that time, the Frontier Legion was one of the largest cavalry armies set up to defend the northeastern plains of the empire from the grassland barbarians with a force numbering up to 25000 soldiers. When Duke Fisablen became the leader of that legion, he expanded it greatly and gained a huge victory over the grassland barbarians around 34 years ago, allowing the empire to establish the Eastwild Province, earning himself the rank of the duke in the process. The Eastwild Province was also made the hereditary dominion of the Fisablen Family.

"Given that the Frontier Legion had around 78000 soldiers, rivaling the army of the empire itself, the duke was always under strong suspicion from the central powers of the empire. As such, the duke could only focus his efforts on managing the Eastwild Province and the Wild Husbandry Province to protect his own family. During the civil war of the empire, the Second Prince went to the Eastwild Province to see Duke Fisablen and subsequently took his daughter's hand in marriage, thus securing the support of the Fisablen Family for himself and cementing the foundations of the Iblia Kingdom.

"After the formation of the Iblia Kingdom, the Second Prince paid no heed to the livelihood of his subjects and stubbornly sent his soldiers to attack the Melein Duchy, but was eventually defeated at the hands of the Fiercegale Legion of the Melein Duchy. Not only did the Second Prince suffer a huge loss, the battles also completely ravaged his Southern Province. Under such circumstances, the Second Prince borrowed three divisions of cavalry troops and took the opportunity to cause trouble when our northbound convoy and the Andinaq Kingdom were marching through the Madras Duchy. In the name of defending the Madras Duchy from the invasion of the Andinaq Kingdom, the Second Prince used his forces to swallow up the the Madras Duchy's Delamock Province.

"However, he didn't expect that the whole situation would take a completely different turn when Duke Madras signed a peace treaty with the Andinaq Kingdom all the while he turned against the Second Prince and defeated his troops at the battle at Kobo City. Having no choice but to retreat from Delamock Province, the Second Prince took the chance to occupy the dominion of the Duke of the Northlands after my family defeated Duke Loggins.

"Only after occupying the dominion of the duke did the Second Prince have some territory under his direct control. That's also why he left the Iblia Kingdom's Southern Province, which is to say, the three southern commanderies, and the Winston Province where the royal capital of Windbury was, uncared for. That's because the three commanderies were already a wasteland and to recover it was to put in lots of funding and effort to resist the attacks of the Melein Duchy's soldiers. To the Second Prince, that was not a worthwhile endeavor, hence his willingness to leave the provinces be.

"Additionally, within the Winston Province, apart from Windbury City, the rest of the land belonging to the Second Prince had long been sold away, and the lack of his own land there prevented him from raising an army. That's why after he took over the duke's dominion, he stayed there without returning to the royal capital and used the food and resources he took from the Delamock Province to form the First Legion of the Iblia Kingdom before he jumped right back into the game of war and domination.

"But what the Second Prince shouldn't have done was to anger us, the Norton Family, ultimately causing all his efforts to go to waste. He had to run all the way back to the royal capital with tens of guards and even sent his Blademaster to assassinate me. How truly shameless of him.

"Judging by how Duke Fisablen stationed his Frontier Legion, he must've already filled up the vacancy left by the three cavalry troop divisions he lent the Second Prince. Right now, the Frontier Legion should have a full 78000 soldiers with 43000 of them stationed in the Eastwild Province alone.

"Duke Fisablen also stationed two cavalry divisions at the border between the Eastwild Province and the Wild Husbandry Province and another division at Eastriver Citadel as the main force to resist the attacks of the grassland barbarian hordes. Additionally, there's also another division of soldiers stationed at the border of Eastwild Province and Southern Province. The moment the forces of Duke Melein invades the three southern commanderies, the cavalry divisions would be able to react immediately to defend against the invasion before more reinforcements arrive.

"Even though the Second Prince was willing to leave the Southern Province and Winston Province unattended, Duke Fisablen definitely wasn't. If the two provinces get conquered by an enemy, then the Wild Husbandry Province and the Eastwild Province will be under threat from both sides, and that would spell the beginning of the end of the Fisablen Family. But the most laughable part was that even though the Second Prince didn't care for the two provinces at all, he still refused to hand control of them over to the duke. It is apparent that he distrusts his father-in-law greatly. Otherwise, the Iblia Kingdom would've been far more stable even if the Second Prince was a puppet ruler.

"The soldiers Duke Fisablen stationed at the Wild Husbandry Province numbering around 35000 was led by the duke's adopted son and Blademaster, Viscount Kristoph. Given that the Wild Husbandry Province wasn't the main site of conflict with the grassland barbarians, only one cavalry division was stationed there at the border of Eastwild Province which also serves as reserve troops just in case reinforcements are needed. The remaining 25000 men was instead stationed at Pedro City within the Winston Province. The moment word of conflict within the Winston Province breaks out, the two cavalry divisions stationed at Pedro City will take immediate action and be able to reach any location in the Winston Province in five short days.

"By the way, I heard that the two of you suffered some losses from the cavalry divisions stationed there during your last two attacks, right?" Lorist ended his long-winded explanation by asking the two barons his question with a smile.

Baron Felim nodded with his face flushed red and said, "The first time my family sent the troops there, we encircled a bastide manor and began our siege. But after four days when victory was almost ours, we got ambushed in the middle of the night. Only half of our 2500 soldiers returned alive."

Hennard added with a tone of dissatisfaction, "The second time around, I sent out my soldiers as well along with Chack and managed to conquer two dominions. Just as we were about to continue, we encountered the two Frontier Legion cavalry divisions. Our combined forces number 15000 men and theirs being around 20000, and we weren't worried about facing them in an open field battle. But they resorted to hit and run tactics by assaulting our camps and destroying our supply lines, using the mobility of the cavalry troops to their utmost advantage to harass us, forcing us to have to retreat. After that, we saw that our supply lines weren't able to keep up with us, so we had to abandon our spoils and return as quickly as possible without any gains. That attempt alone cost us two families up to 3000 troops..."

Baron Felim added hatefully, "Even though our two families did manage to cause them around 3000 casualties, both attempts ended in our failure and that's why we gave up on attacking Winston Province. If we don't solve the issue of the two cavalry divisions at Pedro City, then we will not be able to enter Winston Province as we please."

Lorist clapped his hands as he exclaimed, "That's exactly it! This time, I have come here to discuss with you on how to get the pain in the neck out of your way. The Norton Family will be mobilizing 24000 soldiers to head to the royal capital to capture the Second Prince and I believe the two cavalry divisions there will make their move the moment they receive the news. As long as we are able to catch the two cavalry divisions by surprise and defeat them, Winston Province will be free for us to roam and we can take whatever we want."

"Alright, I'm in. I'm going to rally my troops now," Hennard said.

"Wait a second," Lorist said. "This time around, we're facing off against the cavalry divisions of the Frontier Legion that specializes in mobility. I'm sure that you've seen my forces. Apart from the carroballista units, the rest of them are all cavalry troops. Originally, I wanted to move as quickly as possible as I hoped that we can arrive at the royal capital before the enemy is able to react, allowing us to capture the Second Prince without any sort of warning. Additionally, we can also retreat without being harassed by the two Frontier Legion cavalry divisions.

"However, during the past two days, I have a feeling that I should just exterminate those two legions in one go. That way, not only can I stand up for the two of you, I can also show Duke Fisablen that the four families of the Northlands is not something that should be messed with. Two days ago, I received a letter from that Kenmays fellow and he said that the sale of salt to the Wild Husbandry Province got into some trouble. So, I want to teach Duke Fisablen a lesson and show him our might."

"Alright then. I'll send out 8000 cavalrymen and all of them are my elite troops armed with new equipment," said Baron Felim as he made his decision. His total troops numbered 15000 and the 8000 cavalrymen among them were already considered experienced veterans.

Hennard gave it some thought before he said, "Then I'll send out 12000, all of whom are also fitted with new equipment. The only thing is I don't have that many cavalry soldiers..."

Even though Hennard had reorganized the original Northland Army into a force of 24000, he only had one division of cavalry troops.

"Alright, that makes 20000 troops. We only have to wait here another two days. I've already ordered my family's knight brigade and one carroballista brigade to rush over here. Coupled with the 2000 guards I have with me, we will have a total of 28000 soldiers. By that time, we will trap the cavalry divisions of the Frontier Legion and bash them up. They will not be able to escape even with their increased mobility. Also, you guys should send out more scouts to secretly take note of the movements at Pedro City. As long as the cavalry divisions make their move, we will follow straight behind and let them have a taste of being ambushed," Lorist decided.

Chapter 214 Royal Capital

On the 4th day of the 5th month of Year 1772, the Norton Family of the Northlands suddenly deployed 24000 elite family soldiers to encircle the Royal Capital of the Iblia Kingdom, Windbury City. They declared that the reason for that was to capture the king of the Iblia Kingdom, the Second Prince Iblia of the former Krissen Empire, for his underhanded actions of sending a Blademaster on an assassination attempt against the leader of the Norton Family, Count Norton, who had been entitled by the Andinaq Royal Family.

The regiment of soldiers defending the city discarded their weapons and surrendered wisely, mainly because of the disparity of their forces against the Norton's with every one of them knowing that they had no odds of success to begin with. Additionally, the garrison forces of the city were far too weak compared to the Norton Family forces, and it was especially apparent when the 1000 or so carroballistas were pushed near the city walls, causing all the garrison soldiers to lose any hope of defending the city altogether.

Lastly, the garrison force's leader made his decision after the Gold ranked knight, Fiercetiger Loze, gave his ultimatum. According to Loze, if the garrison soldiers don't give up all resistance, the forces of the Norton Family will not let the family members of the soldiers off even if they die in battle. He advised the soldiers who decided to resist to take their family members' well-being into consideration.

After the Norton Family forces entered the city and strictly forbade any traffic into or out of it, the Second Prince who was hiding within the Rose Palace heard about the commotion. It was as if a lightning bolt had crashed down on him during a sunny day. He was already incredibly worried about how Blademaster Zarinan still hadn't returned yet and felt a bad omen welling up in his heart. Despite that, he still believed that his teacher wouldn't lose since he was a quasi-Sword Saint. At most, he was probably just injured after the assassination attempt and was resting up somewhere else.

But little did the Second Prince expect that as he waited impatiently for the Blademaster's return while paying attention to any rumors of misfortune befalling the leader of the Norton Family, the Norton Family forces began their attack on the royal capital. The Second Prince was so greatly shocked that he killed the maidservant who had delivered the news to him and stripped her bare to put her clothes on himself and secretly left the Rose Palace while crossdressing to head to the commoners' ghetto.

Hiding among the poor commoners was indeed a rather good idea as the Second Prince understood that the soldiers of nobles weren't interested in the dirt poor commoners and usually swept the business area of the city clean first before going for the middle-class citizens and other rich nobles within the city. But the Second Prince underestimated how 'morally bankrupt' the forces of the Norton Family were as they took not only the money and resources but also considered the lowly commoners to be a great resource to develop the Northlands with. As long as the commoners receive their farmland and settle down nicely at the dominion, they would turn into one of the most loyal defenders of the Norton Family.

Even so, the crossdressing Second Prince's mustache drew much attention to him, but the Norton Family soldiers did not recognize the king of the Iblia Kingdom and were only mildly curious about the crossdressing man. Some of them believed him to be some kind of pervert while some gay soldiers wondered if the crossdressing Second Prince was someone with similar inclinations... (Translator's note: Please tell me if the language I'm using here is offensive or not. I apologize in advance if it offends anyone and will gladly change it if any of you have some suggestions. As much as I don't want to cast people of any demographic in a bad light, it is against my translation principles to censor the work by explicitly removing all reference to the author's original wording, so it would be helpful if any of you know of a better way to describe these terms than how I did it.)

At that moment, a few Norton Family soldiers with an unhealthy enthusiasm for conducting searches even prepared to feel the Second Prince up to see if he did indeed have any balls, with some of the gay soldiers jumping excitedly, wanting to do the same, and were ready to bring the Second Prince to 'interact' in the nearby cabin. Faced with the thought of his rear orifice possibly being compromised, the Second Prince finally caved and loudly declared himself to be the king of the Iblia Kingdom and requested to be treated accordingly.

But nobody paid any heed to what he had to say and only focused on his fair and unblemished skin that was a consequence of his pampered lifestyle. To some of the sexually excited soldiers, the Second Prince was practically a gift from heaven! These ravenous family soldiers seemed to stare at the Second Prince with glowing-red eyes and disregarded what he had to say entirely. It was only after they had released their pent up desires that they bothered to listen to the gasping Second Prince who still insisted he was the king.

The Second Prince was then brought before Loze and Malek in that state. After getting a few other nobles to confirm the identity of the naked Second Prince whose backside was still mildly bleeding, the usually loud Loze was completely speechless and could do nothing but look for a few herbalists to give the Second Prince some treatment.

After getting word that the Norton Family forces invaded Windbury City, the two Frontier Legion cavalry divisions stationed at Pedro City made their move under the order of Viscount Kristoph and arrived at Windbury City three days later, trapping the Norton Family within the city.

Viscount Kristoph was still rather clear-headed as he didn't launch an assault on the royal capital right away and only used the better mobility of his troops to keep the Norton Family forces stranded within it. While he wasn't confident that his two divisions would be able to take on the forces of the Norton Family in an all out battle, Viscount Kristoph was assured that he would be able to stop the Norton Family forces from leaving with all the wealth and resources of the royal capital.

Five days passed without confrontation, but Viscount Kristoph was not impatient in the least. To him, the longer it dragged on, the better it would be for him. Firstly, he understood that the food supply within the royal capital was limited with most of the food of Winston Province within the hands of the noble families. He believed that when the food within the city runs out, the Norton Family forces would no doubt crumble and he would be able to obtain victory easily. Secondly, he had already sent a messenger to Duke Fisablen and the duke himself would be leading two other cavalry divisions over in another five to six days. That way, the Norton Family won't be able to retreat even if they wanted to like a turtle trapped within an urn.

But Viscount Kristoph didn't expect that on the next day itself, the Norton Family forces mobilized an entire army as if they were preparing for an open field battle. The viscount thus positioned one cavalry division directly facing the Norton Family forces with another at its flank in preparation to intercept the Norton forces before engaging their flank with the true aim of harassing and slowing down the enemy's progress.

But then, the blaring of the horn made Viscount Kristoph realize that his two cavalry divisions were the ones that had fallen into a trap. As the soldiers closed in on each other on the battlefield, the two cavalry divisions were eventually encircled and pushed into a tight corner outside the walls of Windbury City by the forces of the Norton Family, the Shazin Family and the Felim Family that numbered almost 50000 soldiers.

Seeing that his cavalry divisions had been forced into a corner by the forces of the three families of the Northlands, sealing off their attacking capability in the process, the viscount ordered his men to begin digging trenches on the battlefield. This time around, he understood that he was in deep trouble as he had already lost the perk of mobility that allowed the cavalry soldiers to soar to their utmost battle potential. To make a path of survival for himself, Viscount Kristoph decided to to lead the charges himself. But all three of this surprise attempts were shut down completely by the incessant longbow and carroballista fire, causing him to have no choice to retreat with his forces having suffered huge casualties.

Looking at his soldiers who had lost all morale, Viscount Kristoph made yet another decision. He stepped on the battlefield alone with sword in hand and requested a duel, with the request that if he won, he hoped that the three families of the Northlands will allow the remaining 14000 plus soldiers of his to leave while he would be willing to submit to the three families and accept whatever treatment. However, if he lost the duel, he would order his cavalry soldiers to surrender unconditionally.

Even though Hennard and Baron Felim expressed their vehement objections, Lorist still agreed to Viscount Kristoph's request and decided to take the viscount on himself.

Viscount Kristoph who was a rank 1 Blademaster quickly realized with despair that he wasn't a match for the young count of the Norton Family, whose swordplay was cold as winter, which caused him to feel as if he had been tossed into a land filled with snow. Lorist's sword strikes were like ephemeral snowflakes that were able to enter the smallest gap in one's defenses. Even though they looked light and weightless, when the viscount's sword clashed against Lorist's, he felt as if he was being pushed back by the great earth itself. He finally believed the rumors about how Blademaster Zarinan failed his mission and was killed himself despite being sent to assassinate Count Norton.

Viscount Kristoph who had painstakingly withstood more than 200 strikes eventually had his sword knocked away by Lorist, causing him to disheartenedly order his soldiers to surrender without resistance. The remaining 14000 cavalrymen complied with the order and became the prisoners of war of the Norton Family.

After the defeat of the two cavalry divisions that were causing Lorist quite some concern, he kept his promise and ordered his two carroballista brigades to help the Shazin and Felim families sweep clean the castles and estates of the other nobles in the Winston Province. Lorist insisted that they prioritize taking food as only with it can the dominion truly be stable. He said that the Norton Family would be willing to buy the food the two families took at two times the market price.

After entering the royal capital, the first thing Lorist did was to check out the Second Prince who was walking with his lower body exposed. That was the first time the two of them met face to face and after Lorist heard about his encounters, he lost control of his laughter and said that the Second Prince had it coming for him as this was all his own fault in the first place. Lorist didn't care about the cold, venomous gaze the Second Prince gave him. The Second Prince spat on the ground and left without a single word.

During his occupation of Windbury City, Lorist made a few orders that many found to be weird. Firstly, he still paid his respects to the queen of the Iblia Kingdom who stayed within the Rose Palace and even ordered his guards to keep the place safe and secure. Secondly, apart from the few food stores belonging to the royal family, Lorist didn't touch any of the assets of the other nobles or tycoons within the city and didn't even make a single threat.

Thirdly, the Norton Family also didn't engage in any large-scale moving of the commoners and only brought away a few tens of thousands of poor commoner work smiths from the commoner area of the city, causing some of the nobles to sigh in relief, as the Norton Family was willing to 'do them a favor' to move the poor commoners out of the city for them, which many of the nobles considered praiseworthy.

The only part of Lorist that dissatisfied the nobles within Windbury City was their perception of his short-sightedness from how he held his grudges deeply. Lorist erected a tall pillar in the central plaza of the royal capital and installed the crucifix bearing Blademaster Zarinan's corpse upon it with the reason that the Blademaster listened to the Second Prince's order and attempted to underhandedly assassinate the leader of the Norton Family. That caused the nobles who once felt pride in having a rank 3 Blademaster protecting their city to feel gravely insulted and humiliated.

On the 19th day of the 5th month, Duke Fisablen who was leading two more cavalry divisions as reinforcements received word that Viscount Kristoph had already been taken captive. After hearing about how two of his other cavalry divisions had been completely wiped out, the duke stayed at Sunset Lake Town which was 50 kilometers from Windbury City and no longer pressed forward. Instead, he even set up a defense line and sent a messenger to the royal capital to meet Lorist.

When Lorist met the messenger, he expressed that he had no intention at all to exterminate the Iblia Kingdom and said that the reason for his actions was his personal grudge with the Second Prince, as was apparent from his polite treatment towards the other nobles of the royal capital without the slightest ill inflicted upon them. After that, he brought the messenger to meet with the queen who was staying at the Rose Palace and the messenger confirmed that she was indeed the daughter of Duke Fisablen. The queen of the Iblia Kingdom still lived as freely as ever and wasn't the slightest affected by the events of the prior days. She still had the mood to invite the other nobles within the city to grand balls and parties to make merry.

Despite that, Lorist rejected two requests the messenger made. The first concerned the payment of ransom for the release of Viscount Kristoph and the 14000 plus soldiers. Lorist said that Duke Fisablen should only begin to negotiate for their release after the forces of the Norton Family makes its way back to the dominion since it was rather inappropriate to hold such discussions at the moment given that the military campaign was still ongoing.

The second request concerned the fate of the Second Prince. Lorist insisted that he would not agree to releasing the Second Prince but promised that he would only imprison him without letting any harm come to him since he doesn't want the Norton Family to be tainted by the reputation of a king killer. As for the lack of a king for the Iblia Kingdom, Lorist stated that it was not his problem to worry about as he was only a count of the Andinaq Kingdom and that he wouldn't interfere with the official affairs of the Iblia Kingdom since he only bore a personal grudge against the Second Prince.

The messenger was flabbergasted as he had never heard such shameless reasons ever before throughout his whole career. When he broke out of his stupor, he said that everything about the Iblia Kingdom directly concerned Lorist, from the matter with Duke Loggins all the way to the Second Prince himself.

Lorist on the other hand argued against it by citing that the Norton Family had carried out its duty to protect the northern borders of the empire without any intention of partaking in the political affairs during times of war. However, the Duke of the Northlands and the Second Prince overestimated their abilities and instigated the conflict themselves, causing the Norton Family to have no choice but to retaliate. But arguing like that with the messenger was to no end and there was no real need for them to waste their breaths on semantics.

As for the matter of the Iblia Kingdom's vacant throne, Lorist suggested that the queen's son who was staying at Duke Fisablen's be made king after the forces of the Norton Family retreat from Windbury City. That way, Duke Fisablen himself could use the ascension to make himself a regent for the young king and take control of the Iblia Kingdom entirely. He also added that as long as Duke Fisablen didn't mess with the four families of the Northlands, they could no doubt have a peaceful relationship.

After the messenger left, Lorist stayed within Windbury City for a little more than ten days before he led his forces back to the Northlands. Baron Felim and Baron Shazin on the other hand returned with a haul full of stolen goods and practically swept clean almost two-thirds of the whole Winston Province. The endless chain of carriages carrying food, wealth and other resources was so long that it almost seemed like a flowing river. Apart from those, they even forced up to 200000 commoners mostly belonging to the nobles of the Winston Province to move into the Northlands with them.

One day after the Norton Family left the royal capital, Duke Fisablen led his soldiers to retake Windbury City. Two months after the three families of the Northlands moved their newfound resources and commoners back to the Northlands, the duke who had just taken control of the city could no longer withstand the incessant bickering of the nobles there and casually gave the right to rule to his own daughter, the queen of the Iblia Kingdom, before hurrying back to the Eastwild Province.

This time around, the three families of the Northlands truly made a big haul from razing the Winston Province. Apart from the gains reaped from Windbury City that belonged solely to the Norton Family, the rest of the pillaged resources and citizens who were moved were divided equally among the three families. Lorist gave the responsibility of looking after the commoners and their loot to Malek and Fiercetiger Loze before he left by himself to head to Firmrock Castle ahead of the others because Telesti was about to give birth.

Chapter 215 Arrangements

Even though Lorist left for three whole months and only just returned to Firmrock Castle right when Telesti was about to give birth, he had almost constantly had his guards send some gifts and love letters to her during his absence. That was why Telesti forgave Lorist for breaking his promise easily, much to Lorist's relief, as it wouldn't do her any good to receive any kind of shock just before giving birth.

When Charade entered the study and saw Lorist laughing out loud, he asked curiously, "What are you so happy about?"

Lorist waved a letter in his hand with a smile and said, "I just received news that Duke Fisablen ran back to the Eastwild Province. The letter states that ever since the duke was made the regent of the Iblia Kingdom, he had been busy arguing with the other nobles all day long and didn't have time to do other things, with several of his new policies secretly resisted by the other nobles. In the end, this Blademaster duke could no longer deal with his huge workload and eventually resigned from the position of the regent of the kingdom and left the capital, leaving only one cavalry division to guard it. Currently, the head of the Iblia Kingdom is that beautiful queen of theirs."

"That poor old guy must still don't know that this was all planned by you," Charade said as he shook his head. "When I first heard the messengers tell me that you didn't allow our family forces to raid the city's other nobles of their wealth and resources and your good treatment to the queen, I knew you were up to something. It was when you let our family's two carroballista divisions help Hennard and Felim's families sweep the rest of Winston Province clean without killing the nobles that resisted us that I confirmed my suspicions and understood that your target was Duke Fisablen himself all along."

"No, you're wrong about that. In actuality, I wasn't directing these troubles to anyone in particular. It was that old duke who made the jump into that pit of mess himself. When we mobilized the soldiers this time around, I made it really clear that we were only there for the Second Prince himself and didn't have any intentions of going against the other nobles of the Iblia Kingdom and didn't stop them from spreading the reputation of our family as bandits throughout the whole continent."

Lorist stood up before he reached for a small barrel of fruit wine and took out two silver cups. After he poured the wine, he handed Charade one cup and said, "Try it. We got this from a vineyard within the Winston Province."

Charade tasted the wine and praised its deliciousness. "This tastes rather good. Then again, Locke, I'm really confused by what you're doing. Even though you didn't take anything from the nobles in the royal capital, you still helped Baron Felim and Henard pillage most of the nobles within the Winston Province. Aren't those two actions a little contradictory?"

"Hehe..." Lorist giggled as he said, "Not at all. What you don't understand is the type of people the nobles of the Iblia Kingdom are. Initially when the Second Prince found his kingdom, he used his authority to entitle others and enfeoff them land to sell noble titles, causing most of the land within the Winston Province apart from the royal capital to be sold away and tens of new noble families to appear. That's why the Iblia Kingdom has the most landed nobles compared to the other powers nearby.

"The Second Prince relied on the funds he gained from selling titles and land to build an army to attack the Melein Duchy. But little did he know that he would proceed to suffer huge losses over the next two years, with the battles he fought turning the whole Southern Province of his kingdom into a ravaged wasteland. The nobles who had bought their titles could also foresee their stark future and had long escaped to the royal capital to protect their wealth and also to pester the Second Prince to be responsible for the damage he caused to the Southern Province.

"During the previous year, as the Second Prince wasn't able to borrow any soldiers from Duke Fisablen, he still had to give some kind of satisfying resolution to the nobles who stayed at the royal capital. That's why he decided that he would try to conquer the Madras Duchy's Delamock Province and move the dominions of the nobles within the royal capital there while trying to make a small profit for himself all the while resolving the food debt he owed Duke Madras.

"You'll understand after taking a look at this map. Given that the Delamock Province is well known to be one of the largest food producers of the former empire, do you think the land of Winston Province which is situated right next to it will be any worse? In actuality, the Second Prince lacked the power over his subordinate nobles unlike Duke Madras, and wasn't able to stop the nobles he entitled from doing whatever they wanted after they were enfeoffed their land within the Winston Province. Hence, the nobles stopped focusing on planting food because it was unprofitable and instead started up all kinds of fruit wineries and plantations. That's why after the Southern Province of the Iblia Kingdom was rendered useless, the Iblia Kingdom began to lack a good food source, with most of the food being within the hands of the nobles of Winston Province. The high price of food was solely the fault of those nobles.

"And given the high price of food, the nobles of Winston Province took the opportunity to stockpile more and more of it while trying hard at the same time to prevent other sources of food from entering the kingdom so that they could profit by maintaining the high market price of food. That naturally incited the envy and jealousy of the nobles of the ravaged Southern Province, causing much conflict to manifest between the two factions. That was also one of the main reasons why the Second Prince was so reluctant on returning to the royal capital as he couldn't be bothered to mediate between the arguing nobles.

"That's why when word of our three families attacking the Winston Province spread to the royal capital, the nobles who stayed there actually cheered for our arrival because that meant that the Winston Province nobles that they envied so much would finally be getting the short end of the stick. That is also the true intention behind my actions. Initially, I even felt that we needed to mow down the number of nobles of the Iblia Kingdom just like what you and the convoy did when you passed through the Andinaq Kingdom. Through hanging all those nobles, the state of the kingdom became far more clean and stabilized.

"However, if we do that, we would only be doing a favor to the people in power of the Iblia Kingdom. In the case of Duke Fisablen, if he manages to tidy up the four provinces of the Iblia Kingdom, his power and influence would no doubt multiply by a few times. By cleansing the Iblia Kingdom of the extra nobles, we would be making a larger enemy for ourselves instead and I definitely wouldn't do something that foolish.

"That was the reason for my explicit instructions to the Felim Family and Hennard's forces to not kill the nobles they pillaged and only take all their food and movable assets as well as their commoner subjects so that the Winston Province nobles would be on bad terms with those at the royal capital. If I raided the nobles at the royal capital, all the nobles would be united in their hatred towards us. But now that I didn't touch those nobles at the royal capital, surely they will be jumping with joy at the losses of the nobles of Winston Province.

"There's no doubt that the nobles of Winston Province hate the fact that we've moved their commoner subjects away the most. Without them, they will not be able to gather wealth and plant food. And given that the Northlands had a natural border, which is Metropoulos River, there's no way that they will be able to retaliate against us. If they want more commoners, they will have to take them from other people. But since I have moved the poor commoners away from the royal capital, those nobles won't have anyone to rally. That means that they will have no choice but to prey on the Delamock Province of the Madras Duchy which is just nearby.

"The last time the Second Prince attacked Delamock Province, the ones who funded that operation were the nobles of the Southern Province who stayed at the royal capital with the Winston Province nobles only reluctantly providing small amounts of food and few soldiers to fulfill their obligation. So naturally, if the nobles of Winston Province wish to attack Delamock Province, they will receive strong objection from the nobles of the Southern Province.

"In the past, the suggestions of the nobles of the Southern Province would frequently be met with objection from those of the Winston Province. And back then, the Southern Province nobles were unable to compete in terms of military might with the Winston Province nobles and could only endure. But right now, the two noble factions are roughly on equal standing and anything the Winston Province nobles propose will definitely be opposed by the nobles of the Southern Province. That's why when Duke Fisablen made himself the regent of the Iblia Kingdom, he realized that the division between the two noble factions caused him to be unable to get anything done, as the order to deploy soldiers couldn't be passed. It was actually rather smart of him to resign from the position of the regent and head home right away.

"If Duke Fisablen had been more ruthless, he could've killed off all the nobles who opposed his will and could possibly maintain his grasp on the kingdom and push it towards a direction he had hoped for. It's a shame that the old man didn't do so, perhaps because he lacked the courage to do so or he was too self-aware about the reputation of his family and understood that an act like that would make the Fisablen Family public enemy number one, causing him to be willing to give up just like that and head back to his own domain.

"As we are too far away from the Winston Province, it wouldn't be appropriate for us to set our sights on it, at least not before we have control of the whole of the Northlands. That's why it is my intention to cause as much chaos there as possible. With Duke Fisablen now gone, there's no one powerful enough to stifle the conflict between the two noble factions and war would surely break out. It won't take long until we see soldiers facing off against each other. By then, we only have to watch them kill each other off from the sidelines."

After Charade heard everything, his eyes were completely dazed before he said, "Locke, I didn't expect that you would change so quickly after becoming a dominion lord. Your thoughts stretch further and further away into the future and you're even able to predict things to such an extent now..."

Lorist shrugged as he said, "I had no choice. I only found out that nobles don't just organize hunting events or mess around by organizing dance parties and hooking up with other beautiful noble ladies all day long after becoming a dominion lord myself. Instead, I have to constantly worry about the affairs of my family and consider its future, the livelihood of the commoners as well as being responsible for my knights and subordinates. There is also much deceit and vested interests among the interaction with other nobles, so if I don't consider my options thoroughly, I will no doubt be taken advantaged of badly. Circumstances have forced me to change my way of thinking."

Finishing the wine in his cup, Charade wiped his mouth before he said, "Alright, stop complaining already. You've been doing a great job and the family's future is looking brighter than ever. Back to the main topic, why have you sought me out so urgently?"

Lorist pointed to a thick stack of beastskin documents that were on the table and said, "At the end of this month, the near 40000 poor commoners we moved from WIndbury City and the 70000 plus commoners from the Winston Province will arrive at our dominion and I will leave their affairs to you. Settle them down at Salus Settlement since they're lacking people over there. This new influx of commoners should satisfy the need there.

"Alongside the commoners are the 15000 prisoners of the Frontier Legion. Duke Fisablen will definitely not give up on these soldiers as the total population of the Wild Husbandry Province and the Eastwild Province numbered less than 500000. Had it not been for the refugees of the ravaged Southern Province that made their way to the duke's dominion, he wouldn't have been able to build up a full army within these few short years. This time around though, the soldiers we captured were all elite soldiers and not the 30000 who were lent to and wasted by the Second Prince years ago, so the duke will definitely pay for their ransom to get them back.

"I won't be letting the captured soldiers into the central part of the dominion, so I will leave it to you to arrange for them to work on building the roads and other infrastructure in the Salus Settlement. As it's a waste to just let the elite workforce leave like that, when the messenger of the duke comes to negotiate for their release, do your best to postpone it so that we can squeeze as much work out of them as possible."

Charade almost burst out laughing as he said, "Locke, you're getting more and more crafty for you to want to utilize the slightest bit of manpower like that... If Duke Fisablen knows about this, there's no doubt that he would cough out blood in anger. Alright, I understand your intentions well so leave it to me. I will make sure that the duke pays a handsome sum to get these soldiers of his back."

Lorist circled around his study as he stroked his chin before he said, "Duke Fisablen doesn't have that much money and his adopted son and treasured general, Viscount Kristoph, is still in my hands as well as his 15000 soldiers. I suspect that he isn't able to afford a high amount like this. That's why I've decided that I won't demand money from him but livestock instead. The Wild Husbandry Province and the Eastwild Province produce the most livestock among the other provinces of the former empire with over half of the market share in livestock controlled by them, as summarized by the records of the Morante City market research report.

"Previously when you guys killed off so many nobles of the Northlands, didn't you make lots of vacant lands? We can use those lands as our family's pastures. If we take one cow for each prisoner we have, we'll be getting at least 15000 of them already. I wonder how many cows should I charge for Viscount Kristoph's release... Definitely not less than 10000. Just place the cows we get within the western area after we get them and convert that place into the largest pasture in the Northlands."

Charade nodded and said, "So far, the only place that produces livestock within the dominion is Maplewoods Bastide with them having up to 2000 cows and sheep. Even though some commoners have begun rearing livestock within the Felicitas Settlement, most of them are sheep and they number only up to a few hundred, which is considered to be really small-scale. Had it not been for the meat we got from the extermination of the magical beast wave, the family dominion would have run out of meat a long time ago. This idea is not bad as the western area of the Northlands is not too dangerous and suitable for the livestock to graze in."

"Then it's decided. Also, our three families had taken quite a huge amount of food with us this time around and our family got a share of around 32.5 million kilograms alongside some other valuables. I have decided to use this food to stabilize the situation of Salus Settlement and I'll leave the handling of the food to you. Since Hennard and the Felim Family don't lack any food, they're willing to sell their share to us according to market price, and I've already agreed to that. I'll leave the rest to you then," Lorist added.

"Alright, I already have the gist of it," Charade said before he took the related beastskin documents on the table into his hands. "Locke, how many days is it until Telesti gives birth?"

"Perhaps within a few short days. I estimate it to be around the 11th or the 12th day of the month," Lorist said as he looked at the window outside.

"Are you going to treat her properly and accordingly?" Charade asked.

Lorist shrugged his shoulders and said, "What choice do I have? You know well that I've proposed marriage to her multiple times over but she always turns me down with the excuse that she has taken an oath of celibacy to the God of Knowledge and Wisdom, Siminglyde and will stay unmarried for life. I hope that she'll change her mind after giving birth to this child..."

"Oh, thinking back to that year when we set out from Morante City towards the Northlands... It has already been five years, huh... You're already 29 now and it's about time you formed your own family as a dominion lord. Miss Telesti is definitely a rather good fit to be your official wife, so you had better try harder to persuade her," Charade said as he sighed.

Lorist nodded and sent Charade out when he was about to leave. When he opened the door however, he saw Howard standing outside and snickered before he said, "Fatty, by the end of this year, Baron Felim will be coming over to spend the winter and his 15-year-old daughter will be coming with him..."

Stunned, Charade said, "Baron Felim? He's only 35, right? How would he have a daughter that young? And he's still not married yet, right?"

Lorist laughed out loud and said, "That's his illegitimate daughter and I heard that the child's mother was only 16 when she gave birth while Baron Felim himself was only around 18..."

"What a savage!" Charade cursed loudly, despite the envious look he had on his face. "But what does his daughter have anything to do with him coming over to spend winter?"

Lorist looked at the blushing Howard before he said, "The baron has taken a great liking to this young one and wants to bring his daughter over here for them to meet. If they get along, he'll negotiate with Potterfang about their engagement."

Charade laughed out and said, "That's a great thing, Howard! Congratulations for getting a wife even though you only accompanied milord for such a short trip! I think you should join milord on more trips in the future as well..."

Unable to resist being poked fun at by the two, Howard turned and left, leaving Lorist alone with Charade to laugh out loudly by themselves.

Chapter 216 The Decision of the Duke

On the 13th day of the 8th month, Lorist's daughter was born and Telesti, who had just become a mother, named her child Nico Olijess, and there was nothing Lorist could do about it. Even though Lorist had wanted to discuss with Telesti about their formalized relationship and status, Telesti rejected that suggestion and insisted that she would be living by herself.

"Locke, I understand your intentions," said Telesti gently with her daughter Olijess in her embrace. Her child was of far more importance to her than Lorist currently. "I think that this arrangement is pretty good as it is. Don't tell me that you won't acknowledge her as your daughter just because we are not married. To be honest, I'm just a scholar and am not fit to become the wife of a dominion lord, because that position comes with responsibilities like dealing with other nobles and the such. In the future, I will have to focus my attention on the formation of the academy and I'm already satisfied now that Little Oli here will be succeeding the name of the Nico Family."

Having not been able to convince Telesti who wouldn't budge even the slightest, it wasn't as if Lorist could throw a tantrum in front of the mother and daughter and could do naught but leave.

Amidst his frustration, Lorist took his sword and looked for Viscount Kristoph whom he imprisoned. Right now, only that rank 1 Blademaster could qualify as a suitable sparring partner for Lorist. After enduring around 100 strikes from Lorist, Viscount Kristoph wisely conceded his loss. After taking a towel from Howard, he asked, "What's up with you today? You seem much wilder than usual..."

"It's nothing, I'm just a little troubled by something on my mind. Also, I'm going to make a trip to Maplewoods Bastide two days later. Do you want to tag along?" Lorist asked.

Even though Viscount Kristoph currently had the status of a prisoner of war, he was still allowed to leave Firmrock Castle as he pleased. Apart from being forbidden to return home, he was allowed to act as other nobles would.

"Forget it, I think it's better if I stay here. I've been wanting to have some free time to meditate on our duels and I don't want to follow you along just to be your training dummy all day long," said Viscount Kristoph as he rejected Lorist's offer.

Since he had expressedly denied the offer, Lorist didn't force him to go along with him. After that, he went to the rear mountain of the castle where a new training facility was built and saw Reidy training in the Dan Ocean Ki-Refining Technique which Lorist had taught him within a small stone house.

What intrigued Lorist wasn't the rate at which Reidy progressed in his training of that new technique but rather how it didn't have any effect whatsoever on Reidy's Silver ranked Battle Force. Unlike Lorist, Reidy's Battle Force didn't get sucked into the meridians or his dantian. No matter how Lorist pondered about it, he could only hypothesize that it was due to the difference between the two techniques with the Dan Ocean Ki-Refining Technique being more stable and peaceful as opposed to the Aquametal Technique's overbearingness. Another possible reason was the fact that Reidy was already firm in his Silver ranked Battle Force before he began to train in the new technique whereas Lorist began training in the Aquametal Technique when he was at the Iron rank. Due to the stability of Reidy's Battle Force, it was possible that it took priority over the first stage of the Dan Ocean Ki-Refining Technique which was still unable to shake the stability of Reidy's Battle Force.

Lorist had Reidy sit cross-legged before he sat behind him and placed both his palms against Reidy's back. As Reidy activated the Dan Ocean Ki-Refining Technique, Lorist inserted some of his own internal energy into the flow to aid him. The advantage of that was that Lorist would be able to reinforce Reidy's sensation of internal energy flowing within his meridians while being able to grasp Reidy's status and progress while he trained in the technique.

After a minor cycle, Lorist retracted both his palms and confirmed that the state of Reidy's body was more or less as he had predicted. After he began training in the Dan Ocean Ki-Refining Technique, even though he still had his Silver ranked Battle Force cultivation, Reidy was no longer able to progress in Battle Force training. In other words, he would forever stay at the One Star Silver rank and wouldn't be able to break through to the next stage.

The first two stages of the Dan Ocean Ki-Refining Technique mainly concerned the familiarization of the circulation of a minor cycle within the 12 standard meridians and the expansion of thereof. The main focus lies in cultivating the ki and storing it up. The truly difficult parts of the technique only starts at the following three stages with the third stage focusing on the opening of the 8 extraordinary meridians and the connection of thereof with the 12 standard meridians so that the internal energy in one's body can flow in a major cycle. The full attainment of training at the third stage would signify that one has already reached the peak of the Bright Stage, with the fourth stage of the technique signifying one's venture into the Dark Stage, and the fifth stage of the technique being at the legendary Transformative Stage. To use a Battle Force analogy, a person at the Transformative Stage would probably be at the level of a Sword Saint.

In actuality, Lorist wasn't looking forward to his trip two days later to Maplewoods Bastide. Ever since the assassination attempt he suffered last year, he hasn't gone there to visit his treasured son yet. But he still had to since he received a report from Old Man Balk about the completion of the shipyard as well as the argument between the work smiths on what kind of ship to build first, hence necessitating Lorist's personal visit for a decision to be made.

Lorist told Reidy to stay there and continue his training as he would break through to the second stage in another three months. Since Lorist already had Howard by his side during his visit, there was no need for Reidy to serve as his attendant during that time.

The moment he arrived at Maplewoods Bastide, he was received happily by Irina. Despite that, his two-year-old rowdy son had completely forgotten about his own father. Not only did he cry when Lorist tried to hug him, he even crawled over to give Lorist a bite as he felt threatened when Irina, his mother, had her attention focused on Lorist, causing Lorist to feel incredibly mixed feelings.

Lorist felt that he hadn't treated the mother and son well enough and decided to have the two follow him back to Firmrock Castle to live there with him. At least that way, that child of his would not forget who his own father was that easily. But Irina was as stubborn as Telesti when it came to that regard and refused vehemently to leave Maplewoods Bastide, causing Lorist to have no choice but to give up on the notion.

After spending two days at Maplewoods Bastide, Lorist headed to the Bullhorn Bay. Bullhorn Bay was the name for the bay at the intersection the Bladedge Mountains and the Blackmud Marsh and it was called as such due to it being shaped like the horn of a bull. Initially, it was only a term which the prisoners who worked there referred to the bay with, but eventually it stuck and the family adopted the name formally and used it in its maps.

The Bladedge Mountains and the Blackmud Marsh had already been connected and it no longer took more than a day to travel from Maplewoods Bastide to Poplar Coast. When Lorist arrived at the passthrough at Bladedge Mountains, he saw Grandmaster Ciroba, who was currently placed in charge of the development of Blackmud Marsh, and his assistant Zanben, seemingly measuring something halfway up a hill with some other people. After seeing Lorist and the others, they hurriedly rushed over.

"What are you guys doing?" Lorist asked as he dismounted.

After the passage of a few years, Grandmaster Ciroba no longer wet himself when he saw Lorist like before. On the contrary, he was extremely grateful that Lorist had given him an opportunity to utilize his talents as a development project on the scale of the one at Blackmud Marsh was not something any other kingdom or nation could afford to undertake and fund given the chaotic conditions of a time of war. Grandmaster Ciroba was certain that once the project was completed, his name as a great architect would forever be imprinted upon the annals of history and he believed that to be his true calling.

However, as he had treated Lorist like a demon in the past and had wet himself quite a few times when he first met him, Grandmaster Ciroba still felt rather awkward when he faced Lorist. So, he instructed his assistant Zanben to do the talking.

After bowing with respect to Lorist, Zanben said, "Milord, we are seeing if we can build a citadel halfway up the hill here and are measuring the total surface area available."

"Oh?" Lorist mused as he looked at the surroundings and thought, this is indeed a rather good spot. Originally, that place used to be a high peak up a mountain but now, it seemed like it was cut in half by a very large blade with the peak having broken off into multiple rock formations that filled the bottom, becoming part of the path itself. By building a citadel there, not only could they oversee Blackmud Marsh, they could also seal off the path from Bladedge Mountains to Poplar Coast. Given the terrain, the citadel would be easy to defend but hard to conquer. As long as a division of soldiers was stationed there, the safety of the construction of the port city would be assured.

"Not bad, you have truly thoroughly considered your plan," Lorist praised.

"Milord, so far we're still in the planning stages and we're still considering whether we should also excavate half of the neighboring mountain connect it with this one. By doing that, we can increase the surface area and also have the water source at the mountain behind be used for this citadel. However, by doing so we'll be effectively doubling our workload and we're currently debating whether it's worth the effort," Zanben added.

Lorist nodded and said, "I have great faith in your abilities and trust that you will make the best choice in the interests of the Norton Family. I'll leave this decision in your hands and won't butt in."

"Milord, there is however one thing we must get your word on," Zanben said as he stepped forward. He pointed at the sea and said, "Milord, in the original plan for the construction of the port city, we were prepared to reclaim the reef area of the sea but after a year of surveying the territory under the leadership of Grandmaster Ciroba, we realized that landfilling the reef area which can be tens to hundreds of meters deep is not a worthwhile effort. Not only would the operation be on a very large scale, it would also leave the safety of the port city at risk in the future. I believe we should keep the reef area as it is and only fill out the area near the shipyard and build two jetties that stretch into the deeper parts of the ocean. That is already enough to satisfy the need for the family's fleet..."

"How about this, I will be at the shipyard during this period of time, so, summarize your thoughts and suggestions about the project tonight and send it to me in a report alongside the original blueprints and plans for the port city. I will gather the others from the other family departments for a discussion before I make a decision," Lorist said before he nodded towards Grandmaster Ciroba and headed straight for the path to the shipyard.

The shipyard was located at the deepest part of the bay and the land behind it was filled with huge, dried timber. Old Man Balk brought a few other woodworkers with him and guided Lorist into a wide hall, within which was a huge water tank in which tens of miniature model ships of different designs and sizes floated.

Old Man Balk pointed at the floating models and said, "Milord, these models here include most of the boat types In Grindia, but we were unable to decide on which we should construct first. Some think that we should begin with a warship while others think that a merchant vessel would be a good choice. That's why we have asked milord to come here to make a decision."

Lorist shook his head and said, "So far, our family still hasn't established a sea trading route yet so there's no need for a merchant vessel. However, warships take a long time to build given how complicated they are, and we don't really need it that soon. For the first ship to be built for the family's navy, it should be one that we can use to train in the sea with."

"But, milord, there isn't a ship specifically designed for training..." said the oldest work smith as he stood forward.

"If there isn't, you can always design one yourself. The requirements for a training ship is simple. It only has to be middle-sized, have a couple of ranged weapons and be easy to handle and control. There's no need for it to be too fast or tough and it only needs to be able to resist stormy weathers and travel further into the ocean. The main purpose of the training ship is to familiarize our navy marines with life out on sea as well as train them in several other seafaring skills so that they can develop basic combat ability on sea. You may discuss the specifics according to the requirements I've stated and begin designing the ship accordingly. Can you achieve at least that?" Lorist asked.

"Milord, I guess we can try," said the old worksmith as he looked at his other partners and nodded.

"Then it's decided. Go have a discussion and make a blueprint and model for me to inspect. I will be staying here for the time being until you come up with a design I'm satisfied with," Lorist said.

......

On the windy grasslands where cows and sheep could be spotted grazing stood a huge and majestic citadel that looked like a crouching, fierce magical tiger from afar.

That was the control center of the Eastwild Province and it was the main base of the war god of the Frontier Legion, rank 3 Blademaster Duke Fisablen. It also served as the main camp for the Frontier Legion and it was called the Crouchtiger Castle.

Currently, Duke Fisablen had a face reddened with anger with the silver cup in his hand crushed into an unrecognizable ball of metal. No matter who one was, if one received a chain of bad news throughout the whole morning, one would definitely be put in a bad mood. One of those reports even shook the war god duke to the core.

Within the hall stood tens of the duke's family knights who were all silent and unmoving. Not one of them were willing to appease their lord as there was nothing they could do about their duke's current temper but brainstorm on how to resolve the current predicament.

"Grandfather, what's going on?" asked Princess Sylvia as she walked into the hall dressed in valiant hunting garbs. Her presence brought relief to those family knights as the duke would definitely not lash out angrily in the presence of his beloved granddaughter.

"Oh, my beloved darling, why are you here? I just got a few pieces of bad news in the morning that caused my mood to sour," Duke Fisablen said as he revealed a forced smile.

"Oh, let me see what they are about," said Princess Sylvia before she took the few beastskin documents that were on the duke's table and read them through. "A report from the Wessia Merchant Guild? They said that they will be changing their mining equipment for the following two years and will be willing to reimburse our family with gold Fordes? What does that mean?"

Duke Fisablen sighed before he said, "Sylvia, your uncle, the king of the Iblia Kingdom, actually sold the two crucial iron mines of the kingdom to the Wessia Merchant Guild and allowed them to manage them for up to 30 years. Within the whole of the Iblia Kingdom, only those two mines can easily produce good quality iron ores and they are the most important source of material for military equipment within the kingdom. According to the agreement the king signed in the past, one third of the produce from those mines would be provided to our Frontier Legion.

"Now that the mines are under the management of the Wessia Merchant Guild, even though they acknowledge the agreement with the king, the agreement only stated that they will provide iron ores and not manufactured military equipment. Their claim about changing their mining equipment is merely one of their lies. Even if they reimburse our family with gold Fordes instead of iron ore, what use would we have for them? Our family needs military equipment, not gold coins. Right now, we can't even purchase military equipment even if we have enough funds..."

"Grandfather, don't be so hasty. I know a place that produces great military equipment and I can get you in contact with the people in charge," said Princess Sylvia.

"And who exactly is that?" asked the duke with surprise.

"They're the Norton Family of the Northlands. The armor worn by their family forces are among the most impressive I've seen and boast incredible defense."

"The Norton Family? No way, they are our enemy. Not only did they imprison that uncle of yours who is our king, they even captured your Uncle Kristoph and 15000 other soldiers of the Frontier Legion. I'm already incredibly troubled about what price I should offer to ransom them back," Duke Fisablen said while shaking his head.

"Grandfather, I recall that the leader of the Norton Family said something like this. 'There are no eternal enemies, only eternal profits.' I think that even though you consider him an enemy, they might not see us in the same light. Also, it was uncle's own fault for setting his sights on the Norton Family in the first place even though they did not even provoke him in the slightest. They are merely abiding by their oath to defend their dominion and the border of the empire but uncle still wanted to conquer them and even sent a Blademaster to assassinate the leader of the Norton Family after his failure. That's far too underhanded and insidious of him.

"It was already quite merciful for the Norton Family to only capture him without hanging him straight away. Also, didn't he treat auntie quite well when his family occupied the royal capital? Godmother and I have seen Count Norton in person before and he even escorted us back home after defeating uncle's army. Just let me go to the Northlands for a visit for that purpose while I try to negotiate for the release of Uncle Kristoph and the soldiers too. What do you think?" Princess Sylvia persuaded her grandfather as she held his hand tightly in a spoiled manner.

"'There are no eternal enemies, only eternal profits', huh? Hahaha, that saying is rather interesting. Alright then, Sylvia. Go to the Northlands with Xanthi and see what kind of response the Norton Family will give us," said the duke as he made his decision.

Chapter 217 Visit

When Lorist received word that Princess Sylvia was on the way to Firmrock Castle with Count Kenmays, it was already near the end of the month and he had already stayed at the shipyard at Bullhorn Bay for almost an entire month. Currently, not only had the shipyard begun building three training ships and one survey ship, they were also researching an idea put forward by Lorist concerning speedy warships.

The current mode of battle used by nations with navy forces were only limited to traditional ship-boarding. For instance, when Lorist was studying in Morante City, he saw the fleet of the Forde Trade Union once. Their ships were basically like huge rectangular walls installed onto a floating bodies and during battles, two adjacent ships would only begin firing ranged weapons like ballistas and longbows when they were around 300 meters apart. And as the ships approached one another, the battle would shift to close combat between the two ship crews with the conflict only ending when one side was completely annihilated or forced to surrender.

It was too bad Lorist's experiments with gunpowder were unsuccessful. Otherwise, he could manufacture iron cannons and take the world of naval warfare by storm. As the owner of a workshop in his past life, Lorist was no stranger to line-of-battle ships and he could easily make tens of miniaturized ones easily. However, without any cannons at his disposal, those ships would only be useful as merchant vessels at most.

Despite that, Lorist still designed one three-masted line-of-battle ship with its focus on ranged weaponry and good mobility. As for the weapons, the steel ballistas and catapults could be installed on the ship for that purpose. The ship only had to avoid being approached by other ships at all costs and exterminate enemy ships by using kiting tactics.

"Alright, just design that ship according to my specifications for now. In terms of ranged attacks, if us, the Norton Family, claims to be the second best, I doubt anyone else would dare to claim to be the best. You must be at least that confident. After finishing the ship, I believe we can start running some drills. By then, we'll be able to see whether this type of speedy cruiser would be practical or not," Lorist said to the shipbuilders beside him.

"Yes, milord..."

After leaving the shipyard, Lorist returned to Maplewoods Bastide and spent three whole days with Irina while toying around with his slow-witted brat until he was satisfied before leaving for Firmrock Castle.

Before Lorist managed to wash off the grime on him that built up during the travels, Howard entered and informed him that Princess Sylvia had come over to visit. Having no other choice, Lorist could only wash his face and have a change of clothes before meeting his visitor.

Princess Sylvia only brought one maidservant with her on the trip and looked to be in an angry mood. The moment she saw Lorist, she began complaining immediately. After listening to her complaints for quite a while, he understood that Princess Sylvia had been shocked after the discussion with Charade. She believed that Charade's suggestion of three cows as ransom for each captured Frontier Legion soldier was far too ridiculous.

Lorist smiled warmly and said, "Since a princess like yourself had to make a visit over here personally, as a dominion lord, I will have to give you some face. How about this... Each Frontier Legion soldier's ransom will be only 1 cow, with a squad leader's ransom being 10 cows, a company leader's being 100 and a regiment leader's being 1000. As for Viscount Kristoph's ransom, it's up to you. Will that be acceptable?"

That was already incredibly magnanimous of Lorist as a mere 'favor' to the princess as the new ransom was only a third of the original one proposed by Charade. Princess Sylvia's face suddenly flushed red as she lowered her head and said in a shy tone," Thank you, Elder Brother Locke..."

Lorist didn't feel particularly deserving of that since this whole thing was nothing more than a good cop, bad cop charade he had planned with Charade beforehand. (Translator: No pun intended.) By giving Duke Fisablen this discount, the duke would owe the Norton Family a favor in the future. Additionally, it was even more significant since the one who made the visit was Princess Sylvia herself. As for how she addressed Lorist as 'Elder Brother Locke', there was nothing weird about it as she had been doing so when she was being escorted by Lorist on the way back to the Wild Husbandry Province some time prior.

This time around, Lorist intended to quickly settle this matter and send Princess Sylvia on her way back before taking a bath and checking out on Telesti and his daughter. As he had been gone for a month, he missed them quite a lot and he didn't really want to deal with Princess Sylvia anymore. Even though the princess was indeed the most beautiful girl Lorist had ever seen and was even considered to be a goddess by Count Kenmays, Lorist felt that she existed in a completely different realm from him. Psychological age aside, Lorist himself was 8 years Princess Sylvia's senior and he only considered her as he would a cute and energetic girl in the neighborhood.

However, Princess Sylvia didn't leave even after the matter of the ransom was concluded and even tried her best to loiter around. A little annoyed, Lorist smiled and asked, "Your Highness, do you have any other matters? If you do, pray tell. I will definitely help you out to the best of my ability."

Princess Sylvia let out a relieved breath and said, "Elder Brother Locke, this time around I didn't just come to talk about the matter of the ransom. I was wondering if you could sell some weapons and equipment to the Frontier Legion..."

"Huh?" Lorist mused, shocked. Princess Sylvia's request was completely out of his expectations. He gave it some thought before he raised his head to look at the princess and said, "As a friend of mine, I hope that you can tell me the reason you've approached my family to purchase weapons and equipment."

With a troubled look, Princess Sylvia said, "Originally, the equipment required by the Frontier Legion are sourced from the Iblia Kingdom for no cost as my grandfather had an agreement with the king that stated that a third of the produce from the two iron mines of the kingdom would be made into equipment by the facilities of the king himself and provided to the Frontier Legion.

"But we didn't expect that after the king was defeated by the Norton Family and fled to the royal capital, he actually rented the only two iron mines the Iblia Kingdom relied upon to the Wessia Merchant Guild for 30 whole years. Even though the Wessia Merchant Guild still acknowledged the king's agreement with my grandfather, they were only willing to provide us with a third of the ores themselves and not pre-made equipment and weapons because it wasn't explicitly stated within the agreement...

"And just before I came over to your dominion, we received a notification from the Wessia Merchant Guild that they had to use two years' time to change their mining equipment and could only reimburse us with gold Fordes worth the value of the iron ore they ought to be giving us. However, we don't need money and instead require equipment.

"The main enemy of the Frontier Legion are the grassland barbarians from the northeastern plains. Even though the quality of the equipment produced by the kingdom is rather low and caused it to wear and tear quickly, we were still able to sustain ourselves with the constant influx of new equipment. But without the iron mines, we can no longer make up for the broken gear and in the recent smaller skirmishes, our forces were forced to fight with incomplete gear against the savage grassland barbarians.

"That's why, Elder Brother Locke, I hope you can lend a hand since the Frontier Legion is also defending the empire's borders just like what the Norton Family is doing and provide us with the armor and equipment produced by your family. The Fisablen Family and the Frontier Legion will definitely remember the kindness you show us..."

"The Wessia Merchant Guild?" Instead of answering whether he would agree to the princess's request, Lorist focused his attention on the Wessia Merchant Guild instead. "Weird, why has the Wessia Merchant Guild stretched their hands towards the Iblia Kingdom?" he muttered softly.

"Elder Brother Locke, you know about them? Oh, right, you mentioned that you studied at Morante City during your youth. Then you must know the merchant guild quite well then?" Princess Sylvia said after she heard Lorist's muttering with her keen aural sense.

Nodding, Lorist said, "That's right. I've heard of the Wessia Merchant Guild but I don't really understand them well, even though I was at Morante City for ten years. The Wessia Merchant Guild is one of the seven largest merchant guilds of the Forde Trade Union and they're ranked at third place. For a high up merchant guild like that, us mercenaries working at Morante City didn't have much interaction with them. However, they are most well known for producing good military equipment.

"You should know about Mizek Stainless Steel Armor, right? They're considered one of the armors with best defense around and are produced in the Temanda Kingdom. But the Wessia Merchant Guild holds all the rights to sell the 200000[1] or so units of armor produced yearly. It can be said that the Wessia Merchant Guild is one of the largest groups dealing and producing military equipment."

"No wonder..." Princess Sylvia mused with astonishment. "After we received the notification from the Wessia Merchant Guild, our family knights were all fuming with rage and felt that they were being duped by the guild and requested to be allowed to teach them a lesson. But my grandfather only laughed bitterly as he refused their request with the only reason being that the Wessia Merchant Guild was one of the seven largest guilds in the Forde Trade Union and that it wouldn't be wise to provoke them. If relations with them really turned sour, the trade they have with the Eastwild Province and the Wild Husbandry Province might be cut off and that would cause the lives of the commoners to degrade badly..."

Lorist smiled without saying anything else and thought that even though Duke Fisablen has a force of 70000 plus soldiers and controls two whole provinces, his true might could possibly not even compare to that of the Kenmays Family. The two provinces he controlled encompassed only grasslands from head to end with not even a single mine available. Even if the Fisablen Family wanted to develop their agriculture, they must first invest huge amounts of funds to set up irrigation infrastructure. And it didn't help that they had to rely on merchants from outside the dominion for even a single earthen pot and only had cows and sheep as well as their related products for export.

Currently, the salt merchant committee managed by Count Kenmays did not only deal with salt. They were also responsible for the distribution of the daily-use products produced by the Norton Family, especially at the provinces controlled by Duke Fisablen. Even though the products were varied and trivial, the quantity produced and consumed brought the Norton Family up to 3000 gold Fordes of profit yearly even though they only had 10% share of the salt merchant committee.

Had it not been for the fact that Duke Fisablen was a mighty rank 3 Blademaster with his famed and elite Frontier Legion, there would've been no way for the Iblia Kingdom to be founded in the first place. From Lorist's point of view, it was extremely simple for him to deal with Duke Fisablen. He only had to close the borders between the two provinces and the Iblia kingdom and prohibit all trading activities there. In two to three years, the Frontier Legion would collapse without so much as a single fight.

"Elder Brother Locke, you still haven't said whether you'll sell the equipment to us or not," Princess Sylvia reminded.

"Selling them isn't a problem. I'm just worried that your family won't be able to afford it," Lorist said with a bitter smile.

"My family has enough money and will be able to take out a few hundred thousand gold Fordes," Princess Sylvia said in a dissatisfied tone.

Lorist shook his head and said, "It's not that I'm looking down on your few hundred thousand gold coins, but I'm afraid that amount of money won't be enough to outfit even a division of soldiers..."

"Ah? Is it that expensive?" Princess Sylvia said, a little dazed.

"It's not a matter of expensiveness but rather whether it's worth this amount. Your Highness, I see that you're not too informed about weapons and equipment. How about this, tomorrow noon, I will hold a banquet to formally welcome your arrival to Firmrock Castle. After that, I will show those equipment I have for sale for you to pick. With Viscount Kristoph also attending, you don't have to worry about me giving an unfair price since he's quite well-versed in these things," Lorist said.

"I apologize, Elder Brother Locke. I didn't really do any research into military equipment, so please forgive me for my tone just now. I will leave for now, so see you tomorrow," Princess Sylvia said with her head lowered.

"No problem, don't take it to heart. See you tomorrow," Lorist said as he waved his hands generously.

After Princess Sylvia bowed and took her leave, she turned back and said, "Thank you, Elder Brother Locke. You're truly a good person."

"Huh?" Lorist mused. What's with that all of a sudden?

On the next day, after the welcoming banquet, Lorist brought Princess Sylvia and some others to the hall on the second floor where various armor and weapons were on display.

"Princess Sylvia, Blademaster Xanthi, Viscount Kristoph, the equipment my family has for sale are all displayed here and you may make your pick. However, the price tags listed beneath each item are only reserved for members of our alliance. If your family wishes to purchase them, the price will be 20% higher and that's already a huge discount I'm willing to make," Lorist said without holding anything back.

"Ah! 100 gold Fordes per set?! Isn't this the armor used by the forces of the Kenmays Family?" Princess Sylvia exclaimed with astonishment. As she had visited the dominion of the Kenmays Family before, she remembered the gleaming silvery armor rather well. At that time, she only thought that it looked rather good but didn't expect that each set would cost this much.

Count Kenmays nodded and said, "Yes, Your Highness. This is indeed the armor set purchased by our family at that very price."

"Uncle Kris, I heard you say before that the metal armor provided to us by His Highness the king wasn't worth more than 10 gold Fordes each. Why are the ones sold by the Norton Family so expensive?" Princess Sylvia asked with a disturbed look. At that price, it would be exactly like Lorist had said: they wouldn't be able to outfit even one division of troops with armor.

As Viscount Kristoph had good understanding of military equipment, he laughed bitterly and said, "Your Highness, each set of armor sold by Count Norton here are all exquisite products with impeccable quality and defensive capabilities. Compared to these, the metal armor provided to us by His Highness is nothing but garbage, In other words, the metal armor we used was only slightly better than leather armor produced by our family and would spoil after only one year of wear. On the other hand, no matter which armor here you pick from, they will definitely be far better than those metal armor. If we care for them well, we might even be able to leave the armor for our children and grandchildren as family heirlooms."

Blademaster Xanthi nodded in agreement.

"However, our family doesn't have that much gold coins..." Princess Sylvia said as she hesitated.

"Please take a closer look at this set," Lorist said aptly as he led the others to a set of concise looking armor. "This set of armor was originally designed for my light cavalry scouts and comes with throwing weapons, a longsword and a pike. It's extremely suitable for your Frontier Legion's cavalry troops and is priced at only around 65 gold Fordes. Even though it's the cheapest armor we offer for sale, its defense capabilities are rather good and is only 20% weaker than the armor of the Whitelion Legion of the former empire. I think that this is more than enough for you to use against the grassland barbarians. If you don't have enough gold coins, I have another suggestion. You can pay us with cows and sheeps. What do you think, Your Highness?"

"Alright then, we'll trade the armor with you with livestock. If we don't have enough, we can simply rob more of them from the northeastern plains," said Viscount Kristoph excitedly without even waiting for the princess's agreement.

Three days later, Princess Sylvia left with Blademaster Xanthi, Viscount Kristoph and 3000 of the released Frontier Legion soldiers with the remaining 12000 only allowed to leave until the agreed upon livestock was delivered when they came to retrieve the armor and equipment they purchased.

"Good Sol, have you gone insane?" Charade said in one of his rare instances of swearing. "Are you going crazy along with the Fisablen Family? How can you agree so casually to accept up to 2 million cows and sheep for the ransom of their soldiers and the purchase 100000 sets of equipment? I don't think they have that much livestock themselves within their two provinces..."

"Viscount Kristoph said that he would lead his soldiers to rob the grassland barbarians for more cows and sheep," said Lorist lazily.

"Ugh..." Charade was stunned as he didn't expect that the Fisablen Family had that method to their disposal. "Even if they rob them, we won't have that much manpower to manage the livestock!"

"Hey, don't worry. The agreement states that they will pay in installments of 400000 plus cows and sheeps yearly for five years. We only have to leave around a few tens of thousands alive and kill some off to make dried meat and sell some away within the family dominion. I believe they will be sold out rather quickly since our dominion's population is already nearing 800000 and the demand for fresh meat will be high. As for the people required to manage the livestock, I've already discussed it with them and they said that they'll provide around 1000 households of herders, which equates to around 5000 people, to us and each household will be in charge of ten cows. By then, we can just set up a town at the west area of the Northlands for these herders to stay at and let them take care of up to 500000 animals."

Having heard Lorist's sound explanation, Charade left without saying anything else.

"Don't forget to close the door when you leave! I'm gonna take a short nap now, darn I'm tired!" Lorist said as he lifted both his legs and put them on the table before leaning back on his chair.

Bam! The sound of the door being slammed shut echoed throughout the room.

[1] The raws actually say that only 20 or so units are produced a year, but I suspect that it's a typing error by the author. So, I've taken the liberty to make the number a little more realistic.

Chapter 218 Whale Island

"Milord, I think that the deal you made with Fisablen Family was a really irrational act on your part. From a strategic point of view, this is basically akin to strengthening one's enemy..." Howard who had been bothered by the deal for two whole days could no longer hold back and took the chance during tea time to tell Lorist his thoughts.

Lorist calmly popped a honeyed scone into his mouth before he washed it down with some tea and looked at Howard with a smile.

Howard blushed after Lorist stared at him without saying anything. When he got fed up, he said, "Master, please tell me why you agreed to the deal with the Fisablen Family. Everyone else is saying that it's because you have been beguiled by Princess Sylvia..."

Lorist hurriedly turned behind to take a look and was relieved to find that Telesti was still sitting on the grassy ground nearby with her newborn child along with Little Vinny. Even though Telesti's young maidservant had already grown into a fine young lady, not a trace of her childish and playful personality disappeared as was evident from her continuous toying with the baby's legs. Neither of them heard what Howard had just said.

"Come over here, you brat," Lorist said with a solemn look as he stretched his hand to ruffle Howard's hair into a bird's nest shape. "Looks like you've grown and are able to consider things from a strategic perspective already... Not bad... Alright, sit down right here. It's time to give you a lecture.

"Howard, answer this question of mine first. What is Duke Fisablen and the Frontier Legion to you?" Lorist asked.

Howard gave it some thought before he replied, "Master, even though Duke Fisablen and his Frontier Legion hasn't clashed with us directly so far, no matter what, they're still a potential threat to our family. If we want to attack the Iblia Kingdom in the future, they will become our enemy. Many other people are of the same opinion as I am."

"The Iblia Kingdom? Hehe, Howard, you should set your sights further. Don't just look at things that are right in front of you. In my eyes, I have never took Duke Fisablen and the Frontier Legion seriously as I think that they're not fit to even be considered our enemy," Lorist said arrogantly.

"Master, why do you think so? Duke Fisablen's Frontier Legion has up to 78000 elite soldiers and that number can definitely rival the forces of our family. And after the armament deal with them is carried out, their military might will only increase! You can definitely not be too careless!" Howard advised.

"Hehe..." Lorist snickered and said, "Howard, tell me what you think about Duke Fisablen's abandonment of the position of the regent of the Iblia Kingdom and his return to his lair at Eastwild Province."

"That's because of the plot you laid against him, master. Currently, the Iblia Kingdom is in a really deep mess and there's nothing the duke can do about it, so he has no choice but to give up on it," Howard said after he recalled the details about the situation.

Lorist shook his head and said, "You're wrong about that, Howard. No matter how good a plan or plot is, it would be nothing but a parlor trick in the face of true power and might. Actually, if the duke was ruthless enough, he could've cleansed the nobles that opposed him and gathered up the ones in favor of him to build up support for himself. He definitely has the capability to do so. As long as he can restore order to the kingdom and restart productivity, the Iblia Kingdom will no doubt be able to regain its vitality within five years, and not remain in its current chaotic state as a dying nation.

"But Duke Fisablen gave up on that notion because that was a path of no return. Either he succeeds in his effort or the Fisablen Family dies in vain for it. That's why he was afraid of doing so and was willing to abandon the kingdom so that he could be assured that his family would be able to continue on. As long as he has the Frontier Legion, no matter who it is, one would still have to treat the Fisablen Family with respect. Even if the duke himself was no longer present, the Fisablen Family would still be able to exist and survive based on the Frontier Legion alone.

"From that point, it can be seen that Duke Fisablen had long lost his ambitions. Even though the founding of the Iblia Kingdom was only possible with his support, the kingdom is already pushed to its limit. And Duke Fisablen understands well that his departure would signify that he has abandoned all attempt at saving the Iblia Kingdom.

"Let's look back at the Frontier Legion. Back then, the reason it was formed was to resist the attacks of the grassland barbarians of the northeastern plains. But nobody expected that when Duke Fisablen took command of the legion, its might would increase that quickly. Not only was it able to suppress the grassland barbarians, it was even able to expand the territory of the empire by conquering a whole province at the border. That's why the biggest enemy for the Frontier Legion is still the grassland barbarians of the northeastern plains.

"And while the Frontier Legion does indeed boast a number of 78000 men, half of the soldiers from the legion are actually required to defend against the attacks of the grassland barbarians. In the past, Duke Fisablen only needed three to four cavalry divisions from the legion to suppress his opponents within the Iblia Kingdom. However, ever since our family exterminated the Second Prince's force of 100000, the duke understands that it would be incredibly hard for him to take us four families of the Northlands on with the soldiers he has on hand.

"The act of ordering 100000 sets of equipment from our family with Princess Sylvia being their representative is akin to the Fisablen Family presenting an olive branch to us, signifying that they have no intention of being our enemy as well as to test whether our family really has the might to oppose them. By agreeing to this deal, we have expressed that we don't intend to treat the Fisablen Family as our enemy as well as making a subtle statement that our family doesn't mind the fact that the Frontier Legion's strength would increase from their purchase of our military equipment.

"Many people within our family are worried that the 100000 sets of equipment would greatly increase the strength of the Frontier Legion and think that selling the equipment to them is like making trouble for ourselves. Actually, they are so afraid because they've heard of Duke Fisablen's fearsome reputation as the war god of the plains. Howard, let me ask you, if our family's forces faces off against the whole of the Frontier Legion right now, do you think we would lose?"

"That's impossible. Given the might of our forces, the Frontier Legion has absolutely no chance of success at all. Whether it be the quality of the soldiers or equipment, our forces far surpass the Frontier Legion in those regards," Howard said confidently.

"Then, do you think the Frontier Legion will be able to fight on equal grounds with us or perhaps even defeat us if they're armed with the equipment we sell them?" Lorist asked again.

Howard stayed silent as he pondered upon the possibility before he finally shook his head and said, "They still don't have much odds of success even if that was the case. Our family forces' logistics support is still far superior to the Frontier Legion's. Even if we don't use any tactics whatsoever and fight them by the book, while they might win a number of battles using specific strategies and tactics, they'll still be defeated in the long run. But milord, even if that were the case, our family forces would suffer huge casualties as well, and that's why I think it's bad for us to strengthen the enemy like that..."

Lorist nodded and said, "Howard, you really are quite thorough in your considerations and I'm incredibly glad that you are able to do so. But you have to remember one important thing. As a general or commander, when you set foot on the battlefield, you have to consider your subordinates and soldiers as a mere number and be able to make calm observations about the state of battle at all times. You can definitely not allow anger or sympathy cloud your mind. Naturally, you have to think well about how to defeat the enemy while minimizing casualties to your own forces as well. But you must never forget your original goal just because you are suffering more casualties than expected, because if you don't obtain victory, all the casualties you incur would have been in vain. Only by securing your victory can the sacrifice be justified.

"What you said just now makes a lot of sense and the 100000 sets of equipment will indeed increase the might of the Frontier Legion. But you and the others who worry have forgotten the most important thing. This is a trade and you must consider the price the Fisablen Family and the Frontier Legion must pay to fulfill their end of the bargain. To our family, the 100000 sets of equipment is only 1 year's worth of production. But we are able to get up to 2 million cows and sheep from it.

"Livestock of that number is almost equal to two magical beast waves, each with more than one million beasts. That's definitely not a price the Fisablen Family can afford to pay since the Eastwild Province and the Wild Husbandry Province, the two largest livestock-producing provinces, only has a yearly output of 500000 cows and sheep. They definitely can't give us all the livestock they produce since they have to rely on them to trade for food, mounts, salt and other necessities for daily life. On the other hand, our agreement stipulates that they have to provide us with 400000 cows and sheep yearly for five years while we only have to give them two Frontier Legion divisions' worth of equipment per year, which goes up to 20000 sets yearly.

"That's why the Fisablen Family and the Frontier Legion set their sights on the grassland barbarians to rob their tribes of their livestock. But do you think the barbarians are a bunch that can be easily provoked? The tribes that have up to 100000 or more animals are those that have at least tens of thousands of members with all of them being capable soldiers as well. Even if the troops of the Frontier Legion arm themselves with the equipment provided by our family, that doesn't mean that the soldiers of the Frontier Legion would be impervious to damage and they will still suffer some casualties. I estimate that five years later, the Frontier Legion might need another twenty to thirty thousand sets of equipment to replace the broken ones.

"In some way, the signing of the agreement with us by the Fisablen Family is akin to having them work for our family for five years, all the while causing the grudge between their family and the grassland barbarians to grow even heavier. Even if they get all the gear we agreed to sell them five years later, they can only focus their efforts on resisting the retaliatory efforts of the grassland barbarians. And with five years of time to develop, do you think the might of our family will stay the same? By then, I think that we won't even consider the Frontier Legion to be of the slightest threat to us."

"Five years, huh?" Howard mumbled while scratching his head, before he smiled embarrassedly and said, "Master, I really have forgotten the most crucial factor of all: time..."

After reconsidering the whole situation, Howard's eyes shone with understanding. "Master, so basically if they sign the agreement, it means that the Fisablen Family and the Frontier Legion would have no choice but to be on friendly terms with us and can definitely not antagonize us in any way, because they have to use their elite soldiers to rob the barbarians of their livestock. In fact, they'll be trying their best to get on good terms with us to prevent themselves from being sandwiched by enemies from both sides and also due to the fact that we're in complete control of their supply of military equipment."

"Not bad, that's the gist of it. In the end, the people within our family opposing my decision can only see what's directly in front of them are worrying about nothing," Lorist said with a smile on his face as he lifted his tea cup up.

Right after that, Patt brought a dirty-looking family soldier hurriedly before Lorist and said, "Milord, there is an urgent report from the navy camp. During their drills, the three training ships sustained attacks by whales and two of them were flipped over with many casualties among the marines. So far, up to 370 of them are still missing..."

"What did you say?!" Lorist yelled with a look of shock on his face as he stood up and knocked over the table in front of him along with the teapot and cup placed upon it.

......

Lorist left that night itself along with his guards ad arrived at the navy camp Bullhorn Day on the afternoon of the next day.

"Milord, I have betrayed your trust because of my own incompetence and caused the navy troops so many casualties..." said Gold ranked knight Freiyar with an incredibly regretful look on his face.

Patting on his shoulder, Lorist said, "This is not your fault. I know that you have expended lots of effort on setting up the navy camp and you were also not aboard any of the ships during this training drill, so this incident was beyond your control. First, prepare something for me and the guards to eat. We haven't had anything hot since yesterday afternoon..."

The incident occurred as followed. During the middle of the 10th month when the three ships were handed to the navy camp for the marines to use during their training, they only sailed within Bullhorn Bay to familiarize themselves with the ships' properties and capabilities. But after doing the same thing for ten plus days, the navy troops were a little sick of repeating the same thing again and again and decided to head out of the bay. Just like that, each following sailing drill saw the ships sailing further and further away from the bay until three days prior, they discovered a small island roughly 50 or so kilometers away from Bullhorn Bay. However, that island was surrounded by a school of playful whales.

That island was not documented on the various maps probably because it wasn't large enough and was skimmed over by the Magi when they drew the maps of the Grindia Continent. That's why the maps that were passed down through the generations didn't have a record of that island. So, the marines took it upon themselves to name the place 'Whale Island' after the whales that frolicked around it.

During the training session two days prior, Freiyar himself had also gotten aboard one of the ships and saw the island for himself. At that time, he even refused the request of some soldiers to dock on the shore, mainly because he felt that the whales around the island were too numerous and he was worried that something bad would happen to the training ships if they approached so carelessly without preparation. But little did anyone expect that the group of marines whose turn to train was yesterday would be unable to resist their curiosity to check the island out, causing three training ships each carrying 200 excited people to sail straight towards the island.

Just when they were within 5 kilometers of the island shore, the two ships at the forefront started being assaulted by the whales, the largest of which was as big as a training ship itself. After the largest whale jumped and rammed into one of the ships, causing it to flip over entirely, it rammed against another ship immediately following that. By the time the single remaining ship retreated to a safe distance, its crew only managed to save 23 people by sending smaller life boats in with the remaining 377 marines who were originally riding the two flipped ships still missing in action.

Freiyar explained the details of the situation in a deep voice and everyone understood what it meant to be missing at sea. Apart from the few fortunate ones who had been spared from the horrible fate, the rest have most likely departed from this world.

"Whales are not magical beasts. So, why did they attack our training ships?" Els, the leader of the guard brigade, asked.

"I'm not sure about the reason either," said Freiyar as he shook his head. "Ever since the incident yesterday, I've asked a few older boatmen and some fishing folk and according to their explanations, it's possible that the whales have stopped near Whale Island because they were nursing their young. That's why they might've considered the three training ships to be encroaching upon their territory and launched their attacks.

"Milord, currently all the navy marines are in a very horrible mood due to the incident yesterday. I was considering whether we should punish the marines and captains that managed to return alive. After all, the tragedy only happened because of their overwhelming curiosity and recklessness..."

"If you had formally ordered them to not approach that small island, then I won't oppose to punishing them," Lorist said.

Freiyar gave it some thought and said, "No, I didn't give them the explicit order to not approach the island..."

"Then forget it. Even though the marines on duty must always be disciplined and obedient, having lots of curiosity and desire for exploration is not a bad thing in itself. Even though such a tragedy occurred in the early stages of training, we cannot allow this incident to impact our family's dedication to set sailing into the seas. No matter it be the island or territory of the whales, as long as they are part of the ocean, then the Norton Family's fleet will definitely roam across it unabated!

"Freiyar, you should first focus on consoling the marine troops. I will have the shipyard build whaling ships right away and by spring next year, our family will begin hunting those whales. We will turn that 'dominion' of the whales to become the lands of their demise," Lorist said as he thumped his hand hatefully on the table.

Chapter 219 Grandmaster Sid

While it was easy for Lorist to make that kind of proclamation, he didn't really have a method he could use to take revenge against the whales as he would require whaling ships. Lorist had been to the Relic Islands before and the locals there were adept whalers. However, they mainly used canoes and swarming tactics against the whales like wolves surrounding a wild bull before using harpoons coated with tranquilizers against them and dragged the whales to the shore when they were paralyzed to be cut open and eaten raw.

It was definitely impossible for Lorist to have the marines learn how to hunt whales from the locals of Relic Islands. What he needed now was a huge whaling ship, so he visited the shipyard again and summoned his shipwrights to begin discussing on how they would go about building the whaling ship.

The training ships constructed for the navy troops were merely 24 meters long and according to the report of the marines who returned alive, they said that the gigantic whale that rammed the first training ship was already 30 meters long. The whaling ship had to at least be two times the size of a whale to be able to stand a chance against it. Thus, Lorist turned his attention to the completed keel of the sail-powered survey ship he designed.

The survey ship was planned to be 75 meters long. In stark contrast to the world of his previous life, the Black Forests had lots of huge trees and it was incredibly easy for them to obtain good quality wood, causing them to not have to construct the keel out of smaller composite parts, further simplifying the construction process.

Since they were going to convert that survey ship into a whaling ship, the watertight bulkheads must be strengthened even further to be able to resist direct ramming attacks of the whales. One of the workers suggested that it could be done by adding another layer of 20-centimeter-thick boards and nailing them tight with copper nails. Even though that increased the mass of the ship and would decrease its mobility, the ship would be able to take more punishment without breaking as easily. Lorist happily accepted that suggestion and rewarded that worker with 10 gold Fordes.

Thus, the plan to change the survey ship into a whaling ship was approved by Lorist. But another problem that had to be solved urgently quickly surfaced. It was already the 11th month with winter on the horizon and it was impossible to continue the construction of the ship In the snowy days to come.

Initially, Lorist had intended to build a huge wooden building so that the construction could proceed indoors, but after trying his hand at drafting the blueprint for such a building, he gave up the notion as a building of that size wouldn't be possible with the construction technology and standards of Grindia. At that moment, Old Man Balk suggested a solution, that was to work on the initial construction of the ship at a cave found beneath a cliff near the place where the wood for the shipyard's use was stored. After winter ends, they only had to move the various ship parts out for further assembly such as erecting the mast, etc. That way, the work wouldn't take more than one month to complete.

Lorist personally went to check the cave out for himself and found that it was incredibly wide and agreed to Old Man Balk's suggestion. During the four months of winter, the two whaling boats' hulls would be constructed there at the same time. He assured Old Man Balk that manpower wouldn't be a problem as he believed that the commoners within the dominion who weren't working their farms during the winter definitely wouldn't mind working for some extra cash, which the family would naturally pay for. He only had to make sure that the quality of their work was upheld.

After leaving the shipyard, Lorist rushed to Bladedge Mountains with his guards. This time around, he was headed for Grandmaster Sid's refinery.

As a saying went, 'one must have the right tools prepared for the right job'. Even though the power of the steel ballistas used by the carroballista division were more than enough against the whales since their skin weren't as tough as the strong hide of the magical beasts, they were incredibly huge in size, so the bolts used by those ballistas were a little too short. Additionally, Lorist wouldn't be content on just killing the huge whales as they were very useful animals all the way from their meat, skin, fats and oils. Even their bones were the ideal material to make umbrellas with.

If the usual ballista was used for whaling, there was a risk that the whale would ram against the ship at the moment of its death and shatter the structure of the ship. That's why Lorist planned to have specialized harpoon shooters installed with had hundreds of meters of steel cable loaded onto the ship. He also wanted the normal ballista bolts to be modified into harpoons, allowing the whalers to drag the corpse of the whale all the way back to the port after they killed it.

When Lorist arrived, Grandmaster Sid thought that he had come for the 100000 sets of armor ordered by the Fisablen Family and even reassured Lorist that there would be no problem for them to produce 8000 stainless steel armor plates without issue, since he was only in charge of the plates. After that, he would send those plates to the armament production plant and the workers there would take over and use the plates to make proper sets of armor.

Right after that, Grandmaster Sid brought Lorist to see his latest breakthrough which concerned the catapult Lorist tasked him to redesign some time prior. Lorist was surprised when he reached the test area as he saw a six-wheeled mobile catapult as opposed to the heavy and immobile lever-based catapult he designed some time ago. However, the torque-based mechanism of the initial torsion catapult design was replaced by a steel wire spring mechanism.

Originally, Lorist had wanted to make a torsion catapult that utilized a halter, but he was quite troubled when he couldn't recall which animal tendon he should use so that the catapult would be able to launch the payload. So, he had no choice but to settle for a lever-based catapult instead. He didn't expect that Grandmaster Sid would give him such a pleasant surprise by using an elastic wire spring to replace the torque mechanism he had originally designed.[1]

"Grandmaster Sid, how did you manage to think of using a spring to make a catapult?" Lorist asked, feeling a little ashamed. Even though he had come from a world where technology and industry developed at breakneck speed, Lorist wasn't able to come up with that simple solution that solved all the problems as he had only managed to recall a replica of the roman catapult he saw on the television once, causing him much embarrassment as he was a transmigrator from a far more advanced society.

Grandmaster Sid stroked his beard gleefully and said humbly, "Milord, actually, I made the discovery by accident."

Pointing at the water-powered machines by the waterfall, Grandmaster Sid recalled and said, "Before, the largest water-powered presser has always posed a problem when it came to resetting the position of the setter, so we used a U-shaped metal circlip to keep it in place. However, that kind of usage stressed the circlips too much and eventually we had to make a lot of them to replace the worn-out ones. During one of the times when a circlip lost all elasticity, we decided that we might as well coil the circlip a few more times before putting it back in. We didn't expect that the coiled circlip regained its function and took far longer to wear out from usage than it did before.

After you tasked me to improve the design of the catapult, it made me think of the coiled circlip we accidently made previously so I started experimenting immediately and realized that this type of coiled up metal wire circlip had the best effect. Then again, I feel that instead of calling them coiled up circlips, it's better to just call them metal wire springs. Yeah, we'll do just that from now on.

"Milord, look over here," Grandmaster Sid said as he pointed at a metal plate that looked like a minor segment of a circle on which five straight lines were carved along with a few rows of words. "This plate measures the distance we can launch the rocks and if the catapult is set to the highermost line, it will be able to launch the payload 100 meters away. The lowermost line is the setting that will allow the catapult to launch it 500 meters away. However, this catapult can only throw stone projectiles of a unique shape made by us because rocks of different sizes will affect the firing distance of the catapult unpredictably.

"Look here, milord. I've used both steel and wood to construct the body of the catapult, so it's incredibly sturdy. As for the six-wheels at the base of the catapult, taking the stability and recoil into consideration, we had no choice but to increase the weight of the base. While the catapults are a little slow to move, they are incredibly flexible in that they can fire regardless whether the army is on the march or not because it only requires three people to operate.

"One person will be in charge of its movement, another will load the stone projectiles and the last will fire it. Milord, this metal wheel over here rotates after the payload is launched and pulls the catapult arm back to the metal plate so that an operator can set the firing distance by aligning the arm with the corresponding line. After that, a stone projectile can be loaded onto the bucket and the projectile can be launched by pulling the control lever."

"Grandmaster Sid, you really surprise me greatly with your genius in mechanics and design. I take that this catapult can already be moulded and mass-produced?" Lorist asked.

"Milord, I still feel that this catapult has two shortcomings. First, the heaviest projectile it can launch is 25 kilograms, and second, the steel wire springs still don't last long enough. After around a hundred launches, the spring will have to be swapped out. I have been trying hard to figure out how I can reduce the wear on the springs but I still haven't managed to succeed so far," Grandmaster Sid explained.

"No, Grandmaster Sid, you have already done exceptionally well. The endurance of the springs are due to the material used and not the fault of your design. As for the maximum projectile weight of 25 kilograms, that can already be considered to be rather good because if the projectiles get any heavier, they will no doubt affect the mobility of the catapult. If that's all the shortcomings you can think of, then they're not big deals. For now, produce 300 of these catapults for me. I am going to form a catapult division," Lorist said.

"As you wish, milord. I will arrange for my men to begin manufacturing them immediately. However, do you want to see how I have optimized the catapult you designed?" the old grandmaster asked.

"Oh? You've even improved upon that one?" Lorist mused curiously as he wondered how the revamped catapult looked like.

Grandmaster Sid brought Lorist to the side of a four-wheeled carriage within which a lot of parts were stored. The carriage was even covered with a rainproof oiled cloth. The grandmaster called five other people over and instructed them to move the carriage to an empty lot further away and begin assembling the parts it carried.

After the oiled cloth was removed, blocks of wood and a few other steel parts could be seen. Lorist instantly understood that it was a disassemblable catapult. Within a short half hour, a 5-meter-tall lever grounded catapult appeared before Lorist.

"Milord, the only shortcomings of your catapult design is the time it requires for assembly which can only be done quickly by trained personnel. But the advantages are obvious: the heaviest weight it can launch is 75 kilograms and the furthest firing distance is 600 meters. That's why I modified it so that it can be disassembled for ease of transport by carriage to another place," Grandmaster Sid said.

"Not bad, you've done a great job. This design is really ingenious. With the catapult you designed and this disassemblable one, I believe that no castle or citadel will be able to stop the advance of the forces of our family," Lorist praised.

"How about this, grandmaster, make 10 units of this assembly-based catapult as well. I think I'll have 200 of those wheeled catapults and ten assembly-based grounded catapults in one brigade. Let's call it the Thunderbolt Brigade then. Submit a report on the production cost of the catapults and submit it to me. I will approve it right away."

"Thank you, milord," Grandmaster Sid said.

Howard who was following behind Lorist to make records reminded, "Milord, do you have anybody in mind to command the Thunderbolt Brigade yet? Should we also classify information about this brigade?"

Lorist gave it some thought and answered, "Howard, record my orders. Transfer the commander of the First Local Defense Brigade, Ovidis, here to become the commander of the Thunderbolt Brigade and order him to bring along half of the more experienced family soldiers from his brigade along with him. As for the other vacancies, have the veteran soldiers from the other units fill them up.

"Second, Family Knight Paulobins will be promoted to become the Firmrock Castle First Local Defense Brigade's commander with the transferred soldiers replaced by new ones from the new recruit camp. Other than that, the Thunderbolt Brigade doesn't need to be categorized as top secret, just confidential would do."

"Yes, milord," Howard said as he handed the orders he wrote down to Lorist for his stamp and signature before putting it into a silver container to be sent out by the guards.

"Oh, and before I forget, Grandmaster Sid, I have come here for something else," Lorist said as he stopped the grandmaster who was about to leave. "The family navy marine brigade got attacked by whales during their last training session and we lost two training ships as a result and incurred heavy casualties. I plan to deal with these whales and a large whaling ship is already in construction back at the shipyard, but we still require a large harpooning ballista to use against the whales."

"A large ballista? Milord, you should've sought out Grandmaster Fellin for this..." said Grandmaster Sid with a troubled look. He believed that ballistas were Grandmaster Fellin's department and his workshop was not far away from his own either.

"Grandmaster Fellin, huh... Hehehe, he won't do," Lorist said as he shook his head. "While Grandmaster Fellin is indeed an expert in the construction of ballistas, he always designs his creations by the book and doesn't have any spark of innovation or creative insight. That's why I am unable to hand such an important task to him. Additionally, the time limit for this task is quite limited and we'll have to begin the production during the coming spring. I still feel more assured if I have you work on this."

Lorist's compliments caused the grandmaster to be in an incredibly good mood. He smiled and said, "Since milord looks up on me so much, I will give it a try. However, I still hope that you can have Grandmaster Fellin research in collaboration with me since it'll be more convenient for him to answer some of the questions I might have..."

"No problem," Lorist agreed, before he turned back and instructed, "Howard, go to the ballista workshop and invite Grandmaster Fellin over. After that, bring a few guards to move the one carroballista and super ballista from the workshop over here."

"Yes, milord."

Grandmaster Sid was incredibly interested in the super ballista and he even wanted to try firing it once, much to the shock of Lorist and Grandmaster Fellin. If an elite family soldier had to rest for at least one hour to recover from the firing recoil, an old man like Grandmaster Sid might just lose his life during the attempt. It was only until Lorist ordered one of the guards to demonstrate firing the super ballista that Grandmaster Sid realized that it wasn't a simple toy that could be fired by just anyone.

"Milord, can you tell me some of the requirements you want for the large ballista?" Grandmaster Sid asked.

Lorist took out some writing instruments and proceeded to draw a ballista bolt. The ones who saw the drawing gasped as it looked incredibly savage and vicious. The bolt itself was three meters in length with the sharp tip of the bolt taking up half a meter of the whole thing. The tip had three sharp edges that all had deep blood grooves as well as three reverse hooks at the end of the head of the bolt. There was also a round ring behind the bolt that was used to secure the metal cable and the whole bolt was to be constructed with stainless steel.

"I want the large ballistas to be able to fire these specialized bolts which we will use to capture the whales with. They must be larger than the steel ballistas for the carroballistas to be able to fire a bolt of this size, but can't be as large as the super ballista because we can't have that kind of recoil when firing on a ship. The firing distance should be between 100 to 150 meters and the main criteria is for the head of the bolt to be able to successfully penetrate the body of a whale. Additionally, the course of the bolt must also not be affected by the cable attached to it, so the force of the ballista must be higher."

After looking at the drawing and contemplating the requirements Lorist gave him for a long moment, Grandmaster Sid finally said, "Alright, milord, I already have a rough idea in my mind. I will try my best to make this new ballista for you within three months."

"Alright, then I'll be leaving this to you."

[1] For those who want to see what a spring catapult looks like, here's a video of it. Link. Credits to the original source.

Chapter 220 Flying Fish of Dawn

This was an incredibly weird ship as her body was slender like a sharp razor blade. On Grindia, the ratio between the length and width of a ship was 5 to 1 at the very least, but this ship was different with its length being 30 meters but its widest part being only 5 meters wide. She floated on the surface of the ocean, proudly showing off the figurehead sculpted in the image of the dragon-slaying Dawn Goddess with one silver nameplate on each side, both engraved with the name of the ship: Flying Fish of Dawn.

At that moment, the seven white sails hanging on the three masts the Flying Fish of Dawn were fully opened, capturing the winds and propelling the ship across the deep blue ocean like a speedy arrow with the view of Bladedge Mountains in the distance slowly fading away.

Lorist stood on the bridge of the ship and welcomed the wind that blew straight at him and caused his black cloak to flap around nonstop. Standing beside him was his student and attendant, Howard, along with Els, Patt, and Jim, the three leaders of the guards. Also present were the leader of the mounted archers, Gold ranked marksman Josk, the vice leader of the carroballista brigade, Dulles as well as Gold ranked knight and commander of the marine brigade, Freiyar. The captain of the ship was Silver ranked family knight Wilson with his quartermaster being Old Jack.

Wilson was a huge man of 30 or so years of age and he was originally a captain of a merchant vessel. However, due to his encounter with pirates, the goods he was transporting had all been taken and he was apprehended by the owner of the goods despite surviving his encounter. Having no way to pay back the goods he lost, his whole family of five were sold to slave traders by the owner in a fit of rage. In the end, they were purchased by Potterfang who bought the slaves to form the very first forces of the northbound convoy. During the northbound journey, Wilson managed to rake in some achievements and was made a family knight by Lorist in the main camp of Nadegas City. Since Lorist had heard about his past and experiences, he elected to make Wilson the captain of the Flying Fish of Dawn.

Quartermaster Jack was 50 years old that year and he also had a background of a slave. However, his experiences were even more shocking. He had been a sailor for 30 or so years and he got to know a widow when he was 40 and decided to settle down and spend the rest of his life with her. And so, Jack resigned from his job and brought the widow back to his hometown. But before two months even passed, the First Prince initiated his rebellion and sent the Krissen Empire spiraling into the chaotic times of war. His small hometown had been invaded by the forces of the First Prince and his wife died as a result, with him being captured and made a slave and eventually becoming one of the workers of the Kenmays Family. He was finally released when Lorist returned to the Northlands. Now that Lorist wanted to form his naval team, an experienced sailor like Jack could finally be of some use and thus he was made the quartermaster of the ship.

It was currently the 8th month of Year 1773. At the 4th month of that year, the Norton Family had two whaling ships built equipped with the harpoon cannons designed by Grandmaster Sid and began a frenzied massacre against the whales of Whale Island and managed to rake in near a hundred whales for the Norton Family. During that time, much manpower and resources had been gathered up at Bullhorn Bay and it only took three months for this three-masted sailing ship Lorist designed to be built.

"Milord, this is the fastest ship I've ever seen so far and she is even able to travel at 11 knots on full sail. I believe that we won't be able to find a faster ship than her anywhere on Grindia," said Captain Wilson excitedly as he never even dreamed that he would one day become the captain of a magnificent new ship like this.

"That's right. I believe that this is no doubt the fastest ship on Grindia. I estimate that we will be able to see the Platinum Beach which is within the Sidgler Province of the Madras Duchy tomorrow afternoon," praised Old Jack as he agreed with Captain Wilson.

"Oh, Old Jack, have you been to this part of the sea before?" Lorist asked.

"Yes, milord. 30 years back, a few of the larger merchant guilds in the empire formed a coastal survey team and hoped that we can find a good spot along the coasts of the empire to build a port and establish a sea transportation route. Back then, I was only 23 and had already worked as a sailor for 8 years, so I was part of the team as well. The survey team set out from Armatrin Harbor of the Lormo Duchy and traveled along the coast of the continent northward for a little more than three months. The furthest we managed to go was the Lost Forest which is located north from the Black Forests," replied Old Jack.

"Did you manage to find a place to build a port in the end?" Lorist asked.

"No. Back then, the survey team stopped their efforts after reaching the Jillin Harbor of the Andinaq Kingdom because further up north, the condition of the coast would be the same along the Bladedge Mountains. Even though the coasts were shallow, they were filled densely with dangerous reefs and there was no way for ships to approach the coast. Had we not used smaller boats to resupply our ship, the crew would've lost their wits completely. I still recall back then when the president of the merchant guild that organized the effort said that the coastlines there must've been cursed by the gods because we weren't able to find a suitable place to dock at all," Old Jack said.

"Then what happened after that?" asked Howard, who was enraptured with the story.

"After that we continued on northward. After all, we're paid to sail so we had no reason to stop. Also, the merchant guilds that organized the effort said that they wouldn't stop until they found somewhere to build a port and doubled our pay. In the end, we finally found a place to dock near the Lost Forest and those few merchant guilds started to discuss about occupying the place and moving some commoners there to expand their territory before gaining acknowledgement from the empire to become landed nobles themselves.

"But the night three days after we docked, our camp got attacked by gigantic magical beast gorillas that came from the depths of the forests. They tore apart every man they saw and I was incredibly lucky back then as my shift required me to be on the ship. I personally witnessed the bodyguard of one merchant guild's president, a Two Star Gold ranked swordsman, being torn apart into two halves by a magical gorilla who later ate him whole. I continued to have nightmares about that for almost one whole month...

"Of the 700 plus people who were on shore, only 41 of them made it back. We had to give up on two transport ships to even have enough people to man the remaining five ships and returned to Armatrin Harbor in shambles before disbanding shortly after collecting our payment. It's even rumored that the three merchant guilds had lost so much from that venture that they went bankrupt. However, for a low-ranked sailor like me, it's already incredibly lucky that I survived at all. That's why I refused to join any other survey teams after that and only worked securely on the merchant vessel for a living..."

After Old Jack finally concluded the story of his adventures, Howard turned to Lorist and asked, "Are magical gorillas that strong?"

Lorist patted Howard's head and said, "Didn't you read one of the books in my collection about magical beasts? The information recorded on it is pretty accurate, but the part about the magical gorillas occupying the Lost Forest was only confirmed after the survey team Old Jack was part of returned. An adult magical gorilla is about 4 meters tall and it is blessed with unparalleled strength and can be said to be one of the top three strongest magical beasts. If a Gold ranked knight can calmly circle around the gorilla, there was a good chance he could escape without being harmed. The one Old Jack witnessed dying was an exception and he probably lost his life because he panicked. That's why, retaining your calm is always the most important."

Howard lowered his head respectfully and said, "Thank you, milord. I understand now that no matter what situation we encounter, we must always stay calm and keep a clear mind. Only by doing that can we escape our predicament."

"Hehe," Josk who was listening smirked as he came over to ruffle Howard's hair. "This kid is sounding more and more like an adult day by day. Did he mature overnight after his engagement? Having a wife really does change a person..."

During the 12th month of the previous year before the snow fell, Baron Felim went over to the Firmrock Castle with his 15-year-old daughter as promised. According to him, the mother of his daughter was more like his junior apprentice sister. When he was learning from an old knight, he fell in love with the knight's only daughter and the young couple couldn't control their lust for each other and the young maiden ended up conceiving a girl at the tender age of 16. During the 11th month of that same year, she gave birth to a daughter.

Two years later, the wandering Baron Felim got a piece of bad news about how his lover had attracted the undue attention of a new baron's son when she was out in town to purchase medicine for her sick father. The girl gave her harasser a harsh kick in a fit of retaliation, embarrassing the baron's son greatly. As a result, the baron's son killed Baron Felim's lover with a sword and burned her bedridden knight father alive. Fortunately, Baron Felim's daughter was in the care of their neighbor because the old knight was too sick to take care of her, allowing her to escape the misfortunate incident.

Baron Felim said that since he was only a wandering knight back then and he was busy searching for a way to restore the glory of the Felim Family, he had to endure it even though he developed a huge grudge for that noble family. It was only after five years during the civil war of the empire when he served under the Second Prince that he was valued and given command of a troop of soldiers. He used that chance when he was marching back from an expedition to assault the town of that baron who was also allied to the Second Prince and buried almost a hundred of the people affiliated with that family alive to avenge his dead master and lover.

Baron Felim's daughter Katrina was an incredibly obedient and mature girl who was blessed with a delicate, beautiful look. After Katrina and Howard met, the both of them got along pretty well and Potterfang felt quite satisfied to have a daughter-in-law like her. So, Lorist organized the engagement ceremony for Howard and Katrina and the two of them would marry after Katrina reached the age of 20 and underwent the ceremony of adulthood.

Lorist saw Howard's flushed face and decided to step in to spare him the embarrassment. "That's enough, Joe. Stop messing with my disciple. You know how easily embarrassed he is, so stop wasting your efforts to tease him and use that time to find yourself a wife instead."

Josk shrugged and said, "Milord, you know me. My heart is already sealed tight and will no longer beat for another woman. I think that I will be better off spending the rest of my life freely by myself."

Lorist shook his head and said, "That won't do, you have to form a family and give birth to a few healthy children to pass down your impressive marksmanship heritage. I'm sure that Baron Omador and that lover of yours will be cheering for your bliss from the paradise of the war god."

Josk merely stayed quiet without saying anything else.

Sensing that it would be insensible to continue pestering Josk, Lorist didn't press on and said to Howard, "Go check out on Knight Charade and see if he's feeling any better."

The Flying Fish of Dawn's current voyage destination was the Andinaq Kingdom. There were a few reasons that prompted Lorist to take this journey, with the first being the transportation of the imprisoned Second Prince there so that the family no longer had to waste any food feeding him. As a prisoner, the Second Prince was still pretty arrogant and even promised others who visited him empty positions of power in hopes that they would break him out of jail. There were some idiots who actually believed his words and thought that it would be a good opportunity for them to shoot for the moon and actually bothered to bring the Second Prince's letter to request for help to the dominion of the Fisablen Family, only to end up being captured by them and sent back to the Norton Family's dominion to be hanged in front of Firmrock Castle.

Apart from that, Lorist wanted to visit his other piece of land, Silowas Island. Five years ago when Lorist accepted the Andinaq Kingdom's entitlement of the position of the count, the Second Highness enfeoffed his own principality, Silowas Island, to Lorist in an effort to make up for his mistake. However, as Silowas Island was a lone islands amidst the seas, and Lorist was busy leading the northbound convoy back to the dominion at that time, he had no time to bother with the island. Now that the Bullhorn Bay was developed and there was a way out to sea, Lorist could finally check his new dominion out.

After hearing that Lorist was about to leave on a trip, many family knights all scrambled to join in. As they had spent too much time working on nothing but development paperwork for so long, many of them couldn't help but want to experience something new by going along with Lorist on that trip. However, even though the newly-constructed Flying Fish of Dawn was 30 meters long, it was rather narrow. Apart from requiring 28 sailors and a captain, vice-captain, and quartermaster, they could at most bring along 27 more people.

Josk was dead set on following Lorist no matter what so he naturally took one of the places. Freiyar on the other hand said that since he was the commander of the navy marine brigade, he naturally couldn't miss out on the virgin voyage of the Flying Fish of Dawn and took the second place on the ship. Dulles said that since the ship would be outfitted with five new steel ballistas, he had a responsibility to teach the marines how to use those ranged weapons to their full potential, so he brought along five other steel ballista shooters from his unit on board.

Since Lorist was on board, Howard would naturally be there as well, followed by Els and Patt with the reason of ensuring Lorist's safety. The Second Prince also had to be there. Charade on the other hand wasn't the slightest interested in going, but as Lorist said that the family didn't have a specialized officer for this trip, he dragged Charade along with him and left Shadekampf in charge of the former's tasks temporarily. After all, he was going to the royal capital of the Andinaq Kingdom, the former imperial capital of the Krissen Empire, and he would need someone to persuade some high-ranking and capable officers to go back with them to the family dominion.

Just like that, 14 of the 27 places had been taken up. Initially, Charade got seasick and frequently vomited all over the place. Within only one day, he had turned into a bedridden patient and it was only after Lorist made some medicine to help with his dizziness that he managed to get some sleep at all.

The night of the 8th month brought with it the cold breeze from sea. Lorist put on an outer cloak and sat on the bridge of the ship as he stared at the starry sky in deep thought.

Apart from the lookout crew on the mast of the ship, everyone else were sound asleep. The sails on the three masts had also been retracted with only the vertical sails at the head and tail of the ship still catching any wind at all, causing the ship to sail ever so slowly across the calm surface of the sea.

A silhouette appeared on the bridge, followed by the thumping of firm footsteps before the figure sat down beside Lorist with a small barrel of fruit wine and a silver cup in hand.

"Are you feeling any better?" Lorist asked.

The one who just came over was Charade. "After having some medicine and sleep, I no longer feel like puking, but I'm still a little dizzy nevertheless. It's weird, you know. I remember that I never got seasick when I was younger. Why would it hit me like that now that I've grown? Well, I slept too much during the day so I can't get any more sleep now and decided to come look for you."

Pouring some fruit wine into a cup and toasting Charade, Lorist said as he continued to stare at the stars, "Fatty, I was thinking whether we should use this chance to check out on Morante City. Old Jack said that given the speed of this ship, we can reach the Buried Treasure Bay within one month. Don't you want to go back and check on the academy? You can also write your father a letter and tell him you're doing very well with us."

"Forget it, I'll only tell him when you give me some land and make me a landed noble. I will surprise him when that happens," Charade said after taking a swig of wine.

"Then you'll have to wait four years more. Without serving the family for at least ten years, you won't be given a dominion. However, I'm only a count right now so I can at most entitle two viscounts and four barons. Additionally, I can't enfeoff the land within the family dominion so I'll have to see what we have to work with when we go to Silowas Island. If I can become the Duke of the Northlands, then I can enfeoff you guys richer lands."

"Locke, I actually have a thought. If you actually become the Duke of the Northlands, it's better if you don't enfeoff the land of the Northlands to anyone else. Naturally, you can have some manors and bastides for your Gold ranked knights, but it's better if you don't keep any landed nobles within it. I think that the Northlands should be unified and ruled only by the Norton Family. Only with that can the family have a secure foundation to continue on for the next hundreds or thousands of years. As long as we can seal off the two bridges and one crossing point that link the Northlands to the rest of the continent, the Northlands can exist as its own unit. No matter what happens in the outside world, the Norton Family will still be able to sit calmly in the Northlands and watch the happenings unaffected. Even so, given that we now have Bullhorn Bay, we must also form a strong armada to ensure the safety of the family dominion."

"What you said makes sense and those are my thoughts exactly. But we still have to wait for the opportune time to be able to achieve all that. What our family has to focus on now is to continue consolidating our power."

As the Silvermoon continued to shine upon the peaceful surface of the ocean, the waves sparkled with its light. The Flying Fish of Dawn continued sailing upon the silver, sparkling waves towards the distance...

Chapter 221 Tax Collection

On the 32nd day of the 8th month, the Flying Fish of Dawn arrived at Silowas Island. The journey from Bullhorn Bay all the way to the island took 17 days and that was mainly because it was their first voyage there and the crew was unfamiliar with the situation at sea, so they elected to travel more slowly at night just to be safe. Old Jack said that when the sailors get used to traveling that route, it would take at most 10 days for them to make the same trip again.

Silowas Island was the only large island near the coasts of the Andinaq Kingdom and it was almost 150 kilometers away from shore. Usually, it would take a ship one day to travel from the coast of the kingdom to the island. The surface area of the island was enough to fit one county and three viscounties. But it was a shame that it was a dormant volcanic island, so two-thirds of the island's surface was covered by volcanic mountain ranges, beaches and forests with not much land to farm on at all.

According to the information Lorist was given when he accepted the enfeoffment of the island from Second Highness Auguslo, the total population of Silowas Island numbered fewer than 5000 with it having three villages and a small town called Whitebird Town. Given that it was quite inconvenient to travel to and fro the kingdom by sea, the nobles of the former empire and the current ones of Andinaq Kingdom considered Silowas Island to be a rural place, with there being precedent some refusing enfeoffment there in the past.

After the civil war of the empire ended, the Third Prince who founded the Andinaq Kingdom was worried that Second Highness Auguslo, who had incredible military achievements, would threaten the First Highness who was better at management and administration for the inheritance of the throne. The Third Prince didn't want his two sons to reenact the civil war that broke the empire into pieces, and he believed that war would not break out for a long period of time and that the state of the kingdoms and various duchies would stay the same, with the reason being that he thought that they would require some time to recover from their losses of the war.

With that consideration in mind, the Third Prince appointed the more reliable and resourceful First Highness to be his successor and decided to deprive the Second Highness of his soldiers so that he wouldn't pose a threat to his elder brother's position. Thus the Third Prince used the excuse that they were unable to sustain three huge armies to disband the Second Highness's Whitelion Legion and also sent the Fiercegale Legion to the Melein Duchy to help Duke Melein resist the Second Prince's assault.

In the end, the Third Prince also converted the whole of Silowas Island into one principality and gave it to the Second Highness as his hereditary dominion. The Second Highness was also ordered to go there and wasn't allowed to leave unless he was summoned back, effectively sealing his fate as an exile in stone. To the Third Prince, with the First Highness whom he personally taught managing the affairs of the kingdom and the threat that was the Second Highness gone, he felt that his first son would soon easily be able to succeed his throne and allow the state of the Andinaq Kingdom to stabilize.

What the Third Prince didn't expect was that he would actually be the target of the waves of assassins sent by the First and Second Princes and eventually got hit by a poisonous arrow despite his best preventive efforts. Even though the Third Prince managed to get rescued in the end, he became bedridden and ill. And the First Highness whom he thought was reliable and steady turned out to be a person of weak character and was taken advantage of the allied nobles of the Andinaq Kingdom who saw through his facade, causing much pressure to build up on the Andinaq Royal Family to the point that the territory of the royal family was divided between the nobles. Thus, the kingdom plummeted into yet another state of unrest.

The Second HIghness who had lost his army could only panic on Silowas Island as he had no power at all to affect the royal family and the kingdom's predicament. But during that time, Second Highness Auguslo got news about an incredibly large-scale convoy entering the borders of the kingdom that boasted a huge military escort force. Back then, that convoy was already in conflict with the Andinaq Kingdom nobles at the Green Plains.

Thus, the Second Highness left Silowas Island on a ship and hoped that he could mediate the conflict between the convoy and the noble faction while gaining some advantages for himself. What he did not expect however was before he even arrived, he got more news of the Battle of the Green Plains. The convoy's forces which numbered half of those of the allied nobles actually won a landslide victory and all the nobles that participated in the conflict were hanged by the convoy's forces as they continued their travels, razing one dominion after another to the ground.

Most crucially, that convoy flew the Raging Bear flag of the Norton Family and seemed to be intent on returning to their dominion in the Northlands, and the Second Highness's female knight and lover, Norton Glacia, was someone from the Norton Family. So, the Second Highness traveled to the camp of the convoy one night and used his lover's relationship with the Norton Family and the gear of his disbanded Whitelion Legion to successfully persuade Charade, Potterfang and the rest to agree to a cooperative relationship, successfully using the convoy to his advantage to cleanse the Andinaq Kingdom of those nobles and helping him rise to prominence.

After gaining enough power and influence in the kingdom, Second Highness Auguslo summoned the Fiercegale Legion back and restructured the Royal Family's Local Defense Legion and tossed a huge number of vagabonds and refugees to the northbound convoy while he proceeded to stabilize the kingdom and restore agricultural production.

Back then, the northbound convoy was in a precarious position as it still had strong enemies to deal with ahead in their journey and was also facing a food crisis, having been stopped from advancing at the border of the Madras Duchy. Had it not been for Lorist's trip to help out the northbound convoy, it might have collapsed in due time or forced to walk a path of blood and death to continue their journey.

The moment Lorist reached the convoy, he saw through the plan of the Second Highness almost right away. To bring Lorist to his side, Second Highness Auguslo even promoted Lorist to a count to elevate his status and enfeoffed his own hereditary dominion, Silowas Island, to Lorist as compensation for his troubles.

Right after that, Lorist led the convoy's troops to cross Egret Lake and attacked the army camp at Bread Hills during the night and managed to encircle Lichtana Citadel, thus securing a route for the convoy to continue traveling northwards. Following that, he barged into the Madras Duchy and conquered Kobo City during a snowy night and finally managed to bring the northbound convoy back into the Northlands. On the other hand, in concert with Lorist's movements, the Second Highness forced the Ironguard Legion who guarded Lichtana Citadel to surrender and occupied the Madras Duchy's Yungechandler Province.

When Lorist led the family convoy back to the Northlands, the Second Highness overhauled the citadel on the mountain path as a defense for Yungechandler Province and used the Madras Duchy's largest trade city, Vanades City, to turn Duke Madras's Seamountain Legion against the Second Prince's 'reinforcements', successfully causing the two sides to clash against each other. Following that they, would no longer pose a threat to the Second Highness.

After that, Second Highness Auguslo consolidated his soldiers and resisted the invading First Prince and his army of 70000. Initially, he ordered the Fiercegale Legion to steadily resist the First Prince's forces, forcing the First Prince to lose over half of his army of 70000. After that, Auguslo attacked the First Prince's remaining 30000 elite troops at Flowater Creek and managed to eliminate them altogether, forcing the First Prince to don the disguise of a refugee to escape.

After the attack at Flowater Creek, the Second Highness led his soldiers on a counterattack against the Redlis Kingdom and managed to force the First Prince to sign the peace treaty which stipulated that two of the provinces of the Redlis Kingdom would be given to the Andinaq Kingdom. After the Second Highness pulled his soldiers back, Duke Madras who had suffered heavy casualties against the Second Prince sent someone to him to request for peace as well, causing Yungechandler Province to be given to the Andinaq Kingdom, allowing it to become the largest nation after the fall of the Krissen Empire with Second Highness Auguslo's reputation soaring to the point that he was called a war god of the new generation.

It has been five years since then and Lorist finally managed to stabilize the situation of the Northlands and further expand and develop his family dominion. This trip to his new dominion, Silowas Island, was his first.

Silowas Island's port was built at the coast near Whitebird Town. It was a curved wooden bridge that stretched into the clear and blue ocean that boasted a clean and white beach.

What surprised Lorist was there were seven to eight other ships docked on both sides of the wooden bridge, a few of which were decorated rather grandiosely with their flags flying the emblem of some other noble families. It seemed that Silowas Island wasn't as rural and secluded as what others had said after all.

With no docking guide boats around, the people of the town near the coast were uninformed of the Flying Fish of Dawn's arrival. Not even one person showed up at the port to look at what was going on.

The Flying Fish of Dawn had already had her three sails retracted and only relied on the sails at the front and back to slowly propel herself forward to the wooden bridge. When she was near enough, a few of the sailors jumped onto the bridge and tossed over the mooring lines, fastening the ship to the wooden moorings of the bridge.

Lorist instructed, "Wilson, leave half of the crew on board to keep watch. Dulles, have your five ballista shooters stay back to defend the ship. I feel that something is off with Whitebird Town as there isn't a single soul on the port here. The others, follow me into the town to see what's going on."

It didn't take long until Lorist found out that it wasn't the case that the people of Whitebird Town had disappeared. Instead, they were all gathered in the central plaza, squeezing against one another tightly, with occasional waves of chatter and shouts of objection.

After tapping a man of forty or fifty years of age who was dressed like a sailor on the shoulder, Lorist asked, "Friend, can you tell me what is going on over here?"

That man didn't turn back and cursed out loudly with frustration. "What else? That son of a bitch Viscount Aslan is here to collect taxes again..."

"Collecting taxes?!" Lorist exclaimed. Isn't Silowas Island the new dominion of the Norton Family? Why would somebody else be sent here to collect taxes?

"Explain yourself! Who's here to collect taxes?!" When it came to money and taxes, Charade was the one who cared about it the most. He instantly burst out angrily as he thought, this is the dominion of the Norton Family. Even though the family hasn't sent anyone here to set things in order for five years now, to think that someone would dare to collect taxes here... This is no longer a small matter of offending the Norton Family... This is basically slapping us in the face! Charade grabbed the guy dressed like the sailor and pulled him right in front of him.

Even though the man had wanted to cry out in rage, when he saw the fully-armed guards standing around Lorist, he turned mute immediately. Anyone who had some experience in life would be able to recognize that the group was one that couldn't be trifled with. The man instantly lowered his head to beg for mercy and said that he would tell them everything he knew.

"It's like this... Today, Viscount Aslan brought a squad of soldiers here to collect taxes. Even though our town mayor, Old Hugo, refused his unreasonable request, Viscount Aslan flipped out angrily and even wanted to cane him publicly here at the plaza 50 times. Even though the garrison force of Whitebird Town was mobilized, Viscount Aslan brought a Gold ranked knight along with him. While the garrison soldiers are quite numerous, not one of them could take on the knight and the two factions are now at a stalemate. We've come over because we heard of the news and hope that someone can save Old Hugo, quick..." explained the man quickly.

"Isn't this island the dominion of the Norton Family? On what grounds is Viscount Aslan collecting taxes on?" Howard asked.

The man didn't overlook Howard just because of his youth and said, "Viscount Aslan claimed that he was entrusted to collect taxes by the Second Highness of our kingdom."

"Entrusted?!" roared Charade angrily. "This is already the dominion of the Norton Family. Why the heck would the Second Highness send people here to collect taxes?"

"This... I'm not too clear about this. However, I've heard that five years ago when Viscount Aslan first came over, he only collected a 10 percent production tax. On the following year, he collected 20 percent and said that the Second Highness had raised their taxation rate and even stated that they would collect poll taxes. On the third year, he came over to collect 30 percent of our income as tax and said that it was because the Second Highness wanted to raise an army. And apart from the poll tax, he introduced an alcohol tax, a port tax, and so on. The taxes for the previous two years were 50 percent and it also came with property tax, transport tax, mountain-and-forest tax and a fishing boat tax with unifying and restoring the Krissen Empire as the excuse for the raise," recalled the man.

"Good Sol!" Charade was so mad that he would blow up at any moment at hearing the ridiculous taxes that even he had never dared to imagine, let alone enforce. What was the point of enfeoffing that dominion to the Norton Family if the tax rate was that high?

"Then what other tax did he say he wanted to collect today? And why did the mayor refuse it?" Lorist asked.

"Well, I'm not too sure about the specifics either. But I did hear some rumors saying that the Norton Family that haven't shown their faces even once also has another dominion apart from this island. It's said that since their dominion is too far away, the taxes that should be levied on them are not given to the Second Highness. So, Viscount Aslan was sent over here to collect the taxes that the Norton Family owed the kingdom. If that were really the case, even if we handed over every single belonging of ours, that wouldn't be nearly enough and we would have to end up in debt! I heard that everyone would have to pay 3000 gold Fordes in order to be clear of that debt. That's why we're all gathered here with the intention of saving the mayor and also to express our objection to the ridiculous situation," said the sailor nervously.

"Hehe... Hahahaha..." Lorist was so mad that he was laughing uncontrollably. I see, so they can even come up with ridiculous excuses like that... That has really expanded my horizons. Usually, for an island like that which was thousands of kilometers away from the enemy nations with no close relation to the main kingdom itself, not only should the kingdom not collect any taxes, they should be subsidizing and supporting the folk of the island instead to make sure they stay loyal to the kingdom.

Lorist was incredibly enraged as he wasn't sure if Viscount Aslan truly was sent there by the Second Highness or if he did it on his own accord. In the beginning, Lorist had no intention on actually coming over to manage Silowas Island himself and there was no need for the Second Highness to send anyone over to collect taxes from the Norton Family either since he could just record the debt and claim it at another time as was usually practiced by most nobles. Lorist believed that it was possible that the Second Highness wasn't aware of this situation, meaning that Viscount Aslan would be in deep trouble.

"Blow our anthem and show our banners. I want to let everyone on Silowas Island know that the Norton Family, and their dominion lord, is here!" Lorist instructed as he turned back to face his subordinates.

"Yes, milord!"

Chapter 222 Arrival of the Dominion Lord

The sudden anthem blown from the horn resounded throughout the crowded plaza. There was one long note, 2 short ones, followed by another long one and that pattern repeated three times in total, signifying the arrival of the dominion lord. The people all turned to look and started chattering all over, all wanting to know what was going on.

As the crowd slowly stepped aside, they revealed a path straight to the center of the plaza. Faced with the fully-armed family guards, the crowd of people revealed looks of fear and automatically shirked to the sides to make some way as they understood that a person of high standing was present.

The battalion leader of the guards, Jim, and 9 other guards held up their spears, each with a swallowtail flag bearing the crest of the Norton Family upon it, and lined up into two rows, protecting Lorist and the others at their middle. Els and Patt stood in front of Lorist whereas Howard stood to his right, carrying a horn. Behind him were Charade, Josk, and Dulles. Freiyar on the other hand ordered the 10 other sailors to line up in four rows to follow the rest from behind.

"You, come over here," Lorist said to the sailor who was gradually stepping backwards. "What's your name?"

The sailor slumped to the ground limply and said, "Mi-milord... Please forgive me... I shouldn't have offended you..."

A shiny gold Forde was tossed in front of the sailor. Lorist waved to him and said, "This is your reward. You didn't offend me in the slightest. Stand up and lead the way."

Looking at the gold Forde beside him, the sailor was sent into a daze. However, he quickly snapped out of it and took the coin before taking a bite on it with his teeth out of habit. After that, he saw that the guards who were staring at him were trying hard not to laugh and hurriedly stood up before bowing towards Lorist. "Milord, I'm called Porter. It is my pleasure to be of service..."

Lorist didn't say anything and merely pointed to the front. Conscious of his role, Porter moved to the front of the troupe and began to call out loudly, "Scram, make way! The dominion lord is here!"

"Porter, what did you say?"

"Dominion lord? From where?"

"What did you say? Count Norton, our dominion lord, is here?"

The center of the plaza was surrounded by lots of people. Porter was waving his hands and saying something to a few other guards armed with pikes and shields but wearing no armor. Els stepped forward and called out, "Who are you people? Why are you blocking the way?"

Porter hurriedly said, "Sir, this is the garrison force of Whitebird Town..."

"Since they're the garrison force, step aside. The dominion lord is here, why aren't you getting in line to receive him?!"

The few unarmored garrison guards hurriedly stepped aside and bowed towards Lorist and the others who were passing by.

The center of the plaza that was surrounded by people wasn't that big and right in the middle was a wooden structure on which an old man looking to be around 60 with white hair was tied up naked. He had a rather well-built physique, but at that moment, three long bleeding whip lashes could be seen on his body. Beneath the wooden structure, around one hundred or so grey-armored soldiers equipped with pikes, swords and shields could be seen standing off against around 200 other armed members of the garrison force who didn't have a standardized uniform who stood in front of the rioting civilians with ten or so other garrison soldiers trying to maintain order.

"Eh? The garrison force here is not bad. They actually know enough to bother to maintain the order of the crowd," Lorist mused in a surprised tone.

Currently, everyone within the plaza had their eyes focused on Lorist and the rest's arrival.

Pointing at the old man who was tied up on the wooden structure, Lorist asked, "Porter, is that man Mayor Hugo?"

Porter hurriedly nodded and said, "Yes, milord. Old Hugo is a fair and just person and every one of the townsfolk have deep trust in him. Five years ago when the Second Highness departed, he left behind a huge pile of trouble. It was all due to Old Hugo's efforts in leading the rest to rebuild Whitebird Town and restoring its order that the rest of us have somewhere to rely on. That's why everyone chose him to become the mayor..."

Lorist nodded and said, "Els, Patt, go and fetch Old Hugo over here."

"Yes, milord."

Els and Patt walked casually over to the wooden structure as if they couldn't see the people surrounding it, causing some of the intimidated armed guards to step aside gradually.

Patt slashed the ropes tying Old Hugo up with his sword, causing the old man to start falling. But Els stepped forward and caught him as he said, "Are you alright? Can you walk?"

Old Hugo said, "I'm fine for now. I just feel a little stiff after being tied up for so long, but it won't stop me from walking."

Patt said, "Come with me. Our lord wants to see you."

A few of the armed guards snapped out of their stupor and attempted to obstruct them. Els didn't even bother to look at them and shouted, "Scram! Those who block our path will die!"

"Those are big words coming from your mouth! Who are you people? Leave the old man here obediently!" said a knight who stood to the forward left direction of Els and Patt wearing green-colored armor. With a loud hum, he drew his sword and projected his golden blade glow onto it. He was actually a Gold ranked knight.

"Huh? Locke, isn't this the official armor of the Andinaq Royal Family's Local Defense Legion? So they really are sent here by the Second Highness?" Charade muttered.

"Joe," Lorist said, "Be careful. Don't hurt the bystanders."

The long arrow shot out like a bolt of green lightning and knocked straight onto the center of the golden blade glow of that knight. His sword snapped immediately with the arrow deflecting off it and burrowing itself into the ground not far away. The knight wearing the green armor stepped three steps back as if he had received a huge blow and spat out a mouthful of fresh blood all of a sudden. Never would he have imagined that a single arrow could be so mysterious and arcane to the point that it could snap the sword in his hand while sending a huge wave of Battle Force into his body at the same time, gravely injuring his internal organs.

The injury of the Gold ranked knight greatly startled the other soldiers and the men who obstructed Els and the others' way quickly dodged to the side, being able to do nothing but stare wide-mouthed as Els and the others returned to Lorist.

"Milord, I pay my respects to you. May I know who you are and why you have come to Whitebird Town?" Old Hugo said as he clasped his chest and lowered his head to Lorist.

"I am Count Norton, your dominion lord. Are you the mayor that was chosen by the people of Whitebird Town, Old Hugo?" Lorist said as he eyed the healthy and fit 60-year-old man.

Old Hugo revealed a look of surprise as he stared at Lorist and said, "Milord, are you really Count Norton? Forgive me for my insolence, but could you perhaps show me the proof of your rank and dominion?"

Howard kept the horn he was holding and took out the certificate Lorist received when he was entitled from a leather bag. As Old Hugo had learned to read, he inspected the documents and breathed a sigh of relief, before bowing to Lorist and saying, "I welcome your arrival, dominion lord. I am indeed the mayor that was elected by the folk of Whitebird Town, Hugo. I shall hand the right to rule Whitebird Town to you right now."

"There's no need for that. Continue to fulfill your role as the mayor of the town. I will adjust your position as I see fit after I understand more about the situation of the dominion," Lorist said, before turning to look at the garrison force. "Old Hugo, who's the regiment leader of this unit? I'd like to meet with him."

"Erm..." Old Hugo said as he turned to his back and looked at the garrison soldiers of Whitebird Town. "Victor, get your ass over here right now! Are you not going to greet our dominion lord who has just arrived?"

A man wearing a set of torn, old leather armor limped forward from the group of soldiers and walked towards Lorist. He casually greeted the group as he said, "Leader of the Whitebird Town Garrison, Victor, reporting for duty, milord."

Lorist looked straight at the man called Victor, causing the latter to feel intimidated by Lorist's sharp gaze and lowering his head to avoid direct eye contact.

"You have done rather well and managed to remember to instruct your men to maintain the order of the situation despite facing off against the enemy. That is extremely praiseworthy," Lorist said.

"Milord, Victor used to be a military officer of the Fiercegale Legion. Had it not been for his injury that caused him to retire from that army, he would definitely qualify as a regiment leader," Old Hugo added.

"What about you, Old Hugo? You seem to have the look of a military man yourself," Lorist said with a smile.

"Milord, I used to be one of the logistics officers of the Whitelion Legion and I came back here after it was disbanded. Whitebird Town is my hometown and I have left it for 35 years to serve as a soldier. It's already incredibly fortunate for me to be able to survive and return here compared to my other comrades who died on the battlefield," Old Hugo said as he sighed.

"Oh, the Whitelion Legion, huh? It seems that you're no outsider, Old Hugo. A few of my family knights used to be part of the Whitelion Legion as well, like Potterfang, Lode Wales, and Malek. Do you know them?" Lorist said, with his interest piqued.

"Potterfang? Of course I know him. I heard that his hometown was somewhere in the Northlands. Even Loze has become your family knight too? Oh, that's right, he was good friends with Potterfang after all. But the truly surprising thing is how that iron-faced Malek also became one of your knights... He's always so emotionless and only cares for the regulations and doesn't bother about friendship or favors at all. I recall that there was once when Malek caught Loze when he was drunk and caned him 10 times personally. At that time, Loze cried out that Malek wasn't his friend, but Malek said that it was precisely because he considered himself a friend of Loze that he had to personally cane him to ensure that he remembers his lesson..." Old Hugo described the three perfectly as if they were as familiar to him as his own family jewels.

"Milord, we have lots of time after this to talk. Let's settle the main issue first and disband the townsfolk for now. It's not like we can leave them here like that after all," Charade said as he interrupted Lorist and Old Hugo's conversation while pointing at the other soldiers wearing grey leather armor.

"Alright, Old Hugo. Let's talk later. I want to see what they have to say about coming to my dominion to collect taxes," said Lorist as he made his way forward directly towards the group of armed soldiers with the rest following behind him hurriedly.

"I am Count Norton. Have your leader step out to speak with me."

Even though the armed group numbered around a hundred, not one of them were bold enough to resist Lorist. Other things aside, the mere sight of Lorist's guards who were armed with silvery-grey metal armor had blinded their sights. Additionally, the Gold ranked knight that brought them on the mission was even gravely wounded by a single arrow, completely squashing the slightest remaining bit of their intention to resist. When Lorist said that he wanted to meet their leader, they instantly turned their heads to look at the fallen Gold ranked knight.

"He's your leader?" said Lorist, troubled. He thought that the soldiers were brought over by the so-called Viscount Aslan and didn't even consider that they were led there by the Gold ranked knight wearing the armor of the Royal Local Defense Legion.

Lorist walked towards the knight and asked, "Who are you and why have you brought your soldiers to the dominion of my family?"

The Gold ranked knight looked at Lorist and said, "A bloody count like you actually dared to ambush me? Do you know the consequences of your actions?!"

Lorist spit on the ground without a single care in the world and said, "Well, it's true that I don't know the consequences... All I know is that you have come to the dominion of my family with soldiers without any permission or invitation, and that, to me, is basically a declaration of war. I'll give you one more chance to tell me who you are and where these soldiers are from. Otherwise, I will hang all of you like I would bandits."

"Try it if you dare. Do you not fear the repercussions of incurring the rage of Second Highness Auguslo that will burn your family to ashes?" grumbled the Gold ranked knight stubbornly.

Whack! Lorist gave the Gold ranked knight a slap without warning and said, "The rage of the Second Highness? Hahaha... Wow, I'm so scared. Now that I've touched you, what will you do?"

The Gold ranked knight cried out in an angry frenzy before launching himself with both his hands stretched out. "I'll show you!"

"Ugh!" The Gold ranked knight suffered a blow to his abdomen at that moment and curled up like a cooked shrimp.

"Bffooo!" grunted the knight as his right face suffered another punch, before he spat out two of his teeth.

"Gah..." The knight suffered yet another strike on his chest, causing him to kneel on the ground. Even though he felt like puking, he couldn't do so with his face full of bloody tears.

Lorist stretched out his hand to grab the Gold ranked knight before giving him another seven to eight slaps on the face, causing the knight's head to swell up like a pig's head, before he was tossed to the ground unconscious.

"Discard your weapons. I will count to three and anyone who hasn't done so will be killed without question!" Lorist said as he turned to the black leather-armored soldiers. "One..."

Before he even said 'two', continuous clattering could be heard as the soldiers all cast their weapons to the ground. Given that the Gold ranked knight that was far superior than them was beaten around by the dominion lord like a sandbag, the soldiers knew that Lorist wasn't joking around. Of the hundred or so soldiers, the strongest one only had Iron ranked Battle Force. Anyone who resisted would only be causing trouble for themselves.

Lorist didn't expect that the soldiers would give up so easily and he said with a surprised tone, "You guys are rather wise. And to think I was ready to hang a few of you imbeciles... Can't you even let me release some stress? Tell me now, which one of you here is the squad leader?"

The rest of the soldiers thus turned to look at one man who was sweating profusely.

"Do you want to step forward yourself or do you need me to escort you here?" Lorist said with a laugh.

The man with a fearful looked instantly kneeled before Lorist as he said, "Mi-milord... Please have mercy..."

Why are these soldiers so pathetic? Lorist didn't think that him beating up the Gold ranked knight would cause the rest of the soldiers to be so shocked.

"Tell me about you guys."

"Milord, I am the squad leader of the Iblia Kingdom's First Legion, Third Division, First Regiment, Second Company's Seventh Squad. I'm called Sillit and our forces are stationed at Jillin Harbor. Gold ranked knight Fewermante is our division commander. That's him over there," said Sillit as he pointed at the Gold ranked knight who laid sprawling on the ground. "We have received orders from him to come assist Viscount Aslan to collect taxes on behalf of the Second Highness. Milord, please have mercy, we are just following orders..."

"Collect taxes? Then where is Viscount Aslan? Why hasn't he come here to meet me? I want to hear why the Second Highness sent him here to my dominion to collect taxes, Lorist said as he gave the rest of the soldiers a look and noting that not one of them seemed like they could be the viscount.

Wait, Viscount Aslan should be coming forward to receive me, the dominion lord. But despite that, the soldiers and the Gold ranked knight here didn't even consider that... Isn't that a little weird, thought some of the soldiers who turned to look around for the viscount. After a few moments, someone cried out, "That viscount has escaped! Curses... We were duped!"

The soldiers all began to cry out in anger.

"Escape? Where would he hide on Silowas Island? Jim, bring two guards and four sailors back to the port to keep watch and tell Wilson to not let a single person board any ship. Anyone who resists shall be sunk right away!"

"Yes, milord."

"Victor, as the garrison force leader of Whitebird Town, have your men lock these soldiers up for now, but don't treat them as prisoners of war yet. I believe that they are also the victims of fraud, so don't treat them badly. Prepare some food for them for now to settle them down, understood?" Lorist instructed.

"But milord, we can't afford to feed them," Victor said.

Lorist laughed and said, "Howard, give this man 10 gold Fordes and have him give his men one small silver coin each as their reward for defending Whitebird Town. I believe the rest will be enough for the other soldiers to have a huge meal."

10 gold Fordes could be exchanged for 1000 small silver coins. With each garrison soldier receiving one, the rest would definitely be enough for everyone to have a huge meal for the next few days.

Victor finally lowered his head and bowed as he said, "Thank you, milord, for your gracious reward. I will settle these soldiers down for now."

"Alright. Old Hugo, disband the townsfolk here. I won't provide food to anyone who stays back."

Old Hugo clasped his chest to salute Lorist and said, "Understood, dominion lord."

Chapter 223 Tax Collector

The townsfolk all had deep respect for Old Hugo and it only took a few lines from him to disperse the crowd of up to 3000 people. Within less than half an hour, only tens of people remained at the plaza.

"Milord, please follow me back to the town hall for a seat," Old Hugo said as he pointed at a three-storey, brick-and-wood building not far away.

The town hall was rather old and simple with the first floor's main foyer having a few old and worn tables and an old sofa which had been patched up multiple times.

"Dominion lord, usually, we would be on the second floor as the first floor here is mainly used to manage the affairs between Whitebird Town and the nearby villages while the third is used as a storage warehouse. We store all the wealth we've gathered up over the past five years there and I will bring you the inventory to check right away," said Old Hugo.

"There's no rush for that, Old Hugo. First, tell me about the situation of Silowas Island during the past five years. I have to apologize to you here as the original dominion of my family is located at the very borders of the Northlands and it's incredibly inconvenient for us to travel over here. That's why we haven't bothered to visit our new dominion, Silowas Island, during that time. In a sense, it can be said that I didn't carry out my responsibilities as a dominion lord, and I am truly sorry for neglecting my subjects here," Lorist apologized as he sat down on a stool he found while inviting Old Hugo to do the same.

"Dominion lord, please don't say that. I have long been in the military and have heard about the impressive reputation of the Norton Family of the Raging Bear. The Northlands is thousands of kilometers from this place and between here and there is the enemy nation, the Madras Duchy, so the inconvenience of transport is definitely something that isn't within anyone's control. This is definitely not your fault," Old Hugo said as he waved his hands fervently.

"Right now, that's no longer the case. The family has managed to set up a port at the Northlands and we have come by ship on this trip. In the future, it would only take one month to travel over here. Old Hugo, let's begin talking about the situation here."

"Alright, dominion lord," Old Hugo said before he began to recall. "I only returned to Whitebird Town after my retirement from the Whitelion Legion during the 3rd month of Year 1765. Back then, I was 53 years old and Silowas Island was still the principality of the Second Highness. I remember seeing the Second Highness looking in the direction of the imperial capital at the port often. Two years after I returned, a messenger suddenly came and according to him, the Second Highness managed to grasp power and influence over the affairs of the kingdom and enfeoffed Silowas Island to the Norton Family.

"Many of the Second Highness's men left the island after that and took with them almost everything. Even the garrison force was disbanded and their equipment taken away, leaving Silowas Island completely unattended to and sinking into chaos. One month passed just like that and Whitebird Town had completely become garbage with nobody overseeing it. Every day, somebody would get into fights and the inhabitants of the town could no longer continue to live like this.

"It was at that time that something happened. A small boat came to the island and its crew wanted to resupply themselves here. It was then when the sailors realized that nobody was in charge and began to lose all inhibition and go wild. Within only three days, they already killed seven townsfolk and even captured quite a number of women. At that time, I realized that three of the sailors breached into my neighbor's house and intended to rape his wife and daughter. So, I couldn't resist the urge anymore and killed those three bastards with my sword. And so, the townsfolk began to eliminate the sailors of that small boat with me and proceeded to elect me as the mayor of the town to take charge during the absence of the dominion lord.

"At that time, I felt that since I've returned to my hometown, I might as well do my part to contribute to it. That's why I rebuilt the garrison force of Whitebird Town and tried to restore order. At the same time, I elected multiple other officials like a security officer, a secretary, a tax collector and an accountant. These tables that you see are their usual workplace.

"When Silowas Island was still the principality of the Second Prince, the tax rate was at 50 percent. I don't know how much the usual tax levied by your family is and I didn't know where to ask, so I just used the old system set by the Second Highness and paid the officials with it. The records of all transactions are detailed in the accounts, so you can inspect them at any time.

"Apart from that, when the Second Highness was still here, there were seven other different taxes, namely, a poll tax, an alcohol tax, a boat tax, a fishing tax, a leather tax, a salt tax and a trade tax. At that time, the yearly income generated by Whitebird Town only amounted to 2000 gold Fordes and the lives of the townsfolk was still decent and they wouldn't have to worry about food as long as they worked. When Viscount Aslan first came over to collect taxes, he was still reasonable and only took ten percent. But on the second and third years, he incremented the main tax by ten percent each year and even took over collecting the alcohol and poll taxes.

"Two years back, Viscount Aslan raised the main tax rate to 50 percent and not only did he take over collecting the 7 other taxes, he even introduced 6 new ones with the excuse being the restoration of the empire. I've made my objections heard before but Viscount Aslan said that I wasn't a person appointed by the dominion lord and was elected by the townsfolk, so I didn't hold any legitimacy. Having no other choice, I could only request him to detail the taxes we needed to pay in an invoice.

"Dominion lord, during the past two years, the whole of Silowas Island paid 5700 plus gold Fordes each year to Viscount Aslan, almost more than two times the original tax we had to pay..."

"Wait a second, Old Hugo, didn't you say that Whitebird Town only had a yearly output of 2000 plus gold Fordes? Then how did Viscount Aslan come up with a figure of 5700 gold Fordes?" Lorist asked.

"Oh, milord, in some sense, the Whitebird Town is the administration center of the whole island. Before the arrival of the Second Highness, the island only had three villages and one town. But after His Highness came, he brought along with him another 4000 or so people with half of them living in Whitebird Town and the others forming another village nearby.

"When the Second Highness left, he enfeoffed the island to you, milord, and more than half of the people that followed him here left the island with only around 1000 who refused to leave and wanted to continue living in that village. A few years later, quite a lot of immigrants came over again and the current population count of Silowas Island is at 12000 people. During the year before, the tax collected rose to 4000 gold Fordes and coupled with the extra miscellaneous taxes introduced by Viscount Aslan, the total amount levied is around 6000 gold Fordes. However, we were unable to collect that much and if we continue to pay Viscount Aslan like that, we would be losing more than 700 gold Fordes every year," explained Old Hugo.

"Why was the total tax set at 6000 gold Fordes despite you being unable to collect that much in the first place? What is going on?" Charade interrupted and asked.

Old Hugo shook his head hopelessly and took out a map of Silowas Island. "Dominion lord, please take a look here. Not far east from Whitebird Town is Seaview Manor. That place is the most luxurious area on the whole of the island and every evening when the sun sets, the beach right in front of Seaview Manor will reflect golden beams of light. The beach's beauty can rival even that of the Platinum Beach in the Sidgler Province of the Madras Duchy. However, its area is much smaller. Even so, it's still a great place to spend summer and have fun near the ocean.

"That manor was the original residence of the Second Highness. But when he left, it was occupied by a few other nobles of the kingdom and they turned the whole manor into their own place for luxurious living and we aren't even allowed to approach it. Milord, you've probably seen those extravagant ships when you docked at the port, right? Those ships are the ones used by those nobles when they come here to have fun.

"Also, over here, half a day's travel from the town is Farama Village where the men of the Second Highness that remained behind stay. Even though the people there occupy one of the richest fields, they refuse to pay any taxes at all with the reason being that they are the men of the Second Highness and have served him through high and low and anyone who demands taxes from them is being disrespectful to the Second Highness himself. We've been unable to deal with those people.

"But Viscount Aslan doesn't care about these things and he puts all the taxes Seaview Manor and Farama Village owe on us. We're unable to do anything about it as none of our complaints are heard. After that, Hector came up with an idea for us to form a fishing team and sell the catch to merchants. That way, we were able to make up for the deficit and even have some extra funds for the garrison force's food..."

"Milord, that Viscount Aslan has been captured by us," Jim reported when he entered.

"Where did you catch him?" Charade asked.

"He brought two of his attendants and attempted to escape by ship, but their sailors were all drunk at the town pub and were unable to set sail. When we came to the port, we notified Captain Wilson and some of his sailors said that they saw attempting to board. After we checked, we found and apprehend them," Jim said.

"Bring that dogshit viscount over here. I want to hear how he plans to explain this to me," Lorist instructed.

"I object! I'm a noble, you cannot treat me so rudely!" Jim only went out and came back in within a moment with a skinny man dressed in noble robes. Perhaps because he heard Lorist call him a dogshit viscount, he became incredibly mad. Jim had to drag him by his clothes all the way into the tent.

"Old Hugo, who's that Hector you just mentioned?" Lorist said as he ignored the loudly complaining Viscount Aslan and continued to chat with Old Hugo.

"Dominion lord, Hector is our head secretary and he graduated from the Mobor Academy of the empire and served as an apprentice instructor there before. But when the academy was ruined in the days of the civil war, he came back with the Second Highness to Whitebird Town with his family and took up a position as the official for the transport of goods. When the Second Highness decided to leave the island, he didn't want to follow and remained at Whitebird Town. I appointed him to be the head secretary of Whitebird Town as he is well-versed in writing official documents," Old Hugo replied.

"Oh, Old Hugo, you've all done well. I am very thankful for your presence on Silowas Island that stopped the situation here from sinking into chaos. As your dominion lord, I offer you my gratitude and respect for your hard work. The Norton Family will definitely not forget your efforts," Lorist said as he stood up and saluted Old Hugo. Charade, Els, Patt and Jim who were within the room did the same.

"This... this... Milord..." Old Hugo only stammered, not knowing how to react at all to the situation.

Lorist waved his hand to indicate that Old Hugo didn't have to keep up formalities before turning around and taking a look at the pale and frightened Viscount Aslan. He said with a warm smile, "Viscount Aslan? I've long heard of your great name. I am the dominion lord of Silowas Island, Norton Lorist, and I'm incredibly glad to finally be able to meet you."

Lorist's smile caused Viscount Aslan to develop a wrong impression. Perhaps thinking that Lorist was merely a man from the rural Northlands that hasn't had much real world experience, he felt that Lorist would be really easy to deal with. The skinny viscount straightened his robes and said in an arrogant tone, "So you're Count Norton who came from the Northlands? As a noble, you must apologize to me and reimburse me for that kind of treatment. Your family soldiers violated my status rudely and that is not an offense that a noble like me can overlook. You must punish your soldiers right here in front of me in order to obtain my forgiveness. Otherwise, I will definitely sue the Norton Family for violating the pride of nobles in the noble court and make your barbaric acts known to all the other nobles of the kingdom..."

"Oh no, how scary... I definitely cannot bear to have that happen..." Lorist said as he pretended to speak in a fearful voice. He turned to Jim and said, "Are you the one who offended Viscount Aslan? Come over here! I will punish you!"

With Jim in front of him, Lorist gave him two light slaps on the face and said, "You idiot, how could you force the noble and revered Viscount Aslan to appear before me in such proper fashion? Look at him, he's overstepping his bounds right now. You should've stripped him naked and covered his whole body with horse feces before dragging him over. Only then will he beg us to give him a torn rag to protect his noble pride with and not make such excessive demands of us."

Lorist lightly slapped Jim's face twice again and said, "Do you remember this lesson now? Remember the feeling of these slaps well. That is your punishment."

Jim laughed out loud and said, "I have learned my lesson, milord. I will never repeat this mistake again."

Lorist nodded and said, "Very well, stand to the side."

"Yes, milord!"

Everyone within the tent burst out in laughter with only Viscount Aslan staring wide-eyed with his mouth agape.

"Objection! I want to object!"

Lorist walked over and gave him a harsh slap on the face, causing the skinny viscount to turn 180 degrees and his face to swell up with his lip broken. He even spat out a few of his teeth and fresh blood could be seen flowing out of his mouth before he fell to his butt onto the ground dizzily.

"Object my ass! Yours truly still hasn't even mentioned the debt you owe me and yet you dare to complain up front? Let's go over all your mistakes. First, I am a landed noble of the rank of a count and you're only an honorary viscount. Be it rank or status, I am far superior than you in either regard! You actually dared to put the blame on me in front of my face and ask me to give you respect and accuse me of violating your noble pride? Are you joking? You're pride is worthless! In my eyes, a viscount like you is nothing but a pile of crap!"

Stretching his right foot out to stomp of the viscount's face, Lorist said, "And you still dare to object! Are you challenging the honor and pride of the Norton Family? It has just been a few short years, yet the nobles have forgotten how the roar of the Raging Bear sounds like... How regrettable. I believe I must remind the nobles of the kingdom the consequences of incurring the rage of the Raging Bear."

Viscount Aslan flailed around and said, "AI emm the taksh kollectur uuf da Shekend Hainisss... I wuss orderrd tu komm hier..."

"You still dare to talk back?" Lorist couldn't understand what the viscount was spouting and increased the strength of his step, causing the viscount to let out cries of pain.

"Ah, where was I just now?" Lorist asked as he forgot what he was just talking about.

"Milord, you were going through the mistakes of the viscount with the first one being his lack of respect for you and his challenging of the Norton Family," Howard reminded.

"Ah, that's right. Second, on what grounds have you come to collect taxes on my dominion? From whom did you get the guts to do that? I will definitely hang all the members of your family for this..." Lorist rebuked.

The viscount suddenly turned quiet as he took out a small golden-threaded beastskin scroll from his robe and waved it in the air.

"What is this?" Charade said as he took the beastskin scroll and unrolled it. Clicking his tongue, he said, "Milord, this viscount was truly sent here to collect taxes. This is the appointment letter signed by the Second Highness.

Kicking the viscount away, Lorist said, "Get up. I have questions for you."

Taking the scroll Charade handed over to him, Lorist saw what the scroll stated. 'Viscount Aslan Robiossen shall collect taxes from the dominion of Count Norton and Jillin Harbor on behalf of the Andinaq Kingdom and carry out his duties with pure dedication to his utmost abilities and make his contribution to the restoration of the empire.'

The letter was signed 'Krissen Auguslo', the Second Highness's name, dated on the 23rd day of the 5th month of Year 1768 along with the private stamp of the regent of the Andinaq Kingdom belonging to the Second Highness.

"Ah, I didn't think that Viscount Aslan here was truly appointed by the Second Highness as a tax collector! And to think that I thought you were a conman!" Lorist said as he finally understood what the viscount was trying to say despite the stinging pain in his mouth.

"You... you actually dared to treat me like that! You Nortons better be ready for the rage of the Second Highness! He'll definitely turn your family to ash with his 300000-strong army!" Viscount Aslan cried out as he struggled to stand up and held his pained face while giving Lorist a hateful stare.

"300000-strong army? Hehe, I'm so afraid right now. Seems like a puny viscount like you is cared for so much by the Second Highness that he would mobilize the whole army for you... Is that why you've been raising the tax rate ridiculously? Speak!" Lorist shouted, causing Viscount Aslan to jump in fear.

"Didn't you read the appointment letter?" Viscount Aslan said stubbornly.

"Hehe, since you're a tax collector sent here by the Second Highness, why did you try to escape?"

"I wasn't escaping. I was just getting on my ship to get my appointment letter so that I can prove my identity. It's your family soldiers that offended me first."

"Is that so? Since you're still insisting that you're innocent, no worries. We'll find out after we head to the royal capital and bring you in front of the Second Highness. I'll see if he really did instruct you to increase the tax rate. We'll know by then... Els," Lorist called out.

"Milord, please give me your instructions," Els said as he stepped forward.

"Have Jim work with you to bring this dogshit viscount to the wooden structure outside. Strip him naked first and give him 30 canes. Since he dared to cane Old Hugo three times, we'll pay him back ten times as much! After that, cover his body with some glue and feathers. Don't forget how the folk of the Northlands treat fraudsters and liars," Lorist instructed lazily.

"Yes, milord. I know the custom of the northlanders well. Liars are covered with feathers and paraded around for everyone to see. We will definitely do so accordingly," Els replied.

"Understood, milord," Jim agreed casually.

After that, Viscount Aslan squealed out like a pig that was about to be slaughtered. "No! You can't do this! I am a noble! I'm the tax collector appointed by the Second Highness!..."

Chapter 224 Hector

"Mi-milord, Viscount Aslan is indeed the tax collector sent by the Second Highness..." Old Hugo muttered as he stared at Viscount Aslan being dragged out of the building. Not long after, cries of pain and ear-cracking whipping sounds could be heard, followed by the cheers of the onlookers.

He didn't understand why that young dominion lord, Count Norton, dared to treat the Second Highness's tax collector like that without any hesitation. Either he was inexperienced or he truly knew what he was doing and didn't have a single care for Second Highness Auguslo who was at the peak of his position and feared like a tiger by all the other nobles of the Andinaq Kingdom.

Either way, Old Hugo was worried that the young dominion lord would incur the wrath of the Second Highness and cause 'the innocent fish of the pond to perish along with the city fire'. Even though Grindia didn't have the exact saying per se, there were similar idioms that carried the same meaning. Old Hugo was worried that Count Norton would just run off and leave the people of Whitebird Town to suffer the consequences.

"Hehe, Old Hugo, don't worry. I have my own reasons and thoughts for treating Viscount Aslan like this," Lorist said with a smile to the old man. "As you have spent most of your life in the army, so you might not understand the traditions and customs between nobles and don't know the responsibilities of a tax collector. In actuality, as the mayor of a town within the Norton Family dominion, you have right to refuse unreasonable taxation unless you were specifically ordered otherwise by a dominion lord like me.

"A tax collection officer's responsibilities include collecting the taxes from the various areas under the jurisdiction of the royal family and stopping corruption and tax evasion. To dominion lords, their authority only concerns inspecting the economical situation of their dominions and collect any due taxes from us as a tribute for the royal family. They have no authority at all to increase tax rates and must definitely gain the approval of a dominion lord like me first before they do anything. As he dared to introduce more taxes and increase the main tax of Whitebird Town, is he treating our dominion like the territory belonging to the royal family? That act of his has already infringed upon the honor of the Norton Family and that goes against the customs regarding the interaction between a senior and junior nobles. Even if I hang him, the royal family won't be able to do anything about it.

"In a few days, I will bring this viscount to the Second Highness and ask him whether his actions are carried out per his orders. I will make sure that the Second Highness personally orders this dogshit viscount to be hanged, and he will, unless he intends to offend all the other nobles by violating our sacred customs by protecting the viscount. No matter what, this viscount is definitely a goner.

"You might not understand the behavior of the nobles well enough, and I don't blame you for that since you only served in the army before. The more you tolerate their selfishness, the more ridiculous they will act. Like today, this viscount even dared to bring soldiers into Whitebird Town. Since he didn't gain permission from me to do so, that can be considered a declaration of war. That's why I definitely won't let this slide. Don't worry, if the sky falls, the Norton Family will be here to bear it for you.

"For now, just call your subordinates over here to make some introductions. This is the chief knight of our family, Charade. Everything concerning the administration of Silowas Island will be temporarily his responsibility."

"Alright, dominion lord. I will call them over right now." Since Lorist was so confident, Old Hugo could only keep his worries to himself and call the rest over.

In a few moments, Old Hugo returned with five other people.

"Dominion lord, this is Old Mike, my accountant. He had worked for 20 years for the Carey Merchant Guild in the imperial capital and only came back to his hometown here after it closed down."

Old Mike was an old man with balding white hair even though he only looked around 54. It was probably because he taxed his mind so often as an accountant that his hair fell that quickly.

The next person was a 49-year-old skinny, tall man. He stepped forward and introduced himself, "Dominion lord, I am Kriston, the security official of Whitebird Town."

Old Hugo added, "Dominion lord, Kriston here used to work as an undercover inspector for the security bureau of the former empire and he has handled all sorts of cases. His wife is a Whitebird Town local, so he settled here after the empire broke apart."

Lorist nodded and made a mental note on Kriston. Even though the family set up various patrol forces within the towns it controlled, the forces can at most handle small cases like drunk people getting into brawls and still lack the ability to properly investigate and crack criminal cases. As the dominion continues to develop, the population will increase as well and it will require a lot more people and procedures to maintain order.

The third man who stood forward was a red-faced old man. Old Hugo said, "Dominion lord, this here is Old Hart and he has been the tax collection official for Whitebird Town all this time. During his forty plus years on the post, he has gotten to know almost everyone on Silowas Island."

The fourth person was the limping garrison captain Victor and he reported, "Dominion lord, the soldiers are already settled down and I stationed a squad of garrison troops to keep watch on them."

The last person was a pale-faced youth who should be around five to six years older than Lorist. He stepped forward, bowed respectfully, and said, "Dominion lord, I am Hector, the main secretary of Whitebird Town. I'd like to add that your treatment of Viscount Aslan is a little rash. Are you not worried about the vengeance of the Aslan Family?"

"The vengeance of the Aslan Family?" Lorist said as he laughed out loud. "Well, tell me more about what you understand of the situation at hand."

"Dominion lord, even though Viscount Aslan is only an honorary noble, his brother Count Aslan is a proper landed noble. Additionally, the Aslan Family is one of the first to side with the Second Highness and they are well-trusted by him. Not only is Count Aslan a Gold ranked knight, he is also the commander who rebuilt the Royal Family's Second Local Defense Legion and his family holds great power and influence. This is why even though I knew clearly that Viscount Aslan's requests were excessive, I could only advise Old Hugo to endure it. After all, your family hasn't had any contact with us back then and I was worried that Old Hugo would be put to death if he dared to resist. In fact, a few other accusations could be made on Old Hugo for being a mayor picked by the townsfolk without the official sanction of the ruling family..."

Hector paused for a while before he continued, "Dominion lord, I'm actually quite uninformed about the might of the Norton Family. But I've heard rumors that five years back, your family's northbound convoy helped the Second Highness out tons, but the original dominion of the Norton Family is really too far away. The Second Highness also holds a really high position in the kingdom nowadays and has built himself six legions with up to 300000 soldiers to prepare for the reunification of the former empire. At this crucial time, if you, dominion lord, think that you can rely on previous favors and friendship to avoid repercussion for your actions, I'm afraid that the Second Highness wouldn't be too pleased with this. I believe the case of Viscount Aslan's treatment should be given more serious consideration."

Charade laughed out loud and said, "Hector, I hope you can understand one thing. The Norton Family is not relying on anything like favor or friendship, but our own might. Milord has his own reasons for treating Viscount Aslan the way he did. However, I am interested in what you said about the Second Highness's six legions of 300000 soldiers. Can you tell me more about that in detail?"

"You are...?" Hector muttered as he gave Lorist a weird look. That knight that just spoke up only wears a Silver ranked badge and isn't even a Gold ranked knight. How can he interject so casually like that?

"This is Chief Knight Charade of our family. He will be in charge of all affairs concerning Silowas Island," introduced Lorist once more.

"Oh..." Hector said as he suppressed his curiosity and nodded in acknowledgement to Charade. "Sir Knight, I don't really know too much myself, but during these past two years when I dealt with the fish merchants, I heard a lot of rumors about the Second Highness. Five years back, after the Second Highness went to war with the Redlis Kingdom and the Madras Duchy, he reformed the various legions of the Royal Family's Local Defense Army. After disbanding the Fiercegale Legion, he organized the Local Defense Army into three separate units each with up to 56000 soldiers. After that, he formed three other Reserve Legions each with 42000 soldiers and another 5000-strong Royal Knight Brigade.

"According to my understanding, the taxes that all the nobles have to hand to the royal family has increased to 30 percent with the territory belonging to the royal family themselves charging up to 70 percent. All the wealth gained through the increased taxes will go towards funding these six legions. The Second Highness even announced that he hopes that the people of the Krissen Empire whether they be nobles or commoners endure for the next few years, and promised that he would make up to them for it after unifying the empire..."

Lorist couldn't help but laugh out loud and pat on Howard's shoulder uncontrollably. "Howard, did you hear that?! This is the epitome of alpha-strike mentality! The Second Highness wants to replicate the achievements of the first Krissen Founding Emperor, Krissen I, and is ready to use his 300000 soldiers to unify the empire. But it's a shame that he forgot that times have changed. Right now, he's alone in his effort and if he fails, he will no longer be able to retaliate and the Andinaq Kingdom will end at that time."

"Milord, even you are doubtful of the chances of the Second Highness's war plans?" Hector asked.

"I'm not just doubtful. I am completely certain that the Second Highness's plan to unify the empire has zero chance of success. Putting other things aside, in the time of the first Krissen emperor, it was the warring-states period and each kingdom was akin to a modern-day barony. Krissen I's 300000-strong army naturally was able to sweep the floor with his enemies and even if tens of kingdoms unite together to resist, they wouldn't even stand a chance against the army's assault. It must be noted that at that time, the most elite force of a kingdom was lesser than 100 men, so how would they even stand a chance?

"But now? Even you were able to find out about the Second Highness's movements through mere rumors from merchants, so the nations at the border would definitely be keeping their guards up as well. Even if the Second Highness manages to conquer a few cities, he would suffer heavy casualties. And if he bumps against a foe that has a clear mind and is able to manipulate his enemies well and can stop the Second Highness's army from obtaining the necessary supplies, if the Second Highness continues to stubbornly persist in his struggle, how long can the poor commoners of the Andinaq Kingdom last? I suspect that the kingdom would collapse even before half of the 3000000-strong army is eliminated..."

Howard looked to be in deep thought. Charade asked, "What I'm curious about is this... The Second Highness and the Redlis Kingdom as well as the Madras Duchy signed a ceasefire for 5 years, but it's already expired. Since he already has an army of 300000 prepared, why isn't he taking the opportunity to start the battle for unification right away? Isn't he letting this chance go? The longer he waits, the more the Madras Duchy and the Redlis Kingdom will be able to build up their defenses..."

Hector said, "Perhaps, I know the reason to that. A while ago I heard the merchants say that the Third Prince's sickness is getting rather bad and he doesn't have much longer to live. The Second Highness might just be waiting for his father to pass on first before launching the battle of unification. I'm guessing that it's because he wants to be crowned the monarch after the unification. If the Third Prince doesn't die, the crown has little chance on falling on the Second Highness's head..."

"Hehe, he's blinded by his lust for power," Lorist commented.

At that moment, Jim and Els entered with smiles on their faces and said, "Milord, we have completed your orders and Viscount Aslan's body has been covered with fish glue and feathers. Right now, he looks completely like a weird bird being tied up on the wooden structure by us."

"Alright," Lorist said while nodding. "Old Hugo, how many people did you say are at Seaview Manor?"

"I'm not too sure about this myself, but judging by the number of guards there, I'd say around 100 or so is there," Old Hugo replied after giving it some thought.

"Josk, Freiyar, the two of you shall bring Els and the other guards and sailors for a trip there and bring everyone at the manor over here. Anyone who resists shall be killed without quest-- Actually, try your best to catch as many alive as possible. I suddenly feel that we will be needing much manpower over here for many things," Lorist said in a frustrated tone.

"Milord, will you be fine here after we leave?" Freiyar expressed his worries.

"It's alright. It's not like you guys don't know my abilities. It'll be enough for me to have Knight Charade and Howard here. Also, Victor, bring 100 men from your garrison force over there as well," Lorist instructed.

"Dominion lord, the Whitebird Town Garrison isn't equipped with even leather armor and are barely armed with only a pike each man. How can we even stand a chance against the fully-armed guards of the manor? We can't do anything about that," said Victor as he refused Lorist's order.

"I'm not asking you guys to go on a suicide mission and don't need the garrison soldiers to attack the manor. Just leave that to my family soldiers. The reason I asked you go there is because you know the terrain better and will be able to stop anyone from escaping. Other than that, you just need to bring along some rope to tie up the prisoners with. If the attack doesn't work out, I will allow the garrison soldiers to retreat first," Lorist said as he met Victor's gaze.

Convinced, Victor said, "Alright, dominion lord. I will gather my men right now. I hope our excursion will not be for naught."

"Milord," Freiyar said as he stepped forward. He pointed to the map of Silowas Island on the table and said, "After taking Seaview Manor, should we attack and conquer that Farama Village as well?"

Lorist shook his head and said, "There's no need. We are a little short on time, so all you have to do is to attack Seaview Manor and capture the nobles and others that are there. I will be waiting to deal with those insolent idiots tonight. As for Farama Village, I will bring you guys along with me there tomorrow. Nobody in our dominion will be allowed to go unpunished after challenging the Norton Family. They didn't pay their taxes for five whole years? Very well...."

"Alright, milord. Then we will leave right away," Freiyar said before bowing to Lorist with the rest and leaving the building.

"Dominion lord, if they really make that trip, then we won't only be offending the Aslan Family. You should know that after the Second Highness left the island, the ones who remained at Seaview Manor are the descendants of some of his noble attendants. They can at most be considered to be causing mischief like all youngsters do. If you really punish them seriously, then you will be considered to not be giving the Second Highness any face and will also be offending the other noble attendants of the Second Highness," Hector warned hurriedly.

"Hehe, he's quite an interesting fellow," said Lorist to Charade. "He doesn't understand that we only bother to give the Second Highness face because he is our senior noble and we've never once feared the might or power of the Second Highness. As long as others don't offend us, we won't cross them either. But since someone is knowingly causing trouble, then our only response will be blood and fire. Charade, this guy is a talented fellow. Don't let him continue working as a mere secretary, let him stay by your side to train instead."

"Yes, milord. I already know what to do with him," Charade replied.

"Good, then I'll leave this place to you. You should research more about the situation of Silowas Island, Whitebird Town and the other villages here and think of how we can develop this dominion. After our forces return in a few days, we will head straight for the imperial capital, so go get on with your work. Howard, let's go take a walk."

"Alright, milord!" said Howard gleefully.

Chapter 225 Whitebird Restaurant

There was once again hundreds of people gathered at the plaza, but this time around all of them were there to look at the feather-covered Viscount Aslan. Lorist didn't bother to join in the commotion and merely brought Howard to a small alley and looked at the sights of Whitebird Town in a casual manner.

The road they walked on was made up of huge rocks with cobblestones squeezed in between with various houses and buildings built from clay lining its sides. Even though the structures didn't have a uniform outlook, they looked rather clean and there wasn't any trash to be seen all around. The two sides of the alley were lined by the walls of the buildings and from time to time, fish racks could be seen with some fish placed upon it and left to dry. The breeze brought with it a slight fishy smell.

The alley was quiet and curvy. After a while of walking, they reached the end of the road and had to turn into another path within the town. That path was wider than the alley before it and could even allow carriages to pass through. On one side of the road was the tideland with some plants growing on it. The tide had already receded that time and tens of people carrying something on their backs and picking stuff up on the tideland could be seen. The adults walked barefoot with their pants rolled up and used the wooden sticks in their hands to poke around the muddy ground while the children ran around and played naked.

"Master, this place is so different from the Northlands. The sights here are so pretty," Howard said.

Lorist looked into the distance and replied, "This is an island after all and it is very different from the Northlands. The Northlands are mostly desolate with the skies high up and the clouds thin. But this place on the other hand is like a pearl in the middle of the sea with wide skies and blue seawater; it is indeed a great place. It's a shame that Second Highness Auguslo doesn't have an eye for these things and didn't know about the value of this place when he was here and even abandoned it to us for an incredibly low price. How laughable..."

Howard tilted his head in confusion and asked, "Master, why do you think so? Transport to and from Silowas Island is inconvenient and its farmable area is also rather small. I feel that the Second Highness made the right choice to abandon this place and left for the imperial capital."

"It's about perspective, Howard. You must change yours. Farmable land is not the most important cornerstone of a nation or family's might. I've told you before that the main expenditure of war is manpower and resources. The present is really different from hundreds of years ago when one knight and his few attendants could dictate the tide of war. Battles on the scales of tens of thousands are no longer new on the continent of Grindia, and that's why I don't approve of the Second Highness's preparation to reunite the empire with his 300000 plus troops.

"The Andinaq Kingdom currently has six provinces and the Second Highness has used up almost one whole province to feed his soldiers. They're only barely hanging on just by relying on the local produce and you've also heard that the tax rate of the territory of the royal family has been raised to 70 percent, which can already be considered tyrannical. If this goes on, the commoners will definitely not be able to hold on. No matter what grand excuse the Second Highness uses, that doesn't change the fact that he's barely sitting still on the sides of the volcano.

"You'll understand it right away after looking at the map. Silowas Island is actually the central hub of this region of the sea and controlling this island is akin to controlling the thousands of kilometers of shores nearby. From an offensive standpoint, we can attack the Andinaq Kingdom as well as the Redlis Kingdom's coastal province s. From a defensive standpoint, we only have to retreat back to Silowas Island and there's nothing the enemy can do about us. Naturally, our family will first require a strong fleet.

"That is only the military considerations. Howard, think, what will happen if we convert Silowas Island into a central trading hub?" Lorist asked.

Howard thought for a bit and replied, "Just like the offensive standpoint, our family can ship the salt we produce to the coastal provinces and trade it with money or other required resources. Even if we don't have enough farmland on this island, we can still trade for huge amounts of food for our use, is that right, master?"

"You're half correct. Our family still needs to form a strong fleet first. If we can have full dominion over the waters from this island to the Northlands, we can use Silowas Island as a starting point for our merchant vessels to travel to any other coastal city on the continent of Grindia. As long as trading continues, money will continue to flow to us and our family's might will also increase. That's why I feel that the Second Highness made an idiotic decision to give up on this island. All he has in his mind are outdated ideas," Lorist insulted.

"Master, I feel that you've been getting more and more confident in the recent days. Just like Knight Josk said, you're starting to have a more domineering aura and is starting to feel more like an actual dominion lord," Howard praised.

Patting on his disciple's head, Lorist said, "Oh, your ass-kissing skills have improved... Howard, you must remember this well. Confidence must come from the might of the family. The stronger the family is, the more you can back your confidence up with. In the case of Viscount Aslan's treatment, we can afford to not give the Second Highness any face. While he can instill fear in other nobles with his 300000-strong army, it is useless against us because we understand that even if we end on pissing the Second Highness off, he can't do anything about us given our might.

"Think about it. A few years ago when we were still leading the convoy back to the dominion, could we have imagined that a day like this would come? At that time, don't even talk about the Second Highness's 300000-strong army, what about that Count Cor-something? His force of around 10000 soldiers was enough to make us jump with worry. But during the past few years we stayed put within the dominion to development it like a turtle withdrawing into its shell, the Duke of the Northlands, Duke Loggins, and the Second Prince thought that we've become a ripe persimmon that can be squeezed for juice. Right now however, Duke Loggins is already ill and bedridden and doesn't have long to live and the Second Prince just became our prisoner.

"The reason we don't use the same alpha-strike mentality is because even if we occupy huge amounts of territory, without developing them, they would not provide any benefit for us. Just like right now, even if our family forces were to be wiped out, the family can still form a second one, and perhaps even a third. It is because we have this foundation that we don't fear our enemies. Development is the only correct way, understood?"

"Development is the only correct way? Master, this saying is a little of a mouthful, but I guess it does make sense. When I heard that the Second Highness had a force of 300000 soldiers, I didn't even feel any dread at all. I guess you're right that our family's might allowed me to not be bothered at hearing about the 300000 troops," Howard said as he nodded, before his stomach grumbled.

Lorist snickered and said, "Kid, you should've said so if you were hungry. Come on, let's find a place to grab something to eat. I already forgot about eating after we got off the ship and getting so busy..."

Past the corner ahead was a wooden, brown plaque which had a picture of a white bird with the words 'Whitebird Restaurant' engraved upon it.

"I didn't think that a small town like this would have a restaurant. I thought that sailors would usually frequent inns or taverns for food and drink. Let's go check it out," Lorist said.

The restaurant wasn't that big and it was obvious that the wall dividing the living hall and the dining hall was knocked down for more space. Six small square tables could be seen with each of them covered with a linen cloth with blue boxy patterns and had small baskets placed on them with bunches of wild flowers within. While the small restaurant was rather simple, it was unusually clean.

It was currently around three in the afternoon and only two tables by the walls were seated by other guests. One red-nosed, fat old man saw Lorist and Howard enter and was dumbstruck, before he said, "Hey, look who's here? Isn't that the dominion lord who just arrived at our Silowas Island? I didn't think that the dominion lord himself would come to a small restaurant like ours..."

The red-nosed man's whole face was slightly flushed red, probably because he had drunk quite a bit of alcohol. Lorist didn't mind his crude manner of speech and instead nodded to the other customers before smiling and saying, "Even though I am indeed the dominion lord, I have to eat and sleep too. Is there anything wrong with me coming to a restaurant when I'm hungry?"

After he said that, he found a table and sat down before waving for Howard to come over as he asked, "May I know how I can order food over here?"

That red-nosed man looked at Lorist for a good while before he shouted towards the stairwell, "Nataya, there's a customer here! You won't imagine it... The dominion lord is here for a meal! Also, don't let little Martha come downstairs... Dominion lords are all fiendish perverts and he'll definitely take Martha away if he sees her..."

Howard was enraged by that comment and was just about to thump on the table and curse at the old man, but he saw Lorist smile and shake his head. Lorist said, "Don't you think that old man is rather cute? He made us aware of the presence of a pretty girl by asking her to stay upstairs..."

A stocky woman hurriedly came over and bowed to Lorist with respect before she asked, "Milord, what do you wish to order?"

"Is there something you can serve right away?"

"Milord, we have some steamed bread, meatballs, sausages, smoked fish and some grilled food along with seaweed soup, conches, crabs, breaded and fried small crabs, loaches, mashed potatoes, baked apples and seafood pie...."

"Then I'll have a seafood pie, meatballs, steamed bread, smoked fish and two servings of seaweed soup. And give me one of those breaded crabs or something. I'd like to give it a try. Also, what drinks do you serve here?" Lorist asked.

"Milord, we only have our self-brewed fruit wine here and it tastes rather good."

"Then I'll have that too, and some fresh fruit if you have some."

"Alright, milord. Please wait a while, I'll start serving the dishes right away," said the stocky middle-aged woman before she hurriedly left.

It didn't take long for Lorist and Howard to be able to take a look at the beauty Martha. She was only around 17 to 18 years of age and she had long, chestnut-brown hair with large, grey eyes and some freckles beside her nose, giving her a rather energetic and rowdy feel. Paired with her fair skin and slender figure, Lorist rated her 80 out of 100 points.

Martha was there to serve the dishes and she gave each of them a brief introduction. Lorist was surprised that the food served by a small restaurant like that would taste that good and focused on eating without caring much for staring at the beauty. In the end, the dish Lorist liked the most was the fried breaded small crabs. The crabs were first washed before being dipped into some batter and bread crumbs and deep fried until they become golden brown in color. Each bite off the crab let out a satisfying crunch and its brittle shell only served to enhance the mouthfeel. Paired with the sweet and sour fruit wine, the crab tasted magnificent and Lorist ordered two more servings after finishing the first until he was satisfied.

"The food you served were all really delicious. Sum it all up and tell me how much they cost," Lorist said to the beautiful Martha with a satisfied tone as he wiped his mouth with a white linen cloth.

"Milord, your presence here is already bestowing us an incredible honor. This meal's on the house as our welcoming treat to you, milord," said the bowing stocky woman from behind Martha.

"Hehe, forget it. I'm a dominion lord but I won't eat anything for free," Lorist said as he took out a large silver coin and paced it on the table. "Is this enough?"

"Oh, no, milord... This is too much. Your food didn't cost more than 3 small silvers..."

One gold Forde was worth 20 large silver and each large silver was equal to 5 small silvers.

"Keep the change as your tip. Howard, give them three more gold Fordes, we'll be ordering 70 people's worth of food later tonight. There's a ship called Flying Fish of Dawn at the port and I'll have you send over 21 meals there, with the remaining ones sent to the administration building of the town. If there's any money left over, I'll use it to buy some of your self-brewed wine. Also, after you finish cooking the meals, notify us at the administration building and I'll send some garrison soldiers to help you transport the food," Lorist instructed.

The stocky woman stared at the three gold Fordes and one large silver on the table in a daze before she nodded hesitantly. "Alright, milord. I will do as you say."

After filling up their stomachs, the two of them strolled about the town once more and quite a number of strangers bowed to Lorist when they recognized him and Lorist greeted them back with a warm and friendly smile.

It was only after his facial muscles were sore from all the smiling that he decided to head back to the administration building. The sky was already turning dark. Freiyar and the rest were back with the troops and a busy commotion could be seen right in front of the administration building. Apart from a huge group of onlookers, there were another 400 or so men and women who had both their hands tied behind their backs, kneeling on the ground.

"Milord, we've returned with the rest of the people from Seaview Manor and left only a squad of ten sailors there to watch the place," reported Freiyar who was standing at the entrance of the building.

"How were the casualties?" Lorist asked.

"Milord, we didn't sustain any casualties, but some of the guards at the manor resisted capture and after we killed some of them, the rest attempted to escape, only to be stopped by Patt and Els. In the end, we killed 27 of their guards and not one of the eight nobles who occupied the manor managed to escape. They've all been captured by us."

"Who are these people tied up over here?"

"Milord, these are all the servants and maidservants of the manor. Didn't you ask us to bring everyone here? We've done just that," Freiyar replied.

"Ugh..." Lorist grunted as he patted his forehead. He didn't think that those nobles would actually treat the Seaview Manor as their own home and brought so many of their servants there.

"Why are the ones watching the place our sailors? What about the garrison soldiers?" Lorist asked as he wondered why he couldn't see even a single garrison soldier with them. Did the 100 or so soldiers leave the moment a fight began?

"Oh, they went back for dinner and said that they would switch out with another group after finishing," explained Els.

I guess that's fine, Lorist thought while stroking his chin.

"Milord, we've worked for the whole day and only had something at the Seaview Manor to fill up our stomachs. What do we do about dinner?" Patt said as he walked over with his armor still bloodied. It was said that the last resisting guard was cut into two halves by him.

"I've already ordered food from a restaurant nearby. I think it's about time they sent it over," Lorist said as he looked at the darkening sky.

"Milord, there's a woman who says that the food is done and is asking us to go collect it," reported a guard, right as the food was mentioned.

"Alright, I'll go. I'm already dying of hunger," Patt said as he turned and walked away.

After that, a loud shriek could be heard, startling everyone present.

When Lorist went over, he saw the beauty Martha sitting on the ground crying, with Patt troubled and not knowing what to do.

"What's going on?"

Seeing Lorist there, Martha suppressed her cries embarrassedly and explained in a stuttered voice that she was shocked by Patt's bloodied look and how he walked towards her with a fierce and murderous aura.

After resolving the misunderstanding, Lorist sent Patt with some other guards to follow Martha to collect the food and asked him to clean his armor off at the restaurant. After that, Lorist entered the administration building and heard a voice screaming out when he opened the door. "You actually dared to attack us... The Reid Family will definitely not forgive you for this! This is a declaration of war against our family!"

Lorist entered with a gloomy look and said, "What the heck are you doing? I heard that their families are rather strong? Heed my orders, have the loudest one caned 100 times with the rest given 50 canes and leave them hanging for one night. Remember to use more force. I don't mind even if they end up dying."

The few guards present quickly hauled the loudest brat outside before cries of agony and pain rang out.

"Knight Charade, did you become soft after staying in the family dominion for the past few years? The title you got at the Andinaq Kingdom, 'Charade the Demon', doesn't fit you at all!" said Lorist strictly.

"Milord, I only wanted to ask him who instructed them to occupy the manor in our dominion," said Charade while shrugging helplessly.

"Did you even need to ask? Seeing that they brought so many servants and guards with them, it's obvious that their family leader was the one who did all this. They took advantage of the fact that our dominion is far away and thought that we wouldn't be able to manage this place. It's enough if we know which family is behind it. We'll settle the bill with them when we reach the imperial capital.

"Also, Knight Charade, screen the rest of the people outside and we'll move into Seaview Manor tomorrow before we bring some troops to give Farama Village a visit. We must squeeze the pus out of the wound to make it recover faster," Lorist said.

Chapter 226 Farama Village

Farama Village was located on top of a small mound by a small stream. By the time Lorist arrived with about a hundred others with him, the people of the village were already armed and prepared.

Patt rode forward on a donkey he found at Whitebird Town and shouted, "Open the gates! The dominion lord of Silowas Island, Count Norton, has arrived! Come out to receive him quick!"

Nobody in the village bothered to answer him and Patt repeated himself three whole times. In the end, a huge man appeared at the edges of the village fortifications with a raised longbow while calling out, "This is Farama Village, and we serve the Second Highness! This is not the territory of any dominion lord. Scram! Otherwise, I'll show you the might of my longbow!"

Even though Patt was pissed beyond measure, there was no way he could just charge towards the gate riding a mere donkey, so he rode down the mound angrily to report the villager's response to Lorist.

Lorist was currently seated in a luxurious carriage which was one of the spoils he got from conquering Seaview Manor yesterday. There were only three carriages and six horses within the whole of the manor and two of them were used for transport of goods while the last was for transporting people. Apart from the two horses that pulled Lorist's carriage, the other four were temporarily used by Josk, Freiyar and the rest.

"Milord, should we slaughter our way in then?" Freiyar asked.

Lorist merely shook his head. Farama Village was no Seaview Manor and he had already heard Hector speak in detail that the village here was originally called the Stream Village because it was located on a mound right next to a stream. When the Second Highness went to Silowas Island, his principality, the one thing he actually put effort into was the construction of that village.

Back then when the Second Highness first came to that island, most of the people that followed him were his trusted attendants and they brought their family members there with them, totalling up to around 4000 people. Quite a number of them had followed the Second Highness through many of his battles and perhaps because some of them were getting old or injured, they decided to settle down. So, Second Highness moved all the villagers of Stream Village to another location and ordered one of his subordinates who was skilled in construction, Farama, to build a place for the soldiers that had helped him greatly to settle down.

In actuality, the Second Highness had entrusted too menial a task for a talented man like Farama. At first, Farama even had building a whole citadel in mind and even ditched the original site at Stream Village because he felt that the terrain there would be hard to defend and moved the site up to the mound near the stream. After that, he began modeling the village after a citadel.

Had it not been for Second Highness Auguslo's whimsical visit to the site, he definitely wouldn't have realized that Farama intended to build a small castle that would take up to four years to complete. He questioned Farama angrily about who would man and defend the citadel and it was from that moment on that Farama was no longer regarded as a trusted aide of the Second Highness.

Farma thus left Silowas Island, but the construction work had already begun. As the Second Highness didn't want to waste the finished designs of the citadel, he continued building it accordingly but greatly decreased the work and resources required by changing stone walls into mud and wood walls and so on. By the time the construction was finished, the inhabitants asked the Second Highness to name the place and he called it Farama Village since that man was the one who first came up with the design.

And so, Farama Village became the place where Second Highness Auguslo settled his men down and eventually, the surrounding villages became absorbed into it as a result of continued development. The area the village occupied was the most suitable place to farm on the whole of Silowas Island and it covered around 5000 square meters of farmland. When the Second Highness left the island to fight for supremacy within the kingdom, there were over 400 households, roughly 1300 people, who wanted to stay behind at the village. Not only did they occupy almost all of the farmland, they even refused to pay their taxes.

Hector told Lorist that there were around 300 veteran soldiers who had experienced with the blood and gore of the battlefield. As they were veterans who had fought during the civil war of the empire, most of them had awakened their Battle Force and up to 100 or so of them were Silver ranked in power. Had it not been for the fact that they were already 40 to 50 years old with their bodies starting to age, the Second Highness definitely wouldn't have left them there to retire and farm.

Lorist turned to look at the men he brought. There were Freiyar and Josk, two Gold ranked knights, Els, Patt, Jim and Dulles, all Silver ranked knights, and tens of other Iron ranked guards. As a squad of 10 sailors stationed at the manor among the 16 that left the ship, the other 6 only had one Iron rank among them with the rest being Bronze ranks. Additionally, he had Howard, a Bronze rank, by his side. Charade couldn't come along as he was busy researching with Old Hugo, Hector and the others back at the town to find out how best to develop this dominion.

Also following Lorist were the limping Victor and the 100 or so garrison soldiers who were armed with nothing but pikes with no armor at all. They were only there to cheer as they weren't even qualified to become attack fodder. There was no way that Lorist could bring them along to attack Farama Village.

While Lorist didn't doubt that he could easily obtain victory if he rushed forward with Josk and the rest, a victory like this wouldn't be good for anyone. Apart from having to pave a path of blood, he was afraid that his guards and sailors would sustain huge casualties. Lorist wanted to avoid pointless casualties from trivial conflicts like that as best as he could. After all, he had all the time he needed, so he felt that it was better for him to toy around with the residents of Farama Village and to teach Howard a lesson on tactics while he was at it.

He waved for Victor to come over, and he did so in his usual limping fashion.

"Victor, does Farama Village rely on that stream as its water source?" Lorist asked.

"That is the case, milord," replied Victor.

"Tell me more about the situation."

"Dominion lord, you will not be able to cut off their water source. Farama Village was originally designed and built as a citadel, so the stream near the mound is within the firing range of their bows. Also, there is also a well within the village that taps into a subterranean water channel that is connected with the stream with another reservoir in their village. So there's no way you can stop them from collecting water from the river." Victor understood right away why Lorist asked those questions as he used to be a military officer in the Fiercegale Legion which used to be one of the three main armies of the empire, so he understood at least that much..

Lorist smiled and said, "Howard, ride back to Whitebird Town and have Charade release a notice to hire 1000 youths and have them bring some digging tools here. They will be paid one silver coin each day and their three meals will also be provided."

Victor looked at Lorist with shock and exclaimed, "Milord, are you going to trick those youths to become fodder for the attacks of Farama Village?"

Lorist clicked his tongue and said, "I'm not as cruel as you guys. The Norton Family will definitely not do something like that. Order your garrison soldiers to make preparations to set up camp. You'll understand what I plan to do when they come tomorrow."

Howard left for the village on horseback right after that.

Next day afternoon, a large group of youths rushed over under the lead of Old Hugo and Charade. To the residents of Whitebird Town, a small silver per day of work was rather good pay. If they could work like this for a year, they would earn up to four gold Fordes.

"Milord, what are you planning?" Charade asked.

"Look, I'm going to reroute the stream near the mound over there. The digging will start from that spot and circle around the mound to make a moat. I want to see what the idiots up there will do without water."

Even though Lorist made it sound easy, Victor who was right next to them almost fainted from hearing that. The dominion lord is set on cutting off Farama Village's water source after all. But as opposed to what he originally thought, Lorist didn't intend to do that by damming up the stream under the fire of Farama Village and instead chose to cut off the source of the stream even further away. That was a far larger undertaking and the combined cost of hiring 1000 youths for 1 small silver per day and providing food for them was at least 20 gold Fordes each day. Five days would mean that 100 gold Fordes would be spent. This was far too ridiculous as Lorist was basically forcing his enemy to kneel with the might of money.

For their freedom, the proud villagers of Farama Village still held onto their pride and refused to bow down to their oppressor, Lorist. But after another ten days, around 1000 Norton Family soldiers armed with their gleaming armor arrived, causing the villagers to despair.

"Milord, Nors and 1000 other men from the Local Defense Brigade, reporting for duty," said Nors, standing completely straight as he saluted Lorist.

The two whaling ships they had each transported 500 men to Silowas Island and even though they left two days earlier than the Flying Fish of Dawn, they were ten days slower to arrive. The leader, Nors, was a familiar face and he had been one of the knights who defended Beastguard Town, the central town of the sixth sector of Felicitas Settlement, during the first magical beast wave and helped Lorist to build an ice wall there.

This time around, Lorist was hoping to form the Third Local Defense Brigade and the Second Navy Marine Brigade at Silowas Island. Nors had come with the 1000 soldiers who were mostly veterans and in another two months, the family would be sending over another 1000 new recruits. After that, a recruitment drive would be started on Silowas Island to recruit 1000 local youths and that would be enough for a third Local Defense Brigade.

"Was the trip smooth?" Lorist asked.

Nors laughed out and said, "Initially, many of them got seasick, but over the course of ten days, they got used to it. However, just this morning when we got off the ships, quite a lot of them collapsed right away and only recovered after two hours of rest."

"That's normal," Lorist said. "After staying for a long period at sea and going back to shore, the ground will feel like it's moving up and down," he said with a snicker.

"Milord, are you going to attack that village? Do you want us to participate?" Nors asked.

"It's fine. Just look at the grass near the mound; they're already wilting. The villagers will definitely not be able to last through the next few days. I also hope that our forces will not have to suffer unnecessary casualties and just play along with them for a bit. This will end soon, so you guys should rest up for a few days. After this, the safety of Silowas Island will be up to you."

"Understood, milord. Please be assured that the Third Local Defense Brigade will not disappoint you," Nors said as he saluted.

Just when Lorist was relaxing after seeing his soldiers arrive safely, an atmosphere filled with sacrificial bloodlust built up within Farama Village. 128 men aged around 40 to 50 put on their old leather armor and took up their swords and pikes before drinking their last swig of strong liquor and heading towards the gates of the citadel in a neat row. Among them, there were even some old men who strode forward with walking sticks in hand. On the sides of the main path of the village were the sobbing family members who were looking at the old soldiers depart.

The 128 old soldiers were all the Silver ranked fighters Farama Village had and they shouted out Second Highness Auguslo's name before launching a suicidal charge at the forces of the Norton Family with the belief that their deaths would shock the newly-arrived Count Norton while also causing him to incur the rage of the Second Highness, thus allowing their family members to continue living their lives in peace.

The gates of the citadel opened as 128 old soldiers determined to die on the battlefield charged outward. Ack, there's quite a lot of distance to reach them... Indeed, the moat Lorist dug up was roughly 300 meters from the village, meaning that the brave old men had to first run a distance of 300 meters before they could charge into the formation of the Norton Family forces to fulfill their desire to die fighting on the battlefield. However, that was a little unfair to some old men who had to use walking sticks.

Naturally, the movements at the village alerted the Norton Family forces, but when Lorist saw the silver blade glow of the one who led the charge, he was elated and instantly ordered, "Family soldiers, retreat 100 meters backward. Knights above the Silver rank, I want all of you to come forward. Josk, hold your fire. Listen, I want them captured alive! These Silver ranked old men are perfect as laborers for mining! Not one of you guys is to hurt them too badly. Otherwise, you will take their place working at the mines!"

All of the soldiers laughed out after hearing that order. During the development of Blackmud Marsh, two of the cliffs at the Bladedge Mountains had to be shaved off. Back then, many Silver ranked fighters of the family had to toil hard there as it was far easier to cut rock with blade glows than pickaxes.

Given the age of the attackers, they had almost expended all their stamina after running up to 300 meters and jumping over the moat. They were so tired that many of them collapsed on the ground right away, and Lorist himself knocked more than half of them unconscious. He was so impatient that he even leaped over the moat himself to greet the onslaught of the few tired old men with walking sticks before disarming them.

There was not the slightest hint of death and tragedy on the battlefield with most of the old men merely put together in a pile. Lorist even beckoned for his soldiers to quickly bring some water to the old soldiers to relieve their thirst as they were all very valuable in Lorist's eyes.

In the end, Farama Village surrendered by bringing out the commonly-used white flag. Every one of the villagers from young to old all left the village and made it their first priority to get something to drink.

After they drank enough water, their punishment was announced by Lorist as they listened, despairing and helpless. Since they didn't pay taxes for five whole years, all of the villagers had to serve for five years as punishment regardless of gender and age. After five years, they would be free to leave and go wherever they wanted.

One old man couldn't help but ask, "Dominion lord, are you not going to hang us or kill us off? You're not going to sell us off as slaves either?"

Lorist said in a solemn voice, "There is no place for slaves in the Norton Family and we do not involve ourselves in slave trade. The only punishment for crimes is to serve time as laborers. Unless the your crime is too severe or you have taken another person's life, you will not be hanged. As long as you work as laborers without causing trouble, we will not take your families apart. But you better remember that if you dare to slack off or resist, you will merely be doing your family members a disservice and they will also be punished with you."

After settling the matter of Farama Village, the journey to the imperial capital was up next. Lorist decided that he would have 500 soldiers of the Local Defense Brigade accompany him and left Charade on Silowas Island to work on the registration of the residents of the island, the formation of the Third Local Defense Brigade and the Second Navy Marine Brigade, as well as the development the island.

Originally, Lorist intended to have Jim become the leader of the Third Local Defense Brigade that was to be formed and stationed at Silowas Island as he felt that it was about time he let the man go his own way since he had spent so much time with him. Nors on the other hand was considered by Lorist to be rather reliable and was assigned the position of the leader of the Second Navy Marine Brigade and would be in charge of recruiting more sailors on the island. What he didn't expect was that Patt didn't want to go to the imperial capital as he actually fell in love and was wooing the beauty, Martha, of Whitebird Restaurant, whom he had accidentally frightened to the point of tears not too long ago.

Lorist could only give Patt his blessings for him to one day return with a beauty in his hands and let him take Jim's position instead. Thus, Patt was made the leader of the Third Local Defense Brigade.

Chapter 227 Imperial Capital

Imperial Capital and Royal City, Taian, was built by Krissen II using near 100000 slave laborers and countless resources over a span of eight years. It was named as such in hopes that the empire would be mighty with its people living peaceful lives. However, as Taian was a word that was derived from the ancient language of fairies, when it was pronounced in the Grindian Common Language, it sounded almost like a word that meant 'goner', so the later Krissen Empire Emperors considered that word taboo and neglected using it. Even in official correspondence or documents, Taian City was simple referred to as the imperial capital. Eventually, after two to three hundred years, while many people would know what the imperial capital referred to, not many could recall its name.

The imperial capital was protected by three walls with the royal court located in the very middle. In the early days, the Royal City of Taian was comprised mainly of those three walls with the residence of the Krissen Emperor at its very center, which was recently used as the residence of the Andinaq Royal Family. Beyond the second city wall was where the heads of the various departments and high-ranking officials of the empire stayed and it was known as the inner city. Within the third wall was the where most of the citizens of the imperial capital lived.

When Krissen II designed the city, he didn't imagine that its population would multiply by ten times within a few hundred years. His initial designs only provided for 100000 citizens and the farmland that could sustain up to 100000 people was gradually turned into residential areas, prosperous business areas, horse-racing facilities, a stadium as well as academies and workshops.

In the golden age of the empire that spanned for 30 or so years during the reign of Krissen V and Krissen VI, the imperial capital was one of the largest cities on the whole of Grindia, boasting a population of up to 1 million. However, when the Forde Trade Union was formed, Morante City later came to don the mantle of the most prosperous and greatest city of the Grindia Continent and the imperial capital only continued to spiral downhill, especially with the 7-year-long civil war that further exacerbated the imperial capital's downfall.

The fatal blow to the imperial capital was dealt during the final days of the civil war when the First Prince sent half of his forces to one way and led the other half to attract the attention of the Third Prince's forces. As a result, the first half managed to raid the imperial capital and their men truly did their worst from plundering to killing. Even though the Second Highness sent reinforcements, he was entangled at the business area with the other forces and the battle even lasted for three whole months. By the time the Second Highness eliminated the enemies, the interior of the third wall of the imperial capital had already been razed to the ground with more than 200000 citizens perishing as a result of the conflict and the business area completely reduced to rubble.

Even after the civil war ended and the empire split into 3 kingdoms and 7 duchies, the population of the imperial capital continued to dwindle. The newly-arrived peace didn't provide the citizens a stable life. Instead, having lost the places that used to provide food supply for the imperial capital, an inevitable famine further deteriorated the city. The fact that the Third Prince offended the merchants from the Forde Trade Union only served to worsen the situation. Not only the imperial capital, the whole of the Andinaq Kingdom was embroiled in a storm of uncertainty.

By the time the Second Highness stabilized the situation of the kingdom using the forces of the Norton Family's northbound convoy and firmed his position within the kingdom, the population of the imperial capital was less than 70000, not even a tenth of what it used to be during the golden age of the empire. The Second Highness rebuilt the inner and outer cities and gave up on the residential and business areas outside the third wall and converted them back to farmland while greatly simplifying the bureaucratic procedures of the administration. After five years, the empire seemed to have a renewed chance for vitality.

On the 18th day of the 9th month, Lorist brought 500 soldiers from the Local Defense Brigade and some knights to the southern entrance of the imperial capital and heard some bad news. The Second Highness had gone to the frontlines to inspect his troops and he would only be able to return by the end of the 9th month or the start of the 10th. That way, Lorist had to wait for up to 10 or so days.

The City Defense Army's company leader politely declined Lorist's request to let his 500 or so soldiers enter the city to set up camp and said that the Second Highness explicitly ordered that the forces of nobles could only set up camp at the west side of the city and each noble could at most bring 10 guards with them into the city. That was a new regulation of the imperial city.

And so, Lorist brought the rest of his men to the west entrance and registered to occupy a small area there for a camp and changed the lookouts and their secret signals to each other.

As Lorist was figuring out what to do within the next ten days in his own room, Dulles walked in excitedly and said, "Milord, look who's here?"

Behind him was a man equipped with the armor of the Local Defense Force of the Royal Family. When Lorist saw him, he broke into laughter and stretched out both his arms for a hug. "Karitoke, long time no see! Are you doing well?"

Karitoke was one of the 36 Dawn Academy students that joined the convoy formed by Charade and Terman in the early days and he was also one of the elite members of the Swordsmanship Society with Battle Force of the Three Star Silver rank. But when the northbound convoy was held up at Nadegas City, he and many others believed that there was not much of a future for the convoy and were poached by the Second Highness in the end. He was one of the 7 academy ex-students who left the convoy to serve the Second Highness.

Even though those who left the convoy were cursed at quite harshly, when the people of the convoy realized that the Second Highness's forces suffered heavy casualties, they began to miss the ones that head left them. Back then when Second Highness Auguslo led his troops to encircle Lichtana Citadel, the soldiers that defended the citadel launched a surprise attack during the night. While the forces of the Second Highness managed to defend against the enemy's assault, many of the Silver ranked knights from the Dawnn Academy who had joined him perished in battle. Terman and the rest were even hugging the corpses of two of the ex-students of Dawn Academy after the battle while tearing up nonstop. It was truly a tragedic sight.

When Karitoke received Lorist's warm hug, he began to tear up as well and said, "Lord Locke, I miss you guys so much. If I only we could go back to the days of the convoy..."

Of the 7 Dawn Academy students and 19 Silver ranked knights from the convoy that sided with the Second Highness, only 14 of them remained. Just recently during the Second Highness's battle at Flowater Creek that brought him to fame, three ex-students of the academy and four Silver ranked knights from the convoy lost their lives. Coupled with the two ex-students and three Silver ranked knights that died at the battle at Lichtana Citadel, almost half of those who left the convoy had perished.

"Of the 7 students of the academy, only Sander and I are left. Even though we've managed to become the knights of the royal family, we don't feel happy at all. Right now, the Second Highness is already preparing for the battle to unify the empire... I don't know if I can live long enough to see ourselves victorious..."

Karitoke was completely demoralized as he briefly described the things that happened after they left the convoy.

"What position do you hold currently?" Dulles asked.

"I am the regiment leader of the First Local Defense Legion's Second Heavy Infantry Division's First Regiment. We're currently stationed at the west gate of the imperial capital and tasked with cleaning up the rubble of the business area. As I didn't have anything important to do, I rushed to the south gate because i heard that you, Count Norton, is here," replied Karitoke.

"Eh? Even though you were already a regiment leader back in the convoy, why are you still in the same position after joining the Second Highness?" Dulles asked straightforwardly.

Karitoke shook his head and said, "The ones the Second Highness truly trusts are the subordinates that has been by his side for a long time. Currently, the only ones who hold high positions over all six legions and 300000 soldiers are his old subordinates or the nobles who allied up with him. Common born knights like us should only heed our orders and be the ones to lead the charge. I already regret leaving the convoy right now..."

"You can always come back," Dulles said.

"I no longer have the honor to do so. As knights, we can't be that half-hearted. Since I chose this path for myself, I will persevere till I reach its end," Karitoke expressed his thoughts honestly.

"Karitoke, you mentioned just now that you were put in charge of cleaning up the wreckage at the business area? Isn't the Royal Family's First Local Defense Legion the main force of the kingdom? Why are you guys tasked with a menial job like that?" Lorist asked curiously.

"Hmph! You guys don't understand..." Karitoke exclaimed as he patted hard on his thigh. "There is a person called Marquis Reid by the Second Highness's side and he is well-trusted by him. That person gave the Second Highness a suggestion. He said that even though the business area of the city is already reduced to rubble, many merchants stored their goods and resources in the basements. The Marquis said that the unearthed resources would greatly alleviate the burden to the treasury of the kingdom. That's why the Second Highness ordered us to secure the whole area and sent some others to start digging there. Just as Marquis Reid had predicted, we did find a number of those underground storehouses and the combined worth of those resources are as high as 100000 gold Fordes. Not only that, we have only excavated about a third of the business area so far."

"Isn't that a little unfair? These resources should belong to those merchants, right? How could they dig them up and claim them as their own?" Dulles commented.

"Marquis Reid argues that since the merchants didn't bother to clean up the rubble and reclaim their stuff so many years after the civil war ended, the Second Highness is perfectly in line to absorb them into the treasury. In actuality, when we began excavating, a few people claiming to be the descendants of those merchants who owned those stuff came up to us, but they were all given a fine for the fees incurred to clean up area as well as their neglect by leaving the rubble and trash occupying the business area for so long without bothering to clean them up. In the end, those people gave up on their claim to the stuff and left. After that, nobody bothered to show up to request for the return of their resources," Karitoke said.

Dulles sighed and said, "That is far too underhanded. It's all because of the royal family's incompetence in the first place for letting the enemy barge into the imperial capital and cause so much loss to the merchants and other residents. After that, not only did they not provide reimbursement of some sort to make up for the lost lives, they even dared to forcefully possess the things that belonged to the merchants. If they continue to do that, people would lose even more confidence in them!"

"That was what I thought too, but I was rebuked by the commander of my legion after saying a few words. The Second Highness doesn't care about the livelihood of his subjects at all. He only wants to reunite the empire. Don't let the knights who are busy discussing what to do during the unification war fool you. Actually, I understand that the soldiers don't wish to go to war at all and their morale is incredibly low.

"Even though the Royal Family's Local Defense Force absorbed the Fiercegale Legion and split into three separate legions, there are many others who are secretly opposed to the policies of the Second Highness. For example, some of the ex-generals of the Fiercegale Legion believes that the Second Highness intentionally didn't send reinforcements and allowed the commander of the Fiercegale Legion, Gold ranked knight Nedram and 5000 other elite soldiers perish so that he could more easily absorb the Fiercegale Legion into his own force without much resistance," Karitoke nagged.

Lorist poured him a cup of tea and advised warmly, "Karitoke, Dulles, the two of you studied at Morante City just like me, so values like freedom, equality, and the sanctity of private property have heavily influenced our own worldview. But don't forget that we're now within the former Krissen Empire. I am a dominion lord, so I am confident that I can practice my values within my own dominion. As for the two of you who are just knights, it's understandable that you don't feel like you fit in with the other nobles of the empire.

"The nobles of the Krissen Empire have never considered the welfare of their people. Given their high status, they still think of themselves to be above the common man despite the collapse of the empire. The Second Highness himself only cares about his ambitions of being the sovereign who reunites the empire but doesn't consider the consequences should he fail in his endeavor and whether he can rise once again after that. Nobody likes a warmongering king. Right now, he is counting on the nobles, but they are far from a reliable bunch. Karitoke, I hope that you will be wiser. If you feel that things are bad, please leave right away and don't let yourself be dragged down into the quagmire. That is far too wasteful..."

In the end, Karitoke continued drinking with Lorist until he was dead drunk before he was sent back by the two guards Dulles brought over.

The next day, Lorist brought Howard with him to take a casual walk around the imperial capital. It didn't take long for him to realize that the cheapest things up for sale there were books, and most of them were those that were collected by noble families. After asking around, he found that those books that were valued highly during the times of peace had become useless piles of trash that took up space as it couldn't be consumed nor put to practical use. Back when Charade led the northbound convoy through the three provinces of the Andinaq Kingdom, over two-thirds of the nobles there were hanged and the residences of those nobles were later taken by the Second Highness as his own.

To gather enough funds to feed his army, the Second Highness began to auction away all the belongings and collections of those nobles. The best-selling items were armor and weapons and they sold for the highest price. As the nobles' residences would usually have a study with more or less 100 books in them, those books were all put up to auction in one go, causing the sky-high price of books in the imperial capital to plummet almost instantly.

Lorist experienced a tumultuous wave of complicated emotions when he thought about how the books he purchased for one gold Forde could be bought for only two to three large silvers there. As he and Howard were both book-lovers, they spent many of their days among the book markets to fish up rare gems.

One day when Lorist returned to the campsite, he saw Dulles and Karitoke waiting for him at the entrance suspiciously.

Right after Lorist asked them what was going on, the two others pulled him into the building and shut the door.

Dulles said, "Milord, Karitoke is here to borrow some money..."

"How much?" Lorist asked curiously as he wondered, why are you behaving like underworld criminals just to borrow money?

"100 gold Fordes," Dulles replied.

Huh?! Lorist was slightly surprised as Karitoke was a regiment leader of the Royal Defense Force and his salary was only at a low 10 large silvers each month. His annual salary would only amount to 6 gold Fordes, so what in the world did he want to buy for 100 gold Fordes?

Dulles quickly explained, "Milord, Karitoke just received an invitation to an event and if he wants to attend, he has to dress up properly and purchase some suits or something. Originally, he only wanted to borrow 10 gold Fordes, but after I considered his request, I decided that he should borrow 100 gold Fordes from you, milord."

"Alright, I'll lend out the money," Lorist said. During this trip to the imperial capital, he brought around 10000 gold Fordes with him and had only spent around 2000 or so buying books during the past few days. Since he had so much left, he figured that it wouldn't hurt him to lend it out. However, his curiosity was piqued and he asked, "Can you tell me what kind of function costs so much to attend?"

Dulles laughed out loud and said, "Milord, since you're lending us the money, we'll bring you along to experience it for yourself. Each person invited can bring along two others with them. We'll have Karitoke take us along with him."

Karitoke said, "It's like this... Milord, do you know about Princess Carey?"

"Princess Carey?" Lorist mused, before he shook his head and said, "Never heard of her."

"Princess Carey is the sole daughter of the late First Highness..."

"What did you say? The First Highness has passed away?" Lorist exclaimed in shock.

"That's right. Two years back when he was put under house arrest, he suddenly spit out a huge mouthful of blood and stopped breathing within an hour after that. It was said to be a sudden manifestation of the symptom of his disease, but many suspect the Second Highness had played a part in the First Highness's death. However, that's only speculation and nobody really knows the truth."

Lorist thought deeply before he said, "Go on. What's going on with that Princess Carey you mentioned?"

"Princess Carey is 25 years old this year and she possesses incredible beauty and is said to be one of the most beautiful women within the whole kingdom. However, she is extremely promiscuous and she has countless admirers. It's said that she believes in the Goddess of Desires and Pleasure, Mishla and even organizes a little orgy participated by many other noble men and women who believe in the same faith. Every month, she will organize that orgy and I've heard from some of my colleagues that one will get to experience the greatest pleasure should one be a part of it. Even though there isn't an explicit fee, participants must tip at least one gold Forde and most people aren't able to afford that kind of money. That's why I've come here to request your help, milord."

Dulles said, "Milord, can we go experience it for ourselves tomorrow? I haven't attended a function with nobles of the empire before. Let Karitoke bring us along to expand our horizons."

After Lorist considered it while stroking his chin, he said, "Alright then."

Chapter 228 Paradise Gathering

"Do I really have to dress so idiotically?" Lorist grumbled.

Even though it wasn't summer during the 9th month, it was still relatively hot and the bright sun in the sky made people want to undress entirely. Right now, Lorist was walking behind Dulles and Karitoke on a large street while wearing a hooded poncho. All three of them were dressed similarly in ponchos that didn't have good ventilation, causing Lorist to be full of sweat. Everyone who walked past them looked at them as if they were insane for wearing those things in that weather, making the experience even more unbearable.

It was all Dulles's fault for coming over with Karitoke far too soon. After finishing lunch together, they could no longer hold themselves back and wanted to walk all the way to the meeting spot as specified on the invitation with aiding digestion as the main reason.

"Milord, no, Locke, the invitation specified that we should be dressed like that so that others do not recognize our identities," Dulles replied. They had all agreed not to address Lorist as 'milord' during the excursion.

"Good Sol, we could've at least put this on after getting off a carriage! Nobody would be so stupid like you guys to walk all the way there! If word of this gets out tomorrow, we'll be complete laughing stocks!" Lorist said angrily.

"Then what do you say we do?"

"We stop a carriage and take a few spins around the imperial capital first. When the time's approaching, we'll head to the meeting point," Lorist said as he decided.

The three were only able to get a carriage after a good while. The coachman initially even thought that he was going to be robbed and screamed out for help. It was only after Lorist tossed him one gold Forde that he turned quiet. They strolled about the city until it was two in the afternoon before heading for the rendezvous.

At the address specified on the invitation was an old residential compound and upon entering it, an old man dressed like a butler checked their invitation before he said, "Respected guests, please follow me."

When they arrived at the run-down backyard, they saw tens of black-colored four-wheeled carriages with no identifiable markings. The old man walked to the nearest one and said, "Please board the carriage, respected guests. It will take some time before you arrive at the gathering location and this carriage will be taking you there."

The moment the three of them boarded the carriage, it set out for its destination right away. They later realized that the windows of the carriage were all painted black so that the riders within wouldn't be able to recognize the situation outside. When Lorist pushed on the carriage door, he found that it was indeed locked. Fortunately for them, the skylight of the carriage could be opened to let in some fresh air so that the interior of the carriage didn't feel too hot and musty.

"What's with the mystery of it all? Is there a need to go out of their way to do that?" Lorist mumbled.

After the carriage traveled for around 30 minutes, it stopped and the door was soon unlocked. A pleasing voice of a woman said, "Welcome, sirs, to paradise on the human realm. Please, leave your carriage."

Dulles was the first one to get off and he froze almost immediately. After that was Karitoke's turn and he was similarly dumbstruck when he stepped out of the carriage.

"What the heck are you guys doing? Make way, I'm still in here."

Pushing the two aside and getting off to take a look, Lorist was also flabbergasted by what he saw.

They were within an extremely spacious hall that was decorated to look like the richest palaces the world had ever seen. The coachman and carriage were nowhere to be seen and at that moment, in front of the three of them were a large group of beautiful women who seemed completely naked. Upon closer inspection, they were actually wearing a thin white veil that occasionally obscured their naked bodies, causing one to feel all the more tempted after taking a look.

Dulles was almost going to bleed out from his nose from all the excitement he felt while Karitoke didn't fare any better. On the other hand, Lorist managed to retain his calm and tapped on the two's shoulders to snap them out of their stupor.

A voluptuous beauty approached them before she bowed deeply, making sure that the three of them were able to get a good look at the pair of 'energetic little bunnies' that were hidden beneath the veil around her chest. "Sirs, please follow me. The changing room is over there."

Dulles and Karitoke were instantly charmed as they followed the woman without a second thought.

"Three sirs, this here is your changing room. Please leave your clothes and weapons here. Participants of the Paradise Gathering are not allowed to remain dressed. However, you can tie a towel around your waist. Also, there are masks here that you can pick from. Male or female guests can use these masks to keep their identity hidden," said the voluptuous beauty as she handed over a silver platter with a number of masks on them.

Dulles picked an eyepatch mask before he asked, "Why are you guys not wearing masks then?"

The voluptuous beauty replied, "Sir, we are maidservants and there's no need for us to wear masks."

'When in Rome, do as the Romans do.' Since they were attending the Paradise Gathering, they must follow the regulations set by the organizer. All three of them got naked and tied a towel around their waist before putting on their masks. Karitoke chose a white fox mask while Lorist picked one with a black bat motif.

The voluptuous maidservant then brought over three bracelets each with ten shiny beads that seemed to have some words engraved on them.

"Sirs, if you believe some of us served you well, you can also tip us one or two of these beads. However, each bead represents one gold Forde and you must settle the bill before you leave. If you run out of beads, you can have us bring you more."

All three of them put on the bracelets and Lorist realized that the beads on his bracelet had the characters 'white 10' engraved upon them while Dulles and Karitoke's were 'white 8' and 'white 9' respectively.

"Sirs, please follow me here. Let me give you a brief tour."

Dulles walked behind the voluptuous beauty and he had already copped a feel on her behind with his hand.

The voluptuous beauty turned around and eyed Dulles before she said, "Milord there are many rooms upstairs. If you're willing to give me one bead, I will be extremely happy to bring you there to rest and show you a good time."

Dulles broke into a smile and said, "Alright."

The voluptuous beauty waved towards the distance and a long-haired blonde woman with a curvy figure clad similarly in that flimsy veil walked over.

"Dosey, I will be bringing this guest here to rest, so please show the other two guests around," said the beauty before she brought Dulles to a stairwell nearby.

The blonde-haired beauty bowed and said, "Greetings to you, sirs. I am called Dosey. Please let me resume your tour of the place.

"This is the great bath hall and there's a swimming pool here as well as some smaller bathing pools. Next to the hall are small rooms with beds where you can rest when you're tired." The group arrived at the entrance of a small room. The room didn't have a door and was only covered with a beaded blinds. The space inside wasn't that wide and only a large bed could be seen within.

Karitoke could no longer hold it in and brought Dosey into the room before pressing her onto the bed...

Sol, you guys are far too impatient for that, Lorist thought as he took a look around. There were not many people around him and he could not spot another masked guest just like them. Perhaps they have arrived a little too early. Even the large bath hall was completely empty.

At the corner of the hall was a small bathing pool and Lorist was surprised when he entered it. It was practically a hot spring and he could pick up a hint of sulfurous smell from the water. Within the pool was a curved spot that was designed as a seat. Lorist tried to sit down and it was indeed like a leaning sitting spot. When he leaned all the way down, only his head and upper chest were visible above the water, and if he lied down, his whole body would be submerged within. It truly was a pleasing experience.

It was then when Lorist noticed a bell beside him. After giving it a slight shake, it let out a clear ring before a maidservant quickly came to Lorist's side and asked, "Sir, is there anything you need?"

"Bring me some fruit wine and food. It would be great to have some fruit," Lorist said.

The things Lorist ordered were quickly brought to him and the maidservant opened the little wine barrel before she poured some of it into a silver cup.

"Sir, do you need me to stay and serve you?" she asked.

Lorist gave her a bead and said, "No need, I want some time alone."

"Thank you, sir."

Feasting on delicacies in a hot spring was a luxurious experience in itself. Roughly half an hour later, more masked guests could be seen and there were as many men as there were women. Some of the female guests could be seen in groups talking about something and there were also those who brought men into the rooms. One male guest approached one of the female guests and began to tease her so hard that she wasn't able to even close her mouth. In the end, he successfully carried her into a room nearby. There were also some who didn't succeed and were forced to pull a maidservant near them into the rooms to expel their pent-up desires.

Lorist merely remained submerged within the small pool and observed the people around him. In actuality, the masked female guests were all noble ladies and they didn't necessarily look more beautiful nor alluring than the maidservants standing beside them. However, the masks they wore added an air of mystery. Coupled with their status as nobles that made them further out of reach unlike the maidservants, the female guests did attract a fair share of the male guests' attention.

The female guests were dressed almost identically with the maidservants clad in translucent white veils save for their masks. They teased and flirted with the men but were usually unwilling to follow them into the rooms unless they were stimulated to the point they were no longer able to resist.

When Lorist saw Karitoke leaving the room with the blonde maidservant, the latter's attention was quickly captured by a few noble ladies with excellent figures in the pool not far away. Without a word, Karitoke began to swim towards them to strike up a conversation.

One petite girl wearing a butterfly mask and veil rushed over and she realized that Lorist was there when she arrived. She said, "Ah, apologies. I didn't see you here. Just now, I even ran over because I thought there was nobody here."

As the small pool was in the corner and the candlelight wasn't as bright as those at the large communal pool, it was hard for the girl to see Lorist's submerged figure there.

"If you don't mind my presence, you're free to enter as well. Even though this pool is rather small, it can definitely fit a few more people here," Lorist said as he raised his silver cup.

The young lady hesitated for a while, but she entered the pool nevertheless and submerged herself within it.

"I like the hot spring baths here quite a lot. The last few times I came here, I would always bathe at this spot," said the girl. "Is this your first time here?"

"Yes. Good day, young lady. I'm called Locke," Lorist said while he nodded.

Pfft! The girl broke into a stifled laugh before she said, "Nobody here reveals their real names. You can call me Daisy, but that's not my real name either."

"Ah? I wasn't aware of such a rule," Lorist said.

"No worries. People would think that you are using an alias as well. However, you are a weird one. Since it's your first time here, aren't you going to go get acquainted with the other noble ladies over there or get a room with one of the maidservants? Instead, you're here in the pool snacking alone."

"Well, I'm just thinking of some peace and quiet," Lorist said.

"Who's this Quinn that you're thinking of?" asked the girl when she misheard.

"Urk," Lorist choked on the spot before he sat straight up. "Cough, cough... I meant that I wanted to spend some time alone for some peace and quiet."

The girl blushed when she realized her mistake, but her eyes gleamed when she said, "Wow, your physique is amazing. Look at those dreamy scars..."

When Lorist sat straight up, he revealed his upper torso and the scars on his chest and back, which were inflicted upon him when he suffered Blademaster Zarinan's assassination attempt. Some of the maidservants who were present when he changed his clothes looked at his scars with a fearful expression, so Lorist didn't expect that girl in front of him to look so thrilled at seeing them.

The girl swam closer to Lorist's side hurriedly and said, "Are you not going to treat me to a drink?"

"I'll get the maidservant to bring another cup here," Lorist said.

"There's no need." She took Lorist's cup and took a few gulps right away. It didn't take long until the cup was emptied before she said, "Ah, that was refreshing."

The girl was brown-haired and her skin was smooth and fair. She had a slightly rounded chin and her face still had some traces of baby fat. Her collarbone looked really attractive, and while her breasts weren't large, they seemed rather firm and perky.

Despite seeing Lorist's gaze on her chest, the girl wasn't the slightest bit embarrassed and instead puffed her chest out. "Are they beautiful?"

Lorist nodded and asked, "Are you also a believer of Mishla?"

"Nope," the girl said as she stretched out her hand to feel Lorist's scars up. "Did you get these scars from your fights?"

Lorist kept quiet, so the girl made her guess. "You should be of rather low rank, maybe a company or regiment leader? That's why you still have to fight at the forefront."

Lorist looked at the girl before she pulled both of Lorist's hands and placed them on her breasts. "This is fine, right? Since you're mad that I felt up your scars, you can touch my breasts in return."

As Lorist felt up the soft peaks, he said, "You don't understand. Each scar represents a close encounter with death. That's why I don't like to recall how I got them."

The girl approached Lorist so that he could more easily feel her up. "I don't know why the princess invited so many military officers to the party this time. They are all so unrefined and always go for those busty noble ladies. I hate them, they don't seem nearly as cultured as you are."

Lorist asked, "How many times have you participated in the Paradise Gathering?"

"This is already my fifth time," said the girl as she traced a circle on Lorist's chest with her finger.

"Since you don't believe in the Goddess of Desires and Pleasure, Mishla, why did you attend this gathering? For excitement and stimulation?"

"Nope, I'm looking for protection," said the girl. "My dad died in battle and my little brother is still young. Even though he can inherit the dominion, he isn't capable of defending it. If I join the Paradise Gathering, the princess will protect my family and my brother will have all the time he needs to mature."

The girl then reached beyond Lorist's waist towel and her eyes beamed as she said, "Wow, how huge..."

Lorist attempted to stop her, but the girl said, "It's not that often that I take the initiative. Just lie down obediently and enjoy the experience..."

After that, she lowered her head and began...

Chapter 229 Davey and the Princess

The girl softened once again, but right now, they were within the small room near the small pool from before.

Lorist continued his assault and let it all out into the girl's body.

The both of them let out a large breath and basked in the afterglow of climax...

Propping herself up, the girl continued to feel up the scars on Lorist's chest. "When my father was still a Silver rank, he suffered his first heavy injury and had an even larger scar on his chest. Back then he managed to escape with his life from the lance of a Gold ranked knight. When I was young, I wasn't mature yet and I thought that scars were incredibly ugly. But my father said that scars were like badges of honor to men and a knight without any isn't a true man. It was only after he died that I understood the meaning of his words..."

"Your father wasn't wrong," Lorist said while nodding. "Can you tell me how he died?"

"It's been already seven to eight years... Back then, the empire suffered the attack of the enemy and my father went to the imperial capital with a few of his friends and attendants. In the beginning, all went well. My father and some other knights who got the news managed to put up a formidable resistance against the First Prince's army and eliminated the raiding teams that were all over the place and won quite a few battles. Later when the Second Highness arrived, he used people like my father as his shield to fight at the frontlines and my father perished after that," recalled the girl.

"I'm very sorry about your loss," Lorist said.

"It's fine. The past is already behind us. Right now, I'm incredibly happy after spending time with you," she said before giving Lorist's face a kiss before her hand started to tease his junior once more.

Just as Lorist got up and wanted to go for another round, she stopped him and said, "Can we go dip ourselves in the hot spring again?"

"Alright."

"Then, I want you to carry me there," said the girl with both her arms stretched out.

"Lower me down slightly," said the girl as she used one hand to position Lorist's junior and guided it into her body slowly and gently, connecting the two of them once more. After that, she wrapped both her arms around Lorist's shoulders and her legs around his waist. The petite girl currently seemed like a koala bear that was hanging on Lorist's body.

"Let's go there looking like that," she said while pressing her body tight against him before licking Lorist's chin.

"Don't mess around," said Lorist as he gave her bottom a soft slap. After that, he supported both her legs from the bottom and walked out from the room towards the small pool. However, with every step he took, the girl in his embrace would moan uncontrollably.

By the time he got into the pool, he could no longer hold on and pushed the girl against the wall before he started humping. It was not until she said she had enough and could no longer hold on that he stopped.

"You truly are a wild bull," said the girl while lying against Lorist's body with a glazed look.

Lying back on the sitting spot of the pool, Lorist opened his mouth and ate the blueberry the girl brought him.

All of a sudden, he heard a commotion not far away. Lorist asked, "What's going on?"

The girl took a look before saying, "The princess is here."

Princess? Lorist sat up and said, "That's Princess Carey?"

The girl pouted and glared at Lorist before she said, "What? You want to solicit her as well?"

"No way," he replied as he hugged and kissed her again. "As I have only heard of her fame, I'd like to see how the most beautiful woman in the Andinaq Kingdom looks like."

"Hmph, doesn't she have a nose and two eyes like the rest of us? What's there to witness in the first place?" she said, slightly jealous. "This spot is fine. I guarantee that you'll be able to see the princess making love with another man on the floor upstairs."

"Huh?" Lorist said, not sure if he had heard wrongly or not.

"Look, over there," said the girl as she pointed to a platform on the floor above. "That is the bed reserved for the princess herself every time she comes. She loves to receive her guests there. From time to time, she would reward victor of the competition or sometimes just plainly pick a man she likes and do him right in front of everyone. You'll soon get to see as much as you like."

Alright, I guess the princess is a pretty open-minded person after all for her to dare to perform such acts in front of everyone like that.

"What did you mean when you mentioned the competition?" Lorist asked curiously.

"Do you want to participate?" said the girl with a solemn look. "It's a competition to see who can do the most women. If you take part, perhaps you might just get first place. Then the next time, you'll get to mess around with the princess all you want."

"What are you saying? I have better things to do than that," Lorist refuted her immediately. "The best thing that's happened to me during this gathering is getting to know you. I won't go anywhere tonight and will spend my time accompanying you, alright?"

"You're not joking, are you?" said the girl as her anger melted into joy.

"Of course I'm not," Lorist said with a smile.

Blushing, she said, "I won't be able to handle you by myself. Since you're so nice, I'll give you a reward."

The girl looked around and called a maidservant over before the maidservant left after receiving some whispered instructions.

Lorist didn't mind and merely looked at the princess who was surrounded by a whole group of people.

Compared to Princess Sylvia, Princess Carey was like a ripe, delicious fruit that was sexy and enchanting. Every gesture and smile of hers riled up the temptation of anyone who saw it. Her body was as polished and smooth as white jade with curves at the right places and her ivory-like legs only served to add to her charm. Just like the other women, she donned a translucent white veil and proudly showed off her body, especially the peaks on her chest that drew many eyes to her.

The princess's face wasn't covered and instead, her white fox mask was tied to the side of her hair, revealing her blushing and pretty face. Lorist couldn't help but praise the princess for her irresistible looks. Thinking back at the beauties he's met, apart from Princess Sylvia's fairy-like looks, nobody else could compete against Princess Carey in terms of seductive sexyness.

"Daisy, what did you need me for?" an alluring voice rang out nearby.

Lorist raised his head to look and saw a similarly petite woman wearing a spotted deer mask near the pool.

The girl in his embrace pointed to him and said, "Help me deal with this one."

That woman blushed and said, "Daisy, I'm your aunt. Don't be so rude..."

The girl didn't seem to care and said, "Don't bring up familial relations over here. Besides, you're only 6 years older than me. Let me tell you, you'll definitely regret if you miss out on him."

The woman said as she entered the pool and walked towards Lorist, "Is that so? He's that impressive?"

"You'll know after you give him a try. Either way, he's way better than Davey whom you admire so much," said the girl.

"Wait a second, what's your relationship with her?" Lorist asked.

"She's my aunt, but her cursed husband joined the Third Prince's army one week after their wedding and died in the battle at Kobo City, causing her to be a widow for 9 whole years. After the first time I participated the Paradise Gathering, I brought her along with me the next few times in hopes that I would find another person for her to marry, but it's a shame she didn't find one she liked. Just call her Chessy over here," said the girl without a single care.

"And what did you call her over for?"

"To reward you, of course. You said that you would spend the whole night with me, so I was worried that I alone wouldn't be enough to deal with you so I got her to come help out. You've truly struck gold this time, my aunt is quite the beauty too you know," said the girl as she tugged on Lorist's junior once more.

Not far away from the pool was much commotion. Daisy said, "Look, your dream guy has arrived."

Chessy blushed and said, "Cursed lass, don't make me tear your lips off."

The girl didn't bother with that remark and briefed Lorist about the situation. "Do you see that man over there? He's called Davey Copperfield. Even though he's wearing a black bull mask, almost everyone recognizes him based on his staggering height."

The man who just entered the hall was almost 2 meters tall and had a well-built figure that was even more impressive than those of greek statues from Lorist's previous life. As the bull mask he wore covered the upper half of his face, it was quite obvious that he was a rather good-looking man based on the finely chiseled nose and chin.

"Who's he? Is he famous?" Lorist asked.

The girl asked, "You don't know who he is?"

Lorist nodded and said, "I am from the Northlands and am a knight of the Norton Family. I came to the imperial capital because of some matters and Karitoke of the Royal Local Defense Force is one of my fellow students at the Dawn Academy. He received an invitation to this gathering and merely brought me along to expand my horizons."

"No wonder you've never heard of Davey before. He's actually the only son of the Second Highness's Blademaster, Davey Climonto and he's 30 years old and a One Star Gold rank this year. The Second Highness trusts him greatly and he's the vice leader of the guards; his future potential is almost limitless. It goes without saying that many of the noble ladies are charmed by his handsome looks. The last time he participated in that competition, he won and my aunt called for him so much that her throat went sore. But in the end, he chose to spend the night with two other noble ladies, much to her dismay," explained Daisy in great detail while teasing her aunt at the same time.

Both embarrassed and angry, Chessy grabbed Daisy's hand and said, "Stupid lass, see how I deal with you if you keep spouting crap..."

Lorist paid attention to the tall man on the upper floor called Davey as he approached the platform where the princes was lying on. After saying something, Davey climbed onto the bed and began caressing the princess while a few of the maidservants nearby began servicing Davey as well.

Everyone within the hall had their eyes fixed on the platform upstairs and there were some who envied Davey's opportunity. When Davey pushed his thing into Princess Carey, she let out an incredibly seductive cry and her continued moans only served to tickle the hearts of those present. A man wearing a wolf mask within the pool grunted and grabbed the woman beside him before pushing her against the sides of the pool, pushing her legs apart and humped nonstop, with the woman beginning to moan excitedly as well.

At that moment, it was as if the pool water began boiling all of a sudden. Almost all the men and women within it were pushed tightly against each other with a few maidservants even hugging and pleasing one another.

The mature woman beside Lorist was no longer able to hold on and leaned onto Lorist's body almost entirely. The young girl gave Lorist a light push as if she was saying, 'Aren't you gonna make your move?'

Turning Chessy around, Lorist began to enter her body from the back.

Chessy with her mouth agape muttered, "This... this is huge..."

As promised, Lorist didn't participate in the other activities within the Paradise Gathering and only spent the whole night screwing with the girl and her aunt, sometimes in the pool, and other times in the room. In the end, the three of them lost count of the time they've engaged in intercourse and went to sleep after they were completely exhausted.

The girl and her aunt were indeed beautiful and at some point they were doing it, they removed their masks. The girl told Lorist that her real name was Dina Arriotoli and her family's barony was at the west side of Jillin Harbor. She said that as she liked Lorist a lot, if Lorist wanted to take her as his wife, she would no longer participate in the Paradise Gathering. She also mentioned that she didn't need Lorist to give an answer right away as she feared being rejected outright and mentioned that she would return to her dominion and wait for three years. If Lorist was interested, he should go there to ask for her hand in marriage there would be a surprise in store for him if he did so.

Lorist questioned her about the surprise, and the girl said that she had another sister of 19 years of age who was even prettier than herself that was also a virgin. If Lorist chose her, he would get to marry her sister too since that was better for the barony because that would decrease the amount of the dowry by half.

Lorist was incredibly tired and when he woke up, he realized that he was the only one who remained on the bed with Ariotolli and her aunt nowhere to be seen. A little saddened by their absence, Lorist went back to the pool to take another dip.

A maidservant came not long after, but this time around, she was fully-dressed. She respectfully told Lorist that the gathering had ended and that his friends were waiting for him to head back.

Lorist, Karitoke and Dulles all got back onto the black carriage that brought them there and during the way back, Dulles boasted that he managed to conquer seven noble ladies during the gathering. Karitoke, not wanting to lose out, said that he had engaged in the deepest interactions with 8 noble ladies. In the end, Lorist was so annoyed that he asked the both of them to shut up and reminded Karitoke that the princess was more than meets the eye and seemed to be planning something in secret. He warned Karitoke to be careful should he attend the Paradise Gathering alone the next time so that he doesn't get caught in anybody's ploys.

By the time they arrived at the camp, it was already the evening. The one who received Lorist and the other two were Freiyar, Josk and Els, all with angry looks on their faces. Freiyar and Josk were the maddest because Lorist, the family leader, merely left a note saying that he would be off to play without saying where he went and didn't even return during the night. That behavior of his was a little excessive and caused the whole group to worry the whole night for his safety.

It must be noted that the situation at the imperial capital wasn't exactly peaceful, and they had even imprisoned and brought Viscount Aslan and the descendants of 8 other noble families there all the way from Silowas Island. Even though that matter was kept secret, if someone managed to find out about it, Lorist would definitely be considered to be an obstacle. It was incredibly irrational of him to leave without any guards, so Lorist was forbidden from traveling alone.

Lorist accepted their opinions and mentioned that he would definitely be more aware of his safety and said that he wanted to wrap this matter up since he returned safely after all. Given that he was the dominion lord, Freiyar and Josk could only accept that response to give him some face. But Els was a little mad that Lorist didn't bring him along for some fun.

As for Dulles, Freiyar ordered him to be caned 50 times as a punishment, but Lorist managed to talk it down to only 20. Dulles could only leave with a sobbing look.

Karitoke was surprised by what he witnessed the scene and asked Lorist why he was so powerless against his own knights even though he was the dominion lord.

Lorist replied that since Freiyar was the leader of this trip, he was in charge of military discipline, logistics, distribution of soldiers as well as security, and nobody could be exempt from the rules. Only during battle would the right to command be passed to Lorist and other then that, he couldn't do anything about the punishment Freiyar hands out.

In the end, Freiyar said, "Milord, I just got news that the Second Highness will be back in another two days."

Chapter 230 Face-smacking

When Second Highness Auguslo received word of Count Norton's visit, he was in a rather good mood. Five years back, he used the northbound convoy to regain his power and influence and later even tossed the burdensome vagabonds to them. He had also used the convoy to raid the nobles that didn't listen to his summons and managed to build up his own Royal Family's Local Defense Force with the resources he gained. In the end, with the cooperation of the Nortons, he managed to establish an impressive track record of victorious battles, causing his name to spread far and wide and establishing a firm foundation for the mighty Andinaq Kingdom.

Nowadays the Second Highness was no longer the poor little bug that had to rely on the northbound convoy's forces. He had 300000 soldiers under his command and the slightest move made by him would be able to profoundly affect the situation on the continent. All the nobles within the kingdom were already under his control and incredibly obedient. That goes without saying that he felt that the Norton Family that was located far in the north should do the same as well.

But after feeling good about himself for a bit, he recalled the scene of destruction wrought by the forces of the Norton Family convoy and knew that for a noble family like them with such a strong force to submit to him, he must first earn their respect.

That was especially the case when he received word some time back about the conflict between the nobles of the Northlands and those of the Iblia Kingdom as well as their battles. However, information was hard to come by in the Madras Duchy and the news he heard from the Melein Duchy was not that detailed. So, he felt that Count Norton's visit was a good opportunity for him to better increase his chances for the war of unification.

Thus, Second Highness Auguslo organized a grand banquet to celebrate Count Norton's visit to signify that he valued the Norton Family a lot and he hoped to unite the intentions of the nobles that attended the banquet to join forces under his leadership to unite the empire.

The Second Highness believed that Count Norton would definitely submit to his will and be willing to fight at the forefront of the war to contribute to the unification of the empire.

And if the Second Highness did manage to ally up with the Norton Family, many more unexpected strategies and tactics would be made available to him. He would use the forces of the Norton Family as shock troops to barge into enemy lines and attract their attention. After that, he would be able to use that opportunity to encircle the enemies with his troops and have the Norton Family crush the enemy from the inside while he stopped the enemy from escaping outside, effectively crumbling the main force of the enemy in one go and gain victory with the smallest sacrifice.

Naturally, the Second Highness didn't even bother to consider the casualties of the Norton Family forces as he felt that dominion lords of the Andinaq Royal Family must have the self-consciousness of their due obeisance to the royal family and that it was their duty and responsibility to serve the royal family.

With his 'script' completely drafted, the Second Highness didn't expect that Lorist would not play according to his lines. To put it in a more direct manner, Lorist was visiting to ruin his plans altogether.

The banquet was held in one of the halls of the royal court and the grand and luxurious decorations belied the sour and heavy atmosphere within. The impressive columns within the hall were a reminder of the glory days of the empire which was now in shambles, causing one to feel much pity and shame from viewing them.

The Second Highness introduced the various nobles that attended to Lorist in the friendliest manner possible as well as his trusted subordinates and generals, many of whom Lorist had already seen before such as the handsome Davey, and the delicate flower, Princess Carey, who carried an overbearing aura that couldn't be violated in the slightest. Naturally, both of them were clothed this time around. There were also some military officers that Lorist could recognize from the Paradise Gathering based on their physique and movement.

Having seen many of them stark naked before, Lorist almost felt like laughing out when he saw them dressed so properly. Even he wore a bright smile, he merely nodded to the people the Second Highness introduced to him without regard at all to their status or power. Even when the Second Highness introduced Princess Carey to Lorist, he pretended that he didn't see the princess's outstretched hand for a hand-kiss and merely nodded towards her before turning away to mind his own business.

Lorist's behavior shocked many of the nobles present and they were appalled at how rude he was even though he was merely a count from the rural Northlands. Even the princess was so enraged that her face flushed red as she had never experienced something so awkward all her life. Thankfully, Davey reacted quickly enough and kissed her hand lightly, saving her from the shame of having to take her hand back because nobody bothered to kiss it.

The Second Highness on the other hand didn't take note of that as he was chatting with some other nobles and only saw Lorist move further away to appreciate the murals within the hall. Those murals depicted the might and achievements of the founding Krissen Emperor, with most of them being scenes of him triumphing over his foes or commanding his troops.

The Second Highness hurriedly said, "What's up? You're interested in these murals? It won't take long until we succeed in our own endeavor that's every bit as impressive as those of the founding emperor. I will definitely have the warriors who have contributed greatly to the effort painted on a mural as a memento too."

Lorist laughed and said, "Your Highness, after seeing this mural, it reminded me of this saying. 'For a general to become renowned, thousands of bones will have to crumble'..."

Huh? What does that saying mean? As the Second Highness was pondering over it, a manager of the palace came to report that the banquet is already ready and that the Second Highness should be the first to head in.

Within the hall wasn't the kind of long table that nobles would usually use to receive their guests, but instead many smaller ones that could seat two people each. For example, if a noble brought along his spouse, the couple would occupy one table for themselves. Naturally, for single nobles like Lorist, another noble lady would be arranged to be his partner.

As the Second Highness wanted to express his goodwill toward Lorist, a guest who had come from far away, Lorist's seat was arranged right next to his. What surprised Lorist however was that the female partner the Second Highness arranged for him was not his cousin sister Glacia but rather, the cold and fuming Princess Carey.

What's going on? Lorist wondered with surprise, but he didn't let it show on his face. After slightly bowing to the princess, Lorist sat down without a care in the world and heard a dissatisfied humph.

At that moment, the musicians started playing a relaxing tune to lighten up the banquet's mood. The Second Highness proceeded to raise his golden cup and began to praise the heavens and the founding emperor before he began a long-winded speech about his hopes for the near future. Lorist merely shook his head slightly and thought that no matter how nice the Second Highness made it sound, he didn't bother to pay the slightest attention to the present. The Second Highness didn't even know that Lorist was about to blow up like a volcano even though he was right in front of him, so he had no right to speculate about the future.

"...In the not so distant future, during our struggle to unite the empire, I have high expectations for all of you to rake in some great achievements. The royal family will definitely not be stingy in giving ranks and land as rewards, so the future of your families will depend on your own performance," said the Second Highness as he finished his unnecessarily long and nonsensical speech before the seated audience called out 'Long live the Andinaq Kingdom!' loudly three times. There were some of them who called out 'Long live Auguslo!'. After that, everyone began to gulp down the wine in their cups and the banquet formally began.

Hmm, this mutton sausage made by the royal family looks rather good. I was just getting a little hungry from following the Second Highness around all day just now, thought Lorist as he took up his fork and brought a piece of sausage into his mouth, but before he did, he heard Princess Carey's bell-like voice resound beside him.

"Count Norton, when His Highness was giving his speech just now, I saw you shaking your head disapprovingly. Do you have any thoughts or objections to His Highness's speech just now?"

"Ack..." Lorist almost choked and he thought, in the end, women have the potential to be the most dangerous... He had only chosen to not give the promiscuous princess due respect because he had already lost all respect he could have for her after seeing her perform those carnal acts completely naked in front of everyone else. Also, he didn't feel like kissing the hand that has probably touched more than a couple other men's manhoods. He didn't think that the princess would hold that gesture against him and start causing trouble for him just when the banquet was beginning.

When the princess started speaking, everyone cleared their ears to hear what she had to say. At that moment, Lorist felt that he had been thrust into the center of attention.

Sigh, there's no such thing as a good banquet... Lorist stood up without giving the princess so much as the slightest glance and walked to the center of the path before bowing towards the Second Highness. "Your Highness, I have come on this trip for two reasons. First, it's to express the loyalty of the Norton Family to you and the royal family. Additionally, I have a few questions for you, Second Highness..."

"Tell me, what questions do you have?" The Second Highness was a little annoyed and wondered, what does he intend for me to address in public in front of everyone else? What's important right now is to see how I can get the Norton Family to agree to participate in the unification war...

"Your Highness, I've apprehended a few people and I need to bring them for you to see. Only after that can I punish them," Lorist said.

With his curiosity piqued, the Second Highness nodded and said, "Bring them in then."

Freiyar and two other guards then proceeded to escort the descendants of the nobles they captured from Seaview Manor. During the past few days, they have suffered quite a bit. Not only did they have to endure that night of caning, after that, they only had black bread and vegetable soup for food and if their behavior was the slightest bit poor, they would be pummeled to the point that their faces bruised up. The moment they entered the room and saw their family, they began to sob and cry out daddy and mommy as loudly as they could.

Great, the banquet is completely ruined now, thought the Second Highness with a grim expression. "Count Norton, could you please explain to me what is going on?"

"Your Highness, may I ask you whether Silowas Island is considered the dominion of the Norton Family?" Lorist asked.

The Second Highness froze before he said, "Of course it's the dominion of the Norton Family. There is no doubt about that."

"But these eight descendants of noble families occupied the Seaview Manor of the island for five whole years and even chased away the supervisors sent by my family to manage the manor, forcing me to have to go there personally to settle the issue. I would like to question these eight families involved about whether they are declaring war against the Norton Family. My family forces are already prepared to repeat what happened when our convoy crossed the three provinces of the Andinaq Kingdom," Lorist declared without the slightest hesitation.

The Second Highness's rage instantly soared as he thought, Count Norton, are you here just to cause trouble? Even if you are in the right, you can't be so forthright about this. Why can't you just talk it out properly? Is it because you think that the Andinaq Royal Family is still as weak as it was a few years prior? Even if your convoy forces from before come again, faced with my 300000-strong army, do you think you'll be able to run around unabated?

Beside them, an old man stood up and said, "Count Norton, I understand that our young ones hasn't been well-taught by us and even went to your dominion on their own accord to cause you much trouble. I hope that you can consider their immature age and forgive them just this once. Right now, His Highness is preparing to unite the empire with his forces and as nobles of the kingdom, we shouldn't be causing any unnecessary trouble. We must all stand united and play our part to contribute to the unification of the empire..."

Second Highness Auguslo almost praised that noble's speech out loud. Listen to his sensible words! He has made it incredibly clear that it isn't that we fear your forces. We're only too busy with preparing to unite the empire and can't be bothered to deal with you! Look at how reasonable he's being...

"May I inquire who you are?" Lorist asked.

"I am Marquis Reid and that young child over there is the unbecoming member of our family. I hope that Lord Count, you, can be merciful and spare them this once," said the old man.

"Your Highness, what do you think of this matter?" Lorist said as he turned back to the Second Highness.

Second Highness Auguslo said with an expressionless look, "Taking their young age into account, I believe that they're only causing trouble because they're not mature enough. I hope that you won't fuss with them about this matter."

"Very well, I'll release them with respect to Your Highness's wishes," Lorist said magnanimously before instructing Freiyar to release them.

And so, the eight foolish noble descendants ran back to their family members and began complaining about the treatment they've received and even asked their family members to set matters right for them.

Blind idiots, won't you even consider the situation? Do you still think that you are the precious members of our family? As expected, there were a few of them who were instantly rebuked and lectured by their parents and were escorted back to be grounded to have them reflect on their mistakes.

As the Second Highness attempted to say something to warm up the atmosphere again, he heard Lorist yell, "Bring him in!"

There's more? Everyone widened their eyes to see which unlucky fellow was next.

This time around, Els came in with two other guards who were escorting the captured Gold ranked knight Ferwemant.

"Your Highness, this is your subordinate, the commander of the Third Division of the First Royal Local Defense Legion, Gold ranked knight Ferwemant. He brought around 100 soldiers to Whitebird Town of Silowas Island and tied up the mayor to threaten the townsfolk for wealth and was captured by us. I want to ask Your Highness whether he acted personally on his own accord or per your orders."

Bam! Second Highness Auguslo thumped on the table harshly and stood right up. "Very well, Ferwemant. The First Legion had already reported your disappearance for days... So you were actually at the dominion of the Norton Family being a bandit! My men, come over here and drag Ferwemant out for 100 canes! He will be instantly stripped of his position as division commander and serve within the third division until he makes up for his crimes!" The Second Highness acted quickly and came up with a way to deal with the matter without giving Lorist any chance to react.

Sol, how ridiculous, Lorist cursed in his thoughts. Even though the punishment sounded harsh, it was actually already extremely forgiving. Lorist was really dissatisfied that he had no choice but to let the knight go off scot-free. Very well, if you deal with Viscount Aslan in the same matter, I will flip out in your face right away...

"Bring in the next one!" yelled Lorist with rage.

The Second Highness gasped and thought, there's still more?!

Viscount Aslan was brought into the hall by Jim and two other guards, causing chatters and murmurs to break out right away. Is that feather-covered monster actually a person? It took them quite some time before they recognized him as the tax collection official appointed by Second Highness Auguslo himself, Viscount Aslan.

When the Second Highness recognized the kneeling man, he could no longer hold his rage and roared, "Count Norton, on what grounds are you treating a noble like him like this? He's even the tax collection official I personally appointed! Are you looking down on the Andinaq Royal Family?!"

"Your Highness, I just confirmed with you before that Silowas Island was the dominion of my family. You should be well aware of the income your own principality generates, right? It's 2000 gold Fordes each year, am I wrong? And you said that this man here is the tax collection official sent by you? I even thought that he was the dominion lord you appointed for Silowas Island. On what grounds was he collecting 6000 gold Fordes' worth of taxes for three consecutive years? Not only did he increase the taxes on his own accord, he almost caused the residents to revolt! This is definitely an infringement of the honor of the Norton Family!

"I would really like to know why he wanted to collect the taxes that included that of our original dominion from that island. Is that per Your Highness's orders as well? He even threatened that if they don't pay up, you will bring your 300000 soldiers to wash the island with blood. Is is true that Your Highness is going to punish my family? It's precisely because he claimed to be appointed by Your Highness that I brought him to you like this. Otherwise, I would've long hanged him back on the island," Lorist talked back with full force, not the slightest bit intimidated by the anger the Second Highness displayed.

It was at that moment when Second Highness Auguslo understood that Lorist was not there to cause trouble and was instead there to give him a harsh smack in the face. However, he thought, what a piece of talent... Viscount Aslan is actually able to squeeze 6000 gold Fordes out of the poor islanders even though I only received a third of the official sum of 2000 gold Fordes, only around 600... I must definitely punish this fellow harshly and make him cough up all the gold Fordes he put into his own pocket. After this, I'll let him be in charge of tax collection elsewhere, then I'll no longer have to worry about military funds.

But now, he had to think of a way to convince Lorist to let Viscount Aslan go. After all, the viscount had indeed been overly excessive in his actions and had violated the honor of the Norton Family. The Second Highness was well aware that if he hanged the viscount, he would be able to make up to the Norton Family. But the issue was that he wanted to preserve Viscount Aslan's life.

A sudden shout reverberated within the hall at that instant. "You actually dare to humiliate my brother like that... The Aslan Family will definitely not forgive the Norton Family no matter what!"

Chapter 231 Flipping Out

A huge man with the back of a tiger and the waist of a bear stood up from one of the seats at the back row, drew his sword and marched forward without regard to the others that attempted to stop him.

Lorist gave the man a cold stare and said, "Count Aslan? Haha, don't think it's just you who doesn't want to work together. The Norton Family will not let this matter slide either. I believe that you were aware of the actions of your own brother. Since the Aslan Family dares to challenge the honor of the Norton Family, you should be anticipating the vengeance of the Raging Bear.

"Your Highness, how do you think I should deal with Viscount Aslan here?" Lorist said as he turned back once again and passed the baton to the Second Highness.

The Second Highness looked incredibly grim and after staying silent for a few moments, he finally opened his mouth and said, "Count Norton, let me first apologize to you. The things that have happened at your dominion were definitely not a result of my intentions. As the senior noble of the Norton Family, I was too busy minding my own matters that I wasn't able to notice and straighten out small conflicts like that, and that is definitely neglect on my part.

"But Viscount Aslan is indeed the tax collection official appointed by the kingdom and even if he has committed a crime, he must be punished in accordance to the regulations of the kingdom's court. Additionally, he is still a person of noble status and your humiliating treatment of him is grossly unfit with the way of the nobles. Despite that, I can understand your rage since Viscount Aslan did infringe upon the honor of the Norton Family. That's why, I hope you can hand him to me and I will deal with him aptly. Let's end this matter here."

The Second Highness thought that he had managed to settle upon a perfect arrangement with his words even leaving some room for Lorist to step down the podium by stressing unity among nobles and trivializing the matter of the viscount.

But he didn't expect that his words would cause the atmosphere within the hall to chill all of a sudden. Everyone within the hall gave him a weird look.

Lorist's laughter resounded throughout the hall, carrying with it a sharp sting of arrogance.

"Your Highness, have you forgotten that the authority of us nobles is sacred and cannot be violated? If Viscount Aslan is to be let off so lightly after committing an act like this, does that mean that the royal family can do the same thing again to mess with the other dominion lords? I have brought Viscount Aslan here because he is the official you have appointed, but that doesn't mean you have the right to decide his fate..."

Lorist made his intentions known in a straightforward matter. In essence, he was saying, 'since you're my senior noble, I'm giving you face by bringing him here. Even though Viscount Aslan is the tax collection official appointed by you, as he has trampled upon the violation of the Norton Family, he must receive due punishment. If you intend to accept the responsibility but are unwilling to do anything about it, then we'll all flip out entirely and become lifelong enemies. Otherwise, no matter how Viscount Aslan is dealt with, that is a matter of the Norton Family and you, the Second Highness, can only offer your suggestion but have no right to make any decisions about it'.

The Second Highness was so embarrassed to the point of anger because he had uttered something wrong. Even though the nobles appeared quite subservient to him, his previous statement had touched upon the baseline that those nobles were willing to tolerate. The ideal scenario for Viscount Aslan currently was for him to be hanged by a dominion lord. If a senior noble was able to do as he liked when the true dominion lord was not within the dominion, then all the nobles there would refuse the senior noble's call to arms and stay within the dominion without heading out.

There were some things that could be done but couldn't be loudly proclaimed. As Lorist had just said, the authority of nobles is sacred and cannot ever be violated. That was common knowledge for all the nobles on the Grindia Continent.

As a senior noble, the Second Highness could use military might to force the nobles to mobilize their forces., just like the Duke of the Northlands who used the Northland Army to take advantage of the other nobles of the Northlands to gain more wealth for himself, or the Second Prince who forced the nobles' private forces heed his orders. But these methods could only be employed in secret and in the world where the strong devoured the weak, the ones who were taken advantage of could only blame their own misfortune.

But for a statement that the Second Highness had proclaimed in public in front of every other noble, it was as if he had the intention of sticking his hands into the dominions of other nobles and to take a huge bite out for himself. For these nobles, oppressing their subjects and fighting among themselves were private matters. But the Second Highness's decision about Viscount Aslan would set a precedent for them all.

If the Second Highness earnestly apologized and pleaded Lorist to hand Viscount Aslan to him while promising that he would definitely handle the matter according to the Norton Family's wishes, then Lorist would probably do as he said and give him the viscount. After that, he could contact Lorist privately and have the Aslan Family pay out a huge sum to make up for the wrongs of the viscount as well as to ransom him out to get the forgiveness of the Norton Family and spare Viscount Aslan's life. After all, nobody would fuss so much over money and the Second Highness's face would also have to be considered as well. After that, the matter would be wrapped up without problems and everyone would praise the Second Highness's wisdom and wit.

But refusing to accept any of his errors and fueled with the feeling of dominating power from having 300000 soldiers in his possession, the Second Highness began to see the Norton Family like the other small noble families that would cower before him and didn't think twice before he had uttered what he said just now. The situation he caused was grim as not only did his statement imply that he would further extend his influence into the lands under the jurisdiction of other nobles, causing them to start to be wary of him, they also forced the Norton Family to the absolute tipping point.

Lorist had already stated very clearly that he had brought the viscount to him only because he wanted to give the Second Highness some face. But since he wanted to protect the viscount, Lorist decided that he wouldn't hold back.

"Then, what do you intend to do? Count Norton..." The Second Highness forced those words out of his mouth syllable by syllable and felt incredibly hateful as he did so.

"It's simple. Since Your Highness's suggested way of handling the viscount is not to our satisfaction, we can only settle this according to the Norton Family's own regulations," said Lorist before he made a cutthroat gesture. Freiyar then drew his sword and gave a light swing, separating Viscount Aslan's head from his body.

The whole hall fell into complete silence.

Not one of them expected that Lorist would order for Viscount Aslan to be beheaded on the spot, during a banquet that was hosted to welcome Lorist himself no less.

Shrieks of terror could be heard as a few of the noble ladies fainted from the sight of gore and blood.

Clang! The sword in Count Aslan's sword fell to the ground as he struggled to find his footing while looking at his decapitated little brother, before he turned to Lorist with a hateful stare and said, "Very well... You better expect the vengeance of the Aslan Family!"

After he said that, Count Aslan left the hall right away.

The golden cup in the Second Highness's hand was already dented from his grip. He felt that he had been smacked in the face in public! Lorist's act of ordering for the decapitation of the viscount didn't leave the Second Highness with any due respect. The Second Highness currently felt a boiling tinge on his face and was shuddering from the anger, with his rage ready to burst out at any moment.

"Madman! Are the people of the Norton Family all madmen?!" commented Marquis Reid, echoing the thoughts of most of the other nobles as well.

"Wow, you really don't waste any words. I like it..." That one who uttered that was Princess Carey. At that moment, her eyes were a little watery.

Bam! Second Highness Auguslo smashed the gold cup in his hand against the table before he stood up and said, "Count Norton, how dare you kill Viscount Aslan right before me... Are you disregarding the existence of the Andinaq Royal Family? Do you still consider yourself a noble of the kingdom?"

WIthout showing any weakness, Lorist stepped forward two steps to look the Second Highness in the eye and said, "The Norton Family has pledged our allegiance to the Krissen Imperial Family and has never shirked on our responsibilities. As the empire is already now in shambles, taking into account that the Andinaq Royal Family is the rightful heir to the legacy of the Krissen Imperial Family, we have also accepted your entitlement and enfeoffment. But when we were facing off against the Duke of the Northlands and the Second Prince, did the Andinaq Royal Family offer us any aid?

"And after traveling so far to our new dominion, we noticed it plagued with small fries causing trouble here and there. Was it because we weren't present at the dominion? Don't forget, Second Highness, about the children of those noble families that occupied the Seaview Manor unrightfully. Since you said that it's just an incident of unruly children messing around, I've already released them and took your will into consideration. Additionally, your subordinate's attempt at extorting the townsfolk by holding the town mayor hostage will be dealt with according to the military regulations of your family, as per your will, since you said that he acted on his own accord.

"But right now, this tax collection official that you appointed took the chance when we were absent from Silowas Island and treated it like his own dominion and even oppressed the residents so much that they almost revolted. Yet, you still seek to cover for him. Then let me ask you, Second Highness, do you even consider us, the Norton Family, as a noble family of the kingdom? What is your intention when you objected at my sacred right as the dominion lord?"

The Second Highness was completely flabbergasted and speechless. It was true that Lorist had already gave him a lot of face and abided by his decisions when it came to the children of the noble families and the Gold ranked knight Ferwemant. Additionally, the now-dead Viscount Aslan's transgressions were far worse those of the former two cases and Lorist truly didn't have a choice when it came to letting the matter go. If Lorist really compromised with the Second Highness again, then the Norton Family would no longer be able to hold their faces up high among the other nobles. That was a matter that concerned the honor and pride of the family, so it was no wonder that Lorist was willing to go all out.

But at that moment, the Second Highness's anger continued to build up as he thought, so you defended the honor of the Norton Family, what of mine then? He continued to glare angrily at Lorist with the latter looking right back, as if bolts of lightning could be seen between their gazes.

One figure suddenly stepped in front of the Second Highness. That man looked to be around 50 years of age and was dressed extravagantly while also boasting a huge build. He slowly drew his sword and said, "Lord Count, I don't wish to be a part of your dispute with His Highness, nor do I wish to comment on who was right or wrong. But I will definitely not allow you to hurt others in front of His Highness. Please step aside, I must let your family knights know what humility, manners and regulations are..."

"Who are you?" Lorist said while turning his gaze to the old man.

The old man gave Lorist a slight glance and said, "Please step aside, Lord Count. It is not my wish to hurt you. I am a Blademaster of the Royal Family, Davey Climonto."

After he reported his identity, the old man puffed out his chest as if he was waiting for Lorist to show a look of surprise before trying to appease himself in a panicked manner.

Oh, so this is the father of that handsome guy? Don't the old ones usually come after their young are hurt? Why did you jump out when I didn't touch your son?

Lorist glanced at the Second Highness and saw that he had relaxed and sat down with a smile.

Bastard... So you're trying to teach me a lesson, are you? Alright, let's see who has the last laugh, cursed Lorist in his mind as he drew his ceremonial sword.

"You think you're invincible just because you're a Blademaster? If you want to teach my knight a lesson, you have to go through me first." Lorist then spat out right in front of the old man.

With his face reddened with anger, the Blademaster said, "Kid, you dare to be rude to me?!"

Spitting in front of someone was considered a gross insult and the old man really didn't understand why a twerp that wasn't even at the Silver rank dared to disrespect a Blademaster like himself. However, that didn't stop him from teaching that arrogant count a lesson he would never forget.

"Old man, come at me. Don't be all bark and no bite," Lorist provoked.

The old man cursed as he swung the flat of the blade of his sword horizontally towards Lorist's left cheek, intent of giving Lorist a harsh smack in the face. If that strike connected, not only would his face be swollen to no end, at least half of his teeth would fall off.

Even though Lorist wasn't too used to wielding the ceremonial sword that was markedly different from his custom made sword, it was more than enough for him to face off against a rank 1 Blademaster, especially when the old man was attacking while underestimating Lorist's abilities.

The Second Highness then sat down calmly and thought, good, Locke... As you had the high ground just now, I couldn't do anything against you. But now, i can crush you and make you submit with my power. Do you think that your family is so mighty just because you have a handful of Gold ranked knights? Just like a frog in a well, you've not the slightest idea how many Gold ranked knights I have. Additionally, I have a Blademaster as well...

I will use my Blademaster to teach your knights a lesson and make you understand that you have no right to be so domineering in front of me. Forget my 300000 soldiers, even you are not able to match against me in terms of personal strength. The present is different from five years ago and at that time, your family's force was indeed impressive. But you're only a small family while I have a kingdom under me. To think that you would find trouble for yourself and fight against a Blademaster, you really don't know your bounds. Blademasters can wipe the floor with you whenever they please.

But soon after, the Second Highness stood straight up with surprise, with the other nobles present all letting out gasps of shock. It was apparent to them that the one being pushed back was Blademaster Climonto instead. He was sweating heavily while barely parrying Lorist's lightning-fast strikes. Faced with Lorist who was fighting like a frenzied tiger, it was apparent that the Blademaster was at a disadvantage and would soon lose.

Standing in the middle were Freiyar, Els, Jim and a few other guards who looked at the Blademaster sympathetically. While it was normal for him to show off to others usually, acting high and mighty in front of their family leader, Lorist, was only looking for trouble. Even Viscount Kristoph, a rank 1 Blademaster, was eventually scared from sparring against Lorist all the time. While he was able to withstand around 100 or so strikes in the beginning, as they continued to spar, the Blademaster was no longer able to last more than 40 strikes, causing him to curse at Lorist for being a complete freak.

Clang! The two swords intersected once again and the Blademaster's own longsword was knocked flying before it landed in front of the Second Highness. Lorist then tapped onto the old man's face with the flat side of his ceremonial sword and said, "A Blademaster, huh? Haha, did you think you could teach my knights humility with your level of ability? Come to me for a rematch when you reach the level of Blademaster Zarinan."

"You've fought against Zarinan before?" said the old man, stunned. Blademaster Zarinan was well known as a quasi-Sword Saint and was considered to be the only Blademaster that stood a good chance to become a Sword Saint during the days of the former empire.

"He's been killed by the forces of my family," Lorist said casually. "After we defeated the 100000-strong army of the Second Prince and killed Blademaster Louinse, the Second Prince escaped back to his dominion and sent Blademaster Zarinan to assassinate me, only for him to end up dead from my family force."

"That's impossible!" cried out the Second Highness with shock as the other nobles began to chatter incessantly. While defeating the Second Prince's 100000 soldiers was a plausible feat, killing two of his Blademasters was incredibly hard to believe. Everyone knew that Blademasters wouldn't be that idiotic to stand still and be swarmed by a whole army and would escape once the situation was grim.

It's already almost been one year and you guys still haven't received the news? Color me impressed. You think that you can unite the empire with only 300000 soldiers? In your dreams, Lorist thought.

"What's so impossible about that? I even put Blademaster Zarinan's corpse up on display, but most of him is rotted now, leaving behind only a few bones," Lorist said as he turned back. "Bring in our proof! This is also our gift to the royal family. Let everyone see, who really is the one loyally working to serve the kingdom!"

Chapter 232 Leaving

The one who brought the Second Prince into the hall was Josk. Four other guards also came in with a huge chest in their hands.

At that moment, the Second Prince was wearing a black head sack. Coupled with the black cloth draped around his cubic prison when he was transported to the hall, the guards of the hall were guessing who that mysterious figure within was moments before. Now that the secret was out, the Second Prince's head sack was removed and a few of the nobles let out gasps of surprise.

"It's the Second Prince..."

"It's Iblia!"

Lorist used his sword to push aside the latch of the chest and kicked its cover open. Within it, a crown, scepter, and a set of royal robes could be seen.

"Your Highness, I believe that you should be familiar with him, the renowned Second Prince and King of the Iblia Kingdom. My family forces breached Windbury City and managed to capture him. However, his fate and judgment is a matter of the Krissen Imperial Family, so I could only bring him to the imperial capital so that Your Highness can deal with this matter," Lorist said with his finger pointed at the Second Prince.

"And these," Lorist said while kicking the chest on the ground. "The whole set of royal regalia of the Iblia Kingdom. This is the gift from the Norton Family to the Andinaq Royal Family to express our loyalty and service."

However, the Second Highness wasn't paying attention to what Lorist was saying and only looked at the Second Prince before he asked, "Has the Norton Family took over the Iblia Kingdom?"

Lorist shook his head and said, "No. After eliminating the 100000-strong force of the Second Prince, we also suffered immense casualties. We then used guerilla tactics to occupy Windbury City and captured the Second Prince before we were chased out again by the forces of Duke Fisablen. So far, we can only stay within the Northlands to defend ourselves and the Iblia Kingdom is currently ruled by their queen."

Lorist lied without batting an eye so that he would be spared from being used as the Second Highness's spear. Since the Southern Province and the Winston Province that the Iblia Kingdom controlled was a total mess, it was not a threat at all to the Norton Family. The Southern Province had already become a wasteland, whereas the Winston Province nobles and the nobles of the Southern Province, who were hiding within the royal capital, were at war with each other. The queen, on the other hand, merely hid within the Rose Palace to enjoy her life as much as possible. Even Duke Fisablen had given up on taking any action and left the Iblia Kingdom on the verge of collapse.

As expected, when Second Highness Auguslo heard Lorist's reply, he breathed a sigh of relief while also feeling a little dissatisfied. He was relieved to hear Lorist say that his forces had suffered immense casualties. It was only to be expected after a battle with the 100000 soldiers of the Second Prince. Even if he won, some amount of lost vitality was to be expected. He also believed that after occupying Windbury City and catching the Second Prince, the forces of Duke Fisablen that attempted to take the Second Prince back must have also caused the Norton Family troops to pay a hefty price.

But the Second Highness was also aware that he wouldn't be able to use the Norton Family's force to achieve his plans. With a great achievement like sending the Second Prince straight to him, Lorist would definitely say that the Norton Family has already did their best to play their part and have his family forces rest to recuperate and rebuild. The Second Highness who had prepared to watch his plans unfold by the sidelines was incredibly dissatisfied and felt as if he his full-force punch had landed on nothing but air.

However, the Second Highness no longer paid attention to Lorist since the unmasked Second Prince had just realized where he was. The confused Second Prince had already regained his calm and adopted his usual elegant facade and began loudly greeting the nobles he recognized regardless of whether they were willing to pay any attention to him.

"Aha! Aren't you my second nephew? Long time no see. Second Uncle here misses you so much! Is my brother not here?" The Second Prince had noticed the presence of the Second Prince and began to bring up their familial relations.

The Second Highness merely gave the cheerful Second Prince a hateful stare infused with killing intent. The three people the Second Highness hated the most included the First Prince, the Second Prince and Duke Madras. Even though the First Prince was the first to raise the banner of rebellion, the empire reacted quickly enough and mobilized its forces to slowly push the First Prince into the corner.

But the Second Prince, who saw an opportunity amidst the chaos and confusion, stabbed the empire in the back and rebelled at Winston Province, forcing Duke Melein to bring his forces back and allowing the First Prince to jump out of his predicament. Ever since then, the three princes fought for the throne of the empire and the once strong empire fell into disarray and conflict.

Just when the empire was about to gain some advantage, with victory in sight, thanks to the foundation of their strength -- which had been lain over hundreds of years -- Duke Madras suddenly seceded from the empire and caused the advantageous situation to evaporate in no time. The civil war continued for another three years before the empire fragmented into the many kingdoms and duchies it was in the present.

Now, with one of the main instigators in his hands, Second Highness Auguslo looked coldly at the Second Prince. It was as if he was staring at an animal waiting to be slaughtered.

"Hehe... Hehehe... My little Auguslo, what's up with you? Are you not happy about Second Uncle's visit?" asked the Second Prince, forcing himself to continue smiling despite the cold gaze the Second Highness was giving him.

"I don't see any Second Uncle of mine. I only see a traitor of the empire before me. Right now, I'm thinking of how I should put you to death to teach the rest of the defectors of the empire a deep lesson they'll never forget," said the Second Highness after a long pause. However, his statement made the Second Prince pale instantly.

"I-I'm your Second Uncle, you know. Do you intend to bear the stigma of killing one of your own seniors?" said the Second Prince in a last-ditch attempt.

"I don't mind taking a page out of Krissen IV's book to deal with a traitor of the imperial family like you," said the Second Highness coldly, causing the Second Prince to slump to the ground weakly.

Krissen IV was one of the longest ruling emperors of the Krissen Empire. During his 70th birthday, he put to death 7 of his sons, 4 of his daughters, over 20 of his grandchildren as well as more than 4000 others, all for attempting to usurp the throne. At that time, more than 100 noble families were involved in that incident.

That was one of the most well-known incidents in the history of the Krissen Empire. It caused Krissen IV to come to be known as the Ironheart Emperor. The reason it happened was simple: Krissen IV had been on the throne for far too long. His whole ruling term was a staggering 84 years. Even the three sons of his that were made crown prince didn't live as long as he did. In the end, the few remaining sons of his who yearned to be emperor decided to send their father on a premature journey from the world, but they were exposed and dealt with in the end.

The Second Highness had brought up the tale to imply that he would hold no regard for any familial ties, causing the Second Prince to crumble entirely. The Andinaq Kingdom was perfectly in line to deal with Second Prince and it was already inconceivable for him to die a swift death, being the traitor he was.

"Take him away and lock him up for now," the Second Highness said. Now that I have one of the biggest troublemakers in my hands, it won't take long until the other two's turns. When my father passes on, I will become Auguslo I and lead my 300000 soldiers to conquer the various lands and rebuild the empire to its former strength.

"Ah, Count Norton, you looked so handsome when you defeated Blademaster Climonto just now! Given that your swordsmanship is so amazing, do I have the honor to ask for a bit of guidance from you? We have a manor in the imperial capital which boasts an amazing view. Nobody will bother us over there..." said Princess Carey with a coquettish tone. She no longer put up the arrogant and cold front towards Lorist. Instead, she radiated an air of anticipation as she made that request, and looked at Lorist with wide puppy-dog eyes.

Ugh, Princess Carey... Putting aside your age of 25, your physique is not suitable for sword-fighting... But it would no doubt be incredibly compatible for pole-dancing. Forget giving you any pointers, I don't want to end up in your bed halfway through the lesson. 'Boons don't come without effort, and calamities happen for a reason'. Thinking back at how the First Highness died in the middle of the night after coughing out a mouthful of blood, Lorist was not the least interested in involving himself in the drama of the Andinaq Kingdom and desired to stay as far from the imperial capital as possible. Handing the Second Prince to the Andinaq Royal Family is already an irrefutable achievement on my part, so better give the other nobles a chance to contribute during your unification war.

"I deeply apologize, Your Highness," Lorist said as he took two steps back to distance himself from Princess Carey before bowing slightly. "It’s rather unfortunate, but I’m rather busy with my duties as a dominion lord. Silowas Island is still not completely peaceful and there's a lot I have to do, so I really cannot afford to spare any time to guide you in swordsmanship. And to be honest, there isn't much I can teach either. To me, there are only two secrets when it comes to practicing the sword, and those are diligence and low regard for one's own life. If Your Highness can work on these two points, I believe your swordsmanship will definitely improve greatly."

Princess Carey stomped on the ground angrily at Lorist's crudeness, but she still smiled shyly and said, "Then, Count Norton, I've heard that the sights at Seaview Manor at Silowas Island is not bad. I wonder if I am fortunate enough to make a trip there?"

Oh no, don't tell me that this lass is smitten with me... Just tell me which part of me you like and I'll definitely change it right away, thought Lorist irresistibly. But he still smiled and nodded as he said, "Of course you can, Your Highness. The Norton Family will always be honored to host your visit to Seaview Manor. I will have my subordinates receive you there. But as I will be moving around a lot personally, if I am not present on the island when Your Highness arrives, I hope you will forgive me for my inability to tend to you."

It was at that moment when the Second Highness came over and said with a praiseworthy tone, "It seems the two of you are having a good time. Locke, this niece of mine is one of the most beautiful women in the kingdom and has always set her sights incredibly high and doesn't mingle with others easily given her cold personality. I didn't think that she would get along so well with you, Locke. This must be fate. Locke, you must definitely grasp this opportunity..."

Princess Carey curled up in embarrassment and said, "Uncle..."

Lorist was tempted to roll his eyes as he thought, which one of your eyes saw me enjoying my conversation with the princess? Sheesh, one spouting crap with their eyes wide open after another... She may indeed be the most beautiful within the kingdom, but -- forget about her having a cold personality -- I’ve already seen her performing enthusiastically in front of everyone else butt-naked.. Not only did she put up a great show herself, she even caused the people around her to start humping passionately...

"Your Highness, since the Second Prince is already in your hands, I will take my leave now," Lorist said to cut the conversation short as he decided to leave the imperial capital as soon as possible.

"Oh..." mumbled the Second Highness, surprised. "What's going on? Are you unhappy with our hospitality? Locke, you and I go way back and to be honest, I hope that you will be able to contribute even more during the unification war. As for the things that just happened, I admit that it was lack of consideration on my part for neglecting the reputation and honor of the Norton Family. I express my sincerest apologies to you."

Lorist waved his hand and said, "Your Highness, there's no need to dwell on such things. I truly believe in your sincerity and understand that you've always been focused on working towards rebuilding the empire, so it's completely understandable that you would let small things like this slip by since such things are usually unpredictable. However, after taking on the 100000 soldiers and ambushing Windbury City, the Norton Family force is already incredibly weakened. It's already uncertain whether I'll be able to protect myself and I've only sent the Second Prince here as a precaution. Duke Fisablen is definitely not an easy person to deal with and I must even keep one eye open when I sleep in my dominion to stay alert..."

Since Duke Fisablen was busy gathering all the livestock to exchange for military equipment, Lorist didn't bother too much and dumped all the blame on him. Additionally, as the Second Prince's father-in-law, the duke was supposed to be the enemy of the Second Highness in the first place. Given his moniker as the war god of the plains, the Second Highness would only believe in Lorist's description of the situation of the Norton Family if he inflated the might of Duke Fisablen.

"That's why I still have to rush back to the Northlands to rebuild my family forces. Initially, I thought that I would be able to gain some resources from Silowas Island to aid in the recovery of my dominion in the Northlands but I didn't think that the island would be ravaged so badly. Your Highness, please forgive me for not being able to partake in the unification war. It is beyond my ability to do so no matter how much I wish it were. All I can do here is to wish you all the best in your efforts and hope that I will be able to come here again to congratulate Your Highness when you succeed."

Since Lorist was insistent on leaving, the Second Highness didn't do too much to stop him. Given the achievement of capturing and bringing over the Second Prince, it would be troublesome for him to force Lorist to stay. If anything were to happen to the Norton Family dominion as a result of that, there's no doubt that Lorist would hate the Second Highness to the bone, so Second Highness Auguslo felt that it was better to let him go back to fight with Duke Fisablen since he had originally intended to use the Norton Family forces to hold back those of Duke FIsablen anyway.

Having finally obtained permission to leave, Lorist departed immediately without looking back.

After exiting the capital, Josk laughed and said, "Milord, why weren't you moved even the slightest when that beautiful princess approached you? She tried so hard to get close to you that I thought she had glued herself to you."

Lorist laughed bitterly and said, "Joe, that woman is not as simple as she seems. If it were another woman, I would be more than happy to encourage you to court her. After all, it's not every day that you praise a woman for her looks. However, I can't help but feel that this princess seems to be plotting something. 'Empire-ruining beauties' are used to describe those kinds of women. Coupled with the mysterious circumstances surrounding her father, the First Highness's death, I feel that interacting with Princess Carey will bring us even greater trouble, so I believed that it would be best for us to stay far away from her. I don't want to be in embroiled in yet another incredibly complicated situation."

At that moment, Freiyar came forward and asked, "Milord, what's the plan for the rest of our trip?"

"After leaving the city walls and arriving at our camp, we will set out immediately. I am afraid that the Second Highness will change his mind and have us stay at the imperial capital. I didn't think about it too much when I decided to bring a whole regiment of Local Defense Force soldiers with me, and the Second Highness hasn't seen how well-armed they are yet. If he does, he'll definitely realize that I've been lying to him. These 500 soldiers are far more elite and well-disciplined than the royal guards stationed at the hall just now," Lorist said while furrowing his brow.

Josk nodded in agreement and said, "That's right, milord. When I was waiting for my turn to bring the Second Prince into the hall, the guards there were talking about how impressive our guards' equipment were with some of them even coming close to take a look while praising their quality. It looked as if they were about to strip our guards naked right then and there. When the Second Highness has more time, the guards will definitely report to him about it and I believe that the he will start to pine for our equipment not long after."

"Sigh, so many things to worry about. Leaving early is for the best," Lorist said.

Chapter 233 Breaching Five Camps in the Night

"Sigh, we couldn't buy any horses... I didn’t think they would be in such short supply in the imperial capital. Over the last couple of days we only managed to buy a few dozen horses. We had to pay double the market price for them, and they are all being used by milord to pull the carriages," grumbled Freiyar as he prepared the bonfire.

Josk said, "We didn't plan well enough. We thought that we would be able to buy some mounts when we came here, but we forgot that the imperial capital doesn't breed horses at all. Add to that the fact that the Second Highness's six legions require lots of horses, a shortage is unavoidable. I didn't think that we would actually have to walk back..."

"We’ve only traveled around fifteen kilometers, even after walking for the whole day. I estimate that we can move another 30 or so kilometers tomorrow. That’s rather bad for us. Since we’re used to traveling around the Northlands on horseback, this pace feels slower than a snail’s by comparison. Milord, should we head to the nearby residents of the nobles to buy some horses and carriages to travel faster? Since Silowas Island still needs to be developed, I think these carriages will be useful for transportation," Els suggested.

The group had left the capital and traveled for half a day when Freiyar instructed them to set up camp. The order came just as the sky began to darken. Thanks to the extensive training they had received, the 500 or so soldiers from the Local Defense Brigade settled down quickly. Surprisingly, the ones to complain were among the knights. Els, Jim and the others were used to traveling on horseback rather than marching. They grumbled while sitting by the bonfire. They had been able to sit in the carriage on the way to the imperial capital while escorting the Second Prince, but now they had to travel back by foot.

It was mainly because Lorist had bought a few thousand books in the imperial capital and intended to transport them back. Even though they had around 20 carriages, apart from the ones transporting food, all of them were filled with books. There wasn’t even a horse to spare for Lorist; he, too, had to travel by foot.

"Very well, we'll take a detour tomorrow and head towards Doni River. From there, it will only take another day of walking for us to arrive at Dasanba Town. Over there is the main jetty of the Doni River where we can take a boat to travel along the river to the shores of Domesger City. From there, we'll only need to travel another two days to reach Jillin Harbor and get on our ship back to Silowas Island," Lorist announced after he took a look at the map.

"Then, do we still need to purchase carriages when we pass by the other dominions?" Els asked.

"Forget about carriages. It's fine to just get some horses that your subordinates can use to scout ahead so they can alert us if there's any danger," Lorist said.

"Hah, milord, with our force of 500, which dominion lord in the whole of the Andinaq Kingdom will have the guts and might to provoke us?"

Everyone laughed out loud at the comment.

It was true. The nobles of the Andinaq Kingdom had already been made incredibly subservient by the Second Highness. Most of their family forces had already been drafted into the reserve army. It would already be impressive if they managed to have more than 100 soldiers garrisoning their dominions. As Karitoke had mentioned, as long as they didn't encounter the Second Highness's army, Lorist would be able to go anywhere within the kingdom with his force of 500 Local Defense Brigade troops without fear of being obstructed.

"Milord, why can't we sell the horses we have in the Northlands over here? I feel it’s a good idea. There’s obviously a market for it," Howard said.

"Hehe..." Lorist laughed as he stroked Howard's hair, "It's not bad that you managed to come up with that idea. Under normal circumstances, that idea of yours would be a good one. But you forgot to consider one extremely important factor: who are we to do business with? Even though the Second Highness requires a huge number of mounts for his army, he doesn't have the ability to pay for them. The 300000 soldiers have already stretched his finances to the limit. He definitely doesn't have any gold coins remaining to pay for the horses. If we were to bring horses from the Northlands here, we would only get an empty promise from him. Something along the lines of reimbursing us after he reunites the empire…"

"Alright guys, let's take a rest a little earlier. Howard, heat some water up for us to soak our feet in. There's still a long way to travel tomorrow," Lorist said.

The night passed rather uneventfully. On the next day, they continued their travels almost immediately and only managed to obtain 7 mounts after traveling through four dominions along the way. Among these were old horses that were around 15 to 16 years old.

Els had laughed bitterly as he said, "Milord, are we buying these horses for them to spend their retirement back at our dominion?"

During the evening, they managed to arrive at Dasanba Town, which was within the dominion of Count Santos. It was rumored that the count was currently the legion commander of the Local Defense Army's Third Legion, and was at the border of the Redlis Kingdom. The one in charge of Dasanba Town was one of his trusted aides, Old Sunny.

Supervisor Sunny was incredibly respectful to Lorist. Any count with an escort of 500 fully-armed soldiers was definitely deserving of such respect. According to him, Dasanba Town was one of the most important river crossings within the Andinaq Kingdom. Mainly because it served to transport huge amounts of supplies and resources along the river to the frontlines at the border of the Redlis Kingdom. It greatly decreased the expenditure of manpower and pack animals on the task.

That's why Lorist was able to obtain the supplies he needed there. He was also able to purchase a carriage. As for the boat towards Domesger City, Old Sunny said that he could help Lorist with one of his connections -- a regiment captain in charge of the supply lines -- and ask him whether he could help out.

When he heard that Lorist was willing to pay 800 gold Fordes for the transport of his escort soldiers and the 20 carriages, Regiment Captain Holson was more than willing to help out. He even ordered the supplies that had just been loaded onto the ships be moved back onto the shore. In total, around 10 boats were emptied for Lorist to use for the trip to Domesger City.

When Lorist asked Holson whether that would affect the transport of supplies to the frontlines, the captain replied without a care in the world, "No worries. It's extremely common for delays upwards of a few dozen days to occur and traveling to Domesger City and back only takes around 8. Additionally, we can also transport some supplies from there to here, so nobody would complain about it."

When the captain heard Els complain that they weren't able to purchase any horses along the way, he laughed and told Lorist and Els that it was because they didn't have the right connections. He brought the two of them to the transportation convoy’s camp. He quickly closed a deal with the person in charge of the convoy for the purchase of around 120 mounts for only 1000 gold Fordes. Even though they were not good war horses, they were more than fit for the task of pulling carriages.

Captain Holson's efforts were not in vain. He pocketed an additional 200 gold Fordes from the transaction. However, he would have to provide four more empty boats for the transportation of those horses.

Els asked him curiously, "How would you explain the disappearance of so many horses from the convoy to your superiors?"

Captain Holson laughed and said, "There are plenty of excuses we can use ranging from sickness, drowning, ill-fitting conditions, startled horses, and more. Any of these reasons would be enough to quell any suspicions people might have. The matter will be forgotten in a month. As for the lack of horses, they can just report it and ask for replacements. Naturally, that 1000 gold Fordes would have to be split up to quite a few people as well..."

Els contemplated what he heard solemnly. When he returned to their camp, he told Lorist, "Locke, I finally understand why you don't think that the Second Highness can unite the empire with only 300000 soldiers. Given the way his subordinates act, he wouldn't be able to do it even if he had twice the number of troops."

After another four days, Lorist and the rest arrived at Domesger City. Having paid the remaining 500 gold Fordes, Lorist parted with Captain Holson with a handshake and a face full of smiles. Soon after, he entered the city to go on a shopping spree. After another day spent resting, the group departed for Jillin Harbor. It would be only another day or two before they could to head out to sea.

In the evening hours, Jim, and two other guards who had been scouting, reported, "Milord, a dust cloud has built up behind us and it seemed like a regiment of troops are heading our way. There is an estimated 3000 soldiers and they will reach us in another ten minutes or so. Should we make way for them to pass?"

Lorist looked in the direction Jim mentioned. Not far from them he could see a dust cloud approaching.

Freiyar rushed over and said, "Milord, the troops are coming for us. Looking at how quickly the dust cloud built up, they must be engaging in a full-on charge. There isn't anyone apart from us on this path; there's no doubt that we are the targets of those soldiers."

Lorist hurriedly pointed at a small mound on one side of the main highway, and said, "Get the carriages up there first and build a defensive perimeter immediately!"

The mound wasn't that high. It was only about 30 meters tall, and dotted by a random assortment of trees. By the time Lorist and the rest got on top of the mound, the soldiers in the distance had arrived. Indeed, they had come for Lorist's troupe. Upon seeing Lorist and the rest heading up the mound, they slowed down and encircled it, seemingly intent on keeping Lorist and the rest up there.

Dulles used his sword to chop down a few of the trees, which was then carried away by a couple of the soldiers to be made into wooden barricades. Wiping the sweat off his forehead, Dulles asked Lorist -- who was also chopping trees beside him, "Milord, the soldiers beneath the mound are equipped with the Royal Family's Local Defense Force's equipment. Did the Second Highness send them here to hold us hostage?"

Lorist laughed bitterly as he shook his head, and said, "I am not too sure about it either. The Second Highness can be considered to be a formidable person and should not do something this irrational. I've already defeated a Blademaster right before his eyes, so he must be aware that cavalry troops like this wouldn't be able to stop me. Even if they managed to kill you guys, they'll still have a hard time getting their hands on me. And the moment I return to the family, I'll definitely mobilize my troops to avenge you. Should that happen, he'll have to forget about reuniting the empire entirely. It'll already be his good fortune just to be able to resist our assault. I don't understand what it is that made him take this move."

Freiyar and Josk approached and the former said, "Milord, we have surveyed the terrain of the mound. The slope that connects to the main road is the easiest to scale. We're currently stationing the carriages in rows in that direction to set up a defense line. After that, we'll install the barricades and dig some trenches. That should be enough to defend against the assault of the cavalry.

"Over there to the left is a cliff roughly 10 meters high. It’ll be impossible for the cavalry or infantry to scale, so we don't have to station anyone there for now. On the right is an uneven slope which is difficult for cavalry to surmount but possible for infantry troops to traverse. I've already stationed around a company of 100 men there, so there shouldn't be a problem.”

"Behind us is this small forest. We're currently felling the trees to clear up the landscape so we can aim and shoot. We’ll use the logs to build a few defensive walls, as well as prevent the enemy from using the forest as cover to attack us. However, one bit of bad news is that there is no water source in the area, and the water supply we have remaining will only last us two days at most. If the enemy decides to attack with fire, we will definitely be smoked to death," Freiyar said in a serious tone.

Josk added, "Milord, I made a rough estimate just now and found that the enemy has around one regiment of cavalry. The regiment should be around 2500 strong. Apart from some who are stationed at the cliff at the left side of the mound, the remaining ones have formed a semicircle around the front of the mound with the intention of stranding us up here. I suspect that they are waiting for more reinforcements to arrive before they start their assault. I suggest that milord breach the encirclement first and leave us here to defend against the enemy. As long as milord is able to make it back to the dominion, then the enemy's plans will definitely fail."

Lorist shook his head and said, "Since I brought you guys here, I will definitely bring you back with me. I do not have the guts to return to the dominion alone. Els, when it gets dark, bring Jim along with you to the cliff off to the left. Capture one of them alive for some questioning."

"Yes, milord," Els replied.

Under the starlit night sky, a number of light sources could be seen illuminating the area around the mound. Both the Norton Family soldiers and the cavalry of the Royal Family's Local Defense Force had some bonfires lit to alert them of any sudden movements or assaults by the other.

It wasn’t a hindrance to Jim and Els, however. They managed to sneak into the enemy’s ranks when they weren't paying attention, and soon returned with a prisoner.

Els carved a thick wooden branch into a chopstick with his dagger in front of everyone else, and threatened the prisoner with a similar fate if he didn't start talking.

The frightened soldier quickly spat out everything he knew.

"What?! You said that you came on the orders of Count Aslan to keep us here? So, he'll be leading two regiments of infantry troops over and will arrive in another two days?"

The situation was now clear. Gold ranked knight, and general of the Local Defense Force, Count Aslan, the elder brother of Viscount Aslan, whom Lorist had ordered to be beheaded, had personally mobilized his troops to kill Lorist. It was fortunate that Lorist took a detour and traveled to Domesger City by boat, causing Count Aslan to head to the wrong location. Otherwise, Lorist would have encountered them three days earlier. A fight to the death would have been raging already.

Currently, the orders the regiment of cavalry troops had, was for them to hold Lorist and the rest in place until Count Aslan arrives with his two regiments, totaling around 5000 soldiers, before beginning their assault. Count Aslan had left the banquet early, so he wasn’t aware of Lorist beating Blademaster Climonto. He believed that his three regiments -- totaling around 7500 troops -- would have no trouble preventing the escape of even a single soldier.

Lorist spat out the grass stalk in his mouth, and said, "Since he wants to play around, I'll make sure to give him a good time."

Even though the sky was still rather dark, dawn was just on the horizon. It signaled the beginning of yet another day.

The troops patrolling at the foot of the mound looked upwards and managed to see the blurry silhouettes of the Norton Family soldiers as well as their gleaming spearheads illuminated by the torches.

"Alright, let's head back. It's time for our shift change," said the squad leader.

Behind him, sounds of water sprinkling on the ground rang out. The squad leader didn't mind and merely commented, "Can't you dismount if you want to pee? Lazy ass..."

Following that, he caught a whiff of blood in the air. Noticing that something was amiss, he turned back immediately, only to see a blade entering his line of sight...

Everyone was shocked when they saw Lorist kill off the whole patrol troupe with only one strike. The enemy didn’t even have a chance to cry out. Following that, Lorist mounted one of the horses, and pulled his sword out of the body. He tossed the corpse to Jim and Els who were behind him. They laid the body down quietly and the three began their slaughter. The most shocking part of it was that the enemy wasn't aware of this attack at all. Not even a single one of them uttered a cry when they were killed. The speed, accuracy, and ferocity of Lorist's strikes caused the ones hiding in ambush to shudder.

That was the fourth patrol troupe, and they had gathered up to 80 war horses already.

"Alright, everyone. Mount up immediately. Those who still don't have a horse should continue to hide in ambush. We've already made preparations to kill our way into the enemy camp. Don't forget to light a fire. Freiyar will make his move when he sees the flames."

The cavalry regiment had set up five camps around the three sides of the mound. Each camp had around 500 soldiers. The patrol groups of 20 that circled the mound didn't expect that Lorist and the rest would slip down from the side of the cliff to begin their counterattack.

"Kill!" Lorist roared as he charged head-first into the first enemy camp. He was followed by Josk, Els, and the rest, who worked hard to carry out Lorist's plans. They set the fire, captured mounts, and killed the enemy.

Following the consecutive deaths of two Silver ranked knights at the spearpoint of Lorist's pike, the soldiers of the first camp completely crumbled. They ran with all their might towards the second camp with their equipment and hair all messed up. Lorist and the rest followed behind them and began their slaughter once more when they reached the second camp.

At that moment, the third to fifth camps were already alerted and began to react. A hundred and twenty cavalry could be seen charging towards the second camp to reinforce it. However, they didn't expect that halfway in the middle of their charge, sounds of killing would ring out behind them. Freiyar lead 400 Local Defense Brigade troops into the fifth camp. The cavalry troops that were not mounted were not able to defend themselves in the slightest, and the fifth camp crumbled almost right away.

By then, the second camp had already been breached. Lorist continued chasing the few hundred bare-footed soldiers towards the third camp. Freiyar, opposite him, was already succeeding in his assault on the fourth.

The sky soon brightened, and Freiyar rode to Lorist's side excitedly, and said, "Milord, it's our win! Victory! Milord, we breached five camps in one night and not a single enemy escaped. The surviving soldiers have all been captured. We also got most of their war horses."

"Are our casualties bad?"

"Around half of the Local Defense Brigade troops were incapacitated, with 147 of them dead and another 120 or so injured. The losses were suffered mainly during the final confrontation when the last of the cavalry managed to band together and launch a counterattack. After all, the Local Defense Brigade troops are only used to fighting defensively. Assaults like these are not their forte," Freiyar explained.

"Let's clear up the battlefield for now, we still have some work to do. Why don't we give Count Aslan a meeting gift?" Lorist said hatefully.

Chapter 234 Investigation

Twelve days later, Second Highness Auguslo brought a regiment of soldiers to that unnamed mound.

The corpse of the grandiosely dressed Count Aslan was laid before him. If one paid closer attention to it, one would realize that the head was separated from the rest of the body. The corpse had been left as it was for ten days; naturally it had begun to smell.

The Second Highness waved one hand repeatedly in front of his nose in a futile attempt to disperse the odor, before he said, "Alright. Carry it away."

Even though his voice was soft, the ones present at the scene understood the Second Highness's temperament well. They could tell that the Second Highness was at his boiling point. His rage was ready to explode at any moment.

Two guards lightly moved the corpse of Count Aslan and brought it out of the large tent.

"Marquis Reid, tell us the results of your investigation," instructed the Second Highness.

"Yes, Your Highness," said Marquis Reid. He stood up and stopped at the center of the tent with a large stack of beastskin documents in his arms.

Marquis Reid was one of the first to arrive at the scene. He was in charge of accommodating deserters, investigating the reasons for defeats, and burying the corpses of the dead.

He flipped open his documents, and began his report. "This time around, Count Aslan mobilized three regiments of troops, numbering 7500 soldiers in total, on this long-distance excursion of his own accord. He reported it as a long-distance training drill.. In actuality, he had intended to catch up to Count Norton's troupe to avenge his little brother, Viscount Aslan.

"However, it ended in the most tragic manner possible: with Count Aslan's death. More than 1600 casualties were suffered by the cavalry regiment; 800 are dead, and another 600 are missing in action. There are also another 200 or so deserters from that battle who later returned to us. Additionally, they lost most of their mounts as well.

"The two infantry regiments with 5000 soldiers suffered around 1400 casualties, with another 2000 or so missing, and a further 1500 who fled the battlefield, and have mostly returned. It’s worth noting that they were only faced with the 500 men brought along by Count Norton. The battle commanded by Count Aslan can be considered to be a tragic loss indeed."

Thump! The Second Highness threw his fist on the table and said, "7500 soldiers... Let's forget about the fact that Count Aslan acted on his own accord for now. They only faced an enemy of 500; they outnumbered their enemy 15 to 1! And yet, they still lost. Is that an indication of the incompetence of the Royal Family's Local Defense Force? How will I be able to reunite the empire with troops like these?! Is this really my army?! They're nothing but helpless sheep!"

The tent was completely quiet. Everyone within had their heads lowered while they listened to Second Highness Auguslo's complaints.

After venting his anger for a good while, he finally calmed down.

He said to Marquis Reid, "Please continue. Let others hear how in the world this battle was lost so that they may learn from this incident."

"Understood," Marquis Reid said as he flipped open another file, "According to my investigations, when Count Aslan heard that Count Norton would be leaving the imperial capital, he brought three regiments of troops to set up an ambush further ahead. But he didn't expect that Count Norton would suddenly change course and head to Dasanba Town to take a boat towards Domesger City."

"Based on the testimonies of the two company leaders from the cavalry regiment that had escaped, it is confirmed that the order Count Aslan gave them was to hold Count Norton's troupe back until the count himself caught up with the other two infantry regiments. Only after that would they launch the main attack.

"From a tactical perspective, Count Aslan's subordinates were rather serious and didn't have any intention of underestimating the enemy. However, Count Aslan feared that he might alert Count Norton to his intentions, so he didn’t send anyone to keep an eye on the latter’s forces. It was a grave mistake that caused him to be unaware of Count Norton's detour, causing his efforts of mobilizing his three regiments to hide there in ambush to go to waste.

"When he realized that Count Norton had traveled by the river, there was already a distance between them that would take two days of travel to make up. Count Aslan was forced to order his cavalry regiment to go to obstruct them ahead of the rest of the troops. This is one of the more traditional military approaches."

"But Count Norton was incredibly alert. The moment he discovered the cavalry regiment, he ordered his troops to back up onto a mound nearby. We can still see the many defensive fortifications the Norton Family forces made over here. However, he didn't think that the cavalry regiment wouldn't attack him and instead set up camp beneath the mound since they were only sent there to stall him.

"According to the cavalrymen that fled the battlefield, they set up five camps. Each contained one company of 500 men. Apart from the side of the mound with a cliff, they set up camps all around it to semi-circular formation, and sent out smaller groups to patrol the perimeter to ensure that the Norton Family forces wouldn't launch a surprise attack at night.

"The cavalry regiment was correct to take those actions. But they didn't expect the Norton Family forces to use that unguarded cliff to descend and sneak into their campgrounds, take out their patrol troops, and launch their attack during dawn on the two flanking camps before eliminating those in the middle. The resting soldiers were caught completely off-guard and couldn't resist at all. In the end, the cavalry regiment, without any mounts, eventually crumbled.

"After defeating the cavalry regiment, Count Norton did not let up just there. He used the time when Count Aslan was traveling to the mound with his infantry regiments to head to Jillin Harbor and the nearby dominions to purchase up to a thousand cows and mules to deal with the infantry regiments when they arrive."

Marquis Reid then took out a few more documents. "These are the testimonies of one regiment captain and a few other company leaders. They said that by the time they arrived here, it was already the afternoon. They did meet a few of the deserters and already knew about the defeat of the cavalry regiment. At that time, Count Aslan was in a rather sour mood. He ordered the deserters to be given 50 canes because he thought that they were the main reason for the defeat of the regiment."

"At that time, everyone including Count Aslan believed that the Norton Family forces had already escaped. They set up camp without paying much attention to their defenses, only to suffer an ambush by Count Norton in the middle of the night.

"This time around, Count Norton had the cows and mules they purchased doused with oil and covered their eyes up with grass. Additionally, he had short swords and daggers fastened to the bodies of the animals before setting them aflame and sending them into Count Aslan's camp. The infantry troops that were stunned awake were shocked to be greeted with the sight of flaming bulls and mules running wildly towards them. They instantly crumbled.

"Initially, Count Aslan had wanted to gather what remained of his troops to form a defensive line, but Count Norton didn't give him any chance to do so during the assault. One of the escaped soldiers mentioned seeing Count Norton himself rush over and behead Count Aslan after trading only two blows. After which the soldiers Count Aslan had gathered either kneeled and begged for mercy, or ran for their lives.

"I have to say, I am impressed. Count Norton's use of those flaming animals to crush a camp 5000 soldiers is a stroke of genius. He managed to gain victory with the smallest possible casualties. After that, he brought the head of Count Aslan with him but didn't enter Jillin Harbor. Instead, he got onto a ship at the coast around ten kilometers away from Jillin Harbor. He left Count Aslan's head on a branch somewhere near the beach.

"When the First Reserve Legion, stationed at Jillin Harbor, received news of the battle and sent out a regiment of troops to the coast, it was already too late. Count Norton and his men had long set sail. According to some of the tracks left at the coast, I believe the missing soldiers from the cavalry and infantry regiments must've become captives of Count Norton, and are being transported to Silowas Island."

After finishing his report, Marquis Reid placed the stack of documents in his hands on the table right in front of the Second Highness, and headed back to his seat.

The Second Highness proceeded to inspect the documents. Marquis Reid's work was very thorough; not only did he get the testimonies of the soldiers who had been fortunate enough to survive, he even drew a map that detailed the terrain of the mound and marked locations where the Norton Family forces and the cavalry regiment were stationed, as well as the route the Nortons took to breach the five camps of the cavalry regiment. Count Aslan's and his two infantry regiments' route was also shown on it. The map allowed one to grasp the situation clearly at a glance.

Having seen the documents, the Second Highness stayed silent and tapped the table with his finger repeatedly.

Everyone within the tent felt as if their hearts were beating according to the rhythm of the Second Highness's finger tapping. They all understood that the tapping meant that the Second Highness had already made his decision and no one would be able to change his mind.

The tapping sound sped up gradually, until it suddenly stopped. The tent was permeated by a still air of quietness. The others waited with puffed out chests and solemn expressions.

"Davey Copperfield!"

"Yes, Your Highness... What is your will?" asked the handsome man that appeared before Second Highness Auguslo.

As the vice captain of the Second Highness's personal guard, he would follow his lord along every time there was an excursion.

"Bring one group of the guards back to the imperial capital and pass on my orders. Have the Royal Local Defense Force's First Legion send out a regiment of troops with you as the commander to thrash the Aslan Family dominion and completely exterminate their family. The men of the Aslan Family shall be sent to join the suicide corps and given a chance to atone for their crimes with their achievements. The women shall serve as prostitutes for the soldiers at the military brothels," announced the Second Highness coldly.

The people within the tent broke into chatter. They were all shocked at the Second Highness's ruthless decision, despite the fact that Count Aslan used to be one of the most-favored generals of the Second Highness.

"Your Highness..."

Quite a number of nobles stood up and begged for mercy on the Aslan Family's behalf.

"Sit back down!" roared Second Highness Auguslo all of a sudden, "Viscount Aslan had committed serious transgressions. He was a tax collection officer I had appointed, and yet he kept me in the dark about his corruption. He had been executed before my eyes, so I pitied him and decided to put the matter behind me. Who would have known that a general like his elder brother, Count Aslan, would mobilize the troops to exact his personal vengeance and cause us to suffer so many casualties... Is he treating my soldiers as those of his family?!"

"These actions are the reason why I have stripped Count Aslan of his title and taken back his county. I will not allow something like this to happen again. Do you guys have anything to say about it?" asked the Second Highness domineeringly, "If he had won that battle, I probably wouldn't have held him responsible. But look at this... What kind of battle is this? 7500 men, all from my main army, defeated by a mere 500 of the Norton Family! This is the epitome of incompetence and idiocy! Perhaps I should even thank Count Norton! He was the one who spared me the future failures of Count Aslan in the war to reunite the empire..."

"Davey, I have given you the role of eradicating the Aslan Family because the kingdom's treasury is in a financial pinch and is unable to provide funds to replenish the Second Legion that Count Aslan has irrevocably crippled. Go carry out your mission. After that, you will take Count Aslan's place as commander of the legion and reorganize it. I will send you more men and horses from the reserve legion to make up for the ones we lost.

"Understood, Your Highness! Please be assured that I will definitely not let you down," said Davey before he bowed and left in high spirits.

"The rest of you can leave. Glacia, please stay back for a bit," said the Second Highness, waving his hand.

He patted on his forehead as if it was hurting really badly.

Once everyone had left the tent, only Lorist's elder cousin, Gold ranked knight Glacia, and Second Highness Auguslo remained. When Lorist arrived at the imperial capital, Glacia, who had been made the captain of the newly-formed knight brigade, had been training with her knights outside the city, so she had missed her chance to meet Lorist.

Glacia walked to the back of the Second Highness and began to massage his temples.

"Aug... You're worn out. You should take better care of your own body, you know..." she said.

As the Second Highness's lover, Glacia understood what he was worried about the most. However, it wasn't appropriate for her to say much given her status as one of the Norton Family. On the one hand, she had her cousin, Lorist, on the other, she had her lover, Auguslo. Her unique position put her in quite an awkward situation.

The Second Highness held the hand that was massaging him, and pulled the woman into his arms.

"Glacia, head to Silowas Island on my behalf and meet your cousin, Locke. Help me explain to him that this incident was definitely not what I had intended, and that Count Aslan acted on his own accord. Also, tell him about the judgment I passed on the Aslan Family. I hope that will be enough to quell his anger."

"My father's health is already at its limits, and when he passes away, we will have to begin the effort to reunite the empire. I hope that Locke can come over to give me a hand in that. After all, he's quite adept at coming up with unexpected tactics. I've realized that no one can compete with him in that regard. If he's not willing to do so, at least get him to promise that he will keep Duke Fisablen's army in check so that the old guy doesn't leave the grasslands to cause me trouble.

"Also, I'm sure you've heard Marquis Reid mention that it's possible that the missing soldiers have been captured by Locke and transported to Silowas Island. Help me see if we can get those soldiers back. Given the state of the treasury, we won't be able to afford their ransom, so I can only make it up to him after reuniting the empire...

Glacia stretched out her hand, and stroked the slender face of her lover.

"Alright, I will make my way to Jillin Harbor and get a ride to Silowas Island as soon as possible. I will do my best to do your bidding, so make sure you watch out for your own health as well," she said.

......

The decision to use the flaming animals to attack the camp was a result of a flash of inspiration from Lorist. Back then, he recalled one of the stories his grandfather from his past life told him. It was about the 'Fire Cattle Columns' tactic devised by Tian Dan during the Warring States period[1].

It was a shame that the cows and mules Lorist purchased for a high price didn't even amount to a thousand. It forced Lorist to pick out 500 war horses that were in better condition than the rest, and have the other horses made into fodder alongside the cows and mules.

Fortunately, when he arrived at the mound, Count Aslan believed that Lorist had escaped with his troops. It meant that he didn't pay attention to his camp's defenses and only set them up half-heartedly. As a result of the shabbiness of the defenses, the 2000 plus flaming animals simply crashed through in a frenzied stampede. They crippled the two 2500 soldier regiments almost instantly.

Lorist brought only 200 men with him to follow the animals into the camp. Apart from Lorist's killing of Count Aslan, the other soldiers didn't have to fight at all. Most of the two infantry regiments’ casualties were caused by the stampeding animals. There were even five or sixOf the Norton family’s soldiers who got injured when they tried to help the enemy soldiers out.

After obtaining victory, Lorist sent Els and the rest to book a few ships in advance at Jillin Harbor and have them stop at the coast around 10 kilometers away from the harbor. He would load up the 2000 prisoners there. Before leaving, Lorist realized that the head of Count Aslan was still hung at the front of his mount. He felt it wouldn’t be of any use even if he took it with him, so he casually found a tree branch and impaled the head on it. It was left there just like that.

Upon returning to Silowas Island, Lorist found a plot of land there to build a graveyard for the soldiers who had bravely sacrificed themselves, and arranged for a burial ceremony to be carried out. Afterwards, he would have to wait for the ships from the Northlands to transport huge amounts of supplies over.

During the time Lorist was at the imperial capital, Charade -- with the aid of Old Hugo and Hector -- had already completed most of the development plan for Silowas Island. All that was left was for Lorist to approve the plan.

However, when Charade heard about Lorist's ploy involving the flaming animals, he was so pissed that he nagged Lorist about it non-stop. 2000 cows, mules and horses cost roughly 20000 gold Fordes. Charade criticized Lorist for acting like a spoiled rich kid by using 20000 gold Fordes to eliminate only 5000 enemies. It truly was wasteful beyond measure. He even mentioned that Lorist should've bribed the enemy soldiers with 4 gold Fordes per person. That way, they would no doubt tie Count Aslan up themselves and bring him before Lorist.

As Lorist was bickering with Charade about the matter while going through the development plan together, Jim entered the room and reported, "Milord, your elder cousin, Glacia, is here..."

Chapter 235 Discussion

Lorist did not currently live at Whitebird Town. According to the development plan Charade drafted, the whole of Whitebird Town would be shifted 1000 or so meters to the east. The original location of the town would be further developed into a proper port,true defensive walls. At the moment, Whitebird Town was far too close to the jetty for the Norton family’s plans. They wanted to turn the place into a central maritime transfer point. It would, however, require that the port be expanded. The temporary wooden jetty also had to be exchanged for a stone one.

Charade's plan involved building up the residential and business areas of the new Whitebird Town, before moving the townsfolk over, after which the old houses would be demolished. These steps had to be completed before the expansion of the port could proceed, including the construction of the walls and defensive fortifications. As a result, Lorist could only stay within a temporary log house located at an ad-hoc army camp near the town.

"Agh... That hurts! Let go, Glacia! I'm Count Norton, the leader of the family! I order you to let go!"

The moment Lorist returned to his room, his ear was given a harsh pinch by Glacia.

"I'm currently educating you as your cousin. That has nothing to do with your status as count or family leader," Glacia said.

How does that even work?!

Lorist looked around, stunned, before he shouted, "You guys, scram! What are you looking at? Don't tell me you've never seen an elder sister teaching her little brother a lesson? Howard, you stay. Make my beloved cousin a pot of macks."

After that, Els, Josk and the rest left the house, chuckling. It was not everyday that they got to see Lorist get the short end of the stick. The matter would almost undoubtedly be spread around the grapevine of the soldiers who had nothing better to do in their free time.

"That's enough, sis. It's about time you let go. Sheesh, you didn't give me any face at all even though I was in front of my knights... I'm already an adult, and you're also not the snotty blonde lass from before. Act your age," Lorist said.

"You were the snotty brat, not me. Let's not forget that you were quite the crybaby too. I still remember that you would cry out almost instantly whenever I pinched you like that," Glacia said as she loosened her pinch on Lorist's ear, "Even though the family dominion was within the desolate Northlands, the days when we lived at the bastide was fun. I still remember that I would visit the family dominion every summer with my parents. My mom definitely wasn't too keen on those trips. The distance we had to travel was too great. Each trip would take us at least two months..."

"Well, it's definitely much better right now; we've built a port at the family dominion. It'll only take around ten days for us to travel from there to Silowas Island," Lorist said.

"Tell me, Locke... What have you done after you took the position of family leader? What changes have there been in the dominion?" Glacia asked.

Lorist began to describe the occurrences and changes within the family dominion of the past few years, such as the new family mausoleum at Whitedeer Mound, the resistance the family put up against the magical beast wave, the construction of Firmrock Castle, the development of the Felicitas and Salus settlements, the defeat of the Second Prince, as well as the alliance formed between the Nortons and the other three great families within the Northlands.

Glacia looked a little down as she muttered, "I really want to go back to the dominion to take a look... A dozen of years have passed just like that..."

"The family will always welcome you, Glacia. Oh, I almost forgot about the main issue. Tell me frankly, is the Second Highness going to deal with the Norton family next?" Lorist asked as he poured a cup of macks and handed it to Glacia.

Glacia glanced at Lorist from the corner of her eyes and said, "Why, aren't you a bold one... The moment I returned to the imperial capital, I heard of your heroic exploits... From beheading Viscount Aslan to defeating Blademaster Climonto at the banquet His Highness had organized for your sake... You truly didn't even bother to consider his standing, did you? Had it not been for the fact that you brought the Second Prince before him, greatly contributing to the kingdom, His Highness would've turned on you right away.

"ANd before I’d even had enough time to digest what I heard, I heard about your defeat of 7500 elite soldier from the Royal family’s Local defense Force. And that with only 500 family soldier no less! You even managed to kill Count Aslan, and left his head impaled on a branch at the coast as a show of might to us. You're really over the top... I already don't know what I should say to you, my little cousin. You're too different a person from what you used to be in your childhood..."

Lorist snickered before he said humbly, "People always change. That aside, I'm no way as mighty as you have praised me to be..."

Glacia stretched out her hand to pinch Lorist again. "Which one of my statements did you mistake for praise? I only know that you're becoming wilder and wilder. Locke, the way you handled this matter was too audacious. It will easily put our family at the center of the storm. The other nobles will start to see us as a threat..."

"Glacia, it's fine. You don't have to worry. The family is strong enough now, so we don't have to fear anyone," Lorist interjected.

Glacia breathed a long sigh and said, "Locke, since you're so confident about it, there isn't much that I can say. His Highness did not mean to blame you for this matter. He told me to notify you about how he dealt with the Aslan family as well as his hopes that you will give him a hand by helping him to strategize during the unification war."

After hearing Glacia explain the actions Second Highness Auguslo took against the Aslan family, Lorist gasped.

"Isn't that a little too harsh? The Aslan family will never have a chance to rebuild themselves ever again. No, wait... Glacia, why do I have a feeling that the true purpose the Second Highness eliminated the Aslan family was to take their wealth for his own use?"

Glacia nodded helplessly when she heard that.

"No way... Are the kingdom's finances that bad? Then why is the Second Highness so hell-bent on reuniting the empire? Can't he focus on ruling the Andinaq Kingdom properly first? He should settle the commoners down and strengthen the kingdom before trying unification again." Lorist said, expressing his shock and confusion of the Second Highness's intentions.

"Glacia, I really don't understand why he's in such a rush to reunite the empire. Having 300000 soldiers under his command was already a big enough mistake. There is no way that the six provinces of the kingdom can afford to sustain that many soldiers. I believe that the Second Highness should've emptied the savings of the royal family on those troops... And the costs will only rise even further when the war starts. How will the Second Highness deal with the logistics issues, as well as the pension and reimbursement for the dead soldiers?"

Seeing Glacia shrug, Lorist widened his eyes in realization, "No way, is he counting on raiding the territories he conquers for resupplication?"

Glacia nodded helplessly once again and said, "Locke, I know all this sounds ridiculous to you. But the kingdom truly has no better option to pick. What would you think if I told you that in actuality, the kingdom cannot even sustain one legion of soldiers?"

Lorist shook his head and said, "Impossible. There are six provinces within the kingdom. How is it possible for the kingdom to not be able to sustain even one legion of troops?"

Glacia said with a solemn expression, "It's like this... There hasn’t been any trade between the Andinaq Kingdom and other territories since its founding almost a decade ago. As the nation that bears the legitimate legacy of the Krissen Imperial family, the kingdom has been put under embargos, both publicly and secretly, by the Forde Trade Union. The products we managed to sell using our smuggling channels would also have their prices forcefully lowered greatly, and smuggled imports of the kingdom cost more than ten times the market price.

"Without trade, there is naturally no profit. The tax the kingdom collects is also incredibly limited, with most of it being paid in goods rather than gold. Also, at the Great Andalou Plains where the kingdom is located, even though it used to be the trading center of the empire, a vagabond crisis has emerged after the civil war. Everyone there lives in extreme poverty now. It was only after our family convoy brought those vagabonds away, and cleared out the nobles of the original three provinces of the kingdom five years back, that the Second Highness was able to stabilize the kingdom.

"After that, he emerged victorious from the First Prince's assault and forced him to hand two provinces over to the kingdom, as well as Yungechandler Province from the Madras Duchy. Even though the kingdom now controls six provinces, it's completely drained of resource. The past few years could be considered rather peaceful, but the tax we collected was only in the form of food. What the kingdom actually needs are war horses and iron ores.

"Not one of the seven iron mines of the empire falls within the borders of our kingdom. The Redlis Kingdom and the Iblia Kingdom each have two of those mines. Of the four great duchies, the Farkel Duchy owns two while the Handra Duchy owns only one. With the embargoes in place, we aren't able to trade our own produce for the other resources we need. Agricultural development requires huge numbers of metal farming tools. The kingdom has been forced to make do with wooden ones instead, despite the greatly inferior productivity.

"It's not that the Second Highness doesn't want to rule the kingdom properly; as things stand now, he just can’t. During the past few years, the First Prince, king of the Redlis Kingdom, drove up to 400000 vagabonds over our borders. Coupled with the trouble-making deserters and the armed vagabonds, the Second Highness had no choice but to recruit them into the army to ensure the peace of the kingdom.

"Take, for instance, the Fiercegale Legion. Even though it was considered one of the three main armies of the empire, they had begun to become more independent after being outside of the Second Highness's jurisdiction for such a long time. The Second Highness was forced to disband them and absorb those troops into the Local Defense Force to prevent unforeseen changes from surfacing. Unfortunately the move was misunderstood by others.

"As the reorganizations progressed, the number of soldiers only grew. If the army is disbanded and the troops are let loose within the kingdom, there would be no doubt that it would fall into a state of chaos and confusion. We must give the 300000-strong army a goal, something to fight for. That is why the Second Highness brought out the unification war: to raise the morale of the troops.

"In actuality, he is only targeting the Redlis Kingdom this time around. As long as the kingdom can absorb the Redlis Kingdom, then many of our problems would be solved in one go. Not only would the Andinaq Kingdom be able to obtain some much-needed resource, the Second Highness would also be able to take the first steps to building up our own market and economy so that we would no longer be affected by the embargoes of the other powers. As for the other duchies, the Second Highness thinks that there's no need to mobilize the troops against them. He believes that the dukes will submit themselves to him once the Andinaq Kingdom gains a stable footing. Once they do, the reunification of the empire will truly be something that is within our means to achieve.

"Locke, the First Prince is undoubtedly the Norton family’s enemy. Had it not been for his rebellion, my father, our Third Uncle and the First Young Master wouldn't have died. The deaths of our loved ones are inextricably linked to the First Prince. The Second Highness intends to make the First Prince pay, and I think you should give him a hand with that. He really admires you and even said that your tactics and strategies somehow always manage to catch the enemy off-guard and bring you victory. It was like that five years ago, and it still is today," Glacia said, giving Lorist a pleading gaze.

Shaking his head, Lorist said, "Glacia, since His Highness has already finished reorganizing his 300000-strong army, why didn't he launch the attack immediately? Instead, he’s put the matter aside for almost a whole year now. This delay has allowed the Madras Duchy and the Redlis Kingdom to make more than enough preparations at their respective borders to defend against him. Tell me, why is that so?"

"Sigh... Isn't it because the Third Prince hasn't passed on yet? Even though he’s been in a critical condition a number of times, he still manages to live on. If the Second Highness engages in his expedition now, given how far from the imperial capital he would have to go, he would inevitably lose his control and influence. If the Third Prince suddenly regains consciousness and does something against the Second Highness's favor, it would be too late and he will lose everything..."

"Haha," Lorist laughed. "Even though you're in the loop, an outsider like me is able to have a clearer view of the situation. Glacia, you trust the Second Highness way too much. That's why you believed the excuse he gave you. It would cost at least fifty to sixty thousand gold Fordes each year to sustain a 300000-strong army. With a huge spending like that, why can't he just form a standing army? If we take into account the cost to supply 300000 soldiers with weapons and equipment, the Second Highness has invested at least 1 million gold Fordes already. It's too big of a waste to spend that amount of money on military forces alone. With that kind of money, what's stopping him from developing the kingdom properly?"

"But, I've already seen the tax records of the kingdom. Each year, we collect less than 40000 in trade taxes, while sustaining an elite standard legion would cost more than 100000 gold Fordes," argued Glacia stubbornly.

"Glacia, if the Great Andalou Plains was only good for agriculture, there is no way that the imperial capital would be situated there. If you read more, you'll find that the Great Andalou Plains used to produce a good amount of gold nuggets. It's even known as the 'home of gold nuggets'. It’s able to produce tens of thousands of gold Fordes' worth of them each year. In actuality, the embargo is nothing but a joke. Merchants crave profits, and if an opportunity is profitable enough, they would definitely carry it out even if it would cost them their heads. The kingdom would definitely be able to get the resources it wants if it tried. If it really couldn't, how is the Second Highness able to supply the 300000 troops with weapons and equipment?

"I believe that His Highness is actually just going with the flow and utilizing the advantageous standing he has now. He's always been incredibly ambitious. The reunification of the empire is his ultimate goal. Just compare our family dominion with the kingdom. Which do you think has it worse? Despite that, our family put our priorities on development, and within a mere five years, the dominion changed radically. Our family might increased to the point that we were able to defeat the Second Princes 100000-strong army in one fell swoop. That's why development is the only correct path to grow one's might. Having a strong force is but a means to an end," Lorist said.

"Forget it, Locke. I don't want to argue with you about this. His Highness doesn't intend to force you into this either. If you don't want to help him, then at the very least, the family forces at the Northlands should pay attention to Duke Fisablen. He will definitely pose a threat in the unification war, so you can do at least that, right?" Glacia said, switching to plan B.

After circling around in the room for a few moments, Lorist agreed to the request begrudgingly.

"Another thing. Hand the soldiers of the Royal family's Local Defense Force back to me. You better not have any plans for them," Glacia said.

"Fine, you can bring them away," Lorist said reluctantly. "But I will need you to compensate for that. You have to pay at least 100000 gold Fordes for their ransom."

Glacia glared at Lorist and said, "Dream on. I don't even have a copper coin for you."

"Then I won't be able to explain this to my knights. I originally planned to use them as laborers after bringing them here to Silowas Island," Lorist said as he shrugged.

Enraged, Glacia grumbled, "They are the soldiers we’ve taken so long to train... And you plan to use them as mere laborers?! No way. I will be bringing them back. If you need manpower, go find some yourself. There are tons of vagabonds at the southern and eastern provinces."

"Will the Second Highness agree to that?"

"Of course. In fact, he would be more than glad for you to take the vagabonds away."

"How about this, Glacia... I will agree to let you bring the prisoners away, but you must promise me that our recruitment of the vagabonds will not be obstructed in any way. Also, ask the Second Highness to let us recruit some administrative officials from the imperial capital. The family dominion needs more talent," Lorist said.

"Deal!" Glacia agreed without the slightest hesitation.

Glacia was in a rush to return despite having spent only one night on the island. However, there were only three small ships at Silowas Island, so transporting the 2000 or so prisoners back would take quite a few trips.

After sending Glacia off, Lorist said to Charade, "I will have to make a trip to Morante City."

"For what?"

"I want to buy boats and order a huge amount of food," Lorist replied.

Chapter 236 Heading to Morante City

"How many ships do you intend to buy?" Charade asked.

Since the shipyard at Bullhorn Bay could only produce seven ships a year, they had no choice but to buy more ships to meet their needs. Currently, there were two whaling boats and one three-masted sail-powered warship -- which had Lorist designed -- under construction. Lorist wanted a dedicating whaling and fishing fleet that could provide seafood products for the family. The fleet would consist of around seven whaling ships. The Northlands’ coasts had yet do be developed, so the ocean there was still rich with all sorts of resources. It was easily one of the most important locations for the family.

In addition to the whaling and fishing fleet, the family would also require a strong armada to keep the coast safe. There hadn’t been any sightings of pirates or other potential threats, but the family dominion had to be reinforced to keep it safe. Lorist planned to test the three-masted warship’s range and offensive capabilities once it was completed. He planned to build a further five warships over the following three years. He wanted to use this small fleet to police the coastal area and keep it safe for further development and transportation.

This meant that the shipyard’s schedule was already full. The construction of another shipyard at Silowas Island was planned, but it would only be capable of building smaller fishing and transportation vessels. At best it would be able to do maintenance and repair work on the larger family ships. It would only be finished in two years, anyway.

Lorist had obtained six whips during his initial excursion to Silowas Island. Most of the ships had belonged to the youths of the noble families that had occupied Seaview Manor. One of the ships had belonged to Viscount Aslan. All of them had been taken by Lorist as his spoils of battle. The two smaller vessels would be used as ferries from Silowas Island to Jillin Harbor. The four survey ships and two whaling ships would form a small convoy to ship cargo from Silowas Island to Bullhorn Harbor.

Since the development of Silwoas Island required huge amounts of support from the main family dominion, there was a need for a large maritime convoy. Given that the family only had one shipyard, at Bullhorn Harbor, Lorist could only purchase more transportation vessels. Given the prevalence of shipyards at Hidegold Bay near Morante City, they would definitely be able to get some ships there.

"I’m not too sure myself. I’ll Decide once I’ve checked out the prices over there," Lorist replied.

"This will definitely be a huge expenditure... The family administors won't be too happy about it!" Charade exclaimed.

As the former chief supervisor of the Norton family, Charade was well aware of the financial situation of the family and the status of its administration. Thanks to the raids and skirmishes conducted by the convoy during their travels, in addition to the complete sweeping of the duke's dominion, the family's finances had once peaked at more than 4 million gold Fordes. It was a staggering figure that could even rival the treasury of a kingdom. It was enough to allow Lorist and his knights to abandon their duties, and bask in hedonistic pleasures, for more than 200 years.

However, Lorist had spent much of that sum on the development of the dominion and the improvement of the family's military strength. The elimination of the magical beast wave, the settling of the vagabonds, and the development of the Felicitas and Salus settlements cost up to 1 million gold Fordes. In addition to that, the development of Blackmud Marsh was estimated to cost the family another million. There was also the shipyard at Bullhorn Bay, the refinery at Bladedge Mountains, the ballista workshop, and the military arms production plant. Together, they easily cost over 500000 gold Fordes.

As for the development of Silowas Island, after some discussion, Lorist approved the plan and allocated up to 800000 gold Fordes to Charade. Lorist's intention to purchase more ships would also cost him quite a lot. One ship would easily cost up to 5000 gold Fordes. The family would be left with only 500000 gold Fordes, 300000 of which would be spent on the military and administration. For that, Charade grew incredibly worried.

"There's no need to worry about our finances," Lorist consoled with a smile. "Right now, the development of the Felicitas and Salus settlement is nearing its end. Based on the estimated amount of tax we will collect this year, the family would be able to pay off our military and administrative costs and still have some left over. The factories that were started not long ago are also starting to turn a profit, with the family gaining a few thousand gold Fordes from that alone in the previous year. It's estimated that the figure will grow up to 20000 gold Fordes this year. It will greatly alleviate the family's burden.

"In terms of investment, the area of Blackmud Marsh near our family dominion is already within our control. What we will have to focus on later is the construction of the levee along the river and the port city, the cost of which has already been accounted for during the planning stages. As for the workshops we have at Bladedge Mountains, the family has already profited quite a bit from them, and they don't cost much to maintain. They only need around 30000 gold Fordes each year for research and development.

"Our investment in the salt merchant committee with the other three families of the Northlands also brings us tens of thousands of gold Fordes annually. The military investments the family made during the recent years also only went into the formation of our own Local Defense Brigade and Navy Marine Brigade. The rest of our forces are fully-equipped already. We only have to pay their salaries. On that front, the military costs of the family will decrease by at least 100000 gold Fordes. I predict that the earnings from the two settlements alone will be enough to cover our military and administrative costs in the future."

"That's impossible," Charade said, shaking his head in disbelief. "Even if we deduct 100000 from the cost, the expenditure on our military and administration costs at least 200000 gold Fordes. The family dominion's income won't even come close."

Lorist laughed out and said, "How is it impossible? The citizens on Silowas Island alone number more than 12000, and they were able to pay 5000 gold Fordes per year during the past few years when the tax rate was 50 percent. Almost every one of them paid half a gold Forde as tax. Now consider the settlements in our dominion which have a combined population of more than 800000. If each person paid a quarter of a gold Forde as tax, it would easily add up to 200000. Not to mention that we will get even more the year after that.

"Also, it's not like we're spending our money without getting anything back. Even though the purchase of ships at Morante City will cost a huge sum, as long as we are able to sell off the furs we've collected over the years from exterminating the magical beasts there, there's no doubt that we'll be able to gain another million gold Fordes in profit. We also have some smoked magical beast jerky and whale meat, both of which are hot-selling products. It won't take long for us to get the money we spent back."

"Oh, why did I forget that we can engage in trade?" Charade said, smacking his forehead with his palm, "Even so, Locke, your release of the captured Local Defense Force troops will cause our hands to be tied when it comes to developing the island. We will definitely require a lot of manpower. Are we really going to recruit vagabonds? What if the Second Highness doesn't agree?"

"He should be happy to let us do so. Glacia herself said that the Second Highness is also troubled by the vagabonds. He has to spend lots of food to keep them fed every month. Since our recruitment of the vagabonds will relieve him of that burden, there's no way he will stop us from doing so. In another two days, Glacia will come over with a proper permit, so don't worry," Lorist said after giving it some thought.

"According to our estimations, if we want to complete the initial development of Silowas Island within two years, it will require more than 30000 able-bodied workers. So far, we have to work on the move of Whitebird Town, the expansion of the port, the construction of the walls and defensive fortifications, the renovations of Seaview Manor, the reconstruction and agricultural development of the seven villages, the construction of the citadel for the Third Local Defense Brigade, and the construction of the levees along the coast will require an immense amount of manpower..." Charade said.

After shaking his head, he continued, "The development of Silowas Island is too big an investment. According to our vagabond recruiting principles, we will have to take in the family members of the laborers as well. Bringing the whole family over will only increase the expenditure of money and food on our part. Locke, you will have to buy enough food during your trip to Morante City as well. Soon, the produce of the island will no longer be able to sustain the people here..."

Lorist thought for a while, before he said, "I forgot to ask Glacia the last time about something. I heard her mention that the harvests of the Andinaq Kingdom are rather good during the past few years. As most of the taxes had been paid in food and other local produce, the Second Highness has a huge amount of it. I will see if I can buy some from him. I'm sure he'll be glad to oblige us. Even with that, we will still require a lot more food, as much as possible."

"Why's that so?" Charade asked.

"It's simple. Right now, the Second Highness is just waiting for the Third Prince to pass away. According to Glacia, it seems that the Third Prince will not live for another three months. The moment he dies, the Second Highness will launch the unification war. If something unforeseen happens, it will greatly destabilize the Andinaq Kingdom. If the war continues for a long time, I'm afraid that it'll be a repeat of the civil war of the Krissen Empire. The kingdom's subjects will be unable to farm in peace. When that happens, our stockpiles can be used to feed the refugees."

"Do you really hold the Second Highness in such low regard? If you ask me, with 300000 soldiers, even if he can’t reunite the empire, it should still be enough for him to sweep over half of it. People’s opinion of the Second Highness will change and his reputation will soar. There won't be anyone capable of resisting his assault," Charade said.

He couldn’t understand why Lorist belittled the Second Highness so much.

"I don't know how to put it into words... It's more like my intuition is telling me that he will not be able to succeed. I’m not too sure why I feel like this myself. Whatever. Let's not talk about these matters anymore. If the Second Highness agrees to let us recruit talent at the imperial capital as well as some vagabond workers, who will you delegate this task to?" Lorist asked.

"There will be a ship arriving from the family dominion soon, and Supervisors Kedan and Hansk will be on board. I plan to have Supervisor Hansk stay on the island to help me out and send Kedan along with Hector to the imperial capital. They will be able to handle it with Glacia and Karitoke's help. As for the recruitment of vagabonds, perhaps I may go to the eastern and southern provinces for a look myself," Charade said.

"Is that so... Then I will have the 500 guards that are on the way report to Jim. They’ll take care of your safety. I will travel on the Flying Fish of Dawn with Josk, Els and Dulles, as well as ten guards, to Morante City. The matters on Silowas Island will be left in your charge.

"Also, you should talk with the Second Highness about the food purchase. Grandmaster Sid's eldest son will also be coming over to survey Silowas Island for mineral resources. It's already the 11th month, so don't let him travel too deep into the mountains, lest any dangers befall him. Make sure he stays put throughout the winter, and only allow him to begin surveying with some guards next year after winter."

As Lorist patted on Charade's shoulder, he suddenly recalled something, "Ah, don't forget to write your father a letter. I will bring it to him."

"For what?" Charade asked.

"To order glass, of course. Isn't your father the distributor of glass? If we purchase them in bulk from him and transport them back to the dominion by sea, that would save us lots in shiping costs. You should know that a sheet of green glass that sells for a few coppers in Morante City will cost one large silver in the Northlands. Right now, many of the people within our dominion are still using wood for windows. I've decided that the first thing we will import after the formation of the trading fleet, will be glass," Lorist explained convincingly.

Charade laughed and said, "Alright, I will give the letter to you tonight. When are you leaving?"

"Perhaps in another two days. At any rate, I will still have to wait for the ships to arrive here at Silowas Island first. They will be bringing over 500000 gold Fordes and some sample magical beast furs during this trip. I will take 100000 gold Fordes with me to purchase the ships and other stuff. The rest will be left here for you," Lorist said.

......

Three days later, the Flying Fish of Dawn spread its sails and headed for the distant south.

On the way there, it encountered many other ships of various sizes, ranging from fishing boats to some smaller merchant vessels.

According to Captain Wilson, the former Krissen Empire didn't prioritise the sea, nor did they form any sort of proper fleet, mainly because the coastlines along the north weren't suited for port construction. Jillin Harbor was already the northernmost port of the empire, and it couldn't support the docking of larger warships or merchant vessels. The coast was just too shallow. It didn't help that the other harbors within the territory of the empire were owned wholly by the dominion lords, who relied on them to increase their own personal wealth.

Lorist recalled Tim, whom he had met a few years back during the northbound journey. He wondered how the man of illegitimate birth, whom he had made into Viscount Tebri, was doing. But Lorist remembered that Charade mentioned that they had managed to get the Peterson Merchant Guild to cooperate with Viscount Tebri before leaving with the convoy, and even helped them build a garrison regiment. Lorist felt that Tim should be doing quite well and realized that he could also ask him about some news on the Peterson Merchant Guild. Lorist would definitely require the assistance of the Peterson Merchant Guild on this excursion of his to Morante City.

"Head to the dominion of Viscount Terbi," Lorist instructed.

A week later, the Flying Fish of Dawn appeared near the coasts of Viscount Tebri's dominion. Dulles and Els had been there a number of times with Charade. They recognized the port of the dominion quickly and even saw the castle in the distance on a hill that flew the flag of the Tebri Family.

Only two small supply boats could be seen at the port. No ships belonging to the Peterson Merchant Guild could be seen. Wilson instructed his crew to approach the port before stopping entirely.

In the distance, the blowing of horns could be heard. After a few moments, a squad of garrison soldiers arrived, led by an old, white-haired knight.

"Ah, it's Old Gemors! We've dealt with him before," cheered Dulles and Els.

Lorist had heard Tim say that Old Gemors was the only surviving knight of the Tebri Family. However, he hadn't personally met the old knight before and only saw him now that he was around 60 years old.

Despite his age, Knight Gemors's vision was still in a good condition. He recognized Dulles and Els right away, and dismounted to give the two a hearty hug, before saluting Lorist formally. But after he heard that Lorist wished to meet Tim, he apologized and said that the viscount and his wife had left with their three children on the Peterson Merchant Guild’s convoy for Morante City to spend the winter there.

What? Tim already has three children? thought Lorist with surprise.

Old Knight Gemors expressed his gratitude for Tim's marriage which was arranged by Lorist years prior. The couple got along really well and birthed two sons and one daughter within the span of six years. Currently, the wife of the viscount was pregnant yet again. Because of the successful dealings with the Peterson Merchant guild, Tim earned quite a bit of money as well, and managed to get the Peterson Merchant Guild to buy him a house in Morante City on his behalf.

Because of his wife's fondness of Morante City, the couple basically spent more than half of the year there. They would only return to the viscounty during summer and head out for Morante City again when winter came.

Lorist said, "Then forget it. We were just about to head to Morante City anyway. Give me the address of the viscount. I will pay him a visit once I'm there."

Old Knight Gemors wrote down the address and handed it to Lorist. After noticing the swallowtail flag of the Andinaq Kingdom being flown on the Flying Fish of Dawn, Gemors asked, "Lord Count, are you a noble of the Andinaq Kingdom right now?"

Lorist nodded. Upon seeing the awkward expression on the old knight's face, he asked, "What's wrong?"

"Please forgive my rudeness, Lord Count. It's better if you fly the flag of your own family, or even the Tebri Family's. But it's best if you don't head to Morante City with the flag of the Andinaq Kingdom. The folk there don't really like it when ships of the Andinaq Kingdom enter Hidegold Bay," said Old Knight Gemors.

"Oh..." Lorist mused, before he sunk into deep thought.

Chapter 237 At Sea

The number of ships the group encountered grew as they got closer to Hidegold Bay.

"Milord, we should arrive at Hidegold Bay in three days. We'll have to keep our guard up for the rest of the journey," Captain Wilson said.

"What's wrong?" Lorist asked.

"Milord, this part of the sea is called the Sea of Grief. It is well known as one of the areas where pirates are most active. It is better, even for fishing vessels, not to approach it. This part of the sea is not within the patrol area of the Forde Trade Union's Invincible Fleet; so acts of slaughter and robbery are as common as the clouds. It could take mere moments for someone that had just asked for help to turn into the coldest and most savage pirate that could kill without batting an eye. There have even been some captains and crews that would sink to carrying out robberies here to make up for fruitless ventures elsewhere.

"When I used to work as a captain for a transport vessel, it was here where I suffered a huge loss. I remember that I had once seen a half-sunken transport vessel with several women on board shouting for help. I didn't suspect for even a moment that they might actually be pirates. I thought I could profit some from salvaging the cargo, and headed over. It wasn't until I had brought the ship in close that I saw up to a hundred pirates waiting to ambush me. Thankfully, I didn't resist. I surrendered quickly, and was spared by the pirates," Wilson described in detail.

"Sea of Grief? Does that grief refer to the merchants' grief?" Lorist asked.

"Precisely so. This sea can be considered to be one of the three main forks. To the west, this leads out to the Hanayabarta Kingdom and Shyarsia Kingdom. Those two kingdoms are both island-based. The Shyarsia Kingdom is the top producer of spices, and the Hanayabarta Kingdom thrives off the slave trade. Port Nupite has one of the largest slave markets in the world. To the south of this area is Hidegold Bay. And to the east is Armatrin Harbor of the Lormo Duchy, which used to be where people smuggled goods into the Krissen Empire. Currently, the Sea of Grief also connects to our family's sea route further north," Captain Wilson said after he had scoured his memory about the area.

"If this area is such a crucial location, why didn't the Forde Trade Union's Invincible Fleet place it under their jurisdiction?" Lorist asked.

"Milord, the Invincible Fleet isn't too suited to venturing too far. Given the poor wind-resisting capabilities of their ships, they will easily flip over and sink given the wind speeds over here. Actually, the Invincible Fleet's main objective is the protection of Hidegold Bay from the pirates as well as the Golden Trade Route that leads to the Golden Coast of the Romon Empire. The winds there aren'st as strong as they are here, so they allow the Invincible Fleet to operate to their full potential," Captain Wilson said.

"Then, are there any strong or influential pirate bands over here?" Lorist asked again.

"No, Milord. This is the truly laughable part of the Sea of Grief," Captain Wilson said as he chuckled, "Whilst the Sunny Seas has nearly a thousand variably sized islands, the Sea of Grief has no such places for pirates to make their hideouts. There was once a band of pirates, known as the Seadragon Pirates, that attempted to take control of the area and divide it up into various territories. It didn't take long for them to get chased off by the Forde Trade Union, the Hanayabarta Kingdom, and the Shyarsia Kingdom's fleets. They would definitely not allow anyone to establish dominion over the waters here.

"That's why they ignore the smaller-scale activities of the pirates here. The ones sustaining losses are those smaller merchant guilds or owners of smuggling ships. The moment the large merchant guilds' convoys' safety is threatened, the authorities will intervene and wipe out the pirates.

"As for the captains that venture into the Sea of Grief, apart from being wary of pirates, there are some that would take up piracy themselves when they see a fitting target. The Sea of Grief is a place where countless crimes and sinful deeds can be committed, with the evidence of such deeds easily buried within the depths of the ocean..."

"Whoa..."

After listening to Captain Wilson's description, Dulles gasped, before letting out a long sigh.

"Wilson, you're not joking with me, right? The seas here look really calm. Look at those ships over there that are traveling without causing any trouble. It's completely different from the chaotic mess you described earlier. Aren't they doing perfectly fine over there?"

"Hehe," Old Jack, the quartermaster, laughed, "Sir Dulles, it's precisely because they are traveling in a large group that they aren't praying on, or being preyed on by, others. If they were any fewer, they would've launched their attacks long ago. The captain of that fleet over there is no idiot. He's worried that if he attacks other people's ships, his fleet would sustain casualties and fall prey to others. That's why, the more ships you have traveling together, the safer it will be. You may not know it, but quite a number of ships had been on our tail just now. We've managed to shake them all off, however."

"There were people eyeing us?!" Lorist exclaimed, "Why didn't I realize it at all?"

"Milord, look at the cargo vessel roughly 100 meters to our left. There's no doubt that the crew there has malicious intentions. If we were traveling in a straight line, you'd notice that the vessel is constantly turning on an intercept course. If we were on a similar cargo vessel we would have to slow down if they were in front of us or turn away. They would easily board and rob us otherwise. However, this baby of ours won't be so easily dealt with..."

After Old Jack rotated the ship's wheel, the Flying Fish of Dawn swiftly traveled in a semi-circular arc, easily circling past the cargo vessel that attempted to cross their path and leaving them far behind not long after.

Cries and curse rang out from the cargo vessel behind them.

Old Jack laughed and said, "Milord, this ship that you designed is magnificent. It's able to travel so fast despite its size, giving it a speed easily double that of any normal cargo vessel. Others can only dream of catching us."

The moment Old Jack finished, Els patted on the mast harshly and said, "Old Jack, you shouldn't have avoided them like that. If they plan to rob us, let them come and see who's the one who gets robbed instead!"

Josk nodded in agreement.

Lorist laughed and said, "It's not a matter of who raids who, Els. Even if we managed to take control of their ship, we don't have anyone we can assign to control that vessel. If anything, it would do nothing but delay our journey. Forget it, we'll let them off this time. We'll teach them a lesson if we have a chance in the future."

On the 16th day of the 11th month the skies were cloudy with the winds blowing strong.

Thanks to the fins that stretched three meters deep into the sea at the bottom of the ship, the Flying Fish of Dawn didn't sway about in the waves like the other cargo vessels. Her sharp bow easily cut through one wave after another. She swam through the water like an agile fish. Given her fully extended sails, she truly seemed like a swift arrow traveling across the surface of the ocean.

The winds of the 11th month were incredibly chilling. One would feel as if blades were cutting across one's face when exposed to the winds without any covering. Lorist had Howard stay within the cabin while he stood at the helm and learned how to steer from Old Jack.

A cry from the lookout at the top of one of the masts could be heard as noon approached.

"A fleet has appeared 600 meters ahead!"

It was at moments like this that Lorist regretted not bringing spyglasses. It was an indispensable tool to sailors. It helped one detect enemies far earlier, and in doing so allowed one to react much faster to sudden developments. Instead, a lookout could only spot things happening 1 kilometer away at most. It was already quite formidable of the lookout to have been able to see the fleet 600 meters away given the cloudy weather.[1]

After a few moments, the lookout shouted again, "400 meters away, a large merchant fleet with 18 large transport vessels and 20 middle-sized transport vessels are heading south at half-sail."

Captain Wilson breathed a sigh of relief and said, "It's nothing serious. Normally, merchant fleets of that size belong to one of the seven great merchant guilds of the trade union. Given that they're traveling south, they should have the same destination as us -- Hidegold Bay. However, it's hard to identify what flag they're flying given the weather now. It'll take us another 30 minutes to approach them close enough to find out which merchant guild it is."

"200 meters ahead, a large merchant vessel flying a flag with a sword-impaled wine barrel, encased in a circular frame," the lookout reported after a while.

"The Chikdor Merchant Guild?" exclaimed Captain Wilson, "Old Jack, change course and overtake them by circling around them. Don't pass between their ships."

"What's wrong? Why do we have to take a large detour like that?" Els asked, displeased.

Captain Wilson laughed bitterly and said, "Milord, you should know about the Chikdor Merchant Guild, right?"

Lorist patted on Els's shoulder and said, "I know they are one of the seven largest merchant guilds of the Forde Trade Union. Initially, they were known as the Sword and Barrel. Their name only changed after Chairman Chikdor took control of the guild because he felt that it didn't sound too good. They are rather low-profile within Morante City, and not many would know that they are one of the seven largest merchant guilds."

"Milord, you are right. The Chikdor Merchant Guild is one of the hegemons on the ocean, having up to 100 large merchant vessels and countless middle-class cargo vessels as well as seven or eight shipyards. They have huge influence over the Invincible Fleet. They also engage mostly in purchasing loads of goods and dumping them in other lands. They mostly deal in wholesale distribution, so not many are aware of them.

"At sea, they control the routes that head to the Shyarsia Kingdom and Hanayabarta Kingdom. The Chikdor Merchant Guild purchases most of the spice produced by the Shyarsia Kingdom annually. The Hanayabarta Kingdom, on the other hand, use their immense profits from the slave trade to purchase luxury goods and daily necessities from the guild. The guild's formed four large merchant fleets that rotate every three months. They trade along the coast between Hidegold Bay and the Golden Coast."

Captain Wilson wet his lips with his tongue before continuing.

"Even though the Chikdor Merchant Guild doesn't grab much attention on land, they are incredibly domineering at sea. There have been instances where they caused trouble for smaller merchant guilds or individual ship owners. If it were the fleet of any other merchant guild, they might let us sail through their fleet. But this guild's fleets will only let you in to attack you once you're inside. They'll always leave the crew of the ships they attack right there, floating in the middle of the ocean."

"That's the reason why you had Old Jack sail around them?" Lorist laughed and said, "Alright, I trust in your judgment. Since our ship travels fast, we can easily lose them after circling around."

......

Within a lavishly-decorated cabin of the largest merchant vessel in the fleet, Chikdor Moribak sat down in troubled thought. The fleet had encountered a stroke of misfortune just before they could arrive at their home; they had gotten caught in a storm. While he wasn't worried that any accidents would happen, he was incredibly annoyed that the storm had delayed his return.

As the third-in-line for the position of the successor of the Chikdor Merchant Guild, he frequently found himself pondering on ways he could undermine his two brothers and gain his father's favor. For that, he even laboriously brought the fleet to the Shyarsia Kingdom to purchase spice. The old king had passed away in the first half of the year, and his successor wasn't too keen to let the guild continue holding a monopoly on the spice trade. The guild had no choice but to send someone with plenipotentiary powers to settle the matter.

Chikdor Moribak easily solved that problem. The newly ascended king suddenly fell sick and died, leaving his little eight-year-old brother to take the throne. The uncle of the king, who had profitable ties with the guild, was made regent, and the spice trade continued as usual.

Moribak believed that he had done pretty well and would definitely be praised by his father when he returned. However, he didn't expect that the days spent at sea would be so unbearable. The trip took three whole months. Each day at sea felt like a year to him. He couldn't eat or sleep well for a single day. Had it not been for the four trained slave girls he purchased at the Hanayabarta Kingdom, Moribak really wouldn't know what to do with all the time he had on board.

As if the delay caused by the storm wasn't bad enough, the fleet's ships were far shakier than ever. Just when Moribak wanted to relieve himself with the slave girls he purchased, he found that all four of them had become seasick and puked to no end. Moribak could do nothing but curse at the slave trader for lying to him.

Even though he claimed that they were trained, they still got seasick?! Ridiculous!

"Young Master, please be patient. We will arrive at Hidegold Bay tomorrow night. Just wait for one more day," the old servant advised.

All of a sudden, a commotion could be heard outside the cabin.

"What the hell is wrong with these noisy bastards?! Are they hungry for my whip?!" Moribak cursed before he exited the cabin.

"Young Master... Look! That ship is incredibly weird... It's traveling so quickly!" exclaimed one of the sailors as he pointed to the distance with a look of awe.

Moribak turned to look and was flabbergasted. All he could see was a weird-looking ship that swerved past them at a distance of roughly 60 meters. It quickly overtook the various ships in the fleet and approached the frontmost one.

"Young Master, that ship is traveling faster than 40 knots. This is the fastest ship I've ever seen," the merchant vessel's captain said. He had already served as a captain for the guild for more than 20 years.

"No way..." mused Moribak with shock, "Is it really that fast?"

"It is, Young Master. Please trust my observation. They are even able to travel at full-sail with the wind blowing so strong. That ship must have great wind-resistance capabilities as well as an incredibly sturdy build. Even though the ship's size is rather narrow, it can cruise incredibly stably, unlike our ships which will sway with the waves. The designer of that ship must be nothing short of genius. He has designed a magnificent horse that can race about at sea," said the captain.

Moribak didn't have a single doubt for the words of the captain. He trusted that the captain was a loyal man. Since that was the case, he felt that he should definitely obtain the ship for his personal use. As long as he could get his hands on that ship, he could bring it to the shipyards of his family. He could then determine what made it so fast, and use it to improve his family's ships. If he managed to accomplish that, his father would definitely be impressed.

At that moment, Moribak felt a burst of excitement build up in his heart, before he instructed his men to blow the horn and use flag signals to express his wishes to see the owner of that ship and ask the ship to approach his fleet.

However, after long moments of trying, the weird-looking ship didn't respond to their signals and went its own way. In a few moments, it shrinked into a small, blurry, dot before disappearing from sight altogether.

Moribak felt as if he had been smacked squarely in the face. He was incredibly furious. Never had he felt such humiliation before. There was actually someone who dared to refuse his well-intentioned invitation.

Very well, it seems that the ship is also heading for Hidegold Bay, Moribak thought, When I arrive, I will definitely seek you out and show you the 'warm hospitality' of the Chikdor Merchant Guild!

[1] Editor's note: This is an interesting error for an author to make. Barring special climatic circumstances like fog, choppy water, or a dark night, you should be able to see far further than normal. At the standard height of a crow's nest (around 30 metres for a ship of that size, perhaps a little more), you should be able to see about 20 kilometres out to the horizon. It should be easy to spot a ship of similar size (much less an entire fleet of them) at 12-15 kilometres. Even if we take into account the increased motion of the crow's nest (due to it's distance from the ship's centre of mass), it should still be easy to spot a ship at 5-8 kilometres, not the 600 metres the author suggests.

TL;DR, the author made a, rather interesting, mistake. You should be able to spot a ship (much less a fleet) at a far greater distance than 600 metres.

Chapter 238 Matters Back at Home

On the 17th day of the 11th month, the Flying Fish of Dawn arrived at Hidegold Bay.

The weather was still rather bad. Hidegold Bay was usually a very busy port, but on this day it was relatively empty. Apart from a few transport ships leaving the port hurriedly, only the fishermen dared sail in such weather. They didn't have much of a choice if they wanted to make ends meet.

Masts of varying heights lined the coast of the bay. Ships of all sizes were anchored against the coast. Many of the port's guides cursed the weather, attempting to relieve their frustrations, but when they received a large tip from Howard, the glum and frustrated expression vanished from their faces, replaced by beaming smiles. They quickly guided the ship to a spot where they could anchor.

A problem arose, however, when they tried to anchor. The Flying Fish of Dawn, at about 30 meters, was considered a middle-class ship, despite its narrow design. The spot given to her was about five to six meters deep. This was a fine depth for normal ships of her size, but she had a three-meter-long keel beneath the main body of the ship. She couldn't anchor at the spot she was given. When the tide recedes, she would embed her keel in to ground, and be stranded. The only solution was for the ship to be anchored further away, at a spot normally reserved for larger vessels.

Lorist stroked his chin in thought. It was true that the keel could help stabilize the ship, which meant that she would sail in far windier conditions than others, but Lorist had completely forgotten what a pain it would be to dock the ship.

Perhaps I can shorten the keel by about two meters. It doesn't need to be that long, anyway. It might even increase the maximum sailing speed of the ship.

Howard tugged on Lorist's shirt, shaking his mind back into reality.

"What's up?"

"Milord, look over there," Howard advised.

A few large-class ships could be seen docking in the deeper, emptier part of the port in the distance. The flags the ships flew depicted a wheel.

"We'll stop there then!" Lorist exclaimed joyfully.

"I'm afraid that isn't possible," the guide said, troubled, "That area is reserved for the Peterson Merchant Guild."

"That won't be an issue. We are actually on friendly terms with the Peterson Merchant Guild and can be considered their partners," Lorist said, "Howard, show him the medal given to us by President Peterson."

That medal actually belonged to Charade. Back when he was at the Redlis Kingdom, he introduced Tim to the Peterson Merchant Guild and managed to close a cooperative deal between the two parties. The deal allowed Peterson Merchant Guild to extend their sphere of influence into the southwestern area of the Redlis Kingdom. In exchange, President Peterson gave Charade a medal that could be used to request the guild's aid, or for special treatment and benefits. For example, they could get a 20 percent discount for purchases, and could even buy on credit if they didn't have enough money.

This medal should be more than enough to get docking space there, right? Lorist thought.

As expected, the moment the guide saw the medal, he stopped making a fuss, and even complained to Lorist that he should have brought out the medal earlier. That way, he could have just guided the ship to the Peterson Merchant Guild's docking space right away instead of troubling themselves with figuring out how to dock the Flying Fish of Dawn.

The moment the medal was shown to the harbormaster of the merchant guild's docking space, the Flying Fish of Dawn was given a spot to anchor at. Lorist tipped the guide with one gold Forde. The man couldn't stop showing his teeth afterward.

When the harbormaster suggested that Lorist pay an immediate visit to President Peters, he politely declined.

"I will visit him later in the day," Lorist said.

He would discuss the furs he brought along for sale then. He wanted to head to the Red Grace Inn first.

The two carriages reserved for the transportation of the guild's guests weren't enough, so the harbormaster arranged for another two carriages to join the small convoy. Lorist brought Howard, Josk, Els, Dulles, and another 10 guards, who were carrying two chests filled to the brim with gold Fordes, off the ship and left on the carriages to the Red Grace Inn.

As for Captain Wilson, he brought Old Jack, the other sailors, as well as the shooters of the Carroballista Division with him to a sailor's tavern nearby. They had to arrange for different sailors to be on shift to look after the Flying Fish of Dawn.

The arrival of Lorist and the rest at the Red Grace Inn gave Old Charlando and his wife, Louise, a great surprise.

Charlando knocked Els's head with the large spoon he used to scoop alcohol with, and said, "So you've learned to run away from home, eh? You left nothing but a note and abandoned all your brothers and sisters here... Are you really their boss? And to think that you didn't send so much as a single word during your seven years of absence... Do you know how worried all of us were about you? We didn't know whether you had died on a battlefield or at a dark alley somewhere..."

Els used his arms to fend off most of the hits. Eventually Louise interceded and stopped Charlando. Lorist noticed that Louise had become far more plump over the seven years he hadn't seen her. She had given birth to two sons already. He quickly congratulated them, much to the old man's delight. It seemed that his body was still in prime condition.

Lorist presented the couple with three gifts: three magic wolf pelts, four magic goat and magic deer pelts, and one red-colored bloodfox pelt. Those were the staple products of the Northlands, especially the bloodfox pelt, which was obtained by Els himself from a hunt. Back then, he already said that he wanted to make it into a scarf for old Charlando. Louise was incredibly impressed with the gifts, and, while Charlando said that he didn't really need a bloodfox scarf, he held onto the pelt without any intention of letting it go.

The most obvious change to the inn in the past seven years was the maidservants there. Louise explained that the last maidservant of the previous generation to leave was Molly, who had left three years prior, after marrying. The stingy Old Hope, who was a cobbler and a regular customer of the inn, had passed away. Two years ago when he got drunk on a winter's night, he decided to walk home to save the carriage fare. In the end, he collapsed unconscious in the middle of the snow-covered road. Old Hope was only found the next morning, after having froze to death.

There was also the red-nosed Old Mike who often sang in the inn. He had woken up one day three years ago from an alcohol-induced slumber, and said that he missed his hometown. Everyone thought he was just joking, and poured him two more cups. But, no one could find him the next day. It was believed that he left for his hometown early that morning. Nobody knew where his hometown was, however, and no word had been heard from him since.

The most depressing story was of Old Tom, the retired postman. He had drowned himself in the ocean. Old Tom had always intended to spend his retirement living relaxedly on the money he had saved up over the years, but his three sons and daughter never gave him any peace.His eldest son suffered a huge loss in his business, and kidnapped his business partner in a fit of desperation in hopes of being able to obtain a ransom. After receiving payment, he killed his hostage. As a result, that eldest son was eventually captured and hanged, with his wife and child punished with slavery.

Old Tom spent a huge sum buying the two back, only to have his second son disappear. The latter had incurred a huge debt with some loan sharks thanks to his excessive gambling. As if that wasn't bad enough, his youngest daughter, the most beloved of his children, was caught committing adultery. The angry, cuckolded husband brought the matter before a court, was granted a divorce, and banished her from the household. He didn't return even a single copper coin of the near 1000-gold-Forde dowry.

Old Tom couldn't bear the continuous upheavals and misfortunes. In the end, after drinking a cup of ale at the inn and bidding everyone one final, polite goodbye, he vanished. It was said that he jumped into the ocean while carrying a huge rock. By the time someone noticed and hauled him onto shore, he had already passed on.

As for the three Blackbear brothers, they had obtained a rusty old piece of metal during one of their missions. That piece of metal was later appraised to be a relic of the Magic Civilization, possibly a piece of a cauldron used during those times. They sold it for over a thousand gold Fordes, bought a plot of farmland, got married, and left the mercenary business altogether.

Lorist wolfed down the meal McDuffin had cooked for him and listened to the stories of his old acquaintances. Breathing a long sigh, he lamented the unpredictable nature of the human condition. Despite his lamentations, he felt very relaxed. It was as if he had returned to the days, seven years prior, when he was still just an instructor at the Dawn Academy, the days when he didn't have to worry about the matters of the family.

Lorist booked eight rooms on the third floor of the inn. He finished his meal, washed up, and got a new change of clothes, after which he brought Howard with him to meet President Peterson. Josk and four other guards would be in charge of guarding the two chests filled with gold Fordes in the inn. As for Els, he had gone out to check on his brothers and sisters within the syndicate.

First, Lorist headed to the port and brought a few of the rolled-up furs with him as well as a package filled with preserved magic beast jerky and whale meat, before calling a carriage and heading to the Peterson Merchant Guild's office.

As one of the seven largest merchant guilds in the Forde Trade Union, the guild's headquarters was located in the inner section of Morante City, and occupied a large area that encompassed almost one whole street. President Peterson was also really courteous. He had long been waiting to receive Lorist personally.

After a round of pleasantries, President Peterson invited Lorist into the guest hall for further conversation. After tea was served, Lorist started talking about the aims of his visit. He said that he intended to strike up a deal with the merchant guild and mentioned that he had lots of magic beast furs obtained from the hunting activities in his dominion, and wondered if he could get a good price for them. Additionally, he said that he wanted to order some large-class merchant vessels, as well as purchase a huge amount of food from the merchant guild.

As the Peterson Merchant Guild had built itself up by dealing furs with long distance carriages, they were easily able to get a few fur appraisers. All of them rated the furs Lorist brought with him highly, much to the delight of the president, who asked Lorist how much stock he had and said that he would buy all of them.

Lorist then stretched out five fingers.

President Peterson agreed immediately, saying, "Five thousand pieces? No problem, we'll buy all of them."

Lorist laughed bitterly and said, "President, if I only had 5000 pieces, I wouldn't come all the way here to trouble you. Actually, I have a total of 500000 furs for sale, with most of them being magic bull pelts."

Thunk! The silver cup in President Peterson's hand was dropped onto the table. "You.. What did you say? 500000... magic beast furs?"

Lorist nodded and explained, "My family dominion is incredibly close to the wildlands, and every winter magic beasts there would travel to my dominion to look for food. We've been hunting these beasts for the past couple of years. That's why we were able to stockpile so much furs. We only managed to complete a port on our coast this year, so we've come here to sell off the furs. We want to use the money to buy ships and food."

Upon hearing Lorist's explanation, the president revealed a look of understanding and said, "How about this... If the quality of your magic bull furs are as good as the ones you brought here... Given the market price of 2 gold Fordes and 12 large silvers per piece... I'll pay 3 gold Fordes for each of your furs. You're free to go ask around. I'm sure there isn't anyone else who can offer a better price than I can. The main reason I decided to purchase those furs is because you've brought them in bulk. I can fashion them into leather for all sorts of equipment. Naturally, for the furs of other beasts, I'll purchase them at 1.2 times the market price. Is that alright with you?"

"Alright, you can call the shots, president. It's decided then," Lorist agreed straightforwardly.

President Peterson laughed out heartily, obviously satisfied with Lorist's casual style.

"As for food. Don't worry. I will definitely be able to meet your demand. You can purchase as much as you want. As for ships... I can help you ask around if there are any large merchant vessels for sale. After all, we only have six ships ourselves, two large-class long distance merchant vessels and four middle-class merchant vessels. We mainly use those to transport our own stock, but we don't control any trading route.

"Had it not been for Knight Charade and the deal he struck with Viscount Tebri, we wouldn't even have a proper sea trade route. The business isn't big right now, but it's far more convenient than transporting things by land."

Lorist raised his cup and made a toast even though they were only having tea.

"Then I'll be counting on you, president."

Since Viscount Tebri's dominion was mentioned, Lorist asked the president for Tim's address in Morante City. He planned to drop by for a visit when he had the time.

President Peterson couldn't stress enough how fortunate Tim was to meet Lorist.

"Ever since he managed to strike a deal with our guild, he used our reputation to gain proper certification documents for his title, and ownership over the viscounty, from the First Prince. He is now a proper landed noble."

President Peterson described two embarrassing incidents that happened after Tim officially became a noble. But after a while, the president suddenly quieted down. Lorist asked him why he sighed, to which the president replied,

"It's all because that son of mine... He's always making me worry. I'm so disappointed in him."

"Did he get fat again?" Lorist asked.

President Peterson shook his head and said, "No. It's the opposite of that. My beloved son is now a training freak and spends all his time doing nothing but that. He's already broken through to the One Star Silver rank. He's also incredibly lustful for women. During the past seven years, he got himself 17 wives and already has 23 children..."

Despite his incredible shock, Lorist congratulated the president. Having many descendants was a good thing. It was very unlike the president, who only had one son to put his hopes on. As for his daughters-in-law, Lorist said that the Peterson clan could definitely afford to sustain them. Heck, his son could even afford to have 70 wives if he wanted to.

President Peterson said that what worried him was not that, but the fact that his son had no intention at all to take up the family business. It worried the president greatly. He didn't know who he could entrust the business he built up to. After seeing how Tim, an illegitimate son of a noble, could become a full-fledged landed noble, he lamented his son's lack of ambition even more.

Lorist smiled and consoled President Peterson and said that even if his son wasn't interested in business, he still had many grandchildren to pick from. Given that a Gold ranked swordsman could easily live past his hundreds, President Peterson had at least 50 years ahead of him. With that amount of time, he could easily raise another successor among his grandchildren, so Lorist said that there wasn't a need to focus only on his son.

President Peterson livened up at the comment. It was true! If his son didn't have any interest in the business, he'll just pass him over and train one of his grandchildren! Drunk with joy, he invited Lorist to stay and have dinner with him. No matter how Lorist attempted to refuse the offer, the president still insisted that he stayed. After drinking two more cups of wine, Lorist saw a person scramble before the president.

"Master, it's horrible! The Third Young Master of the Chikdor clan is causing trouble at our port! He's insisting that he wants to take away the ship that this guest of ours left there..."

Chapter 239 Port Troubles

President Peterson was incredibly furious. That area of the port was set aside for his clan's exclusive use, and Lorist was his guest. If Lorist's ship was really forcefully taken away there, it would definitely destroy the Peterson Merchant Guild's reputation if anyone found out. The mere mention of trying to take away Lorist's ship was an act that tried the guild's patience. What in the world was going on? Did the Chikdor Merchant Guild intend to start a full-on conflict with the Peterson Merchant Guild?

Lorist was also quite surprised. He didn't even know the third young master of the Chikdor Merchant Guild, nor could he recall if he had offended such a person before. Heck, he didn't even have the slightest interaction with the Chikdor Merchant Guild. Why, then, did the third young master want to take away his ship?

When the two arrived at the port, they noticed that they were dealing with a fumbling drunk.

Two groups of people were standing opposite one another. One group was the Peterson Merchant Guild and the sailors and marines of Lorist, including Captain Wilson and the others, and the other was a horrible drunk that screamed something along the lines of the owner of the Flying Fish of Dawn not giving the Chikdor clan any face. He insisted that they would take the ship away to teach the owner a lesson.

Even though many others stood behind the drunk Third Young Master, all of them knew that he was acting rather excessively. They had tried to persuade him to stop, to no avail, and could only stand behind him quietly without actually heeding his order to forcefully take the ship.

"What is going on?" asked President Peterson in a deep voice.

"Master..." the harbormaster greeted as he bowed, "I'm not too sure either. One hour ago, the fleet of the Chikdor Merchant Guild stopped at this area of the port. Initially, I thought they were only going to be here temporarily to borrow some space, so I didn't mind it. This kind of occurrence is actually quite common and we would allow it if it wasn't inconvenient for us. I didn't know that the third young master would barge into Lord Norton's ship. After he was stopped, he ordered his men to take action, and I quickly came forward to stop it, only to end up like this..."

The harbormaster then showed the beaming red palm mark visible on his face.

"Who did that?" asked President Peterson with a low voice.

The harbormaster looked at the third young master, who was having a drunk fit.

The third young master continued to clamor around, refusing to stop causing trouble.

"You actually dared... to offend us... The Chikdor Merchant guild... Are you tired of... living? I... I'm giving you a chance... by taking your ship away... Yet... yet you dare to stop m-m-me... I... I will exterminate... you lot..."

Lorist was enraged as he thought, You're only a young master of a merchant guild, yet you dare to be so audacious? Do you think that you're second to none but the heavens?

Lorist took a few steps forward, and looked at the people standing behind the drunk man.

"I am Count Norton, the owner of this ship," he said, "I don't think that I've had any interaction before with the Chikdor Merchant Guild. So, who can explain to me how House Norton has ever offended your guild? Why is your young master trying to take my ship away?"

An old man dressed like a supervisor stepped forward, out of the crowd, and said, "Apologies, Count Norton. Yesterday morning when your ship overtook our fleet, our young master ordered us to signal you to stop because he wanted to meet up with you. He even had the tune of invitation blown. But you ignored his invitation and continued on your way. That's why our young master is enraged. He thinks you are looking down on him and the Chikdor Merchant Guild... When we arrived, he saw your ship docked here. Coupled with his bad mood after drinking, he began to act up..."

Lorist looked at the old man with a dumbstruck face, and said, "Oh, so you're the merchant fleet that we overtook yesterday? Is your young master sound in the head? We'd already zipped past your fleet and were more than 100 meters in front of you. Would we be able to see or hear your signals from there? Also, given the strong winds, would we have been able to turn back to accept your invitation even if we did receive your signal? So you think you can take my ship because of this small issue? My, isn't the Chikdor Merchant Guild domineering!"

Lorist laughed coldly, and continued, "Hehe, so you want to take my ship? Very well. But are you prepared to pay the price?"

That old supervisor had misheard Lorist's tone and thought that he had been frightened by the reputation of the Chikdor Merchant Guild.

"Lord Count, your ship travels incredibly fast. She would definitely be of great use to the Chikdor Merchant Guild. If you hand that ship to us, you will gain the favor of the Chikdor Merchant Guild..."

Before he finished, Lorist spat out audibly, and said, "Forget your favors. If you want my ship, it's easy. You just have to defeat House Norton. If you can walk over my dead body, I'll give you my ship."

President Peterson stepped in front of Lorist to stop him. He already had a rough grasp of the situation.

"Since your third young master is drunk, then as the owner of this part of the port, I will bring your young master back with me to sober him up. You can leave now. Don't forget to tell your president to come collect his son," said President Peterson.

The president's statement implied that he intended to hold the drunk, trouble-making third young master back so that the president of the Chikdor Merchant Guild could come collect him after making up for the trouble caused. That way, the parties would not be on bad terms with one another. However, if they insisted on bringing their third young master back with them, they would have to fight for it with the Peterson Merchant Guild. The consequence of that conflict would not be something any single person could bear.

President Peterson waved his hand and called out two guards from his back to hoist the drunk third young master into the carriage behind them. Even though the people of the Chikdor Merchant Guild broke into a commotion, none of them stood up to stop the two guards.

The old supervisor bowed towards President Peterson, and said, "Then, we'll have to trouble you, sir, to take care of our third young master. We are incredibly sorry for tonight's incident. I will definitely relay this situation to our president as well. We will excuse ourselves now."

In a few short moments, the crowd at the port dispersed. Lorist was a little stunned at what had just happened and thought, That's not right, if there's anything I learned from reading all those novels, it's that the people of the Chikdor Merchant Guild would definitely stand their ground to support their third young master. They should be ignoring President Peterson, and rushing over to take the young master back. That should've been where I get to show off my skills by beating them all down, right? After the scrubs are taken care of, the boss character would show up, causing the conflict to gain even more traction. This should've ended with me helping the Peterson Merchant Guild defeat their rival, and be the catalyst that reinforces the relationship between House Norton and the Peterson Merchant Guild!

Why were the people of the Chikdor Merchant Guild so rational? Why were they able to leave their young master here just like that to avoid causing a commotion? How ridiculous... They don't even act like one of the seven largest merchant guilds at all... They should've at least left after spouting a few hatred-fueled lines to save themselves some face...

"Locke, there's no more trouble. Let's head back for some more wine," said President Peterson.

"We're still going to drink?"

Lorist really couldn't understand what President Peterson intended to achieve, so he could only cease his wild fantasies and instruct Captain Wilson and the rest to pay attention to the security of the ship, before leaving on the carriage with the president.

"Even though the Chikdor Merchant Guild has the highest number of ships at sea, they will still have to rely on our long distance carriages on land. Otherwise, they won't be able to gather so much resources and supplies that secretively. Tomorrow, President Chikdor will come to meet us and come up with a settlement since this incident was caused by their third young master to begin with. If he wishes to avoid conflict with us, then he'll definitely make it up to us properly," said President Peterson apologetically.

"Then, I'll be counting on you, president. However, I really didn't expect that the third young master of the Chikdor Merchant Guild would be so brainless and reckless. He doesn't look that young to me, yet he behaves like a rowdy child. Perhaps he's intentionally trying to cause conflict between your guild and theirs? Then again, I also think that the excuse I gave for not accepting their invitation to be rather lacking... Nobody would truly believe that," said Lorist.

President Peterson laughed heartily, and said, "Worry not, Brother Locke, this matter is not as complicated as you're trying to make it sound. In fact, I know why the third young master would get so drunk and cause a fit in the first place. Everyone in Morante City knows what President Chikdor is most troubled about. Even though all three of his sons are blessed with rather keen business senses that far exceed my own useless son by leaps and bounds, President Chikdor still hasn't named a proper successor. It has naturally resulted in the three young masters forming their own factions, each trying to get a lead over the others.

"But during the first half of this year, President Chikdor finally came up with a way to resolve this, and gave each of his three sons a huge task. The one who completes the task first would be able to receive proper guidance and inherit the merchant guild. That's also the reason for the third young master's rampant drinking. The deadline for his task was yesterday, but he only managed to make it back today, meaning that he had lost his right to succession by default. That's why he was throwing a drunk fit at our port. The people of their guild didn't even say a word when we wanted to bring him away either."

President Peterson paused in thought before he continued, "Just stay at my home for the night. Don't worry, President Chikdor will personally come over and offer you his apologies. In the meantime, we can discuss when you intend to hand us the furs you stockpiled."

Oh, I almost forgot about that, Lorist thought.

"I've come here to purchase ships precisely for the purpose of transporting these furs. Why don't we meet up at Silowas Island and carry out the trade there? The island is also a dominion of my House."

"Silowas Island?" muttered the president, "I seem to have heard of that place before..."

Lorist elaborated, "Silowas Island belongs to the Andinaq Kingdom and is roughly 100 kilometers away from Jillin Harbor. It is the largest island of the former empire."

"Wait, Brother Locke, isn't your dominion in the Northlands? Since when has Silowas Island become yours?" asked President Peterson.

Lorist then detailed his exploits and experiences to the president briefly.

With a solemn look on his face, President Peterson said, "Wait, then does that mean that House Norton is one of the noble houses of the Andinaq Kingdom? In other words, you're a count of the Andinaq Kingdom?"

"That's right. What's wrong, president? Will there be a problem?" asked Lorist.

President Peterson let out a sigh and said, "It's a rather huge one. I'm sure you've heard that the trade union enforced an embargo on the Andinaq Kingdom, right? It's completely true. It's all because the Andinaq Kingdom bears the legacy of the Krissen Empire, which was the sworn enemy of the trade union for the past 200 years. Even though the empire is already gone, the legacy is still there. The Andinaq Kingdom is considered an enemy to the trade union and is therefore under an embargo. This matter is one that us merchants rally up in solidarity for."

Troubled, Lorist said, "That can't be... I didn't expect that the grudges between the nations ran that deep. Even though there has already been roughly 30 years of peace, and the fact that the empire has already disintegrated, the people of the trade union still hold that grudge? Isn't that a little excessive? Wasn't there a saying about how there are no eternal enemies, only eternal profits? Shouldn't chasing profits be the core of a merchant's being?"

"Excessive?" President Peterson laughed and continued, "You're right. There are no eternal enemies, only eternal profits. Chasing profits is the core of a merchant's being. Actually, the hate for the Andinaq Kingdom is intentionally built up by others. The ones who are actively opposing the Andinaq Kingdom are the Twinhead Dragon Merchant Guild, the Mayflower Merchant Guild, and the Wessia Merchant Guild. The Peterson Merchant Guild is only cooperating with them and carrying out our basic obligations.

"However, when it comes to the embargo on the Andinaq Kingdom, we must definitely play our part too. Brother Locke, since you are a noble of the Andinaq Kingdom, then this fur trade will be very inconvenient for us to carry out. If we are found out by others, the Peterson Merchant Guild will quickly be isolated and attacked by the other merchant guilds..."

Lorist laughed and said, "How about this, president... House Norton will not fly the flag of the Andinaq Kingdom and only use the Raging Bear Flag of our own. Nobody would know that we're nobles of the Andinaq Kingdom then. Even if others find out about your deal with us, you still have a bunch of excuses to use. It is common knowledge that there aren't any magic beasts within the Andinaq Kingdom. As for the trade, we can carry it out at Viscount Tebri's dominion. We'll ship our goods to him, and you can fetch it there. That way, you can also say that you bought the furs from Viscount Tebri and have nothing to do with us."

"Alright, that's a sound plan. We'll do just that," said President Peterson with a tone of certainty.

Having dealt with the problems regarding the deal, Lorist breathed a sigh of relief. The sale of 500000 magic beast furs would net them 2 million gold Fordes, and that was enough for the house to invest in development and stockpiles for the next couple of years. It was something that the stability and prosperity of the Norton House was dependent on.

Even though he had closed the deal with President Peterson, he couldn't trouble him with the salt, magic beast jerky and whale meat he brought over. The guild didn't deal with those goods, and they didn't sell for much anyway. Lorist felt that it was better to look for other ways to deal with those items. Even if he couldn't sell them, the dominion would definitely be able to consume them.

After sending a few guards ahead to the Red Grace Inn to notify Josk, he spent an uneventful night at the Peterson Merchant Guild with the others.

At around 10 in the morning the next day, the men of the Chikdor Merchant Guild came over. President Chikdor came personally and greeted President Peterson intimately, as if they got along very well. The sober third young master was also brought over. He stood by his father with a sour face while the latter expressed his thanks to President Peterson for taking care of his drunk son, and for keeping him from causing more trouble for others.

President Peterson was also very courteous and stressed that the seven main merchant guilds of the trade union were like family. It was completely natural for them to watch each other's backs. However, he advised the third young master to take this lesson to heart and not lose hope after a small shortcoming and resort to drinking as an escape, even to the point of causing others trouble. He marked that behavior as uncultured and uncivilized, and said it was not something befitting a candidate for inheritance of a large merchant guild.

After lecturing the third young master of the Chikdor clan, President Peterson introduced Lorist to President Chikdor as the family leader of the House of the Raging Bear from the Northlands, Count Norton.

It was apparent that President Chikdor had never heard of House Norton before, since he had never paid attention to noble houses situated at the far borderlands. What he was interested in, however, was Lorist's oddly-shaped ship. He was shocked to hear that it could travel at 14 knots in strong wind. Even the fastest sail-powered warship of the newest design could only travel at a maximum of 11 knots.

Lorist shrugged and told President Chikdor that his ship was not good for much apart from her speed. Because of the Cursed Coasts of the north, he had to make his ship much narrower. Otherwise, she wouldn't be able to navigate the reefs there. And given the ship's narrowness, it couldn't carry much cargo. It could only be used to transport people.

As for the her resistance to strong winds, Lorist explained that he had simply added a 3-meter-long keel under the ship so that she wouldn't flip over easily while in transit. It was something a common shipwright would understand after taking only one look at the ship. Additionally, he said that the keel's main usage was to prevent the ship from being damaged by the reef at shallow waters. When the keel hit something, there would still be enough time for the ship to turn back and find another way.

Upon listening to Lorist's explanation, President Chikdor lost interest in the ship. He mainly wanted a fast ship that could carry large amounts of cargo. Just like Lorist had said, his ship was only good for speed and not much else. He wasn't worried that Lorist would make up an explanation to fool him since he could easily send a master shipwright to check out the design of the ship. That way, he would be able to know whether Lorist was telling the truth about the ship.

To express his regret for Lorist's troubles because of his son, President Chikdor brought Lorist a gift. It was an exquisitely decorated wooden box that was roughly 50 centimeters wide. Even though Lorist tried to refuse out of politeness, he still accepted it in the end and opened the box at the insistence of President Peterson.

The moment Lorist opened and looked into the box, he was dumbstruck.

Within it lay a golden, gleaming firearm...

Chapter 240 The Secret of Gunpowder

There was a firearm roughly 40 centimeters long within the wooden box. It had an exquisite design. Both the stock and barrel were decorated with intricate, gold laden carvings. However, the firearm looked a little weird. Besides the fact that its barrel was shaped like a trumpet, the hammer behind it was simply ridiculous. It was the shape of a two-winged dragon baring its fangs. It looked positively imposing.

The firearm took up half the space within the box. The bottom of the box was filled with rows of small lead pellets. Each pellet also had a cylindrical container. There was a total of 20 pellets and cylinders respectively.

Lorist was incredibly moved, and thought, If the pellets are the projectiles, then the cylinders must contain gunpowder! This must be the gunpowder variant of Grindia!

"This is a gun made by the dwarves of the Tedanini Kingdom. Last year, when the trade union came to an agreement with the dwarven kingdom, they were invited to set up a management office and a shop for dwarven merchants at Rotary Street, here in Morante City . I happened to be there, and purchased one of these guns. It seems that you like it a lot, Lord Count."

President Chikdor laughed heartily and looked at President Peterson, who merely nodded.

President Chikdor said to the guard beside him, "Demonstrate how that gun is used to Count Norton."

That guard came forward, saluted, and received the box.

"Lord Count, the gun is the traditional weapon of the dwarves. There are variations with different barrel lengths. Short-barreled guns can fire up to a distance of 30 meters, and they are rather similar to our own ballistic ranged weaponry. The range of these guns is rather low and is not worth much mention. However, one thing is for sure: the shots are very powerful. One would require at least 100 bowmen to pose a threat to a Blademaster, but one gun by itself will be enough to threaten a Blademaster within its 30-metre range. A Blademaster can deflect arrows with his sword, but not these bullets."

The guard then slipped the black cylinder into the barrel before using a fine metal rod to push it deeper in. He loaded the pellet into the barrel in a similar fashion. In the end, he said, "This gun is one of the newest models within the dwarven kingdom. They don't need a fuse, lifting this dragon here is enough. After that, firing is as simple as pulling the trigger down here. However, due to the physical differences between humans and dwarves, we humans had to strain to pull trigger because the force required to do so is rather great."

The guard then aimed the gun in his hand towards a wall around 20 meters away, and pulled hard on the trigger. Bam! Lorist was startled by the shot. He hadn't expected the gun to be that loud. Despite this, he was immediately pleased to notice a faint smell of burnt gunpowder. It was indeed the smell that a gunpowder propellant would produce. This only served to baffle Lorist; he didn't understand why his experiments before failed, even more so now that he had confirmed that gunpowder did indeed exist, and work.

"Look, Lord Count. The force is rather good, isn't it?" asked the guard.

He pointed at the hole on the wall not far away. A dented pellet could be seen embedded within it.

Lorist snapped out of his thoughts and looked at the hole. He noticed that the hole made on the wall was almost 1 meter away from where the guard had aimed.

With a margin of error like that, can it really be considered good?

At that moment, Lorist's mind was occupied with nothing but gunpowder. He was incredibly impatient and couldn't wait to go back and restart his research. As for the short gun made by the dwarves, he was only impressed with the intricate carvings on it, everything else dissatisfied him.

Look at that trumpet-shaped opening... If it's the slightest bit wider, the pellet would slip outward. And that beautifully carved wooden frame… it does nothing but increase the weight of the gun. Then there's that beak-shaped handle... Is that even nice to hold? And it doesn't even have sights... One can only aim this gun based on intuition... And the ridiculous dragon hammer that is far too forceful... Sigh, it's not good at all. Also, that trigger that requires so much force to pull... How can one aim steadily when pulling a trigger already swerves the gun around so much?

Lorist was confident that as long as he discovered the secret of the dwarves' gunpowder, he could definitely design a much better gun. Even his prototype would be far better than the decorated gun made by the dwarves.

But it was at that moment when he realized that his deep-thinking had made the others present think that he was merely a count from the rural areas of Grindia who had never seen much of the world. A look of disdain flashed past the guard's eyes as he put the gun back into the box and handed it to Lorist. "Lord Count, this is your gun, so keep it well."

Lorist received the box and hurriedly thanked President Chikdor.

President Chikdor laughed and said, "Since the Lord Count likes this gift so much, it was definitely worth it. Only by doing this can I properly express my sincerity to make up for my son's blunder. Also, forgive me for asking, since your dominion is in the distant Northlands, how did you come to know President Peterson? I also wonder if there's anything the Chikdor Merchant Guild can help you out with during this trip of yours to Morante City?"

Lorist also laughed and replied, "President Chikdor, I studied here in Morante City for a decade in my formative years. I got to know President Peterson, and received a lot of help from him, during that time. I had to return to the Northlands to inherit my title and the House's dominion. Six or seven years have flown by since then. I have come on this trip to pay a visit to President Peterson."

President Peterson smiled and nodded in agreement. He was quite pleased with Lorist for not revealing any important information.

"Oh, so that's the case. I thought you were preparing to secure a sea trade route. To be frank, Lord Count, since you are able to build a ship that is capable of traversing reefy areas, are you interested in establishing a sea trade route? If you're willing, you can let the Chikdor Merchant Guild handle the sea transportation for you. As the merchant guild with the most fleets, we can definitely guarantee that we won't disappoint you," said President Chikdor, staring Lorist directly in the eye.

Lorist revealed a look of joy, before his expression changed from to one of hesitation, then to helplessness. In the end, he even looked rather regretful.

After seemingly contemplating something deeply for a long while, he replied, "President Chikdor, while I'm incredibly interested in your proposal, my family dominion is situated in the far north and doesn't produce much unique local goods. There also isn't anything worthwhile we can offer up for trade. To be honest, we are only barely able to sustain ourselves with the food we produce."

"I am definitely interested in establishing a trade route by sea, but I know that I will be wasting goodwill if I have you make a pointless trip. Take, for instance, my dominion. It only produced around 6000 gold Fordes during the seven years I was there. Additionally, the only reason I'm able to come here to Morante City to have a good time is purely the graciousness of President Peterson."

President Chikdor didn't mind Lorist's rejection at all. He smiled and said to President Peterson, "I didn't expect that your friend, the Lord Count here, would be so honest. He's very unlike the other shallow nobles. They will stop at nothing to promote their dominions the moment they hear about establishing a trade route, when, in fact, they have nothing much to offer us. This is definitely a good characteristic of his."

President Peterson agreed and said, "The reason I stuck with my friend, Locke, here is because of his honest demeanor. He doesn't bear the usual shortcomings of other nobles, and speaks only the truth. No more, no less. His dominion is indeed rather rural, however. Even I can't help with that, despite my best intentions."

The two chatted for a few more moments before President Chikdor took his leave, bringing the guard and his third son with him. Lorist didn't notice the venomous glance the third young master gave him before turning to follow his father.

Lorist was still preoccupied with thinking about gunpowder. After discussing with President Peterson a little longer, deciding on the date when the furs would be delivered to the dominion of Viscount Tebri, and asking the Peterson Merchant Guild to purchase some large-class cargo vessels on his behalf, he left and returned to his lodging.

The moment he arrived at the Red Grace Inn, Lorist instructed Dulles and Howard to bring some magic beast jerky and whale meat to Louise, and ask her whether the food fit the taste of the citizens of Morante City. Other than that, he gave McDuffin some salt for him to try it out. He wanted to find out what difference it had with the rock salt usually used in Morante City.

Following that, Lorist cooped himself up in his room and began to inspect the remaining 19 cylinders of gunpowder included with the gun he received. He stayed within his room for three whole days without leaving. Josk and Howard secretly opened the door of his room to check out what he was up to on the third day.

The table was filled with various glass test tubes and experimental apparatuses used by herbalists. Lorist was thankful that he decided to take up herbalism during his days at the academy. The set of skills he had learned from those studies now allowed him to separate most of the compounds present in liquid. Doing this would allow him to easily determine the mixture used by the dwarves to make the gunpowder.

The mixture contained within each cylinder made by the dwarves was composed of seven different substances including sulfur, saltpeter, and powdered charcoal. They were the most common ingredients used to make gunpowder. The other four substances were rosin powder, puerarin starch, egg white and a kind of mysterious white-colored powder.

After more experimentation, Lorist came to understand that the only active components within the dwarven gunpowder were the familiar sulfur, saltpeter, and powdered charcoal, along with the mysterious white powder and rosin powder. Puerarin starch wasn't of much use, and the egg white was mainly used to solidify the powder into a cylindrical shape.

The thing that caught Lorist's attention was the mysterious white powder he had no information about. Without it, the gunpowder would be completely ineffective. Just as Lorist intended to ask someone else what the powder was by showing them a sample, he realized that he had used up all 19 of the gunpowder cylinders he had.

After giving it some thought, he called Howard upstairs. He had him instruct the maidservants of the inn to prepare him a warm bath, before ordering a huge meal. Following his bath and hearty meal, he took the box with the gun inside, and left with Howard for Rotary Street on a rented carriage.

Lorist had taken note when President Chikdor mentioned that the dwarves established a shop-office at Rotary Street. The carriage quickly sent Lorist and Howard to their destination. Upon getting off the carriage, Lorist could see a large, weird building that was stacked up with huge stone slabs. It looked like a small hill.

While it was weird for a 'mountain' to be in the middle of Morante City's busiest street, it wasn't that out of place; the ones who built it were dwarves, after all. The dwarves of the Tedanini Mountains were accustomed to living within caverns and they would feel insecure if they were not living within one.

After passing through the entrance, which was shaped like the entrance to a cavern, a dark stairwell could be seen. It was then that Lorist realized that the 'building' constructed by the dwarves wasn't that big. In fact, the main office and shop was situated in a large space beneath the ground. Many customers were visible inside, despite the bad lighting.

Lorist walked up to a barrel-shaped counter, and put the box on it.

A red-bearded dwarf looked at Lorist, and asked in a weird tone, "Good sir, is there anything I can help you with?"

Lorist looked curiously at the dwarf before him. It was a humanoid creature with an almost square-like build. Despite their similar appearance, the dwarves in Grindia had a different reputation from their fictional counterparts in Lorist's previous life. The two had similar behaviors: they both had great strength, dug caves, forged metal, fashioned equipment, and drank incessantly. However, the dwarves of Grindia were rumored to be shrewd businessmen. The merchants said that one should always be attentive and on one's guard when dealing with a dwarf. Otherwise, one would easily get tricked. That trait of theirs stood in stark contrast to their reputation for being honest and loyal in the fictional works of Lorist's world.

"Good day. I would like to know if I can purchase the powder used to fire this gun," said Lorist as he opened the box and brought out the gun and a few of the small lead pellets.

"Well, my son treated this gun like a toy and accidentally dumped the gunpowder into water... That's why when I realized it, it had already become like this," said Lorist while feigning a troubled look.

The red-bearded dwarf made a mocking expression and said, "Sir, we've heard others use the same excuse almost a hundred times during the month. In actuality, we don't really care if you discover the secrets of gunpowder. If you want to buy them, we have them for sale here. However, each cylinder costs 1 gold Forde."

What? It's that expensive? Lorist pointed to a similar box and said, "Apologies, did I mishear? A box like that with a short-barreled gun costs 35 gold Fordes. Why would the gunpowder itself cost so much?"

"That's because only dwarves can make gunpowder. You humans aren't able to make it. If there's no gunpowder, the gun would be nothing but an expensive toy for children, just like you said. Buy it, or not; it's your choice. We dwarves couldn't care less," said the dwarf, with his beard slightly swaying.

It was then when Lorist knew that there was no way the dwarves would tell him about what the mysterious white powder was. Having no other choice, he took out 20 gold Fordes and purchased 20 units of gunpowder. The dwarf even gave him an extra lead pellet to replace the one that was fired during the demonstration.

After leaving the shop of the dwarves, Howard said with a troubled tone, "Milord, you've been so occupied studying gunpowder for the past three days that you've forgotten about the original reason we came to Morante City..."

Lorist understood Howard's intention with this kind reminder, and patted his head.

"You don't understand, Howard. The dwarves' gunpowder is a great discovery. As long as we can crack its secrets, the House will no longer have anything to worry about in the future and never be defeated..." said he.

"Isn't the gunpowder only used for these guns? I don't think that the gun is any good," Howard complained, before his eyes flashed, "Milord, look! That shop over there has a gun hanging and it's even bigger than the dwarven one!"

Lorist turned his head to look and saw Howard pointing at a weapons shop. A huge gun could be seen hanging within. It looked a little like a mounted jingal.[1]

"Come, let's go check it out," said Lorist.

"Welcome, sir," greeted the sharp-eyed shopkeeper.

He realized Lorist's status as a noble almost instantly.

"Sir, we here at Starlight Weapons pride ourselves in the quality and elegance of our products. Whether you're buying a weapon as a gift, or for your own use, we can satisfy your needs," started the shopkeeper.

Lorist stopped in his tracks before the huge gun, and asked, "Is this for sale?"

The shopkeeper looked stunned, before he noticed the box Howard carried in his hand and realized what it was about. "Sir, this gun is a well-known weapon, 700 years ago, the renowned noble hero, Jinrock, used this very gun to strike down the demonic twin-headed dragon, Chimera. However, despite surviving for all these years, the weapon no longer has any value."

Lorist pursed his lips and thought, Who do you think you're trying to fool? If it really were a 700-hundred-year-old relic, the barrel would've rusted long ago! Not to mention the rotting of the wooden frame.

It was obvious that the gun was a forgery used to attract customers to the shop.

Howard, on the other hand, asked curiously, "Why would you say that a divine weapon like that is worthless?"

"Because there's no gunpowder!" the shopkeeper exclaimed, "It was because the dominion lord hero had a dwarven friend that crafted this gun for him and provided him with three units of gunpowder that he was able to use this gun all those years ago. Without any gunpowder, the gun is useless. It can't even compare to a flaming stick."

"That dwarf is far too stingy... Why can't he continue to provide gunpowder? Is he afraid that we would find out how to make them as well?" Howard questioned angrily.

The shopkeeper laughed and said, "In actuality, we already know what the gunpowder is made of. It's a mixture of sulfur, charcoal powder, starch, rosin, fire crystal powder and egg white. The dwarves are still as stubborn today as they were hundreds of years ago, so the formula hasn't changed one bit. It's a shame that the information isn't useful to us at all. There are no saltpeter mines in the human realm. Saltpeter can only be found hundreds of meters beneath the ground, and only the dwarves are able to mine that deep. Without it, there's no way we can make gunpowder..."

Lorist was shocked to hear the shopkeeper say that they lacked saltpeter to make gunpowder. He recalled that during his failed experiments, he collected naturally efflorescing saltpeter off the corners of his walls. Lorist suddenly recalled that the Northlanders had a habit of collecting saltpeter off of walls, but they mainly purified it in water before using it to treat leather. Nobody knew that the solution could be dried and used to make gunpowder.

But right now, what Lorist was interested in was the fire crystal powder that the shopkeeper mentioned. "Could you tell me more about fire crystal powder?" asked Lorist.

The shopkeeper replied, "Milord, fire crystals are commonly used by smiths to increase the temperature of their forges. Let me think... Two days ago, we purchased a sack of them from some adventurers. I'll see if I can find them..."

The shopkeeper vanished for a few short moments, before returning with an old leather sack. He took out a few of the crimson finger-sized fire crystals.

"Sir, these are fire crystals, and they are usually only found among the ashes at the opening of a volcano. These are treasures to smiths, who will powder them up and use them to raise the forge temperature while they work. Only if the temperature is raised greatly will the forging be successful."

"Oh, thank you. It's the first time I've seen these," said Lorist as he inspected the crimson crystalline object in his hand.

The shopkeeper smiled and said, "Sir, these are only useful to smiths, so it's not a surprise that you've never seen them before."

"So these are present within the gunpowder made by the dwarves?" Loirst asked.

"That's right. This has long been proven by Professor Balbo of the Venus Academy. Powdered fire crystal accounts for about ten percent of the volume of gunpowder. The main problem with making gunpowder is that over 50 percent of it needs to be saltpeter. I recall that when Professor Balbo published his findings last year, the citizens of Morante City were greatly shocked," said the shopkeeper who had a great memory.

Lorist took out a few gold Fordes and gave one to the shopkeeper. "This is payment for your stellar service, I'm incredibly satisfied. However, can I purchase a few of these fire crystals from you?"

"Naturally, sir. This sack contains around 30 of them. It will only cost you 2 gold Fordes," replied the shopkeeper politely.

[1] A type of gun. More info: Wikipedia

Chapter 241 Glassmith

15 percent sulfur, 15 percent charcoal powder, 50 percent saltpeter, 10 percent fire crystal powder, 5 percent rosin, 5 percent starch, add a little egg white and mix evenly. After that, the mixture should be placed in a mould and dried to form the gunpowder cylinder to be used with the dwarven firearms.

Lorist brought Howard to the public library in Morante City and spent only 1 large silver to get the librarian to help him search for the article published last year in the Morante Daily, one of the city's newspapers, by Professor Balbo of the Venus Academy.

What was interesting about the article was that Professor Balbo actually said the there was much room for improvement in the dwarves' formula. Unfortunately, he couldn't continue his research; there just wasn't enough saltpeter available for him to use.

The journalists of the Morante Daily even interviewed the dwarves, who, back then, had set up their shop for less than a month, about the room for improvement that Professor Balbo claimed there was. The dwarves said the formula was a result of the sacred, toiling effort of their ancestors. It was perfect and didn't require any modifications. The dwarves even thought that Professor Balbo made such a claim as a ploy to procure more saltpeter from the dwarves, and their response was none other than: scram!

Lorist felt a little embarrassed. He had initially thought that he could keep gunpowder a secret. It seemed he was one lagging behind instead. The many academies and experienced professors had long decoded the secrets of gunpowder. The only fortunate thing was that the saltpeter used by the dwarves had been extracted from ores that could only be mined deep underground. Additionally, the professors still had yet to realize that the nitric acid used to treat leather could be instead be used on saltpeter ore.

In ancient China, gunpowder was discovered only after centuries of experimentation. But the scholars of Grindia didn't know that the white crystals that appeared on wall corners were actually one of the core components of gunpowder. All they knew was that it could be used to make nitric acid for leather processing. Lorist considered that to be his fortune. He would one day be able to make far more effective gunpowder than those made by dwarves.

"Howard, bring two guards that can read to the library tomorrow and have them read through the newspapers and academic publications released during the past few years. If you think that anything is noteworthy, mark it down and hand the list to me. The family will be prioritizing development into our dominion and seafaring, so please take note on anything in those fields," Lorist instructed his disciple.

"Alright, Master. I will be looking out for them," Howard said happily. He had always been the type who loved to read.

After dealing with the matter of gunpowder, Lorist returned to the Red Grace Inn gleefully to carry out some more pressing matters.

Josk and four other guards had been spending the whole time at the inn to look after the 100000 gold Fordes Lorist brought along with him.

On the other hand, Els had been fuddled drunk by his mates of the syndicate he used to be a part of.

Dulles on the other hand went looking for his friends and classmates at the Dawn Academy and also returned dead drunk each day.

Lorist thought that it was about time he visited some of his old friends as well.

The following days saw Lorist being really busy, with him leaving early in the morning with two guards and only returning late at night. Mainly, he went to meet with the professors and instructors of the Dawn Academy, including Academy Head Levins and Blademaster Claude and his wife. After seven years, the Dawn Academy stayed mostly the same, but many of the people there had changed. There were quite a few of Lorist's acquaintances amongst the instructors that had already left the academy. However, the bronze statue of Lorist, erected when he obtained a 3000 win streak against Silver ranked opponents despite being an Iron rank himself, looked as domineering as ever, to the point that it was a renowned legend in the academy.

Academy Head Levins had aged a lot over these 7 years. The gift Lorist brought him was an undamaged magic tiger pelt. It would be a great help to alleviate the pains of his rheumatic condition. As for Blademaster Claude, he just received a great shock. When he first met with Lorist, he boasted confidently that he wanted to give Lorist some pointers in swordsmanship, only to lose in less than a hundred exchanges with Lorist in a fight.

Dulles, on the other hand, brought Lorist some good news. There were quite a number of academy alumni that were really impressed with Lorist's experiences and were hoping that they could also follow Lorist and join House Norton.

After giving it some thought, Lorist decided to accept them, but only after the risks and dangers were clearly laid out to them. The house needed more talented people, and the alumni of the academy were definitely more than qualified. Since they were his acquaintances and were willing to follow him, Lorist really couldn't think of a good reason to refuse them.

Upon receiving Lorist's permission, Dulles happily raised his hoe and began digging into the staff of the Dawn Academy.[1] During the seven years that had passed, many of Lorist's acquaintances had already become the core staff of the Dawn Academy. If all of them really joined Lorist, Academy Head Levins would have a huge headache coming for him.

Other than that, Lorist also went to visit Tim. The couple were living in a gothic, four-storey building not far away from the academy sector. The Peterson Merchant Guild had played a huge part in their purchase of the building, and they only had to spend up to 3000 gold Fordes for a building that was easily worth four to five thousand gold Fordes.

The Tebri couple were pleasantly surprised at Lorist's visit. Both of them were incredibly thankful for Lorist's efforts. Tim was saved by Lorist from a huge predicament with Count Cobry, and was also made into the rightful heir of Viscount Tebri as a result. Additionally, he had been introduced to his wife by Lorist. In some way, the blissful days he spent now was only gained after experiencing a fair share of troubles.

Tim was a rather well-known noble among the high society of Morante City. He complained to Lorist that before he became a noble, he was incredibly envious of them. But he understood their troubles now that he had joined their ranks. He had to put up a front all day long when he interacted with the other nobles, which he found incredibly tiring, and he began to feel that nobles were incredibly shallow creatures.

Lorist laughed at hearing Tim's complaints. During their casual conversation, Tim revealed a piece of incredibly crucial information: there was a chance that the Forde Trade Union would begin to implement a nobility system. However, unlike Lorist's noble title which was given to him by the royal family, the titles of the Forde Trade Union would be given out by their high council.

Lorist also told Tim about his arrangement with the Peterson Merchant Guild, and relayed to Tim his intentions of carrying out the trade at his dominion. Lorist added that he would definitely pay the necessary taxes. Tim expressed his willingness to help as well as his joy for being able to be of some use to Lorist, and assured that he would instruct Old Knight Gemors who was stationed at the manor at the viscounty to give his support.

When he returned to the Red Grace Inn, Lorist realized that Els and his good friend, Jindoz, were awaiting his return. Ever since Els left home to become Lorist's knight, Jindoz had taken over as the boss of the syndicate. It was quite apparent that he was far more reliable than Els; within the short seven years since Els's departure, Jindoz's syndicate had already become one of the largest syndicates within Morante City, and they already have control over at least half of the streets there. More than 4000 people worked for them.

Jindoz handed Lorist more than 50 gold Forde notes worth 100 gold Fordes each, but Lorist merely gave him a questioning look, not sure what it was about. Els then explained that the money was the rent that was collected over seven years from a building Lorist purchased at Rose Street before he left. Before he left, Els had left the unit under Jindoz's management, and he would collect 30 percent of the profits. The 5000 or so gold Fordes were Lorist's share.

After the explanation, Lorist recalled that he did in fact purchase a building back then. However, he recalled mortgaging it to Els for 5000 gold Fordes to raise funds for the northbound journey. However, that sum was already paid back in full during the journey. He didn't expect that his investment of 5400 gold Fordes back then would break even within a short seven years.

Jindoz laughed and said that it was only possible because the price of property within Morante City had been rising in recent years, causing rent to increase multiple times over. Otherwise, the profits wouldn't be that high. However, he said that he didn't come to meet Lorist just because he wanted to give him the collected rent. He said that he would like to acquire the magic beast jerky, whale meat, and salt for sale.

Jindoz laughed bitterly. He explained that he had no other choice, there were just too many people working under him. We was forced to look for other ways to earn some money. Nowadays, the syndicate had already taken control of half the shops around the streets of the city, so he felt that it would be rather convenient for Lorist's goods to be sold there.

Lorist agreed to Jindoz's request right away, but also said that he required his help for two things. First, he wanted Jindoz to find out about the situation of Professor Balbo. He hoped that he could recruit the man to carry out further gunpowder research for him. Additionally, he had Jindoz instruct the members of the syndicate to keep an eye out for some talented people who were only lacking a good opportunity. Lorist realized that the house required talented people in many areas, so he had to be on the lookout for them whenever he could.

After settling the matter with Jindoz, Lorist was prepared to head to the glass-producing Teribo Kingdom. Charade's father had started a glass distribution company there and Lorist intended to order the glass he needed from Charade's father exclusively. After all, he was a partner, and he had to deliver Charade's letter to him as well.

Charade's father was a successful merchant. It was said that the Teribo Kingdom's royal family even owned some shares in his firm, hence his benefits when it came to dealing in glass. He welcomed Lorist and the others warmly. As Charade had said, his father had yearned all his life to become a landed noble, so when he treated a person of such caliber, he presented himself with an incredibly respectful attitude.

"Uncle, you don't have to be so courteous, really. Even though Charade is my family knight, he's also my trusted friend and partner. As you're his father, you are considered my senior as well. Just leave these kinds of things to your servants. You didn't have to go about doing all this personally. If you do, I will feel incredibly troubled," Lorist said, not knowing how to react to the hospitality he was given.

After reading Charade's letter, he understood that Lorist was a legitimate landed noble. And when he realized that his own son was serving such a person, he went out of his way to make sure that all of Lorist's needs were met. That was especially the case when Lorist assured Charade's father that after another three years when Charade served for a full 10 years' term, he would give Charade peerage as a baron, and enfeoff a barony to him. When Charade's father heard that, he teared up in joy immediately and thanked Lorist unceasingly.

From that day onwards, Lorist realized that the treatment he received improved even further, to the point that Charade's father would accompany his servant for the smallest things. Even when the servant merely brought Lorist refreshment, Charade's father would be his shadow. That kind of hospitality greatly shocked Lorist. It made him feel rather uneasy. He decided to leave as soon as possible, he would be on his way the moment he had finished his matters.

As for the glass products required by the dominion, Charade's father promised confidently, even thumping his chest, that he would be able to supply as much glass as the Norton House needed, and even assured that there won't be any problems. Not only that, he didn't even require Lorist to pay a single copper coin as deposit. Lorist refused the kind gesture. Even though Charade's father was a rich and successful merchant, the order he made was easily worth 20000 gold Fordes. If some unexpected accident really happened, that would affect Charade's family. So, Lorist insisted that the deal be carried out as per usual practice, with the reason that official and private matters should not be conflated.

As for the letter Charade sent two years earlier, after Lorist failed in his experiments, to ask his father to find out what materials were used to make glass, Charade's father said that he hadn't managed to procure much information. It was mainly due to the degree of secrecy and care on the Teribo Kingdom's part to keep both the ingredients and the process of glass production secret.

However, he recommended Lorist go meet a person who had worked in the glass production plants for 32 years. The man, Mancheny, had followed in his father's footsteps, and took a position at the production plants. He eventually became a full-fledged glassmith, despite initially working a common laborer. He should have a complete grasp on how glass was made. Charade's father had first gotten to know him professionally, but the two had since become friends.

Charade's father mentioned that he had heard Master Mancheny complain about his fellow glassmiths. They were dumb as blocks of wood, and only knew how to do what they were told without bothering about experimentation and improvement. Charade's father, being the sensible merchant that he was, began to take note of Master Mancheny.

Master Mancheny was quite troubled these days. He and his wife only had one daughter, whom they treasured and loved with all their life. Now that their daughter had matured, they had started to trouble themselves over her marriage. Unfortunately, during the 36th day of the 9th month that year, on the harvest celebration, the couple and their daughter encountered Viscount Sirwa.

Viscount Sirwa had quite a reputation in Feyers City, the capital city of the Teribo Kingdom. The reputation wasn't a pleasant one. He was the nephew of the queen, and as fat as a pig and as lustful as a turkey. He had been implicated in the kidnapping of womenfolk within the capital on several occasions. Each had caused considerable commotion amongst the people. His antics had been toned down somewhat after a harsh punishment by the queen, however.

That very viscount had set his eyes on the daughter of Mancheny. While he didn't dare to take her away in public like he used to, he didn't hold anything back when it came to harassing the family. He intended to take the poor girl as his 26th concubine.

Given how much the couple treasured their daughter, it was no surprise that they had refused the viscount's demand without any hesitation. They greatly feared his retribution, and hid their daughter within one of the glass production plant's residences. They hoped they could avoid the viscount's claws by doing so.

While Viscount Sirwa wasn't able to interfere with the strictly-monitored glass production plant, he manage to bribe the plant's managers to drive Mancheny and his family out. It wouldn't take much effort to chase the Mancheny family out of the plant, and they could gain the favour of the viscount by doing so, so naturally the managers didn't hesitate. They accepted the bribe and began to cause trouble for Mancheny.

It didn't take long for them to issue Mancheny an ultimatum: since his wife and daughter were not part of the plant's workforce, it was illegal for them to be at the plant. But, considering Mancheny's 32 years of service, they would be willing to overlook the matter if he sent his wife and daughter out of the plant within three days. Otherwise, he would be punished for putting confidential information at risk.

Master Mancheny was incredibly troubled. He had spent his entire life working for the production plant. Now, in his last few years, he had been forced into such a difficult position. The most laughable part was that, being one of the people who knew the deepest secrets of glass production, Mancheny had two Silver ranked swordsmen by his side at all times. The two weren't there to work as his bodyguards, they were tasked with monitoring him to ensure that what he knew didn't get leaked out. They didn't bother to take any action on Master Mancheny's behalf, they simply waited for the drama to start.

Charade's father said that Master Mancheny's family had just been driven out from the production plant. Viscount Sirwa would forcefully marry the master's daughter in three days. Currently, Master Mancheny could do nothing about it. Charade's father said that if Lorist was willing to give a hand at a time like this, Master Mancheny would no doubt pledge his loyalty to the House, giving it access to glass production techniques.

That's not a bad idea, Lorist thought as he began to stroke his chin in deep thought.

[1] In Chinese, poaching can be literally translated as digging away at a corner. The author humorously made a play on words and described Dulles's action as literal digging.

What do you think about the nobility system that is to be implemented in Morante City? Will it be a good or bad development for the Forde Trade Union?

Chapter 242 The Curious Case of Luxcrimson Winery

Viscount Sirwa rode atop his horse gleefully. Thankfully, his zeno horse mount was strong enough to carry a person of his weight, which was easily double that of a normal person's.

Two silver-armored guards held a banner bearing a crest of a golden cup in their hands. It was the crest of House Sirwa. Beneath the golden cup was an intricate network of vines that circled around the cup to form a circular shape. A pure-white, seven-petaled flower could be seen all around the vines. They were the national flower of the Teribo Kingdom, the Turan Flower. The presence of that flower on a noble house's crest signified their close affiliation with the Teribo Kingdom's royal family.

The western wall garrison's soldiers got into formation to welcome Viscount Sirwa's escort after receiving instructions from their squad leader. The troupe was headed for Luxcrimson Winery, which was roughly 15 kilometers away from the city. The winery belonged to Viscount Sirwa, and was well-known for a century of fine wine produce. It was one of the main sources of income for the viscount.

Viscount Sirwa was in a rather good mood. Seeing Master Mancheny and his family leaving the city gates with glum expressions, the viscount couldn't help but crack into a smile. Hehe, so what if you're a glassmith? Did you think you could get away from the influence of a viscount like me? Did you think that you would be safe at the glass production plant? Hmph, even if a viscount like me can't enter it, I can still have them drive you out. You have no choice but to bring your daughter to me obediently.

That night, faced with Viscount Sirwa's underhanded request for his daughter's hand in marriage, Master Mancheny had no choice but to accept the request to let his daughter become the concubine of the viscount. However, he made three demands himself. First, he demanded that the viscount treat his daughter well in the future. Second, the viscount had to give an expensive betrothal gift. Lastly, their marriage ceremony should be carried out outside the city to attract as little attention as possible. Master Mancheny felt that having his daughter marry Viscount Sirwa was an incredibly embarrassing affair, so he wanted as few people to know about it as possible. If the viscount were to go fetch his bride with a whole parade, that would cause the glassmith and his wife to lose all ability to stand proudly amongst their neighbours.

That last demand was actually quite a reasonable one. Even though Viscount Sirwa was slightly displeased by it, he was no idiot and knew that his reputation was not a good one. There was little difference between a high and low profile marriage ceremony to him. Either way he would only be able to invite a few of his friends, friends that were just as bad as him. He decided to hold the ceremony at Luxcrimson Winery. It was one of his favorite spots outside the capital. It was relatively rural and quiet.

Viscount Sirwa and his 10 or so guards spent more than 2 hours completing the 15-kilometer journey. Luxcrimson Winery's gates were wide open, but Viscount Sirwa didn't really mind and dismounted when he arrived at the courtyard.

Usually, there would be a lot of servants coming up to him to serve him, tend to the horses, and bring some water or towels, or perhaps even tea. They would completely surround Viscount Sirwa. But for some reason, not a single soul showed up this time.

Angered, Viscount Sirwa yelled, "Where are they? Have they all died somewhere I don't know of? Why isn't there a single person here?! You two, go check where those lazy bums have gone!"

The two guards obeyed. They headed to the main hall, opened its doors, and entered, only to be flabbergasted. After a few moments, they snapped out of their stupor and returned. "Milord, look! They're all here..."

"Then why aren't you calling them to get their asses here to me?!" roared Viscount Sirwa as he headed towards the hall. The moment he arrived at the entrance, a gust of wind carrying a concentrated alcoholic smell wafted over the viscount. He fell to the ground dizzily.

When he entered the hall to take a look, he was stunned as well. Within it, many people could be seen sprawling across the floor. It was possible that everyone working at the winery was there, completely unconscious. They were so drunk they weren't even aware of what was happening. Empty barrels of wine could be seen all over the floor and tables. Some of the barrels still had crimson wine dripping from their openings.

"Hahaha..." The hodgepodge group of friends that had accompanied Viscount Sirwa to his wedding laughed so hard after looking at the scene that they had trouble stopping.

"Sirwa, that's too funny! So your servants actually party and drink when you're not around! Had it not been for the fact that you just decided to hold your marriage here yesterday and didn't send anyone to notify them of your arrival, you would never have found out about how they've been deceiving you the whole time! It seems that I have to carry out some random checks for my family's own winery as well... I wonder if those lowly servants dare to deceive me," said an oily-haired noble youth as he laughed.

"Ridiculous!" Viscount Sirwa was so mad that it seemed like smoke was billowing out of his orifices. It was obvious that he would become a laughingstock among the noble circle thanks to the disobedience of his servants. They dared to party when he wasn't around!

"I will definitely hang all of these pathetic dogs!"

As the viscount began to throw his fit, he waved the horsewhip in his hand and began striking his servants. It was a shame that all of them were dead drunk. Not a single one of them reacted to the whip as it crashed on their bodies. After lashing out a dozen times, the viscount was already out of energy and breath. His stocky body wasn't suited to strenuous activities.

The viscount raised his head, and saw the manager of the winery sitting on his golden-laced chair in the innermost corner of the hall -- the chair reserved for his personal use -- holding onto a large wine barrel.

Viscount Sirwa burst into rage again.

"Haul that pathetic wreck over here! How... How dare he sit on my chair?!"

Two of the guards walked towards the manager domineeringly. All the guards and the viscount's friends had already entered the hall. Even the two Silver ranked swordsmen watching over Master Mancheny went to check out the commotion.

All of a sudden, the two doors to the hall shut. The inside of the hall was plunged into utter, all-consuming darkness.

"Who... Who closed the doors?! Open it, quick!" roared the viscount.

The two nearest the doors stretched out their hands to open them, but after trying incredibly hard to do so, they stopped helplessly and said, "Someone has locked us in..."

"Who is it?! Who would play such a prank on me..." shouted the viscount as everyone else within the hall began to fall into disarray.

"Let's light a torch first. Did anyone bring a piece of flint?" someone asked.

Fwing! The sounds of swords being unsheathed could be heard. Five silver blade glows lit up in the darkness of the hall. The swords belonged to the three Silver ranked guards of the viscount as well as the two Silver ranked swordsmen that came with Master Mancheny. Even though blade glows were not ideal for illumination, it still allowed one to see, barely, the others at the front.

Fwoom! A flame could be seen at the innermost part of the hall, before more sounds of fires starting could be heard. High up in the air, two intersecting lines of hanging lamps were lit in succession. The upright candle holders by the sides of the hall followed suit. Soon the hall was lit completely.

The ones in the hall stared at the scene in stupor. The sight before them was too surreal, almost like a magical phenomenon that they had heard about in the legends.

"Revered Lord Viscount Sirwa, and all the other respected noble guests, I express my warmest welcome to you all," resounded a coarse voice throughout the hall.

In that instant some realized that another person was seated in the prized seat of Viscount Sirwa. The manager of the winery, who was there before, had been pushed to the floor a man dressed in a black shirt, black pants, and black leather boots replaced him. He wore a black cloth around his hair and a black mask on his eyes. Only the lower portion of his face, below his nose, was uncovered.

When he smiled, his shiny white teeth gleamed under the illumination of the candlelight. The man in black was sitting lazily in the chair and regarding the viscount and the rest with an unconvincing smile.

"You... Wh-who are you?" asked Viscount Sirwa in a panicked voice.

"Me? Well, you can call me Zollo[1], I guess," the man said without a single care in the world, "I have long heard about the generous and just Lord Viscount Sirwa of the Teribo Kingdom, and about the magnanimous deeds you did without batting even an eye. So, I decided to pop in and pay you a visit, and perhaps, help you, Lord Viscount, to spend some of your riches on a good cause. I suppose you wouldn't mind that, would you, Lord Viscount?"

Viscount Sirwa, upon hearing about his 'impressive' reputation, gleefully said, "No, no... I won't mind it at all!"

At the same moment the last words left his mouth, he received a powerful kick.

One of his noble friends glared at him angrily and said, "Idiot, don't you understand sarcasm? He's here to rob us! He's a bandit!"

The viscount finally realised his predicament.

In a fit of rage, he waved his arm and ordered, "Capture him! I want him hanged!"

The two guards, who had only moments earlier been instructed to carry the old manager away, were the closest to the seat, so they drew their swords and rushed forward. The man in the seat only twirled about twice, before the guards collapsed. They lay on the ground, unmoving.

"All of you, go!" roared the viscount.

All three of his Silver ranked guards rushed forward, along with a dozen of others of Iron and Bronze rank. A few short moments later they all accompanied the two original sacrifices on the ground.

The scene was completely out of this world. The man who called himself 'Zollo' was unarmed, and his figure merely shifted a few times before all the guards were knocked out. A couple of nobles recalled the fires being lit by no-one whatsoever, and their faces paled right away. "He's... He's a magus!"

The sound of trickling water could be heard as a few of the spineless noble youths wet their pants.

The magi were described as cold-blooded killers in the legends. It was said that they would carry out experiments with human subjects regularly, often stripping them of their skin or muscles, and even taking their bones out to perform revival experiments. The notion was only further supported by the prevalence of novels that depicted brave knights saving princesses from the grasps of evil magi or dragons.

Viscount Sirwa's pants were also completely drenched. He knew that he was no brave knight, nor was he a pretty princess. The logical conclusion that popped into his mind was that he would be one of the experimental subjects for the magus before him to vent his frustration.

The man in black, Zollo, began to cackle insidiously before he said, "Oh, naughty naughty... I see that I will have to brand your bodies after all..."

As Zollo continued to make his way closer, more than half of the remaining 20 or so people collapsed on the ground, shivering in fear.

All of a sudden, two swords flashed out of nowhere. The two Silver ranked swordsmen that followed Master Mancheny around attacked together in a pincer formation. The tips of their swords pierced directly towards the man's torso. As if he was caught off-guard, the man in black stared with shock at the swordsmen.

"Great, we're saved... Ugh..." One noble youth that thought that Zollo would be cut into pieces by the two swords quieted down and sank into despair, right after expressing his cheer of joy and hope.

The man called Zollo stood without any harm, but the two Silver ranked swordsmen that crossed his figure were not moving in the slightest on the ground.

"Hehehe, are you glad?" Zollo asked before he cackled once more, "Strip them naked!"

The noble youths suddenly found themselves surrounded by six huge men, also clad in black, and wearing skull masks. Even though they moved about silently, their strength was unparalleled. After one noble was caught, his clothes were ripped off him directly, before he was brought in front of Zollo.

Zollo revealed an evil smile as he stretched out a finger. His fingertip glowed as he traced it across the naked noble's body. After that, a large bloody 'Z' appeared on his chest. The 'branded' noble youth fainted from the pain right away.

Another day passed before the drunk workers of the winery awoke. Even though they suffered a bad hangover, it was nothing serious. They would be fine after drinking some more fluids.

The manager of the winery shook his groggy head. He felt as if he had dreamt up that encounter with the bandits. In his dream the bandits breached their winery, but didn't want money or women. All they demanded was for the workers of the winery to drink, and those who resisted would be force-fed wine until all of them were dead drunk. Even after the manager was made drunk, he was still forced to drink for a whole lot longer. Since the wine produced by the Luxcrimson Winery was of rather high quality, the manager couldn't avoid getting drunk despite his above average tolerance to alcohol.

Are there really bandits like that in this world? wondered the manager, before an errand boy of the winery came over and dragged him outside.

The manager noticed the carriages and mounts left in the courtyard by the viscount.

Where's the Lord Viscount? wondered he.

After searching through the whole winery, they still didn't locate the viscount or his guards.

Impossible, the viscount must be somewhere in the area... There's no way he would be able to make it out of the winery with that flabby figure of his! And he couldn't possibly travel on foot and leave all his mounts here! We must keep looking!

The manager began to feel enraged. He suspected that the bandits had been planning something against the viscount.

In the end, they finally found Viscount Sirwa and the rest at the deepest corner of the wine cellars. The workers hauled the naked men hugging each other to conserve heat and stave of the freezing cold out of the cellar.

In actuality, the viscount and the rest had already regained consciousness for a good while. When they realized that they were trapped in a wine cellar, they cried out for help to no avail. They had been dumped in the deepest corner of the cellar -- deep underground -- and there were lots of things piled up at the entrance. Not a peep could escape the cellar. Even if their cries of help escaped the cellar, the rest of the workers of the winery remained dead drunk throughout the day in the hall.

By the time midnight came along, every one of them had sore throats. Hungry and cold, they could only huddle up to conserve some heat. The weather of the 11th month and the fact that they were underground caused them to feel extreme cold. Had it not been for the workers that found it weird for there to be so much junk piled up at the cellar, Viscount Sirwa and the rest of his guards and his other companions might have died from the cold without anyone noticing.

It didn't take long for the police force of the capital to rush to Luxcrimson Winery. Word of Viscount Sirwa's encounter quickly spread throughout the royal capital, and soon rumors of the magus Zollo who could summon skeleton soldiers that left a mysterious 'Z' mark on the bodies of the ones involved, greatly befuddled all who heard about the incident.

The testimonies of the manager of the winery and the rest of the workers about how the six or seven bandits that only forced them to drink didn't help at all.

After two confused days, the Silver ranked swordsmen who had their jaws broken finally remembered something that was on their mind: Master Mancheny's family of three had disappeared without a trace. Things were definitely getting out of hand, given that a master glassmith like him vanished all of a sudden.

"How could this Master Mancheny leave the royal capital with his whole family?" questioned the king of the Teribo Kingdom, Teribo VII, as he stood before the security officials of the capital.

As a glassmith, while they could enjoy preferential treatment and riches, they would lose their personal freedoms. Apart from the glass production plant and the royal capital, they didn't have any right to go anywhere else. If it were any other way, the secret of glass production wouldn't have stayed within the Teribo Kingdom for hundreds of years.

So, when the facts were brought before the king...

"Hang that Viscount Sirwa at the plaza in front of the palace right away! Have the guards at the western city gates hanged as well! Their greatest crime is not inspecting the ones who left the city! As for the two Silver ranked swordsmen tasked to watch the master, eradicate their families! To think they would neglect their most important duty. They must protect the glassmith they're assigned, or kill him if that need arises. Whatever they do, they must ensure that the secret of glass production stays within the kingdom! Their task is far more than just keeping an eye out for the glassmith!

"Also, for the ones at the production plant that have accepted the bribe of Viscount Sira... Have them all beheaded. If they were daring enough to chase a glassmith that knows the ins and outs of glass production out of the plant, if they were offered an even higher price, who knows when they'll smuggle a glassmith out to another nation?!

"All that crap about the magus and skeleton soldiers... That's just all a ruse to distract us from noticing the disappearance of Mancheny's family! Don't let the nobles who were involved in that incident off! And make sure to get to the bottom of this case and have those who played a part in it pay. Have someone investigate who it was that planned this whole thing! Be it some noble house or a whole nation... As long as we have a lead, I don't mind mobilizing all the Blademasters of the kingdom to ensure that the secret of glass production is kept!"

As Teribo VII raged on, a storm of blood and chaos began to brew in the Teribo Kingdom...

[1]You don't need me to tell you which fictional character dressed in all black (Lorist) is referring to here, right? I changed the name slightly to avoid any potential infringement issues.

Chapter 243 Unforeseen Changes

Come on, Zollo's a sword-wielding hero... When did he become a magus? thought Lorist with dissatisfaction.

He had forgotten that he didn't use his sword even once while he was dressed as Zollo. The mysterious self-lighting flames and his arcane unarmed combat techniques naturally led others to assume that he was a magus instead.

Lorist was having breakfast. The Morante Daily, just delivered to the Red Grace Inn, was in his hands. The main headline read: The Mysterious Case of the Magus of Luxcrimson Winery!

Six days had already passed since the incident. Word had been passed to the journalists of the Morante Daily from the Teribo Kingdom, whom promptly exaggerated almost every detail about the story. Not Zollo, the magus, not the mysterious lights, not the weird techniques used to incapacitate the guards, nor the Z left on their chests escaped the treatment.

The article even included an interview near the end with one noble youth who had been there in person when the incident happened. According to the interview, the 'Z' mark on his chest would hurt slightly every time midnight arrived. He said that he felt as if there was a mysterious power calling out to his soul, and that he would expend lots of mental energy combating the urge to head the power's call so that his soul wouldn't be dragged into the hellish abyss of the magus.

This journalist could probably start writing a long-running fantasy novel series... Perhaps he used to work as one? Lorist guessed the truth unwittingly.

That particular 'journalist' of the Morante Daily had never actually met Viscount Sirwa. The count was rotting on the gallows in front of the palace by the time the journalist finally made his way there. He had even wondered who the unlucky fool was, obviously he had angered or displeased the king.

As for news about the missing glassmith, the Teribo Kingdom had restricted the spread of the information. It was only after visiting multiple inns that the journalist managed to approach one of the noble youths involved in the case. Upon hearing his testimony, the journalist felt a spark of inspiration and began fashioning his own fantasized version of the account. Thus was born the tale eventually published in the Morante Daily.

Lorist put newspaper down and began to read the Falik Weekly. In that paper, the report on the Luxcrimson Winery case was far more reliable. As opposed to the fantasized account written by the journalist from the Morante Daily, the journalist of the Falik Weekly, who wrote the report, gave clearer sources, they ranged from the winery's workers he interviewed, to the investigators of the case, and even included the security official of the Teribo Kingdom that was put in charge of the case.

The headline of the Falik Weekly read: Zollo - Magus or Magician? After some thorough investigation, the journalist realized that Zollo was not really a magus but merely a daring bandit who knew a couple of magic tricks and theatrics. For instance, the investigator of the case noticed that the mysterious ignition of the candles within the hall was merely a magic trick. In actuality, it was rather simple. An oil-soaked rope was lined across the wicks of multiple candles, so when one end of the rope was lit, the other candles would follow suit.

As for the unconscious guards, the journalist believed that the bandit called Zollo was actually a Gold ranked unarmed fighter. The shattered jaws of the two Silver ranked swordsmen was testament of that. In fact, there were signs that the guards were actually struck down by brute force, rather than being rendered unconscious by magic.

The journalist was of the opinion that the bandit troupe had merely intended to rob the winery. By making the servants drunk, they would erase much of the traces of them being there. The arrival of Viscount Sirwa and his mates was merely coincidental, and they ended up being the unlucky sacrificial lambs.

Zollo, the bandit, then turned his sights on the viscount and the others, as evidenced by them having been robbed clean and even deprived of their clothes. However, the journalist found it weird that four days after the case, Viscount Sirwa, his guards and some of his friends, were hanged by the gallows by the order of Teribo VII for unknown reasons.

The journalist felt that there was a far bigger conspiracy behind the case of Luxcrimson Winery. Even if the ones involved wouldn't divulge anything, the journalist was confident that he could expose the truth.

Good luck to that brave journalist, thought Lorist.

He understood that Viscount Sirwa had been hanged the moment the Teribo Kingdom was aware of the disappearance of Master Mancheny. It seemed that the kingdom was intent on keeping the news under wraps while they investigated the disappearance in secret. Despite that, Lorist wasn't the slightest bit worried. After he finished dealing with some other matters, he would bring Master Mancheny and his family along with him back to the dominion. He believed that the Teribo Kingdom wouldn't even begin to suspect that a glass factory would start in the Northlands.

Currently, Master Mancheny and his family were in one of the rooms on the third floor which had been reserved by Lorist, and was having breakfast as well. There was no way that the Teribo Kingdom's agents would be able to find any trace of them. Lorist had at least that amount of confidence. When Lorist brought them into Morante City, he had them disguised as the family members of some of his guards, and entered the city just like the thousands of other servants going in and out of the city daily. They gathered at Red Grace Inn after making their way through the city gates without attracting the slightest bit of attention.

The only problem was that something seemed to have happened between Els and the lovely daughter of Master Mancheny when they pretended to be siblings during their entry to the city. From time to time, they would give each other yearning glances, which Lorist happened to notice. Even though Els was 16 years older than the girl, it didn't stop the two from feeling attracted to one another. Lorist could only hope that his brother's dreams would come true one day.

Lorist put the matters of the Teribo Kingdom at the back of his mind, and continued to read the other reports in the newspapers while enjoying his hearty breakfast.

Ahh, in the end, I'm still much more accustomed to the life here at Morante City.

The largest disparity between being at Morante City and being in the dominion was the flow of information. In Morante City, it wouldn't take long for one to find out about the recent happenings on Grindia. Even though the reports might be delayed by a few days or even a month, it was still better than not getting to know anything at all. Thanks to the wide influence of the trade union, journalists from Morante City could visit many places to collect information without worrying about their safety.

As for the dominion of the house, even though it had undergone several developments during the past few years, and seemed to be on the road to prosperity, the flow of information there was as stunted as ever. Lorist remembered how he was blind to the happenings on Grindia a few years back when he spent all his time at the Northlands. He only got the occasional news from Count Kenmays, but most of them were just about the conflicts between the nobles at the royal court. He would at best have some rumors about the other things happening outside the Iblia Kingdom.

As a person who came from another world, Lorist understood the importance of information and intelligence. He intended to set up an intelligence network so that the house could grasp the changes of the status quo in the outside world. However, the largest difficulty in carrying that out was ensuring the safety of the intelligence agents. It was something that Lorist wasn't able to do just yet. Lorist thought back to how some of his messengers had been captured and enslaved by other dominion lords a few years prior, he couldn't afford the loss of agents like that.

However, now that he had access to Silowas Island, and the maritime transport it enabled, an avenue for interacting with the world outside the Northlands was finally open to him. Lorist resolved himself to put Lundmorde to good use when he returned. That fellow had been forced to marry seven wives, and he had already sired over ten children in just three years. Most of the time, he had to stay at home to tend to the whims of his wives and children.

Rumor had it that Lundmorde was slaving away for his wives and children. He even got the moniker of a saint when it came to treating women and children. His reputation in those fields was such that it was said that the moment he applied the salve, the sickness would disappear right away.

Once, when he met up with some of his fellow alumni, he cried out after drinking a lot and regretted not being careful with his lower body, ending up in the situation he found himself in now. Before he finished complaining, he was hauled back home to reflect on his mistakes by two of his wives. His fellow mates could only mourn for his suffering in silence.

He was a knight of the House after all, he couldn't afford to waste away like that. All seven of his wives had awakened their battleforce as well, and even had potential to be the leaders of the female unit. They were actually quite talented and able. Lorist decided to have Lundmorde head to Morante City to start a herbalist clinic that would double as a base of operations for House Norton with a few of his wives. That way, he could gather information about the happenings all around Grindia, and even recruit much-needed talent for the house to stay ahead in terms of technology.

Lorist sighed as he wondered how long it would take for the dominion to achieve the level of prosperity Morante City had. It was definitely a daunting undertaking that would take a long time to achieve. Compared to the dominions of other noble houses, the dominion of House Norton was already better and more prosperous than most. For instance, Count Kenmays, Baron Shazin and Baron Felim all envied the dominion of the Nortons, given their understanding of their dominion. They were impressed that Lorist was so willing to invest so many gold Fordes in the development of the dominion and the improvement of his subjects' lives.

But to Lorist, the apparent prosperity of his dominion was only skin-deep. If it didn't persist in his efforts, then, over five or six generations, the dominion would return to its former state. He had many plans; establishing basic education to improve the skills of the folks in the dominion and increase their loyalty to the house was just one of them. He was also considering decreasing taxes. The Norton family had no need to oppress and exploit its subjects, unlike other noble families. There were many ways the family could prosper, and Lorist could use a number of tricks he learned from his past life to do so at any time he chose. However, to achieve his goal, he would have to put in much more effort.

Lorist laughed bitterly. Many of his plans wouldn't be able to be executed because of practical restrictions. In the case of education, if the family wasn't able to come up with a breakthrough to make paper, given the high price of beastskins, there was no way that the family would be able to sustain an education system. If he managed to obtain cheap paper like what he had in his past life, the house could not only improve the educational standard, they could also start their own newspapers. They would then be able to control public discourse, and instill in the peasantry a sense of pride in being the subjects of House Norton.

Lorist didn't notice Howard's arrival, given his state of deep thought.

"Milord, milord..." Howard called out.

"Oh, it's you. Why didn't you go to the library today?" asked Lorist after he snapped out of his thoughts.

Rolling his eyes, Howard said, "Milord, we've been to the library for the past few days and got to know what we need. It was you who told me that we don't have to go there anymore yesterday."

Lorist said apologetically, "Sorry, Howard. I was lost in thought just now. Is there anything you want to tell me?"

"Milord, the person in charge of the shipyard you visited yesterday, Mister Millinor, is here. He said that he had to meet you to discuss something," said Howard.

"Oh, is there a problem with the ship I ordered? Have him come to the third floor, and tell Els not to let him see the Mancheny family," instructed Lorist.

"Understood, milord," said Howard as he left.

On the day before, Lorist had headed to the Wedeley Shipyard and struck an agreement with Millinor to have a large-class merchant vessel constructed at a price of 6500 gold Fordes. Lorist had paid 1000 gold Fordes as deposit. The construction of the ship would take four months. He also had to pay another 3000 gold Fordes after the main keel was laid down. The rest of the fees would be paid on the ship's completion.

In a few quick moments, Millinor arrived before Lorist.

"Welcome, Mister Millinor. I wonder what is so urgent that you have to see me in person so soon?" asked Lorist.

"My deepest apologies, Sir... Due to some factors out of our control, the Weledey Shipyard is unable to complete your order. This is your deposit and the payment for the voided agreement. I hope you forgive us, we have no choice but to cancel the agreement," said Millinor in a rushed manner, before he left without negotiating the possible reinstatement of the agreement at all.

Ten gold Forde notes each worth 100 gold Fordes were laid on the table. That was the deposit Lorist had paid. There was another sack filled with coins, 100 gold Fordes in total, ten percent of the deposit, paid as the compensation for the voided agreement. According to the order contract, if the shipyard was unable to carry out the agreement within ten days, the deposit would have to be returned with ten percent interest.

Within only three days, Lorist had gained an extra 100 gold Fordes. If Lorist was still the same instructor working at Dawn Academy, he would've been so glad that he would lose sleep over it. However, he no longer regarded 100 gold Fordes with the weight a normal person would. He had come to Morante City to spend money, not to earn it.

With 100000 gold Fordes, Lorist had planned to purchase or order 12 large-class merchant vessels to form a trading fleet. However, he didn't expect that the first shipyard he contracted would default on the agreement.

Just as Lorist was pondering the 'uncontrollable factors' Millinor had mentioned, Howard knocked on the door to his room again and reported, "Milord three of the people in charge of other shipyards are here..."

After a few moments, the eight private shipyards with which Lorist placed his orders during the past six days after returning from the Teribo Kingdom all rejected it, with the same nonsensical reason. All of them paid the deposit back with an interest of 100 gold Fordes. After Lorist's intense questioning, one of the shipyards revealed a slight hint: "Your people have got on the bad side of a person we can't afford to offend."

Lorist wore a solemn expression as he thought, who is behind all this? Who's this person that even the skilled shipwrights and laborers of the shipyards along Hidegold Bay didn't dare to offend?

Lorist really couldn't recall anyone of note that he could've crossed.

"Els, go see Jindoz and ask him to look into this and find out who is acting against us. We need some kind of lead. As for the rest, don't leave the inn without a good reason. We have to keep our guard up right now," instructed Lorist.

A day later, Jindoz arrived at the Red Grace Inn. According to his investigation, it was the Chikdor Merchant guild that forced the shipyards to return Lorist's deposit to revoke the order. The person in charge of one of the shipyards was right. The Chikdor Merchant Guild was indeed someone they couldn't afford to offend.

The Chikdor Merchant Guild? Why would they want to interfere with my purchase of large-class merchant vessels? Didn't their president come to apologize to me already? Why would they act against me now, given that I'm backed by the Peterson Merchant Guild?

Lorist continued to think with his brow furrowed. He must've missed out on some key variable. At that moment, Howard came over and reported, "Milord, President Peterson sent someone over to inform you to meet him at the guild headquarters. He has something urgent he needs to discuss with you."

Chapter 244 Shocking Developments

Here's the topic of the day:

How do you think Lorist will deal with this threat? Both the expansionism of the union in general, and with the issues with the Chikdor Merchant Guild specifically?

Discuss!

"Two days ago, the seven largest merchant guilds of the trade union had a discussion about implementing the nobility system. In principle, the guilds shouldn't be against it as presidents of the seven largest guilds like me will be entitled as dukes. The only problem was the enfeoffment of land.

"The original plan concerned the Falik Plains which had eight cities in total. Apart from Morante City, each of the seven other cities on the plains will be enfeoffed to one of the seven dukes. However, that territory was a little too small, and the Forde Merchant Guild which thrives on agriculture objected vehemently to that and even threatened to leave the trade union. That's why we had to abandon that plan.

"Even though the trade union had a wide sphere of influence, the only other place under its rule apart from the Falik Plains are the Calisto Mountains. In the end, it was decided that the Falik Plains and Morante City would be left untouched as they were the core of the trade union which the citizens depended on for emotional stability. Calisto Mountains would then be divided into 50 different dominions and enfeoffed to those of the rank of viscount and below. As for ranks above the count, they can only expand their land through their own efforts."

When Lorist arrived at the headquarters of the Peterson Merchant Guild, President Peterson didn't tell him anything about the matter regarding the cancelled ship orders. Instead, he began to talk about the seemingly unrelated nobility system that was pending implementation by the trade union. However, Lorist believed that President Peterson told him that for a good reason, so he resigned himself to pay attention.

"For example, Duke Lormo, of the Lormo Duchy, has been interested in joining the trade union ever since the dissolution of the Krissen Empire. I believe that the trade union will give him a chance this time around, on the condition that he revokes his dominion's independence, and his own sovereignty, and put the two provinces, the Yiwas and Puljas Provinces, under the trade union's jurisdiction. Only after that will Duke Lormo be made a duke of the trade union with Yiwas Province as his enfeoffed land.

"As for the Puljas Province which borders the Falik Plains, it would become the dominion of Duke Forde. Mainly because the founder of the Forde Merchant Guild, Duke Forde Morante, and the six other heads of the largest merchant guilds, are credited with the formation of the merchant guild, it stands to reason that his descendants be given some benefits.

"As for the six other largest merchant guilds -- with the exception of the Wald Merchant Guild, who have their sights on the weak Mobia Duchy, which is near the Calisto Mountains -- the Twinhead Dragon Merchant Guild, the Mayflower Merchant Guild, the Wessia Merchant Guild, the Chikdor Merchant Guild, and us, the Peterson Merchant Guild, will be targeting the lands of the former Krissen Empire. The Peterson Merchant Guild is prepared to take over the northwestern area of the Redlis Kingdom and set up our dominion there.

"Yesterday, I have invited Mister Tim over for a discussion. He said that he would be willing to aid the guild by convincing the nobles of the northwestern area of the kingdom to take me as their senior noble after the formation of the dominion. After that, the nobles there, including House Tebri will become part of the nobility of the trade union."

Holy crap, the trade union is actually going to change the policies they have abided by for more than 100 years... Now that they're powerful enough, they've spread their wings and bared their fangs towards the territories formerly belonging to the empire, and are prepared to swallow as much as their appetite allows...

Even Tim, who had been made a noble through Lorist's efforts, had changed sides and joined the trade union without so much as a notification. It was apparent that he was already completely committed to his new cause, neglecting all the favors he had owed in a naked act of betrayal.

At that moment, Lorist's mind was in turmoil. He felt as if there were ten thousand horses stampeding right in front of him. His hand holding the teacup shook slightly. This wasn't a small change, but rather a history-defining development!

The implementation of the nobility system by the trade union had changed them, the harmless bunny, into a bloodthirsty tiger with its mouth agape. Even though their current targets used to be part of the Krissen Empire, which had been their sworn enemies for the past century, it only applied to the seven largest merchant guilds of the union. As President Peterson had said, anyone who wanted titles would have to fight and conquer their own territory. So, what of the second to third-rate merchant guilds? Who would they target next?

With the implementation of the nobility system, Grindia would no longer know peace. Even though the trade union wasn't an empire, it was possibly more powerful than one. Whether it be wealth, population, or influence, they surpassed the Krissen Empire in all regards. They were not unlike a gigantic, invincible titan.

Lorist suddenly thought of the ambitious Second Highness. The man was filled with confidence in his 300000 troops. He was only waiting for his father's passing to engage in the effort to reunite the empire.

Poor Second Highness, it seems that you've missed the opportune time to reunite the empire, and wasted a year of your time. 300000 soldiers... Haha, what a joke...

Trying hard to keep his shock in check, Lorist asked calmly, "President Peterson, was Duke Lormo willing to accept the conditions of the trade union? After all, he is the head of a duchy..."

President Peterson laughed and said, "Sometimes, situations are beyond the control of man. He doesn't have a choice but to accept our conditions. In fact, several influential nobles within the Lormo Duchy were already on bad terms with the duke. Had it not been for our mediation, civil war would have broken out long ago. Even though the trade union accepts his participation, and he would lose his status as the head of the duchy, it will be a kind of release for him.

"Additionally, the conditions we are offering him benefit him quite a lot. Not only did we give him a loan of 5 million gold Fordes that's interest free for up to ten years, we even sent someone to help him form his own merchant guild so that he can gain observer status in the high council. As long as he pays back the loan, he will also be able to be one of the core members of the council, and his merchant guild will be the eighth largest in the union."

Darn, that's a new milestone for betraying one's own country for power!

Everyone would feel that Duke Lormo got a good deal for selling away his duchy. The trade union was incredibly sincere and generous with its conditions. To Duke Lormo, becoming the head of the eighth merchant guild in the high council of the trade union was nothing short of a boost in status. Similarly, that was also the ambition of many of the lesser merchant guilds within the union.

No, wait. This is all a ruse, realized Lorist. Duke Lormo is a goner. The loan of 5 million gold Fordes is truly an alluring trap. If he doesn't pay it back within ten years, Duke Lormo would have to liquidate his assets to pay back the loan according to the regulations of the trade union. In other words, he would be declared bankrupt and his dreams of becoming the eighth member of the high council would be dashed.

There was no way that the seven largest merchant guilds would be willing to further divide their benefits to be given to someone else. Otherwise, there would've been a merchant guild or two that would attain the same status as the big seven over the course of almost 200 years. When Lorist was studying at Dawn Academy, he had heard a rumor about how a merchant guild would be secretly assaulted and ruined upon expanding their businesses beyond the scope of those of the seven largest guilds. Most of the smart ones within the trade union understood that 'rule'.

Thankfully, my dominion is within the Northlands and on Silowas Island. I won't have to worry about interacting with these sly hegemons anytime soon, cheered Lorist secretly.

But what President Peterson said next almost caused him to jump in shock.

"Apart from us, the Peterson Merchant Guild, the others including the Twinhead Dragon Merchant Guild, the Mayflower Merchant Guild, and the Wessia Merchant Guild will be aiming to conquer the Redlis Kingdom for territory. That's because the union understands that the Redlis Kingdom is near its point of collapse after the incessant attacks of the Andinaq Kingdom's Second Highness. To prevent another nation like the Krissen Empire from being formed and threatening our own safety, the trade union has decided to intervene in that conflict to ruin the Second Highness's plan to reunite the empire.

"The following will be related to you, Brother Locke. The Chikdor Merchant Guild is intent on taking your dominion at Silowas Island, and their plan is supported by the rest within the union. As long as they have Silowas Island, the Chikdor Merchant Guild will be able to control the sea trading routes all the way from Hidegold Bay to the northern coasts. They will become the true rulers of the sea. Even though I knew that the island was your dominion, I wasn't able to object to it. The circumstances didn't permit my objection.

"The Chikdor Merchant Guild is already aware of your true identity, and they have even suggested to make you give them the island by force. I have vehemently objected to their methods. Even if we can't be considered friends, you are still my guest. Additionally, the trade union's reputation would be sullied if such a thing was carried out. The other merchant guilds agreed with me, and advised the Chikdor Merchant Guild against starting a conflict with you in Morante City.

"So far, your safety within the city is guaranteed. However, the moment you depart, I suspect the Chikdor Merchant Guild will attack you at sea. Brother Locke, I suggest that you abandon your ship and travel on land. It's safer that way. The strength of the Chikdor Merchant Guild is most pronounced at sea, but they're rather weak on land. Given your skills, you'll definitely have an easier time escaping.

"Please understand that I am unable to help you, Brother Locke. This is the decision of the union. Other than that, the Chikdor Merchant Guild will be giving control of the trade route from Hidegold Bay to the dominion of Viscount Tebri to the Peterson Merchant Guild, and promised that they wouldn't interfere with that. In exchange, we must take a neutral stance between you and them and won't aid any side. Being able to inform you of this news is already the best I can do."

Lorist wanted to curse out loud when he heard all that.

'When trouble strikes, there's nowhere to hide'. The Chikdor Merchant Guild must have realized the strategic location of Silowas Island. It's no surprise that some sharp minds out there have realized the same things I did.

Controlling Silowas Island would be akin to controlling everything from Hidegold Bay to the northern seas. It was no joke to say that whoever controlled Silowas Island was the ruler of the northern seas.

"Brother Locke, if you don't mind, I can help you negotiate with the Chikdor Merchant Guild. That way, you can take a page from Duke Lormo's book and sell the island to the Chikdor Merchant Guild. We'll definitely make sure that you won't lose out on that deal. Also, I think that's the ideal way for you to avoid conflict. After all, the dominion of your house is located in the Northlands, and through selling Silowas Island for a good price, you can gain the favor of the trade union as well as develop your dominion with those funds," advised President Peterson.

Lorist shook his head calmly and said, "Thank you for your kind intentions, president. However, House Norton prides itself in its military background. We are not afraid of the threat of war. Let's forget about selling the island as well. If the Chikdor Merchant Guild intends to take Silowas Island, the dominion of my house, then they better be ready to pay for it with tens of thousands of lives. House Norton will definitely make them aware of the consequences of provoking the Raging Bear of the Northlands."

Silowas Island was crucial in Lorist's plans for the house's future. Losing it would cut the family off from its prosperous future, this is what drove Lorist to be completely unwilling to compromise.

Since the trade union is going to implement a nobility system and involve House Norton in its troubles, then bring it on. The one thing my house doesn't fear is war.

"Brother Locke, I hope you consider this thoroughly. The Chikdor Merchant Guild is one of the strongest forces at sea. For the other guilds like us, even though we have fleets, the scale of those fleets can't possibly compare to those of the Chikdor Merchant Guild. Not only do they have seven large-scale long distance merchant fleets, including near a thousand warships, and more than ten thousand sailors, they also have great influence over the trade union's Invincible Fleet, as well as the navy of the Hanayabarta and Shyarsia kingdoms. Silowas Island is in the middle of the ocean. I'm afraid your conflict with the Chikdor Merchant Guild will end in your defeat..."

President Peterson felt that Lorist was just being stubborn as a result of his youth and inexperience. Compared with the Chikdor Merchant Guild, Lorist didn't even have a single large-class merchant vessel for show. He was like an infant that challenged a giant to a one-on-one battle, and the result of it was all too predictable. To him, Lorist's futile resistance would only bring unnecessary casualties to House Norton.

But little did he know that the naval superiority of the Chikdor Merchant Guild made Lorist even more resolved. Lorist realized that as long as he was able to trump the Chikdor Merchant Guild, House Norton would become the new ruler of the sea. Perhaps, he would have a far easier time dealing with the other merchant guilds at sea than on land.

"President, when will the trade union execute the nobility system?" asked Lorist.

"It will be done after winter on the 18th day of the 3rd month next year. That is the 175th anniversary for the formation of the Forde Trade Union. Duke Lormo will also become part of the trade union on that day, and will be given title then. At the same time, over a hundred people who have contributed to the trade union will be given their titles and enfeoffed their lands," replied President Peterson.

"President, the various duchies and kingdoms neighboring the trade union have always been part of the alliance with the trade union and can be considered to be under their influence. During the past century, they've also provided lots of help to resist the invasion of the Krissen Empire, thus ensuring the union's victory.

"Now that the trade union is going to implement a nobility system, apart from the largest merchant guilds who have their sights on the Redlis Kingdom, what of the territories of the other lesser merchant guilds who will be similarly given titles? Won't their conquest for territory cause turmoil and unrest among the other kingdoms and duchies neighboring the trade union?" asked Lorist.

The president nodded and said, "The nobility system has been used all over Grindia for more than a millennium. This kind of system has long been engraved within the hearts of Grindians, and gaining a piece of hereditary land for one's descendants has always been one of the greatest dreams one can have. Even though the trade union is second to none on the continent when trading and dealing with the nobles of the duchies and kingdoms, there is an unspoken feeling of inferiority inflicted upon us. It's one of the main reasons the trade union is implementing the nobility system.

"The most troubling part of that would be the enfeoffment of land. Without land, the titles one holds would be only honorary ones. Actually, some have expressed their desires to absorb the smaller nations two years back as the foundation for the new nobility system. However, the high council felt that it would affect the union's reputation too badly. They would become the public enemy named alongside the Krissen Empire. The proposal was denied in the end.

"This time, the high council has declared that those who wish to conquer their own territory must do so only within the Redlis and Andinaq kingdoms, since there's more than enough land over there. It would also extinguish any chances of the Krissen Empire reuniting and rising again, thus allowing the trade union to no longer worry about anything. The neighboring nations won't be too worried about their own safety following the implementation of the trade union's nobility system either.

"As a result, the land all the way from the Great Andalou Plains to the Redlis Kingdom would become the territory to be enfeoffed by the trade union. That's also one of the factors the Chikdor Merchant Guild wants your Silowas Island. Predictably, the trade union will not allow Silowas Island, which can pose a threat to the coasts of the Great Andalou Plains, to be out of the union's control."

Finally, President Peterson sincerely said to Lorist, "Brother Locke, don't think that just because it's only the end of the 11th month that everything will only begin in 3 or so months. Actually, a lot of preparatory work will have to be done during the months leading up to the aforementioned date. In a few days, Duke Lormo will be signing the agreement to accept the conditions of the trade union and relinquish the independence of his duchy.

"The Wald Merchant Guild also hopes that they'll be able to take the Mobia Kingdom into the trade union just like the Lormo Duchy. The rest, including the Twinhead Dragon Merchant Guild, the Wessia Merchant Guild, and the Mayflower Merchant Guild will be building up the military force of the Redlis Kingdom one way or another. As long as they can fight the 300000 soldiers of the Second Highness and cause immense damage to both sides, the various merchant guilds of the trade union can swoop in for the spoils of battle and begin conquering their territory.

"I think that when one's might can't compare to one's foe, one must endure and compromise, lest one make the irrational choice that will devastate one's own house. Brother Locke, please reconsider my suggestion. It is not my wish to start conflict easily. Additionally, sea battles are very different from land battles, and the Chikdor Merchant Guild is no stranger to the former, with their great experience and advantage in numbers. The cancellation of your ship orders during the past few days is also one of the tactics used by the Chikdor Merchant Guild to apply pressure to you."

Lorist replied solemnly, "Alright, president. I will definitely consider this matter seriously."

Chapter 245 Two Letters

When he returned from the Peterson Merchant Guild, Lorist locked himself in the room and burned the midnight oil.

When Howard opened the door the next morning, he saw Lorist with his eyes slightly red, wearing a pale look of fatigue.

"Milord..." mumbled Howard worriedly.

Howard and Els had accompanied Lorist to the Peterson Merchant Guild the day before. Even though they stood guard outside, they were roughly able to hear about how the Chikdor Merchant Guild had goals towards getting Silowas Island, which belonged to House Norton. When they paid attention, they also heard President Peterson advising Lorist not to start an all-out conflict with the guild for the sake of honor, and said that the best option was to sell the island to them.

When they returned, all of the guards, including Josk, got to hear the news. They were all emotionally charged. It was as though they had been insulted themselves. A merchant guild will never be allowed to strongarm House Norton. They all expressed that they'd rather die than let the dominion of the house be sold out.

Lorist, on the other hand, wore a dark expression. He asked for the maps of Morante City, the Forde Trade Union, as well as those of the neighboring nations. He locked himself in his room after receiving them, and only emerged the next day.

"Don't worry, Howard. Since I'm taller than you, if the sky falls, I'll be the first one to bear the burden. This is no big deal. Get me a basin of water to wash my face with," said Lorist, smiling as he stroked Howard's hair.

As the ice-cold linen cloth was wrapped around his face, Lorist shivered and felt the fatigue that had built up during the night drain away in an instant.

The implementation of the nobility system has nothing to do with me. But they shouldn't have set their sights on me. I only want to continue farming and developing the dominion without offending anyone, but those fools just keep knocking at my door one after another. 'A tame horse will be mounted, and a gentle man will be bullied.' The idioms of my past life truly make sense. Since that's the case, bring it. So, what if they have seven large-class merchant vessels, thousands of armed ships, and 10000 plus sailors? To me, all of them are merely small fry!

"Actually, some have expressed their desires to absorb the smaller nations two years back as the foundation for the new nobility system."

The words uttered by President Peterson yesterday echoed in Lorist's head.

He revealed an insulting smile.

So, the trade union intends to turn the sights of those they entitle to the lands of the Redlis and Andinaq Kingdoms... Do they really think it will be that simple? Merchants are still merchants at the end of the day. And it is in their nature to avoid losses to gain profit. There's no way that they'll ignore the delicious cake right next to them and go all the way to an unfamiliar land to bite on bones... Do they think that everyone within the union are as far-sighted as the seven big guilds?

I guess I'll give you guys a small push and let you know what a situation beyond man's control is like. I refuse to believe that you won't take a bite when I bring that delicacy straight to your mouth...

"Howard, have Master Mancheny come to my room," instructed Lorist.

At noon, after lunch, Lorist headed to the Dawn Academy and bid farewell to all the instructors and professors he knew. He said that he would be leaving Morante City in two days and also went to bid Academy Head Levins farewell.

When Lorist left, Levins and Blademaster Claude looked at the two letters left on the table as their faces wrinkled, giving off a troubled look. Those letters were like Pandora's boxes, ready to unleash chaos upon the world.

There was only one good way to deal with the letters, and that was to burn them and forget that they ever existed. However, upon considering the potential profit of possibly up to a million gold Fordes, Academy Head Levins made his decision. "This is not something that our academy alone can bear. Have the other academy heads invited over here. We'll split the profit and divide the risks among ourselves..."

Two days later, a piece of shocking news rocked the whole of Morante City and spread throughout Falik Plains, eventually reaching the various nations neighboring the union.

The headline of the most distributed publication, Morante Daily, read: The Truth!

The report began referring back to the case of Luxcrimson Winery which transpired within the Teribo Kingdom, as well as true reason behind the execution of Viscount Sirwa, and some others on the order of Teribo VII in front of the palace. The report stated that a glassmith called Mancheny had been kidnapped by the bandits because of Viscount Sirwa's error. That meant that the secret of glass production which the Teribo Kingdom had labored to keep for over two centuries had already been leaked.

The report also stated that a few students from various academies within Morante City managed to rescue a heavily-injured man, who turned out to be Master Mancheny who managed to escape from the bandits that captured him. Due to his injuries, Mancheny had perished despite the emergency medical treatment he had been given.

However, Master Mancheny loathed the Teribo Kingdom greatly. He said that he had worked hard for 32 years in glass-working for the kingdom, yet he wasn't able to receive its protection, causing his family to fall into ruin. It was through his testimony that the rest got to know about how the glassmith was forced to marry off his daughter to the viscount, which led to his eventual kidnapping in the first place.

Given that his daughter was in the hands of the bandits, Master Mancheny no longer felt any will to live. Before his death, he penned two letters, one of which contained the ingredients and procedures for green glass production, and another for oil glass. He hoped that the letters would cause the secret of glass production to be spread throughout Grindia. This would complete his revenge against Viscount Sirwa for forcing his hand, and the Teribo Kingdom for its cruel indifference to his plight.

Naturally, Master Mancheny wasn't aware of the hanging of Viscount Sirwa by Teribo VII. The letters he wrote troubled the students greatly. They eventually decided to bring the letters back to their academies to let them handle the matter.

After some deliberation, the heads of the academies of Morante City had come to the decision to auction off the letters. They would use the profits gained from the auction to reward the adventurous students, and make a fund in Master Mancheny's name for studious students who lacked the opportunity to further their studies because of their poor family background. This would allow the academies to honour the tragedy that befell the Mancheny family.

The report also stated that the Mayflower Merchant Guild would be hosting the auction for the two letters on the 5th day of the 12th month. The starting bid for each letter would be a million gold Fordes.

The Morante Daily article shocked the merchant guilds, and the trade union's neighboring countries, into a stupor. Every one of them was well aware that the Teribo Kingdom was the richest nation after the Forde Trade Union. They made more than 3 million gold Fordes annually from their glass exports alone. The country's royal family was said to be the richest on the whole of the Grindian continent.

With the glass production process leaked, should one nation be able to obtain either letter, the profit they would enjoy would no doubt increase by at least one million gold Fordes annually. To the various nations and merchant guilds, this was an incredible opportunity to make a huge profit. There were less than eight days until the 5th day of the 12th month, and many people flocked to Morante City as the date approached.

The whole of the Forde Trade Union had been embroiled in turmoil as a result of those two letters. Morante City was the eye of the storm. The Mayflower Merchant Guild was even more troubled. They were the hosts of the auction, and became everyone else's target.

Had it been any weaker power, the guild's heads would have taken the letter for themselves and kept it a secret. The profit they could gain from it was not something to scoff at.

But the people that had come to them with this proposal were the heads of eight of the ten greatest academies on the whole of the continent. No matter how brave the heads of the Mayflower Merchant Guild were, they wouldn't dare to take the letters for themselves. This would still be the case even if the eight academies had not each sent a blademaster to watch over the letters. Protecting the letter was only a pretense, of course, they were actually there to guard against any untoward action by the Mayflower Merchant Guild.

Academy Head Levins had said to the seven other academy heads, "There's no way we can begin producing glass ourselves. If we do, we'll definitely become the target of others. We can only profit off this once. I trust that both these letters are worth more than 8 million gold Fordes. This kind of sum is not one that the Dawn Academy can swallow alone. We have no choice but to find conspirators that will join in. After the auction, each academy will receive a million gold Fordes. Are you guys in or not?"

While one academy alone wouldn't be able to go against the seven largest merchant guilds in the trade union, a coalition of eight academies would be left untouched. Even though those academies were ranked among the top ten in Grindia, it was already an incredible feat for them to make a profit of tens of thousands of gold Fordes per year. Sometimes, they would even operate at a loss.

Academy Head Levins had once described the accounts of the academy to Lorist. The most of the Dawn Academy's income came from accepting donations. That was why the academy head wanted Lorist to help with the battleforce awakening of the son of President Peterson no matter what, even though that seemed an almost impossible task at first.

This auction, however, gave them the opportunity to gain a million gold Fordes in one go. The other seven academy heads were unanimous in their decision. For them to be able to make it to their current positions, they had to be at least as sly as Academy Head Levins. They were well aware that they would only be able to make it out of this matter unscathed if they united. Thus, each academy sent out one Blademaster. A unit of eight Blademasters was not one that could be scoffed at. It was almost guaranteed that nobody would be able to do anything to those letters.

When the Morante Daily's article was delivered to the king of the Teribo Kingdom, the king flipped out in anger and smashed whatever he could get his hands on. After that, he summoned his officials and came up with three countermeasures after four hours of discussion.

First, the kingdom would send their envoys to the Forde Trade Union to have them hand over the two letters.

Second, the kingdom would mobilize its 50000-strong army to the borders to let the trade union witness the lengths to which the Teribo Kingdom would go to maintain control of the glass production.

Third, the kingdom would send seven Blademasters with 10 million gold Fordes to Morante City to see whether the Mayflower Merchant Guild was willing to sell the letters for that amount of money.

If they weren't willing to sell them, Teribo VII said, "If we are unable to get those two letters back, we must do all we can to destroy them. Glass production is how the kingdom was able to build itself up. I will definitely not allow any other nation, house or merchant guild to grasp its secrets..."

As everyone's attention was focused on the two letters in the hands of the Mayflower Merchant Guild, on the night of the 34th day of the 11th month, Lorist headed to the port of the Peterson Merchant Guild with his guards, Josk, Howard, Dulles, and Master Mancheny's family, using four carriages.

A black-colored carriage could be seen waiting at the port. Upon noticing Lorist and the rest's arrival, Els and two other guards hopped out of the carriage with two linen sacks, before they carefully loaded the sacks onto the Flying Fish of Dawn.

The sacks appeared to contain people. The guild's guards wanted to investigate, but were stopped by the person in charge of the port.

"We didn't see anything, understood?" said he solemnly.

Lorist then bid Dulles farewell, "Dulles, there are three reasons for you to remain here at Morante City. First, take note of the effects of the two letters, and try to secretly escalate the problem. Second, recruit talented people and head to the dominion of Viscount Tebri on the ships of the Peterson Merchant Guild when the time comes. We will pick you up over there. Third, begin to collect intelligence on the Chikdor Merchant Guild. They will soon become an enemy we will have to face."

"Understood, milord. I will execute your will accordingly," Dulles answered with his chest puffed out, "Milord, please be careful on your way back."

Lorist patted Dulles's shoulder before heading towards the person in charge of the port. He took out a huge sack of coins and handed it to him. "This is my thanks for your tolerating the troubles we caused over here. Also, help us bid our farewells to the president. As the matters of my dominion are incredibly urgent, I won't have time to go thank him myself."

The person in charge was stunned when he got hold of the sack. Based on the weight, he surmised that there was at least 100 gold Fordes within. He couldn't quite hear what Lorist was saying due to his shock and could only mumble 'yes' nonstop. When the Flying Fish of Dawn departed, he was waving his hands nonstop to bid them farewell.

As the skies brightened, Young Master Moribak of the Chikdor Merchant Guild threw a fit of rage.

"What did you say?! Count Norton left Hidegold Bay around two in the morning?! What the hell is going on with our lookout?! You said he fell asleep? Very well, then he shall not wake for the rest of his life. Have the bird-breeders release some sea swallows immediately to notify the second and third interception fleets of this news. Have the first interception fleet begin pursuit. No matter what, we must have that ship! Count Norton must be brought before me! What are you waiting for?! Scram!"

"Understood, third young master."

Chapter 246 Blockade at Sea

The purplish tint of dawn covered the whole sky. The endless seas turned red under it. The Flying Fish of Dawn was cruising at full sail, riding the winds and waves.

"Milord, Professor Balbo and his maidservant are awake. Right now, they're feeling rather confused and agitated," reported Howard as he got onto the deck.

Els and the guards had brought Professor Balbo -- the man who had cracked open the secrets of dwarven gunpowder -- and his maidservant, Swila, onboard the previous night in two sacks.

They had learned that the professor had no children, and had yet to build a family through Els's mate and current head of the syndicate, Jindoz. He did, however, have a young widow by his side. She had served as his personal maidservant for more than 20 years.

According to Jindoz, the relationship between Professor Balbo and Swila was a little ambiguous. Perhaps the difference in their status made the professor hesitate to take her as his wife. Despite this possible hesitation, they were quite close, to the point that the professor gave Swila his entire salary and let her manage his life.

Venus Academy ranked rather low when compared to other academies within Morante City. They were around 21st on the rankings. Professor Balbo's salary was also merely 3 gold Fordes a month. Coupled with the professor's tendency to research weird things, which cost him quite a bit, he didn't live a lavish life. Additionally, the professor didn't really like his job at the academy. He had expressed a desire to change his occupation more than once.

Initially, Lorist thought that it would be a piece of cake for him to recruit Professor Balbo. Little did he know that the professor was actually an advocate of liberty, and hated nobles to the bone. Lorist was even harshly condemned when he made a personal visit, and was chased out of the house by the professor with a broom.

Even though Lorist didn't know what grievances the professor might have with nobles, the limited amount of time he had didn't allow him to play around with the professor. He ordered Els to take a few men and knock the professor and his maidservant out cold. By the time they woke up, they would already be onboard and far out to sea. They would have no choice but to follow Lorist then.

"Alright, I'll go check on him and try to calm him down," said Lorist.

He didn't notice how Howard was rolling his eyes out of his sight.

The professor wasn't just agitated, he was on the verge of panicking! That was especially the case when he saw Lorist and realised why he was at sea. In a fit of rage, he uttered all the expletives he knew, much to the awe of those present, who found it hard to believe that a learned professor of an academy would act the way he did.

When the professor stopped to take a breath, Lorist said, "Professor Balbo, I didn't bear any ill intentions when I invited you here. I just want..."

"Forget it. I won't do as you wish. No matter what you do to me, I won't agree to your demands, you damned..."

The professor was not in the mood to hear what Lorist had to say. After that, he continued his cursing and even resorted to attacking Lorist personally by comparing his intelligence to that of a mule.

Lorist merely pretended he didn't hear all that, and let the professor continue. He looked at the maidservant Swila, and found that she was a little seasick. He quickly instructed Howard, who was standing outside the cabin, to bring some medicine from his cabin. He also had him make some tea for the professor to moisten his dry throat.

The professor was greatly annoyed at Lorist's thick skin. He had thought that he could anger Lorist to the point that he would give him a beating. The beating would give him the chance to prove his resolve. But Lorist simply ignored him completely, and even began to tend to his seasick maidservant.

"What in the world do you want, a ransom? I'm just a poor professor and I don't have much. Or is it knowledge? There are so many professors in Morante City who are far more accomplished than me for that. And didn't you hear about my misgivings with the academy? In the eyes of other professors, I'm just a weird, stubborn guy, who puts his efforts in researching oddities instead of proper fields of studies," said the professor after he took a few sips of his tea.

This time around, he didn't curse, and only held great suspicion of Lorist's intentions.

Lorist smiled. He was happy to finally have a chance to communicate with the professor.

"Professor Balbo, the reason I've looked for you is for the sake of gunpowder," said he.

"The dwarven gunpowder?" Professor Balbo muttered with suspicion, "That project of mine has long been completed. It was published in the journal last year. Didn't the Morante Daily write an article about it? You should be able to find it in a library. Everything's reported in the article and nothing was kept from them."

"No, professor, what I'm interested in is what you said about there being room for improvement. What I want is the perfected form of it."

The professor shrugged and said, "Then you should go look for the dwarves and get a ton of saltpeter from them. Only then can experiments be performed to refine the formula to perfection. The problem is that there is no saltpeter ore to be found in the human realm. Those shorties are also unwilling to sell any to us..."

After that, the professor cursed a few more times. But this time around, the target for his profanity were the dwarves.

"Professor, I don't have any saltpeter either. But I will be able to provide huge amounts of the nitrite you'll need for the experiments. That's the reason why I invited you to come with me," said Lorist.

"That's impossible!" the professor exclaimed in shock, "How are you able to procure so much nitrite? If you could, you should've told me that the first time you came to see me..."

Lorist smiled and shook his head before he said, "Professor, you must understand that gunpowder is an incredibly destructive substance and even has the potential to overturn the battleforce-driven world of Grindia. I don't want to become an eyesore for those involved. Nature on the other hand, is full of wonders. Even though saltpeter ore cannot be found in the human realm, I have a method that I can use to gather the nitrite that's found within saltpeter. So far, only I have noticed that method. If you're patient, you will be told the method when you arrive at the dominion of my house."

"Can't you just tell me about it here?" asked the professor impatiently.

Lorist shook his head.

The professor glared hatefully at Lorist, but he merely smiled in return.

"Fine, I'll trust you just this once. You better not be lying," said the professor in resignation.

There wasn't much he could do anyway, since they had already set sail. There was nowhere for him to run to.

"Ships sighted up ahead, battlestations!" shouted the lookout.

"Professor Balbo, Miss Swila, please rest well for a few days on the ship and enjoy the view. When we reach the dominion, I trust that you'll come to understand that not all nobles are that darned. If you have anything you need, just notify the guards here. I will satisfy your demands to the best of my ability. Well, I'll have to take my leave for now," Lorist said as he lowered his head and rushed out onto the ship's deck.

"There are two large-class, three-masted merchant vessels, four middle-class, two-masted merchant vessels, and six middle-class, two-masted armed ships heading our way in a fan formation! They seem to bear hostile intent! No, wait, they're flying the sword and barrel flag! They're the fleet of the Chikdor Merchant Guild! They're the enemy!"

As the lookout continued to shout at the top of his voice, the ships appeared clearer and clearer in his vision.

Lorist got onto the deck quickly, and saw Old Jack mumbling while using a weirdly-shaped ruler to measure a rope that was left flying freely on one mast.

"Captain!" Old Jack called out, "We're traveling against the winds at only eight knots while those bastards over there are traveling with the wind. Half of them are fast-sailing ships and they're almost traveling at ten knots! Based on that, there's no way we'll be able to carry out huge turns as evasive maneuvers. They'll be right on our tail in ten minutes or so."

"What's going on?" Lorist shouted.

"Milord, it's obvious that those Chikdor ships over there aren't coming in peace. Their commander of the fleet is also really experienced. They've laid their formation in preparation to capture us. No matter which direction we rush towards, we'll end up being sandwiched by their ships. The moment they destroy our sails with their ranged weapons, this ship will no longer be able to unleash its potential in speed, and we'll be at their mercy. I had wanted to turn tail to escape, but the keel of our ship is too deep in the water, which means that we'll have to make a huge turn to change direction. By then, the enemy will already be next to us," explained Captain Wilson.

"Evade the two large ships first. Travel in a Z-shaped path and pass between the two ships on our left. Josk, shoot down the sails of those two ships. Els, use fire bolts with the ballistae, and have them fire at will against those ships," decided Lorist after giving it some thought.

Josk stood at the bow of the ship with his green longbow curved into a full moon. A thunderous twang rang out as a bolt of green was let loose from Josk's hand. In a flash, the two-masted ship sailing at breakneck speeds towards them roughly 60 meters away seemed to have been hit by an invisible fist. The mast at the back of the ship wobbled twice before it collapsed forward.

Josk had broken a ship's mast with only one arrow. The middle-class ship slowed down after that, and even began to twirl around in the sea in circles, causing a mess to break out on board. It opened a gap in the formation that Lorist's ship could use to pass through.

As Josk began aiming at the next ship, it began to move evasively, zig-zagging back and forth. Some of the crew even gathered at the front of the ship and began to fire their own arrows in an attempt to distract Josk's aiming.

Josk calmed himself and treated the arrows that were flying at him as if they weren't there. However, his second arrow only brushed past the mast he was aiming at without causing it any damage. The crew cheered at his failure. The distance between the two ships had decreased to less than 40 meters. Lorist was already able to see the crew of the enemy ships loading their large ballistae and lighting their flaming projectiles clearly. They were preparing to destroy the sails.

Josk took a deep breath before his bow twanged again. The crew of his target ship was sent into another fit of terror. Four to five of the sailors at the front of the ship, who were firing with their bows, clutched their throats before collapsing lifelessly. Not one of the sailors at the front of the ship remained standing. Feeling the sudden emptiness left by their collapsed comrades, the remaining sailors looked for a place to hide hurriedly. They hadn't expected the enemy's Gold ranked marksman to be this powerful. The skill he showed could almost be considered divine and out of reach of mortal men.

A loud cry of terror rang out as two of the lower sails of the two-masted ship began to contort when the wind blew against it. The four arrows Josk just fired had broken the knot holding them in place. The sails fell on the tub containing the flaming balls, and caught fire. Smoke began to billow from the approaching ship. The lookout in the crow's nest stared at the flames for a moment before jumping into the ocean, desperate to escape his fiery fate.

Captain Wilson turned the wheel hurriedly, and directed the Flying Fish of Dawn past the flaming ship. They had successfully broken out of the Chikdor Merchant Guild's blockade. By the time the other ships turned around against the wind to give chase, the Flying Fish of Dawn would have long left them in the dust.

"Release!" Roughly 100 meters away at the deck of one of the large-class, three-masted ship, five balls of fire were launched from the boat. The ballistae didn't have the range, though; the balls splashed into the water a dozen meters short of the Flying Fish of Dawn.

A brutish, purple-faced man looked to the Flying Fish of Dawn in the distance and calmly said, "Don't fire any more fireballs, it's a waste if they're not in range. Send out the sea swallows to inform the third young master of our failure. Also, inform the third interception fleet and have them be careful of the impressive Gold ranked marksman. It was due to that marksman alone that they were able to break through our blockade and cause us to lose a ship. Leave one ship behind to save the survivors. As for the rest, turn around and tail them. I hope the third interception fleet will not disappoint us."

"Understood, Admiral," said a shipmate before he hurried to relay the orders.

Nearby, another huge man asked, "Elder brother, that ship is incredibly weird, just like a loach. It's too swift and sneaky and will be hard for us to catch up to."

"No worries, we'll just do what we can. The third young master was unable to forget his desire to possess that ship precisely because of its speed. Had the ship stopped and agreed to ferry the third young master to Morante City, he wouldn't have been eliminated as a candidate for succession. The third interception fleet has Blademaster Kumori with them, and their admiral is also incredibly experienced. If they receive our report, they will know how to deal with that ship. And if it turns back in an attempt to escape, we'll be right behind it. It's impossible for them to escape."

Sounds of cheering echoed on the empty sea from the Flying Fish of Dawn. The marines and guards were elated that they were able to evade their enemy without a single casualty, and were incredibly spirited.

Lorist looked at the flaming balls that fell into the ocean behind them and furrowed his brow as he asked, "What are those?"

Captain Wilson turned back and was just in time to see the last ball fall into the ocean. "Oh, that's a fireball, milord. It's the main ranged weapon used at sea. It's a bunch of mixed clay, fine sand, some hemp, and fuel. It's held together by wine glue. It's set aflame before being placed on a large ballista and fired. Its range is roughly 100 meters.

"It's usually fine if those things don't hit us. But if they do, it'll be really troublesome. The flames can't be put out simply by dousing it with water and it'll roll all over the place on the ship. Sometimes a single lucky shot will be able to set a whole ship on fire. I've asked in the past why our ships weren't outfitted with those, but the response I received was that those are too old-fashioned and that we have even better and more advanced ranged weaponry."

Just as Lorist as about to say something, he could hear Els curse as he walked out onto the deck.

"Milord, these steel ballistae are not of much use at all," said Els.

"What's going on? Is there a problem?" asked Lorist.

"Milord, even though we can shoot far with the ballistae, we aren't able to aim accurately. We're not on land and the ship frequently heaves up and down. Also, our targets aren't soldier formations which we can easily hit by roughly aiming in that direction. Ships at 200 or so meters away are only as large as a palm, and they're located quite far from each other, making them incredibly hard to hit. Of the ten shots I made, only 2 hit their targets. One of them merely landed on the ship without causing much damage while the other pierced a hole through their sail and is nowhere to be seen," complained Els.

Lorist realized with shock that he had taken the whole thing too lightly. He understood now that the ballistae used on carriages were unfit for use at sea, and were even inferior to the flaming balls used by the Chikdor Merchant Guild's fleet.

"Milord, the ideal combat distance at sea is around 30 to 50 meters. Beyond that, half of the shots fired will have to depend on luck alone. After all, we're all in the ocean and moving nonstop. A long firing distance does not offer much advantage. The most common mode of combat at sea is boarding and fighting up close. If the enemy has advantage in numbers, ranged attacks won't help us much either," added Captain Wilson.

Lorist nodded and said, "Thank you for your pointers, captain. When we arrive home, let's have another discussion about which armaments are best suited for our ships..."

Before he even finished, the lookout shouted, "Ahead... There's another fleet up ahead!"

Chapter 247 Bathing in Blood [Cliffhanger 2 of 3]

"It's the enemy! That's the fleet of the Chikdor Merchant Guild!" shouted the lookout after he identified the flags the ships were flying.

However, by then, they were already less than 200 meters apart.

"There are two large-class, three-masted merchant vessels, six middle-class, twin-masted, fast-sailing merchant vessels, and eight middle-class armed merchant vessels. Ugh, milord, what did you do to the Chikdor Merchant Guild for them to send so many ships, this one's larger than the previous fleet... It seems that they're fixated on holding us back," said Els jokingly.

At that moment, the people on the deck could tell the types of ships that were sailing towards them apart clearly. Lorist laughed as he shrugged and said, "How would I know? The Chikdor Merchant Guild just bit on us like a mad dog. To think that they'd send wave after wave of ships to stop us... Will this ever end? I think their main goal is to capture me and force me to hand Silowas Island to them..."

"In their dreams!" Josk exclaimed, to which Howard, Els and the rest nodded in response.

Captain Wilson asked, "Milord, what do we do? Do you want us to turn back and circle around them? We still have enough time and distance between us for that..."

Lorist shook his head and said, "No. If the fleet that we just escaped is behind us, then we'll be walking straight into the trap they set for us. It'll be even more troublesome if we're surrounded by both fleets. We'll just try to break through them like this. Joe, do you have any strength left?"

Josk wore a serious expression without saying anything. All he did was wave the green bow about in his hand, indicating that he was fine and that the rest could leave it to him. As long as he had his bow, nobody would be able to stop their voyage home.

As Josk made his preparations at the bow of the ship, he waited for the distance between the two parties to close. It didn't take long until the distance was around 100 meters. All of a sudden, the lookout on the crow's nest called out, "Be careful! The enemy has laid chains between their ships! There's no way we'll be able to rush through their ranks..."

Lorist staggered and almost struck against the railings of the deck. Good Sol, what's going on with his eyes? To think that he'd only notice the chains when we're this close... Now that the Flying Fish of Dawn was traveling at full speed, there was no way she could evade the chains. Even if Josk were able to break the masts of the two ships they were heading towards, they would still be hampered by the chains on the ships, allowing the other enemy ships to surround them. By then, the Flying Fish of Dawn would no longer be able to escape.

When I get back, I bet my ass off that I'll get myself binoculars! Heck, even a telescope would do! Now that I have Master Mancheny, glass production should no longer be a problem. The transparent oil-glass can be molded into concave lens pieces which I can fit to an iron tube to make a simple telescope.

Lorist felt that it was incredibly disadvantageous for them to not have a telescope at sea. Even if the lookout had better eyesight, they would only be able to see ships as small dots from 500 meters away and would be unable to tell friend from foe. Only until they were 200 meters away was the lookout able to see the flag the ships were flying. That would leave far too little time for them to respond. For instance, the chains between the enemy ships were also discovered too late.

Currently, the two parties were less than 80 meters apart.

"Milord, what do we do?" asked Captain Wilson hurriedly. That scenario was not one that any of them had envisioned.

Revealing a gaze of savagery filled with seething killing intent, Lorist shouted, "Head towards that ship at the right! Since they have a death wish, I will grant it. I will head to the bow of the ship. Els, order the ballista shooters to fire when we are close enough against people, not the ships. Provide suppressive fire against the enemy. Howard, head to the cabin and lock the door. I will leave Mister Mancheny and Professor Balbo in your care. Wilson, instruct the marines to prepare for battle. Since we're unable to rush past them, we'll fight our way out of this!"

The ship and the fleet were already less than 50 meters apart, but given that the enemy wanted to capture the Flying Fish of Dawn, they didn't use their fireballs to attack and only employed anti-personnel ranged weaponry such as bows and crossbows. Even so, most of the projectiles didn't hit their targets, and the ones that did find their way towards Lorist and the rest were easily deflected.

Lorist finally understood what Els said about the unreliability of ballistae at sea. He had stood beside one of the steel ballistae and saw six successive shots. Apart from a lucky shot that managed to skewer two unlucky bastards on the enemy ship, the rest grossly missed their targets.

Some flew too high and didn't hit anything, while others landed on the deck of the enemy ships.

Lorist couldn't help but sigh at the miss rate despite being only 60 meters away from the enemy. After all, not everyone had the talent for archery like Josk. Given the undulation of the ship, even if one aimed properly, one could still miss at the very next moment. Unless there were enough ballistae to fire in huge waves to suppress the enemy, they wouldn't be a threat to the enemy at all in small numbers.

It was apparent that the enemy marines also had the same thought; they were not the least dispirited despite the loss of two of their comrades. They howled as they waved the weapons in their hands around, prepared to jump and board the Flying Fish of Dawn once she was close enough.

"Joe, I'll leave the left ship to you. I will take care of the right one," said Lorist, who turned back and made a hand signal to captain Wilson at the helm.

Josk merely nodded.

It was then when the Flying Fish of Dawn swerved to the right suddenly, changing their trajectory to point towards the right middle-class, fast-sailing merchant vessel. Originally, the Flying Fish of Dawn would've collided straight against the chains, but with that sudden turn, it would crash against the ship at the right instead.

To the captain of the right ship, having the Flying Fish of Dawn's razor-sharp bow ramming against his own vessel was definitely undesirable. The collision might even incapacitate his ship. He definitely did not wish for his own ship to be the victim of the Flying Fish of Dawn's suicide attack. It would be a huge blow to his career and his future with the merchant guild.

A flurry of orders from the ship at the right to lower the sails and change direction could be heard. The sailors aboard that ship began to work busily and gave up on shooting at the Flying Fish of Dawn. The ship to the right's speed quickly decreased and its bow began to align with the Flying Fish of Dawn's, causing them to only brush past without fully colliding against each other.

"Turn the sails forward!" ordered Captain Wilson. A few of the marines pulled on the ropes and angled the sails to face the front of the ship.

The Flying Fish of Daw had originally been traveling against the direction of the wind. The front-facing sails now caused the ship to decrease in speed greatly, as if she had turned from a strong, athletic runner into an old, trotting lady. That sudden change was greatly out of the expectations of the crews of the two enemy ships, with the left ship wasting a huge wave of arrows and bolts that landed in the ocean directly in front of the Flying Fish of Dawn.

Thunderous twangs rang out again from Josk's bow, causing cries of terror to resound from the enemy ship at the left. As the ship to the left was kept occupied, Lorist turned his attention to the other ship to the right. The distance between them decreased incredibly slowly. It was taking too long.

The middle-class, twin-masted, fast-sailing merchant vessel was 35 meters in length, with its front being narrow and its back being broad. The bow of the ship was 1 meter long and was equipped with a long ram. The middle part of the ship to its back had a rough width of 7 meters and the two masts supported four rectangular sails in total, with another four triangular sails by the sides. The fastest the ship could travel windward was 10 knots, with her being able to transport a maximum of 88 people and a minimum of 34. 2.7 meters of the ship was submerged with the other 3.5 meters of it above the surface of the ocean. She had double-layered cabins which could transport loads weighing up to 24000 kilograms and was hailed to be one of the most amazing middle-class ships on the whole of Grindia, being the ideal choice for long distance voyages.

Even though the Flying Fish of Dawn traveled slowly against the wind with full sail, given the momentum built up from its previous charge and the relative velocity of the approaching ship, the two ships were naught but 4 meters away by the time Lorist finished recalling the information about the ship he had read before.

With a loud cry, Lorist leaped straight towards the opposite ship. Before he even landed, the enemy sailors had already managed to react and flung their javelins and throwing axes towards Lorist in response.

Lorist swung his sword mid-air and deflected both waves before landing haggardly on the deck of the ship. Lorist didn't think he would land flat on his face, but the momentum of his leap was just too much. The sailors made use of the opportunity to rush straight at him.

Swords flashed, and blood splattered through the air with severed limbs flying all over the place. 20 plus sailors had their bodies cut into discrete pieces without being given the slightest chance to cry out.

Rubbing his nose as he stood back up, Lorist thought, gah, that fall just now saw my nose landing directly against the deck, it's even bleeding... And the enemy even tried to swarm me when they witnessed my unfortunate landing...

When Lorist stretched out his left leg to prepare for the landing, his leg ended up amidst a pile of rolled up rope. One sailor saw the chance and gave the rope a pull, causing Lorist to trip over without being able to react and fall straight onto the deck. Had it not been for his quick reaction, he might've lost his life just then.

Wilson was right... The most important thing when it comes to fighting at sea is to pay attention to footwork. This is not land. I must be more careful with how my foot lands and find a perfect balance between heavy and light steps, all the while paying attention to the messy deck. With the fighting space so constrained, when there is a large number of enemies, even an Iron rank will be able to give a critical strike to take down a Silver or Gold ranked fighter...

Bam! The Flying Fish of Dawn that was rubbing against the enemy ship Lorist boarded collided into the chains, causing both ships to rub against each other even more tightly. Those who weren't paying attention collapsed after losing their balance.

Lorist took a horse stance to stabilize himself on the deck and pointed at the helm of the ship with his sword, saying, "Discard your weapons and surrender. Those who enter the cabin will have their lives spared..."

In Grindian naval warfare, the most important thing was to conquer the deck. As long as the deck of a ship was conquered, the enemy would be finished. That was because the most important things such as the helm, the rudder and the mast were all there. The entry into the lower cabin of an enemy in an act of surrender was akin to leaving their lives in the hands of the winning side, since if the cabin entries from the deck was locked up, the fate of the people within would be out of their own hands. A single torch was all that was needed to roast the people in the cabin below alive.

One heavily-bearded man held onto the railings as he stood up and drew his sword, infusing it with his silver blade glow. "You think too highly of your abilities. Everyone, attack him all at once..."

This time around, throwing axes, javelins and all sorts of other thrown weapons flew in Lorist's direction, some of the sailors even tried to lasso Lorist with ropes.

Since you all have death wishes, I'll gladly grant them.

Lorist slaughtered his way from the bow of the ship all the way to its end. Bathed in blood, he seemed like a frenzied killing demon that had emerged from a sea of blood. The bearded man called out in despair, mumbling, 'demon... demon!' until he was finally ended by Lorist's sword.

Fresh corpses that continued to bleed out littered the deck. Lorist didn't keep a count on how many he killed and was only aware that no one on the ship was left alive. He headed to the left side of the ship where two thick beams were. The chains that obstructed the way of the Flying Fish of Dawn were tied onto the beams.

With a slash, Lorist cut the wooden beams apart. But by now, the two ships were already fast against each other. Even though the beams binding the chains had been removed, the ships didn't drift apart.

Just as Lorist was about to leap back to the Flying Fish of Dawn, he suddenly felt the ship shake harshly. Losing his footing due to the slippery, blood-covered flooring, Lorist managed to stabilize himself half-kneeling. After hearing a couple of cries from his side, he turned his head to look and was enraged to the brim.

Surprisingly, the ship at the left Josk was targeting and one of the large-class ships that used to be roughly 50 meters away had approached all of a sudden. Just as the large-class, three-masted ship was pushing against the middle-class ship towards the Flying Fish of Dawn, countless people appeared all of a sudden around the side of the ship, using their higher elevation as advantage to rain arrows and bolts towards the Flying Fish of Dawn. A dozen of Lorist's marines collapsed on deck right away. The one who had it worst was the lookout who was practically indistinguishable from a porcupine.

Following that, dozens of men leaped from the large-class ship and boarded the middle-class ship adjacent to the Flying Fish of Dawn and kept on approaching.

Josk's longbow kept firing, causing streaks of green one after another to shoot towards the enemy like lightning bolts. But right after only two of the enemy troops were struck, a brown-clad old man stepped out of their ranks and easily deflected Josk's arrows.

"A Blademaster?!" said Lorist with surprise.

He didn't think that the fleet of the Chikdor Merchant Guild actually brought with it a Blademaster. At that moment, he made an urgent leap and landed beside Josk.

"You deal with the rest a the back. Let me tussle with that old guy."

After that, he made his way to the middle-class ship on the left and stood in front of the old brown-clad man.

The old man raised his sword in front of him, appearing incredibly cold and fearsome as he bellowed, "You're still not going to surren-"

"In your dreams! Go to hell!" said Lorist without bothering to listen to the Blademaster's ramblings, rushing forward instantly with his sword.

Clang clang clang! Echoes of clashing swords resounded. The old man in brown had already lost his first-strike advantage and was pushed back by Lorist's stream of attacks ever so gradually. As he parried the incoming strikes coming from his left and right, he began to swerve his body to dodge the following ones haggardly.

"Come here and give me some help!"

The old Blademaster was no longer able to hold on and asked for reinforcements without giving the slightest care about his reputation.

Two ignorant sailors rushed forward, right into the trajectory of Lorist's strikes.

After a few deafening sounds of clashing, the two sailors were both cut apart all the way from their left shoulders to their right hips. Even the axe and sword in their hands had been broken into pieces by Lorist's strikes.

But by then, the old man in brown had already turned tail to escape.

"Fool, I'll see where you can run to when we're at sea," Lorist said, unleashing his killing frenzy.

Since the Chikdor Merchant Guild was willing to spend so much resources for his capture, he figured that the loss of a Blademaster would hurt them even more.

No matter what, I have to make sure that old guy dies, thought Lorist as he gave chase.

The small fries barring his way were cut down like vegetables one after another as the brown-clad man began climbing back onto the three-masted merchant vessel.

Lorist was so agile that he seemed to be flying. With but a few steps here and there, he made his way up to that large-class merchant vessel and was greeted by countless blades and spears. A swarm of men rushed towards Lorist quickly while roaring at the top of their lungs.

It was at that moment when Lorist suddenly felt that his vision was turning redder and redder. It was as if he had entered a world that couldn't be adequately described with words. Everything that was happening on the large-class, three-masted merchant vessel was within Lorist's awareness, with not the slightest movement escaping his crystal-clear attention.

The red silhouettes he saw rushing towards him were moving at a laughably slow speed, allowing Lorist to evade the weapons that were swung at him easily. He put his sword through the throats and chests of the red silhouettes lightly, causing one after another to collapse on the deck of the ship in quick succession.

After a few moments, the number of red silhouettes on the deck had already decreased greatly. The remaining ones did not rush forward and instead tried their best to hide from Lorist, but it was a futile effort. In the end, only the brown-clad old man remained.

The Blademaster seemed to have broken while watching Lorist. He mumbled continuously.

"Sword Saint… Sain... Domain."

Do you think you can scare me by bringing up Sword Saints?! Lorist swung his sword, lopping the head of the man off cleanly. He stretched his free hand out and caught the flying head in mid-air. Raising the decapitated head up high, Lorist began to laugh out maniacally, with each echo of his laughter bringing with it a wave of bone-chilling bloodlust across the sea.

"Milord! Milord! Milord! Snap out of it!"

The cackling Lorist heard somebody call out urgently to him. Finally, he began to regain his senses and the tint of red faded from his irises, returning them to their former black color.

Wait, did I do all this?

Corpses could be seen piled up all over the three-masted merchant vessel with the deck awash with fresh, flowing blood.

"Why did you shout at me from so far away?"

Els, who called out to Lorist from the deck of the middle-class, twin-masted merchant vessel heard Lorist's query and replied, "Milord, did you think I would be brave enough to go there? Look around you! You killed the whole crew of their ship like a rampaging demon in less than 30 minutes! There was no less than 300 people there!"

"Ah? Was I really that amazing?" mused Lorist as he looked at the head in his hands.

Ugh, why am I holding this shit? thought Lorist before he threw the head away casually.

"Milord, the ships have separated. We're waiting for you to board right now," shouted Els.

"Alright, I'll come right awa--" Just as Lorist was about to head back, he felt an abrupt dizzy spell that drained him of every shred of energy he had left. As his vision turned black, he collapsed.

Chapter 248 Escape [Cliffhanger 3 of 3]

Lorist felt as if he was afloat in the sky, free and unrestrained. He was a light and swift feather floating in the wind...

The ground was right in front of him and it seemed rather familiar, just like the maps he had pondered upon in the past.

Lorist quickly realized something and thought, isn't this the Northlands?

The land before him moved quickly. It didn't take long for him to arrive at the dominion of his family. There was the Salus Settlement, Firmrock Castle, Felicitas Settlement, and the various small factories and workshops, as well as the black iron refinery base which he named the Ironforge Castle, and Windstorm City, the main military equipment production base within the dominion.

At that moment, it was as if Lorist had turned into a bird, flying high in the skies and looking down at his own dominion. He traveled along the Bladedge Mountains and could see the Nico Academy, which was still under construction. Telesti could be seen inspecting some blueprints with her maidservant, Vinny, hugging little Olijess and humming her a relaxing tune. Lorist later passed above Maplewoods Bastide and saw his chubby and energetic son Waldbeck naughtily playing hide-and-seek with Irina.

After that, Lorist passed by Poplar Town and Blackmud Marsh, managing to take a look at the busily working soldiers, as well as the hectic shipyard. Be it the navy camp, the port, the endless seas -- which raged with fierce waves -- or a small fleet of six whaling boats that were riding the winds, Lorist could see it all.

It didn't take long before Lorist realized that he was back in the skies above Silowas Island. The mist of dawn that covered the island made it seem ever so calm and peaceful. The island was no doubt a precious treasure that the oceans had to offer.

This island is part of my family dominion. I will not allow anyone to take it away.

What made Lorist wonder was, no matter where he flew, there would always be a small, red dot following him on the ground. The dot sped up and slowed down in lockstep with him. In the end, Lorist could no longer resist his curiosity and decided to fly to the ground to check out what that red dot was.

The ground enlarged as he approached it. He landed on the ground lightly and eyed the little red mark. It was almost as big as a basketball. It wasn't the least bit eye-catching, and seemed like nothing but a small bloodstain.

Lorist stretched his leg and put it into the red mark. All of a sudden, nothing but red flashed before his eyes until the whole world around him seemed tinted with the familiar blood-red color. The blood-red color expanded around him at breakneck speed. Anything the color touched became part of the blood-red world he was in.

Within that blood-colored world Lorist felt like a fish in water; he was free to swim around as he pleased. Not a single being in that blood-colored world, be it the hibernating snakes, the burrowing rats, the hard-working ants that were moving food, or any plant, down to the smallest stalk of grass, not a single one of them nor their movements could escape Lorist's awareness.

A sickly-sweet stench permeated the air around him...

Lorist breathed in deeply, and could tell that the scent was one that he would detect when he was slaughtering away. The cries and curses of the slaughtered enemies crescendoed into a symphony of war. The hum of the song that rang out eternally within the blood-colored world made one's blood boil.

In this blood-colored world, I am sovereign! thought Lorist excitedly.

At the same time, he felt incredibly fatigued. After a while, the blood-colored world began to fade. The blood-colored tint receded around him gradually, until it gathered up into a basketball-sized blob around Lorist's feet. Eventually it fused with Lorist himself.

......

Lorist opened his eyes. He found himself in his cabin on the Flying Fish of Dawn. He turned to look at the right side of the cabin and saw that Howard wasn't on his bed. The light of dawn that shone through the round window of the cabin indicated that the sky was already brightening.

After he ascertained that nothing was out of place, Lorist closed his eyes and began circulating his internal energy to inspect his internal condition. When he finished a minor cycle, he found that his body's condition was in normal. He felt incredibly invigorated; in fact, he felt far more energetic than usual.

Lorist put both his hands behind his head and laid down to feel the light swaying of the ship caused by the waves as he began to recount what had happened to him.

It was as if he had entered a frenzied, demonic state, when he boarded the three large-class three-masted merchant vessels and killed everyone there. Even the old blademaster dressed in brown was no exception. In the end, he was awakened by Els's shouting. But when he attempted to return, he lost consciousness.

Given that he was on the Flying Fish of Dawn, it was apparent that Els, or someone else, had hauled him back on board. Lorist could hear the familiar sounds of the marines, guards and Captain Wilson above the cabin. He could tell that the Flying Fish of Dawn had already escaped from the encirclement of the other ships and was heading for Silowas Island. However, he didn't know how long he had passed out for.

What intrigued Lorist was how he entered that berserk state in the first place when he got onto the three-masted merchant vessel. It was as if the whole world around him had turned blood red. In that world, he couldn't see the faces of others clearly. All he saw was fumbling red humanoid figures that moved around in a laughably obvious and slow manner, just like puppets that were suspended on strings.

Due to Lorist's dynamic vision ability, he had always been able to see each move of his enemy clearly. When Lorist was in the blood-colored world, the enemy had moved just as slow. However, what differed from usual was how he felt that he had entered a completely different realm. The world had turned blood red, and not a single move made by his enemies, regardless of whether they were in front of behind him or not, as long as they were on that three-masted ship, escaped Lorist's senses.

Taking their lives was as simple as raising his hand. Lorist could still recall how he felt at that moment. He had turned into an unfeeling robot that never tired. No matter how badly the red humanoid figures begged or turned tails to run, Lorist would harvest their lives without a single shred of emotion passing across his face. Some of them, those who had jumped into the ocean for their lives, still managed to be killed by the javelins thrown by Lorist.

And why did I have that weird dream after I passed out?

'People thought during the day and dreamed during the night.' Lorist felt that the saying he heard from his past life made a lot of sense. In his dream, he saw his family dominion and loved ones, possibly a sign that he missed them dearly as well as his dedication to protect them as best he could.

But why did he see that blood-colored world again at the end of that dream? Also, why did he feel that he was the ultimate sovereign of that world?

Lorist started when he suddenly recalled the final words of the brown-clad blademaster he had killed. He mentioned something along the lines of a Sword Saint's domain. Perhaps, he wasn't bringing up a Sword Saint-ally in desperation in hopes to be spared, and was instead referring to the blood-red color he saw? Was that realm of freedom and debauchery actually the domain of a Sword Saint?

Forget it, Lorist thought.

He found it hard to believe that he could become a Sword Saint that easily. It was practically impossible.

Even though Lorist was training in the Aquametal Technique from his past life using battleforce, he wasn't willing to believe that he could break through to the next realm that easily. That was especially the case given how he still didn't know how to progress in his training at the Dark Stage. It was mainly because he didn't have any other reference and didn't truly understand how the mythical Transformative Stage of his technique would look like, nor how he should train in order to progress to that stage.

Before he was involved in the assassination attempt by blademaster Zarinan, Lorist's combat ability could only compare to a rank 2 blademaster. That was because he was able to fight to a stalemate with blademaster Xanthi. But when blademaster Zarinan attacked, Lorist realized that his skills weren't of much use at all against the blademaster who was known to be a quasi-Sword Saint, causing many of the lives of the soldiers of his house that attempted to save him to be sacrificed. Additionally, Josk and Potterfang were heavily injured, and more than ten Silver ranked knights and upwards of 400 other brave and loyal soldiers had to give their lives heroically in order to save him.

Even though Reidy managed to save his life, he later lost his memories. In the end, Lorist had fallen into the hands of the mountain barbarians because of his injuries, and experienced the worst kind of humiliation ever to happen to him, in both his lives. When Lorist recovered, he resolved himself to train his swordsmanship and internal energy painstakingly. Even after returning to the dominion, he did not let up and found time to train even on the busiest days. Lorist was determined to never be on the receiving end of another assassination attempt.

It's impossible... It's only been a little more than one year since then. There's no way that I could've become a Sword Saint already. At most, I'm only at the level of a rank 3 blademaster. And even if I become a Sword Saint, my domain should be snowstorm, or some other frost-based phenomenon, right? What is with the blood-colored world?

Viscount Kristoph, who was a rank 1 blademaster, had said that when he first sparred with Lorist, he was still able to receive more than 100 strikes. Each following spar, however, he found that he lasted for shorter and shorter periods of time, until he wasn't even able to resist 40 strikes. It got so bad that Viscount Kristoph felt it was too embarrassing and refused to accept Lorist's challenges anymore.

He had complained that it wasn't because of Lorist's swift strikes that he lost. Instead, every time he received a strike from Lorist, he felt a sudden, unbearable, icy chill. Given that his battleforce was of the water attribute, it was perfectly countered by cold chills like that, and it didn't take long until he wasn't able to continue fighting. That was the reason he felt that if Lorist ever became a Sword Saint, his domain would be based on the same frost attribute.

When he made a visit to Dawn Academy recently, Instructor Claude felt pumped and insisted that he wanted to give Lorist pointers in swordsmanship. He said that he would break through to become a rank 2 blademaster soon, perhaps no more than seven years of training still had to be done. Lorist couldn't refuse him, so he reluctantly accepted the duel. As Instructor Claude's battleforce attribute was fire, he was able to last a little bit longer, but not more than 80 strikes.

That was the reason Lorist believed himself to be equivalent to a rank 3 blademaster instead of a Sword Saint. If the latter were the case, he would've taken care of a rank 1 blademaster like instructor Claude in a dozen strikes.

Still, what is the matter with the blood-colored world? If that was a result of my killing frenzy, then why did I dream about it? The feeling of absolute control over the environment is so unique that it's incredibly hard to describe. It's like I'm somehow addicted to it and unable to forget it.

Lorist sat up straight, and circulated a major cycle. After ensuring that nothing was wrong with his body, Lorist felt rather incredible.

When he opened his eyes, he saw a shocked Howard standing before him. "Milord, you've been asleep for two days and nights, but you're finally awake now. I didn't want to interrupt you when you were training just now. Are you alright?"

"Hehe, I'm fine. I feel great, even. But I'm a little hungry," said Lorist.

......

The deck of the ship was a big mess. A dozen injured soldiers wrapped up like mummies were basking in the sun. The moment they saw Lorist, the cried out with surprise, "Milord..."

"Milord, you're awake!"

Lorist nodded to answer their calls before heading to the helm of the ship. There, he saw Captain Wilson with one arm wrapped up as he steered the ship.

"You got hurt?"

"Yes, milord. I got hit by an arrow accidentally..."

"Why are you steering with your injuries? Where's Old Jack?"

Wilson lowered his head and said, "Old Jack is no more. When we were retreating, he got hit by a crossbow bolt and died on the spot."

Lorist stayed silent in solemnity as he took the wheel for himself. "Let me do it. Tell me how you guys managed to break out of encirclement when I was unconscious."

"Milord, back when you boarded the three-masted ship, the enemies just kept rushing at you, causing us to worry so much. However, we didn't think you'd be able to unleash the beast and kill off all our cursed enemies without even leaving their armor intact. Milord, you seemed like you were having an easy time killing them. Both the we, who were witnessing the scene, and the enemy were completely stunned.

"Only Sir Josk was still alert and reminded us to use the opportunity to push away the two middle-class ships sticking to us and remove the chains, allowing us to escape. By then, you had already killed off all the enemies on the ship, and were laughing maniacally with an old man's head in your hand. That laughter of yours was so cold that it gives me goosebumps even though I'm only talking about it...

"At that time, the whole sea was devoid of noise. The enemy was completely frightened. Sir Josk said that at that moment, your eyes were red, and that you had entered a demonic state and was unable to differentiate friend from foe. Sir Els could only shout at you from afar. It was fortunate that you were conscious back then and turned back after hearing Els shout. That was when we stopped worrying.

"But right at that moment, you collapsed unmoving on the deck. Sir Els then rushed to your side and hauled you back while we hurriedly set sail. At the same time, the enemy began to act when you fainted and fired their ranged weapons at us. Fortunately, we were still trapped between two ships, which helped us take most of the fire before they were set aflame. The smoke from the flames shielded us while we retreated.

"It was only after we left the two ships that we received a critical blow. The other large-class three-masted merchant vessel fired a large number of flaming ball projectiles and crossbow bolts at us. Old Jack was steering the ship at that time. One of the fire balls fell at the front most mast and it began to catch fire. I took care of it by having our naval soldiers hack the mast down under enemy fire. To tossed the mast into the sea. When I called out to Old Jack, there was no response. It was only after I got to the helm that I found him nailed to the helm by a crossbow bolt, dead.

"Due to losing one of our masts, we traveled at a much slower speed. Our enemy's ship was able to catch up after spending quite a while cutting away at the chains. But Sir Josk revealed his skills in the end, and shot down the masts of the enemy ship with only three arrows, before shooting at the middle mast's upper section, causing the ship to lag behind us. The enemy stopped pursuing us after that," Captain Wilson described the situation in detail.

"How many men did we lose?"

Wilson laughed bitterly and said, "Only 7 of our 28 sailors remain, with 13 out of commission, and 8 dead. 3 of your 10 guards died, with 5 others injured. Of the 5 steel ballista shooters, 2 were injured. However, our guests are fine. Apart from Old Jack, the rest are still here..."

"What about Josk and Els?"

"Sir Josk said that he was incredibly tired and has been sleeping for a day and night without waking. Sir Els was on duty for the whole night yesterday and just went to get some rest. Milord, it was fortunate that you regained consciousness. The speed the ship is traveling at is lesser than 6 knots right now. We're just about to enter the Sea of Grief and I'm worried that we'll be robbed. We're incredibly short-handed right now, with most of us injured. If we truly were to encounter the pirates, there's no way we can resist," Captain Wilson warned Lorist in a serious manner.

Lorist smiled and said, "Alright, don't worry. You'll have yourself some good sailors and ships soon."

Chapter 249 Senbaud

Fedley Senbaud felt that his luck was pretty good. When the empire's civil war first broke out, he was merely a one-star-silver-ranked garrison squad leader. After the First Prince declared rebellion, he became one of the company leaders of some suicide troopers at the frontlines. It didn't take long for him to be abandoned in the midst of battle due to his injuries. By the time he regained consciousness, he realized there was nothing but corpses all over him.

Lord Gunmock's corpse was not far away from him on the battlefield. He was shocked to see him lying there. Sir Gunmock was one of the most renowned gold ranked knights at the city Senbaud served at as a garrison squad leader. Rumor had it that Gunmock would break through to the three-star gold rank soon. Whenever he passed through the city gates, Senbaud had to offer his greetings. He was ignored every time. Senbaud really didn't think that a person of such caliber would perish on the battlefield just like that.

As he dragged his injured leg with him while he crawled towards the corpse of Sir Gunmock, he saw that a crude crossbow bolt had pierced the neck of the dead man. Senbaud was dumbstruck at the thought that a gold ranked knight had died on the battlefield just like that: from a stray crossbow bolt. He hadn't even been given the chance to use his abilities!

Sir Gunmock must have died a really horrible death, for him to perish here without anyone knowing anything about it. He couldn't even compare to me. I managed to slay two enemies before getting injured...

Senbaud eventually recovered from his stupor. Since the two could be considered to be from the same hometown, he dug a ditch within which to bury Gunmock, lest his body be mutilated by wild birds and beasts. As expected, when he searched the corpse, he found that the dead man was actually a walking treasure trove. The stainless steel, full-body armor, was undamaged as Gunmock had died from a bolt straight to his unprotected neck. Senbaud couldn't help but wonder what kind of unspeakable sin one had to commit to deserve such an unlucky ending.

The corpse also had a sack filled with roughly four hundred imperial gold coins and several other precious gemstones. There was even a golden bracelet which still had bloodstains on it in the sack. It seemed that during the past two days occupying the small town nearby, Sir Gunmock had profited quite a bit. However, Senbaud didn't understand why Sir Gunmock carried so much of his valuables with him in person.

Aren't they really unwieldy on the battlefield? Well, whatever. At least I get to take advantage of it.

The thing that he was the happiest about was his discovery of a high-ranked battleforce manual within the sack Sir Gunmock carried with him. The battleforce attribute of the manual was the same metal type as his own. Flipping open the manual titled 'Metaltemper Battleforce', Senbaud discovered that one of Sir Gunmock's ancestors was a blademaster who had unfortunately perished in battle during one of the empire's invasion attempts on the trade union.

The blademaster had recorded his insights and realizations in the Metaltemper Battleforce manual. It was to be passed down as a family heirloom so that his descendants would not have to go through trial and error in their battleforce training. It was a shame that nobody in the family after him had the same metal attribute battleforce, save for Gunmock. Even so it was till a shame; he had only trained to two-star gold rank at the age of 50. He was simply too lustful and greedy.

Now that Senbaud had stumbled upon such treasure, he decided to become a deserter. He found himself two strolling horses whose owners had died, stripped Gunmock naked as a newborn baby, and loaded the goods on one of the horses before taking his leave.

As the company leader of some of the suicide troops, he was privy to information on a portion of the battle plans, intelligence, and contingencies. He was a rather intelligent man; he didn't head straight home. It wouldn't take long for him to be forcefully reenlisted and placed on the battlefield once more. He traveled to the coast with his two horses instead and built himself a small grass hut in the wilds not far away from the Sea of Grief. He would hunt for a living and occasionally travel to a small town not too far away to buy some food. The rest of his time he would spend training in the Metaltemper Battleforce. In times of war, the key to survival was to have a well-trained body.

Sometimes Senbaud felt that he was like one of those protagonists in the chivalric novels he read. Now that he had his fortunate encounter, his time to shine would soon come. Three years later, the 27-year-old finally broke through to the three-star silver rank, on his birthday no less. Just as he was on the way back from purchasing some alcohol to celebrate, he stumbled upon an unconscious beauty and brought her back with him.

Just like something directly out of a novel, that beauty described her life which was full of drama and grudges when she awoke. There was a bandit lair around two days' travel from the place Senbaud lived.

Actually, it would be more accurate to call it a pirate lair. The men there often raided at sea and seldom operated on land. That was why he wasn't aware that he was the neighbor of pirates all this time.

The beauty was, in fact, the daughter of the original head of the pirates, who had been killed off by the second and third heads of the group because he divided the spoils unequally. At first, the third head even wanted to take the beauty as his wife, but the men that were loyal to the beauty's father ambushed the third head when he was about to force the beauty to sleep with him. After that, all hell broke loose. During the conflict, the beauty was injured. She managed to escape, but was pursued. In a fit of panic, she ran as fast and far as she could, before fainting in the middle of the road where Senbaud coincidentally met her.

Thus, Senbaud drew his sword for the sake of the beauty and helped her travel along the path of vengeance. He had heard that the pirates originally had four silver ranked fighters among their ranks. The beauty's father was a two-star silver rank, the second and third heads, as well as a man referred to as 'uncle Torin', were one star silver ranks. It was uncle Torin who had brought some others to ambush the third head. At the time, only the one star silver ranked second head remained. Senbaud felt that it would be stupid of him to not take that opportunity to intervene.

All went according to plan and Senbaud was able to triumph over the second head, helping the beauty exact her vengeance. The remaining pirates then took him as their leader. With the aid of uncle Torin, he rebuilt the lair of the pirates and took the role of their boss with the beauty as his wife and mistress of the lair.

Ten years had passed in a flash and Senbaud already had two sons and one daughter. He lived a mostly blissful life, but his career was a little lackluster.

As the pirate boss, Senbaud understood the principle of 'the early bird gets the worm, but the early worm gets eaten by the bird'. That was why he had always been extremely careful when it came to raiding at sea. Whenever he decided to act, he would only do so against smuggling ships or ships that sailed astray from their fleets, without ever touching those belonging to large merchant guilds or nobles. He also never flaunted the wealth he got from raiding.

The pirate lair had developed much during the ten years and began to resemble a normal fishing village more and more. Its population was already reaching 1000 people. Senbaud didn't only focus his attention on raiding, he also recruited vagabonds to begin farming and tending to livestock at the wastelands near the hills. As a result of his foresight the pirates no longer had to rely on trading with the outside world for food. He also had the elderly, women, and children gather firewood, boil seawater for salt, and even formed a small trading convoy to trade their surplus salt, and raided goods for some other resources the fishing village needed. When there was an opportunity, he would set sail to take it. At other times, he would live an honest life fishing and tending to his home. His life was one filled with relaxation and freedom.

But he was aware that even if he managed to disguise the pirate lair as a fishing village, they were not completely safe. There wouldn't be a problem during times of war when others were out killing on the battlefield. But when the situation stabilized, dominion lords or standing armies would be well within their rights to act against the lair. By then, the scene of peace before him would instantly turn to one of blood, fire, and ash.

Additionally, the location of the pirate lair wasn't that well-hidden. There were many outsiders who knew of the place, and the terrain wasn't particularly dangerous. It was situated at the coast at a rural and hilly area. The local dominion lord didn't care much about the lair since the pirates didn't raid his dominion in the first place.

These hills were considered a part of Count Seleih's dominion. Count Seleih used to be a division leader of the former empire's army, but he followed Duke Lormo during the civil war of the empire and helped him establish the Lormo Duchy. Thus, he was promoted from a baron to a count and given the piece of land he currently occupied. There were three villages and one town in Count Seleih's dominion, but most of them were congregated within its southern area. The northern area of his dominion was mostly wastelands, forests and tidelands.

It had been two years already since Senbaud first got in touch with the count. He had hoped to obtain recognition from the noble, and to legalize the existence of his fishing village. For that, he was willing to become the knight of the count and was also ready to pay a huge sum in taxes.

However, Count Seleih was often absent from his own dominion because he served by Duke Lormo's side. Senbaud's letter ended up in the hands of the supervisor of the dominion appointed by the count, who looked down on Senbaud's pirate background and didn't care for his three-star-silver-ranked battleforce. His master was a gold ranked knight, after all.

What the supervisor was concerned about was how he could increase the income of his lord. But Senbaud would never accept a tax rate higher than 65 percent, and wouldn't accept the supervisor's request to send some men to operate at the fishing village so that the tax collection process would be easier.

The baseline for Senbaud was a tax rate of 50 percent, which would be paid by the fishing villager themselves without any intervention. But the supervisor was not willing to accept those conditions, he even threatened to have the count send troops to deal with them. As a result, Senbaud barked back and said that should the forces of the count ever come, he would drop all pleasantries. He would fight the count's forces in a nearby hilly area. He wondered how high a price the count was willing to pay to wipe them out. Senbaud also said that, as long as they existed, they would raid the villages and towns. It was entirely within their ability to render the count's dominion useless.

And so, the two parties arrived at a stalemate. They could do naught but pay attention to one another warily. The supervisor could only shut one eye when it came to the trading convoy of the fishing village and allow the convenience of trading within the town and villages. Senbaud on the other hand would send the supervisor and Count Seleih a tribute during festive seasons. So far, the two sides managed to get along peacefully.

Things had begun to change two months ago, however. Senbaud had broken through to the one star gold rank. Count Seleih, who was far away, at the capital of the Lormo Duchy, heard about it and wrote a personal letter to Senbaud. He expressed his willingness to take Senbaud in as a knight of his house, and said that he would let the fishing village become the manor of a gold ranked knight like Senbaud. Naturally, Senbaud would have to construct the castle or the manor himself, as the count was short on funds.

Despite that, there were obvious benefits to Senbaud becoming a knight of Count Seleih. In doing so, the folk of the fishing village would be considered citizens of Senbaud's manor, and they would only have to pay a tax rate of 30 percent. However, Count Seleih also stated that he would require Senbaud to go to the capital of the Lormo Duchy to do his bidding by his side. The count said that the moment Senbaud arrives at the capital, he would knight him on the spot and elevate his status.

For Count Seleih, taking in a gold ranked knight was really different from taking in a Silver ranked knight. Silver ranked knights were common as clouds, but gold ranked knights were few and far in between. It was such that the count was even willing to overlook Senbaud's background as a pirate. In the battleforce-driven world of Grindia, it was as Senbaud had thought: training hard to get a high battleforce rank was the key to survival in the chaotic times of war.

After pondering for a month, Senbaud accepted the count's invitation to become a knight of House Seleih. However, he couldn't just leave immediately, he had much to do before he could go, such as picking a suitable place for the construction of his castle. Back then, he only thought of first defining the boundaries of the castle and building a makeshift stone building and a moat there since he didn't yet have the financial capabilities to build a proper one immediately.

Two days ago, however, Senbaud received a letter from the count's supervisor. It stated that the count's 50th birthday would be in 20 days, and that the count hoped that he would be able to knight Senbaud on the day as well to add another layer of joy to the celebration. The supervisor didn't fail to remind Senbaud of the count's hobbies, implying that he should bring the count a generous gift for the occasion.

But not only was Senbaud not well off, he didn't have anything that suited the count's taste. That was why he turned his sights back to the sea, hoping that he would be able to profit off raiding once more before heading to the capital of the Lormo Duchy to become Count Seleih's knight. He hoped his wife and children would be able to live better lives after his departure to the capital.

......

"Boss, there are two ships over there that seem tangled together. One of them is a quick, twin-masted, middle-class, merchant vessel and the other looks rather weird. It seems like a middle-class vessel, but it doesn't appear to be in good condition, one of the masts seem burnt. The two ships are traveling incredibly slow next to each other. Should we tail them and make a killing?"

The one who had spoken was Tok, a huge, burly man with two-star-silver-ranked battleforce. He seemed even more like a pirate than uncle Torin.

Senbaud nodded in reply. It was obvious that the two boats had just been raided. Sights like these were common in the Sea of Grief. The winning side would tie the losing ship to their own to continue their voyage. In doing so they would become sitting ducks themselves.

The process of boarding the merchant vessel couldn't be smoother. Nobody resisted or cried out in confusion; in fact, not a single soul could be seen on the ship. On the other hand, there were a few people on the weird-looking ship, all of whom seemed completely oblivious to the presence of the pirates and continued to mind their own business. There was even one youth who placed his finger against his lips and hushed, gesturing for the pirates to be quiet.

Senbaud had brought two-armed, twin-masted ships along with him which could travel rather fast; they could reach a maximum speed of eight to nine knots. However, they would face some difficulty when traveling against the wind, and required a more experienced helmsman to steer them. Despite that, that particular kind of ship had great battle potential. It could carry many people, which was perfect for boarding actions.

The two armed ships carried on them around 330 pirates in total. There were roughly 100 pirates who boarded the weird-looking ship. They filled the deck up completely.

On the weird ship was a small table on which many beastskins and a pen were placed.

A youth with a black ponytail said to a weathered middle-aged man, "The reason I used your secret technique of green and oil glass production as bait is because I think those are nothing special. Look here at this telescope and the eyeglass. These two are the things that'll make us a real profit. Also, there's the magnifying glass, glassware, flat glass sheets, thickened glass dividers, and even patterned glass. These are the directions glass-working should develop in..."

"Mister Mancheny, you've already roughly got an idea of my thoughts on how glass-working can change. When I bring you back to the dominion, you can be in charge of research and development, as well as production. I'll provide all the manpower and funds you require, and you can experiment to your heart's content without caring about the cost. I trust that my investment in you will multiply hundredfold and benefit our house..."

Senbaud was confused when he heard all that on the deck. Terms like 'glass-working', 'research', and 'technique improvement' sounded so foreign that he couldn't quite grasp the concepts. Also, he felt that the scene before him was off somehow, but he couldn't quite put it into words.

Just as he was about to instruct his men to be more careful in case that was a trap, he saw the ponytail-wearing youth turn to him and reveal his shiny white teeth, laughing joyfully at Senbaud and his men.

"You guys took too long to come! You're making me rather impatient," the youth said as he smiled, "We've waited here at the Sea of Grief for two whole days and only managed to get such a small catch..."

The youth then looked towards the twin-masted, middle-class merchant vessels and said, "Even so, your ships and crew are in good condition. That's great."

The black-haired youth then stood up and said, "I am Count Norton, dominion lord of the Northlands and Silowas Island. I hereby declare that your ship and crew have been expropriated for my use!"

After that, he pointed directly to Senbaud and said, "Hmm, you seem pretty good. From now on, you'll be the squad leader of my marine assault vanguard."

Chapter 250 Threat and Expropriation

All of the pirates began chattering, Is that black-haired youth insane? Is he even aware of the situation he's in? Does he really think that he's superior and can push people around just because he's a noble? We are pirates, and this is the free and wide sea. Killing anyone and dumping their corpse tied to a huge rock into the ocean won't leave any traces...

"Kill him!"

"Skin that baby-faced youth!"

Squad leader of the marine assault vanguard? What the hell is that? thought Senbaud, just as he felt a strong feeling of humiliation.

During the civil war of the empire, he was already a company leader. Even though he was merely used as cannon fodder, had it not been for his desertion and fortune, he would've become a regiment leader already. With the passing of 13 years, he'd already broken through to the gold rank and was just about to become the knight of Count Seleih. To think that there would be someone who would dare to call him a mere squad leader.

He must think that I'm just another person he can use as cannon fodder! Ridiculous!

The more he thought about it, the angrier he got. Senbaud slowly drew his sword and promised himself that he'd teach that long-haired youth a lesson he'd never forget.

I will make sure this count never goes to sea again...

Senbaud waved his hand, indicating for the other pirates to quiet down, before manifesting his golden blade glow. He felt a sudden desire to look at the youth's expression and wondered whether the youth would freak out upon discovering his gold rank battleforce.

Much to Senbaud's surprise, however, the youth revealed a look of pleasant surprise rather than regret upon seeing his golden blade glow.

"Oooooh..." the young-looking count uttered happily, "I really didn't think that there would be a gold rank fighter amongst you pirates. It seems that I have quite a good eye. That's it, you'll definitely be the one to take up the position of the marine assault vanguard squad leader."

Senbaud only felt a rush of anger cloud his mind as his face puffed red and purple.

He gripped his sword so hard that it shook as he said, "I will cut you into pieces and feed you to the fish..."

After that, Senbaud leaped towards the young count like a ferocious panther.

......

The chronicles in the future stated that the Raging Bear King, Norton Lorist, had 16 generals which were often discussed by others. Those 16 gold-ranked knights had already been with him by the time he stepped on the path of uniting the Krissen Empire. The common trait among those knights were that none of them were of noble birth, the only exception was Divine Marksman Josk. Even he was originally an orphan who was adopted into a noble family.

The 16 gold-ranked knights would later become the paragons of future generations. Some of them would be made dukes, and some of them would eventually become blademasters. Among them, one who was both a blademaster and a duke, was the controversial and legendary Senbaud.

When he first went under Lorist's wing, he was made a marine assault vanguard squad leader right away. After every naval expedition he participated in, his position would slowly rise until, eventually, he became the admiral of House Norton's naval forces. When Lorist formed his own nation, Senbaud was made a duke. He came to be known to others as the 'Windstorm Duke'.

During the 80th birthday celebration of the Windstorm Duke, per his grandson's suggestion, Senbaud began to dictate his experiences for his grandson to organize into a million-word autobiography titled 'From Pirate to Duke'. The book mainly described his exploits following his recruitment into the Raging Bear King, Lorist's, ranks. After the book was published, it only took half a year for it to become one of the best-selling books on the whole of Grindia with more than a million copies sold. Many newer editions were published over the following decades. Countless military historians and strategists relied on it for their careers.

Naturally, the book also had its fair share of criticism. During the time of its publication, many of the pirates who had joined Lorist were still alive. When Count Tok read the first chapter of the book, he claimed that Senbaud had lied about how he felt Lorist's domineering aura right away, which was why Senbaud took Lorist as his lord at the very first moment.

The white-haired Count Tok said to the reporters, "Back then, Senbaud felt so humiliated that he wanted to kill himself. A gold-ranked knight like him was actually toyed with by a young-looking count like a ragdoll for half an hour. He had been unable to put up the slightest resistance."

"What were you doing back then?" asked one of the reporters.

Count Tok laughed bitterly and said, "The moment Senbaud was knocked off his feet and fell onto the deck, we rushed to his aid right away. It was then when His Highness spent less than ten minutes beating us all down on his own. He had said that from that moment on, our lives no longer belonged to ourselves, they belonged to him. The reason he disarmed us was so that we wouldn't kill ourselves in the heat of the moment."

"So it was then when all of you joined His Highness, joined his struggles, and managed to rake in lots of achievements yourselves! What a drastic change in your futures that was!" exclaimed the reporter in realization with a look of admiration.

The gold-ranked knight, Count Tok, no longer spoke and closed his eyes, Bright futures and great achievements... The reporters made it sound so light-hearted. I wonder if they know how bloody and dangerous that path was... It was filled with killings and mountains of bones... Out of the 300 or so pirates who joined, only around 30 survived... Had it not been for His Highness's underhanded methods back then, who would've been willing to join him on that so-called path to glory?

......

Senbaud, who was knocked flat onto the deck, kept crawling up to fight again. He wasn't willing to become a mere squad leader for the marine vanguard. Even Tok, who was clutching his waist and had forgotten his pain, could see the pathetic puffy-faced look of the beaten Senbaud. He could feel Senbaud's yearning for death. He had been played like a puppet by an unarmed count despite being a gold-ranked knight. The pure humiliation made it so that he would rather die in battle than live with it for the rest of his life.

In the end, Lorist kicked Senbaud unconscious in annoyance.

By the time Senbaud was awake, he found himself tied onto a mast. The rest of the pirate leaders, including Tok, shared his fate. They could see that all four ships were sailing towards the fishing village. Not all of the pirates were as stubborn as Senbaud. He saw many of his crew working as sailors, per the orders of a stranger he didn't recognize.

He took a look at the cursed, black-haired, ponytailed count and thought, oh, he even had a change of clothes.

The count was standing in front of Senbaud with a cup of tea in his hands, smiling at him with his white teeth.

"I admire your bravery and strong will. Naturally, I've noted your gold rank battleforce as well," the youthful count said, "But those are not important. What is, is that I have found out about your situation and you only have two options to choose from. First, serve me and I will treat your family well, just like I treat the family members of my soldiers. Their livelihoods will all be taken care of by the house. Second, you may refuse my suggestion and I will kill you without the slightest hesitation. As for your family... Hehehe, your beautiful wife and three children..."

The count then licked his lips with his tongue.

"No, you can't do that..." muttered Senbaud, panicked.

The count had prodded at the only soft spot in his heart.

"You're a noble, you can't do something so underhanded..."

"Underhanded?" the youthful count snorted, "You don't even know what that word truly means. And don't forget that you're a pirate. Even if you've broken through to the gold rank, a pirate is still a pirate. Your hands are no doubt stained with the blood of countless innocents. The people you've killed at sea all had their own families. They all had parents, wives, and children. How many blissful families have you ruined? Now that it's your turn, you're telling me that it's underhanded?"

At that moment, the young count stopped smiling and revealed a sinister expression that looked absolutely terrifying to Senbaud.

"Think about it. After your death, your beautiful wife will no doubt fetch a great price with a slave trader. After that, she'll spend countless days passed around from man to man, crying out in pain... As for your sons, they'll have to spend their lives with no clothes and food, and will be forced to fight for food from wild dogs. During winter, there's no doubt that they'll die somewhere in the streets, frozen as unmoving statues that get nothing from passers-by but their pity... Your..."

"Stop talking!" Senbaud cried out in tears, "I will serve you! Spare my family, and you can do as you wish with my life!"

"Ugh..." Lorist didn't expect that Senbaud would cave in so quickly, Tch, I still haven't gotten to your daughter's fate...

Lorist turned to the snickering Tok who was similarly tied up at the mast, "What are you laughing at? It'll be the same for you. Think about your family..."

"I'll serve you as well, milord. Oh, please spare my family," replied Tok casually.

"Gah..." Lorist was completely speechless.

After he recovered, he figured that he couldn't just rely on threats and had to offer them some incentive as well.

"Very well. Serve me well, and I will make you the knights of my family. In the future, I might even make you landed nobles. This is not an empty promise. I vow this to you on the Norton family name."

Just like that, Senbaud became Lorist's lackey. For the sake of becoming the knight of Count Seleih, he had gone back to sea to rob for the count, no, a better way to put it was 'to find a gift' for the count. Instead he ended up in Lorist's hand. He became a proud squad leader of the marine vanguard troops.

Having his path as a knight for a count extinguished, he became the cannon fodder of yet another count. But his eventual achievements would come to define his future, and would go on to impress and awe many.

With Senbaud and Tok's cooperation, Lorist managed to take over the pirate lair, or 'fishing village', as some would prefer to call it, without trouble. Much to Lorist's delight, the fishing village had a properly outfitted shipyard, meaning that the Flying Fish of Dawn could receive adequate repairs, and didn't have to crawl her way back to Silowas Island.

"I didn't think that this pirate lair of yours would be so well managed. I really couldn't see that talent in you," Lorist praised Senbaud.

Currently, Senbaud, his wife, and his three children were brought before Lorist.

Employing the stick-and-carrot method, Lorist stroked the head of Senbaud's 8-year-old son and said, "This kid looks rather intelligent. Not bad... Alright, when he's 16, I will take him as my disciple and he'll serve as my personal attendant. Howard, take care of this junior apprentice brother of yours. Give him the training routines you used to use so he can work on it as well."

"Yes, milord," Howard said.

He was happy to no longer the most junior disciple under Lorist.

"Thank... Thank you, milord," Senbaud expressed his gratitude in a troubled fashion.

To him, this wasn't a fortunate encounter. He thought that his son was being taken hostage to ensure his obedience.

"Alright, they'll be leaving tomorrow. Rest up and have a good time with your family during the night. Don't worry, when they arrive at the Northlands, they will write you a letter. When you read it you'll realize how fortunate it is for them to be able to live there," said Lorist.

The first thing Lorist did when he arrived at the fishing village was to gather up the family members of Senbaud, Tok and the other pirate leaders and send them to the Northlands.

Senbaud knew that he would no longer be able to serve as Count Seleih's knight. Instead he would have to be the so-called squad leader of the marine vanguard corps. It was no more than a suicide unit in his mind. He was worried that his inability to serve as a knight of Count Seleih might invoke his rage. He feared that the count would send soldiers to the fishing village. Senbaud wasn't sure whether that would come to pass or not, so he had no choice but to agree to Lorist's arrangements. He only hoped that the desolate Northlands he had heard so much about was as nice a place to live as the count had said.

It wasn't that nobody tried to escape at all. Some planned to secretly bring their family members to the nearby hills and camp there for a fortnight. They believed the accursed count wouldn't stay at the fishing village very long. Additionally, no matter how good at fighting the count was, he was only a single person. There was no way he could monitor every corner of the fishing village at all times. As for his men, they were busy defending the four ships. More than a couple pirates were ready to escape.

It was then when Josk appeared at the plaza of the fishing village with his green bow. He shot an arrow towards a tree thick enough for a person to barely loop his arms around roughly 100 meters away. It was felled completely and even sent flying. A few hundred men witnessed, with their own eyes, a huge tree sent flying for three or so meters. The stump of the tree splintered as if it was knocked down by a huge force. Josk's reason for shooting the tree was that the sparrows nesting in it were too noisy. Everyone knew it was actually a show of strength.

Nobody dared to take the risk to escape after that. After all, they were faced with a gold-ranked divine marksman. He could hear the noises made by sparrows 100 meters away. The sounds the pirates would make should they attempted escape would be like a shining beacon for the marksman to fire at.

Many of them hoped that someone else would attempt escape first. It would afford them an opportunity to test the marksman's capabilities before making their decision to leave or stay. In the end, none of them tried. Dawn was upon them before anything was achieved.

The time to board the ships had come. The pirates experienced something akin to separation for life as they watched their family members being brought on board the ships with teary eyes.

Lorist had the Flying Fish of Dawn sent into the shipyard for repairs before forming a small fleet with the three middle-class merchant vessels. Josk and Els were the fleet's main escort. He had all the marines -- injured or otherwise -- Master Mancheny and his family, and Professor Balbo and his maidservant, Swila, sent to Silowas Island before they would be transferred to the new port city at the Northlands.

To Lorist, they were people he couldn't afford to lose. With Silowas Island being in the eyes of the Chikdor Merchant Guild, there was no way Lorist would allow them to remain there. As a precaution, he felt it was best for him to send them to the main dominion in the Northlands.

The other 100 or so family members of the pirates would be sent to Silowas Island using the other three ships. They would be manned by some more honest and loyal pirates. After they dropped their passengers off at the island, they would return. As for the ones remaining at the fishing village, because there wasn't enough space on board, Lorist wrote a letter to Charade to tell him how to deal with the matter. The trip to Silowas Island and back would take roughly 20 days.

After sending away the small fleet, Lorist focused his attention on the Flying Fish of Dawn. Accompanying him were Howard, Captain Wilson, and two other guards. Fortunately, all the Flying Fish of Dawn needed was a new mast, which didn't pose too much trouble. Five days later, the Flying Fish of Dawn was good as new and set sail for the Sea of Grief once again.

As fishing while waiting for other pirates to take the bait and raid them would take too much time, Lorist elected to take a more active stance. Given the advantage in speed and agility of the Flying Fish of Dawn, he raided the ships that caught his eye at the Sea of Grief. Lorist did all that in the name of expropriation. He made it clear that if the ship owners cooperated, and didn't resist, House Norton would repay their losses in full. As for those who didn't believe his promises, they were given a taste of Lorist's fists.

Senbaud finally saw for himself the savagery and shamelessness nobles were capable of. The robbery, or as Lorist put it, expropriation, opened his eyes to a whole new world. Compared to Lorist expropriation, Senbaud's previous raids felt like nothing more than child's play.

At the same time, the pirates felt incredibly lucky for their encounter. They once saw two large-class merchant vessels belonging to the Wessia Merchant Guild with three gold-ranked swordsmen and seven to eight other silver-ranked fighters on board. Lorist boarded their ship alone and didn't take more than 15 minutes to kill off those high-ranked fighters, before a hundred other normal fighters, who didn't believe what they were seeing, rushed into a suicidal attack, and perished. The remaining people on the deck of those ships could only watch and shiver in terror.

By the time Lorist returned to them, completely covered in blood, all the pirates lowered their heads to pay their respects. Even Senbaud lowered the head he had proudly held high up until then. He understood that, had it not been for the mercy Lorist showed him, allowing him a second chance to serve Lorist, he would've become a dead soul at sea.

After 20 days, Josk and Els brought the three ships back to the fishing village along with Jim and 500 other guards. By that time, the fishing village's coasts were already filled with up to 50 middle-class vessels and 4 large-class, long distance merchant vessels. There were so many ships that the coast was almost unrecognizable.

Lorist said with satisfaction, "We should have enough ships by now. Senbaud, I'll put you in charge of organizing the crews for the ships. We'll head back to Silowas Island soon."

Senbaud lowered his head respectfully and said, "As you will, milord."

Chapter 251 Dispute within the Chikdor Merchant Guild (1)

As Lorist was loitering about amidst the Sea of Grief expropriating ships for himself, within a great hall within the Chikdor Merchant Guild headquarters at Morante City, a dozen high-ranking officials were arguing about the failure of the fleet to stop the Flying Fish of Dawn as well as their plan to take Silowas Island.

"I really don't understand why our guild wants Silowas Island as the location for our dominion. Apart from its wide area, what benefits does it bring to the table for the development of the guild and the future of the clan? Don't tell me that our clan is going to convert into those rural noble families that we look down upon so much? And are we going to give up our dominance of the trading routes near the southern seas along the Golden Coast in the meantime?"

The one who spoke so passionately was the second young master of the Chikdor clan, Saibyoeff. He had always been the one in charge of the merchant guild's armed fleet. He was the one who exterminated pirate organizations large and small, and guaranteed the safety of the guild's fleet on their voyages.

His extensive battle experience caused him to carry with him an air of military brusqueness. Given that the high officials of the guild mostly had aloof, calculative personalities, Saibyoeff didn't get along too well with them.

He was the one who objected most to making Silowas Island their dominion. He felt that it would slacken the control of the clan on the southern seas and have huge effects on the coastal nations near the Golden Coast. Silowas Island was located far to the north. If the Chikdor clan made that its dominion, it would take far too long for news to reach them should anything happen in the southern seas; they would have too little time to react.

"I hope that all of you can analyze the situation there clearly. The clan currently only has seven fleets. Apart from my own armed fleet, five of the other six merchant fleets' main responsibility is the trade voyages at the southern seas. Their operations account for roughly 80 percent of our profits. On the other hand, we only have one merchant fleet in the north and they deal mainly with the spice trade we have with the Shyarsia kingdom and other resources from the Hanayabarta kingdom. In total, this fleet only accounts for the remaining 20 percent of our profits."

Young master Saibyoeff casually held a small wooden stick up and pointed to the large map that was hung on the wall, and said, "Even though trade in the northern seas have the potential to be more profitable than that in the south, we must not forget that the situation here in the south took 170 years to set up. That's 170 years of effort and sacrifice made by our ancestors. Had we not had the dominance in the southern seas, there would be no way for us to be able to monopolize the trade routes to the Shyarsia and Hanayabarta kingdoms."

At that moment, Moribak, the third young master, stood up from his seat. He loathed his second brother the most. He felt he wasn't the slightest bit inferior to even his eldest brother, Serihanem, in terms of talent and capability.

Since you're the second in the family, I can understand if you don't wish to fight for the position as the successor to the clan, but why are you helping that good-for-nothing first brother become the successor? I am the one that suggested the northern expansion strategy, and the plan to take Silowas Island has also been approved by the high officials of the guild. Yet you're trying to sabotage my plan now? I will definitely not have that!

"Second brother, the situation is actually not as you have described. We are indeed the hegemons of the southern seas, but that's precisely why we need to expand our trade routes northward. There is no space left for our clan to grow in the southern seas. The north is the only direction our clan can grow in. Also, Silowas Island is a great and strategic location as a main base for our clan. By occupying that island, our merchant guild will have access to the whole northern coastlines of the territory of the former Krissen Empire. By then, the profits there will be at least 1.5 times that of the southern seas. I trust that the merchant guild only needs to add three merchant fleets in the north to meet the huge trade demand," argued Moribak, intent on winning the hearts and minds of the officials of the guilds with the promise of future profits at the north.

"Hahaha..." Saibyoeff laughed coldly and said, "Don't count your chicks before they've hatched. You can only see the potential profits this expansion would bring, but have you considered what kind of price we would have to pay and the risk we would have to take before any of these profits are certain? Leaving aside other matters, the winds and waves at the north are erratic and unpredictable. The weather conditions are even more whimsical. Can the Cursed Coasts of the north really compare to the southern seas and the tranquil Golden Coast? Merely filling up the reefs of the northern coasts will cost us huge amounts of manpower and money.

"While your idea to take Silowas Island as the dominion for the clan is not a bad one, look at the state of our two interception fleets now. Our guild spent so much resources and time and only managed to train four blademasters, yet you've already lost one of them on the very first interception attempt! That blademaster you lost is actually one of the cornerstones of our fighting strength, the big-seven merchant guilds of the trade union!

"I've already said this long ago. Even though the Krissen Empire has dissolved, with the nations formerly belonging to it being at war for so long, that was a result of the big-seven's painstaking efforts plotting and planning over tens of years. The Krissen Empire didn't just collapse out of nowhere like a rotting beam of some house.

"While the various guilds in the union want to gain the territory of the Andinaq and Redlis kingdoms for their own dominions, not one of them actually want to face off against the 300000-strong army of the Andinaq Kingdom's second highness. Instead they hope that he will waste his strength on taking out the Redlis Kingdom before the guilds sweep in and take advantage of the situation.

"'A camel that's starved to death is still bigger than a horse.' That's a saying that you will have to comprehend. Even though the empire is no more, that doesn't mean that the nobles formerly belonging to the empire no longer have power. You didn't even bother to check out the background of House Norton before antagonizing them, and look at the results of that! You've kicked on an iron plate you couldn't break and got injured yourself.

"Think about it, Silowas Island is the former principality of the Second Highness, yet he was willing to enfeoff it to some other noble just like that. Given the might of the second highness, Auguslo, there must be a reason for his actions. And yet you're over here running your mouth over how weak and impotent those nobles are. You even attempted to forcefully restrain the other party and force them to hand Silowas Island to the guild... What kind of daydreams were you having?"

"Enough, Saibyoeff. Stop speaking," President Chikdor, who was seated at the top, interjected, "Your younger brother is merely doing his best to ensure the prosperity of the guild. The difficulties we face so far are only temporary ones. We, the Chikdor Merchant Guild, are one of the seven big merchant guilds of the trade union. We can't actually retreat just like that, can we? While we probably aren't strong enough to take on a whole kingdom, a single landed noble should not be something that we find difficult to digest."

"Father haven't the failure of the interception fleets and the loss of the blademaster made you understand what we're up against?" Saibyoeff said with dissatisfaction, "Putting aside the development of the clan and the guild, purely from a military perspective, I can tell that you've antagonized a very troublesome person. The Peterson Merchant Guild already promised to do their best to mediate between us and said that they would help us buy Silowas Island from the hands of the count. We only have to offer him a price that he can't refuse."

"If that count is anything like the usual greedy nobles we've dealt with, then he would've agreed to negotiate the price with us. But this count didn't bother to even consider having talks and left on his ship without so much as a message for Peterson Merchant Guild. In other words, the count is intent on not letting Silowas Island go. We will have to be prepared to pay the price in blood and fire if we want to take that island.

"I must admit that third brother's preparations are rather thorough. Even though the first interception failed because our lookout wasn't paying attention, the second interception fleet is led by Admiral Pangid, and the third interception fleet is led by the incredibly-experienced Admiral Ari. I've investigated the battle and found that he did not make any mistakes whatsoever during the conflict. Additionally, the third interception also had blademaster Kumori guarding it. That was also why we were so confident with the latter two fleets.

"We thought that Count Norton would definitely be unable to escape us. He's taught us an unforgettable lesson with his methods. When faced with Admiral Pangid's second interception fleet, that count decided to use his ship's advantage in speed as well as the gold-ranked Divine Marksman that performed way beyond our expectations and burst through the blockade, causing us to lose one middle-class merchant vessel and her crew.

"Admiral Pangid then used the sea swallows to send a detailed account to Admiral Ari of the third interception fleet. Even though that was out of our expectations, Old Ari still made the perfect preparations to deal with the situation. He ordered his crews to lay chains between their ships. Other than that, he and blademaster Kumori each stood guard at different ships as a precaution against the gold-ranked marksman. To prevent Count Norton from employing the same trick again, blademaster Kumori even intentionally went to the leftmost large-class ship.

"All that should've made the plan perfect, right? But it turned out that Count Norton was actually hiding a trump card: which one of you would've expected him to be a rank 3 blademaster? In the end, that mishap cost us more than 500 sailors, three experienced captains, 11 silver-ranked swordsmen, two gold-ranked swordsmen, and a blademaster. Even I didn't suffer that huge a loss during the three years I combatted pirates at the Solar Seas!"

Second young master Saibyoeff then criticized angrily, "The results we have today showed that Moribak didn't bother to research the background of Count Norton at all before acting against him, and his mishap has caused us to treat a rank 3 blademaster as we would a powerless noble, causing the guild much loss and damage! He must be held responsible for this outcome!"

"What is your basis for calling that count a rank 3 blademaster?" asked Moribak with his face flushed red from anger.

"Well, if killing all 347 people on a large-class merchant vessel in less than 30 minutes doesn't count, I don't know what does!" roared Saibyoeff with an even louder voice.

Pointing at an old man with a solemn expression, he said, "Just ask Uncle Udi, a rank 2 blademaster, whether he can do the same. That actually happened before the eyes of almost 1000 people! There's no way it can be faked!"

The old blademaster merely laughed bitterly and shook his head.

"You've got an enemy for the guild that we can't afford to offend!" said the second young master while looking at his younger brother insultingly, "Father definitely did not give you free reign on settling this matter. Tell me, did you actually bother to research Count Norton's background?"

"I... Of course I did! What's so different about Count Norton from other nobles? He's only somewhat better at swordsmanship than the rest..." mumbled third young master Moribak as his gaze started to brighten.

"Imbecile... Is this how you operate? You acted upon your own assumptions and ruined it all... You didn't even bother to pay off someone from the Peterson Merchant Guild to get information on the background of Count Norton at all!" yelled Saibyoeff as he headed to a corner and took out a sack which contained many beastskin documents.

He held those documents and said, "After we failed to intercept him, I sent my men to do some research on that count. I bet none of you would have expected him to be a legendary figure in Morante City! Do you all remember the competition seven years ago held among the various academies? An iron-ranked instructor from the Dawn Academy actually defeated all the silver-ranked experts in the whole city. He defeated 3000 opponents without suffering a single defeat! He even got the moniker of Iron Locke, Silver Undefeated!"

It was at that moment that a commotion broke out among the seated men. The competition held seven years back was incredibly famous, even the Chikdor Merchant Guild had sent a number of silver-ranked swordsmen to compete. However, not one of them won, and those who returned even said that they had been bested by that iron-ranked instructor in terms of swordsmanship completely. They even admitted that there was no way whatsoever that they could win.

"That iron-ranked instructor is actually Count Norton," Saibyoeff was glad to see the looks of surprise on the faces of those present, "At that time, there was even a rumor about how two gold-ranked swordsmen wanted to show that iron-ranked instructor his place by assaulting him so that their junior apprentice brother would be able to defeat him in a match on the next day. In the end, those two gold-ranks intercepted him, only to end up as two nameless corpses that were found two days later by the city patrol.

"If he could not compete with gold-ranks, there is no way that sly fox at the Dawn Academy would allow him to challenge all the silver-ranked fighters in the city. The competition was very obviously a huge ploy. Seven years have passed since, obviously the count's swordmanship hasn't been stagnant all the time, it has definitely improved even more since then. What happened to the interception fleets only serves to prove it.

"However, when that count left Morante City to return to his dominion to inherit it as well as his title, I heard from the Peterson Merchant Guild that his family only controlled a barony back then. He formed a convoy to head to the Northlands with a few of his buddies at the academy and defeated the united noble army in the Redlis Kingdom, and even helped the Peterson Merchant Guild dominate the oceanic trade routes over there.

"The following reports only contain fragmented bits of information as our guild didn't plant any informants in the Andinaq Kingdom, but there are bits and pieces that suggest the second highness of that kingdom only came to power with the help of the count, which was how he was promoted from a baron to his current status in the first place. Silowas Island was also given to him as a hereditary dominion as a result of that promotion.

"According to the information we got from the Wessia Merchant Guild, that count is known as the Passive Raging Bear in the Northlands as he wouldn't cause trouble unless he is disrupted. The Duke of the Northlands was defeated by the forces of the count, which resulted in him losing his dominion. It is said that Count Norton had his forces raid the duke's dominion for one whole week and committed countless atrocities there. Following that, the king of the Iblia Kingdom, also known as the Second Prince of the former empire, led a force of 100000 men to admonish the count, only to have his whole army beaten to smithereens, causing the second prince to have to escape the royal capital in a haggard fashion.

"And here comes the good part," Saibyoeff said before he paused.

He held up a document, and said, "After the Second Prince was defeated, he was filled with rage and ordered his rank 3 blademaster, Zarinan, to attempt an assassination against the count. I'm sure all of you are informed of the reputation of blademaster Zarinan, who was said to be a quasi-Sword Saint that would break through if he managed to improve the slightest bit more. It ended up with his corpse being crucified and put on display half a year later when the forces of House Norton attacked the royal capital of the Iblia Kingdom to capture the second prince as payback for using such an underhanded method to get back at others for his own losses..."

"Wait a second, you said that these reports are all obtained from the Wessia Merchant Guild?" asked President Chikdor.

"That's right. The Wessia Merchant Guild bought two iron mines within the Iblia Kingdom, and they are very observant of the political situation there. Right now, the Iblia Kingdom is ruled by their queen and not one of the people there bother finding out where the second prince was brought. They treat him as if he doesn't exist. Count Norton managed to unite the three noble houses of the Northland. Their alliance has full control over the Northlands. It's very hard for anyone to enter their dominion to find out the true strength of House Norton. It is rumored that the count is busy developing his dominion, and, in hindsight, that rumor seems to be true. At the very least, he's managed to find a sea route from the Northlands to Silowas Island. That's how he came to Morante City in the first place."

Saibyoeff put the documents in his hand down, and continued, "Now do you know how grave a mistake you have made? My brother, you actually treated a noble house with a history of military achievements as the common, rotten and corrupted noble houses... Do you know the kind of price we would have to pay for your plan to claim Silowas Island for ourselves? Even if we manage to obtain victory at the very end, the losses we sustain would still shake us to the core and possibly force us to give up the dominance we have at the southern seas to some other merchant guild. It would also cause us to be unable to compete with the rest of the big-seven guilds, heck, we might even be at the mercy of those second or third-rate merchant guilds we look down on so much. Is that how low you would have us fall before you're satisfied, brother?"

Chapter 252 Dispute within the Chikdor Merchant Guild (2)

"Alright, brother. Don't criticize Moribak like that. He only did what he did for the future of the guild's prosperity. Since the incident has already happened, let's think of how we can fix it instead of complaining all day long," said the Serihanem.

He was already rather satisfied that he was appointed the successor of the merchant guild by his father after his competition with his third brother. Normally, he was a serious, straight-laced person who maintained a calm and peaceful personality. However, he felt it was appropriate to display his brotherly love and compassion once in a while.

"Father, uncles, actually, I think that my brother Saibyoeff made quite a bit of sense there. Should we really fight with Count Norton all the way to the bitter end? We will definitely sustain huge losses that might even come to shake our position as the hegemons of the southern seas. After all, even though Silowas Island is large, it is in the northern seas. The merchant guild can't afford to lose the southern seas, so we can't afford to overlook this."

Even though the first young master appeared to be speaking up on behalf of Saibyoeff, it added little to the conversation. Saibyoeff had already clearly illustrated the consequences of continuing to plot to gain the island. Even though chasing profits was the innate instinct of a merchant, should the cost exceed the gains, then he would definitely have to give it good consideration.

President Chikdor began to hesitate as he said, "The reason we set Silowas Island as our target was because our guild thrives on maritime superiority. Given that, having an island as our dominion would be ideal. There are no such suitable islands at the southern seas, neither is there any coastal territory large enough for us to locate our dominion at."

Since the trade union was going to implement a nobility system, with each of the big-seven merchant guilds given the title of duke, they would have to attain a piece of land appropriate to their title. The six other guilds had already determined their targets. Only the Chikdor Merchant Guild's plan to take Silowas Island as their dominion had run into some trouble. Even though getting themselves a duchy was important, losing most of the guild for it was an incredibly bad transaction.

Serihanem cleared his throat, indicating that he was going to speak once more. He was of the same opinion as Saibyoeff and didn't think that the northern strategy to make Silowas Island the guild's domain was a good one. He found that Silowas Island was way too far from Morante City. It took at least 20 days to sail from one to the other. There was no way he would resign himself to stay and rot at a rural island far away. Rural life would make anyone who has experienced the prosperity of Morante City feel dull and uninteresting.

Secondly, that strategy was actually planned by his youngest brother Moribak.

Father is really too biased. Since he has appointed me his successor, why is he still counting on Moribak so much? Not only did he allow him to take charge of the plans for the northern trade routes, he even let him have a hand at the overall strategy of the plan that would determine the future of the whole guild. Just look at what happened. With such a massive fiasco, how can I just sit still without attempting to correct the mistakes of my overly-ambitious brother?

In terms martial of talent, Serihanem couldn't compare with his brother, Saibyoeff, not by a long shot. The latter was already a one-star gold rank. Even the rank 2 blademaster of the guild, Uncle Udi, was full of praise for Saibyoeff. He maintained that there was an incredibly good chance for him to become a rank 1 blademaster before he turned 50, which would further increase the core strength of the guild.

Likewise, Serihanem wasn't as capable as Moribak in terms of calculation and planning. Moribak had demonstrated jaw-dropping talent when he settled the spice trade problem on his previous trip to the Shyarsia kingdom by putting a premature end to the young king who attempted to resist the Chikdor Merchant Guild's monopoly on their spice. Even though this was the first time the Chikdor Merchant Guild had meddled in royal affairs, the matter was still settled perfectly.

Compared to his two brothers, Serihanem appeared rather common. He had been nurtured within the guild from a young age, he could only claim to be a run-of-the-mill merchant who bought low and sold high. In terms of grasping business opportunities, he was better than his two brothers, and that aspect of his was what the merchant guild treasured most. Nothing was more important for the advancement of the guild than profits, and that sole characteristic of Moribak was all he needed to be appointed successor.

However, after Serihanem heard about the nobility system and his father's eventual ascension to duke status, he began to have his own plans. After all, the title and dominion of his father would eventually be handed down to him, so he felt that he should stick his hand into deciding where the dominion would be.

The territory Serihanem had in mind was the Urubaha duchy. The duchy was located to the south of the Forde Trade Union and could be considered to be the starting point for the Golden Coast at the southern seas. At the south of the Falik Plains (where Morante City was located) were the Callisto Hills. The Tedanini mountains, where the dwarven kingdom was located, was further south. At the very southern end of the Tedanini mountains, was the Urubaha duchy.

While the terrain of the duchy was mountainous and near the coast, it was incredibly crude and rural. Its main 'export' was pirates and mercenaries. Half of the pirates that operated at the Solar Seas were the so-called fishing folk of the Urubaha duchy. They were a hodge-podge bunch who didn't care whether a fleet they spotted belonged to a large merchant guild or not. As long as there was an opportunity for profit, they would attack and make off with the precious cargo. Should the merchant guild be the least bit careless, they would suffer huge losses to the raids.

Serihanem had made his decision purely based on his mercantile perspective. Half of the Urubaha duchy was desolate mountains. The other half was coastal beaches. As such, there wasn't much space for farmland. The thing the duchy was known for was its subterranean caverns which were known to all of Grindia as one of the seven most dangerous places on the continent. Legend says that within the caves lie a mysterious underground world, which saw 9 out of 10 explorers to the caverns failing to return alive. However, it didn't deter Serihanem at al. He was a merchant, not an explorer, nor a mercenary. Perhaps, he could even use the mystery surrounding the caverns to profit off some foolish adventurers. As for their safety, they were none of his concern.

The Urubaha duchy was a relatively poor nation. The merchants, however, believed that the reason for its poor economy was poor management, and that it could be improved if the right person was in charge. Serihanem felt he was the perfect fit to do just that. Other factors aside, he already had his eyes on the ancient forests in the duchy which would be ideal for timber production. The current duke wasn't keen on investing in roads, and didn't take advantage of the natural resources the duchy possessed. Given that the duchy was near the Tedanini mountains, trade with the dwarves would net quite a bit of profit too. At the same time, he could have people looking for ore veins; yet another avenue in which to invest. The first young master was quite adept at coming up with ideas to make a profit.

The greatest benefit of making the Urubaha duchy the dominion of the clan was how the guild could use the pirates for their own benefit. Not only would that be able to cut out the costs of wiping out the pirates, they could even be added to the naval forces of the guild. By spending the least resources, the guild would be able to convert the poor fishing folk into sailors for its fleets, and decrease the cost of hiring and training rookies.

Additionally, traveling from the duchy to Morante City would only take three to four days by ship. The ease of transport would also allow the guild to set up their trade headquarters at the beginning of the Golden Coast, allowing the guild even more ease of control of the trade routes at the southern seas.

However, there were also huge obstacles associated with taking the duchy. Firstly, Duke Urubaha was known to be a hugely stubborn person who was also a rank 3 blademaster. Even though he didn't have any hope of breaking through to become a swordsaint, he was still fit as a fiddle in his seventies and wouldn't be easy to deal with. Other than that, he had two elite armies each numbering up to 24 thousand soldiers. Not only were they the main reason the duke was able to form his duchy, they were also his means of making money.

As the Urubaha Duchy was rather poor, it was rather curious how it was able to maintain two huge armies that would cost a lot of money to maintain. In actuality, the two armies are often 'rented' out to others. Whenever one army's rent term is over, it would return and the other army would be rented out. They would rotate their shifts like so to earn the funds to bring in wealth traded with blood for the duchy.

However, Serihanem felt that if the guild was able to conquer the duchy and make it the guild's dominion, the two armies of the duchy would be able to make up for the guild's weak influence on land. He would definitely not rent the two armies out and believed that the soldiers would quickly become loyal to the guild with his new policy.

Also, Duke Urubaha was also a relative of the president of the Twinhead Dragon Merchant Guild. This was the most troubling obstacle for Serihanem; not only would taking the Urubaha duchy cause them to be on the bad side of the president of the Twinhead Dragon Merchant Guild, the conflict between the two big-seven guilds would most definitely greatly affect the situation of the trade union. That was also why the high officials of the Chikdor Merchant Guild had never even considered taking the territory belonging to the Urubaha duchy as their dominion.

For Serihanem those obstacles wouldn't pose much of a problem. The only difficulty he had was how he would go about convincing the higher-ups of the guild to agree to his idea. He would need at least 10 million gold Fordes to build up the infrastructure of the duchy, that's if he even managed to take it, to improve the living standards to win over the duchy's inhabitants. Even though it would stabilize the guild's control over their dominion, and gradually bring in profits, it's a little too slow for merchants like them who felt that transactions that took too much time wasn't good business.

Serihanem, who understood the merchants well, knew that this was the best chance he had to bring up his idea -- when the higher-ups were troubled by the matters concerning the interception fleets -- and felt confident that his plan had a good chance of being approved. He believed that the cost the guild would incur in their fight against Count Norton was better off invested in the Urubaha duchy. At the very least, the latter had a far greater chance of returns.

It's too bad that Serihanem was just one step late in bringing his plan. Saibyoeff stood up at that moment and said, "I have a suggestion..."

Saibyoeff hung up a large map of the Solar Seas, a map the high officials of the guild were familiar with. It depicted thousands of large and small islands and reefs.

No way... Most of the islands in the Solar Seas can only hold a small village at most! Even the largest islands are mostly mountainous. There's no place that can be made into residential areas... How could those places be fitting as the guild's dominion? thought most of them present.

However, Saibyoeff soon showed them what 'thinking out of the box' meant.

"Look here. The Solar Seas located at the south. There are around 1000 islands there. Even though the largest of the islands are smaller than a common barony, these islands are mostly located at shallow waters. Even the deeper parts are only around 20 meters at most, and the shallower parts are roughly 3 meters. The waters between the islands are so shallow that one can even walk to the next one and only get one's feet wet. When the tides recede, you'll discover that some of these islands are actually connected.

"If we connect these 27 islands with this red line here, if we fill up the shallower parts connecting the islands, we will get a composite island that is even larger than Silowas Island. On top of that, nobody will be able to dispute the legitimacy of our claim to the place. Our guild will be able to strengthen our hold on the Solar Seas gradually by clearing away the pirates one after another, firming our hold on the dominion and establishing our clan's foundation for the next millennium in the process...

The more Saibyoeff went on with his plan, the more Serihanem shook his head in annoyance.

What a useless fellow! He actually dared to suggest ocean reclamation without considering the costs it would involve, as well as the time it would take... Not only that, the military resources we would have to expend to wipe out the pirates hiding among the thousand islands would be enormous. Would father actually approve it? We are merchants. What we should focus on is speedy, efficient, and profitable transactions...

It's over... Even if I bring up making the Urubaha duchy our target, no one would bother with my suggestion anymore... With Saibyoeff's 'ingenious plan' laid before them, it will be even harder for me to convince them of my own plan... sighed Serihanem secretly.

It seemed that he would have to look for another chance to put his plan into motion. He didn't understand what his brother was thinking. Even though he had told Saibyoeff that his plan definitely wouldn't work, Saibyoeff's stubbornness made him bring up the plan anyway.

As expected, Moribak's laughter resounded in the room, interrupting Saibyoeff's presentation halfway through.

Saibyoeff scoffed angrily, "What are you laughing at?!"

Moribak finally got the chance to pay his brother back for the humiliation he received. There was no intimidating him into stopping now.

As he stepped forward gradually, Moribak said, "My beloved elder brother... Your plan is too optimistic. Naturally, it's definitely quite impressive if we are truly able to control the Solar Seas. However, how much manpower and money do you think reclaiming the shallow seas by making those landfills will take? Also, how long do you think we would need to be able to finish setting up the dominion for our guild?"

"Ugh..."

Saibyoeff was rendered speechless by those queries.

"I haven't figured that out yet, but I'm sure the guild can have someone run the numbers..."

"There's no need for that, I have already made a rough estimate. To fill up the shallow seas and connect the islands together, the guild would have to invest at least two to three million gold Fordes every year as well as use 1000 large vessels to transport the dirt and rocks needed for such huge undertaking. After spending ten whole years, we will only be able to fill up a third of the area you specified."

Seeing Saibyoeff's stupefied look, Moribak continued, "Brother, do you know how much the guild's revenue is? We only make 2 million gold Fordes annually. Deducting the expenses and bonuses we have to pay out, less than 400 thousand or so goes into the treasury. Why did you think the guild refused your request to form another armed fleet? We can't afford to maintain another one. Have you any idea how much it costs us every year to eradicate pirates? 500 thousand gold Fordes, almost as much as the yearly revenue of the northern fleet…"

"I really don't understand how you could come up with such a brainless plan. Filling up the Solar Seas... Only a person like you would even conceive something so ludicrous. Do you think that this is something a merchant guild like us should do? Only an empire can complete a project on that scale, to say nothing of the dozens of years it could take us. Our father is the president of a merchant guild. Even if he gets a title, it's only the title of a duke. It's far from what we need to lay claim over the entire Solar Seas. Do you want our father to become the laughing stock of the whole continent for the next thousand years?

"Why can the other dukes forcefully conquer others' territory and make it their own, but not us? The trade union will be implementing the nobility system in just a few months. By then, the six other guilds would have established their dominions already, and we would have nothing. How do you think our guild will be able to stand on equal footing with the other guilds? Do you think we should tell them that we're filling up the seas and will have our dominion ready in another ten years?

"No matter how much you object to my plan, even you must have to admit that there isn't any other place more suitable for us to establish our dominion than Silowas Island. So what if they're a noble house with a military background? What's the big deal of a rank 3 blademaster? Isn't he human all the same? As long as he is not a swordsaint, we will have many methods available to us to deal with him.

"Even though our guild has suffered huge losses due to carelessness and lack of intel, I believe that we are still able to hold our ground against our enemies. Now that we know enough about Count Norton's background, we will definitely triumph as long as we carefully execute a few thorough plans!"

"You... You don't understand how scary a rank 3 blademaster can be, especially one as young as Count Norton... He even has a good chance of becoming a swordsaint in the future. Your irresponsible actions will doom the whole guild to oblivion!" roared Saibyoeff.

"You're giving up before bothering to try!" Moribak retorted, "If that's the case, all we have to do is to put him to death before he becomes a swordsaint. He is still just a rank 3 blademaster, after all. We can even ask for outside help if necessary. The Twinhead Dragon Merchant Guild and the Mayflower Merchant Guild each have a rank 3 blademaster among their ranks, while the Wessia Merchant Guild has two rank 2 blademasters. All we have to do is spend some money to hire them. Any problem that can be solved with money is no problem at all. If four blademasters aren't enough, we'll hire eight. As long as we wipe that count out, his house will slowly begin to crumble. Then we will no longer have anything to worry about."

"You..."

No longer able to argue against his brother, Saibyoeff rolled up his sleeves angrily and attempted to strike him.

"Stop, Saibyoeff! Stand down!" President Chikdor shouted while giving his second son a harsh glance.

The idea he proposed to fill up the seas was nothing but a big joke. Moribak's arguments had deeply resonated with his own thoughts. Indeed, Silowas Island was the piece of land most easily obtainable. All they had to do was wipe out the blademaster, Count Norton.

"Second Uncle, what do you think?" President Chikdor asked Udi, who was seated beside him.

The Chikdor Merchant Guild was not one that was controlled completely by one family. Initially, they were known as the Sword and Barrel merchant guild, which was originally formed by a group of close friends. Eventually, when one of the ancestors of the Chikdor clan took over, and brought the guild to the ranks of the other largest guilds in the union, the Chikdor clan obtained 70 percent shares of the guild and changed its name to its current one. Also, the position of president could only be inherited by the descendants of the Chikdor clan.

As for the families of the other founders who were part of the guild, the incompetent ones would survive on the dividends of the guild, while the competent ones would eventually serve as the high-ranking officials within the guild. After Blademaster Udi was discovered to be talented at a young age, he was raised with the utmost care and attention. This caused him to become a force that the guild could rely on.

In terms of seniority, even President Chikdor had to refer to him as uncle.

Udi shook his head with a smile, and said, "I boarded the ship Kumori died on and took a look at the traces the battle had left behind. To be honest, I don't think four blademasters will be enough. It's better to hire eight. All of them should also be at least at the second rank. Since we're choosing this route, it's better to not skimp on the costs. As long as the guild exists, we will be able to make the money back."

President Chikdor thumped on the table lightly and announced, "Alright, then the decision to set up the clan's dominion at Silowas Island is confirmed. There will be no more discussion of this. Moribak, send someone to get more information about Count Norton and his house as well as everything we need to know about Silowas Island. If there is another mistake, I will not forgive you again...

"Serihanem, contact the various rank 2 blademasters and see how much they would charge us for this assignment. As long as it is reasonable, accept their offer. They shouldn't be able to criticize us for being stingy when it comes to asking them to risk their lives on a mission like this."

"Yes, father," said Serihanem respectfully as he stood up and bowed.

Chapter 253 Mayflower Merchant Guild Assault Incident

Moribak was satisfied that the merchant guild eventually settled on his initial plan to expand to the north. Not only was his second elder brother reprimanded harshly by his father, his eldest brother was working earnestly on hiring the other blademasters.

The word he had received during the past three days wasn't bad: the Twinhead Dragon Merchant Guild's rank 3 blademaster, Kafzo, and the rank 2 blademaster from the Forde Merchant Guild, Rolik, had both accepted the mission. As for the two blademasters of the Wessia Merchant Guild, they were not in Morante City at the moment and would only return during the end of the 12th month. Additionally, the Mayflower Merchant Guild's few blademasters were occupied with guarding the letters about glass production and couldn't afford to leave until the auction was over. Moribak believed that there wouldn't be a problem in hiring them after that.

Following that, Moribak began to gather intel seriously. He painstakingly formed three groups of loyal and elite members of the merchant guild and disguised them as a few smaller merchant guilds to sail to Silowas Island secretly. After all, if one wanted to launch a targeted attack on the enemy, one must know the enemy's whereabouts. They couldn't let the blademasters wander around like aimless flies, after all.

Moribak would never have imagined, however, that the three middle-class merchant ships he sent were all expropriated by Lorist at the Sea of Grief, along with the whole crew, who were forcefully absorbed into the ranks of Lorist's marines. It took three months for a few of them to return to the guild. However, by then, the Chikdor Merchant Guild no longer paid any heed to Lorist and Silowas Island.

Just when Moribak was patiently and confidently waiting for his plan to be carried out, a piece of news was released – shocking the whole of Morante.

At that time, Moribak was discussing the matters of the floating port with his trusted aides. The contraption was one of their trump cards and could be used at the reefs of the northern seas. The floating port was constructed by lining up and tying together huge, watertight wooden boxes and letting them float in the ocean so that goods could be transported to shore. During windy and stormy times, the wooden boxes could also be pulled onto the shore, to be redeployed after the bad weather passed.

With such a flexible method in his hands, the reefs in the shallow waters of the northern coasts would no longer pose much of a problem. Thinking back to what Saibyoeff had said, Moribak felt like laughing out loud.

Only an idiot like him can come up with something as ridiculous as land reclamation. When the guild successfully obtains Silowas Island, I will bring up this floating-box port of mine, which will instantly boost the impression the higher-ups have of me in the guild. If First Brother makes a mistake sometime in the future, then I will naturally be able to replace him as successor without any difficulties.

Just as he was drunk on his fantasies, Moribak heard a commotion outside. One of his personal attendants barged into his room and said, "Master, master, it's horrible! Something big has gone down! Just moments ago, the blademasters of the Teribo Kingdom launched an attack on the Mayflower Merchant Guild. The guild has suffered huge casualties! Right now, the old master and the rest have already rushed over there..."

Moribak jumped from hearing the shocking news.

"The Te-teribo Kingdom... Why would they... against the Mayflower Merchant Guild... Thi-this... Their courage truly knows n-no bounds..." stammered he.

As the saying goes, 'one won't die if one does not seek death'. The Mayflower Merchant Guild truly had it coming for them. Had they auctioned out the two letters concerning the glass production methods on the agreed-upon date – the 5th day of the 12th month – then they would've shed the heavy burden they bore and nothing else would've happened. However, the vice president of the guild believed that it was too short notice, most of the ones who had come to the city and were interested in the two letters required more time to prepare the funds. Additionally, the merchant guild believed that they could use this opportunity to make the guild one of the biggest auctioneers on the Grindian continent by making more thorough preparations, hence the decision to delay the auction of the letters by another ten days.

The ambassador of the Teribo Kingdom had actually been sent on a supremely important mission to Morante city, accompanied by a few blademasters and gold-ranked knights. He kept his travels low key and arrived at the city on the 4th day of the 12th month. He paid a visit to the high officials of the guild. The moment he arrived to discuss whether they could take back the two letters in exchange for 10 million gold Fordes.

The guild's president courteously declined, however. Since word of the auction had already spread out, it was no longer possible for them to settle the matter privately. It would cause irreparable damage to the guild’s reputation. However, the president said that t Teribo Kingdom was more than welcome to join the bidding war during the auction. He did say, however, that he felt 10 million gold Fordes would only be enough for one of the letters.

The chance to have the Teribo Kingdom join the auction was another reason it had been delayed. The kingdom needed time to prepare its funds.

If the Mayflower Merchant Guild had made the sale on the very next day, on the original date for the auction, the Teribo Kingdom wouldn't have had a chance to react. But the ten-day delay allowed the ambassador to keep in contact with Teribo VII. Letters were delivered one day after another by their messengers, but the guild didn't mind. They believed the kingdom busy gathering funds.

Little did the guild imagine that the kingdom had other means at their disposal: the destruction of the two letters themselves. In the letter Teribo VII sent to his ambassador, he expressed angrily that the production methods were the rightful property of the kingdom and that the auction was like putting up for sale a wallet one picked up instead of returning it to its rightful owner! Despite the owner of the wallet bringing 10 million gold Fordes as a sign of gratitude to reclaim the wallet, the merchant guild still didn't yield!

Teribo VII was truly mad at the recent developments. For all of the past century, the Teribo Kingdom had provided selfless support to the trade union to fend off the invasion of the Krissen Empire at the Falik plains. Not only that, one Krissen Empire ambassador who had visited the Teribo Kingdom to garner their support was even beheaded in a show of goodwill.

Incredibly troubled, Teribo VII thought, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather... The goodwill you have shown the trade union has amounted to nothing more than feeding a hungry wolf... Back then, when the trade union was pressured into a corner by the empire, it was the Teribo Kingdom that formed an armed alliance with the other nations around us to reinforce Morante city. Only after that was it possible to defeat the Krissen Empire...

Teribo VII believed firmly that the trade union was only able to triumph over the empire because of the kingdom's support. Without them, the trade union would have long faded from existence. That was why he felt that the trade union should be thankful for them and offer them aid when they needed it to return the favor.

But to the people of the trade union, they were the ones who had to weather a whole century of assault from the Krissen Empire. It was their blood that was spilled, and it was through their own sacrifice that the various neighboring nations were able to retain their freedom and autonomy! The trade union took for granted the aid of the other nations because they felt that they deserved it. Should the trade union fall, the other nations around them wouldn't able to escape theirs either. They were all in the same boat, after all, if it was sunk by the Krissen Empire, all of them would sink together.

It was also the pride of the Moranites and the main source of their self-perceived superiority over the people of the other nations. During the previous century, it was the Moranites who marched to the battlefield with their heads held high while chanting their war cry! All the neighboring nations did, was provide support. Even though the resources were far from enough on the frontlines, the generous Moranites wouldn't fuss over such small matters, as it had been their own ancestors who were fighting on the battlefield bravely, saving the neighboring nations from their fate!

This was the main difference in the viewpoints of Teribo VII and the Moranites. While the big-seven merchant guilds, who were in power, weren't as shallow as the average Moranite, they couldn't help but be affected by that mindset.

For the big seven, even though they acknowledged that the Teribo Kingdom was one of the biggest supporters of the trade union, through their incredible contributions during the trade union's war with the empire, they believed that the trade union also repaid them in the form of generous benefits or conditions for the trade they had done over the years.

Other matters aside, the Teribo Kingdom was given monopolistic access to the trade union’s market for glass and were exempt from taxes. This was the way the trade union intended to pay back the kingdom’s support. It is important to note that the Teribo Kingdom was the sole producer of glass. Being the only producer of glass that was also allowed to use the trade routes from Morante city to export their products throughout the rest of the continent, the Teribo Kingdom profited greatly and eventually became one of the richest factions in the whole continent.

Over the past 20 years of peace following the successful thwarting of the empire by the trade union, disagreements had begun to sprout in the high council of the trade union concerning the benefits afforded to the Teribo Kingdom. There were also a number of representatives that thought the kingdom had profited more than ten times of what they had contributed in the first place.

In the end, the trade union is comprised of merchants who were sensitive to the profits involved in the glass trade. These smaller merchant guilds also submitted a report they worked on together detailing the lucrative profits involved in the glass trade of the Teribo Kingdom.

Chasing profits were the instincts of merchants, and the smaller merchant guilds were all quite jealous of the monopoly the kingdom had in the glass trade. Even though the trade union was considered to be the official distributor of the glass, making the kingdom the official supplier of glass products to the union, the ones involved understood that the profit gained from distributing the glass products was only a drop in the ocean.

The big-seven guilds did not lack the foresight required to govern the union. Those who were able to make it to the top were not simple minded. They were worried that the moment they changed the benefits they gave to the Teribo Kingdom in the glass trade, the nations surrounding the trade union might begin to worry about the rising power of the trade union. After all, the trade union didn't rely on drastic policy changes to widen their influence and instead resorted to subtler, sneakier methods to expand their power and influence over the other nations to develop in the trade union's favor.

That was why the big-seven guilds suppressed the opinions of the representatives of the smaller guilds and increased coverage in their newspaper on the contributions the Teribo Kingdom had made to the trade union, further cementing the rhetoric that the friendly relationship between the union and the kingdom must be upheld, thus justifying the continuation of benefits given to it in the glass trade.

In actuality, that was only one of the methods the big-seven guilds employed. The other was to put clearly the dissident opinions towards the kingdom so that they could, for themselves, in essence, say, 'Look, we here at the union have already shown the Teribo Kingdom much generosity, and it is now the kingdom's turn to give something back. As the party that profits most from the glass trade, shouldn't the kingdom take a step back? Even if the benefits given stay the same, at the very least, the kingdom should help out with some donations or charity events so that the relationship between the kingdom and the union wouldn't look so awkward.'

It was too bad that the trade union's hints were as useless as lighting a candle for a blind man. To Teribo VII, the benefits were what the kingdom deserved. He even thought that the praise the Morante Daily had for them was a sign of weakness from the trade union.

Happily, he proclaimed to his officials, "Look, those merchants can't afford to have us leave on them! That's why they are broadly publicizing our friendly relationship with them!"

Teribo VII is nothing but a simple-minded idiot! was the common opinion those of the big-seven held. It was why all of them were unanimous in the decision to use the auction of the two letters held by the Mayflower Merchant Guild to give the kingdom a huge blow. Teribo VII should know his place and treat the trade union with some respect.

Additionally, the increase of glass producers would be incredibly beneficial to the trade union. This was the difference between how nobles and merchants viewed the matter of the auction. The people of the trade union felt that the auction was nothing but a common transaction which they did not have to bother interfering with, while the nobles, especially ones as strait-laced as Terbio VII, felt that it was a matter that would threaten the existence of his kingdom. Whatever it took, he had to stop the letters from being sold.

As such, when the ambassador passed on the non-interference stance the six other members of the big-seven were taking, Teribo VII blew up completely.

Since you guys don't care about the survival of the Teribo Kingdom, then don't blame me for not giving the trade union any chances.

With a solemn expression, he gave the order for the two letters to be destroyed.

On the night of the 8th day of the 12th month, the Teribo Kingdom's ambassador once again paid another visit to the Mayflower Merchant Guild and tried hard to negotiate for the reclamation of the two letters, to no avail.

In the end, he left the merchant guild shrugging and saying, "Well, you can't say I didn't try my best," before leaving on his carriage.

Less than thirty minutes after his departure, the guild was under the assault of seven blademasters and more than 20 gold-ranked knights.

The assault was far beyond of the expectations of most. Many of those on the site were dead. The assailants were incredibly cruel, they didn't show the tiniest bit of mercy to their adversaries. Their goal was clear: head to the vault the ambassador visited before and wipe out the four blademasters that were guarding it.

However, the guild intentionally did not tell the ambassador that the letters weren't in their hands. Instead, it was guarded by the eight blademasters from the academies as well as the rank three blademaster sent by the guild. As for the letters the ambassador was shown, they were fakes forged by the guild and placed in the vault guarded by four blademasters as a decoy.

After suffering such a sudden assault, the four inattentive blademasters suffered huge casualties. Apart from a rank two blademaster that managed to escape despite being heavily injured, the other three rank one blademasters were all killed. The other guards were almost completely wiped out. The ground was littered with severed limbs and corpses.

The Teribo Kingdom had deployed a rank three blademaster, 2 rank two blademasters, and 4 rank one blademasters, as well as 27 gold-ranked knights. Apart from 1 rank one blademaster who was killed in a suicidal attack by his opponent, another rank one blademaster was injured and five other gold-ranked knights dead. Their mission could've been said to be a huge success.

The moment the rank three blademaster tore the two letters into irrecoverable pieces, they all prepared to leave. However, they were unable to do so. The Mayflower Merchant Guild was one of the big-seven guilds of the trade union, their headquarters were naturally one of the most secure areas in the city. The moment cries of pain and slaughter rang out from the guild, the city’s garrison force was put on high alert. By the time the rank two blademaster that escaped sounded the alarm, the forces stationed nearby, and the other merchant guilds, would send their men to secure the perimeter.

It didn't take long for the news of the garrison force’s devastation to be spread out. The big-seven guilds were all shocked and every one of them instantly mobilized their own blademasters. Even four of the blademasters of the academies were sent out along with the rank three blademaster of the Mayflower Merchant Guild as reinforcements.

There was no way the assailants could sneak away. After half a night of intense fighting, a third of the inner city area of Morante was devastated, with countless innocent lives sacrificed in the process. The blademasters and gold-ranked knights who realized that they could no longer escape launched into a crazed frenzy of slaughter and destruction, causing their pursuers much trouble.

In the end, one rank three blademaster of the Teribo Kingdom escaped despite his injuries, with another rank two blademaster managing to evade capture by disguising himself. The rest were all wiped out, becoming lifeless corpses that lay on the cold, hard ground.

When the president of the Mayflower Merchant Guild angrily rushed to see the ambassador with his men, the ambassador only shrugged and said, "I already tried my best."

As soon as the last words left his mouth, black blood flowed from his mouth and he died.

Such is the account of the infamous Mayflower Merchant Guild Assault Incident as documented in the history books of Grindia. However, the people back then didn't realize that this was only the opening act of the chaos that was to come. The chain of events would eventually lead to the rise to prominence of the House of the Raging Bear and the eventual formation of the mighty and prosperous Raging Bear Dynasty.

Chapter 254 Setup and Counters

Lorist arrived at Silowas Island with the ships he had expropriated on the 34th day of the 12th month. There were another two days left until the 36th day of the 12th month, which was one of the three great celebrations in a Grindian year, it celebrated the coming of the new year.

In ancient times, the weather was cold during new year and snow fell constantly, so Grindians would stay at home, indoors, to welcome the new year. People would celebrate in their homes by feasting and sleeping without doing anything else. It was also why the day was known as the Day of Rest. But with the improvement in warmth-retaining clothing, people started going out on the streets during the Day of Rest. Some shops even used the opportunity to have sales, further reinforcing the day’s festive air.

Charade awaited Lorist's arrival worriedly at the port. Even though Lorist had sent him a letter, it was incredibly lacking in details. Additionally, Josk and Els only stayed briefly before heading back to the Sea of Grief. They only mentioned that something big had happened without being specific. It caused Charade so much worry he had bags under his eyes.

However, when he finally met Lorist, he didn't bother asking about what happened and instead told him a piece of good news right away. There was word from the Northlands that Terman and Yuriy had both broken through to the one-star gold rank. That meant that Lorist had another two gold-ranked knights under him. The household now had a total of eight gold-ranked knights.

Lorist was overjoyed. He turned to Els, who simply shrugged.

"I have a feeling that my turn will come next year,” he replied.

Lorist’s gaze returned to Charade. He laughed bitterly.

"I think I'll need two or three more years... I don't even have enough time to deal with the matters at hand, so how would I be able to sit still and train? I've already been here for more than a year..." was his answer.

Terman, Yuriy, Els and Charade were the friends that Lorist had made during his ten years at Dawn Academy, and they were also his most trusted subordinates. When they first joined Lorist's cause and became his knights, they were only at the three-star silver rank. Even though Terman and Yuriy didn't have much talent in training, through their hard work and military experience over the past seven years, they finally managed to take the next step and become gold-ranked knights.

Els, on the other hand, trained in the dark attribute battleforce technique passed down in his family. Dark attribute battleforce was known to be slower to train. Even though Els only held the position of the leader of Lorist's guards and didn't seem that impressive, Lorist believed that the moment Els broke through to become a gold-ranked knight, he would definitely be able to impress many with his prowess.

Charade, on the other hand, was easily the most talented among the four. It was too bad that he was entrusted with so many important tasks. Charade's impressive management skills had actually held his battleforce training back and Lorist felt quite sorry for having no choice but to burden him.

Lorist hugged Charade tightly and said, "I'm sorry, old friend. The burden I've entrusted to you with is indeed too heavy. Head back to the Northlands with me in due time and stay there for two years. Train hard and break through, you'll be given a manor of your own like Terman and the rest."

Stunned, Charade asked, "What's wrong, Locke? Didn't we agree that I would be put in charge of the development of Silowas Island?"

Lorist laughed bitterly and said, "I'm sorry, we've got involved in a huge, troublesome matter and Silowas Island will soon become a battlefield. Our enemy this time is incredibly powerful and I can't have you stay here. It is too dangerous. You will have to go back to the dominion. Let's talk more at the camp. This is not a good place to discuss this."

Senbaud walked over and reported to Lorist, "Milord, all the ships have already been anchored and checked. The crews for the ships have been assigned. Please give me further instructions."

Charade looked at Senbaud curiously.

“This is...?" asked he.

"Oh, come here. Senbaud, let me introduce you to the chief knight of House Norton, Charade. He makes the decision in my absence," Lorist introduced the two, "This is Senbaud, a gold-ranked pirate. Pretty rare, right? Now he's the squad leader of my marine assault vanguard. He's proven to be rather capable in the little time he’s been with us already. I've been considering making him Freiyar’s aid and vice commander."

With a troubled look, Senbaud said, "Milord, please don't bring up my pirate background... I'm now your subordinate. If I am a pirate, then you're the pirate boss..."

Initially, Senbaud thought the position of the squad leader of the marine assault vanguard was nothing more than a glorified title for suicide squad captain. However, when they were raiding, or rather, expropriating ships at the Sea of Grief, Senbaud realized that Lorist rushed into battle even sooner than he did. Many times, Lorist was able to subdue a whole ship all by himself. Most of the time Senbaud’s job was to clear up Lorist’s mess. His tasks ranged from deciding on the expropriated ships’ quartermasters, restructuring the crews, and capturing the prisoners. Lorist had even praised his resourcefulness a few times.

Charade nodded towards Senbaud and said, "Nice to meet you, Senbaud. Don't mind what Milord says. He likes to joke around a lot. You should work hard now that you’ve joined the household. You’ll have a bright future as long as you do."

Charade resolved himself to start training hard so that he could break through to the gold rank as soon as possible. Seeing many of his friends break through the milestone, and how the ones Lorist recruited were also of the gold rank, Charade felt it would be a little unseemly for a chief knight like him to only be on the verge of the three-star silver rank.

"Freiyar, come here. Senbaud will be your aide from now on," called Lorist to Freiyar, who had his eyes fixed on the large-class merchant vessels at the coast.

Freiyar got off the ship.

"Good day. I'm Freiyar, the leader of the navy marine brigade,” he said.

Lorist continued the introductions.

"This here is Tok, the vice captain of the marine assault vanguard. He's also quite capable in naval battles. He will serve under you. Freiyar, this is Uncle Torin, Tok's father, and he's quite capable with logistics. Senbaud only managed to keep so many ships in check with his help. Your marine brigade will finally have a proper supervisor."

Charade asked, "Milord, did you expropriate all these ships yourself?"

Lorist merely nodded. Everyone present had an unspoken understanding of what 'expropriation' meant.

"Milord, why did you have to resort to that?" asked Charade hesitantly.

He understood Lorist's personality well during his years of interacting with him. He had heard Lorist say that robbery was the most unskilled crime that had no bottom line. It was naught but a result of oppressing the weak with force. Seeing that Lorist had expropriated so many ships, Charade thought that he must have had some good reason behind it. He thought about what Lorist had said about Silowas Island becoming a battlefield. He couldn't help but wonder what was really going on.

"Let's talk about this when we go back. You'll know the truth soon enough," said Lorist with a sigh.

When they returned to the camp, Charade was informed of what had happened.

Angrily thumping on the table, he said, "Ridiculous... What does the implementation of the nobility system have anything to do with the Chikdor Merchant Guild taking Silowas Island as their own dominion?!"

Unlike the enraged reaction of Patt, Nors, Jim, Hansk, and Kedan; Senbaud, Torin, and Tok were all shocked. They felt it was thanks to the trade union that they had so unfortunately drawn the attention of Lorist.

Lorist's frenzied sweeping of all the ships at the Sea of Grief to form a fleet against the Chikdor Merchant Guild shocked them greatly, but at the same time, it generated a sense of excitement for them. They never expected that hit-and-run pirates like them would have a chance to confront the ships of the trade union.

The Chikdor Merchant Guild was the hegemon of the southern seas, however. Did they stand a chance of victory against such a formidable force?

"Don't worry," Lorist said as he waved his hand, "I am prepared to deploy Potterfang's heavy-armored division over here and form another steel carroballista division. There shouldn’t be any issues with two divisions defending the island. The Chikdor Merchant Guild may be impressive at sea, but they are nothing but soft-shelled crabs on land. If they want to conquer the island, they'll have to make landfall. No matter how many they send, we will wipe them all out. Let's see how much manpower and resources they're prepared to deploy."

"What should the navy marine brigade be in charge of, in that case, Milord?" asked Freiyar.

"Your marine brigade will officially be known as the Oceanic Legion from now on. Freiyar, you are the commander of the Oceanic Legion."

Originally, Lorist wanted to call them ‘the navy’, but after considering the fact that such a concept didn't exist on Grindia, and given the rather underdeveloped state of naval warfare, he chose a name that was simpler to comprehend.

"The marine brigade we have at Bullhorn Bay will be your reserve troops. This time around, Senbaud will help you arrange the ships I expropriated into two armed fleets. One of them will focus on speed and have patrol, reconnaissance and interception duties. The other will be relatively slow and focus on transporting manpower and resources, and fight in direct confrontations, understood?"

"Yes, milord, I understand," replied Freiyar.

"Let me remind you: this time around I've expropriated lots of ships, including most of their crew. Senbaud already has an organized name list. Currently, the two armed fleets are manned mainly by our marines and the pirates that joined us along with Senbaud. As for the men from the ships we expropriated, you should be cautious with their use. If anything goes wrong, it will become incredibly hard to keep under control. If these fellows perform well, we must naturally treat them as we would our comrades. Discrimination is completely forbidden."

"Yes, milord. I will do as you say," promised Freiyar.

After Freiyar left, Charade said, "Milord, while there wouldn't be any problem for Potterfang's heavy-armored division to be deployed here, forming another carroballista division on the island won't be possible."

"What?"

"Even though Silowas Island is huge, two-thirds of its area is covered by mountains and dense forests. Only the terrain here in the eastern area of the island is suitable for agriculture and habitation. We wouldn't be able to feed a whole carroballista division's worth of men and horses. Additionally, we just took in up to 60 thousand refugees from the southwestern area of the Andinaq Kingdom to prepare for large-scale development. Even the food we purchased from the Second Highness can only last us four months at most, and the Second Highness has refused further purchases. He said that the remaining food he had was not for sale as it was reserved for his troops," explained Charade.

"Oh, is that so?" Lorist was troubled after hearing the explanation. He had forgotten that Silowas Island was barely able to sustain its population with on its own agricultural produce alone. Bringing in more soldiers would cause a food shortage.

Potterfang's heavily-armored infantry division excelled in close combat. Even though their armor seemed like the standard issue armor of the house’s forces, they wore another layer of mail armor, much like Terman's knights. While it increased the load on each soldier, it afforded them far greater defense.[1] Despite that, they would only be able to show their best performance when acting in concert with the carroballista division, defending as the latter attacked.

The problem was that each carroballista required two horses to move it around swiftly so they could be stationed around the battlefield with ease. Without war horses, the steel ballistae couldn't be moved around the battlefield and stationing them would be quite troublesome. The ballistae wouldn't be able to fire at short notice in that case.

The most Lorist could do about this was to return to the Northlands and discuss how they could resolve the issue with Grandmaster Sid and the rest. Additionally, there were quite a lot of matters back at the dominion that Lorist had to deal with personally, such as setting Professor Balbo’s gunpowder research into motion, as well as Master Mancheny's glass production. Lorist also had to start experimenting with cannon and gun designs. Once he had functioning designs, he could equip his ships therewith. Once that was done, the Chikdor Merchant Guild would be in for a nasty surprise. Who the true hegemon of the seas was, was a question that would have to be reconsidered.

Lorist wasn't too willing to leave Silowas Island even so. He understood that House Norton lacked high-tier battle power the most. Based on military power alone, if Lorist claimed House Norton to be ranked second in might, nobody would dare to claim the first spot. Be it the quality of their soldiers or of their equipment, the house’s forces completely trumped the other powers by leaps and bounds. Even the Second Highness’ 300 thousand-strong army didn't pose much of a threat.

However, apart from Lorist, there were no other blademasters serving the house. During his recent trip to Morante City, Lorist realized that the big-seven merchant guilds could easily bring out four or five blademasters to be stationed elsewhere. However, House Norton only had Lorist.

Even though human-wave tactics could be used to swarm blademasters, it would cost the lives of countless brave soldiers. The huge bleeding gash caused by the assault of Blademaster Zarinan on the house’s forces had yet to heal completely. That was why Lorist wasn't intent on leaving Silowas Island in the near future. He had to stand by to receive the Chikdor Merchant Guild’s assault.

Lorist believed that since the guild had already lost one blademaster, he could definitely take on three or four more. If he could wipe out at least two of them, his forces could exterminate the invading enemy forces. The guild, after being taught such a harsh lesson, would definitely come to understand that taking Silowas Island was nothing but a pipe dream. Lorist would only be able to return to the Northands without worry after they had been taught this lesson.

"How about this, Freiyar, you will form the two other fleets as quickly as you can. Have the fast fleet patrol the island and maintain its security. When the other armed fleet is completely formed, have it focus all its efforts on transporting food from the Northlands to the island. We must have at least one year's worth of food stocked here," decided Lorist.

"What about the refugees we brought in, Milord? Are we going to stop the development plan?" asked Hansk as he stood up.

He had been put in charge of the planning effort for the development of the dominion. His hand, full of beastskin documents which he seemed intent to report on, attested to this fact.

Lorist almost freaked out as he thought, Why are so many transmigrators I read about able to spend their days in luxury, earning money and hooking up with girls? And even when a war does come to them, they would be able to send tens of millions of soldiers onto the battlefield easily? In contrast, I don't even have enough food to supply two divisions of soldiers here... And given the amount of other stuff I have to tend to, I'm usually busy for the whole day...

Rubbing his temples, Lorist asked, "Summarize it for me, Hansk. Tell me how many development plans you have finished preparing."

Hansk flipped through the beastskin documents in his hands a few times before replying.

"Milord, the main ones concern the move of Whitebird Town, the expansion of the port area, the construction of the defensive walls, and other infrastructure for Whitebird Town and the commerce area, the construction of the embankment at the east part of the island, as well as the replanning and rebuilding of the seven villages and farmland. The renovation of Seaview Manor is nearing its end, and the location for the port for exclusive use of the marine brigade has also been decided. However, the location on which the local defense brigade's citadel is to be constructed has not been decided yet, mainly because of the folk of Whitebird Town’s objections."

"Oh, what's up with that?"

"Milord, the folk of Whitebird Town believe that they will not need another local defense brigade because they already have a town garrison of 500 men. They think that the garrison alone is sufficient for the defense of the town. Our original plan was to build the citadel for the local defense brigade between Whitebird Town, the commerce area, and the port..."

The one who explained the situation was the leader of the third local defense brigade, Patt.

"Where will the port for the marine brigade and our Oceanic Legion be constructed?" asked Lorist.

"Over here," Hansk said as he opened a map of Silowas Island, "It's right here along the ridge between Whitebird Town and Seaview Manor. There is a small bay here that will prove to be convenient shielding from waves and strong winds. However, we will have to use a lot of manpower to level the terrain."

Lorist nodded, "Then, station the third local defense brigade where Farama Village used to be. That way, the local defense brigade, the Oceanic Legion, and the two regiments of guards at Seaview Manor will form a triangular defense perimeter. Even before we mobilize our forces from the dominion of the house, the Chikdor Merchant Guild will find it difficult to pierce our defensive line.

"As for Whitebird Town, leave it as it is and let the garrison there maintain order. However, notify them that a battle between House Norton and the Chikdor Merchant Guild will soon take place on the island. For the ones who wish to leave, we will provide them transport to the Northlands. The garrison can choose to maintain a neutral stance in the conflict between us and the guild. They intend to take the island as their own dominion, so I'm sure they wouldn't do anything to the folk living here..."

Just after he finished speaking, Els, who was in charge of the patrols, rushed in with a white letter.

"Milord, the Second Highness just sent an ambassador here to notify us that Andinaq I, the king of the Andinaq Kingdom, passed away five days ago..."

The Third Prince is dead? The founding king of the Andinaq Kingdom, who was officially the heir to the legacy of the Krissen Empire and unfortunate enough to be injured as a result of the assassination plots between his two other brothers, Andinaq I, had finally left the realm of man. Second Highness Auguslo was finally free of the last chain that bound him. He could now finally mobilize his army and begin the war to unify the Empire.

Lorist received the letter from Els, "The skies are changing..."

[1] The author woefully overstates the effectiveness of wearing mail under plate here. Don’t get me wrong, mail is very good armor, but it is largely superfluous when worn beneath plate. Mail was worn historically mainly to cover the sections between plates and in joints that would periodically be exposed during movements. The sections where the mail is beneath the plate see very little, if any, benefit from the addition of mail.

Chapter 255 The Glass War

Charade went to the imperial capital to pay his respects. Lorist hadn’t gone, so Charade was there as his representative as well.

What a joke... Going to the imperial capital at this time?!

The reason Lorist was so against meeting the second highness was that he would definitely be asked to 'contribute' to the kingdom in every which way.

Another reason for his resistance to a visit was that he could not afford to take the risk of leaving and having the Chikdor Merchant Guild attack during his absence. Lorist felt that it would be best for him to stay put at Silowas Island and wait for the enemy to attack. This time around, he had to teach the Chikdor Merchant Guild a lesson they could never forget.

The preparations for the battle continued smoothly and those who wanted to evacuate left successfully. Patt also visited Lorist secretly and asked him to write a recommendation letter to be sent to Telesti.

Actually, he had successfully wooed White Restaurant’s Martha. Both she and her mother were willing to head to the Northlands to start a new restaurant by the port city. Business on the island wasn't going particularly well, so it wasn’t a hindrance to their decision.

However, Martha's mother, Nataya, hoped that their neighbor, Professor Hugo, and his family would be given the same treatment. After asking around, Patt found that Professor Hugo was actually a literature and history professor from the Royal Knight Academy at the imperial capital who had returned to his hometown to escape the civil war. Patt thought that, since Telesti was building Nico Academy, it would be a good idea for Lorist to write a letter recommending Professor Hugo for a teaching position there.

After asking around as he wrote the letter, Lorist realized that he had met Professor Hugo before. He was the puffy, drunk man at Whitebird Restaurant when Lorist had first visited.

No wonder that old guy didn't fear a dominion lord like me and even dared to say that all nobles are perverts... He must have seen lots of things in the imperial capital. He probably understands what truly lies beneath the pleasant and mannered visages of most nobles.

Not many of Silowas Island’s residents chose to leave. Most gave their familiarity with island-life and the absence of any desire to move as their reason. As long as they were allowed to continue to live as they had been, they didn’t care who their dominion lord was. House Norton hadn’t bothered to care for the island for five whole years after receiving it as a fief, so they felt little to no loyalty to it. They felt that they could live as usual whether there was a person lording over them or not.

In fact, there were quite a number of complaints after Lorist arrived at that island. Many of the residents felt that while the developmental plans their dominion lord had in store provided many money-making opportunities for them, it also gave them lots of trouble, affecting their peaceful daily lives.

However, the beauty, Martha, and her family managed to convince a bunch of island residents to head to the Northlands with them, roughly 100 people in total. They were families of substantial wealth. They were worried that their houses and belongings would be raided during the battle, so they felt it would be better for them to move to the Northlands.

The manager in charge of convincing the islanders’ move promised that they wouldn't have to worry about accommodation or work in the Northlands. The port city’s construction was completed, so there would be enough housing as well as some more benefits to make up for their losses. Additionally, the Northlands required all sorts of talents, they needed not worry about finding employment. Anyone with a skill would have no trouble finding employ.

In his conversations with Patt, Lorist got to know that Victor, the limping captain of Whitebird Town’s garrison, was also one of those who had been vying for Martha's affection. However, compared to the young, handsome, wholesome, and strong Patt (it should be noted that those were Patt's personal opinions of himself that do not in any way represent how Lorist perceives Patt), who also had two functioning legs – as opposed to Victor’s limp – Martha's choice was obvious.

It was part of the reason for the garrison of Whitebird Town’s objection to the construction of the citadel between the town and the commerce area. Patt was the leader of the third local defense brigade and Victor was the captain of the local garrison, with both of them vying for Martha’s favor, their units naturally experienced some friction between them as well. Patt, however, wore a face full of smiles the whole time. He radiated the aura of superiority belonging only to a victor (no pun intended).

Good Sol!

It was fortunate that Lorist didn't snap in anger.

Those two bastards are actually treating the house's development plans as a game! To think that I thought the folk of Whitebird Town were actually against the plan... So it was because of these two's personal grudge... Well, that limp isn't a member of the house. When the house stabilizes here at the island, there would be many chances to deal with him. As for Patt, a family knight, how could not realize the weight of the matter…

Naturally, it wasn't that Lorist wanted Patt to have given up on the beauty. But that, at the very least, he should have informed Lorist of the true nature of the situation at the first opportunity. That way, he wouldn't have to move the third local defense brigade to the soon to be abandoned Farama Village. Relying on the limp Victor and his 500 untrained garrison soldiers to defend Whitebird Town was not the best idea.

The days passed one after another, but the enemy had yet to arrive. Each day felt as long as a year for Lorist. He awaited the arrival of the Chikdor Merchant Guild for so long that he thought that he was turning into a rock.

During this period of time, Freiyar had completed the formation of the two fleets, one was led by Senbaud to the Northlands to both send the evacuees there and to bring food to the island. After five days in the Northlands, Senbaud returned. He was far more respectful towards Lorist when he did so.

"I didn't expect that milord's family would be so mighty," said Senbaud.

He finally understood why Lorist had the confidence to fight against the Chikdor Merchant Guild. He had his horizons truly expanded during his trip to the Northlands. However, he was still rather confused about Lorist's rank. Despite being peers in title, Count Lorist and Count Seleih were worlds apart; the latter was nothing more than a beggar compared to the former. Whether it be in terms of his dominion, or his household forces, Count Seleih couldn't compare to Lorist in the slightest! In actuality, House Norton's forces had already exceeded that of a duchy.

Senbaud was working hard to eventually become a knight of House Norton now, but it wasn't going too smoothly for him. Even though a gold-ranked swordsman would be more than welcome to enter the ranks of the knights of most other noble houses, it wasn't the same for House Norton. It prized achievements and contributions the most, though hard work could also be an acceptable substitute for stellar performance. Without one of those, however, one would not be accepted as a knight of the house.

However, after taking a quick stroll around the dominion of the Nortons, Senbaud had resolved himself even more. He wouldn't join any other house, even if they came over to invite him, after what he had seen. Based on the eight manors built for the house’s gold-ranked knights at Salus Settlement alone, Senbaud was already filled with desire. The facilities of the manors were complete and not lacking in the slightest. They even with servants and workers already in place. Each year, the manors would produce at least 500 to 800 gold Fordes in profit.

It had to be noted that Senbaud only earned around 100 gold Fordes annually from toiling away and risking his life as a pirate. But now, even before he was a gold-ranked knight, he was receiving a salary of ten gold Fordes a month, which was more than enough for his wife and children to live comfortable, even luxurious lives.

I absolutely have to become a gold-ranked knight of the house and get a manor for my wife and children, thought Senbaud resolutely.

On the 22nd day of the 1st month, Charade returned from the imperial capital. Even by then, the Chikdor Merchant Guild still hadn’t shown up to attack. Even Charade was suspicious of the situation. Was the Chikdor Merchant Guild intending to wait for winter to pass? Would they only attack in the 4th or 5th month?

Charade took a breath of cold air as he spoke of the rumors he heard in the capital.

"The second highness is truly cruel. He actually lopped off Second Prince Iblia’s head and put it in a silver basin in front of the Third Prince's altar as a sacrifice. The poor Second Prince never would've expected to die at the hands of his own nephew. Even in death, the prince’s severed head still wears an expression of shock and terror. What a horrible way to die...

"Also, Second Highness Auguslo gave a rousing speech at the plaza in front of the palace. He claimed that nobody can suppress the desire of the empire’s people to reunite and said that anyone who wanted to stop them would be mowed down by his army...

"Naturally, the tens of thousands of people cheered after the speech ended, shaking up the whole capital. All of the people there – soldier and civilian alike – felt that something was lifted off their shoulders following the death of the third prince. Right now, Second Highness Auguslo’s army is making the final preparations for war. I estimate they will engage Redlis’s forces in the 4th month after the harvest of the winter wheat."

Lorist continued to wait on the island until the 11th day of the 2nd month, on which two large-class, long distance merchant vessels of the Peterson Merchant Guild arrived at the island. The vice president and several others from the guild were onboard, as well as Dulles and the 40 or so talented men he had recruited in Morante City.

"Milord, you should stop waiting here like an idiot. The trade union is already in a bloody battle with the Teribo Kingdom and have no time to bother with taking Silowas Island," said Dulles after greeting Lorist.

After hearing Dulles and the vice president’s explanation, Lorist came to understand that the move he made before leaving Morante City, that is, the release of the two letters, had an unintended effect. The letters actually served as a catalyst for the conflict between the trade union and Teribo, and the smaller conflicts at their borders eventually developed into an all-out war.

Lorist was more than elated when he heard the news. Initially, he only thought of causing some trouble for the trade union by releasing those two letters. However, he only thought that this would cause enough tension between Teribo and the trade union to cause them to dissolve their friendly relations. Never would he have thought that he would be able to cause a war between them.

Then again, the letters were only able to play their part thanks to the cooperation of the strait-laced Teribo VII. After the assault incident on the Mayflower Merchant Guild, a third of the inner city of Morante City was ruined. As a result, many of the high officials of various merchant guilds and their family members lost their lives. That did not only involve those from the big-seven guilds, but also the smaller ones that were situated at the inner city as well.

All the residents in the city were boiling with rage and the big-seven guilds were completely unable to suppress the people. It was especially the case with the smaller merchant guild fanning the flames. One representative of the council after another gave their speeches in the public streets, all carrying the same rhetoric of punishing Teribo so that the innocents would be avenged. There were even some that chanted the slogan, 'Attack Feyers City, and catch Teribo VII alive!'

However, the big-seven guilds were more rational than that. Even the Mayflower Merchant Guild which suffered the most losses attempted to suppress the desire of the citizens for revenge. The big-seven sent an ambassador to the capital of Teribo, Feyers City, to get an audience with Teribo VII. The ambassador suggested the kingdom hand the rank three blademaster and rank two blademaster who had managed to escape to the trade union to be punished as murderers so that the citizens of Morante City could be appeased. Additionally, the ambassador requested Teribo pay for the damages incurred by the trade union and was even ready to renegotiate the tax-free benefit the kingdom had with the union on the glass trade.

The big seven guilds felt that their handling of the matter was already really generous, but they didn't expect Teribo VII to so stubbornly refuse all of the suggestions of the trade union. He stressing that the attack on the Mayflower Merchant Guild didn't occur on his orders and that he didn't bear any responsibility for the matter whatsoever.

He even began to utter nonsense in front of the ambassador of the trade union, saying that he thought the blademasters and gold-ranked knights who attacked the Mayflower Merchant Guild must have been incredibly patriotic subjects of the kingdom who acted on their own behalf seeing their kingdom's plight. Teribo VII said that those valiant warriors must have been unable to overlook the trade union’s sly betrayal and decided to take action against the Mayflower Merchant Guild regardless of their own lives to destroy those letters so that the kingdom’s secret could be kept.

That was how Teribo VII argued that the kingdom bore no responsibility whatsoever for the actions of those patriotic and heroic subjects. They also insisted that the ambassador's demands were nothing but nonsense.

Teribo VII’s response infuriated the ambassador of the trade union to the point that he almost spit out blood in anger. Even though the proof was laid in front of him, Teribo VII refused to admit to the allegations. The ambassador really couldn't believe a matter between two nations was being handled in such a childish manner.

Just when the ambassador was leaving, having said that Teribo VII would definitely bear the consequences of his actions, Teribo VII lashed out once again. He gladly declared that he would award the brave warriors with the highest honor and hold a ceremony at Feyers City in memory of the brave heroes that were willing to give their lives to protect the interests of the kingdom.

This time around, the ambassador truly coughed up blood.

By the time the big seven guilds received Teribo VII's official reply from the insulted ambassador, they felt as if they had been slapped squarely in the face. So, they made a joint decision. During the 5th day of the 12th month when the auction was held, the Mayflower Merchant Guild made their own bid and purchased the oil and green glass production method letters with 23 million gold Fordes.

In actuality, the academies didn't really receive such a huge amount of money for the letters. A day before the auction, an agreement was made with them. Each academy would receive 1.5 million gold Fordes apart from the Dawn Academy, which got 2 million gold Fordes. After that, Academy Head Levins would announce that the letters were indeed sold for 23 million gold Fordes and 'donate' 20 million to the restoration of the inner city. The remaining 3 million gold Fordes would be used to set up the Mancheny Fund to support poorer students in their studies. While that was the cover story, all parties involved made quite a huge profit off the deal. However, Dawn Academy managed to also greatly improve their reputation.

Upon receiving the letters for the glass production methods, the trade union announced that they would produce and market their own glass products and refuse to import those produced by Teribo, thus completely severing any and all benefits afforded to the kingdom in the process.

The moment the kingdom received word of that, Teribo VII jumped in rage.

What?! So the two letters that were destroyed at the cost of so many blademasters and gold-ranked knights were fakes?! The trade union truly is sly... No wonder nobles always get the short end of the stick when dealing with merchants. It was all because of the paranoia of the merchants that caused us to fall for their ploy and suffer so many losses in the process...

Teribo VII, who automatically victimized himself, began to boil in rage. There was no way he could form another group of blademasters and gold-ranked knights to steal the letters back. Thus, he decided to mobilize his army of 50 thousand to the border of the trade union. He was prepared to use his military might to force the trade union to cease glass production immediately.

However, Teribo VII forgot one crucial fact. Even the impressive Krissen Empire boasting an army of 300 thousand men wasn't able to make the Forde Trade Union cower, not to say much about the Teribo Kingdom's 50 thousand. The trade union soldiers often bumped into Teribo Kingdom soldiers and would delve into a round of verbal abuse. It was fortunate that both sides didn't fight with their weapons, but bare-handed brawls were not uncommon.

In the end, one of the trade union’s villages near the border fell victim to a squad of Teribo soldiers. They barged into the village for some food and rest. In the meantime, some of the soldiers felt the need to show the womenfolk of the village what a true Teribo man was capable of in bed.

Who would've expected the soldiers to encounter a Morante City mercenary group there? Mercenaries weren't beholden to as many regulations as formal defense soldiers. Normal soldiers would have to first lodge a formal complaint after sending the offending enemy soldiers back to their camp and request the other party to punish the offenders for violating military regulations.

However, when the mercenaries realized the village folk were oppressed to no end, they instantly broke into a fight. The Teribo soldiers that managed to escape reported that they had been ambushed, causing several squads of reinforcements to be sent to the village. As a result, the slaughter of the mercenaries began. That incident attracted the trade union’s defense forces, further growing the scale of the border conflict.

When Teribo VII heard about the battle at the border and the number of deaths among his soldiers, he was elated and thought that he could use that as an excuse to teach the trade union’s unruly mercenaries some manners. So, he ordered his 50-thousand-strong army to launch an attack on Morante City, intent on encircling the city and forcing the trade union to sign a treaty.

The war effort progressed without trouble at first as the trade union didn't think that Teribo would actually launch an attack. They had been assaulted in a completely unprepared state, allowing the Teribo Kingdom's army to occupy the two cities at the border of the Falik Plains. The act was akin to prodding a nest full of hornets. The trade union declared war against Teribo immediately with the pretext of self-defensive retaliation. They wanted to let Teribo VII taste the consequences of his own actions, which had started the war.

The moment the trade union unleashed their forces, Teribo came to understand the saying, 'a dog that bites doesn't bark'. Right before Dulles boarded the ship heading to Silowas Island with the others, not only did the trade union take back the two occupied cities, their forces even breached Teribo’s defenses and crossed its borders, conquering seven of its commanderies, which was about half of the kingdom's whole territory.

The Teribo Kingdom only occupied an area roughly equivalent to four provinces of the Krissen Empire, it didn't use provinces to split up its territory and instead split it up into 15 commanderies.

"Right now, Teribo VII is crying out for the neighboring nations to reinforce him and even mobilized everyone he could in his kingdom. swearing that he would resist the heartless enemy that forgot all the aid his kingdom had offered. He said that the army of the trade union even broke a taboo by taking over heaps of the kingdom's territory," said Dulles in a snickering voice.

Chapter 256 The Haphazard War

The Glass War that occurred during the 1st month of the year 1773 between the Forde Union and the Teribo Kingdom caused much distress among the military historians. There were many arguments regarding the event and no consensus was ever reached.

One historian argued that the 30 years of peace enjoyed by the Union had caused their people to forget how to go to war. As for the performance by Teribo VII, it was even more laughable. During the war, which lasted for eight months, the confrontations were at most skirmishes over a village or two, there wasn’t a single account of either side launching a proper attack, or of a field battle between the two sides. The war was fraught with betrayals, surrenders, trades, and ploys, however.

In the end, the war was recorded in the chronicles of Grindia as one that greatly influenced the political situation of the whole continent. Although the war lasted only eight months, it resulted in the destruction of the Teribo kingdom and seven other neighboring nations to vanish. In actuality, the conflict was a disorganized, brainless, and messy affair, nothing more than an insane banquet of insidious plots.

If you were to read a whole book on the subject, you would be unable to breathe afterward. ‘Death by laughter’ would be written on your tombstone.

Teribo VII, for instance, ordered a count, Count Edmund, at one point to attack Morante with his 500-thousand-strong-army. The count instructed his troops to march on Bluweck, a Union city in the Falik Plains, he even ordered the marching band to perform as they marched.

One might argue that the count intended to use a hitherto unheard of tactic to confuse his enemy before launching the attack, but the truth was that he simply thought it was standard military procedure. The count’s troops actually did manage to confuse the garrison, if only because of the complete illogicality of their behavior. In fact, the garrison troops even thought the Union had struck some sort of agreement with the kingdom.

The garrison didn't bother to stop the advance of the troops, they merely watched the performance. The soldiers even informed their captain to come out and receive them as guests. The captain, upon witnessing the scene, was confused as well. Why on earth had he not received any notice of their impending arrival beforehand?

The kingdom’s troops, who, at this point, had marched to the gates of the city, hadn’t even bothered to send out scouts. The impression they gave was that of a friendly army. The garrison’s captain could only curse the messenger he believed to be drunk somewhere for not bringing him the notice due. Despite his misgivings about the situation, he headed outside to prepare the reception.

And that was how one of the Union’s cities was lost. After the city’s successful capture, Count Edmund ordered his troops to continue on to Ritte. It, too, fell by the same token. Had Count Edmund known his success was thanks to the confusion his own ignorance had wrought on the enemy, he would have attacked a few more cities before the enemy could react. His fame would have soared overnight had he done so.

It was a shame that he didn't. He thought, instead, that the garrisons had surrendered out of fear, that they had been terrified by his army’s confidence. He didn’t bother to question the two officers, whose names were indicative of their peasantry. He simply locked them up.

What Count Edmund did pay attention to was the arrival of tea time. He was already rather satisfied with conquering two cities within a day and felt that he should throw a banquet during the night to congratulate himself. There were a number of noble-born widows in Ritte. The count felt that some might just choose to follow him after hearing of his magnificent military exploits.

The count ordered his troops to lock down the city and prevent any entry or exit and prepared his magnificent banquet. As he went about preparing for his feast, his soldiers began harassing the citizens. At the same time, a patrol outside the city realized what had happened, and began to take action.

The Union’s garrison forces couldn't really be blamed for being so careless. They had been indoctrinated with the idea that the Teribo Kingdom was a great ally to the Union. Even after the Mayflower Merchant Guild incident, most of the people felt that it was just some kind of freak accident that the higher-ups would sort out sooner or later.

The other reason for the failure was winter. Even though the Falik Plains were far warmer than the Northlands during the winter, there had been no precedent for battles breaking out during the season. Most of the garrison had taken leave to spend time with their families. The patrol troops were left even more confused when they saw the kingdom's army advance with a marching band. Nobody would imagine that an attack would accompany the performance.

During the evening, news of the kingdom’s 'attacks' and the loss two cities spread to Morante. In stark contrast to the cheers and excitement the city’s folk had shown when they had heard about the war, the big-seven guilds were completely terrified. They didn’t know how strong the kingdom’s forces actually were for them to be able to take two cities in a single night.

It should be noted that the Union’s garrisons had experienced incredibly gruesome sieges in the past.

It's no wonder that Teribo VII dared to threaten to go to war with us, thought the heads of the big seven guilds, who were under the impression that losing two cities was a testament to the might of the Teribo Kingdom's forces.

However, they did not cower even though the enemy was already at their doorstep. Quickly, the Union decided to formally declare war. After considering the harshness of a dragged-out conflict, they announced that any citizen would be allowed to participate in the war, and those with contributions would also be awarded titles and land following the implementation of the nobility system.

The Twinhead Dragon Merchant Guild's president, Cobleit William, solemnly took up the role of commander-in-chief. He had undertaken painstakingly careful preparations to combat the might of the kingdom's forces. The plan was to build an army and deploy it at Calidor, the third-closest city to the kingdom, and their next logical target, by the 3rd month.

President Cobleit contacted the Calidor's garrison immediately and forbade them from going into battle, no matter how much they were provoked by the enemy, and make defense their only priority. As long as they could defend Calidor, the Union's army could use the same strategy they had used against the Krissen Empire a couple of decades earlier: the would drag the conflict on for as long as possible and bleed the enemy white. One the enemy was pale, they could launch a single, decisive counterattack that would end the war and give them ultimate victory.

The Union didn't put much emphasis on military might. Despite being at war with the Krissen Empire for more than a century, their standing army had always been quite small. It couldn't even rival the forces of a standard, small duchy. The whole of the Union, across the rich Falik Plains, the Callisto Hills, and Hidegold Bay was only defended by three armed forces, namely: the garrison's of the respective cities, the patrol regiments, and the Invincible Fleet.

Apart from Morante, seven other cities were located on the Falik Plains. However, each city was only defended by a 2 thousand man garrison. Morante was slightly better off. Their garrison numbered 4 thousand. The rest of the Falik Plains and the Callisto Hills were only defended by a small regiment of patrol troops that did monthly rounds.

The most well-funded force was the Invincible Fleet, and that was mainly due to them having to deal with raiders and pirates on a regular basis. After all, those parties were what truly threatened the interests of the Union. There had also been suggestions to put the Invincible Fleet under the complete control of the Chikdor Merchant Guild since it was already the hegemon of the sea. The Union would no longer need to fund the fleet, it could instead leave it entirely to the Chikdor Merchant Guild.

However, the Chikdor Merchant Guild rejected the suggestion, they argued that its fleets only engaged in ocean combat to protect its monopoly on the various trade routes. They even threatened to keep the fleet anchored at Hodegold Bay; it would serve only as a symbolic deterrent, without any actual combat capabilities.

The most underfunded segment was the garrison forces. They enjoyed no sympathy from the council members, despite being as severely understaffed as they were. Some within the council felt that, since the Krissen Empire was no more and their neighbouring nations were all on friendly terms with them, it was time for the garrison forces under the direct command of the Union to be disbanded. The cities would have to rely on their own local militia garrisons to defend themselves. Of course, the reduction in expenditure was a great incentive for this opinion.

It was a bad habit of merchants to skimp on any spending that wouldn't bring them profit. Every annual council meeting saw countless arguments concerning military spending. The big-seven guilds were markedly more rational than the rest, however. They had jointly vetoed the proposal to disband the state-funded garrisons as well as proposals to decrease the Invincible Fleet's funding.

As a result, the retaliatory army formed by President Cobleit had a regiment of garrison soldiers from Morante and a regiment of light cavalry patrol troops from the Callisto Hills as its main force. The rest of the army included seven armed regiments belonging to the big-seven guilds, which were considerably more capable. The rest of the army consisted of civilian companies from smaller merchant guilds, mercenary bands, as well as some Moranites who wished to answer to the Union's call to arms. Within the span of three days, President Cobleit managed to gather an army of 500 thousand men, though they were naught but a ragtag bunch of troops.

The president didn't mind the that it wasn't a cohesive unit, however. After all, the Union was quite experienced with siege battles. For the past century, it was with these 'ragtag forces' that the Union had resisted the invading Krissen Empire. The army would still be of much use in resisting the kingdom's forces.

President Cobleit found the most comfort and confidence in the fact that his army contained a high number of high-tier fighters despite being not formally trained. For instance, the leaders of the mercenary bands were usually of the gold rank. Other than that, the seven groups of soldiers sent by the seven largest merchant guilds had all had their battleforce awakened, not to mention the blademaster that led them.

While a group like that wasn't easy to deal with, it would definitely serve as a real pain defending against the enemy. Should the Teribo Kingdom wish to take the city, they would have to lose lots of experienced soldiers and high-tier fighters. This was the foundation of the Union which had resisted the Krissen Empire's 100-year-long invasion.

Naturally, there would be a lot of factors at play on the battlefield that couldn't be accounted for beforehand. As countless military historians have pointed out, while the Union's army was a disorganized bunch, the Teribo Kingdom's army was nothing but a joke.

When President Cobleit led the Union's forces towards Calidor to set up a defensive line, he heard some rumors from Ritte that sounded like something out of a legend.

Count Edmund had already been held up at Ritte for three days, mainly because he got intimate with two beauties there and wasn't ready to part with them yet. So, the count reported to his king that he was sitting out battle during the winter. He stated that the bad weather made it incredibly hard for troops to travel. He would continue his advance when the snow melted a little bit more.

Teribo VII was quite convinced with the count's excuse, given the count's reputation. He proceeded to wait patiently for news of the Union losing the war to come from the front lines. Never did he consider how long it would take for messengers to travel between him and the front.

The night before President Cobleit arrived at Calidor, Ritte was thrown into utter turmoil. One of the garrison's top officers, gold-ranked swordsman Jessbon, had been absent during the original attack, of the original 2 thousand or so soldiers in the garrison, 1418 had escaped the city during the original assault. Of the remaining forces, 300 had been put to death for their resistance, and another 400 held captive.

"Brothers, our garrison force has always been neglected. Those council members can't wait to disband us and have forgotten the sacrifice and contributions we made during the Krissen Empire's invasion.

"Even though we are a proud unit, we also have a rather embarrassing record. We lost Ritte just like that. I refuse to live with the shame of losing the place we were supposed to defend. So, I will ambush our enemy tonight. Is there anyone here who is willing to die fighting alongside me?" Jessbon had asked those who accompanied him.

All 1 thousand 1 hundred plus garrison soldiers responded fervently. They would rather die in battle. So, they secretly snuck into the city under Jessbon's lead and began their suicidal assault on the city hall.

Over the century-long conflict with the Krissen Empire, the Union's garrison forces had gained a lot of experience. For example, they knew that all walled cities had three or four secret paths to the outside which could be both used to escape in a time of crisis. Even if a city was taken by the enemy and heavily defended, the rightful rulers could use the secret paths to begin their assault and catch the enemy unawares.

This assault was no exception. The thousand plus garrison soldiers' attack greatly surprised the troops occupying the city. As Count Edmund, who was staying at the city hall, heard the sounds of fighting encroach upon him, he jumped out of his bed naked and stretched out his hand. However, he didn't manage to grasp his clothes and instead caught his hands on a band he wore around his waist in formal attire.

Count Edmund thus rushed out of the building naked without batting an eye. Arriving at the stables, he quickly took one of the horses and began riding. At the same time, the soldiers that barged into the count's room only saw two confused beauties. By then, the count had already managed to rush out of the city hall and went his own way.

As for the soldiers who noticed the commotion at the hall, they hurriedly prepared to eliminate the enemy, only to be greeted with the sight of Count Edmund riding towards them butt-naked. As he swayed, he called out, "I'm Count Edmund! Quick, let me through the gates!"

The gates had only been opened slightly when the count was already through and on his way to the horizon. Seeing that their general had run away, the soldiers who remained didn't bother to fight either and made their escape.

So transpired the greatest recapture of a city in the entire history of Grindia. The Union's 1 thousand 1 hundred plus garrison soldiers' suicide attack against the 45 thousand Teribo soldiers stationed at Ritte ended with the enemy general, Count Edmund, escaping naked on horseback, and the remaining soldiers crumbling in disarray. There were roughly 10 thousand who escaped and 27 thousand who surrendered. It was said that the troops that surrendered even obediently stacked their weapons in a corner and lined themselves up by the streets in an orderly fashion.

Regiment Captain Jessbon, who had become famous because of the battle cried that night. Where would he find the food needed to feed the 27 thousand prisoners?! Upon receiving Jessbon's message, President Cobleit hurried to Ritte to take in the prisoners.

Count Edmund took two cities in a single day and lost them in a single night as well. After he escaped from Ritte, he went to Bluweck and shouted beyond its gates. There were 5 thousand Teribo soldiers stationed there. By the time the gates were open, clouds of dust had begun to form behind the count.

Ah, that must be from the soldiers who escaped... Wait, what if they're actually the enemy? Gah, I have no time to differentiate between them!

After finishing the thought, Count Edmund quickly fled to the Teribo kingdom.

The moment the soldiers stationed at Bluweck witnessed his retreat, they thought that since the force of 45 thousand that went ahead of them had already lost, there wouldn't be much of a point to them remaining. So, they began their retreat as well. Bluweck was miraculously recaptured that very night.

After two days, President Cobleit arrived at the border of the two nations with his 500 thousand troops. As for the conflict, the Teribo kingdom's forces crumbled even before any actual battle began. Given the situation, was the Teribo kingdom going to be on the losing side?

Even though the big-seven guilds were considering what they should do to wrap up the situation, the smaller merchant guilds, mercenary bands, and volunteer soldiers were unhappy. Since all of them were there because they were promised land and titles for their achievements, if no battle occurred, wouldn't they have wasted their trip? So, the decision was made to breach the kingdom's border.

After the big-seven guilds hesitated for two days, they received word that two of the kingdom's commanderies had already been conquered.

The Mayflower Merchant Guild's president said, "Since it has boiled down to this, let's just wipe Teribo out. We will need land to enfeoff for those with achievements, after all. Other than that, the simple-minded king will only cause us worry if left to his own devices right next to the Union. And since we already have the secret of glass production, we might as well take the source of their ingredients: Quartz Mountain. That would save us even more capital for venturing into the glass business."

Since the Teribo kingdom is such a delicious dish, we shouldn't abstain from enjoying it now that it has already been brought to our mouths! thought President Cobleit as he grit his teeth.

He converted his retaliatory army into an invasion force and sent it marching towards the Teribo kingdom.

Chapter 257 Clash of the High-Tiers

"The Union managed to push the kingdom's army out of their territory in just ten days? Does that mean that the Teribo Kingdom will fall in another month?" asked Els.

Dulles clicked his lips and said, "The situation is already beyond me. When I arrived, the Union's main force was in a standoff with four-allied nations' armies. The army they can muster now has to be from Teribo VII requesting aid from his neighboring kingdoms. I have no doubt that they are desperate to chase the Union out of the kingdom."

"According to them, however, they have come to mediate the conflict. The reason they stopped the Union's forces from advancing was to prevent peace from being further disrupted. They all know full well that the Teribo kingdom's forces can't withstand the Union's. Had it not been for the huge price offered by Teribo VII, no nation would dare to offend the trade union.

"Was there any conflict during the standoff?" asked Josk.

He had quite a bit of experience in life, so the joke of a war fascinated him.

"How could there not be? The Union's ragtag bunch are at least still not completely insane. They wouldn't launch an attack on well-fortified defenses unless there were worthwhile benefits involved. In fact, the reason they invaded the kingdom in the first place was so they could benefit. They want to rack up some contributions and raid the lands of the kingdom's rich nobles. None of them are idiots who would go on a suicidal mission for no gain. President Cobleit is having an emergency discussion with the allied nations as we speak. He's hoping to convince them to retreat and refrain from interfering in the two country's war.

"Milord, when I departed, the trade union had already taken over seven of the kingdom's commanderies, almost half its territory. Despite this massive gain, they've never actually fought a proper battle! Most of the time the kingdom's soldier would surrender the moment they notice the Union approaching. There was even one garrison captain from one of the commanderies who sent somebody to inform President Cobleit that he would open the gates without resistance as long as he was given the dominion lord's daughter's hand in marriage. Naturally, the president accepted," said Dulles.

He gulped down a cup of water to quench his thirst. His throat was not used to being used this much.

Charade barged into the room all of a sudden. He had just returned from surveying the construction site. The moment he heard about the war between the Teribo kingdom and the trade union, he became anxious. Given that his father was a glass merchant, would the war affect the peace of his family?

Without waiting for Charade to say anything, Dulles said, "Don't worry, Brother. Your family is fine. Given your father's fox-like cunningness, he had long brought the whole family to hide at the Dawn Academy. He also bought a few warehouses' worth of glass with the money he had remaining. After I asked him why he bought so much glass, he said that since glass products wouldn't expire as long as they weren't broken, he could keep them until the Peterson Merchant Guild starts the trade route to our dominion. He will ship all the glass to the Northlands and be satisfied if he can get his capital back four times over."

Even though Charade felt relieved after hearing of his family's safety, he blushed when he heard about how his father planned to do business at the dominion. His awkward expression caused all those present to laugh teasingly.

Lorist patted on Charade's shoulder and said, "There's no issue. Uncle is quite a fast-adapting person. He is always welcome to come to the dominion to do business. As long as he doesn't violate our regulations and doesn't oppress others with his power, he is free to earn all he wants. If his business runs well, we can even have him take charge of our house's exports. Dulles, tell me more about the war."

"Yes, milord," Dulles said.

He paused for a while to recall what he could before continuing.

"Over 100 thousand Union troops have moved in and occupied the kingdom's territory. They've noticed how weak the kingdom actually is. It's basically a piece of deboned meat. Naturally, everyone wants to take a bite. Almost all of Morante's mercenaries are over there now. Even Charlando formed a mercenary band with Kindoz and the rest. They're intent on making a profit in the kingdom. Louise said they were going to raid some of the rural nobles' manors.

"Now that Teribo VII is facing the destruction of his kingdom, even he must be starting to realize that things have gotten out of hand. He's ordered Count Edmund to be hung and requested the aid of his neighboring nations.

"He's also ordered his ambassadors to spread word of the increasing threat the Union poses. Apparently, they are supposed to put emphasis on that the Union has turned its sights on the previously either uninvolved or allied nations now that the Krissen Empire has been dissolved. Now that the kingdom has already become the union's first victim, Teribo VII wants to warn everyone that the neighboring nations will be next. I understand that he's encouraging the nations to unite against the Union.

"His propaganda has been quite effective. He's been king for 20 years now and is no doubt using every trick he has. I'm sure he can sleep soundly again now that he has four other nations helping him out.

"It seems he isn't satisfied with just sleeping soundly, however. I've heard he's contacted even more nations, asking them to join his campaign against the Union. He wants to fight all the way to Morante and force the Union to surrender. Aside from the benefits he wants to demand from the Union, he also wants to include the prohibition of glass production in the terms of surrender.

"Sol, if that isn't excessive, I don't know what is! Teribo VII truly is simple-minded. Even at a time like this, he's still not willing to give up on glass," commented Els.

Dulles continued, "Of course it is. Apparently, it's left his allies dumbstruck. The Union has already flatly rejected his demands. They're only willing to accept a cease-fire if Teribo VII reimburses them for the damages caused during the Mayflower Merchant Guild incident. They've also demanded that he cede the territory the Union currently occupies.

"Right now, the allied army is in quite a pinch. They only have 47 thousand people. They can't possibly take on 100 Union soldiers. They might have accepted Teribo VII's offer, but that doesn't mean they're willing to clash with the Union in full-on battle. Given that they won't even clash with the Union at all, Teribo VII's dream of having them fight all the way to Morante is just wishful thinking, it's never going to happen. They just want to end the conflict so they can go their own ways.

"They don't realize, however, how troubled President Cobleit is. He only controls half of the troops. The other 50 thousand are acting independently, and thus don't take orders from him. They're merely messing around in the territory already conquered. The trade union's own forces only include those of thebig-seven guilds, the patrol regiment, and the garrison regiment. However, these people number fewer than 30 thousand. They have even taken on a defensive stance just in case the allied army decides to ambush them.

"So far, the kingdom's forces are also watching the negotiations defensively. There was an article in the Morante Daily that mocked the war for being a stagnated one with no end in sight. "

Not one of them expected the war to stay at a stalemate for three long months. When Dulles left Morante, the stalemate had already lasted for little over ten days.

"Are you sure the big-seven guilds have their attention fully focused on the Teribo kingdom? Even the Chikdor Merchant Guild? They won't be coming over to fight for Silowas Island anytime soon, will they?" asked Lorist.

"That is correct, milord," Dulles replied, "Just before I boarded the ship to leave, I saw the Twinhead Dragon Merchant Guild, Mayflower Merchant Guild, Peterson Merchant Guild, and Chikdor Merchant Guild each send another regiment of reinforcements to the Teribo Kingdom. The Forde Merchant Guild, on the other hand, is busy taking in the Lormo duchy's Puljas province; and the Wald Merchant Guild is trying hard to convince the Mobia duchy to join the trade union in the same manner. As for the Wessia Merchant Guild, they're hesitant about the whole thing. They've invested a lot in the Redlis kingdom and aren't willing to give it up just yet.

"Oh, and President Peterson told me something secretly before I left. He said that the Chikdor Merchant Guild was originally going to hire eight blademasters above rank 2 to assault you. They've been left cowering by your killing spree last time," concluded Dulles with such an important revelation.

"What did you say?!" Els, Josk and the others all jumped in surprise, "You should've brought that up first!"

"Hehe, there's no need to worry about that anymore," Dulles said as he shrugged, "The Chikdor Merchant Guild's plan can no longer be implemented. All the high-tier fighters have gone to the kingdom, including even the Chikdor Merchant Guild's own blademasters. "

"Are you sure about that?" Charade asked, furrowing his brow, "What does the war there have anything to do with blademasters? Also, didn't President Cobleit only bring a few high-tier fighters with him? Don't tell me the Chikdor Merchant Guild is trying to mislead us. Milord, you should definitely pay attention to your safety in the future. While you can handle a single blademaster with ease, being assaulted by a group of them would definitely be disastrous."

"I'm sure," Dulles said, nodding, "Actually, this was the result of Teribo VII's antics. With the allied army standing off against the Union's troops, Teribo VII is preparing to reorganize the military layout of the kingdom. However, the kingdom's army has always been incredibly weak, especially for the last 200 years. What's even worse, the majority of the gold-ranked knights the kingdom had were wiped out during their assault on the Mayflower Merchant Guild.

"Without them, the nobles who wish to win some quick victories, as well as the normal soldiers, no longer have proper leaders. It seems that Teribo VII is trying to pull the Union down to his level since he can't match them as they are now.

"I suspect that's why he's begun to recruit the high-tier fighters of his neighboring nations. I doubt it's so they can join his army. It's far more likely that he wants them to assassinate the Union's gold-ranked knights and their blademasters. He's offered astronomical bounties for the heads of gold-ranked knights and blademasters, a single gold-ranked knight is worth 10 thousand gold Fordes, and a blademaster is worth 200 thousand. "

The bounties tempted even Lorist. He had half a mind to return to the Union to earn himself a few million gold Fordes.

"Has the measure been effective? " asked Els.

"Yes!" Dulles responded almost instantly.

"In the eight days between his announcement of the bounties and my departure, nine gold-ranked knights were already assassinated. They were mostly either mercenary leaders or captains of civilian militias. They were targeted when they were busy raiding manors. Not only were they wiped out, their troops were dragged into the mess as well. Only a lucky few managed to escape alive.

"Apart from them, one of the Riwald Merchant Guild's blademasters was also assassinated. According to the kingdom's official statement, two blademasters from the Teria duchy were responsible for that and the bounty has already been given out.

"President Cobleit was no doubt furious. He sent his men to the Teria duchy to confront their leader. Unfortunately, he didn't know where the blademasters had gone. He's insisted that Teribo VII be blamed, not him. The duchy apparently only pays its blademasters 6 thousand gold fords annually. It's no wonder they were swayed by the bounty.

"Just one day before I left, the Morante Daily reported that President Cobleit himself had been targeted several times. Fortunately, he wasn't injured and the three blademasters that came for him were killed. His bounty is far higher than that of an average blademaster. Since he's the commander-in-chief of the Union's forces, his head is worth 1.5 million gold Fordes. The identities of the three blademasters have also been revealed. They belonged to the neighboring nations as well."

"I'm worried for that darned uncle of mine," said Els.

Laughing, Dulles said, "Don't worry. Old Char's still pretty clear-headed and more cunning than most. The moment the bounty was released, he knew something was up and went back to Morante with me. They managed to raid two manors and brought with them quite a huge amount of fine wine and made quite the profit. Right now, he's happily continuing his job as the boss of the inn."

"Then, did the Union take any measures against Teribo VII's bounties?" asked Charade.

"There's not much they can do," Dulles said, shaking his head, "I thought about it quite a bit on my way here. I couldn't come up with any possible countermeasure. The Union can't retaliate in kind since they don't have any high-tier fighters left, apart from rank two and three blademasters. The Union is likely also unwilling to stoop to Teribo VII's level. It's laughable to even think that they can compete with the king's bounties. I have no doubt that they think Teribo VII's gone completely mad to be throwing away his money like dirty water. Nobody's willing to pay that kind of money.

"As for the ones who assassinated the Union's high-tier fighters, they were mostly from other nations. There's no way that the trade union can accuse them and put bounties on their heads without any hard evidence, it would only make them more enemies. Even if they did have the evidence, the nations could simply claim the blademasters acted independently and shift all the blame on them. This move has completely destabilized the Union's position, and apart from securing their high-tier fighters, there's not much they can do about it.

"There is word that one of the mediators from the neighboring nations criticized Teribo VII's move for creating more conflict. Right now, the Union has already sworn to wipe the kingdom out. But Teribo VII has still declared that he doesn't mind spending 20 million gold Fordes to wipe out all of the Union's high-tier fighters. He even claimed that it wouldn't take long for the Union to start begging to negotiate peace."

"Good Sol! He's smacking other people's faces with money!" Els cried out, "It's a shame I'm not a blademaster. Otherwise, I would be there earning a quick buck right now."

Future military historians criticised the war for being just a series of skirmishes over villages, but what they failed to mention was the absolute massacre of high-tier fighters that happened in the shadows between the skirmishes. About 76 high-tier fighters fell during the Glass War, ten times the amount expected from a war of similar scope fought on the field of battle. Among the 76, 52 were gold-ranked swordsmen, mostly belonging to the trade union, and 24 were blademasters. However, only 7 of the 24 were members of the Union.

The manner in which the war was fought was primarily decided by Teribo VII. The confrontations between the Union's high-tier fighters and those of the allied nations continued for almost half a year, but the Union stood as the victor in the end.

Without their high-tier fighters, the seven nations bordering the Teribo Kingdom were pillars infested with termites. Though they appeared strong from the outside, their power was hollow. They were crushed by the Union's army easily.

"While there's nothing weird about you coming back with the talent you recruited, why did the Peterson Merchant Guild send their people here too? Are they up to something? Did you interact with them during the trip?"

After being briefed on the war, Lorist asked Dulles about the people of the Peterson Merchant Guild.

"I have no idea," Dulles said, "I only know that the vice president cares the most about the local products and goods we have over here, he's even come along on the trip. They never asked about our military, so instead, we talked about the ironspine crocodiles we have at Blackmud Marsh. I suspect he wants to monopolize trade with our dominion."

"That's weird. Wasn't the Peterson Merchant Guild going to take the northwestern area of the Redlis Kingdom as their dominion? That's the main reason they weren't able to deal with our house directly. It seems that they've changed their mind about the embargo on products and trade with the Andinaq Kingdom. Oh well, there's no use pondering over it. I'll get to know what's going on after talking to the vice president during the banquet tonight," said Lorist as he shook his head as if it helped him to toss the matters he couldn't understand out of his head.

Chapter 258 President Peterson's Conditions

Everyone made merry during the extravagant banquet. After the festivities, Lorist invited the Peterson Merchant Guild's vice-president to his study for some tea. Charade was the only other individual present.

The vice president handed Lorist a personal letter, written by President Peterson. In the letter, he stated frankly that ever since word of the third prince's death had gotten out, voices of dissent had been surfacing among the Union's higher-ups. There was now constant arguments over whether they should continue their plan to take the northwestern area of the Redlis kingdom. After all, nobody was willing to stand against the 300 thousand troops of Second Highness Auguslo.

Peterson believed that, with the third prince now dead, the second highness would launch his attack against the Redlis kingdom by the 4th or 5th month of the year. The war would then quickly spread to the northwestern area.

If the Peterson Merchant Guild persisted and took a part of that area as their dominion there, they might be wiped out by the second highness' forces. All their efforts would be for naught.

The Peterson Merchant Guild couldn't easily afford to shift their focus elsewhere, however. They couldn't shift to the Lormo duchy. They had no intention to become its shield. They could, however, move instead to the Teribo kingdom. Although the situation there was still tense from the war, and the Mayflower- and Twinhead Dragon Merchant Guilds had declared their intent to take parts of the kingdom as their dominions, it was still a more viable option than all the alternatives. They, thus, decided that it would be the Teribo kingdom from which they would take a bite.

Given that three of the big-seven merchant guilds had changed their priorities, the Chikdor Merchant Guild had no choice but to give up on their plan to conquer Silowas. If they insisted on doing so, not only would they become eternal enemies with House Norton, they would also be a target for the second highness.

As Silowas was the dominion of the Nortons, it was considered to be part of the Andinaq kingdom. If the guild forcefully occupied it, they would be invading the kingdom. Second Highness Auguslo, who intended to rebuild the Krissen Empire, would consider it a slap in the face. Even if the guild could afford to take on a noble house, they could most assuredly not fight against an entire kingdom, especially not one that controlled an incredibly strong military.

Lorist almost laughed as he read through the letter. President Peterson had used a few beastskins for his long argument just to tell Lorist that the Union's focus had changed and that his dominion would no longer be a target, implying that he could do business with his guild without worries.

However, the president also made three conditions. First, his guild would be the sole party allowed access to the maritime trade route from Hidegold Bay to Silowas. After the sea blockade incident, there was no way the Chikdor Merchant Guild could seek to benefit from the Nortons anymore. Since the trade route was up for the taking, the Peterson Merchant Guild wasn't going to hold back.

Some issues had cropped up as a result of the war which meant that the guild couldn't gather the 2 million gold Fordes for their fur deal with the Nortons anymore, thus the second deal. The president hoped to barter for the equivalent of their shortage. The deal was very important to the guild, it would help to relieve their burden and ease their position.

The core of the letter was in the president's third condition. Even though the Union had only been at war with the Teribo kingdom for little more than a month, President Peterson had already begun to realize his guild was rather lacking. It wasn't that the guild lacked high-tier fighters, but that they lacked an organized force with which to defend themselves or mount attacks.

As one of the big-seven guilds, the guild controlled the fur trade and were also the leaders in long-distance land-based convoys. They even had their hands in construction, overseas exports and imports, food, entertainment, and other miscellaneous activities. The guild didn't lack any manpower either. For instance, they could very easily move people around to form a force against the Teribo kingdom and reinforce the front lines.

Doing so, however, had negative side effects on the guild's operations. While the guild's forces would be more than sufficient for defensive actions, it would be incredibly troublesome to mobilize them to engage offensively. The leadership of the nations neighboring the Teribo kingdom shared Peterson's opinion.

The nobility system was going to be implemented soon, and with it, the heads of all the merchant guilds would become dukes with their own duchies. It was a logical step for them to possess appropriate standing armies as well.

The Twinhead Dragon Merchant Guild was the fastest to make the change, and they didn't hold anything back. They had completely absorbed the entire Union's garrison forces as their own. President Cobleit had already decided to approve the proposal to disband the garrisons during the 10th month. As a result, the various cities would have to form their own garrisons, thus decreasing the military spending of the Union. On the other hand, he would take all the members of the garrisons to his own dominion and have them join his army.

The Mayflower Merchant Guild wasn't about to sit there and watch either. The patrol regiment stationed at the Callisto Hills had already become their target. Since the Callisto Hills would be divided into more than 50 territories and enfeoffed to others following the implementation of the nobility system, the patrol regiment's future was uncertain.

The Forde Merchant Guild, on the other hand, was rather calm. When it took over the Lormo duchy's Puljas Province, they also absorbed the duchy's 10 thousand troops into their army and were already in the process of reorganizing.

The Riwal Merchant Guild wasn't in a hurry either. They were busy convincing the Mobia duchy to join the Union and had taken an interest in the duchy's forces. Negotiations were already under way.

As for the Chikdor Merchant Guild, they were already incredibly influential at sea. Given that they were the hegemon of the seas, they were not the least bit interested in forming their own defense force. It might also have something to do with their current sore lack of a dominion or even just a prospective dominion.

The Wessia Merchant Guild also lacked their own dominion at present, in spite of that they had already formed their own defense forces. These were used mainly to protect the mines they now possessed in the Redlis kingdom. When they finally had a dominion of their own, they need only merge the new forces into a single, integrated army to be a force to be reckoned with.

This left the Peterson Merchant Guild in an awkward position, which was why President Peterson was so worried. While dealing with bandits during their convoys' journeys or joining forces with other merchant guilds in the current conflict was no problem, forming their own standing army was an issue. It was not something that could be solved solely with manpower. Forming an army required proper training and strict military regulations. They had to have a reliable force by the time they took over their duchy.

This was where Lorist came in. Peterson's third condition was that Lorist had to provide him with a robust plan for forming an army. He also wanted Lorist to let the vice-president observe the training routine used by his house's forces so the guild could gain the basic military know-how. In a chaotic time like this, Peterson's request could be considered incredibly excessive. After all, for many military-based noble houses, their training methodology and techniques were top secret, a matter of confidence that could never be shared with, or even just showed to, outsiders.

But, given the understanding Peterson had of Lorist's character, he made the request straightforwardly. The guild did not lack talented military officials, but they did lack officials well-versed in theoretical strategy. A force without a firm grounding in military theory was no more than a slightly organised rabble, they were an unreliable bunch at best. If the guild formed a standing army like that, they would be nothing more than a punching bag for others. If that were to be the case, there was no point to forming one in the first place and it would be better to abandon the endeavour now.

House Norton was a noble house with a long and star-studded military heritage. Their performance over the past two years, best exemplified by their defeat of the Duke of the Northlands as well as the extermination of Second Prince Iblia's 100 thousand strong force, was more than stellar. They had even conquered the Iblia kingdom's capital and forced Duke Fisablen's Frontier Legion to retreat.

It would be nothing but a strike of ultimate fortune if the guild could get help from Lorist in this regard. This was also why the president was trying to leverage their past dealings to get Lorist to do just that. He trusted that Lorist would give him a satisfactory answer.

Hmm, President Peterson does know his stuff... It seems that our forces' reputation has spread, thought Lorist gleefully.

After reading the letter, he passed it onto Charade.

Charade's expression as he read through the letter shifted from a hearty smile to a frown. As he finished reading the letter, he could only shake his head.

Lorist understood what the gesture meant. Initially, Charade was glad to read President Peterson's breakdown of the situation. Since Silowas would no longer be under threat, its development could continue as scheduled. He no longer had to leave.

His frown was naturally related to the requests the president had made. First was the matter of trade monopoly. Charade knew what the president was actually up to. The president was worried that Lorist would form his own fleet with which to do business. To prevent this from happening, he claimed that he didn't have enough money to do upfront purchases and asked to barter with resources instead. By trading in resources, and not handing over physical money, he could keep Lorist from having the money needed to purchase or commission the construction of ships. If he could indirectly make it too difficult for Lorist to get the ships he needed, he might give up on the idea altogether, in which case the Peterson Merchant Guild would control the trade route heading to the northlands, and could dictate the flow of resources there.

The third request was the bit that brought about the head-shaking. Charade had always been convinced that House Norton's forces far exceeded those of other nations. They were much smaller than their competitors, but the quality of their arms and armament, their discipline, and their strategy and tactics were in a different league altogether. There was no way he would agree to reveal how they trained their troops. Besides, just because the guild was on good terms with House Norton, it didn't mean that they couldn't become hostile in the future. They didn't even have to take action against House Norton, House Norton was a vassal of the Andinaq kingdom, so if the guild became hostile with the kingdom, the house and its subjects would get dragged into the conflict as well. Helping the Peterson Merchant Guild to form an army was helping a possible future enemy.

Lorist wasn't of the same mind, however. He agreed to all the conditions without hesitation. The decision was made so casually that even the vice-president was shocked.

"Treating others with sincerity has always been one of the traditions of House Norton. Since the guild has come as friends, you will be treated to a grand welcome and fine wine, and we will also do our best to help you however we can," said Lorist.

After agreeing to show the vice-president the training routine for Whitebird Town's defense force the next day, Lorist sent the thankful man away.

When he turned around, he saw Charade staring at him angrily.

Worried that the vice-president was still in earshot, Charade lowered his voice, "Are you crazy?! Why did you agree to let them see the defense force's training? That routine is a house secret that must never be revealed!"

Lorist snickered and patted on Charade's shoulder.

"Don't be so tense. There's no way that our training routine will be revealed so easily," said he.

"Then are you planning to mess with them?"

"It can't really be considered 'messing with them'. Right now the local defense force is still just training lining up and taking on different formations. This routine is hardly a secret to the other nations, now is it? This routine was developed by Potterfang using the Whitelion Legion's routine as its basis, so much of it should already be known by others. The routine is really just a hodge-podge of that and bits we added during the convoy days from various sources. Our house's own, unique training routine was only formulated after our engagements with the magic beast wave, and these troops aren't training in that yet.

House Norton's forces went through three stages during their training. The green recruits would be sent to the training camps where they would be taught military regulations and drilled until they obeyed orders almost as a reflex. Once they were satisfactorily reflexively obedient, they would move on to the second stage. Here they would train to awaken their battleforce. They couldn't officially join the military and march under the raging bear until they awakened their battleforce. Once their battleforce was awakened, they had to go through a three-month course that taught them basic military skills. Only once they completed this final course would they be drafted into standing units and officially be soldiers of the house.

The house treated its soldiers very well. They were all provided quality equipment, regardless of their rank, and never wanted for supplies. Lorist understood that good logistical support boosts the morale and loyalty of soldiers. The direct family of soldiers also benefited from having one of their own in military service. The house made sure to take good care of them and even gave them certain special benefits if the soldier died in battle.

All of this meant that being a member of the house's forces was just a source of great pride and elevated the soldier and their family's social status, but made the soldiers anticipate battles and even encouraged them to sacrifice themselves when the moment demanded it of them.

"In other words," Lorist continued, "the guild would have to implement all of this exactly in order to create a force capable of competing with ours. This will also require several years' investment on their part. It'll take time to train and temper their forces to an acceptable level. If they do this diligently they might have a decent force, but, if not, they'll simply be disguising a cat as a tiger - their forces will be for show only.

"Actually, I find the battles the northbound convoy were involved in brought lots of benefits to our forces. It was through actual battle that our forces grew to become elites, not normal training. The gruelling journey was a grindstone that slowly, if somewhat painfully, polished our forces. By the time it ended, we only needed to organise the fighters into proper units and structure them as a proper force to have a formidable army. They were only lacking equipment at the time, but now that they have it, their performance is unmatched."

Lorist had poured each of them a cup of fruit wine as he explained and the two now drank leisurely as he explained his plans. He planned to use this opportunity to aid the Peterson Merchant Guild and sell the equipment the house produced to the Union. The trade in arms and equipment had always produced staggering profits. The three allied houses in the Northlands had already armed their forces to the teeth, and Duke Fisablen had already signed the agreement to trade two years' livestock for equipment. There wasn't any other business in weaponry and equipment left to do in the area around the Nortons' dominion.

When Lorist had gone to the Andinaq kingdom's capital he had originally planned to do two things. He wanted to pass on the hot potato known as Second Prince Iblia to Second Highness Auguslo, but he'd also wanted to strike a deal with the latter for the sale of arms and equipment. He had not expected that the second highness had emptied his treasury just so he could feed his army. Once he knew, he didn't even bother to bring the deal up. He knew the second highness would try to purchase the equipment with empty promises, and he had no interest in provoking trouble where none was necessary.

The Union's arms and equipment need was technically supposed to be filled by the Wessia Merchant Guild, but it was patently obvious that they wouldn't be able to produce the volume the Union needed on short notice. It would be even worse with the implementation of the nobility system. The massive increase in landed nobles who needed to arm and supply their standing forces would create a massive demand for arms and equipment. Just like what had happened with the Kenmays family, the traditional nobles would no doubt view them as nothing but imposters, so they couldn't afford to lose in appearance, or, even worse, appear weak.

It was impossible that the guild would be able to satisfy such a demand and this created a golden opportunity for House Norton to enter the market, through the Peterson Merchant Guild, of course. As long as Lorist could corner a third of the market, he would no longer have to worry about the costs associated with the development of his dominion, nor about the increasing upkeep costs of the dominion's ever-expanding military.

Charade's mood changed from anger to elation instantly. He was determined to be put in charge of negotiating the arm and equipment deal, which Lorist gladly gave to him. Lorist had absolute faith that Charade would be able to get the most benefits for the house out of the deal.

At noon the next day, Lorist and Charade accompanied the Peterson Merchant Guild's men to check on Whitebird Town's forces as they trained. Despite Captain Victor, limp and all, and the rest of the force putting on their best performance, their lack of discipline and proper training was obvious. Even the men from the guild could pick up on it. They clicked their tongues in disappointment, some even mumbled that they were even worse than the troops the guild currently had.

Lorist didn't pay any mind to the comments. He treated them to a meal and let them take a short rest before they headed off to Farama Village to watch the third local defense brigade's training.

The low sound of a horn could be heard as the empty wheat fields filled up with guards wearing greyish-white uniforms. The soldiers arranged themselves neatly into three rectangular formations following a staccato of horn blasts. The men stood neatly together, not one of them made a sound. They had turned into statues, there weren't any detectable movements, only an intense killing intent radiated out from the groups.

This time, the guildsmen were shocked. The manner in which the soldiers got into formation alone was enough to show they were an elite unit. The three rectangular formations were right in front of them. While a unit of 3000 men wasn't considered large, they possessed an incredibly oppressive aura. It was as if the onlookers were standing in front of a huge mountain range. An intense feeling of despair crept into their hearts.

The vice president took a deep breath and asked with a smile, "So, this is the elite unit of House Norton?"

"Well, I guess they can be considered as such. This is the Third Local Defense Brigade. They were formed pretty recently," said Lorist as he nodded.

He wasn't satisfied with their performance, however.

I should go teach Patt a lesson later... For his troops to take so long to get into formation... I wonder if he's focusing too much of his attention on Martha? Lorist had forgotten that Martha and her mother had already moved to the Northlands.

The training proceeded normally after that. The guildsmen were incredibly impressed. They felt their horizons had been broadened greatly. Now, they knew how an elite unit trained.

It was time for Charade's debut. He made a list of what an elite unit like the house's own needed, what they had to do to make the troops loyal, raise their morale, and ensure their obedience. Had he not stressed the importance of excellent equipment at every one of his points, he would've sounded even more convincing.

Ten days passed in a flash. The men from the Peterson Merchant Guild had observed enough of the training of the third local defense brigade and were ready to head back. As Lorist was making his final preparations to return to the Northlands, a shocking piece of information arrived.

Second Highness Auguslo had mobilized his troops seven days earlier and attacked the Redlis kingdom's capital.

Chapter 259 The Second Highness's Assault

Lorist looked at the dark skies. Small fine snowflakes that floated to the ground ever so gently.

The second month's end had already arrived and it was rather cold, roughly around -70 to -80 degrees centigrade. The third local defense brigade continued to train twice a day despite the cold, which awed of the Peterson Merchant Guild's men.

The group sighed. Though the Teribo kingdom and the Union claimed their two armies were standing off against one another, they were actually waiting for winter to pass.

Apart from the Union's citizens, who had joined in the hope of earning some riches through raiding, not many were willing to leave their camps to work. Even the ones assigned patrol duties were cursing their luck. Only the bounty hunters didn't curse. They had been drawn into the conflict as a result of Teribo VII's astronomical rewards, as well as those who fought back against them. But it was a conflict among high-tiers which did not concern the rest of the soldiers.

With the coming of the 3rd month, winter was over. What came next was a month-long rainy season. As a result, wars rarely occurred between the 12th and 3rd month. It was only by the 4th to 5th month that the armies would have enough food, taken from the harvests of winter wheat, and enough free time to begin arming themselves against any potential foe.

The war between the Union and the Teribo kingdom was already considered an exception to the rule, mainly because of Teribo VII's simple-minded actions, which had greatly angered the Union. Had it not been for that, nobody would want to fight during the winter season.

Wait, the second highness picked a season like this to attack the Redlis kingdom's capital? Is he insane or did I hear wrong? wondered Lorist.

Charade, on the other hand, looked incredibly agitated. He grabbed the messenger, the same one Charade had brought to the southwestern provinces to recruit vagabonds as labor for the development on Silowas, by the collar. He had been left there to pay attention to the situation between the two kingdoms that were about to go to war.

"That's impossible! How was the second highness able to breach the defensive line at Kanbona province? The first prince has already fortified it so heavily! How did Auguslo make his way to the kingdom's capital?" roared Charade, spitting lots of saliva in the process.

Charade almost choked the poor messenger to death.

After struggling to reply for a while, he managed to mutter, "The se-second highness di-didn't go through Kanbona... He... he took a huge detour through Greatsnow Mountain at the Cloudsnap mountain range and arrived at th-the Bodolger province before attacking the Frederika, the royal capital... He managed to occupy the city b-by taking advantage of its lacking defenses, but the fi-first prince managed to escape..."

The messenger hesitated before he continued, "I... I heard that the second highness left with m-more than 30 thousand men, but only had around 8000 remaining when he arrived at the city..."

Good Sol! How ruthless! Lorist felt a sudden chill run down his spine.

It seemed the second highness had picked an incredibly dangerous route for the sake of attacking the city.

"Go fetch me a map in the house," instructed Lorist.

Five years earlier, the second highness had exterminated the first prince's force of 30 thousand elite troops at Flowater Creek and had continued his assault on the kingdom. After encircling Frederika with his troops, he forced the first prince to sign an agreement to cede two provinces to the Andinaq kingdom. The new border was drawn along the Northern Province and the Kanbona.

The Northwestern Province was the hilly coastal area Lorist and the convoy had passed through all those years ago. Neither the second highness nor the first prince paid any attention to it, to go to the Redlis kingdom's capital from there one would have to first cross the wide Morrison river, one would also have to pass through Kanbona. The ideal route for an attack on Frederika was through this very province, which was why the second highness had managed to capture it during his previous invasion.

He could not do the same thing this town around. By the time the second highness had gathered his 300 thousand soldiers, the king of the Redlis kingdom, first prince Krissen Redlis, hadn't just sat by idly, he had gathered up large sums of money and a lot of resources to reinforce the forces stationed in Kanbona. All over the province, there were well-defended citadels with wide moats and tall walls. If the second highness wanted to reach Frederika, he would have to conquer one citadel after another to clear his path to the capital.

"Auguslo will sustain at least 200 thousand losses in Kanbona, and the remaining 100 thousand soldiers will be exhausted. They will never be able to conquer the capital. After this battle, I can promise you the punk will not dare to attack our kingdom for at least 20 years," the first prince had once said to his officials proudly.

The prince understood the importance of wearing down the 300-thousand-strong army well. He had gathered all the family members of military officials above the rank of Squad Leader in Frederika under the ruse of keeping them safe for that very reason. Everyone knows it was just a ruse, however. If they didn't do enough damage to the second highness' forces, and the city fell, their families would fall with it.

It was the prince's plan that this knowledge would motivate the forces defending Kanbona to fight to the death. The prince felt that, even though his move was incredibly cruel, this was the only way his soldiers would be desperate enough to take down three soldiers before falling. In essence, the first prince was prepared to sacrifice 70 thousand soldiers to grind away at the second highness's forces as much as possible.

Nobody had expected that the second highness would be even more savage than the first prince, savage to himself and his own forces no less! He actually personally led his soldiers through Greatsnow Mountain in such horrible weather. Despite losing three-quarters of his troops, he managed to take Frederika in one fell swoop, forcing the first prince to flee the capital.

Lorist looked at the map in awe. It was worth noting that the second highness had delivered an impassioned speech just a month earlier at the capital of his own kingdom, pledging to restore the Krissen Empire to its former state. It was also said that he would be busy with the funeral of the third prince, patrolling the front lines and making preparations for war. It caused others to think that he would only attack the Redlis kingdom during the 4th or 5th month, as was military convention. Nobody had dared to imagine that the second highness would conquer Frederike just one month later. Such speed shocked and awed many.

Charade pointed at the map and exclaimed, "Good heavens! The second highness actually made his way across the Cloudsnap mountain range and scaled Greatsnow Mountain... It is completely suicidal... It's far too risky."

There was a natural barrier in the Bodolger province, between the capital and the northwestern area of Kanbona. The barrier was known as the Cloudsnap mountain range. It was a densely packed collection of tall mountains and dense forests. Additionally, Greatsnow Mountain, situated in the middle of the mountain range, was easily taller than 10 normal mountains combined. Snow piled up on the mountain and didn't melt easily. The terrain was also incredibly hard to scale. It was difficult, if not outright impossible, to cross over. Despite that, the second highness cut through like a dagger flung at a snake.

Lorist laughed, pointing at the map.

"The second highness actually did something smart for once. He only managed to cross the Cloudsnap mountain range thanks to his timing."

"What do you mean?" Charade asked as everyone wondered.

"Look here. The Cloudmist Swamp stretches for around 50 kilometers along the bottom of the range. It is said that the swamp is formed from the melted snow that gathers up in the area. If the second highness attempted to cross during summer or fall, it would take him at least two or three months. But during winter, most of Cloudmist Swamp is frozen, allowing the troops to travel into the deeper parts of the mountain range without restraint. After that, they only have to make their way over Greatsnow Mountain to arrive at Bodolger," explained Lorist.

"Ah, is that so... No wonder he's hailed as one of the greatest military strategists of the new generation. To think that he actually grasped an opportunity that hidden, his fame is completely deserved!" exclaimed the vice-president of the Peterson Merchant Guild.

Lorist sighed and said, "It's a shame that his losses are not small. Only 8000 of the 30 thousand troops survived the journey. It seems that he didn't make sufficient preparations."

Lorist could already infer that the second highness had only mobilized his so-called elite troops, but didn't have enough knowledge of the troubles of winter. Had he been better prepared, he wouldn't have had to attack the city with so few soldiers.

Lorist's guess was actually correct. Only around 4000 soldiers died from the hike across the mountain range. But more than 20 thousand of them perished due to the extreme cold. Less than 8000, able to resist the cold with battleforce, survived. It was still more than enough to defeat the unprepared troops defending the city.

"Even so, it's still better than attacking Kanbona's citadels one after another. Had he done so, he would have lost more than 100 thousand troops easily. Considering this, his choice was the wiser, despite the losses he suffered," argued one of the military officials of the Peterson Merchant Guild.

Lorist lightly shook his head, If war was merely mathematics, it would be much simpler.

He didn't bother to argue, however.

"How do you think the war will progress now that the second highness has the Redlis kingdom's capital, Lord Count? Does first prince stand a chance to make a victorious comeback?" asked the vice-president, who cleverly changed the subject.

"The current situation has already mostly stabilized. Unless some sort of miracle happens, the first prince will not be able to escape defeat," commented Lorist.

"That's hard to say. The second highness only managed to conquer Frederika thanks to the element of surprise. The 8000 soldiers he has at hand now is far too little. If the first prince manages to form an army a few ten thousand strong, the second highness might just lose," said the very same military official, still taking the other side of Lorist's argument.

"Hahaha..." Lorist laughed, before he continued, "It would be great if things were that simple. How would the First Prince be able to gather more troops, now that Frederika has already fallen? Who would bother to aid him now that he's on the run, powerless and poor? And who would be willing to fight to their deaths for him just to retake a city that isn't their home?"

"But he's still the king! His righteous cause is reason enough!" The military official was still not convinced.

This time, it was Charade's turn to speak.

"Righteous my ass! The first prince is nothing but a traitor, one of those who raised the flag of rebellion and caused the empire to split. While he was definitely worth reckoning with when he had troops, the loss of Frederika means that he no longer has any riches left with which form an army. Who, then, would bother with a beggar like him? It's already incredibly merciful not to outright kill him on and present his head to the second highness."

"Well," Lorist interjected, "I doubt anybody would go so far as to kill him. 'King Slayer' is not a name any noble wants to have. Traitor or not, he's still a king. But the title will do him no good. The nobles will help him superficially at most. Even if he did get a couple of soldiers, there's no way he'll be able to take the city back, which is his own fault given how heavily he fortified the city's walls. Also, all the valuable resources and equipment are kept within the city.

"The second highness is no idiot. After conquering Frederika, he will definitely use his spoils to recruit more troops. Even though he only has around 8000 right now, his force will definitely grow three to four times in less than a fortnight. When the first prince arrives at the capital, he'll realize that the second highness already has tens of thousands of troops waiting for him."

Lorist thought deeply for a while before he continued, "If the First Prince is smart, he will begin gathering as many troops and resources as he can and retreat to the Majik province for now. If he does so, he can draw out the conflict at the very least and wait for opportunities to turn the tide."

"Will the second highness actually afford him that kind of time?" asked Charade.

"He will. Right now, the second highness only has 8000 soldiers with him and can't do much apart from defending the capital. Pursuing the first prince is out of the question. Even if he does manage to gather more troops, he'll deal with the 70 thousand soldiers defending Kanbona first. Fortunately for him, the first prince had moved the family members of officers to Frederika as hostages. He can use them as bargaining chips to force surrender.

"And by the time the 70 thousand troops switch allegiances to the second highness, the 100 plus thousand soldiers he stationed at the two southwestern provinces will begin their march towards Frederika. With that, the second highness won't need to break a sweat to destroy the Redlis kingdom and to eliminate all nobles that refuse to yield.

"That's why I believe the first prince will have the time he needs to gather troops and resources. Majik's terrain will make sure the second highness' troops are stalled for a period of time. There is no doubt, however, what will happen after the second highness' main force arrives in a month or two.

"The Northern Province won't be a threat to Second Highness Auguslo. Once he obtains final victory over the prince he can just send an ambassador there. There's no need to mobilize his troops. As for the 70 thousand troops stationed in Kanbona, they're sandwiched between the second highness' main force and Frederika. Their supply chain is completely cut off. They have no choice but to surrender."

The fates of Kanbona and Bodolger were indeed set in stone. What came next were the Anderwoff and Majik provinces. Anderwoff was the main military center for the Redlis kingdom's nobles. The joint forces of around 30 noble houses were nothing to scoff at. Together, they had the same standing as the first prince himself. They had always been at odds with him, much to his misfortune. When he asked for aid, he received only mockery.

If Anderwoff's nobles thought they could treat the second highness the same way, they were in great trouble, however. The second highness, with his army of more than 100 thousand soldiers, definitely didn't mind letting his men win some military contributions by fighting the soldiers of the noble houses.

Majik was close to the Handra and Farkel duchies. It had served as the springboard for the first prince's invasion into the four central duchies. It had been reduced to a collection of ruins by the latter's counterattack. Even after five years, it had yet to be repopulated.

"Lord Count, where do you think the second highness will turn his attention to after destroying the Redlis kingdom?" asked the vice-president.

"Well, there are many options. It's most probable for the second highness to use the troops he's gathered to attack the four central duchies and force them to relinquish their independence. After that, he will likely bring his troops through the four duchies and gather them the Melein duchy before starting an invasion of the Iblia kingdom. After defeating Duke Fisablen's Frontier Legion he could launch a pincer attack on the Madras duchy, which would end Duke Madras.

"He'll only turn to the Lormy duchy after all of this has been achieved. If the Union doesn't want the Lormo duchy to rejoin the empire, the 100-year conflict between the Union and the empire will restart again. However, the second highness would have reunited much of the territory of the former empire. He'll likely declare himself Emperor after he takes back the Lormo duchy. He'll be immortalized as the one who reunited the Krissen Empire, as Auguslo I," speculated Lorist.

The vice-president looked rather pale, Lorist's guesses were well within the realm of possibility.

He half-bowed to Lorist and said, "Lord Count, I thank you for your kind hospitality over the last couple of days, but I believe the time has come for us to leave. We will handle the deal between you and the guild, so please rest assured."

Lorist stood up and said, "You're welcome to visit anytime you like. As our friends, you will receive the warmest welcome House Norton can give. Also, this here is my letter to the president. I'll have to trouble you to hand it to him on my behalf."

Chapter 260 The 5th Day of the 4th Month

Drops fell from the sky. With them fell the smell of the sea.

"Milord, you should return to the cabin and rest. We know this route well enough to complete the rest of our journey with our eyes closed. We need not travel so slow, nor need we anchor for the night. We'll travel at full sail for as long as the winds allow. It only takes us 11 to 12 days to travel between the island and the Northlands. We'll reach Bullhorn Bay in another two days," advised Freiyar.

Clad in a black raincoat, Lorist stood amidst the raindrops.

"I'm fine," he said, "I only came to take a look and breathe some fresh air. You should go back to work. You don't have to worry about me."

The ship Lorist was on was a large-class three-masted merchant vessel. It was the commander of the Oceanic Legion's personal vessel, Freiyar's vessel. Freiyar had brought 28 merchant vessels and armed middle-class ships with him to the Northlands this time. They would take the stockpiled magic-beast furs to Soliwas to trade with the Peterson Merchant Guild as per their agreement.

Lorist was accompanied by Els and Dulles - Josk and Jim had been left with Charade. Lorist felt it prudent, since Freiyar and Senbaud were both constantly absent from the island with their fleets, to leave a gold-ranked knight on the island.

After Freiyar had been sent away, Lorist stood on the frontmost part of the deck. He watched the waves splash against the ship, and the rain fall gently. It was pleasant and relaxing. The news of the War of Glass and the second highness' ambush on Frederika finally let Lorist be at peace. There was no one left unoccupied to lust after Silowas island. Its development could finally proceed as planned.

Lorist hoped the two wars would drag on for as long as possible. Ideally, the Union and the second highness would exterminate the Teribo and Redlis kingdoms respectively. Once done with that they would hopefully turn on one another and fight over the Lormo duchy. The longer there was war occupying others elsewhere, the longer Lorist could spend developing his dominion in peace.

When I finish my research on cannons, I'll make sure to install them on my warships. Once my warships are fitted properly, even if a force like the Chikdor Merchant Guild once again turns its sights to Silowas, they will pose me no threat. My ships will turn theirs into floating debris, no two logs will still be lashed to one another once I'm done with them. No one will doubt who is the true ruler of the seas ever again...

As he finished the thought, a realization dawned on him; he would be incredibly busy once he reached the Northlands.There would be many things requiring his attention. It soured his mood to think of this.

Clad in a similar raincoat, Else emerged on the deck and leaned against a mast to Lorist's side.

"Locke, I've been feeling rather troubled these past few days. Do you remember sending me to deliver 1000 gold Fordes and a bunch of other gifts to Baron Dina's dominion? I just find it a little weird. When did you get to know the sisters from that barony? Not to mention their beautiful aunt. They also seemed to be on rather familiar terms with you. The elder sister, Dina, even cursed you for being ruthless.

"I really can't fathom how that happened. As the leader of your guards, I am by your side almost all the time, yet I can't recall a single moment you were free enough to become intimate with the sisters and it seems their aunt also has some relationship with you. She seemed quite concerned and interested when we were talking about you. Once they heard of your identity, however, they became quite wistful and sent us away after just the usual pleasantries. What's going on?

Lorist knew by now that when Els addressed him as 'Locke', he had the intention to converse as friends, not as lord and retainer. He seemed quite curious about the matter they were discussing.

Lorist smiled slightly when he heard about their change in behavior. Had he been a mere knight of the house, he would have been in the same social class as the two sisters, and they could marry him without issue, but Lorist was the patriarch of the family and the head of the house, on top of that he was no longer a minor noble, but a count. The two sisters could not become his wives without being nobility themselves, and they were nothing more than the siblings of a minor noble, a baron.

"It's nothing important. Didn't I go out with Dulles and Karitok when we were last in the capital? We attended a party and I met the two sisters and their aunt there. The girl thought me a knight and hoped I would ask her hand in marriage."

"Tsk tsk tsk, milord, you have quite a bit of fortune with females... In a single night, you managed to get the elder sister and her aunt to fall head over heels for you," said Els, once more addressing Lorist as his superior.

"Forget it. Let's not talk about me. What about you? You're not exactly young anymore. Weren't you getting along well with Master Mancheny's daughter? Should I bring up marriage on your behalf and have him wed his daughter to you?

"Ugh..."

Els had not expected to become the topic of discussion. He was stunned for a few moments.

"Well, Locke, I think it's better to wait for another year or two. I'll propose to her after I've broken through to the gold rank. Her marriage can be more glorious that way and I'll have my own manor. I can only be certain that she'll live well should misfortune befall me if things are that way."

Lorist patted on Els's shoulder.

He said angrily, "Don't be ridiculous. What misfortune are you talking about? With me by your side, you're guaranteed to live to your hundreds and experience the joys of family life."

Els looked annoyed and troubled.

"If you put it that way, Milord, I really can't decide who is actually guarding who..."

......

On the 11th day of the 3rd month, Lorist arrived at the Northlands. Freiyar had been correct, only eleven days had passed since their departure from Silowas.

Howard could be seen with red, swollen eyes, patiently awaiting Lorist's arrival. Lorist had sent Howard to the Northlands forcefully back then. It would have been too dangerous for Howard to be at Lorist's side if the Chikdor Merchant Guild attacked. Lorist would be on the front lines, he might even have to face blademasters. He felt it would be best for Howard to return to the Northlands.

Once on the pier, Lorist ruffled Howard's head.

"What's this? You're crying even though you're this old already? Sheesh, let's go to see the port city first. Have the carriage take a trip there."

The foundations for the city had already been completed in the highlands near Blackmud March. There were already two completed sectors, already populated. The people living there were mostly from Senbaud's fishing village and those who had moved over from Silowas. They were the lucky few who had the privilege of settling down in the city early.

The one responsible for the city-building project was none other than Grandmaster Ciroba. He had designed the city as grandiosely as he could. After making a few rounds in the area, Lorist realized there were around ten sectors still under construction. By the time the whole project was completed, the city would be able to sustain up to 60 thousand people and still have enough land for further expansion.

A massive residence for the dominion lord and a large garden square was to be built in the center of the city, as was the convention for most cities on the continent. It would take a few years at least to finish it. Most of the work was still being done on the foundations.

"Grandmaster Ciroba did a pretty good job. I must remember to give him and the other people in charge a reward."

Lorist turned to Howard.

"It the city named yet?" asked he.

"No, Milord. It's been decided to leave it up to you," said Howard.

"In that case, tell Grandmaster Ciroba he will have the honor of naming the city as a reward for his magnificent work. When the work is done, I'll have someone erect bronze statues of all those involved in the project. Also, remind him that he already has an embankment named after him, I don't want the city named as such as well. Have him think of a better name," instructed Lorist.

At the end of the previous year, the 50-kilometer long embankment, which stretches from Tortoise Hill to the mouth of the Azure River was finally completed. It had taken three long years and 200 thousand laborers to build. The embankment would not only prevent the river's flooding from interfering with the harvests from the new farmland at Blackmud Marsh but also served as a protective barrier between the land and the ironspine crocodiles that lurked on the far bank of the river.

The house spent over 500 thousand gold Fordes on the 50-kilometer long embankment. The main labor force had been the 50 thousand indentured servants that would finally complete their term of service at the end of the year. The house had also recruited an additional 70 thousand vagabonds to supplement the indentured servants. They brought their families with them and settled near the embankment. Blackmud Marsh had thus been turned into yet another center of food production.

Besides these two, the house's soldiers and garrison forces had to offer up three months of labor annually. The residents of Salus and Felicitas also joined the workforce for some extra money. Together, they managed to complete the embankment in just three years.

Grandmaster Ciroba had asked Lorist in his final report what the embankment should be named, and even offered to name it himself.

At the time Lorist couldn't be bothered to come up with a name, so he passed the privilege on to the grandmaster, who didn't hesitate to name it after himself. He even commissioned a large stone table to be placed on the embankment with its name. Many wished to object to the name, but when the grandmaster paraded Lorist's letter round, no one could oppose him.

Lorist had learned his lesson and forbade the man from naming things after himself. He couldn't afford to set a precedent and have every other narcissist name everything after themselves. As a form of compensation and motivation, Lorist was willing, however, to have a statue of the man erected in commemoration of his efforts.

During the remaining 20-odd days of the 3rd month, Lorist checked on the various military camps and the people within his dominion. He spent a day each at the Maplewoods bastide and Telesti's Nico Academy office before rushing to Firmrock castle to attend the annual general meeting of the house.

......

On the 5th day of the 4th month, Lorist arrived at Firmrock castle and the annual general meeting commenced.

The flow of the meeting was not unlike the previous year's. The only change was the absence of those who had remained on the island, most notable among whom was Charade, and a proposal to commend and entitle those with contributions.

After a briefing on the year's outcomes came the discussion of promotions and entitlement. Lorist announced that Potterfang, Fiercetiger Loze, Josk, Freiyar, Belnick, Malek, Terman, and Yuriy would each receive their own hereditary manor. The manor and its surrounding lands were to remain in the family even if their descendants didn't become household knights.

Lorist instructed Shadekampf to plan for eight new farm towns and eight manors to be built in the red-river valley. It was the land that had originally belonged to the Kenmays. He named the place Redriver. His proclamation caused many to wonder how House Kenmays would react to the, now official, occupation of their original dominion.

Lorist merely laughed it off.

"House Kenmays is now preoccupied with their dominion in the eastern Northlands. Practically speaking, they've abandoned the red-river valley for several years now. They won't develop land so close to our dominion. In fact, this move will make them feel more at ease. It will reassure them that we've truly buried the hatchet."

The final item on the agenda concerned the expansion of the house's military through the recruitment of the 50 thousand captives, those who had previously worked on the embankment and were about to complete their term as indentured servants. Despite comments to the contrary Lorist had made int he past, the second highness' 300 thousand strong army had unsettled him. It was anyone's guess whether the second highness would leave the north in peace, or return to wipe it clean after he finished with the Iblia kingdom. It was better to be prepared than not.

Potterfang's heavy-armored troops and Loze's pike cavalry troops were expanded to two divisions each. Dulles was also put in charge of forming another carroballista division. He needn't prepare any horses, however. Lorist wished to try out an idea. It if succeeded, Dulles's unit would be able to travel on foot.

After the meeting, Lorist had Grandmaster Sid, the person in charge of the refinery at Ironforge Castle, and Supervisor Camorra, who mainly dealt with the production of military equipment, arms, and armor at Windstorm City, stay back for two additional assignments.

The first regarded the idea Lorist had. He drew a design similar to a wheelbarrow and wanted Grandmaster Sid to test whether a steel ballista could be fitted to it. That way, there would no longer be a need for carriages and horses for the ballistae. They would still have the same levels of mobility and agility, however. Additionally, the wheelbarrow design allowed for the ballista to be dragged up hilly terrain to higher vantage points, which was much easier than moving a whole carriage uphill.

The other assignment was for a set of glamorous armor that was slightly weaker than Whitelion Legion armor in terms of defense. The armor was to be sold to the Union. Given the disposition of merchants, the better the armor looked, the more they would be hooked.

......

That same afternoon, on the frontlines of the Teribo kingdom, President Cobleit, commander-in-chief of the Union's army, saw that his force had already grown to the 150 thousand mark. With the passing of winter, he could finally stop arguing with other officers in his tent all day. He was finally about to release his ultimatum to the four nations' army. Should they not leave within three days to allow the Union passage, they would be attacked without mercy. The consequences after that would be borne by the allied army alone.

Given that the allied army had been able to stop the Union's forces in their tracks for three whole months, they could already be considered to have answered Teribo VII's expectations. Additionally, nobody wanted to antagonize the Union. Thus, the allied army promised they would retreat within three days, ending the stalemate that had lasted for three whole months.

......

At the same time in the occupied capital of the Iblia kingdom, the first group of soldiers belonging to the main body of the Andinaq kingdom's royal local defense army appeared outside the city.

Second Highness Auguslo, who watched their arrival from the walls, finally breathed a sigh of relief. For the past month, after his ambush on the city, he had not had a single night of good sleep. He seemed to have slimmed greatly and a thick beard could be seen on his face. The negotiations with the 70 thousand troops defending Kanbona Province had taxed him greatly, but he had managed to make them surrender. Now that his main army had finally arrived, what remained would be the capture of the first prince.

"Heed my orders, send an ambassador to Anderwoff's nobles. Order them to bend the knee and pledge allegiance to me, or face extermination."

"Yes, Your Majesty. Your will is my command. But what should we do if the nobles have other demands?"

"Are they in a position to make demands? It was they who joined the first prince in rebellion and forever disturbed the empire's peace. I'm already being incredibly merciful by sparing their lives and those of their family. Is that not enough? Tell them that if their behavior is to my satisfaction, the most they would face is a decrease in their peerage and relocation. I trust that this will be enough."

"Yes, Your Majesty. I will leave right away to pass on your decree."

Chapter 261 Furybear

Clang-clang-clang-clang! The clashing of swords sliced the air.

Lorist returned his sword to its scabbard and nodded in satisfaction.

"Not bad, you've improved quite a bit. Given your current swordsmanship, You should be able to take on a one-star-gold-ranked knight. You have to try harder, got it?"

Reidy held his hand in front of his chest respectfully and said, "Yes, master."

Lorist noticed that Reidy had improved at an incredible speed of the past year. After he began his training in the hall at the back of Firmrock castle's mountain, Reidy did nothing else for a long time. Not only had he broken through the third stage of the dan ocean ki-refining technique, thus reaching the bright stage, his swordsmanship had also improved by leaps and bounds.

"You should start stabilizing your power at the third stage before traveling to get some experience. Breaking through to the fourth rank in the dan ocean ki-refining technique requires actual insight, not just mindless training. Perhaps, you might even have to experience a few a life-threatening situations first. During normal combat situations, you need to be far more clear-headed and maintain a calm demeanor - you must not be enraged easily, understood?"

"I understand. Thank you for your teachings, Master."

Lorist was just preparing to return to the central castle with Howard after he left the training grounds when Else showed up.

"Milord, Knight Tarkel and Supervisor Camorra are both waiting for you in the guest lounge."

Nodding, Lorist said, "Have them enter my study. You should come along too."

Time had really flown by. When they had last met, Lorist was just a person in charge of a convoy heading north to return to the house's dominion. They had even been attacked by Count Cobry's spear cavalry on the way. It had ultimately ended with the defeat of Count Cobry and with Lorist occupying the Northwestern Province's city, Geldos.

Back then Tarkel had merely been a guard for one of the prison camps in the city. He was a two-star-iron-rank and cowardly as a mouse. Lorist was convinced that he had his talents and dragged him to the northlands forcefully. On their arrival, however, Lorist was swamped with urgent matters and forgot to tend to Tarkel. The latter was forced to join Yuriy's light cavalry scouts just to make a living and look after his family.

The time he had spent with the unit had changed him completely. There wasn't a trace of his previous cowardice left, and in its place was a rare bravery. The many life-threatening battles he had experienced had also pushed him to the peak of the iron rank. He was now courteous and respectful towards others. When Lorist finally got round to Tarkel, he immediately made him his personal attendant. A year later, having broken through to the silver rank, he was taken in as a household knight.

Lorist had sent Tarkel all over the place on one task after another over the next two years. The tasks themselves were thought eccentric by most, one of the longer trips lasted a full three months. Tarkel was required to write a report on every location he visited, including any personal thoughts or opinions he might have on it for that particular trip.

Tarkel and Supervisor Camorra both gave a knight's solute as they entered the study on the second floor of the castle.

"Good day, milord," greeted they in unison.

"Good day to you too," Lorist answered.

His gaze settled on Tarkel first.

"You've done rather well for the past two years. I see that you've been rather industrious with your battleforce training as well. You're already at the two-star silver-rank?" asked Lorist surprised.

"That's right, Milord. After receiving the battleforce manual from you, my training progressed even faster than when I was using the manual given to me in the military," replied Tarkel gratefully.

"That's because your battleforce is fitting for the technical manual I gave you," said Lorist as he smiled.

His gaze shifted to the silent Camorra.

"Camorra, if you want to awaken your battleforce, I can give you a hand."

The supervisor made a bitter smile.

"Milord, please stop joking around. I'm already in my mid-forties. I was informed that people over 35 can no longer awaken their battleforce."

"That's a common misconception," Lorist retorted, "Ten years ago when I was studying at Morante, I heard that someone managed to awaken their battleforce at the age of 48. Naturally, it was also rumored that the man used lots of precious medicinal supplements to help him out. It no doubt cost a fortune, but if you desire to awaken your battleforce, I can definitely be of help. It'll take a while, however, at least three months and possibly even a whole year. It won't be easy, you'll have to change your habits and daily routine according to my instructions if you want to succeed. Do you wish to give it a try?" asked Lorist out of nowhere.

Camorra's expression turned glum. He was silent for a time before lowering his head

"Please show me the way."

"Very well," Lorist said as he took Camorra's pulse, "You've lived quite a harsh life in your childhood and that has caused the growth of your bone structure to be slightly stunted. In your youth, you toiled hard for most of your life, resulting in a rather weak foundation. However, your life improved markedly when you reached your middle years. Despite that, you did not slip and managed to keep healthy habits resolutely, though you do seem to be experiencing some anxiety and stress that has accelerated the loss of your hair, as well as a lack of good sleep. You wake up in the middle of the night and find it hard to go back to sleep, right?"

Camorra looked at Lorist like he was a ghost.

"Mi-milord... Y-you were able to diagnose my sleep condition j-just by taking my pulse?!" stammered he.

"Of course," Lorist said with a smile, "Actually, that part was a lie. I got to know about your sleeplessness simply by asking your guards. They saw the lights in your room lit every night as they did their rounds.

"Despite this, your physical condition is still passable, save for your anxiety that deprives you of good sleep. How about this, hand most of your tasks to your aide and take half a year off. During that time, attend the training camp with the new recruits so you can receive some military training. Make sure you only do half of each of the exercises, though. I'll also give you a set of prescriptions. Work and rest as the routine of the camp dictates. If you can do that, I am confident that you will have an 80 percent chance of awakening your battleforce. Now, go."

Camorra spent a while in deep thought before replying.

"Alright, Milord. I will do as you say."

Clapping his hands, Lorist said, "Alright. I've called you guys here today because I have something I need your help with. Els, don't just stand in the corner, come over here."

"Our house is growing more prosperous by the day, but we still have a major shortcoming: our intelligence network. When we stay in the northlands, we won't be informed about what happens in the outside world. But now that we have the route to Silowas, we have a window to the outside world. We can gather a lot of information now. Just recently we learned of the War of Glass and the second highness' attack on Frederika.

"Our news is still too out of date, however. The slow speed at which news travels to us puts the house at a serious disadvantage. I intend to remedy this situation. I'm going to set up a department with the sole purpose of gathering intelligence. I want to speed up the rate at which we receive news about the happening on the continent enough so that we will always have enough time to prepare and react to anything that concerns us. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

The three of them stayed quiet.

Camorra finally broke the silence after a while.

"Milord, are you saying you want to send spies to various regions to gather intelligence?"

Lorist nodded.

Tarkel smiled bitterly.

"Milord, that is difficult to do. Putting other things aside, just hiring and training the spies will cost us an incredible amount of money. The old empire had 29 provinces, each had a unit of spies infiltrated into the province's higher tiers of society. It requires a lot of money to do something like this."

Els gave it some thought.

"Milord, if it's just the house's dominion, I can promise you that nothing will escape our ears, just like how it was at Morante, but it's a whole different story outside the dominion. The chaos outside the dominion makes it hard for us to ensure the safety of our spies. It won't be worth it for them to lose their lives just for some reports.

Lorist shook his head and stood up.

"You are mistaken. The kind of spies I want is not the kind you're imagining. Currently, almost all spies on Grindia have to infiltrate high society as nobles and attend their parties and functions, hoping that they'll chance upon some valuable intelligence. Or, they would simply be free travelers who spend most of their time in taverns to gather information and report the presence of suspicious persons. That is not what I want."

"Tarkel, do you know why I was so interested in your skills when I met you that year in Geldos?" asked Lorist.

Shaking his head, Tarkel said, "Unfortunately not, Milord. That year, I didn't even think that I would ever break through to the silver rank. I was merely working for food and spending my life doing nothing but lazing around. I thought that the rest of my life would be the same. I didn't think that you would fancy me talented. Naturally, I am now very thankful for what you did back then. If you didn't force me to come along, I wouldn't be the knight I am today."

Lorist chuckled and said, "Did you know that it was your gossip that convinced me of your resourcefulness? I totally didn't expect that a normal guard like you would know Geldos like the back of your hand and answer any question I had for you. You told me everything. From who had a grudge against whom to what resources had arrived in the past two days and where they were stored, you knew it all! You were just a normal guard for a prison camp, not Count Cobry's chief supervisor! It was then that I realized that you're naturally talented as a spy. It was because of that realization that I forced you to follow me to the dominion.

"Surely you won't deny that you're naturally more curious than most, right? Tarkel, during the past two years, I have assigned you to work on more than ten different occasions. You had to do something different every time, yet you still adapted flawlessly and integrated into your new working environment without fail... You even build up quite the list of new friends and contacts. You would be swimming like a fish in water in your new environment in less than a month, not to mention your friendly relations with your colleagues. If I didn't know otherwise, I might have thought that you had been working each job for several years...

"This is the talent of which I speak. You are a natural spy, and you don't have a loose mouth either. Every time you move to a new workplace you start as a blank slate. Not a word of your previous job escapes your mouth. This is a quality I greatly admire.

"The department I am thinking of forming isn't one that will spy, but one that will simply gather intelligence. You can even call it the investigations department if you want. They will require some form of spies, yes, but they will be designated as 'intelligence operatives'.

"I believe there will be people at every place that know their base very well, just like you when you were working at Geldos. Tarkel, your mission is to scout them out and hire them. Make them into our intelligence operatives that will send us important information about the area.

"As for information from the noble circles, we don't have to get a person to mix with them. We can just bribe their servants and attendants. The information we get from them is sure to be more reliable and detailed. It's just like how Camorra paid off one of Count Kenmays's personal attendant that one time.

"I believe someone who qualifies to be an intelligence operative should have some sort of influence in their area. Look at tailors, inn owners, fishmongers, or even the commanders of garrisons. No one will suspect them of being informants, so they won't take note when they see them contacting our people. They'll be interacting as friends or acquaintances would.

"If nobody meets those criteria, we can train some ourselves. There are many of our house's soldiers who have retired because of some injury or other. If they are still willing to serve the family, we can train them to gather intelligence. Have them master a trade and move them back to their hometown where they can set up some kind of shop. Just like that, we'll have another source of information."

Lorist paused as he opened his drawer and took out a thick stack of beastskin documents.

"These are some thoughts I have concerning the intelligence and investigation department. Read this when you get back and tell me your opinions the next time we meet.

"My wish is for the three of you to be in joint command of this new department. Tarkel, you'll be responsible for the management and placement of our informants, Camorra, you will work on sorting and analyzing the reports, and Els, you'll be heading the operations department. You'll do 'fieldwork' and cooperate with Tarkel and do anything he requires."

"Operations department?" Els questioned, "What's that?"

Lorist made a cut-throat gesture and said, "During the selection process for informants, Tarkel might run into some deep trouble. Some local crime syndicates might try to interfere, some local hooligans might get int he way, or people our informants bear grudges against.

"Tarkel will compile a list of those that are obstacles to our operations and you will eliminate them. You can pick people to fill the positions from your guard brigade. For now, keep it small and have at most three squads of men."

"Understood, Milord," acknowledged Els.

"I'll be skipping out on the training camp, in that case, Milord. I must first finish the protocols for the organization of the reports for the department," said Camorra.

"No, your tasks are not that urgent. Just go to the training camp to prepare for your battleforce awakening. Take note of quick-witted recruits that are potential intelligence operative candidates as well. After you make sure they are of the reliable sort, have them transfer to the new department for training to form its foundations. We will send them out in the future as required. After all, Tarkel alone can't go everywhere to set up our intelligence-gathering facilities, can he?" said Lorist.

"This matter is not that urgent, we should take it step by step. I will be satisfied if we can have a preliminary intelligence network covering the former empire's territory set up within three years. The house will provide all the funds and resources you require. But before that, we still face one huge problem. How will the informants send their reports? Given the chaotic state of the lands, messengers traveling on horseback aren't that reliable, as Els has mentioned, they're relatively slow as well. By the time the news reaches us, it will already be out of date. Tell me, do you have any thoughts or suggestions?" asked Lorist.

"Milord, can we breed sea swallows on a large scale and use them to pass letters just like how ships at sea communicate?" asked Els.

"That won't do," Lorist said, shaking his head, "I've already asked Senbaud about this and according to him, sea swallows have too many limitations. Firstly, a sea swallow will have to be hatched and raised on the ship for it to treat it as its home. If we want it to travel to another ship, we must bring it there in a cage and release it so it can fly back to the ship it was hatched on. Also, the distance can't be too great. They'll be useless for trips greater than 35 kilometers."

"Milord, I've read in the books that the magi used owls and crows of some sort to transport letters. Perhaps we could experiment with them?" suggested Tarkel.

Rolling his eyes, Lorist said, "It's not like you're a magus. Do you know how to train them? Perhaps, there's some relic that contains information about it?"

Tarkel didn't say anything else.

"Milord, perhaps, we can use hen harriers to deliver letters," said Camorra.

"Hen harriers?"

"Yes, milord. I know an old hunter who happens to be know how to train hen harriers. I've seen him tie several types of medicinal ingredients to the claws of the birds and have them deliver it to his son's shop in a city 50-odd kilometers away," explained Camorra.

"Very well, have somebody ask around. If hen harriers can indeed be used for communication, we will begin breeding and training them en masse. The house is willing to invest a lot of money in this endeavor. Perhaps when we do have hen harriers that can deliver letters, the forces of the house can react more swiftly to sudden changes on the battlefield."

Lorist hoped sincerely that hen harriers proved useful. If they did, he had no qualms investing unlimited amounts of money.

"Milord, I have another question," Tarkel said, "What will this intelligence investigation department of ours be called?"

"A name? The KGB? The CIA? The NSA? How about the Stasi or the Gestapo? Maybe MI6?" Lorist mumbled the names of the intelligence agencies of Earth that were known to him as they flashed in his mind. None of them felt adequate, however, so he settled on an alternate phrase for 'Raging Bear' as pronounced in English.

"Furybear. We'll call it Furybear then."

Chapter 262 The First and Third Young Masters

On the 3rd day of the 5th month at the Union camp located at the frontline of the Teribo kingdom, President Cobleit freaked out and went on a rampage. Without caring about the onlookers, he began cursing loudly in his tent.

He wasn't cursing at the people in the tent, however, nor the troops that wouldn't listen to his orders, not even the enemy who defended the citadel opposite his camp. Teribo VII was not the target of any of his insults. He was actually cursing at his distant uncle, the famed and stubborn rank 3 blademaster, Duke Urubaha IV.

He's basically slapping me squarely in the face! All I wanted was the use of his forces to conquer the Teribo kingdom. I even offered him such a good deal, not only would I pay for the forces, he'd even receive a lot of benefits! But instead, he goes and pulls this!

It was no wonder that the president was bathed in such extreme fury. Two months earlier he had written a letter to the duke asking to employ the duchy's army. The Union was willing to pay handsomely for their use. The president considered the benefits and promised business with the Twinhead Dragon Merchant Guild offered to the Urubaha duchy reason enough for the latter to stand on the Union's side, even without the familial ties they shared.

In Urubaha IV's reply, he expressed his support for the Union's actions and emphasizes how he loathed Teribo VII's actions. He noted with regret, however, that one of his armies had already been rented and could, thus, only be given to the Union when they returned.

At the time, President Cobleit was incredibly happy with the response and even showed the letter off to the masses. The duchy's support lent further credence to the justice of their cause against the Teribo kingdom.

After forcing the four allied nations' army to leave, the president prepared to attack two more of the kingdom's commanderies. Their defenders retreated or surrendered without resistance, so the Union took the two commanderies over with ease.

However, just as the president was about to strike once more, to capture Teribo VII and conquer the rest of the kingdom in one go, his army - a ragtag bunch of nitwits - stopped following his orders and instead went raiding and looting for more riches.

Before he even had the chance to punish them for their insubordination, he received several distress calls. Some gold ranked swordsmen and some mercenaries had been captured or assassinated while they were out raiding. In barely any time at all, 14 more gold-ranked swordsmen and mercenaries became headless corpses. Their heads popped up in the Teribo kingdom shortly after in exchange for the rewards promised by its king.

With no other choice, President Cobleit launched another anti-assassination initiative and gathered up all the soldiers in the two commanderies. They all moved to the army's camp. It took him a month of hard work to reorganize the troops and implement new regulations. Only thereafter did he set out once more. The army hadn't even marched for two days, however, before they came upon a citadel blocking their path.

The president could have dealt with them using temptations or threat, had they been the kingdom's troops, but Teribo VII knew very well how unreliable his forces were and had hired another army to man the citadel. This army was none other than the one promised to the Union by the Urubaha duchy, the Crimson Legion.

The legion was rather small, at just 24 thousand men, but it was very well known, especially amongst the neighboring nations. They had been used to suppress many uprisings, had swept entire provinces clean of bandits, and had even helped the successor of a small kingdom regain his throne. They were famous for their loyalty, reliability, hardiness, and determination.

President Cobleit had wanted to hire one of the duchy's armies exactly because of this reputation. Other than that, they followed orders strictly and didn't charge much to employ: the legion only cost 100 thousand gold Fordes to rent each month. With a rented army that would obey all his orders, the president felt that he could keep the ragtag bunch in check while simultaneously showing them how a real army should behave.

Little did he know that the army he had wanted to hire had become his enemy's reinforcements and even stood right in his path. The surprise almost caused the president to spit out blood in anger.

Two days later, the truth of the matter was presented to President Cobleit. As he had expected, Teribo VII had offered Urubaha IV over three times the normal rate, he had paid 1 million gold Fordes for just three months of service. The offer was so irresistible that Urubaha IV didn't care for his promise to the president and the Union, and gladly took Teribo VII's side in the conflict.

The Crimson Legion had been ordered to defend the citadel to their last breath. Should the citadel fall, their men would perish too. In fact, the duke even hoped that this would be exactly what happens. His deal with Teribo VII stated that if he lost the legion, the king would pay an additional 5 million gold Fordes as reparations and he would replace all the lost military equipment. Human life was the least valuable thing in the duchy to the duke. It didn't matter how many soldiers he lost, he could always just recruit others to replace them.

The president cursed his uncle for being so unfaithful and greedy. If it was for money, the duke would ignore his family's pleas for help without reservation. The care the Twinhead Dragon Merchant Guild had shown to the duchy had also been conveniently forgotten.

No one in the tent tried to interfere, they all understood the president's troubles. Even though the Union had around 150 thousand troops that also had experience fighting defensive battles, it would be a long stretch to ask them to mount an assault. Asking them to conquer the citadel was akin to asking them to jump off a cliff. It was especially true given the Crimson Legion's reputation for being incredibly tenacious defenders.

Perhaps, the saying that 'the battlefield is the best place to learn' made sense. Should he actually force his men to attack the citadel? Even if he succeeded, he would suffer huge casualties. How many of his men would each of the Crimson Legion's soldiers kill before falling? They would definitely not surrender. They followed orders to the letter, and they had been ordered to hold the citadel or fall with it. Three per soldier? Four? Maybe even more? Would incurring such a huge loss just from attacking a citadel be worth it? The president knew that if he lost half his troops, he would lose the whole army. The rest would have no courage left and scatter.

But what would happen if he didn't attack? If he turned back, he would be the laughing stock of the entire continent, the general of 150 thousand soldiers defeated by 24 thousand in a citadel, and without a fight to boot. Rumors would spread quickly that he had chickened out in front of the legion, his reputation would be ruined. And yet he couldn't attack. The citadel's defenses had almost no flaws. The moment he launched an attack would be the moment the land would be submerged in a sea of blood and a field of corpses. If that happened, some would no doubt criticize the Union's war as nothing more than a millstone used to grind away at the smaller merchant guilds to keep the big-seven in power. There was no good way to deal with this!

President Cobleit's hatred for his uncle seeped into his bones. It was as if all past favors and their familial relation didn't matter in the face of money.

After a long sigh, he slumped back into his chair. Shortly after he realized there was still someone in the tent. It was the third young master of the Chikdor Merchant Guild, Serihanem.

"Oh? Why are you still here?" asked President Cobleit curiously.

Serihanem bowed respectfully and said, "President, I have an idea that might not require us to attack this citadel."

"Oh, what is it then?" asked the president, reinvigorated.

"Well, can we confirm that the only orders the Crimson Legion received were to defend the citadel itself?" asked Serihanem.

President Cobleit nodded.

"They have no orders to take offensive actions, right?" asked Serihanem in another effort to confirm the facts.

"None whatsoever," replied the president.

"Then it'll be simple. President, I would like to be sent to the citadel as an ambassador and meet with the legion's commander. Please give me permission to do so," requested Serihanem.

"What are your intentions?"

"Perhaps, we can help them reinterpret the definition of 'defending the place to their deaths'," said Serihanem, before he revealed a sly smile.

Two days later, the Union's 150-thousand-strong force bypassed the citadel and continued their assault. First young master Serihanem and the commander of the Crimson Legion stood at the citadel's gates and observed the Union's forces march westward.

"Thank you, Commander Seria. I must tell you once more how grateful the Chikdor Merchant Guild is to you. Perhaps, we will be able to have another chance for cooperation," said Serihanem sincerely.

Commander Seria of the Crimson Legion was a rather bulky man in his forties. He was also a two-star-gold-ranked knight.

He shrugged his shoulders and said, "There's no need for you to be that thankful. We're only acting with our own interests in mind. Just like you said, nobody actually wants to die, and neither do I want to see the young lads in my legion sacrificed for no good reason. Also, we didn't disobey any orders by doing this. We did in keep the citadel secure and didn't let it fall into your hands. As for your circling around the citadel, that has nothing to do with me. It's not that I received an order that required me to prohibit your troops from doing so."

On the 11th day of the 5th month, the Union's forces successfully passed around the citadel defended by the Crimson Legion to continue their invasion. Teribo VII lost his cool the moment he received the news. He hurriedly offered more money to the neighboring nations to send reinforcements and sent some men to find out what the heck the Crimson Legion was up to.

All Commander Seria did, was bring up the orders he had received. He responded proudly that he had managed to keep the citadel from falling into the hands of the enemy, and that he didn't violate any orders he received at all. As for where the troops of the Union had gone, they were none of his concern and not what he was responsible for.

Teribo VII was infuriated when he heard received the commander's response. He wrote a letter to Urubaha IV. As a result, Urubaha IV mobilized his other army-for-rent, the Tricolor Sword Legion, to the kingdom to stand with the four allied nations' army, officially taking the kingdom's side. And so began yet another stalemate that lasted for three more months. As for what transpired after that, that's a topic for another time.

......

On the 14th day of the 5th month at the Hanayabarta kingdom's port city of Nupite, more than 30 vessels belonging to the Chikdor Merchant Guild anchored. Countless badly-dressed slave youths could be seen busy moving cargo around like trails of ants.

One of the aged slaves slipped and fell. The cubic parcel he had been carried smashed into the ground. The crisp sound of something breaking rang out. The slaves around him looked at the scene with terror and quickly left the area, lest they be involved in the trouble that was to come.

The slave who'd slipped sat on the ground and revealed a cathartic smile on his face. Quickly, a few angry-looking men rushed over and pinned him to the ground. One of them tugged on his hair while another swung with his sword. Head and body separated. Blood fountained from the slave's bare neck.

"What a merciful end for an animal like him. What a clean and painless death!" the leader of the group said before he spun the parcel around and saw the marking on it.

He cursed, "This is something that belongs to Master Wazk! Dammit! We'll be reprimanded for this again... He might even force us to reimburse him, this is going to be expensive! Cursed slave, have a few of them come over and impale the head on a stake! And toss that filthy corpse into the ocean!"

It was a common site for the Chikdor Merchant Guild's men. This kind of thing happened quite often in this country built on slaves and was nothing to marvel at.

Within a luxurious building in Nupite, the third young master of the Chikdor Merchant Guild, Moribak, was receiving the local lord's hospitality. He was accompanied by more than ten other slave owners and traders ranked at the top of the port's hierarchy.

The fleet had started their journey on the 12th day of the 4th month. They had first stopped at the Shyarsia kingdom to purchase half a year's worth of spice and sell some of their own goods, before heading to Nupite. They had already been traveling for about a month and Moribak felt incredibly worn out. He had no choice but to stay energized the best he could to deal with these influential slave owners and traders.

The slave traders, their mouths loosened by the alcohol, complained about the difficulties of their business over the last year and how their 'stock' had been than satisfactory.

Moribak asked curiously, "What's causing such a huge change in the slave trading business?"

There were many different responses from the different traders but they all had one thing in common - the sudden rise to power of Second Highness Auguslo.

One of the slave traders began to tell his story of the better days of the past.

"During the years when the empire was embroiled in civil war, the nobles of the former empire were extremely welcoming to us and treated us like princes. Those nobles were more than happy to sell their captives, disobedient folk, and refugees to us. Back then, a young captive only cost one small silver. If we put ourselves through a little trouble, we could even hire mercenaries to capture the refugees to be traded for one gold coin after another..."

"That's right. It's a shame that the war ended too soon. It only lasted seven years! Sigh." another trader complained, "But even so, business was still good back then. There were many nobles who wanted to deal with us. We easily transported the goods from the Redlis kingdom to the Lormo duchy and each trip would net us a few thousand gold Fordes.

"To think that the Redlis kingdom's king, the first prince of the former empire, would actually be defeated by his nephew, the second highness of the Andinaq kingdom, and be forced to cede two provinces to his nephew. Our trade route through the two provinces has been cut off."

"Do the first prince and the second highness not want to deal with slaves?" asked Moribak.

"Third young master, you don't understand. The three princes have different attitudes towards the slave trade. The second prince, the king of the Iblia kingdom, for example, doesn't support slavery on the surface but allows it to continue in secret. He's the one that was the easiest with whom to strike a deal. Naturally, we didn't forget to give him some benefits for his cooperation. Back then, we could sell slaves in broad daylight within the borders of his kingdom.

"The first prince, on the other hand, is different. He would simply play dumb. Occasionally though, he would send his soldiers to demand a generous donation from us. Every time we pass through his territory, it's as if our skins are being scraped clean. Even though we did profit, the margin was very low.

"The worst one is the second highness. Back then, he was still rather amiable after the third prince became bedridden. There was once an occasion where we docked at Jillin Harbor of the Andinaq kingdom with the slaves we got from the Iblia kingdom. We were only fined a small amount of money after we were discovered. But after the second highness came to power, we were in deep trouble the moment we were captured by the kingdom's troops. Offenders would be beheaded without question. The second highness even claimed that his people weren't goods to be traded.

"I think that there's something wrong with his head. His people are starving and barely surviving. At least they would be able to continue living as slaves. People don't want to deal with Second Highness Auguslo only because of his 300 thousand soldiers. He'd rather have the three to four hundred thousand refugees at the two provinces near the southwest starve to death than allow them to sell themselves into slavery. If we had gotten our hands on those slaves, we'd have profited greatly!

"Wasn't Durik going to head to the southwestern provinces and trick the refugees there to come with us? He pretended to be a merchant from Morante and managed to gather around 1000 people, only to be exposed as a slave trader and hanged along with his attendants."

"Oh, third young master, has the second highness begun fighting with the first prince? I hope that we'll be able to reap some profit when they enter a stalemate," said another slave trader.

"Sigh, stop dreaming. When I left Morante, I heard that the second highness had successfully crossed the Cloudsnap Mountain Range to ambush Frederika. The first prince was forced to escape haggardly. I suspect that by the time I make it back, I will receive word of the Redlis kingdom's extermination. With the second highness having so much power, it's best if you don't get your slaves there," said Moribak.

At the same time, he told the slave traders and owners of his original northern strategy.

"It's a shame that the plans won't be executed now. My guild's higher-ups are terrified of the count just because of the loss of one rank 2 blademaster and 3000 other soldiers... Now that the whole political climate has shifted, there's no more hope left."

Most of what Moribak said flew in one ear of the slave traders and out the other, however.

One of them asked, "Third young master, you mentioned that this House Norton is undertaking huge development efforts and even brought more than 50 thousand refugees to their island?"

"That's right. That bastard no longer has to fear my clan's attack on Silowas. So, he gathered up around 60 thousand refugees from the two southwestern provinces and began developing the island," mumbled Moribak before he passed out from the alcohol's influence.

Chapter 263 Research and Improvements

It was the 18th day of the 5th month. Lorist was at the house's heavily-guarded glass factory at Morgan Hills. He instructed a smith to fit two lenses that had just finished being polishing onto two separate holders. Even though there was already a detailed blueprint, a lot of effort had to be spent modifying the design before Lorist's requirements were met.

Two shiny telescopes, one larger than the other, were finally in Lorist's hands. The old smith, whose face was incredibly wrinkled, was surprised that Lorist didn't allow him to make detailed engravings on the telescopes. He thought that Lorist didn't want to indulge him in showing off his workmanship.

After Lorist messed about with the two for a while, he passed the telescopes to Master Mancheny and said, "Look, this is the telescope I was talking about."

Master Mancheny mimicked Lorist's movements and let out gasps from time to time.

"Do you see it now? That's what I was talking about when I referred to the real use of glass. The telescope is only one of the many possible applications of glass. We can polish oil glass until it becomes a lens. You'll have to hire some people to be put in charge of the polishing and find ways to standardize the process. Even the smallest variations in the production process can result in massive changes to the final product. The magnifying glass I drew on that blueprint there, for example, can help others see small objects. And this one, what I call 'glasses', can help old people, like this fine smith here, who have trouble seeing clearly. With these glasses, they'll be able to see just as good as they could during their prime even with their weakening eyes."

Mancheny bowed respectfully to Lorist and said, "Milord, I am really proud that I can be of service to you. You have expanded my horizons and allowed me to see the greater realm that I could never have to imagined exist..."

Smiling, Lorist replied, "Flattery will get you nowhere. You just need to do your job well. Your next assignment will be rather important. The production of oil and green class right now is enough and there's no need to increase it since we're not going to use it for trade. We only need enough to meet our demand. The important things you have to focus on are the telescope, glasses, and magnifying glass. These products will allow our house to profit infinitely from their trade.

"For now, your most important focus is research into and experimentation with clear glass. You've already seen the glasses I fashioned with clear crystals. Once we finish our research into clear glass, the gold coins will flow to us incessantly. While the transparency of oil glass isn't bad, it's frictionless. It's a bad choice of material for mirrors. That's why I want you to continue experimenting with other combinations of ingredients to come up with the clear glass I mentioned.

"Also, I want you to try and increase the surface area of each glass sheet you make. If it can be achieved, we can use green glass to make greenhouses so that we can eat fresh vegetables during winter. Other than that, play around with making daily cutlery and other products with glass - teapots and cups as well as bowls and plates. All of those will bring profit to the house.

"The main reason I'm leaving the glass factory in your care is so that you have somewhere to put your ideas and creativity on full display. Try your best to reveal the mysteries of this magnificent material. Be it funds or manpower, we'll do our best to meet your demands. Don't worry about whether embarking on a path of research is worth it or not. Even if it fails, we'll learn from the mistakes and change our approach. In that sense, a failure is also beneficial to us, understand?"

Master Mancheny bowed thankfully to Lorist again and said, "Milord, please be assured that I will carry out your will. The experiments will be initiated as soon as possible. I will definitely not disappoint you."

Nodding, Lorist said, "For the next few days, do make me a few of these telescopes. Make sure to number them properly; I'll be distributing them to the forces of the house, especially the Oceanic Legion. In another two days, I'll be going to Ironforge castle, and I'll have to take a few with me. Do send me those when you're finished making them."

"Yes, Milord."

Howard came over with a reported just as Lorist exited the room.

"Milord, Old Man Balk has come to meet you. It seemed incredibly urgent."

While Balk did look impatient, his face was filled with joy.

"Milord, the paper you wanted has finally been made! Take a look and see if this is what you specified."

Balk took out a waterproof canister made of beastskin and copper from his back and took out a piece of paper which he promptly unrolled.

The paper in Lorist's hands greatly resembled the kraft paper in his previous life. It wasn't white, but instead, light-brown in color. It also had a smooth surface that felt a little bit oily.

After feeling the paper for a bit, he had Howard bring over some ink and a feather pen. He scribbled rows of words on the paper and drew a few lines.

"This is rather good. The ink dries fast on it too. The only problem is that this paper isn't white enough. Old Man Balk, tell me how you suddenly managed to come up with this," Lorist said satisfied.

"It was by accident. It was purely due to an accident," Balk said with a grin, "Milord, as we weren't making any progress whatsoever during our experiments, most of the paper produced was used as toilet wipes. The demand for toilet wipes is quite high, so it was the ideal way to make back some of the money we spent on our research.

"At noon a few days ago, one of the workers bought a huge piece of butter. He left it by the stove we used to make the paper to deal with something urgent. The butter melted from the heat and flowed into the stove without anyone noticing. When we used the mixture to make toilet paper, as usual, we realized that the product was not the soft toilet paper we were used to seeing, but rather, this smooth paper with a harder texture.

"After some investigation, we found that it was caused by the addition of butter. So, we ran several other tests with other types of oils and. This is the result. It's also the cheapest of all our products thus far. We estimate 15 pieces of paper like this will cost around only 1 copper, less than 3 coppers if you include manpower costs."

Lorist was jubilant at his streak of luck. They had not only successfully completed the production of the telescope but had also made a magnificent breakthrough in paper-making. Despite the breakthrough, he made yet another request of Balk.

"Howard, write this down for me. As a reward for developing this new type of paper, Old Man Balk will get 100 gold Fordes, everyone else with contributions will be awarded ten gold Fordes each. Balk, I want you to run several more tests with bleaches, whiteners, and even medicinal herbs to try to whiten the paper. Also, try to make the sheets a little thinner. Only then can it be a staple export.

"Also, ensure that the method and ingredients used to make paper remain a secret. Howard, help me pass this order to Potterfang: 'Have all the soldiers of our dominion who retired due to old age form a new police unit that will be put in charge of the defense of the glass factory and the paper factory. Make sure our secret is kept at all costs.'"

"Understood, Milord. I will have the guards pass the order on immediately," replied Howard.

......

On the 21st day of the 5th month, Lorist traveled to the Bladedge Mountains, to a heavily-guarded valley where the gunpowder facility was located. Professor Balbo, whom Lorist had kidnapped was doing his research there.

"Lord Count, I don't really understand why you regard gunpowder so highly. Perhaps, there are some applications for it in the military, but other than that, I really can't see how it can be useful. Even though the dwarves have already had gunpowder for more than a thousand years, they haven't found any other application for it apart from its use in guns," questioned the professor the moment they met.

He handed the recipe he considered the most effective gunpowder mix to date to Lorist.

Lorist laughed but didn't respond to the professor's queries. After taking a look at the recipe, he crossed the egg white off of the list.

"Without egg white, gunpowder won't be able to harden. It'll be less effective that way," the professor objected.

"There's no need for egg white, nor is there a need for hardening. Gunpowder is most effective if it can be made into pellets," said Lorist.

He proceeded to pinch the gunpowder into pellet form in front of the suspicious professor before leaving them out to dry.

After two days, Lorist brought with him two small metal cylinders and packed them with gunpowder pellets. He installed fuses on the cylinders before placing them in a hole drilled into the wall of a nearby cavern. Finally, he lit the fuses.

A few moments later, a loud bang blasted into the air as the surrounding rocky structures shook. One boulder after another was shaken loose and fell off the cliff. When the dust in the distance settled, the facade of the cliff further away had completely changed. Half of it appeared completely shaven off, with much debris to be seen stacked up at its foot like a small hill.

"Look, professor, this is the true feat gunpowder is capable of. We can greatly increase our mining efficacy with gunpowder. The building of roads, bridges, and even houses also improve greatly. They will all require far less manpower and time. As for the military application, you'll get to see that for yourself in another two days. A brand new powerful long-range weapon will finally appear on the face of Grindia," said Lorist gleefully.

"What will it be?" mused the professor curiously.

Lorist merely smiled and left.

......

A citadel was built at the entrance to the valley where the house's refinery was located. It was meant to secure the area and keep the existence of the refinery a secret and to provide a comfortable environment for Grandmaster Sid and his skilled subordinates. Lorist casually named the place Ironforge castle after its completion. On the 23rd day of the 5th month, Lorist paid it a visit.

"Milord, the 17 sets of highly-decorated armor have been shipped to Silowas. I have also drawn a few more designs of various armaments, as per your request. All of them are slightly weaker in defense compared to the Whitelion Legion's equipment, but look incredibly grand. The price ranges from around 80 to 120 gold Fordes," reported Sid the moment he saw Lorist.

"I never have to worry about the things you're working on, Grandmaster. Since you're the most-informed person in this field, I trust that all your decisions are made with the benefits of the house in mind," said Lorist as he nodded to show his praise.

Grandmaster Sid also seemed to be in a good mood as he walked with a slight skip in his step.

"Milord, I have already come up with some preliminary designs for your wheelbarrow ballista. There are 24 prototypes made so far on the other side of this wall."

The 24 different prototypes of wheelbarrow ballistae were arranged neatly in two rows. The steel parts of the ballistae shone brightly under the sun's gaze.

Lorist got closer to take a look and found that the wheelbarrows were made from steel and wood. The sturdiest part seemed to be their axles. He lifted one up by the handles and pushed it around and found that it not only did not take much energy to move around but that it was also easy to control.

Sid began his introduction, "Milord, your wheelbarrow design is truly revolutionary. Never has there been a vehicle that could be moved by a single person. Not only can it carry a lot of weight, it's also convenient and easy to use. In the future, we can even use these for treks over mountains. Milord, should we produce these wheelbarrows by themselves for sale in the future?"

Smiling, Lorist said, "Of course. But you must remember that the wheelbarrows will only sell if they are cheap and can endure extensive use. Are the capabilities of the ballistae affected when installed on the wheelbarrows?"

Shaking his head, Sid replied, "No, there's no effect whatsoever, Milord. Some time ago, Sir Dulles brought a regiment of 500 men to try out the wheelbarrows. They said that firing from the wheelbarrow felt more stable than firing from a carriage, and their movement wasn't restricted by the carriage sides either. In the past, they sometimes had to work together to aim and fire the ballistae properly. But that restriction is no more."

"Then, does Dulles feel that each wheelbarrow ballista requires five people to operate?" asked Lorist.

"He does. One will push from the back and two others will pull from the front. The other two will be in charge of guarding the unit. They can even switch roles if required. Sir Dulles feels that this arrangement is ideal. The only shortcoming of the wheelbarrow is that it has to be held down when firing because it is far too light to endure the recoil," explained Sid.

"Very well. Prepare a division's worth of wheelbarrow ballistae for Dulles. That fellow is getting impatient to be a division commander. Howard, write this down: 'Have Malek arrange for half the troops of the carroballista division to join Dulles's new wheelbarrow-ballista division. Have the new recruits fill up the vacancies.'"

"Yes, milord," said Howard.

Grandmaster Sid stepped in front of Lorist and interjected, "Milord, please wait. Did you not notice anything different about this ballista?"

Huh? Lorist looked at the ballista and thought, it doesn't look that different...

Upon taking a closer look, he suddenly noticed something and said, "Grandmaster, this ballista seems smaller than the original ones... It is, isn't it?"

Chuckling, Sid said, "Milord, that's one part, but there's more. Look at this bolt. Even though it's also made of iron, it's half as light as the old ones we used. As a result, the ballista is far stabler when it fires, and thus more accurate."

"You managed to improve it that much? Then again, would the smaller size effect it's firing range?" asked Lorist hesitantly.

Sid shrugged.

"Milord is mistaken to think the effective firing range is 300 meters. The bolt can indeed fire out to 300 meters, but it is completely useless at that range. It can only reach that far if it's fired in an arc, which makes it impossible to aim it accurately. The important range is the range it can reach when fired in a straight line. After countless experiments we determined that range to be about 80 meters.

"When we first realized this, we were just as surprised. So, we looked to Sir Pete of the mounted archers unit for help. He brought a squad of mounted archers to help us with our experiments. In the end, we also debunked the myth that gold-ranked knights would be threatened by an arrow fired from less than a hundred meters away.

"Naturally, a divine marksman like Josk is an exception to the rule. All the bowmen would acknowledge that even though they can aim properly up to 60 meters away, targets outside the 100-meter range seem smaller than a thumb. So, the bowmen would raise their sights slightly higher before firing. In essence, the projectiles they fired also travel in arcs.

As for the ballista operators, they are unable to even see a target clearly from 300 meters away. The main threat they pose to the enemy is by relying on a dense volley of ballista bolts fired in the enemy's general direction. So, please don't worry, Milord. The reduction in the size of the ballista is due to the better materials we used in its construction. Its power is not affected in the slightest."

"I see. So, who was the one who made the new bow frames?" asked Lorist.

After receiving such a lengthy lecture from the grandmaster, he finally roughly understood how ballistics.

I guess he does have a point. A human 100 meters away looks no bigger than a pea. Be it longbows or ballistae, they are only able to pose a threat to the enemy because of the density of their volleys. While accuracy does play a part, luck is the main factor when it comes to hit rate.

"Milord, did you forget about Old Julian? After he was appointed as the person-in-charge of the steel ballista factory, he has been contemplating how he can make better material for the ballistae. After a few years of trial and error, he finally succeeded. When Grandmaster Fellin and I went to test it out, we found that this new ballista frame is far superior to the ones we were using. So, we submitted a proposal to switch out the old frames for the new ones. We have yet to receive a reply," said Grandmaster Sid.

"Oh, also, you had someone send me a design for a copper barrel called a 'cannon' some time back. I left the task of designing it to old Julian and it's already complete. Do you want to go check it out, milord? I wonder, what could such a heavy barrel be used for? Also, what does the word 'cannon' even refer to?"

Chapter 264 Firearms, War News, and the Nightmare

On the 34th day of the 5th month, thunderous roars resounded at the Professor Balbo's research facility near the Bladedge Mountains. The roars of the cannons continually echoed throughout the valley.

Wearing shocked expressions on their faces, Lorist, the dust-covered Grandmaster Sid, Professor Balbo, Grandmaster Fellin, as well as old Julian, whose status had been elevated to that of a grandmaster's, Howard, and ten other guards who had just emerged from the trenches, approached the cannon that was located about 20 meters away carefully.

Lorist realized that he had underestimated the production standards of this alternate world. About ten days earlier, he had just visited Julian with Grandmaster Sid to check out the cannon barrel designed based on his drawings. He found that Julian had fashioned 12 of the barrels for him in less than a month. Grandmaster Sid said that fashioning those barrels was actually one of the crudest tasks available to their craft. It amounted to nothing more than practice exercises. The truly hard part of smithing lay with the use of stainless steel.

Lorist laughed bitterly at the statement. The stainless steel Sid referred to was produced through the hammering of materials nonstop using the water-powered machines. Without a proper heat-resistant furnace, there was no way that those water-powered machines could be used to make those cannon barrels.

In his past life, Lorist had been the manager of a small workshop. He wasn't trained in metallurgy, nor did he know anything about cannons. However, one of his workshop's products was a miniature bronze cannon roughly the size of a palm which he used as a glamorous paperweight in his office. The miniature cannon wasn't cast in a mold but made on a lathe instead.

Back then, Lorist was quite intrigued by the cannon model in his office. He wondered why old bronze cannons didn't use steel as their material instead. After looking up an article on an online encyclopedia, he realized the ingenuity of the ancients. Their reasoning behind the use of bronze for cannons was simple and ingenious: durability and low cost. Naturally, Lorist couldn't recall the specific figures. The only impression left behind in his mind was that at a time when industrial standards were still not set, using bronze was the ideal choice.

Fortunately, given the realism of the cannon model, which had been made to scale, it was rather easy for Lorist to replicate the design. He could even recall the various relative measurements of the little plaything.

With the designs Lorist provided him, Old Julian had fashioned a total of twelve bronze cannons just like that.

Upon closer inspection, however, five of the cannons had eliminated from testing. The surface of the barrel's inside was uneven. Lorist had some workers sand down the remaining seven and prepared proper mounts for them before having some of Professor Balbo's gunpowder brought over from the valley.

That day marked the first firing test. Their target was a cliff roughly 400 meters away. An instant after the guns fired, smoke billowed from the cliffside and rocks, shaken loose from the shockwave in the ground, disappeared into the plumes of smoke.

"Good Lord Singwa... Aren't... aren't these basically magic-crystal cannons?" mused Professor Balbo, shocks as he observed the devastation.

"Magic-crystal cannons?" asked Lorist.

It was the first time he heard of something like that.

"Milord, I've read some records that were made during the time of the magic civilization. In them were mentions of the sky fleets left behind by ancient gnomes that were discovered by the magi. The magi re-engineered and improved on a long-range weapon fueled by magic crystals, hence its name. A single shot was enough to demolish a whole mountain. It's said that the strongest magic-crystal cannons could even strike down the stars. When the war with the gods began, the cannons were transported to the realm of the gods and were initially able to triumph over them. They killed one god after another. However, given the slow reload speed and the limited reaction of the cannons, the magic-crystal cannon troops were wiped out by gods' armies in the end," explained Professor Balbo.

"Oh, is that so? Well, our cannons aren't comparable to those that use magic crystals. The cannons we have rely purely on the explosive force of the gunpowder to propel their projectiles outward. There's no way they can rival those mythical weapons," said Lorist as he thought about how much more impressive those cannons must have been.

"Milord, cannons number one to three have normal temperatures, they are just a little warm to the touch. Their positions haven't changed either. Cannons number five to six are much hotter. Number 6 has the highest temperature and it's shifted roughly 12 centimeters. A small crack has also appeared on cannon number seven and it's much hotter. Even the cannon mount has slanted to the left," reported the guard.

He recorded his observations on a piece of beastskin. Old Julian's face was slightly flushed with embarrassment. The first test fire had revealed many flaws in the cannons he had fashioned.

Lorist said with a smile, "Grandmaster Julian, this is not your fault. We are testing the amount of gunpowder we require. Cannon number seven used almost double the gunpowder of number one. The fact that it only got a crack without blowing up entirely is already a testament to the quality of your work."

Lorist instructed his guards to clean up the cannons and continue the tests. This time, they tested the cannons one by one to find the optimal amount of gunpowder and record the distance and strength of the shots, as well as the time it took the cannons to cool off and their durability when used continuously. They also attempted to find the most number of times a cannon could be used.

After a few more tests, Lorist brought the few grandmasters back to the resting hall and let the guards continue with their tests.

The roar of cannon fire didn't disrupt their conversation whatsoever. Lorist paid attention to the others in the hall. Professor Balbo seemed to have something on his mind, whilst Julian seemed quite excited. He had no idea that something of his making would be so powerful, so his excitement was understandable. Sid, on the other hand, looked quite shocked and jumpy. Perhaps, he thought the cannons to be his new toy with which he could have lots of fun doing researching. Grandmaster Fellin, in contrast to the previous two, had a pale look on his face.

"What',s wrong, Grandmaster Fellin?" asked Lorist concerned.

Fellin replied in a disheartened tone, "Milord, with the existence of cannons, ballistae will no longer be relevant anymore... Be it range or power, cannons far surpass ballistae. The cannons will only improve as time goes on, whereas the development of ballistae is already nearing its apex. I believe that a grandmaster arbalest like me will no longer be needed and cannons replace ballistae entirely... I will no longer be able to contribute to the house..."

Oh, so that's why... realist Lorist.

Lorist consoled patted his shoulder lightly.

"Things aren't that simple, Grandmaster Fellin. Ballistae and catapults are cold arms while cannons are firearms. They are fundamentally different weapons. You're a grandmaster in cold weapons and it is my belief that the ballistae you manufacture are at the apex of ballista technology. There are none who can surpass you. However, when it comes to cannons, everyone here is a beginner. All of us are starting at the same level with the same knowledge. In future research on explosives, we will still require your craftsmanship to make delicate parts. Don't worry, the house is proud to have a grandmaster like you in our service."

Cold arms? Fire arms? Explosives?

With his interest piqued, the grandmaster asked, "Milord, why do you categorize them as such? And what are explosives? Do they refer to the cannons?"

Lorist explained, "Weapons like the steel ballistae and catapults mainly rely on the elasticity of metal plates to launch projectiles. As the mechanism works based on the weapon's construction itself, I categorized them as cold arms.

"On the other hand, we have cannons which use the energy derived from the explosion caused by gunpowder to propel its projectile outward. This bronze cannon directs the energy from the explosion into the projectile within the barrel to shoot it out. The cannon itself doesn't have any firing capability of its own. That's why I consider weapons that use gunpowder explosive weapons, which is a subcategory of firearms. Naturally, that is just a rough grouping I've personally decided to use."

Lorist gestured for them to sit down at the table and said, "I'm sure that all of you have gotten a close look at these cannons firing. However, there is still much testing to be done. I would like to set up a research panel on explosives comprised of those present. First, complete the testing and manufacturing standards of these cannons. Make sure each cannon fires in a predictable and reliable manner. For example, you can install some sights on the cannons to aid with aiming and so on. Make sure to finish this as soon as possible.

"The current situation the house is in is rather dire. Fortunately for us, the Chikdor Merchant Guild changed their minds about taking Silowas because of the war. For now, focus on developing these cannons. As for Grandmaster Julian, arrange for a batch of these cannons to be manufactured. I am going to install them on my warships. Only then can we ensure that the dominion and the seas of our house won't be infringed upon by others."

Lorist clapped his hands to signal Howard to enter. He came into the room with a small box which held a dwarven firearm.

"This is the renowned gun made by the dwarves. It functions more or less the same as our cannons. It also uses gunpowder to propel its projectile, a lead bullet in this case. According to Professor Balbo, the gunpowder the dwarves make is not going to improve anytime soon. The professor's current formula is far better than the dwarves' and also costs quite a lot less to make, much to his credit."

After giving the professor some lip service, he instructed Howard to hang up a few diagrams on the wall and continued.

"These are two gun designs I drew based on the dwarves' gun. This one is a long-barreled rifle and this one a revolving handgun, we'll call it a revolver. I have also detailed the parts and their measurements. However, the measurements are only based on my estimation and may require some testing and fine-tuning."

The two guns Lorist designed were hammer-action flintlocks, but their hammers were not as ridiculous as the one made by the dwarves, namely, it didn't have a winged-dragon on it. The dwarven guns used a winding mechanism which would jam 3 to 4 out of 10 times. The flintlock design Lorist used was based on using flint and metal to strike on the projectile to make it fire. He wasn't sure whether the grandmasters could make them, however.

The main problem that could arise from the production of the revolver was that of the cartridges, the barrel, and the percussion cap's production. While he was confident that his smiths could make the cartridges and barrel with a little more effort, the percussion cap wasn't going to be that easy. So, he left the problem for Professor Balbo to solve.

Professor Balbo was put in charge of researching percussion caps and scattershot ammo for the cannons while he was at it. Grandmasters Sid and Julian would work together to find the ideal material to be used for the construction of the guns as well as think up ways to improve the cannons when they were not focusing on their main task. As for Grandmaster Fellin, whose craftsmanship was top-notch, he was placed in charge of making the individual parts for the guns.

Having finished assigning his tasks, Lorist left the valley in a relaxed mood.

On the 2nd day of the 6th month, Lorist returned to Firmrock castle. Supervisor Spiel hurriedly brought over two large stacks of documents which Lorist had to be informed of or sign. Lorist had no choice but to start taking care of the piled-up paperwork, despite his hefty sighs.

After knocking on the door, Howard entered and said, "Milord, these are some documents we received from Silowas, as well as Knight Lundmorde's first correspondence ever since he moved to Morante. Within is a report on the state of the conflict between as well as the second highness's conquests in the Redlis kingdom."

Energized, Lorist said, "Let me take a look."

Lundmorde had left for Morante in the beginning of the 4th month with his three wives to open a herbalist clinic which treated women and children. His clinic would double as an information gathering center at Morante for the house. It seemed that he had gotten used to life there pretty quickly, given that his report was sent within his first two months there.

In the letter, he described briefly his journey. After the description was an update on the conflict between the two nations: yet another stalemate had begun. This time around, it was between the forces of the seven neighboring nations, who numbered around 100 thousand and were stationed at Feyers, and the 150-thousand-strong Union forces. The Morante Daily reported that the war might not end until Teribo VII's treasury was exhausted.

As for Second Highness Auguslo, he had encountered a huge problem at the Redlis kingdom. The nobles of Anderwoff weren't the least bit intimidated by his 100 thousand soldiers. He was forced to deploy for an attack. He marched on the province only to be fended off by the nobles who used the terrain to their advantage. The second highness had lost one battle after another. Eventually, the two divisions that had surrendered to the second highness revolted. In the end, only 40 thousand soldiers of the second highness' original 100 thousand survived. It was even said that the second highness vomited blood in rage.

Lorist snickered as he read the report. The longer the two wars dragged on, the better it would be for House Norton. He wouldn't mind if they kept on going for another 8 or 10 years.

Putting Lundmorde's letter aside, Lorist began reading one of the letters from Silowas. The letter of more than ten pages had been penned by Charade. He reported everything that happened down to the minutest detail.

The first shipment of fur had already been delivered to the Peterson Merchant Guild. Five hundred thousand of the gold Fordes had been sent to the dominion. The rest was used to pay off the 500 thousand kilograms of food from the guild for use during the development of the island.

Other than that, Charade and the guild had come to an agreement. He provided the samples for the 17 different sets of glamorous armor that were on sale and a catalog to the guild so that they could collect orders for them when they got back to Morante. Naturally, the guild requested a ten percent commission on the sales they made and he had agreed. He stressed that it was a win-win for both parties. The added incentive would only encourage the merchant guild to collect as many orders as possible, while House Norton could hide behind their backs and not become anybody's targets.

The next report was about the foraging for resources at Silowas. Grandmaster Sid's eldest son Delokua had brought a group of people to the volcanic areas of Silowas to survey the land. In the two short months they had been conducting their survey, they already had good results to report. They had discovered seven different mineable resources on the island thus far. Iron and silver deposits were especially prevalent. They also believed that they would discover more resources as their survey progressed. Charade added that he had decided he would use the laborers to extract the resources when the development was complete.

Finally, Charade made a few minor complaints and told Lorist about his father who was making his way to the Northlands at the moment. Charade's father was going to buy a house and start a shop at the new port city and Charade hoped that Lorist would look out for him.

Lorist penned his reply immediately. He asked Charade to pack up and prepared to return. Coincidentally, Lorist was going to head to the shipyard at Bullhorn Bay to check on the construction of their new sail-powered warship and arrange for cannon-operation training for the sailors.

Lorist was busy for the rest of the 6th month.

One day at the end of the 6th month, Howard barged in and exclaimed, "Milord, milord, it's horrible! Silowas had been attacked!"

Chapter 265 Assault from the Hanayabarta Kingdom

On the 33rd day of the 6th month, a damaged ship covered in arrows and ram marks could be seen, at Bullhorn Bay. The battered Flying Fish of Dawn docked at the port and, after the walking plank was lain down, injured people disembarked. Freiyar and Patt were carried by a few injured marines off of the ship.

Lorist stepped forward. He breathed a sigh of relief after taking a closer look. Although the two's injuries were serious, they were not in any mortal danger. Perhaps it was because they had received emergency treatment very quickly after being injured.

Freiyar was injured, a physical shock had caused his internal organs to shift ever so slightly and bleed profusely. According to the marines by their side, he spat out lots of blood and shouldn't recover in less than three months. Patt, on the other hand, had been pierced through his lower abdomen by a sword. It had struck right through him and burst out of his back. Fortunately, his spinal cord wasn't damaged, but he would still be out of commission for half a year.

Captain Wilson stepped off the ship and saluted Lorist. He had also been injured during his trip as was apparent from the turban-like bandage he wore on his head.

With a cold voice, Lorist asked, "Is this the work of the Chikdor Merchant Guild?"

Captain Wilson smiled bitterly and shook his head slowly. "I don't know, Milord. To be honest, I don't have a clear idea who it was that attacked Silowas. But I'm sure they aren't people from the guild. The enemy seemed like pirates of some sort, but I have no idea what kind of pirate force would be as big as they were. They had around three to four hundred ships..."

"That many?"

"That's right, Milord. I also initially thought that we were being attacked by the Chikdor Merchant Guild, since only they could plausibly mobilize so many ships against us. But when we clashed something felt weird. Many of the ships flew different flags, and their sailors and crew were not as well-trained and calm as those of the guild.

"The moment our ships approached theirs, the enemy began to lose control and even broke their own formation. That would never happen to the guild's fleet. Milord, you should wait for a few days. Sir Senbaud's fleet is right behind us and he might've captured a few of the enemy alive," explained Captain Wilson.

Without accepting or rejecting Wilson's suggestion, Lorist said, "Tell me more about the incident. Start at the beginning."

"Yes, milord," Wilson said, before he began his recollection, "At noon on the 21st day of the 6th month, Sir Senbaud's fleet left Silowas on a trip back to the Northlands. I was patrolling around one in the afternoon when I discovered ships silhouettes not far away, so I ordered our men to sail out to see who they were. But halfway there, I realized something odd. More and more ships continued to appear, almost covering the oceans entirely.

"I was incredibly shocked and thought that the Chikdor Merchant Guild had decided to launch their attack. But using the telescope, I discovered that the flags flown by the ships were not uniform, neither was there any sight of the sword-and-barrel flag of the guild. So, I began to wonder where the fleet had come from and continued forward to intercept and question them.

"But before we even had a chance to converse, the ships began launching fireballs at us."

Wilson pointed at the burn marks on the Flying Fish of Dawn.

"Fortunately, our ship was agile and swift, allowing us to evade most of the enemy's attacks and escape. After we determined that they were enemy ships, we quickly returned to Silowas to alert the troops.

"Sir Freiyar suggested that we mount a naval attack against the enemy. That way, we would be able to give the island more time to prepare. He also ordered his men to inform Sir Charade and Sir Patt and his guard brigade, before ordering me to seek out Sir Senbaud, who had just left, and have him come back to reinforce us.

"By the time I reached Sir Senbaud's fleet, it was already midnight. He gave the order to turn back and reinforce Silowas immediately. But the morning of the next day we ran into four ships from Sir Freiyar's fleet that managed to break out of the encirclement. According to the troops on the ship, Sir Freiyar had commanded 30 ships to receive the attack and managed to destroy more than 50 enemy ships, but the four that escaped were the last ones that remained.

"On one of the ships was Sir Freiyar. He had suffered heavy injuries. The marines said that Sir Freiyar had intended to intercept the enemy, but the enemy sent 100 ships to hinder his fleet, allowing the remaining ships to continue sailing to the island.

"Sir Freiyar's fleet used up all their weapons and had to board the enemy ships to fight in close-quarters. At first, they were able to take two ships, but the enemy sent out a blademaster which Sir Freiyar went up to receive. After a few bouts, Sir Freiyar got struck on his chest by the blademaster's sword, causing him to spit out blood and faint.

"The marines said it was Sir Karitoke who had hauled Sir Freiyar back. Sir Karitoke later ordered them to break the encirclement. But right as they were about to leave, Sir Karitoke was struck down by the enemy blademaster...

"Sir Senbaud ordered the four ships that escaped to travel with his fleet. We managed to arrive at Silowas..." Wilson paused as his face turned grim. "Milord, by the time we got there, flames and smoke filled the skies of the island. Cries of pain or grief could be heard all around. From the telescope, I could even see corpses littering the port. Rivers of blood flowed all over... Tho-those pirates... They killed, maimed, and did all manner of terrible things on the island... It's hell... Silowas has become hell...

"The enemy's ships were docked at the southern coasts. Even though we fought with them for the whole afternoon, their numbers just seemed to grow more and more. We managed to burn down more than 20 enemy ships, losing seven of our own in the process. In the end, Sir Senbaud had no choice but to order a retreat. The enemy didn't bother to pursue us either. They were content with us leaving the island.

"Sir Senbaud still had to circle Silowas a few times before we lost the enemy. Only after that could we rest. He said that since Swordfish Ridge still flew our Raging Bear flag, he would sneak into the marine camp near the bay during the night to make his way up to the ridge.

"When midnight came, Sir Senbaud brought us into the small bay and we realized that the fires were still lit at Swordfish Ridge. So, he brought his men up there but left me outside. They returned after a good while and had us hurriedly retreat. According to the marines who went up there, there were lots of enemies waiting there. Given that we only had a thousand or so men with us, we had no choice but to retreat. We could no longer defend Silowas.

"We didn't bring many boats when we entered the bay, so each one we had was packed to the brim with people. By the time we ferried everyone out of the bay, the sky was already brightening and the enemy discovered us. They sent their ships for us, but we sunk the first ten or so that arrived and we even managed to take control of two middle-class armed merchant vessels in the process. The enemy mobilized another hundred or so ships to attack us, however. We were fully laden, so we weren't able to sail quickly enough and were caught once again in the afternoon.

"Fortunately, Divine Marksman Josk was there. He and Sir Senbaud picked ten ships that were still in decent condition and deployed them as our rearguard. They managed to eliminate the five ships right on our tail. As a result, the enemies further back became more cautious. They didn't come closer, but they continued to barrage us with ranged attacks all the all the way into the evening before they retreated. I don't know why that happened, but I was too relieved to be free of pursuers to care at the time.

"The next morning Sir Senbaud ordered me to head back first with the injured. Flying Fish of Dawn is the fastest ship in our arsenal, after all. The rest will catch up and arrive in few more days."

Lorist stretched out his hand and patted Wilson's shoulder.

"You must've had a hard time. Go back and rest for a day or two. Your head injury isn't serious, is it?" said he.

Wilson saluted.

"Milord, I'm fine. My head only brushed against a passing fireball. All I lost was half my hair... I shudder to imagine how my wife will react when I get home..."

Lorist nodded in response.

"Thank goodness you're alright for the most part. First, rest up at the marine camp. I will have herbalists head over and treat the injured. I hope you'll recover soon, I might have to trouble you to go out to sea in a few days,"

"Yes, milord. I will be awaiting your orders," said Wilson while standing as straight as a ramrod.

"Howard, bring some men with you to check on the injured. Console them and ask them their opinion on our enemies. Also, have someone ask around how the enemy's flags look and have a sketch drawn for me.

"Other than that, pass this order on to Potterfang: 'bring a division of heavy-armored troops and standby for deployment'. Also, have Els check on the status of Dulles's new wheelbarrow-ballistae division. Don't forget to reach out to Professor Balbo as well and give me a detailed summary of his experimental progress," instructed Lorist.

"Yes, milord."

......

By the time Potterfang rushed to the port city, it was already afternoon on the next day. Lorist had already ordered some men to set up camp near the coast.

"Milord, our territory, Silowas, was attacked?!" asked Potterfang the moment he barged into the room.

Given how heavily he panted, he must've rushed there the moment he received the order.

"Where are your men?" asked Lorist.

"They will only be able to arrive by tomorrow, Milord. I left early with a few attendants. Milord, who is it that dares to attack our dominion? Is it the Chikdor Merchant Guild or the second highness's men?"

Lorist shook his head.

"It's neither of them. Look at the few sketches of emblems and flags over here on the table. We haven't seen any of them before. I suspect that we've been attacked by pirates of some sort..."

Potterfang held up one of the beastskins on the table and revealed a look of shock. "Milord, the enemy are not pirates. I know these emblems and flags. They're the slave traders and slave owners from the Hanayabarta kingdom..."

"What did you say?! The Hanayabarta kingdom? The island-based kingdom built on slavery?" exclaimed Lorist.

His voice was cold as ice. He had finally found a lead he could follow.

"That's right. Milord, since you've never been to the kingdom before, it's no surprise that you don't know their emblems. Actually, these emblems don't even show up often here on the main continent either. Look, these emblems and flags all have black borders. It marks them as the slaver nobles and slave merchant guilds of the Hanayabarta kingdom. Most of the nations on Grindia don't recognize the legitimacy of the Hanayabarta nobles' claim to peerage. To the royal families and noble houses of Grindia, they are naught but a bunch of lowly pirates and slave traders."

Potterfang had been to the Hanayabarta kingdom twice before. The first was when he went there at the invitation of Loze. Loze had been a bodyguard for a slave trader back then. Potterfang couldn't bear the practice of slavery, he left after a month had passed.

His second trip was when he went to Nupite to purchase slaves to add to the fighting strength of the northbound convoy, as well as to recruit Loze and Malek. After these two experiences, Potterfang was well-acquainted with the flags and emblems of the kingdom.

"You're saying that a bunch of slavers and slave traders attacked and raided Silowas? Why, aren't they rather bold? Aren't they afraid of our retribution?!" growled Lorist angrily.

Shaking his head, Potterfang said, "Milord, the Hanayabarta kingdom was, after all, founded by a bunch of slavers and slave traders. To them, raiding is but a common activity. A century ago, they had been residing at the Golden Coast of the mainland. But as the defenses in that area gradually strengthened, they attacked the Hanayabarta archipelago and formed their slave nation. Those pirate bosses and slave traders became nobles of the kingdom overnight. That is also one of the reasons for the nations' non-recognition of their sovereignty.

"After the founding of the kingdom, they even raided Hidegold Bay, forcing the Union to send out the Invincible Fleet to deal with them. But after that, the old pirate king passed away and the new king announced he would no longer carry out raids at coastal areas. That allowed them to obtain trading permits with some coastal nations. They've become rich off their slave business in the decades since.

"Master, at the end of last year, Count Kenmays, Baron Shazin, and Baron Felim all went to Firmrock Castle to discuss the profits of the salt merchant committee. It was Supervisor Spiel and me who received them. During that time, I overheard that the second highness had suddenly taken a hard stance against the slave traders of the Hanayabarta kingdom. Quite a few slave traders who were buying slaves all the way from the Iblia kingdom to the four central duchies were captured at the borders of the Redlis and Andinaq kingdoms. Second Highness Auguslo ordered for them to be sent to the gallows without a second thought.

"Also, it is said that the Hanayabarta slave traders hate the second highness to the bone. The slave trade at the four duchies and the Iblia kingdom soon became less than ideal and is basically extinct there now. It was such that many nobles even approached the committee and asked us whether we were interested in dealing with slaves. All of them held grudges against the second highness for what they considered personal business, adversely affecting their income in the process.

"That's why, Milord, I think that the Hanayabarta kingdom's slave owners and traders were the ones who attacked Silowas. On the one hand, they intend to capture the tens of thousands of islanders as slaves. On the other hand, they want to exact revenge against the second highness's policies against them. They are not the least bit afraid of the retribution of our house either. It must be known that they are descendants of pirates. Add to that the fact that their nation spans several islands, they can't even wait for us to go there and try to avenge ourselves. They hold great terrain advantage and superiority at their islands, and it will be tough for us to fight against them on foreign ground..."

Bam! Lorist thumped heavily on the table before sitting down slowly, not exchanging any words with Potterfang.

After a long pause, he instructed, "Pog, make some reorganization with your heavy-armored division when your troops arrive tomorrow. After Dulles finishes grouping the three wheelbarrow-ballistae brigades, place him under your command as well. In another two days, the whaling crew will be back and I will have them start preparations to set sail. By the time Senbaud's fleet arrives, you will mobilize your troops and reinforce Silowas.

"If... If it really is as you had described, I suspect that the enemy would've long escaped by the time you arrive. Should that be the case, take care of the aftermath left on the island and await further orders. If there are any enemies left on the island, exterminate them immediately. Other than that, watch out for your safety. Wilson mentioned the presence of a blademaster among the enemy. Don't carelessly get into a fight alone with him, alright? Just order Dulles's wheelbarrow-ballistae brigades to deal with him."

Standing up straight, Potterfang said, "Yes, Milord."

"Come in!" called out Lorist towards the tent's entrance.

Howard walked in and said, "Milord, what is your will?"

He nodded slightly to his father as well.

"Howard, have someone go to Firmrock Castle and get Supervisor Spiel to bring me every map and piece of information he can find on the Hanayabarta kingdom archipelago to me," said Lorist.

Chapter 266 The Aftermath and the March into Battle

Charade, the chief knight of the house, and Jim, the house's silver-ranked knight as well as vice leader of the guards, were missing in action. Kriston, the security officer, Accountant Mike and Secretary Hector were nowhere to be found either.

Other than that, the house's retired soldiers, who were transferred to work at the seven villages on Silowas as garrison captains, had all lost contact with the house. The situation seemed incredibly grim.

Tok, one of marine assault guard's squad leaders had been confirmed captured, along with Mayor Hugo.

Confirmed dead were Victor, the captain of the Whitebird Town garrison and tax collection officer, Hart, who had been killed while defending the townsfolk during the evacuation.

Silver-ranked knight and regiment leader of the third local defense brigade, Joseph and Donowan, had both sacrificed themselves heroically during the reinforcement of Whitebird Town.

Silver-ranked knight and regiment leader of the guards, Mort, managed to break out of Farama Village's encirclement but sacrificed himself voluntarily to protect the regiment of troops on the way to Swordfish Ridge.

Silver-ranked knight and vice leader of the Oceanic Legion, Nors, had died in battle on the ocean as well.

Seventeen silver-ranked knights of the first and second fleets of the Oceanic Legion, Captain Rolin, Bose, Telok, Hwaleit, Moog, and the rest all perished in battle.

Apart from those missing or dead, about 3700 marines were taken captive and 38 ships lost. The Oceanic Legion forces stationed at Silowas, which numbered around 6000 men, had lost more than half of their forces, a staggering loss indeed.

Only 4 of the 500 Whitebird Town garrison soldiers managed to escape alive, the unit was utterly demolished as well. The third local defense brigade that numbered 3000 people only had 400 or so injured soldiers left that boasted little to no battle capability. Only the two guard regiments stationed at Seaview Manor fared slightly better -- 400 of the 1000 soldiers managed to retreat safely.

......

Both of Lorist's hands shuddered as he read the summarized report on the losses Supervisor Hansk handed him. The weight of the incident pressured him so much that he found it hard to breath. Charade and Jim are both missing...

Supporting himself in a forced manner, Lorist gradually took his seat and asked, "Tell me, why were our losses so heavy? Was the enemy that powerful?"

"Milord, it's all because of my ineptness," said Josk as he stepped forward.

Waving his hand, Lorist said, "No, it has nothing to do with you. There are no subordinates in this world that are better than you guys. What I want to know is the reason for the huge loss sustained by our forces during the attack. Was the enemy's strength that incredible?"

Josk shook his head and said, "Milord, the enemy is nothing but a ragtag bunch of ruffians. But... but they brought a few blademasters with them."

"Blademasters? How many were there?" asked Lorist.

"I believe there were seven. However, I've only seen four to five of them personally," recalled Josk, "After receiving Sir Freiyar's message, I stayed by Sir Charade's side. Back then, we were in Whitebird Town. Sir Charade quickly notified the Whitebird Town garrison to make preparations for battle and instructed the third local defense brigade to come over to the town quickly to reinforce us.

"The hundreds of foes who arrived on shore on the first few ships were successfully intercepted by the garrison force, but there were many more ships behind them. More and more enemy troops began to swarm us. I managed to kill two gold ranks and more than ten silver ranks, but then a blademaster appeared all of a sudden. He cut Victor down right away, lopping his head off and causing it to roll to my feet.

"By then, I knew that I was being targeted by the blademaster. I'm a marksman, there's no way I can handle close combat with a blademaster. So, I could only retreat as I continued to fire away. It didn't take long for me to lose contact with Sir Charade and the others. By the time I circled around and managed to lose the blademaster, I realized that Whitebird Town had already been occupied by the enemy. Despite my frustration, I could only retreat to Swordfish Ridge to gather up the marines and set up a defense line. After that, we received the troops of the third local defense brigade that broke out of the encirclement at Farama Village. In the end, we were picked up by Sir Senbaud's ships..."

Josk ended his testimony, allowing Supervisor Hansk to explain the rest.

"After Knight Josk drew the blademaster away, the Whitebird Town garrison crumbled from the overwhelming force of the enemy. At the critical moment, Knight Patt and his third local defense brigade troops arrived and managed to drive the enemy away. Following that, Knight Jim led his regiment of 500 guards to reinforce them, giving us the upper hand in battle.

"Sir Charade was commanding the troops during the battle and thought that the reinforcements we just received would be able to drive the enemy out. He was right, the enemy couldn't resist us for long and were quickly beaten. But just as we saw the enemy retreating from the town, more than a hundred large-class merchant vessels arrived and started unloading their forces.

"This new wave of enemy troops was far stronger than those we had just beaten. They had many silver and gold ranks, as well as two blademasters. The local defense brigade suffered heavy losses right away, up to a thousand died. The first regiment leader of the brigade, Joseph, and the fourth regiment leader Donowan, died during that time.

"Seeing that the situation was turning bad, Sir Charade ordered us to evacuate the citizens of Whitebird Town to Farama Village as soon as possible. Other than that, he gave the order to arm the laborers and send them to fight off those pirates. At that time, we thought that they were merely pirates and didn't think for a second that they were actually the slavers and traders of the Hanayabarta kingdom.

"Sir Charade brought Knight Jim and more than 20 guards to leave in a hurry. We have no clue what happened to them after that. A few soldiers brought the unconscious and injured Knight Patt back from the frontlines soon after. Fortunately, I had a few medicinal concoctions with me, one of which I gave to Patt right away. After that, I prepared a carriage for Knight Patt and us to be brought to Farama Village.

"The troops that escorted us to the village included 300 or more from the third local defense brigade and more than a hundred guards, who were all injured in some way. Coupled with the sixth logistics regiment stationed at Farama Village, we had less than a thousand men defending the place. Also, we managed to evacuate more than 1000 of the Whitebird townsfolk, all women and children. It was from them that we heard about Mayor Hugo's capture.

"The regiment leader of the guards, Knight Mort, who was stationed at Seaview Manor brought a regiment of troops to Farama Village, only for them to encounter the enemy fighters that were making their way to the village for an assault. After driving away the enemy, Knight Mort entered the village and we finally had enough people to defend ourselves.

"But the enemy fighters that came after brought a blademaster along. That blademaster attempted to barge into Farama Village alone. Fortunately, the third local defense brigade had installed more than a hundred steel ballistae on the village walls. The first volley of 40 plus bolts instantly turned the blademaster into a pincushion. The enemy were staggered by their losses and ceased their attack on us temporarily..."

"Are you certain that the one shot dead was a blademaster?" interjected Lorist with his eyes wide open.

Supervisor Hansk scratched his head in recollection before he said, "Milord, I am fairly certain that he was indeed a blademaster. Before the fight broke out, the few enemy fighters that came up to us and requested our surrender were mostly silver ranks, with another gold rank as identified by the gold blade glow on his longsword.

"At that time, the regiment leader of the sixth logistics regiment, Knight Ollison, had intended to fire the ballistae right away, only to be stopped by Knight Mort. Knight Mort said that we should use longbows to drive those fellows away to make them think that we don't have other long range weapons to defend ourselves with so that we can catch them by surprise with our ballistae when they mount a full-scale attack. Only with that can we cause them a huge loss.

"After that, the blademaster arrived on a carriage. Every one of the enemy fighters, including the gold-ranked knight, cheered. The blademaster also seemed incredibly proud and overbearing. After conversing with some of his men, he drew his longsword and dashed towards the walls without hesitating. Even the twenty arrows our longbows shot at him when he was about a hundred meters away didn't faze him.

"Seeing him approach, Knight Mort ordered his men to use the 40 plus ballistae mounted on the wall to fire in two separate volleys when the blademaster was less than 60 meters away. While the blademaster managed to deflect four bolts heading directly for him at first, the second volley pierced through his torso entirely. He was dead on the spot. Knight Mort was afraid that the bolts weren't enough, so he ordered the longbow troops to fire two more volleys at the blademaster. There was hardly anything left but the bolts and arrows when we were done.

"The blademaster's death shocked the enemy greatly. They all stood there without a word. When Knight Mort determined that the enemy fighters were less than 200 meters from the village, he ordered the ballistae to fire again. They didn't expect our balistae to have such a range, they lost around 50 of their men before running off, tails between their legs.

"I finally felt relieved when that happened. I thought we could still use the walls to hold our ground a little longer. But the moment Knight Mort and Knight Ollison heard the report of some guards and soldiers that just came over, they decided that there was no way that they could defend Farama Village. According to the men, the enemy had two more blademasters with them. While that wasn't that huge a threat during daytime, the night would impact the vision of the ballistae operators greatly. The effective range of our ballistae would be greatly reduced. The moment a single blademaster got close, it would be the end of us.

"Knight Mort believed that we should use the opportunity when the enemy fighters were retreating to make our escape. Only by reaching Swordfish Ridge would we be able to defend ourselves until reinforcements arrived from the mainland, given the advantage the elevated terrain afforded us. As long as we defended the routes up the hill with our ballistae, no number of blademasters would be able to break through our ranks.

"Knight Ollison thus ordered the sixth logistics regiment to mount all the steel ballistae onto carriages to serve as escorts on our flanks. The sky was still somewhat lit during our time of departure, but it didn't take an hour for the darkness to blanket us. When the enemy found our tracks, they followed along and called for more reinforcements. This was when Knight Ollison elected to stay back. He took just over a hundred local defense brigade soldiers and guards with him and prepared an ambush for the enemy.

"Not long after we resumed our escape, sounds of fighting broke out in the distance. However, it only lasted half an hour. By the time it quieted down, we had already arrived at the foot of Swordfish Ridge. The way up was not an easy one. Given that the enemy was going to arrive at any moment, we prioritized getting the women and children up the ridge, all the while forming a semi-circular defense line with the carroballistae to defend the route uphill.

"We held our position against the enemy for over an hour, but the ballistae became worn and ineffective from the repeated use. Knight Mort quickly ordered 20 of those ballistae to be brought uphill along with half of the bolts we had left. The rest of the bolts were used by our remaining ballistae. We would destroy the ballista when we ran out of bolts for it and retreat to the ones that still had to make sure they didn't fall into enemy hands.

"By the time I was halfway uphill, I saw Knight Mort cutting the last ballista in half, ignoring the sword swung by the enemy behind him. In the end, he was impaled through the chest by a pike."

Mort... It was as if Lorist could see two beggar-like people waiting for him, grasping on his legs and crying. They were Mort and Ruhr, messengers of the northbound convoy who had traveled far and hard. Of all the people in the group that had set off to find him, only those two had made it, the rest died along the way.

Lorist's eyes began to tear up. Ruhr had already been killed during the night attack he launched on Bread Hills by a ballista bolt. Mort on the other hand had followed him all this time, slowly training and breaking through the silver rank when he was part of Lorist's personal guard squad. Later, he was made a knight of the house and took on the position of the regiment leader of the guard brigade. Now, he was gone. He had died a heroic death and was willing to give his life to protect the secrets of the house's steel ballistae.

Supervisor Hansk continued, "All the guards and local defense brigade soldiers died after a long and gruling battle. Right at the most crucial moment, Knight Josk rushed down from the ridge and began firing, causing the enemy to flee once again. Only then did the remaining people manage to go up to Swordfish Ridge. With 20 ballistae and Sir Josk's marksmanship defending the routes uphill, we felt a lot safer.

"On the next day, the enemy didn't attack Swordfish Ridge. But flames of chaos still burned bright across the island. From the ridge, we were able to see the enemy force the various villagers to move to Whitebird Town. Cries of pain and despair filled the surroundings and from time to time, some older villagers were dragged out of the group and beheaded. Angry as we were, there was nothing we could do about it.

"When midnight came, Sir Senbaud brought his fleet and arrived at the small bay. He got up to Swordfish Ridge and met up with us. After understanding the situation, he asked us to board his ships quickly, saying that the enemy was busy with raiding and wouldn't care about Swordfish Ridge. Swordfish Ridge wasn't built to be a citadel, there was no way we could defend that place in the long run. When the enemy sent another group of fighters to attack us from the bay and the foot of the hill, we would not be able to escape.

"Thus, we began our evacuation immediately, prioritizing the women, children, and the injured soldiers. After that, Knight Josk brought some guards and the 20 ballistae aboard the ships. However, we had delayed for too long and by the time everyone got on board, the sky was already brightening. The enemy realized where we were and instantly signaled the rest with their horn. It didn't take long for the enemy to send a fleet after us.

"Luckily they weren't properly prepared. The first batch of ten or so ships didn't have enough crew members, so they were quickly exterminated. Sir Senbaud and Knight Josk even managed to nab two large-class armed vessels. But 40 more enemy ships were spotted in the distance. Sir Senbaud's fleet had also suffered some casualties from the previous battle, and two of those ships were full of people, causing their speed to be rather low.

"So, Sir Senbaud and Sir Josk decided to pick ten of the armed ships in the best condition to launch a counterattack by mobilizing all the marines, guards, and local defense brigade soldiers from the rear. They managed to wipe out five of the enemy ships closest to our tail and tangled along with the remaining ones until the evening, when the enemy finally retreated.

When Sir Senbaud and Knight Josk finally returned, they questioned one of the captive sailors and found that the ones who had attacked the island were in fact slavers and slave traders from the Hanayabarta kingdom. Those captives said that the operation involved almost all the slaver nobles and slave traders of the kingdom. Their naval force already included more than 400 ships, 30 thousand people, and seven blademasters. This was nothing short of a full-scale invasion."

Supervisor Hansk brought out a thick beastskin document stack and said, "Milord, here are the records of the captive interrogations.

Lorist flipped the records and said, "Heed my orders!"

Howard stepped inside and said, "Milord..."

"Have the guards erect crucifixes on the coastlines and nail the captives to them," said Lorist in a light voice, sealing the tragic fates of the captive sailors of the Hanayabarta kingdom.

"Ugh..." The ones present in the tent gasped with terror. Being hung was a far more pleasant way to die than being nailed to a crucifix. After all, one would only die when all the blood drained from one's body after a long time.

"Milord," mused Hansk in an attempt to advise against that.

"Stop it, my decision is final," Lorist said as he waved his hand, "They are the accomplices of the slavers and slave traders. They are far worse than the likes of pirates! They treat people as commodities and don't value human life at all. My only regret is that there isn't a crueler method I can use to put them to death! Howard, what are you doing still standing there?!"

"Yes, Milord, I will pass the order on now!" said Howard before he hurriedly left.

Standing up once again, Lorist stepped forward to Senbaud and said, "You did well, incredibly well... Far beyond my expectations. Senbaud, let me ask you... Are you willing to become one of the House of the Raging Bear?"

Stunned, Senbaud quickly snapped out of it and kneeled down on one knee, saying, "Milord, it is my pleasure."

"Senbaud, are you willing to heed the tune of the Raging Bear's horne and fight to your death for it?"

"I am willing!"

"Senbaud, are you willing to begin your conquest under the banner of the Raging Bear, never to stop, never to falter, until either you are successful, or all life is drained from your body?"

"I am willing!"

"Senbaud, are you willing to stand proud bearing the crest of the Raging Bear to the end of your life, even in death?"

"I am willing!" shouted Senbaud loudly.

Lorist drew his longsword and patted on both of Senbaud's shoulders.

"Stand tall, my knight. You have won the trust of House Norton with your courage, bravery, and loyalty. I welcome you, my brother."

After Lorist gave Senbaud a tight hug, the other knights in the tent came forward to do the same. The last one to do so was Potterfang.

"I welcome you, my brother," said Potterfang as he pinned the golden badge of the Raging Bear to Senbaud's chest.

"Senbaud, how many ships are left in your fleet?" asked Lorist, having taken his seat after the knighting ceremony.

"Milord, we have eleven ships that are still in good condition. Thirteen others require some repairs. Eight of them are only slightly damaged, but the other five will need more time."

Senbaud's second fleet had 29 ships originally. During the rescue operation, he lost seven ships but managed to take two of the enemy's, making the current count 24.

"Fix them up as soon as possible. In three day, Potterfang will bring his troops to Silowas. We will need some transport ships for them. Also, have your marines rest as soon as possible. The uninjured will have to man the ships when we depart," said Lorist, furrowing his brow.

The Oceanic Legion had suffered heavy losses, more than half of their forces. Currently, the numbers of the marines were incredibly low. He had no choice but to redeploy them in another three days even though they had just survived a grueling battle.

"Milord, I will gladly march into battle!" exclaimed Senbaud as he stood up.

"We will march into battle too, Milord!" cried out the other knights within the tent as they stood in solidarity.

Chapter 267 The Wait

The reinforcements sent to Silowas this time numbered only three brigades, a total of 9 thousand men. There weren't enough functioning ships to send any more. Had it not been for the inclusion of the eight additional ships from the whaling fleet, Senbaud would only have been able to ferry just 4 thousand people, even with the use of the two new large-class long-distance armed ships completed by the shipyards recently.

Lorist had originally intended to lead the reinforcements personally, but Potterfang and the others convinced him to remain on the mainland.

"As your knight, I can't allow you to lead the charge every single time while we, the subjects of the house, sit back and reap the benefits. That would become a mark of shame for we household knights.

"Other than that, given the demeanor of the slavers and slave traders of the Hanayabarta kingdom, they might not stay on Silowas for long. They might be gone by the time we arrive. I can't have milord waste your time on a trip for nothing. It's better if you stay here and wait for our report while you tend to other matters of the house. Leaving the dominion that often will put a lot of delays in our plans."

While Potterfang sounded incredibly troubled when he voiced his concerns, Lorist understood them completely. The dominion would be far more stable with Lorist present. If he left the dominion that frequently, the other three allied families might plot something behind his back. At the end of the previous year, in the annual general meeting, Potterfang and Spiel had taken his place. It would do him no good if he were to miss this year's meeting.

As for Lorist's concern about the threat to the island, Potterfang smiled and said, "There won't be a big deal. The surviving local defense brigade soldiers and guards reported that most of the enemy are but an unruly bunch of fighters. The only thing we have to worry about is their blademasters. We will be bringing two heavy-armored brigades and one wheelbarrow-ballista brigade. Even blademasters wouldn't dare to charge head-on into our formation.

"I think that if not much of the enemy is left on the island, or if all of them have departed, the three brigades will only have to deal with cleaning up the aftermath there. If the enemy is still there, I will set up a stronghold and wait for further reinforcements from the house. Given the speed of the Flying Fish of Dawn, it wouldn't take you more than ten days to travel over here."

Five gold-ranked knights were participating in the reinforcement operation. Apart from Potterfang, Josk and Senbaud, the battle-hungry Loze, and Yuriy, who had just recently broken through to the gold rank, were joining in. Other than that, Tarkel, who was placed in charge of the formation of Furybear, and Els, were sent on a special mission there.

The order Lorist gave Els and Tarkel was to head to Morante if the island was occupied. From there they would disguise themselves as members of the Peterson Merchant Guild and investigate where the captives taken from the island had been taken. Once this was known, they had to find a way to rescue the house's officers and knights. Foremost among the people they had to locate was Charade and his companions. On par with his importance, was the aim of investigating the military might of the kingdom, including the statuses of the slaver nobles and their slave traders.

The ocean breeze carried with it a salty smell. Bullhorn Bay had two curved cliffs that flanked the bay on both sides. As a result, the waters of the bay were calm regardless of how strong the winds outside of the bay were blowing. A lighthouse was going to be constructed at one of those cliffs so that sailors would be able to make their way to the bay without getting lost.

Lorist stood on the cliff to watch over the fleet as they departed. He also wanted to find a suitable spot for the lighthouse's construction. If he could, he wanted to have an artillery emplacement built that could watch over the bay. If this could be achieved, then the city had nothing to fear from the sea, and Bullhorn Bay would be a safe harbor for the dominion.

Once the fleet was out of sight, Lorist walked into the deeper part of the cliff and overlooked the city and the bay.

It was getting busier by the day. Laborers scurried like ants all over the place. The house's defeat at Silowas didn't hamper the city's development. The 700 or so residents of Whitebird Town who had been evacuated were arranged to stay there. For the past two months, Lorist could hear the cries, ringing out like cracked bells, of the refugees as they mourned their loved and lost.

On the other side of the bay, a shipyard was gradually being constructed. From the top of the cliff, five ship keels could be seen laid out on the empty space in the shipyard. Countless laborers swarmed around them like ants around a carcass. In a few more months, those five ships would be completed and added to the house's new naval arsenal.

At the port near the shipyard was a ship similar to the Flying Ship of Dawn, save for her larger size. It was the house's new large-class three-masted warship, the Windstorm. A hundred and twenty-eight of the house's elitist marines were selected and allowed to familiarize themselves with the ship. By the time Senbaud returned from his current voyage, the Windstorm would be mounted with 24 bronze cannons. She would be an invincible warship, raining death and destruction down on her foes much like the disaster she was named after.

"Malek," Lorist said, "This time around, I would like to pick out half of the experienced veterans from your carroballista division and draft them into the wheelbarrow-ballista division to hasten its formation. I would like to station the wheelbarrow-ballista division at Silowas for now."

Malek though in expressionless silence for a while before answering, "Milord, may I suggest something?"

"Go ahead," said Lorist.

He didn't expect the renowned 'Iron-faced' Malek to have anything to say about his decision. "Milord, I know that you are really close to Dulles, but I feel that you have given him too heavy a burden. He follows you around all the time. It isn't good for his training," Malek said with some hesitance, "Dulles has already served as the vice commander of the carroballista division. He was my subordinate for quite some time and I know him quite well. I've even dueled with him before, he's rather talented. He's been at the three-star silver rank for too long now. It's been three years since he's shown any progress with his training. What he needs is time to focus on his training. He won't be able to break through into the gold rank otherwise.

"Milord, I understand your reasoning for expanding the wheelbarrow-ballista division. There is no way that you will let the slavers and traders of the Hanayabarta kingdom off. The day the wheelbarrow-ballista division is completely formed is the day you set out on an expedition to the kingdom. I hope that you will allow me to take Dulles's place as the division's commander.

"I believe this will be a win-win for the both of us. The carrobalista division is primarily responsible for the defense of the dominion. The Northlands have been firmly under our control and that of our allies for several years now. Everything here is peaceful and the division doesn't have much to do. I seriously doubt we'll see any turmoil or conflict for at least the next decade. Let Dulles become the carroballista division's commander so he can use this rare time of peace to raise his personal strength."

"Pffft!"

Lorist had to use all his might to contain his laughter, even so, a giggle or two still escaped.

Malek, aren't you just impatient for some glory? It is true that the carroballista division doesn't get involved in any combat anymore.

Despite his suspicions, Lorist had to admit that Malek's excuse had some sense to it. Dulles did indeed require a good amount of time to break through to the gold rank. If he managed to further his training, nobody would be able to accuse Lorist of favoritism for prioritizing Dulles so frequently.

"Why would you think that I had the intention of going on an expedition against the kingdom?" asked Lorist.

"Milord, we are the Roaring Raging Bear of the Northlands. The house has never had an instance when we stayed quiet and endured a slap in the face by anyone. Given my understanding of your personality, Milord, you're not the type to keep quiet and swallow your anger. You would definitely take your vengeance. And given the way you executed the kingdom's captive sailors, I shudder to imagine how much more cruel your vengeance on the rest of the kingdom will be," replied Malek.

"Ugh..." Even if you put it that way, you're basically calling me ruthless and petty, aren't you?

Lorist furrowed his brow in thought. He decided to ignore the off-handed remark Malek had just made. He understood Malek's demeanor well. The man was incredibly straightforward and would say whatever was on his mind, regardless of the topic or the company.

"Well, Malek, actually, I had my reasons for making you the commander of the carroballista division. The house only has a few gold-ranked knights. Even though recently, Terman, Yuriy, and Senbaud have joined their ranks, I still feel that it's not enough. Making you the commander of the carroballista division was my way of using your reputation as a gold-ranked knight to bolster their morale and warn others not to look down on our forces," explained Lorist.

"Milord, Redriver and Salus are already stationed with Fiercetiger Loze's two spear cavalry divisions. Right behind them is Firmrock Castle, which is defended at the front and back by a regiment of garrison soldiers. Paulobins's first local defense brigade is also garrisoned in the castle. We even have the first police brigade in charge of guarding the warehouses. Coupled with Terman's knight brigade, I doubt there are any that would look down on our forces.

"The carroballista division's existence has also been kept secret from the outside world; only the three allied houses of the Northlands know of them. Milord, if you allow me to switch places with Dulles, that would also provide enough stimulation to him. He would come to understand that if he doesn't advance in his training, he wouldn't be able to be of aid to you nearly as much. It will prompt him to train even harder."

Very well, Malek, since you want to switch so badly that you'd give me such a far-fetched reason, I guess I have no choice but to yield.

Smiling, Lorist said, "Fine, Malek. You have thoroughly convinced me. After the incident on Silowas concludes, I will have Dulles transfer back and you will take his place as the commander of the wheelbarrow-ballista division. Make sure to transfer the veterans of the carroballista division there, but don't make it so that the might of the carroballista division falls drastically as a result."

"Yes, I understand, Milord. Thank you," said Malek as he saluted.

After getting down from the cliff, Lorist brought Howard and a squad of guards to the valley at the blade-edge mountains where Professor Balbo's gunpowder research lab was located. Before they even arrived, they could hear booming sounds in the distance.

Professor Balbo rushed towards Lorist as he entered the valley.

His face flushed, he yelled, "Lord Count, I can't stand this! Either you hold the cannon training somewhere else, or move my lab!"

Ack...

This was one of the things Lorist had overlooked. At first, he thought that testing gunpowder near the lab was a logical arrangement. But the operation training for the cannoneers held there caused the whole valley to be graced with the thunderous sounds all day long.

"Alright! I'll have them move to another place!" yelled Lorist in reply.

Nobody would be able to hear what he said if he spoke normally.

He gestured to Howard to order the cannoneers to stop their training before doing anything else.

After a long while, the booming sounds quelled one after another. All that was left in the air was the pungent smell of gunpowder.

Grandmaster Sid brought Grandmaster Julian with him from the training field. The two of them were wearing masks and earmuffs.

"Milord, you're here," mumbled Sid as he removed his muff, "It's too quiet in here. I'm already used to hearing the booms nonstop."

"The two of you are insane!" yelled Professor Balbo loudly.

"Hahahaha..." laughed both the grandmasters.

"Milord, the 36 cannons completed in the last batch have just passed the tests. We're already letting the newly-recruited cannoneers train with them. Grandmaster Sid has installed sights on the bronze cannons, so the cannoneers are able to learn to use them pretty quickly. They are able to hit six times out of ten now," reported Julian.

"Thank you for your hard work, gentlemen," Lorist thanked, before he asked, "Have you finished the recoil-absorbing mounts I've asked you to make? These cannons will be installed on ships, not land, so we will need something stable to mount them on."

Sid replied, "Milord, we have tried making something like that, but they're not the ones you designed that used steel springs. We tried to make them using springs at first, only to fail a lot of times. In the end, Grandmaster Fellin felt that we could use the super ballista's leather suspender and managed to achieve the same effect with the cannons. We were just testing them now, and the preliminary results seem promising. The cannons don't seem to have moved much from their original position."

"Very well, have 24 of those cannons fitted with the recoil-absorbing mounts for now and ship them to Bullhorn Bay to be installed on the Windstorm. Our cannoneers can train on board over there. Additionally, the other 12 bronze cannons will have to be moved somewhere else so as to not bother Professor Balbo here," said Lorist.

"Oh, and, Milord... There's another issue. While the cannoneers can shoot well on land, the ship motions at sea might render their accuracy useless. By then, they might even hit less than once in ten times. That's why the cannoneers believe that their accuracy training now won't be of any use at sea. Do you have any thoughts on that?" asked Sid.

"Oh? That's simple," said Lorist. He had watched a movie in his past life about the Russian navy during the times of the Tsar. He recalled how the cannoneers were trained in the movie and said, "Choose somewhere near the ocean and set up a few swing-like contraptions near the coast. The platforms of the swings will be where the cannons are mounted, which will also be roughly as large as what a normal cannon station on a ship would be. After that, have a few wooden boxes or small boats drift several hundreds of meters away from the swings on the water. Those will be the targets for the cannons. Before firing the cannons, make sure the swing is swaying so that the ship motions at sea can be more or less simulated. That will solve the uncertainty the cannoneers have and also greatly improve their accuracy."

The next fortnight saw Lorist busy with the cannoneers of the Windstorm's training as well as the other duties he had as the lord of the house. After that, he had to wait impatiently for Potterfang's report on the island.

On the other hand, there was good news from the northlands as well. Old man Balk had buried himself in the paper workshop for a whole month and finally managed to come up with paper that was pure white. Lorist rewarded the ones involved in the research greatly and ordered Balk to streamline the production process. For instance, they could use the waste products of the paper's production to make toilet paper. Additionally, a new paper workshop would be built for the paper to be made into different derivative products, such as folders, notebooks, drawing canvases, and so on, for sale.

Apart from the breakthrough in papermaking techniques, Master Mancheny of the glass production plant also introduced two new products. The first was a gold-framed magnifying glass with a golden handle that was also engraved with intricate patterns. It gave off an air of magnificent luxury. Needless to say, this was the craftsmanship of the old silversmith.

The second product was a transparent tea-set made from oil glass. After rewarding the old master greatly, Lorist made it known that while the transparent wares looked incredibly elegant, the rich and powerful might not necessarily fancy them. But should they be adorned with golden engravings, they would definitely be able to sell for much, much more. Looking inspired, Master Mancheny dashed off to continue his work immediately.

After one week, just as Lorist was about to stare a hole through his telescope, the Flying Fish of Dawn appeared on the horizon as it sailed towards Bullhorn Bay.

Chapter 268 The Terrible State of Silowas

Lorist breathed a sigh of relief and felt his emotions calm down. Loze and Yuriy's return signified that the enemy had already retreated from Silowas. While no enemies were there to fight it out with Potterfang's forces, they had still achieved their goal: the raiding of the island and the capture of the residents. The sight on Silowas was horrible beyond description.

"Tell me, how's the situation of the island now?" asked Lorist after taking a deep breath.

Loze and Yuriy's expressions soured at the mention.

Yuriy stammered, "Milord, it... it's horrible. The slavers from the Hanayabarta kingdom are not human; they're nothing but a bunch of lowly animals! The islanders aged over 50 were killed. Even children under ten years old were not spared. I still remember seeing a few infants being impaled on stakes..."

Loze shook his head as if he wanted to forget the scene he had witnessed. "Silowas has become Grindia's hell. Whitebird Town itself has turned into a complete slaughtering ground. Those slave traders massacred all the elderly, injured, and sick systematically. The ground is so soaked with that it has turned pitch black. The previously flat ground has turned into rolling hills, built out of corpses...

"Everyone who saw what happened was maddened beyond belief. Right before we traveled back, the corpse count at the plaza was above 4000. Among them, Josk found the corpses of Mayor Hugo and Old Mike, the accountant."

Lorist clenched both his fists so tightly that his knuckles turned pale. During the civil war of the empire, Silowas managed to avoid any such catastrophe as it was situated quite far away from shore. So, many thought that it would be safe from the chaotic times and brought their families to the island, hoping that they would be able to spend the coming years in peace. Little did they know that while they did manage to evade the miserable civil war, they couldn't escape the claws of the slave traders that came from the sea.

"Milord, we found Whitebird Town's security officer, Kriston, with fifty people in an abandoned waterway. They avoided capture by hiding there. Other than that, when we attacked Seaview Manor, we found Grandmaster Sid's eldest son, Delokua, and his partners imprisoned. After seeing chaos break out in the midst of foraging, they hurriedly returned only to be captured by the slave-capturing troupes," reported Yuriy.

"Wait," mused Lorist, Attacking Seaview Manor? "There were still enemies on the island when you arrived?"

"That's right, milord. We even managed to take over 14 ships, two of which were large-class armed merchant vessels," Loze said.

"When we arrived at Silowas, the sunlight of dawn allowed us to discover that there were 14 ships still anchored at the coasts of the island. Senbaud ordered us to approach them only to find they were unmanned, despite being stuffed to the brim with cargo. We managed to capture around a hundred sailors at some houses nearby.

"According to them, there were roughly a thousand of them left on the island, mostly slavers and sailors from the kingdom who had stayed behind with the intention of taking as much stuff as they could," added Yuriy.

"So there are more who weren't captured?" asked Lorist with joy at the very possibility of Charade and Jim still being safe.

However, what Yuriy said next shattered Lorist's hopes.

"Naturally, the security officer and the rest are examples of those. But by the time we rescued them, they had already been starving for a good number of days. Had it not been for a basement near the waterways that still had some old leather skins, they wouldn't have been able to last for almost a month.

"The ones who escaped were mostly folk from the seven villages. The garrison leader from the village near the mountain brought half of the village folk with him into the mountains. But the elderly left behind had all been killed by the slavers and the village ended up being burnt down. The pursuit unit that followed also managed to capture more than a hundred other villagers who were later locked up at Seaview Manor.

"The captives said that the ones that led them were a blademaster and a gold-ranked knight. They were the subordinates of Duke Gouffman. They intended to defend Seaview Manor for ten more days before they headed back."

"A blademaster?" mused Lorist as his heart clenched.

While the gold-ranked knight and the duke called Gouffman was of little concern to him, being only the lowly slave owners they were, the presence of a blademaster on the island might inflict a lot of damage to the house. Should the blademaster choose to use hit-and-run tactics or ambushes, there would be a huge problem.

"How did Potterfang deal with the blademaster? Did the blademaster cause us any damage?" asked Lorist hurriedly.

Loze said in an annoyed tone, "That cowardly blademaster? He's completely useless! The moment Potterfang heard that around 500 enemy fighters were holed up in Seaview Manor, he sent a regiment of heavy-armored soldiers and another regiment of wheelbarrow-ballista troops over there with the intention of luring the blademaster out. However, the gold-ranked knight and blademaster actually decided against coming out for a fight and would rather stay turtled up in the manor.

In the end, we had no choice but to force our way in. With the manor breached, the blademaster had no choice but to come out and negotiate, and that he did. He asked to be spared and be given two ships with which to leave the island in return for his surrender. We requested that they surrender immediately, but the blademaster actually threatened to unleash a killing spree if we didn't release him.

In the end, 300 wheelbarrow-ballista fired a volley of bolts with but a single wave from Potterfang. The useless idiot got struck on the right thigh with an iron bolt and was no longer in fighting condition. He even fell to the ground and cried for his parents. The gold-ranked knight, on the other hand, managed to resist for quite a while with his men but we captured him in the end. The 200 or so enemies that survived surrendered to us as well."

Lorist asked in a gleeful tone, "Were the blademaster and gold-ranked knight captured alive?"

"Yes, Milord," Loze said as he nodded, "We have successfully recaptured Seaview Manor and rescued the 300 or more captured villagers in the process. They include the guards that accompanied Delokua. Unfortunately, only three of the ten are still alive.

"Potterfang also ordered his troops to conduct a sweep across the entire island to capture the remaining slavers and sailors. They managed to rescue around 200 more villagers in the process as well.

"According to the survivors, Charade and Jim were captured and taken away by the slavers..."

Lorist slumped back into his seat powerlessly and thumped weakly on the table with his fist.

After a good while, he raised his head and asked, "Did the survivors say how the captives were brought away?"

Loze thought for a bit before he said, "Those survivors said that Charade and Jim brought more than 20 guards in a hurry to rush to the refugee camp and had the people in charge arm the refugees with whatever weapons they could find. The rest that didn't have any were given farming tools or even wooden sticks. The kingdom's forces arrived just as everyone was running around panicked and confused. The refugee camp was their main target.

"Charade and Jim thus resisted stubbornly along with their 20 or so guards, half of whom were killed. In the end, a blademaster arrived and managed to defeat and capture them. Without anyone to lead them, the refugees lost control and many of them were killed by the slavers, around 1000 or 2000. In the end, the ones who surrendered were spared."

Sighing, Lorist asked, "How many of Silowas's residents managed to evade capture?"

Yuriy replied, "We are not certain ourselves, but we estimate around 700 of them. After the situation stabilized on the island, Potterfang sent us back here to make a report to you, as well as escort the captured blademaster and gold-ranked knight for your disposal. As for the remaining captives we have... Well, the state of the island was so bad that we had to find a way to vent our rage. So, after a short customary trial, we ordered the troops to erect crucifixes on the southern coast and nailed the captives up on them like you did with the others here."

The crucifixion of more than a thousand captives on Potterfang order, who was normally able to keep his emotions in check, was a testament to the tragic state of Silowas. It was so bad that even the soldiers of the house obeyed such a cruel order willingly.

"Also, Milord, Potterfang, and the rest requested for an urgent resupply of medicinal powders and ointments and preparations to begin immediate disease prevention on Silowas. Those darned slavers actually didn't even bother to collect the corpses of their own. The island is littered with corpses and the hot weather will only accelerate their decay," reminded Yuriy the moment he recalled.

"Howard..."

"Milord, please speak your will," said Howard as he stepped forward.

Lorist drafted a written order quickly and said, "Send someone to the healthcare department at Firmrock castle and order them to prepare large amounts of preventative medication. Send a few herbalists to Silowas as well. Tell them they only have three days to prepare before they leave with the Flying Fish of Dawn. The herbalists and medicines must be ready by then."

"Yes, Milord. I will have a guard pass your order on immediately," said Howard before he rushed out and left on horseback.

"Milord, what do we do next?" asked Yuriy.

"When's Senbaud's fleet returning?"

"It should take another ten or so days. He will be bringing back the survivors and villagers we rescued. Perhaps, he's already on his way," guessed Yuriy.

"Alright. By the time he gets back, it should already be the end of the 7th month. I hope that his fleet can make a few more trips during the 8th month to bring the heavy-armored division and wheelbarrow-ballista division forces to Silowas. After that will be the transportation of Ovidis's Thunderbolt Brigade. Yuriy, have your light cavalry scout brigade prepare to leave for Silowas with the Thunderbolt Brigade as well," said Lorist.

Loze's eyes shone the moment he heard that "Milord, are we going on an expedition against the Hanayabarta kingdom? I want to go too..."

Since Loze had already guessed his intentions, Lorist no longer felt the need to hide them.

"House Norton has always retaliated when it was slighted. This time's no exception either. We will not stay quiet and swallow our anger. What we will do is exterminate the Hanayabarta kingdom. But Loze, you cannot go this time and must stay back to defend the dominion."

"But Milord, there are lots of people here. Malek, Terman, Belnick... All of them can do that..." complained Loze as he brought up his three other comrades.

"Well, you were just one step slower. Malek had already talked me into letting him join. He will replace Dulles as the commander of the wheelbarrow-ballista division," said Lorist with a smile.

"Ugh, Milord... How about Freiyar? By the time you leave, Freiyar's injuries will have recovered already. You can have him defend the dominion. Also, I'm not going to bring the spear cavalry division there. I only need to follow you, as your personal bodyguard. Also, you understand my training style. Only by fighting against high-tier enemies will I be able to improve. Currently, apart from me, what other gold-ranked knight can stand against rank 1 blademasters? I heard that the Hanayabarta kingdom has more than ten blademasters, so I'll be much more useful over there..."

For the sake of going with Lorist on the expedition, Loze was willing to bring up all sorts of ridiculous excuses. Behind him, Yuriy secretly cheered at the fact that he had already been appointed by Lorist to mobilize with his light cavalry scout brigade.

He interjected, "Brother Loze, don't forget your duties. You're the commander of two spear cavalry divisions. How can you leave them behind just like that?"

Loze glared at him hatefully and said, "No worries, the vice commander, Knight Waxima, is extremely capable. It makes no difference whether I'm there or not."

He turned back to plead with Lorist. "Milord..."

Gah, what a headache, Lorist waved his hand and said, "Fine. As long as you organize the matters concerning your spear cavalry divisions first, I will consider letting you come along."

After hearing what basically amounted to an agreement, Loze hugged Yuriy excitedly and spun around in joy. "Yaaay!"

Yuriy cursed and gave him two kicks, which Loze didn't mind at all.

Loze thought of something and said, "Oh, milord, if we are going to attack the Hanayabarta kingdom, we'll need more ships. If we don't send all our troops in one go, the battle will be a tough one."

Lorist nodded and said, "I've already thought of that. This time around, Els and Tarkel will both head to Morante. One of their missions is borrowing ships from the Peterson Merchant Guild. We'll also ask them to purchase some used ships in our name. Also, when the Flying Fish of Dawn returns, I'll follow along and go to the Sea of Grief to expropriate a few more before we leave."

I have no choice but to resort to expropriation again.

Loze exclaimed with joy, "Milord, I want to go along with you when you expropriate the ships!"

Yuriy said with dissatisfaction, "Milord, don't bother with Loze... the pervert. He actually hugged a man like me as he would a woman! It's better if I go along with you for the expropriation."

"Enough. Expropriating ships is not exactly something we should be proud of. Stop grumbling about trivial matters all day long. It's not like we're in that much of a rush. The Flying Fish of Dawn must first transport the herbalists and medicinal supplies to Silowas, and it'll take at least three weeks before it returns. I must first go back to Firmrock castle as I already have an appointment with our three allied houses. Only after dealing with that can we head for the Hanayabarta kingdom. You guys have only just gotten back, so rest for a day or two and deal with the other matters you have first. Oh, and, don't tell anybody about the expedition. I don't intend to make it known publically for now."

"Yes, Milord," said Loze and Yuriy before they saluted and left.

They returned a few moments later, however.

"Milord, the gold-ranked knight and the blademaster we captured haven't been dealt with yet," said Yuriy.

"That's right. Also, Yuriy, have someone bring the interrogation logs we recorded on the way back," reminded Loze.

"You have records of the interrogations?" asked Lorist.

"Yes, Milord. We had nothing better to do on the way back, so we went ahead and interrogated them. We were so thorough that we even know about the time when that blademaster caught his parents mating in bed," replied Loze.

Lorist could imagine how horrible the two prisoners had been treated by his subordinates, and he couldn't keep himself from laughing as a result. It was obvious from the fact that even something that personal was dug up that the two prisoners didn't bother to hide anything.

"Since there are records, there's no point for me to meet them. Treat them like the sailors before. Nail them on the crucifixes," instructed Lorist calmly.

Both Yuriy and Loze were shocked.

"Milord, that's a blademaster and a gold-ranked knight! The blademaster even says that he'll be willing to serve the house if his life is spared..." stammered Yuriy.

"Hehe, thanks, but no thanks. House Norton doesn't need animals like them who don't see humans as their own kind. He's someone who's able to cut down innocents without any hesitation. So what if he's a blademaster? All our troops are true and just. Letting an animal like that serve among their ranks is nothing but an insult to our heroic knights and soldiers! Have the two nailed on the crucifixes!"

The scorn which Lorist had for the knight and the blademaster made Yuriy and Loze's eyes glow with pride.

"Yes, milord!" shouted the two of them in unison.

Chapter 269 The First Household Blademaster

A large, polished plate hung amidst the dark blue veils of the night sky. Its silvery light seeped into the realms of man. Despite the time, Lorist stood on the veranda and cast his gaze on the cities in the valley below. The things that troubled him was carried away by the night's gentle breeze and tranquility ruled.

It's been seven years, huh... Time really flies. Back then, when the northbound convoy was first formed at the academy, I never would've imagined that a day like this would come. Thanks to my efforts, and those of my comrades, our little rural dominion has changed, radically so. Even the lands that used to be desolate, devoid of life, and uninhabitable have become havens for our people.

Lorist could no longer recall every single setback he experienced during the course of his journey. He only knew that the enemies he faced now were growing in might. The second prince was naught but an incompetent king. He had allowed his army, 100 thousand men, to crumble into dust. Even his assassination attempt with the blademaster had failed and, in return, Lorist had conquered his capital, Frederika. He got himself captured by the enemy and executed.

Now, however, Lorist was going up against an entire kingdom by himself. Even though it was a kingdom of pirates, it had already spent the last century developing into a strong nation on its slave trade and labor. It had its own armies as well as countless ruthless slavers. Working together, they were not a force to be underestimated.

Lorist read the interrogation reports. They revealed that the attack on Silowas had been launched with the combined forces of the entire kingdom. More than 80 slaver bands, the smaller of which were around a hundred men large and the larger over 500. The total force stretched into 24 thousand. Five hundred ships had to be used to transport them to the island.

The kingdom targeted the island because they had learned about the 60 thousand laborers recently moved to it. According to the blademaster's report, they had even sent agents disguised as smugglers to the island to confirm the information.

Despite their preparations, they had still underestimated the power of the island's forces. When they finally conquered the island, they tallied 80 ships and close to 10 thousand combatants as losses. Some of the slaver bands regretted taking part in the operation despite the massive haul. Even with the haul being what it was they had lost more than they would gain. The loot would have to be divided amongst the nobility, and the smaller bands would get only the scraps that remain thereafter. Their masters were bound to be very stingy as well, they had taken severe losses themselves and no doubt felt they ought to be compensated accordingly.

For instance, the captive blademaster's master, Duke Gouffman, was a well-known slaver in the kingdom. He had sent five slaver bands, around two thousand men, on the operation. The battles they fought on the ocean, even before reaching the island, had cost him 2 of his ships. The assault on the island and subsequent battles cost them another two bands. At the end of it all, they only had a thousand men left.

In return they had only captured 4 thousand slaves, it was far from equalling their losses. It was for this reason the blademaster had decided to remain on the island with his men a little longer. They wanted to see if they could catch any more slaves. Unfortunately for him, Potterfang's reinforcements came later and not one of them were able to return alive.

"Milord," called Howard softly.

"Finished with your night classes?" Lorist asked without turning around.

"Yes, Milord."

"Very well, go get some rest and leave me be. Our the three families will be visiting tomorrow. I wonder if Baron Felim will bring his precious daughter along with him this time? If he does, I'll give you three days of vacation so you can take your fiancee on a few dates."

"Milord!" yelled Howard with a flushed face.

"Hehe," Lorist chuckled, "Oh, do me a favor and get the kitchen staff to cook me something. Also, bring me a bottle of wine from the study. You may head to bed after that."

"Understood, Milord."

Howard carried out the instructions rather quickly, as he returned with two servants to the veranda after a few minutes. The servants laid down the table and chairs before serving the dishes. Perhaps in an attempt to get back at Lorist's teasing, Howard had asked the kitchen staff to serve him a huge smoked goose.

The night's scenery was awe-inspiring, but Lorist couldn't help but feel that the gigantic smoked goose in front of him ruined the harmony of his small supper. No matter how hard he tried not to, he still found the thought of biting away at oily, smoked goose to be rather ill-fit for such a great night.

"You little bastard..." complained Lorist.

In the end, he didn't touch the goose at all. He poured himself a cup of fruit wine and continued to admire the sight across the veranda as he went through one piece of information after another concerning Hanayabarta in his mind instead.

The Hanayabarta archipelago was located to the southwest of Silowas. A middle-class merchant vessel would take 11 days to make its way from Silowas to the archipelago, but the Flying Fish of Dawn only required around 8.

The archipelago looked like an octopus that had its teeth bared and flailed its tentacles about. The name 'Hanayabarta' was, in fact, the name of a demonic octopus deity that loved to cause storms and winds at sea. Legend says that the demonic octopus deity had once stolen a precious ornament belonging to Sufanna, Goddess of the Bloodmoon. The Bloodmoon Goddes was enraged by that act and summoned her husband, Singwa, God of the Sun, War, and Light, and her sister Daphlyn, Goddess of the Silvermoon when the demonic octopus surfaced from the depth of the seas. The three heavenly beings turned the thieving octopus deity into the archipelago as punishment.

Many on the continent took the moral of the story to be: angered women are unpredictable. That was why angering a woman was not to be done under any circumstances, or the consequences would be dire. For instance, the octopus deity had thought that the worst he would suffer from the theft was a drawn-out battle with the Bloodmoon Goddess, but it didn't expect that he would be turned into an archipelago as a result.

The Hanayabarta archipelago was perceived as being rural and desolate, being so far from the continent of Grindia without any worthy export to their name. It was only after the formation of the pirate kingdom did trade start to bustle at the archipelago, causing the opinions of the mainlanders about it to gradually change as well.

In terms of actual available area, the Hanayabarta archipelago was larger than the Norton dominion as a whole. However, most of the land available at the archipelago were long and narrow islands which did indeed look like octopus tentacles.

The kingdom had been formed more than 80 years earlier and had a population of around 500 thousand. Four hundred thousand of the population, however, were slaves. Perhaps the declining slaver population was their karma.

Even so, there were still geniuses amidst the wilderness. Lorist had learned that the second king had been one such person. Originally, the pirate kingdom was little more than an anarchic state where the strong were the law. The second king successfully turned that system into a hereditary one, firmly securing the position of the hegemon of his family for the coming years.

After he had been elected by his fellow pirates, he completely changed the raiding patterns of the pirates and enfeoffed the many islands of the archipelago to the pirate bosses as hereditary dominions. Additionally, he provided them with slave labor to cultivate their lands and recruited other common pirates into the royal family's forces, allowing them to spend their days without worry for food or shelter. Not only that, he also announced that he would no longer raid the coastal nations along the Golden Coast. Instead, he would make peace with them and establish trade. The development and expansion of the slave trade also helped to secure the kingdom's foundations.

It was considered fortunate to become a subject of the kingdom, but it was a fortune built on the blood and tears of slaves. The kingdom's subjects would not want for food and shelter. That was the birthright the second king left the pirates' descendants. However, if they wanted better lives, they had to serve as soldiers of the royal family or pick up a trade.

Hanayabarta had two standing armies. The first was the royal family's local defense army, which numbered 28 thousand people, and the second was the national patrol fleet, it had 24 large and middle-class ships to its name. The two units were under the direct control of the royal family. The other nobles of the kingdom were powerful slavers whose personal forces were the descendants of the pirates that had served with their founders. As for the slaver bands under their control, they consisted mostly of desperate deserters, mercenaries, and criminals.

Hanayabarta had two cities, the first was the royal capital of Hamidas, which was located on the central island of the archipelago, and the other was known as the largest hub in the world for the slave trade, Nupite.

While the nobles of the kingdom had residences at Hamidas, they were more accustomed to living at Nupite. It was, to them, nothing short of absolute paradise. They had their slaves construct luxurious estates and lived exuberant lives at the expense of their slaves.

Being a port city, Nupite was also a place where the various products imported from the mainland was available. It was a convenient location for the slaver nobles to instruct their slave traders and slaver bands from.

Lorist was rather confident that his forces were almost entirely unrivaled on the whole continent. This time around, he was prepared to deploy two of Potterfang's heavy-armored divisions, one wheelbarrow-carroballista division, Yuriy's light cavalry scout brigade, as well as Ovidis's Thunderbolt Brigade. Coupled with the two other personal guard regiments, his forces easily numbered 37 thousand. He believed that as long as his forces could make their way onto the islands, Hanayabarta would be exterminated. It might even be possible for him to single-handedly send all the slavers and slave traders on Grindia to the gallows.

Despite that, he was troubled to find a way to move his 37 thousand troops onto the central island without raising any alarms. The maps showed the archipelago's coasts to be straight. In other words, Nupite was in the deepest reaches of a bay that was shielded by a few long island stretches that acted as natural barriers.

Were the islands uninhabited, there would be no problem. Lorist could easily conquer them impose a blockade. However, the islands were the hereditary dominions of the slaver nobles and there was no doubt that they stationed many of their own there. The moment Lorist's ships were in sight, one signal fire after another would be lit and word of their presence would quickly spread to the city. The pirates would have time to form up and set sail, and chaos would no doubt follow.

So far, the best course of action was to transport those who would be deployed to Silowas to make preparations for the expedition. When Els and Tarkel sent back more information about the kingdom's defenses, the expedition could begin. Once most of the soldiers made it to the shores of the kingdom, they could teach the inhuman scum a lesson they could never forget.

Lorist revealed an insidious snicker. He had resolved himself to not let the slavers that attacked the island off, especially the members of the slaver bands. They had committed too much evil and it was high time they felt the consequences of their actions. Lorist had already reaffirmed his decision to go on an expedition against Hanayabarta.

Their time of reckoning would come.

Hopefully, Els and Tarkel would be able to discover where Charade and Jim were being held. He hoped nothing unfortunate happened to them. Even if they had to serve as slaves for several months, as long as they survived, Lorist could rescue them.

Lorist sigh deeply before chucking down the rest of the yellowish wine. News of Charade's capture was still being kept under wraps. Not even his family knew. Lorist looked at the hill to the left of the castle. Two rows of 12 large houses stood there. The first house at the top belonged to Charade. Just recently, Charade's father had gone there to check on his beloved grandchild and had yet to leave.

Sigh... How would I be willing to be the one to break the bad news to them?

All of a sudden, Lorist noticed the flash of a sword in the corner of his eye. He took a closer look. That was a strike only a blademaster could make!

Why would there be such a strike at Charade's backyard, especially in the middle of the night? Don't tell me the slavers have realized Charade's true identity and intend to take his family hostage to force him to work for them!

Feeling a little distressed, Lorist leaped from the veranda onto the castle walls like a monkey and sped to Charade's house immediately.

Everything seemed normal, however. All Lorist could hear were some soft murmurs along with the noises made by Charade's infant son.

Lorist crept to the backyard like a shadow, silently. He crept under the trees to evade the silver moonlight.

The swordlight could only have come from one person, the one training in the backyard. As the sword in his hand moved, it radiated an air of controlled and contained sword aura. Even though the blade glow arced through a wide space, not a single flower was disturbed.

The control, accuracy, and stability demonstrated by the sword-wielder were amazing, to say the least. Those were the things that differentiated a blademaster from a gold-ranked swordsman.

Lorist stepped out of the shadow of the tree.

The man raised his sword and yelled, "Who goes there?"

"It's me," said Lorist calmly.

"Ugh... Milord..." stammered the man before he sheathed his sword.

"Follow me," said Lorist, before he turned and left.

"Phew," breathed the sword-wielder in relief.

The beautiful night inspired me to start training out of nowhere, but I didn't think that Milord would be back already... It's been some time since I became a blademaster, and given that Milord has seen me train, he's definitely noticed. It's over... My days of freedom and relaxation are over... I can never spend my time with my beloved granddaughter anymore and will be ordered around by Milord to fight on one battlefield after another...

At the same time, Lorist thought, Good Sol! How ridiculous can this get?! I didn't think that cowardly old man, the one willing to sell his daughter and even signed a contract to be my slave for ten years, would be the one to become a blademaster, and without anyone noticing at that! What kind of luck is this?!

The sword-wielder was actually Engelich. Back when Lorist was traveling through Armatrin Harbor with the northbound convoy, he had gotten into conflict with the Sloph Slavers. Lorist had killed two of their gold-ranked swordsmen all by himself, but Engelich, a three-star gold rank, hadn't dared to fight him at all. Instead, he turned tail and ran, only to be caught anyway. Lorist had confiscated all his money and his battleforce manual and even had the old man hand in his beloved granddaughter and sign a ten-year slave contract before letting him off.

Back then, as Charade had been injured by Engelich and was bandaged up like a rice ball, Lorist had no choice but to make the old man's granddaughter Charade's maidservant. He didn't think that the two would be attracted to one another. Lorist had no choice but to go easy on the old man as a result. It would be unseemly for him to treat the father of his chief knight's lover as a slave.

When Lorist had returned to the convoy at Nadegas in the Andinaq kingdom to lead them back to the Northlands, he had to reward those who had contributions to the journey. He had intended to take the old man as one of his household gold-ranked knights, only to be refused by the latter who said that he was satisfied as long as he got to stay by his granddaughter's side. Charade had already impregnated his granddaughter around and even pledged to take her as his wife when he returned to the dominion.

In consideration of the harsh life, the old man had led and his wish to spend the remainder of his time in peace with his family, Lorist allowed the matter to be settled and didn't disturb Engelich. However, he hadn't expected that the old man would actually come to be the house's first blademaster.

There was no way Lorist could afford to leave him be. He had to utilize the old man as best he could. After all, he didn't have that good a relationship with Engelich, to begin with, given how the old man would tremble every time he met Lorist. Lorist was only troubled by how a man like Engelich had managed to reach the rank of blademaster.

When they were back at the veranda of the castle, Lorist sat in his chair and poured himself some wine, leaving Engelich standing before him obediently.

"Tell me, since for how long have you been a blademaster?"

"Mi... Milord, it has been... a year," stammered the old man in fear.

"Why did you not tell me about it?" asked Lorist lazily.

"Mi-milord, you-you were not present back then," said the old man.

His voice broke at every other word.

Lorist could not remember exactly when he was within the dominion and when he was away, so he couldn't really argue. However, he was still rather troubled.

"Why are you trembling like that? Am I really that scary? It's not like I would devour you alive. Also, you're already a blademaster now."

"I... I don't know why, but... I am always afraid when meeting you..."

"Well, Engelich, I guess we should get to the main point. Since you're a blademaster, you ought to do your part for the house," said Lorist.

"Mi-milord... I pray that you let me be, given my age..." pleaded the old man.

"Bullshit! Don't think that I'm not aware that becoming a blademaster means you gain another 30 years of life. Your condition right now is comparable to a strong, healthy youth. I guess I can be honest with you and tell you that the house is not in that great of a position nowadays. In the near, I will go on an expedition to Hanayabarta. Those darned slavers attacked our dominion, Silowas. Even your precious grandson-in-law has been captured by them."

"Milord, what did you say?" asked the old man with surprise, no longer looking as fearful as he did previously.

"That's one of the reasons why I will be leaving for Hanayabarta soon. I will definitely bring Charade back. Old man, you ought to play your part too. I need you to expropriate ships from the Sea of Grief for now. We still lack enough to transport all our troops there."

Now that the matter concerned the blissful life of his precious granddaughter, the old man no longer tried to push away his responsibilities.

"Alright, Milord. I will definitely make sure that you have the ships you need."

"Very well. Go back for now. I hope you can keep the matter about Charade a secret from his wife. I will notify you when the time comes," said Lorist.

"Understood, Milord," Engelich said before he turned around and headed to the stairs.

He paused at the door, however, and asked, "Oh, how many ships do you need exactly?"

"Well, try to get me around a hundred. But I'm not sure even that'll be enough," replied Lorist.

"What? You need that many?!" exclaimed the old man as he stepped forward, only to find that his leg was already beyond the step of the stairs.

The sound of a bag of meat rolling down an incline could be heard for a few moments afterward, accompanied by the occasional grunt.

Completely dumbfounded and shaking his head, Lorist mused, "For a person with a mindset like that, I wonder how he even managed to break through to become a blademaster..."

Chapter 270 Meeting of the Four Families

"Oh, Engelich, I thought hard about it for the whole night but I still don't have an answer…" Lorist sighed, "You should know that you're not an ambitious or victory-obsessed person, right? Your own survival is all that matters to you. Frankly, you're the kind that takes the path of least resistance. I find myself wondering how in the world you became a blademaster? Did you consume some kind of precious medicine?"

Lorist had called for Engelich to be brought to him early in the morning, mainly to give him something to do. He didn't feel it was okay to leave a blademaster free and unattended in the dominion. He also wanted an answer to the question he had been pondering the whole night.

Engelich smiled bitterly.

"Milord, I don't really know myself. To be honest, I was already a three-star gold rank by the time I submitted to you, but I encountered a bottleneck shortly after, and for years I couldn't progress no matter how hard I trained. I thought that I would stay like that for the rest of my life, so I didn't have any hopes of progressing any more.

"But after joining the convoy, I felt incredibly relaxed all of a sudden, as if I no longer had any burdens. I later came to understand that it was because Milord had eradicated the Sloph Slavers. I no longer had to work for others against my better conscience and it allowed me to cast off the burdens I carried with me. I was finally able to improve my circulation of battleforce, and it even became easier than before.

"Milord didn't send me on missions once we arrived at the dominion either, and instead allowed me to spend my time with my granddaughter and newborn grandchild. The sight of my daughter becoming the mother of another fulfilled the last of my wishes and removed the last of my regrets. I have no more desires or unfulfilled goals in life, as long as I can spend my life in peace with my granddaughter and her child, I will be satisfied.

"The child grew to be rather rowdy last year, so I got him a wooden sword as a toy. I realized just how blissful my life is when I saw him swing the sword around in the backyard and chase the butterflies. The realization gave me a profound insight. The blue of the sky appeared more striking than ever, and the fragrance of the flowers and plants seemed to be stronger and clearer than before. I could clearly discern every motion that occurred within a sphere that stretched out in all directions for ten meters...

"Fortunately, my observant granddaughter noticed that I had gotten some kind of insight and stopped our servants from entering our backyard. Every day, she would serve me my meals personally. I didn't feel anything particularly different about myself. I ate when I was hungry, drank when I was thirsty, and slept when I was bored, but I never left the courtyard - it had become my private universe, a world where I am completely free. I could even say that I was barely conscious of my own condition at the time.

"Later, my granddaughter told me that it was as if I had lost my soul during those three months. I was either tracing in the air or sitting on the ground like a statue. She said that I would not heed anyone's calls and repel her with the battleforce around my body when she tried to tug at me. She was so worried that she almost broke out in tears.

"Charade wasn't home either, so my poor little granddaughter had to deal with it all by herself. On the one hand, she was worried for my sake, and on the other, she had to take care of her child. I only regained my mind after three months and realized that I had broken through to become a blademaster. That lass was elated and had wanted to write a letter to Charade to inform him, but I stopped her because I didn't want to cause a commotion. Also, I didn't want people to come visit me out of nowhere."

Lorist finally understood that the old man had broken through not because of his swordsmanship, but thanks to his mental fortitude. That was why the moves demonstrated by Engelich after he broke through had so much control, precision, and stability - like the still water of a lake that would vibrate in a constant pattern the moment it was disturbed, seeping through every nook and cranny it could find. It was unlike other blademasters who had broken through thanks to their swordsmanship, which was reflected in the attributes of their battleforce. For instance, others would feel the chilling aura of a snowstorm when fighting against Lorist.

"I really didn't think that letting you be with your granddaughter would actually let you break through," Lorist mused, before he shamelessly claimed credit for Engelich's breakthrough, saying, "You should thank me, Engelich. It was I who had exterminated the slaver band and forced you into servitude. Had you not experienced all that, you would've died as a three-star gold rank."

"Yes, yes... It's all thanks to you, Milord. Thank you so much," said Engelich hurriedly.

Even after becoming a blademaster, he still felt like he was treading on thin ice when standing in front of Lorist. He found his bone-deep fear of his lord very curious.

"That's enough. Come over and take this," said Lorist.

He took a small box out of a drawer. Inside was a golden badge. It differed from the ones given to gold-ranked knights, it had a star-shaped diamond embedded in its surface. It gathered and radiated the light from the surroundings in such a way that it looked like a shining, twinkling star.

"You see, my grandfather and great-grandfather had always hoped that the household would be guarded by a blademaster. Even though they could never afford to hire one, they still had a blademaster badge forged and hoped that it would encourage the members of the house to train hard and become a blademaster one day. Well, at least they didn't stretch themselves thin by making a ton of these. Otherwise, I would have to dig out the diamond star and sell it."

Even though Lorist was uttering nonsense, he still carefully placed the box in Engelich's hands. Naturally, Engelich didn't regard Lorist's words seriously. He understood from Lorist's actions that he was officially the first blademaster in the history of House Norton. His fate from that day onward would be forever intertwined with that of the Nortons.

Handling the box as carefully as he could, Engelich gingerly retrieved the badge from the box and pinned it on his shirt. After that, he stowed the box in his pocket, retreated two steps, and bowed deeply to Lorist.

"Milord, I pledge my service to House Norton until the day I breathe my last breath, until the day of my death."

Waving his hands, Lorist said, "Sheesh, don't talk about breath this and death that this early in the morning. Your conviction is what that matters. I wonder if an old man like you can continue to scale the ranks and become a rank 2, or even rank 3, blademaster. Perhaps, you might even stand a chance to become a swordsaint."

"Milord, you're a far bigger dreamer than I am! I only hope that I can raise my rank one more time, but I don't even have the slightest thought of actually becoming a swordsaint."

After receiving the blademaster badge of the household, Engelich spoke more freely and relaxedly.

"Well, things like this are hard to predict. You are a relatively lucky one. Perhaps, one day you might just slip on a pile of dog shit and come to realize some immutable truth of the universe that allows you to break through and become a swordsaint."

Engelich laughed bitterly.

Milord's messing around again... If there were anyone who actually became a swordsaint by doing that, I bet there would be tons of people willingly stepping into dog shit daily...

"Well, there's that. I'll put an end to messing with you. Since you're a blademaster of the household, your salary will five thousand gold Fordes annually. You can collect it whenever you please from Supervisor Spiel. If you do manage to break through to the second rank, your pay will be raised to eight thousand, whereas the pay for a rank 3 blademaster is ten thousand. I bet you're already regretting it now. If you had told me about this the moment you made your breakthrough, you would've had an extra five thousand gold Fordes already."

Shaking his head, Engelich said, "No, I don't regret that at all, Milord."

"Is that so?" Lorist asked with a look of curiosity on his face, "I recall that you looked as if you were hanged when I confiscated your personal savings earned from working for the slavers, yet you're telling me that five thousand gold Fordes means nothing to you? Or are you saying that the amount of money is too low for you to even bother with? Well, I can't help you with that. I wasn't the one who set down the regulations for how much blademasters are paid."

"Milord, you have already offered me countless gold coins. I know that average blademasters only get paid three thousand gold Fordes annually. Over the past few years I spent at home, I came to realize that what I truly want is a life of peace. I only need enough money for my own purposes; more doesn't necessarily mean I'll become happier. All I need is my family. It's a shame I don't have much money with me right now. Otherwise, I'd be willing to pay you five thousand gold Fordes for a year's leave to spend with my family," said Engelich in a regretful tone.

"Forget it, Engelich. To think that an old guy like you would be as obedient as a mule that requires caning," Lorist said, "But, I like your attitude. It's precisely because of it that you were able to breakthrough to become a blademaster. Right now, I'll leave you with an assignment. Before we set sail in another ten or so days, give Reidy some guidance with his swordsmanship for two hours. Actually, make it an hour and a half. Also, help Howard establish his basic stances. When I saw you train yesterday, I noticed that your basic sword stance was incredibly firm and allowed you to manipulate your sword in a very peculiar manner. I hope you will be able to guide them in those respects."

"Understood, Milord," said Engelich as he nodded.

"Also, after training, come here. I will have someone arrange an office for you. You have to understand the battle strategies and the development goals of the house so that I can have you help out when I require it. I'll ask Howard to bring you to the training grounds at the rear hill now. When you come back, make sure to read through the information on Silowas. Look, they're all here," said Lorist as he pointed at a thick stack of beastskin documents in the corner.

Engelich wore a helpless expression as he was escorted away by Howard.

Lorist looked at the silhouette of the old man and mused, "Huh, as if I'd let an old guy like you slack off."

......

Count Kenmays's regiment of attendants and servants only arrived at Firmrock castle during the night. When he got off the carriage, he could be seen with two new beautifully-dressed maidservants.

Raising his brows in surprise, Lorist asked, "Have they changed again?"

Count Kenmays replied, "Yeah. Those two got pregnant and had to get married off to others. I had to pay out quite a sizable dowry for them too..."

Lorist nodded to the maidservants before he said, "Since they are pregnant with your child, why don't you keep them around as your concubines?"

"No way," Count Kenmays said, "Letting them stay after they have a child will cause them to have unhealthy ambitions. It'll bring me nothing but unrest. For their own sake as well, marrying them off is still the best course of action. I give them a yearly allowance as well. When the child is older, I'll adopt them and begin cultivating their talents. It's the best arrangement for everyone involved."

Good Sol, this guy is as calculating as people get. As expected of the descendant of a merchant family, thought Lorist as he smiled and invited the group into the castle.

When the two of them entered the study, Count Kenmays walked to the familiar wine rack and opened a bottle of fine wine. Taking on the role of host, Count Kenmays said, "Come, this wine is pretty good. Let's have a drink."

"Sol!" Lorist cursed, "I noticed that half of my wine disappeared after I returned from a trip at the end of last year. So, the culprit was you..."

"Old friend, good wine is to be enjoyed with good company. How would we enjoy the luxurious taste they provide otherwise?" Count Kenmays said before he asked curiously, "Oh, where were you? That supervisor and Potterfang were so tight-lipped. They wouldn't even reveal the slightest hint as to where you were and only said you weren't in the Northlands. Troubled, I dug around and found no record of you leaving through the suspension bridge of my family nor the one at the Felim House. Also, Duke madras has sealed off the crossing point at Metropoulos River. How in the world did you leave the Northlands? Did you fly away using your wings?"

Laughing out loud, Lorist said, "I went to the Andinaq kingdom and delivered the second prince there. During the 29th day of the 12th month, the third prince passed away and Second Highness Auguslo beheaded the second prince and used his head as a sacrifice during his father's funeral."

Count Kenmays exclaimed, "What did you say?! The second prince is dead?! I only heard that the third prince was dead, but nothing about the second prince being buried with him..."

Lorist nodded and said, "Charade went to the imperial capital on my behalf and he personally witnessed the second prince's head displayed beside the third prince's coffin. It was in a silver basin and his expression was anything but dignified."

"Good Lord Singwa... So the second prince is no more, just like that?" mused Count Kenmays in terror.

Lorist merely nodded.

Count Kenmays downed the wine in his cup in one go, shook his head in thought, and asked, "As per the usual protocol, given that the second prince is my senior noble, I should be mad at you for being the main cause of his death. Given that you acted out of your authority against a senior noble, I should declare war against House Norton to avenge the second prince. But I wonder why I feel some kind of hidden joy and relief right now?"

Lorist smiled and said, "You little bastard... You should be thanking me for relieving House Kenmays of such a troublesome character. Now that you no longer have a senior noble, you can do as you please. Isn't that better? If you still had the second prince lording over you, there would come a day that you would have no choice but to revolt. After all, the second prince's greed was such that he wouldn't even leave the bones behind when he eats.

"As for acting out of my authority, that's just bullshit. It's not like the second prince is my senior noble or anything. Since he dared to attempt to take advantage of us, he should have been ready for the consequences. Also, we did not kill him. That was the second highness. Since he represents the Krissen imperial family, it's well within his right to do so and that has nothing to do with House Norton."

The count made a thumbs up and said, "Since when did you get so sly? Isn't sending the second prince to the imperial capital basically sending him to his death? Also, I almost let you change the subject... The death of the second prince is no big deal. What I want you to tell me is how you traveled to the Andinaq kingdom."

Lorist pointed at the map of the Norton dominion on the wall and said, "Look at it yourself. Didn't I tell you this already? Second Highness Auguslo represented the Krissen imperial family and made me a count. He also enfeoffed Silowas to my house. A few years back, my household finally managed to build a port at our northern coast. Later, I had someone make me a ship and I departed from there. I even went all the way to Morante."

"Good Sol!"

This time around, Count Kenmays mimicked Lorist's catchphrase before he hurried to stare at the map for a good long while.

"Locke, your house is going to be rich! With a naval trade route, gold coins will flow towards you incessantly! Merely the transportation fee will be more than enough for your house to live in opulence. Good Lord Singwa, shipping products by sea would save so much money when compared to transporting them by land! Brother Locke, no, Master Locke, let this one buy some shares... Please let me benefit a little bit from this!"

"Scram!" Lorist scolded half-jokingly, "Do you think making money is that easy? You didn't even consider the cost of the ships, hiring and training sailors, as well as the risks of setting sail. To be honest with you, I just received word that Silowas has been attacked by pirates and suffered heavy losses. I have to make another trip in ten days' time. So, I'm not sure if I will be able to make it back before the new year. That's why I asked you to come for this short gathering of ours. Naturally, I also have some good news to announce to you guys."

"Ah, I see. The risks of setting sail are pretty high, especially with new trade routes. Winds, storms, pirates, navigation errors, there's just so many things that can cause heavy losses," the count agreed, "But I still want to use your trade route to travel to Morante. I haven't been there even once despite how famous it is. Now that I mention it, it's kind of embarrassing."

"Maybe next year. Let me deal with the security issues for now. I'll bring you to Morante after that."

"Very well, then it's decided. So, Locke, what was it you said you wanted to announce?" asked Count Kenmays.

Lorist said, "I'll tell you all when the other two arrive. I don't want to repeat myself for no reason."

"Tch, it's one of your weird quirks again."

Baron Shazin and Baron Felim arrived the next day. As expected, Baron Felim brought his precious daughter over, so Lorist let Howard take a three-day leave to spend some time with his fiancee and improve their relationship.

In the study, Lorist had his servants bring out the golden-laced glass tea-set, the magnifying glass, and the white writing paper and gifted each of the representatives of the three houses with one of each. He announced that those were the products of his household and that he would let the salt merchant committee have the distribution rights for them. Additionally, he told the count that the Norton House was already able to produce glass and that he no longer required the Kenmays House to resell glass to them.

While Baron Shazin and Baron Felim were overjoyed by the announcements, Count Kenmays looked rather down. He had grasped the opportunity to stock up on glass as the war between the Teribo kingdom and the Union had stopped glass production almost completely. The count had intended to sell the glass he managed to stockpile for a higher price to House Norton, but it appeared that the plan was no longer workable.

Lorist told Baron Shazin and Baron Felim that it was time to raise their military strength. He announced to the three the second highness's conquests at the Redlis kingdom and expressed his concern regarding the second highness' possible intention to come to the Iblia kingdom. By then, 300 thousand soldiers would set foot in the Northlands. Lorist said that while he was a noble of the Andinaq kingdom, he wasn't sure if he could stop the second highness from taking action against the other three houses. They were vassals of the second prince and nobles of the Iblia kingdom, after all.

"I advise you all to be prepared just in case. Without a strong military force to fall back on, things might not go as well as you might think," said Lorist.

Chapter 271 Battle Report

"Milord, why do you want the three other houses to expand their military? Not only would you have to provide them loans, you would also have to sell them weapons and equipment at a low price. Currently, our house's treasury has less than a million gold Fordes. Supervisor Hansk said that if you continue to spend so much money, we will no longer have enough for future developments," said Howard as the two were en route to Professor Balbo's gunpowder research lab.

Lorist stretched out his hand to ruffle Howard's hair as he chuckled.

"And here I thought spending time with your fiancee had taken your focus away. I didn't think that you would be pondering a matter such as this..."

"Milord!" exclaimed Howard with dissatisfaction, "I was just puzzled at why you did that..."

"Haha, come on, Howard, I was just joking around. Don't mind me," Lorist said, "There's a saying that goes like this, 'prepare an umbrella when the sky looks dark, or risk being showered like a roadside dog'. The situation our house is facing right now is a little similar to that. If we don't make ample preparations, we will be soaked in the rain when the time comes.

"I'm not that worried about the Chikdor Merchant Guild. Even if they're the so-called hegemon of the sea, they are, in the end, just merchants. I'm not worried about our expedition to the Hanayabarta kingdom either since they're naught but a bunch of pirates, slavers, and slave traders. They won't be able to resist our house's elite soldiers for long.

"The one person I'm most worried about is Second Highness Auguslo. Given his long-held ambition of becoming the emperor of the reunited Krissen Empire and his recent success in conquering Frederika despite the odds that were stacked against him, there's little doubt that he'll be on the winning side of the conflict at the Redlis kingdom.

"From the ambush, we can see that the second highness is indeed a brilliant strategist and not just an inept king. He really hopes that he can realize his ambitions one day. After exterminating the Redlis kingdom, his armies will most likely turn to the Iblia kingdom next. So far, given the status of the Iblia kingdom, there's no way they'll be able to resist the second highness's attack.

"Given that the Northlands is already under our full control, we don't really have anything to worry about. But, when the second highness completes his extermination of the Iblia kingdom and turns his troops to the Northlands, given how much of a control freak he is, do you think that he will allow the three houses, the Shazins, Kenmayses, and Felims, to control part of the Northlands? After all, they are nobles entitled by the second prince.

"Even if those three pledge allegiance to the second highness, the second highness's next move would be to try and split our alliance apart. He would either decrease their noble rank and take part of their territory away or move their territory to another place entirely. That way, the second highness will be able to stretch his claws into the Northlands. Salus and Redriver are both outside of the formal dominion of the house. The second highness would easily be able to come up with an excuse to enfeoff those lands to other nobles intentionally and cause conflict between us and them."

"But Milord, didn't the second highness say that he would make you the Duke of the Northlands? As long as the whole of the Northlands become yours..." Howard said before he paused after seemingly realizing something.

"Hehe," Lorist chuckled, "When the second highness said that back then, he was in a weak position, given that he had only just gained control of the Andinaq kingdom. He still required us to do the heavy-lifting, so he made all sorts of promises. But right now, he has control over 300 thousand soldiers. By the time he exterminates the Iblia kingdom, his power will be set in stone. The other nobles will flock to him in droves and his army might become even bigger. It's not impossible for him to end up with 500 thousand troops. Do you think he will keep the promises if this were to become the case?

"Our house focuses on raising elite soldiers. While we seem to have quite a huge number of troops right now, the actual land forces we have capable of participating in open field battles number only around 80 thousand. We're also going to war with Hanayabarta soon. Only two divisions of spear cavalry and one carroballista division, along with our knight brigade, will be left behind to protect the dominion once the expedition departs.

"Other than that, the mounted archers stationed at Hidebull Mound are there to resist any barbarian invasions. The other two local defense brigades are stationed at Tortoise Hill and Firmrock Castle respectively. As for our three police brigades, they're in charge of guarding our warehouses, prisons, labor camps, factories, and much more. The only ones remaining are the garrison squads of the various towns which are also responsible for the people's safety.

"If you look closely at this map, you'll come to understand that the western area of the Northlands has already been made into grazing plains for the livestock of our house, roughly 300 thousand cows and lambs are currently being raised there. In the next three years, the Fisablens will be providing us with another 600 thousand of them to fulfill their agreement with us to trade livestock for military equipment. The other three houses allied to us don't really mind that we're using the area to raise livestock since they will also benefit from purchasing some for themselves at a lower price.

"But if the second highness starts expanding his influence in the Northlands, the western livestock area is where he'll strike first. After all, it is not part of our dominion. There are many excuses he can use to take the livestock away and we'll be unable to do anything about it. Unless we want to fight against the forces of the second highness when they're in their prime, we will have no choice but to swallow the losses without complaint.

"Given the might of our house, we are able to recruit up to 300 thousand soldiers and are not afraid of the second highness's forces. In fact, we can even defeat him. But what good would that do us? Not only would it affect the lives of our subjects, we would also suffer great losses even if we defeat the second highness. And given that the second highness is our senior noble, going against him is treason.

"The ideal course of action is to strengthen the three houses allied to us and let them take the brunt of the second highness's assault in our stead. Our house will only have to provide reinforcement without actually being involved in direct confrontation. With a natural barrier like the Metropoulos River, I'd like to see if the second highness will be willing to send his troops to the grinder just to conquer the two suspension bridges. Either the second highness agrees to our conditions and leaves the Northlands under our control and that of the other houses, or he grinds against our allies until they give way."

"Milord, what if the second highness orders us to take out our allies? He's our senior noble after all," asked Howard.

"There would be no issue with that. Unreasonable orders from senior nobles can be refused with no repercussions. He has no right to ask us to betray an alliance we have formed," replied Lorist.

......

It had been two months since Lorist supplied some firearms to Professor Balbo to experiment on, and, just recently, the professor reported that he had made great progress. After sending off Baron Shazin, Baron Felim, and Count Kenmays, Lorist made his way to the laboratory as soon as he could.

Professor Balbo, Grandmaster Sid, Grandmaster Julian and Grandmaster Fellin were all present. Upon getting into their seats, they began reporting their progress to Lorist.

While Professor Balbo had yet to find any success making the canister shot ammunition that Lorist described to him, he did have a surprise in store. The professor took out a few bullets encased in a bronze shell.

"How did you make the primer for these rounds?" asked Lorist.

"Milord, I simply had some fire crystal grains placed at the bottom of the shell with a piece of flint. When the hammer knocks against the flint, the smallest spark will ignite the fire crystals and set off the gunpowder in it as well. The gunpowder will then explode and propel the projectile outward," explained the professor.

Grandmaster Fellin opened a red wooden box on the table and revealed two revolvers intricate golden patterns on their barrels and ivory grips. The ivory grip on one side had a carving of a beautiful woman and the other was carved with detailed patterns. Lorist thought they looked completely like the antique revolvers he had seen online in his past life.

"Oh? You guys actually managed to make the revolvers," mused Lorist with surprise.

"Yes, Milord," Grandmaster Fellin said, "We spent two months making the two according to the designs you provided. I also handcrafted the bullets personally."

"Ugh..."

Lorist was speechless the moment he found that the parts of the two revolvers were all handcrafted by Grandmaster Fellin. His craftsmanship was at such a high level that even Grandmaster Sid wouldn't be able to compare. However, the problem was that Lorist had hoped that they would be able to find a way to mass produce the guns instead of having Grandmaster Fellin craft them himself. That way, the grandmaster probably wouldn't be able to finish more than a hundred guns even if he worked until he dies of old age.

"Do these guns work?" asked Lorist worriedly.

"Of course they do," Grandmaster Fellin hurriedly replied, "We tried firing them a couple of times. However, the firing range is quite short. A lead bullet fired from roughly 30 meters away can only punch through a wooden board as thick as a finger. If the gun is fired from 50 meters away, it wouldn't hit its target at all."

Hmmm, so it has an effective firing range of roughly 30 meters... Any further than that, the bullet would go off course...

"Also, milord, we weren't able to make the automatically-rotating cartridge that's connected to the trigger mechanism. So, we had no choice but to borrow the dwarven gun's design. The hammer has to be cocked back for the next bullet to be loaded," said Grandmaster Fellin.

Ah, no wonder the hammer looks a little large. It's so that it can be cocked by the hand more easily.

"Milord, you should also take note that the barrel will overheat after five quick shots. It must cool before it can be reloaded and fired again," reminded Grandmaster Julian.

Well, I guess the material for the construction of the barrel isn't ideal either, for it to overheat after only five shots...

"Are there any other flaws?" asked Lorist.

"Well, Milord, even though the bullet primers are made by me with each one containing the same amount, sometimes one or two out of five bullets would fail to ignite. I suspect that's because the flint piece didn't produce any spark," added Professor Balbo.

Lorist was already completely speechless. In the end, the two revolvers are nothing but intricately-carved decoration pieces. It's no wonder that the engravings were so detailed. The product was meant only for admiring its craftsmanship. But no matter what, they were still the first two revolvers the house produced and they still had some historical value to them.

"Were the bullet shells all made by you guys personally too?"

"No, we hired over 20 smiths and had each of them make ten shells. After that, we picked those that were roughly of the same size and gave them to Grandmaster Fellin for some polishing. We picked 73 of them and filled them up with the chemicals so they can be used with the guns. You can reuse these shells simply by filling them up with more gunpowder. We also have some molds for making lead bullets and a tool to fit the lead bullet into the shell," said the professor.

As long as the shell was kept, one could refill it with gunpowder. That was a rather decent solution for limited ammunition.

"Alright, I'll take these two guns, the bullets, and the molds. You will no longer have to work on these anymore. Having grandmasters like you spend two months on these is a little too wasteful. You're no regular smiths, your talents can be put to far better use," said Lorist, much to the grandmasters' joy.

"Were there any difficulties you faced during testing?" asked Lorist.

"Milord, we found that the main problem was that there was no suitable material available to us for the construction of the gun barrels. The ones on the guns we have now are made of steel. It's far from ideal, they overheat too easily. Also, making the barrels takes quite some time and effort. We also had to test different heat-resistant bricks to see if we could modify our furnace to see if we can directly cast molten steel into barrels," expressed Grandmaster Sid.

Nodding in agreement, Lorist thought that he had been far too ambitious. Without establishing the more fundamental technological foundations, he had intended to leap straight into producing such advanced contraptions. Even though the grandmasters were able to make those two revolvers with much effort and time, the revolvers had too many flaws and were incredibly impractical to make. Grandmaster Sid was correct in that they had to discover a new material to make the barrel with before they could progress.

"Very well, Grandmaster Sid's statement holds true. It won't be good for us to rush this. The house will fund you for testing different materials. Also, right now, we're only using our water-powered machines to hammer and press metals. I wonder if you can try to make similar machines for hole-boring, cutting, and drilling? That would save us lots of manpower and time," said Lorist as he casually tossed a few rough blueprints of the machines he just named, which Grandmaster Sid took in a hurry as if they were heavenly treasures.

"Milord, right now our consumption of saltpeter is far too high because we are using 40 cannons to train our cannoneers. The production of saltpeter will no longer be able to keep up with the consumption in ten days," reported the professor.

This is a new issue... After giving it some thought, Lorist replied, "How about this? Decrease the amount of gunpowder used for the training sessions. It'll be enough as long as they can fire the cannons. Ration the gunpowder we give to the cannoneers and caution them to use them sparingly. Other than that, I will invest more funds into making a few more mining valleys near the Bladedge mountains to increase its production."

......

After leaving the gunpowder research lab, Lorist rushed to the port city. Senbaud's fleet had returned the day before and they would be leaving after a day of rest to transport soldiers to Silowas.

Engelich and Loze would also be sailing aboard the Flying Fish of Dawn to the Sea of Grief to expropriate more ships while Lorist had to stay at the dominion.

Within the main camp at the port, Senbaud and the rest welcomed Lorist's arrival.

"Senbaud, you shall stay here the day after tomorrow and leave the fleet to Uncle Torin. Let them depart first," said Lorist.

"Understood, Milord," replied Senbaud, even though he didn't understand why Lorist instructed him to do so.

"Do you see the Windstorm over there? That's your new flagship. You have to familiarize yourself with it before you set sail," said Lorist as he pointed to the new ship that was docked at the bay nearby.

With his eyes gleaming, Senbaud praised, "What a beautiful ship, milord. But can't I just get used to sailing it during the journey itself?"

"No, Senbaud. This ship is not anything like the regular ones you have sailed. This is the only invincible warship on the whole of Grindia so far. You'll understand what I mean when you get on board," teased Lorist.

"Very well, Milord. I shall carry out your will. Also, this is the battle report submitted to us from Knight Lundmorde at Morante," said Senbaud as he handed over a thick back of documents.

Lorist took one out and realized that it detailed the war effort of the second highness at the Redlis kingdom. Huh? This doesn't look right... Why hasn't the second highness wiped out the Redlis kingdom's resistance yet?

Not counting the force stationed at the border of the Madras duchy as well as the garrison forces within the Andinaq kingdom, the second highness should have around 240 thousand soldiers. With the occupation of Frederike and the surrender of the 70 thousand troops defending Kanbona Province, the second highness should have more than 300 thousand men at his disposal.

But after the nobles at Anderwoff refused to surrender to the second highness, and the first failed attempt at wiping them all out, the second highness turned to a more gradual strategy and managed to obtain a victory by conquering Anderwoff. However, the remaining nobles banded together and were still resisting in Majik. It also seemed that they had received large numbers of reinforcements as well, further strengthening their forces.

Weird, why is there no news of the first prince? It's only mentioned that he's missing after escaping from Frederika, thought Lorist as he continued flipping through the pages.

The second highness had split his 300-thousand-strong force into three units. One unit was stationed at the Lormo duchy's border as a threat for them to relinquish their autonomy and fall under the banner of the empire once more. Another unit was busy sweeping clean the riches of the nobles within the territory of the Redlis kingdom while pillaging their resources and food so that the main force would have enough sustenance. The last unit was marching towards the Redlis kingdom's final province, Majik, and would be engaging the traitorous nobles there.

The second highness seems a little too rushed, commented Lorist.

He took out a report concerning the war between the Teribo kingdom and the Union.

The moment he read it, he was dumbstruck. What the hell is going on? Why are the Urubaha and Teria duchies wiped out from a conflict that's supposed to involve only the Union and the Teribo kingdom? Add to the fact that the Urubaha duchy is thousands of kilometers away from the Teribo kingdom, and is separated by the Tedanini mountains and two other smaller nations, how in the world was it wiped out?

Chapter 272 The Death of Duke Urubaha

Duke Urubaha had it coming. Never before had a rank 3 blademaster died as unsightly a death as the duke. He had only his greed to blame, well, that and his lack of self-awareness, which had made it so that the president of the Twinhead Dragon Merchant Guild couldn't stand him. The president had disregarded their family ties and fed the duke a force-dispersing toxin. In the end, the duke was beheaded by an attendant, cleft from shoulder to shoulder from the rear, he died just like any normal old man. It was an inglorious and unceremonious death. One to be remembered throughout the ages for all the wrong reasons.

In the middle of the 7th month of the year 1773 at the capital of the Teribo kingdom, the army of the eleven allied nations, which numbered around 140 thousand men, and the Union's army, which numbered around 180 thousand, had been in a stalemate for more than two months. Neither side attacked nor defended; not even knight duels were carried out. The main reason for that was that the knights of the allied nations' army did not think that the Union had knights among them. Most of the gold-ranked fighters were mercenaries and the allied nations' knights felt it beneath them and their honor to challenge such lordless, masterless vagrants.

Even though the two armies didn't clash, messengers were sent to and fro between the sides. It was becoming apparent that the report on the Morante Daily was true: the War of Glass wouldn't end until the treasury of the Teribo kingdom was squeezed dry.

It was a good thing for the allies, given how foolish Teribo VII was being with his money. The allies' 140 thousand soldiers would most certainly not take the initiative to launch an attack. They only had to stay on guard within their camps month after month, feeding off the provisions from the Teribo royal family. Not only were they well-fed, they were also paid well and on a monthly basis. Oftentimes, some noble ladies would even come to the camps to make merry. The soldiers of the allied army enjoyed their days greatly and wished that they could last a couple more years.

The Union, however, found it hard to distance themselves from the conflict. From the moment they retaliated and conquered half of the territory of the kingdom the war had only escalated and there was no end in sight. While the allies' army was funded by the Teribo Kingdom, and the nations thus bore no burden or expense in fielding their forces, the Union's 180 thousand soldiers placed a great burden on their finances.

Despite that, the Union had no choice but to persevere. The war had already had a far-reaching effect, having been dragged on for so long. For instance, the eleven nations had joined up at the Teribo kingdom's request to stand off against the army of the Union for money. But should the Union show any sign of weakness or inability to hold their ground, the allied army would hold nothing back and bite on the Union for some additional benefits.

It was the main reason the forces of the Union didn't mount an assault. While they were confident in their ability to maintain their position, taking the initiative to attack might come with an incredibly heavy price. The 180 thousand soldiers already on the field were all the Union could afford to muster. No one could predict how much morale would drop from the failure of such an attack.

Despite being the instigator of the whole conflict, Teribo VII was only now becoming aware of the predicament he was in. He sent another demand for peace to the Union, phrased in a far humbler manner than the first. He was willing to accept the initial conditions put forward by the Union, namely, the secession of half of the kingdom's territory as reimbursement for their losses.

Teribo VII had forgotten, however, that he no longer had the greatest say on the issue, that honor belonged to the allied nations. The generals of the army had realized how fat of a cow Teribo VII was and intended to milk him for all he was worth. There was no way they would allow such a juicy cash cow to call off the conflict when they were at the height of their profits. Thus, they confidently assured Teribo VII that they would be able to drive the Union's forces out of the territory. At the same time, they cut off the royal family's access to the outside world. All Teribo VII had to do and could do, was to continue paying for their 'military expenditure'.

By the time Teribo VII realized the gravity of the situation, the Teribo kingdom had already been ruined. So, he decided that he might as well cause as much grief as he could for his sworn enemies. He doubled the bounty for the Union's high-tier fighters. With that, the gold-ranked knights of the allied army were moved, further escalating the assassinations and counter-assassinations. Among the many conflicts there were, the most eye-catching one was the death of the Urubaha duchy's blademaster duke.

As the highest authority of the duchy, as well as a rank 3 blademaster, Duke Urubaha could be considered one of the people with the highest status in the allied army. However, he had one fatal flaw: his endless greed for money. Even though the Urubaha duchy was a poor nation, the duke still profited much from renting his armies out to other nations. He easily earned more than a million gold Fordes annually from these transactions. The duke pocketed all the money, however, without investing anything to improve the living standards of his subjects.

Anyone who visited the duchy knew that everything, whether it be the capital or the palace the duke resided in, was in rather bad shape. The fountain at the plaza located opposite the duke's palace was the only public facility in the whole duchy that was built in the days of the current duke's grandfather. It was only good for providing clean water to passers-by to relieve their thirst. However, the current duke had even thought of profiting off the fountain by charging a fee for every drink. However, the duke gave up on the idea when he found that the pay for the guards would be higher than the profit it would generate.

The Urubaha duchy's subjects all thought of their current duke as a hateful dragon that only knew how to hoard all the riches. The duke's palace was even colloquially known as the dragon's lair. The most popular rumors were about how much the duke loved to sleep in a bed of gold coins. It was pretty apparent how bad an impression the subjects of the duchy had on their duke.

They even complained of the duke's stinginess when it came to the profits his two armies earned him. For instance, each army rented for 100 thousand gold Fordes monthly, but 60 thousand of those entered the personal wallet of the duke with the rest being the pay for the soldiers, the food they consumed, and equipment maintenance.

An army numbering 24 thousand men couldn't do much with 40 thousand gold Fordes a month apart from paying off the salary of the soldiers. With so little left behind for them, the soldiers were fed the worst kind of food, and just barely enough to keep them going. Even their equipment was among the lowest in quality available. In fact, the soldiers were usually glad to be rented out as it meant they would be better fed since the renter was responsible for their sustenance.

The rent of the Urubaha duchy's armies to the Teribo kingdom, however, was thrice the normal price; each army of his would be paid 300 thousand gold Fordes. That was the reason the duke was willing to rent out both his armies at once. He figured that since his own duchy was not particularly developed or prosperous, nobody would bother to conquer it.

When Teribo VII raised the bounty for high tiers another time, Duke Urubaha figured that he could earn himself a couple million gold Fordes given his prowess as a rank 3 blademaster. Thus, he often found himself participating in the chaotic assassinations.

However, the Union had long had their preventive measures in place and managed to successfully counter-kill those who came bounty hunting. Some traps they set to bait in the high-tier fighters even cost the allied army a good number of blademasters. As such Duke Urubaha couldn't find many opportunities to strike. In desperation, he changed his tactics.

He was the relative of President Cobleit, so he had gone to Morante a number of times. His beloved grandson was studying at an academy in Morante. Being the grandson of an influential duke and a relative of the president of one of the big seven guilds of the Union, that youth spent his days in the city in absolute bliss. He lorded over his peers day in and day out. The Twinhead Dragon Merchant Guild frequently had to clean up after him.

During his visits to Morante, Duke Urubaha would also often visit the Twinhead Dragon Merchant Guild, so it was natural for him to be acquainted with quite a few of the guild's blademasters. From time to time, he would even spar with them to temper his swordsmanship. So, the duke turned his sights on the guild's blademasters.

First, he sent letters to inform the blademasters of the Union of the location of the allied army's high-tier fighters with the intent to ambush them when they came after the blademasters. After some investigation the blademasters concluded that his warnings were true, so they let their guard down. They thought that he was trying to keep them safe on account of the relationship they had with him, despite now standing against them in the war.

In those moments of lapsed guard, the Duke Urubaha struck. He intentionally made a false report that there would only be one blademaster waiting in ambush instead of three, causing the Union to send out only three blademasters to deal with the threat. It ended up with a three-on-three battle where both sides were evenly matched. In the end, they settled on considering the matter a draw and left it at that. The duke rushed over at that moment and claimed that there was an unexpected incident in which the other two blademasters insisted on following the lone blademaster at the very last minute, causing him to have to rush over to prevent any unfortunate accidents.

The three blademasters of the Union didn't suspect the duke in the slightest and even treated him as one of them, thanking him gratefully for all he had done for them so far. The duke struck them down as they thanked him.

The result of a rank 3 blademaster taking on one unprepared rank 2 blademaster and two other rank 1 blademasters was obvious. The three blademasters were slain by the duke in quick succession. Their heads were brought back to Teribo VII and exchanged for the reward.

Unfortunately for the duke, a scout had witnessed the whole affair and quickly went back to inform the Union's main force. A huge commotion broke out in the camp, with many angry folks marching right up to President Cobleit's tent to complain about the matter. It was no small issue, given that the deceased rank 2 blademaster was provided by the Peterson Merchant Guild, and the two rank 1 blademasters belonged to the Mayflower and Chikdor merchant guilds respectively.

All three guild presidents were fuming and were just short on enough rage to scream directly at President Cobleit. The matter dragged on for almost the whole night. When it concluded, President Cobleit laid back tiredly on his chair, loathing his relative to the bone. The duke had used the contacts the president had given him to carry out such a despicable plot for money, without regard for any previous relations.

He realized, then, that the first young master of the Chikdor Merchant Guild was still in the tent.

"I have an idea to deal with this issue..." he told the president.

The duke's fate was sealed in stone that very night. President Cobleit agreed to cooperate with Serihanem. It was even said that the president expressed with a sigh that even his many grandchildren were not nearly as capable as the first young master of the Chikdor Merchant Guild, who was a true merchant through and through.

The president brought the duke's grandson to the frontlines forcefully and wrote the duke a letter. He said that his grandson wished to meet him. They erected a small camp not far away from the main one where they would meet.

While the duke was quite money-minded, he was far from naive, to say the least. While he did not believe that President Cobleit would dare to act against him directly, given how he had just killed three of the Union's blademasters for the sake of the bounty, he was quite wary of the invitation being a potential trap. However, he still had to meet his grandson. He was one of his heirs, after all.

So, the duke responded that he would agree to a meeting with the condition that he got to decide the venue, which President Cobleit agreed to.

Thus, Duke Urubaha ordered his Crimson Legion to move their camp closer to the left side of the area where the two armies faced each other and had President Cobleit bring his grandson there. The duke was not worried in the slightest about being attacked by a few blademasters at once. He could easily escape unscathed with his abilities. As for the Crimson Legion, he didn't mind if they got wiped out. After all, if the duchy was rich in only one thing, then it was people. And they were more than willing to serve in the military to earn their keep.

President Cobleit headed to the camp of the Crimson Legion with a whole troupe that transported mainly some supplies to host a banquet. Since the president was the one to invite the duke to a banquet, he had to pay for all the costs involved. Additionally, the duke was someone that wouldn't treat anybody to a meal even if his life depended on it. Even if he had no choice but to show an important guest his hospitality, he would serve nothing but the cheapest and most basic dishes.

Naturally, the duke didn't fail to check the kitchen staff and the ingredients they brought for the banquet. After verifying that nothing was amiss, he proceeded to ponder the true aim President Cobleit decided to host a banquet for him at a time like this.

President Cobleit came over without even a single gold-ranked knight. His entourage only included ten-odd silver-ranked attendants and the duke's precious grandson. The duke finally relaxed his guard when the banquet began.

President Cobleit said, "The reason I called you out here to meet is to advise you stop involving your army in this conflict. The war between the Union and the Teribo kingdom has already lasted far longer than it needs to."

In other words, he was acknowledging the fact that the Union's forces were suffering as a result of the duke.

"As for the death of the three blademasters, let's just say that my luck was bad. I earnestly implore you, please don't cause any more trouble on account of our familial relations."

The duke refused President Cobleit's advice outright.

"Cobleit, if I were the kind of person that didn't care about family, you wouldn't leave alive after this blanket. As the commander of the 180 thousand soldiers of the Union, your bounty is a staggering three million gold Fordes! The fact that I'm willing to let you come at the cost of three million gold Fordes not entering my pocket. In fact, I might have to ask you to reimburse me somehow in that regard..."

Never had the president dared to imagine that this relative of his would even consider killing him for the bounty. This realization finally resolved the residual hesitation he had.

The duke snickered and said, "Well, I won't really ask you to give me three million gold Fordes. As long as you're able to trick the presidents of the other merchant guilds into coming here with a joint bounty of three million gold Fordes, I am very much willing to let you go."

It was after the duke's statement that the atmosphere of the whole banquet turned stale and awkward. The few gold-ranked knights of the Crimson Legion were incredibly embarrassed at the behavior of their lord. It was at that moment when the duke's grandson came over and said, "Grandpa! Have a taste of this bottle of fine wine which I bought at the city! It's been some time since we met, and this time I finally found a way I can repay the kindness you've shown me!"

While Duke Urubaha was suspicious of everyone else, he loved his grandson from the depths of his heart. His grandson's gesture brought him great joy, so he opened the bottle of wine and poured himself and President Cobleit a cup.

President Cobleit didn't mind drinking it since he was far too stressed to bother with anything else. After taking a gulp, he found that the taste of the wine was rather pleasant and even asked for a refill.

The duke was relieved that the president had drunk the wine and even asked for another cup. He had held back to verify if the wine was poisoned in some way, but seeing the president's eagerness for one more serving, he felt no need to doubt his grandson's sincerity and gulped down the cup of wine without hesitation.

The moment the wine slid down his throat, however, the duke heard the sound of swords being drawn behind him. He turned around. The silver ranked attendants the president had brought along was walking towards him slowly, sword in hand. He had the gaze of a butcher preparing to slaughter a sheep.

"What are you doing?!" cried the duke.

He activated the battleforce in his body and prepared to leap into the air, only to find that he had no battleforce to activate. He was so weak that he wasn't able to even muster the energy to stand up.

Finally, he realized: he had been played. He turned to the gold-ranked knights that were responsible for guarding him.

"Quick, come save me!" yelled he.

The guards, however, only stared at him with scorn. They remained standing as statues. Nothing untoward was happening as far as they were concerned. Their duke was simply having a feast with family.

A blade flashed, and the duke's head tumbled from his shoulders. Duke Urubaha, a rank 3 blademaster, was killed by a mere silver-ranked attendant.

The duke's grandson stared with a stupefied look as his beloved grandfather was beheaded right before his eyes.

The tent's flaps were pushed open as Serihanem walked inside with a smile on his face. Before the head of the duke, he had the grandson sign an agreement to lease the Urubaha duchy to the Chikdor Merchant Guild for a million gold Fordes and an annual fee of 100 thousand gold Fordes. From that moment on, the grandson of the duke would spend the rest of his life at Morante as a political hostage.

When the agreement was properly signed, the Crimson Legion soldiers cheered. They joined the side of the Union along with the duke's other army, the Tricolor Sword Legion. With the aid of the Crimson Legion, the Peterson Merchant Guild managed to swallow the Teria duchy whole without any trouble. It was a given since the two blademasters of the Teria duchy had already fallen in the bounty hunt, and eighty percent of their military force had been sent to join the allied army.

The Crimson Legion was able to take over the Teria duchy's capital with a surprise attack that couldn't even be called a full-scale battle. Duke Teria's whole family was ordered hanged by President Peterson for resisting the Union and the Union annexed the territory. At the same time, the Chikdor Merchant Guild announced that they would make the Urubaha duchy part of their dominion, effectively putting it under the control of the Union as well.

With that, the smaller merchant guilds saw the same opportunity and turned their sights on the nations that had sent their armies out to reinforce the Teribo kingdom and had lost their blademasters...

Chapter 273 Before the Expedition

The thunderous roar of the cannons rang out once more. The roughly 60-meter-long Windstorm looked like a fire-breathing beast. Smoke burst out of the ship like large white thorns each time the cannons roared. Small blurry black shadows flew away over the ocean as well. A cliff several hundred meters away shuddered as the shadows vanished into its face. Shortly after a single, massive piece broke loose and slipped into the ocean.

Schwoop! Senbaud popped open his telescope for a look; only to be flabbergasted at what he saw, mouth wide open. The sight before him had greatly exceeded what he imagined to be possible. He'd never dreamt that Lorist's bronze cannons would actually be that mighty, so surprised was, in fact, that he was completely speechless.

After a good while, Senbaud snapped out of the stupor and said with an excited expression, "Mi-milord... With a warship like that, I can guarantee you there isn't a single fleet on Grindia's oceans able to rival us."

"Good," said Lorist absentmindedly as he nodded, still pondering the two reports he had read the day before.

The report that Lundmorde had sent made Lorist come to a frightening conclusion. Other than the eventual extermination of the Teribo kingdom, which was already long set in stone, of the eleven nations that reinforced the allied army, at least four or five of them, apart from the Urubaha and Teria duchies, would also be wiped out.

That was to say, after the War of Glass, the territory of the Union would grow up to five-fold and become one of the three top superpowers on the continent. That assessment was made only based on the territory they conquered, and not their military or economic influence. The area they would control would eclipse that of the now-defunct Krissen Empire and they would be the third largest nation on the whole continent.

As long as the Union was given a few more years to 'digest' and put the territory they conquered in check, even if the second highness successfully reunited the empire, the situation would no longer be the same as it was a century ago when the empire was at its prime and used its military might to suppress the development and growth of the Union. In fact. The Union might return the long-owed 'favor'.

What surprised Lorist the most was the fact that the Chikdor Merchant Guild actually made the Urubaha duchy their own dominion.

It was good news for him since that meant that the guild had truly given up on the notion of conquering Silowas. Lorist realized after checking the map that the guild's decision was a rather well-informed one. With the territory of the Urubaha duchy, the guild would be better able to exert control on the trade routes at the south of Grindia near the Golden Coast without having to waste resources going to war with House Norton.

"Milord, Milord!" called Senbaud for a good while before getting Lorist's attention.

"What's wrong?" asked Lorist.

A little embarrassed, Senbaud said, "Milord, I was thinking of going there directly to see the cannons fire. Is that okay with you?"

Lorist laughed and said, "Senbaud, you're now the captain of the Windstorm. You can do whatever you want, as long as you don't sink the ship. Go ahead and check the ship all you want and familiarize yourself with its handling. It's your responsibility as a captain and you don't need my permission to do so."

When the 24 bronze cannons mounted on the Windstorm first fired, the recoil from the shots caused quite a few cracks on the ship, allowing seawater to start filling up the ship. It took quite a while before the ship was brought back to the shipyard at Bullhorn Bay and the flaw corrected. By the time Senbaud familiarized himself with the ship's handling, Lorist was already ready to depart for Silowas.

After another two volleys of test cannon fire, Senbaud returned to the deck of the ship with a look of joy and excitement.

"Milord, this ship is fantastic! It's just as agile as it is swift. Apart from the Flying Fish of Dawn, I doubt there's another ship that can catch up to the Windstorm. Coupled with these godly bronze cannons, this ship will be completely invincible. I don't think any ship will be able to even get close to the Windstorm."

Windstorm was based on the Flying Fish of Dawn. She was around 60 meters in length and roughly eight to ten meters in width, with a height of roughly 11.7 meters. The ship had four decks. The bottom deck contained the ballast, the one above it was for storage, followed by the gun deck which was fitted with 24 bronze cannons in total. The uppermost deck was the main deck and contained the captain's cabin and crew living quarters.

Apart from the 24 cannon operator teams, numbering 120 men, the Windstorm's full complement held another 128 sailors. It needed 52 men to form a skeleton crew, any less and the ship couldn't be sailed. Not only that, the ship could ferry another 200 marines. Whether it be ranged or close combat, the Windstorm had them covered. It was no wonder Senbaud thought that no ship could possibly take their own out.

Lorist laughed and said, "There are five other similar ships being constructed at the shipyard now. I believe that by next year, you'll have six Windstorms at your disposal. Once that happens, our cannon fleet will truly be known as invincible. Even the Union's 'Invincible Fleet' won't be able to match our own."

Senbaud scoffed, "Hmph, Milord, the so-called 'Invincible Fleet' at Hidegold Bay only relies on their numbers to oppress other fleets. They won't be able to keep up with Windstorm, even if we only considered speed, in actual combat circumstances. We'll be able to sink those modified merchant vessels easily with the cannons on board."

Senbaud was correct. The Union's warships were like floating castles. They had sacrificed any semblance of mobility for defense. While they wouldn't have a problem at the calm seas of Hidegold Bay, the ships were liable to be toppled by strong winds in other places like the Sea of Greed.

"It's good that you're that confident, Senbaud. When you test the ship out at sea, make sure to note down any weaknesses or shortcomings you notice so we can adjust accordingly for the five ships still under construction. Once they are complete, the construction crew will move on to their next project. They are to build a 120-meter-long five-masted warship and arm it with 60 cannons," said Lorist.

"What? There can actually be a ship that big?" asked Senbaud as he swallowed a nervous gulp, "Milord, I will definitely work really hard for you, so please let me command that ship when it's complete..." (Editor's note: Puppydog eyes)

......

A week had quickly passed and Lorist was about to depart for Silowas on the Windstorm. Right before he left, he held a meeting with the high officials of the house in the main camp at the bay.

"Terman, I will leave the security of Firmrock, Salus, Redriver and the grazing plains at the western Northlands to you, understood?"

"Yes, Milord," said Terman as he saluted respectfully.

"Waxima, Loze has irresponsibly tossed his two spear cavalry divisions to you, so I have no choice but to trouble you to manage them."

"Milord, I don't really mind it. It's not the first time this happened anyway," replied Waxima.

Everyone present burst into uncontrollable laughter.

"Pete," Lorist said, trying to bring the situation back on track, "have your mounted archer brigade defend Hidebull. Even though the mountain barbarians haven't caused any trouble in recent years, it's best if we remain vigilant."

"Understood, milord," said Pete with a bitter smile.

His superior, Josk, was just like Fiercetiger Loze: he also loved to follow his lord along on one adventure after another, frequently leaving the mounted archer brigade under Pete's care.

"Pajik..."

"Milord, please give me your instructions," said Pajik as he came to attention.

"From today onwards, you will be Belnick's right hand. Pass control of the second local defense brigade to your second in command and help Belnick with the reorganization of the third local defense brigade as well as the formation of the fourth and fifth brigades. The brigades will be consolidated into the first local defense division with Belnick as its commander and you as the vice.

"Yes, milord," said Pajik as he saluted. This was akin to a promotion for him.

Belnick stood up and asked, "Milord, where will the first local defense division be stationed?"

Lorist pointed at the map of the dominion behind him and said, "The first local defense brigade will be stationed at Firmrock castle and the second brigade at the citadel at Tortoise Hill. After reorganizing the third, station them at the port city. The fourth and fifth still have to be trained for at least three months in military regulations after their formation. Use them as reserve troops for now and have them stay at the training camp until we return from the expedition."

Lorist didn't have much of a choice. Of the 60 thousand laborers whose term of service was ending at the end of the year, 50 thousand had already chosen to remain within the dominion. Some even wanted to return home and fetch their families. Even though the house had already begun to develop Redriver, they would only be able to settle a portion of their new subjects. Even so, there were far too many youths among the laborers that fit the criteria to join the army. Apart from the expansion of the heavy-armor and spear-cavalry divisions over the last six months, there were still more than ten thousand youths who wanted a place in the army. Those who were accustomed to water had been transferred to the marine training camp while the rest were stuffed into the local defense division.

Supervisor Spiel stood up and said, "Milord, our treasury has already dropped below a million gold Fordes. Continuing to expand the house's forces will only make our financial situation worse. We're starting several massive development projects in the coming months and I fear we'll be out of money by the fifth or sixth month."

"That won't be a problem," Lorist said as he waved, "In the coming months, our house will gain a huge sum of money. It will be more than enough to cover our expenses. Oh, and Supervisor Spiel, I leave you in charge of the products we intend to let the salt merchant committee sell on our behalf. It will bring in quite substantial profits as well."

"Understood, Milord," said the supervisor worriedly as he sat back down.

"Supervisor Boris..."

"Awaiting your instructions, milord," said Supervisor Boris, the ex-manager of House Kenmays.

"As Knight Charade is not with us, I will leave civilian affairs in your care. From this year onwards, we will collect tax from the Felicitas and Salus settlements, and I hope you can take care of them."

"Rest assured, milord. I will definitely do my best," said the supervisor.

"Old Man Balk, the factories and workshops of the house will be left in your care."

The old man stood up and replied, "Don't worry, Milord. I won't disappoint you."

"Shadekampf, you're someone who's followed me for a long time. I will leave you with the management rights to the development of Redriver. Don't let me down."

"Understood, Milord," said Shadekampf.

It was apparent from his fit and healthy look that he had made good progress with his training during the recent years.

"Supervisor Kedan, Supervisor Hansk will be following me back to Silowas to take care of the mess over there. So, there are various tasks in the dominion that you will have to oversee."

"Milord, you don't have to be worried as long as I'm here. However, I wonder if we really don't need the second highness's permission to go on an expedition against the Hanayabarta kingdom. After all, it's a sovereign kingdom we're talking about," said Kedan.

All of those present knew of Lorist's intentions. Not one felt it weird. If Lorist really endured it and didn't take any action, he wouldn't be fit to be the leader of the household.

However, Supervisor Kedan's worries were well-founded. If the enemy were nobles on roughly the same standing, there would be no need to inform anyone about the attack. However, Lorist planned to take on a whole kingdom, and according to proper regulations, Lorist had to at the very least inform the second highness so that he could lodge an official diplomatic complaint on behalf of his vassal with the Hanayabarta kingdom. Only if the complaint didn't receive a satisfying resolution would the Norton House or the forces of the Andinaq kingdom be allowed to take revenge against the Hanayabarta kingdom for their misdeeds.

Lorist shook his head and said, "We don't have the time to waste on that. Besides, the second highness is currently in the Redlis kingdom and might not even bother with small matters like these. If we really choose to wait, I don't know how long it will take for us to hear anything. Look at the case of the Peterson Merchant Guild, didn't they also conquer the Teria duchy without informing the Union beforehand?"

"But, Milord, those of the Union are nothing but tycoons without proper tradition and protocols. It's no surprise that they act the way they do. On the other hand, we're a house that has a history of a few centuries, so some basic protocols will have to be observed. Going on an expedition against a kingdom is no small issue, so it's best to first have the agreement of a senior noble. Otherwise, we could be considered to be disrespectful to those above us. As this matter concerns the household name, I hope that milord will give it more consideration," advised Supervisor Spiel as well.

"That's enough," Lorist said with a solemn face, "I understand that you guys are worrying on behalf of the house, which is commendable behavior. But did you take into account how the household knights of our house who were captured by the slavers feel? Every day of inaction means a day of torture for them. Another day where they'll have to risk their lives. If we really wait for the agreement of the second highness, it will come soonest after this year. Perhaps, we might not even get anything by the end of the next year.

"Also, has the Hanayabarta kingdom had any interactions with the Andinaq kingdom in the recent years? Did the Andinaq kingdom officially recognize the Hanayabarta kingdom as its own nation?

"Don't forget, our target this time is not a kingdom, but only a band of pirates and slave traders who happen to control a port city. Remember, there has never been a Hanayabarta kingdom. We are only taking action against the slavers who have attacked Silowas to save our subjects and members of our household. The Hanayabarta kingdom is naught but a shallow and deceitful construct made by the enemy to fool others. They were never a proper nation.

"Remember this! Those who slight the Nortons shall be put down, far as they may be! Understood?"

"Yes, milord! Those who slight the Nortons shall be put down, far as they may be!" called out the ones in the tent in unison.

......

Eight days later, Lorist arrived on Silowas. Potterfang received him with a group of other household knights.

"How many ships do we have now?" asked Lorist. That was the issue he was most concerned about at the moment.

"Milord, Blademaster Engelich, Josk, and Fiercetiger Loze has so far expropriated more than 30 ships. Together with our own ships, we already have enough to transport more than 20 thousand people. The Peterson Merchant Guild sent us a letter that stated that they can lend us 14 ships, four of which are large-class merchant vessels and another ten being middle-class ships. However, those ships would only arrive at the end of the 8th month," reported Potterfang.

"Alright," said Lorist as he nodded. It seemed that Engelich and the rest only had to expropriate another 50 to 60 ships to have enough to transport all 30 thousand plus soldiers of the dominion to the Hanayabarta archipelago. By the end of the 9th month, they would be able to depart.

"How's the morale of our forces? What sort of thoughts do they have on our upcoming expedition?"

"Milord, everyone is enraged about what happened to our island. Even though the second batch of soldiers to arrive didn't see it for themselves, they share the feelings of the first batch who came over to do the cleanup. All of them believe we should teach the slavers a harsh lesson."

"That's great. We must ensure that our morale stays high. Intensify their training while we wait for more ships to arrive so that they will be properly prepared for the actual battle," instructed Lorist.

"Yes, milord."

Chapter 274 Money of All Things Comes the Fastest

On the 31st day of the 8th month, Lorist got disembarked from the Flying Fish of Dawn and was received by Potterfang and Supervisor Hansk at the port.

"The haul wasn't bad this time around. We got 17 ships in total, five large-class long-distance merchant vessels and 12 middle-class armed ships. All of them belong to the slaver fleets of the Hanayabarta kingdom. One of them was transporting smuggled goods, which Supervisor Hansk will make an inventory of, and their other two fleets were ferrying around a thousand slaves. They had all been purchased from the Golden Coast. We will let them work on the island for a period of time before we release them," said Lorist.

"Alright, Milord," replied Supervisor Hansk.

"There are also more than 200 slavers on the ships. Potterfang, send someone to question them before hanging them. As for their sailors, hang those who don't behave. As long as any of them are subjects of the Hanayabarta kingdom, make sure not to let them off, understood?" instructed Lorist casually, deciding the fate of more than a hundred lives without a single care in the world.

"Understood, Milord," said Potterfang, before he turned around and barked a few orders. Soon, a few silver-ranked knights brought a regiment of soldiers with them to the ships that t had just been taken.

Lorist had been rather anxious recently. When he couldn't calm himself down, he would set sail for the Sea of Grief to join Engelich and the others expropriating ships. The Sea of Grief was largely empty, however. It was no surprise since the ships came from somewhere else after all. Lorist had already expropriated most of the smuggler's ships, and even those who managed to evade capture did not dare to sail in the area anymore.

Frustrated and annoyed, Lorist traveled straight to the trade route near Hidegold Bay where the ships of the Hanayabarta kingdom would pass through with the Flying Fish of Dawn and Windstorm. As expected, there were far more ships there for their taking. The slaver nobles of the kingdom mostly had their own fleets, with the larger ones having roughly eight ships and the smaller ones had two or three. Within half a month, more than 40 ships were successfully taken. As long as the Flying Fish of Dawn managed to line up to the enemy ships, with Lorist's presence there, the ship would no longer be able to escape. The Windstorm also finally got her chance to test out the might of her cannons. More than seven ships that attempted to sail away had been sunk by the Windstorm with relative ease.

"Milord, all the troops to be deployed have made their way to the island," said Potterfang.

"Okay. The coast is filled with the ships of the house, so I already had a hunch about that," said Lorist.

"However, I realized that many of our soldiers are not used to the ship motions. Many of them get seasick because they are not used to spending extended periods of time at sea," said Potterfang.

"We don't have a choice. Have some herbalists cook up more medicine for seasickness and give each soldier one bottle of it," Lorist came up with a less-than-ideal solution, "Is there anything else?"

"Milord, the 14 ships the Peterson Merchant Guild lent us has also just arrived. President Peterson even wrote you a letter. Also, Knight Lundmorde sent us an update on the conflict between the Teribo kingdom and the Union as well as the second highness's battles at the Redlis kingdom," said Supervisor Hansk as he took out a letter.

As he opened it, Lorist asked, "What did the report say?"

"The Teribo kingdom is no more and the Union has won. Also, the second highness suffered a huge loss at the Majik Province," Potterfang replied, "I placed the report in your tent, Milord."

"Oh," Lorist said, before putting aside the matter of the report as he started to read President Peterson's letter.

Apart from asking how Lorist was doing, the president briefly described the victory and the following changes coming to the Union. One of the most important things he stated was the fact that the Union has been set back rather heavily after eight months of war with the Teribo kingdom. Even the Peterson Merchant Guild, one of the big seven guilds of the Union, had suffered huge losses in terms of might and business. It has been one of the toughest ordeals they have ever faced.

This was different from the resistance of the invasion of the Krissen Empire. Back then, the Union had allies all over that supported their cause. The various neighboring nations all understood that if the Union fell, they would be the empire's next targets. That was why they supported the Union as best as they could and forged very close ties. Even if the Union suffered heavy losses from a Krissen invasion attempt, they would recover rather quickly in the coming years with trade between the other nations.

But the War of Glass was a different beast altogether. Even though the Union was technically the one that was attacked, their enemy was the simple-minded Teribo VII. It was incredibly unlucky of the Union to get an enemy like that who managed to change the perception other nations had of the Union. He turned the Union from the victim to the aggressor.

To the neighboring nations, the Union, which no longer has an enemy to worry about at the north, had begun to use their superior might to suppress the smaller nations around them. Many believed that the War of Glass was started as an excuse for the Union to begin their monopoly on the glass trade.

The truth of the matter was not important to those onlookers. What mattered was the situation before their eyes. The Union's deployment of troops at the capital of the kingdom, Feyers, and their declaration of the extermination of the Teribo kingdom was seen as excessive by the neighboring nations no matter how much of a fool Teribo VII actually was. The formation of the allied army of eleven nations was more of a precaution for the Union's ambitions than a way to earn a quick buck at Teribo VII's expense.

But nobody would've expected how the War of Glass actually came to a close. Just as the military historians who studied the conflict had described, there were no open field battles or sieges. Apart from raids, military mobilization, assassinations, and counter-assassinations the armies of both sides had stood each other off without any large-scale conflict for more than six months. Right after that, however, seven of the smaller nations were exterminated out of nowhere.

This was a war-laden with deception, scheming, transactions, threats, assassinations, surrenders, and betrayals, as one military historian described. The truth was not far from his writings. Nearing the end of the war, two smaller merchant guilds worked together and supported a rival military faction in one of those nations financially and held their countrymen at ransom, causing the reinforcements that nation sent to the allied army to have to retreat to capture the king and surrender him to the Union in exchange for the lives of their family members.

President Peterson understood that even though the War of Glass had ended with the Union's victory, the aftereffects were only just beginning to show. On the bright side, the Union did manage to successfully implement the nobility system. After swallowing the territory of seven neighboring nations, the Union became the third largest nation on the continent and had more than enough land to enfeoff.

But as a consequence, the remaining neighboring nations of the Union steeled their guard against the Union. Not only were the various trade routes of the Peterson Merchant Guild affected, some nations even levied sanctions against any and all trade with the Union or imposed heavy taxes on any trade carried out by the Union.

Given the situation, the Peterson Merchant Guild had begun to face serious trouble. Even though they managed to get a dominion for their guild, it cost them rather a lot. Not only did they have to start new trade routes, they also had to reestablish their trade deals, settle down their new subjects, develop their dominion, and form a new combat force.

That was why President Peterson expressed his hopes that he could delay his payment to the Norton House for a year and a half, and even wished to purchase the military equipment of the house with a loan from them. The president said in the letter that the old method of trading goods was also no longer possible as many of their trade routes had been cut off all of a sudden. Also, with the inflation of prices, the house would also no longer be able to obtain the food they needed through them, given that the price of food had quadrupled after the war.

"How much money does the Peterson Merchant Guild owe us?" asked Lorist.

"Milord, they still owe us 320 thousand gold Fordes for the magic beast fur deal. Originally, they were going to pay us back with food, but they delayed the payment because of the war. As we happened to be attacked at Silowas at the same time, we agreed to let them postpone payment. Other than that, they also ordered more than 10 thousand sets of military equipment worth 540 thousand gold Fordes," Supervisor Hansk recalled the details of the trades at his fingertips, "Milord, what did the president say? When will they guild pay us back the money?"

"See for yourself," said Lorist as he passed over the letter of the president.

Supervisor Hansk's paled as he read the letter.

"Milord, there is no way we can accept the request of the guild this time around. If they delay for another year and a half, our house will run out of money. Supervisor Spiel has already made clear estimates that the funds of the house will run out by the 6th month of next year at the latest. We were hoping that the payment from the guild would relieve us of the burden imposed on us by the development projects within the dominion. If this is the case, there's bound to be chaos in the dominion soon..." said he.

Nodding, Lorist said, "It's fine, I have some plans in mind. I will draft a reply for President Peterson's letter. Supervisor Hansk, there should be around ten thousand gold Fordes' worth of goods on the ships, so go make an inventory of them. We must use whatever we can right now."

The supervisor rushed to the ship.

Potterfang could no longer stay quiet and said, "Milord, is the house in that much financial trouble?"

"That's right. Had it not been for the release of the laborers this year who have finished their term and the attack we suffered at Silowas, we might have been able to survive longer. The new products we just released might even help us out quite a bit on that front," Lorist said as he smiled bitterly, "But I didn't think that so many of the laborers fit the criteria to join our forces and actually want to. While refusing them is easy, it's a huge waste. I was under the impression that the Chikdor Merchant Guild wanted to attack Silowas, so I agreed to the expansion of our forces.

"With so many new soldiers who we have to provide with adequate training and gear, the cost of maintaining them will only continue to rise. That is especially the case with the marines' and sailors' training. The cost of training the Windstorm's cannoneers is roughly 30 thousand gold Fordes already.

"The Hanayabarta kingdom's attack on Silowas only served to worsen our situation. The pension we have to pay for the dead soldiers is quite substantial. The expedition against the kingdom will also likely cost us hundreds of thousands of gold Fordes. Supervisor Spiel is correct, the house will be bankrupt by the 6th month of next year."

"Is there nothing we can do, Milord?" asked Potterfang.

"Well," Lorist said as he waved the letter of President Peterson around, "Originally, I intended to take advantage of the merchant guilds that want to form their own forces to protect their own dominion. But given how long the War of Glass has dragged on, the guilds have also lost far too much. Even the Peterson Merchant Guild, one of the big seven, is finding the recent days tough, so the smaller guilds are even further out of the question. If we want to dabble in this business, we'll have to wait three years, at least, for the guilds regain their momentum."

Potterfang breathed a long sigh at the news. Given that he was a man of the military, all he could be worry about the financial situation of the house.

Pog, I have a question for you. Do you know which method is the easiest to make money with?" Lorist asked, much to the surprise of Potterfang.

"Umm," Potterfang hummed, before he finally replied, "Isn't it dealing in military gear? I've often heard Knight Charade say that the military business is extremely profitable. That was what the northbound convoy relied on as well along the journey."

"No," Lorist said, shaking his head, "The best method is raiding and robbing the landed nobles. Do you remember the time we defeated Count Cobry and occupied his city? I returned to the dominion first whereas Charade and you guys stayed for three months. You did business with the local nobles and didn't even make more than a million gold Fordes of profit.

"But after that, the convoy traveled to the Andinaq kingdom. Even though the convoy was exploited by the second highness, you guys used your might to wipe out two-thirds of the nobles there and managed to pilfer 5 million gold Fordes' worth of goods. If we didn't use that money for anything, our knights would be able to live lives of luxury for a few lifetimes.

"But I invested the money in the development of the dominion and strengthening the forces of the house. With that, we managed to exterminate the magic beast wave that had plagued the dominion for more than 200 years and provided a safe environment for our troops and subjects to live in. We also started many factories and workshops, as well as villages and institutions of study. We'll also be launching a proper academy soon.

"Other than that, we also managed to find a location to build a port at the Bladedge mountains and built up our port city, all the while converting part of the dangerous Blackmud Marsh into farmable land. The dominion was only able to flourish because the house invested so much money in it. The annual spending of the house is easily over a million gold Fordes. All the profits we reaped are also invested for further development, like the case with the 2 million plus gold Fordes we made from the military equipment deals with our three allies.

"Had it not been for the slavers' attack on the island, I might have deployed you guys against the Madras duchy. That's because there aren't any richer forces near the Northlands that we can raid. Originally, I intended to attack the Sidgler province's Platinum Beach before launching an ambush on Duke Madras' lair and making off with his riches. We could have used the money we gained from that expedition to solve our crisis.

"Don't look at me like that, Pog. You are one of my most-trusted knights, and that's why I'm willing to be so frank with you. I made that plan to give our forces a chance to engage in actual battle as well. You should know best that good soldiers aren't the result of training, but participation in real battles. Other than that, the Madras duchy is hostile towards us, so we have a good reason to go to war with them. Profiting off their riches was only a minor goal of the plan," said Lorist as he laughed.

"But now that the Hanayabarta kingdom has come knocking on our doors, we'll let Duke Madras off the time being. After all, his dominion is at Sidgler, and it's not like he can move away all of a sudden. We can be sure that there will be more chances to attack him. To be honest, I'm not that worried about our financial situation right now. The Hanayabarta kingdom is bound to have much more riches than the Madras duchy, given that the slavers must have made huge profits over the dark trade of people. I would definitely be glad to use their ill-deserved wealth for a greater purpose."

Lorist revealed an insidious smile as he said, "Potterfang..."

Potterfang stood at attention and said, "Milord, please let me know of your will."

"Remember, the main priority of the expedition on the Hanayabarta kingdom is the rescue of our men from the slavers. After that comes sucking their wealth dry to relieve the financial crisis of our house. As for our soldiers, we should spread the propaganda that we are taking righteous vengeance against the Hanayabarta kingdom for wronging us. Let them know that we are sailing to free our comrades. That way, our soldiers won't feel like they are pirates or bandits, understood?"

"Milord, I understand. Like you said, those who slight the Nortons shall be put down, far as they may be! We are going to punish the darned slaver nobles and slave traders. Reaping their wealth is only par for the course and not our main goal."

"Good. Potterfang, tell me more about the report Lundmorde sent. How did the second highness lose that badly?"

"Well, after the War of Glass, Teribo VII went insane and killed himself. Many nations that sent forces to join the allied army were also swallowed up. Two of the nations, in particular, was ended by the very soldiers they sent out as reinforcements, so I suspect something along the lines of bribery went on. They actually captured the leaders of their nation and surrendered them to the Union. Right now, the Union has the third largest territory of all the nations on Grindia, and they have incurred the caution and suspicion of their neighbors.

"Lundmorde says that the price of goods in Morante right now is incredibly high. The ale at the Red Grace Inn that costs only two coppers is worth ten coppers right now. Also, Lundmorde asked for a raise, he said he wouldn't be able to feed his family otherwise.

"As for the second highness's loss, Lundmorde only found out about it after he read the Morante Daily. According to the paper, a new military strategist called Zitram or something emerged among the nobles of the Redlis kingdom. He used the second highness's carelessness to bait his forces into a low-lying area and destroyed a dam nearby. As a result, the second highness's army has been wiped out. Even though it's said that the second highness managed to escape alive, his army of 70 thousand is almost completely decimated. He's sworn vengeance against the man.

Chapter 275 Battle on Shore

Ship sails fluttered noisily, filled by the strong ocean winds. A circle of 137 ships of all shapes and sizes slipped over the water.

Whale Island VIII was one of these ships. It had originally been a whaling ship, but the whales had long been eradicated. It underwent extensive modification and was now a large-class fishing ship. She was part of a fleet of eight, all of whom were former whaling ships, that fished for the house.

Whale Island VIII's cabin was tightly packed. More than ten household knights were seated shoulder-to-shoulder. They were listening to Potterfang's brief on their strategy for the upcoming attack on the Hanayabarta kingdom.

A hand-drawn map of the Hanayabarta archipelago hung on the cabin wall. The room was illuminated by slightly over ten thick cow-fat candles.

Potterfang held a thin wooden stick in his hand as he continued the brief.

"Apart from the main island of the archipelago, there are another 27 islands of different sizes. The ones we have to watch out for are the eight right next to Nupite, called the Seaweed Islands.

"According to some slaves, the Seaweed Island Major is the dominion of Baron Sinyada. There is a plantation there were more than 400 slaves toil away with a security squad of roughly 30 people. As for the smaller ones, they're too small to be enfeoffed as a proper dominion, but sometimes, the slaver nobles will travel there for a vacation. As long as we pay attention to the shorelines of those islands for the presence of ships, we'll be able to determine whether there is anyone there easily. Regiment leader Polant, you are assigned to take those islands and leave a regiment of troops on the large one to settle the slaves down. Tell them that we, House Norton, have come to liberate them. As for the guards, if they're not helpful or cooperative, hang them."

"Roger that, sir," said a big-bodied silver-ranked knight as he stood up.

Potterfang continued to wave his wooden pointer stick the map as he said, "After the Seaweed Islands come the Twin Pomfret Islands. They are roughly of the same size, about the size of a viscounty each. Like the largest island, these also have slaver noble manors with roughly 800 slaves on each island and another security team of approximately a hundred people. Leddings, take the western Pomfret Island and Grey will take the eastern one."

"Understood, sir," said two silver-ranked knights in unison.

"Following that we have the Twinhead Tortoise Island and the Fallen Feather Island. The twinhead tortoise island has two dominions on it; one belongs to a viscount and the other to a baron. In both dominions are slave-run manors. The fallen feather island, on the other hand, has a county on it that even has a castle. Rumor has it that the slaver count would occasionally travel to the island to stay a few days at his castle. Morse, the Twinhead Tortoise Island will be yours to take care of.

"Zigda, I'll leave the Fallen Feather Island to you. I will also send out a regiment of wheelbarrow-ballista troops to assist you. According to the slaves, that count is also guarded by a blademaster. If you do see the slaver count on the island, don't be rash lest you suffer huge casualties. Just send someone to report to us and we'll take care of the blademaster, understood?"

"Yes, sir," replied the silver-ranked knight Zigda.

"Lastly, we have Goldshark Island and Duck Island. These two islands are angled together like a V-shape funnel, and at the innermost point between the two islands lies Nupite. Goldshark Island belongs to a duke. Fiercetiger Loze, sweep Goldshark Island clean with one division of heavy-armored troops and another regiment of wheelbarrow-ballista troops."

"Alright," responded Loze with a smile.

"Ovidis..."

"Reporting for duty, sir!" exclaimed Ovidis as he stood up suddenly.

"Your Thunderbolt Brigade shall fight to occupy that corner of the island after Loze's attack. Over there is an ocean channel roughly 160 meters in width which you must seal up so that the ships docked at Nupite won't have the chance to escape. I will assign a brigade of heavy-armored troops and another brigade of wheelbarrow-ballista troops to aid you in your endeavor so that the enemy won't get the chance to get off their ships and attack you on land."

"Sure thing. Not one of the enemy ships will be able to leave the port," promised Ovidis.

"Malek, Duck Island is a little larger than Goldshark Island, and there are two counties and one viscounty there. You will be responsible for occupying the slave-run manors there."

"Roger," replied Malek.

Potterfang began waving his stick again as he continued, "Between Duck Island and the main island is a reefy area, so we won't have to worry about the enemy escaping from there. From the map, you can see that the bay at Nupite resembles a huge wine barrel. All we have to do is seal the main and sub routes, the ships in the port will definitely be unable to escape.

"I'm leaving that task to the Oceanic Legion. Senbaud, Milord said that you only need to sink around ten incoming ships to clog up the routes. Remember, it is crucial that you do not let the enemy ships get close, understood?"

Senbaud nodded in agreement.

"Apart from the units who will conquer the eight islands, the remaining ships should all circle around the reef area opposite of Duck Island and get onto the shores of the main island. Milord will personally lead that unit. As there is roughly a kilometer between Nupite and the coast we will be docking at, all troops are to get into defensive formations promptly once they're on the shore. When all the troops are properly deployed, we will commence our attack.

"Yuriy, your light cavalry scout brigade won't be participating in the attack on Nupite. Since your troops are cavalry units, take a detour and make your way to the rear of the city immediately and occupy the hilly area there. That is the crucial route from the port to the Hamidas, the royal capital. Occupying the route will allow us to stop our enemies from getting any news of what's happening at Nupite and also seal off the land-based escape route for the slavers. Josk, Milord ordered you to follow Yuriy and the rest to back them up."

"Roger that," said Yuriy and Josk in unison.

"Milord, do you have any more instructions?" asked Potterfang as he turned to Lorist, who sat in the corner.

Lorist got off his chair and said, "Potterfang, you've been incredibly thorough with your attack plan, so I won't need to comment much. I will, however, remind you all of two things. First, we're here to save our people and avenge the deaths of those who were killed, but we're not here on a suicide mission. Even though the forces of the house are incredibly strong, it won't do for us to be careless.

"The slavers of the kingdom are incredibly rich, so they've no doubt hired quite a number of blademasters. According to the captives, Nupite alone has close to 20 blademasters. That's why all of us have to exercise extreme caution. Make sure to stay in formation to avoid any unnecessary casualties. Let the wheelbarrow-ballista units, Blademaster Engelich, and I deal with the enemy blademasters.

"Second, the Hanayabarta kingdom has more than 400 thousand slaves. Those slaves will be our main source of aid. Make sure to tell them that we're here to liberate them and that they will regain their freedom as long as the slavers are defeated. We have to treat them well. They will be our guides.

"Alright, if there are no other questions, go back and make your preparations. The fleet will set sail shortly. Remember the main reason for our attack on the kingdom: those who slight the Nortons shall be put down!"

All of the knights stood and saluted as one, thumping their right fist on their left chest as they chanted, "Those who slight the Nortons shall be put down!"

The blow of a horn could be heard across the wide and expansive sea as one ship after another raised their sails and headed to the southwest.

......

A horn blared not far from Nupite. It warned of an attack. Panicking droves of enemies could be seen in the distance through the telescope. They didn't know how to respond and had no choice but to pace around in terror. There had never been an invasion in the decades the Hanayabarta kingdom existed. The local guards to no longer knew how to react properly. They were so used to dealing with nothing but weak, helpless slaves that they couldn't deal with an organized force anymore.

The Windstorm had already turned to the side, aligning the cannons on her left to the mast-filled shores of the port before firing. Any ship that raised their sails would be torn apart without question nor mercy.

Led by a middle-class ship at the front, up to a hundred household armed ships of various sizes took a turn around the Windstorm, avoiding the reef area and heading straight for the shore up front.

The city's bells rang with ever-increasing urgency and the city, so famed for its ability to deal with slaves, erupted in a frenzy of panic and terror. Cries and curses streamed incessantly into Lorist's ear.

The Windstorm's cannons let out yet another round of thunderous booms. Lorist could hear that the twelve cannons on one side of the Windstorm did not fire all at once; instead, they were divided into three firing groups that alternated. Each volley was shot by four cannons. It ensured that there were cannonballs flying towards the city at all times.

The ship shuddered momentarily - it had beached. Lorist leaped from the ship and, despite still being quite a distance from dry land, found that the water only came to his chest. He could hear countless splashes behind him as he started wading to shore.

Standing on the shore, Lorist turned back and saw the water-splashed soldiers of the house. He could see heavy-armored troops jumping off another ship that had just reached the shore, but the wheelbarrow-carroballista troops were troubled about what to do with their weapons. While they could jump straight into the sea like the others, they couldn't actually toss their wheelbarrow-ballistae off the ship.

Lorist stopped a guard beside him.

"Go tell them to have four ballista troops to get off the ship first before lowering the wheelbarrow-ballistae down and carrying them to the shore," he said as he pointed to the ship.

"Understood, Milord," said the guard before he dashed away.

Another sounding of the horn could be heard as thousands of people rushed out of the port in the distance. They began charging to the troops forming up on the beach.

"Get into formation!" (Editor's Note: Get to the shingle at the top of the beach!)

Every single disembarked troop hurriedly assembled into a square formation, each contained about 100 people. The formations lined up side by side, forming a long rectangular defensive line. The soldiers still jumping off the ships scrambled to get into formation as well. They didn't even bother to shake off the water or twist it out of their clothing. In the blink of an eye, more than ten square formations stood in front of Lorist.

The people rushing out of the port were less than 200 meters away. They didn't expect that Lorist's troops would be able to assemble so quickly. They thought they would be able to catch them off guard and push them back into the sea. However, by the time they arrived in front of the enemy, the ones rushing at the front had begun to hesitate. Even though they were still approaching, they did so warily, with careful steps.

It seemed that those who had arrived were a group of hurriedly-assembled slavers. Their armor and weapons were hastily put together. As Lorist swept his gaze past the enemy fighters, his view suddenly stilled.

Among the ranks of the enemy stood about a hundred men wearing the armor of the Norton troops. It was obvious that they were the ones who had been part of the attack on Silowas and had taken the armor off the dead of the third local defense brigade.

"My soldiers, do you see them over there? Those fellows are wearing the armor of our comrades! What do you think we should do?" Lorist called out in a clear voice for his men to hear.

A commotion broke out among the troops before a thousand voices began to chant the same thing: "Kill! Kill them all!".

Lorist drew his longsword and pointed it at the enemy.

"Then, kill them as you please! Avenge our fallen comrades!"

Leaping to the very front, Lorist rushed towards the enemy ranks. The distance of roughly 200 meters was closed almost instantly. With a great howl, Lorist thrust himself into the forest of spears. He swung his longsword and lopping enemy heads off with abandon. Blood splattered all over as man and horse crashed to the ground and the enemy formation fell into disarray.

Countless corpses lay unmoving on the ground as cries of pain resounded nonstop. Lorist moved wherever he pleased amidst the enemy -- none of whom were able to match his sword as it cut them down. He left a river of blood in his wake. The moment Lorist spotted an enemy wearing the armor of the Norton soldiers, he would give pursuit relentlessly until the enemy was felled by his sword.

A sword strike like flowing water flashed in the corner of his eye and appeared in front of him a moment later.

"Oh, a blademaster?" he said excitedly as he parried the strike.

The longsword in his hand blurred out of existence as he launched into a storm of attacks, pressing on against the old blademaster with a goatee. The Hanayabarta kingdom was not short on blademasters who craved the high pay offered by the slavers. Lorist resolved himself to kill as many as he could to minimize the casualties of his troops.

Clang-clang-clang-clang! Sounds of clashing swords echoed across the beach and out over the ocean.

"Ugh," grunted the old man.

He rolled his eyes the moment his throat was slit. Blood poured nonstop from the gaping hole.

"Sol, can you even call yourself a rank 1 blademaster with those skills?" commented Lorist in an aloof tone.

The goateed blademaster must have been one of the weakest of his rank, for he had only been able to take twelve of Lorist's strikes before being felled.

Two roars rang out beside Lorist with no warning. Turning around to look, he could see a dark-skinned burly man and another old gloomy-looking guy rushing towards him with their swords.

"Ah, two more blademasters have come. Hehe, just in time!"

Lorist as he rushed to cross swords with them.

The pudgy dark-skinned man's strikes carried with them lots of weight. Given the obvious and glaring horizontal and vertical strikes, the man had to be one that walked the path of brute force. The gloomy old man, on the other hand, excelled in sneak attacks. He launched careful strikes behind the huge dark-skinned man. The two were a rather good team.

However, it didn't take long for Lorist to get a good grasp of their attack pattern. The two blademasters struggled more and more under Lorist's flurry of strikes as time passed. It wasn't long before the huge blademaster sustained two injuries and was slowed down substantially.

"Arrgghh!" cried the huge blademaster the moment he suffered yet another cut.

This one chipped off a good chunk of flesh and revealed the bone beneath.

Seeing the unfavorable situation, the gloomy blademaster ducked behind his huge partner and shoved him straight at Lorist before turning tail in an attempt to escape. Lorist sidestepped the huge man and pushed his sword through the back of the gloomy-looking blademaster.

The dark-skinned man chuckled as he said, "Haha, that old dog actually tried to abandon me and run... I bet he didn't think that he would be the first to die instead... Hahaha, come, just end it for me already..."

Lorist furrowed his brow and asked, "Aren't you all rank 1 blademasters? Why are you so weak?"

The dark-skinned man smiled in a weird manner before he said, "We were satisfied when we reached the rank of blademaster and began to enjoy life as we pleased. Over here, I fooled around with more than ten women every single day! How would I have the time to train with my sword?

"That old dog over there likes young girls, what a messed up fellow. As for that one," he paused as he pointed at the first blademaster to die by Lorist's sword, "That fellow loves food and men the most."

Lorist came to understand that the blademasters that accepted the Hanayabarta kingdom's offer were all those who no longer intended to continue their training. They weren't the least bit as strong as Lorist had imagined them to be and were a far cry from the rank 1 blademaster of the Dawn Academy, Instructor Claude, or Viscount Kristoph of House Fisablen. The main difference between the blademasters of the kingdom and those other two was that the former wanted to enjoy their lives rather than continue to toil hard until they broke through to the next stage.

"How many of you are there?" asked Lorist.

"Four," said the dark-skinned man without needing further elaboration on Lorist's part.

"Remember to not walk the wrong path in your next life," said Lorist before he strode past the man, lopping his head off.

Lorist looked around trying to spot the last blademaster but only saw emptiness all around him. Nobody dared to get close to the body of the blademasters around him.

Even though the battle on the shore was still being fought, the Norton forces were obviously holding an advantage. Even though there were quite a number of gold-ranked swordsmen among the enemy, the discipline of the Norton troops allowed them to hold their formation. All of the corpses littering the shore were those of the slavers.

Ah, there he is, thought Lorist the moment he saw a distinct sword flash in the distance.

Engelich was caught up in battle with another old fellow dressed in black scale armor. From the looks of it, Engelich seemed to be on the losing end.

Lorist rushed there promptly, but still managed to cut off the heads of two gold ranks along the way.

"Engelich, you're far too lousy. I've already killed three blademasters myself, yet you were unable to take care of even one. It seems that I will have to school you hard in the future, lest you embarrass the Norton name."

Engelich said as he breathed raggedly, "Milord, did you not see that the guy over there is a rank 2 blademaster?"

"Oh, no wonder you weren't able to take him on. Step back and let me at him," said Lorist before he jumped forward with his sword.

The old blademaster wearing the black scale armor was terrified the moment he heard that Lorist had slain three blademasters. He tried to escape immediately. Just as Lorist was about to give chase, he heard a loud cry.

"Fire!"

Several loud twangs rang out. A moment later the retreating blademaster let out a cry of pain. He looked just like a wild hare that had been nailed to the ground with an arrow. There were two iron bolts piercing through his back and more than a dozen on the ground around his body.

The wheelbarrow-ballista division's troops had finally managed to get into formation on the shore. Their first target was the old blademaster that had been battling Engelich. They had been unable to fire any earlier because Engelich was engaged in close-combat with the blademaster. They released their bolts without hesitation the moment the two parted, however.

With the four blademaster completely wiped out, the remaining slavers cast their weapons aside and ran back towards the city. They weren't fast enough to evade the ballistae's fire, however, and were nailed to the ground one after another.

"Blow the horn to get into proper formation! We'll launch our attack on the port right away!" instructed Lorist.

Chapter 276 Karman

A large number of people could be seen at the plaza next to the port in the distance. However, when Lorist rushed over there, the group of people merely stirred slightly before stepping aside to make a path while looking with an odd gaze of wonder and envy. Their tattered rags made their identity clear; they were slaves.

Lorist found it weird that so many slaves were gathered at the port and wondered why they had done so. However, Lorist was a little slow to arrive. The guards of the port who had been busy frightening the slaves at first had cast away their armor and entered the inner walls of Nupite before hurriedly closing the gates.

It didn't take long for another wave of pained cries and moans and a few streaks of smoke coming from the distance to take Lorist's attention. A large group of enslaved women and children were despairing on the bridge near the port, where another 17 to 18 small speed boats could be seen carrying huge linen sacks that were set aflame.

Lorist quickly understood the reason for the women and children's cries. Those slaves had been chained to the port and were unable to move away from where they were. They could only stare as the linen sacks burned brighter and fiercer and await their death with despair.

Some of the slaves wore expressions of grief while others looked as if they were finally going to be liberated from their life of suffering. There were also those who were coughing nonstop for inhaling too much smoke. One huge, scarred man seated at the frontmost part with a burning sack behind him called out to his family and implored them to stay strong and live.

Like a huge bird, Lorist dashed his way to the burning speedboats. The moment he set foot on the deck, a waft of smoke rushed into his nostrils.

Good Sol, these sacks have all been doused with oil. No wonder the fire's so strong.

Without hesitation, Lorist used a long stick he picked up by the side of the port to push the sacks into the ocean, causing one cheer after another to resound along the bridge. A few other soldiers and knights made their way to the bridge and helped their lord save the slaves.

The household knights easily cut the slaves' chains with their silver blade glows, allowing those who had barely just survived to reunite with their families.

"Sir, good Sir..."

Lorist turned around and saw the man with scars all over his body holding two children around ten years old come to him and prostrate himself as he said, "Thank you, Sir, for saving our lives."

Lorist stepped back and said, "Stand up, you don't have to thank me in this fashion. House Norton forbids slavery. You are free."

On Grindia, prostrating oneself with all limbs flat on the ground was one of the most extreme forms of submission. It was normally reserved for sacrificial ceremonies to the gods. It just so happened that the Hanayabarta kingdom mandated that the slaves show them the same degree of respect to sate their egotistical cravings for power.

The huge man looked flabbergasted as if he couldn't believe what he had just heard.

"We... we're free?"

Lorist nodded.

"That's right, you are free. However, you will still have to be monitored temporarily so that you don't cause trouble for our operations. We are in the midst of a war, so you will only regain true freedom once I defeat the slavers and slave traders."

The huge man straightened his back and hugged his two children, crying.

"We're free... We're finally free..."

Lorist took a good look at that man and his two children. The older one was a boy around the age of twelve while the younger child was a girl of around seven. She was dressed just like a boy, however. Her hair was incredibly messy. Lorist assumed it was a protective measure to ensure her safety.

"Sir, apologies for showing you my unsightly form," the huge man said after a good long sob, "Can you tell me your name, Sir? I will definitely not forget my debt to you."

"We are House Norton from the Northlands, also known as the Roaring Raging Bear," replied a guard beside Lorist proudly.

"Northlands... Norton... Raging Bear?" the huge man mused, "Ah, I know. You're here to exact revenge. No wonder your armor looks so familiar. A fight broke out over one of your armor sets and some people even died as a result."

"Oh, what are you called?" asked Lorist, raising an eyebrow.

"I'm called Karman, Sir. I come from the Romon Empire," replied the huge man respectfully.

"The Romon Empire? Wow, that's quite far. Stand up. Tell me how you came to be a slave in the first place," said Lorist.

"Thank you, Sir," said Karman as he stood up, "I used to be an apprentice attendant to Count Bilop. The count angered the prime minister and was stripped of his dominion and attacked by the empire's army. After the attendants and guards were captured, of which I was one, we were sold off as slaves. It happened about 19 years ago. I was just 15 at the time."

"You've awakened your battleforce?"

"That's right. Had it not been for that, I wouldn't have been able to stay alive for so long. It's only because of my battleforce that I was considered in a much better light and even allowed to bear two children," replied Karman.

"Then, why were you chained up over here?" asked Lorist.

"Look," Karman said as he pointed at the Windstorm near other sunken ships in the distance, "Is that ship one of your family's, Sir?"

Lorist nodded.

"That ship's far too powerful! The ten of the royal family's patrol ships were sunk in mere moments. The remaining ones don't dare to engage it. So, one of the people in charge came up with a ploy to dump flaming piles on the speedboats and have them sail towards your ship. They wanted us slaves to paddle the boats in exchange for the safety of our families..."

Lorist felt a chill run down his spine and relieved that he had made it in time to stop the enemy's plan. Over 30 flaming boats ramming into the Windstorm would be something terrible to behold.

"Search all the ships around the port and capture anyone on board and bring them here. Kill anyone who resists," instructed Lorist to the guard nearby.

"Sir, the crews of the royal patrol fleet have already retreated behind the inner walls. Their ships have long been evacuated," said Karman.

"Aren't there still people on the other merchant vessels? Everyone must come here to be screened," said Lorist with satisfaction.

The 200-odd ships would become his property soon. They alone were easily worth more than a million gold Fordes.

"Karman, tell me more about the incident regarding the armor of our troops."

"Did the slavers attack your dominion three months ago, Sir?" asked Karman.

"That's right. They attacked one of our island dominions."

"Sir, the garrison troops of your dominion were really amazing," Karman praised, "I still recall that more than 20 guards from this port joined that attack and only three of them came back. Even though they managed to gain quite a bit of coin, they only managed to get one breastplate from your troops. After they returned, the three fought over who should take possession of the breastplate without end. Due to being excessively drunk, a fight broke out and it ended with two dead and one heavily injured. The injured one died two days later from excessive blood loss, so the leader of the guards took the breastplate for himself.

"I was among the slaves who were tasked to deal with the corpses, so I got a good look at that breastplate. The moment I saw your troops wearing armor of the same design, I knew you were here to take revenge. However, Milord, there seemed to have been lots of people who were captured during their attack. I recall seeing tens of thousands of enslaved people. We were wondering where they came from in the first place."

"Only a part of the people captured were subjects of my dominion. Most of them are refugees who were brought in to develop our dominion. It was precisely because of their presence that the slavers decided to attack us. Karman, many of our troops were captured as well. Do you know where they are being held?" asked Lorist.

"I seem to have heard something about it before," said Karman in deep thought.

"Bali. Bali, come over."

Karman called out to a slave behind him.

A thin young man around the age of 17 came forward timidly and asked, "You called for me, Uncle Karman?"

"Yes. Bali, do you remember seeing a group of weird-looking slaves at the port two months ago?"

Bali nodded.

Karman continued, "Think hard about this. Why did those slaves strike you as weird? Also, where were they taken?"

"Oh, they looked a little too prideful to be slaves. Many of them were injured and some were even outright cursing, saying that their lord would come to save them and kill all of the slavers without question. The leader of the guards here was present at that time and attempted to use his whip to teach them a lesson. But the slavers said that those slaves were for the Hamidas Dueling Grounds and that the guard leader would have to pay for the losses should the slaves be injured. In the end, the guard leader took his anger out on us and even gave me a few whips," explained Bali.

"Hamidas Dueling Grounds?" mused Lorist with dread.

What Karman said proved Lorist's fears to be right.

"Sir, perhaps, only a few of your soldiers are still alive. The Hamidas Dueling Grounds is nothing short of hell. That place hosts the crying souls of the dead slave gladiators. The slavers love performances like those the most. They love to see magic beasts tear helpless slaves apart and pit one group of slaves against another until one side is completely wiped out.

"There is usually a 'show' once every ten days, but those shows are relatively small scale with only a little more than ten dying each time. Every month, however, there would be a large-scale battle with more than a hundred slaves participating for the slavers' entertainment. Last month, they held one of those shows to celebrate the founding of the kingdom. I heard that up to a thousand slave gladiators died during the fights."

Lorist fumed.

He said with bloodshot eyes, "Very well... For every one of our troops that died at the Hamidas Dueling Grounds, I will have ten slavers buried with them. If one of my household knights die, I will sacrifice ten of those slaver nobles to appease their souls."

"Milord," a heavy-armored soldier called out as he rushed over, "We have already sealed off four of the city gates, but there are lots of ballistae on the walls that caused us a small number of casualties. Blademaster Engelich sent me here to ask you when we will begin the siege."

Lorist raised his head and looked at the distant inner walls upon which many people were gathered.

"Are there that many ballistae up there?"

"We estimate at least a hundred," replied the soldier.

Even though Lorist was still feeling seething anger after finding out where his troops and knights were sent, he didn't let his emotions affect his decision to order the troops to attack the walls immediately.

"Order our troops to retreat to a safe distance. Form a defensive line to stop anyone from escaping. Order the wheelbarrow-ballista units to keep firing at the walls around four gates to put pressure on the enemy troops on the walls operating the ballistae. Since we've occupied the port area, have Ovidis's Thunderbolt Brigade come ashore for now. We'll let the enemies in the inner walls live for another day. We'll launch our attack tomorrow," instructed Lorist.

"Yes, milord," said the soldier before he ran off.

"Milord," said Potterfang as he came over.

"What's up with your situation?" asked Lorist.

"Yuriy and Josk have already begun operations with the light cavalry scout brigade. Apart from the ships that have docked, we had the remaining ones come over to the port over here. I've already had the battlefield cleaned up. We have around 300 casualties and more than 2000 dead enemies," replied Potterfang.

"Good. If Fiercetiger Loze, Malek, and the rest managed to conquer the eight islands, order them to bring their men here. Have all the slaves and captives brought over to the main island and leave a company of troops to defend each of the islands. Make sure to light a smoke signal the moment any enemy movement is noticed. Also, get Senbaud's Oceanic Legion to increase the patrols around the islands. Assign one brigade of heavy-armored troops and another brigade of wheelbarrow-ballista to him to deal with the remaining 19 islands. Have the slaves and captives brought over here as well."

"Understood, Milord," replied Potterfang.

"Sir, Sir..." Karman called out.

"What's wrong?" asked Lorist.

"Sir, can you give us a chance to aid you in any way? You've saved our lives and have given us our freedom. We are willing to form up and help you attack the walls. Sir, we are not afraid of death. As long as you give us some weapons, we will be more than willing to revolt and pay the slavers back for all the pains we've suffered."

Lorist shook his head.

"Karman, I appreciate your sentiment, but to be honest, you guys are not well-trained and have quite weak constitutions. It's not that I'm looking down on you guys, but sending you to attack the walls is nothing short of suicide. It is a sacrifice that will not bring us any benefit at all."

Karman's gaze dimmed as he understood that Lorist spoke nothing but the truth.

"However, there is a way that you can help me out," Lorist said as he pointed at the slaves gathered up near the port, "Organize them properly. We will need guides to show us the way to the palace's food stores so that we can get something prepared to feed you. I heard that there are more than 400 thousand slaves here in the kingdom. If I merely liberate you and leave you to your own devices, a food crisis would surely ensue.

"Find some more talented and trustworthy ones among the slaves and gather them up. I believe that you are more than capable of this. Form a temporary settlement to help us organize and deal with the slaves we rescue. Only after the slaver nobles are exterminated can we transport you lot back to the mainland and return you to your homes.

"Also, there's a lot of things I will need your help with. You guys can help us screen the slavers and determine which are worthy of death and help us find their hidden warehouses; you can also help with cooking… Support the injured instead of charging to your deaths. If you are willing, you are also free to follow us back to the Northlands to our dominion and start your lives there. Karman, are you willing to help me out?"

Karman bowed deeply and said, "Milord, it is my greatest honor to be able to serve you. I trust that the other slaves are more than willing to do so as well."

Chapter 277 Hector and the Slave Camp

Karman did not disappoint. He quickly gathered up the slaves at the port and began to set up camp. He also sent some slaves who were familiar with the islands and terrain to serve as guides and aided with the occupation of the warehouses in and out of the walls. He also managed to recruit other slaves to his cause and set up tens of youth slave squads numbering around a hundred men each to keep the camp in order. Not only that, he also had the women and children help out with other chores such as cooking food and making soup, greatly contributing to the Norton forces.

Being the most well-known slave trading area, Nupite was considered a rather large city, even though the inner walls weren't that large. Ever since the founding of the kingdom, the city's walls had never once been assailed by enemies, so the slavers and slave traders turned complacent and began expansive development at the outer part of the cities away from the defense afforded by the inner walls. They built mansions, manors, warehouses, and trade areas, all of which had fallen into Lorist's hands.

Countless slaves gathered together joyfully and the newly set-up camp continued to grow in size. The slavers and traders cried and cursed from the top of the walls as they watched one warehouse after another pried open and stripped bare.

At three in the afternoon, the guards on the inner walls began to throw flaming torches down to light up the houses built along the sides of the inner walls. Perhaps they had intended to use the flames to torch all that was outside the walls, but Lorist reacted quickly and had the slaves aid the family forces to set up an isolated area beyond which the fire could not spread just shy of the of the ballistae on the walls' range, thus foiling the enemy's plan. He had his own ballistae firing at the walls all the while, inflicting severe casualties on the those atop them.

In the evening, a group of soldiers Lorist sent out to scout brought some good news: they had found Hector, the chief secretary of Silowas, much to his surprise and delight. The slave camp they had built held around 80 thousand people, but that number was still shy of a third of the total slave population on the archipelago. There was little doubt that the population in the camp would grow explosively over the coming days, so Lorist was glad to hear that Hector would be able to return to his service and manage the area. Lorist had much else to do.

When the slavers attacked Silowas, Hector could have retreated to Farama Village first. But just as he was leaving Whitebird Town, a group of slavers was on their tail and Mayor Hugo brought ten or so youths with him to keep them at bay. Hector, on the other hand, was busy evacuating the panicked townfolk, which had cost him the time he needed to escape, leading to his eventual capture.

The only thing Hector could find solace in was the fact that he had moved his family members to the Northlands back when he thought that the Chikdor Merchant Guild would attack the island. He was glad he wouldn't have to worry about his family's safety. He had witnessed more than a few tragic moments, of families being broken apart, during his voyage to the kingdom.

To Hector, the slavers were nothing but uncultured beasts wearing the skin of men. They did not contain a single shred of humanity. Putting aside the slaughter of the elderly and injured before leaving the island, during the ten-odd days of sailing back to the Hanayabarta kingdom, they violated every single woman on the ships save a few nubile maidens picked and saved for the slaver nobles.

Hector, on the other hand, was rather lucky as his captors had noticed his talents during the voyage. Upon knowing that he was the chief secretary of Silowas and graduate of the Krissen Empire's Mobor Academy, the slavers did not treat Hector as they did the other slaves. Instead, they had him become a bookkeeper to handle the miscellaneous matters of a company at Nupite.

When the Norton forces took over one warehouse after another, Hector was flabbergasted. He had thought that Lorist would at most send a representative to ransom him and the rest of the knights. He didn't think that Lorist would be able to mount a full-scale attack in just three short months.

During the day, Hector continued his work in the warehouse as usual without knowing about the situation outside. It was not until he saw the troops dressed in Norton standard issue armor that he announced his identity and was brought before Lorist.

After some consolation and pleasantries, Lorist quickly assigned Hector some tasks. Hector felt his head numbing when he saw the thick stack of documents on the table and started to miss his job back at the warehouse.

"Milord, you've given me so much to handle, but do you have anything you want me to focus extra effort on?" asked Hector.

Lorist realized that he shouldn't have asked Hector to take care of every single matter, trivial or not, and said, "How about this... Just deal with the matters of the slave camp. The main priorities of the house are to rescue our knights and officials that were captured and avenge the deaths of our good folk during their assault. As an aside, we're going to glean as much wealth as possible from the kingdom to solve the lack of funds our house is facing.

"To be frank, this deployment is an incredibly risky endeavor. Apart from a few select high officials of the house, the rest are not aware that we only had little more than a week's worth of supplies before we took over the resources here. In other words, our fleet wouldn't have enough food for a return trip. Had we encountered misfortune on the way here, the tens of thousands of troops would very possibly perish.

"That's why, the forces will have to rely on this place to get our supplies, and it is crucial that we get the help of the slaves for this. I have declared that we came to take revenge on the slavers as well as to liberate the slaves of the archipelago, with the condition that they must first be organized. Otherwise, the whole situation would fall into chaos with vengeful slaves messing up our plan and causing a huge fiasco.

"The Hanayabarta kingdom has more than 400 thousand slaves, with more than 100 thousand located at the plains near Hamidas. The other 200 thousand are most likely located around the area of Port Nupite. Today alone, we have taken in more than 70 thousand slaves. Countless more are due to arrive in the next week. The key of your task is to manage them well enough so they can aid our forces in our expedition.

"Milord, I understand. I will definitely make sure that they're in good order," said Hector.

Lorist shook his head and said, "Hector, don't treat these slaves like normal refugees, that will be to your detriment. You can't allow the slaves to spend long periods of time in the camp with nothing to do. The key is to keep them occupied. The thing I'm most worried about is that these slaves will launch a revolt against the slaver nobles right away the moment they are freed, setting fire to the manors and mansions if they are unable to find their tormentors. This situation is so volatile that it may erupt at any moment."

Lorist handed Hector a document.

"Read through it," he said, "We have two warehouses' worth of linen cloth from our spoils. I have already instructed for it to be sent to the slave camp to be made into clothes for the slaves. I want to gain their trust and confidence, and show them that our efforts to liberate them are sincere, not some ploy to trap them.

"Doing so will also keep the slaves occupied instead of letting them dilly-dally around the camp with nothing to do. The latter is just a recipe for disaster. Some of the more ambitious slaves could use this chance to rally some minions and push the others in the camp around. The moment that happens, it will become a huge pain for our house. You should be aware that there are over 300 thousand slaves on the whole of the archipelago while our forces only number around 40 thousand.

"When you manage the camp, put your efforts into these few things. First, form a smith camp and have slaves with any sort of skill in crafting assigned there. Second, form a few patrol brigades from a few strong reliable youths to keep the order of the camps. Third, screen the slaves and pick out any bad apples, especially those that have oppressed other slaves on their masters' behalf. Kill those who have blood on their hands and put the others into a camp for hard labor. Those are the ones who will cause the most trouble.

"Additionally, make sure to pay extra attention to our captives. I will assign two heavy-armored brigades and one wheelbarrow-ballista brigade to you that will be in charge of watching the captives and our supply stores, and as a precaution against any form of revolt or chaos breaking out in the slave camp. Should that ever happen, mobilize those three brigades to quell any resistance. We must ensure that the slave camp is kept in order at all times.

"I've already instructed the Oceanic Legion to scour the surrounding islands. They will bring more captives and slaves here over the next few days. The population of the slave camp will easily shoot past 300 thousand. As it's already the 9th month and the harvest season, we should not waste the food planted around the island. You may organize some slaves to help out with the harvest, and if there are any who wish to stay on the island after this whole ordeal to make a life for themselves, we can promise them farmland here. They can settle down here as our subjects and enjoy a life of bliss and stability."

"Milord, are you saying that you're going to make this place a dominion of the house?" asked Hector.

"That's right," Lorist nodded and said, "I intend to exterminate the Hanayabarta kingdom and make this the overseas dominion of our house. After screening those slaves and rooting out the troublesome ones, you can assign those who are willing to stay back here on the archipelago to help us out. The house will provide them with living necessities as well as farmland and houses."

"What about the captives, Milord? How should we handle them? Let them work hard labor?"

"Hard labor? Hehe, only in their wildest dreams. They aren't even qualified for that," Lorist said as an insidious smile surfaced on his face, "Ask the soldiers of the house whether they're willing to let those murderers off after seeing the state of Silowas. Only humans serve hard labor, not animals. Let me be honest with you, Hector, I'm not going to spare a single soul of the citizens of the Hanayabarta kingdom, whether they be nobles or commoners. I will kill every single one of them to make an example for the rest of the world to see..."

Hector felt a chill down his spine from the seething killing intent radiating from Lorist.

"Milord, I understand that the slavers and slave traders are deserving of death. Their soldiers that have committed so many atrocities are no different either. But you can't kill the commoners, especially those innocent women and children... They of all people should not be your target to vent your rage on..."

Lorist smiled while shaking his head as his gaze turned ice cold. "Hector, I know you are a good man. But you've forgotten that the Hanayabarta kingdom is a nation built on the suffering of countless slaves. The commoners, including their women and children, are guilty by birth. While some of them did not personally take the life of a slave, it doesn't change the fact that they're benefitting off the blood and tears of the slaves. Now, the time of retribution is upon them. They will not be able to escape it."

"Milord, we have more men than woman and most of them are young and fit, can't we draft the female captives into a harlot camp to serve those slaves that serve our house? Also, if they wish to settle down here, they may take those captives as wives. Our soldiers will also need an outlet for their lust after all the killing, right? I think that at the very least, taking the female captives into the harlot camp as atonement for their sins is far better than killing them off just like that," suggested Hector as a compromise.

Lorist fell into deep thought and finally said, "You're right, Hector. I'll leave this matter in your hands. Remember, maintaining the order of the slave camp is of paramount importance."

"Understood, Milord. I will start working right away," said Hector before he bowed.

"Take these documents with you. Also, I will have Karman, who's in charge of the slaves right now, come see you. He's a slave himself but has a three-star iron battleforce rank. He's a trustworthy one and you can make him the leader of the slave patrol squads after they are formed. Tell him that if he manages to break through to the silver rank, I will take him in as a household knight."

"Understood, Milord."

Hector left hurriedly and would be busy for quite a while. Lorist sat down in his chair and breathed a relieved sigh.

War was not just about charging into enemy formations and slaughtering away. It was a complicated intertwined web of logistics, food supply, casualty management, defensive patrols, and stationing troops. Only when all those aspects are taken into consideration would the end result be a favorable one. While 40 thousand elite troops were more than enough to wipe out the Hanayabarta kingdom, managing the 400 thousand slaves was the key to realizing the goals of House Norton.

Potterfang entered the tent and said, "Milord, your instructions have been fully carried out. More than 2000 captives have been decapitated and their heads are already in the process of being embalmed. The headless corpses are being buried by the slaves. Also, the cremation of our dead troops by the pyre is also complete and their ashes have been gathered up."

Potterfang hesitated for a while before he continued, "Milord, I don't understand why you gave that kind of order. What would you do with the heads of the enemy? You also instructed Fiercetiger Loze to do the same and bring the heads with him when he comes over. What good will this do?"

Lorist smiled and was just about to speak when a guard rushed in from outside the tent and reported that an ambassador carrying a white flag had been sent from the inner walls of the city.

"I'll answer your question later, Pog. Let's see what those ravenous wolves have to say for themselves."

The ambassador representing the slavers in the inner city was an old man, who introduced himself as a viscount of the Hanayabarta kingdom with no hereditary dominion. In other words, he was merely an honorary noble who had been picked to be the ambassador after drawing an unlucky lot.

Lorist and Potterfang were seated within the tent and the old man began to make his objections heard.

"Do you know that your mobilization in our territory is an affront against peace and our kingdom? You have brought blood and fire with you and caused us nobles of the kingdom to sustain severe losses! This is not something we are willing to forgive and put behind us!"

Lorist laughed heartily before he stood up and said, "I'm sure you know very well who I am, where I'm from, and why I came. I'll get straight to the point. Since you lot were daring enough to attack my house's dominion, you better be ready to accept our retribution. Don't tell me that you're willing to reimburse us for our losses. To be honest, there's nothing you can do to make up for our losses unless you can revive the poor people you killed on Silowas."

Lorist patted on the shoulder of the old ambassador in a friendly manner.

"We are reasonable men. Since you're here as an ambassador, we won't harm a single hair of yours. Even though we're at war, we will treat ambassadors well, so you don't have to be so afraid. We'll definitely see to it that you'll make it back safe and sound. Tell those in the inner city to have a good meal and enjoy the night, since it'll be their last. It's best if you bathe yourselves properly too. That way, the weapons of my soldiers won't be dirtied when they cut you down tomorrow."

The old man shivered uncontrollably and forced himself to stammer out a response.

"We w-will not s-submit... We still have si-six blademasters... W-we can hold on u-until the f-forces of the k-kingdom r-reinforce us..."

"Ah, wonderful," Lorist said gleefully, "Just this noon, I killed only three blademasters, but it wasn't satisfying enough for me at all. I hope that your six blademasters can last longer and not let me down. As for that king of yours... Don't worry, he will be buried alongside you soon enough."

The ambassador collapsed and burst out into tears as he made his way back whence he came.

"Pog, bring some men with you and head to an empty lot of land outside the inner walls. Stack the embalmed heads into a pyramid. As for the heads of the four blademasters, put them up on a stake and display them in front of the head pyramid. Make sure to put some torches there so the pyramid can be seen clearly even at night," said Lorist.

"Milord, you intend to..."

"Don't ask, you'll understand it when it's done."

A hundred meters from the walls of the inner city, Potterfang cleared a piece of land and began to stack the heads on one another. Even though the plot of land was within range of the ballistae, and orders could be heard barked on the walls, they never fired. The threat of return fire from the wheelbarrow ballistae was too great. The guards could only wait to see what the Nortons were up to. It didn't appear they would be attacking anytime soon.

When the few carriages' worth of heads were sent over, some of the Norton soldiers with more courage than the others began to build the head pyramid amidst the silence of the night. It was so quiet that Potterfang was even able to hear the chattering of his own teeth. During the deathly silent hour, the construction of the pyramid took, not a single arrow was fired from the walls.

Ah, so this will terrify the enemy and greatly lower their morale, figured Potterfang.

At two in the morning, a guard rushed into the tent, woke Lorist, and reported, "Milord, the enemy has breached encirclement! All of them charged out from the rear entrance towards our defense lines without regard for casualties and attempted to escape! Our troops stationed there were unable to handle the sudden surge of fleeing people. Blademaster Engelich also called for reinforcements to help hunt down the escaping enemies."

Good Sol, to think that the structure would actually scare them shitless to the point of reckless escape, thought Lorist frustratedly.

Chapter 278 News from Tarkel

However, he didn't think they would as desperate as they evidently were. They were willing to risk everything for their lives. They gathered up all the slaves in the inner city, modified a carriage by nailing some doors onto the push handles, and forced the slaves to push the shielded contraptions straight towards the Norton soldiers' line to draw their attention. Following that, tens of thousands of people rushed out of the gates and continued their charge without regard for their casualties in a desperate struggle to push past the defensive line and head into the wilderness before making their way to the royal capital.

Lorist suddenly recalled a joke from a show in his past life about a 'baldhead' reprimanding his subordinates for being inferior to pigs, as the 'rabbits' had to spend more than two days and three nights to capture tens of thousands of pigs whereas his tens of thousands of subordinates were captured within an afternoon by the 'rabbits'...

Even though the enemies rushed out in droves like a bunch of pigs, real pigs only knew to escape but those enemies would resist when they had to. When they saw that there would be no escape, they would make their last stand against the Norton soldiers. Some silver and gold ranks went all out before their moments of death, inflicting huge casualties on the Norton troops.

Lorist could do naught but order the rest of the soldiers to regroup before giving pursuit later and avoid enemies that they weren't able to handle in the interest of minimizing casualties. They were under orders to stall the enemies as best they could until more household knights arrived. On another front, Lorist himself was busy heading all over to give his assistance, all the while instructing Malek and Loze who had just arrived and were going to rest up to help him out.

It was only in the afternoon that Lorist gave the order to cease pursuit. During the night, when everyone else was gathered in the tent, Lorist felt like slapping himself after hearing the casualty report. There were more than 2900 casualties, of which 824 were dead. Almost an entire brigade had been rendered incapable of battle. Most of the dead died during the enemy's frenzied charge.

While it didn't show on his face, Lorist felt extreme remorse and thought that he should have pretended that he had the intention of negotiating with the old ambassador if only just to stall for time and let them feel safe for the moment behind their walls. Why did he have to tell the enemy about his clear intentions to kill every single one of them? After scaring the old man away, he even had Potterfang erect the terrifying monument outside the walls, which was definitely the straw that broke the camel's back.

That went horribly!

Lorist sighed and felt humbled after realizing that it had been his own overconfidence, his own hubris that had led his men to their death.

While the port was heavily-defended, only a single brigade of heavy-armored troops and another brigade of wheelbarrow-ballista troops were stationed at each of the three other gates of the walls. Lorist had believed that 500 ballistae were more than enough to secure each of the gates, but he did not take into account that his troops needed to rest. The midnight when the enemy charged out, less than 100 ballistae were fully manned and able to fire, which was one of the main causes for the enemy's successful escape.

"Milord, we've run the estimates," said Potterfang as he walked into the tent.

His left arm was bandaged.

He had been the first to rush to the troops' aid. Fortunately, he arrived in time to save Engelich's life. The old blademaster had been forced back by three other blademasters and would have been in a huge pinch had Potterfang not arrived in time.

Compared to blademasters, Potterfang was a bit lacking. But his swordsmanship was strongly defense oriented, so he was able to keep the enemy occupied without trouble. Fiercetiger Loze later rushed over and changed the situation completely. One of the blademasters who was fighting Engelich saw that the situation was taking a turn for the worse and ran. One of the other blademasters was killed by Loze and Engelich.

As the second blademaster was struck down, the third - occupied with Potterfang until then - attempted to escape as well, but Potterfang - in exchange for a blow to his shoulder - foiled his attempt. Luckily, Loze and Engelich made it in time and killed him before he could do more damage.

"Speak," said Lorist, clutching his head.

"Milord, there are 7432 enemy corpses at our defensive line. Five thousand of them were found near the city gates. Over 1700 of the dead were slaves. After a day's pursuit, we managed to capture 35 thousand prisoners, most were women and children."

Sol, so over 70 thousand enemies were within the inner city and we only managed to capture and kill around 40 thousand in total... Most of the 30 thousand who escaped must have been youths who were willing to leave the elderly, women and children behind...

Lorist only hoped that Josk and Yuriy's scouts would be able to hold the enemy back. They mounted and equipped with longbows and crossbows, so they should be able to deal quite a bit of damage.

But the number of horses available was not enough! Each scout at most had one mount to themselves instead of the usual two. It was just not possible to bring enough horses along on such a rapid response expedition, one which had to cross a vast ocean no less. Even Ovidis's Thunderbolt Brigade assignment of two horses per siege engine had to be cut down to one. Their mobility was halved as a result. If they had another cavalry brigade, the escaped enemies could easily have been surrounded. However, only Loze brought his beloved steed with him. Lorist didn't even have a mount.

"Well, for our captives, have Hector pick out the women to serve in the harlot camps and let the slave patrol squads use the rest as target practice. Allow them to vent their anger or exact their vengeance, but make sure to cut the heads off for embalming. Loze, I trust that you will be able to see it's done."

"Yes, Milord," said Loze, standing to attention.

"Malek, I'll leave clearing out the inner city to you. After that, keep all the spoils we have within the inner city and make sure not to forget to assign food and other supplies to the slave camp once every three days, understood?"

"Yes, Milord," replied Malek.

"Pog, reorganize our family forces and leave behind two heavy-armored brigades and one wheelbarrow-ballista brigade to defend the inner city and monitor the slave camp. The rest will rest for three days before marching towards Hamidas," instructed Lorist.

"Roger."

At that moment, a guard entered the tent and reported, "Milord, Tarkel has a report for you."

Huh? Why is Tarkel still on the island? thought Lorist with surprise.

He had instructed Tarkel and Els to infiltrate the Hanayabarta kingdom two months earlier. Their mission was to gather information on Nupite and Hamidas, and to find out whether it was possible to ransom the household knights and officials. Until Tarkel's arrival today, however, they had never contacted him. As a result, Lorist had been forced to deploy his forces despite the risks involved. He didn't think that Tarkel would still be on the island.

But if he's here, what about Els?

At that moment, Tarkel entered the tent. He saluted and began his report immediately.

"Milord, Els and I posed as two relatives of several high officials in the Peterson Merchant Guild and made our way here. Upon our arrival, however, we discovered things weren't going to go as smoothly as we'd hoped. The Hanayabarta kingdom has close relations with the Chikdor Merchant Guild, but not the Peterson Merchant Guild. The slavers didn't take us seriously, though they treated us with courtesy. They assumed we were young masters traveling around to see the world."

Even though he had been ignored by the slavers and slave traders, Tarkel still managed to fit in by getting acquainted with the mid-lower class officials and quickly gained access to large amounts of information, such as how many slaver bands and slaver nobles participated in the attack on Silowas as well as the number of slaves dispatched to every location and what they were tasked with.

Tarkel even made records of what the warehouses around Nupite had and also managed to rescue more than ten captured islanders from Silowas by purchasing them. But just as he was about to send his report, Tarkel realized with a shock that no ships were available to him.

The ships had long since finished their business on the island and had left. Some of the friends he'd made during his stay also advised him against boarding the merchant vessels of lesser, unknown slaver bands, especially since half of his slaves were women. Being attacked by the crews of those ships at sea was a real possibility, as they could easily dispose of his corpse without leaving a single trace behind.

The best course of action available to him was to wait for another month. By the end of the 10th month, the ships of the Chikdor Merchant Guild was scheduled to arrive at the kingdom, and it was far safer traveling with them than with anyone else. So, Tarkel had no choice but to stay at Nupite to await Lorist's arrival. Unfortunately for him, he was forced to evacuate into the inner city at the insistence of the few 'friends' he made, and he only managed to escape when chaos broke out during the reckless escape conducted by the people within the inner city. When he saw the household soldiers entering the city, he revealed his true identity and was busy settling down the islanders he had freed and waited for Lorist to return from pursuing the enemy.

"Why would the Chikdor Merchant Guild's fleet be coming here during the end of the 10th month?" Lorist asked, his curiosity piqued.

"I heard that their fleet comes over here routinely during the 4th and the 10th months to engage in trade. During their previous trip in the 4th month, the third young master of the Chikdor clan came over for a visit and began telling the slavers about his initial plan to invade Silowas before the War of Glass threw it out of the window when he was drunk at a banquet. It was he who had revealed that our house brought in tens of thousands of refugees to help develop the dominion and it was thanks to this information that the slavers attacked our island," explained Tarkel.

"Haha... Chikdor Merchant Guild and the third young master... So they were indirectly behind the attack all along," said Lorist as he began to understand the truth of the matter.

Well, this is a debt that I'll definitely collect in the future.

"Where's Els?" asked Lorist.

"Milord, Els has gone to the Hamidas. Over 1300 soldiers of our house were captured on Silowas. Apart from 30-odd of them who were tortured to death, they, including Knight Charade and Knight Jim, were sent to the Dueling Grounds..."

Tarkel began to cry out of the blue and pleaded, "Milord, you have to go and save them quick! Less than 300 of those captured are still alive right now... They were sent to fight against magic beasts and other slaves... Too many good men have died. Last month, they even held a festival to celebrate the founding of their kingdom, and over 500 of our soldiers died! Els and I had to witness their gruesome deaths without being able to do anything. The audience even felt that the show was not exciting enough and even clamored for the injured ones to be killed! Those people within the capital... They have to be killed without question! Milord..."

Tarkel's words were like oil being poured into a fire. All the knights within the tent cried out to be sent into battle against Hamidas.

Lorist waved his hand with a solemn expression to stifle the chatter within the tent.

"Stop being so noisy. Hamidas is right over there and not a single one of them will escape anytime soon. The house will definitely have its revenge. As much as I'd like to march towards the capital right here and now, think about it. We've only just arrived last night and our troops haven't had the time to rest properly and recover. The soldiers at the defensive line were so tired that they only realized the enemy's desperate attempt to charge out at the very last minute.

"It takes one day to travel from Nupite to Hamidas on horseback. The charged happened in the early hours of dawn, so Hamidas will only receive word of our arrival tomorrow. I trust that not one of them will be in the mood to watch any more of those Dueling Grounds shows, so our captured soldiers and knights should be safe for the moment. What we need to do now is to get three days of rest before marching towards Hamidas and avenging the deaths of our heroic soldiers!"

"Understood, Milord!"

"Tarkel, why did Els stay in the capital?" asked Lorist.

"Milord, Els is presenting himself as a swordsmanship-crazed young master and bribed the manager of the Dueling Grounds to allow Charade, Jim, and the other knights to spar with him. That way, they won't be chosen as the fighters for the shows of the slaver nobles. During the celebratory show, Knight Rafaed sacrificed himself to save Knight Charade. Knight Jim and Tok were also injured."

"What about Charade?" asked Lorist worriedly.

Knight Rafaed was one of the regiment leaders of the third local defense brigade who had been captured as he was injured and out cold following his reinforcement of Whitebird Town. The thought of him sacrificing himself for Charade was a surprising one.

"Knight Charade is fine and only lightly injured. However, because of Knight Rafaed's sacrifice, the boss of the Dueling Grounds feels that he is some kind of big shot and refused Els's attempt to purchase him. Els has no choice but to visit him on the pretense of sparring. Els, on the other hand, intends to organize a revolt at the Dueling Grounds and fight his way out of Hamidas. It will prove very difficult, however, given there are two blademasters standing guard. Also, the slave fighters are not armed. There's no way the plan will work," replied Tarkel.

Upon hearing that Charade was still alive, Lorist breathed a sigh of relief.

Engelich stood up and said, "Milord, why don't you let me sneak into Hamidas and rescue Knight Charade and the rest?"

As the matter concerned the happiness of his beloved granddaughter, Engelich was willing to give it his all.

"You won't do," Lorist said while shaking his head, "You'll surely be recognized by many who escaped from the rear gates of the inner city since you were stationed there. The moment you appear at Hamidas, the blademasters will definitely come for you. It's fine if you want to kill yourself, but don't drag Charade and the rest down with you."

The old man sat back down, fully understanding that Lorist spoke naught but the truth.

"If anyone's sneaking in, that would be me. Apart from the old ambassador yesterday, most of the people within the inner city don't know how I look. Later, make sure to check the corpses and captives and see whether that old man managed to escape. If he didn't, I will make my way to Hamidas and find some way to rescue Charade and the rest," said Lorist.

"Milord, you can't take this risk," advised many of the knights in the tent.

"I've made up my mind, so don't bother dissuading me. You guys just focus on allowing the troops to rest and reorganizing them for the next attack. Remember, launch the attack three days from now. Don't worry about me, I'm pretty confident that none of the blademasters at Hamidas will be able to take me on. Perhaps, I might even be able to cause them some trouble," said Lorist with a laugh.

"Tarkel, work with Malek to sort the valuable spoils we have and keep them well stored behind the inner walls."

Tarkel saluted and said, "Yes, Milord."

Chapter 279 Changing Strategic Arrangements

The order Lorist had given them was to lock down the route between Nupite and Hamidas so the news of the port's assault and fall wouldn't spread to the capital. During the afternoon of the day before, they arrived at the target location with their scout brigade and began to set up their defensive line after picking a place to set up camp. They even managed to capture a number of messengers heading for Hamidas. All seemed to be going well.

But a day later, Josk and Yuriy noticed the appearance of a convoy of carriages guarded by a substantial cavalry detachment. They were initially able to stop them from advancing, but, as time passed, more and more enemies began to arrive. They easily numbered ten thousand. Eventually, they launched a full-scale assault on the brigade's position.

Josk and Yuriy believed that the enemies had escaped from Nupite and were prepared to stop every one of them. They had their scouts occupy the high ground around the path for ease of interception.

Despite making two frenzied charges, the enemy did not succeed in dislodging the scout brigade from their positions and suffered heavy casualties. Their corpses littered the road. They responded to the situation by breaking their forces into two units. One was sent against each of the enemy positions whilst their carriages charged down the road once more. In order to prevent a sidestep along the other side of the road, the scout brigade had to spread itself too thin to cover both sides of the road. They were unable to bring their full force to bear on either of the two units and began to waver. Things soon broke into chaos.

Josk and Yuriy were targeted by three blademasters right away. Josk's marksmanship could threaten a rank 1 blademaster, but it was not able to do the same for those of higher ranks. Unfortunately for the two, the enemy had exactly a rank 2 blademaster among their number. The blademaster quickly understood the situation and pursued Josk relentlessly. If not for Yuriy's desperate assistance, Josk might have met his end. The two were quickly separated from their troops and had to spend the whole night running around before they finally shook the blademasters off.

When the two regrouped with their troops, they counted 1000 casualties, and that despite the fact that the enemy had only fought to break through their lines, and not to eradicate or exterminate them. Seeing that their troops were tired and worn, the two of them decided not to give pursuit and instead brought the men back.

While it pained Lorist to admit it, Josk and the others knew that his actions had been a grave error. Underestimating the enemy and treating them like a pack of wild dogs, Lorist thought that he would be able to overwhelm them by stacking the last proverbial straw, hence his decision for Josk and Yuriy to intercept them initially. Had the scouts allowed the enemy to use the path and employed hit-and-run tactics by attacking from their rear, in which their advantage of ability could be fully utilized, they might have been able to cause huge damage to the enemy, far more than the 8000-odd kills they had.

Waving his hands to dismiss the two of them, Lorist began to think with a solemn expression. It seems that this expedition is not going as well as I had hoped. I guess exterminating a whole kingdom was never going to be an easy task. While the enemies at Nupite didn't even stand a chance, the things that happened after the first attack has been one accident after another.

With only 8000 enemies killed, at least 15 thousand will make it back to Hamidas, and I'm sure they have quite a few high-tier fighters in their ranks as well. The royal capital is also guarded by 28 thousand soldiers of the royal family's defense legion. Taking into account the conscription of the slavers who make it back, it is extremely possible for them to cobble together over 40 thousand men. Should that be the case, their military might will rival my own...

After a rough estimation of his troop numbers, Lorist concluded that the two heavy-armored divisions and one wheelbarrow-ballista division each had 15 thousand men left. Given that he left two heavy-armored brigades and one wheelbarrow-ballista brigade back at Silowas, he only brought around 36 thousand men with him. Coupled with the Thunderbolt Brigade's catapults, the scout brigade, his two guard regiments, and Senbaud's Oceanic Legion, he had 46 thousand men.

However, Senbaud's Oceanic Legion could not participate in land battles, unless Lorist no longer wanted to return to his dominion. The post-landing casualties so far amounted to 5000 men. This meant that he only had 38 thousand able-bodied men left. After assigning a heavy-armored brigade and a wheelbarrow-ballista brigade to Senbaud to sweep the other islands, that number decreased by another six thousand. Add to the fact that he left a company of a hundred heavy-armored troops on each of the 27 islands to stand guard, up to another brigade's worth of men were no longer available. Additionally, the two heavy-armored brigades and one wheelbarrow-ballista brigade he would be stationing at Nupite meant that Lorist only had a little over 20 thousand soldiers for the march to Hamidas.

Though Lorist felt like crying from his frustration, he was not able to tear up. With only 20 thousand men available to him, forget about taking Hamidas, it would already be fortunate for him to not be encircled by the enemy midway there. If he were the king of the Hanayabarta kingdom, he would forcefully conscript another 60 thousand young slaves and mount a suicide attack on his camp. He would use the assault to exhaust the enemy's ammunition stores and take things from there. He would likely not win the battle, but it would definitely severely wound the enemy. Not only would the capital be safe, the kingdom might even stand a chance at retaking Nupite.

No, this won't do. I'll have to reorganize the distribution of my forces. Attacking Hamidas will require at least one complete heavy-armored division and three wheelbarrow-ballista brigades as the vanguard. Coupled with my one thousand guards and another two thousand scout cavalry troops as well as the Thunderbolt Brigade, I will have close to 30 thousand troops. If I can form another five police brigades with the slaves, we should be just a little shy of 40 thousand men.

Lorist sighed and reminded himself that war was no children's game and that describing military might by only approximating numbers was incredibly unwise. Despite that, he had to consolidate the number of his veteran soldiers. Only by being able to do so could he obtain victory and minimize his losses. Using untrained slaves on the battlefield was a double-edged sword. While he could superficially inflate his numbers by doing so, the first troops to collapse into disorder when the battle broke out may very well be those slaves. The chaos that would inevitably ensue thereafter might also cause them to turn back in an attempt to escape and disrupt the formations of his main forces.

Forcing the slaves to act was no great feat for the Hanayabarta kingdom. If they refused to comply, they could simply put some to death to scare the rest into submission. However, there was no way Lorist could employ such a method. He had justified his attack with the liberations of the laves, doing such a thing would go against his stated goal and undermine his position.

A simple mistake during the first conflict had cost Lorist so much. If the enemy could be wiped out when they were within the inner city itself, then the Norton forces would be able to show up at Hamidas without anyone noticing. Even if they weren't able to wipe out those in the inner city all at once, they could still keep the enemy trapped within and slowly claim the land around the capital with the help of the slaves' support and gradually deal with Hamidas.

But now, he had to prepare for open field battles. The Hanayabarta kingdom would definitely mobilize their troops. The fact that so many people were able to escape from the inner city was a testament to the low number of troops the Nortons had brought with them. Even idiots would not sit around helplessly and watch their doom encroach upon them. The next step the Hanayabarta kingdom would take would be to conscript more soldiers and send out some troops for reconnaissance as well as attempt to drive the Norton troops back to sea.

Lorist summoned his guards and instructed them to pass the order down for a few gold-ranked knights and Blademaster Engelich to go to the city hall of the inner city for a meeting on revising their strategy.

During the night, the main hall of the building was illuminated by candlelight. Lorist pointed at the map of the Hanayabarta kingdom as he briefed his subordinates on the current state of affairs.

Potterfang asked, "Milord, do you mean to say that we're no longer able to attack Hamidas head-on with our soldiers?"

"Pog, if you're the king of the Hanayabarta kingdom, what would you do when you receive reports of our invasion?" questioned Lorist.

After giving it some thought, Potterfang said, "I would mobilize my troops immediately to conquer the hilly area between Nupite and the capital and set up defensive lines there to prevent our forces from entering the plains where the capital is located. After that, I would send out scouts to gain an understanding of the might and distribution of the enemy forces, all the while conscripting more soldiers to aid with the war effort. If the enemy forces are not enough, I would choose to drive them back to sea and take back Nupite."

"Not bad, Pog. Your hypothetical is spot on. While we don't know for sure whether that's what the enemy will do, it's best if we no longer act carelessly and give them the benefit of the doubt. Tomorrow morning, the five reorganized heavy-armored and wheelbarrow-ballista brigades will have to march to the hilly areas to set up a line of defense before the troops of the kingdom do so.

"This unit will be led by Fiercetiger Loze with Malek as his vice. Pog, since you're injured, stay here to guard the port. Josk, Yuriy, take two thousand mounted scouts and keep an eye on the enemy's movement, patrol the supply routes to Loze and Malek as well. Also, send some troops to the plains' slave farms and free as you can. Cause as much trouble as possible. Don't allow the enemy to harvest their crops, we need to keep our siege as short as possible, understood?" asked Lorist as he thumped on the map.

"Understood, Milord," replied Josk and Yuriy in unison.

"Preserve as many of your men as you can; don't clash with the enemy if you don't have to. Your advantage lies in the fact that you're light cavalry, meaning that you can easily escape enemy pursuit. Since the Hanayabarta kingdom doesn't breed horses, and they only have around 1800 cavalry, they're greatly inferior to us on that front. If you have a chance, wipe them all out in one go.

"Another thing, if you do manage to cause chaos at the plains near the capital, the enemy will definitely hate you to the bone. They might just send out blademasters to wipe you out the moment they spot you. Knowing that you can have Malek and Loze set traps for the enemy blademaster and deal with them using our steel ballistae. Don't use our scouts to engage the enemy head-on like you did yesterday," warned Lorist.

"Yes, Milord, we will definitely pay attention to that," said the both of them with a slight flush of embarrassment.

"Pog, it is really important for you to stand guard at Nupite. The house only mobilized eight heavy-armored brigades, but we've already got more than a brigade's worth of incapacitated troops, not to mention the other thousand cavalry scouts and two regiments of wheelbarrow-ballista troops. I've already ordered Senbaud to stop sweeping the neighboring islands for now to consolidate our forces. When he sends the rest of our troops here, reorganize two heavy-armored brigades and one wheelbarrow-ballista brigade and deploy them to the frontlines to reinforce Loze. Other than that, order Ovidis's Thunderbolt Brigade to head out at the same time. It will become our main force against Hamidas.

"Gather all the injured in the inner city and leave a brigade of heavy-armored troops and another regiment of wheelbarrow-ballistae to guard them. I will also have 500 of my personal guards stay behind. That way, the remaining heavy-armored brigade can be disbanded, reassign the men as senior officers to the police slave brigades.

"I will give you five days. After the formation of the ten police slave brigades, send five of them to bolster our ranks at the frontlines where they can also receive preliminary training to get them into shape. Senbaud will be assigned two of the remaining five brigades as well as another regiment of wheelbarrow-ballista troops to continue the island-sweeping operation. The other three brigades will be in charge of helping out with supplying the frontline troops and will be our rearguard.

"We've already conquered Nupite and the supplies here, including the food and equipment, are quite plentiful. So far, we've no need to worry about being unable to sustain our troops. The ten new slave brigades may take as many supplies as they need. So, you must be vigilant in the selection of the slaves that join the ranks. They will be treated the same as proper soldiers of the house, and their family members will also be allowed to enter the inner city to help us with various tasks such as caring for the injured. Make sure to compensate them for their work, understood?"

Potterfang nodded and said, "Milord, I got it. I will make sure to turn their allegiance to us as soon as possible and make them feel proud to be House Norton's soldiers. However, after we form the ten police brigades, who will keep the order? As of today, we have more than 30 thousand of them here."

"I've already instructed Hector and Karman to aid you however they can. After the formation of the ten police brigades, more slaves will be recruited to form some defense units. After each island is swept, leave behind around a hundred to three hundred men from the defense units to stand guard. Two additional defense brigades will also be formed from the slave camp. The rest of the men will fish, harvest, and transport supplies. We have to keep them occupied.

"Also, Josk, Yuriy, before you two leave tomorrow, head to the slave camp first. Karman has assembled a group of slaves who are familiar with the layout of the terrain around the capital. They also have quite a number of other acquaintances there. With their help, the slaves at the plains will be able to trust that we've truly come to rescue them."

"Alright, milord," replied Josk.

"Engelich, I suppose you should leave with Fiercetiger Loze and the rest to guard the frontlines. That will be all for now. Does anyone have any other opinions?" asked Lorist.

Engelich stood up and said, "Milord, the attack on Hamidas has been delayed, and the arrangements you made will take quite some time to complete. The Hanayabarta kingdom has ample time to be aware of the real reason for our invasion. Won't they take vengeance against our captive knights and soldiers?"

Oh, I see that the old fellow is worried for his grandson-in-law's safety. I suppose I can hardly blame him for it.

Lorist smiled and answered, "I've just received some good news this afternoon. Some guards that were surveying the results of the battle involving the scouts informed me that the ambassador that had been sent to meet me is dead. So I'll be leaving with Tarkel tonight and head to Hamidas to rescue our knights and soldiers at the Dueling Grounds.

"If the Hanayabarta kingdom deploys their troops, the longer you can drag the battle at the hilly area on, the safer my mission will be. Also, make sure not to be too hard on them and cause them to turtle up and retreat. We will be trapped within the capital and that would be horrible. Make sure to pretend to be unable to resist their onslaught and let them take a few areas that are not crucial to our overall strategy. Put them under the impression that they still stand a chance to win if they give it another push."

Everyone within the tent erupted in laughter, with Josk saying, "Milord, should I follow you to the royal capital as well?"

Lorist laughed and said, "No, you can't. The three blademasters that chased you down will definitely be able to recognize you. Not one of you should follow me there. The sudden presence of a gold-ranked swordsman will bring suspicion to me. The enemy aren't idiots, you know, so only Tarkel and I will be going. That's final. It'll get really busy tomorrow, so make sure to fulfill your respective duties and not let me down."

"Understood, Milord."

Chapter 280 Encounter

The rumbling of horses' hooves broke the night's silence. About a hundred light cavalry rode forward at breakneck speed. They came to a halt at the edge of a valley. The leader waved his arms. Shortly after a squad of ten broke away from the group and headed off into the area. The main unit dismounted and began to feed their horses. An hour later, the men mounted up once more and continued heading towards the plains near the capital. Nobody noticed that only eight men rejoined the main unit.

Lorist and Tarkel had snuck into the woods. After they were unable to hear the sound of the galloping, they began to make their move.

Had they traveled by carriage using the route directly from Nupite to Hamidas, they would arrive at the capital about fourteen hours after their departure. A messenger that traveled quickly on horseback would only need about ten hours to cover that distance. It would take at least a day and a half, however, to make one's way from Nupite to Hamidas on foot.

Lorist and Tarkel could not use the main route, it was under Norton control. Even idiots would suspect someone who reached the capital with that route. Thus, the two prepared to make a detour around the hills and pretend to be one of the enemies from the inner city that managed to escape capture at Nupite.

After walking for two hours and resting twice, the skies were gradually beginning to brighten.

Lorist, who was walking at the front, ceased his steps and pointed forward before sneaking in the direction. Tarkel was by his side.

They were in a dense forest. Not far from their position was a small hill where sounds of flowing water could be heard.

Right beneath the hill was a small, busy stream, next to which a few people were resting. They seemed to be some nobles who had escaped from the port.

A hugely-built, tanned, half-naked man with one battle scar after another visible on his unclad back could be seen standing in the middle of the stream, crouching and attempting to catch some of the fish with his bare hands.

Unfortunately for the man, he did not have any experience catching fish. His endeavors bore no fruit despite getting himself wet; his prey eluded his snatches one after another.

A glamorously-dressed noble could be seen leaning on a boulder near the stream. He appeared in his thirties with a pale look on his face. He wore a tired gaze and sat slumped over the boulder, An old man was massaging the noble's feet as he cursed the huge man in the river for being so useless.

Beside the nobleman knelt a middle-aged man, in his forties. Another huge man wearing shiny-silver chain mail could be spotted lying on the ground not far away, using both his hands to prop his head up as he stared absent-mindedly at the commotion going on nearby.

Tarkel signaled to Lorist with his hands. Upon seeing Lorist nod, the two walked out from the woods towards the riverbank.

"Who goes there?" called out the mail-wearing man.

He appeared to be the most alert of them all, given that he leaped upright and drew his sword right away. With a flash of light, a golden blade glow covered his sword, revealing his level. But, while the mail-wearing man was of the gold rank, his stance was rather laughable. His front foot stepping weakly on the ground and his weight centered around his rear. It was the stance of a person ready to make his escape at any moment.

The kneeling middle-aged man and the nobleman turned silent at the sight of the newcomers. As the middle-aged man drew his sword in preparation to guard the nobleman, his master kicked him in the back and said angrily, "What are you waiting for? Put the shoe back on me right this instant!"

The huge man in the stream also looked towards the woods cautiously.

"Don't be so tense, Kalik, it's me," said Tarkel as he got closer to the stream.

Upon realizing that it was indeed Tarkel, the middle-aged man said, "Oh, Tarkel?"

"Good riddance, I was completely damned by the lot of you. You forced me to enter the inner city saying that the place would be properly defended, yet you made your escape even before the enemy made their attack. Had it not been for my miraculous luck, I might have died as a result of your actions," cursed Tarkel as he stepped into the stream and walked towards the middle-aged man.

Being able to see clearly for himself, the middle-aged man breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Ah, so it's you, Tarkel... I thought that Klimo would be with you as well..."

"Kilmo? He's long dead. We were still together when we left the city, but a stray ballista bolt nailed him right back on the walls! You don't know how terrified I was! I ran and ran only to notice that I had somehow lost Ballop and Feline. Right after, though, the enemy cavalry troops started closing in on me," said Tarkel as he spun a story while approaching the middle-aged man.

"So you're saying that you made it here alone?" asked the wary gold-ranked knight.

"Come on, there's no way I would be able to pull that off!" he complained as he sat down in a tired manner. He continued after he took a few swigs from the stream.

"Had it not been for the three guards that the guild sent to protect me in the shadows, I would've long been captured or killed by those cavalry troops."

"Locke, it's okay now. Come out, they're friendlies," called Tarkel towards the woods.

Lorist emerged from the trees and approached slowly.

"He's one of the guards sent by your guild? Why haven't I seen him before?" asked the middle-aged man, Kalik.

"They were tailing me in secret, mainly to protect Els and me and to report our trip back to the guild. Had it not been for the emergency, they wouldn't ever have appeared," explained Tarkel.

It was enough to convince the rest that Lorist's untimely presence was fortuitous. It was quite common for huge noble families to send someone to watch over their descendants secretly as they traveled around. By doing so, they would also be able to understand the temperament of their descendants better and evaluate whether investing money and effort in training such ah heir was going to be worth it.

"Didn't you say that there were three of them?" asked Kalik as he eyed down Lorist.

Tarkel cursed out, "Sheesh, I don't know how the hell I ended up deciding to come to your island just in time for a war to break out! Didn't you say that you don't have any sort of enemies? Gosh, they even came knocking at your doorstep! Had I been allowed to stay in the outer city, I might have been treated as a VIP and wouldn't have to worry about my life...

"But after I was brought into the inner city by you lot, I was forced to run for the whole night, only to meet up with more cavalry troops who wouldn't bother to hear my explanation at all. Had it not been for my guards' help, I would have been long dead. In the end, three of the cavalry troops died at the cost of my two other guards. It was far from enough to stop the rest of the cavalry from giving chase, however. Had it not been for Locke here, who's adept at navigating the woods, I would've had to toil hard and scale the hills just to be able to survive!"

Kalik stroked his nose in embarrassment and said, "Tarkel, I only brought you there for your own safety since you're a friend of mine. I didn't think that the enemy would actually be that powerful..."

Tarkel waved his hands dismissively and shook them dry as he said, "How in the world did you offend someone as mighty as them? I think I heard some people from the guild mention that they recognize the bear insignia of the enemy, but I just can't recall their names."

Kalik kneeled back down and said, "I'm not too sure either. I only heard that around three months ago, some slaver nobles and slaver bands got together and sent a few people to Silowas, an island in the Andinaq kingdom, to hunt for more slaves. The operation didn't end too well. I believe the island was the dominion of a house called Norton..."

"House Norton?" Tarkel exclaimed, "Good gods, how did the lot of you get the courage to offend them? It's no wonder they came all the way here..."

"Oh? You know about House Norton?" asked Kalik.

"I've only heard rumors. They are known as the Roaring Raging Bear of the Northlands and are a house of the former Krissen Empire with sizeable military achievements. Before I left to travel, I heard the Nortons defeated the 100-thousand-strong army of the Iblia kingdom's king. How brain dead were you to provoke people like them willingly? Gosh, a military-oriented noble house like them will persist until they settle the grudge completely. Wasn't the dominion of the Nortons in the Northlands? Since when did they own Silowas?"

"Honestly, I don't know much about this either. I heard that Silowas also belonged to the Nortons and that they'd brought up to 60 thousand refugees there to begin development. That's why the higher-ups decided it was a good idea to target them. I heard during one of the meetings that our kingdom has been lacking slaves as of late, so it's no surprise they got greedy when they heared about all those refugees," explained Kalik.

"Are the nobles of your kingdom all idiots? Even if you want to attack, you should at least research the background of your target. Why didn't you use your brain a little? Is a noble house that's capable of recruiting more than 60 thousand refugees that easy to target? Normal nobles won't even be able to sustain 60 thousand of their own subjects! With your slaves dying because of your reckless use, it's no wonder that you're lacking in them! Why don't you guys understand that slaves are not expendable objects; they will continue to create wealth for their owners if used right. Can't you give them a little more care for that? The death of a slave is naturally a loss for the master. It's just that simple!" criticized Tarkel.

"Kalik, where is this friend of yours from? It sounds like he has strong opinions on us, the nobles of the Hanayabarta kingdom. Should we have him educate us on how to train and discipline our slaves?" asked the noble who was still leaning on the huge boulder.

"Ah, Lord Viscount, I forgot to make the introductions. I'm truly sorry for that. This is the eldest son of the Peterson Merchant Guild's vice president, the guild is one of the Union's big-seven. The other young master that's not present with us is called Elibak, and they've come to visit our kingdom to learn more about us. That over there is his guard, um, what's his name again?" asked Kalik.

"He's called Locke, a guard of the Peterson Merchant Guild. It's my pleasure to be made your acquaintance, respected Lord Viscount. Tarkel of the Peterson Merchant Guild pays respect to you," greeted Tarkel respectfully to the pale-faced noble.

However, the nobleman merely humphed without bothering to answer the greeting.

Not minding it one bit, Tarkel headed to the stream and asked Kalik quietly, "Who's that?"

"That's Viscount Timba. His ancestor was one of the 17 dukes who founded the kingdom, but his title has since degraded after being passed down for three generations. However, his elder sister is the consort of the current king, Lude III. She just gave birth to a male heir for the royal family. It's quite possible he'll be made a count soon," explained Kalik with a similarly quiet tone.

The 17 dukes were in fact 17 pirate bosses with greater influence than the rest. Given that pirates ran the kingdom, it was quite expected for things to be run a little differently. A regulation was made in the early days that if the duke's successor was not able to pay a healthy sum to inherit the title, it would be downgraded by one rank when it was passed on. While the territory of the dominion would not change, the lesser rank did sound less than pleasing to the ears of many. It seemed that the predecessors of the current viscount were rather frugal, to say the least, willing to have their rank downgraded rather than paying the inheritance sum.

"What about that person?" asked Tarkel as he gestured with his gaze at the gold-ranked swordsman lying on the ground behind the boulder.

"That's one of Duke Gouffman's gold-ranked knights. He's called Oss or something. We only just met him yesterday, and the viscount paid a good price for him to be our escort to Hamidas," said Kalik.

Kalik was one of the few close friends Tarkel managed to make at Nupite. He was a junior supervisor working for the city hall. He was in charge of the security and management of the warehouses. After being treated to a few drinks, he found himself treating him as a good friend and was even willing to share the warehouses' details and information about the resources stored near the city.

Tarkel had promised him that if the Peterson Merchant Guild formed a trading post in the city, he would give him ten percent shares. That was why Kalik was so insistent on bringing Tarkel to 'safety' in the inner city the moment the Norton troops defeated the three thousand or so slaver fighters.

Being a frequent visitor of the city hall, the junior supervisor was actually acquainted with the viscount. During the city's evacuation, Viscount Timba escaped on a carriage but was unfortunate enough to be one of the first to make his way to the hilly area where Josk and Yuriy are camped, waiting. In the end, all of his servants and guards were killed, only two slaves were still by his side. The first was a grey-clad middle-aged man, and the other the huge man currently attempting to catch some fish in the river.

In his rush to escape, the viscount encountered Kalik. The latter was forcefully brought along to be his escort. Later, Duke Gouffman's men showed up, but they didn't bother with Viscount Timba for he had lost all his troops and servants. Afraid that he would be drafted into their forces as enemy fodder, Kalik encouraged Viscount Timba to take a small detour to avoid the main route, which required crossing the hills to arrive at the capital.

Kalik suspected that gold-ranked knight Oss was a deserter as he was traveling on the same route as their group. Kalik had no choice, however, but to allow Oss to tag along. The former was only an iron rank and didn't have much of a say in the matter.

Kalik continued to whisper quietly into Tarkel's ears, "This gold-ranked knight Oss is not trustworthy. Given that he was able to disobey his lord's order and desert, we are no doubt nothing but ants in his eyes. Had it not been for Viscount Timba's promise to pay him after they arrive at the capital, I suspect that he wouldn't risk his life being with us like this."

Kalik was also glad to meet Tarkel as he was a silver-ranked swordsman. At the very least, he would be able to take a few hits for Tarkel when the latter tried to escape for his life should some misfortunate incident come to pass.

"So, what are you guys up to right now?" asked Tarkel curiously.

Chapter 281 Setup

"Well," Kalik said with a bitter smile on his face, "From yesterday till now, all we've had are two pieces of wild fruit. We filled our stomachs with some stream water last night. In the morning, Viscount Timba could no longer resist his hunger and ordered his slave to catch something for him to eat. But he's been going at it for more than an hour now and hasn't gotten anything for us yet..."

"Why's that viscount barefoot?" asked Tarkel.

"Ugh, well, the Lord Viscount has never experienced a journey this grueling. The walk yesterday caused two blisters to form on his feet, so he's been riding that slave on the way ever since," Kalik said, before he turned to look at the fish-catching man.

"But when he was let down yesterday during the night, he cried out in pain. It seems that the old slave seemed to have solved that temporarily by giving him a massage."

Tarkel said, "Oh no, if the blisters aren't treated quickly, they will take quite a while to heal. Don't you know this?"

"Well, what else can we do? The Lord Viscount is sensitive to pain, and we don't have the tools to pop the blisters. Apart from this sword of mine, I don't have anything sharp. The viscount also left with only two slaves and nothing else, and slaves aren't allowed to carry weapons. As for that gold-ranked knight, he's been behaving rather weirdly for a while now and doesn't really seem to care about us," complained Kalik.

"Well, then perhaps you want to join us on the journey? With a burden like the viscount with you, you won't be able to escape should anything bad happen. It's better if we leave as soon as possible," Tarkel whispered to Kalik.

He felt that having Kalik by his side would be more than enough to enter Hamidas. There was no need for him to put up with the young noble's antics. One look and he could tell that the noble youth had been spoiled from his birth. All he could worry about was how troublesome this journey to the capital would get, especially with that suspicious gold-ranked knight tagging along.

Kalik shook his head and said, "No, that won't do. When we arrive at the capital, we will need someone to back us up. Without money or influence, the soldiers at the capital won't let us in. If we do manage to send Viscount Timba back to the capital, however, we will have earned quite a good merit. After all, he's the only younger sibling of the king's consort. Their parents passed on quite early and he was raised single-handedly by the consort herself. As long as we can bring him back safely, we no longer have to worry about anything. With Viscount Timba backing you, you'll be able to start the business you talked about without any problems."

Tarkel stoked his bearded chin in thought.

"Do you mean that we have no choice but to bring that viscount back to the capital?"

Kalik nodded.

Standing up, Tarkel said, "Then, let's get to know each other better."

Moving closer to the boulder where the viscount was resting, he bowed and asked, "Lord Viscount, I brought some medicinal supplies with me. Do you need me to help treat the injuries on your foot?"

"Oh, you have medicine that can help my foot heal?!" exclaimed the viscount with joy as he stretched his foot out to Tarkel right away, "Quick, treat me immediately. My foot hurts so much that I'm unable to even step on the ground."

Seeing the left foot whose skin is as smooth as a baby's, Tarkel understood why it pained the viscount so much. It was apparent that he had not worked so hard since the day of his birth. From the looks of the two large blisters, the viscount must have been traveling for more than a few hundred meters.

"Lord Viscount, it will hurt a little when I pop the blisters, but it'll feel cooling and refreshing right after I apply the ointment. However, this is the best medicinal product our guild offers for sale and we only need a little bit to stop the bleeding on your foot. In twelve hours, your wound will scab up properly and you'll be able to walk just fine."

As he said that, Tarkel brought out a small silver box. When it was opened, a fine hooked needle could be seen embedded in the cover. Tarkel used it to pop the two blisters and remove the fluid within before wiping it clean with a white cloth. He used the scoop end of the needle to take out some ointment and gently apply it to the wounds.

The moment Tarkel popped the blisters, the viscount let out groans of pain. But when the ointment was applied, he breathed a relieved sigh.

"Ahh, that feels rather nice. It doesn't hurt anymore."

Using a thin linen strip, Tarkel bandaged up the foot.

"Lord Viscount, even though the treatment is complete, you will still have to avoid stepping hard on the ground in the next six hours to let a scab form. In twelve hours, your foot should be fully healed."

Viscount Timba gingerly sat down on the floor and looked at his foot as he said, "Um, thank you... I will definitely reward you greatly when I get back to the capital."

"There's no need for that, Lord Viscount. We are partners in this journey now, so we'll have to help each other whenever we can. It's my pleasure to be able to be of service," said Tarkel flawlessly.

His skill with words was one of his characteristics that allowed him to get along with almost anyone.

All of a sudden, Knight Oss appeared before Tarkel, stretched out his hand, and demanded, "Let me see that ointment of yours."

Tarkel on the other hand didn't mind it and handed it to the knight. The knight opened the lid and took a whiff of the smell before saying, "Not bad, this is good stuff," and pocketed the silver box before leaving. Tarkel, Viscount Timba and Kalik were left stunned.

What's going on? Is this daylight robbery?

Lorist stepped forward into the knight's path, with his hand on the hilt of his sword, just like how a real guard would behave.

"Scram!" ordered Knight Oss.

"Knight Oss, what's the meaning of this?" said the viscount, finally.

Turning around, the knight said with a solemn look, "Milord, I am your personal bodyguard and the only gold-ranked knight around. If we encounter an enemy, I'll be the first one to jump into the fight, so I have to take into consideration how I can best be of service to you. With this medicine in my possession, I'll be able to stop bleeding in the middle of the fight so that my performance won't be hindered. It's best for me to be the one carrying it."

The viscount was speechless. While he was spoiled from his birth, he was no idiot. He turned to look at Kalik and saw the later shake his head in helplessness.

"Well, Tarkel, I feel that the knight has a point. Just let him have your ointment. I will definitely make this up to you when we reach the capital," said Viscount Timba a little apologetically.

"It's alright, Lord," said Tarkel with a smile before he waved to Lorist.

Lorist stepped back expressionlessly and cleared the way for the knight. Despite that, Knight Oss still spat in front of Lorist before going back to lie down on the rock.

The atmosphere at the riverbank then was tense and awkward. No one bothered to speak up and break the silence.

"Curses, Hannu, can't you catch any fish at all? I'm already starving over here," mumbled Kalik as he looked at the slave in the river, changing the subject as he did so.

Tarkel sighed as he looked at the fruitless efforts of the huge slave.

Shaking his head, he said, "He's only working a fool's errand. Have him come back up to go pick some firewood. I'll let Locke catch you some delicious fish. We ourselves haven't had anything to eat yet, so it was fortunate for you to be able to join us. Locke, go get us some fish."

Lorist did not say anything. He simply nodded before he headed to the river and waved for the huge man in it to get on shore.

The slave called Hannu looked back at the viscount, who scolded, "Didn't you hear me call you back up? Go get us some firewood."

Lorist stepped onto the two huge rocks in the river and held his sword in his right hand. He stared at the stream in complete silence.

Kalik asked curiously, "Will he be able to catch anything without getting into the water?"

Tarkel smiled and said, "Don't worry, Locke's great at surviving in the wilderness. With him around, we won't have to worry about having an empty stomach."

The moment Tarkel finished his sentence, the longsword in Lorist's hand pierced the stream like a lightning bolt. After the splashes of water dispersed, a black-patterned fish could be seen dangling on the end of the sword. Lorist flicked his sword. The fish flew in a neat arc before it landed in front of Tarkel.

Laughing out loud, Tarkel shouted, "Get us some more so we can have some nice fish soup!"

Lorist nodded and continued doing his thing.

Kalik recovered from his stupor and said, "Tarkel, it's already enough for us to roast the fish. We don't have any pots to make soup in the first place."

Snickering, Tarkel said, "Kalik, to be honest, I'm a silver rank in name only. My swordsmanship is a total mess. But my silver-ranked battleforce on the other hand is good for this..."

Tarkel took out his dagger and infused it with his battleforce, causing a silver blade glow to manifest. He then took up a large cobblestone, dug the dagger into it and turned it around once or twice, causing the powdered stone to fall out. Before long, a rough approximation of a bowl was left in Tarkel's hand.

"Look, after breaking through to the silver rank, you'll no longer need to worry about not having anything to eat with in the wilderness," said Tarkel.

Kalik and Viscount Timba looked shocked to realize that there was such a benefit to being a silver rank.

Splat! Yet another fish fell in front of the two. Tarkel brought out a small blade and handed it to Kalik.

"Clean this fish up while I look for a rock large enough to make into a pot."

Kalik looked at the blade in his hand, then at the fish, before he tossed it to the grey-clad slave.

"Yannu, clean this fish up. I'll set up a cooking station."

The fish in the river was plentiful, but the largest ones were only as big as the palm of one's hand. Lorist managed to catch around 30 of them without much trouble before he headed into the woods and returned with some wild vegetables and mushrooms. Tarkel also finished making a large stone pot. After cleaning those up, they placed the pot on the wooden cooking stand set up by Kalik and began boiling some stream water.

Lorist put ten fish into the pot as well as some of the mushrooms and vegetables he picked before taking out two bamboo containers from his waist, one of them contained salt, and the other, spices. He sprinkled some of each into the pot and waited for the soup to cook.

Tarkel and Kalik, on the other hand, were using a heated stone plate to grill some fish. At that moment, Kalik was flabbergasted by the bottles laid beside Tarkel.

"This one contains some oil, and that contains butter. Look, all you need to do is to apply some of it using the brush over here. Also, hand me that small silver box, there's some salt in there. That silver container over there has a mixture of my favorite spices which will make the fish taste doubly as good," said Tarkel as he introduced Kalik to his seasonings.

"Wait, Tarkel, why do you carry so much things with you? I thought you didn't manage to bring any luggage when I dragged you into the inner city," said Kalik with surprise.

"Hehe, Kalik, you may not know this, but the Peterson Merchant Guild has long made preparations for these situations," Tarkel said as he pulled open his robe, "Look, this belt of mine is called the 'treasure pouch', which I can use to store many useful things. There's medicine over here and some fish hooks over there. Even though we're relying on Locke to catch fish right now, there won't be a problem for me to survive in the wilderness alone even if he were not here given the things I have in the belt."

Kalik praised, "Wow, as expected of one of the big seven guilds of the Union... You're prepared for everything."

Tarkel laughed and said, "Kalik, this treasure pouch belt of mine is specially-made. Locke's own belt is not as good as mine and doesn't have nearly as many things prepared for emergencies. There's also a secret compartment here where more than ten gold Fordes and some gold Forde notes are stored. So, I would have some money to spend by the time I reach the capital, unlike you, not having even a single copper with you."

When he finished, the fish was already cooked. Kalik carefully moved it into a small stone plate and prepared to serve it to Viscount Timba.

The viscount looked incredibly happy when he received the fish. He had spent almost the whole day hungry. The moment he smelled the pleasant fragrance of the fish, his mouth salivated like never before. But before he got his hands on the plate, a large hand stretched over and snatched it away.

"Milord, since I'm your bodyguard right now, I have to taste test the fish for you to make sure it isn't poisoned," said Knight Oss, before he began to wolf down on the fish.

"Not bad, it's rather decent," said the knight when all was left was nothing but bone. Knight Oss then came to Tarkel and took the two other fish that were almost done cooking and began feasting on them.

"You..." growled the viscount with his face flush with anger.

Just as he was about to rebuke the knight's behavior, he saw Kalik shaking his head in discouragement. Having no other choice, he stifled his complaints with a sour look.

After the knight finished his fish, he tossed the stone plate away, pointed at Tarkel, and said, "You, give me that belt of yours."

Tarkel took two steps back and said, "No way..."

Knight Oss then drew his sword and manifested his golden blade glow.

Revealing an insidious smile, he threatened, "Are you sure you want to cross swords with me, a gold-ranked knight? I don't wish for that nice belt of yours to be bloodstained, so hand it to me and I'll spare your life."

Lorist dashed between them, much to the knight's amusement.

Knight Oss laughed and said, "A mere iron rank wishes to resist me? I see that I'll have no choice but to make an example out of you for the rest to see..."

The gold-ranked knight swung his sword horizontally without much care as he thought that the iron rank guard would no doubt be felled by a single strike of his.

Clang! The sword covered in a golden glow was knocked away instead, causing the knight to have a look of astonishment on his face. The figure in front of him blurred and in the very next moment, he saw a fist enlarging before his very eyes. With an audible 'pow', Knight Oss's face caved, his nose bled and his head to rung, even his eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.

The fist pounding him again and again, hits struck him in quick succession. All of a sudden, the knight felt his right hand twist. Viscount Timba and Kalik could clearly see the guard called Locke pull the knight's right hand down to meet his left kneecap. With a loud snap, the knight's arm was broken and he loosened his grip on his sword, allowing it to fall to the ground.

"Aarrrgh!" cried Knight Oss in pain. But before he could react, he felt a knee digging its way deep into his torso. He stopped screaming and slumped to the ground.

Everyone present looked at the iron-ranked guard, Locke, who had just treated a gold-ranked knight like a sandbag, with fear. They had never imagined that an iron rank could fight such a one-sided battle with a gold-ranked knight. By the time Tarkel snapped out of it to stop Lorist, Knight Oss was already at his last breath.

Lorist raised his leg and stomped down, breaking the knight's left leg. The poor knight was momentarily woken from his slumber by the sudden pain, but fainted shortly afterwards for the very same reason.

Lorist crouched to retrieve the silver box he had stolen and stripped the knight clean, not even leaving behind any undergarment for the knight. In the end, he brought his spoils and placed them in front of Tarkel and proceeded to taste the soup as if nothing had happened at all. He added some more firewood to the pile. The soup could use some more cooking.

Kalik and Timba looked at the naked knight, before turning back to stare at Lorist. Both wore the same expression of disbelief.

"Umm, Ta-ta-ta-tarkel... Don't you think this is weird? Your guard is only an iron rank," said Kalik to the man who was busy rummaging around the spoils on the ground.

Tarkel didn't even bother to turn his head as he replied, "What's weird about that? Even though Locke is only an iron rank, his unarmed combat capabilities is top-notch in our guild. Nobody can beat him on that front. None of the silver-ranked swordsmen in our guild can beat him, and even gold-ranked swordsmen have lost to him for being careless. He's known as Iron Locke, the Silver Undefeated in Morante."

It was then that Viscount Timba and Kalik realized that the first move Lorist had taken was to disarm the knight. Only thereafter did he proceed to 'dismantle' him piece by piece using his two fists. He never bothered to use his own sword.

"Eh? This is weird. Kalik, why were you guys starving in the first place? Knight Oss carried with him quite a lot of stuff. Look, there's salt, jerky, and even a small bag of flour. Can't you make some gruel by cooking it with water? That'll be more than enough to fill you up, no?" asked Tarkel as he stood up with a few bags raised in his hands.

Viscount Timba and Kalik turned to look at the fallen knight and thought back to the time they spent starving, lying against each other's back for support, and hatefully thought, no wonder the knight didn't complain about his hunger yesterday! He was keeping the food for himself all along!

Viscount Timba found himself wanting to give the darned knight a few stabs with a sword.

Lorist's mouth curved slightly as he thought, Not bad, Tarkel, you lured him into our ploy hook, line and sinker, giving me a good excuse to waste him completely. With Knight Oss around, the viscount wouldn't rely on Tarkel enough. But with him gone, the viscount will be forced to rely on Tarkel and will come to have a good impression of him. With Viscount Timba backing us, it'll be far more convenient when we enter the capital...

Chapter 282 Arrival

Viscount Timba and Kalik both finished the whole pot of delicious fish soup in almost an instant. Lorist tossed the remaining fish into the stone pot for a second serving before he left to pick more wild vegetables and mushrooms.

Viscount Timba asked curiously, "Why are you cooking again even though we've already finished?"

Lorist pointed to the pair of slaves - Hannu, the huge one, and Yannu the old one.

Kalik said unconcernedly, "They're both slaves, so you don't need to feed them. We can just give them the remains of the fish head."

Tarkel smiled while shaking his head as he said, "Kalik, we are currently on the run. This is not a simple field trip. Taking care of everyone in our group is actually the key to our safety and survival. Look at Hannu. Though it displeases me to say this, he is somewhat like your mount, Viscount Timba. Even mounts have to be fed water and food, right? Otherwise, they will collapse midway and cause us much trouble. If we don't feed him well, he won't have enough energy to carry you around and there's no saying when we'll be able to leave our dangerous predicament."

Viscount Timba nodded in agreement and said, "Tarkel's right. Well, isn't it quite fortunate for you slaves to be able to have the same food as us?"

Since they had to wait for the two slaves to finish eating before they could resume their travels, Tarkel got hold of the sack formerly belonging to Knight Oss and took out some dough Lorist had stuffed in it and began making small biscuits as rations. By the time they wrapped everything up, it was already afternoon.

Not one of them bothered with the moaning, pleading knight. It was as if they didn't notice him there. With his limbs broken, and stripped naked as he was, the former gold-ranked knight was nothing more than a cripple that could do nothing but wait for his death.

Before they continued their journey, Lorist stopped the viscount from climbing up on Hannu's shoulders and only made some hand gestures. Confused, the viscount asked Tarkel, "What's he up to?"

Tarkel said, "Lord Viscount, Locke feels that it is not adequate for you to be riding on the slave's shoulders. It's a little too eye-catching. You'll easily become the first target the enemy sets their eyes on. He feels that it's better if you get carried on his back instead.

Viscount Timba asked, "Why didn't he just say so?"

Tarkel replied, "Lord Viscount, Locke has always been the quiet type. He doesn't like to speak unless he has to."

In the meantime, Lorist had used the knight's clothes to make a soft hammock-like back sling for the viscount.

The viscount was rather satisfied with the makeshift sling and asked Tarkel whether he would be willing to give Locke away, saying that he would be more than happy to pay a high price for him.

Tarkel shook his head and said, "Lord Viscount, Locke is not a slave, and I'm not the one employing him. He's one of the rare talents cultivated by my guild for more than ten years and he only answers to the president. Don't misunderstand, while he obeys my orders on the surface, he has all the right to escape by himself if the situation is dangerous enough. The merchant guild can afford to lose me, but not someone like Locke, on whom they're willing to spend huge amounts of money to train into a blademaster that would serve as the martial foundation of the guild."

"Oh, then how are they trained?" asked the viscount interestedly.

"Lord Viscount, apart from us, the Peterson Merchant Guild, all other guilds of the big seven basically do the same thing. They take in young orphans and train them according to their talents, be they academic or martial, so they'll be the cornerstones of the guild in the future. By the time they become a gold rank or a blademaster, the guild would have spent more than 10 or 100 thousand gold Fordes on them," replied Tarkel.

"Why can't you just hire blademasters instead of cultivating them yourselves?" asked the viscount in confusion.

"Lord Viscount, while we do hire blademasters, it's exceedingly rare. Unless we're very well-acquainted with the person and their background," Tarkel said solemnly, "Our guild is not like noble houses such as yours. We have lots of trade secrets that we have to protect, so we find it hard to trust the loyalty of blademasters that are not raised as our own. If, by any chance, our trade secrets are revealed, that would cost us quite severely."

"Ah, I see," mumbled the viscount, nodding, "That's right, hiring blademasters could prove to be quite troublesome as well. I've spent a huge price to hire blademasters before and all they care about is money. A couple of times they even gave me an unpleasant look when I asked them to do something. And to think they would be that useless when deployed... Not one of them returned to me after they were deployed..."

While the viscount was complaining, Tarkel secretly asked Kalik about what he said and quickly found out the truth.

When Lorist was leading his troops on shore, the rank 2 blademaster hired by Viscount Timba brought four of his gold-ranked knights and 300 slavers to join the battle. However, all of them were crushed, not even a messenger managed to escape and report their defeat. The viscount had lost all his high-tier fighters and, as a result, he had to escape with his two slaves.

Lorist stifled a laugh when he heard about how the rank 2 bladesmaster, who had been giving Engelich trouble during the initial fight, was actually the viscount's man. In the end, that blademaster died from being impaled by multiple ballista bolts.

Viscount Timba, on the other hand, began to show more interest at Tarkel's description of the orphan-raising program and hoped that his own house could employ the same method to garner loyal supporters. There would be no shortage of orphans for him to raise either, he could simply use the progeny of his domestic slaves.

Domestic slaves? Tarkel didn't understand what that term specifically meant and asked Kalik about it.

"Domesticated slaves, you see, are children of two slaves that had been intentionally allowed to breed. Well, some of them may be the result of female slaves getting pregnant after being forced by their owners. Given their status as slaves upon birth, they aren't nearly as rebellious as captured slaves and most often accept the status quo without question.

"Yannu over there is a second-generation domestic slave while Hannu is one of the third generation. His parents are also second-generation domestic slaves like Yannu. Domestic slaves can easily sell for double the price of captured slaves at the port.

"While Viscount Timba's idea of using domestic slaves is sound, there's a crucial problem with it. In the Hanayabarta kingdom, slaves aren't allowed to carry weapons. While they are allowed to awaken their battleforce, they can in no way be given a weapon to carry, they would pose too much of a threat to their masters."

As they traveled, Tarkel, Viscount Timba, and Kalik chatted rather heartily, which allowed Lorist to gather quite a bit of information about Hamidas. From how King Lud was actually a one-star-gold-ranked knight, to the fact that the three blademasters of the royal family were leaps and bounds stronger than those hired by the nobles, Lorist heard it all.

During the night, they feasted on the wild hares and cockerels Lorist managed to catch. Grease smudged all over their faces.

According to Kalik and the viscount, they were already near the border of the hilly area. They would only have to scale two more small hills from morning to noon the next day before arriving at the plains where the capital was located. Viscount Timba mentioned that he had hunted at those plains with his brother-in-law, King Lud III, before. It was the reason for his ability to recall the terrain of the area roughly. By the time they leave the hills, they would only have to travel for another half a day to arrive at a manor belonging to the royal family. After that, they would be able to take a carriage back to the capital.

The travels on the next day proceeded smoothly without incident. It did not take them long to travel across the two hills to arrive at the border between the hilly area and the plains. After a few more hours of walking, they could finally see the manor in the distance as they walked past a wheat field.

Lorist, who was leading the whole troupe, suddenly stopped in his tracks and made a gesture to listen, before he turned around and made some hand signals. Quickly, he jumped into the wheat fields and disappeared from view.

Tarkel tugged on the viscount's clothes and asked Hannu to squat down a little.

"Stop walking. Locke said that something is wrong with the manor up ahead. Let him go there to check first," warned Tarkel.

"I don't think anything's wrong with that. Aren't you being a little too paranoid?" asked Kalik suspiciously.

Viscount Timba joined in and said, "If we travel faster, we might be able to make it in time for a good meal before taking a nice bath and having some much-needed sleep. By tomorrow, we'll be able to take a carriage to the capital as planned, so please don't mess around right now..."

Tarkel said in a serious tone, "Lord Viscount, Kalik, I trust Locke deeply on this one and he mentioned that he feels danger up ahead. He told me that even though the wheat was already ready for harvest, we didn't see a single slave working in the fields for the whole afternoon we were traveling. There's definitely something fishy about this, don't you think?"

Upon giving it some thought, Kalik's expression changed and he said, "That's right. Milord, if everything was as usual, we would've seen slaves working on the harvest along the way here. But not a single one is in sight. It's possible that something's happened to the manor up ahead. Have you forgotten about the enemy's cavalry? I suspect that they've already made their way to the plains. If we go to the manor now, we might just walk straight into their hands!"

The viscount was finally convinced. He beckoned them to hide behind a pile of dirt by the road as they waited for Lorist to return.

After an hour or so, Lorist came back and signalled Tarkel with his hands. The latter went over and the two exchanged a few sentences. Kalik and the viscount couldn't hear what was being said clearly, but they caught enough to turn them pale. Among the phrases they heard were words like 'cavalry', 'hangings', and 'revolt'.

Tarkel gave the two a clear explanation upon his return.

"It appears that we are in trouble. Locke checked out the manor and said that there are more than ten cavalry soldiers over there. Based on their gear, it seems they are Norton scouts. Gallows have been erected and the supervisors and slave managers all hanged. That's not the worst of it though. The slaves are going to revolt and take up arms to encircle Hamidas for an attack."

Viscount Timba's face paled.

"Then, should we still head to the capital?" asked he.

"Don't panic, Lord, Locke said that they seem to still be planning the whole affair. He mentioned that they are going to the other manors around the plains to gather more slaves before they'll take action, so it should be quite some time before the revolt actually starts. All we can do now is wait here till nightfall. The soldiers here should have a hard time spotting us in the dark. It's best if we travel straight to the capital. I estimate we'll arrive by noon tomorrow at this rate," cautioned Tarkel.

Kalik added hatefully, "That's right. Lord, we have to wait here patiently until nightfall. Only by doing so can we rush to the capital and warn them about the impending revolt! His Majesty, the king, will definitely put these foolish slaves to death so this never happens again!"

With Tarkel and Kalik's urges, the viscount finally calmed down. They rested for an hour before the sun set and gave way for the night. Traveling single file, they snuck away from the bustling manor and headed straight for the capital instead.

Having traveled without rest in the following four hours, they stopped by a stream for a short rest.

Kalik asked, "Lord, I recall that there is another manor of the royal family not far from this stream. Should we check that place out as well?"

The viscount had already been frightened enough once, however, and objected to the idea right away. Given that the manors were not too far away from each other, within an hour or so on horseback, the slaves at the other manor might have been liberated as well. He was far from willing to take the risk of being hung at the gallows.

"Lord Viscount, are there many royal family manors like these around the plains?" asked Tarkel.

Kalik was the one who responded, saying, "Initially, these plains didn't have a name. But with the passage of time, we began to call them the Capital Plains. During the founding of the kingdom, the pirates who didn't know how to produce their own food and fought frequently for territory only relied on fishing for a living. That's why they initially attacked the Golden Coast so often. However, the coastal nations began to strengthen their defenses, causing the cost of procuring food by raiding to rise.

"When the second king, Lud I, came to power, he pledged to no longer raid those coastal nations and managed to establish new trade routes. Only thereafter was the food problem solved. Directly following this, Lud I began to develop Capital Plains fervently and built dozens of manors around the area. He effectively made these plains the main food producer for the kingdom. They're able to supply the whole kingdom.

"Currently, over 130 thousand slaves work at manors such as the ones we came across all over the plains. If all of them are roused by the Nortons for a revolt, the consequences would be unimaginable!"

Kalik shivered as he said the last sentence.

The group resumed their journey after another half-hour rest. By the time dawn came, they were all tired beyond their wits.

Another manor could be seen in front of them. Lorist again went ahead to check the manor out. He returned soon after. According to his report, the manor seemed to be untouched. The slaves and their supervisors were all fine and going about their business.

Timba and Kalik were gladdened by the news and rushed toward the manor without any reservation or hesitation. The manor's tenants immediately recognized the viscount and they were received hospitably. The viscount's visit, in spite of his haggard condition, was still a good omen for them, at least according to the supervisor.

The viscount didn't bother to listen to the supervisor's flattery. He hurriedly called for a carriage to be prepared for their immediate departure towards the capital. He only bothered to inform the supervisor of the impending threat as he stepped onto the carriage.

The manor's alarm bell could be heard signaling for the return of the slaves as the carriage drove away.

Dawn was upon them once more when they were about an hour from Hamidas. The carriage was already on the highway and was no longer at risk of being pursued. After another half an hour, a loud horn could be heard up ahead and the coachman stopped the carriage at the side of the road to make way.

A group of soldiers dressed in earthen-yellow garb could be seen lined up like a huge snake. They marched out of a huge castle in the distance, with more than a hundred cavalry leading at the front.

Kalik cried out with both his hands in the air, "That's our royal defense army coming from the capital! Hurrah! They've deployed! Praise be our king and royal defense army! Hurrah!"

Chapter 283 Royal Capital

The manor's carriage was a simple two-wheeled wooden cargo carriage. Each side was covered with but four wooden boards. It had, however, been cleaned up pretty well on the supervisor's instructions since it was to be used by the viscount. It had even been loaded with a couch. The vehicle looked rather awkward.

Viscount Timba was fast asleep on the couch, and Kalik and Tarkel sat on two short stools on either side of it. Lorist, on the other hand, kept guard beside the coachman. Hannu and Yannu had to walk beside the carriage; their social status didn't allow them to ride in or on the same carriage as free people.

The Hanayabarta kingdom, being on an archipelago, didn't produce any of its own horses. As a result, imported horses sold for a high price, whenever any were available. The risks associated with dealing in horses were rather high as well. They were quick to get sick on ships, for one. They couldn't deal with the swaying. It wasn't strange for only half, or even just a third, of them to survive to journey to the islands. They were sold for a far higher price than normal so their merchants could make up for the losses suffered on the journey.

The carriage was being pulled by a Northlands horse. It's posterior was branded with the royal family's crest and the number 19. The coachman was another slave manager. He'd had to promise his colleagues quite a few benefits to get the position he currently occupied on the carriage since everyone knew what reward awaited him upon their arrival at the capital.

The coachman stopped the carriage at the side of the road when he saw the mobilizing soldiers. He planned to wait for them to pass before moving ahead once more but Kalik's loud cheers caused the knights at the front to notice them.

A few of the knights rode towards the carriage.

"Who goes there?" they asked, "Why are you making such a fuss?"

The coachmen informed the knights of his passenger's identity as the viscount, roused from his sleep by the calls, sat up and yawned drowsily. The knights, having learned of the high status of the carriage's occupant, left for guards with it and sent two men back to report to their lord.

A short while later, a large group of knights arrived with a luxurious four-wheeled carriage.

Their leader was a mustachioed man in his early fifties. He gave the viscount a hug and laughed heartily.

"My poor little Timba," he said, still holding the viscount in the air, "you're finally back! Did you know how worried your sister was? Before I left, she emplored me to bring you back safely. Haha, quick, get on. I've arranged for you to be sent to the palace to see your sister immediately."

Viscount Timba left thusly without so much as a farewell to his companions. Hannu and Yannu quickly stood on the side skirts of the carriage. The mustachioed knight recognized the two slaves and allowed them to leave with the carriage.

Tarkel, Kalik, and Lorist were ignored completely. As the carriage left for the capital, the knight ordered his men to continue leading the army.

Kalik was completely flabbergasted. He had not expected the viscount to abandon him so easily. Currently, he had no status at all and would not be able to find a place to stay even if he got to the capital.

The coachman, on the other hand, cursed out loudly at the departure of his potential benefactor. His trip had been for naught. Without the viscount, he would not be paid and he didn't know how he would explain it to his colleagues back at the manor. As his rage built up, he began to vent it on Kalik. He said that he should not have caused such a commotion to bring the knights to them and allowed them to notice the viscount. He even said that he was going to strip Kalik of his sword and belongings as compensation for how far he had brought them.

Kalik remained in his corner of the carriage without making a sound. He was so crestfallen he looked like a castrated chicken. In terms of status, he was inferior to even the coachman. The coachman was a slave manager working for the royal family whilst he was only a small time supervisor working at the Nupite's city hall -- a place, mind you, that had already fallen into enemy hands.

Lorist gave Tarkel a look. The latter quickly understood his intention and took out a single gold Forde and gave it to the coachman.

"I am the eldest son of the Peterson Merchant Guild's vice president. I promise that you will be rewarded duly if you bring us to the capital," he said, smiling.

With the gold Forde in hand, the coachman began to act incredibly friendly and amicable. He answered all the questions Tarkel had. He told Tarkel that the mustachioed knight was the current king's uncle and was a two-star-gold-ranked knight deeply trusted by the king. He added that, given that the royal defense army was mobilized, Nupite would be taken back from the enemy soon.

Lorist observed the troops that were praised so highly by Kalik but was quickly disappointed. He could see that the armaments they were given were not uniform and their ranks rather disorganized. The royal family's soldiers could be heard complaining as they marched by. One even boasted about their nighttime sexploits with multiple female slaves and other tall tales. Some of the soldiers around him asked for more details out of curiosity.

Lorist snickered as he thought, So that's what they consider elite? They're far from comparable to just our garrison forces, much less our elite troops. They've only just deployed even though I've been here at this hilly area for more than two days... I believe Loze is already waiting for them as well. I can only hope that he doesn't overwhelm the royal defense army and cause them to run back and turtle up in the capital. If that does happen, my plan to rescue everyone will fail...

It took the army most of the afternoon to pass by, but right behind them followed their supply train. Each carriage had only one horse pulling it, but ten slaves could be seen pushing each as well. A carriage was rather hard to move with only one horse, especially given how heavily they were loaded. There stood a soldier every couple of carriages that whipped those he deemed to be underperforming. The whip cracks were frequently accompanied by spats like 'lazy idiot!'. Another two hours had to pass before the road was clear and the carriage could proceed.

When they finally arrived at Hamidas, Lorist was shocked by the sight before him. He never expected to see such a magnificent castle -- even larger than the one at the imperial capital -- on an island kingdom built on the slave trade.

The coachman proclaimed proudly that in the founding days of the kingdom, the capital was at Nupite. But at the start of the second king's reign, the castle before them's construction was started. It took a full 18 years and 300 thousand slaves to build. After its completion, it was named the new royal capital, Hamidas.

Lorist's head ached. He had not expected the royal capital to have such a large castle. The castle's design felt like a copy of the maplewood bastide's. The bastide was built on a large hill and the only avenue of attack was the small road that led up to the gate. Hamidas, too, was built on a large, excavated hill, though it was about ten times bigger than the bastide's. From a distance, it looked like a city built on a platform. The only way to get up to it was a kilometer long road flanked on either side by a steep cliff at least 30 meters tall. The cliffs surrounding the castle itself was at least that tall as well, and on top of them were 20-meter tall walls. The 50-metre climb was the only way to attack the castle directly.

A castle like that could only be brought down with a long siege. It had to be starved out, no assault using current technology could breach its defenses. This wasn't something that Lorist and his forces could do, most certainly not given that -- according to Viscount Timba -- its food and water stores could last it a full three years. Nobody would be able to have an army surround a city for three whole years. The food cost alone would be astronomical.

Lorist also realized that his wheelbarrow-ballistae and catapults would not be of much use given that the castle had been built on elevated ground. The ranged weapons could only fire when it was brought close enough to the castle to be able to take out the defenders on the walls, but the cliff rendered that tactic unusable. Additionally, the castle walls were bound to be equipped with lots of ballistae themselves. Even Nupite's walls had more than a hundred, so Hamidas would definitely have more.

Lorist felt a strong urge to curse out loud, he had never imagined the island nation's capital would be that hard to take. He had expected it to be defended more or less the same as the Iblia kingdom's capital, Windbury. How could a pirate nation, not recognized by most of the other nations on the continent, be so powerful?

Lorist was extremely relieved that he had changed his tactics and had instead focused on defending his foothold at Nupite whilst trying to bait his enemy into attacking him first. Had it gone according to his original plan, where he would attack Hamidas right after taking the port city, he would have been caught completely off-guard by the capital's strong defenses.

The coachman sitting beside Lorist realized his silent mumbling and asked, "What's going on?"

Lorist replied, "Nothing, my balls just hurt?"

"Balls hurting?"

The coachman could not comprehend what Lorist meant. Just when he was about to ask, they arrived at the castle gates.

Entering the city cost a small silver per person. Additionally, given that the nation was in a state of war, the checks at the gates were stricter than usual. If Viscount Timba had still been around, they would not even need to pay and would be allowed to enter the castle without much trouble. The viscount's absence brought trouble for Kalik.

Lorist and Tarkel both had identification documents from the Peterson Merchant Guild and passed the screening process with relative ease. Kalik, however, only managed had his sword with him after his escape from the city. Additionally, the coachman stubbornly refused to back Kalik's claims -- he was the one that lost him the reward for bringing the viscount back. In the end, Kalik was searched harshly from top to bottom. It was already fortunate that they did not insist on probing his rectum to see if he'd hidden anything there.

In the end, Tarkel offered the coachman another gold Forde, and one large silver for each of the guards. The coachman was finally willing to testify that Kalik had come along with them from the royal family's manor. The guards were only willing to let Kalik into the city after they heard the coachman's testimony.

Hamidas was split into five sectors. The gate where the carriage entered was located in the east and was connected to the eastern sector, which was the city's largest commercial area. It was also a residential hub, more than 30 thousand citizens lived there alone. Most of the royal family members' defense forces lived there. Including the slave population, roughly 60 thousand people lived in the eastern sector.

The city's southern sector was reserved for nobles. All the kingdom's nobles had their mansions there. The western sector was a heavily-guarded warehouse area where the food and armaments were stored and was the smallest of the lot. The northern sector itself was divided into three districts, namely, the slave district, the tournament district and the army headquarters.

The slave district was the closest to the northern walls and was tightly packed with huts. The tens of thousands of slaves who lived there were mainly in charge of the waste removal and maintenance work at the city.

The tournament district, on the other hand, was where the dueling grounds were located. There was also a cock-fighting ring which also doubled as the city's largest casino. The nobles would often spent thousands of gold coins betting on the lives of the slave gladiators.

The northern sector's middle district was the royal defense army's base of operations, which also served as a buffer between the slave district and the rest of the capital. Should an insurrection occur, they would be able to react quickly to stomp down on any insurgents so that the safety of the rest of the capital wasn't compromised.

Apart from the four sectors, the royal sector located at the center was where the palace and court were. It was surrounded by tall walls which separated it from the four other sectors.

According to Viscount Timba, apart from the royal defense army's 28 thousand soldiers, there was another royal guard force of 2000 men stationed in the royal sector. The four other sectors each had a 1000-man garrison to maintain order and patrol the walls. In total, the city was garrisoned by more or less 34 thousand people.

The address Tarkel asked the coachman to head to was where an inn called the 'Blood and Flame' was located. Els had picked it to be his residence due to its proximity to the dueling grounds, a convenience for him as he went there almost every day to spar.

After the carriage drove for some ten-odd minutes, it finally arrived at the Blood and Flame.

Tarkel paid the coachman five gold Fordes, much to the latter's surprise and delight. He praised Tarkel incessantly as he left on the carriage.

The Blood and Flame was not as comfortable as the Red Grace Inn; the guest rooms upstairs weren't as clean despite the much higher price -- one gold Forde per night. Tarkel booked three rooms in total -- one for each of them -- before asking the inn's servants to prepare bathwater.

Initially, the middle-aged maidservant -- of relative beauty -- had wanted to bathe alongside Lorist. But after a long period of arguing, she gave up after some stern warnings. Cursing out loud and slamming the door behind her, she entered Kalik's room next door and it did not take long until the loud noises of promiscuity could be heard.

After Lorist finished his bath, he went to Tarkel's room, only to discover the man was not there. Going downstairs, he saw Tarkel chatting happily with the owner of the inn, so he took a seat at a table nearby and ordered a bottle of fruit wine while he waited.

After a while, Tarkel came over and ordered some food from a maidservant.

Taking a few looks around, he whispered to Lorist, "Milord, Els is not in his room. I've asked the owner about it and he said that he hasn't seen him for two days. According to him, Els left the morning the day before, as usual, to spar at the dueling grounds, but didn't return that night, he hasn't returned yesterday either. The owner thinks he might've been invited as a house guest by some noble..."

Lorist's gaze stiffened as he asked, "What do you think actually transpired?"

"I suspect that he's encountered some misfortune. There's no way that Els would attempt to socialize with the slaver nobles. He's pretending to be a young master who's crazy with perfecting his swordsmanship, so he won't bother with anyone else. Let's head to the dueling grounds after dinner. We've already made an arrangement to leave a sign outside the grounds for meet-ups," said Tarkel quietly.

"Alright, we'll do that," said Lorist, nodding his head in agreement.

Chapter 284 Drunken

Kalik only went downstairs after Lorist and Tarkel finished their meal. Tarkel ordered more food for Kalik and told him that he would go out for a stroll with Lorist a little bit later. Kalik could put anything on his tab if he needed something.

It was already evening by the time Lorist and Tarkel departed for the dueling grounds. The Blood and Flame was quite close to the tournament area. After passing through a small alleyway, they arrived at the royal district's main road where the royal defense army's camp was located. Even though the army was mobilized, the campsite was still bustling. Flags of various colors and patterns were flown at the entrance of the camp, with many people equipped with armor, swords, and spears, going entering and leaving incessantly.

Before they passed through the main road, a few people from the camp came over and surrounded the two.

"Hey, you two must have come to answer the king's call to arms, right? I'm the Senbak Mercenary Band's vice-leader, Jason, and I welcome you two brave warriors to our band with open arms," said a thin man in old and torn leather armor.

"Go back to your crummy old mercenary band. Your men number less than 50, and most of them are injured fighters anyway. These two might as well jump off a cliff. Brothers, we are the Tigershark Slavers, subordinates of Duke Gouffman himself. We have more than 300 members. Joining our team is definitely the wiser choice," interjected a tall and proud-looking man.

Another huge red-faced man called out, "Join us, the Kalir Slavers, and you'll be provided with weapons and equipment! Friends, they're all free, so don't miss out on this chance!"

"We're the mercenary band of Duke Hock. Even though we've just formed, we treat our recruits well! You'll be treated to a bottle of sweet wine every day!" said a middle-aged man in mail.

Oh, so all of these people are here to recruit and expand their forces.

"My deepest apologies to you great warriors," Tarkel responded with a smile on his face, "The two of us work for the Peterson Merchant Guild and we've come to the kingdom to deal with setting up a trade route and other affairs while learning more about this place. We only came over because we spotted the busy campsite over there. I'm very sorry to have disappointed you gentlemen..."

The moment they heard that many turned around and returned crestfallen. However, a few people remained.

"I recognize you," said a man, looking at Tarkel.

"Who may you be?" asked Tarkel, scratching his head.

"You're one of Ballop's friends. I've seen you drinking together with him," said the man.

"Oh," Tarkel muttered with relief, "Pleased to make your acquaintance. I'm Tarkel. Do you know what happened to Ballop and the rest? We lost sight of each other when we rushed out of Nupite. I haven't seen any of them since."

"Ballop's dead. I saw him collapse with a few arrows in his back when we were rushing the enemy lines," replied the man.

"What about Feline, Krinando, and Chelwar? Do you know them and their whereabouts?" asked Tarkel concernedly.

Shaking his head, he said, "I don't know them, but I think I've heard Chelwar mentioned somewhere before. He should be in the camp over there. Do you want me to take you to have look?"

"How may I address you?"

"The name's Drei. I used to be one of the supervisors in charge of shipments at the port. Just recently though, I was forced to enlist as a soldier of the Snowshame Army," replied he.

"The Snowshame Army? What's up with that?" asked Tarkel curiously.

"It's nothing surprising. Ever since we escaped the city's encirclement, the king blamed us for losing it to the enemy. Even Duke Gouffman and Duke Hock were put under house arrest so they could repent for their mistakes. As for us, we were forcefully drafted to form the Snowshame Army. Once we have 24 thousand men, we'll be sent to aid the royal defense army's recapture of Nupite. All of those people were trying to recruit scapegoats for their own men."

"Scapegoats?"

"That's right," Drei replied, "Many mercenary and slaver bands incurred huge losses during the escape from the port, so they are trying to recruit more people to bolster their ranks. When we reach the frontlines, they will send out their new recruits to take the brunt of the enemy's hits to prevent actual harm from coming to their long-time members. Consequently, the new recruits' sacrifice will also show their bands in a good light and they might be rewarded."

"Do you think that will fly?"

"Of course it will. Since the king has already declared a call to arms, those who wish to join the army's forces will come over here and be split up among the slavers and mercenaries. Once our ranks fill up in another couple of days, we'll move towards Nupite. We'll have to rely on Singwa's protection to be able to survive," said Drei with a pained smile on his face.

"I believe you'll easily live to your hundreds. Perhaps, you might even be able to score a huge achievement in the coming battles and be made a noble," Tarkel consoled before he pointed at Lorist and continued, "This friend of mine hasn't been in this area before. I was just going to show him to the dueling grounds to expand his horizons. We'll come visit you once we're done and take you for a few drinks at the Blood and Flame."

Drei nodded and said, "Very well. I'll help you locate Chelwar and the rest in the meantime. When you reach the camp, just mention Drei of Thunder's Fire. They'll know what to do."

Lorist and Tarkel arrived at the dueling grounds shortly after bidding Drei goodbye. The dueling grounds was the second-most impressive building within the capital, after the royal palace. From the outside, it seemed like two oranges squished against each other on the ground, a little similar to the sport stadiums in Lorist's previous life.

"There is a mulberry tree in the left alley near the entrance," Tarkel remarked, "Look, it's over there."

The alley was incredibly quiet and the air there carried with it a displeasing stench. Perhaps, it was used by the show-goers as a makeshift toilet of sorts, the walls were stained to a yellowish-green and a vomit-inducing stench seeped into the air from them.

However, the wall itself was marked with more than 30 strange markings that looked to be children's doodles.

Pinching his nose, Tarkel said, "Milord, every time Els goes inside, he would leave two horizontal markings on the walls, and when he comes back out, he'll add a vertical strike through the horizontal lines. Others think that he's only here to take a piss and wouldn't imagine the markings to be anything but the works of children."

"31, 32, 33., 34..."

Tarkel stopped. The last marking didn't have a vertical line through it, meaning that Els did not leave the last time he made his visit.

"Come on, let's go ask around," said Lorist.

The soldiers they met were not aware of what Tarkel was talking about. It was only after Tarkel snuck a large silver down all of their pockets that they called their company leader over. However. the company leader denied that Els had come over and insisted that he'd left after sparring two days earlier. He thought it was weird for Els to not visit for two days.

Lorist tugged on Tarkel's clothes and the two took their leave.

On the way back, Lorist told Tarkel confidently, "Something must've happened to Els. The company leader was averting his gaze without daring to meet yours. We should come again secretly during the night to find out more about this."

Tarkel said, "But that would be rather risky. Why don't we wait until we visit Viscount Timba tomorrow and have him ask around with us?"

Lorist merely shook his head. Just as Tarkel was about to make another objection, someone called out to him loudly out of nowhere. It was Drei. He brought with him a few other men, Chelwar was among them, a friend Tarkel made at Nupite.

Chelwar came over with a brilliant smile and gave Tarkel a big hug, congratulating him on his successful escape to Hamidas. He wanted Tarkel to treat him to a meal because he had nothing to eat apart from the black bread and vegetable soup they served at the camp due to losing his official documents during his escape. Now that he had met with the rich Tarkel, he would not hold back, throughout their conversation, he introduced his friends.

Oh great, here comes another freeloader like Kalik, thought Tarkel, though he did ask the rest of them to go to the Blood and Flame for a good meal nevertheless. On the way, Tarkel gave a brief account of their travels to Hamidas and breathed a long sigh.

"What's wrong, Tarkel, my brother? Why are you sighing? Are you blaming us for feasting at your expense?" asked Chelwar with dissatisfaction.

"It's not that. The two of us just went to the dueling grounds just now and realized that one of our friends staying there has gone missing. I'm just worried about his safety... I wonder how I will inform my uncle," said Tarkel in a wistful tone.

"What's wrong?" asked Drei.

"Chelwar, you should know that there was another person called Els that traveled to Nupite with me. He's is my uncle's sun. Being a martial maniac, he only occupies his time with swordsmanship training. Didn't you bring us to the dueling grounds to watch a show once? Els said that he wanted to spar with the gladiators afterwards and chose to stay here at the capital. But when I got back to the inn earlier today, the owner said that Els hasn't been back for the past two days. When I went to the dueling grounds to ask about it, they said that they haven't see Els either.

"Everyone knows that the two of us came here representing the Peterson Merchant Guild. This trip of ours also involves starting a new trade route and choosing a place to build our office. Naturally, we had a secret method of contacting each other, and I just realized that Els didn't make a mark when he left the dueling grounds last time. The soldiers we asked over there, including a company leader, also told us they haven't see Els."

"You're saying that Els is missing?" Chelwar exclaimed with surprise, "Forget about the meal, let's head back. I'll gather a few people to search the dueling grounds with you."

"There'll be no need," Tarkel hurriedly said as he stopped Chelwar, "I am more than happy with just the sentiment. However, you can't do something like this. We can't afford to offend the king by causing trouble at a time like this..."

"He doesn't scare me. We're already going to battle in a couple more days, so it makes no difference whether I die now or on the battlefield. There are only fewer than 200 people at the dueling grounds, so now's the perfect time to cause a commotion. Perhaps, we won't be sent to the battlefield after some chaos breaks out," said Chelwar.

"Huh? Didn't you tell me that there were more than a thousand royal defense soldiers stationed there? Why are there only 200 all of a sudden? What're they going to do if the slaves revolt?"

"Hehe, the royal defense army already sent out 25 thousand men. They've left behind less than three thousand. Those who remain also have to deal with the safekeeping of the warehouse sector, so there won't be that many left at the dueling grounds! All of the gladiators are locked behind bars anyway, and there are no weapons or equipment there. So, there'd be no point for them to revolt.

"Additionally, we of the Snowshame Army are gathered nearby the tournament area. If something does happen at the dueling grounds, we'll be there to stop things from getting out of hand. While I can't speak for our abilities against other fighters, we'll have no problem suppressing some slaves. Don't worry, the capital won't fall into chaos.

"Also, I heard that the king is preparing to host a huge show at the dueling grounds on the day we mobilize. More than 1600 slaves will be split into two factions for a fight to the death as a sacrifice for the war god so that we can gain his blessing for a victorious battle," Drei informed resourcefully.

"Oh, then the show on that day will definitely be an amazing one. I love watching those gladiator shows. Chelwar, make sure you don't do anything rash at the moment. I will visit Viscount Timba tomorrow. I trust that he'll accompany us. Let's stick to the plan for a nice drink tonight!" Tarkel Chelwar told.

"Alright then, it's a deal! We won't go home until we're dead drunk!" exclaimed Chelwar cheerfully.

They arrived at the Blood and Flame soon and Drei, Chelwar and the rest ordered one delicacy after another. Tarkel asked the owner whether Kalik was upstairs, but the owner said that Kalik left after drinking three bottles of fruit wine and had yet to return.

Chelwar patted on Tarkel's shoulder and said, "Stop worrying about Kalik. I think he mentioned that he has a cousin brother living here in the capital. Perhaps, he went there for a visit. Friend, book me a room, will you? I haven't laid with anyone for a long time."

Tarkel turned around only to see that Chelwar had already begun flirting with one of the maidservants of the inn. Smiling, he told the owner, "Boss, I'll be booking all the rooms upstairs for the night. Friends, if you'd like to let loose, just bring whoever you like up to those rooms before coming back for a feast. The bill's on me." When he finished, he placed a gold Forde note on the counter, garnering cheers and praise from all those present.

Drei didn't bring any maidservant into a room and only stayed to drink. Upon finishing his fourth bottle, he looked at the silent Lorist with interest and challenged him to a drinking game.

However, Lorist refused the challenge on the pretense of being Tarkel's guard. Despite that, Drei was insistent on challenging Lorist to a drinking match. In the end, Tarkel had to 'order' Lorist to accept a match so that his friend didn't lose face.

Lorist said with a distressed look, "Young master, I'm not good at holding my drink..."

But under everyone's pressure, Lorist downed three bottles of fruit wine before spitting his last mouthful out and collapsing on the table unmoving, much to the rest's amusement.

Tarkel complained, "Sheesh, you guys... You didn't have to force a non-drinker like him to get drunk... Someone, help me carry Locke up to the room for some good rest. I'm afraid he'll rat me out when we get back to the guild..."

Downstairs, ass Tarkel and his friends were just beginning to make merry, loud humping sounds along with the moans of the maidservants could be heard from the room next door. The 'drunken' Lorist, on the other hand, opened his eyes wide and quietly sat up straight...

Chapter 285 Dueling Grounds

Lorist pushed the window of his room open lightly, confirmed that nobody was at the small alley behind the inn, before silently making his way down to the ground and disappearing into the darkness.

The buildings along the alley to the rear of the inn all had their windows closed, perhaps because the Blood and Flame was frequented by noisy patrons. Lorist looked around to see if there was anything amiss before he headed in the direction of the dueling grounds.

The royal defense army's camp was still busy. Sounds of cries and loud laughter could be heard. The Snowshame Army's slavers' and the mercenaries' partying made a mess of the camp. Countless people could be seen coming and going through the camp gates. Even the guards of the camp's gates abandoned their posts. They sat down in groups and drank, completely oblivious to the people passing through the gates.

Lorist currently donned the disguise of a haggard mercenary. Alcoholic fumes drifted up from his clothes, he had a messy head of hair, and a bottle of rough liquor dangled by his side in one of his hands. He approached the campsite gradually, mumbling and fumbling along.

One of the lookouts noticed him and walked over. His eyes were fixed on the bottle in Lorist's hand all the way.

"Hey friend, I'm sure you've had enough to drink. Are you alright?" asked the lookout.

He helped Lorist stand and reached for the bottle with his other hand simultaneously. Lorist refused to let go of the bottle, however.

"This... is to celebrate our king's retaliation... We're going to battle soon... I... I want one more bottle... Urghh..." Lorist muttered.

The lookout patted on Lorist's back and said, "Friend, if you want to puke, do it in that alley over there. I'll hold your bottle for you while you do so, alright?"

Lorist finally loosened his grip on the bottle and let the lookout leave with it. He looked quite happy that more than half the liquor had yet to be consumed.

He pushed Lorist forward.

"Quick, go on...", he said.

His focus had already left Lorist completely; he cleaned the bottle carefully before taking a swig.

Lorist slumped over to the alley beside the camp, making sure to sound like he was struggling to hold his portion of the bottle's alcohol in.

As his steps brought him to the mouth of the alley, he was shocked by what greeted him. Dozens of drunk men lay strewn about like broken teeth and the stench of vomit and bile - stained with a hint of alcohol - billowed out of its dark depths in waves like the breaths of some gigantic beast.

He pinched his nose and disappeared into the mouth. On the other end of the darkness, the dueling grounds lay and wait for him like a beast slumbering in the night. It was a large, black mass of shadow looming domineeringly in the distance. As opposed to the alcohol and vomit of the alley now behind him, it billowed the sickeningly sweet and iron-like malodor of blood. It was indeed a monster and a hungry one at that. It devoured tens of thousands of slave gladiators and spat out that stench in return.

The darkness inside growled silently as Lorist approached, at least a dozen distinct sounds of bestial hunger could be heard. The dueling grounds' main entrance was locked. Four torches gleamed like two pairs of eyes inside, illuminating the interior in a stuttering, pale yellow glow.

Two guards approached the gate, yawning incessantly. Lorist noticed their approach and quickly circled around the beast, taking care to remain hidden in the shadows. The five other entrances were completely closed off. The ground offered no way into the beast.

He spat on his hands, rubbed them together and began the arduous climb up the sides. Like a lion clawing its way up the calves of a giraffe, he made his way up the walls and arrived at the elaborately-decorated roof. His body flipped... and he was in the belly of the beast.

The arena was circled by floors of villi-esque seats. More than ten levels rose into the night sky, chaining the space above the arena. The middle of the building was the lowest, and there was a huge tower near the main entrance, which probably served as an alarm tower. Opposite it were the priority seats and cabins from where the nobility and those of status viewed the shows.

Right in the middle of the dueling grounds was the main stage, six meters below the lowest rings of villi. Unlike the stone walls that Lorist climbed on, the inner walls around the main stage were pasted with green clay like gall covering the inside of a giant stomach. It was exceedingly smooth, nothing could scale it to escape. Anyone that entered had no choice but to be digested by the carnage inside.

The main stage had a glint like a black eye staring at the poor souls about to be swallowed whole. The smell of blood dripped off it into the air as though the stage itself was made of blood. The breeze blew through the building. It screamed in terror around its interior corners and clashed metallically with walls and other obstacles.

Charade, Jim, and the other soldiers of the house were forced to fight on those grounds with other slave fighters to the death for the entertainment of their spectators. Even though the pirates had founded their own kingdom, they had passed down their savage and dehumanizing practices. They had never once viewed the slaves as fellow humans and had them fight for their lives just to humor their masters.

Since that's the case, I shouldn't have to treat them like humans either.

Lorist's eyes blooded like the stage. Death and the desire to kill beamed from them like the rays of a blood moon. Looking at his surroundings, he realized that the alarm tower was not manned, possibly because not one of the guards were willing to soak in the chilling night breeze. He hurried to the tower and with a flash of his blade, severed the cord.

Once on the ground once more, he dropped the rope to the stage. A silent alarm was useless to his enemies, and he could continue on for quite a bit of time more after being discovered without fear of reinforcements coming to his victims' aid.

Behind the alarm tower was a gate leading to the inner sections of the building. According to Tarkel, the path led to the underground sections of the dueling grounds where the slave fighters were kept. It was said that there were at least 5000 down there.

The gate was bolted shut by a huge iron rod that was chained up and locked securely. It was no obstacle to Lorist, however. Stretching out his shortsword, he circulated his internal energy and cut the chain and bolt cleanly. The gate opened with a slight creak. Lorist entered with utmost caution and closed the gate behind him. He restored the severed chain and continued on.

After walking for a few moments, Lorist arrived at a junction. He picked the left path after some deliberation but arrived at yet another three-path fork not long after.

Darn, I still haven't got underground and there are already so many splitting paths... I might get lost if I'm not careful...

Lorist put his ear to the wall. He could hear the voices of people conversing coming from the left path. Thus, he entered the tunnel, feeling the walls as he walked on in darkness. Not long after, light could be seen from the other end of the tunnel. The source was two lit torches that hung on the walls. Beyond the tunnel, two half-naked guards were rubbing their bodies with a linen cloth soaked in a basin filled with water.

"It's fine, there's no need to rub it that clean. Get some sleep, we both have shifts early in the morning," said one of the guards.

"No, that won't do. When Blademaster Benack killed and tortured that slave, some of the blood got on my neck. It feels absolutely gross. If I don't wipe this off, I won't be able to sleep soundly... Heck, I might even get nightmares," said the other.

The first guard laughed and said, "Haha, who asked you to suck up to him so much by staying so close to him? I knew that nothing good would come of it, so I chose to watch from a distance. You should know that the blademaster has a weird temperament. Even if you get on his good side, you won't benefit much."

"It's not like I want to ask a lot of him. I only need him to get a word in for me. You know I've been serving in the royal defense army for seven years. I should've been promoted to a vice squad leader long ago, but that cursed company leader kept me from doing so to let his brother-in-law climb the ranks. But his brother-in-law is a bronze rank and has three years less experience than me. He doesn't qualify," complained the guard.

"Forget it, Stam, it's your fault for antagonizing the company leader in the past. Given how petty he is, he won't let you off that easy. I heard Suraid, the one who guards the main entrance, say that someone came over during the evening to look for that sword-obsessed punk. The company leader insisted that the punk had left when they asked to see him. But Suraid says that he didn't look like the sort to give up that easily, so he might come back with a noble in a day or two for an inspection. If you leak the news, the company leader will definitely be in trouble and become the scapegoat..."

"That doesn't sound like a good idea," Stam replied, "You know that the sword-obsessed punk got the attention of Blademaster Benack, but I just don't get it... Even though he's a three-star silver rank, his comprehension abilities are lacking and he isn't ruthless enough. He never deals a killing blow to the slaves he spars with. If he's so soft, there's no way he'll be able to grasp the essence of the sword..."

"Haha..." the first guard laughed, "You don't get it. What Blademaster Benack has his eyes on is the punk's family. He comes from the Peterson Merchant Guild, one of the big-seven. If the blademaster manages to be appointed as his swordsmanship instructor, he'll definitely be paid at least two or three thousand gold Fordes a year apart from other benefits.

"Think about it, the kid spends around 30 gold Fordes a day just to come here for a spar or two. If you add the tips he gives us, his monthly spending is easily higher than a thousand gold Fordes. It's his ability to spend that much without batting an eye that caught the blademaster's attention."

Lorist surged with joy. He finally had a lead on Els's location. In the distance, the two guards finished cleaning their bodies. Right after they entered the room behind them, Stam stepped out again and mumbled something along the lines of someone snoring too loudly as he headed for another room nearby.

When the place quieted down, Lorist snuck out of the tunnel for a quick glance and realized that he was at a barracks. There were at least 70 soldiers. Lorist walked up to Stam's room and entered it.

"Who's this?" mumbled the guard.

Even though the room was not illuminated, Lorist could roughly see some ten beds. At the moment, however, only Stam was in the room.

It seems that Drei's intel is accurate, there are only 200 guards left...

Without a sound, Lorist made his way to Stam's bed with his sword drawn and pressed on the guard's neck.

With great terror, Stam muttered, "Who-who are you? Wh-what do you want?"

Lorist said, "You don't need to know who I am. I just want to know where my young master is."

"Your young master? How would I know where he is? Are you sure you have the right person?" asked Stam.

"I recognize you, you're the one who opens the gates for my young master when he comes here to spar. I also recall that he's tipped you on occasion," said Lorist.

"Oh," said Stam.

Exhaling in relief, he said, "Friend, are you the Peterson Merchant Guild's guard for the young master? You've come to the right place, but I'm not the person who can help you. It's not something you can solve either. All you can do is have a noble or blademaster from the capital come over. Your young master is indeed here, but he's caught the eye of Blademaster Benack, who wants to take him as his disciple. Your master has been refusing stubbornly so far and its infuriated the blademaster.

He's locked him up in return."

"Then why did the company leader deny that my young master was here when the people from the guild came over earlier to ask about it?" asked Lorist with a hoarse voice.

"Hey, friend, that's none of my business. All I know is that Blademaster Benack has an odd temper. If he snaps and something happens to your master, the company leader will be able to push the blame elsewhere. If somebody dies over here, all we have to do to erase any trace of it is to toss the body into the magic beast cages. No evidence will be left for anybody to place any blame," said Stam.

Given how much he hated the company leader, he took the opportunity to badmouth his superior. He understood that a young master with a personal guard secretly protecting him definitely was not someone to be trifled with.

Perhaps, this is the end of that darned bastard, and my time will come soon.

"Get dressed and bring me to my young master. I need to be sure that he's safe," Lorist said as he tapped on Stam's face with his sword, "If you help me out, our guild will definitely reward you heavily. Here's the down payment."

With a glint, Lorist brought up a torch in his hand to brighten the room. When Stam recovered from the sudden flash of light, he saw a gleaming gold Forde note falling before him.

"You have two choices. Either you bring me to see my young master and be rewarded for it, or you refuse and be silenced. I can simply find another person who's willing to cooperate. There are more than 60 people here. I'm sure one of them will help me out," whispered Lorist in a rough voice.

Stam grit his teeth and held the note in his hand.

After checking its authenticity with the light from Lorist's torch, he kissed the note and said, "As the saying goes, 'men die for money'... I'll give you a tour, but you can't remain dressed like this. The others will notice."

Lorist pointed at the bed next to him where a set of gear lay.

"I've already made preparations. I'll look no different after putting this on. This bronze helmet also has a visor that's ideal for masking my face. We'll look just like any other patrol. All I need you to do is to bring me to my young master. I only need to know that he's alive and well."

Chapter 286 Three Floors Underground

The royal defense army's equipment was rather bare bones; they only had a bronze helmet, a bronze breastplate and leather pauldrons, faulds, bottoms, and wristguards.

The bronze helmet, in particular, had an ancient design; it reached down to the shoulders and had a T-shaped opening at the front for the eyes, nose, and mouth.

It was rumored that there was a copper mine somewhere on the archipelago. The pirates did not manage to find any other source of metals on the islands and, given the embargos levied on them by the other nations, King Lud I was not able to provide any metal armor for his troops during his reign. The suggestion to use refined bronze for their the armor emerged only after the king's death.

Decades had passed, but given that the kingdom never faced any wars in that time, and at worst had to deal with a few slave uprisings, their equipment had never improved despite eventually having the funds for it. In the end, under the guise of 'honoring the traditions of their ancestors', they chose to simply continue using their old equipment indefinitely.

Stam brought Lorist through a dim corridor as any patrolling soldier would. In Lorist's left hand was a bronze semi-circular shield, his right held a bronze-tipped pike. Those were the standard weapons of the royal defense army. Stam, on the other hand, wore no helmet. He only had a bronze-plated vest and a longsword dangling at his waist. He explained that, since he was a regular there, there was no need for him to dress up fully. He was also carrying the same pike and shield as Lorist.

The corridor's walls ahead had two lit torches, and beyond it, two pike-and-shield-wielding guards could be seen.

"Hey, brother Stam, didn't you go back to rest already? Why are you back here?" one of them asked when they saw the two approaching.

Stam pointed at the ceiling and said, "That bastard said that we have to pay extra attention to security since we're so understaffed. They've forced us to do another round of patrols..."

The two soldiers snickered, before the one who spoke up shook his head and said, "You're starting to get singled out by that company leader more and more often, brother Stam. Why don't you transfer to another company instead?"

Stam replied nonchalantly, "Let's have this discussion some other time. Changing companies will see me being the rookie for a couple of years again."

After taking a turn, two iron gates, one behind the other, could be seen. Four soldiers stood guard between the two. However, with Stam leading him, Lorist was able to pass by them unobstructed. After going through the two gates, Lorist realized that there was a stairway that headed deeper underground.

After descending another floor, they were greeted by another twin-gate setup with four soldiers stationed in the middle. Stam once again used the excuse of being forced to go on a patrol by his superior to bring Lorist across. Beyond that was an empty hall which Stam explained to be where the slave fighters would be rewarded. They were allowed to frolic with the prostitutes here. The slaves were kept locked up two floors further down.

Lorist held onto Stam and feigned anxiety as he asked, "What's going on? Why is my young master kept locked up here? Didn't you say it was only a house arrest of sorts?"

Stam shrugged, "It wasn't my call. It's not my fault your young master got on the bad side of Blademaster Benack. Originally, he was imprisoned upstairs, but when people from your guild came to ask about him, the blademaster instructed for your young master to be sent to the lowest floor to experience some suffering. Heck, I was the one who was assigned to bring him down here."

After passing through the empty hall, they arrived at yet another guarded twin gate, beyond which lay the stairs to the lower floor. The second basement was different from the first, however. The sides of the hall were barred into separate small cells. Each individual bar was as thick as a fist. Some of the cells were empty while silhouettes could be seen in others. They all seemed to be the slave fighters of the dueling grounds.

Ten fully-armed guards walked out of another corridor further down the hall. The leader was a little surprised to see Stam and Lorist. So, he came over to ask about the situation.

Stam used the same excuse as he pointed harshly at the ceiling, causing the leader and the rest of the guards to laugh at his misfortune.

"Stop it! As if I'm not unlucky enough already. I'm going to go down for a spin before finishing up this stupid old task. I really need to go get some sleep. Won't you guys go down with me for a look?" replied he.

The leader shook his head and said, "You go down yourself, I just got back from there. Also, Blademaster Benack is down there, so you better be careful not to piss him off."

"Oh?" Stam said with surprise, "What's the blademaster doing down here so late at night?"

"He's here for the sword-training kid, obviously. I heard that someone came to look for him earlier today. The blademaster must be anxious, so he's back here to force the kid to take an oath to be his disciple," said the leader.

Stam looked at Lorist, only to see him nod slightly.

"Whatever, it's none of my business. I'm only going down there to finish up my patrol. What happens down there is none of my business," said he finally.

When they got down to the third basement, Lorist found it was far smaller than the floor above. Stam explained, "The third basement of the Dueling Grounds is used to keep the most dangerous or disobedient slaves. The security here is also the tightest. Friend, I didn't know that the blademaster would be here tonight. If you have a chance, try to convince your young master to submit for now to preserve his life.

"Blademaster Benack is one of the two blademasters guarding the dueling grounds. Not only does he have a weird temperament, he's also lustful, greedy, cruel, and petty. There was once a regiment leader that got into some kind of disagreement with him... It ended with the blademaster killing a hundred slave fighters to vent his frustration. He then reported that the slaves were revolting to justify his senseless killing and blamed the regiment leader for inadequate management. The poor man was demoted and transferred to the regiment manning the walls.

"So, whatever you do, don't be reckless in front of Blademaster Benack. Otherwise, I'm afraid you won't be able to leave here alive. If something bad happens to your young master, please endure it for now. Send some word back to your clan so that they'll send some blademasters here. If you do that, you'll be able to ask the king to sanction a duel between your blademasters and Blademaster Benack. That's the best way you can resolve the situation. Do you understand?"

Lorist nodded before Stam felt assured enough to continue leading the way.

Lorist could see a thick black rope dangling in the corner. Passing his pike in his right hand to his left, Lorist took a few steps back and took out a triple-edged blade from his waist. Infusing it with internal energy, Lorist swung his right hand lightly, throwing the blade right up and nailing it flat at the ceiling.

He then moved the pike back to his right hand before catching up to Stam, who did not appear to have noticed what Lorist had just done.

That was already the fifth triple-edged blade Lorist used to nail the black ropes unmoving on the way. Originally, Lorist did not know what the rope was for; he only realized that it was connected to a small alarm bell after he passed through the twin gate on the first basement.

If some incident happened at any of the basement floors, patrolling soldiers only had to pull on the black rope to sound the alarm on all the floors. That way, they could wait for reinforcements to hold back any slave violence or respond to any accidents swiftly.

Stam was correct about the third basement being heavily defended. Apart from the four guards at the twin gate near the stairs, there was another twin-gate crossing point further ahead also stationed with four guards. Only after they passed through the second crossing point was Lorist able to hear some echoes of conversation.

The third basement was different from the second basement in that the corridor between the two rows of cells at the side was rather wide. There were also a few rectangular-shaped pillars along the corridor. The basement was illuminated mainly by the two torches which were hung on the pillar in the middle. As they approached the center, they could hear a rough voice saying something in a mocking tone.

"Who goes there?" said a high-pitched voice. It was apparent that the speaker had heard Lorist and Stam's footsteps as they approached.

"Sir Blademaster, it is I, Stam. We've received orders from the company leader to patrol the area," announced Stam as he saluted.

Lorist mimicked his salut.

"What's wrong with Pabola? Is there really a need to be that thorough with patrols?" the man with the high-pitched voice complained.

It appeared that Pabola was the company leader's name.

"Sir Benack, I also didn't understand why the company leader had me patrol once more, but he said we should be extra careful today since the regiment is away, leaving only two squads of troops behind here. So, he said there was a need for increased security," explained Stam.

"Whatever, come over you two. You're just in time to help me out with something," the blademaster said with his sharp voice.

As Lorist moved forward along with Stam, he felt himself getting more agitated the more steps he took. He was able to see the two cells in which his soldiers and guards were kept. While he could not remember every one of their names, he did think their faces looked familiar.

By the time he arrived at the brightest part, he saw Els, Charade, Jim, Tok, Torin and some other household knights.

Charade was half naked with only short and tattered trousers to wear. His chubby figure was no more, replaced with a toughened-up build bereft of fat. Bloody lacerations could be seen all over his exposed torso. Both his hands and legs were in chains. At that moment, he was seated cross-legged right in front of the thick iron bars, staring at the glamorously-dressed old man in the middle of the hall.

Jim was seated next to Charade. However, there was a dirty bandage wrapped around his body and looked to be recovering from his injuries. Further away was Tok, Torin, and the rest.

Els, on the other hand, was in a cell adjacent to Charade's, but he was still properly dressed and was not chained up like the rest. He was currently seated with his back against the moss-covered walls. He didn't bother to look at the old fancily-dressed man in the hall.

Lorist gave the old fellow a look. The man was Blademaster Benack. Under the illumination of the torchlight, his face looked exceedingly insidious.

"Kid, I'll give you one more chance. As long as you sign this agreement and put down your fingerprint to take me as your master, I'll make sure that you end up as a gold-rank within three years. Otherwise, you can forget about leaving the dueling grounds..." said the blademaster with his raspy, high-pitched voice.

Els spat on the ground without bothering to turn his head to look the blademaster in the eye.

"Hahahaha, that kid made the right choice. Gigantic rat, you'll only be able to take him as your disciple in your dreams. Breaking through to the gold rank within three years? Hah! He would be easily able to reach that rank without your tutelage! And to think that you want him to pay you 2000 gold Fordes annually for your teachings... You're seriously blinded by money!" exclaimed a rough voice from behind Blademaster Benack.

Oh, Blademaster Benack does indeed look a little like a giant rat, given his oddly-shaped eyes...

Turning back to look, Lorist saw five to six other slaves laughing in the cell at the opposite side where the sound originated from. The chains that bound them seemed much thicker than those that bound Charade.

Blademaster Benack puffed angrily and forced himself to ignore what the slaves had said before continuing to address Els, "Kid, are you really going to be that stubborn? Fine, I will let a few of your friends here come out to die by my blade. I'll see whether you'll agree to it after I skin them alive!"

Lorist's gaze cooled as the blademaster pointed at the cell Charade and the others were in when he made his threat.

The voice from the opposite cell resounded again, "Big ol' rat, shame on you for being a blademaster who only picks on iron and silver ranks! If you dare, let me out. I'm only a gold rank, unlike brother Shuss here, let's see you take me on if you dare! Stupid rat-faced bastard!"

Benack turned back and scolded angrily, "What does this have to do with you lot? Do you want a beating?"

The slave fighters laughed mockingly and echoed, "Yeah, we'd love one! Come in, stupid rat! We're itching to be beaten!"

The blademaster was so mad that he almost seemed to fume. However, he was not able to offer any rebuttal, so he turned back to Lorist and Stam and barked, "Did you two not hear me? Get the guards to pass me the silver keys!"

Stam turned back and said, "Roger, I'm on it," before taking Lorist with him.

Along the way, Stam said, "Darn, we're rather unlucky tonight. Blademaster Benack will be torturing the slaves to vent again... We will have to clean up after him later, and trust me, it's the grossest thing you'll ever see."

Lorist asked curiously, "Who were those people who mocked the blademaster just now? Why doesn't he just vent on them?"

"Hehe, that big rat won't dare-- Oh, I meant the blademaster. Those are gold-ranked slave fighters. The one who spoke out first was a blademaster called Shuss. He's practically a living legend in the dueling grounds. Seventeen years ago, he managed to break through to become a blademaster during one of his fights. Even though the royal family attempted to recruit him, he simply refused. It's said that he was still kept at the gueling grounds so that the rank 3 blademaster of the royal family can spar and train with him," said Stam.

"But apart from Shuss, aren't the others just gold ranks? Why doesn't Benack go teach them a lesson?" asked Lorist.

Stam angled his nose up high and said, "Hmph! Would he dare? The first time Blademaster Benack wanted to punish a gold-ranked slave fighter, he ended up injured heavily himself. Even though he was rescued in the end, he lost his right ear from the gold-ranked fighter's bite. In terms of swordsmanship, Blademaster Benack definitely had the advantage. However, he still wasn't a match for slave fighters who survive on a fight-to-fight basis. Ever since then, Blademaster Benack only dares to pick on iron and silver ranks."

The two had arrived at the heavily-guarded twin gate by the time he finished. Stam told the guards that the blademaster had requested for the silver key and they handed it to him promptly, but they did not fail to add that they could not leave because they had to stand guard over there.

"Ptooey! I know you shits just don't want to help with the cleanup. Your third-rate act doesn't fool me!" snapped Stam before he took the key and turned back with Lorist.

"Go, open the three cells over there and bring a few of them to me," Blademaster Benack said while pointing at Charade, before he turned to Els and said, "Kid, let me show you how it's really done. Your stupid sparring sessions are only filled with circling around him without ever aiming for the killing blow... I'll show you what it means to deal a fatal strike! After my performance, you'll definitely be impressed by my skills and take me as master..."

"Hahaha, far from learning swordsmanship from you, I think you'll teach us how to borrow like a rat far better! That's what you're really meant for!" said a voice from the opposite cells.

The blademaster took a few deep breaths to suppress the rage in his mind before he turned to Lorist and Stam and said, "What's going on? Do what I say quick!"

Stam gulped audibly before he stammered as he pointed at Charade's cell, "Th-that time t-tehe supervisor su-suspected that those slave fi-fighters have diff-ferent statuses from normal people... Didn't h-he ask us to check up o-on their backgrounds properly first? Sir Blademaster, i-if you bring them out and kill them just like t-that, it won't be too app-propriate..."

"Background check my arse!" the blademaster exclaimed angrily, "They are going to die in the dueling grounds in a few days anyway! It's only a matter of time before he dies, so just do what I say!"

"A-alright," said Stam as he tugged on Lorist, beckoning him to head towards the cell.

Chapter 287 Taking Action

Charade, Jim, and Tok were dragged out of their cells. Charade stood in the middle. He did not say a word and merely stared coldly at Blademaster Benack with eyes full of scorn. Jim wanted to stand in front of Charade but was stopped by him. Tok was already cursing. Being an ex-pirate, his choice of expletives was not of the mild variety; from the moment the cell was opened to when he was brought out, Tok had already 'laid' with more than 17 generations of the blademaster's female descendants, and he was already making his way to the 18th.

The Norton knights and soldiers kept within the third basement all cussed and jeered, banging at the iron bars behind which they were locked.

Els jumped around angrily and demanded that Blademaster Benack spare them, saying that he would consider taking him as his master should that be the case.

"Shut up!" cried Charade to Els.

His voice carried a hint of scolding, much to Stam's surprise.

Charade pointed at the blademaster and yelled, "Are you really going to take that darned big rat as your master? You're going to embarrass the whole of the house! Look at that pathetic excuse of a man! Do you think you'll be able to live this shame down even with the rest of your life? The moment you take him as your master, your life is over! I don't care if I die, but you must never take this kind of shame upon yourself! When the house's forces arrive, I trust that our lord will not let this stinking rat off and will exterminate all his kin alongside him!"

The reason Charade was so emotional was because apprenticeship was a huge deal on the continent. The relationship between a master and apprentice was far closer and significant than how it was in Lorist's past life. Choosing a master was a serious deal filled with lasting implications. The apprentice had to see his master as a second parent. They were obligated to obey their master for the rest of their lives, and serve in some capacity to further their goals.

In the case of the blademaster forcing Els to be apprenticed to him, the moment Els signed the agreement he would have to look at the rat-like Benack as his master. Not only would he have to pay his dues for the guidance, but he also had to abide by his master's every whim. Blademaster Benack could have Els solve every one of his problems no matter how trivial.

Should Els go back on his agreement, the blademaster can use the contract against him and spread word of his disobedience. No one would care why Els took the man on as his master. It would only matter that he was indeed the blademaster's apprentice, and he would receive appropriate criticism for his bad behavior. It would be a lifelong stain on his reputation.

Even the Peterson Merchant Guild, with which he claimed affiliation, would have their reputation sullied. The other reason Blademaster Benack wanted to forcefully take Els as his apprentice was because he wanted to be affiliated with one of the largest guilds in the Union.

At that moment, Els's face was already covered with tears. He cried wildly.

"You freaking big rat, I beg you to spare them! As long as you do so, I'll give you all the money you could ever want! Ten thousand? How about twenty?! If you kill them, I swear that I will use the cruelest methods to put you and your family to death, ending your line once and for all! Mark my words!"

"Oh, is that so?" Blademaster Benack mused with his face flush with anger, before his expression turned calm as he said, "Since you're not willing to take me as your master, I will kill these three filthy slaves in front of you. If you do decide to sign this agreement, I'll agree to give them a swift and painless death."

Everyone present could hear the venom infused in the blademaster's threats. Even his high-pitched voice turned deep and dark as he uttered them. He had already made up his mind to kill off Charade and the other two no matter what, given how they berated him and stopped Els from agreeing to sign the agreement despite being only silver ranks.

Hmph, stupid filth who's not even a gold rank... Since you dare to behave like that in my presence, I will make sure that you die in the most excruciating way possible. I'll show you what horrors a blademaster like me is capable of.

Blademaster Benack drew his sword. Under the illumination of the torches, the blade glowed subtly like the reflection of the moon in calm water, an indication that the sword was of good make.

"Very well... You filthy slaves... Did it feel good to berate me? If you kneel and prostrate yourself to that punk and ask him to take me as master, you'll be graced with a painless death," said the blademaster with his sword pointed at the three.

"Ptooey!"

All three of them spat on the ground in at the same time, rousing yet another round of mocking laughs in the opposite cell.

"Big rat, aren't you a blademaster? If you dare, remove their chains and give them a weapon to fight you fairly! You're a freaking blademaster and they're only three unarmed silver ranks locked up in chains. If you kill them as is, it'll be nothing but shameless slaughter. Give them weapons and remove their chains to give them a warrior's death!" said a rough voice.

The gold-ranked slaves began to chant, "Give them weapons, remove their chains!" incessantly.

The blademaster deafened himself to the chants and walked over, raising his sword and slashing down savagely.

The flash of the blade was akin to lightning. The strike seemed slow but was horridly fast. It carried with it a seething vibe of poison. The trajectory it traced would split Charade's face in half, severing his lower jaw from the rest of his head and revealing his tongue if it hit. With another loop, the blademaster could easily cut off the tongue itself.

Charade shut his eyes and rushed straight towards the incoming strike. Jim and Tok, on the other hand, leaped forward as well, dragging their chains with them.

The rough voice resounded again angrily, "Big rat, you better not give me a chance in the future. Otherwise, I'll definitely skin you alive and remove every gram flesh from your body..."

Clang! A bronze pike suddenly appeared, blocking the longsword strike. Even though the pike was cut clean in half as a result, the longsword was deflected to the side. Blademaster Benack didn't expect a guard from the royal defense army would actually manage to parry his longsword. During his moment of stupor, he saw a semi-circular bronze shield smashing towards his face.

"What the heck are you doing?!" roared the blademaster in rage. With a sweep of his legs, he managed to avoid the shield bash. But he did not predict that Lorist would be right in front of him. Perhaps, he had moved to face Lorist inadvertently while avoiding the strike.

Lorist lowered his head and headbutted the blademaster right away with his bronze helmet. The latter stumbled and fell to the ground. A massive lump quickly formed on his forehead. There were even a few cuts all over his face. Even a blademaster would not be able to resist having his unprotected face smashed in with a bronze helmet.

Stretching out his hand, Lorist grabbed onto the blademaster's outstretched wrist and gave it a harsh twist. The sword the hand was holding fell and Lorist caught it. With a few casual slashes, he severed Blademaster Benack's arm and leg, causing him to fall unconscious from all the screaming in pain.

The others in the basement looked on in absolute silence. They never thought that such a complete reversal would occur in those few moments. It was as if time itself stopped flowing.

Els continued to stare with tears all over his face and his mouth agape. Charade maintained his forward-rushing posture with a shocked expression. Jim and Tok were already prepared to take the strike for Charade, but the scene stopped them in their tracks completely.

The gold-ranked slaves in the other cells stared wide-mouthed, seemingly unwilling to believe that a mere foot soldier was able to so easily take out Blademaster Benack without any traces of using battleforce.

Stam was the first one to snap out of his stupor. Shivering all over, he turned tail to run. Lorist gave the broken pike a light kick and caused it to pierce through Stam's undefended back. THe poor man fell face first into the ground and didn't move again.

"Good thing I arrived just in time to save you lot," said Lorist with a smile as he removed his helmet. Given the force he used during the headbutt, Lorist's forehead was slightly bruised as well.

"Mi-milord..." Charade, Jim, and Tok all knelt in relief, having survived in the face of certain death.

The imprisoned soldiers and knights of House Norton began to chant 'Milord' in the same fashion.

Lorist moved his index finger to his mouth and hushed them.

"Shut up! I still need to bust you guys out of here! Stop making so much noise!"

He moved to help the three to their feet and hugged all of them tightly.

"It must've been tough on you guys. I'm proud that our house has such unrelenting and strong-willed knights."

Tok mumbled, "Milord, I'm still not a household knight yet..."

"Shut up!" Lorist exclaimed, "If I say you are, then you are! See that corpse over there? Drag him over here and take the keys to the cells."

Charade laughed and said, "Tok, Milord means to say that he's accepted you as one of his household knights. He'll give you the badge and admittance gift after we escape."

"Oh," said Tok before he turned to loot Stam's corpse.

"Come back here," Lorist called out. With a flash of his sword, he cut off the chains binding them.

Els was the first one to be let out. He kneeled right away in front of Lorist while giving himself two harsh slaps on the face.

"Milord, it's all my fault... I almost caused Charade and the others to lose their lives..."

Lorist helped him up.

"What's your problem? There's no need to slap yourself like that. This is not your fault. It's all because of that greedy rat. He's the one that tried to prey on you."

Lorist pointed at the fallen blademaster who had just regained awareness and was screaming in pain again. He clutched the stump of his arm with his other hand. Els leapt over to him and gave him a harsh walloping before finally stomping down on the blademaster's chest. The man fainted once more.

"How many of those here are men of our house?" asked Lorist.

"Milord, there are 257 remaining. That stupid rat killed five just this evening alone," said Charade hatefully.

"Milord, avenge us! We had 1300-odd people when we were first imprisoned!" called out one soldier kneeling with tears all over his face.

Lorist covered his face and tried not to let his own tears flow.

"Let's be patient. Our forces have already conquered Nupite and will soon advance to the capital. As long as they are subjects of the Hanayabarta kingdom, they will not escape my wrath. I want a few of you to come here and wake this blademaster up with your piss. After that, I'll skin him slowly so that he doesn't enjoy the luxury of a swift death," said Lorist.

Blademaster Benack cried out in agony as Els brought a few soldiers and broke his bones with the chains that previously bound them. Every time the blademaster fainted from the pain, they would piss on his face to wake him up. His cries in the basement prison sent chills down the onlookers' spines.

Half an hour later, Blademaster Benack finally breathed his final breath. His corpse had already become an unrecognizable mess of pound meat. By then, the Norton soldiers had all been released and they were resting.

"Milord, how are we going to make it out?" asked Charade.

"I haven't given it much thought. Well, we could always slaughter our way out," replied Lorist.

"No darn way!" Charade cried out while giving himself a smack in the forehead, "You were so reckless that you didn't even have a plan in mind before you acted?"

Lorist said casually, "Doesn't this count as an emergency? You were about to lose your lives, you know. I can't stay my hand at that."

"But right now, we're mostly unarmed and not in prime condition. How will we bust our way out by force?" complained Charade.

"Why don't we just make the iron bars into makeshift pikes by sharpening the point? That way, we'll at least be armed," said Lorist as he looked at the iron bars.

"It's pointless, milord. The material is the same as those of our chains. They don't conduct battleforce and we won't be able to use them as weapons," replied Charade with a bitter smile.

"Hey, kid, come here and let us out. We'll be able to help you," said the man with the hoarse voice.

"Oh, milord, let me introduce you to him. That over there is Brother Shuss, a blademaster. He showed us the ropes when we first arrived. I need to thank him for it," said Charade as he headed for the man's cell.

The slave was an old man of abnormally large stature with a determined gaze. Wounds from battles long past decorated his body all over. The chains that bound him were at least three times thicker than those that bound Charade. However, Charade could not find the key to his cell, which was not something to be surprised about, since the keys Stam took were silver. Lorist remembered seeing another set of bronze keys at the twin gates which were probably those used to open the other set of cells.

Lorist infused Blademaster Benack's sword with his internal energy and cut off the thick bars of the cells. When Shuss emerged from it, Lorist's longsword flashed past before the chains binding him fell to the ground with loud clatters.

"Magnificent swordsmanship!" praised Shuss with a thumbs up.

Lorist looked at the other four gold-ranked slaves' yearning expressions and said apologetically, "Just wait here for a moment. I will go get the keys from the guards to let you out. Cutting the bars will expend too much of my energy."

"Milord, won't you alert the guards that way?" asked Els.

"Don't worry, those guards know that the big rat frequently tortures you lot to death. That's why they are not willing to approach this hall in the slightest. We can use the excuse of getting cleaning supplies to approach and kill them. After that, you guys will put on their equipment and pretend to be guards, understood?" asked Lorist.

"Alright, Milord," replied Els.

Chapter 288 Secret Path

The four guards at the entrance looked at Lorist walk over as he mumbled.

"Hey, what's wrong?" asked one of them.

"Don't ask, it's far too disgusting... Blademaster Benack is too cruel," Lorist said as he knocked his wrist on the bars of the gates, "Stam wanted me to get some cleaning tools. We'll have to move some corpses later as well."

One of the guards said as he opened the gate, "Are you an idiot? Why would you do it yourself? Just get a slave down here to do it! After all, the corpses will be fed to the magic beasts anyway."

Lorist nodded.

"That was what I thought should be done as well, but Stam told me to hurry up because the blademaster doesn't have the patience for me to go all the way up to get one."

Another guard chuckled and said, "Well, sucks to be the two of you, bumping into the blademaster when he's in a bad mood. Oh, and, how many died just now? The cries I heard sounded rather terrifying. The slaves must have died horribly."

With the door opened, Lorist walked through to a good spot, snickered, and replied, "Four."

With a flash of his sword, the four guards lost their lives. Four strokes, each making an opening on a guard's throat. They fell one after another without a sound, slipping into death's cold embrace in silence. Waving his hands, Els and eight other household soldiers rushed over and stripped the corpses bare. Three soldiers with physiques similar to the guards put on the uniforms.

The remaining soldiers dragged the four corpses back to where they came from. Lorist looked at Els and the other three and nodded with satisfaction.

"Very well, fortunately, the enemy loadout includes an old-style bronze helmet that hides faces well enough. If the enemy comes and says they want to go in to check because they don't recognize you, let them. Only kill them if you have. We don't want them to report the situation and call for reinforcements after all."

Els nodded and said, "Understood, Milord."

Lorist took the silver key and left. With Els watching over the situation, he was not worried in the slightest. After all, most of the royal defense army's soldiers were of the bronze rank. Only leaders had to be silver ranked and above. On that front, they were not that much different from the Nortons' forces. Even if a group of ten patrol soldiers came over to check, with a three-star-silver-rank like Els and a few other iron ranks with him, there would be no issue.

"Thanks. He's called Jades, and this here is Messen. Over here we have Sendhank and Plom. All four of them are gold ranks, so they're locked up here with me. How should I address you, by the way?" asked the blademaster, Shuss, as he received the keys and opened the cells to release the four gold-ranked fighters.

"I'm Norton Lorist. Just call me Locke," said Lorist before he nodded to the gold-ranked fighters.

"Our lord is the head of the Family of the Raging Bear of The Northlands. He's a count," said Charade as he stepped forward to introduce Lorist formally.

However, Blademaster Shuss did not really care for Lorist's title and casually said, "Fine, we'll either call you Lord Locke or Lord Count. Jades, Plom, here are the keys. Release the other fellows at the back."

"Please, call me Locke. My friends all refer to me as such," Lorist said.

He eyed Jades and Plom as they disappeared into the darkness beyond the room they were in.

"Are there more?" asked he.

"Yes. The third basement was originally only for keeping silver-ranked slave fighters. There are 27 others deeper inside. Most of your men were kept over here and were made examples for the rest of them to follow, mainly because their loyalty and solidarity were too strong," said Shuss.

"Milord, did you mention that our forces have already occupied Nupite?" asked Charade.

"That's right," Lorist said, before he gave a brief description of the current conflict, "I snuck into the capital because I was worried about you guys. Fortunately, I got here in time. Otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to meet you guys again for the rest of my life."

"Milord, you shouldn't have risked your safety like this. While it's not a huge deal if we die, you are different! You have to lead the house. If some misfortune befalls you, our rescue will have been in vain," said Jim, as he, Tok, Klinbo and the other household knights teared up.

"That's right, Milord. You shouldn't have taken that kind of risk," said Charade.

"Bullshit. Even though I'm the leader of the house, you guys are my friends and brothers. It's because you fought for the house that you ended up in captivity. Would I still be human if I left you to rot like this?" asked Lorist.

"Nicely said. Naturally, you acted on what you said as well. Nobles like you are rare these days. What are you going to do next, Lord Locke?" asked Blademaster Shuss.

"Well," Lorist stroked his head, "I didn't really come here with a plan. Originally, I only wanted to check this place out to get a grasp of the area. All I wanted was to see them safe. But the urgency of the situation forced my hand. If it's only one or two people, perhaps I can find a way to bring them out. But I really have no clue what I should do with so many people. At worst, we'll have to fight our way out. It's a possible feat given that the royal defense army was just deployed and the capital is not as well defended as usual. But I can't say how many will survive."

Shuss stared into Lorist's eyes. He became curious about what gave Lorist the confidence to say that he would be able to fight his way out of the capital.

"If all you want is to leave the capital, we don't even have to fight, I know a secret path. Follow me," said he finally.

Shuss turned and walked away. Lorist and his companions waited where they were.

The sound of metal clattering on stone could be heard from the other side of the dark tunnel. Soon a group of slaves, led by the three gold-ranks, emerged. They greeted Lorist and the blademaster as they passed.

Shuss brought them to the innermost cell of the floor and stood there for a good moment before having the gold rank called Jades to open the cell. Once inside, he moved aside an old wooden bed and some rotting dried grass and tapped on the stone floor. He removed one of the tiles. A small hole became visible beneath. It was just large enough for a person to fit through.

"Old Jones spent 14 years digging this tunnel, but just as he was about to escape, he lost his life on the dueling grounds," he said wistfully, "That day, he even told me excitedly that he would sneak two pieces of black bread with him before he escapes during the night. Who knew that he would be pitted against two swordtooth tigers on his own that very day."

If a slave fighter managed to win a fight, they would be awarded a luxurious meal that included roast meat, potatoes, black bread and some cheap liquor. They were even allowed to take two extra pieces of black bread for supper.

"Where does this tunnel head?" asked Lorist.

"Even I don't know the answer to that," the blademaster said, shaking his head, "Jones only told me that he dug until he reached a waterway and left the last piece of rock untouched. He just had to remove the last rock to escape. But since his death two years ago, I never managed to enter his cell, so I haven't been able to check it out myself."

When he finished, the blademaster rummaged around the old wooden bed and found a small piece of metal and a thumb-length wire. "These were his tools. This here is a piece of metal broken off a sword Jones found and kept. This wire here he got from a broken basket. The most important feature about these two items is that they can both conduct battleforce and allow a blade glow to form. Old Jones relied on only these two items to dig that tunnel over 14 years."

Lorist could not help but recall a certain classic Hollywood film he watched in his past life, titled Shaw-something Redemption. The protagonist was sentenced to serve a very long jail sentence and managed to use an iron spoon to dig a tunnel over the course of ten-odd years to finally obtain freedom. Jones was quite similar in that regard, save for his ill fortune.

"Milord, let's go down there to check," said Tok, before he jumped right inside.

"Hey, wait a second," Charade said before he passed the torch to Tok, "Take this torch down there so that we can see better."

After around half an hour, Tok reemerged from the hole covered with mud.

"Milord, this path is not that long, only around 15 meters deep. The only thing is it's a little too narrow. I wasn't able to twist my body around or breathe properly but there is a bit more space near the stone wall at the end. I knocked apart two larger rocks and walked towards where there was an air current and saw the exit. It's gated with iron bars at least as thick as a bowl."

Tok gestured to show the width of the bars and said after some hesitance, "After looking around, I found the exit of the waterway had two towers to its left and right around 50 meters away. A huge wall connected those two towers. If we escape through the waterway, we'll be detected easily by people on that tower. We won't be able to retaliate if they attack us with crossbows or other ranged weaponry."

Tok knelt down and drew two semi-circles and two circles at the two ends to denote the two towers. At the center of the indented side of the inner semi-circle was a dot that represented the waterway exit.

"What about the other waterway? Where does that head?" asked Charade.

"I didn't go there so I don't know. I only know that it leads pretty far away, and I didn't want to make you worry by staying down there for too long," said Tok, shaking his head.

"You don't need to go all the way to the end just to find out. I know where that leads," Blademaster Shuss said, "I recall one slave fighter said it leads to the ring road. That path is actually a huge sewer. As storms around the Hanayabarta archipelago typically last two to three days, the capital built these waterways to help with the irrigation and avoid flooding. There are four city sectors with one such waterway underground. Every month on the 10th, some guards would bring us to clear up the waterways. That fighter knew that because he used to be one of those slaves as well. He was sent to the dueling grounds because he got into a fight with a slave manager. Shame he only lasted three rounds before dying."

"What do we do now, Milord?" asked Charade.

Lorist considered his options. Even though he would be able to escape the capital safely through the waterway, he had to free more than 200 men, not just a few. It would take them at least three hours to make it out and they were all tired and hungry to boot. According to Charade, they only got a meal of gruel for the whole day when the dueling grounds were closed. While seeing Lorist come to their rescue did improve their mood a bit, that would probably not be able to last them the whole journey out.

Additionally, according to Tok's findings, escaping the waterway was no easy task either. The guards on the towers would surely notice that many people coming through the waterway. Without any weapons, it would only end badly for them. While Lorist did want to help them escape, he did not want to lead them to their deaths.

Even if he did manage to kill the enemies on the towers and wall first before the rest escaped, it still was not going to end well. While Lorist did not consider the guards a threat to him, they were doubtlessly on high alert and his ascent up the walls would alarm all of them. As long as the enemy sent a number of blademasters to hold Lorist down while others chased Charade and the rest down, the unarmed household knights would be unable to fight back. There was no way Lorist could save everyone, regardless of how strong he was.

Lorist was in a dilemma and was not able to come up with a resolution for a good while as he stroked his chin in thought.

"Lord Locke, I heard you mention that the royal defense army has mobilized this morning. Do you know how many guards they have left at the dueling grounds?" asked Blademaster Shuss, knocking Lorist off his train of thought.

"Hmm, I believe there should be around two hundred of them. Roughly two squads" replied Lorist.

"That's wonderful. Then, Lord Locke, can you lend us a couple of weapons? I want to rescue the other slave fighters on the upper basement and conquer the first basement as soon as we can," said Blademaster Shuss.

"Oh?" Lorist mused, not knowing what the blademaster intended to achieve.

"Here's the plan," Blademaster Shuss said after seeing Lorist's troubled expression, "Actually, the 200 royal defense army guards you mentioned are only responsible for the patrols and supervision. There are another one or two hundred instructors and supervisors here. They are the ones who pose a real threat to us. Another rank 2 blademaster, Jiluet, is also among them.

"However, there is only one entrance to where we are locked up. If we strike fast and seal off the sole entrance to stop the instructors and supervisors as well as the blademaster from barging in, we'll have enough time to plan our departure."

"Then, do you know where the pantry and armory are?" asked Lorist.

"They're over there as well," the blademaster said as he knelt down and drew an oval on the ground with the mud on his finger, "Lord, this here is the dueling grounds. The prison for us slave fighters is located a little bit to the right. It's where the magic beasts are kept as well. As for the instructors and supervisors, their dorm is to the left, alongside the pantry and armory. Every morning, some slaves would be sent to collect some food to feed those of us down here. Only after we have our meals will the instructors bring us out for different kinds of training."

"I see. Blademaster Shuss, how do you compare to that rank 2 blademaster? Is the gap wide?"

"Well, usually I would be able to fight on even grounds with him. Perhaps, I might even win if I fight desperately enough, but I definitely wouldn't be able to walk away with the victory without any damage. There are ten other gold-ranked instructors and I definitely won't be able to handle them if they come at me at the same time. Don't think that Jades and Messen will be able to hold their ground either. Despite being gold ranks, they have been underfed and chained up like this for far too long. We'll definitely lose if they fight desperately enough. That's the reason I suggested fighting our way up and occupying the entrance while the guards' numbers are low to buy us some time," explained the blademaster concisely.

Since that's the case, why shouldn't I occupy the dueling grounds? thought Lorist, before an idea suddenly surfaced in his mind, When the enemy is unprepared, we'll deal with the 200-odd guards here first before finishing off the gold-ranked instructors, supervisors and rank 2 blademaster while we're at it. Wouldn't this give my soldiers enough time to rest and recover? At the same time, we can have the underground tunnel widened for ease of passage and arm ourselves with the most basic armaments. Only after that and some food and rest will we stand a chance at escaping...

"I have an idea," began Lorist...

Chapter 289 Trap

Blademaster Jiluet had a grim expression. He brought his two attendants Keba and Taxiwa as he followed one of the guards, Locke, down to the prison where the slaves were kept.

Nobody would be in a pleasant mood if they had to head out just as they were preparing for some pleasant times with their female slaves after a bath. The moment Locke mumbled in fear and reported the situation to the blademaster, Jiluet was so pissed that he smashed the wine-filled cup in his hand.

Ridiculous! thought the blademaster.

Even though Blademaster Benack was a rank 1 blademaster who had relied on precious medicines and supplements to attain his current strength, he was still not someone to be lightly trifled with. While it was understandable that he might not be able to fight against a desperate gold-ranked slave fighter, being defeated by three mere silver ranks and held hostage was out of this world.

Is he really sick of living?

While Blademaster Jiluet was enraged beyond comprehension, he still put on his clothes and followed the guard down to the third basement with his two attendants hurriedly. As a rank 2 blademaster assigned to watch the dueling grounds, it was his responsibility to keep the slaves under control. At the very least, Blademaster Jiluet was not someone who would skimp out on his duties for no good reason.

He had already crossed Benack off as deceased or non-functional in his mind. No matter how the situation turned out, Blademaster Benack would have to leave the dueling grounds, even if he was some distant relative of the king. Blademaster Jiluet did not wish in the slightest to clean up after Benack again.

While the Hanayabarta kingdom had many blademasters, only four served the royal family. They were rank 3 blademaster and swordsmanship instructor to King Lud III, Locksy Kabia, rank 2 blademaster Jiluet, and two other rank 1 blademasters, Viscount Sakri, leader of the guards that kept order in the capital, and Blademaster Benack who had relied on precious medicines to train.

Jiluet had always looked down on Benack because of the latter's reliance on outside sources to improve. Usually, it meant that the person in question would not be able to improve much further. Benack would stay a rank 1 blademaster for the rest of his life and would always be inferior to those of the same rank that broke through naturally.

The reason Benack, a relative of the king, was stationed at the dueling grounds, was that the king wanted him to use this chance to train his swordsmanship with the slaves so that he could be of some actual use. It was a shame that the king's effort was wasted. During Benack's first duel with a two-star-gold-ranked slave fighter, while he did manage to wound his opponent heavily, he had his ear bitten off when the slave finally managed to lock him down in close combat.

In the end, the gold-ranked slave was cut into mincemeat and fed to the magic beasts. However, Blademaster Benack, who had barely escaped with his life, never dared to use gold-ranked slaves for training ever again. He only sparred against silver or iron ranks to bolster his confidence. Jiluet had warned him before that training against someone of vastly inferior abilities was of no aid to one's swordsmanship, but Benack did not care about his advice at all and tortured the low-ranked slave fighters to death to satisfy his twisted desires.

Now that something like this happened, Benack would no longer be able to stay at the dueling grounds, even if he is shameless enough to want to, thought Jiluet gleefully.

After all, the dueling grounds used to be 'ruled' by him completely. While the arrival of a relative of the king was not a real threat to his position, he felt that the addition of another blademaster was a troublesome thing. This was especially the case with the current situation where he ended up having to clean up after the bastard.

It seemed that the two squads of soldiers had all been put on alert; there were more than 20 of them fully-armed standing at the entrance of the basement. They paid their respects to the blademaster as he arrived.

Jiluet stopped at the entrance and asked, "Where's your company leader, Pabola?"

The leader of the guards gave Locke a confused look before he replied, "I don't know. He should be down there. The only order I received was to watch the entrance and make sure nobody unrelated to this enters."

Not the slightest bit suspicious, Jiluet marched through the entrance after acknowledging the response.

The first basement was still in good order, but many of the slave servants had been roused from their sleep, standing at the sides of the halls as they chattered.

The second basement, on the other hand, was much rowdier. Many of the slave fighters knocked on their cell bars and cursed and shouted loudly. More than a hundred royal defense army guards used their whips to lash out against some of the slaves. Cries of pains, curses, and more whip cracks sounded out in response. The atmosphere sounded almost like a marketplace. Except in this marketplace, it wasn't wares that were being sold, but pain, agony, and suffering.

Jiluet snorted with dissatisfaction at the scene, but he was far too busy to bother with trivial stuff like this. As long as he finished settling matters at the third basement, he would have more than enough time to deal with the slave fighters here. At most, he just had to make examples of a few of them and the rest would stop making a fuss.

Upon entering the third basement, one could see all the guards on high alert as if their archenemy was marching right at them. Each of the cells had just over ten guards standing by them.

When they passed the last twin gate checkpoint, Blademaster Jiluet asked, "So, where the heck is Company Leader Pabola?"

The guards there did not reply and merely pointed at the depths beyond, before locking the gates up as quickly as they could.

Jiluet's attendant, Taxiwa, complained, "Why did you lock it up so quickly?! With Blademaster Jiluet here, the situation will be dealt with in no time!"

The other attendant, Keba, tugged on the former's shirt and said, "Forget it, they're just small fry. It's only their job to be cautious. Locke, lead the way forward quickly."

Locke murmured in acknowledgment before taking the torch from near the gate.

When they could see some lights in the distance, Locke said, "Sir Jiluet, it's just ahead..."

Jiluet passed Locke by and marched forward with long strides. His attendants had to scurry to keep up.

The lit area in front of them was chillingly silent. Not even the breathing of man or animal could be heard. Then suddenly, the screech of metal against metal echoed out from the darkness. A few moments passed, about enough time for a single breath to be exchanged, and the screech came again. It was steady, even methodical.

Jiluet marched on. Soon he saw a man seated like a proud lion. On his lap lay a slightly curved sword. He dragged a small stone, just about large enough to fill his palm across its blade-edge every couple of seconds. The same, desolate screech escaped into the darkness every time he did so.

Jiluet squinted. He felt as if he was being stared down by a huge beast. Stopping in his tracks, he said, "It's you, Shuss..."

Shuss, who was sharpening his blade, raised his head and said, "Hehe, you're finally here. I've waited for a good amount of time, you know. Over here, we can finally settle this fair and square."

"Where's Benack?"

"Over there," said Shuss as he pointed to the corner.

In the dark corner, a few completely stripped corpses could be seen. The empty expression on Benack's rat-like face as it stared at the ceiling was an obvious telltale sign of his death.

"You killed him?" murmured Jiluet.

Shuss shook his head with a smile and said, "Nope, it wasn't me. I had no hand in that stupid rat's death."

"I killed him," said a clear voice behind Jiluet.

When the blademaster and his attendants turned around, they saw the guard called Locke put the torch in a rack on one of the pillars before he removed his helmet and revealed his head of long, raven-black hair. Standing straight and proud, he no longer seemed like the cowardly guard they thought they knew.

Jiluet waved and his two attendants lunged towards Locke. The blademaster was well aware that he had fallen into a trap, but he did not panic. He believed that the only one he had to deal with was the slave blademaster Shuss. As long as he was able to deal with the man, the slave fighters' plot to entrap him would crumble under his raw might.

Just as he was about to turn his head, he caught the flash of a blade in the corner of his eye, followed by the sound of two muffled cries of death. Jiluet's expression changed. The moment he looked back, he was greeted by his two attendants, sprawled on the ground and clutching at their necks as if trying to stop their souls from leaking out of the two gashes in their throats.

"Who are you?" asked he, this time with a hint of caution in his voice.

"I am Count Norton Lorist," replied Lorist with a smile.

"So it's your house's forces that conquered Nupite?"

While Jiluet spent most of his time at the dueling grounds, he was well-informed about the kingdom's situation.

"Bingo! Too bad there's no gift for getting the correct answer," said Lorist as he gave a thumbs up.

"Why did you invade the Hanayabarta kingdom? We shouldn't have any grievances with your house," said Juliet.

"Haha, why you ask? Are you actually thick-faced enough to ask me that question? The slaver bands and slave traders of your kingdom actually dared to attack my dominion and capture our soldiers to make them slave fighters over here... More than 1300 of them were brought here, but now only 200 are left. I have come for vengeance. You will pay your debt of blood, with blood."

"So that's why you tricked me to come here? Do you think numbers will help you?" asked the blademaster as he drew his longsword.

"I tricked you to come because I actually consider your abilities to be a threat to me. Now that we're here, you won't be able to escape. I was afraid that you'd turn tail if we were out in the open. But don't worry, I won't bully you with numbers. Pick one of us to fight," said Lorist as he swung his sword casually.

"I pick you!" roared Jiluet as he launched himself towards Lorist.

His sword traced myriad slashes in the air, seemingly filling every inch of the hall with glints of his blade.

Clang-clang clang-clang!

Amidst the tremolo of clashing swords, Lorist said calmly, "Haha, Shuss my friend, he came to me on his own, alright? Don't blame me for stealing your prey. Haha, you chose well..."

Yet another quick succession of clanging swords resounded before the blademaster dashed away at an awkward angle, clutching his right chest where a small cut could be seen.

Shuss looked on with disbelief. He had clearly seen Lorist not even retreating the slightest under the barrage of strikes by Jiluet. He met each and every one of the attacks with a similarly fast response of his own. Not only was Lorist able to receive the storm of strikes with relative ease, he was even able to mount a counterattack of his own and left a mark on the right side of Juliet's chest with his sword! The most peculiar thing was Lorist's arcane swordsmanship style that seemed to have a chilling aura of a snowstorm that caused Blademaster Jiluet's strikes to slow down as if the cold was robbing his strikes of their energy.

Shuss finally understood why Lorist's subordinates were unquestioningly supportive when he said that he would deal with the rank 2 blademaster himself. He had wondered whether Lorist's victory over Benack was a fluke and even tried to advise Lorist against taking on Jiluet. He suggested that he be the one to fight the blademaster instead. He really did not think that the leader of House Norton's swordsmanship would be that impressive. He was filled with admiration for a count like him that was even willing to risk himself by sneaking into the capital alone to save his subordinates.

Jiluet was completely drained after his clash. He deeply regretted not picking Shuss as his opponent instead. Even though Shuss was no doubt a rather good fighter, he was merely a rank 1 blademaster that Jiluet had fought on occasion before. Even if Shuss could stall Jiluet for a couple of hours in a fight, he did not stand a good chance of defeating him. Jiluet felt that Shuss was definitely easier to handle than Lorist. The man kept him constantly on edge. He was not someone he could escape.

"Agh!" cried the blademaster in pain as he took another cut, this time on the side of his ribcage.

Lorist smiled and said, "Not bad, you were able to receive more than 300 of my strikes. As expected of a rank 2 blademaster. You are definitely worth your weight in gold."

Jiluet on the other hand was not able to muster any energy to make a retort. He felt that his whole body, including even his blood, was slowly being frozen. It caused his movements to slow down more and more.

It was as if he could see a snowstorm before him. Each of Lorist's strikes was a gentle snowflake falling onto his body. It seemed that Lorist was not feeling the chilling cold around him. He fused perfectly with the snowflakes around him and floated about freely above the field of pure white.

"Gaaghhh..." Lorist's longsword pierced through Jiluet's throat, but at that moment, the blademaster had already lost all consciousness. His eyes rolled back into his head as he collapsed dead on the ground with a sinister smile on his face.

"Lord Locke, your swordsmanship is nothing like anything I've ever seen before. It's also rather chilly in here. Even the men around me were sneezing at the cold," said Shuss as he approached gingerly to look at the dead Jiluet.

"Well, I had the elemental advantage against him since I often train in the cold snowscape," Lorist said with a carefree tone, "Alright. Blademaster Jiluet is already dealt with. Next, we have to handle the silver and gold-ranked instructors."

Lorist's plan was simple. All he had to do was lure them down to the deepest cells underground and deal with them down there. As for the 200-odd guards, they had already been replaced by slaves who had donned their equipment before Jiluet was lured down.

Lorist had settled the biggest problem successfully himself. All he had to do next was pretend to deliver orders from Jiluet so that the gold-ranked and silver-ranked instructors would head to the third basement to 'stop the slave fighters' revolt'.

All 13 gold-ranked instructors and more than a hundred silver-ranked instructors were ambushed at the third basement. It did not take long for their corpses to litter the ground. The only thing that went wrong was the desperate struggle of one of the gold-ranked instructors that took the life of gold-ranked slave fighter Plom. Even though Lorist and Shuss were both involved in the fighting, they could only do so much and were not able to save Plom and seven other unfortunate silver-ranked slave fighters from their untimely fate.

At dawn, the dueling grounds had completely fallen into the slave fighters' hands. Lorist left the dueling grounds secretly and returned to his room at the Blood and Flame.

Chapter 290 The Ploy

'Entrance with no exit' - the quintessence of the plan Lorist and Shuss had devised. Lorist needed the group to be able to spend two days in undisturbed peace. The rest would allow the slaves to rest and recover and allow them to find ways to arm the slaves.

There were around 1600 slave at the dueling grounds. Coupled with the female slaves and other servants, there were more than 2000 people. Unfortunately, even after turning the whole place upside down, they only found 400 sets of weapons and armor. Most of them were obtained from the instructors of the slave fighters at the dueling grounds. Apart from Charade and the other Norton household knights and soldiers, only Blademaster Shuss and roughly a hundred slave fighters were armed. The rest were completely unarmed.

The main reason Lorist left the dueling grounds to return to Blood and Flame was to see whether he could find a way to get his hands on weapons. All 1000 slaves had already awoken their battleforce. They would be a force to be reckoned with if they were properly armed. Lorist felt that the slave fighters could play a huge role in the upcoming assault on the capital. For the time being, however, he did not have the means to put the plan into action.

It was already noon by the time Els got to Blood and Flame. When the innkeeper inquired about his absence, he said that he had sprained his ankle and had had to rest for a few days before he was able to return. The guards had also changed shifts, so no one knew of his whereabouts, which had led to the issue. It hadn't been until his morning that he learned that his guild's guards were looking for him, which was why he was in such a rush at the moment.

After satisfying the innkeeper's curiosity, Els took Lorist to a corner for some food and a chat. He took out a report from Charade and handed it to Lorist. the report stated that the group was short on medicine, weapons, and food. The slaves were under tight guard despite the state of war the kingdom was in and its recent deployment of the majority of its forces.

Of most immediate concern was the shortage of food. The food they had could only feed the roughly 2000 people for three days. On top of that was the fact that the rations were extremely bare. The group only had two single-serving meals of porridge a day, it was hardly a proper diet for a force soon to go into combat. The current state of their food stores was only possible thanks to the stashes they found near the instructors' dorms. If not for those, they would have run out of food that very day. Besides the dire state of their food supply, they were also severely wanting for proper medicine to treat the 300 injured slaves.

Charade urged Lorist to remedy the situation as soon as possible.

Lorist felt quite troubled. They were in the enemy's capital, even if they could procure all the necessary supplies, it was nigh impossible to get it all into the dueling grounds without raising the suspicion of only every armed individual in the city. Even if everything else went off without a hitch, just the royal defense army alone - camped right outside the grounds - posed a severe problem to the success of the operation. The majority of the army had been deployed, but, even so, around 20 thousand men remained. Most of them were the bumbling drunks of the Snowshame army, but there was bound to be one or two vigilant people. If he made any mistake, the entire force in the dueling grounds would end up trapped there without any escape route or possibility of survival.

"Milord, what if we launch an ambush in the night?" Els asked in a low voice, "Before I returned, I passed through the army's camp. I even went inside for a walk. the food stores and armory are located at the back of the camp, with only a wall between them. If we attack in the dead of the night and catch them off their guard, we should be able to take hold of the two before they can react."

Lorist shook his head.

"Things won't go that smoothly. Our forces might be able to pull it off, but the slaves aren't disciplined. They won't follow orders nearly as easily. If we bring them with us on the attack, there is a good chance they'll run amok, disregard our orders and go on a killing spree. They'd be surrounded by the time they finally snap out of their frenzy, if at all. They'll be completely wiped out. We must not underestimate the hatred they hold for the capital's citizenry. If we give them a chance to vent too early, it'll do us no good."

Els couldn't argue, he knew Lorist was right. He had himself heard the slaves clamoring for a weapon and demanding a chance to kill their captors and masters. Some even claimed satisfaction with an equal exchange, their life for one of the enemy's, anything more would be a bonus. It took Blademaster Shuss and his gold-ranked companions quite a bit of time and persuasion to calm them down. If not for their careful work, the Norton soldiers would have long since been robbed of their weapons and equipment.

"Ah, Els! You're back!" exclaimed a joyful voice. It seemed that Tarkel had just woken and was glad to see his friend sitting with Lorist as he descended the stairs.

"Those bastards spent almost the whole night drinking... I had to accompany them until I vomited twice. Darn, I still feel hung over..." complained Tarkel as he walked over.

He took an open seat at the table and asked the innkeeper to bring him something to eat.

"Milord, did you find Knight Charade and the rest?" whispered Tarkel.

There was a glint of sharpness in his hungover expression as he asked Lorist. The latter nodded ever so slightly and waited for the maidservant serving the food to leave before he recounted his trip. At first, Tarkel received the news just fine, but when Lorist came to the part about helping the slaves secretly take over the dueling grounds, Tarkel spat out all the ale he drunk.

"Mi-milord... Your excursions always bring unexpected results," resigned Tarkel.

"Unexpected my ass. I already have a huge headache and haven't the slightest idea what to do. Even though the 1000 slaves would be a decent addition to our force, the problem right now is how we'll keep this force hidden until the rest of the household troops make their way over," said Lorist as he knocked his head repeatedly with his wrist.

Els described the slaves' situation.

Tarkel gave it some thought before he said, "So Milord intends to keep these slaves hidden until the attack, then use them to deliver a crippling blow to the defenders to ease your entry into the city?"

Lorist nodded.

"That's the idea, but we lack the supplies necessary to last that long, and the equipment to make the slaves useful. Even if we manage to procure it, we won't be able to move it into the dueling grounds. Well, it's not that we'd be able to source the supplies so easily anyway. Els's idea to ambush the Snowshame army's campsite is the best option we have.

Tarkel furrowed his brow and spun his mug of ale around.

"Milord, you've forgotten to take into account another important piece of news. Didn't Drei say yesterday that King Lud III would organize another large-scale show at the dueling grounds during which the Snowshame Army will pit the slaves against one another as a sacrifice to Singwa? That ceremony marks the boundary of the amount of time we can hide the slaves in the city for. If the Snowshame army finishes forming, the current state of affairs will be revealed.

"Additionally, given that the supplies at the dueling ground are so lacking, there will be a resupply run every two or three days. We don't know if the guards will be changed either. If either of these things happens, everything will be exposed. It's hard to say whether we'll be able to hide this for another two or three days, let alone until our forces arrive."

"You're saying that we should take the initiative? So you also agree with Els's suggestion to ambush the slavers and mercenaries?" asked Lorist.

"I do, Milord," said Tarkel, "After all, the Snowshame army's purpose is to reinforce our enemy. If we can inflict a lot of damage we could incapacitate them and it'll be another burden off our minds. our forces will be able to breach the capital with more ease and fewer casualties as well. The only thing we have to consider is how to preserve the slaves' fighting strength so they can deal as much damage as possible."

The scene of the alley where several drunks laid sprawling flashed into Lorist's mind.

"If we can make everyone in the camp drunk, then everything will work out..."

The plan sounded wonderful, but it was completely impractical. There were at least 20 thousand people in the camp, Lorist had no idea how much alcohol would be needed to get them drunk.

The door to the inn opened and four garrison soldiers marched in. After they talked a bit with the innkeeper, they came to Lorist and the rest and one of them asked, "Do you people know Kalik?"

"Oh?" Tarkel mused as he stood up, "Yes, Kalik was the one who fled to the capital with me. I guess you can consider him my friend. He left yesterday night and still hasn't returned. Did something happen?"

"Well, your friend went to the noble's sector and threw a drunk fit. He even cursed Viscount Timba for forgetting the kindness he was shown. In the end, he was pummeled badly by the servants and locked up in the garrison. When he regained consciousness this morning, he begged us to deliver this letter to you. He wanted us to ask you to help him get out of there," said the soldier as he rubbed his thumb and fingers together in a wanton gesture.

"Oh, so that's the case. I am indeed Tarkel, thank you for your troubles," said Tarkel as he handed the soldier a gold Forde before he had the innkeeper cook up some good dishes for the four.

The soldier stared at the coin in his hand with a beaming smile before he hurriedly stashed it into his pocket.

"Friend, how should I get Kalik out of lockup?" asked Tarkel.

The garrison soldier smiled and said, "You can always spend some money. Otherwise, Kalik will be sent to the dueling grounds. The king has already ordered that those who escaped from Nupite to the capital be drafted into Snowshame. People like Kalik who haven't reported to their station yet will be sent to the dueling grounds. Any deserters will face the same fate. The more fearful of death they are, the sooner they'll die. Naturally, nobles are an exception."

"Then, friend, can you help me and take us to Kalik?" Tarkel asked.

Seeing the soldier look at his three companions enviously as they were served their food, Tarkel smiled and said, "Friend, I will have another table ready for you. Your satisfaction is guaranteed. I have a huge reward waiting for you if you deal with this matter properly."

The moment he heard about the huge reward, the soldier felt his waist pocket and wet his lips before he responded, "Alright, I'll go with you."

Tarkel left with the soldier and returned half an hour later with a haphazard-looking Kalik. He had a bruised and dirtied face. At that moment, Drei, Chelwar and a few other mercenaries got down from upstairs and laughed at Kalik's sorry state, saying that there was no way that kissing that viscount's ass was going to do him any good. Fortunately, Tarkel had interfered and bailed him out. Otherwise, his life would definitely be over.

No longer being able to stand the humiliation, Kalik snapped and said, "Is there anything wrong with trying to get on Viscount Timba's good side? After all, I was one of those who accompanied him during our trip to the capital. As long as he put a word in for me, I wouldn't have to give my life..."

Tarkel hurriedly ordered more dishes for the soldier that had accompanied him before walking over and saying, 'Kalik's right. With but a word from the viscount, he wouldn't have to report to serve the army. But I heard that the viscount wasn't in his residence last night. He was held back at the palace by his elder sister. That's why Kalik was just a little unlucky last night. He had visited when the viscount wasn't around and ended up drunk to the point of causing a fit. He can hardly be blamed considering all he went through."

The rest continued to laugh. Kalik blushed intensely and shut up.

Tarkel shook his head and said, "Well, Kalik still has to report to the army today or he'll be dealt with as a deserter. Chelwar, since you're his friend, make sure to see to it that he doesn't end up too badly. But don't worry, Kalik. I will visit the viscount's mansion this afternoon to deliver a message to him on behalf of my guild. If he returns and sees the letter, I'm sure that he'll send someone over to invite us there. I'm sure we can ask the viscount for a favor and get you guys out of Snowshame. I only have the few of you left of the friends I've made, so I hope that nothing bad will happen to you."

The words made Kalik tear up and also caused Chelwar, Drei and the other mercenaries to praise Tarkel for his camaraderie. Tarkel brushed the praises off before having the innkeeper prepare some more food. In the end, Tarkel ended up reporting to the army camp completely drunk with Chelwar's aid.

With the inn finally quieting down, Tarkel returned to Lorist and Els's table.

"Is this how you spend the funds the house provides for you? What's the benefit of making friends with those hoodlums?!" Els said, contempt laced in his voice.

Tarkel smiled without giving Els an answer.

"Milord, let's visit Viscount Timba after having a change of clothes. The garrison soldier informed me that the viscount has just returned to his residence. I have an idea that can get us out of our sticky situation."

"Let's hear it," said Lorist, raising an eyebrow.

"We can use the name of Viscount Timba to get large amounts of food and wine into the army camp. We can say it's to bolster the army's morale. When they're drunk and passed out, we can mobilize the slave fighters for an ambush. Not only will we be able to cut down on casualties, we'll also be able to get what we need," explained Tarkel as he mimed a cutthroat gesture when no one else was looking.

Lorist's eyes widened before he said, "The crucial part is convincing the viscount to go along with our ploy..."

"We can use the Peterson Merchant Guild's name to make a business proposal to the viscount which he can profit from without any financial investment on his part. I'm sure the viscount would also love it if the deal can benefit his sister and brother-in-law at the same time."

Lorist stood up and said, "Well, time's running short. Let's visit Viscount Timba right away."

Chapter 291 The Persuasion

Lorist noticed that Els seemed rather downcast.

"What's wrong?" asked he.

Els looked at Tarkel. The man was calling a carriage to head to Viscount Timba's residence.

"Milord, don't you think Tarkel is a little too sneaky? He was getting along so well with Chelwar and Kalik, and yet he so easily comes up with a plan that dooms them at a moment's notice. I'm a little apprehensive about befriending him; he might just turn his knife on me when I least expect it..."

Lorist was speechless. Els might have served as a syndicate boss in the past, but that was mainly because his subordinates had forced him into the position. He wasn't like your typical syndicate boss, he treasured camaraderie and was a man of principle. Tarkel, on the other hand, had muddled in the lowest depth of society and had seen much of the deceit and duplicity it had to offer. He appeared friendly and generous - as a good man should - but there were few lines he did not dare cross to achieve his goals.

At Geldos he had suggested Lorist use the families of Count Cobry's soldiers as hostages to force their surrender. Lorist had rejected the proposal outright. He was a principled man from a military house. He would never resort to such dishonorable designs. It was a shame neither he nor his house would be able to live with.

His suggestion had caused Lorist to take true note of Tarkel. He had a rare adeptness at making friends and connections, and was deft at intelligence gathering. These traits resulted in his forced relocation to The Northlands. Lorist understood that the house would require both virtuous and vicious talents to develop and thrive, so he did not mind -- and even appreciated -- Tarkel's insidious nature. Lorist was not averse to using Tarkel, as long as he was obedient and loyal.

It seemed now that Tarkel was far better than Els at intelligence gathering. Els' behaviour had slowly aligned ever closer to that of a standard household knight ever since he joined Lorist's personal guard. he prioritized chivalry and honor over results. Lorist could only console Els by patting him on the shoulder.

"Like it or not, I have no choice but to use these methods to save Charade and the others this time," said he.

Their visit to Viscount Timba's residence proceeded very smoothly. The viscount had his aura of wealth and nobility restored. He received Tarkel and the rest with joy. Tarkel mentioned Kalik's case after some pleasantries, but, perhaps because the viscount had heard of Kalik's visit to his residence, he only hummed in agreement. Tarkel quickly changed the subject to the state of the conflict.

Viscount Timba asked, "Why are you that concerned about the war?"

"Hahaha, well, we have been traveling for more than a year already, but because we've been trapped here by this war of yours, we have yet to visit many places, nor have we been able to set up our trade network in the kingdom..." answered Tarkel.

"Please, you don't need to worry," the viscount chortled, "Start a trading firm in the capital for the time being. I will act as the guild's guarantor so no one will dare cause you any trouble."

"That's amazing, then, why don't I give you thirty percent of the shares of our upcoming venture?" offered Tarkel.

The viscount was surprised but felt that he could not possibly receive such a huge benefit for not doing that much. In the end, however, he found himself unable to refuse Tarkel's kind gesture and settled for a third of the venture's shares.

"I've seen the state of Snowshame's troops. I can't help but feel a little worried. The army is already made up of mostly just mercenaries and slavers, so they can't match up to the royal defense army, but it seems they also lack the will to participate in the upcoming counteroffensive. Their morale is incredibly low," warned Tarkel.

"That's right," the viscount conceded, "Snowshame is still far from having enough troops and their morale is also rather low. That's a given since most of those who were enlisted just escaped from Nupite. They have continuously complained and caused trouble ever since they were conscripted. Even the garrison soldiers are having a lot of trouble dealing with that lot..."

"I feel His Majesty has been a little too hasty with the conscriptions. He should've settled the refugees first. Those with significant contributions should have been promoted and rewarded -- it would have roused the ambitions of the others. it would have been ideal if he had baited the refugees into volunteering.

"The main difference between volunteers and conscripts lies in their combat strength and rate of desertion. These are crucial factors to success on the battlefield; they are the difference between whether a unit breaks or holds in a dire situation. If Snowshame's soldiers desert or break, they are completely useless to the kingdom, and might even end up being assets to the Nortons," expounded Tarkel.

"That's what I think as well. However, the King himself is unable to come up with a method to raise their morale..." agreed the viscount.

"There are ways. It only depends on whether His Majesty is willing to execute them. Our guild once had to assemble a strong combat unit at short notice. We built up their moral and improved their determination with only three things. We gave them lots of meat and alcohol, promised hefty rewards, and enforced strict military discipline. Even though we had far less time to train and prepare our unit than proper armies would, at the end of it they were still able to compete with regular military forces of similar size and armament.

"The meet and alcohol provide the nourishment and enjoyment the troops need, thus strengthening their bodies and improving their morale. Well-fed and satisfied soldiers are grateful soldiers. Grateful soldiers become loyal soldiers. And loyal soldiers become soldiers willing to die for your cause.

"Rewards must also not be limited to money. Coin is important, yes, but not everyone yearns for money alone. Some yearn for fame instead, give to them honors and praise. Some yearn for peerage, grant them titles and land. Anything that will make the soldiers more willing to take the field on our behalf, and obtain victory in our name is a worthy reward.

"As for enforcing military regulations, that's pretty much a given. The soldiers who feast and drink from your purse, who are given the chance to rise in the ranks must earn their keep through loyal service. Kill a few of those who wish to receive without giving and the other will fall in line. They must understand that rewards and benefits go only to those who earn it with their blades, shields, bows, and axes."

Tarkel's detailed explanation successfully roused the viscount's interest and they continued to debate how they would reshape the army.

"If someone had come up with this suggestion earlier, Snowshame wouldn't the mess it is now!" grieved the viscount, "It's too late for my brother-in-law to rescind his orders and accommodate the refugees properly..."

Tarkel's lips twitched, eager to spill the words swimming in his mouth. Though he kept quiet, the twitch couldn't escape the viscount's notice.

"Please, feel free to speak your mind,"

"This is actually a good opportunity that you must not miss, no matter the cost," Tarkel encouraged, " I've come to understand that you are someone with excellent ingenuity and great foresight. It's a shame that many people treat you as a noble that's only relying on the name and prestige of your elder sister, the regent consort, and overlook your talent. Your sister's status is far too great; it easily eclipsed you in the eyes of others..."

Viscount Timba nodded softly. Tarkel's words resonated with his deepest thoughts an hidden feelings.

"This is the opportune moment for you to shine, for you to show others what you are capable of. Surely you understand what I mean. Snowshame has already disappointed your brother-in-law, the king and, as you have said, a sudden change in approach isn't possible anymore. That's the root of the problems Snowshame has right now.

"But what if you make an appearance to reshape things? Given your status as the regent consort's younger brother, and your experience fleeing Nupite without any gold-ranked knight or large escort, your words hold much more weight than those cowards who discarded their arms to flee. As long as you are willing to deal with the mess that is Snowshame, I'm sure that the king will be more than happy," said Tarkel without restraint.

"That's true, you speak sense. But I do not wish to lead Snowshame into battle," agreed the viscount with a troubled expression.

"No, Lord Viscount, you misunderstand my meaning. How could an exalted noble such as yourself march onto the battlefield? That is not permissible. Heck, the loss of even one strand of your hair is a huge loss for the kingdom; you will play a huge role in making the kingdom's future prosperous. All you have to do is whip Snowshame into shape. There will be others to lead it into battle."

Good lord, Tarkel, your flattery knows no bounds,<.i> thought Els and Lorist.

They were incredibly embarrassed to hear the shameless and cringy words. Viscount Timba, in stark contrast to their attitude, seemed to be enjoying the attention he was given. His eyes sparkled like two bulbs of crystal in a stream. Every word that entered his ear lowered his guard towards Tarkel that little bit more.

"I feel you should start to reorganize Snowshame. It will cost you a teensy bit of money, there's no way around it, but in exchange, you will greatly improve your reputation, everyone will see you in a better light, much less His Majesty. There's no doubt in my mind whatsoever that your sister will also be very proud of you. A most ludicrously profitable trade. I can already imagine the day I hear praises sang in your name in court. Oh revered Viscount Timba, it almost brings tears to my eyes. If I can still gain your support in my venture when you are so highly regarded, my trip here would have been worth it."

"How much do you think this will cost? Tarkel, do you have an estimate?" inquired the viscount hesitantly.

"Implementing everything won't cost a lot," Tarkel affirmed, "I've already made some estimations. Providing the 20 thousand soldiers with meat and alcohol is not that costly; it'll only cost around 800 gold Fordes per feast. According to my calculations, feeding one soldier to the brim only costs 50 coppers, only half of a large silver. An average baked potato costs less than 15 coppers and a large serving of ale is only around 10 coppers. A soldier will be more than satisfied with a baked potato and a large serving of ale. Add 30 coppers' worth of delicious meat to each man's meal and you have one satisfied man ready to serve you.

"One gold Forde is worth 20 large silvers, so each gold Forde is enough to feed 40 soldiers. Even 20 thousand soldiers will only cost you 500 gold Fordes. If you up the spending to 800 to improve the quality of the alcohol and have some surplus meat to be shared around the soldiers will be even more pleased. This is a big step up from their usual black bread and vegetable soup. I am certain many of them are sick and tired of such bland meals. As long as you treat them well this once, these soldiers will be grateful from the depths of their heart.

"You should first ask your sister if its fine for you to do this. Your sister's approval is tantamount to the king's tacit approval. With this in place, it'll be easy for you to reorganize the army and to claim credit for their improved performance. If you can show your talent today, then no one will be able to criticise you for enjoying the King's favor."

"So, it will be around 800 gold Fordes in total?" hesitated the viscount.

"You can rely on the Peterson Merchant Guild to give you a hand. We will donate 500 gold Fordes as a sign of support," offered Tarkel.

"Oh?" Viscount Timba mused with surprise, "Tarkel, tell me honestly. Why are you willing to help me out this much?"

"I'll be frank with you, Lord Viscount. While I call it a donation, I will easily get the money back as long as you agree to do this twice," snickered Tarkel.

"Oh? How so?" asked the viscount, intrigued.

"Lord Viscount, will you refuse to let me supply the meat and alcohol if I donate the 500 gold Fordes?" asked Tarkel.

"Of course not. I would be more than willing to let you handle this business given your generous donation," replied the viscount.

"The meat and alcohol business will actually be a very profitable transaction for me. The price per soldier I mentioned earlier doesn't take profit into account. We can make it up by selling all that in large volumes, especially by buying some old or dying goats that are incredibly cheap. After all, we're only feeding the common soldier. All we have to do is cook the meat in a large pot and nobody would be able to tell the meat's quality.

"Additionally, if we can get our hands on some expiring smoked meat, the price will be even lower. In other words, I'll easily be able to earn 400 gold Fordes in profit for every feast you organize for the soldiers. If you do this twice, we will be able to earn the 500 gold Fordes back," explained Tarkel, revealing the secret to his profitable formula.

"I also understand that after escaping to the capital without your belongings, you're a little tight on finances. If your sister accepts your proposal, you might even be able to request a 1000-gold-Forde budged for each feast. You should ask for a budget for three feasts from the get-go. As for the meat and alcohol, let me serve you on that front. I will definitely ensure that the accounts for each feast would be flawless. That way, you will also be able to solve your financial shortage. What do you think?" asked Tarkel in a low voice.

"Very well," Viscount Timba beamed, "your proposal is magnificent. I will visit my sister at the royal court right away, so I hope you three can wait here for a short while. When I return, we'll discuss the details of the plan. Is that alright with you, Tarkel?"

Tarkel stood up and bowed respectfully before he said, "Lord Viscount, it is my honor to be able to serve you. We will wait here for the good news."

Chapter 292 Termination

Tarkel's efforts were extremely effective. Word spread that very night that Viscount Timba had received the King's approval to reward Snowshame.

The soldiers made merry all night. The garrison forces and the royal defense army's exclusion made them very jealous; the night was a rowdy one.

The following day was even more hectic. Barrel after barrel of ale was moved from the taverns all over the capital. Jarred baked potatoes and sliced beef, mutton and pork were brought to the campsite. Tarkel also had Chelwar, Drei and the rest hire some cooks and purchase all sorts of fruit and decorations to prepare for the festivities.

More than 700 men joined the army in less than a day after word got out. At the thought that the army would be at full strength in just five days at this rate, Lud III couldn't help but smile.

Viscount Timba was also overjoyed that he managed to siphon 5000 gold Fordes out of his brother-in-law's pocket. Despite that, all he gave Tarkel for three days' worth of food and drink was 1000 gold Fordes.

Tarkel did not disappoint him either and only spent small amounts to bribe the warehouse managers around the western warehouse sector for part of the necessary supplies. He instructed the chefs to whip the stored grain into bread and other pastries and purchased lots of salted fish. All the preparations were completed about an hour before sunset. The atmosphere around the army camp was one of merriment and jubilance.

As the main sponsor of the event, Viscount Timba came over to have a look. He toasted the soldiers and promised that anyone who managed to distinguish themselves in the upcoming battle would be heavily rewarded. He also announced that military regulations would soon be enforced. However, the latter part of the viscount's announcement had largely slipped out of the soldiers' minds as they stared wide-eyed at the servings of smoked meat, fresh fruit, crunchy vegetables, steamed fish, baked potatoes and a filling cup of ale, as well as the mountain of dried rations like bread and other pastries.

As the viscount approached, Tarkel had the impression that he thought the food wasn't enough and prepared to explain, but, to his surprise...

"This feast is far too much for the likes of them! Why would you bother serving them fresh fruit, vegetables, and fish? Isn't it simply a waste to prepare that much bread and dried food? Heck, we could've decreased the portion of meat by half... As for the baked potatoes, they should have been mashed and mixed with some water. That way, one serving can be made into three... If my house's butler were to be put in charge of this, he would've been able to save another 500 gold Fordes. Sheesh, spending this much on these brutes is nothing but a waste."

The angry viscount had shown Tarkel yet another side of slaver nobles. He couldn't help but chuckle.

Hmph, he thinks that 20 thousand people's worth of food costs that little? I had to add 400 gold Fordes from the funds the house gave me to prepare this feast! Oh well, since this will be their final meal, they deserve at least this much...

The gates closed as evening came, but a few soldiers from the other forces managed to sneak inside, not that Tarkel minded. He had prepared enough foodstuffs and alcohol to accommodate a few seeking death. An hour or two before midnight the came slowly fell silent. The soldiers, satiated, fell into a drunken stupor, which quickly turned into a dead slumber. There weren't even enough soldiers to organize patrols. In the whole capital, not a single alert soul could be found.

In this silent darkness, the slaves emerged from their hiding places. Els opened the rear gates and, under Lorist's guidance, the slave fighters launched the boundless massacre.

Blood seeped into the ground and ran streams into the underground tunnels and ducts. The place had fallen from heaven to hell in less than an hour. Just sixty minutes earlier the camp was a paradise, now it was purgatory. But, unlike the scene might suggest to the casual observer, those that died did so with smiles on their faces.

Vomit soon replaced the blood on the ground and washed it from the gutters. Even the slaves who had sworn to reclaim their debt in blood began to hesitate. Killing helpless unarmed sheep was hard on the soul. Many even vomited when the true nature of their actions struck them.

It was no feat to kill a drunken opponent. It was far too easy. A single, gentle, horizontal wave was enough to bring them eternal peace. Despite the ease and efficiency of the dispatch, or perhaps because of it, a few dozen such dispatches softened even the hardest hands.

These were humans, not livestock. What had been a devil that all the slaves reviled and hated in common, in its drunken slumber, had become a helpless infant.

"This is no battle... It's cold-blooded murder," one of the slave fighters lamented as he dropped his sword, "I'd rather face them in battle than claim their lives without making a single sound..."

"You only think that because you consider yourself a warrior," Lorist said in a clear, low voice as he appeared before the slave, "You are wrong. Those drunk unconscious fools are no innocents. They are beasts with hands steeped in blood and sin. The weight of the souls of innocent women and children they killed, or doomed to a fate worse than death, crush whatever innocence they might have had left. Think, how many times have they snuck into villages to kill, plunder, pillage and rape? How many of your loved ones have they deprived of their freedom? In their eyes, you are not humans like they are. They only see you as sheep. You are nothing but livestock to them, tools to fatten their wallets!

"Think about your loved ones who died by their hands; your comrades forced to fight each other for their entertainment. Are you still able to hold any mercy for them in the face of their crimes? Wield your blade, warrior. It is your responsibility to fight alongside your comrades. Those sleeping on the ground are nothing more than savage beasts. For each you kill, at least one innocent soul will be spared torture..."

The man hung his head, picked up his sword, and continued the slaughter.

"You, at the front, move faster!" cried an urgent-sounding voice from behind, unsatisfied with the hesitance and relatively low efficiency of the slaves in front. More than a hundred Norton soldiers, wearing the equipment of the royal defense army, marched forward. They didn't wear helmets, only expressionless faces as they slaughtered those at their feet industriously.

A cloud hid the silver moon, the goddess unable to stomach the sight laid bare beneath. The blood moon beside her, however, glowed lustily.

Even an hour of slaughter was only enough to finalise the slumber of a third of the camp. It was no wonder Charade had rushed those at the front. He had been put in charge of just over 2000 youths. They were emptying the stores at the back of the camp and scouring the eternally slumbering for equipment. He was most worried about the enemy coming to realize what was happening before he had taken what he needed.

The 2000 youths were the result of his efforts on the day before. Their residential area was situated right behind the dueling grounds where the family members of more than 600 slaves lived. It was built right in front of the northern wall, which was garrisoned but a full regiment. From their vantage point, they could observe all the movements of the slaves within their residential area.

Even so, Charade sent a few trustworthy gold-ranked slaves to bring back all the slaves they could. They managed to bring about 3000 people to the dueling ground via the underground waterway.

Lorist zoomed about the campsite and waved his longsword with great ease. Starlight glinted off his blade as he took the lives of hundreds in moments.

Unlike the slaves, Lorist felt no strain nor guilt for killing these drunks. To him, it was like one of the video games from his past life. The drunks were inconsequential NPCs. Unbeknownst to him, however, his eyes gradually turned blood red. He radiated the unmistakably acrid smell of blood. It disturbed the already unnerved around him. All he could sense, however, was that his vision gained a slightly crimson tint.

Lorist came to a standstill. His consciousness flowed across the slaughterfield however he wished. It did not take him long to sweep across the entire campsite. He quickly found 200-odd men yet to fall asleep. They sat at a circular arrangement of tables and benches, preparing to roast a wild boar on the spit beside a bonfire in the middle. A few soldiers were in a hut off to the left. They rubbed their backs, preparing to sleep. To the right, a few cooks were making some food for themselves. Off in the distance, Lorist could also sense a pair of slaves who had secretly snuck off with some bones that still had a few strips of meat attached.

Wierd, why do I feel so similar to how I felt when I killed the 300 or so men back on the ship? It feels as if everything my consciousness can touch is within a piece of space that I have complete control over... I can even predict how every person is going to move. I wasn't in control of my body back then, but now I am?

Lorist squatted, stood straight up, stretched his hands and waist, lowered his head, tilted his body, and even stretched all his fingers high up into the air. He made sure that he could move however he wished.

It must have been the dire situation I was in back then that forced me into this red world. Right now, however, it only took the death of a few drunks to get me back here. I didn't even really exert myself... How did this happen? Why am I still conscious and feeling more refreshed than ever?

Unable to figure out more about his current state, Lorist put it to the back of his mind.

Since I'm already in this blood-red world, I might as well make the most of it.

With but a slight leap, Lorist's form vanished into thin air. When he reappeared, he was already at the frontmost bonfire in the camp. He twisted his body. Countless flashes appeared all around him, like ethereal blades they reaped the lives of everyone near him. The two hundred soldiers may not have been asleep like their brothers were, but they fell just as soundlessly. The one closest to the fire dropped the cup of ale he had been holding. It fell, mouth fire-wards, and spilled its contents on the coals. The liquid boiled away in moments and the fumed burst into a ball of light momentarily.

The ten or so cooks nearby raised their heads to look. But the moment their vision landed on the corpses, their expressions paled. Just as they were about to cry out in terror, a silhouette materialized in front of them. Their last sensation was cold and metallic. It slipped into the mouth and burst out of the back of the neck at the base of the skulls.

With the cooks crumbling like the bread they had baked earlier in the day, Lorist recalled the two slaves. Moments later his form materialized next to the stove. He raised his head and saw the two slaves gnawing at the bones. Their shoulders bore the brands that made them property.

The flat of his blade tapped the slaves' heads. If he wanted to spare them, they would have to sleep for a while. If they were given a chance to glance at the hell that had opened up outside, their sanity might not survive, and Lorist couldn't have the two emptying their lungs noisily.

The slaughter finally ended two hours on the other side of midnight. The world through Lorist's eyes regained its normal hue. But, although he didn't feel that he'd need to sleep for several days like the last time, his face was still pale.

Blademaster Shuss came to Lorist. His face rivaled Lorist's.

"Tired?" asked Lorist.

"I don't feel physically tired, but I don't feel any joy at the sight before us. I don't understand why, but after killing so many of those slavers I hated, I don't feel any rush of relief or satisfaction. In fact, I almost feel sick of killing those poor sods..." pondered he.

Lorist laughed with a raspy voice.

"True. A thousand have killed 20 thousand. This result would be nothing short of amazing if this were a battle. And we didn't even part with a single soul... We only feel like this victory is unearned because the enemy didn't even have the chance to try and put up any resistance. We are warriors, not slaughterers, it's only right that we find such killing distasteful. Why don't you bring the slave fighters back first? The massacre tonight was no doubt a huge shock. They'll need the time to recover."

Lorist pointed at the slaves around him as he spoke. They were lamenting their actions. Some stood empty-eyed and stared into the distance, some at the corpses on the ground. Other sat on the ground - they buried their heads in their arms in failed attempts to hide the tears they were shedding.

Shuss looked to the Norton soldiers behind him.

"Milord, your household troops are truly the cream of the crop," he awed, "They're incredibly well-trained and resolute. It's like the slaughter just now never happened."

"They believe their actions just," Lorist appreciated, "Killing these lowlives is like killing magic beasts. Actually, it isn't any different. Just like the magic beasts, they invaded our territories, trampled our homes, and disturbed the peaceful lives we were leading. They know they can only protect those they care for by killing as many of them as possible. The people of House Norton don't mourn for the enemy. It's their honor to die by our blades. Besides, the only good enemy is a dead enemy."

"'The only good enemy is a dead enemy,' huh? Well said!" praised Shuss.

"Come, let's go check out the back," Lorist instructed tranquilly, "Charade must have finished moving everything by now. Oh, you two over there, come here. There are two slaves near the stove there. Bring them to the dueling grounds for now."

"Yes, milord," replied the two guards nearby.

Chapter 293 The Death of a Nation

Two whole days passed from the start of the dueling grounds' takeover to the completion of the Snowshame's massacre. Actually, occupying the duelings grounds was a rather trying act for Lorist, Charade, Blademaster Shuss and the rest. Fortunately, in the time between the takeover and the massacre, only two messengers were sent to the grounds. The first brought news of the impending change of shift for the royal defense army. The other delivered instructions for the grounds' occupants to collect the requested supplies.

The messenger asked uncomfortable questions when they noticed a marked absence of familiar faces, and so, to keep the grounds' state a secret, they had to be silenced, even the questions were only asked in passing. Fortunately, the feast hosted by Viscount Timba had caught the attention of everyone within the capital, so no one bothered to find out where the messengers from the royal defense army and the storehouses had gone. For all they knew, the two had gone to the feast to stuff themselves.

When the sky brightened, the slave fighters retreated. All they had to do was wait for chaos to break out when the massacre was discovered and defend their station at the dueling grounds until the main Norton forces come to relieve them.

Els made use of the darkness brought on by the obscured moon to leave Hamidas. He made his way to the light cavalry scouts who were sweeping the plains around Hamidas and informed them of the goings on in the city. Their new orders were to finish off the deployed forces and move on the capital as soon as possible.

The moment the Hanayabartakingdom lost Snowshame, it's fate was sealed. There were only the royal defense army and incongruous mobs of mercenaries left to defend the capital.

Around midmorning, the next day, the two squads of royal defense army troops on their way to replace their comrades at the dueling grounds noticed the stench of blood coming from the royal defense army's camp. The squad leader felt something was amiss and quickly ordered his men to investigate the situation. Two soldiers scampered up the walls to see what was going on. They peaked over the top and found themselves back on the ground moments later. Their half soulless bodies tried to explain the glimpse of hell they had gotten, with little success.

The gates were forced open. As the sight inside was revealed bit by bit through the crack between the solid gates, those who realized what they were seeing, turned to stone. From sand to wall to rooftop, from knife to stool to stove, everything was dyed crimson. The air itself was acrid and the sweet, pungent stench of metal brought vomit to everyone's mouth.

The capital's bells were finally rung. News of the silent extermination of Snowshame spread throughout the capital. Panic reigned supreme.King Lud III pulled the terrified Viscount Timba off his carriage and asked whether that was the result of his 'reward' to the army before he beheaded him almost right away.

Investigations later revealed clues that pointed, invariably, to the dueling grounds. Two squads were sent to check. None of them returned.

The dueling grounds loomed like a giant beast over the city. Not only did it swallow slaves by the hundreds and thousands every year, now it also swallowed soldiers wholesale.

No one dared to get close to the place. The capital's force reserves were completely depleted. It only had 4000 garrisoneers, 2000 royal guards, and under 2500 men from the royal defense army responsible for protecting the warehouses. The dueling grounds were clearly occupied by someone or something hostile. And it was not something to be trifled with either -- it had already exterminated two blademasters and several gold-ranked soldiers without anyone's notice, and had thereafter exterminated 20 thousand soldiers -- in a single night. The enemy had come prepared, and struck where it would hurt the most.

Lorist recalled a saying from his past life that amounted to meaning 'one's territory should never be encroached upon by others'. That was the current situation for King Lud III. After he beheaded Viscount Timba, his anger gradually turned into terror as he stared at the 20 thousand corpses in the camp before he lost his wits altogether in a panicked fit. Given that the enemy was able to kill more than 20 thousand people in a single night, how long would they take to storm the palace and take his head?

The more the king thought of the possibility, the more fearful he became. He had everyone that could fight guarding him at all times. But the loss of the two squads that had entered the dueling grounds had been the last proverbial straw that broke camel's back. The king slowly lost his sanity, he frequently gave nonsensical orders.

First, King Lud III wanted to conscript his citizens as soldiers; he wanted every male between 16 and 50 in the armed forces. He also mobilized the regiment of troops guarding the northern sector of the city and the palace to the dueling grounds to prevent any attempt at a surprise attack.

Additionally, he ordered the slaves to clear the corpses in the campsite and demolish the camp and every building within it so that the ballistae on the walls had a clear line of fire on the dueling grounds. All the ballistae were also ordered to move to the lower section of the dueling grounds.

Third, King Lud III ordered all the nobles to gather their forces and assault the grounds. The order, however, crossed the line for many of the nobles. Furious bickering followed, which gave Lorist and his forces the time needed to rest and recover.

When the king gave his orders, Lorist, Shuss, and the three gold-ranked fighters -- Jades, Messen, Sendhank -- were seated together at the topmost audience seats of the dueling grounds, chatting listlessly as they monitored the situation outside.

"So, what are you guys going to do after the kingdom's extermination?" asked Lorist.

Shuss did not respond. He seemed rather lost. He had been sold to the slave kingdom and was a slave fighter for more than 20 years. All the slave fighters that had joined at the same time were dead; it would not be a stretch to call him the illegitimate child of the Wargod given the luck he had for surviving this long. Not only did he not die, he managed to train all the way to the blademaster rank despite being only a silver rank when he first joined. He had never bothered to think about what he would do if he were ever given his freedom. He only ever focused on his survival.

Jades was someone from the former Krissen Empire. In fact, he used to be a knight of the imperial family. However, his ill fate caused him to faint from an injury during his maiden battle and he was looted by scavengers on the battlefield. Fortunately, he was rescued by a person of good heart. Only to be captured later by slavers and sold to a mining establishment where he mined copper for four years. By the time he managed to recover from his injuries unbeknownst to his captors, he lashed out in frenzied murder to exact revenge. However, he was unfortunate enough to encounter King Lud III and a rank 3 blademaster, Locksy Kabia, who had come to check on the mines. He was defeated in moments and was sent to the dueling grounds.

Messen had been the leader of a mercenary band, but his band was destroyed because of a conflict with Duke Gouffman's slavers. He was sold to the dueling grounds and had been fighting there for the last five years. His biggest wish was to kill Duke Gouffman with his own hands. He had never thought about what he would do thereafter.

Sendhank wished to return home to exact revenge for the tragic events he had suffered. He used to be a noble of the Symleis kingdom. But, due to his fanatic passion for the martial arts and his youthful ambitions to breakthrough to the gold rank before marrying and settling down, he traveled far and wide often, at the cost of his fiancee. In the end, she had an affair with his younger brother. He was drugged with force-dispersing toxin during one of his short stays at him and, by the time he woke up, he had been sold as a slave. His younger brother took his place in the line of succession.

"Well, I'll welcome you should you at any time wish to serve House Norton or live in the dominion," offered Lorist,

This was the first time he asked them to join his side.

"I will gladly join the house, Lord Locke. I only ask that I be allowed to observe it for a year or two before I swear fealty," accepted Shuss.

"Naturally," agreed Lorist.

Jades and Messen said they would consider the offer. but wished to return to their homes first for a time. If they found family, they would bring them along.

"I'm sorry, Lord Locke, but I can't accept your offer. My home lies far south of the former empire, within the Romon Empire. I want to return home and pay back my fiancee and brother for their treachery. I also want to retake my rightful position as the head of my house..."

"I understand, Sendhank, there's no need to say anymore. I also had to offer up a life in Morante to return and take my place as the head of my house. I wish you nothing but fortune and good luck on your journey and beyond. May we meet again sometime, in situations more fortunate than these."

"May we indeed."

On the 3rd day of the 10th month, the extermination of the 20 thousand men of Snowshame had plunged the whole of the Hanayabarta kingdom into chaos. Apart from the initial two squads that were sent to inspect the grounds, no other offenses were made.

On the 4th day of the month, the kingdom finally made their move. They sent out all six of their blademasters. It was the only force left in the capital that could pose Lorist some threat. It was led by the rank 3 blademaster Locksy Kabia. Since he was both a protector of the royal family and Lud III's swordsmanship instructor, he had to do something about the situation for the sake of the kingdom. Accompanying him was the commander of the royal guards, rank 1 blademaster Viscount Sakri and four other blademasters of noble employ that had escaped from Nupite.

What Blademaster Locksy did not expect was that he would be at a disadvantage fighting Lorist the whole time. Even when Viscount Sakri joined him, they still only fought to a draw.

What surprised him most, was that the other blademasters struggled just as much as he did in their own fights. Shuss fought the only rank 2 blademaster in the group, the one that had chased Josk and Yuriy all over the hilly area. As the battle progressed, Shuss began to gradually gain an edge over his opponent.

Jades, Messen and Sendhank desperately fought against a rank 1 blademaster each. It did not take long for them to realize that the three rank 1 blademasters were mere pushovers. After an hour or so, the three blademasters were worn to the bone and barely holding on.

The three gold ranks, however, were more spirited than ever. They traded inconsequential wounds to land savage strikes on their opponents. In the end, the three blademasters crumbled. Two escaped, but the third was ended.

The rank 2 blademaster fighting against Shuss was also forced into a corner. He, too, eventually retreated. Sakri followed suit soon after.

The first assault on the dueling grounds ended in Lorist's victory. Only five of the six blademasters managed to escape alive.

On the 5th day of the 10th month, the kingdom once against launched an attack, but with more forces at their disposal than five blademasters. Accompanying the five blademasters were more than ten gold-ranked knights and swordsmen, with a few thousand more soldiers from the nobles' to the nobles' levies. This time around, they did manage to put Lorist in a precarious position. While he did manage to kill almost a hundred in the early hours of the fight, which included just over 5 gold-ranks, his power alone was not able to sway the tide. Shuss, Jades and the rest were forced to the first basement. Lorist soon followed.

During the second assault, the kingdom managed to force Lorist and the insurgent slave fighters down to the first basement. Messen and Sendhank were both heavily injured, tough Shush only suffered light injuries, luckily. Lorist was fine, apart from expending a little too much energy.

On the 6th day of the 10th month, the kingdom resumed their assault and attacked the first basement. Much to their surprise, however, Charade had filled the empty food sacks they took with mud and had stacked them up all over the first basement, turning it into a maze. No matter how many were sent in, none returned. Not only that, Lorist and Shuss were both able to move freely around the maze. Even Blademaster Locksy was forced to retreat.

The excursion ended, once again, Lorist's triumph.

On the 7th day, the kingdom's forces changed their tactics and gathered up to a thousand slave laborers instead to start digging from the top. They intended to collapse the whole first basement. But at noon, the first report of their defeat arrived. It appeared that the only cavalry unit of the kingdom had suffered a sudden ambush from an enemy cavalry unit that numbered a thousand when they were suppressing the slave revolt at one of the manors of the royal family. All but seven of the 1800 men were dead. The forces of the enemy, scouts of House Norton, had already entered the lines of sight of the soldiers defending the walls.

That afternoon the kingdom's forces assaulted the basement ferociously. With the dueling grounds being occupied, it would almost be impossible for them to fight properly against the enemies outside the city. Only by removing the tumor that was the insurgents in the dueling grounds would they be able to protect the capital.

The fighting continued well into the night. The kingdom attacked non-stop, and Lorist and his comrades resisted valiantly. Quite a number of holes in the ceiling of the first basement was visible, with droves of the kingdom's troops dropping in from them. The ground was littered with layers of corpses. By the time Lorist and the rest were finally forced into the second basement, it was already far into the next day's morning.

Both sides sustained heavy casualties, with more than 70 of Lorist's household troops dead or injured alongside 300-odd slave fighters. However, the kingdom's forces fared even worse; more than a thousand were dead and a thousand more injured. They had lost almost all their able-bodied fighters.

There was no battle on the 8th. Neither side made any offensive moves.

On the 9th, however, yet another report arrived. It stated that the royal defense army had been lured into the hilly area and surrounded. The army was completely decimated and the king's uncle was dead. The already crumbling capital fell apart completely at the news.

On the 10th, the Norton cavalry scouts encircled Hamidas. Some element of the scouts could be seen from every vantage point on the walls.

On the 11th, the rest of the Norton forces arrived along with tens of thousands of liberated slaves. They began setting up camps and defense lines all around the capital.

The 12th saw Lud III forcing the capital's people to man the walls and sending a messenger to request a cease of hostilities, which Fiercetiger Loze refused outright.

At eight that night, Lorist led the slave fighters on a surprise attack against the northern walls and managed to occupy it completely. Droves of Norton troops flooded into the capital and the royal capital fell in mere hours.

Afternoon on the 13th, following the decapitation of Rank 3 Blademaster Locksy Kabia, the despairing Lud III killed his three consorts and his nine-month-old newborn son before setting his palace on fire. The slave kingdom, Hanayabarta, founded little more than a century earlier, had truly come to an end.

Chapter 294 Arrangements

Lorist laid lazily on a luxurious-looking bed. Having slept for a whole day and night, he had just woken up not long ago and still felt rather drowsy and did not feel like getting up just yet.

Lorist's laziness was not because of him being in a weakened condition. He was just pondering about that blood red world he had just experienced. At afternoon the day before when he led the forces of the household on an attack to the palace, he had faced off against Rank 3 Blademaster Locksy Kabia. Logically speaking, Locksy should be far inferior than Blademaster Zarinan who was sent to assassinate Lorist some time ago. Zarinan was considered to be a quasi-swordsaint by many, meaning that his prowess was incredibly close to that of a true swordsaint. While Blademaster Locksy was still rather formidable, he was not particularly strong and was at a disadvantage when battling against Lorist.

Even so, Locksy Kabia was a rather stubborn person who had managed to keep Lorist occupied for more than two hours. From time to time, he would retreat and have the archers protecting the palace fire volleys in Lorist's direction, causing him much trouble. The most annoying part was that Locksy's swordsmanship attribute was not particularly weak against Lorist's own, with Locksy's being a similar sneaky, chilling type. In fact, he thrived off the cold temperatures generated by Lorist's swordsmanship.

In the end, Lorist once again entered that blood red world. Within that world, Lorist could feel his speed, agility, strength and other bodily qualities double or triple in intensity, allowing him to decapitate the rank 3 blademaster in a mere ten strokes, all the while fending off more than 20 hidden strikes from the royal guards.

The moment Lud III saw the death of Blademaster Locksy from the distance, he knew that he no longer had hope of delaying the inevitable, so he began to set his palace on fire. At that very moment, Lorist had just receded from the blood red world and felt incredibly exhausted. The moment he heard the guards ahead report on the burning of the palace, he laughed out in relief before collapsing into deep slumber.

Lorist was wondering about the nature of the blood red world. As much as he would like to call it a swordsaint's domain, it was a little different from what he had heard about them as described by others. Additionally, he felt that his swordsmanship still was not up to a swordsaint's standard. At best, he was only as skilled as Zarinan had been, being only at the quasi-swordsaint level.

The domain that was most-detailedly documented was that of the Windstorm Swordsaint of the Kalia kingdom, who had once deployed his domain for others to experience first hand. Those lucky enough to be present during the demonstration described it as being put directly into a storm all of a sudden that caused them to be unable to open their eyes from the wind and rain. In that situation, most would be unable to fight properly given the decreased visibility and other annoyances and could only wait for one's impending death.

That was the reason Lorist thought that even if he were to breakthrough to the swordsaint level, his domain would be one of snow and ice. That opinion was also shared by the blademasters that had faced him in combat. What, then, is this blood red world anyways? Even if it's not a domain, I feel absolute control over my environment after entering that world. I could even kill rank 3 blademasters like they are livestock. In this blood red world, with but a thought, I can appear wherever I want. Given how deeply this resonates with my soul, it feels like a domain, if not anything else...

However, Lorist could not be assured of two points. First, he had never heard of any swordsaint that had managed to master two different domains. Second, given how his swordsmanship still did not pose too much trouble to Blademaster Locksy to the point that the latter was able to hold on for two whole hours, it was apparent that Lorist's skills were still far from that of a swordsaint. Should it have been the opposite case, he would have defeated the old blademaster within 50 exchanges.

But Lorist suddenly remembered that he was not training properly in the battleforce technique he learned in his current life. Instead, he was using battleforce to cultivate the Aquametal Technique which he inherited in his past life. Perhaps, that would be a factor that would distort the nature of his domain. Thinking back at the insane boost in abilities the blood red world afforded him, it felt almost like a buff in a video game that boosted his abilities from 10 points to around 40. That was why Locksy was unable to take more than ten of his empowered strikes and fell at the eleventh one.

This blood red world should be a domain, then. When I am in that state, my abilities should rival that of a swordsaint's. That's why I suffer some fatigue as backlash after being in that state and have to rest up well.

Guess I should name this blood red world. What should I call it? Bloodred Domain? Lorist shook his head and recalled the night he engaged in slaughter with bodies littered all over him in the camp. Since a slaughter always succeeds the manifestation of the domain, let's call this the Slaughter Domain. I should work on familiarizing myself with this ability as soon as I can. Perhaps, I should adjust my training to focus in that direction and try my best to train my body until the state it is at within the domain.

Upon concluding his thought session, he felt rather relaxed and called out, "Hey, anyone?"

Jim came in and asked, "Milord, what do you need?"

"Oh? Why are you here? You're still injured. You should rest up," said Lorist.

"Milord, I'm already fine. The military herbalist gave me a checkup yesterday and said that my body has recovered completely, thanks to the medicine Els brought to the dueling grounds that time. I only need another few days of rest for a complete recovery. Also, I'm the vice leader of your personal guard. I am only fulfilling my duties as soon as possible," replied Jim.

"Fine, suit yourself. Just make sure you don't overwork yourself," Lorist said, "Who's in charge of the situation right now?"

"Sir Charade is, Milord. Sir Loze had already passed on the duties to Sir Charade the moment they met and went on to take charge of the security of the capital," reported Jim.

"I see," Lorist said as he nodded, before he instructed, "Get me some food and drink. I'm starving to death already."

Right after Lorist downed two pieces of bread, Charade entered the room with a thick stack of folders and said, "Milord, you're finally awake."

"Aren't you handling things just fine?" asked Lorist as he picked up another piece of roast chicken.

"Ugh," Charade groaned, "Locke, I was originally going to thank you for coming into the dueling grounds alone to rescue me, but now I understand that you did all that just so that I could take over most of the work again!"

Lorist laughed and said, "Fatty, aren't you the one who likes desk jobs the most? Why did you change your mind all of a sudden after being taken captive?"

Charade sighed and said, "Actually, I want to take a break."

"What for?"

"Thinking back at the household soldiers who had died protecting me at the dueling grounds, like Knight Fad, I know this can't go on any longer. I want to take a break to properly train and break through to the gold rank. If... If I were a gold rank, there would be far less household soldiers who had to sacrifice themselves for my sake. At the very least, that rat-faced blademaster wouldn't have used me to threaten Els. Because I've been neglecting my own battleforce training, I caused so much trouble in the end," grumbled Charade.

"That's not your fault. You're the chief knight of the household and it's only right for the household soldiers to defend you. However, I do agree that it's about time you raised your abilities. I'll agree to let you off on a break, but that can only happen after we return to The Northlands. For now, you'll still have to help me deal with the bulk of matters here at the Hanayabarta archipelago," said Lorist.

"Naturally, we won't be staying here for too long. I promise you that we'll return to Silowas by the end of the 10th month or early next month," added Lorist.

"Then what will happen to the archipelago?" asked Charade.

"We'll take it as our own dominion. This place will be yet another overseas dominion of our household."

"However, we don't have the official mandate from the Andinaq royal family to do so. I'm afraid we can't make this place our dominion, Locke," reminded Charade.

"No worries," Lorist said as he waved, "The second highness didn't care about us when we mobilized our forces. Additionally, the kingdom we exterminated isn't officially recognized by many other nations of the continent. They're nothing but pirates gathered up in one lair. If we leave these islands be, it might actually become the homes of real pirates in the future. That's why we can't leave this place lawless and unattended. Forget about an official mandate. I don't care if others don't acknowledge this archipelago as our overseas dominion. If there's anyone who objects to our claim here, I'd like to see them try to defeat our Oceanic Legion to reclaim these islands."

Since Lorist was dead set on keeping the Hanayabarta archipelago under the jurisdiction of House Norton, Charade no longer advised against it. After all, there were benefits in having yet another overseas dominion.

"Locke, I understand. Oh, and, make sure to sign these documents," said Charade as he passed over the folder stack.

"What are these?" asked Lorist.

"The forms for distributing food and other supplies, reward for distinguished soldiers, and a list of items the fleet will be sending back to Silowas. Also, there are some distribution permissions for weapons and equipment for the new local defense forces."

Lorist sighed and began signing one document after another.

"Aren't you going to look them over?" asked Charade.

"The fact that you brought them to me for a signature means that you've already given it a good look. There's no need for me to spend that much effort to recheck everything," replied Lorist.

"Alright, thanks for having so much trust in me. Actually, I still have another thing I want to discuss with you," said Charade.

"What's it about?"

"It concerns the slaves. Currently, there are more than 100 thousand slaves settled in at the capital. Apart from the 30 thousand or so that are under the command of our forces, the rest are mostly those that worked in the manors of the royal family. If they are left to their own devices, they'll be nothing but a leech on our food and resources. Additionally, the wheat in the fields of the manors are ripe and ready for harvest, but are so far left alone. I believe that it won't be too good an idea to force the slaves to do so. What should we do about this?"

Charade felt rather troubled that perfectly good wheat was being left to rot as well as the fact that they were feeding the 100 thousand slaves for nothing in return. The sight of food being moved out of the warehouse to the unattended slaves around the capital pained his heart. But even so, there was naught he could do to the slaves who had responded to the house's call to rebellion.

"How much goods did we obtain from this place?" asked Lorist without even answering the earlier query.

"It's not completely accounted for yet," Charade said as he flipped open a brown-colored folder, "Milord, this is the report on Port Nupite from Hector. There are more than 5 million gold Fordes alone confiscated there, with another 3 million gold Fordes' worth of silvers and coppers. Also, there are lots of valuable luxurious goods that also add up to millions. Hector stated in his report that he had formed a slave scavenging unit to dig up the underground warehouses of those slaver nobles and traders. He believes that we will gain another few million gold Fordes' worth of goods by the end of the month.

"Also, we sealed the three treasuries of the royal family and there are at least 1 million gold Fordes' worth in there. I believe that after we scour the noble sector, we will gain even more. Locke, the lack of funds for our house is practically solved already. The funds we gained from the Hanayabarta kingdom alone is enough for us to continue development for ten more years."

"Hehe," Lorist chuckled, "I was the one who said it first. Money comes fastest when it's taken from the hands of a kingdom. Naturally, that only applies if we can obtain victory with the least sacrifice. The only sad part is that the dominion of the house is located far too remotely, leaving only other poor folks or troublesome ones around us. Sometimes, I really wish that our dominion is located at the Falik Plains next to a juicy piece of meat like the Teribo kingdom. Just the thought makes me drool..."

Charade laughed and said, "Milord, we're nobles, not bandits! Don't say these kinds of things in front of others. Also, you said that we attacked the Hanayabarta kingdom as an act of retaliation of their slavers and slave traders that attacked Silowas. We are perfectly in the right for fighting back and exterminating their kingdom. We did not do this out of need for money."

"No worries, I know. Earning money is just one of our side goals. Everyone understands this," Lorist said with a laugh, "Since we earned so much this time around, we can afford to be a little lenient on our spending. Post notices all over the capital later stating that we are recruiting the slaves for the wheat harvest. We will need to put the fields at the plains near the capital to good use and plant winter wheat after the current harvest. Even if we have enough stockpiled food, we can't count on those completely.

"Those who help with the harvests will be guaranteed food, shelter and good clothing. We will also pay them a salary. I believe that those freed slaves would love to start accumulating wealth of their own. Those who work hard will be compensated a small silver a day. I believe that will entice lots to join in.

"Also, from tomorrow onwards, the slaves that refuse to help us out will only be served two bowls of porridge a day with no bread or meat. Those who don't work don't even deserve food in the first place, and our provision of two servings of porridge is already more than we're obligated to provide. We don't have any special relationship with them, so there's no need for us to feed them well."

Charade stared wide-mouthed and said, "Milord, that won't be too good, right? I don't recall you asking the light cavalry scouts to announce that when you were riling them up for revolt."

Lorist shook his head with a smile and said, "No. All we promised in exchange for them to help us resist the oppression of the royal defense army and the capital's cavalry troops was freedom. Right now, they are free to go wherever they want and do whatever they want. No one would look at them as slaves anymore. We have already fulfilled our end of the bargain, so that doesn't obligate us to sustain them for the rest of their lives, understood?

"If these free men are willing to labor for us in exchange for other benefits, they are more than welcome to do so. Our house requires that kind of hardworking people who are willing to work for their own livelihoods, not parasites who don't want to put in their part of the effort. If there are any that oppose our decision, we will show them the wrath of the Raging Bear!

"Also, you can make it known that we will soon be recruiting those among the slaves to expand our army. Make sure to spread the word that we aren't looking for the fittest or strongest to join, but rather those who served us the best."

Charade understood Lorist's intentions and said, "Milord, I understand."

"Good. There are over 400 thousand slaves here on the Hanayabarta archipelago, with most of them being youths that aren't tied down by other family members. If we use them wisely, they will grow the manpower of the Norton house by far. Failing that, they will become very troublesome for us. I plan to leave around 200 thousand slaves here at the archipelago and give them farmland and houses. They will live here as subjects of the house from then on.

"Other than that, I plan to recruit ten brigades of soldiers. Coupled with the ten brigades already formed at Port Nupite, there are more than 60 thousand soldiers, which are just enough to make up for the house's inability to keep this place defended. In chaotic times, one must have enough might to protect oneself. As for the rest of the slaves, those who don't wish to return to their homelands can be allowed to move to Silowas to replace the lost subjects there so that we can continue to develop that place. That will be the rough outline of the plan. What do you think?" asked Lorist.

"That sounds appropriate, Milord," replied Charade.

Chapter 295 Dread Monument

The most prominent building in Hamidas which also served as the center of power for the Hanayabarta kingdom, was where Lud III would summon his nobles for meetings or wave to the adoring masses.

There were 36 huge pillars supporting the great hall, with all of them made from greengold stone. On the pillars were engravings of intricate patterns and murals that depicted the various legends and folktales of the era. That building was Herbitra, also known as the Palace of 36 Pillars.

At that moment, droves of people made merry within the great hall. Lorist had hosted a large celebratory feast over there to commemorate the victory of the House of Norton as well as the extermination of the Hanayabarta kingdom, fulfilling his promise of 'those who slight the Nortons shall be put down, far as they may be'.

"Let me dedicate this first toast to the heroic soldiers and fighters that have sacrificed themselves to wash away the humiliation of the house while liberating the slaves!" announced Lorist before he poured the cup of wine onto the ground.

The hundreds of fully-armored knights and ten other elaborately-dressed officials within the hall did the same.

"This second cup shall be dedicated to the slaves who have suffered for the past century under the tyrannical reign of the Hanayabarta kingdom. They have been subjugated, emasculated and enslaved. Despite that, they were the ones who built this kingdom from the ground up. Do you see the 36 majestic pillars in this hall? Who would think for a second that those were built at the cost of countless numbers of corpses?! They have lost their freedom here and became nothing more than animals. In the eyes of the demonic slavers, they are no different from livestock!

"But that has changed since our arrival! The House of Norton has already exterminated this sinful nation! The slaves are finally freed and restored dignity as all humans deserve. However, we did come a little too late, as there are many others whom we were unable to save. Let us mourn and grieve for their suffering. This toast is made in their honor."

Lorist poured the wine once again on the ground. While Lorist's true reason in attacking the kingdom was to gain the resources gathered over the century by the kingdom, he had to pretend that saving the slaves from suffering was his main goal in the interest of political correctness.

As for the liberate slaves who would not join the forces of the Nortons or help out with the harvest or other tasks and preferred to laze around in the camp despite only being served two meals of porridge daily, Lorist did not really care about them. Since he has already given them freedom, Lorist felt that they were free to decide their destinations and vocations. As long as they did not obstruct the house's operations, they were free to do whatever they wanted.

However, all the resources around the archipelago down to the smallest grain was the de facto property of the Norton house, not to mention the ships that would be required to send those slaves off to their hometowns. Without Lorist's permission, not one of them would be able to leave the archipelago.

There were some free slaves that remained within the camp that had gotten sick of eating nothing but porridge and wanted to get some farming tools to harvest some wheat for their own consumption. However, they were stopped by patrolling guards right away, because almost all the property of the slavers were already in the hands of the Norton house.

Those slaves were dissatisfied from being denied their will and argued that they deserved a share of the wheat because they had a part in cultivating it. It did not take long before they were brought to the main camp of the Norton forces and showed the corpses of near a thousand Norton soldiers who had died fighting the slavers. Following that, those slaves were given 20 canes each to ensure that they understood the reason the wheat belonged solely to the Norton house. The fortunate thing was that they no longer had to worry about starving, as they were punished to help out with the harvests for their transgressions.

All was according to Charade's plan to spread the propaganda that the Hanayabarta kingdom had fallen only because of the huge sacrifice of House Norton to liberate the slaves. 'That's why everything on the archipelago belong to us, as, without us, you would still be slaves whose lives are at the whims of your masters. Even though you're now free men, your freedom came at the expense of the Norton house. So, we're under no obligation to sustain you any longer.'

All the Norton soldiers were rather convinced with Charade's arguments. Additionally, House Norton did not leave the slaves to their own devices for survival. They did offer opportunities for the slaves to work for proper meals, clothing, shelter and even payment. Not only that, the slaves were not required to do anything remotely threatening to their lives. That was why the Norton soldiers despised the slaves that did not help out even when being given the chance and thought that they were thankless and shameless fools.

"This third cup of wine is dedicated to the slave fighters who fell before the coming of dawn," Lorist said before he gave Blademaster Shuss and the other slave fighters a glance, "Without their painstaking resistance, our house would never have been able to occupy the capital with so few casualties. It was their life and blood that limited the enemy's ability to launch a last-ditch resistance against us, defending the dueling grounds until our forces arrived. This toast will be in the honor of the brave warriors and their sacrifice."

After the three toasts, the atmosphere within the hall reverted to its former merriness. Everyone began to celebrate again. A group of young and beautiful female slaves with varied talents put on a magnificent show of dance, sleight of hand and performances for the conquerors of the Hanayabarta archipelago.

As it was a celebratory occasion, the soldiers of the Nortons received a great number of bonuses. Those who participated in battle were awarded ten gold Fordes, with the injured receiving double that amount. Additionally, they were also treated to a sumptuous feast. As for the volunteers that helped out, they received a large serving of ale and a huge piece of smoked meat. Even the slaves who did not contribute got two pieces of black bread sandwiching a piece of meat.

On the next day, Lorist gathered the knights and important officials of the house for a meeting about the fate of the Hanayabarta archipelago.

Nobody held any objection about making the Hanayabarta archipelago the dominion of the Norton house nor Lorist's plans for the 400 thousand or so slaves there. However, some had differing opinions about what to do with Hamidas.

Hector and some other administrative officials believed that the capital should be kept intact, especially a palace as magnificent as Herbitra. While it did have a tainted history of being built on the backs of slaves, it was still a magnificent building that should be cared for over the generations.

Blademaster Shuss and two gold-ranked slave fighters, Jades and Messen, who were attending a meeting like this for the first time, stressed that the capital had to be demolished, especially the dueling grounds, which reminded them of their most painful experiences in their lives. Countless comrades of theirs had fallen to their deaths there and only the demolition of the symbol of their pain would appease them.

Potterfang on the other hand believed that the demolition of the capital would allow them to gain favor more quickly with the slaves. During his time being in charge of the security of the slave camps, he found that all the slaves have deep hatred for the Royal Capital of Hamidas, with some calling it a devil's den and other's thinking it no different than hell. The slaves would definitely be more obedient following the demolition of the capital.

Malek thought that the demolition of the capital would save them quite some trouble when they excavate for the hidden riches of the slaver nobles, as they would no longer have to ensure the integrity of their buildings during their operations.

Charade approached the matter from a different perspective and thought that the demolition of the capital would be far more beneficial for the administration of the Norton house at the Hanayabarta archipelago. For one, Hanayabarta was quite far away from the main dominion and maintaining a castle as large as the capital would definitely put quite a heavy burden on the finances of the house. Since the house would not be moving their headquarters to Hanayabarta, there was no need for the capital to be kept.

Herbitra alone would cost at least 300 gold Fordes yearly to maintain. While the annual amount was by no means astronomical, the upkeep over decades or a century would be staggeringly high. That way of spending was no different from dropping gold coins into the sea; one would not even hear the coins reach the ground.

Not only that, given how far Hanayabarta was from the main dominion of the Nortons, an enemy attack on the island was only a matter of time. As a measure of precaution, the demolition of the capital would serve to make it easier for the house to rule over the various islands and their forces would not incur as much casualties to quell any revolts or chaos.

Also, while there would be over 100 thousand slaves staying behind at the archipelago that would require farmland and houses, only a brigade of soldiers would be left to defend the area at most. That was why the area to be defended must be decreased. In the future, the area around the capital would only serve two purposes: as a trade center and a storage hub for food and other resources.

The reasons Charade brought up cemented the decision to demolish the capital. Lorist decided that apart from the business sector, that would be retained and expanded, the other sectors of the capital would be demolished. However, that would only occur after Malek and the rest finish scouring the noble sector and royal sector for their treasures.

Lorist also managed to convince them to retain the 36 pillars and the half of the dueling grounds' audience seats to serve as a reminder to future generations about the two buildings that were the cornerstone of the slaves' suffering.

Upon deciding Hamidas's fate, Lorist declared Hector the first governor of the Hanayabarta archipelago with his first term lasting five years. His duties during that time was to ensure that the 100 thousand slaves were given farmland and houses so that they could settle down into their new lives and become the subjects of the Norton house.

Gold-ranked knights Josk and Yuriy would check on the manors at the plains around the capital once more to capture any subject of the Hanayabarta kingdom that might have escaped to make sure that not a single one of them was spared. They were also tasked to transport all the goods found at the manors to the capital.

Gold-ranked knight Malek was put in charge of the scavenging of the valuables within the capital as well as the transportation of the goods found at the western city sector. Apart from some food and other supplies, the rest were to be brought to Port Nupite to be shipped to Silowas.

Gold-ranked knight Fiercetiger Loze would command the half of the Norton troops that stay behind and assist Malek with the transportation of those resources, as well as guide the rest of the slaves to Port Nupite. Only those who wanted to stay would be allowed to remain at the plains near the capital. The rest must leave with no exceptions. However, the Norton house did promise those who wish to return to their homes that they would be guaranteed safety and transport to the main continent of Grindia for no fee at all.

Lastly, Lorist made gold-ranked slave fighters Jades and Messen aides to Potterfang. Those three were given only three tasks: the formation of the ten new brigades to maintain security through the recruitment of the 16 silver-ranked and 400 other bronze or iron-ranked slave fighters, the transport of the 100 thousand plus captured subjects of the Hanayabarta kingdom to Port Nupite to where the other captives were held, as well as the cleansing of the battlefield. The last task involved the decapitation and embalming of the heads of the enemy corpses that would be sent to Port Nupite. The headless corpses were then disposed through burning.

Some felt that Lorist's order to keep the heads of the enemies a little weird. Charade on the other hand asked Lorist how they would deal with the 100 thousand or so captives of the Hanayabarta kingdom.

Lorist stayed silent with a gloomy look for a good while before he softly announced his decision. "Behead them all."

Everyone present were shocked beyond their wits. Hector and Charade jumped with terror as they said, "Milord, you can't do that! Those are 100 thousand human lives!"

"They are not human, merely animals wearing human skin," Lorist said as he thumped heavily on this desk, "They have never seen the slaves as fellow humans and are the demons of this sinful kingdom. Even if they are commoners instead of nobles or slavers, they have lived in prosperity thanks to the blood, tears and deaths of the slaves. Not only that, I've made an oath to bury 100 Hanayabartans alongside each of our dead soldiers. But now, these 100 thousand captives are still not enough to make it up to our comrades who died at the dueling grounds! My decision is final, and I will shoulder all the consequences of it!" exclaimed Lorist, before he left to conclude the discussion.

On the 24th day of the 10th month of Year 1773, Count Norton Lorist ordered for the beheading of up to 100 thousand Hanayabartans at the shores of Port Nupite, and used 176243 heads to build a 33-meter-tall human-head pyramid, which was known as the Dread Monument.

Right before the beheading, the governor of Hanayabarta, Hector, had kneeled to Lorist and begged for seven whole hours before he finally received permission from Lorist to spare the lives of 12 thousand young women that would be made the wives of the liberated slaves of the archipelago. The genocide of Hanayabarta was deeply imprinted in the hearts of many.

During the 3rd and 4th months of Year 1774, when many of the slaves that left the archipelago to return to their homes at Grindia, word of Lorist's use of more than 170 thousand heads to build a pyramid spread across the nations on the continent. Almost overnight, the name of the Roaring Raging Bear became the go-to tale that mothers told their misbehaving children.

In the 5th month of Year 1774, word of the extermination of the Hanayabarta kingdom spread to another island-based nation -- the Shyarsia kingdom. The queen of the nation that was famed for their spice production, who was the cousin little sister of Lud III, cried until she fainted when she heard the news. Her son, the young prince, instantly ordered his royal uncle to mobilize their troops against the occupying forces at Hanayabarta for causing his mother that much grief.

The army sent out by the Shyarsia numbered 18 thousand men. They left with a fleet of 40-odd ships and by the time they arrived at Port Nupite, it was already the latter half of the 6th month. Being noon when they arrived, the distant human-head pyramid was more apparent than ever for the newcomers. At that time, Port Nupite was defended only by a brigade of 3000 soldiers with the defense infrastructure still incomplete. As the knights of the garrison soldiers readied themselves for a battle to the death, something incomprehensible happened.

The fleet of the Shyarsia kingdom circled around at the front of the human-head pyramid and left for the seas, never to return, as if they had come just to witness the pyramid itself. Not one of their men got off shore for a fight.

In the 8th month, Senbaud's Oceanic Legion arrived at the Hanayabarta archipelago with six sail-powered, cannon-equipped warships to patrol the area. The moment Senbaud heard about the arrival of the Shyarsia fleet, he set out for the Shyarsia kingdom right away. But before they even exchanged the first volley of fire, the Shyarsia kingdom raised their white flag in surrender. It was later known that everyone of the Shyarsia kingdom was terrified by the human-head pyramid. Given that none of them wished for a similar one to be erected at their kingdom, they surrendered immediately for safe measure.

Thus, the Kingdom of Shyarsia became the first nation to subordinate themselves to the House of Norton, marking the beginnings of a new era.

Seriously, that was no joke. It really happened.

Chapter 296 Garrison Division

"You two are as close to me as blood brothers. Don't be so tense around me. Relax," said Lorist.

His words didn't have the desired effect.

They looked each other in the eye and said even more respectfully, "Milord, if you have any instructions, we will definitely see it done even if it'll cost us our lives."

Lorist let out a troubled smile and sat back down on his swordtooth tiger skin seat, taking a deep breath. He realized that ever since he did not heed the advice of the others around him, ever since he insisted on killing the 100 thousand prisoners and using their heads -- along with those of the dead enemy soldiers -- to build the 33-meter-tall pyramid, all the household knights and soldiers looked at him with deep, fearful respect.

One time, when Lorist saw Els daydreaming, he secretly approached him and patted on his shoulder playfully. The moment Els turned back and realized that it was him, however, he was so shocked that he jumped almost three feet high. Charade also stopped interacting with him on an informal basis and maintained the demeanor of a proper subordinate; he refused to call Lorist by his nickname, 'Locke'.

Additionally, the slave fighters who had originally intended to return home had changed their minds almost instantly when Lorist asked them to reconsider joining the Nortons. Even those who did want to go home promised gingerly that they would bring their family members to the dominion before joining the house and stressed that they were not trying to run away from returning the grace he had showed them.

Sigh, guess I've become the demon king... Well, Dread's Monument was probably a big part of it.

Even the situation at Nupite was completely in order. Despite housing over 400 thousand people, everything went without a hitch. All of the liberated slaves obeyed the policies and directives of House Norton without so much as starting a street brawl. Everything looked eerily peaceful.

Sol, it seems that the liberated slaves fear me more than they did their former slavers.

Lorist was at a loss about what to do. It was one thing to kill the 100 thousand combatants they had captured. But Lorist's hatred for the pirates and slavers' descendants had driven him to kill off the civilians as well. The move made sense, he wanted to remove the seeds of vengeance from the get go so that they would not cause any trouble in the future, but that didn't mean it wouldn't strike fear into the hearts of others. One could even say the unintended consequences were beneficial; Lorist had wanted to deter others from making trouble for him in the future, and this did achieve that aim. It was just that his chosen approach seemed to be a little too effective. It had isolated him from even his own men.

The two, both of whom were technically Lorist's seniors -- his father's two illegitimate children -- Molocinque and Wellickson, were on edge regardless if what he said. They behaved like they were walking on ice that shouldn't even be able to support their weight.

"Norton Molocinque, three-star-silver-ranked household knight and current regiment leader of the heavy-armored division's third brigade, you have shown true heroism and your troops adore you.

"Norton Wellickson, two-star-silver-ranked household knight and regiment leader of the light cavalry scouts division's third regiment, you have defended your station with bravery and courage despite your injury."

Lorist tossed the folder in his hand onto the table.

"Eight years have passed since I returned to the dominion and become the head of the house. As my elder brothers sharing the blood of my father, you have performed incredibly well. I am incredibly appreciative and have allowed you to bear the family name. I have asked you two to come because I intend to discuss the archipelago's defense with you.

"I believe you are well aware that the archipelago is now our overseas territory. I intend to form a garrison division for the archipelago comprising five brigades. Molocinque, I want you to be the division commander. Wellickson will be your aide."

Both Molocinque and Wellickson were shocked. It was already incredibly magnanimous of Lorist to see them as equals, given their illegitimate heritage, but now he was giving them such a responsibility, such a chance to prove themselves? This was not something they could have hoped for, much less expected. In other noble households, illegitimate children were usually oppressed and looked down upon, but here they had not only been made official members of the household, but were even being given a chance to make some contributions and build a name for themselves.

"Don't think too much about this. It is my fortune to have two talented brothers. In fact, I expect you to rack up more contributions house. My hope is that you will eventually be given noble ranks and enfeoffed land of your own so you can form your own branch families. This is the only way to grow House Norton's might stably. I've decided to give you this chance for this very reason. I hope you will use this opportunity to take charge and refine your abilities to manage and command. You must build a stable foundation for your future efforts," continued Lorist.

He rolled open a beastskin map of the archipelago.

"Come over and look. I'll brief you two on the strategy for the archipelago's defense," he called.

Once the two were leaning on the table and staring intently at the map, he began his brief.

"The garrison division the house is going to form will have three land-based brigades and two maritime brigades. Each will be made up of three thousand men. Their loadouts will be similar to the local defense brigades. The three land-based brigades will be stationed at the capital, the hilly area and Nupite respectively. We'll also construct several citadels at these locations."

Lorist tapped on the map as he explained.

"The two maritime brigades will be stationed at Nupite. They will have 16 armed ships under their command with which they will patrol the waters in and around the archipelago. Wellickson, you shall report to Senbaud right after this and begin learning the ropes of sailing and training your troops at sea. There's no rush, you have three years, so take your time to learn properly and train your troops well. My hope is that, starting three years from now, the archipelago will supply the house with a thousand elite soldiers annually.

"As for the three land-based brigades, Molocinque, they're yours to command. You also have three years to finish the three citadels' construction. Maintain order around the archipelago and cooperate with Hector to ease the liberated slaves into their new lives. I hope that the archipelago can be self sufficient within five years.

"Nupite's inner city will be given to Governer Hector as his main base of operations. He will form another city defense brigade there and it'll serve the governor's office directly. Remember, the governor's office is separate from the military's command structure. The garrison has no control or say over the city defense brigade, understood?"

"I understand, Milord. I will definitely help Governor Hector out to defend the archipelago," saluted Molocinque.

Lorist nodded and said, "The detailed plans for the division is with Knight Charade. While the governor's office has power over the garrison division, that is only limited to annual supply and inventory checks. It doesn't mean they can direct military affairs. I believe you two won't let me down and taint the Norton name. Go now and report to Knight Charade to discuss the details and difficulties of the new divisions formation."

"Understood, Milord. We'll take our leave now."

In actuality, the largest benefit obtained from the Hanayabarta kingdom's extermination was not the wealth and resources, it was the manpower. The main reason Lorist had been unwilling to expand his military by recruiting civilians from his dominion was that he did not want to deprive the dominion of the manpower it needed to develop. The Norton forces were mainly two umbrella units, namely, the standing assault units, and the defense units that defended the towns.

The assault units consisted mainly of two heavy-armored divisions, two spear cavalry divisions, one carroballista division, one wheelbarrow ballista division, and a mounted archer brigade, scout brigade, the Thunderbolt Brigade, guard brigade, knight brigade, the female brigade and five other local defense brigades. There were 43 brigades totalling roughly 120 thousand people.

The defensive units consisted of the new recruit brigade, five police brigades -- formed mostly from retired soldiers from the main force and responsible for the defense and security of warehouses and factories as well as the transport of resources -- and the various garrison units of the towns and villages. They totalled 60 thousand men. The defense brigades don't receive as many benefits as those in the assault brigades. For example, the police brigades only pay half the salary of the assault brigades, and garrison soldiers got only a third of that. In essence, both the police and garrison units were considered half soldier and half civilian. Those in the new recruit brigade did not receive any salary at all, only an allowance and a few menial benefits.

With Lorist's formation of the new Oceanic Legion, which already had more than 17 thousand personnel, the Norton's forces totalled more than 200 thousand men. With the total civilian population of the dominion and its overseas territories being little more than 1.1 million, the soldier-to-civilian ratio was around one to five, which was already quite excessive. To expand the military even further would be utter madness.

Even so, Lorist had his reasons. While the number of troops was no less impressive, only around 80 thousand men from the assault brigades could truly be mobilized. For instance, the mobilization of only 45 thousand soldiers almost bankrupted the house. Despite all that, the military's expansion was an inevitability, with its growing influence and territory, and the prisoners whose term of service were expiring soon.

Slightly over 30 thousand youths had been taken captive after the Duke of The Northlands' defeat, and, after three years of service, their terms had expired. Around 10 thousand had been fit for military service and with their inclusion, the houses forces grew to 80 thousand. The house had no choice but to recruit them. It would've do them no good to have the released prisoners join and serve other noble families. Following the defeat of the second prince's 100-thousand-strong army, more than 60 thousand captives had been taken in. Coupled with the civilian youths who had wanted to join the military over the past few years, the house's forces had gradually grown to their present size.

In the first place, Lorist's recruitment of the released captives was so that the dominion's civilian population would grow. Given the benefits joining the military entailed, the captives that joined the force would definitely bring their families over to the dominion and settle down, inflating the population in the process. Not only that, those who qualified to join the military already had their battleforce awakened, so refusing them was akin to pushing them to serve other noble houses. Only idiots would push away such a great deal.

Apart from the captives, the house made no attempt to recruit soldiers from the civilian ranks, save for the formation of the Oceanic Legion, because that would adversely affect the dominion's development. Given its thriving state, manpower was in short supply and the liberated slaves were just what it needed.

Apart from the 40 thousand refugees and six thousand islanders abducted from Silowas, there were another 410 thousand slaves liberated, including over 100 thousand women and children. Of all of them, 170 thousand elected to stay at the archipelago. Most of them were second or third generation slaves that had been born there and had come to see the archipelago as their home.

Among the remaining 240 thousand slaves, 30 thousand wished to return to their homelands. Apart from that, most were able-bodied youths who had lost their families and had no homes to return to. Most were civilians of the former empire. They were either sold into slavery by their dominion lords or had their villages raided and pillaged by the slavers. Lorist ordered Potterfang to pick out 60 thousand to form 20 police brigades. He also intended to form a garrison division and a city defense brigade. This left only 120 thousand, whom Lorist intended to bring back to The Northlands to hasten its development.

The military's expansion was motivated mainly by the lack might required to defend the dominion. It was currently an era of chaos, so conflict was never in short supply. The second highness was currently leading his force across the Redlis kingdom. By the time he manages to reunite the empire, it would be entirely possible that he would set his sights on The Northlands. Lorist had already warned Count Kenmays, Baron Felim, and Baron Shazin to strengthen their military in preparation. The Nortons would not hide behind their allies either. They will stand together with them, side-by-side on the battlefield.

"Milord, Sir Senbaud has returned," reported Jim as he entered the tent, breaking Lorist out of his train of thought.

Senbaud was incredibly busy as he had to manage more than 300 ships for the transport of resources from the Hanayabarta archipelago to Silowas. He had already made more than two trips during the 9th and 10th months, but only a tenth of the resources had been transported so far.

Lorist was currently rather reckless with his financials given that the wealth of the whole Hanayabarta kingdom had just been added to the treasury of the Nortons. Putting other things aside, the money the kingdom had already amounted to 17 million gold Fordes. More than six million had come from the underground treasuries under the palace burned down by Lud III much to the shock of everyone.

Lorist did not really understand why the descendants of those pirates liked to bury their stuff underground. It only took some simple questioning on the servants of those slaver nobles for the underground vaults to be determined, easily netting them millions of gold Fordes' worth of goods. Looking at all the goods he unearthed, Charade smiled greedily with satisfaction and knew that all that would last the house for at least the next two to three decades to come.

"Have every knight and those above the regiment leader rank head to the main tent for a military meeting to discuss our future plans," instructed Lorist.

All those who were summoned did not really understand the reason for the meeting, given that the Hanayabarta kingdom had already been eliminated. All within the tent wondered whether Lorist intended to start another war.

"Silence! The Lord Count is here!" announced Els, causing the rest within the tent to quiet down and get into order hurriedly.

Lorist entered the tent with two blademasters, Engelich and Shuss, followed by Jim and Tarkel from behind.

"We pay our respects to our lord!" called out the household knights as they saluted.

"Alright, take your seats, gentlemen," said Lorist as he waved his hand dismissively, before he headed to the tigerskin chair. Engelich and Shuss stood at the sides of Lorist while Jim, Els and Tarkel all stood behind him.

"Tarkel, report the intelligence you gathered to everyone here," instructed Lorist.

"Understood," Tarkel said as he stepped forward and opened a folder in his hand, "The northern fleet of Chikdor Merchant Guild travels to the Hanayabarta archipelago to engage in trade every 5th and 10th month. Their fleet includes around 40 to 50 ships, among which are 16 to 20 large-class, long-distance cruisers with the rest being middle-class armed ships. Their crew number around six thousand men and there is one rank 1 blademaster among them.

"During every one of their trips, the northern fleet of the Chikdors would first travel to the Shyarsia kingdom to trade for spice before making their way to the Hanayabarta kingdom for trading and ordering daily goods, weapons, alcohol and fashion or luxury goods. It is said that the yearly profits obtained by the northern fleet amount up to 400 thousand gold Fordes annually.

"During the end of the 5th month this year, the third young master of the Chikdors, Moribak, had traveled to the Hanayabarta kingdom and revealed to the slavers during a banquet about our recruitment of more than 60 thousand refugees to Silowas to aid in development, which ended in the slavers' invasion of SIlowas, causing us to sustain major damages."

After Tarkel finished his report, he stood back down. Lorist looked at the household knights within the tent, furrowed his brow, and said, "I don't have any evidence whether the third young master had intentionally conspired with the slavers of the Hanayabarta kingdom. But based on the hostile relationship between Chikdor Merchant Guild and the Norton house, we will consider our two parties as being in a state of war. That is the reason I've called for this meeting. We shall discuss whether we should exterminate all of the ships of the northern fleet when they come to Port Nupite without letting a single one of them off!"

Chapter 297 Surrender

I'm finally free from my exams! Here's the first regular chapter of the week to commemorate my liberation! Muahahaha! I'm freeeeee!

"Swerve the ship towards point 26, half sail!" yelled a voice.

"Understood! Swerve ship towards 26, half sail!" replied Kurt loudly as he spun the ship wheel with great strength.

The ship tilted and the world outside slowly shifted. A few well-trained marines hung on the mast and lowered half of the sails adeptly.

Rain drizzled on the ocean. Eventually a series of bumps appeared on the horizon. Eventually the bumps became distinct from the ocean itself. The captain of the ship, Schumak, let out a relieved sigh and ordered his helms to change their direction. The ship corrected its course and headed for Nupity, slowly fading into the chilling drizzle.

It was only a quarter past six in the morning and it already felt like the sun would not be showing itself for the day. All Schumak could hope for was that the drizzle would let up when they reach Nupite, he didn't want the ship's unloading to be delayed. He was not concerned with how slippery the port would be for the slaves transporting the cargo. Rather, his worry stemmed from the fact that his cargo that was not waterproofed properly, making them unfit for moving in times of rain.

Droplets of water rained down upon the greyish-black beastskin rainshield. Schumak raised his head, looked to the sky, and estimated that he would see Nupite by noon. Given his long experience at sea, his estimations were usually rather accurate. Looking back at the fleet of ships of which he was in charge, he could not help but feel a sense of pride. This was the northern fleet of the Chikdor Merchant Guild. in other words, it was the strongest fleet the northern seas had ever seen. Schumak's effort had paid off long ago when he was given the honor of commanding such an impressive fleet.

It required between 20 and 26 days to sail from Hidegold Bay to the Shyarsia kingdom. The kingdom was situated near the southern side of the various island nations. A survey by the Chikdor Merchant Guild found that sailors' psyches would suffer if they didn't see land for more than 15 days. The first symptom they would demonstrate was a steep increase in irritability. At the 20 day mark sailors would begin to suffer from despair and aggression. The combination of these three malaises meant that fights were frequent and often over the most insignificant of things. It wasn't very rare for the most trivial of disagreements to burst into a fierce fight from which life threatening injury could result.

The fleet stopped over at the Shyarsia kingdom to complete their assignment to trade for spices. When they first set sail, the sailors and other crew members were patient, obedient, and easier to control. While the journey to the Shyarsia kingdom was not a short one, they managed to arrive before any misfortunate incident occurred and the sailors had ten-odd days to rest up before continuing the voyage. The trip to the Hanayabarta archipelago from the kingdom took less than 10 days, so the average voyage shouldn't encounter any problems.

Should one sail from Hidegold Bay straight to the Hanayabarta kingdom, one would have to travel for easily more than 20 days. However, it took no more than ten days for one to travel from the island nations to the continent to Grindia, after which one only had to sail along the coast of the continent back to Hidegold Bay. That did not in any way suggest that prolonged voyages were something to be encouraged; sailors would naturally begin to worry about their families and homes after two months absent. All that knowhow was something the Chikdor Merchant Guild had discovered over the years.

This time around, the journey involved 67 ships. Before they departed, the management intentionally transferred over 22 large-class, long-distance merchant vessels, mainly because of the letter now in in Schumak's room.

The war with the Teribo kingdom had caused the guild great losses. While their armed fleet did not incur any losses, the guild lost two rank 1 blademasters and seven gold-ranked swordsmen, all of whom had received painstaking effort and investment from the guild over the years.

Fortunately, thanks to First Young Master Serihanem's cunning plan, the Twinhead Dragon Merchant Guild's president, Cobleit, started to trust the Chikdors deeply. He enfeoffed the whole Urubaha duchy to the guild as compensation for their contributions right after the war ended.

But whilst they had finally obtained their own dominion, they were in an even deeper pit than before. It was common knowledge that the Urubaha duchy was a poor nation filled with mountainous regions. The most troubling part was that the availability of cultivable land was so bad that the nation was barely able to sustain its own population. The reason for the formation of the two armies-for-rent was to earn some extra coin for the duchy. All the while decreasing the number of people that required feeding.

As for the civilians, those that wanted a proper diet would become pirates or bandits. The late Duke Urubaha did not care much for their shenanigans. All he cared about was that he be able to collect his taxes. In some instances, his two armies were hired precisely to solve the banditry problem. Either way, he stood to benefit from the situation.

The two armies were absorbed into the Chikdor Merchant Guild when they took over, and was currently a massive burden. Both the Crimson Legion and the Tricolor Sword Legion only had 24 thousand men each, but as a whole package, there were another 200 thousand family members that had to be fed, almost a quarter of the whole duchy's population. The late duke did not care about the families. He only cared about those that could bring him money, and only as far as their ability to make him money stretched. He felt that his giving his soldiers a job with pay was already more grace than they deserved.

Now that Clan Chikdor had taken control over the two armies, they did not wish for them to be as disloyal as they had towards Duke Urubaha. Not only did they have to make them formal standing armies, they also had to ensure their loyalty. They had to enforce military regulation as well as take care of the soldiers' families. However, the War of Glass had caused the prices of food to skyrocket. That was especially the case now that the continent's nations had become cautious towards the Union. Most of the established trade routes had been closed off, with important supplies such as food and metals put under embargoes. The insane prices for food and other supplies within the Union didn't come down as they had expected and hoped, they remained just as high, and even increased.

The Urubaha duchy, required food first and foremost. Only with food could the guild grasp the unwavering loyalty of the civilians within the duchy. For one, Serihanem's plan to develop basic infrastructure within the duchy to rectify its poor state was a step in that direction. Within just two or three years, the guild would be self sufficient with the duchy. It might even begin to see profits.

The main problem was that, no matter how much money the guild had, they were unable to purchase food from the neighboring nations. Even if they did, it would cost a king's ransom. It was not a price even the rich and mighty Chikdor Merchant Guild could afford. The main motivation behind the transfer of more than 20 of those large merchant vessels to the northern fleet was to procure large amounts of food, at least a million Pors, from the Hanayabarta kingdom. Incidentally, a Por is the unit of measurement used in Grindia. It equates to about 50 kilograms. The measurement and name is derived from the linen sack by the same name and the weight it can hold.

The letter within Schumak's ship cabin was penned by President Chikdor personally. In the letter, the president requested that the guild be sold food based on the years of amiable interactions the guild and the kingdom. The reason the king's explicit permission had to be obtained was the alarming amount of food actually ordered. For that, the president had also prepared lots of exquisite gifts.

The fleet traveled through the waterway leading to Nupite. Schumak looked a at the islands from the deck of his ship a little worriedly.

Did the slaver lords actually develop a conscience and stop their slaves from working in the rain?

It did not take long for Schumak to choke with laughter at his passing thought.

Well, why should I care? The slaves' got nothing to do with me anyway.

Currently, the decks of the merchant vessels were filled with sailors. They were far more excited to be at the Hanayabarta kingdom than the Shyarsia kingdom. Other things aside, merely the 'quality' of the women in the brothels here were far superior to those in Shyarsian brothels. The women who fished for customers at the docks of the Shyarsia kingdom were mostly descendents of fishermen or farmers, it was revealed by their tanned skin. Some sailors were convinced they could even smell the stench of fish and mud on them.

The Hanayabartan harlots were mostly female slaves brought over from all over the continent. Not only were their services cheap, there were more than enough of them to satisfy the sailor's needs for a few days and nights.

After passing by Featherfall Island, Schumak finally spotted a group of slaves. It was a family of three. They stood by a run-down stone house on the island, looking at the ships expressionlessly as they sailed by.

"This is weird, since when has the slaver nobles allowed a family of slaves to live together?" asked rank 1 blademaster Kuchid.

Originally, the guild was backed by five blademasters. However, with the loss of one during the interception of the Flying Fish of Dawn and two during the War of Glass (one had perished to defend President Cobleit during an assassination attempt and the other was tricked into being killed by Duke Urubaha when he was at his most defenseless), only Kuchid and Udi, a rank 2 blademaster, remained.

Blademaster Kuchid was attached to the mission because the guild would not permit any mishap on a mission as important as it. He had been specially transferred from his original post at the southern armed fleet.

"Hehe, sir Blademaster, you might be unaware, but the Hanayabarta kingdom does allow slaves to form their families," said old Kurt, the helmsman, "Old female slaves are allowed to wed their male slaves as reward. However, most of the female slaves are used ones that have probably been impregnated by the slaver nobles. They allow them to be wedded to the other slaves precisely because it would save them the trouble of having to raise their unwanted kin. Should they ever wish to have fun with the female slaves again, their husbands would have to stand guard outside their house when they get on with their business."

"Haha, it seems that the slaver nobles live quite plentiful lives. With all those slaves running their manors for them, they are able to live carefreely. They can get their hands on anything they could possibly want and they have the slaves' lives in their hands," said Blademaster Kuchid with a chuckle.

Schumak, on the other hand, shook his head with displeasure.

All those fellows consider is how life is from the slavers' point of view, not the slaves. I can only imagine how horrible it must be to be one of those poor souls.

Even so, given his post as the captain of the guild's northern fleet, all Schumak could care about was whether he would be able to complete his mission. He didn't have the luxury of sympathizing with the slaves.

Past Featherfall Island was Goldshark Island and Duck Island. Nupite was already visible far in the distance.

Huh, there's nobody at the port. Must be because of the rain. Those jetties look oddly empty though... Shouldn't there be at least a ship or two over there?

"What's going on? Did something happen at the port? It shouldn't be that quiet around here," said Kurt, slightly surprised.

"Well, the empty port can only be good for us," Schumak said as he rolled his eyes, "we won't have to worry about finding a spot. Besides, weren't we informed that the kingdom's slavers set out to attack Silowas island? You know, that island belonging to some count that the guild wanted to take as its dominion not too long ago? Perhaps the slavers' ships have gone back to attack it again."

That line of reasoning was indeed rather reasonable, so no one bothered arguing.

Even so, as they approached the city, more and more sailors filled the decks of the ships, impatient to get down for some fun.

"Eh? Why did the slaver nobles build that small hill? Is that a pyramid? What's it for?" asked old Kurt.

As they got closer, Kuchid suddenly gasped. Others began chattering incessantly.

"What's going on?" asked Schumak.

"Those... Those are all... hu-hu-hu-human heads... stacked up... pyramid," stammered the blademaster.

"What are you going on about?" asked Schumak, before he turned to look.

He instantly felt a cold wave wash over his body. His whole being felt frozen, as if he had fallen into an icy abyss.

When the fleet was less than a hundred meters away from the port, the 30-odd-meter-tall pyramid entered the sights of those on board. Pyramids were no rare sight. The continent had its own fair share of pyramid-shaped buildings in the ruins of the ancient civilization, but most of them were tombs. The pyramid that was on the Nupite's shores, however, was constructed wholly of stacked human heads.

It was apparent that the heads had been intentionally embalmed. The pale faces still had the despairing, frenzied looks on their faces from the moments of their deaths. Not one, but all the heads wore similar expressions. The shock brought by the sight was unimaginable, especially with the transparent, resin-like material that filled the space between the heads, making the pyramid look like a crystal encasing countless human heads.

All the sailors on board the ships looked at the shores in deathly silence. All they could feel was the cold numbness that assailed their limbs. It froze them in place as terror crept out of the depths of their psyche and made their teeth chatter and their limbs shiver.

There were quite a number of savage sailors that had seen their fair share of death, some had even crawled directly out of piles of bodies, but faced with the pyramid in front of them, not one managed to maintain their composure. All they did was stare blankly at the structure. They forgot their duties entirely.

More than ten ships actually collided after the helmsmen saw the pyramid. The whole fleet was brought to a standstill.

Just when Schumak snapped out of his stupor and attempted to give the order to get back into formation, he heard the familiar sound of Nupite's horn.

Countless elite soldiers rushed to the port and got into formation. They awaited the fleet's arrival. Some even brought with them countless ballistae to the frontlines.

The expressions on Schumak and Kuchid's faces changed immediately. Subsequently, horns resounded from Goldshark Island and Duck Island and either side of the waterway the fleet was traveling through. Unending rows of soldiers came out and pushed their odd-looking pushcarts. A few minutes later, a horn sound sounded behind the fleet. More than eight large-class ships blocked the waterway the fleet had just come through. The whole northern fleet had become a helpless sitting duck, it could only wait for its fate to arrive.

Lorist brought blademasters Engelich and Shuss as he headed to the port. Facing the fleet, he called out, "Disarm and abandon ship if you want to be spared!"

All the Norton soldiers roared in unison, "Disarm and abandon ship if you want to be spared!"

The northern fleet responded with silence.

Lorist waved his hand and the horns blared once more.

All of a sudden, the rows of catapults launched flaming projectiles at the fleet. The projectiles crossed over 400 meters of water before falling into the water and beating up countless waves.

Schumak mused with a pale look, "What do we do now?"

Kuchid grit his teeth as he muttered, "We have no choice. There's this blademaster on the port radiating seething killing intent... I'm afraid that I'm not his match..."

Schumak looked at the sailors who were on the deck. Not one of them dared to look him in the eye. It appeared that all of them had lost any will to resist when faced with the pyramid. Given that they had been encircled, all that would follow resistance was annihilation.

Schumak solemnly nodded and uttered his last command as the fleet's captain, "Lower all sails, put up the white flags, and approach the shores slowly! We're surrendering!"

Chapter 298 Shocking News

Lorist only managed to return to Silowas by the end of the 11th month along with the ten police brigades formed from the liberated slaves. In the following winter, the Oceanic Legion would not have time to rest up. Instead, they had to continue shipping the food and supplies, soldiers and liberated slaves all the way to Silowas. The whole process would continue until the 2nd month of the next year.

Currently, the Oceanic Legion numbered around 45 thousand men, with more than 400 ships spread out across the seas. Lorist ordered the Oceanic Legion's commander, Gold-ranked Knight Senbaud, to reorganize the legion following the completion of the transport process in hopes of forming two armed patrol fleets with cannons as their main armament to defend the coasts of The Northlands as well as Silowas. Not only that, he intended for three transportation merchant fleets to be formed, as well as release around 200 ships that he had commandeered before his campaign and compensate the losses of the owners to ship some of the slaves who wished to go back to their homes on the continent of Grindia.

As for the 20 slave-formed police brigades at the Hanayabarta archipelago, they would join together with the five local defense brigades at the dominion to form a local defense legion, comprising of five divisions which each encompassed five brigades. In total, the legion would have 75 thousand men and would become one of the most important defensive forces for the Norton house.

Having benefited from the wealth upon exterminating the Hanayabarta kingdom, Lorist had more than enough funds to reorganize his army. Not only did he form the local defense legion, he also intended to form two open-field battle assault legions. Firmrock Legion would be infantry focused while Tigersoar Legion would serve as a shock troop unit comprising mainly of cavalry.

Time flew during the course of the busy days. During the 3rd month of the next year, Lorist hosted a new year's knight festival at Firmrock Castle within the dominion and announced his decision to reform their military. The formation of the Firmrock Legion would involve two heavy-armored divisions, one wheelbarrow-ballista division, and another division formed from the combination of the two scout brigades that were consolidated from the ranks of the mounted archers and light cavalry scout brigades, the Thunderbolt Brigade, and three other logistics brigades, with a total number of 60 thousand men spread across four different divisions. It would be headed by Gold-ranked Knight Potterfang with Gold-ranked Knights Malek and the newly-joined Messen as his aides.

The Tigersoar Legion would be headed by Gold-ranked Knight Fiercetiger Loze, with Gold-ranked Knight Yuriy and Divine Marksman Josk serving as his aides. Tigersoar Legion would comprise of two spear cavalry divisions, one carroballista division, another division formed from the combination of a scout brigade, the female brigade, and three other logistics brigades. It would also have a total number of 60 thousand troops.

Finally, the local defense legion comprises 25 brigades, numbering 75 thousand men in total, with Gold-ranked Knight Freiyar as the commander, with two gold-ranked knights, Belnick and former slave fighter Jades, as his aides.

Apart from the three legions, Terman would continue his post as the commander of the three Norton Knight Brigade numbering nine thousand men. Lorist himself on the other hand would control his own personal guard brigade of three thousand men. Other than that, the Oceanic Legion Senbaud commanded had 18 thousand men. In other words, the total number of troops the House of Norton had was 225 thousand, and that did not include the police brigades, garrison legion, and town and village guards that had more than 100 thousand people in total.

Firmrock Legion would be the main infantry assault force and would be stationed at Silowas. Tigersoar Legion on the other hand would be stationed between Salus and Redriver. Given that The Northlands was desolate and mostly empty, it was the place where cavalry troops could shine with their advantage in mobility. The 25 brigades of the local defense legion on the other hand were stationed at different locations, with the first local defense brigade assigned to Firmrock Castle, the second brigade assigned to port city, which was named Northsea by Grandmaster Ciroba. The third and fourth brigades were stationed at the citadels at Hidebull Mound and Tortoise Hill respectively to defend against any potential barbarian invasion.

As the western part of The Northlands had already become the livestock-rearing area of the Nortons, Lorist agreed to Charade's suggestion to reinstate the smuggling path through the Bladedge Mountains the former residents of Wildnorth Town used. That was the path that the troops of Duke Loggins, led by Gold-ranked Knights Chevany and Hennard, used to sneak into the territory of the Nortons. With the passing of almost seven years, the vines that had been set aflame had long grown back and could be used again to construct another suspension bridge.

With the new path, the livestock produce of The Northlands did not have to be shipped through a large detour pass Firmrock Castle into the dominion of the Nortons. Instead, they could be brought straight through the smuggling route at Bladedge Mountains into the dominion within only two days. Lorist did not plan to have a proper bridge constructed as he planned to have a vine bridge built based on the ancient bridges of Sichuan he saw in a documentary in his past life. Following that, he intended to build a citadel near the cavern where Chevany died and defend it with the fifth local defense brigade.

The remaining 20 local defense brigades would begin training within the dominion in various aspects, such as battleforce awakening, military engine training, and other martial training. Lorist informed his household knights that he hoped for the Norton house to have an unparalleled elite force that is fitting for the name of the Roaring Raging Bear within the next two years.

Following the announcement of the military reorganizations, Lorist began to talk about the results of developing the dominion in the past year. With the development of Redriver and Northsea concluding in the current year, the only development project that remained was Nico Academy, with the exception of the restoration of the smuggling path and the construction of the citadel nearby there. Lorist assigned Shadekampf the tasks of maintaining the roads within the dominion, including widening and flattening them better, so that the state of transportation within the dominion would improve.

The development plan of Silowas would proceed as previously planned, with the main workforce being the tens of thousands of liberated slaves brought over from Hanayabarta. Coupled with the aid of Potterfang's Firmrock Legion that would be stationed at Silowas, the development should be complete within the next two years. The main supervisor of the house's census department, Hansk, was appointed to be the new governor of Silowas.

Lorist found himself some free time after the meeting and headed to visit his disciple, Howard. When he left for the Hanayabarta kingdom, he had stopped Howard from accompanying him on the campaign despite the latter's insistence. Given the dangers involved, Lorist would not be able to spare extra effort to look after Howard during the conflict. But Howard had maintained that given that he had broken through to the iron rank, he would be more than capable of defending himself from some random soldiers.

Lorist merely smiled at his disciple's response and got Reidy to start training Howard to develop dynamic vision, which Lorist stated was one of the main requirements a disciple of his had to fulfill. Given that Howard was already an iron rank, Lorist advised Howard to take the chance during his absence on the expedition to develop dynamic vision.

So, Howard left with Reidy in the end. When Lorist returned to the dominion, Reidy reported to him that Howard had indeed successfully developed dynamic vision. However, given the difference in physical traits between Howard and Reidy, it took the former up to half a month before he got used to the vertigo-inducing ride on the spinning chair, the embarrassment of which prevented him from coming to see Lorist himself.

By the time Lorist arrived at the training grounds behind Firmrock Castle, he saw Howard training in swordsmanship. It was apparent that his swordsmanship had improved quite a lot following his development of dynamic vision. Lorist was rather satisfied with the results and felt that Howard would be more than capable of taking on silver ranks in another two years of training.

Apart from guiding both his disciples, Lorist went to pester Telesti on occasion or visit his concubine Irina to relieve his sexual needs. Two months later, both Irina and Telesti got pregnant once again. Irina was more than delighted at the news, but Telesti was furious beyond belief, given that she had to focus on the construction of Nico Academy in the following year. Thus, she declared Lorist an unwanted guest and refused to let him visit her.

Having no other choice, Lorist returned to Firmrock Castle and happened to meet Charade, who was preparing to submit his request for vacation. Charade intended to enter seclusion training with Blademaster Engelich's personal guidance for two years to break through to the gold rank.

That was a matter Lorist had agreed to back when they were still at Hanayabarta. After accepting Charade's vacation request, Lorist opened a few bottles of wine, ordered some snacks and drunk with Charade for one last time before his seclusion. After a few drinks, Charade finally asked, "Why did you launch such a large military expansion effort right after the extermination of the Hanayabarta kingdom? Do you have another target in mind? Given the current number of more than 300 thousand total troops, the military costs have long exceeded the income generated by the dominion. It would cost more than a million gold Fordes to maintain our military based on a rough estimation. I'm worried that this would become a huge burden for us in the coming years."

Lorist chuckled before he brought over a map of the Madras duchy, thumped his fist on it, and said, "No worries, the Madras duchy will become ours in another two years."

When Charade wanted to ask more about what he meant by that, Lorist had already slumped unconscious onto his sofa.

It did not take long for Charade's absence to cause a chain of problems of its own. Before ten days even passed, Dulles, Els, Jim, Waxima, Pajik, Pete and a few other silver-ranked household knights submitted their own leave requests, with the same reason of wanting to break through to the gold rank in the following two years. Even former bandit Ovidis of the Thunderbolt Brigade did the same.

"What the hell are you guys up to?! Are you going to go on a leave too?" barked Lorist angrily at Ovidis.

Ovidis said in a troubled tone, "Milord, didn't you give me a high-ranked fire attribute battleforce manual when you first took me in as a household knight? Back then, I was already at the three star silver rank. By now, I've already familiarized myself with the contents of the manual and am already at the peak of my rank. I feel that I will be breaking through soon, so I had to ask for a one-year leave."

"Ugh..." Moving closer to Ovidis, Lorist did in fact feel that he had the aura of peak three star silver rank. Right away, his rage turned into joy as he patted on Ovidis's shoulder and said, "Alright, I'll approve of your leave. Work hard and make your breakthrough soon. The sooner you become a gold rank, the sooner the house will have another gold-ranked knight in its ranks. I already have a manor at Redriver ready for you."

Upon mention of the manor, Lorist suddenly understood the reason for the sudden rush to take leaves by all the three star silver ranks among the household knights. With the eight manors at Salus already given to Potterfang, Loze and another six gold-ranked knights, and three manors at Redriver assigned to Senbaud, Jades and Messen who joined not too long ago, only five manors remained. All the three-star-silver-ranked knights were worried that they would be one step too late to claim a manor for themselves.

"Gosh, these bastards... Why are they all in such a hurry? It's not like the house is short on knight manors! There's no point in rushing to see who's first!" exclaimed Lorist. Despite that, he agreed to let those knights take their leaves since it did not seem that the house would be in any foreseeable conflict in the next two years. On the other hand, he opened a map of The Northlands and contemplated which part of it too develop next.

On the 23rd day of the 5th month, Lorist returned from his visit at the gunpowder research lab at Bladedge Mountains. Before a suitable metal alloy can be developed, there's no point in developing firearms. It seems like the age of firearms would not come anytime soon. All we are able to make now are bronze cannons; focusing too much effort on smaller firearms simply isn't beneficial in the long run. After all, Grindia is a world of battleforce, and cold weapons are far better than firearms for warfare.

Other things aside, the steel ballista developed by the Norton house could fire up to 300 meters away, whereas the firearms they made could only shoot up to 150 meters away. In a line firing formation, ballistae still far outperformed conventional guns.

Howard knocked on the door, entered, and said, "Milord, there's an urgent report from Northsea that states that the Flying Fish of Dawn has returned from Silowas with news of the latest war developments. The Forde Trade Union has already conquered Kanbona Province of the Redlis kingdom. The 170 thousand soldiers led by the second highness is trapped in the three provinces of the Redlis kingdom and has already lost contact with the Andinaq kingdom. Additionally, the first young master of the Chikdor Merchant Guild, Serihanem, has just arrived at Silowas, saying that he has come as an ambassador of peace and wishes to have an audience with you. Supervisor Hansk had him wait at Silowas and is awaiting your instructions on how to deal with this."

"What?!" exclaimed Lorist in surprise. During the 9th month of the previous year, the report he received about the second highness's campaign in the Redlis kingdom concerned his successive losses at Majik Province. However, at that time, he still had more than 200 thousand troops at his disposal, not including the 100 thousand he stationed at the Andinaq kingdom and the various provinces he conquered. Lorist thought that with the number of soldiers the second highness had, victory for him was only a matter of time.

Upon his return from the extermination of the Hanayabarta kingdom months ago, the first thing he heard about the second highness was how he was still entangled with the nobles of Majik Province. During that time, Second Highness Auguslo had sent his 100 thousand troops to the Handra and Farkel duchies with the demand for the four central duchies to relinquish their status as sovereign state and return under the jurisdiction of the empire. However, the four dukes refused that demand and formed an allied army to resist the force of the second highness and also gave the Majik nobles military support.

At that time, Lorist was more than glad that the second highness was finally suffering consequences for his own actions and understood that anything could happen from then on. Thinking back at their meeting back at the imperial capital some time ago, the second highness had announced that the dukes of the four central duchies were still loyal to the Krissen Empire and would soon join his ranks for the reunification effort.

But now, things started going south. While Lorist was part of the Andinaq kingdom faction, he understood that Second Highness Auguslo was more than wary of the military force of the House of Norton to the point that he had never summoned them to join the war effort. However, Lorist felt back then that the second highness would be able to hold on despite the odds and did not pay it too much heed either. After all, sending soldiers to meddle in the conflict without a formal summons from the second highness could be considered treason.

Given that he was under no obligation to send in any reinforcements, Lorist holed up in The Northlands once again. But little did he expect that with the passing of half a year, not only was the second highness's attempt at exterminating the forces of the Redlis nobles unsuccessful, he was also stabbed in the back by the Union and lost Kanbona Province and contact with the Andinaq kingdom as a result. Currently, Frederika, Anderwoff Province and Bodolger Province which he occupied was still within the territory of the Redlis kingdom. Coupled with the chaotic front at Majik Province, the second highness was in a precarious spot. Having lost his supply line, it was a huge uncertainty whether he would even be able to hold his ground at the frontlines.

"Weird, where did the Union get that kind of force to pull that off?" Lorist mumbled as he stood up. He turned to Howard and said, "Pass the order down that I intend to make a trip to Silowas."

Chapter 299 Reconciliation

"Respectful greetings to you, Lord Count. This one is Serihanem of the Chikdors. I have come to express our peaceful intentions on behalf of the Chikdor Merchant Guild." The one dressed in the standard noble attire of the Union, Serihanem, bowed respectfully to Lorist before he presented his list of gifts.

Howard received the list and placed in on a small table beside Lorist, who gave it a glance and saw assortments of jewellery, fashionable clothes, high quality armaments, wine, and even four zeno horses. All of them combined were easily worth over 30 thousand gold Fordes. Lorist thought back at the times when he toiled so hard only to earn a little more than eight thousand gold Fordes a year. To think that the gifts by the Chikdors would easily rival the wealth amassed by a silver-ranked swordsman over 30 years of hard work.

"Please, take a seat," Lorist said as he waved his hand, "As the first young master of the Chikdor clan, I wonder what business do you have with me for you to make such a long trip all the way to Silowas."

Serihanem smiled bitterly before saying, "Lord Count, you should know better why I've come. To be frank, my third brother's reckless actions has caused your house huge losses and put us on a hostile standing. Back then, the guild was mainly focused on the war with the Teribo kingdom and didn't have any opportunity to make it up to you for that incident. That's why our misunderstanding grew even deeper, causing our guild even more losses.

"I have come on this trip in hopes to resolve our differences and form an amicable relationship between both parties. I hope that you will be forgiving and release the crew members of our northern fleet. The guild is more than willing to pay their ransom to get them back. Lord Count, please don't refuse my earnest request. I understand that the Norton house has exterminated the Hanayabarta kingdom and did the most righteous deed of liberating more than 400 thousand slaves. I hope you will be able to extend the same vein of mercy to our honest and hard-working sailors as well who only want to make end's meet for their families.

"They are only serving in the fleet because it is their job. I'm sure their families are eagerly awaiting their return. Lord Count, if you have anything you're dissatisfied with, please don't hesitate to tell me about it. The Chikdor Merchant Guild will definitely do all in our power to ensure that you are compensated in full. The main reason for my trip here is for the release of our sailors so that they can be reunited with their families."

Lorist looked at the man who was only a few years older than him with scrutiny. The man presented himself as frank, honest and sincere and would easily be able to make others feel like they can get along with him well.

"Please sit down, Sir Serihanem," Lorist beckoned for the man to sit again, "I believe you of all people know why I am so particular against men of your guild. To be honest, the Norton house is practically at war with the Chikdor Merchant Guild. The only difference is that no official declaration of such conflict was made. Let me also add that all of this started because of the guild in the first place."

"Lord Count, please just address me with my name. I am most undeserving of being addressed with such a respectful title," Serihanem said as he raised both his hands, "I understand your point. Apart from coming here to ransom our sailors back, I've also come here in an attempt to resolve our conflict. The Chikdor Merchant Guild does not in any way wish for war with the Norton house.

"I believe that you know that we originally intended to have Silowas as our dominion. But now that we already have the Urubaha duchy as our territory, the main cause for conflict between us is no more. I have come here to ask for your forgiveness for our actions in the past so that we can start anew with a relationship that will benefit us both, instead of one that will dye the seas with blood of the innocent."

"Serihanem, even though you said you don't wish for the innocents' blood to dye the sea, do you know how much blood of the innocent islanders at Silowas was spilled? Did you know why our house mobilized our troops to exterminate the Hanayabarta kingdom?" asked Lorist with a stern tone.

"Lord Count, I am well aware. That was caused by the actions of my reckless third brother when he was drunk at a banquet at Hanayabarta. However, I can assure you that the leak of intelligence about Silowas was purely accidental. My second brother and I have always been against our third brother's plan to take Silowas. To the guild, Silowas is too far from the southern seas which we control. Apart from its convenience of being an island, it is not suitable at all to be the dominion for our guild.

"Not only that, we were involved in the War of Glass at that time and have since put our northern strategy on indefinite hold. It was that which caused my third brother to feel incredibly frustrated and resulted in his trip. It was after that during the banquet at Hanayabarta when he unconsciously blurted out the status of Silowas in a drunken fit, which caused the slavers and nobles of the Hanayabarta kingdom to set their sights on the residents of your island. This is definitely not something we could envision happen...

"It's not that I'm trying to push responsibility away from us. We were also worried during the end of last year when our northern fleet didn't return from their voyage. It was not until the 3rd month when we were able to get hold of information of the extermination of the Hanayabarta kingdom by your house and that our northern fleet has been held captive. My father then questioned our third brother promptly about the issue. At that time, even my third brother was unaware of what was happening. It was the attendants that served him who recalled that he accidentally leaked our northern plan when he was drunk at the banquet.

"For that, my third brother had suffered two harsh slaps from my father and was exiled to the wastelands of the Urubaha mountains. My father said that since it was the fault of my third brother that your house suffered such huge losses, we are willing to give you all the ships of our northern fleet as compensation. All we ask for is that our sailors be allowed to return.

"Lord Count, regardless of whether my third brother leaked the information, surely nobody can refute that the slavers have already been targeting the 200 thousand refugees at the two southwestern provinces of the Andinaq kingdom. Your house's bringing in of more than 60 thousand of them for the development of Silowas would have alerted the slavers about it eventually. All my third brother did was say the wrong thing at the wrong place. He was merely venting his frustration without the intention of causing trouble for your house."

"Well, aren't you a talkative one," Lorist said as he looked a the round-faced Serihanem while shaking his head, "Well, the matter has already been over for a year, and there's no longer a point in pursuing whether the third young master was intent on causing trouble for us or not. The slaver traders and slaver bands of the Hanayabarta kingdom have already attacked Silowas and made hell of it, and the house has already repaid that debt in blood by eliminating the kingdom and slaughtering their civilians to build the Dread Monument so that future generations won't forget this lesson.

"As to why we captured the northern fleet, the main reason for that is because the Norton house is on a hostile front against your guild. It was your third young master that harbored hostile intentions towards us and dreamed of making Silowas the dominion of your guild through the execution of your northern strategy. Other than that, it was your northern fleet that happened to make its way to Port Nupite. It's not like we sought them out intentionally to capture them in the first place. Fortunately for you, they were smart enough to surrender without resistance, so all we had in store for them is three years of labor.

"I want to stress that the House of Norton is capable of being reasoned with. We won't oppress those weaker than us. While we appreciate peace, we do not shy from war either. If the Chikdor Merchant Guild truly wishes to cease hostile relations with us, I am more than happy to allow that. However, I must first see the sincerity in your actions. While it was you who started the conflict in the first place, it's not up to you to end it at your convenience. I would like to know what kind of price your guild is willing to pay for that to happen."

Serihanem took a deep breath before he stood up. During the start of the 3rd month, more than ten ships that had been returned following the expropriation returned to Hidegold Bay. Up to a thousand liberated slaves brought word that the Hanayabarta kingdom has been ended by the Norton house, as well as how the young count heading the house ordered for the genocide of the civilians and nobles of the kingdom to construct a human head pyramid that was made up of more than 170 thousand human heads at Port Nupite.

That news shocked the whole Union. Following the gradual release of expropriated ships, and the slaves that traveled on board them, word of those incidents spread far and wide. It did not take long for the fame, or notoriety, of the Nortons to skyrocket.

In the history of the Grindian continent, massacres during wartime were not uncommon. However, there has never been a precedent in which a whole kingdom's civilians were killed off. The slaughter committed by the Nortons was nothing short of cruel. Even the chroniclers, historians and journalists of the continent were afraid to make their way to the Hanayabarta archipelago to see all that for themselves in fear of having their own heads stacked up on the human head pyramid.

However, when one of the alumni of Dawn Academy revealed that the current head of the Nortons was no other than Iron Locke, the Silver Undefeated, the academy began to swarm with journalists, much to the dismay of Academy Head Levins. In the end, the old fox wrote a recommendation letter for all the pestering journalists and guaranteed that the Norton house would definitely not cause trouble for them with the letters in hand. Only after that were the journalists daring enough to go to Hanayabarta for a visit.

Thus, the journalists found a few of those formerly expropriated ships and traveled aboard them to the archipelago. After a round trip of a month and a half, they began huge coverage on the incident during the 5th month about everything from how the enmity between the Nortons and Hanayabartans built up all the way to how they ended up conquering the capital. The journalists and scholars were warmly welcomed by Governor Hector and brought on a tour across the island, causing them to cast the Nortons in a more favorable light.

When they reported on the human head pyramid and depicted pictures of it, they did not fail to mention the touching tale of how Governor Hector had begged the count by kneeling for seven hours straight to spare the 12 thousand females. However, that did nothing other than cast Count Norton as a cold-blooded despot.

All of the reports were gathered by Knight Lundmorde who had his own pediatric and gynecological clinic at Morante and delivered to Lorist. When Lorist read the reports, he did not put them to heart, as he was well aware that this was the reputation he would gain when he made that order back then. Sometimes, only with cruelty will the enemy fear oneself and think twice before causing trouble. Lorist was curious to see whether there were any other enemies who would face the forces of the Nortons with confidence.

During the whole chaotic affair, the Chikdor Merchant Guild had kept a low profile and only observed from the sidelines. They knew that something was off when their northern fleet did not return at the end of last year. Even the scout ships they sent were nowhere to be found. Actually, the scout ships that flew the flag of the Chikdors had ran into Flying Fish of Dawn and Windstrom when they were on patrol. Three of the ships were captured with another two sunk, with not even one successfully return to send word of the situation.

The Chikdor Merchant Guild originally intended to have the southern armed fleet to be sent to find the whereabouts of the northern fleet, but by the 3rd month, the expropriated ships had been returned and they began to understand the situation based on what the slaves said. The capture of the northern fleet by the Nortons at Hanayabarta was no secret; many of the captains of the expropriated ships were able to provide reliable information about that matter.

Fortunately for the Chikdor Merchant Guild, the northern fleet did not incur any losses. They only fell into a trap and was forced to surrender. It was later discovered that they had been sent to Silowas to work as laborers. By then, no one in the guild even dared to mention the northern strategy again. Even the third young master, Moribak, kept completely quiet. If he knew earlier how much might the Nortons possessed, he never would have dared to propose taking over Silowas in the first place. They had exterminated the Hanayabarta kingdom, a full-fledged kingdom! Other things aside, the blademasters that had died by their hand numbered 14 without any losses on the side of the Nortons. The news of 170 thousand civilians being beheaded and stacked up on that human pyramid brought chills to the third young master.

When President Chikdor learned that it was his third son that had accidentally revealed the information about Silowas and incited the interest of the slavers, he gave his son two harsh slaps and ordered him to head to the dominion of the guild at the Urubaha duchy and never leave. After that, he launched an urgent meeting with the other higher-ups of the guild to discuss how they would end hostile ties with the Nortons as soon as possible, resulting in Serihanem being sent on this mission of peace.

"Count Norton, our guild is willing to spend 200 thousand gold Fordes to ransom the sailors of the northern fleet back as a token of apology to your house. Other than that, we are intent on purchasing 56 thousand sets of equipment of the stainless steel model 107 variant at your set price of 89 gold Fordes each without any need for discounts over the next three years. We'll pay the sum in full every time we receive a shipment, is that alright?"

Serihanem secretly sighed and thought, had it not been for the six million gold Fordes we found at the treasury of Duke Urubaha, the guild would not have benefited one bit even though we acquired the whole duchy as territory. Sigh, the spice and other goods on the northern fleet confiscated by the Nortons cost easily more than 1.5 million gold Fordes, and we still have to spend such a huge sum to ransom our people back... If only we knew better...

Lorist tapped on the table by his side in thought.

"Have you seen the blueprints of the armor set ordered by the Peterson Merchant Guild?" asked Lorist.

"Yes, we have, Lord Count. We also know that they are produced by your house. It is far superior than those produced by the Wessia Merchant Guild, both in terms of design and defensive capabilities. After making the Urubaha duchy our dominion, the two armies-for-rent of the duchy will be reorganized into a proper garrison legion of 48 thousand men to defend us from enemies. That's why the guild is willing to give this business to the Norton house as a sign of our goodwill.

"Other than that, we are also willing to give up the trade route to the Shyarsia kingdom for spice to the Norton house. In the future, we will purchase spice from your house at Silowas. Additionally, this is one of the plans my third brother devised for the northern strategy. With this floating box port plan, I'm sure that the Cursed Coasts would no longer prove troublesome to you."

Serihanem brought out another document which Howard received and checked, before handing it to Lorist.

Lorist inspected it and found that it detailed a flexible port made by linking floating boxes meant to be deployed on shallow waters around the reef area. Serihanem was correct in that it would be able to neutralize the troubles of trading along the Cursed Coasts. In the event of stormy weather, the linked floating boxes could even be retracted and made into wave breakers and filled with earth to make a permanent port.

Finally, Lorist revealed a smile and said, "Alright then. I am willing to reconcile with the Chikdor Merchant Guild on behalf of the House of Norton. We will cease all hostilities with your guild and engage in a peaceful relationship."

Chapter 300 Refusal

Looking at the sails in the distance, Lorist furrowed his brows in worry. First Young Master Serihanem of the Chikdors was aboard that very ship. As the 6000-odd sailors of the northern fleet would not fit in one ship alone, Serihanem had casually hired the Norton house's men to transport their ransomed crew back to Morante.

Lorist was not concerned for the safety of those transport ships as there would be no chance the Chikdor Merchant Guild would be willing to get into conflict with the Norton house just for the sake of those ten-odd measly ships. However, before Serihanem left, he had revealed where the troops of the Union that occupied Bodolger Province had come from. Even Lorist could have never imagined something like that being pulled.

A few days back following his conversation with Serihanem, Lorist came to understand some more details about the internal affairs of the Union. Ever since the Union obtained victory in the War of Glass, the nations neighboring them had sealed their borders and erased the trade routes as a kneejerk response to the sudden expansionist policy of the Union. But given that the Union had occupied seven other nations following the war, their territory had expanded by at least four to five times. As long as they allocated and managed their resources well, there would be no cause for concern for their sustenance.

However, after the big seven guilds of the trade union obtained their own dominions, they refocused their efforts and resources to their own territory. In that situation, their grasp on the control of the Union itself had waned. At the same time, the sub council that was usually relegated to the sidelines had increased their influence. It was then when the aftereffects of the War of Glass began to show.

The Union's sub council comprised mostly the representatives of the citizens, the second-rate merchant guilds and representatives of guilds of various crafts. The sub council's main purpose was to take care of the miscellaneous stuff like enforcing security, and bringing in more civilians. Following the war, the big seven had managed to successfully realized their goals to expand the Union. But even though the territory had expanded greatly, most of it was swept up by the big seven guilds and some other outstanding second-rate guilds. As a result, there were those who still had yet to have enough of their fill.

For instance, during wartime, the short-sighted merchant guilds and mercenaries who only focused on plundering the wealth of the nobles of the nations they invaded disobeyed orders from the military to do their own thing, much to the dismay of President Cobleit, then commander of the Union army. That was why the president decided to get back at those disobedient folk when the time came to split the rewards up, greatly decreasing the benefits they ought to have received as a punishment for disobedience and also kicking out a few that were promised noble titles out of the list.

It was already too late for the second-rate guilds and mercenary groups that had lost the lands that were once promised to them to regret. But that did not stop enmity from building up in the subsequent discussion of the sub council of the Union, much to the trouble of the big seven guilds. But given that the war had ended, there was no longer any place they could take for more territory to appease those parties. As a result, the Wessia Merchant Guild, one of the big seven, came up with an idea.

Back then, the Union had good reason to be wary towards the second highness and his army of 300 thousand. But given that he had been entangled with the nobles of the Redlis kingdom all this time since the War of Glass, those at the Union had begun to see through the second highness's facade of might. Additionally, if the second highness eventually manages to occupy the whole of the Redlis kingdom, he would proceed to the Lormo duchy and force Duke Lormo to return under the banner of the empire. That was something which the Union would never allow to happen. Since Second Highness Auguslo was eventually bound to be their enemy given their conflicting interests, the Union definitely did not mind driving the proverbial knife up the second highness's back to destroy his dreams of reuniting the empire.

Other than that, while the big seven guilds have obtained their own dominions, the nobles who originally controlled those lands were not easy to deal with. This would be a good opportunity to send those nobles to the frontlines to earn achievements to qualify for new noble titles and land.

That was the reason for the military intervention conducted by the Union at Bodolger Province. Only the Wessia Merchant Guild participated in the attack. The rest of the big seven were busy settling down into their new dominions. It did not help that the second highness had made an error himself, choosing to gather his troops at the Majik Province leaving only a small number of old garrison troops at the citadels around Kanbona Province. Perhaps, he had thought that there would be no point in stationing so many soldiers at places so far behind where his army was currently located at.

But never did Second Highness Auguslo expect that the Union would launch a surprise attack and actually manage to conquer Kanbona Province. Given that the citadels over there was his only connection to the Andinaq kingdom, the strategy of the Union could be said to almost been executed with surgical precision. With but one strike, they had cut off the lifeline of the second highness. Not only that, the four central duchies have once more refused the second highness's beckoning to return to the empire and even formed an allied army of 100 thousand men to face off against the troops of the second highness and reinforce the troops at Majik Province, causing the second highness to be surrounded by enemies front and back.

Lorist breathed a long sigh at hearing all that.

"Milord, what are you worried about?" asked Potterfang from the side.

"The second highness's situation at the Redlis kingdom," said Lorist. He did not feel the need to hide anything from his treasured subordinate.

"Milord, there's no need for you to concern yourself over this," Potterfang said frankly. Ever since the experience of being manipulated and used by the second highness, he had held the grudge close to his heart, especially with regards to some of his friends which the second highness had poached. "Since the second highness didn't ask us to deploy our troops, there's no need for us to go out of our way to clean up his mess. Even if he's considered to be a senior noble of our house, we've always fulfilled our due obligation to him. I believe that Milord shouldn't have sent Supervisor Hansk to the imperial capital. You also shouldn't poke your hands into the affairs of this conflict. It's best for our house to rest up in the coming two years to reorganize our military and wait for better opportunities."

Lorist shook his head and said, "No matter what, the second highness is still a senior noble of mine. I should at least worry about him a little. If the imperial capital requests for us to deploy our troops to rescue the second highness, all we'll do is to send our forces and breach the enemy front at Kanbona Province. As for the nobles of the Redlis kingdom at Majik Province, I couldn't be bothered to care about them, unless I stand to see the first prince gone for good. Weird, as the king of the Redlis kingdom, why is the location of the first prince still unknown? It's already been a year and a half since his disappearance..."

At the end of the 6th month, Supervisor Hansk who was sent as an ambassador to the imperial capital had returned. Lorist was sparring with Blademaster Shuss at Seaview Manor at that time. After resisting over more than a hundred strikes from Lorist, Shuss eventually discarded his weapon and surrendered. As Lorist wiped some sweat off his face, he received the letter that Hansk handed over.

Upon opening it, he could see that the letter asked for the Norton house to stay put and not involve themselves into the military affairs of the Andinaq kingdom. The letter was even sealed with the insignia of the kingdom's regent.

Lorist read the letter over and over before turning to Hansk and asking, "Who's in charge at the imperial capital currently?"

"Milord, the one who received me at the imperial capital was Marquis Reid. When he read the letter you penned, he respectfully refused help from our house and said that he has already ordered the second royal local defense legion stationed near the borders of the Madras duchy to barge its way through Kanbona Province to arrive at the frontlines to reestablish contact with His Majesty the King. He then wrote this letter and had me deliver it back to you," replied Hansk.

"Marquis Reid?" Lorist murmured, as he recalled the old man he saw at one banquet of the imperial capital. While he could not quite remember how the man looked like, he did remember that the young son of the old man had brought a bunch of other noble youths to occupy Seaview Manor on Silowas for up to five years. It was not until Lorist's arrival on the island that they were apprehended and punished.

"Hahaha..." This old guy is definitely doing this out of spite. Sol, for him to let his private feelings affect his decision on the military matters of a nation and deal with this in such a childish manner... Hmph, you think I wanted to send my soldiers out? You just saved me a bunch of trouble, old fool! With this letter in hand, Lorist had all the reason in the world to completely ignore the second highness no matter how dire in need he was in.

"Well, Howard, make sure to keep this letter well no matter what. This is extremely important," said Lorist as he handed Howard the letter.

"Milord, just before I started heading back here, Marquis Reid assigned an escort for me. When I arrived at Jillin Harbor, I heard the garrison squad leader make an order to not let the soldiers of our house step on the shores even one bit," added Hansk.

Confused, Lorist asked, "What is the meaning of that? Are they treating us like enemies?"

Hansk made a bitter laugh and said, "Well, I don't know why myself. But that was the order I heard. They were also told to monitor our troops on high alert."

"But, Sir Hansk, even if they give that order, they shouldn't say it in front of you! Did you offend anyone of the escort?" interjected Howard.

"Hmmm," Hansk mumbled as he scratched his head in thought, "I don't think I had. All I did was stop them from attacking those helpless refugees on the way back... Did they have to offend us just because of that?"

"What's that about the refugees?" Lorist asked, "Tell me about that in detail."

"Well, it all started like this. We encountered lots of refugees during our stay at the imperial capital who were originally from the two southwestern provinces. We even managed to recruit up to 60 thousand of them to go to the island to help out with the development. However, after the second highness's assault on the capital of the Redlis kingdom, Frederika, he conquered Kanbona Province without even a single fight. It was then when the second highness settled the refugees down at Kanbona Province temporarily. But now that the forces of the Union have occupied Kanbona Province, those refugees have nowhere else to go and traveled to the imperial capital," explained Hansk.

"Why would they go to the imperial capital? They could always head to the territory of the Union, or even Morante," said Howard.

"That's because the Union doesn't welcome them. They are, after all, civilians of the former Krissen Empire, a scapegoat for the hate of those of the Union. The former empire had been at war with the Union for almost a century and who knows how much blood has been spilled over those conflicts. Both sides hate each other profusely. This is a grudge borne for life that is ingrained deep in their bones. Don't be mistaken about our amicable relationship with the Peterson and Chikdor merchant guilds. They are merchants, and they don't believe in justice or injustice, only profits. However, the civilians under their rule are different. Only after another century or so would the grudge between those two parties begin to fade," said Lorist as he stroked Howard's head. Having lived at Morante for almost a decade, he understood the mindset of the citizens well.

Hansk said, "Milord, that's exactly the case. Those refugees told me the same thing. According to them, the soldiers from the Union occupying Kanbona Province would attack them for no good reason. There has already been plenty refugees murdered for no just cause. The refugees were forced to leave that place. Fortunately, they set out on their journey early. Given how the Union's forces have already arrived at the two southwestern provinces, it won't take long until they reach the capital."

Hansk clutched his chest in worry and continued, "During our journey back, we would frequently encounter refugees in the way of our path. The ones escorting me would not hesitate to cut them down with no discourse whatsoever and even cursed the refugees for being cowardly leeches that allowed Kanbona Province to slip from their hands. They even blamed them for not being willing to fight to their deaths with the enemy and wanted to punish the refugees with death as they would deserters."

"Good Sol!" Lorist cursed uncontrollably, "How did knights like them even think that the refugees are responsible for this war? It's not their fault that Kanbona Province was lost! Their brains must be rotting from the insides!"

"That's all too right, Milord. The behavior of those knights got on the nerves of Sir Reidy, who promptly walloped them and gave their faces a few harsh slaps. Oh, now I know... Those knights must have been pissed that they've lost face to the enraged Reidy. That was why they bothered to announce their disrespectful orders right in front of us in an attempt to shame our house," said Hansk as he began to flush with embarrassment.

Both Els and Jim who led the guard brigade had gone on vacation to break through to the gold rank, so Lorist had Reidy take over as the leader of the guard brigade temporarily and accompany Hansk on his trip to the imperial capital.

"Haha, they wish to shame the House of Norton? I'd like to know where they got the guts to do that," Lorist said while snickering, "Howard, pass down my orders. Have Senbaud prepare his Oceanic Legion and get Potterfang's first division on board the ships. I want to head to Jilin Harbor to see for myself the one who gave the order to not allow Norton troops to step on the shores of the kingdom."

"Milord, if you do that, they'll think that we're trying to revolt right away," said Hansk in a hurry to dissuade Lorist.

"Worry not, my governor. I won't be stupid enough to actually order our troops to attack Jillin Harbor. All I want is to bring my guards there for a shopping trip. I'd like to see whether the garrison of Jillin Harbor will dare to attack a count of the kingdom like me. It's well within my rights to bring a guard escort with me around the kingdom. The moment they attack us, I'll charge them for treason for attempting to harm me, a count of the kingdom. After that, we'll be fully within our rights to act out of self defense. I want to see evidence for the order to not let us get on shore with my own two eyes no matter what!" said Lorist. However, he did not act rashly with anger like Hansk had predicted and was rather clear-headed instead, causing the old supervisor to heave a sigh of relief.

"Lord Locke, let me come along with you for a stroll," said Blademaster Shuss proactively.

"Alright, we'll leave right away. Let's see which fool dares come causing trouble for the House of Norton."

Chapter 301 Jillin Harbor

Even though Jillin Harbor used to be the only port city of the former empire at the Cursed Coasts, it was not that huge, with only a population of around 20 thousand people and incomplete harbor facilities.

Ever since the formation of the Andinaq kingdom, the new kingdom inherited the policies of the old empire that tended to neglect sea transportation. While Jillin Harbor did rise in popularity due to the increased risks of land travel during the civil war of the empire, due to the heavy taxes the second highness levied on goods transported by the ocean, the harbor gradually returned to its former tranquility.

When the smugglers no longer came to Jillin Harbor, all that remained there was the trading plaza for seafood. That was the largest seafood bazaar in the whole of the Andinaq kingdom. The fishing folk of Jillin Harbor toiled during the day only to sell their catch in the evening to the fishmongers, following which the fishmongers would deliver the food straight to the dinner table of the nobles of the Andinaq kingdom that very night itself.

In the past, fishermen of Silowas would sell their catch at that bazaar, but they have since stopped due to the oppressive business practices of the fishmongers. That was further reinforced by the fact that the consumption of seafood by the 60 thousand troops of Firmrock Legion that far exceeded their usual catch. Should they end up with extra seafood, they would dry them in the sun to preserve them instead of bringing them to Jillin Harbor to be traded. All contact that remained between Silowas and Jillin Harbor was the single ferry that traveled once every three days to-and-fro the places.

Lorist has always had plans for Jillin Harbor. Even though Silowas was a great place, it was an isolated island in the ocean. While it would be ideal as a consolidation point for goods, it was inferior to Jillin Harbor when it came to ease of distribution of goods to the main continent, which is what most merchants wanted. Currently, the salt merchant committee that Count Kenmays managed was fighting for market share at the northeastern area of the former empire. The influence of the salt merchant committee had already encompassed the Iblia kingdom and half of the Madras duchy. In recent times, the count's ambitions was to establish a new trade route to the four central duchies.

Given that Silowas was a little bit to the south, Lorist wanted to use the Peterson Merchant Guild to help distribute the products of his dominion to the areas which the Union had influence in. However, he did not think that the Union's sphere of influence had greatly decreased following the War of Glass as a result of many neighboring nations turning hostile against them and cutting off old trade routes. The Peterson Merchant Guild themselves suffered quite a bit of losses and could not afford to help Lorist out with his ambitions either, given that they had to spend at least two to three years to recover from the blow.

The coast from The Northlands all the way to Silowas was referred to as the Cursed Coasts because of the reefs that plagued the area, causing there to be no suitable place for ships to dock. That was the reason for Lorist's appreciation of Jillin Harbor. If he could get the harbor under the control of his house, Lorist believed that he would definitely be able to develop the place into a thriving port city in a few short years and expand the trade routes to the Redlis kingdom at the south.

The preface for Lorist's sending of Supervisor Hansk to the imperial capital was to show concern for the second highness's recent predicament, but in actuality, he wanted to use that opportunity to put in some effort to rescue his king. Naturally, there was a catch if the Nortons were actually asked to deploy their troops. After all, there are no free favors in this world. With the war between the Andinaq kingdom and the Redlis kingdom lasting for more than one year, even the rats within the treasuries of the Andinaq kingdom had starved to death. Lorist had hoped that his favor would be repaid in the form of jurisdiction over Jillin Harbor.

While it would be ideal if he could make the area around the harbor part of his dominion, he found that the second highness would hardly agree to such terms and thought better of it. Instead, he would only ask to be given administrative rights to that area. If the imperial capital agrees to those conditions, the Nortons would send their troops to Kanbona Province to help the second highness reestablish contact with the kingdom. However, Lorist did not think that Marquis Reid would refuse Lorist's offer for help like that and even had the garrison of the harbor be extra wary of Norton troops.

If the order to not allow the Norton soldiers to get on shore at Jillin Harbor had been made in secret, there was nothing Lorist could do about it. But never did he imagine that the knights escorting Hansk back to Jillin Harbor would reveal it due to a petty disagreement they had. They actually dared to reveal a sensitive order like that just to humiliate the forces of the Nortons. That allowed Lorist an opening to put his plans into action.

The former defense force at Jillin Harbor was the third division of the first royal local defense legion, with Gold-ranked Knight Fewermante as the commander. Once, he had brought his troops to Silowas in the name of assisting Viscount Aslan, but in fact, he was there to threaten the islanders into paying up. In the end, he encountered Lorist and was given a harsh wallop. Even though the second highness later saved him, he was worried that Lorist would not let the matter go and transferred the third division away from Jillin Harbor, resulting in the formation of a new two-thousand-strong garrison there.

As a localized defense unit, the garrison of Jillin Harbor was treated like the illegitimate child given birth to by one's mistress. The unit was severely under equipped, with a simple spear and wooden shield, with only the regiment leader and vice leader being given old and torn leather armor. The salary of each soldier was not stable either, with them going unpaid on some months, causing them to have to work at the bazaar from time to time for extra cash.

Lorist wanted to know where Marquis Reid's confidence that the garrison of Jillin Harbor posed a threat against the Norton troops came from, that he dared to order his troops to stop the Norton soldiers from getting on shore.

At that moment, Lorist was standing at the port of Jillin Harbor with a regiment of a thousand guards getting off the ship behind him and getting into formation. The hundreds of garrison soldiers of Jillin Harbor gathered around and witnessed the sight with amused chatters. All they could do was be envious of the awesome and complete gear the guards of the Nortons were assigned, with not a single one of them stepping forward to stop them from getting on shore.

However, it did not take long before someone attempted to smash a rock using an egg. Two half-armored knights rushed out of a tavern near the port and began roaring out loud. With their alcohol-tainted breath, they called for the guards on shore to leave the port immediately.

Lorist tilted his head and a few of the guards gave the drunk knights a harsh beating right away. It did not take long before the knights began crying for dad and mom in pain.

"Let it be known that any who dares bar the way of I, Count Norton, will be deemed to be committing assault against my person. Have them write their testimonies complete with their thumbprint before throwing them into the prison of Jillin Harbor. For now, follow me to the administrative center. I'd like to see who at the imperial capital gave that order," instructed Lorist.

As a noble, it was well within Lorist's rights for him to travel with a guard escort. Even though Lorist brought with him a regiment of one thousand guards and a division of five thousand soldiers, he could easily explain it away as him being extra fearful for his life and bringing more soldiers with him as a precaution. As long as Lorist's troops did not harass the locals and was fed from Lorist's own pockets, there was nothing wrong with them following Lorist around.

As for the order from the imperial capital to not let a single Norton soldier set foot on the shores, that was nothing more than a big joke. It was not like the Norton troops were rebelling, so there was no legitimate reason for Lorist to be forbidden to bring an escort with him. The order could be argued to be putting Lorist himself in unnecessary danger. Even if the matter was brought to the second highness, Lorist would definitely still be in the right.

As the one in charge of the security of Jillin Harbor, Baron Fenston was rather satisfied with his position. He bribe to the men serving the second highness had paid off. As a noble, Baron Fenston felt that only idiots would be satisfied with the income of their own dominion. He was well aware how poor the folk at his dominion were. Instead of investing money to develop it, it would be far better for him to bribe his way into a good-paying position. That method was far better in terms of return on investment.

Having been the security chief of the harbor for over five years, Baron Fenston had long earned the cost of bribery back. And now, his salary was easily several times more than the income his dominion provided. He was currently trying to form a small fleet with seven medium-sized armed ships so that he can purchase some luxury goods and fashionable clothes from Morante all the while getting acquainted with some powerful men. On the other hand, he could also use the fleet to conduct business with the merchants or nobles at Jillin Harbor. Through that, he would be able to profit alongside those who chose to invest in him without spending all his capital.

However, he was rather troubled by the order he received from the imperial capital two days ago that required him to increase the defense of the garrison at the harbor to prevent the forces of the Nortons from getting on shore.

Baron Fenston was of the opinion that the one who gave the order probably got rabies, for him to dare to lash out at just anyone without giving any thought. Given that the king was trapped within the Redlis kingdom, the situation of the Andinaq kingdom was far from stable to say the least. And the people in charge of the imperial still dared to challenge the Nortons at a time like that. He recalled that the Nortons recently sent an ambassador to the imperial capital and the baron was sure that the ambassador had somehow offended the people in power at the capital. Either that, or they did not bring with them a fitting gift for the visit.

Baron Fenston really wanted to throw that decree into the wastepaper bin. But he thought better of it and kept it instead. After all, the imperial capital sent over six other knights along with the decree. Not only were they supposed to take over control of the garrison at Jillin Harbor, they would also be reorganizing it into three regiments with three thousand men in total.

Thus, Baron Fenston decided to go along with the six knights. After all, he did not have money nor equipment and could only barely pay for the salary of the troops in his garrison. He would want to see what the knights could do with his force. Hmph, do those guys think the Nortons are to be lightly messed with? He recalled that one of his family members made a trip to Morante recently and brought back one of the newspapers there. On it, the extermination of the Hanayabarta kingdom of the Nortons was reported. Not only did the Nortons exterminate the slave kingdom, they also slaughtered 170 thousand civilians of the kingdom and used their heads to build a human head pyramid.

The baron believed the report without question the moment he first read it. As the security chief of Jillin Harbor, he had received an order that was secretly sent to him by his king: monitor the actions of the Norton house in secret and report any anomalies to him, which he did so dutifully until the loss of contact with the second highness following his campaign. However, the baron did not forsake his duties and continued to receive reports from the sailors that traveled to Silowas once every three days. Baron Fenston would collect and compile the reports and submit them to the king when he returns.

Silowas had recently suffered a pirate attack and the island itself became living hell. Back then, even the ships at Silowas were caught up in the attack. Fortunately, the ferry captain managed to miraculously escape when he felt something was off. Jillin Harbor was also thrown into disarray during the attack as they feared that the pirates would come for them too. After being on full alert for one whole month, they only got to know that the pirates had departed when the Norton ships traveled to Jillin Harbor to resupply. The pirates that remained were all annihilated by the Nortons, with Silowas reclaimed.

Later, the House of Norton gathered large numbers of troops and ships at Silowas, and that was when Baron Fenston came to understand the true extent of their military might. The soldiers soon disappeared and returned two months later with an abundance of resource. Even though the captains and sailors were prevented from getting off the island, they could easily estimate roughly how much resource and people those ships carried.

After reading the newspaper report, Baron Fenston came to know that the resources had definitely came from the extermination of the Hanayabarta kingdom. It was no wonder his king was so wary of the Norton house and instructed him to keep an eye on them. Baron Fenston recalled one of the rumors he heard sometime back that stated that Count Norton had some enmity with Count Aslan, causing the latter to bring up to ten thousand men to encircle Count Norton's group of five hundred without notifying the king. In the end, not only were Count Aslan's forces defeated, the count himself also lost his life. The king had eliminated the whole Aslan house in a fit of rage and was unable to do anything to Count Norton either.

That was why when he heard that Count Norton had came over to his place, the administrative center, he instinctively understood the reason for the visit. Not only did he receive Lorist warmly, he also brought out the decree he received and showed it to Lorist. He also made sure to insult and berate those nobles at the imperial capital for giving such an asinine order.

Lorist waved the decree in his hands and said with a smile, "Since the imperial capital has already ordered for the expansion of the garrison, but Jillin Harbor isn't able to afford such an expense, the House of Norton is willing to make some contributions for the sake of the kingdom. We will help out with the expansion of the garrison. What do you think about this, Lord Baron?"

"That would be wonderful!" Baron Fenston exclaimed, "Lord Count, your patriotism and loyalty to the kingdom is beyond description. It truly is worthy of my deepest respects. I'll be counting on you for the expansion of the garrison then."

"Will it be okay with you if I bring the garrison soldiers to Silowas for three months of training and reshaping?" asked Lorist.

"There definitely won't be a problem. I will leave it entirely up to your discretion, Lord Count. I've long heard about the unrivaled might of the troops of the Norton house, so there can't be a better candidate than you to restructure the garrison. To be frank with you, the garrison of Jillin Harbor is stepping out of their bounds quite often. While they try to bolster their esteem by bullying the common folk, they are completely useless when sent to the frontlines. Lord Count, please feel free to discipline them as you please. Heck, you can even kill them as you like as punishment. You must know how troubled I am for receiving more than 20 complaints daily about the garrison soldiers... I even have to clean up their mess."

Seeing Baron Fenston's thankful behavior, Lorist laughed and said, "Well, there's no secret in raising disciplined and strong soldiers. All you need is to pay them and feed them well, as well as provide them with appropriate equipment. When training them, make sure to not let them feel like they're expendable fodder that are inconsequential and disposable. Also, make sure to be strict on military regulation and teach them to be prideful to be one of the military. Doing all that will naturally raise their combat ability. How about this, during the time when the garrison here is trained, let our house take care of the security over here. It's fortunate that I brought a division of soldiers with me on this trip of mine. Let them stand guard here for three months for now. Will that be alright, Lord Baron?"

Baron Fenston thought, I don't think there has been a noble that brings a whole division of troops along on a casual trip. Sheesh, he really has too much money to spare. I wonder how much it costs to maintain a division of soldiers for a day... Smiling, he said, "That's great! I was just getting worried about the security here during the absence of our garrison. With your division stationed here, I'm relieved. But Lord Count, the financial situation here at Jillin Harbor is a little tight nowadays, so I'm not sure if it can sustain a whole division of soldiers. Is it possible for you to decrease the number of soldiers you station here?"

Lorist shook his head and smiled before saying, "Lord Baron, there's no worry. All you have to provide is the food that you usually give to the three thousand garrison soldiers. The Norton house will take care of the additional expenses. Actually, I have another reason for bringing a division of soldiers with me. I've heard that there are a lot of refugees in the borders of the kingdom, so we are trying to recruit some of them to help develop the wastelands of The Northlands. That will also lessen the kingdom's burden to feed them."

Baron Fenston said with a respectful expression, "Lord Count, you are far too magnanimous and benevolent. To think that you are willing to provide a means of living for the poor refugees... You are truly the prime example of what a noble of the kingdom should be. Alright. I will now draft the necessary paperwork to let your house take charge of the security here at Jillin Harbor."

Since Baron Fenston was being so cooperative, Lorist nodded and said, "Lord Baron, if you have anything you might need us to help you with in future, please don't hesitate to look out for us. We will definitely aid you in any way we can. This is the pledge of I, Norton Lorist."

"Thank you!" said Baron Fenston with a genuine look of gratitude.

And so, on the 3rd day of the 7th month, Jillin Harbor fell under the jurisdiction of Firmrock Legion of the Norton house.

Chapter 302 The Child's Play Siege

"Milord, this trip will take another thirty minutes. There is a small stream up ahead, and after crossing it, we'll arrive at the valley of Wolf Mountain. That is where the barony of the Dina house is located. There is a small hill within the valley on which the castle of the Dina house is built that is right next to a village," reported Kumod. He was the one who had come to the Dina barony the last time along with Els.

Lorist nodded and said, "Let's go. We'll get some nice food and rest by the time we reach there. Curse this weather... To think it'll rain out of nowhere like that... Be careful, the road will be slippery."

The weather of the 7th month was usually rainy and stormy. Lorist had just experienced one of the quickest weather shifts that caused half of his guard to be dripping wet before they even got the chance to put on their rain coats. By the time they put them on, the rain stopped again, causing their efforts to be in vain.

Even though the mountain path was wide, it was incredibly muddy as a result of the rain. The hooves of horses were stained yellow with mud, causing them to be unable to sprint like usual. The wheels of the two carriages had also got clogged up with mud as it was bogged down by the weight of the carriage.

The reason for Lorist's trip was that he wanted to bring the two girls and their young aunt away from the barony. During the previous year when he attended the paradise gathering, he got to know a girl called Dina Arriotoli and her aunt who bore the alias of 'Chessy'. They spent a fulfilling night together, and the girl said that she fancied Lorist quite a lot and promised that she would no longer attend the gathering to wait for Lorist for three years. If Lorist was willing to take her hand in marriage, she would be wedded to him along with her younger sister.

In the previous year, Lorist had Els pay them a visit on his behalf and sent over a thousand gold Fordes with a bunch of other gifts. When Els returned, he reported that the girl was incredibly down after learning of Lorist's identity as a count. Given that she and her sister were of low status, they would not be fit to be Lorist's wives. She originally thought that Lorist was just a knight which she and her sister could marry without problems. If 'knight' Lorist tried hard enough, he might even get a title of a baron.

Lorist did not wish to force them to come with him, but given the stark situation of the Andinaq kingdom, and how the dominion of the girl's house was near the northwestern area of the Redlis kingdom, the moment the second highness's forces are defeated, the northwestern area of the Redlis kingdom would fall under the control of the Union. By then, if the Union sends their forces down, the girl's house and the Dina baroy would be one of the first to suffer. Lorist did not wish for the girls and her family to fall to the hands of the mercenaries of the Union. That was not something he was willing to ignore.

Upon exiting the forest, his vision was greeted with the terrain of the gentle and large valley before him. At the foot of the mountains were some farmland. There was a small hill in the distance where a small castle stood beside a village surrounded by a tall wooden fence. That was the Dina barony.

"Milord, it seems that the Dina barony is under attack," said Reidy while holding up a telescope.

"Oh?" mused Lorist as he took the telescope for himself and looked. That was indeed the case, with a few knights visible on the empty lot in front of the castle. A petite girl wearing yellowish-copper armor could be seen from the telescope, wielding a longsword and standing on the castle walls heroically, cursing at the few knights beneath.

"Pfft!" Lorist tried to stifle his laughter when he recognized the girl on the walls. That was Arriotoli, and he did not think that she was the kind to go on the battlefield herself. The main issue was with her physique, though, that caused her to look a little awkward wielding a longsword that stretched 1.4 meters.

"Milord, it seems that it is a skirmish among the local nobles. The troops at the camp over there number less than 500, with some even using wooden sticks as weapons. They look like children playing a wargame," commented Reidy as he continued to observe with the telescope.

Lorist turned back to look and saw the 200 or so guards he had brought with him. All of them were mounted and lightly-armed, escorting two four-wheeled carriages.

"Reidy, bring the guards with you to give them a hand. Crush their camp site over there and capture a few of their horsemen. Also, tell the troops to not kill them outright. Those poor farmer soldiers were only forced to fight by their lords, so try to catch them alive if you can," instructed Lorist. He did not have the slightest interest in meddling in the issue personally.

"Understood, Milord," acknowledged Reidy before he barked a few simple orders.

The guards began to clean up the mud around the hooves of their horses, adjusted their armor, and awaited the order to charge after remounting themselves.

Reidy waved his hand forward, causing the guards to launch into a forward trot. As the distance was still rather far, there was no need for them to charge yet. Should they charge right away, by the time they arrive at the camp, their mounts would have run out of energy. As the group advanced, a few orders from some company leaders saw the 200-odd guards split into four 50-men units. When there was only 300 meters between the guards and the camp, Reidy appeared at the front, gave a loud cry, before charging.

The people within the camp had already noticed the incoming horsemen. The girl on the castle walls also revealed a look of shock. The knights who were beneath the castle walls hurriedly turned back to the camp all the while raising their arms and shouting out loud.

However, the construction of the camp was far too flimsy. Not even a moat could be spotted around it. Reidy clenched his legs against his mount, causing it to leap upwards over a meter-long wooden fence, before he gave his greatsword a swing. He used the flat of his blade to stun a huge soldier who merely stood there in befuddlement, causing the man to collapse unconscious. That man should be thanking Reidy for lightly batting him away. Otherwise, he would have been crushed by the charge of Reidy's steed.

After the mounted guards stormed the camp, the small-scale skirmish concluded. The few knights did not even make Reidy break a sweat; all of them collapsed with one strike from Reidy, who used a heavy greatsword. Even though he wielded it with only one arm, his sword easily weighed two times a normal two-handed greatsword. Thanks to Reidy's unnaturally great strength, he was able to use a heavy sword like that as deftly as he would a delicate needle.

Following the fall of the few enemy horsemen, the farmers in the camp promptly surrendered. There were ten-odd other fellows equipped with leather armor and armed with shield and sword who cast their weapons away the moment they saw what happened before raising both their hands in submission, obediently following the instructions of the guards.

The girl on the walls began cheering out loud. She probably recognized the guards as on her side as the armor they wore were different from her enemies'. Perhaps, she knew that those were the exclusive armor of the Norton house, given that Els had went there once last year. The girl soon vanished from the walls and was probably preparing to lower the drawbridge of the castle.

When Lorist arrived at the camp with ten-odd guards and two four-wheeled carriages, the drawbridge had already been lowered, with the girl having walked out from the castle with six other armed guards. She was currently talking to Reidy, who was keeping watch on his mounted captives.

One of the kneeling captives cursed them for being cowardly for using a sneak attack without a formal war declaration and berated Reidy for not having any chivalric spirit. Before Reidy retorted, the girl had begun pointing fingers and cursing out loud, causing the guards behind her to start teaching the chivalric way to the old knight with punches and kicks. The girl herself did not fail to sneak in a few kicks at her pleasure.

Lorist overlooked all that with a face full of cold sweat. He did not dare imagine that the soft and gentle girl he had once caressed and embrace would be so brash. Lorist rode forward and leaped off his horse before smiling at the girl and said, "Hey, should I call you Daisy or Arriotolli?"

The girl wore a stupefied expression before her eyes reddened as she tossed her two-handed greatsword away and began pummeling away at Lorist's chest with her fists. "So, after all this time, you've finally thought of coming to see us. You big meanie..."

Lorist chuckled as he caught her fist and said, "Apologies, I have been far too busy lately and haven't got the time. That's why I sent my subordinates here to see you last year. Didn't I come to see you now, the moment I finally got some time for myself?"

The girl looked like she was about to say something and pouted. "You liar, you told me you were a knight. Your subordinate has already told me that you're actually a count. Why did you even bother to come?"

"Well, I couldn't help myself, since a certain foolish lass said that she would wait for me for three whole years. I just couldn't stop myself from worrying, so I'm here to take you away," said Lorist as he stroked the girl's long, brown hair.

"Hmph," the girl mumbled as she shook her head to avoid Lorist's hand, "You are a great and mighty count, while I'm merely a sibling of a baron. I must be no different from those village girls in your eyes. And there's no way you'll be able to take us sisters as your formal wives, so why bother coming for us? Do you want us to be your concubines? I would never agree to that."

Lorist only looked at her with a smile and said, "Alright, stop fussing. Let's deal with the mess before us right now first. What's going on here? Who are they and why are they attacking your castle?"

The matter was cleared up soon enough. The Dina barony had actually only occupied half of the area within the valley. The other half was controlled by the old man kneeling not far away, Baron Andrew. When the second highness launched his campaign against the Redlis kingdom, the two sons of Baron Andrew had joined the second highness's army. His older son Pulist was one of the many who was involved in the occupation of Frederika. While he was fortunate enough to survive crossing the Cloudsnap Mountains, but he was only half alive after experiencing the chilling cold. After the successful occupation, the second highness made the noblemen that made contributions knights of the royal family.

When the soldiers at Kanbona Province surrendered to the second highness, the newly-appointed knight of the royal family was brought back home by his brother for him to recover and managed to evade the fate of being trapped with the second highness in the Redlis kingdom. After half a year, his injuries had mostly recovered and the two brothers were terrified of the second highness's ambitions and no longer felt like returning to his side for servitude. So, they holed up in their homes with the excuse of recovering from their injuries.

The Dina barony and the Andrew barony was relatively of the same size, and both houses were 'fallen' nobles whose prime time had long passed. The two houses used to have a mutually-benefiting relationship. But since the older son of Baron Andrew had become a royal knight, he felt that he had more of a backing and started to get more ambitious, starting to crave the Dina barony for himself.

The old man came up with a most splendid plan to form a marriage alliance with the Dina barony. Since he has two sons, and the Dinas, two daughters, as well as the fact that his wife had passed away earlier, making him a perfect match for the stunningly-beautiful widowed aunt of the sisters still in her thirties, he felt that he could pull off a triple marriage to seal the alliance. As for the ten-year-old Dina heir, he could take him as his own adopted son. That way, he would have the Dina barony for himself.

However, the moment the old man proposed the idea, his dreams were shattered in the most amazing fashion. The current temporary head of the Dina barony, Arriotoli, had cursed the old man so harshly that he almost suffered a heart attack. Never had Baron Andrew seen anyone scold someone with such fervor. With the two baronies interacting over the course of the years, and given Arriotoli's excellent memory, she managed to recite each and every one of the old baron's past shameful mistakes and used them as ammunition in her rebuking. The old man had never felt so humiliated ever in his life, especially since they were in full view of the peasant farmers when the scolding happened. The grudge he bore that day was not one that would go unpaid.

The angered old baron rallied up around 500 farmers the moment he went back and declared war against the Dina house. Baron Andrew himself had twelve garrison soldiers while the Dinas had only eight. Baron Andrew was a two star iron rank, his older son was a one star silver royal knight, and his younger son was a three star iron rank. The Dina house on the other hand had a two star silver household knight, who was also the personal bodyguard of the late baron who had stayed loyal all this time, and Arriotoli herself who was a one star iron rank. Both sides were of roughly equal strength.

In terms of numbers, however, Baron Andrew had the advantage. The farmers and refugees he recruited as well as the servants numbered above 400 people whereas the Dina barony only had around 200 male and female youths, half of the number the enemy was capable of bringing out. But they did have the protection of the castle, so both sides were tied et again.

That conflict had already been ongoing for a month and seven days with casualties on both sides... only numbering less than ten injured. Not even a single one had died. The unluckiest casualty was none other than Knight Pulist, who had suffered two broken ribs as a result of being stepped on by his mount. The main method employed in the siege was none other than trash talking. Baron Andrew and his two sons shouted at the top of their lungs at the walls, with Arriotoli shouting back. Basically, the insults boiled down to 'come down if you dare' for the Andrews and 'come up if you dare' for the Dinas.

It was no wonder all that seemed like child's play to Reidy.

"How do you think we should deal with them, Arri? Let's just have them hanged, alright?" said Lorist with displeasure, feeling more than willing to kill off the enemy that annoyed him.

The three captives were horrified at having the fate of their lives so casually decided, even though the were supposed to be exalted nobles of a mighty kingdom. In territorial conflicts between nobles, captive ones were not supposed to be killed, only held prisoner until their ransom was paid.

"I... I'm a knight of the royal family... The kn-knight of the king himself... You... You wouldn't dare to kill me..." said the puffy-faced Pulist.

"Oh, a mere knight of the royal family. I once attended a banquet and killed a viscount in front of the second highness himself. After that, the elder brother count of that viscount I killed brought ten thousand men seeking me for revenge, all of whom were killed by me, of course. I supposed there were a number of royal knights among those I killed, but I didn't keep count back then. Even so, the second highness didn't do anything to me," said Lorist without batting an eye.

"Yo-you're Count Norton? T-the Raging Bear of The Northlands..." mumbled Pulist with a pale look. The incident concerning the Aslan brothers was taboo which no one dared mention in front of the king. However, the grapevine in the army was rather far reaching. With Pulist having served under the second highness once, he had heard of many retellings of the incident concerning Lorist and the two brothers.

"Arri, please spare us. Remember when we were young? You were our boss lady," begged Pulist. The moment he recognized Lorist, he changed his attitude right away.

"Eww, don't bring something so far back up again. And weren't the three of you boasting that you'll make me your wife?" humphed the girl with dissatisfaction.

"But Arri, I really like you for real. It was you who didn't consider us brothers seriously. That's why we agreed to help our father out with his ambitions. After all, if we succeeded, I would satisfy my own desires as well," said Pulist in a frustrated tone.

The girl seemed to be in deep thought before she regained her cheerful demeanor. Raising her head, she told Lorist, "Whatever, let them go. It's pointless to go further than this anyway."

Lorist waved his hand and a few guards returned the weapons and mounts to the three men. Actually, even the guards did not crave the stuff that they just returned, given their impressive loadouts.

"Arri, will we never be able to meet again?" Pulist said as he stopped and turned back after walking a few steps with his horse.

The girl did not bother with him and headed into the castle, clutching Lorist's arm.

Chapter 303 Anna and Arri

The castle of the Dina barony was not huge. It was at most around 15 meters tall, built of stone boulders secured with clay pasted between the seams. With time, the walls had turned dark-colored. Even thought it was cleaned often with limewater, there were still traces of moss in some corners of the building, with most of the rocks at the base of the structure covered in a mossy-green coat.

There was a small courtyard past the bridge and entrance. Most noble castles actually used this kind of architectural layout. Howard guided the two four-wheeled carriages to the side to park before bringing the four horses that pulled the carriages to the servants nearby. After that, he had the coachman and guards bring down four huge chests, which contained the gifts Lorist brought for the two girls and their aunt.

The boxes were brought to the main hall before they were opened. In three of them were various kinds of fashionable clothing and jewellery, while the other contained beauty products like makeup, combs, mirrors, perfume, silk handkerchiefs and many more. That was also one of the many benefits of the extermination of the Hanayabarta kingdom. Lorist had picked out four chests' worth of clothes matching the figures of Arriotoli and her aunt that were deeply imprinted in his memory.

Not long after, Lorist finally got to meet Arriotoli's aunt, whom he called Chessy back then, after two long years. The young aunt looked like she lost some weight over the years, but that only helped make her prominent chests seem more apparent. Had it not been for Arriotoli, who was still clasping Lorist's hands, the young aunt might just leap into Lorist's embrace right away. However, she managed to control herself and only stared at Lorist with teary eyes. It was not until Arriotoli made a few short coughs that she regained her composure.

It was, however, Lorist's first time meeting Arriotoli's younger brother and sister, as well as the silver-ranked knight of their household. As the heir to the position of the head of the Dina house, the 11-year-old boy looked thinner and paler than other boys of his age. However, he did thank Lorist politely according to noble etiquette for lending them a hand in a time of need, allowing them to obtain victory over the territorial dispute.

Perhaps because the boy was told to memorize what to say beforehand, he delivered his words with a little bit of stammer. When he finally finished, Arriotoli allowed him to leave, causing the boy to quickly pull the silver-ranked knight Massa away with him.

Arriotoli's sister, on the other hand, did resemble her quite a lot. The girl did not lie; her sister was indeed quite the beauty. She seemed gentler than most girls of her age, yet carried with her an elegant air. Arriotoli herself also gained a more heroic aura since two years ago when Lorist last met her.

Arriotoli's sister was called Fennazali. Both she and her young aunt loved the gifts Lorist prepared for them, as was apparent from how they busily rummaged around the four huge chests. Every time they found something that they liked, they would cheer loudly with joy and surprise, matching the clothes against their bodies or asking Lorist and Arriotoli whether something looked good on them or not.

On another note, Lorist was quite curious at the gaze Fennazali looked at him with -- it had a hint of shyness, which was natural for a girl whom he only met for the first time. Their young aunt on the other hand had a gaze filled with burning passion, one that showed how much she was struggling not to jump to Lorist for a hug on the spot. Despite Arriotoli's presence, she did not refrain from giving Lorist suggestive looks.

Arriotoli, however, only looked carefully at the gifts Lorist gave them without nearly as much excitement as her sister and aunt.

Lorist asked curiously, "What's wrong?"

The girl revealed a bitter smile and said, "I am happy that you gave us so many luxurious items, but seeing as how our dominion is within this rural valley, there aren't many people we can show them off to."

"Ahh," Lorist mused as he scratched his nose awkwardly, "Arri, you can always come with me. I have even more nice clothing at my place, all of them my spoils of course. You can take any of your choice. You don't have to stay here anymore."

Arriotoli shook her head and said, "After my father's fall in battle, the childish me only ever wanted to rely on someone with power and backing to help us maintain control of our barony here. In the end, I managed to get to know Princess Carey and attended her paradise gathering, thinking that I've finally found some good backing. However, the more I interacted with the princess and the rest, I found that I could trust them lesser and lesser. It was pure coincidence that I met you there, so I thought I should just marry you to leave that circle of people...

"In the two years I've been waiting for you here, I started training my bronze-ranked battleforce which I gave up long ago. Initially, I thought that I could rely on others to ensure the survival of my household. However, I came to understand recently that there's nobody more reliable than myself, so I started training hard in battleforce and the swordsmanship technique passed on through my family. Just look at both my hands..."

The girl stretched out both her palms that was full of callouses and blisters. Her skin had dulled quite substantially, and was quite far off from the fair, tender state that Lorist remembered.

Lorist grasped her hand and caressed it lightly.

The girl laughed bitterly and continued, "When your household knight came last year and told me your actual identity, I knew that the dream I've been clinging to would no longer come true. I've always thought that you were a knight, so I wanted to marry my sister off to you to stimulate your ambition and earn an achievement worthy of land just like my father. That way, both my sister and I can become the wives of a baron.

"To think that you're actually a count whose might even the king is wary of... You even dared to not give His Majesty any face. I've already long heard of the rumors of the Norton house's actions at the imperial capital. It was then when I realized that a count like you had far superior suitors than us. As long as you desired it, the nobles would offer up their daughters and wives to warm your bed without even asking for anything in return. After all, you're the power Count Norton. I doubt that there are any nobles in the kingdom worthy of being your bride, unless you're looking to take Princess Carey as your wife.

"As for us sisters, we're naught but nobles from a small and rural barony. Our status is too far off compared to yours, so I knew that there's no way that we can get married to you formally. Even if you are willing, the subordinates of your house will definitely be against it, because that would actually be a mark of humiliation of your household. All that's left for us sisters is to be your concubines.

"Locke, I think I won't be going with you. I've gave it much thought in these two years and I think that I'll probably just remain here in the dominion to wait for my brother to mature and succeed the title and land. After that, I will become the household knight of the Dina house and protect my home for the rest of my life. Don't try to convince me otherwise, I'm really confused right now. Let me have a few more days to think, alright?"

Lorist did not utter a word and merely nodded.

The dinner served that night was the best Arriotoli could serve. The toast bread with honey tasted surprisingly well according to Lorist. Even though the bread was not of the soft variety, being made of cruder wheats, it was surprisingly soft and sweet, making it extremely pleasant to eat. There was also roast turkey, goose, lamb ribs, baked fruits and potato mash. The dinner closed off with a delicious serving of mushroom soup.

The dinner table where they dined was long and rectangular, with the future heir of the Dina house, Arriotoli's brother, sitting at the main seat with a solemn look on his face. Sitting to his left were Lorist, Reidy and Howard. On the boy's right were the two sisters and Knight Massa. For some reason, the young aunt of the sisters was not present with them.

The young boy's excited gaze belied his solemn look. He did not know how long it has been since he had got such a lavish meal. Lorist took note of that and brought the food the boy laid his eyes on to his plate. Within a short moment, the boy's plate contained three lamb ribs, one large goose drumstick, one baked apple and a roast chicken wing.

The boy's mouth got more oily the more he ate, slowly growing more and more fond towards Lorist by the moment. That was especially the case when Lorist stopped his elder sister from harshly disciplining him, saying that he should not worry about his elder sister and eat all he wants in order to grow large and strong. Thus, the boy ate his fill and soon ended up bloated, having to be carried away by Knight Massa. Arriotoli was so mad that she stomped harshly on Lorist's feet a few times.

"Why isn't your aunt here?" asked Lorist.

The girl rolled her eyes and said, "The food you're eating here is all cooked by her. Without her in the kitchen, we'll be gnawing away at raw potatoes instead."

After finishing the delicious meal, the girl brought Lorist to his room at the third floor. He got the master bedroom whereas Howard was assigned a room for guards beside it. Reidy on the other hand had to live at the guards' quarters at the camp outside, as the castle was too small to accommodate Lorist's 200 plus guards. Lorist simply had them use the camp set up by Baron Andrew and his two sons so as to save Arriotoli the trouble.

Opening the window of the roo, Lorist could see the scenery of the village behind the castle. The village was rather small, with only tens of unlit grass huts within it. In the center of the village was a large bonfire, which was what the patrol soldiers and other villagers used during the night for illumination. Several butt-naked children were playing beside the fire, tossing grass and other stuff into the pile. But the adults soon came and gave them a few smacks on their behinds before bringing the crying children home.

A soft knocking on Lorist's bedroom door could be heard.

"Come in," said Lorist as he turned around.

The one who entered was the aunt of the sisters. In her hand was a tray and candle.

"I... I've come to make your bed," the young woman said with a flushed face, "Al-also... Here's some bread and fruit wine for your enjoyment..."

"Thanks, just put it on the table there," said Lorist as he acknowledged it with a nod.

The woman closed the door before putting the tray and candle on the side table and proceeding to make the bed.

Seeing the two round, rear protrusions when she bent over to adjust the sheets, Lorist approached her and placed his hands on them.

The young aunt suddenly froze, before half-kneeling on the bed without making a single move. Lorist flipped her skirt up without the slightest sign of hurry before removing his own belt and pants. He later propped his hot and hard member between the two soft lumps.

The woman let out a long and pleasurable moan from the depths of her throat as she matched her hip movements with Lorist's thrusts. Burying her head deeply into the pillow, her soft rear shook and shuddered as a slight pinkish tint slowly surfaced.

"Should I call you Chessy like before, or something else?" asked Lorist as he removed yet another one piece of the woman's clothes. Two years back, she had attended the paradise gathering with Arriotoli as Chessy and Daisy. It was only during the end of the gathering that the girl told Lorist her real name. However, her aunt had long passed out from the sheer exhaustion of pleasure making with Lorist and did not get to tell him her real name.

"Just... Just call me Anna. M-my real name is Dilianna."

Lorist's hands caressed the two glorious lumps hanging from her chest nonstop, causing her form to soften like water yet again. He then shed all his garments before giving it another push, engaging in an act of union with the young widow.

As the two continued, Lorist increased his pace. But right before the climax, he heard a knocking at the bedroom door. He suddenly burst into a series of quick piston thrusts, the sudden rise in pace causing the aunt to roll her eyes in climax before she slumped onto the bed powerlessly, still moaning and panting lightly.

Come on, thought Lorist in annoyance, to think that someone would come bother me just when I was about to climax... Tying a makeshift skirt around his lower body with a sheet, he rushed angrily to his door. He was surprised to find that the one beyond it was Arriotoli.

"Eh? What's with this smell?" asked the girl the moment her sensitive nose picked up on the distinct smell produced by 'male and female interaction'. But given that she had not engaged in any such activity, she could not quite recall what kind of smell that was. It was not until she entered the room and saw her aunt lying flat on the bed that she understood what had happened.

"Hmph, auntie, how dare you take your niece's man from her? That's going too far!" said the girl in anger, as if her favorite toy had been taken away from her.

"Nonsense, he's my man as well." Now that nobody other than Lorist and Arriotoli was there, Anna did not hold back from standing up for herself.

"Ugh..." Arriotoli was speechless. After all, it was none other than she who invited her aunt over during the gathering to spend a night with Lorist, so she could hardly blame her aunt for it.

"But we're not at the paradise gathering anymore," retorted the girl weakly.

"I don't care," Anna said, "I also stayed chaste for him for two whole years. I'm going to leave with him this time, even if it means becoming his concubine. I'm satisfied as long as I can be together with him. Locke, do you want me to follow you?"

Lorist nodded without hesitation. As Anna was only 30, only one or two years younger than Lorist, she was in her prime of beauty. Only idiots would not desire her.

"Arri, stop being so stubborn. The fact that Locke came over to see us means that he cares about us. Think about the rest of our lives. I believe that Locke is the best one we can possibly spend it with. He won't disappoint us," advised Anna.

"I don't want to be his concubine," said the girl, shaking her head.

"Arri, please come with me. Even though you won't have official status, you will still enjoy all the benefits a wife of mine would. If any of you bear children, I can list them under the family registry and they will also qualify as formal heir candidates. Also, I don't think I might ever take a formal wife. Like you said, there aren't many who are qualified for that position."

Holding onto the girl's shoulder, Lorist said sincerely, "I've come here this time, determined to take you and your family back with me. The situation of the kingdom looks to be in bad shape, and the nobles at the imperial capital are panicking without taking any effective measures and can only watch as the second highness's military campaign fail. I've obtained reliable information that the Union will probably head in this direction after defeating the second highness. Nobles like your Dina house who are situated near the borders will be the first to feel the brunt of their might."

The girl shook Lorist's hand off and said, "I still need time to consider... His Majesty the King wouldn't lose that easily..."

Lorist kicked the door close and hugged the girl, bringing her towards the bed, before he said, "You can take all the time you want to think about it later. But right now, you have to make it up to me for disturbing me just before I climax."

Initially, Arriotoli was being slightly resistant. But under the mutual assault of Lorist and Anna, she eventually succumbed to pleasure.

Chapter 304 The God of War's End

Lorist, Anna and Arri made love all the way through the night before finally ending up in each other's embrace and falling into deep slumber. Lorist only awoke the next day from the noise outside the castle. He realized that he was alone in the bed, with Anna and Arri no longer there with him.

The previous night had done wonders to refresh him. Lorist got off the bed and felt completely relaxed. All the fatigue that had built up vanished completely, allowing him to be at his best state. Everything almost seemed to sparkle in Lorist's eyes. Simply slapping on some clothes, Lorist went to the room next to his and had Howard wake up to gather some water from the well downstairs to prepare for a bath.

Howard walked out with dark circles under his eyes and complained, "Milord, you were making too much noise yesterday and I was unable to sleep at all! I only managed to fall asleep when it the sky started to brightened, but then you came to wake me up almost right away..."

Well, since I'm in a good mood, I'll refrain from bickering with this little bastard. Knocking on Howard's head, he said, "Alright, go get some sleep. I'll take a bath myself."

Howard groaned sleepily before closing his door and going back to sleep.

Lorist brought the bronze basin in his room and a towel to the well behind the castle before he started using the water to wash himself. Given the hot weather of the 7th month, goosebumps manifested on Lorist's skin the moment the chilling water splashed onto him.

Beside the well was a drinking fountain. The four horses pulling the carriages were being fed water and brushed by some servants. Just as Lorist was about to go close to see, he heard someone call out to him from behind. One of the female servants came over and said, "Milord, the mistress has invited you over for breakfast."

When Lorist made his way to the dining hall, he was surprised to see Howard there. Curious, he asked, "Weren't you going to get some more sleep?"

Howard gave a bitter laugh and said, "If only it were that easy to fall asleep again! This castle only has single-layered walls and the echo is especially strong. I'm able to hear the slightest movements of others super clearly. The noise of people and horses is too much for me to bear. I think I'll go take another nap at the camp outside later."

Howard was not wrong, as the castle of the Dina barony was built like a clock's circular structure. The advantage to that was that it was hard to attack, but the echo of sounds was a side effect. Just like a bronze clock cover that would hum when the bell beneath it rang, the upper floors of the castle would be affected by the sounds beneath.

Anna enthusiastically instructed a few servants to serve Lorist and Howard a lavish breakfast. there were bread coated with goat-horned bee honey, cheese, turkey bacon, fresh filk, some honeyed milk as well as some self-brewed fruit wine.

Arriotoli later arrived at the dining hall clad in leather armor, armed with her two-handed greatsword. Behind her was her younger brother and Silver-ranked Knight Massa. Seeing their sweaty looks, they must have finished morning training not too long ago.

Arriotoli placed her greatsword on a rack nearby before removing her leather gloves and placing them in a bronze basin to be washed. Using a rag given to her by a servant to wipe off some sweat, she came over and say opposite Lorist.

Lorist gave her a blinding smile, only to receive an eye roll in return. It was at that moment when Fennazali sneezed as she walked into the hall and took her place beside Arriotoli. "Sis, where did you go yesterday night? I think there was a cat in heat somewhere in our castle. It was calling out so loudly that I wasn't able to sleep properly. I wanted to find you to chase that cat away together, but you weren't in your room. The sound only quieted down when daybreak came..."

Pfft! Howard tried to stifle his laughter and said, "I'm sorry, I'm already full. I'll be taking my leave here. Enjoy your meal..."

He then left.

Arriotoli said with a flushed face, "Zali, I didn't hear any screeching cat..."

"Well, there's no way a cat can hear itself screech, can it?" Lorist interjected. Having spent quite the time with both Anna and Arri the night before, he found that Anna was the quiet type who would only lightly pant even after achieving climax. Arriotoli was different in that she would moan like a soprano singing in an opera. Her moans built up in tension and went completely out of control when she climaxed. It was no wonder her sister thought that there was a cat in heat somewhere in the castle.

Arriotoli's face was red with embarrassment. Gritting her teeth, she tried to stomp on Lorist's feet beneath the dining table, only for her leg to be clipped between Lorist's own legs.

"Arri, have you made your decision? Will you come with me?" asked Lorist as he picked up a honeyed bread for himself.

Arriotoli looked at Lorist with a hateful glare until her leg was released. Then, she revealed a smile as she shook her head and said, "I don't want to leave this place. This is the Dina barony, the dominion of my household. I will not abandon it."

Lorist began to worry and said, "Idiot, did all the sword-training turn your brain into solid muscle? Leaving now doesn't mean that you're abandoning your dominion. Instead, you need to do this to ensure the survival of your house and bloodline. Are you prepared to bury your own family here in this valley? If all of you perish, there would be no more Dina barony. Your brother is still young. Let him return here once he has matured to inherit the land. I can promise that your dominion will be returned to your house when the time comes.

Arriotoli started to get angry as she tossed the bread in her hand to Lorist and yelled, "While it's easy for us to leave right now, coming back in the future will be incredibly hard. Just like you said, it'll take another eight years before my brother comes of age. If I don't stay here in our dominion, who will acknowledge that is the case in the future? Who would remember us?"

"That's easy. We only need to use our swords to stimulate their memory," Lorist said with a chuckle, "With the House of Norton behind your back, there's no need to worry about the matter of your dominion. Arri, perhaps when your brother grows up, the House of Dina won't just have a small barony. You can even have a whole viscounty."

Arriotoli rolled her eyes and said, "Hmph, you say that like it's true..."

Fennazali asked curiously, "Lord Count, is the House of Norton really powerful?"

Lorist nodded and said, "I'm sure your sister knows better that our house is the strongest within the whole of the Andinaq kingdom."

"Since the kingdom is in trouble, why does the House of Norton not help His Majesty out of his dangerous predicament?" asked Fennazali naively.

"Well," Lorist began, "Second mistress, it's not that the Norton house doesn't want to contribute to the kingdom. The people in power at the imperial capital themselves have refused our offer to help out. Not only did they forbid our house from sending aid to the frontlines, they also instructed us to stay within our own dominion without taking any rash action. If that wasn't the case, I'm afraid I wouldn't have the time to come visit all of you.

"Did you hear about the War of Glass that concluded just last year? The Union and the Teribo kingdom got into war over the secret of glass production, ending with the extermination of the Teribo kingdom. The Union now controls the territory of the kingdom, and an estimated number of seventy percent of Teribo nobles have gone missing.

"It was later revealed that those nobles had encountered raiding mercenaries and private military outfits when they attempted to defend their own dominions. Those private armies and mercenary bands either killed or hanged the nobles. To the mercenary bands of the nobles, the more land the nobles they kill control, the more impressive the title they will be awarded for the deed.

"That's the reason I want you all to leave with me. Let's not hand ourselves to those enemies on a silver platter. Bring your house's land deed and title certification documents with you. When your younger brother matures and you wish to take your dominion back, the Norton house will definitely offer aid. We will definitely not disappoint you."

Arriotoli stood up in troubled fashion and said, "That's enough, Lord Count. Let me have some time to think about what I should do."

The girl has always thought that Lorist was exaggerating the facts and believed that the king would not lose that easily. Even though Auguslo had been trapped within the three provinces of the Redlis kingdom, he still had 170 thousand men under his control. Arriotoli felt that the Union would not be able to do much as long as the army was still with the king.

Lorist spent half a month of worriless days at the Dina barony, enjoying the company and hospitality of Anna. However, Arriotoli herself still had not made up her mind yet. On some nights, she would sneak into Lorist's bed and squeal like a cat in heat. But no matter what, she still did not want to leave her dominion and depart with Lorist.

By the end of the 7th month, word from Morante and Jillin Harbor finally let Arriotoli understand the direness of the situation.

A report by the Morante Daily, titled 'The God of War's End', recounted the events during the 2nd month of the previous year when the second highness crossed Cloudsnap Mountains with his army and stormed Frederika despite the odds, making him gain the reputation of a god of war of the new generation overnight.

It was a shame that the second highness got gravely sick following his conquest of more than half of the territory of the Redlis kingdom. Having missed the opportunity to unite the land of the two kingdoms, the second highness allowed the enemy to regroup and reform and even suffered quite a number of losses from the reckless arrogance of his subordinates, much to the detriment of his army's morale. By the time the second highness realized that something was wrong and took command despite still being sick, it was already too late.

At the frontlines within the Redlis kingdom, the second highness faced more than one enemy. For instance, the Wessia Merchant Guild from the Union had conquered part of the Redlis kingdom's territory, and the four central duchies had refused to abide by the second highness's demand to relinquish their independent status and return under his reign, launching into revolt. As for the nobles of the Redlis kingdom, they pressed their attacks on the Andinaq kingdom's royal local defense legion thanks to the second highness's refusal to give them the due preferential treatment nobles like them deserved.

On the 13th day of the 7th month, the four central duchies formed an allied army numbering 140 thousand men and sent it to attack the army of the second highness, which was stationed at the borders of the Handra duchy. They also slaughtered all the livestock in the vicinity and celebrated with a huge banquet, causing the 100-thousand-strong army of the second highness to crumble from the lack of food, giving the four central duchies a major and easy victory, allowing them to move their forces into Majik Province.

On the 21st day of the 7th month, the second highness retreated from Anderwoff Province and gathered around 20 thousand soldiers that were still willing to obey him to defend Frederika. The ones that encircled the city that time was the Wessia Merchant Guild's private army of 20 thousand men and 30 thousand more soldiers of the Union and other private parties, as well as the 80 thousand soldiers of the four central duchies and another 20 thousand soldiers of the nobles of the Redlis kingdom. The second highness had to deal with almost 150 thousand men, trapped within Frederika without food or reinforcements. The writer of the article opined that the time was nigh for the god of war's end.

That report was published on the 21st day of the 7th month in the Morante Daily, and the current date was the 34th day of the 7th month. Thirteen days had passed during the delivery of the paper to Lorist, and it was unknown whether siege on Frederika had begun, or whether the second highness still survived.

Lorist was enraged after reading the emergency report from Jillin Harbor. To think that the second royal local defense legion near the borders of the Madras duchy is still groveling slowly towards the frontlines at a time like this... They also sent 45 thousand men from their ranks over to Jillin Harbor to take over the security and instructed for the forces of the Norton house to return to Silowas... and demanded that we don't take any refugees?! Demands...

Gosh, they have so many demands! Lorist stroked his chin and thought, I see that I don't have a choice but to teach these fellows a lesson. They actually spread themselves thinner by sending 45 thousand men as a precaution against our house, leaving only 30 thousand men to save the second highness... Those people there at the imperial capital are completely treating us like enemies! I wonder if their stance represents the second highness's...

Arriotoli was completely dumbfounded by the article and the report from Jillin Harbor.

"How could this be?" stammered she.

Lorist laughed in a cold tone and said, "Do you know that those fellows at the imperial capital don't even know what to do about the predicament their king is in? They're still struggling for power over one another at a time like this... I think I understand now. They believe that allowing the Norton house to rescue the second highness is an opportunity for us to gain his favor, so they want to stop us from getting on the second highness's good side, lest they lose the favor themselves. That's why they sent the royal local defense legion to Jillin Harbor to chase our troops back into the ocean without even caring about how their king is being encircled this very moment...

"We don't have much time, Arri. Let's leave now. There's no point in thinking about this anymore. Don't make me force you to come along," said Lorist solemnly as he looked at Arriotoli.

"I'll come," the girl said, "But I won't be your concubine. If Aunt Anna wants to, she's free to do so. I can, however, be your lover. But you must make me a female knight and raise my younger brother into a fine knight and dominion lord."

"Deal," Loirst said, "Make your preparations quick. Only take what you need. We'll be leaving first thing tomorrow. You can bring the folk in your dominion along if you want. I won't split you up from your subjects. You can definitely nurture and train your subjects into a force that will defend the Dina house in the future."

"Thank you, Locke," said Arriotoli.

Chapter 305 The Odd Situation

By the time Lorist arrived at Jillin Harbor with the Dinas, Fimrock Legion's first division had just got into a small conflict with the second legion of the royal defense legion. It all started because a group of one thousand riders wanted to storm the refugee camps the Nortons were in charge of to chase those refugees away so that the Nortons would not be able to recruit them.

When their warnings went unheard, the riders launched their attack. The soldiers of the Norton house did not hesitate to retaliate with their steel ballistae against the charging riders. Under the rapid fire of bolts from all 500 steel ballistae, the whole group of one thousand riders perished after only five volleys.

This time around, the second royal defense legion was in a verbal argument with those of Firmrock Legion. Potterfang announced that anyone that dared approached the refugee camp within a radius of 200 meters would be killed without question.

On the other hand, the messenger sent over by the second royal defense legion roared with a face flush with anger, "We have orders from the authorities at the imperial capital to take over Jillin Harbor. If the Norton house doesn't comply and insists on occupying the harbor and attacking our forces, you can be charged for treason!"

Potterfang laughed and said, "Open your eyes wide and look. This is the official permission drafted by the security chief of Jillin Harbor, Baron Fenston, that allows our forces to stay here for three whole months. Where is your evidence that we occupied this place by force? The number of refugees is only growing because of the volatile situation at the frontlines. Baron Fenston had asked us to help only because he was worried for the safety of Jillin Harbor. To think that those at the imperial capital would not only refuse our offer to go to the frontlines to help out His Majesty... I really don't understand what you fellows are up to.

"It's like you guys don't even care that His Majesty is trapped. Your second royal local defense legion took one whole month to crawl slowly like snails from Yungechandler Province to the imperial capital, and the first action you take is not bust through Kanbona Province to restore contact with His Majesty, but send half of your forces here to take Jillin Harbor back. Am I going crazy, or are you the crazy ones? What's so important about Jillin Harbor? Will occupying this place help you save His Majesty? I'm really curious about what your intentions are.

"Even with the forces of the Union occupying Kanbona Province and sending small units to pillage the two southwestern provinces, the imperial capital didn't do anything to retaliate. Instead, you guys ordered the defending soldiers to abandon most of the citadels and hole up to protect yourselves, allowing those of the Union to do as they please without obstacle, killing and plundering our people and forcing them to have no choice to become refugees to escape! Yet, you want to forbid the Norton house from helping them out? What the heck are you thinking?! Is that how you repay the trust the king has shown you by allowing to take charge?"

The messenger was not able to retort with Potterfang's arguments, only bringing out a handkerchief to wipe some sweat off before he said, "Sir, those at the imperial capital have their own thoughts on the matter as well. Even though His Majesty is currently trapped, he does have 100 thousand elite soldiers with him, so he won't be defeated that soon. Also, Jillin Harbor is a port of the kingdom, so it would be incredibly inappropriate for it to be occupied by a private military outfit. It was because of this that those at the imperial capital sent me here. Now, you may hand Jilin Harbor back to us. With us here, you don't have to worry for the safety of this place any longer."

"Then tell me, what's the deal with you sending your one thousand riders to attack the refugee camp?" questioned Potterfang unforgivingly. He did not have the slightest intention of letting the harbor go either.

It was then when Lorist stepped into the main tent, causing Potterfang to stand up in a hurry for a salute.

"We can give Jillin Harbor back to you, but we demand that we be allowed to gather refugees outside a 2-kilometer radius of Jillin Harbor. If we don't butt into each other's businesses, then we won't bother each other. Tell those backing you to not infringe upon the interests of the Norton house, lest you want to make enemies of us. Naturally, you may not enter the range of our troops either. Those who do will be killed without question!"

Upon getting Lorist's promise to give the harbor back, the messenger hurriedly returned to make his report. As for the thousand riders who were completely wiped out, nobody remained hung up on that matter, since getting Jillin Harbor back was worth far more casualties than that. The important thing was that their goal had been achieved.

"Milord, why are you giving Jillin Harbor back?" asked Potterfang, dissatisfied.

Lorist brought out a newspaper and tossed it in front of Potterfang. The commander flipped open the paper and saw that it was the Morante Daily published on the 27th day of the 7th month, which detailed the successful occupation of Frederika by the allied army and the king of the Andinaq kingdom being missing in action.

"The second highness is..." mused Potterfang with great shock.

"Read the headline down there," said Lorist.

Potterfang took a look only to read an article about how the Union was going to form a negotiation council in preparation for a visit to the Andinaq kingdom, with eventual peace on the horizon. The report below that was an opinion piece by a journalist that stated that even though the second highness was nowhere to be found, some reliable sources claimed that he had actually fallen sick and was unable to show up on the battlefield. Now that Frederika has fallen, it was believed that the god of war of the new generation would soon be found and captured.

The journalist believed that the reason for the Union's occupation of Kanbona Province of the Andinaq kingdom was due to the looming threat of the young god of war's possession of a force of 300 thousand soldiers to the Union, and the fact that he did not acknowledge the unification of the Lormo duchy and the Union. The attack on Kanbona Province was meant to be a wake-up call for the god of war to remind him of the Union's might.

Now that the army sent to the Redlis kingdom by the Andinaq kingdom had mostly been decimated, with the second highness missing, and the remaining forces within the borders of the Andinaq kingdom numbering less than 100 thousand men, the kingdom did not have enough forces to launch an attack, but was more than capable of defending itself. That was why the folks of the Union who felt that the conflict had been dragging on for a little too long formed a negotiation council that would travel to the imperial capital at the Andinaq kingdom to begin peace talks.

"Do you understand now? The authorities at the imperial capital isn't quarreling with us over this matter because they want to control more territory. They're worried that their talks with the Union would be leaked, causing them to be blamed as traitors to the kingdom. I would like to see what the second highness's reaction will be when he hears of the plans of his subordinates," explained Lorist to Potterfang in an insulting tone.

"Milord, do you think that those at the imperial capital don't know about the news that the second highness's army has been defeated and about his disappearance?" asked Potterfang.

"I'm not too sure about that, but I can be rather certain that someone at the capital has some kind of thing going on with those of the Union. Perhaps, they are merely pretending to be ignorant of that so that they can put pressure on the second highness together. Right now, we should compromise with them and see what their true plans are. From the newspaper, we can see that the Union is planning to visit the kingdom for the talks, and the fastest way to travel from there to here is through sailing to Jillin Harbor. That was why the folks at the imperial capital want it back so badly. They would even be willing to lose more than half of the second royal local defense legion to kick us out from here. Given this state of affairs, I don't wish to clash with those idiots. Let's just hold ourselves back for the moment."

The forces of the Nortons smoothly ceded control of Jillin Harbor back to the second royal defense legion and set up another main camp at the shores roughly two kilometers away from Jillin Harbor. There, they would recruit fleeing refugees and send them to Silowas through a temporary port they had built at the shore.

Ten days later, the recently strengthened Oceanic Legion encountered two long-distance merchant vessels in the oceans roughly ten kilometers away from Jillin Harbor. On the ship were the negotiation council and guards from the Union. An interesting thing was how the arrogant negotiation council members instantly turned obedient the moment they heard that they were dealing with the Oceanic Legion of the Norton house, answering every question with a smile, stating that they had been invited to the imperial capital by the authorities there to seek a peaceful resolution for the situation at the Redlis kingdom while requesting to be allowed passage.

Senbaud reported the information he got from questioning those of the Union to Lorist. After some consideration, Lorist instructed for the negotiation council to be allowed to pass and ordered Potterfang to hurry up with sending the refugees to Silowas before retreating with all their troops there, leaving not a single soul behind at Jillin Harbor. At the same time, he would send back the reorganized Jillin Harbor Garrison back to Baron Fenston.

"Milord, are we going to stop meddling with the matter here at Jillin Harbor?" asked Supervisor Hansk, the governor of Silowas.

Lorist nodded and said, "The current situation smells extremely fishy to me. If our forces stay at Jillin Harbor, we might be perceived as an obstacle by some. It's better if we step back carefully to see what they intend to do. Stopping the negotiation council in their travels can be passed off as giving them a friendly greeting. With them knowing that we are not far away, those from the council should know that any decision they make concerning the kingdom must take us into account."

On the 20th day of the 8th month, a messenger from the imperial capital arrived at Silowas with a document that required Lorist's signature. Lorist scanned the document and realized that it was a proposal. Given that King Auguslo, the second highness, was missing, and the fact that a kingdom cannot be without a leader, the nobles of the Andinaq kingdom were requested to pass a motion to allow Princess Carey to temporarily take the throne and position as queen so that the peace treaty between the kingdom and the Union can be signed to put an end to the war.

Lorist merely laughed and refused to give his signature, causing the messenger to threaten that the Nortons would be forced out of the noble circle of the Andinaq kingdom and not be recognized as nobility by those from the imperial capital.

Lorist simply said that the senior noble of the Norton house is the Andinaq royal family, which was led by the king himself. With the king being missing, the Norton house would not submit to any other. Even though Princess Carey carries the blood of the royal family of the Andinaq kingdom, she was far from qualified to be a senior noble of the Norton house.

Thus, the messenger left. But Lorist did not expect that what transpired after would be even weirder. After another half month, Lorist received a report that left him speechless.

The Redlis kingdom had officially been eradicated, with Majik Province being absorbed into the Handra duchy. On the other hand, Anderwoff Province and Bodolger Province where Frederika was situated became the territory of the Union, with Anderwoff Province becoming the official dominion of the Wessia Merchant Guild.

Hanstmost Province of the Andinaq kingdom, where the Dina barony was located, and the northwestern area of the Redlis kingdom had united and formed a new duchy, called the Zitram duchy, with the new duke being rumored to be one noble of the Redlis kingdom that had used the flooding tactic to defeat the second highness's army of 70 thousand and crowned a new genius military strategist.

The two southwestern provinces that used to belong to the Andinaq kingdom had also fused to become the Allied Duchies of Britt, with three dukes having joint control of the Union. One of them was President Britt from a smaller, second-rate merchant guild. Another was the leader of a famous mercenary band, called Dragon's Talon, with the last being the head of a military-based noble house from the Teria duchy that had defected to the side of the Union, who had sent his troops in the first wave of attacks on Frederika and succeeded greatly, ending with him being made a duke.

Currently, Andinaq kingdom was ruled by the queen. Princess Carey had been coronated only recently and had also signed a peace treaty with the Union. Not only did she cede away the conquered northwestern area of the Redlis kingdom, and the two southwestern provinces of the kingdom, as well as Hanstmost Province. All the Andinaq kingdom had left was Central Province where the imperial capital was, Welbassia Province, and Yungechandler Province which used to belong to the Madras duchy.

Nowadays, the imperial capital had already become a border city, with Flowater Creek at its northern border and Jillin Harbor at its west. The funniest part was in drawing of the new territory of the Andinaq kingdom on the map: Silowas had actually not been included within. In other words, Princess Carey and the other nobles of the Andinaq kingdom no longer acknowledge the House of Norton as being one of the kingdom. In other words, the Norton house was a rogue noble house with no senior noble.

"What the hell is going on here?" Lorist scratched his head in a troubled manner, no longer understanding the implications of the current situation.

Potterfang and Supervisor Hansk on the other hand looked elated.

"Milord, our current situation is just like the one of the founding emperor of the Krissen Empire. With nobody commanding us around as a result of the Andinaq royal family's willing abandonment of the Norton house by not acknowledging us as their junior noble house, we are just like the house of Count Krissen a few centuries ago. However, back then, Count Krissen was first exiled before being cut off. It was from then on when he gathered his troops at The Northlands and the northeastern area and ended up founding the old empire. However, our current situation is far better than his," said Supervisor Hansk with joy.

"You're saying that the lands our forces conquer will belong to us solely and that nobody would question the legitimacy of our ownership over those lands and revolt?" asked Lorist.

"That's right, Milord. With the Andinaq kingdom's territory not including Silowas, that is a sign that they no longer care about us. With only a word from you, Milord, we can take Jillin Harbor right away and let our troops storm straight to the imperial capital," said Potterfang.

"No, something that convenient won't just fall out of the sky like that," Lorist said as he scratched his chin, "Let's wait a bit more for now. We'll train our forces prim and proper before we look for our next target. Either way, this situation still seems too odd to me. Tarkel!"

"Milord, I'm right here," said Tarkel as he stepped in from the door.

"With the war at the Redlis kingdom ended, I want the agents of Furybear to infiltrate Frederika and see if you can find the whereabouts of the second highness. I have a feeling that he would not be defeated that easily. Go take a look so that he doesn't pop out of nowhere and cause trouble for us at the most crucial moment," instructed Lorist.

"Yes, Milord," replied Tarkel, before he made a cutthroat gesture and said, "Milord, do we give him a 'sendoff' if we find him?"

Shaking his head, Lorist said, "Just report to me if you locate him. Don't act without instruction. This is not something you can decide, understood?"

"Understood, Milord."

Chapter 306 Return to Morante

Lorist left Silowas for The Northlands along with the Dinas. The young aunt of the Dina sisters, Dilianna, had already become Lorist's concubine. As for Arriotoli, the elder Dina sister, she was prideful, maintaining her relationship with Lorist as lovers while also training hard to become the first female knight of the Dina house.

As for her sister, the second mistress of the Dina house, she had expanded her horizons after meeting Lorist. As she enjoyed Lorist's treatment and hospitality, she grew intimate with him and even flirted with him often, sometimes seeming envious of what her aunt was doing as well. She did express that she did not mind being Lorist's concubine, much to her elder sister's displeasure. It seemed like it would not take long before she fell to Lorist's 'demonic grasps'.

Lorist had the Dinas move into Firmrock Castle, solving the problem of him having to spend his nights alone. Since Arriotoli wanted to become a knight, Lorist helped her reorganize her training routine and content. Within a year and a half or so, she would definitely achieve her ambitions.

As for her brother, the heir of the Dina house, he already had a training plan prepared for him at the young age of eleven. Given the early death of the late Baron Dina when the boy was only two, and the subsequent passing of her mother from grief, the child grew to have a rather weak constitution as an indirect consequence of his parents' absence. Lorist decided that he would first work on mending the boy's physique before sending him off a year later to the Nico Academy, which would be launched by Telesti soon. He would continue his studies there for the next three years as he matures before having his battleforce awakened and beginning his knight training course.

Lorist felt substantially more relaxed upon returning to The Northlands. Even though the weird situation at the Andinaq kingdom did worry him, being isolated from the kingdom made him feel a kind of relief. He could finally decide the fate of his house on his own terms. The next course of action for him was to consider carefully the next action he would take.

Lorist did not wish to launch another military campaign right away. After all, the forces of the house had just been expanded and would still require a little more time to be up to proper shape for combat. Additionally, many household knights had taken a vacation to break through to the gold rank, not to mention the refugees recruited from the Andinaq kingdom would require time to be settled down. That was the reason for Lorist's decision to stay put for the next two years within the dominion. On one hand, he could observe the changing situation outside, on the other, he could use the opportunity to sneak in some of Furybear's agents into the four central duchies, given that the Norton house had almost no way of gaining information from there.

The 100 thousand plus refugees brought over from the Andinaq kingdom had departed for the western part of The Northlands where a new settlement was being prepared. It was called the Greatriver settlement. Like Salus and Redriver Valley, Greatriver would also have eight knight manors built there.

At the end of the 11th month, Count kenmays, Baron Felim and Baron Shazin once again came to Firmrock Castle. While the main reason was the distribution of dividends from the salt merchant committee, the other was for them to spend winter at the castle together to improve the relationship of the four houses.

Count Kenmays looked at the three beauties from the Dina house with drool dripping down the side of his mouth, thinking that while his number of maidservants far surpassed that of Lorist, their quality was vastly inferior. He also managed to get Lorist to abide by his word to bring him to Morante. Baron Felim and Baron Shazin were both interested in making the trip as well, so Lorist decided that he would bring them there during the 5th month next year to expand their horizons.

During that time, Howard came crying to Lorist. The reason was that his fiancee Katrina, the 17-year-old daughter of Baron Felim, had failed her battleforce awakening, causing her to be in a rather sour mood during her visit to Firmrock Castle with her father. In the end, Howard had no choice but to seek Lorist for help on the matter.

Lorist laughed out loud and invited Baron Feilm and his daughter to his study. After giving Katrina a pulse reading, Lorist told them that the reason for her failed attempt was from a cold she had suffered when she was young, the effects of which still remained, with traces of 'cold' energy still within her blood. As long as she goes through some simple reconditioning, she would be fine. He also mentioned that if the baron did not mind, he should leave Katrina at Firmrock Castle and said that he was confident that she would be able to successfully awaken her battleforce in another half year. Filled with joy, Baron Felim placed his daughter in Lorist's care. Lorist drafted an eating routine and some herbal medicine prescriptions and left the rest of the matter to Howard.

The nobles lived lavish lives even at a time like winter, unlike the commoners who mostly stayed in their houses, doing nothing but eating and sleeping. Thanks to a variety of magic beast furs, the forces of the Norton house were properly prepared to venture around in the cold weather. Lorist brought his three allies on a sled and traveled to the wastelands for a hunting trip. They ended up returning with a whole bunch of magic beasts, mostly carnivores that had took the initiative to attack their party, relinquishing the need to search for hunting targets on the snowfield.

By the time they returned to the dominion from the wastelands, it was already the 2nd month of the new year, and the rainy season was upon them. Following the rainy season was the winter harvests, so the three allies of the Nortons returned to their own dominions and would only return after overseeing their winter harvests. They would then head to Northsea and sail towards Morante to experience it for themselves.

During the 3rd month, Lorist received two pieces of good news: Irina, who was living at Maplewoods Bastide, gave birth to a son, whereas Telesti, who was staying at Nico Academy that was situated at the borders of Wildnorth Town and Bladedge Mountains, had given birth to another daughter. The latter had named the child Nico Freycia, bearing the family name of her mother, much to Lorist's displeasure.

In the 4th month, Howard sent over good news from Firmrock Castle, mentioning that his fiancee Katrina had successfully awakened her battleforce. Howard was completely overjoyed and brought Katrina to Maplewoods Bastide with him to see the newborn child of Irina.

On the 24th day of the 5th month, the three allied families and the three Dina women all went to Northsea. It was on that day when Lorist started his journey there to meet up with them. After that, all of them boarded a brand new merchant vessel bearing the same name as the port city and sailed towards Morante.

Northsea was a brand new large-class, long-distance merchant vessel. The only difference between it and other common ships of that class was that it was designed to transport people, with emphasis on providing a speedy and comfortable journey instead of transporting more cargo. She had received the best features possessed by traditional merchant ships while also having a luxuriously decorated inner cabin. Lorist was prepared to have a few more similar ships built so that he could use them as ferries from Silowas to Northsea.

After boarding the Northsea, Lorist was successively bedded by the three Dinas. Dilianna wanted to give birth to Lorist's child as soon as possible so that she can have a decent standing in the house. Arriotoli on the other hand was rather irritated at the fact that Lorist's only concubine, Irina, had given birth to two of his sons that were both drafted into the family registry of the Nortons. There was no doubt that the mother and sons had rather high statuses in the house. Even if Lorist were to take an official wife, that concubine could rely on her two sons to maintain her status. Even though Arriotoli's wish was to become the first female knight of the Dina house, that did not stop her from venting her frustrations on Lorist in bed.

As for Fennazali, the second Dina mistress, all she wished for was for her to be able to keep living her current life. She did not have any lofty ambitions, wanting only to live a good and comfortable life, and becoming Lorist's woman was one of the easiest methods to achieve that. Thus, she laid with Lorist, albeit shyly, during her first time. As her aunt Dilianna was there to help her, she did not suffer much during her first experience and smoothly became Lorist's lover as she had wished.

Arriotoli did not have much thoughts about her younger sister's decisions. After one of their tiring rounds of bedsport, she warned Lorist not to treat her sister ill in any way. Lorist merely snickered and said, "Rather than looking out for your sister, you should worry about yourself. I haven't had enough yet."

The Dina mistress retorted stubbornly, "Hmph, bring it on!", before she took on 'Demon Lord Lorist' alone and ended up turning into putty after the whole affair, causing her to have to rest for two whole days in bed.

When the ship passed Sidgler Province of the Madras duchy, Count Kenmays eyed the Platinum Beach enviously. That was the only famous tourist spot along the Cursed Coast of the former Krissen Empire. Nowadays, travel there had been forbidden by the decree of Duke Madras, which was a huge waste of potential in the count's eyes.

Count Kenmays scrutinized the beach like he would a family heirloom. Platinum Beach was the widest beach at the empire with its sands fine as grain and white as jade. When sunlight covers the beach, it would give off a sparkling sheen, which was probably the origin of the place's name.. The seas over there were the deepest blue, with lots of priceless and rare fish and corals at shallow waters. It was the number one spot for a retreat for centuries when the empire still existed.

However, Duke Madras betrayed the empire and occupied that place for himself. For decades, Platinum Beach had been sealed off apart from the few occasions when the duke came over for a trip. Count Kenmays said with regret that it was a shame that Duke Madras did not have any business sense. If Platinum Beach was in the control of the Kenmays house, he would definitely develop it into a tourist spot that would easily earn its weight in gold back.

Twelve days later, Northsea arrived at Silowas. Lorist brought his three friends to survey the Firmrock Legion that was stationed at the island and also organized a grand banquet. Count Kenmays, being an adept businessman from a family with a long-running background in the field, quickly grasped the importance of Silowas. He told Lorist that with both The Northlands and Silowas, the Norton house was definitely on its path to prosperity. However, the Kenmayses were located at the eastern part of The Northlands, so they would not be able to take part in trade through the ocean, which would no doubt be one of the post profitable activities to engage in during a time of peace.

Lorist brought Count Kenmays to Jillin Harbor for a survey trip and expressed his intention to develop it into a trading hub that could allow for the expansion of trade routes to the Redlis kingdom and the center of the Andinaq kingdom.

Baron Fenston was a little at loss at how to deal with Lorist, as he was a noble that had been excommunicated by the kingdom. While he did not know exactly how he should receive Lorist, he would definitely not dare to chase him away. In the end, the baron struck a compromise and received Lorist as he would a noble from the Union, complete with throwing a customary welcoming banquet and praising Lorist's notion of developing the harbor into a trading hub, expressing his complete support.

However, the baron did not call the shots when it came to Jillin Harbor. The second royal defense legion still remained there, led by a noble of the kingdom, who was also a gold-ranked knight that had witnessed Lorist kill Viscount Aslan right in front of the second highness and defeat the arrogant blademaster in the process. He had also heard about Count Aslan's defeat and death, so he chose to feign ignorance about Lorist's presence at the harbor. As long as the Norton house did not occupy the place, he would be willing to shut an eye or two.

After staying at Jillin Harbor for two days, Lorist returned to Silowas. Just before he was going to leave for Morante, a messenger from the Andinaq kingdom hurried to Silowas. That messenger was sent by Marquis Reid, carrying a letter that stated that if Lorist was willing, he could take Queen Carey as his wife and be made prince consort, which would also come with the enfeoffment of Jillin Harbor. Through that method, Lorist would be able to once again be included in the ranks of the nobles of the Andinaq kingdom.

While Lorist was tempted by the offer of Jillin Harbor, he was not the least bit interested in Queen Carey. The queen was beautiful, no doubt, but Lorist's memories of her whorish behavior was not the least bit fond. Perhaps, most nobles would be more than proud to be married to a queen, and perhaps even tolerant or ignorant or who the queen sleeps with, but there was no way in hell Lorist would be willing to take a wife like her. Being partly influenced by the ideals of his past life, he would not be willing to be on the side of the cuckolded.

Even though Arriotoli and her aunt Dilianna had participated in the paradise gathering a number of times and had no doubt had sexual relations with several men before, they were rather frank about it and stopped going to those gatherings after getting to know Lorist. Not only that, they returned to their home and waited patiently for him for two whole years. Based only on that, Lorist felt that they were much cleaner than Queen Carey. There was also the fact that they were only his concubines, not his actual wife.

Lorist still recalled hearing a rumor about the queen during his attendance of the banquet organized by Baron Fenston. It was said that she frequently laid with her ministers and based her decisions on the policies of the kingdom on those interactions. Rumor has it that she listened to the minister that pleased her the best in bed. That was probably the main reason male aphrodisiacs were rising in price at the imperial capital. Lorist felt that Queen Carey was definitely comparable to the queen of the Iblia kingdom in their frivolous demeanors.

Shaking his head, Lorist did not even bother to pen a letter of refusal to the offer and instructed the messenger to be sent back to the ferry. After that, he left for Morante on Northsea with his three allies and the three Dinas.

Lorist felt quite safe traveling to the Union right now as he did not feel any threat from the kingdom. The main reason for that was the current queen's signing of the peace treaty with the kingdom. Other than that, he was no longer considered an Andinaq noble, but a rogue one. Additionally, his house had already achieved peace with the Chikdors, so there was no need for any unnecessary conflict to arise. Had it not been for those facts, Lorist would not have risked bringing those three country bumpkins with him to the big city.

On the 11th day of the 7th month of Year 1775, Lorist once again set foot on Morante. It has already been ten years since his departure from the great city after receiving the summons from his household.

Chapter 307 The Plight of Dawn Academy

The span of ten years passed swiftly as the wind. Lorist slowly stepped into Dawn Academy, looking at the various familiar sights while soaking in nostalgia. For the rest of the day, Count Kenmays, Baron Felim and Baron Shazin would be bringing their female family members to shop around at Rotary Street, the most prominent shopping street in the city. The three Dinas had also tagged along, whereas Howard had been allowed leave to spend some time with his fiancee. Lorist refused the offer to join in and said that he had other affairs to deal with, leaving the guards with the three Dinas while he left alone to visit Academy Head Levins and Blademaster Claude.

What made Lorist wonder was how the academy did not change one bit from how it looked ten years ago. He recalled that the glass production method that he gave to the academy head to auction off proceeded successfully according to a newspaper he had read. The academy should have received lots of money as a result. But why did the academy not expand one bit? It had remained the same all this time.

It was then when Lorist realized that the academy that used to be crowded and busy was currently empty like a ghost town. Seeing people dressed in student attire and wearing a badge was uncommon at best. Even if there were people, they would merely pass through in a hurry, making the academy seem all the more empty than usual.

The greyish-green tower looked more worn down as time passed. Even though it was still technically complete, Lorist felt that it was barely holding on, ready to collapse at any moment.

Academy Head Levins was incredibly surprised at Lorist's visit. The 70-year-old man already had liver spots manifesting on his face, with the condition of his body gradually deteriorating. Lorist was dressed in a long-sleeved shirt in the mildly warm weather of the 7th month, but Academy Head Levins merely sat atop a chair wrapped in a fine-wool blanket.

"Little Locke, I didn't think you would come all the way here to visit me," Levins said with obvious effort as he pulled on the rope beside him, causing a chubby maidservant to show up, whom he instructed to boil some water and call for Blademaster Claude to come over.

"There's no need for such pleasantries, academy head. Why has your health degraded so quickly? I remember seeing you just two years back and you looked rather vigorous back then," said Lorist.

"Well, this is what happens when one ages. It's about time I return to the heavenly kingdom of Singwa," Academy Head Levins joked, "Little Locke, I bet you didn't expect Dawn Academy to be closing down soon..."

"What did you say?!" Lorist exclaimed with shock, "Academy head, what's going on? Is the academy lacking funds? If that's the case, I can sponsor the academy and help it persevere through this trial."

"Money? Hehe, Dawn Academy has more money than anything else. The academy has never amassed such a large fortune before in its history. The treasuries underground are filled with gold," Levins said with a chuckle that carried with it a tinge of frustration and regret, "Little Locke, the glass production method and recipe you have given us netted us almost two million gold FOrdse, enough for the development of the academy for the next decade to come. I had wanted to make Dawn Academy one of the top three academies in the whole of Morante, but the coming of the War of Glass and the implementation of the nobility system brought with them unpredictable consequences. The Forde Trade Union used to be deeply entwined with the tens of nations that neighbored it. We touted freedom, openness, and peace, that caused guests from all over to flock here and enrich us. The academy sector at Morante was the haven for scholars...

"But the implementation of the nobility system and the War of Glass destroyed everything. This is an unprecedented and historical setback. Not only did the Union betray the ideals of its founder, Duke Forde Morante, by splitting its subjects into multiple classes of citizens, it also implemented the nobility system which was nothing but divisive.

"Even though the Union has become the nation with the largest territory on the continent, even larger than what the Krissen Empire had been at its peak, the Moranites who were cheering gleefully didn't realize the significance of that which they have lost!

"Formerly, the Union was allies with its neighbors, allowing its trade routes to span nation after nation. All the other nations were welcoming to us merchants and admired our proud history of resisting the Krissen Empire for more than a century. But now, we have taken the place of the Krissen Empire and stretched our filthy hands towards the allies that had helped us out in the past! Broken relationships and trade routes soon followed with the inevitable treatment of the Union as a common enemy by the neighboring nations!

"During the last month, there was a fool at the council of the Union that pushed for even more expansion of our military power so that we can use the might of the Union forces to crush the nations that cut off our trade routes. He said that since money isn't working, we should just use our fists. To think that there would be people who actually supported his motion...

"This is the result of letting merchants run a nation. They lack foresight; their tunnel vision only see the short term profits in front of them. Even if they don the luxurious mantle of nobility, their bones still reek of the stench of vultures seeped in rot and decay. All that is reflected in their eyes are gold coins. They actually think that the Union has finally achieved superpower status without thinking about how long they can keep this situation up! Cough... cough..." Perhaps because of the intensity of his emotions, the old man broke into a coughing fit.

Lorist hurriedly gave his back some patting to ease the old man's coughing.

Academy Head Levins had Lorist push his wheelchair towards the window before he spent some effort to open it and said, "Little Locke, back during the year when you were an instructor here, our academy was so merry. Swarms of people went from one place to another, filled with the vigor of life. Do you recall how many students we had back then?"

Lorist gave it some thought and replied, "I think Charade told me before that more than nine thousand students were registered here at the academy."

"That's right, the students were that numerous back then. It was so noisy that my head would hurt. Funny how that memory is actually pleasant to me now," said Levins as he closed his eyes to reminisce on days long gone.

After a few moments, Lorist heard the old man whisper, "Little Locke, did you konw... Last year, there were only 1400 or so registered students, with only 74 of them being new entrants..."

"What?! There's no way that's possible!" said Lorist. After all, Dawn Academy was ranked number eight among the other academies. There was no way there would be so few people enrolling.

"I forgot to tell you one main thing. All 74 students are citizens of the Union, with more than half of them being Moranites. Also, the total enrollment count of all academies ranked first to third is 325. Our Dawn Academy has fared quite well relative to them. Do you remember Saint Marceau Academy? They only got eight new students last year."

"What you're saying is..." mused Lorist as he began to grasp the situation.

"Last year, of the 27 academies in the academy sector of Morante, four shut their doors for good. Eleven others followed suit during the 5th month of this year. I believe that our Dawn Academy will be joining them during the next year... Sigh..." said the academy head exasperatedly as he sat back down.

"There are no more students," mumbled Lorist.

"That's right. There are no more students, meaning that academies are no longer necessary. During the joint academy council this year, it was suggested that only the three top-ranked academies be allowed to operate, with the other academies absorbed into them. That's why, whether Dawn Academy has money or not, we won't be able to continue operating. Us shutting down next year is already certain. Without new students, there is no point for the academy to exist," said Levins with a bitter laugh.

The academy sector of Morante has always been accepting of people from all over the continent. No matter the nation, as long as one fulfilled the admission criteria, one would be allowed to enroll to further their studies. In all 27 academies of Morante, the students from the Union itself amounted to less than ten percent of the student population; most of the student body comprised of people from all over the continent. Naturally, most of them were descendants of nobles or rich families, but there were quite a number of studious commoners that worked and studied at the same time. It was because of them that the academy sector of Morante gained so much prestige as the holy land for learning.

"Would the Union actually become a new superpower with just a single War of Glass and the implementation of the nobility system? What a load of bull! All I know is that it's ruined the academy sector, all 24 academies within it! Nobody ever comes here to study again. The trade routes are no more and the various faiths are deteriorating. No one wants to come to Morante ever again. The various students we have raised are now enemies with the Union.

"Did you know, Little Locke? Back when the Union's army forcefully annexed the lands of the seven other nations, the Moranites actually cheered to no end while the citizens of the occupied nations cried and despaired. At that time, even more students within the academies from many other nations packed up and left the Union...

"With the war over, all participants received benefits. The Union organized a marvelous entitlement ceremony and handed out titles and dominions. But nobody was aware of the fact that the Union had already stood on the opposing side of the nations surrounding us. Nobody would ever consider the Union as an ally ever again. Instead, they would ally up among themselves and resist the Union like we did against the Krissen Empire so many years ago.

"I had refused the title of the baron the Union entitled to me, as well as the dominion at Callisto Hills. My greatest wish is to make this academy flourish and become one of the best the continent has to offer. However, it is all no more. What use would a title or dominion be?" complained the academy head.

"Academy head, this is all my fault. I shouldn't have gave you the two letters to auction off. If that didn't happen, the War of Glass would never have occurred. I was the one who has doomed Dawn Academy," said Lorist with deep regret. There was no worse thing he could do than to ruin the lifelong dream of a dying old man.

Back then, he had given the letters to be auctioned off to cause friction between the Union and the Teribo kingdom and turn the Union's sights away from the territory that used to belong to the Krissen Empire. That would also allow his household to develop Silowas with lesser pressure. After all, facing only the Chikdor Merchant Guild was far easier than facing the whole Union.

Never would he have expected that the two letters would cause such a huge chain reaction, resulting in an all-out war between the Union and the Teribo kingdom. Even though most of it was due to the simple-mindedness of Teribo VII, who involved seven other nations in a war of eradication that could have been settled diplomatically, that result was far beyond what Lorist had predicted. Currently, Dawn Academy was naught but an unfortunate casualty of all that had transpired.

"This has nothing to do with you," Levins said while shaking his head, "You acted with good intentions to give the academy funds it needs to develop. It's a shame that things happened beyond our imaginations. All of us didn't think that the Teribo kingdom would actually use such extreme measures, causing the whole situation to dissolve into mindless chaos beyond our control. Add to the fact that the Union wanted to start having a nobility system, which riled up the ambitions of many lying in wait, it was no surprise that things cascaded far more than we thought it would. The responsibility of the state of affairs is not yours, so don't feel burdened by it."

Lorist lightly pushed the academy head back to his office desk and made some macks with the water that had just boiled for him. He still remembered that the academy head liked it straight without milk or sugar.

A knocking could be heard before Blademaster Claude entered the room.

"Eh? Locke, when did you arrive?"

"Only just now. I had a talk with the academy head about the current state of the academy."

"You already know all about it?"

Lorist nodded and said, "Instructor Claude, how many people are left in Dawn Academy? Also, what plans do you have with Instructor Anfya?"

Claude took a deep breath before he said, "Well, what plans could we have? Both Anfya and I don't wish to leave Dawn Academy. As the academy head doesn't have any children, it is up to us to take care of him. Even if the academy closes down the next year, we will continue to remain here. Perhaps, in the future, we will have another opportunity to rebuild the academy. Most of the instructors have already left the academy, with only less than ten remaining teaching two classes that are about to graduate this year. When that happens, Dawn Academy would no longer have any students."

Lorist fell into deep thought for a good moment before he looked at Levins and said, "Academy head, did you hear this saying before? 'Rooted trees die in a fire; humans simply walk away'. Since Morante is no longer able to support Dawn Academy, why don't you just move it away to another nation?"

Blademaster Claude laughed out and said, "Locke, things are not that simple. It's not like we haven't considered our options. Not one of the neighboring nations are willing to allow an academy from Morante to move over to their lands. Saint Marceau Academy had already tried asking around and received only refusals. Starting an academy is not something that can be decided by the words of only one. We still require land, buildings, and lots of funding on an annual basis. Small nations won't be able to sustain that kind of cost, and neither are they willing to bear a burden like that."

"Then, will you be willing to head to The Northlands? Start an academy in my dominion. We can move the whole of Dawn Academy there. Leave the land, buildings, and funds all to the Norton house. Not only that, we will also give research grants so that you only have to focus on conducting lessons and research. All the academy has to provide is capable and talented researchers. Those who wish to head to The Northlands will receive beneficial treatment; I will provide those instructors with comfortable residences and not inconvenience them one bit," offered Lorist sincerely.

"Hehe, Little Locke, this has nothing to do with you. Don't put the matter of Dawn Academy on your mind and try to make it up to us," Levins said as he shook his head, "The Northlands is rural and only has a small population. How many people there would actually come enroll in our academy? We would only just be a burden on your house. I think it's best we forget it."

It was now Lorist's turn to laugh. "Academy head, you look down on The Northlands and the House of Norton far too much. Merely the population within our own dominion number around 1.2 million, all of whom live decent, prosperous and stable lives. We already have Nico Academy within our dominion, which was launched by the daughter of the famed scholar of the former empire, Lady Nico Albess. They don't take in many students given their stringent admission requirements, so the dominion still requires a more general-purpose academy. If Dawn Academy is willing to move over, I believe there will be lots of room for development.

"As for funding, that is not something you have to worry about either. You should know that my house has mobilized our troops against the Hanayabarta kingdom and successfully eradicated it. The wealth we obtained there is enough for the house to sustain development for more than two decades. Taking a small chunk out of that annually is definitely no burden to the house. Perhaps, for the first few years, the students will only number around the hundreds, but I believe that the academy will definitely grow far more as time passes.

"Of course, you don't have to take my word for it. How about this, when I head back to the dominion, you can send someone to come with us to check the situation there out for yourself. The trip back will take two months at most. Will that be alright?"

Academy Head Levins and Blademaster Claude gave each other looks before nodding. "Little Locke, since you already made your offer, do inform us when you want to head back. I will send someone to go with you. Thank you for this."

"It's my pleasure, academy head. I have always been a member of Dawn Academy after all."

Chapter 308 Nostalgia

After finishing their discussion to send people to check out The Northlands with Academy Head Levins and Blademaster Claude, Lorist talked to them more about the condition of the Union before taking his leave. He did take a stroll around the academy sector and found that the academy head's words rang true. More than half of the academies there had already closed down, with only a few people left behind to guard the premises.

Even the food street at the sector that used to be full of students was incredibly quiet. Many shops were closed down with signs hung outside indicating that they were up for rent.

So, is this what the butterfly effect is about? thought Lorist as he stroked his chin. The two letters containing the secrets of glass production were like the wings of a butterfly that ushered in one of the largest changes on the whole of Grindia -- the rise of the Union into the largest nation on the continent ever to exist. Despite that, all that was only on the surface. From within, it did not look so good.

To Lorist, that result should have been ideal. It had given him the opportunity to take in the eighth-ranked academy on the whole of the continent into his dominion. Not only did the academy hold a special place in his youth, its establishment in The Northlands would raise the educational standards of the citizens there. Lorist was considered to be rather emphatic about the importance of basic education, given the number of basic learning centers he had opened within the dominion. If Dawn Academy does move to The Northlands, it would fill out yet another educational void.

The more Lorist thought about it, the more excited he got. He decided that he would support them in terms of both land and funding to ensure that their venture to The Northlands was a success. Even though the dominion looked rather prosperous, it was still in its initial development stage and still lacks any notable talent. Thinking back at the small number of literate officials he hired over the years, Lorist could not help but feel troubled.

By the time Lorist realized that he had walked aimlessly while immersed in deep thought, he found himself in a rather familiar place. Oh, I know, this place is two streets away from the mercenary guild. Back then, I would go there often to take up missions. Perhaps, I should go there for old times' sake.

The mercenary guild was quiet as expected. Lorist took a look around and did not find a single person he recognized. One round-faced female clerk came over to ask Lorist what he needed, making him reflect back at the indifferent attitudes of female clerks at the guilds so many years ago. Back then, the guild was filled with people to the point that one could not quite hear each other. Nowadays, all that occupied the hall were three cats. It was no wonder the clerk was so eager and sincere.

Lorist waved his hand and entered the hall, ordered a cup of ale at the bar and began sipping. Back then, every time after he completed a mission, he would get some drinks with friends and listen to the other mercenaries spout their tall tales and experiences. The bar was filled with mercenaries back then and the price of ale was rather high due to the demand. Even so, the mercenaries did not hesitate to get a good drink after a mission.

Now, however, only Lorist sat among the dozen tables in the hall, enjoying his drink alone. The round-faced clerk looked intently at Lorist, perhaps because of how relaxed Lorist look and the rarity of his long-sleeved robe. Maybe she thought that Lorist was there to submit a mission request to the guild. After all, one wearing clothing embroidered with platinum patterns around the sleeves' cuffs would definitely not be a rough mercenary. The price of the robe Lorist donned would be worth a month of busywork for the clerk.

Lorist raised his cup towards her and said, "Lass, you're making me embarrassed with your intent stare. Should I treat you to a drink?"

The young clerk blushed before she turned around and pretended not to hear Lorist's flirtatious comments.

Ah, at least it's better than before in this regard. Back then, anyone who flirted with the clerks would be rushed out by the guards of the guild. Lorist had seen his fair share of people getting into fights over the most trivial of things like that.

A mercenary in his fifties rushed into the guild hall noisily, submitted a mission report, before clutching a few silvers and heading towards the exit.

"Hey, Brother Gudd, where are you rushing to? Come here, let me treat you to a drink," greeted Lorist with a smile. That middle-aged man was one of his acquaintance who was a two star silver rank. During one of the man's missions, he had fallen rather gravely injured. While he recovered in time, the time it took to do so harmed his body and caused his battleforce to no longer be able to progress. So, he could only work as a low-ranked mercenary. Lorist recalled when he made and sold rucksacks that Gudd was one of the people who supported his business quite well, being a trustworthy and decent man. He even joined in on several missions with Lorist and Charade and taught Lorist many of the tricks of living the mercenary lifestyle.

The middle-aged man stopped in his tracks, looked at Lorist and said gingerly, "You are?"

"Hehe, Brother Gudd, have you forgotten me? I'm Lorist. Locke, remember?"

"Aha! So it's you, Brother Locke!" the middle-aged mercenary mused with joy, "Long time no see. It must've been ten years already. I really didn't think that I would see you over here. Back then, you became a legendary figure in Morante and the last I heard about you was how you were returning to your dominion to inherit the title and the land. I never thought that we would have a chance to meet again."

Lorist stood up and hugged the man warmly before ordering him a cup of ale.

The middle-aged man gulped his drink down, wiped the froth off his mouth and said, "Ah, it's still the same familiar taste. It's just a shame that I haven't been able to drink like that for more than half a year."

Lorist laughed and said, "Don't hurry. You can drink all you want. Boss! Can we have two more cups please? It's my treat, Brother Gudd, so make sure to drink to your heart's content."

"Thanks, Brother Locke. You're generous as usual," said the mercenary. He was not about to hold back either, finishing what remained of his cup of drinks. Lorist pushed the drinks that just arrived before the huge man.

"Well, why did you show up here today? Are you here because you have a mission request for the mercenaries?" asked the man.

Shaking his head, Lorist said, "Well, it's nothing important. I came to Morante for a trip a few days ago and thought back to the past. I still remember that I have a mercenary badge here, so I came over to hang out for a bit and have some of that good old ale. But I didn't thank that this place would become so desolate. It's completely different from the crowded hall I remember. Fortunately, I was able to meet you here, so my visit wasn't in vain."

"Sigh," Gudd muttered before taking a few more gulps, "Brother, we're still rather lucky. Good thing you came over here right now, because it will be closing down in the next year. There is no more mercenary guild. I, on the other hand, lucked out from being able to meet you and getting treated to some delicious drinks."

Gudd burped and said, "The mercenary guild no longer has any future in the Union. Brother, I bet you didn't expect that mercenaries will be gone completely from the Union. Well, even if some remain, they definitely won't be around Morante. There are no missions for us to do here, and even if there were, it's not something we can handle. At the subterranean caverns within the Urubaha duchy that's now the dominion of the Chikdor Merchant Guild, a new mercenary will be formed to facilitate expeditions into those caverns. I heard that the pay there is rather good. Most of the independent mercenaries have moved over there."

"Oh? The closing of the guild? What's with that? Wasn't the Union known as the nation of mercenaries? What happened to all those mercenary bands and the tens of thousands of mercenaries?" asked Lorist curiously.

"Nation of mercenaries? Haha, every mercenary has already gone their own way. Most of them have pledged their service to nobles. Did you know, Locke, the leaders of the top ten mercenary bands have all received a noble title, with the weakest of them being a viscount. The others are mostly counts. The leader of the fourth-ranked mercenary band called the Dragon's Talon, Lexinba, was even made a duke. He really lucked out over there. All mercenary bands have already dissolved, with most of the lackeys of the band leaders becoming knights. The lowest of them even have jobs as garrison soldiers.

"Did you know that the Union gave out 451 titles all in one go? Those who were capable were also enfeoffed land and the mercenaries that remained were recruited by nobles to become knights. Only less than a hundred of us mercenaries are left who all don't feel like lowering our voices and bowing our heads to others and only want to rely on ourselves to make a good living. Even so, I only got a large silver and three small silvers after working for half a month. I won't be able to feed my family with that, given the ridiculous prices of things lately," complained Gudd.

"No way, that's too many titles," Lorist mused with shock, "But at least that means that there is no more competition for missions, is there? Isn't that a good thing?"

"A good thing my ass!" Gudd yelled, "Back then, the merchant guilds in the Union from the neighboring actions would come over frequently to lodge requests with us. Everyone got their share of work. But now that the trade routes are no more, mercenary requests have gone with it. We have no choice but to secretly cross the borders for missions, and those who are captured would be either whipped or be accused of being a spy and hanged without trial.

"And that's not even the worst of it. We could just not take missions from other nations. However, there are only few missions left that originate from within the Union. Apart from the Falik Plains, every other piece of land of the Union has become the dominion of someone. If anything happens over there, they would just send people from their household to deal with it instead of lodging a request over here., The worst of it is how mercenaries like us have to pay a toll to cross into their dominions for a mission..."

Gudd downed a few more gulps, wiped his mouth, before pointing his finger at the guild and saying, "Brother, do you remember the boss of this guild, that old bastard Schlok? Even that stingy freak got made a viscount, with his dominion located within the territory formerly belonging to the Teria duchy.

"The mission I just finished was from within that bastard's territory. I hunted for a rabbit in the wilds for sustenance like the old times only to be caught by one of that man's subordinates who claimed that the firewood and prey I got was the property of their dominion and asked for reparations, forcefully taking two large silvers from me. Had I not said that I was on a mission from the guild, they would have paraded me around in public as a criminal too."

It appeared that some merchants had far fewer standards than most nobles. No matter how frugal a noble was, they would at least care about their reputation. But all merchants worried about was how much coin they had. Lorist wondered how much the citizens would be left with should a merchant noble apply their business practices on them. But there was nothing he could do about it apart from sympathizing with them.

"What are you going to do in the future, then?" asked Lorist. He knew that Gudd already settled down and had two sons and a daughter. When he left Morante, Gudd's children were only four to five years old, with the daughter being a newborn. His eldest son was only aged around 15 right now, living in a most troubled time.

Gudd said with eyes full of grief, "I don't really know. There's no more point in being a mercenary. Perhaps, I will work as the guards of those merchant guilds. All I need is a salary that I can raise my family with."

Lorist got up and stuffed a gold Forde note into the despairing man's pouch. Gudd was already half asleep, given that the ale he just finished was his seventh cup.

"My gift to your son is inside your pouch. Take a look at it when you get back. If Morante is no longer the place for you, you can come to The Northlands to look for me. Just go to the Peterson Merchant Guild and say that you're a friend of mine and they'll send you and your family to my dominion promptly."

Following that, Lorist got Gudd a carriage and told the coachman his address. He also paid for the fare and was confident that the family of the mercenary would take care of the rest after that.

When he went back inside the guild, Lorist told the round-faced clerk, "Get the person in charge over here. I want to purchase the Burning Blood Battleforce."

At least, that will be a good souvenir for my visit to Morante. Lorist still remembered that he once thought the hereditary battleforce of his house to be a fire attribute one. After he lost contact with his house and was unable to obtain a copy of the silver-ranked section of his technique, he spent lots of money purchasing many other fire attribute high-ranked battleforce manuals, only to realize that they were completely different from the technique of his house. After that, he bought many other manuals of different attributes but was still unable to continue his training. In the end, he started to work on the Aquametal Technique of his past life in desperation and ended up becoming Iron Locke, the Silver Undefeated.

The Burning Blood Battleforce was one of the most precious treasures of the guild, being priced at 15 thousand gold Fordes. It was one of the most expensive manuals in the whole of Morante. While Lorist did have an interest in the manual, the price was a little too high for him back then. Other than that, he did not even consider that his technique would be a blood attribute one. In retrospect, if he had purchased that battleforce manual, he could probably have broken through to the silver rank and would not ending training in the Aquametal Technique.

If Lorist had went down that path, he would not be able to fight enemies beyond his abilities and had to train slowly from the silver rank to the gold. Maybe he still would not become a blademaster even at his current age. The Norton house would not be as prominent as a result, unlike how mighty and prosperous it was in reality.

Lorist decided to buy that book because of what it could have meant to him. With 30 thousand gold Fordes on his person, that manual did not strike him as being too expensive. The person in charge had wanted to recommend a few more high-ranked battleforce manuals to Lorist, only to be rejected. Currently, the House of Norton had hundreds of different kinds of high-ranked battleforce manuals and that was more than enough to be awarded to the household knights. The extermination of the Hanayabarta kingdom alone netted them more than 50 manuals, so there was no point in buying extra copies of them. The Burning Blood Battleforce was different in that it was the second blood attribute the household had, apart from the Crimsonblood Battleforce which was passed down in the house for generations. The extra manual would serve as a good reference for his descendants for their training.

After leaving the guild, Lorist called for a carriage and headed to Selliguea District to see the crimson four-storey building. Lorist still remembered the girl that danced naked in the moonlight. It was her who had let him experience the wonders of first love and made him a man. Similarly, it was also her who had caused him heart-searing pain. Seeing her leave with another man was ever so disheartening an experience to recall.

Faced with the old building that was filled with rooms for rent, Lorist realized that he was much calmer than expected and was not shaken as he was before. There was only a fleeting feeling in his mind as he wondered how the girl that used to be the most important person in his life was doing.

Time flowed on, indifferent to the woes of man. At that moment, the memories that surfaced within Lorist's man was his finest and worst. The fairy-like girl and her two energetic maidservants were no longer there. Giving the crimson building one last look, Lorist sighed before he turned and walked into the alley.

The fruit stall at the opening of the alley was no more, replaced by a grocery shop. But the owner was still the sharp-tongued Uncle Girald, whose hair had whitened over the course of ten years. It seemed that his days were troubled ones as well.

Uncle Girald was surprised when he realized who Lorist was. He went on a long lecture about the changes to the area and people here, like the girl Lorist frequently bought fruit candies for, LIttle Loney, and how her grandmother passed away when she was ten. She had left the place with her father, who seemed to have become a knight of some duke.

Lorist chatted for almost an hour with Girald before he left, giving him a gold Forde note as a gift.

"Coachman, get me to Red Grace Inn," instructed Lorist.

Chapter 309 Dauslyke Hotel

Lorist and his allies stayed at the most famous hotel in Rotary street, Dauslyke, during their trip. It was one of the most luxurious establishments in Morante and was naturally the most expensive as well. Lorist did not want for funds, however, so he reserved the whole fourth floor to accommodate all of them.

Count Kenmays had brought two maidservants, four attendants, two household knights and ten guards with him. Baron Shazin brought all five of his concubines -- he did not exactly have a choice -- none of them were willing to give up the chance to go shopping in the Union's most prosperous city and begged to be brought along. Baron Shazin ended up being the one who had brought the most people along, a total of 24 people including the maidservants for his concubines, guards, and servants.

Baron Felim brought only one concubine and two maidservants, as well as his daughter Katrina and her four bodyguards. Lorist brought his two disciples, Reidy and Howard, Blademaster Shuss, Divine Marksman Josk, who had once again left his unit, as well as the three Dinas who were served by three maidservants and 20 guards. The whole group was 89 people.

Prior to the War of Glass, Dauslyke was the place where the foreign nobles who visited Morante would stay. There were always parties or balls being held, which provided an opportunity for the elites of the Union to mingle with the nobles and discuss business. Dauslyke was no longer as merry as it used to be. Lorist's group was one of the largest there.

When Lorist arrived at Red Grace, he was surprised to see Reidy sitting there with the owner, Charlando, drinking and chatting. Seeing Lorist approach, Reidy hurriedly stood up to greet him.

"Eh? Why are you here? What about the others?" asked Lorist.

"They have all returned to Dauslyke, Milord. I came over to see pops since I had some free time," answered Reidy.

As Lorist sat down, Charlando gave him a white-eyed look.

"Locke, now I really regret letting Els and Reidy follow you to The Northlands..."

Stunned, Lorist asked, "Why's that, old Char?"

"There were so many chances this time around... If Els were here, I would definitely get him to form a mercenary band and head to Teribo for a run. I bet he'd have returned with at least a viscounty to his name and could have become a noble right away. That would've been far better than going with you to the desolate Northlands fighting high and low," said Charlando before he sighed.

"Hehe, Reidy, do you regret following me?" asked Lorist without bothering with the old man.

Does that fellow really think that being a Union noble is that easy? Even though they gave out many titles, many of those are just for show. Apart from some who have always been regarded highly by the Union, such as Academy Head Levins, there is no doubt that the other entitled nobles made a bunch of other under-table dealings.

"Milord, I have never had an ounce of regret! Being able to follow you is my honor!" replied Reidy steadfastly.

Charlando pointed at Reidy and yelled, "You... To think that you've learned how to kiss ass! Look at yourself... You've followed him for ten years already... You were a two-star bronze rank back then, and now you're only a one-star silver rank! It's obvious that he neglected training you! Els only attempting to breakthrough to the gold rank now is only usual, since the dark attribute battleforce passed down in his family is harder than most. But for you, if you had stayed here at Morante, you would've already reached the peak silver rank and perhaps even broken through to the gold rank! After all, your constitution is far better than most normal people's!"

"I don't want to run the inn with you..." retorted Reidy.

"You... Stupid brat, pissing me off so much... Even though you've already botched your future, you still don't repent... I'm only worrying for your sake!"

"Hey, hey... old Char, how could you say that? What's that about me botching his future? Oh, I forgot to tell you that Reidy will stay at the one-star silver rank for good and won't be able to break through anymore. That's because he's training in my special technique, not battleforce. Even if you're a one-star gold rank, you are no longer Reidy's match." interjected Lorist.

"There's no way that's true! I'm a gold rank and he's a one-star silver rank. I can easily suppress him based on only the difference in rank. Come on, Reidy, have a match with me right this instant! If you lose, I won't let you follow him no more!" yelled Charlando, angered.

Reidy looked at Lorist helplessly.

"Go ahead, Reidy. Be sure to hold back."

Charlando's mood worsened even further when he heard Lorist's comment.

"Aren't you going to watch our match?" asked he.

"What's the point? The result was clear the moment you challenged him. My being here won't change anything," answered Lorist.

The old man turned and left, followed by Reidy. The match ended rather quickly; when Lorist just finished ordering some dishes from the maidservant of the inn, Reidy came back.

"How many strikes did it take?"

Reidy stretched out five fingers.

"Huh, five strikes? You need to work harder. I thought you would only need three," said Lorist, dissatisfied.

"That's not it," Reidy explained, "We had two matches. I defeated pops with two strikes in the first. He wasn't convinced and challenged me another time, which he lost after three strikes."

"Ugh," Lorist groaned before he turned to look at the rear of the inn.

Not seeing Charlando, he asked, "What about old Char?"

"He's sulking," said Reidy.

"I didn't mean that. What is going on with him tonight? He seems like he swallowed a whole barrel of gunpowder," said Lorist.

"He's embarrassed himself badly," Reidy laughed, "He had been gambling with maze cards at the old street. Just when he was in the heat of it, Madam Louise asked him to watch the two children when she went shopping. He agreed but didn't take it to heart. The kids drank alcohol secretly and ended up getting drunk. Madam Louise used an iron wok to pummel him quite a few times whilst he was still in the middle of the game and chased the other players away. She even had him kneel in the corner of the room and forbade him to leave while she brought her drunk children home."

Lorist could not help but laugh uncontrollably. Charlando had married Louise ten years earlier. Back then, he was still in rather good shape and managed to get Louise pregnant twice. He now had one ten-year-old and another seven-year-old. Perhaps because they were raised in an inn, the two children loved to drink and would do so the moment they were not supervised. Louise blamed it all on Charlando who had let them taste alcohol back when they were still feeding on nothing but milk.

But even Lorist did not expect Charlando to grow so fearful of his wife. The moment Louise's anger flared, Charlando would shrink up like a turkey about to be slaughtered. He completely lost the proud air of a gold-ranked swordsman.

"No wonder I felt the inn weird when I entered... Louise wasn't at the counter and I didn't hear the noise of the children," said Lorist.

"When I came in here, pops was kneeling in the corner over there. When I asked the maidservant what happened, he heard my voice and came over to vent on me. Fortunately, you came here in time. Otherwise, I would've been nagged to death..." sighed Reidy.

At that moment, the maidservant served the food Lorist had ordered.

"I guess we came at a wrong time. Let's leave after we finish the food. Help me eat some of this," said he.

"Alright, Milord," Reidy agreed as he poured Lorist a cup of blackcurrant wine, "Milord, we ran into some arrogant nobles when we were shopping at Rotary street just now. Some of them came over to flirt with the younger Dina sister and Baron Shazin's five mistresses. It ended with one of the nobles having a broken leg. The guy left barking some threats."

"Oh?"

Lorist was surprised that something like that could happen at Morante. Only an idiot would provoke or flirt with female nobles at Rotary street. He had never heard of something like that happening during his ten-year stay at Morante. However, given the number of new nobles that had just been entitled by the Union, Lorist supposed it was nothing surprising. Perhaps, they were the relatives of such nobles. Even after bearing a title, a merchant would always be a merchant, they lacked a sense of the proper etiquette and behavior expected of a noble.

"Alright, I doubt it'll be an issue. Next time, make sure to break all four of his limbs. If he doesn't learn, cut off his trouble-making member. House Norton doesn't have to tolerate such crap from anyone," said he, nodding.

Lorist and Reidy walked back leisurely after finishing their meal. About half an hour's walk later, they could see Dauslyke's facade behind a few buildings. The moonlight was rather bright and the majestic buildings along Rotary street looked all the more magnificent for it.

Eh? Something's wrong. Why are there so many people gathered in front of the hotel? Something is definitely going on.

Lorist and Reidy gave each other a look before they hastened on. They quickly arrived at the entrance and saw just over ten guards standing at the entrance. On the plaza opposite the hotel were hundreds of badly dressed mercenaries waving their weapons around, demanding the hotel hand over a murderer.

Reidy pulled Lorist along.

"I think those people are here for us, Milord."

"Oh? Then are they the men of that noble you guys broke the leg of earlier today? Did anyone die from the conflict?" asked Lorist.

"Haha, while we did break the noble's leg, he brought quite a number of guards with him. Even though a few guards were lightly injured, almost two-thirds of the rest had to be carried back. Even I don't know if there are any who were injured too badly and died before they could be helped," answered Reidy.

"Oh, so that's the case. Let's circle around and go in through the wall behind," suggested Lorist as he pointed at the walls surrounding the hotel.

Upon entering the hotel, Lorist met with the manager, a polite man who had greying hair. When he saw Lorist, the manager let out a breath.

"Sir, are you the one who got into a conflict with Marquis Bejisanro's son?" asked he politely.

"Marquis Bejisanro? What's the deal with that? That's not a noble surname at all," chortled Lorist.

The name was far too weird to be the name of a noble house.

It was common knowledge that there were two sources of family names on Grindia. One of them was hereditary, a name passed down from a heroic ancestor. For example, the Norton family name was translated to Raging Bear in the language of fairies. Another source was a given surname, a surname granted to a person from another of status, like Baron Shazin's. A name like Bejisanro meant 'lowest of the alley'. It was a typical commoner surname.

The manager was also embarrassed by a name like that. Being someone who had tended to many nobles from various nations, he was also well-informed about the names of noble houses. He had no choice in the matter, unfortunately. It was no surprise given the sudden entitlement of more than 400 nobles in the Union, many of whom did not really understand what it meant to be nobility and only thought they would be able to act as they pleased.

While a name like Bejisanro sounded rather unique, those who understood the history of nobles knew that names like that were used before the magi of the magical civilization invented Grindia's current lingua franca. Following the introduction of the new language, many surnames were made using the language of fairies for those of magical heritage. Names like Bejisanro denoted that their ancestors were of the lowest social class that were not given names in the new language.

However, it was a miracle in itself that a surname like Bejisanro managed to be passed down for so many generations. Currently, the chief speaker of the Union's sub-council was none other than Marquis Bejisanro. It was rumored that the man was one of the ones who advocated for brute force expansionism. He had pushed for the Union to use their invincible force to destroy the nations that cut off their trade routes. He even proposed for a 100-thousand strong army to be formed to teach the nations that were unwilling to submit to the Union a harsh lesson. That kind of brainless rhetoric was surprisingly welcome to Morante's commoners, however.

After the manager introduced the background of the marquis, Lorist snorted.

"This afternoon, our ladies were harassed by the son of that asshat of a marquis during their shopping trip. He dared to have his guards forcefully take our ladies away! This is ridiculous. Since when did Morante become such a lawless place? That was the reason we gave him a little lesson. I was just about to make a complaint to the Union. Are all the nobles of that bearing? What an embarrassment to the other noble houses on Grindia they are!"

The manager laughed awkwardly.

"Lord Count, the nobility system was implemented only recently. Some rough spots here and there are to be expected. I should let you know that even if you make a complaint now, it would be pointless. Marquis Bejisanro is the current chief speaker of the Union's sub-council and he wouldn't bother with the complaint at all."

"Doesn't the Union have another high council?" asked Lorist.

"Lord Count, the high council members are the presidents of the big seven guilds. They aren't in Morant any longer. They are in their own dominions, so Morante is controlled completely by the sub-council. That's why Marquis Bejisanro's son is so arrogant and even dares to harass noble ladies at Rotary street. It doesn't help that he is not fearful of causing trouble or conflict, given how his father is in the expansionist faction."

Good Sol, to think that the Union has their own version of fascist skinheads, thought Lorist, stroking his chin. He looked at the raging crowd outside on the plaza.

"So those people want you to hand us over?"

The manager nodded awkwardly.

"That's right. But don't worry, Lord Count, since you have chosen to stay at Dauslyke, we will guarantee your safety. We only hope that no other incidents occur during your stay here in the next few days, so I hope you will watch over your guards and make sure they don't provoke more conflict."

"Alright then, we'll just rest here for three days. If the marquis still doesn't let up by then, don't blame me for not giving them any more chances," said Lorist, revealing the slightest hint of killing intent.

Chapter 310 President Bejisanro

"Are the people from House Mireitas still not willing to let us into Dauslyke?" asked a fat man from the side to a tall and slim middle-aged man beside him as he used an intricate silver knife to cut into a juicy, fatty piece of beef.

"It is so, Lord Speaker," the middle-aged man replied with a bow, "Marquis Mireitas said that anyone who lives in their hotel is their guest, so those who cause trouble for guests are causing trouble for him. They are even willing to a conflict. They also sent for Blademaster Mike and 300 guards."

The fat man enjoying his meal was the chief speaker of the Union's sub-council, Marquis Bejisanro. He was currently the president of a rank eight merchant guild in the Union, the Rosanji Merchant Guild.

The Rosanji Merchant Guild controlled all the businesses relating to ale production. Following the War of Glass, the rising food prices had caused the price of ale to increase several times over. The guild had not just made a great profit from the situation but had captured a sizeable share of the market for wheat-related products.

As the personal attendant of President Bejisanro, the tall, thin middle-aged man knew his master's intentions: to control the Union's food market. This put them in direct competition with the Forde Merchant Guild, whose strength was in the food business. President Bejisanro wanted to occupy at least half of the Union's market.

Wandering bards had sung about the prosperity of the Falik Plains around Morante, but they had forgotten that the farmlands could not sustain a population of two million people. The Union had one million people living in Morante alone The seven other cities across the plains each had roughly 500 thousand citizens. Around 100 towns, villages and hovels dotted the plains as well. The most crucial factor was that many of the crops weren't edible.

The Forde Merchant Guild controlled Falik Plains and offered guarantees to their farmers that they would purchase their crop in exchange for being their exclusive dealers. Without the guild's permission, the farmers would not be able to sell their produce to other merchants. Within the monopoly, the farmers had to plant according to the requirements and choices of the guild, so their crops were usually those that had a higher price in the market, for instance, Falikean long rice. Other than that, the guild had to import large amounts of food to sustain the population.

However, apart from Falik Plains, the Union also controlled Callisto Hills. Compared to the plains, Callisto Hills was far more desolate and rural. The farmers planted mostly wheat, potatoes, and other foodstuffs. The guild did not care for crops that were not worth much, so the Rosanji Merchant Guild controlled all of Callisto Hills' produce and used them to make ale.

Many of the Union's alcoholics thought that the ale they drunk was brewed solely from the crops of Callisto Hills, but that was not the case. The guild imported food from different neighboring nations, most of it expired. Such wheat was not worth much and cost only around 30 gold Fordes per 5000 kilograms. Such wheat was occasionally used to brew ale instead of proper, more expensive, crops.

The War of Glass caught the Forde Merchant Guild completely off guard. They did not have much food stocked up, which lead to the sudden inflation of food prices in the Union. With the neighboring nations closing up their trade routes and putting embargoes on food products and many other goods that were of strategic significance, the guild could no longer purchase food even if they had the money for it. Even if they did manage to purchase some, there was no way they could ship it to the Union.

The Rosanji Merchant Guild fared a little better. The mossy wheat they dealt with was worth rather little, and they had also managed to close a rather large deal before the war ended. Of their purchase, they were able to transport 3 million Pors (1 Por = 50 kilograms) to Morante. As they were worried that the fact that half their shipment was old mossy wheat, the guild used a smuggling troupe to transport their goods and evade the Invincible Fleet's checks at Hidegold Bay. With the food in hand, along with their already existing stockpiles, the guild's president, Bejisanro, decided that the volatile nature of the market was the heaven-given grace that would give him a chance at controlling the low-tier food market. As for the high-tier foods, he would leave it to the Union.

While President Bejisanro was rather ambitious, he was no idiot and had never yearned for the seat of one of the big-seven. All these years, he had managed his guild with care to never step out of hand. His years of experience left him clearer the most on what befell guilds that encroached on the big-seven's interests. As the Union's chief speaker, he had never spoken against the big-seven's wishes. Even if he did not follow their instructions down to the letter, he never directly disobeyed them. He made sure the guilds never had a legitimate reason to kick him from his post.

However, in the nobility system, the president saw an opportunity to become a member of the high council. Since he could not replace any of the big seven guilds, he could ask for a promotion instead and have his seat on the high council. Even Duke Lormo managed to join the high council after he joined the Union; there was no reason President Bejisanro could not. It was especially the case given the good opportunity that had landed in front of his guild.

President Bejisanro opined that the Forde Merchant Guild, being the largest distributor of agricultural products in the Union, had made a crucial mistake. They had overlooked the food demand of Morante's population. Without enough food, its price would rise without fail. The Forde Merchant Guild had already become the target of criticism for many citizens, and this was a good opportunity for the Rosanji Merchant Guild to take control of Morante with the food stock they had in hand.

Add to the fact that the big-seven guilds were busy dealing with matters in their own dominions, the sub-council managed to become the highest power within Morante. Bejisanro drafted a simple plan to make use of his position as the head speaker for the sub-council. First, he would use the food his guild possessed to win the hearts of the Moranites and raise his reputation. He would simultaneously use the Moranites' adamant xenophobia and hatred for the closed-off trade routes to push a forceful foreign policy.

As long as he could pull off these two components of his plan, he could suggest the formation of a Union army in the next council meeting with the support of most of the other representatives from the second and third rate merchant guilds. The other smaller guilds had also been driven to the brink by the closed trade routes and were desperate to do something, anything, about it.

As for the citizens' representatives, they would not dare to object to his motion given the fiery rage of their constituents. In truth, Bejisanro's goal was not to launch a military campaign against the other nations but to obtain a standing army that answered only to the sub-council and was under his direct control as the council's head speaker.

With such an army in hand and his newfound reputation among the citizens, the big-seven would not be able to do much to the guild even if they turned their attention back to the city. By then, all he had to do was push for a seat on the high council and he would be formally inducted.

However, the incident he was currently trying to address posed quite the problem for him. His good-for-nothing animal of a son actually dared to flirt with noble ladies in broad daylight on Rotary street and even had his leg broken, not to mention the many injured guards. The president knew that his son had gotten what he deserved.

Hmph, does he really think that, just because I'm the chief speaker, he can do whatever he wants? If word of this spreads, it'll reflect horribly on me. The name of nobles within Morante would also be tainted all over the continent... The big-seven will definitely not let my son off lightly...

Fortunately for him, none of the big-seven were present at the moment, and, given the Union's isolated state, few nobles actually remained within the city. There was no need to worry that this matter would spread.

The offended party this time looks to be bumpkins from The Northlands, purchasing luxury goods here like they've never seen any in their life. They must be some low-class house that happened to earn a bit of money lately...

Bejisanro had already been informed in detail of the proceedings and knew well that it was his son's lust that had gotten him in trouble in front of so many people. Many shop owners had already expressed their displeasure, their sales to nobles had dropped as a result of the incident already.

Well, they're just a few nobles from the backwater Redlis anyway... No matter how rich they are, they can't afford to mess with the Rosanji Merchant Guild, can they? And with Iblia in its current condition -- its king captured and killed by Andinaq's king-- they are in an even worse spot.

The matter had been reported in the Morante Daily and many thought the capture of Second Prince Iblia was the result of Second Highness Auguslo's actions so that his father's burial would be followed by that of his traitorous brother.

I doubt anything will happen if I deal with these nobles.

Bejisanro already had a method in mind. First, he would compensate the shop owners at Rotary street for their lost business -- in essence, buying their silence. He would then spread rumors about how Iblian nobles had been causing trouble for the merchants and shops in the area and claim that his son had actually been trying to stop their disrespect, only to have one of his legs broken and have many of his guards killed or severely injured.

Since the matter could no longer be kept quiet, all he had to do was use the rich commonfolk's xenophobia and envy. All these years, Moranites had a sense of pride, of being above others, especially after the War of Glass had ended with more than half of Redlis' territory swallowed up and allowing the Union to become one of the largest nations on the continent. It had only served to reinforce their pride.

The entitlement of hundreds of nobles after the two conflicts further whetted the Moranites' appetite for a noble title. Thus the incredible outrage when the trade routes were cut off. This mentality and these attitudes were what allowed Bejisanro to garner the support he now had.

He had decided to deal with the ignorant Northlander nobles since no matter how useless his son was, he was still his flesh and blood. If he did not pursue the matter, surely he would become a laughing stock. Only by harshly teaching them a lesson would everyone shut up. There was a saying: 'a lie uttered a thousand times becomes a truth'. Similarly, if he did not 'punish' the Northlanders for what they had done, there would be a logical dissonance with the narrative of his son's heroic actions he was about to spin.

After finishing off the last piece of his beef, the fat man wore a calm expression on his face. He put down his utensils and used a white cloth to wipe his mouth.

"Hmm, House Mireitas dominates the Union's hotel business. Even though their guild is rather small, they are not to be overlooked easily, they are backed by too many powerful factions for that. We should give them face and only encircle their hotel to prevent those impudent nobles from leaving. Don't enter the hotel itself or step onto their grounds."

"Yes, Milord," the middle-aged man replied respectfully, "But whether they understand that we're showing them goodwill is still not certain. Others might also misunderstand that we are not acting because we fear their house. We cannot allow that to happen."

Bejisanro tossed the cloth away and snickered.

"Just because we're giving them face by not barging into the hotel doesn't mean they can act as they please. Didn't House Mireitas have Blademaster Mike moved to the hotel? He's only a rank 1 blademaster. We can simply send Blademaster Danhema to deal with him. I believe a rank 2 blademaster like him will be able to give Blademaster Mike some pressure. Additionally, send 500 guards over to intimidate them. Let's see who has more men under their belt."

The Rosanji Merchant Guild easily had far more military power than the other small guilds. They had hired three blademasters, one rank 2 and two rank 1s. As none of their blademasters were allowed to participate in the War of Glass, not a single one was injured or dead. The Rosanji Merchant Guild's force was almost comparable to the big-seven after the war. This gave the president more leverage to demand a position in the high council.

"Also, send some people to rile the commoners up to cause trouble for Dauslyke. Everyone who does so will get 2.5 kilograms of food every day. I'd like to see how long Dauslyke can continue shielding their guests. If a carriage leaves the premises, have the commoners check it. If the carriage won't allow us to check them, don't let it leave. I want to see whether House Mireitas has it in them to act against the commoners..."

"A wonderful plan, President," the middle-aged man praised, "I bet House Mireitas won't dare to touch the commoners."

"Hahaha, I think so too. If they do act against them..." Bejisanro said with a smile, "Well, it won't be pretty. All we have to do now is see whether House Mireitas will succumb to pressure or the Northlanders will finish spending their money during their stay at the hotel and be chased out. There's no rush. We can play with them for as long as we want."

"I believe after this matter your reputation in Morante," the man said as he brought his hand up in a thumbs-up gesture, "will be grand. I will have your instructions carried out right away. Please await the good news, Milord."

Chapter 311 Preparations

Sol, I brought my friends to Morante for fun, not to be trapped inside a hotel! This is ridiculous!

Lorist was currently on the hotel's fourth-floor balcony, watching the angry crowd that circled it.

That guy is far too sinister. He not only he spread lies, he also paid the various publications in Morante to spread word that this matter was because of us acting shamefully and harassing the merchants… He's spinning the story that his son was being heroic. Darn, to think the commoners would be completely fooled by a story with that many holes. I bet most of them were intentionally riled up by others to surround the hotel and call out for our deaths. And the numbers just keep growing after the Rosanji Merchant Guild said they would give 2.5 kilograms of food to any who attend, so even those who see the flaws in the story are willfully ignoring it... Guess I can't blame them for doing so since the Moranites don't have much to do nowadays anyway. There won't be a better deal than getting a few potatoes for a day of standing around...

At the very least, they're being very ordered about this and haven't come into the hotel at all. They're nothing more than a nuisance, honestly.

Lorist looked at the supply carriages stopped by the citizens. The coachman and some workers were suffering a harsh beating after saying something Lorist couldn't hear.

Sheesh, do they want us to die here? It's already been three days, and the situation grows direr by the day. Even with so many citizens surrounding the place, the hotel's carriages are still allowed to travel around, but not without being checked by the citizens.

Perhaps, the other merchants will stop supplying the hotel with food and other resources in a few more days to force the hotel management's hand.

Hidegold Bay Chronicles was a business-oriented publication that focused on trade and market prices but the headlines of the day read, 'Northland Barbarians Must Pay with Lives -- Restore Morantian Pride!'. The article that followed was filled with the seething arrogance the Moranites were so well known for and a hint of hatred and killing intent as if the arrival of the foreign nobles to their city was a sin in and of itself.

Very well, I'll remember you, Hidegold Bay Chronicles.

Lorist rolled the paper in his hands into a ball and tossed it into a trashcan nearby.

"What's wrong?" asked Count Kenmays, coming onto the balcony.

"I think there's more today," said he with a pale face, "What's going on with the Moranites? This is completely unlike what I expected them to be."

"Nothing," Lorist said, clicking his tongue, "Those that come all have something wrong with their heads! After the second highness' defeat and the occupation of much of Redlis following the War of Glass, the Moranites believe that the Union is the strongest nation on the continent and look down on everyone, even nobles. It must be due, in part, to their inferiority complex, given their mercantile background.

"Now that the Union has implemented the nobility system, many of them are nobles as well. It's like they've transformed. They've been given instant status above others. Their arrogance stems from thinking that a small title makes them nobles without question. Given how a matter like noble ladies being harassed in broad daylight can happen, it goes to show how low the character of the Union nobles is."

Count Kenmays nodded.

"'Tis true. You have no idea how shocked I was about the incident in Rotary street. House Bejisanro's young master actually dared to do what he did there. My first impression of their house is that they are noble imposters. No noble should ever behave that shamelessly, especially with how the young master ordered his guards to take the women away forcefully after his advances were refused. Heavens, is that something nobles are allowed to do?

"Even in messy Iblia, women of two noble houses with a death grudge would greet each other politely if they meet. That is the culture of nobility. I didn't think I'd actually run into something like this. How embarrassing this is for other nobles! I will definitely publicly refuse to acknowledge these fake nobles when I return home. Being associated with them as nobility feels so disgusting that I feel like puking."

Lorist chuckled.

Count Kenmays, aren't you from a mercantile family yourself? Then again, your father was given a title, if only honorary, in the last days of the empire. You were no doubt educated in the ways of nobility. It would explain your effortless integration into the society of proper nobility when you were given a fief.

"Do you think you can even make it back, my old friend?" Lorist said in an effort to give the count a scare, "Look at the crowd. They want to make us stay here and spread word of this matter according to their lies. Didn't you read the report in the newspapers yesterday? The one about how the heroic young master is still recovering from his broken leg?"

As he expected, Count Kenmays' face paled even more.

"Will... Will it really turn out like that? My friend, you aren't messing with me, are you?" asked he, jittery.

"Do you see the new guards that arrived this morning?" Lorist asked, pointing at the hotel's fully-armed guards on the ground below, "Dauslyke is one of the many businesses run by the House Mireitas. They've always controlled the hotel business in the Union. If they did not feel the situation was dangerous, would they have sent for 300 additional guards and another blademaster?

"You should be thankful that you're living in Dauslyke right now. It's your lifeline. House Mireitas won't allow any of their guests to come to any harm. They will guarantee your safety as long as you are in the hotel. Do you still think we're paying more than we should?"

"No, it's definitely worth every coin! I brought more than 100 thousand gold Fordes' notes with me. If all of us spend around 200 in total, we can stay here for a whole year. Let's see if those outside can afford to wait that long," said he, sighing in relief.

Lorist laughed bitterly, thinking, This fellow's going to use his money to slap others for the sake of his safety again... There's no way those outside will let us stay here for a whole year. Besides, even if you can stand being kept here for a year, others can't.

"How stupid can you be?" Lorist said, glaring at him harshly, "There's so much that needs to be done in my dominion. There's no way I'm staying imprisoned here with you! What we need to do now is think of a way to break out and leave Morante by ship. There are roughly 20 thousand people surrounding the hotel and I doubt it'd take much for them to become violent. Do you think those guards will be able to stop them?"

"You do have a point." agreed Baron Felim as he came to the balcony with Baron Shazin.

Looking at the dense crowd, Baron Felim said with a solemn look, "Brother Kenmays, you were away from the frontlines for the duration of the empire's civil war. You've never seen how scary a violent crowd can be. I have seen a crowd of tens of thousands of starving refugees barge into military camps that had 3000 or so soldiers. Even though half the crowd perished as a result, the gold-ranked and silver-ranked knights, and all the troops they led were completely wiped out.

"Locke, I've been paying attention to the crowd these two days. They're acting in an orderly fashion. Someone's organizing them. There are people that come and go almost like they're changing shifts. In the afternoon, they are also people who bring food and drinks for them.

"The commoners are being rallied to surround the hotel. The moment more of them come together, they might just be instigated to charge into the hotel. The blademaster and the 300 guards won't be able to protect themselves, much less us. We must leave this place soon, or we won't have a good end."

"You're right. This is urgent," Lorist agreed, "We must notify the manager and have them provide us with a carriage. Apart from the women and maidservants, all male servants and guards should be armed and guard the carriage. I'll find a way to head to the port and check if anything has happened to Northsea. If everything's fine, we can board right away. As long as we set sail, we'll be safe."

Count Kenmays asked hesitantly, "Can you actually make it out there? There are so many people and they will be checking every carriage that goes through."

"It's fine. I lived in this city for a decade. I'm familiar with their accent and habits. Also, I wasn't there with you at Rotary street, my face shouldn't recognizable. There is no more suitable candidate. Don't worry, I'll be back soon," said Lorist, smiling.

However, Lorist did not expect the manager to refuse his request.

"Lord Count, I really don't think you should head out. It's far too dangerous outside. As long as you stay in here, we can guarantee your safety. There's no way the people outside will rush into the hotel with Blademaster Mike here," retorted the manager.

"I am incredibly thankful for all your house is doing for us. There is truly no one better in terms of hospitality and service. However, I wish to put an end to this farce myself as soon as possible. The Peterson Merchant Guild and Chikdor Merchant Guild have some ties with our house. Even though their president is not here, I want to send a letter to them so they can send someone here to mediate," said Lorist.

The manager pondered hesitantly for a moment. Lorist's proposal was rather reasonable, and he also wanted the situation to be resolved as soon as possible. If what Lorist said was true, the Peterson and Chikdor Merchant Guilds would definitely be more capable of handling the matter than House Mireitas. While Marquis Bejisanro could afford to ignore his house, they definitely had to take a step back in front of the two big-seven guilds.

"Sir, I'm afraid we aren't able to escort you. Given how messy the crowd outside is, it's incredibly difficult for us to bring you out of here; almost impossible, in fact, with the presence of the Rosanji Merchant Guild's rank 2 blademaster, Danhema," interjected Blademaster Mike, brows furrowed.

"I believe both of you misunderstood me. I never intended to have you rush out with me. All I want is to borrow a set of servant garments so I can disguise myself as a coachman and drive a carriage. I can blend in and leave easily in such a manner," smiled Lorist.

"Oh?" the manager mused, "Do you know how to drive a carriage?"

"Hehe, of course. I studied at Dawn Academy for ten years and am also very familiar with the city. I didn't think that bringing my friends here would land us in such deep trouble, though. Morante has changed too much over this last decade," said Lorist wistfully.

"Oh, no wonder I felt you were a little different from your friends. It's no wonder you're like us Moranites. So you grew up here. If you don't mind the trouble, we can lend you the clothes and wish for your successful endeavor," acquiesced the manager.

As expected, Lorist faced some trouble leaving. Not only was the top and bottom of his carriage given a thorough check, his whole body was searched to make sure he wasn't carrying any letters. Even the small silvers in his pocket were taken. He was even kicked a few times before he was allowed to leave.

Lorist eventually arrived at the headquarters of the Peterson Merchant Guild with his carriage. He gave the door a few knocks before entering. Once inside, he soon understood that the guild's higher-ups were all absent, they had gone to their dominion. They were currently sorting out the noble hierarchy there. President Peterson was at the top, no doubt, and he wouldn't return for some time. Given that the trade routes were cut off, the big-seven used the opportunity to set their dominion up. Most would probably only return to struggle for power in the city much later. Their dominions were of incredible importance to them, a kind of packup plan.

Since the Peterson Merchant Guild was not able to offer any help, Lorist left the carriage and used another, one of the guild's, to head to the port. Northsea was still docked, but the captain and sailors were filled with worry. They had heard of the situation. Had it not been for Lundmorde's orders, the sailors might have already armed themselves to slaughter their way through the crowd.

"If you had really done that, not only would you be charging to your deaths, you would also needlessly expose Northsea. How would we leave if we do break out in that case? You guys are trained for naval combat, so don't be reckless on land. All you have to do is make sure we have a means to leave. Your duties will start when we board the ship!" rebuked Lorist.

Once he felt they'd had enough lecturing, he ordered them to prepare for departure. They were to be on alert at all times and leave the moment Lorist's group finished boarding.

"Milord, this is some information about the Rosanji Merchant Guild and Marquis Bejisanro. He is the chief speaker of the sub-council and is also the Rosanji Merchant Guild's president. This is the declaration of his intent to form an army to deal with the neighboring nations, and here are the twisted reports about the mess his son caused," reported Lundmorde.

As the chief intelligence gatherer of the house, the information he collected was incredibly detailed.

Lorist read the reports and quickly determined the location of the guild's warehouse.

"Lundmorde, I need you to have something prepared for me. We'll go there for a trip tonight."

"Yes, Milord."

Chapter 312 Arson

"Is this the Rosanji Merchant Guild's storage area?"

"Yes, Milord. This entire circle of buildings is the guild's food storage area. It's said that there are over 500 of them. The one that has a lamp up there is the main entrance to the storage area. The guild's brewing area isn't far from here either. The Union's ale is mostly supplied by them. They are the largest brewers around," replied Lundmorde.

"Weird, why is there no security? I only see a few patrolling guards. With food prices as high as they are, isn't the Union worried about people stealing from the silos?" asked Lorist curiously.

"Perhaps these warehouses are empty? Maybe there's no longer anything to guard," suggested Lundmorde.

"Well, that could be. Let's go check."

The two scaled the walls, entered the storage area, and hid behind the dome-shaped stone building. It did not have doors or windows and was roughly 5 meters tall, the standard food silo design on Grindia. Besides the part visible above ground, the building stretched a further 3 meters underground. A single silo could store near half a million kilograms of food.

"I think I smell moss," said Lundmorde as he pinched his nose.

"I do too, the stench is quite noticeable. Let me go up and check."

"Wait, Milord, making a hole in the wall is much more convenient," interjected Lundmorde, pulling on Lorist.

He pierced into the silo's wall with his blade-glow. As they were situated behind it, nobody noticed anything. Lundmorde traced a huge circle before pulling his sword out, making a hole in the warehouse. Grains started pouring out through the hole and spilling onto the floor.

"It's wheat," said Lundmorde as he picked some up.

He quickly tossed it away and he jumped in shock.

"It's old and grassy... All this wheat is moldy as feck..."

Fanning the air in front of his nose, Lorist grunted, "The smell is too strong. I can't stand it."

"Ah, I know now. No wonder I've seen the guild bringing in carriage after carriage of lime. I thought they were using it to for sterilization and cleaning, but they were using limewater to wash the moldy wheat. Curse their ancestors... I won't drink their ale ever again," cursed Lundmorde.

"SO that's there aren't any guards around," Lorist said after some thought, "Nobody would steal moldy wheat. The guarded warehouses must be where they store the editable, sellable food. Lundmorde, make more holes in the other warehouses so the moldy wheat can leak out. I'll go to the front and set fire to the place. When people come to deal with the fire, they'll surely notice the moldy wheat on the ground and the matter will be exposed for all to see."

"Understood, Milord. Please be careful."

"Don't worry. You should be wary as well. I remember seeing these silos labeled 'wheat' on the roof, and there are around a hundred. You better act fast."

They two were currently in Morante's southern suburbs. The Rosanji Merchant Guild had built a large storage area with more than 300 permanent stone silos and 200 temporary mobile wooden warehouses. Together, they could store up to 300 million kilograms of food, which was what fueled the guild's ability to fight for the food market at Morante.

Lorist and Lundmorde had gone to set fire to the area to prevent the guild from paying the crowd that was gathered in front of Dauslyke. While there was the option of escaping by force, Lorist had to consider the safety of his allies and the women that came along with him, so he had no choice but to resist the burning urge to lash out. He would finally be able to teach the guild a lesson by burning the food stores.

So you have too much food to spare, huh? Let's see how you pay the crowd when I burn it all!

"Hey! What are you doing? Someone's setting a fire!"

It did not take long for the smallest embers to attract the guards' attention. They noticed Lorist pouring fuel on the warehouses in a casual and unhurried manner.

A huge wave of shouting guards leaped towards him. But, in a few flashes of the sword, all the guards collapsed on the ground, struggling in their last moments while Lorist continued pouring fuel just as casually as before.

After the third wave collapsed on the ground, the remaining hundred or so coachmen, transporters, and guards quickly crumbled into chaos. A few unlucky ones, who were using wooden buckets filled with water to try and douse the fire, were cut in half by Lorist's sword. Those who survived cast away whatever they had and scrambled for the entrance. Lorist, disguised in black pants, shirt, and scarf, looked like a demon of slaughter. He casually dispatched more than 200 guards in the most relaxed manner without showing the slightest bit of mercy.

Lorist was not interested in chasing people down. Besides, the guards he killed had allowed him to vent most of his pent-up anger. All that remained was to set the rest of the warehouses on fire before returning to the hotel to bring the rest away. He believed the fire would be visible to almost the entirety of Morante, and the chaos that would inevitably ensue might help increase the chances of their escape.

"Milord, I've only managed to make holes in 60 warehouses. Why is the fire this big already?" asked Lundmorde as he stared wide-eyed at the flames that consumed the silos behind Lorist, causing smoke to billow towards the skies.

"Let's go, that's more than enough. If we stay here, we'll be burned alive," said Lorist before he grabbed Lundmorde and ran.

The air had already begun to heat up as occasional embers fell on his body. The pair scaled the walls and took to the carriage. It was quickly turned around, and they left.

"Lundmorde, come steer this thing. Just send me to the area near Dauslyke. Check if the preparations are finished after you drop me off. We will begin our escape the moment I get back."

"Alright, Milord," said Lundmorde before he spurred the horse into a gallop.

They quickly arrived near the hotel. The crowd stared at the southern skies, where signs of smoke and fire could be seen.

Lorist jumped off before pretending to stumble around as he shouted, "Everyone! Go put out the fire, quick! The food storage area is ablaze! If we don't put it out, we'll run out of food! Quick!"

The crowd was originally waiting for their day's pay, they had been promised 2.5 kilograms of potatoes which they had yet to receive. The fire only served to unnerve them, and Lorist's cries confirmed their fears. The commoners panicked and thought their day standing around would be wasted if all the food burned up. The frontmost people began rushing to the storage area immediately, followed closely by those behind them.

"Go put out the fire! We can still take some food out of it and help our families last a few more days!" continued Lorist.

The rest, who originally did not intend to go, snapped out of their trance. They thought it would be a good opportunity for them to get more free food before the inevitable rise in food prices because of the fire. Most of the people surrounding the hotel ran south, only around 500 Rosanji guards remained.

Lorist snuck into the hotel quietly. Once inside, he immediately rushed to the back.

"Reidy, go prepare the carriages. As many as you can. Have everyone begin packing. We leave in thirty minutes!" instructed he.

There were seven carriages in Dauslyke's backyard, but only a dozen horses. Lorist had the three Dinas assigned to the first carriage. The second carried Count Kenmays and his two maidservants, the third Baron Shazin and his five concubines, and the fourth Howard, his fiancee, Baron Felim, and his concubine. The final three carriages were for the other maidservants and the luggage. The coachmen were the attendants that followed them. Since Northsea was docked at the Peterson Merchant Guild's port, they could have the guild send the carriages and horses back to the hotel.

Blademaster Shuss was seated atop the first carriage and Josk on the luggage rack of the second. Lorist believed that the marksman would be able to protect the other four carriages in front. Should their escape go wrong, the three rearmost carriages with the maidservants and luggage could be abandoned. Reidy was in the third carriage. As for Baron Shazin and Baron Felim, since they were gold-ranked knights, they were tasked with protecting the flanks of the third and fourth carriages. The guards that came along followed them from behind.

Just as Lorist was preparing to rush out of the hotel, he saw Blademaster Mike standing in front of him with a solemn look, saying, "Were you the one who sparked the fire?"

"So what if I am? Do you want us to be stuck here forever?" retorted Lorist, furrowing his brows.

"I only want to tell you that you'll have nothing to do with House Mireitas the moment you step out of here," Mike sighed, "I've already checked outside; Blademaster Danhema is still here. He's a rank 2 blademaster. Your blademaster can take care of him, but bare in mind that there are around 500 guards behind him. It's best if you stay here and wait for the big-seven to return and help you out.

"Additionally, with the food storage area set ablaze, there's no need to worry about the crowd surrounding the hotel anymore. As long as you stay here, House Mireitas will ensure your safety. I hope you don't act recklessly and rush to your deaths with so many of your family with you."

"Apologies, nobles from The Northlands don't have the habit of leaving their fates in the hands of others. We come from the wilds and it is in our nature to battle. Dying on the battlefield is a source of pride for us. House Norton asks not the numbers of the enemy, only where they are!" declared Lorist as he drew his sword.

Blademaster Mike looked at Lorist intently before sighing and waving his hand to the side. The guards by the gate opened it in response.

Blademaster Danhema had already made his preparations and instructed the 500 guards to get into five neat rows, blocking the road in front of the hotel. He realized that something was off when he saw the smoke billowing up from the south, especially when the crowd dispersed to put it out, and figured that the Northland nobles would use the chance to escape. However, being a rank 2 blademaster, he swore that he would disappoint those bumpkins.

Lorist burst out of the gates on horseback and rushed straight for the enemy formation. The bearded man at the front manifested his gold blade glow and yelled, "Dismount and kneel to surrender!"

"Who's doing the sparing here?!" shouted Lorist in reply, before he kicked both his legs to spur his mount forward.

Assailed by the pain, the horse neighed and jumped straight into the enemy formation. The guards at the front did not think that Lorist would pull such a move and hurriedly ducked to both sides. The bearded man positioned his blade glow and attempted to cut Lorist in half from his mount.

Lorist revealed a smile and pulled his horse in a circle while holding his sword out with his right hand, causing the blades to clash. A bearded head went flying, still wearing an expression of disbelief, as blood gushed out of the stump of its neck. Lorist continued to cut into the crowd and slaughtered away, causing the guards to cry out for their parents as they scrambled around in chaos and confusion. Not only was their formation heavily disrupted, more than 40 men had already fallen under Lorist's blade.

A flash of a blade traveled in an arc towards Lorist's back.

"Despicable scum!" cursed Lorist as he thought, this shameless rank 2 blademaster actually hid behind his iron-ranked guards to launch a sneak attack! However, he had long taken into account the presence of the blademaster and wondered where he had gone since the start of the battle and increased his alertness. If the blademaster had attempted to escape, he might have survived. But now that he had shown himself, there was no escape.

Clang clang clang!

The sound of clashing blades resounded throughout the area. After ten or so strikes, Lorist had already dismounted and stood in front of his assailant. With an insidious smile on his face, he said, "Rank 2 Blademaster Danhema, I presume?"

Chapter 313 Closing Act

In front of Lorist stood a short old man. While he looked rather unassuming, there was a shred of hatred that could barely be seen between his brows. The old man was breathing incredibly heavily with a terrified look. Lorist had been able to receive the tens of lightning-fast strikes he had launched. Not only that, he had not expected Lorist to get off his mount to strike at him first.

"Who... Who are you?" asked Blademaster Danhema as he struggled to stabilize his breathing.

Denhema was quite informed about fighters within his league within the Union but he had never heard of such a young blademaster. Most people who managed to make it to his rank rank were middle-aged men of at least forty to fifty years. Only a swordsaint could possibly revert to a slightly younger look after breaking through, but there were only three or four swordsaints on the entire continent. They either started their own sword schools or were hailed as national treasures. Which one of them would actually bother to visit Morante?"

"Hehe, who am I, you ask? I am the Northlander bumpkin that's been causing you guys so much trouble. You guys really are full of shit, you know that? Is twisting the narrative and pushing all the blame on me really that fun? You even had a crowd surround this place and wait for us to walk to our deaths. Is this what Morante has become? All the praises I hear belie what this place truly is. When we return, we'll make sure that all the continent's nobles know how low the Union nobility is!"

Two guards struck at Lorist during his speech, but their bodies joined their brothers regardless.

Danhema leaped forward and roared, "In your dreams..."

When the blademaster jumped forward, Lorist was still recovering his posture. The blademaster was fully intent on taking advantage of the situation and launched into another flurry of attacks.

"Old guy, I think practicing how to ambush others should be what you ought to do from now on," said Lorist with a cold smile as he took a few steps back and allowed the sword in his hand to dance and intercept his opponent's attacks.

Clang clang clang clang! Yet another chorus of blades resounded in the area.

"It's my turn now, old man," taunted Lorist.

His words had barely left his mouth when his sword began pelting the man like waves of rain in a thunderstorm.

Danhema already felt that he was in a bad spot. He had thought that Lorist was merely a rank 2 blademaster like himself, but the fact that Lorist was able to launch a counterattack despite having just parried his own was evidence to the contrary.

This is no rank 2 blademaster, he's at least rank 3!

Each and every of Lorist's strikes struck ethereally. Even though the silver moon was shining brightly in the sky, the blademaster saw nothing but sword strike after sword strike, more than he could parry.

"Wait... Wait a second!" cried Danhema, struggling to hang on.

Lorist did not pay the pleading any heed and pierced his sword into the old man's left shoulder. A kick followed his blade, and his blade his kick. Before the old man could recover, the second strike leveled Lorist's blade on his neck.

"What did you want to say?"

Danhema pressed against his injured left shoulder.

"Ki-kid... You've won. I've lost completely, so you may leave now..." said he, venom in his eyes.

"Hehe."

An insidious smile crept over Lorist's face as he giggled.

"Did I need you to remind me of that? Anyone with eyes that can see already knows the result."

"Sp-spare me... I promise that the guild will no longer press this matter," said the old man stubbornly.

"I'm sorry, but if there's anything that I fear, your guild is definitely not it," said Lorist.

He flicked his wrist and Danhema's head tumbled to the ground like so many flakes of ash.

Lorist pointed at the nearest guard.

"Kill!"

"Kill!" roared Blademaster Shuss, Baron Felim, and Baron Shazin in unison as they leaped off their mounts.

The 30 plus guards on Lorist's side followed quickly behind and slaughtered away at the guards. The first carriage entered the passageway with the second following behind. Josk was visible on it with his green bow outstretched. Bolt after bolt of green lightning flashed from his direction. It nailed guard corpses to the ground one after another.

The road ahead was finally unobstructed. Many Rosanji guards cast away their weapons and ran away like rats. Those that did not escape ended up on the ground, unmoving. Lorist grabbed the side of a carriage and flipped himself onto it.

"Let's go!" instructed he.

Sounds of bumbling carriages could be heard throughout the way to Hidegold Bay. Blademaster Mike stood in front of the hotel with his legs shivering and his hands cold, watching the carriages disappearing between the buildings.

What a close call that was! To think I thought of a ferocious tiger like him as a gentle lamb... I thought the only blademaster the group had was the rank 1 blademaster. I even attempted to stop them because I suspected them of burning down the storehouses...

Even though House Mireitas and the Rosanji Merchant Guild were at odds, the act of burning the stored food caused the citizens of Morante to lose much of their reserves. The price of food would surely rise yet again, worsening the food crisis for everyone.

Even though he sounded like he cared about Lorist and the gang's safety, it was naught but an excuse so he could hold them back and let the big-seven guilds deal with them when they return. That way, the issue would be addressed without involving the house.

Fortunately, they didn't do as I said... Otherwise, it would only end badly for me. I didn't think the normal-looking count could actually defeat Rank 2 Blademaster Danhema in a few moves... Come to think of it, the others preparing to leave before the count started fighting seemed to anticipate the result. They seem oddly confident about their chances. If I'm not wrong, the gold-ranked barons were whispering about a bet on how many strikes it would take Blademaster Danhema to be defeated...

The group consisting of one rank 2 blademaster, one gold-ranked swordsman, tens of silver-ranked swordsmen and more than 400 Rosanji guards could not even hold up against the charge of a small group of ten-odd people and even suffered heavy losses. Blademaster Mike looked at the corpses littered all over. Not all were dead, but none were saveable.

Thank goodness I let them leave, thought Blademaster Mike in relief.

The hotel's manager came over and looked at the bloody pool of corpses before he sighed.

"Even so many of the guild's guards weren't able to stop them?"

The blademaster shook his head.

"It's not that they didn't try. The Northlanders are far too powerful. Even Blademaster Danhema was killed in a few bouts. Without him, the rest of the guards were no more than a bunch of panicking pigs at a slaughterhouse. Either way, the Rosanji Merchant Guild is done for."

Lorist arrived at Hidegold Bay and lead the carriages to the port. On the way, he had Lundmorde arrange a few carriages filled with firewood prepared as a surprise gift for their pursuers. It was a shame that the Moranites' focus of the night was on the food storage area's blaze -- no one witnessed Lorist's slaughter. After the first assault, however, not a single person dared to give chase, so Lorist's carriages went to waste.

When everyone got on board the ship, Lorist penned a letter each for President Peterson and Academy Head Levins and had the port supervisor send the carriages and horses back to Dauslyke after tipping him a small sack of gold Fordes. With the carriages on their way back, Lorist set sail for Silowas.

Seeing the skies above Morante tinted red, Lorist could not help but snicker. Count Kenmays, Baron Shazin, and Baron Felim all revealed hints of smiles on their faces as well. While their trip to Morante was full of dangers, they managed to leave completely unscathed, and that was certainly something worth celebrating.

Beside Lorist, Josk mused, "Milord, I really don't know what you're so glad about. Even though you've lived in Morante for ten years and are practically half-Moranite, you were chased away during your two recent visits."

"Oh..."

Upon being reminded of that, Lorist was no longer able to smile fondly at his memories of the city. He gave Josk a hateful glare.

Before Lorist even got two full days' rest after arriving at Silowas, Count Kenmays suddenly got the impulse to go to the imperial capital for a vacation. Lorist was incredibly troubled as Queen Carey was the current ruler of the kingdom. If he traveled there just like that, it would be akin to jumping into a trap. In the end, he could only send Blademaster Shuss and 500 guards along to protect him, Baron Shazin and Baron Felim on their trip to the capital with Baron Fenston at Jillin Harbor accompanying them as a guide.

This time around, the three nobles did not bring their loved ones with them, lest they have to fight their way out of a predicament once again. Lorist worry was unwarranted, fortunately. He received news soon after their arrival that the three were fitting in lie fish in water. He even heard tell that Count Kenmays had obtained the queen's favor with his adept way with words. Not only did he become one of the queen's honored guests, she even organized a few paradise gatherings for the three. They were indulged in so much pleasure that they almost wished they would not have to return.

During that time, Lorist was busier than ever before. The big-seven guilds had returned to Morante and sent the Peterson Merchant Guild's vice-president to Silowas to meet with Lorist. Firstly, the vice-president expressed his deepest apologies for Lorist's recent experience and mentioned the way the big-seven guilds had dealt with Marquis Bejisanro.

Given that the marquis had defended his son's criminal deeds and tainted the reputation of the Union, Marquis Bejisanro was stripped of his title as well as his position as chief speaker of the sub-council. Not only that, his guild was fined heavily for using old and expired wheat to make ale, putting the citizens' health at risk. The guild was basically no more and Marquis Bejisanro had little choice other than suicide to relieve him of his pain and shame.

Hmph, the big-seven are merely splitting the spoils among themselves, Lorist winced, I bet they see the Rosanji Merchant Guild as a fat, juicy pig waiting to be slaughtered. I was just the unlucky fellow that happened to be at Morante to provide a reason for them to carry out their scheme. Even if the Rosanji Merchant Guild didn't dream of a seat on the high council, they would've been fed on sooner or later...

After discussing the guild's fate, the vice-president began to voice his objections to Lorist's actions. He was of the opinion that Lorist should be held accountable for setting fire to the food storage area. After all, the 800 thousand citizens of Morante relied on it for sustenance, and torching the whole area was really over the board.

I even wanted to set the whole of Morante on fire. Burning only one storage area is relatively calm even for me. Also, the food over there was used for paying the crowd to stick at the hotel, so if I didn't burn it, I would still be in trouble, he laughed.

As expected, the vice-president began to lay out his demands after finishing his complaints. He hoped that Lorist could supply the Union with food, as much as possible, to relieve the food crisis, even if it would cost them more. Lorist instantly shook his head. He could not help since his own dominion was rather tight on food.

He did give the vice-president a suggestion, however. They could target Andinaq's food supplies. Two years back, the second highness had prepared a large amount of food to feed his army. But after obtaining large amounts of resources following the occupation of Frederika, there was no need to touch his stockpiles, most of which still lay in their silos, completely untouched.

During the past two years, the campaign against Redlis also went rather well and further filled their stockpiles. If the Union was willing to spend lots of money to purchase food, the hedonistic princess, Carey, would be more than happy to oblige and sell off all the extra food, relieving the Union's crisis. As for transport, as long as they could get the food to Jillin Harbor, Lorist would be willing to offer his own transportation fleet to help out with the effort at a discount price.

The vice-president was so racked with joy that he did not even stay for his welcoming banquet and left for the imperial capital immediately.

Twelve days later, the vice-president returned and reported that he had successfully made a deal with Andinaq and had purchased over 5 million Pors of food, more or less 250 million kilograms, and would be tasking the Norton house's transportation fleet to send everything to Morante.

The fleet returned in the 9th month from their first trip to Morante. Onboard were a handsome couple, Blademaster Claude and Instructor Anfya, as well as three other instructors from Dawn Academy, two of whom were Lorist's former course mates.

Count Kenmays, Baron Shazin, and Baron Felim had finished their month-long vacation at the imperial capital and were sailing back to The Northlands aboard Northsea at the same time.

Chapter 314 Ridden with Matters

Lorist started working again the moment he returned to the dominion. Being the dominion lord was akin to having work that he could never finish. Despite only taking his three friends to Morante for a short trip, a mountain of paperwork had piled up on his desk. Even though most of the matters had already been dealt with, Lorist still had to sign off on the orders to acknowledge that he had been informed.

Blademaster Claude and Instructor Anfya refused his offer to accompany them around The Northlands. They requested only that he give them a guide to take them and the other Dawn Academy instructors around so they could search for a place to build the new academy.

Lorist had initially wanted it built at Northsea, but when Count Kenmays, Baron Shazin, and Baron Felim found out about Claude's intentions, they all fought for the opportunity. Count Kenmays was especially vigorous in his temptations. He mentioned that if they were unable to find a suitable place at the Nortons' dominion, they could build it anywhere they wanted in The Northlands and everyone would chip in to support the endeavor.

The Nortons' dominion alone had over 1.2 million people. Coupled with the dominions of Count Kenmays, Baron Shazin, and Baron Felim, The Northlands' population was around two million. If Dawn Academy were to rebuild there, there would be no shortage of students. Even if only one student in a thousand qualified, they would still have at least two thousand new entrants each year.

The dominions' citizens were quite well-off. All the houses within The Northlands had followed in Lorist's tracks and focused on developing their dominions instead of reaping their citizens like crops. This allowed most of the families in their dominions to be able to afford sending their children to school.

Additionally, the one resource all the houses lacked was talent. The Dawn Academy was one of the few multi-disciplinary academies in the world and was ranked in the continent's top ten. Their students were usually skilled in more than just combat. If they were to start a new branch in The Northlands, they would probably be able to supply most of the area's demand for talent. Cultivating in-house talent would greatly benefit everyone, in the long run, so Count Kenmays and the others were incredibly supportive of the idea.

At the end of the 10th month, the academy's expedition returned to Firmrock, followed by Count Kenmays, Baron Shazin, and Baron Felim. It had been decided that the academy's new grounds would be at the foot of Bing Mountain. It was not in any of the houses' territories, nor had it seen even the slightest development.

The location had likely been picked exactly because it was completely undeveloped. With how focused the four houses had been on developing their lands, a patch of land would only be undeveloped if it wasn't in anyone's territory. Not only was it out of anyone's jurisdiction, it was also right in the middle of the four dominions.

Claudes explanation for his choice naturally didn't touch on this factor, however. He explained his choice as resulting from a desire to be able to draw from the populations of all four dominions, which naturally made the spot he chose the best choice.

The four dominion lords had a lengthy discussion and finally agreed to cede portions of their territory around the location Claude had chosen, which added up to roughly a barony's worth of land, to the academy. A mutual treaty was signed soon after, and the land officially belonged to the academy. They also gathered a million gold Fordes between them for the academy's construction. Half of the money came from House Norton, with House Kenmays paying three tenths, and Barons Felim and Shazin each contributing one-tenth.

When that matter was concluded, Blademaster Claude and his group returned hurriedly to Morante to prepare for the move. House Norton's transportation fleet would be incredibly busy in the following year and they would have to spend one whole year to fully transport everything the academy had to The Northlands. After all, rebuilding the academy in completely was a time-consuming job. Lorist estimated it would take about two years before the academy was ready to start accepting applicants.

When Lorist tired of dealing with paperwork, he placed his feet on his desk in frustration. His mind soon wandered to matters of less consequence.

Why do the transmigrators in other novels just focus on killing and fighting all day? They usually only need to give out vague instructions and their minions will take care of all the troublesome bits -- without needing any supervision. The commoners in their dominions also seem to behave like NPCs all the time; they do what they're told without causing any trouble...

Lorist read the document on his desk a second time, slightly slower than the first time. His brows furrowed, but he eventually drew a circle on it and wrote two lines of words inside: 'Guilty as charged. Sentenced to Death'.

This was the first case of murder within the dominion. To think that something like this happened after only a few short years of life without worry for food or wear. The case involved two neighbors that partnered up to start a snack stall. They very quickly began to make a good profit, and in just two years they wealth had become quite impressive. The happiness didn't last, however.

One of the two started an affair with the other's wife. When the other found out, the cuckolded man strangled his former friend, neighbor, and business partner to death. He tossed the corpse into the nearest well to cover up his misdeed.

The case would have gone unnoticed had the man not got together with dead man's wife openly shortly after the incident. Additionally, the neighbors soon discovered the corpse and notified the police, who quickly put the puzzle pieces together and arrested the couple, still insisting that the man had fallen into the well and drowned. In the end, it was the former security chief of Whitebird Town, now the head of law enforcement, Kriston, that found evidence pointing to murder.

The case was actually rather simple. Victims of drowning usually had lungs full of water, but this corpse's lungs were empty, which indicated that he was dead before he entered the water. When asked why they strangled the man before tossing him into the well, the couple admitted that if they had not done so, the man would have been able to call for help. Additionally, he was rather good in water and would not drown that easily. Since it was the first murder case in the dominion, the criminal couple was sentenced to death and Lorist was the one who would have the final say on their fate.

Sigh, this is troublesome! To think that a dominion lord would have to deal with so much stuff.

Lorist recalled that when Kriston had come over to report the case, he had mentioned that the house lacked investigators. Even though every town or settlement had their own police units, they could only deal with simple cases like brawls and robberies. They would only make a mess if they tried to deal with more complicated crimes. Additionally, according to Kriston, several underworld organizations had begun to take root in towns around Salus and Felicitas. The house had to take measures to keep them from becoming a threat.

Not only that, Kriston even suggested that the house come up with a new set of regulations that could accommodate the dominion's rapid development. Before this, the traditional laws of administration the house used to govern had been sufficient. But with the population approaching 1.2 million, a new set of laws was required to ensure everything stayed in order.

It all caused Lorist to do nothing but sigh all the time.

I've never read about transmigrators having to deal with troublesome stuff like this... In the webnovels I've read, they would be able to construct a 250-kilometer-long 50 meters high and wide wall with only 30 thousand people, and to it all in just three months! Some even camped at a small town and ambushed a force of a 100 thousand! One could even pay 3000 silver taels for a single meal and not have to bother with the change...

Compared to them, am I not actually super weak?! Those people can have huge harems with hundreds of beauties without any issues, yet a few women are already more than I can handle!

During the past two months, Lorist had gone to Maplewoods once as well as Nico Academy. When he got back to Firmrock Castle, the three Dinas were jealous and pinned Lorist down together to get their share of his attention and energy. Arriotoli's young aunt, Dilianna, even wanted to bear Lorist a child so she would have something to lean on when she gets older. Arriotoli on the other hand had her own goals. She wanted to push her younger sister, Fennazali to the position of the household matron. She felt that Irina, merely a maidservant, was far beneath her younger sister. The scholar at Nico Academy was completely absorbed in her research and had willingly given away her claim on the position. Her aunt had a rather dark history, so she wasn't fit to compete either. Her younger sister was as pure as jade and had offered her first time to Lorist. Being a mere concubine was out of the question, so, since there was no one to claim the position of household matron, it seemed only natural that she be the one to take it.

Lorist was rather troubled by Arriotoli. He couldn't be too hard on her, but he also couldn't let her prance around like she owned the place. Despite his displeasure at her behavior, however, he had to admit that he was rather satisfied with Fennazali. The younger Dina did not have any ambition at all, she was perfectly satisfied with having a stable life, her nightly activities with Lorist was a bonus.

Unfortunately, she would not stay the same forever. People grow and change over time. Lorist's maidservant, Irina was the boss of Maplewoods, where she resided -- nobody dared to go against her wishes. Lorist now understood why she was so insistent on staying there. If she had followed Lorist around, she would only be a concubine. But at the bastide, she called the shots. Lorist really could not imagine that the timid and shy maidservant Irina used to be actually had such ambitions.

Irina was now 27 and in the prime of her youth. She was incredibly proactive in bed and did her best to pleasure Lorist as best she could. Perhaps because she had birthed two of Lorist's children, she was no longer as timid as she used to be. She had even displayed coquettish behavior and thrown tantrums, not to mention requesting gifts from him.

All that aside, Lorist was most troubled by their two sons. The younger was one and a half years old and could still not walk on his own. Apart from being unable to sleep without Irina by his side, however, he had no discernible faults. The elder son, Waldbeck, on the other hand, was eight and behaved as domineering as a child his age could. It was especially the case given his status as Lorist's firstborn and the first in line to become his successor. The child was spoiled so heavily that he had become a little dictator. He insisted on having his way no matter what and would threaten to throw massive tantrums if his whims weren't catered to. Lorist had tried to tolerate Waldbeck's behavior the best he could, but when he saw the young kid grope a maidservant's rear through her skirt, he lost it. He caught the bastard and gave him such a thrashing that his rear was swollen like a bubble for a whole week.

It provided Lorist a momentary sense of relief but only added to his trouble thereafter. Besides the fact that Irina cried the whole day, the child burst into tears whenever he saw Lorist after that day. He even refused to call Lorist his father. Whenever he looked at Lorist his eyes would hide a glint of hatred in their corners. Lorist decided that the kid could no longer stay at the bastide the day he first noticed the glint. He could not let the kid become the same kind of incompetent brat Lorist had despised so much as he grew up. He would not let his children undo his work and ruin the house he had shed so much blood and sacrificed so many lives to get to where it was today. He felt like a failure of a father, but he didn't have much choice in the matter. The house always required his unwavering attention so had never managed to spare the time necessary to take care of his children. As a result, his children's upbringing and education had been neglected.

He decided to visit Irina and the two sons, apart from also seeing the illegitimate child of his elder brother, Helias, who had been sent to be raised by Knight Pajik's family with the knight his adoptive father.

Helias turn twelve after the new year and would leave Knight Pajik's home according to the long-standing agreement. He was to be sent to Nico Academy for a few years of study before returning to Lorist's side when he turned 15. From there on Lorist would cultivate the child himself. He would be allowed to choose either to train in Crimsonblood Battleforce, the house's technique, or walk the same path Reidy had.

Lorist visited Helias and was surprised to see that his nephew had grown to become a handsome and magnificent young man. Not only was he talented, he was exceedingly polite. House Norton would have yet another talented individual if Helias was cultivated with proper care. In the future, he might even be on par with Howard in terms of abilities.

It was a shame that Knight Pajik was in seclusion for his preparation to break through to the gold rank. Otherwise, Lorist would have wanted to have Waldbeck put under his care as well. But after giving it some thought, he gathered that he could not rely solely on Pajik for raising his children. Additionally, Pajik's house was within the bastide and Waldbeck did not fear the couple as much as Lorist would like. He had to find an even more strict person to take care of his little troublemaker.

After a long time spent pondering, Lorist remembered Iron-faced Malek, a gold-ranked knight that was as good as emotionless. According to Loze, Malek's wife had a similar demeanor and was also incredibly strict with her children. The two sons and the daughter they had were prime examples of what children ought to be. Lorist decided to let Malek's wife take care of Waldbeck for four years until he turns twelve and would leave for Nico Academy. He would complete his studies there in three years and finally serve by Lorist's side.

Lorist wrote a letter to request Malek's return from Silowas. When Malek returned Lorist made his request, to which Malek eagerly agreed. He did not take any nonsense from either Irina or Waldbeck and soon left to return to his manor in Salus.

Malek's wife was waiting for him when he returned him.

"This child is an orphan of one of my deceased comrades," he explained as he tossed the kid through the door, "He's incredibly naughty and lies all the time. He constantly claims he's hour dominion lord's heir. I was worried for his sake, so I decided to bring him back here and instill some discipline in him."

His wife believed the story and took hold of Waldbeck. Malek didn't say anything else, nor did he waste his time at home. He turned around and returned to his post on Silowas right away. On his departure, the young master kept crying about how he really was the dominion lord's son and wanted to return home. Malek's wife, however, took it as a sign of the kid's intention to escape and gave him several thorough canings. Waldbeck was so frightened he nearly lost his voice and quickly fell in line.

The matter at Maplewoods was a damper on Lorist's mood, especially the way Irina had glared at him when he took Waldbeck away and how she refused to sleep with him. In the end, he left with a stomach filled with anger. Before he departed, however, he told Irina that if she insisted on Waldbeck's return, he would lose his place in the line of succession. The threat struck home and, though she cried unendingly, she didn't dare to go against Lorist's decision anymore.

Lorist went to Nico Academy, but Telesti refused his advances as well. She argued that she wanted to focus on her research and on managing the academy, and had little time for Lorist and his petty distractions. So, instead, he sent most of his time there with his two daughters for a few days. He returned to the academy a day after he left to drop Helias off before leaving for Firmrock with a heavy heart, only to realize the Dinas had been awaiting his return, filled with jealousy.

How do other transmigrators manage their harems? I have only five women in three different places, and it's already more than it's worth. It's even worse now that I have children. Even though I'm incredibly busy and unable to spend time with my children, those breeding stallion transmigrators always have at least ten beauties waiting for them. How do they manage it? There's a saying that goes, 'three women are like 500 ducks'. Wouldn't a whole harem with more than ten beauties be far worse? Seriously, how do those transmigrators do it?

Lorist continued to daydream with his feet on the desk as Howard entered the room. Seeing Lorist's posture, he sighed.

"You're a noble, Milord, a dominion lord! You should behave accordingly! The way you're sitting is not acceptable at all!"

"Save it," Lorist interjected, "Only you would come in without knocking. By the time others finish knocking, I would be in the proper posture. Tell me, what's going on?"

"Well, I just received word from a messenger of House Kenmays that Princess Sylvia is in The Northlands. She will arrive at the dominion around noon tomorrow," replied Howard.

Chapter 315 Reasons for Coming

Oh, Princess Sylvia? Does she need anything? thought Lorist.

"Howard, how many years are left until our agreement with Fisablen expires?" asked Lorist, thinking that some change must have happened to the agreement.

"This year's transaction was completed without incident and next year's will be the last," replied Howard.

Time really flies. So it's already been four years since the agreement was signed, huh?

"What have House Fisablen been up to over these years?"

Howard shook his head.

"The salt merchant committee's largest target market is Wild Husbandry, Milord. The governor is Viscount Kristoph, and our informants are well aware of the situation. They were unable to infiltrate Eastwild, however. It's where the duke himself is, and his security is far greater. We were only able to get very rough and vague bits of information. The house has tried sending a group of spies into the province disguised as merchants before as well but they were quickly chased out.

"We did manage to learn that Duke Fisablen reformed his two legions and reorganizes the garrison force. Currently, the two legions total 46 thousand men. Coupled with the three garrison divisions he reorganized, his local defense legion, and personal guard regiment, he has a total force of 136 thousand people. The three garrison divisions are stationed in Wild Husbandry, Eastwild, and Southern respectively.

"Not only that, the Skywolf Legion commanded by Viscount Kristoph and the Tigerhowl Legion at Wild Husbandry launched large-scale military efforts against the grassland barbarians. According to the salt merchant committee's reports and Furybear's informants, almost a hundred grassland barbarian tribes have been eliminated. More than 150 thousand have been taken captive, most of whom are women and children. Duke Fisablen had his officers take the women as their wives. Apparently, everyone ranked squad leader and above were allowed to take a wife and a concubine."

Lorist sat down properly and asked, "How much is the three provinces' population?"

"Eastwild and Wild Husbandry's population is less than 800 thousand and the desolated Southern has only 160 thousand. Our forces alone have almost 300 thousand people."

Lorist waved his hand.

"Their house is far from being able to compete with us. Our next targets should be the Madras duchy and the Iblia kingdom. We'll rest for another year before we launch another campaign.

"I didn't think Duke Fisablen would be able to assemble such a large force. That old fox is definitely wary of us. It seems we will have to focus on gathering intelligence from Eastwild soon."

Princess Sylvia arrived on time, and as expected, Count Kenmays was present during the welcoming.

After the princess and her cohort settled down, Lorist arranged for a magnificent feast to welcome her.

The two hadn't met for several years and Princess Sylvia had grown even more beautiful in the meantime -- like a flower just blooming, the beauty of which was so glaring that nothing could obstruct it. Amidst her hopeful stares hid her sweet smiles. Even Lorist was unable to resist the dreamy allure of her emerald-green eyes.

During the banquet, Princess Sylvia announced the reason for her trip. She was here to negotiate the next arms deal between the two houses and to invite Lorist to the knighthood tournament her father was organizing at Iblia's royal capital during the 5th month of the next year. The tournament was to identify talent for the kingdom. The princess was sent specifically to request Count Norton's attendance.

When Lorist heard what she had to say, the first thought he had in his mind was that it was a trap. Everyone within Iblia knew that House Norton had led the three other houses of The Northlands to conquer Windbury City, capture the former king, the second prince of the Empire, Iblia, and send him to Andinaq's capital where he was finally sacrificed during the third prince's burial. Lorist couldn't help but feel suspicious of the invitation.

He was not afraid of an attempt on his life -- he would be able to escape unscathed without issue. Besides, as the leader of House Norton and the most powerful count in The Northlands, he would definitely bring with him a legion and Blademaster Shuss would he attend the tournament as well. Lorist was confident that he could fight his way out even if he fell into an ambush.

However, Lorist found that participating in the tournament would be incredibly boring. Frankly speaking, he believed his combat abilities had long surpassed those of most other knights., with the exception of Duke Fisablen, a rank 3 blademaster, who would probably last a few hundred bouts. Lorist would rather stay within the dominion and enjoy his time at his own leisure. Lorist was rather lazy for some reason and did not feel like leaving the dominion for the tournament.

Lorist did not refuse the princess's invitation outright during the banquet, however, even though Count Kenmays said that he would. Princess Sylvia did not take his comments to heart and merely expressed her welcome to the count, before turning to look at Lorist with hopeful eyes. Lorist could only put it off by promising that he would go along if the house did not require his presence at the time.

The princess pouted and threw a small tantrum at his answer. The banquet fell into a slightly awkward mood. Lorist was left with no choice but to end the banquet early.

As the host, Lorist was expected to invite Princess Sylvia into his study for a good conversation. He only made his invitation out of obligation, but he did not think that she would roll her eyes and walk towards the study without saying anything. She was followed by her teacher, Blademaster Xanthi, and the busybody Count Kenmays.

In the study, Count Kenmays plundered the wine stash as usual. Blademaster Xanthi sat on the couch in the corner, drinking the cup of tea Howard poured her. Princess Sylvia stood in front of Lorist's desk and stared at him with angry eyes.

Gosh, this is going to take a while, smiled Lorist bitterly, "Your Highness, please calm your anger. Look at all this paperwork on my desk, I truly am really busy!"

"Hmph!" snorted the princess before she turned around and ignored Lorist.

"By the way, Your Highness, I brought some souvenirs back for you from my last trip. I hope you like them," said Lorist with utmost reverence.

He hoped his offering would calm the princess' seething wrath.

In the drawer at the left of the table were five intricate boxes decorated with purple silk. The one at the bottom was the largest, which Lorist took out and opened, revealing a black-colored velvet cushion on which a platinum necklace was placed. At the center of the necklace was a thumb-sized emerald of immense clarity and glow. The necklace was accompanied by a matching pair of earrings and a jade bracelet.

The jewelry instantly caught the attention of Princess Sylvia the moment it was brought out; even Blademaster Xanthi could not help but walk to the princess's side to inspect the ornaments for herself.

As expected, women are a little like the dragons of legend: greatly attracted to shiny objects.

"Gosh, Locke, where did you get these babies from? They look like priceless heirlooms!" exclaimed Count Kenmays.

How should I respond to him? thought Lorist, rubbing his nose, This is one of the spoils I got from Hanayabarta. It used to belong to the queen consort.

There were four more boxes in the drawer, but the items he just brought out were the most valuable of them all. They were worth around 200 thousand gold Fordes. Had it not been for Princess Sylvia's alluring green eyes, Lorist would have forgotten about the emerald jewelry entirely.

Well, I better not say that I looted them from the corpse of a queen consort...

The jewelry in the four other boxes was also taken from the dead bodies of the other concubines. That was why Lorist hesitated to gift them to his lovers.

"Well, I robbed someone and got them," said Lorist.

Well, the target of my robbery was a whole kingdom, but some things are better left unsaid.

"Huh? Do you think me an idiot?!" Count Kenmays said angrily, "What kind of idiot would wear something that precious in broad daylight? Something like that would be precious family heirlooms that wouldn't ever see the light of day!"

"Seriously, I kid you not," Lorist said with sincere honesty, "I robbed a whole kingdom."

"Only the dead would believe you," Count Kenmays retorted, "Let's see what you have in the four other boxes in that drawer of yours, shall we?"

While the jewelry in the boxes were not as complete as the emerald set, they were still incredibly precious. Count Kenmays, Princess Sylvia, and Blademaster Xanthi were all filled with awe and amazement.

"Locke, my friend,... I would like to..." stammered Count Kenmays.

"Fine, pick the one you like. Oh, and, Blademaster Xanthi, feel free to choose one box as well. Everyone who saw these boxes get one. Is that fair enough?"

Lorist knew perfectly what the count was getting at, so he gave the boxes away generously. After all, the jewelry in the other boxes was only worth a few tens of thousands of gold Fordes, a far cry from the emerald set. The main factor of Lorist's generosity, however, was still the fact that the items had been looted from corpses, which was somewhat of a taboo for him, probably because of how he was brought up in his previous life. Count Kenmays and the rest, however, did not pay that any heed.

Princess Sylva really did not think that Lorist would give her such an expensive gift. With a face full of smiles, she said, "Elder Brother Locke, thank you so much for your gift. I love the emerald jewelry a lot."

"Great, as long as you stop being mad at me," Lorist smiled.

Lorist prepared to refuse the invitation for next year's knighthood tournament while the princess was still in a good mood.

"Well, Your Highness, I'm worried that I will be a little busy during the 5th month next year, so..."

"Locke, I'm already 24 this year..." muttered the princess shyly.

Oh? So what if she's 24? I'm already 34, thought Lorist thickly.

"Oh, the last time I met you, you were only 20. It's already been four years, huh? Time really flies. To think that you already broke through to the two-star gold rank! You really are talented. You should be able to reach three-star gold rank by the time you're thirty," praised Lorist.

"I'm going to be 25 next year, so my grandfather is organizing a knighthood tournament, for... You know... Do you understand now, you blockhead?!"

Princess Sylvia stomped on Lorist's foot.

"Ouch!" cried Lorist.

Princess Sylvia took the box and left.

Blademaster Xanthi got in front of Lorist and said with a slight smile, "That lass has been training hard in seclusion for four whole years and finally broke through to the two-star gold rank. Not only that, Duke Fisablen is organizing a knighthood tournament for her sake, yet she came all the way here to inform you. You don't need me to spell it out for you, do you?"

Seeing the blademaster leave the study, Lorist looked at Count Kenmays but only saw a bumbling drunk gulping down wine with abandon.

"What are you looking at?! I... I didn't think that th-the princess would actually fall for the likes of you!" barked the count with eyes bloodshot with rage.

"Me...?" mumbled Lorist as he pointed at himself with his finger.

"Yes, you! Don't you get the hints she's practically laying out for you?! The princess was right, you really are a blockhead!" Count Kenmays exclaimed, "Even though I'm far more handsome than you are, and have a better demeanor and aura, the princess still fell for you."

"Hey, I'll duel you with one hand behind my back. I can mop the floor with you after only three moves," Lorist retorted as he limped to the couch and reached out for his feet, "Darn, that lass's stomp sure was heavy. It still hurts even now."

"Hmph, you deserve it for being so dense. Her Highness already made it clear that the reason the duke is hosting the tournament is that she's already 24."

"Wait, so you're saying that the tournament's for picking a fitting suitor for the princess? Isn't that basically dueling for her hand in marriage?" asked Lorist.

"Dueling for her hand in marriage? Yeah, to think that you could put it so succinctly, blockheaded as you are," said the count as he nodded.

Lorist said curiously, "Isn't the princess the beloved granddaughter of Duke Fisablen? Why is there a need for her to find a suitor in such a roundabout way? There's no need for a knighthood tournament to be organized just for this, is there?"

Count Kenmays leered at Lorist.

"Once a bumpkin, always a bumpkin. Do you think that a person with the status of the princess can find a suitor that easily? Let me tell you, the matter of her marriage is far more complicated than our own. Even though there are many who strive for her favor and affection from all noble ranks, can a proper suitor be determined only based on that? The Iblia kingdom has a few dukes among their peerage as well, but are they qualified to marry the princess just because of that? Most of them are mere honorary nobles. Even a prince would not stand a chance.

"A person like Duke Fisablen has to take the matter of Princess Sylvia's marriage with great consideration, in terms of status, household might, and most importantly, how good a fit the couple is for each other. Otherwise, the couple would become a laughing stock for the other nobles. Given the princess's status, the ideal candidate for her husband would be someone who is in line to succeed a duchy, or a throne to the kingdom, or even a very powerful noble like you. Heck, when I look at it that way, you are qualified to be the princess's suitor after all."

"But... I'm older than her by ten whole years," mumbled Lorist.

"What's the problem with that? Do you know that Duke Melein's daughter was wedded to the third prince despite there being a 14-year age gap? 14 whole years!" exclaimed the count.

"Duke Melein's daughter and the third prince?"

"The three princes of the former empire also faced the same problem and weren't able to find suitable suitors. With the reputation of the first and second princes being rather bad, most powerful nobles weren't willing to form a marriage union with the imperial family, and the noble houses that were willing to do so did not even qualify given their low status. That was why the first and second princes had illegitimate children that further tainted their names. When the third prince was 30 years old, Duke Melein's daughter had already matured into a fine woman and the Melein household was willing to form a union with the imperial family. That's why the third prince was chosen to become the rightful heir to the empire. It was also because of that matter that caused the first and second princes to be dissatisfied with the manner in which succession was decided, as there was precedent where former emperors inherited the throne without empress consorts."

"Why were the powerful nobles not willing to be united with the imperial family?" asked Lorist, confused.

"It's simple. They would be ostracized by the other noble houses. After all, the imperial family is always at odds with the rest of the aristocracy, and those who side with the imperial family are also regarded in the same light. The imperial family is always hoping to strip away the powers of the noble houses so they don't become strong enough to threaten their rule. When the imperial family is strong, noble houses would ally together to protect their own interests. Not only that, should a mighty noble house unite with the imperial family, the influence of the imperial family would be further expanded and threaten the interests of the other noble houses. The final reason is that a noble house would be involved in the matters of the imperial houses, just like Duke Melein who was forced to participate in the civil war on the side of the third prince. To protect the rightful heir to the imperial throne, the Melein house had put in lots of resources and sacrificed much of their vitality, causing them to now be too weak to even protect themselves," explained Count Kenmays in detail.

"Then, what if the duke isn't able to find a proper suitor during the knighthood tournament?" asked Lorist again.

Count Kenmays shrugged and said, "Then, the matter would be even easier to deal with. The victor of the tournament would be a fitting compromise even if his status and family is relatively low. But, the catch is that the husband would effectively be married into the Fisablen house, and their descendants would bear the name of Fisablen as well.

"That's why, Locke, don't let the hopes and deep feelings the princess has for you down. No matter what, you have to attend the knighthood competition during the 5th month next year! Don't let the princess get married to some powerless lowborn!"

Chapter 316 Huge Purchase

"Duke Fisablen has made Princess Sylvia his representative to sign the trade agreement with House Norton to purchase 70 thousand sets of Rider Gear Number 103, 50 thousand sets of tessellated warrior armor, and various other products of daily necessity for a total of 1.27 million gold Fordes," announced an old goateed supervisor.

He passed the list in his hand respectfully to Howard, who then passed it on to Lorist.

Lorist stared at the list for a good while before he looked at Princess Sylvia, who was sitting by his side.

"Your Highness, the trade deal we have with House Fisablen will only conclude next year. You've signed it yourself, so I'm sure you haven't forgotten about it, have you?" inquired he.

"Even if I discount your new order, each set would still cost around 65 gold Fordes. 70 thousand sets would amount to 4.6 million. The tessellated warrior armor would cost 35 gold Fordes each, for a total of 1.8 million for 50 thousand sets. The daily products you've ordered amounts to 8 million. Your Highness, can you tell me how Duke Fisablen plans to pay for all this?"

"With horsehoof gold," the princes explained, smiling.

Horsehoof gold?! thought Lorist, surprised.

Horsehoof gold was the standard currency of the grassland barbarians. Normally, they only bartered among their own tribesmen, but when there were large purchases to be made from merchants not from their land, they would use horsehoof gold. The exchange rate for each piece of horsehoof gold was 100 gold Fordes.

Even if House Fisablen eradicates 100 tribes of grassland barbarians, it wouldn't be able to gather that much money. I don't see why the barbarians haven't been hunted to extinction long ago if that really were the case. Then again, given how House Fisablen has occupied the grasslands for decades, it's not surprising for them to have at least that much in their treasury...

So, the matter I should concern myself with is why they are buying so much equipment at this kind of time? What is that old fox, Duke Fisablen, planning?

After finishing his train of thought, Lorist asked the princess, "I heard the duke has already formed two legions of 92 thousand men each. The speed with which our house has been supplying the equipment wouldn't hinder the growth of your army, and given the quality of our products, I doubt you would have so many wear out and spoil during your battles with the barbarians. Can you tell me the real reason why House Fisablen wishes to purchase 70 thousand more?

"Forgive my frankness, Your Highness. It's not that House Norton is unwilling to agree to this deal but it's obvious that Duke Fisablen is trying to expand his military. Even though your house already has two standing cavalry legions, the purchase of another 70 thousand sets of rider armor foretells the formation of yet another. As your neighbor, it's inevitable for us to be wary of your movements. I don't wish to meet you on the battlefield but before we know who the duke's target is, we cannot agree to your request."

Princess Sylvia chuckled.

"My grandfather was right. He said that if I didn't tell you the real reason, you wouldn't agree to the trade. House Fisablen has no wish to change the present or the future of Iblia. He might have wanted to make my younger brother, Hollycost, the king in the past but ever since he was diagnosed with congenital heart disease, my grandfather has cast away all such thoughts."

Hollycost truly was Iblia's legitimate heir. As the king, Second Prince Iblia had gone to Duke Fisablen to request support for amassing his army to storm the Madras duchy. But it ended up with him locked up together with the duke's daughter, the current queen of Iblia. Both were drugged with aphrodisiac to produce an heir, Hollycost.

It was common knowledge that the marriage between the second prince and Duke Fisablen's daughter was purely political. The second prince was known to be rather lecherous, even during the days of the empire, while the duke's daughter was also famed throughout the grasslands for her promiscuity, to say the least. Each had their own personal life, the two didn't interfere with each other's. The queen had given birth to two illegitimate children, while the second prince sired three out of wedlock.

In the end, the duke was no longer able to bear the state of affairs and forced the couple together and used an aphrodisiac to stimulate their 'interactions'. However, when Hollycost was born, the second prince did not even acknowledge his existence. He considered him a product of his drug-infused passion. Hollycost was left behind at the Fisablen house and was raised by Princess Sylvia.

"Oh? What condition does Little Prince Hollycost have?" asked Lorist with surprise.

"Prenatal heart disease," Princess Sylvia, sighing, "My grandfather deeply regrets it and insists it was his fault for forcing the king and queen to mate under the influence of aphrodisiac. It probably was one of the factors for Hollycost's condition. The herbalist said that it would be hard for him to even live past 20. Even doing activities like reading for long periods are dangerous for his health. This is a condition he was born with, and there's no known way of treating it."

Tears welled up in her eyes as she spoke. She had raised Hollycost with her own hands, so finding out that he had such a disease was no small shock to her.

"My apologies, Your Highness," consoled Lorist.

"It's no big deal. I'm already used to it," the princess said as she received a white cloth from Blademaster Xanthi, "Supervisor Polo, please bring the map over."

Polo was the goateed old man. He was also the supervisor for the princess's trip. Upon hearing her summons, he hurriedly brought the map over and held it open with the help of another maidservant on the other side.

It was a complete map of the northeastern grasslands, and easily one of the most detailed Lorist had ever seen. Even every spring on the grassland was marked.

The northeastern grasslands were described by some geography books as starting at the foot of the Magical Dragon Mountains. It was the northeasternmost area ever settled by humans on the continent. It had relatively level terrain and was almost five times The Northlands' size. It was said that one would require a whole month to travel from the southernmost part of the grasslands to the northernmost part on horseback.

Just like the mountain barbarians living in the Magical Dragon Mountains, the grassland barbarians were the northeastern grasslands' biggest pests. They had branched off from the mountain barbarians some time ago and turned into nomadic, herding tribes. From a young age, members of the grassland tribes would be taught horse-riding, herding, hunting and raiding the others living near the grasslands to obtain manpower and resources. The mounted barbarians were called 'the dread riders of the grasslands' and were the most elite warriors of the tribes.

They were quite a problem for Winston and Southern before the empire. Their largest invasion involved more than 100 thousand riders. They managed to make their way into the Great Andalou Plains and across Egret Lake, causing the nobles nearby to hide in their castles, unable to resist the horde at all. They had to watch helplessly as the horde crossed their lands. It was one of the worst incidents, but it was also their last moment of glory.

Following the empire's formation, the founding emperor, Krissen I, led his armies across the grasslands. After half a year of war with the barbarians, suffering huge casualties, he successfully managed to eliminate 100 thousand. He conquering what was now Wild Husbandry in one fell swoop and isolated the barbarians from the rest of the empire. Besides Eastwild, he made sure to station soldiers around the borders to ensure that the barbarians would never again encroach on imperial territory.

When Duke Fisablen did the same and conquered the barbarians again, they no longer had much vitality left in them. Apart from occasionally raids on with about 20 thousand riders, most of the time the grassland barbarians would be engaged with the two divisions of cavalry troops the duke had stationed there. Even during the civil war barbarians were unable to cross the borders defended by House Fisablen's troops.

Princess Sylvia stood up and walked to the map.

Stretching out a finger, she declared with pride, "During the 21st day of the 6th month this year, House Fisablen's 70 thousand elite soldiers successfully eliminated more than 200 thousand of the Hubet tribe's members. They suffered only 18 thousand casualties and conquered the greater and lesser golden creeks. My grandfather announced that the unified area will be a new province, named Goldcreek. The province will be ruled by our house now on."

No one present could help but gasp, especially Count Kenmays, who darted in front of the map immediately.

"You actually passed through the dense forests and Ghostshriek Cliff?! No wonder you were able to assault the golden creeks. House Fisablen literally struck gold..." stammered he.

While the terrain around the northeastern grasslands was mostly level, it was not without its hilly areas. The greater and lesser golden creeks were rather close to Eastwild but there was a natural barrier separating the two: the forests surrounding Ghostshriek Cliff. Once lost within, one would find it exceedingly hard to make it back out. Whether they be the barbarian riders or the cavalry troops of House Fisablen, going through the forests around Ghostshriek Cliff was nothing but a suicidal endeavor, and both sides viewed it as a natural, impassable barrier.

The greater and lesser golden creeks' are was famed for its gold. The magi had surveyed the area and recorded their finding in an atlas which was still passed down to the day. Gold was not a precious material during the magic civilization's era, however. Magic metals were far more useful and valuable. Even though they knew of the existence of the gold veins, no humans bothered to go mine them.

During the thousand-year dark age, the greater and lesser creeks became infested with barbarian riders that fought each other to conquer the place. In the end, the three greatest tribes managed to gain permanent occupancy. The Hubet tribe was one of the strongest, with around 360 thousand riders in their ranks. No one would have imagined House Fisablen would eliminate them in one go.

Lorist finally understood where the money came from. It was obvious that House Fisablen obtained more horsehoof gold than they could use as spoils. To think that house was busy conquering the barbarians and taking the golden creeks when the Nortons were exterminating Hanayabarta; it seemed their neighbors weren't slacking off.

"Locke, my friend, it seems House Fisablen is rich. Our salt merchant committee can increase trade volumes with them without worry. Did you know the golden creeks generate at least 1.5 million gold Fordes' worth of gold every year? That's 300 thousand gold Fordes more than our house makes in our best years!" Count Kenmays stammered.

Lorist looked at the map.

With Eastwild at the center, Goldcreek and Wild Husbandry are like two horns on its flanks. So the duke wants to purchase equipment for the new cavalry legion he's going to form in Goldcreek. The golden creeks' hilly terrain is more suitable for the settlement of normal humans than grassland barbarians. The grassland barbarians will never be able to enjoy the golden creeks again if the duke builds a few well places castles and citadels.

"My heartfelt congratulations to House Fisablen, Your Highness," Lorist congratulated, "I agree to the trade and will hasten the equipment's production to show our admiration. Please pass on my respects to the duke, especially for how he has not abused his power and stormed into the inner continent.

"To show my sincerity and concern for the brave soldiers of House Fisablen, I will donate a million gold Fordes' worth of daily necessities. I hope the duke will give them to the families of those who gave their lives during the campaign."

Donating a million gold Fordes' worth of goods was a rather generous move. Even Princess Sylvia was shocked.

"Thank you, Brother Locke..." she finally managed to squeeze out.

The agreement was signed soon after. Lorist promised to fulfill his end over two years. House Fisablen would also make a downpayment of 20 thousand horsehoof gold up front.

Only after the deal was signed and Lorist gave his word to participate in the knighthood tournament was Princess Sylvia relieved enough to travel around the dominion for leisure. She hunted, picnicked, attended dance balls, and fished in the sea until the 11th month before she left ever so unwillingly without forgetting to remind Lorist to be present for the knighthood tournament.

Chapter 317 Charade Returns from Seclusion

Lorist descended into his pool of work after sending everyone off. He did not expect that Senbaud would send over news about Shyarsia's submission. During the 9th month, Senbaud's Oceanic Legion was deployed against a Shyarsian fleet. But, after only a single volley of cannon fire, the kingdom raised the white flag immediately. They were apparently so terrified by the human-head pyramid that lost all will to fight.

Even King Lud III's cousin, the queen regent and heir to the kingdom, was poisoned by her royal uncle. She was decapitated and her head presented to Senbaud as an apology for their misconduct. The group that delivered the head also brought two million gold Fordes' worth of treasures and the king's seven-year-old younger brother from another mother, who was to serve as a political hostage.

How should I deal with this? thought Lorist in a troubled manner.

There was been no precedent for such a thing, a kingdom swearing fealty to a single independent noble house, a mere count no less. Others might not acknowledge it. However, given that Shyarsia was located on an isolated island, away from the continent, perhaps they had never seemed to be much in the eyes of the continental nobles in the first place. Add that that the Chikdor Merchant Guild had offered up their trade routes to Shyarsia, it was only natural for the kingdom to fall under the Nortons' rule.

Torin and Tok, the father and son pair, traveled with the transport ships this time. Torin reported Shyarsia's situation to Lorist in detail. He was of the opinion that the island kingdom was controlled mainly by the young king's royal uncle, Saham. The king was young and likely controlled by his uncle, a mere figurehead. It would certainly explain why he had such hatred for the man, besides the fact that it had been his uncle who'd murdered his mother.

The royal court is messy no matter where it is! thought Lorist, sighing.

"I do not want to be distracted by some Shyarsia's internal politics. I care only for their spices. Our people live a high quality of life, the common man has meat as his staple food. This is true for most of The Northlands as well. If we can obtain their spices, our profits will be immeasurable," declared he.

Lorist was prepared to form another maritime trading fleet to establish trade routes to Shyarsia as well as make it another market for the dominion's produce. The fleet would ship their products to the kingdom and bring back their spice. As for their internal power struggles, the house would not interfere as long as the kingdom could continue to supply spice.

"Milord, what do we do about the young hostage and the decapitated head?" asked Old Torin.

"Send the head back to the young king. This is such a waste of a perfectly fine crystal box. Of everything they could put in there, they chose a human head," complained Lorist with a wave of his hand, "Well, the hostage is still young, we'll put him in Nico Academy for a few years before we send him off to Dawn Academy. Whether he learns something is entirely up to him. We will make sure he lives without worries at the very least and give him pocket money equivalent to the salary of a gold-ranked knight. They did send us two million gold Fordes, after all, we shouldn't mistreat him. With him around, we'll have a contingency if something goes wrong in Shyarsia."

"Understood, Milord."

After dealing with matters, Lorist started planning where Tigersoar should train. The successful occupation of the greater and lesser golden creeks by the Fisablens made Lorist more nervous and alert; he could no longer tell whether his Tigersoar could rival the Fisablens' cavalry legions on the field of battle. In terms of unit type, their cavalry forces were standard cavalrymen akin to the Nortons' light cavalry scouts. They specialized in mobility and deftness. They could only be countered with heavy-armored units.

As for Tigersoar, even though they were cavalry too, they were mid- to heavy-armored ones whose defense capabilities rivaled that of the imperial family's royal knights. They were organized and focused on orderly formations and brute charging force. They used carroballistae for ranged attacks and steel lances for their charges. They also possessed mobile catapults for siege warfare. It was a shock unit that performed best on the open field.

If the legion was to be described as a long spear, the Ragebear knight brigade headed by gold-ranked knight Terman would be a huge hammer that smashed any formation they charged through. Their defensive capabilities were impressive beyond belief. Loze's Tigersoar troops were equipped with stainless steel plate armor, while their mounts wore steel plate for protection. Each person-and-mount pair weighed more than a ton. They were essentially the medieval equivalent of tanks. Only ballistae posed a threat to them, the normal bow weaponry and arrows couldn't do them any harm.

Had it not been for the fact that quick warhorses with great endurance were hard to obtain, Terman's knight brigade would have long expanded to a division of its own instead of the small 10-thousand-man unit it was currently. However, Lorist realized that when faced with the cavalry legions of House Fisablen, both the knight brigade and Tigersoar would find it hard gain the upper hand with charging tactics alone. The problem was that Duke Fisablen was no idiot. He was an old, cunning fox. He would no doubt use anti-cavalry tactics to suppress the Nortons' knight brigade and Tigersoar legion.

The duke used primarily light cavalry, so the knight brigade and Tigersoar cavalrymen would only be wasting their time if they tried to chase them down. In fact, if they tired their horses out, they might end up out-manoeuvred instead. But, if they did not pursue, they would be harassed and gradually worn down. Even if they didn't sustain huge casualties, it was still nothing to scoff at. As the saying went, 'one can be a thief for a thousand days, but none keep watch that long'. Being on high alert all the time would cause the troops' focus and morale to waver and they would become ripe for an ambush.

Since the best method against their cavalry is using light cavalry, should I form another legion?

Lorist discarded the idea soon after, however.

Princess Sylvia traveled around The Northlands for fun for a whole month, and per Tarkel's instructions, Furybear sent large numbers of agents posing as coachmen and servants to get in touch with the princess's cohort and gather intelligence. The endeavor proved quite fruitful. Amongst other things, they learned that Duke Fisablen had absorbed the captured barbarians into his forces. Thanks to their uptake, he had largely recouped his losses from the campaign.

The grassland barbarians were practically born and lived in the saddle, so they required minimal training to be effective. House Norton's cavalry, however, had to spend long periods of time in training and had to make use of the best armaments to match these saddled-birthed foes. For the time being, apart from not having a reliable ranged weapon that could be used on horseback, the formation of yet another light scout cavalry legion might court the objections of the house's officials. After all, the combined expenditure of the Tigersoar, Firmrock, and local defense legions amounted to more than three million gold Fordes. Even with the wealth obtained from Hanayabarta, they could not afford to be so reckless with their spending.

It'll better to let Grandmaster Sid and the rest research better ranged weapons that can be used on horseback first.

Lorist was certain that his house would not find itself in conflict with House Fisablen within the next two years, he had, after all, just signed another trade agreement with them. Additionally, if he participates in the knighthood tournament the next year, a union of marriage might form between their houses. Should he take Princess Sylvia as his official wife, House Fisablen would become his unquestioned ally and their cavalry troops would no longer be a threat to him.

Speaking of Princess Sylvia, Lorist did not quite know what to make of her. Even though the house's officials were incredibly in favor of their union, with Governor Hansk and Governor Hector writing letters to encourage the marriage as well, Lorist couldn't help but feel a little weird about what was requested of him. He had always seen Princess Sylvia as an adorable and beautiful little sister. He had never imagined she would end up falling for him.

To Lorist, the only benefit of the princess's visit was that she caused the members of his harem, especially Arriotoli, to calm down. The elder Dina mistress had discovered that, be it status, looks, battleforce, aura or family background, neither she nor her younger sister could compare to the princess. They didn't even have the right to be jealous. It was also because of the fact that almost all the officials of the house supported a union between Lorist and the princess.

Arriotoli had no choice but to stop her efforts to push her younger sister to the position of Lorist's wife and the household's matron grudgingly. Shortly after the beginning of the princess' visit, she declared her entry into seclusion for training, she intended to break through to the silver rank and become her house's first female knight. Lorist was so amused that he almost laughed out loud. He had not heard of anyone who required seclusion to break through to the silver rank, only to the gold rank and above. The angered girl instantly leaped on Lorist and gave him a few harsh bites the moment she heard what Lorist said.

Despite his desire to accomplish something for the house quickly, there was not much Lorist could do, so he sent Fiercetiger Loze with his legion to hunt herbivorous magic beasts in the wildlands and had Blademaster Shuss follow along. He himself lazed around in Firmrock Castle for the utterly uneventful winter.

He felt almost a little depressed when he reflected on his thoughts. During the decade since he returned to the dominion, he had been busy nonstop. He was always tending to one matter or another. He didn't even have many a moment to spare for himself. But now that he had nothing better to do and had to spend the end of the year at the castle, he felt a little unaccustomed to all the free time. It was one of the reasons he had gone to Morante. Unfortunately, he would not meet the peers that had accompanied him again for the winter.

Lorist felt lonely and bored.

Had it not been for the three Dinas by his side, Lorist would have joined Loze in the wildlands.

Bored beyond his wits, he decided to sweep the dominion clean of the syndicates that had just started taking hold. It proved a rather simple job since most of the members were also waiting out the winter in their homes. As he dug out the syndicates' roots, he found that over 20 household knights were involved. He needed more proof to implicate them before he could take any further action, so they were marked for further investigation. Three silver-ranked knights ended up being expelled from the house and stripped their knighthood.

When Kriston, the head of law enforcement, made his report, he pointed out that those who joined the syndicates were mostly fighters that slacked off often on their duties or had too much time. Many were from knightly, or military families, or even from the families of household officials. Some retired warriors were also among their ranks. While they frequently caused small-scale trouble, they were careful to avoid causing huge commotions. Gradually, they had grown into a force that posed a threat to the civilians and had gained monopolies over sections of the economy.

Kriston believed the best method to deal with them was to come up with strict operating protocols and increase the training and authority of the police units.

Lorist left most of the work to Kriston and had him bring the protocols and regulations to Telesti. With so many scholars over there, they would be able to draft effective regulations for the house based on the ones of the old empire.

I bet the old guys at the academy would be interested in doing that, thought Lorist.

And so, Year 1776 of Grindia passed. Apart from the near two thousand criminals that were sent to the Hanayabartan archipelago, the rest of the dominion was bathed in prosperity.

After the 3rd month's rainy season, Fiercetiger Loze and his legion returned from the wildlands and brought more than 100 thousand magic beast carcasses. Lorist inspected the legion and found that the winter hunt had allowed their abilities to mature considerably, much to his delight.

The 4th month came with good news. Charade had successfully broken through to the gold rank. At the same time, Els and Pajik, who were both training at Maplewoods, had also become gold-ranked household knights. With the addition of these three, the house now had 14 gold-ranked knights.

The month was not without its setbacks, however. Pete and Waxima had failed to break through and would require another half a year to recover from the backlash. Dulles, Jim, and former bandit Ovidis, on the other hand, were still training.

The greatest benefit of CHarade's breakthrough for Lorist, however, was that he could take over the house's administration once again. The months of sowing Lorist had done with the Dinas had also finally brought about a crop -- Dilianna was pregnant.

When Charade was caught up with the year's developments, he was surprised to find out about the Dawn Academy. After all, he was also an alumnus. He praised Lorist's involvement to encourage the academy's move to The Northlands. According to him, it was 'an act that would change the course of history for the house for hundreds of years to come'.

As only Charade could, he immediately began his planning. They would first have to gather the manpower necessary to construct the academy. It had to be built as quickly as possible. He wanted the academy ready to begin recruiting and training new students as soon as possible.

As for Lorist and Princess Sylvia's marriage, Charade had a different take on the mater, a more conservative attitude. He believed that House Norton and House Fisablen's alliance would not be without its shortcomings. Instead, he was wary of why Duke Fisablen would make such a move in the first place. House Fisablen, which controlled three whole provinces, was a force to be reckoned with, after all.

On the 15th day of the 4th month, House Norton hosted yet another general meeting. As the household's chief knight, Charade outlined their goals for the year to come. Lorist's preparations to participate in the knighthood tournament was next on the agenda. He resolved himself to bring Princess Sylvia back to his dominion for good.

Chapter 318 Viscount Eidis

"I didn't think the Winston province would be more desolate than The Northlands. I see that you two ravaged the land quite thoroughly," said Lorist when he turned to Baron Felim and Baron Shazin, who were riding behind him.

"No, this is not our fault," Felim countered, shaking his head, "We haven't touched the province since you brought us to conquer the capital. You might not believe it, but half of the new civilians in our domains came of their own accord. Winston's nobles have caused such a huge mess that we don't feel the urge to get wrapped up in it at all. Many civilians ran from the province for the sake of their survival. We didn't even need to threaten them to have them come."

Shazin nodded in agreement. They were currently on their way to Windbury for the knighthood tournament. After looking around, Lorist recalled a line from a poem he had read in his past life: Whites of bones litter the wilds, not a single chicken chirps for kilometers.

Little more than a decade ago, before the civil war began, Winston was the fourth province in the empire to have a population of over 600 thousand. Despite having only a seventh of the area of The Northlands, the trade developments were well known across the empire.

The province used to be one of the empire's largest livestock markets, with merchants from The Northlands, Eastwild, Wild Husbandry, Southern and the seven central provinces all flocking to Winston and bringing with them lots of different products and supplies.

It was said that a baron in Winston was richer than a Duke in The Northlands. Not only was the saying a point of pride for the people of the province, it also signified the mocking manner the people there viewed Northlanders. After all, even though The Northlands was the largest province of the empire, it was the poorest.

The tides of time, however, turned the whole situation around. Only ten odd years had passed since Winston was at its peak, and it was now far more desolate than The Northlands had ever been. It was probably in part thanks to the second prince's rampant scouring of resources and his military failures, but Lorist's intentional encouragement for his allies to sabotage the vitality of the province certainly played the largest part. Those that controlled the province at the moment didn't have the might to mediate between the quarreling nobles -- battles raged without end.

Winston had been relatively peaceful during the last two months, however. No nobles had gotten caught up in any territorial disputes. It was quite obviously due to Duke Fisablen's deployment of two cavalry divisions to Windbury. With the one known as 'The War God' even when the empire was still around present, even the most arrogant nobles had to think twice before taking action. Most did not dare to make a move and were on their best behavior.

Since the reason for the duke's presence was nothing alarming, the nobles were content to wait out the months of the duke's stay before taking up the feuds once again. It was also a welcome reprieve for the nobles, most of whom had been exhausted from the years of conflict. They could make the best of the short break in hostilities to prepare for their new offensives. There were also those nobles confident in their martial prowess who wanted to show off in the tournament.

Rows of mounted troops continued to travel across the ruined paths of the province. Lorist brought with him an escort of 3000 men. Patt, who had been injured during the attack on Silowas, had spent a year in the local defense legion following his recovery and was transferred back to Lorist's personal guard to become a regiment leader. Patt had been rather fortunate despite suffering injuries. After he recovered, he managed to take the beauty Martha from Whitebird Restaurant as his wife. Too bad Lorist was busy at the Hanayabarta archipelago at the time, so he could only congratulate his old rival and playmate for settling down when he returned.

Count Kenmays came with a thousand guards, while Baron Shazin and Baron Felim each had 500 men. Due to Lorist's request, the three brought only cavalry guards. They were followed by Fiercetiger Loze and one of Tigersoar's heavy-armored cavalry divisions and two carroballista brigades, who maintained about a day's distance. Should anything unexpected really happen, the 20 thousand men would be able to respond in time.

"This place is far too run down. We've already traveled for three days, yet we haven't seen a single castle. Where have the darned nobles gone?" asked Josk, bored.

Shazin struggled to suppress his laughter.

"What are you laughing at, Hennard?" barked Josk angrily.

He was the baron's old opponent. Back when the Duke of the Northlands, Loggins, sent Knight Chevany to attack the Norton dominion, Baron Shazin, or Hennard, as he was known back then, was one of the commanders of the duke's forces. Even though Josk did not personally fight against the baron, he got to know him during the time the baron was held captive. The two had developed a strong friendship in the time since then and spoke informally in private settings.

"This is all your lord's fault," Shazin said, pointing at Lorist, "You'll understand once you ask Felim about it. Back then, Locke had us raid and pillage the whole Winston precisely to make the place barely habitable, especially the stretch of road from here to the capital. We swept the area a number of times. All the nobles whose whereabouts you wonder about, we hung them all. That's why so many commoners have been flooding into our dominions."

Josk didn't comment on Lorist's use of scorched-earth. Even though Windbury's nobles weren't worth much, standing behind them was Duke Fisablen, and Lorist could not be too careful when dealing with such a dangerous adversary.

"Be patient, Josk," Shazin consoled, "We'll arrive at Dawok tomorrow. It's Viscount Eidis's dominion. His castle is there as well. The last time we led our soldiers to storm the city, the viscount knew what was good for him and donated a great sum of money and food to us. Given his rather good reputation, we spared him and his dominion. I heard he's been developing quite well during the past two years, a rare breed of good noble in Winston. He doesn't have a good relationship with the queen, so he's allied with a bunch of nobles and has quite a bit of influence these days.

"We can have a nice, filling drink when we reach Dawok tomorrow, my friend. Then again, it's all Lorist's fault that we have to hold off on the road. Even I can't stand not drinking for that long, not to mention you. My mouth's felt so tasteless during the past few days, eating only bread and dried meat on the pretense of keeping vigilant. We're going to attend a knighthood tournament! Why does it feel like we're preparing for war?!"

Shazin's complaints displeased Josk.

"Come on, Hennard, Milord's doing this for your own good. This time around, we, the four houses of The Northlands, are attending the knighthood tournament together. Milord's being extra careful about this to make sure nothing goes wrong. Otherwise, Milord could've traveled with just Els and me. It's because we need to protect the rest of you that we brought so many men with us, yet you're here complaining ungratefully."

"You... And to think that I bothered to console you. Now, you're blaming me for this instead! It was you who brought the subject up in the first place," Shazin retorted.

The messenger they sent to the capital when they arrived at Dawok return at noon the next day. He brought with him the noble Duke Fisablen had sent as his ambassador, Count Richard.

Count Richard welcomed Lorist warmly before expressing that the duke was overjoyed for the participation of the four great houses of The Northlands in his knighthood tournament. Not only that, the duke was also willing to let the four houses be in charge of the south gate of the city's defenses.

Lorist only was only truly relieved when he heard the count say that. Duke Fisablen's suggestion was obviously made with the intent of easing the four great houses' suspicions. The gesture's implication was that Duke Fisablen only wanted to organize a knighthood tournament and was not plotting anything sinister behind the scenes.

Count Kenmays expressed his thanks to Count Richard and praised Duke Fisablen's open-minded approach, not failing to mention his admiration for the house. And so, the two launched into a chain of time-wasting pleasantries, which could not be avoided - it was what etiquette demanded. Even if one was annoyed, one must always retain a smile to show one's cultured demeanor.

In the end, Count Kenmays accepted the duke's suggestion and shook hands with Count Richard in an intimate manner, like long lost brothers who had just reunited.

Viscount Eidis, who had waited for a good while, approached them and expressed his welcome. He also greeted Count Richard and invited all of them on a tour of his castle. He also organized a welcome banquet.

Dawok was rather prosperous an populous, with an estimated population of 30 thousand. What surprised Lorist was that shops and businesses lined both sides of the main street, complete with large signs to attract customers.

Perhaps seeing Lorist's surprised reaction, Viscount Eidis explained that since the second prince set Windbury as the kingdom's capital, the trade routes to it were cut as soon as the civil war began. Additionally, the livestock reared near the capital made it stink of manure. The prince couldn't stand it, so he outlawed the rearing of any livestock near the city. With the ban in place, no one dared to get involved in the business but, the last couple of years without the second prince's meddling, along with the stability of the neighboring regions, saw a resurgence in the trade. Even with the nobles duking it out amongst themselves frequently, the province still frequently saw traders from the four central duchies.

It was too late to restart the livestock in the city itself, the high entrance fees saw to that. The Queen's tax collectors cut such a huge slice off the merchants' profits, that it was hardly worth it for them. Viscount Eidis, as he had done with Lorist's invasion, had seen an opportunity. He rushed to develop a livestock market and industry in his dominion and its prosperity has not waned since.

"Even though the livestock industry here is not that big, our market still wants for furs and beast tendons," said the viscount bitterly, "Such items are valued rather highly by the armies, they buy them in absolutely absurd numbers, which is why we have so many shops just to sell those two items."

Dawok's improving economy also attracted the envious glares and greedy eyes of many nobles, many of whom had already gotten into fights and skirmishes with the viscount a number of times. The viscount was forced to ally with a number of other nobles, whose interests aligned with the survival of Dawok, in order to protect his own. The success of his town was also one of the reasons for his fall-out with the queen. Once she became aware of his success, she sent a tax collector over with a demand for 70% of the town's profits. A demand the viscount naturally refused.

"That queen's so blinded by money she's gone insane! What sane person can make a demand like that?!" exclaimed Lorist.

"That's right," Viscount Eidis agreed, frustration infused in his voice, "Even though my dominion's prosperity allowed me to profit a little, most of the money I earn is invested back into its defense. The money goes in a huge circle and has yet to achieve anything productive. And that's not taking into account the time and effort I've had to put in to train the men that man the defenses! I'm so busy that I can't even afford a good night's sleep. I'm starting to wonder if developing my dominion was even worth it…"

Lorist couldn't do anything but sympathize with the viscount's troubles. Viscount Eidis would have thrived had they been in a time of peace and stability given his keen eye for business and benevolent attitude towards his subjects. Unfortunately, this was not a time of peace and not an era of stability. His prosperity served only to attract hungry wolves like moths to the fire, only these moths could bite against the fire and the wolves could do more than howl at the moon.

Dawok was originally just 100 meters away from the viscount's castle but given the rapid expansion of the town and increase in population over the years, Dawok had already connected with the castle. A wall had already had to be erected between the two. It had four firing posts similar to blockhouses around it. The design allowed the garrison to react equally quickly and effectively whether it was the castle or the town being attacked.

Eidis's castle had a century of history behind it. According to the viscount, his grandfather was granted the title for his military achievements and took root as one of the nobles of Winston. The castle was constructed by his grandfather, whose portrait still hung within, alongside one of his father.

Eidis joked that even though both his father and grandfather were well-known gold-ranked knights, he was only a two-star silver rank without any hope of breaking through to the gold rank. His father's fame was especially prevalent in Winston, but he had perished in the empire's last invasion of the Union. It was a matter from 30 years ago and the viscount had been only 16 when he became the house's head.

Lorist could see the portraits of the viscount's white-haired grandfather and his heroic-looking father dressed in knightly armaments in the castle's great hall. At the entrance of the hall, Eidis's wife, two sons, and daughter, as well as three other noble guests, received Lorist and the rest.

Lorist greeted the viscount's wife before he presented the gift he brought with him. Ever since he exterminated Hanayabarta, he was never short on precious gifts. As expected, the sapphire-embedded platinum necklace caused the other nobles to stare with utter awe. While the materials themselves were expensive in their own right, the craftsmanship was what gave it most of its value. In the days of the kingdom, unskilled slaves would find it very hard to survive after all.

After the viscount's wife expressed her gratitude, the viscount introduced Lorist to his two sons and seven-year-old daughter. His two sons were 24 and 21 respectively. The elder was a three-star-silver-ranked knight and the younger a one-star silver rank. All of the viscount's hope of the house having another gold-ranked knight lay firmly in his two sons.

The three nobles present were the viscount's allies whose territories neighbored his. Baron Klaus's dominion was a livestock breeding-ground, Baron Wade's was farmland while Viscount Zindler's produced mainly feed. All three of the nobles dealt in activities related to the thriving industry in Dawok, which made it easy for them to ally -- they had numerous mutual interests, after all.

During the banquet, Eidis requested that he, and his three allies, be allowed to travel with their group to attend the knighthood tournament. He was worried that he would face dangers on his journey to the capital, given his sour relationship with the queen. He had yet to decide to participate precisely because of that. But, if he could travel with Lorist, they would not have to worry about their safety. Should any mishap occur, they could still make it back to their dominion through the city's southern gate.

After some consideration, Lorist agreed. The banquet ended with the guests parting on friendly terms.

Chapter 319 The Duke's Welcome

Viscount Eidis brought the two excited sons of his and 20 mounted guards along. Besides Viscount Zindler, Barn Klaus and Baron Wade brought all their children and 50 guards. To the four nobles, being able to gather up roughly 70 men was already their best. The four stared at the Northlander soldier's armor. They realized that even the knights of their household, which they cherished dearly and looked after as well as they could, did not even have equipment as complete as the Northland guards. The realization took quite a bit of wind out of their sails.

Viscount Eidis's elder son, Warridge, was the 'boss' of the other youths that followed along. In a fit of dissatisfaction, he actually challenged Els to a duel. Thus, a small sparring match was organized at noon between the descendants of the four Winston nobles and Lorist's guards. What Warridge did not imagine would happen was that his comrades actually fared rather badly from even the most common of the guards. In the end, he joined the fray himself and managed to fight Patt to a draw. Throughout the whole fight neither could gain even the smallest advantage over the other. However, Patt was still a two-star silver rank, having been unable to train when he was recovering from his injuries, while Warridge was a three-star silver rank.

Eidis and his fellow nobles seemed to have predicted such a result and were pleased that their arrogant children got put in their place. At the very least, they would reflect on their actual capabilities and not engage in any reckless or risky behavior during their travels.

It took at least a full day to reach Windbury. The scenery along the way seemed more normal than before, with the occasional noble's carriage or group of mounted knights passing them by. There were also many carriages that transported various kinds of resources to the capital, as well as some roaming knights that dressed just like normal mercenaries.

When Lorist's group resumed their travels, those in their way immediately stepped aside to make a path, even the nobles stood at the roadside and bowed respectfully. It appeared that the flag of the Raging Bear attracted the most eyes and bows.

From time to time, nobles on the side of the road would call out to Eidis. Count Kenmays was also rather busy with greetings as the number of nobles he knew did not lose out to that of the viscount. With Lorist's permission, their whole group slowed down as many other affiliated nobles wanted to travel with them. Lorist felt that Kenmays had a point when he said it was better to travel leisurely and arrive at the capital the next morning, rather than rush all the way there to arrive during the night. It would be easier to take over control of the southern gate's guard stations in the morning as well.

What Lorist wondered about was how Kenmays did not know Viscount Eidis despite the depth of his knowledge of Iblia. Even though he was entitled by the second prince and had a mercantile family background, he had quite a large network of acquaintances, as was apparent from how eight or nine out of ten nobles they passed knew him. So, why did he not know Viscount Eidis?

"Well, I've heard of Viscount Eidis before," Kenmays laughed, "but we've never met before. Frankly, I am a noble of the kingdom, just like Baron Felim. We are both in King Iblia's faction. Baron Felim knows the nobles of Southern well and is on bad terms with the queen and her faction of nobles. However, Viscount Eidis and the rest belong to the Winston faction, nobles who are known to form alliances for their own protection and staying neutral on most matters. They are also rather powerful as a whole. As long as the second prince didn't threaten their interests, they'd maintain their neutrality. They don't normally interact with the queen's faction, so it's not weird for me to not be acquainted with him."

Sheesh, to think the nobles of a small kingdom like Iblia would have so many factions, thought Lorist, frustrated.

Count Kenmays proceeded to explain that only two factions remained after Lorist captured the second prince, which were those of the queen and Winston. Without the second prince in the picture, the nobles of Southern had no choice but to join the queen's side, changing their former aim from developing their own dominions to causing trouble for Winston's nobles. Most of the conflict and provocations Viscount Eidis and his fellow nobles received were from the nobles of Southern.

The number of people on the road increased as they neared Windbury.

When the rest saw a flag that depicted a round horseshoe with a sword pierced through it, Baron Felim, who was usually calm and collected, exclaimed, "Is Bonawar going to the capital as well?"

Just as the Felim left the group and attempted to catch up, the people bearing the horseshoe flag sped up their course and quickly disappeared.

"Who's that Bonawar you mentioned?" inquired Lorist.

"That's one of the second prince's former generals. He served him during the first years after the kingdom's founding," explained Felim, "He's adept in battle and comes from a famed family of knights. He is also a gold-ranked knight. Two of the second prince's three victories were thanks to him. But, when the kingdom was founded and he was awaiting his entitlement, the second prince actually demanded a sizable donation from him. He left in a fit of rage and disappeared for good. I didn't think that he would show up here to participate in the knighthood tournament..."

Lorist nodded before he patted Felim's shoulder.

"Oh well, it's obvious that Bonawar doesn't want to interact with a huge group of nobles like us. Don't worry, you'll have your chance to meet him at the capital."

In the evening, Lorist instructed everyone to set up camp earlier than usual at a small mound not far away from the main road. During the night, when Lorist was about to start his patrol, he realized that a regiment of troops was rushing towards the capital with lit torches. When they neared, they were surprised to find such a well-guarded camp. After hesitating for a while, a few of the riders brought their torches towards the camp and requested the people at the camp identify themselves. After a squad of patrolling guards told the riders the camp was set up by nobles intent on participating in the tournament, the riders returned to their group and resumed their journey.

The night was cloudy. The dark grey puffs obscured the silver moon's brightness. Perhaps it would rain the next morning. Lorist watched the group pass by and disappear into the distance from a vantage point on the mound.

A few thousand cavalry soldiers and more than 40 carriages... Was that a merchant convoy, or one belonging to a noble?

Just as he was about to finish his thought, the squad of patrolling guards came over and reported that the group that just passed them were from the Forund duchy. It appeared the duchy's young prince would be participating in the tournament as well.

Oh, I see that word has traveled far... Even those at the four central duchies got wind of it. It goes without saying that the prince is intent on forming a union with House Fisablen. Sol, even though the four duchies' army just destroyed the the second highness's at Redlis, they're clamoring for a union. It truly is rather smart of them to garner support so aggressively. If I allow it to happen, the four duchies and the Fisablen duchy combined would be like five huge mountainous obstacles blocking my way… I must not let it happen.

Originally, Lorist did not care too much about whether he would succeed in winning the princess's hand. But, when he realized that there were others competing with him, he felt as if he had been crossed somehow and resolved to not let others soil his princess.

Noon the next day, when Lorist's group was roughly 5 kilometers from their destination, a loud horn tune was blown. The guards sent to check it out came back and reported that Duke Fisablen was on his way with more than a hundred mounted guards to receive The Northlands' four great nobles. Not only did the news surprise Lorist, Viscount Eidis and the other Iblian nobles were also shocked. Given Lorist's title and the other nobles' weak understanding of their might, it was as if the duke's welcome was a departure from normal etiquette.

Tch, that old fox is roasting me on a fire.

Lorist knew well that the duke had come to receive only him. 'Welcoming The Northlands' four great nobles' was just an excuse for the duke to see for himself the might of Lorist's house.

Given how I see him as a potential enemy, there's no doubt that he also thinks of me the same way. His subordinates suffered quite a loss at my hands, after all. Also, had it not been for the fact that I provided them with military equipment, that old fox might not even have thought of reaching his hands into the greater and lesser golden creeks...

This was Lorist and Duke Fisablen's first meeting. Under the gazes of the Iblian nobles, Lorist dismounted when the duke approached on horseback. Count Kenmays, Baron Felim, Baron Shazin, and their guards followed suit. The Norton's three allies stayed slightly behind Lorist of their own accord, whereas the guards of all four houses got into formation on two opposite sides, forming two rows of ten square formations facing each other, each numbering 500 men.

It was said that Duke Fisablen was well above his seventies. However, given that he was a rank 3 blademaster, he looked only around fifty. Alert and sharp, he saw Lorist and his cohort dismount and spurred his horse forward. He made his way through the hundred plus guards in front of him. He quickly arrived before the group and hopped off his horse with a hearty laugh before setting his gaze on Lorist.

"So, you're Count Norton. I've long heard your impressive name," said he jovially.

Lorist clutched his chest with his right hand and bowed slightly. It was the former empire's standard greeting.

"House Norton of The Northlands greets the Empire's Duke, Wargod of the Plains, Your Grace, Duke Fisablen. Let me first offer my most heartfelt congratulations on your recent successes at the plains."

Duke Fisablen stretched out his hand and patted Lorist's shoulder.

"Hehe, the Raging Bear of The Northlands, House Norton, has protected the empire's borders of for generations. I've long heard about your prestigious name. It is my pleasure to have you and your allies attend the tournament."

"Your Grace, it's our honor to partake in your knighthood tournament," said Lorist politely.

"There's no need to be so humble," the duke said, waving his hand casually, "I really meant what I said. Let me guess, this elegant and cultured person must be Count Kenmays, am I right? I've heard so much about you, but I've never had the opportunity to meet you in person. Seems like that wish of mine has finally come true."

"It is my pleasure to meet you too, Your Grace." returned Count Kenmays.

"And this collected person here with the visage of a true knight must be the descendant of the House of the Pegasus, Gold-ranked Knight Baron Felim."

Baron Felim smashed his right fist on his breastplate, making a knight's salute.

"House Felim pays our respects to the Lord Duke!" announced he.

Baron Shazin also did the same.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Lord Duke. I am Hennard of The Northlands' House Shazin. I pay my respects to House Fisablen, the renowned riders of the grasslands!"

Duke Fisablen laughed and knocked on Baron Shazin's breastplate

"What a fine man," praised he.

All the Iblian nobles greeted the duke afterwards, the latter only hummed and nodded in response before turning his attention to the guards.

He turned around and questioned Lorist, "Count Norton, is this your household's force?"

No shit. Can't you see the Raging Bear crests on their breastplate? Lorist snorted inwardly.

But he understood the duke's intentions.

He nodded and replied, "Your Grace, you are the famed Wargod of the Plains. Please rate my troops and give them some pointers."

"Attention! Pay our respects to His Grace, Duke Fisablen!"

Every time the duke passed by a square formation of troops, the regiment leader would call out in that exact manner and his subordinates would salute the duke in unison.

Duke Fisablen returned each salute, nodding as he did so.

Duke Fisablen stopped at the last formation after he finished his salute and knocked on the breastplate, helmet, and pauldrons of one of the guards. He turned to Lorist, who had accompanied him all the way.

"Kid, are you making a fool out of me? Even I can't train troops that disciplined!" he exclaimed, "Every one can become, at the very least, a squad leader in my household, perhaps even a company leader. Other things aside, they are far better equipped than even my own knights.

"Tell me honestly, are all your soldiers equipped with steel armor? The feeling I got from knocking on it is a little different... The defensive capabilities of your troops' armor are far higher than the equipment you sold me..."

As expected of an old fox. Even Count Kenmays didn't realize that my troops were armed with steel, yet Duke Fisablen was able to tell at a glance.

"Well, it's not strictly steel armor. We also added a steel mesh beneath to increase its structural integrity. However, the manufacturing costs are at least double as a result. I thought that mass production would allow me to decrease production costs, but after making 3000 sets, I realized the cost was still sky high, so I called for production to cease immediately. The armor sets they are wearing cost more than 180 gold Fordes each. Only my personal guard is equipped with this armor. We are far from capable of doing the same for the rest of our troops."

To prove his point, Lorist pulled out the steel mesh beneath the armor of one of his guards for the duke to see. A mesh could indeed be seen through the gaps of the greyish-green armor. The duke scrutinized it and gave it a few more knocks suspiciously.

Apart from that small interlude, Duke Fisablen was full of praises for the Norton forces. He did not fail to give credit to Count Kenmays, Baron Felim, and Baron Shazin's guards either. After a good while of pleasantries, they finally got back on their mounts and followed the duke into Windbury.

Chapter 320 Welcoming Banquet

As promised, when Duke Fisablen arrived at the southern gate, the soldiers stationed there quickly gathered together following another bout of the tune of welcome, before turning away and leaving the gate unattended. Only three soldiers remained to receive everyone.

"Count Norton, you may have your soldiers take over the defense of the southern gate. Those three are just here as guides and you can ask them should you require any guidance or assistance. They are well-versed with the gate and surrounding wall's layout," said Duke Fisablen as he pointed at the three garrison soldiers with his horse whip.

"Thank you, Your Grace. You are far too kind," smiled Lorist.

Patt took a thousand guards and quickly had them take up positions with the help of the three garrison soldiers.

"Oh, also, I am holding a welcoming banquet at noon for Forund's little prince, as well as Count Dalek from Shabaj and Count Chujway from Handra. I hope the four of you will attend it to for my sake. Organizing the knighthood tournament has put quite a dent in my finances, so it'll be great if you can be welcomed during the same banquet instead of having to organize another one," invited the duke with a chuckle.

"Oh, we'll be in your care then. We're more than glad to make some new friends," said Count Kenmays after giving Lorist a look to ascertain his intention.

"It's great that we'll have the opportunity to meet them. I've long heard about how the four central duchies are the most prosperous of all the dominion in the former empire. It's about time we nobles from The Northlands got to know what the trends in the central part of the empire are, so I hope you can introduce us."

"Hahaha," laughed the duke happily as he looked at Count Kenmays, "Introductions are in order of course. I didn't think that this little tournament of mine would actually attract the attention of the four central duchies. Their sudden arrival is one of the reasons I'm unable to host a banquet for your sole sake. I hope you don't mind. Let's go, the banquet's already prepared. We're just waiting for you to begin."

The banquet was being held at the Rose Palace's pavilion where the second prince used to live. When Lorist and his companions arrived, there were more than ten people in front of the pavilion waiting for the duke.

Forund's little prince, Doke, looked to be 24. Clad in noble robes embroidered with gold thread, the little prince truly looked graceful and handsome. Lorist couldn't help but think the prince was far better looking than he. Not only was he young and handsome, he was just a white mount short of ruling many maidens' dreams.

Beside Doke were two people, one of them a red-faced old man, whom Lorist recognized as a rank 2 blademaster whose abilities should be close to that of Shuss. The other was a three-star-gold-ranked knight which Lorist didn't care much for. As for Little Prince Doke himself, he was only at one-star silver rank and looked rather arrogant.

I bet this baby-faced Little Prince is going to rely on his looks to gain Princess Sylvia's favor. Well, he might possibly win if this were the world of my previous life, but it's a shame that the lass has 'a man who can defeat her in combat' as her criterion for a partner. This poor prince stands no chance at all, thought Lorist with envy while he revealed a superficial smile and greeted the other nobles pleasantly.

Count Dalek of Shabaj was a man of huge physique and seemed to be in his thirties. He was a two-star gold rank and had a rather quiet personality. Lorist took note of a trace of disdain the Count revealed in his eyes when Duke Fisablen introduced him and the rest as nobles of The Northlands.

Count Chujway of Handra, on the other hand, felt like a younger clone of Count Kenmays. He was better in terms of battleforce training, however, being a one-star-gold-ranked knight. He was sociable and charismatic and the duke treated him even friendlier than he did the Little Prince.

When Lorist was being introduced, Count Chujway asked in a cautious tone, "Lord Count, may I inquire whether Silowas Island is House Norton's?"

Lorist smiled and nodded, before following Duke Fisablen to the next person he would be introduced to. As he continued on, he noticed that Count Chujway's gaze lingered on him for an unnaturally long time.

Apart from the four central duchies' nobles, there were another three Iblian nobles present. While Lorist only barely recognized them, Count Kenmays was incredibly well-acquainted with them and even gave them hugs when he greeted them. After the introductions, Lorist realized that he had in fact interacted with the three previously. Back when he attacked Windbury, the three had represented the queen to negotiate with him.

The final two were introduced as the gold-ranked household knights of House Fisablen. One was called Blud and was a three-star gold rank, and the other was a two-star gold rank called Loseff. The two looked to be the duke's personal aides. Oddly enough, Viscount Kristoph, which Lorist had looked forward to meeting again, was not present. The duke mentioned that he was stationed at Goldcreek.

Upon entering the pavilion, Lorist realized that the banquet was in the long-table style. There were 20-odd smaller long tables arranged into two rows, much like the banquets Lorist saw before in movies of the 'Romance of the Three Kingdoms'. The only difference was that the corners of the tables were not rounded. Each table was covered with a white linen cloth and a row of round wooden stools sat on each side of the table.

Duke Fisablen naturally occupied the seat in the center of the table. Lorist was seated to his left, followed by Count Kenmays, Baron Felim, Baron Shazin, Blademaster Shuss, and Josk. Els, on the other hand, refused to sit together and joined the 500-odd guards outside, who were served hot soup, meat, and alcohol.

Standing behind Lorist was Howard, and Lorist couldn't help but notice that there were two impeccable beauties serving Little Prince Doke from behind. Count Chujway did not bring any servants with him, contrary to what his likeness with Count Kenmays might suggest. He sat alone and smiled back at Lorist when he noticed the latter's gaze.

The moment they settled into their seats, a large number of maidservants and attendants began serving the dishes. Some half-naked and muscled servants hauled a large rack with a half-ton heavy calf on it around. The calf was roasted on demand, fresh for the meal. Servants would even slice a specific piece requested by one of the nobles. A group of maidservants carrying various musical instruments performed in a corner nearby.

Duke Fisablen raised his golden cup and announced, "Ladies and gentlemen, I welcome you all to the Royal Capital of Windbury. This toast is for those who came all the way to participate in the knighthood tournament! House Fisablen is incredibly honored to receive such high regard. Cheers!"

The duke gulped down the wine in his cup before he said, "That will be all. Let the feast begin!"

Various cries rang out from the crowd that stood up to return the cheer.

"Thank you, Lord Duke!"

"Your Grace, you're being too humble!"

"You truly overstate your praise for us!".

Lorist stood up and mumbled his own share of pleasantries. Just when he was about to sit down, he heard Little Prince Doke say something to the duke.

"Your Grace, I've long heard that Princess Sylvia is the number one beauty in the whole of Iblia. I wonder if she will be present to meet us? I've been yearning to see her for myself for quite a while."

I knew it! He's here for the sole purpose of the princess!

"Hahaha..." the duke laughed heartily, "Your Highness, there's no need to be impatient. Something happened in my dominion a few days ago that required the lass' attention, unfortunately. She will be here in three or four days and I will introduce her to you all when the time comes. But let me warn you that as a result of being spoiled too much, she's developed quite a temper. I hope you will tolerate her."

Doke sat back down with a disappointed expression.

Lorist finally understood why he hadn't seen the princess since his arrival, not even during the banquet.

"Your Grace, I heard the knighthood tournament is an event held to find the perfect suitor for the princess. Is that really the case?" said Count Kenmays, standing up.

Duke Fisablen sighed lightly.

"That is indeed so. Time really flies. Sylvia has grown into such a fine lady. I can still remember when she was small like it was yesterday. She looked so weak when I cradled her in my arms. Now she's grown into such an amazing gold-ranked knight. Since she turns 25 this year, I will no longer let her delay this matter. This tournament is indeed related to her marriage. It's all her fault for setting her sights so high that so many of her other admirers were unable to match up. I have no choice but to use this method. I hope she will find a fine man to marry during this tournament."

"Your Grace, Princess Sylvia is the finest flower of our Iblia and also the most precious gemstone to ever grace our eyes. Her marriage is naturally something worthy of much consideration. What would happen if Her Highness picks a suitor of which you do not approve? After all, Her Highness is already an adult and no doubt has her own views on things. Also, if the one you find worthy to be her husband is not to Her Highness's liking, she would not live a life of bliss either," elaborated Count Kenmays a little hesitantly.

Nodding, Duke Fisablen looked at Lorist.

"You're right, Count. I've promised Sylvia that she'll have the final say. The only condition I have for the person of her choice is his sincerity to form a union with House Fisablen."

"Hehe, Blademater Fisablen, I don't agree with this notion, however," said the rank 2 blademaster who was seated beside Little Prince Doke, "We are nobles, and the marriages of the descendants of nobles have always been decided by their parents. Only commoners will be allowed to pick and choose one's spouse after spending a good while understanding each other like what the Lord Count mentioned. As nobles, we enjoy the wealth and power that comes with the household names we bear. However, the matters of our marriage are no longer a matter of our own choice. We have to consider the household and be prepared to make sacrifices for the best interests of the house. Personal bliss and happiness should not be something we factor into the equation."

"That's true, Blademaster Rimad does have a good point," said Duke Fisablen as he stroked his mustache.

"Your Grace, what if the person Princess Sylvia fancies is also someone who will benefit the Fisablen house and will become a worthy ally? Wouldn't that be the perfect scenario where everyone ends up happy?" retorted Count Kenmays.

"Hahahaha, this count speaks sense! That way, the perfect candidate for Princess Sylvia would be our very own Little Prince Doke. Your Grace, just look at how talented our Little Prince is. He's both handsome and proficient in combat. Last year, when the four central duchies' army was deployed to Frederika, it was His Highness who led the soldiers into battle! In the end, not only did we manage to exterminate the remnant forces of Second Highness Auguslo, our little prince also attained quite a number of military contributions.

"If Your Grace is willing to form a union with Forund, given how the four central duchies have backed each other, House Fisablen would get four allies for the price of one! Surely, this arrangement would be the ideal one that even the Silvermoon Goddess herself would approve of. Even though our little prince's talent in battleforce is not as amazing as that of Her Highness, given how learned and famed he is in our duchy, I'm sure Princess Sylvia would find fancy in His Highness's many talents."

Not one of those present expected rank 2 blademaster Rimad would actually spout such embarrassing words in public. Even Duke Fisablen seemed a little startled by his audacity. Little Prince Doke acted like it was the most natural thing in the world to have praises sung about him in public, which was apparent from his raised head. It seemed like he was studying the empty ceiling intently.

Lorist lost control of himself completely and laughed.

Oh my, the Little Prince is nothing but a spoiled brat... I'm sure he's heard so many sycophantic praises that he's gotten completely full of himself!

A low voice rang out on cue with Lorist's laughter.

"Oh, the Little Prince led his troops on the battlefield himself, you say? That can't be right, why didn't I see House Forund's standard when I called for reinforcements?"

The one who spoke was Count Dalek. Even though the four central duchies were allies, Count Dalek didn't have to give the little prince any face as a noble of the Shabaj duchy. While he wouldn't care if Blademaster Rimad only wanted to make his little prince seem better, he had an issue with the blademaster's exploitation of the battle for Frederika.

"Hehe, Dalek my friend, everyone knows that you lead the main forces and were the first to breach Frederika's walls. However, Shabaj was only occupied with attacking the north gate, Forund took care of the south gate. It's no surprise that you weren't able to see us," countered the three-star-gold-ranked knight that came with the little prince.

However, Count Dalek gave him a weird look.

"The south gate? Wasn't that part occupied by the Union? What business did you have over there? It's no wonder we were only able to spot Forund troops after we beat the Union."

"Pffft!" Baron Shazin and Baron Felim couldn't help but spit out the wine they had in their mouths.

The gold-ranked knight wasn't able to step down from his 'podium', so he directed his anger at his new targets.

Staring at the two barons angrily, he yelled, "What's so funny?!"

"Oh?" mumbled Baron Felim as a cold look flashed across his eyes.

He didn't fear Forund in the least, but just before he was about to make his retort, Baron Shazin stole the spotlight

"I didn't know we needed your permission to laugh during Duke Fisablen's banquet!"

The moment the statement was made, the three-star-gold-ranked knight snapped out of his anger and realized that he was attending a banquet hosted by the duke. He wasn't in Forund and couldn't afford to act brashly. Stealing a glance, he saw that the duke wore a dark expression. He turned to the house's knights and could see their deathly stares aimed straight at him.

At that moment, Rimad stood up to defuse the situation.

"Come on, even if the wine served by the duke is that good, you shouldn't have gotten that drunk! How embarrassing. As a gold-ranked knight, you should be preparing for the upcoming tournament instead of mouthing off at other people. Your Grace, we're very sorry about this."

Duke Fisablen waved his hand.

"It's no big deal. I heard you guys conquered Frederika last year and eliminated the second highness' remaining forces. Can you tell me more about the battle?"

"I would be glad to, Your Grace," answered Rimad.

Chapter 321 Count Chujway's Narrative

"Your Grace, even though I'm a Forund blademaster, I'm not too informed about the specifics of this matter. We were led by our little prince to reinforce the front at Frederika in the later stages of the battle. As Count Chujway was also present during the campaign, I'm sure he's the one that has the best grasp of the situation. I think we should have him tell us about it instead," said Blademaster Rimad.

Duke Fisablen nodded as he turned to Count Chujway.

"Lord Count, could you tell us about the battle? As a military man myself, I'm really curious how the surprising result came about. When I heard that the second highness occupied Frederika, I thought his victory was already set in stone. I didn't expect the tables would turn completely only two short years later. It is truly shocking. I'm sure you have lots to say as someone who was there."

Count Chujway had not expected to become the centre of attention. He cursed Rimad under his breath before standing up and giving Lorist a glance, only to see his curious expression, much to his relief.

"Your Grace. We did indeed take part in the conflict but it was only because the four central duchies had no choice but to resist the second highness's advances. We did so only in self-defense originally. The later developments are far from what we desired. They forced us to fight."

Nobody expected the count to speak of the battle in such a way. Little Prince Doke, who had little to do with the battle, only humphed with dissatisfaction as if he was displeased with the count's apparently self-praising words. Rimad and the gold-ranked knight were even more surprised. Count Dalek remained seated with a melancholic look.

Count Chujway took a deep breath before he continued.

"As everyone knows, the four central duchies have always been the main load-bearing pillar of the empire. Of the 29 provinces that comprised the empire, the eight that make up the four central duchies occupy 45 percent of the empire's territory. In the days of the empire, whether it was conflicts with external forces or internal revolts, the dukes have always been the ones to lead the effort to defend the empire's interests and contributed to the empire. Even during the 170 plus years of conflict with the Union, the four central duchies contributed the most.

"During the civil war, when the three princes fought for the throne, we four dukes had no choice but to protect the prosperity of our territories by forming our own armies. Even during such a straining time, we still offered a lot of help to the third prince because we respected his imperial heritage. However, following Duke Madras' revolt, things started going down a path no one expected. The empire eventually split into the three kingdoms and seven duchies.

"Even though we declared our independence, we didn't fail to unite against the first prince's threat. Two years of draining resistance against him finally lead to our victory. But right after we started recovering, the second highness sent his forces over and made unreasonable demands to say the least. We were once again forced to come together to face an external threat."

"Oh, what sort of demands did the second highness make?" asked Duke Fisablen, stroking his moustached chin curiously.

"He demanded we accept the relocation of our dominions and wanted our forces to attack the Madras duchy," replied Count Chujway.

Duke Fisablen pulled a few hairs off his moustache in shock.

"Was the second highness out of his mind? Wasn't he practically making enemies out of allies with demands like that?!" exclaimed he.

Count Chujway shrugged.

"Even I don't know what he was up to when he made those demands. Everyone knew they were unreasonable and that we would never accept. We have held these lands for almost three centuries. Much like what Duke Farkel had claimed, we had long deeply integrated with the lands over which we rule. Nobody can make us leave.

"When the second highness ascended to power in the Andinaq kingdom, we were even glad and rested our hopes for a reunified empire on him. To us, being nobles of the mighty Krissen Empire was a sign of pride. We have proclaimed that we are willing to relinquish our independence and reunite with the empire should it be required.

"We didn't expect the second highness would suddenly defeat the first prince, lead his forces to our doorstep, and make his ridiculous demands. He also intended to put the eight provinces under his royal family's direct control. Our peerage and fief would be decided by our contributions in the campaign against Madras.

"We finally understood that the second highness considered all of us traitors. Not only were we enraged, we were also incredibly disappointed. We sent a representative to voice our objections to the second highness, but nobody was able to see him. All we heard was that he had fallen incredibly ill. We thought it was an excuse for him to avoid seeing us. It made us boil with rage. We implored the four dukes to form a coalition army to resist the threat and support Redlisian nobles. We used them to push back against the second highness's forces.

"No one wanted to be a traitor, but the circumstances forced us to become the second highness's enemies. We didn't intend to push him all the way back at first. We only wanted to station our troops on the borders to discourage the second highness from taking action against us. We didn't think that the claim that he was really sick was actually true. Without him there, the army kept fighting losing battles with Redlis' nobles. 70 thousand men were even lured into a trap and washed away by flood waters at one point. The situation changed completely in a moment. The frontlines only stabilized once the second highness returned to the frontlines.

"To be honest, while our army didn't have any huge conflicts with the second highness, we did pay quite a price. The six years of peace allowed us to recover some of our vitality, but the second highness's army actually put quite a bit of pressure on us considering the threat we pose. Even though the second highness mobilized his troops to exterminate Redlis' army, nobody was quite sure when the axe the second highness was pointing at Farkel and Handra would fall.

"During the empire's most prosperous time, the eight central provinces' population was around three and a half million. It was the best place to be in the entire empire. Apart from the great Andalou Plains, where the imperial capital is situated, no other province could rival the central provinces' level of development. But the population has decreased to two point eight million since the civil war. Not long after the civil war, the first prince's forces invaded and caused lots of chaos. In his wake cam starvations, plague, and genocide. Our population fell even further, to around 2 million, in just two short years. We lost nearly half our population to the war and the invasion."

Count Chujway wore a tense expression.

"The four central duchies do not want war. We seek only peace. However, the second highness didn't come for peace, he wanted to force us to abide by his demands and put us on his bandwagon. He threatened to declare us traitors if we didn't obey. We had no choice but to form our own army as a failsafe. We stared each other down across our borders, but, after a year, we'd used up our resources. What's even worse is that we'd conscripted most of the young men, so there was no one to plant a new generation of crops. It seemed we'd face another food crisis for at least 2 years."

"I apologize for interrupting, Count Chujway, may I ask how the second highness was able to feed his army for that long, considering the fact that the four central duchies have a hard time feeding themselves?" interjected Lorist.

"Oh, according to my understanding, the second highness had about 270 thousand soldiers when he was in Redlis. He also had another 120 thousand former Redlis troops stationed at Kanbona. Originally, the second highness only brought the first local defense legion with him and had the surrendered soldiers launch an attack to the Redlisian nobles. It didn't end well. Most of the attacks were complete failures, and the war dragged on.

"When 70 thousand of his soldiers were washed away by the flood, the second highness lost all confidence in his indentured forces and transferred the third local defense legion from Andinaq to reinvigorate his campaign. The first legion would unite with the indentured forces and put pressure on us. There were 130 thousand men in total that threatened to attack us.

"When the second highness conquered Frederika, he also got hold of all the arms and resources the first prince had been gathering. We estimated it'd last eight months. We thought the war might end soon with his victory. We didn't expect the Redlisian nobles to continue to hold out. Even with his army 100 thousand men lighter, it seems the second highness still felt it was just too wasteful to feed all of them all through the winter.

"It was then when the second highness employed three methods to curb the consumption and raise the morale of the frontline troops. The first was his orders for food expropriation, where the army would extort all the food produced by the commoners of the Redlis kingdom and leave them with a small share cooked as porridge so that the frontlines could remain fed. After that order, the second highness was in direct opposition of the commoners of the Redlis kingdom and revolt after revolt had to be quelled.

"The second method was confiscating the wealth and resources of the noble houses of the Redlis kingdom and using the confiscated goods to reward the soldiers that survived the winning battle. With that, he was able to restore morale to his troops, but he pushed the neutral nobles to their tipping point and forced them to join the revolting nobles, hence their sudden surge in power and subsequent surf to multiple victories.

"The last method was to transport food from the Andinaq kingdom to solve the food crisis. However, given how far the journey would be and the frequent raids by the revolting nobles, only around 15 kilograms per 50 kilograms of food transported would arrive at the destination. So, the soldiers at the frontlines were only half-fed at most, with their stores frequently hitting the three-day-remaining mark.

"The four duchies' chief commander, Duke Farkel, aptly realized that there was an opportunity to be grabbed. Following the surprise occupation by the forces of the Union at Kanbona Province that cut off the logistics route from the Andinaq kingdom to the Redlis kingdom, Duke Farkel ordered for us to gather livestock and have them cooked into stew to solve the hunger problem we faced when standing off against the second highness's other forces."

"I have another question. Why were the nobles of the Redlis kingdom, meaning those of Anderwoff Province, resist the second highness so desperately? According to my knowledge, the nobles of Anderwoff Province don't get along with the first prince and even formed their own union to resist the first prince's infringement on their interests., The second highness, someone who has conquered the Redlis kingdom at that time, should know about this well, and that he would require the help of those nobles if he wanted to stabilize the Redlis kingdom. What happened to cause the second highness to become lifelong enemies with the nobles of Anderwoff Province? Do you know about that, Count Chujway?" asked Lorist again.

"Hmmm," the count murmured in thought, "I think I know part of the reason. I've met some nobles from Anderwoff Province before and they said that the second highness's conditions were for their titles to be downgraded and their fiefs to be moved. They were also asked to pay a tribute to make amends for following the first prince into rebellion, hence the crumbling in negotiations. The nobles there only wanted to not cooperate with the second highness because of that at first, but they didn't think that he would strike them first instead, causing a few noble houses there to be exterminated. So, they had no choice but to rebel."

Lorist smiled bitterly and thought, he really let all the power get to his head. The Second Highness actually thinks he can claim the realm with only a few hundred thousand soldiers. Even though he already suffered a loss from the nobles of Anderwoff Province, who would've thought that he'd repeat the same mistake with the four central duchies, forcing former allies to become enemies? He had all this coming for him.

While downgrading a peerage and relocating a fief was a decent method to decrease the power of a noble house, it could only be used in certain circumstances where one has complete control over the situation. The second highness had failed in that regard as he perceived himself to have the control he did not possess just because he had a decent number of soldiers with him.

"Oh, and Count Chujway, did you guys manage to find the second highness after conquering Frederika?" asked Count Kenmays.

"We didn't. Nobody was able to find out where he went. He disappeared without a trace just like the first prince. ACtually, the four central duchies intended to sit back and relax after we defeat the 100 thousand soldiers he stationed at the border and not engage in other conflicts with the second highness. However, he actually had Duke Melein's army backstab us from the Shabaj duchy, raiding and pillaging as they went across the weakly defended areas, killing thousands of women and children and incurring our wrath.

"It was at that time when the Union sent over their representative. In the end, the four dukes decided to attack Frederika, with each duchy supplying 20 thousand soldiers with the rest of their forces focusing to drive out that of the Melein duchy. On the 21st day of the 7th month, our army surrounded Frederika and requested for the surrender of the second highness and even guaranteed his life. But that proposition was refused by a gold-ranked female knight who was in charge of the city's defenses."

"A gold-ranked female knight?" asked Lorist, sitting straight up.

"Yes. The second highness has one female and five male gold-ranked generals, collectively known as the flower and five tigers, who are his most trusted subordinates. The female gold-ranked knight was called, Nor... Gl-Glacia..." In the midst of realization, Count Chujway slowly turned to peek at Lorist, feeling chills down his spine.

Chapter 322 Duel

"Ahaha, what a shame, I heard the second highness' female knight was quite the beauty. Rumour has it she was even his lover. It's a shame we weren't able to spot either of them when we conquered Frederika. What a shame. I would've liked to meet her, and perhaps make her my concubine, hehe," Blademaster Rimad commented, much to Count Chujway's relief, given that he was no longer the center of attention.

"Is that so?" asked Lorist as he flashed the blademaster a chilling glance.

The glance made even Howard, who was standing behind him, freeze when he felt the seething killing intent radiating from Lorist.

Lorist looked at Count Chujway.

"Can you tell me about the second highness' subordinates? He must have many fierce knights at his disposal. Can you tell me about the other five male gold-ranked knights you mentioned?"

"But of course, it would be my pleasure," said Count Chujway as he stood up and wiped away another drop of sweat on his forehead.

Count Dalek, who was seated to the left of Count Chujway, looked at him with a weird gaze. He could feel that something was going on.

It's as if he's afraid of the little count. He's acting even more respectfully to him than the duke.

"Actually, the second highness had around 20 to 30 gold-ranked knights, around 300 silver-ranked knights and two rank 1 blademasters by his side. The two blademasters, however, were hired by the Andinaq royal family to protect the third prince, and had only been assigned to the second highness's side following the former's death.

"Among the second highness' many gold-ranked knights, the ones he trusted most were the flower and five tigers. The flower is the elegant gold-ranked knight, Glacia, and she was the leader of the second highness's personal guard. She could give orders on behalf of the second highness. The five tigers were the other five gold-ranked knights. While they might not have been the best at combat among the second highness's men, they were the ones best at leading soldiers.

"The one that is the commander of the first local defense legion is Bowen Ketty, a three-star gold rank, who's said to have been by the second highness for the longest time. The commander of the second local defense legion is Sysraid. The other three are division commanders. One of them, Gold-ranked Knight Ribalo, was made the commander of the indentured legion. When he lost 70 thousand soldiers in the flood, he could not bear the humiliation any longer and fought to his death.

"The other two-star-gold-ranked knight, Bensji, and one-star-gold-ranked knight Yaritom, are both long-time subordinates of the second highness as well. Yaritom, however, didn't accompany the second highness to Redlis. It seems he was injured during an assault on the manor of a noble from Anderwoff and was sent back to Andinaq to recover. The ones trapped at Frederika were the female gold-ranked knight and the two legion commanders.

"We searched Frederika for a long time after we took it but didn't find the female gold-ranked knight or the legion commanders. We suspect the second highness left with his most-trusted subordinates and escaped the city during ir just before the beginning of the assault. The most frustrating part is that this group disappeared all of a sudden like the first prince. We didn't find anything even after conducting extensive searches."

"Count Chujway, may I ask about two friends of mine that serve the second highness? One is called Karitok and the other, Sander. They were three-star silver ranks around five years ago. I wonder if you've heard of them and know where they are?" asked Lorist.

Count Chujway furrowed his brow for a good while before he shook his head

"I apologize, Count Norton. I don't recall hearing those names before. I've personally checked the list of captured or killed gold-ranked knights but I don't remember seeing the names. There were only three three-star-silver-ranked knights that surrendered to us, but they were not them either. I can't confirm whether they perished in battle or not but I'll check it for you when I return. I'll send someone to inform you if I find something."

"I am most grateful for your assistance," thanked Lorist, saluting.

"Don't worry about it, Count Norton. It's my pleasure to be able to help," replied Count Chujway, returning the salute.

"Hahaha," laughed the gold-ranked knight sitting beside Little Prince Doke as he pointed to Lorist.

"No way, Count Chujway, are you actually afraid of a little noble from The Northlands? Haha, this is too ridiculous... Are you intentionally playing the fool?" asked he.

"Shut it!" exclaimed Count Chujway, his expression morphing into one of rage.

"Count Chujway, please take note of your stature. You are a count of the four central duchies! You don't have to lower your head to stray dogs and cats! Remember who you represent!" hissed Rimad.

Bam!

Josk thumped on the table and stood up.

He pointed at the blademaster as he barked, "Old fool! Who did you call strays?!"

Enraged, Rimad retorted, "You dare to point at me like this?!"

The rank 1 blademaster seated beside Josk stood up and made a beckoning gesture to Rimad, causing the latter's face to flush.

He actually dared to challenge me? Ridiculous!

Just as he was about to stand up, he suddenly felt the blademaster emit a thick aura of blood. Petrified, he remained seated as if his arse was glued to the stool.

Rimad was no idiot and had heard his fair share of stories of rank 2 blademasters being killed by rank 1 blademasters. In the world of blademasters, only those almost at the swordsaint level would not be provoked. A talented rank 1 blademaster had a real chance of defeating a rank 3 blademaster under the right circumstances.

That rank 1 blademaster must be someone who broke through thanks to countless bloody battles. Even though he's rank 1, it's best for a rank 2 blademaster like me to lay low. No blademaster who broke through using battles is easy to deal with, thought Rimad with regret for the words he had uttered.

"Your Grace, look," said Rimad as he turned to the duke with a troubled expression, as if he had been provoked by Josk and Shuss through no fault of his own.

"Hmm...?"

Duke Fisablen was looking forward to the show, he didn't think Rimad would shift everyone's attention to him. If the two sides had clashed, he would be able to find out more about Lorist's strength and mediate after a side had obtained victory. But since he had been asked to intervene as host, he had no choice but to act.

"Count Norton, Rimad only mouthed off casually without being specific about who he was talking about, so please don't be so tense. Sit back and relax, here's a toast to you."

Given that the duke himself had spoken, Lorist waved his hand lightly to gesture Josk and Shuss back to their seats.

However, the storm was far from over. Just when the two were about to sit back down, Doke chuckled.

"Wow, these little nobles have quite the temper! What's wrong with calling you strays? Your Grace, I don't understand why we had to wait outside for so long to receive these barbaric uncultured folk. On what basis do they deserve our welcome, the ones who defeated the mighty 300-thousand-strong army of the second highness? I want a satisfactory explanation, Your Grace."

It was apparent that the little prince was dissatisfied at being asked to wait and welcome Lorist's group. As Duke Fisablen didn't personally receive him, on what basis did the Northlanders deserve the duke's welcome? He took it as an affront to the four central duchies.

A loud thump resounded from the table once more, this time Baron Felim and Baron Shazin joined Josk and Shuss.

"What did you say?!"

Doke rolled his eyes without a care.

"Well? Was I wrong? Northlander barbarians will be Northlander barbarians. They don't care about noble etiquette at all."

Lorist laughed lightly, rose from his seat, and waved the others to calm down. They grudgingly obliged and sat back down, glaring at the little prince.

Lorist looked around before he waved to a guard by the entrance.

"You, come here."

Surprised, the guard pointed at himself, and looked at the duke, only to see him nodding. He hurried to Lorist's side.

"Milord, what are your instructions?"

"Apologies, let me borrow this for a bit."

With a swift movement, Lorist took the guard's left gauntlet. The armor the guard wore was of the rider gear number 103 make, the design House Fisablen had purchased from the Nortons. The gauntlet was made from iron plate with an inner lining of leather. It weighed quite a bit.

"Thank you, I'll return it shortly," said Lorist as he turned around.

A moment passed and the gauntlet flew through the air in a straight line. It's flight terminated in the little prince's face. As if he was clobbered by a giant's palm, the prince groaned, grabbed onto the iron gauntlet, and clutched his nose. Blood and tears flowed all over his face.

"The fuck did you do?!" Rimad cried out as he stood up, accompanied by the gold-ranked knight.

Both glared at Lorist. The knight had already drawn his sword and stood in front of Doke as if he was faced with his worst adversary.

"Calm down. Didn't Little Prince Doke claim that we didn't know noble etiquette? That is a dire insult to our house's honor. I thought it best to repay it with blood. In a most noble fashion, I have challenged him to a knight's duel. He has taken up the gauntlet and accepted my challenge. I am delighted to see he still has some guts. Well, Little Prince, are you ready? Take your time to prepare for the duel."

Lorist stepped to the center of the pavilion.

"You two, stand aside. This is a matter between your prince and I. Are you prepared to violate the sacred tradition of the duel? What weapon will he carry? An axe, a spear, or perhaps a longsword? Maybe he wants to compete mounted? I'll leave him the luxury of choosing the manner in which we duel."

"A duel," muttered Rimad and the knight as they turned to see Doke holding the iron gauntlet.

Hell, aren't you supposed to throw a white glove? Those Northlander barbarians really don't know their etiquette. How can one throw an actual gauntlet? Wait, there's no saying that one can't... No, don't get distracted. The issue is that the little prince picked the gauntlet up and accepted the duel! Oh, Lord Singwa, what can we do?

Doke finally recovered and waved the gauntlet in his hand, teary-eyed.

"Kill... Kill him! He... He flung this straight at me!"

"Yo-your Highness... He tossed over a glove to request a duel. You picking it up means that you accepted it! You have to fight him!"

Count Kenmays, Baron Felim and the rest fanned the flames even further.

"Yes, it's a duel! I guess I misread the little prince after all! He's got guts! To duel Locke to the death... Haha, he must want his corpse cut into eight pieces!"

"Stand forward! Let us all witness the bravery of the four central duchies' nobles!" roared Josk.

"What? A duel to the death... No, I won't do it!" Doke cried.

He glanced at the gauntlet in his hand and threw it to the ground.

"Your Highness!" exclaimed Rimad and the knight, panicked.

Holding the gauntlet but refusing the duel would spell the end of the Forund nobility's honour. Doke would have to bear the name of a coward for the rest of his life.

"I-I didn't think this was a glove... If I knew, I wouldn't have caught it... I... I won't duel that lowly savage! Given his status, he's far from qualified to duel me!" argued the youth stubbornly.

"Your Highness, that won't do. If you don't accept the duel, the duchy's reputation will be tainted forever! Trust me, if His Grace knows about this, you'll lose your right to the throne for sure! It's alright if you go to duel him. This Count is only an iron rank. A silver rank like you will definitely win," advised the gold-ranked knight.

"N-no way... That guy's so strong and huge, there's no way I'll be his match..."

"I say, are you done deciding yet? Your Highness, if you don't dare to duel me, I will allow you to nominate a champion to fight in your stead," said Lorist impatiently.

"Is... Is that true?" asked Doke, delighted.

He quickly pointed at his gold-ranked knight.

"Henriman, you shall duel in my stead."

Henriman drew his sword and walked in front of Lorist. Relieved, the prince recovered his former arrogance.

"Henriman, teach him a good lesson! Cut off his hands and tear off his mouth!"

"Are you not going to draw your sword?" groaned Henriman angrily, his expression turning cold.

"Using a sword against someone like you would stain my honor," Lorist replied.

Henriman was so angry that his hair stood on end. His vein popped on his arms and forehead from his iron clasp on his sword's hilt.

"M-man you're frustrating! D-die!"

A golden blade glow manifested on his sword he leaped forward.

All the observers saw was Gold-ranked Knight Henriman's silhouette flashing past Lorist's figure before they heard a soft thump. Henriman, standing behind Lorist, had stopped moving. He tried to reach for his neck, but when his hands reached his chest, he collapsed. His face dug into the ground. His last movement was two twitches.

One move! Lorist had killed a three-star-gold-ranked knight in one move. And with his bare hands!

Chapter 323 Intelligence Center

"Milord, Count Chujway definitely knows about our might. He seems to be quite fearful of you. But what I don't understand is why Forund's little prince, his knight, and that blademaster don't seem to know about the situation.

"Didn't you provoke them to send someone to avenge the knight? I saw Count Dalek was just about to stand up but Count Chujway stopped him almost reflexively," said Howard.

They were currently on their way to the inn. After Lorist's killing of the gold-ranked knight, Henriman, everyone present was completely flabbergasted. Even Duke Fisablen, who was prepared to enjoy his show, had his eyes popping out of their sockets as he stared incredulously at the knight's corpse.

In one move, one instance of crossing figures, the knight's throat had been completely obliterated. Only the most agile body movement, and lightning-fast reactions, could make a three-star-gold-ranked knight like him lose his life so helplessly. Even if Baron's Felim and Shazin were confident they could beat the man, they certainly couldn't do it in any less than a few hundred exchanges. They might have to trade an injury or two.

Duke Fisablen was completely shocked, Blademaster Rimad stared terror-stricken at the corpse, while Blademaster Shuss watched admiringly. The last sparred with Lorist regularly, so he could see that Knight Henriman's frenzied charge was what had sealed his fate. Lorist merely gave a small step forward to mess up his position. The momentum Henriman built up along the way prevented him from pulling out of his attack; he could only watch as Lorist's hand reached for his throat... and crushed it.

This is absolutely sublime, Shuss had thought, awed by Lorist's movements.

Blademasters at that level had to be close to becoming swordsaints. Lorist was only 34. People able to reach the gold rank at his age were already considered absolute geniuses.

But Milord is no genius... he's a monster. He's already a quasi-swordsaint at such a tender age, it would be more surprising if he didn't advance to the swordsaint rank than if he did...

Josk urged his horse to Lorist's side.

"Did Milord notice that Count Chujway tried to make it sound like the four duchies were the conflict's victims, unlike those arrogant Forund idiots? I think Howard has a point; the count definitely knows our house well."

"Hehe, you've noticed it too? Well, how about this... Take a few guards when we get to the inn and invite the count over. I have a few questions for him," answered Lorist.

Lorist had smiled after killing Henriman and asked the little prince whether he would like to send someone to take revenge but the young man was already so terrified that his bladder let loose as he shook his head. Lorist felt there was no point in staying any longer and bid the duke goodbye. Duke Fisablen knew that Lorist already had an inn reserved near the south gate, so he didn't stop him from leaving.

Not far from the gate was an inn called Anna's Abode. It was five storeys tall. The first floor was a tavern and the four above it rooms. Anna's Abode was quite well known in Windbury, not for its service, but for the tragedic story linked to it.

During the fifth emperor's reign, Windbury was a city that had just recently developed its livestock trade. There used to be an old grocer's where Anna's Abode now stood. Its owner's daughter, Anna, was a mute. She was a gentle and sweet girl who frequently took in stray animals and even looked after orphans.

When Anna grew up, she was married to a hard-working young lad and the two ran a humble little grocer together and adopted just over ten orphans as their own. The couple eventually saved up enough money, along with their inheritances to build a two-story building. The lower floor was made into a tavern and the upper floor into rooms which they rented. Because of their sincere and honest service, their business fared rather well and Anna also had more than enough money to rear the stray animals and orphans she so frequently took in. The couple eventually expanded the building to five floors.

Unfortunately, the expansion drew the attention of several greedy nobles. They charged her husband with smuggling, had him arrested, and threatened Anna with his life should she not sell the business and the building to them for one imperial gold coin. She had no choice but to accept.

When they received word of her acceptance, the nobles did indeed return her husband but as a mutilated corpse. Anna's mind crumbled when she saw her husband. She knelt at the city's hall for three days and nights straight before letting out a despairing cry and banging her head against the flag pole's stone base to her death.

During her three-day catatonia, there were thousands of citizens who surrounded the city's hall and offered her food. She touched none of it. She did not move when others advised her to either. The citizens rallied together to make sure the city administration gave a satisfying resolution to Anna's case, but the mayor just holed up in his manor. Unfortunately, before the people could pressure the mayor into taking action, Anna committed suicide.

Her death sparked the first recorded civilian revolt in the empire's history. Countless angry citizens and merchants set fire to the city's hall. They broke into the mayor manor and hung him. When word of the revolt reached the imperial capital, the enraged emperor sent someone to investigate the matter. The most laughable part was that the first ambassador was bought off by the nobles involved in Anna's case. He put the blame for the whole matter on the mayor. The protesters, however, refused to accept this conclusion and flooded the city with armed bands.

In response, the first ambassador ordered the nobles of the province to mobilize their forces and suppress the revolt. The nobles outside the city, however, refused to take action. They were convinced the fault lay not with the citizenry, but the greedy nobles. When word of their refusal reached the emperor, he ordered the imperial family's knights deployed and tasked the brigade's commander with the issue's resolution.

When the knights arrived at Windbury, the armed bands surrendered and opened the city gates right away. They also submitted a letter of complaint that detailed the chain of events and requested the nobles be punished.

Confronted with such a clear statement of fact, the imperial knights took immediate action. They killed all the nobles involved, around two-thirds of the nobles in the province were stripped of both fief and peerage. The first noble ambassador sent to deal with the situation was also hung as a result.

In the history of the Krissen Empire, Windbury's revolt was quite a well-known event. It was also the first confrontation between the imperial family and the rest of the nobility. While the imperial family weren't able to stop the nobles from governing their own territory, they definitely wouldn't allow them to stretch their hands into imperial territory. Windbury and a few other major cities were under the imperial family's control, and the nobles enjoyed decreased tax rates for conducting business there. Their intent to procure the citizen's businesses there was akin to reaching their hand for the imperial family's profits.

Because of the incident, Krissen V suspended many business operations the nobles had in the city and that was why many considered Krissen V's 35-year reign the empire's golden age.

Nowadays, Anna's Abode was run by the couple's relatives and descendants. Even during the second prince's reign after Iblia's founding, nobody dared to reach their hands into the inn's business. To the nobles, the building was a disaster waiting to happen, so the demographic of the inn's customers was dominated by merchants and mercenaries. Almost no nobles bothered to stay there.

Anna's Abode's business had suffered quite a lot in recent years, though. So much so that they were just barely hanging on. Lorist didn't mind, however, and reserved the whole inn to accommodate his entourage.

"Milord, Tarkel and Reidy have been waiting a good while for you," reported Howard.

"Oh, have them come in right away," Lorist said as he wiped his face, "Also, have the servants bring a bathtub and some hot water. I want to soak for a while."

The two soon arrived. They had been at Windbury for two months already, first to set up Furybear's intelligence center, then to check whether the duke had some hidden agenda with the knighthood tournament.

"How are things going?" inquired Lorist.

"Milord. We've united the city's three underworld syndicates into one organization and its new leader has already pledged allegiance to Furybear," Reidy informed, stepping forward.

Lorist pinched his nose.

"The smell of blood on you is thick."

Reidy shrugged, a gesture he picked up from Lorist.

"Had no choice. There were too many that knew too much for their own good. I had to send them back to Singwa's paradise for eternal rest."

Lorist turned his gaze to Tarkel, who reported, "Milord, the one backing Lunika, one of the three syndicates, was Viscount Vizinska. He was a noble from the Southern and in the queen's faction. The queen trusted him deeply. Reidy 'helped' him fall from his horse. He's dead.

The queen thinks her father, Duke Fisablen, had a hand in it and their relationship is rather tense for it. Despite no longer having Viscount Vizinska's support, Lunika thought they could continue their rule on their own merit. Sir Reidy tried to negotiate with them last night but it didn't turn out well. So far, about eight of Lunika's leaders are still alive. Sir Reidy killed the other 34."

"Did Duke Fisablen make any noteworthy moves?"

"Nope, we've been investigating him thoroughly for the past year but we haven't notice House Fisablen doing anything suspicious. The duke's probably genuinely trying to host the tournament. He spent around 50 thousand gold Fordes to demolish the city's slums and built four large, square stadiums for the tournament. Some of our informants have infiltrated the mercenary groups defending the four stadiums and are monitoring everything. They'll report any sudden changes they discover."

"You did well. How are the nobles reacting to the queen and duke's relationship?"

"Apart from the queen taking ten thousand gold Fordes from the duke's pockets after a huge argument, the other nobles obediently cooperated with the duke for this knighthood tournament. While they couldn't provide any funds, they did provide their supervisors and manpower to help out. Some of them even helped the duke with his resource purchases."

"And is the intelligence center set up?"

"We’ve already set up three and none of them know of the other's existence. We can cross check the reports they submit to verify their accuracy. We did encounter some difficulties; we weren’t able to set up messenger-falcon stations. They are too easy to discover and might incite the nobles' greed, who I worry will capture our falcons and sell them. The best solution for this is to set the stations up outside the city at the late Viscount Vizinska's manor. The manor's quite perfect, actually. We can't do it without revealing our identities, though," replied Tarkel.

Messenger falcons were part of the plan, suggested a few years earlier, that involved training falcons to deliver messengers over long distances. After a few years, they were finally able to procure a good breed, which they termed messenger falcons. If a station was set up at Windbury, news could reach the messenger-falcon station at Northsea in a day, as opposed to the dozen it would take for the message to be delivered by horse.

"Aren't there any nobles in the city who support our house?"

"We did not find any, Milord. The nobles here are mostly brain-dead idiots who don't care about what's going on in the outside world. They only care about their meager little plots of land. Their impression of our house is still the same as a few years ago when we attacked the capital and captured the second prince. Basically, they are afraid and distrustful of us."

"Forget it. Let's think of another way. What will you do next?" asked Lorist.

"The plan is to head to Melein after we finish things here," said Tarkel.

A knock on the room's door interrupted -- the servants had arrived with the bathtub and hot water. Reidy brought the tub in and helped mix the water.

Lorist stripped right in front of the two and crawled into the tub before he splashed some water on his face. Reidy rubbed Lorist's back with a clean linen cloth.

"Alright, Reidy, just give it a simple scrub," Lorist said as he placed a cloth over his face, "Tarkel, I saw a few nobles from the four central duchies at the banquet. I'm rather interested in why they came. Check on them during the next few days and go to the four central duchies after the knighthood tournament. Set up intelligence centers there before you go to Melein.

"I have a feeling the four central duchies will become an obstacle. We have to be prepared and understand their intentions as soon as possible. Also, I've already had Josk ask Count Chujway to come over. When he's here, pretend to be an attendant and observe what kind of person he is. I hope he will be sensible and not reject my request."

"Yes, Milord. By your will."

Chapter 324 The Tournament Begins

The sound of the carriage wheels gradually faded away as Lorist stood by the windowsill of his room on the fourth floor, looking at the dark alley nearby in silence.

"Milord," Tarkel's voice behind him rang out.

"How does it look?" asked Lorist without turning around.

"Milord, it looks like that Count Chujway didn't tell the complete truth. He said that he had gotten word about our house from the Union and had seen the head pyramid at Hanayabarta for himself, hence his fear. As for the matter of the allied army being deployed at Frederika, he told us a half-truth. His claim that he didn't find the second highness should be true, but the reason they allied up with the Union was probably fake.

"Milord, when I was standing behind him, I could quite clearly see that he would clutch his pants with his left hand under the table when he tensed up. I saw him do that when you asked him about the agreement the four central duchies reached with the Union, and he clutched his pants when he gave his answer where you wouldn't see it.

"He also did the same when he said that he had come to Windbury to see the knighthood tournament. I feel it's rather weird for him to want to lie about a small thing like that though. Perhaps he said that because he knows that you've come over to take Princess Sylvia's hand in marriage and lied because he was afraid because he came for the same reason? Hehe, Milord, I see that you have quite a lot of rivals..." Tarkel knew that his lord wasn't one to fuss over trivial things, so he didn't hold back his laughter.

"Speaking of Princess Sylvia, do you know why she left Windbury in a hurry to go back to the Fisablen dominion?" asked Lorist without turning back.

"I'm not sure, Milord," Tarkel replied, "I heard from a few guards of Duke Fisablen that when the princess left a week ago, she got into a fight with the duke. It's said that it was something about having the duke call the knighthood tournament off, but the duke wasn't willing to do so. The princess went to the queen weeping. But it only ended in another confrontation between the two women, so the princess hurried back to Eastwild with her escort and Blademaster Xanthi. The duke has sent three messengers in the last two days to have her come but he hasn’t heard anything from any of them yet."

"Don't tell me something happened at Eastwild? It can't be, if that were the case, the first one to worry would be that old fox himself. Since he’s still here organizing his knighthood tournament, there shouldn’t be anything wrong in Eastwild."

"I'm sorry, Milord. We were unable to send our informants into Eastwild. This is my mistake," said Tarkel.

"No, it's not your fault. Eastwild is House Fisablen’s dominion and there isn't any large city like Windbury over there. It's no surprise they are able to restrict flow of people into and out of the province. What you need to do is use the month of the tournament to see if you can bribe a few of the duke’s to serve as our eyes and ears."

"Yes, Milord. I will do my best."

"Also, investigate the nobles from the four central duchies. I feel they didn't just come for as simple reason as winning Princess Sylvia's hand in marriage."

“Understood, Milord."

......

"What did you say?!" exclaimed Lorist, shocked.

"It's true, Milord. The Little Prince and his blademaster left with their thousand guards during the night. They even left the four carriages' worth of gifts they had prepared as the princess’ bride price. Duke Fisablen said that since the princess wasn't wedded to any of them, he will give the gifts to you as compensation for your victory at the banquet yesterday. They're going to send them over soon."

“We originally tried to start working our way through the little prince and the counts from Sabaj and Handra’s servants and attendants,” Tarkel continued, standing in front of Lorist, “but they are the quiet and alert types that don't frequent the tavern at all. We weren't able to get any information from them.

"The prince, on the other hand, brought an escort of more than a thousand people, among which
about a hundred were servants and attendants. They were the easiest from which to extract information. All we had to do was force feed them three cups of horse urine and they would let everything loose including how they peeped at their mothers bathing when they were small. But it's too bad that you scared them away yesterday. Count Chujway must've told everyone about the might of our house and caused them to leave during the night."

“Ugh," Lorist groaned, "Whatever. Since the tournament will take place over a month, take your time to get to the servants of the two counts that stayed. Perhaps some of them might accidentally leak something that we need and allow us to understand their reasons for coming. We'll leave it to fate."

At ten in the morning, Duke Fisablen brought the four carriages over to Anna's Abode.

When he saw Lorist, he laughed out and said, "Lord Count, you really surprised me yesterday. I didn't know your house managed to exterminate an entire kingdom. How impressive."

“You praise me too much, Your Grace. It was but a pirate lair that called itself a kingdom despite no nation on the continent acknowledging it. Everyone knows that had it not been for their attack on our dominion, we wouldn't have bothered with them. If it were Your Grace, you wouldn't need to deploy all your forces like we had to; you would only need to send a division to crush them completely. Your conquest of the greater and lesser golden creeks is the achievement truly worthy of awe and praise,” replied Lorist humbly.

His words had obviously struck a good chord with the duke, for he smiled like a blooming flower.

"Haha, not bad, not bad...” the duke chortled, “I'm starting to admire you more and more. Even though you're this young, you are not only quite calm and collected, your personal strength is also worth reckoning with. Very good."

After his generous praise, the duke recalled why he had come.

"Oh, Lord Count..."

"Your Grace, you have seniority. Please just call me Locke. Lord Count is a bit much," interjected Lorist.

“Alright, then I'll call you Locke. Well, it's like this. Since you won the duel yesterday, Little Prince Doke should've given you compensation for your victory. However, I received word that he had to return to the Forund duchy urgently and had no choice but to depart during the night. Before he left, he left the compensation he owed you to me and asked me to apologize for his breach of etiquette on his behalf."

Lorist nodded as he listened to the duke spouting his nonsense like it was what really happened before he praised the duke's trustworthiness for keeping his word. In actuality, both of them knew these were the goods with which the little prince intended to propose to the princess. He had not left them for Lorist, he was just in too much of a hurry and couldn’t take them with him. Them being made compensation for Lorist was purely the duke's doing.

Lorist wondered why the duke bothered to cover up for the little prince. According to Tarkel's report, he had left during the night without even saying farewell. It was said that the duke only found out about the prince's departure in the morning as well and called him a coward in front of his own guards. The gifts packed in the four carriages must have been left behind intentionally as compensation for the duke's troubles, but Lorist was sure that the little prince hoped they would end up in Princess Sylvia’s hands.

So why is the duke giving me these gifts instead? He has no reason to stand up for the little prince and cozy up to me on his behalf. He easily could've kept the gifts for himself and even spread the word that the cowardly prince didn't bother to compensate me for my victory. It would ruin the little prince’s reputation! Don't tell me Duke Fisablen has something he needs from Forund? It can't be, it should be the other way around...

A smile could be seen on his face as Lorist racked his mind over the matter.

“I didn't think Little Prince Doke would be that attentive to noble etiquette, as expected of a prince from Forund. Actually, he could've sent a servant over to pass the message. There was no need to have Your Grace come."

Duke Fisablen's face twitched when he recalled Count Chujway telling them how House Norton exterminated Hanayabarta, had almost everyone, save around 30 thousand young women, beheaded, and used their heads to build a pyramid. Everyone had been completely stunned, some even doubted the truth of the count’s words. Count Chujway swore what he said was entirely true and that he had personally seen the pyramid and had fallen ill for a few days at the sheer terror it inspired. He saw the pyramid every time he closed his eyes and heard the heads snicker and laugh. That was why when the duke saw the man who had ordered such a monument’s construction, he wondered how cruel a man must be to be able to give such an order. It was also the reason he treated Lorist so carefully.

Had it not been for Count Chujway coming to tell me about Little Prince Doke's escape this morning, an escape which would compromise my plan, I wouldn't come over here to clean up the prince's mess for him! What would I do if your forces interfered with my plan?

The duke patted Lorist on the shoulder lightly.

"No worries, there's no need to be so polite. Right now I'm the host and you were willing to spend your precious time to come here to be my guests. Naturally, I have to tend to your needs and solve the problems you have. This is but a simple matter for me to settle.

“The opening ceremony will begin the day after tomorrow and I'm planning to host another banquet before the ceremony. I am inviting all the nobles to attend and pray for the tournament’s success. Locke, you must not turn down my invitation."

"Naturally, Your Grace. I shall most certainly attend."

"Alright. It's a promise. I will send someone to escort you there tomorrow," said the duke, smiling.

......

The tournament finally began the day after the banquet but Lorist felt a little bored as he could not participate personally. Since he could kill a three-star-gold-ranked knight instantly, it didn’t make sense for him to compete against other gold and silver ranks. Lorist wasn't thick-faced enough to do so either. It was especially the case after the duke secretly made a personal request that Lorist not compete which Lorist agreed to without argument. He could only send his subordinates to participate on his behalf.

The knighthood tournament was rather traditional. It involved archery, swordsmanship, and jousting matches. The archery and jousting matches did not discriminate between battleforce ranks. Gold and silver ranked competitors participated in the same category. The swordsmanship competition, however, separated the two ranks. The separation didn’t hold for the winners of each rank, who could fight one another if the silver winner wished.

Lorist could only bite his teeth when he saw Reidy defeat the silver ranks in his category with one or two moves.

Gah, Reidy's disguising himself as a pig to feast on tigers... Even two-star gold ranks aren't Reidy's match, not to mention these puny silver ranks...

It went without saying that Josk dominated the archery competition. He didn't even have to try hard to win. Originally, there was a good number of those participating in the archery competition were there to try their luck, but they gave up on the notion after seeing a ridiculous anomaly like Josk participating, lest they embarrass themselves unnecessarily.

The jousting matches were the most popular section of the tournament. Apart from the silver-ranked guards, their leader Patt was the first one to be eliminated. Baron Shazin and Baron Felim both won nine straight rounds and had already qualified for the next phase. As for Els, he was resting near the stadium. He had already won six rounds and only needed three more victories to qualify as well.

The jousting matches’ rules were mostly similar to that of the normal duels. Participants had to own a knight's badge and bring their own mounts, armor, lances on spears as well as a longsword or some other secondary arm. Only after being checked could one participate. Should one lose in battle, one would have to surrender their mount and equipment to their opponent or pay a ransom of equal value. However, one could participate again after a loss if one was rich enough.

The o e who had been faring the worst among Lorist’s group was a guard named Loji. A two-star silver rank, he had already lost four times successively. As his equipment belonged to the house, he could not surrender them and had to pay the ransom out of his own pocket. Given that the armor was appraised at 100 gold Fordes, Loji owed 350 gold Fordes already.

Seriously, even though he knows he isn’t capable, he still wants to compete... Is he trying to give away money for free? thought Lorist angrily.

He forbade those who lost once from participating again.

"How many other guards owe money?" asked Lorist.

"One hundred... One hundred and forty one..." answered Patt with a troubled expression.

"What?!" Lorist stuttered, "Why are there so many?"

"Milord, well," Patt lowered his head and explained, "Apart from ten or so who lost in the first match because of bad luck, the rest lost after winning a few rounds. However, the value of the equipment they wore caused them to be in debt despite their former victories..."

Good Sol, thought Lorist, the ones my guard defeats only own equipment that amount to roughly 40 gold Fordes, but they have to pay out 100 gold Fordes if they lose... It's no wonder so many received challenges, even some gold-ranked knights shamelessly challenged my silver-ranked guards... With them getting a hundred gold Fordes for each win, they're treating me like a money tree, aren't they?

"Those who wish to compete aren't be allowed to use the equipment of the house!" declared Lorist.

"Milord," Tarkel called out as he arrived in front of Lorist, "We discovered that Duke Fisablen's subordinates are recruiting the knights that lost all their equipment and gold coins."

"Oh?" Lorist wondered with frustration, knighthood tournaments like this are the ideal place to recruit household knights, however, one would usually recruit those who performed well. What would Duke Fisablen gain from recruiting those who lost?

"Do you know why?"

"I think they're not recruiting household knights, but rather people to join the Fisablen army. They will only gain a chance to be promoted to the position of a household knight after five years of good service," replied Tarkel.

Since it was just normal soldier recruitment, Lorist wasn't too concerned.

“What about the two counts from the four central duchies? Have they been making any moves?"

"Count Dalek participated in the jousting section and so far has a win streak of nine. He’s waiting for the next phase to begin. Count Chujway hasn’t participated. It seems he’s only here to support Count Dalem. He seems to be acting normally even in private. Other than that, the messenger Duke Fisablen sent to Eastwild is back. It seems Princess Sylvia still isn't willing to come over. The duke broke a gold chalice when he heard the news. There's also other, rather bad, news, Milord..."

"Out with it!"

"Did Milord notice a gold-ranked knight competing right now who moves rather familiarly? Your commander, Sir Loze, snuck into Windbury secretly to participate in the tournament. To prevent you from noticing, he’s wearing his own weapons and armor. Had it not been for the golden tiger insignia on his armor, I might not have even taken note of him since he is lumped together with the other wandering or freelance knights in the tent in the far corner of the
stadium..."

"Good... Good Sol!" Lorist cried out before gritting his teeth, "After returning to the inn tonight, I
want to see this fellow who's showing off at the stadium before me!"

"Understood, Milord."

Chapter 325 Three Requests

Fiercetiger Loze stepped through the inn’s entrance, feeling rather good with his performance during the afternoon. He had racked up nine consecutive victories and won four sets of knights' armor, four mounts, and more than 200 gold Fordes. Selling the spoils he got to a reseller netted him another 200 Fordes, so he decided to treat a few of the friends he made in the wandering knight’s tent to some drinks. He had heard that The Rose, a tavern nearby, had hired a number of wild dancer maidens. They charged so much for their service that few could enjoy it.

Loze patted his money pouch with a lewd smile, thinking of the relaxing time he would have later that night. Since the second round of the competition would only begin in a few days, he wasn't worried that he would be too worn out from the 'workout session'. Just as he was about to head out, he saw Tarkel standing before him angrily.

It's over, thought Loze.

He had been bargaining with the merchant a few minutes earlier and had forgotten to lower his visor again.

Tarkel saw Loze desperately trying to escape his notice and smiled.

"Sir Loze, stop trying to hide. Our Lord already recognized you when you were fighting this afternoon. He wants you to see him during dinner, you know the place. Good luck,” advised he.

......

Currently, Loze was standing curled up in front of Lorist, as if it would make him invisible. Lorist was angered and amused at the same time at his pathetic state.

"Stand properly. Don't shrivel up in the corner like a turkey. Loze, what do you have to say about leaving your legion behind to come play in the city? Can you tell me where that your legion is?"

“The legion is fine, Milord, Yuriy is in command. It's just 30 kilometers outside the city. It can make it here in time if anything happens," reported Loze as he stood up straight.

"So that's why you abandoned your post to participate in the tournament?"

"Yuriy wanted to come too, Milord, but he lost in a round of rock-paper-scissors, so I'm the one who got to come," explained Loze in a troubled manner.

"You guys... really get on my nerves," said Lorist, not knowing how he should admonish his subordinates all of a sudden.

Baron Shazin came in at that moment and saved Loze.

"Oh? Loze, you're here too?" he said before he pulled at Lorist without listening to Loze's reply, "Locke, come with me! Let me introduce you to someone. Hahaha, I'm really too delighted today. Did you know that Bonawa finally agreed to be my household knight? Let me tell you, Bonawa..."

Lorist was thusly dragged out of the room by Baron Felim without being able to say anything else to Loze. Howard followed closely behind.

"Well," Els mumbled, "I should rally the guards and follow."

Loze looked at the rest still in the room.

"I should be fine now, right?" asked he.

"Well, given how busy our lord has been over the past few days, I don't think he'll recall that he hasn't punished you yet,” answered Josk.

"I'll go take a rest now. I still have to accept challenges tomorrow,” yawned Reidy, leaving.

"As long as you perform well and don't anger our lord, he might just let you off," said Tarkel.

"I don't care anymore,” answered Loze, rolling his eyes, “I won quite a bit today, so drinks are on me tonight. I heard the tavern hired a few magnificent dancers, how tempting."

"I ain't going, I still have a match tomorrow,” declined Josk.

“I'll go with you for a drink, but you can keep the women,” agreed Tarkel.

......

The one Baron Felim wanted to introduce to Lorist was Knight Bonawar, whom he had met on the way to Windbury. According to the baron, he had been promoted alongside the man because of his contributions right after joining the second prince. Baron Felim kept charging into the forefront of the conflict and his performance increased as the danger did. Unlike Lorist's deceased elder brother, however, Baron Felim suffered no lasting injuries from his military exploits. Even though the unit the second prince assigned to his command was frequently beaten up, the baron had always managed to lead his household troops back safely.

Knight Bonawar was a different kind of officer. He was raised to the art of war based on the traditional tenets of the Krissen Empire. He focused on military regulation and efficiency, and monitoring casualties. He was one of the most well-received commanding officers among the second prince’s subordinates. Of the three victorious battles that preceded the founding of the Iblia kingdom, two were thanks to Bonawar.

One involved the elimination of the noble army of the first prince's faction. Bonawar had commanded a ragtag bunch against the army, which had numbered 18 thousand, and still managed to emerge victorious after three months. The battle led to the crumbling of the army and the eventual extermination of the houses involved on the enemy’s side. If the battle had not ended as it had, the first prince would have influence over Southern and might even threaten Winston’s peace.

The other battle was when the second prince led his troops to attack the Melein duchy for the first time, only to be defeated by the Fiercegale legion. At the time, Duke Melein led his troops in pursuit of the second prince. When the second prince was at his wit’s end, Bonawar, who had been sent there with some food, managed to arrive in time to save the second prince. The second prince had already given up all hope and even excused himself by saying he'd go to Duke Fisablen's to borrow soldiers for a comeback, intent on leaving the mess of a battlefield to Bonawar. However, the situation did not faze the knight and he ordered the logistics heavy-armored troops to pick another spot and set up camp while he reorganized the remnants of the army. He used the opportunity when Duke Melein pressed his pursuit to cut off their path of retreat and managed to turn the battle in their favor. It ended with Bonawar's victory and the extermination of all 8000 of the enemy. Duke Melein managed to escape but with only ten riders from his personal guard.

Despite being such an accomplished tactician, Bonawar had always been the target of the second prince's jealousy and oppression given his straightforward demeanor and impressive reputation. When the time came to entitle the nobles who had contributed to the kingdom’s founding, despite his contributions, which qualified him for peerage at at least the level of baron, the second prince requested he pay a hefty sum to fill the kingdom's barren coffers before he could be entitled and enfeoffed land. It made him leave with anger and coop up in his manor for a long time.

Since the Lorist's group encountered Bonawar’s group en route to Windbury, Baron Felim had spent a few days looking for his whereabouts in the city and finally managed to locate him. After asking about his situation, the baron learned the knight was not faring too well. The relationship between House Felim and House Bonawar actually went far back, with his ancestor actually being a baron. However, due to an incident at Windbury that caused House Bonawar to lose their peerage, he was left with just a knight's manor in Southern.

Just like how Baron Felim had been, Bonawar was trying hard to revive his house. It was too bad he wasn't as recklessly brave as Baron Felim. While he was also a one-star-gold-ranked knight, he wasn't particularly talented in battleforce training. In other words, he was only a talented tactician.

He had come to participate in the tournament because he didn't have much of a choice. As he put it, he was there to 'sell himself' and find a decent house to serve. The 50 or so young men he had at the manor had a really hard time defending it. Southern had been ruined by the war between the second highness and Duke Melein, and the province was overrun by beggars and deserters-turned-bandits. Even though he came from an accomplished military family, he was helpless before the thousands of bandits and had to consider the safety of the women and children in his manor.

That was why Bonawar finally decided to try his luck in the tournament. Any choice that made his house safe was a good one. Given his lack of martial talent, he didn't think that people would actively recruit him, so he could only rely on those who knew his reputation to come to him.

It was too bad that he had been refused an audience with the queen, whose time was far too precious to spend on a knight. He was similarly unable to meet Duke Fisablen, who was busy with his own matters. On the third day, he traveled around to socialize with the nobles of Southern with whom he was familiar. While they did recognize his talents, given Iblia’s horrid state, there wasn't much room for him to use his skills.

It was at that moment that Baron Felim made his visit and even came over for the next few days. When Bonawar found out that House Felim had formed a legion of 46 thousand in The Northlands, he was finally convinced. Baron Felim made it a point to mention that, while letting the troops of the second prince perish under his lead was fine since they weren't his own, the house’s new legion was one constructed with lots of effort and funding, so the baron wasn't willing to just throw it away. Bonawar’s style of command was cautious but effective, so Felim felt he was the perfect man for the job.

Felim was completely elated when Bonowar pledged allegiance to his household. He held banquets for three days straight. Lorist was present throughout and even made some suggestions. He offered to have Reidy, Josk, and a thousand of his own guards go along with the baron’s own guard to transport the knight’s family to their new home safely after the tournament concluded.

Windbury regained some of its former livelihood thanks to the tournament. It was far livelier than before, at least. Even the marketplace looked rather prosperous. The nobles had also partially gone back to their previous leisurelY lifestyles. A large feast was held at the Rose Palace once every three days and a smaller party in
between. Every night, there would be a ball where elaborately dressed noblemen and ladies would dwell throughout the night.

It all felt pointless to Lorist, which further exacerbated his boredom. Not only was he forbidden from participating in the tournament, he didn't like to interact with other nobles either, especially those at the balls who greeted each other superficially wearing their fancy masks. The noble ladies flocked about him were more than willing to share his bed, but not without some sort of remuneration. Lorist was no saint either and had sexual urges like everyone else. However, his current situation made it inappropriate for him to sleep around. He had come to the city to win the princess's hand, after all. Should he act promiscuously and carelessly, rumor would no doubt spread across the city only to incite the princess's anger.

But for some reason, even after 12 days passed, Princess Sylvia had yet to return to Windbury. Duke Fisablen was visibly angered, which prevented Lorist from meeting with him and making his proposal. It frustrated Lorist greatly as well. The silver lining was that the house’s reputation grew by leaps and bounds during the tournament. To no one's surprise, Josk had become the champion of the archery segment. Reidy managed to defeat a gold rank with his silver rank battleforce in ten-odd minutes, much to the shock of the audience.

The jousting segment, which was the largest among the three, had also just entered its second round. Two of the top ten were knights of House Norton, with Fiercetiger Loze obtaining the champion's seat. Lorist decided that, as reward, he wouldn’t be punished. The other winner was Els. The two had successfully defeated their enemies in quick succession and earned the right to enter the third round, which would begin in a few days and would decide the ultimate winner.

During the second round, Loze was faced with Count Dalek. The two had clashed many times and exchanged hundreds of blows before Count Dalek surrendered. That evening itself, Lorist received word of Count Dalek and Count Chujway's departure for their dominions.

Was my gut wrong? Lorist thought, stroking his chin, Weird, those two seem like they came for nothing but the tournament, they left the moment they lost.

Perhaps, he was being over sensitive about everything because he was worried about Princess Sylvia.

When the jousting’s third round began, Tarkel came to Lorist.

“Milord, Duke Fisablen left with a squad of guards for Eastwild early this morning. We think he's probably there to bring the princess over. After all, many of the nobles participating in the knighthood tournament want to witness her famed beauty. Some of them have already started complaining and some rumors are floating about that the princess left because she was scolded by the duke. That's probably why he has no choice but to go fetch the princess himself."

Duke Fisablen managed to rush back before the third round was over. He was just in time to present Fierceger Loze first prize. During the ceremony, Duke Fisablen didn't look particularly well; his laughter seemed a little forced but everyone knew the reason was the princess's refusal to follow him back.

The moment they left the stadium, Lorist saw one of the duke’s guards who said that the duke wished to meet him at the pavilion.

"Your Grace, I wonder if I can be of service in any way?" asked Lorist when he saw the worn-out duke.

Duke Fisablen breathed a long sigh before he said, "Locke, I know why you've come. You want to form a union with House Fisablen by marrying Sylvia, right?"

"That's right, Your Grace," replied Lorist straightforwardly.

"Time really flies, to think that lass is of marriageable age already," the duke mused, "It must be because I spoiled her so much when she was young and caused her temper to develop like that. It has been incredibly embarrassing for me. You guys must have had a great laugh at my expense."

Lorist merely listened on, speechless.

"I don't oppose an alliance with your house, nor a marriage between you and my granddaughter. In fact, I am looking forward to it," said Duke Fisablen.

"Oh," Lorist started, "Your Grace, does that mean you agree?"

"That's right. I hold you in high regard, Locke. The moment the matters are settled, you'll have to call me grandpa, haha" the duke said before giving a hearty laugh, "However, I'm a little curious about the kind of price House Norton is willing to pay in exchange for my precious and beloved Sylvia."

"Your Grace, please feel free to state your demands. As long as they are within my house’s capabilities, we will definitely not let you down," promised Lorist as he thumped on his chest.

"Alright, I like how frank you are. I only have three requests. First, I will require House Norton start ten new factories in Wild Husbandry so House Fisablen will be self sufficient in two years. Don't worry, I won't force you to build refineries, only factories for daily necessities. Can that be done?"

"No problem,” Lorist nodded.

Duke Fisablen stared at Lorist with his hawk-like eyes, stretched out his second finger, and said, "Second, I want ten thousand sets of the armor your personal guard wears. That's the minimum."

“Your Grace, we only managed to produce three thousand sets of these ourselves, yet you're asking for 10 thousand! That would amount to more than two million gold Fordes already and is incredibly troublesome! But for Princess Sylvia's sake, you have a deal!" agreed Lorist.

"Haha, good," Duke Fisablen cheered, "My last request is not even worth mentioning, to be honest. You know that Sylvia is the treasure of our household, so I wish for her to not suffer any discomfort when she goes to you. How about this, all you have to do is to have your concubines and illegitimate children leave House Norton to spare my Sylvia the pain of not being your one and only."

Chapter 326 Apologies

That last request was a given in Duke Fisablen's mind. When two noble houses unite in marriage, the household of the bride has a right to request the groom's house to exile their concubines so that they don't cause any trouble during succession in the future. At the same time, there would no longer be an incentive for the illegitimate children to harm the rightful heir.

That was the case with the third prince and Duke Melein's daughter's marriage. The third prince had four concubines prior to his engagement, with one of them being a daughter of a minor noble who had given birth to a son. She was unwilling to leave and propped her son up as the result of her efforts of serving the third prince. In the end, the former emperor had to poison her drink to ensure the successful union of the imperial family and the Melein house and send the two-year-old illegitimate son somewhere far away where he would never be heard from again.

The union of two noble houses through marriage didn't only show the favorable relationship between the two houses, it also related to the benefits those two houses would receive upon their union. The first two requests made by Duke Fisablen looked out for the interests of his own house. In terms of total cost, Lorist would have to pay out roughly three million gold Fordes to be allowed to wed Princess Sylvia.

However, the final request was made for the princess's own sake so that she would live a life of bliss, untroubled by the jealous wiles of the other women in the Norton household.

Lorist kept quiet the whole time after he heard the third request.

Duke Fisablen was in a very good mood when he said, "Servants, have some food served here. I wanna have a few cups with Locke right now."

"I apologize," Lorist said, "Your Grace, I won't be able to do it."

"Huh? What are you saying?" the duke asked disbelievingly while turning around. He still had his finger outstretched from when he instructed his servants, which seemed to be frozen in place like a withered branch.

"Your Grace, I am unable to fulfill your third request," Lorist said as he raised his head and looked at the duke solemnly.

Duke Fisablen stared fixedly at Lorist's face before he croaked, "Aha... ha... haha... Count... Count Norton... You're just joking around with me, right?"

Lorist shook his head and said, "I am serious. To me, they have become my women the moment I took them in as concubines, and I am their man. Men of the Norton house don't abandon their women. Not only that, I believe that Sylvia will understand and accept why I think so too."

Bam! Duke Fisablen thrust his palm harshly against the table, causing it to crumble into several pieces on the ground. Standing up, the duke exploded like a flaming volcano, "Whether Sylvia understands or not is her own matter. But are you really willing to refuse the request of I, of House Fisablen?"

Lorist stood up without showing any weakness and said, "I only care about Sylvia, not House Fisablen. I've already accepted the first two requests of your house, but I would never allow House Fisablen to stick their hands into the affairs of my house. You have no right to demand that I abandon my women!"

Duke Fisablen was so angered that fumes seemed to waft out from his head. "You... You requested to be allowed to marry Sylvia from our house, yet you're unwilling to give up on other women. Is this the 'care' you said you had for her?"

"Does that sound conflicting to you?" Lorist asked and laughed, "It's because I care for Sylvia that I want her to be my official wife, the matron of House Norton. She will have everything that she is due, but she has to respect the traditions of the Norton house as well. Should she become my wife, she will have to treat my other women well also. That is one of her responsibilities as the matron," declared Lorist now that negotiations have completely fallen off the table.

"You... You insolent little!" roared the duke, almost coughing blood into Lorist's face. What do you think the Fisablen house is?! You said that the most precious flower of our house has to take care of your other women after being wedded there? Ridiculous! If word of this spreads, how would I be able to show my face in front of others in future?! We are not like those other fallen noble houses! We are House Fisablen, the Lion of the Northern Grasslands!

Duke Fisablen glared at Lorist with anger as the energies within his body coalesced. His right hand was already holding tightly onto the longsword hanging by his hip, as if he wanted to cut Lorist into two halves.

While Lorist seemed incredibly relaxed with both his hands down, his feet had already gotten into a steady position, ready to receive the duke's rage at any moment. If gazes and thoughts could materialize, the space between Lorist and Duke Fisablen would've been obliterated.

"Count Norton, give up on your concubines and illegitimate children. This is the request of House Fisablen, and is also the requirement you have to fulfill to take Sylvia as your wife. It is also your chance to express your sincerity to her. If you can't do that, I will take it as an affront against the Fisablen house. Do not test our patience. As her grandfather, I will definitely not allow her husband to have other women and children," said the duke after a long while as he greatly suppressed his anger.

"I'm sorry, Your Grace. I mentioned that I wouldn't be able to do it. This is not an issue of the union between our two houses. It's one of the responsibilities of a man. Abandoning one's women and children is a mark of shame for any man. That is something I'm definitely not willing to do."

All of a sudden, Duke Fisablen dispersed his threatening air and sat back down onto his chair in a crestfallen manner. Waving his hand, he said, "Count Norton, you should head back. I hope that you can consider the third request I made. Only after you consent to it will I allow Sylvia to marry you."

"Your Grace, you should consider this as well: if I give up on my concubines and illegitimate children for Sylvia today, what's to say I won't give up on Sylvia for some other women in the future? That's why..."

Before he finished, Duke Fisablen lifted an ornament on his desk and tossed it towards Lorist. "Scram! Get out of my sight right now!"

Lorist quickly took his leave. When he emerged from Rose Palace and saw Els and the rest waiting there, he stopped, stroked his chin and said, "Wait, why didn't that old guy cut me down immediately? That's weird, even when I said that before I left, all he did was throw things at me. Didn't they say he had a bad temper? And he's a rank 3 blademaster to boot, so he shouldn't fear me, should he? How weird..."

By then, Els and the ten-odd guards had walked up to receive Lorist, so he could only keep the thoughts for himself and ponder upon them when he returned to the inn.

Count Kenmays had been waiting in the hall of the inn for Lorist's return. The moment he saw Lorist enter, he jumped and pulled on Lorist's hand, asking, "Did Duke Fisablen want to see you because of your marriage with Sylvia?"

Lorist nodded.

"Did it work out?"

Lorist shook his head, shrugged, and said, "I don't think so, since I didn't accept his third request."

Stunned, Count Kenmays asked, "What were the requests?"

"The first concerned our house starting ten factories at Wild Husbandry Province so that they can produce enough daily necessities to sustain themselves," recalled Lorist.

Count Kenmays jumped as he said, "No way, we definitely can't do that! He's trying to cut out the salt merchant committee! Locke, daily necessities are what that province requires the most. Even though the profit per unit is low, the sheer volume of things traded is enormous! Currently, the salt merchant committee has a monopoly on the daily necessities market at Wild Husbandry Province and Eastwild Province, with two-thirds of our profits coming from there! That's because the products made at other places can't compete with ours in both price and quality, eventually stopping production altogether because of us. And hasn't the duke conquered the greater and lesser golden creeks? I was just about to charge them a bit more since they have started to mine gold over there."

Count Kenmays lost all his previous flair suddenly and said, "Well, Princess Sylvia's matter is what's important right now. At least we know that Duke Fisablen doesn't want us to mine gold coins from his dominion. Maybe they're interested in making a profit using our goods as well, hence his request for you to help him set up those factories. No matter, even if we lose that profit, we can think of other ways to increase them on other fronts."

"The second request was for my house to provide them with ten thousand sets of armor that my guards wear," continued Lorist.

Count Kenmays burst out once again, "That's going too far! This greedy old bastard is really shameless!"

The armor worn by the three thousand guards were admittedly different from those of the other household soldiers. Even though the household soldiers were armed with stainless steel armor, the defensive capabilities were slightly lower than the ones worn by the guards. Even though the design was similar, the color differed slightly -- the armor worn by normal household soldiers were lead grey in color while those worn by the guards were greenish-grey. That armor was exclusive to Lorist's personal guard.

Count Kenmays, Baron Felim and Baron Shazin all thought that the armor worn by the Norton house were same as theirs, being made of stainless steel, because they weren't able to tell the different metals used to manufacture them based on only the color. However, they did know that the armor worn by Norton guards had the highest defensive capabilities. Lorist told them that each set cost 180 gold Fordes and that the house had only managed to make a little over 3000 of them, before gifting each of the three two sets of armor made of the same materials according to their preferred design.

Yet, Duke Fisablen had asked for ten thousand sets in one breath. Count Kenmays complained, "Is that old guy nuts? No matter how large the lion's mouth is, even it would choke to death if it tried to swallow prey in one go. The marriage between the third prince and Duke Melein's daughter only involved a transaction of two million imperial gold coins that amount to only 800 thousand gold Fordes at most. Yet, he had asked you to pay such a huge price for marrying the princess. Is that why you refused?"

Lorist replied, "I've agreed to both those conditions."

"Ugh," Count Kenmays gasped, before he snapped out of his stupor and said, "Well, it's fine. It is fine House Norton is truly impressive, for you to be able to accept those conditions. Then, was the third request even more ridiculous?"

"Well, not really. His third request was for me to exile my concubines and illegitimate children before he would agree to the union between our two houses."

Count Kenmays stayed silent for a good moment before he patted onto Lorist's back and said, "I really want to call you an idiot for refusing a request that pales in comparison to the former two, but I feel relieved that you didn't agree to it somehow. I think Baron Felim and Baron Shazin would feel the same after they hear about this. We would no longer have to worry about the alliance between our four families to rift just because the Norton house got too powerful."

Lorist laughed bitterly and said, "But now, I don't know how I should answer to the princess for this..."

Count Kenmays laughed and said, "Locke, I can only ask you to grieve and move on. We'll always stand behind you and offer our moral support no matter what kind of chaos you cause."

"Good Sol, is that all you have to do as allies? Isn't it better for me if the alliance was called off, then?"

"No way, you're the unquestioned head of our little alliance. It was you who called for the alliance's formation, so if we don't leave it, you won't be able to back out either, unless you want the reputation of the Norton house to suffer and abandon all noble niceties altogether," said the count in a serious tone.

"That can't happen, I don't believe I can't dissolve the alliance when I choose to..."

A guard interrupted their joking around and said, "Milord, Duke Fisablen's messenger requests to meet you."

"Oh? Let him in," said Lorist as he wondered, what does the duke want this time around?

The messenger was but a normal guard instead of a noble. "Lord Count, I have come on behalf of the duke's orders to report that the banquet to celebrate the conclusion of the tournament has been canceled because the duke isn't feeling well. I hope my lords will understand."

Count Kenmays mumbled wide-eyed, "No way... The celebration must always be held for the nobles and knights for any kind of tournament. This is tradition, why would the duke call it off just like that?"

Lorist smiled coldly and said, "Well, I can't really blame the duke for being a little petty? After all, the swordsmanship and archery competitions were dominated by us, House Norton, with Loze taking the crown at the jousting competition and Baron Felim getting number two, Baron Shazin getting number five, and Els getting number seven. Not only that, not one of the rest are people from House Fisablen, so it's understandable that he has nothing worth celebrating.

"If he had agreed to the marriage union with us, he could still announce and brag about it. But now that I've refused his requests, he would never acknowledge us as the true winners of the tournament and give a free boost to the reputation of the four allied families of The Northlands. I think I understand now why he didn't draw his sword to flip out on me when I refused him. Hehe, so he's still holding the arms deal he signed with our house in consideration. He's afraid that we'll stop supplying him with the goods."

"Will you do so?" asked Count Kenmays.

"No," Lorist said, shaking his head, "This is an agreement we signed before he had a disagreement, and I will honor my word to him. That's because this concerns the reputation of House Norton and is not a matter I can decide based on my whim.

"Alright, let's pack up tonight and leave first thing tomorrow morning. I doubt we'd miss attending his little banquet. We can just hold our own when we return to The Northlands. I believe that many will be disappointed by the duke's neglect to host one, and perhaps might cause some kind of trouble while they're at it. Believe it or not, I think the duke will have to use his troops to chase the wandering knights away tomorrow, so it's best we leave early."

Morning the next day, Lorist and the rest left Windbury. As Knight Bonawar, who had just pledged allegiance to Baron Felim, had almost 200 members in his household, their journey was held back slightly. After meeting up with the division under Yuriy's care, they traveled for another six days and would cross Hendliff Suspension Bridge the next day.

A smoke signal could be seen in the distance as three mounted men rushed over. The moment they encountered Lorist, the three riders leaped off their horses and reported, "Knight Charade ordered us to inform you that Princess Sylvia has arrived at Firmrock Castle five days ago!"

Chapter 327 The Princess's Heart

Since Princess Sylvia already arrived at Firmrock Castle, Lorist traveled ahead of his escort so that he would arrive sooner. He was curious how she knew of his refusal of the duke’s conditions already.

She's not here to interrogate me, is she?

Count Kenmays, Baron Felim, and Baron Shazin mocked Lorist jokingly as he left with Reidy, Howard, and ten-odd guards, wishing him a 'blissful life'. It took them just three days to reach Firmrock Castle.

The moment Lorist dismounted, before he could even dust himself off, Princess Sylvia rushed over and hugged him -- tears streaming down her face.

Lorist hurriedly tried to apologize, "Sylvia, I'm So--"

Before he finished, Princess Sylvia bawled even louder, mumbling, "Brother Locke... Hollycost... He... He left just like that... He's not even ten!"

Wait, what? Who's Hollycost? That name sounds familiar, thought Lorist for a good while before he finally remembered, Isn't Hollycost the young prince of Iblia? That child of the second prince the queen birthed after their drunken lock-up?

Unfortunately, perhaps because of the use of drugs, Hollycost was born with a congenital heart disease. One of his herbalists said he would likely not even see his twentieth birthday.

The young prince was abandoned by the queen after his birth and was put under Duke Fisablen’s charge, who treasured the child like his very own kin. However, when he found that the young prince had a birth defect, he no longer cared as much and didn't consider him a trump card anymore. In fact, it was Sylvia who had dragged the child along with her and raised him like her own little brother.

After she stopped crying thanks to Lorist's consolations, she explained why she didn't participate in the knighthood tournament. Hollycost had passed away suddenly without warning. The servants initially thought he had simply fallen asleep. It was only in the evening, when the servants felt that he had slept for far too long and attempted to wake him, that they realized that his body had cooled and he was no longer breathing.

When Princess Sylvia received word at Windbury, she requested Duke Fisablen postpone the tournament by a couple of months so she could return to Eastwild to tend to the matters resulting from poor Hollycost's death. After all, he was technically the rightful heir to the kingdom’s throne. However, Duke Fisablen refused. He thought the prince, who had just died wasn't of much use to him in the first place, and the knighthood tournament concerned the reputation and future of the house, especially because it involved Sylvia's marriage. It had to go on no matter what. As for the dead Hollycost, he would deal with it as he would with deceased household knights.

Sylvia was angered and disappointed at Duke Fisablen's cold and heartless decision. After a huge argument, she looked for her aunt, the queen, to report the death of her son.

She didn’t expect the queen to be even more heartless than her father.

“I never cared about him when he was alive, why should I now that he’s dead?” was all she was on the matter.

Fuming with rage, Sylvia threw a huge tantrum before she brought Blademaster Xanthi and her guard with her back to Eastwild to bury Hollycost.

However, she realized that she wouldn't be able to give Hollycost a burial fitting a prince no matter how hard she tried, because even in the entire kingdom, Hollycost's name itself was somewhat of a taboo. Since the queen herself didn't want anything to do with the dead prince, the nobles treated him like he didn't exist. In fact, the queen and the nobles were relieved that they didn't have to bother with the prince’s burial.

So, Sylvia could only carry out the matter herself. While she did receive Duke Fisablen's incessant letters demanding her return to show her face at the tournament, the letters only made her angry and caused her to ignore the messengers completely. But when the final messenger came over with a letter that stated the princess would be dragged to the capital by the duke personally, she made the decision to run away. She headed for Firmrock Castle. She did so because she felt the Norton dominion was the only place her grandfather couldn’t drag her out of.

Lorist breathed a long sigh.

So the princess isn't here to ask about my refusal after all.

However, Lorist soon found himself troubled. Should he tell the princess about his objection to the duke’s conditions and the subsequent annulment of their engagement, or not? Lorist saw Sylvia’s tender emotional state at pr sent and decided to keep quiet on the matter for the time being. He would tell her once she was more stable.

In the month that followed, Lorist traveled around with Sylvia in an attempt to lighten up her mood, which meant that Count Kenmays and the barons weren’t greeted by anyone when they arrived at the castle. The angered count wrote Lorist a letter. ‘You bastard! You’re putting hoes before bros. You’re so caught in your lust you’ve completely forsaken friendship!’ were but one of the many things he had to say in his letter.

Lorist didn't really mind the count's comments. In truth, he felt rather guilty towards the princess, perhaps because he still hadn’t informed her of his refusal of the duke's requests. Her mood had improved substantially over the last couple of days and her smile started to regain its former glamor. Lorist really didn't feel like ruining the good mood by bringing up his falling out with the duke.

The moonlight melded with the waters and illuminated the clear waters. The proud hull of Northsea cut across the silvery surface of the sea and sailed on the infinite waters of the ocean.

After having fun at Silowas for about half a month, Princess Sylvia was finally in the condition to return to The Northlands. During that time, Sylvia was just like a lovestruck maiden falling in love for the first time. She grew closer and more reliant on Lorist, which only served to intensify Lorist's guilt about the matter. He knew well things might not remain as they were for long, with the mountainous obstacle that was Duke Fisablen standing between them.

The round silver moon appeared like a gleaming plate of silver, hanging from the dark blue veil of the night.

Princess Sylvia leaned on the ship’s railings and stared out over the ocean. as she looked at the ocean.

"Brother Locke, I never imagined the sea could be this beautiful. I remember grandfather brought me to a cliff near a beach once. It was the first time I saw the sea with my own eyes. All I saw were harsh waves bashing against the cliff harshly. The water was black and the wave’s splashes were unbearable. The winds were very strong. I clutched onto my grandfather with all my strength, I didn’t dare let go. He told me such was the sea, borderless and infinite. I've always had the impression that the sea was something ferocious and that sailing was a huge risk on one's life.

"I didn't think traveling to Silowas with you would make me realize that the sea also had times it is calm and gentle. We can build sandcastles, collect seashells, and even play by the water. I didn't think it would be that fun,” she said, the moonlight on the water shimmering in her eyes, “Look, Brother Locke, the moonlight looks like silver sparkles on the sea’s surface. How beautiful..."

“It's the 7th month right now,” Lorist said smiling sweetly, “It’s when the northern seas are the calmest. When the 11th month comes, it will become harsher, almost like what you saw in your childhood. Sailing then will definitely be very risky. I once sailed to The Northlands during the 11th month. The waves were so tall they could reach the ship’s deck. Fortunately, the ships built by our house are sturdy. There's no worry of them being crushed by the waves."

Sylvia's eyes gleamed.

“Brother Locke, you're amazing,” whispered she.

"Well," mumbled Lorist as he stroked his nose shyly, Why do I feel like a middle-aged man tricking a little girl with a lollipop?

Despite his slight sense of forbiddenness, Lorist couldn't help but feel a certain sense of pride and achievement from seeing Sylvia's adoring gaze.

Sylvia accosted Lorist and leaned on his body. He froze like a statue.

"Brother Locke, you still haven't told me about your experiences in the tournament," Sylvia whispered.

Lorist grit his teeth. He had known the time would come eventually.

"I'm sorry, Sylvia. Your grandfather brought up three requests I couldn’t accept.”

"I knew it,” the girl sighed, “You wouldn't be accompanying me on this trip otherwise, would you? Can you tell me what the requests were?"

Thus, Lorist informed her about the requests without holding any detail back.

Sylvia turned around slowly and looked at Lorist with her starlight-like eyes.

"Brother Locke, don't you fancy me?"

"Sy-sylvia... I... I do like you, that much is true... But if it means having to e-exile them... It isn't f-fair to them... After all, t-they're my women and children, and I am their man and father. I f-feel responsible for their well being..."

Sylvia leaned on Lorist's chest. Her arms slipped around his waist, clasped his back, and drew him into a deep hug.

"I... I know, Brother Locke. I can see your sincerity in the first two requests. I don't blame you for turning down the third. In fact, if you had agreed to it, I would have looked down on you. It's because you aren't cruel and heartless that you stood your ground. I... I can't help but envy your lovers and children..."

The girl slipped into silent weeping as the last words left her mouth.

"H-hey, don't cry now Sylvia... It's my fault," mumbled Lorist in a panicked fit.

Sylvia raised her tear-covered face, her crystal eyes pierced into Lorist’s soul.

"Kiss me..." she whispered.

Lorist’s arms wrapped the princess in his embrace. He lifted her to him and the two kissed under the gentle gaze of the moon. In the corner of the deck, Blademaster Xanthi let out a soft sigh. She stayed quiet for a long moment before she spoke.

"It’s getting late, Sylvia. You should get some sleep. You wouldn't want to catch a cold, the winds are rather chilly."

The pair separated. Lorist stared silently at Sylvia’s red face, like a moon-rising on a wet evening, one last time before she darted for her cabin. He glared at Xanthi but only got light giggles in return.

When they arrived at The Northlands, Sylvia told Lorist, "I'm going to return to the house. Brother Locke, you've already agreed to the first two requests for the sake of House Fisablen. As for the third, I should have a say in it since it concerns me directly. I’ll make sure my grandfather understands and doesn't make an issue of it."

Lorist finally relaxed after the girl departed. He decided to take a stroll around the dominion instead of returning to Firmrock Castle right away.

Charade, busier than ever, rolled his eyes at Lorist once he returned.

"Aren't you carefree as always? Traveling with a beauty at a time like this..."

"Well, it's because you're here that I'm able to take it easy. Tell me, is there anything important going on within the dominion?" laughed Lorist.

Charade put down the folder in his hand.

"Did you forget Els is going to get married? The big day's on the 10th day of the 8th month,” inquired he.

Oh, there was that too, thought Lorist as he slapped his forehead, "Ah, I think he mentioned it while we were still in Windbury. He said he was going to take Mancheny’s daughter as his wife after he broke through to the gold rank. I think the ceremony will be held in Redriver Valley, at his manor. He also said that he would go to Morante to see his uncle and his other pals, so I gave him a three-month leave."

"Very well, we ought to present him with a great gift,” Charade snickered, “I still remember he caused so much trouble during my wedding. I’ll finally get my chance to pay him back. Haha, I'll definitely make sure he regrets what he did..."

Lorist wiped the sweat off his forehead.

To think this fatty would hold a grudge for such a long time! He's still on about that thing during his marriage even though his son's already a few years old!

Lorist knew Charade was just fooling around and wouldn’t go too overboard, so he didn’t interfere.

"Is there anything else?" asked Lorist.

"There are two pieces of good news and one bad one," said Charade.

"What are they?"

"Ovidis and Dulles have managed to break through to become gold ranks. The two remaining manors at Redriver Valley have owners now. As for the bad news, Jim failed his breakthrough and must take half a year off to recover according to the herbalist."

It was definitely good news for Ovidis and Dulles to succeed in their endeavors. Despite being a former bandit, Ovidis had been loyal ever since he pledged his allegiance, which was why Lorist trusted him deeply. Enough to give him command of the Thunderbolt Brigade. It was a definite improvement for him to breakthrough to the next rank.

As for Dulles, he had been traveling with Lorist ever since the days of Dawn Academy. Being the founder of the carroballista unit and its commander, he had gained many achievements over the last decade. However, his silver rank battleforce had caused him to stand out in a bad light even more among the commanders of his army. Now that he had broken through to the gold rank, he had become one of the 16 gold-ranked knights of the household. Being another person Lorist deeply trusted, he would definitely be utilized more often now.

It was too bad that the joy of hearing about Ovidis and Dulles's successes was dampened significantly by word of Jim's failure.

"Jim was in too much of a rush to break through,” Charade sighed, “Even though he was injured in Hanayabarta’s conquest, he insisted on trying to break through the moment he was reasonably healed. He might have stood a chance if he’d waited another six months. You ought to visit him when you're free. I checked on him a few days back and he seemed rather down and unstable."

Lorist nodded and was just about to say something when he heard hurried footsteps coming his way.

"Milord!" Tarkel yelled the moment he opened the door.

"Come in!"

Breathing raggedly, Tarkel reported, "Mi-milord... There's word from Iblia. On the 30th day of the 6th month, the four central duchies united and launched a military campaign against the Melein duchy. They sealed off the roads into and out of the duchies so we only got word from our informants fifteen days ago. We just received word that the duchies’ army attacked Messen Castle on the 23rd day of the 6th month. Duke Melein also died on Mount Leiffdema surrounded by enemies. Melein’s been completely wiped out!"

Chapter 328 Missed Initiative

Knight 1: Charade, also known as ‘The Fatty’, bore the title Chief Knight of the House and was a one-star gold rank. He was born in a family with a mercantile background and used to be the supervisor of Dawn Academy’s enforcement division. He was also one of Lorist's close friends.

Knight 2: Three-star-gold-ranked Grei Potterfang, nicknamed Pog, was of common birth and use to serve as a regiment leader in the Krissen Empire’s Whitelion Legion. He was the first gold-ranked knight to pledge allegiance to Lorist.

Knight 3: Loze Wales, nicknamed ‘Fiercetiger Loze’, was a peak three-star-gold-ranked knight whose father was a mercenary. After he matured, Loze joined the army and became one of the legion’s generals. He joined House Norton along with his friend, Potterfang.

Knight 4: Mons Malek, who bore the moniker ‘Ironface’, was a two-star gold rank of common birth who used to serve as a regiment leader in the Whitelion legion. After the legion’s dissolution, he joined Lorist along with Fiercetiger Loze.

Knight 5: Josk, affectionately called Joe, was a three-star gold ranked knight known as the ‘Divine Marksman’. He was born in a family of knights and was adopted by a noble. He joined Lorist for the sake of vengeance. He pledged to live life alone forever so that he wouldn't forget his deceased fiancee.

Knight 6: Chino Freiyar, a three-star gold rank who used to be a mercenary, had been forced into a labor camp because he had fought against some nobles. He was rescued by Lorist's convoy alongside his family and traveled to The Northlands to become a gold-ranked knight of the household.

Knight 7: Belnick, or ‘Beck the White-haired’, was a three-star gold ranked knight born to a servant family of the Norton household. When he was still a silver rank, he had been poisoned and remained in his sickbed for years before Lorist treated him. After being given a high-ranked battleforce manual, he eventually trained to the gold rank.

Knight 8: Brennan Evanport, known to most as Els, was a one-star gold rank who used to be a syndicate boss in Morante. He ended up following his close friend, Lorist, to The Northlands and became a silver-ranked knight of the house. After ten years of training, he eventually became a gold rank.

Knight 9: Waprey Terman, a one-star gold rank who was born in a family of freelance knights, was the first one to join Lorist's northbound convoy. Deeply trusted by Lorist, he got the position of the commander of the Raging Bear Knight Brigade.

Knight 10: Yuwen Ridest, nicknamed Yuriy, was a man from a line of shepherds from the grasslands. One of Lorist's close friends since the days of the academy, he joined Lorist's northbound convoy and eventually ended up being the commander of the light cavalry scouts.

Knight 11: Pajik, a one-star gold rank of common birth, had become the captive of the first young master of the Norton house during the time of the civil war. Following the first young master’s death, he kept his word and was eventually knighted by Lorist when he returned to the dominion.

Knight 12: Senbaud, a two-star gold rank ex-pirate who had been forced to serve House Norton during one of Lorist's expropriation missions and eventually pledged allegiance to Lorist, was the commander of the Oceanic Legion.

Knight 13: Two-star-gold-ranked Jades used to be a slave. Originally a wandering knight, he had been captured and enslaved by a Hanayabartan slaver band and forced to fight for his masters’ entertainment. He was eventually rescued when Lorist exterminated the kingdom and pledged his allegiance to his house.

Knight 14: Messen, a one-star gold rank who used to be a slave, used to be the captain of a village garrison before his enslavement. He eventually pledged allegiance to House Norton since he no longer had a home to return to.

Knight 15: Ovidis, nicknamed ‘Big-beard’, was a one-star-gold-ranked ex-bandit. After surrendering to Lorist and serving him, he eventually made many contributions to Lorist's cause. His trustworthiness and sincerity were the qualities that convinced Lorist to knight him.

Knight 16: One-star gold rank Dulles. Being of common birth, he had joined up with Lorist when he was still at Dawn Academy because he admired Lorist's swordsmanship. Dulles was utilized extensively and was the one who founded the carroballista unit so monumental to the northbound convoy’s success. He was also one of Lorist's favorite subordinates.

Those were the 16 gold-ranked knights under Lorist's command. Their reputation had yet to truly become widespread, and they had no way of knowing that they would eventually come to be known as the Raging-Bear King’s 16 Wings. With the growing might of House Norton, the Raging Bear sharpened its claws. Eventually, the time when their reputation spread far across the whole of Grindia would come.

......

In the guards' residential quarters, Lorist walked through the corridor and stopped in front of a room with a red-colored door. The door was shut, but not locked. Upon pushing it open, Lorist saw someone lying face-flat on the bed.

"Didn't I tell you? I don't feel like eating. Don't bother me," said the person without raising his head when he heard the door open.

On the table beside the bed were some honeyed bread, wheat porridge, meat soup, roasted fish, and two baked apples. There was also some warm goats milk in a glass jar nearby.

"Hehe, the sick menu looks rather good. It's far better than what we had at Dawn Academy. I still remember when we only had black bread and wheat porridge and nothing else. I cry a little bit inside every time I eat it again," said Lorist, standing in front of the table, looking at the food.

The person on the bed started before he got up hurriedly and said, "Mi-milord... Why have you come?"

"To check on you, of course. I hear you've been depressed so much you won’t eat."

The person sitting on the bed was none other than Jim, who had failed his attempt to break through to the gold rank. Lorist had come to visit him.

"I'm disappointed Jim, not for your failure, but your current condition. Failing a breakthrough isn't a big deal. You can always recover with enough time. As the second in command of my guards, don't tell me you don't have the courage to face a little setback? Waxima, Pete and some others have also failed before, but they didn't fall into despair like you. Oh no, they’re working hard to recover.The house trusts you all and will help you make your next breakthrough."

"Milord, it's my fault... I shouldn't have taken out my failure on others and cooped myself up in my room," said Jim with his head lowered.

Lorist sat down and stretched his hand to Jim’s left hand.

"It's fine, as long as you recognize your mistake and learn from it. Make sure to finish your food and rest to recover your body. You will become my gold-ranked knight. For now, let me check what's going on with your body."

There were three methods with which a person could train their battleforce. The first was the basic method which one would use after awakening one's battleforce. It was the simplest and easiest to master and people of all battleforce attributes could use it. However, it was only good for use up to the iron rank. one would have to use a mid-to-high-ranked battleforce technique to breakthrough to the silver and gold ranks.

The second method involved the use of the standard battleforce technique taught in the military. The military battleforce technique was more complicated than the basic battleforce technique given its focus on attack techniques and practicality. Without a proper foundation in battleforce training, one might injure oneself from erroneous training techniques. Similar to the basic battleforce technique, the military battleforce technique could be used by battleforce users of any attribute, with most people able to reach the peak of the silver rank with it. Potterfang was one example of a person who reached the peak silver rank through training in the military battleforce technique. It was only after he started training in a high-ranked battleforce technique that fit his attribute that he broke through to become a gold-ranked knight.

The last kind of battleforce technique was the kind that was passed down from one generation after another in noble houses. One advantage of these techniques was that they were purer and could improve one's battleforce strength and output. Not only that, it could decrease the difficulty required to breakthrough to the next rank. Potterfang himself had to spend a lot of time getting acquainted with the different circulation diagrams of his high-ranked technique as he had developed many habits from using the military battleforce technique for too long. One had to keep circulating one's battleforce according to the high-ranked technique. Should one revert to the old military battleforce technique, one would fail when attempting to make a breakthrough like Jim, injuring oneself in the process.

That was the reason for the long time of seclusion training required before one broke through to the gold rank. Normally, breaking through from the bronze to silver ranks posed little problem as the major circulation diagrams only increased in complexity by a little. However, the major circulation diagrams for the gold rank was far too different from that of the silver rank. One had to spend large amounts of time to practice and get used to the new circulation diagrams to breakthrough to the gold rank.

For instance, a bronze rank only had to circulate their blood through 20 blood circulation nodes. The number could go up to 28 for iron ranks and a range of 36 to 45 for silver ranks. Gold ranks had to circulate through 80 to 100-odd blood circulation nodes. Only after one was familiar with the new major battleforce circulation cycle could one not make the mistake of using an old circulation path. That was what differentiated those who succeeded in breaking through to the gold rank from those who didn't, and was also the main reason people failed during their breakthrough.

Jim's situation was similar in that he had accidentally used an old battleforce circulation path while he was familiarizing himself with the new paths, causing the force within his bloodstream to clash and injure him. Currently, he was just like a cripple who could not use the slightest bit of battleforce. However, all he had to do was rest for half a year to recover. Not only that, he could start training with the high-ranked battleforce technique right away without having to retrain his old techniques. It would take him roughly eight months to a year to breakthrough the bronze and iron ranks to regain his former strength as a silver rank. Having experienced failure, he would still have gained some experience from the attempt so the effort was definitely not in vain.

After checking Jim's condition, Lorist offered some more words of consolation. Only after seeing that he had regained some spirit and finished his food did Lorist leave. When he arrived at his study at Firmrock Castle, he saw Tarkel waiting for him by the door.

"Milord, the detailed battle report was just delivered," reported Tarkel.

"Give me the report. Thanks for the hard work, go take some rest," said Lorist.

That report was about Melein’ destruction as a result of the death of Duke Melein, a rank 2 blademaster and one of the three renowned war gods of the former empire.

In the time of the empire, the first one to be hailed as war god was the Wargod Knight, Duke Yanjinov, commander in chief of the imperial troops. Too bad he perished during a great battle thirty years earlier during the conflict between the Empire and the Union. Duke Yanjinov was blamed for the mistake that saw the empire’s only swordsaint die in an ambush. He was stripped title and land. He faded from the limelight not long after and died ten years later. His death caused the overly ambitious first and second princes to pull out all the stops and start the civil war.

The second one to be hailed as war god was Duke Fisablen, Wargod of the Plains. The old fox had resisted the grassland barbarians’ invasions without a single failure for many years, but he hardly ever left his dominion and was far away from the empire’s administrative center.

The third wargod was Duke Melein, mainly because he held the position of Commander of the Fiercegale Legion, one of the empire’s three largest armies, for almost a decade. The difference between the imperial local defense legion that mainly defended the empire and the Whitelion legion that fought in conflicts with other nations was that Fiercegale specialized in dealing with internal threats such as revolts and bandits. The reputation gained by Fiercegale over hundreds of battles was far less in comparison to that gained by Whitelion, which fought in open and large-scale battles. Even so, Fiercegale had come to specialize in mobility and flexibility thanks to Duke Melein's training. It had impressive offensive capabilities.

When Duke Melein wedded his beloved 16-year-old daughter to Third Prince Andinaq and united his house with the imperial family, he retired from his position as Commander of the Fiercegale Legion and returned to his dominion to spend the rest of his life. When the civil war began, however, Duke Melein had to stand at the third prince's side and fight the second prince's forces frequently. Even though there were some battles lost, in the end, he still managed to ruin Southern and successfully suppress the second prince. However, because Duke Fisablen was on the second prince's side, there was nothing much Duke Melein could do about the prince.

After the civil war, Duke Melein formed the Melein duchy. Originally, he had been on good terms with the four central duchies and had trade relations with them for quite some time. However, when the second highness rallied his soldiers and embarked upon his quest to reunite the empire, the duke had greatly supported him. When the second highness ended up trapped in Frederika, Duke Melein responded by attacking Shabaj with his troops. He hoped it would enough to help the second highness out. But, due to the years of fighting Melein had gone through, the duchy had long expended most of its resources. Duke Melein ended up unable to help the second highness much and gaining four new enemies for himself in the process.

The attack on Frederika by the four central duchies exterminated most of the second highness’ remaining troops. While they didn't manage to find the second highness himself, they managed to stabilize the situation and decided to take out Melein and his duchy. Perhaps because they thought the second highness was hiding in Messen Castle, they decided to go all out to kill him lest he causes more trouble in the future. So, the four central duchies contacted Duke Fisablen and stated their intentions to invade the duchy without warning.

Duke Melein, who was trapped in his own castle, found that his soldiers were far too weak to resist the enemy’s assault, so he abandoned The castle in an attempt to break out of the encirclement. He was stopped by Duke Fisablen’s cavalry divisions at Mount Leiffdema. He was killed on the battlefield by ten arrows.

According to the report, Melein and Rimad provinces were absorbed by Shabaj whereas Duke Fisablen moved more than 100 thousand people from the duchy to Eastwild. It was said that it was part of the agreement between Duke Fisablen and the four central duchies.

I totally missed the initiative! Lorist sighed, Duke Fisablen hid everything from me and I wasn’t able to find out why the two dukes were there. I thought they were going for Princess Sylvia just like I was...

If I knew their target was Melein, I could've taken Southern and Winston after Duke Fisablen deployed his troops and trapped them in Melein. I would've been able to force House Fisablen to give in to my demands and may even have stood a chance at taking Wild Husbandry! I could've made them reliant on House Norton for their survival and eliminated a target for worry while I was at it!

Now that the chance is missed, the effort to bring in more refugees from those two provinces will be affected. Before this, Duke Fisablen wanted it for his own dominion but he wasn't able to do so as his house didn't have that much money. However, now that they've conquered the greater and lesser golden creeks, their financial crisis is solved and they're also able to afford buying gear from our house to strengthen their forces. They will be able to import labor from Southern and Winston to solve their lack of manpower.

The most important part is that without Melein, Duke Fisablen gains a reliable route to the four central duchies. He might e en be able to send livestock over there in droves and trade with them for the resources he needs instead of with the salt merchant committee...our monopoly is in shambles! We are no longer able to control House Fisablen’s trade!

Lorist shook his head as he looked at the map and thought that the house would definitely face heavy opposition from House Fisablen if he tried to conquer Iblia. Now that Duke Fisablen had the support of the four central duchies, there would definitely be a huge war in Winston and Southern. The unforeseeable missed initiative had cost more than Lorist had imagined!

"Have all the knights leading the three legions to gather at Firmrock Castle for a strategy meeting. Also, send someone to notify our allies. Have Count Kenmays, Baron Felim, and Baron Shazin come over to discuss the expansion of our influence."

Chapter 329 Dominion Replacement

"Do you want to take a whole province for yourself?" asked Lorist Count Kenmays, who was busy picking some fine wine off the racks.

The count was the fastest among the three and had already arrived. Baron Felim and Baron Shazin would take another day.

"You're finally going to act?" asked Count Kenmays with two bottles of wine in his hands.

Lorist nodded.

"Which province? I don't want the bad ones," said the count.

"See for yourself," said Lorist as he pointed at the purplish-black veil that was on the wall.

Count Kenmays put the wine bottles down and pushed the veil aside to reveal a large map on which two red arrows were drawn. One was pointed at Wild Husbandry while the other was pointed at Delamock.

"Are you going to act against the Madras duchy and House Fisablen?" Kenmays asked, "Can we really hold off against the combined attacks of those two?"

Lorist shook his head. "We can't attack both sides at once. What we have to prepare for now is to attack Madras first and conquer the Metropoulos River’s northern streams. In other words, we have to take control of the floating bridges that are sealed off there to connect Delamock with The Northlands.

"We can thus increase our four houses’ spheres of influence. We will then turn our blades to Iblia to see whether we have an opportunity to swallow up Winston and Southern.

"However, before this can happen, we need your houses to move to fitting dominions. As your armies are built to be greater in defense than offense, you won't be much of a threat against House Fisablen. So, I have to take over the eastern part of The Northlands, which is where your dominion is situated. I can only station Tigersoar there to put pressure on Duke Fisablen that way. He'll have to station at least one of his cavalry legions opposite me to be at peace."

Count Kenmays walked to Lorist's front and felt Lorist's forehead with his palm, before raising three fingers and asking, "What number is this?"

Lorist glared at the count angrily and said, "What are you up to?"

Count Kenmays said, "It seems you don't have a fever. So I take it you're serious about what this. Do you think attacking the Madras duchy will be an easy feat? That old turtle Duke Madras has done nothing but build fortresses and citadels and other defensive fortifications across his dominion all these years. Even though the Metropoulos River’s northern streams are rather peaceful, the opposite shore is full of defensive walls and barricades as well as moats, not to mention that we won't be able to get ashore given how our boats won't make it to the opposite side. I recall that punk Hennard telling me that he had wanted to procure some fresh fish and had some of his men construct some boats to fish at the river When his men got a little too close to the opposite shore, two of the boats were sunk and seven or eight men drowned. He was so mad he almost went to war.

"Also, just look at the border between Iblia and Madras, the intersection point between Winston and Delamock. Back when Duke Madras defeated the second prince at Kobo, he managed to reclaim the southeastern area of Delamock. To stop the second prince from once again breaching the south, the duke spent three whole years building seven citadels around Sanderson Hills. That area is basically an iron wall defended by more than 40 thousand troops. When the salt merchant committee deals with them, we have to pass through that area. While you might not know much about it, I've seen how strongly defended that area is for myself. Are you going to waste all your soldiers conquering the citadels over there?"

"Are you done?” Lorist asked, rolling his eyes, “You don't have to worry about how we attack the area. I have confidence in my ways to take down the duchy."

"Confidence, eh?" Kenmays said, unconvinced, "Locke, I really don't understand... Even if Duke Fisablen refused to let Sylvia marry you, you have to maintain your calm. You shouldn't act like this just because you received a bit of a shock. War is not to be initiated this recklessly."

Not knowing whether he should be humored or annoyed, Lorist said, "This has nothing to do with Sylvia."

"Then why are you in such a rush?" Kenmays asked, "Right now, the salt merchant committee has a monopoly on the daily necessities and salt of Duke Fisablen's dominion. If you're patient enough, we will eventually be able to control their salt supply and limit our trade on the products to force the duke to lower his head to us. If he doesn't want his dominion to fall into chaos and revolt, he has to abide by our demands. You can take up your role as groom then. This is also war on the business front. At any rate, it's better than taking our weapons out carelessly, right?"

"The Melein duchy is gone," said Lorist, shrugging.

"What did you say?" the count asked, not having heard it clearly enough, "What is gone?"

"The four central duchies worked with House Fisablen to attack Melein. Duke Melein died on the battlefield and the duchy is no more. I have a detailed report in the blue folder on my desk," said Lorist as he pointed at the folder he mentioned.

Kenmays leaped over and flipped the folder open before he jumped and exclaimed, "Deploy our troops! We have to attack immediately! We have to take Southern as soon as possible! We have to seal the trade route between Eastwild and the four duchies! We can't let our years of effort go down the drain like this! If we don't, even if we stop supplying salt, the four central duchies will provide House Fisablen with large amounts of it. If House Fisablen takes control of the trade route, then the salt merchant committee's monopoly on the three provinces under their control will be ruined!"

Count Kenmays had made a 180-degree turn from a pacifist to a warmonger in mere moments.

Lorist laughed and coughed as he tried to pull Kenmays to the couch before he brought him a cup of wine.

"Calm down. Now, you understand why I said we should act, don't you? It's obvious that Duke Fisablen's relationship with the four central duchies is growing by the day and he might eventually end up our enemy. If we don't take down Madras, The Northlands will only have two metal suspension bridges to rely on and might be cut off from the rest of the continent should Duke Fisablen attempt to do so.

"That's the reason I've decided to act against Madras. After we conquer it, we will move your dominion there and station Tigersoar in your current dominion to add pressure to the troops at Wild Husbandry. It will force the duke to station more troops on our border to rebalance the power disparity, diverting resources from the defense of the kingdom and allowing us to take Winston. We will gain the initiative to press our attack or defend our ground."

Count Kenmays took another sip of the wine in his cup before walking to the map.

"So which province are you going to make my dominion?"

"This one," Lorist said as he pointed at Sidgler, "This is the old lair of Duke Madras and I am going to let this place be your replacement dominion. You should know well the advantages this province provides. It's easy to defend and incredibly hard to attack, with the only passageway to the outside world being Xith Citadel. Additionally, Platinum Beach is also there with no other landed nobles around either, so you won't have any trouble to deal with in the future. That's far better than your current dominion in the eastern Northlands."

Kenmays grit his teeth before he said, "That's not enough. It'll be hard for me to answer to the rest of the house if all I get is Sidgler Province. However, if you can do Delamock, then there's no problem."

“That won't do,” Lorist said, shaking his head, “I need to split Delamock into multiple smaller fiefs, so I can’t hand it to you."

"Fiefs? Are you going to found a kingdom?"

"No. There are still 17 nobles staying at Firmrock Castle. It’s because we conquered their dominions. We owe them new fiefs. I'm not going to let them have their new dominions in The Northlands, so Delamock’s land will be enfeoffed to these nobles. The land there is rich and fit for agriculture, so I'm sure they'll be happy to agree. Additionally, the household knights that gain enough achievements will be made vassal houses one day, and I plan to give them fiefs in Delamock as well, " explained Lorist.

"I see. My house is also taking care of five Northlander nobles deprived of their dominions. Why don't you make similar arrangements for them and give my house Vanades? They would agree to a relocation if that's the case," said Kenmays, attempting a compromise.

"There'll be no problem with moving the five nobles to Delamock,” Lorist said, shaking his head, “But I can't hand you Vanades. It’s the largest city in the duchy and the largest trading hub in the entire northwestern area. There’s no doubt that it will become the center of our dominions’ trade once we take it. I can’t let your house have sole control over the city. I can let you be the city’s custodians. You can have it for the first five years, and, if you do well, you can keep the position for another term. Additionally, I'll make it up to your house and construct a port for you at the coasts so you can form your own trading fleet.”

"Are you serious?” Kenmays said, wide-eyed, “You can actually make a port at the Cursed Coasts? You're not kidding me, are you?"

Lorist took out a rolled-up diagram from his scroll bin and handed it to Kenmays.

“See for yourself. This is the blueprint for a wooden-box port that allows offshore activities. My house already has two at the Bladedge Mountains and they're holding up pretty well. Your house can also use this flexible port to trade and ship things across the sea. However, if you want to build a more permanent port that can weather the strong winds, you still have to reclaim the land for a proper structure to be constructed."

Kenmays held onto the blueprint like he would a delicate heirloom.

"Alright, I'll agree. When can we relocate?"

To the count, born to a line of merchants, controlling a trade route was akin to gaining a way to generate incessant profits. It was far better than their gold mine at the eastern Northlands which would run dry sooner or later anyway, so he was more than willing to make the trade.

"There's no rush. We still need a bit of time but I can promise you the relocation will happen next year," said Lorist.

"Do you need me to do anything? If you need our forces on the battlefield, feel free to let me know," offered Kenmays generously.

"No, I won't be needing it. Our forces will take Sidgler and pass it to you in good condition. All you have to do is to fortify your new dominion, then station your troops at Vanades to keep the Andinaq kingdom's soldiers in Yungechandler in check. You'll have to watch out for attacks from Farkel and Shabaj to your east. Even though the only connection between the two nations is the 500-kilometer path through Egret Lake, you can't be too careful."

"No worries. While our forces aren't good at attacking, we're more than capable of defending ourselves. What of Baron Felim and Hennard's arrangements then?" Kenmays inquired.

Lorist tapped on the southeastern area of Delamock.

"After conquering this, I will give it to Hennard. Since both he and Baron Felim are nobles with military backgrounds, unlike you, their forces will be relatively better in offense. Sanderson Hills is the two provinces’ point of intersection. If Hennard is there, he can attack Winston and reinforce Vanades should it come under attack.

"At the same time, I will construct a few floating bridges over the Metropoulos River’s northern streams to link The Northlands to Delamock. You don’t have to worry about how I’ll come to your aid in the future. As for Baron Felim, his dream is to reclaim House Pegasus’ old dominion in Southern, which they had occupied for over a century previously. We will help him fulfill his dream.

"Southern’s been completely ruined by the wars. If Baron Felim wishes to restore the glory of House Pegasus, he'll need to invest a lot; he’ll need our help as well. If we can occupy Southern, we’ll have caged the lion called Duke Fisablen. By then, we won't have to worry about that old fox causing us trouble anymore. As long as we can cut off the dominion’s trade, the old fox will have no choice but to play nice."

“What do you plan on doing with these two?” asked Kenmays, tapping on Winston and Windbury.

"If everything goes well, Southern will go to Baron Felim. I will use Winston to settle in the nobles that join our faction. When we attack Madras, there's bound to be nobles who surrender. I will relocate their dominions to Winston. I also plan to make it the trading hub of the southeastern area like Vanades to develop the land surrounding it," said Lorist.

"Locke,” Kenmays said, eyes flashing, “You should found a kingdom after you conquer Madras and Iblia. The Norton Kingdom... I can't help but think about how splendid that sounds. Naturally, I would be willing to become a Norton noble."

Lorist exploded with laughter.

"We'll see. It's not too late to consider it after Duke Fisablen properly submits. For now, we only have to focus on taking Madras and ensuring the first phase of our plan succeeds. When Hennard and Felim arrive, we’ll have another formal discussion. We'll require their cooperation, after all."

"Locke, I'm actually quite curious what gave you the confidence that you'll be successful in taking Madras. Don't be mistaken, Madras is no turtle. It's a shriveled up porcupine. If we get dragged into a drawn-out war, even if we end up winning, we’ll lose far more than we gain. It would be even harder for us to deal with House Fisablen in the future if that happens," said Kenmays.

"Don't worry, I have my own methods. When Hennard and Felim come over, I will bring you all to see our secret weapon," said Lorist as he nodded again, confidently.

"What secret weapon?"

"You'll know when the time comes."

"Come on, Locke, don't be so petty! Can't you tell me about it first?"

"Nope."

Chapter 330 Plan of Attack

"Fire!"

Ten large, wooden constructions hummed momentarily. Ten long staves flipped ninety degrees from the horizontal to the vertical. Ten basin sized lumps of rock arched through the sky. They shrunk over the course of two or three seconds until they vanished, as if they’d popped out of existence entirely. Three or four long seconds of silence passed before, in the distance, several dust clouds popped into existence, followed a second later by as many loud thumps and the sound of crashing and crushing stone. When the dust cleared, a heap of rubble became visible. At the two edges of the mound, a few stones stood packed on one another, trying their best to remind the observer that there had indeed once been a wall.

Count Kenmays, Baron Felim, and Baron Shazin stared wide-eyed at the ruin in the distance. They had sworn just moments earlier that only through the reckless swarming of soldiers without regard for casualties, with the use of siege ladders, could that very wall be conquered. Only after wearing down the defending forces by paying a high price could one take it.

They never expected Lorist only needed to instruct Ovidis to bring ten thunderbolt catapults over and set them up about 350 meters from the wall. Lorist only needed a few minutes to undo what was likely years’ work. They felt like complete fools for saying what they had.

"The next target will be the tower on the right. Prepare the flame meteors!" ordered Ovidis once more.

Flame meteors were spherical balls wrapped up in rope and doused with fuel. They were first placed inside a metal catapult bucket before a soldier set it aflame. The ten stone balls were soon burning brightly.

"Fire!"

The flaming balls soared through the air towards a rectangular structure on a hill in the distance. The structure was quite a bit smaller than the wall had been – granted, after the last volley the two were now about even – so several shots missed. They weren’t far off, though, and landed just beside it. Those that missed set fire to the leaves around the structure, whilst those that hit made three large holes in it. Soon smoke billowed out the of the holes to join the smoke already rising from the ground around the tower.

"This is amazing," Felim praised, "With such a weapon in hand, we won’t have to worry about any castle standing in our way!"

"So this is where all your confidence came from!” Kenmays said, tugging on Lorist’s arm excitedly, “Hahaha, I bet Duke Madras can’t imagine that he won’t be able to resist our attack anyway regardless of how hard he tries to shrink up like a turtle! We'll be able to raze his defenses to the ground without anyone being able to stop us! Well, he only stands a chance if he confronts us in a field battle... Perhaps not even then! Hehe, he'll lose even faster if he comes out of his shell."

"Locke, give me a few! I want to obliterate the sentry outpost and the walls near the stream!" Shazin said with both his hands clasped.

It seemed that he held quite a deep grudge against those who manned the defenses at the northern stream.

"Don't be in such a rush. 'll sell you as many as you want after we take the duchy. However, Hennard, I will allow you to lead Ovidis to the stream so you can exact your revenge. We'll force the duke to gather his forces there in response to our surprise attack. After you return, gather your men to make as many rafts as possible. We will load our catapults onto the rafts and bring them across the river. Naturally, we'll be sending as many woodworkers and boat makers as we can to help you," said Lorist with a smile.

"No problem. I'll get the required materials and manpower ready when I return. However, Locke, won't we alert the duke of our activities if we start building rafts on our side of the shore?"

"Don't worry, it's all the better if they are alerted. What we want is for the for the duchy to concentrate there as much as possible so the defense at other places is weakened."

Shazin Hennard rubbed his palms together.

"Hehe, well, I was just saying what came through my mind. With Ovidis's Thunderbolt Brigade helping me out, I'm confident I'll be able to storm my way through and raze the seven citadels all the way across Sanderson Hills to the ground. My rage will only calm if I do so much."

Lorist shook his head and said, "I would advise against doing that, Hennard. Don't forget that Sanderson Hills is where your dominion will be. It won't be good for you if it’s ruined. Actually, I have a method to force the soldiers defending it to surrender and hand the seven citadels over. You don’t even have to bother considering how you will deploy your troops. It'll save you both time and effort, which is ideal."

"You're saying we should go straight for Vanades right after busting through the defense line at Metropoulos; that we should take Xith Castle and storm all the way to Sidgler in one go? So we're going to give this attack our all and capture Duke Madras dead or alive to force the rest of the soldiers to surrender, right?" asked Felim.

"Well, that's the best plan we have for now,” Lorist said, nodding, “Unless we have a better strategy when the time comes, that's how this will all play out. Our only worry after crossing the stream is encountering the duke’s heavy-armored soldiers, which would drag the conflict on unnecessarily. Even though we have a weapon like the catapults, we must still be wary of any accidents.

"Even if Duke Madras is nothing but an aging turtle, he's one that has years of experience. We must not be careless in the slightest. It's the 8th month right now, we'll launch a few probing attacks at the end of the 10th month to see if we can lure more of their troops to the wilds to weather the elements. If the soldiers spend their time camping outside in the winter to defend against our attacks, they'll be severely worn out by spring. That will be our chance to strike."

After Kenmays, Felim, and Shazin went their way, Potterfang met with Lorist.

"Milord, I heard you're going to sell the catapults to our allies?"

"That's right. What's wrong?"

Potterfang stood ramrod straight.

"Milord, I am against it. Even though the three houses are our allies, the catapults are secret weapons only our house has. It's the ideal tool for besieging castles and defending them. Selling these weapons might introduce a new threat for which we have to watch out."

“It’s not as serious as you think,” Lorist laughed, “The catapult will be outdated soon enough."

"Outdated? That can't be. How could anything outstrip the catapult?"

"Did you forget about the bronze cannons the Oceanic Legion employs? Grandmaster Sid and Professor Balbo have already perfected the cannons for ground use. Their power far exceeds that of the catapults. These catapults are only standing targets for our cannons. I've already instructed Howard to pick a group of reliable people and train them as cannoneers. In time, the gun carriage will be part of your legion’s arsenal."

"Understood, Milord. Please excuse my rudeness. I wasn't aware of it," said Potterfang.

“It’s fine,” Lorist said, waving his hand dismissively, “If I know you as well as I think I do, you must've been prompted to confront me about that issue by the others, right? I'm sure you know that we already have our own plans regarding this just from Charade's silence. If selling the catapults would truly have endangered our house, he would definitely have been the first to throw a tantrum."

"Milord, I should've known better..."

"Don't worry about it. Have you gathered the Oceanic Legion and Firmrock legion’s leaders yet? If they're here, we'll start the meeting right away."

......

Facing a group of knights gathered tightly together, Lorist used a long, fine stick to point to the large map.

"What I'm telling you now is our real attack plan; even our allies aren't aware of it. They believe we will launch our attack from the Metropoulos’ lower stream after Thunderbolt Brigade has pulverized the enemy’s defenses and forced them into the open. Actually, that part of the plan is just bait to lure Madras into deploying its forces by the river, thus pulling forces from other front’s, weakening them.

"Our true target is here," Lorist said as he pointed at a spot on the map, "Sidgler province’s Platinum Beach. We will launch our attack at the end of the 12th month."

Apart from Charade and the rest who could already see what was coming, many household knights expressed gasps of disbelief.

"This attack will be headed by Firmrock with the aid of the Oceanic Legion. You may ask any questions you have now," said Lorist as he looked at the chattering knights.

Potterfang stood up.

“Milord, going on shore during the winter season is a rather huge risk due to the winds. The waves and winds in the northern seas have always been rather harsh during winter and we may incur heavy casualties if we're not careful."

“Senbaud, I'll let you respond to Potterfang's query."

"Sir Potterfang,” Senbaud explained, “in the recent years, I've had people document the weather changes over the seasons in the northern seas and discovered that between the 32nd day of the 12th month and the 35th day, which is a few days before the coming of the new year, the northern seas will be incredibly calm. No accidents will occur If we sail to their shores during that time. Apart from using the smaller boats to travel ashore, Our Lord has also ordered us to prepare lots of wooden box parts. We only need ten hours to build two floating ports that connect to the shores for our comrades to go ashore from our ships safely."

Malek stood up next and asked, "Milord, how will we get our troops ashore without being detected by the local garrisons? Sidgler is the duke’s headquarters; if our movements are discovered, the odds of our surprise attack being successful will plummet greatly. After all, the enemy is cooped up in the city and has the defender’s advantage."

Lorist nodded in acknowledgment before he addressed the point.

"Actually, between the 32nd and 35th days of the 12th month in the past two years, I've sent people to go ashore on Platinum Beach for a survey. We noticed that the defenses at Sidgler during that time is rather lax because nobody expects there could be an attack at that time. Over here lies the city of Edelise, named after the duke's daughter. It’s also where the duke's household is situated.

"Every winter, Duke Madras will invite the nobles across his duchy to gather there for a celebration and to count down to the new year. That is when the defenses at Edelise will be at its most lax, which is also part of the reason I decided to launch an attack during the 12th month. Getting off the shore is so that we can capture all the nobles gathered at Edelise in one go. We won’t have to plow through entire duchy to find them this way.

"Our plan is to deploy, launch a surprise attack to conquer Edelise, and use the seal of the duke right away to transfer their soldiers away or take Xith Castle by surprise, followed by Vanades and Kobo. Through this one route, we will have conquered three cities in one go. This way, the duchy will be good as gone. I will be in one of the first batches of people to participate in this surprise attack."

"Milord, you don't have to take such a huge risk. Just leave this attack to us. We will not disappoint you,” Potterfang protested.

"Duke Madras has a rank 2 blademaster by his side,” Lorist argued, “He is my target. Firmrock will have to be transferred to a temporary campsite at the foot of Bladedge Mountains to prepare for the battle. In the meantime, Pog, Malek, you two must make sure to train the soldiers to board and disembark from the ships so they don't screw up during the actual mission."

"Understood, Milord."

"Freiyar, when the Firmrock legion leaves Silowas, I want you to lead a local defense division and defend the island."

"Yes, Milord."

"As long as we can conquer Kobo, the duchy’s bread basket, the troops guarding the seven citadels at Sanderson Hills, and those gathered near the riverbank will lose all their supplies and face surrender or collapse. That's how we take Madras during the winter. I hope you will all lead the house to success!"

"Yes, Milord!"

"Alright, meeting adjourned. Fiercetiger Loze, Dulles, Joe, and Yuriy, I want you to stay back for a bit."

Apart from the aforementioned four, Charade also stayed.

"If everything goes well, we will have to face House Fisablen right after taking Madras," Lorist said with a solemn tone, "After the relocation of Count Kenmays, Tigersoar will be stationed in the eastern area of The Northlands to apply pressure to the troops in Wild Husbandry. But given Tigersoar’s trait as a heavy-armored cavalry unit, it will find it hard to deal with the mobile and agile cavalry troops of Duke Fisablen. That's why I've already discussed forming a brand new light cavalry division similar to those of the duke with Charade, which shall be called the Jaeger legion, the troops will be known as mounted jaegers. Joe will be the legion commander and Yuriy his second-in-command."

Josk looked surprised and seemed to have something to say, but Lorist raised his hand to stop him.

"Joe, I don't think there is anyone more fitting to lead the legion than you. Yuriy is also working as your aide of his own will. The best countermeasure we have against the duke's cavalry are the mounted jaegers. The only other method we have to deal with them is to crush them with pure numbers in an open field battle, but we're fighting in the grasslands, the duke’s home turf, he won't afford us that kind of luxury. We will also suffer in terms of terrain. I have put my hopes in you. Do you think you're up to it?"

"Milord, I will definitely not let you down,” Josk started.

Lorist patted on Josk's shoulder.

"We don't have much time. After we take Madras, it will take about a year for the situation to stabilize, including having the Kenmays and Shazin houses relocate. But after the year passes, we will have to deal with House Fisablen. Joe, Yuriy, I have already ordered all the legions to allow you to recruit from them. You can pick whoever you think are fitting for the Jaeger legion, but make sure to leave some people in the groups from which you recruit. Even so, you only have a year to get the new legion in shape. Do you think you can do it?"

Josk and Yuriy stood up, saluted to Lorist, and said in unison, "Understood, Milord. Please be assured that you will not be disappointed."

Chapter 331 Incident and New Equipment

Charade rushed into Lorist's room with a folder in his arms.

“What's going on?" Lorist asked, raising his head.

Charade laughed bitterly.

"There was an incident while the Firmrock legion was practicing their landings. One of the rafts flipped over. Only 7 of the 25 onboard at the time survived."

Firmrock was the main force of the house’s invasion of Madras. Their camp had been moved to Whitestone Beach in the middle of the passage near Bladedge Mountains, the beach the four families lf Wildnorth Town had used as a part of their smuggling route. Reaching Sidgler province from the beach only took six short hours. Lorist had scheduled the invasion two months from now. Firmrock would be aided by the Oceanic Legion. No one had expected an accident, especially not one of this nature.

"How did it happen?"

"According to Potterfang, the rafts we’re using are designed to be lifeboats, not landing craft. The soldiers can’t control them well and they flip quite easily in a swell or strong breeze. The soldiers are also fully kitted – they are very heavy. They sink straight down once they’re in the water, even with a lofe-log. Firmrock just submitted a request for the improvement of the deployment rafts and equipment for emergency situations at sea," said Charade as he took out a beastskin document and handed it to Lorist.

Lorist stood up, his face dark.

This is due to my carelessness. When I came up with the plan, I didn't think the deployment through properly enough. The lifeboats we're using are far too bad at resisting the waves and winds.

It would be fine if those using them were sailors who knew how to swim and were also trained to preserve their lives as best as they could at sea. But most of the soldiers being deployed by ship didn’t know how to swim. Coupled with their full load of armor and weapons, they would be no different from iron blocks should the raft flip. Even though it was but a small accident, the lives of 18 household soldiers had been lost just like that. The wooden planks they used as floats that would be thrown to an overboard man were not of much use either, given the soldiers’ weight.

Lorist took up his quill and began drawing a few sketches of life jackets and some circular floats.

"Send these drawings to the metal refinery and have Supervisor Camorra make them. Stuff the jackets with small pieces of wood. As for these circular floats, they will be made out of wood and put around one's waist to keep one afloat."

With life jackets and waist floats, drowning was no longer an urgent concern.

What should I do about the landing craft? Adding a keel will help with the tipping but the raft will sit deeper in the water? So it won’t be able to get as close to shore...

Given that the time the soldiers would be deployed was around the end of the 12th month, the chilling weather made it so that no one would be able to resist the low temperatures of the water which might leave traumatizing injuries.

Wait, if I can't add a keel to the bottom of the raft, I can add more planks at the side. Not only would that increase the surface area of the raft to aid with buoyancy, allowing more weight to be carried, the weight would also be more evenly distributed. That's it! thought Lorist as inspiration flashed across his mind.

He began drawing a flat-bottomed landing craft that had three long poles laid horizontally on the boat, with each side having large planks that made contact with the surface of the water. The spaces between the three sticks would allow for the boat to be rowed forward without interference.

"Alright, this will do. These three horizontal poles will not be fixed in place to allow the boat to approach the shores more effectively. First, we'll deploy the boat as it is, install the three horizontal poles and load our soldiers on board. This will help reduce the chances of the boat from flipping over. I'll need you to have someone from the shipyard at Bullhorn Bay construct a few prototypes for Potterfang to test. Send some worksmiths over as well so we can change the design as needed," said Lorist as he handed Charade the blueprints.

Charade nodded and took out another file from his folder.

“Milord, this is a report from the Jaeger Legion. Josk and Yuriy have picked 28 thousand members from the various legions and garrisons and formed the legion’s first division, numbering five brigades of three thousand men, further divided into four regiments. There are also a carroballista regiment and a logistics regiment that have five thousand horses, 100 carroballistae and 100 four-wheeled cargo carriages. The second division is still under construction. So far, they're still recruiting members from the dominion."

"Oh?" Lorist mused, "Why does the Hunter Rider Legion need carroballistae? Shouldn't they focus only on swift attacks and retreats? Wouldn't carroballistae slow them down instead?"

Charade looked at the file and said, "Milord, Josk says that it's for the protection of his logistics unit from being attacked by enemy troops when the main unit is out for assault. That way, their horses and supplies would be safely guarded. Should they lose their supplies, the whole legion would crumble from having nothing to feed the horses with."

Lorist gave it some thought and nodded.

"Alright. Since Josk and Yuriy are in charge of the Jaeger Legion, I trust their judgment. They may have Supervisor Camorra send them the carroballistae they need."

"There's one more thing. Josk and Yuriy both submitted a request yesterday, asking for us to confirm the ranged weapons and other equipment they will use for their legion so that they can begin training to raise their mastery to increase combat ability. They think the current equipment of the household soldiers aren't suitable for use for the legion. They hope the house will provide even stronger armor."

"I already know that without needing them to tell me. This afternoon, Grandmaster Sid and Grandmaster Fellin will bring the aforementioned items here. You should stay back and check them out too. I've already had Els send for Josk and Yuriy," Lorist said, "Is there anything else?"

Charade brought out yet another document and said, "Milord, this is the report Supervisor Spiel submitted. During the past two years, the house has been spending money like water. We've already reorganized 20 local defense brigades in the previous year, costing us almost three million gold Fordes. Not only that, the transportation of the liberated slaves to The Northlands for the development of Greatriver is estimated to cost a million. Coupled with the cost of other miscellaneous spendings, the house is over budget by almost five million gold Fordes.

"Even though we'll be able to earn that amount in our deal with Duke Fisablen, the research funds of one million gold Fordes each you intend to allocate to Grandmaster Sid and the gunpowder lab, the two million gold Fordes you've used to purchase warships for the Oceanic Legion, as well as the cost of giving away daily necessities, buying military supplies, and the payment of pensions all amount to one million gold Fordes. We've already spent most of what we earned from the arms deal.

"And now, we're trying to form a whole new legion which will cost us at least three million. Your preparations to attack Madras will easily cost us a million as well. And don't forget the relocation of House Kenmays which will also cost a million gold. The various costs you have to bear for launching Dawn Academy at The Northlands will also cost quite a significant amount, making us over budget by six million gold Fordes this year.

"Supervisor Spiel wrote this report to caution us on our spending. Even if the extermination of Hanayabarta netted us a staggering 27 million gold Fordes, our treasury will run dry if you keep spending like this, Milord."

Lorist laughed like it was the most natural thing to do.

"Supervisor Spiel's always like this. He can't help but stuff the treasury full with gold coins. I'm sure you know that gold coins won't reproduce in our treasuries. If you take inflation into account, one cow that costs five gold Fordes this year will cost seven to eight in a few years. Only by reintroducing the gold coins into the market can we gain even more of them. Even though my recent spending is huge, that doesn't mean it’s done recklessly. These are all investments to solidify the foundation of the house's future."

Charade made a bitter smile.

"Milord, this is 27 million gold Fordes we're talking about. While I can agree with what you said about investment, I feel the investments we make won't pay off until the time of our grandchildren. If we didn't form a new legion and sink funds into military conflicts, our income during the past two years is actually rather good. If we're savvy, we'll have a net profit of a few hundred thousand gold Fordes.

"Additionally, the house's policy is to enrich the commoners. We've already completed development on Felicitas, Salus, Redriver Valley and Northsea, but we're only charging 40 percent in taxes, 30 for the household of garrison soldiers, and 20 for our household soldiers and officials' families, while only ten for the households of our knights. Even though some of the tax collected remains after paying off the administrative costs, it doesn't help at all with the spending of our military.

"So far, our military spending is dependent on the business of the factories the house helped launched as well as the profits we gain from selling daily necessities to the territories of House Fisablen and the Iblia kingdom through the salt merchant committee. But if House Fisablen really establishes a trade route to the four central duchies, their purchases from the salt merchant committee will no doubt decrease. Should that ever happen, our military expenditure will be nothing but an unnecessary burden.

"Milord, Supervisor Spiel has suggested that the house raise the tax rate by ten percent across the board and increase our shares of the factories and shops our house helped open from 30 to 50 percent. As for the smaller stalls and shops that we only collect ten percent of earnings from, we'll raise it to 30 percent. Compared to the other nobles who take 60 to 70 percent, we're still far better off. Not only that, we'll be able to collect an estimated additional 300 thousand gold Fordes from doing so which can sustain a little more than half of our military expenditure."

Lorist shook his head.

"Raising taxes is one of the dumbest things we can do. There are many ways we can get the common folk to give us the coin in their pockets. Just leave Supervisor Spiel's report over here, I will write him a reply when I'm free. While I am thankful for his consideration and contributions to the house, I can't use his suggestion at all because that would sway the loyalty and trust our subjects have in us."

"Alright then. I will sort out the things you want done. See you later in the afternoon," said Charade before he left.

......

At noon, Lorist shared lunch with the pregnant Dilianna. She had already been pregnant for six months, so her stomach was visibly swollen. A herbalist, who came over to check on her, said she could be bearing twins and required more nutrients, so the young aunt of the Dinas had grown quite puffy in recent days, almost twice the size she used to be. Apart from her change in figure, she also craved sleep frequently. Right after finishing lunch, she yawned and made her way to her room for more shuteye.

As for Arriotoli, who had just recently broken through to the silver rank, she had dragged her younger sister with her excitedly to Nico Academy to visit her younger brother. A knighting ceremony of the Dina house would also be carried out there to make Arriotoli a knight of the house, as well as the leader of the house in her brother's stead. Only when her brother reaches the age of 18 would the position of leader be handed to him. The two Dina sisters wouldn't return to Firmrock Castle anytime soon.

Lorist also took a short nap after the meal. He went to his study thereafter. One hour later, he received a report from Howard that grandmasters Sid and Fellin had arrived by carriage. Not only that, Josk and Yuriy have been waiting for quite a while at the guest's hall.

"Have them come up to the meeting room on the third floor. There's a courtyard over there near the rear mountain, so if the grandmasters brought over some long-ranged weapons, that would be the ideal place to test them out for Josk and Yuriy to see. Get Charade to come over as well," said Lorist.

"Understood, Milord."

It didn't take long for all of them to gather at the meeting room. The two grandmasters had brought with them three huge boxes this time around, the first of which contains a mesh and chain hybrid mail that was unlike any currently worn by Norton soldiers. The helmet accompanying that set was made in the shape of a conical hat, much like a round, point-tipped shield.

Grandmaster Sid began his introduction, "Milord, this set of armor is designed per your requirements for the armor of the Hunter Rider Legion to be light and tough along with the suggestions I gathered from many light cavalry scouts about how their armor can be improved. As our house's new unit will mainly be pit against Duke Fisablen's cavalry troops, who use the armor we designed, the armor we designed for our Hunter Rider Legion is a modified version of the one they use. Not only is it lighter and more agile than armor set 103 bought by the Fisablens, it is also far tougher.

"The main method of attack used by the duke's cavalry is mid-ranged weapons. Their troops would frequently dismount when their enemy is a hundred meters away to fire three subsequent volleys of longbow fire before mounting and leaving once more. They also use mangonels with an effective range of 50 meters, and use javelins or throwing axes when they are even closer to their enemy. That's why, the Hunter Rider Legion must mainly be protected from the ranged attacks of the duke's cavalry instead of charging attacks like our own.

"The most effective type of armor against ranged attacks is this chainmail. We made the individual linked chains with steel wire meshes, allowing for greater defense against ranged attacks when compared to plate armor. That's especially the case with the conical helmets that will render longbow attacks useless once tilted at an angle. It can also be used as a shield for close-range encounters. A layer of magic bull leather armor will be worn over the wire-chain mail that will increase the defense slightly and also serve as a windbreaker to keep warm.

"Not only that, we also embedded the steel wire mesh into the armor of the mounts to give better protection for them from attacks from the front. The whole armor set, including the armor of the mount, weighs in at 80 percent of the weight of armor set 103 and is definitely more heavy duty as well. We also made improvements to the saddles and stirrups of the mounts so that they'll last longer and control easier compared to the older version."

"Very nice," Lorist praised, "Thank you for your efforts, Grandmaster Sid, Grandmaster Fellin. I am very satisfied with how thorough you've been when designing this new armor set. What I worry about is whether the production can keep up with our demands."

Grandmaster Sid, elated to receive Lorist's praise, said, "Of course, Milord. The production of steel wire can already be automated by our watermill machines. I've also designed a machine that can easily cut the wire into set lengths and roll them up. The only part that still requires human hands is the weaving of the armor. The estimated rate of production is a thousand sets per day."

"Good, then it's decided that the Hunter Rider Legion will be using this armor set. I will instruct Supervisor Camorra to arrange the necessary manpower for the formation of the legion. On another note, Sid, I'd like to ask you whether you've finished designing a ranged weapon for our soldiers of the new legion? I hope that the Hunter Rider Legion will have an advantage in terms of ranged weapons against the duke's cavalry troops to stand a better chance in battle," said Lorist.

"Hehe, Milord, please witness the culmination of Grandmaster Fellin's and my effort!" announced Grandmaster Sid as he opened the second large box and took out an oddly-shaped crossbow.

"Milord, this is the compact crossbow! The most cutting-edge ranged weapon yet!"

Chapter 332 The Trouble with Compact Crossbows

"Steady!" Lorist pulled onto his reins and his mount reared backwards with both forelegs in air before landing back down to the wet, grassy ground.

"Let's set up camp further up on the hill. We should be able to reach Baron Shazin's riverside encampment by tomorrow."

It was the 30th day of the 10th month and Baron Shazin had sent a messenger to relay that the rafts have been completed. Ovidis's Thunderbolt Brigade had also arrived at the encampment at the lower stream of Metropoulos River. With the preparations all finished, he asked if Lorist was going to head there soon. If he didn't, the baron was going to have Ovidis launch an attack on the outposts on the other side of the river.

Naturally, Lorist said that he would be going. He was just about to head there to deliver some life jackets to the soldiers there. After all, they were going to battle aboard rafts, and the catapult operators that took lots of resources and time to train would be a huge loss to the house should they drown just like that. That was why it was best to have some precautions in place.

Not only that, Lorist also wanted to escape the commotion back at the dominion, which all started when Lorist made a huge order from the grandmasters, Sid and Fellin, to make a total of 50 thousand compact crossbows for the Mounted Jaegars, with each compact crossbow costing 38 gold Fordes to make.

The price to make one of those was truly staggering. Even the steel ballista cost only 35 gold Fordes to make, yet a small compact crossbow that was far inferior than ballistae in terms of power cost even more. Charade was the first one to object to it, followed by supervisors Spiel and Camorra.

For that matter, they had argued for two whole days. But Lorist still insisted on ordering so many of those compact crossbows, causing the cost of the formation of the Jaegar Legion to be two million gold Fordes above budget. Charade and the two supervisors didn't appreciate Lorist's decision, as was evident from the sour faces they wore.

But that was not the end of it. While the compact crossbows cost a lot to make, the cost of manufacturing the bolts were even more staggering. One gold Forde could only produce 20 of those bolts, with each bolt costing around a large silver. That was the main reason Charade objected to the manufacturing of those crossbows. Even if the cost was high, it was still bearable. But the expendable bolts cost far more than what they were worth!

A legion of Mounted Jaegars had 60 thousand people, split into four divisions, or 20 brigades of three thousand men each. Not counting the carroballista brigade and the logistics unit that includes the coachmen and other miscellaneous helpers, there were at least 40 thousand combatants in the Jaegar Legion. If every one of those men fired one shot with the compact crrossbows, it would be akin to them shooting out two thousand gold Fordes! How was that different from sinking money down the drain? Not taking into account the fact that each user of the compact crossbow had to receive special training, the bolts that were fired were not recoverable for reuse. Charade even estimated the cost of bolts to train an average soldier to use the compact crossbow would amount to 30 to 50 gold Fordes and had objected to the use of that weapon immediately.

Actually, Lorist had a feeling that he messed up the technological tree somehow after making that order. He didn't think that the two grandmasters wouldn't make much progress with firearms in the past two years and instead managed to improve in the art of making crossbows. The compact crossbow was almost like a crossbow gun that had more firepower than an old musket of his previous world.

Crossbows were fundamentally different from longbows. A longbow could loose an arrow that could travel 100 meters in a straight line, and it was known across the continent that an arrow could be fired up to 300 meters away with a parabolic shot. However, Sid later discovered that the most effective range to use longbows was 70 meters. At that distance, only half the bowmen could hit their targets. Given how small they were from a distance, some luck was required to get in a good hit, with the exception of a genius marksman like Josk who could still hit his target all the time even when it was 100 meters from him.

In the battleforce-driven world of Grindia, longbowmen could even use their battleforce to increase the power of their shots. A silver-ranked archer could fire a battleforce-infused arrow through metal or rock, and that was the reason it was hailed as one of the most effective long-range weapons over the millennium. In stark contrast, a crossbow-like weapon had to be cocked and strung and couldn't fire too far away. But the main flaw was the inability for one to infuse battleforce into bolt projectiles. Despite that, it only took three months of training for a crossbowman as opposed to the two years a longbowman would require due to the ease of aiming and accuracy.

The compact crossbow the two grandmasters invented had already surpassed longbows in certain ways. Constructed out of steel and wood, it could be fired at a low angle, and reloading it was easy and quick through the use of a lever mechanism. The lever on the right of the crossbow only had to be pulled to string the bow and make space for the bolt to be loaded before the next shot could be taken. Even though it couldn't quite compare to the rapid-fire capability longbows had, it was far better in comparison to traditional crossbows.

The biggest improvement of these new crossbows were their firing range of 70 to 80 meters.[1] Grandmaster Sid promised that a longbowman and crossbowman firing at each other from that range would see the longbowman lose. That's because a longbowman had to estimate the shot whereas the crossbowman armed with a compact crossbow can aim down the sights to fire at its target.

Other than that, even though the compact crossbows can't fire 300 meters away like longbows can, Grandmaster Sid did manage to include a long distance firing mode in its design. Engraved on the crossbow was a scale diagram that could be used to orient the weapon to an angle which will allow it to fire the projectile in a parabolic arc, allowing the projectile to land as far as 150 meters away, which was ideal for a volley of fire to weed out some enemy numbers.

The compact crossbow bolts were specially made with armor-piercing capabilities as well, with the body of the projectile being half hollow and three small metal fins attached to its back. The fins that would break after one shot was also the reason the bolts couldn't be reused.

Lorist thought back at Yuriy who was completely lovestruck by the new weapon who said, "Milord, if you can arm the Jaegar Legion with these compact crossbows, I promise that they will be able to rival the cavalry legions of House Fisablen within three months."

Perhaps, it was that statement that thoroughly convinced Lorist to make that decision despite the fervent disagreement he faced from Charade and the others. In retrospect, Lorist was regretting his decision slightly as Charade's objections did have quite a bit of merit. So, he requested the grandmasters to modify the prototype of the compact crossbows so that the cost of making them would be below 20 gold Fordes, with the bolts being changed to cost one gold Forde per hundred of them.

While they said that it was possible to do so, it would take at the very least two years. Given that Lorist needed the Mounted Jaegars to gain as much combat capability as they could as soon as possible, as well as how strong the financial situation of the house was, he ordered 50 thousand compact crossbows, including some extra in case any defunct ones needed replacing, much to Charade's anger.

Howard had already set up Lorist's tent as well as some simple bedding. Lorist walked to the side of his bedding and saw Howard preparing tea for him.

"Howard, do you think the order for 50 thousand compact crossbows was a little over the top?"

Surprised and silent for a good moment, Howard said, "Milord, it's not my place to comment about it..."

"Don't worry, just speak your mind. As an outsider, your perspective might provide some much-needed insight."

"Well, how do I say this... Milord, I think you're a little too impatient. I've realized that you seem to be a little hasty these days when it comes to arming the Mounted Jaegars. You're also regarding House Fisablen like they're already our enemy. I feel that to be a little contradictory," said Howard after giving it some good thought.

"Contradictory? Why do you feel that?" asked Lorist as he sat up.

Howard furrowed his brow and explained, "Milord, if you really think that House Fisablen will be our foe, you should stop the military gear agreement you have with them right away. Their preparations will only be complete in the following year when our trade deal concludes, so Duke Fisablen will definitely not declare war against us before that happens. So far, only a third of the deal has been fulfilled. If you really think that Duke Fisablen will become our enemy, you should've stopped the deal with them. That's far more an effective way than arming the Mounted Jaegars is.

"Also, I can understand why Knight Charade and supervisors Spiel and Camorra object so heavily to this. We truly don't lack time right now, so there's no need to make such a huge order that soon. Also, the compact crossbow isn't as perfect as you seem to think it is. Its wire string and specially made metal plates have to be switched out frequently. Not only does that add to the cost, it also increases the usage difficulty.

"Grandmasters Sid and Fellin also mentioned that the tests for this new compact crossbow isn't fully run through yet. There's still much to learn and improve upon. When you made the order for 50 thousand to be produced, both of them turned pale all of a sudden. I suspect that there's no way that they're able to go into mass production yet. I feel that they probably didn't dare to raise any objections when you said that you want to improve the ranged attack capabilities of our troops regardless of the price.

"Also, the special bolt the crossbows will require seems to require hand made tail fins. All 100 of the bolts they brought to the presentation were completely handmade. Think about how much time it would take to make 20 bolts each for 50 thousand compact crossbows. I don't think it's something that can be finished within one year.

"Knight Charade makes a lot of sense when he mentioned the riding bows and normal crossbows that can be used to arm the Mounted Jaegars. The new armor they will be given already puts them a level above normal troops in terms of defense anyway, so even if they're using similar weapons to the enemy, they'll still hold a great advantage over them. There's no need to use such an expensive weapon like the compact crossbows. If you do, your legion should be called the Gold Coin Legion instead of the Jaegar Legion."

Lorist laughed heartily and said, "You're right, I was far too hasty in this matter. Get me a blank paper. I will write Charade and order to cancel the production of the compact crossbows as well as an apology to him and the other two supervisors. It's my inadequacy that caused all of them so much trouble.

"Grandmaster Sid and Grandmaster Fellin will also each receive a thousand gold Fordes as reward for inventing the compact crossbow. At the same time, encourage them to improve the design of the compact crossbow with the aim for mass production in the future.

"I will also write Josk and Yuriy a letter to tell them the reason the house won't be able to supply them with compact crossbows and express my hopes for them to train their troops so that they get up to shape as soon as possible."

"Yes, Milord. I will prepare it immediately," said Howard.

As it was only a temporary campsite, there were no tables, so Lorist had to use a saddle to pen his two letters.

"Howard, you're really maturing fast. I think you'll be able to breakthrough to the silver rank in two years, after which I can draft you into the military for you to gain experience. Do you want to be a brigade commander?" asked Lorist as he wrote.

"Nope. Brother Reidy said that I can train in the Dan Ocean Ki-Refining Technique when I reach the silver rank."

"Oh, you want to learn that as well?"

"That's right, master. I am your disciple as well and will naturally want to learn your ancient eastern combat monk training technique using internal energy. Brother Reidy said that he's incredibly happy to have chosen the path of cultivating internal energy that allowed him to defeat those gold-ranked knights and swordsmen with ease at the knighthood tournament," said Howard enviously.

"Very well. Since you like it that much, I'll teach you the technique of the eastern combat monks."

After deciding on letting Charade handle the matter of the compact crossbows, Lorist took a short nap after he handed the letters to a guard to be delivered. By the time Howard woke him for his meal, the stars had already filled the skies. The sound of an approaching carriage can be heard from the distance. After a while, Count Kenmays's angry complaint could be heard. "Why the heck did you travel so fast? I had to give chase for three whole hours you know! The road was so bumpy that my bum is all numb!"

"It's your fault for traveling in a carriage. The road from here to Metropoulos River is small and not suitable for carriage use. I thought that I could go on for another two hours, but I had to set up camp earlier to wait for you to catch up," returned Lorist the complaint.

Count Kenmays sat down beside Lorist and began drinking the ale in Lorist's cup in huge gulps before he asked Howard to get him a serving of smoked goat. "Fine, I'll travel on horseback tomorrow as well. Who knew that there isn't a path for carriages over here? If I knew better, I wouldn't have to suffer in the carriage. Then again, this ale tastes quite good. It's always best to have ale after a long journey."

"Will the forces of your house be able to arrive at the riverbank today?" asked Lorist.

"Don't worry, they departed ten days ahead of us. I think they'll arrive on time even if they have to crawl their way there. It took us only three days to travel using the small path, so if they don't arrive using the main highway in ten days, I will have to punish them for it. My house doesn't wish for our army to be a bunch of useless goons after all," said Count Kenmays confidently.

"That's true. This is the time for your army and Hennard's to shine. I'm sure the combined cry of 100 thousand troops will make the Madras soldiers on the opposite side of the bank feel the pressure of the incoming conflict and cause them to mobilize the rest of their forces to reinforce the bank. All you have to do is to be as domineering as possible. Make sure to not attack them carelessly to avoid unnecessary sacrifice. All we need is Ovidis's Thunderbolt Brigade to smash them to pieces," warned Lorist.

"No problem. We will just bait them for now. The plan is to go into battle during spring next year after all," said the count as he nodded.

[1] EDN: I'm assuming these distances are at least partially because of the addition of battleforce. The information I could find on crossbows suggest that whilst arrows could be shot up to 300 metres on practice ranges (in arcs), the combat effective ranges were far shorter. The rigours of repeated firing and of the campaign trail would sap the strength of the archers, lowering their performance. The suggested combat effective range of a standard English longbow is just 180 metres (fired in arc). The achievable distance is also greatly dependent on the material of the bow (which would give it it's draw strength), and the weight and shape of the projectile (in this case the arrow).

Chapter 333 Arrival of the Second Highness

On both sides of the bank of the lower stream of Metropoulos River, tightly congregated camps could be seen. Rectangular tents were packed tightly along the banks of the river, bringing with it the prophecy of war. The moment the side of The Northlands finished their preparations, the war would break out. But from how the defenses on the side of the Madras duchy seemed, the forces of The Northlands didn't look like they would be able to pull through. Even if they dyed the whole river red, it seemed like an impossible feat for the forces of The Northlands to breach the defenses at the opposite side of the bank.

The 32nd day of the 10th month was a cloudy day with strong winds and light drizzles. Lorist looked at the opposite bank on horseback using a telescope before he turned to Baron Shazin Hennard and asked, "Is everything ready?"

"Of course. All the rafts and boards for the floating bridges are already prepared. This part of the river stretches around 300 meters to the other side that is filled to the brim with barricades, moats, and short walls for obstacles. A hundred meters away from the bank is where the defense towers are situated. The towers have an octagonal structure and has five floors, bringing it up to around 15 meters in height. There are two ballistae each on the upper three floors. The fishing boats I sent were shot down before they crossed the stream halfway back then," said Hennard as he grit his teeth in anger.

"You can give orders for the bridge to be built now. You'll soon be able to exact revenge on those on the other side," said Lorist with a smile.

Hennard waved his hand downwards, causing a few guards behind him to blow their horns. The loud blowing of the horns resounded across both sides of the river as groups of soldiers flooded to the riverbank alongside carriages filled with materials. By then, a group of worksmiths and soldiers had already began laying out the rafts with the wooden boards.

Lorist once again used his telescope to observe the opposite bank and saw that the soldiers of the Madras duchy wearing an assortment of leather and metal armor flooding to their battle stations. All of them knew that the battle has begun.

The rafts were each laid with an extra wooden board on top and relied on a soldier to push it along slowly using an oar. More than a hundred such rafts lined themselves side by side by the bank as the worksmiths secured the finger-thick boards together with large chains. By the time noon came, a long boat ramp roughly 300 meters in length was fully constructed.

Lorist said with a little bit of frustration, "Hennard, you should've constructed the boat ramp beforehand. That would've saved us quite a bit of time."

Hennard laughed and said, "It was my intention to trick those idiots on the other side of the bank by intentionally waiting until now to build the boat ramp. Locke, look. They thought that we were going to approach through transporting our soldiers on rafts on the other side before making our charge. Not only that, those guys on the other side were busy building barricades to resist our charge while we waited. Do you see all those barricades they're tossing into the river over there? I've practically made them work hard for nothing at all. They didn't think we would approach slowly using our boat ramp. What they definitely won't see coming is our catapult bombardment that will precede the docking of the soldiers on the other side so that their defensive fortifications will be crumbled beforehand."

After lunchtime, the gigantic boat ramp was already 40 meters away from shore. Currently, the worksmiths were busy working on a floating bridge that would connect to the boat ramp. As the bridge got longer, the boat ramp would be pushed along further into the river.

"I believe that we only have to push forward another 30 meters before we start moving the catapults onto the ramp," said Hennard as he looked at the floating bridge.

Lorist said, "Watch out for the fire arrows from the other side. Since that ramp is made of wood and interconnected, all it takes is for a couple of fires to start to burn it down to ash."

Hennard said, "Don't worry. I've already made some estimations. We will be roughly 320 meters away from the defense towers by the time the floating bridge grows another 30 meters in length. Since their ballistae can only shoot as far as 300 meters, we are just slightly beyond their firing range. Not only that, the catapults can fire roughly 350 to 400 meters away, so we can pulverize them without worrying about their attacks reaching us. Not only that, I will have the soldiers splash some river water onto the surface of the ramp as a precaution. There's no way it'd be set on fire that easily."

Count Kenmays looked rather bored as he yawned and said, "How much time left until we start launching our boulders?"

Hennard thought for a bit before he replied, "I think there's still another hour or two to go."

"Fine," Kenmays said carefreely, "Then I'll go take another nap within my tent. Make sure to call me when the action begins. I drunk a little more than I should in the afternoon so I still feel rather dizzy now."

After another two hours, the boat ramp finally got into position. The worksmiths no longer worked on building the floating bridge and took the opportunity to rest after a long day of work. On the other hand, Ovidis commanded the troops of Thunderbolt Brigade to retire the horses pulling the catapults and had them carefully load them onto the boat ramp in two neat rows. After securing the catapults on the ramp, the soldiers began moving rock projectiles of various sizes for the squad of soldiers on the ramp.

After an hour's hard work, the preparations were finally complete. Count Kenmays came over on his own accord without needing anyone to call for him.

"The prep work is far too troublesome. Almost a day has passed since we began," said Kenmays.

"No worries," Hennard said, "We can still fight during the night. Darkness or not, they will be smashed all the same. Give the signal for Knight Ovidis to begin."

After hearing the horn signal, Ovidis quickly ordered the 500 catapults on the ramp to begin firing. Rocks and boulders rained all over the opposite side of the bank, causing one defense tower after another to collapse into a rubble of smoke. When three volleys of rocks were fired, not a single defense tower remained standing, with the cries of numerous soldiers from the other side crying out in despair after the baptism of rock. What remained of them retreated backwards as quickly as they could in an attempt to escape the fate of those that were manning the defense towers. Initially, after the first two volleys of rock were fired, the troops in the defense towers that still remained standing began firing back in the direction of the river. Half of the projectiles they loosed seemed to be set alight as well. However, all of those projectiles landed straight into the river tens of meters before they reached the boat ramp. In the dozen of minutes following that, apart from more than ten ballistae operators that were unwilling to accept the results of their retaliation and wanted to try again, the rest of the soldiers in the defense towers could only watch as the next volley of rocks came crashing town against the structures within which they stood.

A large empty space on the bank on the side of the duchy appeared following every volley of catapult fire. Not one defensive fortification managed to withstand the onslaught of falling rocks. The moment Ovidis ordered for the remaining defense towers to be felled, all soldiers within the towers had already given up on their posts and ran for their lives.

Now that the defense towers were no longer a threat, the worksmiths resumed construction of the floating bridge to push the ramp further ahead to connect it to the other side of the bank. Ovidis on the other hand began to fire jars filled with fuel towards the rows of barricades at the side of the river. It didn't take long before some cinders could be seen The light breeze near the river only served to help the fire to spread to the forest nearby.

Standing at a mound near the river, Lorist looked at the roiling smoke and flaming lands as he sighed and said, "The game is set. We will be able to get ashore by tomorrow. However, we still have to be on guard during the night. It's hard to tell whether the desperate soldiers of Madras duchy will launch a surprise attack on us."

Hennard laughed and said, "Don't worry, I've already prepared for this long ago. I guarantee that nothing bad will happen."

Despite Lorist's worries, the forces of the Madras duchy were not as resilient as he thought. By the time the boat ramp neared the other side, the worksmiths began to construct a simpler floating bridge for the catapults to be moved ashore, all the while a regiment of troops were sent ahead to the shore to stand guard. At the same time, a regiment of troops were on the opposite bank, around 10 thousand soldiers of the Madras duchy appeared and made a wary approach with the intent of chasing their enemy back into the river.

However, the enemy crumbled instantly right after Ovidis ordered for another volley of attacks to be launched. It didn't take long until all of them were far out of sight.

"Locke, with such an amazing weapon like the catapults, why don't we sweep past the whole of the Madras duchy? There's no need to wait for spring next year for the decisive battle," suggested Hennard confidently.

Lorist shook his head and said, "Let's just stick to our plan. Hennard, what I want is not just the Madras duchy's territory. Their population and resources are also very important to us. If we push our attack across the duchy, Duke Madras will definitely rally all the citizens to fight it out with us. Even if we emerge victorious, we will be left with a shell of what the duchy used to be. Not only would we have to spend money and resources to rebuild the area, we will also be hated by the surviving duchy citizens.

"If we want to make the duchy our domain, we will have to minimize the damages incurred by the commoners. What we want to deal with are the nobles of the duchy. Let's just follow our original plan to set up a defense line near the shore. We'll let the nobles of the Madras duchy take the offensive and let them have a taste of what our forces are capable of. After that, we'll start negotiations with Duke Madras and demand him to guarantee our passage on this side of the river for trading purposes. We can misguide him of our intentions this way, and that is also the reason I had Count Kenmays come over."

Hennard said disappointedly, "I know, I will secure the bank here as Kenmays does the negotiations. But I really want to go all out on them..."

"Did you forget about the second prince? Back then, he led his army of 50 thousand against the Madras duchy and still lost at the Battle of Kobo. While it's definitely possible for us to wipe out the duchy forcefully with the combined forces of all four of our houses, we would also incur huge losses in the process and gain the enmity of the neighboring nations. We must ensure that we as few casualties as possible to obtain our goal. This is the same for the Madras duchy as well. Not only would we be able to conserve our strength after our goal is achieved, we will have enough vitality left to stave off and deter any attack from other foes nearby. Do you understand now?" warned Lorist.

Hennard nodded a little begrudgingly.

"Hennard, you are currently under a false impression. You think that now that our side has catapults, we have won it all. Actually, catapults aren't as amazing as you imagine them to be. I already have more than ten methods myself to neutralize the threat of catapults. For example, light cavalry troops are one of them. Catapults are only good for attacking stationary targets such as citadels or defensive fortifications and are not of much use in an open-field battle. Not only is the firing rate really low, the time the rock projectiles travel across the air is not short either. Any unit with enough mobility will be able to evade the area the rocks will land in.

"That's the reason why I think cavalry is an effective measure to use against catapults. If one was willing to sacrifice part of the cavalry unit's fighting force and have them hurl fuel jars in a suicidal manner at the catapults, one would be able to burn the catapults down. The catapults can also be taken out by surprise attacks when one sets up camp for the night. The soldiers of the Madras duchy only appear so terrified because this is the first time they're pit against the catapults. But if the war drags on, they'll no doubt gain more experience with each subsequent encounter and come up with effective measures to counter our strategy."

Thinking that what Lorist said made sense, Hennard laughed and said, "Ah, it's my bad for overlooking it. I'll follow your instructions, so don't worry Locke. I won't act on my own."

When Lorist patted on Hennard's soldier and was about to say something else, an urgent-sounding staccato of approaching horses could be heard. The horses seemed completely drained by the time they arrived at the foot of the mound. Three messengers wearing the armor of the Norton house dismounted and ran towards Lorist.

When they were within a distance of ten steps, the messengers stopped. Els went forward to check on them before he returned and said, "Milord, they are from the guard brigade. They rushed all over from the dominion with an urgent letter from Silowas."

"What? What happened?" After Lorist opened the letter and took a look, he gasped in shock. The letter was jointly penned by Supervisor Hansk and Knight Freiyar. One was an administrative official and the other a military officer. Something must've occurred for the two to sign the same letter.

When he read its contents, Lorist was completely stupefied. Count Kenmays asked curiously, "What's going on? Did something happen? Would it be okay for me to know about it?"

Lorist handed over the letter and said, "Just look."

Kenmays began to recite the letter, "At seven during the evening of the 24th day of the 10th month, the second highness and a few others snuck onto Silowas aboard an old fishing boat disguised as fishermen. Among his cohort were Norton Glacia and four other guards, with one gold rank and three silver ranks. Supervisor Hansk received them and Knight Freiyar hoped that they could rest for a period of time at Silowas while they awaited word from the main dominion. However, the second highness and Glacia insisted to be transported to The Northlands immediately to meet up with Milord Lorist. Unable to withhold them any longer, they were ferried to The Northlands on the 25th day of the 10th month, the same day when this letter was penned and sent to Milord through the Flying Fish of Dawn.

"The second highness is still alive and is coming to The Northlands?" said Kenmays after he finished reciting the letter and stared at Lorist. That truly was shocking news.

"But you're no longer a noble of the Andinaq kingdom. Why's he coming to The Northlands at all?" asked Hennard curiously.

"Idiot! Even though he's no longer a noble of the Andinaq kingdom according to the traditions of the peerage, the second highness is still the senior noble of the Norton house. He must've come here to ask you to lend him troops to restore his position of power at the kingdom," said Kenmays assuredly.

The current date was the 33rd day of the 10th month, so the second highness must've arrived at The Northlands already, given that it took only seven days to travel from Silowas to there. Even though Freiyar had sent the Flying Fish of Dawn to deliver the letter to The Northlands two days ahead of the second highness's arrival, the messengers took three days to deliver it to Lorist at Metropoulos River. Even if Lorist rushed back, it would already be too late.

"I still have to make my way back there, so I'll have to count on the two of you over here. Just proceed as planned. I will definitely notify you if there are any changes to be made," Lorist decided, "Els, have the rest make preparations to leave in 30 minutes immediately. We're heading back to the dominion."

"Yes, Milord."

Chapter 334 Refusal

"Welcome to the dominion of House Norton, Your Highness," greeted Lorist as he saluted in the manner of nobles.

As Count Kenmays had predicted, Lorist was currently trapped in a very awkward situation. Even though the Andinaq kingdom no longer considered Lorist one of their nobles, the decision was made at the sole discretion of Queen Carey and didn't have anything to do with Second Highness Auguslo.

Lorist could only truly be considered a rogue noble if the second highness personally exiled him, or if he had indeed died and the queen had thus legitimately inherited the throne. The founding emperor of the Krissen Empire had also been exiled by his senior noble, and that also came at the cost of his peerage. Count Krissen, as he was known at the time, had spent all the resources he had and gathered all his forces to declare war against his former senior noble. His campaign began in The Northlands and peaked in Winston. What followed was a smooth-sailing war that ended with the founding of the Krissen Empire.

Lorist was troubled because he knew perfectly well what the second highness had come for. However, he was unable to refuse him outright. As the senior noble of the house, who had been driven out of his rightful seat of power, Lorist was obligated to fulfill his responsibilities as a vassal to stand at the second highness's side. In other words, as powerless as the second highness was now, Lorist could not just ignore him according to the noble customs. At the very least, he had to provide all the help he could.

This is going to be hell!

Lorist met with the second highness at Maplewoods thanks to his cousin sister Glacia. When Charade first received word that the second highness's cohort arrived at The Northlands, he wanted to restrict them to Northsea but Glacia made a ruckus about it. As she was also a member of the house, Charade couldn't exactly stop her. So, they set out from Northsea and passed by Poplar Town before finally arriving at Maplewoods. During the five days Lorist wasn't there, the second highness and the rest visited Felicitas' seven towns, Nico Academy, and would've visited the secret refineries and production grounds at Bladedge Mountains had it not been for Supervisor Camorra's interference.

The prosperity of the dominion greatly surprised the second highness. Everywhere he looked seemed to glimmer and Glacia didn't fail to take the chance to brag about her house's might. It was further exacerbated by Irina, who had little experience dealing with these matters. When she received the second highness at Maplewoods, she acted as respectful and obedient as she could and answered all of their questions, leaking all she knew or heard about the dominion. She even sent someone as a guide for the second highness's travels and allowed him to gain a better grasp of what House Norton was capable of.

"I really didn't think that the desolate Northlands would prosper under the rule of House Norton. This is truly eye-opening. I refused to believe my eyes when I traveled around the last couple of days. The seven towns at Felicitas looked so merry and populous, much like how the cities around the imperial capital used to be like. Lord Count, you truly are a genius for being able to manage your dominion so well, perhaps even better than the empire's better days!"

As the second highness expressed his thoughts about the Norton dominion, he approached Lorist and patted him on the arm like a good friend would to hammer home the 'friendly' relationship he intended to have with Lorist. Not a trace of enmity from the last time they met at the imperial capital was visible.

"Thank you for your kind praise, Your Highness. House Norton is only fulfilling our duties as per our oath to protect the borders of the empire. We have no intention at all to meddle in the internal affairs of the empire, and that is why our dominion was able to prosper in peace even in these chaotic times. After taking in many refugees who have lost their homes to the war, we were able to improve the dominion somewhat," said Lorist dismissively.

"I was in the wrong. I should've listened to your advice," said the second highness with a bitter laugh.

He let go of Lorist's arm and bowed to him, much to Lorist's shock.

Lorist hurriedly went to stop the second highness.

"Your Highness, what are you doing? This is not something I can bear!"

The second highness clutched Lorist's hand.

"Locke, I'm apologizing to you with all I can. It was my fault. I have been ridden with regret ever since I lost Frederika. If I had followed your advice and not rushed to reunite the empire and instead paid attention to the welfare of my subjects, I wouldn't have ended up like this. Now I can't even return home to serve the kingdom!"

Yep, you definitely had it coming, commented Lorist secretly.

However, it was true that the second highness was no longer able to return to the kingdom easily. He would no doubt be brought before Queen Carey unless he stayed within the Norton dominion. Given that the first highness, Queen Carey's father, had mysteriously passed away in his sleep, it stood to reason that she might act against the second highness secretly as well. Though, it was also entirely possible for her to do so for the sole sake of her throne.

"When I heard about your loss and disappearance at Frederika, I was truly frantic and worried. Back then, I wanted to send my troops to Frederika right away to look for you, Your Highness, and I made sure to ask those at the imperial capital for permission to mobilize my troops. But I was refused and warned not to meddle in this affair. They even recalled the third local defense legion from the borders of the Madras duchy to keep an eye on us. In the end, I had no choice but to recall my troops."

Lorist received the official notice from Howard and handed it to the second highness as he spoke.

"Your Highness, take a look at this. These are the two refusal notices the capital sent in response to my request. They didn't allow me to take any action to search for you, but thanks to the protection of Wargod Singwa, Your Highness managed to appear safe and sound before me. It really gladdens me that you were not harmed in any way."

Lorist had no option apart from playing the role of a loyal subordinate, but what he actually hoped for couldn't be further from what he said. He couldn't wait for the second highness to disappear from the realm of man. But now that he managed to survive and appear before him, Lorist had to at least act the part in front of others.

The second highness's expression changed as he released Lorist's hand and balled his fists.

"Traitors... They actually ceded the kingdom's territory to those darned merchants for their own benefits... I will definitely not spare them. Brother Locke, to be honest, I've come here to seek your aid. I hope House Norton will be able to exterminate the traitors and restore order to the kingdom."

Lorist sighed as the second highness finally made his request. As the leader of House Norton, he had to give a formal response.

"Your Highness, let me ask you this first. What will House Norton gain if we deploy our troops for you?"

While it was the tradition for vassals to serve senior nobles on Grindia, the senior noble had to offer compensation proportional to the help they received. Otherwise, no vassal would willingly aid their senior noble for free. Given the way things turned out, Lorist could only see that he would be promptly rewarded for his efforts. Otherwise, he would be able to fulfill his responsibilities as a vassal by simply providing a few hundred sets of armor and gear to the second highness and nobody would criticize him for it.

"Locke, His Highness has agreed that if our house intervenes, he will make you the Duke of The Northlands. All the territory you conquer here will belong to the house," said Glacia happily as if House Norton had been offered a heavenly boon that couldn't be refused.

Lorist glared at her.

"Glacia, do you understand The Northlands' situation right now?"

She shook her head as expected.

"If that's the case, I refuse to mobilize any of my forces. The title of the Duke of The Northlands is of no use to House Norton at all. Your Highness, there are only four noble houses within The Northlands. Apart from us, the Nortons, Count Kenmays occupies the eastern part of The Northlands, with the southern part jointly ruled by Baron Shazin and Baron Felim. All three of them are our allies, so we will definitely not breach our alliance with them for no good reason. The title of the Duke of The Northlands is good as nothing to the house," proclaimed Lorist.

The second highness and Glacia were both stunned at the revelation. They didn't know that there were only four houses left in The Northlands that even formed an alliance. Not only would the title mean nothing to House Norton, it would also cause fractures to form within the alliance of the four houses. It's no wonder Lorist refused the second highness's request without debate.

"I apologize, Brother Locke. that was not my intention. I didn't think it would be this way," apologized Auguslo hurriedly.

"There is no need to fret, Your Highness. You can't be blamed for being uninformed, you have only arrived recently. The banquet to welcome you is already prepared. I hope you enjoy the delicacies The Northlands has to offer and rest well. We, on the other hand, will explore our options and see in what manner we can help you reclaim your kingdom."

Lorist was rather mad at Glacia's straightforward but thoughtless actions. The second highness's ignorance about the matter was also no doubt feigned. Even though The Northlands was relatively segregated from the rest of the continent, the four houses' alliance had been formed years prior. While the house actively restricted information flow, the three other houses were the opposite, so the second highness's claim that he didn't know about the situation was a straight out lie.

Hmph, even after you've lost almost everything, you're still trying to scheme till you get your way. You think you can get away with asking for my help while jeopardizing my relationship with my allies?! How much of an idiot do you think I am?!

During the banquet, Auguslo persistently tried to change the subject of conversation to helping him restore the kingdom, but Lorist excused himself from agreeing by saying that he had to discuss the matter with his knights.

Only after the troubled monarch drowned himself with booze and had to be sent back for a rest was Lorist finally free. He returned to his residence and bathed with Irina's aid as he considered how he should respond to the second highness.

Just as he was about to pull Irina into the tub for release and relaxation, a guard downstairs could be heard.

"Who goes there?!" asked he.

"It's me, Glacia."

"Oh, what business do you have here, Milady?"

"I want to see Lorist."

"I apologize, Milady. I'm not sure whether Milord has gone to sleep already. It's best not to disturb him this late in the night. Can this matter not wait till tomorrow?"

The one who said this turned out to be Els.

"Scram! I am Locke's elder cousin sister and I'm here to see him. Do you think I'm here to assassinate him or something?"

"Assassinate? Hehe, Milady, it's not like I'm looking down on you, but even if there were ten of you here, you wouldn't be able to defeat the lord. Either way, I still have to make a report first. If Milord's asleep, then you'll have to come again tomorrow."

"No way. I want to see Locke right now."

Lorist sighed as he got out of the tub, rubbed himself hastily, put on a sleeping gown, and leaned on the windowsill.

"Els, let her in."

Glacia quickly climbed upstairs and entered the room. Lorist handed her a cup of macks Irina had made.

"Drink some macks and relax. What do you need me for this late?"

Glacia sat down in a chair angrily.

"Your guard is far too insolent, Locke. He dared to bar my way."

"He's just doing his job, he did nothing wrong. He can't let you into my room just because you're my cousin. You're also a knight of the Andinaq royal family, after all. You're not a household knight of the house, even if you were born as a member."

Glacia had her mouth agape, but no words came out of it. Lorist was right. It was a commonly held protocol in many noble houses.

Glacia snapped out of it after a good while.

"Locke, you've truly changed. You no longer resemble the crybaby I used to know."

"I had no choice little choice in the matter," he laughed, "If I was like before, House Norton would've been wiped out long ago. The circumstances forced me to adapt. Do you know how it feels to be a 17-year-old child who lost all contact with his family, a child with no choice but to work as a mercenary? To fill his stomach and pay for education, that boy had to slaughter magic beasts and risk his life. He lived like that for seven whole years until the people from the house came over to find him. Only then did he find out that most of his relatives have all passed away.

"When he returned to his house's dominion, he found it in such a terrible state. Despite the Duke of the Northlands's ill intentions and the second prince who was waiting to pounce at the opportune moment, that boy managed to survive and defeat them both. After that, he focused his efforts on the development of the dominion until its current prosperous state. However, right now, a group of troublesome people just came over and asked him to send his troops to restore that guy's power, all without gaining anything in return. Do you think that person will agree?"

Lorist made a point to stop the conversation before it started, causing Glacia to be even more disturbed.

"Locke, isn't this a good opportunity for House Norton? If we help the second highness get his throne back, our name will be recorded in history and we'll be remembered for all eternity for our deeds," said she carefully, finally.

"Cousin, have you turned into an idiot?" Lorist asked," Why should House Norton sacrifice our troops for the ambitions of His Highness? If we actually do that, the other noble houses will regard us as complete buffoons. If His Highness can't offer us a worthy price, I will definitely not agree to deploy our forces. Even so, I'll lend His Highness a decent sum of money and give him some military equipment to fulfill the smallest obligation I have as a vassal."

"Locke, what kind of benefits do you want to agree to help His Highness regain his throne?" asked Glacia stubbornly.

"Well, I'll have to think about it thoroughly for a while. Before that, can you tell me how you managed to escape Frederika? I'm actually quite curious how it all transpired. Nobody was able to find the slightest trace of you at all. Also, how many forces does the second highness have? I heard that when you disappeared from Frederika, His Highness's personal guard of 5000 men perished. How did you evade the enemy's search parties?"

Glacia's expression darkened.

"When we conquered Frederika, we discovered a secret path leading outside the city, which could be what the first prince used to escape. When Frederika was encircled, His Highness brought the rest of us through the secret path. Back then, we had 6000 men, but now less than 2000 remain because we ran into the first prince, who had gone missing until now."

"What?! The first prince?!" exclaimed Lorist with surprise.

"That's right. We didn't expect that to happen either," said Glacia as tears streamed down her face.

Chapter 335 Reinforcement

"It's over here," Glacia said as she pointed to the map of the Redlis kingdom Howard had brought over, "This is a small valley in the Cloudsnap Mountains located 50 kilometers from Greatsnow Mountain. His Highness had us scale across the Cloudsnap Mountains to make it back to the Andinaq kingdom so we could gather our forces and start over. The six thousand men following us were our most loyal and elite.

"After leaving Frederika using the secret path, we crossed a small stream to cover our tracks. We traveled about half a day from the river and turned towards the Cloudsnap Mountains when we were about 50 kilometers away from Frederika. On the way there, we passed through a dense forest where we took a short rest. His Highness wouldn't let us rest there for long, though. He wanted us to find a better spot so we could rest for a few months before we attempted the crossing after the winter. He wanted us to pass over Cloudmist Swamp before it thawed and head for the kingdom from there.

"We were surprised to discover from a map we obtained in the palace in Frederika that the valley near Greatsnow Mountain was actually a noble's dominion, specifically, Baron Krimando's. We later found out that the baron had never shown up at the royal court before, which explains why almost nobody knew of him.

"His Highness decided that Baron Krimando's dominion would be the best place for us to rest. As long as we had someone defend the valley's entrance and prevent anybody from getting in or out, nobody would discover what was going on inside. We headed for the valley and conquered the small castle near it in a night assault. Once we occupied the castle, His Highness instructed someone to advise Baron Krimando to surrender. Bowen Ketty volunteered and marched over proudly to carry out the task. Nobody expected his decapitated head would be hung above the walls of the baron's castle a few minutes later."

Lorist knew the name 'Bowen Ketty'. He was one of the second highness' trusted knights and one of the Five Tigers. Lorist never thought he would be killed as a messenger calling for surrender.

"We were almost driven crazy by anger," Glacia continued with teary eyes, "No sane noble would do something as egregious as murdering a messenger! His Highness instantly ordered us to continue pressing our attack and avenge Knight Bowen. After two months of bloody battles passed, we incurred more than five thousand casualties; even Knight Sisreid died on the walls. Of the 13 gold-ranked knights that left Frederika with His Highness, only I, Ripleid, and Karitoke were left. One of the two blademasters protecting His Highness also perished. The other was heavily injured..."

Lorist's eyes brightened.

"Karitoke's still alive?" asked he.

Karitoke was one of Dawn Academy's alumni who had traveled with Lorist to The Northlands. But midway there, he had been poached by the second highness and became a knight of the royal family. It was a shame that of the 26 silver-ranked knights from Dawn Academy that joined the second highness's banner, only Karitoke and Sander remained. Lorist was more than glad to hear that his old friend survived.

Even though Glacia nodded, tears still fell nonstop from her eyes, perhaps because of the horrible result of the battle.

"Let me guess... Is Baron Krimando the first prince? Has he been hiding in the valley all along?" asked Lorist.

Glacia shook her head at first but nodded after.

"When we finally breached the castle, we got to know from our captives that the baron was actually the first prince's illegitimate son.

"The valley was the last resort the first prince left for himself should he ever require it. Within the valley were three thousand of the first prince's most elite troops. He had been hiding within ever since he escaped from Frederika and watched as the nobles of Redlis kingdom struggled against us, waiting for the opportunity to strike and rebuild his kingdom. I bet he didn't think he'd have to use his trump card early to deal with us, who were about to lock him within his little dominion.

"We killed and killed. His Highness almost broke down as well. We never dreamt of clashing head-on against the first prince there and casualties piled up on both sides. In a fit of rage, His Highness ordered us to kill all the captives and citizens we came across. After all, they were the enemy's families. His Highness also managed to behead the first prince and his illegitimate son personally before he coughed up blood and fainted.

"The six thousand men were His Highness's best. If we were able to bring them back to the Andinaq kingdom, we would have been able to regain control easily. But most of them were incapacitated after the battle, only around two thousand were still alive with varying degrees of injury. By the time His Highness recovered, we received word that the situation was beyond saving. If we returned to the kingdom, our only fate would have been death. That's why we had no choice but to disguise ourselves and head to The Northlands to seek you out for help. We hope that House Norton will be able to aid His Highness in restoring his rightful position on the throne."

Is this first prince finally dead? The one who started the civil war by raising the banner of rebellion was the first prince, and now, both he and the second prince have died by the second highness' hands... Wait, is he the real main character of this story here?!

Lorist breathed a long sigh.

"Glacia, you've been by His Highness's side for almost 20 years now. Did he treat you well, now that you've been his lover for all this time?"

Glacia's face flushed.

"This... Well, he said that he'd marry me after he reunites the empire..."

"Will you be the empress or a mere concubine?"

"What's... what's the difference? I'm fine as long as I'm by His Highness's side."

"Glacia, you're three years older than me. You're not that young anymore. If it were the House Norton of the past, His Highness taking you as his concubine would be a sign of acknowledging all you have done for being his lover all these years. However, given House Norton's current might, if His Highness does the same, it would be a slight on the name Norton. Don't forget that the blood of the Nortons flows in your veins. The only way this would be accepted is if His Highness doesn't take someone else as an official wife and names you his first concubine.

"I'm not saying this for no reason, Glacia. Did you notice that His Highness is incredibly wary of our house's might? He was already like this when he was still the 'second highness'. Despite that, he used the northbound convoy to wipe out the kingdom's nobles that refused to abide by his will. He forced us to pay a price we had not been willing to.

"A ruler should always be fair and just. Has the second highness? He's always been throwing empty promises at us, tempting us with nothing to back it up. Glacia, did House Norton ever harm His Highness in any way? During the time of the northbound convoy, we were almost doomed by him. He poached so many knights from us and how many of them are still alive now? And don't forget what happened at Kobo. We conquered the city and provided him with so much food to solve the hunger crisis of his army. All we wanted in return was that he held the city long enough to buy time for the convoy and the refugees.

"What did he do? Glacia, did you know that His Highness had his army destroy the heavily fortified wall before leaving? He tried to make the convoy bait to attract the attention of our enemies! Even though we helped him out so much, he thrust a blade up our backs instead. It was from that time onwards that I no longer believed in His Highness's character.

"And even though he had already enfeoffed Silowas to the house, he allowed his tax collection official, that annoying viscount, to run rampant without any care at all. He even pretended not to know about the noble descendants that forcefully occupied Seaview Manor. Do you think he really didn't know? When I killed that stupid viscount, his brother sent a division of soldiers and attempted to kill me. Do you think His Highness wasn't aware of it either? I don't believe it. He's pretending all the way while he looks for a way to beat us into submission so we do his bidding.

"I'm sick of all this, Glacia. Did you forget how our four houses defeated the second prince jointly and formed an alliance? That year, I wrote you a letter to tell you about the matter. Perhaps you might've forgotten about it, but do you think the second highness has? His proposition was to make me Duke of The Northlands so that the Norton house can have full control over the province. Do you know what would happen if news of this got out?

"He's intentionally sabotaging the relationship we have with our allies. Currently, House Norton is the leader of the four houses of The Northlands. Think about it, if they hear about His Highness's offer to me, wouldn't they think I'm coming for them next? Even at a time like this when he needs my help the most, he tries to find a way to cause trouble for me. He wants to see us fight till we're nothing but shambles before coming in to sweep up the benefits!"

"No, Locke, you must be misunderstanding His Highness!" Glacia tried to explain, swinging her arms, "There are many things His Highness doesn't know about! Back then, His Highness told me that it wasn't that he didn't want to help you out at Kobo. His Highness simply didn't have enough troops to do so! That's why he instructed the dismantling of the defense walls after seeing your group leave safely. The one who instructed it was Bowen Ketty, the person in charge of the division at the time, and he did so out of concern for His Highness's safety! He ended up being scolded harshly when he returned. I was there to witness it! His Highness knew that he had accidentally wronged the house...

"As for the matter of Silowas, His Highness really didn't know about it. You should know well that His Highness was busy gathering his troops and preparing to reunite the empire. It's only natural for him to not concern himself with small matters like that. The tax official, Viscount Aslan, really didn't have anything to do with His Highness! And His Highness didn't fail to exterminate House Aslan and revoke their title after he heard how Count Aslan set out with his soldiers to pursue you!"

"Whatever, those matters are already history," Lorist replied, shaking his head, "There's no point talking about it now. So, Glacia, are you here because His Highness wanted you to find out my thoughts?"

"Yes. His Highness is afraid you still hold misunderstandings about him, so he had me come over and ask what you wanted in return for your aid. As long as it's within reason, he will agree to all your requests," acknowledged Glacia.

"Tsk-tsk, just look, Glacia. Even at a desperate time like this, His Highness is still holding back. Can't you see? This is His Highness being overly cautious of our house again. I'd like to ask him what he can offer us instead. Tell him to spare us the empty promises."

"Locke, your attitude is a little uncalled for! Don't forget His Highness is your senior noble! A vassal like you should maintain respect and reverence for him!" said Glacia angrily.

"Fine, fine, Glacia. Just go back and tell His Highness that House Norton will not be able to deploy our troops. However, we can provide 100 thousand gold Fordes and equipment for a legion of soldiers. Naturally, I'm talking about the compensation His Highness gave the convoy for eliminating the disobedient nobles of the kingdom: the equipment of the Whitelion Legion. We still have 72 thousand sets, all of which I can give him. That should be more than enough to fulfill a vassal's due and duty," said Lorist, a little frustrated.

The equipment of the Whitelion Legion was taking up quite a bit of warehouse space. Given that House Norton already had far better Sid steel armor, they no longer had any use for the outdated equipment. As the Whitelion Legion was one of the many symbols of the Krissen Empire, their equipment ought not to be sold away so easily. To Lorist, it was something he could do without. The fact that it was made up of alloyed metal also made it far more troublesome to simply melt down in the refinery. It was a far better choice to return the equipment to the second highness and save him the trouble of having to deploy troops to help the second highness restore his throne at the cost of Norton lives.

"Lo-locke... Are you really willing to give the Whitelion Legion's equipment to His Highness?" Glacia started.

Glacia never thought Lorist would offer such a thing. After all, each set of Whitelion Legion armor cost 70 gold Fordes to manufacture, so 72 thousand sets were worth roughly five million gold Fordes! Giving such a thing away without asking for anything in return meant nobody could question Lorist's loyalty and due assistance to his senior noble.

"Yes," said Lorist.

All that junk has been gathering dust and using up precious space. Supervisor Spiel has asked me multiple times to deal with it already.

"Then, we'll have to draft our soldiers from the dominion as well," added Glacia.

"No way!" refused Lorist.

How dare you even suggest that? You have no right!

"You can recruit soldiers if you want, but you cannot use House Norton's name for your cause. We have our own policies when it comes to enlistment, and even His Highness cannot force our subjects to die for his cause!"

No noble had any right to draft soldiers from another's dominion. To any landed noble, their subjects were their source of wealth. If it was an open recruitment, however, no noble could interfere. After all, those who enlisted would essentially be work for hire, and private transactions were not within the jurisdiction of the local house.

"Fine, normal recruitment will do. However, you have to give us the 100 thousand gold Fordes you promised and can't intentionally do anything that will sabotage our call to arms. Lastly, the soldiers we recruited will be fed and sustained by House Norton while they are in The Northlands. Will that do?" pushed Glacia further.

She thought things couldn't possibly get any better. with 100 thousand gold Fordes in hand and the equipment of the Whitelion Legion, the second highness would definitely be able to recruit 70 thousand soldiers. All he had to do was pay each household one gold Forde as pension and people would be flocking to join his army. It was the same tactic the second highness had used to gather his 300 thousand soldiers."

"Fine, whatever you say," Lorist smiled coldly, "I believe you just can't wait to go back to report this to His Highness. I'm sure he'll be more than glad to hear it."

Seeing Glacia leave happily, Howard, who had been standing next to Lorist the whole time, asked in a worried manner, "Milord, aren't you worried that trouble will stir up in the dominion? As if giving His Highness equipment was not enough, you also allowed him to recruit soldiers here."

"I'd like to see how many soldiers he can recruit," Lorist laughed, "Naturally, if there are people who want to join the cause, we'll send their family members away to the army camp along with them and revoke their rights to homes and farmland. Since they want to serve the second highness, he will have to be responsible for their well being. I definitely won't allow them to take advantage of my house."

"Indeed, Milord, You couldn't be more correct," said Howard before he joined in with the laughter.

Chapter 336 Negotiations

"Milord, you have erred," said Charade solemnly.

He had rushed straight to Maplewoods from Firmrock Castle the night before.

Lorist hadn't met the second highness even once since he promised to provide him with 100 thousand gold Fordes and the Whitelion Legion's equipment. The latter had brought his men with him hurriedly to Felicitas' seven towns to start recruiting soldiers. Lorist, on the other hand, lazed around at Maplewoods for a couple of days. But, when news reached Firmrock Castle, Charade could no longer sit still.

Lorist, who was in the middle of teasing his second son, raised his head with surprise.

"What did I do wrong?"

Charade remained silent and continued staring.

"Come on, let's talk in the study on the second floor," said Lorist as he passed his son to Irina.

In the study, Lorist opened a bottle of fruit wine and poured a cup for Charade and another for himself.

Charade downed his in one gulp, breathed a long sigh, before handing his cloak to Howard and saying, "One more cup."

He sat on the sofa and said with his eyes fixed on Lorist, "Locke, do you not know what you've done wrong?"

Lorist raised his brow as he refilled the cup

"I really don't know," answered he.

"You shouldn't have given the Whitelion Legion's equipment to the second highness," said Charade.

"Oh, but Supervisor Spiel has long been prompting me to get rid of them. Not only are they heavy and space-consuming, their defensive capabilities pale in comparison to the armor we developed. It can't be sold either, given what he Whitelion Legion symbolizes. That's why I chose to give them to the second highness so our house no longer has to help him restore the kingdom."

"Sigh, Locke, you still don't understand? I didn't say it was wrong for you to give the equipment. The act of giving wasn't the problem. Your mistake was that you gave it away like you were returning it. Other things aside, even though the 72 thousand sets of gear are not much use to us, we can still sell them to House Fisablen or the four central duchies for 5 million gold Fordes. Your giving them away is like tossing that amount of money down the drain. And did the second highness express any gratitude for your generosity? No! nothing! He just rushed to Felicitas to start recruiting his soldiers! He's a chronic ingrate to the end!"

Charade had never held a good impression of the second highness and felt he was an underhanded person who tried to act just and fair. The convoy Charade had led had almost been cornered thanks to the second highness' antics. Had it not been for Lorist's timely aid, the consequences would have been unimaginable. Not only that, the second highness had used the opportunity when the convoy was in dire straits to poach 26 members who were Dawn Academy alumni. They were all silver-ranked knights when they joined the second highness, but it didn't take one year for a good number of them to be killed off in battle, much to the dismay and pain of Charade and the other household knights who were also from Dawn Academy.

Lorist smiled bitterly.

"I'm sorry, Charade. It's my fault. I only wanted to shoo them off as quickly as I could so they can't cause trouble. The following two years will be crucial for us, what with House Kenmays and House Shazin's dominion relocation, as well as our attack on the Madras duchy.

"I really don't have the energy to play the second highness's game right now, so I thought I could just give him whatever I had on hand so he would leave."

"Locke, you're wrong to think of the second highness as a dog. If you give a dog a bone, it will shake its tail happily at you. However, the second highness is a wolf. Not only will he not be thankful, he will see our dominion as a ripe piece of juicy meat that's just begging to be bitten," said Charade without the slightest care for the Auguslo's status.

He was worried the fallen monarch would once again cause an uproar within the dominion.

"I don't think you did wrong by giving him Whitelion Legion's equipment since it's not worth that much anyway. What I have a problem with is how you've just promised to give it away without much thought. Ideally, you should've given him the equipment in small batches while you negotiate for the things we need from him. But now, we won't be able to get anything in return!

"Another point I don't really understand is why you've agreed to let them recruit soldiers from our dominion so easily. With money, equipment, and an abundance of people to recruit from, it's only a matter of time until he comes for us. I believe we should send the second highness away as soon as possible so it doesn't come to that."

Lorist laughed heartily before he took a drink.

"Charade, I admit that it was my mistake to give him the equipment so easily. I should've done what you said. However, you are looking at the matter of recruitment the wrong way. Believe me, the second highness definitely won't be able to recruit many people from Felicitas. Hahaha..."

"Why?" Charade asked, "The second highness is the Andinaq kingdom's former king, and the citizens at Felicitas are mostly refugees from his kingdom. They have a high opinion of the second highness and will definitely answer his call if given the chance. Also, that king of ours will definitely make tons of empty promises to seduce the foolish to become fodder."

"Haha," Lorist laughed loudly before, "Charade, you've been put in charge of administrative matters for far too long. Perhaps you've forgotten our house's enlistment policies. Our subjects have to go to the new recruit camp when they are 16 to awaken their battleforce, and those that can't must return home to work as farmers. The process will repeat once every three months until they're 20 and those that manage to have their battleforce awakened can join our forces. Being our household soldier is one of the most desired vocations in the dominion, and those that serve long enough might even be promoted to the ranks of the police brigades or the garrison forces.

"Take, for example, the recently formed Jaeger Legion. The unit has already recruited most of the people in the dominion eligible for military service. Tigersoar and Firmrock have had many of their members transferred over as well, so they've had to run recruitment drives of their own to fill the void. Many people from the town garrisons and local defense brigades have also been recruited, so they'll have to start recruiting as well. As for those who don't qualify to become a member of our forces, they have their own jobs to do at the factories to feed their families. Given the situation, do you think the second highness will succeed in his recruitment?

"I heard he's going to use one gold Forde as payment to the families of the soldiers he recruits. When I heard he was going to recruit more than 70 thousand at once, I almost laughed so hard all my teeth fell out. He didn't even consider the fact that each person in our dominion will be able to earn two to three gold Fordes for a year's hard work and still thinks he can pay for a human life with one gold Forde. Hehe, Charade, the second highness will not be able to recruit any soldiers here. It's already been four days since his departure and he only has around 143! Hahaha..."

Charade breathed a sigh of relief and downed the rest of his wine again.

"I truly have forgotten our policies. Well, that settles that. As long as the second highness is unable to recruit soldiers, there isn't much he can do with the equipment he got. Then again, Locke, you should be careful not to let the second highness use us again like he did with the convoy."

"Don't worry. I've already had Tarkel and Furybear go all out and monitor each and every one of their moves. Oh, and you came here just in time. I was about to head to the warzone at the Metropoulos River's lower bank to see Potterfang. I'll need you to deal with the matter of the second highness. I feel like I didn't offer them enough hospitality..."

A loud commotion rang out on the lower floor, causing Howard to look out of the window.

"Milord, the second highness and Lady Glacia are here and they seem rather mad."

It didn't take long for the study's door to be pushed open. The second highness wore a displeased look while Glacia seemed completely fuming.

"Locke, what do you think you're doing?! Didn't you say you wouldn't get in the way of our recruitment?! Why did you do all that?!"

"What did I do? Can you be more specific?" asked Lorist curiously.

"After we recruited some soldiers, your men sent their family members to our army camp as well! What's your intention? Your men even said that since the ones recruited have chosen to serve the king, House Norton will no longer be responsible for feeding their family members, and it falls to us to take care for them! Tell me, did you order this?" roared Glacia angrily.

"Can you tell me where the soldiers you recruited worked originally?" asked Lorist coldly.

"Well..." Glacia found herself speechless all of a sudden.

"This, Brother Locke, the soldiers we recruited were only a little hot-headed and wanted to serve the kingdom in whatever capacity they can. It's something worthy of praise, we shouldn't trouble the family members," said the second highness hurriedly.

"Is that so? Are you saying that House Norton hasn't done enough already? Don't forget we just paid you 100 thousand gold Fordes and gave you Whitelion Legion's equipment. This alone equates to six million gold Fordes' worth of support. If this doesn't count, then what does? I doubt anyone in the history of Grindia has ever made such a huge donation before, yet we didn't even get a word of thanks in return," said Charade insidiously.

A trace of seething anger flashed past the second highness's subdued expression, but it only lasted an instant.

"Oh, Knight Charade, it's been so long since we last met. Congratulations on becoming a gold-ranked knight."

Charade puffed out the badge on his chest.

"That's nothing to be surprised about. Anyone can do this much with proper training. Your Highness, why haven't you responded to the aid the house has given you over these few days? Are you still not satisfied with what we've done?"

Charade's point struck the heart of the matter mercilessly. Normally speaking, a senior noble must formally respond to the aid offered by a vassal. It could be in the form of a letter of gratitude that stated what the vassal contributed. In some cases where vassals sent their own troops to participate in a senior noble's campaign, the senior noble had to offer some more land along with a rank promotion or some other form of reward as compensation.

Lorist's contribution to the second highness could already be considered one of the biggest donations ever made in the history of Grindia, yet the second highness didn't respond in any way even after a few days had passed. Hence Charade's lack of hesitation to hammer home the point.

"Your Highness, at the very least, a letter of gratitude is due. We've already sunk in a legion's worth of gear, and we don't expect much in return apart from acknowledgment of our contribution. Or, is it because Your Highness feels that our contribution doesn't even merit your gratitude?" pressured Charade.

"Hehe, apologies," the second highness said after taking a deep breath and wearing a pleasant facade, "I formally express my gratitude to Brother Locke and House Norton for giving aid to a fallen king such as myself. As a simple letter of gratitude wasn't sufficient to express my heartfelt thanks, I had intended to leave the acknowledgment for a formal banquet I would host at the imperial capital. That's why I was busy trying my best to make preparations to take back my kingdom. Only then can I raise your peerage and give you the compensation you deserve. However, since you're in such a hurry, I can give you my reply right now."

The second highness nodded to Lorist and said, "Brother Locke, I hope you won't mind if I use your desk."

Without waiting for Lorist's reply, he sat down of his own accord before he started scribbling on two beastskin documents. After that, he removed his ring and sealed the documents with his wax seal near the place where he signed.

"Are you satisfied now, Knight Charade?" asked the second highness sarcastically as he handed the two documents over, intentionally avoiding Lorist.

Charade looked at Lorist only to see him shake his head slightly. Charade proceeded to read the two documents aloud.

The first was the letter of gratitude for Lorist and House Norton's contributions as well as his hopes that they would continue to contribute to the kingdom. It was no different from the average gratitude letter.

After reading out loud, Charade complained, "Your Highness, I feel that you should've stated clearly in what manner House Norton contributed to you. This is something that'll enter the annals of Grindian history as one of the largest donations ever made, so it won't do to lightly pass it over like that. Well, since you didn't bother to write it down, we will make our own records of the matter in our household chronicles."

The second letter was a letter of promotion. As the senior noble of House Norton, and the person who bore the legacy of the Krissen Empire, the second highness officially promoted Norton Lorist to the position of Duke of The Northlands. All nobles within The Northlands would have to submit to House Norton, and any who were displeased were free to bear arms in objection.

Heh, this guy's still trying to give me trouble. It's a shame he doesn't know about the dominion relocation of the three other houses. With this letter in hand, House Norton will be able to rule The Northlands without contest, thought Lorist, smiling coldly.

"Thank you for the promotion, Your Highness. House Norton is ever so thankful," said Lorist with a salute.

He didn't even hesitate to express his gratitude when it was due.

"Well, it's what you deserve, my friend. Also, let's talk about the matter of soldier recruitment," said the second highness.

A knocking on the door could be heard before Howard entered with two letters in hand.

Lorist saw the blue markings on the letters and smiled coldly. "Your Highness, Glacia, is this how you repay my trust?"

Lorist waved the letters in his hand and continued, "While I did allow you to recruit soldiers from the dominion, I never said you could poach the members of the police brigades and garrison forces. They are also considered part of the Norton forces. Your Highness, how do you explain your actions?"

Glacia argued, "Locke, we didn't actively seek them out. It was they who wanted to serve His Highness and contribute to the kingdom of their own accord. Surely, you can't stop them from wanting to do service to the kingdom."

"Since that's the case, what were you so angry about just now?" Lorist nodded, "On what grounds should we take care of their family if they no longer serve the house? You should know their homes and farmland are theirs to use solely because one of their family members are part of the Nortons' military forces. Now that they've abandoned their status as a Norton household soldier, they naturally relinquish the benefits they've enjoyed so far. You can't expect us to continue to care for someone who turned their backs on us, can you? Also, I didn't do anything to stop them from pledging allegiance to you."

"This..." The second highness wore a bitter smile.

Not only did most of the 400 thousand or so citizens of Felicitas not want to enlist, they only managed to recruit a hundred or so mercenaries and wanderers after four days of effort. It was completely unlike what happened in the Redlis kingdom, where people flocked to be enlisted in the military. The second highness had only reached out to the garrison soldiers and factory guards out of desperation, but he didn't think that he would stir up so much trouble after only recruiting a dozen of them. The sight of the family members being sent to their camp was even more unbearable: they had clamored and complained as they chased down their family members who had just been recruited, as well as cursed the second highness and the rest for tricking them to give their lives away.

But, where would I recruit soldiers if not here? It was almost guaranteed for him to be attacked the moment he showed his face anywhere else. To the second highness, his enemies lurked everywhere apart from The Northlands. He no longer had anywhere to go. Since he was unable to recruit many soldiers in the Norton dominion, his best option was to have House Norton deploy soldiers on his behalf. However, they had already offered up so many contributions. It was no longer a feasible option.

Lorist didn't care about the second highness and Glacia's angered looks.

He opened the second letter and put it down immediately before he said, "Your Highness, I have to apologize for not being able to host your stay any longer. I have to rush to the frontlines. Knight Charade will be in charge during my absence. If you need anything, seek him out and he will see that you're tended to."

"What? Is House Norton at war with someone?" asked the second highness, surprised.

"No, Your Highness. It's our allies, House Kenmays and House Shazin. The two houses are invading the Madras duchy, and, being their allies, we have to send our soldiers to aid them in their assault. This is the least we can do as allies."

"You're attacking the Madras duchy?!" said the second highness with a start, before he snapped out of his stupor, "Brother Locke, would you mind if I followed you there for a look?"

Chapter 337 Conditions

In the end, the second highness insisted that he follow Lorist to the war zone.

"Your Highness," Lorist said, "even though House Kenmays and House Shazin are our allies, they are still considered nobles of the Iblia kingdom. Given the hostile situation between them and the Andinaq kingdom, I am rather worried for your safety. I think it's best if you don't head to the frontlines."

The second highness patted on Lorist's shoulder with a smile.

"No worries. With Brother Locke around, I don't have to worry for my safety. As for Baron Shazin and Count Kenmays, since they're your allies, I believe they wouldn't be interested in a kingdom's former monarch like me. Also, I'm only going there to take a look, not to meddle in military affairs. I believe I will be treated well as a fellow knight there to observe the tide of war."

And so, Lorist had no choice but to bring the second highness along.

Four days later, Lorist and company crossed the floating bridge that stretched across Metropoulos River and arrived at the borders of the Madras duchy.

The Northlands's army was situated not far from the river's crossing point. After destroying the enemy fortifications and routing their troops, Count Kenmays and Baron Shazin ordered their troops to a mound nearby instead of having them press their attack into the duchy. They set up camp where Baron Silas' castle once stood. The baron had been hung some years earlier. The troops fortified their camp so heavily that it seemed they intended to stay there for quite a while.

Lorist had received a letter from Count Kenmays five days ago, stating that the army wouldn't press their assault and instead cooped up at the castle ruins atop the mound. As Lorist predicted, the Madras duchy's nobles' private forces, as well as the duchy's main force, seemed to have run completely amok, savagely attacking the allied army's camp. Those hectic times lasted for more than ten days until the Madras forces lost more than five thousand men from their assaults. They finally halted their attacks and sent a messenger to the enemy's camp.

"Locke, your plan to stand our ground instead of attack truly is marvelous! Hennard himself said if we had continued to advance, we would've been attacked by the private armies and the duchy's main force. It would no doubt have multiplied our casualties. All we had to do was occupy this area and defend it to crush their counterattack attempts without breaking a sweat! Umm, who is he?"

When Count Kenmays saw Lorist, he began to boast about how effective the latter's strategy had been, until he saw the smiling second highness whose eyes were gleaming with excitement.

Lorist briefly introduced the two, causing Kenmays to act rather awkward, given that he was a noble of the Iblia kingdom and the king of the enemy kingdom was right in front of him. However, the second highness was only a former king and had also come as a fellow knight to observe the battles, so Kenmays didn't intend to do anything about his presence.

The second highness, on the other hand, acted very amiably to the count, first praising the Kenmays house for running the largest construction guilds back during the time of the empire, expressing what a shame he thought it was for them to have pledged allegiance to the Iblia kingdom, as well as mention how much he admired the count's talent. In just ten minutes, the second highness and Kenmays were already close to the point they decked shoulders like long lost brothers and chatted happily without end.

When they arrived at the tent, Shazin Hennard had also just returned. After Lorist introduced the second highness to the baron, the second highness expressed his friendly and familiar attitude once more. However, Shazin didn't really trust the display and maintained a formal and polite demeanor.

The reason Lorist had to rush over was that of the matter of the messenger. At first, Kenmays only demanded the trade routes through the duchy be restored and for the allowance of crossing through Metropoulos River with low taxes for merchant convoys. He didn't think the messenger would return quickly after being sent back with an agreement to all of the count's requests. Since it had already been achieved, there would no longer be a reason for their troops to stay. In essence, they would have to withdraw their forces once more and the war would end.

Not knowing what he should do, the count wrote to Lorist while he tried to delay the duchy as best he could. After hearing about the count's explanation, Lorist laughed.

"Don't care about them. We just have to mind our own business. For now, we must make sure this camp has enough resources to winter here. If you have time on your hands, sweep some of the local nobles' castles or demand they pay a tribute for the war. Only attack them if they don't comply."

"What if their messenger comes to object to our actions?" asked Kenmays.

"Simple. Who was the cause of this war in the first place? It's none other than the arrow outposts situated at the duchy's defensive line that not only forbade passage through the river but also sunk two of Hennard's fishing boats. We must have the duchy pay for their mistakes as well as make up our military expenses. Just make ridiculous demands, if they want to bargain or negotiate, make sure to drag them on for as long as possible. All we have to do is maintain the status quo until winter is over. We must also have the duke himself sign on our agreement and not some nobody who claims to be able to accept the conditions on behalf of the duchy. Only then will we withdraw our forces."

Kenmays was overjoyed to the point that he slapped his thigh.

"That's right! Spending so much time in this military encampment has rusted my mind. I didn't even think of such a simple solution and felt a little odd when I thought about how easy it was to defeat the duchy. The moment I heard their agreement to our conditions, I thought we had lucked out, but I almost ended up tricked by them. I can almost be sure the duchy's folks won't acknowledge the agreement after we withdraw our forces and deploy their troops at the bank of the river once more."

"All we have to do if that's the case is launch another attack," said Hennard confidently.

"Locke, if the duchy accepts the rest of our conditions, what do we do?" asked Kenmays after some thought.

"Then we have no choice. If Duke Madras is willing to pay such a price, we will have to withdraw. However, we can use the excuse of not trusting them to request for a plot of land near the riverbank to garrison a division of troops two reasons. The first is to protect the bridge and the second is to ensure safe passage for the merchant convoys from The Northlands," replied Lorist.

"Very well, we'll do just that. I'll tell the messenger that when he comes again. If they are able to abide by our conditions and show the duchy's sincerity, we will agree to end the war."

Originally, the second highness only intended to watch their discussion with a smile. However, he felt something was off the more he listened to the point he couldn't resist his urge to speak.

"Apologies for interrupting, Brother Locke, Count Kenmays, may I ask you the reason for this war?"

"Oh, Your Highness, it all started like this. Duke Madras sealed off the crossing point at the river and even sunk two of House Shazin's fishing boats. This attack was made in retaliation for the duchy's acts. If Duke Madras agrees to no longer seal off the river and reopen the trade routes, allowing our merchant convoys to conduct business within the duchy, we will end the war," answered Kenmays politely.

"Does that mean you're not willing to conquer the duchy and make it your own dominion? That would achieve your goals as well, won't it?" asked the second highness curiously.

Kenmays rolled his eyes and looked at the second highness like he would an idiot.

"Your Highness, it's not that we don't want to occupy the duchy, the price we have to pay for it is far too high. Even though we are able to pull it off, our goal is first and foremost the reopening of trade. Why would we bother with conquering the duchy? We'd have to invest much more resources to develop the place as well if we do, and we're not stupid enough to. As long as Duke Madras agrees to our conditions, it won't hurt to end the war."

The second highness looked disappointed because he thought the reason the Nortons and their allies attacked the duchy was to exterminate it instead of just giving it a small poke to re-establish trade. He had thought that he could use the chaos that would result from the war to recruit the refugees into his new Whitelion Legion so he could travel through the duchy to reclaim his throne. His dreams were shattered without any mercy at all.

Seeing the second highness's disheartened look, Lorist tried to resist his urge to smile. He had already known the true goal of the second highness for making this trip. While Lorist had his own plans for occupying the duchy, he wouldn't let the second highness take advantage of it.

"Alright, let's get something to eat. Also, Hennard, please see that His Highness is settled down and rested. We have traveled for quite a number of days, so let's rest after our meal and leave any talking to tomorrow."

Even though it was wartime, with the spoiled and indulgent Kenmays around, the ad hoc banquet was as plentiful as ever. However, the second highness appeared rather down for the most part and didn't have much of an appetite. It didn't take long for him to leave for the room Hennard had prepared with the excuse of feeling a little tipsy.

"Why did you bring him along? It was so awkward for me just now," complained Kenmays.

"I didn't have a choice either," Lorist shrugged, "He insisted on following, and I can't just refuse my senior noble without good reason. Since he's no longer the king, there's nothing wrong with him coming here as a noble knight."

"Didn't he disappear for quite a while? Why has he showed himself all of a sudden? Since you were already a free noble, it must feel quite bad for your senior noble to pop up again all of a sudden," said Hennard.

Lorist breathed a long sigh and told them about how the second highness managed to escape his predicament, as well as what he requested of the Norton house.

"Hahahaha!" Kenmays and Hennard both laughed upon hearing how the second highness wasn't able to recruit soldiers at the Norton dominion.

"You know, Locke, don't you think that ex-king of yours is rather useful? You can use him and his name to send your troops to reclaim his kingdom. You can then install him as a puppet ruler. He can jump to your will whilst you pull the strings from the shadows," said Hennard with a flash of inspiration.

Kenmays didn't hesitate to put a damper on the thought.

"Forget it, I'm sure you know of the ambitions that man has. He's always wanted to be the emperor that reunites the empire. Controlling him is out of the question. What a mastermind requires is a cowardly dog, not a wolf king that'll take a bite out of him at the first opportunity.

"Just look at how he treats Lorist. Not only did he use him while he called him Brother Locke, he's actually rather guarded and fearful of House Norton's might. Now he got himself into this pool of trouble, he still wants to rebuild his army and rely on himself to reclaim the throne instead of letting Locke do the honors and agreeing to the terms of his house. That alone should be enough to show how hard it is to control someone like him."

"I sent someone to have Ovidis hide his catapults before I came; the second highness won't learn of our secret weapon. Make sure you order your subordinates to not leak it either. It's fine if the second highness wants to see anything else. Since we're not in conflict at present, the frontlines are rather peaceful. I'm sure they won't be able to hold on for a few more days. It'll be much easier for us when they leave. All we have to do now is follow our original plan," said Lorist as he stood up and concluded the banquet.

Lorist didn't feel like going to rest after a full meal. Since it was still the afternoon, he had Els bring him two fishing rods from Kenmays's tent. He had just tasted some fresh whitefish from Metropoulos River during the banquet and Kenmays didn't fail to boast about his fishing skills. Hennard, on the other hand, said hatefully that when he was busy beating away the duchy's forces, Kenmays was fishing. However, there was naught Hennard could do but complain, given how his favorite woman was the count's cousin.

After three hours of fishing, they got many different types of catch, all apart from whitefish. Seeing that it was getting late, Lorist and Els rowed their fishing boat back to shore and returned to their camp.

The ruined castle on the mound had already been restored halfway. It was the center of operations for the army as well as Hennard and Kenmays' temporary residence. It was arranged for Lorist to stay in a building not far from the main castle. He ordered a couple of guards to deal with the catch as he climbed the stairs to his room for a bath.

After Lorist entered the tub, a guard outside reported that Kenmays had come over, probably to invite Lorist for dinner. Lorist didn't mind and let Kenmays into the room. Since they were both men, there wasn't anything to be shy about.

Unexpectedly, Kenmays's first words were.

"Your king got me to chat with him for the whole afternoon. Do you know what he's up to?"

Surprised, Lorist asked, "What?"

"He promised to grant many of my wishes and drew a huge picture of what I would receive if I agreed to pledge allegiance to him," Kenmays laughed, "He said he would elevate me to the status of a duke and give our house a whole province."

"Do you trust his word?" asked Lorist, laughing.

Kenmays shook his head.

"Not really, but I can't say I'm not moved by his words."

"Why?"

"Locke, House Norton is a military-based noble house; it has centuries of history in the Krissen Empire. We are not. House Kenmays only used to be the largest construction guild during the days of the empire. We practically paid the second prince for our noble title, and that guy's a traitor to the empire. Now that he's dead, Iblia's future is on a precipice of uncertainty. If the kingdom is exterminated, nobody will be willing to acknowledge our peerage. The Andinaq royal family, on the other hand, has the legacy of the Krissen Empire. That, is what the second highness symbolizes."

Chapter 338 Pledging Allegiance

Of The Northlands' four houses, the Nortons were the strongest in terms of might, the Kenmayses second, the Felims third, and the Shazins last. And in terms of how established a house was, in terms of legacy and inheritance, the name of the Roaring Raging Bear was well known across the former empire. The Felims were known as the House of the Pegasus. Next was House Shazin. While they used to be a vassal of the Duke of The Northlands and being only a small baron house, they had a three-generation heritage stretching back a century.

House Kenmays, on the other hand, was relatively new. They had emerged from a mercantile background just a couple of decades ago. It wasn't easy for them to gain the acknowledgment of the other nobles, especially not so given that their house had only for two half-generations. Kenmays was moved by the second highness' words for these reasons. House Kenmays had been in existence for far too short a time and the second prince, who was the one that had given the house their peerage, was a traitor who had already been put to death. Iblia was also on the brink of extinction, it was fated to be a short-lived dynasty. The moment the kingdom was wiped off the map, who knew if there would still be anyone that acknowledged the Kenmays name.

The second highness had adeptly noticed this weakness and was confident he could bring them under his grasp, as he put forward an opportunity that would make them legitimate landed nobles. Kenmays knew if the second highness rebuilt his army and swept across the empire, his house would have to face extermination. Demotion of rank was not even up for negotiation. The best he could do was to give out the wealth his house had gathered over the years in exchange for their lives. They would at best return to being commoners, and not even the wealthy commoners they had been previously.

The second highness may only be a former king at present who didn't even have soldiers to his name, with his throne occupied by his own niece, but he was still the rightful bearer of Krissen Empire's legacy. If House Kenmays pledged allegiance to the second highness, they would be able to receive the acknowledgement of the other landed nobles and the count would truly be accepted as a peer of the realm.

"Did you agree to his proposition?" asked Lorist, seated within the tub.

"Not yet. I postponed by saying it was a huge matter for the house that merited serious consideration. I'll give him an answer within the next two days. I came to look for you immediately after seeing him off," said Kenmays.

"Apart from your pledge of allegiance, what demands did he make of you in exchange for becoming a duke and being given a province?"

"He wanted me to encourage you guys to press the attack," Kenmays shrugged, "He'll make me a duke the moment the duchy ceases to exist. However, I did warn him that we wouldn't be able to exterminate the duchy without House Norton's aid. Given the combined might of House Kenmays and House Shazin, we would be able to defeat our enemies. But exterminating the whole duchy would be a rather big stretch."

Lorist furrowed his brow in thought while Kenmays stood near the tub, patiently waiting for a response.

As the water within the tub cooled, Lorist finally raised his head.

"Perhaps, this will be a great opportunity for all four houses. We can use this chance to swallow the whole Madras duchy. Here's what you have to do: put the second highness off for two days before you say this to him..."

......

During the past two days, Baron Shazin Hennard brought his troops to raid the nearby nobles' manors and returned with plentiful resources. Delamock still lived up to its name of being the largest food producer of the former empire. Hennard managed to raid four manors during the two days and gained enough food to feed the army's 100 thousand soldiers for the whole winter.

The second highness felt like he was on vacation. As Hennard had gone pillaging, or put more eloquently: 'gathering resources', the second highness wasn't able to work on his relationship with the baron. Kenmays didn't want to meet with him for some reason, so the second highness was unable to press him for a response. As for Lorist, he was busy fishing with his guards on the Metropoulos River as if he didn't care about the ongoing war at all.

Even though the second highness was well cared for in the camp, his freedom was severely restricted. Whenever he attempted to leave, there would be a really polite guard who would remind him of his status as an observing noble knight and of how he wasn't allowed to leave the campgrounds for no good reason to avoid causing trouble for its owners. The reasoning behind it was that even though the Northlander troops were only having a small skirmish with the Madras duchy's forces, if the second highness's presence was discovered, the consequences would be severe and the war would turn out really differently.

For the sake of his greater goals, the second highness resisted the urge to leave. He didn't want to be treated like an unwelcome personage by the army, especially during a time when he could take House Kenmays under his wing. So, he could only waltz around the camp with his attendants and drool at House Kenmays and House Shazin's pristine armor and fantasize about them destroying his enemies under his command.

There were roughly 36 thousand Shazin troops, 46 thousand Kenmays troops, and 12 thousand Norton troops in the camp, bringing the total near 100 thousand men. Apart from the raiding excursions Baron Shazin and his gold-ranked knight, Tabik, conducted, the rest of the troops that were not involved in patrolling or training were assigned miscellaneous tasks, such as chopping firewood, repairing the lodges to prepare for winter, fishing, hunting, and herding the livestock they had brought along.

The army looked completely unprofessional in the eyes of the second highness. He felt soldiers should only be concerned with war and spared the need to do the work of servants. If he had been in command, he would've swept half of Delamock already. And after gaining territory with such an elite force, he was confident he would be able to defeat Duke Madras. He would make sure the duke stayed cooped up in his lair in Sidgler while he made his way to the imperial capital.

The second highness's patience was finally rewarded when Count Kenmays showed up in front of him three days after the offer was made.

"Your Highness, House Kenmays is willing to pledge its allegiance to you and fight under your banner. We beseech the light of the mighty Wargod shine upon our kingdom and bring Your Highness endless victory," said Kenmays after he saluted respectfully.

The second highness was overjoyed when he heard the count's sincere reply. Now, he had yet another mighty noble house loyal to him alongside House Norton. It greatly increased his confidence in achieving his goals.

However, the second highness saw Kenmays's troubled look and asked out of curiosity, "What's wrong, count? Is there something troubling you?"

Kenmays replied with a bitter smile, "Your Highness, even though I and my house had pledged you our allegiance, we are unfortunately unable to fulfill your wishes. We won't be able to attack the duchy, nor were we able to convince our ally to resume the offensive."

"Why is that? My fine count, my word to you is no light matter. I make an oath on my status as the ruler to make you duke as long as you can exterminate the duchy. When I reunite the empire, you may freely pick a province as your dominion."

Kenmays shook his head.

"Your Highness, you've misunderstood. If you want the duchy exterminated, all four houses have to attack with full force. It is not possible to do so with only Baron Shazin's and my forces. Additionally, Baron Shazin has zero interest in pitting his men against the duchy's forces. As for our house, my father will definitely oppose the casualties likely to be incurred should we press on now."

The second highness asked with a trace of suspicion, "My Lord Count, I've seen your and Baron Shazon's troops; they are very formidable. The near 100 thousand troops you have here are more than enough to clear out Delamock. You stand a great chance at victory even if Duke Madras resists with all his might. Why do you say you're unable to take the duchy?"

"Your Highness, perhaps you are uninformed about the current state of the duchy's forces. Actually, a few years ago, after Duke Madras clashed with the second prince at Kobo, he armed his troops heavily. Apart from the 48 thousand men of the Seamountain Legion, which he has stationed in Sidgler, there are four defense legions that number up to 100 thousand men defending the seven citadels in Sanderson Hills. There are another 20 thousand men each at Nadegas, Kobo, and the river bank respectively. In total, they easily have over 150 thousand troops. If the private forces of the various nobles are factored in, there are another 60 thousand men at their disposal.

"If Baron Shazin and I press the attack with our two legions, we will quickly get entangled with the 100 plus thousand troops of the duke. If that happens, even if we end up victorious, our vitality will be horribly sapped. Even if we win, Duke Madras can continue to rest and recover given his dominion's abundant resources and population, while our houses will take up to ten years to recover.

"Your Highness, you should know that the Nortons have the most powerful military among our houses. Even if all through of our houses were to assault them at the same time, they would still win. There's also House Felim, which you might know as the House of the Pegasus. Baron Felim is the descendant of that house and his light cavalry legion has only recently shocked the world with their prowess. In contrast to those two houses, the troops of House Shazin are slow foot soldiers balanced in both attack and defense. House Kenmays's troops focus more on defense, with offense our weakness.

"Your Highness, I truly apologize for not being able to conquer the duchy. Our attack will do nothing but smash an egg against a rock. It is far from the rational thing to do. At present, the best I can do to show my loyalty is provide you some funds. I truly am unable to conquer the duchy, unless all four houses act in unison. Please forgive my incompetence," said Kenmays as he took out a thick stack of gold Forde bills that amounted to roughly 100 thousand gold Fordes and placed it carefully on the table.

The second highness seemed a little sour after hearing the response. What Count Kenmays said amounted to, 'I only pledged allegiance to you for the sake of officiating my house's title. If you want to use us to fight the duchy, we won't be able to help you. House Kenmays is willing to provide monetary support, but we definitely won't send our troops to the meat grinder for the sake of restoring your throne.' Naturally, the second highness was doubtful of what Kenmays said of the duchy's forces, but he was glad to have gleaned another piece of information that may prove useful to him.

"You mentioned the might of House Norton exceeds that of your three houses combined?" asked he.

"It does, Your Highness. The Nortons have two legions that number 120 thousand men. If you add their garrison soldiers to the figure, they have 150 thousand troops. Our own house only has 55 thousand in our legion, whereas House Felim's legion is made up of 46 thousand men, and House Shazin's numbers 42 thousand. The troops of the three houses combined don't even make up 150 thousand men. The Nortons are naturally the strongest," expounded Kenmays.

He intentionally understated the actual number of Norton troops by omitting the 25 local defense brigades in his count. As for three of the brigades that were present within the camp, he pretended to have not noticed them, since the second highness didn't really grasp the organization of the Norton forces anyway.

"Since that's the case, I have another question," the second highness began, "Since The Northlands is already the four houses' domain, they no longer have to defend against other neighboring dominion lords given how all four of your dominions are connected. If that's the case, why do they still maintain such a huge military outfit? What are they planning? Aren't the three other houses, including yours, worried about the Nortons' ambitions?"

Kenmays smiled when the second highness tried to put the Norton house in a bad light just like Lorist said he would. He was trying to fracture the relationship between the allies.

"Your Highness, do you know why the four houses formed an alliance in the first place?" Kenmays asked, "There are only two reasons. First, to set our sights on the Iblia kingdom. Second, to resist Duke Fisablen and his cavalry legions."

"Set your sights on the Iblia kingdom? I can understand being wary of Duke Fisablen, but aren't the other three houses nobles of the Iblia kingdom? Why would you target your own kingdom?" asked the second highness interestedly.

"Your Highness, actually, after House Norton sent their troops to Windbury to capture the second prince, we three noble houses have been isolated by the rest of the kingdom's nobles. It's more appropriate to consider us nobles of The Northlands. The reason we're targeting the Iblia kingdom is that we're doing it for Baron Felim. You should know the original dominion of the House of the Pegasus is in Southern, and it's his dream to reclaim his ancestral land.

"However, Southern has already been made a wasteland from the conflict, and we'll have to conquer Winston first to reach it. At present, Duke Fisablen's daughter, Iblia's queen, holds power within the province. We will definitely be pitted against the duke if we attack it. Duke Fisablen was renowned as one of the empire's three war gods and his Frontier Legion was one of the most impressive forces in The Northlands. The reason all four houses are expanding our military so fervently is so we are prepared for a conflict with the duke. It's also why House Norton maintains such a huge force."

"Ah, I see. Duke Fisablen, House of the Pegasus, and Baron Felim..." mumbled the second highness, before inspiration flashed across his eyes, "Count Kenmays, if I am willing to make Baron Felim a count and give Southern to him as a dominion, would he be willing to pledge allegiance to me as well?"

Kenmays wore a look of resentment as he thought, this second highness is shameless to the core! Even though he doesn't have troops or power, he treats the empire like he owns it and promises land he doesn't own to others! Hmph, it's easy for him to promise to make Baron Felim a count, but is Southern even his territory in the first place? If Baron Felim pledges allegiance to him, he'd have to send his troops to fight for Southern himself, with the only benefit being having a good excuse to do so, since the Andinaq kingdom is at war with the Iblia kingdom.

The second highness hurriedly realized what he just did when he saw Kenmays's expression. "Naturally, Lord Count, I won't forget your contributions as well. If you can convince Baron Felim to join my side, feel free to state what you require."

"Thank you, Your Highness," Kenmays said as he saluted, "I won't hold back either. If we can eliminate the duchy, I want Sidgler as the hereditary dominion of House Kenmays."

Chapter 339 Lobbying

As things played out, sending Count Kenmays to deal with the second highness was a brilliant plan.

Since Lorist was the second highness's vassal, he had to act respectfully and politely.

But faced with the suspicion the second highness held towards the house, Lorist would never bother to do anything to placate the second highness or calm his fears. Not only was it a sign of his confidence, it was also part of his pride. Whether the second highness be his former self that commanded 300 thousand troops or his current self -- no better than a failed noble -- Lorist maintained the same attitude he always had.

Since you're so suspicious of me, I can't be bothered to deal with you. All I have to do is do the bare minimum required of me.

Lorist thought the second highness wasn't one without talent. His reputation as one of the war gods on Grindia was nothing to scoff at. First, he had used the northbound convoy to pacify the kingdom's trouble-causing nobles. Thereafter he plotted to ruin the relationship between Duke Madras and the second prince and caused them to be on hostile terms to the point that Duke Madras had to cede Yungechandler.

On another front, the second highness schemed against the first prince and gradually chipped away his enemy's forces, ultimately causing his foe to fall into his trap before he invaded the kingdom, forcing the first prince to cede two southwestern provinces for a peace treaty. A few years later when war broke out once more, the second highness crossed Cloudsnap Mountains to circumvent the iron-wall defenses the first prince set up and managed to take over Frederika. It was a battle that greatly alarmed all on the continent.

The second highness may be a brilliant commander, but the way Lorist saw it, he wasn't a good king. While the second highness's governing policies weren't bad per se, he didn't have the wisdom or wit of a king. Lorist believed the second highness was a grudge-holding, petty, stubborn, authoritarian, and opportunistic man who always thought he knew best. Lorist could easily name a ton more faults the second highness possessed.

The man's biggest problem was his self-importance. It was the reason Lorist wanted as little to do with him as possible. He had no right to instruct Lorist to do this or that. He was glad a landed noble like him could refuse unreasonable orders from his liege, unlike the knights that served the second highness -- who had to obey every single order without question.

Lorist's method was simple: do everything step by step and focus on building a firm foundation. It was far better than the second highness's alpha-strike mentality that got him to gather a force of 300 thousand, only to end up with nothing after a devastating loss, having nowhere to return to apart from The Northlands, resulting in him having to rely on Lorist once more.

When the second highness received the Whitelion Legion's equipment as well as 100 thousand gold Fordes, it showed the relationship between the second highness and House Norton was nothing more than one of a liege and his vassal. The second highness had baited House Norton with the same gear to have their forces exterminate the obstacles that would stop him from gaining power. The equipment's return signified Lorist desire to have nothing further to do with the Andinaq royal family, a sentiment which the second highness undoubtedly noticed.

Kenmays, however, thought differently. Given the might of House Norton, Lorist could refuse any unreasonable order from the second highness and the latter wasn't able to do anything about it apart from smiling in a friendly manner. Kenmays was a person from a merchant family, so he had his methods to make the second highness willingly jump into the hole dug for him. Even though the second highness didn't always have his guard down, Kenmays still managed to fulfill his duty without issue. All the while pretending to rally allies for the second highness through advising Baron Shazin and Baron Felim. He encouraged the second highness to accept the two nobles' demands.

When Kenmays brought out his request for Sidgler to be made his dominion after the Madras duchy's conquest, the second highness agreed because he felt Sidgler was a rather rural province that didn't have much value apart from Platinum Beach, which was a famed vacation spot. And, given that the province was in Duke Madras's hands, the second highness was more than happy to give it away to instigate the fight between House Kenmays and the duchy since it would cost him nothing.

"How do intend to convince Baron Shazin to join us in our campaign, Your Highness?" asked the count.

"What if I make him a count?" asked the second highness after some thought.

"Your Highness, it won't do if you only promise empty titles to others," Kenmays said, shaking his head, "You must come up with benefits that will actually move them to support your cause."

"What does Baron Shazin want?"

"This," Kenmays said as he pointed at the map of the Madras duchy, "He wants the land around Sanderson Hills in Delamock."

"There? Why does he desire that?" asked the second highness, a little troubled.

The location was the border of Winston and wasn't like the rest of Delamock, rife with ripe farmlands. It was rather odd for the baron to want such a place as his territory.

"Your Highness, you should know well that Baron Shazin is a man brought up in a military family. He doesn't really understand what it means to manage a dominion. He's the one with the tightest finances among all four houses. He frequently needs our aid. There are two silver mines and one copper mine in Sanderson Hills. It would help alleviate his financial situation. It's far better than selling crops, which is why he desires the area," explained Kenmays.

"But, I intend to use those mines to fill the national treasury," said the second highness hesitantly.

"Your Highness, Sanderson Hills is currently under the control of Duke Madras and there are seven citadels there manned by a 40-thousand-man garrison. If you agree to the baron's request, he will attack and conquer the area regardless of the cost. Your Highness can then levy a ten percent tax on the mines' earnings. That's far better than sending your own elite troops to the grinder that is the seven citadels, no?"

"You're right, Lord Count," the second highness conceded, "Tell Baron Shazin that I agree to his demand. Apart from giving him that area, I will also make him a count."

"Your Highness truly is wise. We are really fortunate to have you as our king. I believe you will usher the empire into a new era of prosperity."

It was something Lorist wouldn't be able to utter even if it killed him. Yet, Kenmays had managed to deliver the line perfectly as if it came from the depths of his heart.

"Let's talk about what we need to do to convince Baron Felim next."

"Oh?"

Before the second highness's smile faded, his face turned into a look of bewilderment.

"Baron Felim? Didn't I already agree to promote him to the title of count and give him Southern as his house's dominion? Is he not satisfied?"

Kenmays sighed deeply before he said in an annoyed tone, "Your Highness, don't tell me you forgot that Southern is not under your control right now. The Iblia kingdom rules that area."

The second highness's face flushed.

"Even though it's currently part of the Iblia kingdom, when I return to the Andinaq kingdom and reassume my throne, I will restart my plan to reunite the empire and conquer it. Southern will be my land to rule."

"Time, Your Highness. What you need is time," Kenmays said forthrightly, "Your Highness can no longer promise others apples before the apple tree produces any fruit. Nobody will know for sure whether the apple will be sweet or sour. If you make that kind of offer as a king, others will regard you as a conniving merchant -- quite a harsh blow to your reputation."

"Ugh..."

The second highness couldn't help but appreciate the truth in the count's words.

"Lord Count," he shrugged, "What you said may be true, but apart from promising others things I don't currently have, what can I do? I'm more than ashamed of being a king so incompetent to fall to my current state."

"Your Highness, please don't think of it this way. Even lions have times of weakness. Your experiences are nothing short of legendary and the people of the future will no doubt sing your praises," Kenmays praised, "Your Highness, what Baron Felim wants is simple. He is willing to pledge allegiance to you and attack the duchy on your behalf. All he wants is your promise to back him up when he attacks Iblia to take Southern. He will also need a legion of troops in Southern to defend against any attack by Duke Fisablen."

"This..." mused the second highness as he fell into deep thought.

"Your Highness, are there any difficulties in doing so?"

"Lord Count, it's not that I don't want to agree to the baron's request, it's beyond my means," the second highness laughed bitterly, "As you said, a king shouldn't make promises lightly. Even if I manage to conquer the duchy with your cooperation, I can only form one Whitelion Legion and I have to use it to fight my way to the imperial capital. Even if I do manage to take the kingdom back, I'll have to rebuild the royal family's local defense legion to defend against the Union and the four central duchies. There's no way I can send a legion to help Baron Felim take back Southern."

After the second highness gained some understanding of the duchy's military, he predicted the three houses of Shazin, Kenmays, and Felim would be in shambles after engaging it. That was the reason he wanted to use his Whitelion Legion to reclaim his kingdom right away without bothering to aid them.

He believed the kingdom's garrison soldiers would hear of his return and surrender and he would have to reorganize his military to deal with the Union and the four central duchies after reclaiming his throne. He couldn't be bothered to send a legion to aid Felim. Duke Fisablen wasn't a person that could be angered lightly either. Sending a legion to fight with the duke's was sending them on a suicide mission.

"If Baron Felim is willing to wait a few years until I destroy the Union and the four central duchies, I'll send troops to retake Southern for him. I hope you, Lord Count, will do your best to convince him to endure for two more years for the sake of the greater good," said the second highness embarrassed.

He knew if the Union and the duchies were that easy to deal with, he wouldn't have ended up in his current state.

Kenmays shook his head as he understood the second highness's intentions to use the light cavalry legion of House Felim to conquer the duchy. After his goal was achieved, the issue of House Felim's rightful dominion could be postponed.

"Your Highness, I really don't understand why you don't use any of the many easier methods at your disposal. Why don't you just use the Nortons mighty forces?"

"House Norton?" The second highness sighed, "Lord Count, it's not that I don't want their aid. It's that they're unwilling to give it."

"Unwilling? How so?"

"I've already made Lorist Duke of The Northlands in hopes that he would send his troops to retake my throne. However, all he gave me is some equipment and money. He didn't bother to give me even a single soldier," said the second highness with a hint of anger.

Come on, that's 100 thousand gold Fordes and the equipment of the Whitelion Legion, not just some money and equipment. That alone should be worth three Duke of The Northlands titles, thought the count.

With a smile, he said, "Your Highness, I believe the reason they're unwilling to deploy any troops is that you didn't offer them anything they want. House Norton has been rather troubled over one issue."

"Oh? What is that?" asked the second highness curiously.

"Back when House Norton clashed with the second prince and won, their forces swept across The Northlands and took care of all landed nobles apart from our three houses. Currently, there are 17 noble houses living in Firmrock Castle. They are all the old nobles of the Krissen Empire that have some relation with House Norton. But, given that The Northlands is already under our four houses' control, Lorist has been wanting to give them replacement dominions."

"What did you say? House Norton actually dared to attack the old nobles of the Krissen Empire?" exclaimed the second highness.

"Your Highness, don't forget that even though those landed noble houses stemmed from the Krissen Empire, by the time the Nortons attacked, they were already nobles of the Iblia kingdom who have pledged allegiance to the second prince," Kenmays sighed, "House Norton's actions are perfectly justified. They have already shown mercy because they were once nobles of the empire."

"Oh, so that's the case," the second highness hurriedly said apologetically, "I'm sorry, I've forgotten. What you mean to say is..."

Kenmays pointed to Delamock.

"Your Highness, if you agree to enfeoff land here to the nobles, I believe House Norton will help us. If you can also let Lorist have Kobo and the rest of the remaining territory, I'm sure he will further Your Highness's cause without any hesitation.

The second highness hurriedly shook his head.

"No way, Lorist is already Duke of The Northlands. House Norton has already been given the whole of The Northlands, yet they want to stretch their hands into Delamock? That won't do."

"Your Highness, please consider your current position. Also, Delamock is Duke Madras's, not the Andinaq kingdom's. If House Norton wishes to take over the area, they will be the ones to pay the price. There is no free lunch in this world. Only through giving will you gain! You're only being asked to strike the deal with the territory currently belonging to Duke Madras. In essence, you don't have to give away anything of your own! Not only that, you can let the Nortons help you reclaim your throne! Are you going to give up on this opportunity? Your Highness! Don't disappoint me!"

The second highness glared at Kenmays all of a sudden.

"Count Kenmays, why did you bother to come up with this? Was Lorist the one that had you come lobby for him?"

"Your Highness, you truly are a person with a suspicious nature," Kenmays laughed, "There are two reasons I chose to do this. First, the Nortons' forces far exceed that of our three other houses. With their involvement, we can decrease our casualties. Second, I wish to have five of the landed nobles we're rearing given land in Delamock along with those in the care of the Nortons."

"Is that so..." Since the count had revealed his own intentions, the second highness no longer suspected he had plotted this in conjunction with Lorist.

"However, I feel this benefits House Norton far too much. To the point it's a little undeserved," said the second highness begrudgingly.

You're still not satisfied even if they're going to fight to the imperial capital for you? Kenmays said with a smile, "Your Highness, if you accept this, you can leave the matter of reclaiming Baron Felim's dominion to House Norton. I believe they would be more than capable of defending against House Fisablen."

"A great plan!" exclaimed the second highness.

The mere thought of having House Norton wear itself down against House Fisablen made his blood boil with excitement.

If those two houses fight intensely and end up both ruined, I'll be able to deal with them after I settle the Union and the four central duchies. Maybe I'll be able to rid myself of two problematic issues in one go!

"I don't think Lorist will agree. He is someone that won't yield unless he sees something in it for him," said the second highness worryingly.

"You can name him the governor of Winston and leave Windbury in his jurisdiction," suggested Kenmays.

The second highness raised his head.

"No way, that way, the Nortons would have two provinces!"

"That won't happen, Your Highness. When we conquer the duchy, there will definitely be nobles that will submit to you. I also know some nobles of the Iblia kingdom that are on friendly terms with me. All you have to do is move their dominions to Winston, and leave only Windbury under House Norton's control. If you make sure to support House Felim, one of the Nortons' allies, I believe you'll have caused House Norton quite a bit of trouble."

"Splendid!" the second highness cried with a clap of his hands, "Alright, I'll go with your plan."

Chapter 340 Regret

The sound of the horn resounded nonstop across the dry, withered plains as a group of soldiers marched into view on the horizon. They brought with them various banners and stood in the distance. Not long after, a few mounted men seemed to utter something, followed by some inaudible, confused cries from the men at the back. They began to move once more and headed for Duke Madras's camp at the foot of the mound.

The second highness could still remember clearly the time the messenger of Duke Madras once again visited the army's camp to urge the army to leave the duchy in a day's time after the four houses pledged their allegiance to him.

However, when Kenmays revealed the new conditions of retreat, the messenger laughed with insult laced eyes.

"Lord Count, are you treating the duchy like an ox you can simply slaughter? Do you think His Grace will agree? Don't forget a huge ox will have a pair of fearsome horns. As the messenger, I have no right to criticize you for how ridiculous your ambitions are. I can only repeat what you said word for word to His Grace. But I have to tell you one thing before I leave: since you want war, we won't disappoint you."

After the messenger's departure, the second highness was completely riled up and he instantly gave a spirited speech, which basically boiled down to how negotiations have fallen apart and that the army should use the chance to strike the duchy and take the rest of Delamock to gain as much territory as possible before they can ready themselves. That way, they can afford to drag the war on or crush them utterly.

However, the four nobles merely looked at the second highness with expressionless faces. Baron Shazin was the first to speak out. He explained that there was no longer any need to attack Delamock. He would instead raid the nobles' orchards and farmlands. Given his understanding of Delamock, he felt there would be no point in attacking the well-defended castles since they would have to station soldiers thereafter occupying them. It was no good to fragment their forces.

With a stern face, Baron Felim also criticized the second highness's plan. It was already the 10th month and winter would arrive in a month. It wasn't possible to take the whole of Delamock in just 35 days, not to mention the fact that apart from Kobo, the rest of Delamock worth taking were only manors of other landed nobles. Given that Kobo was a fortified city with 20 thousand men guarding it, it was incredibly hard to take. The army wouldn't be able to take the city quickly and any attempt to do so would only incur unnecessary losses.

Kenmays smiled and advised the second highness that there was no need to be in such a hurry. The messenger would require at least ten days to deliver the news to the duke, it would be the 11th month by the time word reached him. The duchy's forces would have less than half a month to prepare for winter, whereas their own army was mostly ready. By the time spring comes, the enemy would be severely weakened because of their lack of preparation and victory would be within their grasp.

In the end, Lorist concluded that they would go according to their predicted course of action and ignore the army that the duke would no doubt send. They would only fight after the duke gathered his army in spring the next year. Lorist expressed his confidence in the army's might. They would be able to take the duchy far more easily if the duke's army was wiped out first.

The strategy meeting ended on that note, with the four nobles leaving immediately without giving the second highness a chance to convince them otherwise. The second highness grit his teeth after everyone else left and regretted that he didn't ask for the right to guide the army's actions when he signed the agreement.

The contract of oath was a guarantee a liege gave to his vassals. As long as the vassal carried out the task given by their liege, they could go about it however they wanted without needing the permission or interference of their liege.

Usually, an oath contract came in three copies. Apart from the liege and vassal's copies, there would be another one for public announcement. The second highness's oath contract came in four copies, one each for him and the four nobles with the final one used for public announcement. During the new year, Kenmays would represent the four houses at the annual celebration in Gildusk and announce the agreement to the nobles currently deprived of dominions by the Nortons and Kenmayses. According to Kenmays, the agreement signaled the return of those nobles to the second highness's rule.

At first, the second highness wanted the smaller noble houses to sign the contract with each of the four houses respectively, but Kenmays mentioned that the act might make others think the second highness was intentionally trying to sabotage the alliance between the four houses. It was imperative that the four houses worked together to conquer the duchy, so all four houses should be involved in a joint signing. Only thusly would all the houses be in the same boat with regards to reputation and casualties.

Kenmays added that he would like to personally sign the agreement independent of the other houses because he didn't want to be dragged into the same pit with them. He said it would definitely incite Lorist's suspicion and the others by making them think the second highness had some private arrangements or benefits for House Kenmays. If it were allowed to come to pass, not only would the alliance be affected, the second highness's plan to reclaim his throne would also be ruined. So, Kenmays said he was willing to get into the same boat as the four houses, even if it meant potentially greater losses for him, so the second highness managed to successfully regain power in the kingdom.

The second highness praised Kenmays's sensible considerations and agreed to follow his suggestion for the four houses to sign the same agreement, with the conditions Kenmays stipulated. When the second highness stamped his finger on all six copies of the contract, Lorist, Felim and Shazin all nodded in acknowledgment. The second highness couldn't be more riled up. He thought the four houses were now at his beck and call. He would use them to wipe out his enemies and conquer the realm.

However, Lorist refused his suggestion to deploy soldiers almost immediately. When the second highness brought up the plan to conquer Delamock, he realized he didn't have any right to command the four houses' forces despite being their liege. Even the second highness' guards reported to the four houses. Apart from gold-ranked knight Ripleid, Glacia and his three silver-ranked knights were back at the Norton dominion recruiting soldiers and guarding the Whitelion Legion's equipment.

Not willing to give up, he sought out Lorist and the rest and tried his best to convince them once more to follow his plan and storm the duchy while the duke was busy moving his own troops in to position to defend against the upcoming assault, saying that allowing the enemy to gather their forces was the biggest mistake they could ever make. After all, Duke Madras had the advantage in terms of both terrain and manpower. Even if they fought to a point of losing, they would still be able to go on the defensive and drag on the war.

However, there was only a month before winter arrived, so the second highness suggested that even if they weren't able to conquer the whole of Delamock, it was still better than nothing if they managed to wear down on the forces of the duchy and force the troops at Delamock to be unable to receive reinforcements or support. That way, they could deliver the final strike when the enemy was worn out even further by the coming winter.

Since Lorist mentioned that he wanted to wipe out the duke's army in one go, the second highness intelligently changed his rhetoric. He said they had to decrease the enemy's combat strength before the final fight instead of sitting around and watching the enemy gather their forces. Given the current situation, the duchy was like a huge ox which the sole wolf that was their own army intended to hunt. The wolf ought to open as many wounds on the ox as possible to stall the ox from launching into a life-ending charge. Only after the ox bled most of its vitality out should the wolf engage in the killing engagement and spell the end of the duchy.

To convince Lorist and the rest, the second highness went so far to use himself as an example, citing his loss two years prior to the allied noble army in Anderwoff. Back then, he didn't command his troops to wipe out the allied noble army in one go and instead engaged in three to four smaller skirmishes which all ended in the horrible loss of the nobles. However, the nobles of Anderwoff continued to fight to the death even after Anderwoff had been taken. Having been driven to Majik, they continued to struggle against the second highness's forces until they received aid from the Union and the four central duchies which ultimately resulted in their triumph.

That was the reasoning behind his argument that Lorist's plan for an all-out battle wouldn't guarantee the duchy's fall. The second highness felt the army might repeat his mistake and end up in a huge predicament. He maintained that only by attacking first and conquering the nobles' manors in Delamock and crippling the duchy's forces was the way to go and that the army had to grasp the chance instead of leaving their troops cooped up within the camp doing nothing.

Lorist didn't bother to argue with the second highness and merely brought out a map of the duchy and began a simple simulation. Given the current state of the allied army, if they wanted to take the nobles of Delamock's manors, they would have to split up into four contingents, each contingent containing 20 thousand men. Only then would they be able to conquer the manors of those nobles. Even at the lowest possible casualty ratio of one to one, each of the four units would lose at least half their numbers after conquering around five of those manors and would have no choice to retreat, ending up with only a third of Delamock under their control.

The biggest weakness of the strategy was how there wasn't a way to encircle Kobo mainly due to the fact that the duchy's reinforcements would arrive far too quickly. The duke would either send his strongest unit, Seamountain Legion, to disrupt their plans or send 20 thousand garrison soldiers stationed at the Sanderson Hills, making it extremely dangerous for the troops on the way to Kobo, even threatening the safety of the camp at the riverbank.

If they sent 50 thousand men to encircle Kobo, the duke's reinforcements wouldn't be able to deal with it. If they did that, however, the duke would send his troops to attack the camp at Metropoulos. If the camp was destroyed, the consequences would be unimaginable. They might lose their only way of retreat and perhaps be eliminated completely.

Lorist didn't hesitate to point out that the reason the second highness failed his attack on the Redlis kingdom wasn't that he had gotten into a drawn-out, to-and-fro battle with the nobles, but that he had his supply lines cut, which ended with the defeat of the troops stationed at Kanbona. Naturally, the second highness's ill-prepared resources also contributed to the problem when they had to battle for an unexpected amount of time. However, it still seemed the second highness hadn't yet understood where he truly failed and almost had them repeat his mistake.

Embarrassment turned into anger as the second highness stressed that the forces of the Nortons and Felims could secure the camp at the riverbank during the attack. That way, they would be able to guard the camp and even press the attack on the nobles.

It was then that Felim objected profusely and called the second highness out for not understanding his and the Nortons' forces. So far, the allied army's main force lay with Shazin and Kenmays, most were heavy-armored infantry only proficient at defense and interception. Not only that, Shazin's two cavalry divisions currently served as scouts and the camp had been set up in a way that would make it easier for the infantry to defend from enemy assault and spend the winter.

Letting the defensive infantry troops attack the nobles all the while defending the camp along with the Norton cavalry legion, which was optimized for attack operations, was nothing short of idiotic. Felim insinuated that even if his troops and those of the Nortons guarded the camp, it wouldn't be able to support the heavy infantry troops that returned from the attack. The resource consumption during winter for the mounts of two legions was already astronomical.

"There's no need to argue further. We'll stick to the plan as previously discussed. All we have to do from now to winter is defend the main camp. As for whether we attack, that can wait. Your Highness, you ought to take a bath, calm down, and get some rest. Don't waste any precious time," said Lorist before he left.

The second highness almost coughed up blood from his anger.

What do you mean take a bath and get some rest?! Did he mean I was wasting his time?!

The angered second highness brought out the contract and tried his best to find a clause that would allow him to assert some control over Lorist. As he scoured the contract, he realized he had been duped by Kenmays, who had dug him a huge pit into which he had jumped willingly, to say the least.

All of the clauses in the contract were ran through the second highness and mandated by him personally. But after re-reading the contract, he hurriedly brought out a map of the empire and realized that even if he could reunite the empire, apart from House Fisablen's Wild Husbandry Province, the entirety of the Iblia kingdom would fall under the jurisdiction of the four houses. As long as the alliance held, a third of the empire's territory would forever be out of his reach.

Take, for instance, Delamock, which the second highness promised to the landed nobles deprived of their dominions. Most of them were vassals of House Norton, and Delamock would belong to the Nortons in the truest sense after the duchy was eliminated.

The worst part was how the second highness elected Lorist as the governor of Windbury. He had forgotten that Windbury was the capital of Winston, so even if the nobles of Winston were on the second highness's side, a governor like Lorist wasn't. And in the chain of command, any order the second highness had for the nobles of Winston had to go through Windbury first, so Lorist could just intentionally not pass the orders on while he dealt with the nobles himself.

The second highness's regret amplified. He had practically given the whole of Winston to the Nortons. He later discovered another clause that severely disadvantaged him: there was no date for when the Nortons had to help the second highness reclaim his throne. Not only that, the territory promised to the four houses would be in effect right after the duchy's conquest whether the second highness regained his throne or not.

For instance, the second highness had promised Sidgler to Kenmays as his hereditary dominion with the count promoted to duke with the only condition being the conquest of the Madras duchy. Not only that, as long as the four houses conquered Winston and Windbury, Lorist's term as governor would be effective immediately and Windbury would fall under his control.

I was blinded! How could I believe Kenmays, a person from a sly merchant family?!

The second highness despaired with his realization, especially the one where he didn't stipulate when the four houses had to reclaim his throne. It could happen right after their conquest of Madras, or even 20 years later! The four houses would only have to sustain the second highness in The Northlands in the meantime while they carry out their strategy to suck as many benefits out of him as they could.

Even though the second highness felt rather generous when he was giving away almost all the benefits of conquering the Iblia kingdom to the four houses to ensure their loyalty, he realized that the current situation allowed the four houses enough territory to found their own kingdom after he reunited the empire. He almost wanted to cut his own hands off and wondered how he could be so misguided to put his thumbprint on such a contract.

There were no lieges that dared to go back on their word on an oath contract. After all, it was the most sacred form of agreement there was. It represented the promise of the liege to the gods and their ancestors. The second highness knew the contract was the only document ensuring the four houses' loyalty. If he truly breached it, not only would all his reputation and trustworthiness be gone, the four houses could use it as an excuse to revoke their pledge of allegiance to him and return to being rogue nobles. Not only would he not gain a single thing for which he had bargained with the four houses, he would also gain four mighty enemies.

Currently, the second highness was standing at the top of the castle in the middle of the mound where the camp was built. He looked at the horizon and saw the duchy's forces gathered at a campsite one kilometer away, busy digging moats and building up their defensive line. He also saw rows of carriages bringing in all sorts of resources.

I hope they gather as many as possible. I can only be patient and wait for spring to come now. Perhaps after the four houses' army clashes with the duchy's and end up crippled, I can rise again. Maybe the only way I can go about this is to let the army get entangled with Duke Madras at Delamock while I build up Whitelion Legion on the sidelines to regain control over the situation, thought the second highness.

Chapter 341 Landing

The silver moon hung high in the sky and shed its silver glory onto the realm of man.

The weather was rather calm on the northern seas, which was rare for the winter season. The moonlight reflected off the calm surface of the ocean, giving it a sparkly sheen.

On the distant shore, a lit torch could be seen twirled around three times. It stood still for a few moments before it once again twirled thrice.

"Everything should be on track," Potterfang said, "Milord, I think we can make our move now."

Even though the weather was pleasant, in stark contrast to the strong winds all too common during the season, the chill of winter still made Lorist cold to the bone despite the thick layers of fur he wore.

"Let our troops drink some rum and warm their limbs. I don't want them going numb because of the cold and falling into the water. They're definitely goners if they get wet in this cold. I don't want to see any accidents happen. Prepare to move out."

"Yes, Milord. I will have them prepare right away. Don't worry, Milord. We've already trained for this many times; there won't be any problems," replied Potterfang, standing ramrod straight.

The orders were passed down quickly. The ships in front rotated until their sides faced the shore. The sailors threw a large net over the side and let it hung down the side of the ship to the water below before lowering the rafts.

The soldiers each took two gulps from their respective leather sacks, causing Lorist to get a whiff of the dizzying scent of rum. It served to raise the soldiers' body heat so they didn't get affected too much by the cold. Norton troops don't coop up in their camps during the winter. Instead, they would undertake all sorts of training exercises thanks to the need to exterminate the magic beast wave years earlier. It was already a common practice and also served to improve their knowledge on staving off cold.

The standard rations of a Norton soldier included a small leather sack of rum. Drinking some rum and circulating one's battleforce would increase the body's temperature and help maintain it for a time, which would prevent one from being chilled numb by the cold.

After the soldiers had some rum and began flexing their limbs, they checked their armaments one more time before going over the railings and climbing down the net to reach the rafts. Some of Firmrock Legion's silver-ranked troops had already gone ashore not too long ago and awaited the rest's arrival.

A few more ships gradually approached the shore with chains of large wooden boxes trailing behind them. They were the mobile ports which the worksmiths on the ship would link together to form a 100-meter-long bridge through the reefs near the shore after the ships anchored. The legion's wheelbarrow-ballistae unit could only land once the dock was assembled and in place.

While it was usually harder to set up two mobile ports in the dead of night, given the calm weather and the moonlight, the task was completed in a few short hours. After the Firmrock troops completed their landings, the floating bridges would be retracted and left near the reef so House Kenmays could use them as a port as per the agreement between Lorist and the count.

As the saying went, 'to defeat an army, go for the commander'. Lorist had never planned to rely on defeating the duchy's army before making his move to swallow it up. The plan to wait till spring before crushing the duke's army was only something Lorist used to mislead the second highness. What the four houses actually wanted was for the duchy to be in a state untouched by war when they took over.

While the second highness's plan for the four houses to wipe the nobles in the province out to stifle their ability to resist was a sound plan, it would effectively render the territory useless even if they conquered the entire place. The four houses would have to invest lots of funds to redevelop the land. This was the true reason they refused to follow the second highness's suggestion.

When the duchy's most elite force, Seamountain Legion, arrived at the camp opposite the Northlander army, Lorist knew Duke Madras' lair, Sidgler, was no longer defended. It had already raised the odds of his plan to take Sidgler during the 12th month to 80 percent. As long as they were able to encircle Edelise without anyone noticing and capture the duke himself without letting word spread, he could use the duke's personal seal to enter Xith Castle, Vanades, and Kobo unimpeded without the defenders knowing any better. The duchy would effectively be no more after those three places were taken.

The second highness should've been invited or forced by Kenmays to go to the duke's manor in Gildusk to participate in the new year's celebrations. The second highness had already realized the tricks Kenmays played on him in the contract the previous month and changed his friendly attitude. Kenmays, on the other hand, maintained his polite demeanor as if nothing had happened. The second highness was unable to hate the man no matter how angry he was.

Lorist smirked when he thought about the fact that it was his idea to let Kenmays do the talking. He didn't think the second highness would actually fall into the trap that easily. Perhaps, he thought too highly of himself and only brought his guard up against the Nortons. Whatever the reason, he fell for Kenmays' flowery words.

The second highness might just realize spring next year that the whole of the duchy fell into the houses' hands when he was expecting them to just begin their attack. Only then would he truly understand the degree to which he had been duped. Without war-torn battlefields, the second highness won't be able to take advantage of the situation to recruit soldiers for his Whitelion Legion. That way, he won't be able to go to the Andinaq kingdom to deal with Queen Carey. As a result, he would have to rely on the four houses to spend his days and keep begging Lorist to deploy troops to restore him to the throne.

The other houses were not informed about the plan to encircle Edelise itself lest it was leaked. According to the plan known to all, the Nortons would deploy Tigersoar Legion at the lower stream of Metropoulos during spring the next year and cross the floating bridge to head to the final battle with the duchy's forces. While it was not part of Lorist's actual plan, he would still have to deploy the legion to face Queen Carey's forces.

"Milord, the first batch has landed. The sailors are heading back with the rafts," reported Potterfang.

They were at the narrowest part of the shallow seas near Platinum Beach situated only a little over a hundred meters from shore. Lorist snapped out of his thoughts to look at the coast. He saw the sailors pulling the rafts back to the ships using the rope that connected the vessels. The rafts were mostly empty apart from the single sailor manning them.

Lorist recalled the three horizontal wooden boards he intended to use for balancing the rafts, but the shipwrights at the yard had found the design unusable. In the end, they redesigned the rafts to have a rounded back and a square front, which allowed for more people to be ferried at once while improving the craft's balance. They only needed one extra sailor to man each boat from the back.

"Milord, I've returned," said the figure that suddenly appeared on one of the rafts and scaled the ship.

It was Els, the guards', the first to be deployed, leader.

"What was up with those fishermen during the day? They forced us to delay our operation," inquired Lorist.

Originally, the plan was to be carried out during the day, but the folk of the Flying Fish of Dawn found it hard to scout the beach because of the fishing boats near the coast.

What the heck is wrong with them? Even though it's winter, there are still sailors willing to take the risk and fish! Nobody could've predicted...

In the end, Lorist had no choice but to wait until evening before he could begin the operation.

"They are from the Blackpearl Merchant Guild, Milord. Their salt farm and fishery are located at Platinum Beach's southernmost end. Our men have already taken control of the premises. According to the captives, the fishermen were out fishing to prepare ingredients for the duke's banquet tomorrow. It appears to be a yearly affair," replied Els.

According to Lorist's knowledge, the Blackpearl Merchant Guild was the largest merchant guild in the duchy. It was said they were one of the duchy's largest backers. They monopolized the salt and fish trade. The salt merchant committee's suppression in the duchy was their doing. Their method of salt production through boiling seawater was horribly inefficient. It resulted in ridiculous prices. In spite of their prices, there was still a market for their salt throughout the duchy.

The Blackpearl Merchant Guild also fished near the coasts and sold their catch to the four central duchies. Seafood was also one of the few specialties of Sidgler. Lorist didn't think the duke would go so far as to have the fishermen go to sea during winter just for his new year's banquet.

He looked at the two floating bridges that were only a fraction complete.

I don't think this will be finished anytime soon.

Lorist turned to Potterfang.

"Pog, I will go ashore first. Stay here and command the troops."

"Milord, why don't you rest in the cabin instead?" Potterfang asked, surprised, "It won't be too late to go there when the bridge is complete. It's far stabler that way as well. Also, taking a raft is rather risky."

"No worries," Lorist laughed, "I'll bring a few guards with me. I'm sure you've heard what Els said as well, right? I plan to interrogate the captives. We might be able to have more people infiltrate Edelise with us."

Now that Lorist had made his decision, there was nothing Potterfang could do. He had of the rafts reserved for Lorist and the guards, led by Els.

In an attempt to raise morale, Lorist chose to land in the same manner his troops had and took the initiative to do part of the rowing. He found the initiative rather displeasing by the time he neared the shore. Feeling the splashes of chilling water on his face caused him to start shivering slightly. His hands were almost chilled to numbness. He yearned for the shore all the more for it.

The closer they got to shore, the more ice crystals were visible in the water. When Lorist saw this, he found he had overlooked one important factor. Platinum Beach wasn't frozen as he thought it would be and had instead turned into a field of snow. Thick layers of snow gathered on the beach's surface, causing the part of the beach where water touched to form ice.

The squarish part of the raft bumped against the shore and caused some of the ice to fall off. A group of Norton soldiers rushed to the raft and pulled on the rope at the front of the raft while they shouted.

"Quick, get to shore! Take lighter steps and don't stomp on the ground. If any of you need to warm up, take a few swigs and start moving about."

"Oh, Milord, it's you," said one of the soldiers who realized Lorist's presence amidst the guards.

Lorist jumped on the shore lightly and patted on that soldier's shoulder.

"Well done. But why can't we stomp on the ground here?"

"Oh, Milord, the first group of soldiers to arrive had instantly stomped about to warm up the moment they got here. They didn't realize they were standing on a patch of frozen ice instead of the beach itself. The ice cracked and the whole group fell straight into the water," replied the soldier.

Lorist's chest tightened when he asked, "Then, how are they doing now?"

"They're fine, Milord," the soldier said with a smile, "Even though the unlucky fools got wet, the water only reached their thighs since the waters here are shallow. They were ordered to strip and dry their clothes near the fire before taking more rum and circulating their battleforce. They'll be back to normal after their clothes and armor are dry. They're still loitering around the fire naked over there and many of us couldn't help but laugh..."

Lorist felt relieved as he laughed at the thought of a bunch of naked men circling a fire. Fortunately, there was battleforce in Grindia. Had they been normal folk who couldn't use it, they would've ended up on the brink of death. Falling into water 30 degrees centigrade would no doubt bring a tragedy. Thankfully, the soldiers were at least of the bronze rank and were far stronger than average soldiers in Lorist's previous life.

Knight Pajik had been made an officer in Firmrock Legion following his breakthrough to the gold rank. Lorist was rather assured with the knight running the landing. It didn't take long for Pajik to rush over.

"Milord, why have you come?" asked the knight after he saluted.

"I wanted to come over for a look and ask the folk at the fishery and salt farms about Edelise while I'm at it. How many people do we have ashore at the moment?"

"One and a half brigades, Milord," replied Pajik.

"Good. Even though Edelise is a day's travel from here, you have to be wary since the road there is covered by snow. Have a brigade of fully-armed troops occupy that mound in the distance and monitor the surroundings. We'll set out for Edelise when the rest of the force has landed," said Lorist as he pointed to a snow-covered mound farther away.

"Understood, Milord. I will send some men immediately," said Pajik.

"Alright. Els, let's head to the fishery and salt farms."

"Understood, Milord. We'll have to walk across the beach to get there," said Els.

Chapter 342 Occupation

From the map, the land of Sidgler could be seen as a valley surrounded by Lizgna Mountains and Civilink Highlands. The valley was large enough to be a province in and of itself. Some parts even neared the coast. There was only one entrance, it was the pathway near which Xith Castle was built. The fact that only one castle was required to defend Sidgler was probably why Duke Madras made it his headquarters.

The second highness's strategy started with him encouraging the four houses to devastate Delamock. But he never thought they would attack Sidgler and only wanted the duke to coop up in his lair. He felt conquering Xith Castle was nothing but a pipe dream. The dangerous terrain aside, the narrow pathway into Sidgler prevented any army from displaying their true potential. Small waves of a hundred people going against the castle was nothing but suicide.

When Lorist led his convoy through the duchy, he had them disguised as merchants and successfully conquered Xith Castle. He left it in the care of the second highness's troops. But right after the duke mobilized Seamountain Legion from Sidgler, the second highness left after a few days because it was only good for defending against outside threats rather than inside ones. While Xith Castle was hard to take from the outside of the valley, the opposite was true from the inside. The reason was that the duke was afraid he would be trapped in the valley if anybody managed to conquer the castle and hold there.

The duke renovated the castle heavily over the past few years and made a simple citadel into a triple-walled contraption. The company he had originally stationed in the castle was also increased to a full regiment. Even if one managed to conquer the first wall, the troops defending the castle would still be able to put up resistance from the second and third walls. It was precisely because of Duke Madras's confidence in his castle that he allowed his most elite unit, Seamountain Legion, to head to the frontlines to give the Northland bumpkins a long due lesson and chase them back across the river.

It was a shame the duke never predicted the enemy would come from the sea during the winter. Apart from the thousand guards that defended the central castle at Edelise, there were no more than two thousand men defending the inner and outer cities. Most of them were conscripts brought on board specifically to serve for the winter.

Nobody performed their duties fully; the cold was just too much. As they saw it, no enemy could get past Xith Castle. Had it not been for the banquet the duke hosted, which saw many nobles of the duchy going through the castle and tipping the soldiers on duty, none would bother to show up for their shifts.

It took one day to travel from Platinum Beach to Edelise on foot and around ten or so hours by carriage. One would take close to half a day even if one went by horse without rest. The duke renamed the city from Traft after his first daughter, Edelise - who was born there. He spent eight years expanding the city before he renamed it. He also moved his house there at the same time and made it their headquarters.

Lorist had a map of Sidgler unrolled before him

"Edelise is defended by three fortified walls, the center of which is connected to the keep," Lorist explained as he pointed at the city on the map, "All of the duke's family members are there. He will host his banquet at the duke's mansion, which is directly behind the keep. The area between the inner wall and the centermost wall is called the inner bailey, where most of the duke's relatives and rich merchants or tycoons live. Some of the duke's vassals also have dwellings there.

"Between the outer wall and the wall in the center is the outer bailey, where most of the family members of Seamountain Legion's soldiers, the servants of the inner bailey, members of the Blackpearl Merchant Guild, and farmers of the surrounding area live. Put bluntly, the citizens of Edelise have a really tight-knit relationship with House Madras. Duke Madras has managed Sidgler for close to 40 years already and has built the foundations of his house here at Edelise.

"Last night, we interrogated the captives of Blackpearl Merchant Guild's salt farm and fishery and got word that the defenses around Edelise are rather lax at the moment. We can take the two walls easily if we're undiscovered, but the central castle itself will prove troublesome. When we attempt to breach the third line of defense, we'll have to make sure the enemy doesn't have any escape routes. We cannot let them retreat to the keep and put up a defense there.

"As Edelise is House Madras' headquarters, I will have to give a special order. We are Nortons; we don't lower ourselves to oppressing civilians. But as we attack Edelise, if there are any commoners that resist our advances, you may use any method at your disposal to pacify them, be they women or children. Otherwise, there will be a chance for someone to rile up a civilian revolt and bring us countless troubles, perhaps even affect the moves we can make. Understood?"

"Yes, Milord," replied the knights surrounding him.

Lorist asked Howard something before he turned back to the knights.

"It's around five right now. According to the captives, they are supposed to depart around seven to arrive at Edelise around five to deliver the seafood to the keep manager. Els, bring some men with you disguised as members of the guild and take the supervisors with you. You just need to get past the outer wall."

"Understood, Milord. I will definitely execute my mission successfully," replied Els.

"If we had to march to Edelise, we might not be able to arrive today," Lorist laughed, "Fortunately, we have our skis. They will let us travel even faster than the carriages Els is taking to the city. The only problem is there are six farmland manors along the way. If we're discovered, they might light a smoke signal to alert the city guard. That's where you come in, Malek."

"What are your orders, Milord?" said Malek as he stepped forward.

"I will leave the six manors to you. You have to prevent them from informing the enemy of our presence."

"Understood, Milord. I will not let any of the six manors inform anyone," said Malek.

"Pajik."

"Awaiting your orders, Milord."

"Take a brigade and seal the path between Xith and Edelise. As long as you do, even if there are people who manage to escape Edelise, they won't be able to reach Xith. With this, our plan can't fail."

"Understood, Milord."

"Pog, what comes after will depend on you. I'm leaving the attack on Edelise to you. My only role is dealing with Krisas, the duke's rank 2 blademaster. It is the key to taking Xith, Vanades, and Kobo. We can't afford any mishaps."

"Rest assured, Milord. I won't let you down," Potterfang nodded.

"Alright, there's little more than an hour left. Let's get to work and leave the moment you're ready. There's no need to wait for my order. Pog is in charge, follow his command. Understood?"

"Yes, Milord!"

......

The operation was executed without issue. Els managed to control the gates of Edelise easily after infiltrating the city. He even managed to let the first group of soldiers enter. They only took about half an hour to take over the outer wall. Snow began to fall just as the combat died down. The skies darkened and hid the invaders well from those further inside the city.

It was strange that they only had a small number of captives from the outer wall. When they questioned what few captives they had, they learned that most of the guards had given their shifts the slip. No one was willing to face to cold.

Els continued his mission. He donned the guise of a Blackpearl Merchant Guild member and brought his produce for delivery. Along with Potterfang's troops, he quickly took the second wall. Just as they were about to advance on the third wall, however, something unexpected happened. A few people approached from far and cursed at the group who were supposedly delivering the seafood for almost being late for the banquet. They hurried Els's group to the duke's mansion immediately.

When the people realized Els and the guards weren't people they knew, one smart one attempted to rush back to report. Els had no choice but to take care of them. Fortunately, none escaped. Three died and two were captured. It didn't take long to deal with them either -- nobody noticed the commotion. After quickly dealing with the corpses, they questioned the two captives and learned that the person in charge from Blackpearl Merchant Guild sent the five of them out because he was panicking about how late the seafood was.

After leaving a carriage to store the corpses and four guards to watch the captives, Els led the rest straight to the backyard of the duke's mansion. The near-hundred guards split into two units. One stormed the keep the moment Potterfang made his move and the other headed to the third wall's gate to await Lorist and Potterfang's arrival.

Attacking the keep turned out to be quite the relaxing task. Only 200 or so of the original thousand guards that should have been on duty weren't absent. When faced with the horde of Firmrock Legion soldiers, they surrendered after ten short minutes of resistance.

"Argh!" cried an elaborately dressed fifty-year-old man. He was rank 2 blademaster Krisas. He lay on the ground, defeat by just six strikes from Lorist. Beside him lay his ceremonial sword, which he had used for the engagement. It was a most sorry sight.

The fight happened within the main hall where the banquet was held. Lorist had killed a rank 2 blademaster almost instantly in front of Duke Madras and tens of other noblemen and ladies. The bloody sight caused quite a number of women to faint.

"Who are you?"

Lorist rubbed his nose awkwardly.

"Norton Lorist of House Norton, Duke of The Northlands," replied Lorist.

"Duke of The Northlands? House Norton doesn't command that title," said Duke Madras suspiciously.

"You would indeed not know of it. I was only recently given this title by Second Highness Auguslo. I've also been enfeoffed the whole of The Northlands."

"Is that so... Then Auguslo's still alive and even made it to The Northlands... And those people from the Union claimed he was dead. What are you going to do to me?"

"Hehe, Lord Duke, it's not up to me to decide your fate. I will send your whole house to His Highness. It's up to him to decide your fate," said Lorist.

Duke Madras slumped back into his seat like a deflated balloon and laughed wryly.

"Haha, I already know my fate in that case. I have another question, though. How did you enter? Did the garrison troops at Xith Castle betray me?"

"I don't know whether the troops there betrayed you, Lord Duke. We came from the sea," replied Lorist.

Just like that, Edelise fell into Firmrock Legion's hands. The city's near hundred thousand citizens didn't know they were at the mercy of a different master. Lorist left the aftermath to Potterfang and occupied Duke Madras's bedroom on the uppermost floor of the keep. He indulged in his precious wines and enjoyed the snow gradually covering the city.

Not long after, something embarrassing happened. Loyal as Potterfang was, he was worried that his lord wouldn't have any company in his sleep. So, he picked two noble ladies from the captives and sent them to warm Lorist's bed. For those women, this was something unavoidable as it was noble custom. They might, perhaps, be able to use the opportunity to make a plea for their house. They never thought they would be serving Lorist, the man who had terrified some of them into unconsciousness when he killed Blademaster Krisas.

When they met Lorist, the two instantly panicked. One fainted and another lost control of her bladder. Lorist, much dismayed, had Howard send the women out, only for another misunderstanding to occur. The one who peed all over thought Lorist had just ordered their execution and fainted, while the one who just regained consciousness hugged Lorist's leg and pleaded to be spared.

The commotion was quite a way to spend the first night of the new year and Howard took the brunt of it as he had to monitor the servants who cleaned the floors while he brought a bathtub to Lorist and prepared some hot water before leaving promptly. Lorist had chosen to 'punish' the women personally. Their moans and cries rang throughout the night. It only calmed down at dawn.

Lorist only re-appeared at noon the next day.

"Let this be the last time you do this," he told Potterfang with a stern expression.

In spite of his reprimand, the two beautiful women were kept by his side and their households were spared.

......

During the 1st month of Year 1777, House Norton and their Firmrock Legion attacked Sidgler via Platinum Beach. They conquered Edelise and managed to apprehend Duke Madras and tens of other duchy nobles. Firmrock Legion's commander, Gold-ranked Knight Potterfang, used Duke Madras's seal to gain entry to Xith Castle and Vanades for a surprise attack and managed to occupy both. On the 23rd day of the 1st month, Kobo also fell. From that day onward, the Madras duchy was no more.

On the 17th day of the 2nd month, the citizens of Edelise revolted. Near a hundred thousand citizens protested on the streets against the surprise attack and demanded House Norton leave and Duke Madras return. Only ten thousand of the legion's soldiers were present. Gold-ranked Knight Malek gave the order to kill to suppress the revolt, which resulted in the deaths of more than 30 thousand of Edelise's citizens and the capture of 40 thousand more. Malek, who gave the order without the slightest change in expression, was known henceforth as Ironface.

Chapter 343 Suggestion

A storm raged outside the window.

It was already the middle of the 3rd month. On Grindia, this was the start of the rainy season. The season lasted for nearly two months in the south of the continent. The Northlands was in the middle of the continent, however, and thanks to the naturally barrier of the Magical Dragon Mountains, not much of the weather from the south existed there. The Northlands only had 20 days of rain during the rainy season.

Lorist had already returned to Fimrock Castle and left Potterfang to deal with what was left of the duchy. After becoming Duke of The Northlands, he had to act the part per his subordinates' advice and not lead the charge every time there was a battle. All he had to do, and should do, was ensure the house was heading in the general direction of his goals. The details were up to the household knights and officials.

Nowadays, there were 16 gold-ranked knights serving the house. Had it not been for the fact that Duke Madras had a rank 2 blademaster by his side, Lorist wouldn't have bothered to be present for the operation. His desire for absence was because his presence made him miss Dilianna's delivery date. When Lorist was enjoying the service of his two new companions, the young aunt of Arriotoli gave birth to another child for the house at Firmrock.

Lorist looked at the map for a good while as Charade instructed Howard to get two more candles.

"Locke, are you still worried about the operation? Firmrock Legion has already occupied Kobo and cut off the supply lines of our hundred thousand or so enemies. From the successful occupation, we discovered they had planned to ship another batch of resources to their camp before the rainy season but were unable to do so before our arrival. I'm sure the soldiers of the duke's army will be worn out and starving by the end of the season. They won't have any option other than surrender."

"I know the situation in the duchy is mostly set in stone," Lorist answered, shaking his head, "I've already ordered Tigersoar to head west after the rainy season to force the enemy to surrender. I'm sure you've also read Pog's report that we've already taken control of their supplies when we conquered Kobo. They were only unable to launch a counterattack to retake the city because the season is already upon us.

"I know the enemy we have to face is the 60 thousand men of Seamountain Legion. Originally, the garrison of Kobo and Vanades each had another ten thousand men. There are also 20 thousand troops stationed at Sanderson Hills, not to mention the 10 thousand private troops of the nobles. It's clear as day they're trying to fight back with the coming of spring in one decisive battle, but we didn't even give them such a chance.

"Without their supplies, the duchy's troops will struggle to survive. I expect what remains of their supplies and workhorses will probably last them through the season. I didn't intend for Tigersoar to fight them when I deployed them. I already wrote to Loze and told him his main purpose was to keep the enemy trapped in their camps. Since the harvest season follows directly on the rainy season, I definitely won't allow them to start harvesting crops to get out of their predicament.

"According to our plan, Tigersoar will keep the enemy in camp while Hennard brings the Shazin forces to encircle the seven citadels at Sanderson Hills. Without supplies from Kobo, the 20 thousand soldiers will have to surrender in at most two months. House Kenmays' forces will also head to Sidgler to take Firmrock Legion's place so the latter can return to Silowas for the next phase of our plan. As for House Felim's light cavalry legion, we will leave it to them to exterminate the nobles in Delamock that still resist. Given most of the Madras nobles have already fallen into our hands, I'm sure it will be an easy task for Felim."

Charade flipped open another folder.

"Locke, Firmrock Legion captured 38 landed nobles in total during the capture of the duke's mansion in Edelise. According to a list with their respective titles, there are members from 63 houses of the duchy. It should've been more than 80, but the second prince took out 20-odd houses when he stormed Delamock. The nobles that participated in the banquet at the mansion can't be considered the duke's confidants. The people he truly trusts probably serve Seamountain Legion and the garrison forces. We better be wary when dealing with the aftermath to prevent anyone from putting up a last stand.

"Also, even though the nobles of the houses trusted by the duke didn't attend the banquet, the female and younger members of those houses did and have also fallen into our hands. There are around 100 noble ladies and young masters from these houses among those we captured. Perhaps, we can use them as bargaining chips to get their houses. As long as they give up resistance, we will allow them to leave the duchy with their wealth and family members go wherever they want. I believe it'll rid them of any desire to resist."

Lorist nodded.

"Alright, do so. I'll write a letter to Pog, Loze, and the rest to cooperate with you. Let's obtain victory at the smallest price possible. I hope the situation can be settled before the 6th month."

"Locke, would the second highness have any objections to us letting the nobles loyal to the duke go?" asked Charade.

Even though the second highness was the former king of the Andinaq kingdom in name, the knights of the house addressed him as 'His Highness' instead of 'His Majesty', and Charade was no exception.

"Don't care about him. Even if he sees those nobles as traitors of the empire for joining up with Duke Madras, there's no point in us sacrificing our house's troops to exterminate them. If the second highness wants to punish them, he'll have to catch them himself. Since there's nothing in it for us, we're not obligated to do anything."

The ten-odd years of experience as a dominion lord had familiarized Lorist with the norms of the world and the nature of his position. Causing trouble for the royal family is the favored pastime of almost all landed nobles.

"Understood. But what do we do about the 38 captured nobles?" snickered Charade.

"For the noble houses of the old Krissen Empire, those above the title of viscount will be demoted one rank. Don't bother with the barons. There's no way they can be demoted further. After you're done with the demotions, move their dominions to Winston. As for the nobles Duke Madras entitled, we don't have to acknowledge their peerage. Just release them and confiscate two-thirds of their assets. Let them leave with the rest and go wherever they desire," replied Lorist.

"Whoa! Then we won't have many landed nobles left! I've already estimated we'd only have around 20 houses left," Charade exclaimed, looking at his list.

"Locke, what do we do if the nobles close with the duke insist on keeping their titles and dominions?" continued he.

"Well, tell them they can remain nobles with a one-rank demotion as long as they become our vassals. We'll accept their pledge of allegiance if they can prove their worth. Duke Madras was no fool, and anyone he prioritizes must be capable to some degree. Perhaps, some of them might prove rather useful."

Lorist gave it some thought before added, "Also, House Yujink and House Sabri don't need to be demoted or moved. Just have them become vassals. Their dominions will have to be adjusted, though."

House Yujink and House Sabri were the houses of the two beauties with whom Lorist had spent that pleasurable night. Thanks to letting their daughters warm Lorist's bed, the houses wouldn't be punished and survived the transition to another lord smoothly with minimal losses, much to many's envy. At the same time, it showed the leader of House Norton, the Duke of The Northlands, was a person who cared for relationships and connections, instead of being cruel and heartless.

Charade tried to stifle his laugh as he commented, "I heard it gave you quite some trouble back then."

Lorist stroked his nose awkwardly as when he returned to Firmrock Castle from Edelise, he brought the two beauties along. It naturally enraged Arriotoli.

"We sisters and our aunt are already your women, and our aunt even birthed you a son! Yet, you used attacking the Madras duchy as your excuse to skip my aunt's delivery and even dare to bring two beauties back with you?! Do you think I'll just sit quietly and accept this?! I'll show you what I've got, you shallow, superficial bastard!" she had said at the time.

"How did you resolve it?"

Charade was rather curious about the matter. Even though Arriotoli was a jealous and envious woman, the household knights and officials had a rather good impression of her. Mainly because of the effort she put in to become a silver-ranked knight, as well as how she only kept her tantrums between her and Lorist. On one occasion when she tried to pitch her sister as the matron of House Norton, she made sure to ask the officials and knights about their opinions on the matter. But when she learned that it wouldn't work, she dropped it without complaint instead of pestering Lorist.

"Nothing much. I just agreed to move House Dina's dominion to Delamock and take it as our vassal," Lorist said with a troubled smile, "I also promised I would bring the two sisters with me during my excursions in the future. They said it was necessary to stop me from bringing back more beauties after every trip."

"Hahaha," laughed Charade heartily.

Lorist got a bottle of fruit wine and poured Charade some during their little interlude.

"Oh, Milord, Knight Malek sent a report that requires your attention. He requested to be held responsible for the revolting citizens' massacre in Edelise," Charade said as he took out a piece of beastskin from his blue folder, "It arrived yesterday afternoon. Take a look."

Lorist gave it a quick glance before he did something that surprised Charade. He set the report on fire using a nearby candle and let it burn.

"Locke, what are you doing? We have to archive it," said Charade, stunned.

"No," Lorist said, shaking his head, "Not this report. No record will be kept of the revolt. I'll also reward Knight Malek and have him give me a list of people who managed to contribute to its suppression. This matter was dealt with swiftly. I've long told you that as Edelise has been the headquarters of House Madras for more than 40 years, the citizens are no doubt very closely tied to it. Having only ten thousand men stationed there is a little too careless. Had Malek not steeled himself and cut the root of the problem away, we would've been chased out of the city. If that happened, I have no doubt the whole of Sidgler would have joined in.

"Apart from Edelise, House Madras didn't enfeoff any other noble house land within Sidgler and instead constructed around 40 farmland manors and took in 200 thousand people. Among them are the family members of Seamountain Legion troops. It's the reason they are the most elite among the duke's troops. It's as if Duke Madras kidnapped their families. If they don't perform well, their families will pay the price. They were forced to give their all and fight to their deaths.

"According to the name list of the legion, which we got from the duke's mansion, I've already had Furybear collect the families' belongings. We'll send them to the legion after the rainy season to crumble their will to resist. Part of the reason those who pulled the strings behind the scenes started the revolt was to stop us so the legion wouldn't be out of the fight. They hoped to buy time for an opportunity.

"Hehe, it's too bad they were merely dreaming. There's no way they can change the situation now. I bet they didn't think we would move House Kenmays's dominion to Sidgler. The huge move will wipe the province clean. It'll extinguish all insurgent factors. Let's see who'll have the last laugh."

According to the agreement with House Kenmays, 250 of the current 340 thousand people living in the eastern Northlands -- thanks to the Kenmayses' refugee recruitment effort over the last couple of years -- would be moved to Sidgler, while the Nortons would be in charge of the evacuation of the original Sidgler citizens so the Kenmays folk would have homes to live in and land to farm.

Put bluntly, House Kenmays planned to move most of their subjects with them to Sidgler to displace its original citizens, who would be in turn moved to the eastern Northlands. According to Charade, it was an unnecessary move, but House Kenmays felt it was best to bring their own subjects with them. Otherwise, their position might not last longer than a few years.

"Locke, will the soldiers of Seamountain Legion and the duchy's garrison forces be required to serve three years' labor to develop the eastern area of The Northlands?" asked Charade.

Lorist gave it some thought before he replied.

"The east's development has to wait. The vacation of the citizens of Sidgler, who are the family of many in Seamountain Legion, is to let them get used to The Northlands' environment. The skilled ones like smiths are the ones who will meld with our house the easiest since there isn't anybody but us who appreciate their talents more. They'll be given preferential treatment and be allowed to work at our factories to fill up the demand.

"As for the soldiers of Seamountain Legion and the garrison forces, let them build the roads in Delamock after they surrender. I hope we will be able to connect Vanades and Kobo in two years, before building another highway straight to The Northlands. I really don't understand how the empire was run back then. If they had built a highway, it wouldn't take more than five days to travel from Vanades to The Northlands. There's no point in making the journey curve and triple in traveling time..."

Charade laughed at Lorist's complaints.

"Locke, you didn't know how much the Krissen Empire spent to build the current connections. The reason behind its current state is the fact that the highway would have to pass through the dominions of many nobles. They've objected to its constructions vehemently for many decades. The empire rejected their demands to be allowed to collect tolls on the highway, so they refused to let the highway pass through their dominions. In the end, the empire didn't have a choice and had to build the pathway around the borders of those dominions. All this is recorded and archived.

"Not only that, many nobles stood to gain lots of profit from the construction of the current highway. The construction of the current road from Delamock is recorded to cost the most in the history of the empire. It took seven years to build and the cost involved was enough to build seven similar roads. I remember back then there were even newspapers that justified the way it took by arguing that it was the best way to facilitate the transport of the food produced in the dominions of all the nobles to Delamock, the main storehouse of the empire's food. What a shameless joke."

Lorist chuckled.

"I don't care about the things that happened in the past. Whatever the case, I want to make it clear that nobody may stop us from doing what we want in the lands we control. Oh well, the territories in Delamock will all have to be moved anyway. I expect there to be more than 100 thousand people who surrender. We'll just have them build the highway. A straight highway will save us so much time and allow us to better respond to military situations. I want this highway finished in two year's time."

"Your Grace," responded Charade as he stood up.

Ever since he was made duke, his subordinates and household knights began to address him as 'Your Grace'. Only a few people still called him 'Milord Lorist'. Privately, some like Charade would call Lorist 'Locke', but in official discussions, they would still use 'Your Grace'.

"There's a piece of bad news. The house is likely to spend more than the expense stipulated in our budget. Apart from helping House Kenmays and House Shazin with their dominion's relocation, we have to begin development on the eastern Northlands and the former territory of the Shazins, as well as take charge of the move of Sidgler locals. We have to mobilize Tigersoar to deal with Queen Carey soon as well.

"And now, you've just announced you'll be building a highway from Delamock to The Northlands. Our house has already exceeded our budget by six million gold Fordes. The way I see it, development is more important than war. Your Grace, I urge you to consider the stability of the house's finances. I suggest we postpone the war against the Andinaq kingdom's current administration. Restoring the second highness's throne will set our house back one million gold Fordes, and I believe it an unwise move."

Chapter 344 Reason

Lorist looked at the map of the former Krissen Empire for a good while before he shook his head.

"No. The war with Queen Carey cannot be dragged on. Only the second highness's restoration to power will give us enough time."

"Time?" Charade mused with squinted eyes, "Time for what, Your Grace? So far, everything is under control. There's no need to let the tiger back onto its mountain. Actually, controlling the second highness will be extremely beneficial to the house. We can even threaten Queen Carey to expand the kingdom's trade routes and force her to give us Jillin Harbor.

"Even if the second highness gets his throne back, he will still regard House Norton with caution and suspicion. Not only would we gain nothing, he'd also send his messengers to ask us for support shamelessly. The most important thing is that Duke Madras defeat is at hand. The Northlands will be connected to the Andinaq kingdom soon after instead of being separated by another power like before. I worry, Your Grace, that the second highness will be able to send a tax collection official to our dominion to collect all sorts of taxes when he becomes king.

"It would mean our house will have to give up hundreds of thousands of gold Fordes each year. We'll also have to publicly announce the farmland we have to the kingdom. Given the time the second highness spent at our dominion, he would've grasped that our chief income comes from production rather than agriculture and will seek benefits. He might even levy all sorts of new taxes.

"To our three allied houses, letting the second highness get his throne back isn't a good idea. They would also have to start paying taxes and find ways to prevent him from using their household forces to wage war against other nobles. As things are now, however, he is in The Northlands and doesn't have either power or soldiers. I strongly object to us dealing with Queen Carey. It's better to have her in power. At the very least, she's no threat to our house."

Lorist smiled bitterly before he poured another cup of fruit wine for himself and downed it in one gulp.

"You're right. But those are two relatively light consequences," Lorist said as he pointed at the map, "This year, we've exterminated the Madras duchy. The time we have left will only be enough to move its citizens. Next year, however, we're attacking Iblia. Duke Fisablen will be a formidable opponent and obstacle. That old man isn't just a cunning fox, he's a mighty lion. His title of war god is no joke. We can't afford to be careless at all."

Lorist sighed deeply.

"These days, I've been looking over some of the information we gathered on House Fisablen... We've severely underestimated the duke. Do you know how many men he has enlisted? Two hundred and forty thousand men, all full-time soldiers! He's not the war god for nothing..."

"What did you say? Two hundred and forty thousand? That's impossible... House Fisablen definitely can't feed so many people with the produce from Wild Husbandry and Eastwild alone. They physically can't produce the volume necessary," said Charade suspiciously.

"I'm not lying, it's true," Lorist said.

He pulled open one of his desk drawers and took out a thick folder.

"They don't need to rely on producing food. They can just pillage it from the grassland barbarians. When the barbarians eventually submit, he'll also gain access to an endless supply of livestock.

"Do you remember our first trade agreement with House Fisablen? Princess Sylvia asked for 100 thousand sets of cavalry armor number 103 when she paid the ransom for the five thousand cavalrymen. The total price was two million livestock to be paid in five years. Back then, I was elated to have the deal because it would force the duke to focus his efforts on the plains and bring him into greater conflict with the barbarians. I was sure he would suffer casualties in the process, which would lessen the threat he posed.

"I miscalculated. House Fisablen has been killing barbarians for a very long time. So long, in fact, that the barbarians fear them. This is a report from Tarkel. He mentions, among other things, that he managed to procure a pair of eyes within the house. According to said eyes, around 30 thousand barbarian tribes have submitted and were already their vassals by the time they signed our first trade agreement. These tribes not only provide the house with livestock annually, their youths are also drafted into the house's forces.

"There's another report from Count Kenmays concerning the investigation he launched using the salt merchant committee into House Fisablen's purchases over the last couple of years. The count was incredibly pleased with the profits trade with the Fisablens was earning and our house also received a dividend of 12 thousand gold Fordes. Little did we know House Fisablen was reselling our goods to the barbarian tribes.

"Nobody could tell from the large order of salt and daily goods that the house was doing this. House Fisablen's territory had a population of at most 500 thousand. Yet, their consumption of salt and daily goods exceeded that of our own dominion threefold. We only had around one million subjects back then! I thought the duke was raiding the barbarians for the livestock, but in actuality, he was trading with them. Even after he sent his troops, he only made them yield to him instead of raiding or massacring them.

"His next move was indeed splendid as well. While we were worried he might be intending to start a new trade route by strengthening his house's relationship with the four central duchies, he was only setting up an insurance plan. Right now, the products sold to the grasslands are supplied by the salt merchant committee and we produce the products themselves. If we ever cut off our trade, House Fisablen would no longer be able to trade with the barbarians. What would they do if they have no resources all of a sudden? They'd arm themselves and start raiding again. It would send the dominion straight into fire and chaos once more.

"That's why Duke Fisablen banded with the four central duchies to end Melein. With the duchy out of the way, he would be rid of a troublesome foe and he would gain a new trade route. If we halt our trade with the duke now, he can procure what he and his dominion needs from the four duchies. As long as the great plains don't fall into chaos, House Fisablen can focus its efforts elsewhere. The greater and lesser golden creeks, for example."

Giving Charade, who was listening to his long lecture, a look, Lorist poured himself another cup of wine.

"Perhaps you think Duke Fisablen is only a powerful duke who's past his prime and only knows how to defend against threats. After I met him, however, I have this sense that he will be the most dangerous foe our house has, or will, ever face. I don't hate him because he didn't let Sylvia marry me. I only realized he is a true mastermind filled with ambition. Anyone who underestimates him will have hell to pay."

"Your Grace, it's not that I don't believe you, but, if the duke really is as you say, why did he not take control of Windbury when we captured the second prince? The city was in a state of chaos and nobody controlled it, yet he left after a few months. It shows he doesn't have the slightest bit of ambition -- he only strives for self-preservation. If he really were as you say, he'd use his forces to exterminate the nobles in the city and consolidate the kingdom's forces under his banner," argued Charade.

"This is where his cunningness truly shines. Think about it, what would be the consequences if the duke did as you are suggesting? His forces would have to suppress revolt after revolt by the nobles across Winston. Not only would it take him years to stabilize the situation, he would have to waste lots of resources and incur heavy casualties in doing so. Even if he succeeded in the end, he'd only be left with the province's war-torn remnants. What would be the point?

"Don't forget, when the Melein duchy still existed, it wouldn't hesitate to stab the duke in the back whenever it saw a chance. Should Duke Fisablen spread himself thin, Duke Melein would make his move. Do you think the four central duchies would give Duke Fisablen a chance to restore the kingdom? Viscount Kristoph had already suffered a loss at our hands at the time. Faced with our might, stepping down was the best choice he could make.

"After the duke returned to his dominion, he had Princess Sylvia come over right away, mainly to ransom his troops back while also signing a five-year deal. We initially thought it a show of amity by indirectly telling us that he harbored no hostile intent towards us. It made us put our attention elsewhere. Just like you said, we began to treat him like a harmless old man trying to extend his house's legacy.

"Now, however, I finally understand the old fox pulled a brilliant move with his retreat from Windbury. As long as he didn't act, Duke Melein wouldn't dare to invade. It essentially disarmed the Meilein duchy. Letting his daughter rule Windbury as queen also allowed the nobles of Southern and Winston to start fighting again, which spiraled the kingdom further into chaos. Even we thought we would be able to reap rewards after the two sides wiped each other out, so we began to wait.

"We were wrong. We were completely misled. It's all part of that old fox's plan. He knew better than anyone that as long as he was there, we wouldn't dare touch the ripe fruit that was the Iblia kingdom. It afforded him enough time to put his plan into action. When we were away at Hanayabarta, House Fisablen managed to swallow the greater and lesser golden creeks as they had planned. With the gold from the creeks, the duke finally revealed his true colors and turned his reticles back to the kingdom."

Lorist took a black folder from the desk and waved it around.

"This is the report Tarkel sent me about House Fisablen. It is a shame the sources he managed to bribe are only of low rank. They weren't able to procure more information for us, like how much gold the creeks produce each month. They don't know what the duke and his goons are up to either. But after seeing what they have for us, it's enough to let me think we should be on guard. House Fisablen's might isn't anything to scoff at!"

Handing the folder over to Charade, he continued, "You should take a look too since you don't believe what I said about them having 240 thousand troops. Our sources reveal that Duke Fisablen formed four Frontier Legions, each with 42 thousand men. It was the reason Princess Sylvia came over on her second trip to purchase another 70 thousand sets of armor 103. as well as 50 thousand sets of warrior-style equipment for another two garrison legions that each have 24 thousand men. One of those legions is stationed at the golden creeks, the other is at their main base in Eastwild, Crouchtiger Castle.

"Other than that, there is another reserve cavalry legion numbering around 28 thousand. They are formed from the barbarian youths that have submitted to the duke and play a huge part in attacking the other barbarian tribes that haven't submitted yet. Only those who perform well in battle will be enlisted in the Frontier Legion and be given equipment that our house made. It's also worth noting that more than half of the four frontier legions are made up of those barbarian warriors."

"You' mean to say Duke Fisablen's absorption of the barbarians into his forces' ranks have decreased the burden of the military on his own subjects?" asked Charade.

Lorist nodded.

"I thought the duke only had around 600 thousand subjects across both Eastwild and Wild Husbandry, so maintaining three Frontier Legions should already have been House Fisablen's limit. It's one of the reasons I didn't consider them a serious threat. If we ever attack the kingdom, the duke's forces will definitely disperse so as to not get on our bad side and watch the kingdom's end from the sidelines.

"I didn't think Duke Fisablen would have this move up his sleeves, doubling his forces by recruiting the barbarians. I always thought House Fisablen would have to station one legion at each of their three provinces, which would leave only one legion in reserve to engage in offensive operations and reinforce the others. I only just learned that all the duke's legions can attack together! The force of all 200 thousand light cavalry troops attacking together is staggering!

"Back then, House Fisablen didn't have enough funds and could only watch as we take in refugees from Winston and Southern while we wrote him off as harmless. Now the golden creeks have fallen into their hands and made up for their financial problems, they moved a hundred or so thousand youths straight to Eastwild right after conquering Melein.

"We all thought the duke held the knighthood tournament last year to find the princess a suitor. But after experiencing it for myself, I began to feel something was off. It was only after hearing about the Melein duchy's conquest that I realized the old fox's true aim is Iblia.

"After Melein's conquest, Duke Fisablen regained control of the kingdom and allied with the four central duchies. Given that we only have the two iron suspension bridges connecting The Northlands to the rest of the continent, it would be easy for the duke to keep us stuck here. The reason the knighthood tournament was held was to test the remaining strength of the nobles in the capital, to see if they'll prove troubling for him after he takes the city.

"Time is scarce for both us and the duke. The reason I insisted on attacking Madras was so we can open another way to leave The Northlands, expand our influence, as well as control Sanderson Hills, which is threatening to Winston. We might have a war in Winston the moment our trade deal with Duke Fisablen is completed.

"As much as I want to stop the arms trade as soon as possible, it's not an option. It's not a matter of breach of trust either. In fact, I worry that Duke Fisablen will storm Windbury, take Winston, and send his troops to The Northlands. We would be busy with the dominion relocation and remain unprepared. The moment the two suspension bridges are cut off, we can only circle around Sanderson Hills to launch our attack, which is exceedingly unstrategic.

"We have to take the initiative in the war with House Fisablen -- we have to strike first. We'll start with invading Winston, conquering Windbury, and sending our troops to Southern to ensure we retain the initiative. If we fight the duke in Winston, he would be able to receive continuous support from the four central duchies and the war will drag on for who knows how long. It would be a catastrophe for us."

After a short pause, Lorist muttered, "It's because of those contemplations that I want to send Loze and Tigersoar Legion to deal with the Andinaq kingdom. The ones that'll worry the most after the second highness regains his throne are the Union and the four central duchies. They'll definitely watch his every move and decrease their support for Duke Fisablen as a result. The duke won't be able to escape our grasp no matter how hard he tries."

Charade thought for a while in silence.

"Your Grace, it seems to make sense," said he finally, "but it's too complicated for me to comprehend as a whole so I can't tell what choice would be the best. At any rate, I still think restoring the second highness to his throne is akin to 'counteracting a poison with a toxin', as those herbalists love to say. He might end up being even more trouble for us than the duke."

Lorist smiled bitterly, "All I want is send him out of The Northlands as soon as possible lest he causes more trouble. Since he's still useful, we might as well let him do his thing after he gets his throne. Given his personality, he definitely holds a huge grudge after his humiliating defeat at the Union and the four central duchies' hands. Before he gets his revenge, I doubt he'd come for us. As for the taxes you mentioned, I'll have Count Kenmays ensure we get a three-year tax exemption for all four houses as compensation for the immediate deployment of our troops. He'll no doubt agree to it. As for what'll happen after three years, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it."

Chapter 345 An Audience

The southern area of The Northlands was House Shazin's dominion, where the former duke's mansion at Gildusk was located.

The days passed like years for the second highness. Fortunately, the sun would shine upon The Northlands once more after 20 or so more days of rain. Even so, he was impatiently waiting for the four nobles to invite him over as a spectator to the battle with the Madras duchy. After sending his henchmen to ask about the news, the response he got angered him so much that his face almost contorted irreversibly.

"What did you say?! The four nobles are busy with their winter harvests and don't have time to watch the battles?!"

He felt he truly didn't understand what was going on in their minds.

The duchy's 100 thousand plus forces have already waited through winter and the rainy season. Their morale must've dampened considerably. Forcing an enemy to a decisive battle will definitely lead to victory! Those fools are still bothering with the winter harvests at a time like this?! Are they out of their minds?! Once we lose this chance, it'll be too late for regrets! The enemy will be able to use the time to regain morale and vigor!

It wasn't that he didn't think the winter harvests weren't important. It would be equally troubling to miss the appropriate time to harvest and sow new seeds, but even so, was it more important than what was happening on the frontlines? The second highness hurriedly wrote a few letters to remind the nobles to not forget about how important the upcoming conflict was. He included an anecdote about his own failings and suggestions to avoid making the mistakes he had.

It didn't take long for him to receive a reply, however. Lorist's response was as short as letters get, containing only three words: I got it.

Baron Shazin sounded slightly more annoyed, saying: I'm the one at the frontlines. I know better than you.

Baron Felim's response addressed the strategic suggestions of the second highness. It pointed out that the two points the second highness put out wasn't exactly adequate, and explained the reason for his rebuttal.

Count Kenmays penned a really long letter filled with flowery words that filled up five whole pages, three of which were expressions of his concern and care for the second highness's living conditions and mental state. He even said that if the chef preparing his meals weren't satisfactory, the count would send his own personal chef to ensure the second highness got the best treatment during his stay. On the fourth page, the count stated his thoughts about the time he visited the imperial capital and expressed sympathy for the second highness's homesickness. The final page contained a whole discourse about how busy the count was within his dominion, as well as how his knights were acting according to House Norton's orders for the moment. The letter closed with, 'I believe the situation will stabilize soon enough. Victory is already in sight. Please rest assured, Your Highness.'

The letters caused the second highness to fume so intensely he wanted to tear the letters up in anger. Not one of the nobles bothered to invite him to the frontlines. Not willing to accept it, the second highness sent his gold-ranked knight Ripleid to check the situation.

However, Ripleid returned just three days later. He reported that he was prohibited from crossing the bridge into the duchy. He stayed there for a day and apart from seeing the Norton forces prepare for the construction of a citadel at the crossing, he didn't notice anything and had no choice but to return.

The second highness was even more depressed. It was apparent the four houses had come to an agreement to not let him meddle in the conflict. At the same time, it also showed that, even though the four houses considered him their liege, they were still very cautious of any of his advances. They knew of his plan to rebuild Whitelion Legion from the war-torn duchy. It definitely played a huge part in why he was forbidden from entering the duchy.

Gah, how frustrating!

The second highness hoped deeply that the four houses and the duchy's forces would have as huge a battle as possible. One that saw both sides suffer severe casualties. Perhaps only then would the four nobles recall the second highness's reputation as a war god and seek him out to save their sorry asses.

The only good news the second highness received when he arrived at Gildusk was the growth of the army with which he planned to restore his throne. They had recruited around 600 people from the Norton dominion. But at Gildusk, they were able to get more than three thousand in less than a month, with four freelance knights and around ten wandering knights pledging allegiance as well. The second highness ordered Glacia to have the Whitelion Legion equipment brought over while he remained at the army camp to train his troops.

Seeing that the 5th month would soon be upon them, the second highness decided to test the four nobles by offering his own troops as reinforcement. If they were making good progress, they would refuse his help. If the opposite was true and their forces were entangled with those of the duchy, they would definitely be more than happy to have the second highness on the frontlines. If that were the case, however, the second highness's newly built force would no doubt have to suffer heavy casualties.

Just when the second highness was pondering whether he should offer help, he heard a soldier outside the tent report, "Your Highness, Count Kenmays has arrived and wishes to have an audience with you. He's waiting for your summons outside the camp."

Count Kenmays is here? thought the second highness with joy.

Just as he was about to summon the count, he suddenly felt that he was being a little too rash.

I should put on some airs and let the count wait for a while first.

Thus, he announced, "Tell Count Kenmays I'm a little busy right now and have him wait for a bit."

The second highness felt the count must've come because of the conflict. Given that the total force count in the conflict was at least two or three hundred thousand, there was no way victory would be so easily decided, especially with the duchy's troops, which had a reputation of being incredibly hardy. Thinking of the time he tried to attack the Redlis kingdom with his army of 300 thousand, it was that old tortoise Duke Madras that had caused him the most grief.

The second highness looked for Ripleid for a sword training session. The second highness was also a three-star-gold-ranked knight at the end of the day. He took just thirty minutes to defeat the two-star Ripleid. Sweating profusely, he ordered a bath and fresh clothes prepared. After all that, he felt it was about time for him to receive Count Kenmays, who had been waiting outside the camp.

The guard quickly left and came back alone, reporting, "Your Highness, after Count Kenmays heard you were busy, he left almost immediately on his carriage, saying he'd come visit again in two days."

The second highness was completely flabbergasted.

What's the meaning of this?! Wasn't the count going to see me for my opinions and strategies to use in the conflict? Did I guess wrong? Are the four houses actually holding up well against the duchy?

It can't be. While that old tortoise Madras isn't any good when it comes to attacking, his forces excel in defense. Such was the case when the second prince attempted to attack Kobo as well! The second prince lost eleven times and ended up wearing his own army out! The duke was able to turn it into a huge victory and forced the second prince back to Delamock!

Perhaps Count Kenmays was only pretending, thought the second highness hurriedly.

It was to be expected given how the count was responsible for the oath contract, which he realized too late and found he didn't gain any real benefits apart from being liege in name and even handed the authority to make the decisions to Lorist.

It's best if I am warier when dealing with Count Kenmays, lest I get duped again.

Having learned his lesson, the second highness finally called his guards to monitor the count's actions after a good moment of thought. Perhaps he would be able to get some inkling of his intentions after seeing what he did.

"Your Highness, Count Kenmays is going to organize a ball at his mansion and he has invited many noble ladies."

He's still in the mood to dance… there shouldn't be a problem with the war...

The second highness forced himself to stay calm so he wouldn't be misled by the count's many tactics.

"Your Highness, Count Kenmays went frolicking to the south of the city with a few noble ladies and even brought a few rattan balls for fun. He will also be partying with them at his mansion in the evening."

The second highness finished the fruit wine in his cup frustratedly. Had he gotten the wrong impression of the count's visit? Did the count only do so out of formality?

"Your Highness, this afternoon, Count Kenmays met with a few traveling merchants. At ni-night, he brought the merchants to the largest brothel in the city to… to let loose."

The second highness was so angry he instantly smashed the table he was using.

That darned bastard! What the heck?! Didn't he say he would come see me in two days? It's already the third day, and instead of coming to see me, he actually went to frequent the brothel?! How can he do that as a noble?!

"Your Highness, Count Kenmays is here."

"Oh, quick, have him come in..."

During the afternoon of the fourth day, the count finally came to see the second highness, who lost so much sleep his eyes had sunk noticeably.

"Ah! Your Highness, what's going on? You don't seem well! What happened?" asked the count after he saluted.

It's all because of you, bastard...

The second highness had tossed about in his bed for the whole night, not getting the slightest bit of sleep.

"These days," he sighed, "I've been rather troubled. I just can't seem to get any sleep the moment I think about the kingdom's situation. My throne was taken and now I'm here, stranded in The Northlands, looking at our great empire crumble day by day. The Union's influence is getting stronger while the four central duchies forgot about the glorious days of the empire and unite with the enemy. Hearing this tears my heart apart! How can I even get a good night's rest with all this happening?!"

"Your Highness, while it's your duty to be worried about the state of your kingdom as king, you must look after your health." Count Kenmays consoled, "Don't worry too much about this matter and tire yourself out. The past has already happened, as long as you stay strong, you will definitely be able to regain your throne one day. With you on our side, we are confident the empire will return to its former glory. Since you're not in prime condition right now, I suppose I'll come visit you on another day."

What?! You're going to leave after just spewing a few lines of crap to me?! You haven't told me anything I want to hear about yet!

The second highness hurriedly stopped the count.

"No, I can't do this. If you're not in good shape, I definitely shouldn't disturb your sleep any longer. I... I think it's better if we do this another time," refused Kenmays.

No way I'll let you do that! snapped the second highness inwardly, It's not like I'm actually king now, so there's nothing better for me to do! Staying at the camp all day long training those rookie soldiers is so dull I almost want to go count ants!

"Wait a second," said the second highness as he grasped the count's hand and pushed him onto a chair, "Since you took your time to make the trip here, let's have a good chat. I'm feeling fine so there's no need to worry about me. I only lacked a bit of sleep over the past two days, it's no big deal."

"Then, it's more important if you rest! I think it's best for me to not interrupt."

"There's really no need. Lord Count, how's the war with the duchy going? Are the casualties great? Do you need me to reinforce you with the five thousand men I have here?"

The count looked shocked and said, "The war? It's going well and we aren't losing that many men. There's no need for you to send your men over, Your Highness. All you should do is get some good rest."

"There aren't many casualties? Then how are things progressing with the war?" asked the second highness anxiously.

"Ah, you were talking about the casualties for the final battle? The final battle hasn't even started yet!" laughed the count.

"Hasn't even... started? Why? Didn't you tell me you were going to attack and wipe the duchy's forces out in one fell swoop? Why aren't you going with the plan any longer?"

"Oh, it's like this, Your Highness... It's not that we weren't going to launch our attack. The duchy's forces surrendered before we could start."

"What did you say? Surrendered? The 100 thousand soldiers of the duchy surrendered to the four houses of The Northlands?" asked the second highness in disbelief.

"Indeed, Your Highness. Not only did they all surrender, Duke Madras has also been captured. The Madras duchy is no more," said the count with a face full of smiles.

The second highness sat back in his chair, stupefied.

What... what about the final battle? Aren't you going to go into a bloody battle with the duke's forces and end up badly hurt yourselves? Was it all just my imagination?

"How did you guys do it?"

The second highness began to smile bitterly the moment he realized all his plans had gone down the drain. Despite his bitterness, he was curious how the four houses managed to pull off such a feat. He didn't suspect the count's words at all because the count definitely wouldn't dare lie about having the duke captured.

"The sea," the count said, "Lorist landed his household forces on Platinum Beach and attacked Edelise, before occupying Xith Castle, Vanades, and Kobo. When the three locations were taken, the duchy's forces camped opposite our own lost their supply line and had no choice but surrender."

The second highness thumped on the table hatefully the moment he understood. He had also boarded the ship from Silowas to The Northlands during the previous year and even passed by Platinum Beach on the way. Yet he hadn't imagined that it was an avenue of attack he could use. When Duke Madras deployed all his soldiers to the frontlines, his headquarters was left undefended. It was a fatal weakness that Lorist had managed to grasp. With but a light push, the duchy came toppling down.

"So you came here to see me just to tell me this? Congratulations, my count. You've just become a duke," said the second highness mockingly.

How ironic. Even though the duchy was exterminated, a king like me doesn't get any benefits. As the contract states, as long as the duchy is no more, Count Kenmays automatically becomes a duke and Sidgler becomes his hereditary dominion, all without needing my permission.

The second highness was so displeased he felt his heart throb with pain. If it were other nobles promoted, they would have to present a sum of gold to their liege. Yet, the fellow in front of him had managed to skimp even on that. The second highness really could use more funds for his army.

"Your Highness, this is all thanks to your wisdom and leadership," thanked Kenmays habitually without caring about how insulting it could be construed as, causing the second highness to flush red immediately.

"We have conquered the duchy, but a situation has come up that we need your advice on, Your Highness. Our losses were minimal, so some of us think we should keep the momentum going and go for Queen Carey right away so you may get your throne back at the earliest moment possible. Some, however, were against the idea and think we should help Baron Felim attack and reconquer Southern first. Naturally, Your Highness, I'm on the side of sending troops against Queen Carey," said Kenmays.

I bet you are actually part of the camp wanting to attack Iblia!

The second highness took two deep breaths and forced himself to calm down.

"Why don't you strike down the illegitimate ruler first? I remember the contract contains a clause that necessitates the restoration of my throne. Are you about to go against your oaths?"

"Your Highness, we will definitely restore your throne, but so far, we've encountered a tricky situation. We lack the funds to deploy our troops, so many of us think we should slowly gather funds before we launch a campaign against the queen."

"Out with it. Just tell me what you want and stop going in circles," the second highness exclaimed as he stood up.

"I want a written promise from you, Your Highness, which is signed and stamped with your royal seal just like our contract," said the count as he stood up, "If we restore your throne in this year, you will exempt the four houses from any taxes for the next five years and pledge that you won't collect any form of payment from us. The five-year exemption will make up for our military costs."

The second highness furrowed his brow.

"Three years is the most I can do."

"It would seem it is best we gather the funds on our own then. Good day, Your Highness," the count said, preparing to leave.

"Fine, you win. I agree to your proposal, but you have to ensure I can return to the imperial capital by the end of this year," said the second highness.

Chapter 346 Settling Debt

The second highness took more than ten days to bring his army of five thousand to Kobo, fully equipped with the Whitelion Legion's gear. He hanged all 47 members of House Madras, including the captured duke. Even a four-year-old child wasn't able to escape his fate. There was even a sign engraved with these words beside the corpses: 'Thus is the fate of traitors to the empire'.

On the 14th day of the 5th month, Year 1775, the Andinaq kingdom's former king Auguslo hanged all the members of House Madras, exterminating one of the oldest noble houses of the Krissen Empire.

Kenmays, who was traveling with the second highness, wrote Lorist a letter and warned him to be wary of the second highness, stating that while the second highness appeared to be a forthright, ambitious and intelligent person on the surface, he had an extremely petty personality and was the kind of person to remember even the smallest grudges. Even in the starkest situations, he would persevere and endure. Such a person might prove troublesome in the future, especially when they had attempted to take advantage of him through the contract.

Lorist fell into deep thought after reading the letter. His reply was thus: 'Sheer might and our alliance. We'll execute the plan as scheduled.'

On the other hand, he wasn't too surprised at the fate of House Madras. When the duke suddenly announced the independence of his duchy, he had spoiled the third prince's chances to exterminate the rebellious first and second princes. Despite the third prince's efforts to conquer Kobo, he ended up retreating, defeated. It set the once mighty empire on the path of civil war and certain doom.

As the successor of the third prince, the second highness bore a deep grudge against Duke Madras. While Lorist was well aware of it, he didn't think the second highness would actually go so far as to kill even a four-year-old child to ensure the blood of House Madras, passed down for three centuries, was extinguished forever. Perhaps, such cruelty was the second highness's shortcoming. A king should not act ruthlessly with exclusivity -- seeking the fear of his subjects -- he should also be willing to compromise and tolerate.

It was precisely the second highness' cruelty that caught Lorist's attention. When he regained his position on the throne, the four dukes of the central duchies would probably be unnerved, given what had happened to House Madras. Lorist believed they would definitely focus all their attention on the second highness's actions and thus decrease the extent of their support for House Fisablen.

Kenmays understood what Lorist meant in his short reply instantly. No explanation was necessary, it was clear that 'might' referred to the strength of the singular house. As long as one had might, one need not fear others. 'Alliance', on the other hand, obviously referred to the maintenance of the four houses' alliance. In the past, the four houses had stood united in The Northlands against foes outside. Now each of the houses had their own dominions and had expanded their power, they didn't have to worry about the second highness in the slightest -- if they could maintain their alliance. If he attempted to cross any of the four houses, the other three would definitely jump to their aid and resist him.

Kenmays suddenly felt helping the second highness back on his throne was a rather good idea. Even though he didn't believe Lorist when he said House Fisablen was the most dangerous enemy they would ever face, after some thought, he felt that, even without House Fisablen around, as long as the second highness was still there, the four houses would stand united against any enemy. Additionally, they wouldn't dissolve the alliance just because they no longer had a common foe.

Let's execute our plan. First, we'll make the second highness king again and let the Union feel threatened. We'll have to reorganize our dominions and military this year and attack Iblia next year. Let's see how Duke Fisablen intends to cope with us.

After leaving Kobo, the second highness and Kenmays continued their journey to Vanades. On the way, they passed the depressed citizens of Sidgler who were migrating to the Norton dominion, carrying with them whatever belongings they could take with a simple pull-carriage. Sounds of crying could be heard from both sides of the road where they passed.

When the second highness saw the Madras soldiers constructing the road, he couldn't help but reveal a desiring expression.

"Lord Count, could you give me these captives..."

Before the second highness finished, Kenmays interjected, "Apologies, Your Highness. We are nobles and must abide by the oaths we take. We promised these soldiers they would be allowed to reunite with their families after three years of service. Forgive me for being unable to agree to your request, we are truly unable to go against our word."

"Forget it then," said the second highness as he waved his horsewhip with dissatisfaction.

"Don't be mad, Your Highness," Kenmays laughed, "We just received word today that Tigersoar occupied Vanades yesterday. They'll rush to the imperial capital straight away. For now, the refugees and soldiers at Welbassia and Yungechandler are yours from which to pick. A good number of them are your old subordinates too. I'm sure you'll be able to form a new legion. Using the men you're familiar with is better than using the duchy's troops, no?"

"How could things go this fast?" the second highness exclaimed, "I fortified Yungechandler myself. Lichtana Citadel and Mountainmidst Castle are the core of the province's defenses and I've had many experts in fortification design the battlements, mainly to stop a sudden invasion by Duke Madras. Did the garrison soldiers surrender as well?"

"I'm not too sure about the details, Your Highness. Actually, Mountainmidst Castle was already conquered by the time we left Kobo. As I understand it, Tigersoar is the sharpest knife House Norton has. It is mainly a cavalry unit that excels at attacking. Its capabilities are beyond what we can imagine. If the troops at Yungechandler weren't well-prepared, it's not surprising that they didn't manage to withstand Tigersoar's assault."

Well, had they not needed to wait for the arrival of Ovidis's Thunderbolt Brigade, they might've already reached the Great Andalou Plains already. he thought as he spoke.

Both Lichtana Citadel and Mountainmidst Castle were unable to resist the Thunderbolt Brigade's barrage. Lorist had long told Fiercetiger Loze to ruin every castle they came across so they wouldn't become obstacles in the future.

After hearing about Tigersoar's performance, the second highness couldn't help but feel the burning desire to fly to the legion and command it himself during the capital's siege. He deeply desired to make his grand entrance into the palace.

It was too bad that the moment they arrived at Yungechandler, the second highness was held back by too many other matters. As the first province of the kingdom he retook, many acquaintances and old subordinates couldn't wait to meet with him. Additionally, there was the matter of absorbing the surrendered troops and captives into Whitelion. He was so busy he barely had time for a good meal.

Word of Tigersoar's results kept on coming, but the second highness was finally able to relax when he heard they finally began to face the royal defense legion at the imperial capital. That legion was originally the second highness's second royal local defense legion he had stationed at Yungechandler to defend it. They had joined Queen Carey's side and become the kingdom's only official legion, numbering just 76 thousand in total. They had been stationed at Flowater Creek and Jillin Harbor.

Faced with Tigersoar's fierce attacks, the ones in control of the kingdom had to order the royal defense legion to regroup. At the same time, they had sent a call for help to the Zitram duchy, Allied Duchies of Britt and the Forde Trade Union in the hopes they would be able to send reinforcements to prevent the second highness from returning once more.

The second highness hurriedly wrote an impassioned letter to Loze, first praising the general's results, before suggesting Loze hold his ground for half a month. He stated that he would be able to finish reorganizing Whitelion and be able to send aid by then. He wanted to unite the two armies in the effort to conquer the capital.

In less than half a month, however, word from the frontlines was that House Norton's Firmrock Legion had arrived at Jillin Harbor and encircled the capital completely. The royal defense force was defeated by the two legions' combined attack. The legion lost 30 thousand men and the rest either surrendered or deserted. The old empire's most prosperous city finally opened its doors to the Nortons. The victors, Firmrock and Tigersoar, stepped into the city proudly and hung the banner of the Raging Bear all over the palace's walls.

On the 11th day of the 7th month, Year 1777, The Northlands' House Norton defeated the Andinaq kingdom's royal defense legion with the Firmrock and Tigersoar Legions, conquering the imperial capital. Queen Carey I and her three lovers drank poison to self-terminate. The former king, Auguslo I, once again took his position on the throne.

This stunning war showed others the overpowering might of the House of the Raging Bear. They had launched their attack on the 14th day of the 5th month and completed their objectives on the 11th day of the 7th month. In the span of just two months, they had swept three provinces of the kingdom without any apparent resistance, winning battles one after another.

When the neighboring powers resisted Tigersoar at the capital together, House Norton sent Firmrock to Jillin Harbor and dealt the decisive blow to the kingdom from behind. Their actions were so swift that the surrounding nations weren't able to react in time. Before they had even decided whether to send troops to reinforce the kingdom, the dust of war had already settled.

The battles saw the reputation of three of House Norton's gold-ranked knights soar. Naturally, among them was Tigersoar's commander, Fiercetiger Loze, who swept the battlefield with incredible ferocity and speed. Dulles had commanded the carroballista division and launched a massacre-like attack on the royal defense legion. Half of the 30 thousand dead had died by ballista fire, their corpses were piled up like mountains, accompanied by rivers of blood. The last knight was Ovidis. The heavily bearded guy crushed one citadel after another with the Thunderbolt Brigade. No matter how hard the defense, he managed to break it into shambles.

The second highness finally returned to the capital in the 7th month with the newly formed Whitelion Legion. His first action after he returned was to admonish the nobles who had betrayed him. Under the purview of Tigersoar and Firmrock, who were in charge of the city's security, the noble's blood was spilled. The massacre disrupted the city's hitherto peaceful streets. Soldiers, garbed in the Whitelion Legion's gear, stormed the lavish mansions and dragged the nobles out one by one before beheading them on the streets. As for the women, they were brought back to the army camp as spoils. Their cries and shrieks echoed across the plains and down the city streets.

"How can they do that?!" Loze roared angrily, "Did the second highness forget he's the king and this his capital?"

"He doesn't have a choice," Potterfang said with a troubled frown, "You and I both know the second highness didn't bring much of his wealth with him when he escaped to The Northlands. Apart from the Whitelion Legion equipment and the funds the four houses gave him, he has nothing else, and that money is also almost entirely used up. I thought he would only punish a few of them at first, but I didn't think he'd exterminate them all. He's intent on clearing out almost all the kingdom's nobles!"

"His Grace shouldn't have let the second highness back on the throne. Given how cruel he is, he will definitely become a most fearsome threat to our house one day," said Loze as he gazed at the walls where many heads were hung.

"It's about time we left. Since you already rescued all your paramours, don't butt into the second highness's business any longer. Even though I think he doesn't have the bearing of a king, this is something His Grace should worry about. It's not our business to participate in this discussion. I will say, however, that the second highness will never be able to reunite the old Krissen Empire as he is now," said Potterfang.

On the 32nd day of the 7th month, Year 1777, Auguslo I -- who had just been reinstated as king -- ordered the bloody execution of all the traitorous nobles. Not a single one in the imperial capital was left alive, save a few exceptions. The massacre spanned three whole days and more than three thousand nobles had their heads cut off and displayed on the city walls. As for the young noble ladies, most were disgraced at the army camps until they expired and departed the world. Word of the atrocity eventually spread and shocked the whole of Grindia. The nobles of various nations considering the second highness public enemy number one. He was eventually known as the Slaughterer King, and the incident was later termed 'The Bloody Cleansing of the 7th'.

"He's a freaking demon, not a king!" Loze complained even after leaving the capital, "It's one thing if he kills the nobles, but do why the attendants, servants, and knights have to die? Not only did he not spare the women, he didn't even give them a swift death! This is something only a demon is capable of doing. He's destroying our honor as nobles! I really feel like we need another war..."

Kenmays was currently seated in front of Loze and Potterfang. He had accompanied the second highness on the way to the imperial capital and had witnessed everything.

"In terms of the law, the second highness wasn't wrong in what he did," he sighed, "Those nobles were traitors. They had intentionally delayed or ignored his decrees and caused Kanbona's. The second highness had already ordered the province be strongly defended, yet they didn't bother and caused the second highness's efforts to go to waste.

"When he was trapped at Frederika, not only did they not send aid, they even crowned Princess Carey queen. It's an indisputable act of betrayal. Perhaps, they thought all they had to do when the second highness returned was admit their wrongdoing. Even they didn't think he would hold his grudges so close. The second highness is not the slightest bit tolerant the way they thought he was. Since he had used up almost all his funds in rebuilding Whitelion, slaughtering the nobles and confiscating their wealth is only par for the course.

"Then again, we really didn't see how cruel he could get, for him to kill even the women and everyone else related to the noble houses by blood. He did it to extinguish any seed of revenge that may sprout in the future. The both of you are still right. The second highness doesn't act like a king should at all. He's just a slaughterer."

A guard entered the tent and reported, "His Grace is here!"

Chapter 347 Letter

Lorist read Loze's urgent letter and fell into deep thought. It was signed by Loze, Count Kenmays, and Potterfang, and contained three points of argument. The first concerned the second highness's settling the nobles' 'debt' and their fate. The second regarded the second highness wish that the Norton forces not retreat until they finished their obligations as stated by the contract. The third reported a rather inappropriate request, which Loze had already refused on Lorist's behalf.

Lorist did not feel much about the second highness's actions towards the nobles since he wasn't too fond of them either. They were far too corrupt to be allowed to exist if the empire's unification was still a goal. The extermination of such useless leeches was most definitely warranted. Had Lorist been in the second highness's shoes, he might've done the same thing, perhaps less harshly and using less extreme methods. It could be said that the reason for the second highness's extremity was his need for funds and possessions to alleviate the dire situation of the kingdom's finances.

'One's grounds is always decided on where one is sat'. For instance, Loze used to be a mere ex-officer of the disbanded Whitelion Legion when he joined the northbound convoy. After experiencing seven years of civil war within the empire, he hated the nobles with fervor and thought the empire fell due to their greed. It was for this reason that he didn't hesitate to take the actions he did and hang the members of around 40 noble households when he first agreed to a deal between the second highness and the convoy.

In a flash, ten years had passed, and as a gold-ranked household knight of House Norton, Loze was now a quasi-noble himself. With Lorist's ascension to dukedom, he would have a place among the barons entitled by Lorist himself. With that, his position on the matter changed and he resolved himself to live in a way befitting a member of the nobility. He went to great lengths to familiarize himself with the protocols and etiquette of the nobility. That was why he raged at the second highness's massacre; he felt such an action was an affront to all nobles.

Back then, he couldn't help but want to kill off as many nobles as possible. Yet, he was now proud to be one of the peerage. On a side note, after conquering the imperial capital, he found himself four lovers of noble heritage and managed to save their households from the massacre.

After some thought, Lorist felt there was nothing much to complain about since he was in the same position. It would be a stretch to call him a noble loyal to the kingdom; even he wouldn't dare to don that reputation. After all, he was one who acted in the interests of House Norton first.

Perhaps, in the eyes of a king like the second highness, Lorist himself was even more dastardly than the nobles he had massacred. Only the house's might and its control over the whole of The Northlands deterred the second highness from doing anything.

The second highness's contempt for House Norton manifested in the next plan, which was the focus of the letter's second topic. The second highness made it clear that House Norton would only have fulfilled its obligation to reinstate his rule once the territories Queen Carey had ceded were once again part of the kingdom. Even though the imperial capital had already been recaptured, it still didn't change the fact that the territories relinquished as a result of the queen's actions remained outside of the kingdom.

In other words, the three provinces Queen Carey ceded for the sake of peace had to be returned to the kingdom before the second highness would consider the terms of the contract satisfied.

Hehe, Lorist thought coldly, He's pushing his luck. He really is incredibly shameless for a king.

The second highness's goals were simple: to cause conflict between House Norton and the Union and four central duchies, and to create an opportunity the second highness could take advantage of.

The latest maps showed that the province of Hanstmost, one of the former provinces of the Andinaq kingdom, had been fused with the northwestern area of the now defunct REdlis kingdom to form the Zitram duchy. The ruling duke was a former Redlis count from Anderwoff. After the flood in Majik consumed 70 thousand of the second highness' troops, and resulted in the death of Gold-ranked Knight Baroin, one of the second highness's five tigers, it could be said that the Zitram duchy was one of the second highness's sworn enemies.

As for the two southeastern Redlis provinces that had fallen into the clutches of the Andinaq kingdom following the first prince's defeat, they had been ceded to the ones who would form the Allied Duchies of Britt. The ones in control were three nobles who had made enormous contributions in the conflict against the second highness. Obviously, both the Zitram duchy and the Allied Duchies of Britt were buffer areas for the Union so any retaliation by the second highness wouldn't reach their territory directly. The Union seemed to be rather wary of all possible scenarios and had already predicted the possibility of the second highness coming back.

It seemed the two nations' leaders were on fight-or-die terms with the second highness and would definitely not compromise. The Union behind them definitely wouldn't either. Currently, the second highness intended to play coy and have House Norton reclaim the two southeastern provinces and Hanstmost before acknowledging House Norton's efforts to honor the contract. It showed how much he worried about the two nations. He was afraid they would attack one House Norton withdrew from the capital. Without Hanstmost and the two southeastern provinces, the imperial capital would be the battlefield and it would be incredibly bad for the second highness and his desire of reuniting the empire.

The second highness's plan wasn't bad, so to speak. He wanted to have Tigersoar and Firmrock attack the Zitram duchy and the Allied Duchies of Britt. Even after the territories were reclaimed, he could have the two armies stationed there just long enough so he could spark conflict between House Norton and the Union. Not only would it grind away at the Nortons' military might, the second highness could send out his elite forces after both sides wore each other out to take the rest of the Redlis kingdom's territory in one go.

Lorist didn't mind wiping out the two nations since they weren't formed very long. Without the Madras duchy's interference, the might of Tigersoar and Firmrock combined was more than enough to conquer the two nations easily. The only thing he worried about was Duke Zitram. Someone who could cause the second highness so much loss was not someone dealt with easily. Then again, if he let Firmrock attack the Zitram duchy, he believed Potterfang's reliability wouldn't expose any weaknesses of which the duke could take advantage. There were no rivers or large streams at Hanstmost, it was mostly mountains. Such terrain was where Firmrock excelled most.

Lorist was angry at the second highness; he had overstepped his bounds. He had ignored his subordinates' objections to restoring the second highness' rule so quickly because he wanted the second highness to attract the four central duchies' attention so they would cease their support of Duke Fisablen. He also believed that, as a person of power, one had to consider all possible situations.

Lorist didn't deny he had considered the notion of forming his own kingdom. After all, he had already put in so much effort to meld with the battleforce-oriented world of Grindia as someone who came from another world. His soul stemmed from an ancient oriental civilization that had five millennia of history. While the original owner of his current body might have been a person loyal to the kingdom, he definitely wasn't. The fact that House Norton managed to become what it was today, bearing the title of Duke of The Northlands, was already far beyond the Norton ancestors' imagination. Lorist felt he had already done a lot for the house.

Similarly, others considered House Norton one of the second highness' mightiest supporters. There was nothing about Lorist's actions that anyone could nitpick, apart from duping him secretly for some benefits. Lorist had his own troubles, so he didn't really mind the king's shameless requests.

In terms of giving the second highness a legion's worth of equipment and mobilizing his forces to help the second highness regain his throne, Lorist had executed it all extremely well. Even if he were to fall out with the second highness in the future, nobody could criticize him for it. While the path of a ruler was filled with thorns and obstacles, both light and dark at every corner, rulers should always act fairly and justly, even if it was just for the sake of appearances. Any moral flaw a ruler displayed could be fatal to his ambitions. That was why the Norton knights and officials suggested he let the second highness remain at The Northlands for the time being.

The second highness's recent massacre would only incite disgust and hatred among other nobles. It would also deter them from pledging allegiance to him in the future.

Lorist started penning his reply. He told Loze and Potterfang they could attack the two nations to recover Hanstmost and the two southeastern provinces for the Andinaq kingdom. Since they were already 90 percent there, they might as well take the final step to make sure the second highness wouldn't have anything to say about their conduct.

Lorist made his own request of the second highness, however. The second highness must send men to hold the territory within 15 days of its capture. The two armies would retreat from the frontlines after 15 days whether they had been relieved or not, and would not return. He gave permission for Kenmays to iron out the details with the second highness on his behalf in this regard. Should he not agree to this condition, Potterfang and Loze were free to return right away. If anyone was idiotic enough to try and stop them, they could kill them without question. They had his personal permission to slaughter their way back to the dominion if need be, even if their opponent was the second highness himself.

The second highness' awkward request, the letter's third topic, was that the catapults and steel ballistae be left with him. Lorist only had a single, short comment: 'Well done refusing the bastard'.

On what grounds does he think he deserves them? Because he's king? Even our three allies don't have them. Loze said it the best. Those weapons are our trump cards and if the second highness wants a piece, he better be ready to fight for it. All he has to do is declare us traitor and defeat us.

When Lorist finished writing his reply, he had Howard send it out using the messenger eagle. The birds only required a day to fly to Silowas. The letter would only take a further three days or so to reach Potterfang and Loze. It was much faster than how the count had his servants travel on horseback from the imperial capital, which took 17 whole days.

Lorist no longer worried for Firmrock and Tigersoar, Loze and Potterfang wouldn't let him down. Kenmays was with them, so the second highness wouldn't glean any benefits without their knowledge.

The following days saw Lorist occupied with many tasks, such as the enfeoffment and relocation of dominions at Delamock and the eastern Northlands' development. He also had to be present at the opening ceremony of Dawn Academy's Northland branch on the 15th day of the 8th month. The completion of the house's formal legal regulations also had to be screened. He also had to check on the newly formed Jaeger Legion as well as spend some time with Dilianna and his seven-month-old son. He couldn't help but wish he had the ability to create multiple clones of himself.

A rumor was also spreading in the dominion that worried him greatly. Word was that Lorist had begun to treat House Fisablen as a sworn enemy and had the intention to wipe it out after the duke refused to let Princess Sylvia marry him.

The first time he heard about it was in Tarkel's report. Tarkel had stammered when he described the rumor to Lorist. The matter of Duke Fisablen's refusal was no secret, neither were the terms he wanted Lorist to abide by for Sylvia's hand in marriage. Even though many of them considered Lorist a person who treasured his relationships in his act of not abandoning his children and concubines, many also thought those concubines were not worth treasuring in comparison to Princess Sylvia. They believed their lord shouldn't give up on the union with House Fisablen for a few concubines.

At first, nobody cared much for the rumor since it only started as gossip in taverns. But as Lorist began to worry about House Fisablen's might and take preventive measures, the rumors morphed to state that Lorist had done all he had because he was bitter and that he was preparing to attack House Fisablen and fight for the princess instead. This version somehow clicked with the folks in the dominion and began to spread like wildfire.

Even though Lorist was practically fuming with rage over the rumor, there wasn't a target on which he could take out his anger.

Why have I become the crook that sends his armies out for the sake of a single beauty?

Tarkel observed Lorist's reaction quietly.

"Milord, should we forbid the rumor's spread by punishing those spreading it with labor?"

"Forget it," Lorist sighed, hopelessly, "Let people say what they want. There's no point in forcing their mouths shut. Taking any stern action would only confirm the rumor. Besides, it's a personal matter. I suppose I should just accept it as one of the side effects of being Duke of The Northlands."

On the 19th day of the 8th month, Year 1777, House Norton's Tigersoar and Firmrock Legions suddenly launched an attack on the Allied Duchies of Britt. Seventeen days later, they occupied all of the two southeastern provinces. The two dukes fell in battle. It was the end of the Allied Duchies.

On the 8th day of the 9th month of that year, Firmrock launched an attack on the Zitram duchy. Duke Zitram had his forces retreat out of Hanstmost. He stood his ground in the northwestern area of the old Redlis kingdom. On the 32nd day of the 9th month, Tigersoar and Firmrock handed Hanstmost and the two southeastern provinces over to Whitelion Legion and the Andinaq kingdom's newly formed royal defense legion before beginning their journey back to The Northlands.

Chapter 348 Gold Coins (1)

Ryogawa and Prince

"Your Grace, the inventory of the spoils from the Madras duchy is finished," said Spiel with a yellow folder in hand.

"How much is there?" asked Lorist.

"There were only 1.74 million gold coins in all the houses' treasuries, including House Madras'. It doesn't even make two million," replied Spiel, disappointed.

While the conquest of the Hanayabarta kingdom brought House Norton 27 million gold coins, the conquest of the Madras duchy only netted them 1.7 million. The disparity was akin to robbing a beggar after breaking into a tycoon's house.

It did seem reasonable after some consideration. The Hanayabarta kingdom was an isolated island kingdom that had enjoyed peace for nearly a century and profited greatly from the slave trade and managed to gather lots of resources, which eventually ended up in House Norton's hands. As for the Madras duchy, they were embroiled in conflict every couple of years. Lorist himself had plundered quite a bit of their wealth when he came through with the convoy. The second prince's 'reinforcement', actually a cover for taking advantage of the duchy, had caused the duchy huge losses shortly after. It took the duke a lot of money and effort to stabilize the duchy and fortify its borders thereafter. They would've finally had some peace, that was until the Nortons spoiled their plans by coming from the seas and wiping the duchy off the map altogether.

Just like an old man that punched with all his might but missed and hurt his back at the same time, Duke Madras's efforts and spending were all for naught. Whether it be the newly built citadels or his armies, they couldn't be put to any use in the conflict. It didn't change the fact that the duchy's treasury was in a pitiful state to say the least, however.

"Duke Madras spent over six million gold Fordes on his military over the past five years. I really want to see Kenmays's face when he finds out the profits he made from the duchy by selling our outdated armor left the duchy's wallet practically empty," said Lorist hatefully.

"Your Grace, half of the six million was used to construct the seven citadels near Sanderson Hills and to fund the formation of the four garrison legions stationed there. What remained of the money was used to purchase equipment and weapons. Of that, one million was used to purchase iron ingots from the Handra duchy for their own smiths to work with," said Spiel after looking through the accounts.

Lorist dropped the account sheet on his desk.

"In essence, we got lots of military gear and resources?"

"Yes, Your Grace," Spiel said before he flipped the folder in his hand and continued, "The weather over the last couple of years has been rather benign, with no notable instances of natural disasters, allowing Delamock's storehouses to fill up with food. The accounts state that there are approximately 13 million Pors. We shouldn't have to worry about food for the next three years."

There were 13 million Pors, each representing 50 kilograms. The duchy's conquest netted the house 650 million kilograms of food -- definitely good news. Even though the Norton dominion had been developed rather extensively over the last ten years, the dominion's food production only just barely satisfied the demand. Should a natural disaster ever occur, the house would have to fret over the matter of securing food. Now that one of the dominion's larger problems had been solved, Lorist felt pronouncedly relieved.

"Your Grace, apart from food, there are also a lot of other military resources left behind by the surrendered soldiers. There is enough equipment to arm 300 thousand men. We've sorted it all according to quality, there are around 300 sets of superb quality armor, 70 thousand of decent quality, just over 100 thousand of average quality, and around 270 thousand sets of varied weapons. The armor of any worse quality has already been sent to the forges to be made into farming tools. How are we to deal with the armor and equipment we gained?" asked Spiel.

It was a rather worrying problem. Since the house already had Sid steel armor and many of their own weapons, they wouldn't use the outdated gear they sold to the duchy. That was also the case with their three allies, as their forces also used equipment produced by them. Lorist would have to find another way to strike a military arms deal.

"Keep the superb ones and around 30 thousand sets of the decent ones. When the house finishes entitling our vassals, we can assign these to their garrison and private forces so they'll be well-protected whenever they follow us into battle. As for the rest, send a portion to Silowas and ask whether the Peterson Merchant Guild wants to sell them on our behalf. If they're not interested, we'll wait for Count Kenmays to return. Didn't he say he wanted to start a new trade route to the four central duchies? We'll see if we can sell the equipment to them," said Lorist,

Shocked, Spiel said, "Milord, aren't they our enemies? Would it be appropriate to sell to them?"

"If not them, then to whom?" Lorist asked, rolling his eyes, "The second highness will only pay us in the form of credit, we won't get a single copper coin out of him. As for House Fisablen, the military arms deal with them still hasn't concluded yet. We have Peterson Merchant Guild collecting orders for us at the Union, but ever since the Chikdor Merchant Guild's purchase of the armor we produced, they didn't submit any further orders. That makes the four central duchies the only viable target.

"Supervisor Spiel, you have to be more confident in the house. If the four central duchies become our enemy, the equipment will just come back to us."

The lack of people to trade with was one of the negatives of The Northlands' ruralness. Grindia was rather large and irregularly shaped. Humans only populated two-thirds of the land area that formed the shape of a ladle. The Northlands wasn't truly located in the north of the Grindian continent, but rather the middle. The reason it was called as it was, was because it was the northmost point humans had settled. Past The Northlands was uncharted wildlands that humans hadn't frequented since the end days of the magical civilization more than two thousand years earlier.

Lorist was right in that there were no other targets for House Norton to sell to, apart from the four central duchies. It made him rather envious of the strategic location of the Union's territory; it was situated in the middle of the north and the south and had the neighboring duchies with which to trade. Perhaps, he could have Senbaud take the Oceanic Legion and start a new trade route to the Golden Bay. It just might bring the house even more wealth.

Spiel quickly realized the new Duke of The Northlands was gazing off into the distance with empty eyes, oblivious to what he was saying.

"Hrmm-hrmm."

"Sorry. My thoughts wandered. Could you repeat what you said?" admitted Lorist.

"Your Grace, even though we only obtained 1,74 million gold Fordes from the duchy, we found three underground treasuries at the duke's mansion in Edelise. They contain imperial gold, each treasury has just over 3 million. We have ten million imperial gold coins in total."

"Then we did end up earning quite a lot after all," Lorist exclaimed, elated, "Ten million gold coins make about three million gold Fordes."

"Your Grace, the duchy has never thought of exchanging imperial gold coins for gold Fordes," Spiel countered with a stern expression, "According to the mansion's butler, the duke intended to mint gold Fordes himself."

"What did you say? Duke Madras wanted to mint gold Fordes?" asked Lorist curiously.

"Yes, Your Grace. Currently, the exchange rate for imperial gold to gold Fordes is three to one. That rate is actually a small act of revenge by the Union against those of the empire. Simply put, of the three imperial gold coins exchanged, one would be pocketed by the merchant guild carrying out the exchange," replied Spiel.

"You're saying the real rate is two to one? Two imperial gold coins for one gold Forde?" asked Lorist.

Spiel shook his head.

"No. In terms of weight, the exchange rate is actually 1.7 imperial gold coins to one gold Forde, and that ratio hasn't changed for the past 30 years. When the Union first began minting gold Fordes, the exchange rate was only 1.2, which then rose to 1.5 and settled at 1.7, and hasn't changed since."

"Wait, aren't gold coin exchange rates dependent on the gold each coin actually contains? Since when was weight used as a measure?" asked Lorist curiously.

"Your Grace," mused Spiel with a troubled expression.

He found his lord often had no idea about common knowledge like this, even though information concerning gold coins were not all that well known.

"All gold coins contain the same gold ratio: 7.5:1.5:1; 75 percent gold, 15 percent bronze and ten percent chrome. That ratio has existed since the days of the magical civilization since only coins minted with that ratio can pass the liquid test. Even if coins were minted with 100 percent gold, they would still be considered fakes and nobody would dare to trade with them."

Lorist palmed his forehead when he finally recalled some information about gold coins. Back before Lorist transmigrated, the original owner of the body had been taught this at Dawn Academy. The memory wasn't his own, so he neglected it most of the time. All gold coins on the continent were made in that ratio. It was said the ratio was set by the magi for the common people during the magical civilization, whereas they used an even better kind of magical gold coin.

Coins made according to that ratio had one amazing quality: they wouldn't change in color and were extremely resistant to the trials of time. Even after long periods of use, they would still retain their shiny look. Even the imprint on the coins would still look good as new. The magi had also made a kind of liquid to be used to test the authenticity of such coins. Any coin that wasn't made in that ratio would sink straight down when put in the liquid, whereas coins made according to the ratio would float.

It was a truly mysterious and unique liquid. Lorist recalled that, during one of his herbalist classes, the professor prepared a large basin filled with the mysterious liquid. The materials used to make the liquid were extremely cheap -- around two small silvers -- and was used to drill the basics of mixing into the students. Lorist still remembered the fun he had when he tossed gold coins into the pool of water and the curiosity he had for how it worked. The professor said that if Lorist wanted to know the answer, he had to research the material himself, saying that the secret to finding out how the liquid worked was up to him.

He was reminded once again that he wasn't in his previous life where coins could be minted with varying ratios. Back then, there were many anniversary coins minted to commemorate certain events. One time, he bought a large amount from some sport event, thinking their price would appreciate in time, only to realize they actually began to rust.

Aren't these coins minted by the government? How can they rust?!

After getting them inspected by experts, he learned that the anniversary coins were minted with really small traces of gold by a non-government institution.

Grindia's the best after all. Since the ratio is the same, people only have to weigh the coins to determine their relative value. I remember someone said... who was it again? Ah, that professor from Dawn Academy said proudly that the number of gold coins minted by a nation represented its might. The citizens of the Forde Trade Union has always been rather proud of the fact that its currency was used all over the continent.

The stronger the might of a nation, the more reliable others would consider their currency. When the Krissen Empire was at its prime, imperial gold coins and gold Fordes only had an exchange rate of 1.7 to one. But now the empire was in shambles, the exchange rate actually became three to one. It was no wonder Duke Madras wanted to re-mint imperial gold coins into gold Fordes to cut his losses.

Lorist also remembered that his house used to trade mainly with imperial gold coins according to the three to one ratio. The loss of a third of the value made his heart wince with slight pain.

"Supervisor Spiel, doesn't our house have imperial gold coins as well? Were they all exchanged to gold Fordes?"

"Your Grace, back then, we used imperial gold coins according to the three to one ratio. But Knight Charade later instructed us to stop using them and stock them up instead. Since we didn't lack gold Fordes, we did as he instructed. After obtaining the ten million imperial gold coins from the duchy, I went to check our accounts. We have eight million imperial gold coins, most of which have been exchanged from the commoners with the three to one ratio."

The moment Lorist heard this, his heart skipped with excitement. With 18 million imperial gold coins in hand, he could try to re-mint the gold coins into gold Fordes as Duke Madras had attempted. If the ratio was two to one, then everything could be converted into nine million gold Fordes, which would do wonders to make up for the house's massive spending over the past two years.

"Can we re-mint the imperial gold coins into gold Fordes too?" asked Lorist hurriedly.

"I am only in charge of overseeing the treasury, Your Grace," Spiel said, shaking his head, "I don't know about minting coins. You should discuss this with Sir Charade."

"Alright. Howard, have Knight Charade come over immediately."

"Yes, Milord."

Chapter 349 Gold Coins (2)

Charade looked at Spiel, who was sitting alone quietly on the sofa in the study and couldn't help but wonder if anything went wrong.

Thanks to Howard, who had dragged him over in a hurry at Lorist's instruction, he was rather frustrated. He had quite a lot of matters to deal with as well. He was far too busy with the household's matters. Many things were still piled up on his desk awaiting his attention.

"Well, Supervisor Spiel, you said you instructed the house to stop using imperial gold coins and only bought them with gold Fordes from anyone who wanted to change it without any intent of spending them. So far, we already have up to eight million. This time around, we found that Duke Madras kept a stash of 10 million imperial gold coins with the intent of re-minting them as gold Fordes. It was a shame he perished before his ambitions were realized. I've asked you to come here today because I want to ask whether we can do the same. The exchange rate is far too high," explained Lorist according to what Charade had told him.

"Your Grace, I've seen the reports on the duke's intention to mint gold Fordes and I've also been considering what to do with the imperial gold coins. I wasn't able to come up with a proper proposal, so I didn't bring the matter up. I believe re-minting gold Fordes isn't a good idea," said Charade after some thought.

"Why? Gold Fordes have already become the most-widespread currency in Grindia. Even though the neighboring nations are rather guarded against the Union right now, they also use gold Fordes as their main currency. If we can re-mint imperial gold, we can start spending them right away," said Lorist.

"Your Grace, do you know which merchant guild is in charge of minting gold Fordes?" asked Charade.

He continued when he saw Lorist shake his head.

"Gold Fordes are produced by the largest merchant guild in the Union, the Twinhead Dragon Merchant Guild, who are also the leaders of the big-seven. However, they only own 60 percent of the shares. Each of the six over guilds own just 5 percent. The last ten percent is used for covering the Union's administrative costs.

"As the materials and ratio of gold coins are identical, and the fact that all of them have to go through the liquid test, Twinhead Dragon Merchant Guild produces them at a loss. In other words, for every 100 gold Fordes produced, 110 gold Fordes' worth of materials must be prepared. If there are any materials left after the coin production, that would be the profits of the guild. They produce 10 million gold Fordes annually on average. The record is 30 million.

"However, given the loss of ten percent for the production, the profits for producing 10 million gold Fordes per year isn't that high, only around eight percent. After deducting labor costs and maintenance costs, only around 300 thousand gold Fordes of profit is earned for every 10 million produced.

"The Union charges others 30 percent of the number of gold Fordes required to be minted, 25 for factions who have a good relationship with them. Your Grace, do you remember the Jigda kingdom? Marquis Lorf Fustat sent a good amount of gold and silver to the Union to be re-minted and Twinhead Dragon Merchant Guild charged a commission of 25 percent. Actually, the real charge was only 20 percent, with the other 5 percent entering the marquis's own pockets. The Jigda kingdom had asked the Union to mint 15 million gold Fordes that year."

The Jigda kingdom... Marquis Lorf Fustat... The middle-aged noble who hugged the fairy-like girl during that moonlit night who wore a gold-ranked badge bearing the insignia of a phoenix... A wave of memories rushed to Lorist's mind, causing him to fall into a daze.

Charade stopped speaking considerately and signaled for Howard to bring him a bottle of fruit wine.

After a good while, Lorist snapped out of his daze. Charade was already having his second cup of wine.

"Why do you know so much about this?" said Lorist with a slight roughness in his voice.

"Well, I have a dumb friend who got heartbroken once. His lover left with Marquis Lorf. I checked the marquis's background and learned that his household was far too rich and powerful, so I didn't have any other way to help my friend out. It's one of the things I regret most. At the same time, I also found out about the re-minting service, so I began to research the matter out of interest. In the end, I realized the conspiracy behind the exchange rate of imperial gold coins and had intended to buy some to earn some quick money, but I gave up when I learned that only Twinhead Dragon Merchant Guild dealt with the purchase and sale of imperial gold coins."

"Well, aren't you rather incompetent?" laughed Lorist.

Well, it was just a passing though. The marquis was a gold-ranked knight, so a two-star-silver-ranked knight like me would only be looking for trouble if I tried to stop him. As for the delicious piece of meat Twinhead Dragon Merchant Guild had, if a small vice chairman of Dawn Academy's enforcement department tried to bite into it, he'd no doubt be squashed to death," countered Charade.

Lorist took the bottle of wine and drunk straight from it.

"To the good times at Dawn Academy."

The two gulped down their alcohol.

Spiel, who was sitting on the sofa, shook his head helplessly. His lord duke didn't care about behaving in a manner befitting his title at all. How could a duke drink like a farmer or a mercenary at a village inn?

After finishing half a bottle, Lorist wiped his mouth with his sleeve.

"I have a question for you. What method does Twinhead Dragon Merchant Guild use to mint the coins? How are they able to produce so much each year?" asked he.

Lorist recalled that the various nations used a molding technique that utilized gypsum. First, they would engrave a piece of coin-shaped metal before pressing it between two gypsum pieces. When they hardened and solidified, the capillaries would be carved onto the gypsum plates to allow for liquid metal to flow in. When the metal cooled, the gypsum plates would be broken and the sides of the coin refined before it was tested. However, using this method generated a lot of waste. Taking into account the labor cost and materials, it was far from profitable.

"Your Grace, Twinhead Dragon Merchant Guild uses a metal molding technique. They have a secret alloy they use to make the three plates they use for molds. There's the faceplate, middle plate, and base plate. When they're put together, molten metal is injected. The plates are cooled with water before the base and faceplates are removed. The middle plate is struck with a wooden hammer to remove the minted gold Forde. They just have to shave away at the sides of the coin to finish it off. Each set of mold plates can produce 100 gold Fordes at a time, and each minting factory has tens of molds. If it is required, they can even make close to a million gold Fordes a day.

"I visited the guild's minting factories with Academy Head Levins once. The guild doesn't mind visitors of status. Our guide, a guild manager, explained that their coin-minting process was the most advanced in the whole continent. Other nations' minting processes cost 1.5 times the coin's value, whereas the guild's only require 1.1 times. That's the main reason so many nations rely on the Union to mint their coins, and that's also why gold Fordes see so much use across the continent."

Lorist raised his head.

"You're saying there's no need for us mint gold Fordes ourselves since we can just let Twinhead Dragon Merchant Guild do it for us?" asked he.

Charade thought for a long while before he shook his head.

"Your Grace, I think it's best if you don't do that. The main reason Duke Madras gathered so many imperial gold coins is probably the fact that he can't ship all of them to the Union due to the lack of a proper route. The exchange rate isn't worth the effort either. The supervisor the duke hired even told me he spent lots of time and money hiring smiths to research how to make the molding plates... to no avail.

"While minting gold Fordes privately sounds easy, it couldn't be harder. While the ingredients used to make gold coins are largely the same, the special characteristics of the molding method and the long-lasting nature of the coins' features make it necessary for any privately minted gold Fordes to look exactly like those minted by the Union. There can't be the slightest difference. It's is the toughest requirement to fulfill when it comes to private minting. Due to the nature of the minting process used by Twinhead Dragon Merchant Guild, each and every minted coin looks identical. However, there's no way any private minter can get their hands on the alloyed plates, so they can only rely on gypsum minting.

"Perhaps some coins minted using the gypsum process looks rather similar to gold Fordes, but repeated minting with the same molds will no doubt cause the lines to fade ever so slightly. They will eventually be easily distinguishable. The molds will have to be changed every time, and it would raise the cost. The moment it's discovered, the value of the nation's gold Fordes would be decreased by half even if the coins pass the liquid float test. It's a disaster for whatever nation it happens to.

"Duke Madras only bothered to try because he had no other choice. However, there's no need for House Norton to go that far. It's incredibly easy to ship the gold coins across the seas and we can even get a deal on recommendation by Peterson Merchant Guild. We'll get the 20 percent rate rather than the normal 30. It's far more practical than attempting to mint our own coins. However," said Charade hesitantly.

"Would there be any difficulties?" asked Lorist curiously.

Since it would be more practical to just get Twinhead Dragon Merchant Guild to do the minting, why did Charade advise him against it?

"Your Grace, I don't really know our house and The Northlands' standing. Given our close relationship with Peterson Merchant Guild, we can be considered a good business partner. But given our allegiance to the Andinaq kingdom, we're considered a vassal house of the second highness, who's the Union's sworn enemy. That's why I feel sending our imperial gold coins would be risky even if we have a written agreement with Peterson Merchant Guild. All it takes is someone's greed and our coins will be lost.

"The Union right now is no longer the one we knew from our days at Dawn Academy. I realized after the implementation of the aristocracy, the Union's people have fewer lines they're not willing to cross in comparison to nobles of other nations. Our trip to Morante last time is a good example. Additionally, I'm rather suspicious of Peterson Merchant Guild. They still owe us 500 thousand gold Fordes even now. While they're paying us back a portion every year, it's already really disappointing for a merchant guild of their size.

"I already gave instructions that our house is to no longer involve ourselves with them until they pay back their debt. They say the problem lies with the closed trade routes. The War of Glass ended several years ago, and yet even now the relations between the Union and its neighbors have yet to improve at all. I doubt severely whether they are even trying to improve their relations. I don't think sending our coins to the Union is a good idea."

Lorist tapped lightly on his desk with his index finger. Charade made a lot of sense. It was indeed far from advisable to let Twinhead Dragon Merchant Guild mint the coins. If something were to happen, they'd have to go to war with the Union. While the Union would regret their greed when they met the Nortons' might, waging a campaign against an enemy that far away would no doubt drain them dry even if they emerged victorious. The one who laughed last would no doubt be the second highness. He would no doubt swallow the Nortons whole the moment he saw his chance.

"I guess it's best to keep the imperial gold coins for now," said Lorist as he stopped his tapping.

"Your Grace, I've been considering this for some time now... Should our house start minting our own currency?" asked Charade.

"Our own currency?" mused Lorist, Howard, and Spiel. They were all flabbergasted by Charade's far-out idea.

"Yes, Your Grace. Our dominion already has a population of over 1.3 million. By the time the dominion relocation is complete, we'll control the whole of The Northlands. The area of the southern and eastern parts of The Northlands will no doubt be able to fit seven more settlements the size of Felicitas. As long as we have enough immigrants, we'll end up with a population of at least three million. It's more than some kingdoms and duchies. It's entirely reasonable to start minting our own currency -- let's call it the Ragebear -- for use in our and our allies' dominions. As long as we set the rule for all trade to be done in Ragebear, we will one day be able to remove the Union's influence in our dominion through their currency."

"Forget it, stop dreaming," Lorist said with a laugh when he saw Charade's drooling face, "It's still not the right time for us to release our own currency. First, the second highness definitely won't allow a currency controlled by a noble house in the kingdom. It's something that'll affect the whole kingdom. Additionally, we don't have any gold mines. We won't be able to sustain the increasing demand for our currency. Maintaining enough supply is an issue that we'll have to deeply pay attention to. Not only that, what molding method are you going to use to mint coins? The gypsum method?"

"No, Your Grace," replied Charade seriously, "It's not that we're going to launch our currency right away, so there's no need to worry about the second highness for now. He'll be busy worrying about how to deal with the four central duchies and the Union in the years to come, and he might even thank us for releasing a currency that'll replace both gold Fordes and the defunct imperial gold coin.

"As for the mines, I've already considered the matter. When our house takes all of The Northlands, Grandmaster Sid will form a foraging team to scour the place for any mineable resources. There's also a small gold mine at the eastern Northlands which House Kenmays controls. Even though it's been mined for quite some time, Grandmaster Sid is rather certain there are still gold veins waiting to be found. There's no way a small gold vein would exist just by itself.

"And even if we don't find any gold mines, we still have horseshoe gold and the gold dust Count Kenmays paid us with we can use to produce more than 20 million coins with the same volume as gold Fordes. That many is already enough to facilitate trade in the areas our house has influence. Even if we do happen to encounter a shortage, we can still purchase gold ore or gold Fordes for material.

"As for the molding method, I hope to use the same alloyed plates Twinhead Merchant Guild uses. I've already consulted with Grandmaster Julian and he expressed interest in researching a similar alloy. With that as material, we can make molds for our own coins and produce Ragebears at a low cost like Twinhead Dragon Merchant Guild."

Upon hearing about the possibility of minting coins at low cost, Spiel stood up.

"Your Grace, I agree with Sir Charade's suggestion. I believe our house should start producing our own currency," said he.

Lorist gave it some thought before he nodded.

"Charade, submit a formal proposal. I'll consider our situation and have a meeting to discuss this soon. Let's end our discussion today."

"Understood, Your Grace."

Chapter 350 Bank, Entitlement and Real Estate

As a result of the worldview he had, limited by the culture and time he had lived in, Charade only considered releasing one's own currency as a method to increase the house's influence, much to Lorist's dismay. All nations in Grindia produced currency with the same ratio of metals. Their value was thus not determined by the metals inside, but their weight. The only true difference in the different currencies was that the Union's method was far more advanced and efficient than all the others.

It was in a merchant's nature to seek profit out. Lorist remembered attending a course about the history of gold when he was still the owner of his small workshop in his past life. In it, he learned that in the middle ages the Jews, who had lost their homes and traveled across Europe, noticed the profits that could be made in currency trading. They took immediate action and became primarily money-lenders, currency traders, and grocers. It was thanks to their domination of these three trades that they amassed so much wealth that they could even influence the world economy.

But, unlike the middle ages of Lorist's past life, the ones who controlled wealth and trade, and performed part of the functions the Jews had in middle age societies, was the shrine of the goddess Zejin. They did some things better than the Jews, in fact. For example, thanks to the trust they had from the public, they did appraisals for property and real estate. They were also witnesses to many business contracts and also released their gold Forde bills that could be used instead of the coins themselves. They also provided loans to nobles, merchant guilds, and even nations. In some ways, the shrine of the goddess Zejin was akin to a modern-day bank.

However, as opposed to a real bank, the shrine didn't provide services to store one's savings. That was the domain of large merchant guilds or even nations and noble houses. They also played a small part in private businesses, providing only services for exchanging gold Fordes into bills for ease of transport. The shrine's influence wasn't able to grow because they limited their activities. Almost no non-merchant commoners believed in Zejin. When the civil war started, the shrine left the empire. Now the closest branch to The Northlands was in Morante.

The plan that Lorist had to accompany Charade's proposal of releasing their own currency was to start a bank that could provide loans to any new businesses or factories that wished to start up and let commoners store their savings. It would definitely be beneficial to the house as it would own a share of 30 percent of all businesses started within the dominion. Lorist believed that after starting his own bank, he could use it to mitigate the burden of private business owners with his loans, providing an avenue for healthy competition. Not only that, the bank could also function as account auditors to decrease the rates fraud.

The most important thing was that Lorist would be able to regulate the flow of money within the dominion so he could decrease the burden of military and development expenditure on the house. Most people in Grindia had the habit of putting away their savings, normally by burying it, to prepare for urgent times. Given the population of the Norton dominion, which now neared 1.5 million, each household would have no less than ten gold Fordes in savings. Spiel estimated that the average citizen in Felicitas would be the first to gather a good amount of wealth. It was also the reason Spiel had suggested an increase in taxes.

Following the Hanayabarta kingdom's extermination by House Norton, the house obtained around 27 million gold Fordes. Lorist's spending in the following three years used up ten million.

According to Lorist's experience in the previous world, letting such a huge amount of currency into the market should've caused an economic crisis via inflation. However, the household's economic situation wasn't destabilized at all. This was mainly for two reasons: the house's subjects didn't spend much in the first place and were satisfied as long as they had food and a home, and they would save the extra gold without. This meant that Lorist's investments were essentially coins tossed into a well.

Lorist took out a beastskin and wrote the word 'bank' on it. He hoped that, within the year, he could wrap up the management issues within his dominion before launching his attack on the Iblia kingdom the following year and tangling with Duke Fisablen. When he made his move, he would leave most of the house's affairs to Charade, so he planned to write his plans down and leave their implementation to Charade as well.

Lorist spent the 11th month busy with one meeting after another. Charade was awed when Lorist suggested the formation of their own bank and even suggested an idol of Zejin be placed in the building to reassure people that the bank would carry out the functions of Zejin's shrines. It was an act in bad taste on Charade's part, as he wished to see the looks in the clergy's faces when they went to The Northlands to request to be allowed to set up a branch after seeing how rich the place was, only to see that the bank had taken the shrine's place.

Lorist also finished dealing with the list of people to be entitled. The house was to entitle two viscounts and 12 barons in this round. No one expected the two viscount titles to be given to grandmasters Sid and Fellin. Lorist's reasoning was that without them the household wouldn't have gotten Sid steel armor, steel ballistae and catapults, all of which were central to the Nortons' successes. Rumour had it that Grandmaster Sid cried like a small child as he pledged to serve House Norton on behalf of his descendants for eternity during the ceremony. As for Grandmaster Fellin, he was so moved that he fainted on the spot. When he finally woke, he had his son give him a slap to see whether he was still dreaming.

The twelve barons unsurprisingly included Potterfang, Fiercetiger Loze, Ironface Malek, Divine Marksman Josk, White Belnick and Mercenary Freiyar, the first ones to join Lorist. There were supervisors Hansk, Spiel, and Kedan as well. They were the three household supervisors from Maplewoods. They were finally rewarded for their years of service, service that stretched back to even before Lorist inherited his position as head of the household, and their contribution over those years. The final three caused quite a stir.

The first was Charade. As the chief knight of House Norton, he should've been made a baron without question, however, in comparison to Els, Terman, Yuriy and some others, Charade's promotion seemed a little too fast. The second was Grandmaster Jilian, entitled because of his technical contributions. Due to the nature of his discoveries concerning materials, which were not as eye-catching as those of grandmasters Fellin and Sid, there was much argument about what reward Julian deserved. Camorra was the last one and came with many voices of objection.

Baron Camorra had once been an honorary noble entitled by the former Duke of The Northlands, Duke Loggins. After he wronged the duke and was imprisoned in the water dungeon, however, his title was rescinded. Lorist appreciated his talent and had him serve the house after his release. Camorra had started off as the lowest-ranked official. It was not until Kedan noticed his abilities that he began to climb the ladder step by step, eventually becoming an executive official. In the end, he was given the task of overseeing the most secretive arms-producing forges. Not a single problem had come up since Camorra took up the position. He also managed to increase the forges' efficiency greatly, thus lowering the manufacturing costs of anything produced there. It was precisely because these achievements that Lorist insisted on his entitlement despite the opposition of some in the house.

When he received notice of his impending entitlement, the Camorra shut himself up in his quarters and cried for half a day, before he packed up and headed to Baron Jesder -- one of the seventeen soon-to-be-relocated nobles at Firmrock Castle -- for a visit. The reason for his visit was to propose a marriage between himself and the baron's widowed sister, who -- along with her 7-year-old son -- was living with him. Now that he was to be entitled, he could establish his own house, House Camorra.

Apart from the 14 noble houses already relocated, the nobles whose domains Lorist had conquered, were enfeoffed land in Delamock. They were demoted by a rank and made Norton vassals. In other words, House Norton was now their liege. One example was Count Spenseid, who was made a viscount and had pledged allegiance to Lorist.

To the 17 nobles, it was both a tragedy and a blessing. Those already barons were no doubt happy with the situation, as The Northlands couldn't compare to the once-prosperous Delamock. Their relocation meant a better life was waiting for them. The other nine, however, were rather troubled. The former counts were demoted to viscounts, while viscounts were made barons. Even with the penalties, House Norton was rather benevolent. It was already rather fortunate to retain a dominion even after having stood on the wrong side of history. It was their fault for siding with the second prince in the first place.

After ascertaining the list of relocated nobles and new entitled ones, Lorist also gave out six honorary titles. The first was Governor of Hanayabarta Archipelago, awarded to Hector. The might not come with land, and might not be hereditary, but this didn't mean it was anything to scoff at. An honorary title could be considered a stepping stone; if the awardee didn't make any mistakes, they were on track to receiving a proper, hereditary title at some point in the future.

The second to receive an honorary title was Old Man Balk. Actually, Lorist really wanted to make him a proper landed noble, but almost all of his officials and knights objected. They complained that he had only been the manager of a copper mine. He had nowhere near the contributions of the other nobles-in-waiting. To use an analogy, Balk was the one who erected the foundations while the three supervisors built the walls and floors. Everyone praised the beauty of the finished house, but nobody remembered the hidden foundations and the important role they played.

Next was Grandmaster Ciroba. The genius architect forced by Lorist to serve the house had already taken charge of all of the house's construction projects. He was currently neck deep in projects and had a rather fervent tendency of naming all the projects after himself, for example, Great Ciroba Dam, Ciroba Citadel, Ciroba Highway, and many others. While most of the names were later amended, it didn't change the old architect's habit. Just recently, he had named cannon station and lighthouse at Bullhorn Bay Ciroba Battery and Ciroba Lighthouse. In the end, Lorist changed the Ciroba Battery to Bullhorn Bay Battery, but he allowed the lighthouse to keep its original name.

Lorist's lover Telesti, academy head of Nico Academy, was also on the list for an honorary title. However, she refused to be made baroness. She only wanted to bear the same baronetess title as her mother. It was an honorary title above that of Knight of the Household, but did not actually convey peerage. It was thus the highest title of minor nobility.

The fifth and six titles of honorary baron were given to the house's two rank 1 blademasters, Engelich and Shuss. Shuss had prospects and ambitions of becoming a hereditary noble in the future, Engelich was already satisfied with his life as a rank 1 blademaster. While Shuss still actively served the house, Engelich was only willing to guard Firmrock Castle.

After he signed all the documents, Lorist finally relaxed. The decrees, although already made, would only take effect on the 1st day of the 1st month of the following year. Lorist planned to host a large celebration at Firmrock Castle both to welcome the new year and as an entitlement ceremony for his vassal houses. As the new Duke of The Northlands, Lorist had to hold new year's celebrations during winter just like the other dukes, to make merry with his vassals.

The land to be enfeoffed was in Delamock, but the nobles themselves couldn't stay there as they still had to serve the house. Apart from Josk, who was more than willing to leave his fief to his butler and collect the yearly income it generated, the other nobles let their family or relatives manage their fiefs while they continued to serve the house in order to stand a chance of getting a promotion to a higher rank and being given a larger fief.

Apart from preparing for the launch of a new bank and the entitlements, Lorist still had to deal with real estate. Spiel had once suggested the taxes be raised to cover the house's expenses as the subjects were gradually getting richer, but Lorist turned the idea down. He had many more ideas, inspired by the experiences of his previous life, to make the subjects throw their savings at the house.

He decided to launch a small test run by developing a new residential area. The seven towns of Felicitas and the eight towns of Salus were among the first places the house developed. Seven years had passed since their initial development and their populations had increased substantially. It saw the rise of youths moving to other towns to work as factory workers since the jobs were far more profitable than farming. It also brought about the increase in personally constructed houses, which was an inevitability considering the fact that the house only built wooden houses for the initial settlers. The growth of the population would no doubt prompt some to figure out ways to build their own homes.

The land on which the houses were built, however, belonged to the house, strictly speaking. Spiel had thought of collecting rent or a management fee for those who used the lands. It was another way to raise taxes. Lorist, however, said that, since they have allowed them to live like that without paying a fee for so many years, suddenly introducing a tax on it would only harm the house's reputation.

So, Lorist decided to start a real estate business in the 15 towns. He would demolish the ruddy wooden houses and build proper residential areas and villas for the rich. They would have to increase the town's area and build more public and administrative facilities. Felicitas would be the first of the two to undergo the procedure and the funds would be collected from pre-purchases.

Lorist had Ciroba build a simple model of the modified house in Wildnorth Town and put it on display. Those who wished to purchase one had to put down a third of the total price as a deposit. The houses would be ready in two years after purchase.

At first, the folks of Wildnorth Town were rather suspicious. Even though the models and designs were rather nice, they couldn't help but worry about the fact that they would only receive them in two year's time. While their current houses were crude, they were free and served their purpose, there was no good reason for them to spend unnecessary money to buy the new ones. Lorist came up with a great way of dealing with their reluctance. He simply brought over people claiming to be from other towns interested in buying the houses. The sudden influx of outsiders sent the townsfolk into a panic. If the houses were all bought by outsiders, they would no longer have a place to live! Many dug out the gold coins they had buried to make buy the new houses.

"Do you see now?" Lorist asked Spiel, "We managed to get the money they stashed away, and we even let them make the purchase if they don't have enough. Those who incur a debt will just have to work for free for a few years to get their houses. They also have to pay the land lease, which will rise from 30 to 50 percent thanks to the rise in market prices. Even though the houses are theirs, the land belongs to us. If they don't pay their lease, they will be kicked out of their houses and we can even resell them. The next owner will also have to pay the lease, no exceptions. This is the right way to raise our taxes."

Spiel was so fascinated by the scheme that he instantly knelt before Lorist in admiration.

Chapter 351 Update on Catapults and Cannons

Nobody could imagine that the 30 thousand folks of Wildnorth Town actually paid close to 200 thousand gold Fordes in deposits alone. Not only would it cover the costs of renovating the whole residential area, it would also be enough for a public square, fountain, park, roads, sewage, and defense facilities, much to Spiel's elation.

The costs of manpower and materials would no longer be a burden as half of the profits filling up the treasuries of the house. If Wildnorth Town's renovation alone netted them close to 300 thousand gold Fordes, then the 15 towns across Felicitas and Salus would probably enrich the house by another 4.5 million.

The one in charge of the town renovation projects, Kedan, however, didn't look too optimistic. After some detailed investigation, he penned a report that stated that the expansion of Wildnorth Town would increase its area over two fold and encompass the three villages surrounding it. The population would also grow from 10 thousand to 30 thousand. He suggested it be named a city instead.

The peace the town had experienced over the past decade had allowed its population to grow considerably. Each family had an average of two to three children and, thanks to the house's initiative for small business and factories in the town, the youths from the villages could easily find jobs there. Kedan suggested the 13 villages around Wildnorth Town be fused into seven, with the leftover farmland reorganized into farm units, accompanied by the construction of town-like residential areas for the folk.

The commoners of Felicitas were also rather rich. The apartment units in four-story buildings, thought to be in the highest demand, selling for 20 plus gold Fordes each, didn't do as well as the house had hoped. Instead, too few three-story, sloped-roof houses with attics built near a small park were planned, unable to meet the unexpected demand. Each of the houses cost at least 60 gold Fordes and there were 960 planned. Two hundred and forty would be grouped into a neighbourhood; four neighborhoods made a borough. The houses were bought out almost immediately. So, Grandmaster Ciroba changed his plans and designed three other boroughs to satisfy the demand. However, the four boroughs combined occupied two times the land of the current Wildnorth Town.

Kedan believed the fact that many households in Felicitas had family members who served in the military and the benefits they enjoyed as a result of that, such as the annual income of more than ten gold Fordes per house and the decreased taxes, was the main driving factors of their ability to purchase houses. Some households even bought two houses for their children to use when they formed their own families. As for the rich commoners that ran successful factories and business, they even purchased all of the units in the 'wealthy boroughs' situated right opposite the commercial district.

Lorist adopted Kedan's suggestion but refused to name the town a city. On Grindia, a city represented a settlement that had a population over 50 thousand and had complete administrative and public facilities. Wildnorth Town's continued development would only cause it to have around 30 thousand citizens, Lorist didn't think it would grow further. In fact, he felt it might lose some of its inhabitants.

The whole of The Northlands would soon become House Norton's dominion, and, as Charade had said, seven more settlements like Felicitas could still be built. The neighboring area would also be in the house's sphere of influence. Lorist didn't think many refugees would settle down in The Northlands. The Northlands had always had a lot of land compared to citizens, and Lorist didn't think it'd change anytime soon.

Having finished his administrative duties, Lorist traveled straight to the eastern part of The Northlands. The new Jaeger Legion was training there. Josk and Yuriy, the commanders-to-be of the legion, came over to receive him. When Lorist asked about the current combat strength of the legion, Josk explained that, so far, only one division of 15 thousand men stood a fighting chance against Duke Fisablen's Frontier Legion. The remaining three divisions still required a lot of training before they were battle ready. Josk and Yuriy had already decided they would resume training in the winter so the 2nd Jaeger Division would be ready for deployment in the coming spring.

Lorist expressed his satisfaction. Lately, since leaving The Northlands was forbidden, there was no way House Fisablen could know that Lorist had formed yet another light cavalry legion. It meant that when Tigersoar and Firmrock attacked the Iblia kingdom the following year and clashed with the Fisablen forces in Southern and Winston, Jaeger would be able to deal a fatal blow from the rear, catching them off guard and driving them all the way through Wild Husbandry. It would force the Fisablens to retreat to Eastwild to protect the greater and lesser golden creeks and surrender the initiative to the Nortons.

After leaving Jaegar, Lorist went to check on Tigersoar and Firmrock. The two had just returned to The Northlands. During their rampage to the imperial capital, Tigersoar played a pivotal part and rushed through one territory after another. Firmrock, on the other hand, came from the seas to assault Madras. The two's reputations soared almost instantly. The main focus was their relatively low casualty rates. After returning to The Northlands, the two legions rested in preparation to serve as the main force for the next year's campaign.

All the household knights were rather excited, apart from Ovidis, who seemed rather down. Lorist knew what he was worried about. When Tigersoar was on its way back, Lorist ordered 150 of the remaining catapults given to House Kenmays, 120 to House Felim, and 100 to House Shazin. The remaining 50 were left to Kobo's garrison.

All that remained of Thunderbolt Brigade were its members. Not a single catapult returned. He didn't understand why Lorist would just give the catapults away, even if the recipients were their allies. Those were the house's secret weapons! Their campaign across the empire was a testament to the might of the contraptions. The citadels that barred their way were unable to withstand the rocky barrages and fell one after another. Had it not been for the catapults, who knew how many would have had to be sacrificed to occupy the citadels.

Lorist patted lightly on Ovidis's shoulders.

"Didn't you notice that your catapults' firing range was getting shorter and shorter?"

"Yes, Your Grace," Ovidis nodded, "I noticed the catapults' original range of 400 meters decreased to around 300 or so by the time we fought the royal defense legion. I thought it was because of the irregular shapes of the rocks."

Lorist shook his head.

"No, the problem lies with the catapults themselves. As they rely on the compressed steel springs to fire, it's only natural they'd wear down over time. Grandmaster Julian had tested them before and learned that the springs would wear out after around a thousand shots. The contortions are hard to spot with the naked eye and can only be noticed under close scrutiny. As a result of the wear, the catapults' ranges are constantly decreasing. Only replacing the springs will remedy the situation.

"Your Thunderbolt Brigade turned the tables of many battles and it's no doubt a great achievement on your part. We could've transported the catapults back and switched out the steel springs, but Baron Camorra, in charge of logistics, thinks changing to new ones would save more money. There's no need to be sentimental about the old catapults. Since our three allies have long expressed their interest, leaving the catapults with them and gaining their favor and funds was the best course of action. That's why I followed Baron Camorra's advice.

"You should go look for the baron. He's already prepared 500 new catapults for you. During next year's campaign, you'll be deployed defensively most of the time, though. You'll also, once again, leave the catapults behind when you're moved."

"Will we get replacement catapults then again?" asked Ovidis joyfully.

"No, I will give you an even better weapon. The catch is, you'll have to put in a lot of effort to familiarize yourself its operation. I promise you'll definitely fall in love with it after witnessing its might."

Lorist was referring to the bronze cannons he had originally intended to allocate to the various legions. He felt it was a little too difficult to arm so many units; the cost was just too high. Each shot cost a lot of money! While the catapults could use rocks in nearby areas as projectiles, the same couldn't be done with cannons. Each shot cost at least a few large silvers.

Not too long ago, grandmasters Sid, Fellin, and Julian were so moved by their entitlement that they dove straight back into their research. A little later, they sent Lorist a report and stated that a new bronze alloy would decrease the production cost of the cannons by a third and increase their durability as well. They were still testing the material, and should it ever work out, they could begin producing even more of them.

The cannons' construction, however, was relatively cheap compared to the costs of gunpowder and projectiles used. Even if Lorist desperately wanted the cost to produce gunpowder to decrease, he could only hope. Professor Balbo's gunpowder research lab had, so far, not yet found a replacement for saltpeter, so they could only be obtained laboriously using the regular way of scraping them off wall corners.

The new alloyed bronze cannon grandmasters Sid and Julian designed did have another redeeming point: its weight. It made them easier to transport. Lorist believed when Ovidis saw the cannons for himself, he would definitely ditch the catapults like a heartless man who found a hot new lover.

Ovidis, who was in a rush to meet Camorra, made a knight's salute before he left in a hurry. He seemed to recall something just as he was about to close the door behind him and stopped.

"Your Grace, I'm not sure if the commander has reported this to you... I don't know if I should bring it up."

"Feel free."

"Well, when the legion was at the imperial capital, didn't His Highness want a few catapults for himself? After he was refused, His Highness brought a few scholars and worksmiths to our camp to inspect them. As it was His Highness, it wasn't my place to stop him, but later, I was severely reprimanded by the legion commander. He said I shouldn't have let him into the camp. It was His Highness, though. I didn't dare to refuse! In the end, I took responsibility and submitted a report. I wonder if you've received it from the legion commander? I've been waiting for my punishment for a good while now."

Lorist laughed. Loze had indeed informed him of the matter earlier, but he hadn't submitted the report. Lorist didn't really mind, he had been prepared for the technology to leak the moment he deployed the brigade. It was only a matter of time; Grindia was rife with talented people who could reverse engineer the catapults. Just like a sleight of hand, once the illusion was understood, it would no longer be worth witnessing any longer.

While Ovidis was a crude man, one who had been a bandit at one point, he was a deserter before that and used to serve as a squad leader in the Krissen Empire's forces. Naturally, he had an innate fear of the imperial family and really couldn't find it in him to stop the second highness. Since his status was far from Loze's, he couldn't afford to not give the second highness any face.

"I already know. Even if they copy our design, they won't be able to make catapults like ours. They can't fabricate the steel springs we use. They won't be able to replicate them even if they had one in their possession. I forgive you this time, Ovidis. But I don't want to hear anything like this again. Don't forget that you're a knight of House Norton. You don't have to care about anybody not your commanding officer, not even a king. Besides, I didn't assign Thunderbolt Brigade to you because of your careful attention to detail, but your courage and work ethic," said Lorist calmly.

Ovidis's face flushed. He straightened his back and gazed directly at Lorist.

"There definitely won't be a next time, Your Grace! I promise!" replied he.

"Good. Remember it well. Now, go see Baron Camorra."

Lorist felt a little annoyed after sending Ovidis off.

That bastard was so shameless he even dared to send people to inspect my catapults... Even though he can't exactly make identical ones, the principle behind how they work isn't difficult to understand. It won't take long for counterfeits to start popping up... I guess battles in the future will definitely involve both sides throwing rocks at one another.

Just as he sat down to take a sip from his cup of tea, Tarkel rushed over.

"Your Grace, something bad just happened! Sir Reidy is being hunted down!" reported he.

Lorist raised his head ferociously.

"What? Wasn't Reidy traveling in the four central duchies? I thought he was heading to Morante next! What happened? Who are his pursuers?" exclaimed he.

"Sir Reidy was there when we were setting up our information network, so I asked him to kill a few pests in our way. He was eventually confronted by a messenger from Duke Fisablen in Handra who accused him of being a spy. In a fit of rage, Sir Reidy killed the man.

"Now, he's wanted by the four central duchies and being pursued as we speak. Sir Reidy killed a good number of their gold-ranked knights, so the four central duchies sent two rank 1 blademasters after him. Duke Fisablen also sent Blademaster Xanthi to seek revenge for their messenger. Right now, our informants aren't able to interfere. All we know is that he was last seen near Egret Lake."

"Blademaster Xanthi?! Hmph!" Lorist spat before he stood up angrily, "Prepare my horse! I will find Reidy!"

Chapter 352 Reidy's Encounters

Darn it, are they no longer bothering to hold back? thought Lorist hatefully.

Reidy was Lorist's first disciple and, in some sense, he was one of the people Lorist trusted the most alongside Howard. Those two held a different place in Lorist's heart than Potterfang, Charade, Els, and the others.

While Reidy was only a one-star silver rank, he wasn't training in battleforce. Instead, he was practicing the Dan Ocean Ki-Refining Technique, which Lorist had passed down to him, so he was especially close to Lorist. Naturally, Reidy had no way of knowing that the internal techniques he learned were from Lorist's family in the previous world. He was instead told that they were passed down from the days of the eastern combat monks.

As Lorist's eldest disciple, Reidy had never let him down. In fact, Lorist had expressed more than a couple of times that his disciple was more talented in training than he was, having only taken around five years to break through the bottleneck that was the third level of the technique and approaching the fourth.

As the Dan Ocean Ki-Refining Technique was an internal technique passed down in Lorist's family of his previous life, it was the only one that non-family-related disciples were allowed to learn. It was easy to start and hard to master. The first two stages were rather fast on the pickup for most. But only very few actually manage to reach the third level and approach the peak of the Bright Stage. Breaking through to the fourth level signified one's arrival at the Dark Stage. As for the fifth, Lorist had heard his grandfather mention that only one disciple had ever managed to reach it, at the end of the Qing dynasty, and became a grandmaster. However, they had lost all contact with him after he joined a resistance movement against foreign invaders. He was never heard from again.

Reidy was already near the fourth level and, according to Lorist, was already beyond the abilities of gold-ranked swordsmen. However, he was still a little shy of the level of blademasters. This was Reidy's true talent. Lorist himself had taken more than ten years to reach the level of blademasters after a dozen years of struggling and his fair share of near-death experiences, but Reidy only used five years to catch up.

However, breaking through to the fourth level required understanding and insight. At first, Lorist had wanted Reidy to go adventuring on his own to expand his horizons. Unfortunately, almost all the house's knights went into secluded training at once, including Lorist's personal guard, Jim, so Reidy was left with no choice but to take up the position of Leader of the Guard until Pak could come and relieve him. By the time Els broke through to become a gold-ranked knight, Duke Fisablen's knighthood tournament was just around the corner. Reidy participated in the swordsmanship section and managed to win.

Finally, after the bulk of things stabilized, Reidy was able to travel the continent. He had planned to travel by land all the way to Morante before going to the Romon Empire where his hometown was. The whole journey was estimated to take around two years. When Tarkel found out about it, he had Reidy go to the four central duchies to help solve some troubles Furybear agents were having due to the local criminal syndicates.

Reidy had seen much during his time as the guard captain and knew that the unit carried out many covert operations. For instance, he helped Tarkel wipe out a few underground syndicates when they were in Windbury. Reidy agreed without contest to help him once more. While most of his objectives in Handra and Farkel were completed without issue, he ran into trouble in Handra's capital when he tried to deal with a crime boss.

The boss ran a large inn and was also a relative of one of the duchy's counts -- a complete weakling. The count's wife had an affair with Duke Handra himself. While it wasn't spoken about in public, it was not much of a secret either. The crime boss was the count's elder cousin and profited the count's adulterous wife quite a bit. He collected protection money, threatened merchants, and ran brothels and scams in the capital, Nawulis.

Tarkel attempted to infiltrate a couple in their fifties as his informants. They were locals and had two sons who helped out with the family leather trade. During the civil war, they escaped when the first prince attacked and ended up heading to The Northlands with the northbound convoy when they passed through the Andinaq kingdom. Their two sons joined the Norton forces. The eldest was now a squad leader and would soon be promoted to a household knight. The couple, having started to miss home, wanted to visit it, but their two sons were reluctant to accompany them. When Tarkel found out about it, he had someone act as the younger son to accompany the couple back home.

However, when they made it to their hometown, they realized their home had been occupied by the local crime boss. When they confronted him, they were told their whole family were considered deserters who had abandoned the duchy in times of trouble. The couple left with a beating in the place of their house and all their belongings were taken. The moment word got back, Tarkel fumed with rage and issued an assassination order on the one responsible. He asked Reidy to uproot the whole syndicate.

Thus, Reidy began on his path of bloodshed across the taverns and brothels owned by the crime boss. By the time he was mostly done with the minions, he began to seek out the man himself.

Unfortunately, he encountered the noble envoy of Duke Fisablen who was lodging at the inn belonging to the crime boss. The envoy was a very close nephew of the duke himself who recognized Reidy as one of the victors from the knighthood tournament and knew he was a member of House Norton.

If Reidy had stuck to killing the crime boss and jumping out the inn's window to escape, that would be the end of it. However, due to his constant stream of victories over the last two years, Reidy developed a sense of arrogance that prompted him to leave at his own pace after slaughtering the crime boss in broad daylight. He bumped into the Envoy.

The envoy was stunned and asked why Reidy was there before he assumed he was actually there to spy on him. As he was there to represent House Fisablen to negotiate a trade deal with the duchy, he was under the impression that his mission was a grave one and jumped to the conclusion that Reidy was, in fact, tailing him. He ordered Reidy's capture without a second thought, accusing him of being a spy in the process.

The moment the few nobles and guards following the envoy heard his command, they roared and drew their weapons. In a fit of rage, Reidy killed everyone, which included half of the group the envoy came with. When he saw the envoy attempt to escape, he leaped and drove his sword through him before leaving nonchalantly. The whole duchy was in a state of panic as a result.

Having one's envoy killed was no small slight on a noble's reputation. Additionally, the man was the duke's nephew, not just some disposable noble, so the very least the Handra authorities could do was capture the murderer. Duke Handra raged and sealed the borders before launching an extensive search.

At first, the ones sent to confront Reidy were mostly local garrison soldiers. Every time he intended to resupply at a town, he would be entangled by its guards, not that he minded much. However, when one of the gold-ranked knights fell at his sword, the Handra duchy began to deploy military personnel before ordering all towns and villages to forbid all lone travelers from entering. At the same time, they sent a rank 1 blademaster out as well.

Reidy's journey began to go south. While garrison soldiers were easy to deal with, he couldn't do much against them if he wasn't even allowed to enter. The moment anyone got close enough, the guards on the walls would order them to stop and send a few archers over to investigate. They were only allowed to enter once it was confirmed they weren't Reidy. There were a number of times he held a few of the ones sent to investigate hostage but the guards on the walls still fired their arrows without hesitation.

Reidy was finally suffering the consequences of his actions, and it only worsened when the blademaster caught wind of him. Just as Lorist expected, Reidy was still far from being able to deal with a blademaster. Even though he wouldn't be as disadvantaged as a gold-ranked swordsman, he still found it hard to fight on the same level. Fortunately, he was still able to escape when he wanted, so Reidy changed his original route and planned to go through the Shabaj duchy to reach the province of Messen, which used to be the Melein duchy's territory. He would then head to Egret Lake and reach the Andinaq kingdom before taking a huge detour to Morante.

What he didn't expect was that the four duchies were in it together. Duke Handra's messenger arrived at Shabaj first, and they also began to hunt him. He had only managed to relax for two days before he was forced to run for his life again.

His anger grew ever worse and more intense, along with it grew his cruelty. When two of the Shabaj duchy's gold-ranked knights were killed, Duke Shabaj also sent out the duchy's blademaster and swore to see Reidy's corpse torn to a thousand pieces.

Being the target of two blademasters caused Reidy endless trouble. Fortunately, while he wasn't able to handle the blademasters themselves, he was able to defeat their minions easily. The high-up blademasters normally wouldn't act until they got a definitive lead on where Reidy was. This gave him the opportunity to kill off his weaker pursuers before he continued his escape. The small fry became terrified of him, they didn't dare to leave the blademasters' sides.

Reidy was finally able to take a short breather. His swordsmanship had been honed quite substantially during his escapade, especially during his confrontations with the blademasters. Having familiarized himself with the first blademaster's moves, he was even able to gain a slight advantage during the fights. When the second blademaster made his way there, he made his escape with a hearty laugh.

It was too bad that pleasant situation didn't last long. Having not heard anything about the capture of the one that murdered his nephew, Duke Fisablen finally decided to send his lover, rank 2 Blademaster Xanthi, to join the hunt. In only a single clash, Reidy suffered three wounds. Luckily, he made his escape quickly and jumped into a nearby river, if not, he would not have been able to get away.

The last time Reidy was spotted was near Egret Lake. So far, his pursuers were on their way there as well. Even the four duchies' combined army. stationed at Centerlake Island, were alerted. Many search parties were deployed to scour the lake.

"Map," said Lorist.

Howard, who was worried about his senior apprentice brother, had already prepared the map of Egret Lake and laid it out before Lorist.

Egret Lake was the largest plot of undeveloped land within the territory of the former empire. It separated the Great Andalou Plains from the rest of the empire's rich land and bordered Cloudsnap Mountains, The Northlands, and the Liden Mountains. The center of the empire only had two main roads, one through the Madras straight to Melein and Shabaj, and another towards the two southwestern provinces, Majik and Farkel.

The two roads could be described as a large detour. There was actually another unconventional path, across Egret Lake itself when its surface froze up in the winter. One would first go through the swamp to Centerlake Island before crossing another swampy area to arrive at Messen. The was the one Duke Melein used to transport Fiercegale Legion to resist the second prince's invasion.

Strictly speaking, the swamp around Egret Lake should be called Egret Basin. It was a large expanse of wetlands of roughly five hundred square kilometers, whereas Egret Lake was only about five square kilometers. While some parts of the swamp would freeze up during winter, most of it still remained rather dangerous.

Ever since Melein's two provinces were absorbed into Shabaj, and following the safe return of the second highness to his throne, the four central duchies stationed their troops at Centerlake Island and constructed a wooden citadel there to prevent the second highness's forces from using it for a winter invasion. Their vigilance was only to be expected, given how the battle that shot the second highness to fame occurred during winter.

As for the other route from Madras, the four central duchies didn't mind it much. First, the route circled around Egret Lake and was incredibly hard to traverse. There was also a citadel there that could stop any invading army in its tracks. Nobody could transport their army through the pass given the horrible terrain, so most who bothered to travel on that road were merchants. It was said that Duke Madras had once discussed with Duke Melein about making that route into a highway to improve trade, but the project was delayed to no end due to financial concerns.

So far, Whitelion Legion was deployed in the two southwestern provinces to stand off against the Union at Kanbona. The reorganized royal defense legion, on the other hand, was stationed at Hanstmost against Zitram. Word was that the second highness was forming a new amphibious legion on the opposite shore of Egret Lake right next to Centerlake Island. The rumor terrified the four central duchies.

It was the 26th day of the 11th month on Grindia and there were only 44 days before the new year's arrival, If Lorist wanted to travel to Egret Lake to look for Reidy, he would have to travel by sea to Silowas and head to Jilin harbor before heading there on horseback. It was the fastest way but even so, it would still take around eleven days. This route, however, passed through the central province where the imperial capital was and it was very likely that the second highness would cause him trouble some way or another.

The second route involved traveling to Delamock before going to Vanades and heading to Egret Basin from there. The road was long and winding, it would take him at least two weeks. With Madras' conquest and its occupation by the Northland nobles, who were in the second highness's faction, Shabaj had already cut the route off and prohibited any merchants from traveling to Vanades.

After some thought, he finally decided to use the second route.

"Tarkel, notify our agents in Vanades with the messenger eagles and have them find me a guide and hunter. Prepare what I need to search for Reidy. We'll leave tomorrow afternoon."

"Understood, Your Grace."

Chapter 353 Ambush, Pursuit and Assault

Reidy lay flat in the grass, his whole body covered in mud and partially submerged as he paid attention to the barks and footsteps approaching from the distance.

I should have been on the run for a month or so by now, right? I can't even remember the date anymore. The weather's getting colder every day… winter must be approaching.

Reidy didn't expect his pursuers wouldn't give up even after he had escaped into the swamps of Egret Basin. Not only did they recruit a few experienced hunters from the nearby area, they also mobilized the standing army. Reidy's days were now harder than ever. He was even unable to get any good rest. It didn't take more than two hours for the hunting dogs to track him down. He had no choice but to continuously strain his mind and body to their limits to keep himself out of their hands.

He finally began to reflect on the arrogance and thoughtlessness he had displayed. Ever since Lorist acknowledged his swordsmanship, he began to feel proud. It was especially the case ever since he emerged as the champion in the knighthood competition. He no longer took gold-ranked knights seriously and already saw himself as being on the level of rank 1 blademasters.

Even after a bounty had been placed on his head by the Handra and Shabaj duchies, Reidy still remained confident. Certainly, mere rank 1 blademasters couldn't do much to him. He didn't fear facing one head-on since it usually took them at least a hundred strikes to gain the advantage. Had it not been for the other blademaster joining the fray, Reidy wouldn't have minded clashing with the first. Right now, he recalled his teacher's words. He was just like a 'frog in a well' who didn't know how wide the skies truly were. He could only see the well in which he lived. Thinking that he was already on par with rank 1 blademasters, Reidy proudly accepted Blademaster Xanthi's challenge, only to discover that he wasn't able to even take a single strike from her. Had it not been for the river behind him, his head would've been lopped off.

Darned old woman... She's not taking our previous interactions at all into account at all.

Back when Xanthi accompanied Princess Sylvia on her trip around The Northlands, Reidy had been their guide and even made tea for them on numerous occasions. She knew that he was Lorist's eldest disciple, yet she didn't hold back in the slightest and fought with all her strength right from the get-go. It was apparent that Xanthi didn't care about Lorist nor House Norton. Reidy wondered what he had done to have Duke Fisablen desire his death no matter what.

The poor Reidy began to recall all that had happened during his pursuit. Usually, local nobles wouldn't care much when a crime boss or two were killed in their territory. Even if the bosses were chosen by the nobles themselves to rule the underworld on their behalf, the nobles wouldn't bat an eye to their death. They'd simply choose someone else to take their place. Even if they were to place a bounty on someone, it would only be for show. After all, it wasn't uncommon for a crime boss to be killed because of some grudge. Even if the crime bosses were the nobles' relative, the latter usually didn't want to risk the lives of their knights to avenge a mere crime boss.

Since it probably wasn't due to the crime bosses he had killed, Reidy reasoned that it had to be the envoy. The more he thought about it, the more familiar the envoy seemed. After a long time, he finally noticed that he might've seen that fellow beside Duke Fisablen during the knighthood tournament. Lorist had introduced the man as the son of the duke's younger brother. He was a three-star silver rank, the most likely to be the one to step into the gold rank after Princess Sylvia. It was too bad he had lost in the jousting match with Loze.

Reidy finally realized why Xanthi was there, and the magnitude of trouble he was in. He could no longer continue his travels and would have to return to The Northlands right away, should he manage to escape. He would only be safe by his teacher's side. However, he still had to deal with the three sword wounds that Xanthi had dealt him. He would have to stop the bleeding so he wouldn't leave any tracks.

Fortunately, he had trained in the ancient combat technique of the eastern combat monks, the Dan Ocean Ki-Refining Technique. The method of training was completely unlike battleforce. Not only did it allow his swordsmanship to grow explosively, he could even suppress gold-ranked knights with his internal energy. The most important feature was that he could use internal energy to temporarily seal off the circulation where he was injured so he wouldn't bleed and leave a trail.

After he jumped into the river, everyone thought he would emerge on the other side. However, Reidy chose to remain where he was and slip back onto the shore where he jumped right under their noses. After sewing his wounds shut with the sewing kit he carried with him, he applied some medicine, bandaged them, and turned tail to head to Egret Lake. By the time his pursuers realized he had turned back, Reidy had managed to buy himself a few days' time and even allowed his wounds to recover somewhat.

However, there were far too many people on his tail. Even if he were able to reach towns or villages, he wouldn't be able to gain aid there. Only a few days after he entered the swamp, the pursuers brought hunters and hunting dogs to seek him out almost immediately. Currently, Reidy was a rabbit fortunate enough to escape the trap it was caught in. Many of the vital routes to the highlands from the swamp were sealed off, further making it more difficult for Reidy to escape.

Three oily furred hunting dogs half as tall as a man lowered their noses and began sniffing the grass. Beside the dogs were a dozen soldiers and two hunters clad in brown leather. The frontmost three soldiers held up half-body shields. Four pikemen stood behind them. At the tail end of the party were two crossbowmen and three longbowmen. Each one wore alert expressions and were ready to unleash their attacks at any moment.

The three hunting dogs gradually approached a spot roughly three meters away. When the two hunters approached, they relaxed before they turned to the soldiers.

"There's no need to be so tense. We can rest for a bit. The one you're looking for is done for," reported one.

"How so?" asked the solders' leader.

"Our hunting dogs only track a human scent as far as this spot. He might've entered the grasslands here already," replied the man, pointing at the grass.

"Our orders were to find him. Even if he's entered the grasslands, we still have to continue our search," said the leader.

"We can't enter," the hunter said while his partner joined him for a laugh, "Didn't you hear me say he was done for? Don't be mistaken by how tall the grass is. The grass floats on the surface of a very deep pool. No matter who it is, once someone steps in, he will sink and die beneath the grass. The animals and people who died in the pool nourished the grass above it, causing it to grow this tall. Those around here call this the Demongrass Swamp."

"You're saying that the one we're chasing might've drowned after entering this patch of grass?" asked the leader as he relaxed.

No one could alert for so long. The moment the soldiers heard the hunters, they lowered their shields, crossbows, and bows before surrounding the patch of tall grass in discussion. A few walked up to the edge of the grass, unbuttoned their pants, and released a stream of urine.

A rush of pungent urine landed not far away from where Reidy was hiding. A little even sprinkled on his face, but he didn't move. Ideally, he would convince his pursuers he had died in the swamp. If he was already going to return to The Northlands, he could definitely do without the company of those blademasters. However, as with most dreams crushed by reality, the scenario Reidy imagined didn't come to pass.

"Which one of you will make a trip back to report what we've discovered?" he heard the leader ask.

"Leader, what should we report? Should we say our target died after escaping into Demongrass Swamp?" asked one of the soldiers.

"Officer, why can't we just head back together? There's no need to make a trip back, is there? Isn't this matter done with already?" asked the older hunter.

The squad leader sighed.

"Do you think I don't want to go back? The higher-ups said they want to see the corpse if the target is dead. If we report he died inside Demongrass Swamp, they will order us to scour the swamp until we find his corpse. All we can report is that we've lost all trace of him around here and have the higher ups send people over to do the search themselves. No matter what, we don't dare to tell them our target fell to his death in the swamp," answered he.

The younger hunter scratched his face.

"Isn't that ridiculous? How could you find the corpse if it's already sunk all the way down there?"

"Well, they might bring a torch to set the grass alight before they have us poke around inside with long sticks. Even if the swamp is deep, there's no way he could go very far in. He should still be laying dead somewhere in the shallower parts."

Reidy took a deep breath. He launched himself from the mud and dove into the group. His sword flashed quickly a few times. One figure after another fell as blood gushed out of their bodies. In a few short seconds, the eight soldiers were dead already.

Loud barking could be heard as the three hunting dogs leaped over. With a sudden turn, Reidy split one's head before he maneuvered his sword to pierce through the head of the second from below. Releasing his sword and doing a roll, Reidy managed to dodge the third. Using his right hand to take a throwing axe one of the dead soldiers carried by his waist, Reidy hacked the final dog's back. With a puff, the dog crashed against the ground, blood leaking out of its mouth as it flailed in an attempt to stand.

All that remained were four soldiers and two hunters. The leader had already got his three subordinates to hold up their shields and pikes. When they met Reidy's eyes, the four couldn't help but feel despair and panic. As for the two hunters, they had already escaped the moment they instructed their hunting dogs to attack. They were already ten meters away.

Reidy laughed lightly before he flicked his leg. A bow and a quiver on the ground by his feet shot up and landed in his arms. The squad leader's gaze tensed up.

"Careful, everyone!" yelled he as he tried his best to shrink behind the shields.

The woosh of arrows could be heard three times in quick succession. Two cries of pain rang out from behind the group. The leader turned to look and saw the two hunters collapsed on the ground. One had an arrow through his back, the other two. He flushed with embarrassment. He didn't think that being looked down upon by an enemy would be so infuriating. However, the cries calmed him, even though he had wanted to clash with Reidy just moments before. It was obvious that the muddy-looking man intended to have his whole squad stay behind.

Behind the shields, the squad leader took out a small bamboo cone and handed it to the person behind him before he whispered.

"Whoever's at the back, ignite the smoke signal. The rest of you stand your ground together. We'll try our best to stall until reinforcements arrive. We'll be safe once they do."

At that moment, Reidy was removing the sword stuck through one of the hunting dogs. He had used a little too much force to draw the bow quickly moments ago, the wounds on his chest had reopened. It didn't stop him from killing the four soldiers in front of him, though.

He collected his spoils. He had already not eaten for a few days, his last meal was a poisonous yellowish-purple snake. He was so hungry he accidentally popped the snake's gallbladder. The contents spilt on the meat causing it to taste incredibly bitter. He had been so hungry he ate it anyway.

Currently, even normal rations tasted like delicacies to Reidy. Apart from his longsword, he didn't carry anything with him. Even his clothes were horribly torn. He was caked in mud from head to toe. As the swamps were filled with swarms of huge mosquitos who's stings resulted in massive swelling, he had no choice but to muddy himself to make sure his blood wasn't sucked dry.

The four soldiers that remained huddled together. The one at the front held up a shield and the other two raised their pikes. The last soldier was busy with something, but he couldn't see what it was. He was was sure he wasn't holding a crossbow, though, as the ones armed with them had been his first targets. The two crossbows on the floor were in plain sight. For all Reidy knew, the man might be unarmed, since it wasn't surprising for one to forget one's weapon when ambushed.

But when a loud hiss rang out, the look on Reidy's face changed. A small bamboo tube let out thick smoke into the air visible from kilometers away. The smoke signal was something Frontier Legion used to signal units far away on the great expanses of the grasslands. Reidy didn't think his pursuers would be given them as well.

"Die!" roared Reidy as he rushed forward.

He knocked the two pikes that shot at him like poisonous pythons away. Stepping hard on the shield and leaping over it, he swung his sword and cleft the throats of the two pike-wielding soldiers, before slashing behind him after he landed behind the shield bearer. The man dropped his shield and grabbed his wound before kneeling gradually. Reidy withdrew his sword. Only the pale-faced soldier holding the smoke signal was left.

"Go to hell," yelled Reidy as he ended the man with one strike.

Despite being cleft in twain, the bamboo tube still continued to let out smoke. Not long after, loud barking could be heard in the distance.

"Sol!" cursed Reidy before he picked up the two crossbows and bows on the ground, the two quivers, and the spear.

He hurriedly searched the dead soldiers' rucksacks and picked what he needed quickly. He packed everything into a sack which he tied to his waist. After looking around and seeing movement in the distance, Reidy smiled before he jumped onto the muddy slope and disappeared into the Demongrass Swamp.

Chapter 354 Demongrass Swamp

Demongrass Swamp, as the locals called it, was actually just a mud lake that covered a huge area. The most eye-catching part of the 'lake' was the grass that grew on its surface. They looked like dense growths of eupatorium plants[1] floating above the water, with their long stems reaching down deep below the water's surface. From afar, it looked just like a normal piece of land with tall grass. While the grass near the sides of the lake was rather tough and could bear human weight, the ones closer to the center couldn't. With but a misstep, one would fall straight in and sink to the bottom.

It wasn't that mud had no buoyancy; the problem was with the grass that grew from the very bottom of the lake itself. Even crocodiles, the 'kings of the swamps', don't dare to enter the lake for fear of being tangled up in the roots and drowning. Apart from insects, smaller fish, snakes, and frogs, there weren't any other animal within the lake. Most larger birds wouldn't even bother to hunt there.

Reidy wasn't unfamiliar with this kind of grass. Near Northsea, completed just two years earlier, the opposite shore of Azure River was Blackmud Marsh. The household had developed that part of the marsh into rich farmland, but ironspine crocodiles still lurked on the opposite shore of the river.

Without battleforce of at least the silver rank, one couldn't damage them at all. One couldn't even put a single scratch on their backs without a blade glow. This was precisely why the house's Oceanic Legion used armor made from ironspine crocodile leather. Not only was it strong, it also floated better and had great heat-insulating properties.

When the household developed that part of Blackmud Marsh, they fashioned two extremely huge steel ballistae solely for use against the crocodiles. Lorist also had the largest one they killed embalmed and displayed on Northsea's plaza. As a result, the plaza was known as Crocodile Plaza. Some kids even used the embalmed crocodile as their playground. One could often find little figures climbing in and out of its huge mouth.

When the house built the long wall from Tortoise Hill to Azure River, some construction sites were attacked by the crocodiles. Thanks to the frequent waves of ballistae bolts, the crocodiles learned to behave and no longer swam to their deaths of their own accord.

'Since the crocodiles won't come over, we'll go to them,' was the conclusion the Oceanic Legion came to. They had two boats equipped with the steel ballistae, which allowed them to hunt the crocodiles as they sailed down the river. In time, not a single crocodile was visible anywhere near the wall. The hunters had to go into the deeper parts of Blackmud Marsh itself.

Blackmud Marsh was so wide that even after several years, the Nortons had only explored a third of it. During some of their expeditions, they discovered a few mud lakes just like Demongrass Swamp. At first, the hunters thought the crocodiles would surely hide in such a dense growth of grass and decided to set them on fire to flush the beasts out. They only discovered the true nature of the lake, within which was the network of roots. Simply by tossing a hook and pulling it up, they found bundles of fine stems as well as some rotten ironspine crocodile carcasses.

When Reidy was training at Firmrock Castle, he would occasionally go out for changes of pace. One time, he was asked to tag along for a trip to the marsh with Paulobins and fell in love with the sport of ironspine crocodile hunting, more specifically, fighting one on one with middle-sized crocodiles armed with nothing but a sword, using them as his sparring partners. Having spent quite some time in the marsh, he was familiar with the muddy lakes, so, when he saw one in Egret Basin, he thought of using it to escape from his pursuers and teach them a lesson.

One day, when Reidy had just arrived, he was elated to find such a dense grassland in which he could hide from his pursuers. But after taking two steps forward, he noticed something was amiss. Quickly drawing his sword and poking downwards, his blood cooled.

Isn't it all mud below? If I had taken a few more steps forward, I really would've been done for...

That night, Reidy cut a few bushes and trees near the lake for wood and used what remained of his torn-up leather armor and some vines to make a rope. He tied the wood together and laid it in the lake. While the mud did have buoyancy and wouldn't cause a living being to sink right away, it was the grass's stems and roots that mainly entangled any living thing that panicked and struggled within. The more one struggled, the faster one would be entangled and drown.

Even though Reidy had carefully laid the little wooden raft in the lake, he was nevertheless very cautious when he got aboard. Keeping one's calm was the key when entering the mud lakes. Should one ever make any extreme movements, one's limbs would end up caught between some of the grass stems.

First, Reidy gently laid himself on the raft and pulled at the grass in the lake carefully to propel him toward the lake's bank. While doing so was Reidy's only hope of escape, it would've been far safer if he had someone watching over him from the shore.

Right now, however, he was alone. He spent the whole night getting ready before he hid amidst the grass not too far away from shore and he waited for his pursuers to arrive. No matter what, he had to steal some rations. Otherwise, it would be incredibly difficult to survive the cooling weather.

......

The first ones to arrive were the silver-ranked guards of House Fisablen, led by Blademaster Xanthi herself. She had seen Reidy disappear into the curtain of grass as well as the dozen corpses on the ground.

"Find him right now!"

"Yes!" replied one of the guards.

He took ten or so others with him and into the 'grassland'.

Xanthi didn't think the silver ranks could deal with Reidy in the first place. All she wanted was for them to hold him back and buy her time to make her approach. As long as that quiet attendant of Lorist wasn't allowed to escape, Xanthi was confident she could take care of him. She recalled that Lorist had once personally introduced Reidy as his eldest disciple. She could remember how laughable it had all seemed when she heard that a youngster like Lorist had taken disciples to mimic true masters despite his youth.

A few years had already passed since that encounter when House Norton just managed to defeat the second prince's army and stormed The Northlands while they were at it. At that time, Xanthi and Sylvia were both trapped in the duke's mansion at Gildusk. They had even captured Baron Shazin Hennard and his gold-ranked knight as hostages to negotiate their release. Unexpectedly, however, Lorist himself barged into the mansion and defeated Sylvia before moving on to beat the blademaster, forcing her to release their hostages. Despite that, the matter ended without incident after Lorist personally escorted them out of The Northlands.

She had always thought of Lorist's victory as a fluke, justifying her loss by believing that she had to hold back and not go too far given she was in enemy territory. It didn't help that she still had some energy left even after she was defeated while Lorist fainted right away. To this day, Blademaster Xanthi didn't think Lorist was truly her match.

As they traveled back to Eastwild, she learned that Sylvia got along with the new leader rather well. Xanthi took the opportunity to find out about the origins of Lorist's sword style through Sylvia. The count trained in the ancient combat arts of the now-extinct eastern martial monks of legend. It was no wonder his style was so drastically different.

It didn't mean Xanthi considered Lorist's skills seriously by any means. Even though Lorist's critique of her sword style let her gain some valuable insight to bypass her bottleneck, she didn't consider it a favor either. Xanthi believed she would've been able to fix the problems with her swordsmanship herself if she spent a few months pondering the matter. She also thought Lorist gained quite a bit of insight from their duel himself, so, strictly speaking, he gained more from it than she did.

Xanthi never took kindly to Lorist's relative lack of ambition. But even so, her beloved adoptive daughter actually began to have feelings for him, something she definitely couldn't allow. Xanthi hoped Sylvia would wed a world-changing hero instead of an average-looking count that trained in the unreliable and unproven arts of the eastern martial monks. While Lorist's household had a few centuries' worth of history and background, all it did was stay put in its dominion. It paled severely in comparison to House Fisablen's performance when it helped the second prince establish the Iblia kingdom.

What Xanthi couldn't help was how things developed so swiftly that nobody was able to react quickly enough. In but a year, she heard that House Norton mobilized their troops to conquer Windbury and capture Second Prince Iblia as payback for the latter's sending of Blademaster Zarinan to assassinate Lorist. As if that wasn't bad enough, the Nortons also defeated the two cavalry divisions commanded by Viscount Kristoph and captured all 15 thousand of his troops.

Given the situation, Duke Fisablen had no choice but to take a step back and send Sylvia to discuss a trade agreement, using livestock to exchange for large numbers of military equipment and negotiate for the release of the 15 thousand troops, all the while causing House Norton to let their guard down while House Fisablen began their campaign against the grassland barbarians.

Nowadays, House Fisablen finally managed to consolidate lots of military might. It caused Xanthi's impression of Lorist to dip even further, as it was the greed of the Nortons for gold that allowed for the formation of the strong military of House Fisablen. The duke managed to form an undefeatable light cavalry force, many parts thanks to the incessant supply of military equipment from the Nortons and conquered the greater and lesser golden creeks, an achievement that patched up one of the house's last shortcomings.

The Nortons could never imagine how much a set of cavalry equipment cost on the grasslands. Some of the barbarian tribes were prepared to beg the duke for a few sets of armor. Sometimes, Xanthi fantasized about what would happen should House Fisablen grasp the secrets of making the equipment. At any rate, they definitely wouldn't sell them for the sake of a few coins and livestock like the Nortons. It was arming one's enemy.

Of all the men in the world, her beloved Sylvia had actually fallen for Lorist, much as it vexed her. But given her understanding of her adoptive daughter's personality, she knew that nothing good would come from being too forceful. Xanthi had made a few subtle hints to dissuade Sylvia and take back her heart filled with love and fantasy, to no avail. In the end, she had no choice but to force Sylvia to enter secluded training for a few years until she broke through to the two-star gold rank.

Perhaps the passage of time will let her understand the lovestruck state she was in is but an illusion, Xanthi had thought at the time.

The last thing she expected was that four years of seclusion actually intensified her yearning for Lorist, to the point that she went all the way to The Northlands herself just to invite Lorist to participate in the knighthood tournament. Xanthi's plan had backfired completely. Fortunately for Xanthi, the duke almost flipped out completely against Lorist during the tournament and didn't agree to House Norton's request for the princess's hand in marriage. But back then, Sylvia actually didn't participate in the tournament because of the death of her short-lived, noble-blooded younger brother. Instead, she traveled to The Northlands once more to take her mind off the matters, with Xanthi by her side, of course, so as to not give Lorist any opportunities to take advantage of the princess.

After hearing about the murder of the duke's nephew by Reidy of House Norton, Xanthi knew her time had come to forever sever the ties between Sylvia and Lorist. She joined the hunt for Reidy with fervor. Should Reidy actually die fighting her, Lorist would definitely turn against House Fisablen for good. That way, there was no way Sylvia could marry him. On the other hand, Duke Fisablen, with his renewed and empowered forces, could unite what remained of the kingdom and consolidate his power without fear for the threat of the Nortons.

Splash! Splosh! Splush!

What followed was a stream of shrieks and cries for help that caused Xanthi to turn over, only to witness half of the silver-ranked guards gradually sinking into the 'grassland'. Their bodies descended ever so slowly, covered with fine fibers of grey, black, green, and white that were laden with different kinds of leaves. The fine fibers got more tangled the more the men struggled. They sunk faster the more they struggled. Before Xanthi leaped to save them, she saw a few guards that hadn't fallen into the grass patch stretch their hands out towards their comrades, only to end up falling into the water and getting tangled up by the fibers as well.

In a few short moments, only three silver-ranked guards remained afloat. The three were slightly more intelligent than the rest. They had not moved an inch despite also calling out for help. They realized that moving and struggling would only accelerate their demise. Terrified, Xanthi didn't dare to approach the mud lake at all.

Instead, she turned to the soldiers coming from the distance and ordered, "Quick! Go pull those three out!"

After some hesitation, the three silver-ranked guards were rescued. Xanthi heard the explanations of a few local hunters and realized her mistake. Even though she saw Reidy make his way through the dense grass, it never occurred to her that it was some sort of natural trap. Still, being unable to enter the lake, what would she do?

"Burn everything. I'll see how long that bastard can stay in there. Without the grass' cover, we'll be able to know how he got in there. We'll capture him easily then!" barked Xanthi as she grit her teeth in anger.

"But... Madam Blademaster, Demongrass Swamp is far too big. We'll have to bring lots of fuel! Otherwise, the moist grass won't catch fire," said one squad leader.

"Get the fuel then! Go, now! As for the others, set up a perimeter around the swamp. Don't let that bastard escape!"

[1]Eupatorium plants: link to picture.

Chapter 355 Gold Eagle

A man removed the scarf obstructing his face. White puffs burst from his mouth as he did so.

"We've arrived at Egret Basin, Your Grace," said he.

It was the 11th day of the 12th month. Winter. A small round of snow had just fallen. The landscape was covered in a patchwork of white and ailing green.

"Your Grace. We received a messenger eagle from our informant in Shabaj. So far, the hunting party at Egret Basin still hasn't caught Sir Reidy. Instead, they ended up with carriage after carriage of injured troops. The informant managed to get word from them and learned they were still playing catch with Sir Reidy. He's become their demon. Nobody could resist his assaults apart from the three blademasters. Duke Shabaj also sent a regiment and a few hundred carriages filled with supplies, presumably in preparation for the hunting party's stay for winter," reported Tarkel as he read the thin cloth he took out from the small bamboo capsule.

Beside him was a heavily bearded man on horseback, on whose shoulder an eagle that looked rather warm perched as it swallowed the meat the man fed it.

Taking a look at the endless wildlands, Lorist slipped off his mount and pulled down the black scarf covering his face, "Map..."

He had brought three regiments of his personal guard, 1500 men in total. However, only thirty or so were beside him right now. Lorist couldn't afford to wait for the whole troupe to arrive, which would take three hours; he was too worried for Reidy's safety.

The heavily dressed Howard hurriedly dismounted, took a map out of his backpack, and called a few guards to hold it open.

Their guide, Jisan, took a swig of alcohol from his bronze flask, complained about the horrible weather, and walking to Lorist's side. After he looked at the map, he pointed.

"Your Grace, we're currently here. It'll take us half a day to reach Redtree Citadel. It's the only checkpoint we have to cross along this road. Both sides of the motte the citadel was built on are swamps that won't freeze even in winter. Apart from a small muddy road that only allows a carriage to pass, there are no ways to go around Redtree Citadel unless we take this detour from here."

"You're saying we don't have to go through Redtree Citadel if we use this road?" asked Lorist.

"Indeed, Your Grace. I, Jisan, am actually quite famous around these swamps. I know the routes here like the back of my hand. Honestly speaking, if Your Grace had hired any other guide, they would've been walking blind in winter. I, on the other hand, know where the swamp freezes up and where we shouldn't enter. This is all thanks to my 30 years of experience. I've been living here with my father since I was young and if I didn't learn a trick or two, I would've died many times over," said the old man as his voice coarsened from the strong liquor.

"Hehe, that's precisely why we hired you, Jisan. I just hope you're worth the fee. I'm sure you know we're here to find someone," said Tarkel.

"Oh, a search," Jisan said as he recalled something.

He turned to Tarkel, "Sir, if you're looking for someone, you should tell me roughly where they are. How did they enter and did they leave any traces or signs? Egret Basin is so big I doubt I'd be of much help without a single lead."

"Well, Mister Jisan, the person we're looking for entered the basin from Shabaj, and we think he's heading to Egret Lake. The duchy is our enemy and they sent out a search party to hunt for him, so we had no choice but to enter the basin from here. He probably didn't leave any markings, but even if he did, they were probably destroyed by his pursuers. If anything, he'd leave a circle with a cross or a picture of a bear at the lower right part of a rock or a tree. But don't worry, we have a rough idea how to locate him. We just need you to lead the way across the swamp," said Lorist.

"Ah, Your Grace, you don't have to be so formal with me. Just call me by my name. It's my pleasure to be of service," said he, a little surprised and glad after being addressed as 'mister'.

"Tarkel."

"Yes, Your Grace," Tarkel said as he turned around, "Morbinghan, we're counting on you."

The old man called Morbinghan was a bearded man with a white mop on his head. Though he looked old, he seemed far more energetic than most people his age. The old man dressed in hunting garb smiled after he heard Tarkel.

"Your Grace, leave it to me."

He lifted a large cage from the back of his horse and opened it, letting a huge eagle out onto his arm.

A cold breeze blew by, causing the eagle to flap its wings twice as it looked around.

"What a huge gold eagle!" cried Jisan.

"You've seen gold eagles before?" asked Morbinghan as he stroked his bird's feathers. The eagle seemed almost human. It scratched Morbingham's chest lightly with its talons.

"Little Inkfeather here has been with me for more than 17 years. When I picked it up at the bottom of a cliff, it still didn't have any feathers, it had likely hatched just hours earlier. I don't know how it fell, but, fortunately, it was still alive. I brought it home and treated it as my third son and spent our years together."

"Mister! Morbinghan! Snap out of it and let the eagle do its job! We can listen to your stories over some alcohol after we find our man, alright? We'll definitely listen to it even after you've repeated it for the thousandth time, alright?" beckoned Tarkel worryingly.

Morbinghan's eyes regained some clarity. He glared at Tarkel.

"What's there to rush? If I don't let the eagle get used to the air, it'll flop, fall, and die. Give it a minute."

"You're planning to let the gold eagle find your man?" Jisan asked curiously, "How does it work? Does he know the guy?"

"It doesn't," Lorist answered, "While finding a single individual would be difficult even for eagles, spotting a group isn't an issue, especially on the relatively empty swamps. The one we're looking for is wanted and pursued, so all the eagle has to do is to bring us to them. At the very least, we'll be much closer to the one we're looking for. Oh, Morbinghan, look for a campsite or something with your eagle. They should have set up something similar in this weather."

"I will have Inkfeather search in the lake's direction. Don't worry, we'll definitely find SIr Reidy," replied Morbinghan respectfully.

Morbinghan was a special advisor to Furybear. He used his years of experience to train messenger eagles. His eldest son was a Norton knight and took care of the messenger eagle department, while his second son was still at the bronze rank. Once he makes it to the silver rank, he would also be made a household knight. Morbinghan had the same status as Grandmaster Julian, he hoped to make more contributions to the house and eventually be made a landed noble.

After a good while, Morbinghan finally released his eagle. It circled the skies for a while before flying towards Egret Lake.

"Alright. Jisan, let's head west as well. I count on you to tell me where I should and shouldn't go," said Lorist after his eyes returned to the earth.

"This... Your Grace, we'll have to leave our horses here and travel on foot," Jisan said after some hesitation, "Some parts of the swamp can't be traversed on horseback. While bringing them along would be fine, we can't ride them. If one of us accidentally rides into a mud pit, we'll be submerged before we could even cry for help."

"No worries. You're the guide. I leave the final word to you," Lorist said with a smile, "Els, have two people stay here and watch the horses. They are to wait for the rest. The rest of you, make sure to bring enough necessities and a few workhorses along. We leave first. Order Park and Shuss to set up camp here and prepare to send reinforcements."

"Understood, Your Grace," replied Els.

......

Reidy found himself completely cornered.

When he disappeared in Demongrass Swamp a week ago, he managed to get two days' rest and recover some energy with the rations he'd looted. His wounds had also sealed and the situation seemed okay. He hadn't expected Xanthi to actually set fire to the swamp.

While the grass was still green even during winter thanks to the water, he understood they would be baked dry and set aflame easily even with the smallest fires. On a day with strong wind, the fire would spread quickly over the grass in the vicinity. He had to take his leave right away.

If Demongrass Swamp was said to resemble a rhombus, his little wooden raft would be a third of the distance to the center. He still had some time to row it to shore. Fortunately for him, the water-filled grass let out lots of pungent smoke, which he could use to his advantage and escape out of sight and prevent the hunting dogs from catching his scent.

However, the wind was a little too strong and made the fire to burn wildly. Even though he tried to hurry himself up, he couldn't as his little raft had been entangled by some of the grass stems in the mud. He had no choice but to use his sword to cut them off. By the time the fire was already behind him, the little raft was still roughly five meters from shore. In front of him was a thick wall of grass that prevented his raft from advancing.

He held the oar he used to row the boat and tied it up tightly with a pike. Seeing its roughly three-meter length, he used all his energy to plunge the long contraption into the grass, leaving only a few inches of it above the muddy waters. He clutched his longsword, took a deep breath, and leaped. His right foot landed accurately on the exposed part of the oar-pike stick. The stick slipped slightly and he fell. But right before his foot touched the water, he had already gained enough of a footing to propel himself once more. With a loud splash, he landed in a puddle of mud just beside the shore.

His upper body was on the shore while both his legs laid on a thick bunch of grass stems. While he could use it as a footing, he didn't dare to stand up. The direction the wind was blowing made the smoke travel towards the shore. It was nearly impossible to breath standing up. With his pursuers waiting for him long the shore nowhere to be seen, he cut off the grass that tangled his legs and crawled forward, trying his best to breathe in as little smoke as possible.

Demongrass Swamp burned for a whole day before the lake's surface could be seen once more. Reidy managed to escape the encirclement thanks to the darkness of night and made his way to Egret Lake as stealthily as possible. As his pursuers didn't know for sure whether he had hidden within Demongrass Swamp, he had an extra night to escape. The next day, however, the small raft was discovered half sunken near the shore, allowing his pursuers to determine where he was heading.

He had already predicted his pursuers would notice the traces he left. As he wasn't too familiar with the swampy terrain, he didn't manage to make it far in the night. He had to circle around quite a number of swampy areas without gaining much distance, so his pursuers were back on his tail just three short hours later.

Even so, they were still separated by a large swamp. He gave his pursuers the middle finger -- an insulting gesture he learned from Lorist -- and relaxed when he saw Blademaster Xanthi not giving chase.

His pursuers were unable to find a method to cross the swamp. The night before, Reidy had somehow managed to cross it by following the tree roots on the ground. Since they weren't too far apart, the pursuing soldiers fired volleys of arrows at him, causing the latter to miss the bow he left at the raft. Right now, he had no ability to retaliate. After cursing a few more times, he resumed his escape.

He ran out of rations two days later. Had it not been for the trail the water rats left on the snow, he wouldn't have been able to locate their nest. He feasted on them to fill his stomach and had a good night's rest. He would have already collapsed from exhaustion otherwise.

Not a lot of snow fell during the night, however. When the sun rose on the next day, his pursuers and their hunting dogs quickly caught his trail, forcing him to go on the run once more. When he finally arrived at a place near Egret Lake, he despaired when he saw a large troupe of soldiers with a dozen knights waiting for him. Sandwiched between two groups of enemies, Reidy laughed bitterly and drew his sword. As his teacher once said, 'kill one, make up for the loss; kill two, profit by one.' It was time to see how much 'profit' he could make with his life.

Chapter 356 Second Highness, The Path Seeker

Seeing the knights in front approach, Reidy suddenly thought of something: where did his pursuers get their mounts? Even Blademaster Xanthi had to walk on her feet during the pursuit, so how were those knights able to find a mount? Unless they came from the other direction...

As expected, the knights ahead stopped before they reached him.

"Who are you and the others over there?" asked the knight.

Reidy squinted and realized the knights were bearing the tri-colored griffin insignia of the imperial family. In other words, they were knights of the Andinaq royal family and subordinates of the second highness.

While Lorist wasn't too fond of the second highness in private, officially he was still considered a duke of the kingdom.

Reidy breathed a sigh and slumped on the ground, before taking out a silver ragebear badge and announcing, "I'm a subordinate of the Duke of The Northlands and also a knight of House Norton. Those behind me are pursuers from the Shabaj and Handra duchies. Please help me get out of this predicament."

The pursuers were already approaching and saw Reidy with the knights and around a hundred soldiers. The duchy's men didn't rush towards the knights, they stopped to gather their comrades, letting honks of low baritone resonate across the landscape.

After seeing the soldiers pursuing Reidy's equipment, the mounted knights believed him.

One laughed and said, "Very well, we were just starting to feel rather. I didn't think the duchy would actually serve themselves on a platter like this. Brother, you did well. Let us handle them for you."

With a loud cry and a crack of the whip, the knight launched forward. His companions also joined the fray without fear. And so, the six knights stormed the snow-covered lands, leaving a trail of trodden snow in their wake.

"Hey! Come back, the enemy's main force isn't here yet! There are three blademasters behind them!" cried Reidy to the best of his ability.

None of the hot-blooded knights could hear his warning as they clashed with the several dozen duchy soldiers and began slaughtering away.

The clash between roughly 70 soldiers and six knights took place on a narrow path where the knights charged first. The soldiers couldn't get into proper formation in time and the scene that soon greeted them was nothing but nightmarish. More than 20 soldiers lay dead on the ground in a flash. The rest crumbled and attempted to escape. At that moment, they no longer cared about escaping the knights' slaughter, and instead focused on using their comrades to block their strikes so they could escape alive.

Reidy hurriedly stood up and waved his hands frantically. But the knights reveled too much in the killing and didn't bother with him. Either that or they thought he was actually cheering them on.

Soon, a figure clad in a black cloak suddenly cut in front of one of them. The latter didn't mind and merely pointed his lance at the figure's torso. To him, a mere footsoldier couldn't evade his strike and would end up skewered. However, a sword flashed and the knight felt the lance in his hand lighten by at least half. He saw his body fall to the ground, with the headless stump above his neck spurting blood all over his decapitated head. Just as he saw nothing but blood in front of him, a flash of a blade caused him to feel as if he were flying higher and higher in the sky as his consciousness faded into nothingness.

The knight's death was quickly noticed by his five comrades, who turned and charged angrily at the cloaked figure. With agile movements, the figure cut another knight in two and slashed the mount of a third. Its rider fell haphazardly to the ground. It didn't take long for a blade to meet his neck.

The first to charge quickly snapped out of it and yelled, "Run! It's a blademaster!"

Thus, the three remaining knights frantically escaped. The first didn't forget to grab hold of the reins of a mount whose master was cut apart. The figure in black didn't give chase either, probably as a result of being tired out during the confrontation with five knights. The figure remained at the same spot even after the three surviving knights made it back to Reidy.

The first knight breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the figure didn't give chase.

Instead, he asked Reidy with a grim face, "What did you do to have a blademaster on your tail?"

"Didn't you hear me calling you back just now? Let's go, quick. There are two other blademasters coming," answered he bitterly.

The three knights were instantly shocked.

"Really?"

"Yes. Let's move!" Reidy exclaimed, "That guy was Shabaj's blademaster. The two that aren't here are even more powerful."

"You should get mounted too. His Majesty is back there and also has a blademaster with him. If can get to him, all will be well," decided the first knight.

It went without saying that the soldiers who accompanied the knights on their scouting mission would have to turn tail right away after making it there, for the sake of their own lives no less.

"I need some food," said Reidy as he mounted the free horse.

While he didn't feel the chills despite his tattered clothing when on the run, the breeze that blew against him when he mounted the horse felt like blades of ice against his skin.

One knight tossed him a liquor flask. He gulped it down and felt his body warm up.

"Thanks. Now, where's His Majesty?"

"He's just ahead. We'll see him in about 30 minutes. We set up camp on a mound nearby," replied the knight.

"How many blademasters does His Majesty have with him? What are their ranks?"

"One rank 1 blademaster, Manst. But we have two gold-ranked knights and a regiment of roughly a thousand men."

"No way. His Majesty will also have to move soon as well. I don't think those forces can hold back the pursuers," said Reidy sincerely.

"Brother, I'm really curious, what did you do to make them send three blademasters after you. Heavens, even the empire's most wanted criminals didn't get this kind of treatment," the knight said, "Whatever, don't say if you don't feel like it. I doubt I'd like to hear you brag. It's better if you tell His Majesty yourself. I bet he would be interested. As for whether we'll retreat or not, that's up to His Majesty."

"Why did you guys come here in winter? You mentioned you were surveying?" Reidy remembered the complaints uttered by the knights earlier and understood the second highness was there to find a route he could use to go around the Centerlake Island citadel. Perhaps, he was trying to launch a surprise attack on the four central duchies.

It was no wonder the knights didn't really mind they were being chased by three blademasters. They knew since Reidy was able to escape and encounter them, he would surely be more familiar with the route through Egret Basin. If they brought him to the second highness, it would save them the trouble of surveying the route.

It was too bad even Reidy himself didn't know how he had gotten through Egret Basin. It was almost a miracle he managed to make it this far. He was at his wits' end and couldn't be bothered to memorize the route. He had only survived thanks to his amazing ability to adapt. He took quite a few risks to travel around by swinging from tree to tree through the swamplands. This was the sole reason he could maintain a good distance between him and his pursuers.

As expected, the second highness was quick to recognize Reidy when he arrived at the campsite.

"Aren't you Reidy, Lorist's eldest disciple? Why do you look so haggard?"

Reidy didn't bother with too many formalities and made a simple knight's salute.

"Your Majesty, I require a bath and fresh clothes as well as a meal before I can tell you my story."

After a bath, Reidy was brought to the second highness's tent. The monarch pointed to the table filled with food.

"You can eat as you tell me about it. My knights told me you had three blademasters chasing you. I'm really curious what caused all this."

Reidy wolfed down a piece of roast meat and took a huge gulp of wine before he spoke.

"I was traveling in the four central duchies and bumped into Duke Fisablen's envoy sent to forge an alliance between the two powers. I killed him, but he turned out to be the duke's nephew. They've been hunting me down ever since. I think it's been two months now."

"Two months?" the second highness exclaimed, shocked, "That can't be. If this were true, my informants should have noticed and notified me by now. I haven't a single word, not a whisper."

Reidy continued to stuff food down his throat.

"I'm telling the truth, Your Majesty. While Handra and Shabaj might attempt to hide the incident, I'm sure you can ask your informants whether they saw a wanted notice issued two months ago. I should be the one on the notice."

"Alright. So you killed an envoy and they don't intend to let you off. Since they've been chasing you for so long, I doubt they'd stop until they bring your head to Fisablen. Don't worry, you're safe now that you've made it here. The Handras and Shabaj duchies' blademasters aren't a concern," the second highness said casually, "I'm really curious how you managed to cross Egret Basin. I hope you can tell me."

Reidy shook his head.

"My apologies, Your Majesty, I'm afraid it won't be of much use. There's no way a group of soldiers can be led through the basin. I spent a whole month running from Handra to Shabaj before I entered Egret Basin. It took me another 20 days to make it here. I'm not familiar with the terrain, I just kept heading in the general direction of Egret Lake as best I could and circled around the swamps I came across. I've never considered actually crossing the swamps, and half the time I managed to find a route was thanks to luck.

"The three blademasters and their soldier had to rely on hunters that live nearby, many of whom brought hunting dogs with them. That's why they were able to track me for so long. They are all traveling on foot. Egret Basin can't be crossed with cavalry. Sending only infantry to attack the duchies isn't only risky, it's suicide."

Reidy wasn't wrong. The four central duchies were not like Frederika at all. With Frederika, one could reach the city in just a night after crossing Cloudsnap Mountains. But Egret Basin… even if the second highness brought tens of thousands of foot soldiers across, there was no city or town he could attack quickly. In fact, he'd be exposing his position and allowing the duchies' cavalry forces to wipe him out. Tens of thousands of infantrymen would still fall to the charge of mounted cavalry.

"What if we wait for winter to set in? Perhaps the swamps will freeze and we can take carriages with supplies as well?" asked the second highness stubbornly.

Reidy smiled bitterly.

"I doubt I'm qualified to answer this question. All I can suggest is that you seek out the hunters that live in the swamps and ask their advice."

"Well, that..." said the second highness hesitantly. There wasn't anybody living in the part of Egret Basin near the kingdom. The second highness couldn't consult anyone even if he wanted to. That was why he sent his subordinates out to scout in the first place.

"Oh, didn't you say the duchy's soldiers you found natives living in the vicinity with hunting dogs? I just have to capture one and ask them, right?" said the second highness after he thought up his magnificent idea.

"Your Majesty," Reidy sighed, "I think it's best you worry about your safety first and retreat. While the blademasters of Shabaj and Handra aren't much -- I can easily take more than a hundred strikes from either of them one on one -- Duke Fisablen sent his lover, Blademaster Xanthi. That old hag's moves are rather odd. Even though she was already a rank 2 blademaster a few years back, I couldn't even take one of her strikes during our last encounter.

"Your Majesty's the leader of a kingdom and bears a heavy responsibility. Since you only brought a thousand men to scout the swamp, I worry the old hag will target you when she finds out. To be frank, I doubt these soldiers can take the combined assault of three blademasters. If anything bad happens to you, the kingdom will be gone."

All of a sudden, a figure of a stern old man appeared in the tent. It was Blademaster Manst, the second highness's protector. When Reidy first entered the tent, he could tell there was another light set of breathing.

Blademaster Manst looked at Reidy in a flabbergasted manner. The latter stared back curiously.

"You fought Blademaster Xanthi and didn't manage to receive even one of her strikes?" he asked after a moment.

Reidy nodded.

Angered, the old man exclaimed, "Nonsense. If you couldn't even take one strike, you would've been dead! How could you have escaped?!"

Reidy got angry.

"Are you calling me a liar?" he shouted, "Old man, take a closer look. The wounds on my chest, shoulder, and thigh were all left by that old woman. I only managed to escape because I jumped into a nearby river."

Blademaster Manst inspected Reidy's wounds closely and sighed before he turned to the second highness.

"Your Majesty, it's best if we retreat for now. If Blademaster Xanthi comes, I doubt I can protect you."

"Aren't you about to break through to the second rank soon?" the second highness asked, surprised, "Do you think you can't match Blademaster Xanthi?"

The old man nodded.

"Your Majesty, I'm still only just preparing to break through. Blademaster Xanthi has been at the second rank for twenty years. I could tell her swordsmanship has improved considerably from this guy's wounds. To be honest, I doubt I can last ten strikes. For your safety, I think it's best if Your Majesty returns to the main camp..."

Before he finished, an alarm sounded outside the tent. The enemy was already here.

Chapter 357 The Second Highness's Strategy

Right after they exited the tent, they heard the loud cry of an eagle from afar. Upon raising their heads, they saw a large golden eagle flying past campgrounds into the distance.

"I didn't think a place like Egret Lake would be home to such a magnificent gold eagle," the second highness praised, "It's a shame we don't have the time to go check out where its nest is."

Reidy was completely flabbergasted that the second highness could still spare attention for something as so trivial despite the presence of three blademasters and the duchy's forces.

Given that he had already experienced his fair share of battles and had lots of experience, the second highness didn't just set up his camp casually. He chose a hill that only had a small path leading to the peak. The area around the mound was muddy and uneven with peaks and troughs up to tens of meters. While it made it easier to defend, it also meant the enemy could overwhelm the defenders and trap them on the hill.

The two duchies' soldiers gathered in the distance with a few men, probably silver-ranked knights, giving instructions from the front. Not far away, three blademasters with differently colored cloaks stood on a small mound to take a good look at the army camp. Even they hadn't expected to bump into the Andinaq kingdom's king here during winter. However, they quickly understood why the second highness had come.

"Ptooey! This stupid king really won't give up until he ends the four central duchies! He even came here to scout a path in this kind of weather? Fortunately, he bumped into us. It doesn't look like he brought many troops with him. Should we go mess with him?" asked the blademaster from Shabaj hatefully.

The Handra blademaster analyzed the camp.

"It seems our luck is rather good. The king didn't bring a lot of men with him, only about a thousand. Our duchies have deployed a regiment each. We should have double their number. The king will have brought men stronger than our own, though, and we're the attackers, so we're at a disadvantage. Also, the soldiers sent with us are here on a capture mission. They don't have equipment suited for attacking an entrenched position. If we insist on taking the hill, we'll have to suffer lots of casualties.

"There should be a blademaster by the king's side at all times. If that cursed Norton boy joins hands with the blademaster, it'll be enough to deal with the two of us. The only advantage we have is Blademaster Xanthi and House Fisablen's silver-ranked guards. If she's willing to step in, I believe the king will definitely regret leaving his main force behind."

The Handra blademaster seemed far more clear-headed than the other. He understood Xanthi was the one in charge in the end, so he didn't bother to think up any plans. Neither he nor the Shabaj blademaster could take 100 of Xanthi's strikes even while working together. He wondered whether she might have broken through the rank 3 already.

Xanthi was also checking out the camp. When she heard the two blademasters talk, she turned around.

"I have two questions. First, are you certain the Norton boy managed to make it to the camp? Second, did the escaped knights and soldiers send anyone to pass on the message?" asked she.

Xanthi was worried the second highness had already sent for reinforcements. If that were the case and they didn't act fast, they would eventually be swamped by the main force. Even a rank 2 blademaster like her couldn't face waves of formations one after the other. If one didn't care about casualties, it was indeed possible to kill blademasters by sending waves of men into the grinder.

"I am certain the boy made it," the Shabaj blademaster said before he called a few soldiers over, "After seeing the Andinaq kingdom knights and soldiers retreat, these men tailed them all the way to their camp. Let them describe the situation to you."

The leader of the soldiers bowed.

"Revered Blademasters, when we arrived, we saw our target enter the camp with a few other knights. The rest of their soldiers soon entered the camp and the gates were closed. They haven't opened since. I left two men behind to continue monitoring the situation while I circled the hill with the rest of my men. The surrounding area has mounds upwards of 10 meters high. We couldn't climb into the camp, but those inside can't escape either."

"You did well," Xanthi nodded kindly, "I will remember your contributions."

The leader was so excited his face turned red. He bowed hurriedly before leaving. He didn't know that Xanthi had only made the comment off-handedly. She would've asked for the soldier's name if she really wanted to remember his deed.

Xanthi looked at the hill once more.

"Since we've already been on the chase for so long, we should see it through all the way. At least we won't return humiliated. Also, somehow we had the chance to meet that king and I happen to want to invite him to take a trip to the duchies. I'm sure your dukes would be incredibly welcoming of the king's visit."

Since Xanthi was willing to lend a hand, the matter would be concluded swiftly. The Handra and Shabaj blademasters called their two regiment leaders over and gave their instructions: they were to send three hundred archers to surround the other three sides of the hill and prevent anyone from leaving by rope and calling for reinforcements. The rest of the duchies' soldiers would gather at the main path leading up to the hill to cook and rest. At the same time, another group of soldiers would be sent to fell trees for wood to use as shields for the upcoming assault.

"Your Majesty, I think they're preparing to take action," said Gold-ranked Knight Ripleid with a solemn expression.

The second highness, Blademaster Manst, and Reidy all stood behind the camp's large wooden door and looked at the droves of enemies. They were as scurrying ants.

"Your Majesty, that person with the black cloak in the middle is Blademaster Xanthi. She's the shortest one. The other black-cloaked person beside her, the taller one, is the Shabaj blademaster. I don't know what he's called. He isn't that strong anyway. I fought him for over a hundred strikes and he wasn't able to do anything to me. The guy in the grey is the Handra blademaster. He's a bit stronger than the Shabaj one. I think he's called Bill-something," introduced Reidy.

"Billjack. We met on the battlefield once in Redlis," the second highness mused, "He isn't a match for Manst. If your claim of being able to hold the Shabaj blademaster, leave Billjack to Manst. I need to find a way to prevent Xanthi from breaking through our defenses. Great, this will be quick. Ripleid."

"I await your orders, Your Majesty," replied Ripleid as he came to attention.

"We brought a thousand man regiment this time around," the second highness continued after a moment of thoughtful silence, "Including the servants and laborers, we have roughly 1100 people in total. There's also the three gold-ranked knights: You, Molva, and I. Fortunately, we have 500 longbowmen, 200 shield bearers, and 300 pikemen. It's enough to force a blademaster of the third rank back.

"Ripleid, split the longbowmen into five groups and take up the pentagon formation by the entrance. Next, match the shield bearers and pikemen into groups of ten. They will be in charge of holding Xanthi's assault back and limiting the battlespace to force her into range of our longbowmen. As for you, Molva and I, we will each take five silver-ranked knights. Once Xanthi evades the arrow volleys, we'll charge in to force her back into the longbowmen's range,0 understood?"

"Yes, Your Majesty. I will start preparing now," replied Ripleid as he left in a hurry.

Reidy looked at the knight's back curiously.

"Your Majesty, will you be able to deal with a rank 2 blademaster like this?"

"Of course," the second highness laughed, "The combination of many normal soldiers and formations allows us to deal with high-tier fighters. It's a lesson we've learned from the centuries of warfare the empire has under its belt. As long as we stand our ground without escaping, we can even teach blademasters a lesson or two. Don't the Norton forces have a similar formation?"

"Well..." Reidy scratched his head embarrassedly, "Your Majesty, our forces have never run into situations like these before. We haven't had to do anything about it. Usually, when there's a blademaster in battle, His Grace would go out and deal with the threat himself. All our forces have to deal with are normal soldiers, whom are far from our match."

The second highness was shocked.

"What did you say?! Locke deals with blademasters personally?! I-I-Isn't he unable to break through to the silver rank?!"

"Actually, Your Majesty, my teacher trains in the ways of the ancient eastern combat monks. That's why his battleforce has always remained at the iron rank. However, most rank 2 blademasters aren't his match. Back when we defeated the second prince's 100 thousand troops, His Grace defeated Blademaster Xanthi once," said Reidy.

"You were serious when you said you could face the Shabaj blademaster?" pressed the second highness.

"Yes, Your Majesty. Teacher taught me the ancient eastern combat method as well. While my battleforce is stuck at the silver rank and I can no longer improve it, I defeated seven gold-ranked fighters at Duke Fisablen's knighthood tournament and won the championship," replied Reidy honestly.

"Very good. Since that's the case, I'm confident I can hold the camp. Reidy, you'll be in charge of dealing with Biljack. You just have to stall him, I'll let Manst deal with the weakest blademaster so we can take him out of the picture or at least wound him as quickly as possible. He'll help you out with Billjack. As long as those two blademasters are defeated, we'll stand a chance against Xanthi. Looking at the skies, I predict there'll be a snowstorm in a day or two. Given that the enemy didn't bring any resources to weather the winter, we'll see how they fare when the snow falls," said the second highness in high spirits without the slightest worry for the busy enemy troops at the foot of the hill.

The enemy rested for roughly four hours after lunch before launching their first attack. The duchy soldiers had originally intended to establish a foothold on the hillward path, but it had two sharp turns that exposed them to arrow fire even after they deployed their wooden shields. The first offensive was forced to retreat, leaving a trail of roughly 50 corpses.

It was evident even from the camp that they paid a hefty price for retreating without orders. The first six were beheaded publicly. After regrouping, the second attack was launched. It was worth noting that the two duchy blademasters had joined the group.

"Let them come. Have the longbowmen look out for Xanthi and fire whenever she makes a move. Make sure she isn't allowed to come here no matter what. I leave the two blademasters to you two. Manst, Reidy, don't let me down. As for the other small fry, I hope you'll deal with them, Ripleid. Instruct the shield bearers to keep an eye out for the enemy's longbowmen," barked the second highness as he watched the enemy climb the hill.

"Understood, Your Majesty."

The two blademasters didn't expect their advance to go unopposed. They arrived at the camp gates without much effort at all. They couldn't help but wonder why. They had been expecting to be hit by a volley of arrows like before; the reason the two blademasters came up with the rest of the soldiers in the first place was to nullify the damage the longbowmen could do so Xanthi could make a sudden follow-up attack. But when they saw Reidy and Manst stepping out to receive them, they knew that their plan had gone awry.

There were only a little over a hundred duchy soldiers accompanying the two blademasters. Thanks to the wooden shields were already deployed, there were only ten or so shield bearers and longbowmen among their ranks, alongside 20 or so pikemen with the rest empty-handed. Given they had to hold wooden shields with both hands, they could only draw the daggers and shortswords they brought with them. Faced with Ripleid and five other knights' charge, all they could do was cry out in terror as they were cut down. A massacre.

The two blademasters were barely holding on against Reidy and Manst's savage assault. They could only hope for Xanthi's assistance. They didn't see that two of Xanthi's attempts to get up the hill was halted by volleys of arrows.

The second highness commanded his 500 archers to fire relentlessly at Xanthi to good effect. He didn't order them to shoot at Xanthi herself, but instead at the spots where Xanthi would land from a leap. She was forced to jump around like a circus monkey and couldn't gain much ground.

After Xanthi was forced back for the third time, she picked up a wooden shield, enrage, and ran up the hill. She got about halfway before the shield was shattered -- no longer able to withstand the concentrated volleys of arrows -- and she was forced back once more. All things considered, her physical constitution as a female and light, speedy sword style, it wasn't within her capabilities to rush uphill with a wooden shield like a barbarian. In fact, the second highness would welcome several more attempts -- having the archers fire at one concentrated spot was far more effective. The combined force of 100 arrows against the wooden shield was not something a normal person could bear.

"Agh!" cried Shabaj's blademaster as he clutched his right side with his left hand, bleeding from Manst's strike.

"What's up with you?" asked Billjack after he forced Reidy away and headed to his partner.

"I got hit over here, but such a small scratch won't kill me. Is Blademaster Xanthi here yet?" asked Shabaj's blademaster with grit teeth.

Billjack took a glance at the foot of the hill before hurriedly turning back to block an attack.

"What's going on? Why isn't she rushing up?" wondered he.

Seeing their enemies already on the brink of breaking down, Manst and Reidy intensified their attacks in a desperate attempt to force the blademasters to remain. Billjack protected his companion as he retreated slowly until he reached the side of the hill.

All of a sudden, Billjack threw his longsword towards Manst and used the opening it created to roll down the hill with his comrade in his arms. Reidy leaped down and struck out with his sword. He managed to land a cut on Billjack's left thigh.

"Ugh!" cried the two blademasters as they rolled down the hill before the duchies' soldiers dragged them to safety.

"What a shame. I didn't think those two would actually use such a method to escape. If we had a squad of archers on standby, they'd have been pincushions by now," the second highness said, slightly regretful, "Then again, it's already a better result than I hoped for. Those two have been incapacitated, so let's see how Xanthi plans to make her way up here by herself."

When evening came, snow began drifting down from the grey sky like the feathers of a swan.

Chapter 358 Made it in Time

Even though the second highness felt like crying, he didn't even have the tears to do so. Corpses lay sprawled all over the bloodied ground covered in a thick layer of snow. The soldiers fortunate enough to survive were flipping around the corpses of their comrades in hopes of finding other injured survivors.

The sky seemed to glitter as the snow fell. The snowflakes were no longer as large as a swan's feather, though. The dark of the sky stood in stark contrast with the pure white on the ground, so bright it almost seemed eye-piercing. One look would bring tears to the eyes.

The second highness looked at the enemy camp with bloodshot eyes. Over there was a large bonfire and songs and cheers of the victorious. Within a single bone-chilling night of snow when both armies unable to fight, Blademaster Xanthi actually scaled the sides of the hill to enter the campsite using a human ladder. Her sudden appearance caught the second highness and his silver-ranked knights off-guard, allowing her to slaughter away in the camp.

Ripleid came over wearing a thick bandage on his head that covered the cut. It looked just like a large hat. It was the mark Xanthi had left him. If her cut had been the slightest bit lower, not only would Ripleid have lost an eye, his face might also have ended up disfigured.

"We just finished the casualty count, Your Majesty," said Ripleid, kneeling.

"Out with it. I'm listening."

"There are 189 casualties among the longbowmen, 128 of whom are dead. The other 61 are no longer combat capable. The pikemen suffered the worst of it. Of the three squads, there are 247 dead. The remaining 53 are mostly injured. Only 45 shield bearers died with another 51 injured. We only have one combat capable squad remaining. Twenty-two of our servants and laborers were killed as well," reported Ripleid as he read the beastskin in his hand.

The second highness waved his hand, annoyed.

"How are our knights?"

"We only have seven silver-ranked knights left. Even Knight Molva was injured. He wasn't as lucky as me. He needs three months to recover. Blademaster Manst is fine, but Reidy of suffered another injury to his shoulder."

"In other words, we lost about half our combat strength in a single night," sighed the second highness.

"This isn't your fault, Your Majesty. None of us thought the enemy would attack from the sides of the hill. The two squads of longbowmen we stationed at the gates were useless."

"I've always been known for my surprise attacks, but after last night, I finally get to know how it feels to be on the receiving end. It was due to my carelessness alone. I forgot I wasn't dealing with normal soldiers, but a rank 2 blademaster instead. Had I not been numbed by the victory yesterday and thought everything was under control... I should've understood that one shouldn't follow the common train of thought when dealing with blademasters. If I had thought of this earlier, I could've set a trap in the camp and bit back at Xanthi instead of sustaining such terrible losses," said the second highness with a raspy laugh.

"Your Majesty, you shouldn't blame yourself. It is we, your subordinates, who were incompetent and unable to resist the enemy. Given we already lost most of our forces, I was thinking it's about time we handed Reidy to the enemies and come to an agreement to stop fighting. After all, they came here for that kid and even chased him for so long," expressed Ripleid after seeing that nobody else was around.

The second highness laughed bitterly.

"Ripleid, I understand you make this suggestion out of your loyalty for me and consideration for my safety. But you don't seem to understand that their target changed to me the moment they saw my banner. This matter will not end if we hand Reidy over. Also, as the king, while I can allow my own knights to make sacrifices for my sake, I can definitely not surrender my loyal servants to the enemy for a truce. This is something that goes against the honor of being a king."

Seeing Ripleid attempt once more to convince him, the second highness waved his hand.

"I know your thoughts. You're going to say that even though the Nortons are on our side on the surface, that's not actually the case, right? I know he's let my hopes down a number of times, but he's still a duke of the kingdom and has already paid his dues. Even if there's conflict between the two of us, it's only one concerning our goals. What he cares about is the wellbeing of his subjects, while I want to reunite the former empire.

"You should respect the duke, Ripleid. Even though Reidy isn't my knight, I have the duty to ensure his safety. Reidy is Locke's eldest disciple that trains in the ancient combat arts of the eastern monks like he does. This goes to show how heavily Locke regards this disciple of his. As long as we can tough this predicament through, I am almost certain the duke will make it up to us. You don't need to convince me anymore. Make your preparations, our enemy will attack the moment the snow lets up."

Ripleid bowed deeply before leaving wordlessly.

Just as the second highness predicted, the skies brightened as noon approached. Snow fell no more and the duchies' soldiers below the hill made their preparations to attack. With high morale, they got into formation and prepared to scale the hill once more. Xanthi stood at the very front of the formation with tens of House Fisablen's silver-ranked guards behind her holding wooden shields.

Perhaps, this will be the last battle.

The second highness had the remaining 80 or so longbowmen split into four smaller squads. He no longer had the confidence to halt Xanthi's advance. Blademaster Manst stood beside him with a stern expression, prepared to resist Xanthi should she come over. While he didn't manage to fight her during the night attack, he knew there was no way he could match her.

Reidy was standing next to Manst with his shoulder heavily bandaged, the cloth died red with blood. It was the mark Xanthi left after the previous night's attack. While he managed to parry two of her strikes, the third struck his shoulder. Had it not been for Manst's prompt reinforcement, the next attack would have killed him.

Ripleid and the seven remaining knights formed the last shock troop unit. The second highness had left Reidy and Manst in charge of holding Xanthi back. Apart from the eight knights, everyone was there to deal with Xanthi alone. The knights had to hold the 2000 or so soldiers back. It was practically a suicide mission given the odds. Even if the duchies' soldiers are really that weak, sheer numbers was enough to make up for the difference. The only question was how much damage Ripleid and the knights could cause.

The bright cry of an eagle sounded in the skies once more. It was the majestic gold eagle they saw the previous day. It was circling the area.

Blademaster Manst gave it a regretful look.

"This eagle's rather intelligent. It knows a battle will break out soon and it'll have enough corpses to feed on later."

The second highness laughed.

"Blademaster Manst, you're mistaken. Only vultures and crows like to feed on corpses. Gold eagles are majestic, they won't feed on corpses. I bet it's here just because it's curious why there're so many people down here. After all, Egret Basin should usually be rather quiet, especially during winter."

After the low hum of a horn blown at the bottom of the hill, the battle began.

The first wave of attacks ended within thirty short minutes with Xanthi unable to wreak much havoc. Even though she managed to make it to the top of the hill, she didn't think the second highness would have everyone in the camp target her. Given that it was daytime, she wasn't able to hide easily like she could in the dark of night. Under the second highness's flawless instructions, the soldiers forced the blademaster to retreat after seeing that she couldn't achieve much.

Ripleid and the eight knights were sweating non-stop. They had just managed to stop the soldiers from advancing with the help of tens of servants so they didn't have to charge out yet. They just had to throw lumber down the mound to break the formations on the slope, scrambling their ranks and disrupting their synergy with Xanthi.

After half an hour of rest, the soldiers at the base of the hill prepared for another attack. This time around, Xanthi no longer tried to enter the camp herself. It seemed she intended to join the soldiers in the climb up the slope so he wouldn't be the focal point of the second highness's attack. But right after the duchies' soldiers were given their briefing, loud cries sounded from afar. They rumbled the ears.

Almost everyone looked in the direction of a snowy slope to the north. Nobody knew when a silhouette appeared there. The person had two long and thin pieces of wood strapped to both feet with each hand holding a black, curved stick. The silhouette pushed against the ground with the sticks and soared down the slope. It really did look like flight to the second highness. He never imagined anyone could travel down such a steep slope so quickly and only leave a trail of lines behind.

Normally, one would have to walk down the slope step by step or roll downwards horizontally. But the latter method wouldn't work when the slope was littered with rocks. Yet, the figure swerving down the slope could change direction swiftly and made it to the bottom in a few blinks of the eye.

"We're saved! We're saved! His Grace is here!"

The second highness' eyes widened.

"That… That's Locke? The Duke of The Northlands?"

"Yes, it's my teacher, the Duke of The Northlands, Norton Lorist! Your Majesty, there's no need to worry anymore. We're safe now," stammered Reidy.

"Nonsense, he can't deal with more than two thousand soldiers by himself, right? Xanthi is also here. I worry Duke Norton will be in danger as well. It's best to have him join up with us and face the enemy together," said Ripleid with rolled eyes.

Just like the second highness, he had never seen Lorist fight before and treated all the rumors about Lorist's ability as tall tales. For example, the second highness even though word of Lorist fighting at the frontlines himself was just a rumor made to boost the morale of his troops. There was no way an iron rank like Lorist was brave enough to try a stunt like that.

"Don't utter crap if you don't know my teacher," Reidy snapped, glaring at Ripleid, "His Grace would never do anything he wasn't confident he could do. Since he dares to attack the enemies down there, it means he doesn't even consider them a threat. Apart from Xanthi, the rest are only small fry to him."

Ignorant of what those on the hill were discussing, Lorist continued to advance towards the formation of duchy soldiers. Blademaster Billjack was the first to be bothered by Lorist's sudden appearance. Even though he had suffered a strike from Reidy on his left thigh, he was only slightly hampered, unlike the Shabaj blademaster, who was injured on the right side of his torso and laid resting back at the camp. While he wasn't in danger of dying, he needed at least three months to recover.

Dragging his injured leg along, Billjack limped forward, drew his sword, and called out, "Stop! Who goes there?! Announce your identity and purpose!"

"Idiot..." Lorist didn't bother to decelerate and handed the stick in his right hand to his left before he drew the longsword hanging by his waist.

Since the newcomer was definitely an enemy, Billjack roared and positioned his injured leg to his back with his right leg in front as he turned the sword in his hand into a bolt of lightning and cast it in Lorist's direction.

Clang! The loud clash of swords reverberated throughout in the area, yet, Lorist's longsword didn't fall to the ground like everyone expected. Lorist had flicked his wrist and positioned his sword horizontally as he swooped past the blademaster.

Billjack remained standing in an odd position. A cold breeze blew by and the onlookers realized his figure shook from the wind. His head fell to the ground, rolling, before his headless body collapsed, dying the snow red.

Billjack was beheaded with only one strike. Almost all the soldiers gasped in complete shock and took an unconscious step back. They realized someone far stronger than Xanthi had arrived. Even she required three or four moves to defeat Billjack, this had been confirmed by some of their earlier sparring sessions.

Lorist circled around and stopped in front of Xanthi like nobody's business before he stuck the two sticks into the ground and took off the skis tied to his feet. He removed his scarf and smiled.

"It's my pleasure to meet you here, Blademaster Xanthi."

"How can it be you? Lorist? Why have you come here? Did you forget that y-you're the Duke of The Northlands?" exclaimed she, shocked.

Lorist furrowed his brow.

"So what? What stops me from coming over? Even His Majesty is here. Why can a duke like me not come to receive him? I also heard you've been taking care of my trouble-making disciple, so I came here to show you my gratitude."

"Oh, really? That's very nice of you," Xanthi said before she laughed wryly.

Her expression turned serious and she drew her sword.

"Enough with your nonsense. Norton brat, since you dared to come here today, don't think I'll let you go back in one piece! En garde!"

Becoming one with her sword, Xanthi closed in on Lorist in an instant.

Chapter 359 Captive

This was already the best Blademaster Xanthi's could do. Ever since she broke through to become a rank 3 blademaster a year ago, she had never executed a move she felt was so perfect it was her ultimate move. It was swift and ephemeral, yet bright like the stars. Seeing Lorist just about to be enveloped by the sword flashes in his surroundings, Xanthi's lips curved into a smile.

Do you still think I'm that rank 2 blademaster from a few years ago? Hmph, I'll show you this isn't that soldier-surrounded duke's mansion where you acted so haughty. I won't go easy on you this time. You will learn your lesson today, Locke, my boy. Let's see whether you still dare to trick my beloved Sylvia after this... You and the sweet words with which you misled her... I'll only spare you when you kneel before my duke and sign countless treaties of surrender...

Though she already had it all planned out, her confidence was shattered by three strikes from Lorist's longsword.

Clang clang clang! The sound of clashing metal exploded from the swords' contact point. The starlight-filled surroundings vanished. Not only did the longsword Lorist casually waved accurately parry the three killing blows hidden in the starlight, the counterforce from those parries even forced Xanthi backwards in an arc across the sky. She couldn't launch any more attacks.

"Left shoulder, right torso, and right chest? Oh, and my thigh," Lorist mused as he easily deduced the targets of Xanthi's strikes with a drunk smile, "We haven't met for a few years now, have we? And to think you've become a rank 3 blademaster... It's too bad while your force did increase, your swordsmanship didn't improve at all. You're still going about it with the same approach. It seems you only broke through thanks to luck instead of some transformative realization."

Xanthi was flabbergasted.

"You... How could you take my attacks?"

"Take your attacks?" Lorist mused curiously, "Should it have been difficult? It wasn't to me, at least. I already know your sword style by heart. I can even fight you blind. Didn't you see it earlier? Stop overreacting to everything, sheesh."

While Lorist made it sound easy, Xanthi's face went pale.

"You're mocking me, aren't you?" she said gritting her teeth.

Lorist shrugged.

"If that's what you think, I can't change your mind. I was only speaking the truth."

"I'll show you!" cried Xanthi as she rushed over again.

It was too bad her frenzied attacks were completely ineffective. Lorist deflected every one of her strikes patiently and confidently as he commentated.

"Oh, this strike was insidious... You actually tried to pierce me there and end my family line? Well, you were just a little bit off. Hha, you weren't able to do it!"

"Whoa! You had that move as well? Heh, I blocked it anyway. Didn't I give you some pointers before? Mere speed is useless. You need accuracy as well."

"Only three of your ten strikes managed to connect. The other seven were only wasted effort. Why don't you understand something so simple at your level?"

Xanthi was so mad she almost coughed out blood.

How is he so shameless, to even mock me during our duel!

Lorist used the opening and put his sword to the side before he gave Xanthi a huge kick, sending her a few steps back before she kneeled on the ground and coughed up blood three times.

Despite having gotten in a cheap strike, Lorist didn't stop.

"Once one reaches the blademaster level, one shouldn't only pay attention to the sword in one's hand. One must forge oneself into a sword. This is the true essence of what it means to break through to the blademaster level, understand? The tricks you manage with the sword in your hand are limited at best. Considering your relationship with Sylvia, I'll spare you this time. You may scoot now."

Hack! Xanthi spat out another mouthful of blood before she stood up, her hair all messed up, and rubbed off the trace of blood on her mouth.

Raising her sword, she proclaimed, "You don't have to care about what Sylvia thinks. I won't let you be together with her. It was I who disturbed your date. I'll never let Sylvia become the woman of an adulterous, unambitious man! Kill me if you can!"

Lorist laughed bitterly.

"Oh please, old hag, it was Sylvia who the first move. When I accepted her feelings and wanted to give her a happy future, Duke Fisablen refused my request. In the end, you simply just don't take House Norton seriously, do you? Very well, I'll educate you right here and now before I settle the bills with House Fisablen after new year's. I'll have you guys kneel before me and beg me to wed Sylvia."

"Dream on!" cried Xanthi like a haggard woman.

She had none of the poise expected of a blademaster. She retreated into the formation of soldiers and pointed her sword at Lorist.

"Attack! Turn him into mincemeat!"

"Kill!" cried the soldiers.

Almost two thousand men rushed over with their weapons. It was a charge most rank 3 blademasters had to evade at all costs. Xanthi was not mistaken in her decision. Since her own power wasn't enough, she'd just swamp Lorist with numbers. Two thousand well-equipped men would grind even metal into dust.

While a few hundred won't be a threat to a blademaster, two thousand elite soldiers are more than enough to push you into a corner! I'll launch surprise attacks while hiding among them. Perhaps the scales of victory will tip in my favor.

Xanthi widened her eyes and followed Lorist's every movement. She would intercept him and push him back into the group the moment he backed off. She didn't expect Lorist's reaction.

Seeing the soldiers of the duchies run over, Lorist didn't tense up. He revealed a look of excitement, the look a predator would show when they spotted their prey.

"Come on!" yelled Lorist before he ran forward.

Whoosh! Before they even arrived, arrows flow over their heads straight for Lorist. The unit of about five hundred longbowmen had fired a volley, but they didn't expect Lorist would run forward. They had covered everywhere to whichhe could possibly dodge, but his charge rendered the whole volley useless.

"Kill!"

He had already made it into the middle of the formation. Where his swords passed, heads rolled from shoulders and blood arced into the air. The sword flash covered a circle around him and carved out an empty space. His figure could hardly be seen as he moved about at breakneck speed. His sword moved so fast it almost seemed like he was carelessly 'spilling' sword light. Not one of the soldiers were able to see him clearly. All they could register in their vision was the sight of their comrades falling like felled timber one after another nonstop.

All of a sudden, he appeared at the rear of the formation and began his slaughter of the longbowmen and crossbowmen. When there was nobody left, he looked back and saw the trail of corpses he left in his wake.

Someone dropped his weapon with an audible thud. It was like a predetermined signal, everyone's morale left them at that moment.

"De-demon!" cried the soldiers before they discarded their weapons and ran around like ants who had lost their way. The only thought on their minds was to make it as far from Lorist as possible.

"Attack!" cried a group of men from the hill.

The second highness personally led his troops to join the fight. Lorist blurred and re-appeared in front of the dumbstruck Xanthi.

"Hehe, any other tricks left up your sleeve, my dear Blademaster Xanthi?"

Xanthi pierced out with her sword, but it didn't even tear Lorist's clothes.

"Just surrender. On Sylvia's behalf, I will grant you treatment befitting of a blademaster and captive. You have no choice left. Put down your sword," advised Lorist.

Upon mention of Sylvia, Xanthi snapped out of her stupor. Angered by Lorist's advice, she growled.

"I will definitely not let you humiliate me! I still have a choice. I can die here and Sylvia will know her adoptive mother was killed by you!"

Xanthi rushed forward with crazy fervor. She didn't even bother to use any of her skills. She focused solely on shoving her sword through Lorist's chest. She'd rather die than surrender to him.

Looks like there's no convincing her, thought Lorist, annoyed.

He had considered whether he should just off the hag already, but he wasn't sure how he should break it to Sylvia if he did. 'Honey, I cut your mother in eight,' didn't sound really pleasing to the ear.

The issue was that, while killing Xanthi was easy to say the least, capturing her alive and unharmed wasn't, especially with how she was acting now. Lorist might even get bitten, and he even believed a rank 3 blademaster like her would actually go through with it.

"Enough is enough."

Xanthi didn't respond, she just continued her charge.

"You're really asking for it," barked Lorist angrily as he twisted his sword to deflect the incoming strike.

He flipped his hand again and slap the flat of the blade against Xanthi's left cheek. With a soft crack, two of Xanthi's teeth fell out of her mouth.

"I'll show you--"

Before she could finish, Lorist angled his sword upward to block the strike and suddenly appeared directly in front of her. Shocked, she tried to duck, only to be the slightest bit too late to avoid the fist Lorist thrust at her abdomen.

"Oof!" growled she in pain as she curled up like a shrimp being cooked.

She was unable to wield her sword and clutched her stomach with both her hands, mouth open as if she was going to puke at any moment. Seeing her reaction, and not wanting to be puked on, Lorist gave her a kick and sent her flying.

Xanthi's body flew high in the air but landed not far away. She had vomited mid-air. Lorist had to duck to avoid the filth falling from the sky.

With a thud, she landed on a patch of stained, snowy ground, rolled for a while, and stopped in front of the second highness's mount. The moment the second highness saw her, he was so terrified of being attacked he instinctively raised his lance and placed it close to her throat.

But when she opened her eyes and saw who was in front of her, she instantly said, "Spare me, I surrender..." and fainted.

The second highness and Lorist, who had just rushed over, crossed gazes in an awkward moment. There was an unspoken tradition among the nobles that the person one surrendered to would be one's captor. Taking another's captive and victory was also considered a shameful practice.

The problem here was that Lorist was the one who defeated Xanthi, yet the second highness was the one she surrendered to. It made her the second highness's captive and Lorist didn't have any rights to deal with her.

The second highness wasn't faring any better either. He had wanted to welcome Lorist's arrival, but he didn't think Xanthi would pull something like that. As a noble and king, he had the obligation to ensure the safety of his captive. However, he was here to congratulate Lorist on defeating her instead of taking her captive. In some sense, the second highness had inadvertently stolen the fruit of Lorist's hard work.

The second highness's face flushed as he struggled to think of something appropriate to say. Manst, Ripleid, and Reidy arrived at that moment.

Lorist hurriedly said, "Congratulations, Your Majesty! This hag has been troubling me for so long, and to think she would surrender in fear when she saw you! Your Majesty's name truly strikes fear in the hearts of the enemy all over the continent!"

Thankfully, Lorist had said something quick to diffuse the awkward situation. He didn't feel like going through the trouble of thinking of what to do with Xanthi. He couldn't beat nor rebuke her, as she was Sylvia's adoptive mother. Not only would he have to show her fine hospitality, he couldn't even request a ransom for her release. Should Sylvia ever cry in front of him, he'd have to set Xanthi free respectfully and without complaint.

Since the hag hates me so much, I'll let the second highness deal with her. Let her suffer and learn from this experience. We'll see whether she dares to pull tricks like this again. You think you can worsen my relationship with the second highness like this? I won't fall for it, thought Lorist with glee.

"Your Majesty, Blademaster Xanthi is already a rank 3 blademaster. She fainted from sheer anger and isn't much wounded or in any danger. She'll recover with some rest. It would be best to give her some force-dispersing toxin as soon as possible to prevent her from doing anything when she wakes up."

"There won't be a need for this, will there? She's a rank 3 blademaster. She should honor her word..." answered the second highness awkwardly.

"Your Majesty, she's a woman. No man alive can predict her next move. She's also a blademaster, she can easily find an excuse or derive a way to push her mistakes onto someone else and leave without worry. Just in case, it's better to take precautions," insisted Lorist.

The second highness thought about that snowy night when Xanthi slaughtered his army and killed so many of his nothing.

Nodding, he hurriedly ordered, "Ripleid, fetch the toxin."

"Understood, Your Majesty," answered Ripleid before he left for the camp.

"Teacher..." Reidy finally got a chance to speak with Lorist.

Lorist whacked Reidy on the back of the head.

"You little arrogant bastard... You think getting first place in the tournament is a big deal? Now you know there are so many people stronger than you, right? This time, you were lucky that His Majesty offered you protection until I arrived. If I didn't get news of your whereabouts, you might be a corpse already!"

Reidy understood teacher was rebuking him out of concern.

"I understand, teacher. Did you come alone?"

Lorist smiled and pointed at the slope he had skied down.

"I wasn't alone. I only had a head start."

Everyone turned and saw a row of people standing atop the slope. They were all equipped with the ski and rod equipment Lorist had used. They had massive backpacks on their backs as well that made them rather bulky. They slid down the hillside less elegantly than Lorist had.

"Your Grace! You shamelessly attacked first before we arrived! We wasted our time coming here!" protested Els as he breathed heavily from all the rushing.

Chapter 360 Igloo

Tagging along behind Tarkel, Howard brought the 30 guards and Jisan and the gold eagle trainer, Morbinghan, with him. It was rather crowded around Lorist and Reidy. Seeing that Reidy was fine, Tarkel breathed a sigh of relief. He had been worried he would hear word of Reidy's demise along the way because he was the one that requested Reidy deal with the underground crime syndicates.

Howard hugged his senior apprentice-brother and complained about how tough the journey had been and the interesting things they saw along the way. Els instructed the 30 guards to set up a perimeter around Lorist after removing his skis to prevent any excited Andinaq soldiers clamoring down the hill from running into Lorist and the second highness.

The second highness had already dismounted and was coming over with a soldier. He analyzed the skis and their poles as he approached. After taking a good look at the whole thing, he put the skis down and stepped on the ski binding. Poles in hand, he gave it a small push… and fell.

Lorist struggled to resist the urge to laugh as he helped the second highness up.

"Your Majesty, this is called a ski. It's used to travel on snow. You have to have adequate training before you can master skiing. Nobody can learn how to ski just by watching someone do it once, especially considering you have to learn to balance on them. If Your Majesty doesn't mind learning from me, I wouldn't be averse to teaching you in my free time."

Not only did the second highness not get angry or embarrassed, he held Lorist's hand and praised him instead.

"Brother Locke, your house's new contraption is truly amazing! This is amazing for winter warfare! If a whole legion were trained to use skis, we could cover a lot of ground with good snow coverage and even circle around our enemy's forces! We'll have a definite advantage if we can access and attack the enemy's vulnerable rear!"

As expected of the second highness -- who shot to fame after a battle that took place during winter. The first thing he thought of was military utility.

Lorist shook his head.

"Your Majesty, this is included in the standard winter loadout for our soldiers. While up to a hundred people can move together effectively like this in the winter, even faster than horses, I'm afraid I can't use them offensively on the scale of a division, not speak of a whole legion. It's no easy task."

The second highness quickly understood Lorist's meaning. The winter loadout for around a hundred scouts already cost quite a bit. Just looking at the equipment and fur mantles, which were all made of magic beast fur, it could be seen how expensive it was. While Lorist could afford to spend a little more to increase the efficacy of his guards in the winter, supplying a whole legion with such high-quality magic beast fur was a ridiculous expenditure. Perhaps all the other equipment in their loadout combined couldn't even match the fur clothing's cost.

"You're talking about this, right?" asked the second highness, pointing at the guards' clothes.

Lorist nodded.

"Your Majesty, skiing and marching in snow are different. While marching is rather tiring, your body moves constantly and generates a comfortable amount of heat. Skiing, in contrast, makes you move against the wind; the cold air will quickly cut through normal clothes and freeze you. And it's just the beginning of your troubles. The other is to make sure you don't lose your way. The winter weather changes whimsically, it would be the end of you if you ran into a snowstorm."

"But didn't you guys make it here safely?" the second highness countered with dissatisfaction, "The last couple of days' weather wasn't that good either."

Lorist sighed, turned around and pointed at Morbinham.

"That's because we had him, Your Majesty."

Morbinghan took out a jade-colored bone whistle and blew it. A loud high-pitched sound rang out, much to the second highness's surprise. The gold eagle circling around the area flew down and perched on Morbinghan's right arm. He stroked its feathers lovingly and brought out a piece of beef warmed by his body heat and fed it to the eagle.

"Is... Is this the gold eagle you brought with you?" the second highness asked, flabbergasted, "Did you rely on it to find us?"

"Indeed, Your Majesty. This gold eagle is a precious son to Morbinghan. They've lived together for more than a decade. It only listens Morbinghan. When I received word that Reidy was being pursued and had escaped to Egret Basin, I had Morbinghan instruct his eagle to find a place where many people were gathered. Had it not been for the eagle, we would have been searching for a needle in a haystack. We would have had to wish on luck to help us find you," explained Lorist briefly.

The second highness was no fool, he knew he shouldn't desire the gold eagle after hearing Lorist's words. He looked at the eagle with a slight blush of shame and a hint of regret.

"No wonder you were able to find us so quickly. So it was thanks to the gold eagle's help. I never thought they could be used like this. I only considered them pets that brought entertainment to nobles. If only I could train them to scout… A single eagle could stand in for a scout squad of 100 men."

"Your Majesty's idea sounds magnificent," Lorist laughed, "I should go back and experiment. I'd like to see if I could train a few eagles as scouts. Our soldiers wouldn't have worry about falling into a trap or ambush."

At that moment, Ripleid returned with some toxin and fed it to the messy-haired Xanthi, who had just regained consciousness. She obediently drank it as she stared hatefully at Lorist. She didn't bother to hide her seething enmity.

Seeing her taken away, the second highness asked, "Locke, let's head to the camp first. When are you preparing to return?"

Lorist looked at the skies and saw the weak sunlight blocked by the many clouds.

"A snowstorm is coming. We'll rest at Your Majesty's camp for a few days. My guards could really use the rest. They've been running all around the basin with me. I'll teach you to ski so you can start practicing soon and master it quickly while we rest."

Upon reaching the campsite, Lorist looked at the tents, dumbfounded.

"Your Majesty, are you letting your soldiers stay in those in this weather?"

"Yes," the second highness said a little proudly, "Even though the cloth is thin, it's actually made of double-layered linen and given an oil coating. This is more than enough cover against snow and rain. When the snow melts, the water won't soak it either.

"Your Majesty, a storm is coming and snow will pile up quickly. Many soldiers will get frostbite from the cold," said Lorist without hesitation.

"Well, that was the case a few years ago. However, we've made some changes over the years as well. We assigned them gloves and extra clothing, so the number of injured should be relatively low. Also, we brought a lot of frostbite medication with us," argued he.

"This is what we call 'building a carriage with its doors closed'. You should've asked if you had anything you didn't understand. Els, build an igloo outside the camp, you have an hour. Show the second highness the right way to camp in winter," instructed Lorist.

The poor Els had to get straight to work right after putting his heavy bag down. He didn't get any rest. But when he saw the tents, he knew it would already be lucky if anyone managed to get any sleep in the night, given that one could survive it and not freeze, that is.

With a beckon, 20 guards came over to help him. Within an hour, a squarish igloo was built in front of the second highness. Its design was really simple. It started with the laying of wooden blocks to use as a base. Snow as watered next to solidify it into bricks. The bricks were then stacked and the gaps between each watered lightly. The liquid was allowed to freeze before the next placed on top. The only hard part was the construction of the roof. First, a few wooden beams were laid over the walls from one edge to the other and watered lightly so the ice would hold them in place. Finally, the whole igloo was watered from top to bottom to secure it to the ground so even the largest storms wouldn't shake it. Els also set up a tent behind the igloo.

"The tent is there to prevent the cold from harming our bodies. You can light a brazier inside. While the outside is freezing, the igloo is actually rather warm. Els will have to make some holes for ventilation. The igloo doesn't have any doors, instead, we use a fur flap to keep the wind out,"

"Locke, my brother, how do you come out with all these great ideas?" the second highness asked.

"This discovery isn't mine to claim, Your Majesty," Lorist smiled, "It was the great adventurer, Carmen Pride, who lived around a century ago, that discovered this method. I bought his autobiography when I studied at Dawn Academy and this method was recorded in it. You should know I had to deal with the magic beast wave every winter in the wildlands ever since my return to the dominion, right? Had it not been for these igloos, we'd have lost too many men to the cold, we wouldn't have been able to take out the magic beast wave."

"Even though you weren't the one who invented this, it was you who actually put what you learned into practice," the second highness continued his praise, "If it were that easy, why hasn't anyone heard of this method before and tried it out? Being able to apply what you learn gives you the most credit, my dear Duke of The Northlands."

"You speak too highly of me, Your Majesty. It's still only afternoon, we have some time to build a couple more. It would help if we could use a few of your soldiers."

"Very well. Ripleid!" called the second highness.

And so, Ripleid was made the chief supervisor of the igloo construction project to aid Els with the restructuring of the campsite.

The evening's banquet was held in the largest one. The second highness was elated as Lorist's arrival spared him the fate of being taken prisoner. Instead, the tables turned on the enemy and he even managed to capture a blademaster. A few might have escaped without him noticing, but he didn't care. Leaving for the wilds in such heavy snow was suicidal, to say the least.

Lorist left all the captives to the second highness. He couldn't be bothered to bring the thousands back. He had spent quite a number of days searching for his apprentice, in just a couple more days it would be the 24th day of the 12th month. The return trip to Firmrock would take 15 days and Lorist had to rush because he wanted to make it to the new year's celebration where other nobles and his vassals were awaiting his participation. Fortunately, he didn't have to circle around Egret Basin anymore, he could just use the main path at Egret Lake. It should take just around ten days to travel to Firmrock Castle on skis without taking any useless turns.

Outside, the storm blew strong. But the candles in the igloo merely flickered, keeping the ones making merry within warm and lit.

Blademaster Manst respectfully toasted Loris.

"Your Grace, do you think Blademaster Xanthi has broken through to the third rank?"

Lorist knew the reason Manst came over to ask that question and nodded. "That's correct. When I fought her years ago, she was still only a rank 2. Even though I managed to defeat her back then, I fainted from physical and mental exhaustion and only woke up after three days of rest. In my duel with her today, her attacks seemed even more ferocious than before, which led me to that conclusion.

"I understand what you're trying to say. You're thinking that Blademaster Xanthi is a little undeserving to be called a rank 3, right? If she really were a rank 3 blademaster, she should've been able to easily kill you instead of having a few of her strikes blocked by you during your fight at the campsite yesterday.

"I believe you interpreted the situation a little wrong. First, the attack during the night was a surprise attack, and Xanthi used mainly hit-and-run tactics while you focused on defending the second highness with the best of your ability. As Xanthi couldn't afford to clash with you and get entangled in a fight, she instantly stepped back after testing your defense out. Another factor is not the power of her attacks, but rather your advantage in terms of elemental attribute. Your battleforce attribute is earth, right?"

Blademaster Manst nodded.

Lorist continued his explanation, "Xanti's battleforce attribute is wind, so her sword style using light, swift and agile movements. Yours is the complete opposite. You express your swordsmanship through heavy, accurate and powerful strikes. Even though she trumps you in terms of rank, if you defend with all your abilities, even she wouldn't be able to get the better of you. If there were no other soldiers pressuring Xanthi to escape, you would've lost in around a hundred strikes. Also, what do you think of Reidy's swordsmanship?"

Manst gave it some thought and said, "Even I wasn't as good as him when I was his age. His swordsmanship is impeccable and he excels in both offense and defense."

Lorist laughed and said, "But even he got injured by Xanthi during their clashes because his battleforce attribute is metal, an element that considers the best defense to be offense. That's the reason he was easily crushed by Xanthi from being unable to block those formless strikes like the wind."

Manst mused in deep thought, "Oh, so that's the case. Thank you, Your Grace, for your insight on the matter."

Raising his own golden cup for a toast, Lorist said, "You're welcome. Let's drink to this."

Wiping the sweat from his forehead, Lorist thought, you really believe what I made up just like that? You didn't even consider the fact that Reidy no longer trains in battleforce. How would he even have battleforce attribute?

Chapter 361 Drinking Session

The clouds were thick as the raving winds blew but the campsite on the hill was rife with activity. Thanks to Lorist's instruction, the second highness had learned how to ski and excitedly ordered his soldiers to pile up and flatten snow to make a skiing wonderland. He had lots of fun skiing with his knights despite the cold and windy weather.

Seeing the soldiers and knights on skis, Lorist felt moved somehow and thought that maybe he could spread winter sports across his dominion and make it a seasonal activity. It was far better than having his subjects stay in their homes all day long, at least. Then again, an exception would be the goat-tackling festival of Felicitas's third settlement.

It wasn't that Lorist didn't think of importing modern sports from his world, but that most were rather ill-suited for the world where battleforce existed. Take, for example, the three main ball games. Kicking a ball with battleforce would burst it outright, doing a slam dunk with the aid of battleforce would destroy the whole basket, and rugby was even further out of the question as battleforce rank and application would be the main deciding factors of victory. Frankly speaking, a gold-ranked knight could envelop himself in battleforce and run all the way to the other side of the field and score. His opponents wouldn't be able to do anything against him just because he was a gold rank.

As of now, the main sports within the dominion were swordsmanship, archery, javelin and throwing axe tossing and horse-riding, mostly traditional activities that had been passed down since days of yore. Lorist had once considered hosting a sports festival to lift his people's hearts but gave up after he realized how inappropriate the sports would be. He wasn't worried about there not being enough attendees either. In fact, a sports festival would be a great place to make the commoners spend their money and stimulate the economy instead of letting them keep their money saved and unused.

The second highness did a beautiful circular movement before stopping in front of Lorist. The surrounding guards clapped and cheered enthusiastically. Lorist clapped a few times himself.

"Your Majesty's skills are improving by the moment! You are truly gifted."

The second highness laughed with satisfaction.

"Well, it's coincidental at best. Skiing in snow doesn't appear to be too hard. The most challenging part is maintaining good balance. I realized that the soldiers with awakened battleforce learn to do this faster than those who haven't."

"Your Majesty's words ring true."

"Locke, why are you acting so formal? I've already said you ought to treat me like a brother when we're in private. Right now, you're the only one left that carries House Norton's blood and I am the last surviving offspring of the Krissen imperial family. Each's survival is contingent on the other's."

"Hehe, Your Majesty seems to forget that there are many branch families in my house. For instance, Glacia and her little brothers, my half-brothers, and my three sons and two daughters. Your Majesty, on the other hand, ought to take good care of yourself! You still haven't produced descendants for the royal family!"

The second highness sighed deeply.

"My mind's filled with nothing but restoring the empire and wiping out the humiliation we received. I can't be bothered with anything else right now. Oh, look. The weather's turning, and the snow has also stopped. The winds aren't as strong as yesterday's either. I bet it'll be sunny tomorrow. Are you going to leave then, Locke?"

Lorist bowed his head.

"Yes, Your Majesty. I've already stayed here for the past three days. It is best I leave early in the morning. There are many things I have to deal with back home. On another note, we'll attack Iblia next year. This is a huge matter and we can't afford to delay. It's best I head back to oversee preparations. I believe Your Majesty would like to witness Iblia's end too, right?"

The second highness nodded.

"Indeed. It's a kingdom built on rebellion. Even though the traitorous second prince has already been sentenced to death, the fact that his name still remains in the world through that kingdom is displeasing. I rely on you in this matter, Brother Locke. I hope your forces can wipe that accursed thing out as soon as possible."

"Hehe, ending the kingdom is not an issue just the Nortons will face. Duke Kenmays, Baron Falim, and Baron Shazin's forces will join the fray too. Only with the combined forces of the four houses can we ensure success. We will have to deal with the invasion of Duke Fisablen's cavalry forces as well as the four central duchies' raids against Southern once we're finished. Perhaps ending this war will take more time than we think."

Lorist was already prepared for a long war after attacking and exterminating Iblia.

However, the second highness didn't appear to be the slightest bit moved, as if he didn't hear what Lorist had said. Removing the skis from his feet and kicking the snow off his boots, the second highness raised his head.

"Since you're leaving tomorrow, let's have a drink tonight, just the two of us. Consider it a little parting celebration. Is that alright with you?"

Lorist smiled as he saluted.

"Naturally. It would be my pleasure."

That night, Lorist brought only Howard and two skin sacks filled with fine wine to the meeting. The wine was actually brewed according to a rice-fermentation method from Lorist's past life. It involved choosing the finest grains of rice and fermenting them in a very complicated process. The result was a really strong white wine with a high alcohol content that was only reserved for the enjoyment of the house's higher-ups as it was produced only in limited quantities due to the large amount of food required.

The second highness's igloo was rather empty. There was no one beside the two chefs working outside. Lorist had Howard heat the wine outside before he stepped in.

The second highness leaned against the table in deep thought. Lorist had no idea what was going through his head. He didn't notice Lorist's arrival. He only snapped out of his stupor after Lorist had called him thrice. He hurriedly invited Lorist to take a seat and ordered his chefs to begin serving the food.

The second highness sat in the main seat with Lorist to his left. Baked apples, smoked turkey, roast meat, and various vegetables were served shortly.

Raising his wine cup, the second highness said, "In the wilds, good food is hard to come by. This is definitely far from what I can offer you at the imperial capital. I hope you don't mind, Brother Locke."

Lorist raised his own cup in response.

"There's no need to go through such trouble, Your Majesty. The food is most delectable, not to mention the honor of dining with Your Majesty personally. Cheers."

The second highness downed his cup of wine just as Lorist did.

"Thank you."

"Your Majesty, I brought some alcohol I brewed myself but it's far stronger than what we usually have. You'll have to taste it slowly to appreciate the taste. I wonder if you'd like to give it a try?"

"Very well. Let me have a taste," said the second highness curiously.

Lorist clapped and Howard entered. He poured a cup for himself before pouring half a cup for the second highness -- who looked interested only in warming his hands with the chalice.

"Your Majesty, this kind of wine is drunk in the winter to warm you up. You have to make sure to drink it in small sips like this," said Lorist before he did his demonstration.

The second highness chuckled. He felt drinking wine so sparingly was a little too stingy. He took a mouthful of wine immediately. Even though it wasn't a full mouthful, it was hot enough to cause him to redden up. "Ah, it's hot! It burns like fire..."

After a good moment, the second highness returned to normal and had a look of understanding.

"I see now, Locke! This is what your soldiers use to train how to ski and march in snowy weather! All of them have a sack filled with tough wine like this that'll give you a burst of heat?"

Lorist nodded before he shook his head.

"Your Majesty, our soldiers are indeed given strong liquor to counter the loss of heat from the chilling wind. But theirs is brewed from roast potatoes and is really different from this. This wine of mine is brewed using the large grains of rice from Falik Plains and a sack like this costs ten gold Fordes. We'd have gone bankrupt if we produced this for the consumption of our soldiers.

"Also, the liquor we provide to our soldiers is rationed strictly. They don't drink much in a day. This is one benefit of favoring more small units over one large one. It's easier to keep an eye on what they do and what they consume. You thought you could rely on the skis to launch large-scale attacks during winter, but in reality, the cold-resistant clothes cost a fortune. There's also the issue of navigating in a snowstorm. Coupled with having to deal with undisciplined soldiers who would sneak a drink or two, you'll end up with a legion of bumbling drunks instead of one that can hold their ground in a fight."

The second highness sighed before he raised his cup and took a smaller sip.

"Ahhh... Locke, I've long wanted to have a good chat with you. Let's speak openly tonight, alright?"

A little surprised, Lorist agreed, "As you wish, Your Majesty."

"Locke my brother, I really don't understand why you're not willing to help me out. Given the might of your house, if you were willing to lend me a hand, we could've united the empire already. By then, your reputation as my loyal subordinate would be recorded in the annals of history for future generations to remember."

"Your Majesty considers our might impressive, but have you considered how we got it in the first place?" Lorist asked solemnly as he sat up straight, "Do you remember the time we first met ten years ago? Our house's convoy was trapped in the Madras duchy, unable to advance or retreat. The 300 thousand or so men with us on the brink of crumbling later became the keystone to our rise in The Northlands.

"Your Majesty, you should know roughly the state of House Norton when I first arrived. On one hand, Duke Loggins wanted to force us into submission; on the other, we had a group of rebellious subjects occupying one of the largest settlements in our dominion. As for our house, we only had around two thousand people at Maplewoods and were even faced with House Kenmays who had annexed part of our dominion.

"Do you remember how much better off you were from me then? You used my convoy to deal with the rebellious nobles and consolidated your power in the kingdom. You attacked Madras with our aid and managed to take Yungechandler. When our convoy resumed our journey northward, you led your soldiers to the east and defeated the first prince at Flowater Creek, forcing him to cede the two southwestern provinces to you. That year, your fame instantly spread across the lands and you were known as the war god of the new generation.

"But in the following half a decade of peace, you made bad decision after bad decision. You greatly expanded the kingdom's forces and actually formed an army of 300 thousand. You spent most of the kingdom's resources on just one army and wasted the peace time you could've used to rest and recuperate."

The second highness opened his mouth to speak, but Lorist didn't let him.

"Please don't interrupt me, Your Majesty, let me finish. Perhaps you did have your reasons. I know you've always wanted to reunite the empire and bring it back to its former glory. But you forgot that war is not only a matter of pitting one army against another. For instance, can you be sure how many of your 300 thousand troops are actually fighting for the sake of your ambitions?

"The empire's civil war raged for seven whole years and it took another three for the situation between the nobles to stabilize. Does Your Majesty remember the 100 thousand plus refugees loitering around in the kingdom with nowhere to go? They were originally proud citizens of the imperial capital who had been left homeless by the war. Half joined us, while you used the nobles you recently massacred to settle down the other half and finally brought peace to the kingdom.

"What the commoners want most is a life of peace and stability, but you've neglected that desire and merely promised to make it up to them after you united the empire. It's also why the kingdom's nobles supported Queen Carey's coronation when they heard of your losses in Redlis. It all happened because you failed to fulfill your empty promises.

"When you were busy building your army again, those refugees that followed our convoy managed to gain a peaceful life. House Norton abided by our promise to no longer subject them to the sufferings of war. Apart from resisting the magic beast wave and the second prince's attacks, we stayed within our dominion mostly and instead developed it. We focused on improving the quality of our subjects' lives. We spent lots of money developing our dominion in an effort to provide our subjects with a safe home even when we were mocked for being cowardly little bears that didn't dare leave our cave.

"I'm sure you saw how prosperous our dominion was during your visit. But did you wonder even once what kind of price we paid for that prosperity? If you didn't form your army in a hurry to conquer more land, your kingdom would've been just as prosperous. You already missed your chance once. For the sake of the empire's reunification, as long as you are able to focus on development for the next decade, you'll definitely achieve your ambition."

After hearing Lorist's earnest speech, the second highness continued to sip the wine without a single word until the cup was empty.

"Brother Locke, perhaps this is the greatest difference between the two of us. My goal is the reunification of the former empire and bringing us back to the days of our prestigious past. You only reach out to another place after you develop what you already have fully. I'm afraid I'm unable to sit still and develop the kingdom like you did your dominion. I'm constantly worried that a complacent and peaceful life will extinguish this lifelong ambition of mine. I might end up addicted to peace and become unwilling to forsake it for my ambition.

"I've had much time to reflect after I reclaimed my throne and will definitely no longer throw all my resources single-mindedly into the military. I will also learn as much as I can from you by properly controlling one area before moving on to my next target and will try to increase production alongside our military force. But I hope I have your support. I need you to supply some of your weapons," revealed the second highness with a tone of one pleading for help.

Lorist kept silent for a moment.

"Your Majesty, please state your request clearly. I will agree if it is within my capability."

Chapter 362 Surprising Pledge of Loyalty

Lorist was well aware what the second highness was thinking about. It was almost certain that he had his sights set on House Norton's carroballistae. What Lorist didn't understand was on what basis the second highness thought the house should help him? In every business transaction, there would always be profit for both parties. What would House Norton gain then if he helped him reunite the empire?

In terms of contributions, House Norton easily trumped all the kingdom's other noble houses and there was no longer anything the second highness could provide that they didn't already have. Did the second highness intend to rely on a heartfelt conversation to convince Lorist to send his warriors to their deaths for his ambitions?

House Norton's current rank didn't come from nothing either. Instead, it was through the great contributions their house made to the kingdom, which the second highness understood as well. However, the monarch had always been wary of the Nortons. He was convinced House Norton would have the might he required to reunite the empire after taking a tour through their dominion.

That was also the thing that troubled Lorist the most. He had already made it clear that the second highness' choice was wrong and that all the fault lay with him alone. Had it not been for his rampant effort to raise the kingdom's military, Andinaq would've developed even faster than The Northlands. Whether it be living conditions or economy, it would have been far better than The Northlands was now. But the second highness actually gave up such a precious opportunity in favor of single-mindedly reuniting the empire. He lost everything in a single setback as a result.

Lorist was incredibly dissatisfied with the second highness' attempts to leech off his house now that he had ruined his own kingdom.

You've regained your throne and control of the kingdom, this is your second chance. I'd like to see if you will let it slip through your fingers a second time. Will you develop the kingdom quietly for a decade like we did or build a poor army and tire your people out even more than they already are?

The second highness also understood the subtext of Lorist's words perfectly. He had already failed once and only managed to convince the four houses to serve him by signing that humiliating contract. Even the restoration of his throne was thanks to House Norton. While it seemed like the kingdom was strong once more in the view of outsiders, while the kingdom's territory had increased three-fold, while the kingdom had defeated and incorporated the former Madras duchy, the second highness felt no sense of accomplishment. At the end of the day, Madras wasn't taken by his own efforts. He felt unaccomplished, left out, and even a little humiliated.

The second highness also understood that making empty promises would not budge Lorist in the slightest. Lorist was no idiot and wasn't displeased with the current situation at all. Even though a king like him had to maintain some degree of autonomy, what he did to Lorist previously had caused the latter to view a liege like him with caution. In the current situation, the second highness couldn't force Lorist to abide by his will, given that the house's might and their army was beyond reckoning with. He felt a constant pressure from them. Apart from doing his best to get on their good side or turn against them entirely, the second highness could do nothing else.

After a long period of consideration, he decided he wouldn't prioritize either military or development. Instead, he requested House Norton give him aid as sincerely as he could without putting up any airs. Lorist exhaled and began to bargain with the second highness. He knew the monarch had confiscated a huge amount of wealth from the noble houses he exterminated, so instead of letting him sink it all in the endless abyss of war, it would be better for it to be used to improve the house's income.

After a whole night of arguing, the sky began to brighten once more. The two finally came to an agreement at daybreak. As Lorist had expected, his liege would put most of his efforts into the military and didn't care much for development at all. Even the few factories he agreed to build produced arms and military equipment. But Lorist couldn't be bothered to interfere so long as he could weasel a huge sum from the man.

The second highness was also rather satisfied with the arrangement. He had never imagined he could source most of his military resources from the Nortons at such a low cost. A good portion of the gear was even better than what any factory he built himself could ever produce. According to the second highness's current plan, he would invest the ten million gold Fordes he had into the military to further strengthen his standing, only had to spend around 400 thousand gold Fordes to purchase the equipment and resources he needed, which was worth more than 600 thousand gold Fordes. It also included the catapults of which he dreamed, much to his delight. He was so enthralled that he held dearly onto Lorist's hand, seeming unwilling to let him go even as the latter was about to leave. The other onlookers felt a chill run down their spine.

On the 19th day of the 12th month, Lorist bid farewell to the second highness, who was still unwilling to part. He left the army camp and sent an eagle to the regiment led by Blademaster Shuss and Patt he had stationed at Egret Basin. They were ordered to withdraw to Vanades and await his arrival.

On the 22nd day of the 12th month, Lorist and company arrived at Vanades. They began their journey once more after a day of rest and arrived at the lower stream of Metropoulos near the floating bridge. After crossing the river, they traveled at a leisurely pace and eventually made it back to Firmrock Castle on the evening of the 34th day.

"Thank the protection of Wargod Singwa. My prayers have been answered," Charade exclaimed as he tugged on Lorist's sleeve, "Your Grace, I was worried sick that you wouldn't be present for the first celebratory event our house is hosting on new year's. Just imagine what it would be like if you missed such a grand gathering with all your vassals and knights. It would most certainly be the most disgraceful moment of the house in its three-century-long history."

"Stop complaining," Lorist snapped, "Didn't I make it back in time? I know I can't afford to miss this event but if I didn't go there myself, we'd have more than Reidy to worry about. His Majesty was in grave danger as well."

"What? What does our bloodthirsty king have to do with this?"

Since the noble houses' massacre, the second highness had gained yet another moniker among the knights and nobles: The Bloody King.

Lorist detailed his rescue of Reidy and the second highness.

"It's such a shame, why couldn't you wait a few moments longer? Having Reidy escape during the chaos caused by the heroic death or capture of His Majesty would've been the best outcome."

"What are you talking about?!" rebuked Lorist, "He's our king, the sole inheritor of the blood of the Krissen imperial family! Who would dare kill him? Don't forget that 'kingslayer' isn't a title just anyone wants to bear. All Xanthi and the other blademasters wanted was to capture him alive and send him back to the duchies. If that really happened, it would be troublesome for us too. As the kingdom's highest-ranked duke, we would've had to ransom him or deploy our forces to free him. It would severely disrupt our plans. I'm glad I managed to arrive in time to sort this out before it became a problem."

"I was just speaking my mind," Charade said, dissatisfied, "Your Grace, tomorrow's the last day before the new year celebration. The high-ranked officials, household knights, and vassal nobles are already here. Duke Kenmays, Count Felim, and Count Shazin are also here. Additionally, all the ceremonial preparations are complete, including the badges for the vassal nobles, new and old. Do you want to give it a check?"

"There's no need. I've already seen the drawings. It'll be fine as long as it doesn't go against any regulations. I'm very much assured about this since you're the one in charge. If there's nothing else, I'll go get some rest. Also, tell Duke Kenmays, Count Felim, and Count Shazin that I'll dine with them tomorrow afternoon," said Lorist before he headed for the rear of the castle.

"Your Grace, I understand your trip has been rather tiring, but I'm afraid there's something I need your decision on immediately," said Charade as he flipped open a folder.

"What?" asked Lorist as he stopped.

"It concerns Viscount Eidis, Viscount Zinderson, Baron Klaus, and Baron Wade from Winston," Charade said with an odd expression, "They came over to pledge their allegiance and even brought some of their family members to be political hostages. Look, here's the pledge letter they wrote."

"What did you say?" Lorist asked without receiving the letter.

He stared at Charade, confusion written on his face.

"Aren't they Iblian nobles? I recall staying at Viscount Eidis's little town for a night when we went to Windbury last time. Why has he brought his three allies over?"

"Your Grace, they really are here to pledge allegiance. This is the letter they penned. I already told them you weren't present and asked them to come back after new year's but they refused to listen and insisted on meeting you no matter what. They've already been waiting up for two weeks," said Charade after he successfully stuffed the letter into Lorist's hand.

Lorist gave the letter a quick read as the attentive Howard hurriedly brought over a candle from the wall.

After reading the four pledges, Lorist ordered, "Charade, have them meet me in the study in an hour. I'll take a bath and have a meal in the meantime. I'll ask them why they want to pledge allegiance to us in such a hurry later."

Lorist turned to Howard and patted his shoulder.

"Didn't you hear Sir Charade say Count Felim is here? Your beautiful fiancée is no doubt here as well. I'll do fine without you for a while, wash up and meet your little wife. Be sure to behave during the night, okay? You're still young after all."

"Your Grace!" scowled Howard angrily.

He only did so for a moment. He couldn't resist the urge to see his fiancée and ran off, tomato-faced.

Charade laughed himself to tears.

"Don't forget to have Reidy come here!"

As Lorist's study was filled with classified documents, servants were not allowed to clean it up. The ones who carried out that task were usually Reidy, Howard, Els, Patt, or even Jim, the people Lorist trusted the most. However, since Reidy entered seclusion training, Els formed his own family, and Jim was sent off to carry out a secret mission at the gunpowder research lab following his recovery, Howard was the one put in charge of cleaning the room. Now that Howard's been given a short break, Charade asked Reidy to replace him for the moment. Otherwise, Lorist and he would have to clean the study on their own.

After bathing and having something to eat, Lorist headed to the study and saw Reidy finishing up with the cleaning. The fireplace was lit, its heat erasing the cold that had built up during the owner's month-long absence.

Seeing Reidy making some macks, Lorist started thinking.

Howard has a fiancée already, and Els is married, but Reidy's still single... Maybe I ought to ask him if there's a girl he's interested in. It's about time he found himself a wife...

Before he finished his thought, the door to the study was given a knock. Reidy opened it and let Charade and the four nobles enter. They all wore expressions of delight and disbelief, as if Lorist had returned and offered them lifeboats when they were sinking.

Lorist stood up and apologized sincerely.

"I'm really sorry to have made you wait so long. I had to deal with an unexpected incident concerning my disciple and only just made it back. I heard you've been waiting for more than ten days and even wrote a letter of pledge to the house. Could you please let me know what has driven you to do such a thing?"

The four nobles greeted Lorist respectfully with a salute, which Lorist graciously returned. They breathed sighs of relief.

Viscount Eidis stood forward to represent the rest and explained with a troubled smile, "Your Grace, our four houses have reached the end of our line. We have no other way to survive but to pledge our allegiance to you."

Following the viscount's explanation, Lorist and Charade understood that the four houses had been forced into their current predicament by Duke Fisablen. Either they accepted the duke's conditions or they watched as their houses were torn apart. Only through pledging their allegiance to a powerful house like the Nortons could they survive.

The 20 thousand cavalry the duke brought with him to Windbury for the knighthood tournament last year didn't leave once it was over. Instead, they dug in. After Melein, the biggest threat to House Fisablen, the duke turned his sights to Windbury.

He brought another 20 thousand men, he clearly wasn't messing around. There was already a legion's worth of frontier cavalrymen stationed at Windbury. With this legion in hand, Duke Fisablen lashed out at the nobles in the capital cruelly. He didn't bat an eye. Every day, there were nobles either killed for treason or sent to the dungeons. Unlike the second highness, however, he didn't kill the nobles off all at once. Instead, he wore them down over the rest of the year. Even though it was no different from the second highness's act which destroyed his reputation, the duke had employed a milder method that didn't evoke nearly as big a reaction despite the fact that the number of noble houses he exterminated wasn't that far off from the second highness. It was as if he was simmering the nobles to their deaths slowly and patiently.

Lorist had already been informed about this thanks to Furybear's informants. Since he was going to attack the capital himself anyway, he was more than glad that Duke Fisablen would dirty his own hands on his behalf. Not only that, he could even improve his reputation by defeating Duke Fisablen and conquering Windbury by claiming he did so to fight for the honor of all nobles. All he had to do was find some of the exterminated houses that managed to escape and give them aid to carry out a smear campaign against Duke Fisablen. The duke's reputation would definitely be ruined. This was also why Lorist ignored the incident and only instructed his men to quietly collect evidence instead of interfering.

But after Duke Fisablen exterminated all the noble houses in Windbury, he turned his sights to Winston. He decided to offer them a chance to pledge allegiance and have their dominions moved to Southern. It caused quite an uproar. The nobles decided to band together and resist him. Duke Fisablen was waiting for exactly this all along and declared them traitors immediately. He attacked with his full force and exterminated more than 20 noble houses in the span of two months. All the men were hanged and the women were given to the Frontier Legion soldiers and grassland barbarians that distinguished themselves during the campaign.

Even though Viscount Eidis and his three allies didn't rebel outright, the order they received required them to move to Southern in the coming spring, which was before the 5th month, with no more than a thousand of their subjects. Their current dominion would be managed by the duke's house. Southern's current desolate and bandit-ridden state was well known. Going there with only a thousand subjects was practically suicide. They would be torn apart like a raving wolf's prey. It wasn't even certain that they'd make it to their new dominions.

"Your Grace, this is why we want to pledge allegiance to you. We understand Duke Fisablen started killing the other nobles off in preparation for the conflict with The Northlands' four houses. Last I heard, Duke Fisablen was going to bring all the youths across the many dominions in Winston to Eastwild. Their other family members would be gathered at the capital. He's planning to build a citadel at Dawoktown as a buffer for Windbury and the main point of resistance against you."

Lorist nodded.

"I'll gladly accept your pledges. House Norton now considers your houses vassals and will move your dominion to Delamock without any demotion. As for the family members you sent over, I will let them serve in my personal guard. I wonder if this arrangement is appropriate?"

The four nobles revealed expressions of elation as they knelt instantly and pledged loyalty to House Norton in the name of their ancestors. They were incredibly respectful and thankful when they left.

Charade looked at Lorist suspiciously as he waited for them to leave.

"Locke, tell me, what are you up to this time?" he asked when they were finally alone.

Chapter 363 Banquet and Entitlement

The common Grindian calendar had 12 months and it contained the good elements from the magi's calendar and the fairy calendar for practical purposes. Each month of the common calendar had 35 days. The 5th, 9th and 12th months each had an extra day, not noted on the calendar.

These three days were publicly acknowledged by all of Grindia as Bathing Day, Harvest Day and New Year's.

As Lorist had promised, Viscount Eidis, Viscount Zinderson, Baron Klaus, and Baron Wade -- nobles who used to belong to the peerage of Iblia -- were all taken in as vassals. It was rather troublesome Charade. Not only did he have to confirm their new territory, he also had to organize the formal enfeoffment ceremony during the new year's celebration. He was so busy he didn't have time to attend Lorist's reception of Duke Kenmays, Count Felim, and Count Shazin. When Howard came to ask him to attend, he said he was far too busy and merely asked some food be sent over.

It wasn't until the late morning of the 36th day of the 12th month that Charade finished his work. Lying on the couch tiredly and looking at Lorist looking the documents over, he mused that he'd definitely resign if there was another similar incident. He was more than fed up with Lorist's whimsical decisions that made him work overtime all too often.

Lorist smiled and reminded Charade that the new year's celebration would commence at seven so they had more time. Charade ought to go back home for a few hours and rest before washing up and preparing to attend the banquet. Since Charade was one of the nobles formally entitled during the celebration, he reasoned he wouldn't want to look too haggard during the party.

Charade got up and ran out. His voice drifted into the office from the hallway.

"That's right, I've finished my work. Why am I still here? I'll go back home now."

Lorist smiled.

"And there he was complaining how harsh the work I gave him was. Yet, he's running out so quickly in such an energetic manner," commented Lorist to Howard.

Firmrock Castle was decorated all over that day and the central part of the castle was been cleaned up rather well. On both sides of the streets hung flags of varying colors and the weather also seemed excellent. Not only was there no snow, the sky was bright and blue with the crescent Silvermoon hanging brightly above as well.

"If it weren't this cold, the day would be perfect," said Duke Kenmays.

He was standing with Lorist, Felim, and Shazin on the veranda on the castle's top floor, looking at the distant carriages approaching the center. Behind the four nobles were Howard and his fiancée, Katrina, Felim's beloved daughter. They were both talking quietly in a corner wearing sweet smiles.

Kenmays had already changed his dominion to Sidgler and had taken everything with him. At the same time, the five nobles' territory he occupied had also been handed to House Norton. Having nothing better to do, he came over to enjoy the festivities and dragged Felim and Shazin along to become the entitlement ceremony's witnesses.

"If you ask me, Firmrock Castle is far too small. It doesn't fit your status as a duke. It was designed to be a citadel, so it's a little too small to be The Northlands' base of operations," commented he.

Lorist nodded.

"That's true. Come spring, I will move to Gildusk. It's a convenient place from which to oversee the war soon to take place in Winston and Southern. Baron Charade has already instructed Grandmaster Ciroba to begin redeveloping the city and the southern part of The Northlands, but Grandmaster Ciroba made a rather problematic request."

"Oh? What is it?" asked the three nobles curiously.

They all knew Ciroba was the house's chief architect. Almost all the developmental projects had to go through him before making it to Lorist's desk.

"Well, he said the name of Gildusk came from the two artists cum architects that designed the city, Gil and Dusk. He feels he's even more amazing than them and wants the reconstructed city to be named after him. Otherwise, he wouldn't involve himself. Tell me, doesn't Ciroba sound really weird to you?" asked Lorist with a furrowed brow.

Ciroba's weird inclination to name every project after himself was indeed rather troubling.

"Hahahaha..."

"Well, Locke. just tell the grandmaster I will construct my household castle when I return to Southern. If he's willing to come help out, I'll let him name the castle," said Felim.

"Are you crazy?" Kenmays rolled his eyes, "Last time you mentioned wanting to name your castle Pegasus Castle since that was also what your ancestors' first castle was called before it was destroyed by Krissen IV in the War of the New Moon. Now that House Felim is finally returning to its original domain, would it be appropriate for your new castle to be named Ciroba Castle instead? You're right, it does sound rather weird and hard to pronounce."

"Haha, I'll definitely have the castle's name engraved in the smallest form possible and display a huge statue of the Pegasus on our walls. That way, everyone will come to call it Pegasus Castle instead of paying attention to the inscribed name," Felim said with a confident smile, "Do you think I'd be that stupid?"

Kenmays gasped.

"You... Isn't that cheating?"

"What? I will inscribe his name on the castle for real. If others can't see it properly, it's their eyes' fault, not mine. House Felim doesn't pull tricks like that, alright?" argued Felim.

"Alright, there's no need to overthink this. I'll have Grandmaster Ciroba design a new castle for you. I believe he'll be more than interested in redesigning such a well-known castle without having to name it after him. All you have to do is dedicate a statue to him," interjected Lorist with a smile.

"Locke, the number of people here is increasing. Look, it's filled with carriages. It's finally time to receive the guests. How many years has it been since I attended something like this? The last time was before the second prince was defeated." asked Kenmays as he turned to the plaza.

"If you like parties so much, why didn't you just host your own banquet? You're also a duke. You're more than qualified to host a banquet. Don't tell me House Kenmays doesn't even have enough money for a simple banquet!" said Lorist with a laugh.

Kenmays sighed.

"Talking to a banquet idiot like you is really off-putting. Don't you know the most important thing of a banquet or social event is the attendees? The more the merrier! What good would a banquet do if I hardly have any household knights or vassals? There's no point hosting one just for my house!"

"You could promote a few knights. It's not like there's anyone to stop you."

"They aren't qualified yet. Their contributions are still lacking. Additionally, my father said it was thanks to House Norton and luck that House Kenmays managed to make it this far. All we should do is mind our own business and pay attention to our dominion since the external affairs of our alliance are all dealt with by you. We only have to fulfill our duties as your allies and will be compensated in kind."

"I really have to say, your father is a cunning man. Not only is he using us as his shield, he even gets to taste some leftover blood," praised Lorist.

"It's to be expected. Who asked House Norton to be the strongest? If there's anyone that has to take hits for us, it's you! Don't the rest of you agree?" asked Kenmays, confiding in his comrades.

Felim and Shazin both laughed. Without Lorist, there wouldn't be the alliance. Neither would their houses have been able to soar to such heights and even solidify their titles among their peers. Kenmays' words rang true in that Lorist was indeed their leader that had to take care of his subordinates.

"Well, it's about time. Should we head down now?" asked Shazin after taking another look at the carriages.

"Alright. Let's get going. Best not let your ladies wait," agreed Lorist.

He was chaperoned by Telesti of Nico Academy. She brought her two daughters along. The moment they met, Lorist was shocked to see how slender Telesti had become. After asking about it, he learned that she was stressed from having to take care of the academy and her two daughters. Losing sleep was something she had to deal with on a regular basis.

"Locke, had it not been for the fact that today was also an entitlement ceremony, I wouldn't have left the academy. My schedule is really far too tight, there's too much I have to do. Stop advising me to stop. This is a choice I made for myself," said Telesti.

Lorist sighed deeply and gave her a hug.

"My dear, the sea of knowledge is vast and endless. Even a sailor has to rest and recuperate once in a while."

Kenmays' chaperone was a voluptuous noble lady -- the widow of some count long passed away.

Felim's chaperone was his beloved daughter Katrina.

Shazin came with his concubine, Kenmays' cousin, as his chaperone. It seemed the beauty from House Kenmays stood a chance of being made the matron of his house.

Lorist led the group with Telesti at the front. Applause and cheers thundered in the hall as the group entered.

The banquet's organizer, Charade, represented the house in the welcome speech. Lorist gave a light-hearted speech that basically outlined the plans for the next year, and stated that House Norton was confident their might and courage would bring them all to victory in the upcoming conflicts. Their allies' trust was thus, of course, not for naught.

"What on earth did you have me read?" Lorist complained afterward, "This isn't like me at all. Do you have any idea how embarrassed I was up there?"

"I worked on this all night, I didn't even sleep," Charade rolled his eyes, "Besides, you checked the speech yourself this morning. You should have complained then."

"Sol," Lorist gasped as he wiped the sweat from his forehead, "I didn't think you would write something like this so I didn't remember to check. Nobody reminded me either..."

"Whatever," Charade shrugged, "It's not like they were all paying attention anyway. It's mostly just formalities. What they're anticipating is the entitlement ceremony so there's no point complaining about the speech now."

The entitlement ceremony soon began. First was the re-entitlement, or demotion, of the 17 nobles relocated to Delamock. Thereafter the five Northland nobles House Kenmays kept followed suit. Next came the two Madras nobles whose beauties had pleased Lorist and managed to save their houses by becoming vassals. Finally, it was Viscount Eidis and the other four who joined the faction at the last moment's turn. They used to be Iblian nobles, but now they were Lorist's vassals. The last one to be entitled was Baron Dina, whose title was given to Lorist's lover, Dina Arriotoli temporarily until her younger brother matured.

The ceremony was simple. Charade announced the names and rank of the house to summon the nobles. They would go up the stage and salute. They received the silver tray Howard brought over containing the deeds of entitlement and the deeds to their land, as well as a decree signed personally by Lorist along with their identification badge which bore the insignias of the respective houses.

Lorist remained seated on his throne. His right hand held a sword and his left hand was outstretched. The pose was one a liege assumed when accepting a vassal's pledge of allegiance. The left hand represented grace and acceptance, while the sword symbolized caution and might. Each noble would receive the silver tray and pledge their allegiance by kissing the back of Lorist's left hand, before bowing and leaving. After the vassals were entitled it was the turn of the 14 new houses.

The two grandmasters, Sid and Fellin, were up first. They received their certificates with teary eyes and prostrated in front of Lorist during their pledge of allegiance on behalf of their future descendants. Lorist expended quite some effort to get them to stand up and regretted giving them a rank so high it might've taxed their hearts a little too much with excitement.

Potterfang and Loze's entitlement went off without a hitch. But Charade's entitlement caused a small commotion when his father fainted from sheer excitement, much to Charade's embarrassment.

After the 14 nobles were entitled it was the honorary nobles' turn. Apart from Hanayabarta's Governor Hector -- who was absent -- the other five were present for the ceremony.

The ceremony wasn't enjoyed by everyone, however. More than 30 nobles of the Madras duchy had been stripped of their dominions. Only after House Norton eliminated the Iblia kingdom and conquered Winston would they be enfeoffed. These nobles were in a similar situation to many of the original Northlander nobles and had no choice but to patiently wait in The Northlands.

Apart from them, and the household knights and high-ranking household officials, there were some other people of relatively higher status given honorary titles. They were the rich factory owners and merchants who operated within the dominion. However, they were considered nobility among The Northlands because of their honorary titles and status. Even Lorist didn't think The Northlands would have so many honorary nobles. A large majority were those who escaped from the smaller duchies eliminated by the Union.

While House Norton could ignore and not acknowledge the honorary titles graced upon them by others, it wasn't that they could outright revoke the titles since they were qualified to attend the social gatherings of nobility. Since they all received invitations, they had to contribute to the banquet as well by becoming event sponsors.

Kenmays was the one most familiar with the honorary nobles. It was apparent that he enjoyed the night greatly from how well he blended in with the ladies among them.

After seeing the worn-out Telesti, Lorist said with concern, "Let's go, my dear. I'll take you to rest. You seem exhausted."

Chapter 364 Strategy and Deployment Meeting

"I was originally considering how we should deal with the Frontier Legion at Windbury. It'd be ideal if they chose to hole up in the city. In that case, the worst it'll come to is the capital's destruction. Nobody can resist our forces' attack. Even if the duke was there himself, we'd just bury him alive along with the rest of the legion and end the whole lot there.

"It's just one of the possible scenarios ideal for us. It's no understatement to call the duke a cunning fox, he's been in hundreds of battles. The moment he smells something fishy, he'll run far away and make it incredibly hard to track him. The moment he hears about our troops being sent to Windbury, he'll no doubt give up on the capital and move all its food and wealth away. He might even take all the youths as well. We'll only be left with the old and the sick. Even if we manage to take Windbury, it'll only be a worthless ruin.

"The duke will no doubt continue his retreat with all the valuable resources and manpower. When we conquer Winston and head to Southern, he'll find a battlefield large enough for him to employ hit-and-run tactics. He'll definitely exploit the Frontier Legion's mobility to sabotage our supply lines and cut us off from the support of our conquered land while also grinding down our troops' morale. He knows if he drags the battle on, the day our troops wear out and crumble will no doubt come."

They were in a large meeting room. Following the three-day-long new year's celebration, everyone involved, from high-ranking household knights to knight generals, were gathered in the room, listening to Lorist give a briefing on their strategy.

It was the 3rd day of the 1st month of Year 1778. Lorist had formally mobilized the house's carroballistae to Iblia against the Frontier Legion of House Fisablen.

"According to various sources, House Fisablen's total force is around 240 thousand. Naturally, the duke won't pour all his forces into this conflict. He has to defend the greater and lesser golden creeks as well as Eastwild. Coupled with the forces defending Wild Husbandry, they likely have around 120 to 150 thousand men they can deploy against us. There is a possibility he will recruit more soldiers from the grassland barbarians, so there should be another few tens of thousands serving House Fisablen.

"We don't really care for our enemy's numbers. But this foe will be a completely different beast from the ones we've faced so far. The main difference is their mobility. It far exceeds our forces'. When we attack Southern, we must take great precautions to defend our supply line incredibly well. This will decide whether we can cut off the duke's support from the duchies.

"We have to give it our all even for something as seemingly trivial as this. In our original plan, we will gather Tigersoar and Firmrock as well as House Felim's Pegasus to force our way through using our numbers. It'll force the Frontier Legion to retreat to Winston. Firmrock and Pegasus will invade Southern once this is achieved. Pegasus will be in charge of eliminating bandits while Firmrock will set up citadels and moats at locales with ideal terrain. We will lock Southern down complete to limit where Frontier can go.

"Tigersoar's mission is exterminating the waves of cavalry stationed at Winston to protect our supply line to Southern. We'll also take the most important citadel at the border of Winston and Wild Husbandry: Pedro. This way, we can sever any communication between the two provinces. As for Jaeger, currently stationed in the eastern part of The Northlands, they will be put in charge of attacking Wild Husbandry. I don't require our newly-formed legion to suppress the Fisablen forces at Wild Husbandry effectively. They just have to keep the battles within the Fisablen dominion. Making Wild Husbandry the battlefield to limit our enemy's ability to mobilize troops would be ideal.

"This plan has the benefit of being reliable and stable. We will have enough safeguards to ensure our success. Its downfalls are also obvious, though. Given our superiority in numbers, Duke Fisablen will have to be crazy to seek a field-battle or a siege. It'll be rather difficult to gather the enemy in one place and wipe them out in one go. The old fox will most likely abandon Winston to preserve his numbers. He'll trade land to keep the initiative in battle.

"The more places we conquer, the more troops we'll have to leave behind to defend them. Frontier Legion's mobility far exceeds ours, we can only fight defensively. With that mobility, the duke can also gather a large number of troops to attack the soldiers we leave behind to defend some places by outnumbering them. If Duke Fisablen reduces his Frontier Legions into many divisions instead and stations them in Winston, not only will our forces be forced to be on the defensive, our supply lines will also be at risk."

Lorist used a long thin stick to tap on the map of Winston hung on the wall.

"That was our original plan, as well as why I stationed Tigersoar at Winston. It was so our supply line would be kept safe. However, thanks to Viscount Eidis and the others joining our side, there's another way we can exterminate the Frontier Legion.

"If we can exterminate them and conquer Pedro, we'll no longer have to worry about being harassed by cavalry in Winston. We can see that, apart from the main crossing point between Winston and Wild Husbandry at Pedro, the two provinces' border is the precipitous Pisper Mountain Range that stretches all the way to Southern. No large army can cross Pisper, so as long as we can exterminate Frontier Legion at Winston, not only will we be able to cut off Duke Fisablen's influence, we can also make Winston a safe place where we can fall back to.

"According to Furybear's reports and the news Viscount Eidis brought, we know that Duke Fisablen is already anticipating our arrival. So far, the duke has already killed off the nobles in the capital and started working on the older noble houses of Winston. Frontier Legion has already neutralized 23 regions."

Lorist pointed at Viscount Eidis. It was his turn to speak.

Eidis was rather moved that he and his allies were allowed to participate in such a confidential strategy meeting. It was a sign of the great trust they'd been given. At the same time, the four houses got to know that House Norton had already set their sights on Iblia for quite some time, so they were relieved they had switched sides soon enough.

"My most respectful greetings to you all. According to my knowledge, Duke Fisablen gave the order to all old noble houses of Winston approximately two months ago, demanding we pledge allegiance to him and relocate. He blames the fall of Iblia on the internal struggles between the noble houses and used it as an excuse to demote us. Many dissatisfied nobles banded together in defiance of his orders. They didn't expect that the duke was already prepared this and quickly snuffed them out by deploying Frontier Legion, however. He already ended 23 noble houses in two short months.

"Houses like ours that aren't able to resist can only abide by his order to relocate before the 5th month. In other words, right after the winter harvests, we'll have to leave our dominions for our new ones in Southern with less than a thousand people, while our original domains will be put under the management of the duke's ambassadors. It forced the four of us to seek out House Norton for help.

"I've received one of the duke's ambassadors before and my hospitality caused him to reveal that Duke Fisablen was already prepared to give up on Winston the moment he heard that the four houses of The Northlands exterminated Madras. He will stage the battles in Winston to delay us. Ideally, he will seal off the routes from Winston to Wild Husbandry, which are the two metal suspension bridges between the provinces. He's even prepared to destroy them if he has to. This way, they only have to station a small number of troops at Sanderson Hills to delay our advance. The duke will also rely on the vast lands of Winston to make use of Frontier Legion's mobility and grind away at our forces.

"The ambassador even said that Duke Fisablen was going to move all the youths in Winston to Eastwild and Goldcreek to make up for his dominion's lack of manpower. The rest will be focused on Windbury and some other fortified towns to serve as supply points for the Frontier Legion. That was why he suggested we best obey the duke's order and relocate to Southern. The duke will begin exterminating bandits in Southern after his preparations in Winston are complete so he can start trade with the four central duchies."

After finishing his briefing, Eidis nodded to the others and sat back down.

"I'm sure you guys heard it loud and clear, right? Duke Fisablen is not someone who messes around. When we plot, he also plots. Winston used to be the province with the largest population in the empire. It used to house an estimated 1.5 million people. Since then, the province has experienced years of civil war, the second prince's rampage, and our own interference. We took in approximately 340 thousand people."

Those in the know laughed when Lorist mentioned the taking in of refugees, which was a little underhanded, to say the least.

Lorist laughed as he continued.

"There are an estimated 400 thousand people still in Winston, around 70 thousand of whom are in Windbury. The rest are mostly the subjects of the province's nobles. The nobles that actually develop their dominions and put in the effort to stimulate the growth of local production, like Viscount Eidis, Viscount Zinderson, Baron Klaus, and Baron Wade, are few and far in between. Their territories have a combined population of nearly 40 thousand, thanks to the success and prosperity of trade at Viscount Eidis's town, Dawok. They also managed to gather large numbers of refugees to kickstart farming efforts.

"Right now, Duke Fisablen is targeting nobles like them. The nobles that move to Southern will receive military support to combat the bandits and resources from the duke. The new dominions there will eventually effectively contribute to the extermination of the bandits and limit their influence and growth. Naturally, it would be quite troublesome for the duke if the nobles there end up being killed off by the bandits instead. There's no doubt it'll intensify the noble's dissatisfaction.

"We will not allow Duke Fisablen to move all the youths of Winston to his dominion. Baron Potterfang, Baron Malek..."

The two newly entitled nobles stood up upon being named by Lorist.

"You two will lead Firmrock to Dawok in Viscount Eidis's dominion in three days. Viscount Eidis, Viscount Zinderson, Baron Wade and Baron Klaus will aid you in this matter. Since it's currently winter with most of the routes sealed off, Duke Fisablen and Frontier Legion will not expect us to make our move now. Your mission is to move the subjects of these four nobles to The Northlands. Thereafter, you will disguise yourselves as their subjects to resist Duke Fisablen after the harvest during the rainy season.

"Viscount Eidis and the others should also be able to prepare a general force of six thousand. Coupled with the youths from their dominion, it should be possible to form a force of 20 thousand. To resist these 'traitorous insurgents', Duke Fisablen will have to mobilize Frontier Legion. The moment they leave the capital, we will exterminate them at Dawok and take the city with ease."

"Understood, Your Grace," said Potterfang and Malek in unison as they sat back down.

"The crucial point of this arrangement is that we don't attract the attention and suspicion of the legion's scouts. We will need the help of Viscount Eidis and the others."

"Your Grace, please be assured they will not suspect a thing," said Eidis.

Lorist nodded.

"If the rainy season didn't start in the 3rd month, I would've liked for our forces to encircle and conquer Windbury right away and trap Frontier Legion and the duke within the city. It's too bad our forces would find it incredibly difficult to stage a siege in the rainy weather, not to mention the fact that we can't bring our catapults along. It would be incredibly disadvantageous to have our troops stationed outside the city in the rainy season. A plague can spread pretty quickly under those conditions.

"That's the logic behind my intention to lure Frontier Legion out. We will trick them into a field-battle. Count Felim, make sure Pegasus is ready to deploy with Tigersoar after the rainy season. Make your way to somewhere near Dawok undetected and wait for the opportune moment, understood?"

Felim stood up.

"Understood, Your Grace."

"After the extermination of Frontier Legion, lead the troops to Southern with Firmrock right away. We must cut off the route connecting House Fisablen and the duchies as soon as possible. If the duchies' forces join up with House FIsablen, Count Shazin's household legion and Tigersoar will be the first to join in as reinforcements. We must make sure a strategic location like Southern remains under our control. This is the most important key to exterminating or forcing House Fisablen to submit to us," declared Lorist resolutely.

Chapter 365 Rainy Season

The rain fell ceaselessly.

Grindia's rainy season saw rain fall nonstop for up to a whole month. It might last more than a month or two in the southern parts of the continent and those areas were the most susceptible to floods.

Lorist was currently staying at the former duke's mansion in Gildusk, located at the south end of The Northlands. He paced about in the study, glancing at the map on the table from time to time. The door received a series if knocks before Howard entered the room.

"Your Grace, Baron Charade, Baron Camorra, and Baron Freiyar have arrived."

"Quick, invite them in," ordered Lorist, elated.

"Greetings, Your Grace," greeted the three as they saluted.

"No need for the formalities. I hate having to keep up appearances in front of insiders. Take a seat," said Lorist with a wave of his hand.

"What would you like to drink? Fruit wine, tea, or macks?" asked Lorist.

"Your Grace, I think I'll have a cup of your special brew instead. It's been really moist lately, so having some of your wine to warm up would be ideal," said Charade.

"No way. We're going to have a meeting. I can't have you getting yourself drunk! Don't push it if you don't have good alcohol tolerance. This is not normal wheat or fruit wine. You can drink those without much problem. Drinking a small cup of strong liquor is like drinking five bottles of fruit wine in one go. If you want some, I'll let each of you take a bottle with you to enjoy at home."

"I hold you to your word. Hehe... One whole bottle... Howard, you better remember this well. I guess I'll have macks for now," brightly smiled Charade.

"Sol, I got tricked again."

Camorra requested tea and Freiyar asked for fruit wine.

"It's already been raining for about two weeks. It will continue in The Northlands for another ten or so days. After the rainy season, I will head to the frontlines. The war will also start then. Whether we can expand The Northlands' influence will depend on the outcome of this war.

"After I head to the frontlines, Baron Charade will be in charge of the affairs here. Considering that it'll be drawn out, The Northlands' development in the next two years will be in the southern area. We will set up settlements Haven, Harvest, and Vigor. They're to be modeled on Salus. Each settlement will have six to eight towns. Also, have eight knight manors constructed so that future gold-ranked knights can be rewarded.

"Gildusk will also be redesigned and renovated from the ground up. It will be called City of the Bellowing Bear and will be The Northlands' capital. Apart from these, outside this manor, near the current eastern city outskirts, I will have a special area built. We will sell the land to honorary nobles of The Northlands who wish to erect their own castles and manors. The castles they intend to build must first be certified, of course, and we must keep a blueprint too. Additionally, only those with honorary titles given by our house will be qualified to purchase land. It will be auctioned off to the richest buyer, naturally."

Lorist shrugged as he continued, "We have no choice but to do it as the war with House Fisablen will no doubt cost us a lot. This plan was drafted by Baron Spiel. Currently, House Norton stands strong and the honorary titles we acknowledge are worth quite a lot. I believe our profits will range from 100 thousand to one million. If we include the profit generated from the sale of land, the house will earn up to three million. The construction of castles will no doubt require materials and manpower, so it'll also help stimulate our economy. That's why I agreed to let the honorary nobles build their manors there.

"Baron Charade, as the chief supervisor of The Northlands, you have to pay attention to these three matters. You may put Shadekampf in charge of designing the three settlements. Apart from Salus, Felicitas, Redriver, and Greatriver, which has just finished construction in the eastern part of The Northlands, Shadekampf will be responsible for the other settlements. The fellow has already garnered lots of experience and will definitely be one of your most valuable aides.

"You should first consider Gildusk's renovation. The city will be the center of administration for The Northlands so everything has to be perfect. The other matter concerns the special area where the honorary nobles will be able to purchase land. You will head the pricing negotiations since you're the best at it in the house. Don't disappoint me. The last thing concerns Count Felim's subjects. After we conquer Southern, Count Felim will move his subjects to his original dominion in batches. You have to help out with the move. The Northlands will only truly belong to House Norton after their relocation."

Charade stood up to show his dedication.

"Your Grace, please be assured that your orders will be carried out according to your specifications."

Lorist nodded and turned to Freiyar.

"Baron Freiyar, you will be relocated here from your previous post at Silowas because of the upcoming campaign. This time around, you'll be deployed on the battlefield."

Freiyar smiled excitedly.

"Your Grace, I've always looked forward to being sent back to the frontlines. Staying at the rear for so long is making me rust up..."

Lorist waved his hand at him.

"Come and look at the map here. The local defense legion is our largest unit, with 25 brigades forming five divisions of 75 thousand men in total. You will relocate here to plan the legion's defense stations as well as coordinate the divisions on missions in Winston.

"The first local defense division, including the first to fifth brigades, will be stationed at the old dominion near Firmrock Castle. They'll be spread across Firmrock Castle, Hidebull Citadel, Tortoise Hill Citadel, Northsea, and Bladedge Castle. Originally, Bladedge Castle was the main base of the Ragebear Knights. However, they will follow me to the frontlines this time around and will be stationed nearby in the future. Bladedge Castle will have to be defended by the fifth local defense brigade.

"The second local defense division, including the sixth to tenth brigades, will be stationed to the south of Firmrock Castle. More specifically, the metal suspension bridge in the eastern part of The Northlands, Hendliff Suspension Bridge in the south, the floating bridge on the Metropoulos river, the citadel in the western part of the Bladedge Mountains that connects to the internal part of the dominion, as well as Gildusk.

"The third local defense division, namely the 11th to 15th divisions stationed at Silowas right now, will be moved here and put under Gold-ranked Knight Jades' command.

"The fourth local defense division, including the 16th to 20th brigades, is currently stationed in Delamock. Two of the divisions are located at Kobo and Vanades, with the other three supervising the 100 thousand plus captive laborers currently building the main highway. The division's commander will be Baron Belnick.

"Freiyar, you will personally command the fifth division, 21st to 25th brigades. THere are some strategic positions we have to take in as soon as possible when we invade Winston. They are Pedro, Dawok, Windbury, Twilight Lake Town roughly 50 kilometers from the capital, and the mountain stronghold, Sehak, the crossing point from Winston to Southern.

"Apart from Windbury, the other four places, have to be renovated into fortified citadels. Sehak used to be a crossing point between the two provinces, but it's been worn down after many battles. We'll have to erect a new citadel there to secure Winston properly.

"If we can exterminate the duke's Frontier Legion stationed at Windbury as planned, then our renovation and construction efforts will proceed without problems. But if it doesn't go according to plan, you will have to hold your stations while you complete your construction efforts. Duke Fisablen will definitely not leave us to ourselves to fortify those locales. He will definitely do everything he can to slow hamper our progress. This is the main reason I ordered you to relocate here."

Freiyar laughed out loud and thumped his chest.

"Your Grace, the local defense legion is particularly adept at defense. Even if we don't have fortified citadels, we still have our own ways to make the enemy bleed. To be honest, I'm getting more and more impatient to set foot on the battlefield."

Lorist punched Freiyar's chest as he laughed.

"I trust you will carry out your duties to my satisfaction."

Freiyar performed a knight's salute.

"The local defense legion will not let you down, Your Grace."

The last one to receive orders was Baron Camorra.

"I called you here to appoint you to the position of Logistics Commandant. You will be the chief logistics officer of our forces, so every shipment of resources to the frontlines must receive your screening and permission. You will control their allocation as well."

Camorra nodded respectfully.

"Yes, Your Grace."

"We have long been preparing for this war. From weapons to food and vehicles for transportation, we have almost everything ready. This is a summary of our inventory," said Lorist as he handed a thick folder to Camorra.

"However, there are a few things that you have to pay attention to. For your escort, I have already ordered Firmrock and Tigersoar to each send a brigade of retired soldiers. Viscount Eidis and the other old nobles of Winston have also picked out elite soldiers to form a division of security troops to take care of the convoys' safety. You won't have to worry about manpower on that front.

"You also have to pay attention to the one million gold Fordes' worth of resources, House Kenmays's 500 thousand gold Fordes, as well as Count Shazin's resources worth 300 thousand. Everything is support for Count Felim's relocation to Southern to settle down in his family dominion. Since Southern is more or less a wasteland right now, they will not be able to set up a stable foundation without our aid. As this shipment is only for that, I want you to place extra care and concern on it.

"Our houses have more than enough for our troops, so you don't have to worry about that. The largest problem we might face, however, is the allocation of manpower. On the one hand, our house will try to stop Duke Fisablen from moving Winston's youth to his dominion. On the other, we need you to relocate the youth.

"I'm sure you've heard about the renovation and construction efforts following the occupation of Windbury when I talked to Freiyar just now. We will no doubt require lots of manpower. I've already ordered the dominion to mobilize four experienced construction units, each number roughly a hundred men. That's why we still require approximately four units of ten thousand comprised of Winston's able-bodied youth to facilitate the construction effort.

"If the war turns out well and we successfully exterminate the duke's Frontier Legion and complete the citadels' construction, the workforce will have to head to Southern and help Firmrock set up the defensive infrastructure there. Moats will have to be dug for the implementation of our iron cage tactic.

"Other than that, if we have any captives, we will use them to work on the roads between Winston and Southern. All the equipment and resources will be transported to Windbury once it's secured and your logistics operation center will be moved there as well to make it easier for you to support the war effort in Southern.

"The whole logistics affair will no doubt be incredibly chaotic. You're the only suitable person of which I can think. Do you have any thoughts on the matter?"

Camorra nodded and simply.

"Your Grace, I will need permission to promote and encourage those of the escort team as well as the laborers. I can only raise their morale and promote efficiency if I can do that."

"No problem. You may design some reward schemes and show them to me when you're done," agreed Lorist magnanimously.

"Then there won't be any problems," said Camorra as he accepted the post.

"Oh, Baron Charade, how many people have moved from Winston in the past 1 month or so during winter?" asked Lorist when he recalled another matter of which he had put Charade in charge.

"Your Grace, Firmrock Legion's first division arrived at Viscount Eidis's old dominion near Dawok on the 10th of the 11th. The skis and sleds are functional until the 29th of the 2nd. So far the house has moved 87 thousand people from Winston, 32179 of whom are youths. The house has urgently allocated up to 100 thousand sets of cold-resistant clothing," reported Charade, uttering one number after another flawlessly.

The youths Charade referred to were men between 16 and 35.

"That doesn't sound right. Didn't Viscount Eidis say there are approximately 30 thousand people in their dominion, and that the subjects of the other three houses combined only numbered 40 thousand? Why are there so many?" asked Lorist curiously.

"When they returned in the winter, they managed to convince another seven noble houses with similar fates to switch sides as well. That's what I was going to report to you. Baron Potterfang and Baron Malek promised the seven nobles that if they cooperated, they would also be able to receive House Norton's entitlement and be given the opportunity to become your vassals."

Lorist nodded.

"Ah, those are the conditions I told Potterfang and Malek before they left. Winston's old nobles go all the way back to the time of the empire. Unlike the nobles of Southern that attempted to take advantage of the empire to extend their influence and power, the nobles of Winston sacrificed a lot for the former empire. Additionally, they didn't involve themselves in the empire's civil war, so I'm willing to give them a chance."

"You're right, Your Grace. The seven nobles have already emptied their current dominions and are bringing all their family members to The Northlands. We have temporarily arranged for their accommodation at the former noble mansions of Gildusk. They wish to have an audience with you and hope they will be given a chance to fight against Iblia.

"So far, there are still approximately ten thousand commoners at Dawok, most are young widows. Viscount Eidis said that if there are no women in the town, Duke Fisablen's ambassadors will notice and have their suspicions raised. Lord Potterfang also agrees and stationed a division of wheelbarrow-carroballista troops and a division of heavy-armored infantry, totaling 30 thousand men, at the town. The rest are hiding in ambush in Baron Wade's castle."

"Wait, what about was the allocation of 100 thousand cold-resistant clothing you mentioned?" asked Lorist.

"Your Grace, you're not seriously expecting the Firmrock soldiers to disguise themselves as Viscount Eidis's subjects clad in the equipment of our forces, are you? I had no choice but to trade the cold-resistant clothes for the cruddy apparel of the commoners being moved here. It will also help ensure their safe travel to The Northlands in this weather. Our forces will don the beaten-up clothes of the transported commoners so they can fool the Frontier Legion scouts," explained Charade.

"Apologies, I forgot to take that into account. Also, notify the seven nobles that they may meet me and have lunch tomorrow. And Baron Camorra, you may pick 20 thousand men from the youths just arrived to group them up. When we attack Winston, they can travel there with baron Freiyar's local defense legion to the strategic locations to begin construction efforts," instructed Lorist.

"Understood, Your Grace."

Chapter 366 Extermination

"Report! An eagle message was just received. Your Grace, the three Frontier Legion divisions at Windbury have been deployed. They're heading to Dawok and will arrive at approximately during three in the afternoon," said Tarkel after he rushed to the tent hurriedly to update Lorist on the military reports.

Lorist smirked and said to Count Felim, "Duke Fisablen fell for it. He might be under the impression that this is just an act of rebellion from the nobles from Dawok in opposition to the order to move. It's probably due to the Frontier Legion soldiers that didn't get to conquer the town yesterday.

"The other noble houses' banners are hung all over the town wall, after all. The garrison soldiers there must number roughly 20 thousand already. It's only normal for the 10-thousand-strong Frontier Legion division to lose three skirmishes, with about a thousand casualties in each. That's likely why the duke mobilized the three other legions. He wants to make an example of the nobles that dare resist him. Their extermination would certainly put more pressure on other considering doing the same."

Stretching his hand over the map, Lorist laughed.

"Let's continue with our original plan. Count Felim, your Pegasus Legion will take the left flank, Loze will lead Tigersoar and attack the right flank. Terman, lead the Ragebear Knights around their rear and cut off their escape. I will join you with a guard brigade. Els, Reidy, take a squad each and deal with the Frontier Legion's scouts. Don't let them escape no matter what."

"Understood, Your Grace," said Els and Reidy as they left.

"Will we press the attack after we encircle them, Your Grace?" asked Felim.

"Yes. Given how far they have to travel, the soldiers will definitely need to rest when they arrive. Our ambush will catch them off guard when they are most exhausted. They won't be able to run from our ambush. It's ideal since we want to exterminate them completely. Leave cleaning the battlefield to Loze. He will head to attack Pedro the day after. We will travel to Windbury through the night and take the capital city by morning.

"Oh, and Tarkel, did the message mention whether Duke Fisablen joined the assault personally?"

"No, Your Grace. Word is that the one leading the three divisions is the legion commander, Gold-ranked Knight Hemorrison. He's an old subordinate of the duke and also among the duke's most trusted aides. He's been working for him for more than three decades. He's reliable and has lots of experience," replied Tarkel.

"In other words, Duke Fisablen is staying at Windbury?"

"Yes. The message said he was preparing to take command of the capital and towns' garrison forces that used to be under the nobles he exterminated's command. He wants to form a defense legion with roughly 45 thousand men to take care fo Dawok, Windbury, and Twilight Lake Town's defenses. Perhaps he couldn't leave because of that, so he left exterminating the nobles to Hemorrison."

"Haha," laughed Lorist coldly, "It seems the duke still isn't aware that our attack on Iblia has started already. He's still going about his plans as usual. It's too bad we won't give him any more time. We ought to accept his gift with grace before we pay a visit to the war god himself at Windbury. I'm looking forward to seeing his flabbergasted expression. Let's depart!"

"Immediately, Your Grace."

......

"Why do I feel uneasy? Will Dawok go own badly?" mused Hemorrison.

The Frontier Legion commander looked around suspiciously.

"Double the scouts. Expand our surveillance area to 15 kilometers ahead."

"Is something wrong, Sir? Dawok is only 50 kilometers away from the capital. It won't take more than half a day by horse. We didn't see anything odd along the way, not since morning, right? We'll meet up with Sir Udinas in another two hours at Dawok. We can rest for the night before we take the town tomorrow. I'm sure we can deal with the ragtag bunch quickly and carry out the duke's order. It's but a relaxing walk in the park. Why does it seem like we're facing our archenemy?" asked Gold-ranked Knight Maqais, the legion's second-in-command.

"I don't know why myself… something just doesn't feel right. I have a sense of foreboding similar to what I felt when we launched that surprise attack on the greater and lesser golden creeks but I really can't find the reason no matter how hard I think about it. The duke predicted the nobles' rebellion.

"But we didn't think they'd manage to rally another seven or eight nobles and gather a force of 20 thousand. They even made Sir Udinas suffer such a loss… It seems these nobles intend to fight a defensive battle now they just harvested their winter wheat. They want to force the duke to take a step back by prolonging this confrontation. Even so, the traitors will definitely regret it the moment we arrive. Even though we're light cavalry, we pack quite a punch," laughed Hemorrison.

"Sir, perhaps I know why you're worried," offered Maqais seriously.

"Let's hear it."

"There used to be 47 old noble houses in Winston. However, thanks to that darned king, the second prince of the empire, who sold noble titles to gather military funds, more than ten new noble houses emerged. Despite their conflicts with the nobles of Southern, which was the undoing of more than ten noble house, there are still 56 in Winston.

"Last year, we were ordered to exterminate 23 of them and the remaining 33 accepted the duke's order to relocate. Currently, there are roughly 8 noble houses gathered at Dawok. So, the other 20 or so will definitely watch this conflict from the sidelines.

"If we successfully take Dawok and exterminate the rebels, the other nobles will definitely obediently as the duke ordered. But if this gets dragged on and the rebels manage to secure Dawok, the others might be tempted to join them and stab us in the back. Winston will then be swallowed by a large-scale revolution. I believe that's what's bothering you right now, Sir," Maqais explained in great detail.

Hemorrison nodded.

"Your explanation is sound. However, what I'm worried about is that the nobles supposedly watching from the sidelines have already secretly formed an alliance. They may be in cahoots with the nobles holed up in Dawok and stab us in the back at the most crucial moment. That way, we can't occupy Dawok to carry out the duke's order. That's perhaps the thing that was worrying me."

"We can actually afford to fight at our own pace without rushing, Sir. Didn't the duke say he would send the reserve legion here next month to face off against the four Northlands houses? If the situation you described happens and all the Winston nobles rebel, we can just hold them off until the reserve legion arrives and takes them all out," said Maqais crudely.

Currently, about half of the five Frontier Legions were comprised of grassland barbarian recruits. They were mostly domesticated barbarians not only fluent in the common tongue, some even knew how to read and write. Having mingled for quite some time, they were no different from normal imperial soldiers. The reserve legion, on the other hand, was mostly formed from barbarians apart from the commanders and knights of the house.

In other words, while the reserve legion was one of the house's strongest units, it was also the most unruly. Many incidents of conflict occurred within the ranks. Duke Fisablen decided to mobilize the reserve legion to Dawok to prevent an invasion by the four Northlands houses.

"No, Maqais. What we need now the most is time," Hemorrison countered, shaking his head, "The four houses wiped Madras out when nobody was watching and helped Second Highness Auguslo reclaim his throne. His Grace was greatly shocked and decided to prepare to defend against them immediately.

"Normally, you would have to rest for at least two or three years after a war to recover. But, the four houses' casualties during their conflict with the duchy was so little they would require just two years to recover, and that's taking into account that the duke underestimated their might. After all, it was a war that wiped a nation off the map.

"However, when we heard House Kenmays and House Shazin relocated their dominions, His Grace breathed a sigh of relief and thought they wouldn't launch an attack on Iblia within the next two to three years. Dominion relocation is no simple affair. To tempt and misguide the four, His Grace sent messengers to the Nortons and the salt merchant committee to place an order for goods worth over two million gold Fordes.

"That's why His Grace launched his plan to clear Winston. It was to prepare it for becoming a battlefield suited to weather their invasion. We need to build citadels at Dawok, Twilight Lake Town, and Windbury. As long as we can control these three strategic locations, we can rely on the mobility of our forces to drag the battle out and wear them down. That way, we can force them to retreat.

"If we fail to take Dawok, the remaining 20 plus houses will rebel and escalate the conflict. As long as this conflict persists, it might attract the four houses. Even if they haven't recovered their might, our house is similarly unprepared for it. Should we clash with the four houses right now, it will greatly affect the house's plan. What we want the least is to attract the four houses' suspicion and ruin the duke's plans."

Maqais nodded solemnly.

"In other words, we just have to crush Dawok right away and let the spectating nobles preparing to rebel see us hang the noble houses holed up within right away so they can continue to head to their assigned dominions in Southern obediently. We can easily reorganize the manpower in the dominions those nobles left behind and complete the mission without problems, right?"

"Correct. Oh, the scouts are back. Let's see what they have to say."

A scout rode quickly like the storm and came to a sudden stop before he reported.

"Sir, situation normal 15 kilometers ahead. We didn't spot anything noteworthy."

"Thanks for the hard work. Keep up surveillance and report anything you see right away," Hemorrison ordered, waving his horse whip.

"Right away, Sir," said the scout before he left in a hurry.

"Increase our pace," ordered Hemorrison as he turned to the orderly behind him.

Around two-thirty in the afternoon, Knight Hemorrison and Knight Maqais made it to Dawok with their three divisions. The third division commander, Udinas, had long been waiting to receive them.

"Sir, the camp is set up. Do you want to rest now?"

"There's no rush, Udinas. Tell me more about the situation. We can go check out Dawok's fortifications afterward," Hemorrison said as he waved his hand before he turned to the orderly beside him.

"Have Sir Karichok and Sir Benbrik come over and survey the town's defenses later and discuss our plan of attack."

"Understood, Sir," said the orderly as he turned and left.

The First Frontier Legion of House Fisablen numbered 46 thousand divided into four main divisions and one logistics division. Its commander was Three-Star Gold-ranked Knight Hemorrison - also the first division's commander. Its second-in-command was Two-Star Gold-ranked Knight Maqais, leader of the second division. Gold-ranked Knight Udinas was the third division's commander and was at the two-star-gold rank. As for Karichok, who Hemorrison had just summoned, he was a three-star-silver-ranked knight and the leader of the fourth division. Benbrik Hand was a two-star-silver rank and the leader of the logistics division.

While Hemorrison was commander of the legion, he was extremely polite and cordial towards the two silver-ranked knights, Karichok and Benbrik. After all, they were knights bearing the surname Fisablen and were distant relatives of the duke himself. They were considered members of the house.

"Sir, we arrived yesterday morning and launched three attacks after we set up camp. We used the grapple horse jump during the second and third attacks and managed to scale the walls, but the enemy numbers up there were too high. Too few of our men made it up the walls, hence our failure," said Udinas regretfully, as he explained the reasons for his three failed attempts.

The grapple horse jump was a technique that took advantage of low defensive walls. A rider would toss a grappling hook up on the walls and use the momentum of the mount's gallop to propel oneself up onto the walls. That was a technique many grassland barbarians were familiar with, and many imperial soldiers of the Frontier Legion also knew that skill.

"How well-defended are the walls?"

"They're defended mostly by elites. There are about 20 thousand soldiers on those walls. Apart from five or six thousand experienced old veterans, the rest seemed to be the youth laborers only recently conscripted. Their weapons are all over the place, ranging from farming to sewing tools. There were even women on the walls. Most of them are not armored at all, wearing only some worn out leather clothes. However, there are roughly 400 longbowmen who caused almost half of our casualties," replied Udinas honestly.

"Sir, the walls of Dawok are only approximately six meters tall, and rather thin, We can use rams to take them down tomorrow. Sir Udinas suffered a loss because of having insufficient troops. Now that the whole legion is here, we only have to topple the walls to finish the traitorous nobles off," said Maqais when his sharp eyes caught the wall's weakness.

"Very well," praised Hemorrison with a nod.

Just as he was about to say something else, the loud blaring of the horn rang out in the distance and interrupted him.

"What's going on?" asked Hemorrison in a panic when he dropped his horsewhip unknowingly.

The cries of the scouts could be heard in the distance.

Some used their last breath to shout, "Enemy attack! It's the Nortons and Felims!"

Hemorrison paled as he mumbled, "That... that's impossible..."

On the 26th day of the 4th month of Year 1778, the Nortons led the four houses of The Northlands to launch their assault on the Iblia kingdom, starting with the extermination of the First Frontier Legion of House Fisablen at Dawok.

Legion commander and leader of the first division, Three-Star Gold-ranked Knight Hemorrison, second in command and leader of the second division, Two-Star Gold-ranked Knight Maqais, and leader of the third division, Two-Star Gold-ranked Knight Udinas, all perished in the battle. Three-Star Silver-ranked Knight Karichok, leader of the third division, surrendered to the Nortons. The First Frontier Legion suffered more than 28 thousand casualties, with another 16 thousand taken captive without a single soldier managing to escape. This is known as 'The Dawok Extermination'.

Chapter 367 City Entrance

The purple-red tint of dawn colored the sky as buds of clouds floated past.

Vikdor opened his eyes, pulled apart the beastskin furs covering his body, and stood up on the walls. Stretching his body lazily, he wiped his face with his hand and removed a rather large piece of rheum from his eyes and turned to look at the noisy plaza in the distance.

"Darn it... The days ahead are gonna be tough... I can't even get good rest with them making so much noise so early in the morning," Vikdor mumble as he kicked his subordinates who were still lying on the ground of the walls asleep, "Get up, all of you. Stop sleeping. If the patrolling officer sees you still asleep, you'll be in for a whipping! Get up right now."

That was the north gate of Windbury and Vikdor was a leader of his squad of ten. The squad he was in charge in took care of opening and closing the city gates, with the added benefit of sneaking some 'unofficial toll' from merchants intending to enter the city.

"Boss, it's still so early, why'd you wake us up? It's not like the city bell rung already... There's no need for us to open the gates anytime before eight in the morning... Look, the sun still hasn't risen yet. Just let us catch a bit more shuteye," complained Klisha, a veteran soldier, in a sleepy voice.

Slightly pissed, Vikdor went over to give Klisha two more harsh kicks. "Don't you feel any shame from saying that? If it weren't for you and Fatty Bart asking me to go all in with my bet, I wouldn't have lost all the additional rations of our squad and take up the shift of Languan's squad, we wouldn't have to be basking in the cold breeze and could sleep well in our own camp!"

Klisha said with dissatisfaction, "That's because of your own shit luck... Languan already threw a one, three and four, and that roll is practically giving money away. Yet, you somehow managed to throw a one, two and three. Didn't you see how bright Languan's face was back then? Even after you lost the money, you didn't give up and wanted another bet by staking us, your squad members, to replace their shift if you lost. In the end, Languan managed to throw three sixes. It's all your fault we had to sleep through the night here."

When Klisha said that, Vikdor reddened with embarrassment that turned into anger. "Well, then why didn't you stop me earlier? Instead, you got me to bet all our money and I only bet to take their shift cause I wanted to get the money back. It's not like Fatty Bart and you were against it back then. There's no point in complaining now that we've lost."

"Can you stop arguing? It really spoils the mood to hear you grumble first thing in the morning, you know. You might as well use the time to think of how we can warm up and fill our stomachs first. Those lazy bums at the camp will only send us food at nine, not to mention that they'd have to serve that master and those other idiots first. Perhaps, the food might not come before ten," said a fat old soldier who was leaning against the wall and clutching his beastskin fur tightly.

Klisha turned directed his grievances to his new target and said, "Fatty Bart, is eating all you can think of? You're already so fat."

Annoyed, the fat old soldier barked, "It's got nothing to do with you. I won't fuss over every little thing like you rascals who don't see the bigger picture. Just get over the fact that we've lost. There's no point getting hung up on it now. The only thing I regret is helping that stupid duke out. We've never had a good day since he came. We lost our post as guards of the palace and were sent to look after the city gates. Not only did we lose our bonus pay, even our salary was cut by half. It's all thanks to that darned duke..."

The fat old soldier's words struck the minds of the other soldiers, who wholeheartedly agreed. They were rather dissatisfied with how they were treated since Duke Fisablen came over. Originally, they were part of the regiment of guards of Rose Palace under the direct command of the queen. Working at the palace was nothing short of a dream come true. Not only was the pay great, sometimes nobles would pay them huge sums to find out about hearsay in the palace. Not only that, there was also the benefit of networking with others. Fatty Bart used to get along with the guard of the royal kitchen and fattened up because he ate too many delicious treats from there over time.

However, the first act by Duke Fisablen when he arrived was to disassemble the regiment of palace guards. The regiment leader and the company leaders' heads were hung at the plaza of the palace. As for low-ranked soldiers like Vikdor, Bart and Klisha, they were distributed all over the four city gates to replace the private soldiers of the nobles from Southern.

Back then, the nobles of Southern had fought quite extensively for the right to control the city gates. Yet, with but an order from Duke Fisablen, they had no choice but to hand control of the gates back thanks to the threat of the Frontier Legion. Similarly, that also set their own paths of doom in stone. Without control of the gates, they couldn't freely leave the city as they pleased, making them vulnerable to the duke's whims at any given moment.

Vikdor, however, was terrified when he heard the disrespectful words uttered by his subordinates. "Shhh! Shut up, all of you! Even if you don't feel like living anymore, don't drag me into this! Did you forget about how many people the duke killed during the second half of the previous year? How many of those aloof nobles are still alive right now? The pit we dug was filled with hundreds of corpses! Did you forget how many powerful nobles that were rendered into nothing but fertilizer for the soil?!"

Seeing the pale faces of his quiet subordinates, Vikdor continued satisfiedly, "Mere soldiers like us won't usually be the target of those nobles. But speaking bad of them is the worst taboo you can possibly commit. If word of it gets around, all ten of us, perhaps even the whole squad, will be beheaded by those cold-hearted nobles! Not just those who talk bad about them! All they need to end us with is an order! Do you understand? Now, get yourself together and stand properly. The patrol soldiers will come to check on us later, so do it right if you don't want to get caned."

Not long after, an agonized cry could be heard from the plaza in the distance. However, the sound soon came to a sudden halt.

Vikdor felt a chill run down his spine and mumbled, "I wonder which unfortunate fellow's head will be displayed in public next..."

Klisha said, "There were 17 yesterday... How many heads will fall to the ground today?"

Bart turned to the plaza and said, "Boss, I heard Burk from the palace kitchen say that the thousands gathered at the plaza to train are only the first batch. Duke Fisablen decided to form a new garrison legion with the private soldiers of the nobles and Burk even encouraged me to sign up fast. I'm a two-star iron-ranked after all, so there'd be no problem for me to become a leader of a 100-man squad. But now, I'm starting to wonder if a normal garrison legion even requires such strict training..."

Vikdor nodded and said, "That's right. I heard Squad Leader Boston say that this garrison legion is held to the highest standards of discipline, even higher than normal standing armies. I heard that they will be stationed at some strategic locations, so the instructors Duke Fisablen sent over are more harsh than ever. They just go around punishing or beheading people without a blink of an eye. I think you ought not to find trouble for yourself. The soldiers of that legion don't have it easy. I doubt you'll be able to handle it."

"Boss, stop talking. The patrol team is here," said another soldier who was squinting at the silhouettes in the distance.

The patrol team was formed from members of the personal guard of Duke Fisablen. A few teams would patrol all corners of the city multiple times daily. The patrol team for the walls numbered only ten people, but all of them were silver-ranked and were armed with the gear of House Fisablen, striking fear into the hearts of those that weren't content with being under the duke's rule.

"You guys seem well and energetic," the knight from the patrol team said in his rare acts of praise, "Who's in charge of you guys?"

Vikdor bowed as he said, "Sir, I am ten-man leader Vikdor."

The knight leading the patrol team said, "Vikdor, you did well. The duke ordered the gates to be opened one hour earlier and closed one hour later for these two days. Also, the men defending the city walls are to be doubled. I believe your squad leader has received the order already."

"Oh, why is that?" asked Vikdor curiously.

The knight didn't mind the question and explained the reason for that order. "After the winter harvests, the duke ordered the commoners of the dominions that are currently not under noble rule to bring the winter wheat to the city, hence the extension of the opening time for the gates. Also, First Frontier Legion was deployed yesterday, and we believe a messenger will come during these two days to send a report. We're leaving the gates open for longer so that we don't miss the messenger, understood?"

Vikdor nodded as the patrol team took their leave.

Bart said excitedly, "Boss, if the transport team is here, we can get a sack of winter wheat for porridge! Porridge made from fresh winter wheat is just so delicious!"

"We'll see. Go check if that's the transport team over there. There's such a huge convoy heading here, a little earlier than expected. Klisha, ask Squad Leader Boston why the additional men assigned to the gates aren't here yet. We won't open the gates until they come," said Vikdor as he looked at the long convoy approaching the city.

The men sent over by their squad leader were none other than Vikdor's nemeses, Languan's own group of ten. Languan used to be a mercenary and was of the three-star iron rank, yet nobody could recall what he went by in the past. Languan was but a nickname of his.

At that moment, the bell within the city rang seven times. After a short pause, it rang another seven times. It would ring another seven more times before the time reporting protocol concludes.

"Time's up. Languan, open the city gates. We'll stay here since running up and down like this is just too tiring," shouted Vikdor from the top of the walls towards Languan's group below.

Languan cursed, "I thought I could take some time off after winning against you yesterday, but that darned Boston sent me on another job. I still haven't had my breakfast, you know! I hope his member doesn't ever stand again even after seeing that young wife of his!"

Vikdor and the rest atop the walls laughed heartily, before Vikdor recalled something and shouted to Languan, "Hey, the transport team is already here! Get a sack of winter wheat from them! We'll make some porridge at the tower over there!"

It wasn't know whether Languan heard what Vikdor said. All he did was nod before instructing his men to open the gates. As the convoy approached the gate, a few men sitting atop the carriages filled with linen sacks jumped off and talked to Languan before handing a sack over. Languan stepped aside and let one carriage after another enter the city.

The one who handed Languan the sack remained at the gate and chatted with Languan. He also handed him a waterskin.

Darn, that must be wheat wine or something. Languan really has it good, thought Vikdor enviously. However, he soon felt a the walls of the city vibrate slightly.

What's going on? Vikdor thought he imagined the feeling, but he heard Bart say with a trembling voice, "Bo-boss... Look... Cavalry..."

Vikdor raised his head to look and froze up instantly. Countless numbers of cavalry troops could be seen swarming towards the city, and they didn't seem to be First Frontier Legion that left yesterday based on their armaments. Their armor and banners were different and they had to be the enemy.

"E-enemy attack!" shouted Vikdor with difficulty to Languan below, only to see the man from the transport team pull out a bloody shortsword from Languan's body before he turned up and smiled at Vikdor.

It's all over... The gate can't be closed because of all the carriages down there... We'll definitely die if we go down right now! The transport team is actually the enemy in disguise! The capital will definitely fall! thought Vikdor as his mind blanked out. What should I do... Oh, those cavalry came from the direction First Frontier Legion left in... That means the legion is already wiped out...

Who could possibly exterminate FIrst Frontier Legion and still have enough men to attack Windbury with? Vikdor looked begrudgingly at the cavalry approaching from the distance and saw a familiar insignia on the banner. A picture of the raging bear? Isn't that House Norton from The Northlands? They're here again... And there's also a banner with a pegasus... So House Felim is here as well...

Clang! Vikdor discarded his weapon and kneeled down on both knees on upon the walls,

"Bossm what are you doing?" asked Bart in confusion.

"Drop your weapons and kneel like me now! I'm making sure that you get out of his alive! If you're still armed when those guys make it up here, they'll attack you! Quick! Discard your weapons and kneel behind me!" cried Vikdor as quickly as he could.

......

Lorist was the first to ride all the way into Windbury. His target was Rose Palace because Duke Fisablen was over there. As long as he could capture the duke, the rest of the plan would be a no brainer. House Fisablen without the duke would become malleable as clay for Lorist's purposes. With Duke Fisablen out of the picture and Blademaster Xanthi held captive by the second highness, House Fisablen would have no one to lead them. Since Viscount Kristoph was someone Lorist could easily deal with, all he had to do was to wait for Sylvia to come crying to him and beg for House Fisablen to be spared. She would definitely agree to any condition Lorist brought up by then.

Well, that's thinking a little too far. First, I need to catch that slimy old duke, thought Lorist as he wiped the drool off from the corner of his mouth and continued riding towards Rose Palace.

Behind him, the soldiers bearing the banner of House Felim and the Ragebear Knights were flooding into Windbury through the north gate. Els, who had pretended to be part of the crew of the transport team to jam the gates with the carriages, was busy looking for a mount so that he could join up with Lorist.

After wiping out House Fisablen's First Frontier Legion at Dawok a day before, Lorist brought his guard brigade, Ragebear Knights and House Felim's Pegasus Knights with him. They left for Windbury at seven that night. Potterfang and Malek would follow behind them with Firmrock Legion and Loze and Tigersoar Legion was tasked with clearing up the battlefield.

At first, Lorist wanted to mount a night attack on Windbury, but he realized that his men and horses were already tired out when they were about 5 kilometers away from Windbury. Having no other choice, Lorist ordered his men to set up camp and rest. After all, even the strongest men couldn't handle fighting after a whole night of travel right after the battle to wipe out First Frontier Legion.

Guess we have no choice but to attack head on, thought Lorist. However, before six in the morning, the scouts patroling in the distance noticed a large convoy traveling towards the capital. After asking around, Lorist was delighted that such a convenient method of entering the city had fallen right into his lap. Els and Reidy brought the guards to masquerade as those of the transport team and quickly managed to take over the north city gate, causing Windbury to fall to their hands just like that.

The loud blaring of the alert horn finally rang out, causing the city bell to ring nonstop in response to the enemy attack. The patrol teams bravely resisted their foes, only to be reduced no nothing but bloody corpses soon enough.

The two large golden doors of Rose Palace was finally visible before Lorist. He drew his longsword and rushed straight towards the tens of soldiers standing guard at the palace entrance.

Chapter 368 Escape

Duke Fisablen woke up really early in the morning. With the coming of old age, his need for sleep diminished. However, he never thought of himself as old despite being at the age of seventy. As a rank 3 blademaster, his body was as fit as a man in his fifties. He was still so healthy he could release his pent-up desires the night before on two maidservants in his palace.

The reason he couldn't sleep was probably due to all his worries.

I wonder what happened to Xanthi... She still hasn't returned. I heard from an informant in Shabaj she was hunting down that Norton child with two other blademasters, but she hasn't contacted me since the chase started. What was that child called again? I think he was the swordsmanship section of the knighthood tournament's champion. Poor Jinuindor... For such a rare talent to die at the hands of the Nortons like that...

The duke felt his rage well up every time he thought about it.

Xanthi should be fine. She's a rank 3 blademaster, after all. I sure was surprised when she broke through three years ago. I resolved myself to attack the greater and lesser golden creeks thanks to her breakthrough. The Hubet tribe there aren't people to mess with lightly... They have seven fighters on par with blademasters.

Duke Fisablen had had to work together with Xanthi to kill six of the blademaster-level fighters to cause panic in the tribe before the military attack could be launched. They wiped the tribe out in one go and conquered the creeks.

As a rank 3 blademaster, Xanthi should have nothing to fear when traveling across Grindia. All she had to be wary of were the old hidden masters. Even if she met other rank 3 blademasters she could still escape unscathed.

She must just be having too much fun and forgetting to report back in time... Well, women are free spirited I suppose, thought the duke as he shook his head and stopped worrying about Xanthi.

He never even dreamed that Lorist would deal with his lover and make her the second highness' captive.

With his dominion peaceful, and Viscount Kristoph taking care of the golden creeks, he focused on the citadels and basic infrastructure at the golden creeks' construction. So far, House Fisablen had forcefully moved more than 200 thousand young men and women from Melein and settled them down at the creeks. They planned to move another 300 thousand citizens from Eastwild make the creeks the house's new headquarters over the rest of the year.

As for the lack of manpower at Eastwild, Winston's citizens being moved there would have to suffice. Coupled with some of the domesticated barbarians, Eastwild's population could still be maintained at approximately 500 thousand. As Sylvia was put in charge of dealing with the development of Eastwild's irrigation infrastructure, he hoped the dominion's agricultural growth would make it self-sufficient within the next two years so they would no longer have to rely on importing large amounts of food from the salt merchant committee. While House Fisablen's dominion was not lacking in meats, it would be quite a waste to let the commoners feast on meat all the time. All they needed was a filled stomach.

Currently, House Fisablen relied on their livestock to trade for resources with other nations. While the house had started to earn much more from mining gold following Goldcreek's occupation, the mining operations themselves cost quite a bit to set up. Gold could also be kept for times of need, while livestock was another story altogether. House Fisablen was provided with livestock by the grassland barbarian tribes annually, almost 100 thousand animals each time. It didn't come at any cost to the house either. They were able to exchange the livestock for lots of goods from the salt merchant committee, which was in turn used to trade for more livestock at a marked-up rate with the barbarian tribes. The trade netted the house quite a bit of profit.

The moment he thought of Princess Sylvia, Duke Fisablen's expression darkened.

Sylvia was so obedient and delightful when she was younger... Why did she grow into such a rebellious woman? She actually fell for that kid leading the Nortons... What's so good about him anyway? He doesn't even take a duke like me seriously. To be honest, he would make a decent husband, but he isn't on our side. In fact, the Nortons are secretly our enemies...

The duke felt like he had been slapped in the face when Lorist refused his conditions for the marriage up front.

Rumors were not to be believed so readily. It was widely said among the nobles that House Norton's new leader was someone who didn't have a shred of ambition and only knew how to turtle up in his dominion like a coward. He even formed the alliance of four houses for protection. If other noble houses had that kind of military power, they would've started a war by now. However, Duke Fisablen didn't share their opinions. When he analyzed Lorist's actions and predicted his moves, he couldn't help but be awed.

Even though he didn't know of the saying, 'one can easily be king by erecting high walls and stockpiling food', he didn't look down on Lorist's plans in the slightest. The Northlands had been turned into a tank since House Norton consolidated the strength of their three allies. They were at a point where they could attack and retreat as they pleased. When word of Madras'conquest spread out, the duke was surprised, but not dumbfounded. The four houses did have the might required to end a nation.

It's no wonder that kid dared refuse my conditions. He had that kind of confidence all along. When it comes to his personal strength and the might of his house, he's not the slightest bit inferior to House Fisablen. In fact, he's better in many respects...

Duke Fisablen took a deep breath.

And to think I tried to put a leash on him using Sylvia in hopes of being able to keep his house out of my way... It's a shame he's far too stubborn... Or, maybe he knew that was what I was going for all along and crudely refused my third request.

There's no doubt House Norton is going to turn against us completely soon. The last batch of arms they sent over was just a ruse. The apology Count Kenmays sent last year said they would raise prices two or three-fold. It seems they want to bleed our newfound gold out of me.

However, that wasn't the main thing that worried him. Even though the four houses knew the house wiped out Melein and established a trade route to the four central duchies, they still raised the price of goods. Weren't they worried the house would order what they needed from the duchies instead? The duchies had more than enough salt to go around.

It all pointed at only one conclusion: the houses were trying to stretch their claws into Iblia. Perhaps, wiping out Madras had given them the confidence to ignore the house's existence. It was common knowledge that Iblia mainly relied on House Fisablen and declaring war on the kingdom was akin to challenging the duke himself.

What he regretted most was taking too much time to deal with the kingdom's nobles. Fortunately, two of the four houses of The Northlands relocated their dominions at the same time. He believed they would only settle down this year. The soonest they would act was next year.

Perhaps I should send out an envoy to prod the waters. Even if it'll cost me two million gold Fordes to strike up another deal with them, at least I get to buy a year of peace, thought he.

Hopefully, my plans for Winston can be completed this year so we will be ready for them and can fight them over there. We're too tight on time. The three citadels must be completed this year. We still need to train the garrison legion to man them and move Winston's people away... There's too much to do!

The two maidservants pleasured to unconsciousness by the duke finally woke up. Seeing the duke breathing heavily, clad in nothing but his night robe, they hurriedly brought over some warm water and shyly cleaned up his body while letting him cop a feel or two. The two were planning to give the duke some quick morning stimulation, but he refused their offer and left with his sword to train.

By the time Lorist arrived at Rose Palace, Duke Fisablen had ended his training and was enjoying a hearty breakfast in his study after his bath. He looked over stacks of documents as he ate. Just as he was dealing with some of the kingdom's matters, a horn rang out. It did nothing but cause the duke to crease his brows, however. He thought it was just the soldiers gathering to train at the plaza causing trouble.

It was to be expected, many of the soldiers were picked from the Southern noble's private forces. Many had already awakened their battleforce. Though they were mostly bronze or iron ranks, some might think it was a good time to cause trouble now that First Frontier Legion was away.

No worries, I'll just take my personal guard and kill off a few of them later. I'm sure the rest will quiet down and become obedient.

He always ruled with an iron fist. How would the rowdy grassland barbarians obey him otherwise? He employed the carrot and stick approach. If they obeyed orders, they would be rewarded; if they didn't, death was the way to go.

But when the alarm bell signaling an enemy attack sounded, he finally lost his cool.

This isn't just some disobedient soldiers... Who's attacking?

Just when the duke was about to send the palace guard out to check the situation, a loud bam echoed through the castle as the main doors were kicked open.

A familiar voice declared as arrogantly as possible, "Duke Fisablen! You have an honored guest! Aren't you gonna come over to receive me?!"

"Who dares act so impudently?!" roared the duke.

The moment he left his room, he saw Lorist fighting off a bunch of palace guards near the collapsed doors. With but a flash of the sword, a loyal palace guard's limbs fell all over as he tumbled to the ground and joined the 40 or so corpses already there.

"Stand down!" yelled the duke.

The guards were the house's elites. Following the knighthood tournament, he had taken a page out of Lorist's book and picked two thousand soldiers with awakened battleforce to serve in his personal guard. He was planning to have them train beside him for another three years before assigning them as squad leaders to his main force. It would not only increase the loyalty of his troops, but also the strength of his forces through an effective chain of command.

"Hehe, Your Grace, Norton Lorist pays his respects!" greeted Lorist after he stopped chasing down the small fry.

While the duke appeared calm on the surface, he was actually quite unnerved.

Lorist? How did he come all the way here and bust down my door?

He had been incredibly wary of Lorist ever since the latter killed a gold-ranked knight with one move during the duke's banquet ahead of the tournament. If he was armed, he wouldn't have any trouble taking out a gold-ranked knight instantly either, given his prowess as a rank 3 blademaster. But even he wasn't confident he could do the same unarmed like Lorist.

"Yo-you... How did you get here?" asked he.

As he spoke he secretly made a gesture with his left hand behind him.

"Haha, Lord Duke, I came to visit with my forces, of course! Since Iblia no longer has a king, it's about time the kingdom goes with it. Our four houses have come to help it along. Come, Lord Duke. Let us discuss what lies ahead for the two of us."

From how he was still holding his sword, it didn't appear he wanted to talk about anything though.

"Dream on! I'll not permit Iblia to fall!" roared the duke.

"Oh really?" Lorist snickered, "I'm afraid it's not up to you anymore. Pops, your First Frontier Legion has already been wiped out completely. Not one made it out alive. How'd you think we got here? Listen to the cheers outside. That's the sound of our victorious occupation of Windbury. It's over, pops. Drop your weapon and surrender. I'll give House Fisablen a chance for survival on behalf of Sylvia. You'd better be obedient though! Hahaha..."

Lorist laughed heartily now that the duke was in front of him. There was no way he could escape now. As long as the duke was felled by his hands, all his troubles would be solved.

"Bullshit!" the duke cried, "Norton brat, I'll never yield to the likes of you in the name of House Fisablen! You better forget about making me surrender. As long as I have a sword in my hand, I'll fight you to the end!"

"Is that so?" Lorist said mockingly, "No worries. I'll fight you until you discard your sword and kneel before me. Let's see what kind of crap you can spout then! En garde!"

Lorist dashed forward and launched a flurry of attacks.

Clang-clang-clang!

Three sword clashes saw Duke Fisablen knocked backwards three meters.

"Not bad, pops. Your foundations are much stronger than that old hag. It seems I'll have to break a sweat to take you down," praised Lorist.

"What do you mean?" asked the duke as he carefully circled Lorist, sword raised, as if he was trying to find an opening to attack.

"Don't you get it? By old hag, I mean Blademaster Xanthi. She's a rank 3 too, right? She didn't even take ten hits. She's currently in a cell in the imperial capital."

While Lorist appeared confident in being able to take down the duke, even engaging in small talk, he was still extremely cautious. If he failed because of too much gloating, he would become a huge joke. The duke had been a rank 3 blademaster for a long time already and might still have some tricks up his sleeves.

"You're... you're lying!"

Duke Fisablen messed up his footwork in a fit of slight panic.

Lorist didn't take advantage of it, however.

"Oh really? Do you think House Norton will let you beat us around as you wish? You knew Reidy was my disciple and even dared to chase him down yourself. Did you think I was someone you could afford to piss off? Don't mistake a resting tiger for a cat! You think our four houses wouldn't know what you're trying to do at Winston? How idealistic of you to think we would let you turn Winston into the stage for our battle. Dream on!"

"You're going too far! I... I'll take you down here!"

The duke's face flushed angrily as he prepared to leap at Lorist.

"Well said!" replied Lorist as he made his preparation to receive the rain of attacks.

He didn't think the duke would actually jump back instead after feinting and shout.

"Fire!"

The moment the order rang out, more than a hundred longbowmen hiding in the corners of the palace appeared and fired at Lorist all at once.

"Sol!" cursed he.

I didn't think he'd do something so shameless! He's a rank 3 blademaster, isn't he?! How dare he ambush others with hidden bowmen?!

Lorist had to deal with the hundred longbowmen first. A good number were of the silver rank. The arrows they fired were quick, accurate and powerful. He had to leap about and deflect a good number of them before he managed to approach the archers. The moment he did, he launched into a bout of massacre. However, he lost track of the duke as a result.

The loud neigh of a warhorse sounded from the outside. Lorist leaped up a beam on the main hall and saw the duke leaving Rose Palace with tens of guards towards the south gate. Before he rode away, the duke even gave Lorist a glance from afar.

Darn it, that old pest is trying to escape! Lorist leaped down from the beam and headed for the gate as well.

Chapter 369 Pursuit

Whap! Whap! Lorist slapped himself hard on the face and wallowed in deep regret. He didn't think a rank 3 blademaster like Duke Fisablen would run without hesitation after crossing swords only twice. He had also been far too hasty in that he didn't conquer the other three city gates first before coming to seek out the duke.

Darn it! It's like having a duck fly away before I even cooked it! If that old fellow manages to get away, my strategy will be greatly affected!

Seeing the duke ride away with several dozen people, Lorist realized his legs would never catch up to them. He hurriedly shouted at the duke.

"Fisablen you asshole! Is your zodiac sign the rabbit? Why do you run so quickly?! Come back and fight me if you have any guts! Don't just run away! Some rank 3 blademaster you are! Wait, is your level even real?! Don't tell me you're just faking it!"

Upon hearing those words, a number of guards were angered and turned to chase him down. Duke Fisablen shouted something as he turned around. Most stopped disgruntledly. But three who couldn't or didn't listen to the duke's orders continued their charge.

Duke Fisablen stared coldly at Lorist without caring about those three guards. He gave a few orders to the guards at the south gate and left the city.

The three that charged at Lorist got into an arrow-shaped formation, with the guard captain swinging his silver-blade-glow-infused sword down at Lorist. The two guards behind him wielded spears that also had silver blade glows. It looked incredibly similar to a poisonous python and went for Lorist's flank.

Lorist suddenly fell backwards. The sword missed his chest by a hair's breadth. The mount's hooves landed right next to his head. The three guards didn't think he had such a move up his sleeve. The mounts lost their target, causing the two spears to pass above him. Lorist leaped up and landing as lightly as a feather on the left spear. He pivoted onto the warhorse. With three flashes of his sword, the three guards were beheaded and thrown off their horses.

He flicked his sword clean and sheathed it before he hooked the falling spear with his foot. He twirled it around and hooked the other two horses' reigns. He pulled harshly and turned all three around.

"Hiyah!" cried Lorist as he rode towards the south gate, now with three horses in tow.

He resolved to chase the duke down no matter what.

"Fire!"

The moment the duke arrived at the gate, he gave the order to fire. In response, several dozens of arrows descended from the top of the walls. Lorist looked up and saw a dozen spear-wielding guards firing at him while a few more turned were turning a sentry ballista around.

He cursed and spun the spear in his hand, deflecting the arrows. Currently, the sentry ballista was almost turned around. He jumped off his mount and flung the spear at the walls like a javelin. It pierced the three guards moving the ballista like lightning bolt. The three were nailed to the walls with audible squishes and squelches. They could only cry out in despair as the spear punctured their abdomens.

The other guards looked at them with shocked expressions before they cast their bows, shields, spears, and other weapons away and ran screaming, no longer caring about manning the gate or walls.

Lorist got back on the saddle and prepared to continue chasing the duke down, only to see his mount slump from an arrow it had taken in the chest not too long ago. It was currently stumbling towards the front with hints of blood coming out of its mouth.

He had no choice but to jump off. One look told him it was no longer salvageable; the arrow had pierced about a foot into it. It was already on the brink of death. Fortunately, he had two other mounts. He quickly decapitated the dying horse, ending its suffering, and mounted one of the others. He immediately resumed the chase.

After an hour, the duke and his cohort's mounts began to slow. Lorist switched his final mount and spurred it onward. The change let him finally close the distance a little. Earlier, the people at the front had only been only as large as peas, now, they were of the size of a thumb. He estimated he had probably closed the distance from 300 meters to about 200, and it seemed it wouldn't take too long for his targets' mounts to wear out even further.

He could hear horses galloping behind him. He turned around and saw forces with Count Felim's banner coming up behind him. It was none other than their light cavalry. Much to his surprise, there were only a couple of men but each brought with him three or four spare horses.

"Your Grace! Your Grace!"

A familiar voice rang out. Lorist took a closer look. It was Reidy and Els. They had six mounts with them besides their own.

"Where did you get so many horses?" asked Lorist.

"We found them at the camp stables, Your Grace. There are about ten thousand. They must be the First Frontier Legion's reserves. Count Felim said you went after Duke Fisablen by yourself, so he had us follow you to bring more mounts. He also sent Knight Bonawar and a regiment of light cavalry over. Count Felim and Terman's knights are behind them," yelled Els.

As there were too many horses around, much of what he said was drowned out by the galloping had he been softer.

"How's the capital?" yelled Lorist.

"I'm not sure, Your Grace. When we left, the four gates were already taken. I believe Count Felim wants to leave the city to Sir Potterfang."

Lorist didn't say any more. He pointed at Duke Fisablen's group in the distance before picking up his pace again.

After yet another hour, the duke slowed even more. No matter how they were whipped, they couldn't run any faster. The best they could manage was a decent trot. Lorist's group fared much better, but they were similarly tired by such a long chase. Lorist and Els switched mounts again and closed another 100 or so meters. They could even see their targets' panicked expressions clearly.

It wouldn't take them more than ten minutes to catch up.

Hehe, Duke Fisablen, I'll see where you can run now! thought Lorist with an insidious and excited expression.

However, the moment they approached a mound, Lorist was completely flabbergasted. The duke's group ahead hurried their mounts the best they could towards a pasture nearby where hundreds of other saddled warhorses were grazing peacefully.

"Sol! Where'd those horses come from?!" cursed Lorist as he saw the duke switch mounts.

A hundred or so men wearing the armor of House Fisablen saluted the duke. He didn't dally and rode away after saying a few words and pointing at Lorist. The soldiers ran at Lorist, weapons raised.

The countless light cavalry troops behind him drew their swords and spears and engaged the enemy. The Fisablen soldiers were terrified when they saw so many cavalry troops coming from behind. They swallowed their battlecry and stared at the oncoming cavalry blankly. In the last moments, before they drown in the sea of horses and men, they understood why the duke was in such a hurry. They had so foolishly thought Lorist was the only one giving chase and even tried to take him down.

"Why's there a patrol here?" asked Lorist curiously.

"Your Grace, Twilight Lake Town is roughly 15 kilometers ahead. The patrol was probably sent from there," reported Knight Bonawar of House Felim loudly.

"Oh, Twilight Lake Town..." Lorist recalled the report Tarkel sent him.

There were two regiments of roughly two thousand men stationed at the town. They were likely part of Third Frontier Legion. As they had participated in Melein's conquest two years earlier, they had incurred some casualties and part of their ranks were not yet replenished. They currently numbered 37 thousand men and were stationed in Southern to protect the road between Winston and the four duchies, Twilight Lake Town was loaded with construction materials for the three citadels Duke Fisablen intended to build.

"Forward! Give chase after we switch mounts. Duke Fisablen must die today!"

Lorist grit his teeth and switched to another mount. He chased the duke once again, now about 200 meters ahead, followed by Reidy and Els.

The 15 kilometers was covered quickly, and the stone-and-timber walls of Twilight Lake Town came into view. The guards there had already blown a horn to alert the rest to open the gates for the duke.

Lorist drew his sword and pierced his mount with it. It cried out in pain and rushed forward with every ounce of energy it had like a mad beast. He approached the group in front more and more as the seconds ticked by.

When the last of the duke's guards entered the town, the guards manning the walls quickly prepared to close the gates. Just before the door shut, Lorist appeared and pulled on the reins of his horse whilst simultaneously spurring it on with his feet. The horse read and kicked off. It soared through the sky and rammed into the gates. A loud bang echoed out over the pain and reverberated through the walls as the gate was knocked open. The guards operating it from behind were sent flying. They coughed out blood as the crashed into the ground several seconds later.

Lorist jumped to the ground and walked through the gate, his mount breathing its last desperate breaths behind him. He pointed his sword at the duke and called out.

"Old turtle! Why aren't you running?! Don't tell me this's all you got! You better surrender now!"

While Duke Fisablen's expression darkened considerably, he didn't leap at Lorist with rage. Instead, he pointed at him and said something to his guards. The extravagantly dressed men beside him waved their hands and yelled out some orders. A few hundred cavalry clad in Fisablen armor approached him, shields and spears raised.

As it happened, fighting in the midst of chaos was Lorist's favorite pastime. He calmed himself as the blood-colored world filled his vision. The cavalry galloping towards him turned into mechanical mannequins. He launched forward. Like a gentle breeze, the sword in his hand raked past their ranks with a bright glow as it claimed one life after another with startling ease.

Corpses littered the ground and blood flowed in streams down the streets. When there was no one in front of him, Lorist woke from the blood world. Much to his dismay, unfortunately, apart from the Fisablen soldiers, whom now stared at him with terror, no one else was present. The duke had once again left.

"Good... Good Sol! Fisablen you coward! Won't you fight me properly even once?!"

Galloping sounds once again echoed into Lorist's ears as Els, Reidy, and Knight Bonawar approached. The soldiers, who'd faced his wrath and saw their duke escape with a few others, intelligently dropped their weapons to surrender. They were spared in return.

"Should we give chase, Your Grace?" asked Bonawar respectfully.

He had finally witnessed what the duke of House Norton was capable of and understood why his lord adored him so much. Lorist had massacred the guards all by himself and even scared a rank 3 blademaster away. Nearly half of the 700 plus soldiers of the town had been killed by Lorist alone, 297 in total. It was no wonder they dropped their weapons and surrendered the moment Bonawar arrived. He had thought he would have to fight a bloody battle first.

Lorist shook his head exhaustedly. He had tired himself out with the massacre.

"Forget it. Have our troops occupy the town and deal with the remaining soldiers. We'll head for Southern when the rest arrive. Our men must be worn out as well. We'll achieve nothing even if we continued the chase. Let's all have a good rest."

"Understood, Your Grace."

Chapter 370 Humiliation of the Duke

Three days later, Duke Fisablen's group rode haggardly past the crossing point at Southern and arrived at the main gates of Third Frontier Legion's campsite.

After taking a bath, the duke ignored the fatigue and summoned his military officers to a council meeting. The duke told them the harsh truth: they had been attacked by the four houses and First Frontier Legion had been wiped out. They had also lost Windbury and Third Frontier Legion would be the next target.

A substantial commotion broke out among the officers and the house's household knights. They either barked about how they would make their enemy pay, or expressed worries about the might of the alliance's forces. After all, First Frontier Legion was fully drafted and armed, and was among the top three forces in the whole of the house's forces. If even they were wiped out in a single, the Third Frontier Legion would have a far harder time.

Duke Fisablen also didn't explain why he only brought a select few with him on his escape from Windbury. All he did was issue a successive stream of orders. First, they would regroup, especially the patrol troupes they had scattered, to fortify their military camp. The walls would be strengthened and outposts erected. Moats would be dug and supplies gathered. They had to be completely prepared for their enemy's inevitable arrival.

They would send scouts and informants to Winston immediately to monitor ever enemy movement. They also had to find their missing soldiers and find out where the First Frontier Legion's captives were being kept. If everything really was as Lorist had said -- that First Frontier Legion had been completely wiped out -- then the house's informants had to find out how. Most importantly, they had to find out how many forces their enemy had deployed, and why.

They also had to send envoys to request help from the four central duchies. Duke Fisablen told his envoys to inform his llies that Iblia was currently under attack by the nobles led by the duke of The Northlands, Norton Lorist. They had already lost Winston and Windbury, and House Fisablen's forces were mounting a defense in Southern. However, their enemy was immense and they could only barely hold their ground, but not for long. The moment Southern fell under enemy control, Duke Fisablen would have to return to his dominion to defend it, and the duke of The Northlands would probably turn his sights on the four central duchies.

The central duchies' biggest worry was Andinaq's king, Auguslo. The man previously known as the second highness was the Krissen imperial family's heir and wasn't keen on pardoning their traitorous acts. The four dukes knew the four houses of The Northlands, who had reinstated the second highness, were loyal to him. The moment the second highness joined forces with the four houses, themselves were powerful enough to wipe out Madras and possibly Iblia on their own, they would target the central duchies.

Duke Fisablen wasn't sure, however, whether they shared the second highness's goal. He knew Lorist wasn't someone loyal to Andinaq, given how the his forces were busy exacting revenge against the Hanayabarta kingdom so far away when the second highness was on the frontlines waging war against Iblia. If Lorist were truly on his side, the second highness's throne wouldn't have been taken over by Queen Carey either.

But his suspicion wouldn't affect his excuse to get his allies to aid him in the slightest. It was mainly because the duchies were unwilling to share a border with Anidnaq. If they did, there would be no peace for them. It was far better for House Fisablen to tangle with The Northlands' forces in Southern than having the conflict take place within the duchies' borders.

So, Duke Fisablen didn't hold back. Not only did he have his envoys call the duchies to reinforce him, he also requested astronomical amounts of food and equipment. He was confident the dukes would seriously consider his request. Even if he only got half of his request, it was already enough. It was expected that the duchies would try to bargain.

After sending out his envoys, he ordered his soldiers deployed. Apart from ordering the reserve legion set to arrive at Windbury that month to regroup with him instead, he also ordered Fifth Frontier Legion, stationed in Eastwild, to rush to Southern to bolster his forces. As for the defenses in Eastwild, it would be handed to the garrison legion. With the few legions Duke Fisablen mobilized guarding Southern, their dominion was still safe for the time being.

So far, Second Frontier Legion was defending the greater and lesser golden creeks while Fourth Frontier Legion was defending Wild Husbandry. Neither could be mobilized. They were, instead, alerted of the attack and prepared to defend against them. Wild Husbandry bordered The Northlands, after all. The best way to deter an invasion was to destroy House Kenmays's iron suspension bridge so they would have one less place to defend. That way, Fourth Frontier Legion could tangle with the enemy in Winston through their citadel at Pedro.

After giving his orders, Duke Fisablen stared at the map silently for a long time. Finally, he decided what else he had to do. He would conscript soldiers from the hundreds of grassland barbarian tribes in the great northeastern plains. The barbarian soldiers could prepare their own robust warhorses, weapons, and rations. And as reward for joining the war in Southern, he generously promised whatever they managed to obtain during the campaign would be theirs.

The household knights and officers in the tent were shocked at the duke's order and objected strongly. The moment they allowed the barbarian soldiers to raid during the campaign, it would do more harm than help to the house's forces. If word of House Fisablen becoming the enablers of barbarian raids spread, their reputation would take a huge hit. Even disregarding that, having disobedient barbarians that preferred to act on their own accord would give their forces a lot of trouble.

Duke Fisablen laughed bitterly. He explained that the Northlander houses couldn't be underestimated, given how they could silently eliminate First Frontier even though they were just 50 kilometres from Windbury. The two regiments of Third Frontier at Twilight Lake Town, almost two thousand men in all, were wiped out as well. Given the current numbers of Third Frontier, the duke wasn't confident they could hold off the inevitable attack. He would have to thank the heavens if their two reinforcement legions could arrive in time.

"This isn't hearsay or propaganda. This war will be a tough and drawn out one. If we don't throw in everything we have, we will be forced back to the corners of the great northeastern plains. Even if we survive, we will be at the mercy of others, subject to their whims and desires." he told his subordinates solemnly.

"But if we manage to emerge victorious, we'll be able to suppress the four houses and link Winston, Southern, and The Northlands into one solid wall. We will be the hegemons of the whole northeast. By relying on the trade route with the four duchies, we can build our strength up gradually. Everyone that contributes to this war will be greatly rewarded, and I won't hesitate to give out titles and land to distinguished household knights and make them part of the peerage.

"The more grassland barbarians that participate in the war, the better it is for us. We can use the promise of great reward and strict military discipline to control them to some extent. Those who don't obey shall be sentenced to death as traitors and their tribes will suffer collective punishment. Those who follow orders will be our scapegoats. We can use them to grind away at the enemy's forces while diminishing the barbarian's numbers as well, removing the threat they pose for good. We must use the casualties we will sustain to neuter the possibility of a revolt from the barbarians."

When the meeting adjourned, Duke Fisablen had a simple meal. He went to bed immediately afterwards and slept for ten hours straight. The days of running had tired him greatly. When he woke up, he took another bath, had some food, changed into some nice clothes, and had his attendants leave him alone while he enjoyed a bottle of fruit wine as he wallowed in his own tears. All this time, he had been torn by the fact that he had been chased away so haggardly. It was the most humiliating moment of his life.

He had never had to run for his life as desperately before. Not only did he lose Windbury and Twilight Lake Town, he also lost First Frontier. It messed his plans up entirely, and deprived him of the wealth and manpower of roughly 300 thousand people. He had been robbed, beaten, and stripped naked. The robber had even wanted to take him hostage and threaten his house. Fortunately, he managed to escape.

Thinking back on when he confiscated the wealth of the Southern nobles he slaughtered at Windbury and the Winston nobles that rebelled, the duke felt the onset of a headache. It was a huge sum, more than three million gold Fordes. He had intended to use it to construct a strong garrison legion with which to man the three citadels to secure Winston as the battlefield for the upcoming conflict. But it had all become the four houses' spoils.

When he took Lorist's two strikes at the Rose Palace, he could tell the young man wasn't a beat weaker than he in terms of swordsmanship. While he could probably rely on his vast battle experience to hold him back for about 300 strikes -- and even win with some luck -- he was well aware that the result of the duel would be meaningless if what Lorist had said about the extermination of First Frontier and Windbury falling were true. Based on that information, he believed escaping the capital as soon as possible was the only choice.

And yet the duke didn't think Lorist would go out of his way to hold him back. He even sunk to the depths of street thugs and cursing like them as he gave chase. It was due to the pursuit that the duke truly understood that if he had lost to Lorist in the duel, House Fisablen would no longer have a strong foundation to rely on. It would scatter into chaos and the alliance would easily harvest the fruits of victory.

He had come to this conclusion during his escape. He couldn't afford to fall into Lorist's hands no matter what. He could lead the house to regain what he had to give up to escape, but only if he escaped. He would make Lorist pay for this humiliation with blood and flame.

Naturally, Duke Fisablen still had lingering fears of Lorist's swordsmanship. He recalled he had wanted to use the confusion the 600 household soldiers created when the attacked Lorist in Twilight Lake Town to launch a sneak attack or two. But when he saw Lorist dive in like it was just a training exercise, he lost all hope of confronting him. Even he would run away if he had to face a regiment like that. Perhaps he would have to rely on hit and run tactics to slowly kill them off. The most important part was that he absolutely couldn't be surrounded and entangled by so many soldiers at once. That was why most blademasters weren't willing to face off against whole formations of soldiers.

Yet, he had witnessed Lorist charging at the swarm of soldiers. Like an agile fish swimming freely in the river, like the gales blowing freely through the dense forests, he wasn't threatened in the slightest by the spears and swords of the many soldiers. He was like the ghostly apparition of a farmer of life reaping his harvests, claiming the life of one soldier after another, longsword in hand.

Duke Fisablen was immensely shocked at how everything had gone down. It was the power of a domain. He had called his guards and left without a word. It was no wonder he dared to barge into the Rose Palace and face off against a rank 3 blademaster alone. Lorist had absolute confidence in his abilities and swordsmanship. He dared to do so because he was certain he could deal with the situation. Duke Fisablen was relieved he didn't fall into his trap and escaped instead.

However, he was still confused . How did Lorist manage to wield a domain even though he wasn't a swordsaint? Normally, only people in the saint realm could use domains. Lorist didn't gave off the impression of having broken through as a swordsaint.

Duke Fisablen had met a swordsaint personally before. When he was still a rank 1 blademaster just appointed to be the commander of the empire's Frontier Legion, he had an audience with Krissen VII. Back then, the empire still had a resident swordsaint. The feeling he got when he faced the swordsaint was the domineering oppressiveness of a mountain. All of a sudden, the peak of the mountain turned into a vast and endless ocean. The only feeling left within the duke's mind was one of indiscernible nature. It was precisely because of what he experienced then that he trained even harder and managed to reach rank 3 as a blademaster 20 hard years later.

Lorist didn't give off that kind of aura.

Perhaps the kid happened to figure out how domains worked by sheer luck. Oh, back then, Xanthi said he was training in the arts of the ancient eastern martial monks. Either way, he's already a quasi-swordsaint. He just needs a little bit more time to fully break through.

It would be great if Xanthi were here. Perhaps we could work together to resist him, perhaps even teach him a lesson.

When the duke recalled that Lorist said Xanthi had been taken captive by the second highness, his anger only got more severe.

I should send someone to find out more about this! Perhaps that kid was just messing with me! I hope he was!

When he finished his bottle of wine, the duke finished venting his feelings.

Kid... Lorist... Perhaps you dwarf me when it comes to swordsmanship and training... But let's see who triumphs in the war. I swear on House Fisablen that I will pay back all the humiliation I've suffered at your hands ten times over. I'll start by wiping out every last man under your and the other nobles' command!

Chapter 371 Arrival

Five days later, the House Fisablen's light cavalry scouts bumped into the vanguard of the alliance of four houses. The 100-men squad belonging to Third Frontier Legion were attacked by a light cavalry unit that had the same numbers as they did. After leaving 37 corpses behind, Third Frontier Legion's scout squad retreated immediately. Within the short skirmish that lasted no longer than ten minutes, the forces of the Northlanders got a victory of 37 kills for 13 casualties. This was known to be the first of many battles in Southern later in history.

Word from the defeated soldiers Duke Fisablen gathered revealed that the attack by the four houses wasn't carried out on a whim. Instead, it was a planned and prepared step to exterminate the Iblia kingdom. The Fisablen guards that escaped Windbury said that they discovered three legions bearing the Norton banner as well as a knight brigade. There was another legion with the banner of the Pegasus.

The Nortons had mobilized Firmrock, Tigersoar, local defense legion and Ragebear Knights while the Felims sent Pegasus Legion along, causing the duke much stress and worry. House Norton had already sent all its main forces to Winston, so were they trying to fight the forces of House Fisablen to death? Or, did Lorist receive orders to exterminate the four central duchies right after exterminating the Iblia kingdom?

If it were the latter, the duke didn't mind keeping low and let the four central duchies duke it out with the four houses of The Northlands. In fact, he would secretly be glad for such a thing happening. After all, the grudge the second highness held was common knowledge, and it wouldn't be surprising for him to order the four houses, who were loyal to him, to attack the four central duchies. House Fisablen could definitely wait until both sides were worn thin before they deployed their forces and claim the spoils of defeating Lorist and the alliance of four houses.

However, the duke's wish was completely shattered two days later when a few riders came over to deliver two pieces of bad news. First, the citadel at Pedro, the only place to cross from Winston and Wild Husbandry at the Pisper Mountains, had been breached by House Norton's Tigersoar Legion. Only two thousand of the ten thousand plus men of a division of Fourth Frontier Legion stationed at Pedro managed to escape alive. Their casualties were horrible and up to twenty thousand citizens had been forcefully relocated to The Northlands. Four Frontier Legion commander, Gold-ranked Knight Bakri was ambushed when he was leading his division in pursuit and perished on the battlefield from three arrow shots.

So far, only 28 thousand men remained in Fourth Frontier Legion. After vice commander Knight Benlyse reported all that to Duke Fisablen, he requested the house for reinforcements. As they had to defend the settlements of the commoners, Fourth Frontier Legion was at a disadvantage when they faced House Norton's Jaeger Legion. Conflict broke out within Wild Husbandry and House Norton's Jaeger Legion was roaming free at the province unabated and moving droves of citizens, livestock and horses to The Northlands. House Fisablen's losses were huge.

Duke Fisablen smashed the golden cup in his hand onto the ground in anger. There's no need to wonder anymore. Lorist's campaign is definitely directed at House Fisablen! It was nonsense for me to think that the four houses of The Northlands are loyal to the second highness. It's obvious that they will only deal with the four central duchies after House Fisablen is no longer a threat to them! This is a war for the house's survival!

However, the duke knew he couldn't afford to be distracted. During the past two days, House Felim's Pegasus Legion arrived at Southern. As a light cavalry legion, they were engaged in all out combat with Third Frontier Legion. There were more than ten conflicts breaking out on a daily basis. It seemed from the reports that Pegasus Legion's light cavalry scouts had an obvious advantage. The northern part of Southern was slowly being encroached upon by Pegasus and the Third Frontier Legion was unable to breach Pegasus's defense lines in the slightest.

Duke Fisablen found that he was being held back at Southern. The unit he was most concerned about was the Ragebear Knights. They had mysteriously stopped all advance the moment they arrived at Sehak, that was located at the border between Southern and Winston. What's going on? Shouldn't they be forcing Third Frontier Legion back to their camp by launching a joint attack?

Fifth Frontier Legion would be arriving in another two days, so Duke Fisablen would have a total of two legions under his control, approximately 70 thousand men. However, the duke really doubted the capability of Fifth Frontier Legion. From the reports sent over by Third Frontier Legion soldiers, it could be concluded that Pegasus Legion wasn't much stronger than Third Frontier Legion. In fact, they paled in comparison when it came to courage and hardiness. However, they had an edge in terms of equipment. If a soldier of Third Frontier Legion got cut with a sword, he would die with his guts spilling out. However, all the soldiers of Pegasus Legion would suffer was their broken armor. While they might end up gravely injured, it wouldn't be fatal for them. That reminded Duke Fisablen about what Lorist said about how one copper coin would only buy you goods worth one copper. The equipment House Fisablen bought from the Nortons were the cheapest ones.

If the Ragebear Knights attacked the camp of Third Frontier Legion, Duke Fisablen was confident that his defensive arrangements would be able to fend the knights off and deal them huge casualties. Even though Ragebear Knights were heavy-armored cavalry that far exceeded Third Frontier Legion both in terms of attack and defense, attacking a fortified camp was another story. Duke Fisablen had his own method fit for dealing with those walking tin cans.

The duke wasn't surprised that Ragebear Knights were the first unit of the Nortons to arrive at Southern as he had paid long attention to their troops since some time back. Firmrock Legion was comprised mainly of heavy-armored infantry and it would take them more time to arrive at Southern. Tigersoar Legion was a spear cavalry unit that was classified between light and heavy cavalry and they would remain at Pedro for the time being. Local defense legion was a defensive unit that was only sent to Winston to take over the defense of the strategic locations. That made it possible for Ragebear Knights, a heavy cavalry unit, to be the first to arrive at Southern.

What in the world is Lorist up to? Don't tell me he intends to gather all the forces of his house for an all out battle with us at Southern? Otherwise, what reason would Ragebear Knights have for staying put at a stronghold like Sehak? Defending? That can't be right. Knight brigades aren't used for defense. Weren't they giving us time to mobilize our forces by leaving their knights just sitting there? The correct way to do this should have been attacking without hesitation to drive our Third Frontier Legion out of Southern so we wouldn't be able to join up with the reinforcements of the four central duchies...

Duke Fisablen wasn't able to leave Southern at the moment and he came to a sudden realization that he had to defend the route to the four central duchies by himself. Not only that, the invading forces of The Northlands was able to move about unabated and they didn't even take the forces House Fisablen stationed around the crucial transportation points of Southern seriously. Not only did House Norton station Ragebear Knights at Sehak, House Felim also occupied the northwestern part of Southern and set up a tight defense line. They also began eliminating bandits at that area.

What is going on here? thought Duke Fisablen as he scratched his head in confusion. Only after staring at the map for a good while did he realize that Count Felim was reclaiming the old dominion of his house. However, it had already become a wasteland over the years, hence the duke's confusion at first. It was no wonder that Pegasus Legion set up a tight perimeter around the borders of the old dominion.

Duke Fisablen snorted and thought, Southern's going to be embroiled in war soon enough, so what's the point even if you reoccupy your old dominion? For development? You might as well throw gold coins straight into the water! There wasn't anything left in the old dominion of the Felims. No castle, farmland, manors, commoners, no nothing. Only bandits all round. Developing that area was a huge endeavor that took up gold, manpower and time. And those efforts would be wasted during a time of war and chaos.

House Felim's dominion occupied up to a quarter of the area of Southern. Even though it was at the northwestern area and Pegasus Legion had the advantage in a confrontation with Third Frontier Legion, it was House Fisablen who held the initiative for battle. There was no way the northwestern part of Southern could escape involvement in the upcoming battles. Other than that, no matter how huge Pegasus Legion was, it was only a light cavalry legion and all House Fisablen had to do was to send out two of their own Frontier Legions to wipe out Pegasus in no time.

I'll spare House Felim's legion for now and let them do their thing, thought Duke Fisablen. What he had to deal with first were the Norton forces. The halt of Ragebear Knights at Sehak possibly foretold the low mobility of Firmrock. It would take a few more days before they arrived. It seems that Lorist is intent on having an open-field battle with me...

But did he think me an idiot? Duke Fisablen would never engage in an open-field battle with the Norton forces if he had the choice. Trying to ram against heavy cavalry and infantry with light cavalry was a move an imbecile would make. The duke's original plan was to fortify the campsite's defensive facilities and drag out the battle as long as he could to wear away at the morale of the enemy before he ambushed their supply lines and harassed their advance to force the Norton forces to retreat from Southern in the end. That would leave a void for the Frontier Legions to fill to take back Winston and bring the conflict back there.

After much consideration, Duke Fisablen decided that he would ignore the situation at Wild Husbandry for now. He penned a letter for the vice commander of Fourth Frontier Legion, Benlyse, to appoint him as commander as well as inform him about the situation, and that the house wouldn't be able to offer any reinforcements for the time being. If they could no longer hold on, they were to evacuate all the commoners of Wild Husbandry to the east shore of Soxius River. They could effectively hold their ground along the river while waiting for the situation to turn for the better when House Fisablen regains their advantage.

Soxius River originated from Pisper Mountain and flowed across Wild Husbandry into the great plains. It was the main source of water of Wild Husbandry for both domestic use or livestock rearing. Both shores of Soxius River were the most prosperous areas of Wild Husbandry, but they weren't situated near the central area of the province and were closer to Eastwild. The implication of the duke's order was the loss of two-thirds of Wild Husbandry's territory. But it was sufficient as long as the incomplete Fourth Frontier Legion was able to hold the east shore of the river. To the duke, the situation at Southern was far more important.

......

On the 32nd day of the 5th month, Firmrock Legion finally arrived at Southern.

Lorist was rather troubled by how long it took. It's all that cruddy road's fault, being muddy and moist. The journey that should've taken only twelve days got extended to 26. As a result, Firmrock Legion also served as road repairers during their travels. If they didn't do so, even if they arrived timely in Southern, their supply line would be unable to effectively support them given the condition of the road.

Lorist finally understood why the second prince and the nobles of Southern didn't think about going back to the province and instead moved to Windbury even if it meant being in conflict with the nobles of Winston. Apart from the fact that Southern was a wasteland, the roads were already badly ruined. While a small merchant convoy or two could barely travel there, it was impossible for a large convoy to do the same. In other words, that main highway was even harder to travel on than a pedestrian's path.

However, the delayed arrival of Firmrock also brought with it some benefits. Firstly, Loze managed to conquer Pedro with Tigersoar. The remains of the Winston soldiers were also wiped out at the same time. Winston was already under complete control of the house. Next, Josk, leading Jaeger Legion, managed to greatly damage Fourth Frontier Legion. He even managed to kill Two-star Gold-ranked Knight Bakri with a surprise attack of three arrows, allowing Jaeger Legion to control the pace of battle against Fourth Frontier Legion, managing to beat them back haggardly.

With Winston and Windbury under the house's control, the supply lines could be arranged without problem. Baron Camorra had already initiated the transport of resources from Gildusk to Windbury. Military supplies such as rations and wealth obtained at Windbury also greatly pleased Lorist. He didn't think that the wealth Duke Fisablen confiscated from the nobles he exterminated would fall into the hands of the house. It truly was a gift that popped out of nowhere.

As for the four brigades of fifth local defense division Baron Freiyar commanded, they were headed for Dawok, Pedro, Windbury and Twilight Lake Town respectively to begin work on the construction of defensive citadels. The remaining 25 local defense brigades were headed for Southern. As Ragebear Knights was going to make Sehak their main camp, they would save lots of construction work for the 25 local defense brigades.

However, the original plan to launch a lightning-fast attack had been ruined by the accursed road. Lorist had actually planned to chase Duke Fisablen out of Southern before setting up a few defense perimeters at key locales and digging lots of moats to completely incapacitate cavalry troops. Given the situation at Southern, it seemed that Duke Fisablen would be fighting a defensive battle. While Lorist was still on the way, he received reports from the cavalry scouts on Duke Fisablen's deployment layout implied that the duke intended to wear down the Norton forces gradually. After all, defending was far easier than attacking.

It's a shame you miscalculated, old guy, Lorist thought with a gleeful smile as he watched the catapults being transported along the repaired road, You'll quickly be able to witness for yourselves the might of these weapons our house developed. Times have changed, and an old relic of a wargod like you should retire already.

Chapter 372 Tower Defense Tactic

"Watch out! The grassland barbarians are here! String the steel ballistae! Prepare to fire!"

Tall stone towers straddled a very normal-looking hill's brow. Each was surrounded by a ditch roughly a hundred meters from the tower. The spiral ditches were also laden with barricades. Any attacker would have to circle around them while being fired at from the towers to pass through and arrive at the tower's doors. The towers themselves weren't that big, they could fit at most a hundred people [1]. Towers like that were rather rare in the eastern parts of Southern. They were arranged in a net-like formation that spanned almost half of Southern and reached all the way to the border of the eastern half of the province.

About a thousand leather-armor-wearing, messy-haired grassland barbarians with varying face paint stopped at a point far away from the towers. The carriages that followed soon arrived and large shields were brought out. As they waved their crude weapons around, the barbarians bolstered their courage with their war cries and advanced, shields in front.

One of the towers near the frontmost part had already been set alight. A wisp of green smoke floated into the sky; it was the signal that indicated the tower had been breached. As a few other towers nearby lit up as well, it was a sign that the whole front part of the battlefield was under enemy attack.

A Firmrock soldier biting one stalk of dried grass in his mouth looked at the slowly-advancing barbarians. Even though the enemy outnumbered them ten-fold, he didn't seem concerned. Spitting out the grass, he turned back.

"Leader, there's really something wrong with these grassland barbarians' heads. Have they already forgotten about how terribly they were massacred during the last few attacks? Did they think those eight wooden shields would be able to deflect the steel ballistae bolts? They're really stupid... I wonder how many of them will die this time before they retreat..."

A soldier next to him, aiming the steel ballistae smiled.

"Wanna bet? I bet a gold coin they'll drop the shields and run after only around a hundred die."

A heavily bearded soldier came over. He was the person in charge of manning the tower, a company leader with 100 men in his command. Mostly, forces with around a hundred men were squads. They had one leader in command of the whole group. Beneath him were the lowest command rank, ten officers each in command of ten men. The Nortons' forcers, however, had ten men in each squad, with the squad leader being in charge of ten men as well. Companies had a hundred men. Five companies made a regiment, and five combat regiments and a supply regiment made a brigade of three thousand men. Five brigades formed a division, and four divisions a legion with 60 thousand men in total.

The bearded man slapped the back of the soldier who'd asked to bet's head.

"Like I'll let you bet more than a month's salary away. You're not a child anymore. You should be saving up for your family and thinking about retiring from the corps if you have so much time on your hands. Be more alert. Our armor might be pretty good, but the barbarians aren't vegetarians. Klido was struck in the arm by an arrow and it had to be amputated. You guys better be unharmed by the end of this, you hear?"

When the thousand or so barbarians messily used the weapons in their hands to attempt to fill the ditches, one of the towers, stationed with a company of troops, armed 20 ballistae all at once. The towers were roughly twelve meters in the air and split into four separate floors. Each of the floors from the second floor upwards to the roof had five ballistae installed. Apart from the uncovered roof, the floors below were shielded well and the ballistae fired through aiming holes. In other words, the towers were actually designed by Lorist using the 'pillbox' structures used by the Japanese in the historical films he watched.

The ballista operators within the towers were incredibly cunning. They didn't fire at the large shields, instead, they targeted the barbarians filling up the ditch. When one of the barbarians died, the others would scramble behind the shields in fear without making any other attempt to fill the ditch. Though there were a few archers that fired towards the towers, given that they were roughly a hundred meters apart, they weren't able to get an accurate aim at all. Given the crude bows of the barbarians that couldn't fire with much force, the parabolic shots scattered without reason or order at random locations.

It was nothing but a joke. That didn't resemble a proper battle at all. Instead, the attackers were akin to targets the defenders used to practice with. Even after more than 60 barbarians died near the ditch, not half of it was filled yet. In the end, all the barbarians hid behind the shields and didn't dare to look out. The attackers were completely stuck.

Should the barbarians press their attack without regard for their casualties, they could reach a tower's entrance for every two to three hundred men lost. If they were lucky, they might even get to break the doors down to attack the soldiers inside the tower. That was assuming the towers didn't have other tricks to react to such situations. However, the problem was that no barbarian was willing to become one of the two hundred. They had come to raid, not die and let their comrades profit in their stead.

The bearded man looked at the eight still-standing wooden shields and mumbled to himself as he stroked his beard.

"It really is quite the task for them to push shields that large up the hill. But what can they do merely hiding behind them?

"Leader, should we use flaming arrows?"

The bearded soldier shook his head.

"It's pointless. Those large timber shields would take far too long to burn down. It's too bad we weren't allocated any catapults. Otherwise, one fireball would be enough to take care of the shields."

"Leader, should we focus fire on those shields and see if we can damage them?" asked the gambling addict.

"Alright. Let's try," agreed the bearded man.

They targeted the middlemost shield and with an order from the bearded officer, 20 bolts shot out like lightning towards the shield. However, it merely shuddered for a bit without moving much. The bearded soldier said with disappointment.

"It's useless... It managed to hold up..."

Barely before he finished his sentence, the soldiers' cheer could be heard from beside him. "Leader, look! The shield's falling!"

The shield that was struck with 20 ballista bolts fell to the ground and smashed to pieces, revealing near a hundred of barbarians standing behind it as well as those who were crushed by the shield itself.

Seeing a chance, the bearded man yelled, "Restring and shoot the little rabbits!"

It did indeed look like a rabbit hunt. The barbarians that lost their shield hopped about chaotically. Apart from half of them that managed to hide behind the other shields, the rest were targeted by the steel ballistae. After three volleys of ballista fire, more than 45 barbarian soldiers fell. There were a good number of barbarians that tried to run out of the ballistae's firing range only to fail and be impaled from the back by the bolts.

By the time the second wooden shield was successfully taken down, the barbarians hiding behind the other shields could no longer take it and turned tail to run, their weapons discarded. There were even some who rolled down the hill. They knew that the wooden shields couldn't protect them. Sooner or later, the shields that remained would be shot down as well and it was far better for them to run than be sitting ducks.

A bunch of horses could be seen roughly four hundred meters away from the towers, out of their firing range. From their previous attacks, the barbarians had learned that it was ill-advised to ride their mounts up the hill. Despite the non-stop firing from the ballistae in the tower, at least half of the barbarians managed to leave the firing range. By the time they were only about 60 meters from their mounts, a large group of light cavalry showed up and scattered them like eagles scattering chickens. Alas, two legs were slower than four. Soon, one after another fell from the riders' blades and dyed the foot of the hill red.

......

"Now you see it, right? Duke Shabaj, this is the step-by-step strategy employed by the four houses. They set up the towers like a wide-encompassing net. Some towers are just 300 meters apart. They are closer to one another than the range of the ballistae. I've ordered a thousand-men cavalry regiment to pass between the two towers. We didn't think there would be more towers behind them. Only 400 returned."

Duke Fisablen was currently speaking to an old man clad in elegant armor. Not long ago, their group just stopped at a hill not far from the battlefield to witness the sight of the barbarians' failure to breach the tower formation.

"Towers like these only have a hundred men inside at most. The only question is where the four houses managed to obtain so many sentry ballistae. Based on my observations, these ballistae should be modified variants. Their firing rate is fast and they also have great range and accuracy. Even though I had more than ten thousand barbarians attack ten towers, the results are obvious. These barbarians aren't for sieges. While they excel in field battles, they have no way of defeating these towers.

"If we want to eliminate them, we will have to use disciplined infantry. House Fisablen's forces are mostly light cavalry so we have no way of dealing with them. In fact, our mobility is greatly limited. Lord Duke, I hope you can hurry the other duchies to send their troops as soon as possible. Since we're in the same boat, we'll have to drive the four houses away and stop them from conquering Southern. Otherwise, no of us will have peace in the days to come," said Duke Fisablen frankly.

It was the 12th day of the 7th month on Grindia and it had already been almost 50 days since Firmrock arrived in Southern and faced off with Duke Fisablen.

The moment Firmrock arrived, they began to set up camp near the duke's defenses. He didn't mind and decided he would first set up his defenses well before launching his attack. That was but common sense. He just ordered his two legions to prepare for a defensive battle.

What the duke didn't expect was that Firmrock would take so much time setting up camp. After three days, he finally felt something was off. When he took a look at the camp with his own eyes, he realized they weren't actually setting up camp at all. Instead, they were working on defensive fortifications as well, fortifications far more defended than the duke's.

Not knowing what was going on, the duke thought,what the heck is going on?! Who's supposed to be the defender?!

Even after Firmrock finally finished setting up their defenses, they didn't launch an attack. Instead, they began construction on the tower outposts. Under the protection of Ragebear Knights, they managed to finish the towers' construction in ten short days. The construction materials shipped non-stop were used to fortify the towers. Most of it was green glue.

When Duke Fisablen realized the towers would become a huge obstacle for light cavalry, he immediately ordered for the reserve legion that had just arrived to attack. But he, regretfully, came to realize that even the ferocious reserve legion wasn't able to do much against those tower outposts. Instead, they returned with huge casualties. The moment he ordered them to retreat, Ragebear Knights launched their attack from hiding and caught them horribly off guard. In the end, they were only able to retreat after losing half their numbers.

Duke Fisablen currently faced a huge dilemma. He realized the light cavalry he had used to storm the grasslands had lost all their potency in Southern. The net of towers constructed by the four houses had greatly limited what light cavalry could do. Even though he would still be able to take the towers down by sustaining huge casualties, he knew well that sacrificing hundreds of household soldiers for capturing one tower was not a worthwhile exchange. Each tower only took about ten days to build, but training light cavalry soldiers as qualified as those he'd lose took years.

Seeing the number of tower outposts grow before his eyes to cover even more land, he considered whether he should give up on the crucial transportation point and find another important location where he could set up towers just like the houses had. But before he settled on that decision, he received a piece of good news: Duke Shabaj had personally led 20 thousand troops to reinforce Southern and was already on his way to meet him.

Duke Fisablen was elated to hear that and turned his sights on the reinforcements of the four duchies. As almost all of the reinforcements were infantry, they were just the right fit for taking down the towers. Afterwards, his light cavalry could mow down what remained of the forces. The duke had unconsciously changed his goals from taking Southern back to fighting to the death.

To sound more convincing, the duke intentionally had ten thousand volunteer barbarians with disciplinary problems attack the towers. The would be forgiven if they participated in the attack. The duke was also generous enough to offer them a huge reward should they emerge victorious and even prepared large shields for them to weather the endless ballista fire. Even though he didn't hold much hope for their success, the barbarians' performance caused the color to drain from his face. Even so, the demonstration only reinforced his words about how inadequate it was for light cavalry to attack the towers.

Duke Shabaj was a blademaster with lots of experience. However, he was merely a rank 1 blademaster that broke through relying on precious and rare medicines. Seeing the barbarians' attack, he laughed.

"Lord Duke, the four central duchies are paying lots of attention to what is happening here in Southern. This matter is of utmost importance to our peace and we have decided to not let this province fall into the hands of the Andinaq kingdom's alliance of four. Apart from the 20 thousand troops I brought with me, the other dukes will arrive soon with their own 20 thousand. Not only that, we also brought you a lot of resources you can use.

"Since we're allies, we will definitely uphold our due responsibilities. We definitely won't sit by and watch the forces of the Andinaq kingdom invade the territory of your house. As for how we should take down the towers, we'll have a discussion when the others arrive. We'll stand by your house no matter what and drive Andindaq's claws back."

[1] I don't know exactly how a tower than can fit a hundred people is 'not that big'. It's absolutely HUGE! I call CNSS (Chinese Novel Scale Syndrome).

Chapter 373 Onset of a Great Battle

Lorist kept sighing in his tent. The situation in Southern seemed to be building up to a huge conflict unlike what anyone had expected. He regretted that he didn't attack Duke Fisablen to stop him from constructing his own fortifications the moment Firmrock arrived at the frontlines. That way, even if he had sustained huge casualties, he could have driven House Fisablen's Frontier Legion out of Southern instead of merely standing off against them like he was now. As the enemy reinforcements increased, he could only take a defensive stance.

The tower outposts tactic was something he'd deployed by drawing inspiration from the tower defense games he played in his past life. Originally, he merely wanted them to encompass the area he controlled to stop enemy messengers from passing through to limit their communication. However, he had not foreseen how effective they would be against cavalry. So, he continued to build more and more and covered the area he controlled with a network of towers. Ragebear Knights and the three Tigersoar divisions he moved over were like the spiders perched on a net, they would devour anyone caught instantly.

The towers' construction was relatively simple. First, the foundations had to be secured, then the ground filled with rocks. Green glue would be poured into the seams to secure them in place. Thereafter, evenly cut rocks would be stacked on top of the foundation until a tower was built. As the northwestern area of Southern was rather hilly, rocks were easy to come by. Given that the silver-ranked knights of Firmrock were already used to using their blade glows to cut rock, one day of hard work by ten silver-ranked knights was enough to gather the rocks required to build the towers. It would also train their battleforce, so it killed two birds with one stone.

All that was left was to fill in the seams with green clay again and a tower that could defend an area with a radius of 100 meters around it was ready. Given that it only took ten days to build one, towers were erected day after day and the area Lorist controlled expanded. A third of Southern was already under the four houses' control.

However, as the number of towers increased, Lorist realized that something was wrong. What he was doing was unlike the tower defense games he played. Each tower he built had to be manned. So far, there were a total of 170 towers, but a little more than one division's worth of men from Firmrock had been sent to man them. That was more than 17 thousand people.

A month ago when he arrived with Firmrock, they were faced with House Fisablen's two legions of 70 thousand men and a further 30 thousand grassland barbarian soldiers as well as a greatly fortified camp. If they were fighting a field battle, he didn't fear the duke's 100 thousand troops. However, leading 60 thousand soldiers of Firmrock and 10 thousand from Ragebear Knights to attack a heavily fortified camp was a rather foolish idea. So, he ordered three divisions from Tigersoar sent over to bolster his forces. By the time the three Tigersoar divisions arrived, House Fisablen's reserve legion had also arrived. The number of the duke's troops was still about 30 thousand above Lorist's.

House Felim's Pegasus was still exterminating bandits in the province's northwestern area. Since he couldn't afford to have his rear so chaotic on the frontlines, Lorist decided to wait for Pegasus to clear the area up first before ordering them to reinforce him. However, he didn't think so many grassland barbarians would answer Duke Fisablen's call. Their numbers neared 70 thousand. Lorist began to build his towers in response. It was not until he had built too many that he had split up Firmrock. Duke Fisablen, on the other hand, gained even more reinforcements: the 20 thousand Shabaj infantry.

All Lorist could do was look on as the enemy's numbers slowly grew to double his own. Frustrated and annoyed, he had no choice but to continue his tower tactic. If he didn't have enough soldiers, he would have to send an envoy to Count Kenmays and Count Shazin and request each send a division or two so they could man the towers instead of Firmrock's soldiers. That way, Firmrock's forces could remain consolidated and ready for an enemy attack.

How'd it turn out this way? I should have been the attacker, but now I'm playing a defensive game. I wanted to wipe out the duke's forces and the four duchies separately at first, but it seems they have now joined up against me. The war has evolved to the point all the plans I've drafted have to be put aside. I really don't know how this situation can develop in the future, thought Lorist.

All he could do now was respond to the situation on the fly. The tent's entrance opened and Potterfang walked in.

"Your Grace, Count Felim sent a messenger. According to him, Knight Bonawar is heavily injured."

"What?" Lorist said with surprise, "Knight Bonawar was injured? How? He's the commander of a legion! How could he have been in harm's way? Was it an assassination attempt or an ambush?"

Potterfang shook his head.

"I'm not sure myself. The messenger said he had heard it from someone else. Let's read the letter first."

Potterfang handed the letter over and Lorist gave it a quick look.

"Oh, it's about the issue with the mines. I see I'll have to make a trip there to solve the issue."

"Mine? What mine?" asked Potterfang.

"Just read the letter," Lorist said while he pointed to the letter on the table, "Andelik Hills is located near the border of Southern and Winston and there are two iron mines there, one larger than the other. Both are located within the old dominion of House Felim. When the second prince signed a treaty with the Union's Wessia Merchant Guild, he sold them a thirty-year mining permit. With the second prince now dead and Iblia gone, our alliance can naturally not be expected to honor that contract. Count Felim sent people to reclaim the mines, but it ended with Knight Bonawar being injured heavily by a blademaster guarding it. The blademaster even boasted that if we wanted the mines back, we would have to face his sword first. Wessia definitely won't hand the mines back so easily."

"Can't Count Felim just deploy Pegasus to retake the mines?" asked Potterfang without bothering to read the letter.

"He did, but the mines are on high ground and it's hard to attack. There's no way to encircle the mines and sending only a few up there is pointless. I have to make a trip to help the count out. His house's foundations rely on those two mines."

Lorist had no choice but to go as the four houses faced their enemies together. As House Felim didn't have their own blademaster, their gold-ranked knight was injured by an enemy blademaster. As the boss, Lorist ought to fight for his ally's sake. In the end, the trip took only around 6 days. It ended with the blademaster dead. It Lorist just three exchanges. The guild's supervisors and engineers were taken prisoner. The fellows who initially condemned Lorist that their guild would definitely not let him off turned rather timid after a few were hung. They answered when they were questioned and Lorist and Felim soon learned the truth of the matter.

They didn't think Wessia had invested so much money in the mines. Not only did they get new mining equipment, they also set up a refinery and smithy nearby. Within the smithy's storehouse were tens of thousands of sets of plate armor. According to the supervisor, the armor was ordered by Duke Fisablen. There were fifty thousand sets of armor in total and they were due for delivery to Windbury for the new garrison legion. Given that the city had already fallen and that the garrison legion was no more, the armor was left in the storehouses.

Apart from the armor, Felim's greatest gain was the hundreds of technicians and smiths. The refinery and smithy could continue to operate with them there and it would greatly speed up the growth of his old dominion. Thirteen thousand laborers were also liberated.

Originally, he had wanted the laborers to continue mining, but Lorist stopped him.

"Are you stupid? If you spare them from mining, they will instantly be completely loyal to you! Weren't you complaining about having nobody to recruit into your army? These miners are the perfect target! If you start recruiting them, you'll be able to form a smaller garrison legion. Not only that, you don't really lack weapons now, do you? With the refinery and smithy, you can already start making the gear you need, right?"

"But who will dig out the ores?"

While Felim was moved by Lorist's suggestion, he was still troubled that he had nobody suitable to mine.

"Mining? It's hardly skilled labor, right? Just use the bandits you caught. We also captured lots of grassland barbarians from the frontlines. They are fit and strong and a good fit for the task. Maybe you can set a mining quota. They will only be fed if they meet the quota. If they don't, it's their own fault," said Lorist mercilessly.

"But, we don't have enough prisoners. There are less than two thousand altogether."

"Worry not. The number will grow as the days pass. Didn't you see our enemy's camp? There're more than 100 thousand troops and about 70 thousand barbarians. We'll have lots of captives after this conflict," replied Lorist confidently.

But, a few days after Lorist returned to the frontlines, he was devastated to hear the report from the light cavalry scouts. The four duchies' reinforcements had arrived, roughly 60 thousand men in total. They also brought along carriages filled with resources.

Ten thousand men would already fill one's vision, not to say much about 60 thousand that brought carriage after carriage with them. They lined up like a long dragon leading to House Fisablen's camp. It took more than three days for the convoy to settle down. In the meantime, Ragebear Knights and the three Tigersoar legions had been waiting for an opportunity to attack but failed. The duke was rather cunning. He formed a tight defensive line with his frontier legion and the other barbarian troops to protect the reinforcements.

Looking at the distant cheering barbarian cavalry, Lorist turned down Terman's request for the Ragebear Knights to be allowed to attack.

"It's pointless. You'll only be falling into the duke's trap. If you attack they can grind you down with tens of thousands of barbarian soldiers. Even if your armor is strong, the warhorses can't fight that long. The moment your warhorses tire, heavy-armored units like you would be like fish on dry land. There are many ways to deal with you if that happens. Return to your post. Since the old guy's troops grow more and more numerous, it won't take long for him to go on the offensive. We have to be even more prepared."

House Fisablen currently had Third Frontier, which numbered 32 thousand men, Fifth Frontier with 45 thousand men, 18 thousand men from the reserve legion and 70 thousand barbarian soldiers. There was also the 80 thousand elite infantry from the four central duchies. The number of enemies Lorist had to face grew to a staggering 240 thousand plus. Facing them were the 60 thousand of Firmrock, 45 thousand of the three Tigersoar divisions. and the 15 thousand men of Ragebear Knights. For the last one, only three thousand knights and six thousand squires were combatants. The remaining six thousand were merely horse tamers and servants in charge of supporting the knights without any actual fighting capability.

However, Count Felim had also brought his two divisions of 20 thousand men to the frontlines, while Count Shazin was on the way with two divisions of 24 thousand men and would only arrive ten days later. Duke Kenmays, on the other hand, sent 15 thousand men, but it wasn't sure when they would arrive at the end of the month since they departed from rather far away. The alliance of four houses had 140 thousand men standing against the combined forces of House FIsablen and the four central duchies. There was a difference of 100 thousand men.

So, Lorist decided to go all the way with the tower tactic. At the broader areas up front, he constructed multiple tower clusters. Firmrock's soldiers also toiled through the night to connect the surrounding moats to make an uncrossable barrier.

Ten days passed. When the horn sounded on the other side, countless grassland barbarian troops rushed out of their camp. The first siege battle in Southern thus began.

However, that battle only lasted one day. The four central duchies mobilized 20 thousand of their elite infantry while Duke Fisablen deployed Third Frontier and 30 thousand grassland barbarians. As they were attacking the towers roughly 5 kilometers away from Lorist's camp, he deployed one Tigersoar division and three carroballistae brigades.

The attack on the towers was not a probe. Instead, they had discovered a weakness in Lorist's layout that allowed them to suffer fewer casualties. The duchies' 20 thousand elite infantrymen only suffered around three thousand casualties while the barbarians lost about ten thousand, mainly due to disobeying orders and being heavily punished by the Tigersoar division as a result.

Lorist looked solemnly at the enemies retreating in an orderly fashion from the mountain stronghold. While he had only lost little during that battle, three towers had been burned down and the 200 soldiers manning them lost. If the enemy was willing to pay the price of around 200 casualties, they would be able to reach the tower's base and set it on fire. While the outside of the towers was built with stone, the main structural support and floors within were constructed with wood and caught fire easily.

While the enemies retreated this time, there was no doubt that they would come back swiftly. They would definitely come up with even more methods to deal with the towers given their experience today.

The harsher battles ahead still lie ahead, thought Lorist.

Chapter 374 Open-Field Battle Preparation

Thunk! A thick wooden board fell to the ground and formed a three-meter-wide bridge over the ditch. A 100-man leader wearing leather armor and a black helmet on which a white feather was placed roared.

"Quick! Push the second ditch-filling cart[1] over!"

A dark form flashed past like a bolt of lightning. With an audible whoosh, the leader's body was knocked flying by a bolt coming from a tower roughly. He landed about four meters from where he had been standing. He desperately tried to feel the bolt that had pierced through him before he coughed out several mouthfuls of blood and collapsed dead, his eyes rolled.

The 100-man leader's death dropped the rest of the squad into chaos. However, another leader came over immediately. He wasn't as brave as the last one, who dared to stand right next to the ditch. Instead, he hid behind one of the carriages carrying a large wooden shield and barked orders for the ditch-filling carts to be pushed forward. The squad's men calmed down and continued their push. At the same time, the leader had his own squad, a hundred longbowmen, fire at the tower.

This was the second siege battle of Southern. It took place on the 4th day of the 7th month, Year 1778, more than a month from the first battle. During the past month, House Fisablen and the four central duchies' forces had cleared quite a number of forests in the area to construct large numbers of siege engines and the two-wheeled shield carriages. They only launched their attack against the four houses after properly preparing and getting a good rest.

From the fortified camp defended by Firmrock to the flatter expanses of land roughly five kilometers to its left were nothing but fire, smoke, clashing blades, blaring horns, cries of death, and thumping drums. Whether they be the attacking or defending soldiers, they shared one desire: victory against the enemy for the survival of themselves.

From a tall viewpoint, the elite infantrymen of the four central duchies seemed like waves in a rising tide. They came wave after wave, and the towers seemed like bedrock at the shore, breaking the force of the waves without ever falling. All the attacked towers retaliated with non-stop ballista-bolt barrages. Droves of enemies died bloody deaths at a time.

However, across the month, the four central duchies' forces managed to prepare some large siege engines perfect for taking down towers. The moment the ditch-filling carts were pushed to the moats, the moats would be filled and rendered useless. As the two-wheeled shield carriages of the duchies blocked defenders' attacks, the soldiers hacked down on the towers' wooden doors. Fighting soon ensued at close quarters within the towers. Battering rams were also deployed on the battlefield and with only two or three knocks, holes would be made in the towers. Some of the soldiers within rushed out to fight their enemies to the death, only to end up falling one after another.

The ones who attacked Firmrock's fortified camp were none other than the grassland barbarians. Not only did more than 20 thousand of them dismount and turn into infantry, they also pushed similar ditch-filling carts. Originally, the two-wheeled shield carriages and the battering rams were going to be escorted by House Fisablen's Third Frontier before they could be used. However, the infantry from the four duchies were far more compatible of operating those engines. After three attacks and two or so hours of effort, not much was done apart from the three thousand plus corpses and five ditch-filling carts left at the three frontmost ditches.

Lorist observed the barbarian infantry march forward towards the defensive formations atop a small hill in the middle of the main camp. The troops retreated after leaving another one or two hundred corpses behind. However, his expression was grim; definitely not the joyous one he ought to have after driving his enemy back. That was because he just received a report that the 47 towers at the flatlands to the left had either fallen into the enemy's hands or burned down completely. The household soldiers defending those towers perished. Given that the ditches dug around the towers enveloped them almost completely, the defending troops had nowhere to run to and didn't have a choice but to sacrifice themselves and try to take as many enemies down with them as they could.

Ah, I really tied myself up like a caterpillar weaving a cocoon.

While the tower tactic was extremely effective against cavalry, it wasn't much use against infantry, which were far better at attacking, especially when the enemy had so much experience as well as their adeptness at constructing various siege engines. They were also willing to pay the heavier price required to take the towers. That way, the enemy could make up with the disadvantage using numbers. The defending soldiers atop the tower outposts were practically sharks in a pond. All they could do was make up for their own losses by taking as many of the enemy with them as they could.

I still really lack experience... Tactics from an era with firearms are really unsuitable in a setting that only has cold weapons.

No matter how strong each individual steel ballistae was, there was no way they could pierce the carriage's shields. Their log shields weren't a threat when they were pushed by humans, but now they had the grounding and support of the two-wheeled carriages. Even if it were to shatter from concentrated fire, it wouldn't fall over to affect the soldiers hiding behind it. There was also the ditch-filling carriages. Once the enemy got close enough to the towers, the steel ballistae wouldn't be able to target and the defending soldiers had no choice but to fight their attackers in close quarters.

"Is Fiercetiger Loze managing?" asked Lorist.

"Your Grace, Sir Loze can hold on. But he was injured by a unit of enemy longbowmen when he led one of his spear cavalry divisions to reinforce the first line. He is injured pretty badly," answered the messenger.

"How did it happen? Didn't the carroballistae return fire?!" asked Lorist a little angrily.

"Your Grace, the carroballistae couldn't be deployed on the frontlines. They were stopped by the ditches behind the third line and couldn't fire that far. Sir Loze was also attacked by the enemy because they were bottlenecked by the ditches' intersection points," mumbled the messenger softly.

Lorist really felt like giving himself a harsh slap. It was another one of his mistakes. He had set up three lines of tower defenses in an area roughly five kilometers left of his current position. The first and second lines were 200 meters apart, while the second and third was 300 plus meters apart. The problem was that he had ordered his men to dig ditches around the towers at the first and second defense lines. He had initially thought that the winding route would delay the enemy's advance and allow the defenders to have more time to wear their numbers down. However, the enemy's ditch-filling carts instantly rendered the ditches useless. Not only that, they were even an obstacle to the reinforcements he sent to the first line of defense.

Sigh! Back then, everyone agreed to my idea of using the tower tactic to stop House Fisablen's light cavalry, so nobody said anything about it when I ordered the ditches dug. This ended up being my fault yet again. No, I can't stay here for long.

"Send someone to notify Potterfang. I will head to the battlefield near our left flank where Loze is," Lorist instructed Els, "I need to make sure he holds on to the defenses there. Also, don't move the battle standards. The guards shouldn't follow me either. Our movements must not be noticed. Just have Reidy bring a company along. Also, have Ovidis's Thunderbolt Brigade and Terman's knights secretly travel to the left flank and be on standby. Since the four central duchies are so willing to sacrifice themselves for Duke Fisablen, I'll make sure they sacrifice all their men."

"Understood, Your Grace," replied Els before he turned and barked his own orders, sending three other guards riding down the hill.

Just before Lorist left, he suddenly recalled something.

"Els, if the main camp is suddenly attacked by the grassland barbarians, you may have Potterfang retreat gradually and give up on the defenses at the front. The only important thing is the main camp. Also, if there is anything urgent, you may lead the guards into battle, understood?"

Lorist brought Howard, Reidy and a company of 100 guards to leave for the left flank.

"Your Grace? Why have you come?" asked Loze with a bloody bandage wrapped around his left shoulder.

"How did this happen?" asked Lorist, concerned.

Loze gave an embarrassed smile.

"I rushed a little too fast and didn't notice the volley of arrows. I didn't think one would pierce through my armor and strike my shoulder like this. Fortunately, the shoulder pads were tough and only a small wound was opened. It's just a flesh wound, nothing serious."

"Are you really fine? It wasn't poisoned, was it? Have you gotten it checked by a herbalist?"

"I have. I even drank a bottle of cleansing. The wound has already been treated and it won't affect my deployment. Just look," Loze said as he waved his hand around relaxedly.

"Your Grace, don't worry about a small thing like this. I'm really fine."

Lorist nodded and turned to look at the front. The battlefield had already quieted down.

"Your Grace, the enemy's currently resting. Even though they breached the frontmost 47 towers of the first line of defense, their casualties weren't light. They should be well over 10 thousand. For each soldier we lost, we killed about two or three enemies. It's not a bad exchange," briefed Loze hurriedly.

As the terrain around that area was rather flat, the tower outposts Lorist built were clustered together in threes. While the four central duchies' infantry managed to take down 47 them, they also paid a huge price. Looking into the distance with his telescope, Lorist could see the soldiers of the four central duchies busy cleaning up the battlefield and moving one corpse after another onto carriages before shipping them back. There were some others who were resting, as well as others from regiments behind transferred over to maintain the siege engines. One could probably hear the sound of hammering as they repaired the log shields.

Lorist looked at the position of the sun.

It's still roughly ten or eleven in the morning. The enemy might still attack after lunch. The four central duchies must be planning to push through the towers lines here at the flatlands and use their numerical advantage to occupy this place. After that, they can have House Fisablen's Frontier Legion launch their attack from here towards our main camp to force me to leave Southern.

"Heed my orders. Have the soldiers at the second defense line withdraw from the towers with their ballistae immediately."

"Your Grace, we can't have that!" Loze blurted, shocked, "With the presence of the towers, it will cost the four central duchies at least half of their forces to breach all three lines. While we would sacrifice more than ten thousand soldiers defending all three lines to do so, the enemies that remain would be much easier for us to deal with!"

Lorist shook his head.

"Our house doesn't make our soldiers fight suicidal battles just to grind away at the enemy forces. Even if the kill-death ratio is one to ten, it's still too huge a loss for me. Also, I believe it will be House Fisablen's Frontier Legion's turn once they breach our three defense lines. The enemy will definitely not give us a chance to exact revenge on the four central duchies' forces. The moment we allow their light cavalry to advance to our rear through this hole, we would lose the initiative on the battlefield. Recalling our soldiers from the towers doesn't mean we won't engage in battle. Instead, giving up on the towers will be advantageous to us."

"Advantageous?" Loze said as he blinked, "Your Grace, what sort of advantage do we have?"

Lorist laughed.

"Even though our numbers can't compare to theirs, we are definitely more advantaged in field battles and taking an offensive position. Have you forgotten? Look at the area between here and the second line. There is a distance of 340 meters. This whole flatland spans five kilometers and is sufficient to position more than 100 thousand soldiers. My plan is to position our soldiers in a horizontal formation along the third line. If the enemy wishes to breach this line, they will have no choice but to fight a field battle. Hehe, when it comes to those, who do we have to fear?"

Lorist's plans were simple. Loze and Pajik, two gold-ranked knights, would each lead one Tigersoar division and another Pegasus division with a total of 50 thousand troops and get into formation at the left and right flanks. Malek's carroballista division, a light cavalry division from one of Count Shazin's two divisions, as well as the heavy infantry legion sent by House Kenmays would form the center that numbered 40 thousand. They would be lined up horizontally. The soldiers of the four houses preparing for a field battle numbered a total of 90 thousand men. Coupled with Count Shazin's light infantry division and the retreated soldiers from the second line that would be in charge of manning the towers of the third line, their force numbered 100 thousand in total.

The second line soldiers' retreat shocked the enemies resting at the first line. When they realized, they hurriedly occupied the empty towers and let out cheers of triumph. It was apparent that the second line's occupation was a great morale boost. However, they quickly caught on to the enemy's positioned in the manner fitting of a field battle at the third line and quieted their cheers gradually. Perhaps, it had occurred to them that even though they were spared a grueling siege, an even bloodier field battle awaited.

The enemy also reacted quickly. The enemies that occupied the second line used the tower outposts as a means of preventing ambushes. A large group of tool-wielding soldiers began to fill up the ditches before shield carriages were lined up at the front of their forces one after another. Finally, the infantry regiments began to position themselves in battle formations.

"It seems the enemy is ready to engage in a field battle. But it looks like it'll take them a number of hours to get ready. Blow the horn, how our men take a break. We'll let everyone get some rest. Have the logistics cook up something delicious so we'll have enough energy for the coming massacre," instructed Lorist.

"As you wish, Your Grace."

[1] Check it out at this link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wagon_and_cart_for_filling_in_moats_wjzy.jpg

Chapter 375 Victory

Afternoon at two, Lorist stood atop a tower in the middle of the third line of defense. He looked at the four central duchies' and House Fisablen's forces as they gathered under their banners following horn after horn. Gradually, they got into formation for the upcoming field battle.

"Your Grace, aren't they a little too slow? It's already been two hours since lunch, yet they're still not done arranging their troops. Look, our men already took a short nap," complained Howard as he pointed to the lazy-looking household soldiers who had just woken up.

Reidy patted his shoulder with a smile.

"That's why His Grace had everyone rest well after lunch. Weren't you against it at first? You thought we were being a little too careless, weren't you? You even said we'd suffer heavy losses if we aren't able to react in time. But look at how it turned out. They're still getting into formation after we took our nap. If we had the soldiers stand at attention for two whole hours, they'd be worn out before the battle even started."

Howard hurried to find an excuse.

"Well, I was just saying that we should be ready just in case! If everyone dismounts and rests and the enemy suddenly launches an attack, then we'd be too late! The distance is only 300 meters and it won't take them a few minutes to reach us! I'm curious why they didn't launch a sudden attack like I thought they would, though."

Lorist laughed.

"If we were facing that old fellow Duke Fisablen himself, I wouldn't have allowed the rest. It would have been far too risky. But we're faced with the four duchies. When we got into formation for a field battle, even if House Fisablen's cavalry wanted to attack, the duchies would object. Just look at our enemy. They've placed their heavy infantry in the center. They intend to use their numerical superiority to crush us and win.

"However, infantry troops like those travel really slowly. And after fighting and conquering our first line of defense, they've no doubt suffered a lot of casualties and require some time to reorganize. When they saw us dismount and rest, they thought we were trying to bait them into attacking and falling into a trap. Even if they only launched their cavalry, if we did in fact have an ambush prepared, they would suffer huge casualties. Having one's cavalry so badly beaten would only negatively impact army morale. So they opted to stay put. There's no way they would've allowed the cavalry to attack when we're resting. The other reason is that they need time to arrange their forces. Having our own troops dismount to rest is a signal that we'd wait for them to get into formation before beginning the battle and that we wouldn't disrupt them before they finish getting into formation."

Loze and Pajik both arrived on the roof and saluted Lorist.

"How are the flanks? To which house do the troops facing you belong?" inquired Lorist.

Loze gave Pajik a look. The latter nodded.

"Your Grace, the troops on both our flanks are the same. They're the divisions from Fifth Frontier. On my side, they are the first and third division, on Pajik's, the second and fourth. They brought 20 thousand barbarian cavalry along. We each face around 40 thousand," replied Loze.

"24-25 thousand faced with 40 thousand, huh... Even though the enemy's numbers exceed yours, I doubt they'd center their attacks on the flanks. The mounted barbarians are merely a hodgepodge bunch that can only help in battles they're already winning. As long as you can endure the first three waves, they will reach their limit. Given Tigersoar's might and equipment, we still suppress them.

"As for Fifth Frontier, according to our captives, they're a newly formed legion and also the weakest of Fisablen's forces. The only thing worth considering is the fact that most of the soldiers are armed with crossbows and other ranged weapons. I heard they are most used to dismounting and launching ranged attacks in a formation. So when the battle begins, make sure to pay attention to our spear cavalry when they launch their attacks," said Lorist after some thought.

"As you wish, Your Grace. We will be on the watch," Loze agreed, "However, we're currently worried about our center. The enemy has obviously centered most of their forces, so aren't our own a little thin?"

While both flanks of the enemy number approximately 80 thousand troops combined, the center had 60 thousand duchies forces and 20 thousand from House Fisablen's reserve legion, adding also to a total of 80 thousand. It was almost double the number of troops Lorist had stationed there. It was no wonder Loze and Pajik were rather worried.

"It's fine," Lorist laughed, shaking his head, "I have already secretly moved Ovidis's Thunderbolt Brigade and Terman's Ragebear Knights behind of the center. When the battle begins, we'll give our enemies a surprise. The numbers of an enemy destined for failure is nothing to worry about. It is your flanks that require more attention. In the event the enemy crumbles, don't give chase. Let House Felim's Pegasus chase. They are light cavalry. You two will have to lead the Tigersoar divisions to the center to intercept them. Our target this time is the duchies' elite infantry. As long as we can eliminate enough of their infantry, the old fellow won't be able to stand back up, understood?"

"It will be done, milord," said Loze and Pajik as they puffed out their chests.

"Good. Go lead your troops. The enemy's finishing up their preparations and the fight will break out soon. Make sure to watch out for your own safety too. Don't forget to protect yourselves as you rake in achievements."

"Thank you, Your Grace."

Long, low-pitched horn blowing could be heard. Loud drumming rang throughout the enemy lines. From the tower, the enemy could be seen waving their banners, cheering and shouting their chants.

Lorist snapped alert.

"It's finally beginning. Howard, what time is it now?"

Howard ran downstairs and back up quickly. "It's fifteen past three, Your Grace."

"Blow the horns! Have all troops get ready!"

There were no messengers sent over to formally declare war, nor were there knights who came forward to issue challenges. The duchies' elite infantry and House Fisablen's forces rested for less than half an hour after getting into formation and launched their attack. Countless two-wheeled log shield carts were arranged into three neat lines, forming three defensive lines at the enemy's vanguard.

"Your Grace, we can have Thunderbolt Brigade fire their rock projectiles now. They are already in range," suggested Howard as he looked at the waves of wooden shield carts.

"Patience. They just started moving. It won't be too late to strike when they cross the centerline. I already ordered Ovidis to estimate the range. Wave the black flag in ten minutes, the signal to fire," Lorist said without any hint of haste, "Also, order Suleimos to be prepared to receive the enemy. His heavy-armored division is the first line of defense of our center formation."

Suleimos was a household knight of Duke Kenmay -- a one-star gold rank. It was said that he used to be a slave fighter of the Hanayabarta kingdom. Back then, Kenmays was still a viscount and his father had traveled to the slave kingdom on a business trip and watched a bloody show in the dueling grounds. He became interested in Suleimos, the victor, and paid a huge sum to buy his freedom. Suleimos, having become a free man, joined House Kenmays as a household knight. Just recently, he had been transferred to his position as division commander of the house's heavy-armored division.

The duchies' advancing forces looked rather impressive. However, they crept forward at a moderate pace, The three frontmost rows of shield carts wouldn't be easy to push all the way to the third defense line as there were roughly 300 meters to cover.

Given that the log shield carts were crudely made, with their wheels being not perfectly round or of identical size, some of the carts got stuck after being pushed around 50 meters. A good number had malfunctioned.

Lorist's original estimate of ten minutes for the enemy to make their way to the centerline was 20 minutes off. It took them nearly half an hour. At that moment, a few of the carts in the rear stopped. Those were intended to protect the longbowmen who could now reach the four houses' lines. They would start raining arrows down on their ranks soon.

"Have Thunderbolt Brigade start firing. Destroy the shield carts in the front and order Malek's carroballista brigade to target the longbowman. Have Suleimos's heavy-armored division defend against the arrows!"

Lorist barked three orders in quick succession, compelling Howard and Reidy to wave the flags around to relay the orders by the edge of the tower's roof.

Shen the first volley of 500 stone balls were sent flying into the ranks of the duchies' infantry, many of the soldiers merely stood still, watching as the gigantic projectiles unknown to them crashed down from the sky.

While the log shields were able to block bolts, they weren't able to resist the gigantic stone balls. Tens of log shield carts were smashed to smithereens immediately. In one of the cases, a stone projectile slammed down on a log shield cart. Not only did the shield crumble, the two-wheeled cart was sent flying. A few unprepared soldiers pushing it were sent flying 8 meters away. There were also more than ten unlucky fellows tossed about by the force of the impact.

Apart from the stone balls that struck the shields, those that landed on the ground bounced and rolled through the infantry's tidy ranks. In mere moments, their formation was completely destroyed. None were able to stop the gigantic balls. Any soldier in the balls' way ended up injured or dead. Cries of despair and pain could be heard from the dozen centremost formations.

It was only the beginning, though. Countless blurs whooshed through the gaps left by the obliterated shield carts. The carroballista division's bolts killed the fortunate, disoriented soldiers not crushed by the stone balls. Corpses piled into mountains and blood flowed in rivers. The cruel sight was difficult to watch.

Even though the damage only covered a small part of their ranks, the rest hesitated after taking such a blow. The soldiers pushing the shield carts not struck raised their heads to look at the skies. Even the foot soldiers following behind directed their attention up.

They were not disappointed. Soon, closely packed gigantic stone balls became visible again. The moment they were certain where the balls would fall, the soldiers pushing the shield carts turned tail and ran. The foot soldiers behind them caved as well and scrambled all over the place as they screamed at the top of their lungs. The 100-man leader that intended to stop them was pushed to the ground and trampled by tens of feet without the slightest hesitation.

"Oh? What's that?" asked Duke Fisablen, his eyes popping out.

He was watching the battle from the roof of a tower in the second defense line with fright as the foot soldiers were turned into shambles by the balls that fell from the sky.

"I heard that when the Nortons attacked Andinaq to force Queen Carey's abdication, they used a contraption that could fling gigantic rocks to take down the citadels. I think they were called catapults. Those stone balls should have been fired from one of those," said Duke Shabaj with a grim look.

"What should we do now?" asked Duke Handra anxiously.

The ones being smashed were his duchy's most elite forces.

"Signal the retreat. We'll retreat for now while we figure out how we should deal with the catapults," suggested Duke Farkel.

"No!" Duke Fisablen exclaimed, "You saw how messy the lines are right now! The moment you call a retreat, they'll crumble completely and the enemy will give chase! Your foot soldiers won't be able to outrun their cavalry. We should signal a charge and fight to the death. Our forces still outnumber theirs and our losses aren't that heavy yet. We still have hope if we launch an all-out attack!"

"What crap are you spouting?!" Duke Handra cried, "Just look! The lines are already falling apart! There's no way they can launch a frontal attack now! We'd best retreat while more than half of our forces can still hold on. We should quickly retreat and reorganize. The enemy won't give chase because of our superior numbers."

As the dukes argued, the situation devolved beyond control. With most of the shield carts destroyed, the carroballista division gave the four duchies a taste of their ballista firestorm. The incessant stream of ballista bolts penetrated the dozen 1000-man formations in the front. One duchy soldier after another fell to the ground.

Thanks to the rain of gigantic stone balls and ballista bolts, a dozen more infantry formations. The soldiers discarded their weapons and ran. The remaining formations in the rear fizzled with commotion.

"Have Ragebear Knights attack. House Kenmays's heavy division will follow. Have Malek's carroballista division advance and support them. Thunderbolt Brigade should advance as well. Have the catapults fire as far as they can and stop the enemy from retreating!" ordered Lorist once more.

The attack of Terman's Ragebear Knights accelerated the enemy's crumbling. The sight of the heavy-armored knights cleaving away at the backs of the retreating soldiers was akin to the sight of a light assaulting a herd of sheep. However, the enemy also reacted quickly. House Fisablen's reserve legion hurriedly charged forward to tangle with the knights and protect the infantry as they retreated.

Lorist was getting rather impatient. If more than half of the infantry were allowed to retreat, his victory was still in question. Even if he managed to gain the upper hand for now, if the retreated soldiers regrouped and were sent into battle again, the enemy could still use their numerical advantage to turn the tide. He had to crush them completely.

It would be great if my guards were here. I could lead them into battle myself.

"Ready the horses. Let's join the fray."

He needed all the forces he could muster right now.

The moment he descended from the tower and mounted, loud cheers echoed from the battlefield.

"Your Grace, we've won! We've won!" cried Howard full of excitement.

Lorist looked up and saw Tigersoar's banners on both flanks. Fiercetiger Loze and Pajik didn't let Lorist's hopes down and ordered their cavalry to cut off the enemy's retreat from both sides.

Lorist smiled.

"Yes, we've won. Blow the horns and have everyone engage!"

Chapter 376 Retreat

The second battle of Southern was the only time House Fisablen's and the four central duchies' forces faced those of the four houses in a field battle. Near 160 thousand soldiers were pitted against The Northlands. After House Norton unleashed their secret weapon, the catapult, the elite infantrymen of the four central duchies crumbled in the face of the gigantic stone balls falling from the sky. The Nortons unleashed a storm of ballista fire, inflicting more than 60 thousand casualties on the four central duchies' men. They were utterly defeated. Had it not been for House Fisablen's reserve legion that intercepted the pursuing Ragebear Knights, the four central duchies might've been massacred as they ran.

Extract from Chronicles of the Grindia Continent: Records of the Rise of the Bear -- Battles of Southern

Lorist finally let out a breath of relief after the battle's victory was decided. The tide of war in Southern was finally under his control. However, he was quite troubled by his massive casualties. Thirty thousand of their 100 thousand troops were incapacitated, much more than what Lorist initially expected.

The greatest losses were in Loze and Pajik's Tigersoar divisions. They had crushed the three assaults by the barbarian cavalry and even launched a counterattack and defeated House Fisablen's Fifth Frontier. They rushed with what cavalry they had left into the enemy's two flanks of the enemy and managed to break them, building a firm foundation for the victory that followed. However, less than a third of the original 30 thousand spear cavalry troops remained. Not counting the injured, there were more than ten thousand dead.

Up next was the Ragebear Knights. Three thousand silver-ranked knights and six thousand knight attendants fought against the 20 thousand of House Fisablen's reserve legion. Even though they managed to hold them back, they suffered four thousand casualties.

Count Felim's two Pegasus divisions were in charge of aiding the Tigersoar divisions led by Loze and Pajik. While the main force was the Tigersoar soldiers, the Pegasus legion suffered around six thousand casualties as well.

House Kenmays's heavy-armored division was intercepted by the four duchies whilst in pursuit and suffered two thousand casualties.

Lastly, House Shazin's two division, one light cavalry division, and another light infantry division, were deployed on Lorist's order. At first, their pursuit was rather successful. However, when House Fisablen deployed Third Frontier to receive the retreating soldiers, the two were stopped. The two sides fought an intense battle and the two divisions incurred a total of four thousand casualties.

The unit that suffered the least casualties was Firmrock, who had taken charge of defending the main camp. More than three thousand barbarian corpses were littered around the camp, but Firmrock only suffered about five hundred casualties. However, if the dead soldiers defending the towers were included in the count, Firmrock had lost a total of five thousand men.

In total, there were around 30 thousand casualties, half of whom had perished heroically on the battlefield. Lorist sighed as he finally understood what the saying 'ten thousand skeletons for the fame of one general'.

The four houses' forces had suffered 30 thousand casualties during the second battle of Southern, yet House Fisablen and the four duchies couldn't shed a single tear even if they tried to. House Fisablen had lost a whole reserve legion, 20 thousand soldiers who could be considered their strongest force. They had all been completely wiped out on the battlefield. Fifth Frontier was crippled. Only around 16 thousand of the original 40 thousand light cavalry returned, yet all of them had to reinforce Third Frontier and fought fiercely with the light cavalry and infantry divisions of Count Shazin. Their fight ended in a draw with them losing another three or four thousand.

What angered the duke most was the grassland barbarian cavalry. He had deployed all of them under his command, split into three separate units. Around 20 thousand were sent to attack the Nortons' main camp under the purview of Third Frontier. But they had refused to attack after losing a mere three or four thousand. Seeing as those at the camp only intended to stall for time, Duke Fisablen couldn't be bothered to deal with them just yet.

However, he wouldn't forgive the 40 thousand barbarian cavalrymen deployed on both flanks, of whom only 20 thousand managed to return alive. According to the household knights serving with Fifth Frontier's reports, barbarian cavalrymen were defeated because they refused to follow orders. When they ran away during the chaos, they disrupted the legion's longbowmen formation, allowing the Nortons' two spear cavalry divisions to break into their formation and massacre them. Unable to resist the crushing defeat, Fifth Frontier had no choice but to retreat.

With the reserve legion completely wiped out, the 45-thousand-man Fifth Frontier left with only 18 thousand, Third Frontier lost four thousand. Including the 25 thousand casualties among the grassland barbarians, the house had lost a total of 75 thousand men.

Not including the barbarians' losses, it had lost 50 thousand. Despite that, the reserve legion's complete defeat tore at Duke Fisablen's heart. It was the knife the house had spent so long sharpening. Almost everyone was most elite barbarian captives that helped the house suppress the rebellious barbarian tribes across the grasslands, a great contribution to the house. They were all gone just like that. The duke regretted it greatly and wondered why he sent them out in the heat of the moment to help the troops of the four central duchies retreat. Had he known earlier this was how it would turn out, he would've retreated and preserved his forces. In the end, not many of the duchies' infantry managed to escape anyway.

As opposed to the regretful Duke Fisablen, the four dukes had cried their tears dry. They lost 80 thousand troops in one battle! Only around ten thousand managed to make it back to the main camp. Shabaj was the most fortunate. They had around five thousand soldiers left because they were placed in the back of the army. Handra's infantry fared the worst, less than 800 were still alive. They were placed at the vanguard and had to weather not only the fall of the gigantic stone balls but also the storm of ballista bolts. Their casualties were heavy beyond imagination and the ones who remained were only able to survive thanks to the fact that they turned tail to run.

About three thousand Farkel soldiers managed to make it back. Forund had a similar number. All the soldiers who escaped and returned to camp were panicked and traumatized. Many shot out of their slumber noisily at night, haunted by nightmares. The soldiers probably thought they had just experienced the forbidden spell, Meteor Rain. It was a legendary spell of the magic civilization. To them, there was no way so many stone balls could be fired without magic. It was suicide for commoners to fight the legendary magi.

And, in actuality, it was the second battle of Southern that propelled the Norton catapults to fame. Almost every nation developed a great interest in their catapults and steel ballistae. The four central duchies, who attacked the first line of defense managed to capture quite a number of ballistae and they had their worksmiths try to reproduce them, to no avail. The most difficult part of forging them was the steel plates they used for the arms.

There were quite a number of replicas made of the catapults, though. Even though many of the nations didn't get to see the real thing themselves, the mere idea of flinging gigantic rocks through the air let quite a few worksmiths figure out the mechanism. It didn't take long for springald, arm-and-bucket, and lever catapult designs to be produced. Even though they couldn't throw rocks as far or as accurately, and could only fire projectiles of relatively smaller size, they were a fresh new military engine for the armies of Grindia. A symbol of technological advancement.

"Your Grace," Els said as he rushed in, "the scouts report an abnormal situation broke out in the enemy camp. The four duchies' banners are nowhere to be seen."

"What?" Lorist raised his head. The battle had ended less than three days earlier, but the duchies' banners had disappeared completely. What was going on? Did they turn tail and run?

"Send people to search the highway to the duchies immediately. If they really escaped, they must've left some traces," instructed Lorist.

By three in the afternoon, the scouts returned. They brought word of fresh carriage and horse tracks along the highway heading for the duchies. They were presumed to have been made around five at dawn. It was obvious they had given up on fighting the four houses in Southern and retreated with what remained of their men. Currently, all that faced them was House Fisablen and its forces.

"Your Grace, should we send a unit to chase them down?" asked Howard.

Lorist stroked his chin in thought. He eventually shook his head.

"There's no need to care about the duchies. They're no longer in one piece anyway. Our men are busy cleaning the battlefield right now. We also have to spend quite some time to recover from this battle. I worry we will fall into an enemy trap ourselves if we send our light cavalry after them. It's best we don't spread ourselves thin."

After pacing around in the tent for a bit, he asked, "Are there any other oddities at the enemy camp apart from the four duchies' banners disappearing?"

"No, Your Grace," Els replied, "The scouts report House Fisablen's forces are forcing the barbarian cavalrymen to dig ditches and set up defensive fortifications. Our men couldn't circle around to the rear of the camp. Frontier was quite thorough with their patrols."

"It seems the old man intends to clash with us even after the four central duchies escaped!" Lorist said with a laugh, "We can resume our original plan for Southern. When our forces finish resting, we'll go hammer House Fisablen's tortoiseshell. Chasing them out of Southern is the first step of completing our plan. Once they're out of Southern we likely won't have any more large battles. When we fix Southern into an impregnable metal wall according to our plan, House Fisablen will be pushed back to the great plains. I really want to see when the old guy will finally submit to me."

With House Fisablen's reserve legion gone, Fifth Frontier neutered, and Third Frontier pushed to their limits -- given that they weren't even fully manned at 30 thousand men -- as well as the duchies' withdrawal, Lorist had the advantage.

As long as House Fisablen could be chased back to the great plains, Southern would fall into the four houses' hands and the trade route with the duchies would be cut off. Salt Merchant Committee could then monopolize the market and mess around with House Fisablen however they wished. No matter how much gold they managed to mine, it would inevitably fall into the four houses' hands.

However, Lorist still had to remain patient for now. There was much to do after the battle. There were more than 30 thousand casualties on the duchies' side, another 30 thousand plus captured. In all, the duchy lost 70 thousand elite infantrymen. This was why Lorist didn't care about the duchies' escapees. They were just troops in shambles on which he didn't have to keep an eye.

Apart from the duchy captives, there were also another eight thousand plus barbarian captives. Lorist sent them all to Count Felim for his mines without a second thought. As for the 30 thousand captive foot soldiers and ten thousand plus injured captives, Lorist put them in Baron Camorra's care. They were young, strong laborers that could contribute much to the repair of the main highway between Winston and Southern. As for the injured captives, they were given treatment and would be released in three years after their recovery.

On the 28th day of the 7th month of Year 1778, the third battle of Southern began. However, this time, it was started by the 70 thousand soldiers of the four houses. They faced 50 thousand Fisablen troops and 40 thousand barbarian cavalrymen. Even though the numbers of Duke Fisablen's men exceeded those of Lorist, the latter grasped the initiative and the enemy could only react passively.

Lorist proudly snorted, "What I have is time. I can take everything as slowly as I wish."

The snort obviously sounded rather horrid, as evidenced by Howard, who clasped his ears tight after hearing the annoying sound. However, the other guards didn't notice what Howard did as they watched the gigantic stone balls fall from the sky on the enemy's defensive formations. Thunderous sounds rang out non-stop, accompanied by showers of dust.

Thunderbolt Brigade, under Ovidis's command, had smashed all that obstructed them. Potterfang and the soldiers of Firmrock, together with Suleimos and the heavy-armored troops of House Kenmays, focused their efforts on making makeshift bridges with the ditch-filling carts. As for the forces of House Fisablen, their efforts of countering the attack were straight up laughable. Malek's carroballista unit waited hungrily for prey. Any of the Fisablen soldiers who fought back were either crushed by the falling stone balls or skewered by incoming ballista bolts.

Lorist didn't mind spending a few days taking down the defensive formations set up by Duke Fisablen. However, the duke wasn't willing to stay and keep on playing. He pulled his army back during the third night. When Lorist realized he had done so noon the next day and wanted to give chase, the last few knights who remained at the camp set it on fire. The great flames prevented the four houses from giving chase until the fire was put out three days later. But by then, the camp was already a burnt husk and Duke Fisablen long gone.

"Old fellow, you won't be able to run," said Lorist hatefully.

Chapter 377 Boblige Mountain Range

Lorist thought Duke Fisablen had no option but to withdraw his army. After all, the border between Southern and Eastwild was not far past the camp being burnt down, he was not rushing in the slightest. He had his scouts go ahead to find out where Fisablen's forces had gone while he allowed the rest of his forces to prepare to pack up and leave in another two days.

Maybe I should even send troops straight into Eastwild while I'm at it, all the way to House Fisablen's headquarters. I wonder if Old Fisablen will finally face me or lower his proud head in submission if I really razed his precious castle?

Just as he was lost in his thoughts, a scout came returned.

"Lord Duke, House Fisablen's forces didn't retreat to Eastwild. They set up camp at the Boblige mountain range in the south of Southern instead."

"What?"

This surprised Lorist greatly. The name sounded rather familiar.

"Map."

Howard quickly opened the map of Southern and laid it on the table. Lorist took a look. Indeed, his doubts were answered. In his original plan, after chasing the Fisablens out of Southern, he'd have set up a defense line along the border of Southern and Eastwild. Part of the plan involved building a citadel at the Boblige mountain range, which would serve as the defense headquarters and seal off the border.

The border between Southern and Eastwild was not only long, it's terrain was also really flat; the grassland barbarians had mainly relied on the route from Southern to the inner lands of Eastwild to conduct their raids. Count Felim's ancestors used to reside in Southern, they had learned the advantages of the barbarians' ways and formed a famous light cavalry legion like Pegasus.

The border was also what separated the grasslands and the hilled area. While the lands were relatively flat, there wasn't a shortage in lakes. Lorist had intended to capitalize on the natural terrain by erecting five citadels as the center of defense to support towers which would be connected by trenches and set up a spider-web-like net as a defense to seal House Fisablen's off from the outside world. It would prevent the frontier legions from launching hit-and-run attacks against his forces stationed in Southern.

What does the old fellow intend by bringing his forces into the Boblige mountain range? Why didn't he retreat to Eastwild? It's his dominion, his playing field. The lands are wide and flat, perfect for the tactics the frontier legions use. House Fisablen would be like a fish in water. It seems the duke isn't aware of this? He's even left the way to Crouchtiger Castle wide open. What does he intend by stationing his troops there? Isn't he worried I would send my catapults to destroy his new camp?

After staring at the map for a good amount of time, Lorist still couldn't figure out the duke's intentions. However, it seemed he had no intention of returning to his dominion.

Perhaps he's venting? If he can't defeat me, he wants to piss me off just because he can by leaving 80 thousand troops in my yard so my rear is constantly under threat? I would have to delegate a number of troops to watch him. It would limit my moves.

After scanning the area around the Boblige mountain range, Lorist realized he would have to control three points around the mountains to be able to effectively keep Fisablen's forces quarantined. It would require he build a citadel and station at least 60 thousand people.

Sol, this old man is trying to spread my forces thin, cursed Lorist hatefully.

He was starting to understand why Duke Fisablen had done what he did. If he left the route into Eastwild undefended by stationing the troops at the Boblige mountain range instead, Lorist couldn't afford to leave them unattended. If he intended to attack Crouchtiger Castle, there was a chance Duke Fisablen could interfere. The consequences could range from having his supply line disrupted to causing chaos in the entire Southern.

There were only two ways to keep them in check. The first was to deploy troops to defeat them and chase them out of the mountain range. The other was to station troops to guard a few vital transportation routes and build temporary forts, which was both costly and time-consuming. Stationing 20 thousand people to guard one spot was only good for defense and not for offense. After all, House Fisablen's forces numbered 80 thousand. Just like a fist, they could be flung wherever they wished. Defending three locations by stationing each with 20 thousand men to control the situation in the mountain range effectively took 60 thousand men off Lorist's roster. The move also prevented him from taking the initiative and attacking as the enemy's numbers were quadruple that of the troops stationed at each location.

Even though it was only a small part of Southern, the mountain range was a range that could be reached from quite a number of paths from both Southern and Eastwild. Many roads crossed it. By occupying it, House Fisablen's frontier legions could leave Southern and retreat to Eastwild any time he wished. It was a place easy to defend and convenient to use to launch attacks.

I have to take the mountain range and chase House Fisablen out of Southern, thought Lorist resolutely as he decided to make a trip to check the mountains out for himself.

Duke Fisablen knows I have the advantage of catapults and steel ballistae. Why did he choose to occupy the range? Where did he find such confidence?

Lorist couldn't calm down until he surveyed the mountains with his own eyes.

He left for Boblige mountain range with only Reidy, Howard, Els, and a thousand of his personal guards with the light cavalry scouts as his guide in spite of his household knights' objection. The moment he saw the mountains, he understood why the duke had chosen to occupy the location.

Unlike other mountains, the mountain range's outer area was surrounded by cliffs at least 40 to 50 meters in height. The routes to the central part of the range were either valleys or sides of a cliff. The scouts caught an old bandit who gave them a brief introduction to the range. According to him, the slopes leading up to the top of the cliffs were only accessible from the inner part of the range. It was the opposite of most other mountains. However, this mountain range was a one which sloped upwards from the inside. It was a citadel formed by nature itself.

The old bandit also said there were originally six bandits who each set up their own strongholds in the mountains. Each housed a few thousand men. But last year, Third Frontier came over on the duke's order to have the bandits surrender. They launched a sudden attack in the midst of negotiations instead and managed to conquer all the strongholds before moving all the youths to Eastwild, supposedly to mine gold.

Given the bandit's age and bad leg, Third Frontier's troops spared him. He now lived in a small hut at the foot of the mountains. He farmed a small plot of land for a living. Before he had time enjoyed his freedom for long, he was captured by a different group of soldiers.

Given that the bandit had lived all his life in the mountain range, he was really familiar with the terrain and routes. He told Lorist that, while its cliffs sealed it off from the outside world, there was a nice valley, forest, and even a stream within. It was a wide and scenic location. Apart from the three routes that led into the mountains, there was no other way to enter the range.

"Milord, while it might seem like there are a lot of small paths you can use along the cliffs, they all lead to dead ends. You won't know it until after half a day of travel. Basically, roads where there is thick grass are all dead ends. The other paths meet up at this main route over here, which is the same one that stretches into the mountain range. The other two routes are roughly 25 kilometers to the south. The other is roughly 2 kilometers to the west."

As the old bandit didn't know who Lorist was, he went with 'Milord' to be safe.

"Is the terrain around the two other roads like this as well?" asked Lorist while he pointed at the cliff.

"They're all like that, Milord. The mountain range is rather weird. The outer region is mostly like that, whether it be the end near Southern or Eastwild. Legend goes that its name actually means 'giant's stronghold. It really does seem like a gigantic stronghold," replied the old bandit confidently before he snuck in the little factoid about mountain range's name.

The problem now was that Duke Fisablen had occupied the gigantic stronghold with a force of 80 thousand. Taking the mountains would require forces were sent in from three paths towards the main peak. Lorist didn't think Duke Fisablen would give him that chance. According to the old bandit, it would take about half a day to reach the center along any of the three paths. All Fisablen's forces had to do was roll a few large boulders from higher ground to bring about a tragedy for those attempting to invade.

He brought out his simple telescope and inspected the tallest peak. A Fisablen banner fluttered in the wind on the edge of a cliff along the way there. It was apparent attacking via this particular path wasn't an option. The enemy had also built fortifications along the way. Though they were only rock and wood, they put great pressure on him.

The bastard really picked a good place. This range renders two of our most advanced weapons useless.

Lorist believed Thunderbolt Brigade's catapults couldn't lob their stones over the 50-meter-tall cliffs. As for the steel ballistae, firing at an angle couldn't achieve any results either. With the enemy hiding beyond the cliffs, the catapults and ballistae weren't a threat.

If there was no way to attack, he had to consider how to defend. After much thought, the only reliable solution he could come up with was to construct three forts, one at each of the paths into the mountain range. He was really bitter about it. Constructing three forts handed the initiative to the enemy. The project would consume lots of funds. Following their completion, each fort would also have to be manned by 20 thousand soldiers. In other words, 60 thousand of his troops would be held back just to defend against the enemy here. On the other hand, if Boblige mountain range was under his control, he only needed 20 thousand men to secure the border.

He continued to scan one peak after another using his telescope.

Oh? What are those soldiers doing?

It took quite a while to understand that House FIsablen's soldiers were setting up a suspension bridge that connected the two cliffs. It would allow them to move their forces around much faster. The duke soon emerged. It was indeed the duke. His face was clearly visible through the telescope's small lens. The old man seemed to have aged quite a bit and no longer looked as domineering as he had in the past. Nevertheless, he still oozed pride. He must be monitoring the soldiers constructing the suspension bridge. Lorist only got such a clear look because the duke faced him directly. The old man must've realized Lorist's forces had arrived and was checking them out.

Lorist and Duke Fisablen were looking at each other from a distance of about 500 meters. However, Lorist could see better with his telescope while it took quite a while for the duke to realize the one standing at the foot of the mountain was Lorist. His expression tensed as he said something. Lorist felt they must've been curses directed at him.

It didn't take long for the low sound of a horn to echo down the valley between the cliffs.

"The old man actually deployed his troops?"

Not long after, hordes of grassland barbarian cavalry gushed out of the route leading into the mountain.

"Good Sol! This bastard's far too shameless! He actually sent his grassland barbarian cavalry to apprehend me," cursed Lorist.

He felt completely humiliated. Even though he had managed to chase a rank 3 blademaster like the duke away, the duke actually thought grassland barbarians were enough to apprehend him. It was clearly an act of mockery.

"Your Grace, we ought to leave."

Els didn't hold the same opinion. Thirty of the duke's 80 thousand men were grassland barbarian cavalry. The rest were the remnants of Third and Fifth Frontier. As Lorist only brought around a thousand guards to check out the mountain range, Els didn't dare to be careless. After all, even elephants could be bitten to death by swarms of ants.

"Alright. Let's retreat. Bring the old bandit along. He's a living map and will be useful," Lorist ordered as he turned his horse.

Either the barbarians were bored to death staying in the mountain range or Duke Fisablen had placed a ridiculous bounty on his head. The barbarian cavalrymen numbered close to ten thousand and showed no sign of giving up the pursuit. Frustrated, Lorist ordered Howard to head back and make a report with a few other guards while he brought the rest up a small hill to take a defensive position. After battling on the hill for more than two hours, the barbarian cavalry didn't manage to bring anything back. Instead, they left behind more than two thousand corpses.

Lorist faced the ten thousand troops alone. He occupied the path leading up the small hill and slaughtered the barbarian soldiers till they lost every ounce of their courage. Bathed in blood, he managed to vent his frustration. It didn't take long for Pegasus to arrive and disperse the remaining enemies at the foot of the hill. They escorted him back to the camp.

He changed into new armor after he'd washed up and entered the tent.

"Tomorrow, we depart for Boblige mountain range. I want everyone to come up with an idea that could allow us to take the enemy camp," he said with a glum look to his commanders.

Chapter 378 Two Pieces of Bad News

Faced with a place with such unique terrain, no one could come up with a way to attack it. Lorist was prepared to gather the house's skilled fighters and launch a swift attack in the night while Fisablen's men were off guard. He wanted to bust through the defenses along the path between the cliffs and kill all the forces he encountered while his main force made it to the insides of the mountain. Unfortunately, the plan was objected to by his higher-ranking subordinates. None of them wanted Lorist to take such a huge risk.

Putting aside the cliffs approximately 50 meters tall, which would cause everything to go south with the slightest mistake, as well as the question of whether it was even possible to scale the mountain in the dead of night, even if the group were able to get up the cliffs, how many enemies would they face? Eighty thousand! And, according to the old bandit's estimations, the household forces would take at least half a day without obstruction to travel along the paths through the cliffs into the open area deeper inside.

In other words, Lorist and his group would be fighting to defend the main force for eight whole hours! It was nothing short of impossible. It was especially so since the group couldn't just hold one position. They would have to respond to the main force's progress. Also, if the group got into some trouble on the cliffs, the main force traveling below wouldn't be able to escape and would fall into enemy hands.

Lorist was no superman. He understood that well. Even if he were a swordsaint, he would be pushed back when faced with a ten-thousand-strong elite troop. No matter how strong a swordsaint was, he would at most be able to kill around three thousand enemies before being swarmed by the soldiers that remained. Lorist was filled with regret. At first, he had planned to make a tactical assault on Duke Fisablen's position. He wanted to bring his men up on the cliffs to cause trouble for the duke. As long as he was able to capture or subdue the man, perhaps the 80 thousand soldiers would surrender obediently.

Naturally, it was just his fantasy. Given Duke Fisablen's personality, even if he fell into Lorist's hands, he would struggle like a dying fish and might even order his troops to fight to their deaths. There was no way they would meet his terms. The moment the duke realizes Lorist was on the cliff, he would not hesitate to order his troops to attack.

Potterfang made a rather sensible argument: when it came to numbers and household might, the Nortons were superior. No matter how long it took, he was confident they could defend against Duke Fisablen's assaults. Other things aside, holding out for a year was something the four houses could do incredibly easily. House Fisablen, on the other hand. would be on the edge of collapse because of their lack of resources. After all, sustaining a force of 80 thousand wasn't easy.

So far, Southern was basically in the four houses' hands. Having successfully cut the trade route between the Fisablen dominion and the four central duchies off, even if the 80 thousand troops occupied Boblige mountain range, there wasn't much they could do. The general situation was already set in stone. The most they could do was struggle to their deaths. Even if House Norton couldn't attack Eastwild, all they had to do was form a strong defenses at the mountain range. The more time passed, the more resources House Fisablen would consume, and the sooner their defeat would come.

Despite that, Lorist was still rather unwilling to accept this state of affairs. While Potterfang made it sound really easy, House Fisablen's occupation of the mountain range bogged down a substantial number of the houses' soldiers. In their original plan, they would have chased House Fisablen's forces out of Southern and built forts at the border between Southern and Eastwild. All Lorist had to do was let Firmrock guard the border with House Felim's Pegasus' support.

The current situation forced him to station the four houses' forces here instead. And not just the same amount he had planned for originally, nearly double! This meant he had no troops to keep in reserve. Even though the house was rich in resources, it would still cost quite a bit to keep House Fisablen's forces cornered and he didn't doubt that Baron Spiel, the one in charge of the house's finances, would come see him not long after he heard about the plan.

While he was rather troubled, a place like Boblige mountain range was not a place the household forces could attack. Doing so was nothing short of suicide. The old duke had found a great spot Lorist could do nothing about. After some thought, he ended up going with Potterfang's suggestion. First, they would set up proper defensive fortifications and drag the situation out. The one that gave out first would be House Fisablen.

Lorist left the assignment to Potterfang and Firmrock. He ordered House Felim's Pegasus to aid them. Fiercetiger Loze would lead Tigersoar and House Kenmays's heavy-armored division, and House Shazins' light cavalry division and light infantry division to the border of Southern and Eastwild and set up their defenses there.

Time flowed quickly. The next three months were rather peaceful. Apart from the occasional attack by the grassland barbarian cavalry, there were no large conflicts. Even the night assaults were ended in moments. If the Fisablens saw they didn't hold any advantage, they would retreat as quickly as they attacked. It would be more appropriate to describe their attacks as harassment instead.

It was already the 11th month and the weather was getting progressively colder. Lorist was curious how House Fisablen's forces intended to spend the winter given their equipment. The mountains were definitely much colder than below and the winter could freeze people to death. Lorist had inspected them closely on a few occasions and didn't discover any signs of timber felling. When he questioned the old bandit about it, he was assured there were no large caverns within the mountain range. Perhaps House Fisablen had set their camp up on the other side of the mountain.

Then again, launching a surprise attack in the winter was a rather good idea. He believed House Fisablen's soldiers wouldn't stand on the cliffs like idiots when it was snowing, so their guard on the routes stretching into the insides of the mountain range might not be as well guarded. When the snow covered the mountain roads, they could use skis to launch a sudden, swift attack. The house's forces had always insisted on training in the winter after all. Perhaps they could even mount the steel ballistae on sleds and take the mountain range with only one division.

The more he thought about it, the better Lorist felt about the plan. Just as he was about to gather his generals for a discussion, he saw Howard enter the tent frantically.

"Your Grace! Your Grace!"

"Clam down. What's there to panic about? It's not like the sky's about to fall. You must always keep your calm, even when a mountain is about to collapse. Where did all your training go?" rebuked Lorist, dissatisfied.

"No, Your Grace! Look! These are two secret reports from the dominion! It's incredibly urgent!"

Howard put the two pieces of silk cloth, thin as a moth's wing, on the table. The cloths were covered with tight rows of words and were probably delivered by the messenger eagles.

Lorist took a look and felt his head blur for a moment. He read the messages and paled right away.

Sol, we've been had! Fisablen, you old fox... How did you manage to spirit yourself away all of a sudden? I thought you were still in the mountain range, but you got back to Wild Husbandry?!

There were two heavy attacks launched on two critical locations, yet Lorist couldn't move his troops to respond.

The two silk letters brought over by Howard were fraught with bad news. The first letter reported that Jaeger had suffered heavy casualties in Wild Husbandry. Their commander, Divine Marksman Josk, and vice-commander, Yuriy, sustained heavy injuries. The third division commander, Pete, perished. The three divisions suffered more than 30 thousand casualties and Jaeger had been neutered completely. They were retreating to the eastern area of The Northlands. The huge territory they occupied in the province had been completely reclaimed by House Fisablen. Had it not been for the seventh local defense brigade that guarded the iron suspension bridge with their steel ballistae, the bridge might've been destroyed as well.

The letter cited the reason for Jaeger's defeat: ever since Josk defeated Fourth Frontier with his legion, he managed to conquer a large part of Wild Husbandry. Fourth Frontier had no choice but to retreat to the east bank of Soxius, allowing two-thirds of the territory to be occupied by Jaeger. According to their former orders, Jaeger forced the commoners and livestock of Wild Husbandry to move to the eastern part of The Northlands to wear away at House Fisablen's might.

Three days ago, Pete led Jaeger's newly formed division and two carroballista brigades and carried out a sweep of Wild Husbandry's borders. The 21 thousand men carried out the mission without issue, but they didn't expect to be suddenly assailed by countless grassland barbarian cavalrymen. In the end, they were forced up the highlands to call for help with their messenger eagles. Yuriy, who had received the call for help, rushed to their aid with the second division of Jaeger. But it was a setup. Before they arrived, they were attacked by Fourth Frontier. After a tough fight, they managed to break out of the encirclement and meet up with what remained of the third division.

Had it not been for Josk, who came to their timely aid with the first division, the second and third divisions would've been wiped out completely. By then, Pete had already fallen and Yuriy was greatly injured. He helped the remaining soldiers escape, but he ended up falling from his mount and greatly injuring himself for attempting to hold Duke Fisablen back. He was only saved thanks to the sacrifice of seven other silver-ranked household knights.

According to the report, the grassland barbarian soldiers numbered over a 100 thousand. Jaeger's survivors recalled the number of grassland barbarian soldiers didn't decrease at all no matter how many they killed. They also used large shield carts to make the steel ballistae lose their effectivity. Jaeger's soldiers had no choice but to fight the barbarians in close combat. Fourth Frontier was also recently assigned more men to fill up their ranks, but most of those who joined were picked from the barbarians as well.

It was bad news indeed. Without Wild Husbandry and with Jaeger neutered, Pedro, the citadel located at the crossing point through Pisper Mountains, which was the border between Wild Husbandry and Winston, would lose all protection. If Duke Fisablen led his grassland barbarians to besiege Pedro and conquered it, Winston would be a shivering and helpless girl before an assailant. The effort the four houses had expended conquering Windbury would also go to waste. There was nothing they could do but recall all their soldiers to Winston and launch a counterattack. Should that happen, the situation in Southern would revert to how it was previously, with House Fisablen and the four central duchies' connection restored.

What a move!

Lorist was faced with a dilemma. He couldn't send any troops from Southern given that House Fisablen's 80 thousand men were still cooped up in the mountain range. If he really did send reinforcements, the defenses they had spent three months building would easily be breached. Given that Lorist had already pushed House Fisablen's forces to the door, if he sent soldiers to reinforce the other front, the old fellow would lead the grassland barbarians into Southern and further worsen the situation.

"Where's Baron Freiyar?"

Lorist suddenly thought about the local defense legion's commander.

"This..."

Howard flipped open a notebook and scanned the pages quickly.

"Your Grace, Lord Freiyar left for Windbury after checking on the construction at Sehak. On the way back, he still has to check the construction at Twilight Lake Town. He should've just made it back to Windbury."

"Send a messenger eagle immediately and tell Freiyar to defend Pedro no matter the cost. Send another message to Count Shazin to inform him of the current situation and request he sends another household division to reinforce Pedro."

"Yes, Your Grace," said Howard as he hurriedly left the tent.

Taking a deep breath, Lorist continued, "Els, Reidy."

"Your Grace," said the two in unison.

"You've heard everything, right? The old bastard managed to deal us a huge blow. I have a mission for the two of you. Think of a way to capture a few soldiers from the mountains alive. I want to know how many men are still holding the place and how many he brought away with him, as well as how they intend to spend the winter."

"Understood, Your Grace."

When Els and Reidy left, Lorist sat down again and read the second silk letter. It was a letter Tarkel had penned personally, it didn't bring any good news either. The letter described the movements of the mountain barbarians in the Magical Dragon mountain range. They seemed to be targeting the Norton dominion for a raid.

The mountain barbarians were a sensitive matter to him. He had been intentionally avoiding the affairs concerning them. Even though he had spent a few months among them and learned quite a bit, like the tribe that neighbored the Nortons, Habibaba. Back then, there was a conflict for the position of Great Jambassen, so they didn't divert much of their attention to his dominion.

During the first few years after Lorist returned to the dominion to answer his calling, he set up a small tower outpost near the border and hired the Pentasword Mercenary Band to guard it. After his narrow escape from the assassination attempt and his stay with the barbarian tribe, he gave the tower outpost to Pentasword Mercenary Band and developed it into a small town for mercenaries. The town became the main trade hub for the barbarians, where they traded for other resources.

Tarkel warned off an incident concerning the town. Thanks to rumors that the mountain barbarians would soon invade the dominion, the townsfolk panicked and mostly moved back to the household dominion. Not only that, the person in charge of the salt merchant committee's trading post there sent over a secret correspondence. The barbarians who had good trade relations with the trading post revealed that a group of grassland barbarians traveled into the mountains hoping to join up with the mountain barbarians and attack the dominion together.

Needless to say, it was a move made by Duke Fisablen.

One move after another, huh. As expected of the war god of the plains.

Lorist deliberated whether he ought to return to the dominion to calm the people there down. The mountain barbarians were no threat given that there were so many local defense brigades in the dominion. The only thing he worried about was whether he could keep Pedro. It was the key factor which would determine whether House Fisablen could turn the tables completely.

Chapter 379 Eidelwoke

"Good morning, Sir," greeted the patrolling soldiers.

Eidelwoke nodded before he ascended the stairs to the roof.

They were in Pedro. Centuries ago, a count named Pedro built the first castle here to defend against the grassland barbarian raids in hopes he could stop them from entering Winston. It had been destroyed and rebuilt numerous times of the subsequent centuries. The moss-covered stone platforms still had lots of blade marks. Some were even rust-colored as a result of blood draining into their clefts, signs of the cruel sieges the castle'd weathered.

Pedro only saw peace after the Krissen Empire was formed and the barbarian territory now Wild Husbandry was conquered. Afterward, it became the connection between Winston and Wild Husbandry. As Windbury became the largest livestock trading area, the path through Pedro became more and more important for Wild Husbandry's herders, who had to travel to Windbury. They would often rest there in the middle of their journey. The merchants soon saw an opportunity to trade there. Over many years Pedro gradually grew into the city it was today.

The conflict between the three princes, which eventually led to the seven years civil war, didn't disturb Pedro's peace. However, the livestock market at Windbury's ruin did land Pedro a killing blow. Herders no longer traveled to Windbury with their livestock, so the merchants' trading posts eventually closed down. When the second prince founded Iblia, the heavy taxes he levied caused the population to dwindle even further. It was further exacerbated by the second prince's expedition against the Melein duchy, who moved the last garrison force away from Pedro, abandoning it for good.

It didn't take long for the city to become a haven for deserters and bandits. It became a lawless paradise. Duke Fisablen deployed his forces to eradicate the bandits that frequently caused trouble for the herders in Wild Husbandry and took it under his personal control. In contrast to the ignorant and incompetent second prince, the duke regarded the city with great importance. He considered it a strategic location that could put pressure on the prince and control Windbury. He ordered his eldest disciple, Viscount Kristoph, to guard it with two divisions of the frontier legions' soldiers.

When House Kenmays built the iron suspension bridge in the east Northlands, connecting their dominion to Wild Husbandry, two trade routes formed to Eastwild and Winston respectively. The various goods produced by House Norton was marketed in droves to the two through the salt merchant committee, which was operated by Duke Kenmays, who was a count back then. The products were really popular. As a result, merchant convoys began to see Pedro as a fitting place to rest and the city recovered a bit of its former merriness.

However, when House Norton wanted to pay the second prince back for sending Blademaster Zarinan to assassinate their leader, they mobilized their soldiers to conquer Windbury and captured the second prince. Viscount Kristoph, stationed at Pedro to guard the city, led its two divisions to stop their forces and ended up a captive following his defeat. While Duke Fisablen resolved the tense situation between the two houses with the arms deal and ransomed the viscount and his two divisions, he nevertheless became aware and wary of the four houses.

Even so, Duke Fisablen never imagined the four's attack would be so sudden and savage. The sole division from Fourth Frontier stationed in the city only lasted a night under Tigersoar's fierce assault. Fourth Frontier was badly beaten by the Nortons' Jaeger soon after and forced to retreat to Soxius' east bank. At the same time, Pedro was being rebuilt into a citadel with even stronger defenses.

As the leader of the 23rd local defense brigade, Eidelwoke was currently rather disturbed. He had taken in around ten thousand of Jaeger's remaining forces three days ago and they brought him a piece of bad news: Jaeger had suffered a great defeat. All the soldiers said the barbarians were all over the place. They had fought for a full night and still lost. In the end, they were separated from the main force and had no choice but to retreat, The last order they received was to break out of the encirclement.

The worst part was that the 23rd local defense brigade wasn't assigned any messenger eagles; there was no way to send word out. After all, messenger eagles were incredibly hard to train and were only given to the main combat units and the Oceanic Legion. For the local defense legion, communication was only established between the divisions and they had to rely on mounted messengers.

While it had been approximately six months since Pedro was conquered, it was currently defended by only the three thousand soldiers of the 23rd local defense brigade. There were another ten thousand laborers working on construction. Only half of it had been completed in six months. The only thing Eidelwoke was happy about was that the completed half was facing Wild Husbandry. In other words, when the grassland barbarians launched their attack, the 23rd Local would have complete battlements to rely on.

After receiving reports from the soldiers about Jaeger's defeat, Eidelwoke immediately sent someone to Windbury with a call for reinforcements. He had a strong feeling that House FIsablen and the grassland barbarians would soon attack Pedro. Thinking back to the soldier's looks of despair, he didn't think he could hold the city with only three thousand men. He had to get more reinforcements!

Unfortunately, the messenger that returned the next day with more bad news. The legion commander, Baron Freiyar, wasn't present in Windbury. Only Baron Camorra and the city governor nominated by Lorist, Viscount Eidis, was there. When they received word from Eidelwoke, Baron Camorra was of the opinion that Pedro had to be held no matter what. However, only 21st Local was defending Windbury and Baron Freiyar wasn't around to mobilize the soldiers.

Despite that, Baron Camorra and Viscount Eidis gave Eidelwoke two pieces of hope. Camorra promised that the five security brigades sent to escort a convoy would be sent to reinforce Pedro the moment they returned. Viscount Eidis couldn't transfer 21st Local, however. He could only assign them to defend Windbury. However, he would rally the old nobles' private armies to reinforce Pedro. It required time, however. He estimated they'd only arrive in six days.

Camorra also gave Eidelwoke an idea. He suggested the ten thousand laborers be organized into a militia. Given the urgent situation, the fact that a local defense brigade leader like Eidelwoke didn't have any power to recruit soldiers was irrelevant. As long as he could hold Pedro, Camorra was willing to bear all the consequences. If the city couldn't be held, House Norton's plan could not be realized. It was one of the most crucial parts of the plan.

Eidelwoke took Camorra's suggestion without hesitation and forcefully conscripted the ten thousand laborers into a militia. He stood now in front of this makeshift group.

"Duke Fisablen didn't just bring his own army, he also brought countless grassland barbarians," he began, "He allowed the barbarians to raid as they pleased and keep what they take.

"Would you rather end up barbarians' slaves or resist them together and protect your families in Winston?

"Living as their slaves is far worse than death. The slaves rescued over the centuries have taught us that much. If you die a heroic death as a Norton soldier, you won't have to worry about your families' lives. Every dead soldier's family will be paid a handsome pension that will allow them to spend their days in bliss.

"And if you don't end up dead on the battlefield, you'll be greatly rewarded when we win. Whether you choose to retire or continue to serve as a soldier afterwards is up to you. House Norton doesn't mistreat those who serve it. Even if you retire, the house will give you priority for positions at the factories and workshops in the dominion. You'll also be prioritized when it comes to the distribution of houses and farmland. Think carefully; think well. Even though you're about to go onto the battlefield and face death, this is an opportunity for you all. You just need to place your bet."

In the end, all the laborers accepted conscription. Given that it was a time of war and chaos, Eidelwoke's words weren't wrong. This was a chance for them to take hold of their fate and change it. As a Norton soldier, the lives of their families would be guaranteed. It was far better than being enslaved and used as cannon fodder. If they were victorious and managed to survive somehow, a blissful future awaited them.

With another ten thousand men in hand, Eidelwoke breathed a sigh of relief. The only thing he wondered about was where House Fisablen's men were. It had already been three days, yet the enemy was nowhere to be seen. Their tardiness allowed Eidelwoke the precious time he needed to have the ten thousand laborers dig more than ten deep ditches in front of the city to defend against the swift barbarian cavalry.

It would be great if Tigersoar's logistics and support division were here... The city would be more secure at the very least and someone my superior would be responsible for everything, thought Eidelwoke as he leaned on the roof's railings.

It was too bad Tigersoar had been transferred to the frontlines in Southern three months earlier. While it was very successful during the second battle of Southern, they also suffered heavy casualties and required the support and care of the logistics and support division. At that time, it had still been sweeping through Wild Husbandry with great success. While Pedro was a strategic location, it had always been rather peaceful, sizeable conflicts rarely broke out. It was out of anyone's expectations that Jaeger would suffer such a huge hit, making the city the enemy's next target.

"Time really flies, huh. It's already been ten years," mumbled Eidelwoke.

Looking at the ditch-covered ground, he was at a complete loss at how to defend the city.

This was the first large battle he would face. It was also the first actual siege since his appointment as 23rd Local's leader. It wasn't a training session or a drill, but an actual siege. He could still remember when he first saw Lorist ten years ago clearly. He had been just a small carpenter in the household bastide back then. His greatest responsibility was to gather sawdust for his mother, the kitchen head. The sawdust would be mixed into flour to bake bad-tasting black bread for the servants. He had asked his mother why they mixed sawdust into the flour.

"It's household tradition," his mother had said.

Those were the most difficult times the house ever faced. The first young master perished on the battlefield, the third young master died, and the old master passed after heading into battle with sickness. Even though the old master was his biological father, he didn't feel much grief following his passing. Instead, it was his mother who grieved the most. Not long after, House Kenmays caused trouble for them and encircled the bastide with their troops for three whole months, only to withdraw after running out of food.

At the time, everyone had been panic-stricken. Without the house's leader, everything fell to the old and sickly chief butler, Gleis. Pesha had wanted to raise the first young master's illegitimate son to household leader, but many objected. Molocinque and Wellickson's mothers came out and said their sons were more closely related to the old master given that they were his illegitimate children and claimed they had the right to inherit the position.

Naturally, his mother didn't want to lose out and also claimed he was a rightful heir. But he knew better than anyone he was but a consequence of the old master's advances when he was drunk. His mother was young and his personal maidservant, one of the eight at least. Which hadn't lain with the old master? His mother was only made head of the kitchen because she became pregnant. His mother loved the man dearly and didn't marry anyone else, unlike Molocinque and Wellickson's mothers, who married other servants.

Lorist had come then. While he had been exiled by the house, nobody contested his right to inherit the position and the peerage. He still recalled the first day after the succession ceremony when Lorist taught the bad-tempered Pesha a huge lesson and asked him why he was sawing wood everyday. When he told him it was tradition, Lorist simply said it was a tradition not worth keeping. Already out of a job, he asked Lorist what he should do. Lorist suggested he join the household forces and serve the house. He must not let the Norton blood in his veins down, he had said.

In the short ten years since, the house had soared to the skies. Thinking back to the difficulties they faced when they initially tried to develop, he was incredibly thankful that Lorist ended up the leader. A clueless, illegitimate child like him even ended up a two-star-silver-ranked knight. He now even bore the proud Norton name and was a member of the family. Nowadays, Molocinque and Wellickson served as division commanders of the garrison in Hanayabarta. He himself had a position as the leader of 23rd Local.

Maybe this is where it all ends for me.

He looked at the Raging Bear flapping in the skies above the city. His face eventually settled into a resolute expression.

I am a Norton! I will not let my family's honor down! I will not sully our name! As long as I breathe, Pedro will not fall!

A waft of black smoke rose from a peak near the city. The scouts were sounding the alarm.

"Blow the horn; ring the alarm! Everyone to attention! The enemy is here!" yelled Eidelwoke at the top of his voice.

Chapter 380 100 Thousand Barbarian Cavalry

Seeing the smoke signal from the distance, Duke Fisablen waved his horsewhip around.

"Send someone to survey the location. Prevent the Northlands lookouts from observing our activities," ordered he.

"By your command, Your Grace," responded a guard, nodding.

He turned to inform the others of the orders. A few moments later they set out.

The duke tugged on his horse's reins. The horde of grassland barbarian cavalry stopped their mounts as well. The mass of men and horses stretched beyond what the eye could see. Poles grew out of the sea of heads. On them, banners of different designs rustled in the wind.

He took out a telescope -- it was part of the spoils he got from defeating House Norton's Jaeger Legion -- and inspected Pedro, where the alarm bell rang.

On both ends of the city cliffs approximately ten meters high cut off any route around the settlement. Right in the middle between them ran a steep slope, about one and a half kilometers from cliff to cliff. On the horizon above the slope, towering over the city walls, stood a huge stone castle. It marked the crossing point of Pisper; Pedro, part city, part citadel.

Pisper lay between Winston and the northeastern grasslands, a natural border. A wall thousands of meters tall and about as wide. There was, however, a large gap in the mountain range that allowed the opposite sides to be connected. If one stood on top of the mountain, perched on the peak of the slope, one should be able to see the grassy plains beyond.

It was precisely because of this hole in the wall that Count Pedro decided, all those years ago, to erect a fort at the slope's peak. He hoped it would stop the grassland barbarians' raids into Winston. The citadel that peaked into the duke's vision, however, had changed its appearance greatly. It was far more than just a frontier fort, it was a full-fledged man-made mountain, complete with extensive defensive fortifications.

"It's only been six months! House Norton is very reckless with its spending. They actually managed to completely reform Pedro's fort into a full-fledged citadel. That kid really thought this through. His moves are firm and leave no gaps for me to exploit," the duke mumbled to himself as he lowered the telescope with a slight tinge of regret, "I should've ignored the squabbles of the grassland barbarian chiefs and forced them to go south and attack Pedro after defeating Jaeger three days ago. At least, I would've been able to capitalize on the element of surprise. Now three days have passed... Pedro must be prepared for me. I guess there's no choice. We have to force our way in."

"Well, I don't really mind since the troops to die aren't from my house," he sighed after a moment's thought, "It's about time those arrogant barbarians were taught a lesson. They all think they're at the top of the world. Did they think they could really conquer the realm with only 100 thousand cavalrymen? The more idiots perish, the better it'll be."

When he had left Boblige two months ago to return to his dominion, he gave the conscription order to the various tribes across the northeastern plains. However, he didn't employ force. Instead, he presented himself as the one who would help and guide them across the realm of civilized man. They would raid together and profit together as partners to satisfy their respective needs.

He managed to gather 150 thousand cavalrymen quickly. After spending a month to instill the smallest amount of discipline required in them and filling Fourth Frontier's ranks again, he set his sights on House Norton's Jaeger which had swept across Wild Husbandry. After a series of schemes and plots, he successfully ambushed the legion and inflicted great damage on it, eliminating a large part of its forces. Only a small number managed to escape to The Northlands.

However, he realized there were many situations beyond his control during the attack that ultimately cut him short of eliminating the legion completely. The main factor was his soldiers' insubordination. All the barbarian chieftains wanted their tribe stationed in the rear for fear of suffering heavy casualties. The chieftains' lack of confidence filtered through to their men, many of whom broke rank and tried to preserve their own lives when the situation looked unfavorable.

There was nothing he could do about it. He was no different, he, too, had tried to preserve Fourth Frontier. The casualty count after the battle was like a wake-up call for the chieftains, though. While Jaeger lost close to 30 thousand men, the barbarian cavalry incurred more than 60 thousand, 30 thousand of which were dead, with the pained cries of the other 20 thousand injured resonating across the battlefield.

After sending more than ten thousand barbarians, injured beyond saving, back to War God Singwa's embrace, the duke fulfilled his end of the promise and treated the lightly injured. The chieftains were engaged in an intense argument over the battle's spoils. They had delayed everything for three whole days, foiling the duke's plan to head south and take Pedro by surprise. He had no choice but to find a way to mediate between them, lest the chieftains break into a full-on conflict for the sake of spoils.

The spoils they were referring to were the armor, weapons, and warhorse equipment of the dead Jaeger soldiers. There were also the steel ballistae left behind by the carroballista brigade as well as the thousand plus soldiers and five thousand lightly injured personnel that were taken captive. The heavily injured ones had already been beheaded. There were approximately 16 thousand complete sets of equipment stripped from the captive and dead soldiers as well as near four hundred undamaged steel ballistae. Those were the main cause of the chieftains' arguments. Even the spoiled equipment or ballistae were not spared as metal was most scarce on the plains.

Duke Fisablen made the magnanimous sacrifice and gave up his right to distribute the goods and only demanded the captives and lightly injured personnel as well as two hundred undamaged carroballistae. His self-sacrificing move won the barbarians' praise. The duke suggested another idea. Half of the spoils would be divided according to the respective casualties incurred by each tribe. Naturally, the tribes that were too impatient and ended up losing most of their members were ignored since it was only a matter of time before they were assimilated into other tribes. The other half would be distributed evenly to all of the barbarians. In other words, while the strong would get most of the reward, the weak would also have something left.

The tribes were finally placated. The plentiful spoils attracted even more barbarians and their numbers soon rose back to 100 thousand. The chieftains quickly forgot about the heavy casualties they had previously incurred. When the duke got to know from the captives that only a brigade of three thousand defended Pedro, the barbarian chiefs were already clamoring to go south.

To the naïve chieftains, Jaeger was the most impressive enemy they had to face. Given that they had already paid such a huge price to defeat such a great enemy, they believed what remained were merely weaklings to be picked off, nothing worth mentioning. In their minds, 100 thousand barbarian cavalrymen were enough to sweep the whole of Winston. Perhaps, they would even restore the honor of their ancestors and get to water their horses at Egret Lake.

"Lord Duke, my dearest lion, why did you stop in your tracks?" asked an eerie-sounding voice as a few majestic warhorses galloped towards the duke.

The guards beside Duke Fisablen wore looks of rage. Some of them had their hands by the hilts of their swords, while others gripped their spears and lances so tightly their veins popped to the surface. With one word, they would not hesitate to storm the northeastern plains. Even though all the chieftains addressed Duke Fisablen as Regal Lion Duke or Your Leonine Grace, the person that just showed up called the duke 'my dearest lion' in a way he would his pet. It was a huge slight on his honor and the young hot-blooded guards glared at the approaching group with anger and hostility.

Duke Fisablen raised his horsewhip without the slightest change in expression to stop his subordinates from doing anything rash. At the same time, he greeted the riders as they arrived.

"My brother, Beloved Chieftain Korinubi, we've arrived. Do you see that castle atop that slope? That's the city of Pedro. I think we should set up camp here and discuss how we will attack after settling down."

Korinubi was a great grassland barbarian tribe that had a population of approximately 100 thousand. They were able to call on 30 thousand battle-ready cavalrymen and were not among the tribes that had submitted to the duke. Instead, Korinubi had always maintained a trade relationship. This time around, Duke Fisablen prepared a lot of gifts to convince the whole of the tribe to head south together, with raiding Winston their goal.

The chieftain was a short, thin man of forty or fifty years. He looked rather martially challenged, but no one doubted his cunning. Duke Fisablen always felt really tired after dealing with Korinubi's chieftain. He wondered how such an oddity managed to surface in the great plains where martial prowess was paramount. All Korinubi chieftains were named after the tribe. It was part of their tradition. After inheriting the position, they would cast away their former name and be addressed only with the name of the tribe.

Chieftain Korinubi completed his mission during their attack on Jaeger perfectly with his 30 thousand cavalry. Their mission was to harass the enemy at range and not engage in close quarters combat at the frontlines. In spite of their relatively removed role, they managed to obtain most of the spoils. In the southward march that followed, the tribe also absorbed four smaller tribes and expanded their numbers to 40 thousand.

Perhaps because of the increase in the men under his command, Chieftain Korinubi relaxed his attitude towards the duke. The duke had only brought ten thousand men on the march. After all, he was only there to guide the way. The main force was the 100 thousand barbarians. There was no need for him to bring along a lot of men. He would also get the least spoils this way and everyone was happy with the arrangement.

"Setting up camp?" Chieftain Korinubi looked at the sky and smiled rather exaggeratedly.

"It's still early. Why don't we just rush straight at Pedro and attack? We won't have to set up camp that way. We can celebrate our victory in the city itself."

"My dear Chieftain, if we can have 100 thousand soldiers encircle Pedro immediately, I don't doubt it will fall in half an hour," Duke Fisablen said as he pointed at the city with his horsewhip, "But please take a look. That's the only way through Pisper and it's rather small. Those cliffs resemble a horn; it gets narrower the higher it goes. Pedro also occupies most of the space in between. We can only have about three thousand men effectively deployed at a time. There's no way we can attack all at once. The city has already made its preparations. I believe it's best we discuss our approach beforehand."

Chieftain Korinubi shielded his eyes from the sun as he leered at the city in the distance, Without a telescope, he wasn't able to see how prepared it was. After giving it a good look, he turned back to the duke.

"Leonine Duke, are you sure we can really only deploy three thousand men at a time like the captives said?"

Duke Fisablen laughed as he shook his head.

"There's no way to confirm the claim. Before we launch our attack, I won't be able to grasp the state of their defenses. After all, three days have passed. Perhaps lots of reinforcements have already arrived. We've truly delayed for far too long."

Korinubi fell deep into thought before he made his decision.

"I will have my men probe their defenses. If they only have three thousand men defending the city, we will take Pedro in no time. What do you think?"

The duke knew the chieftain had made his decision out of greed. When they were traveling southward, it was established that the tribe that conquered a town or city would be given control of it. They could keep whatever they pilfered from it. Nobody would be allowed to violate their rights to the spoils under oath to their gods.

The moment he heard there were only three thousand soldiers defending the city, Korinubi became anxious Even if it took him three men to kill one of the defenders, it was still more than worth it if he could take Pedro for himself. He could even use the place to recover while the other barbarian tribes tested the waters in Winston. If things went south, they would be able to retreat to the northeastern great plains easily. If a lot was made through raiding and pillaging, the returning barbarian tribes would have to submit to him before they returned to the great plains because he controlled the passageway. Perhaps, he might even manage to swallow a few more smaller tribes.

"Why not?" the duke said as he nodded warmly, "The mighty Korinubi tribe has the strength to emerge victorious. The city's guard pales in comparison to your tribe."

Korinubi smiled, elated.

"Thank you for your praise, Leonine Duke. I believe it as well. I'm very confident in the tribe's warriors."

He instructed the barbarian guards next to him.

"Have Halikai, Lunigigi, and Morimod attack the city! Tell them the one who breaches the city will be greatly rewarded. I'll behead the one who doesn't contribute!"

Darn, no wonder the fellow was willing to take in the smaller tribes on the way. He wanted to use them as fodder, cursed the duke.

The three names were the smaller tribes Korinubi had absorbed along the way here. They were each less than a thousand. Originally, they wanted to get the scraps of what was left by coming along but they became Korinubi's targets and were forcefully absorbed.

The low-pitched blare of a horn spread out over the grasslands as the horde called out.

'Korinubi! Korinubi! Korinubi! Korinubi!'

The barbarians considered being the first to enter battle a sign of bravery and honor. However, the thousands of cavalrymen called to participate didn't look too willing. They were escorted by a thousand more from the Korinubi tribe and divided into three units quite messily after a good while. The three units were sent towards the slope on which Pedro stood.

On the 11th day of the 11th month of Year 1778, at around ten in the morning, the 100 thousand barbarian cavalrymen surrounded Pedro. The bloody siege battle had begun.

Chapter 381 The Bloody Battle of Pedro (1)

People and horses rolled down the slope. The first wave of attacking barbarians, around two thousand riders, were crushed before they even scaled half of the slope. Of the riders flung off their mounts, the fortunate ones were still not beyond salvation, while those less fortunate broke their necks and suffocated to death. The second and third waves of barbarian riders following tightly behind them stopped their mounts immediately and began to rescue the rest. After a lot of effort, they turned tail and ran. The cheering barbarians all seemed to have been given a face slap and no longer uttered a sound. They made no further movements on the city.

Chieftain Korinubi's expression was rather sour. He felt like he lost a lot of face for stopping his attack halfway.

"Go, get Halikai, Lunigigi, and Morimod here. I want to hear their explanation for stopping their attack."

The barbarian guards soon returned with the two of the three.

"Revered Chief Korinubi, your humble servants Halikai and Morimod greet you."

"Where is Lunigigi?" hmphed the chief.

"Revered Chief Korinubi, Lunigigi has returned to the embrace of the wolf god," replied Morimod, the elder of the two, respectfully.

"What did you say?!" the chief exclaimed, stunned, "He's dead? Nonsense. How could he die? He drank a large jar of my milk wine yesterday and one of my roast goats! Wasn't he looking well when he was sent out?"

"It's true, Revered Chief Korinubi. Your humble servant dares not lie to you. The brave Lunigigi rode at the front as per your instructions. However, the cowardly flatlanders dug lots of horse pit traps on the slope. His steed stepped into one of them and broke its right front leg. Lunigigi was flung off forward. He broke his neck and returned to the wolf god's embrace," described Morimod in detail.

"What? The slope was fraught with pit traps?"

"Yes, Revered Chief. Your humble servant doesn't lie. Of the two thousand riders Lunigigi took with him, more than 1300 lost their horses to the pits. More than a thousand are injured. Over a hundred returned to the wolf god's embrace just like Lunigigi. Not only did the flatlanders dig pit traps, they also dug a lot of other ditches and traps with wooden stakes inside. There was no way we could rush up the slope with our horses. We decided to retreat first," explained Morimod hurriedly.

He wanted to make it clear it wasn't that they didn't want to fight. They simply had no way to.

"Hmm, I hope you speak the truth," said Korinubi as he swept Halikai and Morimod with his gaze.

Seeing the two of them stand there like the most natural thing in the world, he reasoned that they couldn't have been lying, so he turned to Duke Fisablen.

"Haha, no problem, my friend."

As Duke Fisablen also heard the conversation, he took the initiative to speak first.

"I will leave the shield carts we brought with you. I'm sure you know better than anyone how to use them. With the shield carts, you can fill up the ditches quickly enough while protecting your riders as they approach the city walls. I think it's obvious from the number of traps and ditches they don't have nearly enough troops to defend the castle. They had no choice but to use such underhanded tactics to delay our brave warriors' attack."

Even though Korinubi had hoped the duke would send Frontier to use the shield carts and protect his men as they made their approach, the duke had spoken out first and stated his intentions.

You can have all the shield carts you want but don't even think of laying your hands on my men.

Hatefully cursing the old fox under his breath, Korinubi nodded and thanked him. He instructed Morimod and Halikai to collect the shield carts. He also had some of the barbarian riders dismount and grab some tools to fill the traps, ditches, and holes up and down the slope.

Duke Fisablen gave the order to set up camp and Korinubi didn't bother to stop him. As pushing the shield carts up the slope would take who knew how long, and filling up the traps and ditches would require lots of manpower and time, there was no way they'd let the 100 thousand barbarian cavalrymen wait like idiots on their mounts. Korinubi postponed the attack by a day and stuck with establishing a method for the attack for what's left of the current day.

At four in the morning, they'd managed to push the shield carts 300 meters up the slope. As the people in Pedro didn't seem to respond at all, the tool-wielding barbarians dropped their guard and focused their attention on filling up the traps and ditches. Korinubi had given the order for one route of attack to be established by the end of the day. As not one of the barbarian soldiers wanted to be punished, they only thought of completing their work as soon as possible so they could rest when they returned.

Without anyone noticing, the 23rd local defense brigade, led by Eidelwoke, formed an assault unit around a thousand strong. It left through the rear gate and circled the moat, approaching where the barbarians were. When they were less than ten meters away, they leaped and rushed into the crowd of busy soldiers.

It was a complete massacre. The four thousand or so barbarian soldiers filling up the ditches were caught completely off guard and met tragic ends. When their enemy showed up, they panicked and forgot where they put their weapons. The tools in their hands were broken by a single slash before they felt a cold glint and lost consciousness, seeing nothing but darkness.

The 100 thousand soldiers who'd settled down in the camp stared wide-eyed at the massacre atop the slope. All of the working barbarians were slaughtered easily like chickens. Only a fortunate few managed to run down the slope, crying for their parents. However, they were not so lucky in the sense of having left the shield carts behind. Due to the inactivity of Pedro's defenders, they didn't feel the need to push the heavy shield carts up the slope, so they proceeded without them.

Currently, the carts were obstacles to their escape. The groups weren't able to squeeze between them as the barbarians behind began to let out pained cries. The local defense brigade soldiers that caught up were able to pierce three enemies' chests with only one thrust of their spears.

The barbarians in the camp finally snapped out of their stupor and reacted. They let out beastly cries and got onto their mounts without caring about anything else. They rode for the slope. At that time, the city's bell rang out once more. The local defense brigade soldiers that came out to launch a surprise attack didn't pursue their enemy. Instead, they took out the leather sacks slung on their sides and splashed the fuel contained within on those huge, wooden shield carts before they ignited them. More than 50 bonfires were lit on the slope. Following that, the local defense soldiers stayed to loot the dead barbarians before returning to Pedro.

Only around seven hundred of the original four thousand barbarians managed to make it back. They left approximately three thousand corpses on the slope along with the 50 shield carts that were all set alight. That was a huge and harsh slap to the faces of all the grassland barbarians.

The riders rode to reinforce their comrade with fervent anger. They had just received the other seven hundred plus who managed to escape and stared red-eyed at the corpses of their fellow tribesmen that littered the slope. The mocking laughter and cheers from Pedro sounded ever so ear-piercing. One of the grassland barbarians cried loudly in a crazed manner and rode speedily upwards the slope. Countless other riders joined him in his endeavor with similarly pained cries and launched their attack on Pedro.

The riders' skill seemed to improve thanks to their anger. They rode speedily up the slope, almost seeming like they were flying up the uneven terrain as they passed the burning shield carts and avoided the corpses of their tribesmen, approaching the walls at breakneck speed. But they ran into some trouble when they were less than three hundred meters from the walls. The ditches and pit traps began to slow them down. Some riders would fall from time to them from the traps or ended up in ditches because of riding too quickly. However, those whose heads were filled with wrath and felt no fear. Those able to get back up after their mounts collapsed continued running at the city while waving their weapons around as they called out loudly to plead for the protection of the wolf god.

"Fire!" Seeing the grassland barbarian troops appearing within two hundred meters of the walls, Eidelwoke finally gave the order.

Following the subsequent twangs, the first volley of the two hundred plus steel ballistae mounted on the walls blanketed the battlefield, skewering the approaching barbarians, mounted or otherwise. Many of them were nailed to the ground by the bolts along with their mounts. Cries of pain and agony reverberated throughout the slope.

While the two hundred or so bolts gave the grassland barbarians quite a harsh blow, even more barbarian cavalrymen took their place. They ignored the skewered bodies in front of them as well as the incoming ballistae attacks as they rode onwards towards Pedro, shouting to raise their morale and courage while they were at it.

"Steel ballistae, fire at will! Longbowmen, standby! Fire when the enemy is a hundred meters away! There's no need to wait for further orders!" instructed Eidelwoke once more.

House Norton's local defense brigades comprised two regiments of sword-and-shield infantrymen, approximately a thousand of them, one regiment of five hundred heavy-armored pikemen, one regiment of five hundred longbowmen, one regiment of five hundred ballistae soldiers armed with a hundred ballistae, as well as a logistics regiment of five hundred men. If they were tasked with defending a location, they would be assigned another hundred steel ballistae to be manned by the regiment of sword-and-shield soldiers. The 23rd local defense brigade was stationed in Pedro and assigned two hundred steel ballistae in total, which were all installed on the front wall by Eidelwoke and were engaged in a different type of massacre against the barbarian riders.

The first surprise attack by the local defense brigade soldiers gathered by Eidelwoke was conducted with close combat. But now, the soldiers manning the steel ballistae were engaging in ranged combat with the approaching cavalry. As soon as one of them evaded the traps and leaped over the ditch, the ballistae bolts that followed would put an end to their anger and effort in an instant. From time to time, soldiers would be sent flying by the bolts and fall into the ditches or onto the ground. Not one got to within a hundred meters of the walls thanks to the storm of ballistae bolts.

Korinubi and many other chieftains were calling out loudly to motivate their men.

"Rush up there! Kill them all! Massacre the whole city!"

In the end, Duke Fisablen was no longer able to resist and reminded, "I think it's best we retreat for now. If we want to mount an attack, we can use the shield carts left. Rushing up there right now would make you nothing but targets and sacrifice the lives of our brave warriors."

Korinubi snapped out of his blinding rage.

"That's right! Blow the horn and have our warriors retreat for now!"

The loud blaring of the horn covered the whole plains and the attacking barbarian riders finally regained their sanity. They retreated from the slope like a receding wave, leaving behind a fresh trail of blood and corpses.

Then they had all made it back to camp, the chieftains conducted a head count. They were all deeply enraged. Before they even launched a proper attack, more than six thousand had died on the slopes. Korinubi himself was incredibly regretful as his tribe had already lost around four thousand men from the first attempt at filling up the holes and ditches and the second retaliatory attack which he personally encouraged.

Duke Fisablen advised, "Even though it didn't start off well, we managed to get an understanding of Pedro's defenses. Taking a loss due to carelessness isn't much. Let's rest for a night and attack the city tomorrow."

Korinubi refused Duke Fisablen's advise coldly with bloodshot eyes.

"No, we will press our attack through the night. I will not allow them to rest well for even one more night. A debt of blood must be repaid in blood. We have 100 thousand men, and from now on, I won't give them even a moment of rest. We will continue to attack until we conquer the city. Great Lion Duke, please leave the remaining shield carts with us. We will organize our men into different units and have them take turns attacking."

"Naturally. We are allies and should stand together. I will have all the shield carts I have left sent to you. At the same time, I pray for your success in conquering the city and avenging the brave warriors lost so far," agreed Duke Fisablen with a smile.

The horn rang out once more and three square formations of barbarian soldiers gathered at the foot of the slope. Each of the formations contained five thousand men. In front were roughly thirty wooden shield carts. These barbarians had dismounted and were split into three waves that would push the shield carts up the slope towards the city. The orders received by the first wave were simple: collect their comrades' corpses as they close in on the city. The second wave would use longbows to suppress the enemy and defend the other barbarian soldiers who would fill up the holes and ditches. Naturally, they would also have to pay attention so any surprise attack like the last one wouldn't be repeated.

The third wave was the attack's main force. Apart from bringing shield carts, they also carried many wooden ladders. After the second wave opened a path towards Pedro, they would approach the walls. They would then scale them with the ladders as the longbowmen protected them and slaughter away at the enemy when they made it to the top. They would take control of the area so their comrades could continue to flood into the city and obtain victory.

That was the traditional siege tactic used by the barbarians against flatlander towns for the past few centuries. That was the reason the third wave of barbarian soldiers comprised only the most famous warriors and strongmen across all the tribes. Currently, they were drinking the milk wine from their water skins nonchalantly as they packed up their armor and waved the weapons in their hands around, laughing and talking loudly as the other barbarian soldiers looked at them respectfully.

The skies soon darkened and the shield carts that laid across the near-one-kilometer slope burned even brighter. The horn blared once more. The only difference was the steadily thudding drums that accompanied it. The booming drums echoed across the wide expanses of the plains and brought with them a feeling of cold dread.

The barbarians at the foot of the slope all let out a chilling war cry.

"Hujorah!"

That was the name of the celestial wolf god that all the grassland barbarians across the great northeastern plains worshipped. Calling out the name symbolized a single-minded determination on marching forward to victory or to death. The first wave of the barbarians marched up the slope, pushing the shield carts as they advanced. The siege on Pedro had begun.

Chapter 382 The Bloody Battle of Pedro (2)

The cheers in Pedro resounded through the pass and across the lower lands on both sides of the mountain range. Both attempts by the barbarians to take the walls had failed, with their corpses littered all over the slope. There was an estimated five or six thousand. The casualties sustained by the defending side, on the other hand, was negligible. The first attack only caused ten casualties while a few fools hurt themselves with their own carelessness during the second. They were mostly skin-deep wounds, though. It gave the conscripted soldiers a great boost to their confidence. They thought the barbarians were nothing much and their numbers weren't a cause for concern.

Eidelwoke wasn't too optimistic about the situation, in contrast. In fact, he was fraught with incessant worry. When the soul-chilling horns and drums were played on the plains as the barbarians cried out 'Hujorah', he knew the thing he was most worried about was about to happen. The enemy had already been enraged by their two failed attempts and were going to press the attack through the night. For the soldiers defending the city, the most difficult hurdle was now here

The first wave pushed the shield carts near the walls in short order. Thanks to the light from the burning carts, the guards on the walls could easily see the barbarians were collecting the corpses of their comrades.

"Sir, they' collecting their corpses. Do you think they'll attack again tonight?" asked one of the guards, hope written on his forehead.

"Maybe. I am not too sure about their plans either. They're still far away, we shouldn't fire now. If they're only here to collect the corpses, we'll spare them. But they might be doing so to have an easier time attacking later. We should be careful," said Eidelwoke solemnly.

The skies soon darkened completely and the shield carts looked like silhouettes in the dark connected next to each other. Some of the flaming carts were extinguished. What they were doing behind them was no longer visible. Not only did the shield carts arranged next to each other obscure much of the light, it also blocked the defenders' vision.

"Longbowmen, fire a few fire arrows[1]. Let's see what they're up to," instructed Eidelwoke.

Tens of lights arced across the night sky in a beautiful parabola before they planted themselves in the ground behind the carts. The defenders intended to see what their enemy were up to by relying on the faint illumination the arrows provided.

"They are filling the ditches!" called out a voice.

"The barbarians are going to attack tonight!" Eidelwoke's heart sunk.

With the cover of night, the enemy was much harder to deal with. It definitely wouldn't be as easy as it was during daytime.

"Steel ballistae one through ten, get some oil jars over there. Tie them at the front of the bolts and fire at the shield carts[2]! Longbowmen, loose your fire arrows at the shield carts as well!"

Eidelwoke gave two consecutive orders. Without delay, ten jars filled with flammable oil were tied at the head of bolts before they were fired at the shield carts. While they didn't harm anyone, the jars shattered against their targets and covered them in fuel. The fire arrows soon descended from the skies onto the shield carts and set them alight one after another.

"Very well," Eidelwoke said with satisfaction for his impromptu idea, "Steel ballistae one to ten, continue tying jars to the bolts and firing them at the carts. The rest will fire at the burning carts as illumination. Your targets are the enemies trying to fill the ditches. Longbowmen, continue to rain arrows down on them!"

The soldiers toiling away below had already noticed the fires on their shield carts. As the ones that hurried to put the fires out were taken out, the rest pushed the burning carts away from the ones not yet set alight. The others ignored the rain of arrows by raising their shields over their heads after each volley was fired and continued to fill up the ditches in the intervals at an even greater speed. They were less than a hundred meters from the walls at the moment, but they'd run out of options. All the remaining carts that protected them were burning. The ground below the walls was bright as day with all the fires.

Less than two hours after the first wave retreated, however, another closed in. Each soldier had a sack of mud on his back. Under the carts' protection, they emptied their sacks into the ditches and soon established a way through which they could pass.

All the longbowmen changed from firing arced shots to firing directly at their targets. The ballistae also fired non-stop. However, there were far too many enemies on the slope. In the darkness, the shots weren't that accurate either. No matter how many casualties the barbarians suffered, they kept swarming forward. They filled the ditches and fired back at the men on the walls from the safety of their carts. The guards' casualties started piling up.

"Ah!"

One of the ballista operators cried in pain and collapsed, his hand clasping an arrow sticking out of his right eye. After his hands and legs twitched, he stopped moving altogether. The soldier reloading the ballista shouted 'Brother!' before he hatefully pulled the trigger with the ballista aimed at the man responsible for his friend's death.

The walls hissed and clinked as hundreds of arrows bounced off them. Ten laborers busy rescuing the injured were caught in the middle of the volley and collapsed after taking tens of arrows each. Unlike the local defense soldiers who were equipped with good armor, they suffered huge casualties.

"Over there!"

One of the soldiers quickly noticed where the barbarian longbowmen were gathered. They were standing behind a flaming shield cart. A dozen ballistae fired in that direction.

"Hujorah!"

Yet another group of barbarians pushed more than ten shield carts up the slope swiftly.

"Have the ballistae and longbowmen pay attention to the barbarian archers. Suppress them!" Eidelwoke just gave an order that he would soon come to regret deeply.

Pedro's walls were six meters tall and their gate was reinforced with a layer of iron, with another huge portcullis behind. What could the barbarians do even if they managed to reach the entrance? It would take them far longer to breach the gates with the weapons they wielded, so Eidelwoke decided to target the barbarian archers instead as they were the only ones who posed a threat at the moment.

He didn't expect that the barbarians who rushed over to be so agile and swift. They rushed to the foot of the walls and drew out many long ladders from behind their carts and laid them against the walls. Some of them even used grappling hooks to ascend the walls by flinging them between the crenels of the wall. Others thrust battleforce-infused spears into the walls to use as makeshift ladders.

"The barbarians have scaled the walls!"

Eidelwoke was startled by the cry. When he turned back, he saw a number of barbarians on the walls flinging their weapons against the defenders as they roared unintelligibly.

Not far away, another barbarian made it onto the wall. With but the cold glint of a blade, the ballista operator who was taking aim had his head lopped off. His neck fountained blood as he collapsed. Before the three soldiers next to him could react, they were taken out as well.

Filled with rage, Eidelwoke drew his sword and rushed forward. The moment the barbarian saw Eidelwoke's blade which didn't have a blade glow, he let his guard down and thought the man a mere guard. He swung his shortsword up to parry as he thrust the dagger in his right at Eidelwoke's throat.

Before he could react, Eidelwoke's longsword shimmered the moment it clashed with the barbarian's sword. The man could only look at the shimmer as it cut through his sword, his shoulder, and the rest of his body on its way to his abdomen.

Kicking away the bisected corpse, Eidelwoke followed up with a strike that sent another barbarian just about to scale the walls back down.

He got some jars and smashed them against a nearby ladder. He held a torch against the two legs. His breathing only resumed once he saw the flames chase the other barbarians down the ladder.

"Have the close combat forces come to the walls immediately. Have the reserves armed with pikes and stand by as well."

It was too bad the order was given too late. More and more barbarians made their way up the walls with every passing moment. The five-man ballista teams couldn't deal with the savage assault. Many ballistae stopped firing and the number of barbarians beneath the walls increased as well.

Eidelwoke realized his mistake. He had allocated most of the space on the two-meter-wide walls to the steel ballistae, longbowmen, and laborers to supply more ammunition. So, he wasn't able to station any close combat forces on the walls. He had thought the enemy couldn't get up the walls in the first place, so he allowed the pikemen and other foot soldiers to rest in their barracks. Who knew the barbarians would actually scale the walls so quickly?

"Retreat! Retreat to the towers and shut the gates. We'll keep firing at them from there!" yelled he when he noticed the number of barbarians on the walls increasing.

After Pedro was renovated into a defensive citadel, its structure was thus: the towers extended outwards from the city's walls and were two meters taller. On both sides of the central tower, walls about a hundred meters long stood. Both ends were fitted with towers again which served two functions: to go up and down the walls and to keep situations like the current one from becoming worse. Even if they lost the walls, they could still hold the towers so the city behind the walls wouldn't be compromised.

Eidelwoke grabbed a soldier nearby.

"Cinque, go assemble 50 steel ballistae on the second wall! Fire at the enemies on this wall, quick!"

The second inner wall was two meters higher than the outer and was roughly 50 meters away. It was the final line of defense for the citadel, besides the keep. The citadel would only truly fall if the second wall and the keep were conquered.

Cinque knew how urgent the situation was and left hastily without hesitation.

"You guys should follow," ordered Eidelwoke the longbowmen on the top of the towers.

They had already tried their best; none had fired less than 40 arrows. But the enemy was far too numerous. They attacked before the longbowmen were even allowed to rest and recuperate. During the time the steel ballistae suppressed the barbarian archers, some of the barbarians scaled the walls and they lost up to a hundred men.

Currently, the part where the battle was most heated was at the four towers on the walls. Each tower only had six openings for arrows facing the city walls, so only six arrows could be fired at a time and that was not the least problematic for the barbarians, who were filled with frenzy and excitement for conquering the outer walls. They ignored the projectiles fired from the towers completely and attempted to use the shields and weapons in their hands to bash down at the towers' metal doors. Under the constant abuse, a large hole had been made in the metal door at the foot of the tower. Quickly, four to five pikes poked out from the hole with lightning speed, piercing the barbarians in the chest.

Within the tower, the dozen heavy-armored pikemen stood in a semicircle with their pikes pointed at the entrance, thrusting and taking their enemies' lives when they caught sight of them. But from time to time, the dying barbarians would unleash their final attack and cause the pikemen great harm. The injured would soon be replaced by the other pikemen behind, though.

Corpses soon piled up at the towers' entrances, almost sealing it completely. However, the number of barbarians that made it up to the wall only increased. They pushed their dead tribesmen off the walls and rushed into the tower when the opening was widened before they turned into corpses themselves that were similarly flung off the walls.

There could never be enough soldiers to go about. Each heavy-armored pikeman regiment only numbered five hundred, so each of the four towers were only stationed with a little more than a hundred. As more and more pikemen were injured or killed, they were soon replaced by the sword-and-shield soldiers. However, they suffered even heavier casualties. Though they managed to hold on for a little longer, they were quickly pushed to their limits. Eidelwoke had no choice but to order the reserve soldiers into the fray.

Even the reserve soldiers were mostly laborers, they didn't receive even an ounce of training, nor were they properly armed. The most they could do was to push back at the enemy with their pikes. Their numbers diminished even faster than the two units before; approximately five or six of them died before one barbarian soldier could be killed. This time around, the corpses that piled up once more were those of the reserve soldiers.

When the dead or injured were dragged away to be replaced, some of the reserve soldiers crumbled and ran all over the place in panic after discarding their weapons. Eidelwoke could do naught but form an enforcement unit with the 60-odd remaining sword-and-shield soldiers to get rid of near a hundred deserters on the spot. Only after their heads were lopped off and mounted on the pikes was the situation back under control.

Just as the reserve soldiers were being sent to the meat grinder that was the four towers, the steel ballistae and longbowmen were finally in position at the second wall. They soon dealt a huge blow to the barbarians who thought that the city was finally within their grasp. There were no shield carts to protect them on the outer walls of the city, and the skewered barbarians soon fell from the walls like leaves from a tree.

The walls were filled with so many corpses that there was almost no space left for walking around. The amount of blood gathered there pooled up to one's ankles. Ballista bolts and feathered arrows decorated the corpses all over. From a distance, it looked like there was a small neat forest growing on the walls. The depressing horn tune of retreat could be heard as the barbarians at the slope began their retreat. The drums that seemed to have rumbled throughout the night had already quieted down and the bloodshot-eyed Eidelwoke who was covered in blood stood up with much difficulty by holding onto the railings of the walls. He looked down at the slope and only saw the silhouettes of a few retreating grassland barbarians who carried longbows.

The enemy finally retreated and Eidelwoke finally let out a breath of relief for having defended Pedro. However, the pain from his injury made him moan uncontrollably. He had got that when he was fighting off a dozen of barbarian warriors with ten-odd other local defense soldiers. The casualties they suffered were intense and Eidelwoke himself got hurt by three sword strikes and one axe strike. Fortunately, those hits weren't fatal and he was still able to command the troops to defend the castle after wrapping his wounds up.

"Sir, reinforcements! Reinforcements are here!" cried Cinque who was in command of the second wall. He rushed to the wall and held onto the wobbling Eidelwoke and said, "They're flying Lord Freiyar's banner! The legion commander has finally made it!"

Eidelwoke suddenly felt the urge to laugh when he recalled a joke that was passed around in the household forces about how reinforcements only ever arrived after the battle was over. But before he could say anything, he blacked out and lost consciousness.

[1]EDITOR'S NOTE 1: Fire arrows? Yeah, those are completely bogus. They'd be extinguished the moment they were loosed, and if you made them big enough to actually stay lit, they'd be too heavy for bows to fire at anything even resembling a range. Also, even if the small ones work, the arrows would be so front-heavy, they'd be completely unstable and fly all over the place, and likely just plonk down on the ground long before they get even near their target.

[2]EDITOR'S NOTE 2: Similar thing with the fuel jars on the bolts. The bolts would be so front heavy they'd just plonk down on the ground. Also, considering the strength and integrity of the kinds of jars likely to be used here given the time period, the bolts would likely just rip the neck off when they're shot and the rest of the jar, containing the liquid, would just fall down from the walls.

Chapter 383 The Eccentric Queen

During the 11th day of the 11th month of Year 1778, 100 thousand barbarian cavalrymen attacked Pedro. The battle lasted until dawn. Corpses piled up like mountains and blood flowed in rivers. During the intense battle, the barbarians managed to take over the outermost wall for a time. However, the 23rd brigade of Fifth Local managed to successfully resist and keep the city from falling with only three thousand soldiers and ten thousand laborers. When dawn broke, the barbarians finally retreated, having suffering huge casualties.

Both sides had been bled, but 23rd Local's steadfastness allowed the four houses to eliminate Iblia. Winston and Southern were successfully annexed. It also enabled the four houses to gain the advantage over the War God of the Plains, Duke Fisablen. From that moment on, House Norton firmly suppressed the house and turned a new page in the chapter of the Ragebear dynasty.

Extract from Grindian Chronicles: Records of the Bear's Rise -- The Crimson Battle of Pedro

'The 23rd brigade has 1728 men left. Most are injured and at least half of their gear and equipment have been worn out or ruined. The reserves formed from the laborers suffered four thousand casualties. The barbarians left more than twelve thousand corpses behind; their losses are estimated to be around 20 thousand. I've instructed the 22nd brigade and the first to fourth security brigades to move to Pedro. At the same time, Viscount Eidis will lead noble's private armies, totaling around six thousand, to Winston. The name list is as follows...'

Thus was the message sent by Freiyar. Lorist breathed a sigh of relief after he read it. Now that Pedro had successfully been defended, the strategy to eliminate Iblia had succeeded halfway. As long as he could conquer Boblige and chase House Fisablen's forces out of Southern, he could finish up perfectly. It would then be Duke Kenmays's turn to leverage their economic and trade power to suppress House Fisablen so they would submit. He wasn't the least bit interested in humoring the old fox and fighting him in the open on the great northeastern plains.

Following the bloody battle, the 23rd brigade managed to hold Pedro despite losing over half of their number. Freiyar was full of praise for Eidelwoke, the one in charge of their side during the battle. Lorist really didn't think his illegitimate brother would have the ability and was truly happy for his sake. For the current House Norton, as long as the blood of the Nortons flowed in their descendants' veins, even in those of illegitimate children, it would be a great help if they were talented.

Now, Freiyar had arrived at Pedro and took over the defenses. With him there, Lorist no longer had to worry about Pedro's security. However, the battle reminded him that his strategy had almost gone completely wrong because of his own carelessness. Such an important place was under-defended; it had just a brigade three thousand strong. At the very least, there should have been three brigades.

Also, one brigade wasn't enough to defend strategic locations such as large cities. For instance, the 21st local defense brigade stationed at Windbury was in charge of both maintaining security and securing the city gates. If the enemy really attacked it, there was no way it could defend all four gates. Maybe a reorganization of the local defense legion was due. The 75 thousand troops were quite a force and splitting them over three provinces made commanding them a little difficult.

Just when Lorist was considering how he should split his forces, Howard walked into the tent.

"Your Grace, Baron Camorra sent a letter from Windbury; the queen is throwing another tantrum at Rose Palace. She claimed she would fast in protest of our impolite treatment and humiliation. Baron Camorra hopes you will deal with the queen soon so she doesn't continue to cause trouble for everyone."

Lorist couldn't help but admit the queen was truly a weird one. Not only didn't she care about the kingdom's survival, she also didn't bother with her title. All she wanted was to participate in parties, balls, and banquets, to indulge in nothing but pleasure. Even after Windbury was conquered, she wasn't moved and didn't even bother finding out about her father, Duke Fisablen, who had been clashing with the four houses in Southern. She only demanded she be treated in a manner fitting of her status as queen. She even tried to seduce Camorra and Freiyar.

While she was a beauty, she was already nearing her fifties. The two were naturally not interested, perhaps out of concern for Lorist's reputation. Having been refused by the Northlands' nobles and officials, the queen, with the help of her maidservants, actually brought the soldiers standing guard at the palace gates into her chambers. The next morning, they emerged with large bags under their eyes and pale faces. They wobbled out of the castle on unsteady legs. The queen infuriated Camorra so much he even considered beheading her and being done with the whole business.

Naturally, he didn't act on the thought. Killing a queen would cause lots of trouble from the peerage. Nobody was willing to be known as a queen slayer. Apart from being indecent and unruly, the queen wasn't a threat to anyone, neither was her demand to be treated in a manner fitting her status, unfounded. Even if she was a captive, her father was still a consideration. Nobody was willing to cross a rank 3 blademaster hailed as the War God of the Plains.

Lorist was unwilling as well. Though he was arch enemies with the duke at the moment, he didn't want to vent his frustration on his daughter. Apart from being a famously loose woman, she hadn't committed any particular wrong. While she was Iblia's queen, her marriage was a purely political one and her bad relationship with the second prince was an open secret. But since Camorra had made a number of complaints regarding the issue already, Lorist felt it was about time he dealt with it.

"Howard, write the baron a letter. Have him pick a few Fisablen household knights and a hundred of their soldiers. We will release them, arm them, and let them escort the queen back to their dominion. Also, tell him to not touch the queen's personal belongings. If she thinks she doesn't have enough things, give her some money to cover her expenses. That way, we will be rid of our troubles," instructed he.

It was the best way to deal with the situation. By sending her away with a generous gift, nobody would be in debt. As for what kinds of waves the queen would make after she was sent back to her house, it wasn't Lorist's problem. This way, the other nobles would also praise him for his benevolence.

"Yes, Your Grace. I'll write the letter right away," said Howard.

"Oh, Howard, is there still no word from Els, Reidy, and the others?" Lorist felt something was off.

A few days ago, he had given Els and Reidy orders to capture a few Fisablen soldiers from Boblige alive and question them about some basic information such as the mountain ranges terrain, the number of men Duke Fisablen left behind, and so on. However, they hadn't returned since they departed, not a single word.

Howard shook his head.

"Your Grace, I'm not sure what happened either. Nothing's been heard of them since Els and Senior Brother Reidy left. They didn't take any messenger eagles with them either. I've instructed the scouts to pay attention to any trail they left during their patrols, but they haven't found anything yet."

"Weird... Where could they have gone?" pondered Lorist as he stroked his chin.

"Are they in trouble, Your Grace?" asked Howard worriedly.

Lorist chortled.

"No way. Given Reidy's strength and Els's hardiness, even Duke Fisablen wouldn't be able to hold them back. At least one would make it back. Also, they took ten guards. They could scatter and at least a few would return. I believe they've only encountered some kind of delay. Perhaps, they'll return in a few more days."

At that moment, Lorist thought of Morbinghan's golden eagle. It was too bad Tarkel's project would take two to three years. Otherwise, Jaeger wouldn't have ended up in such bad shape. They would've realized Duke Fisablen's grassland cavalrymen were lying in ambush and could've avoided it.

Thinking about how it would take the eagle program six years to show results, it was understandable that training eagles to track enemies would take a substantial amount of time. Lorist had already promised Morbinghan many things as long as he could train a batch of similar eagles. At the very least, he would be rewarded with a hereditary barony. Lorist believed Morbinghan would do his best. As the saying went, 'suspect not those you use, use not those you suspect'. Since he'd left the matter to them, he would trust their ability to carry it out.

But if he still hadn't received any word from Reidy and Els, he would have to trouble Morbinghan to use his gold eagle to track them down.

"Your Grace, I know we managed to defend Pedro, but what about the mountain barbarians trying to attack the dominion?" asked Howard as he recalled the matter.

"Relax, we'll be fine," Lorist said with a smile, "The mountain barbarians would never descend from their mountains to raid in the winter. Currently, they are busy gathering resources to survive the winter. Every winter season is a trial for them. Unlike our household forces, armed and trained properly for winter and able to travel as they please with skis no matter how cold the weather, the barbarians are trapped. The soonest they'll invade in spring. By then, we'll be back in the dominion and will've made our preparations. It's due time we refreshed their memory."

"Okay," said Howard as he nodded before returning to his task.

Ten days later, there was still no word on the two. Just as Lorist was about to write a letter to request Morbinghan's help, Freiyar's report arrived. It stated that the grassland-barbarian army finally retreated from Pedro.

The barbarians had launched a number of attacks since Freiyar took charge of the city's defenses. None of their attempts were successful and they only lost more men. None of the battles were nearly as brutal as their first two encounters. In the last few attempts, they seemed to quit after a few men from their first wave died. All they did was shout and intimidate outside the steel ballistae' range before retreating after hearing the horns.

Freiyar described one incident in his report. The night before they retreated, chaos broke out in their camp. Fires burned, people cried, and fierce fighting erupted. It was as if a large battle had broken out. He'd wanted to gather the forces he had to attack their main camp, but he worried that it was a trap and didn't mobilize. He only realized a real battle had broken out in the morning. The main camp had been ruined and there were at least 30 to 40 thousand bodies. As for the surviving barbarians, they were nowhere to be seen.

Even though Lorist was curious about what had led to the incident, he knew his men had no role in it. The good news was that Pedro was safe and the enemy had been forced to retreat. It was already a huge victory.

Along with news of the victory came word of Camorra's escort. They were the 100-carriage convoy that escorted the queen and they had just arrived at the main camp. Camorra wasn't present but he had written Lorist a letter. In it, he explained that to send the queen back to the dominion, he had no choice but to agree to a few of her requests. For example, she was to be allowed to bring back all the furniture in her palace; hence the huge convoy. Not even the toilet bowls weren't left alone.

There were the three hundred plus maidservants. Camorra felt it was kind of a shame as they were just as loose as the queen. He had intended to open a brothel for the household forces, but after considering the fact that many of the maidservants were former members of fallen noble houses, he worried it would cause a lot of trouble for the house. So, he allowed the queen to take them all.

He also mentioned that he had to give her 100 thousand gold Fordes, she believed she was due the money, before she was finally willing to leave. She also brought with her lots of other resources, so there was a chance the cohort of ten silver-ranked Fisablen knights and 100 Fisablen soldiers wouldn't be able to protect the whole convoy. They had no choice but to dedicate some of their forces to escort the convoy to Lorist's camp.

Lorist had no choice but to hurriedly prepare to receive her. After all, he was a noble and throwing a banquet for an occasion like this was unavoidable. While he was an enemy of House Fisablen as well as the sole cause of Iblia's demise, having captured the second prince and handing him to the second highness, nobles were supposed to keep their bearing at all times. Even if the queen was the house's captive, she still had to be treated properly.

The queen didn't treat him as she would an archenemy during the banquet. In fact, she was thankful to him for capturing the second prince and allowing her to spend a few years in peace and luxury. Lorist finally realized how eccentric and indifferent she was. It didn't change how troublesome she was, though. While she didn't mind the kingdom's downfall, she lamented the loss of her annual allowance that went with it and cried and begged for Lorist to make it up to her.

He reminded her tactfully of the 100 thousand gold Fordes Camorra had given her, but the queen said her yearly allowance was 20 thousand gold Fordes. A hundred thousand would only last five years. Since she was young and not yet forty (despite the fact that he real age was 46), she could live on for at least 20 or 30 years.

"How will I live in five years?!" cried she out loud.

Lorist had just met the real deal. He promised he would do his best to provide her another 100 thousand gold Fordes just to get her to shut up and stop crying. However, perhaps because she felt Lorist was too easy to push around, she demanded another 200 thousand after pocketing his initial offer. Angered, Lorist refused her, and the queen stayed at the camp and refused to leave.

He would soon regret his decision. Though Camorra didn't form a brothel unit from the queen's maidservants, the queen started running a prostitution service in the camp. It cost one gold Forde to sleep with one maidservant for a night. If anyone was willing to pay ten gold Fordes, the queen would join the fray herself. While she was a little aged, her looks were still rather fine. That aside, she held the title of queen. To normal soldiers, spending ten gold Fordes to have a go with a queen was something they could brag about for the rest of their life. They were even willing to borrow money to not miss out on the opportunity. Soon, the queen's business boomed. Customers came her way nonstop.

Lorist paled. They were at the frontlines in the middle of a war. Having wobbly legs after doing the deed was unacceptable. Intent on going to the army camp to enforce military discipline, he was surprised to find that the soldiers and knights that spent time with the queen didn't violate any military regulation. They only paid a visit to the queen's when they were off duty and didn't leave the camp. There was nothing to punish.

Lorist didn't dare visit the queen's quarters, lest he be assaulted by a couple of naked maidservants. It had been happening to Potterfang whenever he was nearby.

Since he'd treated the queen rather well, there was no way he could flip out on her out of nowhere. While it did sound weird for a queen to be prostituting herself in an army camp, it wasn't causing any trouble. In fact, the soldiers' mood improved considerably and it didn't seem to be a bad thing at all.

In the end, Lorist acknowledged his misfortune and wanted to encourage the queen to be on her way by taking another 200 thousand gold Fordes out of his pocket. House Fisablen's forces in Boblige had already been waiting to receive the queen outside their camp for almost ten days.

She was really reluctant to leave and said that if she was allowed to stay in the camp until spring, she wouldn't need the 200 thousand gold Fordes.

"It's best if you leave earlier. If you stay here until spring, the men's salary will end up in your coffers..." Lorist responded.

Darn, this queen is far more capable than Duke Fisablen. At least the duke didn't manage to sneak 300 thousand gold Fordes from me, thought he as he watched the convoy depart.

Chapter 384 Scheme

It started to snow two days after the eccentric queen was sent away. The weather was rather cold. Camorra, at Windbury, responded logistically by sending lots of resources to the frontlines. All of the four houses' soldiers wore thick fur and cold-resistant clothing. They were still fully combat-capable.

The only thing that troubled Lorist was the large delays in the construction of the provinces' defenses thanks to the cold weather. It was especially severe when it snowed; everything had to be halted. However, given the current situation, it seemed the House Fisablen's forces in Boblige would fare even worse. Even though they still stationed themselves on the cliffs to monitor Lorist's camps, there were only half as many as before. Their attacks also stopped completely.

Just when Lorist was about to call for Potterfang, Malek, and the other knights to discuss how they should launch a surprise attack, Howard rushed into the tent.

"Your Grace... Els and Reidy are finally back..."

"Oh?" Lorist raised his head and smiled.

He was glad he no longer had to worry about them. He had originally planned to seek them out in a few days, having asked Tarkel and Morbinghan with his gold eagle to come to the frontlines. They would arrive in another five or six days, but the two missing individuals returned before they arrived.

"Where did they go? Why were they gone for so long?"

Els and Reidy entered the tent clad in dirty furs. Long hours of riding against the cold winds had drained the color from their faces. It seemed they were chilled rather badly.

"Y-y-your Grace... W-we're back," stuttered Els as he rubbed his hands together.

"Where have the two of you been? Do you have any idea how worried I was? Was capturing two enemies alive that hard? I thought the area near Boblige was heavily guarded. Shouldn't it have been easy to locate two guards?" asked Lorist, trying his best to appear angry.

"No, Your Grace. We didn't capture anyone. It would've startled the rest too easily. Instead, we traveled into the mountains," explained Els.

"What? Into the mountains? But how?"

Everyone in the tent was stunned. Did they manage to find a way into the mountains without alerting the guards?

"No, Your Grace, we only circled around the mountains and entered from the entrance Eastwild entrance," replied Els.

Els proceeded to explain and Reidy helped fill in the details the former missed. It didn't take long to explain how they entered Boblige. Lorist had ordered them to capture two soldiers alive to understand what was happening, but the two didn't believe the patrolling soldiers would know much. So, they went all the way to Eastwild and bumped into some 50 Fisablen soldiers led by two Fisablen knights transporting two carriages filled with medicine into Boblige. The two ambushed the caravan during the night. After interrogating the troops, they killed them all and buried them before entering Boblige by disguising themselves as the squad in charge of delivering medicine.

"Wow, you guys are really courageous. Did you even consider the consequences if you were recognized? Don't laugh, Reidy. I was talking about you. Els trains in the dark attribute battleforce technique passed down in his family. Also, his looks don't attract much attention, so it's no surprise people wouldn't take note of him."

"Hey, my wife says I'm the best!" objected Els.

Lorist continued unphased.

"But you, Reidy, you got first place in the swordsmanship competition. Too many people can recognize you. If the duke left a few guards in the mountain range, there would've been no way you'd have not been caught."

"Your Grace, we asked the knights escorting the squad and they said only Third Frontier was left in the mountains. Duke Fisablen had disbanded and redrafted Fifth Frontier. They were absorbed into Third Frontier to fill their ranks. Two years ago, Third Frontier had been led by the duke on an expedition against the Melein duchy and have been stationed in Southern ever since. Given that Fifth Frontier was formed in Eastwild, I doubt anyone from there would recognize me. Also, I wore a fake mustache so it was even harder for others to recognize me," explained Reidy as he took out a fake mustache from his pocket and pasted it on his face.

It made him look much older and people who were not familiar with him would have a hard time recognizing him.

"Your Grace, the two knights have also been stationed at Crouchtiger Castle in Eastwild. They were originally citizens of the Melein duchy moved to Eastwild. They were just recently promoted to become household knights. They don't recognize the people from Third Frontier. When the duke went back to Crouchtiger Castle, he casually picked the two and had them transport the medicine into Boblige. It was practically tailored for us, so we decided to take the risk and enter the mountains," Els added.

"Look, Your Grace. This is the map we drew."

Reidy took out a beastskin from his robes. Howard received it and spread it on the table. Boblige mountain range covered a really large area. From the top, it looked a little like the cracked shells of a chicken egg. However, the shells were in fact cliffs and beyond them were lush forests, lakes, and streams. It was large enough to be a viscounty.

"Your Grace, two of the three routes into the range have been sealed. Only the one in the middle is still usable. Attacking through the other two routes isn't possible. As for the route in the middle, it's severely booby-trapped. For example, the latter half is just next to a valley. The moment we arrive, the enemy just has to gather at the cliffs and roll boulders down at us. We won't be able to run. That trap is truly horrendous.

"Just 46 thousand men from Third Frontier are there now. Duke Fisablen took his personal guard and the grassland barbarians back to Crouchtiger Castle. Third Frontier's commander is Three-star Gold-ranked Knight Galini Beloput. It's said he used to be the duke's playmate and childhood friend. He's someone the duke trusts greatly because of his reliable and resolute personality. The duke trusted him enough to leave the defenses of Boblige to him..."

"Duke Fisablen didn't return to Crouchtiger Castle,"Lorist interjected, "He gathered the 100 thousand barbarians and defeated Jaeger in Wild Husbandry. They suffered severe casualties. He's since moved on to Pedro. Luckily 23rd Local managed to hold out until reinforcements arrived. Ten-odd days ago, the duke lost his last hope of taking the city and withdrew."

"Ja-jaeger Legion suffered huge casualties?!" exclaimed Els.

"That's right. Both Josk and Yuriy are heavily injured, and Pete died. The two of you will take over Jaeger once this whole business is dealt with. Get them back up to full strength. Before we deal with the matter here, we won't be able to return to the dominion. Anyway, continue with your report."

Els nodded. He had an idea of what was going on.

Pointing at the map with his finger, he continued, "Third Frontier is stationed at four locations in Boblige. One division each is stationed at the left and right flanks. Their job is to pay attention to the two routes they sealed off, to patrol, and to maintain security. It takes at least 15 minutes to travel from the foot of the mountain to the cliff, and each of the peaks there has watchtowers. Their shifts change eight times a day. Each shift is about three hours. The defenses are really tight; it'll be incredibly difficult to enter the mountain range there. They've been modifying the towers to be more resistant to the cold.

"Third Frontier's main camp is in the middle. There are two divisions stationed there. As the junction in the middle is the only way in and out right now, they've focused most of their resources there. The number of watchtowers and patrols decrease beyond the main camp. Also, they've long built some caverns in the mountains as shelter against the weather. Most of the patrol squads are there. If there is an alarm, they'll arrive at their posts within ten minutes. I feel that it's incredibly difficult to launch an attack."

Els pointed at the rear half of Boblige.

"Third Frontier's supply camp is here, half a day's travel away from the main camp. Not only is it their main resource storage area, it's also the central area of defense against anything coming from Eastwild. Just like the three main routes on the other side, the Fisablen forces sealed two of the three on this side and left only the central one free for transporting resources. However, I discovered the soldiers of Third Frontier are rather lax on security. They send only one patrol along the cliffs twice a day and there are also no watchtowers. Perhaps they feel there's no need to put up such a defense in the direction of the dominion."

"I suggest we circle around to Eastwild and attack from there. We stand a much better chance that way," Reidy said, continuing Els's thought, before he recalled something, "Oh, right. Your Grace, when we left, the fat logistics supervisor complained that there is a huge shortage of resources even though it's getting colder. He hoped we'd encourage the duke to send more supplies. If we don't bring more furs, the soldiers will have no choice but to hide in the camps and huddle around fires. There'd be no way for them to patrol."

Lorist nodded.

"You did well. If we manage to take Boblige, it'll be thanks to your efforts. You guys heard Els's report. Any thoughts?"

Potterfang laughed.

"Your Grace, Els and Reidy truly made a great contribution. Just as they said, we can take a detour around the mountains. As long as we don't get discovered by Fisablen's scouts, we can attack Boblige from the rear. Given that the area is so large and the rear and main camps are so far apart, even if we're discovered, we can still conquer the rear support camp before reinforcements arrive. As long as the support camp falls, Third Frontier will be ants in a bowl. They'll have nowhere to run."

Malek gave it some thought.

"Your Grace, while Potterfang's plan is no doubt good, I believe it's best we wait for a little longer."

"Why?" asked Lorist.

"If we attack now, it'll take too long to circle around the mountain. Traveling there on horseback and carriage causes too much commotion and it'll be spotted by the scouts easily. We should wait a little longer for the snow to cover the plains before we depart using skis and sleds. The scouts won't want to come out on patrol in that kind of weather either. Third Frontier's defenses will be more relaxed as well."

Lorist laughed.

"You're right. It sounds incredibly appropriate, save one part: we will have to deceive our enemy."

"Deceive? How so?" asked Potterfang curiously.

"Huh...?"

Lorist was so surprised at Potterfang's query he looked at him oddly.

"Think about it. Given that our camp is facing Boblige directly, any movement will be detected immediately. There's no way we can stay here until the snow falls before taking the detour. Even if the enemy can't see where we're heading, they'll be alerted by our movements and perhaps even strengthen their defenses where we want to attack. Since their commander is reliable and competent, we shouldn't let our movements rouse his suspicion.

"From tomorrow onwards, we'll transfer House Kenmays's heavy-armored division over to guard the camp while Firmrock packs up and retreats to the rear. We'll make it look like they're going to wait out winter in the back so the enemy don't suspect anything. When we move out, you should go to Loze's camp first and go to the rear of the mountain range from there and exterminate Third Frontier!"

"But, Your Grace," Els said as he stood up, "There's a whole legion in Boblige, Third Frontier no less. Isn't it a little careless to leave just one heavy-armored division here? Maybe Third Frontier will notice the decrease in manpower and attack. If that happens, we'll suffer huge losses."

"It won't happen. I will have Count Felim send two Pegasus divisions over to hold onto the main camp with House Kenmays's troops. Given the cold weather, it should start to snow soon. Galini will also consider whether Firmrock Legion's retreat is a ploy to draw them out of the mountain range. He should know that snowfall impedes light cavalry. If he really attacks, he'll find it incredibly hard to retreat. I don't think he'll make the decision to attack that lightly."

Lorist stood up.

"It's decided. Howard, take a squad of guards and head to Loze. Have Suleimos move his heavy-armored division here and tell Loze to expand the camp. In a few days, we'll move Firmrock over a division at a time. Make sure he's prepared."

"Yes, Your Grace."

Chapter 385 Galini Beloput

The fine snowflakes floated daintily to the ground. The sky was dark and gloomy and the chilling winter moaned past the ridges and peak, making many shiver and sneeze. Those out in the cold's feet went numb. Galini Beloput stood atop one of the cliffs, looking at the messy camp of the Nortons' Firmrock in the distance.

From time to time, soldiers left the campsite, undid their pants, and relieved themselves. From time to time, the wind brought the soldier's cries to the cliffs.

"Idiots! We're gonna go rest for winter! Enjoy the breeze up there! Hahahaha!"

A few officers got out of the camp and gave the men a few kicks, probably getting them to go pack up. After another hour, the first batch of three thousand departed. They marched neatly towards the southwestern part of Southern, flags and banners raised. Their marching songs fought through the wind and snow and echoed faintly into Beloput's ears. From time to time, some cruder folk songs and cheers came through as well.

It seems they're really going to bed for winter. I doubt they'd be so relaxed and joyous otherwise.

Beloput clutched his leather cloak tightly. He was rather moody and gloomy.

When we were marching back after eliminating Melein, Third Frontier's soldiers sang in the same fashion. Though we did incur rather substantial losses, we were all experienced veterans who trusted our lives to fate. The spoils were quite voluminous as well. Spirits were naturally high.

But now? The enemy marches home to rest for winter right in front of us while we have to suffer the cold in a mountain range surrounded by enemies. I can't blame the men for having low spirits, especially not with the snow. I can't even give everyone a fur to hold the bite of the cold at bay... Lord Duke's letter said the house has already done its best. 'We were attacked out of nowhere so we had no time to gather the necessary supplies' indeed. Even with the four central duchies' aid, we don't have what we need for winter. They just sent over stuff civilians use...

Beloput didn't blame the duke for the current situation. He'd grown up together with him so he understood how frustrated he must have been when he wrote the letter. The duke had been a proud person as long as he'd known him, even going as far back as his early years. The duke looked down on the former empire's corrupt nobles. He didn't consider them much different from the plains' barbarians. While he was called the Wargod of the Plains for expanding the empire's territory and his many other achievements and contributions, he'd always been suppressed by the empire's nobility. He only managed to throw off his shackles and take full control of Eastwild and Wild Husbandry with the civil war.

It was truly a shame. His plan would've taken shape if it had been given another year. If they'd had just one more year, he could've rightfully taken the position of hegemon in the northeastern area. He might even have been able to form his own kingdom. It would've marked the house's rise to prominence. No one expected the four houses to shatter the dream out of nowhere. Their ambitions had joined the winter's snowflakes.

"Sir, is Firmrock really going to bed for the winter?" asked a household knight.

"It would appear so, given what we're seeing," answered Beloput.

One heavy-armored division, bearing House Kenmays's banner, had arrived at the camp a few days ago. Beloput had even put his troops on high alert in case this warned of an impending attack. But he soon realized the enemy was just changing shifts. Firmrock would withdraw for the winter while House Kenmays's division was there to stand guard.

"Sir, after Firmrock leaves, there'll only be one division there. Their numbers are small. Should we attack? It's a good opportunity," suggested the knight.

Beloput kept silent for a moment. He shook his head.

"Let's not push ourselves too far. The weather's getting worse by the day, it's even begun to snow. How many people do you think we can afford to mobilize? More than half our men still haven't received winter clothing. They'll freeze if they go outdoors. We received near 20 thousand of Fifth Frontier's men. Most are domesticated barbarians still unused to Third Frontier's regulations. Not taking action is the best choice under these circumstances. It'd be a disaster if we get entangled with the enemy!"

He patted the young knight's chest and swept the snow off his shoulders.

"Seirya, you're a young lion, a courageous knight, but victory in war isn't always decided by exterminating the enemy. Our main goal is to hold Boblige. That's the duke's directive. No matter how many times we defeat or exterminate the enemy, if we lose our hold on the mountain range we'd have failed.

"Before the duke left, he told me why we can keep the initiative if we hold Boblige. The four houses will have to keep a good portion of their forces here to keep us in check. They'll end up spending way more resources than we will. We can advance or retreat as we please, but they have to hold their positions no matter what. The war's scale is great and it might stretch on even longer. We're not aiming for outright victory, instead, we want to force them to sign a peace treaty. We don't need to exterminate them to achieve that, we just need to make it too expensive for them to keep on fighting. It's the only way the house can rise up again."

"Is there no chance to win?" asked Seirya stubbornly.

Beloput smiled as he shook his head.

"Nobody wants to lose, but we've lost our chance of victory. The four houses' timed their invasion too perfectly. They struck us when we were completely unprepared. First Frontier was completely destroyed and Windbury taken. Even our joint assault with the four duchies failed. The reserve legion's loss might not be particularly bad, but Windury and Southern's loss? That's an entirely different story.

"You should know why. The reserve legion is like a knife. If we lose it, we can easily replace it, but First Frontier was our true backbone. Losing it has greatly destabilized us. Not even disbanding Fifth Frontier can compare. Our Lord is focused on keeping Second, Third, and Fourth Frontier as intact as possible. They're the core of the house and our last hope to rise again. We can't risk Third Frontier.

"Do you know why the duke wanted to return to the dominion?"

Seirya shook his head.

"He's not there to salvage the situation in Wild Husbandry. Even if he did heavily wound House Norton's Jaeger, it still won't change the overall situation much. He has two aims. First, he'd like to see whether he can conquer Pedro and cause even more chaos in this war by pitting the grassland barbarians against the four houses. If he doesn't manage that, the house will have to suffer through several tough years. He plans to wipe the barbarian tribes out so they won't be a threat."

Beloput looked at Seirya's shock and disbelief, and sighed.

"Seirya, Fisablen blood runs in your veins. You are the new generation's elite and both the Lord and I have high hopes for you. That's why I told you about this. Fighting with courage is only good for a moment; planning with the future in mind is good for life. Failure isn't scary; not learning from your mistakes and failures is. This time around, our loss is inevitable. We can only hope to minimize or losses, or maybe force a draw of sorts."

Seirya nodded gratitudenously.

"Thank you, Uncle Galini. I understand now."

Beloput patted his shoulder.

"Alright, I brought it up casually to give you a rough idea. Let's get down from the mountain. When you're not on duty, make sure to train in your hereditary battleforce technique. Your talent is pretty good. I hope you can become like Her Highness, Princess Sylvia, and make it to the gold rank soon. Make the house proud."

"I will do my best, Uncle."

"Oh, and Seirya, there's something with which I have to trouble you. Can you go to the support camp for a bit and tell Uncle Woryo I, as the commander of Third Frontier, hope he won't act too excessively. His actions when the queen passed through made the soldiers incredibly angry. Also, I hope you can get him to do his duty properly and not half-arse the defenses there. I'm just one of the house's servants, I don't have the status to order him around, but I'm also the legion's commander, so I hope he doesn't force me to impose military discipline."

Seirya blushed, speechless. What a horrible shame. The kingdom's queen and the logistics supervisor of Third Frontier, one of them his aunt and the other his uncle, had become the house's most shameless members!

As the duke's daughter and queen, his aunt had actually started a brothel in the camp. The next day, she complained rather vocally about how the soldiers were all poor bastards and couldn't even pay a single gold Forde for pleasure.

"It's no wonder the Nortons beat them so easily," she'd said.

She also mentioned that the Nortons were far better off. They could pay a gold Forde without issue, some even took out ten.

Seirya was so embarrassed by the comment he wanted to hide in the nearest hole. Not even in his wildest dreams had he thought his aunt would be so shameless and not care about the house's reputation. That was why the commander had ordered her out of the camp as soon as possible.

In the end, the queen's carriage was stopped by Seirya's uncle. As the logistic camp's supervisor, he cooperated with the queen and allowed her to open a brother with her maidservants. She even launched a huge discount promotion: any soldier could spend a night of pleasure with one of the queen's maidservants for a single large silver. The logistics supervisor could also lend money to soldiers who couldn't afford it, but they had to exchange something for the loan. Anything would do, even their rations and supplies.

The crooked pair caused the whole atmosphere of the logistics camp to go sour. That even affected the four divisions at the main camp. After three days of enduring, Beloput could no longer tolerate it and sent his own guards to chase the queen away from the camp and forcefully escort her back to the dominion. When the guards who were sent on the escort returned, they said that the queen cursed the commander all the way for stopping her from earning money.

Because of that, Beloput also offended Woryo, who was a member of the house and the nephew of the duke himself. Beloput's father, on the other hand, was but a normal servant and it was only because Beloput had gotten to know the duke in his youth and they got along that he managed to reach his current position. Even though he was both a gold-ranked knight and commander of Third Frontier, not many descendants of the house thought highly of him, some even called him 'servant-spawn' in private.

Before, Beloput would ignore Woryo's actions of sneaking away more resources than he ought to have. As long as the logistics unit could support the legion well enough, it was best to maintain a cordial relationship with him. But now, Woryo had gone too far and hoarded the resources that were due to be sent to the main camp in retaliation, using lack of manpower as an excuse, causing the soldiers of the main camp to complain nonstop to vent their frustration. That severely impacted the morale of the troops.

Beloput was also incredibly mad at that. Even though this was a crucial time for House Fisablen, a descendant of the house like Woryo still ignored the needs of the house to prioritize his own little gains. He even used the opportunity to delay the resources to get back at Beloput in a complete act of idiocy. However, Beloput couldn't just flip out against a person from the Fisablen house lest he offends the rest of them. So, he had Seirya warn Woryo to tone it down a bit.

......

"Your Grace, it's already the third snowfall and the snow on the ground is almost half a foot thick. I think it's time we departed."

"You're right, it is time for us to give Third Frontier Legion the final blow."

"Your Grace, it's fine if you want to come along, but I refuse to let you be in the vanguard. We'd rather die than let you do that."

"Hehe, Pog, you dare threaten me?"

"Your Grace, I insist you not rush to the front if you come with us. Everyone else holds the same opinion. The house is only stable with you around. It's fine if we're gone, but the house can never do without you, Your Grace."

"Alright, I'll stay at the back like you wish."

On the 23rd day of the 12th month of Year 1778, House Norton's Firmrock Legion traveled through the stormy, snowy weather to launch a surprise attack on the rear side of Boblige. In one go, they conquered the completely unprepared logistics camp of Third Frontier Legion and forced the four other divisions at the main camp to surrender. The commander of Third Frontier, Galini Beloput, publicly committed suicide after surrendering. His last words were: 'I have failed the Lord and shall atone for my sins with death!'

Chapter 386 Three Requests

With Boblige conquered, Iblia's conquest was complete. Lorist stood on one of the cliffs behind Boblige and looked at the snow-covered fields, smiling in a good mood. The old fox, Duke Fisablen, had finally been locked in a cage. From that moment on, House Fisablen's road to hegemony was cut off and they would not pose a threat to House Norton again.

Jaeger and House Fisablen's Frontier Legions might be entangled in Wild Husbandry for a good while. Or, House Fisablen might join with the barbarians to attack Southern's border. There was also a chance the duke himself would find a way to launch a surprise attack on Pedro. But, the general situation was now set in stone. No matter how hard House Fisablen tries, they could not win anymore. Even if they manage to sneak a few victories, those couldn't do much harm to the Nortons overall. As long as the flow of resources and products was regulated closely, the house might become just another barbarian clan like so many already on the plains.

The only thing left is to see whether the old fox knows what's good for him, thought Lorist gleefully.

Howard, standing beside him, was already at his limits; he could no longer resist the cold and pulled his cloak tighter.

"We ought to go back, Your Grace. What's so interesting about the white abyss? The wind's so strong too."

The logistics camp was actually a renovated bandit stronghold. The logistics officer, Woryo, had ordered his soldiers to build a luxurious three-story-tall stone house for him. It was now Lorist's chambers. The former owner was kept in the stinky barns with the soldiers he loathed and on which he looked down. He was now just a Norton captive. He'd been given a decent pummelling during the first night. His bruises were so bad it made it difficult to look at him.

Howard added another piece of pine wood to the fire. He added some macks and water into the copper kettle and hung it over the fire. Drinking a cup of steaming-hot macks on a winter day was a bliss that filled the hearts of many with warmth and comfort.

Els kicked his feet at the entrance before he wiped some snow and mud off his boots on the rug. Once satisfied that his shoes were clean enough, he headed for the second floor.

"Your Grace, Seirya arrived."

The young Seirya no longer looked impressive and domineering. He was pale and silent as he was presented to Lorist. The things that'd happened to him over the last couple of days was a nightmare. First, House Norton's Firmrock weathered the snowstorm and appeared out of nowhere near the Boblige's rear entrance. They took the unprepared logistics camp by storm with before they encircled the main camp of Third Frontier's four other divisions. Using their ballistae which had incredible firing range for a lockdown on the various sections of the camp, no one could rush out of their lodges to launch a counterattack.

After enduring and starving for two days, Potterfang's threat to burn the place down finally forced Beloput to have his men drop their weapons and surrender. He committed suicide publicly soon after, saying that he had failed the duke's trust and expressing his desire to make up for his sins with his life.

Nobody reacted in time. It all happened so quickly and without warning. Seirya thus had to watch his commander, his respected uncle, fall -- his throat spurting blood everywhere and staining the ground red. He was completely frozen. They had lost just like that. There was no grand charge into battle, no great faceoff on the battlefield, no exciting exchange of blows and blocks, nothing. Boblige was lost just like that, and Third Frontier had surrendered to the enemy. It was a complete defeat where all the soldiers were wiped out. The commander decided to take responsibility for the shame of surrendering by taking his life. What was left for him to do?

Over the past two days, he'd lived like a walking corpse. He ducked in his corner, not caring about anything, neither drinking nor eating, until he was brought before Lorist.

"So you're Fisablen Seirya?" asked the man as he looked at him curiously.

Seirya acted as if he heard nothing.

Els patted on his shoulder and yelled, "Hey, are you deaf?! We're talking about you!"

Seirya snapped out of his stupor.

"Ah, what did you say?"

The man smiled and repeated his question.

"Yes. I'm Fisablen Seirya, a member of House Fisablen. Do your worst, I'm not afraid," said Seirya emotionally.

"I don't need you to do anything. Don't worry, even though House Fisablen is our enemy, we will follow the traditions and customs and the code of chivalry. Now you're our captive, I want to ask you something..."

"In your dreams! I will not betray the house!" exclaimed Seirya resolutely.

"Hahahaha!" the man laughed.

He pointed at a youth standing nearby buy, whom in response poured some macks and offered it to Seirya.

"Nobody wants you to betray your house. We're not really interested in House Fisablen any longer anyway. It's simple: you lost. The war's outcome is certain no matter what you try."

"You launched an underhanded surprise attack. I'll never accept this."

"Whether you accept it or not isn't my concern. The only goal of war is to emerge victorious. Strategy and tactics are of utmost importance. Didn't the duke teach you something this basic? Don't tell me your duke fights his enemies one-on-one honorably all the time? If that was the case, House Fisablen would not even be worth my mention," said the man in a calm tone.

Seirya blushed and realized he had uttered something foolish. The reason Duke Fisablen was given the title of Wargod of the Plains was that he often fought with the odds and numbers stacked against him. Tactics like surprise attacks, ambushes, and assaults were milked dry of their efficiency. In the end, it all culminated in new territory for the empire, as well as the house's growth into one of the strongest in the northeastern area.

"Drink some macks first," said the man warmly, "I asked you to come here to fulfill a plea your commander, Galini Beloput, asked of me before his suicide."

"Commander?" asked Seirya, suspicious.

"Yes," Lorist nodded and said, "Before your commander ordered you to surrender, he made three requests, two of which I've agreed to. But I didn't think he'd actually be that stubborn. Even though we conquered the camp and you had no chance, he would only order your surrender after he was assured you'd be spared."

"He... He made requests?" asked Seirya.

"He was an honorable knight, determined and persevering. He single-handedly bore the responsibility for your loss. He was no coward, but a knight and military officer of the highest caliber. I admire his courage and feel pity for House Fisablen's loss of such a magnificent and heroic knight," continued the man solemnly as he stood up.

On Grindia, suicide was considered an act of cowardice. Regardless of what god or goddess one believed in, none of them advocated suicide. For example, the warriors and knights that were believers of Singwa considered suicide humiliating and cowardly. Back when Gold-ranked Knight Chevany, a subordinate of Duke Loggins, lost the battle against the Nortons, he chose to die by Lorist's blade for the same reason. He couldn't commit suicide by his own hand as believers of the war god believed the souls of suiciders wouldn't enter the god's kingdom.

"Thank you..." Seirya finally lowered his head as tears fell uncontrollably.

The praise his enemy offered in the honor of his commander had finally opened his heart. His vexation finally melted away. Instead, he even felt a sense of pride over what his uncle had done.

After crying for a good while, he muffled his voice. The young man passed him a hot towel. After he'd cleaned his face, he stood up and saluted his captor.

"Lord Norton, may I know what three requests our commander made?"

"Sure. I'd tell you even if you hadn't asked. Sit down and have some macks. I heard you haven't eaten anything for two days. I'm concerned for your health. If you continue like this, you won't complete the mission your commander left for you," said Lord Norton as he gestured to the sofa.

"The first request was that news of your surrender be delivered to the duke. He asked that you be the envoy to deliver the news. Given that the snow's made it impossible to travel, he agreed for the news to be sent after the rainy season passes. You may pick twelve soldiers to go with you. We'll provide the mounts and supplies. Also, keep your commander's remains well. You'll have a carriage to take it with you."

Seirya teared up again.

"Your commander also asked I let your house ransom the knights and attendants. I must admit he duped me into agreeing. I thought he was referring to the Fisablen knights and attendants in Third Frontier. He only revealed he meant everyone in the in the legion after I'd agreed. I'm pretty mad about it, but I am a noble, so I'll keep my word. As long as the house can afford the ransom, I will let them go."

Seirya raised his head proudly when he heard this. His commander had duped Norton Lorist!

Such a child... Lorist smiled, What point is there to keeping the knights here? They would never betray their house unless they were abandoned. If they did they'd have no honor to live by left. Even I won't recruit a knight who so easily betrays his oath. Your house controls the greeks, so I can make a nice trade.

"I didn't agree to his third request, though. I won't let the house ransom the rest of the legion. It's impossible. I won't have the duke rebuild his forces so easily. Beloput tried to convince me they'd only be used to deal with barbarians. He hoped I'd let them go so they could return to their families. I may be benevolent, but I'm not naïve. I did promise to let them go when House Fisablen surrenders or signs a peace treaty, though."

Lorist stared intently at the kid.

"That's all I have to say. You may pick 12 soldiers to follow you back. You don't have to stay with the captives either. Your treatment and rations will be same as that of my men. If you have any additional requests, feel free to bring them up and I will do my best to assist you."

"I only have one request. I wish to leave before the rainy season. May I go after the snow lifts in the second month next year?" asked the kid, standing up.

Lorist observed his resolute expression… and nodded.

"As you wish."

Snow usually stopped falling in the 2nd month of the year. However, the ground would still be frozen and muddy -- hard to travel on. People and horses slip and fall easily in such conditions. Despite that, Seirya insisted on returning early and Lorist didn't stop him. It was his business if he wanted to look for trouble.

After Seirya left, Potterfang and Malek entered the room. Lorist greeted and had them take seats.

"You should know what comes next not that we have Boblige, right?" began he as he tapped on the map of Southern that hung on the wall, "We'll hold Southern against the barbarians. This won't be a quick operation. It'll likely continue for several years. Firmrock is the house's best legion, there's no unit better suited for this operation."

Potterfang and Malek stood up straight.

"Worry not, Your Grace. Firmrock won't let the Fisablens into Southern."

Lorist had the two sit down again.

"With Boblige in our hands, the defenses in Southern will have more support. The house can now transfer Tigersoar there, it doesn't have to station as many men here. House Kenmays's heavy-armored division and Shazin's light cavalry and light infantry divisions can return as well. I will leave everything here to Firmrock. Naturally, Count Felim's Pegasus will aid you. I'm putting them under your command.

"Also, I will replenish Firmrock's two thunderbolt brigades. You may use the 23rd local defense brigade's tactic of setting fire to shield carts. I won't say much more. The rest is up to you.

"I will return to The Northlands in a few days; there's much to deal with there. Set up proper defenses, I don't want any mistakes, understood?"

"We will not disappoint you, Your Grace."

Chapter 387 Property and Taxes

Lorist returned to The Northlands on the 7th day of the 1st month of the new year. He observed The Northlands' capital, Roaring Bear City, formerly known as Gildusk, from a distance in the cold. Grandmaster Ciroba had renovated it without a hitch. He'd even gone out of his way to fashion a huge statue of a bear in the central plaza. The plaza was thus named Ragebear Plaza.

The city needed another year's work before renovations would be complete. Most of the year's infrastructure was completed the year before, from waterways and irrigation works to walls and roads. What had to be done now was the building of the many houses and buildings. Ciroba had proclaimed optimistically that everything would be done before the eighth month of the previous year, but the internal furnishings and decorations would take more time. Ciroba's aide, Zanben, would be in charge from the 5th month since Ciroba had to head to Southern to build Pegasus Castle.

Lorist stayed in the city for just ten days. Apart from checking out its progress, he also met with Shadekampf. The servant who'd followed him around since his childhood had become a magnificent talent in management. The new settlements in the south of The Northlands, namely Haven, Harvest, and Vigor's, construction was proceeding well. It would be completed in no more than two years. The only problem was the relatively low population. Settlements had to be populated to become prosperous.

Charade brought Supervisor Spiel in a hurry to receive Lorist. Ever since he'd received Tarkel's report in the 11th month about the possibility of a mountain barbarian invasion, he'd stayed at Firmrock Castle to guard it. Lorist understood the barbarians' might well and was certain they wouldn't leave their mountains in the winter but Charade still had to be prepared just in case. Now that Lorist had returned, the situation in Southern had stabilized, Iblia conquered, and Tigersoar returning soon as well, Charade could finally let go of his worries.

He also gave Lorist a piece of good news: the estates in the east of Roaring Bear, that is, the section reserved for nobles' manors, were selling like hotcakes. All 67 estates had been gobbled up by the nobles and House Norton's funds had grown by roughly 1.6 million gold Fordes. Spiel was so ecstatic he almost couldn't shut up. It should be noted that the land sold was completely empty. It didn't have a single building.

The nobles that bought the land would have to spend even more of their money to build their manors. All House Norton had to take care of was making sure the basic infrastructure, such as roads and parks, was in place. The endeavor was very profitable. Mainly because the landowners also had to pay an annual tax on their land, which was a thousandth of its market price. In other words, while the land sold was private property, it was still Norton territory. Given that the Nortons were in charge of the land's safety, they would have to pay some sort of 'protection fee'.

Lorist was incredibly shocked. The plots ranged from five to eight thousand gold Fordes. How did it add up to 1.6 million? It was already six times more than what they'd estimated they'd get. What in the world had made3 the nobles willing to spend so much money? Charade explained gleefully that he hadn't settled on a fixed price. He just drew the boundaries, listed a minimum, starting price, and sent the maps to the various nobles, both honorary and landed. The entire peerage received the same map, including the old Winston nobles that'd joined their side. The demand turned out to be incredibly high, so Charade organized an auction. In the end, given the demand, the plots all sold at five to ten times their original price.

The nobles that didn't get any of the plots, demanded the district be expanded so they could get a plot as well. He'd estimated they could set up two similar districts and still sell out. So, he and Spiel picked two more areas set up another 150 plots. Lorist just had to give his approval and they could go ahead with the auction.

Lorist looked over the documents and scribbled about with his pen. He crossed out the larger district and left only about 58 plots. Charade and Spiel looked at him anxiously. He was denying them a mountain of gold!

"There's no need to be hasty," Lorist explained, "The two districts ensure all the nobles can get a piece of land. Do you think they'll go crazy for them during the auction if they know they're sure to get a plot? It'll be difficult to raise the price if everyone has a guaranteed spot. We can only increase their value if we limit the number."

Charade's eyes widened and he smacked his forehead.

"Apologies, I was being too hasty and forgot about that completely. I thought the new districts would sell for the same price as the first. This is my fault."

"It's not your fault. You two just didn't understand the reason the nobles were so crazy for the land," Lorist consoled with a smile, "Basically, the reason they're willing to pay such a high price is: the act of purchasing a plot is an expression of loyalty."

"An expression of loyalty?" asked the two oddly.

"Yes," Lorist nodded, "You carried out the auction after we'd already eliminated First Frontier and conquered Windbury, and the duke'd fled to Southern. Everyone can see we're winning the war. House Fisablen may be a strong house in our region, but they suffered defeat after defeat at our hands. It's nearly impossible for them to turn the tables. Unless we do something incredibly stupid, Duke Fisablen will lose the war, War god or not.

"Given these circumstances, and that House Norton is the alliance's leader, they placed their bets on us. We've also now decided where The Northlands' capital will be and given it a name, one reminiscent of our own family: Roaring Bear. Clearly, this is now our headquarters. The act of purchasing land from us here is a gesture of loyalty. In other words, they're saying they're willing to be in the same boat with us. Naturally, they're also looking for more opportunities to work with us. If they have any dealings with us, there's no doubt they'll prosper.

"Now that we've achieved our goal of conquering Iblia, Winston and Southern are under the four houses' control as well. Andinaq now controls more than half the former empire's territory. While we're loyal to kingdom in name, the four houses are their own powerful faction. The nobles know this as well. Compared to the second highness, we're a far better option for their allegiance. They can't even be bothered to deal with our king."

Lorist pointed at the documents in his hands.

"Actually, no matter how much we charge for these plots, the nobles will grit their teeth and buy them to show they stand with us. However, I don't wish to sow any animosity. Apart from making them willingly give us their gold by raising the land's value, we have to make the value compound and rise over the years.

"For example, I plan to put just 40 plots up for sale. The rest will be used to build kickball stadiums, horse-racing stadiums, and battleforce-training halls. We'll also build facilities for high-level herbalists. We can even dig a small stream from a nearby lake so the people here can swim and kayak. The lake can be used for picnics and walks as well. We'll have luxurious restaurants and tea houses, and luxury shopping areas and streets. We'll make this district a noble paradise. If we do this, the land will be in greater demand and its value will go up even more.

"We can set up another special district or an elite residential area nearby afterwards. Naturally, the price will be even higher thanks to the surrounding infrastructure and the value of the land nearby."

"Your Grace, you're a true schemer," exclaimed Charade.

Spiel furrowed his brow.

"Your Grace, don't you think these two districts sound a little similar to the rich district in the city? Won't this lower the rich district's value?"

"Hehe," Lorist shook his head, "The rich district is just that, an area for rich nobles and commoners alike. Anyone with money can purchase land there. However, these two will be for nobles only, or guests that receive invitations from nobles. No amount of money will let you qualify to purchase land here. This will inevitably inflate the nobles that purchase land here's sense of status. And, given that the rich commoners also wish to be a part of this, they will try even harder to contribute to the house so they may receive our recognition and be given an honorary title.

"Starting next year, the house will no longer acknowledge other nation's titles. Supervisor Spiel, set up a system for foreign honorary nobles to become local honorary nobles. Naturally, they'll have to pay a fee."

"But, Your Grace, what point is there to this? They're only honorary titles, what difference is there between titles we issue and titles other nations issue?" asked Spiel, confused.

Charade chortled.

"Absolutely golden, Your Grace! The difference is huge, Spiel. First, His Grace said that honorary titles from other nations won't be acknowledged starting next year. In other words, honorary nobles from other nations won't be able to attend any of our gatherings, balls, or banquets. They won't be able to mingle with the four houses or their vassals.

"All the foreign nobles that've purchased land already have to have their titles converted or they'll lose the land. We don't offer noble titles very easily, people without noble titles can't buy them no matter how much they pay, so our titles are worth far more than other people's titles. Our faction is one of the strongest on the continent. Honorary nobles we acknowledge will have a far higher standing in other nations' noble circles. People will have to think twice before offending them since we are their backers and will stand up to defend them.

"Also, after this announcement, the land's price will go up even more. Honorary nobles will scramble to get a plot. I don't doubt for a second that the 40 pieces we'll sell this time round will be worth far more than the 67 we sold first..."

Since it would soon rain gold, Spiel kept his mouth shut and waited.

Lorist smiled bitterly.

"Had it not been for our losses, I wouldn't have come up with something like this. Then again, taking money from nobles and rich commoners is far better than increase the poor's tax. Also, Baron Charade, Tigersoar and Jaeger's casualties are quite heavy. Make sure their pensions are paid to the families as well as those who retired because of their injuries. I've decided to decrease the taxes levied on households with dead or injured soldiers while maintaining the benefits they receive like the other soldiers of the house. Reduce their taxes by a third."

Most landed nobles taxed their commoners more than two fourths. In other words, half of the crop grown on the rented land would be given to the noble as rent. Also, there were miscellaneous taxes such as for housing, water, boats, etc. Nobles would only have to pay a tenth of their tax revenue to their liege in tribute. Many nobles raised their taxes as high as seven tenths and kept their subjects poor. They would have to rely on labor and blood tax to keep up with the high taxes.

Labor refers to working for the nobles for free. They even had to prepare their own food. Usually, labor terms lasted from 12 to 15 months. Blood tax refers to serving in the noble's levy. The nobles provide two meals a day, basically pig feed, the commoners wouldn't be paid a dime. They only profited from plunder. But most of the spoils would be given to their lords. If they were unfortunate enough to die in battle, their lord just had to inform their families, they didn't have to give them any compensation. The households that lost precious family members would find it even harder to cope with their main manpower gone.

House Norton's taxes had always been two fourths. It was already the lowest among nobles. When Lorist returned to the dominion to take up position as household leader, he learned that the taxes were too high and had tried to make them 30 percent, but it'd prompted strong opposition from the household knights and officials. Charade had privately advised him to not stand out too much by adopting such a radical policy, as it would cause them to be ostracized by the rest of the nobility. So, Lorist had never touched the main taxes. However, he did decrease the miscellaneous taxes wherever he could. One of the big ones was the fishing and hunting tax, which was only one tenth.

Even though the main taxes couldn't be touched, soldiers' families would receive benefits. Households with members in the garrison would receive a tax cut of one tenth. They only had to hand in four tenths of their harvests. Households with members in the house's main forces were only taxed three tenths. If they retired, the taxes would only go up to four tenths.

Before, households with members in the military who died in battle would receive a one-tenth decrease in taxes permanently. However, Lorist wanted to decrease it by another ten percent and was unyielding despite Spiel's objections.

"Actually, Supervisor Spiel, our house's main source of income isn't the taxes we levy on the harvests. Instead, it is the industrial and business sectors. Even after developing Felicitas, Salus, Redriver, and Greatriver, our annual harvest tax has still not exceeded a million gold Fordes. It's not worth much more than what we generate in Wildnorth Town in Felicitas itself. The harvest tax isn't actually anything worth considering. Decreasing it by another one tenth would instead generate goodwill and gratitude among the commoners.

"This time around, our casualties are as high as 40 thousand. Our annual pension payouts in the future will near 100 thousand gold Fordes. There's no need to grumble about something insignificant like a harvest tax that doesn't amount to 10 thousand gold Fordes. Forget about such a small amount of money and let the households of those who sacrificed themselves for us know that we will not forget the blood they've spilled and the sacrifices they've made for our sake."

"I apologize, I was in the wrong, my Lord. I will respect your decision," apologized Spiel with a deep nod.

Chapter 388 Mayor Doboff

"Barbarian courage is useless in the face of Loristian scheming." ~ Terman

On the 27th day of the 1st month of Year 1779, Lorist returned to Firmrock Castle.

There was no new year's celebration this year, mainly because the leader of the house, Lorist, was not around. There was also the matter of the war, which made holding a celebration a little inappropriate. However, Iblia conquest was complete. Winston and Southern were both now under the four houses' control. House Fisablen was locked within the three provincial plains, and Lorist also managed to get the position as governor of Windbury. Basically, it meant Winston would soon also be in the Nortons' jurisdiction.

While there wasn't a celebration this year, next year's would be even merrier. It would see the house welcome even more vassals. Lorist would have to entitle another large group of honorary nobles to acknowledge their contributions over the previous two years.

Rumors of a mountain barbarian invasion, surprisingly, hadn't caused a panic among the folk. However, the atmosphere in Firmrock Castle was still anxious and lifelessness. Lorist went to the rear of the keep and found only Dilianna and her one-year-old son there to receive him. After asking her about it, he learned that her two nieces, Arriotoli and Fennazali had gone to the new Dina barony now in Delamock. She had only refused to go because she was worried that the cold of winter would harm her precious child.

The other two new maidservants he'd taken in didn't think he would return in a month, so they had returned to their families for new years.

Oh well, it doesn't really matter if they're not here. I'll be fine with Dilianna.

He didn't manage to get any good sleep, in spite of the castle having so few occupants, because this son made too much noise in the night. Either he wanted to be breastfed or be with his mother. Given that he'd tussled with Dilianna three or four times already, he ended up getting no sleep.

He decided to go to his study for a nap. Just as he was walking there yawning, Howard appeared.

"Your Grace, Sir Tarkel and Mister Doboff have been waiting for you in the guest room for more than an hour now."

While it wasn't odd for Tarkel to come over so early in the morning, Lorist couldn't quite recall Doboff, though the name did sound familiar.

The moment Howard saw his expression, he knew his teacher was having a hard time recalling the man.

"Your Grace, Mister Doboff used to be the Pentasword Mercenaries' leader. You made him mayor of Twinmount Town."

Oh, that's the guy...

Lorist had hired the mercenary group to guard the outpost at the intersection between Magical Dragon Mountain Range and the dominion, as the first line of defense and an early warning. However, after he'd spent time among the barbarians, he got to know that the ones neighboring them were engaged in internal conflict, so they wouldn't come down to raid the dominion anytime soon. Hence the outpost being rather quiet for two years besides a few small skirmishes shortly after its first completion.

After that came the house's development of Blackmud Marsh. A wall was built on the border between the dominion, Tortoise Hill, and Hidebull Mound, along with forts at the other two areas. One local defense brigade was stationed at both the forts, so the outpost between the two mountains outside the dominion began to lose its importance. As a result, the house terminated the mercenary band's contract.

At first, Lorist had planned to absorb the group into the household forces but their leader, Doboff, refused. He was already old and didn't wish to live a life of blades and blood anymore. Given that he was going to disband the group, he would leave whether to join up to the men themselves.

However, he'd had already grown attached to the outpost he had lived in over the years. Given the recent time of peace, it had managed to develop into a small town where many mercenaries and adventurers would gather before they headed deeper to explore Magical Dragon Mountains. It was also through that town that small merchants traded with the barbarians. Some of the latter, who were more adaptable and intelligent, came to the town to trade their wares. The town had become a small bridge that connected the dominion and the barbarians.

However, Lorist had just returned from barbarian captivity and he avoided all word on them thanks to his traumatic experiences. He refused to even consider the notion of using the town to infiltrate and influence the barbarian tribes. Since Doboff was unwilling to leave, he made him the town's mayor. Apart from paying a small tribute, their administration wouldn't be interfered with in the slightest. They were left to do what they pleased. To Lorist, since the area was outside the household dominion, there wasn't a difference whether they controlled it or not. It wasn't something that would affect the house greatly.

When the intelligence agency, Furybear, was formed, the one in charge, Tarkel, took note of the small town outside the dominion and sent his men to do a detailed investigation. In the end, he realized the town had developed properly under the ex-mercenary leader's administration. Doboff himself hadn't overstepped his bounds and considered Twinmount Town under Norton control. Hd didn't rule with uninhibited ambition. Apart from paying a yearly tribute, the extra funds collected would be used to develop the town's infrastructure. Twinmount Town's population had grown to roughly two thousand. Most of whom relied on hunting, collecting herbs, and trading with the barbarians to make a living.

Two years earlier, Tarkel had submitted a report to Lorist about Twinmount Town. In it, he suggested it could be directly administered by the house. Building it into a large-scale trading post like the one House Kenmays had in the east would not only provide large amounts of herbs and other rarities, it could also be used to take note of the barbarians' moves.

However, Lorist had been completely occupied with his dealings with the second highness and the plan to take out Madras. Given the unpleasant memories he had, he neglected reading the report in detail before archiving it. No matter how much he tried to avoid the matter, however, he was only delaying the inevitable. The barbarians were a looming threat that had recently begun to move again.

"Get me a basin so I can wash my face. And bring those two to my study!"

He ought to freshen himself up to understand the possible attack thoroughly. Tarkel and Doboff soon made their way to the study. After greeting Lorist, Tarkel reported his experiences before he sent out the emergency message.

The matter was first discovered by Major Doboff. According to him, the barbarians would be most active during autumn. It was also when their trade with Twinmount Town would be most frequent. But, when Doboff inspected the trade market, he realized something weird was going on. The barbarians that had come didn't bargain at all. They were willing to complete the trade even if it meant taking a loss, and they purchased mostly metal tools and weapons.

This odd behavior peaked his interest and roused his caution. While it wasn't uncommon for barbarian traders to incur losses, those who'd come to town in recent times were sly and cunning. The number of merchants that got scammed was also increasing. Those who treated the barbarian traders as uncivilized fools often ended up suffering losses. But this time around, the barbarian traders were unusually agreeable and didn't mind taking losses if it meant being able to purchase even more metalware and weapons. It was weird, considering that they'd mostly bought daily necessities in the past.

Doboff secretly sought out an old barbarian that Doboff had rescued once. When the barbarian first arrived at the town, he bumped into a tough mercenary whose eye caught onto the piece of fine white leopard skin the barbarian'd brought to sell. He insisted on trading a cruddy old sword for it and even boasted that the sword was a precious weapon. However, it broke apart the moment the old barbarian knocked against it with his dagger, so he refused the trade 'offer'. It resulted in the mercenary blaming him for breaking his precious weapon and beating him until he spat out blood.

Doboff happened to pass by at that moment. He rescued the old barbarian, got a hold on the situation, and punished the mercenary. He became good friends with the barbarian and had frequent interactions with him. Sometimes, the man even brought precious herbs as gifts for the mayor during his visits to his home. Given their relationship, Doboff trusted his information he got from him on occasion.

He revealed that the last year's Kubawessen festival, held only once every twelve years, the barbarians celebrated the birth of Mountain God Kubawessen and would have all sorts of activities to commemorate their deity. For example, they would have one sacrificial rite monthly where they sacrificed large numbers of livestock to the mountain god. All the chieftains would also participate. Most \hailed from the larger tribes, with the chieftains being mostly Jambassens from other territories across Magical Dragon. The Jambassens were similar to landed nobles.

The largest tribe neighboring the Norton dominion was called the Habibaba. Their chief was a Great Jambassen, roughly equivalent to a duke, with more than 20 tribes under his control. In the past, Habibaba had always been struggling for the title of Great Jambassen with another large barbarian tribe. But in the recent Bywessi Conference, they yielded to Habibaba and their chieftain's wish came true. He was finally made a Great Jambassen. After the conference, the Great Jambassen decided he would show the flatlanders what the mountain barbarians were made of. It was highly probable the barbarian horde would start their invasion next year, hence the majority of products traded for being metalware. They wanted to caste them into arrowheads and weapons.

The old barbarian advised Doboff to leave Twinmount Town so he wouldn't be in the way of the invasion. The army mobilized this time would number up to a hundred thousand. Upon hearing of how developed the Norton dominion was from his subordinates, the Great Jambassen soon turned the focus of his campaign there. It was said some traveling merchants were also bribed to be their informants and guides.

The moment Doboff learned of this, he made a report to the house. Tarkel was the one who personally went to verify it's veracity. Some mountain barbarians were bribed with luxuries and meals and gave similar reports.

At the end of the 11th month, the old barbarian made his last visit and told Doboff that a group of grassland barbarians came to request the Great Jambassen form a grand army and set out for the dominion. They claimed the land was almost completely undefended. The old barbarian didn't know whether the Great Jambassen accepted the proposal and set out for Twinmount Town because he was worried about Doboff's safety and wanted to advise him to leave.

As Lorist had expected, the barbarians didn't launch their invasion when winter was so near. Even if the Great Jambassen accepted the proposal, there was no way it could be achieved given that they couldn't leave their shelters without cold-resistant clothing. If there was a snowstorm, loads might die without even a fight. He estimated the soonest they would descend would be during the 4th month after the rainy season.

A barbarian army of 100 thousand, huh, thought Lorist with a cold smile.

Currently, the forces of the Norton house wasn't like it had been back during the days of Lorist's father, when a few hundred barbarians were all it took to plunder the house's livestock and scour about without worry. House Norton was a huge entity, one that rivaled even a kingdom. Both their advanced siege weaponry and military gear were far beyond the barbarians. Even another 100 thousand wouldn't be much trouble.

"Your Grace, I have a map of a gold mine," said Doboff as he stood up and carefully took out an old an torn beastskin and placed it on Lorist's table.

Tarkel looked surprised. It was obvious he hadn't anticipated something like this transpiring. It seemed he wasn't aware that Doboff possessed such a map.

"Actually, I wasn't the one to discover it, nor does it have an owner," Doboff explained, "Two years ago, an old mercenary got shot with a poisoned arrow. I discovered him unconscious on the ground when I was out hunting. It was a shame he was beyond saving. He handed me the map as he breathed his last breath. During the past two years, I surveyed the area carefully and found the mine, deep within the Black Forests. There's a small hill near a riverbank where the mine is. However, the area is inhabited by roughly 30 thousand barbarians.

"Your Grace, to be honest, I've thought of monopolizing the mine by keeping its existence secret. However, I realized I have no way of dealing with the tribes, so I can only give you this map."

Lorist appreciated Doboff's frankness greatly. He recalled the riders that he encountered when he was on the way to Firmrock Castle from Maplewoods Bastide back then. That time, Josk showed off his divine archery skills and made them discard their shot comrades and retreat into the forest. When they went to investigate the bodies, they found they were carrying sacks of gold grains. Lorist had suspected the barbarians controlled a gold mine, and it seemed he was right. The mine Doboff mentioned could possibly be the one the riders controlled.

"Thank you, Mayor Doboff. Your contributions will be remembered. We will not mistreat our loyal subjects. We thank you for your efforts," said Lorist as he stood up.

"You're welcome. It is my pleasure to be of service to the house," replied Doboff a little hastily, surprised.

"Tarkel let Mayor Doboff rest in the castle for a few days. When Tigersoar arrives, we will hold a meeting to discuss how we should deal with the barbarian army. We will have to trouble the mayor to brief us on the situation as well. Let's leave it at that."

"Understood, Your Grace," said Tarkel as he stood up.

"Thank you. I will be more than happy to help the house out," said Doboff.

Chapter 389 Barbarians and Gold Mine

"We Nortons know a sickness of the heart only gold can cure." ~ Charade

On the 23rd day of the 2nd month in the meeting room on the second floor of Firmrock Castle, Lorist tapped on the map of the dominion on the wall with a wooden pointer.

"I'm sure you've all heard what Mayor Doboff had to say about the barbarian tribes, right? A hundred thousand barbarian soldiers can't compare to even just one of Duke Fisablen's frontier legions' strength. In terms of organization and equipment, our forces' greatly surpass theirs. I ignored them until now because they haven't caused trouble before and I didn't want to bother playing hide and seek in the forests.

"But now they've come with an army of 100 thousand. They consider us no different from the scattered nobles of past Northlands. They really think that 100 thousand soldiers will let them walk unhindered through The Northlands. In actuality, they're no different from a dish served to our doorstep. Like a fresh fish sent for us to butcher. We ought to polish our blades and think of where we should cut first."

The household knights laughed at how Lorist described the whole situation.

When they'd quieted down, he continued, "I never really considered them a threat. Not because of ignorance, because I understand them far too well. Even if they have another 100 thousand, they still won't be a threat.

"They'll have a hard time coming for us from the 500 kilometer stretch starting from Azure River to the eastern part of The Northlands, all the way to the part of Magical Dragon Mountain Range that border the dominion. But, according to historical records, only two areas were really harmed by their pillaging: our dominion and the eastern Northlands. These two areas are where their raids are most rampant. They are also the most developed areas.

"Ever since House Kenmays took control of the eastern area, their approach to dealing with the barbarians has been carrot and stick. They set up a trading post and began doing business with them. Through trading fairly according to market price, they managed to obtain various specialties in exchange for other useful daily necessities. As a result, the barbarians were able to get their hands on what they needed and wanted without resorting to pillaging. They also divided them to incite inner conflict between the tribes through trade relations. This way they could ensure they wouldn't unite.

"As for the barbarian tribes that only cared for pillaging, House Kenmays hired other tribes to attack them. They offered high rewards according to how well the employed barbarian fighters performed and also occasionally mobilized their household forces to deal an even harsher blow to the incessant raiders. By exterminating them or driving them far away from the eastern area, the raiders were no longer a threat. Within five or six years, the eastern part of The Northlands no longer had to suffer pillages. The border was completely peaceful.

"The facts show that House Kenmays's policy is really effective. Currently, the barbarians' herbs and specialties are a large part of the salt merchant committee's business. I really can't help but admire House Kenmays' head for his wit and farsight. As expected of one who hails from a merchant family.

"However, we can't mimic their methods. We're running out of time. The barbarian army will soon arrive. While we did have the opportunity to do so in the past, we didn't set our sights on them. Back then, our forces were far too busy with things going on in the west.

"Mayor Doboff just briefed us on a tribe called Habibaba which rules the territory near our dominion. Habibaba is a tribe with roughly 300 thousand members. The chief is the Great Jambassen, akin to a duke. He also commands over 20 vassal tribes. Given their tradition of conscripting all their tribesmen as warriors, it's no ruse that they can mobilize 100 thousand.

"Even though there is also word of the army's intentions to raid the eastern area, it's all based on the testimonies of the barbarians that come here to trade. They spread it around like some kind of folktale. The area they'd have to go through to attack the east isn't under Habibaba's control and the tribes there haven't answered the call. This alone makes me confident they won't target the eastern area. While we still have to keep our guard up, there's no need to be too anxious.

"In the area between the eastern Northlands and Firmrock Castle is the fully developed settlement, Redriver. It's separated by hundreds of kilometers and the Black Forest from the mountain range, which serves as a natural barrier, there's no way the barbarian's will attack through there unless they're willing to spend two or three months paving a way through the forest. This is why Redriver wasn't invaded in the past, and why it won't be now.

"Our house has also developed part of Blackmud Marsh near our dominion. We have a wall from Tortoise Hill to Hidebull Mound where the 3rd and 4th local defense brigades are. Twinmount Town is right in front of that line, and that's where it'll be the easiest for them to invade. They used that very spot to enter the dominion in the past as well. Now that we have completed our defenses there, we can be confident in keeping them out.

"If their army is blocked here, they'll look for another location to break through. The area between Hidebull Mound and Firmrock Castle is separated by the Black Forest, which is roughly 50 kilometers wide. However, that part of the forest isn't where the swamp intersects, so it's the mostly likely place to go through. It'll be Tigersoar's hunting ground. All the mountain barbarians coming through there are your prey. I don't want to hear about any barbarians making their way to the villages or towns."

Fiercetiger Loze stood up and clutched his chest.

"Your Grace, Tigersoar will not disappoint you. We promise to not let even one escape."

Lorist nodded and gestured for him to sit.

"I trust you and Tigersoar's abilities. I'll leave this to you. As for Terman's Ragebear Knights, you will be transferred to Tortoise Hill fort to hold them there. The moment you see their forces split, attacks them from the fort. Strike all the way along Azure River until you circle to the rear pathway where they came from. From there, launch a pincer attack to crush them completely."

"Understood, Your Grace," said Terman as he stood up and accepted the order.

Lorist pointed the stick at the eastern Northlands.

"I've already ordered Waxima to temporarily serve as Jaeger's division leader. This time around, they suffered huge casualties because of the ambushes. However, the remaining soldiers are still enough to form a division. We will station them in the eastern part of The Northlands as a contingency. As for the villages of Felicitas, Salus, and Redriver, have them enter combat level two after the harvest. Make sure they're on guard when they start sowing seeds for spring. Also, form garrison regiments that can be sent to reinforce the frontlines at any time. Baron Charade, you are in charge of this."

Charade stood up.

"Your will be done, Your Grace."

"Next, we have a piece of good news," Lorist said as he tapped on the map, "Over here."

Lorist pointed at the part of Black Forest between Hidebull Fort and Firmrock Castle. He dipped a goose feather into some ink and drew a red circle around the area. "This is the hilly part of the forest. There's also a large riverbank there roughly 20 kilometers away from Firmrock. According to Mayor Doboff's surveys, there is sure to be a gold mine. He reported his findings not long ago.

"However, it's inhabited by 30 thousand barbarians. They're a tribe called Warisingk, one of Habibaba's vassals. Our true focus this time shouldn't be defeating the 100-thousand-strong barbarian army, but, instead, occupying these hills and taking the gold mine.

"Let me first remind all of you that in this conflict, performance is not measured by the ratio of kills to deaths. Instead, what we want is for as many of them to be taken captive as possible. Why do we want that? Simple: the house is extremely lacking in manpower. The 20-odd thousand captives that surrendered after we took Madras have already served two years. This year is their third and they'll regain freedom the next year. The transportation and irrigation routes in Delamock have also been greatly overhauled thanks to the hard work of these captives and they will be working on the final phase of development for the rest of the year.

"However, we just defeated House Fisablen and obtained two provinces. Winston and Southern are in need of development. It's rather barren and there will be lots of development projects that require lots of manpower. While we have more than 100 thousand captive soldiers, a good number of them are injured, far from enough are left to develop the two provinces.

"The whole region is now under Norton control. It's imperative we restructure the transportation facilities to increase the region's productivity. We need lots of free labor. Even if we conquer the gold mine, we will need laborers. Since there's an army of 100 thousand coming our way, I hope we can capture at least 60 thousand youths to contribute to the development of our dominion."

Tigersoar's carroballista division leader and Gold-ranked Knight Dulles stood up.

"Your Grace, do the barbarians we capture this time get freed after three years of labor as well?"

Lorist shook his head.

"They're not soldiers belonging to the former empire. They are different from us. These barbarians will serve eight to ten years until they assimilate our way of life. When they agree to be our subjects, they will regain their freedom. Otherwise, let them work as laborers for the rest of their lives."

Dulles breathed a sigh of relief.

"I can finally stop worrying. If you said they would be free after three years of work, where would we find free labor after that?!"

The rest broke into laughter. Tigerloze stood up again.

"Your Grace, is Tigersoar put in charge of securing the gold mine?"

"No, you will only play a supportive role.

" Lorist said as he pointed to Reidy.

"Originally, I had planned to have Els and Reidy take over Jaeger, but, due to the matter of this gold mine, I've decided to let them take over the two guard brigades as the main force for the operation. At the same time, I have also transferred the 7th and 18th local defense brigades over to take charge of the defenses at the gold mine after we conquer it.

"Tigersoar lost almost a division after the huge battle in Southern. They'll have to wipe out the mountain barbarians that come out from that part of the Black Forest. As for the hills around the gold mine, I will leave it to Els and Reidy's guard brigades."

"Understood, Your Grace," said Loze as he sat back down.

"Even though I want you guys to catch as many captives as you can, but don't take any risks. A hundred thousand mountain barbarians aren't scary. We can definitely defeat them. But what we have to watch out for is that each of those mountain barbarian warriors is tough and courageous. They will fight to the end even when the odds are stacked against them, given how they glorify death on the battlefield. In the same vein, I hope that you guys don't put our household soldiers in danger in trying to catch those captives.

"The easiest way to deal with these barbarian warriors is to take out their braves. Fight them one on one and make them lose their morale and their will to fight to the death. Mountain barbarian warriors have always worshipped strength and they believe that one-on-one duels are sacred. They will definitely not do anything underhanded to interfere with a duel. That is a trait we can make use of. After encircling the enemy, challenge their representative to a duel. If we win, they surrender, and if we lose, we release them. Only through doing so will those mountain barbarian warriors obediently surrender themselves to become our captives.

"That's the gist of our strategy in dealing with the barbarian invasion. If there's anything that we need to change later, I will make sure to notify all of you. It is now the second month and I estimate that the barbarian army will descend from the mountains around the 5th month. There's still roughly three months' time. The rainy season will follow after winter and we have to harvest the winter wheat and plant the spring crop following the rainy season. So, we must use what little time we have to train an reorganize. If you guys need anything, report to Baron Charade. He will be in charge of the logistics in this operation to resist the barbarian army."

After Lorist concluded his announcement, the meeting adjourned. Everyone returned to their own posts to begin preparation. Lorist, on the other hand, brought a regiment of guards and headed to the eastern Northlands. He wanted to visit Josk and Yuriy, the two commanders of the defeated Jaeger Legion who were recovering from their injuries.

Chapter 390 Jaeger's Consolidation

The snow began to melt during the second month. Both large routes and small paths from Firmrock Castle to the eastern Northlands were muddy and hard to travel on. That was also why Lorist wished to redo The Northlands' whole transportation infrastructure. At the very least, the roads had to be usable, unlike the current mud-rivers they were. This was how most roads on the entire continent were. A merchant's most important tool, a tool he had to have with him at all times, was a spade. A spade so he could fill up the holes in the road on the fly to keep his convoy moving.

House Kenmays hadn't scrambled to build a massive city when they took control of the eastern part of the Northlands, there were currently still just two relatively prosperous towns there. One was Singe, on the border with Magical Dragon Mountain Range, where the barbarians traded. It was filled with taverns, whose customers were exactly these barbarians. You could even see drunk barbarians snoring away on the sides of roads at times during the night.

The other was Whiterock. It used to be a small village, named after a huge white rock near the town. It had caught its new lords' attention because it was the area's settlement nearest the suspension bridge to over the border river between it and Wild Husbandry. It was made the salt merchant committee's headquarters and expanded with several dozen warehouses, carriages garages, and lodgings for the committee's employees. The village soon grew into a proper town.

When their dominion was moved, House Kenmays moved to Sidgler and took more than 200 thousand citizens with them. A small number of Sigler citizens were relocated to this part of the Northlands. There were less than 50 thousand. This was mostly because most of those moved to the Northlands were moved into the three new settlements in the southern Northlands. The place was reasonably developed already, it just lacked population.

While House Kenmays took many citizens with them when they left, they left the traders that dealt with the barbarians and also those that maintained the warehouses in Whiterock Town. It was actually a request made in the name of the salt merchant committee. Given that the Nortons had a stake in the committee as well, they would receive quite a bit of profit from their operations, so they agreed quickly.

Jaeger's main camp was currently there. When they received word of Lorist's visit, Waxima, the legion's temporary commander, rushed out of the camp to receive him. He'd taken half a year to recover from his failed attempt at breaking through to the gold rank two years already and was currently once again at the peak of three-star silver-rank. He was likely to make his next attempt soon.

Lorist had contemplated a long time before letting Waxima take charge of cleaning up the mess that was Jaeger. He'd always been a loyal, courageous, and responsible knight. While he wasn't much of a talker, he was sincere, accountable, and frequently demonstrated his worth with his actions. Given that Jaeger had suffered a huge defeat and their morale was low, they needed a knight like Waxima to slowly build themselves back up.

And he'd not let Lorist down. Even though he hadn't been in the position for a whole month yet, Lorist noticed the camp was incredibly orderly and clean, everything was in order. The men carried out their various duties efficiently. No one looked down or depressed; on the contrary, everyone seemed polite and energetic. They had a very hopeful atmosphere about them.

Lorist did notice something out of place, though. Everyone wore a single non-uniform-code-abiding item, a single white feather.

"The feathers are to remind everyone of the brothers they lost, to remind everyone of the humiliation they were put through. The feathers must be stained red with the blood of our enemies to wipe this shame away. It is also to honor the sacrifices of their fallen comrades that has given them a chance to take revenge sometime in the future. These martyrs are worthy of being remembered for their sacrifice, and their valor," Waxima explained when Lorist inquired.

Lorist nodded.

"You're right. But I don't think Jaeger suffered a huge loss. Three of our divisions faced off against 100 thousand grassland barbarian cavalrymen. It wasn't just any confrontation either, they were part of a far bigger, organized offensive. Yes, the casualties were great, but Jaeger should be proud of their performance in spite of these odds."

"A loss is a loss no matter how you sugarcoat it, Your Grace. Jaeger was defeated because it was too careless. They thought they could roam Wild Husbandry unhindered and neglected to survey the area properly. Even after they discovered some barbarian scouts, they thought they were only a small cavalry unit and proceeded to attack. That was why they fell for the ambush. Commander Yuriy who set out to reinforce them didn't first try to find out why they'd been put in such dire straits first, he just charged in blindly.

"I questioned the surviving soldiers and have written a detailed report. I'm not trying to pin the fault on anyone. I just want this valuable lesson to be learned and remembered so our men don't make this mistake again. Jaeger became arrogant with their power and lowered their guard, they underestimated their enemy, which gave them the chance to catch the legion off guard. Had they stayed vigilant, had they stuck to procedure, they wouldn't have been caught as they were."

Lorist was rendered speechless. He understood Waxima wasn't trying to make him look bad, though; he was just stating the facts as they were. He appreciated his frankness even more.

He responded after a moment of silence.

"Apologies, I was wrong. Your words ring true. A failure is a failure. We shouldn't try to underplay it just because we had to sacrifice many of our men. However, I'd like to know why the scouts weren't sent out when the third division was out on a mission."

"Well, according to third division's men we managed to rescue, division leader Pete was worried the scouts wouldn't be enough to take the unit on. He thought it would lead to unnecessary casualties. He only sent the scouts out as far as they could be covered by the carroballista.

"Sir Pete died on the battlefield. I am unfit to judge whether his decisions were correct, but I believe he didn't realize there were 100 thousand enemies waiting for them. He just wanted to keep the men safe. Third Division was newly formed at the time, and heading out to Wild Husbandry was supposed to be training for them. He had to think carefully about pitting greenhorns against barbarian cavalry.

"Taking into account that Third Division brought two carroballista brigades, it's obvious he believed the small group of enemies weren't anything to be afraid of. They couldn't stand against his men. So, he only sent the scouts around three hundred meters ahead so they would still be protected by the carroballistae. That's how they were eventually encircled."

Waxima's theory sounded rather reasonable but Pete had died so there was no way to hold anyone accountable. He just had to accept the explanation without comment and continue surveying the campsite.

Dinner was held in the mess hall. Lorist dressed like all the other soldiers and dined together with them. Those that dined with him were so elated and excited they almost forgot to eat. He chatted with them and asked about their families. He didn't forget to motivate them and tell them how much the house was prioritizing the legion's reconstruction either. He hoped they would stand strong again soon and wash their humiliation away.

During the night, he visited Josk and Yuriy, who were still recovering from their injuries. The herbalist in charge informed him that, while Josk's injuries were rather severe, he was recovering quite well… mainly because he had a great constitution. There was also the fact that he was rescued right after he was injured, unlike Yuriy, who continued to fight maniacally despite his injuries. By the time he was rescued, he was already at his last breath, unconscious and injured all over, with his flesh flayed and bones chipped. A couple of his battleforce circulating major nodes had also been destroyed; he was no different from a disabled person. He required help from consumption to excretion. The herbalist estimated it would take at least three or four months for his normal bodily functions to recover, and another one or two years of training before he would return to the gold rank.

Josk was already well enough to sit up.

"That damned duke set me up," he grunted, bitterly, "Even though a marksman like me can shoot enemies from a distance, I didn't think the duke would disguise himself as a normal soldier and launch a surprise attack from in their midst. I was busy looking for the leader to snipe and left the normal barbarians to the guards.

"In the end, that bastard jumped out of nowhere. Anyone who blocked his way was killed. He quickly approached me. I knew something was off when I recognized him. I fired a dozen arrows, but he blocked them all, before I turned and rode away. The duke knew he couldn't give chase, so he threw his longsword at me. Fortunately, a guard blocked it. It still pierced through him and bit into me. I fell with him. The ground shoved the damned thing right through me. I nearly fainted.

"The bastard caught up pretty quickly. A few dozen men took up positions between us to try and protect me. It was too chaotic and I lost the sword somewhere along the way. I only heard what happened to the guys that stood between us after we'd already gotten pretty far away from the battlefield."

"What happened?"

"Dead, they're all dead…"

Josk's physical condition was good. He'd only injured his sternum and lungs and was recovering rather well. He would be right as rain in a few months. At one point during their conversation, he even proclaimed -- basically shouted -- that he would lead Jaeger back into Wild Husbandry one day and slaughter everyone who'd taken part in the attack. Seeing that he was still that spirited, Lorist stopped worrying about him.

Yuriy, however, laid in his bed like a dead man. Despite his necrotic disposition, he was alive and conscious. Tears poured out of his eyes when he saw Lorist. The latter held his hand by the bed and accompanied him for a long time. He told Yuriy there was no rush and he should prioritize recovering from his injuries first. Now that the house had forced House Fisablen back to their own dominion, and cut them off from the outside world, the duke could struggle all he wanted, but he wouldn't be standing up again anytime soon.

When Yuriy recovers, Jaeger would've been rebuilt and retrained. According to Lorist, he would accompany Yuriy to the great northeastern plains and sweep it clear of the barbarians before going to make trouble for House Fisablen. They would test themselves against Frontier to see which was the better light cavalry unit.

Lorist stayed in the camp for half a month before he returned to Firmrock Castle. Before he left, he instructed Waxima to make preparations to defend against the mountain barbarians' invasion. Though the eastern part of the Northlands probably wouldn't be attacked, it couldn't hurt them to be prepared, just in case.

Two days after he returned to the castle, the rainy season began.

After a few days of consideration, he called for Charade and Spiel.

"I'm going to reorganize the local defense legion. It will be made three legions with slightly smaller numbers. There's no need for each to have 75 thousand men, Currently, apart from The Northlands, our house also controls Delamock and Winston. Windbury and Pedro, both strategic cities in Winston, are a little short on defenses. They can't just have three sound strong brigades guarding them. The moment they are attacked, we might lose them and our house will suffer immensely for it."

Lorist took out the plan he had spent a lot of time coming up with.

Charade praised the reorganization from a strategic perspective.

"Your Grace, as the dominion's main defense force, the might of the local defense legion is indeed a little lacking. Even though it numbers 75 thousand, the dominion and influence of the house have expanded and many other places will have to be defended. The local defense legion can't handle the load.

"Even though the Northlands is the province with the largest area in the old empire, almost thrice Delamock, we only have 30 thousand men, ten brigades, stationed here. Even though each village or town has its own garrison, we still have to mobilize Tigersoar and Ragebear Knights to make sure we're safe. There's no way we can rely on the local defense legion alone to hold off the barbarians.

"If our household forces' field legions are all on excursions, what can we do in the event of another major barbarian invasion? Your Grace should increase the size of the local defense legion. From a strategic view, it needs to have at least enough power to hold off and defend against large-scale barbarian invasions like this independently."

However, Spiel, the one in charge of the household finances, expressed his objections.

"Your Grace, two-thirds of the household's budget is spent on the military! It's already going too far!"

Chapter 391 Persuasion

Spiel objected to Lorist's plan. He brought out a large list that detailed the scale the house's military and its huge yearly expenses.

So far, House Norton had five legions in total. Firmrock, with 60 thousand men, Tigersoar, with 60 thousand, the reformed Jaeger, with 60 thousand, the 75 thousand of the local defense legion, and the 55 thousand of Oceanic Legion. In total, the forces numbered 310 thousand.

At the same time, there were the 15 thousand from Ragebear Knights, the three thousand from Lorist's personal guard, and another three thousand from the guard sent out to carry out top secret missions. Lorist's personal guard was basically two brigades. The total number of men would be 331 thousand people. They were all the soldiers that enjoyed tier one benefits, with their total salary alone amounting to 1.3 million.

The house had another ten police brigades in charge of guarding warehouses, prisons, factories and other household properties and serve as supply convoy escorts. There were also the garrison units of the various towns and villages that totaled around 40 thousand men. Even though they were tier two forces, their salary and other benefits were still worth 200 thousand annually.

"Your Grace, the total number of men we have exceed 400 thousand. The entire population of The Northlands is just 1.6 million. Even if we include Delamock and Winston and the citizens of our vassals, it's still only 2.3 to 2.4 million. Having a citizen-to-soldier ratio of five to one is incredibly dangerous. As if the burden of having such a military is not enough, our house has been involved in war consistently for the last two years and the military budget has grown immensely. If not for the 30 million gold Fordes plundered from Hanayabarta, The house would've gone bankrupt long ago."

Spiel looked rather emotional.

"Your Grace, that was only an estimate. If we include the expenses of Furybear in setting up a patrol unit in every town, and the pension paid out to the dead or injured soldiers, the total annual amount would exceed two million. It doesn't include the expenses incurred in replacing broken equipment and dead warhorses as well as lodging, clothing, food, medicine, and other necessities.

"We spent four million just last year. Forming Jaeger alone cost us a million, and conquering Iblia another three million. Even though by occupying Windbury, we obtained near two million gold Fordes, our expenses are still double our income! While the house has about ten million gold Fordes stored, if we continue like this, we won't even last three years! The house will collapse!

"I'm not exaggerating this at all, Your Grace. At first, I was thinking of telling you to cut the budget by half after we deal with the invasion. The number of soldiers our house employs rival that of the imperial family of the Krissen Empire! They could have so many forces because they controlled the entire empire. We only control three provinces. One legion is already enough to defend each. If war breaks out, we can emulate the imperial family and have our vassals conscript soldiers to mitigate our costs."

Lorist laughed bitterly when he considered the appalling difference in mentality. If Lorist acted like the former Duke of The Northlands, Loggins, he could've lived out the rest of his life in comfort and luxury, given the house's current standing. However, it was currently a raft traveling upstream. If it didn't progress, it would regress. The hidden threat the second highness posed, the longevity of the alliance, and the pressure of the countless knights jumping for a chance to contribute forced him to walk down the road of expansion.

Spiel wasn't wrong in that only one legion was needed per province. However, if the house wanted to expand, it had to possess a spear and a shield; Firmrock, Tigersoar, Jaeger, and Oceanic were the spear, while they only had the local defense forces as the shield. There was no way Lorist would give up his spear for a bigger shield. He would be wasting his previous efforts. House Norton would be constantly barraged with attacks until it lost all the power it currently had.

Spiel didn't have any ill intentions. He was one of the house's most loyal elders. Otherwise, Lorist wouldn't have allowed him to hold so much power as the chief finance-officer that managed all of the house's finances. However, as Spiel paid too much attention to its spending, he wasn't aware of the situation the house currently faced. While it seemed to be a rising star, with Madras's and Iblia's conquests under its name, and its widespread fame following the successful suppression of Duke Fisablen, dangers still lurked beneath every syllable of the song of victory being sung.

Needless to say, Lorist had made Duke Fisablen fall into endless despair. It was like he gave the wake-up 'kick' to his dreams of monopolizing the eastern part of The Northlands. With but a slap, Lorist had sent the duke falling down from his pedestal, with his troops ruined and him losing his chance of coming back strong. All he could do was lick his wounds in his own dominion. However, Lorist didn't dare to let his guard down. It was obvious that House Fisablen would become the house's worst enemy in the east, one deathly resilient as well. Lorist had to be on constant guard.

While Lorist was an Andinaq, being the Duke of The Northlands and having the impressive achievement of conquering Iblia, Lorist knew better than anyone that the second highness to the west was not one to sit quietly and watch that unfold. The greater Lorist's contributions, the greater the second highness's doubt of his house. The second highness might have been quiet during the last year, and hadn't incited any conflict with the four duchies or the Union, but Lorist didn't think he was up to nothing. Given that he had conspired with Kenmays to make the second highness incur a huge loss through the contract, he was definitely scheming to get back at Lorist.

Right now, House Norton's impressive military was what prevented him from acting rashly. If they crippled their own forces, the second highness would be the happiest person. He could launch one attack after another against the house by rallying more troops, slowly overwhelming Lorist.

The legions can't go. At the very least, their current numbers have to be maintained.

Regardless, convincing Spiel that was the case was not going to be easy.

Looking at the list of legions, and their units and scale, and thinking back at the cost, He couldn't help but feel the supervisor's criticisms were valid. Having a citizen-to-soldier ratio of five to one was egregious. Most other nations that reached that point were biting off more than they could chew and weren't far from collapse.

Lorist stroked his chin and thought frustratedly, Why do I feel like I don't have enough soldiers even though we already have over 400 thousand?

He recalled a very famous saying on the web in his previous life.

Hmm, it must be a qualitative problem. What, then, is wrong with the house's forces?

Charade's laughter entered Lorist's ears.

"Hehe, Supervisor Spiel, your citizen-to-soldier ratio is mistaken. Instead of five to one, it is actually 20 plus to 1. We're definitely capable of having more soldiers than we do now."

Spiel flipped out in rage and flailed about as he stood up.

"Ridiculous! The figure isn't wrong, neither is the population count of The Northlands! Also, our military spending doesn't lie either! Strictly speaking, the ratio is four to one! Not five!"

"Please sit back down and calm yourself, Supervisor Spiel," Charade said calmly, "I wasn't suspecting the figures. I was just pointing out that the citizen-to-soldier ratio is mistaken. We shouldn't take the total number of soldiers and divide it by the population of the dominion. If the ratio was really as you said, then our dominion would have collapsed long ago. It wouldn't look prosperous and developed like it is now. Actually, you forgot two important things.

"The first is that our household has only launched a recruitment drive for the forces three times. The first was when we were recruiting marines for Oceanic -- I believe we got 20 thousand men -- rest of the 55 thousand were made up of mostly rescued slaves and pirates. The second time was when we were forming the wheelbarrow-ballista division, which saw 15 thousand people sign up. The third was carried out last year during Jaeger's formation. We recruited around 27 thousand soldiers and mixed them with 20 thousand veterans from other legions. Even though Jaeger's troops should number 60 thousand, the ranks were never filled. Only three of the divisions were successfully formed.

"In essence, we have only recruited a little under 80 thousand men from the dominion. Compared to the population of 1.6 million, the actual ratio is less than 20 to 1. Not only that, the space available in our legions is limited, resulting in many able-bodied youths being unable to join the ranks, having no other choice to join the garrisons. The youths serving in the patrol units across The Northlands frequently complain about how they're unable to join our forces despite their desire to.

"The second point you've forgotten is the origins of the soldiers that make up most of our forces. They weren't our subjects when they joined. Instead, they were mostly captives or rescued slaves. To be precise, they are serving as work-for-hire, hence the high military expenditure. The formation of Firmrock and Tigersoar was a result of the captives we got with the defeat of Duke Loggins and the second prince. These captives served our house for three years and obtained freedom. To avoid them having no other place to go and wandering around aimlessly, we recruited them.

"The formation of the local defense legion was a direct result of the 200 thousand slaves we liberated. As our dominion wasn't able to integrate such a huge workforce in a short time, we formed the legions to limit the chaos the slaves could cause. Not only did the formation of these legions not involve our youths, they're comprised mostly of captives and former slaves, who helped the dominion's population grow. The family members of these soldiers also moved to our dominion because of them serving in our military.

"Supervisor Spiel, I don't deny our military spending is high. But it's because of this kind of treatment and arrangement that our forces hold superior combat ability and are unstoppable on the battlefield. They are also incredibly loyal. Take, for example, the serious defeat of Jaeger at Wild Husbandry. Even though they were in an incredibly hopeless situation, the men still continued to fight. While we lost 30 thousand, the enemy suffered more than us. Following their defeat at the hands of the 23rd local defense brigade at Pedro, their morale dropped quickly and they soon lost the will to fight.

"Without our household forces, House Norton wouldn't have achieved these heights. It was precisely thanks to our forces that we were able to exterminate Hanayabarta and obtain so much wealth. Now that Delamock and Winston have been added to our dominion, our sphere of influence has greatly expanded even though we didn't obtain many resources. We are now the sole hegemons of The Northlands, and this will bring bright prospects in the near future.

"This time around, His Grace's plan to reorganize and expand the local defense legion isn't without good reason. It is intended to keep Delamock and Winston in our hands. Also, His Grace isn't planning to recruit soldiers from the dominion. Instead, he has his sights on the 100 plus thousand ex-Madras soldiers. Even though our military spending will increase by a bit more, we can integrate Madras's former forces into the house and better control unstable variables. It is extremely beneficial to us.

"I've always thought of having the captives of our house join our forces officially after serving their term. Not only would it increase their solidarity after serving in the forces with our own men, it would also make their families become our subjects willingly. While the military costs would stay high for a little longer, the house's income will increase as well. After all, we obtained two additional provinces. The local defense forces' expansion won't be a huge burden in the long run."

As the house's chief administrator, Charade understood it's situation exceedingly well. His arguments were so well-formulated that Spiel couldn't pick at any shortcomings. Everything Charade'd said was fact.

After some thought, Spiel found that Charade made a lot of sense. The house has always expanded its military through the captives first without affecting the development of the dominion. In that sense, Spiel's citizen-to-soldier ratio of five to one was inaccurate as the soldiers that were recruited into the force weren't subjects of the house in the first place. In fact, if the captives were allowed to do as they pleased after they obtained freedom, huge problems would easily arise. At the very least, the internal security expenditure of the house would increase. The free captives who were used to fighting and skilled at wielding weapons could easily be driven to the path of desperation for food and shelter. Recruiting them in the force would, therefore, be the better alternative.

"Very well, I agree to His Grace's plan to expand the local defense legion," said Spiel without objection, knowing when to step back when he was mistaken.

Lorist was elated that he no longer had to waste so much energy trying to convince Spiel. Charade really outdid himself this time.

Chapter 392 Admitting Loss

"The real act of marriage takes place in the heart, not in the ballroom, church, or synagogue. It is a choice you make." ~ Norton Lorist

Within the great hall of Crouchtiger Castle in Eastwild, the young Seirya knelt on one knee on the floor with soundless cries. In front of him was the coffin of Third Frontier's Commander, Galini Beloput. After much trouble and effort, he'd finally completed the bumpy trip across the plains to Crouchtiger Castle just as the snow began melting. The grief from being forced to surrender to the enemy made him unable to face Duke Fisablen and the rest of his family.

The duke didn't look too surprised, nor did he flip out with rage. He just circled the coffin, step by step, before finally sighing. He stretched out his hand to touch Beloput's icy face and mumbled.

"I doomed you, old friend. If I had made the decision to retreat to the dominion, you wouldn't have died like this. It's because I was too greedy. Even though we were in this kind of predicament, I hoped we could use Boblige to bargain with our enemy. To think it resulted in your death and the whole legion's capture..."

A look of defeat finally surfaced on the duke's face. Everything had gone against his wishes. Ever since he left Boblige and returned to the dominion, he'd led the various barbarian tribes on military campaigns, first to reorganize the half-beaten Fourth Frontier in Wild Husbandry, then to ambush Jaeger, before finally leading the 100 thousand barbarian cavalrymen to attack Pedro.

Back then, the duke thought there was much he could do to turn the situation around. He didn't think, not even for a moment, that he could turn the loss into a victory, he just wanted to make sure the kingdom the enemy took was nothing more than a ruin. He had acted like a spoiled child with the mentality of 'if I can't have it, you can't either'. The reason he allowed the grassland barbarians to raid and pillage was so he could cause as much trouble as possible. Nobody was supposed to profit. It had been the only way he could make their enemy wary of the house and not push to exterminate them completely.

He didn't think the barbarians would actually be so spineless as to lose all their morale losing just 30 thousand men against a fort defended by just three thousand. The moment they saw the enemy reinforcements arrive, the dozen chieftains began thinking of retreating for winter.

That was the moment he knew he was beating a dead horse. He decided to go all the way with his other plan: gather all the tribes that had submitted to him and launch an attack on the strongest tribe, Korinubi, the night before the retreat. Caught off-guard, the great tribe suffered a disaster. He then led his barbarians to the plains to plunder the spoils from what remained of the tribe.

The situation was set in stone. Since House Fisablen would be trapped in their dominion, the great northeastern plains, he would give the strong tribes a makeover so they wouldn't cause trouble for the house in its weakened state. At the same time, he could make up for the house's losses by sucking the life out of the tribes. Since the troops he used were the other grassland barbarians, the house wouldn't lose anything. He just had to throw a bone to a dog to bite another dog to death.

At the end of the previous year, he'd been far too busy thinking of how to deal with the alliance after stabilizing the internal situation of the dominion. The great plains stretched far and wide and he was confident the four houses couldn't set foot in his dominion easily. All conflict would be limited to Wild Husbandry. As for the border between Southern and Eastwild, the four houses' forces were busy constructing defensive infrastructure, such as moats, to cut off traffic. He predicted the four houses would defend the south and attack from the east. They were gradually limiting the space he could roam free and survive.

That was why Boblige was so advantageous, he could both attack and defend from there. They could mobilize their troops from time to time to stir up unrest in Southern. Many times the number of troops were needed to defend against these raids. As long as they could drag the war on for long enough, the alliance would lose their grip on the resources drained and would be forced to the negotiating table. He could then bargain for better conditions to manage the damage the war would do to him.

He hadn't thought, however, that House Norton would deploy their troops in the middle of winter and take the huge risk in circling Eastwild to the rear of Boblige and conquering it. They'd forced Third Frontier to surrender without a fight, a fatal blow to the house. The duke didn't blame Commander Beloput for committing suicide to atone for his mistakes. He knew there was no way they could resist and not surrendering would result in a needless massacre.

"You shouldn't have killed yourself, old friend," murmured he with another long sigh.

He left the coffin after giving the cold face a final touch.

"Rise, Seirya. You've fulfilled your duties, you didn't let down the honor of Fisablen knight. Tell me about the time the duke of The Northlands met you. I want to know every word he said in detail and guess his intentions behind allowing you to do this. Did he really do so because he admired Commander Beloput's courage?" asked he as he raised his hand to have Seirya stand up.

Seirya wiped the tears from his weather-beaten face, stood up, and reported his meeting with Lorist completely. He tried hard to recall Lorist's exact words.

After a pause, Duke Fisablen waved weakly.

"Seirya, you must've been worn out. Go groom yourself and rest for a few days. I will take your contributions to heart. You're still young. You're the house's hope. Train hard and remember this trial. The house will require you young ones' service in the future."

"Understood. I will train hard to serve the house," promised Seirya emotionally before he left.

Tap, tap, tap. The duke knocked on his desk with the middle finger on his left hand in deep thought. He cracked a bitter smile. According to Seirya's recollection, Lorist was obviously sending him a message. 'House Fisablen's time is over. All that's left is for you to decide whether you'll admit your defeat.' If he submitted obediently, they would be spared. Otherwise, Lorist would stop at nothing to kill of every last one of them.

"Hmph, you ruthless and scheming brat... Forget making me submit! You shan't be allowed to mess with House Fisablen!" humphed the duke loudly with ragged breath.

He described Lorist the same way he would the duke. Even though each had never heard of the other's insult for them, they were mysteriously of the same mind at that moment. The only difference was that the duke called Lorist a brat instead of a sly old fox. Each considered the other his biggest rival.

However, Duke Fisablen knew staying angry would do nothing for him. His house was tough only on the surface at the moment. Third Frontier's surrender was not as huge as First Frontier's complete defeat. Theirs was the truly harmful scheme. The legion's soldiers fought to their deaths rather than submit. The legion was eradicated as a result. Given that the four houses didn't declare war beforehand, the house was caught completely off-guard.

Third Frontier, on the other hand, was forced to surrender. The house would have to take out a massive sum to ransom the knights and house members back. The duke believed Seirya that his relative and distant nephew, Woryo, was the cause of the legion's downfall. But there was no point to being angry at him. Having his own clansmen take up positions in the logistics of each legion was the elders' will. They believed only that would grant them a firm hand on the legions to ensure they would remain loyal.

Not all members of the house were loyal and wanted to serve it. For instance, the duke's second daughter, Iblia's queen, was intent on going against his will. The moment he thought about his daughter who had just made her way back to the dominion, he began to have a headache. He didn't think a queen would be inspired to start a brothel and ruin his reputation completely. Even now she was making her way to the greater and lesser golden creeks, thinking there was gold to mine there and that she would definitely get incredibly rich.

He slumped down in his chair in his study for a long time and thought about how he could deal with his current predicament. The house would probably have to suffer a huge humiliation in the coming days and endure their anger as they spent the next couple of years in their dominion. The four houses had cut the roads and paths that led out of their dominion and the house only had two legions' worth of men, around 100 thousand. Second Frontier was stationed at the golden creeks and Fourth Frontier in Wild Husbandry. There was also another 20-thousand-metal-armored garrison legion and his thousand personal guards stationed in Crouchtiger Castle.

While the house still had 120 thousand men, it would take most of them to defend its three provinces. Fortunately, when the duke was dealing with the threat of the grassland barbarians at the end of the previous year, he'd picked 20 thousand to form a new reserve legion as a tool to use against the barbarians in the future. That way, even if the remaining tribes united to attack the house, they would have a way to resist them. However, while it had enough troops to deal with the barbarians, it didn't have enough to take on the four houses.

Having ample for defense but not attack. That was the situation the house was in. Second Frontier couldn't be mobilized either as the golden creeks were one of the foundations of the house's revival. Many of the house's elders suggested its headquarters be moved to Goldcreek, but the duke considered the fact that it was a little too far from the central area of the former empire and decided against it.

"Have Sylvia come over," instructed he an attendant outside his study.

The one most hurt by the war no doubt Princess Sylvia. She had thrown a huge tantrum and tried a fast strike because of her desire to marry Lorist. But the poor princess didn't think that her paramour would actually attack her house without even declaring war and bring his allies to attack Iblia, making her grandfather escape haggardly back to the dominion after incurring huge losses.

When the war broke out in the 5th month of the previous year, First Frontier was completely lost, Windbury was conquered, and the moment the duke returned to Crouchtiger Castle, Sylvia's days became incredibly hard. Some people secretly cursed her for being a harbinger of misfortune after hearing about First Frontier's defeat and worrying about their relatives' well-being. They believed bad luck would be present wherever she showed up. The last time she traveled to The Northlands for a trip, the second prince was defeated by House Norton and a 100-thousand-strong army was wiped out. Now, when she wanted to marry into House Norton, it ended with them exterminating the whole kingdom.

When word of the four central duchies aiding Duke Fisablen spread, the ones who made the curses were delighted when they believed the four houses were going to be defeated. Some even told the princess up front that the Norton kid would soon be captured and made a serf. She wouldn't have to be married so far away and could see her lover in the dominion all the time.

But word of the coalition army's loss soon spread. It had been a complete smack on the face. The mocking and subtle cursing turned into full-fledged rebukes. Sylvia had lost quite an amount of weight from weathering the stress.

"Sylvia, you lost more weight. Are they still causing you trouble?" asked the duke warmly when he saw her.

"No, Grandfather. I'm used to it, I'm fine."

"I'm sorry, Sylvia. This isn't your fault, the war didn't break out because of you in the first place. House Fisablen wanted to rise to new heights and become the northeastern area's hegemons. That desire is also shared by the four houses and it resulted in this war. This was an inevitable conflict from which neither side could escape," said the duke with much thought.

Sylvia nodded wordlessly. On one side was her lover, on the other, her house. She was numb to all the happenings, caught in the middle of it all.

"I want you to go to The Northlands, to House Norton's dominion."

"What?" asked Sylvia, wide-eyed.

"I've no choice," he said with a pained smile, "We've lost. The situation is set, there's no turning back. I hope you will have a good talk with that brat so he shows us some mercy and not cut off too much meat. We're still the main force against the grassland barbarians. Without House Fisablen, they will frequently invade and harass the empire's borders. Have the kid think about this well."

Duke Fisablen breathed a long sigh.

"Sylvia, as your grandfather, I regret this deeply. I shouldn't have refused his marriage proposal. Otherwise, the war wouldn't have happened… but it's too late for regrets now. I need you to do three things on your trip. First, ransom the members of the house and our household knights. Second, have the salt merchant committee lift the sanctions on daily necessities. The plains only have alkaline soil and no edible salt. The farmers are at their wit's end. I hope they won't sharpen their blades quickly. Lastly, think of a way to convince him to let us ransom Third Frontier's common soldiers. We will need them to resist and suppress the grassland barbarians.

The duke silenced for a moment.

"Go pack up your clothes and luggage. Bring as much as you can with you. I will let you stay there for good.

"Grandfather, you..." Sylvia was sent into a stupor. "This means..."

"Let's leave it at that. I will arrange your escort and the negotiators that will join you. You will set out immediately after the rainy season," said he without giving Sylvia even a glance.

He turned with a wave of his hand and left.

Chapter 393 The Barbarians Cometh

The rainy season was over and the winter's wheat harvest was underway in the 4th month. The entire Northlands was becoming very lively.

Just as Lorist was about to depart from Firmrock Castle to check on the other parts of the dominion, Sylvia and her escort set out for The Northlands from Crouchtiger Castle. She had been given the heavy burden of being an envoy to House Norton.

As the barbarian invasion was impending, Lorist had the house's forces be on standby even though it was harvest season. In the fields, the harvesters had a sickle in one hand and a weapon in the other. Halfway through the harvests, however, word came from Twinmount Town that the barbarians had finished their preparations. According to the plan, the town's residents would be evacuated orderly. They would leave traces of panicked escape, though, to mislead their attackers.

On the 21st day of the 4th month, the barbarian army conquered Twinmount Town. Great volumes of fine wine and other daily necessities intentionally left in town made the barbarian soldiers incredibly excited about their victory. They believed the might of their combined force was enough to sweep the whole Northlands. Every warrior scrambled to be made part of the vanguard in fear of losing out on the chance to raid for spoils.

Lorist arrived at Hidebull Citadel on the 23rd day of the month. This was where the wall was and it would be among the first places to come under attack. He had to be present to make sure it remained safe. At noon, however, he received an urgent message from the acting commander of Jaeger, Waxima. House Fisablen's Princess Sylvia had come as an envoy to discuss the ransoming of his prisoners and matters relating to trade.

After receiving the news, he was both elated and troubled. He was glad that the old fox had finally acknowledged his loss. However, he was troubled that the envoy was Sylvia. He couldn't receive her even if he wanted; he was just too occupied. After some consideration, he sent the messenger back to Firmrock have Charade receive her for him and have her stay there for the time being. He would only return after the current situation was dealt with.

Frankly speaking, the part that troubled him the most was that he didn't know how he should face the princess. He was aware that he had completely flipped out against her grandfather when he led his forces to exterminate Iblia and a number of House Fisablen's legions. He had inflicted a lot of damage on her house. He had suppressed their rise to power and was one of their archenemies.

Because of that, he was incredibly troubled by the fact that the princess who loved him so dearly, to the point she would marry no one else, was a member of the house he had just ruined. As Kenmays had said jokingly, Iblia's extermination was in part the four houses venting on Lorist's behalf for Duke Fisablen's refusal to accept his proposal. At the moment, word among the folk was that House Norton's leader, Duke Norton, had rained fire and fury on Iblia and focused their attacks on House Fisablen because of this. Sylvia's name was no different from other bad omens now.

He sighed lightly.

I guess I can only wait until the war is over. I'll make it up to the girl afterwards. I really made her suffer this time, especially with what this has done to her reputation...

Actually, even Duke Fisablen knew that even if he'd agreed to let Sylvia go through with the marriage, war would've been inevitable. House Fisablen's dominance conflicted with House Norton's interests, only one could emerge victorious.

"Your Grace, they're here."

Lorist gazed into the distance. He just barely make out clusters of black dots among the trees. The clusters coagulated into a larger mass as a wave rushed at the wall, swallowing the land as it went. Using the telescope, he could see the different beast-leather armor they wore. Some of them even fought with their chest exposed. Their faces were painted with ghastly and eerie tattoos, wielding bronze axes and weapons of crude design as they ran maniacally at the walls.

At four in the afternoon of the 23rd day of the 4th month, the barbarian vanguard launched the first wave of attacks on the defensive wall between the citadels at Hidebull Mound and Tortoise Hill. However, these barbarians had never seen such a tall defensive wall before and they couldn't help but stop in their tracks when they encountered the ditch. They stared at the three-to-four-meter-deep ditch laden with spiky wooden stakes in a stupor before the carroballistae on the walls took their lives with ease.

The first wave's vanguard soon turned tail and ran. They left about 500 corpses behind. Around five or six in the evening, the vanguard launched another attack. They were probing the wall's defenses. This time around, they used wooden shields tied together with vines as walking planks to cross the moat. Even so, the carroballistae mowed their ranks down just as easily. Nearly a thousand fearless barbarians died unceremoniously. The crudely made shields were ripped to pieces. Those not killed outright had no choice but to run away again.

"Haha, this is far too easy. It felt like we were shooting turkeys. How relaxing."

The carroballistae operators seemed rather excited. The enemy on the other side of the ditch were nothing but target practice. Some would rather die than retreat. The braver ones were frequently skewered by ballistae bolts.

The wall between Hidebull Mound and Tortoise Hill stretched for 36 kilometers. It was eight meters high but only six wide. The wall was also separated by battlements every five to six kilometers where the soldiers could rest or stand guard. When the fight began, the battlements could be left in charge of a company. In front of the wall, a moat five meters wide and three to four meters deep was also dug, creating a chasm in the flat ground.

"I'm bored..." yawned Lorist.

The invasion didn't put even the slightest pressure on his forces. Their threat was far inferior to even that of the four duchies and Duke Fisablen's allied army half a year ago. Only local defense brigade soldiers who hadn't seen combat would be excited about fighting them. However, it was not often that the local defense brigades who only trained all day got to see blood. He decided he wouldn't give any commands during the battles to assess the command abilities of the two brigades' leaders. The only reason he stayed was so the soldiers would feel at peace, and to act as a contingency against any enemies of the blademaster level. There should at least be a few in a 100-thousand-strong army. They were Lorist's actual targets.

The enemy vanguard finally learned their lesson after their second failure. They knew they couldn't scale the walls on their own, so for the next two days, they patiently waited in the forests for the rest of their forces to arrive.

The rest of the army arrived two days later. Lorist learned the intel they received was accurate. There were at least 100 thousand men. Even though they lacked supplies and didn't set up a campsite, their bonfires looked like a field of stars in the middle of the forest. The forest seemed littered with little embers.

Many of the soldiers in the local defense brigades had never actually seen such a large army before. The elation they felt at their victory two days earlier washed away completely. They began to talk in silent hushes; they doubted whether they could actually defend against so many barbarians. They put aside their lack of confidence and anxiety during the battle the following day, though. All they had to do, after all, was load the machinery, fire, rinse and repeat. They forgot everything else and followed the instructions of their superiors like mannequins.

"Fire!"

The order sent a volley of arrows at the barbarians' ranks. They rained down and cleared out an area on the other side of the ditch, making countless barbarians clutch the parts where they were hit and scream in agony. It didn't last long, though; more barbarians replaced them soon enough. Those injured lightly were quickly taken back while those beyond salvation were given a quick send off, back to the embrace of the mountain gods, as they sang their songs of war.

The ditch was soon filled with corpses, branches, mud, stones, and other miscellaneous materials. Countless barbarians swarmed towards the wall, unhindered by the now-filled moat. They soon found themselves in another awkward position, though: the ladders they brought were far from tall enough. In a fit of rage, some tossed their weapons up at the walls, inflicting some light injuries on the defenders.

Some witter barbarians lash some of the ladders together, but they were soon spotted and shot. Whenever similar attempts were spotted, they would be promptly stopped. None of the attempts succeeded. Instead, the barbarians soon began to connect the ladders further away from the walls. Though they finally had their ladders, they were shot before they made it up to the walls. The sword-and-shield soldiers, bored to death, finally had a chance to act. They tossed rocks, fuel jars, and torches down the walls. The smell of burnt flesh soon filled the air. Some vomited from the disgusting smell.

The barbarians' ferocious attack lasted from morning to after noon. The only time a dangerous situation almost came into being was right before they retreated. The enemy had gathered a group of braves to attack the walls all at once. They were surrounded and slaughtered by a group of Ragebear Knights before Lorist could react. As the knights slaughtered the braves one after another, it was as if all the barbarians felt themselves punched in the gut. They let out cry after cry of grief and began to hesitate.

Soon, the retreat was blown. The horn resounded across the plain. Lorist watched them retreat, leaving their comrades' corpses all over the battlefield. There were so many they were several layers thick in some places. They barely left any room for people to move around. Seeing this, he took benevolent action. He had the ranged units hold fire to the enemy could retreat unharassed. There were an estimated 20 thousand corpses beneath the walls. The battle taught the barbarians a huge lesson. They lost nearly half of the 50 thousand that had participated in that assault. He believed they would not attempt to take the wall again.

After Lorist gave his order, the area around the wall quieted down. But the silence didn't last long. Cheers soon exploded all along the wall.

"We won! We defeated them! We held the wall!"

Many exhausted ballistae operators collapsed right away. Many had fired non-stop for the whole battle like autonomous machines. Only after receiving the order to stop did they realize how fatigued they were. They were so worn they didn't feel like moving, even their voices were sore. The only thing they could do was tear up joyously.

Opposed to the optimism on the walls, pained and grief-stricken cries wafted over from the forest on the wind. They grew ever louder until it sounded like a chorus. It seemed all the more ghastly and sorrowful when night fell.

Lorist looked at the forest in the distance before gazing at the corpses littering the battlefield. He shook his head.

"Maybe the barbarians will know this defensive wall of ours as the wailing wall in the future," he sighed at the commander of Ragebear Knights, "They will remember this staggering loss of life. I don't feel a thing for them, though. If the wall were breached, it'd be our people crying."

After the failed assaults, the enemy army stopped bothering with it. Over the next four days, they only sent several parties to collect the dead's heads. They also took the ballistae bolts. No one dared approach the not or the wall, though. In the end, Lorist ordered two regiments of pikemen and sword-and-shield infantry to move the corpses in the ditch and at the base of the wall to the barbarian corpse collectors under the longbowmen and ballistae's protection.

After another six uneventful days, Lorist was woken by Terman, who was running and screaming as he approached Lorist's bedroom.

"Your Grace! Your Grace! They're on the move! They split up!"

Chapter 394 Defeating the Barbarians

"Their movements are still within our expectations. A few days ago, Fiercetiger Loze sent a messenger to report that a number of scouts showed up in the area of the Black Forest near Firmrock Castle and Hidebull Fort. Apart from breaking through in that part of the forest, there's no way they can enter our dominion. Even though they number 100 thousand, they're not worth any concern to be honest. Fighting them feels like bullying little children... Victory won't even be sweet!" complained Lorist as he washed his face.

"Well," mused Terman, scratching his head.

Lorist was right. Apart from numbers and dumb courage, the barbarians were inferior to the household's men in almost every way. During the assaults over the last couple of days, Terman got the feeling the barbarians posed even less of a threat than the magic beast wave had in its heyday. He also felt the wall was far too long. Only two brigades, approximately six thousand people, manned them. Strictly speaking, that was an incredibly weak force. Should the barbarians split up into thousand-man units and spread their attack out along the full 35-kilometers of the wall, they wouldn't have had such a hard time trying to breach it. However, simple-minded as they were, they used units of ten thousand instead to attack five different spots which weren't spread out either. They were really stupid beyond belief.

The two brigades hurriedly brought their longbows and carroballistae to the attacked areas. They just needed a thousand men to deal with the assaults. They used their ranged weapons' firepower to start a massacre, inflicting huge casualties on the attackers. One time, Terman and a number of other knights even felt a little pity for them.

Lorist took him to a battlement on the wall and observed for a good while with his telescope.

"When did the barbarians split up?"

Terman gave it some thought.

"It should've been around five this morning, at dawn. The soldiers on duty noticed some movement among the enemy's ranks. They believed they were trying to attack, so they reported it to me. I headed up the wall and realized the barbarians in the camp had decreased when day broke. I walked along the walls but I could only see half as many as before."

"Alright," Lorist said as he tossed his telescope to a nearby guard, "Let's wait until the night and see. If the barbarian army truly split up, there won't be that many bonfires tonight. We'll wait for the rest of the day. If the number of bonfires is really fewer, we can confirm they've split up. I will lead Ragebear Knights to Tortoise Hill Fort and launch an attack there. We'll take a detour around Azure River to launch an attack from the rear and put an end to this."

The barbarians left behind didn't know about intrigue or misdirection. They lit only a fourth of the bonfires compared to the previous evening when night fell. Everyone was now certain in their victory the moment they saw this. The next day, Lorist took a regiment and launched an attack from Tortoise Hill Fort at the rear of the barbarian army, accompanied Ragebear Knights.

The surprise attack went without trouble. None of them expected the enemy to emerge from the safety of their walls and attack them. The ten-odd chieftains all thought the walls' defenders were the entire enemy force, given how they only dared to retaliate from the walls' safety.

Even though they weren't well-informed, the chieftains knew they couldn't rely on their advantage in numbers. The brave barbarian warriors' blood shouldn't be casually spilled. Instead, they bribed the traveling flatlander merchants to guide them and soon found another route leading into the dominion. The only trouble was that it passed through the Black Forest for five kilometers.

While there were still about 50 thousand barbarian warriors left at their campsite, most of those that had set out were the young and brave. The ones that remained were either elderly or female non-combatants or the lightly injured who were saved from the walls just a few days earlier. The campsite didn't even have proper defenses. There wasn't a single fence or moat in sight. Only the injured got to sleep in simple tents made from beastskins, the rest camped in the open near their bonfires all over the forest regardless of sex or age.

When the six thousand heavily armored Ragebear Knights rode into the camp with their magnificent and armored steeds, the enemy crumbled completely. None could defend against the metal monsters. While some brave warriors sacrificed themselves to protect the others, and were trampled to minced meat, quite a number lost control of their bowels completely and cried out in agony, slumped on the ground.

The local defense soldiers launched their attack from the other side, having already made their preparations, and quickly captured a large number of barbarians. But Lorist was disappointed that he couldn't find even a single chieftain, nor was he able to kill any blademaster-level warriors. It wasn't that they weren't present. Instead, they escaped the moment they saw Ragebear Knights approach and abandoned the rest of their tribesmen.

He wasn't satisfied, even after a sweep of the entire battlefield, and led Ragebear Knights to attack Twinmount Town. Again, the completely unprepared enemy were completely defeated. This time around, Lorist finally saw blood. As they were fighting in a town, the knights only took care of sealing off the exits while Lorist brought a thousand guards with him inside. They quickly chased the barbarians out of the houses and made obedient captives of them.

Though Twinmount Town was supposed to be the barbarians' supply center, Lorist didn't get much, mostly some herbs and miscellaneous produce from the mountain range, most of the latter was kudzu roots. They were probably the emergency rations. Usually, each warrior would carry seven days' worth of food with him into battle. If he ran out, he would forage for food wherever he was. Unless the situation was dire, the tribes didn't need to supply their warriors with food or weapons. Apart from medicines, the barbarians got everything through pillaging. It was a sign of incompetence, a blotch on his reputation and character, for a barbarian to be unable to forage for his own food.

That was why the ones defending Twinmount Town were mostly slaves, punished barbarian warriors, or barbarians too young or old to be of much use in battle, Under Lorist's savage assault, the thousand crumbled with a touch. They didn't manage to cause Lorist many casualties before they were taken captive.

"Retreat and bring the captives and spoils along. We will return to Hidebull Fort. We'll have to rush to Fiercetiger Loze to exterminate the enemy that split off," ordered Lorist.

Along the path connecting Firmrock and Maplewoods was a lake formed from an underground fountain. The lake was deep, but rather small, and its water was incredibly refreshing. Many passers-by favored it as a resting spot. This part of Black Forest was also where Lorist met the group of mountain barbarian cavalrymen when he first got back to the dominion.

The warriors that split off finally passed through the forest after four days of travel and appeared near the lake. It was soon surrounded as one barbarian after another emerged from the trees. It was only to be expected, they were tired and thirsty after four days' travel. The most crucial part was that that part of the forest was drier than the rest. There were no streams or springs nearby. They were only able to get a little water by digging deep in the mud or biting into bitter leaves. Now that such an alluring lake was right in front of them the moment they emerged from the forest, they jumped with joy.

Even though there were about 30 thousand or cavalry among the troupe of 70 thousand, they traveled at the rear with the chieftains and the other warriors of high status. The cavalry had to dismount and lead their horses through the forest and could only mount again after they were near the forest's edge.

After the chieftains and high-status barbarians exited the forest, warriors that had earlier stepped aside to make a path for them. The moment he drank some of the refreshing lake water, the commander of the army, chief of the Habibaba and the Jambassen, nodded with satisfaction.

"This is very refreshing water. But the lake's quite small. Will it be enough for everyone?"

A person dressed like a merchant replied respectfully, "Revered and undefeated Great Jambassen, I've traveled this route many times and I know this lake well. Don't worry about whether there'll be enough water. There's a fountain beneath the lake and the water level will be retained no matter how much you drink. I even dare to swear on my life."

"Hahaha," the Great Jambassen said with a hearty laugh, "You're a pretty decent fellow for bringing us through such a nice route. Um, what are you called again? Whatever, it's not like I can easily remember the names of you flatlanders. Don't worry, I'll reward you with gold for leading the way. So, is this the core of the Norton dominion?"

"Revered and strong Great Jambassen, thank you so much for your generosity. Your humble and loyal servant pays his respects. That is right, this is the center of the Norton dominion. To the south is Firmrock Castle, to the north is Poplar Town and Maplewoods, to the west is a settlement called Felicitas with seven towns and hundreds of villages. Apart from Firmrock Castle, the other places are rather weakly defended. House Norton's forces are mostly gathered at Winston and Southern to fight against another duke, the very duke that had your fellow tribesmen from the grasslands pay a visit to you. That's why the soldiers defending those towns and villages will not be able to handle your brave warriors. They are weak and helpless maidens lying on the ground, waiting for you to conquer."

The merchant named Benlaihez bowed respectfully. He was a merchant captured by the Habibaba during the previous year's summer whilst traveling. Given the choice between the bloody axe and gold, he picked the latter and agreed to guide them. As he had stayed in the mountains for quite a while, he wasn't aware of the current situation of the house, nor of Lorist and his forces' return.

The merchant's words made the rest of the barbarians laugh. The Great Jambassen, in particular, laughed so hard he couldn't catch his breath.

"You... Ben-whatsyourface... You really have a way with words... Like helpless maidens... Hahaha. I like these words. But as it's already evening, the sky should be darkening soon. My warriors have traveled for a good couple of days. Let's rest here for now. We'll eat well, refresh ourselves and rest. Tomorrow, the helpless maidens will be ours to conquer. Ahahaha..."

The Great Jambassen's words prompted a round of applause. Soon, the bonfires were lit and the barbarians brought out the dried food they carried with them and began to dine and enjoy the delicious lakewater.

All of a sudden, an ear-piercing horn sounded. Loud drumming echoed in from all directions. The warriors all stood up, dazed, and watched as the faintly visible black banner with a golden tiger with two wings entered their sights.

The merchant jumped with shock.

"Impossible! Why is Tigersoar here?! No, it's an ambush! Run!" yelled he.

"Run?!" mused the Great Jambassen as he clutched the merchant's clothes, "You led us into this trap! You ought to die!"

He killed the merchant with a stab of his sword before he roared.

"What are you panicking for?! Everyone, get together and get ready to attack! Don't forget! We are 70 thousand!"

Tigersoar didn't give them much time to prepare, however. The carroballistae launched began firing. Bolts rained down on their ranks. Men fell in droves. While the barbarians did indeed have 70 thousand, 70 thousand warriors who weren't able to approach their enemy were nothing but targets. Soon, they began retreating slowly. The carroballistae division pressed its assault. Under Dulles's command, the carroballistae fired two bolts for every two paces they moved forward, maintaining a constant wave of pressure on the barbarian army. When the four thousand plus barbarian cavalry were dead, the army collapsed completely. They all turned and ran, wanting to leave the storm as behind them as possible.

But when the forest entered their sights, they soon realized there were three rows of metal-armored mounted monstrosities.

"Attack!" bellowed Terman.

The horn was blown and Dulles ordered his men to stop firing and stand by. At that moment, Loze came from the left and Pajik from the right. Each led about six thousand metal-armored spear cavalry. They charged into the mess' flanks.

Lorist drew his sword and pointed it at the chieftains and high-status warriors wearing exquisite feather headgear and roared.

"There they are! Kill them all!"

Chapter 395 Gold Mine Obtained

"The spoils this time around are pretty decent," said Lorist, filled with satisfaction.

His current location was the hilly part of Black Forest at the old mine. They were in the secret gold storehouse of the barbarian tribe Walizinge. The guards, led by Els and Reidy, had broken into their campsite at dawn. The tribe was now just one of the many casualties. The tribe did have two strong ceremonial warriors, but Lorist was quick to kill them.

The little cave now in front of them was stuffed with crudely made golden wares of varying sizes and odd shapes. Under the torch's illumination, they gleamed temptingly. An approximate count placed the content of the cave's worth at around two million gold Fordes.

"Why would the mountain barbarians use gold to make these weird little things?" Lorist wondered as he picked up a crude heavy great-axe fashioned of pure gold and waved it around, "This doesn't seem too practical."

"Your Grace, according to the old barbarian slave, these golden wares were made with great care and scrutiny to be used as sacrifices to the mountain deity, Kubawesson," explained Howard swiftly.

From the perspective of the mountain barbarians, gold was the most useless resource. They couldn't eat it or use it to make good weapons. It didn't help that they traded using mainly barter either. It was said that, in the distant past, the barbarians valued gold no more than a simple rock. However, when they realized that gold could be used to trade for incredibly practical goods from flatlander merchants, its demand spiked. Soon, they replaced good weapons, which used to be regarded as the most important resource, as sacrifices for the mountain deity.

Since the discovery of the gold mine in the hills, the Walizinge tribe had become one of the richest tribes. They traded gold with the other tribes to gain slaves, food, and livestock and enjoyed a decent life. It was reflected in the golden decorations hung around their grass huts. They could even hire two strong ceremonial warriors to keep other tribes from having designs on their territory.

It had now all fallen to the Nortons. Perhaps, the years of living in peace and luxury let the tribe lose their fighting spirit. The chieftain's instinct to preserve his life took over the moment the two warriors fell and he hurriedly surrendered.

"Not only did we not suffer any losses, we also managed to earn quite a bit. I'm sure Spiel will be glad. Oh, also, when will Grandmaster Sid arrive?" asked Lorist.

Grandmaster Sid was going to estimate the amount of gold available in the mines. Only after finding out whether it could be profitable to mine it would the house decide on investing funds into the facilities here. If it was already mostly dried up, then the house would leave with what they had. In a few more years when another tribe mines the rest of the gold, the house would attack them instead and make off with some pocket change or collect some tribute.

"There's no way he'd arrive this quickly, Your Grace. We took this place just this morning. It hasn't even been half a day since we sent the messenger. Each trip takes at least five days. Also, the path through the forest isn't easy to tread. Els already gathered some of the barbarian captives to build a road through the forest," complained Howard.

He had slipped and fallen a number of times because they were rushing to launch the surprise attack.

"Oh, apologies. I'm just far too happy. I forgot," Lorist consoled with a shrug as he tossed the golden axe back into the pile before turning to leave, "Alright, let's go. Seal the door and have Spiel make an inventory when he arrives. Just tell me the worth of it all in gold Fordes."

Usually, there would be people on hand to make an inventory. However, Spiel had to deal with stashes worth more than a million gold Fordes personally. As the house's chief financial supervisor, he rushed to the area after hearing about the gold mine's capture and the golden wares they'd obtained despite how tiring or arduous the journey was. He arrived on the third day.

"Your Grace, I've made an inventory of the golden wares. They are worth 2.32 million gold Fordes in total," reported Spiel, a little crestfallen. Had the household forces arrived a few years earlier, there would've been a few times more gold. According to the slaves' testimonies, during the Kubawesson festival last year, the Walazinge tribe fashioned countless golden wares to trade. At the same time, they made a 1.3-meter-tall golden statue of the deity as a tribute to the holy site on Smormilgen Mountain. Near a thousand cows were used to transport it.

"What a waste. They actually used gold to make such a statue and even used the cows they traded for with gold to transport them. They even had to generously feed the thousands of barbarian warriors escorting the statue and used the remaining cows as a blood sacrifice for the festival. They squandered everything so easily!" exclaimed Spiel hatefully.

Lorist didn't take Spiel's words seriously. Had he really attacked the Walazinge tribe back then, it would've been a disaster. Taking the statue made as a tribute to their gods was shaking a huge hornet's nest. He'd have made an enemy of every barbarian in the Magic Dragon Mountains. They would all hate House Norton for stealing their holy statue. While the household forces could easily take care of 100 thousand barbarians, it couldn't deal with a million at once. Even if they obtained gold worth tens of millions, it wouldn't have been worth it.

"Also, Spiel, make sure to give ten percent of our spoils, 230 thousand, to Mayor Doboff. It's the bonus I promised him," instructed Lorist.

Spiel hesitated for a moment.

"Your Grace, isn't it a little too much? Actually, the mayor would be satisfied even if we gave him ten or 20 thousand. It's not like he knows how much we got anyway..."

Lorist smiled and shook his head.

"Just do as I say. A man cannot stand without his word. While you can hide the truth from people, you can never deceive the eyes of the gods. While ten percent of the spoils is definitely a lot, it's nowhere near worth tarnishing the house's name. Trust is the foundation, and we must definitely stick to our word. If we cheat the mayor for just this much today, would we cut the pension of our brave warriors tomorrow? Doing something like this will shake the house's foundation to the core, do you understand, Spiel?"

"It is my mistake, Your Grace," confessed Spiel, lowering his head.

"I'm not blaming you. You are my chief financial supervisor. You are an earnest man. I trust your ethics and character. You only did what you did out of consideration of the house's interests, not your own. After all, House Norton is rising rapidly and we've spent quite a bit these past years. It's only natural you, as the financial supervisor, would seek to balance our spending. I admire your attitude when it comes to furthering the house's interests. However, some things cannot be dealt with based solely on consideration for our finances. We would quickly be blind to the better, yet distant future by the allure of short-term profit. Do you understand?"

He was finally trying to address Spiel's increasingly miserly attitude.

"I understand, Your Grace. I promise not a single copper less will be paid when we hand this bonus to Mayor Doboff."

"Very well. I leave this to you. Also, tell Mayor Doboff that, since the mountain barbarians suffered heavy losses, he can expect a good period of peace. The house has decided to take in Twinmount Town officially. He has done well as the town's mayor for these ten years, so ask him if he would stay on as mayor or join the house's administration. Our sphere of influence is expanding quickly and we really need officials like him. His talent shouldn't be wasted in a single frontier town. Please pass my thoughts on and tell him that those who serve the house loyally will be rewarded."

"Understood, Your Grace. I will pass on your evaluation and your expectations word for word. I believe he'll make the most sensible choice."

Grandmaster Sid arrived, disciples in tow, two days later.

Without even bothering to rest, he had his disciples conduct a detailed survey of the area and the mine itself. He also entered the mine personally to check on the gold veins' distribution. After three days of hard work, Lorist received the report.

"Congratulations, Your Grace. The mine is still rich. We've determined that less than a tenth of the ore has been harvested. Our observations and the slaves' testimonies confirm the mine's previous owners used one of the most primitive mining methods of which we know. They only got 500 thousand gold Fordes' ore in a year.

"If we invest heavily in the mines and uses the latest mining and refining techniques, we can produce 1.5 to 2 million gold Fordes every year for the next century. This is definitely something worthy of a huge celebration!" reported Sid excitedly.

Ever since he was made viscount and given his own demesne in Delamock, he was proud of his identity a Norton noble.

He was genuinely happy for the house for obtaining such a rich gold mine. If the house had funds, Lorist could give him more support to invent even more unimaginable inventions. Currently, he only received 100 thousand gold Fordes' funding annually like Professor Balbo's gunpower laboratory. They were sourced secretly and not reported publicly. While he did enjoy the benefits as they were now, he was worried the house would one day be forced to cut his budget because of financial concerns. It would severely impact his goal of raising his rank to the next level through his experimental contributions.

"Thank you, Grandmaster Sid. You have truly brought me very good news," thanked Lorist with a beaming smile.

A gold mine producing up to two million gold Fordes for a whole century was truly incredible. Even Spiel, who was just standing nearby, couldn't keep his mouth shut.

I really didn't think this unnamed place in the Black Forest would have such a large gold vein. Even the golden creeks House Fisablen spent lots of effort to conquer doesn't generate more than a million gold Fordes a year. Now House Norton has its own gold mine, not the least bit inferior to the golden creeks, how can we not be jumping with joy?!

"This place shall henceforth be known as Golden Ridge. What do you think?"

He was so happy he couldn't help but name the place immediately.

Nobody had any objections.

Out of excitement, Spiel added, "Your Grace's naming sense is sound. This is indeed a ridgy area full of gold. However, I believe we should concern ourselves with setting up some defensive arrangements so the house can conquer the mines for good and keep it from falling back into the barbarians' hands."

Spiel's timely reply had Lorist call for a meeting immediately to discuss their plans to build a citadel at the ridge for the protection of the mine.

"We'll give up on the other smaller hills. Build a fort to protect the mines and outfit it with a complete loadout. We'll call it Fort Goldridge. Additionally, we will build another long wall from Hidebull Fort to here around the hills to the left of Firmrock Castle. This way, we can split this part of the dominion off from Magic Dragon Mountains completely. We won't have to worry about any invasions again.

"We shall also build a highway through Black Forest to connect to the lake. We shall build a town there to provide support and supplies for Fort Goldridge. As it is also situated within Black Forest, we will have to clear the surrounding land, everything within half a kilometer regardless of whether it encompasses the wall or the other forts will be cleared. The barbarians must have no cover for any future attacks.

"This will be a huge project, but the house has to do this no matter whether we're at war or not, regardless of the manpower and funds required. Building the wall and Fort Goldridge is of utmost importance. Els, Reidy, you two will take command of the guards and 7th and 18th local and defend this place. Be incredibly alert and ensure the laborers' safety. Deal with any incident as you see fit. Understood?"

"Understood, Your Grace," said Els and Reidy in unison as they stood up.

"But, Your Grace, won't you have no one by your side if the guard squads stay here?" asked Reidy.

"Don't worry, I need just 500 men."

"Grandmaster Sid and Supervisor Spiel, I need you two to stay here for a while. Grandmaster, I will trouble you with setting up updated mining and refining facilities. Spiel, you will draft the budget and allocate the supplies the fort and wall's construction. Make sure to monitor the mining strictly as well. I hope everything will proceed even as we work on the construction instead of beginning after everything is complete."

"Very well. Your Grace. We will start the upgrade work as soon as possible," replied Sid loudly.

"Understood. Your Grace, I'll make sure the mining process is monitored strictly," said Spiel as he stood straight up.

Chapter 396 Insomnia

After delegating the construction and mining projects at Goldridge, Lorist brought Howard and five hundred other guards to Firmrock. He thought about how Sylvia was waiting for him there and felt hesitation overwhelm. But, no matter what, he wasn't going to run away. There were some things that had to be settled. He understood the girl in love with him was the one most hurt by his conflict with House Fisablen.

They traveled without rest and arrived at Firmrock at midnight the next evening. It was already rather late and most of the inhabitants had already fallen asleep. After entering the gate, Lorist dismounted and instructed his guards to rest, refusing their offers of further escort. He and Howard take their mounts along the quiet path to the center of the castle.

The streets and alleys in the castle-town were illuminated by silver moonlight. Under its gentle embrace, the cool night breeze blew refreshingly.

Lorist stretched and relaxed his body, fatigued by two days of non-stop riding.

"Time really flies. Come to think of it, you're getting married next year," he said eyeing Howard, "I remember how small you were when I first saw you. Now you've grown into a magnificent young man. Oh, Howard, didn't your father-in-law write your father and I letters to prepare for your marriage? You said you would think about it back then. Have you come to a decision?"

Howard didn't respond. He just kept moving forward with his warhorse.

"Eh? Howard, weren't the two of you getting along well? You're always glued to her when she comes over. What's going on now? Having a spat?"

Howard looked straight at Lorist.

"Teacher, I want to put the marriage off for two years..."

"Oh? What's going on?"

"I've asked senior apprentice brother about this and he said I'm already at the two-star silver rank and can start learning the Dan Ocean Ki-refining Technique. You promised to teach me two years ago, but it slipped your mind when the war started. Brother Reidy said he could teach me, so I want to learn it first before marrying. He said that, given that I'm smarter than him, I could establish my foundation in two years of focused training."

Lorist only just recalled that he'd forgotten his promise.

"I'm sorry, Howard. I was far too busy and forgot about it. Since the household won't be caught up in anything for now, I'll teach you. As for your father-in-law and your father, I'll personally write them a letter to delay the marriage. I'm sure it won't be too much trouble."

"But Teacher, if I start training, I'll have to train in seclusion. Then, there'd be nobody to serve by your side," hesitated Howard.

"There's no need to worry about that," Lorist smiled, "Oceanic Legion's commander, wrote me a letter just last month to remind me of my promise. Howard, do you still remember your junior apprentice brother? Sunbaud silly firstborn? What's his name again?"

"Jinolio."

"Darn it. When I said I wanted to take him as my disciple, Senbaud seemed to be in so much pain, as if he'd ate a pile of fly-infested shit, cause he thought I was taking his son as a hostage to ensure his loyalty. But now, he's anything but reluctant. It's almost like he wants to dump his son on me. Last month, he wrote me a letter saying his son's now 16 and has awakened his battleforce. He asked me when he should send him over to be my attendant so I can start training him. Sol, I said I wanted to take him as disciple back then to erase some of his doubts. I didn't think he'd actually take it seriously."

"Hehe."

He was aware of the matter as well. Senbaud was originally a pirate who'd been subdued and forced to serve House Norton after his attempt to raid Lorist's ship. But later, his forced service turned into willing service. It didn't take long for him to become loyal to the house either. It was simple; the more Lorist showed the true extent of his abilities, the more Senbaud respected and admired him.

"Teacher, that junior is far from silly. He's just a little bigger than most his age. It's not like you didn't read the letters he sends us. He has an incredible way with words," argued Howard.

"Tch. Come on, they were written by his mother. Didn't you see how neat and elegant the handwriting was? Men often write with large and sharp strokes, which usually result in messy writing that almost pierces through the parchment. Your father's handwriting is rooted to the parchment, and Loze's seems like it carries a hint of killing intent. Handwriting is a good reflection of a person. Do you think such a huge kid can have that kind of nice and tidy handwriting? It's just as ridiculous as a brute doing embroidery."

Howard had to admit that Lorist made quite some sense. What in the world did Senbaud's huge son eat for him to grow to two meters tall at the tender age of 16? Given his build, it's no wonder Lorist calls him 'silly brute'. However, he liked his junior quite a bit. Perhaps it was because of Senbaud's amazing skills in setting people up with each other. Apart from bringing his son along to the dominion for the annual reports, he also had him write to Howard in the name of being his junior to ask about things he should pay attention to about battleforce awakening. In time, Howard grew to like his straightforward, if huge, junior.

"Fine. Write a letter to the silly brute and have him come over. Since you aren't going to start your training immediately, give him a few pointers and evaluate his personality. Even though I also instructed Tarkel to pay attention to it and he hasn't reported anything bad about him, we only know about the surface. You should be able to get a better understanding of him after you spend some time together. If he's untrustworthy, I'll only have him as a disciple in name and won't treat him like you or Reidy."

"As you wish. I'll write him a letter and have the guards bring him here tomorrow."

The two walked in silence for a while before Howard spoke again.

"Your Grace, are you afraid of meeting Princess Sylvia?"

Now they weren't conversing as teacher and disciple, Howard changed his tone.

"I'm not. Why would I be?"

Howard stared at him suspiciously.

"Why would I lie to you?" Lorist continued, a little embarrassed and mad. I only wanted to take a slow walk because of how nice the moonlight is. It helps me relax after riding for two whole days. Also, given that it's already midnight, riding into the castle will wake everyone. Incredibly inconsiderate, isn't it?"

"Fine, fine," smiled Howard.

"Hmph."

Lorist continued his walk discontentedly. No matter how long the walk took, arriving at the destination was inevitable. The path to the keep wasn't that long either.

After the guard brigade left with Lorist, the police brigade took over defending the keep. They were mostly retired soldiers who couldn't give up on military life completely. They all knew Lorist rather well. The moment the squad saw the two approach, they hurriedly greeted them and took care of their mounts.

"Don't bother, there's no need to open the main gates and wake everyone. We'll enter from the side. Have the servants boil some water, make us food and send it up to my study. We'll be there. Leave any and all reports to tomorrow," ordered Lorist as they got closer.

The guards' leader saluted and rushed off to carry out his orders. The two that brought the hot water, however, were two female servants. Lorist looked at them oddly. He usually had male servants on duty at night. Why would these two be on duty this time?

"Princess Sylvia is having trouble sleeping, Your Grace. We're on duty in turns at night to take care of her needs," explained one.

"Oh? Sylvia's losing sleep?"

"Yes, Your Grace."

"On which is she now?"

"The east wing's third, where she used to stay, Your Grace."

Lorist hurriedly washed and changed into some comfortable clothes. By then, the two maidservants had already brought two large plates of food over. After biting off a piece of honeyed bread, Lorist asked, "Um, how has the princess's appetite been in the past two days?"

"Your Grace, she's only eating very little. She said that she doesn't have any appetite and only has a bowl of soup every meal," replied the maidservant.

Lorist couldn't sit still. He turned to Howard.

"Get some rest after you're done eating. I'll go see the princess."

The keep was built against the mountains, split into four sections. The front was the main work area where Lorist's study, the guest hall, meeting hall, and the various departments of the house were situated. The rear wing was Lorist's personal area where his concubines lived. The west and east wings housed the main guest accommodations.

The two differed from one another slightly. The east wing faced had a beautiful view of the castle. Guests of high status tended to reside there. So far, apart from Princess Sylvia and the second highness, the others who lived there had some form of relationship with the house's three allies.

Sylvia was currently staying in a room on the wing's third floor. Lorist had had the room sealed after the princess moved in. It was now her personal quarters and wasn't used for any other guests.

Lorist stepped lightly. A reclining chair on the balcony greeted him as he entered the room. A person dressed in a snow-white linen gown lay on it, bathing in the moonlight as she hummed to the night breeze.

Lorist slowly approached.

"Didn't I say I don't want to eat or drink anything? Well… It's not your fault... I'll tell your manager about this tomorrow," said she clearly when she noticed Lorist's footsteps

"It's me, Sylvia..."

Lorist realized how hard it was for him to speak out. His voice was as soft as a mosquito's buzz, almost entirely inaudible. The princess, however, sunken into the depth of the recliner snapped up like she was struck by lightning.

"Is it you, Locke?" her voice shaked.

"Yes..."

His voice was slightly louder this time. He took a few steps into the moon's embrace.

"Locke!"

Sylvia leaped into his arms and hugged him with all her might as tears streamed down her face.

"I missed you so much..."

"What's wrong, Sylvia? Why have you lost so much weight?"

She was only half the size he remembered. Her face had thinned, but her two big emerald eyes were still just as alluring as he remembered. He hurt when he hugged her. She must've suffered a lot to thin this much.

"Nothing's wrong... I just couldn't sleep or eat."

Sylvia cried in her lover's embrace. Her eyes fountained rivers down her face and neck.

"Locke, Grandfather doesn't want me anymore... I can't go back to the house either... He said I shouldn't think of going back after coming here... Will you still have me?"

The usual proud and unapproachable princess was gone. Sylvia cried like a child who'd lost her way home, like a dog waving its tail desperately to please its master.

"Of course I will. Idiot, why wouldn't I?"

Lorist's heart spasmed as he stroked her hair gently and hugged her thin frame.

"My little fool, no matter what happens, I'll always be here for you. I'll stay by your side until our hair snows. I vow it."

Sylvia couldn't hear him. Her emotions flowed out of her like her tears, and drew her consciousness with it. She collapsed in his embrace and fell into a deep sleep. Her face, however, glowed lightly with a serene smile. Her petite hands tugged on the corners of his clothes, refusing to let go.

Her cries startled the two servants. When they entered the room, Lorist hushed them quickly and help him guide the princess to her bed. He pulled the blanket over her gently and turned to leave, but her hands, as thin and petite as they were, clamped on his clothes. They held on tighter than a magic beast's claws.

"Fine, I'll stay."

Lorist smiled bitterly and asked the maidservants to get him a chair. He would spend the night by her side.

"Well, can you tell me about why she can't go home? Speak softly. Don't wake her."

Having nothing better to do, he decided to ask the maidservants about the situation. As Sylvia's personal servants, they also suffered quite a bit. They told Lorist about how the princess was treated by her house and how the duke only allowed her and them to take their clothes when they left. Even the princess's guard was disbanded and absorbed into other units.

Lorist nodded. He understood Duke Fisablen's intentions in sending Sylvia here. He admired how ruthless and straightforward the old fox was.

Poor Sylvia, she doesn't know the grandfather that spoiled her so much has placed her on the table as a bargaining chip.

She wasn't sent here as an envoy, but instead, as a token of apology. He wanted the four houses to spare House Fisablen and not force them into oblivion. Lorist made a silent decision the moment he saw Sylvia's thin, sleeping face.

Chapter 397 Untitled

Princess Sylvia slept for almost five hours. When she saw Lorist seated beside the bed, she smiled happily. Lorist had the maidservants prepare a luxurious breakfast. He even fed the princess two small bowls of wheat porridge himself. He refused to let her off the hook until she finished another two pieces of bread and some milk.

As he stroked her long, platinum-blonde hair like he would a spoiled little girl, he said, "I want to feed you until you're nice and chubby like a little piggy. I won't let you stay this thin. Look at your hands... I can even see your veins. They're practically skin and bones. Sylvia, do you know how much it hurts to see you like this?"

Sylvia buried her head in his chest shyly. She hammered his chest at the mention of feeding her like a pet pig. Though, she did so with a delightful, satisfied smile.

Lorist was could only leave after having lunch with her and promising to join her for dinner. Even though Sylvia was acting incredibly clingy, she was still aware of his status House Norton's head and as Duke of The Northlands, titles that came with their share of duties. She had no choice but to watch him leave eventually, however unwilling she was.

It's always the hardest to be expected by a beauty.

Lorist sighed deeply. He turned back and smiled at Sylvia, waving at him from a balcony on the third floor, before he left in large strides.

Her situation is indeed rather troubling, thought he furrow-browed, She's naive, but no fool. She's surprisingly sharp...

From what the two maidservants had said the day before, Lorist surmised the princess probably realized the intention behind the duke sending her to The Northlands. She thought she had already been abandoned, falling from her position as a treasured princess to a token of apology. After the four houses attacked Iblia and fought House Fisablen, Sylvia had received lots of scorn and criticism from her house. Everyone saw her as a bringer of misfortune and the war's cause. According to the maidservants, all Sylvia could do was stay home as much as possible and avoid interacting with others. It didn't stop the rumors from reaching her, though. She cooped her up in her tower and spent her days there, hoping desperately the nightmare would soon pass.

If Sylvia's godmother, Xanthi, had been there, she would've had a much better time. It was too bad the blademaster had dug her own grave and pursued Reidy. In the end, the teacher came out to stand for the disciple. Given that Reidy was his eldest disciple, he didn't plan on reasoning with Xanthi. No matter who Reidy had killed, they deserved it. He set out to save Reidy himself and left her under the second highness' supervision. It had been a year since then already, and it had caused Sylvia to lose her strongest supporter, as well as the shoulder she leaned on.

The Fisablens were a large house. While Duke Fisablen was its head, he didn't have a say in every single thing. There were still a few elders that just wouldn't die, and a huge bunch of relatives. If the house had been in the inner parts of the empire, they would've split off and formed branch families long ago. But given that they were on the grasslands and faced the constant threat of the barbarians, strife and division would most certainly send the house down the road of demise. Its members had no choice but to huddle together for warmth. They had secured their land and legacy through unity. But it also resulted in problems, particularly the many malaligned goals of the house's many members. Some were loyal and willing to serve the house with all they had, others would take advantage of it when the opportunity arose.

In times of peace and prosperity, the members would get along just fine and share the fruits of their success. Anyone bearing the Fisablen name would be served delicious meat, or if not, some soup. But the house was now in a pretty dire predicament, with First Frontier exterminated, Third Frontier captured, and Fifth Frontier disbanded, and the reserve legion ruined. The four houses had stripped the elegant clothes off the former empire's most powerful faction and even dragged them across the ground. Be it the surface or the interior, those watching properly knew House Fisablen had utterly lost.

Even with Duke Fisablen's non-stop encouragement and his recruitment of the grassland barbarians to reform the reserve legion, the house's members had begun to hold varying opinions. On the great northeastern plains, barbarian cavalrymen were common as clouds. Rider or mount, as long as one was willing to pay the right price, they would charge to the frontlines for your sake. But the problem was that, while recruiting them was easy, feeding a force of 20 to 30 thousand was rather difficult.

In the past, when the salt merchant committee was trading daily necessities in large quantities, the house just had to sell the goods to the barbarians and profit. They were even able to use the supplies to hold tight control over the tribes and use them to conquer the golden creeks, causing the area rich with gold to fall to them. This spurred on rapid provincial development and caused the house's fame to rise even more. Those were the good old days.

All of the momentum the house had come to an end when they asked the four central duchies for reinforcements to eliminate Melein. On the surface, it seemed they'd obtained large numbers of young laborers by exterminating the duchy, given that they'd moved up to 300 thousand to their domain and had increased their might. At the same time, they established a trade route to the four duchies. As the house had been quite well-off financially, they formed two more frontier legions. The household's might and impressive military had given the duke with the ambition to take control Iblia's affairs.

"You were so blinded by your ambitions that you couldn't see the way forward clearly!"

One of the elders had criticized the duke thusly. The one who'd said it was the duke's uncle. The old man was a lustful alcoholic. Though he was almost a century old, he still hadn't passed on and met the Wargod. He continued to cause trouble for the duke instead. He even had seven children and held quite a bit of power. Woryo, Third Frontier's logistics officer, was his most pathetic son, and his youngest.

"Your carelessness and your pride made you ignorant to the fact that the four houses are guarded against us. When they eliminated Madras, you should've already been on alert. That way, our house's forces wouldn't have suffered such heavy losses!" the uncle had rebuked during a household meeting after the fact, bringing the duke much trouble.

He'd completely forgot that he'd been the most steadfast supporter of the duke's plan to conquer the northeast, busying himself with allocating his descendants to preferable positions.

"Why didn't you agree to the marriage to House Norton's head? Letting Sylvia marry the Duke wouldn't have been humiliating at all. He was already profiting greatly from his agreement to the first two conditions. You just had to ask him to chase his concubines and illegitimate children away! That's no doubt what made him see us as an enemy. Face... I wonder how much is our 'face' worth. Since when was Sylvia so high up she couldn't tolerate a few concubines?"

Had it not been for the duke's status as one of the strongest fighters in the house, being a rank 3 blademaster, the others might've ousted him already. After all, the duke's failures cost them a little too much. Many lost a close relative or two, especially those who'd placed them in profitable positions. None had expected it to end up a suicidal affair. They didn't hesitate to voice their malcontent at all.

Given that even the duke was forced into such a tough position, what happened to Sylvia was to be expected. Her father was the eldest son of the duke who had unfortunately perished in battle with the grassland barbarians. Sylvia had yet to be born. As her mother had heard the news of her husband's death right before her birth, she passed on right after making the delivery. The orphaned Sylvia was left to the duke's lover, Blademaster Xanthi, to raise, so she didn't have any close ties to many in the house.

Sylvia only reentered the duke's sights when she grew up and showed talent in battleforce training. She was one of the very few who showed such characteristics. Back then, the second prince, Iblia, came to Eastwild personally to ask the duke's support to found his kingdom. At that time, he entitled Sylvia with the title of princess and increased her status among her peers. Coupled with the intentional effort on the duke's part to make her into the house's face through the formation of her own personal guard, her status was unmatched and she came to be known as the most beautiful pearl of the kingdom.

With the aloof Xanthi's protection and the duke's deep care, Sylvia's life was simple and joyful. The dark side of the house had never been shown to her. That was why Lorist found her naive and filled with optimism and hope for the world. She was a cute and pure girl like an elf worth protecting. However, back then, Lorist wasn't in the mood for a romance and busied himself with the house's affairs. What he didn't expect was that his casual tone and the unique tales of being exiled by the house when he furthered his studies, as well as his loss of contact, left a huge impression on her.

As the godmother who'd raised her single-handedly, Xanthi was quick to realize Sylvia's fondness for Lorist. She herself was completely uninterested in him. In her eyes, he was an average-looking, good for nothing low-ranked and cowardly noble ten years older than Sylvia that only knew how to hide within his dominion despite having such an impressive military. He also trained in the weird and uncommon fighting techniques of the eastern martial monks.

Naturally, she would never acknowledge she was biased against Lorist because she was dissatisfied with losing a match to him. She believed he'd used her unfamiliarity with his fighting technique to catch her off guard. He even stopped fighting when he had the advantage and collapsed from fatigue the moment he stepped out of the duke's manor.

Despite her objections, though, Sylvia's interest in Lorist only grew. Following their subsequent interactions, her interest changed into admiration. Xanthi, seeing that the situation was turning grim, forced Sylvia to train in seclusion for four years in a hurry and hoped the passing of time would calm her mind and dull her love until it disappeared. She didn't expect that after four years, while Sylvia had managed to break through from the one-star gold rank to the two-star gold rank, her love had turned into a deep longing. The moment she heard Duke Fisablen was going to organize a knighthood competition, she hurried to The Northlands and expressed her desire to have Lorist participate.

What followed would become the two most painful and impactful experiences she had. First came the death of the 'little brother' and heir of Iblia she had raised. The little prince that was the result of a drug-induced copulation between the second prince and the queen orchestrated by the duke had died from a prenatal heart disease. The queen and the duke's coldness towards the matter caused Sylvia much grief. She ignored the duke's orders and returned to the dominion to attend the funeral for which not many others cared.

She then went to The Northlands to calm her mind. Lorist told her the second piece of bad news there: the three conditions the Duke had brought up. While he had agreed to the first two, he couldn't agree to the third because he was not a heartless person. The duke refused his proposal for a union with the house as a result. While the princess was disappointed, she didn't really take it to heart. She believed her grandfather was just worried she would have to suffer jealousy from the concubines after marrying Lorist. She believed that after returning to the dominion, she could convince her grandfather to agree to the marriage.

Sylvia spent her time traveling around The Northlands in peace. That was the happiest time of her life. Lorist accepted her feelings and accompanied her on the trip. He even brought her to Silowas, allowing her to experience a kind of beauty non-existent in the grasslands for the first time. Had it not been for Xanthi's watchful eye, she might've been so deeply submerged in the river of love she would've gone to Lorist's bed willingly.

However, what awaited her when she returned was the duke's rage. He had given her a curfew to prevent her from stepping out of Crouchtiger Castle. She begged her loving grandfather to agree to the marriage. She explained she didn't mind Lorist having a few concubines, but the duke told her it wasn't her decision to make, and that Lorist's refusal to agree to that condition was a slight on the house's reputation. Marrying Sylvia under these circumstances would damage the house's reputation.

She never imagined her loving grandfather would give her such an answer. Was the reputation of the house more important than her happiness? No matter how she cried and begged, the duke's answer to that question was the same: 'Yes'. As a result, he started a hunger strike. But thanks to Xanthi's consolation, she was saved in the end. That was also the driving factor behind Xanthi's rampant pursuit of Reidy. She had intended to offend House Norton intentionally and make the two houses enemies so Sylvia would completely give up on the notion of marrying Lorist.

In the end, Xanthi's wish was granted. While she didn't manage to make it back and ended up the second highness's prisoner, House Norton did end up becoming House Fisablen's enemy. Lorist led the four houses to crushed House Fisablen's frontier legions and the four central duchies' reinforcements.

Then came the blame of the members of the house on Sylvia. The matter of her failed attempt to marry Lorist had been made known throughout the house. It was inevitable that she would be criticized. What she didn't think was that her grandfather would actually present her to Lorist to make peace.

Marrying Lorist and being given as a gift were two different things. Marriage represented the union of the two houses and was a celebratory affair. However, giving her to Lorist was treating her like a female slave that could be beaten or scolded however her master liked. Her life would depend on his whims.

She never imagined this kind of ending for her. She thought about her cousin, Cacanne's, insult.

"What's so great about you?You just have a blademaster guarding you. Now the blademaster was captured by your lover and sent to the imperial capital's prison, you deserve what you get. So what if you got the gold rank after a few years of training? You're close to 28 and still single! You want to get married? Dream on, you harbinger of misfortune!"

Caccane was six years Sylvia's junior. Her paramour was one of the household knights serving First Frontier. Sylvia's own maidservant had seen the knight climb the walls into Cacanne's chambers in the middle of the night. Now that First Frontier was no more, it wasn't known whether the knight still lived. So, she directed her angst at Sylvia.

While Sylvia could pretend to not hear the curses house's members flung her way, Duke Fisablen's mission to head to The Northlands as an envoy was the biggest mental blow she could suffer. On the surface, she was there to provide a peace offering. Only, she was the offering she was presenting. Even though she could finally stay with Lorist, it was in the most humiliating fashion possible. She was filled with despair and completely isolated. The only reason she didn't crumble completely was her yearning to reunite with Lorist.

The moment she met him, she was elated. Hearing the sweet whispers of her lover finally made all the emotional tension that had built up inside her and which'd made her suffer insomnia go away. She fell asleep immediately and, by the time she woke up, Lorist felt a little off with how clingy she was being. The slight hint of despair that hid behind her two loving eyes made him feel even sourer.

He knew letting the naive, fairy-like girl stay with him like this wasn't the way to go. He wondered if he would regret the decision he was about to make.

Chapter 398 Decision

"Your Grace, this won't do. You can't do this. I strongly object to this decision of yours!" said Charade with a jump.

He had come over to bring a stack of documents to be signed. After putting down the documents, he reached for a bottle of fruit wine from the rack. He heard Lorist talk about the decision he made right after he sat down and instantly voiced his objections.

Lorist had said he wanted to get married to Princess Sylvia and wanted Charade to start preparing a grand wedding ceremony to take place in half a year. He believed the time would allow Sylvia to recover from her mental scars as well as her malnourishment. He didn't think the moment he revealed his intention, he would receive an instant objection.

"Why? Weren't you guys in agreement about this before?" asked Lorist a little angrily.

"Your Grace, it was a matter of timing. Right now, House Fisablen is our enemy. While I believe Princess Sylvia's qualities more than qualify her to be your wife and the house's matron, given that she bears the Fisablen name, I cannot allow it."

Lorist shook his head.

"This is a personal matter. I won't take anyone but her as my wife. Whether you agree to this or not. This is none of your concern. I've made my decision. Just do as I say."

"No!" Charade said desperately, "A duke has no personal matters! Your Grace, you don't just represent yourself. You are the face of the house and the representative of our 1.6 million subjects as well as our loyal household knights! You must consider the house's reputation!"

"Hehe, is that so? Why didn't I know I represented so many things? Did anyone ask me whether I was willing to represent them?" Lorist said without holding back, "You're telling me I have to go through you lot to even pick a wife? So if you're against it, I can't be with the woman I love? What do you treat me as? A mannequin you can push around? Must I do everything according to your will?"

"Well..." Charade realized he had used the wrong choice of words. "Your Grace, you know that I didn't mean it that way. Nobody dares to treat you like a mannequin. You are truly the Duke of The Northlands and this is a fact that everyone recognizes. What I'm against is only your decision to take Princess Sylvia as your main wife. Before, we were more than happy to accept her because House Fisablen wasn't an enemy. Your marriage to Princess Sylvia would also gain us a strong ally.

"But now, not only is House Fisablen our enemy, they also suffered such a huge loss at our hands and no doubt consider us their archenemy. Most importantly, they've already been defeated and forced to stay in their dominion. Our generals are currently mocking them and no longer take them seriously. We're still in preparation to take revenge against them for Jaeger's loss in Wild Husbandry. Do you think it's appropriate to marry Princess Sylvia now?

"Think about the rumors about the reason of the war being Duke Fisablen's refusal to allow you to marry Sylvia, and Duke Kenmays's joke about how our three allied houses are joining in on a battle to secure you a wife. If you take Princess Sylvia as your wife now, you will only be validating the rumors. What would the family members of the sacrificed soldiers think? Would they get the impression that their loved ones died because of your marriage issues?

"Also, how should our soldiers face House Fisablen in the future after Princess Sylvia becomes the house's matron? Do we treat them as in-laws? If House Fisablen launches another invasion, I suspect our men wouldn't know whether to retaliate or not. Your Grace, if you make this decision lightly, you'll cause lots of chaos in the house. Most of us will not support you in this decision."

"Nobody would be as stupid as you say and not resist when an enemy is right in front of them," Lorist said disheartedly, "So what if I marry Sylvia? It's not like House Fisablen will stop being our enemy."

Despite his continued counters, Charade had made a few good points he hadn't considered yet. As the head of the most powerful house in The Northlands, he would have to think this through properly. However, his decision was already made and he would not change it. He would definitely give Sylvia, who loved him so much, a reliable place to which to belong.

"Here's something you don't know about. On the surface, the duke sent Sylvia as an envoy, but she told me she no longer has to return to the dominion. Didn't you notice she didn't bring any guards? Only two of her personal maids came along. Also, the one in charge of the talks is someone else. Do you understand? The old guy is insulting our love. I have to give Sylvia a proper resolution and take her as my wife," insisted Lorist.

"Sol, this old man is far too cruel."

Charade finally realized why Lorist was so set on marrying Sylvia. He recalled that when he was a child, the store near his house had gotten some new wooden dolls. One of them was a colorful clown with a long nose. It was incredibly beautiful and rather expensive. As he'd wanted the toy a lot, he begged his father to buy it. But his father said he could only get it through his own efforts, so he let Charade take care of some chores in exchange for pocket money.

Charade, who wasn't even ten years old at the time, worked hard to earn the money copper by copper. The days passed one after another, and by the time he finally saved up enough, he learned the shop's owner was organizing a stock-clearance. According to the owner, he was going to go back to his hometown and would no longer run the shop.

Seeing Charade come over, he said with a smile, "You still want to buy that doll? Since it's no longer worth anything, I'll give it to you as a parting gift."

The experience left the deepest impression on him. Seeing the thing he pined for day and night just abandoned by someone else, he looked at the pouch of coins he had saved up after working hard for three months, and looked back at the toy the shop owner had tossed to him. It made Charade feel incredibly vexed, and he left the toy in a corner of the house when he got back. He never played with it.

Lorist's current situation was similar. Perhaps, it was even worse. Duke Fisablen was practically giving Sylvia away as a gift to express his willingness to submit. 'Here you go. Didn't you start the war for her in the first place? We'll give her to you now that we've lost hopes that you'll spare the house.' Either Duke Fisablen didn't really consider the emotions of the two involved, or he was intentionally mocking their relationship. 'Didn't you guys want to be together? Alright, you don't even need to ask to marry her or spend so much money on this anymore. I'll just give her to you. Do with her what you want. You're satisfied now, right?'

"...You two can be together. We'll host a wedding ceremony in a few years, once the matter subsides, but please don't invite too many people. We have to keep the effects of this as small as possible. Is this alright? In fact, you can make Princess Sylvia the house matron right now if you want. She'll only not be one in name for the time being," suggested Charade after some thought.

It was the best solution he had for now.

"No," Lorist refused right away, "I can't let Sylvia live with me just like that. How different would that be from making her my concubine? I know you're taking the house into consideration, but Baron Charade, did you consider how the princess would feel? It's already bad enough her house abandoned her. If I treat her this way, she would really become a gift House Fisablen tossed our way. I want her to have a grand wedding.

"It will give a huge face slap to that old man at the same time. Did he think I would treat Sylvia like a female slave? I will publicly make Sylvia my bride and the house matron. She'll be Duchess of The Northlands. I'll have everyone feel envious of her and let House Fisablen regret their decision. I trust Sylvia will be quick to forget the Fisablen name after marrying me and take on the Norton name proudly."

"B-but Your Grace, we have to answer the men..."

"No worries. This will be easy. I will express my gratitude to them for their courage, for making House Fisablen submit and send Princess Sylvia. We two lovers were finally united thanks to the great contributions of our troops."

In essence, Lorist was trying to affirm the rumors that he had exterminated Iblia for Princess Sylvia, taking on the active stance instead of remaining passive. That way, not only would he be able to pin the war between the two houses on a juicy legend, the gossip lovers would surely spread it around as a tale of war for the sake of love.

"Our men will be proud. When they are old, they will be able to boast to their descendants how they fought for the sake of the Duke of The Northlands's marriage and crushed House Fisablen so badly they had no choice but to hand over the princess. They brought the tragic lovers together. This way, House Fisablen will be painted the villains. Hahaha, this idea sounds rather decent!

"Also, our house has conquered the Goldridge mine and obtained more than two million gold Fordes. We should use some of it to make commemorative badges with Sylvia and my name on them and the saying 'Love Persists till the End'. We'll distribute them to everyone who participated in the war, including our allies. Everyone who took part will get one. I believe nobody will complain about fighting for the sake of my wife after receiving these," said Lorist with both his legs against his desk gleefully, greatly satisfied with the excuse with which he had come up.

"Your Grace, isn't this a little too shameless..." Charade was both humored and troubled at the same time.

"Don't sweat the small details," replied Lorist lazily before he leaned back and started napping.

It was only to be expected since he hadn't slept when he was accompanying Sylvia throughout the night.

"Baron Charade, I'll leave the preparations. Give me a budget and the rough timeline. We still have half a year, so set it at around the 11th month. Don't forget the guest list. I want a grand ceremony, understood? If there isn't anything else, you may leave. I'll get some shut-eye."

"Hey, not so fast. I came here for official business, you know. These documents need your signature urgently. You've wasted enough of Howard's time on your wedding. Howard, splash some cold water on His Grace. Howard, Howard! Where's he?"

Charade called out few times, but nobody answered him.

"Stop calling him. He's not here. He should be on his way to Northsea to pick up his junior," Lorist said after recalling his conversation with Howard the previous night, "Also, I wasn't joking with you about the wedding. I'm serious."

"Understood. I'll make sure everything's in order. Don't worry. Just sign these first. Stretch your face a bit while I get someone to bring you a basin of water," said Charade before he left the room.

He returned a moment later with a basin.

"What's the matter? You mentioned Howard going to Northsea to pick up his junior?"

"Did you forget I told Senbaud I'd take his son as my disciple? Now he's 16 and has awakened his battleforce, Senbaud wrote me a letter to remind me of the promise. I had Howard go to Northsea to pick him up. He'll serve as my attendant in the future. I'll see whether he's worth training or not," said Lorist.

He submerged his whole face in the basin to wash his fatigue away.

"I did hear you mention it once. Isn't his son the silly brute that follows him around all the time?" Charade had gotten the same impression of Jinolio because Senbaud always brought his son along to the dominion when he made reports on Oceanic Legion.

"That's the one," Lorist affirmed as he picked up the stack of documents, "What's with all this? What's so urgent about it?"

"It's regarding the local defense legion's reorganization and expansion. The expenditure and rationing all require your signature before they can be arranged. Also, you have to appoint the four other legion commanders to the new legions."

Local Defense would be reformed into four new legions. Each would be comprised of four divisions, subdivided into four brigades. Each legion numbered 48 thousand, with there being at least 100 thousand captive soldiers drafted. The captives had already served a little more than two years and were the main contributors to the transportation routes and irrigation construction efforts in Delamock. They would regain their freedom at year's end. According to the traditions of the house's military, captives of war could freely join.

"How about this, call Baron Freiyar and Baron Belnick back and have them deal with reorganizing the legion. You focus on the marriage," said Lorist as he signed one document after another.

"By your will, Your Grace," said Charade with a shrug and a look of frustration.

Chapter 399 Effect

Lorist had not expected that after word spread of his intention to marry Sylvia, he would receive countless letters from the household knights and officials. All of whom were against Sylvia becoming the house's matron.

As opposed to the officials who tried to come up with nuanced arguments about how that would be inappropriate, the household knights were far more forthright. Their argument was strong. They believed a woman from a defeated house wasn't fit to be House Norton's matron.

Charade predicted the situation's turnout well. Everyone opposed Lorist's decision. Hansk, governor of Silowas, was the leader of the officials who objected to the decision and most of the administrative officials agreed with him. How could Lorist take the descendant of an enemy house as his wife? It was completely different from their agreement two years earlier.

One of the people to express the strongest reaction was the chief finance supervisor, Baron Spiel. His reasons were different from the others'; he was against Lorist throwing a huge wedding ceremony. He believed the funds it would require was a huge waste. In his letter, he stated that if Lorist was marrying a princess from another nation, then a huge wedding ceremony was inevitable because it would increase the house's reputation. But Princess Sylvia's current status didn't necessitate that kind of spending. He believed a quiet ceremony would suffice.

Lorist was both glad and angry after he read Spiel's letter. He received Potterfang's letter soon afterwards. It was similar to Charade's. He was worried the soldiers would be swayed and their morale would fall. He also believed, like the other knights, that Sylvia, being a member of House Fisablen, had no right to become the duchess.

Thankfully, only six of the 16 gold-ranked knights publicly wrote him letters to object to the wedding. Josk and Yuriy had suffered a huge loss from House Fisablen's forces in Wild Husbandry, so their objection was only expected given their animosity. Loze and Dulles, commanders of Tigersoar, also expressed their objections. Loze was the representative of the knights that believed a member from a house they defeated didn't qualify to be married to him.

Dulles had only joined in the objection because of his close relations with Yuriy, hardly unexpected. Vice-Commander Belnick, stationed in Delamock with part of the defense legion, probably wrote his letter reluctantly, given his status as a knight from Maplewoods. The last one was Potterfang.

The ten other gold-ranked knights, apart from Senbaud, didn't express any opinions. As Charade knew Lorist's mind was set, he didn't bother to do much after advising him against it the first time. Terman's view was that it was a private matter, and a household knight only had to follow his orders and do his duty instead of objecting to Lorist's decision. The ex-bandit Ovidis would never dream of objecting given how enamored he was with him. He wouldn't dare risk crossing his bottom-line. Freiyar and Pajik kept their silence and didn't tell anyone what they thought no matter who asked.

The commander of the local defense legion -- stationed on Silowas -- Gold-ranked Knight Jades, and Messen, serving the legion from Firmrock, didn't dare express their opinion given their lack of understanding of the overall situation since they had only served the house for a short while since their liberation. As for Malek, he fought with Potterfang and believed his friend ought not write Lorist a letter of objection. However, he didn't express any support for the matter either. Last was Els, who merely laughed when he heard about Lorist's decision. As the leader of the guard brigade, he was the one most familiar with the relationship between Lorist and Sylvia. Given how well he understood Lorist's temperament, he didn't care much about those who opposed the decision.

The only one who wrote a congratulatory letter was Gold-ranked Knight Senbaud, commander of Oceanic Legion. He said he was glad that the two were finally able to get married. It was the first positive response he'd received, all Lorist did after reading it was snicker and call Senbaud a sneaky bastard. Even though he was also a member of the household, Oceanic Legion was a more independent entity that didn't have to care much about what the other knights thought.

House Norton had two other blademasters, one was Engelich -- stationed at Firmrock. Even though the old man was a rank 1 blademaster, he was so afraid of Lorist he acted as meekly as a mouse before a cat whenever he saw him. There was no way he'd dare object. As for Blademaster Shuss stationed on Silowas, he was preparing to break through to the second rank and couldn't be bothered to stick his nose into this matter. Even though Governor Hansk had tried to get him to co-sign the letter, he wasn't even allowed to enter his room.

Being rather furious, Lorist decided he would teach these fellows who didn't know what's good for them a lesson. He hosted a grand meeting at Firmrock and called all the knights and officials that objected to his marriage with Sylvia. During the meeting, Lorist let his rage explode as he rebuked those present about how they'd forgotten their place and criticized the head of the house for something as trivial as marriage and overstepping their bounds. During the most climactic point, he got hold of a vase and smashed it hatefully on the ground before storming out of the room.

The household knights and officials didn't imagine Lorist would react that strongly. Seeing the smashed vase and Lorist's figure leaving angrily, they all began to feel unnerved. Some more fearful ones were covered in cold sweat, while others started to reflect on whether their objection to the marriage was appropriate.

Just as the panic started to build up, the 'good cop', Charade, got on the podium. As he consoled his colleagues, he reminded them.

"House Norton is only able to achieve its current glory thanks to none other than the current duke. While His Grace is rather agreeable most of the time and respects the opinions and suggestions of all of you, as seen with how he frequently promotes those with good problem-solving abilities, that is only when it comes to public matters. It comes as no surprise that the duke, most impressive leader of House Norton, to be consumed by anger if he was criticized by his subordinates on a private matter like his marriage.

"But worry not. His Grace was only angered by the fact of the matter, not the people involved in it. The reason for His Grace's rage was because you interfered in a private matter. If you contribute well in your duties, His Grace will still reward you fairly without question. What you need to know is that the marriage between His Grace and Her Highness Princess Sylvia is already set in stone, and that your objections will not sway His Grace's dedication in the slightest. I advise you not to waste any more of your attention and energy on this matter and carry out the duties you ought to in service of the house. Naturally, if there are those who can't to accept this and decide to leave, the house will not stop you."

Naturally, no one did. Only idiots would leave at a time when House Norton was in its prime. The officials and knights only had their current positions because of Lorist's leadership. Many had only joined in the objection because they didn't want to feel left out and went with the flow. When Lorist showed his anger, they were already drowning in endless regret. Who wouldn't take the opportunity to step down after Charade's pep talk?

"Think about this. His Grace brought us to The Northlands and turned the desolate dominion into paradise. Which one of his decisions has been wrong? Ours is not to reason why, ours is but to do and die. One can only look afar from a high vantage point. Given His Grace's high position, it's only natural that he'd be able to look further than we can. His decision is not something we should question. Only time will prove this decision right or wrong."

He adjourned the meeting and went to Lorist to report the results of his consolation.

Lorist wrote a letter of explanation to Hansk that carried a hint of scolding to remind him of his position as an official and not to meddle in his private affairs. But at the same time, he praised him for his loyalty and expressed his recognition of Hansk's contribution to the house given how Silowas had entered a new age of prosperity under his management, turning into an island with filled fishing and trading activities.

Lorist's letter to Spiel contained one simple message. Either he shut up and obey his orders to serve as the chief financial supervisor or go mine for gold in Goldridge since he likes it so much.

It was said that Spiel was so mad that he couldn't even eat after receiving that letter. It was only after Sid's consolation that he came to an understanding. Since Spiel was one of the house's old officials, it wasn't that hard for Sid to convince him. He reminded Spiel how much money the bastide had when Lorist first inherited the title and how much the house had now. A simple comparison showed the immense difference which wouldn't have been possible without Lorist's efforts. And, since he practically earned all the money, he should be allowed to spend some of it, all Spiel had to do was supervise and record the spending for Lorist's reference. He had no right to tell Lorist how he should spend it.

Spiel was initially vexed and believed Lorist had wrongly blamed a loyal official like him for worrying over the house's expenses. But after Sid's explanation, he realized his shortcomings and no longer said anything.

Lorist's third letter was addressed to Loze. In it, he didn't scold or criticize him, instead, he thanked the soldiers for resisting House Fisablen and fighting to wrestle Sylvia from the duke's hands. At the same time, he wrote that he would be making commemorative gold badges to be distributed to every soldier who had participated in the war and asked Loze for his opinion.

Lorist understood Loze well. He was a freak for battle who would fight in every conflict that came his way regardless of whether it was for conquest, or, as Lorist put it, 'wife taking'. The reason Loze objected to the marriage was that he saw House Fisablen as the loser instead of being against Sylvia herself. As expected, Loze was happy to receive the letter and incredibly pleased by the notion that they'd fought for the sake of Lorist's marriage. He quickly replied that the soldiers were looking forward to receiving the medals and had already forgotten that he had objected to the marriage in the first place.

The last one Lorist wrote to was Potterfang. He didn't hold back in this one and rebuked him with two whole pages before sending it to him with a messenger eagle.

Charade laughed when he read Lorist's letters. He understood the reason he was so cordial with Hansk was that he didn't trust him that much. As for Spiel, while it was apparent that he trusted him, there was a hint of annoyance at how stingy the supervisor was being. It was also apparent that Lorist not only appreciated Loze as a general, but also understood his personality incredibly well. The letter was completely on point. As for Potterfang, it could be seen that he was the knight that Lorist trusted the most. Otherwise, he wouldn't have dared to scold him that harshly.

"Your Grace, don't forget about Josk and Yuriy."

Lorist didn't intend to write any more letters. He just nodded.

"I know. I plan to visit them personally at Jaeger's camp and give them an explanation. They only have so much animosity for House Fisablen because of the loss they suffered. I'll tell them that even after taking Sylvia as my wife, House Fisablen will still be our enemy. I trust they'll understand. As for Dulles and Belnick, they only joined in because of their positions. There's no need to write back. Let's spare them the awkwardness."

Lorist sigh after dealing with the house's opinions. Before he resumed his days of bliss with Sylvia, Freiyar and Belnick hurried to Firmrock to report. The two barons were summoned to deal with the reorganization and expansion of the local defense legion. After Charade briefed them, the two were called to attend a meeting.

"The local defense legion will be expanded into four units. I plan to have the first and third take care of The Northlands. The second and fourth will be stationed at Delamock and Winston respectively. You two will serve as the commanders for one of the legions. In which would you prefer to serve?"

"The fourth, Your Grace. Given that Pedro and Southern might come under attack in the near future and that I am already familiar with Winston, I'll stand guard there," said Freiyar first.

Belnick complained with his arms opened wide, "Freiyar, that's not fair. You chose the spot where conflict will break out again. Your Grace, which legion will defend Goldridge?"

"The first," Lorist replied, "It will also take care of Firmrock and the dominion. Goldridge will come under the first after the renovations there are complete."

"Alright, I'll take the first then. If the barbarians come, I'll get to vent as well," said Belnick.

"Then, do you guys have any commanders you could recommend to head the second and third?"

"Knight Jades is a decent candidate," offered Freiyar.

"Even though Ovidis has been serving you for so long, he's only the leader of a brigade. It's high time he's promoted," recommended Belnick.

"Then, what will we do with Silowas? We need to station a gold-ranked knight there."

After some thought, Freiyar said, "Let Pajik serve there for a few years. He's mentioned that his wife and children quite like the scenery there. He also said that his prospects for training are already limited and that he will find it hard to break through to the two-star gold rank. It's a little dangerous to have him serve in Tigersoar's vanguard."

Hmmm, makes sense.

Lorist thought of the two times Tigersoar had charged into battle as the vanguard. While Loze hadn't been injured, Pajik had gotten some light injuries a few times. His skills paled in comparison to Loze's.

"Alright then, we'll have Pajik stationed on Silowas."

Chapter 400 Right of Inheritance

"Locke, take a rest. Look, you're already sweating all over," said Sylvia as she wiped the sweat of Lorist's face with a linen cloth lovingly.

When word of how Lorist had insisted that he take her as his wife even at the cost of going against his house's officials and knights, including holding a meeting just to scold those who'd objected and forcefully suppressing their opinions, spread to Sylvia's ears through the gossiping maids, she felt incredibly moved and seemed like a completely different person. All her low spirits and depression faded away at once.

With her mood changed, her appetite returned to normal and she was getting much better sleep, unlike before when she still required Lorist to accompany her at night, holding her hand. She would panic whenever she couldn't see him. She was a two-star gold rank, so now that her emotional problems were gone, her body recovered quickly and she soon regained her stunning beauty.

She was still as clingy as usual though, which made Lorist feel a little troubled by what he had done. It wasn't that he didn't have a chance to finally bed her. There had been an instance one night where he'd made out with her enough that she was willing to dive into the river of love with him. But for some inexplicable reason, he'd decided to resist the urge and leave it for after their marriage. After all, the best moment should be left to the most important night of their lives.

So, he spent the two months at Firmrock with his self-imposed celibacy. While Dilianna and two other concubines were there too, he had no time to 'cheat'. Currently, he was living in the room next to Sylvia's. While they didn't sleep in the same room or bed, they were practically next to each other. Sylvia slept lightly and couldn't do so without Lorist remaining by her side. She would be woken by the slightest movement.

There was this one time Lorist had received an urgent military notification and had to deal with it in his study. However, it was a false alarm. A newly formed garrison squad had gone missing during its training session in Black Forest. The officers thought it might be a barbarian attack. So, Firmrock's troops were put into battle stations. After waiting for an hour, the squad made it back safely. Relieved, Lorist left his study and saw Sylvia in her night robes with her maidservants huddling in the corner of the study's mini lounge. According to the maidservant, when the princess realized Lorist wasn't by her side after waking up, she wanted to look for him no matter what. When she found that access to the study was restricted, she decided to wait in the lounge until he came out.

Seeing Sylvia's panicked, loving eyes, he had no choice but to forget looking for his concubines to relieve him and accompany Sylvia to her room to lull her to sleep again.

Every morning, he was greeted with Sylvia's smile before he had breakfast with her and headed off to his study to work. The local defense forces' expansion had gotten underway recently. Even with Freiyar and Belnick in charge, Lorist still had to personally sign off on the transfers and appointments. He also had to gain an understanding of the newly appointed knights and pay attention to the mine's development, as well as the fort to be built there. There was also the matters of the overhaul of The Northlands' roads and the general construction endeavors within the dominion. Having to provide general oversight to everything made Lorist so busy he usually didn't even have time for lunch.

But no matter what, he still had to accompany Sylvia for dinner every evening. Dilianna and his two other concubines, Daisy and Maria joined them. Fennazali and her elder sister Arriotoli still hadn't returned from new Dina barony. Dilianna's son was already almost two years old, so she brought him with her all the time. It didn't bother Lorist, but Daisy and Maria felt a little vexed when they saw the gazes Lorist gave his child. Ever since he'd returned two months ago, he still hadn't made a move on them.

Lorist had his share of troubles. Celibacy was taking quite the toll on him, but he didn't have the time to relieve himself. These days he was busier than ever during the day. And he spent the night with Sylvia. He only had his stupid mouth to blame for suggesting they left their 'best moment' for their wedding day. Even though Sylvia had already recovered more or less, whenever Lorist tried to strip her after a making out session, she would always say the same thing with teary eyes.

"Locke, do you still love me? Didn't you say you would leave it for the best night of our lives?"

Lorist slapped himself to calm his fire. Though she was right in front of him, he couldn't dig in at all. Sometimes, he was so sexually frustrated he was tempted to crawl into the two maidservants' beds. If not for his fear of inadvertently waking her, he would've done so long ago.

I wonder how long I can last... Lorist counted the days since he'd last relieved himself, Why was I so stupid to set the wedding for the 11th month? It's only the 7th... Looks like there's still quite a wait...

Though he had a rare free day today, he had to go to the training grounds behind the mountain after having breakfast with Sylvia. It was the first day Howard would officially enter secluded training to work on the Dan Ocean Ki-refining Technique. Given that he'd experience teaching the technique to Reidy, it wasn't too hard to repeat the process with Howard. Lorist left after teaching him some key points and making sure he wasn't making any mistakes.

Nowadays, the one who served by Lorist's side was Jinolio, Senbaud's son. He had only just turned 16 and awakened his battleforce a year ago. Senbaud had already written Lorist a letter to remind him so he wouldn't forget his promise to take him in as a disciple. Before this, Howard had already mentored him for a month to show him the ropes as Lorist's attendant.

Though Jinolio was only 16, his physique was incredible. Lorist himself was only 1.86 meters, but Jinolio was a solid 2.06, at least 20 centimeters taller. He was also big-boned and looked really tough overall, much to Lorist's displeasure. As Howard was shorter than 1.8, Lorist could easily stroke his head or pat his shoulders to praise him. However, given his new attendant's, he had to tiptoe to do the same.

The thing most unexpected of this new addition, however, was neither his height nor his girth, but his neat handwriting. It completely disproved Lorist's theory that his mother had been the letters' author. At the same time, he also realized that Jinolio was a gifted academic; he was so good that even Lorist felt he was inferior.

He once asked his new disciple how he'd learned so much. The honest and frank kid said it was all thanks to his teacher. It all started when Senbaud pledged to serve House Norton loyally and recalled that Lorist said he would be taking Jinolio as his disciple. He knew that Lorist had done it merely to appease him. However, he feared a person with his background might be looked down on by his peers in the house, so he decided to make sure his son wouldn't. Senbaud, in a flash of inspiration, thought that letting his son actually become Lorist's disciple would secure his position.

So, he thought of everything he could do to nurture his kid to appeal to Lorist. From his early childhood, Jinolio underwent physical training to mold his will and took classes to learn the traditions and etiquette of knights. When he was twelve, Senbaud attended a household knight meeting and heard Potterfang praise his own son, Howard, for his avid interest in reading. Upon hearing that Lorist greatly favored Howard, Senbaud realized his son was nothing more than a slightly literate hunk of muscle.

This won't do. I have to make Jinolio proficient in both the physical and intellectual. I can't have him lose out to Howard if I want Lorist to favor him.

So, Senbaud started looking for tutors. He couldn't find anyone suitable even after many months of searching. Everyone he came across was either too young or too old. The old ones without an impressive reputation made him feel they probably didn't do well in their field, while the younger ones couldn't inspire his trust. As his wife was quite the beauty, he didn't feel safe having young male tutors around. Given that he was the commander of a Norton legion and often had to go out to sea for months on end, them having an affair with his wife was a realistic possibility and he definitely wouldn't allow it.

In the end, he found Jinolio a female tutor that eight years the child's senior. She was young and beautiful and it was said her father was a famed scholar who had passed away from illness during the civil war, leaving her and her mother to fend for themselves. When Senbaud learned that she was at least four-fifths as accomplished as her late father, he was convinced and hired her as Jinolio's private tutor.

The woman proved worth her salt. Within four short years, Jinolio became a refined scholar. The interactions they had also let him not only develop respect for her, but also love. The reason he could write so finely was because of the painstaking effort he took to mimic his teacher.

"That female tutor of yours is really something, for her to be able to educate you so well. Oh, and, Jinolio, do you really like her? Personally, a difference of eight years isn't much of a problem. Since I'm your teacher now, I can find a way for you," teased Lorist.

Jinolio smiled bitterly.

"Thank you, teacher, but there's no longer a need. She's my father's concubine now."

Lorist couldn't find the words to react. He just patted Jinolio on the back softly.

After returning from the training grounds and having lunch with Sylvia, he took a stroll through the gardens. Tea time soon came. Sylvia quite liked Dilianna's son and played with him the whole time. Lorist was glad that Sylvia treated his concubines rather well. As the three present knew that Sylvia becoming House Norton's matron was already set in stone, they got along with her without any issues, save for how she monopolized Lorist the whole time without letting him look for the concubines privately, much to his frustration as well.

Having nothing better to do, he had Jinolio practice some basic swordsmanship techniques and pointed out his flaws, fully enjoying his role as teacher. He also demonstrated some techniques a number of times and ended up sweaty.

Just as Sylvia was lovingly wiping the sweat off his forehead, a guard came to make a report.

"Your Grace, Baron Kedan requests an audience."

Ever since Supervisor Hansk was made Governor of Silowas, Kedan had taken over the census department of which the former used to be in charge. Coupled with his responsibilities as the human resource department head, Kedan was busy almost all the time. Had something happened in the dominion for him to request an audience?

Hansk, Spiel, and Kedan were old hands in the house who came from Maplewoods. They were the three administrative talents trained by the old butler, Gleis, himself. Kedan was the first to get along with him after he took over the house and also the first to pledge his fealty.

Kedan was the only supervisor among the three who hadn't expressed any objection to Lorist's decision to marry Sylvia. When he entered the study, Kedan made a bitter smile and an exasperated expression.

"Your Grace, Madam Irina had me come over to remind you not to forget the promise you made back then."

Huh? What's going on with Irina that Kedan had to personally make a trip? thought Lorist as he dove into his memories.

Lorist and Irina's relationship had worsened quicker than ever these last two years. As the only maidservant Lorist had bedded since he returned to the dominion and the first concubine to birth him any offspring, Irina should have received the most love and care. However, she had an odd quirk in that she wouldn't leave Maplewoods. Given that Lorist was busy traveling around to develop the dominion and expand his power, Maplewoods rapidly lost its importance as the house's headquarters. Nowadays, the bastide was a forgotten corner in the dominion something akin to Irina's demesne.

Lorist had once fought with her because of their son, Lysecott. The eight-year-old was raised into a lawless tyrant thanks to how much his mother spoiled him. Lorist had given him a harsh beating and took him away from Maplewoods to put him in the care of Malek's wife, though Irina through a massive tantrum upon being informed of it. But after Lorist threatened to strip Lysecott of his rights as the first successor, Irina stopped causing trouble.

In the days thereafter, Irina wallowed in depression in the bastide. She hated how Lorist took her beloved child from her and binged all the time. In the two years since, she had doubled her girth. She was no longer the petite girl Lorist had bedded all those years ago.

"Your Grace, Irina's father was a household knight and he took care of us very well back in the day. But he perished in battle for the house's sake, so we took his daughter in. It was because of that connection that Baron Hansk was so against your marriage with Sylvia. I have come here because of Irina's beckoning to remind you of your word to not change the position of Lysecott as the first successor," explained Kedan.

Lorist was struck with a sudden realization. It turned out that Irina was worried that after he married Sylvia, their child would come to be the main contender for Lysecott's position as heir. After all, Irina was only Lorist's concubine. While Lysecott was on the household registry, the son of the main wife usually carried far more weight than that of a concubine.

"Sigh..."

What the hell is this? Even though I'm still alive and well, they're already discussing succession... If I do become a swordsaint, I might even outlive my sons. Come to think of it, it isn't weird for a swordsaint to have to attend his grandchildren's funeral...

"Tell Irina to stay put in the bastide and warn her to keep her imagination in check. During the year-end celebration this year, I will make her a life peer, a baron, and Maplewoods will be her dominion. It will only be reclaimed by the house a hundred years after her birth date. I hope she will live out the rest of her life happily. As for my sons, the elder one has already changed a lot and I will send him to attend Nico Academy when he is twelve. Before that, I will allow him a trip back home for a meeting with his mother. Since the younger one is still by Irina's side, I hope she doesn't spoil him like she did Lysecott. That will be all, Baron Kedan."

"Understood, Your Grace.

Chapter 401 Way to Settle the Debt

"Your Grace, Oceanic Legion currently has twelve Blitz class warships, eight Swift class warships, 46 LLDM (large long distance merchant) class vessels, 124 MSM (moderate speedy merchant) class vessels, 184 MAM (moderate armed merchant) class vessels, and 44 LAC (large armed cargo) class vessels. Other than that, there are 13 LW (large whaling) class ships and near a hundred moderate and small fishing boats, four sailboats and five training vessels in Bullhorn Bay for maritime training. There is also a large base at Flagfish Ridge on Silowas.

"We also have a small flotilla of 12 patrol warships. The whole navy has about 58 personnel. Due to the profits of the trade and fishing that offset part of the navy's expenses, it costs the house just 280 thousand to 350 thousand annually. It's only a third as expensive as Firmrock and Tigersoar."

Oceanic Legion's Blitz class warships were built based on the Windstorm. They bristled with bronze cannons. The Swift class warships were based off Flying Fish of Dawn's design, with the steel ballistae replaced with nine smaller bronze cannons. With impressive ranged attack capabilities and mobility, the class could be considered the ocean's cavalry.

Charade was holding a thick stack of documents concerning Oceanic as he reported to Lorist. Lorist was prepared to make up for the deficit brought on by the four local defense legions' reorganization by first cutting the fleet's budget.

"Commander Senbaud has already received his orders. Right now, he is traveling from Silowas and will arrive in half a month. We will also have to host a meeting with the senior officials of the navy. During the 4th month, he also submitted a request for the fleet's Blitz class warships group to be expanded and hoped the shipyard at Bullhorn Bay may deliver six within the next three years. I already turned the request down. For now, the shipyard is busy with House Kenmays's order of 12 LLDM class and MAM class vessels. It will take two years to finish the order. There's no way we can fit the construction of Blitz class warships in," said Charade.

"That Kenmays fellow is really moving fast. I remember I passed a document last year about building ships for House Kenmays. It was for two LLDM class vessels and eight MAM class vessels, right?"

"Yes. The total cost is 150 thousand gold, including training the sailors and their weapons operators. They have already sent eight hundred people to be trained."

"How about this, write him and ask. If he doesn't mind, we can sell him the MAM class vessels left over after we downscale the fleet. He wouldn't have to wait two years that way. The boats still at 70 percent condition should be more than enough for their trading activities. Naturally, if the ships are already being constructed, that'll go according to our agreement. Only offer to sell them ships in place of those not started yet."

"There's also this proposal I thought up to reorganize the fleet, take a look. When Senbaud arrives, you could discuss this with him and we'll make amendments as necessary," said Lorist as he handed Charade a document he'd drafted with painstaking effort over the last couple of days.

Charade gave it a quick read before he gasped.

"Your Grace, you're going to develop Bullhorn Bay and Northsea? Silowas too?"

Lorist nodded.

Charade continued to read it and, when he was done, gave it some thought.

"Your Grace, you're really going all out with the budget-cut. You're practically leaving only a fifth of the current legion intact."

Lorist stood up and walked to the large dominion map hung on the wall.

"I have no choice. We've been far too busy with conflicts on the continent. We didn't really pay attention to Oceanic. I didn't think it would have expanded this much. Almost all the small fishing boats have been draft and the personnel already exceed 58 thousand. I was really shocked when I heard you guys talk about it. Even though Senbaud is a rather responsible person and carries out his assignments without issue, especially with regards to how well he managed the fishing and trading activities, this isn't what I want.

"Maritime trading should be a sector that rakes in huge profits. But right now, be it fishing or trading, the profits can't even completely cover the navy's expenses. The house still has to subsidize it with 300 thousand gold every year. Naturally, I'm not suspecting the officers of corruption. After all, Spiel is the one taking care of the house's finances. He's done well with regards to preventing exactly this kind of thing. But after analyzing the files, I realized what we were doing wrong.

"Oceanic was formed to protect our coastlines and islands. At the same time, it possesses great military might that will let us open new trade routes and fishing grounds, and prevent attacks on our fishers and merchants. Senbaud has successfully managed to do that and the navy is already the northern oceans' hegemon. There are no enemies that can threaten us by sea anymore.

"But he got something wrong. He believes we should regulate everything in the ocean and take in every sailor into the navy to keep our position. That's not what I want. A force that regulates everything isn't a navy. It's a maritime trading organization! One our house has to fund!"

Lorist punched lightly on the map by Bullhorn Bay.

"Just look at Northsea and Bullhorn Bay. Why do you think they aren't growing any busier? Having stayed at Morante for so long, we know well why Hidegold is known as the number one bay on the continent: its vigor! Yes, vigor. I've given it lots of thought. Look at Bullhorn and Northsea. Why aren't there more people? Why aren't they busier? It's simple. The navy regulates every vessel traveling to our dominion and even sets the dates in stone.

"Now, look at our maritime trade. Currently, there are only two trade routes. The first one goes from Shyarsia to Hanayabarta, and then to Silowas. It carries mainly spice and the daily necessities we produce. The other stretches from Silowas to Northsea. But what we have to pay attention to is that the endpoint for both of these routes is Silowas. Any other trade we have is done through merchant guilds Jigda and Peterson. I suspect they're suppressing our profits. They're treating us like suppliers and that's why our profits aren't enough.

"Actually, there are many business opportunities we can use. For example, we can trade with the coastal nobility in the former Redlis kingdom, or ship our goods directly to Falik. We might even go all the way to Golden Bay further south. Due to our arrangement with the Peterson Merchant Guild, though, all our trade with the Union is done through them. Jigda Merchant Guild uses most of the spice we import and they've even suggested an agreement like the one we have with the Petersons so they can be the middleman for our produce in Golden Bay.

"I want to decrease the navy's size. It should focus solely on military matters and become a reliable navy. As for the merchant vessels and fishing boats, we can form a number of guilds to manage them. Apart from our ships, we'll have the civilians invest. We'll let them purchase our goods to do business elsewhere. We can just tax them. Bullhorn Bay will only become vigorous again if we do it this way. Our free-trading civilians can also use a loophole in our agreement with Peterson Merchant Guild and bring our produce to other markets. That's why I've decided to develop Bullhorn Bay, Northsea, and Silowas."

Charade flapped the documents in his hand.

"But Your Grace, aren't you cutting the navy a little too much? According to your proposal, the whole legion will have less than 50 ships and only 8000 to 12000 personnel."

"It's more than enough. There will be no Oceanic Legion in the future. Only Northsea. Senbaud will also no longer be legion commander. Instead, he'll be made an admiral," smiled Lorist.

"Is this really appropriate? I'm not well-versed in maritime combat, but the union's invincible fleet has over 200 warships. Every time they patrol the southern seas or Golden Bay, they mobilize up to a hundred. And yet, you've decided to further split Northsea into two separate units... I just feel our forces are too sparse," questioned Charade, doubt filled.

"Hehe, don't even compare the Union's Invincible Fleet with our house's Northsea. They only use traditional tactics like boarding. To our Blitz class ships, they are just slow-moving targets. Whether it be mobility or ranged attack capability, there is no maritime force in Grindia that can compare to us. Frankly speaking, the naval technology we use in Northsea is at least two hundred years ahead.

"We can form a flotilla with six Blitz's as the main force, four Swifts as the pursuit force, and two or three LLDMs to carry supplies with ten MSMs to protect them. The patrol flotillas will protect our overseas dominions, our trade routes, and the civilian ships that travel them. We can make two such flotillas and rotate them. Even though I don't intend to Northsea's size, I am prepared to outfit the supply ships and guards with bronze cannons to improve their overall ranged attack."

After mocking the Union's invincible fleet and talking about outfitting bronze cannons on all patrol flotilla ships, Lorist thought for a bit.

"We have to finish the plan to deal with Oceanic by year's end. All the ships not included will have to be maintained and renewed. I intend to announce the news to the nobles and rich civilians during the year-end celebration so they join the maritime trade industry as well. Naturally, regardless of whether they form their own trading fleets or guilds, we house will get three-tenths of their revenue as compensation for developing Northsea, Bullhorn Bay, and Silowas."

"Understood. I will draw up a concrete plan and submit it as soon as possible," Charade said as he put the papers in his hand into his folder, before he took out another, "Your Grace, look at this plan to revamp the transportation routes in the Northlands..."

Just as Lorist was about to receive it, he heard Jinolio's cry from outside the room.

"Lady, this's his His Grace's study! You can't enter!"

"Who are you? Where's Howard?" said the familiar voice.

"I'm Jinolio, His Grace's attendant. Senior Howard has gone to the training grounds."

"Oh, a newbie? Make way, brute. I have something urgent to discuss with Locke."

"No, you can't go in..."

"Don't force my hand. Scram. A one-star bronze rank like you actually dares block me... What a waste of your build."

A loud crashing echoed through the door. It seemed Jinolio had been pushed into a corner.

Charade hurriedly put the folder down.

"There seems to be trouble. Let's discuss things another time."

With a bitter smile, Lorist looked at the study's door. The moment it was pushed open, Arriotoli rushed into the room angrily, followed by Jinolio who had just gotten up from the ground. He tried to stop her with a red face.

"You shall not enter! Ah, Your Grace..."

Charade made it to the entrance and patted on Jinolio's chest.

"Big guy, don't worry. His Grace won't blame you. This young lady here is not someone you can afford to offend."

He turned back and nodded to Arriotoli.

"Good day, Miss Arriotoli. You've become much more beautiful since the last time we've met."

"Apologies, Baron Charade. Was I being too rash and interrupted your meeting?"

This time around, Arriotoli's behavior was that of a polite young lady as she made a knight's salute. However, the female half-body riding armor showed quite a bit of her cleavage.

Charade smiled with a hint of schadenfreude.

"No worries. We were just about to wrap up. I'll take my leave now. Do speak with His Grace if you need anything."

When the door was closed, the look of anger returned to Arriotoli's face.

"Arri, you're being too rude. That aside, I'm glad to see you. Is Fennazali here as well? You two were gone for quite some time," said Lorist with a hurried smile.

"Hmph, us coming back is the last thing you want, isn't it? You should enjoy your days with your princess," snorted she.

"Hey, come on, what are you so mad about? Who angered you?"

"You, you idiot! You said House Norton would gain a strong ally if you married the princess, so I tolerated it. But now... House Fisablen is your enemy and yet you're still marrying her? So you were lying back then, huh?!"

Arriotoli kicked in Lorist's direction, but he quickly sidestepped.

"Hey, keep it to words, okay? Let's talk..."

"I'll keep kicking until you die, you bastard. You want me as your lover? Done. My aunt also became your concubine and gave you a child. While the two of us are fine with this, my sister gave you her first time! At least don't anger her if you can't take her as your wife! But you made even her your concubine. We Dina sisters and my aunt are already your women, so you better make sure you make it up to my sister."

"Arri, don't try to spin this any other way. Fennazali wanted to become my concubine willingly. It's not like I tricked her..."

"I don't care. I want a satisfactory answer," insisted she before she leaped into his embrace and locked her arms.

It'd already been two months. Now that her body was pressed against his, he began to lose control.

"You came right when I needed you, how delightful. I love you so much, Arri," said he as he kissed her and removed her half-body armor.

A little shocked, she struggled.

"Are you crazy? It's still morning..."

Before she could finish her though, her mouth was plugged with Lorist's tongue. She soon turned into a helpless lamb and began to twitch gently Lorist's every touch.

He hurriedly pushed her against the wall and hauled her up in the air facing him with both hands before entering her... (author's note: We're saving 18 thousand characters by not going into details. I'll leave it to your imagination.)

After one time against the wall, once on the desk, and another on the sofa, Lorist felt completely refreshed like a sage rid of worldly desires. Even while leaning against the sofa with the soft-as-clay Arriotoli hugged in his arms, his hands didn't stop working her body.

"Arri, why did you come back all of a sudden? Is there something wrong with your dominion?"

"I... I didn't intend to come back... I just... I was just sending my brother to attend Nico Academy... and dropping by for a visit... My sister's gone to see the princess... And I'm here to see you... you bastard... to settle our debt..."

Even though Lorist didn't let up in the slightest, the first female knight of House Dina wasn't going to cast away her pride and dignity so easily.

"I like the way we're settling the debt quite a bit. I'm not kidding, I'm totally serious."

Chapter402 Marital Bliss

"Variability is one of the virtues of a woman. It avoids the crude requirement of polygamy. So long as you have one good wife, you are sure to have a spiritual harem." ~ Norton Lorist, on wives and women.

Arriotoli had been bullied by Lorist into forgetting the initial goal for which she came. In the afternoon, she hurriedly left Firmrock to return to the Dina barony in Delamock. According to her little sister, their younger brother would study in Nico Academy for three years until he turned either 16 or 17. After awakening his battleforce, he would attend Dawn Academy. This was the plan Lorist had for the descendants of his house as well. He didn't expect Arriotoli to remember it and have her younger brother to go through the same process.

As the regent and knight of her house, there was much she had to deal with in the dominion. After all, the dominion was rather new and problems frequently surfaced. For instance, it was common for the folk to slack off at the dominion lord's expense. So, she couldn't stay at Firmrock any longer. She returned in a carriage instead of heroically on horseback like how she came, much to her sister's curiosity when she was sending her off.

Why does my sister look so fatigued and sleepy? She wasn't like this when we meet at noon...

Arriotoli did bring a new train of thought to Lorist apart from sexual relief. He finally found a good way to placate his four concubines. So, he ordered Jinolio to set up the rooms beside his study into bedrooms which he called 'resting rooms'. He secretly brought his concubines into the rooms for some deep and intimate interactions, ridding them of their dissatisfaction.

Sigh, I've sacrificed quite a lot for my household's peace, thought he.

These days, Fennazali, Dilianna, Daisy, and Maria flocked to him like bees to flowers. He didn't have any free time. Perhaps because of their envy, they vented it on him for how much he spoiled and tolerated Sylvia. Now that they'd finally got their chance, they wouldn't rest until at least four rounds each time. In the end, Lorist was forced to put off his duties until after tea time.

Maria and Daisy attacked him together. He spent tremendous amounts of effort on dealing with them and wondered whether Dilianna and Fennazali would request the same treatment the next day for the sake of fairness.

Gosh, a new problem always surfaces when the old one is solved...

He now believed the usual one-man-one-wife convention in his previous world was actually meant to protect men. Even a person as well-endowed with talent as he was tired after dealing with four concubines. How were those who had tens and hundreds of women in their harems faring? He couldn't help but suspect those harem owners were constantly being cheated on.

It was all Sylvia's fault. Even though they were recognized concubines, they had to go about mingling with Lorist like they were having an affair.

If I have a proper schedule, then they won't come at me in droves...

But thinking about Sylvia's current weak girl state, he felt it was best he didn't shock her too much.

Actually, Sylvia's overthinking this. Since I wouldn't give up on my concubines for her, it's natural I wouldn't give her up for the concubines either.

It didn't mean he was an unfaithful man and taking Sylvia's feelings for granted. The main reason for the current state of affairs was that Sylvia had come into the picture a little too late. The four concubines came before her. As Lorist wasn't someone who could just cruelly ignore Sylvia's affection, he made the responsible choice to treat all of them fairly even if it meant lots of trouble for him. Yes, that was most definitely it.

Charade was currently seated in Lorist's study and enjoying a drink from the wine rack. He was one of the few who knew about the real purpose of the adjacent rooms. He was the one who had a secret path built between them and the rear castle so Lorist's four concubines wouldn't have to pass through the central hall to meet with him. That way, they would be away from prying eyes. However, Charade was quite dissatisfied at how Lorist's performance was decreasing as a result.

"Your Grace, you were late by more than half an hour again."

"I was, apologies," muttered Lorist as he pulled on the bell beside the wall.

Jinolio entered from outside.

"Awaiting your instructions, Your Grace."

"Some macks, please."

"Right away, Your Grace."

"Aren't you going to have some fruit wine?" asked Charade, a bottle in hand.

"No thanks. I'll only be thirstier the more I drink. Is there anything important with which we have to deal today?"

When they started talking business, Charade put the bottle down and picked up his folder.

"Quite a bit, in fact. This is the proposal to reorganize Oceanic Legion submitted by Commander Senbaud. Most of it is as you have specified."

"Oh? Did he not voice any objections?"

Charade shook his head.

"No, Your Grace. Instead, He acted as if a huge burden's been lifted from his shoulders. In his own words, 'I was sure I couldn't hold on any longer'. The stress of managing 58 thousand subordinates is really taking its toll on him. He said he felt something was off when he had to give permission to ten-odd small fishing boats to go out to sea and mentioned focusing on patrolling is much more relaxing than sitting in the office all day managing the entry and exit of transport and shipping vessels, becoming less and less like the commander of a legion."

"Alright then. It seems we've saved him from all the troublesome matters."

Lorist took the proposal Charade handed him and gave it a quick look.

"One patrol flotilla made up of six Blitz-class warships, four Swift-class warships, four LLDMs and 12 MAGs (middle-class agile guards), a total of 3483 crew... makes approximately seven thousand for two such flotillas. If we include the guard brigade of 3200 stationed on Silowas, the four guard ships docked there, and the five training ships and marine recruits at Bullhorn Bay, Northsea Fleet has a total of 61 ships and 11082 hands. Not bad."

"Commander Senbaud believes the guard ships built as merchant vessels to be outfitted with bronze cannons should be further reinforced. Otherwise, they won't be able to take the recoil. They face the risk of rupturing."

"I've already considered that. Funds will be provided," Lorist said as he read the proposal, "Also, have the flotilla at Hanayabarta included in Northsea's chain of command. The 12 warships also have to undergo similar modifications. Their crew have to be reorganized in the same fashion as well."

"Understood, Your Grace."

"Let the ranks of Northsea be Admiral of the Navy, Commodore, Captain, Lieutenant and Commander - for the shipboard marines' leader. Senbaud will be the first admiral of Northsea."

"Understood, Your Grace. I will have the order drafted tomorrow."

Lorist flipped to the next page.

"Over here, separate our merchant fleet from the guest-ferrying fleet. We just have to control the merchant fleet. Let others deal with the ferrying service. Maybe there will be some nobles who use their personal networks to start new ferry routes. JUst collect dividends. Also, we'll keep our whaling fleet but let go of fisheries. The nobles or rich civilians can easily catch more fish than us. Not only will we gain dividends, they will also be taxed. This will allow the merchant guilds that enter the market to become more active."

After discussing the matter of Northsea's reorganization, Charade brought out another document.

"Your Grace, this is about the end of Governor Hansk's term on Silowas. The garrison commander Molocinque and Vice-Commander Wellickson have reached the end of their terms. How should we deal with this? Do we let them stand for another term?"

Time really flies. Each term lasts five years,

He shook his head.

"No. Transfer the officials and knights whose terms have ended back. We can't have them stay overseas for too long. Have Hector take over as Governor and transfer Hansk back to the dominion. As for Molocinque, isn't Second Sentry lacking a commander? Have him take that post. Let Wellickson serve as one of Northsea's Commodores. The rest of the knights and officials are at your disposal."

"But, Your Grace, who will serve as Hanayabarta's governor?"

"Do you remember Butler Boris? He's been in charge of various matters in our dominion's administration for several years now. Given how hard he's worked to make some contributions, entitle him as an honorary baron at the year-end celebration. He'll serve two governor terms on Hanayabarta. After he returns in ten years, make him a landed noble. Similarly, have the knights and officials transfer to Hanayabarta and serve two terms and promote them when they return."

There was no other choice. Given how far out Hanayabarta was, only promotions and beneficial treatment would be appealing enough for people to accept a position there.

"Then, to which department will Baron Hansk be transferred?"

"Aren't we trying to revamp our roads? Have him take care of it. This is something the prosperity and development of The Northlands depend on. I can rest assured if Hansk is placed in charge. Hey, why are you clicking your tongue?"

Charade laughed coldly.

So this is your 'revenge' against him for causing such a huge commotion over your marriage... Now, his position has fallen from a governor to a traffic planner.

Then again, Baron Hansk's luck with people had always been rather bad. Being an old servant of House Norton, he frequently rode on his seniority when dealing with Charade and the others who came with Lorist to The Northlands. The instances of conflict had decrease quite a bit during his term as governor of Silowas.

After giving it some thought, Charade felt it was best for the man to be taught a lesson by being sent to the wilderness, so he didn't feel obligated to straighten out Lorist's behavior. It was his fault for being so vocal about his objections to Lorist's marriage in the first place. While he hadn't minded Spiel's objection, which was brought to him in private, Hansk's rallying of officials to object in unison was a huge mistake. It wasn't an objection in Lorist's eyes, but rather a threat.

"Nothing. My tongue itched, that's all," said Charade as he hid his disdain for Lorist's payback.

Since they both knew what was going on, there was no point in mentioning it outright.

"Also, the formation of First Sentry is complete. Baron Belnick led the legion to Fort Goldridge, so it should be time for Els to return."

"Right. Have him bring the guards back," Lorist said as he downed a mouthful of macks, "Also, I'm planning to have Els serve as the legion sergeant-major and a colonel of Jaeger as Josk's aide. Reidy will take over as the guard brigade's major with Patt as the brigade sergeant-major. What do you think?"

"The affairs of the guard brigade are not my concern," Charade said with awareness of his position, "But I'm fine with Els being appointed legion sergeant-major of Jaeger. You're finally willing to let him free, huh?"

Lorist laughed.

"It's not that I wasn't willing before. The time just happened to be right now. Both of you are important friends of mine. You're a baron now, so I felt Els should have the opportunity to rake in some achievements to catch up, lest you throw around your status in front of him in the future."

"I don't have the time for that! I'm so busy I don't even have time to get intimate with my wife; I sleep right after returning home. Unlike you, who fucks around in your restroom in the middle of the day," Charade said with a squint, "Also, there's one last thing. Zanben, vice-supervisor of the construction department, reports the duke's manor in Roaring Bear is mostly completed. He hopes you will find the time to make a visit. If you have any part with which you're not satisfied, changes can still be made. I'll let you arrange a visit yourself. I have to take my leave now. There's much more waiting for me..."

At dinner, Sylvia posed a question that greatly unnerved Lorist.

"Locke, did you notice, Anna, Fenli, Daisy, and Maria become more beautiful all of a sudden? It's like their skin is glowing with youth. I asked them how they did it, but they weren't willing to tell me. Do you know?"

Of course... Wasn't it because of the 'moisture' I provided?

Before Lorist thought of how he should answer, the four concubines laughed in unison.

After giving them a harsh glare, he turned to Sylvia and said with a smile, "Perhaps they've been taking enough beauty naps. There's a saying in Morante: 'beauties are born through sleep'. Only enough sleep will maintain a woman's beauty."

"No wonder I don't see them in the morning sometimes. When I visit them in the afternoon, they're still asleep..."

Sylvia felt as if she suddenly understood the secret to beauty. However, she soon revealed a troubled look.

"But Locke, I don't understand how they can sleep like that. I can't do it no matter what after I wake up."

They sleep early because they've been tired out...

Lorist wiped the sweat from his forehead.

"Well, that's to be expected, my dear. You're a two-star gold rank. They don't have battleforce. The energy you have makes it harder for you to sleep. Also, can you visit Roaring Bear in my stead? The city used to be called Gildusk. It's the city in the southern part of The Northlands. The duke's manor was just completely renovated and we will be married there. It will also be our home afterwards. If there's anything with which you're not satisfied, you may ask them to change it."

"Can't you go with me?" asked Sylvia expectantly.

"I'm afraid not. I'm heading to the east, before going to Bladedge Mountains and Northsea. I really don't have the time. I have to trouble you to make the trip on your own. It's going to be our home in the future, so I hope you can make sure it's perfect," said Lorist as he shrugged.

"Alright, I'll make the trip," said Sylvia with a disappointed look.

"What about them?" asked Sylvia as she looked at the other concubines.

"They'll go with you," Lorist decided, "We will all live together, after all. Let them pick their own residences there. You will make the trip together."

That was just in line for Lorist to get some rest. He had been rather troubled by their aggressive advances lately.

Sylvia nodded.

"Alright, Dear. We'll make a quick trip and return.

"Well... you don't have to rush," Lorist said with a pause, "Also, there are many manors belonging to the former nobles and duke. Pick one for each of you and they will be yours. All the income generated by them will belong to you personally, but they're not hereditary. The term of ownership only lasts for your lifetime. As for Sylvia, I've picked Cherry Blossom Ridge for you. You might want to check to see if it's to your liking."

"Kyaaaaaah!" Before Sylvia could reply, the four concubines screamed with excitement and joy.

It was something completely out of their expectations. At first, they were rather unwilling to accompany Sylvia to the southern part of The Northlands, but now they were itching to leave right away. They all rushed to give Lorist hugs and kisses.

"Alright, that's enough," said he with much difficulty as he tried to push them aside.

Seeing that Sylvia was pouting in a corner, he hurriedly went to console her and relieve her jealousy.

How will I spend my days going forward? Too many women is nothing but trouble... thought he as he slumped back into his chair.

Chapter 403 Negotiations

"Negotiation in the diplomatic sense assumes both parties are more anxious to agree than disagree. We weren't anxious at all." ~ Duke Kenmays (name?), in his memoirs, Rise of the Empire, regarding the negotiations between his alliance and House Fisablen.

After sending Sylvia and the concubines off, Lorist prepared to head to the eastern part of The Northlands. But before he could, he received an urgent letter from Kenmays. After more than a month of negotiations, Kenmays and the envoys Duke Fisablen had sent over had finally come to an agreement regarding resuming trade between the salt merchant committee and the Fisablen dominion. Kenmays, Felim, and Shazin would hurry to Firmrock in a few days to meet with him so the agreement could be formally signed and take effect.

Lorist had no choice but to delay his journey; he waited at Firmrock. During the day, he would visit the training grounds behind the mountain to guide Howard in the Dan Ocean Ki-refining Technique while he gave some pointers to Reidy and Jinolio in the ways of the sword. At night, he would sit quietly in his study and read scrolls and documents. Now that the women had left his side, he suddenly felt the world was much calmer.

Kenmays and Shazin arrived after five days, as expected. Felim's arrival was late by a day. Apart from Kenmays expressing his disappointment at Sylvia's absence, he got into the negotiations pretty-much immediately.

"I've upped the prices of 47 products, it's just too bad they aren't big sellers. Don't worry, though, you'll each still get about four hundred thousand each," said Kenmays.

Though he was a duke, he was ever so excited about what little profit he would be gaining from the deal. Naturally, the announcement wasn't directed at Lorist. House Norton only had a ten percent share in the committee, not much at. That they had obtained tens of thousands as dividends over the last few years was already rather good. Like Kenmays had said, quantity was king. House Norton's income came mainly from the production of goods in the factories within their dominion, the good were eight-tenths of all the salt merchant committee's trade stock. That part alone already made the house a hefty sum and its share of three-tenths of all the factories in the dominion would further add to the benefits. It didn't even include the tax yet to be levied.

However, Felim and Shazin's eyes shone brightly upon hearing the figure. Their forces cost them quite a lot to maintain. Even though the soldiers weren't nearly as well taken care of as the Nortons', the costs still amounted to 500 thousand in any given year. With the dividends, their military expenses wouldn't be that huge a burden. While House Norton and House Kenmays contributed financially to the dominion relocation of the two other houses, the help didn't extend to the next year.

Felim looked at the agreement with slight disappointment.

"Why is there no agreement for a ceasefire?"

Even though Felim had already reclaimed the house's old dominion in Southern, it neighbored House Fisablen's. Firmrock was still there holding a tight defense line against House Fisablen's forces and the grassland barbarians. The conflict hadn't yet stopped. Only a ceasefire agreement would allow Felim to rest assured. Otherwise, he couldn't be confident enough to develop his dominion. He would have to mobilize his forces at the slightest commotion.

"Well," Kenmays stammered, before he said embarrassedly, "I apologize. It completely slipped my mind."

He had, in fact, forgot about it. He'd only worried about the prices of products during the negotiations. For example, 50 kilos of salt originally cost one gold Forde, but the current price was five gold for 50 kilograms. Given that the four houses were the victors, Kenmays wanted to get back at House Fisablen as much as he could.

"Don't buy it if you don't have to. I'm sure the plains have lots of salt lumps through which you can crunch." he had said, arrogantly.

He was in a strong position in the negotiation. He completely forgot how great it felt to have all the power. It was common knowledge that salt lumps would cause disease for livestock if consumed after dilution in water. It was, even more, the case with humans; death was a common occurrence. Now House Fisablen was trapped on the plains and had their trade routes cut off, they had no choice but to purchase salt from the four houses. If House Fisablen felt it was too expensive, they didn't have to buy it and could feast on unseasoned food. It wouldn't take more than three months for a huge commotion to break out in the dominion after the supply of salt was cut.

Looking at the envoys' angered and unwilling face as they agreed to the sky-high price, Kenmays felt incomparably elated.

So what if you've occupied the greater and lesser golden creeks and have gold mines in your hands? The gold you dig up will end up with us anyway.

It made him forget the most important point: the ceasefire treaty. In other words, both sides were still in a state of war even if no conflict had broken out between them in a few months.

"Where are the envoys now?" asked Lorist.

"He followed me to Firmrock," answered Kenmays hurriedly, "The negotiation will require your agreement before it can be formalized. Also, the location of the transaction still has to be determined. Also, the two envoys say they want to have an audience with Princess Sylvia."

"Have them come to my guest lounge. I will speak with them," Lorist said before he turned his head to Shazin and Felim, "You two should come along. If Duke Fisablen really admitted his loss, then he will agree to a ceasefire. It would be a relief to him as well since he would no longer have to station any troops on the border."

The two envoys the duke had sent over to negotiate were two old men. The first was tall and had a white goatee. He introduced himself as the house's chief supervisor, Fisablen Aridok. Lorist had heard from Sylvia's two maidservants that Aridok could only barely be considered a member of the house. Though he bore the Fisablen name, he was from a distant branch family. Despite that, he was incredibly loyal to the duke and held his trust. The duke often let him carry out sensitive assignments.

The other was short and fat and felt approachable, with a beaming smile. He introduced himself as Napole; he had no surname. Lorist quickly recalled coming across the name in a list of important people in House Fisablen. Not only had Napole been on the list, he had also been marked for extra attention.

According to the reports, his father was the leader of a small grassland tribe, while his mother was one of the nobles. During one of the raids, his mother had been captured to be a sex slave for the father and Napole was born from their escapades. The tribe was soon swallowed by a larger one, and his father died. His mother was violated to death, leaving Napole a lone orphan-slave. When he turned 16, he secretly contacted Duke Fisablen and orchestrated the large tribe's extermination. It was the first and crucial victory the duke achieved during his expansion of the empire's territory and the formation of Eastwild.

Oddly enough, Napole didn't have an official position in the house. He was a rather mysterious figure. But he was the author of most of the plots Duke Fisablen used against the tribes. Including the reselling of goods purchased from the salt merchant committee, the roping in of the subservient tribes, and the enlistment of barbarian cavalrymen from said tribes to deal with the other tribes that refused to submit. Everything had something to do with the short, fat old man.

As Lorist checked out the two old envoys, they did the same to him. Their gazes soon focused on Lorist alone, despite the leaders of all four houses being present.

The new Duke of The Northlands is really average-looking. His height and looks are average and unappealing, just like any guy one might come across in the street...

In actuality, Lorist wasn't nearly as charismatic and naturally good-looking as Kenmays. Neither was he handsome like Shazin or heroic and dignified like Felim, but the two envoys were brighter than most and didn't easily judge people on their appearance. Additionally, they had heard about the duke's thoughts on the four houses. The duke specifically stated that the truly threatening one was House Norton, or, in other words, Lorist.

And, frankly, the duke didn't really regard the other three seriously. Back in the day, the three houses wouldn't even stand a chance to queue up in the line to kiss his arse even if they wanted. House Kenmays was originally a clan of merchants that had purchased a title from the second prince. The duke considered them nothing but rich imposters. They didn't merit attention.

While House Felim had been quite famous a century earlier, they were a shell of their former selves now. Count Felim fought for the second prince and died on the battlefield during an ambush. It ended with them having to pay to keep their status as landed barons. They couldn't even make the slightest sound as the second prince sent his men to desecrate their ancestral burial site to look for hidden treasure.

As for Count Shazin, his background was even more unworthy of mention. Being a gold-ranked knight that formerly served the old Duke of The Northlands, Loggins, he was ordered to attack House Norton and was taken captive. After that, Duke Loggins made a huge mistake by putting the responsibility on Shazin's loss. As a punishment, he forced Shazin's father to hand over his fief and become their vassal so they wouldn't be labeled as traitors. In the end, when Duke Loggins gathered the Northlander Army to take on House Norton, Shazin sat quietly and watched as the army was dominated and massacred. He even launched his own attack out of nowhere by allying with the enemy and sweeping Duke Loggins' dominion, clean. Not only did Shazin manage to get a huge sum of money, he also inherited most of House Loggins' forces.

Had it not been for Lorist, the other houses would be just a mess. House Fisablen wouldn't have a hard time dealing with them. It would be no different from how he dealt with the Southern nobles that occupied Windbury. But with House Norton's protection, the alliance became a solid and mighty union that everyone had to regard cautiously. So great was their might that they could give even the Andinaq kingdom a run for its money. Their ability to exterminate Madras and Iblia was testament.

And the key to the alliance was House Norton. The one whose decision had real weight was Lorist. It was what the duke told his envoys to remember.

"Please take a seat," Lorist said forthrightly, "Let's not beat around the bush. I want to know of Duke Fisablen's intentions. Is he willing to cease hostilities, or does he merely want to buy time and resist the four houses stubbornly without admitting defeat?"

Aridok rose from his seat and saluted.

"Revered Duke of The Northlands, whether the hostilities are to be ceased is up to you. If you stop invading our lands, hostilities will cease. Everyone knows it was the four houses that started this war. You attacked First Frontier without declaring war first. The duke was forced to resist as a result. Even though we are currently in a disadvantageous position, we will not submit to threats of force. Just like how we defeated Jaeger in Wild Husbandry, we are confident we can obtain victory in the end."

Lorist laughed.

"Ever the stubborn ones! Your mouths are harder to crack than a duck's bill! Very well, if you don't admit defeat, all the better for us. I've always wanted to bring my forces to House Fisablen's grasslands for a stroll. Worry not, we will carry out our deal according to the trade agreement. War is war and business is business. As long as you have the money, I won't stop the goods."

"I object, Your Grace, your actions oppress a prestigious house of the former empire. This is an act all nobles scorn. Not only will you be unable to execute your plans, House Norton will also be denounced by the peace-loving and nobles..."

"Oh, really?" Lorist said with a cold laugh, "The former empire is gone, lost in the ashes of the fire set by the three princes themselves. Let me remind you that the four houses side with Andinaq. His Highness Auguslo is the true heir to the throne and House Fisablen stands with a traitor prince. You call our attack unrighteous, but, to us, we're merely trying to quell a rebellion. In contrast, the actions of your duke in the capital of Windbury is the issue more worthy of spreading and scrutinizing..."

Supervisor Aridok was completely speechless.

However, Napole stood up immediately.

"Revered Duke, our duke doesn't wish to engage in war. He has always believed his true enemies are the barbarian tribes on the northeastern great plains. Actually, our duke was most pained by the war that broke out between us. If our duke is willing to cease hostilities, how would you treat House Fisablen?"

Lorist shrugged.

"Given the history between us, military negotiations and talk of trade in military equipment are out of the question. If House Fisablen really wishes to cease hostilities, keep your forces no less than 50 kilometers away from the border. If there is any incident that requires our attention, you must first inform our border guard. All your trade deals will also have to go through salt merchant committee. At the same time, your house's military affairs will be transparent. If there is any movement you want to undertake, you must first inform us. Other than that, Wild Husbandry is important to the safety of The Northlands, so we want to have the rights to station troops there for our safety."

"Not possible. Why don't you retreat from the border? Why can't we station any troops in The Northlands?" objected Aridok with a furious start.

"Simple: we're the victors," Lorist said with the heavy hand of the winning side, "Does Duke Fisablen want peace… or war?"

Though Aridok had wanted to argue, Napole gave his arm a grab. The tall geriatric shut up and lowered his head.

"Your Grace, we have already sent Princess Sylvia over as proof of our intention," replied Napole humbly.

Lorist stood up.

"Since Duke Fisablen's mind is made, then you may discuss the details of the ceasefire with Duke Kenmays. But I have to say I'm not in favor of how Duke Fisablen treated Princess Sylvia."

"Your Grace, we would like to pay the princess a visit. I wonder if we may?"

"Apologies, Sylvia has made her way to the duke's manor in Roaring Bear. You should know where it is. She's gone to check out her new residence. Also, I'd like to mention that I will be holding my wedding ceremony there in the 11th month. Sylvia will be my wife. She will become the matron of House Norton. I extend my heartfelt invitations to Duke Fisablen to visit so he may participate in his granddaughter's grand wedding. I will graciously await his arrival."

After Lorist finished, he turned and left coldly.

Chapter 404 Salt Merchant Committee

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in servant's garbs and looks like work." ~ Duke Kenmays on his decision to manage the salt merchant committee.

The blade cut as quickly as it fell. With but a few words, Lorist set the terms of the armistice in stone and left. All that was left was to negotiate the smaller details. Even if the alliance was the victor, the terms of House Fisablen's surrender couldn't cause them to lose sovereignty and be completely humiliated. The world of Grindia was unlike Lorist's previous one. The conditions he'd put forward were already rather excessive relatively speaking.

Normally, when two houses fought, the losing side would have to pay a large sum in wealth to end the war. If they didn't have money, they could cede part of their dominion, or pay regular tributes. Naturally, there would be additional interest if the price was paid in installments. Lorist didn't need House Fisablen's money, however. Now that they had cut off their trade routes, The house's wealth would be sucked out by the salt merchant committee sooner or later anyway. It was a longer term money-making solution.

Even after the armistice was signed, Lorist wouldn't let his guard down against House Fisablen. Only damned fools would think the war was over and everything was fine after the signing of an armistice. However, the most important conditions of the armistice were the retreat of House Fisablen's forces 50 kilometers away from the border and the ability to station troops in Wild Husbandry. At the very least, it would give Lorist more time to react to sudden changes as well as limit House Fisablen's ability to choose the battlefield.

Two days later, Kenmays brought the armistice's draft to Lorist to look over. Apart from the perfunctory explanation that the conflict between the two houses started because of a misunderstanding, the clauses on the retreat of House Fisablen's troops and the necessity to notify the four houses' garrison forces about any military movements were included. Similarly, any military mobilization of the four houses' garrison had to be announced beforehand to prevent any misunderstanding.

"These conditions don't apply to the assault legions stationed at the border of the two sides, only the garrison forces. Why so?" asked Lorist.

Kenmays hurriedly explained.

"Supervisor Aridok and the other envoy insisted on fair treatment. They mentioned that even after House Fisablen's forces retreat 50 kilometers behind their borders, the presence of Firmrock Legion at the borders of Southern and Eastwild unnerves them. They requested that only garrison forces would be allowed to be stationed at the borders. No offensive military force of any kind may be stationed at the border. Since we already ceased hostilities, I thought it didn't really matter, so I agreed."

"Sheesh, you're always giving me more trouble," Lorist said as he glared at Kenmays with a smile, before he instructed, "Jinolio, after this, have a copy of this ceasefire agreement made for Potterfang. Tell him tomorrow to change the name of Firmrock into Firmrock Garrison and call it a sentry legion. Don't make any changes beyond that. Also, send this fellow here a bill for the costs of changing the legion's banners."

Kenmays shrugged.

"Come on, you're being far too petty. You can't even pay a hundred-odd gold Fordes out of your own pocket?"

Lorist ignored him and continued reading the document. What followed were the stipulations of trade. In actuality, after the signing of the agreement, all things in which House Fisablen wanted to trade, ranging from the smallest piece of paper or salt crystal to things like cows and horses had to go through the salt merchant committee. For example, the things they purchased from the committee just recently was actually worth not more than 600 thousand gold Fordes. A few years earlier, they could have purchased it for around 800 thousand gold Fordes. But now, the hiked prices pushed it as high as two million. It was no wonder Kenmays proclaimed so gleefully that Felim and Shazin could get up to 400 thousand gold Fordes in dividends.

In matters of trade, Kenmays was still reliable. The fellow loved being the middleman and would be more than happy to take in goods with his left and sell them with his right. At most, he had to coordinate their transport. He was completely unlike Lorist, who liked to develop his dominion. According to Kenmays's own words, not only did developing means of production contain great risk, the value of the good would depreciate if they couldn't be traded. If the cost of production is high, the product would also lose its edge against its competitors. From time to time, funds would also have to be provided to develop new or improved versions of the products. All of it was rather troublesome and far more stressful than merely reselling goods like he did.

After reading the last clause, Lorist expressed his dissatisfaction.

"What's this? House Fisablen refused to recognize our occupation of the whole of Wild Husbandry?"

"I had no choice. I said all I could, they were only willing to compromise up to Soxius. We can occupy everything North of it, but everything south of it is still theirs, effectively splitting Wild Husbandry in two. They said occupying half of Wild Husbandry would be enough to ensure The Northlands' safety. I've tried my best, but I couldn't convince them otherwise. So I had no choice but to bring it to you as it is now," said Kenmays as he made a helpless expression

The territory did include a good portion of Wild Husbandry, two-thirds of it, in fact. But much of it was raided by Jaeger quite early on in the war. It was desolate and ruined. House Fisablen's Fourth Frontier suffered defeat after defeat following the ambush, causing what remained of their forces to escape to Soxius and stand guard there. It wasn't until Duke Fisbablen's arrival and ambush with 100 thousand barbarian cavalrymen that Wild Husbandry was reclaimed. The armistice would recognize the Nortons' occupation of the land already conquered by Jaeger.

It seemed this was the duke's baseline. Since the part of Wild Husbandry to the north of Soxius was ruined, it'd be better to let the Nortons have it as a show of sincerity. After a moment of silence, Lorist decided.

"Then let's leave it as is. Have them sign."

"There's another question we need to settle," Kenmays said, "How long do you want the armistice to last?"

Armistices, and their associated conditions, had limited terms. It was a sacred agreement in the Wargod's name that the sides involved would not take hostile military action against one another for the time the agreement was valid. When the armistice expired, however, the two sides could continue the war or negotiate an extension. If both sides reconciled during that time, however, a peace treaty could be signed and neither side would treat the other as an enemy any longer. Trade would resume and borders would reopen. The number of troops stationed at the borders would also be decreased to save on military costs.

Lorist laughed.

"Let the two envoys go back to the duke and decide this for themselves. They're free to choose how long they want, be it one or three years. We don't need to bother ourselves with what House Fisablen believes, even if they think they can recover and get back at us. The moment they strike, we will give them an even harsher lesson. Maybe, we can inflict so much pain on them they'd rather die instead. This is the extent of our might."

Kenmays was completely stoked after hearing what Lorist had said and could feel his blood boiling.

"Alright. I'll tell them, word for word. They'll be allowed to consult the duke and are free to choose how long they want the armistice to last. We couldn't be bothered to care. But the next time they dare to attack us again, the price of our products will no longer be as low as they are now... We'll double them at the very least..."

After saying that, Kenmays marched out of the door arrogantly. But just as he exited, he suddenly stopped in his tracks and walked back in.

"Um, Locke... I'd like to ask you something. Baron Charade mentioned that you're going to sell a large number of LLDAM-class vessels approximately 70 percent complete. Is that true?"

Sheesh, can't you discuss private matters after finishing the official ones first?

Lorist nodded, nonetheless.

"Yes. The house is cutting Oceanic, so we have a lot of large and small ships we aren't going to use."

"Are you going to sell them all?"

"No. I will announce this during the year-end celebration, as well as the development of Northsea, Bullhorn Bay, and Silowas. The rest of the boats will be auctioned off to the nobles and merchants so they form their own guilds to start trading and fishing."

"Oh, so that's it..." Kenmays said with a dismayed expression, "I thought you would simply sell the ships instead of holding an auction. I didn't think you were planning to do that."

"Haha," Lorist laughed loudly, "Do you wanna bet for how much these ships will sell? Here I am worried that I don't have enough to meet demand, and you want to buy them cheap? That's not good, you know. Then again, I suppose you can invest in the guilds. Maybe, you can even form a guild yourself."

"I won't form a guild since trading at sea is not my specialty. It doesn't feel nearly as safe as relying on you anyway. So, that's out of the question. The salt merchant committee already tires me out enough as it is. Also, the committee has the ability to trade at sea. The order our house made at your shipyard was so we could form our own merchant fleet. But the house's will also have to go through the salt merchant committee to get goods to trade. At most, I'll give them some small benefits, nothing huge," said Kenmays gleefully.

Lorist was completely speechless looking at Kenmays, who was even prepared to profit at his father's expense. However, he couldn't help but admit that Kenmays was an incredibly intelligent man who understood the true extent of the benefits of cozying up to a huge backer. The salt merchant committee was Kenmays's self-run business. He had a five-tenths share of the company and also took half of the profits it generated. The other half was split between Felim, Shazin, and Lorist. Lorist owned only a tenth of the committee whereas Shazin and Felim each owned two-tenths. At first, the three houses, save for the Nortons, each owned three-tenths. But Felim and Shazin felt bad for profiting off it for doing nothing, so they each gave a tenth to Kenmays and left him completely in charge.

The committee was originally formed as a joke, they didn't think Kenmays would grow it into the largest merchant guild in the eastern area of The Northlands. It traded in goods to upwards of 300 thousand gold Fordes annually. It became an essential source of income for the four houses. To Felim and Shazin, who couldn't manage finances well, the committee's dividends were a great help. Kenmays himself also got quite a lot of benefits, so many that he could take out nearly a million gold Fordes' in wealth and supplies to aid House Shazin and House Felim during their dominion's relocation.

On one occasion, a conversation between Kenmays and his father spread to Lorist's ears through Furybear's agents. Kenmays's father said he shouldn't give up on the family business for the sake of running the salt merchant committee. But, when Kenmays brought out the committee's accounts, the color drained from his father's face almost immediately. Kenmays's intentions were clear: the committee's turnover had long exceeded that of the house's business. Kenmays mentioned that he was already used to trading in excess of millions of gold Fordes, and that the house's entire business wouldn't even amount to one million -- not worth mentioning at all.

Enraged, his father said that no matter how small the house's business was, it was still something their house owned. He mentioned that Kenmays running the salt merchant committee so successfully was a waste of his talents since half of the profit was earned by others, and that Kenmays had to occasionally take a smaller cut to help Felim and Shazin out by rounding up their dividends. His father also complained about how Kenmays didn't allow his house to gain any benefits as seen with his punishment of one member that faked accounts to get some benefits in the committee. Apart from firing him, a large number of people from House Kenmays were kicked out as well.

Kenmays merely laughed and called his father old for not being able to see the situation clearly. The four houses had already united in alliance, and House Kenmays had the weakest military of the four. They couldn't even compare with House Norton when it came to funds. He was thankful that the three were even willing to form an alliance with his house, and the reason he focused so much of his effort on running the committee was that he wanted to do his best to contribute to the alliance. If the three other houses were really interested in going all out in business, they would've hired their own men to run the committee and kick House Kenmays out. That way, they would earn even more.

Since they had placed their trust in him, he wouldn't let them down. He mentioned that even if House Kenmays's own business got a large deal, apart from having to take care of the capital themselves, they would even have to bow their head to the other nobles and bribe them for their favor. Even if the deal got 300 thousand in profit, less than 100 thousand of it would be left for them. If they were unlucky, their efforts would probably end up wasted and they would only have themselves to blame.

But the committee had House Norton, House Felim and House Shazin backing it. With that much might behind them, they didn't have to bow down like House Kenmays's own business. They could reach anywhere within the four houses' sphere of influence. In fact, he was confident that as the influence of the four expanded, the committee could even connect to thus far uncharted territories and perhaps develop into a body not inferior to the Union's big-seven guilds.

Kenmays told his father the reason he worked so hard to manage the committee was his determination to make the alliance last as long as possible. Whether it be providing huge financial support to House Felim or rounding up the dividend of Count Shazin, it was all for the sake of the alliance's longevity. House Kenmays's position among the four houses could only grow more and more secure this way. And with the four's development, the house would truly be included in the ranks of the traditional peerage instead of being considered as an outlier commoner who happened to be rich.

After hearing what Kenmays had to say, his father thought silently for a long time before he finally sighed. Soon after he called a household meeting where he abdicated and gave his son his position. He made it clear that he would only manage the household business in the future. All household affairs would be managed how Kenmays saw it without question.

That was the real reason Lorist trusted Kenmays so much. Only when the alliance had members who were aware of their position could the alliance last and develop in the long term.

"Alright, stop showing off," Lorist said as he tapped on Kenmays's shoulder.

"Since you're prepared to take the committee to the seas, hear a bit of my advice. You may purchase a fleet for the committee, but don't form a large one just yet. Test the waters first, if you will. As for the safety at sea, it's nothing about which you have to worry. House Norton's Northsea will protect the vessels. However, it's on you to establish the market. As the old saying goes, 'the man who leaves sooner than others picks the best apples.'"

"I know. After sending the two envoys off, I'll go look for Baron Charade," said Kenmays as he left joyfully.

Chapter 405 The Storm Brews Again

"Joe, have you recovered?"

The moment Lorist entered Jaeger's campsite, he saw Josk drenched in sweat training with his green longbow. It seemed he had been training for quite a while. Upon seeing them arrive, Josk hurriedly bowed.

"Your Grace, I've more or less recovered. I feel like I have moss growing on me -- I was in bed for three months!. I've been busy with recuperation training for the last two days."

"You should watch your condition. Your injuries have just started to recover. You know haste makes waste," Lorist said as he dismounted and handed his horse's reins to Jinolio, "Some introductions are due. This is the gold-ranked Divine Marksman, Baron Josk. Josk, this is Jinolio, my new attendant."

Josk wiped the sweat from his face with a linen cloth and nodded.

"Where's Howard?"

"He's in seclusion training like Reidy. It'll last two years."

Josk noticed Els.

"Hey, Els..."

He walked up to him and give him a bear hug.

Lorist smiled.

"Joe, Els is Jaeger's legion sergeant-major now and the colonel of his own division. He's yours now. I'm relieved you get along."

"Great," Josk exclaimed excitedly, "I was just worrying about having no one to help me since Yuriy's still injured. This is great news."

"How's Yuriy recovering?"

"The herbalist said his injuries are recovering well. But he will need more than a year to retrain his battleforce."

Lorist nodded.

"I'll send him to Roaring Bear to recover by my side. Maybe I can help him increase his speed. Also, Jaeger's ranks should be filled by now, right?"

"I'm not too sure," Josk said, hesitantly, "You know Waxima's usually in charge of such things. I've never asked. But seeing how busy the camp is, I suppose they're full."

"Good. Apart from the 3500 new recruits from the dominion, there are another ten thousand transfers from Local Defense to Jaeger. The remaining 30 thousand used to be elite cavalrymen in Madras' armies. Now you've mostly recovered, I can stop worrying. Use the remainder of the year to train. You'll deploy in Wild Husbandry spring next year."

"Are we finally going to take revenge?" asked Josk, elated.

Lorist shook his head.

"I know this might disappoint you, but the alliance has negotiated an armistice. It will take effect after Duke Fisablen decides the term and sends it back. We'll deploy in Wild Husbandry next year because in the armistice House Fisablen will recognize our occupation of half of the province up to Soxius. In essence, we've retaken the territory Jaeger conquered."

Josk was silent for a moment before he cleared his throat.

"Your Grace, we were far too incompetent... Our loss brought the house shame."

Lorist took up Josk's shirt hung on a nearby pole and slung it at his body.

"This isn't your fault. Jaeger managed to sweep Wild Husbandry and send Fourth Frontier running haggardly in the early days. This is already far beyond my expectations. Your loss was due to the insidious duke. Even I wouldn't fare much better if I were in your position."

Josk put on his clothes, tidied himself and guided everyone into the main tent. He had the guards blow the horn to summon the commanders, Josk kept his position as the legion's general. Els was made legion sergeant-major and colonel, and given command of his own division. Waxima was made legion sergeant-major as well and chief logistics officer. Many others were made majors, with command of brigades, and captains, with command of regiments. Eidelwoke, commander of the 23rd local defense brigade, who had successfully managed to defend Pedro, had been transferred to Jaeger and given the position of division sergeant-major and major, with his own brigade command.

After the new positions were announced, everyone discussed the lessons learned from their loss and also announced a few new measures. First, Lorist was changing Jaeger's loadout. Two years of experimentation had shown that Jaeger's current loadout was rather lacking in actual battle. Coupled with the fact that many sets of the loadout ended up in House Fisablen's hands after the legion's defeat, the house had to change the style and color to prevent the enemy from sneaking in unnoticed. The remaining 20 thousand sets would be reclaimed and stored.

Second, the house would not provide Jaeger with new carroballistae. It was also a decision Lorist had made personally. He'd had a discussion with Charade, Freiyar, Belnick, and several other knights at Firmrock about the circumstances behind Jaeger's defeat. The revelations were shocking. Pete's third division had been encircled and eradicated because it had two extra brigades of carroballistae. It had also enabled Duke Fisablen to attack Yuriy's second division who approached to reinforce the third.

"Jaeger is predominantly light cavalry. The main threat of light cavalry isn't their offensive power, but their impressive mobility that allows them to come and go unannounced. Why were Duke Fisablen's light cavalry legions able to pose such a threat? He doesn't have carroballistae with impressive firing range, yet every time he comes for us, we have to face him with full alertness like we're facing a great foe.

"The reason is that we're afraid he could strike our weaknesses. Our supply line, medical stations, and food stores can easily be sabotaged. The whole legion will be affected if they're hit. It's because of those factors we lose the initiative in confrontations with their light cavalry and have to watch for them fearfully. Light cavalry should be quick to move and fast as lightning when they attack. They are the best tools for penetration, stalling, sealing, pursuing and reconnaissance.

"The carroballistae is one of the most threatening ranged weapons in our arsenal. Even though they also have rather high mobility, they're slow in comparison to light cavalry. Giving Jaeger carroballistae is like chaining a horse to a carriage. It would lose the ability to run and escape quickly. Had Pete not had the burden of two carroballistae brigades, he could've escaped in any direction the moment he noticed the grassland barbarians approach.

"It would make it near impossible for 100 thousand barbarians to encircle third division. Had the two carroballistae brigades not been present, all it would have taken to break out was to charge in a direction. There's no way the grassland barbarians could've held them back. It's such a shame that Colonel Pete had no choice but to stand his ground because of the two carroballistae brigades.

"We have to learn. You're the house's only light cavalry legion, I have hopes for everyone in Jaeger. Though House Fisablen's frontier legions are our enemy, we have to learn some of their strengths. They are the strongest light cavalry force in the former empire. We have to learn from our failure. We must surpass them and the house will definitely provide you with the best equipment we can. I hope by the time you return to the great northeastern plains, you will be unstoppable."

Lorist turned to Josk.

"Joe, I'm marrying Sylvia in the 11th month. The marriage will be in Roaring Bear I'd like you to be my best man."

Josk didn't say a word.

Lorist smiled.

"Joe, marrying Sylvia isn't the same as making peace with House Fisablen. I personally believe Duke Fisablen will be our most formidable enemy as long as he remains alive. Please don't fault Sylvia for her identity. She's been abandoned by the Fisablens."

"Your Grace, I believe you, but I don't want to attend your wedding, nor do I want to be your best man. Would that be alright?"

"No. Just look at the friends I have around me; even Els got married. You're the only one I have to be my best man. If you get married before the 11th, I won't force you."

Josk wore a look of exasperation.

"Then I'd rather be your best man."

"Thank you, Joe."

Lorist thought to himself happily, I managed to rope another one.

The next morning, Lorist found Tarkel bumbling towards him with ragged breath.

"What's up, Tarkel?"

"Y-y-y-your Grace... Battle has... b-broken out..."

"Battle? Who attacked?"

"No... not us... n-n-n-nobody attacked us... Y-y-your Grace, let me catch my breath..."

Tarkel rested for a moment before he recovered.

"I almost choked to death. The strong wind didn't help either."

"Alright, stop complaining. Where did you say battle broke out? Did it happen between the second highness and the Union? Or did he attack the four central duchies?"

Lorist unleashed a flurry of questions at once.

"It's not the second highness, Your Grace. It's the Forde Trade Union and the mid-southern kingdoms. It started a month ago," said Tarkel as he took out a huge stack of newspapers from the Union.

"So they finally started fighting... The lightning has been striking without any sign of rain for well over a year now. The real deal finally began."

Lorist breathed a sigh of relief. Time really flies. Lorist recalled the conflict back in Morante when he brought Kenmays and the others there for a trip was something that happened four years back. He had convinced Academy Head Levins to move Dawn Academy to The Northlands. Dawn had already been operating for two years straight and had about a thousand new students.

After the unfortunate experience in Morante, President Peterson expressed his apologies. Lundmorde, who stayed at Morante sent word that the big-seven guilds had punished the newly entitled nobles by confiscating the titles of a few dozen who caused too much trouble and sending more than ten to the gallows. In the end, they managed to stabilize the situation and established a code of conduct for the newly entitled nobles. Also, they made the new nobles pledge to not do anything uncivil and also legislated regulations on how one could manage their dominion.

After the situation stabilized, the big-seven began talks with the surrounding kingdoms and duchies in hopes they could reopen the trade routes and stop seeing the Union as an enemy, essentially returning their relationships to how it had been before the war. The Union also pledged they wouldn't set their sights on their new neighbor's territory and tried their best to restore amicable relations.

The shape of the Grindian continent resembled a really uneven shuttle small in the north and large in the south with a few cracks. The area inhabited by humans encompassed only two-thirds of the continent and looked a little like a crescent moon. The northmost area inhabited by humans was The Northlands, which was actually near the middle of the continent. Further north, and separated by the Magic Dragon mountain range were the wildlands where humans had yet to set foot. It was marked by the endless stretches of ancient forests and domineering mountain ranges.

Stretching south from The Northlands was the territory of the largest superpower in days long gone, the Krissen Empire. Forde Trade Union's territory started in the Falik Plains. Around the Union were kingdoms and duchies of varying sizes. Including the Union, there were around 34 nations and they were known as the 34 mid-southern countries. Further south was where the second and third-ranked superpowers among the three great nations on Grindia, the Romon Empire and the Khawistan Khanate respectively. Neighboring the two greats was the Kalia kingdom. All three had a swordsaint. It was precisely because of the swordsaints' presence that the Romon Empire and the Khawistan Khanate -- who used to fight frequently -- had managed to maintain a fragile peace for the last three decades. Kalia also managed to remain safe despite neighboring the two large superpowers because of its own swordsaint.

Further south was the great Amanjiro channel where the Cinque peninsula was located. There were five or six nations on the peninsula whom fought constantly. They had been in conflict for a few centuries, but none had managed to win. But due to its position at the southernmost tip of the continent, the peninsula was quite poor and had never garnered the attention of the mainland. Even the Romon Empire, nearest to them, didn't bother to annex the forest-filled, barren, and undeveloped peninsula.

After the War of Glass, the Union had absorbed the territory of nine nations. Coupled with the Lormo duchy, which had seceded from the Krissen Empire, as well as the two provinces of the now defunct Redlis, the Union was now the nation with the largest territory on the continent. At the same time, the 34 mid-southern nations that stood united to resist the three superpowers north and south lost ten of their members. Faced with the Union's domination, the remaining nations united to seal off the Union's trade routes and cut off all relations with it. It was a heavy blow to the unprepared Union.

After the big-seven stabilized the Union's internal affairs, they began talks, but there was hardly any progress. As a result, the Union formed two standing legions of 140 thousand men and stationed them on their borders. The 24 mid-southern nations didn't cower, though, they mobilized nearly 200 thousand soldiers to guard their side of the borders. Both sides remained in a stalemate for more than a year and ended up going to war. It seemed that both were unable to withstand the huge amount of resources it took to sustain such armies, so they decided to duke it out for a quick conclusion.

"Your Grace, two months ago, the Romon Empire and Khawistan Khanate went to war yet again," Tarkel informed, "Romon eliminated Kalia as well and the windstorm swordsaint's whereabouts are unknown."

Oh, then again, the two nations are too far away from The Northlands... Lorist didn't really care.

"There's another piece of bad news. Lundmorde was forcefully conscripted and sent to the frontlines. The Union announced this matter concerned all of its citizens and they would have to fulfill their civil duties by joining the military. The reports we just got from Morante were collected and sent back by Lundmorde's four wives. They arrived half a month later than usual.".

What?! Poor Lundmorde...

Chapter 406 Inspection

"Gossip is a very dangerous tool. We should be more wary of the gossiper than the gossip they bring." ~ Tarkel

Lundmorde hadn't told his wives that he was collecting information for the house. What Lorist wanted was current news and details about the situation and movements of the surrounding nations. The most crucial information he required was the military deployments and other movements of those nations. However, the reports from the newspapers of Morante Tarkel brought over were merely gossip and hearsay. They mostly contained odd erotica and chivalric romance without a trace of actual political information.

There were twelve issues of a small tabloid called 'Moonlit Tales' included among the things sent back. They contained twelve chapters of a serial erotica with a female protagonist whose husband was a sailor. The story was roughly about how after the protagonist's husband set sail, twelve handsome and rich princes on white horses showed up out of nowhere. The novel described in detail the protagonist's complex emotions and psychological state. After the protagonist spent night after night in debauchery with the twelve men, she made up her mind to run away from home with one of them. However, another prince who deeply loved her was jealous and hateful. After killing the lucky man, he committed suicide. Given how the situation changed, the remaining ten princes left the protagonist. All she could do was sit by her windowsill alone day after day, waiting for her husband's return.

Pfffft!

Lorist was having breakfast when he decided to browse the tabloids. The moment he read about the twelve nights of pleasure, he spat all the food in his mouth out immediately. Fortunately, he had been eating alone. It would've been far too rude otherwise.

Isn't this plot far too ridiculous? I even thought it would be that kind of stereotypical story where the protagonist would gradually get to know the twelve princes and they would seduce her one after another and mate like rabbits. The author even described every interaction as peaceful and moving and also flushed out the protagonist's state of mind. The readers no doubt had no choice but to join in. I didn't think there would be such a twist. This erotica changed into tragedy in a flash! It's just like having a bucket of cold water dumped on you just as things are getting exciting! It's like being rendered impotent all of a sudden! The author's kidding, right? I wonder how many people curse their name for this kind of ending...

He imagined at least one of Lundmorde's wives actually read stories like this as a hobby. It seemed there was a good chance he would be cheated on. However, he did wonder why Lundmorde was sent to the frontlines. While he was a two-star silver rank, his swordsmanship was nothing of note. He was only good as a second rank herbalist. Perhaps the Union had quite a lot of casualties, hence their need for Lundmorde's talents as a herbalist.

Putting aside the matter of Lundmorde's conscription, the conflict between the Union and the mid-southern nations was big enough news itself. The only thing was he lived too far to the north and couldn't get first-hand information on the situation. Formerly, the reports Lundmorde collected for the house would be sent through Peterson Merchant Guild when their trading fleet headed to Silowas. Needless to say, it was a rather time-consuming process; at least half a month would have passed by by the time the reports made their way to The Northlands.

The house had trained messenger eagles and established a communications system but Lundmorde wasn't equipped with similar facilities. The messenger eagles couldn't carry too much, they were difficult to train, and there were people who yearned for such eagles. The house had once tried to supply Lundmorde with an eagle. But nobles from the Union had forcefully bought the eagle in less than three days. Fortunately, it flew back to The Northlands soon after. As for Lundmorde, his house in Morante was ransacked for days on end until the nobles were sure the eagle hadn't made it back to Lundmorde.

After finishing breakfast, Lorist had Jinolio call Tarkel.

"You should send someone to Morante to teach Lundmorde's wives the proper method to collect reports and information instead of collecting and sending back a random assortment of gossip and advertisements and stuffing rotten yammer, thinking they can pass it off as the real deal," Lorist said as he pointed at the documents, "Just look at this report here, it's basically nothing but Union propaganda about how the conflict broke out because of the mid-southern nations demands for the Union to hand back the territory they occupied.

"The the mid-southern nations' army would have to be insane before they'd make those kinds of demands. Those eradicated nations have long lost the successors to the ruling families. These merchants are truly far more ruthless than nobles. What's the point of reforming those nations if the successors are no longer there? Also, would the Union really agree to spit out the meat it has swallowed? There must be some other reason for the war. Not only are we unable to gain anything from these tabloids, they're just spewing crap to trick people into buying them."

"Very well, Your Grace. I'll send someone. I was just thinking of sending some people to Morante to find out why Lundmorde was conscripted," Tarkel said some hesitation, "But Your Grace, what's that about 'yammer' Do you mean yam?"

Lorist gave it some thought and came up with an explanation. "Back when I was studying at Morante, I heard my neighbors talk about this merchant at the nearby crop market who would stuff rotten yams that wouldn't sell among the good ones. That's how that saying came about."

Tarkel said with a look of admiration, "Your Grace, your wisdom stretches far and wide."

Lorist's face reddened slightly.

"Spare me the flattery and just focus on your job. Send someone to Morante to teach Lundmorde's wives how to collect proper information while investigating whether Lundmorde was forcefully conscripted or whether he offended someone he shouldn't have. Or, the Union has entered a state of general mobilization because the start of the conflict went rather badly. Make sure to find out about the circumstances that led to the war. As for Lundmorde, I believe he's been sent to the frontlines to serve as herbalist for the injured, so he shouldn't be in immediate danger. However, it's best if the people you send can find him quickly and serve as his guard."

"Noted, Your Grace," Tarkel said as he turned to leave.

Lorist stopped him.

"Wait, Tarkel," said he with a furrowed brow, pacing around the tent non-stop until Tarkel felt dizzy from following Lorist with his eyes.

"Since the break-out of war a month ago, has the second highness made any moves? He should be the one most delighted by this turn of events and start something huge in the meantime. It's extremely weird that he hasn't made any moves yet. His silence is far too weird. I'm not used to

"Your Grace, the first thing we did after we received word of the war was check on the second highness. We set up three messenger eagle stations around the capital, but all three report nothing out of the ordinary. The second highness hasn't acted at all, neither has the imperial local defense legion nor Whitelion received any orders. I just sent someone else to confirm. We should hear from him in a few days."

"Very well. I know how meticulous you can be. Go about your business and make sure to keep an eye on the second highness. I'm worried this king is up to something no good again," praised Lorist with a satisfactory nod.

The first thing on his itinerary was the visit to Jaeger's camp. He would then head to Goldridge to check on the mining facilities' construction and the early mining operations. He would thereafter travel to Northsea before finally heading to Bladedge Mountains. He would visit Nico Academy to check on Telesti and his two beloved daughters and head to the gunpowder research laboratory, the black iron refinery and the weapons forgery. It would be the start of the 8th month by the time returned to Firmrock after the whole trip.

Lots of construction was going on at Moonspring, situated along the way to Goldridge. The town was located beside the lake where the 100-thousand-strong barbarian army had been defeated. It would be the supply point for Fort Goldridge and the mine. As the lake was shaped like the circular moon, Lorist named it Moonspring, so the new town under construction came to be called Moonspring as well.

The first stages of the road construction from Moonspring to Goldridge was already complete. It was a road half a meter above the Black Forest's ground level, wide enough for four carriages to cross side by side. The road was built so the house could send reinforcements to Fort Goldridge in case of a barbarian army attack. The path still required some time for the clay and stones to be made secure and strong. Not only would it have to be flattened and leveled well, they also had to prevent it from collapsing in heavy rainstorms during the rainy season.

It took less than half a day to arrive at Fort Goldridge. Even though the trip was uneventful, the sites along the way were rather garish given the heads staked along the branches of the trees. According to one of the supervisors in charge of the construction project, the captive barbarians often tried to escape during the first month of the project. There would be more than a hundred barbarians captured daily and they were beheaded and had their heads staked through the tree branches along the road as a warning for the other barbarians who were considering a desperate escape. The captives only started behaving more obediently after about four thousand of them were killed.

Having been a dominion lord for more than a decade, Lorist was cold enough to no longer be bothered by such things. He pretended that he didn't see the heads at all. Jinolio, however, was but a 16-year-old boy. He hadn't seen such a harrowing sight ever before and shivered on the back of his horse. Lorist gave him a glance.

"Puff your chest out and sit tight. This is nothing worth mentioning or being afraid of. If you've seen the sea of corpses of the poor folk of Silowas left behind by the horrid slave traders and the human head pyramid I erected on Hanayabarta, you will not mind something like this."

"Yes, Your Grace," said Jinolio as he sat straight up. Even though he still felt a little apprehensive about looking at the heads, at least he was no longer shivering.

Belnick came to greet them with a regiment of troops. Fort Goldridge's basic construction was done and the rest of the work was progressing smoothly. According to Belnick, the fort and walls' construction was proceeding incredibly well without any interruption by the mountain barbarians. Perhaps after the extermination of their army, they had learned the true might of House Norton and no longer dared to cross them lest disaster befell them again.

Spiel was still at the gold mine busying himself over designing a better set of protocols to regulate the mined gold. Grandmaster Sid, on the other hand, had left two months ago, leaving his eldest son in charge of the development of new mining facilities and ways to transport the mined ore.

Satisfied with what he saw, Lorist left for Northsea after resting for two days.

He was surprised to find that Kenmays was still loitering around the city when he arrived. Kenmays also excitedly informed Lorist that he had just purchased 6 LLDM class vessels as well as 18 MAM class vessels in the name of the salt merchant committee for the fleet he was building. He was also setting up a firm for the committee in Northsea which included an office and a storage area. However, he did complain about how he couldn't buy ownership over property and only the rights to use them, making it so that he had to request official permission to even renovate the buildings as well as being taxed heavily on an annual basis for usage of the land.

Lorist shrugged and answered that he didn't have a choice since it was the land of House Norton. As the inheritor of the position of house leader, he alone had no rights to sell the rights of the house's land to others, so selling the rights to use the land was a compromise he had to make. The house would still retain ownership over the land whereas those who bought the rights to use the buildings or land could continue about their business without affecting the development of the dominion.

Kenmays however quickly and acutely noticed the hidden implications in Lorist's words, which reminded him of the two special sectors at the southern part of The Northlands where land was sold exclusively to nobles. He found another lucrative business model and pestered Lorist to talk about it in detail with him, but Lorist didn't have time to entertain him. So, he sent Kenmays off to look for Kedan after agreeing that he would consider Kenmays's plan to develop the real estate industry in the seven towns of Felicitas.

After checking on the reorganized Northsea Fleet and the shipyard at Bullhorn Bay, Lorist headed to Nico Academy. Telesti had already heard of the news of Lorist's marriage with Sylvia that would take place during the 11th month. Even though she insisted that she would remain single given her oath to the God of Knowledge and Wisdom, Siminglyde, she did bear Lorist two cute daughters. The position of matron of the house was within her arm's reach, yet she had refused Lorist's marriage proposal and pushed Lorist to Sylvia instead.

It wasn't known whether she was regretting her decision or reeling from the shock of the reality of her lover's marriage to another woman. During Lorist's five-day stay at the academy, Telesti behaved completely opposite her usual distant and cold demeanor and pestered Lorist every single day, causing him much physical and mental fatigue. But given that he understood what Telesti was worried about, Lorist tolerated her antics and treated her kindly. He also promised that he would construct a manor at a scenic location near Nico Academy for her to keep as her own private land.

After leaving Nico Academy, Lorist went to Bladedge Mountains. His first stop was Professor Balbo's laboratory. It was the main location where the cannons were being tested. The brigade of three thousand guards was secretly stationed there to master the secret weapons of House Norton: the bronze-cannon carriages. Unlike the bronze cannons issued to Northsea Fleet, these cannons designed for land use were far lighter and were mounted on a steel carriage frame. Each carriage would be pulled by two horses, allowing the cannons far greater mobility and swifter reaction to orders than the catapults of Thunderbolt Brigade.

Major Jim, who had just recovered from the backlash he suffered when attempting to break through the gold rank, and Vice Major Paulobins who used to serve in the first local defense brigade would be in charge of the bronze cannon brigade. It was too bad for the both of them that it took three whole years for the cannon designs to be revamped and perfected. Through test firing on various different terrains, they also developed fitting orders and protocols, but the war with House Fisablen ended just when they were ready to be deployed.

Lorist also felt that it was a huge shame since these land-based bronze cannons cost the house almost five million gold Fordes to realize. So far, there were a total of 200 of those cannons and three thousand guards. That was the unit that the house spent the most on, and they were also the most powerful force among all others. Lorist believed that when they were finally deployed on the battlefield, no enemy would be able to resist their thunderous assault.

"The black iron refinery should be further down. Grandmaster Sid wrote me a letter saying that there was a surprise waiting for me there. I can't wait to see what it is. Let's go, Jinolio," said Lorist after he bid farewell to Jim and the rest.

"Yes, Your Grace."

Chapter 407 The Oddity of the Second Highness

"I find it amazing how people can change their behaviour. One day you mean something in their lives, and the next its like you don't exist." ~ Second Highness

Grandmaster Sid's surprise didn't really shock Lorist much. The experienced smith had developed another type of steel he had named Sid 303. Lorist noticed Sid was gradually developing the traits Ciroba had when it came to naming things after himself in an attempt to be remembered for generations to come.

According to Sid, Sid 303 boasted the best elasticity of all the steel types they'd been using so far. It was extremely suited to fashion spring plates and ballistae arms. And the results of their experiments showed ballistae made with the new material could be fired even further with even more force. The maximum range was at around 400 meters.

Lorist also realized that Sid was really intent on having him replace the arms of the ballistae with his new material, but he refused in the end. So far, the house's carroballistae were still far ahead of the other factions'. Even if other people could obtain a few, they would still be unable to forge similar steel arms. There was no need to spend unnecessary funds to upgrade them. But even so, the new material was still a decent step forward in their overall technological advancement.

As opposed to Sid's disappointment, he was more interested in the new forging kilns that allowed for the creation of the new steel. After two years of experimentation, the grandmaster had finally managed to come up with flame-resistant bricks he used to make a kiln that could refine black iron in extremely heated conditions. Sid 303 was created precisely through those kilns. After black iron was sent into the kiln and melted, Sid performed numerous tests by adding in various different metals before finally coming up with the recipe for the new material. To be more precise, Sid 303 was an alloy of different metals.

As Lorist wasn't educated in the ways of metallurgy, he wasn't interested in hearing Sid's lecture about the crucial points to look out for in forging metal. Instead, he found it a huge shame that the people of Grindia didn't use any form of coal or petroleum. He didn't know whether it was because they hadn't discovered other sources of fuel because logs were far more readily available. Grindians used mainly wood and charcoal for metallurgy and when they needed to raise the temperatures, they would resort to powdered fire crystals, but the temperature wouldn't stay high for long. That was one of the reasons Grindians couldn't develop their technology quickly.

"Grandmaster, I'd like to ask you about the compact crossbow you showed me. I wonder if there're any improvements that manage to lower the production cost?"

An awkward expression appeared on the grandmaster's face.

"Apologies, Your Grace. As the cost of producing the compact crossbows was too high, the moment the house canceled their order, Grandmaster Fellin and I stopped researching it. I was busy testing new steel alloys while Grandmaster Fellin was caught up with a huge order of 20 thousand longbows. We were both far too busy with other things..."

The construction of each standard longbow took up to two years. The wood required would have to undergo multiple rounds of soaking and drying and it was a really cumbersome process overall. Lorist recalled the longbow order was made for the local defense brigade's longbowmen. Given how the two grandmasters must have presented the compact crossbows after they did their best and exhausted every idea they had to improve it beforehand, he could understand why they weren't willing to continue pouring their efforts into its development.

"I recall you mentioned the reason the cost was so high lay with the materials, right? Given the variance in elasticity in the steel you used to produce, only a small portion could be used. Their small size meant a lot of materials would be wasted after making the small individual parts. Those were the factors that inflated the cost, right?"

"Indeed, Your Grace," Sid admitted, "Because of the unstable kiln we used back then, the steel we produced would vary in some form or another even if identical ingredients and amounts were used. Additionally, the elastic nature of the steel isn't obtained simply just through repeated forging. For instance, while we can fashion mithril into steel, the material would lose its elasticity after forging, so it's not easy to find materials suited to make compact crossbows, hence the immensely high cost. Out of ten forging attempts, only one or two would be successful."

"Since that's the case, now that you've developed this new kind of steel, why haven't you considered using it to make compact crossbows? Since Sid 303's recipe is already set and stabilized, making mass production possible, I suppose this could greatly decrease the production cost."

Sid appeared stunned before he snapped with ecstasy.

"That's right, why didn't I think of it?! I was too fixated on the carroballistae I forgot the house was looking for a weapon to replace longbows... Your Grace, I'll look for Grandmaster Fellin right away and improve the compact crossbows immediately..."

"Wait, Grandmaster Sid, there's something else," Lorist said as he stopped the man, "Go discuss with Grandmaster Fellin. If the elasticity of the steel material really is this amazing, see if you can fashion it into a bow which can be wielded and fired on horseback. Then, compare it with the longbows we use. Since Jaeger was just reformed, we require a weapon that can be fired on horseback and isn't inferior to longbows."

"Understood, Your Grace. We will come up with a weapon the house can use soon. We'll work till our deaths if it means we can be of use to the house!" said Sid excitedly.

Lorist facepalmed as he watched Sid's figure disappear into the distance. To be frank, he wondered if he had set the technological tree in the wrong direction. Ideally, he would've liked to develop firearms. But nobody was willing to get into researching them. Sid and the rest were going further and further on the path of cold projectile weapons like crossbows to the point they managed to come up with new highly elastic steel, yet they weren't willing to foray into the field of firearms at all.

Nowadays, the carroballistae of House Norton already stood at the forefront of ranged weaponry thanks to Sid and the rest's efforts. But now, they were going far deeper down that path and even researching how they could improve bows and crossbows to increase their power and range. Even though he had already provided some concept drawings and designs of firearms, the grandmasters showed no interest. He wondered if he should start a new research division specifically for firearms research, but the number of talented people required wasn't easy to find.

After leaving the black iron refinery, he checked on Ironforge Castle. It was the central weapons production plant the house had set up at Bladedge Mountains. The weapons and equipment produced at Sid's would be sent north for polishing and inlaying to make the standard equipment set used by soldiers. It was a huge production plant manned by three thousand workers. Apart from bearing the burden of providing armaments to the house's forces, they were also tasked with providing arms for the house's allies.

The person in charge, Baron Camorra, had been waiting outside for quite some time. So far, the most important assignment Ironforge Castle had been given was the production of the 60 thousand sets of light cavalry armor Jaeger required. The armor was based on Sid's latest designs, with some adjustments after surveying the Jaeger's men and considering their suggestions. Sid basically redesigned the whole thing and made quite a number of changes. The armor's color was also changed from black to grey.

Last year, Camorra was in charge of logistics and support during Iblia's conquest and had performed wonderfully, earning Lorist's praise. Even though the war was now over, the large defensive infrastructure projects had just been started, so Camorra's duties as chief logistics officer were yet to finish. Though his job did get much lighter as the situation wasn't that urgent. Camorra appointed an aide and had him stay in Windbury while he made his way to Ironforge to welcome Lorist for the inspection.

By the time Lorist made it back to Firmrock after the inspections concluded, it was already the 7th day of the 8th month. After visiting Howard at the training grounds, he went to his study and noticed Charade was waiting for him on the sofa with another huge stack of documents. This time around it was mostly about Northsea's and Jaeger's budgets. There was also another letter addressed to him sent from Roaring Bear. It was actually a correspondence from Sylvia. She mentioned that she loved the scenery around Cherry Blossom Ridge, which he had given her as a gift. There were a few things she wanted changed, so it would take a few more days before she returned.

"Have the invitations been sent?" asked Lorist as he signed the documents.

On Grindia, noble wedding invitations usually had to be sent out half a year before the wedding. It was especially so for someone of Lorist's status, being head of House Norton and Duke of The Northlands. Not only would he have to notify all the house's vassals, even the entire kingdom's nobles had to be invited. It wasn't an issue of familiarity, but rather of noble pride. Fortunately, the second highness had wiped out most of the peerage a few years earlier and left barely any remaining. For once Lorist was thankful to the second highness. He didn't have to worry about having to interact with nobles with whom he wasn't familiar.

As the wedding would take place in the 11th month, the messengers had to be sent out at the end of the 6th or the beginning of the 7th. Some powerful nobles on Grindia notified their guests almost a year in advance because of the time needed to travel across the continent. Additionally, the guests required time to prepare a wedding gift. However, it wasn't too troublesome in Lorist's case since House Norton's sphere of influence mainly covered the northeastern area of the empire.

"Most of the invitations were sent successfully. However, only a few nobles from the capital will attend. Almost all the nobles the second highness entitled claimed to have too much to do and expressed their regret. They did say they would send gifts to congratulate Your Grace's marriage, though," replied Charade.

"Did the second highness have anything to say?"

"That's actually the weirdest part," Charade said with a furrowed brow, "Our messenger couldn't meet His Majesty. The messenger said after the palace staff received the invitation, he was told to rest at an inn and await news. But when evening came, someone was sent over to relay that His Majesty was far too busy with other matters and wouldn't attend. He did mention that he would send messengers over to give his blessings. It really made me wonder after hearing what I did from the messenger. I can't help but think the second highness is up to something. What could take up so much of his time that he couldn't even spare any time to attend your wedding? Also, the kingdom seems rather quiet, as if His Majesty went into hiding. He actually didn't even meet our messenger face to face. Talk about being rude..."

Lorist put down the documents in his hand.

"I wonder if you've heard news of the Union going to war with the mid-southern nations? Lundmorde was conscripted and sent to the frontlines as well. It'll take more time for us to gather reliable information. However, what rouses my suspicion is how the second highness is laying low despite the situation. There doesn't seem to be any abnormality in the capital at all. Logically speaking, His Majesty should be taking the opportunity to rub more salt in the Union's wounds. he's always been all about reuniting the empire, and now the Union occupies quite a number of the empire's provinces, why is the second highness letting such an opportunity go? I can't figure it out. It all seems too weird."

"Ugh... I haven't heard of this at all. Oh well, it's got nothing to do with us anyway," Charade said as he shook his head, "We're too far away from the Union, it's no surprise the news is delayed. However, the second highness's two legions should be standing off against the Union at the border, so he should have received the news long ago. If it really is as good an opportunity as you suggest, then it truly is weird that he hasn't made any moves. Hey, do you think he isn't in the capital? That'd explain how he didn't show up to meet our messenger."

Lorist looked stunned. What Charade just said seemed to set his thoughts down a completely different path. He pulled on the bell rope to summon Jinolio.

"Jinolio, send someone to get Tarkel."

Tarkel soon showed up.

"Tarkel, send some messages through our eagles to the capital. Order our informants to investigate how long it's been since the second highness showed up in front of anyone. Who is in charge of the kingdom right now? Find out if anything odd is going on in the palace."

"Understood, Your Grace. I will get to it immediately."

Three days later, Tarkel met with him once more.

"Your Grace, here's the report our informants sent back. It's been more than a year since His Majesty appeared publicly. According to the maidservants, they haven't seen him for quite some time now. However, they did confirm that he's been residing in a section of the palace guarded by his personal guard. Nobody's been permitted to disturb him. Word is that he's been afflicted with some weird disease, hence his self-imposed seclusion. However, the palace supervisor and the three other ministers were allowed to see him. There were some documents signed during that time and the manner in which matters were dealt with largely stayed the same. So, the kingdom's situation has remained stable."

"A weird disease?" Lorist wondered as he stroked his chin, "Impossible. What kind of disease can make a three-star gold-rank fall so sick? It's almost impossible. Maybe he was poisoned or assassinated?"

Tarkel gave it some thought.

"Assassination doesn't sound too probable. Otherwise, the kingdom would've fallen into chaos long ago. It doesn't seem like poison either. If that were the case, the palace would be hiring lots of herbalists just like when the third prince was poisoned. All the herbalists in the kingdom were summoned to the palace. However, there's one thing worth noting. Your Grace's cousin sister, Glacia, seems to have lost the highness's trust and has been relieved of her duties. Currently, she's living alone in her private residence."

"Oh?" Lorist mused with a furrowed brow, "Is this true?"

"It is. Miss Glacia didn't seem willing to divulge any details. She did say she would travel to The Northlands and attend the wedding, though."

Lorist paced around, head lowered, and wondered about how odd it all was.

At the very least, it's certain the second highness is staying in the palace. Whatever, there's no point wracking my head. The truth will come out one day and I'll know up to what the second highness has been.

"Leave it be for now. Have our men watch the palace and report anything out of the ordinary immediately."

"Understood, Your Grace."

Chapter 408 Carriage Track

On the 17th day of the 8th month, Sylvia, Fennazali, Dilianna, Daisy, and Maria returned to Firmrock.

Back then, the The Northlands' south was the most prosperous area and Duke Loggins and the other Northlander nobles had built lots of mansions there. After the dominion relocation, the whole of The Northlands had fallen into House Norton's hands and the manors consequently ended up Lorist's property.

After settling on the plan of developing The Northlands, 27 of the mansions not too important to the plan were set for demolition, leaving only eleven known for their magnificent scenery. Lorist allowed Sylvia and his four concubines to take their pick.

Cherry Blossom Ridge was known as the most beautiful manor in The Northlands. Every year after the rainy season, flowers would bloom all over the hill, decorating the trees and coloring the air with fragrance. Heaven on earth. When the breeze rustled the leaves, flower petals would scatter all over, creating a rather dreamlike scenery. Even though Sylvia missed the blooming season, the trees full of cherry blossoms made her unable to keep her excitement in check. Cherry Blossom Ridge used to be where Count Shazin Hennard shacked up with his five concubines, though, so she decided to renovate the castle to better suit her tastes.

With Sylvia yammering on about the manor and the beautiful sights and the four concubines, who'd also picked manors with which they were satisfied, they soon engaged in a boasting match, much to Lorist's dismay. In the end, he had the five women leave the room for peace and quiet using his work as an excuse. However, before they left, they complained that calling Gildusk City of the Roaring Bear was a bad idea, and that the way laborers built the city referred to it, Ragebear, was far easier on the ears.

"Ugh... Does City of the Roaring Bear really sound that bad?" asked Lorist as he shrugged to Charade.

"Well, it's a real mouthful no doubt. It does sound a little weird," opined Charade honestly.

The names Lorist came up with were usually rather subpar.

"But why would the laborers come to refer to it as Ragebear?"

Lorist was really curious about this. He felt City of the Roaring Bear sounded far more cultured and refined.

Have you forgotten about the skyward-facing raging bear statue in the central plaza? The plaza is known as Ragebear Plaza and it didn't take long for Ragebear to stick as the city's name. In fact, apart from referring to the city in front of Your Grace and in official documents, all the knights and officials simply call it Ragebear. It much simpler and more convenient."

"Fine," Lorist conceded, "I admit I don't really have that good a naming sense. Let's just call it Ragebear from now on. It's not like I really care whether it's the name I came up with or not..."

"Your Grace, 'tis but a small matter rectifiable with a notice. On the note of what we just discussed, the relocation of Ragebear Knights' camp to Firmrock, I wonder if there's anything we missed?"

The original location of Ragebear Knights' camp was Bladedge Castle, built atop the two flattened hills near Northsea. It was built there to protect Northsea and reinforce Tortoise Hill Fort and Hidebull Fort in case of a barbarian invasion. But the barbarian army had been defeated and there was no way they would make it into the dominion for the next decade or two. So, stationing Ragebear Knights in Bladedge Castle was a huge waste. Since Lorist was going to move to Ragebear soon, Firmrock would be left empty, the perfect place to put the knights.

Lorist ticked the document and signed his name.

"Have Terman bring the knights over and move the local defense brigade from here to Bladedge Castle. Only start moving on the 15th of the 9th, though. There are still some officials in the midst of moving to Ragebear. I leave it all to you."

Charade nodded. "No problem. Many departments have already started. One month will be more than enough time for the move."

"By the time we reach Ragebear, preparations for my wedding with Sylvia must begin. We'll also have to receive lots of guests. I hope you're well prepared."

"Don't worry, Your Grace. We've planned everything already. Those involved know what they're doing."

A knock landed on the door at that moment. Jinolio walked in.

"Your Grace, Baron Hansk requests an audience."

Hansk rushed into the room angrily.

You're doing this cause I went against your marriage, right? You even wanted to marry a woman from an enemy house! Even though there are so many women in this world, you decided on the most unsuitable one possible! As a loyal servant of House Norton, going against you is the right thing to do! I didn't think you'd not only ignore my warnings but also strip me of my position! Ridiculous!

Hansk was going to give it to Lorist. He was prepared on having an argument even if he would anger Lorist more and be demoted even further. As a loyal servant of the house, he would let everyone see how far he was willing to go for the sake of the house.

"Greetings, Your Grace," said Hansk as he made an official's salute.

"Supervisor Hansk, I was worried about you all this time. Now you've come, I can finally rest assured. Come, sit down. Are things at Silowas taken care of?"

Lorist smiled warmly as if he didn't see any trace of anger on the man's face. He didn't refer to him by his title of baron and instead called him supervisor like he did in the old days to express familiarity.

"Jinolio, serve Supervisor Hansk some tea."

"No need, Your Grace," Hansk replied with a straight face, "I have settled matters with Governor Hector. I only came back to make my report now because I was waiting for him to arrive."

"Very good. Supervisor, I know it must have been really tough on you to be away from home for so long. Why don't you take some time off?"

"Your Grace, serving the house is what I ought to do. I'd like to know what the house has planned for me."

"Well, we already have all The Northlands. In the coming two years, we will develop it as a whole. Look here, Supervisor."

Lorist pointed to the map hung on the wall.

"Only by building roads can we move towards wealth. With better and more efficient transportation, The Northlands can be unified as a strong unit. Not only will the transportation of resources be secure, good roads will also enable us to send forces swiftly to any part of The Northlands. Here is plan. We will invest a million gold Fordes into this project. The house's future depends on this undertaking. There is no more suitable person to whom to give such a heavy responsibility than you. You've been transferred from Silowas to take charge of this project."

It was a complete checkmate. The infuriated Hansk looked half as angry as before in a mere moment.

So Lorist didn't transfer me to punish me... Instead, he's going to entrust me with such an important task...

He glanced at Charade, sitting on the sofa, and made a stiff smile.

"Your Grace, this huge task doesn't really need me, does it? I'm sure Baron Charade here can..."

"No, he won't do!" Lorist exclaimed.

Charade rolled his eyes.

"To be frank, he doesn't even qualify. This is a matter that concerns the dominance of our house over The Northlands. An undertaking that will ensure peace and safety for a century to come! While Baron Charade is great at dealing with administrative tasks, he's not nearly as experienced or reliable as you when it comes to managing huge projects! And of the other officials, Spiel is good at dealing with money but not construction. Kedan is also foreign to it. In fact, the only better fits would be Hector and Boris.

"But think about it, you're a senior and Hector your aide. As for Boris, I can't trust him fully. He used to be someone of House Kenmays, after all. Even though he's been rather loyal, we can't be sure. This is something that will affect our house for the whole of the next century. How can I leave it in their hands? Someone suggested Shadekampf, but he's one of my servants, he isn't as qualified as you. I've always felt you're the best candidate."

Hansk was smiling so bright his face was full of flowers. Lorist managed to instill in him a sense of pride and isolation felt by those on the top. Who could take care of such an important project if not he? Though the anger had long faded, he still felt he should at least try to act humbly.

"Your Grace, you hold me in too high regard. Actually, I think anyone else can do just as well. It doesn't have to be me. Shadekampf and Boris both have experience developing transportation networks. They might be more appropriate."

Lorist shook his head.

"Hansk, this project is more complicated than you think. If it's a simple matter of building roads, anyone can do it. But the road the house wants to build is the first of its kind. It hasn't ever been built on before, not once on the entire continent. It will be remembered by historians and books will be written about this historic project for generations to come. I insist you take charge."

Huh? Building a simple road will leave my name in history? How's that possible? At best, it'd just be a passing mention in the chronicles of the house. On the xth day of the xth month of year X, Supervisor Hansk concluded the project to develop the transportation system for the whole of The Northlands and allow for better resource transportation and so on... Is it really such a big deal?

Seeing Hansk befuddled, Lorist laughed.

"Hansk, just look at this design."

After squinting and looking for a moment, he finally noticed something odd.

"Your Grace, why is there a wider and smaller side even though the road only stretches in one direction?"

"Hehe Supervisor Hansk, this is a new invention, the carriage track. Come have a look. I have a model."

The wall between the room next to the study had already been knocked down. The other room was renovated into a display room. When they entered, they saw a huge sand table occupying half of the room. It was a sand table depicting The Northlands. Hansk could recognize Firmrock, Maplewoods, Northsea, the southern part of The Northlands… He found it odd that there were still wires circling the map.

"Look, these are the carriage tracks I mentioned," said Lorist as he pointed at the 'wires'.

Upon closer inspection, Hansk realized they were not mere wires. Instead, they were parallel wires separated into segments by smaller wires intersecting horizontally. Ugh, my eyes are really starting to fail me. I really need to get Master Mancheny to fashion me a pair of glasses. I heard they help vision a lot. Even Boris had quite a few made and wears them all day...

"Your Grace, what will the carriage tracks be good for?"

He couldn't understand their purpose no matter how hard he tried.

"This is an invention of Grandmaster Julian's. It was designed to be used for mining by sending mined ore to the surface on minecarts without relying on people or animals. It greatly decreases the cost of mining. It's a rather great idea; I've decided to use it elsewhere as well. After two years of experimentation, we finally have a sample and a model here. According to our estimations, if The Northlands relies on these tracks to ferry goods or passengers, the cost of transportation can be decreased by as much as two-thirds. It will multiply our efficiency several times over."

Lorist took a model carriage.

"Look, Supervisor. These carriages' wheels are not made of wood, but a round metal frame. The carriage wheels fit snugly in the tracks. Now look, when I connect all four carriages and give it a slight push..."

"But Your Grace, these carriages can travel on the ground without the carriage, right?"

"It's different. Not nearly as efficient," Lorist explained, "On the tracks, it just needs four horses to pull four carriages, on land, however, each carriage needs four horses. The speed is also inferior and it needs twelve more horses for the pulling. Before he repair our roads, traveling to the southern part of The Northlands on horseback takes at least two days while traveling on foot takes around six. It doesn't even take into account interference from the weather. If you bring along four carriages, you'll also have to hire coachmen to take care of the carriages and horses. It will also take at least four days. But with these tracks, with a resting station every 20 kilometers, you can make the same trip in less than a day.

Hansk wasn't an idiot, he quickly realised how much cheaper this system was. He still had two questions that bothered him, though.

"If the wheels are changed into round metal frames, won't it impact its movement on land? Also, would the round frames affect the tracks after being used on land? How will we maintain the tracks? The costs involved seem rather high."

Lorist nodded and picked up two circular metal objects.

"Your concerns are justified. But I've already considered them. Look at these. They are tires made of resin. They're elastic. If the carriages are to be used on land, we will fit them with these tires. Not only can it absorb some shocks, it can also prevent wear and tear on the metal wheels. The only problem is the slightly high cost. Each costs a large silver. But there are also other ways such as tying wood or vines to the wheels. While they aren't shock absorbent, they're good enough to prevent damage from friction."

Lorist then slipped the metal wheel models into the tires.

"Just like that, As for track maintenance, don't worry. Unlike our highways, we'll correct tolls from those who use the tracks. Given the immense cost and time savings, the merchants who use it will be more than happy to pay the toll. Naturally, it can't be set too high either. It must be based on the number of carriages and horses. I estimate we can make the money we spent on the tracks' construction in about three years. Each set of tracks can also be used for around a decade, so the toll collected in the last seven years will be pure profit.

"This is why I said this undertaking will be forever enshrined in history. The tracks are a never before seen method of transportation. I am sure it will be honored greatly in the annals of history. It was after much consideration that I decided to task you with this huge undertaking. There's no better person. Any thoughts?"

"Your Grace..."

By now, Hansk was remorseful and moved.

"I pledge I will complete this glorious task! Please rest assured, Your Grace. I won't disappoint you."

"As expected of one of the pillars of House Norton!" Lorist praised, "Then I shall delegate this task to you. The design, monitoring, and engineering departments are all prepared and ready. You can start tomorrow."

"There's no need to wait for tomorrow. I'll start immediately! This is too important to delay, even if for just a day!"

Hansk was filled with a sacred sense of duty. He bowed respectfully before turning to leave in large steps.

Chapter 409 War in the South

"The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting." ~Unknown

"Aren't you being a little too sneaky, Your Grace? You're obviously trying to get him out of the house's central administration, yet you made it sound so appealing, what with his name being remembered across the centuries and how the project will heavily affect the house's future..."

Charade spoke while stretching after Hansk had marched out proudly.

"To be honest, we already have the departments ready for the project. We just have to carry it out according to the plan. Hansk's presence won't make much of a difference. We could easily put your name on the project instead. I'm sure he won't take to this kindly when he finds out."

"So would it be better to get into a huge argument instead? Didn't you see how jumpy he looked when he came in? If I really got into a fight now, it would unnerve the other officials, especially the older ones. I have to leave him some face either way," Lorist said with a shrug, "The old officials like Hansk think the house has reached the peak of its power. Now they think they've succeeded, they just want maintain the status quo, hence their vehement objections to the new policies. They believe stability is paramount, they don't understand we're still in an era of war. If we don't advance, we will begin to lag behind. The house might have control over The Northlands and influence over five other provinces but our enemies aren't going to sit around and do nothing. The old officials can't really see what's going on. They think we're safe.

"Hansk is the head of the officials and he is the leading member of the status quo faction. He thinks I don't know it, but the officials he promote are mostly those born in Maplewoods. He believes the older generation are more reliable even if they don't really qualify for their positions. He's also really apprehensive towards migrants. As a result, a lot of our policies and their execution are being held back because of friction in the administration. I'm sure you've read Tarkel's reports. The exposed corrupt town mayors of three towns in Felicitas were all people from Hansk's faction.

"Most of the officials who objected to my wedding with Sylvia are also from Maplewoods. At first, I didn't really mind it because I thought to have multiple factions in the house was nothing surprising. I was going to leave it unattended as long as it didn't affect our operations. Had it not been for Kedan's reminder, I wouldn't have been made aware of how influential Hansk has become. With but a call from him, two-thirds of the officials responded. He was the best person to be sent outside to supervise the construction project. Even if he knows my true purpose, he still has no choice. After all, I didn't lie when I said this plan will indeed be a huge development never-before-seen. His name will be chronicled in our history along with the never-before-seen carriage tracks."

"Your Grace, don't forget we've planned most of the development for The Northlands. With our 800 thousand captive laborers, the project will take at most three years. What will you do with Hansk when he comes back?"

Lorist smiled.

"Don't worry. Winston and Delamock are under our control. The two provinces will also require development. At the very least, carriage tracks must be laid to increase resource transportation efficiency. It is also the key to keeping hold of the provinces. After these two, there will still be our allies' territory in Southern and Sidgler. Hansk will be forgotten by the time he returns in no less than a decade. I'd like to see how much of a chance he stands in returning to the center of the administration."

Charade had his mouth agape for a moment before he forced himself back to normal.

"Locke, you're becoming more and more a real duke."

"I suppose I should take that as a compliment?"

Lorist laid back into his chair.

"In a flash, 14 years have passed since I returned to the north. People will change one way or another. If my old self from 14 years ago showed up in front of me now, I doubt I'd recognize myself. The citizens of Wildnorth were revolting and when I brought our forces to attack the town, I couldn't press my assault when I realized the ones guarding the walls were women, the elderly, and children. It ultimately resulted in my failure to take the walls. But now, I can order my soldiers to behead more than 100 thousand captives without batting an eye!

"What does it mean to be a noble? I came to understand it only after serving as a dominion lord for a decade. One cannot change the world with hot-blooded passion alone. You will be changed by the world instead. In my case, all I wanted was to defend my territory. But after being forced to retaliate against our enemies over and over again, I had you guys go around conquering with me, ending with the whole Northlands becoming our territory. Now I've taken the title of Duke of The Northlands, I realize I'm sitting at the edge of a volcano. If I don't expand and progress, all that awaits me is doom and ruin."

A knock on the door interrupted Lorist's long-winded dissertation. Jinolio entered and announced, "Your Grace, Sir Tarkel is here to see you."

Tarkel brought with him lots of information about the war between the Union and the mid-southern nations.

"Oh, so it was the mid-southern nations' army that loosed the first arrows, he? The Union is the retaliater?"

Lorist had thought the Union had lashed out first because the mid-southern nations tried to seal off their trade.

"Indeed, Your Grace," Tarkel said as he handed over a newspaper.

"This was the first large-scale conflict that had occurred between the two sides during the 11th month. The mid-southern nations' army attacked a Union camp. After killing around three hundred, they occupied the site. The Union promptly retaliated and the two sides struggled for control of the camp for more than 20 days before they retreated to their respective camps when winter came."

"How did their negotiations go down?" asked Charade.

"It wasn't conclusive. Three months ago, Falik Chronicles published some rumors about the negotiations," Tarkel said as he searched for the paper in question in stack.

"It says that the mid-southern nations demanded trade tariffs on any trade done by Union in their territories be raised from ten to twenty percent. The Union refused and requested the original conditions to be reinstated, which the other side refused in turn."

"How's the war looking?" asked Lorist.

"Here's a report Lundmorde wrote before the conflict broke out. As you predicted, he had been conscripted because there was a lack of herbalists on the front. Though he's on the front, his life is in no danger. We also sent two silver-ranks to serve by his side as his bodyguards."

Tarkel handed Lorist a few more letters.

Lorist browsed them quickly. In them, Lundmorde stated that -- apart from his bad luck that forced him to leave his seven wives unattended -- he was also worried about his 16 daughters. He asked Lorist to adopt them in case of his untimely death, as well as pensions for each of his seven wives so they could live out the rest of their lives without worry.

Just as Lorist was getting rather pissed at reading Lundmorde's pointless ramblings, the writer finally got to the point. Lundmorde summarized the situation after the war and said he noticed something odd. The two sides seemed to be putting on a show in that they didn't really go all out, both sides held some of their forces back. A few of the big-seven didn't even deploy their troops to the frontlines, and the mid-southern nations also seemed content with the situation. They bother to press the attack. The forces would be comprised of the armies of a few duchies or kingdoms and they would fare horribly against the Union's properly prepared defenses.

"The army's general is Duke Lorf Fustat, a rank 1 blademaster," Lorist muttered, "Sounds familiar. I think I've heard it somewhere before. Tarkel, do you have any information on this blademaster-duke?"

Tarkel shook his head.

"No, Your Grace. The mid-southern nations are too far away and we haven't yet been able to set up our informants there."

Charade answered after a moment's hesitation.

"I know him. He was in Morante 15 or 16 years ago. He was only a Marquis back then and was at the one-star gold rank. He was there to take the most beautiful girl of Dawn Academy as his wife, a girl bearing the name of Windsor..."

Lorist felt a rush of emotions as the painful memories buried in the depths of his psyche resurfaced. He recalled the moonlit night when his first love stood by the side of the middle-aged gentleman, leaning in his embrace and speaking intimately. His heart was being shredded as he struggled to make it back to his quarters. The next day, the middle-aged gentleman showed up and politely asked him to leave the girl's home. While Lorist didn't remember how he looked, he did remember the golden phoenix badge he wore on his chest.

The girl was Lorist's first love in both his lives. He wondered if the elf-like girl who danced under the moonlight was doing well. She was the one who wedded Duke Lorf Fustat. Sixteen years had passed without a word from her, and time had healed his wounds and almost wiped his memories. He looked gratefully at Charade. Given that Tarkel was there, Charade had reminded him who the duke was in such a roundabout way. Alongside the recollection, he also remembered that Duke Lorf Fustat was no simple noble. Back then, he had ruined Lorist's plan of restoring his first love's noble house to glory and ended up winning the hand of his lover.

After reading through the rest of the squabbles between the two sides, Lorist furrowed his brow.

"This is really odd. Duke Lorf Fustat shouldn't be this incapable. As the general of 200 thousand, how is he held back by such simple defenses? If we were faced with something similar, we'd wipe it out in three days..."

"It does seem weird, Your Grace," Charade said in deep thought, "I remember the weakest of the big-seven, Chikdor, took the Urubaha as its dominion. It is near the Golden Coast and is sandwiched between the Union and Tedanini Mountains as well as the 24 mid-southern nations. It's only separated by one duchy from Jigda. Since the mid-southern nations formed an alliance, why didn't they wipe out the guild's dominion right next to them? It really seems fishy."

Lorist pulled on a string to ring a small bell and Jinolio came promptly.

"Do you need anything, Your Grace?"

"Head to the accounting department. Bring me the trade records for merchant guilds Peterson and Chikdor," instructed Lorist as he took out a rolled-up map of the continent.

"Immediately, Your Grace."

The records were quickly brought over.

After a simple look-over by Charade and Tarkel, Charade said, "Peterson Merchant Guild's trade records have stayed the same over the past half-a-year. There's nothing unusual about their orders. They haven't requested any additional military equipment. The good news is they paid back more of the debt as well. They now only owe about 300 thousand gold Fordes. They'll clear the debt in another year."

Not satisfied yet, Lorist asked, "Did they not ask us to sell them more food?"

"No, Your Grace," Charade said with a shake of his head, "Over the last two years, the two southwestern provinces and the imperial capital reaped great harvests. The Union occupies a few provinces of the former empire that neighbor the two southwestern provinces, so it's likely their harvests went well as well. The Union's food shortage should've been solved."

"Your Grace," Tarkel interjected, "Chikdor has been increasing the volume of their orders. Apart from buying two-thirds of our spice, they also increased the amount of daily necessities and luxury products. Our informants questioned their sailors and have found they were transporting the goods to the Romon Empire and the Khawistan Khanate. They even praised our goods for being quick sellers. There isn't nearly enough to satisfy the demand."

"Did they ask us to sell them more weapons?"

"No," said Tarkel with a shake of his head as well.

"I smell a conspiracy."

Lorist stroked his chin in deep thought. "Look at the map. The southmost Romon and Khawistan went to war after 30 years of peace. This time, they worked pretty well together to wipe out Kalia between them first before going all out against each other. The 24 mid-southern nations also went to war with the Union. The flames of war burn all over the continent. The northern part of the continent where we are has stabilized somewhat. It's really odd when you think about it."

Charade, however, thought of another question.

"Kalia was wiped out even though they had a swordsaint, and that very swordsaint's whereabouts are unknown. I wonder if Romon and Khawistan's swordsaints forced him away..."

"Sir Charade, there are four known swordsaints on the continent, right?" asked Tarkel, "All are in the south. Apart from Romon and Khawistan's swordsaints, there's just the missing swordsaint and Jigda's, correct?"

Charade nodded.

"Yes. However, Jigda firesoar swordsaint is said to have been living in seclusion for more than two decades now. He hasn't shown himself to anyone and nobody knows whether he's still alive or not. The Krissen Empire used to have two but they fell during the century-long conflict with the Union. The Union also had a swordsaint, he died alongside one of ours. The Union ambushed and killed the other, but they paid a ridiculous price, setting the historical precedent of burying a swordsaint with hordes of blademasters."

Charade was quite well-informed about historical trivia like this.

"Alright, swordsaints are too far out from where we are right now. The conflict between nations is still rooted in the military might of each. Tarkel, I hope you will pick a group of reliable informants and send them to the mid-southern nations. We have to get a better understanding of the situation, especially anything relating to their elites, such as the army's general, Duke Lorf Fustat and his household. I don't mind if it takes some time. The war will not end quickly. Even though it's quite far away, I still hope we can gain a better understanding of it."

"Understood, Your Grace."

Chapter 410 Before the Grand Wedding

"A successful marriage requires falling in love many times… Always with the same person. I suppose Lorist has failed already." ~ Charade, reading quotes in preparation for his speech at Lorist's wedding.

Regardless of how savage the war in the south was, it wouldn't affect the factions in the north. As some officials and knights had gladly put, the territory that used to be part of the empire had burned with the flames of war for decades after the three princes' power struggle. Now, it was finally the other nations' turn to suffer.

Lorist didn't feel inclined to focus on the two warzones. He was busy moving from Firmrock to Ragebear. Though he could order thousands of soldiers around without a problem, he was completely helpless when it came to dealing with household matters. Fortunately, Sylvia was around and performed as one would expect of the matron of the house. She coordinated the servants with great efficiency, keeping what should be kept and throwing out what wasn't needed. It didn't take too long for them to finish packing up and leave.

He praised her handling of the matter with admiration.

"I'm used to moving. This isn't anything to be surprised over," replied she nonchalantly.

On the 21st day of the 9th month, Lorist arrived in Ragebear with the administrative departments from Firmrock. From that day onwards, Ragebear was the Northlands' capital and the center of administration for the house. It was built on a flat piece of land with no difficult terrain or moas. A few hundred years earlier, there was a hill that wasn't taller than a hundred meters there. An unknown noble had built a run-down stronghold and made it his headquarters. After a few different owners, the cruddy place gradually developed into a large castle built of stone. It wasn't until later that House Loggins was entitled Duke of The Northlands and given a fief there. The first Duke Loggins didn't fancy living in the cold, lone castle and hired two well-known architects to build the largest city in the region with the castle at its core.

The city came to be named after the two architects and it developed into the first city to have a population over 100 thousand in The Northlands. As a result, the southern part of The Northlands became the most prosperous area of the province. Before Lorist returned to the dominion, it was the most prosperous and merry place to be. Compared to the magnificent city, Maplewoods in was but a little bastide in a little rural corner.

Duke Loggins only had himself to blame for making the wrong enemy. He had designated Lorist an easy and plentiful target on which to prey, resulting in the ultimate burial of his house. Following Duke Loggins's defeat, the regional capital attracted the ravenous second prince. The founder and ruler of the kingdom not only confiscated Duke Loggins's property, he also sent the duke to Windbury with the excuse of letting him stay there to recover from his sickness. The poor duke fell prey to bandits right after leaving The Northlands and his whole family was exterminated. Thus, a house of the former empire with hundreds of years of history met their demise.

When Lorist once again defeated the second highness and the 100-thousand-strong allied noble army of The Northlands, he formed the alliance of four houses and Gildusk became part of Baron Shazin's dominion, with the duke's manor falling into his hands. However, the capital of The Northlands had already been Lorist's two sieges. The rich had fled to House Norton's dominion. While Shazin did control the city, the income it generated wasn't much. Given that he didn't have enough money to sustain himself, Shazin didn't bother to take the extra mile in managing the place.

With the dominion relocation, Shazin's title was raised to that of a count and he moved his household all the way to Delamock, causing the capital to finally fall into Lorist's hands. Given its strategic location convenient for traffic, Lorist decided to move the headquarters there. He also ordered Grandmaster Ciroba to reconstruct the castle which had already stood for centuries and to revitalize it once more.

Lorist wasn't too satisfied with the first city blueprint of Ragebear Ciroba brought him. He had requested he design a city that could accommodate at least 300 thousand citizens. Even though the current population was less, he believed it wouldn't take long for it to turn busy after the house's various departments moved in.

Ciroba found himself was rather troubled because the city was originally designed to be only able to hold 100 thousand people. That was how wide the old city was. Lorist thus decided to have a central castle constructed at the center of the city as the main base of operations for the house and his residence -- just like Firmrock. The protected areas beyond the walls would be where the rich and members of the peerage would stay. As for the rest of the land, it would be split into plazas centered around business areas, military camps, and other facilities. As for commoner residences, they would be built outside the walls. That would essentially double the area of the city and avoid the trouble of having to reconstruct the city from the ground up.

Currently, the east of the city was already connected to the two special noble areas, separated only by a man-made canal three meters wide. Clouds of dust could be seen from a distance. It was apparent that the nobles who bought their land there were busy building their own manors. Carriages and people filled the streets and gave the city a merry atmosphere.

The duke's manor at the center of Ragebear had almost doubled in size. The old manor was designed with the concept of a garden in mind, but Ciroba had built a five-story-tall castle as per Lorist's request. The old and new designs were fused without damaging the gardens. Out of consideration of safety, Lorist's residence was built atop the hundred-meter-tall hill where a new castle was constructed. It was connected to the administrative center through the walls. It almost seemed like there was another citadel built within Ragebear itself.

By the time everyone had settled down, it was the start of the 10th month. Lorist saw himself becoming busier as he hurried around to welcome the nobles who had arrived at Ragebear early to attend the wedding. On the 17th day of the 10th month, Lorist's elder cousin, Gold-ranked Knight Glacia, brought her family along.

Glacia returned to The Northlands with her mother and two younger brothers. According to young Lorist's memories, his second uncle's wife, his aunt, was a sickly beauty. She looked more or less how he remembered, just much paler and older. She was still sickly as usual and feared cold winds or strong light. After a short chat, she retired to her chambers. Lorist really wondered how a person like that had managed to survive the turbulent times of civil war.

It was Lorist's first time meeting his two cousins, however. One of them was 28 and a two-star silver rank. He was obviously not as talented as Glacia when it came to training. The other was 22 and at the two-star bronze rank, a little worse than the former. Glacia claimed they were more academically inclined and would serve as officials in the future.

Glacia herself had changed a lot. Not only did she look much paler, she had also lost a considerable amount of weight. It didn't take Lorist long to pick up on something, so he asked her about the second highness. At first, she wasn't really willing to discuss the matter, but she later helplessly confessed that she had broken up with him. That was why she had lost her position as the leader of the city guard. She had brought her family back to the house and said she wouldn't go back.

Why? Lorist wondered, Why did the second highness break up with Glacia? Doesn't he know this means he will no longer get our aid? He might even be cautiously regarded as a potential hostile. Putting aside Glacia's father, who has loyally fought as an imperial knight and served as a brigadier-general before perishing on the battlefield, Glacia followed the second highness loyally for more than two decades as well... Not only did she charge into one dangerous battle after another, she was also his lover. How could the second highness put an end to such a long-lasting relationship?

Glacia didn't reveal any details no matter what. With a completely cold expression, she said that she was worn out and wanted to spend the rest of her life quietly. She had returned to the house mainly because of her two younger brothers, the imperial capital was not a good environment for them to grow and develop. Given how House Norton was at its peak, she wanted to entrust the elder to Lorist and send the younger to Dawn Academy. Though he was a little older than the rest, the youngest sibling was smart and curious and would definitely be quite capable in the future.

Lorist was still fraught with curiosity but there was no way he could force Glacia to tell him anything she didn't want. As for their quarters, Glacia could pick one of the six remaining manors. Even if she said she wanted to live in peace without agreeing to serve the house, she was still a gold-ranked knight and a member of the house, she deserved one of the manors.

Lorist didn't suspect for a moment Glacia was sent by the second highness to spy on him. Pulling off an act like breaking up to sneak into the house as a spy was nothing but a joke. He was sure the defeated look on her face came from true emotional shock. Otherwise, she wouldn't say anything like wanting to live in seclusion. The simple arrangements for the brothers were nothing about which to be suspicious either. The elder would join the local defense brigade while the younger would attend Dawn Academy.

Two days later, Lorist put the matter behind him. Apart from instructing Tarkel to send people to the imperial capital to find out the specifics, he was busy receiving the visiting nobles. There was one day he had to meet 16 different nobles… his face was sore from all the smiling. The date of the grand wedding had already been decided. It would take place on the 8th day of the 11th month. It was the reason for the sudden influx of nobles who came forward to present their gifts. There were also many merchants with honorary noble titles coming over to better their relations and ask Lorist construct two more special noble areas so they could buy land and build their manors there too.

When Charade came over, he told Lorist something to which he didn't know how to react. Some time earlier, the house had released a notice stating that honorary nobles from other nations could spend a sum to convert their honorary titles into those recognized by House Norton. However, given that the fee was rather high, many merchants were unwilling to pay. So, many of them cut corners by becoming honorary nobles of Andinaq because House Norton was also part of the nation. They headed to the imperial capital to purchase noble titles from the second highness which were half the cost of conversion, allowing the second highness to earn more than 100 thousand gold Fordes for doing nothing. It also made The Northlands see an influx of near a hundred honorary Andinaq nobles.

Charade said to teach those who cheaped out a lesson, the third special noble zone soon up for auction should only be sold to nobles that converted their honorary titles to those of House Norton. After all, those of the house should look out for themselves first, even if they were of the same nation. Naturally, while the other honorary nobles from the kingdom couldn't purchase any land, they could still buy smaller villas. It was the only way they could raise their status. It was a given that they would be inferior in comparison to those that purchased their own land to build their manors though and it was the lesson they would be taught.

Lorist agreed and left him in charge.

I wondered why there were so many new honorary Andinaq nobles lately. So they came over from the imperial capital, huh... Explains how there were more people than I could spare the time to greet...

During the last three days of the 10th month, Duke FIsablen's two envoys, Aridok and Napole showed up once more. They brought the duke's reply: the armistice would last for three years. The duke had already signed and sealed the document, but Aridok didn't seem happy. When he presented the document, he mocked House Norton for downgrading their mighty Firmrock to a mere garrison.

It seemed House Fisablen had realized the banners of Firmrock, currently stationed at the borders, had 'garrison' appended. In essence, House Norton exploited a loophole in their agreement, but House Fisablen couldn't do anything about it. Lorist wasn't embarrassed in the least. 'Firmrock had always been a garrison legion', were his words. Before the war, they had guarded Firmrock Castle. They were only moved to the borders to 'defend' them.

The two envoys didn't think Lorist would be so shameless as to insist that Firmrock was a garrison legion. Their faces darkened with anger. Apart from signing the armistice, they also came to carry out two instructions. The first was to negotiate the ransom of the 40 plus thousand soldiers of Third Frontier. Last time, they only managed to ransom the household knights and household members. Now, they believed that, since the armistice was signed, Lorist should allow the soldiers ransomed to reunite with their families.

Lorist refused without even thinking about it.

Are you kidding me? If I release the 40 plus thousand soldiers, Duke Fisablen can build another Frontier right away! There's no way I'd be crazy enough to agree!

Fortunately, the two envoys knew their request had touched Lorist's baseline and weren't too stubborn. The other mission was to visit Princess Sylvia. They said they had brought something to her per the duke's orders. Out of curiosity, Lorist sent for someone to bring Sylvia over and went to see what Duke Fisablen wanted to give her. He didn't think that after checking the three large, four-wheeled carriages, Sylvia would actually hug Lorist and start crying. The carriages carried all her possessions, ranging from the toys with which she played in her childhood, to clothes, other daily necessities, and the decorations she used in her quarters including even a small cushion and rug. Apart from that, a dozen servants came along and they were all those who had taken care of her since her childhood.

Sylvia resisted the urge to continue crying after a while before she thanked the two envoys and instructed the servants of the castle to bring the three carriages to the back. She brought out a sack of gold coins and heavily rewarded the dozen old servants, but she refused their request to stay and serve by her side before returning to the backyard.

Lorist had the two envoys taken care of after telling them they would be welcome to attend his wedding before rushing to the backyard. To his surprise, he found Sylvia starting a fire and tossing everything from the three carriages into it as she cried.

Lorist asked her what the stuff was out of curiosity.

She leaped into his embrace and whimpered.

"Locke, all I have right now is you..."

Feeling a rush of emotion, he finally understood what was going on and hugged Sylvia tightly.

Chapter 411 The Wedding

"In marriage there are no manners that must be kept, and beneath the wildest accusations no criticism. Each is familiar with that ancient child in the other whom may erupt again at any moment. We are not ridiculous to ourselves; we are ageless. That is the luxury of the ring." ~ Empress Fisablen Sylvia on marriage in a letter to her daughter.

"Your Grace, word of Princess Sylvia burning all of the gifts Duke Fisablen sent has spread all over Ragebear. The knights and officials, as well as the landed nobles, are praising Her Highness. They all have good things to say about her becoming house matron," reported Charade the next day.

He himself found Sylvia's actions quite praiseworthy. Lorist didn't really know how to react. Human imagination was practically boundless. Sylvia had burned everything the day before to vent her feelings. She was torn when she saw Duke Fisablen send over everything she'd ever owned, as if he wanted them out of the house, as if he no longer acknowledged her as his granddaughter. Why hadn't even a single member of the House come over to attend the wedding if this was not so? She took it as an act of cutting ties with her. She was filled with grief and pain. In a fit of rage, she'd burned all the toys, clothes, and products she'd used since her childhood.

Since you won't acknowledge me, I won't acknowledge you. Let's burn it all so nothing remains to remind me of you. I'll have nothing to do with House Fisablen from now on.

After accompanying Sylvia for the night, Lorist had realized she was rather naive when it came to such things. She was like a ten-year-old lass, still immature. He could understand why this was the case, though; she had, after all, grown up in a very isolated and protected environment. She simply had no way to know the world's woes and the human mind. Which was why she had jumped to the conclusion that House Fisablen had been trying to cast her away.

He thought further than that, though. He was reasonably skilled at reading between the lines. He believed the duke had no intention to abandon Sylvia. Instead, it was meant as a reminder to Sylvia of the time she had spent in the house, to remind her of her origin. There was no need to send them over otherwise. The servants were also brought over so Sylvia would have people she could trust to help her manage her daily life. Additionally, there would be someone available to deliver any messages to the house. As for House Fisablen not allowing anyone to participate in her wedding, it was probably to avoid arousing the others' suspicion and to not put Lorist on alert. Unfortunately, the duke had not expected the usually intelligent princess to be ignorant when it came to emotional matters.

Lorist's stomach ached from his suppressed laughter, but he had to maintain his solemn facade and console the girl. When Duke Fisablen received word of what had happened from his envoys, he would definitely be dumbstruck and regret his decision.

Hehe, old fox, you didn't think there would be this kind of misunderstanding, huh? It'll be even harder when you come to clarify things later. While it's easy to stick and pull out a thorn in a person's heart, healing the wound left behind is not so easy.

Though the matter seemed relatively simple, word was that Sylvia had burned the duke's gifts in the name of House Norton and cut off all relation with House Fisablen. Many people praised her. There were no idiots; everyone understood the implications of leaving Firmrock at the borders of Southern and Eastwild as well as Jaeger's reformation. Even if they had signed an armistice, House Norton still considered Hous Fisablen an enemy. They were even preparing for the next war when the last one had barely ended. Naturally, Lorist didn't bother to correct the misunderstanding. In fact, he couldn't be happier. He just asked tarkel to watch House Fisablen's servants closely and make sure they didn't linger in the dominion. Given how Sylvia had already heavily rewarded them, even if they had been exiled, they should be able to start a new life somewhere else. If they really remained in Ragebear, it was a sign that they probably had other intentions. Lorist would not allow them to meet Sylvia, lest she pity them and allow them to stay at her side. It would only sow the seed of turmoil.

After sending Tarkel off, Lorist lay on the couch tiredly. Sylvia had been crying and couldn't sleep the night before. He had naturally lost his sleep as well.

"Sigh, tell me, how many nobles must I greet today?"

"None, Your Grace. I've refused all requests for audiences. You may rest."

Charade was rather considerate when it came to such matters.

"Thanks," Lorist said as he rolled on the couch to find a better position.

"I leave the rest to you. Also, the wedding is in seven days. Is everything in order?"

"Don't worry, everything's prepared. Will Your Grace stay here or travel after the wedding?"

Though the folk of Grindia didn't have a tradition of going on honeymoon, nobles would usually go for a trip. Normally, they would travel around their dominion. Some would travel to places with good scenery. Their trips were always expensive. There had once been a king who had spent three years on the road with his wife. He had traveled to nearly all the nations on the continent. It was recorded as the longest post-wedding trip in history.

"Well, I'll live in Cherry Blossom Ridge outside the city," Lorist said, "Winter will come soon. I'm too lazy to go around traveling. I'll spend winter on the estate and travel around the dominion with Sylvia come the 4th or 5th month while I check the defenses and troops. Since we don't have any major undertakings on the table for next year, we just have to keep our forces in shape, and my dominion secure. I leave the administration in your care."

Charade nodded.

"Very well. You ought to rest."

Lorist and Sylvia's wedding cost 1.37 million gold Fordes and was known as the most expensive wedding in the last century. The cost of the ceremony itself was around 100 thousand gold Fordes. The greatest expense was the gifts. To get all the citizens into a festive mood, all commoners received a gift bag including a small silver. Men would receive half a kilogram of meat and half a kilogram of wheat wine, women a set of fine cutlery or some other daily necessities. As for retired soldiers, they received meat, wine, and a large silver coin. That alone cost nearly 800 thousand gold Fordes.

Surprisingly, Spiel wasn't that stingy this time. The main reason was that the mining in Goldridge had begun. The income the mines brought the house was estimated at around two million gold Fordes. Secondly, House Fisablen had signed an armistice, and the resumption of trade on a large scale gave the house quite a boost. Lorist had also said that during the last three years the house had spent exterminating Madras and Iblia, the production of goods had been affected somewhat. The products that piled up in the warehouse couldn't be sold and the economy didn't look too good. So, giving them away as gifts would not only clear up storage space for new stuff to kick off the economy in the following year, it would also give the citizens who received the goods a taste of what they considered expensive. It would encourage them to spend their money acquiring the goods in the future instead of burying their wealth.

Spiel found Lorist's reasoning incredibly sound. Just like how the house was giving away meat and wine, a few years back, the house had traded weapons with House Fisablen for livestock and made the western area of The Northlands into pastures. They initially thought the citizens' demand for beef and mutton would explode. They hadn't thought that apart from the household forces, the commoners were exceedingly thrifty. They would more or less only purchase meat once a month for a taste. They were used to hardship and loved to store their money up for the future just in case of any emergencies. The low demand resulted in an explosion in the livestock population instead. They had soon run out of places to make pastures. So, the house slaughtered some livestock every year and made jerky for convenient storage.

Using the opportunity, House Norton conducted a detailed survey of the population. The survey revealed that the region's total population had grown to about 1.67 million. The Northlands now once again had the same population they had had during the empire's golden age. It was a really impressive figure. Though most of the population were migrants, it was only to be expected given how much damage the civil war had wrought on the empire, especially with the chaos caused by Duke Loggins and the other conflicts between the Northlander nobles.

There was nothing much to say about the wedding. The whole city was immensely decorated and there were seas of meat and wine all over. Though the permanent residents of Ragebear weren't too many, the ones invited to observe the ceremony filled the city. First, Lorist and Sylvia paraded in the streets in a grand carriage. They then hosted a large feast and ball in the castle for the nobles and household members. When the silver moon was high in the night sky, the couple took up their place on the stage. Bathed in silver moonlight and with the nobles present as witnesses, they swore their love and respect and recited their nauseating oaths. They exchanged rings and had a Church of the Wargod cardinal officiate their lawful wedding under the Wargod and Silvermoon Goddess' purview.

The wedding was planned to be an incredibly traditional one by noble standards. Lorist felt it was not all that different from weddings in his previous life, with all the associated routines and the bride and groom being ordered about by others. In his previous life, after he'd retired from the military he took over his father's little workshop and toiled to keep it running. By the time the workshop was running smoothly again, he'd realized he was already over thirty, so he had his relatives introduce one partner after another. There was even a month where he attended eight marriage meetings.

He had been rather optimistic at first and had hoped he could find a partner that shared his values. He soon gave up on the idea. The millennial women he met were very materialistic and talks about his car, house, and bank account were the focus of the conversation. In the end, he stopped being picky. After shacking with the one who would be his bride for two months, he got her pregnant and they soon got married.

His post-wedding life was plain, to say the least, and the couple didn't have many topics about which they could talk. It wasn't really a problem that his wife hadn't been a virgin. Most of the people in undergraduate studies probably messed around quite a bit anyway. He didn't have any specific requests, so he just went with it. The problem was that he and his wife held really different views. Though he wasn't really educated, he had served his country and shed blood and tears for it. Bur the contribution of which he was so proud was considered something only a fool would do by his wife. She believed he had wasted his most important years: his youth. If he hadn't enlisted in the military and actually picked up some real skills, he would've probably managed to develop his little workshop into a large listed company. They would have had enough money to emigrate.

Their first argument happened when one of his comrades came to visit him. It was his first time beating a woman in his life: he gave his wife a harsh slap. A cold war followed for half a year. They weren't willing to say a single word to each other. Had it not been for not wanting to hurt their daughter, they would've filed for divorce. The two slept separately, and, as a result, Lorist bed his secretary. Since the secretary, ten years his junior, was really open and didn't mind relieving him of his manly desires, he didn't mind doing it. She didn't have that good a relationship with her own husband either, anyway.

The flashback gradually faded. Right now, he had completely integrated into Grindia. Sometimes, he felt his past life was nothing but a distant dream he hadn't experienced himself. He was currently the head of House Norton, Duke of The Northlands, a duke of the Andinaq kingdom. He had hundreds of thousands of elite soldiers at his beck and call. And now, he had a beautiful, fairy-like girl bound to him in matrimony. Just like the netizens of his previous life would say, he was in the prime of his life.

After the wedding, Sylvia clasped his arm and took a walk across the venue. They received the greetings and congratulations of the household knights and officials, and the guests. She wore a blissful smile on her beautiful face and seemed more blinding than usual. When the midnight bells struck Lorist took her to their new room.

As opposed to Lorist, who was a little worn out from dealing with the pestering nobles, Sylvia was extremely serious. This would be the most important night of her life, the night she gave her innocence to her one, true love. Upon entering the room, to hide her anxiety, emotional turmoil, and fear, she looked for things to do. She made Lorist some macks, wiped the table, made the bed, and realized that she was sweaty all over by the time she ran out of things to do. She had her two maids prepare a bath. When she was bathing, she felt a little anxious about Lorist coming in with her, but also hoped e would at the same time. Her feelings fluttered with the contradictory notions.

Lorist, however, didn't give it that much thought.

You're already meat on my table. Delaying the deed won't help!

He let her go about however she wished. He felt physically and mentally worn out. Interacting with all those nobles had really taken a toll on him. Just like wearing a mask, he had to put on a hollow smile and think of something pleasing to say. It was far too troubling and tiring. Sometimes, he felt more willing to take on ten rank 3 blademasters at once than dealing with nobles. The former was probably much easier. The moment he thought about how he would have to deal with the nobles in the future as well, his head numbed. Sentiments what could be expressed in a few curt sentences took ages for nobles to express; they beat around the bush too much. Though he mocked himself from time to time, the nobles regarded him with caution in fear of offending someone with his status.

What's the point? It makes things difficult for everyone... Oh gosh, I'm tired... I suppose I ought to lie down for a bit...

When Sylvia had finished her bath, she saw Lorist snoring.

Bastard, this is the most important night of my life! How can you fall asleep?!

She stopped caring about hiding her body modestly and let her towel drop to the ground. She got into bed naked, bore her fangs, and gave Lorist's shoulder a harsh bite.

"Ouuuuch!"

Chapter 412 Survey

Roughly four to five days after the wedding, Lorist brought Sylvia and his four concubines to Cherry Blossom Ridge. Logically speaking, newlyweds should have all the time with each other and it wasn't appropriate to have concubines come along. However, Sylvia had no choice as her body was more sensitive than most and she couldn't handle Lorist's vigor. Every time he reached his peak, she would've long been expended, slumping down like mud, unable to even move her fingers. So, he had no choice but to have his concubines help relieve him.

He left all his work to Charade when he began his travels and only returned to Ragebear in the snow of the 12th month. There wasn't a choice as the new year's celebration was on the horizon. It was the second celebration organized by House Norton and even more nobles would participate, landed or honorary. They all brought their families and filled up the city streets, bringing an aura of warm merriness during the cold, muted winter.

The most important part of the celebration would be the entitlement ceremony. With Iblia no more and Winston firmly in House Norton's hands, Lorist could finally realize his promise to the nobles of Delamock. There were 19 noble houses from the province to be enfeoffed land in Winston. As for the 17 Winston noble houses that had defected, they would be relocated to Delamock.

In contrast to the slightly down Madrasan nobles, the Winstonian nobles were elated. They had defected quickly and mobilized their forces during the barbarian army's attack on Pedro to help out. Also, since Delamock used to be the empire's main food store, its land was fertile and produced three times more than other areas. Those relocated there couldn't be happier. As for the nobles of the now-defunct Madras, they had picked the right side. Not only were they demoted when they were moved to Winston, the land there was also relatively poor.

Lorist also had to announce the list of House Norton honorary nobles. Most were merchants who had spent money to be given their titles, while others were house officials who had shown decent prowess; Boris, governor of Hanayabarta, Professor Balbo of the gunpowder research lab, Kriston, head of security, and several others. Lorist didn't entitle any landed nobles this time. It wasn't that he lacked candidates. Their contributions, time, or service just weren't enough to warrant it.

Usually, new year's celebrations would go on for three days. But many of the nobles who came to participate had already purchased houses in the wealthy area of the city. Kenmays had bought a large courtyarded house nearest the duke's manor to use as his residence. It was practically next to the central castle. Following the celebration, Kenmays hosted his own parties at his residence non-stop. As Lorist had said, he preferred silence while Kenmays thrived on merrymaking. He would spend most of the money he earned from the salt merchant committee on events like these instead of developing his dominion and military.

It took Lorist only a few days of residence in the castle to lose all patience with the noise coming from Kenmays's home. He took Sylvia and his four concubines to Cherry Blossom Ridge and stayed there until after the rainy season when the winter wheat was being harvested.

Lorist returned to Ragebear and settled in for the spring. Once the spring sowing began he finally went on a tour of the dominion with his lovers. He took his time on the trip, unlike the previous year. He planned to check every location in detail, especially the seven settlements' towns. He also wanted to tour the countryside with Sylvia so she could show herself before the commoners and make her status as the house's matron known.

The trip was rather costly. They handed out a large silver for each member of each garrison of each town they visited - about 300 thousand gold Fordes' worth. Luckily it had been budgeted for, so it wasn't an unexpected expense.

As their destinations were quite numerous, the trip took some time. They only reached Northsea in the 7th month. From there, they were ferried to Silowas by a small contingent of the fleet by the same name. During the voyage, Lorist received more details about the war.

The Union and the mid-southern nations were still engaged in minor skirmishes. However, a few nations' forces had suffered quite heavy casualties. Coincidentally, the three were near the Jigda kingdom. In other words, they were not far away from the Chikdor Merchant Guild's territory. The Union spotted the opportunity and launched a major operation in the area. Their forces came by sea and landed on the border. Within hours they were across the border and pushing everything out of the way.

Lorf Fustat, general of the mid-southern nations' military, was greatly shocked and launched an immediate counterattack. It managed to force the Union back across the border but the nobility that had lived in the area were already dead. None of the families now had any surviving heirs, save for one of the duchies, who now had but a single princess. Lorf had no choice but to station his troops in the decimated nations to keep the Union at bay.

Meanwhile, the conflict between the two southernmost nations, Romon and Khawistan, seemed to be escalating. Both sides had launched three large-scale offensives with hundreds of thousands of troops. Both sides had also suffered comparable losses. It had developed into a full-blown war and neither side could now call it off. They were constantly moving soldiers around and the battles couldn't be more gruesome. It was as if they were trying to vent all the hatred of the past two centuries at once.

Lorist stroked his chin.

While those involved might be ignorant, we spectators aren't. There must be a scheme behind all this! In fact, it seems familiar... Didn't something similar happen with House Windsor's dominion? The four noble houses around it launched a coordinated attack, and when their forces were mostly defeated, a sudden savior popped out of nowhere to eradicate the aggressors, conquering the dominions of the four houses without much effort. Right now, the conflict between the Union and the mid-southern nations seem to be going down the same path. The three nations' forces were first expended on the frontlines, then the Union launched a surprise attack out of nowhere. Duke Lorf then leads his troops to fend the Union off but the ruling families were wiped out already. He has 'no choice' but to station his troops in these nations now. I bet the three will soon be assimilated into Jigda.

They're working together!

When he read the news about the war between Romon and Khawistan, he suddenly had his doubts.

Why would these two nations go to war, and wipe out Kalia?

The three each had a swordsaint. Kalia was relatively small but they had managed to maintain the status quo for many years. No matter which side started a confrontation, Kalia would side with the other. Neither faction wished for the other two to mobilize their swordsaints against theirs, so nothing ever came of the stand-offs.

Romon and Khawistan actually united and wiped out Kalia, and made their swordsaint vanish. Then they go to all-out war? If they hadn't gone to war, they might've been attracted to the war to their north.

Even Kalia might have tried to expand while the mid-southern nations were in chaos. However, the outbreak of war between Romon and Khawistan allowed one ambitious faction in the mid-southern nations the perfect opportunity to expand.

The timing was too perfect. Duke Lorf's stationing of troops in the three nations and the inevitable absorption of their territory into Jigda kingdom wouldn't be opposed by anyone. In fact, it couldn't have been more welcome. After all, their enemy was the Union, and the Union had exterminated several of their royal lines. Only Jigda's duke could save them from their peril, so, they hurried to flock to his feet and side with him without hesitation.

Lorist laughed bitterly.

This scheme is truly wondrous. First, they incite conflict between Romon and Khawistan and have them tear each other's throats out. The bitter hatred brewed over two centuries won't be extinguished easily. Even if the conflict ends, both sides will be completely beaten up. It'll resolve the worries Jigda might have. They then incite war between the mid-southern nations and the Union and absorb the nations around them. It allows the kingdom to expand its territory and become another one of the superpowers on the continent.

Lorist had already designated the general, Duke Lorf, the main culprit. It should be expected for the playing field on Grindia to shift greatly after the war. However, he didn't know how ambitious that duke really was. How many among the 20 remaining nations would he swallow before he was satisfied?

He picked up a folder on his desk, flipped it open, and focused on a particular page. It contained information about some of the alliance's members. The first entry was of none other than Lorf himself.

Duke Lorf, member of the Jigda kingdom's royal family and chief military strategist. Controls eighty percent of the kingdom's forces. His personal dominion exceeds the entire royal family's. He is known as the non-king king and the shadow king. His first wife passed on many years ago. Currently, he is happily wedded to his second wife, Windsor Prinna. She has borne him three sons and a daughter. The couple is happily married.

Sol!

Lorist tossed the folder to the ground with an expression bordering on crying and laughing at the same time. He didn't know what kind of emotion to feel as he recalled the moonlit night. Within the dark room, the girl sat crying as she talked about how she had no choice but to marry the marquis for the sake of her house. Lorist could recall the grief and hate he had felt at the time. He cursed the shallow mistress for suffering misfortunes after leaving him and leaping into the marquis's embrace. It was too bad things hadn't panned out as he had imagined. It was obvious that his first love was living a blissful life.

Whatever, it's been so long. Maybe that young missy has forgotten me. I have Sylvia, Dilianna, Fennazali, Daisy, and Maria now, why should I feel vexed about a relationship that ended more than a decade ago?

Lorist smiled at himself mockingly and picked the folder up again. He analyzed the information about the duke. The more he read, the more restless he became.

Since the duke is so powerful in Jigda, why doesn't he seize the throne and become king? Is he really that loyal to the royal family? Or does he have other reasons for not doing so?

As he was on a ship, there was no one with whom he could discuss the matter. So, he put the thought in the back of his mind and had Jinolio archive the reports. He stepped onto the deck and saw Sylvia and his four concubines ordering the guards to toss the fishing net into the sea. Even though the ship was currently sailing, it didn't stop the net from being cast. Sometimes, there would be surprising catches. For instance, sharks lured into the trap by beef.

They arrived at Silowas three days later. Pajik and Hector had already been waiting in the harbor. After Lorist surveyed the garrison, Pajik reported something that surprised him. Blademaster Shuss, who had been training in seclusion in Seaview Manor, felt the time had come to advance a rank. He had taken his sword and entered the volcanic areas of the island alone. If he succeeded and broke through to become a rank 2 blademaster, he would naturally return. If he failed, he would not.

Lorist knew blademasters took quite a long time to make their breakthroughs. At the very least, it would take a year. It required summarizing one's insights and identifying one's weaknesses. During that process, the blademaster would continue training and refining his insights and feel for the next step to advance his swordsmanship. Blademasters usually headed to desolate, uninhabited places or harsh environments. It wasn't just a form of physical training, it allowed them to better attune to the changes in nature and gain inspiration to incorporate into their swordsmanship for further advancement. Since Shuss had picked that path, Lorist could only pray for his success.

He stayed at Silowas until the end of the 8th month. This time around, they would survey the eastern regions where Jaeger, Tigersoar, and Firmrock were. Out of Lorist's expectations, Jaeger's men weren't the least bit averse to Sylvia. In fact, they cherished the commemorative medals with which Lorist had come up. Who wouldn't cherish gold commemorative medals that could be traded for three gold Fordes?

When he finished his rounds and returned to Ragebear, it was already the 11th month of Year 1780. A year had passed in the blink of an eye. The dominion had truly grown too great. Before he could get two day's rest, Charade barged inside

"Your Grace... out of seclusion..."

"What? What part of me got out of seclusion?" asked Lorist, confused.

"No, not you..." Charade recovered his breath.

"His Majesty! He came out of seclusion after breaking through to become a rank 1 blademaster!"

Chapter 413 Second Highness's Scheme

"Most schemes of political improvement are laughable things." ~ Norton Lorist

"What?! The second highness broke through to become a blademaster?"

After some thought, Lorist instantly came to an understanding. So the second highness had been cooped up in his palace for the past two years because he was making a breakthrough. No wonder he hadn't bothered to take advantage of the conflict between the Union and the mid-southern nations.

Charade took out a greyish-white silk cloth filled with words.

"Your Grace, this is the eagle message we received from the imperial capital. It says the second highness ended his seclusion three days ago. First, he secretly had an audience with most of his subordinates and officials to gain an understanding of the situation of the kingdom before he announced he had broken through to become a rank 1 blademaster. He will hold a large banquet in celebration tomorrow."

Lorist received the cloth, and tossed it aside after reading it.

"I wonder if he is a favored child of the plane... He has a freaking pest's vigor and won't die no matter how he's beaten. Although it seems like things are going south for him, he just pops up energetically out of nowhere and starts causing trouble. I was wondering why he was behaving so well when he was cooped up in the palace. I didn't think he had actually broken through and become a blademaster."

Charade, having spent lots of time with Lorist, knew he was referring to the second highness as a cockroach but he still asked out of curiosity.

"Your Grace, what is this 'favored child of the plane'?"

"Well, it doesn't mean anything complicated. Word is that there are some people exceptionally lucky across the multiple planes. No matter what danger they encounter, they will emerge safely and even make unexpected gains. For example, during a time of chaos, there will be a few exceptionally lucky people who manage to start great upheavals. Such people would eventually be known as legendary heroes. There are some who call them the plane's favored children. It's like they are loved by the plane on which they live itself."

"Oh," Charade mused, "He's considered a plane's favored child? I don't buy it. If not for the fact that you gave him Whitelion's equipment and the funds he needed ánd mobilized our troops to restore him to the throne, I doubt he could have regained his position. I told you he's not one to sit around and do nothing. I wonder how gleeful he must be now he's broken through to being a blademaster. Our peace will soon be disrupted."

Lorist nodded with a smile.

"It doesn't matter. Whether the second highness is a blademaster is irrelevant. He's a smart fellow. He won't target us. The same can't be said for the duchies and the Union. He might soon deploy his troops to reclaim a few provinces while the Union's at war. We just have to wait for the plot to unfold, though."

"You think the second highness will really mobilize?"

"Of course. It's been three years since he reclaimed his throne. I'm surprised he hasn't deployed his troops even once in the past three years. Though he spent most of his time training in seclusion, he did manage to succeed. Now the kingdom's situation is stable and his subordinates and troops have become rather well-trained, and, given how the Union won't want to fight a war on two fronts, there is no way this king won't cause trouble. His advancement will only make his attacks even more ferocious."

However, Lorist's guess was mistaken. Three days later, he received another eagle message from the imperial capital.

"What? The second highness will survey the kingdom? What the hell is he doing? Isn't this the time to mobilize his legions and reclaim the provinces? For him to survey the kingdom at a time like this... Is this really the second highness we know? He couldn't be an impostor, could he?"

Lorist was completely flabbergasted. He even suspected the second highness had been replaced. It wasn't weird for him to spend two years cooped up in the palace, neither was it odd for him to want to survey the kingdom afterwards. But, the eagle message staid he wasn't going to survey the provinces under his control. Instead, he was going to visit Sidgler, Delamock, Winston, and Southern.

What in the world is this bastard planning?

Sidgler was House Kenmays's dominion and Delamock and Winston territories of House Norton according to the agreement signed between the alliance and the second highness. Southern was Count Felim's domain. Why didn't the second highness survey the provinces under his control? Why was he going to go to places not under his jurisdiction? Lorist definitely wasn't going to believe the second highness didn't have something else in mind. Maybe he regretted the contract and believed he had better bargaining power now he had become a blademaster. If that were so, Lorist wouldn't mind teaching him a lesson. Rank 1 blademaster aside, he wouldn't even regard rank 3 blademasters. But, after some thought, he believed the second highness wouldn't be so irrational as to put up airs in front of him just because he had become a blademaster. Lorist had defeated Xanthi a rank three blademaster in front of the second highness' own eyes.

"Did the second highness make any other odd moves?"

Charade read the letter again. He shook his head.

"None, Your Grace. He only announced he was going to survey these four provinces. I wonder why he didn't include The Northlands. Is he planning something against us?"

"Impossible," Lorist said as he stood up and went to the map on the wall to check out the route announced.

"Based on the might he currently has, going against us is a pipe dream. No noble would answer his call. They aren't idiots. If the second highness really thinks they will rally behind him just because he's a blademaster, he wouldn't be the second highness we know. Also, there's no way he'd make his moves this public if he's truly going against us. I suspect he has other intentions. He didn't announce he would survey The Northlands, since Delamock and Winston are under our control, it won't be out of the ordinary for us to send a squad in the name of escorting him. He's our king after all. We'll make out what he's planning when we follow along."

"Who will you send?" asked Charade.

Logically speaking, Lorist was the most appropriate person to receive the second highness. However, he couldn't be bothered with meeting him, especially after the breakup between the second highness and Glacia. Lorist was filled with more animosity towards the little king than ever before. It wasn't unwarranted either. Glacia had followed the second highness into the battlefield at the tender age of 18. Not only had she been loyal, she had even been his lover. But they broke up after spending 20 years together. Not only was it uncalled for, it showed the second highness's hostility towards the house. Perhaps it was out of concern of House Norton that the second highness refused to let Glacia become queen.

"Do you want me to go?" Charade thought he was suited for receiving the king given his status as baron and the house's chief knight and administrator.

Lorist shook his head.

"You won't do. Don't forget your identity."

"What about my identity?"

"You're a gold-ranked knight. I'm worried he will ask you to spar with him. Given that he's now a blademaster, he won't have much trouble showing off in front of you. And since you can't really refuse him, I don't want to see you return with a missing limb or two. It's not like I can avenge you if he claims it was a sparring accident. That would be really troublesome."

What Lorist was describing wasn't without precedent. When Duke Loggins went to pay the second prince, a visit, his gold-ranked knight was messed with by the second prince's blademaster. In name, the blademaster claimed it was merely to give pointers. But it was actually a planned humiliation. It made the duke lose a lot of face and even think several times over making his duchy independent, ultimately his house was exterminated.

There was a good chance Charade would be challenged to a duel in front of the other nobles so the second highness could show off his abilities. Losing face was not really a huge deal -- the second highness wouldn't dare go too far -- but, given Charade's poor swordsmanship, the worst result would be him suffering wounds. It was quite likely the second highness would deliberately try to wound him knowing how important he was to the house. He would excuse himself by saying he was still unable to control his power after just breaking through and make it up to Lorist for heavily wounding Charade. Even if Lorist wanted to lash out, he wouldn't be able to and would have to swallow the loss.

"What if I have my father-in-law go along?"

Again, Lorist shook his head.

"Forget it. Even Engelich can't protect you. The second highness has other blademasters as well. What was that guy called... The one I met when I went to save Reidy... Manst or something... I think he's a rank 2 blademaster. If you bring Engelich along, he would have to face Manst if he stands up for you. Since the second highness definitely can't face Engelich, he will have good reason to duel a gold-ranked knight.

"I have a good candidate in mind," said Lorist as he pulled on the rope connected to the bell.

"Jinolio, where's Reidy now?"

"Your Grace, First Senior Brother went to Firmrock to check on Second Senior Brother."

"Send an eagle. Have Reidy come over. I have something I need him to do."

"Understood, Your Grace."

"You plan to let Reidy go?"

"Yes. Don't look down on him just because he's a silver rank. His training in my technique allows his swordsmanship to rival that of a rank 1 blademaster, maybe even exceed it. If the second highness wants to mess with him, he'll definitely be in for a pain. And Reidy is my personal disciple, no one can say I haven't honored the second highness. I'll just have Reidy take a thousand guards along so others can't say I didn't do what was due. Pajik is a three-star silver shielder so the second highness won't cause trouble for him. Also, you can prepare a gift for the second highness to congratulate him for his breakthrough."

"Understood, Your Grace."

Three days later, Reidy and Pajik took a thousand guards to Vanades in Delamock to await the second highness's arrival before escorting him around for his tour.

Lorist pushed the matter to the back of his mind and stopped caring. As a result, Kenmays hurriedly brought a squad of men to Ragebear ten days later.

"Why have you come? Wasn't the second highness going to survey your dominion?" asked Lorist curiously.

"Don't even bring it up. That guy's there to show off. I have no intention of meeting him," said Kenmays angrily.

"He asked your gold-ranked knight for a duel?"

"Yes."

"That's fine, right? What's wrong with a gold-ranked knight losing? If he can't defeat one after breaking through, it would truly be a joke. Also, why are you avoiding him?"

"It's no big deal if my household knight loses. The problem is His Majesty hasn't come to us just for a duel. He's here to have us deploy our forces."

"Deploy? Against the Union?"

"No, against the four central duchies."

"Oh..."

Lorist's eyes sparked. The second highness had been targeting the four central duchies all along. No wonder his route was so weird. Going through Southern and attacking the four central duchies truly was unexpected, but there were lots of benefits. Mainly, after supporting House Fisablen and fighting the four houses, they had suffered a huge loss and hadn't recovered yet. This would be a good opportunity to exploit.

An attack from Southern would also come out of nowhere. Even though the four duchies had already withdrawn their troops, they were still quite tight on the border. But, since they knew the four houses were more concerned with House Fisablen, they weren't in a rush to attack in fear of House Fisablen launching a surprise attack out of nowhere. After all, the duke bore the moniker Wargod of the Plains. The four houses wouldn't dare be so careless.

The part where the four central duchies faced the second highness was the swamp around Egret Lake. It was not suited to offensives since the four central duchies had greatly fortified the defenses there and even built a fort. As for the border between the duchies and the two southern provinces, they neighbored the Union. One would have to first breach Kanbona, Bodolger, and Anderwoff before one could push the duchies' border. It was a much longer route.

It appeared the second highness intended to first take care of the duchies as the Union fought their war before reclaiming the empire's provinces the Union took a few years earlier. Given that the Union was caught up in another conflict, they couldn't provide support to the duchies. Since the kingdom had the strategic location at their borders facing the Union, the second highness could transfer Whitelion to Southern and attack the duchies without anyone noticing. He obviously wanted House Kenmays's forces to join the offensive.

"Did you agree?"

"No. I managed to avoid him with the excuse of having gone to Northsea to meet a lover. My father was the one who received him and he didn't agree to anything either. He just said he would consider it. The moment His Majesty left, I rushed over here to meet you and hear your thoughts."

"Alright, I have to think this over."

Chapter 414 Changes

"Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of the gods upon the children of disobedience." ~ A long lost holy scripture.

No one expected the second highness would cause so much commotion during his survey.

"Your Grace, His Majesty organized a large banquet at Kobo yesterday. He invited all the landed nobles we entitled. He didn't poach the nobles under our jurisdiction but promised those who were willing to pitch in to help the kingdom's war against the four central duchies would receive great rewards. They might even get promoted and have their dominions relocated," recited Charade the letter Reidy had sent.

Lorist didn't react at all. Charade looked at the letter again and digested its contents.

"Your Grace, if the Delamockan nobles are willing to go to battle for the second highness, what stance will we take?"

"Let them be," Lorist said as he stood up from the couch, "Such Nobles can only take around one or two hundred men. What help would they be? They might, in fact, make some contributions and be promoted and relocated, but isn't that a good thing? At the very least, we'll get their dominions back."

Lorist wasn't off the mark in that sense. Most of the current Delamockan nobles were relocated from The Northlands and Winston. House Norton only had them under control, unlike nobles entitled by the house as vassals like Potterfang and Charade, basically an extension of the house.

Delamock was a province controlled by the house. Like Winston, Lorist could entitle landed nobles or relocate others there. But he couldn't make the territory of the province his own. And though the second highness was the king, while he could promote those nobles, he couldn't increase the territory they occupied as it was power reserved for those in direct control of a province. All he could do was relocate the nobles and give them dominions elsewhere, taking the nobles under his direct rule out of the areas Lorist controlled.

As Lorist had put it himself, he couldn't be more willing to let the second highness do just that. If he relocated the landed nobles, the territory left behind could be used to entitle new nobles and increase the number of his direct vassals. It would only serve to increase his house's influence. Not only was it a good thing, it also decreased the number of unpredictable variables with which he had to deal. However, such good things never fell from the sky. It was no longer the time when a knight with a hundred scattered soldiers could be considered a strong force. Those who rushed to answer the second highness's call were only going to become meat for the grinder.

"That's true, let's see how many the second highness can rile up. I believe they'll begin to hate this king after they suffer huge losses on the frontlines. Without our forces, those nobles won't be able to glean any benefit by tagging along," snickered Charade.

The second highness's tour progressed quickly. He stayed for just a day in Shazin's dominion before heading straight for Winston. Similarly, he held a banquet there and offered the same call to arms. The second highness's promise was received with loud cheers. The Madrasan nobles felt rather beaten by the demotion and decrement of their territory, and the second highness had come to give them a chance to rebuild their glorious names. They couldn't wait to grab the chance.

On the 29th day of the 11th month, the second highness reached House Felim's dominion in Southern. After some talks, he casually went to the border where Firmrock was for a visit before he returned to the imperial capital. Though Felim offered to accompany the second highness, the latter refused politely. He wasn't going to bring many people with him; he was going to make a quick trip with ten knights. Since Reidy and the thousand guards were by the second highness's side, and given how safe the border was with Firmrock there, Felim didn't mind and wished him a smooth trip.

And then...

"What did you say?! The second highness rushed into Eastwild, House Fisablen's dominion, with only ten knights?!" Lorist jumped with surprise.

The news was far too surprising.

Charade smiled bitterly.

"It's true. We are all dumbfounded. Reidy wanted to enter Eastwild with the guards but he was stopped by Potterfang. They are now awaiting your orders."

Lorist was seething.

"How did Reidy allow that to happen? Why didn't he stop the second highness?"

Charade looked at the silk cloth letter in his hand.

"Nobody could have predicted this. The second highness acted completely normally. After he arrived at the border, he checked out the defenses before he dragged Potterfang along and talked about the tactics we had used to retake Southern. In the afternoon, he discovered a herd of wild goats and said he wanted to add something to the night's dinner. He didn't allow Reidy to follow him, saying it'd scare the goats away. He rode forward with his ten-odd attendants. It was near evening and they quickly vanished. By the time Reidy and Potterfang realized something was off, the second highness was already long gone."

"Wait a second, what about the goats?"

Charade didn't know whether he should laugh or not.

"What does this have to do anything? They're fine. Reidy realized something was off because the goats were completely undisturbed."

Lorist's expression was dark.

"The fact that the wild goats are fine means the second highness was merely looking for an excuse to leave, nothing surprising. It must've been something he's plotted for a while now. His visit to Southern and going over the tactics with Potterfang as well as his desire to hunt the goats are all excuses. I suspect his rallying of the nobles for the war against the four central duchies is nothing but a front he put up to divert our attention to ultimately allow him to enter Fisablen's dominion."

"But, but Your Grace, even though House Fisablen has signed an armistice with our alliance, the kingdom is still their enemy! Isn't the second highness serving himself up on a platter and seeking his death? Even if he's now a rank 1 blademaster, Duke Fisablen's rank 3. It would be far too easy for him to take the second highness's life!"

Charade didn't understand what was going on. Lorist leaned into his chair heavily and breathed a heavy sigh.

"You don't understand. He's not in the slightest bit of danger by going into House Fisablen's dominion. There's no way the duke will harm him. After all, the second highness is still a king. If House Fisablen really harmed him and became kingslayers, we could completely ignore the armistice and uproot them in the name of avenging the king. That old fox will not give us such an opportunity.

"I'm worried about why the second highness went to Fisablen without telling us. Is he going to start opposing us? It would be a valid reason for him to team up with Fisablen. With one in the east and the other in the west, there's no need for us to worry about them if they're not working together. But it'll be troublesome if they join hands. No, I have to head to the border immediately to see if there's something I can do to fix this."

Lorist grit his teeth. He really felt an urge to kill. If he could stop the second highness and the rest in Eastwild, he wouldn't mind killing them all and blaming House Fisablen before using it as justification to ignore the armistice and destroy them.

Since you're dense enough to take me for granted, don't blame me for not holding back. Even though you're king, you always have your eyes on me. You can't blame anyone for your misfortune if you actively seek death.

As Lorist saw it, the second highness was obviously trying to get House Fisablen to work together with him. As for who they were joining up against, it couldn't be more obvious. Who else was there apart from him? Since that was the case, he believed the one who struck first would have the advantage. He didn't really hold the taboo other nobles did against kill kings. If he managed to kill them all in Eastwild, who would be left alive to tell the tale? Since House Fisablen would be there to bear the blame, what was there to fear?

"But, Your Grace, it's already the end of the 11th. Winter is upon us and even if we deploy our troops, it'll be too late."

"There's no need to deploy. I will head there alone. I'll first stay with Firmrock for a few days to see if there's any lead I can follow."

"No, Your Grace, you can't go alone," Charade warned, his hand holding Lorist's sleeve, "You are the Duke of The Northlands and head of the house. You can't take this kind of risk! The new year's celebration will take place in a month and you cannot be absent! Otherwise, everyone will be unnerved..."

"It doesn't matter if I'm not there. It's not like we're going to entitle anyone."

"No, Your Grace, you really can't go."

A knock on the door interrupted their back and forth. Jinolio entered.

"Your Grace, there's a message from Firmrock."

The second letter said the second highness left Potterfang a note in his tent. The note asked them to not panic and said he had indeed left for House Fisablen. E asked Potterfang to not worry about his safety. The second highness mentioned that he had taken Blademaster Xanthi as his teacher and that he could break through thanks to her acute teachings. He had wanted to send Xanthi back to House Fisablen and would stay there for the winter and return the rainy season. Nobody had to be sent after him.

Upon reading the letter, Lorist's anger subsided. He really felt he had brought it upon himself. Why did he have to leave Xanthi in the second highness's care? It would've been much better to lock her up in a dungeon somewhere in his dominion.

I didn't think the second highness would take that old witch as his teacher and even break through. He must've been goaded to go. I'm really making one misstep after another. It's all my fault for not noticing the subtle changes.

With this in the picture, it was even more troubling to cause trouble for the second highness. Duke Fisablen, the old witch, the second highness, and Manst were all blademasters. Going into their headquarters, Crouchtiger Castle, alone was a fool's errand. He'd lost all intent on heading to Eastwild on his own.

"Tell Potterfang I've been informed. He doesn't have to deal with the second highness anymore. Have Reidy sent back as well. Don't let him wait there like an idiot."

"Understood, Your Grace," said Jinolio before he left.

"What will be our next move?" asked Charade.

"Now we prepare," Lorist said, "We'll use generals to deal with soldiers like we use mud to deal with water. I'd like to see what the second highness can do with House Fisablen. I don't mind wiping them out if they force our hand. We'll strike whoever lashes out first."

Ten days later, Felim and Shazin rushed over. Kenmays -- who had just received the letter -- also made his way over as quickly as possible. They were there to participate in the new year's celebration and to discuss the second highness' sudden visit to House Fisablen and how it would affect them.

"I believe Lorist's guess is correct. It's obvious the second highness is trying to recruit Duke Fisablen by going there and taking the house under his wing. Though we don't know what kind of price the second highness will pay to win the duke's loyalty, with Blademaster Xanthi guiding him, he will succeed. The duke's submission will also cause his reputation to soar," surmised Kenmays acutely.

"Do you think that the second highness's rallying of the landed nobles is merely a ruse to distract us from his true goal to visit Fisablen?" asked Shazin.

"I'm not too sure. I didn't meet him when he came to my dominion after all," said Kenmays as he shook his head.

Lorist's eyes brightened.

"Hennard, did the second highness promise you anything when he made his request?"

"He did. he said if we exterminated the four central duchies, I would free to pick a province as my hereditary dominion. He also said he'd make me a duke."

Lorist then looked at Felim.

"He said he would promote me to duke and make Southern my hereditary dominion instead of most of it being merely in my control."

Charade shook his head on the side.

"Our king is behaving like he always does. He's still promising things that don't belong to him."

"Are you persuaded?" asked Lorist.

"If it were only that, I wouldn't even bother with him. But he pointed out that the bottleneck to Southern's development was the lack of manpower. If we attack the duchies, we can bring in large numbers of people to develop the province. I'm a little tempted, but I'm still considering my options," answered Felim.

"I'm tempted," Shazin admitted, "You know I'm not into developing my dominion. But can still gain wealth through pillaging in war and it's really attractive. I was hoping to claim a mine or quarry as well. My descendants can only really have enough wealth if I did. The two silver mines and the copper mine in Sanderson Hills produces a tad too little..."

It wasn't wrong to say House Shazin was the most financially tight of them all. After taking Sanderson Hills as his dominion, Shazin was surprised to find that the mines' annual profit totaled just 300 thousand gold Fordes. While other landed nobles would consider it a fortune, for someone with a huge force like him, it was just barely enough to cover his military expenses. Had it not been for the bonuses Kenmays often gave him, he would have to consider downsizing his military.

"What about you?" Lorist asked Kenmays.

"Father says the second highness promised to let us trade unobstructed across the kingdom and he would even halve all our taxes for three years if we agreed to deploy our troops. I don't really mind since my title can no longer be raised and our house has already occupied the whole of Sidgler. Even though it's rural, it's safe and we don't have much ambition anyway. Starting new trade routes across the kingdom isn't appealing either and I can't be bothered by the meager tax savings I'll get. I'd rather he lock up our trade routes. I can simply travel by sea to access other areas for even better profits. But his offer is extremely attractive to the house's business my father runs. He wrote to me and hoped I would agree."

Lorist contemplated in silence.

"I believe the second highness wasn't lying about going to war with the duchies just to hide the fact he was planning on visiting Fisablen. First, he offered all of you different, but alluring, rewards. Second, he also made similar offers to the nobles. If he was lying about it, he would default on his promise and his reputation would fall greatly. But now he's gone to Fisablen, I can't really be sure what he's planning. It'd be best if we talk about this again when he comes back. There's no point in panicking now. I will meet him personally when the time comes."

Chapter 415 Crossing the Border

"Politics don't make strange bedfellows - marriage does." ~ Queen Fisablen Cacanne

Though the new year had arrived, it wasn't really delightful. Whether they were the nobles who came over to participate in the festivities or the four houses' high-ranking officials, they were all rather disturbed by the commotion caused by the king. The hushed conversations went on nonstop. Even Lorist felt foreboded. The reason was simple: Felim and Shazin were rather attracted to the conditions the second highness had offered. To them, raiding the four central duchies for wealth before they recovered their might was an extremely tempting proposition.

Lorist couldn't hate the second highness more even if he wanted to.

He's a sneaky and insidious demon. I messed with him a few years ago and he suffered quite the loss from the agreement but I didn't think he'd come back after just three years as a blademaster and turn the tables. He's offered attacking the four central dutchies as bait. The moment he tossed it out, it caught everyone's attention and even managed to shake our alliance. He made his way to the dominion of the Fisablens immediately after...

If it were merely goading the nobles to attack the duchies, he couldn't be bothered to interfere. As long as the four houses didn't make any moves, the northeast would be stable as a mountain. Whether the attack ended in success or failure, it wouldn't affect his house's standing as the local hegemon. The problem now, however, was that Shazin and Felim had been tempted as well. If both decided to join, would House Norton just sit back and do nothing? How would it affect their alliance?

It wasn't that he hadn't considered reaping benefits for himself as well, but his plan could only be carried out in another two or three years. His most dangerous enemy was still House Fisablen. There had been many precedents of snakes not killed lashing out and biting back. House Fisablen might have admitted their loss, but they were far from completely beaten. Only after two or three years of economic and military pressure to make sure House Fisablen truly submitted could he turn his attention to the four central duchies.

But now he realized his allies didn't share his view. Like Felim had mentioned, House Fisablen was an injured beast. It would recover for the next three years, it was unlikely that it would try something in that time. As such, Felim believed the four houses shouldn't just coop up in their dominions waiting for the conflict to resume. He believed they should instead use the opportunity to increase their might, and the best target was the duchies, whose force of 70 thousand elites had already been wiped.

Shazin also believed raiding other nobles was the easiest way to get rich. Be it taking wealth or manpower, both approaches would severely weaken the enemy and decrease their ability to resist. The duchies had already crossed swords with the alliance in their attempt to aid House Fisablen; it went without saying that they saw them as enemies. A little over one year earlier, they had managed to exterminate 70 thousand elites. Surely they hadn't recovered yet. Even if they managed to get new recruits, their capabilities should be extremely low. Shazin was of the opinion that the four houses should use the opportunity to land an early strike instead of giving them time to recover. Even if the second highness wasn't there to lead the charge, the four houses would have to go to war anyway.

Felim had the intention to join in because he lacked manpower; Shazin intended to make a great haul. As for Kenmays, at first, he didn't care whether he deployed his forces or not. but after considering that attacking the duchies would allow more trade routes to be opened for the committee, and the fact that the committee would still be limited by the duchies if they didn't attack, he changed his mind and expressed his willingness to send his troops to join the offensive.

Lorist smiled troublingly at their reasoning. Ever since the duchies joined hands with the Union to defeat the second highness and exterminate Melein, they occupied eleven of the empire's 29 former provinces and had a total population of five to six million. In terms of weather and terrain, the provinces were ideal for agriculture, business, and industry. Even during the chaotic era, the duchies were still far from utter defeat and still a force to be reckoned with. There was also the fact that they were branches on the same three. No matter which was attacked, the others would join their side.

Back then, the first prince had lusted after their riches and led an army of 300 thousand men against them. The duchies didn't have that great a start, but they didn't submit and resisted with all they had. The conflict lasted three whole years and they managed to not only chase the first prince out of their territory, they even crossed the border into Redlissian territory, forcing the first prince to surrender and sign an armistice. There was no telling when history would repeat itself. While it was easy to start a war, it wasn't easy to end one. What Lorist worried about most was that he would be dragged into the quagmire. Should that come to pass, not only would the house not benefit, it might even affect the entire house. It might even allow the old fox to strike back. It was not the result he could accept.

That was also why he had a wait-and-see attitude. Bread had to be eaten bite by bite, and roads had to be traversed step-by-step. He wasn't prepared to start a war with another faction before completely defeating those he currently had. But so far, three out of the four members of the alliance hoped to do just that. It was quite the dilemma. If he supported them, it would disrupt the plan he had laid out. But if he didn't, the alliance might dissolve. Even if it didn't, they wouldn't see as eye-to-eye as they did currently and cooperate so well.

He suddenly realized why the second highness didn't visit The Northlands. If he did, he would have had to convince Lorist to participate in the war. If he refused, his allies, Shazin, Felim, and Kenmays would resolutely support his decision. If the whole alliance refused the second highness's call to arms, the war would end as a mere joke with the nobles the second highness managed to rally to join him. He would also be the butt of the joke.

Kenmays was rather witty in that he'd managed to avoid meeting the second highness altogether, but Shazin and Felim were convinced by his slimy words. The second highness's move was rather well-played. He had dug Lorist a pit to jump into without even having to meet with him. Whether he took the jump was his decision. If he jumped, he would prevent the alliance from dissolving at the cost of forcing House Norton into a corner in which they didn't wish to be. If he didn't, his allies would be alienated and the second highness couldn't be happier if the alliance fractured.

However, the duchies were not as easy to deal with as one might think. Their 70 thousand elites were completely decimated, but they had fought in the field. House Norton had lots of advantages and managed to win by taking them by surprise. But if they fought in the duchies, the enemy could coop up in their castles. Even if they relied on catapults, they would still have to suffer huge casualties.

Charade was easier-going.

"Your Grace, we have to fight. We not only have to fight, we have to pour in even more effort than others. We have to help Felim and Shazin achieve what they want."

"Why?"

Lorist was really unwilling to fight this war. He had constantly been searching for an excuse to avoid it.

"We don't stand to benefit at all. Felim wants manpower and Shazin wants wealth; Kenmays wishes to develop new trade routes... Even the lands we conquer in the war won't belong to us. Everything will belong to the second highness. Tell me what benefit is in this for us?"

Charade laughed.

"There will be benefits. They just aren't apparent. For starters, if we agree, Felim and Shazin will be incredibly grateful and the alliance will be even more secure. Additionally, didn't Shazin say he wanted different lands? A place with more mines? The two small silver mines and the copper mine in Sanderson Hills will be ours. We can claim a new dominion for House Shazin and the whole of Delamock will belong to us.

"Next, Felim needs manpower and Shazin wants wealth. We need both. The Northlands' population is just 1.67 million and, according to our development plan, we can only advance to the next step with a population of three million. We need at least double the resources and manpower we have now. Attacking the duchies and plundering their manpower and wealth is the best way to get what we need. Just look at our surroundings. Madras and Iblia have already been eliminated, the only target left is the duchies."

Charade's reasoning made quite a lot of sense. After a few days of consideration, Lorist came to a decision. He would deploy his troops and attack the duchies after the spring harvests in the 5th month. He wasn't that worried about field battles. His main focus was the duchies' strongly fortified and protected castles, raiding them for their wealth and manpower, and limiting the casualties he suffered in the process. Fortunately, the house had expanded the four sentry legions and it was time they gained actual battle experience.

Time passed quickly and it was the 17th day of the 4th month. A piece of news arrived that greatly shocked everyone. The moment the second highness arrived at Crouchtiger with his ten-odd knights, the Wargod of the Plains knelt and teared up and expressed his regrets for all he went through. The second highness absolved his house of its crimes and Duke Fisablen announced the house was once more under the rule of the royal family's legitimate heir. He submitted to the second highness and would fight to unify the empire once more.

Duke Fisablen didn't just make empty promises either. He presented one million gold Fordes' worth of horseshoe gold to the second highness as military funds and 30 thousand fine horses. House Fisablen's gift and submission were still within expectation. The truly surprising part was the second highness's response. He announced the days he spent at Crouchtiger was rather delightful and that he had fallen in love with the duke's one granddaughter, Cacanne. He proposed, the duke accepted, and the two were quickly married. The kingdom now had a proper queen.

"This... I have a feeling the second highness is ripping off the second prince," said Charade helplessly as he scratched his head.

The second prince had gone to House Fisablen and the duke allowed his promiscuous second daughter to marry him. The house's frontier legions supported the prince and he successfully founded the Iblia kingdom. Like Charade had mentioned, the second highness also found himself a wife after visiting House Fisablen.

"Haha," laughed Lorist coldly.

He was the one most displeased by news of the king's marriage. His cousin had loyally followed the second highness for 20 years, but he broke it off so easily. Nobody would sincerely believe he got married because of love.

"It's obvious. I was confused at first when Duke Fisablen submitted so easily. So he still had this move. I say, House Fisablen's women are quite fortunate. They all have the knack of becoming queens."

"Your Grace, Princess Sylvia is wedded to you. She's no queen."

Lorist suddenly realized that if Sylvia wasn't sent over by the duke, she might've been the one with whom the second highness 'fell in love at first sight'. Should word of it spread, he might really deploy his troops to fight the king and send the kingdom into another period of turmoil. Fortunately, Sylvia was already by his side. He couldn't be more relieved.

A week later, Potterfang's message was presented.

The second highness and Queen Cacanne had brought a division ten thousand strong to the border and requested entry. The division was the queen's guard and would follow her after the wedding. At the same time, Duke Fisablen had Blademaster Xanthi lead another division from one of his frontier legions to accompany the procession. She was going to travel with the king to the imperial capital. Also, Xanthi requested to visit Sylvia and send her belated blessings.

Lorist's face darkened.

Duke Fisablen you old miser... You gave your granddaughter Cacanne a division of ten thousand troops, but you only sent three carriages' worth of junk to your other granddaughter, Sylvia?! Are you looking down on me?! This is plain insult!

"Your Grace... Your Grace!"

Charade had to call out a few times to snap Lorist out of his vagary.

"What's up?"

"How do we deal with this? Should we allow the king across the border?" asked Charade as he pointed at the message.

"Let them in. I doubt the bastard would dare act rashly here. Have Loze lead Tigersoar there and escort them. I will take my guards to Windbury and await their arrival. Also, send Duke Kenmays, Count Shazin, and Count Felim a message. Have them meet me at Windbury. Since we're going to discuss our strategy for the upcoming war, we might as well settle everything in one go."

"Understood, Your Grace."

Chapter 416 Meeting

"People think international politics is like a game of chess, with everyone sitting nicely on their side of the board. Everyone figures out their strategy, makes their move, and waits for the other side to respond. This is nothing like international politics. You want to screw your opponent as quickly and bloodily as possible, he should never even have a chance to react." ~ Norton Lorist, after that fateful meeting with the king, his sworn enemy cum peer Duke Fisablen, and supposed-to-be allies.

The horn blared loudly outside Windbury. Lorist organized a grand reception ceremony for King Auguslo, Queen Cacanne, and Duke Fisablen. Standing beside Lorist was Duchess Sylvia. Her godmother and teacher, Blademaster Xanthi, would be there to see her. Sylvia was incredibly excited and pestered Lorist to attend the reception with her no matter what.

Kenmays and Shazin were also present. Felim had left with Loze to escort the king over.

Charade and the acting mayor of Windbury, Viscount Eidis, stood behind Lorist. The two were engaged in a low-volume, heated debate. Viscount Eidis understood well the reason Lorist had appointed him as acting mayor. Lorist had hoped trade would restore Windbury to its former glory as the center for livestock trade. He was arguing with Charade because they had different opinions on how to redevelop Windbury.

Charade believed the trading center should be located outside the city to avoid affecting hygiene and the citizen's quality of life. Letting large quantities of livestock into the city would have severe effects on the environment. It was the main reason the king had killed the livestock market in the first place. Viscount Eidis, on the other hand, believed that, since the population relative to the available land was low, allowing trade to commence within the city would improve safety. As for environmental pollution, he believed limiting the livestock to special trade areas would prevent it from affecting the citizens too much.

Charade countered that the ratio of citizens to land might be low now, but it was in no way guaranteed to remain that way, especially not if the markets were reopened. There would be merchants flocking to the city after hearing word of its developments and settle down. Thus, as a measure of careful planning, keeping the livestock outside the city would save them the trouble of moving everything out later when the population increased, saving them much trouble in the long run.

But Eidis saw limiting trade only to the city outskirts a huge threat to safety. Charade proudly proclaimed there was nobody in the region that would dare provoke House Norton. As long as the forces existed, safety wouldn't be a concern.

Though Eidis was still filled with doubts, he yielded to keeping the trade outside the city due to Charade's overbearing. It, however, didn't stop him from having doubts on the time required for Windbury to regain its former glory. Seeing how gloomy he was, Charade secretly told him about Lorist's decision to attack the duchies and said the skilled workers and leather merchants they would force to migrate would be moved to Windbury. With the city's restoration to its former prosperous state guaranteed, Eidis's mood turned for the better. A light cavalryman appeared in the distance. He took out his horn and blew a long note. The king had arrived.

"Music!" instructed Eidis.

The band started playing. They played the tune used during the most formal of welcoming ceremonies for one's liege. Lorist was seated on his horse with a neutral expression on his face. Sylvia looked really expectant. It seemed she had really missed her godmother.

A handsome horse galloped in the distance. The moment the king heard Lorist was there to welcome him, he hurriedly rode ahead. He shouted before he was even close.

"Haha! Locke, my friend! Long time no see! I've missed you to death!"

You didn't miss me to death. You want to miss me after I die, thought Lorist.

However, he had no choice but to dismount and salute.

"Your Majesty, your loyal servant offers his greetings!"

The horse reared on its hind legs when the king pulled its reins. The second highness leaped off and took wide steps towards Lorist before giving him a hug.

"Locke, my friend, are you doing well?"

Lorist hugged back warmly.

"My king, seeing you safe brings peace to my heart," smiled he, "You should know I've been very worried since I heard you'd traveled into Fisablen's dominion... I couldn't eat or sleep well… Luckily I can finally rest assured. As the king, you shouldn't be taking such risks..."

The Auguslo glanced at Lorist's face blushing healthily.

Is that how a sleepless person with no appetite looks? I bet you can't wait for me to go back, huh? thought he.

In spite of his malcontent, he made the effort to look apologetic.

"Alright, Locke, we both know you would've stopped me if I told you I was going. As this matter is tied closely to the kingdom's future, I had no choice but to make the trip. Fortunately, Duke Fisablen was wise enough to change his ways and rejoin the kingdom. My rash actions paid off in the end."

Lorist didn't even bother to smile convincingly as he looked at the dismounting duke and the blademaster behind the king.

"It truly is a fortunate affair, Your Majesty. You were actually able to recruit the mighty Wargod of the Plains. It really is beyond expectation. I was preparing to uproot House Fisablen for good should you suffer any misfortune..."

Not only were Lorist's words incredibly rude, he also spoke them quite loudly. It was obvious the duke and blademaster had overheard him. The duke merely shuddered without a change in his expression. Xanthi, on the other hand, barked angrily.

"Would you have the guts?!"

Lorist laughed heartily.

"Well? What do you say, Blademaster Xanthi? Long time no see by the way. I see you've been having quite the good time at the imperial capital."

The look on Xanthi's face was both angry and fearful. She suddenly recalled being taken prisoner in just a few strikes. Since then, she had developed a phobia of the young man. Even when Duke Fisablen was beside her, she didn't dare draw her sword and start a fight. Fortunately, Sylvia pulled Lorist harshly before leaping into Xanthi's embrace to resolve the tension.

"Well," the king spoke, "Locke, I know the relationship between your house and that of Duke Fisablen is a little strained, you two even being at war just a year ago, but given that the duke has returned to the kingdom and is willing to put in an effort to unite the empire, and that you've already taken Duchess Sylvia as your wife - you're know in-laws - you should be more tolerant. As Duke of The Northlands, you should act as the role model for all other nobles. I hope Houses Norton and Fisablen can once again have amiable relations so the kingdom's citizens can spend their lives in peace and stability."

Lorist really felt like punching the king in the face.

Now you have what you want, you're advocating peace? You think it's really amazing to have House Fisablen doing your bidding, huh? Who knows what that old fox is planning. Do you really think House Fisablen would submit and return to the kingdom so easily? That old fox is already looking for a way out.

He cooled down after seeing the king's sincere expression. He was well aware that Auguslo knew what Duke Fisablen had in mind, it was just that he didn't mind. In fact, he couldn't be happier if the two houses were on bad terms. He was more than willing to ensure the alliance always had trouble with which to deal. Since he could sit stably in the capital and watch the battle, he couldn't wait for the two houses to tear each other apart.

Lorist bowed slightly.

"House Norton is willing to follow His Majesty's orders. As long as House Fisablen follows the alliance's regulations, we will naturally not consider him an enemy. Being able to get along will benefit the citizens."

Hehe, House Fisablen will just have to wait a little longer to be squashed. Our regulations will do what our weapons now can't.

Lorist wasn't going to just let House Fisablen off the hook. He couldn't be bothered to care whether the duke's granddaughter was the queen or not. He wasn't about to wait for the 'Snake and the Farmer' to happen. Once the beast was locked in a cage, it shouldn't be let out ever again.

"This..."

The king was speechless. Lorist was obviously not going to listen to him and let House Fisablen off the hook. However, it wouldn't be appropriate for him to flip out at the moment. Fortunately, Kenmays, Shazin, Charade, and Eidis came up to offer their greetings, stopping Lorist from saying anything else that might push the situation out of control.

The carriage in which the queen rode finally arrived. Queen Cacanne stepped out. Lorist went up to greet her all the while checking her out. She was quite the beauty; it seemed the Fisablen genes were rather good. The men were handsome and the women beautiful. Sylvia was a step above Cacanne, though. Cacanne's arrogant and stuck-up expression gave Lorist the urge to laugh. He also noticed that Sylvia was standing to the side whispering something to Xanthi without bothering to greet her grandfather and cousin.

After some commotion, everyone returned to their respective carriages and mounts and headed to Rose Palace under Eidis's lead. Since Windbury had come under Norton control, the palace had become a temporary noble abode. Apart from Lorist, nobody was allowed to enter. Now that the Auguslo was there, Rose Palace naturally became his residence. Eidis had had a grand banquet prepared.

After enjoying the delicacies, Kenmays stood up to ask the key question on behalf of all the nobles present.

"Your Majesty, forgive my abruptness, but you mentioned you were going to attack the duchies. Is this true?"

"Of course," the king replied seriously as he put the golden cup in his hand down, "I spoke the truth. The rewards I promised are still up for the courageous to take. I also have an announcement to make in this regard. Duke Fisablen, the Wargod of the Plains, will also deploy his troops for this endeavor. So far, there are only some minor details that have to be discussed. Once these negotiations conclude and the military preparations are ready, we will launch our attack. As the king, I hope I will have the fortune to witness the brave contributions of all the nobles on the battlefield as they fight and contribute to the kingdom."

Auguslo's words inspired loud cheers from the seated nobles. Lorist toyed around with the cup in his hand as he contemplated the king's revelation about Duke Fisablen's participation. Unconsciously, his eyes drifted to the duke and saw him raising a cup to him in a toast before he gulped down the wine.

Interesting, old fellow. I wonder what in the world you're up to...

When the banquet ended, the king asked Lorist, Fisablen, Kenmays, Felim, and Shazin to stay behind. He hesitated for a moment but eventually asked Charade to join them as well. Lorist knew the true meeting was about to begin.

After they took their seats, Auguslo came clean with his strategy. His plan was to mobilize the 56-thousand-strong Whitelion Legion. It would be moved to Southern before launching the invasion. The first step was to reclaim the provinces that used to constitute Melein, Messen, and Rimad, and use them as the main base and springboard for further offensives into the core of the four duchies. As it was rather far away, he hoped to first seal Southern and Rimad's border and wait for Whitelion's arrival. The operation was slated for the 8th month.

"Duke Fisablen, weren't you going to lead your frontier legions into battle? Can you tell me where you will attack?" asked Lorist, looking straight at the duke.

Duke Fisablen didn't reply or say anything.

Auguslo stepped in.

"It's like this. House Fisablen will mobilize two legions. They will join in after we conquer Messen. Messen is connected to Shabaj and Forund, so I plan to divide our forces in two. Whitelion will work with the frontier legions to attack one duchy while you and the four houses attack the other. Attacking on two fronts will make the duchies unable to regroup and resist. We can only take the duchies down in one move like this."

Lorist laughed coldly.

"It seems House Fisablen really is going to do its best for His Majesty's sake, for them to be willing to mobilize the only two legions they have left. What a rare breed of loyalty."

"Well, Locke, this is the part where we need your agreement," the king said sincerely, "Right now, House Fisablen is just like House Norton, a vassal of the kingdom. Since you two have signed an armistice, as king, I hope the two of you can make up and work together to reunite the empire.

"I hope you will release Third Frontier's captured soldiers so the duke can rebuild the legion. Since you know House Fisablen only has two legions left, you should also know that they will be the grassland barbarians' primary target when they send out both their legions. I hope you will be gracious and give the captured soldiers freedom so they can contribute to the empire's reunification."

Ah, old fox, so this was what you were planning.

Lorist merely smiled coldly without speaking. The king kept going on about thinking of the big picture for the sake of the empire, and that it was all only to be used to attack the duchies. Lorist looked at Shazin and Felim; the two had their heads lowered. He then shot Kenmays a glance and saw the latter was inspecting the teacup in his hand with intense focus. He suddenly felt his heart go cold. He waved smilingly to stop the king's rambling.

"Alright. I agree to release Third Frontier's soldiers. But House Fisablen must make our losses up to us. I'll leave the details to Baron Charade and Duke Kenmays. I am feeling a little unwell and have to excuse myself."

Lorist then left swaggeringly.

Chapter 417 The Allies

"Taking an ally is unlike taking a friend. A friend you stand by through thick and thin, it is a choice made based on emotions. Taking an ally is a business transaction, you take them for the benefits they bring. An ally that is not a boon, is not an ally." ~ Unknown

"Did you guys come to an agreement?" asked Lorist faintly.

They were in one of the most lavish mansions in the Windbury's noble district. It originally belonged to an Iblian count from Southern but the mansion was sealed after the count received the death sentence for treason four years ago by Duke Fisablen. While Lorist could stay at Rose Palace given his status, he didn't want to mingle with the king, so he chose the mansion as his lodging instead.

It was already almost evening by the time Charade returned. He realized Lorist was seated in his dark study watching night fall. When he heard his question, he undid his cloak and handed it to Jinolio.

"Get me a bottle of wine. The tea I drank all afternoon left no taste in my mouth at all.

"Your Grace, we have come to an agreement. Duke Fisablen is willing to pay one million gold Fordes' worth of horseshoe gold as ransom for the Third Frontier's 40 thousand soldiers. However, he asked they all be armed properly," said Charade as he got a chair and sat beside Lorist.

"Hehe," Lorist chuckled coldly, "It seems House Fisablen still has quite deep pockets. Even though they just gave the second highness a million, they can still take out another for the ransom. It seems we'll have to increase our goods' prices even further. However, his idea of asking us to supply his soldiers with gear is a pretty decent one."

House Fisablen's third frontier legion's soldiers were originally armed with riding armor 103 which they ordered from the Nortons. Each set cost 65 gold Fordes. Following the legion's surrender, their gear was confiscated, but now, Duke Fisablen intended to resupply his whole legion and purchase their freedom with one million gold Fordes. The plan did indeed merit praise.

"Your Grace, this agreement will only pass if you acknowledge it. If you don't, we can continue to bargain. We're not the ones in a rush anyway."

Lorist shook his head slightly.

"It isn't that simple. What do our three allies say?"

Charade received the cup of wine Jinolio poured and enjoyed a sip.

"Count Felim and Count Shazin think since we're all nobles of the kingdom, not to mention our status as allies about to go to war together, we should spare House Fisablen instead of tightening the leash. Duke Kenmays tried his best to negotiate on our behalf, but Duke Fisablen harped on about it already being his baseline and that there was no more room for negotiation; they can't bring out even a single gold coin more than they've already offered. As for His Majesty, he will naturally speak on Fisablen's behalf. He had indicated on multiple occasions to accept what was offered without going overboard."

Lorist sighed.

"Whatever, there's no need to be so calculative at this point, lest others hail us as being stingy. Third Frontier is different from those we've caught in the past. Their family members live in House Fisablen's dominion, and, given that they were forced to surrender, they haven't really been convinced of their loss. They believe we won with underhanded tricks. It's especially the case with their general offing himself after the surrender to bear responsibility for his mistakes. The soldiers loathe us and are filled with the desire for vengeance, we can't use them in our own forces. The longer we keep them, the larger their hate will be. It's best we just let them go."

"Aren't you afraid you're releasing the tiger into the wild? Those soldiers will be quite the formidable force if House Fisablen goes to war with us."

Charade wasn't fond of the idea of releasing the 40 thousand veterans.

"Hehe, a formidable force? Just by themselves?"

Lorist laughed heartily.

"I admit their mental fortitude and morale will make them more powerful in the face of our forces in the future. But so what? Are we afraid of them? True might is not defined by morale, but good equipment, decent fortifications, and coordination over the long term through harsh training and confidence built by numerous battles. When they face us on the field again, they will be defeated again. They will be crushed and left with nothing. What other might could they possibly have?"

Charade gulped down the rest of the wine.

"Alright. We'll do it as you wish."

"Wait a second," Lorist said, "Don't let Fisablen off so easily. Ask Supervisor Spiel about the worn out armor and weapons we got after exterminating Madras. I believe they're gathering dust and moss in the storehouses. Give that to the legion and tell them that we'll sell them riding armor 103 at a discount. Fifty gold Fordes each should do. We'll outfit them with that if they can bring out another two million. If he's not happy, he can come to me."

"Your Grace, isn't this a little too insidious? Duke Fisablen will definitely spew blood. You're practically giving his face a slap... Nevermind. After all the agreement only stipulates we give them equipment, not what kind."

Lorist breathed a long sigh.

"I didn't want to do this either. I'm afraid the king will spread word of us not taking the bigger picture into account and House Fisablen will hate us all the way to the bone, but I really can't afford House Fisablen regaining their strength. Forget about the king, House Fisablen is our biggest threat."

Charade stopped laughing and sighed as well.

"Are you still mad at Count Felim and Count Shazin? They're our allies but they're dragging us into the mud. Maybe we should consider dissolving the alliance. Actually, there are many in the house who think that, had it not been for the alliance, our influence would have grown even more."

Lorist stood up and walked to the windowsill. He looked at the peaceful scene outside, at the houses and streets.

"Do you think so as well? That the alliance is a burden rather than a boon?"

Charade shook his head.

"I don't think so, but I feel you think a little too highly of our allies. Actually, even their combined might can't rival ours. Ever since our attack on Madras and Iblia, there are some in the house who started feeling you take care of our allies far too much. For instance, you allowed House Kenmays to occupy their own province and even form their own maritime trading fleet, giving them a huge cut of the profits of maritime trade in Northsea.

"As for Count Felim, not only did we send out troops to retake his dominion, we were also willing to go to battle for his sake, sacrificing tens of thousands of our loyal soldiers in the process. Many officials and knights believe we suffered quite a bit of loss after our conquest of Iblia and House Felim managed to profit a lot.

"There's also Count Shazin. He was just a gold-ranked knight when we met him. If not for our support, how would he even be qualified to be brought up in the same sentence as us?

"I don't personally endorse these views, but I believe you do in fact look after our allies a lot. But I believe you have your reasons, reasons beyond my short-sighted view."

Lorist chuckled.

"Alright, enough with the flattery. If you're trying to flatter me, at least make it seem more convincing. I don't think you don't have any talent for flattering though.

"Maybe you might not believe this, but at first, I didn't really regard the alliance with that much importance. I only wanted to establish a method by which to export our produce. Putting the alliance aside, I was more concerned with the salt merchant committee. I had hoped we could export our goods to other provinces through the committee. The reason I drafted the alliance at first was to put our allies' mind at peace," said Lorist with a lowered head as he paced about.

"Put their minds at peace?"

Charade was quite surprised, this was the first time Lorist had revealed his true motives.

"Yes. We all just happened to have the same goal of trapping the second prince. After that, we managed to eliminate the First Legion. We also sucked all the landed nobles across The Northlands dry apart from our three allies with the excuse that those nobles worked with the second prince to attack our house.

"Think about how The Northlands would have ended up had I not formed the alliance. It's obvious that the three houses would have united against us. Since we wiped out all the other nobles, the three would have had no choice but to fight an enemy like us as one. Though we can mobilize our forces to defeat them, it would come at a great cost and The Northlands will be even more chaotic.

"That was why I formed the alliance. We will all stretch our influences outward and face the threat of Madras and Iblia together. It helped us gain the precious time we needed. What I didn't expect, however, was how that Kenmays was actually able to run salt merchant committee so well and tied our four houses together with the profits he made. That's why the alliance still exists."

Lorist had already paced about half the room.

"At first, I didn't really regard the alliance much importance. It was after Silowas was attacked and our expedition to exterminate the Hanayabarta kingdom that I realized the alliance's importance. If we didn't have our three allies separating us from the outside world, we wouldn't have been able to develop as steadily and rapidly as we have.

"The Northlands is truly too large. It's a province, but its area is three times that of Delamock. Given how strong house was back then, even if we managed to control the whole Northlands, we would've attracted lots of other hungry factions vying for what we had. Especially given that there are only three ways from The Northlands to the rest of the empire. If those were sealed off, we would lose touch with the rest of the empire. In one sense, it makes it easy to defend, but also hard to rely on others. Bullhorn Bay can reach the outside world now as well, a maritime trade route alone isn't enough to export our produce.

"We might have the strength to hold The Northlands for ourselves, but we have to rely on our allies. Even if we want to occupy the whole province, we have to use dominion relocation instead of tearing up the alliance with military force. House Kenmays was one of our earliest enemies. When I first returned to the dominion, they were laying siege at Maplewoods. Back then, House Norton was turtling up and could only endure their attacks unable to fight back.

Logically speaking, I should hate House Kenmays to the bone, right? But Duke Kenmays's father turned out to be quite the far-sighted man. He instantly made the decision to avoid the brunt of my troops and went to the eastern Northlands to lay his foundations anew out of my grasp and even apologized sincerely. Later, I realized Kenmays himself was quite the talented man, not unlike yourself. You're better at taking the larger picture into consideration; Kenmays at business and social relations. It was my admiration for his talents that made us friends.

"Among our three allies, Duke Kenmays is the one with the most foresight. He knows as long as he can sustain the alliance, House Kenmays can transition smoothly from a merchant family to a proper house. That is why he toils away to run the committee. At the same time, as the influence of our alliance increases, salt merchant committee's reach grows. It's is a win-win for Duke Kenmays.

"I've heard a local saying that goes, 'A fence requires three posts, a good man requires three helpers'. Even though House Norton has a legacy over three centuries old, we were still a small house at the rural borders of The Northlands and couldn't compare to the ancient, powerful noble houses. In the days of the empire, we were synonymous with loyalty, and that's the reason we stubbornly support the imperial family's true heir, the Andinaq royal family. While taking up the burden is easy, putting it back down is not.

"You should know best how wary the king is of us. We can't go any higher under his wing either. We already have the highest possible vassalic title. Unless we found our own kingdom, which is impossible, there is no ladder left to climb. The second highness wouldn't allow it either. If we rebel, our reputation, earned over two centuries, would be ruined in a single moment. That's not something we can afford. 'Traitor' is not a pleasant lable to have and I don't want to be scorned by thousands either.

"The alliance is incredibly important right now. Think about how we made the king suffer through cooperating with our allies. We managed to rake in huge gains and the king got nothing. In his eyes, the four houses are one unit and he can't target any us individually. All he can do is try and destroy the alliance.

"Without the alliance, he only needs to deal with us. Using rumors, he can destroy our reputation. But now we have our allies, he has to think twice before pulling something like this. That's also why I was enthusiastic about forming the alliance in the beginning. No matter which house the king decides to take on, he has to consider the three others' retaliation.

"The duchies are bait and we have no choice but to bite. Count Felim has always wanted his house's glorious name restored and given that development of his dominion is bottlenecked, it's no surprise he has turned his attention to the duchies. Count Shazin has always been rather bad at managing his dominion and it's only reasonable for him to want to increase his wealth with plunder. The two swallowed the bait, so we have to stay with them through it all. Just like you said, our invasion will bring us benefits as well. This is a step we have to take to protect the alliance. We shouldn't allow a rift to form so easily.

"I didn't imagine that bastard would bring that fox into this, though. That old fox wants his men back to rebuild his forces. Count Felim and Count Shazin have their vision blurred from the potential benefits. they didn't speak out against his request because they feared the invasion would be called off. That's why I agreed to release them. The only con is that we lost free manpower. We'll have to stop many of our ongoing projects."

Chapter 418 Plotting

"In summer I plot and plan
in autumn I plow the land
in winter I move the groove
in spring I drench my wench."

~ A poem from the emperor's diary

Charade left right away. Since Lorist had already given his okay, he had to start preparing the rest. He refused Lorist's request to dine with him and left in a hurry. As the chief administrator, there was much of which he was left in charge so he couldn't just rest right after a decision was made like Lorist could.

Lorist didn't expect Sylvia would return with an angry look right after Charade left. He was quite surprised. He had initially thought Sylvia would return late. At the very least, she should've had dinner with her godmother, Xanthi, instead of rushing over in a bad mood.

She dug herself into his arms and teared up soundlessly like a lost child, distressing him greatly. Sylvia didn't have much mental fortitude, so he was very worried she might develop some kind of mental disorder at some point. After consoling her for a while, he came to know what happened. Xanthi had told Sylvia that after she took the king as her disciple and aided with his breakthrough, she wanted to find a good husband for her. She thought considered the king was a very good candidate, given his high status, impressive reputation, reputable family background, good personal combat skills, and rank as king. If she had wedded him, House Fisablen could've shed the reputation of traitor and even be one of the kingdom's top noble houses, perhaps even get out of their current predicament.

But when the king was at the crucial point of his breakthrough, Xanthi received word of Sylvia's marriage. The news concerned the breakout of war between House Fisablen and the alliance and Iblia's extermination. Xanthi had been really believed her goddaughter would finally be over the Norton kid. So, it really made her wonder what was going on when she heard about their wedding. She couldn't write it off as a joke either; the wedding invitation arrived along with the news. No matter how much she thought about it, she still couldn't remotely guess what was happening. She decided that Lorist must have forced the house to make Sylvia marry him. Unfortunately, she couldn't leave the capital, or she would have slaughtered her way into the Northlands to save Sylvia. The biggest loss was that Sylvia would lose her chance to become queen. She really wondered why the house couldn't delay it for another year.

Counter to the picture Xanthi had in her mind of the situation, Sylvia couldn't be happier. She didn't care for the position queen and was more than satisfied that she could be with the man she loved. After finally meeting the godmother she had relied on from her childhood, she had told her everything about how she felt, including the harsh treatment she had received from the house and how hollow she had felt after she was abandoned and sent to Lorist as a gift. She also told Xanthi about what Lorist had done to nurse her back to health and the effort he had put in to make her his lawfully wedded wife.

Xanthi grew more furious the more she listened. Everything was the duke's fault! She dragged Sylvia over to her grandfather to settle the matter. The girl didn't want to meet the duke but she didn't have much of a say, not with a blademaster dragging her along.

The old woman and the old man argued incessantly and Sylvia became a potted plant watching the affair. She couldn't bear to listen to their fight and tried to move as far away as she possibly could. Unfortunately, she encountered her cousin, Cacanne, touring Rose Palace with a few others, as she tried to escape. Cacanne greeted her as the queen and even sneered at her in front of everyone. The girl couldn't endure the humiliation and slapped her before running away. On the way, she started to feel more and more anxious about what she had just done and came to Lorist to tell him about it.

Lorist laughed heartily when the story finished.

"Dear, it's fine as long as you didn't come out worse for wear. In fact, it was worth it if you gave that queen a slap."

"But... But my cousin is the queen!"

"So what? Slap her if you want."

Lorist wasn't taking it seriously at all. If Auguslo really wanted the alliance's support in the coming war, he couldn't bother with blame games now. He was too cold-blooded to care about the queen's face as long as it didn't affect him anyway. He wasn't the kind of king that would draw his sword for a beauty. Even if he did, he'd still have to consider whether a mere rank 1 blademaster could afford to do so against Lorist.

"Your Grace, His Majesty has arrived," reported Jinolio.

He informed the two that the king seemed rather angered, though he had only brought two guards with him.

Well, I suppose it's only to be expected. He'd lose quite a bit of face if his wife was slapped without any recourse. No matter how bad their relationship, a husband has to stand up for his wife. Since it isn't appropriate to go after Sylvia, he has to come to me.

Lorist let Auguslo in. He gave Sylvia's rear a light slap as he waited.

"Go hide this out. I'll deal with this for you. I hope you last longer tonight."

Sylvia gave him an embarrassed glance before leaving. He heard the king's loud footsteps as he entered. He didn't bother to stand up. Instead, he remained laid back in his chair as he stretched out his hand.

"Forget this matter and I'll give you 50 catapults. What do you say?"

"Ah," Auguslo mused, "One hundred, and I'll treat it as if it never happened."

"Hehe," Lorist laughed, shaking his head, "Fifty. That queen of yours ain't worth a hundred."

"No way, she is my wife and the kingdom's queen. Don't you think it's a slight on my reputation without at least a hundred catapults?"

The second highness's insistence was already clear.

Lorist withdrew his hand.

"Fine, if you don't want fifty, then you'll get none. Do whatever you want, I'll take it all. Just tell me if you want to end our friendship."

Auguslo was stunned.

"Locke, what's the meaning of this?! Why aren't you following the script?!" he cried.

"Script? What script?"

"Shouldn't we bargain a little more and settle in the middle? With that, we can both step down with our reputations intact. How could you end it all like this?"

Lorist laughed for a moment before his face sunk into a resting bastard face.

"My offer is final, 50 catapults and not one more. You should understand better than anyone that I offered you 50 catapults just because it's you. Do you think I would bother making it up to anyone else?"

"Fine, 50 it is."

Though Auguslo knew that it was already Lorist's baseline, he was still not satisfied.

"Why don't you go slap her again and give me a hundred catapults instead?"

Lorist laughed so hard he lost his breath.

"Those 50 and your Whitelion should be more than enough to take down quite a few walled cities and forts. You shouldn't be too greedy. Also, I can't be bothered to slap your wife. Come to think of it, I think you owe me an explanation for why you broke up with my cousin."

Auguslo sighed and took a seat.

"A cup of wine."

Jinolio served some wine and immediately left again, closing the door to the study behind him. Lorist got the wine bottle and poured himself a cup as well, which he downed in one gulp, before handing the rest to Auguslo. The latter didn't bother with the cup. Instead, he emptied the bottle directly into his mouth. After a loud burp and a sigh he began.

"I have wronged Glacia..."

"Of course you have. She joined you when she was 18 and has been by your side for 20 years. She charged into battle for you, fought wars for you, and served you in the night. She gave you all the time she had in the prime of her youth. Even if you're wary of us, you of all people should understand how loyal she was. I didn't think you'd abandon her so easily and let her leave. I really look down on you, 'Your Majesty'. This just confirmed I was right not to cooperate with you. If this is how you treat a woman so loyal to you, how much easier would you throw us away once you had no further use for us?" mocked Lorist coldly.

"You can't blame me," argued Auguslo.

Since Lorist was being forthright, he didn't bother with false pretenses.

"Your forces are strong enough to exterminate nations like it was a mere stroll in the park, yet you're unwilling to help me reunite the empire. Do you really think I can not worry about you? I'm afraid your methods would be far worse if you were in my position. I'm already really tolerant of you. Tell me. Do you think I could really take Glacia as my queen?"

"But, Your Majesty, you know we aren't the least bit interested in the throne. Our house's centuries-long legacy should be ample proof. We pledged allegiance to you because you were the legitimate heir to the royal family. You know I don't have much ambition either. All I want is to develop my dominion and spend my days in peace. It's really unfair for you to be so wary of us."

"No, no..." the second highness said as he shook his head, "Locke, I know you don't have much ambition. I have no choice. If I took Glacia as my wife, as the kingdom's strongest duke, you would influence its affairs one way or another. Given that Glacia is a Norton, you will always back her. Even if you pledge your allegiance to the kingdom, you can't promise that your descendants will do the same. I have to consider the future beyond those currently heading the houses."

"So you're saying you're taking a woman from House Fisablen so they can be our foil? You're willing to give up on Glacia, who has followed you for over two decades, just for that?"

Auguslo laughed bitterly.

"I won't deny I did hold the thought at one point. The real reason is to take House Fisablen back into the kingdom including the old empire's two border provinces they control and use them to attack the four duchies. Locke, you know my dream is to rebuild the empire. Through reuniting it, my name will be recorded and remembered in the annals of history.

"Blademaster Xanthi asked that I marry someone from the house. She said Duke Fisablen wouldn't be persuaded otherwise. At first, Princess Sylvia was supposed to be the one I married, but you'd already taken her as your wife. So, I simply chose another. I don't love her. I made it very clear to Glacia that I was doing this for the empire, nothing more. If she were willing I would have taken her as my second wife, but she would have none of it.

"Do you think I don't feel bad? I really don't have a choice. Since you were unwilling to help me, I had no choice but to ask House Fisablen. There's no way I can defeat the duchies with just three legions and 150 thousand men. I need to borrow the strength of others. House Fisablen has deployed two legions. Coupled with the four houses, we have more than enough to wipe out the duchies now. After reclaiming the eleven provinces and recuperating for a few years, we can finally take back the empire's land the Union now holds."

Lorist sighed deeply. He felt great pity for the king all of a sudden. For the sake of reuniting the empire, he was willing to take any step necessary like he was possessed by a demon. He didn't hesitate to slaughter the traitorous nobles. He was also ready to sacrifice his love to gain House Fisablen's support. But people couldn't come to agreements if they weren't on the same page. Had it not been for his allies, Lorist wouldn't have bothered to help with the upcoming war.

Fine, let's just consider this the last time.

"Alright, I'll join the war this time to sate your desire for revenge. I won't let you command our forces, though. We will decide how and when to attack. I guarantee we won't miss the opportunity should it present itself, so I hope you won't hold me back."

Auguslo cracked a smile and gave Lorist a high five.

"Deal!"

The king was quite happy with the results of his visit and refused Lorist's cordial invitation to having dinner together. He said he had to go back to Rose Palace and calm the slapped queen down.

"Do you really think you can handle the scheming old fox?" Lorist couldn't help but ask as Auguslo was leaving.

The king smiled brightly.

"What do I have to worry about with House Norton around?"

Lorist shook his head, a bitter smile on his face, as he watched the king leave.

Why, aren't you the real schemer here? You know the one I'm most wary of is Duke Fisablen. So you let them do what they please without much consideration. You understand that if House Fisablen regains their strength, they would slap me down hard first. You're letting them clutch your leg for a chance of surviving and rebuilding. I have been unconsciously made a weapon with which you threaten that old fox...

Chapter 419 Declaration

"It is not the oath that makes the man trustworthy, but the man the oath." ~ Norton Lorist

The second highness soon left; he had to take the queen back to the capital before leading Whitelion to Southern. His trip would take about two months, so the war would only start in the middle of the 8th month. Currently, it was only the 5th.

A large military camp had already been built in Southern. House Norton's Tigersoar and House Felim's Pegasus were the first to arrive. The two legions' camps sandwiched Third Frontier. Firmrock was still stationed at the border with Eastwild to maintain security.

Lorist planned to mobilize Tigersoar, two sentry divisions, and two divisions from Jaeger. Tigersoar would be the vanguard. The sentry divisions and Jaeger's divisions were brought along for training, to provide them with experience. The other reason was to ensure numerical superiority so the Fisablens wouldn't do anything fishy. Even if they were on the same side, Lorist wasn't willing to let his guard down.

Duke Fisablen had been acted within his bounds as of late. Even after seeing that the released soldiers were armed with only old and beaten armor and rusted weapons, he just sighed a few times and resisted the urge to make his objections heard. He moved in to live alongside his soldiers. Xanthi, however, sought out Sylvia to vent her frustration by talking bad about lorist, forcing Sylvia to get her husband to give out thousands of better weapons and make up for it.

Kenmays mobilized two heavy-armored divisions but they would first meet up with Whitelion before heading to Southern. Shazin mobilized all his forces. All 48 thousand had departed and would arrive in Southern in another ten days. It was apparent that Shazin was rubbing his hands in anticipation of a huge haul. As for House Fisablen, they were mobilizing two legions. Apart from the freed Third Frontier, they also mobilized another legion. They had brought quite a lot along, so their journey would take longer and they were estimated to arrive in Southern in the 6th month.

Apart from the four houses and House Fisablen's forces, the landed Delamockan and Winstonian nobles had brought their private armies. The furthest ones even came all the way from the capital, they didn't bring many men, though. The smallest were around ten strong, the largest around a hundred. They all traveled together in a huge convoy that totaled roughly ten thousand by the time they arrived. However, it seemed they weren't there to go to war, but rather, to make a killing pillaging.

Much to Lorist's surprise, his lover, Arriotoli of House Dina, also brought around a hundred farmers. She even got into trouble the moment she entered the military camp. It was not surprising that a rare female knight would be teased by the rough crowd. However, she was far too short-tempered and got into a fight immediately, setting off an incident that resulted in one dead and three injured. The whole camp broke into a commotion. Lorist only discovered what was going on after sending Loze to stop the fighting.

Exceedingly troubled, Lorist had no choice but to send Charade to deal with it by paying reparations for and to the dead and injured. However, not only did Arriotoli refuse to let it go, she even demanded Lorist avenge the seven casualties on her side. Lorist had no choice but to have her men stationed at the campsite of the sentry divisions and 'punish' her in his unique way in order to calm her down.

Despite the various commotions, it was soon the 20th day of the 6th month. House Fisablen's second legion arrived. The moment Lorist heard the report Firmrock sent from the borders, he knew both he and Auguslo had fallen for it. The legion mobilized wasn't a frontier legion like they had thought, but rather House Fisablen's newly formed reserve legion, 35 thousand grassland barbarians graced with 50 thousand war horses and a large number of leather armor and weapons for Third Frontier, they looked more like proper light cavalry again.

That old fox! thought Lorist furiously as he glanced at Duke Fisablen. It so happened that the other was looking at him and even shot him a slight smile.

Lorist nodded and had Loze increase their guards. He had thought House Fisablen would mobilize both frontier legions and was wondering whether he should cause Duke Fisablen some trouble during the attack so they would lose more men and further weaken them. But now, there was no need.

The reserve legion's loss wouldn't impact the house in the slightest. After all, grassland barbarians were a dime a dozen. As long as the house had money, they could recruit as many as they wanted. Duke Fisablen was obviously trying to save Third Frontier and use the reserve legion for the main charge. Though Lorist had gone through the trouble of arming Third Frontier with poor armor, the duke now had a good excuse to not send them into battle. He had truly miscalculated.

On the 27th day of the 6th, Lorist received Tarkel's report. The four duchies were aware of their movements and even knew the war would erupt in 8th. So far, Handra, Farkel, and Forund had prepared. Each had formed a legion 45 thousand strong and were preparing to form a second. At the moment, the three legions were on the march to Shabaj. They would likely arrive at Rimad by the 30th of the 7th. They would later set up fortifications with the intent of bogging them down at Rimad. They wanted to turn this into a war of attrition.

Additionally, ever since exterminating Melein, Duke Shabaj had moved their capital to Messen Castle in Messen. After their defeat during the war between the four houses and House Fisablen, they had sought to defend themselves from further attacks by stationing the duchy's second legion in Rimad, the first legion, 45 thousand strong, in Messen, and a division of 12 thousand at Egret Swamp to prevent Auguslo from attacking there.

Even if Shabaj still had a population of around 800 thousand, having a standing force of 100 thousand was definitely no easy feat. Hence why the second legion relied mainly on the support of the three other duchies. When word of Andinaq's upcoming invasion spread, Duke Shabaj requested aid from his allies and held a recruitment drive.

Messen used to be House Melein's hereditary dominion. After it was conquered, the whole Melein family, save a seven-year-old boy and a four-year-old girl left at the imperial capital, were put to death. Though Duke Shabaj had moved his capital there, he couldn't capture the citizens' hearts, resulting in the snail-paced war preparations. Nowadays, the duke could only rely on his first legion. It was the greatest pillar of his house. He planned to join up with the three other duchies before heading to Rimad.

Lorist looked at the map for quite a while before he sent someone to call Duke Fisablen, Felim, and Shazin for an emergency war council. During the council, he briefly summarized the intel he had.

Pointing at the map, he said, "So far, Handra, Forund, and Farkel's reinforcements have yet to arrive. While Whitelion hasn't arrived for us either, given how urgent the situation is, I don't want to wait. Let's attack as soon as possible and force the reinforcements outside the border."

Shabaj contained three provinces. Rimad and Messen were former dominions of Melein. The other province was Jigzai, the original hereditary dominion of House Shabaj.Originally, both Jigzai and the neighboring province, Samora, belonged to them. But when Auguslo was trapped in Frederika, he asked Duke Melein to reinforce him by deploying his troops at Samora and fight with the four dutches. After Melein fell, Shabak occupied Rimad and Messen while transferring their former dominion, Samora, to Farkel.

The duchy now had an oblong shape. If Lorist and the rest could barge their way into Jigzai, they could gain the initiative. They could attack Forund in the south or Farkel in the west. As a result, the four duchies would be forced into a passive, reactionary position. Shabaj would also have no choice but to turtle up and defend while the other three couldn't reinforce it at all. They would only be able to protect their borders.

The others were all experienced veterans who could tell his decision was the best choice under the circumstances. Felim and Shazin weren't a problem since they were part of the alliance. They all turned to Fisablen. If he insisted they wait for Whitelion and Auguslo's arrival before launching the offensive, they would pretend Lorist didn't bring anything up and get ready for a long, grueling war.

Duke Fisablen looked at the map wordlessly.

Finally, he turned to Lorist and asked, "How do you all plan to attack?"

"Simple," Lorist said as he pointed at Jigzai, which belonged to Shabaj, "House Fisablen's reserve legion and Third Frontier, and House Felim's Pegasus are all light cavalry. You can drive straight into the province and avoid the citadels all the way to Jigzai. Seal off Forund and Farkel's borders and pillage the two duchies to force them to send their reinforcements there instead.

"Count Shazin's forces and the nobles will go to Messen and encircle Messen Castle. We just need Shabaj's first legion trapped. I believe our surprise attack will catch the duke off-guard. They believe our attack will only start in the 8th. Their preparations aren't finished yet, so we can catch them with their pants down. Duke Shabaj can only stay and defend Messen Castle.

"As for Tigersoar, they will deal with Shabaj's second legion stationed in Rimad before regrouping with Shazin at Messen. We can plan our next moves then. Your forces will have to hold the borders until then."

Felim and Shazin both agreed. Fisablen, on the other hand, just stared at Lorist.

"Two conditions," he finally said, "First, you may not sabotage my legions. Second, you will pledge the logistics support is kept fair and is the same as that of the other houses. Swear to the Wargod in the name of House Norton's ancestors. I won't trust you otherwise."

Lorist blushed, some sweat trickled down his neck. He had thought he was the only one cautious of his opponents. He didn't Fisablen also saw him as a crook. Both sides were incredibly wary of a huge commotion breaking out.

"Fine, I'll swear," Lorist said, "But you must also swear your allegiance to Andinaq with Singwa as your witness and pledge to be serious in this war. Only if you swear publicly can I treat you fairly."

"Will you withdraw Firmrock if I do?" countered the duke.

"No. That's a different matter entirely. Firmrock is just a garrison force. They aren't part of this war, what does your oath have anything to do with them?"

The two argued for the rest of the meeting before they arrived at a compromise and made their oaths publicly. Lorist was quite satisfied that he didn't have to withdraw Firmrock from the borders, and Duke Fisablen was assured he wouldn't have to worry about being caught in a trap.

"One more question. How will the spoils be split?" asked the duke.

Lorist gave it some thought.

"You keep what you get. To prevent conflict, we can even designate which areas will fall into whose jurisdiction."

"Alright," agreed the duke as he stretched out his hand.

Chapter 420 The Battle Begins

"This is an operation by no means to be despised in war, although it is rare, and less brilliant than a great strategic combination which renders victory certain even before the battle is fought." ~ Loze, on surprise attacks, in his book A Treatise on War.

On the 5th day of the 7th month, Year 1781, the four house alliance launched a surprise attack on the four central dutchies' Shabaj.

On the 6th day of that month, House Norton's Tigersoar attacked the dutchy's second legion. The battle lasted for half a day before the legion finally crumbled. The legion's general, the gold-ranked knight, Morind, escaped with what remained of the once-proud legion and withdrew to Farkel.

On the month's 9th day, House Shazin's and various other nobles' forces encircled Messen Castle. Duke Shabaj guessed that his enemy was just above 100 thousand strong and didn't dare to send the legion he had in the city out. He huddled in the castle and waited for reinforcements.

On the 11th day, Felim's Pegasus and Duke Fisablen's reserve and third frontier legion arrived at Jigzai and began raiding the region. The troops defending the area soon fell into complete chaos. The neighboring provinces -- Samora of Farkel and Freewood of Forund -- were greatly alarmed. The reinforcements originally intended for Shabaj were diverted to Samora.

Lorist's sudden attack had caught the four duchies completely off guard. They had focused their attention on Auguslo, not much had been spared for anyone else on his side. It didn't help that the logistics of effectively gathering information on an entire kingdom's nobles, each acting independently, was impractical. Do not forget that Lorist's Furybear was quite the novelty in its day. No one else had thought of setting up a network of professional informants.

The dutchies had both considered themselves and been considered by others the enemies of the four houses since the day of their defeat at the hands of Lorist at the behest of Duke Fisablen. Shabaj, who shared a border with Southern, had created a second legion to prepare for the inevitable, eventual invasion and sealed its borders with the four houses' lands. Felim who resided in Southern also sent Pegasus to watch the border. The two sides had apparently completely antagonized each other; it was no longer a question of if they would go to war, but when.

The locked border prevented people from crossing, but with it, information. The duchies' informants had to send their reports from Southern to the imperial capital, through the two southwestern provinces, from there it traveled all the way to Handra, before crossing over to Shabaj. Though they were only two provinces apart, the information had to make a huge detour and it took up to three months to reach the other of the border.

The battle in Southern had happened three years ago by now. The reports the duchies managed to obtain were only about the conflict between House Fisablen and House Norton, such as Firmrock's attack on Boblige and the long-term defense they had set up on the border. They also got word of how Duke Fisablen had defeated Jaeger and House Felim's development of its new dominion.

The duchies had dropped there guard. Unlike Auguslo, the four houses' attention wasn't focused on them. They were still caught up in a war with House Fisablen. Given that the two sides were still entangled, the duchies reasoned they wouldn't be a target for quite a while. They regretted believing House Fisablen about how the four houses were nobles of Andinaq, causing them to send their forces to reinforce the duke. In the end, not only did they manage to antagonize the alliance, they also suffered a huge loss, nearly 60 thousand elite infantry.

Just three years had passed since the loss but they had already dropped their guard. The way they saw it, with House Fisablen giving them trouble in the great northeastern plains, the alliance wouldn't have enough resources to turn on them. So, they focused on Andinaq's king. They were aware that he hated them to the bone for betraying the empire and had had his eye on them for a long time. They didn't dare to be careless and overlook the man called the new generation's war god.

Hence why the news of Auguslo breaking through and becoming a blademaster was such a shocked. His tour of the northeastern territories drew their attention even more. He even convinced Duke Fisablen to return to the fold. By the time news of the planned expedition reached their ears, it was already well into the 5th month. Even they would require some time to rally their armies. Shabaj's reinforcements would arrive only barely in time.

Each duchy normally only had one standing legion, with the exception of Shabaj. The moment there was an invasion, they would rally more men, split the usual force in half, and fill their ranks until they became two legions -- their experienced veterans leading the new recruits. This way, the overall strength of their legions didn't decrease by much. One of the legions would stay at home and defend the duchy from whence it hailed and the other would mobilize to meet the enemy. If the war dragged on the two legions would switch regularly so neither ever became too fatigued.

After receiving word that Auguslo was going to attack them through Southern, Handra, Farkel, and Forund all ran conscription campaigns and sent their legions to Rimad whilst keeping a close eye on the king's movements. The king was going to return to the imperial capital to move Whitelion from the borders of the two southwestern provinces to Southern. By the time that was completed, it would already be the 8th month, and the attack would only take place in the middle of the month. The reinforcements would've erected their defenses around Rimad already. The only thing left was to wait.

The duchies weren't in a rush and did everything according to plan. They indeed hadn't predicted that Lorist would attack more than 50 days earlier than planned without waiting for the king. It completely flabbergasted the dukes.

Didn't they say Auguslo's Whitelion was still only at Delamock? Weren't they going to join up with Duke Kenmays's two heavy-armored divisions? Given their speed, it would take at least a month more to reach Southern! Why has The Northlands and House Fisablen started already? Aren't they afraid of the king's rage?

Dukes Farkel and Forund snapped out of their days, and started to panic, when news came from the frontlines. Felim's Pegasus and Duke Fisablen's two light cavalry legions had barged into their duchies and begun raiding the settlements. Not only did they take wealth and riches, but also citizens. The two dukes cursed Duke Fisablen angrily for forgetting how they helped him and betraying them. Hey conscripted more men and started setting up defenses at their borders. At the same time, they asked Duke Handra for help. Given the situation, neither of them could be bothered with Duke Shabaj.

Their forces were mainly infantry, though, they lacked cavalry entirely. They had agreed to aid the duke three years earlier because they had been guaranteed a steady supply of steeds but the plan was ruined by Duke Norton. Not only did he break the trade route with House Fisablen, he also unknowingly disrupted their supply of steeds.

Though there were some in the duchies, there weren't enough to form a proper cavalry unit. As a result, their forces were completely helpless when faced with Fisablen's two legions and Felim's Pegasus. With their hit-and-run tactics, Farkel and Forund's garrisons were forced to act defensively. They had to sit in the settlements and wait to be attacked. This persisted until the reinforcements arrived Samora's border.

Once the three legions secured the border, however, they suffered horrendously. Duke Fisablen's suggestion to leave Third Frontier at the border to hold the enemy's reinforcements while the reserves barged into Forund through Freewood all the way to Forund's capital, Paetro, had struck home… hard. The fires of war spread across the dutchy. Duke Forund was completely overwhelmed. He tried to hold down the fort as best he could whilst he sent word of his predicament to the other dukes.

Lorist had Tigersoar press forward and destroy all the crucial forts and attack the village strongholds around Rimad after eradicating the dutchy's second legion. At the same time, he instructed his two divisions from Jaeger to sweeping across the province and capture all the civilians and scattered soldiers. They were to be moved to The Northlands.

Loze finally arrived in Messen two months after the war began and join up with Shazin. The whole of Rimad had already been swept through. Only wasteland was left.

Duke Shabaj, who had been cooped up in the castle, finally made the decision to break out. The city had a native population of 70 thousand, which had swollen to 100 thousand with the refugees from the countryside. There were enough people to defend the city and the food stores could last for a year but the duke was getting too worried. He hadn't just sat around and waited for the hand fate had dealt him to be revealed. He tried his best to engage Shazin's forces but he didn't gain much.

The reason was simple. Shazin had a stalwart defense. The city had three main gates and House Shazins' forces could be split into two light infantry and two light cavalry divisions. Count Shazin stationed his two infantry divisions at the two side gates. He left the main gate to the other nobles. Their mission was to hold the camp when Shabaj's first legion attacked so the count could lead his two light cavalry divisions in a counterattack.

By putting up a false show of strength, Shazin managed to dupe the duke for a while, during which he hurriedly pressed the construction of the small forts. By the time the duke was aware of what was going on, the forts were already complete. Duke Shabak had once tried to use three divisions to attack the stronghold near the north gate, but Shazin's two light cavalry divisions' responded with an easy pincer. The men were forced to drop their equipment to escape. The attack cost the duke five thousand men.

He didn't sally forth again. He might be a rank 1 blademaster but he hadn't reached the rank through his own efforts and insight. He had relied on large amounts of precious medicines to raise his strength, he feared death immensely and never led his men personally. It was so bad he didn't dare send his rank 2 blademaster bodyguard. If he did, Shazin would've suffered quite severe losses.

The duke had sent out lots of informants and messengers to request aid, only a few ever returned. Those that did, brought bad news. When they reported the situation of his allies, the other dutchies, the duke slumped into his throne, despondent. Farkel had sealed its borders and Forund couldn't even adequately protect itself. They obviously couldn't send help. Staying in the castle only delayed the inevitable. When he was informed of Tigersoar's arrival, he only had one thought: escape! Escape as soon as possible!

Loze was caught off guard completely. He had decided to let Tigersoar rest before launching the final assault, but, that night, the city's gates opened and what appeared to be every able-bodied man in the city charged out.

The duke had one division occupy the enemy, and escaped towards Jigzai. Loze and Shazin, just about to go to sleep, heard the alarms and thought the duke was launching a surprise attack. As they ordered men around and had others gather information, they realized -- about an hour later -- that something was off. Some soldiers reported that the gates had been left open. The strongholds attacked also sent word that one of the duchy's regiments had escaped.

The two finally realized what was happening and set off in pursuit. Before leaving, though, they had the men move in to occupy the city and wrote to Lorist. The city's easy conquest was completely unexpected. Lorist hurried there with Jaeger.

He arrived just as another war was about to start. Both Loze and Shazin had left to pursue the duke. When the nobles realized the city had been taken, they demanded to be let in to collect their spoils, but, without any such orders from their superiors, the occupying forces denied them entry. The nobles' ire had risen to the point they were about to attack the city.

Seeing the noble's men chanting "Enter the city, plunder wealth, get women!", Lorist put a quick end to the confrontation. He gathered the nobles and divided the spoils. He needed manpower and Shazin needed wealth, he would take the citizenry, and Shazin would keep everything in the castle. The rest of the city was left to the nobles, divided by lot-drawing. Each noble could scour his lot to his heart's content and keep whatever he found, minus the people, of course. Lorist put Jaeger in charge of overseeing the looting and keeping everyone honest.

Some of the nobles were dissatisfied that the wouldn't get any women but eventually yielded. Once everything was decided and arranged the citizenry were quickly moved out of the city. Cries and wails burst of the city walls like a damn overflowing.

Lorist shut his eyes.

"Tell the civilians we're protecting them by chasing them out. If they fall into nobles' hands, or that of their men… well, you know what'll happen," he told Jinolio.

Chapter 421 War

Lorist and his two thousand guards were on their way to Jigzai. It had been more than ten days since the attack on Messen and Lorist couldn't have been busier. Organizing everything for moving Messen's citizens to The Northlands was taking up most of his time. They had no homes anymore, so they were now considered the lowest class of people and they hated the Nortons for it.

Lorist had no real say in the matter, though. They were at war and he had protected them as best he could already. Even so, he couldn't stop them from losing their wealth, thus their hatred. At the same time, not only did he have to deal with their accommodation and food on the journey, the old, the female, and the young had to be allocated carriages. It was beyond confounding and Lorist could only escape after Camorra arrived and took over.

On the way, the conscripts they passed cheered, hands full of spoils and cruddy weapons. They made way for the entourage respectfully. Lorist's face was dark and he couldn't be bothered to regard the ragtag bunch, though. To him, his so-called allies were far more worthy of hate than his enemies.

He had ensured the 100 thousand citizens' safety, while these conscripts raided the city for wealth. For that, they were willing to dig deep into the ground and level buildings. After they were done, they even set fire to the buildings. Had Lorist not stopped them quickly, the whole city might have burned to the ground. When he stepped in, however, they dared declare they had been given these areas and could do whatever they wanted.

Lorist had hanged the nearest ten men right there in a fit of rage. If they had really been allowed to set fire to the areas they were allowed to raid, what would the others in the city do? Were they going to burn together when the fire spread? Many of the conscripts had experienced the civil war. They were accustomed to such behavior. Some wanted to burn everything down to vent frustration at bad plunder, while others just went with the flow.

Even as Lorist began moving the former citizens out, the nobles and their men plunged the province into chaos. The provincial capital had fallen, but many villages were still ripe for the picking. The nobles unsatisfied with their plunder in the city turned their attention to the countryside. Messen's cleansing had begun.

The nobles' retinues were very different from House Norton's military. House Norton's men were disciplined and professional, the nobles' retinues were barely any different from bandits. They killed, raped, and burned without restraint. Some even tried to capture villagers and sell them to Lorist after hearing House Norton needed people, but Camorra quickly put a stop to it.

He told Lorist with utmost seriousness that he shouldn't be buying people. If he did, it would set a precedent and establish a good excuse for the noble's to continue capturing people. If the house were involved in slave trading, they would be no different from slave owners and that went against the oaths they had taken to be against the slave trade. If the nobles knew they weren't buying, they would instead turn their sights on wealth and women. House Norton could then take in the ruined villagers, who would, in turn, be thankful.

Lorist knew Camorra was right. Though he sympathized with the poor villagers, he had to steal his heart. House Norton's forces could easily wipe the noble's out but it wasn't in his ability to stop this. He didn't have the authority. This was war, a war on Grindia. The noble's and their men's behavior was only to be expected. It was really common for nobles. Noble houses with oaths against such practices were exceedingly rare.

All Lorist could do to console himself was repeat the phrase, 'see no evil', in his mind. No matter what, the nobles were his allies. Fighting one's allies for the enemy's sake was something only an imbecile would do. Lorist pretended he saw nothing and made it to Jigzai.

A messenger sent by Loze two days earlier reported that Duke Shabaj had successfully escaped with his family to Farkel. However, as the duke had sacrificed part of his cohort every time he was about to be captured, only about five thousand men of the dutchy's first legion remained. The remaining ones had been exterminated for trying to stop Tigersoar and Shazin's two light cavalry divisions.

Shabaj was completely lost. Apart from a few strongly defended towns, nothing remained. Even Duke Shabaj had to escape, further sealing its fate. The few forts and towns would either surrender or be flattened.

Farkel was going to send three legions to aid Shabaj. They managed to secure Rimad and erect a strong defense to hold off Pegasus, Fisablen's reserve legion, and Third Frontier' assault. Forund wasn't in as good a position, Freewood had already been breached. Even its capital, Paetro, located in Prolina wasn't safe. It frequently came under attack.

Fortunately, Handra's two newly formed legions were sent to Forund. Duke Farkel also managed to recruit two legions of troops and sent one to Samora to reinforce Forund and the other to reinforce Paetro. It gave Duke Forund a decent boost. He also managed to rally two legions. In total, there were five legions, roughly 200 thousand men, manning Freewood's defenses. The front was currently at a stalemate.

Lorist was quite satisfied with how everything had turned out. He still had the initiative. The three remaining duchies had suffered because they didn't have strong cavalry to counter the highly mobile light cavalry. Though Farkel and Forund both had defenses set up and manned by nearly 300 thousand men, they had to defend two fronts. The alliance and House Fisablen only had to occupy Jigzai and launch an attack on either front. Forund and Farkel could only fight back passively.

Lorist decided to take a breather. There was no need to send light cavalry to attack strongly fortified defenses. He would wait until Auguslo and Whitelion arrived. Reports from the rear were that upon hearing of the conquest of Shabaj, Auguslo doubled the march and had now entered Southern. It would still be another 30 days before he arrived.

Actually, the conquest of Shabaj did not net the alliance and House Fisablen much.

Shazin was one of the few who fared better. He had gotten 300 thousand gold Fordes' worth of plunder, while Lorist got around 200 thousand from single-handedly conquering a few towns and citadels. Felim and Fisablen got about the same: less than 100 thousand. Each of the minor houses got a few thousand.

The biggest gains from conquering Shabaj was manpower and food. Apart from House Norton, which needed more manpower to develop Southern, Shazin also took around three thousand households with three to four people in each back to his dominion. They were influenced by Lorist in that they focused on keeping families together. Only by doing so could the new citizens acclimatize more easily to their new environment and become loyal subjects of the ruling house.

What troubled Lorist was that Duke Fisablen had similar intentions. However, his method was crueler in that he only took in young men and women and abandoned the old and the weak, causing the outskirts of his captive camp to be littered with white heads. They begged to be reunited with their family but their cries fell on deaf ears.

When Duke Fisablen sought Lorist out and asked him to open the borders of Southern so he could send the spoils home, the latter sighed deeply and told the duke he was rather unwilling to let House Fisablen take so many youths into its dominion because it would only strengthen them. But as he had pledged to treat House Fisablen as he would his allies, he would have Firmrock open the borders nevertheless. However, he requested the youths be allowed to reunite with their family members so they wouldn't be torn apart because of the move.

Duke Fisablen nodded and left. Lorist then saw the camps' gates open, letting the old folk flood in. Cries of gratitude echoed across the plain and Lorist penned a border-crossing permit. Only after sitting down did he slap himself in the forehead upon realizing that he had fallen for the old fox's trick.

It was obvious the scene of tearing the families apart was made for him. The old fox was worried he wouldn't be willing to open the borders And let him through, so he came up with this trick. Otherwise, he would've chased the old people away already. He knew if he really abandoned them, the youths would hate him and his house. There was simply no way the old fox wouldn't understand such a simple principle. The reason he separated them was to stimulate Lorist's sympathy and allow them to cross the border.

Lorist smiled bitterly.

Whatever, there's no need to go through so much trouble. No matter how he grows his house's might, he can't catch up to me. I already have the right timing, terrain, and men on my side. If I really allow the old fox to turn the tables, I'd bang my head against a flagpole until I die.

The old fox was even more careful of him than he was of the duke. It was obvious from how he made Lorist swear to not set any traps for their forces.

Jigzai used to be House Shabaj's hereditary dominion and it was also an agricultural province, having wide expanses of flat land. It was the perfect place for light cavalry troops to show their prowess. Following the When word of Tigersoar's attack on the few citadels and town spread, as well as the defeat and retreat of Shabaj's 12 thousand troops stationed at Egret Swamp by Els's Jaeger Legion, it could be said that apart from the duke himself, the Shabaj duchy was already exterminated.

That war was far too cruel on the duchy. All three of its provinces were torn apart from the war. It wasn't due to the mere loss of wealth, but rather, the large droves of population that were forced to move away. Before the war, the duchy had a population of around 800 thousand, but only less than 300 thousand survivors remained in the three provinces. Apart from the casualties of war or the refugees that escaped to Farkel, almost half of the population of the duchy had been moved to the dominions of the four houses of The Northlands or House Fisablen, causing development in those provinces to stagnate in the following two decades after the war.

On the 7th day of the 9th month, the late Auguslo finally arrived at the camp in Jigzai with House Kenmays's two heavy-armored divisions.

Following three days of rest, Auguslo held a military council and discussed how they should proceed with the attack on Farkel and Forund. The situation was quite clear-cut. Farkel and Forund were in full-on defense mode while Andinaq held the initiative for attack and could hit wherever they wanted. Whether it be the defense line of Farkel and the borders of Samora or the defense line of Forund at Freewood, as long as either one was breached, the other duchy would also be affected.

If the extermination of the eight garrison legions at those locations were successful, then Forund, Farkel, and even Handra's extermination would be at bay. To the three duchies, their current predicament was far more dangerous than the first prince's invasion a decade ago. That was especially so in the case of Shabaj's extermination and the infiltration of Andinaq's forces into the heart of the duchy. From both terrain and military might, the three duchies were at a disadvantage.

Auguslo hoped to leave only one light cavalry legion to hold back Farkel's three garrison legions and focus all the other military resources on breaching Forund's defense line at Freewood. Even though there were up to five garrison legions there, that defense line was spread out and the terrain was flat, which made it even more suitable for a cavalry attack.

Auguslo was going to use Whitelion and House Kenmay's two heavy-armored divisions to breach one of the spots on the defenses to make an opening while House Fisablen's reserve legion and Third Frontier, House Felim's Pegasus, House Shazin's two light cavalry divisions and Lorist's Tigersoar would enter Forund through the opening and attack Handra and Farkel from the rear, deciding the outcome in one battle.

The king said, "The three duchies are an egg. Their only hard points are the two defense lines before us, and as long as we can breach it, we'll be able to taste the sweet, delicious yolk within. I believe that the might of our combined forces is unmatched and they won't be stopped. Wars are won through might and things are fell through fights. The four central duchies will soon be history, so I wish that you will give this your all and make wondrous contributions to the unification of the empire."

Chapter 422 Trenches and Mud Walls

"These moments of nocturnal prowling leave an indelible impression. Eyes and ears are tensed to the maximum, the rustling approach of strange feet in the tall grass is an unutterably menacing thing. Your breath comes in shallow bursts; you have to force yourself to stifle any panting or wheezing. There is a little mechanical click as the safety-catch on your crossbow is taken off; the sound cuts straight through your nerves. Your fingers grind on the grip of your sword. The encounter will be short and murderous. You tremble with two contradictory impulses: the heightened awareness of the huntsmen, and the terror of the quarry. You are a world unto yourself, saturated with the appalling aura of the savage landscape." ~ Knight Mika Veers, commander of the third trench-rat squad during the first battle of Forund.

"March forward!" cried one of the company lieutenants as he drew his sword.

He instructed his troops to push the shield carts filled with sacks of mud forward.

Auguslo's Whitelion had been attacking the defenses around Freewood for six days and five night without rest. The legion had lost ten thousand men without punching a hole through the defenses. It wasn't Auguslo's fault; the three duchies' troops knew the defenses were integral to their survival. Even though their losses were easily three times greater than their enemy's, they held the line. Loud rhythmic drums echoed continuously across the battlefield. Whitelion's men pushed their large shield carts and advanced to the trenches with great difficulty. They used the earth the shield them from the incoming bolts and tossed the sacks into the trenches before they turned to run. Soon, the trenches were mostly filled and soldiers carrying wooden boards rushed forward and laid them across the trench.

Four men were struck down along the way. One was now dead, the other three injured. They had all been recovered, though. The dead one had unfortunately been struck in the head. The bolt had gone through his left eye and stirred his brain. The only consolation for his comrades was that he had likely not suffered. The trench's filling didn't bring joy to the men's faces, though. They looked infinitely fatigued; they were numb to joy or any sense of accomplishment, there were simply too many trenches still left unfilled. All the land from their feet to the horizon was covered in trenches like the scars on a slave's back. They had already filled six kilometers in the last two days, and there was at least as much still left.

"They're likely digging even more as we speak," said Kenmays.

Nobody had expected this. The attackers had taken a month's respite after their first offensive as they waited for the rest of the invasion force to catch up. The enemy had used the quiet wisely, though; they had dug a massive network of trenches for who knew how many kilometers. The true extent of the network was still unknown, but its sheer scale was slowing being unveiled as the pushed forward. A single cord was easy to break, but a net was infinitely more resilient.

Lorist was reminded of a saying in his past life. He couldn't remember the exact words, but it basically said that war was the best teacher. The mudscape that now confronted him certainly didn't contradict the saying. Trenches were nothing new to the continent, but in all of Grindia's history, no such an extensive network had ever been built. Defenses were always focused on specific points, usually castles or forts. Even when forces were small they would at most dig a trench or two around an encircling mud wall.

House Norton's catapults had changed everything. The castles that towered over the landscape were now basically just target practice. And none of the other defensive structures were worth anything. Tigersoar's sweep of Andinaq in its quest to restore Auguslo's throne had proven the catapult's supremacy.

During the battle for Southern three years ago, Lorist had used trenches and arrows to form a perfect counter against House Fisablen's light cavalry. During a field battle, they also used the catapults to crush 70 thousand infantrymen and obtain victory. He never thought the battle would inspire the duchies so much. Auguslo thought Whitelion's strength and Lorist's 50 catapults alone could easily breach the trenches and mud walls. He didn't think the walls and trenches would extend from hell's gate to heaven's door. The realization of this reality made everyone despair. How were they supposed to continue fighting? Was this some kind of mining or digging game?

During the first day of the offensive, only a thousand soldiers manned the defenses. When they were bombarded by rocks about the size of 50 human heads, they broke and fled. Whitelion managed to fill 14 trenches and breach 21 walls, but they got no spoils. All the enemies had escaped.

They pressed on on the second day, only to discover after advancing 200 meters that another trench and mud wall stood in their way. This time, the defenders were far braver. They resisted about half a day of catapult bombardment with the cover of their mud walls and used their crossbows to kill tens of Whitelion men in exchange for the loss of 200 of their own.

Whitelion took two whole days to make a few paths across the trench before they advanced again, only to be greeted by yet more trenches and mud walls about 300 meters on. Everyone was furious.

What the hell, there are only a few thousand defenders and they aren't really resisting either. All they know is how dig trenches non-stop! Can this even be called a war?!

Auguslo could stand it no longer and gave an order he would come to regret. He ordered the legion to stop pushing the shield carts to fill the trenches. Instead, he had them rush forward and cross the trenches with their wooden boards. He was trying to conquer the trench area as soon as possible. So, Whitelion sent a division of sword-and-shield soldiers to mount an attack. They soon eradicated the enemy in the vicinity and they moved forward.

However, the trench area was much, much larger than normal. By the time the division almost disappeared from sight, cries and sounds of fighting could be heard in the distance all of a sudden. Auguslo was fumbling about anxiously like an ant in a heated wok as his cavalry wasn't able to reinforce them one bit given the presence of trenches all around. The few people he sent to check the situation were killed. But if he were to send a large number of people, while they could reinforce the troops, he wouldn't be able to receive any reports on the situation and would only hear the sound of fighting get louder.

The ones there were intelligent enough to know that they'd been caught in a trap. But the problem was apart from Whitelion three remaining divisions, they only had House Kenmays's two heavy-armored divisions and Count Shazin's three light-infantry divisions, totaling about 90 thousand men. While the total number of duchy troops was around 300 thousand, most were infantry. There was no way Lorist and the rest could send their cavalry out as footmen as reinforcements.

The problem was that Whitelion's sword-and-shield forces had charged too fast. Auguslo didn't think something like this would come to pass. Half the battle was already lost if he couldn't even grasp the situation. Right now, all he had to consider was whether he should send out all his infantry.

It wasn't an easy decision. Duke Fisablen had figured out Auguslo intended to breach the defenses a few days after the attack began. That defenses were was manned by 200 thousand garrison troops. It was all the soldiers Duke Forund could muster.

The attacking sword-and-shield forces probably fell into a trap and were surrounded. The plan was possibly to lure Auguslo into sending even more forward so they could exterminate his 100 thousand infantry with their numerical advantage. In the end, the cavalry would be left behind staring at the defenses, unable to do anything.

Auguslo discussed the matter with Lorist before finally deciding to send the two heavy-armored divisions in as reinforcements. It was crucial that he knew what was going on. But, just as he was pretending to mobilize, the remnants of his forces returned. They were in a rather sorry state; less than three thousand of the original ten thousand had returned. One colonel and four captains had died. Among the three thousand left, the two highest ranking officers were lieutenants. One was lightly injured, the other hurt rather badly. Most also seemed injured to some degree.

The attack proceeded unnaturally well. After they wiped out the thousand-man garrison, the next target they had encountered were garrison soldiers in thousand-man units. The enemy couldn't hold against the sudden appearance of the division. Before they noticed, they had advanced by a kilometer only to discover three completely equipped infantry divisions waiting for them.

It was like they were being clubbed on the head while under the assault of the three elite infantry divisions; the casualties were great. The only thing about which to be glad was that the trenches behind them had served to protect them from pursuit after the colonel gave the order to retreat.

They didn't expect that the trenches and walls weren't used for defense. Another infantry division had used the mud walls as cover to circle around them and seal their escape route. The division crumbled quickly. The colonel and the couple captains had fought with all they had to break through, sacrificing themselves in the process. Not long after, the enemies cheered as they raised a few decapitated heads.

The failure was a slap to Auguslo's face. He, who had thought it easy to breach these defenses, was given a harsh wake-up call. He began to ask the others for ideas, but no one had any good methods to deal with this. Neither the deeply experienced Duke Fisablen nor the witty Lorist could come up with a comprehensive plan.

Lorist was the most shocked by this strategy out of everyone.

Looks like they're not as stupid as I thought. They're using trench warfare.

A few informants hidden in Paetro sent eagle messages that reported that almost all the civilians had been mobilized to dig trenches and erect mud walls across the 50-kilometer stretch from the front line to Paetro. Even the informants themselves were conscripted.

They've really gone and done it! cursed Lorist.

It was obvious the mud walls and trenches were specifically designed to counter his catapults and carroballistae. The impressive weapons were now spayed and neutered. Without elevated ground, they couldn't target effectively. There were no targets and all they could do was demolish the inconsequential walls. The duchy's garrisons also snuck around in the trenches like rats. Auguslo was well aware of this. In the next three days, he had no choice but to fill up trench after trench to establish a new path forward. What he didn't see coming was that the filled trenches were dug up again overnight. The legion's morale fell after seeing their hard work undone. Not only that, the enemy even began to act more actively. They harassed the men at every opportunity.

Currently, Auguslo was caught in a tough dilemma. The trenches they filled were dug up in the night, and the soldiers they sent to watch the trenches would be harassed non-stop. The soldiers sent to hunt down the enemy in the trenches got lost easily or were lured into traps and killed. The situation continued for another five days and four nights, after which they'd only advanced another kilometer. Everyone was beginning to despair.

"How are we supposed to fight a battle like this? I'd rather the three duchies send all their troops against us in open battle. I wouldn't mind even if their numbers are ten times ours. But this business with the trenches is truly far too annoying. Even the soldiers are cursing out nonstop with their morale falling fast," complained Auguslo to Lorist.

Lorist then dealt Auguslo the final blow by handing him the reports he received from Paetro. The king read the reports with doubt and was flabbergasted when he read about how the 50-kilometer stretch of land around Paetro were covered with trenches too. He was so startled he jumped out of his seat and said anxiously, "Is Duke Forund insane? How's he going to plant crops if his whole duchy is filled with trenches?"

Soon, however, Auguslo realized Duke Forund couldn't do anything but this to resist his cavalry troops' attacks. At the very least, filling the duchy with trenches could stop the offensive there. There was the other half of the duchy that could be used for agriculture, and if they didn't have enough food, they could always borrow or buy more from Handra. If the frontlines couldn't be sustained, the duke wouldn't have to consider the problem of food. He couldn't even be certain he could keep his life if Auguslo caught him. It was common knowledge that Auguslo hated the four dukes to the bone.

"Blow the horn and return to camp," ordered Auguslo exasperatedly.

Nothing he did would be of use now. The mere thought of there being another 50 kilometers of trenches and mud walls was horrifying. It seemed he would have to think of another way to attack the three remaining duchies.

Later surveyed showed that nearly a million people were mobilized. They dug 431 trenches across 83 kilometers of land. The entire network's trenches were all between 2 to 3 meters deep and everything was connected. The earth dug up in the making of the trenches was used to build walls about 2 meters tall. It was hailed as a military miracle and chronicled as one of the oddest sights to surface in the history of war on the continent.

Chapter 423 Stalemate

"The only true fool is the man that thinks his enemy an idiot." ~ Kenmays

Mountains, rivers, plains, hills, plains, mountains, Egret Swamp...

A brief description of the terrain in Farkel and Forund now occupied by Andinaq could be no other way. In more than a month, the map had almost been torn to shreds multiple times. Heated arguments broke out all the time in the incessant military councils. The nights of non-stop brainstorming for new ideas tired out many of the higher military officials. Nothing, whether it be probing or reconnaissance, helped the situation.

The four central duchies had been famed for producing the most elite infantry troops in the empire. The terrain was rather hilly, which only served to complement their strategy: defense. While they lacked cavalry, should the war continue dragging on, it would only continue to sway further in their favor. The first prince, who led an army of 100 thousand against the four duchies, had been entangled for three years and eventually retreated having suffered almost complete casualties. This allowed the duchies to invade Majik and force the prince to sue for peace.

It wasn't that Auguslo had never thought of aiming for the hills. The current problem was that, among the troops on their side, the only ones suited for battles in the mountain were Count Shazin's two light infantry divisions, just 20 thousand men. There was no way a force that small could carve a path through the enemy lines. Whitelion and House Kenmays's two heavy-armored divisions were equipped with heavy armor. While they were great for besieging castles and defending them, having them scale the hills and travel across wetlands was futile. Even if they made it they would be too exhausted to fight. Nobody could cross the large river on Forund's borders as no one had any naval troops in the area. Boats could only ferry a few soldiers across at a time, and they were easy targets. The construction of boats would also be rather costly.

Auguslo's plan to attack the four central duchies was originally centered around using cavalry to sweep across the plains and taking the initiative away from his enemies before waiting for the heavy-armored legion's arrival to conquer the citadels and towns. He had wanted to exterminate the duchies in one go and capture the traitorous dukes. That was the main reason he gave for having Duke Fisablen submit.

However, nobody would expect that Duke Forund and Duke Farkel would dig so many trenches and erect mud walls to widen their defensive network. It completely warped the plains and rendered cavalry useless. The trenches even neutralized House Norton's siege weaponry as well. It seemed from the current situation that there was no way to continue apart from filling the trenches patiently.

Auguslo was incredibly dissatisfied and had launched a few probing attacks on different locations no avail. The results were the same. Facing them were endless stretches of trenches and mud walls. Even after Lorist handed over control of one thunderbolt brigade, they still couldn't break through.

As Lorist had said, "There's no target to strike. What would you be demolishing with our catapults?"

When Auguslo discovered that no matter which location he attacked, the enemy would move through the trench network to reinforce it, he finally gave up and wiped the thought of more offensives from his mind. After returning to the camp, he stayed in his tent to brainstorm in hopes he could find a way to break through the current obstacle. The only reasonable method available was suggested by Kenmays. He had come up with it based on how Auguslo crossed Cloudsnap Mountains in the snow to attack Redlis and conquer Frederika. Kenmays believed they could launch a sudden attack in the dead of winter through Egret Swamp, which should be frozen over at that time. As long as they crossed the nameless mountains and hills at the side of the swamp, they could quickly arrive at Farkel's capital, Freimox. If they took the city, the rest would follow.

Kenmays's suggestion made the others see him in a different light. They didn't think a duke from a merchant family could actually have a talent for matters of war. It was truly shocking. But Lorist soon shot down the suggestion. The three remaining duchies understood Auguslo well, what Kenmays had just suggested would definitely occur to them as well. The king's reputation was practically built on launching surprise attacks; the enemy would definitely pay attention to Egret Swamp in the winter and further reinforce their weak points. They could be forced to return without achieving much, or, in the worst case, be caught in an ambush. Not only would it make them suffer huge casualties, it would reinforce the enemy's confidence and resolve.

Kenmays wasn't satisfied at first and argued that the enemy probably wouldn't be so thorough, but he knew Lorist was right the moment he witnessed the acknowledging gazes of Duke Fisablen and King Auguslo. The only true idiot was he who considered his enemy an idiot. Duke Handra, Duke Farkel, Duke Shabaj, and Duke Forund were all elite tough nobles who had far more experience in conflict. They were obviously not as careless as he was suggesting.

Duke Shabaj's defeat was thanks to Lorist's sudden moves. His capabilities could already be seen from how he decisively abandoned Messen and escaped for Farkel without Tigersoar and Shazin's two light cavalry divisions able to do anything about it. Had he been a day late or had he stubbornly continued his course, it would have ended up completely differently. He would have either died in the final battle or ended up a prisoner of war.

Actually, Kenmays's suggestion to attack Egret Lake and head to Farkel's capital had already occurred to the others long ago, and they had given up on it for the very same reasons. The other reason was that it was still only the end of the 10th month. There were at least two months to wait before Egret Swamp would freeze over. The military expenditure for 300 thousand troops over the course of two months during the cold weather was astronomical. The food they managed to obtain from Shabaj was already running out and they would have to bring in even more. It was not only a huge undertaking but also a troublesome effort.

The main mechanic of war was logistics, and should they emerge victorious, there would be profit to gain. The food they obtained at Shabaj would at most sustain the army for a month. Nobody had expected they would be stopped in their tracks as they had been. Their original plan was to live off the resources they obtained. But most of the food had already been expropriated. Shabaj had been cleaned. And there was the fact that Auguslo had to provide for the 200 thousand civilians being moved away given his position as king. He couldn't just leave them alone, so that would have to factor into the total food consumption.

So far, Camorra was stationed in Messen and used the place as a logistics outpost. All resources transported by any house would be kept there. The food Auguslo had no longer had to go through a long way to arrive from the imperial capital. The route stretched straight through Egret Swamp and passed Rimad to arrive at Messen. Lorist was faring rather well in that there was still a lot of resources he could ship over from Windbury through the same route from Southern, to Rimad and Messen. Duke Fisablen and Shazin shared the same situation in that the distance to transport food was great, so lots of it would be consumed along the way. It was already quite impressive for sixth-tenths of the food they made out with to end up there. The one in the worst position was Felim. His dominion had just begun to develop. With the 500 thousand civilians forced to move there, he already had to rely on Lorist for transportation costs and food for the move. He didn't have any vigor left to press the attack.

Duke Fisablen suggested they retreat temporarily and wait for another opportunity to attack in the future. It didn't mean they would give up on Jigzai. They would leave a cavalry legion behind to hold any attacks off and retaliate. When he made his suggestion, he gave Lorist a look and obviously hinted that Tigersoar was the best candidate. 'If Farkel and Forund see our troops retreating, they might want to reclaim Shabaj. At that time, having a strong force like Tigersoar counterattacking would be a great blow' was the gist of it.

Naturally, since Tigersoar wasn't a light cavalry legion and was thus slightly limited in their mobility, Duke Fisablen was willing to leave his reserve legion behind as well. If there were any who disobeyed Lorist's orders, he could do with them what he pleased as well.

While Lorist didn't really understand the reason the duke made the suggestion, there was something lurking beneath his actions. But before he could figure out what, Auguslo announced their war council would recess for a while. He would consider Duke Fisablen's suggestion and give his answer in two days.

After leaving the tent, Lorist sought the duke out to ask about the suggestion and was even willing to leave reserve legion under his command.

"There's no helping it. It's for the bigger picture. I can't allow this to go on. We'll retreat and lure the snake out of its hole. I believe you can deliver fast results. Even if they don't come out, don't worry. Hold them there for three or four years. The remaining three duchies will be unable to sustain the costs of defense and might crumble on their own."

"Old guy..."

As the duke walked away, Lorist thought, That darned fellow is trying to keep me here at Jigzai for a few years so I don't cause trouble in The Northlands. That's why he's even willing to let me command even the reserve legion...

However, he still couldn't help but spit in spite. The reserve legion was wholly grassland barbarians. Even if he wiped them all out, the duke wouldn't be bothered. While the legion wasn't that important, it would still make Lorist owe him a favor.

He didn't imagine Auguslo would overthink the duke's suggestion. While he understood the current situation and knew retreating was the most rational choice, the fact that he couldn't accomplish much during this war frustrated him greatly. He was really unwilling. Then came Duke Fisablen's suspicious suggestion.

What's this? Has Duke Fisablen really made peace with Lorist? Why else would he be willing to hand his reserve legion over? The grassland barbarians are wild and disobedient and listen to nobody apart from the duke. Yet, he's going to hand it to Lorist just like that? Did they come to some kind of agreement? Do they have some scheme in mind?

It was as if Auguslo had developed a phobia for ropes after being bitten by a snake. When he was being restored to the throne, he fell for the alliance's scheme and lost Delamock, Sidgler, Winston, and Southern. The mere thought of it made him feel as if his heart was being cut open. He had even been the one to propose the agreement.

Thinking back, he felt great regret and wanted to cut off the hand that had signed the agreement. While the four provinces hadn't been under his control, as he saw it, he should be the one to control them after reuniting his empire and leave his name in the annals of history as a great emperor. The agreement he signed was the largest humiliation in his entire bright career. So, to him, the alliance's conquest of Iblia and Madras was not an honorable contribution, but a sore slap to his face instead.

Even if he admitted Lorist was the best choice to leave behind and keep the three duchies engaged, it didn't feel right for him, who couldn't understand the reason Duke Fisablen had suggested Lorist. If he didn't have answers, he couldn't calm down. The suspicion he had about Lorist and Duke Fisablen aiming for the duchies made him delay the announcement more than three days.

Lorist didn't plan on staying in Jigzai for a few years either. He decided that if Auguslo really wanted Tigersoar to remain, he would leave it to Loze. He brought Loze to a hill just behind the front line to check on the situation and told Loze about some tactics he could use to deal with retreating enemies.

"Do you think we can attack a front like this?" asked Lorist.

Loze shook his head.

"Your Grace, this is completely impregnable. I suspect this system is designed specifically to counter Tigersoar's ranged weapons and cavalry. The duchy's infantry are moles; they burrow underground all the time. With the mud walls' cover, we can't figure out their deployment. Usually, knowing the enemy's deployment is a great advantage to the attacking side. Also, we are cavalry troops and the enemy are trench-dwelling moles. As long as they stay in their holes and tunnels we can't do much."

Beside them, Dulles, colonel of the carroballista division, spoke.

"Your Grace, our ballistae are completely useless in trench warfare. It's better to use the old style mangonels. While those don't shoot far, their shots are quite powerful and their smaller size also makes them more convenient for use in trenches like these. Our current ballistae are completely useless against these entrenchments. Our ballistae have always been famed for being able to fire further, stronger and more accurate shots, but now they are completely useless. I can't help but wonder if our research has gone down the wrong path... What would we do in the future if our enemies use these tactics again? This is troubling."

Lorist patted Dulles's shoulder.

"Worry not, this is but an exception. The reason Forund and Farkel can set up such a formation is that we've given them time to mobilize their civilians. The duchies always had elite infantry, so they excel in terrain like this. If any other nation copies this without any elite foot soldiers, it would be a fool's errand and they'd just be wasting their manpower and resources."

"If Lord Potterfang were here, maybe Firmrock could breach their lines by attacking from within the trenches," said Loze.

Lorist remained speechless. Firmrock was currently stationed at the border with House Fisablen's territory as its main defense. There was no way he would mobilize them. That aside, even if he did, they would still have to pay a huge price to breach the enemy's line. He didn't want to lose so many men for Auguslo's sake.

"Maybe we can wait for winter. When the snow falls and fills the trenches, we can rely on sleds and snowboards to cross the fortifications," suggested Dulles.

"Are you an idiot?!" Loze rebuked, "Since when has snow stacked up to over two meters? These trenches are at least two or three meters deep! What kind of snowstorm would we need to fill the trenches?!"

"W-well, we could wait for the rainy season... When the rain pours over the trenches, the mud here won't be able to hold its shape," countered Dulles with dissatisfaction.

"Wouldn't we have to be rained on as well?" said Loze as he knocked Dulles on the back of his head.

"Wait, what did you say?" Lorist snapped suddenly before he laughed, "Return to camp at once! I know how we can breach the lines."

Chapter 424 Flooding

Move him into the sun--

Gently its touch woke him once,

At home, whispering of fields half-sown.

Always it woke him, even his trance,

Until this morning and this snow.

If anything might rouse him now

The kind old sun will know.

Think how it wakes the seed--

Woke once the clays of a cold star.

Are limbs, so dear-achieved, are sides

Full-nerved, still warm, too hard to stir?

Was it for this the clay grew tall?

--O what made the fatuous sunbeams toil

To break earth's sleep at all?

~ Inscription on 'The Drowned Soldier, a cenotaph for all the dead during the Battle of the Trenches

"You're saying you want to flood the trenches?" asked Duke FIsablen, his eyes flashing.

"Yes. As long as the trenches are flooded, the duchy's little moles can't stay for long. The moment they come out, they'll be in our sights. Locke, you really have come up with a brilliant idea. Why didn't I think of this?"

Auguslo slapped his forehead. The tents atmosphere lightened up immediately. They finally had a way to turn the situation around. Everyone was glad they didn't have to stay for long. They were rubbing their hands in anticipation of continuing their invasion to show the enemy what they were made of and vent the pent-up frustration they had been bottling up over the past month.

"Haha, it's all thanks to Dulles. Had he not brought up the fact that the rainy season would flood the trenches and force the duchy's moles out, It wouldn't have occurred to me we could flood the trenches artificially. The moles will have no choice but to come out and face us now," said Lorist with a humble smile.

"Bu-but where will we get enough water?"

Kenmays came later than the rest but still asked his question. Lorist's smile showed his teeth in full.

"Simple. Nibarak River isn't far from camp. We will first dam up the river, build a small reservoir, and dig our own trenches to connect everything to the enemy's network. We then just have to wait for the reservoir to fill and overflow into the trenches."

"We will also have to press our attack. We have to keep the project a secret and initiate the flood in the dead of night. We might just be able to give the moles a rather unpleasant surprise," continued Auguslo.

"We also need wooden boards, as many as we can possibly get. If we can bridge the trenched during the chaos, we can drive our cavalry all the way to Paetro and force the dukes into a corner. We'll get Duke Forund in one strike," added Duke Fisablen.

"So it shall be," Auguslo decided, "Locke, I put you in charge of the construction efforts. You can use whatever forces, including the local civilian population and any free cavalry, you need. Try to get it done in three days if possible. Duke Kenmays, I'll take command of your two heavy-armor divisions. We have to put pressure on them and keep their attention on our forces. Count Shazin, take your forces and cut down as much wood as you can."

"Understood, Your Majesty."

With this the war as on to the next offensive. This time round, however, the defending generals felt something off. They realized the heavy-armored soldiers didn't attempt to fill the trenches and knock down the mud walls. They just lay a wooden board across over the gaps to cross before they used their crossbows, javelins, throwing axes and other short-ranged weapons in a shootout with the defenders. Given the advantage of shooting from a height, they managed to kill many more than they lost.

Maybe they intend to conquer our formation by severely increasing our casualties.

The duchies' generals figured this must be their enemy's plan and began moving to counter them. They withdrew their troops and gathered a large force in the rear in an attempt to lure the enemy there. They could repeat the victory they had achieved last time. Naturally, they also had a division lay-in-wait to intercept any reinforcements.

Unexpectedly, the enemy didn't press the attack beyond occupying ten-odd trenches. Instead, they saw large numbers of wooden boards brought over from the rear and erected in the trenches.

What's going on?

The generals had a meeting to discuss this new development and concluded that the enemy was planning to use the wooden boards to seal the trench network so the defenders couldn't attack using them. Reasoning that it must've been a new tactic involving wooden boards, the generals were led astray in their considerations of countermeasures. They used the nights to launch sudden ambushes and set fire to the boards. In one night, they managed to burn several large stockpiles. But it proved futile. The next day, the enemy brought even more boards and re-erected the blockades. They also lit bonfires at night and had crossbowmen stationed above the trenches. The moment any movement was spotted, the alarm would ring to call for reinforcements and the attack would be repelled. It went on for four or five days, but the attacking side could only occupy around 50 trenches.

It relieved the defenders. Though the wooden board tactic was really effective, it wasn't that threatening. Currently, Andinaq's forces were making slower and slower progress, while the duchies' resistance only grew stronger. Only a maximum of five trenches was now being conquered a day. It would take at least three years to make it to Paetro at this rate. All the dukes had to do was hold on for a few more days and the enemy would have lost all their vigor.

One night, the duchies prepared to counter-attack. They wanted to retake a third of the trenches. One of Forund's vassals, Viscount Sanskro, serving as the second garrison legion's general, in command of the offensive, noticed that their enemy had not pushed as hard that day than the days before. It was like they were putting on a show. Maybe there were far too many wooden boards transported to the frontlines, so many that it was muddling their offensive.

"The enemy's bravado is crumbling. Tonight it is our turn," said the viscount, "Didn't you notice the bastards were absent-minded today? They mobilized a division in the evening, but they don't look nearly as energetic as they were a few days ago. The time has come for us to strike back. Split one division into smaller teams and harass them through the night. Our main offensive will begin at dawn. We will push them out of the trench network entirely!"

Only a few dozen trenches at the very front of the network were straight, the rest zig-zagged all over the place. At each of the zigs and zags' corners were mud lookout platforms to help with spotting enemy movement. When an attack was spotted everyone would hide in the trenches. No wonder the enemy considered them moles.

The only direct confrontation between the two sides had taken place recently as a result of a surprise push by a division of Whitelion… and it ended in Whitelion's loss. The next ambush's scale would no doubt be far greater. As Dulles had said, the carroballistae weren't of much use in this kind of terrain. Instead, the defending side's shorter-ranged, mangonels were far more effective. The number of heavy-armored soldiers injured as a result of mangonel fire had grown beyond the hundreds.

Additionally, the duchies' soldiers were equipped with shortswords, throwing axes, small bucklers and other equipment better suited to the tight trenches. The heavily armored soldiers couldn't battle effectively in the trenches because they were mainly armed with spears and two-handed swords. If they entered the trenches, they would be slaughtered. So, they could only sigh in exasperation as their weapons failed them.

Forund's general was quite experienced. He had quite the reputation in the duchy. Be it the first prince's invasion, the duchies' retaliation on Redlis, Auguslo's trapping, Melein's extermination, or the battle in Southern, Viscount Sanskro had been involved in all of the duchy's wars. He had been promoted from a gold-ranked knight to a viscount by the duke himself and was one of the duchy's most trusted generals. Being someone who had participated in the battle in Southern, Viscount Sanskro had managed to escape alive despite the severe losses. He had suffered from the experience since.

His impression of the Nortons' ranged weapons couldn't be deeper. When he learned that House Norton was participating in this campaign, he stopped the standard defenses' construction immediately and started figuring out how to counter their weaponry. He had been the one to come up with the trench network and so far had performed admirably.

He could grasp the strengths and unique features of both the attackers and defenders, so he was filled with confidence in his planned counterattack. He would use the cover of night to harass the enemy so they couldn't get any sleep. By dawn, they would withdraw and make the enemy think the attack was finally over. When the enemy dropped their guard, he would launch a sudden attack with all his forces.

The bare minimum he had to achieve was retaking a third of the occupied network. If he was lucky, he could even take back two-thirds. He believed the enemy's morale would suffer heavily from such a blow and they would never mount such a large-scale attack again. The use of the wooden boards had actually put a lot of pressure on the defenders but it wasn't sustainable. As long as the defenders were willing to pay an even higher price, they might be able to deal with it.

It was late in the night. They were just a few hundred meters from the enemy. Viscount Sanskro observed his surroundings. The trench in which he was, was much deeper and wider than usual; he couldn't afford to let the enemy discover he was gathering his troops. They had dug out a space the size of a small plaza. The three thousand men were resting in full battledress. Not a single man had undone his armor. They kept their weapons by their side. Even if they couldn't fall asleep, they tried to shut their eyes and rest a bit. They were heading into battle in just over two hours. There were eight of these plaza-sized pits along the front.

The weather was perfect. Clouds filled the sky and obscured the moon's light. Viscount Sanskro was worried at first.

The 11th month is almost here. It wouldn't start raining now, would it? Light rain would be fine, but heavy rain would be terrible. Having water gather in the trenches will be troublesome. Though it wouldn't affect our defense much, the mud will affect our speed and we'll have to suffer even more casualties. I hope the enemy doesn't think of attacking. That would be the best result.

Fires burned on the front and sounds of fighting echoed across the plains. It seemed the ambushing troops had set fire to a few wooden boards, causing them to burn pretty brightly. However, a huge commotion came down the trenches. It seemed the enemy had mobilized even more troops. The fires were a little too bright. Soon the sounds of battle and murder changed. Instead, confused cries grew louder and louder.

An odd gushing sound gradually climbed out of the cacophony. It crawled down the trench towards the viscount. The soldiers he sent to harass the enemy stopped responding. The enemy's torches came closer and closer. Was his enemy launching an attack as well?

His worry intensified. he popped out of the trench and hid behind one of the mud walls. Just as he peeked over the wall, the clouds cleared somewhat and the moon peaked back at him. It's dead-gray light descended on the landscape.

"What... What the hell?!" cried one of the soldiers on an outpost as he pointed at the front.

"Shut up, idiot! Do you want to attract attention?!" cursed the viscount.

He removed his helmet and gazed ahead. The trenches crisscrossed the landscape like veins of ore. The trenches filled with a liquid, like melted silver being poured into a cast. The viscount quickly realized the trench toward him was filling with the liquid silver quickly as well, it rushed at him with startling speed. The clouds closed in and the silver landscape descended into darkness again, peppered with yellow orbs.

The gushing grew louder and louder. The viscount paled as he realized what was happening.

"Get up! Get up quick! The trenches… the trenches are flooding!!" yelled he with wild abandon.

Thus the tragedy unfolded. The plaza-like trenches where the soldiers could be gathered were a little too deep, about three meters. The soldiers had been resting flat on the ground. Even though some were woken or kicked awake, they were still quite dazed. The water rushed in. Those in the trench-plazas panicked and started climbing out, but only four or five made it out. The troops squeezed against each other and not many managed to get out in time.

As the water flooded in, everyone became panic-stricken. They knew the trenches were the deepest of them all and their unit crumbled. Everyone struggled desperately. Those at the edges tried to climb out immediately. But, when they were digging it, they even smoothed out the walls' rougher edges. It was near impossible to get out normally, much less under such circumstances. Not many get out, most were dragged back down by their comrades.

To add fuel to the fire, the soldiers were all clad in metal armor. It pulled them under no matter how hard they struggled to stay afloat. The mud at the bottom of the trenches had also become soft and clamped shut like the jaws of a hungry beast, stopping them from kicking off to get a breath.

Viscount Sanskro had screamed until his voice went. He managed to organize the remaining troops somewhat. He had the soldiers form human ladders to allow those in the rear to ascend first before they pulled the others up. It didn't last long, however; the water level soon rose to their necks. The shorter men were already unable to feel the ground beneath them and could only hold onto the soldiers in front of them. The soldiers in front, unwilling to be dragged down, pushed the soldiers behind them into the water, but those at the back were unwilling to let go and dragged the ones in front of them into the water as well. They struggled briefly before sinking into the depths.

The sky brightened slowly. Viscount Sanskro stared at the now-tranquil trenches with bloodshot eyes. The small plaza-like trenches had turned into small ponds where the corpses of drowned soldiers clumped together tightly.

The couple hundred men fortunate, or unfortunate, enough to survive were shivering in the breeze. Looking at the submerged corpses and the soldiers standing at the side of the trenches, the viscount screamed at the top of his lungs before slitting his throat. Blood splattered everywhere as he fell into the flooded, corpse-filled trenches.

Chapter 425 The Two Dukes' Decisions

We burned everything. Fields, bushes, gardens, streets, the walls, the castle, everything went up in flames. Aunt Marie's shop down by the plaza was the first building in the area set alight. I've never seen flames that tall before. Even Uncle's small woodwork workshop was burned. Mother and father's old inn wasn't spared either. I never thought I'd see my city burn. The streets were already black with soot when we set the last buildings on fire. I snuck away to set fire to my house myself. I won't let anyone else do it.

Sarah and the kids are okay. She said they're heading to The Northlands to stay with her aunt and uncle. They settled somewhere near the new capital. Rose Palace, I think the place was called. Her uncle is one of the gardeners and her aunt serves as a scullery maid.

This isn't my war anymore. I fought to protect my home, but it's gone now. I was willing to die for my wife and kids, but they've left now. I won't die for a duke's pride, especially not when he's the one who had me burn down my home.

I think I'll slip away once we reach Handra and join them.

~ Unknown soldier's diary

The wooden boards used as blockades had been converted into solid wooden bridges across the trenches. If the defenders knew they were the result of inspiration derived from a whim by the heavy-armored soldiers, they would vomit blood with rage. After conquering the front part of the formation, Auguslo had arranged for the boards to be brought over so the soldiers could set up simple camps and outposts for the night watch. They would then be removed and used as bridges when the flooding came.

One Whitelion captain was too troubled by the network of trenches. Their plan was to attack during the day and hole up during the night. The captain believed not sealing the trenches up and building their simple camps would invite attack from the moles. They just had to use fuel and fire arrows to set their camps on fire and disturb his troops for the rest of the night. However, Auguslo's orders were clear. They were not to block the trenches.

Though the captain didn't know the flood's timescale, he wasn't willing to let his soldiers lose their lives in a night attack. After troubling himself over it, he gathered his lieutenants to discuss what they could do to deal with the duchies' moles and curb their night attacks. Just as they were scratching their heads over their lack of ideas, one of the men on watch mentioned that the wooden boards were roughly as wide as the trenches. They could just use them to block the trenches.

The captain was elated. He rewarded the man heavily and tried to ascertain how he'd come up with the idea. The man said shyly that he'd gotten into trouble while transporting some of the boards. He'd startled nearby horses. His fright at their loud baying made his drop the boards. They fell into the trench and dug into the ground. It took him quite a while's struggle to get them out. His current shift was his punishment. When he overheard their discussion, he was reminded of how much he'd struggled.

Thus the birth of the tactic that contributed to in the demise of thousands of Forund's soldiers. Had the men not been distracted by the pressure the use of the boards allowed their enemy to put on them, they would have discovered Auguslo's ploy long before it could have come to fruition. It was far too obvious and easy to detect, no amount of effort on their part could have hidden it. Unfortunately, the men were pre-occupied with countering the boards.

The sky brightened. As the water filled the trenches, the soldiers of Whitelion successfully arrived at the first of the plaza-like excavations. The men were broken, wet, and exhausted; they offered little resistance. Not that they really could, most were unarmed - having dropped their weapons and armor to get out of the trenches faster. Even had they been armed, they did not have the willpower or presence of mind to fight. They had watched their friends die, watched their corpses pulled along by the water down the trenches. They had been mere meters away as their comrades drowned, but had been unable to do anything. Soon, many were captured.

Upon receiving the report, Auguslo, Lorist, and Fisablen made their way over. They were also shocked to see the large, corpse-filled trenches. They had thought the flooding would only force the moles up to the surface, they had not expected the near ten thousand blue corpses.

They only realized what had been happened when they were informed of Forund's planned counterattack. Such a huge coincidence. The enemy were to blame for their own misfortune. Their timing was just horrible. The eight 'plazas' had turned into corpse ponds. All-in-all just over 20 thousand lay entombed beneath them. Only those near their edges had managed to escape, the rest were now resting eternally. Viscount Sanskro's plaza had had the worst of it. Only 524 of the three thousand waiting in the plaza had escaped.

The viscount's body had been retrieved. Auguslo had a proper wooden casket made for this enemy before his corpse was sent back to his family. Whitelion's men were currently still looking for survivors and overseeing the corpses' retrieval.

One filled carriage after another passed by on the wooden road. Men were constantly filling in the gaps between the boards so the carriages wouldn't get stuck. The road was set to be extended, they were just waiting for more material to arrive.

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty..." an officer cried as he hurriedly made a knight's salute, "The water has stopped further ahead..."

"Any idea why?" asked Auguslo.

"The trenches end. The water overflowed and flooded a few low-lying areas. The scouts say the area beyond the network is three-kilometer-wide flatland. There's another network beyond that, though."

Forund must have either not had enough time or not enough manpower to connect the two networks. Either that or they had been using the flat area to house and train troops.

"Let's take a look," said Auguslo as he waved the horsewhip in his hand and rode towards the road. Lorist, Fisablen, and a few others followed.

"What should we do?" asked the king after his inspection.

"We'll dig another trench and connect the two. First we have to seal the reservoir again, otherwise, we'll turn this whole region into a marsh. We'll conquer this network as well. The enemy will be prepared for us this time. We won't take out thousands again," replied Lorist jokingly.

"Hahaha," Fisablen laughed heartily, "They were so enthusiastic about digging trenches and erecting mud walls. But now they rush to demolish what they've built! Talk about turning security into fear! Their waste of energy is really entertaining. If only I could see their faces... Hahaha..."

Everyone broke into a fit of laughter. The world's changes were truly wondrous. They had thought they would have to break their backs over refilling the trenches while Forund's troops dug more. But now the tables had turned completely. Now they were the ones digging trenches and the enemy were the ones filling them in.

Auguslo nodded.

"Very well. Duke Kenmays, cooperate with Whitelion in your attack. Take at least ten trench-lines. Your use of the wooden boards was truly genius. Reward whoever came up with the idea well."

Kenmays was all smiles.

"Naturally. The house will promote him and use him well."

Auguslo nodded before he turned to his guards.

"Have the logistics team speed up. We need a lot more boards. Also, erect a temporary campsite. Whitelion and the heavy-armored division will rest in shifts. Also, tighten our defenses, I don't want any counterattacks."

"Understood, Your Majesty."

......

Duke Forund stared at the old, algae-filled walls of his castle. It had been built over seventeen years and had since weathered centuries of war. Who knew how many plots it was privy to, how many life-changing decisions and declarations it had heard.

Its name, Summer Palace, had been given during the time of the Krissen Empire. It had been one of the most famous palaces in the empire. The duke had lived in it his whole life. His smile and silhouette had been traced in every nook and cranny, secret or otherwise, of the place.

"Your Grace, we need to go," reminded the captain beside him.

The old man withdrew his unwilling gaze with a sigh.

"I must be the most unfilial descendant. I'm actually abandoning my house's pride and dominion, a dominion over which we've reigned for nearly three centuries, to escape to Handra. If my ancestors were to know of this, they'd definitely curse me."

"Your Grace isn't to be blamed for this, Andinaq's king is. He is far too sly! He actually flooded the network! The trenches we had the whole duchy dig..."

The captain felt his oratory skills rather lacking. He had wanted to console the duke, but had, instead, taken the conversation in an uncomfortable direction. The old man smiled bitterly.

"You've said enough, Rikol. Everyone knows I spent three months rallying the civilians to dig those trenches. It's become a huge joke. Why didn't it occur to me that a simple flood could lay waste to my effort? Poor Sanskro... He should know I wouldn't blame him for coming up with the idea. He shouldn't have offed himself."

"Your Grace..."

The old man waved for the captain to stay quiet. He turned to look at the lonely castle. It was no longer the merry palace in his memories. It stood now as a lonely tower, gazing out over a deserted landscape.` He sighed again and cleared his mind.

"Let's go. I hope I can come back again, to see this place as happy as it used to be. It shouldn't die like this, it's not right. My ancestors built it to be a place of happiness, not the solemn husk it is now..."

Upon stepping out the castle, the old man mounted his white horse. Several cavalrymen came galloping up the road. One dismounted and knelt before the duke.

"Your Grace, Sir Nuori refused to withdraw. He told me to tell you that there's no way Andinaq can deal with the mountain legion. He won't budge. He says he'll show the people you haven't abandoned them."

The old duke waved the guard up.

"It's no surprise. Whatever, winter is near. Auguslo won't defeat Nuori. Even if he waits till next year, Nuori should have more than enough room to hold them back. He doesn't lack for resources either. I knew he wouldn't withdraw without fighting. Leave him be."

He turned to the captain.

"Have everyone else left?"

"Yes, Your Grace. The first young master was the first to leave. He took everyone else from the household, the resources, and the garrison with him seven days ago. The second young master and Sir Rimad left for Cuda. They await Your Grace. The guard regimen is all that's left."

"Alright, let's go. Any messengers from Belias?"

"No. Didn't Sir Belias send a messenger over yesterday? He said he can only hold on for another two days. Andinaq's advance can't be stopped. The fifth garrison legion can't resist anymore. They're suffering heavy casualties. Sir Belias had to use the threat of heavy military punishment to stop the men from deserting. He hopes you will leave Paetro as soon as possible."

The old duke shook his head with a bitter smile.

"Alright. We'll leave. I hope Belias will make it back safely."

The castle's exit connected to the main street of the duke's manor. More and more citizens gathered on the sides of the road as horses continued to pass by. Everyone knew Andinaq was about to arrive. Though the duke had them dig trenches for three months, they still couldn't stop the enemy. Messengers from all over had come to the city to request help. To prevent the citizens from falling victim, the duke had decided to give up on the city and leave for Handra.

Everyone began tearing up. The atmosphere was grievous. Everyone stared at the duke until the procession vanished in the distance. Just as they were about to arrive at the southern gate, the duke pulled on the reins. A fat silhouette emerged from the crowd and made his way to the duke.

The duke smiled.

"Maritt, my friend, I am leaving the city to you after I leave. I hope you can keep everyone safe. It is my hope to meet you again in the future."

"I will do my best, Your Grace," said the man with a bow.

He was a merchant who had dealings with the salt merchant committee and had even visited Duke Kenmays before. The duke had allowed him to represent the citizens in their surrender to Andinaq. He had hoped military discipline would be upheld and that the citizens wouldn't come to harm.

"Maritt, two-thirds of the food stores are still in the castle's storehouse. If Andinaq wants it, they can take it."

Maritt froze.

"Your Grace, this is...?"

The duke smiled bitterly again.

"Maritt, Andinaq is more than 300 thousand strong. If they don't have enough food, they will raid the farmers and commoners. With those resources, our citizens wouldn't come to grave harm."

Maritt bowed again.

"Thank you, Your Grace."

......

At the same time, in the southern district of Freimox, Farkel's capital, Duke Farkel's eyes were completely bloodshot.

"The people have already been chased out! Why hasn't it begun yet? Start burning! Burn this place to the ground! I will not let that blasted Auguslo have my city and castle! Quick burn everything!"

The wind helped the flame along. Soon, the entirety of Freimox was submerged. Tens of thousands of commoners - chased out of the city - wailed as they watched their lives crumble to ashes.

Completely unmoved, The duke turned his horse around.

"We leave! Head for Handra! We still have an army! We have all the time to tussle with that bastard when we reach Handra. He wants to eliminate our duchies? It won't be so easy!"

Chapter 426 Rescue

"Civilians are not just fuel for the fire of war, but weapons as well. Just as the woodcutter's axe can be wielded against the sword, so, too, can the civilian be wielded against the soldier." ~ excerpt from A Treatise on War, by Norton Lorist

On the 6th month of Year 1781, the four houses of Andinaq and House Fisablen of the three northeastern provinces launched a sudden attack on Shabak and initiated Andinaq's invasion of the four central duchies.

On the 17th day of the 8th month, Duke Shabaj gave up on Messen to escape to Farkel. The four house alliance and House Fisablen's cavalry headed straight to Paetro, the capital of Forund. Farkel's Samora and Forund's Freewood were swept by the cavalry attack and consumed by the flames of war.

On the 7th day of the 9th month, Andinaq's king, Auguslo, led Whitelion to Jigzai to join up with the allies' forces, rallying a total of 300 thousand men.

Duke Forund mobilized the duchy's citizens to spend more than two months digging 431 trenches on the stretch of land 83 kilometers across from Freewood to Paetro. More than a thousand mud walls were also constructed to defend against the invasion. It was the first defensive battle fought mainly with trenches in the continent's history.

On the night of the 3rd day of the 11th month, after a stalemate that lasted more than a month, the Andinaq's forces flooded the trenches by diverting the Nibarak river, catching Forund's second legion completely off-guard and killing half of its men. The survivors were captured and General Sanskro, a viscount, slit his throat and fell into the water. The army was decimated. Despite the constant flooding, Forund's garrison legion didn't surrender. They relied on the low mud walls to resist the enemy's advance, suffering severe casualties in the process.

On the 24th day of the 11th month, Duke Forund announced he would give up Paetro and led the first and third legions to Handra where he would continue his resistance. Upon the insistence of General Nuori, he was left in the hilly area near Paetro to harass the advancing enemy.

Duke Forund didn't burn the years of food stored in the city's warehouses before he left, he left it to the invaders. The gesture moved the king and thanks to the duke's benevolence, the invaders kept discipline and didn't wrong the city's citizens.

Given that the trenches in Forund had been breached, the neighboring Farkel lost the protection its flank had enjoyed until then and the sparse rear defenses allowed Andinaq to quickly overwhelm it. Duke Farkel had no choice but to give up his duchy and head to Handra with his four legions.

Before he left, to show his determination to resist till the end, he swore not to let the enemy step into his city and castle. Right before winter, he chased the residents out of their homes and set fire to the castle, the duke's manor, and the city. Nearly 100 thousand commoners had no homes and became vagabonds.

Duke Farkel's irrational decision made the whole dutchy's citizens lose trust and respect for his house. The first ones to abandon the duke were the four legions he had decided to take to Handra with him. Many large-scale desertions occurred along the way to Handra. It got so bad the duke had to treat his legions like prospective criminals and monitor them intensely to prevent more from deserting.

However, by the time he arrived in Handra, nearly half of the four legions had left him. Many of the house's knights and officials had also left without a word. Those that remained didn't even fill two legions. The duke finally regretted his decisions.

-- Excerpt from "Rise of the Raging Bear Dynasty" written by Dawn Academy Head and famed military historian, Lord Professor Geisthausen Year 2317.

......

On the 27th day of the 11th month of Year 1781, Andinaq's forces occupied the undefended Paetro.

"So this is the fifth-ranked palace in the empire, Summer Palace?" mused Lorist as he checked the intricately decorated palace.

"Yes," Auguslo said in awe, "When I was five and seven, Royal Father brought me here for the summer. The scenery is completely different from winter. It was practically heaven on earth. Flowers were all over the place, the trees were tall and provided good shade, different tones of green grass formed a whole layered picture. It was the haven of my dreams back then. I would roll about in the grass freely to catch the goats and ponies without anyone disturbing me, unlike now, when my retainers would remind me to watch my behavior so I don't tarnish the family's reputation."

Lorist scratched his head awkwardly. He didn't think his off-handed comment would send Auguslo into a flashback. The flashback held whole group up. The king's eyes were still a little glazed. His expression suggested he was still reminiscing about his sweet forlorn childhood.

Fortunately, he snapped out of it quickly. He laughed mockingly at himself.

"Apologies for dwelling on matters passed. The impression living here left on me is truly deep."

Duke Fisablen smiled.

"No trouble, Your Majesty. We got the opportunity to regard the famed Summer Palace well with our eyes after all. Come to think of it, this is my first time here. The sight really is a little beyond description. The beauty and elegance of Summer Palace are truly befitting its reputation."

......

On the 33rd day of the 11th month, word of what happened in Farkel arrived. Auguslo was positively incensed. He swore he would never forget Duke Farkel and his house. The news also stated that a large number of refugees had appeared in all three of Farkel's provinces. If they weren't promptly taken care of, droves would die when winter came. The situation was dire.

Auguslo instantly summoned Lorist, Fisablen, Felim, and Shazin to discuss how they would resolve the crisis. He had originally intended for the army to spend winter in Paetro so they may begin their attack on Handra early the following year. Currently, all the duchies' dukes were gathered there. As long as their armies were defeated, the plan would be complete. He could then finally reclaim 11 of the empire's provinces.

The king didn't want Lorist and his ilk to be involved in the matter. Before he arrived with Whitelion, all five houses had made quite the mess in Shabaj. So, during the grand military council, Auguslo announced the military regulations and forbade nobles from privately raiding the lands and taking people away. He even had two nobles who disobeyed orders and secretly sent their troops to raid the nobles manors in Forund punished as an example. Not only were their noble titles revoked, they were even hanged outside the camp's gates along with the near hundred attendants who participated in the raid. It was meant to be a lesson to the other nobles.

A few days earlier, he didn't really mind when he heard Farkel was on his way to Handra with four legions and was quite glad the four dukes were gathering in one place. He wouldn't have to split his forces to deal with them one by one. They could be defeated in one fell swoop next year, far less troublesome. Even if the combined forces would number almost 300 thousand, could they resist his indomitable army?

He had thought the duke would similarly leave behind some supplies before departing and thought Whitelion could send a division to occupy the towns. He didn't imagine the duke would burn his city and render the three provinces a mess for him to clean.

He ground his teeth in anger. He was the king. He couldn't just stare wide-eyed as more than 100 thousand refugees froze and starved, could he? But sending aid was no less of a headache. It wasn't just about feeding over 100 thousand mouths. Large amounts of supplies to survive the winter would have to be prepared as well. As winter was just around the corner, how would they get those supplies in time?

The supplies left at Paetro and those transported by the logistics sections would allow the 300 thousand troops to spend winter comfortably and warmly. However, there were 100 thousand more refugees in Farkel now. Even if they heavily rationed supplies to aid the refugees, it wasn't enough.

Helping them or not wasn't a matter of ruthlessness, but rather reputation. It was Auguslo who had led his army to invade their home. Now, Duke Farkel had escaped and Auguslo was the victor. Those in the future wouldn't condemn the duke for causing disasters, but blame him, the king, for not doing anything to solve it. If it were to be chronicled in the history books, then he would be described as a ruthless ruler, not a good reputation to have.

He already had quite a bad name for killing off so many noble houses to clean up the peerage in the imperial capital. He didn't really bother about their rhetoric because he would be the one to have the last laugh. However, if the 100 thousand refugees really died, he would never shed the label of a cruel and ruthless ruler.

Such was his dilemma. Even though he wanted to help, he couldn't. But if he didn't, his reputation would suffer. Even if he were to become the emperor that successfully reunited the empire again, there would still be a blemish on his legacy.

"Your Majesty, let me get on it. Tigersoar is mainly a cavalry unit and they travel fast. They can make good use of the time," offered Lorist as he stood up to take the initiative.

"What are you planning?" asked Auguslo.

"Move the refugees," Lorist replied without hesitation, "The winter and the rainy season will last far too long. If the refugees stay outside, their survival is impossible. We can't ensure sufficient food and winter gear. Putting aside how troublesome and difficult transporting the supplies would be, we can't ensure sufficient food and clothing for so many. The consequences are beyond fathoming if our supply lines are cut. If the refugees are left to starve, it would be over for the three provinces.

"Additionally, those refugees are mostly not farmers, but city folk. They only ended up like this because that dastardly Farkel burned down their homes. Without the city, they will still be refugees all the same next year. There's also no way to build a city overnight, not to mention the ridiculous amounts of resources it would require. I believe the optimal solution is to move them to another city."

"Which city?"

"Windbury," Lorist replied, "I'm sure you all know it used to be the largest livestock producer in the empire and the largest city in the north-east. The civil war and the chaotic conflicts thereafter have reduced it to barely more than a ruin. The city could house 300 thousand citizens. Most of the houses are empty.

"Most crucially, a good number of the refugees are artisans who have no fields to farm. They rely on their skills to make ends' meet and feed their family. They would be used to their new environment at Windbury. We just need to fund their endeavors and start their own workshops and businesses to revitalize the city."

Auguslo was a little unwilling. Though he knew Lorist was right, Windbury was under Norton control. Lorist was still the city's administrator.

It's all because of that darned agreement! I didn't want to let them move the citizens, but Lorist found a loophole and even justified it magnificently. It's obvious he wants to strengthen his house with this misfortune.

Auguslo rubbed his forehead. Though he had a slight headache, he had no choice but to agree.

"What do you need?"

"Let Pegasus join me. They're light cavalry, so we can head there quickly. The sooner we get there, the better. Also, we need food for 200 thousand people for half a month."

The food required was far less than Auguslo had expected. However, he wasn't willing to do it the way Lorist wanted.

"I can give you the food, but why do you need Pegasus? Isn't it the same with Fisablen's Third Frontier?"

"This..."

Before Lorist could speak, Fisablen interjected.

"This won't do, your Majesty. You should know Third Frontier used to be captives of House Norton. They still hold a grudge. Letting them go will spark conflict and affect the rescue efforts. And without Third Frontier, the grassland barbarians of the reserve legion will be hard to control. Not only will they not obey orders, they will also cause trouble. For the sake of military discipline, it's best to have Pegasus go."

Huh? That's weird. Why's that old fox speaking on my behalf? thought Lorist troubledly.

Auguslo had made his decision.

"Alright, Pegasus and Tigersoar will head to Farkel and save the 100 thousand refugees. Locke, Count Felim, you two must complete this mission and ensure the people survive."

Lorist and Felim stood up.

"Understood, Your Majesty."

Chapter 427 Migration

"The civilian may have worth as a weapon against the soldier, but his true potential lies in being firewood - fuel for the furnace of economy. The civilian weapon may kill one soldier, but the firewood civilian can support a soldier who can kill ten." ~ excerpt from A Treatise on War, by Norton Lorist

As Lorist saw it, the 100 thousand refugees of Farkel's the three provinces weren't a bundle of trouble. Instead, they were gifts. As Charade and Camorra had suggested, both Windbury and The Northlands required great masses of people to fuel their development.

The reason House Norton had a different retirement condition for its soldiers was so the converted captives could truly become the house's subjects. Basically, most of their soldiers weren't sourced from the dominion, but rather from the captives who had served their three-year labor terms. After five years of service, they would develop a sense of belonging and would willingly become subjects.

Three years of service was enough to wipe the grudges away. After that, they would be drafted into the household forces. The captives, who had gotten used to hard labor, would accept the arrangement. However, the great benefits and treatment, as well as the strict discipline, would foster a sense of belonging. When they retire after five years, the would even be given farmland. They would be allowed to reunite with their families, or in the case of singles, form new families, and everyone would end up honest subjects in the dominion.

That was Lorist's conversion plan and how the house's forces had grown to the hundreds of thousands. If the method wasn't employed, allowing youths who used to be enemies to enter the dominion would only serve to introduce an unstable variable. Fortunately, thanks to the wealth they plundered from Hanayabarta, Lorist was able to keep such a policy going.

However, the policy required time. After all, military service lasted five years at least. So, the other method of increasing the population was to forcefully migrate commoners. To Lorist, following the extermination of Madras and Iblia, the only enemy left around The Northlands was House Fisablen who occupied three provinces on the great northeastern plains. However, those provinces were even more barren than The Northlands. A lack of population was one of the duke's most pressing problems and Lorist couldn't scour population from him even if he wanted to.

As a result of the swift migration of Shabaj following the conquest, not a single soul could be seen in the plains around the city, or in the city for that matter. Twenty years since the civil war between the three princes, almost every house came to understand the importance of a huge population. Apart from plundering wealth, youths were a rare and dwindling resource.

The reason Lorist agreed to deploy his troops to attack the duchies was largely so he could migrate the population. Currently, The Northlands only had a population of roughly 1.67 million. No one knew how many more years it would take to grow it to three million, not to mention the fact that the target was Charade's minimum manpower requirement to satisfy the development plan of Lorist's dominion. It would take too long to rely on natural population growth through childbirth, mainly because it took more than ten years for a child to mature and there were many risks along the way. Migrating the population from the duchies on a large scale was much faster.

While the duchies were known to be rich, Lorist knew the incessant wars of the last decade had dwindled their income. Especially after they lost 70 thousand elite infantrymen in his last war. And after only three short years to recover, they were invaded by Auguslo. It was pretty apparent that gaining great wealth from them was not realistic. The only thing worth going for was the population.

It was a shame that after attacking Shabaj, apart from the 100 thousand inhabitants of Messen and the 160 thousand refugees whose homes were ruined, the rest were taken by House Fisablen, House Felim, House Shazin and a few other nobles who knew what they were doing. Of the dutchy's three provinces, Rimad was occupied by House Norton alone, Messen was split between House Shazin and the allied noble army, and Jigzai was divided between House Fisablen and House Felim. Of the 800 thousand subjects in Shabaj, only 300 thousand were left after Auguslo declared a ban on migration.

The king believed he had to limit the migration. Otherwise, what would he use to revitalize the economy and redevelop the land? He still had to deal with the Union after all. Fortunately, Lorist and company were aware that they were going a little overboard. Given the current state of the dutchy, if Auguslo didn't stop the migrations, the three provinces would end up empty.

So, after conquering Forund, Auguslo enforced strict military regulation and forbade the nobles from entering Farkel. Since Duke Farkel had already fled for Handra, Auguslo would be the one to take the towns. What would be the point of sending the nobles who had ill intentions out?

He didn't expect that the duke would leave such a troublesome mess for him to clean up, putting him in quite a dilemma. He knew Lorist was gunning for the 100 thousand refugees but he had no choice. After all, given the current situation, Lorist's idea was the best. Otherwise, he had to watch the refugees freeze and starve. Additionally, the cost of migrating the 100 thousand refugees would be borne by House Norton. That was another reason he allowed Lorist and Count Felim to head to Farkel and relocate the refugees.

Auguslo must not have known about the saying 'the general far away didn't have to wait for the decrees of the monarch to act'. Additionally, the relationship between lieges and vassals on Grindia was not strictly hierarchical. As Duke of The Northlands, Lorist had the right to refuse any of Auguslo's orders he deemed to harm House Norton's interest. After receiving the king's permission, Lorist was a bird flying free in the sky and a fish swimming freely in the endless oceans.

Though there were refugees across the three provinces, namely, Samora, Phapsia, and Kribia, most were gathered in Phapsia. It was the province in which the capital, Freimox had stood. The duke had the food stores of the towns in the other provinces burned. The townsfolk now had no food, though they at least still had roofs over their heads.

Given that the total population of Farkel was around a million, how could a mere 100 thousand sate Lorist's appetite? On the way to Kribia, Lorist had already struck an agreement with Count Felim. House Norton would take most of the refugees while House Felim took only a few. After all, House Felim had to rely on House Norton for food after the huge migration since there was no way Southern could sustain so many people in its undeveloped state.

No matter what, Auguslo was still the king. He had to be given due respect. The two came to an agreement. They wouldn't raid the three provinces as bad as they had Forund's. It had to be slightly better at the very least.

Lorist wouldn't touch the farmers properly registered as citizens. It was easily done by referencing the dominion's registry. But as a result, the homes and lands of the nobles who had left with Handra became the target. The nobles were traitors to Auguslo anyway and he would have to do the same thing after he conquered Farkel. Lorist might as well give him an early hand and use the resources he plundered to aid the refugees.

It was a really odd opportunity, to say the least. Even though the provinces had already fallen into Auguslo's hands, the only thing that was really passed to him was the dominion registry that recorded the subjects of each town.

Additionally, subjects of the nobles entitled by the duke were not recorded in the registry. It was not unlike the 1.67 million population count of The Northlands. The number only included the subjects of House Norton. While Delamock and Winston were also controlled by the Nortons and had a combined population of around 700 thousand, they were registered as citizens of the provinces and couldn't be counted among House Norton's subjects.

For example, the citizens of Windbury were considered subjects of Andinaq. While Lorist was the governor and had similar rights to deal with the citizens of the city as he would his subjects, he couldn't consider them his. The governor term could be revoked. Even if Lorist were to serve in the position for the rest of his life, he couldn't pass the position down to his descendants. The household dominion, however, was hereditary. That was also one of the main reasons Auguslo allowed the refugees to migrate to Windbury. They would still end up under his control.

While the population was roughly a million, only were House Farkel's subjects. Now, around 100 thousand had been forced to become refugees by the dim-witted duke. Lorist and Count Felim would soon arrive to move them to Southern. While it didn't seem all that beneficial to The Northlands, all Lorist needed was an excuse to rescue them. He was actually counting on the subjects of the other nobles. He was confident he could migrate them to The Northlands.

Well, I should give Auguslo some face and move only 300 thousand to The Northlands.

With that, the conquest would add 500 thousand more subjects to The Northlands. It didn't include the refugees. House Norton was the one that profited the most from the war. Lorist wasn't too worried about the migration either.

The Norton forces had rich experience migrating droves of people. Count Felim was no stranger to it either. After Tigersoar and Pegasus arrived at Kribia, Pegasus left a division behind to work with Tigersoar to rally and watch over the refugees. Its three other divisions continued to Phapsia and Samora. As they were light cavalry, they moved quickly and could provide aid to the refugees and maintain order sooner.

Loze would lead Tigersoar per Lorist's orders to clear up the dominions of all the local nobles who left with the duke. The order was simple: the resources plundered from the dominions would be used to aid the migration. And for the subjects of the nobles who lost the resources, they would have to join the refugees on the migration so they didn't starve or freeze.

It was another reason Lorist wanted enough food to feed 100 thousand people for only 15 days. It would be enough to ensure that the refugees could make it to Windbury. The duke only burned the resources and warehouses of the areas and towns he controlled, but he didn't order his vassals to do the same. Given the good weather the duchy had had for the last couple o years, the warehouses across Farkel were filled with food. Furybear's informants Lorist had installed in the houses had long investigated and reported everything. The reports were so detailed they even had an estimate of the amount of food present.

Some of the reports even told of some road guides who led Tigersoar along for some good profit. Apart from sparing ten-odd nobles who didn't follow the duke and gave Tigersoar a huge sum of money to leave them alone, there were 34 houses razed to the ground. The army was very thorough; all valuables were taken. It was no great feat, they were so used to raiding. Another 100 thousand people became refugees.

To other houses and forces, winter was a really threatening season. Apart from having nothing better to do for most of it, nobody was willing to be on guard duty in the chilling and windy weather. House Norton's forces were different. They had to train and carry out missions even during the coldest time of winter. With thick furs to stave off the cold and great experience making long marches in the cold, even blizzards were no issue. As long as there was enough snow piled up on the ground, their sleds and skis could see some use.

With sleds, transporting the refugees to another location would be an even quicker affair. Lorist had Charade and Camorra to set up a complete transport line. Rest stations for the refugees to rest and resupply along the way were set up in Messen, Southern, and Windbury. Along the way, the refugees could get off their sleds to stretch their bodies until they arrived at their respective drop-off points.

After the third bout of snow stopped, the already-prepared Tigersoar soldiers led one sled after another on their long journey. It convenienced the Norton forces greatly by transporting large numbers of people during winter as there was no need to have anybody supervise the refugees. After all, anyone with half a brain wouldn't separate from the group to wander off in the snow or cause any trouble. Leaving the wind-shielded sleds in such cold weather only meant death.

So far, more than 400 thousand refugees had been gathered in Kribia. Tigersoar had also swept the province clean and was preparing to carry out the final sweeping operations in Samora. Lorist gave Loze a quota of 800 thousand refugees. Having been under Farkel's rule for just eight years, it was hard to find so many refugees. However, Loze promised he would find a way.

After clearing up the lands across Kribia and Phapsia, the most plentiful among the spoils was food. They obtained very few gold Fordes, around 400 thousand. There were far more luxury goods and collectibles that used to belong to the nobles. Those were worth approximately a million gold Fordes. It was decided that the cash would go to Felim and the rest would fill Lorist's coffers.

On the 32nd day of the 1st month of the next year… More than 50 days had elapsed since the migration began. The refugees from Phapsia had all been migrated, and only 40 thousand remained in Samora. Lorist estimated they could settle the refugees down on the 15th day of the 2nd month with the sleds before the thick snow melts. The rainy season and a month of good rest would follow. They could start making their contributions to the house thereafter.

Potterfang, who received a secret order to lead three divisions from Firmrock unnoticed to Phapsia, entered the main tent in the igloo.

"Your Grace, we are ready. Shall we begin?" asked he, saluting.

Chapter 428 Hot Spring Valley

To the Old Man on the Hill

Your days are short here;

This is the last of your springs.

And now in the serenity

And quiet of this lovely place,

Touch the depths of truth,

Feel the hem of Heaven.

You will go away with old,

Good friends. And don't

Forget when you leave

Why you came.

~ Raibo Thrift

A beastskin map was spread on the desk, depicting the terrain around Paetro. It was laid between Forund and Farkel and stretched more than 50 kilometers, straddling. Dense forests covered the region with many streams, valleys, and cliffs scattered all over.

After being obstructed by the trenches and mud walls, Auguslo had tried to take the area near Paetro. As long as he could breach it, he would become a threat to Forund's capital, Paetro, and Farkel's capital, Freimox, at the same time. In the end, however, he just sent a division of Whitelion on a probing attack before abandoning the idea. It couldn't be done. The mountain roads were long and perilous, not suited for large forces to use.

The greatest difficulty was still the mountain legion Forund had stationed there. Most of the soldiers were mountain folk, incredibly fast at climbing and descending the mountains. Not only were they familiar with the terrain, they could even construct traps. Being people who loved battle, they were courageous and didn't fear death either. The division Whitelion sent was a thousand strong. They were ambushed by 400 mountaineers. Auguslo and Lorist were so shocked at the enemy's capabilities they withdrew after just a short skirmish.

In less than half an hour, Whitelion's 1000-man unit suffered nearly 700 casualties while the mountaineers lost less than half their men. While Whitelion's troops were more than double the enemy, given that the battle was fought in forests on the hills, the heavy-armored Whitelion soldiers couldn't do much against the poorly equipped mountaineers armed with small weapons and who cruised between the trees like they were flying. The men couldn't do anything but fight and cry in desperation.

The mountaineers were far too good at utilizing their terrain advantage. One of the rescued injured 100-man leaders reported his experience.

"I never knew where they were. They jumped down from the trees and blended in with the woods, and attacked when our guards were down. They never fought us head-on unless they had nowhere to go...

"There were a few times we managed to force them into a corner, but they would manage to climb the trees and escape or jump down and disappear quickly. We weighed down by our armor and couldn't keep up with them. Each time, by the time we realized they were gone, they were already behind us or had already found and taken out their target. We could do nothing but watch..."

Auguslo unwillingly withdrew his decision to take Paetro by breaking through the hilled region. The casualty rate was completely beyond anyone's ability to absorb. Whitelion had five divisions and one logistics brigade, around 56 thousand men. Each division had ten 1000-man units. They had suffered a full division's worth of casualties during the fight over the trenches, so they didn't have the strength to take the hilled area. They could easily have defeated the enemy on flat, open plains, but fighting in the mountains was a completely different story.

When he occupied Paetro, Auguslo heard the mountain legion had not withdrawn with the duke. Instead, they had chosen to stay in the mountains. He couldn't afford to dedicate troops to deal with them, however.

Let's leave them be in the mountains for now. If they dare to come down they won't be a match for my men

Since Auguslo wasn't going to deal with them, Lorist wouldn't either. Besides, sending cavalry forces, like those in Tigersaor, into combat in the mountains was just looking for death. He had barely made his decision when Tigersoar came under attack. He didn't suffer many casualties, but not so few that he could ignore it like one would a fly buzzing around one's head. The legion came under constant attacks until the snow and winds of the 12th month closed in. By that point, the legion had swept Phapsia clean of nobles and were headed to Samora.

The harassment infuriated Lorist.

You were fortunate enough to have me not bother with you, and yet you still came looking for trouble? You're pushing your luck!

Had it not been for the fact that they were busy with the migration, he would've slaughtered his way up the mountain long ago. He sent word to Potterfang and Malek, dying of boredom on Southern's border, to send over three divisions disguised as refugees. They quietly set up camp and replaced the refugees sent away.

"I had Reidy take several men and reconnoitre the area while the storm was at its heaviest. If not for winter they would've been discovered. The enemy does have winter gear and could theoretically attack us even now, but they seem unwilling to move in the cold."

Lorist pointed at a red circle drawn on the map.

"We had our pursuit teams stop at the border of the foothills after each attack to leave the impression of being unwilling to go up the mountains. Instead, I had Reidy and his mean track them in secret. We've located their main camp, it's in this circle.

"Hot Spring Valley, the largest valley in the region. There are lots of hot springs apparently and it's almost as warm as spring there. Their entire force is housed there. Our informants in Forund, tell me 80 thousand mountain folk spend winter in the valley every year. Coupled with the legion's 35 thousand, there should be just over 100 thousand. That's why I mobilized three of Firmrock's divisions.

"Two divisions from Tigersoar will also join you. They will dismount and enter the mountain range to seal off any escape routes. Pog, you'll take three divisions and attack Hot Spring Valley with me. We have to catch our enemy all at once. I'm sure you've already screened the more detailed plans. We don't need to exterminate them. We want prisoners. The mountain folk are a good source of manpower. Our development projects depend on their contributions and services."

The household knights in the tent all laughed ghastly. They knew their lord had the poor mountain folk in his sights. Lorist also chuckled. He had Jinolio open another map.

"This is a detailed map of the valley. According to the intel Reidy gathered, the eleven hills around the valley have watch posts and smoke signals. If we attack, we first have to take out the watch posts. If they raise the alarm, the rest in the valley will be on their guard. If they seal the three entrances to the valley it'll be very difficult to get in without suffering unacceptable numbers of casualties. Reidy, his men, and I will take care of this. Pog, you will take the three valley entrances.

"The north side is completely blocked by cliffs. The east, south, and west sides each have an entrance. The valley itself isn't completely flat either. It has around ten small hills. The mountain legion occupies them. Most of the mountain folk use the run-down bases as residences. Forund counts on the legion to govern the mountain folk. We have to make sure we pull the roots out completely, we can't leave loose ends. Understood?"

"Understood, Your Grace," replied the knights and high-ranked military officials.

......

"Shut the door quickly. I'm freezing to death," barked Jack.

He had become more and more susceptible to the cold lately, possibly due to his age. Every time it became wet, he would feel intense pain in the joints of his arms and legs. It was probably a serious case of cold autoinflammatory syndrome which Jack probably got because of his exposure to cold during his youth. The treatment was simple, though - just a simple medical concoction worth 10 gold coins a bottle. Three bottles would return everything to normal.

"What horrid merchants!" complained Jack, Do they think gold Fordes are so easily earned? I sold half my life to the mountain legion and only saved 23 gold Fordes… I'm already over 40. Thankfully, the Norton cavalry scout I killed had three gold coins. I also got one coin from general Nuori.

At that moment, the old man was faced with a difficult choice. Upon saving up 30 gold coins, would he buy the medicine required to cure his disease? Or would he use it to wed the widow, Sarina? He was rather old already, he didn't have much time left in the legion. Sarina had told him he could buy farmland with the 30 gold. He could farm herbs and hunt -- a decent life for a family. She would marry him if he could provide her with such a life; they could have children and he could spend the rest of his life in peace.

"Sigh, Old Jack, the mountains are really cold. Even such a short trip froze my limbs stiff! I really miss the hot springs in the valley. Bathing and having a few shots of steaming hot wheat brew in this kind of weather is the ultimate pleasure..."

The one who had just entered was Maskrei. The two were in charge of one of the outposts together.

"Do you think I don't want that as well?" Jack said, rolling his eyes, "But for the sake of my gold coins, I have to forget about luxuries like that. If not for your gambling debts, would you be willing to spend winter here with me?"

His words rang true. It was precisely because General Nuori offered a reward of two gold Fordes. Jack and Maskrei were only willing to leave Hot Spring Valley to suffer the cold for the coins. As long as they could endure the winter, they would get two gold Fordes.

"Any signs of movement outside?" asked Jack.

Maskrei shook his head.

"Nothing, like always. I only see white no matter where I look. Staring too long only makes my head hurt. I circled the peak a few times. The woods are quiet. I did see a muntjac deer down the cliff, though. It's a shame we can't get down there. Otherwise, we'd have fresh-meat soup tonight. I'm sick of drinking salted-meat soup and teething on black bread every day."

They were stationed at the outpost built on the outermost hill. It was also one of the tallest, so it was incredibly hard, even outright impossible, to descend especially during winter. The small path that required one to walk sideways was sealed. The two could only spend winter in their run-down shed. Their rations were also brought up using a rope that hung over the cliff.

"Winter's still fine. When the snow melts and rainy season comes, it'll be far worse. We'll know if our sheds have leaks then. We might have to basically rebuild the entire shed, otherwise we won't sleep all season," said Jack.

"I see..."

All of a sudden, Maskrei's ears twitched.

"D'you hear anything? Something's outside."

"Impossible, no one could climb a cliff like--"

Beroe Jack could finish, there was a knock on the shed's door. It was pushed open a moment later. A lone figure filled the doorway. The cold wind squeezed in around him.

"Surrender now. You have one chance," said the caped, white-scarfed figure.

Jack's teeth chattered, either from fear or the cold, he didn't know which.

"Y-y-you... How did you get up..."

"How?" the figure mused as if it was an odd question, "Isn't there a path? I got up using that."

Jack had calmed down. He secretly tugged on Maskrei's clothes.

"Hold him off. I'll light the smoke signal and help you deal with him after," whispered he.

The smoke signal fire was behind the shed. However, there was an opening in the cabin that gave access to it. Jack had already thought up a plan. As long as Maskrei could hold the figure off for a moment, he could get some quick-burning firewood, ignite it, and toss it out the window. The pile, pre-doused with fuel, would be set alight immediately. If he was fast, he could do it in a few blinks. The enemy's plan would fail and they'd either try to kill the two or panic and run away. Either way, Jack would've completed his mission. Jack didn't mind if it broke into a fight either. Having dwelled on battlefield after battlefield for most of his life, he wasn't afraid of tussling with a rookie.

"Now!" cried Jack before he took out the quick-burning wood from his waist pouch and turned to the opening behind him. From the corner of his eye, he saw Maskrei draw his sword and dash towards the figure.

"I did it!" cried Jack.

Just as he was about to open the wooden window, he felt a cold sensation in his chest and lost all his strength. He lost his balance and crashed into the wall.

What's going on?

He lowered his head and saw a blade poking out of his chest.

"Ugh..."

He turned around with much difficulty and saw Maskrei, still standing a moment before, collapsed on the ground. He didn't know if the man was dead. The figure drew his sword and complained.

"You really don't know what's good for you, do you?"

His vision darkened. He slumped to the ground and lay there, dead.

On the 3rd day of the 4th month, Year 1782, House Norton attacked Hot Spring Valley near Paetro. Forund's mountain legion was completely defeated. General Nuori fought to his death at the hands of General Potterfang. More than 10 thousand mountain folk resisted and were massacred. The remaining 50 thousand discarded their weapons and surrendered.

Chapter 429 Word of the Swordsaint

"Take a seat. Is the rain outside heavy?" Lorist asked Charade, who had just come in, as he leaned against his chair. After a busy winter, he had finally dealt with the migration and returned to Ragebear before the rainy season. After a few days of messing around with Sylvia, whom he hadn't seen for a while, he finally returned to dealing with business.

"What do you think? I really hate the rainy season. This incessant rain makes me feel moist as if I have mold growing on me even if I wasn't in the rain. The thought of having to endure this for more than 20 days really drives me crazy," complained Charade as he approached the fireplace like he was trying to bake his clothes dry.

When he felt warm again, he sat on the couch and asked Jinolio to get him a bottle of fruit wine.

"Hey, how's it going with Howard lately? He should be making good progress training in seclusion, right?"

Lorist nodded.

"Yes. Reidy's gone to Firmrock to check on him. He can leave in another half a year. Potterfang also told me before he went to the border that the moment Howard comes out of seclusion, he will marry him to the beloved daughter of Count Felim. Seeing as only Handra remains, if we succeed, Count Felim will be made Duke of Southern. So, Potterfang is getting a little anxious. He worries that, after Felim's promotion, he will not regard his title as baron fondly and make changes to Howard's marriage with his daughter."

"Hehe, Potterfang's brain is rusting. What's there to worry about?" Charade criticized impolitely, "Even if Count Felim is promoted to duke, he would still have to rely on us. Without our support, could he develop his dominion and secure Southern? If Firmrock really was called back, The count would only be able to sleep well if he keeps one of his eyes open at night. Would he really think the armistice signed with Duke Fisablen is a guarantee for peace? The moment Frontier troops march into his castle, it would all be over."

Charade's words contained some truth. Even if Count Felim was to be made duke after the four duchies' conquest, he would still have to stand behind House Norton. If he really were to cut ties with the other houses, he would definitely be swallowed whole by House Fisablen.

"Then again, Howard already has a good carrier, and Katrina seems to be a good girl who's also a great match. The two get along well as well. I've decided to let them get married after Howard exits seclusion," said Lorist.

Taking a sip of the delicious fruit wine Jinolio served, he asked, "The new migrants are doing well, yes?"

The refugees forced to migrate from Farkel to The Northlands totaled 230 thousand. Coupled with the ones from Forund, the number exceeded 400. That was to say, the population of The Northlands had shot past two million.

"It's going well. There haven't been any revolts yet. Even the last batch of mountain folk have been behaving."

Charade saw Lorist was ready to talk about serious matters, so he motioned his attendant to get him his personal folder and searched for the relevant information. Upon mention of the mountain folk, Lorist snorted.

"Make sure to watch them closely. They're really feisty and disagreeable. When we surrounded Hot Spring Valley and forced them into a corner, they actually dared to continue resisting? It took us more than a thousand casualties to subdue them and forced us to have Malek's carroballista division massacre the bulk from afar before they were finally willing to discard their weapons and surrender.

"The mountain legion was the same. Even though they were obviously encircled and their gold-ranked knight general, one of the mountain folk called Nuori, had died, they still persisted. They just wouldn't surrender. In the end, we had to burn their camps down to chase them out and kill them. We lost 18 thousand possible captives. Those we caught were mostly injured. I've decided they will work for eight years, not just three."

"Eight years? Well, Your Grace, weren't you going to recruit them into our forces? Logically speaking, the mountain folk should be rather decent recruits," wondered Charade.

Lorist shook his head.

"They have a really tough personality and they've always been loyal to Forund. They are proud to be citizens of the duchy. Additionally, House Forund's policies towards their subjects are aimed at gaining their loyalty. You might not know this, but there's only been one form of taxation for the mountain folk in the last century: blood tax. That is to say, the mountain folk have to serve in the military. House Forund also gave back by allowing them to congregate in the hilled area near Paetro and develop as they want. Thus their loyalty, unlike soldiers from other factions or houses that joined to make end's meet. Their loyalty will be hard to change."

Charade nodded. Now that he knew, even he did not intend to recruit them. Eight years of labor should teach them their place. After that, they would be placed all over the dominion so they will assimilate as its subjects. He took out another document.

"The plan to settle the refugees is already complete. Do you want to look it over?"

Lorist raised his cup.

"Just give me a brief. As long as the rough details make sense, I'll sign."

"Alright."

Charade cleared his throat and recited, "There are 2871 households among those who migrated to Windbury. They are 98236 people, most are artisans and merchants. We assigned them to the houses across the nearby streets so it would be convenient to set up shops or workshops. We expect Windbury to develop explosively once they're settled down. We estimate the livestock trading centers and leatherworking workshops will be established in Windbury's northern sector next year.

"More than 360 thousand migrants are expected to enter The Northlands in total They will not be assigned to the three new settlements in the south, but rather, the east where two new settlements are being built, Prosperitas and Bliss will be completed later this year. As for the three completed settlements in Southern, namely, Harvest, Vigor, and Haven, they are located near Ragebear, so we have decided to move a few loyal subjects from Felicitas, Salus and Redriver Valley over. The rest will be assigned to the soldiers who are retiring in the coming three years.

"Additionally, the refugees distributed to our vassals are around 13 thousand. That is the gist of it. After the rainy season, we will bring the new subjects and allocate farmland and houses to them. We'll try to have everything settled by the 8th month. Does anything need amending?"

Lorist gave it some thought before he offered, "Let's leave it as is. The plan's fine, there's no need to change it. Just let me sign and have your subordinates execute it."

As Lorist was signing, Charade brought out another document.

"Your Grace, this is the report Grandmaster Sid submitted last year. He has successfully used the new elastic steel to make new compact crossbows for cavalry use with a greatly lowered cost. It seems that, so far, each compact crossbow costs only 7 gold and 8 large silvers to manufacture. I already allocated a budget of three thousand gold Fordes in research funds and requested the production cost to be further lowered to five gold Fordes before we put it into mass production."

Lorist was elated.

"Finally! Now Jaeger's ranged weaponry issue can be solved. Then again, do you know what the range, force, and speed re?"

Charade answered a little apologetically.

"I'm not too sure... I was too focused on the cost. A crossbow usually costs between two to three gold Fordes, the compact crossbow should be at least double in performance. In that sense, it would be acceptable for the cost to even be two times as high..."

Lorist waved Grandmaster Sid's report.

"Since it's not stated here, I believe Grandmaster Sid intends to keep it secret. how about this, write Josk a letter and have him pick a hundred loyal and reliable elite light cavalry from Jaeger and head to the grandmaster after the rainy season. They can do some practical testing to further refine the prototype. After all, they will be the ones to use them in battle, so they should be the ones giving input. Also, there's no need to lower the price further, it might affect the quality."

"Alright, understood."

The two discussed a few other matters. Jinolio knocked on the door and entered.

"Your Grace, Sir Tarkel is here."

The reason for Tarkel's visit was so he could give Lorist reports about the war between the Union and the mid-southern nations. Though Lorist had been on the frontlines last year, he still managed to get some snippets about the war. However, as most were sent via eagle, they were concise and simple. Now that he had returned to Ragebear, he had Tarkel gather and bring him the reports and newspapers from Morante.

Tarkel entered the study holding a stack of newspapers half a person high. It was a collection of seven to eight different publications in Morante throughout the previous year. After putting the stack of newspapers down, Tarkel handed him a folder.

"Your Grace, this is a gross summary of what these newspapers report."

Lorist took the folder. The first page he read shocked him.

"What? The windstorm swordsaint is now living in Morante?"

Charade flabbergasted.

"What did you say?!"

Tarkel smiled bitterly.

"Your Grace, I already reported this to you in an eagle message."

"Sorry, Tarkel. I was too focused on information concerning the four duchies I didn't give those much thought."

Tarkel flipped through the newspapers and took out ten or so.

"The details are in these. This swordsaint is rather low profile, he went into seclusion and nobody has seen him since the interview on his first day in Morante. The Union's law enforcement hasn't allowed the press to send people after him either. Apart from the commotion this caused during the first month, nothing else happened. But with a swordsaint supporting the Union, their morale has risen greatly."

Charade flipped through the newspapers quickly, but was soon disappointed.

"All the newspapers tell his life story and legend. It doesn't contain anything about how Kalia was wiped out and why the swordsaint decided to leave and accept the Union's invitation. They also don't say anything about what the Union did to get him! What kind of bullshit reporting is this?!"

Lorist sank into deep thought for a moment.

This means the Union just gained a swordsaint protector. Auguslo's ambition of retaking the provinces lost to the Union just became pretty much impossible. I bet he won't react well to hearing this news. Then again, this won't affect us much since we're so far away.

Even so, he was still really curious about the price the Union paid to invite the swordsaint over.

"Tell me, if His Majesty were to invite the windstorm swordsaint, what kind of price do you think he'd be willing to pay?"

Charade and Tarkel both blanked. They didn't know what this had to do with Auguslo. But since Lorist had asked, they tried their best to come up with an answer.

"At least 100 thousand gold Fordes, as well as a training hall for him to pass on his swordsmanship," offered Tarkel.

"Not just that. Your conditions aren't much different from how it was for the swordsaint back at Kalia. If His Majesty really wants to recruit him, he'd have to give a province as his hereditary dominion and name him a duke," offered Charade.

Lorist laughed.

"That's more like it. However, the Union's recruitment is horrible news for His Majesty. You should know how he rambles on about reuniting the empire. I'd really like to see the look on his face when he hears about this. Even after exterminating the duchies, he still has to face the huge pressure of a superpower like the Union. Before he comes up with a method to deal with the swordsaint, he will cool down and not try so hard to advance.

"I will soon return to the frontlines with Tigersoar. Though there's only Handra left, the other duchies' forces have gathered there. Coupled with the terrain limitations, this isn't going to be a smooth fight. It may take up to a year. I leave the dominion to you, Tarkel. Take note of news of the war down south. Inform me immediately if any major changes come about."

"Understood, Your Grace," replied Tarkel with a bow.

Chapter 430 Method

"A commander that can only come up with three ways to deal with a given situation is either inept or has the wrong morals." ~ Duke Fisablen

Auguslo spent the month-long rainy season with a constant gloom on his face. The news Lorist had brought had already unnerved him so much he didn't have an apatite and couldn't sleep. Then there was the failed attack on Handra. Suffice to say, even being a rank 1 blademaster, his teeth stung like a shard of bone had found its way beneath the enamel.

The herbalist that had just left had infuriated him even more. It took considerable effort not to just end the man right then and there. The man just shrugged, there was nothing he could do to ease or relieve the pain. It was nerves and stress, not anything related to the teeth themselves. In herbal medicine, toothache was a huge problem. Unlike normal bodily diseases. which one bottle of concoction could usually solve, there was only one way to deal with a toothache: tooth extraction. However, it left the unfortunate patient with fewer teeth. Dental filling was unheard of.

Auguslo opted to keep his teeth. A king was not truly a king if he didn't have a full smile. It wasn't that there wasn't a solution; a tooth from a dead person could be extracted and implanted in the lost tooth's place on social occasions -- many nobles resorted to this -- but the thought of putting a dead man's tooth in one's mouth only to remove it before a meal to avoid accidentally swallowing it... wasn't exactly invigorating.

With no other options available -- or allowed -- the herbalist left to prepare some general purpose anti-inflammatory solutions. Auguslo was in so much pain he'd have given the herbalist a beating had he been able to say something properly.

Why, in the world of medicine, where ruptured organs aren't a big deal, is a simple toothache such a pain?! What's this bullshit about teeth being the crystallization of human bones and different from the other parts of the body... He's just making shit up to cover his incompetence! I really shouldn't have spent so much money feeding him!

Looking at the Morantian newspapers Lorist had brought, Auguslo felt his lucky stars were really misaligned. Though the four duchies' collapse was within his grasp and his ambition of reunifying the empire seemed achievable, his biggest enemy, the Union, actually managed to recruit a swordsaint. With a swordsaint supporting the nation, could he send his troops to reclaim the provinces? If he were to give up on them, though, would the reunification ever truly be achieved? Would he be able to claim that he was the ruler that reunited the empire?

Meanwhile, Lorist was accompanying Shazin to check out the battlefield. After the rainy season, Lorist stayed at Ragebear for half a month until Auguslo had sent three messengers asking him to get a move on, prompting him to unwillingly mobilize Tigersoar. He handed the king a few reports from Morante about the Union's recruitment of a swordsaint.

After checking the defenses, he understood why the king was so distraught. At first, Lorist was quite unwilling to mobilize his forces, as using heavy-armored infantry was the way to go in hilly terrain. Tigersoar was a cavalry unit and they couldn't play too huge a part in such a fight. But upon seeing the battlefield himself, he finally understood that the king didn't need his cavalry, but rather, the legion's thunderbolt and carroballista brigades.

When Lorist arrived at the frontlines, it was already the 21st day of the 5th month. After the rainy season, Auguslo led his troops of 200 thousand men into Handra's province, Wesstwood. At first, it went really smooth and a quarter of the territory was conquered. They were soon held back on the Welony mountain pass, however, and lost a few battles in a row. So, they had to borrow Tigersoar's ranged forces to suppress the defenders, hence the messengers' hurried beckoning.

"This battle won't be easy," said Lorist.

That true. Wesstwood, as its name suggested, was a province covered in hills and forests. It was also rather large. In the common tongue, 'wesst' was used to describe mountainous areas. Cloudsnap near Egret Swamp actually stretched all the way from Kanbona to Wesstwood. It crossed five provinces altogether. Though it was one of the mountain range's ends, it was covered with dense forests, making it hard to attack and easy to defend. The first prince had led 200 thousand men in his invasion of the duchies, only to be stopped in Wesstwood. Many battles were lost during the two years of conflict there. But the first prince had attacked from the south northwards while Auguslo was doing so in the opposite direction.

Welony pass was the true endpoint of Cloudsnap. Its terrain was a little similar to Pispir pass, in which stood Pedro, but the opening was far wider at about five kilometers. While it was wide, the cliffs on either side were incredibly steep, exposing the attacking side to great risk. It was exceedingly disadvantageous.

From the telescope, was clear that the Handra garrison was using the same trench and mud wall network. They also constructed a lot of archer towers, though. There were also a lot of ruined shield carts laid all over the network, with the ground around it bloodied and crimson. It was probably the blood shed by the attacking soldiers. There were also a lot of bumps and potholes of varying size dotting the slope.

"Look at those two areas poking out on the slope," said Shazin.

"What are they?"

Lorist pointed the telescope where Shazin had pointed and saw a row of man-made crane-like contraptions on tall wooden structures.

"Catapults," Shazin replied, "When His Majesty deployed the catapults to cover Whitelion's march, he didn't think the enemy would be prepared. Those weird wooden buildings with long arms are actually catapults. Though their range isn't as great as ours', given their elevation, they have the advantage in terms of terrain. Whitelion's assault suffered a hideous loss and huge casualties. Even ten of His Majesty's catapults were ruined."

Catapults? So Handra has already come up with a lever contraption. The wooden buildings below the arms must be to hide the lever. Hehe, so they're pretty secretive.

Lorist counted around 40 wooden towers on one side. There were near a hundred in total on both sides.

"How heavy are the rocks they throw? How far can they reach?"

"More or less the size of a human head, around 20 kilograms. They can be thrown around 300 meters at most. The catapults His Majesty sent were shot down at around that range. His Majesty even threw a tantrum and said the catapults you gave him were defective and couldn't fire as far as the enemies'. That's because, when the enemy started using their catapults to attack us, our catapults also retaliated. But our rocks all fell short."

Lorist snorted lightly.

"Defective products? Props to him for daring to say that. He didn't even think about how we're fighting a literal uphill battle. The enemy has the high ground which means they have a great advantage. Given the difference in elevation, it's no wonder our catapults don't fire as far."

"Yeah. His Majesty also realized this a little later. He tried a night attack but failed because the enemy was on ready. Right now, it's exactly the opposite of how it was in Forund. We dominated and Forund's garrison had to attack at night to retake the land they lost in the day. Now, however, with the hundreds of catapults up there, the day is now their domain. We have no way of launching an attack."

Those hundred catapults were a grave threat. They had to dodge rocks whenever they were in range. Their chances of victory were all but zero.

"Did His Majesty try attacking somewhere else?"

"It's useless," Shazin said, shaking his head, "This is the flattest terrain in the pass. I've already checked everywhere else and it's all worse than this. Some passes circle around smaller hills, even more beneficial to the defenders. The large pass here is the main highway between the duchies and the smallest threat. We didn't think Handra would install so many catapults."

"What is the enemy's disposition?"

"Our scouts and the few prisoners we caught, the pass is defended by Handra's Reddragon. Together with Whitedragon, Reddragon is one of the two standing legions, and, just like Whitedragon, it has 24 thousand men. They are divided into two divisions and another brigade. They're known as the Twin Dragon Legion, though they always fight independently. Currently, Reddragon has four divisions guarding the pass, eight thousand men in each. There's also another logistics brigade of three thousand. All-in-all, we face 35 thousand.

"The eastern part of Cloudsnap is defended by Forund's first legion, Matnamady in the west is held by Farkel's Forestmont. We don't know where the rest are. Altogether, we face 130 thousand men."

Shazin was quite well-informed.

Lorist pointed at the distant, foggy Matnamady stream.

"Has our king not thought of attacking there?"

Shazin smiled bitterly.

"Of course, and it cost me one regiment of elite light infantry scouts. Matnamady sits on mountainous terrain; there's no way to bypass it. There are a number of streams in the area, which completely lock down any possible bypass route. Farkel's Forestmont only has to occupy a few strategic points to make it hard for us to escape. I sent a regiment of elite scouts to reconnoiter the area... less than three hundred returned."

"Isn't the Nibarak river beyond Matnamady? It connects Handra's inner land, Deramak province, right? Has His Majesty considered sending an assault for that way?"

"It's useless. Duke Fisablen suggested that move, but even he lost almost a whole light cavalry division," Shazin sighed, "Handra has long made preparations. Duke Fisablen recruited some worksmiths and constructed countless wooden boards to head down along Nibarak. He didn't think Handra would install chain blockades at three turning points of Matnamady.

"In an attempt to launch a surprise attack, Duke Fisablen didn't send anyone to scout, fearing it would alert the enemy. In the end, the grassland barbarians were sent down the stream only to be stopped by the chains. The troops standing guard on shore hurriedly called for reinforcements and shot flaming arrows and fireballs at the river while dumping fuel into the water. They then set it alight and everything burned. The legion lost 10 thousand men."

Duke Fisablen is really unlucky. The division he lost was burnt alive without harming a single hair on the enemy.

After indulging in schadenfreude, his expression darkened as he thought back to how he had promised the king he would come up with a method to attack the defenses they now faced.

I'm really dumb. Why did I have to mock them for being stranded here? Auguslo's words got on my nerve and I promised confidently I would come up with a way to conquer the duchy… Remind me to never get drunk when the king's near ever again. I really let myself get into a horrible corner this time...

"Show me if there're any weaknesses, Hennard."

Three days later, the herbalist's concoction began to take effect. While Auguslo's tooth still hurt badly, the inflammation subsided and he could speak normally again. With a hint of frustration, the king called for a military council to discuss how they could break through their current predicament.

"Locke, last time you told me you'd find a way to take Welony pass. Have you come up with anything yet?" asked he the moment everyone was present.

Who asked you to bring Tigersoar over so unwillingly? You even said you were busy migrating the refugees and bragged about how you'd solved my problem with the mountain legion and wanted to rest for the winter. You even said Tigersoar wouldn't fight without you present. You're really vexing.

Duke Fisablen even explained how perfect the fortifications are. But you bragged that there was no such thing as a flawless defense and that we just hadn't noticed its weakness... I bet you just had a little too much to drink. You didn't leave before giving me the newspapers and kicking off my toothache… You forced me to suffer all this pain!

If you can't come up with a way to take the pass, I'll mock you into your grave! Who asked you to run your mouth?

Lorist raised three fingers.

"Please forgive my incompetence. I could only come up with three ways to take care of the situation."

Chapter 431 Three Methods (1)

"A relationship of deception is a balancing act. One must deceive one's counterpart for as much benefit as possible, without doing it so often they become suspicious of everything you do." ~ Norton Lorist

Are you fucking kidding me?! thought Auguslo blankly.

Rage followed momentarily.

We spent so much time leading the troops in attempt after attempt to take the pass and failed, but you say you found three methods to do just that in just a few days? Aren't you saying we're incompetents? That all the experienced generals and nobles here can't compare to you?!

The king suppressed his rage. However much he wished to deny it, he needed Lorist's input. Perhaps he really had discovered some weaknesses that could be exploited. He silenced everyone and smiled at Lorist.

"Is that so? I look forward to hearing them."

Lorist pulled the rack on which the map hung over.

"We've been stopped dead in our tracks. The enemy's trench network is similar to what we faced in Forund, but even more effective thanks to the terrain. This network is in the middle of a pass half-way up a mountain, there are no streams from which to draw water, so we can't defeat this network the as we did the one in Forund.

"Trenches and mudwalls alone, however, are not that much of a problem. Even if Handra added turrets, they can't hinder our assault that much. The real problem is the catapults. They stand far above us, which gives them far greater range than our weapons, effectively making our ranged equipment useless. We can't break through with a frontal assault.

"Granted, if we threw enough bodies at it, we could get through, but we can't afford the losses necessary."

Ah, I see. Why don't we just dig trenches and tunnels so our men can move hidden from the enemy catapults? They aren't nearly as accurate as ours, so it's not likely they'd be able to hit into the trenches.

Hold on, Lorist did mention this would cause too many casualties. This might not be one of his methods.

Though Auguslo didn't mind sacrificing troops to, Whitelion was the kingdom's only standing royal army. They had already lost over ten thousand men. It would be best if excessive casualties could be avoided.

"Will all the three your methods avoid burning out the men?" asked the king with a beaming smile.

"Well..."

Lorist was a little taken aback by the sudden question.

"About that, it's not that it won't cost us any men. It's about minimizing the losses. The first method is a little dangerous."

"Danger? What kind? Let's hear it," Auguslo said with a smile.

"War is inherently filled with danger. I'm sure no one here fears danger."

"Okay. My first idea is to launch an assault with shock troops," Lorist said as he pointed at the pass on the map, "Since the biggest threat is the catapults, we destroy them first."

"Hah, you make it sound easy. It's not that we didn't think about it before. The problem is how. Without conquering the slope, we can't attack the catapults."

The one who spoke was Auguslo's long-time subordinate, Gold-ranked Knight Ripleid, whom Lorist had met when he was at Egret Swamp during his rescue of Reidy. Currently, Ripleid was Whitelion's general.

"I'm not talking about ordering our soldiers to take the slope," Lorist said with a smile, "We'll form a small elite squad. His Majesty, Duke Fisablen, Blademaster Manst, Reidy, and I combined are five blademasters. We just need ten gold-ranked knights. I've analyzed the enemy's rear. They are ready to fight an army, not a small team. It won't be hard to sneak a dozen or so people past them.

"As long as we secretly circle around, we will arrive at the slope where their catapults are. There is no way that the enemy can resist a surprise attack by five blademasters and ten gold-ranked knights. Additionally, the moment the catapults are set on fire, our main force will advance. You will lead the troops and attack from below and we'll wreak as much havoc as we can."

"I object!" As the king's personal bodyguard, Blademaster Manst was the first to speak out. "Lord Norton, I won't oppose you if you want to head out and risk your own life. But His Majesty cannot leave; he is responsible for the entire kingdom. There's no way he can head out so easily. If something goes wrong, you will be the kingdom's most wanted and hated man! War is rife with dangers and I will not let His Majesty take this kind of a risk!"

Lorist shrugged, "Then, just pretend I didn't propose it."

What does it have to do with me?! Would Duke Fisablen go if Auguslo doesn't go? Would you, Auguslo's bodyguard, go? You want Reidy and me to deal with it ourselves?! Since you are unwilling, why should I bother? Do you think we'd destroy a hundred catapults without at least five blademasters?

Auguslo, as opposed to his guardian, was rather moved by the proposition. Lorist's suggestion was rather suited to his tastes. However, the squad's composition was rather problematic. He was indeed a rank 1 blademaster, but unwilling to risk himself. He had earned his name as a genius military strategist, not as a frontliner.

Ideally, Lorist, Duke Fisablen, and the rest of the squad would ask to be given the responsibility while he remained in the main camp to command the main force from its relative safety. He thought about it for a few moments, and realized why Lorist had included him. The two dukes, Lorist and Fisablen, were not going to go on a dangerous mission their king wouldn't join. They weren't obedient people; to them, a king wasn't worth any more than them.

"Let's put the shock squad aside for now. Tell us the other methods."

He decided he would slowly discuss how he should proceed after hearing all three methods.

"As you wish. My second method involves splitting our forces." Lorist used a pencil to draw a line across Nibarak.

Auguslo said with disappointment, "Locke, we tried that already. Duke Fisablen suffered heavy casualties as a result of its failure. The four duchies' defenses are really tight."

Lorist shook his head.

"Your Majesty, your previous attempt involved leading part of the troops along the river to the enemy's rear. I'm not suggesting this. We will split a section off and send it to Handra's province, Deramak. We don't want to face Reddragon, from both sides, we want to race Hans, Handra's capital. We can cut their supply lines."

"This... How is this different from Duke Fisablen's suggestion?"

"There are quite a few, actually," Lorist said as he pointed at the map, "The duke's reserve legion was sent along the stream to the border. The plan was to chaos cause, and while the enemy was reacting, launch another attack on the pass. You forgot that the dukes are battle-hardened generals. The dukes have thought of this possible approach and prepared accordingly."

"However, aren't you suggesting splitting the forces the same way?" asked the reserve legion's general.

He was a gold-ranked knight called Hausen, a rather rough subordinate of Duke Fisablen.

"The goal is different. We aren't splitting the force to attack Wesstwood from behind. We're pressing forward and sowing havoc along the way. We'll burn the whole province to the ground."

"How will you get through their defenses along the river? They have chains and at least a division stationed along the river and they have numerous catapults."

"Simple. We won't go down the river. We'll cross it and continue east. We'll move down along the farthest banks. It may have dense forests and swamps, but we can manage."

Flabbergasted, Auguslo asked, "But... But won't the enemy discover us?"

"So what if they do? Just look. Nibarak is the province's border. Even if the enemy discovers the troops, what can they do? Cross the river as well? It'd be great if they did, actually. We can march proudly and in the open on the other side of the river. If the enemy wishes to stop us, they'll have to line their troops along the river. Given how long Nibarak is, I really wonder how many legions the enemy will need. They'd have to line the entire river, but we can just pick a spot and cross again wherever we choose," said Lorist gleefully.

"No matter how the enemy chooses to react, the moment we head east, they will be incredibly riled-up. Even if we choose to not cross the river, the enemy will still be held back. They'll send three legions to follow us. In fact, we just need one cavalry legion to lead them by the nose. Let's not forget the duchies don't have cavalry like we do. They can't keep up."

Everyone finally understood what Lorist was planning. The moment the enemy realized the kingdom's troops were on the other side of the river, they would have to respond. The duchies would definitely not allow the kingdom to cross the river unabated and ravage their undefended belly. They would send troops to follow the split-off unit everywhere they went. Lorist was correct in that the duchies' infantry would always be lagging behind. The kingdom just had to race up and down the river to tire everyone out, attack.

Auguslo was convinced. "I wonder if we can split one light cavalry legion off to carry out this plan."

After some thought, Lorist replied, "Your Majesty, I believe it would be best to allow our house's Tigersoar and Felim's Pegasus to conduct this operation together."

"Why?"

"One legion won't be much of a threat. The enemy just has to retreat into their towns and focus on defending them. Additionally, Tigersoar's field and siege capabilities far exceed normal light cavalry. We might exterminate a few legions by working with Pegasus."

Auguslo nodded. Lorist's words made sense, but just as he was about to agree, a switch flicked in his head. He thought back to what happened in Farkel. He realized he had nearly been duped.

What is Lorist up to this time? Why is he so eager? Is he planning to strip Deramak clean as well?

He had lost so much he was instinctively afraid something was going on. The more he thought about it, the more suspicious he became. It was worth noting that the spoils any noble obtained during war would belong to them. The king was afraid he would receive a completely empty plot of land even if he managed to eliminate Handra, and Lorist would have captured the citizens and called them his spoils.

No way. I cannot allow Tigersoar to go there, even if they are the most suitable candidates, thought he.

His face remained a mask.

"You said you had three methods, right? What about the last one?"

Chapter 432 Three Methods (2)

"A good negotiator is not the one who can get his opponent to say yes, but who has mastered the art of saying no and knows how to get to an agreement thereafter." ~ King Andinaq Auguslo

It seems Auguslo has realized my intentions. He's actually learning his lesson, thought Lorist as he sighed, disappointed, It's over. I shouldn't think of taking advantage of him anymore. It's getting harder and harder to swindle him. It seems he isn't as much of a fool as I thought.

"The final option is to just continue the stand-off."

"Continue the stand-off?"

"Yes. Think about it, according to our reports, Dukes Forund and Farkel brought two legions to Handra, Duke Shabaj also brought a division. There are 200 thousand more people in the duchy than is normal. Additionally, Hans's reports say Duke Handra has also expanded the Dragon Twins. Coupled with the city garrison, there are a total of 100 thousand men.

"Handra has three provinces and a population of approximately one million. Over a third of their bodies are now in uniform, I doubt the duchy can support so many people essentially just sitting around for long. So far, the dukes are working together to defend against us. But they are running out of money and supplies very quickly. We can just sit around and wait for them to crumble.

"There's be complete chaos when they do, and the three dukes now guests in the duchy won't disband their forces and give up on their claims so easily. If Handra's supplies and money runs out, there'll be hell to pay. I doubt any of the dukes will be willing to disband their forces, they'll try to get more supplies instead.

"I'm sure you can imagine what'll happen then. All three dukes will begin vying for resources, and Handra will recruit even more men to defend his territory against his allies, which'll only worsen the situation and bring the collapse about so much quicker.

"The longer we stay put, the worse things will get between the three. They might be able to hold out without much issue for a year, but no more. And they will inevitably turn on one another when the food runs out. They'll no doubt try and suppress the conflicts at first, but that just means it'll burst out like a hot geyser all at once and the three will be at each other's throats.

"The dukes will likely set their sites on the commoners first. They'll raid the villages and farms for food and other supplies. As the duchy's ruler, Duke Handra will have to protect his subjects. Which will pit him against the other three. We can just sit by and watch the show. We don't need to lift a finger or lose a single life. Handra will fall apart on its own.

"If Your Majesty can be patient enough, just wait until they start fighting amongst themselves. It might even be that the losers will defect and lead us into Handra. If we march in at that time, the victor will be too battered to fight back."

The tent was completely silent. Everyone was analyzing Lorist's third and final suggestion. After a while, Duke Fisablen stood up and gave sound to his doubts.

"Lord Norton, while what you said makes sense, you seem to have forgotten an important point. Handra's Majik province neighbors Anderwoff, which is currently under the Union's control. The Wessia merchant guild occupies Bodolger right next to Anderwoff. The duchies could request support from Wessia or trade with the Union to get more resources and continue to resist."

Lorist laughed heartily.

"Your criticism is fair, Duke Fisablen, but you presuppose the guild will choose to trade with them. Merchants prioritize profit above all else; if the duchies still exist, Wessia's dealings will at the very least break even if they don't profit. But three of the dukes have already lost everything. They still control many men, but they can't trade in people if they want to continue fighting, and they have nothing else.

"Wessia might only provide minor support on account of their cooperation in the past, but they won't truly support them. The guild might instead be the first to crumble if it did. Given that Wessia occupies the former imperial territory of Bodolger, they will rely mainly on the Union instead of the duchies.

"As for the four dukes trading with the Union, that would depend on whether the dukes have something to trade as well. Among them, Duke Shabaj escaped in a hurry and should be the one who brought the least resources. Dukes Forund and Farkel left with the wealth of their house and duchy, so they might look like they are loaded, but given that they're no longer in their dominion, they don't have an income.

"Their forces will only consume their resources, not generate any. After we occupied the two duchies, we estimated they each took around a million to two million gold Fordes. I believe Duke Handra's pouch is in more or less the same state. He still has his duchy, yes, but the war is sapping its vitality, not to mention that most of his tradable produce probably goes to feeding the guest armies.

"How long do you think two million gold Fordes can sustain two legions? Forund and Farkel have already been conquered, and the two dukes have a combined 90 thousand men. No matter how savvy they are, they will still be spending money like water.

"They can't invest their funds in trade with the Union. They'll rely on Handra completely instead. Handra might be forced to give his produce to feed the two legions, but I doubt he'll do so willingly, or be happy about it."

Ah! thought Auguslo as he clapped his hands, I see. The more pressure I apply to them, the more united they will be. But if I let them be, they will fight amongst themselves. Lorist's right. The duchy can't support 300 thousand soldiers for long. They can't sustain that kind of consumption.

"How long do you think we have to wait until the enemy caves?"

Lorist smiled, the whites of his teeth showing. He stretched out two fingers.

"Two years at most, nothing more. Probably less."

"That may be good, but we have forces to feed and pay as well. True, we have an entire kingdom's resources, but that also means we have far further to transport them. It is no cheap endeavor. Two years is a long time. We also have so many cavalry troops here. The food we need is at least double our enemy's." Auguslo furrowed his brow at the thought that Lorist's proposal was a double-edged sword.

"Hehe, Your Majesty seems to be forgetting that you have two new territories nearby. You could spend the two years governing the two properly. We can use its produce supply the army.

Each noble can look after his own forces in terms of any other supplies as long as Your Majesty remembers our contribution in eradicating the duchies and reward us accordingly."

Auguslo paced around, his head lowered. The others present gazed at him, waiting for his final decision. He appeared rather troubled. Lorist's first suggestion was the simplest: keep up the assault. But, the shock squad his participation and it had already been shot down. The second method was to split off a portion of the troops, and the best candidate for the job was Tigersoar as Lorist had said. But, out of worry for any hidden intentions, he'd mentally crossed that off as well. The third option was to stand off without fighting. Everyone understood from Lorist's breakdown that it was the best method; they just had to sit around and wait for the enemy to implode. However, it would take quite long and a lot of supplies to pull off. However, it wasn't a big deal in that the supplies would have to be spent either way regardless of which choice they made. Apart from Whitelion, the standing armies of the various noble families were gathered under Auguslo's banner. Lorist had specified that they only needed food since they could take care of the other supplies.

What troubled Auguslo was what reward he would give to the nobles if he chose this path. Usually, the nobles got to keep what they pillaged. The right to pillage was their reward. But the enemy this time was practically sucked dry already, and would certainly be if they waited for them to collapse. There would be nothing left to give away as spoils of war. He would have to reward the nobles from his own coffers. After pacing about several times and checking the expressions in the tent, it was obvious most of them preferred the third method.

It's true that fighting an enemy that occupies strategically advantageous terrain is really taxing on everyone's forces. It's better to sit and watch as the enemy crumbles on its own. Though it might take longer, they could gain victory and be rewarded without much cost.

"Let me consider this a little longer. We'll discuss this again in two days."

In the end, Auguslo, didn't settle on a method immediately and adjourned the meeting.

What in the world is is he planning? thought Lorist curiously.

The next morning, he noticed Duke Fisablen had been called for a private meeting with the king. Thereafter Kenmays, then Felim. He was just guessing who would be next when Kenmays came over.

"D'you know why the king summoned me?" asked he.

"How would I know?"

"His Majesty asked me what reward I would want for having the two heavy-armored divisions stationed here for two years."

Lorist finally understood what was going on.

"What did you request?"

Kenmays stretched out two fingers.

"I want the salt merchant committee completely exempt from tariffs in the kingdom for two years."

Felim soon came over as well.

"What did you request?" asked Kenmays.

"I asked for 50 thousand young laborers for Southern's development, but His Majesty only agreed to give me 30 thousand."

"What about Hennard?"

"He should've been summoned already."

In the evening, Auguslo sent two guards to invite Lorist for dinner.

"You should know my intentions for inviting you. Tell me what you want. Don't be greedy," said Auguslo frankly.

"Your Majesty, have you decided on not fighting?"

The king nodded.

"The part I'm most satisfied with is that it'll cause the four traitors to fight each other. Just like you said, the moment they turn on each other, a lifelong grudge will form. The most troublesome part of the four central duchies is that they're four nations in one and they'll support each other no matter what. Regardless of how this turns out for them, I'll be satisfied as long as they're at each other's throats by the end. I have more than enough patience to watch them tear themselves apart. But, I'm sure you know how worried I am about not getting any spoils as a result. I wanted to set the reward beforehand."

Lorist smiled.

"Your Majesty, may I know what Duke Fisablen wanted?"

"He didn't ask for much. He just wanted enough equipment to outfit a legion and 50 thousand migrants."

"Oh," Lorist said, "Then I'll have..."

"Stop! Locke, don't even bring up migrating people. I will not allow it. I regret letting you deal with moving the refugees in Farker the most. You should know what you did," interjected Auguslo.

"Fine," Lorist conceded with a shrug, "But what else can you give me apart from people? Any ideas?"

"Locke..." Auguslo slapped his forehead in preparation for the impending headache, "As long as your request is not overboard, I will agree."

"Fine. Exempt my dominion and the territories I control from taxes for five years." Lorist had no choice but to come up with such a request.

"No way," Auguslo objected, before he stared Lorist in the eye, "Fine, three years at most and not a month more."

"Deal."

Lorist stretched out his hand.

Chapter 433 All Quiet on the Southern Front

"I am young, I am twenty years old; yet I know nothing of life but despair, death, fear, and fatuous superficiality cast over an abyss of sorrow. I see how peoples are set against one another, and in silence, unknowingly, foolishly, obediently, innocently slay one another.

But now, for the first time, I see you are a man like me. I thought of your pommels, of your spear, of your sword; now I see your wife and your face and our fellowship. Forgive me, comrade. We always see it too late. Why do they never tell us that you are poor devils like us, that your mothers are just as anxious as ours, and that we have the same fear of death, and the same dying and the same agony - - Forgive me, comrade; how could you be my enemy?"

~ excerpt from Memoirs of the Soldier, a collection of soldiers' memoirs by Crown Prince Norton Staggen, Year 2227.

After deciding to take on a passive stance, Auguslo gathered his generals and reorganized his forces. The main camp would be moved back 25 kilometers to Wesstwood's border. They still had to erect outposts and defenses at the new location to protect against any surprise attacks.

The camp itself would be split. Kenmays's two heavy-armored divisions, Tigersoar, and Pegasus would be in the left camp, standing between Handra and Farkel's Koribia. Whitelion, Third Frontier, and the reserve legion, they would be in the right camp, their backs facing Paetro. The two camps on the two sides of Wesstwood were two blades. Handra did not know what to make of this arrangement.

Had Auguslo stayed where he was, Reddragon would have been tasked with defending Welony Pass, and Forund's forces, stationed at the end of Cloudsnap, and Farkel's forces, stationed to the east of Matnamady, would have launched ambushes. Now, however, the enemy's forces had withdrawn by 25 kilometers; the defenders had no idea how their enemy planned to attack. Each of their three staging grounds could now be assaulted with equal chance.

Handra sent lots of scouts down the mountains to find out why the enemy had withdrawn. Unfortunately, the enemy had set up their new camp on flat terrain, the perfect place to use cavalry. Almost none of the scouts returned, they were all captured or killed. Barely six managed to limp back and make their reports.

A withdrawal was not the same as a complete extrication, the kingdom's forces still had a strong presence in the area. It was a tactic often used to keep up the pressure even when a side had taken a passive stance. Auguslo had struck this balance well. Despite moving the camp back, he had Tigersoar and two of Fisablen's legions move out and surprise the enemy with their presence every now and again. The enemy was not allowed to relax and become complacent.

Auguslo relegated field command to Lorist and Fisablen, granting each command over their camp, after sorting everything out. They were to keep the enemy pressured and try to force them to make mistakes that could be exploited. He then returned to Paetro with Shazin and his forces. He planned to make Summer Palace his headquarters for the time being. He would manage the entire kingdom from there, as well as the eight newly acquired provinces. They had to be developed rapidly to support the frontline forces.

Looking at the distant multi-colored military banners, Kenmays, who had come to send Auguslo off, spoke.

"Hennard's just too stupid. He didn't just not get any benefits from His Majesty, he's even being used like a gofer. I bet His Majesty will start dealing with Forund after he goes back to Paetro and Hennard will be the blade he uses," said he to Lorist.

In return for their cooperation with the new strategy, Fisablen had requested enough military gear to outfit a legion, and 50 thousand migrants from Handra; Kenmays got a two year tax exemption within the kingdom for the salt merchant committee; Felim got 30 thousand youth laborers; and Lorist got three years' tax exemption for his dominion and the areas he governed. Each had gotten something out of it one way or another. Shazin, however, had been too straightforward. He had asked before the campaign to be enfeoffed mineral-rich land, when this round of negotiation had come around, he had not made any further requests.

"Fools have their own kind of luck, you know," Lorist said, "Actually, Hennard being used as a blade to cull the nobles is His Majesty's reward. Now that our forces are stationed here, the costs of shipping resources from so far away had gone up. Though Forund hasn't really been torn apart and ravaged by the war and the winter harvests are decent, it isn't enough to supply them for long.

"The next harvest is still four months away. No matter how resourceful the king is, he can't get food out of nowhere unless he relies on growing it here. Shipping food from elsewhere will be very expensive. The best option available to him is to clear out Forund's minor nobles. The king can easily get a year's supplies this way. Hennard's going to be used to do this. Do you really think he'll allow himself to come out of this empty-handed? His Majesty would shut one eye even if Hennard snuck away two or three hundred thousand gold Fordes."

Felim humphed a little unhappily.

"That bastard is really lucking out. I hope he isn't poached."

"Hehe..."

Kenmays came in to back Shazin up right away. He was in a sense related to him, after all, his cousin was House Shazin's matron.

"Don't worry. Though Hennard isn't that sharp, he knows well that we four houses are a united unit. His Majesty is only using him. There's almost no chance he'll be recruited. Also, didn't your two houses eliminate the Farkellan nobles last year and piss His Majesty off? His Majesty is targeting the nobles now because of you."

Felim was completely speechless. He had kind of stepped out of line when it came to sweeping the nobles.

"You don't know the predicament we were in," Lorist countered, "His Majesty only gave us 15 days' food. Would it have been possible to transport so many refugees all the way to Windbury? If we didn't raid the nobles, where would we have gotten food and clothing? It would have had to be done anyway, we just saved him the trouble of doing it himself. He didn't just fail to thank us, he even got mad. How ridiculous."

Kenmays and Felim laughed uncontrollably. Even the king had no way of dealing with Lorist. Auguslo was a great schemer, but he suffered every time Lorist was involved. The other three houses also profited at Auguslo's expense quite a bit.

Lorist was rather dissatisfied. On what grounds did Auguslo disband the minor noble's army, refuse to let him return to The Northlands, and, instead, put him in charge of the frontlines even after he had elected to take on a passive stance? What was there to deal with anyway? It wasn't like they were like to fight any major engagements soon. If he only thing required was to put pressure on Handra's defenses, Loze was more than enough. There was no need for him to be present personally.

He had dug himself an even deeper pit it seemed. The prospect of having to stay there for the next two years turned his insides the wrong way. But, seeing that Fisablen was also kept there, he felt a little better. Such was human nature. Suffering together was far better than suffering alone, especially when one could indulge in schadenfreude.

After some careful thought, Lorist came to the conclusion that Auguslo's arrangements regarding him and Fisablen were rather interesting. If the two were allowed to return to their own dominions, Lorist might think of messing with Fisablen some more. It couldn't be helped as they were the only remaining target in the region. Given how close they had become to the king, and how he didn't want a threat like that to exist near his dominion, he wouldn't hesitate to apply pressure whenever he could.

Though Auguslo was rather hostile to the four houses; given how far he was, and the appearances he had to keep up as king, there was no way he would shed all pleasantries and fight them directly. That's why Lorist was so careful whenever it came to messing with the king. As long as he didn't grab hold of anything he could use against Lorist, there was nothing he could do. Other than that, he also had to be wary of House Norton's might. Even if he wanted to turn against them, he had to think twice about whether he could afford to be their enemy.

Now that Auguslo had forcefully made the two dukes stay at the frontlines and given them command over the troops, his intentions for the two were obvious. He wanted them to cool down and stop gunning for each other the moment they returned to their dominions. Given how the kingdom was in the final stages of the war with the duchies, Auguslo didn't want Lorist causing any more waves between House Norton and House Fisablen lest it affected the frontlines.

If you're that trigger-happy, vent it all on Handra. Don't dare mess around under my watch.

It seemed the king understood well that even though House Fisablen had signed an armistice with the four houses, the matter of them submitting to Auguslo and receiving lots of help from him frustrated the houses greatly. No matter who it was that led House Norton, they definitely wouldn't allow him and House Fisablen to form a joint front against them. There was no way Lorist would let an opportunity to screw things over for the Fisablens pass him by. As for the armistice, he just had to avoid open armed-conflict until he could properly justify it. Excuses to start wars were easy to find if one bothered to look.

If only Lorist was left behind, he would definitely not feel safe enough to stay put. He might even leave with his forces without a word. If only Fisablen was left behind, he wouldn't sit there calmly either. Maybe word of House Fisablen being uprooted would soon spread. Only by having both stay could they be assured. At the very least, they could hold each other back there. Maybe that had been the king's plan all along. As he was residing in Summer Palace, he could also make sure no huge conflict erupted between the two.

A few days after Auguslo departed with his entourage, Kenmays and Felim bid Lorist farewell. They generously handed command of their forces over before departing lightly. Kenmays was heading to the eight occupied provinces to build a network for the salt merchant committee while Felim was returning to Southern to take care of its development. Auguslo had only told Lorist and Fisablen to stay on the frontlines, so they were free to come and go as they pleased. They also felt assured that Lorist wouldn't use their men as cannon fodder, so they were comfortable leaving them in his care.

As Kenmays himself had said, 'We four houses are one. I feel assured with you in charge of the forces.'

After they left, Lorist became bored. Though Felim said he would rush back in two months, Lorist was still exasperated. So, he turned his attention to dealing with Handra's three defense lines.

So their catapults occupy the higher ground and can shoot further, huh? Those lever-style catapults aren't nearly a match for our catapults otherwise.

He got a few worksmiths to build several tens of gigantic lever-style catapults and placed them right in front of the three lines. They periodically launched their stones at the defenses and caused a lot of chaos. Lorist's actions were far too eye-catching, even Auguslo was shocked. He quickly rushed to the frontlines to see what was going on. Lorist didn't mind. While his crude gigantic catapults could fire far, they weren't accurate at all. They were also quite troublesome to operate; each toss required ten soldiers to pull on the lever. They also needed heavy counterweights. They were terribly inefficient.

Despite this, Auguslo and Fisablen were incredibly impressed. The design was simple, a huge wooden rack and a strong log made up the level and counterweight. On the opposite end of the log from the rack was a leather scoop that could hold a rock up to the size of a human head. Cutting the rope that pulled the lever down and lifted the counterweight[1] would cause it to swing, sending the rock half a kilometer away into the enemy's defenses.

It was an unexpected surprise for Auguslo. He asked whether Lorist could have more of them made to destroy the defenses so they could give another go at breaking through.

Lorist shook his head.

"This isn't very useful. It's way too inaccurate, it has a spread of 200 meters at just 500 meters. You can't hope to hit anything smaller than a town with it. It's only useful for annoying the enemy," replied he.

Auguslo left angrily. He did make sure to sketch the catapults before he left, though, not that Lorist particularly minded. He actually looked forward to seeing the king use them in battle. What a joke that would be. When his bronze cannons were fielded, the catapults would be completely useless, nothing but targets.

Though he didn't hope for anything and only used the catapults to harass the enemy, the three duchies' garrisons soon couldn't take it anymore. The catapults were completely unpredictable; no one knew where the next rock would fall. The men had to keep a watchful eye on the sky all the time, lest they not even know what had squashed them.

As such, the three garrisons came together and arrived at a solution. They launched a surprise attack in the night. They managed to break through the perimeter and set the catapults on fire. Angered, Lorist ordered for the worksmiths to build even more and even funded them out of his own pocket. He fielded double the previous number of catapults. Within a few days, the weather forecast once again became sunny with a chance of rockfall.

This time around, the catapults fired not the human-head-sized rocks from before, but rock shards. Large fist-sized pack of rocks rained over a large area. Though they weren't fatal, they were more than enough to badly wound their victims.

The men were soon at wit's end again and descended the slope for another attack. This time Lorist was prepared. He put Tigersoar's carroballista division in covered positions and ambushed the enemy as they approached. They were all but wiped out.

Lorist was inspired by the fuel the attackers had brought along. He shipped large amounts of fuel and put it into jars to be flung at the enemy with the catapults before sending waves of flaming rocks after. The defenses were soon engulfed in flames. The garrison there was pretty capable though and quickly put out the fire with sand and mud.

[1] Editor's note: NO NO NO NO NO!!! Rope is expensive and labor intensive to make. Why would you ruin a perfectly good piece of rope just to fling a rock, every time you want to fling a rock?!?!?!

On a calmer note, watch THIS video by the great and entertaining Lindybeige that explains why this is such a ludicrous idea.

Chapter 434 The Line of Succession

"You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by avoiding it today." ~ Loze

We're back to this week's first releease, enjoy!

"Great news, Your Grace! Great news!" cried Loze as he ran into the tent with a dozen guards. He barged in it with Dulles hot on his heels. The latter was smiling so brightly he appeared foolish.

"Great news? What news could merit such jubilance?" asked Lorist, somewhat annoyed.

He had been studying Handra's three defensive lines. He'd spent the whole night brainstorming ideas to turn the tables after they'd suffered some casualties in several skirmishes the day before The stalemate had remained unchanged. The three lines' garrisons couldn't do much about the catapults, so they moved their camps a few hundred meters back, out of the weapons' range. It flabbergasted Lorist. Just like that, he had lost all use for the damned contraptions. The things weighed way too much, it was impossible to move them forward up the slope to get them back in range. Additionally, unlike his mobile catapults, these couldn't be quickly set up if they were packed, so they had no way of retaliating if they came under attack during the move. Fisablen had wanted to try his luck, but his catapults were destroyed soon after they started moving. The enemy threw rocks and logs at them down the slope. The men couldn't do anything; a hundred died or were injured before they finally retreated.

Lorist's forces occupied the low ground, his enemy the high ground. The two lines were 500 meters apart, so even though the enemy had pulled back a few hundred meters, they could still react in time to any offensives… and there was nothing Lorist could do about it from his position. The defenses didn't just cover the flats of the pass, but ran up and down the slopes on either side of it as well. No matter how he tried to get around the defenses, he always ran into more. Lorist couldn't do much to the situation personally, either. He may be somewhere between a rank 3 blademaster and a swordsaint, but even he couldn't do much to the enemy's defenses.

He had led a night assault with a small force the night before but everything fell apart very quickly. The first trench was filled with broken glass. Whilst he wasn't personally harmed, his men didn't fare as well. They were clad in heavy armor, but the soles of their feet were exposed. The moment they descended into the trench, men cried out in pain up and down the trench. Arrows rained down on them moments later, followed by rocks flung from the slope above by the enemy's catapults, a few fireballs mixed in. He ordered a retreat the moment he noticed something was off, though, and saved many of his men. He still lost around 400 of the thousand, though. He was so infuriated that he'd lost so many without doing anything to the enemy he almost lost it entirely. He only calmed down after reminding himself it could have been worse. He sent a recovery group in as soon as they had regrouped. They managed to recover all of the downed men. Of the 400 taken down, luckily only a dozen or so were killed, the rest were only injured. He was greatly troubled by how to make up for this loss, so he didn't have the energy or patience to deal with Loze's ridiculous joy.

"A messenger came over from Ragebear. He brings good news."

"What good news?"

"Madame Sylvia is with child. She is two months along."

Sylvia's with child?!

Lorist was dumbstruck.

It's the beginning of the 7th month now, so if she's two months along, it should have happened around the end of the 4th month.

When Sylvia learned Lorist was staying on the frontlines for who knew how long, she stuck to him like glue for several days. She even called all the concubines, including Dilianna and Dixie over and arranged for them all to sleep together. She made sure she was the one in whom he finished each time, however. Her efforts must have paid off since she was now with child.

"Good news indeed! Why should you be happy about it, though?" Lorist wondered, It's not like I don't have a son already. Irina already gave me two, and Anna's child is also a boy. Telesti gave me two daughters as well. It's only natural for Sylvia to get pregnant. What are they so happy for?

"If Madame Sylvia's child is a son, you'll finally have a legitimate heir! The knights now have hope for the long-term future!" explained the foolish-looking Dulles with a beaming smile.

"Buzz off!" Lorist cried angrily, "I'm not even 40 and still full of life! Do you really look forward to my son taking over so much?!"

Dulles knew he had said something better left unsaid. He crouched and hugged his head fearfully. Loze stood beside him awkwardly.

"Hey, come back."

Dulles, who was just about to leave, turned around.

"Your Grace..." mumbled he.

"Where's the messenger?" asked the duke glaringly.

"Outside—"

"Why haven't you called him in yet?"

Lorist recognized the messenger, he was one of his three thousand strong personal guard. He had brought just two of the three thousand along to the frontlines. He'd left the rest in Ragebear to look after his family. The messenger, a young man named Wallon, was a lieutenant.

Wallon had with him a letter penned by Sylvia herself. She had written of her pregnancy and her pride at it. Lorist couldn't help but smile when he read her arrogant tone. She also wrote a lot about how much she missed him. She had left the capital for Cherry Blossom ridge where she would stay until the child was born. The place was quite a bit cooler than the city, so it was indeed the best place to stay for the summer.

Once he finished the letter Lorist told Wallon to rest for a while. He would call for him once he had a reply for him to take back. His brows furrowed as the man left the tent.

"I already have three sons. Irina's first is eleven, staying with Malek; her younger is seven and I'm still looking for a good tutor for him; and Anna gave me my third, now four. I don't want for successors and I promised all my children would be on the family registry and thus have a place in the line of succession.

"While it's great Sylvia will also give me another child, it's only to be expected. I certainly am happy, but not ecstatic like you two. Tell me, honestly, how many of the men share your view? How many are skeptical of my concubine's children?"

Loze and Dulles stared at each other for a moment Loze stepped forward.

"I'm not trying to be a busybody, Your Grace. Actually, I believe having the concubine's children registered in the family registry is one of the most important things to ensure the house stays stable across generations If Your Grace hadn't gotten married, I wouldn't have had anything to say about letting all of the concubine's children be in the line of succession. But you're now married, Lady Sylvia is your wife. Her children are your legitimate and primary descendants, they should also be the first in the line of succession. Most of the house, if not everyone, agree with me."

Dulles wanted to say something, but kept silence. Lorist glared at him.

"Speak freely. No matter what you say, I won't hold it against you. Though the house has developed a lot, those willing to speak the truth have become fewer and fewer. Tell me your honest thoughts.

"Think about the hardship we suffered on the way north all those years ago and what we have now. You were my first vassals, I've never doubted your loyalty. Please, share with me your thoughts."

"Very well," Dulles surrendered and raised both hands, "It is not that we don't have our thoughts and opinions, we just feel they aren't appropriate to voice to Your Lordship. You made it clear with Sylvia marriage, after all, that we have no place interfering in your personal matters. However, the matter of succession is not the same, it is at the core of the house's future, something that deeply affects all of us. If you are followed by an incapable or unsuitable heir, the entire house's future could be in doubt. We are very loyal to your majesty, but we also have families to look after, and those of us with land and titles, like Charade, also have to think of our subjects.

"Take the first young master as an example. We have kept a close eye on him. Baron Malek said that he has great potential to become a fearless knight, but he has no aptitude for governance; he won't be a good duke, his personality is too crude and cruel. Lady Malek tried her best to educate him in etiquette and restraint, but he still kills small animals in awful ways. Keeping him as your heir apparent is a disaster for the entire house."

"He's still young," argued Lorist hopelessly.

It wasn't that he didn't know about the reports concerning his first son. Tarkel had sent a few informants to check on the child's progress. The one that left the deepest impression was the time his son was punished by Malek's wife. He went out of the house, shot a squirrel with a bow and turned the poor critter into minced meat with his shortsword.

"This is not something age will solve, Your Grace. A child his age should no right from wrong. Venting his rage on a weaker being is not courage. We believe he became this way because his mother spoiled him too much when he was younger. We don't think his younger brother will be much better. They are not fit to succeed you," continued Dulles.

Lorist kept silent for a while. He knew this was a minor act of rebellion by his vassals. He didn't know when the two factions had come to be, but they were undeniably present. The old faction included the house's original members, specifically Maplewoods' members. They were prideful and looked down on the newer members as being not 'true members of the house'. They were the 'new ones'. They believed only those who'd, like them, been brought up in the house were truly loyal. The rest were opportunists who couldn't be trusted. Hansk was at the faction's head. They believed that despite being only a concubine, as the only of Lorist's lovers to have been brought up in the house, and being the first to give birth to possible heirs, her children were the true heirs to his title.

The new faction was composed of most of the nights and officials who'd followed Lorist to The Northlands or had joined the house since. They didn't see the old members of the house in a good light. They believed they were cowards who could only stand tall because Lorist gave them shade. Just look at the state they were in when Lorist first arrived. They were just country bumpkins barely hanging on to life. The new faction's members believed they'd proven their loyalty through the hardships they suffered on the way north and through their outstanding service to the house since they'd joined. They were the ones who'd walked alongside Lorist to bring the house to its new heights. The old faction's members had overseen the house's downfall and had contributed little to its recent rise, what rite did they have act all high and mighty in front of the new faction and boss them around?

Not everyone had chosen a side, though, many were still neutral. Charade, Potterfang, Spiel, Kedan, and Belnick were among them. They did not concern themselves with the faction of the person who made a proposal, they made decisions based on the options' merits alone. They had worked hard to keep everything between the factions under control.

Lorist knew about the rift between the two factions, but wasn't too concerned. If anything, the rift made the house easier to control. He hadn't thought, however, that the old faction would make so much of a ruckus when he chose to make Sylvia his wife. Now the new faction was trying to get back at the old faction by kicking their candidates from the line of succession. Can't they tone it down a bit?

"What about Anna's child? She gave me a son too, right?" asked he finally.

Dulles shook his head.

"Madam Anna's status is not suitable. She's not even your concubine so the house's reputation will be severely damaged if her child becomes your heir."

Lorist understood Dulles was hinting at him about Dilianna's identity as a widow as well as a participant of Queen Carey's Paradise Gathering before becoming Lorist's concubine. Paradise gathering was famous among the nobles. Though Queen Carey was now dead, and the noble who participated dead, knowledge of the party was widespread, and who knew if someone could associate his concubines with it.

If Dilianna's son succeeded him, she would have to appear before other nobles eventually. Should anyone find out about her past, they could use it to blackmail her or cause trouble by spreading it around, possibly bringing her son's legitimacy into doubt. Dilianna preferred a peaceful life above all. She just wanted her son to support her in her old age; she had no ambition for her son in the line of succession.

Sigh, I didn't think Sylvia's child would cause so much trouble.

News of her pregnancy was both good and bad. No matter his stance on the matter, some things couldn't be avoided. This really wasn't as simple as a personal matter. His decision in this regard affected everyone in the house, he couldn't justify doing this without considering them as well.

"Dismissed. Let's leave it for today. Don't get too entangled with this. We're worried about this a little too soon. Right now I just want Sylvia to give birth safely."

Lorist waved as he sent Loze and Dulles out before he sat in his tent, smiling bitterly. Now that the house had conquered the whole of The Northlands, its future was immeasurably bright. But the way he saw it, he had only gotten strong enough to defend himself. Just as the house's situation appeared good, internal strife brew. This was probably unavoidable. But it didn't make it any easier.

Those bastards! I'm not even 40! If I really become a swordsaint, I'll easily live for another two or three hundred years! They have too much time on their hands. They're not considering my feelings at all... This should've been good news, not a troublesome matter I should worry myself over.

He spent the rest of the day writing a love-filled letter for Sylvia. It was filled with line after line of his longing for her. He also urged her to take care of herself and promised he would go back to spend time with her whenever he could. He had Wallon take the letter back. He deliberated whether he should hold a banquet to celebrate the occasion or keep it private. The decision was only complicated by the fact that this concerned Duke Fisablen, he was Sylvia's grandfather, after all.

Should I invite him? Will he even accept? pondered he.

Chapter 435 Round Up and Hunt

"This is how a grandfather should be; a man with silver in his hair and gold in his heart." ~ Norton Lorist

Duke Fisablen accepted Lorist's invitation without any trouble. He didn't even bother to ask why Lorist had invited him and only brought a single attendant along. It made Lorist feel a little like he was the bad guy, seeing how the duke wasn't worried whether Lorist would harm him. Then again, if he really did invite him over with ill intentions and word got out, it would tarnish the house's name.

Putting aside the huge loss of trust, a good portion of the household knights might leave as well. On Grindia, a house's reputation was sacred, as was that of the individual noble. At the very least, most nobles, knights, and commoners held the same belief. Some nobles and knights were even willing to sacrifice their lives to uphold their house's honor.

In Lorist's case, he had no choice but to serve Auguslo to protect his house's reputation of being loyal to the imperial family. Even though it might already have exceeded Andinaq might, Lorist sill had to stay put obediently as the Duke of The Northlands and put up a cordial front to Auguslo.

In Grindia, keeping one's word and being loyal were considered virtues. Even if two nobles were at war with one another, they had to justify their actions proudly. In the millennia of the continent's history, traitors were far and few in between, and every one of them were nailed onto a rack sd examples for all to see. Such were the continent's traditions. Should a lord be unfair, his vassal may resist, but not rebel.

Fine, this is all that slimy of fox's fault. Why would he accept my invitation out of nowhere like this? Does he really not think I'll harm him? Or is he looking down on me? Does he think I don't dare touch him?

Lorist grit his teeth and tried to push the blame on the old man who had chosen to attend the banquet. Yet, he still had to force a smile and welcome him warmly.

Lorist chose a private function. He had a table set up in his tent for himself and the duke; he wasn't going to get all the troops involved. The main reason was that he already had five children, so Sylvia's pregnancy wasn't a big deal in any way. He was also worried celebrating this with the troops would instill a misunderstanding in some's minds that he was preferentially inclined towards his legitimate heirs. After much thought, he decided to host a private banquet and break the news to the duke without spreading it around.

In all seriousness, this was the second time he'd met the duke in person. The first time was back at Windbury when he'd privately discussed the matter of wedding Sylvia with him. As he didn't agree to the duke's third condition -- to abandon his concubines and children -- they had parted on bad terms. A year later, he led the alliance and chased the duke and his troops all the way back to his dominion, forcing them to present Sylvia to him and sue for peace.

Auguslo visited Eastwild soon after and the duke submitted to him and became his vassal. It resulted in the duke joining the same faction in which Lorist was. Not only was the old man incredibly thick-skinned, he was also incredibly adaptable. This made him even more wary of the old man. Even though he was in the same camp as the Duke now, Lorist had never met the latter again. They only met during Auguslo's military councils where many others were present.

Perhaps the duke thought Lorist wanted to ask him for advice after the loss he suffered a few days earlier during his attempted night attack. He was in charge of the attacks against the three defense lines, after all. The duke had long gotten wind of the failure. However, even an experienced general like him didn't have a solution to this new problem as he didn't have any methods to counter the defenses either. He could only advise him to be patient.

Lorist didn't know how to react to the duke's consolation.

"You are mistaken, Lord Duke. I didn't call you here to ask for advice on dealing with the enemy. Sylvia is with child and I thought it only right I tell you personally. I also thought we could have a small celebration—"

"Sylvia's pregnant?!"

It was rather surprising that the old guy was even more worked up than Lorist. He was so happy he didn't touch any of the wine and circled the table constantly as he muttered about how Sylvia should take care of herself and be careful. He even began to consider where to hire an experienced midwife.

"Gosh, aren't you thinking a little too far ahead? Sylvia's belly isn't even visible yet. Gods willing, it'll be another half a year before we even need to consider what to do about the birth."

It wasn't easy for the duke to realize that he'd lost his grip. He made a toast to Lorist despite being the guest and got drunk in no time. Lorist had no choice but to have someone send him back to his quarters.

Two days later, Lorist received an invitation from the duke. Thinking that it was a reciprocal invitation, he brought only Jinolio with him. He'd not expected the camp to be so merry.

"Why everyone to jolly?" he asked one of the guards.

"We heard His Grace's granddaughter got knocked up. His Grace was so happy he's paying out of his pocket so we can celebrate for three days straight. Not only do we get to eat all we want, there are even bonuses being flung around! Everyone's so happy. We hope she's knocked up every year!" replied the guard.

Jinolio burst out in laughter, while Lorist just stood there, not knowing what to do.

Damned old man, you should've been clearer about why you're celebrating so much! Now it's turned into such a huge joke down the grapevine!

However, he didn't intend to take what the guards had said to heart. He just barked outside the tent, "Alright, old man, you want to make a big deal out of this?! Jinolio, pass this on to Loze: have the army throw a celebration for three days! Double the bonus they're giving out over here! I will cover all the costs!"

In the end, even Auguslo, residing in Paetro, learnt of Lorist knocking up the duke's granddaughter as well as the three-day celebration. He sent Lorist a huge gift to congratulate him. Lorist felt he was being chased off the stage by the others. The whole debacle did have an upside, though; the enmity built up between Lorist and the duke vanished. The duke would frequently visit him to inquire after news on Sylvia or to chat about the war. Lorist realized the old man was pretty self-aware in that he knew Sylvia didn't want to meet him, her own grandfather, given how hung up she was on being sent to him as she had been. So, he collected lots of precious herbs and gave it to Lorist so he could give them to Sylvia.

For instance, he heard some locals say that goldscale crimsonlip fish could be found in Nibarak. The fish was an incredibly rare ingredient in the field of herbal medicine and was really good for stabilizing pregnancy. However, they were slowly vanishing and it was really hard to catch any these days. So, he had a large number of worksmiths build boats to catch the fish. The enemies noticed and thought Auguslo was preparing to attack down the river, so they fortified their defenses there.

Through his informants and scouts, Lorist quickly grasped the change in deployment and understood the situation. He called Fisablen over to discuss how they would apply even more pressure on Handra. His plan was simple: he would have House Kenmays's two heavy-armored divisions defend the main camp, and Pegasus deployed on the field for launching feint attacks on the three defense lines from time to time. At the same time, he would lead Tigersoar and House Fisablen's reserve legion towards Nibarak, loudly proclaiming that he would construct a road on the other side that stretched southward to Deramak.

This was the third method he'd suggested to Auguslo: splitting their forces. However, Lorist didn't really intend to go all the way, he only wanted to apply more pressure on Handra and force them to strengthen their defenses near the river and thus consume more resources. He caused a lot of commotion by sending his troops all over the place after they crossed the river, though that was actually just a welcome side effect. His true goal was to make some extra pocket money for himself and his grandfather-in-law. While the road's construction was only being done half-assed, the hunting was intense.

Nibarak was considered a natural border that separated the civilized lands from the wilderness. On one side were rich farms, well-maintained orchards, and peaceful villages, on the other the ancient forests, swamps, and ever-stretching mountains. Even the duchies' hunters only dared to hunt within five kilometers of the riverbank, they didn't dare to go any further east.

Forund had once had plans for the other side of the river a few decades ago. They had wanted to develop the land there and recruited nearly a thousand commoners to build a few villages. Magic beasts attacked the villages during the winter. If not for the fact that the river didn't freeze during the winter, the villages within the duchy would have been attacked as well.

He crossed the river after the rainy season to check the villages, to find only ruins. All the villagers had been killed. Only blood and destruction was left. Almost all of the four duchies' inhabitants feared the other side of the river and even began to call it the demonic lands.

According to the hunters, the most common magic beast they encountered was the dire wolf. They were incredibly cunning. According to folklore, they could understand the human tongue and would exploit it to lure the hunters into the deeper parts of the forests and become their prey.

The huge wolves, easily bigger than cows, were the rulers of the demonic lands. Dire wolves lived in packs and were the most dangerous. They also never forgot their grudges. When Duke Handra had still been young, he had brought a regiment of troops across the river for a hunt. However, he was unfortunate enough to encounter a pack of more than 20. They managed to exterminate most of them, but three or four wolves slipped away. In the end, the three gathered others and attacked his party day and night. By the time he returned across the river, only three hundred of the original thousand-man regiment was still alive.

Lorist didn't really care about the dire wolves. Usually, hunting was something undertaken when there was no other option. While the army did have food support from Auguslo, meat was incredibly rare. The food provided was only enough to keep the men's stomachs full, but far from well-fed. Transporting meat from The Northlands added a lot to the costs, so much that it wasn't much of an option. Duke Fisablen had ordered a large number of cows and goats brought along only to realize that the livestock had lost most of their weight by the time they arrived.

So, the construction of the boats was both for capturing some goldscale crimsonlip and procuring meat. Lorist's idea of hunting the magic beasts had the duke's full support. Hunting magic beasts was but a common affair for Tigersoar. From the time they had hunted the magic beasts that remained in the dominion following the beast wave to the time when they went into the wilderness to hunt the beasts down, they had slain more than a million. However, the grassland barbarians considered beasts like the resilient and ridiculously strong cliffbear, the savage and sharp-toothed swordtooth tiger, the terrifying giant pythons, or the giant swamp crocodiles whose skin seemed stronger than metal something against which they didn't stand a chance. Even though they were accustomed to various types of wolves, the gigantic dire wolves could still inflict heavy casualties. But the moment Tigersoar struck, their eyes were opened. They witnessed the escaping magic beasts being used for target practice first hand.

In just two short months the meat started overflowing. The processors couldn't keep up with how quickly more was being brought in, so an entire division was dedicated to the task.

Tigersoar and the reserve legion had stormed half of the demonic lands and were beginning to head south. When Handra's soldiers discovered enemy cavalry on the opposite bank, they got even more anxious and hurriedly constructed one watchtower and signal fire point after another.

Lorist was so busy rounding up the magic beasts on the opposite bank that he had tossed his other directive to the back of his mind and forgotten about it completely. He had just set his sights on the magic beasts' fur. It was a good source of income. Given that there was no cotton on Grindia, winter clothes were made of various animal pelts. Even though he had started a large livestock farm in the west of The Northlands where near a million goats and cows were reared, their skins weren't the best material for winter clothing. Instead, the fur of magic beasts was ideal.

Some fur from rare magic beasts were priced in the thousands of gold Fordes. Apart from fur and meat, other parts of certain beasts were considered precious medicinal ingredients and sold for great prices on the market. Lorist roughly estimated that the two months of hunting had netted him nearly a million gold Fordes, not included his grandfather-in-law's share. He was pleasantly surprised that he could still make so much money on the side even though he was at war. He didn't even bother with answering the king's inquiries on the situation.

In the blink of an eye, the 10th month came around. Duke Fisablen had to send ten plus messengers to call Lorist back. The moment he entered the tent, the old man rushed over to tell him that Duke Handra had privately sent an envoy. The envoy had already been waiting for four days."

Chapter 436 Envoy and Conditions

"People who enjoy meetings should not be in charge of anything, people who enjoy secret meetings even less so." ~ Norton Lorist

The moment he heard Fisablen say Duke Handra's envoy had been waiting at the campsite for four days, Lorist stopped in his tracks.

Wait, something's amiss.

The gears in Lorist's mind started turning. Looking at Fisablen glumly, he thought, What is this geriatric planning? Handra's envoy should be seeking an audience with the king. What does he plan to achieve by staying in the campsite I'm in charge of and calling me? Is he going to keep it from Auguslo and drag me down?

A single look told Fisablen that Lorist had misunderstood him. He hurriedly explained.

"We know the envoy and he came to find us specifically to ask what price the king wanted to stop this war. I don't dare make any decisions on my own. You know the king far better than I, so I need your advice. You know my campsite is under tight surveillance, I can't just bring him in there, especially not considering that I've only recently returned to the fold."

Come on, isn't that basically trying to pin part of the blame on me? Also, since when were we close enough for you to be bothered by my opinions?

Despite his skepticism, his interest had been aroused.

"I know him too? Who is it?"

You must've had some sort of complicated relationship with the duchies. They even sent 70 thousand of their elite infantrymen to aid you. But now you've suddenly submitted to Auguslo and even led your troops against them, a thankless traitor. Don't tell me you haven't heard how the enemy curse your men. How dare you have the balls to hook up with them again?

And that Duke Handra is really something. Why would he even bother sending an envoy to negotiate with you? If I were in his shoes, I would fight to the bitter end.

He understood such things were only common for nobility, however. Everyone was making their decisions for the good of their house. He didn't have much control over what Fisablen did. It was common for people to switch sides overnight and no one thought it something immoral and appalling.

"The envoy is Count Chujway. You met him during the knighthood tournament. You even invited him to the inn called Anna's Abode for a talk once," whispered Fisablen, his eyes keeping close watch over their surroundings.

It almost seemed like an incredible secret was being revealed. Lorist quickly took two steps back.

"Oh, it's him? And what does he have to say?"

"Uhmm..." Fisablen hesitated, "You should talk to him yourself. Given my relations with them, it's a little awkward for me to deal with him."

"It's good you're aware," Lorist nodded, "Where's he now?"

Count Chujway dallied in a corner in the back of the camp. There stood a few ad-hoc wooden houses. They used to be isolation cells for Tigersoar soldiers who broke regulations. However, Fisablen had Pegasus's general, Penawar, clean it up and refitted to be a guest house.

Lorist was speechless. If Tigersoar had remained in the camp, Fisablen and even Lorist himself would have had to be announced before they could enter the camp. Now that Tigersoar was in the demonic lands, the old man could come and go as he pleased. However, Lorist understood Penawar was a knight of House Felim, whose dominion in Southern bordered Eastwild. Though House Felim was a member of the alliance, he couldn't afford to offend the duke for no good reason. Additionally, the old man was technically Lorist's grandfather-in-law and had been visiting him quite frequently as of late. The least Penawar could do was make it easier for him to come and go.

The moment the two entered, Count Chujway was ready to receive them by the door. He bowed to the two respectfully. Lorist immediately noticed the joy in Chujway's eyes when he saw he'd had arrived. He might have believed Lorist was the only one who could call the shots.

Fisablen was surprisingly quiet once they sat down as if he wasn't willing to speak at all. Lorist didn't have to beat around the bush for long for Chujway to cave in and stated outright why he'd come: Duke Handra wished to affect Auguslo's moves through the two to stop the war.

Lorist played around with the teacup in his hands as if it contained some sort of interesting secret. When he became a little annoyed by what Chujway was saying, he asked softly, "Oh? So Duke Handra can't resist anymore?"

"That's not what I said!" Chujway denied firmly as he started like a person being injected with chicken-blood injected, "Duke, all our nobles and commoners are prepared to resist you to the end! We've formed three legions so far. Coupled with the garrison legion in the capital, Hans, as well as the various garrison forces across the land, our duchy alone has 200 thousand soldiers!

"Additionally, the three other dukes brought over 200 thousand men, we have at least 400 thousand between us, far more than your 300 thousand. The duke can mobilize another 200 thousand youths at a moment's notice. However, my lord is benevolent and treasures our history with the empire. That is why we have not launched any offensives."

Lorist put the cup down and applauded. "Well said, Lord Chujway. Do continue."

Continue? What's there to continue? Chujway looked at Lorist blankly. He didn't understand what the duke meant. But, seeing how attentive Lorist was, he had no choice but to turn to Duke Fisablen.

The duke felt a huge urge to laugh, but suppressed it by coughing loudly a few times. "Well, Duke Norton, do you think given our numerical inferiority, we will really be successful in attacking Handra?"

Old fox, you're feigning ignorance again and pushing this bad cop role to me. Lorist smiled and spoke frankly, "Lord Chujway, Handra has three provinces and a total population of around a million. I'm sure feeding an army of 400 thousand is quite challenging."

Chujway reddened immediately but was still unwilling to concede. "It's not difficult at all! The last couple of years had great weather and amazing harvests. Food fills our warehouses to the brim and we can feed our army for even five years. The Union has also been very generous with their aid. They've been sending streams of resources since they first heard of our predicament.

"They hope the army can teach your king a lesson and wake him up to reality so he drops his reckless ambitions. The duke was too kind and wasn't willing to go to all-out war, hence his sending of me to inquire as to your king's intentions. If His Majesty's requests aren't outlandish, we can cease hostilities and restore peace."

Hehe, what a load of bull! Nobles are so shallow. If it's really as you say, then why would your duke bother to send you? Let's see who can last longer. Lorist smirked disdainfully but refrained from bursting his guest's bubble just yet. Instead, he acted as if he was really troubled, "Lord Chujway, I completely believe you. But you should know what our king's temper is like. He's been holding a grudge for your betrayal for years and believes had you submitted to him and returned to the empire when he first asked, his dreams of reuniting the empire to its former glory would've been successful.

"It's not that I don't want to give you a hand, but our king's mind is made up. He wants to wipe you all out no matter what. It's best they turn themselves in and beg His Majesty for forgiveness. I am confident His Majesty won't them."

"Impossible!" Chujway barked. face red, "We have 400 thousand men! We won't go down so easily!"

Lorist slapped his thigh. "Wonderful. Since you're unwilling to surrender despite understanding our king's stance, you might as well send your 400 thousand troops over all at once. We'll unravel our defenses and prepare for a grand battle. As long as you defeat us, our king's anger might just subside and we can finally get the peace we all want."

Chujway understood the situation in a moment. He had taken his threats too far. Currently, his side had no other option available but to defend, especially with Lorist standing with Auguslo. It wasn't that the count hadn't witnessed the might of House Norton's forces before. His strong act had completely backfired.

"Haha... Hahaha..." Chujway laughed dryly and hurried to change the subject. "Well, Lord Norton, I... I have come on the orders of my duke to sue for peace. I wasn't going to suggest we engage in a huge battle. My Lord truly wishes to end the war. He sent me over to ask what the two of you think about whether there'd be a way to end this needless conflict."

"Really?" Lorist mused, "Then tell me, what kind of conditions did your lord suggest?"

"Well, he said if the two of you could convince His Majesty to restore the four duchies, then the dukes will pay two million gold Fordes as compensation and even relinquish their sovereignty. They are also willing to pay the royal family a million gold Fordes in annual tribute."

Lorist was so angry he felt like laughing. You expect Auguslo to accept these conditions and even want me to convince him? No wonder that old fox isn't saying anything. Had the war not happened, Auguslo might really have taken these conditions seriously. But now that three duchies have been conquered, that's all they're willing to offer? Has Duke Handra had his head kicked by a mule?

"Do you think the king will accept this? If Duke Handra doesn't have the intention to be sincere, he shouldn't have sent you over. How about this: Why don't I send you to the king and you tell him these conditions yourself?" asked Lorist discontentedly.

Chujway's face greened and paled. In actuality, even he felt the conditions were a little ridiculous. But there was nothing he could do; the conditions had been agreed upon by all four duke. Given how unstable the duchy was, the four's relationship was rather strained. Forund had promised his subordinates, and Duke Shabaj wouldn't be able to cause any commotion even if he wanted to. The most troublesome was Farkel, who acted completely without tact. Though he was a guest, he didn't consider Handra with respect at all.

That was especially so with Duke Farkel's knights, who behaved no differently from bandits. They actually dared to raid villages in the duchy and violate the women. They even proudly proclaimed they had abandoned their own nation to come protect Handra, so it didn't really matter what they did to the wenches.

Handra was enraged and sent his knights to apprehend Farkel. Considering their status as allies, He left the fate of the knights to the duke. But the latter just released them and even argued it wasn't a big deal for a few commoners to be killed. He even invited the the duke's knights to go along and rape some of his subjects when the dominion was conquered.

It was Handra's own misfortune to encounter such a ridiculous person, an ally, no less. Though he still had lots to spare after forming two legions, a duke formed the third Blackdragon Legion to keep an eye on Duke Farkel's Bloodspear situated within the duchy to prevent them from messing with the villages.

Chujway was aware of the current situation. While there really were 400 thousand soldiers, his statement about being able to feed them for five years was a lie. Even if the duchies had had great harvests for several years running, their consumption was immense. The latest estimate predicted their food could last them only six months. Even if they included the fall harvest during the 10th month as well as the following spring harvests of the winter wheat next year, they could drag the war on for another month or two at most. During such a critical lack of food, Duke Farkel even wanted his legion to be supplied with good grain and meat.

It wasn't that the dukes didn't try requesting aid from the Union. But the Wessian supervisor, the nearest to Handra, said they couldn't help even if they wanted to and expressed his sympathy. Currently, the Union was caught up in the war with the mid-southern army; they were unable to provide aid. But, given how Wessia had old ties with the duchies, they said they could sell weapons and other supplies at a discount on account of that.

While they claimed it was a discount, the price was actually three times normal and the quality was bad. The supervisor's answer was that he had no choice. Given how war was all over the place, all sorts of supplies were in short supply. Being able to procure some to sell was already the best they could do, causing Duke Handra to question on the spot whether Wessia was worried Auguslo would turn his sights on Bodolger after the extermination of the four central duchies, given that it used to be Krissen Empire territory as well.

The supervisor proudly replied that Wessia Merchant Guild was not the least worried about that happening, given how they were backed by Forde Trade Union, Grindia's number one superpower.

The reason the four dukes wanted to make peace with Auguslo was because they were unable to procure aid from the Union at all. However, their first condition to restore the four central duchies to the state they were before the war was akin to saying that they wanted the conquered territory of the three duchies to be returned. There was no way Auguslo would agree to that. It was like asking him to spit out a piece of meat he already swallowed. As for the two million gold Fordes, that was even more unconvincing. If Handra's defenses were breached, the money wouldn't be going anywhere either.

"If... If the two of you are able to convince His Majesty Auguslo to agree to our request, the four dukes are willing to gift each of you 500 thousand gold Fordes..." Chujway still tried to make his best effort.

Lorist felt his anger rise. I already earned close to two million gold Fordes from the demonic lands already! Are you mocking me with your measly 500 thousand?

"Lord Chujway, since you're an envoy, I can tolerate your impolite transgressions. However, I will not allow you to humiliate us like that. You may leave. Tell the four dukes to keep their necks clean. I don't want my longsword to be dirtied when the time comes."

"You..." Chujway glared at Lorist angrily.

Lorist shrugged him off and ordered, "Men, send the guest off!"

Chapter 437 Moonlight Stones

"When a son and a father can speak openly, honestly, and sincerely to one another, only a bright future can await their family." ~ Duke Fisablen

Watching as Chujway left on horseback with his two attendants, Duke Fisablen finally spoke.

"Is it really alright to refuse?"

Lorist snorted.

"Come on, stop putting up that act. Isn't the reason you called me over because you couldn't bear to refuse them because of your history and wanted me to play the bad guy? I'm sure you understand Count Chujway had come to ask us to speak to His Majesty on their behalf as well as to find out more about what we thought about the four dukes. In actuality, he's here to check whether we are having the same supply problem as them. They want to make sure whether His Majesty is going to see this through."

Duke Fisablen shook his head with a smile without refuting Lorist's hypothesis.

"Don't you know I had Count Chujway sent to your main camp and even welcomed him with a banquet? He was so surprised when served the magic beast meat and even felt bad for eating something so luxurious. When I told him even our soldiers ate it, he didn't believe me. So I led him around the camp. He was speechless when he saw the soldiers making jerky. He hurriedly requested to try to make peace between them and our king. I only called you over because I couldn't refuse him."

"It's obvious they're really tight on supplies. They might've begun rationing already," Lorist said, understanding the subtext of Fisablen's words, "While what Count Chujway said about them having 400 thousand troops is true, the claim that they' can sustain them for five years is definitely fake. Otherwise, he wouldn't be so surprised by how rich our meals were. I suspect the claim that they're receiving lots of aid from the Union is false as well. There's no way they'd take the initiative for peace talks if they were indeed being supported by the Union."

"But their conditions are a little too insincere, right? How could they expect His Majesty to agree? The first clause itself required him to give up the eight occupied provinces and return the territory to how it was before the war. The kind would never agree," Duke Fisablen argued, "Their request was just an excuse. The commotion you caused on the bank on the other side of the river is what worries them most. If we really head to Deramak from the demonic lands, we can strike their weak points. Even if they have the Union's support, defending the whole riverbank will require lots of soldiers. They've sent this envoy over to see if we can avoid exactly this outcome."

"Perhaps," Lorist continued after some thought, "I believe the four dukes think that we're in a similar situation as they are. If they are lacking in supplies, they'll believe that it's the same with us. Though their troop numbers exceed ours by around 100 thousand, our dominions are quite far from here and transporting resources here could prove difficult. They believe the eight provinces we've just occupied can't be used for the next two or three years. What they don't know is that His Majesty has already effectively cleared out and organized them.

"And there's your call for those worksmiths to craft boats upstream and my proclamation that I'll build a road at the demonic lands. Logically speaking, there's no way we could afford the supplies. Maybe the dukes believe we're just putting up a front, so they sent Count Chujway over to check. It would certainly explain why he changed his mind so quickly and asked for our help.

"It's a shame the conditions the dukes proposed were predicated on the fact that we're in a similar situation. They consider us on equal standing with them and believe that their conditions are a good exit for His Majesty to step out of this situation while maintaining his reputation. The other conditions are merely empty promises. If we really are to negotiate with them, we'll demand they pay up right away. They are tests as to whether we really want to negotiate with them, so I refused them immediately."

Duke Fisablen nodded in approval. "Your inference is sensible. However, I think it's better to lead them by the nose a little longer. We can fight while we negotiate and find out about the internal situation of Handra and whether they can hold on from their envoys."

"There's no need," Lorist refused the suggestion immediately, "Since Count Chujway already found our supplies are far more than three years, coupled with our swift refusal of his request, the four dukes will be faced with an immediate dilemma. Continuing to defend the riverbank will only make their supplies tighter. But if they don't, they'll have to fear our advance into the heart of Deramak. My refusal of their request will also reinforce His Majesty's resolve to eradicate the duchies. Next time they send an envoy, their conditions will be far better and their attitude will definitely be sincere."

Surprised, Duke Fisablen asked, "Do you think that they'll send envoys again?"

Lorist nodded.

"Yes. They don't have any choice. They have to start negotiating while they still have cards to play. If they continue on like this, it's either extermination or exile. If they know what's good for them, we can put in a good word or two. There's no real need to stay here for a few more years in a stand-off."

"Oh? Didn't you say their supplies were dwindling? They shouldn't be able to last much longer."

"No," Lorist smiled bitterly, "I miscalculated. The duchies are far wealthier than we imagined. Didn't you hear Count Chujway say they were willing to pay two million gold Fordes as compensation and said we'd each get 500 thousand as a token of gratitude if we helped them out?

"I expect the three million gold Fordes is but a third or fourth of their wealth. Otherwise, they wouldn't even make this offer. If they choose to escape, that wealth could let them spend a few lifetimes in luxury in the Union. Similarly, if they choose to resist, it can buy supplies that'd last a year or two.

"His Majesty doesn't mind spending two or three years here. He has already cleared up all the nobles in Forund and Farkel and started managing them effectively. Shabaj's three provinces have also begun to regain their vigor and their development is on track. The king doesn't mind taking his time. But do we really want to stay here for two are three years?"

Fisablen was speechless at how unwilling Lorist sounded when he spoke. While he had agreed to help Auguslo conquer the duchies and spending a year or so wasn't a huge issue, dragging the war on for two or three years for the meager rewards Auguslo had promised was not an option. However, honoring promises was an exalted virtue and he couldn't just drop everything and leave.

Seeing that the three duchies were already gone with only Handra struggling at the brink of death, he was determined to not waste a number of years on the battlefield. It would be best if he could withdraw and return to his dominion rather than remaining here. If he could make the four dukes submit, everyone would have saved their faces and it would for the best.

"Oh, when is Sylvia expecting the child?" Fisablen changed the subject.

"It should be in the 1st month of next year."

"When are you going back?"

"Maybe in the 12th," Lorist said with grit teeth, "Before I leave, I have to take one defense line and put more pressure on the four old bastards. I have to force them to send an envoy sooner to discuss their surrender. Otherwise, I won't hold back..."

Though he had agreed to help the king, his forces didn't really have a chance to perform. Instead, they'd been acting to prevent as many casualties as possible while taking advantage of the enemy's weaknesses from time to time. It was mainly because he felt sacrificing his forces for the sake of reuniting the empire was incredibly wasteful and only wanted to do the bare minimum to fulfill his obligations. One look at Fisablen and one could see he only used the reserve legion for dangerous missions. Grassland barbarians were not in short supply on the plains, after all. Third Frontier had been sitting in the back and watching the show the whole time.

"But... Isn't it winter in the 12th month? How will you attack the defenses?"

Lorist rolled his eyes. "Stop pretending, old fox. Wasn't your Third Frontier forced to surrender to me in the winter? I'll tell you frankly that my men aren't affected by winter. In fact, it's an opportunity to show off. You'll see how we launch our assault when the time comes."

Fisablen smiled a little awkwardly.

"Fine, I'll finally see it for myself. But aren't you worried it'll delay your return? It's Sylvia's first child. I'm worried for her safety."

"Worry not, I've already written a letter to tell her I'll make it back before she gives birth. As long as there are a few heavy bouts of snow, I can travel back in three to four days. It's five to six days faster than traveling on horseback."

"Uhmm... Could I go with you? I know things have gone awry between me and the girl, but she's my granddaughter. I really want to be there for her when she gives birth," asked Fisablen shyly, his head lowered.

Lorist was taken aback and found it a little funny.

"Fine, come along if you want. We can go back together."

"Thank you, Lord Norton," exclaimed he, elated.

Lorist looked at him, sighing. "Call me Lorist it's just us. You're Sylvia's grandfather, my father-in-law. There's no need to address me by title."

"Alright. Thank you, Lorist." the duke responded.

"You're welcome. Also, these are the profits we got from the demonic lands. You can have a third according to our agreement."

Lorist took out a small pouch and tossed it to the duke.

"What's this?" Duke Fisablen opened the sack and found ten smooth oval-shaped pebbles, glowing white like jade.

"Moonlight stones?!"

They were very well-known jewels. Some scholars believed they were a kind of fluorescent stone, others thought they were a variant of jade. Perhaps they were produced when jade was washed onto shore and gradually molded into the round pebbles one usually discovered, beaten by waves and bathed in moonlight for centuries. The silver moon's light gradually caused the jade to become fluorescent. Whenever it's light fell on the stones, they glowed like stars.

It was said that on the southernmost tip of the continent, the Romon Empire had a very famous palace which's roof was decorated with a circular arrangement of moonlight stones. When a candle was lit in the middle of the palace in the night, the stones would reflect the light as white light and make the whole palace bright as day. The palace was named Brightmoon Palace as a result.

The value of moonlight stones varied depending on the strength of their glow. The most expensive ones could go for up to 10 thousand gold Fordes while the cheaper ones cost only around ten gold coins. Most moonlight stones on the market sold for hundreds to thousands of gold coins. The sack Lorist had tossed to the duke contained ten moonlight stones of high quality, even the cheapest was worth over a thousand gold.

"Where did you find these?" asked the duke as he toyed with one of the stones.

Lorist turned to the demonic lands.

"Your grassland barbarians were rather lucky. They discovered a huge creek as they were chasing down a herd of magic goats. While it looks normal during the day, it shines silver during the night. They thought some deity lived there and instantly dismounted and started worshipping the creek.

"When we received their report, we knew they had discovered a stash of moonlight stones. We harvested nearly a thousand, worth around 700 thousand gold Fordes in total. Don't worry, you'll get a third. We've signed an agreement, you don't have to worry about me breaking it. These are your third of the best batch. As for the grassland barbarians who discovered the creek, I've given each five gold Fordes."

Duke Fisablen was speechless. It was a gap in knowledge. The grassland barbarians discovered a moonlight-stone-filled creek and thought it sacred and didn't dare to enter it. They even dismounted and started kowtowing in awe. Lorist, on the other hand, knew it was treasure waiting to be found and managed to get nearly a thousand stones and profited greatly. It was no wonder he was so happy hunting in the demonic lands and didn't want to return.

After some thought, the duke put the stones back into the sack and handed it back to Lorist.

"I think you should keep them. Use the stones to decorate the house after Sylvia gives birth. That way, you won't have to worry about the possibility of a fire from using too many lamps to light the house."

Lorist wasn't the least bit surprised and accepted the sack.

"Fine, I'll accept your gesture."

......

On the 21st day of the 12th month of Year 1782, House Norton's Tigersoar launched a surprise attack on Welony Pass's defenses under the cover of snowfall and crushed Handra's Reddragon in a single fight. Reddragon lost at least half its forces, the remaining men only barely managing to escape a similar fate by retreating to the second line of defense.

At the same time Welony Pass was conquered, the two defense lines in the flanks were assaulted as well. Forund's first garrison legion and Farkel's Forestmont had no choice but to give up on their defenses and retreat. Countless troops died from the frost. Forestmont raided and burned the villages they came across in accordance with Duke Farkel's scorched earth strategy, resulting in some 30 thousand dead civilians, sowing the seeds for the coming strife between Duke Handra and Duke Farkel.

Chapter 438 Argument

"Never do what your enemy expects, unless that is what they don't expect." ~ excerpt from Treatises on War by Norton Loris

"Why have you come?"

Blademaster Xanthi had returned to her residence. She was surprised to see Fisablen seated near the fireplace drinking tea. They were at Cherry Blossom Ridge. The moment Xanthi received Sylvia's letter about her being with child, she had rushed from Crouchtiger Castle all the way there, ignoring Fisablen's order to guard the dominion, opting instead to stay by Sylvia's side. It was only after Lorist returned that Xanthi returned to her residence for not wanting to see him.

"I came back together with Lorist," the duke replied, "Also, how's Sylvia doing?"

"Not bad. She should be giving birth in a month or so. Now that the guy has returned, she's so happy she's stopped caring about me, her adoptive mother," complained she.

"Hehe, someone your age is jealous of their juniors?" Fisablen teased laughingly, "Come, sit down. We haven't spent much time together for quite some time now."

Xanthi walked over and sat down, leaning on the duke and snuggled into his embrace. Every time the two were together, she would turn into a little girl and stick closely to her man.

"You've come so far in this cold, stormy weather. You must be worn out, right?" asked she as she reached her hand out to touch the duke's face.

"I bet you wouldn't believe me if I told you I didn't suffer at all. I traveled from Wesstwood all the way here with Lorist without rest. It took only four days and three nights," said he, sighing.

"Impossible! How many provinces did you have to cross? Let me count... Wesstwood, Perolina, Freewood, Jigzai, Messen, Rimad, Southern, Winston, and The Northlands. Look, even if you travel on horseback for a day and a night, you'll only cross one province. How could you go through nine provinces in this kind of weather so quickly?"

"It's true, I'm not lying," Fisablen said as he gave her face a kiss.

She giggled and buried her face even deeper in his chest.

"I bet you never would've imagined we didn't come on horseback. We came on sleds. Apart from the mountainous paths where workhorses had to be strung, we only used sails to travel down the mountains and across the plains. I didn't think sails could be used in such a way as well. The heavier the storm, the faster the sleds. It was like a bolt of lightning. The scenery whooshed by so fast I couldn't see it at all.

"Lorist said House Norton only experimented with two kinds of sleds with the aim of solving the problem of transportation during the winter. We'd used one of them. Unfortunately, you can only transport small amounts of supplies like this; you still need animals to pull larger loads," said he with much insight.

"That kid loves to use these unconventional and devilish methods," said Xanthi.

"Devilish? Haha, you look down on them too much," said the duke, a little crestfallen, "I only now understand they were holding back when they attacked us. Had he not been worried that nobody would keep the grassland barbarians in check, he could've long sent his troops to Crouchtiger Castle.

"Don't tell me we have a huge population in Eastwild with limitless potential and that our frontier legions are best at hit-and-run attacks. As long as it's winter and our soldiers huddle up in the castles for heat, House Norton's forces can use sleds to send their forces to encircle us. There'll no way we can escape."

Xanthi's eyes widened. "It can't be. If even you're so pessimistic… are the sleds really that amazing?"

"This isn't really a problem of sleds. While they are indeed quite suitable for use on the plains, especially when snow covers them, I am more concerned with the mindset behind it. The is far more conservative than House Norton. There are no talented people in the next generation that stand out with creative ability and tolerance.

"Oh, and, six days ago, House Norton's Tigersoar used the cover of the snow and their skis to attack the defenses in Welony Pass. I watched the battle myself. I saw Lorist lead his men across the snow to the defenses' rear quickly.

"The defenders would never have imagined that the enemy would show up behind them in that weather. The many blizzards have packed snow hard on the ground. Using the skis, Lorist can attack quickly and easily from anywhere.

Reddragon was completely swarmed. They didn't even know how the enemy had appeared. The hundred or so catapults along the mountain pass fell without inflicting any casualties, and the number of enemies that escaped was negligible. The defenses that had held us back for eight months were conquered in a few minutes, with few, if any, casualties on Lorist's side. I understand completely why Lorist says winter is his friend, not his foe."

"Then we can also train House Fisablen's forces to fight like that! I'm sure you can do whatever that kid can," consoled Xanthi.

Fisablen laughed bitterly. "I already told you it's a problem of mindset. I've seen how the soldiers of Tigersoar are armed and their response to orders. It isn't something a quick training course can achieve. It's the result of years of regular winter training.

"Each soldier is given a set of specially made insulating clothing. They know how to not lose their way in the midst of a blizzard as well as how to camouflage themselves in the white, snow-covered fields and even how to prevent snow-blindness and keep their body temperature up.

"I really can't fathom Lorist investing so much into his forces. I asked around at one point; it's not just Tigersoar that has that training. Every Norton soldier has to go through it every year."

Fisablen sighed.

"I've always thought my fate was unordinary and dreamt of ushering in a new age for the house. But compared to Lorist, I am worthless. Whether it is personal power or the might of our armies, I'm not his match. I'm not saying this just because I'm sour. We're just too far apart.

"It really is unfortunate we have such a neighbor. The only thing I can be happy about is that this kid married my granddaughter and can be considered my son-in-law now. As long as I don't step out of bounds, I don't have to worry about House Fisablen being exterminated. I'm sure the kid will give us a hand in consideration of Sylvia."

......

On the 11th day of the 1st month, Year 1783, House Norton's matron, Duke of The Northlands', Norton Lorist's, wife, Sylvia, gave birth to a healthy child Lorist named Anderbael, 'peaceful bearling' in the language of the fae.

Auguslo's envoys traveled to The Northlands one after another after the rainy season ended, with the order to return to the frontlines. Duke Fisablen had already returned. After the attack on Welony Pass, the entrance to Handra was opened. It wasn't known whether the four dukes would react in desperation. So, Duke Fisablen rallied his troops after the new year's and rushed back to the pass. Lorist used the excuse of accompanying his wife and child to delay his return.

He only started packing in the 5th month. Had it not been for the king's consideration of how a monarch should behave, Lorist suspected he would have cursed in his letters already.

As expected, the frontlines were in complete chaos. The successful attack had been a pleasant surprise for the king. When he received word of it, Lorist had already returned to his dominion. As it was due to Sylvia's upcoming labor, there was nothing he could do. When he rushed to the frontlines in the blizzard, he quickly realized it was thanks to the skis he had obsessed over so much that the attack could be carried out successfully.

In Egret Swamp those years ago, he had seen how fast Lorist had traveled across the snow with the skis and even learned how to make them. He had forgotten one important factor, though. When he returned and wanted to form a ski assault corps, he realized all the men would have to be provided the skis, and a set of expensive heat-retaining clothing.

The reason Lorist could outfit his men was that he had a massive surplus of the necessary material from the magic beasts they had hunted. He had exterminated millions of them and obtained their pelts. But, lacking any way to ship them for sale in large quantities, he had used them for winter clothing for his troops.

Auguslo didn't have that kind of fur. He realized every soldier being given a set would be a huge burden on his finances. So, out of consideration for his coffers, he dropped the plan. He was really envious of the equipment Tigersoar's men had. He had wanted Tigersoar to press on and continue raking in the victory while winter lasted but Loze refused. He had told the king that Lorist's orders were to defend the pass so their efforts wouldn't be wasted if the enemy launched a counterattack. Additionally, the skis could only be used to catch the enemy off-guard. Now that they were aware of their presence, they'd definitely be ready. Any further attacks would only lose them more men.

What a load of bull. So what if the enemy is prepared? There's no way they'd stay in their trenches during the blizzard! They'd freeze to death before you even fight! Who else would have such priceless winter gear and the ability to show up out of nowhere in this kind of weather?

It was too bad Tigersoar wasn't under his direct command. Loze could rightfully refuse his orders because he wasn't their commander.

He returned, anger-filled, and swore he would spend even the last gold coin in his coffer to form an assault corps he could deploy in the winter as well. All he could do in the moment, however, was watch as the opportunities slipped away. After the rainy season passed, he kept on sending envoys to Lorist to have him return.

What are you doing in your dominion now that your child is born? Get your ass back here!

Welony's conquest meant that at least half of Wesstwood was now controlled by Andinaq. With Handra losing their advantageous defensive position in Cloudsnap, they had no choice but to retreat a further hundred kilometers. Fortunately, there were a few low hills there where the duchies had set up defenses to resist the first prince's invasion. The legions made their way there, reformed and took up position.

For now, six legions were stationed there. The four dukes had basically deployed all their forces in that single location. Forund's first and second legions, Handra's Whitedragon and Blackdragon legions, as well as the horribly defeated Reddragon, joined ranks. Farkel's Forestmont and Bloodspear were also there. As for Duke Shabaj's division, it was stationed along Nibarak to keep the enemy from passing through.

Perhaps because of the stimulation of Tigersoar's attack, Auguslo had led Whitelion and Duke Fisablen's the reserve legion in attacks on the defenses multiple times. But the defenses held and he was unable to break through.

"Locke, only the defenses in front of us are left. As long as we break through, we can completely annihilate the enemy. I believe it's possible with Tigersoar's capabilities. I hope you'll take this on," said the king during their council.

After inspecting the troop layout diagram a scout had drawn, Lorist shook his head.

"Not possible."

"Why?" Auguslo's face darkened.

"Simple. The reason I led Tigersoar to attack Welony was to apply even more pressure on their defenses. The four dukes will soon crumble on their own. One look at the defenses and you'll understand they have to form new legions now that they've stationed the six available legions they have there. They also have to make sure the riverbank is defended to keep us from launching an attack there.

"We can only imagine how many soldiers they need to ensure their full defense. There's no way they can keep this up with only two provinces. As long as we maintain this stance without going all out, Handra can only keep trying to increase their defenses until they can no longer keep it up. Why would we then waste our men in battle?"

"But our attack could apply even more pressure on them! If we succeed in crumbling this line, the enemy will fall even faster!" argued Auguslo loudly.

"Perhaps. But it will kill our men as well. Since victory is already assured, why sacrifice unnecessarily?"

A voice interrupted the exchange from outside the tent.

"Reporting to His Majesty, Duke Handra's envoy is requesting an audience."

Chapter 439 House Nordingham

"I pitty those who think negotiations come after the war is over. They will be slain by their enemy's words and lose even a war they had been winning in the field." ~ Kenmays

The envoy Duke Handra sent was the familiar Count Chujway. However, this time he looked paler than the last, with a gloom on his face. Upon entering the tent, he respectfully bowed to Auguslo.

"Count Chujway of Handra pays his respects to the king of Andinaq."

Auguslo's expression was stern. Lorist's refusal to obey his order to attack had enraged him a lot. He didn't really react much to Chujway's greeting. He only came back to his senses when Duke Fisablen coughed a few times beside him.

"Well, you whatchamacallit... Just say what you want. What does that traitor Handra want you to tell me?" he said, waving his hand annoyedly.

Chujway's face reddened immediately. Auguslo's nonchalant attitude and impolite words nourished his anger. He stood up and glared at Auguslo.

"Your Majesty, please honor the dignity of nobles. I have a name and it is Nordingham Chujway! Our duke isn't a traitor either! He's never betrayed the empire!"

"Haha, traitors never admit their sins. As for you, a count appointed by a traitor, you should be grateful that I even acknowledge your presence," said Auguslo with a snark rather than blowing up in anger.

"That so? Then Your Majesty considers your ancestors traitors as well? I have nothing to say in that case. However, I really wonder how a person who considers their own ancestors traitors can claim he wants to further the empire's glory!" argued Chujway, not holding back.

"What did you say?!" barked Auguslo angrily.

He was most concerned about his family's legitimacy. Chujway's accusations enraged him so much he was about to draw his sword and end the envoy.

Chujway smirked without moving.

Fisablen had no choice but to step in to keep the situation under control.

"Your Majesty, please calm down. The envoy is the current head of House Nordingham, a descendant of Blood Knight Nordringham Jadeweis. His title is bequeathed by Krissen VI, not Duke Handra."

Stunned, Auguslo stood absentmindedly for a few moments.

"Blood Knight Nordingham Jadeweis? Why is he with Duke Handra?"

Auguslo understood he had spoken wrongly. While he could call Duke Handra a traitor, he didn't have any right to say the same of House Nordingham. If word of this really got out, it would become a massive joke. In the history of the Krissen Empire, Krissen VI was a rather ordinary emperor who was in power for only 17 years. Within that term, he resumed Krissen V's policies of invading the Union. And during that time, he only led his armies to the Union once.

House Nordingham had risen to fame in that single march. Krissen VI's invasion was one of the biggest military failures in all recorded history. Not only was the army completely defeated, even Krissen VI was completely surrounded. Fortunately, the Union's forces didn't know and tried to pursue the escaping forces before dealing with those they had encircled. One first had to bite through the meat to reach the bone.

Baron Nordingam, arriving late to the invasion, came onto the battlefield with 1300 men, most of his retinue, in that time. The battle had already passed its climax and there was no way to change the outcome. He could only help cover for the retreating forces. The surviving nobles gathered in the evening and realized Krissen VI was not among them.

They were so terrified of the Union, however, that no one wanted to save the emperor. They argued incessantly about who should save Krissen VI. Baron Nordginham Jadeweis was infuriated and led his forces back onto the battlefield to look for the emperor on his own.

No one knew how many engagements he and his men fought, but they eventually returned, triumphant. But of his original 1300 men, only thirteen remained. The baron collapsed, a bloody mess, the moment they reached friendly forces. He had suffered 46 wounds and it was a great struggle to save him.

Looking at Nordingham Jadeweis's bloody form and thinking back at the heroic sight of him charging into the enemy formations to make way for himself, Krissen VI was greatly touched and named the baron his blood knight and made him a count. The emperor's failed invasion had cemented House Nordingham's reputation as a house of loyalty. They became the idol knights strove to mimic.

Auguslo hadn't heard Chujway's self-introduction properly and had mistaken him as a count entitled by the traitor. He had slighted his own reputation. Krissen VI was his great-grandfather, and it had been that emperor that had entitled House Nordingham. It was common knowledge to every noble in the empire.

"Your Majesty, House Nordingham's dominion is in Wesstwood. During the civil war, Duke Handra was given jurisdiction over Wesstwood by the late king. So, House Nordingham is a vassal house of Duke Handra," explained Fisablen.

Upon hearing the explanation, the king did something shocking. He walked up to Chujway and bowed incredibly respectfully.

"Apologies, Lord Nordingham. I am truly sorry for my rude behavior. Please forgive my ignorant transgression."

Chujway was moved and hurriedly pulled the king upright.

"There's no need for this, Your Majesty. I apologize for not being clear when I requested an audience. This apology is too heavy for me to accept."

Auguslo smiled.

"I shall correct my errors. It's alright as long as Lord Nordingham doesn't fault me."

Chujway hurriedly waved his hands.

"Please address me by name, Your Majesty."

"Oh? May I know why?"

"Before my father passed away, he handed me the dominion. His last words were that while the house was now loyal to House Handra, its name belonged to the empire. So, until the empire is restored, I cannot in good conscience use my family name. As such, I will only be known by my title and given name."

"House Nordingham truly is an exemplary noble house! The symbol of loyalty indeed!" the king exclaimed.

The king glanced at Lorist as he said so, making the latter pout.

"Come, take a seat, Lord Chujway. Men, bring us some refreshments! Have the butler arrange a banquet! I wish to properly welcome the lord count," yelled Auguslo.

"Lord Chujway, I wonder for what reason you have requested to meet me?" sked the king once everyone was seated

"I have come on the instructions of Duke Handra. He wishes for peace."

The king shook his head.

"Lord Count, I cannot forgive the traitorous actions of the four dukes. I respect House Nordingham's loyalty and would be more than glad to welcome you to the kingdom. I hope you don't remain entangled with those traitors."

"You are mistaken, Your Majesty. The four dukes aren't traitors. They never betrayed you," argued Chujway.

"Never betrayed me? Haha! Had the duchies agreed to come back into the fold when I asked them to after I'd conquered Redlis, the empire would've been united again by now. But the traitors didn't want to give up their independence and refused to rejoin the empire. Instead, they got together with the Union and the Redlissian traitors and continued to resist. They are the ones who prevented the empire from reforming by taking Frederika from me. They are traitors and I have sworn an oath to bring judgment down on them. They will not extinguish my dedication to reforming the empire," said the king, standing furiously.

Chujway applauded.

"I really look up to your efforts and I'm sure the empire's nobles also understand it. But you are wrong that the four dukes betrayed you. They are not traitors.

"Everyone knows their houses have remained loyal. From quelling revolts to sending forces to attack the Union, they've always played a huge part in maintaining the empire and have never disappointed. Many members of their houses have sacrificed themselves on the battlefield for the empire's sake.

"Even when the civil war broke out, the dukes supported King Andinaq and believed he was the late emperor's true heir. They resisted the pressure and temptations the first and second princes laid on them to get them to join their sides. They even sent their forces out to help the late king quell rebellions and suffered retaliation from the other kings as a result. These retliations have ruined most of their dominions. Their loyalty is what prompted the previous King Andinaq to grant them jurisdiction over their provinces. I'm sure Your Majesty won't deny this.

"It was thanks to the dukes' continuous support that the late king's forces could defeat his rivals. Duke Madras rebelled just as everything was about to calm down and the duchies were cut off from the kingdom. The land and the people were too exhausted to go on another campaign, so the dukes had no choice but to hunker down and rebuild, waiting for the kingdom to expand its borders and meet up with them again.

"Your Majesty knows the war stopped when the Union intervened. But they did not allow the four duchies to become part of the kingdom, and instead declared that they were to be independent. The dukes secretly contacted the king and let him know that if the opportunity ever present itself for them to rejoin the kingdom, they would do so. Somehow King Redlis learned of this and invaded.

"The war lasted three years and left the duchies exhausted again. King Andinaq suffered an assassination attempt and everything fell apart. It wasn't until Your Majesty took power that the situation stabilized. Your Majesty was preparing for battle and the dukes answered your call with supplies and funds despite how poor the last war had left them.

"When Your Majesty launched a surprise attack and conquered Frederika, all the nobles celebrated the renewed hope for the empire's restoration. But then you demanded that the Dukes give up their land, be move to Madras and accept a demotion. On what grounds? Your Majesty, what have the four central duchies done to upset you and the kingdom? What sin have they committed for you to treat them so poorly? Just because they didn't send their forces to reinforce you? Is that a justification others would accept?

"When they heard about it, the duchies' nobles were in an uproar. You hadn't even shown us the courtesy of telling us yourself, you just sent a knight with the message. We could not accept such disrespect, so we broke with the kingdom. We are not traitors, we are resisting an unlawful command. Every noble has the right to do so in good conscience!"

Chujway became more charged as he spoke. Lorist laughed. He had already heard the story once, but hearing it again as an accusation against the king was novel indeed. The king was indeed the kind of person who'd make such an unreasonable demand, especially considering that he had been on a roll. He had just conquered Frederika and had 300 thousand men in his army. He had let his successes go to his head.

Auguslo glared harshly at Lorist.

"Apologies, Lord Count. I was injured from crossing Greatsnow Mountains and had been recovering in bed after the surprise attack on Frederika. I've never given such an order before. My subordinate knights must have misinterpreted my decree and caused such a misunderstanding."

Auguslo pushed responsibility for his ridiculous actions on his dead knights. Though it was true that he had been suffering from an illness and hadn't revealed himself to anyone.

Chujway, not expecting such a reply from the king, froze for a moment.

"If it was truly just a misunderstanding, may we discuss peace sincerely? This war only harms the empire's vitality. We have never been against becoming a part of the empire again. We wish to see the empire restored."

Auguslo remained silent and sat back down.

"Lord Count, I'm sure Duke Handra told you their requests before you left. Let me hear them."

"The dukes are willing to relinquish their sovereignty and submit to you, they will also pay a tribute of three million gold Fordes. Their only request is to be allowed to remain in their hereditary dominions."

Lorist shot Fisablen an eye with the intent of conveying something along the lines of 'the one million gold Fordes they promised the two of us have all gone to Auguslo now'.

"... Rest here a few days, Lord Count. I will consider their request seriously," offered the king politely.

Chapter 440 Submission

"Most men do not get to choose their own fates. Those that do, tend to not choose wisely." ~ Duke Fisablen

Though he had agreed to seriously consider Handra's requests, Auguslo didn't really wish to. Whether it was a misunderstanding or not was of no concern. The key lay in the fact that he had a good chance of victory at the moment. Everyone knew the dukes were on the brink of defeat and tethered on their last lifeline, as long as he gave it another push, Handra's second defense line would collapse. What remained would be stomping on a losing hound.

However, the thing he most hated was Lorist's attitude. Lorist didn't agree to press the attack at all and believed there was no need to continue and sacrifice the lives of his soldiers given that the whole situation was set. Since the dukes had already admitted defeat, even though they had brought up conditions, they were still surrendering. What need was there to kill them? Additionally, they had also made it easy for him to step back from the war without harming his reputation by agreeing that it had started because of a misunderstanding. People didn't know whether the duchies had actually betrayed the empire.

Lorist had told him to accept the olive branch instead of dallying. He was the one in the wrong in the first place anyway. The dukes had been on good terms with the kingdom during the late king's reign and were also famed heads of prestigious houses during the empire's era. Not only had they been loyal, they had made great contributions to it. Yet they were now called traitors. He should clean up his own mess before accusing others.

The ing was pissed off a lot by Lorist's arguments, but he couldn't do much about it. He was inferior to the man in both personal strength and military might and House Norton had made huge contributions during the expedition as well. Lorist himself had also solved the king's refugee problem. While he had poked around where he shouldn't have, it was still a great help to the empire's reformation. The attack on Welony Pass had also been the deciding move that had placed the king in a superior position on the battlefield and had forced the duchies to send an envoy to sue for peace.

In stark contrast to the amazing performance of House Norton's forces, the other nobles's forces were just tagging along. His own Whitelion was used as a labor force, they had lost nearly half their numbers for meager results. House Fisablen's reserve legion had accompanied Whitelion and served as fodder. Though, since the ones who had died were mainly grassland barbarians, the duke didn't really care. In fact, the more he lost, the stronger his loyalty to the king was.

It was the king's greatest tragedy. Lorist's achievements were great, but his men didn't obey their king. The four houses of the alliance were in cahoots; since Lorist, the alliance's unofficial leader, couldn't be ordered around, neither could Kenmays, Felim, or Shazin's forces.

No matter how he tried to divide or tempt them, it was useless. Shazin had appeared infinitely grateful when he had ordered him to sweep the dominions of Forund's rich nobles, so Auguslo had thought he was now loyal to him, someone he could use. But the moment the man returned to the frontlines he obediently took up his place behind Lorist again. The mere thought of that particular failure incensed Auguslo all over again.

While Andinaq's army numbered 300 thousand in name, he was aware he could only command Whitelion and House Fisablen's reserve legion. Whitelion had lost nearly half its men during the campaign so far and only had 30 thousand men left. The reserve legion was formed from grassland barbarians and their casualties had filled with resentment. They may be barbarians, but they weren't idiots. They had become very willing to follow Lorist's orders since hey didn't incur as many casualties and even profited quite handsomely on occasion, while Auguslo had lost his ability to easily command them because he would only send them on suicide missions.

As for Third Frontier, it was Duke Fisablen's treasure. The king knew there was no chance in hell the duke would give him command of it. It wasn't quite like he wanted to shatter it anyway, he preferred it remain intact to cause trouble for Lorist when they returned home. At times — when he was calmer — he would ask himself whether the expedition's casualties would have been this low without Lorist's help. If he had been in total control on his own, he would've opted for a brute force approach and might've not even taken a single duchy by now.

It wasn't that he considered his achievements in military strategy inferior to Lorist's; he just had to consider the bigger picture since he was now the king. From this perspective, the ideal result was for both the duchies' and the alliance's forces to be battered and defeated by the end of it, while he would deal the final blow and conquer everything. It would cement his superiority over his disobedient vassals and shave off a considerable portion of their power. He also had to keep both Lorist and the duke on the frontlines so he could keep an easy eye on them. It had the unfortunate side-effect of allowing Lorist to rake in great achievements.

House Kenmays's two heavy-armored divisions had suffered the most casualties, around 1300 men, of the four houses' forces. Shazin's men had suffered the worst next, losing around 800 men during their sweep of the Forundian nobles' dominions. House Felim's pegasus came thereafter. They had been in charge of defense and scouting, and had lost around 500. Tigersoar had lost the least men, just 400. These numbers could barely be considered casualties compared to Whitelion's losses. It could even be considered an insult to Auguslo. It had even gotten so bad that rumors were spreading that he wasn't really the genius strategist he had been thought to be.

He was incredibly frustrated. He couldn't do anything about Lorist, and the rest of the man's alliance had stood behind his decision to not press the attack firmly. Even Duke Fisablen had privately told him to leave a thread of mercy for the dukes. They had already admitted their loss, after all.

Though he had his worries, they weren't something he could speak of publicly. It wasn't that he didn't want to spare the dukes, he had already set his sights on their dominions. While Andinaq's territory was vast, most of it wasn't under his direct control; he only had command of a couple around the capital and they had long been stripped of all their worth already. He had been sucking the provinces dry since the day he decided to reform the empire. That was why he had killed all the nobles involved in the rebellion after he retook the throne, even at the cost of his reputation. Without the resources those nobles had, he couldn't maintain the forces he needed to achieve his ambition.

He had planned to use the four duchies to rebuild his forces, to assemble an army half-a-million strong and to march on the Union. Them having a swordsaint supporting their position as the continent's largest nation, but it would cost them dearly. Even they had to be wary of creating a death-feud with a nation with an army half-a-million strong.

He believed the merchants would make a wise decision. His requests weren't excessive. As long as they returned the provinces of the old empire they now occupied, there was no need for war. He might even consider trading with them, even giving them special privileges, once the empire had been restored to its former glory. He looked especially forward to using them to deal with the alliance and its salt merchant committee.

In order to achieve these things, he couldn't accept Chujway's conditions, even after considering it for several days. He had decided; the duke would not get their dominions. They were crucial to his future and his ambitions. Lorist and Fisablen continued to pester him, so he wanted to finalize his decision as soon as possible. He summoned Chujway and gave him his conditions. He could forgive the dukes, but they would not get their current dominions back. They had to accept new dominions around the capital. They would also have to pay way steeper fines than they had offered. Handra, Forund, and Shabaj each had to pay 1.5 million gold Fordes, and Farkel had to pay 3 million because he dared to burn his city and the surrounding settlements. Finally, the dukes were only allowed to take 45 thousand men with them, everyone else had to be left behind and would be under his direct command. The duke's vassals would also no longer be such, they would fall directly under the king and would be demoted depending on their house's historic contributions to the empire.

His conditions were unexpectedly harsh. Though Chujway had wanted to contest, the king withdrew to his quarters and refused an audience. His attendants simply said the conditions were final and couldn't be negotiated. Chujway had no choice but to return and pass the message along.

Kenmays and the others were confused. The went to Lorist for clarification. Why had the king come up with such ridiculous demands? Wasn't he forcing the dukes to fight to the death? Would continuing the war be beneficial to him somehow?

Lorist smirked and pointed at the map.

"Our king has his eyes on the duchies. It's simple. To him, while gold is important, it can't compare to the manpower the duchies can provide. Reforming the empire with the provinces near the capital is a pipe dream. With these provinces, however, he stands a chance against the Union."

The rest gasped. Lorist warned them to be prepared just in case the dukes decided to fight to the death. Nobody could predict how long the war would last if they did. They might even resort to underhanded methods like assassination, so they had to watch out. Lorist was more hopeful that the dukes would accept Auguslo's conditions.

"What? Why would they even consider it?" Shazin exclaimed, "If it were me, I'd rather die than accept those demands."

Lorist shook his head.

"You don't understand. This concerns their houses' survival. It's not something the dukes can decide on a whim. They have no choice but to seriously consider it. The demands are unfair, but not so much so that it's completely unacceptable. While wealth is important, it can't compare to the house's legacy and continued existence. The most important thing is that they won't lose their peerage or be demoted, granted, they will lose their current titles.

"Their new dominions will be poorer, but they can rebuild. They haven't lost the right to have levies either. They can each keep a force of 45 thousand. If they bring these men's families along, they will have secure control of their new lands in no time. They don't have to be too concerned about their future"

......

On the 6th day of the 7th month, Year 1783, more than 50 days since Chujways' return. Andinaq's army remained stationed opposite the second defense line. Auguslo was still rather mad at Lorist for not wanting to press the attack and couldn't command Whitelion and House Fisablen's reserve legion to go on a suicide mission either. Duke Fisablen tried his best to appease the king and had managed to get him to agree to stay on the defense for a little longer.

That night, the sounds of fighting echoed over no man's land into Auguslo's, Lorist's, and the others' ears. Fires lit up the night soon thereafter. It appeared Farkel's Forestmont and Bloodspear's camps were under attack. It was incredibly odd; Auguslo believed it a trap to lure them into attacking.

A few scouts soon brought over a bloodied Chujway. He reported that Handra, Forund, and Shabaj had accepted his conditions and were willing to surrender. But Duke Farkel wanted to resist to the end and swore he would rather die than surrender. Though they managed to convince him otherwise after much difficulty, he then said he didn't have that many gold Fordes.

Just as they were considering whether they should send a messenger to ask for the Farkel's dues to be lowered a little he actually ordered his two legions to raid the duchy's towns and villages. They took, killed, and burned, committing every sin imaginable. Handra had sent his men to stop him, but the latter said that since the rest were going to surrender anyway, and that the territory would soon no longer be theirs, he might as well take what he could and leave nothing for Auguslo.

Angered to the point of coughing up blood, Handra led his troops into battle against the duke and managed to push him back to the frontline. He convinced Forund and Shabaj to surround Farkel's two legions. But before they could mobilize, Farkel attempted to escape.

Fortunately, Handra's garrison troops had long been prepared and didn't allow him to go anywhere. The situation had been thrown into chaos and Forund's forces had broken into Farkel's camp and were slaughtering everything on the hill. Chujway only barely managed to make it out of the mess to request reinforcements.

Greatly elated, Auguslo hurriedly ordered his generals to reinforce the frontlines to prevent the criminal ringleader, from escaping. Lorist actually obeyed his commands without protest for once. The mobilization of cavalry was the last nail on Farkel's coffin. They crumbled like withered barks as the cavalry charged into their lines. Many died or surrendered. Perhaps because the two legions had committed too many evils in Handra, Handra's men began to slaughter the surrendered soldiers after gathering them up. By the time Lorist realized what was happening, it was already too late. Most of the 30 thousand captives had been slaughtered, less than a third were still alive.

Handra and Farkel's clash marked the end of the campaign. The three dukes surrendered without further ado. Farkel, unfortunately, managed to escape towards Majik with a hundred riders and sought asylum in the Union. From that day forth he was a renegade noble.

Chapter 441 Distribution of Rewards

"I would rather a Norton legion in front of me, than an Auguslo squad behind me." ~ Duke Forund

The war was finally over. Auguslo was fraught with tasks. There was much with which he had to deal as king. First, he had to arrange the new dominions. After negotiations, the two southwestern provinces became Duke Handra and Duke Shabaj's new dominions, Yungechandler, which neighbored Delamock, became Duke Forund's.

The two southwestern provinces, now formally named South Derika and West Derika, used to be known as the Derika area. Krissen I had split it into two provinces. West Derika was also known as the northwestern province and the two bordered Kanbona, which was forcefully occupied by the Union. In some official documents, they were known as the two southwestern provinces, but recently they were often called the frontline provinces.

When Auguslo vanished after his military loss at Frederika, Queen Carey had ceded them to the Union, who didn't absorb them directly, instead, they formed the Allied Duchies of Britt to serve as a buffer between them and Andinaq. But after Auguslo returned to power, Tigersoar destroyed the nation returned the land to the king's control. The provinces had served as Whitelion's main base since and contained most of the kingdom's defenses against the Union. However, given that it had been rather tumultuous over the years, less than ten percent of the population remained. Civilian life was desolate. There used to be as many as 500 thousand refugees at one point. Though Auguslo had tried hard to restore their economies, their ceding had sapped them of the last of their vigor. The provinces were mostly plains, but everything had been devastated and was no largely desolate.

The king had decided to give the provinces to his new vassals to get rid of their burden. He was intent on having Houses Handra and Shabaj serve as a barrier between him and the Union, and leave the land's development to them. This was the only reason he was willing to let them bring along some of their subjects. With the 45 thousand soldiers and their families, the lack of manpower could be solved. When it came down to it, manpower was the most important resource.

As for Duke Forund, he was given the title The Duke of Yungechandler. Though the province was small and poor, it was in a strategic location. Between The Northlands and the country's center, where the imperial capital was located, was Delamock, Yungechandler, and Welbassia. Auguslo enfeoffed Yungechandler to Duke Forund as his new dominion for less than pleasant reasons. He was intent on building a wall between himself and the alliance.

What's that guy up to? He's trying to raise his guard against us at a time like this? thought Lorist as he stroked his chin.

Upon knowing about Auguslo's arrangements, he couldn't help but praise his abilities as king. It was no wonder he allowed the three surrendered dukes to each bring a legion along. Not only could he retain the citizens', who would move to the new territories, loyalty, which would reduce unrest, he could also let the three dukes serve as his guard dogs. He was a true schemer.

Lorist believed that, if Duke Farkel hadn't escaped, Auguslo would have given him Rimad, right next to Southern. It would have been as good as closing the empire's doors to the alliance. However, fate was ever elusive. Duke Farkel wasn't willing to submit and had escaped to the Union. No one knew whether the Union would cause trouble for the king in the duke's name.

It was a busy time for everyone. The king was so busy taking over management of his new territories and planning the defenses and patrols so the folk could start producing without worry that again he was virtually unseen. The three remaining dukes were also busy rallying their forces and families in preparation for their move to their new dominions. House Fisablen was given the task of reorganizing the soldiers left behind before handing them over to gold-ranked knight and Whitelion general Ripleid, who would then integrate the elites into the legion's ranks and form two garrison legions from the rest. Kenmays, he was busy doing business with the dukes. Though they had each given 1.5 million to the king, it should still only be half of their available wealth. Kenmays had his sights on the rest and unleashed his silver tongue on the dukes. He wanted to convince them to purchase the supplies they needed from the salt merchant committee. He had even thrown in free delivery. Felim and Shazin were busy looking for Auguslo. They were going to demand their rewards.

After the battle, the two were made dukes as was promised. However, they weren't trying to confront Auguslo about their titles. Felim wanted to have the 30 thousand youths sent to his dominion to help out with its development, while Shazin wanted Auguslo to enfeoff him a province with lots of mineable resources. Auguslo was elusive, however, nobody knew where he was at any given time.

Lorist suddenly found himself the freest of his peers. Apart from being invited to socialize in the banquets organized by the three dukes, who thanked him for not pressing the attack, he spent the rest of his time listening to his two companions' complaints about their inability to find Auguslo. He advised them to stop looking for him.

"His Majesty would never avoid you intentionally. Maybe he's just surveying his new provinces. I'm certain he will return in time."

Though he said such words, he was becoming annoyed with the king as well. He could just return to The Northlands with Tigersoar and his two guard regiments even without receiving the king's signature on the contract that recognized his three-year tax exemption. He didn't care about the document at all. He'd love to see whether the man would risk his rebellion for not acknowledging the promise.

When he thought of Sylvia and their child, that the baby was half a year old now, the urge to return become overpowering. However, the cursed king chose now of all times to go survey his new lands and had the others wait for his return to Hans! How ridiculous! Rather than sit around spending money on his forces and having both himself and them grow lethargic, he would much rather return to the demonic lands on the other side of Nibarak. He could keep his men fit and sharp there. ánd make money instead of bleeding it.

The 8th month soon passed and he finally received news of Auguslo through an envoy. The man asked him to not dally around the demonic lands anymore. He hurriedly returned to Hans, Delamock's capital. There he realized the three dukes had brought their remaining subjects and were on the way to their new dominions.

Kenmays had long received proof of kingdom-wide two-year tax exemption for the committee, so he'd hurried back to organize the transportation and distribution of various goods. He left a letter for Lorist which said it was a huge deal estimated to rake in a million gold Fordes in revenue. If he could satisfy the three dukes and receive more orders from the three new dominions, it could turn into a long-term business relationship.

Duke Fisablen had also left with Third Frontier and the reserve legion with the rewards Auguslo had given him without meeting Lorist first. Only Felim and Shazin had remained at Hans with their forces. The two new garrison legions were there as well. As for the restaffed Whitelion, they had left for Majik half a month earlier on their king's orders. They were tasked with guarding Anderwoff's border to keep the Union from invading.

Lorist's two companions didn't look good when they received him. They appeared rather frustrated. Felim spat on the ground harshly after handing over Kenmays's letter before he told Lorist what had happened. Auguslo had duped him and reworded 30 thousand youths into 30 thousand people. There were less than seven thousand youths among them and the rest were their families.

Felim complained that even though his reward was similar to Duke Fisablen's, who received all 50 thousand youths and had a total of 170 thousand people, their families included, Auguslo suppressed his complaints. The reason was that Duke Fisablen had expanded the empire's borders and required more people for his dominion to prevent the lands from returning to being a breeding ground for grassland barbarians. Southern, however, was well within the empire's borders and faced no threats, so its population could grow naturally with the passage of time.

Additionally, Auguslo also compared Duke Fisablen and Felim's forces. He had said House Fisablen's reserve legion suffered heavy casualties during the expedition, with more than ten thousand dead, while Pegasus hadn't suffered nearly as much since it was tasked with scouting and patrolling. So, his reward was naturally inferior to Duke Fisablen's.

While he could only accept his bad luck. Shazin's matter was different entirely. Auguslo had given him two options. The first was to choose either Rimad or Messen as his hereditary dominion; the second, to wait until the kingdom reclaimed the territories the Union currently occupied. The latter would yield the house Bodolger, home to Frederika.

Shazin didn't want either. Rimad only produced lumber and stones and high-quality materials like gold crystals, black crystals, and red maple wood. However, there was no demand for such things in the chaotic time of war they were currently in. Messen also produced quite a bit of mineable resources, but it was worth something because of its quantity, not its quality. For example, the two silver and one copper mines only had small ore veins that would run out after some 30 years of mining. The quality of the mined ore was also disappointing and it was considered a rather bad place to mine.

Shazin didn't want to pick either Messen or Rimad, mainly because the two provinces had been ravaged thoroughly by the minor nobles' army at the start of the civil war, becoming barren and unpopulated. Naturally, the alliance had obtained some benefits, but Auguslo's decision to give either of the provinces to House Shazin felt like an insult even to Lorist directly.

No matter which province Shazin received, he would have to invest huge sums of money to gather refugees and spur development. It wouldn't recover for at least two to three decades. Auguslo's second offer also greatly enraged Shazin. Bodolger was the dominion of one of the Union's big-seven, Wessia. While Bodolger was a huge mining province, the question was: when would Auguslo reclaim it?

Shazin was very worried the answer was, 'not soon at all'. He might not even live to see the day. Additionally, he was worried that if he accepted Auguslo's second offer, House Shazin would be pushed to the forefront of battle in the name of reclaiming its dominion, which would push it into conflict with the rest of the alliance. While he appeared the rough one of the four, being greedy and a little daft with a common family background, he was no idiot. He understood on what House Shazin was dependent. Without Lorist's, House Kenmays', and Felim's care, he would be nothing. He might even be wiped out before he managed to truly establish his house.

He would rather remain at Lorist's side than join Auguslo. After all, Lorist's words were far more trustworthy than that king's. Lorist, at the very least, wouldn't forget to share some of the benefits. If it were Auguslo, he couldn't count on getting anything out of him other than trouble. He would be lucky if the man cared at all. The king praised someone to high heavens and tossed them away with the same mouth. Shazin could see this clearly.

He had refused the king's offers and asked for Kribia instead, one of Farkel's old provinces. Its main products were rock salt, gold silver, purple bronze, white lead, and black iron. There were also dozens of other resources and it provided around a million gold Fordes annually. He had long had his eyes on it.

The king would have none of it, however. By what right did this duke demand such a jewel? Whether it came to his contribution to the empire generally, or during the campaign specifically, he had done far from enough to deserve Kribia. The province had always been under the imperial family's direct control during the empire's days. And it had only ever been handed over temporarily to the dukes during the civil war. Farkel had been supposed to return it once the war was over.

The king told Shazing that he would pick one of the options he'd been given, or not get anything at all. Kribia was out of the question.

The duke had stormed out furious.

"Does that mean your efforts were in vain, Hennard?" asked Loris.

Shazin shrugged hatefully.

"I guess so. I can only blame my shitty luck. I'll never trust him again."

Lorist patted his shoulder.

"Just endure for now. You didn't suffer much either. You also earned quite a bit from Forund's nobles. It's a shame we didn't discuss our conditions with him beforehand. Whatever. I'll go see him and see what he has to say."

Chapter 442 Big Business

"Catch a man a fish, and you can sell it to him. Teach a man to fish, and you ruin a wonderful business opportunity." ~ Charade

"You're back, Locke." Auguslo was really busy and only briefly greeted Lorist, who had just entered the hall. In front of him stood a thick stack of documents which he gave some thought before he started penning.

"Good afternoon, Your Majesty," replied Lorist with a bow, stealing a quick glance.

His eyesight was pretty good and he could clearly identify that the documents contained personal information about nobles and their houses. It had to be information about the nobles who had followed the four dukes. The king was in the midst of deciding what he would do with them.

Seemingly not noticing Lorist's greeting, the king continued to focus on the document in his hand. Lorist didn't mind much, though. He straightened himself before checking the palace that was now the king's residence. It was one of the ten famed palaces of the old empire, Inkcuby Palace. Cuby was a thumb-sized fairy that existed in Grindian folklore said to bring bliss and luck. Legend had it that there was a black-haired fairy among the cubies who liked to make dresses out of black-colored flower petals, it was called the ink cuby. It liked brave and battle-hardened warriors. If a warrior was lucky enough to gain an ink cuby's favor, he would be endowed with courage and endurance and dominate the battlefield.

One of House Handra's heads was a warrior that frequented the battlefield and rarely emerged with any injuries, rumors quickly spread that he had gained the blessing of an ink cuby. The lord didn't waste the admiration his people, he used the wealth he gathered to commision Inkcuby Palace in his old age.

The artisans of the famed palace had hidden a thousand different ink cubies among its engravings. Legend was that, should a person find the thousand ink cubies, they would receive its blessing.

Inkcuby Palace used to be House Handra's residence, but now it was being used by Auguslo. Lorist stared at the decor. He wanted to see how many ink cubies he could count.

"What are you up to?"

Auguslo came to Lorist's side after a while and stared at the roof as well, curious to see at what Lorist was looking.

"Ink cubies..."

His effort was wasted. Though he had managed to count 53, Auguslo's disturbance made him forget whether he had already counted some of them.

Whatever. There's only about 60 in this hall anyway. Counting them is a waste of energy and effort.

Auguslo almost lost his wits from laughter.

"You believe that legend too?"

Lorist shook his head.

"No, I only counted them out of curiosity. The legend is a trap."

"A trap?" Auguslo hadn't expected Lorist to respond thusly. "How so?"

"The effort required to count the ink cubies would be better spent training oneself. Training will naturally elevate one's strength to the ranks of indomitable warriors."

Auguslo nodded.

"Makes sense. Actually, House Handra has records of such an incident. Around 70 years ago, one member made an oath to find all the ink cubies and gain their blessing. He scoured the palace for thirty years but could only find 997. No matter where he looked, he couldn't find the last three. He finally lost his sanity, what little he clearly had to begin with and spent the rest of his days wandering around the palace muttering to himself incoherently. He fell into a pool one night and drowned. What a sad end."

Lorist sighed.

"A tragedy indeed, Your Majesty."

"Yes. House Handra forbade any searching for ink cubies. Auguslo looked at the engravings above. "Just as you say, if he had spent those 30 years on battleforce training, no matter how average his talent, he would've reached the gold rank. It would've been a great result for both himself and his house."

Lorist chortled lightly. Auguslo was acting rather weird, as if he had completely let go of the matter of his non-compliance with the king's orders. Currently, he appeared as friendly as he used to and completely let go of his seething hatred.

"Alright, enough with the idle chatter. You're here to claim your reward, yes? I already wrote it down for you. I'm really reluctant to see you depart, you know," said the king as he returned to his desk and handed Lorist a beastskin.

It was the proof he needed. Both the seal and decorative border proved Auguslo didn't plan to mess with him. He had already been completely prepared. However, as Lorist scanned through the date, he felt surprised.

"Your Majesty, did you get the date wrong?"

Though the exemption was agreed to last three years, the document in his hands presently put it at five years. Weird... Had the sun risen from the west today? Why was Auguslo being generous all of a sudden? It had to be a mistake. Auguslo waved casually it off casually.

"It's what you deserve. It was thanks to you that we were able to wrap this campaign up so quickly and easily. Nobody contributed as much as you. We've had our fair share of difference, but it is because of our differing views. Time has proven you right. I am the king; I cannot afford to hold grudges when I was clearly in the wrong, I must keep the bigger picture in mind and act in accordance with what is best for the kingdom. You contributions merit a reward greater than what you demanded, so I adjusted it accordingly."

Lorist bowed.

"I am grateful for Your Majesty's generosity."

"Drop the pleasantries. I'm just trying to be a king whose judgment isn't clouded."

"Do you then not agree that your treatment of Duke Shazin is a little unfair?" Lorist took the opportunity to confront Auguslo.

"Well..." the king was a little taken aback. He was a little troubled, but maintained his composure and smiled as he shook his head. "I see Duke Shazin went to you to complain, which is totally in order. But think about it. I already gave him two choices, yet he didn't accept either. Can you really blame me? I already did what I said. Rimad and Messen are both provinces with rich mineral resources that produce more income than his current county. He just needs to invest in his chosen dominion a little. I can't do anything if he doesn't want my offers."

"I'm sure Your Majesty understands Messen and Rimad's current situation. It's obvious that Duke Shazin wouldn't want such provinces. He isn't very good at management so how could he choose dominions that require exactly that?"

"Hahaha, you can't blame me for his shortcomings, though," Auguslo laughed, "Who was it that ravaged Messen and Rimad? It certainly wasn't done by my order? Consider this: Duke Shazin wanted Kribia, yes, but do his contributions merit such a reward? Is he not satisfied that I've given him the title of duke? Even if I give him Kribia, can he accept it without feeling any shame at all?"

Lorist shrugged. There was nothing he could do about it either. Auguslo was right in that Shazin's performance had been mediocre at best. He was a character cheering from the sidelines. He had followed Lorist closely, yes, but he didn't contribute much. Lorist could argue little with such a reason.

"Fine. Your Majesty is correct. Duke Shazin shouldn't have had such blind ambitions. I take my leave now."

Lorist felt he should leave now that matters had been settled.

"Locke, wait. There is one more thing I wish to discuss."

"Oh?" Lorist thought, the show's finally starting. He definitely has something in mind, he would not have increased reward otherwise. Wise, objective king my ass. I knew he had something in mind. What exactly does he want, though?

"What is it, Your Majesty? Do you have any instructions?"

"Well, it's like this... You've been hunting magic beasts in the demonic lands for the last month, correct?"

"Yes... You were surveying your new lands and I didn't want to sit around in Hans until you returned. So, I went to demonic lands to train alongside my legion. The hunting was to put some meat in my men's diets."

"I have no intent to fault you for your actions. I just wish to know if the furs are still here."

"They are indeed, Your Majesty," Lorist replied, slightly reserved, "Would you like a few? I just recently put together a selection of the best ones. I'll send someone over with a few."

"I can pay for them."

"No need, Your Majesty. There are only ten. Just consider it a gift," said Lorist generously.

"That's not quite what I had in mind, Locke. I wish to purchase all the furs."

"All the furs?"

Can you really afford it? Lorist wondered, Apart from the more precious ones I shipped back to the dominion last year, all the furs are still here. All together they should be worth at least a million gold Fordes—

A spark suddenly lit up in his mind.

—Of course! You just took four duchies. Funds are the one thing you don't lack right now.

Three of the dukes had paid him 1.5 million each. He had also taken a million gold Fordes left behind in Duke Farkel's camp. There was also the money the minor nobles had paid to avoid further prosecution. The king was a complete tycoon now. He looked at the man with blazing eyes like he was looking at a statue made of gold.

Then again, what does he want with the furs? Some clarity returned to his mind immediately. Maybe he's trying to train a unit or legion that can act during winter as well?—

It didn't take long for him to guess the king's intentions.

—Whatever, I'll sell them first. It's only a waste not to profit. I'll regret it if I miss this chance. Does he think training a winter force is easy? Does he really think winter clothing alone is enough to let men move around freely in the middle of a blizzard? Hehe, your thinking far too simply.

Auguslo nodded slightly.

"Very well. The furs I have on my should be worth about 1.45 million. Since my client in Your Majesty, I'll lower the price to 1.2 million. How's that? I'll also throw in a few dozen precious pelts as a gift."

Alright. I'll just give him all the precious furs if that's what it takes.

"Wait, how many furs do you have? 1.45 million gold Fordes? Do you really have that many?" Auguslo was a little taken aback. He hadn't expected Lorist would have that many. How many magic beasts did he kill?!

He was going to form a small legion named Blizzardblitz. He would train them to use skis and launch surprise attacks in winter. His march on Frederika had taught him a harsh lesson. Of the 30 thousand troops he mobilized, only eight thousand made it to the city. He didn't think he'd need so many if their casualty rate could be lowered with their equipment and training. He only planned to purchase 10 thousand sets. He wasn't going to train every soldier under his command in winter combat. It would be a waste.

He had known of Lorist's hunts for a year now. He didn't really mind since it let the men eat more meat and bewildered the enemy. Personally, he believed sacrificing soldiers to hunt magic beasts was incredibly wasteful and foolish. He had no idea the Nortons had begun their rise to power with killing magic beasts. Lorist had shipped most of the valuable furs back home. Only the lower quality dire wolf and magic goat furs were left.

He thought Lorist only had furs worth 400 thousand and enough to outfit his new detachment; he might even have some left over. That was the only reason he had not specified a number but had offered to buy them all. The difference between his expectation and Lorist's quote shocked him.

"Naturally, Your Majesty. I have been hunting for a whole month and those are the furs I brought back from the hunt. Don't worry. The furs are in great shape. I wouldn't throw in any torn ones to inflate the number. I can assure Your Majesty. Then again, I didn't think Your Majesty would be so adept at business. I'm sure you will resell them for quite the profit in the capital." Lorist pushed the sale with all he had.

"This... well..." Auguslo had forgotten about the new furs. He had over-promised and found it hard to deliver.

"Surely Your Majesty wasn't joking around with me?" asked Lorist gloomily.

"Of course not. I have to keep my word as king, after all. I'll send someone over to appraise the furs later." Auguslo forced himself to swallow the pill.

"Very well. I'll take my leave. I'll wait for your men in my camp."

Chapter 443 Return to The Northlands

"Be careful what you say. A man's word is his bond; a single careless one could easily bind you to an unwanted path, or ruin your reputation. It takes only a single utterance to undo a lifetime's work." ~ excerpt from Principles of Nobility by Duke Fisablen.

Auguslo personally brought a large number of administrative officials to House Norton's camp. He didn't believe Lorist really had magic beast furs worth over a million gold Fordes and he really hoped he had been teasing him. He was destined to be disappointed. All the appraiser he brought along agreed that the pelts were worth at least 1.67 million. Lorist's asking price was a massive discount.

Lorist watched gleefully as the king signed order gloomily. The sun was truly shining brightly. His luck was great. He managed to sell the normal pelts, usually hard to get rid off for a great price. The house had a large store of them already so these weren't worth anything to the house themselves.

Cotton didn't exist, so silk, linen, and hemp were usually used to make warm clothing and other items like blankets. Grindians, who were indoors for most of the winter usually used leather and fur to make outdoor clothing, and best among them was magic beast fur.

The first years of his reign as the head of the house saw it fighting the magic beast wave every winter. They had accumulated more than enough to supply the domain for decades to come. With the market saturated, though in principle the pelts were very valuable, there wasn't an easy way to turn them into money. The situation was worsened by the fact that untreated fur and leather had a shelf life. Since the materials had to be treated differently depending on their intended use, the house couldn't pre-treat them and store them for later sale, which meant that if they weren't sold relatively quickly, they would become and worthless. The market price for the materials wasn't very good in The Northlands either. Households that needed the material to replace worn items just went out and hunted for it themselves, so he also couldn't wait for an increase in demand and sell the stuff at a higher price then.

When Lorist established the domains naval presence, Petersen Merchant Guild bombed with the information that there wasn't actually much of a market for pelts and leather anywhere on the continent.

How could that be possible? He clearly recalled that when he was 20, Charade dragged him to participate in a risky mercenary mission that involved exploring an underground cave. Because of the immense cold, Lorist had no choice but to purchase a singlet made of magic goat pelt to keep warm. As he remembered, the fur his house had stocked up should be a hot product given how he sold furs back when he still hunted magic beasts as a mercenary.

President Peterson gave him an explanation that simply baffled him. The lack of a market wast because people didn't want or need pelts, it was simply that nobody could afford them. The guild was the largest fur trader on the continent, they held a complete monopoly on the Union's market, so their knowledge could not be brushed aside.

While magic beast fur was much better at resisting the cold than human-reared livestock, the common folk mainly used the latter given that the former was easily over three times as expensive. The guild could only really profit off the small trade because they sold them at hiked prices.

Given their position, they would certainly not let his pelts flood the market, it would destroy the delicate balance they had spent years building. President Peterson also warned him that mercenaries were the main users of the fur. The common folk would never spend that kind of money on clothing they were only going to wear inside, for which they were overkill.

The guild was also only really interested in dealing in high-value goods. The rich were far more generous with their coin. In total, the guild only bought a few exceptional pelts worth about 500. The more common varieties were wholly undesired. And they were exactly what the house had in bulk.

Given how much effort it was to properly treat furs for storage, it was far more useful to just turn them into clothes for his soldiers. The king thought Lorist was very invested in training his force to be elite winter troops, so much so that he was willing to spend ludicrous amounts of money on their material and training, but the reality was that it didn't cost him much. It wasn't that he was obsessed with having a good winter military, but that it was just a more convenient way of using the materials and time he had. It wouldn't cost him much to make the winter clothes, he already had the material by the storehouse, and he had to pay his men their salary anyway, so instead of having them sit in their barracks the whole winter, he might as well have them do something productive.

When he led Tigersoar to hunt in the demonic lands, most of their prey was dire wolves and some herbivorous magic beasts. Similarly, their furs had high value but a non-existent market.

He could still remember that he had once considered selling the pelts in bulk at the price of livestock leather and thought the low price would let him forge a market. But the Peterson Merchant Guild turned him down. The supervisor said that if magic beast fur was sold at that price, it would collapse the price of normal fur and decimate the market. When the supply then ran out, there would be no livestock fur industry to replace it.

The house hadn't feared the freezing winter when they had moved the refugees the previous winter because every person got a set of magic beast fur clothing for free. The abundance of rest stops and the fast travel facilitated helped as well. If he declared his house used the most magic beast fur on the continent, no one would argue the point. The annual winter training also swelled his stock by over 100 thousand. His storehouses had never been fuller.

The furs he got from the recent hunts weren't much use to the house as materials, and the delicate market made it nigh impossible to sell off. Had this been a time of peace things might have been different, but, alas, it wasn't.

So far he'd only bothered to ship the best pelts, like the skins of gigantic swamp crocodiles, back to the dominion because they would always sell. He had yet to worry about the rest. He certainly didn't think the king would take such an interest and end up taking them all off his hands. He couldn't be happy about this turn of events.

These days, fools are just as hard to find as rich tycoons.

He had offered the discount and included a few of the remaining precious pelts to make sure the deal would go through. He also agreed to sell a few catapults at 150 gold each without hesitation. He'd even offered to sell them 2500 carroballistae he had with him, but the king would have none of it.

Auguslo considered House Norton's catapults the world's ultimate weapons. They were far more flexible than the simple lever-style catapults, even in defensive situations. At the very least, they were mobile, not the fixed emplacements that were so easy to target.

The house's carroballistae had tempted him. But the advent of shield carts they had become far less attractive. No one but the greatest fools still deployed armies without proper protection against them. Whether it was offense or defense, shield carts had become a standard in the continent's armies. And they were always improving.

He only had six million gold left and he had other things to do with his money, so he turned the sale down. He couldn't wait to form his new standing legion. The campaign hadn't ended pyrrhically as he had expected, and he was thankful for that. It made it much easier for him to move on the next one quickly.

He needed a strong force in the kingdom as soon as possible to keep the alliance, Duke Fisablen, and his three new vassals in check. He planned to rest for two or three years and rebuild his military strength before taking on the Union. He wasn't afraid of having too much money. Even what he had felt like too little, instead. It would have been preferable to have wiped the rebellious dukes out rather than taking them back under his wing.

Kings had to be true to their word, Auguslo could not just withdraw his offer to buy all Lorist's pelts without good reason, a predicament Lorist exploited excellently. He forced the king to buy all the furs, even though it cost him three times what he had expected to spend.

Auguslo was filled with regret at his previous enthusiasm. What on earth would he do with so many furs? Fortunately, the duke had mentioned the possibility of reselling the leftovers in the capital, words his one financial advisor didn't miss. The only problem was that it wasn't going to be a quick sale. Just as Lorist could sell off his furs in bulk, so too could the king not sell his stock in bulk. The risk of collapsing the market was too great. He could only hope to make a small profit from the leftovers over several years. Even so, it was still a much-needed consolation.

He was far more frugal after blowing 1.2 million on fur. The purchase of several catapults was a welcome surprise, but he didn't want to spend any more money on the man. He had his craftsman duplicate the designs, but the metal parts were impossible. The steel just couldn't be replicated. Without the steel the replicated catapults were useless.

Lorist wasn't too disappointed at failing to sell his carroballistae since they were going to be useless soon anyway. Both the catapults and the carroballistae would be completely obsolete soon after he returned to the northlands. Wear and tear was a thing in this world, after all.

Tigersoar didn't get many kills during the war, but they played an essential role in putting the enemy under pressure. Their preferred tactic was to assault under heavy cover-fire from carroballistae and catapults, a tactic that proved very effective.

A good catapult in prime condition could fling rocks up to 500 meters. This didn't last long, though, its effective range dropped with every shot. It didn't take long for the range to drop down to just 320 meters, which was where the catapults used in the campaign were now. The carroballistae were in much worse condition. They were used really frequently to hunt magic beasts in the demonic lands. Most of the beasts died by bolt. But the constant use took a great toll on their steel arms. Their effective range had been decreased from 300 to just 230 meters.

Lorist estimated that they would be rendered useless after another two or three hundred shots. Since Auguslo wanted to buy the catapults, Lorist tried to push the carroballistae as well. It was too bad shield carts were a thing.

On the 10th day of the 9th month of Year 1783, He made an easy sale and returned to The Northlands with gold Forde notes worth millions. Tigersoar and his guard regiments returned with him; Felim and Shazin accompanied them with their forces as well.

While Auguslo had taken eleven provinces, he wasn't the biggest winner. Of the four dukes he claimed were traitors, three had submitted and one escaped. The king had no choice but to accept the conflict was a result of a misunderstanding and could not continue to label them traitors either. Chujway's take on the situation was the worst part. When the truth of the conflict spread, his cruel and harsh personality was made known to the rest of the continent's nobility.

The whole campaign did absolutely nothing for his reputation. Instead, it ruined it even further. Some nobles of the provinces' minor nobles would rather be stripped of their titles and fiefs and continue to serve the dukes than be the king's vassals.

Chapter 444 Dealing with Matters

"Governance isn't anywhere near as glamorous as the governed think. It may come with great perks, but it keeps the leader so busy that he barely has any time for sleep, nevermind enjoying them." ~ Norton Lorist

"Now this is life!" exclaimed Lorist.

He was in his study on the third floor of Ragebear's central castle. The pleasant, warm sunlight of the 11th month danced gently on his body through the window. It stole his energy and made his eyes heavy. Sylvia and his concubines had straddled him the whole night. When they all collapsed, exhausted, on the bed, his beloved son had woken him with his crying. The lack of sleep made the sun all the more pleasant and sleep all the more inviting. However, Charade and company's arrival forced him out of his bliss.

"Hey-hey-hey! Your Grace has rested for six days already since your return! It's about time you started being productive," complained the man.

He hated seeing Lorist so laid back. The mere thought of his liege lazing around, basking in sunlight, while he was swamped with work drove him mad. Lorist rose from his chair with great effort and sighing. When he saw the three attendants behind his friend, carrying stacks and stacks of documents, he involuntarily emptied his lungs again.

"No... Why so many documents?" he wailed passionately.

Charade had the three attendants put the documents on the desk before leaving. Jinolio got him a bottle of fruit wine and he had the kitchen staff send some snacks to the study. He would be staying to work for the rest of the day.

"You call this a lot?" Charade snapped, "Have you seen my office? It's a parchment storehouse! These documents are summaries of the various reports for the last two years. I've gone over them roughly. You just have to give them a look and sign them before I archive everything in my office."

It was a house rule. Even though Charade could deal with matters in Lorist's stead, the documents couldn't be archived without the lord's personal signature. All matters dealt with had to be given a once-over by the lord so he had a general idea of what was going on.

Lorist was quite quick in dealing with the documents. He gave them rough scans before signing. As the house's chief knight and vassal, Charade had dealt with the matters appropriately and he approved of the baron's methods. He picked some of the more interesting documents and placed them aside for later reading and discussion. It didn't take long for him to deal with one of the huge stacks, but there were three other ones remaining on the desk.

"Oh, Your Grace, has Howard not returned yet?" asked Charade as he saw Lorist pausing to stretch as he enjoyed his wine.

"Reidy went to fetch him. He'll be back tomorrow or the day after."

The two years of seclusion training had long passed. However, Howard seemed to have gained some insight during his training process and was polishing his swordsmanship. Lorist had to send Reidy to call for him when he returned.

"Are you going to let Howard take over the guard brigade?"

"Yes—" Lorist nodded, "—but the most important thing now is for him to get married. Before I returned, Duke Felim complained that his daughter's turning into an old maid. I promised I'd have Howard and Katrina's wedding planned when he brings his daughter over at the end of the year."

"Did Duke Felim bring up the dowry?" Charade asked curiously, "He's a duke now, so I expect it'll be grand."

Lorist smiled as he shook his head.

"It's not like you're unaware of House Felim's situation. The whole of Southern is now their dominion and Felim's so desperate he might split a gold Forde coin and treat the halves as two. Southern is completely desolate and it'll be really hard to develop it with his budget. So, his daughter's dowry won't be huge. Though he is planning to have the whole area around Boblige made into a county as the dowry. We will have to help out with its development."

"Wow, how generous! That's almost a tenth of his entire demesne. That brat sure is lucky, he gets a county even without a title!"

Lorist nodded.

"Can't be helped. When Auguslo was sending us off, he dragged the two of us together and said that while the alliance is tight-knit, it might be inappropriate for me to station troops on Southern's border with Eastwild since it was House Felim's dominion. He's trying to get me to withdraw Firmrock."

"It's none of his fucking business."

"Gossip is a fearful thing," Lorist said, "Southern has already become House Felim's. Our stationing of Firmrock on the border is so we can defend against Fisablen and help Felim in the process. Others unaware of this fact will think we're suppressing Felim instead.

"I'm prepared to leave the front to Felim. His dowry also solves this problem. If we station Tigersoar there, we can respond at a moment's notice, while still being outside his domain, thus avoiding any gossip."

Charade burst into a short bought of unreserved laughter.

"If we withdraw Firmrock, Duke Felim will be the first one to feel threatened! There's no way he'd be confident enough to think his troops can resist Duke Fisablen."

"It can't be helped. Right now, Auguslo is staying in Hans and working on the eleven provinces. He'll be counting on Fisablen to suppress us. The reason he's getting us to withdraw from Southern is so its borders will be unprotected. At the same time, Felim wouldn't wish for his dominion to serve as the pathway between the king and his pet duke. He made the county the dowry so we can keep watch over his lands."

"Do you think Duke Fisablen will attack Southern?" asked Charade.

"He won't. That old fox understands the current situation. He'll sit tight and focus on strengthening his hand. Conflict is the last thing he wants right now. Iblia has faded into history, so there's no way he can take control of the northeastern area. On the one hand, there's the alliance and on the other Auguslo. If he still harbors any foolish ambitions, he'll throw the whole of his house into the abyss."

"I suppose we're in for a few years of peace."

"I hope so. We just have to keep an eye on Auguslo. I don't want him messing around again."

Lorist suddenly remembered something. He flipped through the pile of documents he'd put aside to go over again later.

"The compact crossbows are completed and have been distributed to Jaeger. How do they look?"

"They're great. Your Grace might not be aware of this, but Grandmaster Sid's new design is a masterpiece. It can fire accurate shots up to 120 meters. Most importantly, it can easily be strung on horseback. I hear he used the lever mechanism you suggested.

"Josk's in love with it. He's been driving the men into the ground with training. He's even developed a new tactic for using the crossbow from horseback. He says Jaeger will be the most effective offensive legion on the continent once they're done with training."

"I see. It seems I have to go take a look," Lorist said as he changed the document in his hand, "Does the year-end celebration really have to be so expensive?"

"Don't forget that the house hasn't had a celebration in two years. This year, Duchess Sylvia had a son and you returned from campaign. How can the celebration be anything but grand? Everyone above commander rank will attend. Dukes Kenmays, Felim, and Shazin, as well as all your vassals, have announced their attendance as well. We expect at least a thousand people. If we lower the budget at all we won't be able to through a proper banquet and we'll embarrass ourselves."

Fine. Makes sense.

Lorist casually tossed the budget aside.

"It's just that it's a little too much, spending 70 thousand gold Fordes on a seven-day celebration..." muttered he.

That was Lorist's personality for you. While he was extremely loose-handed when it came to spending on armies and developing the dominion, he hated spending money on almost anything else.

"This is not something we can do half-heartedly. For our subjects as well, the more money we spend on the celebration, the merrier the festivities will be. The commoners will come to think of nobles as powerful and mighty, it makes it easier to rule over them."

Lorist nodded. He picked another document.

"What's up with Supervisor Hansk? How is the project so far over budget?"

"I've already had someone look into it. The main problem is that much of the work has to be redone. The laborers have been very rebellious and have caused frequent delays. The project isn't just over the budget by half of the budget itself, but the work has been held back by three years."

"How is Hansk dealing with this? Isn't he punishing the workers?"

"Actually…"

Charade hesitated. He took a deep breath and steeled himself for what was to come.

"The supervisor is the cause of all the problems. He wanted to speed everything up so he made their shifts longer and took away a lot of their benefits. His disciplinary methods have also been very unproductive. He is very harsh on even the smallest mistake or disobedience. These three things together pushed the workers over the edge and they've been revolted almost weekly since. Firmrock's kept things from getting out of hand, but they haven't gotten anything done since."

"Why don't I know about this?"

"I'm not in a good position to interfere, Your Grace. Hansk is the chief supervisor. He was the one who tried to hide things. I didn't notice until he requested a budget increase. I sent someone over to investigate what was going on and found out the truth. Tarkel had left for Morante already and I couldn't just step in. You were going to return soon so I thought it better to wait for you so you could deal with this yourself."

Lorist nodded. Charade wasn't wrong. Tarkel's reports confirmed his observations about Hansk's situation. Tarkel was busy investigating the conflict between the Union and the mid-southern nations, however, so the news pipeline had slowed down.

Lorist pulled on the bell, calling Jinolio.

"Head to Furybear and bring me the scrolls concerning the conflict between the Union and the mid-southern nations as well as the reports on Hansk."

"Understood, Your Grace."

"Is there anyone that can replace Hansk?"

Charade thought about it for a moment before he answered.

"I think the biggest problem is the barbarians. They've always been a rebellious bunch, they'll only be obedient if you treat them well. Supervisor Kedan has the best personality to deal with them."

"I'll think about it."

"There's another thing you should handle as soon as possible, Your Grace." continued Charade as he stood up and picked up a blue folder.

"This is the list of people that are to be promoted or entitled during the year-end celebration. Take a look. I should prepare the certificates and their title deeds as soon as possible."

Lorist checked the list. When he got to the bottom he added one name: Reidy.

"Reidy isn't a gold-ranked knight yet, Your Grace..."

Lorist grinned at his old friend mischievously,

"He can't advance in the ranks anymore, but he's already equal to a rank 1 blademaster."

Charade slapped his forehead. He couldn't believe he'd forgotten Reidy was his liege's eldest disciple. The kid trained in a different discipline, his strength couldn't be measured using the traditional rank system.

"Ah, I understand."

Chapter 445 Trouble and Busywork (1)

"Beware the lord scorned. They, if joined by others, may become the greatest threat a noble may ever face." ~ excerpt from Principles of Nobility by Duke Fisablen

The clattering of the horses' hooves beat constantly. The beaten dust shrouded the figures on horseback as they rode out of it domineeringly. The only difference between the spear cavalry formation of Tigersoar and this one was that it wasn't that concentrated. Two meters separated each rider from those around him as they charged. A sharp sound pierced the air. A wave of bolts flew away from the ranks. The riders reloaded and let bolts fly again.

The figures at the front suddenly split in two, the rest following. The bolts they fired spread outward again and again.

"This is the training routine I've designed, Your Grace. If an enemy gets assaulted this way on the march, they'll be completely annihilated if we can keep the fire up long enough. Of course, it's not as effective if they're in formation on an open field," explained Josk gleefully.

As the compact crossbow had to be kept secret so outside forces wouldn't find out about it, Lorist rushed to the secret training grounds to observe a training session.

"How did you come up with it?" asked he.

"It's nothing extraordinary. The most elite light cavalry soldiers are mostly scouts. They are in charge of discovering and tracking enemy movements. The way they usually fight is to dismount and use ranged weapons before getting back on horseback to fight in a melee. There're only a few talented ones that can use ranged weapons from horseback, and most only know how to use short-ranged ones like throwing knives or javelins. Most of the time, a longbow would be needed to attack an enemy at range.

"Even House Fisablen's famed frontier legions considered the most elite light in the empire don't behave much different. Jaeger was defeated because the forces were only ever harrassed from a distance and drawn out of cover range of our heavier pieces. The legion was then overrun by sheer numbers.

"If we'd had these crossbows, we would have ripped them to shreds instead. The riders don't even have to dismount during a pursuit. Even if we're surrounded, we don't have to dismount to fight back. There are no enemies that can resist us, especially when we charge at them when they're marching. The full potential of the mobility and agility of light cavalry can be exploited to the fullest this way..."

Josk rambled on about many useless things, but Lorist got the gist. The main goal of light cavalry was to scout and harass the enemy. Given the relative lack of ways to attack from a distance, the best ranged maneuver available were to dismount and cause chaos from up close. However, dismounting meant losing mobility and the threat the men posed would be greatly decreased. Having light cavalry charge against an enemy was even more out of the question. Their melee fighting and defense capabilities were far inferior to fully-equipped, heavy-armored infantry unless their enemy was trying to retreat.

But with the compact crossbows, not only were their offensive capabilities greatly improved, their agility and mobility could now be retained. Even if the enemy got into a tight formation, the light cavalry could still use their mobility to circle to the more weakly defended rear or split up and attack from multiple sides. They would rain bolts down from a distance and avoid clashing head-on. In that regard, even light cavalry could hold their own in a field battle.

Lorist took a compact crossbow and inspected it carefully. Strictly speaking, it was more of a bowgun. It was unlike the many crossbow-like weapons on the continent. It appeared Grandmaster Sid had borrowed inspiration from the firearm Lorist had had him design. The crossbow had a gun stock and a handle grip that not only allowed easier aiming, but also allowed easier and quicker reloading.

"The design was finalized with the help of the hundred light cavalry I sent to the grand master after a year and a half of testing. So far, this feels like the perfect ranged weapon. We'll kick up a storm when we finally use it," said Josk proudly.

"Does the compact crossbow have no weakness?" asked Lorist as he waved it around.

"Well, there is one. Battleforce can't be infused into it and the force comes mainly from the crossbow's arm."

When a longbowman's battleforce reached the silver rank, they could infuse it into their arrows to make it fly further and be more accurate. A small blade glow could even be formed at the tip to pierce through shields and armor. A gold-ranked divine marksman like Josk could give even a blademaster a run for his money with the green-colored bone bow in hand. But marksmen talented enough to use a longbow on horseback were almost non-existent. There was no way Lorist could find enough to form a legion. The compact crossbow was the only choice for a light cavalry ranged weapon. Not being able to use battleforce was a small issue.

......

"Are you ready? I'm going to start," asked Lorist.

Howard nodded and took up his stance.

"Come at me, Your Grace."

Lorist's longsword moved like lightning, closing the gap in an instant with the sound of piercing wind. Howard held his ground and used his longsword like a snare. He kept a perfect defense. The master-disciple pair engrossed themselves in the fight.

Beside them stood Reidy and Jinolio, the latter wearing an expression of envy.

Reidy laughed, "Learning the sword is filled with hardship. I gave Howard a harsh lesson when he started."

Jinolio nodded respectfully.

"I can take it, Senior Brother. No matter how tough, I will give it everything I have."

Reidy smirked.

"Very well. I'll find some time to talk to His Grace. However, our school of swordsmanship requires us to establish a foundation with dynamic vision. If His Grace agrees, Howard and I will develop this ability in you."

"Really?" Jinolio exclaimed happily, "Thank you!"

"Don't worry. You're my junior after all," smiled Reidy evilly.

Who should he bring along to watch the show? He might even start a betting ring. How long would the kid last on the chair?

Clang! Lorist's sword accurately struck Howard's and sent it flying.

"Not bad. I didn't think you could take more than 20 strikes," praised he, somewhat surprised.

As expected of Potterfang's son. His defense was just as tight when he'd dueled me all those years ago. I didn't think Howard would be even better than his father. He's Potterfang's kid alright!

Though he'd held back, his strength was beyond that of a rank 3 blademaster. It was nothing short of shocking for Howard to take more than 20 strikes and still be standing.

"No wonder Reidy said he could only defeat you after 100 strikes when he went to pick you up," Lorist said as he handed his own sword to Howard to put it way. "Your style is different from Reidy's. He was graced with superhuman strength and prefers domineering force and quick and unyielding attacks. You're much more like your father. Hell, had he not been alive I'd have thought he'd reincarnated. Reidy's style meant he had to travel around and experience life and death to hone his style but you don't have to. You should go to the guards and have them attack you all at once instead."

"Thank you for your guidance, Teacher."

Lorist stroked Howard's head.

"I have to settle your marriage first. Your father-in-law won't stop bothering me otherwise."

......

"I'm incredibly disappointed, Hansk," said Lorist.

He was really discontent with the supervisor's performance, so much so he didn't invite the man to sit.

"I can't be blamed, Your Grace. It's those barbarians. They refused to follow orders," argued Hansk.

The way he saw it, he had been toiling away for the house's sake in the wilderness and brainstorming ways to speed up the project. He had tried his best, but the stubborn savages wouldn't cave even after being killed. How could he be satisfied being blamed?

"Hansk, it seems you're still unaware of your mistakes. As the person in charge of the project, your role is to supervise the facilities. You're supposed to make sure everything runs smoothly and stays on schedule. That's why I let you manage the budget and workflow. All you had to do was make sure the plan was implemented as I'd written it. This being your duty, pray tell, why did you change their work hours and meddle with their benefits?"

"Please don't forget the barbarians are the enemy. Your father and countless others have died in their invasions. You shouldn't consider them equal to our subjects. They do not deserve meat and wine." countered Hansk with a raised voice.

"Uhha, haha, hahahahaha..." Lorist's fury dragged laughter out of him. "—So, that's why you took away their privileges and gave them nothing but two pieces of moldy fist-sized biscuits? You had them work day and night because of that too? Do you think that shows your loyalty? Are you avenging my father and everyone else? How foolish!"

Lorist slammed his hand on the desk. The bam made Hansk jump. Even Howard, outside the study, pushed the door open slightly to peek.

"To link Goldridge and Moonspring together and build a road through the forests, at least 7000 of 30 thousand barbarian laborers were killed. All that for the sake of a bloody path filled with death. We even staked the heads of the barbarians that tried to escape on the sides of the road. After killing so many, we finally found the way to make them work obediently: provide them with meat and wine. That is their reward for toiling for 12 hours a day, and that's also why they're willing to serve us. They consider the wine and meat as their pay.

"And then you go and treat them like begrudged enemies, like murders, and scamps, and go and take away their meat and wine and have them work four hours more. You're really something, huh? Do you think you can subdue them like this? You even had Belnick kill ten thousand when they revolted? Do you think killing them will make them submit?! What about the work?! It's stopped completely!

"I should never have trusted you with something so crucial for our future. You have disappointed me, more than that, you've let me down. You tell me the barbarians are our sworn enemies… You're not wrong but that doesn't mean we have to kill them all. The 70 thousand we have are all youths. Do you know how much wealth they can make us if they're appeased? Do you know how badly we lack unpaid labor? Do you have any idea how much we'll have to fork out to get them calm again?—"

Lorist shook his head.

"—I'm really disappointed, Hansk. You've contributed much in the past, so I was willing to overlook your past mistakes. You know of what I speak. Some things are not for you to comment on. I will forgive you this once, and only this once. Go back to your barony and think about what you've done wrong."

Hansk paled, his lips shuddered. He slowly turned around and left, dumbfounded. This was exile in all but name. He had been stripped of his power and his influence. He had lost any right he might have had to influence what happened in and with the house. He'd only been spared losing his title because he had a long history of contributions before his recent failures. He stopped at the entrance for a moment. He scraped together his courage and charged back to his liege.

"I will leave and never get involved with the house's matter again, but just this once, this one last time, listen to my advice."

"Speak."

"Your Grace has to decide on an heir. Your subjects and vassals cannot rest easy until you have."

"Heh. Tell me, who should I choose?" asked Lorist teasingly.

"It must naturally be Young Master Lysecott. He's already 13. He'll come of age soon and he's your first-born."

Lysecott was Lorist and Irina's first child. He had a cruel personality, mainly because he was spoiled badly and had turned into a lawless brat. In the end, he was sent to Malek's family so his wife could re-educate him and had just started his studies at Nico Academy.

"Do you think I'll be short-lived?" asked Lorist intentionally.

"There's no harm in being careful. That's what your late father believed as well. He forced himself to go stop the barbarian invasion even though he was sick and..." rambled Hansk.

"Get out of my sight!"

Lorist flung a folder at the man angrily.

Chapter 446 Trouble and Busywork (2)

"Those who control the education of our youth, control our nation's future." ~ Nico Telesti

"Supervisor Hansk hasn't returned to his barony," reported Howard.

Lorist had given the boy the position of deputy department head of Furybear's investigative division instead of making him the vice-commander of the guard brigade. The division's investigative capabilities had decreased significantly with Tarkel's departure for the Union, which dissatisfied Lorist a lot. He hoped the kid could get everything back on track.

"Oh, where's he gone?" asked Lorist, his expression shifting.

"He's gone to Maplewoods. Madam Irina had someone pick him up. She said she wanted him to tutor Young Master Koboshik in the basics."

Koboshik was Lorist and Irina's second son. Lysecott had been sent to Malek's home for his re-education, but his younger brother had not been moved. Lorist was almost always out in the field doing one thing or another, so he rarely saw or heard from or about the kid. He had heard that he was very similar to his mother. He was small and resembled a ball. Lorist had recently started to think about finding him a proper teacher since his eighth birthday was around the corner, but it seemed Irina had gotten the jump on him and had hired the exiled supervisor.

Lorist shook his head after a moment of silence.

"Whatever. What the heavens will shall come to pass. Let them do whatever they want."

"Why is Your Grace tolerating Supervisor Hansk's impudence and letting him off scot-free? He hasn't just disobeyed your orders, he's even accepted Madam Irina's invitation. He is acting as if Your Grace doesn't exist. He doesn't deserve his title," inquired Howard.

"Some things aren't as simple as they appear. He's done everything on purpose, he wants me to take his title. He needs a reputation far more than a title, exchanging his title for a reputation as a loyal subject would be very profitable for him. If Lysecott inherits my titles, Hansk will get back everything he's given up and then some."

"Your Grace always sees the worst in others, don't you?" Charade chirped in, "Hansk is truly loyal to the house. His loyalty is just misplaced in term of the individuals within the house."

Lorist snorted.

"Did Tarkel say when he'll return?"

"I got an eagle message just earlier today about that. Sir Tarkel is onboard a ship bound for Silowas as we speak. He should be back in The Northlands in about 15 days. We also received a dossier on Young Master Lysecott's behavior recently. It wasn't labeled as urgent so the agents didn't give it special attention. I only noticed the report when I checked..."

Lorist took the folder, shaking his head, a bitter smile on his face.

"You see?" he said, looking at Charade, "Furybear became a mess the moment Tarkel left. The aides don't know what's important at all."

Charade cringed.

"The blame shouldn't be on Tarkel's aides. This happened because Supervisor Spiel had the agents focus on gathering information for his annual financial report. The division can only do so much, so they had to loosen their grip on other matters."

Lorist nodded slightly. He opened the file and started going through it. It didn't take long for his face to contort and his eyes to start burning.

Bam!

He slammed the report down on the table and shot up, shooting the chair behind him into the wall.

"Ridiculous! Howard, bring Reidy! Also, send Jinolio to bring my horse whip!"

"What's wrong, Your Grace?" Charade couldn't help but be curious after seeing Lorist's sudden explosion.

"It's a tragedy. Just look!—" Lorist handed the document to his friend. He retook his seat and finished off the fruit wine in the bottle in two large gulps. "—I'm a failure of a father."

Lysecott had entered Nico Academy late the previous year to learn some basic knowledge and noble etiquette. House Norton's descendants had always been taught in Maplewoods. They only had to be somewhat literate and have a rough grasp of proper etiquette. The main focus f their training had always been martial arts. After all, martial power had always been the most secure way to ensure the house's survival.

Lorist had changed this because wanted to fix the house's problem with lacking heirs, especially those left by his deceased elder brothers. He made it compulsory to attend Nico Academy and be schooled in basic culture and etiquette when they turned twelve. They would only begin martial training at the age of 15. He needed the next generation to have a broader view of the world.

Nico Academy was a boarding school. It aimed at developing independent people who could function on their own. It also wanted to build circles of common interest and identification beyond the family or town, to build a sense of unity between people from all across the Norton lands.

Lysecott, after enrolling at the academy, broke free of Madam Malek's discipline. He returned to his old ways almost immediately after getting used to the academy. In the couple of months he'd been at the academy he'd gotten into numerous fights and was now the academy's worst terror. Even the young female instructor in charge of him couldn't control him. She'd punished him a few times in the beginning, but he quickly started cursing at her and using his position as the duke's son to threaten her. He'd threatened to torture her until she died once he grew up.

It eventually escalated beyond anyone's control. The instructed ran to the headmistress, crying. Telesti had since sought the young master out numerous times to try and reason with him, but he acted very differently in front of her. He was always humble, polite, and willing to accept criticism, but returned to is cruel ways the moment she left. With those above him unable to keep him under control, he'd become the academy's little boss.

He thought he was free to do what he wanted, that he was out of his father's gaze. He did not know that Lorist had sent people to keep an eye on him. Furybear's informants noted his performance and recorded and passed on everything to their lord. Lorist became more and more dissatisfied with his eldest as he read through the dossier.

Telesti had refused Lorist's proposal and given up her claim to a position in his family. Her daughter, thus, didn't have his family name, but their mother's instead. Lorist was very unhappy with this state of affairs, but he couldn't do anything about it; he at least had to respect his lover's decision.

His eldest daughter, Nico Olijess, was eleven years old, and her younger sister, Nico Freycia, seven. Both were wonderful cute little girls. They had grown into two little princesses loved by many under their mother's intensive care and tutoring. Lorist didn't visit them at the academy often, but sent gifts frequently. He also had them come visit him wherever he was from time to time and would always spoiled them when they did. Telesti hadn't let the girls visit him since his marriage, however.

The last entry in the dossier recorded an incident which had happened 20 days earlier. The two girls had been playing in the garden in the rear of the academy. They ran into Lysecott, who'd been skipping class. The little tyrant didn't know the two fairies were his half-sisters. Seeing their beauty, he started harassing them. The informants watching over him couldn't stand by idly, knowing the identity of the two girls. They were just about to take action when someone else stepped in.

Lorist's nephew, the son of his eldest brother, Helias, 15 years old, stepped in to put a stop to what was happening. He was about to transfer to Dawn Academy the following year for his martial training He was considered one of Nico Academy's honor students, and had graduated only a short while before the incident.

Lysecott left fuming. He returned to his room and took out his shortsword. He hid it under his clothes and confronted Helias during lunch. He suddenly started stabbing and slashing the boy during their confrontation. Caught off guard, Helias couldn't react in time and was severely injured before the nearby instructors managed to subdue his attacker. Telesti was completely shocked by the incident and had Lysecott imprisoned. Whilst being taken away the kid threatened to kill anyone who crossed him when he became duke.

It was a horrible scandal. Fortunately, Helias survived. Worried that the news would affect the house's reputation, Telesti silenced everyone who witnessed or knew of what happened.

"Why wasn't I informed immediately?!" shouted Lorist furiously.

"Maybe Miss Telesti is still fretting over how to punish your son. I don't think, considering his identity, she knows what to do. She's no doubt very afraid that others will think she has some personal vendetta since she also has your children."

"That's her academy. What does she have to worry about? If she can't even deal with something like this, how can she run the academy? Lysecott should've been disciplined when he left Madam Malek's care. I'd like to know why starting assuming he was my heir de jure after going to the academy. Who put that idea in his head? He's always talking about what he'll do once he takes over. He didn't even think that he might not let him inherit my title."

Lorist paced around impatiently.

"Maybe I should revoke his position as heir apparent..."

Charade choked a few times.

"You can do anything but that, Your Grace!"

"Why not?"

"You have to think about Anderbael's welfare."

Anderbael was Lorist's youngest son, and his firstborn with Sylvia.

"What does this have to do with little Andy?"

"If you revoke Lysecott's title as heir apparent it'll look like you're preparing things so Anderbael can take his position. If this is done before everyone learns what Lysecott did to merit this, people will think that you're favoring Anderbael and going against your oath. It won't just hurt your vassal's loyalty, it'll damage the house's reputation. And if an outsider decides to interfere things will only get worse. It's fine to punish Lysecott, but don't take away his title, at least not until we can be sure others will understand why and support your decision."

Lorist nodded slowly.

"You're right. I was a little too quick to decide what to do. I can come back to this when the children are older."

The study's door opened at this moment and Lorist's three disciples entered.

"What are your orders, Your Grace?" asked Reidy.

Lorist took the elegant gold-laced horsewhip from Jinolio and waved it around a few times. The whip clapped loudly each time it whiplashed through the air. He handed it back to Reidy.

"Take this to Nico Academy and tie Lysecott up. Give him 30 lashes in front of all the students. I want each lash to draw blood. Don't stop no matter who tries to stop you. If they want to know why you're doing this, tell them I told you to do this myself. If they don't listen, kill them on the spot!"

"Understood, Your Grace."

Reidy accepted the whip and turned to leave.

"Reidy, hold on a moment. Send him to Maplewoods afterwards and tell Irina he doesn't have to attend the academy anymore."

"By your command."

When the three had left, Charade smiled bitterly.

"This is the same as revoking his title in all but name. What will he learn in Maplewoods? You know exactly what he'll become without proper training and several more years of Irina spoiling him."

"It's what they deserve," Lorist said, his eyes abyssal, "I remembered a report I saw soon after Lysecott went to Malek's family. They had frequent visitors. At the time I thought they were just household friends visiting the couple, but I now realize they were there to influence Lysecott. No wonder he didn't change at all despite them teaching him properly for several years."

Charade creased.

"Isn't this a conspiratorial, Your Grace? I visited Baron Malek's household several times as well."

"Hahaha... You only visit once or twice. The people I'm talking about sometimes went there even several times a week. I thought Madam Malek was just very popular but that clearly wasn't the case. We should know soon as Howard goes through Furybear's records."

Chapter 447 - Knight Lundmorde

"I've returned, Your Grace."

Tarkel appeared before Lorist fifteen days later.

He had had no choice in his travel to Morante. He'd been sent to the city in the 8th month of the previous year. Knight Lundmorde, we had previously served on the frontlines as a medic, had gone missing along with his secret bodyguard after being ambushed by a unit of mid-southern forces. When word of it got out, the four wives in Morante at the time set out to look for him, causing the flow of information to stop. Tarkel had to check on the situation personally.

"Did you find him?" asked Lorist.

Lundmorde was a legendary figure in the house. He used to be an honor student in Dawn Academy's herbalism faculty, but he was suppressed because he differed from his professor on a key research topic. Coincidentally, Charade was rallying a force for their move to the north. Feeling he had lost his future at the academy, Lundmorde was swayed and became one of the 36 students to join the convoy.

He didn't make any outstanding contributions during the journey. But he was really responsible with the herbalist team of which he was in charge. His capable leadership had won Lorist's trust by the time they reached The Northlands.

After finally finishing the journey, he became a household knight. He refused the appointment to head of the herbalist teams and instead joined the newly formed female knight unit as an instructor. He said he wanted to teach them some herbal remedies useful on the battlefield.

He shocked everyone soon after doing just that. Barely three months after joining the group, he'd already knocked up seven of the trainees. What was even more shocking, was that they all wanted to marry him. Their insistence drove Pesha irate. She dragged him in front of Lorist and demanded he do something about the man. In the end, Lorist decided his punishment was to marry all the women he'd knocked up.

His life collapsed nearly immediately. On top of his suffering, he became infamous thanks to the records he set.

His first was that he had the most wives of all the household knights — seven in total. Fiercetiger Loze had many lovers, but only one wife: Pesha.

His second was being the most surveilled man in the duchy. His seven tiger-like wives always had him under eyes.

The third was being the most virile knight in the duchy. He had 17 children among his seven wives. He had no choice but to work every waking moment of his life to keep them all fed and looked after. No matter how far into the night or how bad the weather, he could always be seen scurrying down the street carrying his medical kit — of to answer some call for treatment. He naturally became known as the most dedicated herbalist in the duchy. Given his 'talent' and his age, many had ongoing bets regarding how many offspring he'd sire before he turned 50.

His fourth was being the poorest knight of all. His entire income went to his wives. They only gave him one small silver a month with which to feed himself. It was more accurate to say he got an allowance from his wives, than a salary from his lord. And he had no say in the matter. The family was huge and the costs of running it immense, and he was the sole breadwinner.

All Norton knights had rather decent benefits alongside their salary. Even if they didn't make much progress in their training, a silver-ranked knight's yearly salary was around ten gold Fordes. To the knights of other houses, that was enough to live luxuriously and free from worry. But Lundmorde would be satisfied if it kept his family fed.

His punishment meant he couldn't take up other posts either, so he had lost the opportunity to earn a higher income and get better benefits. It forced him to wander around as a freelance herbalist for extra income. It did result in him becoming quite well-known and well-loved in the in the duchy, though, especially because he was willing to treat illnesses for food, fur, or just some fruit.

His fifth record was that he was the most abused knight in the house's service. While others only had to deal with one or two wives, he had to deal with seven. All of whom were talented warriors with extensive training.

While his wives took care of his children, he had to toil day and night to earn a living. His house was always merry. Once one of the wives got some new clothes, the others would want some too. When one broke through in her training, the others were quick to catch up. Lundmorde could only resign himself to his position.

When the last of his wives broke through to the silver rank, he was still stuck at the rank's first star. He had not advanced at all since his academy days. He was also only an average swordsman, so his wives had no trouble overpowering if they got into a fight or if he tried to fight back against their abuse. The greatest blow to his hope of ever being free of his seven demons came when they broke through to the silver rank. Pesha offered them another chance at becoming part of the all-female knight unit, but they turned it down.

His wives were, though horrible wives, at least responsible mothers. The biggest issue was that there were way too many of them — as far as Lundmorde was concerned, seven too many. It was very common to see all seven walking around green-eyed. In fact, they hadn't turned down Pesha's invitation because they had no interest in becoming great or famous warriors, but because they were afraid that if anyone didn't join, they would use the opportunity to bamboozle the others out of their share of the house's finances. Besides, they already had a husband to give them the money they needed, so why take the risk?

At one alumni gathering, Lundmorde had recounted his typical day to his fellow students. They were so depressed on his behalf they all cried together. He didn't have a chance to really enjoy a good chat with his old friends, though, because one of his wives showed up and dragged him away. When she burst into the tavern she shouted at him. He jumped back and hopped over like a frightened hare. That was the moment that everyone understood why his marrying the seven women was a punishment.

When Bullhorn Bay was finished and the trade route to Morante established, he was sent to the city to gather information. Lorist had originally relied on the Peterson guild and Red Grace Inn for information, but that dried up quickly. Lorist soured his relationship with the big-seven on his last visit, so he couldn't trust that the guild, being one of the big-seven, would give him crucial information that might not be very beneficial to the Union. And, considering his soured relationship with the Union's leaders, he didn't want to drag old Char into the mess.

The two had a good relationship, the old man was Els's uncle and rather close to Reidy. Lorist, however, was a noble from a hostile kingdom, and had a sour relationship with the Union, so it was likely that the old man and his inn would get into trouble if it was discovered it was being used as a gathering point for Lorist's informants. To avoid involving Charlando and his family in any trouble related to the house, Lorist set up another gathering spot for his informants. The man he sent to set it up and run it? Lundmorde, of course. He was the most suited for the job, after all.

Firstly, he was a herbalist who had some semblance of a reputation in the city. It was also only known that he'd left the city, not that he had pledged himself to House Norton. Most people just assumed he had left because of his falling out with his professor. It was only natural that he would eventually return and settle down in his home city.

Given his profession, he could also set up his own apothecary in the city's commoner sector and his wives could be his assistants and guardians. They were even stronger than him, so there would be no need to send others along.

He thus set out for the city with four of his wives. The other three stayed behind to raise the children. The three weren't very happy about not being able to go to the city, so it was decided that they would rotate annually. Every year one of the four in Morante and one of the three back home would switch places.

Lundmorde's was really efficient. All sorts of information started to flood onto Lorist's deck soon after the man left. At the same time, his apothecary became quite popular. It was a huge change for Lundmorde. The commoners in Morante were far richer than those in The Northlands and all the profit was his to keep. Given his extra income, Lundmorde himself slowly became rich.

He initially used the Peterson guild to ferry his reports to the Northlands, but as the situation between Andinaq and the Union worsened, they could eventually not be trusted with such sensitive information. Lorist gave him an eagle with which to send his messages out of the city, but that was his downfall. The cover story was that a relative of his who lived far away from the city had sent him the eagle to help them keep in touch. It unfortunately caught the eye of one of the Union's new nobles, who forced him to sell it to him. The eagle, luckily, remembered its training and flew back to the dominion the first time the lord took it out on a hunt.

Incensed, the noble ransacked his house to make sure it hadn't returned to its former owner. He found nothing and had to let the incident go. The noble, however, had every intention of getting back at Lundmorde for this perceived wrong. When the war between the Union and its neighbors started, he made sure the herbalist was forcefully conscripted and sent to the frontlines.

His departure cut the flow of information. Luckily two of his wives knew of his mission and were scheduled to return home soon. They informed Tarkel of the situation and he sent two agents to replace him.

The younger of the two was sent to Lundmorde's side as a relative to keep him safe, while the other took over his position in the apothecary. The latter, unfortunately, did not have Lundmorde's more sensitive, well-placed, and important connections, so the information he could get was mostly of only passing interest.

The last year's 8th month saw the war rapidly deteriorate. One of the enemy's armies assaulted a Union logistics center. It was just a skirmish as far as the war was concerned, something the history books would easily overlook, but Lundmorde and his young guard were involved. When the Union sent reinforcements to clean up the mess, they found Lundmorde and his guard missing. The moment his wives found out what had happened, they packed up and left to look for their husband. Not even Lundmorde's replacement in the apothecary could stop them; he could just send a report back home with all expediency.

Tarkel had mobilized several experienced units and had headed off immediately to clean up the mess.

"We've located Lundmorde. He's been captured by the army that attacked the camp. We can't bring them back, however. The Union's declared him a traitor," said Tarkel with a bitter smile.

"What?!"

Lorist felt faint.

"...The Union managed to capture a few of the Jekhano Kingdom's men, among them was the kingdom's eldest prince and heir apparent. He was severely injured and the Union didn't know of his identity. Lundmorde insisted on treating him and managed to save him. The prince's other subordinates attacked soon after, rescued the prince and took Lundmorde and his guard with them.

"The traces they left behind guided his four wives to them but the Union scout saw the reunion. When he reported what he saw to his superiors, the Union ruled that Lundmorde must have been a sleeper agent and declared him a traitor. They blamed him for camp's loss as well so they didn't have to worry about taking responsibility for their failures."

Lorist didn't know how to react.

"So there really is no way Lundmorde can go back to the Union now. We'll have to bring him back sooner or later."

"Of course, Your Grace. It's just that we haven't found a reliable way to do that yet. We'll have to wait for the war to end."

"Learn anything else on your trip?"

Tarkel hesitated for a few moments before he answered.

"I suspect this whole war is a big conspiracy…"

Chapter 448 - Conspiracy

Within the wide, illuminated meeting room hung map after map of the mid-southern nations. There weren't many people present, only Lorist, Tarkel, Charade, and Kedan, who had replaced Hansk. Reidy, Howard, and Jinolio remained seated to the side.

Tarkel was arranging some documents. He stood in front of one of the maps with a wooden pointer.

"The Union has swallowed nine nations, including Teribo, since the War of Glass. Not including Lormo and Mobia, which gave up their sovereignty voluntarily. It has become one of the largest nations on the continent. Most of the other nations have weakened since the start of its rise. Trade routes have been cut and borders sealed. Everyone around the Union is wary of its domineering attitude.

Four years ago, the big-seven guilds organized an effort to increase their sphere of influence by enacting regulations to restore order to trade and resolving some of its internal conflicts. They then turned their attention to their neighbors. They had hoped to smooth over their relationship and get the borders re-opened and be able to start trading again. The neighboring nations did not trust them enough to give them a chance, however. The Union has become the greatest threat to peace, so no one will give them a chance to get stronger."

Tarkel tapped the map in front of him.

"The middle part of the continent has formed its own loose coalition of kingdoms over the last 300 years. While there are frequent conflicts between the 34 member kingdoms, they always stand together when someone outside the coalition threatens them. The most recent such threats were the Krissen Empire, the Romon Empire, and the Khawistan Khanate.

"The two kingdoms that usually faced the last two were Kalia and Jigda. Jigda is separated from their opponent, the Romon Empire, by the Erimalaf mountains and the impregnable Madris Pass. They haven't actually fought much as a result. Kalia is the kingdom that's done most of the actual defending.

"Before this, the windstorm swordsaint used to represent Kalia. The kingdom was adept at balancing relations between the two superpowers and were supported by seven neighboring nations. Until recently, they'd been keeping the peace very effectively; it's been 30 years since the last conflict. Neither of Kalia's opponents were willing to sit by and watch their enemy take over the kingdom. Its fall to the enemy meant the enemy had the opportunity to raid the other kingdoms to the north. Neither side could afford to give the other a chance to gain so much and tip the balance in their favor.

"However, it wasn't the legendary windstorm swordsaint that caused Romon and Khawistan to refrain from invading. The two superpowers each had one swordsaint after all. There were also rumors that the windstorm swordsaint had a really bad relationship with the royal family. Someone involved revealed that the Union had been working on him for seven years before finally getting him to switch sides.

"That is the truth of Kalia's demise. Romon and Khawistan cooperatively divided Kalia's territory among them evenly before going into all-out war with each other. The war has been going for three years now and neither side has much stamina left. Romon currently has the advantage. However, according to intelligence reports from Romon, most of the nobles are asking the king to end the war.

"Jigda became the coalitions front line. Though the 34 stand together, they're actually divided into five factions.

"The Union leads the northernmost faction, the nations on their side are mostly those that fought alongside the Union against the Krissen Empire. In the south is the faction led by Kalia. The other factions are sandwiched in between them. It's almost impossible to figure out what geographical area each of the three controls because it's one big orgy of marriage alliances and chaotic borders. They send supplies, money, and the occasional expedition to whichever border nation is currently facing invasion from outside the coalition, but are nearly wholly occupied with their own squabbles and feuds.

"The old empire fought them and the union on the Falik Plains for over a century. The only reason the union didn't collapse was that the coalition kept on helping them out. The empire collapsed instead. With the threat to the north eliminated, the force that kept the alliance between the Union and the coalition going, disappeared. The War of Glass severed what goodwill still existed between the Union and its former allies, especially after its absorption of nine of the coalition's members. The Union has become another nation filled with ambitions for the coalition's territory, another enemy to fight."

Tarkel took a folder from his aide. It was a report by the Morante Daily from three years ago with the headline 'Coalition's army invades! 300 Union soldiers make heroic sacrifice!'

Tarkel waved the newspaper around as he spoke.

"This is how the conflict started. As the newspaper reports, it was the coalition's army that attacked one of the Union's camps first. We didn't think much about it at the time. And nothing came of it. A year later, however, the Union suddenly marched on the border and stood off against the coalition; 140 thousand men on the Union's side, and at least 200 thousand on the coalition's side.

"When I visited Morante, people in the loop obtained some fresh information. Some say this was because the coalition's army didn't prepare for war to break out at all. They had stationed their troops there only in defense. To the various nations, the Union was a force so huge they didn't dare offend it. Gathering 200 thousand men was only a show of force to have a better position in negotiations. Why would members of the coalition attack if they were too afraid of provoking the Union?

"I've discovered that the unit that attacked the Union first was sent by Jigda. After the war broke out, it used the excuse of the backlash from the other nobles for their drawing first blood to return to their nation. There are a few crucial things worth mentioning. The windstorm swordsaint's departure to the Union as well as the smooth division of Kalia's territory is highly suspect.

"Then, there's also the immediate outbreak of war between the two empires. It was as if they wanted to duke it out first before going for the richer coalition.

"Additionally, with Kalia eliminated, Jigda had to defend against the two, making them the most important and influential nation in the coalition. It's strange that the kingdom isn't worried about the two empires on their border. They were the biggest contributor of forces to the border with the Union before the war started.

"While it's one of the strongest proponents of the anti-Union sentiment, they're all bark and no bite. Apart from sending out the first unit to kick off the war, they haven't provided any substantial aid. Even when the Union's armies completely dominate the coalition, all Jigda does is complain about how incompetent the commanders are.

"Duke Fustat was appointed commander-in-chief and took an army of 200 thousand to face the Union. I think the damage Jigda has done to its neighbors is much worse than what the Union has managed.

"Duke Fustat has also been very passive as of late. He hasn't just completely ignored Chikdor's territory, he's also refused to send troops to reinforce his allies before they agree that he is in charge.

"Chikdor is exposed. It's too far from the Union for it to support the guild. It's also only a kingdom and a duchy away from Jigda. Duke Fustat could easily occupy the territory but he's not doing anything.

"And every time someone tries to bring it up, he either tells them his forces aren't organized yet or says he can't move out until this with Romon and Khawistan calms down.

"Then there's the very convenient coincidence that the Union and Jigda appear to be moving in concert. The Union occupied the kingdoms and duchies bordering them and immediately shifted the bulk of their forces to Chikdor's territory. It looks like they want to crush Duke Fustat's army.

"But now there appears to be a dance going on. The Union invades, takes over some territory, but just as it seems they're about to break through and completely ravage the coalition, Duke Fustat intervenes and pushes them back to Chikdor's borders. People have missed something key, though. Every time Fustat takes action against the union, he also annexed land from the kingdoms and duchies around him. He's already taken over five kingdoms. The Union magically knows where to attack to capture the kingdoms' heirs or rulers. They always vanish or die in the fighting. Fustat than takes over their lands to ensure stability. I have no doubt the kingdoms will be incorporated when the war ends.

"The Union's armies have suffered rather heavily in these engagements, that's why Duke Fustat hasn't garnered any suspicion yet. However, when I was in Morante, I discovered that the Union troops sacrificed weren't the big-seven's forces. They were all always from second or third-rate guilds and mercenary bands. The big-seven's forces will take a territory, then turn it over to the smaller forces to hold. The enemy will attack right after the big-seven withdraw..."

Tarkel used pointed at the map with the distribution of territorial control between the Union and the coalition.

"Because of these six points, we suspect the whole war is a farce, a show put on by Jigda and the Union so they can swallow the other kingdoms and duchies. Jigda might become another superpower like the Union by the end of the war."

That was the conspiracy Tarkel suspected. Everyone in the conference looked at each other, flabbergasted. It sounded a little far-fetched. If it really was so, then the continent was going to change drastically in the coming years. The formation of new superpowers would usher the continent into a new age of struggles. The warring states era would come to an end.

"Are the kings and dukes that blind? Don't they suspected anything at all?" asked Spiel.

"Maybe they do, but I can't be sure. This is all happening quite far away. Furybear can't stretch its claws that far yet. We can't get any concrete information. However, given the chaotic situation they are in, the kings and dukes are probably trying to rake in benefits. Maybe they haven't even considered that they would be the targets of others.

"Then again, it's not like there aren't any clear-headed people in the coalition at all. I visited the frontlines. I got to know the prince of Jekhano through Knight Lundmorde. The prince is quite bright and he also suspects Jigda of colluding with the Union. He was in the midst of his investigation into the matter when his unit was attacked. Fortunately, Lundmorde saved him.

"The prince had prepared to form an alliance with the surrounding nations to defend themselves against Jigda. They wish to break off from the coalition Fustat controls and form their own coalition to defend against both. Maybe they will be forced by circumstances to unite into another large kingdom. The only shame is that we don't have access to their trade routes. They really need military equipment and daily necessities, things we can offer in abundance," said Tarkel.

Lorist stood up.

"Let's adjourn the meeting for today. We've gained a basic understanding of the situation. The war is a little too far from The Northlands, so even if the conspiracy is real, it won't affect us in the near future. I am confident that, as long as we stay strong, we have no need to fear becoming embroiled in any storms."

"Yes, Your Grace."

Chapter 449 - Helplessness

Howard stood with Tarkel before Lorist and said, "Milord, the results of the investigation are in."

Lorist handed a signed document to Charade, his face stone cold.

"Tell me who had a part in this."

Howard opened the blue folder and took out a piece of paper.

"Knight Ziwek's wife, Lady Moya, Supervisor Youkiz's wife Seshla, Miss Krado and Knight Lambord's wife, Lady Darley. They are the ones who visited the Malek household the most. As Milord said, they visit at least three times a week with the express aim of getting on Madam Malek's good side. They all used to be Irina's maidservants from Maplewoods. Even Supervisor Youkiz was a bastide servant."

"What's going on with Ziwek and Lambord? Why have they taken Irina's maidservants as wives?"

Lorist snapped his quill in fury and dropped it. He recalled that the knights used to be refugees. They had joined the northbound convoy. They served as guards and were eventually taken in as household knights when they broke through to the silver rank and made captains of Firmrock regiments. Lambord was even going to be promoted to major for his contributions.

"Ziwek and Lambord were guards when they got to know their wives. They had asked Irina for the hands of her maidservants in marriage, but were refused. Four years ago when Young Master Lysecott was sent to Baron Malek's manor, Madam Irina agreed to the proposals. Their wives asked them to move to Redriver, which is near Baron Malek's manor.

"I recall Ziwek had boasted in a tavern that his new wife was really attentive. Firmrock was stationed in Redriver at the time, so the move wasn't an issue. He said his wife sold her house in Felicitas to move to Redriver because she wasn't willing to stay far away from him. So, moving would make it more convenient to visit her when he was off duty. After Madam Malek was acquainted with the two, and Supervisor Youkiz's wife, the visits became more frequent and they would often have tea and snacks together.

"The informants in charge of recording Young Master Lysecott daily life didn't notice anything untoward. Since they were wives of household knights, they also tried not to pry too deep and avoided them. As a result, they didn't keep a close eye on their interactions with the young lord. When I went to investigate, the two informants only recalled that the ladies seemed to have a good relationship with him."

Tarkel's became quieter as he spoke. It was a huge blunder. Lorist had strictly ordered that Irina not be allowed to interfere with Lysecott's growth and education, yet a small detour was enough to continue with her meddling without anyone noticing. Had it not been for his suspicions, no one would have known. This was a slight on Tarkel, who was put in charge of the house's intelligence network.

"Who is this Supervisor Youkiz?"

Howard checked the folder.

"Youkiz used to be Maplewoods servant, He was a favorite of Supervisor Hansk. His first wife was also a bastide servant. She died in childbirth. Youkiz is a responsible and reliable fellow who does what he is told properly.

"After Young Master Lysecott was brought to Baron Malek's household, Supervisor Hansk suggested Madam Irina let the kitchen's chief maid, Seshla, marry Youkiz as his second wife. At the same time, they made him the chief supervisor of the servants working across eight different manors and used it as an excuse to acquaint him with Madam Malek. Given his wife's culinary talent, Madam Malek invited her over frequently. Lambord and Ziwek's wives were also introduced to Madam Malek through Seshla."

"That's enough!" Lorist roared as he slammed his table.

Documents, a few ink bottles, and some utensils fell to the ground.

"Very impressive. They managed to weave such a huge net without anyone noticing. It's no wonder Lysecott didn't change at all. He even learned how to put up a front..."

Lorist paced around in the study. Charade, Tarkel, and Howard remained silent. They knew the flames of wrath burned in Lorist and they didn't know when they would explode.

"Chief Supervisor Charade, how do you think we should deal with this?"

"Your Grace, is there a need to go so far? You've already all but disinherited Young Master Lysecott. As for Lambord and Ziwek, they are entirely unaware of this. Even Supervisor Youkiz is just a loyal and honest servant.

"This is a conspiracy of their wives under instructions by Irina. No one in the house will accept the punishment of innocent bystanders. Even if it is by your order. If you punish their wives—" Charade paused, "—Your Grace, they are not wrong to worry about Young Master Lysecott. There is no good excuse to punish them. Instead, this would affect your reputation and become a scandal..."

Charade was right. This was not something that could be brought up publicly. No matter who it was, they would believe Irina was only looking out for her son, which was only to be expected.

Lorist continued his pacing, dissatisfied.

"Charade, transfer Ziwek, Lambord, and Youkiz to Hanayabarta for ten years starting next year's 5th month."

For the second time in his life, and the second time in as many weeks, Lorist was exiling people under him in all but name. Hanayabarta was far from the continent, at least a month removed by sea. Charade shook his head exasperatedly. He did not protest, however, he knew there was no further compromise to be made.

"By your command, Your Grace. How shall we treat them?"

"Like everyone else," Lorist replied, before he turned to Tarkel, "The house will likely not deploy any forces for the next two years. We need to let our forces rest and recuperate. It's okay to relax foreign intelligence a little. I need you to help Howard set up an internal security department. First, we have to deal with the various relations within our dominion. Give me a list of everyone who has close relations and frequent contact with the bastide. I'm sure Hanayabarta will appreciate a few more helping hands."

"Understood, Your Grace," replied Howard and Tarkel together.

"Your Grace shouldn't cause such a ruckus over this," Charade advised when the two had left the study.

Lorist sat down and clutched his head.

"Sigh, you don't understand. I already knew something was off when so many people opposed my marriage to Sylvia. The net was woven right under my nose without my noticing. I am shocked. I never expected the little birdie to grow into such an ambitious and scheming wench..."

Charade kept his mouth shut, pretending he hadn't heard anything. After all, this was one of those family matters Lorist was so touchy on. He considered it wholly inappropriate and unacceptable for anyone else to have an opinion.

Lorist looked at Charade's feigned ignorance and laughed.

"That's why I want to cut off all her tentacles. She really doesn't understand what's at stake. She dared to use her maidservants to rope in my household knights. Since she likes it so much, I'll let her weave her net in Hanayabarta.

"You don't have to pretend you can't hear me. I need you to keep an eye on them. Have Howard and Tarkel first investigate the staff in Cherry Blossom Ridge. I don't want anyone with any connections, even if they're two degrees separated through family or friends, with the bastide or anyone in the bastide. Same goes for anyone brought up the ranks by Hansk. Move them somewhere else. I want nothing that can endanger Anderbael or Sylvia anywhere near them."

"Understood, Your Grace," Charade nodded.

Lorist finally sat back down.

"New year's is in a few days, our celebration will start soon. I bet Felim, Kenmays, and Hennard will arrive tomorrow. Is everything ready?"

"Don't worry, Your Grace. We're more than prepared. They might not stay in the mansion, though. Their private manors were recently completed in the special noble sector. Naturally, Duke Kenmays's is the grandest in the city. Rumour has it he plans to host non-stop banquets all through the winter after our new year's celebration ends."

"He's always like that. He loves enjoying himself and making merry. He could maintain another legion with the money he splurges on banquets and feasts."

Lorist sometimes envied Kenmays's hedonistic life. He didn't have any worries at all. Apart from running the salt merchant committee, he didn't have to deal with anything as Lorist took care of everything else. There was nothing Kenmays had to fear.

Year 1784 soon arrived. The house held a grand celebration which lasted for seven days straight. It was the first celebration in two years, so there was quite a bit of ceremony to get out of the way. The duchy had 14 new landed barons and seven honorary barons to enfeoff and entitle. There were also a hundred foreign honorary nobles who'd converted their titles in the last two years.

The house hosted a second banquet after the first ended. Howard and Katrina were the guests of honor this time. Everyone was celebrating their marriage. Felim had declared in front of everyone in attendance that he was giving a new viscounty around Boblige to his daughter. Thi enraged Duke Fisablen and made all the other nobles envious. Luckily the old man kept himself under control and didn't cause a ruckus.

Lorist had not expected the duke to head to The Northlands to attend the celebration, but it wasn't an unpleasant surprise. It wasn't like he could stop him anyway. Even Sylvia couldn't keep him from coming — he was playing the role of Xanthi's chaperone. The girl had no desire to see the old man, but she had little choice but to exchange pleasantries with him. She was still very close to her adoptive mother, but the woman's tense relationship with her husband troubled her.

The whole thing was awkward for Lorist. He had to be polite during the war for the sake of appearances and to keep military cooperation going smoothly. That, and he couldn't be seen to be disobeying his king's orders to get along with his rival. They had helped each other out a few times but he still considered House Fisablen his greatest threat.

What made things even more awkward was that the old man had switched gears completely with Anderbael's birth. He no longer acted like the rival proper as he should; he was now a pitous grandfather-in-law. The sudden and extreme changed completely unnerved Lorist. The only thing he could do to ease his discomfort was to mock the old man for his thick skin. He couldn't believe his rival was now suddenly acting like his senior. Even so, it wasn't like he could chase him away. He gave in and welcomed them with a smile and hospitality.

His visit wasn't just awkwardness, though; he brought with him a two million gold Forde order. He couldn't be bamboozled as he had been last time, however. He absolutely refused to purchase anything at the five-fold increase in price he had to with their last transaction. He demanded market price and wouldn't accept a copper more. If Lorist couldn't satisfy him he would make the deal with Auguslo instead.

The king had just reclaimed eleven provinces. Territories like Handra, Forund, and Farkel had pretty developed handcraft industries where daily necessities could be produced. Though Lorist had swept Farkel's craftsmen clean, if Fisablen really gave the order to him, it would spur the economy on and the king would benefit a lot.

He's a real fox, that bastard, thought Lorist.

House Fisablen's submission and return to the kingdom had completely ruined his plans.

He knew the Duke Fisablen had offered the order as a gesture of friendship. Kenmays was chomping at the bit to close the deal. They wouldn't make as much out of it as they had last time, but it was still 400 thousand clean profit.

This wasn't the only hit the duke would get in on him, though. They had barely finished talking about the first order when the duke hit with his second offer. He offered to allow the salt merchant committee to send an annual convoy to the eastern plains to trade directly with the barbarians. He would obviously handle the convoy's security, but other than that he would have minimal involvement.

Kenmays almost wanted to bite off Lorist's leg so he could run around hugging it all day. His eyes bled the blood-wine mixture in his veins.

"Do you have any idea how much money we'll get from this?"

Lorist kicked the leech away.

"Fine, you win. I agree."

Chapter 450 - A Peaceful Year

1784 was a rare year where Lorist got to spend his time in comfort and peace. The house was moving towards prosperity and there were no longer enemies in the region. He had toiled without rest to protect it in the past, from building up his military, to preparing for battle, to developing the dominion non-stop, to leading the troops to defeat one noble house after another...

Finally, he could spend some time in the dominion, quietly. Most matters were on track and didn't need his oversite. The once desolate and rural Northlands had turned into a symbol of prosperity. Developed residential areas, busy city squares, newly opened shops and workshops, and endless fields of golden crops painted a mural of hope and peace. In contrast, his enemies and rivals were ridden with famine and chaos. He was certain the rest of the year would be quite peaceful.

Auguslo was busy managing his new gains. Naturally, he cared more about expanding his armies than appeasing the populace. All his resources were spent on his forces. It slowed the return of civilian life to normal and the provinces' repair. The king even had to buy 400 thousand gold Fordes' daily necessities from House Norton.

According to Furybear's informants, there were only 350 thousand people left in the eleven provinces. The king was relying on the seven still in decent shape to form seven field legions and two garrison legions, nearly 350 thousand men in total. He was obsessed with military expansion

He had changed some of his tactics, though. Instead of keeping the soldiers in barracks all the time, he allowed them to farm part-time. They had to till the soil along with their normal military training. He had learned at least part of the lesson. He intended to create a well-trained force this time rather than the ragtag militia he had used in the past. Their upkeep, however, drove his entire demesne, from peer to peasant, into extreme poverty.

Charade reminded Lorist that he shouldn't be careless in light of the king's expansion. He might change his mind and turn on them. Lorist just laughed. He told Charade that their king wouldn't be that irrational. Besides, even if Auguslo wished to go against The Northlands, what threat could he pose with just 300 thousand average troops? The Northlands wasn't directly connected to the king's demesne. Even if he wanted to launch an attack, he would have to occupy Southern. This would immediately warn them of his intentions and not do any direct harm.

House Fisablen's changes shocked Lorist the most. The duke returned to Eastwild after spending the winter in The Northlands. Upon his return, he started a complete reorganization of his armies. He disbanded the three frontier legions and the garrison legion in Crouchtiger Castle, and formed two garrison legions, each around 28 thousand strong, as well as two cavalry legions around 45 thousand strong. He stationed one garrison legion and one cavalry legion in Eastwild and Goldcreek respectively.

In some sense, Duke Fisablen's reorganization could be taken as down-sizing of his forces. He had 20 thousand men less in his forces after the reorganization. However, it served to decrease his neighbors' hostility and wariness. The frontier legions were known for their surprise attacks, after all.

Kenmays's salt merchant committee sent a large convoy to the east in the 6th month. They continued to trade for four months. The convoy returned triumphantly in the 10th month with more than two million gold Fordes in profit. Kenmays had barely set foot back in his domain and he was already gathering up the goods for the following year's convoy.

Lorist wasn't that surprised. Given how large the great northeastern plains were, the number of grassland barbarians living there was surely hard to count. House Fisablen was considered the plains' hegemon, but it only occupied the southeastern part of the plains, a third of its entirety at best. They controlled the trade routes tightly and without their permission, no convoy could enter the plains.

The house had, in the past, bought large quantities of goods from the salt merchant committee and resold it to the barbarians at two or three times the buying price. That was also one of the reasons Lorist had attacked them. He wanted control of those routes instead. On the one hand, he wanted to suppress the house's expansion, and, on the other, he wanted a bite of the cake.

Before Kenmays set out with the convoy, Lorist reminded him to check the records of their sales to House Fisablen in the past. He shouldn't bring what he thought the barbarians needed over there and should avoid selling the same things House Fisablen had bought in the past. These things had already been sold to the barbarians and wouldn't fetch as good a price. It was best to take things they didn't have.

Kenmays listened carefully to his friend's advice and closely analyzed the list. His analysis revealed two golden opportunities. The first was that the products House Fisablen had purchased from them were durable, they could withstand lots of punishment and still work. Such things usually sold for very little. The second was that House Fisablen only bought three types of consumables: salt, tea bricks, and linen.

Kenmays came to a simple conclusion: there were different social classes even among the barbarians. He should cater his sales to each of the different classes. He thus focused his loadout on luxury goods and strong liquor. As expected, they were incredibly popular and the fierce demand raised the prices mani-fold. He grinned so broadly he couldn't close his mouth.

Unlike Kenmays, who only wanted to focus on forming convoys and doing business, Lorist turned his attention to Wild Husbandry. The province neighbored The Northlands and the bridge House Kenmays had built connected the provinces on either side of the river. This was another way out of the proverbial island of the north.

So far, Houses Norton and Fisablen's borders in Wild Husbandry was the Soxius River. House Norton occupied two-thirds of the province, House Fisablen the rest. Their reorganization, however, saw them withdraw all but a few small garrisons from the entire region.

Lorist had wanted Wild Husbandry solely for trade with the barbarians. If the province was completely under his control, he could build a huge window in the market in Eastwild. It wasn't on the same scale as the annual trade session House Fisablen allowed the salt merchant to commit. Instead, it would be a year-long open market. The potential profit was immense.

However, before he could confirm the province belonged to him, he couldn't realize his dream. The province was supposed to be under House Fisablen's rule in name. This was neither Auguslo's order nor second prince Iblia's decree. It was instead the honor bequeathed by Krissen VII after Duke Fisablen expanded the empire's territory into Eastwild. Krissen VII made Eastwild House Fisablen hereditary fief and gave them jurisdiction over Wild Husbandry as well.

This meant that the reason House Fisablen had three provinces under its control had nothing to do with Auguslo. Wild Husbandry and Eastwild were given to them by Krissen VII and Goldcreek was new territory they had conquered on their own. There would be no problem for them to rule those territories for the foreseeable future.

That was the problem. If he wanted to take Wild Husbandry, even if Duke Fisablen was happy to give it away, Auguslo wouldn't allow it. He would never allow House Norton to take yet another province as long as he had even a peep of say in the matter. If Fisablen relinquished his claim on the territory, Auguslo would claim it for himself.

It's all that old fox's fault. It'd be great if he were still enemies with the alliance. At the very least, he could've waited until I conquered the whole province before going into talks...

If he had conquered the whole of Wild Husbandry, he could have forced House Fisablen to cede land during the ceasefire talks and Auguslo wouldn't have been able to do anything about it since it was awarded as a spoil of war between noble houses in conflict. There would have been no way he could have meddled.

It was good that the duke had made a gesture of amity to the alliance and had even decreased the size of his forces. It was good news to the alliance as they no longer had to worry about him as an enemy, especially since he was Lorist's grandfather-in-law and his wife's grandfather. There was a saying in his previous life, something along the lines of 'it's hard to work against someone closely related'. Lorist believed this was the perfect example.

Having no way to deal with the duke, Lorist could only turn his attention to teaching and guiding his three disciples. After getting his permission, Reidy happily strapped Jinolio onto the rotary device and began the spinning. Three months later, Jinolio managed to develop man-made dynamic vision.

The sight of Jiniolo on the ground, snot leaking out of every hole that had it, was so terrifying it made Freiyar give up on the idea of getting his 16-year-old twin sons to become Lorist's disciples. He decided to keep his sons by his side and teach them himself instead. Though taking Lorist as teacher was something of which to be proud, Reidy told Freiyar that all of his disciples had to suffer the hell he had just witnessed. The twins shrunk after seeing the incessantly vomiting Jinolio, much to Reidy's disappointment.

Lorist trained a lot and accompanied Sylvia and his four concubines these days. He also played with his infant son Anderbael, who loved to crawl around, and taught his three disciples. The days passed quickly and the year's end soon came 'round. Charade was preparing to organize another grand new year's celebration.

Lorist felt the year wasn't really all that productive. The only thing worth mentioning was that he had impregnated Arriotoli during her visits. When she realized she was pregnant after returning to her family barony, she penned a letter and launched into a long stream of curses before declaring. She ended the letter with the declaration that the child would have her name, Dina, not his, and demanded that he leave a barony to the child, be it boy or girl.

To the house's many officials and knights, however, 1784 wasn't a peaceful year at all. They suffered through a massive purge. Every household knight and official with ties to Maplewoods was reassigned to either Hanayabarta or some rural corner far away from Ragebear. Those with key positions in the house were also given only peripheral positions at their new postings.

Lorist brought his wife, concubines, and sons to pay respects to his ancestors during the 8th month. While staying at the bastide to visit Whitedeer Mound, he taught Irina and her two sons a quick lesson before ignoring them completely. He left with his entourage for Nico Academy as soon as the ceremony was over. His visit the bastide and what he did to his ex-concubine and her offspring also informed everyone why he had conducted his purge. The bastide was quickly isolated from the rest of the house, avoided by the officials, and feared by the peasantry.

Kenmays brought a guest with him when he came for the annual celebration: Duke Forund of Yungechandler province. The duke had come to participate on the surface, but the real reason was to ask Lorist for a loan.

He only realized how impoverished his new fief was when he arrived. He tried to forage some minerals to begin developing it and tried to develop part of Egret Swamp into farmland. Unfortunately, he only had a little under a million gold Fordes, far from enough to keep his fief afloat. He had come to ask for a loan of three million gold Fordes.

Kenmays was fine with lending him money as long as Lorist agreed, but he could only give him half of what he needed. Since House Norton was currently pretty well-off, Forund could ask them for the rest. Kenmays was certain, given Lorist's obsession for development, he would be willing to chip in.

Chapter 451 - Joint Development

It was Duke Forund's first visit to The Northlands. He was shocked when he traveled through Delamock. He couldn't believe his eyes when he saw the various fiefs' clearly defined borders, the wide expansive streets, and the farmland beside the road where criss-crossing irrigation routes could be spotted; it all completely turned up-ended his previous impressions regarding the province.

Wasn't the highway supposed to be the empire's worst? The most costly, the longest, and the most indirect? I heard that in order to not infringe on the various nobles' lands, its construction was changed multiple times. It snakes across the land like a drunk reptile. I heard it was so expensive that all the nobles involved were rich by the end... What's with this flat and wide highway? Did Duke Madras build it?

He hadn't passed through Southern, Winston, or Delamock on his way to Yungechandler. He'd instead gone through Egret Swamp. It was a harder road to travel, but twice as fast as the alternative. The other dukes had also passed through the swamp.

Kenmays had told him that everything he saw was thanks to Duke Lorist's efforts.

After conquering Madras, the duke had relocated all the nobles to Winston and invested nearly two million gold Fordes and 100 thousand captive soldiers in the new highway's construction. It had taken two and a half years to finish. He also built irrigation channels. Once they were finished, he redrew the various domains' borders before sending over the fiefs' new lord.

"... Why would House Norton invest so much money in developing a territory only under their jurisdiction?"

Duke Forund was completely speechless. Had House Norton really splurged two million gold Fordes on a province they only governed, but did not own? Who knew how many years it would take to recoup their expenses? While they controlled the territory, it belonged to their vassals. All they got from the land was a tenth of its agricultural and resource yields in tax.

Usually, highway projects of such magnitude were undertaken by kingdoms. House Norton could rightly demand financial aid from their king. However, when he thought of the king's personality, he knew it would never happen.

House Norton really is rich...

Kenmays laughed.

"You think this is a huge investment? You might not know this, but House Norton invested nearly twenty million in The Northlands and another twenty on their military. How do you think their elite troops were born? Pure money!"

Kenmays believe Lorist spent too much on his forces in the same vein Lorist believed he spent too much on leisure. He had heard Lorist mention before that half the house's annual income was spent on its military. Lorist had to be paranoid. He spent so much money on his military that it exceeded even the kingdom's military strength, no wonder the king was jealous.

He could easily estimate House Norton's income. This was how he came to the conclusion that they spent at least three million on their military every year. Then again, the shade was always the best under a big tree. The stronger House Norton was, the more assurance he could get from hugging Lorist's leg. He could rely on the great tree to earn his money in peace without worry of anyone else setting their sights on House Kenmays.

Duke Forund was completely dumbstruck.

"So... so much gold... How did they get so much money?"

"They took it."

Kenmays understood Lorist's background well. He had heard many stories about the northbound journey several times while drinking with Charade, Loze, and a number of others, and knew they had raided the whole way to The Northlands.

"You're joking, right? How could they possibly take so much money?" Duke Forund shook his head.

"Hehe… When that fella was still studying in Morante, he formed a convoy to return to The Northlands to inherit his title. On the way, the nobles wanted to take advantage of him, so he slaughtered his way through their fiefs. In the entire journey, he never lost a single battle. He raided everything he could along the way. His convoy grew powerful enough to clean out all of Andinaq at His Majesty's request when they came to the kingdom's borders. He was the one that helped His Majesty ascend to the throne.

"You can only imagine how much he must've taken. He cleaned out nearly a hundred nobles! They continued raiding through Madras and the Duke of The Northlands' door. They took everything — from gold to men and women, to even the young and old. They even raided Windbury. The biggest incident was when he completely annihilated the slave kingdom Hanayabarta. That alone should have netted them at least 30 million gold Fordes."

Duke Forund's jaw dangled on his feet.

"Really?"

"What would I get by lying to you? Even Lorist and his goons talk about everything in broad daylight. Just look at their expressions when they mention raiding. You'll never understand how terrifyingly efficient Lorist's men are at raiding. The places they've raided are cleaner than fresh parchment when they're done."

Kenmays spoke of House Norton's raiding with a tone of mocking and envy. He licked his lips.

"That fella even robbed me of my 100 thousand gold Fordes..."

Lorist had just returned to The Northlands at the time, without his convoy. The first house he dealt with was House Kenmays. Not only did he set fire to their viscounty, Redriver Valley, he even swept it clean of everything and anything valuable. Not even Kenmays's 100-thousand-gold-Forde stash in his secret room was spared.

Though he now ran the salt merchant committee and dealt with millions of gold Fordes and spent more than 100 thousand gold Fordes on his luxurious life every year, the thought of his lost stash still drove knives into his heart. It was money he had siphoned from the house's guild over a decade! Even his father didn't know of it.

That he had never benefited from all his hard work pained him eternally. The thought of him living so frugally after joining the guild to put each and every coin into his stash after wiping it clean only for it all to end up in Lorist's hands enraged him. He couldn't wait to fight Lorist at the time even if it meant losing his life. Regardless of the casualties his house suffered, he insisted on reclaiming Firmrock Castle. His stubborn insistence nearly led to a revolt.

However, his greatest trait his ability to keep a clear mind when dealing with official matters. After he understood he couldn't match Lorist, he heeded his father's advice and changed his tune completely, turning from Lorist's enemy to his friend. He even hurriedly submitted to him and ended up getting his current impressive position, allowing House Kenmays to get the whole of Sidgler.

Duke Forund had properly stepped into The Northlands when he put foot to ground on the north back of Metroupolis. Along the way to Ragebear, he finally got to see the changes brought by the tens of millions of gold Fordes' investment.

Is this really the rural and desolate Northlands? It's all endless stretches of livestock, farmland, highway, and tightly packed villages...

He felt the same awe now as he did when he first visited the great Andalou Plains where the imperial capital was. Actually, the awe from that visit couldn't compare to the awe he felt now. The closer he got to Ragebear, the busier it got. It was already winter and large feather-sized snowflakes drifted down from the white heavens but the streets were bustling and merry.

Kenmays told him gleefully that the southern part of The Northlands wasn't the most prosperous in the region. The truly rich areas are the older Norton lands like Felicitas and Northsea. The former was one of the first areas to be developed and the latter was part city. Apart from having a mansion in Ragebear, the largest mansion in the eastern special noble district, Kenmays also boasted the largest building in Northsea.

House Norton is incredibly rich.

Forund was quite assured he could borrow some money. However, after hearing Kenmays's introduction of The Northlands, an idea suddenly popped into his head. He had to ask the duke if he could survey his domain to see for himself what results House Norton's investments had wrought.

The annual celebration was the largest House Norton had ever hosted, both in terms of budget and attendance. More than 1500 nobles and their families were attending. Lorist felt Ragebear's inner city was a little too cramped. It seemed an expansion was in order, he might even need to replace his castle with a palace!.

The budget was much larger this time to accommodate the many high nobles attending. There were the four dukes from the alliance and Duke Fisablen and his lover, Blademaster Xanthi. They were in a great mood. He also seemed to have the intention to build a manor in the noble sector to be close to his granddaughter and great-grandson, though he hadn't made the choice yet. Tradition dictated that Lorist should be the one offering him a manor near his descendants. It had to be at least as grand, if not grander, than Kenmays's.

Duke Forund was also participating in the celebration. Though they used to be enemies, he had submitted to Auguslo and they were now all fellow vassals of the king. Lorist couldn't just turn him away at the door. Quite the contrary; it was proper etiquette to hold a grand reception to celebrate a former-enemy-now-friend's first visit. They had been fighting the day before, but now they had to welcome each other with smiles and open arms. This was all too common in the world of nobility.

As for Duke Forund's request which Kenmays brought up, Lorist agreed to it without a second thought. Naturally, that money wasn't going to be lent out without compensation. Money lending among nobles was not so different from high-interest loans. There would also be a different interest rate it the loan was paid back within the stipulated date. For nobles on good terms, the rate was usually 9:11. In other words, one would have to pay back 11 thousand gold Fordes for a loan of ten thousand, of which only nine thousand was paid out.

Stingier nobles would charge it at a 7:13 rate. Only seven thousand gold Fordes would be given out for a loan of ten thousand. And 13 thousand had to be returned in the end, almost double the amount lent in the first place. However, the rate Lorist charged Duke Forund was 9:12 for a period of three years, much to the latter's delight. After that, the duke brought up his intent to survey The Northlands after winter before signing the deal of the lone. Lorist agreed to that without much consideration at all and even tasked Reidy with the duke's safety.

The duke began his tour with the rainy season's end. Reidy escorted him with a squad of guards. The trip lasted around two months. Upon his return to the capital city, he asked to meet Lorist again and requested new terms. He hoped the house could give him manpower and skilled laborers in addition to a loan. He was willing to greatly increase the interest on the loan to compensate for the additional labor.

The deal had changed drastically. It was no longer a simple loan. The duke was now asking House Norton to send experts to survey his domain and propose a detailed plan for its development. He was basically asking the house to develop his lands on his behalf. This was the first time such a request had been made in the entire history of the continent.

His request caused quite the uproar in the House's management. Approval and disapproval echoed in the halls with equal fervor and volume. The biggest doubt was whether the duke was capable of repaying the loan at his proposed interest rate. He was practically bankrupt and his lands weren't worth much at all at the moment, hence his request for a loan to have it developed. Despite the risk, however, if the loan was allowed to sit for long enough, and the development was successful, they could repay it, though it would take several decades.

Lorist's impression of the duke was rather good. The duke hadn't burnt his stores of resources when he abandoned his dominion. He was so beloved by his people that a hundred thousand volunteered to follow him when he announced he would be leaving the duchy permanently.

Lorist was even more impressed that he was willing to incur such a debt so he could develop his lands. Though he had every mind to provide the duke with what he needed, he could not make such a heavy decision without first seeing what he had to work with for himself. He and the duke agreed that he would first survey his land before making his final decision.

On the 3rd day of the 7th month, Year 1785, the duke of The Northlands mobilized his experienced men to do a complete survey of Yungechandler and initiated the first joint noble dominion development venture in the continent's history.

Chapter 452 - Contract Singing

"...To the north of Yungechandler are Liden Mountains and Yunsge Hills on the coast. There isn't much arable land. South of that is Egret Lake, surrounded by a swamp. The only arable land is the long strip between the two. Not many people live there. Records indicate it should be around 580 thousand people if we include the new arrivals; among them 145381 youths fit for work..."

"...We've discovered three iron ore deposits around Liden and Yunsge, two of which are medium to high in quality. There's also a moderate gold deposit. All-in-all it should give Duke Forund 500 thousand gold Fordes a year. We've also come across seven low capacity copper deposits. Besides ores, there are 20 other resources that the area can offer, the most plentiful of which is white clay. It could be used to start up a crockery industry..."

"...If we build a large dam in Egret Lake, we can turn Yungechandler's swamps into millions of acres of good farmland. In that sense, Yungechandler can not just become the biggest agricultural province this side of the Union, but also have a strong fisheries industry. Ideally, we'd want to plant flax so the province can get started on linen and textiles as well..."

"...It'll take about five years if we use 400 thousand laborers, a few years longer if we only use 300 thousand. Either way, it'll likely cost around seven million. Besides jumpstarting industries, we'll also have to revamp their infrastructure..."

On the 16th day of the 12th month, Year 1785, Baron Shadekampf, the one Lorist had put in charge of surveying Yungechandler, returned with the province's duke and made his report.

Shadekampf had been Lorist's personal attendant from his childhood, but had since risen to become quite the figure in the house. He'd stepped away from his lord's side and now spent most of his time out in the field managing a portion of the countless projects the house always had running. He'd been given an honorary peerage as a baron a year earlier. He'd risen from humble servant to honorary noble thanks both to his own efforts and his lord's recognition.

He'd gone to Yungechandler with an entourage nearly a hundred strong and scoured the province for four months. It would have taken much longer, but he'd been willing to sacrifice a few pounds of his flesh to make things go faster. His stalwart attitude had also earned him Duke Forund's admiration. The duke couldn't possibly be unawed at the sheer mass of talented and dedicated people House Norton had.

All that said, seven million fords was not a small price even for House Norton. Spiel objected to vehemently they had to wash the floor when he left. He was adamant that the house could only spare three million. That three was the house's emergency reserve. It wouldn't grow by just laying in the treasury, so in principle lending the duke the spare change was only beneficial.

But seven million was more than double what they had to offer up front, and more than half of the house's entire static wealth. It was too big a risk. The house had a total static wealth of just 13 million, and that included the money they would be spending to build the new palace in the capital. Grandmaster Ciroba was already designing it. His estimate of the project's cost thus far was three million.

Spiel didn't dare to let the house have only three million in reserve given his lord's penchant for impulsive spending. Not to mention the possibility of some natural disaster requiring emergency spending! Normally, three million gold Fordes was enough to last a noble household a lifetime, but House Norton was not a normal noble household by any metric. It had over two million subjects, a lord who bled money — and did so on rainy and sunny days alike — a massive military, and three allies that frequently needed money. He had to fight for every penny, not so the house could be rich, but so it could stay afloat. His life was a constant battle against the forces of evil, the foremost of which was the man known as Duke Norton Lorist.

"Your Grace, why are you building a palace so suddenly? Thank the gods we're finally at peace, but you can't spend money like it grows on trees," asked Charade, unable to suppress his doubts anymore.

Lorist smiled bitterly. This was one of the fundamental limitations of the times. Charade was already an astonishing achievement in the continent's circles of nobility. Even Auguslo pined for a supervisor or knight as capable as him. Unfortunately, as great as the man was at wartime economics, he was terrible at the same in peacetime.

Even in the midst of the wars Lorist had fought over the last couple of years, the various development projects continued full-steam. Their latest influx of new subjects had solved their manpower shortages so they could develop as quickly as their managers and supervisors could keep up. This development created great demands that private industries fulfilled and lived on. The current generation of projects was slowly coming to an end, however, and with their end, the market would collapse.

"Have you read Spiel's report and Baron Balk's analysis?" asked he.

Old Man Balk had stepped up to fill the spot Hansk had previously occupied. Lorist had also made him a baron. He was the penultimate servant of the house, the idol to which all others should strive. He started as a common peasant, but, through his service to his lord he had become a massive figure in the house and a noble.

"I have. The house's income is decent and our reserves have grown another two million. This is the first time we've been this well-off. I've also read Baron Balk's report and the number of workshops and factories in the dominion has gone up by more than 1300, with most set up by honorary nobles and merchants. The investments almost doubled our profits in the industrial sector. Its growth is also really consistent. It's expected to reach new heights this year as well." Charade's memory was good as always. He could clearly remember even the minutest, obscurest details.

Lorist shook his head and took out another folder.

"Read this," he said, handing the folder to Charade, "I had Howard send someone to investigate this for me."

Charade saw it was a thorough report compiled by Furybear on the industries in the house with a focus on their stocks.

"40 percent, 38 percent, 32 percent, 41 percent… Your Grace, this is..."

His eyes suddenly light up as he realized something. Lorist lifted the bottle of fruit wine on his desk and poured some for himself before he gestured for Charade to help himself to some as well.

"These past two years our ferocious economic development has been predicated on Duke Fisablen's large orders and his permission to trade with the grassland barbarians. The value of these goods last year was about a million, the same was two million the year before.

"Our houses internal demand has also been a major dependency. The 400 thousand refugees we moved over have settled down and gathered some savings, so they will purchase some daily necessities. There's also Supervisor Kedan's traffic revamp. The amount of meat and wheat ale consumed by the mountain barbarians working on it isn't miniscule.

"The private sector's expansion has been built on these demands. Our industries cater to these demands—" Lorist downed the whole cup. "—Do you remember what I said earlier? Most merchants are short-sighted profit-mongering idiots. Many of the honorary nobles are actually merchants who wish to take advantage of the peace here and our large demand to make profit.

"While having lots of local investment is good, it can't be good when it all relies on just two huge business deals. If you read this report, you'll discover that the businesses the merchants set up are mostly what we already had. If there are too many people producing the same thing the prices will collapse when demand lowers. The business will bankrupt themselves and the entire industry will collapse. The merchants will leave and we'll be left to clean up the mess."

"Has something gone wrong with Duke Fisablen's order?''

Lorist nodded.

"The orders have been a show of goodwill. I told you they don't really need so much. They resell most of what they buy to the grassland barbarians. The last two rounds of direct trade have confirmed my suspicion in this regard.

"Everything has its limit. Just like House Fisablen's orders, there is a limit to the trade with the barbarians. They are quite numerous, but most live in extreme poverty. Whether it be the goods resold by Duke Fisablen or the products the committee brings over, there is a limit to how much they can consume. They can't consume more.

"A few days ago, Duke Fisablen made it clear that their orders won't be over a million in the future. Duke Kenmays also confirmed future trade with the barbarians will at most be worth just over a million a year.

"That's why I had Howard investigate the businesses that keep on borrowing money. They'll realize too late that they've made more than our economy can absorb. And their collapse will affect the entire domain severely. One look at this map will show you our products can only be sold to our neighboring provinces, other places can't afford our products or don't have a stable market for them."

"I believe I understand now, Your Grace. The palace's construction is actually a way to keep the demand up and the economy stable?"

"No, that's only a small aspect," Lorist said with a smile, "I will announce House Fisablen's order in the 1st month of next year. I believe the news will cause many businesses in our dominion to panic about the possibility that they won't be able to sell their produce. Your job will be to rectify and support them.

"By rectify, I mean we only have to maintain two to three units. Split the order among those retained businesses so they will compete against each other to ensure quality.

"By support, I'm referring to the financial support of any new and unestablished industries. Encourage them to grow as large as possible. Currently, the house isn't in any tight predicaments, nor do we have any enemies. This is an incredibly hard-sought time. We have to give up on redundant production and encourage the growth of new businesses.

"For example, the palace's construction will need high-quality materials. Given that we are no longer at war, the peaceful lives the peasants lead will raise their standard of living. So, we need new production units for some more luxury goods. It will allow us to maintain our grasp on the market initiative and earn us lots of money.

"Other than that, the reason I agreed to develop Duke Forund's dominion is so we can turn it into a market for our goods. Think about it: five years from now when Yungechandler's development is complete, we will have another market to dump our surplus produce into. Money must flow through the market for it to be useful. It shouldn't be kept in the treasury for emergency use like Supervisor Spiel thinks."

On the 4th day of the 2nd month, Year 1786, House Norton and House Forund signed an agreement to jointly develop Yungechandler. House Norton will provide seven million gold Fordes over the course of five years as funds for development and send Baron Shadekampf to be the chief advisor to aid House Forund in their dominion development. Five years later, House Forund will start to repay House Norton at a rate of two million gold Fordes a year for five years, paying back ten million gold Fordes in total.

Chapter 453 - Hostage

"Good news, Your Grace. Blademaster Shuss is back..." said Jinolio with ragged breath as he rushed into the study with a white silk cloth.

It was an eagle message from Silowas.

"Let me see it," said Lorist, shooting to his feet.

Shuss, who was guarding Silowas, went to the island's mountains four years earlier to break through. He left a letter saying he wouldn't return if he couldn't become a rank 2 blademaster. While Lorist was worried, the recent war broke out soon after he left. He didn't have any time to visit the island since his return. He forgot about the old man. He couldn't be happier to hear Shuss was returning.

The letter was penned by Baron Hector and Pajik. It said the fire crystal foraging team on its way to the volcano angered the white-headed sea condors. They were surrounded and attacked when Shuss showed up and killed their seven attackers. The report said he broke through to the second rank two years earlier but had stayed in the mountains to stabilize himself. He bumped into the team and helped them. He would join Lorist in a few days.

Apart from Lorist, the house also had Engelich and Shuss, both blademasters. Reidy was also now equal to a rank 1 blademaster. Lorist didn't include Engelich in his force count, however, the old man was a coward and wouldn't ever be of any real use. He wasn't just living in 'retirement' at his home, not contributing to the house at all, he pushed every once of responsibility he could onto others. Besides, he had grown so weak even Reidy could defeat him now.

In contrast, Shuss used to be a dueling slave in Hanayabarta. He spent years struggling to survive, living in slaughter. His bloodthirst and killing intent were among the strongest Lorist had ever encountered. Even as a rank 1 blademaster back then, he was on equal standing with a rank 2 blademaster. His breakthrough added substantially to House Norton's might. He was the best sparring partner for Reidy, at the very least.

......

Tarkel entered the study with a large stack of documents.

"Your Grace, something big's happened in the war in the south," said he the moment he was inside.

"What's wrong?"

The war was in its fifth year, yet nothing had changed in the last two. The nations to the south of the war-zone, those being led by Jigda, were completely disorganized. The union swallowed up three and turtled. Everything was peaceful on the border, like there wasn't a war.

"Romon and Khawistan signed an armistice not too long ago. The fighting there has ended. Khawistan suffered slightly more and gave up a part of Kalia's land. Their new border is the Kesarubi River. Back with the Union's war, Jigda swallowed seven nations stormed by Union forces. Their territory has doubled. They now rival Romon in size. Some of the remaining 13 countries finally woke to the scheme. Jigda and the countries suspicious of its intentions are now at war. The coalition army disbanded as a result.

"The Union signed a peace treaty with Jigda and recognized their sovereignty over all the land they now control. All the trade routes are now restored, and they signed a mutual defense agreement. Other than that, the Union gave Jugda a 15 million gold Forde loan, without interest. Our informants have yet to infiltrate their internal councils so we don't know too much.

"The 13 remaining independent countries are split into two factions. The five neighboring the Union have formed a union of their own, called the Morunzik Union of Kingdoms. They're preparing to negotiate peace with the Union. Maybe they think they can't keep fighting the Union and are trying to protect themselves? Either way, they want to end the war.

"The eight countries nearest Jigda will continue to fight. They made Jekhano's first prince, Yorksem, their new commander-in-chief and are launching a new campaign against Jigda. Duke Fustat is in command on the other side and is leading 100 thousand men against the former's 140 thousand. They're expected to clash in what used to be the kingdom of Odma. We expect it will be another stalemate.

"Lundmorde is still in Jekhano with that prince. Also, the Union have yet to reinforce Jigda per their treaty. They've sent out envoys to negotiate peace instead."

Lorist choked on his tongue and laughed. What a joke! Who would have imagined this? It was flabbergasting. The initial 24 countries that formed the coalition had united against the Union. But now Jigda had betrayed them and eaten up at least a third of the coalition. Rather than unite to pool what strength they had left they turned on each other. The coalition was now two broken factions. To top it all off, the Union was now playing the nice guy? How laughable! Nobody could make this prediction when the war started, hell, nobody could predict this three months ago. They might as well just have skipped the fighting altogether. Just sit around a table and negotiate a few concessions.

Lorist walked over to the map of the continent hung on one of his study's walls. He updated it with a pencil to match the information Tarkel had just given him. Jigda's current size took Lorist aback. This was the most complex and impactful plot he'd ever seen.

"What is it, Your Grace?" asked Tarkel.

Lorist shook his head.

"See this? You were right. This whole war was just a farce. It's finally been exposed, but it's too late, Jigda is one of Grindia's superpowers. The guy who came up with this must be a genius..."

"But, Your Grace," Tarkel said with some dissatisfaction, "Don't you think this was a little rash, absorbing seven countries? Everyone now knows what Jugda is up to. They can't do this again. It feels a little to bumbling to have been carefully planned out. They should instead have simmered their prey and taken them in slowly. They wouldn't be facing any backlash that way."

"You're wrong. Your suggestion will only work if Romon and Khawistan kept fighting. Unfortunately, the two countries are at peace. They'll go after Jigda the moment they recover.

"Jigda can't keep fighting in the north. They must focus on stabilizing their gains and building their military strength back up. If not, there's no way they can stand up against the two empires when they invade. They forcefully absorbed the last seven countries so they can prepare for the inevitable invasions as soon as possible. The relationship between them and the Union is also very obvious now, so it's best that the Union sends no reinforcements. If they did, the remaining countries in the coalition will fight even harder to spite them and the war will just drag on.

"This is the only reason the Union is sending negotiators. It's the best move they can make. This will save Jigda's strength so they can better resist Romon and Khawistan. If negotiation go well, the coalition will also form a deep grudge against Jigda, so they won't make as much trouble for the Union. The Union at least fought them openly and honestly, Jigda is a snake, a traitor deserving of all the contempt in the world. This will also make sure that Jigda won't have any energy to spare to have plans for the Union.

"Despite Jigda becoming a superpower and gaining a lot of land, they didn't really get much. They now have a lot of territory with people that hate them, they are the sole opposition to two empires, and have at least eight countries in their backyard that hate them and can't wait to get in a good jab. The Union, they are the real beneficiaries of this whole debacle. They got three countries' territory, force the trade routes to open again, and got a strong buffer between them and Romon and Khawistan. The coalition are the real losers. They lost half their countries and are now split in two weaker factions and have another superpower on their borders."

Lorist 'tsked' audibly.

"They're all burning the midnight oil, huh? None are idiots. Tarkel, increase our surveillance on the Union and Jigda. Try to find the mastermind behind this."

"Understood, Your Grace."

......

Jinolio entered the room with a gold-gilded invitation card.

"Your Grace, Duke Kenmays sent an invitation to the summer party. It'll be on the 15th day of the 8th month at Platinum Beach."

Lorist suddenly remembered Kenmays wanted to build a grand palace there. He wanted to make the beach a tourist destination. So he had finished the palace and was now holding the opening ceremony...

I must attend. There're two months before the party. I have nothing better to do. Might as well go and relax. Oh, I should bring Sylvia, the girls, and the kids as well!

"All right. Tell him I'll bring the family along," answered he.

"Yes, Your Grace. Will you travel by ship?"

Lorist shook his head.

"I'll go by land. I'd like to visit the Dina barony along the way."

Arriotoli had given birth to a son named Dina Terryke almost exactly a year ago. She wrote Lorist saying the kid would be turned into the most impressive knight in the history of her house and Lorist had no say in the matter. He could only pray the kid would survive his mother's demonic claws.

"Understood. When will Your Grace leave?"

Hasty footsteps stopped Lorist's reply. A moment later Howard burst into the room.

"Count Lower's whole family's been captured!"

Count Lower? Who's that? wondered Lorist.

Howard caught his breath and explained. Count Lower wasn't a member of the house. He was a noble from the capital. He'd bought his title of count from Auguslo several years ago. The count moved to The Northlands when he realized he couldn't do business in the capital and had even bought a commiserate title from the house. Lower had decent instincts. He had quickly realized House Norton's shade was a lot better than the king's.

He moved to The Northlands five years ago and bought a plot of land in the second special noble district. He also partnered up with a few people and built several factories and even started a merchant guild. It specialized in leather, wine and other foodstuffs. His factories were already well-established when Duke Fisablen made his massive order two years ago and got the biggest slice of the pie. He had trouble finding places to store all his gold. His business expanded rapidly and his partnership soon had ten more factories.

Unfortunately for him and his partners, Lorist announced that the volume to be traded with House Fisablen would be cut in half overall, daily necessities was the section hardest hit. The coming years would be hard for the count.

While the factories could be closed and skilled workers fired, their money lay in warehouses as products that could now not be sold. This story rang true for most merchants all across the duchy. They either had to sell at trash prices, or hope to sell things off over several decades.

Charade's revamp project was also now in full swing. He closed many duplicate production units and arranged new jobs for the fired workers. His efforts were showing signs of stabilizing the duchy's economy. Their swift action limited the damage to the merchants.

Lower had made the choice to keep his produce. He hired a mercenary band to keep watch on his warehouses, but most of them were killed off during an excursion to hunt ironspine crocodiles. They demanded he compensate them for their losses but he had no money. A fight broke out and the band had taken the entire family hostage.

"Baron Ovidis and the local garrison have surrounded the manor and Sir Charade will be on-site shortly. The mercenaries insist that they won't let anyone go until their ransom is paid. They even demanded we leave, apparently this has nothing to do with the house," reported Howard.

Lorist quietly took his sword.

"Let's go look," said he.

Chapter 454 - Rescue

The special noble district wasn't far from Ragebear. From the city center to the first manor was just 15 minutes by horse. One arrived at the district's central lake immediately after crossing the moat outside the east gate. Stretches of green grass and fragrant orchards covered both sides of the road.

There was such a high demand for noble housing that the house was building eight special districts instead of four.  These districts had the continent's most expensivea land. They were also the house's most profitable. Its sale alone had netted Lorist six million gold Fordes thus far. Charade and Spiel also nagged Lorist to build yet another two districts.

All that was left was to build the final districts around the gourd-shaped lake. Two of the eight districts were for nobles, two for high-class commoners, one for luxury commerce, and the final for a variety of services.

The four noble districts were completely sold. Half of the fourth district's manors were still being constructed, but the other three districts stood completed. Many of their windows already stood lit in the evenings. Only public facilities and final decoration work still needed to be done.

The high-class residential area was also already completed. Five-floor apartment buildings filled the district.  Each unit had three bedrooms and two general purpose rooms. Merchant guild supervisors and high-ranking accountants or factory managers made up the bulk of the residents. A few nobles yet to get land in the noble districts also lived there.

Most attractive of all the districts was the luxury commerce. The house owned all the shops, nothing was for sale, only rent. Clothes, jewelry, accessories, ingredients, spices, and rare herbs lined the roads. If you couldn't find something there, you would not find it anywhere else on the continent, save maybe Morante itself. Of the two hundred guilds licensed to do business in the dominion, a hundred rented buildings in this district. The things sold there were the highest quality possible, but also twice as expensive as anywhere else.

The general district was much larger. The various facilities and sports arenas took up a lot of space. Northing was finished because they took longer to build. Though estimates said the district would be done by either the 7th or 8th month of the following year.

Charade and Spiel didn't know if they should turn the high-class residential district into a noble district or not. It would save the house a lot of money.  They had to finance and build the apartment blocks, but nobles built their manors themselves. It wasn't that simple, however. They could fit many more people into the district through apartments, the overall sales income would be higher, and the businesses serving the district would do much better. They could make more money from renting shops.

Lorist took Howard and Jinolio with him to the second noble district where Count Lower's mansion stood. Nightingale Manor, as the count called it, was surrounded by many busybodies whom chattered in quiet hushes. Lorist discovered the roofs of the surrounding manors were filled with people enjoying either a cup of macks or tea.

Do they think this is a show?

Lorist dismounted located Charade. He was being crushed by the crowd and the angry Ovidis.

"Shut up! What's going on?" shouted Lorist.

Everyone saluted and shut up.

"Ovidis wants to force his way in, Your Grace." answered Charade.

"Why? Where's the hostage?"

"The mercenary is impolite. He insulted the house.  I want to teach him a lesson," explained Ovidis.

Do you have a clear picture of the situation?"

"They have seven hostages, Count Lower, his wife and children, and two servants. Two other servants are dead and the rest escaped. Their captors are thirteen strong," explained Charade.

Lorist was pissed.

"How did thirteen armed idiots get into the noble district in broad daylight? Explain this, Ovidis."

Ovidis was in command of the city's guards. This was entirely his fault.

"They passed our patrols on Count Lower's carriages. The guards believed they were acting on the count's orders. They noticed nothing untoward. This is on me."

"How did Count Lower and the mercenaries become acquaintances? What demands did they make?"

Charade answered this time.

"They belong to a band called Crimsonflame. It's about a hundred strong.  They registered with the house seven years ago. Usually, they operate around Twinmount Town. They only recently showed up in Northsea. We learned they often take on missions in the Magical Dragon Mountains and Blackmud Marsh, and occasional escort missions. Their commander is leading the group in the manor, he's a three-star silver-rank swordsman. Everyone considers them one of the top bands in the duchy."

Crimsonflame was similar to a band his trusted subordinate, Knight Jim, used to be in. Such bands were average in Morante, but since there weren't many mercenaries in The Northlands, they were near the top here.

"The leader is called Lind," Charade continued, "He used to work near the imperial capital and is an old acquaintance of the count. The count ran into him when he came to The Northlands to set up several businesses and hired him and his band. Wesde, the count's merchant guild, deals with furs and leathers, and run a shop in the luxury district. They need a lot of high-grade fur. The two worked together for five years and trust each other a lot. The band even invested most of their savings in the count's ventures. Count Lower accepted an order for horse armor and needed ironspine crocodile leather.  He hired Crimsonflame to get it.

"The band was wiped out while on this mission. They brought back the leather, but only a few survived. They learned of the count's financial losses when they returned and panicked. Worried that their investments were all gone, they kidnapped the count to force him to pay everything back.

"Unfortunately for both them and the count, he does not have their money.  It's all been invested in the products sitting in his warehouses. We understand he told them he couldn't pay them back now, but that his business hasn't failed yet; he needs more time. When they heard it would take them thirty years to get their money back, they lost it. He couldn't even pay the fee for their latest mission.

"The count believed his long history with the band and his close relationship with their leader would make them trust him and be patient, but that didn't happen. The group kidnapped him and brought him here, hence our current predicament."

"How much money do they want? Have you sent anyone to negotiate?" asked Lorist.

"I did. The count owes them four thousand gold Fordes. His partner's have agreed to pay the ransom and the mercenaries have calmed down somewhat, but they've become cocky."

"How so?"

"They're demanding ten thousand now instead. They say it's interest. When the count's partners agreed to mortgage his shop to pay the ten thousand gold Fordes, they increased their demands to 20 thousand and told us to scram. Apparently this is a matter strictly between them, the count and his partners and we have no place butting in. The captain even threatened to make trouble in the dominion if we don't leave them alone. This is an affront to the house I can't let this stand," muttered Ovidis.

"Where are the hostages now?"

Ovidis pointed at the manor.

"We knew they're in the guest hall on the second floor. It's the room with the balcony. The mercenaries have two men keeping watch. When Sir Charade went to negotiate, they brought the hostages to the balcony with blades pressed against their necks.

"The manor is encircled. Most are on the second floor, in the back. A few are guarding the sides though. They'll see us no matter which side we attack. Our best shot is to sneak in during the night," Charade interjected.

Lorist shot Charade a glance.

"If you understand the situation, why are you trying to go in?"

Ovidis lowered his head.

"I... I couldn't stand that the bastards insulted us. They recently violated the two maidservants in the guest hall by the windows so everyone could see. They forced us to listen to the two women scream in pain and them laughing like devils..."

Lorist stiffened. He patted Ovidis on the shoulder.

"I understand. I'll go have a chat with them. Stay here, don't follow me."

A path ran on the other side of the back gates. It was wide enough for three carriages and connected to a semi-circular plot of empty land. Three carriages stood parked on it, the gray-white mansion behind them. Its entrance protruded from the wall, the space above it forming a balcony large enough for two tables.

Two mercenaries sat on the balcony. They shouted at a man clad in a black cloak approaching the door beneath, bows partially drawn and arrows pointing at him.

"I am Norton Lorist, Duke of The Northlands. Bring your leader out," the figure said.

Its voice wasn't loud, but echoed throughout the manor.

Six people stepped out onto the balcony. A tall, lanky man stepped forward.  When he recognized the face beneath the cloak, he shivered.

"It's... it's really D-duke Norton... Y-y-y-Your Grace... d-d-d-don't come here!"

Lorist's footsteps didn't stop.

The man's eyes widened and his pupils dilated.

"H-hostage... The hostages... B-b-bring them out now..."

Count Lower, his wife and children finally made their appearance. Two naked, weeping women were dragged out behind them, clutching scraps of cloth to try to cover up as best they could.

The tall man grabbed the count and pressed his sword against his throat.

"Y-you... Stand still! If you don't, I-I'll kill him..."

Lorist stopped five meters from the entrance and stared up at the group, sighing.

"You're Lind, right? I used to be a mercenary as well.  I understand how you must feel. Unfortunately, you chose the wrong way to solve your issues.  You even got innocent people involved. You have two options. Either surrender, in which case I guarantee you a fair trial, or continue resisting, in which case your friends and family won't even have a corpse to bury."

"I-I choose neither! Y-you can't fool me..."

Lind shook Count Lower around emotionally. The bruised man moaned in pain. A thin line of blood oozed out of his freshly cut skin.

"This bastard took the money we put our lives on the line for! We want our money back! Y-you can't threaten us! You might kill me, but I'll make sure they all die with us! They'll only survive if you swear on your ancestors you'll let us leave your lands with our money safely! If you don't they'll all die and House Norton will be a laughingstock! Are you willing to gamble with your house's honor?!" cried Lind.

Lorist smiled.

"Yes."

Lorist was less than seven meters from his prey.  They were well within Slaughter Domain's range.

I am the god of the space around me! It is my world!

A crimson veil covered his eyes.

"W-what did you—"

The mercenary's words were cut short.  A wave of energy surged from below. It covered the balcony and everyone on it. The sky turned red. Lind's body only heard a single heartbeat in his ears before his body deflated like a sack of water poked with dozens of holes. He collapsed and life left him.

They weren't lying. The duke really is a swordsaint...

He hadn't believed a word of it at the time, but now, in his final moments, the truth was revealed to him. He died believing every word he'd heard.

Lorist sheathed his sword and smiled at Count Lower. The man stared blankly at his rescuer. Lorist waved at the crowd across the street and Howard come rushing over.

"Go. Don't spare anyone."

The family burst into tears.  They cried like they'd just woken from a terrible nightmare.

"By your command," said Howard as he drew his sword and rushed into the manor.

Chapter 455 - Swordsaint's Domain

"Tell me what you know," said Lorist, staring out of the window.

There were three people in the study. Charade sat on the sofa, Baron Kriston sat in front of the desk. Kriston had been a security chief on Silowas when he joined Lorist and took charge of the duchy's security forces. He was made an honorary baron two years ago for his contributions in this capacity.

The third person was Supervisor Doboff, the man in charge of the eastern part of The Northlands. He used to be the mayor of Twinmount Town, but, given his contribution to the house in discovering barbarian gold mines, had been raised to a high-ranking official in the house.

Lorist's interference resolved the hostage incident. His men slew the mercenaries on the spot. He'd served in a mercenary band in Morante so he understood their feelings. Anybody would be enraged if someone lusted after their hard-earned wealth. However, they picked the worst possible method to take revenge. Though they only wanted to take back their money, they forced House Norton to kill them by challenging their honor. Lorist had given them a chance to receive mercy; as long as they surrendered, they would be tried fairly. Crimes must be punished. They might have survived at least. Unfortunately, they had refused his magnanimity, so he had to kill them. He could not let the house be ridiculed, its reputation must be upheld.

"Yes, Your Grace," Doboff answered, "Most mercenaries gather in Twinmount Town. Many form parties and settle in the duchy. Most choose the life because they lust for adventure and abhor servitude. Some are retired soldiers, many of whom served the house. They are more skilled with the sword than the sickle, so they become mercenaries; they dream of becoming finding a great treasure and becoming rich overnight.

"Foreign mercenaries have to register for licenses to enter the wilds and sell their catches. Some go to hunt, some to gather, some to peddle wares to the barbarians."

Charade looked at the thick stack of documents.

"We have registered three thousand seven hundred and sixty three and more than sixty parties to date. The small ones tend to be around ten strong and the largest around a hundred. Crimsonflame is considered one of the strongest eight.

"Two-thirds of the mercenaries are foreigners. Some of our retired soldiers occasionally tag along without a permit."

"Chief Kriston," Lorist called, "Are these mercenaries doing anything illegal? How frequent are conflicts between them and my subjects and how are they settled?"

"Conflict is infrequent," Kriston explained, "Normally, the settlements are not in favor of the mercenaries. The towns and villages' garrisons do not like them. They keep a really close eye on them when they're in town.

"Our garrisons are mostly well-trained and seasoned veterans from the army. The house is also famous for its strict handling of any offenses, so the mercenaries are very careful not to step out of line.

"Such conflicts are usually dealt with as civil security issues. Even when the garrisons step in on occasion, they generally hand things over to the local officers. It's rare for cases to be concluded in the mercenaries' favor. They never break the law with their rulings, but they definitely favor your subjects."

Lorist nodded.

"We may have solved the current predicament, but it's clear there is a greater threat. We have failed to oversee and regulate the mercenaries. You three will come up with a solution. Find an effective way to manage the mercenaries."

" Will you start an organization similar to the mercenary guild, Your Grace?" asked Charade, shocked.

Lorist chortled.

"Yes and no. You and I have had some dealings with the mercenary guild in Morante. Though it acts as an intermediary that provides services to mercenaries, it is more like a business that tries to make money off them. The organization I envision will harness their strengths and fight for their rights. We both used to be mercenaries, we understand their pains, let's offer help wherever we can.

"For example, in the future, conflicts between mercenaries and our subjects will be dealt with by this organization. Take, for instance, this incident involving Crimsonflame. Instead of taking matters into their own hands, they should be able to lodge a complaint with the organization and have their case resolved through them instead. Publish a notice that only those who register with the organization may work as a mercenary. It is illegal to work without registering. Non-compliers will be sentenced to three months' unpaid labor.

"Also, any request made by guilds or individuals have to be handled via the organization. House Norton will not be involved in resolving any disputes. I couldn't care less if mercenaries are killed because they took matters into their own hands rather than work through the organization.

"Figure out how this organization has to work. After you create it, appoint Supervisor Doboff as its manager under Charade. Kriston, you will also handle its judicial elements. You have to be fair and unbiased. Don't let either party's relation to us, or lack thereof, influence your judgment.

"I must stress that they work as an extension of the house. All mercenaries must answer any calls we put out in emergencies."

"Understood, Your Grace."

......

Ten days later, the mercenary organization's formation was announced. It was to be called the Assembly of Free Mercenaries, colloquially known as the Assembly. Its headquarters stood in Northsea, with a branch in Twinmount Town. Doboff acted as its chairman, with Kriston its chief enforcer.

Blademaster Shuss arrived on the same day. Lorist couldn't be bothered with a banquet; instead, he dragged him to the training hall for a duel as soon as he set foot in the castle. The two fought for who knew how long.

The fight finally ended when Shuss could go no further.

"A rank 2… blademaster… like me… is a child.. compared to.. Your grace… I couldn't attack… at all..." the blademaster gasped.

"Your swordsmanship improved a lot," Lorist consoled, "You relied on courage and savagery before you broke through. But now your killing intent is hidden and makes you even harder to deal with. I fought Duke Fisablen but even he was not as imposing as you. A fight between you two will be a draw at worst."

Shuss calmed his breathing.

"Can you deploy your Slaughter Domain, Your Grace? I wish to experience it for myself. Word of your domain has spread throughout your dominion after the hostage incident. Count Lower keeps telling everyone you're a swordsaint. He said you enveloped them in a blood-red world. He blinked, and everything was back to normal, save all the mercenaries being dead."

Lorist's lips curled into a troubled smile. He had used his Slaughter Domain to rescue Count Lower and his family. He couldn't help but enveloping them with it when he acted. It appeared the count had blabbed about it to his friends. Lorist could have explained it as a hallucination if the count were the only one who'd experienced it, but his wife and children, and the two servants, had as well. Sharp ears heard the rumors and sharp minds guessed at his true strength.

Tarkel had rushed over to ask him about the blood world.

"Why do you ask?" he'd replied.

"I'm going to publicize it, of course!" the man had answered, "The more impressive Your Grace's reputation, the more stable the house. The nobles who sided with us will also feel safer and our subjects will be even more loyal."

Lorist didn't think Shuss would want to experience it as well.

"Alright," he surrendered.

Shuss took up a defensive stance.

"Ready, Your Grace."

A gust of wind slapped Shuss across the face. He closed his eyes for a moment. When they opened again the world around him was crimson. It almost felt like he was standing in the middle of an old, arcane temple. He had done his best to prepare, but he was still overwhelmed and unnerved. His mind didn't dull, but his body was heavy and unresponsive. The world vanished just as he prepared to try to move. His gaze returned to where his lord had been standing before it all started, only to feel a cold line across his throat. His lord's sword was pressed against his throat.

He dropped his sword, his expression somewhere between depression and despair.

"Is this... the domain? It's too weird... It ended before I could react..."

Lorist returned his sword to its scabbard.

"I don't know if it's a domain or not. I can keep it up for a few minutes at best. My body can't handle any more. I don't know if a swordsaint's domain is supposed to be like this. It's not like there are swordsaints lying around I can ask. I named it my Slaughter Domain because it's the most accurate way I can describe it."

"This is definitely a domain," Shuss said as he plopped his rear on the ground, "I've heard a few slave instructors talk about swordsaint domains. One had personally experienced one. He said Jigda's firesoar swordsaint demonstrated it once. He said it was like his body was dumped in an oven and the entire world was burning. He was so frightened he pissed himself."

"So the firesoar swordsaint's domain has the fire element, right?"

Don't tell me my Slaughter Domain is thanks to my battleforce's blood attribute...

"Yes. His battleforce attribute is fire," Shuss affirmed as stumbled to his feet, "I didn't think Your Grace had become a swordsaint at such a young age. Grindia has never seen such a young swordsaint. This is definitely an occasion worth celebrating!"

Lorist waved Shuss's comments away.

"It's nothing worth bragging about. Keep it a secret for me. I don't want unnecessary chaos. Everyone is just guessing right now, all hell will break loose if you give them certainty. Keep this to yourself. I don't want lines of people begging me on their knees to be my disciples."

Shuss nodded.

"I understand. But please share some pointers with me from time to time, Your Grace."

"Of course. You're one of my people. I'm confident you'll become a swordsaint too, in good time."

......

On the 10th of the 7th, Lorist brought Sylvia, his concubines, and his children to Delamock for a survey and accepted Kenmays's invitation to the party in Sidgler.

After touring Delamock, he stayed at the Dina barony for ten days. He suffered greatly at the hands of his wife and his lover, both wrapt with jealousy. He snapped when his attempts and appeasing them failed and rammed them into the bed for a whole evening.

They arrived at Platinum Beath on the 12th of the 8th. Kenmays organized a grand banquet. There were many familiar faces in attendance. Dukes Handra, Shabaj, and Fisablen were just a few of the names.

"Everyone," Kenmays toasted, "let's eat and drink and make merry!"

Chapter 456 - Platinum Beach

Sunlight danced on the azure waters. Fine white sand glimmered golden on the beach. Platinum Beach lived up to its reputation.

The near hundred nobles and their families present were having fun on the beach and playing along in the water. This was a fresh experience for Duke Fisablen and the three dukes from the plains, it was a fresh experience. They had never played on a beach before. They'd seen the sea, sure, but this was their first time soaking in its water. The bravest among them even tasted its salty riches before spitting it out to a chorus of laughter.

Many clean silks cast patches of shade across the beach. Washrooms and changing rooms dotted the gentle curve of the bay every hundred meters or so. At the peak of the arch several pavilion-like canopies hosted nobles resting out of the sun. Lorist lay sprawled over a footless rattan rocking chair under one such canopy. He dabbled in various delicacies; fruits, nuts, juices and wines. As he lazed — a king of the world he saw — the cool, moist breeze obediently wafting in over the waves, servants danced around him like fairies, refilling the plates and trays silently.

He was joined by Kenmays, filling his stomach with a bottle of fruit wine. The duke clasped a palmful of sand, which he lt flow between his fingers.

"People used to think the sand his gold," he said.

"I can imagine," Lorist replied, his gaze still lazily wandering over the figures dancing in the waves.

"They tried to refine gold, to no avail. Complete idiots, don't you think?

"Depends…"

"True, they weren't wrong. Platinum Beach is a gold mine, they just had no idea how to mine it. This spot, right here, is the most enchanting sight in the entire Cursed Coast. It's not a mine you empty of its riches, it's a mine you let others come and fill for you. I've invested nearly two million gold Fordes to get it to where it is now. Any suggestion on how I could improve it further?"

Lorist leaned back in his rocker until his headrest pressed against the sand beneath and closed his eyes.

"There is nothing to improve with the accommodations. The castles, palaces and mansions are perfect. The food has great quality too, but it lacks character. This is the same food you can get in the capital, or with some effort and money, even in The Northlands. Your food should be as unique as this beach. A fish dish that can be made only with what grows and lives here naturally will add to the experience and, if it is good enough, might become a draw in its own right.

"It's also a hassle to get to the beach. Make it easier for nobles to get from their accommodations down to the sea. A mode of transport that will also allow them to enjoy the sites along the way. Replace your dingy carriage with open ones. If you have to, give them a silk cloth canopy. Covered walkways that lead to the beach will also be good. Maybe decorated with grapevine canopies? Souvenir shops would be good as well. Let people take something from here with them to keep reminding them of it and make them want to come back.

"You also only cater to the lords. Most, like me, bring their families along, do something to entertain them as well. On top of that, the lords have fiefs to govern, they don't have a lot of time on their hands, but their families do. Take me as an example. I hardly even have to time to see my family, much less disappear with them for a month or two. Sylvia, however… They can come here for several months every year."

Lorist pointed at his large household as he spoke. They were dancing on the edge of the water and playing in the sand. Even his three-year-old son, Anderbael, was joining in. Dilianna watched on as her seven-year-old Waldbeck lead his half-brother around to catch crabs and play with things they spot along the way. Her gaze lingered on the pair for a few moments before it turned to Lorist's other concubines piningly.

"You don't have anything here to make things entertaining and enjoyable for them. Build playgrounds for the children, or slides and other rides in the beach's shallow areas. I heard from some of the locals that certain sea creatures like dolphins are numerous a little further out to sea and often play with fishermen and swimmers. You could organise trips out to go see them or even raise a few here. You should also build a jetty and a hand railing into the deeper waters."

"Why would I build that?"

"Are you stupid? Did you not notice many of the people here play in the shallows but never go into the sea? Most of them come from inland, many haven't seen the ocean like this before. The open blue awes them and scares them at the same time. Many can't swim but don't want to learn. If you make a jetty they can experience the feeling of the open sea around them without being in the water. And the hand railing will give people the confidence to go deeper into the sea without needing to swim; they can just hold on to the railing."

Kenmays's face reddened. He had thought he'd thought of everything, but Lorist easily pointed out a dozen things he'd missed.

"I'll work on it immediately. Anything else?"

Lorist motioned at the maidservants with his eyes. "Isn't their clothing a little odd?"

"Huh? I don't think so. It's standard servant clothing. Is it not sexy enough?"

"Oh? Are you interested? You don't have to hold back. I can have curtains put up quickly."

"Screw you!" Lorist grabbed a strawberry and flung it at Kenmays's head, "I'm not a dog in heat like you! This is serious business talk. Yes they're wearing standard uniforms, but it's inappropriate for the setting. The guests wear only shorts or undergarments. Some of the kids are even naked. The whole atmosphere is one of relaxation and unrestrained play and enjoyment. The servants destroy that atmosphere with their formal clothes."

"You're right," Kenmays agreed, wiping the strawberry juice off his nose, "We're not hosting a formal occasion like a ball. We can have them walk around naked. I'm sure it'll draw even more people—"

"Fool! Are you trying to start another Paradise Gathering? I literally just told you to stop catering to the men only! Just let them dress more casually so they help create the relaxing, playful atmosphere you're going for here. They could even be a part of the attraction."

"But... but how can I make the maidservants into attractions?" Kenmays said in deep thought, "Maybe let them wear clothes made of only thin veils? I remember the servant at Princess Carey's Paradise Gathering used to dress like that..."

"Give me a beastskin and a pencil!" Lorist barked, his patience running thin with his perverse companion.

He sketched a few simple designs; one-pieces, bikinis, half-n-halfs and so on. Kenmays's eyes lit up as he saw the designs take shape.

"Wonderful! I never thought covering up could be more sexy than revealing! I never new you had a talent for clothing design! You learn something new every day..."

"I'll have the tailors rush these out as quickly as possible."

Lorist didn't know how to react.

"...Make a few with the same kind of cloth for the maidservants. As for the nobles' wives, they are more conservative, so just use silk to make the last one-piece design that only exposes their calves and arms so it'll be easier to play in the water. Best make the embroidery and patterns different too."

Kenmays snatched the beastskin and rushed off. He stumbled to a halt halfway out of the pavilion.

"What should I call these?" he asked, looking over his shoulder.

"Kenmays bathing suits."

I'll let him take credit for this. I don't have the energy to deal with the commotion this'll cause. He already has a reputation as a scandal and a flirt, it makes sense he'd come up with something like this...

Grindia's first bikinis made their appearance the next morning. It cause quite the commotion among the nobles. The lords couldn't help but stare lustfully at the bashful, semi-covered maidservants. If not for their families' presence, they'd have turned the entire beach into a Paradise Gathering. Lorist struggled to hold his laughter as he watched the scene unfold. He didn't fail to enjoy the alluring figures now unveiled on the beach either.

'This,' he concluded, 'was the way to spend a summer.'

He had several duels with his laughter on the way back to his castle when he saw a number of lords walking around awkwardly, bruised and beaten. He had hidden his admiration well so he didn't suffer at his wife's hands as much as those nobles. He did not come away unscathed, however. Sylvia stuck to him like wet clothing, she didn't even let the maidservants serve him.

His lovers finally mustered their courage on the second day to wear the new suits. They weren't bold enough for the bikinis, though, they settled for one-pieces. They were not the only ones. Most of the other nobles' wives were also wearing the bathing suits. The most daring chose suits that revealed arms and even, almost scandalously, thighs.

That's what a beach should look like! Lorist shouted silently. His wife and concubines had tortured him the previous night. His vitality was non-existent today, so the scene he currently witnessed was a welcome recharge.

"Your Grace, Your Grace! Wake up!"

"What's wrong?"

"His Majesty is about to arrive. Duke Kenmays wishes you join him for the reception."

"Huh? I thought His Majesty said he didn't have time for such frivolity?" Lorist crawled up and rubbed his face.

He secretly gazed amorously at the ill-covered servant. Her face, which she did her best to hide, was as red as strawberries.

"Lead the way."

The two dukes awaited the king's arrival in the palace garden. Dukes Fisablen, Shazin, Felim, Forund, Handra, and Shabaj accompanied them along with two dozen marquises and counts. Lorist hadn't dressed formally like the rest. The weather was just too hot, he had no intention of sweating on his vacation. He just threw on some dry shorts, wrapped a towel around his shoulders, and stood with two sandals on his feet. His attire drew countless awkward stares.

His grandfather-in-law, who stood next to him, couldn't stop gaping at him secretly.

"What are you looking at?" Lorist asked.

"Don't you think this is a little too impolite? He's our king. You have to show him at least some respect."

"It's not like I asked him to come. I came here to enjoy myself, not to stand in the sun and wait for him. Don't come here if you want to talk about the kingdom's affairs! Sheesh, can't you guys let me enjoy my vacation in peace?"

The old man couldn't help but laugh.

"For once, you make sense. I cannot argue."

The duke was still trying to recover his composure when the trotting of horses echoed into the garden. Auguslo strode in atop his horse accompanied by Kenmays and his guards.

He stopped his approach halfway and stared at Lorist.

"Locke, what's going on?"

"We're here to enjoy our vacation, Your Majesty. What else would you wear on the beach? We will return to the beach after receiving you anyway, so we might as well spare our clothes."

"This..."

Auguslo's words faded into laughter as he tried to reply. He dismounted and gave Lorist a hug. He tossed his cloak aside and stripped to his underpants.

"What are you doing, Your Majesty?!" everyone shouted, their jaws paving the ground.

"Locke's right. It's only natural to wear less when you are on vacation. Duke Kenmays, bring me some slippers and a towel," chirped Auguslo.

"Immediately, Your Majesty."

The other nobles didn't hold back either. Soon clothes littered the garden and things started looking like a Paradise Gathering after all.

"Come, Brother Locke, show me around. I haven't had a chance to visit yet despite this place's fame."

Auguslo acted really familiar with Lorist, like they were real brothers. The other lords gazed at the pair enviously.

What was that saying again? When someone is being polite, they have a favor to ask. I wonder what in the world Auguslo is planning this time, Lorist sighed.

Chapter 457 - Refusal

"Whoa..."

The bikini-wearing maidservants shocked even the usually steady Auguslo. His gaze wandered to Lorist.

"I finally understand why you didn't want to wear those gaudy robes... Stripping is very troublesome, yes?"

Lorist did not expect the king to say that.

"This is Platinum Beach, they are House Kenmays maidservants. Are you okay doing the deed in front of so many even if the servants are willing."

Auguslo shrugged.

"You can find a way. The tents around the beach must be your lodging, correct? They are most alluring in their current garb. They match the scenery perfectly."

Auguslo was a few centimeters taller than Lorist. The two had the same fit figure. However, compared to the scar-ridden duke, the king's handsomeness and fair unmarred skin caught the maidservants' attention far more effectively. When they learned of his identity, they stepped forward to serve him with fire in their eyes. They flirted with everything they did, whether it was walking, replacing a tray, or filling a glance. It was quite likely that, if not for the many guests, they would have dragged him to a nearby tent themselves.

Auguslo didn't try to resist or object either. Lorist just sat, giggles swallowed, watching the play. Since Auguslo had said they were here to have fun, they did as they pleased. Only Lorist stayed to accompany him. No noble worth his wit would step in and interrupt the two most powerful men in the kingdom. Perhaps they were discussing something paramount.

Lorist dismissed the servants when they were done.

"Locke, do you really like to see me make a fool of myself?"

"I don't. You are the king. The servants don't meet someone of your stature often. Their enthusiasm is understandable. Besides, it didn't look like you were objecting much. I can't match your fair skin, anyway. My hard life has left me scar-ridden, so it's only natural that they have more enthusiasm for you than me."

"Haha, you like to joke, don't you?" Auguslo laughed dryly a couple of times, "Oh, I heard House Norton lent Duke Forund seven million gold Fordes to develop Yungechandler. The term is ten years and ten million gold Fordes will have to be repaid?"

"Yes. I must apologize in advance if Your Majesty would like to borrow money as well. This loan took up most of our funds. We will not have any money to lend until this current loan is repaid."

Lorist wasn't the least surprised Auguslo got wind of this deal.

"That can't be. Seven million is enough to dry up your treasury? I could have offered to double your loan in ten years."

"Don't make these kinds of jokes, Your Majesty. I'm sure you understand I'd never lend you money, even if you are the king."

"Why not?"

"Duke Forund borrowed money to develop the economy of his dominion and improve the lives of his subjects. In ten years, our products will have a market in a developed province. If I lend money to you, you'd use it for war. It's a massive risk. You might break even if you win, but I lose everything if you don't. Duke Kenmays did tell me we could double our loan in three years if you win, but the risk is just too great.

"Business, too, is war. While there are many that can imagine its profits, most either can't or won't think about the risk of failing. Take the merchants and nobles who invested blindly into the factories in my dominion. Many suffered heavy losses and three even committed suicide because of their debts. THat's why Duke Kenmays only resells materials

"Sometimes, when there are too many products, they will cause economic disaster. That is why I am willing to spend ten years to build up a market. We want another outlet to sell our products. The money we loan will go towards this goal.  It is a safe investment. We're not even giving them much of the money immediately. They're getting it in steady installments over several years."

"Fine.  Please don't lecture economics now. I was just bringing it up casually. I won't really borrow any money. I know you won't give me any face, I won't bother to ask. You are the man that brings me the most sleepless nights, but I cannot help but admire your single-minded dedication to developing your fiefs. I must admit not even a king can match you in that regard."

"You praise me too highly, Your Majesty."

" But... do you really think so badly of my efforts? You know what I'm talking about. Be frank."

Lorist shook his head.

"The Union is now very powerful, they're a match even for the Empire during its heyday. The difference between the kingdom and the Union of today is no different from the Union as it was compared to the Empire a century ago. We cannot match them, Your Majesty. You have received up-to-date reports from the Union, yes?"

Auguslo

"Even you must be surprised by their war with the coalition's outcome. The four year war didn't just not bring them to their knees, they came out victorious.  They almost doubled their strength and have a new ally of about equal strength. The most important thing, however, is they forced the trade routes open again. Their economy is back on track and their coffers filling up once more.

"They have the windstorm swordsaint and nearly a hundred blademasters now. Andinaq had less than twenty blademasters by comparison and no swordsaints.

"Each of the seven main guild shave their own armies and they've been trained into elites in this war. The smaller guilds are weaker, but together they still contribute 300 thousand men. All-in-all the Union has at least half a million soldiers.

"Even with years of preparation you've only gathered 300 thousand, and they're nowhere near as well-trained as their Union counterparts. If you threw in every garrison under your command in the kingdom, you'll only match them.  If myself and the other dukes join in, you have 800 thousand. But they can't match the Union's experienced troops.

"At best we'll be on par. But it's more likely that, even with a 300 thousand lead, we'll be fighting uphill.  On top of that you have to remember that the Union has vast stretches of developed land with a strong economy, our lands — save The Northlands — have been ravaged by war and can't support a prolonged war. You need at least a decade of focused development to fix that."

Auguslo's resolve wavered, though only momentarily.

"No, Locke, you're wrong. Now is the best time to strike. I cannot miss this. We might catch up to where the Union is now in ten years of development, but they will have continued to strengthen as well. The gap will only get wider. I must use this chance to take back our provinces and restore the empire!"

"Oh? Best time?"

"The Union will continue to view us as an enemy, a threat, even if we make no moves to take back our land."

Auguslo's words were true. The Empire had shattered into three kingdoms and numerous duchies and had no official heir, but the Union always held more suspicion and caution for Andinaq than the other splinters. Trade embargos were everywhere. Auguslo was also incredibly hostile towards the Union.

"You know the situation in that part of the continent. The fighting has stopped, but a true end to the war is still not certain. Until negotiations finish, the majority of the Union's forces will be in Chikdor lands, thousands of kilometers away from the Union proper. Three of the Union's four main legions will return and strengthen their borders with us."

"It's simple. When Andinaq wiped out the four central duchies, Madras, and Iblia, the Union's trade routes there were cut off. They will try to force us to open the trade routes. You know my temperament, do you think I will yield? This is not a war we can avoid, and now is the best time to strike.

"Even if I were willing to open the trade routes, it would have to be to a fair deal, and we both know they would never give us that. Certainly not now that they think they are so powerful."

Lorist had to admit that Auguslo spoke sense. It seemed the king was not as blind as he had first thought. The question was why House Norton should participate in this war. Sacrificing his subjects for the king's ambition was foolish. The king could offer him nothing to make it worth his while. There was no rank above duke that was not king, so there could be no promotions. And praise was far from enough.

"I'll admit you have good reasoning behind your decision, but I will have no part in this war. My ambitions do not stretch beyond my borders as yours do. My oath is to ensure a good and peaceful life for my subjects. I have lived by this oath from the moment I set my first foot on the road back home from Morante and I will not break it now. I will live in peace with my wife and watch my children grow up.

"Even if you manage to convince my allies to take up arms, mine will stay in the armory. I remain convinced this war holds no benefits for the kingdom. Of course, if we are attacked I will defend the kingdom, but I will not march beyond its borders. It is unwise to start a fight we cannot win."

The king was severely displeased. Luckily no one had heard this refusal, so his reputation was not harmed. He had prepared himself for this as well. He knew the duke was not easily persuaded. A smile returned to his face naturally.

"We came here to have fun, so let us not spoil the mood with serious talk. Come, let us drink some more. I heard you swim pretty well. Care to teach me?"

"I'm glad to be of service."

Auguslo was really busy in the following days tending the other nobles. This was supposed to be a vacation, but Lorist felt the atmosphere slowly stale. Even the nobles' families slowly lost their relaxed moods. A few nobles packed and returned home. Their grim expression betrayed the thoughts on everyone's minds: war was on the horizon.

Lorist was quite curious. The 9th month was on them. Rallying the army would take at least two months. It would be well into winter before they could do anything.

Don't tell me Auguslo is planning to start the war in mid-winter? Surely not. Even if he purchased all the beastskins from me to make winter clothing, he can only make 30 thousand sets at best. Going against the Union with just that is suicide.

Kenmays, Felim, and Shazin came to visit him. He could tell they'd come to an agreement with Auguslo.

"I will not discuss the war. I already refused the king directly. I will not listen to news of the war either. I will not take part and that's final."

Chapter 458 - Lorist's Considerations

Though it was late, Lorist couldn't fall asleep. He lay on the inclined chairs under the grapevine and let the silvery moonlight shine through the leaves and dance on his skin.

Why am I not willing to deploy troops? Lorist thought, Because I am thinking about the house's future. I admit Auguslo is talented and has a good eye. He can see things clearly and grasp opportunities as they come. But...

Auguslo was determined to take the provinces while the Union's army was held up in Chikdor's territory before the war formally ended and they returned. The Union couldn't turn their forces and march them north while the accords were still unsigned in the south.  The only thing preventing open war from breaking out again was their presence in the region. If that went away, the remaining coalition members would lash out. Under these circumstances, the Union had no choice but to negotiate with the king.

While Auguslo sounded audacious, he wasn't prepared to take back the provinces that had joined the Union of their own accord, such as Lormo. He couldn't go too far since he was relying on the Union's willingness to negotiate. If he insulted them too much, and they decided to duke it out, he would lose.

As Lorist had said, the Union wasn't the small merchant state it had been during its war with the empire. It was now a superpower that stood near the peak on the continent. It had rich and developed land while Andinaq was barely anything more than a barren wasteland. The kingdom inherited the empire's legacy, but not its power.

This moment when the Union was distracted was a great opportunity. It was a moment that would vanish the instant the Union signed the accords with Jigda and the coalition. He would instead enjoy the Union's full attention and lose his last hope of re-establishing the empire.

The empire' first prince broke the empire when he rebelled. His entire kingdom, spanning Kanbona, Bodolger, and Anderwoff was now under Union occupation. Bodolger, which boasted a huge mining industry, was now Wessia's territory. The lands bordering Andinaq in the north of the kingdom had also been turned into the puppet duchy Zitram.

Coupled with the two provinces in Lormo that joined the Union, the state occupied five of the empire's old provinces. The king's ambitions would never be fulfilled until they were retaken. While Lormo was a difficult goal, the three provinces occupied by the Union weren't, so he had to, at the very least, get them.

He planned to take the two provinces by force, then fortify the border with Lormo and annex the duchy in the peace negotiations. If he could do this, he would have restored the empire. He could then reform the empire proper, make his family the imperial family again and write his name in the history books as the second founder of the empire.

His plan sounded sound, but nothing was certain. Things could easily go just bad as they could good. Lorist admitted the plan would catch the Union of guard and the minimum goals of taking the three provinces would likely be achieved, but the negotiations thereafter were likely to either fall apart completely or end with far fewer benefits than the king hoped for. Even if Auguslo agreed to reopen the trade routes, the Union would not agree to give up Lormo. He might not even manage to get them to the negotiation table. The Union knew they were far more capable of fighting a drawn out war than Andinaq, even better if it was a war fought with stares and standing armies rather than battles. Their economy could soak up the losses, Andinaq's couldn't.

He had advised the king against this several times. The best scenario was that they negotiated and came to a compromise that led to peace but disappointed Auguslo. The bad outcome was that the Union simply sat across from the border and waited for Andinaq to collapse under the costs of maintaining such a massive army.  But the worst case was that they retaliated with force. There was no way they wouldn't deploy their swordsaint if they did, and Andinaq had nothing to counter.

Auguslo was convinced the swordsaint wouldn't go to the front, especially not to target him.  He was protected by thousands of veteran soldiers! He believed that, even if he did come out, he would just die eventually.

The king had convinced Kenmays to deploy his troops by promising to make the salt merchant committee the empire's sole business partner. They would be the only guild officially endorsed and supported by the empire and the imperial family. They would get first pick of any business or contract the empire had to offer.

The king promised Felim migrants, financial aid, and tax rebates and exemptions to get him to agree to join the campaign. It helped that Felim was a knight at heart, not a lord. He lived for war and pillaging, not management and careful governing.

Shazin also used to be a knight. Though he was a duke, he governed a piece of land the size of a county. He was still want for a proper duchy. Auguslo gave him written oath that, should he provide his forces, and Auguslo succeed in establishing the empire again, he would get Kribia, the province he had wanted all along. The king's oath and letter of guarantee, the poor fool was roped in yet again.

Auguslo might have thought the three houses would convince Lorist to join, but he would not even listen to their appeals. There was nothing he needed from the king, nor anything the king could offer. The only way he could go from where he was independence, but Auguslo would never agree. He would march every two-legged man in the kingdom on the duchy before he would accept a declaration of independence. Lorist wasn't afraid of fighting him if it came to it, he would win without a doubt, he just had no interest in being called a traitor.

Duke Forund had visited him earlier. He told him he had agreed to deploy his men. The king had promised to return his original duchy to him once the empire was reformed. The land there contained two hundred years of his family's roots, they had built the Summer Palace, even his family mausoleum stood there, he would do anything to get it back.

This through their previous agreement down the drain.  The duke wouldn't hold on to Yungechandler as well as his old territory, he would be trading it in.  Auguslo would get the province back, and he would not abide by the agreement between the two dukes. The investments made thus far were worthless to the house now, there was no reason to keep throwing money down the drain.

The duke didn't want everything to be canceled, however. He didn't know if the war would end well for the kingdom, and, in that case, he wished to resume the programme. Lorist assured him he was willing to only put the programme on hold and not cancel it outright. The duke was incredibly grateful. He told Lorist that the same offer had been made to Madras, who agreed immediately.

Among the four dukes, Houses Forund, Handra, and Farkel were the first nobles entitled by the founding emperor, Krissen I. Their houses made countless contributions, gradually raising their titles to that of duke despite being only low nobles at first. It was easy to see why they were so sentimental about their territories. Auguslo's move made them willing to serve him despite their animosity. Lorist was surprised, impressed, and slightly concerned. It was never a good thing to have a competent rival.

As for Shabaj, his house was moved to their former lands by Krissen VI and weren't as attached to it. Additionally, it was obvious how badly Jigzai was treated by the alliance and Fisablen. They didn't feel like going back to clean up the mess. Auguslo instead offered them Bodolger. As he shared the same fate as Duke Handra, the duke made peace with Auguslo and agreed to mobilize his forces.

Currently, apart from Duke Fisablen — whose conditions were still unknown — only Lorist had not jumped on the bandwagon. He counted six dukes with 280 thousand men and Auguslo's own 500 thousand made 800 thousand already. If Fisablen joined them Auguslo might have up to a million men.

No wonder the king was so confident. It wasn't impossible that the Union would be wary of a war against a million men and be willing to negotiate. It was far from certain, or even likely, though. And if they decided to continue the war, the million-strong army would bleed the kingdom dry in two years at most. Even if they did agree to negotiate, if the negotiations weren't completed within two years, Auguslo would still run dry and have to agree to whatever was on the table at the time.

Auguslo's decision shocked everyone who heard about it. Luckily there wasn't the added shock of Lorist participating. The primary reason for his decision to stay out of the war wasn't that he thought it would likely end badly, though he did think that, it was that he knew he would be next. Auguslo would never settle for having a duke that could rival him in his kingdom. He would turn on Lorist the moment the war ended and not stop either outright conflict or sabotage and subterfuge until he felt the duke was sufficiently suppressed and obedient.

Lorist actually hoped the campaign was a massive failure. A successful conclusion to the war would signal the start of a protracted cold war, possible even a hot one, between him and the king. But, regardless of his disdain for the reckless man, he had to respect his blind determination to his ambitions.

'Where there's a will, there's a way; the beast that lies in waiting will eventually catch its prey. The heavens won't disappoint hard workers; even a desperate rat can swallow a cat.' Lorist's grandfather from his previous life used to quote these often. 'Always study hard…', 'Always aim high…'.  Auguslo must have been one of his cousins from his previous life, he epitomized his grandfather's teachings. He stood up from one failure after another unwaveringly and always continued to walk on the path he drew for himself. There was a certain point, however, at which determination became foolishness. Lorist wasn't sure on which side of that point the king stood.

Having a rival like Auguslo is troublesome...

As his liege, he had learned from his lessons. He had a good grasp of his vassal's temperament and stopped at the right point whenever things were getting uncomfortable. They appeared amiable, even close, on the surface, but they both knew how guarded each was against the other.

Take the king's move on Duke Forund. He appeared to not mind Lorist refusing to join the war, but went and vaporized Lorist's agreement with the duke. It was clearly a show of force. The king could have used any number of conditions to get the duke to participate, but he just to happen to choose the one that screwed Lorist over.

Lorist would not participate no matter what the king offered because the latter could offer nothing short of independence that was worth anything. But he knew how stubborn the man was. He would not let Lorist sit by idly. The only reason he hadn't made his move yet was because he was still trying to find out how he could rope him in.

Lorist got up and went for a walk, feeling the onset of a headache. Half an hour in a light breeze blew by and Lorist stopped dead in his tracks.

"Who's there?! Come out!"

Jinolio, who stood beside him, drew his sword and stepped in front of his lord. A figure appeared from the man-made hill further ahead.

"It's me," Duke Fisablen's voice echoed down the hill.

Chapter 459 - Secret Plot

Duke Fisablen revealed himself to the pair. He stood clad in a nightgown and slippers. Had no weapon. It looked like he two had just gotten out of bed to take a stroll.

Lorist patted Jinolio's shoulder.

"Why are you here?" he asked.

"Haha, I couldn't sleep. I decided to come out for a walk. The moon is beautiful tonight. I wandered over without realizing," the duke answered sincerely.

Lorist pouted slightly and glared at the duke oddly.

Who are you kidding, old man? Your villa is three buildings away. You're telling me you wondered by three buildings to my particular garden by happenstance, without noticing? And did so whilst avoiding my guards? Is this your idea of a casual walk? It's blindingly obvious you want to talk to me in secret.

"Let's head to the study."

Jinolio looked like a brute, but actually had quite sharp senses and a strong wit. He entered the study first and lit the candles before closing the curtains.

"Does Your Grace need anything else?"

"Bring us food… and a few bottles of wine from the cellar. You may rest thereafter, it's getting late," said Lorist.

Jinolio acknowledged and left. Duke Fisablen looked around awe-filled.

"Duke Kenmays is more respectful to you than he is to His Majesty. Apart from giving you the best villa, he even hid all the fine wine in the cellar. He made His Majesty stay in an inferior residence instead..."

Auguslo arrived unannounced a few days earlier. Normally, the most lavish residence should be offered to him. But because he came without informing anyone, Lorist had already occupied the best villa. Kenmays didn't bring it up and instead gave his personal villa to the king. Everyone was expecting a commotion but was left speechless. Nobody dared to get Lorist to move out for Auguslo, nor did the latter mind it. He told the other nobles that since he came late as a passing guest, there was nothing he could complain about since Kenmays had moved out of his own villa on his behalf.

Everyone knew Lorist wouldn't refuse to move out of his villa if asked, but would leave for The Northlands when he did. Auguslo could not let him do this, since his plot would not have time to be put into motion if that happened.

"Do you know how many bottles of wine Kenmays drank and pilfered from my place? It can't compare to how many you took, but it was at least half as much."

He offered the duke a seat, which the latter accepted. He'd interacted with the duke a few times now and knew that, despite being a rank 3 blademaster, he was a lustful alcoholic. He didn't know how he became a blademaster. He was just like Kenmays. He couldn't go into Lorist's study to drink there, but had his own ways. He would disappear sometime during the final night of the new year's celebrations and be found near the cellar.

Lorist hadn't bought his collection. They were spoils of war. Most were from his conquest of Hanayabarta. He'd brought back ten thousand bottles. He had wanted to split it with his men, but Charade wouldn't let him.  Even the cheapest wine was several gold Fordes per bottle; the most expensive could go for upwards of three thousand.

In the years since, between the celebrations and Lorist's normal consumption, there weren't many left.  And the last couple of years Fisablen had stolen a good portion of what there still was… He would steal at least three bottles every day while he was present.

Three hundred bottles went missing every time he visited. Spiel, who was responsible for keeping an inventory of the cellar, cursed the bastard to hell and back every time.

"Why are you here in the middle of the night?" asked Lorist as he pulled up a chair.

"Nothing, I was really just taking a walk."

"Do you think I'm gullible?"

Fisablen slumped into the couch.

"I had nothing serious in mind. I just wanted to ask why you won't take part in the war."

"Do you even have to ask that? Why would I send my men to die for the king? He gave you guys great deals, sure, but what has he offered me? He can't offer me riches, he's poorer than me. He can't offer me a promotion, I'm just one step below him.  And he will never offer me more land, not even in his testament. I will not accept talk of 'restoring the empire' and 'building honor through contributions'. I will not send my men to their deaths in a war that does not concern them."

"I see. You make sense," agreed the duke.

This was the keystone of any and every noble decision — benefits. Relations were only sour when there were conflicts of interest. Even if an exchange promised benefit, they would carefully weigh everything up, even if the other guy was their brother or father or son. People who honestly believed in loyalty and generosity were known as fools.

"What did His Majesty offer you?"

"I haven't agreed to mobilize," replied Fisablen.

"What?! Why not?"

Fisablen, whom Lorist thought would be the first to answer Auguslo's call, actually hadn't agreed to mobilize. Lorist's curiosity was piqued.

"I told His Majesty that if you don't deploy, neither can I. We've always considered each other great rivals.  How can I leave my home unguarded if all your forces are sitting on our border?"

"You… Pops, I am being roasted already. And now you're using me as a frying pan?!"

The duke hadn't refused because he honestly believed he couldn't leave his demesne open to Lorist.  He obviously didn't like the conditions and Lorist's refusal was just a good excuse.

"Well played. Then again, do you think His Majesty will believe you?"

"I don't know. I know I do."

Lorist gave the old man a thumbs up.

"Old Man, you're far too shameless. You've been coming to the new year's celebration and stealing my wine. Do you think His Majesty doesn't know? What kind of fool do you think he is?"

"So what? Don't forget, I'm Sylvia's grandfather. What's wrong with visiting my granddaughter? Besides, the king doesn't care about me drinking my granddaughter's wine, he's worried that we're working together now. I've already admitted to him that the alliance forces me to buy lots of daily necessities and refuses to sell me military equipment. He's asked me to endure and avoid conflict, to consider the bigger picture..."

Lorist was speechless.

As expected from the old fox. He managed to cut our relation clear with just a few words.  He even spun it so he is only attending our new year's celebration out of obligation. He made it sound like we're working together to suppress him. And of course that dimwitted fool believes him...

Lorist sighed.

"You really are frivolous. You were the mastermind behind the second prince's founding of Iblia, and yet the king believes you more than he does my loyal house. How ridiculous..."

"Hahaha..." Fisablen wanted to say something, but a knocked on silenced him.

Jinolio entered with a few bottles of wine. A couple of servants trailed behind him with some snacks. Lorist dismissed them when they were done.  Lorist poured himself and the duke each a cup.

"Tell me, what unacceptable offer did the king make?"

"He promised another 200 thousand civilians."

Lorist snickered.

"I figured it would be something like that. He can't come up with anything better than that. Don't forget that if House Norton ever falls, House Fisablen will be the next biggest thing on His Majesty's mind."

"That's why I used you as an excuse. If the sky falls, you'll be there to bear it for me. He actually thought he could get me to slave away for just 200 thousand people. He dreams big."

"Then tell me, what do you want?"

"I want a province in the inner kingdom."

"Ugh..." Lorist started so bad he almost flung his cup at his grandfather-in-law. "—Is that even possible? Dream on, Old Man. It's about time you went to wash up and sleep. You're drunk."

"Of course it's possible. The king will agree if you'll cooperate. I haven't even drunk a bottle yet. How could I be drunk?"

"That so? You sure sound like you're drunk. Think about it, you're just like me. We each have one hereditary title and two territories we only govern. Aren't we big enough already in his eyes?" mocked Lorist.

"That's why this is the perfect opportunity. We both know what he plans. It's entirely possible no huge conflict will break out. He's trying to pressure them to the negotiation table with his million-strong army. The plan has a decent chance of succeeding so the risk isn't too great.  The problem is we need benefits he isn't really willing to offer. He will, however, have no chance but to give in if we work together."

"I will not take part in this war and that's final."

"So you're not interested in Wild Husbandry?"

"Haha, and what of it if I am? His Majesty won't give it to me. What are you planning? Don't forget Wild Husbandry is technically yours."

"Something that will benefit us both. The king will come to negotiate with you again soon. Just tell him you want Wild Husbandry."

"You make it sound simple. How will I justify this?"

"Foolish kid! Just tell him you want it as a buffer between us. If you have it no one can attack directly at your core territories. It's entirely in line with your wants. As long as you insist, the king will eventually have to give in."

Lorist smiled.

"And you'll ask for an inner province as compensation for giving up Wild Husbandry. There's still one thing I don't get. You're developing the north-east very well. Why do you want an inner province? Splitting your house might make you an easy target."

"You'll understand the real troubles of a family head when House Norton's branch families get stronger. If the house were in an inner province I would have sent the branch families to the plains. But we aren't so I can't.

"My house has a thousand members at least. Naturally there are both good and bad apples.  And everyone is constantly fighting for a better footing. Even as the rightful lord and title holder, I can only do so much without the family's permission. I want to kick the bad apples to the inner province. Sending them there will make it look like we're strengthening our bloodline by spreading out, but it's actually a purge."

Duke Fisablen downed the last of the wine and stood up, holding two more bottles in his hand.

"Well, now you're informed, it's time I left. Just remember to insist on Wild Husbandry. The king will come to me and I'll deal with the rest. I won't give him a choice, hehe, he'll have to agree to my conditions as well. He has no confidence in this war without us!"

Fisablen left as unnoticed as he came. Lorist's study was illuminated until daybreak.

Chapter 460 - Deal Sealed

"Why go to such length so we will do something we have no desire to do? Even without House Norton, you still have a million-strong army.  You should have no trouble achieving your strategic objectives," advised Lorist with a troubled smile.

"Locke, my friend, are you really going to sit back and watch the war? You'll let House Norton be nothing but a spectator? What if your descendants ask about this? Would you tell them you did nothing but watch the show?"

Lorist rubbed the sides of his arms; he could feel the goosebumps.

"Stop. Doesn't that sound gross to you? It's making my hair stand on end! When did Your Majesty become a traveling poet? I will tell my descendants I was watching a bunch of fools tumbling around fighting each other, and it was quite a show."

"You..."

Auguslo glared angrily, not that the latter minded. He pretended to not notice anything.

"House Norton must deploy their forces. As Duke of The Northlands, you have to contribute to the kingdom!"

"Alright. As Duke of The Northlands, I am willing to serve the kingdom. How about this, I'll go to the front-lines myself and charge the enemy myself. You may order me around as your vassal, but you have no right to order the needless sacrifice of my men. By the same token that you may order my person around, I may refuse any unreasonable orders where my subjects and domain is concerned."

"Ugh..."

Auguslo tried his best to release his anger. Lorist's argument was airtight. He couldn't do anything to him.

What's this about going to the front-lines yourself? It sounds impressive but it's just an excuse to avoid deploying your troops! You think waving your sword and killing a soldier or two means you've fulfilled your obligations? You think you can just go back and watch the rest of the fight? How's that different from not doing anything at all?

"Fine, Brother Locke, tell me what you want. As long as it's something reasonably, I will agree."

Auguslo seemed to have surrendered. All would be well as long as Lorist agreed to deploy. The conditions could be discussed later. In the worst-case scenario, he could just delay the fulfillment of his promise the best he could.

"I want a sense of security."

"Sense of security?" Auguslo's eyes widened.

The hell is that? I haven't heard of anyone asking for this before.

"If you agree to give me Wild Husbandry, I can send my men to war."

"Wild Husbandry?! Impossible!"

"Then there is nothing more to be said. Jinolio, please see His Majesty ou--"

"Wait! Brother Locke, we can talk about this." What the hell?! You can't send people off without giving them a chance to respond! Nobody negotiates like this!

"I return to The Northlands tomorrow. I wish you success in your campaign. Godspeed," said Lorist as he shook his head.

"No, Brother Locke, please tell me what you meant by safety. What does this have to do with you wanting Wild Husbandry?"

The king wouldn't leave until he understood what was going on. Lorist glared at the man like he was an utter idiot.

"Locke, what's the meaning of this?"

"If you don't understand, please turn back and take a look at the map," Lorist sighed deeply.

"Map?" Auguslo turned around and saw a map of House Norton's dominion on the wall. Different territories were rendered in different colors. What did they mean?

Auguslo got up and walked over.

Hmm, The Northlands is green, the ocean blue, Delamock and Winston light green, and Southern and Sidgler light yellow. The provinces around the capital and the eleven central provinces are golden yellow. Only House Fisablen's Eastwild and Goldcreek are dark red. Wild Husbandry is light red. Magical Dragon Mountains and the wildlands are gray-black.

What is this?

Auguslo soon noticed the color legend on the bottom of the map. Green was for the safest areas under the Lorist's direct inheritory rule, mostly the duchy. Light green was for safe areas only under Lorist's jurisdiction. Blue was the ocean. Yellow marked the safe territories of allies, golden yellow territories under the royal family. Dark red areas were danger zones, and light red areas those to be monitored closely. Grayish-black zones were unexplored frontiers, the threat level of which was unknown.

The map's clarity was immediately apparent. He soon felt a little uncomfortable.

"Why are the areas under my control not marked as safe areas or those of allies?"

"You tell me, Your Majesty. These categorisations aren't decided on arbitrarily, nor did I or any or my people have a hand in deciding what went where. This map was drawn based on feedback from hundreds, if not thousands, of merchants. This is how they evaluate the different areas based on their security and stability."

Auguslo couldn't find a retort. He understood that due to his efforts to rally his forces, he had focused most of his attention on the military. He hadn't paid attention to the civil side of his rule. It was good enough that his subjects stayed alive so they could join his army. Crimes like robbery and murder had gone unchecked and grown rampant. No wonder his lands were mediocrely rated at best. One could only feel relatively safe if one carried a weapon on ones person at all times. Merchants could not operate without escorts and had to travel in large convoys.

He finally understood what Lorist meant by 'sense of security' and how it related to his desire for Wild Husbandry. The Northlands had four routes connecting it to the outside world. The maritime route started in Northsea. The three others were over land.  One went through Winston and one through Delamock. The final went through Wild Husbandry. Both Winston and Delamock were under Lorist's control. He had worked hard to stabilize the situation, so they were now rated as safe. Only Wild Husbandry was light red, an area of low safety that had to be carefully monitored. The recent war between House Norton and House Fisablen had plunged the province into poverty and lawlessness and without control of the area, Lorist could not feel safe about the crime possibly spilling over into his lands. It was also a route House Fisablen could use to attack him, a place where he had no buffer.

Haha... I didn't think Lorist would really treat Fisablen as his most dangerous enemy even though they've signed a ceasefire. It seems Fisablen's claims about the alliance forcing them to buy daily necessities and open up trade routes were true. They're trying to squeeze all the gold Fisablen gets from Goldcreek. Hmmm, not bad. The more conflicts between them, the deeper their grudges will be. I might get a chance to exploit this if I play my cards right.

Auguslo paced back and force in front of the map. He only snapped out of his reverie after several minutes.

"Brother Locke, didn't Fisablen sign an armistice with you? I also heard trade is doing really well. You are both Andinaq nobility, you've even married the duke's granddaughter. I don't understand why you still see Fisablen as your enemy. Don't you think this is inappropriate?"

It was quite unnecessary for Lorist to want Wild Husbandry.

He just has to cut the suspension bridge. With the bridge gone, Fisablen can't attack him without either spending several months building another bridge, or detouring through a lot of Norton land. Fisablen has long withdrawn his forces from the province as well. It's basically yours already. Why do you want to force me to recognize your control formally? Can't we just shut one eye and have a tacit agreement?

Even if we ignore the fact that Fisablen has full legal rights to the land, there is no precedent for this, this has never been done before. No noble has ever had more than two territories besides their hereditary fiefs. But you want three? You're just making trouble for me! Wild Husbandry isn't a great province either. It might be a lot of land, but hardly anyone lives there and the few that do are raided by barbarians frequently. My forefathers use to exile people there, but you you actually WANT it? Do you have so much free time you feel like trying to govern that shithole?

Lorist smirked.

"If not for my alliance forcing Fisablen into a corner, do you think they would be so easy to handle, they would have submitted to you? Have you already forgotten it was Fisablen that drove the founding of Iblia? Do you think you can trust his loyalty just because you married one of his offspring?

"House Norton never forgets its enemies. Ceasefire or armistice or not. We remember well they were the ones who sent the barbarians our way, who killed tens of thousands of my people. Fisablen bled my men for Wild Husbandry, now I want to see his face as I tear it from his hands without losing a single drop of blood. I will build a monument to my men there, where he can stare at it across the border as it mocks him from sunrise to sunset and throughout the night.

"I've already contributed greatly to your cause. My endurance of these losses, my making peace with that man… that is my contribution to your war, and it is a far greater contribution than any of my armies can get you on the battlefield. My men will sit patiently at their posts, waiting for our opportunity. Whether you agree to let me take that and or not doesn't matter. One day Fisablen will turn his back on you, and we will march over the river and pry Wild Husbandry from his cold, dead hands."

Auguslo was overcome with joy. He finally caught a glimpse of the true hatred Lorist felt for the duke and finally understood he really wanted the province to placate his conscience and wipe away the shame of his loss there.

Hahaha! It seems I have nothing to worry about. There's no way he will ever work with Fisablen. This kind of hatred can't be faked. Letting Lorist take Wild Husbandry forcefully will shame Fisablen as well. They'll hate each other to the bone and look for every chance to slit a few throats.

Trading a useless barren expanse for House Norton's participation in the war and adding trouble to House Fisablen at the same time was ideal. As for the limitation of each house having only one fief and two jurisdictions, Auguslo could circumvent it. The province wasn't technically his, after all. It would not be him, as the king, giving Lorist jurisdiction, he would only be acknowledging the exchange. It would not adversely affect his reputation, and he paid no other price for it either.

It wasn't that simple, however.  Since the land was not his, he could not just give it away.  He had to convince the rightful juris prudent to hand it over. Luckily, he felt confident in his ability to convince the duke. He had all the leverage in that relationship.  Fisablen was being suppressed by the alliance and could only stand by the king's support. He could just threaten to withdraw it.

He knew the duke would demand compensation, however.  How would he compensate the man?

I can't have Lorist deploy and Fisablen stay. Lorist won't stand for it, even if he has Wild Husbandry. He'll either withdraw from the offer, or only deploy a token force. I need his men to achieve my objectives.

"I can agree to let you administer Wild Husbandry but the land isn't mine to give. It belongs to Fisablen. I cannot forcefully give you the land either, even as king I do not have the authority or the right to.  I'll have to convince Fisablen to do it voluntarily but I promise I'll get him to agree. Just give me three days before you leave, okay?"

Lorist bowed deeply.

"I shall do as Your Majesty pleads. If you can get Fisablen to hand over Wild Husbandry, I will move my men to the front and join your offensive."

Auguslo left in a hurry. Lorist cracked a smile. Perhaps Wild Husbandry was just a barren wasteland in the eyes of others. But to Lorist it was precious trade territory. His most profitable partners were the grassland barbarians. He didn't just want to trade with them, though. His wanted to make them pledge themselves to him and become his subjects. He would nurture them into yet another foreign market for his goods.

The villa complex near Platinum Beach was quite rowdy for the following three days. The nobles learned by gossip of Lorist's conditions. Kenmays, Felim, and Shazin each paid him a visit but he kept silent. Silence, too, however, was an answer.

On the first day, Auguslo went to negotiate with the duke. Rumor had it the old man was so pissed he yanked his sword out of its scabbard and tried to march right over to Lorist's villa.

'Wild Husbandry is MY land. I won't give it to anyone else even if I have to kill them or die for it! That brat is going too far! Let me go kill him!' he was said to have said.

Luckily, he barked loudly but only nibbled. He would not really challenge Lorist. Auguslo only had to put in a sliver of effort to stop the duke. He refused to listen to Auguslo's advice however and locked himself in his room for the rest of the day.

The king visited him again the next day. The old man had cooled down somewhat. He listened to the kind silently. He didn't say a single word for the whole visit.

The king made his third and final visit on the third day. This time, the old man was far more relaxed. He was willing to give Wild Husbandry and join the campaign if he was enfeoffed a province in the centre of the kingdom.

Auguslo agreed after pondering for a few minutes. He didn't promise a territory he currently controlled, however, but one that he would if the war ended well. He promised that, if the first phase of the war was successful, Anderwoff, one of the reclaimed provinces, would be given to Fisablen.

Fisablen wasn't the least bit surprised. Promising to give something in the hands of the enemy was a habit of Auguslo's. He agreed, nonetheless, but had him sign a letter of oath. The duke went to Lorist's villa and handed over control of the province formally after he got the king's signed oath. Auguslo also signed the document to officiate it. After the procedure, Fisablen flung the quill he used to sign the agreement and left angrily.

On the 32nd day of the 8th month, Year 1786, Duke Fisablen, under the eyes of Andinaq's king, Auguslo I and the nobles present, transferred the writ of Wild Husbandry to Duke of The Northlands, Norton Lorist, allowing House Norton to be the only landed noble house to have one direct dominion and three other jurisdictions.

Chapter 461 - Prepare for War!

15th day of the 9th month, Year 1786. Lorist, just returned from Platinum Beach, called a war council.

"...His Majesty will split the army in two. Our alliance will be in one of them together. We'll attack Anderwoff and Bodolger from Majik. His Majesty will meet up with Dukes Fisablen, Forund, Handra, and Shabaj and the minor nobles and head for the two southeastern provinces.

"He intends to clean up the northeastern area first and eliminate Zitram before striking Kanbona in a three-pronged assault. Lormo's provinces, Malivia and Yamanya, will be won through negotiation. The war will be over once we hold those provinces, and the empire will be whole once again."

Lorist tapped on the large map with his wooden pointer.

"The king is convinced this war will be no more than a year. More accurately, he cannot let it last more than a year. This is where we come in. For this to work, the attack has to happen when the enemy least expects it, and when it can least respond: winter. We are the only ones on the continent who can fight effectively this time of year. The rest are too soft!"

Everyone sneered.

"The king at least has this much wit. He knows Blizzardblitz, the poor imitation of our forces he trained cannot match us. We could have told him this even before he tried though…"

Another round of sneers.

"It's likely we'll have to fight most of this war on our own. I doubt he'll take Kanbona before we're done. We might well have to press into Kanbona and then sweep back north to help him out in Zitram."

"It's nice that he knows we're so much better than him," Charade jeered, "But he's given us the bone and chosen the meat. Don't you think a single province is a little meager for everything we're expected to do?"

Charade wasn't wrong. House Norton had to take two provinces, one of them Bodolger, the current dominion of Wessia, the guild well-known for being the Union's principle weapon supplier. Their army would definitely be well-kitted and fully armored. They had also only deployed a small portion of their army to join the Union's war in the south-east, most of their army still sat in barracks in the cities and on the border. House Norton's forces had the mobility to attack in the dead of winter, but their mobility was largely useless against an enemy that only had to hold the towns in which they sat and didn't have to move out into the frozen winter wilderness.

The officers and commanders chattered amongst themselves in hushed tones. No one liked the deal. Lorist tapped on the table and the voices quieted. If they were allowed to continue, they might even veto his decision to join the war. Loyalty to their king didn't factor into this concern. As far as they were concerned their only sovereign was Lorist.

"Stop complaining. There is nothing more the king is willing to give in return. The man only agreed thanks to Fisablen's machinations. And what is done is done, anyway. Alright, listen up. Here are your assignments. I want everyone to do their best. We cannot have delays in our development projects because of the war, and we cannot be seen to be doing a half-arsed job of our part in the campaign either."

Lorist swept his gaze over his subordinates and vassals.

"Firmrock and Tigersoar will deploy together. You will take Anderwoff as quickly as possible. Spare no one who resists, I want only obedient subjects and corpses left for Fisablen when you move on. Once Anderwoff is taken, Tigersoar will clean it up and hand it over to Fisablen.

"Firmrock will roll straight ahead into Bodolger and take Frederika. Once the forces in Frederika are wiped out Wessia will only have dispersed garrisons and small patrol forces left. They stand no chance at retaking the city so you'll wait for Tigersoar inside. The scattered remains of their forces pose no threat to us so we can take care of them after you regroup."

"I must object, Your Grace," Josk interjected, "Why aren't we deploying Jaeger?"

"We already have control of Wild Husbandry, but the province is a complete mess. Jaeger is to clean it up. Wipe out the gangs and the barbarians roaming and raiding the countryside. I clean province ready for development to great me when I return from the front-lines. However, don't just kill every barbarian you see. If they're willing to submit and become my subjects, then leave them be. Ideally they'll become no different from our current stock of sedentary subjects. Teach them husbandry, build small towns and settlements for them.

"Kedan, I'm making your the province's administrator. Make this happen…" Lorist ordered as he glanced at the aging man.

"I am not holding Jaeger back because I doubt its abilities in a fight, there is just too much to do, and the weather isn't fitting for Jaeger. It's a light cavalry legion. Horses do not do well on snow, and Tigersoar and Firmrock are much better on foot. Neither of them, on the other hand, can fight the barbarians anywhere near as well as Jaeger can on Wild Husbandry's plains and rolling hills."

"But fighting the barbarians is no fun at all," Josk complained, crestfallen, "I want to fight on a proper front-line again for once."

"Fine, if you can clean everything up in Wild Husbandry before year's end I'll let your join us on the front with a few of your guard."

The man had spent several years training Jaeger by now, so it was only fair he be given a taste of proper action again.

"Thank you, Your Grace," Josk said as he pulled Els along by his collar, "Come on. Let's go finish this quickly."

"Sit down… Sheesh. You have more than enough time, a few hours spent in a meeting won't make you miss the deadline," snapped Charade, "Your Grace, how many men is Fisablen sending out?"

"The duke is deploying as many as last time; one frontier legion and one barbarian reserve legion. He's holding two garrison legions and the second frontier legion back. They won't be full-strength, though. Fisablen told me he plans to pull men from the three to make a 30 thousand strong garrison legion which he'll station in Anderwoff once it's handed over."

"Will this not affect our supply line?" Charade enquired.

Lorist shook his head.

"No. Fisablen has agreed to only move the legion over after the rainy season. They shouldn't arrive before the 6th month next year. They'll be escorting House Fisablen's branch families over.

"He plans to create one marquisate, three counties, seven viscounties, and more than 40 baronies in the province, all of which will be given to members of the branch families. The new legion will also be split between them. They'll pose no threat to us. This is also why Fisablen wants us to clean the province up before they arrive."

"I understand. I can't help but get the disturbing feeling the duke is actually sincere in his desire to keep a good relationship with us. Well, for the duration of this campaign, at least. But are we really going to help the old fox for nothing in return?"

"Of course there will be benefits. Anderwoff has 600 thousand inhabitants. I promised the duke we won't ravage the place. We'll only take the noble's wealth and one sixth of its population."

"Don't the four houses in the alliance tread the same path? Do we have to split this between the four of us?"

"They get nothing. We are all three fighting this war together, true, but they have nothing to do with this conquest or this deal. They will only join in after the rainy season. Since we will take the provinces alone, we get all the benefits. They're only responsible for showing up and using their numbers to pressure the Union during the negotiations. The same actually goes for all the other nobles involved. We and the king are the only ones expected to do any actual fighting."

"I'm still convinced we got the short end of the stick. No wonder the king kept pestering you to join the war. We're fighting almost the entire campaign. We might as well just march in and take everything for ourselves for all the work we do. That blasted king no doubt wants to be able to push all the blame on us if this fails."

"We don't have to pick this bone with him. The enemy can't gather up a force capable of fighting us as equals. Actually, the bulk of our benefits will be here."

Lorist tapped on Bodolger with his pointer. "Frederika is Wessia's headquarters. Everything they own will be ours if we take it. Wealth is only a small part of the benefits we will gain. Talent is the biggest thing I'm aiming for.

"The province's population has exploded to 800 thousand people since they took over. They've moved in thousands of artisans and other skilled labor. Almost the entire guild now lives in and around the city.

"We tried to start trade with the Union about eight years ago, but Wessia crushed our plans. They deal primarily in weaponry and other military equipment, so of course they wouldn't let us encroach on their market. They are both our public and private enemy.

"Why not wipe this pest off the map while we have the chance? Even just the chance to rid ourselves of this nuisance is enough of a reward to deploy. A snake's head should be cut off when you fight it. With the guild having concentrated itself around this one city, we can not just cut off its head in one strike, but toss it into the fire-pit entirely. Even if the Union wins the war in the end, Wessia will be done for. The big-seven will be the big-six when this is over, no matter how it ends."

"How has the king told us to deal with Bodolger and Wessia?"

"The king was too preoccupied with getting Fisablen to agree to the deal to think about that. I suspect he doesn't think we can take Frederika quickly. It does have a 48 thousand strong military presence after all. This is nothing like when he took the city. It was only guarded by about one fifth the forces then.

"Besides, he's already promised the province to Shabaj. Whether the province is in ruins when we let it go or not doesn't affect him at all. Maybe he also thinks we won't dare offend the Union too much and so will restrain our urges. Unfortunately for him, and luckily for us, he knows nothing of our grudge with Wessia."

After a few laughs, a stern expression returned to his face.

"Firmrock will stay in Frederika and oversee our extraction of Wessia's people. The province also has about 800 thousand inhabitants. Strip it down to 300 thousand. I entrust this to you, Potterfang, Malek. Understood?"

The two generals stood up and saluted.

"Understood, Your Grace."

He returned to pointing his stick at the map.

"Today is the 15th of the 9th. We still have three months before we launch our attack. The road is long though. We have to cross Winston, Southern, Rimad, Messen, Jigzai, Freewood, Perolina, Wesstwood, and Deramak to get to Majik. If not for our ability at traveling on snow and ice, it would have been impossible to be ready in time.

"Camorra, you are in charge of our move to the front-lines. Shadekampf will be your aide. Set up a reliable supply line from here to there in these three months. I want at least one supply depot in each province. You don't have to worry about interference, I've already cleared this with the king. You have full authority to set up camps as and where you see fit. Freiyar I'm putting you in charge of security.

"I picked two divisions from the forces in Delamock and two from those in Winston. Form them into a temporary guard legion and keep the supply line safe. Put around a brigade at each depot. The rest will patrol the route and escort our convoys back and forth.

"I've also freed two divisions from the south of The Northlands. They'll fill in for Tigersoar and Firmrock and hold Anderwoff until Fisablen can take over.

"Also, Terman, your knights will move to Vanades just in case. Wait there for further orders. I may need you on the front-lines if things don't go as planned. Charade, as per the usual, you will be in charge of the household while we're off on campaign. Supervisor Spiel, help him with the migrants. Everyone understand their responsibilities?"

All the household officials and knights stood up and saluted.

"We understand, Your Grace!"

Chapter 462 - Start the War!

"We've just received a message from Baron Camorra!" Jinolio yelped as he rushed into the room, handing Lorist the white silk cloth he brought with him.

Charade, discussing trade with Lorist, saw his expression change as he quickly scanned the message.

"What happened?" asked he.

"Someone's itching to do something. We should teach them a lesson," Lorist said, handing the cloth to Charade, "Take a look. Baron Camorra's supply stations in Jigzai, Freewood, Wesstwood, and Deramak were attacked. The local nobles didn't just refuse to cooperate with our investigation, they even blamed us for attracting bandits. They're demanding compensation."

"Hrmph! Darned thieves are calling blame first! How could our stations be attacked by bandits without the nobles' cooperation? I wouldn't be surprised if the 'bandits' were the nobles themselves. I didn't think the cowards would become this daring the moment the king left. To think they want to prey on us... Do they think we're that easy to bully?"

As the main force would be split two ways, Auguslo had mobilized his army to the southwest in 9th month. He even left Whitelion at the borders of Majik. That way, they could reach Lormo'd border as the rainy season ended.

However, with Auguslo and his army gone, the relatively peaceful empire quickly became rowdy. The nobles, previously pressured into good behavior by the king's massive army, could breathe freely enough to start exploiting everyone else. At least a dozen small wars were fought already in just two months. Some of the less scrupulous nobles even went straight to banditry.

Lorist had never imagined, however, that they would actually have the balls to target his men. Either the provinces had been suck bone dry by the king, or he'd truly killed off everyone with any brain cells at all.

He had set up a dozen supply camps along the route and stocked them to collapse with resources in preparation for the war and subsequent migration. He had not been expecting this level of debasement among the nobles, so he had not manned the route with a lot of men.  Even the biggest depots only had a brigade of guards. They were the perfect targets for unscrupulous nobles.

Charade read the letter in detail.

"Camorra didn't mention casualties so it shouldn't be too serious. The same can't be said for our schedule.  We're badly behind now. Freyar's forces are just too thinly spread."

Lorist nodded.

"The route is too long. We didn't think of the nobles being this stupid when we came up with our plans. We have to increase the guard. I want to teach the idiots a good lesson too though. It's only been a few years, but they've already forgotten how deadly we can be... Jinolio!"

"Your Grace."

"Take this with you. Send an emergency missive to the king. Tell him we're about to deal with the nobles along the supply line. We cannot send our men into combat if we cannot ensure our supply line's integrity."

"Understood, Your Grace. I'll get to it immediately," said Jinolio as he bowed and left the study.

"The war is just around the corner, we just have to ensure the line's integrity, why get ourselves involved with those insects?" asked Charade.

Lorist tapped his fingers on the desk.

"No. If this were a simple matter of keeping the line safe, it would be no trouble. But I'm worried the nobles will be angered by our retaliation and attack us foolishly even if it won't benefit them. They might be forced into a desperate corner. If things get really bad, we might even have to deal with spiteful sabotage.

"For the nobles it'll only be a venting of their anger, but for us it might cost us the war and hundreds of thousands of lives.

"We have to clean the route entirely of all the polyps growing on it. We have to uproot whoever attacks us, no matter who they are."

"Will the king allow it though?"

"He will. Anyone who interferes in his plans are his enemy. As long as we launch our surprise attack according to plan, he will even close an eye to us wiping out every noble along the road."

Lorist suddenly started.

"FUCK! We've been had."

"Huh? How so?"

Lorist paced about in the study.

"This might be exactly what the king wants.  He plans to use us to clean up the aristocratic mess in his land."

Charade's expression soured as well.

"Any proof?"

"It's simple. He's given us the rights to set up these camps, everyone should know how serious he is about this. So why would they interfere and risk having their entire family exterminated? He must have not told them about this. Hahaha..."

Lorist's laughter turned cold.

"It's not just a gut feeling either. Think about it. This was is the most important one he'll fight in his entire life, do you really think he'll let himself make such a mistake when it concerns such an important element of his plan? Of course not! If he'd warned the nobles beforehand, no one would dare attack the depots. They would be challenging the king himself. There was no such announcement, however, so all they see is ripe fruit ready to he picked. At worst they expect this to just be a scuffle between minor nobility."

"So it's the same old trick he used last time?" Charade commented, "He first causes trouble, then gets us to clean his mess for him, and then even uses that as a leash to keep us under his thumb… He will ignore it now because he needs us in the war, but make no mistake, he'll bring it up the first opportunity he gets afterwards.

"So he gets a leash, cleans up a mess, and sours our relationship with the three dukes all in one shot? He must be really proud of his plan. If he can sour our relationship with the dukes, the alliance will be cut off from most possible friends in the empire and they'll be more likely to side with him against us — it would be a great power balancer."

"That is the kind of bastard he is. We are at least as strong as a full-fledged kingdom.  Only my loathing to be called a traitor is keeping us under his wings. He will never trust us." Lorist continued, "But is there a point? All he achieves is being looked down on even more. As long as we don't lose the strength we have now, even as an emperor at the head of an empire he will be defenseless and fangless against us. Short of declaring open war on us there will be nothing he can do to try to tame us."

"I doubt he'll really go that far," Charade offered, "He my have an army of 500 thousand, but he knows they're not our match. Our biggest issue is how we're going to deal with this. Tigersoar and Firmrock are on their way to Majik. Should we divert them for them to the trouble areas?"

"No need. The two must rush to prepare for the attack. The 10th month is closing, we don't have much time for rest. Don't waste their time for a few bandits.

"Mobilize a division from Jaeger. Josk can lead them. They'll help Freiyar keep the line safe and patrol the area. Call Els and Reidy back as well. Send them over with a thousand men. They can deal with the nobles interfering in house business."

"What will Jaeger do without either of its commanders?"

"Don't worry. There's still Yuriy and Waxima. They are more than enough. It's time for Josk to see some proper action again and Els is only a fill-in for Yuriy, who can now take over again.  It's time Els got a decent position anyway. I'll put him in command of a legion after the war."

On the 31st 10th, Year 1786, Lorist sent the general of Jaeger, Josk, with a division to the supply lines to combat the threat of the unidentified forces of the bandits and nobles. At the same time, he had Reidy and Els lead a thousand guards to investigate and obliviate the noble forces and bandits that played a part in the raiding of the supply stations.

All the way until the 30th of the 11th, House Norton cooked up a bloodstorm along that supply line. Near a hundred bandit bands were wiped out by the sudden attack of Els and Reidy's guard brigade as well as the ferocious pursuit of the Jaeger troops. More than 50 landed nobles were wiped out for involving themselves with the bandits. Their dominions were also raided clean.

Back then, Auguslo enfeoffed less than a hundred noble houses in the central provinces, yet House Norton wiped out half in such a short time. All of a sudden, House Norton's savage reputation spread like wildfire across the provinces. Apart from a few doomed fools, nobody dared to approach the supply line. Even if they had to cross it, they'd rather take the long way around. No one dared to get close to the depots.

On 20th of the 11th, Lorist led a thousand guards to Majik, accompanied by Rank 2 Blademaster Shuss. Sylvia, the four concubines, Lorist's two sons and a few officials were there to send him off.

After bidding them all farewell, Lorist told Belnick, general of the first local defense legion, "I leave The Northlands in your care."

Belnick made a knight's salute.

"Please rest assured, Your Grace. I won't let you down!"

Lorist nodded.

"Depart!"

Chapter 463 - Baron Abott

The clouds filled the skies. Cold winds blew. Ice feathers fell from the sky, covering the plains and mountains in a white sheet. Winter descended on the world again.

I guess I'm getting old... thought Baron Abott.

No matter how brightly the flame burned in the fireplace, he still shivered in his chair under his thick blanket. His hands clasped it to him and he sipped fruit wine from his golden cup shakily as he stared at the pale world outside his window.

His thoughts went back to the day he would gather his mercenary friends at a local tavern and make merry. Ah, what good days! But, they were not to be anymore. The band no longer existed. Pale-eagle was no more. He still remembered how their leader used to announce he would make the band one of the best in the Union in his many drunken stupors. Everyone, none less drunk than him, would loudly swear their aid in realizing this ambition.

The one-eye owner of the tavern, Mot, would always smile at them kindly if somewhat helplessly. Everyone would cheer with them. No one mocked the young men's dreams. Everyone wished to turn their band into Morante's greatest back then, back when Morante still was the continent's home for mercenaries. It was the highest honor a band could get.

It took them two decades of walking on the edge between life and death, but, with great effort they made it into the twenties. They were just a few ranks from their goal, but that would be their end. Everything changed when the Union became a feudal society. The War of Glass came nearly immediately after. Pale-eagle's leader moved the band to Teribo. He wanted to carve out a small title for himself. To win a place he and his comrades could call home.

Everyone was in high spirits when they departed. They were no longer a small-time band. They were 21st on the rankings. All three leaders were gold-ranks and everyone in the band were silver-ranks, about a hundred of them stood behind the leaders. Things went great for them initially as well. They successfully raided three noble manors and got a lot of spoils. Everyone was convinced this was the right decision. Abott had even gotten to bed several of the noble ladies he could in the past only admire lustfully from a distance.

Their glory was fleeting, however. Ten days into their expedition, their leader caught wind of a massive bounty on a blademaster. He left their camp with forty men. Only three returned.

Pale-eagle was crushed in an instant. Rifts formed between the remaining members as everyone fought for control of what was left. Abott and the band's third-in-command fought each other tooth-and-nail. He suffered a severe wound to his arm whilst the other had an arm and a leg broken. Abott won in the end, but his opponent, unwilling to accept his loss, left with his followers.

Abott had skills, but lacked the charisma needed to hold everything everyone together. His men slowly slipped away one by one. With the band on its last legs, he called in a favor from one of Twin Dragon's deputy supervisors. He'd gotten acquainted with the man by a lucky twist of fate a while back. Through his connections with the guild, he used the band's funds to buy a small barony and its associated title.

The heavy wooden door to the room suddenly swung open and the cold wind burst in from outside. Abott snapped out of his reverie and clutched his blanket even tighter. He gazed at the door through squinted eyes and saw two familiar figures. A huge man stood in front — his chief knight, Adrian — he was an old friend and comrade from the Abott's mercenary days. Behind him stood a slender middle-aged fellow, Krigar — Pale-eagle's former logistics officer, and now his chief treasurer.

"We have returned from our patrol, Milord. The snow is piling up, it's almost to my knee. The livestocks are still fine, though, we've only had one death so far. The slave in charge of it will be punished accordingly," reported Adrian.

"You didn't have him beaten to death, did you?" asked Abott.

"I have not, Milord. Don't worry. I know how to punish. Those pathetics won't be obedient unless they're punished anyway. They're tough so they'll survive the winter regardless."

The baron nodded silently.

"You did well. Appropriate punishment is necessary. They'll slack off otherwise. Just… we spend money on them, so don't kill them. Every death is money down the river. The war is over now, so it won't be cheap to replace lost slaves anymore either. Slaves will become more expensive now again..."

"I understand, Milord."

The Union had caught hundreds of thousands of soldiers during the war. It could not afford to keep and feed them, so the big-seven sold them off as slaves. Well, they weren't technically slaves. The Union always made a big ruckus of individual freedom and condemned slavery. The slaves weren't sold as property, instead the captives' labor rights were what was sold. A civilian served a three year prison sentence and a soldier five. What was bought was the right to use them as labor for the time they were prisoners. They technically had to be released when their term was up. Few people expected this to happen though.

This was one of the Union's most profitable and successful policies to date. It got rid of the housing and feeding burden, sated the nobles' demands for labor, and made a lot of money in the process.

Anderwoff had 80 new nobles, one of which was Baron Abott. Unfortunately it had been cleaned by Andinaq's king just a few years earlier. It was barren of wealth and desolate of people.

When Abott came over seven years ago, there were less than a thousand people in his entire fief. And most of these were only there because they didn't have a skill they could sell elsewhere. He had managed to cobble together a few thousand people through recruitment efforts and wars with his neighbors. His barony had just over 10 thousand subjects now. His was the strongest territory in the region at the moment. The only problem was that the majority of his subjects were elderly and could not do much hard labor. To alleviate this problem he'd bought three hundred youths from the Union.

"Everything is good in the manor as well, Milord," reported Krigar.

"You two did well as well. Come, let's have a drink and warm ourselves up. There's a small cow leg over there, Adrian. Bring it over and we'll roast some."

Abott didn't put up any airs in front of his companions in private. He may be a noble by title now, but he was still just a common mercenary at heart. It made him beloved by his old friends and kept his old subordinates loyal, but left him isolated from noble circles. The other wannabe nobles from his region didn't like that he wasn't upholding their new, pretentious customs.

The three sat around the fire enjoying the warmth and food together.

"Now this is life," Abott groaned, "We should build a proper stone castle next year."

He wasn't troubled by the other nobles' mockery, but his lack of a stone castle irked him. This was his seventh year as a noble, but he had yet to put a single stone on top of another. Proper nobles had proper castles, but he lived in nothing more than a hut. It wouldn't even be considered a wooden castle — it needed a palisade to be a wooden castle, and it lacked even that.

"We need not defend the borders anymore so we'll have the manpower soon enough. But what will we do about the materials and costs?" asked Adrian.

Auguslo I attacked their neighboring duchies four years earlier. Word only reached them via an envoy from Duke Handra asking for help when they were all but overrun already. The nobles were utterly bewildered. Some immediately marched for the duchy to help defend it, whilst other packed up and prepared to run to Morante. Just as everyone was about to scatter their own way, Wessia's vice-president toured the region and calmed everyone down. They were all Union nobles, a superpower on the continent. Yes, most of their forces were caught up in the war to the south, but they were far from defenseless, at the very least they had a swordsaint. The king would not anger them even if he only had half a brain.

His words calmed everyone and time proved him right. After the dukes submitted, Andinaq ended the war and withdrew. They left Whitelion behind but they only took up defensive positions and stared at Anderwoff across the border.

Things weren't completely golden, however. The many minor nobles banded together and formed a 10 thousand strong standing army just in case. Several years had passed now, however, and Andinaq had showed no movement that indicated any intent to invade. People were beginning to ask whether the army should perhaps not be disbanded. The army cost the nobles most of their budgets, ones that were already strapped thin because of their lands' desolation.

They couldn't just leave the border undefended, however. What would they do if Andinaq did decide to invade? Their solution was to put everyone on a rotation of sorts. They would draw lots every three years and the losers had to man the border until the next round. To keep this from disproportionately affecting smaller, less populated fiefs, it was decided that each lord only had to contribute one twentieth of his population to this duty. This system only counted for the men, however. Everyone would contribute the resources needed to feed, clothe, and house the forces.

Abott, the lucky man, had drawn a losing lot. He could not refuse, so he sent out five hundred youths and Adrian. His term would be up this winter and his men would finally return. Their absence were why he had to buy the 300 slaves.

Abott smiled.

"You might not be aware, but Auguslo is rallying his forces. He's preparing to invade the Union. We're lucky, though. His forces are gathering in the southwest so we won't have to fight this time. He must be wanting to push straight for Morante, and there is much closer."

"No wonder Whitelion left the border. Their side of the border now only matches ours. I suspect they might even be greenhorns. That said, they haven't slacked, I saw no gaps in their defenses before I left. We couldn't sneak any scouts through." Adrain commented.

"At least we have nothing to worry about. We can watch other fight from the sidelines. We should focus on our own business when the war starts next year. Viscount Wamus must be the one who rigged the draw… He made me waste three years. We'll use the fountain as an excuse to start a war with him. He only knows how to talk, he can't fight. He only has 200 men and only three of them are silver-ranks. We can steamroll him easily. It's just too bad we aren't allowed to kill other nobles… We'll just strip his land and castle clean. The worst the Union can do is send someone over to keep an eye on us for a while. They might not even bother if the war gets serious enough.

"We'll take what we don't have from our neighbors. Haha... We didn't waste the three years we spent on the border. I should thank you, Adrian. You've trained our men into a strong force."

Krigar looked incredibly elated.

"It's about time we dealt with that prick. He openly mocked us last time we met… So what if we were mercenaries? They were just merchants!"

Abott laughed heartily but cut it short mid-laugh.

"I hear something outside."

Soft rustling broke through the winds lonely wails.

Adrian stood up.

"Let me check..."

A couple of people dressed in white capes and pelts rushed into the room through the door. Their eyes, swords, and spears glinted viciously in the flickering fire-light.

"Don't move!" one yelled, "Keep your arms where I can see them! Drop your weapons and kneel! Surrender and you'll be spared!"

Chapter 464 - Surprise Attack Ongoing

The wooden houses in the distance burned brightly. Crimson streaks stained the white ground. Pained cries echoed out of agonized mouths and mixed with the wailing winter wind.

The last three days' heavy snow had stopped just in time to fail to cover this horrid scene. A few streaks criss-crossed the thick clouds, giving glances of the blue sky; Needles of sunlight mocked the world below.

Lorist's expression gloomed at the hut in front of him. 173 Tigersoar soldiers' bodies lay in neat rows on the ground in front of them. Many were missing limbs and several had severe wounds on their torso. Their crimson-stained bodies were tragic against the pure snow.

"What happened here? How could a ruddy manor cause so many casualties among my men?"

Pale words seeped out through the gaps between Lorist's teeth. Who knew what kind of fire burned in his heart?

"It's my fault, Your Grace," Dulles said as he stepped forward, "We didn't expect this old manor to be Baron Abott's dominion, the one Sir Tarkel warned in his list we should be extra careful about. He used to be the Union's 21st-ranked mercenary band's vice-captain. He was a gold-ranked know as 'Goldeagle'.

"One of the troops from a scout company discovered this run-down manor. None of us associated it with Baron Abott. They rushed in to force its occupants to surrender, but found the baron and his knight inside. The entire company was wiped out.

"Baron Abott prepared to attack us, but we caught up too quickly. We lost 421 people in total, 173 of them lie here, dead. The baron only lost 70. Everyone's been beheaded."

House Norton's military units were divided into squads of ten, their leader a sergeant. Ten squads made a company, their leader a lieutenant. Per the house's winter protocols, the scout company would watch a spotted target from afar undiscovered while it waited for the main force to attack.

Furybear finished their investigation of Anderwoff's nobility more than a year earlier. Their informants donned various disguises and roles and scoured every corner of the region. They recorded everything, from the number of the noble's men, to the daily routines of their servants. Tigersoar only needed to look through Tarkel's list and act accordingly and the region could be taken in a few weeks.

The only mistake they'd made so far was the one currently being confronted. The baron was marked as a target of concern requiring caution because of his retinue's size, but three days of incessant snowfall made it almost impossible to match map to land. So, despite his mansion being marked on the map, no one realized the unassuming hut was his residence.

Most people assumed all decent nobles lived in stone castles, so no one thought the little wooden motte-and-bailey castle would belong to Baron Abott. At best they thought it belonged to an inconsequential, broke minor noble. It might possibly even just be used as whilst the noble hid out the winter in the nearest large town. Given their disposition, the officer launched an attack without proper preparation or consideration.

When the soldiers rushed in, the baron and his knight fought back ferociously. The two-star gold-ranked baron, his three-star silver-ranked knight, and his one-star iron-ranked treasurer massacred their attackers. The group realized their mistake too late and were slaughter to a man. The three broke out of the hut, immediately rallied their men and attacked the rest of the company.

Fortunately, the reinforcements arrived at almost the same time. They arrived as the baron was killing the last of the scouts, he had yet to find out who was attacking. Seeing their comrades' corpses, they returned the favor with furious gusto.

The first squad to arrive couldn't match their opponents and lost quite a few men initially. The situation quickly stabilized as more reinforcements arrived and soon the tables turned. The three men were finally overpowered when about a hundred more had arrived.

Lieutenant Dulles's arrival was the final straw. A gold rank himself, Dulles ignored the baron's attempts to surrender and beheaded him on the spot. The knight attempted to escape but was skewered by the just-arrived ballistae. Out of all the men, only the treasurer was taken captive, barely alive.

"Goldeagle Abott..." Lorist stared at the corpse. He recognizes the face in spite of its state.

The old man could be considered an old acquaintance. Lorist's first paycheck was related to him, in fact. He, Charade, and a few friends had gathered some capital to have some modern rucksacks made and sold at the mercenary guild. Some rowdy mercenaries wanted to buy them at an extremely low price. Goldeagle Abott had stepped in and helped them. He paid a huge price to buy all their remaining rucksacks and also made an order for another batch.

Lorist was out of contact with the house at the time and had to work as a lowly bronze-ranked mercenary for his semester fees and living costs. The rucksacks were one of the means he'd used. If not for Abott's intervention, he might've been beaten alongside Charade.

Two decades later, because of a twist of fate, Lorist's benefactor, had become an enemy and was now dead, killed at the hands of his beneficiary's men. A long sigh escaped Lorist's mouth, but he remained silent. He made sure Dulles gave the man a proper burial before leaving.

On the 27th of the 12th, Year 1786, Lorist's Tigersoar used the strong snowfall to occupy the whole of Anderwoff without Wessia's knowledge. Frederika was in a festive mood in preparation for the new year's celebration.

Given the surprising number of casualties in the operation — mainly from the Abott incident — Lorist decided to slow down and take the necessary precautions going forward. He reached Frederika only on the 21st of the 1st.

"We've arrived, Your Grace," Potterfang and Malek shouted as they rushed over.

They were gathered in a large snow-made dome. It was indistinguishable from the terrain at a glance. Many of these 'mounds' dotted the hillside, connected by ditches and tunnels dug into the white blanket covering the land. Men could move without anyone on top knowing any better. They would only be discovered if someone quite literally stumbled over or into one of their constructions. A large tent filled the inside. Eight braziers filled its corners, fueled by smoldering coal.

"How are things coming along?"

Lorist removed his furs, handing them to Jinolio, before motioning for the rest to take their seats.

Potterfang brought out a map of the capital and lay it on the wooden table.

"This will be a tough battle," he commented, his expression solemn.

"How so?" asked Lorist.

"Wessia completely reworked the city's defenses. Most of the layouts we have are completely useless now.

"We've investigated as best we can. The city is split into five districts. The center is the inner-city district, where the palace is. It's now surrounded by a high wall. The eastern district houses the high-class' residences, the southern district holds most of the city's industry and commerce, the western district contains most of the military, and the low-classes live in the slum of the northern district.

"The city used to have 200 thousand inhabitants, but after the king's attack several years ago, that dropped to 100 thousand. Most now live in the slums and serve their Union overlords. Wessia clearly considers Frederika crucial. They use it to store most of their wealth, especially that taken from the region. They've split up the region up between 37 new nobles. We don't have to worry about their forces in the city as long as we take them by surprise, but that's the issue. The castle has several good lookout points that can keep an eye on most of the city and all the approaches to the castle.

"Wessia has taken Frederika's previous fall very serious and have made adjustments to make sure it can't happen again. We've noticed all their properties light torches every 10 days. It must be a way to check whether a place has fallen to an enemy. We've waited for your arrival rather than attack on our own when we can't finish everything in one go.

"The city itself has a 45 thousand strong garrison. The nearby fortifications can reinforce the city with a further 18 thousand within a few hours though. We've confirmed Sir Tarkel's report; they do indeed have four blademasters, though only one, maybe two, are in the city. One is stationed in the city specifically, the second protects the guild president, so his presence or absence depends on whether the president is in the city or not. Of the other two, one is guarding the guild's properties in Morante and the other is with the forces they've deployed to Jigda. The ones guarding the guild's properties are new recruits.

"We noticed most of the city's inhabitants are still active. Their clothes aren't as good as ours, but it's enough to let them move and work outside despite the cold. The city walls' defenses are also tighter than the castle's. The walls are patrolled every two hours, and each tower is manned. We don't have a good chance of slipping in undetected.

"We've set up camp so far from the city so we won't be discovered, if not for their tight defenses we would have done so much closer. We've sent out three divisions to set up positions all around the city. When we're joined by Tigersoar, we will be strong enough to attack.

"We don't have any elegant solutions to taking the city. Brute force is the only real option. I'm concerned even now Wessia might realize something's amiss and rally their 50 thousand miners. If they do, we won't be able to take the city without a protracted siege."

"Is the secret path His Majesty used still an option? Can attack through there?" Lorist enquired.

Potterfang shook his head.

"I've already taken a look. Lady Glacia gave us an accurate map, but Wessia found the tunnel and sealed it. It's not an option."

"Let's leave things at that for now. We'll discuss our plan of action after Tigersoar catches up. They should be here in two days."

Chapter 465 - Siege

The city of Frederika used to be a glorious settlement in the southwest of the Krissen Empire. To its north was Cloudsnap Mountains and to its south Sunset Mountains. It sat in the great valley between these two mountain ranges. It was a rare location with rich farmland and plentiful resources. The city was in Bodolger, one of the most economically prosperous and important provinces in the empire. It was approximately 5 kilometers across; its walls nine meters tall in places, just half a meter shy of the imperial capital's. Towers dotted the wall at hundred meter intervals -- it was considered one of the empire's most well-fortified cities. That reputation was shattered two years earlier.

Auguslo crossed Cloudsnap in the middle of winter and stormed the city. One of the empire's jewels fell in a single night. Everyone realized: walls are not as strong as the stones of which they are built, but the mettle of the men manning them.

There weren't any secret passages leading into the city, neither were there any insiders who had contact with the outside. The garrison was on constant alert and the walls incessantly patrolled regardless of weather. Each tower stood four floors above the walls, each fitted with three ballistae. In effect, each hundred meter segment of wall could be targeted by up to 24 ballistae at any given moment. The soldiers on the walls could be dealt with relatively easily, but the ballistae were another story.

A protracted siege. This was the only viable option Lorist, Potterfang, and Malek had. Even in this bone-white winter the walls were defended tightly. They could not assault the walls, only a fool would do that. But Lorist didn't want to spend the months, possible years here necessary to topple the city. Even just the few weeks it would take to pound the walls into collapse was too much. It was already the 25th of the 1st. The snow would have begun to melt by the time they had the siege engines in place. It was meaningly to pound the walls during this time. Even if they collapsed immediately, attacking over open, muddy fields was suicide. He had to take the city before the snow melts.

They would attack at dawn. That was the moment the guard all across the city changed and the rising sun blinded half of the city's wall. Even better would be a strong snowstorm or blizzard. It would almost entirely mitigate the biggest danger of this plan: the approach to the walls. Lorist was entirely confident that the battle would be won if he could get his men onto the walls before they were noticed.

Lorist had the almost entirely unique propensity to lead his men from the front, right where the fighting would be the thickest. This time would be no different. He brushed aside his entire council's counsel; he was determined to be the first Norton over the walls. He was the best man for the job of getting on the walls and slaughtering his way to the gate. If he let others do it, they might be discovered or killed. If this happened it would become a drawn-out battle they could not afford, neither in terms of time or casualties.

His council eventually gave up. Apart from Blademaster Shuss and Reidy, who could match Lorist for a few dozen exchanges, no one could even come close to being in his realm. It was a knight's shame to have their lord charge at the front of the formation, but they had no choice, they could not do this task for their liege.

Lorist, Shuss, Reidy, and Els would lead the charge. The first two would take the two towers next to the northern gate while Reidy and Els would hold the enemy off the gate itself while they waited for the rest of the force to charge through. Els would take charge once the main force arrived and push into the city while Josk held the walls. Reidy would take a detachment and charge along the walls to take the other three gates. Firmrock would then charge through them and join the fight in the city proper. Tigersoar's Loze would have the honor of being the first to set foot in the city -- he was beaming about it.

The first gate to be opened, opened into the military district, so Els and Tigersoar would be charging right into the district to wipe the defenders out. Once the fighting moved from the walls into the city proper, Malek would occupy the walls with one of Firmrock's divisions to make sure no one escaped.

Potterfang drew the short straw this time. He would stay outside the city and lead Firmrock's three other divisions from there. He could only enter the city once Malek occupied the walls. The inner district would only be assaulted once the rest of the city was secure. His hope was that its defenders would surrender before it had to be assaulted because, unlike the rest of the city, it would be on full alert long before the first Norton soldier even got close to the inner walls.

The snow was light and the skies dark on this, the 30th of the 1st. The cold winds howled over Frederika's walls and around the corners of the city's building and down its narrow streets and dark alleyways.

The army rested for the attack that would start at dawn. Jinolio woke Lorist at three. He had something to eat and donned his armor. Shuss, Reidy, and Els joined him soon afterwards, all clad in light-gray fur. Black veils covered their eyes and white masks their faces. White capes dangled behind their backs.

The skies were gray-black outside. The snow danced in a rowdy wind that howled down the mountainside into the valley and out onto the plains beyond. Every breath froze the lungs and men tough as tigers shivered like rattlesnakes in the cold.

Lorist stomped on the ground and took in a few deep breaths. Looking at the figures moving about in the camp, he asked, "You ready?"

His three companions nodded.

"Then let's go."

The four spectres slid through the white wasteland, heading for a pale-gray horizon broken up every so often by pale-gray protrusions that reached into the sky. They covered in half an hour what mortal men could only in a day and a half.

The only upside to a winter siege here was that the moat was frozen solid and covered by snow. Two months from now it would be an insurmountable obstacle to any besieger, but now it did not exist at all. It vanished beneath the snow and beneath the four spectres' skis and was behind them in a moment.

The horizon had vanished now, replaced by a solid mass of gray stone that stretched into the heavens. Lorist listened for any movement, but could hear only his own breathing and heartbeat, and the lonely howl of the wind. The four removed their skis. Each took two short black daggers from their backpacks and prepared to scale the wall.

A thin layer of ice covered the walls. However, the daggers infused with Dark Stage force dug into the walls like they were leather. A slight push was all it took to dig the blade into the stone.

When they were about to reach the top, footsteps sunk into snow above. The patrol. Luckily no one was willing to expose his face to the cold in order to check the walls below, so the four remained undetected. They didn't even talk.

They had just passed where the four were climbing when Lorist vaulted over the top and landed right behind them. He matched their march and followed onwards. The rearmost guard noticed the extra set of footsteps and turned to look, only to feel a coldness puncture his chest halfway through. His body turned limped, and he collapsed soundless.

Lorist followed the patrol all the way to the tower, unnoticed. As the leader of the thirty strong patrol reached the door, Lorist dashed forward, felling a man with each step he took, to come up behind the man and his torch-bearer as he opened the door.

The floor was split in two. The one in which Lorist was now, was a passage that continued on to the other side while the other spiraled into a staircase. It should have been guarded by two men, but the gold had bested them and there were off somewhere warm, napping. The pair thought nothing of the sentries' absence. They charged at the nearest brazier to warm themselves.

"You guys should warm up, too. We'll continue short--"

The last word stuck in the man's throat. He saw none of his men behind him, only a tall, black shadow like death itself in the doorway.

"You..."

Swords flashed brightly as the captain and his compatriot rushed at the shadow. It stepped forward and hoisted the two bodies into the air before gently lowering them into a corner, careful not to disturbed the others nearby.

Reidy and Els showed up at the doorway as it did that.

"Where's Shuss?" asked Lorist.

Reidy pointed to the tower on the opposite end of the gate.

Lorist nodded.

"Let's continue with the plan."

Both nodded. Reidy picked up the torch and followed Els out of the tower, twirling it twice. The gray abyss beyond the wall squirmed like a pit of worms. One shadow after another stepped out of the void and hug the wall. Els dropped a rope down the wall and the shadows began to ascend the wall one by one. The first shadow to reach the top of the wall was Josk, followed by two guards carrying two more ropes. Soon, three ropes hung down the walls and the number of shadows escaping the abyss grew.

Lorist descended the stairs and exited the tower onto the walls, blood running down the stairs behind him. The twelve soldiers on the three upper floors had been snoring like dogs, the arrow slits boarded up. It would not be surprising if even lightning could not wake them. No lookouts mounted the roof either. The walls themselves were completely deserted, their supposed occupants clustered around the islands of warmth that dotted the edge of the world. The fifty Lorist had come across thus far, all went to Singwa's welcome embrace quietly and peacefully.

Reidy prepared to move onto the next tower and start his trek along the walls, Els was descending the tower to clear the gate.

"Hold on. Let me take the gate. Els, go with Reidy. Pretend to be a patrol so you can get in without issue."

Reidy's eyes flashed, and he quickly gathered 40 guards and lined them into two rows. Torch in hand, he marched with Els to the next tower. Around thirty men remained with Lorist, whom he had take up positions in the tower. More continued to pour out of the darkness. None made a sound as they climbed into the wall. SIlently, the continued into the tower.

A shadow emerged from the tower at the other end of the barbican, twirling a torch twice. Lorist let out a relieved sigh.

"Thirty of you, cross the barbican and take up position in the other tower. Also, ask Blademaster Shuss whether he'll attack the next tower. If he will, we'll send someone over to back him up," instructed Lorist.

The 30 guards dashed across soundlessly.

The guards were getting onto the walls too slowly.

"Joe, stand guard here. I'll take the gate now. Send the men down on my signal."

Though his personal guards were far more capable than Tigersoar or Firmrock's men, Lorist worried that bringing them down the walls would alert the enemy. He planned to take the gate himself.

He descended the spiral staircase within the tower. It emerged right behind the gate. He poked his head out carefully, but realized there were no guards, only a large bonfire. It was already dead, only a thin trail of smoke disappeared into the gray sky from the ashes.

"Hey, you, what are you doing, looking around as you get down from the walls?" rebuked a voice from the gatehouse.

"Ah, nothing much," Lorist said as he headed for the gate, "The captain told me to get him something to eat."

"Oh, go check if there's anything by the bonfire. Maybe some sweet potatoes haven't been eaten yet," said the voice, "Oh, and bring me some as well!"

Lorist made his way to the bonfire next to the gatehouse and peeked inside. Inside were 20 slumbering sentries. The one closest the door must be the one who'd just seen him. He leaned against the wall lazily, clutching a blanket to him shiveringly. A pretty decent idea. The garrison could sleep in the gatehouse warmed by the fire outside it while still technically manning their posts. It was killing two birds with one stone.

He slowly unsheathed his sword. The moment the tip left the scabbard, a horn sounded from the walls. The horn only blew for a moment before it was abruptly silenced.

The soldier leaning against the wall started.

"The alarm! Get up you idiots!" roared he.

Chapter 466 - From Attack to Defense

Lorist drew his sword and dashed forward. A flash of his bladeglow saw the garrison soldier silenced. The corpse slowly collapsed in two halfs. Lorist's cut straight through him. The others, still only half awake, saw the flash and their compatriot's collapse and froze. They couldn't cry no matter how hard they tried. The abyss soon greeted them as it did their comrade.

Lorist stepped out of the barbican covered in blood. He lifted his gaze to the top of the wall to call his men, but a cry behind him interrupted.

"Enemy attack! Alarum! Alarum! Ugh!"

Lorist finished his jerk only to see the last moments of the figure whence the cry had arose's collapse. An arrow stood proudly, rooted in his neck, its tip replacing his tongue.

Moments later the buildings across the street's windows lit up, shadows dashed back and forth across them, and confused cries burst from inside. One door after another opened and soldiers poured out like hornets from a disturbed nest. Josk first continuously, but could not keep up. His shots were soon ineffective as shielded combatants charged out in front. They spotted the bloody Lorist and dashed at him as fast as they could.

His guards descended as fast as they could to join their lord, but would not arrive in time. Josk continued to fire. Lorist yelled at the gate. Once he saw the archer nod and direct the men emerging from the barbican to the gate, he turned to meet his attackers.

The city woke lazily to the alarms that spread across it. Dawn broke in bell chorus. Murder, death, and struggles for life chased away the darkness.

"Die!"

Lorist charged into the enemy's ranks like a dying tiger, slashing out ferociously like his death was certain and the only thing left to determine was how many would go with him. He didn't use his slaughter domain. He wasn't taxed even though he was using only his reflexes.

Heads divorced their bodies wherever his sword passed. They fell wordlessly, only the clinking and rustle of their armor audible as they flattened on the ground. Though could not keep track of their reaper's movements. It could only be glimpsed in the last moment of life when death was already drawing the soul from the body. One continuous strike, felled the men like they were nothing, like stalks before the scythe. Those not yet on the other side froze like their departed brethren. A moment later, Lorist drew his sword from flesh and looked around. Everyone was gone before he'd even gotten to enjoy himself. How unfair...

The new arrivals stood at a distance, staring at him. Behind him the reaped field stood empty. A hundred stalks had been felled. The furrow was littered with head divorced of bodies. Red oozed out of the point of divorce, and a crimson odor hung sickly between the buildings. Twenty unfelled stalks stood ahead, shivering in the wind. None had dreamt their harvest would come so soon. The wind, as if privy to the scene, quieted, and only the chattering of teeth remained, an eerie silence otherwise.

Clang! A giant metal leaf fell to the ground. The shock rippled through the unfelled stalks. A moment later a second, then a third, soon twigs joined the leaves. The repeated din of the falling parts uprooted the stalks and they dashed away with the wind.

"Demon! Demon!" they serenaded as they drifted away.

The masses withdrew like autumn leaves blew by the wind. Their reaper was left speechless, standing alone in the empty field, rubbing his nose embarrassedly.

Was I that terrifying? They actually called me a demon!

Lorist couldn't bring himself to chase his victims. His priority was to open the gate and let the troops waiting outside in. Just as he returned to the walls, however, one of his men reported bad news.

"The gate is frozen shut, Your Grace. We can't open it. Also, the gate is entire wrapped in iron, so we can't set fire to it either."

Lorist stared wide-eyed at the two three-meter tall doors that made the gate[1]. Usual gates were made out of wood and covered in iron or copper on the outside.

Is Wessia boasting their riches? They actually used black iron to make the gates, not to mention the latches that were 30 centimeters long and 8 centimeters thick… Must be from the cold. Everything is frozen into a single solid mass! Putting aside pushing, even ramming wouldn't open them.

"Is Wessia insane? Did they intend to lock themselves in every winter?"

He suddenly realized the northern gates didn't have to be opened in winter. If there were any emergencies, they could leave through any of the other gates. He was just unlucky to have chosen the northern gate for his assault.

The gates could technically be opened, but they didn't have the time needed. They'd have to fire the gate up first, then pour oil into the latches before working to open it. They couldn't afford to spend time on this. The men on the other side had to rush in immediately.

"Can't you cut the latches?"

"No, Your Grace."

The man pointed at the middle latch.

The scratches on it showed they'd already tried. The deepest cut only struck through a few millimeters. Cutting would be no faster than the other option.

"Can't we just bash a hole in it?" Lorist persisted. Since he couldn't deal with the latches, he would just bust through the gate itself.

"We can't, we've tried already. The iron on the gates is just as hard as the latches, and the wood beneath very hard," replied the guard as he pointed at a few scratches on the gates.

Just like with the latches, the deepest barely made a dent. Lorist stared through the crack between the two doors. They were at least twenty centimeter thick, if not more. Beyond he could see Loze charging the final few meters to the other side.

He turned his attention to the latches again. He could probably cut through it, but it would still take him at least an hour. He would need at least five all-exhaustive strikes, and at least ten minutes of rest between each to recover his strength. Everyone inside the walls would be dead long before he finished. And if the city's one or possibly two blademasters showed up, he would have no strength to fight them.

The horns of alarm bellowed every further away into the city. The enemy was deploying. Lorist's expression grimmed.

"Your Grace, the gates to the military district are open!! At least a regiment's worth of men are coming this way! We only have a few minutes!"

Lorist laughed bitterly. Everything was fucked up the moment that single soldier managed to call out. Nobody expected Wessia to change the two gates. He checked his surroundings. He had less than 200 men with him when the mission began. Of that, only six had not left with Els and Shuss. And, though more were constantly pouring over the walls, they could not match the rate at which the enemy could march men through open gates.

He slapped himself and sprang into action. He had Josk send word to Malek, Dulles, and Loze to find a way to scale the walls. He had the men on the walls prioritize turning the ballistae on the city. He also recalled Els and Shuss's detachments to the nearest towers along the wall. The plan was fubar, and he now had to do what he hated most -- improvise. There would be no quick conquest of the city now, but at least they had established a foothold on the wall without any casualties so the greatest hurdle had already been overcome. Victory was still far from uncertain, it would just take longer and be harder earned than was ideal.

"Worridge, take a few men and clean up the buildings nearby. Collect everything burnable you can find and pile it up by the gates. We'll melt the bastards if we have to!" ordered he.

Worridge was Viscount Eidis' eldest son. He was currently a peak three-star-silver-rank. Lorist predicted he would break through to the gold rank in two or three years. He'd joined Lorist's personal guards with his brother Sykos and performed really well. He climbed the ranks from a corporal to a lieutenant-major. His brother Sykos was transferred to Jaeger and now a full major.

"Understood, Your Grace." Worridge took a hundred men and started scouring the nearby buildings.

Lorist had the remaining men build makeshift barricades with whatever they could find. They acted quickly and several barricades quickly blocked the streets. Some had even taken the initiative to pour water on the roads in front of the barricades. The water immediately froze and made it all but impossible to stay upright.

The roles were reversed, the attacker was now the defender. An hour had passed since the attack started, and the first rays of sunlight were hitting the tallest towers of the castle that watched over the city from the hill in its middle. The enemy's reaction was far faster than he had anticipated. He could only admire their discipline. The battle ahead was going to be even more bloody than he had first feared.

The soldiers weren't the only ones woken by the commotion. The peasants were also roused from their fitful slumber. The slum-dwellers gathered at the ends of the blocks. Their weapons glinted, reflecting the lightening sky. Figures pushed them aside and reformed in front. The front row hid behind shields, but pikes stabbed through the gaps between them and an additional row jabbed over the first's shoulders.

"Pikemen!"

Doubt flashed across Lorist's eyes. Looks like Wessia sent their elites.

Worridge returned with his men at that moment. They piled their plunder against the gate. The oil was poured out of their containers and lamps were smashed onto the pile. Several torches immediately followed and everything went up in smoke-choked flames.

"Worridge! Form everyone up behind the barricades! Keep the enemy away from the gate at all costs! Don't follow or send anyone after me! Understand?"

"I understand, Milord!"

Lorist vaulted over the barricades. He slid across the ice on the road and dashed on. His steps halted fifty or so meters beyond. His scabbard emptied, and he faced the oncoming black mass.

The mass became regular slowly as it approached, its footsteps regular and uniform, unrushed. It eventually stopped 40 meters away from Lorist. Silence pervaded.

A cry, and the battle was raging.

[1] That's one damn small gate for a city supposed to be as big as Frederika is… Plus, it's damn poor gate design. It's standard for gates to have at least two layers of ubstruction in a barbican with a killing pit between… Each double layer usually has an iron gate dropped down from the barbican above, and either a single or double door several dozen centimeter thick behind it. The doors are not always there, but the drop down steel gate is ubiquitous.

Chapter 467 - Danger

"Who are you? Why are you attacking the city? Do you want a war with the Union?" yelled a high-pitched voice.

Lorist laughed heartily.

"Who says this is the Union's territory? I only know this as Frederika, the capital of the Krissen Empire's Bodolger province! House Norton has come to reclaim this land for the empire! The entire city is surrounded, there is no escape, you foul dogs! If you want to save your dog lives, you will drop your weapons and surrender now!"

Everyone immediately felt something was off.  What gave a single man the courage to yell such obscenities when facing an entire regiment of heavily armored men alone, in the middle of their lands at their headquarters, no less? A small commotion broke out in the enemy formation, but it quickly subsided when what must be their commander shouted furiously.

"Who, then, are you?" the same high-pitched voice enquired.

"I am the duke of The Northlands, the head of House Norton, Norton Lorist."

Another commotion.

"He must be insane! Is he going against the entire city on his own?" one voice murmured.

"Even blademasters have to run against such odds!" another chimed in.

"Does he think his title is enough to scare us?" a third asked.

"Howling Bastards!  Attack! First Company to the wall! Second Company, sweep the neighbourhood! Third and Fourth Company, reinforce First and Second! Fifth Company, forward!" the commander's orders came.

Bastard, did you think I wouldn't notice those men on the wall?  You've shown your hand. They aren't enough to be from a full-scale assault. This must be a lead party to open the gates for the main assault. The fact that you're standing here, alone, means your men must still be trying to open the gate and you're here to buy them time… I'll take back the walls first then slaughter you from above! thought he.

The men acted immediately. The formation split into three neat groups.  One headed for the wall, the other vanished between the buildings. The third formed a thick wall of spear and shield and advanced on Lorist slowly, each step shaking the ground.

"Let nothing stop your advance!  Wipe them from our city!" the same, shrill voice yelled.

As they closed the last couple of meters between them and Lorist, the clash on the wall began. Luckily for Lorist's men, they met the enemy as they came to the wall up the stairs, so they didn't have to face their set formation. Instead they fought them in a loose conglomerate of a line. Even so, this was not a fight his men could win easily. The enemy had the better armor, and the greater numbers. The armor, however, was both a blessing and a curse in this instance.  Fighting on the steps was not easy when one's helmet and breastplate kept one from seeing the steps at one's feet. A single misstep sent the hunks of metal hurtling to the ground several meters below, or opened them to a fatal strike from their more nimble enemies.

It was Wessia's mistake to send only close-quarters units to retake the walls. Archers could have massacred the Nortons as they fought on the steps. Lorist would have had no way to counter them.  His men had neither shield nor bow. Josk was the only one who could strike back. Since he was not occupied with enemy archers, his strikes also reigned down on the turtles ascending the stairs.

The enemy was already wavering, and, at this moment, their own ballistae in the towers, fired on them. Their morale could not take it. They shivered like children in cold wind. Their steps slowed and their footing failed them, but they did not retreat. The steps were wide enough for two men to walk side-by-side. Two of the bulky spearmen could not fit side-by-side, but one could hold the front and a second strike around him.  They abandoned this tactic when the ballista started firing, opting to hug the wall single file instead.

The towers were never meant to fire on the city itself. They were positioned to fire outwards, away from the city, and to cover the tops of the walls. They could only barely catch the outer edges of the stairs. They also had to avoid hitting their own troops, so they were only a threat to the men walking recklessly close to the edge of the stairs.

The ballista at the very top of the towers, however, could fire into the city. The buildings made it difficult to see the enemy, though, and they could only catch them in a few spots. The enemy responded by pulling the doors off the buildings and using them to block up the spots so the enemy could not see them easily. Even if the ballista simply shot through the gaps, most of the bolts' energy was sapped and it didn't pose much of a threat to the men on the other side.

"Attack!" shouted the commander as he thrust his pike at Lorist, a lazy smile on his face. Like a peacock flaunting its plumage, near a hundred pikes struck at Lorist. There was only one way to move, backwards.

He took two steps back at the last moment, leaving the spears to eat the air milllimeters from him.

Damnit… if only mine was a little longer, thought all men.

Their miss did not discourage them though. The withdrew their pikes, stepped forward, and repeated. So what if their opponents withdrew? They could just keep going until they were cornered. Neither this insane duke nor his pitiful barricades could stop them.

Their eyes swelled in terror and their pupils shrunk. Lorist moved forward with the pikes as they retracted. He held onto a spear-tip and let it pull him forward like he were a feather stuck to it. They reacted too late. Lorist was slaughtering his way through their ranks the moment after they noticed him. They cried like a chorus, wailing in despair at their fate.

Their pikes, so powerful at range, were useless once he was in their ranks. They could do nothing but watch him fell them like ripe wheat. Those not yet dead when they noticed what was happening dropped everything and ran. Some peaked over their shoulders to find the devil walking towards them on a road of corpses.

The men at the rear glared at their fleeing comrades, then charged forward, through their compatriots. They had only one thought on their minds.

"Kill him!"

The front infantry snapped out of it. They died of shame and their furious corpses charged back into the fray.

"To hell with you!" shouted the first to reach Lorist and was promptly beheaded.

Countless others charged forward to replace him. Lorist withdrew another two steps to avoid the mass of spears, only to find another mass ready to meet him. This disorganized mass was actually more challenging than an organized, orderly formation. He could deal with it using his slaughter domain, but he wished to reserve it for the blademaster.

Battle burst out behind him. Worridge and his men had finally met the enemy that had moved through the houses. Lorist flung corpses at his pursuers as he retreated and slaughtered his way through the enemy behind him.

Josk joined again with three arrows, clearing a portion of the steps. The steps were littered with arrowed corpses, as were the streets. He'd fired hundreds of arrows since the fight began. His shoulders were beginning to ache and his shots waver. He had maybe another hundred decent shots in him, after that he would be of no use.

Had the enemy been wearing any lighter armour, he could just hand things down to his men, but that was not the case. The enemy's armor may even be comparable to House Norton's. Even his infused arrows could only do real damage if he hit thin or exposed areas. Two of his silver-ranked men were already worn out. Only his arrows posed a threat to the enemies now.

His greatest worry was that their new tactics on the steps left the Norton men dying quite frequently.  They could not hold on for long at this rate.

Wessia's heavy forces were mainly mercenaries. They were quite adept at single combat.  Lorist's men were a match for their opponents man to man, but they were severely outnumbered. Even if they killed two for every one of their own they lost, their enemy would still have men to spare. Josk was the primary inflictor of losses, so the enemy wanted to get to him and kill him as quickly as possible.

The streets were paved in corpses, friend and foe alike. Lorist's bloody figure could be seen on the walls as he fought his way up the stairs. The men on the ground had been pushed back to the last few barricades in front of the wall, their numbers dwindling.

Things weren't deteriorating quite as quickly as they appeared, however.  Every moment the Nortons held out, one or two men joined them on the wall from outside. About six-hundred Tigersoar reinforcements had joined them by now. This angered Josk, rather than pleasing him, however. Tigersoar's cavarly troops had no business in such a static fight, Firmrock's men were what they needed. Rather than forces that could turn the tide, or at least stem it until the gates opened, they were just more bodies for the roads. Josk cursed incessantly as he shouted down the wall for Tigersoar to let Firmrock go first.

The heavy-armored soldiers on the left stone step roared loudly as tens of them gathered into a frantic, united charge. The guards were overwhelmed and their casualties soared once more. A good number of them were sent tumbling down by suicidal enemy soldiers that hugged them tight as they pushed. Fortunately, the guards on the walls rushed in to reinforce them. The two sides clashed on the fourth level of the steps that was nearest to the walls.

Josk could no longer spare any attention to the steps on the right side. The green longbow thrummed ten times in succession, sending the seven charging heavy pike infantrymen off the stone steps, successfully stabilizing the situation. Just as he was about to breathe a sigh of relief, a sword flashed brightly like lightning at the fourth level of the stone steps all of a sudden. The seven guards fighting desperately at the stone steps fell from it.

Terror struck Josk.

A blademaster!

Wessia didn't mobilize their blademaster against Lorist and instead had him take the walls back. It was no wonder those tens of heavy-armored soldiers charged. It was so that they could protect the blademaster while he made his way up.

The blademaster that made his way up the walls was a sinister-looking middle-aged man clad in the same black armor as the heavy pike infantrymen. He wore no helmet and his face was still covered with a streak of blood of the guards he killed, making him look all the more savage. The moment he got on the walls, a flash from his sword saw tens of guards falling. Josk's way was blocked by the guards and by the time they fell, the blademaster was within five meters of Josk.

It's over... Josk's limbs were stone cold.

The blademaster was too close, his arrows were no threat now. They were also on the walls and Josk couldn't escape on horseback as he would on land.

Chapter 468 - Resolution

The spear's arm broke off with a woody snap. The cavalryman climbing the wall returned to the frozen ground the short way.

"47 seven," counted Dulles, shaking his head. They had planned the whole thing properly. Well, the whole thing except the gate. They had failed to take the effect of the cold on the iron into account. Instead of overwhelming the enemy before they could respond, their lord and his elite guard became fish in a barrel.

No one was prepared to climb the walls. The plan was to go through the gate, so no one had brought anything with which to assail the stones now blocking their way. Even now the entire army only had three ropes by which to get into the city and save their lord. Of the two thousand guards that went with the duke, only half had ascended, and the rest were unwilling to make way for the other units. The duke was their responsibility and they would be damned if they let anyone else take their charge.

It took nearly two hours for more ropes to be readied. The men outside returned to their camp and brough any loose rope they could find, mainly from the sledges, and fashioned half-decent climbing ropes. Loze was chosen to lead Tigersoar's men onto the wall to relieve their lord.

They flung spears with the ropes attached into the merlons. The spears were not made to hold fully armored soldiers, however, and 47 had snapped so far. Of the six hundred who had made the climb so far, 40 returned to the ground outside.

Most frustrating was that even as Tigersoar continued to ascend valiantly, they were ordered to stand down and let Firmrock take the lead.

Furious, lose and his men disobayed and continued to climb.

"How many of our ballistae were brought up?" asked Dulles.

"Thirty-seven have been moved to the wall. More are on their way," reported a scribe, his eyes still glued to the parchment on which he scribbled notes.

"Then why haven't they started firing? I don't care that our standard comportment isn't set up yet, help out our lord!"

"We've only sent the ballistae up, Sir. Their bolts are still down here. The ballistae have nothing to shoot."

Fuck!

This was not looking good. They could send up 20 soldier at a time now, but it was still far from being enough, they were still slowly losing ground.

"Get the bolts up to the ballistae as quickly as possible! I don't want a single ballistae unable to fire! Keep them shooting until they fall apart! Send the 12th brigade out to get us wood to build ladders! We need to get more men--"

His orders were interrupted by the 48th spear snapping.

"Fuck me!... Hold on… Set up a few of the ballistae down here. Shot the bolts into the wall so the men can climb up using them!" Dulles yelled at a passing soldier.

Malek jogged up to Dulles.

"Most of the ropes in the camp aren't useable. They're either too thin or completely frozen in place. Heating up enough and making more ropes will take at least two more hours."

"Sir, why don't we pile up the snow and make a ramp? We have so many men just standing around we might as well put them to work," suggested the scribe.

"You might actually be on to something!" Malek yelped, "We can be on the wall in less than an hour!"

A sharp cry broke the conversation. Everyone's eyes darted to the walls just in time to see a Norton soldier flung off the wall trough a crenel, a red rope trailing behind him.

"They're on the walls already? I have to go up and help!" yelled Malek as he dashed to the wall, "Dulles! Start building the ramp!"

......

"It's over..." Josk murmured. He barely held out by blocking with his bow. A strike or two more would end him, however. He could not match a blademaster's battleforce.

The blademaster rapidly closed the remaining distance. If this archer fell, he pretty much already had the walls.

A golden sheened spear suddenly flew at him. He had to choose, kill the archer, and be injured, or protect himself, and let the archer get away. He chose the latter. He withdrew his sword and cut the incoming spear in half. Josk retreated ten meters and drew his bow again. Just as he was about to unleash his shot, Loze stepped in his way and clashed with the blademaster. Loze could not win the fight either, but he could hold the old man back for a few moments. The addition of an archer that could strike at any moment, those few moments could be extended a little further.

No one disputed Loze's place at the top of the house's 16 gold-ranked knights. Even Potterfang, who was the best of them all at defense, could only fight Loze to a draw. Lorist was also convinced he would be the first of them to become a blademaster, probably sometime in the next three years. He had the experience and the technique, he just lacked the inspiration necessary to make the final breakthrough.

The enemy blademaster must be one of the two that had only recently broken though. While his technique was fierce, it lacked proper control. Loze suffered two light cuts in the first couple of exchanges, but quickly caught on to his opponent's style and now fought on equal footing. With Josk drawing some of the blademaster's attention, the man was actually fighting an uphill battle.

The stairs were lost. The enemy mercenaries bubbled onto the wall non-stop and were pushing the Nortons back further and further with every passing minute. Tigersoar's men were constantly pouring onto the walls, though, and helped to keep the enemy back relatively well. The corpses lay so thick on the wall that with each new death an older corpse was pushed off the wall. The corpses were beginning to form a small ramp to the wall's city-side.

The elite trio's fight took place near the gate. The blademaster was frustrated by his current predicament. He'd come to kill the pesky archer, not to fight two-on-one. This was supposed to be a quick clearing of the walls. Now, however, though he was confident of his eventual victory, he didn't know how long it would take to tire his opponents out and finally kill them.

Several dozen soldiers rushed over to help, only to be cut down by Josk. This volley pushed him to his limit, however; he was temporarily out of the fight while he caught his breath. Lorist was in a similar state down by the gate. Though he was uninjured at present, he leaned against the wall and heaved as his men fought around him. Of the two hundred who had started this mission with him, only fifty were left. Worridge himself, while still alive, was badly hurt.

Of Wessia's four 10 thousand strong divisions and its five thousand strong logistics division, one had been sent to clear the enemy out of the city. The other three were probably each at another gate. Reidy and Shuss had once again started pushing long the walls to relieve some of the pressure on Lorist and his unit, so the guild couldn't mobilize their other divisions yet.

Damn this metal gate! Lorist cursed silently.

How could he let such a brilliant plan collapse so miserably? He'd killed thousands already, but thousands were still standing in line for their turn at trying to kill him… His saving grace was that the slum streets didn't let the enemy make use of their numbers. Otherwise, he'd have been a frozen corpse for an hour by now.

Another horn blasted through the sounds of fighting echoing back and forth between the city walls. Another three-hundred-man formation was attacking. His side was down to just fifty by comparison, and they were only a quarter of the way to opening the gate. Of the four hinges, only one was loose. They could not survive this next fight without serious reinforcement, and there was no sign of them getting it anytime soon. Lorist could still fight his way to the top of the wall and make it out safely, sure, but he would be leaving his dearest, most able men to die. As much as Lorist could let himself die, or worse, be captured, he couldn't bring himself to abandon his men either. The last attack's defeat had confirmed his blademaster abilities to the enemy, and they were now using appropriate tactics. His exhaustion aside, this fight was going to far harder than any he had fought so far...

Malek made it to the top of the wall. After surveying the situation briefly, he charged to his men. His addition boosted their morale and their slow retreat stopped. He fought there for a few minutes to stabilize the situation before heading for Loze and Josk. The blademaster panicked when he saw yet another gold-rank coming to join the fray. If he didn't leave immediately, he would be done for. He could still win against two gold-ranks by simply outlasting them, but his cultivation had yet to stabilize enough to fight three.

He swung his blade at Loze with all his strength. Loze was flung off balance and exposed his chest. Three golden-tipped arrows charged in at that moment, however, and forced the blademaster to retreat. Despite that, however, the blademaster sighed relievedly. All three arrows the archer had in his hands had been fired so he had a moment in which he need only worry about two opponents. He could now escape without--

Puchi!

He suddenly felt something cold thrust into his chest. He looked down and saw the shaft of an arrow dancing back and forth in the air, the tip vanishing through his clothing into his torso.

"How... How? There... were four..."

"Damn it, Joe! You stole my kill!" cried Loze.

Josk collapsed onto the cold stone of the wall, slumping against the crenellations. His arms had no strength left in them. Even his jaw and tongue refused to obey his will.

Malek's sword fell, and, with it, fell the blademaster's head.

"Quick, bring the steel ballistae!" he yelled down the length of the wall.

Chapter 469 - Triumph

So I have no choice but to use my slaughter domain, thought Lorist as watched the three 100-man-formations approach. The two towers on the walls could support him no longer. Not only were their ballistae firing slower and slower, the bolts were flying all over the place. They could risk hitting their own men, so they were forced to stop.

The last volley was when the formations were about 60 meters from him, but only a single bolt hit someone. One of the other bolts hit a building next to the street, the other flew over at least eight-tenths of the entire formation. Someone cried soon after, though whether this was from shock or pain, no one knew. The third, and final, bolt, punctured the ground in front of his feet, blasting away a bodiless head. The shots were becoming too unreliable and unpredictable; they were as much a threat to Lorist now as they were to the enemy -- a good time to stop.

"Worridge! Withdraw with the injured when I make my move!"

The battle was souring quickly. Of the two possible escape routes, only one was still reasonably open. The tower to the right of the wall was swarming with enemies, still fighting his men somewhere inside. The tower to the left was relatively quiet, the enemy had taken it, but at severe cost, they would be easy to kill off with the fifty men currently by the gate. What was going on atop the walls was unknown to Lorist, nor did he particularly care right now. His first priority was getting his men down below up top. Whatever waited for them there could not be worse than being cut off from any possible escape down below. He would use his slaughter domain to keep the enemy at bay and buy time for Worridge and the others to make it to the wall.

"We can't just leave Your Grace behind. It is our sworn duty to protect you, not the other way around." Worridge protested.

"Now is not the time. Go!"

The enemy closed with every breath they wasted. The marching coffins approached at a constant, rhythmic pace, each step ringing like a funeral drum. Lorist could not hope for them to make the same mistake the first group had. They would not let him get into their formation again. He clasped his sword, the veins on his hands and arms bulging. He had to get in close to his enemies. As powerful as his domain was, it only stretched five meters away from him, his enemy. His enemy could strike at him from three meters away, no more. At least a few men in their first two lines had to enter his domain.

"Fire!" he yelled.

Three shaft flew overhead and slammed into the enemy formation at random. While they could not strike the enemy accurately anymore, the ballista could at least still hit someone somewhere in a formation of this size at this distance. The formation broke up momentarily. Lorist closed his eyes. He could hear Worrdige's cheers behind. Three more shafts whizzed by, the drums struck three times, and the choir began their lamentations.

Ballistae deserved their reputation as the deadliest weapons on the continent. Each, in peak condition, could fire ten times a minute, strike accurately, and hit further than anything else. They weren't omnipotent on the battlefield, but in tight, urban corners like this, and facing an unprepared enemy, they were the bringers of death. Sometimes just knowing the enemy had ballistae would make men and commanders alike think twice.

The enemy's counterattack was doomed the moment the ballistae on the walls were set up. The fight might truly have been lost had Malek not forced his way onto the wall with his ballistae. Few, if any, of Lorist's personal guard would have made it out alive, much less in a state still able to fight. Fiercetiger Loze was the best offensive gold-ranked knight in the household, Potterfang an unmovable mountain, he'd even been named after his legion, Firmrock Potterfang. Malek could not hold a candle to them in a fight, but give him a legion and an objective, and none could compare. Where the first two were born fighters, Malek was a born leader. None could notice or make use of opportunities like him.

He had a background in the military and many called him Old Ironface. It took a lot to solicit an expression from him. If he frowned, the legion was likely about to be wiped out. He'd even ordered the slaughter of several thousand civilians during the Edelise revolts in Sidgler without batting an eye. That particular incident changed his nickname to Ironface Bloodhands. Lorist had done his best to silence the name, though it was still whispered in unsavory tavern corners and dark alleyways.

Malek's first actions once he assailed the walls were to push the enemy back and stabilize his position on the wall. He then helped Loze and Josk finish off the blademaster before finally finishing the ballistae setup. These ballistae were from House Norton, the ones usually mounted on chariots. This meant that they were light enough to be hauled up the wall, but also meant they couldn't readily be set up. Since they were designed to use the chariots as stabilizing platforms, they weren't stable when standing on their own on the stone walkway. The men fist had to fashion makeshift platforms to which to attach them. This however, would take too long. Malek'd solution was to have men lay beneath the ballistae, hugging them, to act as makeshift platforms. While the ballistae weren't as stable, and thus as accurate, as one might want, it was good enough. The human platforms suffered moderate bruising, a few cracked a rib or two, but nothing too bad.

These new weapons quickly cleared up the walls and then turned their attention to the streets below. Loze lead a group to retake the left tower and the steps within, while Josk joined the defense of the right tower. Everyone else was put to work getting more ballistae on the walls and hauling up more ammunition. Dozens of ballistae soon lined the walls and rained death down on the streets below.

Lorist opened his eyes to find himself standing on the edge of a forest. Bloody roots strangled the paved ground and thin, metal stems grew from them to about shoulder height, where they bloomed into metal leaves. The wind howled mournfully around the building and through the forest, carrying with it the dying echoes of moans and whines.

Those on the other side of the forest quickly surrendered when the blademaster's head was hung on the gate to cook over the fire. They were disarmed and quickly put to work cleaning the area of the dead and dying. Soon the forest turned into a mountain range.

"I apologize for being late, Your Grace," Malek whispered as he and Loze saluted.

Lorist waved his hand dismissively.

"Worry about apologies later, the city is yet ours. First is this gate," he said, glaring at the stubborn mass of iron. "Oh, also, how's Reidy, Els, and Shuss doing? Reinforce them as soon as you can."

The final snow bricks were laid in place the same moment the last hinge gave way.

"You're kidding me!" Dulles screamed as he collapsed into the ramp, his mouth almost foaming.

The outer wall, and with it the northern district, fell. Elsewhere in the city, however, the horns continued to blare. Barricades were quickly taking shape on the outer wall near the edge of the sectors and in front of the gates between the sectors. The citizens were also chased out of key buildings, which were then turned into makeshift forts. The first responders got word out of the situation and some particulars of their enemies before their defeat so the entire city knew what and who it was up against. The next wave set out prepared.

Dulles and Loze pushed further into the district twice before the second wave arrived, after some fighting their position stabilized about two streets in. They couldn't press any further because the entire district was set alight as the enemy withdrew.

"We'll hold for now. Evacuate the civilians first, move them outside the city and build them some temporary housing. Wessia burns them without a thought because they don't consider them Union citizens. We cannot show them the same disdain, they are imperial subjects even if only former." Lorist ordered.

Reidy, Els, and Shuss returned soon after. Lorist's two disciples had taken the entire outer wall up to the northern district's edge. They couldn't push any further since the enemy was prepared and halted them were the inner walls that separate the district meet the outer wall. The alert Lorist had heard earlier was thanks to a soldier stepping out onto the wall to take a leak on the other side of the tower. He returned to find his comrades dead and sounded the alarm before he could be killed.

Shuss did not manage to push all the way to the dividing wall to the east. He didn't make progress as quickly as the two disciples, and was exposed by the alarm. After that, he clashed with the garrison soldiers of Wessia single-handedly to defend the tower. He made it to within the last two towers, but was halted by two gold-ranked knights. When he tried to push through the other side of the tower once the two were dead, he realized it had been sealed from the other side. The enemy tried several tactics to force him out, but he held until he received the order to withdraw.

Reidy and Els had quite a few stories to tell. Reidy killed a rank 1 blademaster. The poor fool underestimated the youth thanks to his blade glow and was bisected after a few bouts. When he stepped out of the tower on the other end, however, he was showered with arrows. He avoided most, but his shoulder and right buttock each caught one.

On the 31st day of the 1st month, Year 1787, House Norton launched a surprise attack on Frederika and conquered the northern quarter of the city's walls. The local nobility, from the Union's Wessia merchant guild suffered heavy casualties, among them two rank 1 blademasters and a number of gold-ranked knights. The heavy troops they sent in to clear out the enemy were all but decimated. In a desperate, last-ditch effort to hold the invaders back until they could properly prepare, they set fire to the entire district. It burned for three days and smoldered for at least a dozen more. No one knows exactly how many died, but, whatever the exact figure, it was enough to make the guild and anyone associated with it, devils in the eyes of the survivors.

Chapter 470 - Fall of the City

"We have to stop the attack, Your Grace. Our casualties are too great," pleaded Malek.

The northern district had burned for three days before it finally subsided, even now, though, it still lay smoldering. With the ruins all around them still steaming, it was very hot, even difficult to fight properly, but they could wait no longer, so the men deployed. They moved the men in the city through the district and started attacking the district walls. At the same time, they marched the forces still waiting outside the city on the western and eastern gates. Wessia put up a determined fight, however. They buried the streets in barricades and manned much of it with miners and other militia. The Norton attackers couldn't walk a single block without fighting several battles.

Frederika was a large city. It used to be one of the empire's biggest city and a crucial hub in its south. Its size and importance meant it already had serious defences, plus its continuous growth and renovation meant no map was ever up to date. This was confounded even further when Wessia took over. They renovated three quarters of the city (everything except the northern district), and upgraded its defences yet again.

The city's western district housed all its military facilities. It also had entertainment for the soldiers; brothels, baths, medical facilities, and taverns, amongst other things. Wessia had indeed won its soldiers' hearts. The men fought loyally; they would not retreat or surrender unless ordered to do so by their bosses.

The eastern district housed the miners and other skilled artisans. It was to be expected that the Union's military supplier would own many skilled in related arts. These, too, were treated well. The guild was not much different from the Japanese companies Lorist knew quite well. The various trades were passed down in the family, and each new generation worked for the same company as the last. Such people were incredibly loyal to their employers. They, too, would not let House Norton take their city as long as they breathed. Lorist's greatest fears had come true. There was no way he could poach these skilled laborers, they would die before serving him, and were doing so alongside his enemy's army as one of them.

The fight in the west was particularly intense and unforgiving. The district had been turned into a citadel, an insurmountable fortress. The eastern district wasn't too far behind. It was littered with barricades and obstacles, in some places even the houses along the road were demolished, torn down and collapsed over the street to block it off. Corpses paved the streets and blocked the doorways. If only a single battle could be called one of attrition, this was it.

The ballistae, so crucial in holding their foothold on the northern wall just a few days ago, was no useless. The streets curved and turned almost incessantly, and the few stretches of straight road was barricaded with furniture and rubble or blocked by a collapsed building. They were also prime targets and suffered frequent attacks out of nearby building or from nearby rooftops. A few days of this had forced Malek to pull the weapons back. A few more days brought everything to a halt. They stood at a stalemate.

"We cannot continue like this, Your Grace. Even if we take the city eventually, we'll be too weakened to push on to our other objectives. Tigersoar is down 4600 men and Firmrock about half that. All of this for barely any inroads. We haven't even taken half of the districts. Our best progress is in the eastern district, and that only because it's mostly rubble. We can do almost nothing with it and might as well not have taken anything at all. Our camp outside the city was attacked last night as well. We're still trying to figure out how bad the damage is. We're fighting blind and coughing while our enemy can see and breath clearly..." reported Malek.

A large portion of Wessia's forces were mercenaries. They excelled at guerilla tactics, and the ruined city was the perfect terrain as well. House Norton had no match. That the locals had taken up arms against them did them no favors either. They would usually take a city in a day or less, entirely intact. And the civilians would either be happy to have the Nortons as their new overlords, or be at worst indifferent. They had never faced a hostile populace before. Even the women, elderly, and children joined in the fighting. For the first time, House Norton was being treated as vile invaders, as the villains. The men's morale were not doing good.

Lorist stared at the simple city map on the table. It had been drawn based on descriptions provided by the men and th scouts' surveys. The southern district was almost featureless, only the inner, outer, and dividing walls, and a few landmark buildings like a church steeple were filled in. The eastern and western districts were far more detailed, but they might as well not be. The landscape inside changed almost by the hour -- the map was out of date even before it was drawn. In total, only a third of the outer city had been conquered, none of the inner city, and half of that was still being contested.

He had three Tigersoar divisions and one Firmrock division in and around the city at the moment. By his side was also 2000 of his personal guard. His forces totalled 60 thousand. If the men were packed in like sardines he could only fit 40 thousand in the area of the city he currently controlled.

Wessia, conversely, had suffered heavy losses to their heavy pikemen, but still had 30 thousand soldiers. If the civilians who'd also taken up arms, many of whom spontaneously, they had 80 thousand fighting bodies. The guild's extensive weapon stores were also still in their hands, so all 80 thousand were decently armed.

It turned out the guild had three of their four blademasters in the city. So far they had lost their two rookies, but their rank 2 blademaster, which was accompanying the guild's president, was also present. No one knew how many gold-ranked knights they had left. The guild had double the Nortons' fieldable forces and a stubbornness they had not encountered. Malek was right. They could not let this continue. At this rate they would have lost the fight even if they took the city. A pyrrhic victory in this battle was a defeat in the war.

The guild clearly knew this and were trying to cost him as many lives as they could. Every enemy they killed was a small victory for them. The city itself was a minefield Lorist could not take easily, and the guild stuffed the towers and walls it controlled to the breaking point with archers and ammo, so taking the walls go around the bogs that were the districts was not an option either.

He'd planned to clear out the three districts in which he now sat mired before marching along the walls. Once everything there was under control he would clear the southern district and force the guild to surrender. Once he could see the walls to the inner city properly, however, he gave up on the idea. Wessia had made the inner city a city separate from the outer city. Surrounding the inner city by taking all of the outer city brought him no closer to victory than surrounding the entire city without assaulting it at all. The inner walls were several meters taller than all the others, and could not be assailed from the others. The also had numerous massive ballistae that could cover almost a quarter of the way to the outer walls. No street within that range facing the inner wall was safe. Lorist's only consolation was that they were slow to fire and had to be refitted with new rope springs after only a few shots.

"Why not give them their wish, Your Grace? Since they wish to die in their city, let us burn it all," offered Loze. He was furious at Wessia for resisting his conquering fist. Who were they to want to not be crushed under his Norton heel? What right did they have to kill his men? Didn't they know the proper thing to do was to sit still and wait quietly to be executed?

Lorist shook his head.

Wessia could burn the northern district because it was made of flammable materials. But the rest of the city was built out of stone and ceramics, there was no burning it down. It was hard to even set something on fire there, much less have it spread naturally. At best they'd only be burning the houses at the edge of the ballistae's range. They'd actually be doing Wessia a favor by creating open space so they could see the Nortons coming.

"We have three Firmrock divisions still being held in reserve, why not deploy them to the city? They will be much better at fighting in this environment than Tigersaor," suggested Josk.

"Not happening. Wessia still controls all the other city gates. If we move them out they can either escape, or worse, encircle us instead. The latter is obviously unacceptable, but we can't let them escape either. We have to uproot them completely.

"This stalemate is thanks to the machinations of the guild's leaders. If we can push into the city and kill the leaders, the enemy will fall into disarray and be easy pickings. Even better, if we can take them hostage, we can force the men to surrender. It won't be too late to execute them later, in fact, I would prefer it that way."

"I cannot sanction assaulting the inner city, You Grace. We'll expose our sides and rear to the enemy. If they use the opportunity wisely, which experience says they will, the could force us out of the city entirely, or, even worse, wipe out everything we have in the city," Malek protested.

"We won't make our push through the two contested districts. Have the men halt their advance. We'll push through the northern district which we control completely. Potterfang will arrive with Thundebolt Brigade in about a week. We can just smash the northern district's inner wall and barge in. As long as we capture the president and the rest of their high-command, the city is ours."

So it was done.

For the next two days the Nortons made no pushes. The only fighting happened when Wessia sent forces out to try and retake some of the city or walls they lost. On the second day Wessia became very suspicious, this was not how Norton Lorist was known to operate. He was docile, but when he made his move, he finished it in one go. He'd never given up and accepted a stalemate. The president sent an envoy to figure out what was going on.

The envoy was a well-spoken senior officer in the guild. He confirmed Lorist's suspicions. The guild would fight him to the last man. The city would only be his once he'd killed every single inhabitant. He even claimed that Norton would not take the city. Wessia outnumbered him, even if they had to sacrifice one and a half men for every Norton they killed, there would still be more of their men standing when the last Norton fell.

The second month was coming to an end, in thirty days the first rains of the rainy season would fall. Neither side could fight. The side with the most supplies would win if the fighting lasted until then. If that happened, House Norton would lose without a doubt. Wessia was fighting on their home turf, in their capital, no less. They had supplies to hold out for months, even years. The Norton forces, on the other hand, were out in the field, hundreds of kilometers away from the nearest friendly territory, they could not bring in any more supplies, and whatever they had with them would not last them until they could. The guild hoped that Lorist would accept his inevitable defeat and retreat.

The guild would hold out until the rainy season ended one way or another, and would call for Union reinforcement the moment the rains abated. Lorist had no way to stand against the millions that would come marching down his throat if he still stood on Union soil. He might not even be able to hold out on home ground. If he was still in the city when the time came, he would not leave alive even if he tried. The man was not all threat, though. He offered Lorist an olive branch. He said the guild understood that he'd acted only because he could not stand up to his king and it would not hold him directly responsible if he withdrew without further futile fighting.

Lorist curled into a ball which shook in laughter for several minutes. The envoy stood, staring at him awkward until he recovered.

"I though you were an envoy, not a joker! We have only just gotten started with you. Do you think you'll still exist when this is over? Where do you get your confidence from? No, this can't be called confidence, it's nothing but arrogance!

"But, since you've made this offer, I'll return the favor. If you surrender immediately, I might consider sparing you. I don't care who you think you are, but to us you're nothing but another snake to step on. We've never fought a snake that could bite us, and you are no different."

The envoy didn't retaliate furiously. Lorist had to give him that much, he was worth his salt as a doplimat. The man seemlessly switched tactics when his first attempt failed.

"As long as you retreat and return the land you stole from us, we will pay you two million gold Fordes as ransom."

Another bout of laughter.

"Why do we need to give you the empire's land for money we'll own soon enough anyway? You should surrender and save your lives. Blame yourself for crossing the empire by occupying its rightful land. Learn your lesson well. You're free to go after whatever you want, but anything that belongs to the empire is off limits. If you surrender immediately, I guarrantee you can leave the city safely."

The envoy finally snapped.

"This is our city, our land, our people! The guild and its people will go to hell before we give you what is rightfully ours, and we'll pull you down kicking and screaming along with us! We've already prepared everything. If you break into the inner city we'll burn everything down, you will get nothing but ashes even if you survive!"

Lorist slammed the desk, which nearly collapsed, and jumped to his feet, furious.

"If you set fire to even a single warehouse, I swear that not a single man, woman, or child of your guild will walk out of this city alive! I will hunt down every last living being with even a single drop of Wessia blood in their veins and slaughter them at the top of your castle! In no more than ten years not a single Wessian will walk this earth and you will only be remembered in the curses of your subjects!"

The envoy turned around and stormed out, not even bothering adhere to etiquette and say goodbye properly.

Potterfang set Firmrock's Thunderbolt Brigade up in the northern district on the 7th of the 2nd.

On the 9th, the bombardment began. The inner wall in the northern district, and the portions of the western and eastern districts still under Wessian control were all assaulted. The defenders could do nothing to halt the bombardment and slowly withdrew to the inner city.

Lorist led his guards into the inner city in the afternoon. Wessia sent out its one remaining blademaster to face him. The man died quickly. In response the guilds leadership tried to retreat through the southern district, setting fire to everything behind them.

The fire raged for two days and almost nothing of the city was left untouched when the fire was finally put out. A third of the storehouses' contents were salvagable, however.

On the 12th of the 2nd, the miners in the eastern district surrendered. Nearly ten thousand Wessian soldiers withdrew to the citadel, however, and swore they'd fight to the last man.

Wessian leadership made it to the wall on the 13th but were all captured when they left through the gate. The men inside the citadel refused several offers of surrender and were crushed on the 14th. All were killed. Lorist then executed all the Wessian captives, men, women, and children.

On the 14th day of the 2nd month on Year 1787, Andinaq's Duke of The Northlands Norton Lorist's forces successfully took over Frederika and killed off 30 thousand of the guild's officials and men, as well as their families. Soon after the continent's second skeleton pyramid was built.

Wessia ceased to exist as a member of the Union's big-seven on that day. When word finally spread to the Union after the rainy season ended, it was tumbled into chaos for several days. When things calmed down the remaining guilds called a crusade on Norton Lorist. They declared him and anyone and everyone even remotely associated with him their mortal enemy and swore they would not rest until his torn corpse was rotting over Morant's city gates.

Chapter 471 - The Coming of the Rainy Season

"Your Grace, here's the record. Everything we got is in it," said Malek as he put a beastskin on the desk.

The pair was in the mayor's residence in the middle of the city. It was now Lorist's base of operations. Wessia's chairman and some other officials had ordered everything's burning when they left and half of the building was now ash. Only a third was saved. Lorist stared out of the window at the rubble outside. A few holes punctured the ground outside as the men dug for any buried treasure. He sighed gloomily.

"Today's the 33rd of the 2nd. The rainy season will start in the next day or two. Is everything ready? It'll be hard to stay in this ruin through it..."

"Everything's ready, Your Grace. We've gathered the captives in the western district and have them under tight watch, Potterfang is there, too. Josk is watching over our defenses. And the refugees are being housed in the eastern district. They're calm and willing to serve us. Dulles is inventorying our supplies."

"And our men? Are they settled in?"

"They are, Your Grace. Loze is stationing Tigersoar in the southern district and Firmrock in the northern one. The temporary camps are ready. The rainy season won't be a problem."

"Well done. You've been very thorough."

Lorist walked to the desk. He picked up a beastskin and scanned it.

"We only got four million gold Fordes?"

"Yes, Your Grace. We found everything in the main treasury. The captured treasurers say it's Wessia's reserves. It was supposed to pay the soldiers' salaries. The leftovers were in case of emergencies.

"In total we have about 10 million in spoils. Most of the food couldn't be salvaged though. Most of the spoils are metals. It's all worthless to us right now."

It was to be expected. Wessia was a military contractor. Most of their wealth lay in the materials they used to make weapons and the weapons themselves. Such things were useless to House Norton right now. And most of the value would be lost in transportation costs.

In physical value they were worth something, but shipping back home would cost about as much as they were worth. As for the weapons… The house could make far better weapons so they were only worth as much as the materials that could be salvaged from them.

The best option would be to sell them immediately, but the territory to the south was enemy territory, besides the fact that he would not sell it to them, they wouldn't buy it even if he gave them an offer. And his allies were either not nearby, or didn't have the wealth to make the purchase. Auguslo might seem like a good choice, but he would never pay what the weapons were worth. Most likely he'd make an empty promise of payment and Lorist would never see the money.

"I've checked all the documents over the last three weeks. I've found nothing about the alloy's production, they must have been destroyed in the fire. Have Reidy and Els found any Wessian material engineers? Our best spoil would be the knowledge of making the alloys they used for the gates."

"I am not privy to such knowledge, Milord. I know nothing of their possible progress," Malek answered, his stoic expression still intact.

"Oh, I forgot. I shouldn't have asked you. Forget it. Too many unexpected things have happened recently. There is no chance we can catch up to our original schedule. At least we still achieved our most important objectives. I leave the logistics for this coming season in your hands!" Lorist said, patting Malek's shoulder.

"Don't worry, Your Grace. I will not disappoint you. In that regard, though, our biggest issue is food. We'd banked on using the spoils to tide us over, but, as you know, that didn't work out. I've had someone run the numbers. While we can last through the rainy season itself, we'll be running on empty and won't last a week or two afterwards if we're not resupplied the moment the rain stops."

"Lasting the rainy season is enough. We'll be resupplied as soon as the rain stops and the winter harvests will solve all our problems. We can sweep the surrounding lands once the rain clears if we need a few more weeks for supplies to arrive. Potterfang will head out to Kanbona with Firmrock once the rain clears, it should also have some good stashes.

"Jaeger will arrive with the supply train so we can begin moving the refugees back home then as well. It should lower consumption so our supplies should stretch even further."

Lorist couldn't be more furious that Wessia would spite him so much. All he'd been planning to do was wipe them out, it was no reason to spoil his plans this badly.

The fight would have been over a few days earlier if not for the fires. He had to give up catching the leaders quickly so he could fight the fire and try to save as much as he could. But, in spite of his quick reaction and efforts, they only saved a third of the resources. It would be really tight to get everyone through the rainy season.

Reidy and Els entered as Malek left. When Wessia's newly formed miner forces surrendered, Lorist left the two in charge of finding talented people. Their current confident gazes told him they had found a good few.

"Here's the list, You Grace. We found 178 people. Most are technicians but a few are technical supervisors. None of their family died in the fight so they don't have a death grudge against us," Els reported.

"We found the master refiner who made the material used to construct the gates. He's called Modira, 47 years old and single. His acquaintances all describe him as completely obsessed with his work," Reidy added.

"Oh? How'd you find him?"

"Actually, he found us," Reidy laughed awkwardly, "We were busy asking around when he suddenly grabbed a guard and refused to let go. He kept muttering incoherently. We initially thought he was attacking and almost killed him. Luckily we noticed he was staring at the guard's armor. He didn't pay anything any attention. He just stared at the armor as he muttered to himself. When we asked around, we learned who he was and about his obsession with metalwork and metal alchemy. Do you want to meet him, Your Grace?"

"What's he doing now?"

"He refused to let go of the armor, so we put him in a tent with a set of steel gloves. He's busy looking at the gloves. He hasn't even bothered to eat or drink anything. He just keeps asking for more beastskins and writing material."

"Leave him be for now, then. We'll send him to the factories when he goes back. Put him to work under Grandmaster Sid."

"Yes, Your Grace."

......

The path up the mountain was a bloody one. Corpses were constantly rolling down the mountainside.

"We cannot press the attack, Your Majesty. It's too slippery. We can barely keep our footing even without the constant hail of arrows! We've lost three hundred men already and we haven't even reached the castle!" Ripleid reported.

He was the king's most trusted knight and the colonel in command of Blizzardblitz. His shame at being unable to accomplish his mission was unbearable. How could he not conquer a castle despite surprise and triple their numbers?

His king's expression was equally grim. He'd launched his attack at the very end of the previous year and everything had gone smoothly. He wiped out Zitram's entire army and pushed deep into enemy territory, wiping out 30 Union noble houses only to be halted by this tiny fortress.

He wanted to torture and eventually kill Duke Zitram, the traitor that had rallied ten thousand men against him and was the person behind his ambush last time he was here. He was made a duke when he joined the Union as a result. The bastard didn't stand his ground when Auguslo had Lorist invade last time. Instead he withdrew to a safe place and weathered the storm. He continued to rule over the lands he had left thereafter and never gave Auguslo an excuse to take action against him. He had yet to catch the bastard though. The duke kept evading him at every turn.

Auguslo underestimated how effective Zitraim's defenses and alarms were. He was discovered almost immediately, and the duke was ready for him when he got to his castle. He couldn't make a quick breach and had to wait for the catapults to catch up and batter down the walls. When he made it inside the castle, however, he realized the duke had already escaped. He couldn't go after him quickly, however, because the late winter melt and rainy season slowed him to a crawl. Zitram made it to his nearby cliff-side fortress with his remaining men.

The approach to the fortress was almost suicidal. The constant rain made the road muddy and landslides were frequent. He could only send small groups up at a time lest their weight cause the soaked cliff-side to collapse and make further attack impossible. These small groups, however, were easy pickings for the defenders' archers.

"If only the men would hurry up with the catapults! We'll pound that thing into rubble and send it down the cliff!" Ripleid grumbled.

"The roads are muddy and hard to travel," the king countered, "The rainy season is on us. We can't get the catapults up here quickly, if at all. Don't worry. The bastard isn't going anywhere. Withdraw for now and set up camp at the bottom of the mountain. It won't be too late to finish him off after the rainy season."

"Understood, Your Majesty."

Chapter 472 - Regroup

On the 25th day of the 4th month, Year 1787, Frederika was occupied by House Norton, whose Tigersoar legion immediately moved against Bodolger. Firmrock moved on Kanbona at the end of the month.

Kanbona was a strategic location in the empire, being a transportation hub that neighbored Bodolger, the two southwestern provinces, the northwestern area, and the province of Malivia. The western edge of Cloudsnap Mountain Range and Morrison River made it a crucial location easy to defend and hard to attack. Whoever controlled Kanbona, controlled all the surrounding provinces.

Before First Prince Redlis saw his kingdom destroyed, Auguslo forced him to sign away the two southwestern provinces. The prince immediately started his preparations despite the treating including a five-year non-aggression pact. Be built numerous forts all over the province, manned by over 70 thousand men. Kanbona was turned into a solid wall just as impassable and even more dangerous than the mountain range it bordered.

Auguslo slammed an army of 300 thousand against it but couldn't break through. The only strategy he could come up with would cost him two-thirds of his army and he wasn't willing to break his back that way. His enemies would immediately bring up their reinforcements and drive him back to his capital. He might even lose everything.

The Prince had made sure the men would never dare surrender by putting all their families in Frederika. If they failed to defend the province, their families would be next in line for the pillage. He'd played his cards well, but nothing unfolded like he wanted. Rather than fight through Kanbona and Bodolger, Auguslo had pushed through Egret Swamp in exchange for offering up 20 thousand bodies, crossed Cloudsnap Mountains and Greatsnow Mountain for another 10 thousand, and attacked Frederika directly. The first prince vanished on that day and no one had heard from him since.

Fortunately for the military families, Kanbona surrendered without a fight. In the end the fortifications didn't see a single day's fighting. With the prince vanished, his kingdom crumbled and was quickly forgotten. Auguslo let his victory go to his head and got himself wiped out as well. He, too, vanished without a trace, though he did eventually make his appearance again.

The 70 thousand men in Kanbona's army had been put into the new army sent to Anderwoff, which left Kanbona's defences unmanned. Most of the local settlements didn't have the men to man the forts properly. At best they could put a few old men in them.

Wessia took the province easily and cut Auguslo off from his kingdom. And were the ones to wipe his army off the map in the end.

Auguslo escaped the city with a few thousand guards and moved to a secluded castle in the depths of Cloudsnap. There he ran into the first prince and his son. The two died in the ensuing battle, but wiped most of Auguslo's remaining forces out in the process. Unable to take back his now-stolen thrown, the ex-king was forced to turn to House Norton for aid, who put him back on the throne for a price.

Wessia was enfeoffed Kanbona, Bodolger, and Anderwoff. Queen Carey also ceded most of Hanstmost in the peace treaty, which was given to Lormo. The two Southwestern provinces were turned into the Union's puppet state, the Allied Duchies of Britt. Together, Lormo and Britt became good buffers between the Union and Andinaq.

Wessia thought they would never hear anything from Auguslo again. They were quite surprised to hear of him retaking his throne with House Norton's help, given the two's notorious cold feud. They even wiped out the Allied Duchies of Britt and retook the two southwestern provinces before turning their forces towards Lormo.

Duke Zitram didn't dare to take them on head-on, so he retreated to the northwestern area, allowing House Norton to take it back for the king easily. Auguslo reinstated himself as king and conquered the two southwestern province and Hanstmost. It was horrible news for Wessia; it meant the peace treaty they signed with Queen Carey was now void. Truthfully, though, the two nations never stopped considering each other enemies.

To prevent Auguslo from entering Kanbona and cut Bodolger off from the Union, Wessia provided immense support to the Union's nobles in the province. As expected of one of the big seven guilds of the Union, they not only gained the Union nobles' support, but also constructed a rather cohesive defensive force. They also made good use of the forts the king left behind.

Auguslo, to the opposite, was all bark and no bite. While he appeared rather audacious, with his claims of restoring the empire, he forbade Whitelion from approaching the border or making any ruckus near it. They couldn't even patrol near it. The king knew he was just a paper tiger after his ascension. While he looked impressive, he didn't have any power. Fortunately, his enemies were completely terrified by House Norton. The house had a long list of impressive exploits. They destroyed Madras, swept the whole of the kingdom, levelled the Allied Duchies of Britt, and even defeated one of the old empire's war gods and the four duchies. Together with their alliance they had become the only pillar keeping the Union from simply stomping Auguslo into the ground and wiping out the last remnants of the empire for good.

'The fox basks in the shadow of the tiger'. How Auguslo loathed this saying. Wessia knew nothing of the true relationship between him and the alliance. They didn't know he was the smallest fox in the shadow of the biggest tiger. He needed to reorganize, so it suited him to keep his relationship with Lorist obscure. He could have attacked when the Union moved on the Coalition, but he knew Wessia would expect just that, so he sat tight.

He made his move only a year into the conflict, and not against the Union, but against the duchies. The move convinced Wessia that he didn't dare to attack the Union and lowered their guard. The Union had replaced the Krissen Empire as the continent's superpower, after all. It appeared Auguslo had accepted this reversal and had, begrudgingly as it might be, accepted that he would not get back any land taken by the Union.

Andinaq played up this presumption by not moving on Anderwoff when he could have after taking over the duchies. He made every effort possible to avoid upsetting the Union. His decision to give Handra and Shabaj the lands bordering Wessia was also to assuage the Union's suspicions by not having any bordering land directly under his control.

The Union's occupation on the other side of their territory also helped to hasten their forgetfulness. They were quick to accept that Auguslo had no more ambition because it was what they wanted to believe. That they now had a swordsaint certainly made it a lot easier to think that Auguslo no longer had the guts to go against them.

Unfortunately they all underestimated how determined -- or stupid -- Auguslo could be and fell for his ploy completely. As a result the Union lost one of its strongest guilds and almost a sixth of its territory. And, this was only the beginning. Not everything was down purely to surprise however, Auguslo had to admit that Lorist's forces were even more formidable than he had imagined.

They took Anderwoff in a matter of days and had Frederika within a month. Wessia was completely wiped out with the city's fall and they had already taken Kanbona and Bodolger as well. When the union learned of this, they, as well as everyone else on the continent, collapsed in shock. This wasn't just a few slaps to the Union's face, this was stamping their face into dogshite!

They had just surpassed even the Krissen Empire at its peak and now they were already a sixth smaller? Even what was left of the Coalition began to drag on the negotiations. They were clearly trying their luck and hoping the Union would be forced to divert their attention, and forces, away from them, or, even better, lose the war.

Auguslo had to give it to the Union, however, they were nothing if not decisive. They immediately recalled all their armies out in the field, and called up every free man, soldier, and mercenary in their lands. Within a few weeks a hundred thousand men were barreling towards the new front. Within a month they crossed the border into Kanbona. Unfortunately for them, they ran into Tigersoar.

Rumor was that Loze, one of Lorist's subordinates was so happy he couldn't shut up for days! Apparently he didn't see the 100 thousand men as a threat at all. It was better to describe them as juicy pieces of meat just waiting to be roasted. The two armies clashed in a single, massive battle, which Tigersoar won, obviously. Auguslo knew of at least 20 thousand dead and 60 thousand captured. No more than eight thousand had escaped.

Tigersoar immediately moved into Malivia and it fell within a fortnight. Shocking the Union a second time in as many months.

Lorist left Frederika for Kanbona on the 23rd of the 6th to join Auguslo, the dukes, and the various other minor nobles accompanying the king on his campaign. He couldn't take any of them seriously. Potterfang had informed him on the way that, even as he swept through a sixth of the Union, the dukes were still dallying in their lands, they had yet to take a single step over the border.

Auguslo at least tried to do something. He pushed into Zitram with Blizzardblitz and caught the duke off-guard. He failed to capture him, however, and had yet to make any other gains. He lost a lot of men to take the duke's castle, only to watch him escape and hold up in the next one over. He had finally, at least, cornered the duke and was about to attack him now that the rainy season had ended, but lost the duke again. The old man fashioned a number of simple boats from the wood in the castle and rowed across the river running along one side of the castle one night. When Auguslo breached the castle gate, he found the inside completely deserted.

On the 11th day of the 7th month of Year 1787, Auguslo I of the Andinaq kingdom conquered the province of Kanbona with an army a million strong. From the fringes of the Union's province, Armenia, to Malivia, His camps could be seen from the fringes of Armenia to Malivia, their flags finally flapping over land lost to the empire for nearly 50 years. The Union panicked as the continent was thrown back a century to when the Krissen Empire invaded Falik Plains. Only, this time, they did not have any of the allies they had the last time. Strong as they may be now, they now had to face an enemy which -- thanks to House Norton -- was likely even stronger than the one they faced all those years ago.

Chapter 473 - Banquet

"Are we really going to sit here and do nothing, Your Grace?" complained Loze.

"What's wrong? Can't sit still?" joked Lorist as he flipped through the documents on his desk.

They sat currently in House Norton's main camp. They'd successfully joined up with Auguslo and the rest of the nobles. The entire army, a million strong, was now encamped near Armenia's border, in the part of Malivia Lorist had conquered. The encampment was imposing, but nothing really happened. Auguslo even strictly forbade anyone from crossing into Union-held territory. It made for a weird atmosphere.

They had not even been here for half a month, and Loze was already here to complain. He still thought the king's plan to pressure the Union into ceding Armenia and Malivia was just ridiculous. It would be much better to just take it themselves and then sue for status quo. The Union was at its most vulnerable, but it wouldn't last for long. If they didn't jump at this opportunity, it would be lost to them forever. Once the Union moved its armies into place, at best they could hope to keep what they currently had. Loze did not believe they could gain anything through negotiation.

"Loze, you know this was the plan from the beginning. It's not that the king doesn't know we have to conquer Falik Plains, eventually. He wants us to pressure the Union into negotiations, and they won't agree to it if they feel we're being too aggressive. The kingdom is in no better a position than the Union either. Any combat we can avoid is a win. We need time to rest and rebuild. If it bothers you that much, just think of this as a vacation instead."

"Even if it's just for show, we shouldn't prevent our forces and scouts from launching attacks at the fringes. It would put more pressure on them. A one million strong army not daring to do anything when there is no force in the area even remotely capable of opposing it is just farcical," complained Loze.

"That is being done for a reason. The king wants to send a message to the Union. He's trying to tell them we don't intend to start an all-out war. We have a specific goal, and have no interest beyond that goal. They should send envoys soon.

"But enough of such tiresome talk. You don't fool me, anyway. I know you just want to make more money raiding."

"Haha... hahahaha..." Loze laughed awkwardly, scratching the back of his head, "I was only thinking of the House, Milord. Potterfang swept all of Kanbona but didn't get much. The 100 thousand youths only barely make us break even. I'm really disappointed with Kanbona's nobles!

"Malivia is different though. When we were chasing a few fleeing fools into the province, we took over a few castles.  They're really rich! We took 38 castles in total and got about as much as half of Wessia's treasury from them!"

Loze hadn't acted according to a particular plan when to took out the nobles in the province. It was just a habit he'd picked up from the previous campaigns. He did not expect these small fry to be this rich. Bodolger's nobles were brand new, given land and titles by Wessia for their contributions to the guild. While they had some wealth, they could not compare to noble families who'd occupied their fiefs for generations.

Both, however, were rich compared to Kanbona's nobles. Their combined wealth was barely a fifth of the nobles in Bodolger. A Kanbona baron was rich is he had five thousand gold Fordes in his treasury. But Malivian barons had nearer a hundred thousand gold Fordes in their treasuries.

This was probably because the Malivian nobles came from rich merchants. The Union only got Lormo involved when they ran out of land to enfeoff, so the poorer bastards were the one that got that land later on.

"Enough. Stay put obediently for now. You've already caused me enough trouble by pushing into Malivia in the first place. The king nearly collapsed when he heard about it. He almost made me whip you as an apology to the Union! He may be acting belligerent towards the Union, but the king is walking a fine tightrope. He really doesn't want to go to war with the Union."

He just wants to raid the nobles and make more money!

The problem wasn't really with Auguslo's ban on sending troops into Armenia or Malivia. Lorist was more concerned for Loze's safety. Teribo VII offered exorbitant bounties during the War of Glass, and many high ranking mercenaries died, both for being the target of a bounty, and for blindly chasing bounties. Greed killed, even more so in war. Lorist had no interest in repeating those mistakes. Especially not with Loze. He was a good general and a promising candidate for becoming a blademaster. All the money in Malivia was not worth a single Loze.

"Sigh..." Loze wanted to say something else, but was stopped by the curtains covering the entrance parting to reveal Jinolio.

"Sigh..." Lorist echoed.

The army had sat still for just over ten days while Auguslo kept hosting banquets like the war was already won. The feasts weren't extravagant, but their number made it quite expensive. Auguslo's harvest must have been quite decent. On the surface they were parties to celebrate their successes thus far in the campaign, in truth they were opportunities for Auguslo to talk about the policies he wanted to implement after the war. Chances for him to get everyone behind him and his plans.

The brat's old habits are surfacing again.

This was exactly what Auguslo had done after conquering Frederika. His ego went from being a hill to being a mountain and he started bragging about what he'd do once the empire was unified again. His ego didn't work well with his illness. He made ridiculous decisions and gave out ludicrous orders, which led to his downfall.

Now he was doing the same. He was certain the Union would cave in the negotiations. His behaviour was again becoming arrogant. At least he had not turned his arrogance towards Lorist. He continued to act friendly towards him, though the traces of wariness were not completely gone from his eyes. Lorist was under no illusions, however. He knew this was all because of how much he had contributed to their current success. His military exploits had shocked the world yet again, it wasn't a stretch to say that his reputation was the real winner in this war. If he'd not made so many spectacular gains, he would have been relegated to the sidelines.

Everyone else, even the king, appeared to be there just to cheer him on. The minor nobles, at the very least, were at best a waste of food. The three dukes couldn't be expected to do much. They had been wounded in their war with the kingdom and had had neither the time nor the resources and land to recover. Given their precarious positions, they were also not willing to take any risks.

Most surprising, to outsiders at least, was the lacklustre performance of Lorist's close allies. Without his forces acting as their backbone, and without him there to strategize and lead them, they were a sail ship without wind for its sails.

If Lorist made the greatest contribution, and the king himself standing second, then Duke Fisablen was third. He had a decent relationship with the king, and still had a bit to prove, so he made some efforts. He deployed two legions, Second Frontier and one of his reserves. That the queen was from the house also spurred him on to do a few things. It had originally been suggested that he take on Kanbona, but he was quick to rebuke them. Who on earth was dumb enough to use cavalry to siege castles?

No one really wanted to take on the thorny province, so they just kept kicking the ball at one another. It eventually fell to Lorist to do the actual work if he wanted to keep his rear secure. It had, at one point, been suggested that the minor nobles deal with the province, but they would have none of it either. No one minor noble had a force large enough to take out a castle, and none of them were willing to put their whole force on the line and possibly lose their chance to make any further contribution to the campaign.

Potterfang had initially thought he would meet up with whoever was attacking Kanbona somewhere in the province. He was completely speechless when he had to march through all of the province, and back across the border into the kingdom to meet a single friendly soldier.

Auguslo's plan was to attack the province from three sides, but it failed for several reasons. One was that he overestimated his own force's capabilities. Another that he didn't take his opponent in his theater seriously. Duke Zitram was far more capable than he gave the duke credit for. While he did eventually gain control of his theater, the combat part of the campaign was basically over already and he had no chance to contribute anything else.

Lorist didn't let the opportunity to mock everyone else pass him by. Nor did he refrain from sneering at the king for his ineptitude. They were all pretty thick skinned, though, and didn't really take his mockery to heart. They only cared about the end result, not how it was achieved, in fact, they were quite happy to have achieved their initial goals without having to do much.

Lorist abstained from most of the celebration, however. He was too busy to waste time on merrymaking. He had to organise the transport of hundreds of thousands of captives and refugees back to his dominion. It was more challenging than the actual war as far as he was concerned. As much as Auguslo bled to see so much taken out of his hands, they were Lorist's rightful spoils and plunder and he could do nothing, even as the king.

"I will not attend tonight's banquet.  Inform the king, Jinolio. I have too much to do."

Jinolio left, but returned soon after.

"His Majesty asks if you want to meet the captured count he chose to be the messenger to the Union. He'll leave after tonight's banquet to send our demands to the Union."

Lorist waved him out, annoyed. "No. His Majesty is free to do what he wants. What's so important about this count anyway? He's just a messenger. His Majesty's just looking to use my name to terrify the man. I have no interest in being his tool."

"As you wish, Your Grace."

Chapter 474 - Reply

On the 13th day of the 8th month, Lorist finally caught a breather after five days of work. The last batch of forced immigrants left for The Northlands. He could finally relax, so he rode out of the camp with Potterfang to check on the Union army's encampment.

The big-six guilds mobilized their main force to the frontlines in the last twenty days and set up camp 15 kilometers from Andinaq's. The main force should be firmly entrenched by now. Similarly, the various smaller guilds, associations, and so on, also gathered. About 500 thousand men in all. Most surprising was that Jigda had apparently sent a contingent of 50 thousand to stand by the Union.

Lorist didn't initially care about the Union's army. He was too occupied with moving his new subjects home. Unfortunately, it was not winter, otherwise they would have been far more obedient since death would be the only other option. But, it not being that, many tried to escape, more willing to take their chances in the wilds than submit to this invader lord. It took far more effort and men to keep the move going relatively smoothly.

Their numbers were also much greater than Lorist had anticipated. He was only aiming for 400 thousand people from Bodolger, but Potterfang swept Kanbona and Loze took tens of thousands prisoner after his battles with the Union. His subordinates had also cleaned out the part of Malivia they'd conquered, adding another 100 thousand to their burden.

800 thousand people, double what he'd prepared for, had to be moved. The Northlands would have a three-million-strong population by the end of this, even if they didn't move a single person in the rest of the war. This duke now had more subjects than many kings. With this increase came more work, though, way more than Lorist could handle, even with all the protocols already in place. He only had enough energy to care about the war again after everything was done and dusted.

He immediately noticed something off about the Union's deployment when he turned his attention to it. Auguslo, in his usual overconfidence, hadn't paid proper attention and had missed it. It'd already been over a month since he'd sent his message via the count. A reply was well overdue. He just kept on celebrating, however, and had yet to become sensibly suspicious.

The Union's main force had been in place for 20 days already, yet Auguslo didn't make any appropriate adjustments to his own force's disposition. He did nothing as more and more Union forces kept arriving. While there were no skirmishes being exchanged, Union were patrolling the area incessantly.

"Odd... Is the Union really planning to fight us properly?" mused Lorist, the enemy camp staring at him through his telescope.

"How can you tell, Your Grace?" Potterfang asked.

Lorist handed him the telescope.

"Take a look. Notice anything odd?"

Potterfang stared at the camp through the telescope, slowly shaking his head.

"The camp is built lightly. It doesn't have any of the features or styles you'd expect if they expected it to be a long term set-up. Specifically, they have no ditches, no palisades, no watchtowers. The fence is just a few poles and stakes fastened loosely with some string. They just came out of a long war, do you really think they'd either be this lax, or make such a simple mistake? Either they're going to march on us soon, or they aren't afraid of us marching on them."

Potterfang's face grimmed.

"You're right. This is as much a temporary camp as I've ever seen. They're either going to withdraw soon, or attack, either way, they don't plan to stay there for long. The setup is designed to deploy the troops as quickly and efficiently as possible, but as such has no defenses. Maybe they are willing to negotiate and the soldiers are just there to put up a front. Hence their laxness." Jinolio interjected.

Lorist stroked his head. He had no issue with such interruptions, quite to the contrary, he enjoyed it when others voiced their opinions.

"That might be. But I wonder… Does the Union really want to negotiate with the king? There would be no need for so many men if they did. It isn't cheap to deploy 500 thousand men, 100 thousand should be enough for negotiations. It's also been a month since we sent the message, and yet we've not heard back… Whatever. I should pay His Majesty a visit."

"Loze just left with the last of the immigrants. We only have Firmrock and my personal guard right now… Pog head to the rear and set up a stronghold on advantageous terrain. A good general is prepared for any outcome."

"As you wish, Your Grace." replied Potterfang.

Lorist headed for Auguslo, accompanied by Jinolio. It stood ten kilometers from his, he reached it in the afternoon. As expected, the camp's security was all but non-existent; the gates were wide open and soldiers were free to enter and leave as they wished. The sentries in the watchtowers were nowhere to be seen, probably sleeping inside, and the guards along the walls strolled lazily.

The sentries jumped when Lorist walked past. They and the ten or so dangling around saluted hurriedly. Fear was writ large on their faces; everyone know Lorist, and everyone know he was the kingdom's most powerful and feared man.

"Where is His Majesty?" asked Lorist.

"His Majesty is in the tent in the middle of the camp with the dukes and lords. Does Your Grace need us to announce your arrival?" asked one eagerly.

Lorist waved his horse whip.

"No need. Jinolio, tip them."

Jinolio took out a pouch and tossed it to who appeared to be the group's leader.

"His Grace just bought you guys some drinks."

"Thank you... Thank you, Milord."

The men bowed, the men on the periphery of this exchange looking on enviously. Duke Norton of The Northlands was known as a generous man. Whilst no one knew how much was in the black pouch, it was definitely not a small amount. It was probably at least a twelfth of their annual pay.

The camp was erected around a small hill, on which stood the king's tent. The hill itself contained a subsection of the camp completely cut off from it, separated by a thick palisade. The nobles couldn't mingle with the commoners after all.  Especially not the nobles' families, who had come to accompany them. The inner sanctum also contained many capture noble females of the younger variety. The king's harem, in plain terms.

Normally noble families were not involved in wars, it was shameful to involve the innocent, after all. If the family could not pay their captured loved one's ransom, however… Suffice to say that never happened, even if the family themselves became the ransom.

Most of the Union nobles were in a bad position. They had nothing with which to pay ransom, not only were their lands and wealth seized, even their families were taken as well, it all became part of what had to be ransomed, and nothing could be used to ransom for it. The few that had land and properties in parts of the Union yet unconquered could offer that, but many had sold their properties to purchase what they had now lost.

The banquets Auguslo threw so lavishly was as much a show of his newfound riches and a celebration of his success as a slap in his enemies' faces. It was all the more sweet because most had to watch their wives, sisters, mothers, and daughters bare themselves for, and be ravished by, their enemy.

Such vulgarity repulsed Lorist, however. It was just another reason why he didn't attend. His house had its own protocols for dealing with captured nobles. If they were cruel, they died in the gallows along with their whole family. He would rather kill innocents than let possible threats escape. If they were kind and upright, they were free to serve the house if they so chose to earn their freedom. Nobles were educated from birth; they were valuable resources. When they finally got their freedom, they had to choose whether to continue to serve the house, or leave and try to make a new life for themselves. Most chose the former.

Lorist refused the guards of the inner sanctum's offer to announce his arrival and moved in without his guards. Kenmeys emerged from the tent just as he was about to step in, a noble lady in his arms, her clothes disorderly.

Kenmeys shoved the girl aside when he saw Lorist.

"Haha, Locke! What brings you here today?" he asked, open arms.

"Don't come any closer! Go about your own business. I'm here to see His Majesty."

"I'm just asking out of curiosity. Why come see His Majesty?"

"Nothing worth neglecting your lover over. I suspect the Union is preparing to attack us. I am here to hear the king's opinion."

Kenmays sighed.

"You're too one edge, Locke. Come blow off some steam. There won't be a battle, they won't attack. We just got the Union's reply. They will send negotiators in three days. His Majesty is celebrating. Come, join us for a few drinks! The king was about to send you an invitation, anyway..."

Lorist was already inside. The tent was large, it could accommodate a hundred people easily. A number of nobles lay passed out on the floor, other were hanging around tables with wenches, making merry. Some were even making merries in the furthest corners. Duke Fisablen, his face flushed, sat like a baboon on a bench near the king, his hands plundering a half-naked wench.

Have some self-respect, you old coot!

Auguslo looked no better though. He downed a vase of alcohol sloppily, letting half of it soak his clothes rather than fill his stomach.

Lo-locke... Y-you're hee... Come... C-home! Cheers!"

Lorist turned and left immediately.

"Let's go. We're heading back." he murmured to Jinolio as he passed him.

Chapter 475 - Envoy Krilos

Three days passed quickly. Early in the morning of the 17th of the 8th, Auguslo sent a messenger to bring Lorist to his tent. Lorist took a simple bath and washed himself. After donning some fancy noble-military robes, left with Reidy and Jinolio and a thousand guards. Auguslo most likely wanted to impress the envoys with military might. Two rows of soldiers lined the road for five kilometers out of the camp. Their equipment shone like spit-shined cutlery. The  people wearing the equipment, however, were less pruned. Lorist had no right to comment, however, feasting was a tradition and even a custom. The sludge called a road had been pressed and covered with sawdust and fine river sand. Lorist had no idea where on earth Auguslo got the supplies and materials necessary on such short notice. Or had he prepared it months earlier?

The white dragon curled through the landscape. According to Lorist's education on noble customs, this was the highest courtesy possible. Its use was only recorded seven times in all of history. The treaties signed in conjunction with its use were never less than 20 years long and often lasted much longer.

Haha, looks like Auguslo really wants to have peace... He's pressuring them with his one hand, and offering a path to peace with the other. If this were anyone else, they might be touched, but our opponents aren't nobles in anything other than name -- I don't think this means anything to them.

The entrance of the path of peace was guarded with soldiers who blocked the way with wooden barricades. Lorist brought his horse to a halt. A sergeant ran over and explained everything. Lorist nodded and took the detour. He couldn't complain since the path could only be used by the envoys. He knew that if he insisted on crossing the path with a thousand men, not only would everything be wasted, it might even make a haughty impression on the guests.

He arrived 20 minutes later. Lorist knew the main gates were off limits too, so he headed to the other entrance. As expected, there was a smaller gateway not far away with people traveling in and out constantly. He finally noticed how prettied-up the fence was when he got closer. Not only were the damaged parts filled up and repaired, even the uneven parts of the upper fence were trimmed to uniform level. Auguslo truly put lots of effort into this project. He had wanted to make sure the camp was in perfect condition before the envoys arrived.

As for the outside of the military camp, it was clean. Hygiene was the baseline and Lorist noted a red-feather-wearing patrolman pushed to the ground and given ten canes for spitting on the ground.

The only thing that didn't fit with the atmosphere was the colorful flags all over. Their sizes were not uniform, and they were almost everywhere, making Lorist feel like he was in a children's theme park. When he arrived, he realized the colored flags outside were simple decorations in comparison.

Other things aside, the wooden fences themselves were wrapped in multi-colored silk and covered in a myriad of tones, just like a bouquet. As for the insides of the central areas, the tents were all taken down, replaced by a majestic and grand palace at the center of it all.

Is that a palace?! thought Lorist his shock. He squinted for a closer look. A breeze blew, and he caught the roof of the 'palace' wave about slightly. Oh, so it's still a tent, it's just larger and drawn to look like it has a real roof.

A royal guard came over. He dismounted, and a servant took his horse away. He walked to the huge palace-tent with Jinolio and Reidy while the guards behind him went to their respective resting areas while they were being briefed on what they could and couldn't do to not disrupt the envoys' visit..

Upon entering the tent, Lorist saw that the internals were also decorated to make them look like those of a real palace. However, Lorist could tell that it was all looks. He was quite curious as to how Auguslo managed to convert the tent to look like a palace though.

Auguslo was at the center of the main hall with many other nobles. The main hall really did look like a palace's assembly hall, complete with steps covered in black and gold carpets. On the carpet was one gleaming seat which looked to be the throne.

Auguslo wasn't seated in his throne and was instead chatting idly with the other nobles beneath the elevated platform. As he was wearing a golden crown on his head, he stood out exceptionally from the other nobles who wore no hats.

All the nobles within the hall were clad in formal attire with their ceremonial swords. That was a tradition left behind from the time of the Krissen Empire. Formal wear accompanied with a ceremonial sword symbolized one's courage and remembrance for those that came before to build up the Krissen Empire. There was also an unofficial saying that claimed that the ceremonial swords were carried around back in the day when dueling was very commonplace. That way, the nobles could respond to duels at a moment's notice to settle their disagreements.

Seeing Lorist, Reidy and Jinolio entering the tent, Auguslo waved for them to come over to him. After the greetings, Lorist noted Auguslo's bloodshot eyes. He looked rather fatigued, so Lorist asked, "Your Majesty, did you not rest well the night before? You don't look too well."

"Is that so?" Auguslo rubbed his face and said with a smile, "The mere thought at the envoys of the Union coming to sign a peace treaty with us and the realization of my ambition of the empire would stir me from sleep. I haven't got any shuteye for the past two days. However, that wouldn't pose to be a problem. I have more than enough time to rest after today."

All things aside, Auguslo was still a rank 1 blademaster, so losing sleep over a couple of days wasn't something that could affect him much, apart from making him seem gloomier than usual.

Lorist advised, "Your Majesty, it's still rather early and the envoys of the Union might take another hour or two to come. Perhaps you might want to shut your eyes for a light nap during this time. That way, you'll look much better in an hour or two. At least, your eyes won't look that bloodshot."

Auguslo was convinced. "Alright, I'll heed your advice and take a short rest lest the envoys come see all the veins in my eyes and get a bad impression. Go about as you like here and ask the servants if you need anything else."

By the time Auguslo left, the nobles within the ten felt much more relaxed than before. Some found places to sit down at, some drank away as they chatted while others flirted with the maidservants beside them. However, they all knew that it was a momentous day and neither of them were willing to let Lorist see their debased states.

Kenmays and Shazin popped out of nowhere and made their way to Lorist's side. They shoved Lorist into a smaller partition of the tent where many small tables were laid out filled with food, juice and other beverages.

"What are you guys doing here? Where's Felim?" asked Lorist.

"Felim hasn't arrived yet. I brought you here for something to eat. You don't wanna be hungry when it starts," said Kenmays.

"How did you know they'd be food here?" asked Reidy. He hasn't eaten anything yet before following Lorist, so he began wolfing down a roasted goat thigh without hesitation the moment he saw that there was so much to eat.

"How did I know?" Kenmays said gleefully, "I laid this out, that's how. It's no problem for me to get the kitchen to cook something up for us."

"You're saying that you were in charge of this whole palace tent thing?" asked Lorist with surprise.

"Naturally. His Majesty had wanted to tear the main tent down to make a simple pavilion to receive the envoys, but he didn't have much time to do so. Seeing his trouble, I offered help as the representative of salt merchant committee and rebuilt it into something more appropriate with the help of some designers and artists to make it look like a palace. This is good business. I actually earned nearly 20 thousand gold Fordes doing this," replied Kenmays excitedly.

It could be seen from his expression that Auguslo was once more put onto a chopping board like a juicy sheep to be slaughtered. However, it was his own fault for liking grand spectacles. It's no wonder Kenmays didn't hold back at all when it came to pricing.

As they munched and drank within the small partition, Felim soon came to join them, followed by the thick-skinned Duke Fisablen as well. Duke Fisablen did complain to Kenmays for not having prepared any good wine, however.

An hour or so later as it was approaching noon, a loud horn could be heard from outside, startling all of them alert. The envoys from the Union finally came. Lorist and gang hurriedly straightened their robes and exited the partition.

Auguslo was also there. After a short nap, he seemed far more energetic and his eyes were no longer bloodshot. There was also a healthy glow to his face. He was listening to a scout's reporting on the arrival of the envoys.

The scout reported that the envoys brought a hundred guards with them and had already entered the path of peace in their luxurious carriage. It should take about 20 more minutes for them to reach the main tent.

Auguslo then excitedly called for the rest to wait for the envoys outside the tent.

Duke Fisablen stepped forward and said that it was inappropriate for Auguslo to make the reception, as he was the king of Andinaq himself, so he couldn't lower himself to do such a thing. The king should be sitting in his throne, waiting for the envoy to arrive, as is fitting for a king and so on.

Auguslo humbly accepted Duke Fisablen's criticism. He gave it some thought and made a compromise to receive them at the entrance of the central area. After all, he wanted to show his sincerity and desire for peace too.

So, the lot of them waited at the entrance for around half an hour before they finally saw the carriage before them. A thin and lanky middle-aged man got off from the carriage, followed by a white-bearded old man who carried a small wooden case in his hand.

The tall man was called Krilos, a count of the Union as well as the vice president of one of the big six guilds, Twinhead Dragon Merchant Guild. The old man beside him appeared to be his attendant who followed him everywhere.

Krilos's abilities were of the gold rank, but he mentioned that he was only training to keep fit and that he abhorred and feared jumping into a slaughterfest. He jokingly said that the ornate ceremonial sword he carried was only for show and that he hasn't even drawn it before. The old attendant on the other hand seemed to be a normal person who didn't train in battleforce and was in charge of tending to the count for his daily needs. Krilos joked that since he was born in a rich family, he was used to being spoiled and required the help of his servants for the easiest of tasks.

The hundred guards on the other hand caught everyone's attention. There were actually four blademasters and ten gold-ranked swordsmen among them, with the rest being all silver-ranked.,

Auguslo looked rather happy about that as the elite nature of the guard meant that Krilos was of high status. He wasn't the slightest bit worried about the guards causing any trouble. Other things aside, there were ten blademasters of the kingdom there. Even the four blademasters among the guards wouldn't dare to mess around.

Auguslo greeted Krilos really warmly and chatted to no end. The two of them even held hands like they got along exceptionally well with each other. In the end, Lorist could no longer stand watching that and he cleared his throat and reminded, "Your Majesty, shouldn't you talk after going into the tent first?"

"Ah, that's right," said Auguslo as he snapped out of it and invited Krilos into the tent. He then asked whether the envoy would like the blademasters and guards to follow him in as well.

Krilos laughed and said, "There's no need. Let the guards stay outside with the other guards. All I need with me is my old attendant over here. I'm here to sign a peace treaty, not to pick a fight. So, I'm quite confident in my safety here."

Auguslo was all the more gladdened by that and hurried the two into the tent with incredible hospitality.

Chapter 476 - Invitation

Delicious varieties of food and wine were... not possible in such a scenario. The so-called banquet Auguslo threw for Viscount Krilos only had large pieces of roasted meat, honeyed bread, a large pot of potato and cow-innard stew, smoked fish, baked apples, vegetable salad, and a bowl of grapes and blueberries. In terms of food culture, Grindia's nobles were far behind Lorist's previous world.

To be honest, nobody really cared about the banquet. Even Auguslo only toasted once or twice out of custom. With his first toast he expressed his wish that Andinaq and the Union could coexist in eternal peace. His second wished the envoy, Krilos, and his family good health. That was all. Auguslo just stared at the viscount, hoping he had brought good news.

The envoy didn't seem in a rush though. He enjoyed the food with elegance and grace. He praised the roast meat and even asked Auguslo to call the chef over. The white-haired old man behind him just stood quietly, holding his small red wooden case. Time passed in this odd tension. When the envoy finally had his fill, the nobles were speaking in hushed chatters with one another and adjusting in their seats. They stared at the group anxiously. Though Auguslo appeared calm, anticipation flitted back and forth across his eyes when he looked at Krilos.

The viscount received the white handkerchief a maidservant brought with an elegant motion and wiped his mouth before getting rid of the oils on his hands. He rose slowly, thanked Auguso for the meal, and expressed his hopes that he would pay a visit to Morante. Auguslo denied, remorsing his lacking treatment. They were still on the frontlines, after all, so he could not provide the luxury due such an occasion. He thanked the envoy for his invitation and hoped he could head to the imperial capital as well so the king could play host too.

Lorist stifled a yawn at the laborious banter. Auguslo didn't want to keep this ging either, so he voiced the main question of the entire event.

"Lord Krilos, you were sent as an envoy. Has the Union made a decision regarding our offer? Will you sign the peace treaty?"

"Well..." Krilos stood silent for a few moments before he glanced at his white-haired servant. The old man nodded slightly, so the viscount put his elegant smile back on, "Naturally. I have come here to represent the Union. We wish for you to join us in Morante for some more talks."

Auguslo waved his hands cheerfully, "Lord Krilos, you've made the invitation already, which I already explained I cannot fulfill right now. The empire is finally unified again and there is still much that needs to be done before I can be absent for even a single day. The years of war have ravaged our lands and my people. That is why I wish to conclude our talks swiftly so I may return to the capital and begin the restoration work. I am sincerely grateful for the invitation, but I cannot leave now."

Krilos nodded without comment.

"Let us discuss terms, then."

The white-haired servant stepped forward and opened the red case. He removed from it a greyi-white beastskin which he handed to Krilos.

"Your Majesty, the Union has some disagreements with the terms. Here are our suggestions. I hope you will lend us an ear."

"Naturally," Auguslo nodded.

Disagreements were normal. In fact, he would be fraught with suspicion should the Union accept all his terms without some demand for negotiation. He reclined in his chair comfortably and sipped some wine.

"Pray tell, what are your disagreements? I'll gladly lend an ear."

"Firstly, the Union objects to your senseless invasion and infringement of our sovereign territory," Krilos announced loudly.

Auguslo's smile didn't fade, this was par for the course. It was only to be expected that the Union would have objections. Even some of the nobles present let out a few stifled snickers.

"As the largest superpower on Grindia, the Union will not tolerate invaders. Though the Kingdom of Andinaq has sued for peace, the high council believes being forced to sign by way of threat is a slight and insult to the Union's nobles and subjects. We will not accept a forced treaty! Even the Krissen Empire couldn't force us to bend the knee, even when we were much weaker than it, your kingdom has even less ability to do so now that we are more powerful than even the empire was at its zenith. We warn Your Majesty, Andinaq Auguslo, that you are not the empire. Your self-centered military actions have led to the destruction of several kingdoms and duchies we recognize and guarantee. Your arrogance and ambition has thrown the continent into war, destroyed millions of lives, and set the continent back decades, if not centuries.

"The Union is neither the Redlis Kingdom nor the Madras Duchy, and not a target on which you can impose your will! While we love peace, we aren't afraid of war. Your million-strong army will not make us hesitate to defend ourselves and our values. If we must bleed you dry for a century or two as we did the empire before you, we will gladly do so!

"An unjust war will never win victory for its perpetrator. Signwa will protect the nobles and people of the Union. No matter what your response, the Union will give you a chance for peace. We hereby give you our demands and with it that chance for peace. Each and every demand will be satisfied or blood will flow like rivers and dam up to form oceans!

"First, Andinaq will retreat from and return the occupied territories of Bodolger, Kanbona, Anderwoff, and the northwestern area. Second, Andinaq must immediately withdraw the army standing on the Union's borders. You will dismantle your army and report, in detail, what forces you had. Third, Andinaq will release all captives and their families and compensate and apologize to those harmed. Fourth, Andinaq will punish it's nobles for the atrocities they committed in Union territory and against its nobility and peasantry, especially the Duke of The Northlands, Norton Lorist, and his men, who have eterminated one of the Union's dear and treasured guilds. Andinaq will hand his entire house over to the Union to be tried and executed according to our laws."

Auguslo's face burned, his golden cup crushed. The wine within sprayed over his robes and the floor. He noticed none of it he stared at Krilos. The nobles were in a massive commotion. Viscount Krilos wasn't there to sign a peace treaty; he was there to declare war! Many stared at the viscount suspiciously. Their army was on the Union's borders, not the other way round. The kingdom wasn't defeated and forced to sign a treaty.

Krilos didn't bother with the change in atmosphere. He simply continued reading.

"Fifth, Andinaq will cede the two southwestern provinces and Majik to the Union as compensation for this unprovoked attack. Sixth, Andinaq's king, Auguslo I, will head to Morante, apologise to the Union for this affront, and personally sign the peace treaty we deem appropriate. Seventh, Andinaq will open all trade routes and cooperate to carry out all trade activities in their territory. As for tax--"

"Enough!" roared Auguslo, kicking the table.

"So, you're here to declare war? Don't forget we have a force double your size! I need only speak and your lands will be ravaged!"

The veins on the king's face pulsed. He had done everything possible to provide a path to peace bit his opponents were blind! This was not a peace treaty, these were terms for his surrender! The tent was in chaos. Most of the nobles clamored for Auguslo to give the order to march on Morante. Some even called for Krilos's hanging. Lorist didn't comment. He was more concerned with the source of the Union's arrogance.

Krilos still wore his elegant smile as if the curses and cries didn't faze him at all.

"Your Majesty will not start an all out war. You will not only accept this treaty, you will also come to Morante to apologize."

"Hahahaha!" laughed Auguslo. He glared at the viscount. "On what basis?! Why would I accept such insulting and insane demands?! If you want war, I will give you war! You are right about one thing, though. I will go to Morante, but not to apologise, to burn it to the ground!"

"You are delusional, king. You will do as we command," said Krilos with his ever-annoying smile. He gazed at Auguslo as an elder would a stupid child.

"Hehe... Hahaha!" Auguslo's voice became rough and sharp. He had tried so hard to plan this out and promised his vassals that, as long as the army could be brought to their borders, the Union would agree to peace and that the empire could be brought back to its former glory. All his dreams were shattered in an instant. Not only was this an insult, it was no different from an actual slap to his face. His effort to prepare the 5-kilometer-long path of peace only to have it swatted aside would be recorded in history and spread all over. Their kingdom would become a laughingstock!

"Lord Krilos," said Auguslo with sudden tranquility, "You are an envoy. Though you are from an enemy nation, worry not, I won't harm you. However, the blademasters and guards you brought along will feed my dogs tonight. You will be stripped and covered in honey and feathers and sent back to the Union on horse. We will meet again soon. I hope there will still be some feathers left on you when I come to Morante."

"Hehe, Your Majesty, unfortunately, you will do no such thing, nor will you hurt my guards. They have to escort you to Morante, after all," retorted Krilos as he drew his ceremonial sword.

"Haha, Lord Krilos, are threatening me with that?" Auguslo cracked a chortle. A gold rank dares draw his sword in front of a blademaster? Are you trying to get yourself killed? While Auguslo was only a rank 1 blademaster, dealing with a gold-ranked swordsman was something he could do without breaking a sweat.

"Ah, no, Your Majesty. Don't misunderstand. A puny little gold-ranked swordsman like me can't threaten Your Majesty, neither am do I wish to." Krilos handed the sword to the white-haired servant beside him.

"I ought to introduce this master beside me. He is not my attendant. He is Master Magrut. You may find this name foreign, because most know him by his sobriquet: the windstorm swordsaint."

Krilos turned to smile at Auguslo. "It can't be more honorable to be personally escorted to Morante by a swordsaint."

Chapter 477 - Lashing Out

The tent was filled with clashing. Not only did the nobles drop their cups, some also stood up with fright. Those already standing dropped their jaws. The tent was suddenly so quiet you could hear a pin drop. One noble after another glanced to the old servant beside Viscount Krilos.

The moment the old man received the sheathed sword, his aura changed dramatically. He stopped looking like an old man entirely. Krilos stood in the center of the tent with a gentle smile but he was no longer the center of attention. The old man no one paid any attention to now commanded everyone's gaze.

Master Magrut, the windstorm swordsaint, held his sword by the hilt and traced a few lines in the air, a smile cracking his face. However, that little move caused the nobles who were holding their breath in to despair, because all of them felt that they had fallen into the hands of the windstorm swordsaint completely. It was an indescribable feeling. Was this how the fish felt as it stared at the butcher's knife?

Duke Fisablen stood beside Lorist. Perhaps because of his identity or because Auguslo wished to use him to suppress House Norton, he arranged the duke's position in front of Lorist. However, as they were standing together, Lorist could detect the slight shivering of the old man's frame. It was as if the stronger a blademaster was, the more they would fear the formless sense of pressure and threat a swordsaint exuded. Even Reidy's legs were shaking uncontrollably… Jinolio seemed panicked.

Why do I feel nothing?

"It's... it's really the windstorm swordsaint... Dead... We're definitely dead..." stammered Duke Fisablen as he shivered.

Is he really that scary?

Lorist squinted and tried to suppress his raving desire to fight. He used all the calm he could muster to inspect the enemy. The moment Krilos announced his identity and handed his sword to Master Magrut, Lorist realized he wanted to fight. It was as if he was a hungry black bear, and his enemy was honey. He couldn't suppress this desire, it burned in every muscle in his body.

The swordsaint stood right there and the sword in his hand gently moved through the air. It was a mystical rhythm. No one spoke. The swordsaint stood calmly and played around with the sword, confident that he could end everyone if he wished. Regardless of how high their status; regardless of whether they were blademasters. He was an unsurmountable mountain. They were ants before a titan.

However, in Lorist's eyes, he was just an old man. Granted, he wasn't just an old man. He felt slightly ethereal. It felt like he existed almost outside of space, like his body was about to burst out of reality, tearing the world as he did.

The man stood beside Krilos, natural, carefree, and nonchalant. He looked as if he had openings all over. When Lorist played a fight in his head where he struck any of the openings, it always ended in a loss.

A strong enemy! As he struggled to suppress the desire to fight, excitement joined the fray. He wanted to make this challenge even if he couldn't overcome it. He suddenly woke to the fact that this could be the opportunity to break through he had so long sought. Now that a rank 3 blademaster like Duke Fisablen could not last a hundred strikes against him, only a swordsaint could pressure him enough to burst through the barrier that held him back.

"Surely Your Majesty won't refuse a swordsaint's invitation. The Union has sincerely invited you and the other lords to Morante for a relaxing vacation. You may return to your dominions after signing the treaty." Krilos still wore the same damned smile.

Auguslo's face was pale. He shivered. But his reply couldn't be more resolute.

"I'd rather die than follow you! Krissen's descendants will die rather than kneel before the likes of you!"

The elegant smile on Krilos's face vanished.

"Hoho? You want to die? Not so easily. Do you honestly think your life is still yours to take? Even if you resist, Master Magrut won't take your life. However, he will shatter your limbs and break your chin before bringing you back in a cage. If you think it'd be more fitting to travel like a prisoner, I will oblige you."

Just now, Auguslo was going to cover Krilos in honey and stick feathers on him. This was a punishment reserved for liars. Krilos's suggestion, on the other hand, was the punishment for bandits. They had each come up with the perfect treatment for the other.

"I admit I'm no match for a swordsaint, but can he really stop me from killing myself?" With a loud whir, Auguslo drew his sword and placed it against his throat.

"No, Your Majesty, don't!"

The nobles snapped awake. They racked their brains for a way to stop their king from dying. Some even drew their swords and stood in front of him. There was no choice. Should their king be killed by the swordsaint before everyone else, it would be a mark of for everyone's houses for the rest of eternity. They might as well commit suicide. Even if that meant facing a swordsaint, they could not stand by passively. At the very least, they could still leave their courageous deed behind for their house and make their reputation sore.

Krilos clapped slowly.

"I admire your bravery and your vassals' resolve. But I have to remind you that you can do nothing in front of a swordsaint, much less in their domain. Do you think you can take even a casual blow?"

Krilos shook his head.

"King, stop playing around. You had best come to Morante obediently. I want to leave you some face if at all possible. If you don't obey obediently, I will really break your limbs take you back in a cage. You, nobles. You had best advise your king likewise. We do not want to be called kingslayers, so he won't die, but you aren't kings. Time's running out."

Huh? What does he mean time is running out? Just as the rest were considering what Krilos's words meant, a loud alarm could be heard from the distance.

The patter of hooves soon approached. They stopped outside the tent and the royal guards barged in, instantly kneeling to make a report.

"Reporting to Your Majesty, the Union suddenly deployed their army and launched an attack. Near 100 thousand men are coming for Whitelion. The two divisions stationed near the border have crumbled, please make your decisions swift-- Ugh--"

That royal guard finally realized something was wrong and lost his head. His legs twitched a few times.

Auguslo's face paled and he stumbled back two steps, tumbling back into his throne. He even dropped his sword. As a blademaster who had seen the royal family records on the swordsaint, he knew Krilos' words were true. He was less than six meters from the swordsaint, which meant he was within range of his domain. The moment the swordsaint activated it, he would lose his ability to kill himself.

The guard's report only reinforces his despair. His army would be crushed. No wonder the enemy had kept gathering their forces. He had thought it was because they feared his army, the thought never occurred to him that they were just preparing to wipe his army out. If this happened, he would never be able to threaten the Union again even if he tried.

Two tears ran down his cheeks. He only wished he could die on the battlefield now. If he died like that, he would at least be remembered as a brave king. But his wish was destined to be unfulfilled. He couldn't even decide whether he lived or died. He could do nothing about his current situation. He hated his pride and recklessness. He was now the one responsible for the death of his bloodline, and the death of the last embers of the Krissen Empire. It could never rise again.

It's all over. He stared at the patterns on the ceiling, How laughable... The plan I spent years crafting actually ends like this. So what if I have a massive army? The Union only needed one man to undo everything. They dealt with the whole kingdom's elites in one move. Everything is over...

"Don't drag it on any longer. The weather is still good, so let us leave for Morante soon."

Auguslo didn't respond. He just sat catatonic on his chair.

"Sigh! Some people need to learn things the hard way!" Krilos turned to bow to the windstorm swordsaint, "Master Magrut, I have to trouble you."

The swordsaint nodded silently. With but a sweep of his eyes, the nobles blocking Auguslo's way were knocked aside, making a two-meter-wide path. The swordsaint snorted before he paced towards Auguslo. But he froze after taking two steps as another kingdom noble appeared in his way. The noble showed no fear, he even seemed confident. He had his hand on the hilt of his sword, slowly unsheathing it.

"Who are you?! How dare you draw your sword before Master Magrut?!" yelled Krilos angrily.

"Hehe, I am Duke Norton Lorist, the one your Union wants to punish publicly. His Majesty introduced us at the start of the banquet, have you forgotten already?"

Lorist glued his eyes to the swordsaint. The two were only three meters apart. The old man's face finally twitched. His sword was drawn, but he didn't attack. He waited patiently for his opponent to finish getting ready.

Whir! The tip of Lorist's sword pinged out of the sheath. He cracked a smile before everything inside the tent turned crimson. The swordsaint's expression shattered as he retreated in a hurry. He finally made a sound.

"A domain! You... You're a swordsaint too?!"

Chapter 478 - Severely Injured

Magrut backed down far too quickly. Before the rest could react, his figure vanished. He disappeared from the tent, leaving behind a tear in one of its walls.  Lorist stared at the hole, his jaw on the floor. He didn't think a swordsaint would run away without even putting up a fight. He wanted to fight Magrut and enjoy himself. He had no opponents that could challenge him. His skills had stagnated as a result. He'd finally found an opponent against whom to train his domain, how could he just leave? It was like downloading an erotic film between a youth and a widow, only to realize it's a lolicon after getting into the position.

Nonsense. You think you can run?!

Lorist gave chase with a grunt. He was determined to keep the all-bark-no-bite swordsaint behind if it was the last thing he did. The tent was large, and the place Magrut escaped from was about ten meters away from Lorist, and it was right at the border of Lorist's Slaughter Domain. But when Lorist rushed over and was no more than three meters from the hole in the tent, he felt a sudden humongous pressure attacking him from the outside.

"No good..." Lorist's legs sank into the ground. His body had become heavy as a mountain as his legs fixed him to the ground as he got into a defensive stance.

The walls of the tent were slowly torn apart before Lorist's very own eyes, with its pieces flying all over the place before settling on the ground. That was the same with both the cloth of the tent and the stainless steel frame it was clad over; they were all turned into fine airborne debris. The tent's walls had already completely disappeared and Lorist found that the windstorm swordsaint was no more than six meters away from him.

A loud boom rang out from the depths of Lorist's mind. He coldly humphed as he took two steps back. The swordsaint before him shuddered, but he didn't retreat.

That was the result of two domains clashing. Lorist's domain was blood-red, a color that couldn't be seen but only felt from experiencing the endlessly cruel bloodlust the bloodbath brought. Within the bloodbath, all that was living was a sacrificial offering. The windstorm swordsaint's domain on the other hand was greyish-black and it manifested in the form of the roar of a wild gust. The sharp sounds of the winds and the cold and desolate land made one feel like one was hanging by a cliff with one hand holding onto it while experiencing the assault of strong winds, going to fall at any moment.

The windstorm swordsaint had not tried to run, but instead escaped Lorist's domain and activated his own to deal with it. Darn it! Lorist cursed himself for not having taken the perfect chance and letting go of the windstorm swordsaint just like that. Within Slaughter Domain, Lorist was a god. However, he allowed the swordsaint to escape without being able to react. Otherwise, the windstorm swordsaint would've been eliminated without recourse.

The tent was already shaking flimsily, having been torn apart. In terms of range, the windstorm swordsaint's domain seemed to be double of Lorist's own. The ones embroiled within that domain looked as if they were being assailed by a tornado, rising and falling within the tent. Things flew around and spun before they were torn to small pieces.

The people within tried to back off from the range of those two domains. As they backed up against the throne, some drew their swords and leaped out of the tent like the windstorm swordsaint did. However, Auguslo and the nobles still wore expressions of disbelief that they had made it out of the tent alive. Viscount Krilos had also completely lost his calm and elegant smile, having it replaced by a look of terror.

While the windstorm swordsaint's domain felt far wider than Lorist's, it didn't carry the dense feeling Slaughter Domain did. It was like a large plate that had a bowl on top of it. The bowl and plate was clashing against each other. The spectating nobles found it really funny how Lorist and the windstorm swordsaint were fighting each other at the intersection point of their domains. The two of them were attacking and defending with the slowest of speeds.

Lorist had already sweat all over. What he never imagined was that the clash of the two domains exerted a mountainous pressure on his body. Not only did his whole body feel that stress, even the longsword in his hand felt heavy like a mountain to the point that he almost couldn't lift it up. The blood-red tornado formed a gigantic physical blade that pierced slowly from his side as Lorist slowly took a step forward and thrust his sword towards the swordsaint at a snail's pace.

The windstorm swordsaint was faring worse than Lorist. Even though he had the experience of fighting other swordsaints, which Lorist lacked, he didn't think Lorist's domain would give him the feeling of being submerged in a quagmire. It was far too odd, as if he had fallen into a pot of rice. His Windstorm Domain focused on swiftness and agility. But now that it had clashed against Slaughter Domain, he was no  longer able to use it to its full potential. His limbs felt like they were moving through thick mud. The pressure was huge and his movements couldn't be linked together, so he had no choice but to block Lorist's strike incredibly slowly, being able to do nothing about it.

Without their domains, Lorist and Magrut's fight would be swift as lightning to the point that the naked eye wouldn't be able to make out what was going on. But the clash of the domains brought with it the effect akin to gravity being multiplied a number of times. The two of them engaged in combat in laughably slow movements. One slow stab was parried aside really slowly before it would be followed by a crawling counter strike.

Lorist was already starting to get anxious. He could only use Slaughter Domain for 15 minutes, but he had already been slow-dancing with the windstorm swordsaint for more than ten without either of them being able to gain an edge over the other. Should that continue, once his domain ran out while Magrut's was still active, it would no doubt end horribly for him.

Lorist had to find a way to heavily wound the windstorm swordsaint. He strived to approach the swordsaint, but the cunning old man retreated every time Lorist made such an attempt. The two of them were separated by a distance the length of a sword. Perhaps the experienced windstorm swordsaint already saw through the properties of Lorist's domain and knew that it wouldn't be able to last long, so he started to draw it out until the domain crumbles.

There's no other choice. A look of absolute determination flashed through his eyes as his sword was parried away. The windstorm swordsaint followed it up with a thrust, and Lorist made no attempt to avoid it. The cold tip of the sword pierced into his body and came out of his back ever so slowly, only serving to exacerbate the pain Lorist was feeling. But he grit his teeth and pressed on, arcing the parried longsword in his right hand back down diagonally...

Magrut was greatly shocked. He wouldn't dare dream that Lorist would fight so suicidally. His longsword was already pierced in Lorist's chest and there wasn't enough time for him to draw it out or slash horizontally to bring it out from Lorist's body. The arcing longsword in Lorist's right hand could take the windstorm swordsaint's head in the next moment.

The windstorm swordsaint didn't share Lorist's deathwish. He currently had two choices. He could retreat backwards, but he had to give up on the sword pierced in Lorist's chest. He might even be slashed on the chest by Lorist. The second was to get even closer to Lorist to avoid the edge of the sword. Even though he would get even closer, that would render Lorist's slash not as damaging. At the same time, he would have control over Lorist's life because he didn't have to abandon his sword. After avoiding that strike, he could tear Lorist into two halves by slashing horizontally with the sword he had stuck within Lorist's body.

Naturally, the windstorm swordsaint chose the second option. The way he saw it, Lorist was courting death. He sidestepped slightly and stuck close to Lorist from his flank. As long as the slash caught air, he could ram Lorist with his left shoulder and swing his longsword with his right and it would be done. Little did he expect, Lorist took one step to the side at that very moment. The two of them had switched places. Lorist's left hand struck the windstorm swordsaint's chest at that moment, using the full extent of his internal energy.

To the spectators, Lorist was already done with. Not only did the windstorm swordsaint's longsword find its way through Lorist's torso, the old man himself switched places at close range to evade Lorist's fatal diagonal slash. The slow palm strike by Lorist looked like a futile move by him to push Magrut away.

It was over. Auguslo and the other nobles donned a renewed look of despair. The windstorm swordsaint had still defeated Lorist in the end; the situation didn't change one bit.

......

A soft rustling sound rang out, and the face of the old swordsaint who stuck close to Lorist turned red all of a sudden, before he opened his mouth and sprayed a mouthful of blood all over Lorist's face. Soon after, the other side of the spot Lorist struck bulged huge before the swordsaint was sent flying through the air. He tumbled down on the platform before the throne like a struggling old dog near its death, sputtering blood out incessantly.

The domain vanished all of a sudden; both the Windstorm Domain of the blood-vomiting swordsaint laying on the gold-laced carpet and the Slaughter Domain of Lorist, who was struggling to stand with a sword pierced through him, were without a trace. The chaotic area around the ruined tent finally calmed down.

None expected Lorist to turn the tables around so suddenly just as he was about to lose, neither did they know how Lorist managed to score a pyrrhic victory against the viscount. However, the fact that the windstorm swordsaint was no different than an old dying stray was undeniable. Auguslo and the kingdom nobles shifted their gazes to Master Magrut as their faces shifted from despair to crazed fervor. They had already gripped their swords unconsciously. At that moment, the gaze they shot the windstorm swordsaint was one they would shoot a helpless beauty, especially one that was stark naked.

Viscount Krilos gulped audibly as he turned back to look at Auguslo with a forced smile. Auguslo still seemed excited and agonized at the same time; a paradoxical combination which fused into something ever so sinister. Krilos felt himself soften as if he wanted to sit down from holding his urine in for far too long.

"Y-y-y--your Majesty, we... we are envoys... Even if our negotiations fall apart, you should le-let us go... Only then can y-you uphold the reputation of the royal f-f-f-family..." stammered Krilos.

"Hehe, Lord Krilos, don't worry. We will definitely send you back. As for the windstorm swordsaint and your guards, hehehe..." Auguslo said as he waved his hand with a smile, "Kill them!"

Krilos fell seated to the ground and made a huge wet mess beneath him. He had been relying on the windstorm swordsaint, yet he didn't expect that the old man had turned into a helpless fish on shore. He had vomited out large volumes of blood and people knew that it was the end of him. One could only imagine how terrifyingly the grudge-holding Auguslo would treat the envoys of the Union...

The sounds of swords drawing filled the air. If the windstorm swordsaint hadn't been injured, those nobles and blademasters would act like fearful turtles, helpless sheep waiting to be slaughtered. But now that the windstorm swordsaint and Lorist severely injured each other, as was obvious to the eyes of all present, they were all eager to finish the deed. Taking the kill on a swordsaint would no doubt let them pass their proud names down for centuries to come. Every one of them began to rush in for the kill.

The first one to get on the platform was Auguslo's blademaster bodyguard, Manst. As a rank 2 blademaster, he was really careful. Even though he was the first one who made it up there, he pierced his sword into the left arm of the windstorm swordsaint in an attempt to test whether the latter still had any arm strength left. The swordsaint made a pained cry as Manst's sword bore a hole through his hand, causing fresh blood to flow out. Surprised, Blademaster Manst stepped back twice, only to find that the swordsaint didn't retaliate. Instead, he sat up and no longer laid on the ground, having stopped puking out blood.

The second one to get up there was Reidy. However, he didn't care about the windstorm swordsaint one bit and instead rushed to Lorist, his master and teacher, with concern.

The third was the blademaster employed by Duke Fisablen, Blademaster Forund. He was an honorary viscount of the former Forund duchy and he had participated in the banquet as the duke's personal bodyguard along with the other nobles. Seeing the windstorm swordsaint heavily wounded by Lorist, he also couldn't resist his ambition's temptations. He believed that after he killed the windstorm swordsaint, not only would his name be spread far and wide, Auguslo might also surprise him by making him a proper landed noble of the kingdom.

As he followed closely behind Reidy to get to the platform, he was worried that Reidy would get the kill before he could. The moment he saw Reidy rush for Lorist, he couldn't be happier and he made his way across Blademaster Manst and sent his sword cutting towards the throat of the windstorm swordsaint, desperately wanting to score that kill.

Blademaster Manst cried out in terror, "Look out!"

"However, Rimad was blocking in front of him, so all he could do was sidestep and prepare himself to receive the blow. Rimad himself had heard Manst's warning, but he didn't take it seriously. He had wanted to block Manst intentionally so that his kill wouldn't be stolen. Look out? For what? It's not like the windstorm swordsaint is holding a sword. His chest bone is obviously shattered by Lorist and he's nothing but livestock waiting to be slaughtered. What's there to look out for? Aren't you jealous that I'm going to steal your achievement? Haha! Who asked you to probe so carefully? Couldn't you just have killed him in one strike?

Rimad's sword continued coursing for the throat of the windstorm swordsaint. The moment before it collided, he felt his vision darken as the winds blew ferociously once more, causing the sands and stones in the area to tussle around. Blademaster Rimad cried out in a panic, "Domain!"

The windstorm swordsaint's body had already disappeared from his sight, and that was followed by a searing pain at his hand that caused his longsword to be knocked flying. Rimad really wanted to beg for his life, but he could no longer speak at that moment. The swordsaint had already used the longsword he took from Rimad and pierced it through his spine from the back of his neck. Rimad seemed as if he was struck by lightning and he only struggled for a bit before he fell to the ground lifeless.

Blademaster Manst clutched his right wrist as he hurriedly retreated. The moment the windstorm swordsaint activated his domain and started the killing, he had cut off the blademaster's right hand. Had it not been for his alertness, he might've lost his life just then. All the other nobles who haven't rushed up the platform hurriedly turned back to escape.

The figure on the platform flashed a couple of times before Windstorm Domain vanished once more, causing the windstorm swordsaint's standing form to be revealed with the corpse of Blademaster Rimad at his feet. Even though Magrut was still coughing out blood from time to time, and the injury on his left hand bled on without stopping, the nobles of the kingdom were like scattered birds who flew all over the place, not a single one daring to get close.

"Counter him with the longbowmen!" shouted Duke Fisablen from afar when he was certain that the windstorm swordsaint wouldn't harm him from that distance.

"Hmph!" cried the old man with rage. Duke Fisablen's suggestion had hit his weak point. Now that he was heavily injured, he could only barely hold on. If the nobles of the kingdom all charged at him, he'd only be able to kill three to four of them before being torn apart himself. He turned back and saw the silent Lorist who had a sword poking through him before tapping his longsword on the ground and leaping up in the air and landing outside the tent, spitting out another mouthful of blood. After that, he tapped the ground with his longsword once more and disappeared into the distant sky.

"Bluuargh!" The blood Lorist had been holding back so long had still been spat out. He crumbled to the ground like a soft noodle as he blacked out while amidst Reidy's panicked cries. Right before he fainted, he heard Auguslo call out angrily, "Give chase! We must definitely hunt down and kill that swordsaint!"

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Chapter 479 - Awakening

On the 11th day of the 7th month, Year 1787, King of Andinaq Auguslo I gathered his million-man army to reclaim the provinces of Anderwoff, Bodolger, Kanbona and Northwest (the northwestern area). As their troops approached the border of the Union, they demanded the Union to return the territory formerly belonging to the Lormo duchy, Armenia and Malivia, to Andinaq so that the empire could once more be reunited and refounded.

After the 100 thousand reinforcements sent by the Union to Kanbona was destroyed by the Norton forces of Andinaq, the Union successfully hurried the signing of the peace treaty with the midsouthern nations and recalled the six armies of the big six guilds from the midsouthern nations. They also ran a recruitment drive for a garrison force and also requested their ally, Jigda, to send reinforcements. They managed to gather an army of approximately 500 thousand to stand off against the Andinaq army at the border.

On the 13th day of the 8th month, the Union sent an envoy to Whitelion's camp in the name of discussing a peace treaty between the Union and Auguslo I. Auguslo I was elated by the news and set up a 5-kilometer-long path of peace to express his sincerity during the welcome of the envoy.

However, the king who had his mind completely on the peace talks didn't think that the Union only pretended to send a team of envoys over. Instead, they also secretly included the windstorm swordsaint among the ranks in an attempt to hustle the king and the kingdom's nobles to travel to Morante and sign a humiliating agreement of surrender.

During the negotiation process, the Union suddenly had their forces travel in five different routes to attack Andinaq's army camp. Counting on the fact that Auguslo I and the kingdom's elite were being held up by the windstorm swordsaint, they planned to take advantage of the fact that the army was without any leader to cripple it and remove the threat it posed to the Union.

If things went according to plan, then Andinaq would never pose any threat at all to the Union in the coming century. The kingdom's economy might even fall into the Union's hands. But what nobody expected to happen was that during the most crucial moment, Duke of The Northlands Norton Lorist stood up against the windstorm swordsaint and those two fought till the both of them were heavily wounded. The windstorm swordsaint made a haggard escape with heavy injuries and was said to have needed more than three years to completely recovered. That led to the failure of the Union's plan to kidnap Auguslo I and the nobles.

Having suffered the five-pronged attack from the Union's army, the Andinaq army experienced great casualties in their unprepared state and retreated immediately. However, House Norton's Firmrock remained to secure their camp and managed to use the territory to their advantage and dealt a heavy blow to the Union's forces. The Union split their forces into three to besiege Firmrock's stronghold for a whole month only to return with failure, causing Firmrock's reputation to soar right after.

As Firmrock had managed to hold back a large portion of the Union's forces, Auguslo I had the necessary time to regroup his troops. After a month, Auguslo I returned with more than 600 thousand troops. Being angered by the union, Auguslo I made a solemn oath that he would use the Union's blood to wash away the humiliation he and the kingdom received from them. The Union's forces stood up to the challenge and sent 400 thousand of their own forces to wage battle in Armenia and Malivia. Both sides had their fair share of victories and losses and were in fierce competition.

On the 23rd day of the 10th month, House Norton's Tigersoar and Jaeger launched their assault and appeared on the battlefield all of a sudden. Their path was unabated and they crushed every obstacle in their way. The Union suffered consecutive losses and lost over 100 thousand troops, being helpless before the Norton assault, having no choice but to retreat from Armenia and Malivia back to the Falik Plains.

As the Union's forces were occupied by the Norton forces during their retreat, they neglected Auguslo I, who was watching and waiting for an opportunity. In the end, Auguslo I used mobility of cavalry troops from the Frontier legion of House Fisablen and their reserve legion as well as the Pegasus legion to mount a night attack on the Union's forces during their retreat. The attacked was launched on their vanguard and rearguard as well as their flanks, causing the whole army to be drowned up in slaughter. The Union's forces suffered yet another gross loss of 240 thousand troops.

After that battle, Auguslo I ordered for the thousand captive nobles to all be killed before leading his troops all the way to the Falik Plains, ushering in two years of bloody sieges and battles there. The Union on the other hand had been severely wounded by that exchange and had started to destabilize internally. Though they were considered the largest superpower on Grindia, their army had been beaten back to their original form by the forces of Grindia. The big six guilds, having been greatly wounded, could only barely hold their defense line at the Falik Plains.

In the history of Grindia, as the Union had broken the sacred, unspoken noble tradition of not deploying troops during the negotiation of a peace treaty, the war starting all the way from Auguslo I's gathering of a million-man army at the Union's border to the night cavalry attack on the retreating Union soldiers was known as the War on the Traitorous Union. Some war scholars refer to it as the Betrayal of Peace.

During that war that fundamentally altered the political landscape of the continent, the richest and most popular legends were about Andinaq's Duke of The Northlands, Norton Lorist. Before the age of 40, he had challenged Windstorm Swordsaint Magrut, someone who had already taken the continent by storm before. Before 15 minutes elapsed during the fierce battle, he managed to greatly wound the swordsaint. Even though he had been greatly injured himself, his name still spread all over the continent overnight. That was the birth of a new swordsaint in the past five decades, one that was younger than 40 no less, and that incident was one of the most contented and doubted topics of all.

In the millennia-old records on Grindia concerning swordsaints, the youngest to ever reach that realm was 68. That person was one of the most legendary figures in the past millennium: Master Cloudsaint Cameron who lived three centuries back. However, Duke of The Northlands Norton Lorist actually broke that record, and that was where the point of contention was at. The duke was younger than 40 and it was said that he didn't train in the hereditary battleforce technique of his household, but instead, a mysterious technique of the eastern martial monks that lived during the era of the magical civilization.

Regardless of the fact that the duke didn't train in traditional battleforce but rather a lost, ancient martial monk technique, he had still managed to heavily wound the windstorm swordsaint. Even though the duke himself suffered similar levels of injury, being able to face off against the windstorm swordsaint gave Andinaq more confidence in their continued fight against the Union. The Kingdom of Andinaq now had a swordsaint they could call their own. It was a shame that the windstorm swordsaint had entered seclusion to recover from his sever injuries after returning to Morante and nobody was able to extract a testimony from him concerning the duke.

According to a reveal by the windstorm swordsaint's first disciple, Count Bolyde, the windstorm swordsaint did confirm that the Duke of The Northlands was a swordsaint. His domain was an incredibly weird one too that was filled with bloody gore and killing intent, like a domain of blood. It could be seen that the duke must be a crook with his hands stained with the blood of others. But Count Bolyde later added that the Duke of The Northlands also suffered a strike from the windstorm swordsaint and was injured far worse and would require an even longer time to recover. The windstorm swordsaint said that he would challenge the Duke of The Northlands once more when he recovers to wipe that humiliation off his name once and for all.

After getting heavily injured in the fight against the windstorm swordsaint, Duke of The Northlands Norton Lorist also vanished without a trace and had probably gone to recover from his wounds. During the War on the Traitorous Union, House Norton's performance was stellar beyond comparison. FIrmrock legion defended their army camps steadfastly while Tigersoar cruised forward, busting through one obstacle after another. Jaeger could scatter and gather freely as the wind and managed to find its way through any defense. It could be said that it was because of the three Norton legions that secured the kingdom's edge over the Union.

After that war, it was said that the Union formed a unit with 15 blademasters to infiltrate The Northlands to assassinate the wounded Duke of The Northlands. It was recorded in the Norton chronicles that the Norton forces frequently encountered hostile blademasters during that period. However, it was a point of suspicion that the high officials and household knights as well as the family members of the Duke of The Northlands weren't targeted by the assassins as well. However, that soon proved to be nothing but a rumor. After the Duke of The Northlands lost contact with his household, the internal situation of the household started to destabilize and that culminated into an internal rebellion.

The internal rebellion within the Norton domain caused the three Norton legions to return to The Northlands from the frontlines. Having lost the support of the three Norton legions, the Andinaq forces didn't have any momentum to carve their way forward, making them unable to take over the last three remaining stronghold cities and Morante the Union had on Falik Plains. That caused the war situation there to enter its bloodiest state. The Andinaq kingdom and the Union didn't think that in the following year and a half, both sides would lost more than 30 thousand elite soldiers on the bloodstained plains. That was a war without victor.

Extract from Rise of the Ragebear Dynasty -- Book 1: Fall of the Empire, authored by continental war historian and expert, imperial scholar,  and professor of Dawn Academy, Sir Anderwlin Mismord, published throughout Year 2127 to Year 2131 of the Grindian calendar.

"Where... am I?" Lorist finally awakened and said a full, clear sentence. The house he was in was completely dark and the sound of falling rain could be heard from the outside.

Ever since he fainted from his heavy injuries following his battle with the windstorm swordsaint, Lorist felt as if he dreamed for a really long time. He could only barely remember what the dream was about as well as the bitter and viscous medicines he had to drink, the pain he suffered all over his body, and the vague feeling on having been on a stretcher or a carriage. His body hurt the whole time like he was being baked by an intense heat. From time to time, he would wake up and see the blue sky. He also vaguely recalled hearing the sound of fighting and agonized cries.

"Your Grace, you're finally awake?" said a familiar voice beside him. It sounds like Reidy...

"Is it Reidy? Where is this? Why don't you have a candle lit?" asked he doubtfully.

"Your Grace, we're at Kobo. We can't light any candles for your safety," said Reidy with difficulty after a period of hesitation.

Kobo? Can't light any candles for my safety? Lorist took a few breaths and felt that his chest was still pulsing with pain. But the sword he remembered sticking out of it was no longer there. He soon happened upon the memory of his fight with his swordsaint.

"Tell me what time is it and what kind of situation we're in." As his eyes gradually got accustomed to the darkness, he could more or less make out the linen sacks all around him. He was probably within some food storehouse.

"Your Grace, you've been unconscious for nearly six months and was only sustained by medicinal concoctions. His Majesty had wanted to let you recover at the imperial capital, but the Union sent ten blademasters to the royal palace in an attempt to assassinate you. But you weren't within the palace like they thought. Blademaster Manst, who was recovering there, and another blademaster called Joseph, died from battle there. The imperial capital was thrown into chaos, and Blademaster Shuss and I killed three of the Union blademasters who were tracking you and used that chaos to bring you away from the imperial capital. We then left for Vanades with the guards.

"We had thought that since Knight Terman was stationed at Vanades with his brigade, he could help us protect you. But we soon discovered that the knight brigade had been reassigned to Wild Husbandry by the house. That was when the Union blademasters got on our tail again. To lead them away, Shuss and Jinolio brought the guard regiment with them to The Northlands, while I secretly brought you to Kobo in a food cart. It is the rainy season of the new year right now and we've been staying here for a month and a half."

Reidy's explanation contained quite a lot of huge developments that Lorist had to make a bit of effort to process and make sense of them.

"Did His Majesty send anyone to pursue the windstorm swordsaint after I fainted?" asked Lorist.

"He did, but the Union forces arrived just when they were about to catch him. A few divisions from Whitelion had already crumbled and everyone was busy running for their lives back then. Jinolio and I brought you and the guards to retreat. After that, His Majesty said that you had to be saved no matter what and let and had the injured Blademaster Manst bring us back to the imperial capital so that a herbalist could be found to treat you. We wanted to let you stay in the palace, but the poisonous wench of House Fisablen didn't let you live in 'for the sake of avoiding gossip and rumors'. So, we had to settle you down within a count's mansion near the palace. We didn't think that we'd manage to avoid the assassination attempt that way," said Reidy with relief.

"His Majesty didn't return to the capital?"

"No. The million-man army crumbled this time around and only Firmrock held firm within camp. That managed to buy His Majesty some time to regroup his soldiers. A month later, he led his troops on an assault. He had stayed at the frontlines the whole time without returning to the imperial capital. After that, Sir Potterfang sent Blademaster Shuss to the capital to protect you He brought news that His Majesty had shaved himself in front of the army and made an oath to fight the Union to the bloody end to wash away his humiliation."

Alright. Looks like Auguslo will be busy for a time. Who knows how long this battle will last?

"You just said that Knight Terman was moved from Vanades to Wild Husbandry. Why? What about Jaeger? Weren't they within Wild Husbandry? Did something happen?"

"This... This is because His Majesty is going to lead his troops to attack the Union, so the knight brigade had nothing better to do at Vanades. General Josk was also said to explode with anger when he heard that Your Grace was injured and wouldn't follow his orders. All he cared about was bringing aeger and Sir Loze along with Tigersoar to fight the Union at the frontlines to avenge you. Wild Husbandry was left empty, so the house had no choice to call for Sir Terman and his knights to defend it," replied Reidy with a stammer.

"They're all messing around!" snorted Lorist. However, he could do nothing about it now that he was hiding within a food storehouse. Josk had always been rather close with him, so it was no surprise that he had to act after hearing about what happened. It wasn't something Charade could stop. Fiercetiger Loze on the other hand was arrogant and proud and heeded only Lorist's orders. He wouldn't even bother with Charade at all. If he weren't hiding away in this corner, he'd order those two to return obediently to pay for their mistakes.

"Does anyone else know that I'm here?" asked Lorist.

"Your Grace, only three people know. There are around three thousand local defense brigade soldiers here in Kobo. Apart from me, only the major of the brigade and his attendant know. The major called Selikoff and used to be part of our guard brigade. His attendant is his own cousin who is also in charge of bringing us food. However, when the rainy season passes and the harvesting of winter wheat in Delamock begins, there will be many food carriages traveling here. There will no doubt be more people by then and if anyone realizes that Your Grace is here, we might attract the attention of assassins."

"Let's find another place. There's no way we can return to The Northlands right now as some people will be looking out for us there. Let's disguise ourselves as the food-transporting farmers come the 4th month and head to the Dina barony," said Lorist after some consideration.

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Chapter 480 - On the Run

Delamock's skies were bright and cloudless on the 23rd day of the 4th month, Year 1788.

A strong horse pulled a four-wheeled cart across a narrow stretch of clay-and-lime road. Such 'flatboard' carts were rather commonplace in the province, mostly used to transport food and miscellaneous stuff. Each could move 1500 kilograms and was filled with linen sacks, making it look like small migrating mountains.

This particular cart, however, was mostly empty. It had only two people and a few linen sacks. A young man sat in the coachman's seat holding a long horsewhip, bobbing his head like one dozing off. The horse thus walked at its own pace. From time to time, it even stopped to graze. The other man, clad in typical gray-white farming wear, lay in the cart with a linen sack as a pillow. A straw hat covered his face to block out the sun. He slept soundly.

This wasn't common on the roads. The youth would whip the horse to the roadside when oncomers cursed at him and let them pass. Soon he would be dozing off again as the horse trotted along on its own.

Contrary to appearance, however, Lorist wasn't asleep. He just enjoyed the warm sunlight. Having stayed in the dark, dank storehouse for two months, he missed the sun and fresh air.

How many years has it been since I've had the time to enjoy the sun? In Dawn Academy I would read in the sun on my balcony. Ah… how free those times were.

Lorist wasn't in the best of shape. It took him six months to recover from his wounds. While their movements had been severely slowed by the pressure of their clashing domains, a stab was a stab, it just took longer. He still had to face the full force of his opponent's battleforce, which damaged his dantian. He was just a normal mortal right now, maybe even just a weak mortal. He couldn't do any labor or muster much energy. He was very grateful to have Reidy at times like this. Reidy's Dan Ocean Ki-refining technique was similar to his Aquametal technique, so Reidy could continuously inject internal energy into his body, which, along with being fed medicine every day, had mostly healed him.

The stab had gone straight through his chest. Lorist's palm strike had shattered the old man's sternum. But, as Lorist had to take the stab first, he had reserved a portion of his internal energy to protect his innards. So, while he managed to break Magrut's sternum, he didn't liquify his innards, which was why the old man could escape. Had his internal organs been liquified, even the gods would have struggled to save him.

Though similarly injured, Lorist fared far worse. Magrut could recover in peace and quiet in Morante and had the best medicine and perfect environment while Lorist had to move around in secret to avoid the blademasters after his life. He couldn't even go home or contact his family.

If a kingdom had a patron swordsaint, it would offer them some protection in the form of high-tier fighters. If they lacked that, they would at least protect him with an army. But Auguslo was only concerned with getting revenge, so he dedicated everything he had to fighting the Union, and Andinaq was at a huge disadvantage when it came to their top tier fighters. Since the Union blademasters couldn't fight against the swarm of soldiers, their best use would be going after the next greatest threat, Lorist.

Lorist was worried for his wife, concubines and children, but knew he had to recover first. He could do nothing until he was at the level of a swordsaint again. Nobody would go after his family while his fate was unknown, so he didn't have to be by their side. If his ongoing recovery was discovered, everyone would go after his family immediately. It was not without precedent after all.

Two swordsaints had been wounded in battle two centuries earlier. One was nearly assassinated, but escaped. Having failed, his assassins went after his family. When he had recovered a year later, he killed all 70 thousand people related to the blademasters and nobles that were involved in his family's death. Even the enemy swordsaint didn't dare intervene.

His reasoning was that he would do exactly the same if it were his family. He had warned his king not to do it, but they wouldn't listen. As far as he was concerned, they deserved exactly what they got.

The big-six were aware of this story, and were not willing to make the same mistake, especially not now that it was clear Lorist was a swordsaint. Killing him, someone who could threaten their strongest asset, was natural, but his family was off limits until he was dead. No one, not even Lorist, could really say anything against the Union for going after him, but touching his family was a whole other matter. Even household officials and knights were a risk. They had no interest in watching him rampage through their guilds, if they really went after his family, Magrut would no doubt do exactly the same as the second swordsaint in the old story.

They had nothing to worry about once Lorist was dead, they could wipe out the entire kingdom if they wanted, but as long as there was even a chance that he still breathed, they had to be very careful. Thus, the best way Lorist could keep everyone safe right now, was to stay hidden.

The winter harvests came after the rainy season. This was also the first year his household's harvest tax would be implemented. All his vassals sent their taxes to Kobo, where it was stored for his forces.

He had also set up a trade center for Delamock where all the province's produce could be traded slightly under market price. He had legislated a monopoly for the market so only he could buy produce from the lords, and sell to merchants. Every fruit, vegetable, and grain had to pass through his hands. It let him earn a three-tenths profit on the province's entire agricultural economy and nobody could do anything about it. He could easily drive any merchant that offended him out of business, and could make anyone he disliked starve. There was no way he was going to give that up.

It was in this carting hay-day that the two were heading into his domain. They left Kobo incognito amongst thousands of similar carts, no one knew where they were going.

Reidy had informed Lorist of the current situation immediately after his awakening. Everything about Auguslo's recovery and ongoing campaign, Tigersoar and Jaeger's exploits, Auguslo's miraculous and decisive assault on the Union's camp and  subsequent recovery of Armenia and Malivia, and his ingress into Falik.

He was also informed of Marquis Krilos's fate. Auguslo was so furious he broke all of the man's limbs, destroyed his cultivation and paraded him all across the kingdom covered in feathers before sending him back to the Union, tied to a cow. He didn't paint him in honey since water could wash it off. He had him covered in raw lacquer before the feathers were applied. Even Lorist thought this was going a bit far. The particular mix Auguslo used was known to irritate the skin severely, causing intense itching, rashes, and swelling.

A chill ran down Lorist's spine for the duration of Reidy's narration. Krilos was completely wasted. If Auguslo did not hate the Union to hell and back before, he clearly did now. It was understandable, however. If not for Lorist, Auguslo would not only have become a prisoner, he would have been made the continent's fool. His legacy would have been as history's greatest non-fiction comedy.

Reidy knew nothing else, however. He'd hidden with Lorist in Kobo for more than two months after escaping the imperial capital and splitting up with Shuss. He knew nothing about what was happening to Lorist's forces or in his lands. And he couldn't ask around and risk rousing suspicions either. But Reidy wasn't too concerned since everything would be sorted out once Lorist recovered his strength. Even if the house had been uprooted, they could just rebuild it.

The two saw someone reprimanding a group of cavalrymen because the messenger eagle sent to The Northlands had not returned for a months, nor had any of the messengers. Selikoff increased the area's security so it wouldn't happen again. Luckily the messengers were found unharmed, it appeared only their letters were searched. That this was made public, however, was clearly to let the two know that someone was looking for them in the area. Clearly their information network had been uncovered and was being used against them.

Lorist currently had a full beard, no different from a common farmer. Even those who knew him wouldn't recognize him at a glance. Reidy, who usually had a mustache, was now hairless. He'd grown it after Lorist declared him a rank 1 blademaster equivalent to appear more mature. He looked much younger without it, like a farmer's son unresigned to his life in the fields.

The journey from Kobo to the Dina barony took three days. It would have been much slower if not for the new roads, at least a week. The barony lay in the west of Delamock at the foot of the mountains between it and the sea.

Lorist had spent a lot on the barony. He'd been very worried about scuffled between his stubborn lover and her neighbors, so he'd arranged for it to be in a relatively unpopulated area where she wouldn't feel too cramped. The cart pulled into the barony as the day's last rays of sunshine faded away.

"Don't go to the village. Head straight for the castle."

Lorist knew his way around after having been here twice. The wooden castle was actually a popular joke at noble parties in the province. Arriotoli had prepared it for her younger brother, the future baron. It wouldn't have been a problem to build a one out of stone, but she wanted her brother to build his own as he wanted. He was studying at Nico Academy at the time and couldn't give his input. She didn't mind the jokes, even working on it every year. Not a year went by that something didn't change.

The cart rolled into the castle. Security was rather lax, Lorist hadn't seen a single guard on the walls during their approach. He would have suspected the castle abandoned if not for the servants faffing about in the bailey.

Three people emerged from a hall bordering the bailey as Lorist got off the cart. The two in front were an elegant middle-aged couple, Arriotoli walked behind.

Reidy tensed up immediately. The couple carried themselves like blademasters. He secretly grabbed hold of the hilt of his sword, hidden in the closest linen sack. Arratoli recognized the two by the cart immediately.

Chapter 481 - Hunter's Cabin

'What should we do?' seemed to be what Reidy was trying to tell Lorist with his gaze.

Lorist made a pained smile and shook his head. He was completely powerless in his current state. Counting on Reidy alone to take on two blademasters was completely unrealistic. No matter which one of the couple Reidy manages to hold back, the other would definitely give Lorist a strike and that would be the end of him. All he could do now was pray that Arriotoli didn't call Lorist out there and then. No matter how big her boobs were, surely she did have some brains. After all, she was already a mother.

Lorist hurriedly pulled on Reidy's sleeve. He got down from the carriage with Reidy and lowered his head pensively, acting like a servant found out by his master for committing a mistake. He hoped that Arriotoli would be made aware of the situation after seeing them like that instead of leaping straight into Lorist's embrace with tears of joy flowing out of her eyes.

He was already regretting it deeply. I must be half conscious when I decided I would come to the Dina barony. It's quite a known fact that two of my concubines, Fennazali and Arriotoli, are members of House Dina, so it's obvious that the blademasters would search this area. I really jumped into this trap on my own accord this time.

That middle-aged couple gave Lorist a sweeping glance and thought him to be but a mere lowly farmer. Reidy on the other hand caught their attention. It was truly rather weird for one-star silver rank to be a farmer. Usually, those who awakened their battleforce in a dominion would be recruited by the dominion lord to be their subordinate or their soldier. Most wouldn't be allowed to continue working as farmers.

The middle-aged couple then turned to Arriotoli. Fortunately, she had already placed her hands down after covering her mouth from shock. She then marched over angrily and rebuked Reidy fiercely, "Krimando, why have you come back so late?! All I had you do was to accompany Kanon here to fetch some things outside! Don't give me the excuse that the axle of your carriage is broken. This carriage has already been spoiled by you three times this month already and we just got it fixed yesterday! If you keep this up, I won't let you serve as a House Dina knight! I also won't let our Sunirulu marry you, got it?!"

Huh? Reidy made a blank look. What the hell is going on? Did Arriotoli mistake me for someone else? I'm not Krimando, and since when was I going to be a knight of House Dina? What's the deal with letting Sunirulu marry me anyway? I know she's your maidservant and that she's pretty and all, but when I came with His Grace back then, you were the one who asked me to marry her! I already rejected that!

Lorist breathed out a sigh in relief and added ten thousand points to Arriotoli in his heart. He didn't think that the lass would turn so much smarter after becoming a full-fledged knight and mother. Her performance was truly stellar. He tugged on Reidy and gestured for him to not argue with Arriotoli before he withdrew his body and pretended to be afraid of Arriotoli's scolding. Reidy on the other hand had opened his mouth, only to say nothing before lowering his head again, looking unwilling and stubborn.

"What? You aren't pleased?!" Arriotoli poked Reidy on the forehead with her finger. "You're not able to finish such a simple task, and yet you dare to follow Uncle Masa to the frontlines?! Do you think I'll knight you after you achieve something there?! Dream on! If you laze on like that without doing anything useful, I'll exile you from the Dina barony!

"And you, Kanon!" Arriotoli snapped as she turned her attention to Lorist, "Even though I ordered you to watch this kid and make sure he works properly, you accompanied him on his fun journey instead! You two are not getting dinner tonight. Now you better get back in there and clean the tables. You'll be going to the mountains to pick herbs tomorrow too. These two revered herbalists are here to purchase some of our herbs and if you really do find some valuable ones, you'll get a tip for some drinks."

Herbalists? Lorist understood the situation after some thought. Those two blademasters were merely posing as herbalists on their way to purchase ingredients. Since Arriotoli was only a two-star silver-ranked knight, she didn't discover the couple's true identities. But now seeing Lorist return in that disguise, she got a feeling that both of them didn't want their identities revealed.

Even though the Dina barony was relatively near the mountains, they only produced some herbs of low value. The real place to purchase herbs was the eastern part of The Northlands. The Magical Dragon Mountains were famous for their herbs across the continent, and the herbs produced by Delamock were often sent to the eastern part of The Northlands to make up for the demand of the market there. Who would go all their way to the Dina barony just for those normal herbs? It was obvious that something was off.

"Apologies, you two, for having to let you see this joke of a scene. It's all the fault of those two lazy ones." Arriotoli's face bloomed once more after she finished reprimanding Lorist and Reidy, smiling at the middle-aged couple brightly. Women were truly fickle after all.

"No worries. It's expected for a dominion lord to deal with things such as these. We have to apologize for disturbing your busy schedule," the man said with a smile, before he looked at Reidy and Lorist as the two of them entered the hall and added, "That young man's not bad. He's already a one-star silver rank. I think he can become a gold-ranked knight of your house after good training."

"Him?" Arriotoli snorted, "Master Herbalist, don't joke around with me. I'll be thankful if they don't anger me to death. You might not know this, but that fella's father used to be my father's subordinate. He fell on the battlefield together with my father. At first, I was considering giving him proper training, but that kid actually followed a traveling mercenary and said that he would learn the skills necessary to avenge his father! And then he left for almost eight years.

"After our house got the protection of the Duke of The Northlands and had our dominion moved over here, that fella somehow managed to make his way back as a one-star silver rank and said that he wanted to become our household knight and marry the girl that used to be his neighbor, my own maidservant Sunirulu! I tested his swordsmanship and found that he had learned a bunch of muddled crap from the mercenaries instead of the proper technique!

"So, I decided to have him forget the bad habits he learned from the mercenaries first before he would be properly trained in the techniques of a knight. Little did I think that he wouldn't focus on his training and instead spend his time traveling all over the place to slack off. He even secretly tried to make his way to the frontlines with our house's Knight Massa to rake in some achievements for himself to achieve his goal!"

Arriotoli had turned into a gossipy old maid and yammered on with the couple without end. The couple's faces contorted as time went on. How could they be bothered with the backstory of some one-star silver-ranked mercenary? They were just casually asking around, yet Arriotoli actually started chattering nonstop. After she finally finished, the couple politely declined her offers for further hospitality and prepared to make their way off.

But before they left, the middle-aged man made a last-ditch effort. "Oh honorable knight, Lady Dina, do you truly not want to buy a cheap high-rank medicine from us? It's a rare chance and we happened to synthesize a few extra bottles back then. Since you treated us so warmly, we want to sell them to you for a low price. Just buy one for emergency's sake. We can assure you that this medicine really works well. As long as they can still breathe, we're sure it will help bring them back to full health. It'll even accelerate the speed of their recovery."

Arriotoli's long eyelashes fluttered as she blinked, seemingly with understanding. "But... but those medicines truly are too expensive! It's ten gold coins for one, and the expiry date is far too soon with less than half a year remaining. I really don't see a use for it even if I buy it! After half a year, ten gold coins would just go poof! It's not like our house needs medicine of that high rank anyway. We can just buy the most common medicinal concoction for a few large silvers for commoners who get injured."

The middle-aged woman smiled and said, "Alright, Jack, stop promoting those high-rank medicines. Lady Dina already said that she doesn't need any, so it'll just be a waste for her to buy some. It's about time we left. Thank you so much for your hospitality. We'll return a few days later to check on the herbs you gathered."

Arriotoli bowed and said, "Master Herbalists, won't you reconsider lodging by us for the night? Even though it's rather run-down here, we'll try our best to accommodate you to your satisfaction."

"There's no need. The thought is enough. We've already booked our own room at the tavern downtown. Should you require our service, please don't hesitate to seek us out at the town of Daphne in Viscount Sibok's dominion You can also leave a message for us at the inn's counter. We'll definitely try our best to come as quickly as we can," said the middle-aged man politely.

"Alright, thank you for your kind intentions. I won't hold back if I really need your service. You are always welcome to visit the barony," said Arriotoli as she made a knight's salute.

The middle-aged herbalist couple came and left on horses. It was until their silhouettes vanished on the distant highways that Arriotoli returned to the hall of her wooden castle.

Lorist and Reidy were wolfing down food in the hall at a table served with delicacies. Arriotoli's maidservant, the beautiful Sunirulu, was pouting right beside them as Reidy scared her as he wolfed his food down and mocked her for not being able to marry someone because she was ugly.

"If nobody marries her, then you'll be his husband," Arriotoli said with dissatisfaction as she entered, "Locke, what's going on? What's with the getup?"

Lorist put the blackwheat bread back into his plate and gave Arriotoli a thumbs up. "You really reacted quickly today and put on a great performance. I almost died in the hands of that couple."

"Huh? That middle-aged couple?" Arriotoli said with surprise, "They were merely herbalists here to purchase some herbs. Why would they kill you? Also, I was there, wasn't I?"

Lorist rolled his eyes. "Dumb lass, those two were blademasters. They came here to check whether I was hiding out and recuperating here. I suspect they were sent by the Union to hunt me down and kill me. Otherwise, they wouldn't come all the way here to buy some common herbs."

"It's no wonder they kept on asking me whether I needed to buy some high-rank medicinal concoction at such a cheap price. I knew I should've got some," said Arriotoli in stark wonder.

"If you did, they would've known that I was there right away. I am thankful that you didn't do anything as stupid as buying those high-rank medicinal concoctions. You should know that each of those cost at least 30 gold Fordes and unless a dominion lord is injured, nobody would spend that kind of money to heal someone else. They offered you that at that low price to see if I was here with you," replied Lorist.

Arriotoli began to tear up immediately. "Locke, haven't you recovered from your injuries yet?"

Lorist gave a pained smile. "It won't be that easy. While I'm more or less fine on the outside, my internals are still a mess. I'm no different from a cripple now. I can't even lift a sword. I thought that I could stay here for a year and a half to recover at first but it seems that it isn't really safe here either. It's best if I left lest I drag you and your child down with me. By the way, where's Terryke?"

Terryke was the son of Lorist and Arriotoli. He was three that year and pudgy and likable. However, Arriotoli had him bear the Dina name and he didn't count as a Norton family member. So, he was just an illegitimate child.

"Terryke played around like crazy outside the whole day and went to sleep right after dinner. I had Sunirulu bathe him and let him sleep early," replied Arriotoli.

"And there I thought I could see that little pudgeball. To think that he's already slept," Lorist complained, "Arri, have your garrison forces been deployed at the frontlines as well? Didn't I ask you not to send them?"

"Well, our house wasn't going to participate at first, since His Majesty was being pushed back quite badly after all. But when your house's three legions swept Armenia and Malivia, His Majesty managed to defeat the Union and reclaim those two provinces from them. Right now, they're already attacking the Falik Plains, so I head Uncle Massa bring the garrison to haul some benefits back from the battlefield. Since they're with your house's forces, I doubt they'd be in any trouble. The Falik Plains are rich with wealth and it'd be a shame if we didn't snag a part for ourselves," reasoned Arriotoli.

Lorist, resigned by that greedy woman, thought that the Dina house forces would at most be tasked with simple things like guarding the captives and campsites as well as delivering supplies. They probably wouldn't be made to charge in the vanguard or head a siege, so they'd be more or less safe. It's no wonder Arriotoli was so eager to send them to the battlefield, seeing that they would return with some spoils as well.

"Your Grace, are we leaving tonight?" Reidy had already finished biting the roast goat meat off the thigh bone and tossed it aside, before grabbing a linen cloth to wipe his mouth and hands from Sunirulu, earning himself an angry glare.

Just as Lorist was going to say something, Arriotoli butted in first. "You can't leave. It's dangerous to do so."

Lorist shook his head. "No those blademasters already have their eye on this place. Fortunately, those two that came today didn't recognize us. But if some others do, then it's over for us."

Arriotoli laughed and said, "Locke, only I can recognize you with your full-bearded look. I'm sure the others will only think you a mere farmer. As for Reidy, he already shaved his little mustache off. If it weren't for Sunirulu, who's pining over him all day and night, nobody would've been able to recognize him. How about this? There's a hunter's cabin at the western side of the valley. The two who lived there followed Uncle Massa to the frontlines already. I'm sure nobody would suspect you if you stayed there.

"Also, those two were named Krimando and Kanon, the names I called you in front of the two herbalists. They will come over again in a couple of days and I'm sure they won't find anything out, so you can just rest well here. Also, Locke, are you sure you don't need that high-rank concoction?"

Lorist refused, "No need. You know that I'm a herbalist myself, a rank 2 one at that. As long as I'm able to get some ingredients, there's no need to buy any myself. I'll head to the cabin you mentioned with Reidy tomorrow and stay there if it's suitable. However, I hope that only the two of you know of our presence here. Don't tell your sister about it when you write to her, and don't contact The Northlands, understood?"

Chapter 482 - Recuperation

This place is pretty great: the air's fresh, and the view's beautiful and invigorating too. Lorist thought.

They were in a valley near the Garilos mountains in Arriotoli's barony. She had built a hunter's cabin there and usually left two people to guard it. The nearby mangrove forest was a valuable source of timber. Their patterns were especially sought after by the rich. Arriotoli had been surprised to discover such a huge mangrove forest nearby and instantly laid claim to it.

The forest came with two other key products, one being raspberries. Each was slightly smaller than a blueberry, but thin-skinned and juicy. They sold for a premium more often than not. Raspberries grew on shrubs in mangrove forests and matured in the 8th or 9th month. Since raspberries couldn't be kept for long, they were dried or made into fruit wine. Raspberry wine was expensive because people believed they had medicinal and aphrodisiac qualities, both of which made it very popular with the nobility. The second product was red mushrooms. They sported a bright cap and were delicious. They bloomed shortly after the rainy season for a few nights, which was the only time in the year they could be harvested. They were one of the continent's favorite cheap delicacies. They were especially popular in soups, but worked in almost any dish. The forest was a small treasure chest, a godsent for House Dina. Just the two harvestables alone made the household 30 gold a year.

The three-floored hunter's cabin stood on the forest's edge in the valley. The bottom most floor was stone, while the other two were wood. There was even a beacon above the third floor. It looked like a small fort.

"Wolves come down from the mountain in search of food in the winter," Arriotoli explained, "so the cabin has to be fortified enough to keep them out and the guards inside safe. The beacon is to call for help in case a large group of bandits or poachers show up, or the watchmen are in trouble for some other reason."

The ground floor had four small rooms and one large communal area with the stairs. The first of the rooms was the stable, the second the pantry, the third a small vault, and a workshop. The workshop had a small kiln and could make and maintain basic tools. The second floor had three rooms that fanned out from the stairwell which also functioned as the dining room, two were bedrooms and the third a kitchen. The dining room had a small table and four chair. A stag head hung on the wall above the table.

The ground floor might as well have been underground, for it was pitch black inside without windows and had to be lit with torches. The first floor, however, had windows, small as they were. Glasswork being as primitive and expensive as it was in this time, the windows were essentially just rectangular holes in the wall. The two bedroom-walls had two hinges boards that could be closed or opened, whilst the kitchen's window had a thin skin cover. The cold dominated most of the year here, even summer was cool, so the windows were closed most of the time, and the inside was still lit with braziers. Everything stunk of soot and smoke.

The bedroom to the left of the stairs was slightly smaller, the walls wrapping around the stairs that ascended to the third floor. It was the tallest of the three floors, and had the best lighting. It had two slit windows, and a murder hole in each of the outer walls, which let light reflected off the ground or snow into the room as well without letting the wind and cold air in too much. A trap-door-like contraption in the ceiling led to the beacon on the roof.

A bamboo pipe brought water over from the nearby stream. It ran by the house about 16 meters away. The steep ledges behind the house, down which the stream flowed, let the water run into the house on the first floor. It ran through a series of pipes, each with a tap in to use the water, down the house and into a pond in the yard, which overflowed back into the stream. Some of the pond's water ran into a trough in the stable.

"Not bad. I should be able to survive here," commented Lorist. He could see the fields and the castle at the foot of the mountain from the platform on the third floor. The village of Howak stood in the distance at the entrance of the valley.

"It's too run-down, Your Grace. It's severely lacking. Should we go get some cutlery, candles, and clothes?" asked Reidy.

"No. Have you seen watchers use silver and gold cutlery and candles? We're pretending to be watchers, best play the part. We can make our own utensils. Go fell a tree for some bowls and forks later. We'll use torches. As for clothes, just head further up the mountains and get deer or wolf pelts or something. Also, didn't Arriotoli mention the two phony herbalists will be here again in another a couple of days? We should scavenge a few herbs."

"As you wish, Milord."

Lorist was surprised that the couple came all the way to the cabin when they returned. Fortunately, he and Reidy had scavenged a lot of herbs. They weren't cleaned or dried yet though. There were also a lot of holey wolf pelts in the yard.

"Not bad. I'll take everything," said the male, called Jack, without bothering to give them a detailed check. He even took the chance to inspect the cabin. The woman kept Lorist in the yard and asked a lot about the pelts.

"We caught them with a few traps. They were impaled on stakes buried in hidden pits. Unfortunately it means they aren't worth anything on the market, but that's fine since we only wanted them for personal use." Lorist acted like a sneaky, money-grubbing farmer. In reality, Reidy had ruined them. If he hadn't they would obviously have been bought by Arriotoli and sold for money. Mountain watchers would obviously not want that.

"What a shame. Where's your partner?"

"There. He just went to patrol the forest. I have to stay back to feed the horses and make lunch," Lorist offered as he pointed.

The woman turned around and saw Reidy coming over from the forest, a bow on his back and three turkeys and two hares in his hands.

Arriotoli exploded immediately.

"Krimando! You're weren't patrolling at all! Hah! Caught you red-handed! You won't get any money this month! You know House Dina owns everything in the forest. I'll be taking those kills as well!"

Reidy walked over crestfallenly, "But I didn't hunt them in the forest! I was hunting up the mountain! That's free game!"

"I pay you to guard the forest, not to hunt in the mountains! No excuses. No money for you! And how can you prove you didn't hunt them in the forest? Maybe they live there and happened to go out to the mountains!"

How... how would I prove that?! Having no choice, Reidy could only hand his game to Arriotoli, who picked them out meticulously and tossed a wild hare on the ground and complained, "Too thin. You can use it for soup."

The herbalist watched on from the side.

So this is how a real noble acts! Jack left the cabin and shook his head slightly.

Since they discovered nothing, the two prepared to head back. First, however, they had to pay for the herbs. Arriotoli was quite adept at bargaining, so it didn't take long to close the deal. She made 1 gold, 15 silvers in the trade. She pocketed the coins and tossed Lorist and Reidy two small silvers.

"Not bad. Here's your reward. Should be enough to buy five wheat bears in town."

Lorist smile painedly and rubbed the small silver. He had finally experienced how it felt to be a citizen taken advantage of by a noble. In fact, Arriotoli was being rather generous with two small silvers. The nobles saw everything in the dominion as their property. All of it belonged to them, so why would they pay anyone anything for getting it for them, whether that be by hunting, farming, or foraging? The three visitors left by horse. Lorist and Reidy were left with the herbs, which they had to take to town on their own. It would be shipped to Daphne by someone else from there.

"Why not just have those two bring it all the way themselves?" asked the woman.

"Not happening. If I let them leave, they'll vanish for who-know-how-long. I won't give them the time to waste their money, or an excuse to loiter."

The couple was speechless.

You call two small silvers money?!

They had, at first, wanted to bribe the two so they'd spy for them, but, since Arriotoli wasn't giving them the chance, they let the thought go. Seeing that the two spent most of their time in the mountain, they probably didn't really know or see much anyway.

Reidy sighed when the three vanished.

"I'm really glad she's Lady Dina and not Lady Norton."

"Didn't you see how good her acting was? She duped the couple completely. They don't suspect a thing. I'll start healing tomorrow. You remember the herb I asked you to get, right? Go find it for me. Also, make a bathtub.

It was time for Lorist to start his internal healing. He would use Reidy's Dan Ocean Ki-refining technique instead of his Aquametal technique, the former was calmer and more suited to such endeavors. Magrut's battleforce had completely ruined his dantian, it could only be healed by slowly rebuilding it over time. The two stayed in the mountains for two seasons.

Summer came and left, as did autumn. Arriotoli would come by with Sunirulu and Terryke from time to time. Sunirulu and Reidy would go scavenging in the mountain and the forest while the three nobles played around. Terryke, the chubby little rascal, kept tugging on Lorist's beard. Lorist had a new toy ready every time the kid came for a visit and the two would play together. They got along quite well.

Lorist was back up to the third stage of the Dan Ocean Ki-refining technique when the third 10th month rolled by. He was now once again equal to a gold-ranker and cold just barely hold his ground against a single rank 1 blademaster. He would be back to swordsaint in six more months. He was sorting some herbs currently, preparing them for processing, when Arriotoli came rushing up the mountain on horseback.

"Locke, News from The Northlands! Something's happened!"

Chapter 483 - Internal Strife (1)

Arriotoli brought was confusing news. The news didn't come from The Northlands, it was brought by Massa. He said a rebellion had broken out within Lorist's domain which drew the three legions back home. Massa and the men had also returned.

However, because of their loot and the distance they had to travel, they would only be home in the middle of the following year. Preparations were already made for the unit to stay over in the imperial capital for the winter and the following rainy season. But they would bring with them a considerable haul. They'd also only suffered a few casualties for it. In total, they were bringing home three thousand gold Fordes.

Lorist had no comment, nor was he interested in their wealth. He was only concerned with the rebellion. Unfortunately, he only had what little Massa had mentioned in his letter.

"Arri, remind me again, the servant you sent to check on the situation was turned back, right? So the first local defense legion cut off all contact with the continent?" asked he.

"Yes," Arriotoli nodded, "Metropoulos' floating bridge has been disassembled. Only two ferries connect the two banks but they've been prevented from crossing. Their explanation is that they've cut off The Northlands for you to recover, until you do, no one will be allowed to cross."

Did something really happen?

Lorist stroked his beard, half an inch long by now. His reflection reminded him of the ancient general Zhang Fei. Arriatoli missed her brother. She'd not received word from either her sister or her aunt this month. She'd tried to send several, but none were allowed to cross the river. She made sure to quell any suspicions of Lorist being with her, she kept asking if anyone knew where he was.

She'd only come to Lorist once her letter were returned. He'd not thought it strange at the time. He'd given Belnick command of the forces when he left, and trusted he was acting in the best interests of the house. The lockdown made sense as well, since the Union's hunting parties would naturally gravitate to The Northlands; it was the natural place for Lorist to flee too to recover, after all. The news Arriatoli brought, however, put everything in a new light. Something massive was happening.

What did Massa mean when he said His Majesty didn't like it that the three legions were heading home? Don't tell me he started this? Impossible, he's stupid, but no fool. I'm a swordsaint, going against me is suicide and he knows it.

No matter how much he thought about it, Lorist couldn't understand what was going on. Belnick would never betray him, and he trusted no one more than Charade. Ovidis used to be a bandit, but he was one of Lorist's most loyal subordinates. And Furybear's headquarters was there, surely they would have uncovered any untoward goings-on long before anything could have gotten this bad.

Well, fretting over it from a distance would solve nothing. Reidy had to return and find out what was happening. Lorist had recovered enough that he didn't need Reidy for the rest of his recovery, so the kid could go and find out what was going on. He was also quite clearly bothered by this; refused to marry Sunirulu despite the two getting along so well.

Reidy departed the morning after he received his mission. His little wannebe lover cried her eyes out as she watched him leave, but he didn't stop even once. He would head to Silowas and take a ship home from there. It would take him at least three months to reach harbor. Just two months later, though, he burst through the door to the cabin amidst a blizzard with Tarkel.

Tarkel carefully explained what had transpired. When news of Lorist's injury reached home, everyone grieve for him, but excited at the same time. Their lord was a swordsaint, so of course they were happy. If only he hadn't gone and gotten himself injured. Charade deployed to Wild Husbandry to fill in the gap Josk and Loze left when they marched off. Their departure left quite the mess.

They disappeared completely, leaving 500 thousand migrants untended, all of whom now had to be watched over by just two legions. Poor Freiyar and Els could barely sleep, they just didn't have the manpower to keep everything under control. Charade sent them one of the second garrison legion's divisions. Only one was now left defending Ragebear. Charade had Belnick lock down the river to make it easier to defend with their understaffed forces.

After the assassination attempt in the capital and Lorist's escape, all contact was lost with him and Reidy. Shuss and Jinolio successfully led their pursuers away, but they caused trouble in Ragebear when they realised Lorist wasn't there. Xanthi was present, luckily, and, together with Shuss and Engelich, they drove the blademasters off. They couldn't however, keep word of Lorist's disappearance from spreading, however.

Hansk invited Belnick to a banquet under the guise of finding out where Lorist was. During the banquet, held at the Bastide, Hansk suggested they make Lysecott the acting Lord until they knew where Lorist was. Belnick refused, but was quickly captured. It turned out Hansk had been prepared for his refusal; he'd employed two blademasters to help with his rebellion. He rallied his subordinates and co-conspirators to the bastide and declared Lysecott the house's head before marching on Ragebear.

"Wait, I thought I removed everyone with such inclinations from our forces. How did Hansk rallie forces to his side?"

"You didn't clean out the constabulary, Your Grace," said Tarkel.

Of course! The constabulary was made up of retired soldiers. The old coots naturally had loyalties to the old guard! Many of the constabulary's high-command came directly from the bastide's old guard! They were undyingly loyal to the house, but Lorist was only one member of the house, their loyalty wasn't necessarily to him directly. They felt marginalized in the greater house Lorist had established, so they would of course gravitate to having an heir from the bastide itself. Lysecott was the perfect candidate!

Lorist's face turned violet.

"DId Charade not take care of this?"

"They were the first ones outside the bastide to be captured. This whole thing was very carefully planned."

Hansk marched on Ragebear once he had control of the local defense legion. Ovidis held his ground however, and fortified the city with the division he had at hand. Charade and Spiel tried to convince Hansk to step down. They warned that when Lorist returned to find the dominion in this state, Hansk and everyone involved in this rebellion would be put to the sword. But he would not listen. If Kedan hadn't placated Hansk and agreed to make Lysecott the next duke, he might have hanged the two on the spot.

Hansk considered Charade a crook. He saw him as the source of all the current house's malaise.

"What the fuck is Hansk thinking?!" Lorist yelled, "Hansk can win as many fights as he wants, he can take as much of the dominion as he wants, it will all turn to dust when I return! All he's doing is making his fate worse and worse when I return!"

"He's asked the king to officially declare Lysecott regent. He promised the three legions would return to the frontlines if the king did this. He plans to let Lysecott stand by the king's side. If the king backs him as your heir, there will be little you can do to change it, he will be all but guaranteed to inherit your title and lands one day. If possible, he even wants the king to split your demesne in two. You'll have the lands you conquered, but Lysecott will have rule over the ancestral homeland of the house."

Chapter 484 - Internal Strife (2)

"In his fucking dreams!" raged Lorist.

Hansk's plan was insane. He wanted to use a royal decree to suppress him and raise Lysecott as successor, maybe even force a split? He could go screw a magic goat! Did he really think he could create a Norton dominion within a Norton dominion? Did he know Lorist so badly that he thought it would help him avoid punishment?

Then again, he was an old man, he'd never actually left The Northlands in his entire life, so he was way too ignorant of how things worked. Charade, Camorra, or Hector, who were familiar with how the house worked, would never dare rebel. Certainly not for something so futile as getting Lysecott to be heir de jure. Did he really think Lorist, now a swordsaint would care about some lousy royal decree?

Gleis would have known better as well. Had he still been alive, and obviously thus the head of this faction, he would not have let this happen.  But he was dead and had left his position within the faction to Hansk, the idiot. He'd also left behind Hansk, Spiel, and Kedan as the house's administrative talents, his dying wish had been that they help Lorist make the house prosper. The house now was already far beyond what the old man had dreamt. It stood at the zenith of vassal houses, in terms of reputation, size, might, and rank. It could only climb higher by switching to the mountain of independent forces.

Each of the three talents had their own specialty. Spiel was great at saving money, even stingy, Kedan was slick, and quick to adapt, and Hansk was great at managing the normal day-to-day goings-on. Had he stayed in the house's old lands, he might have been known as a great servant, he might even have been mentioned alongside Gleis, by future generations.

But, the house broke out of its three-century mould when Lorist took over. It underwent historical, if not legendary, growth. No house of similar size had ever risen from bottom-of-the-barrel to cream-of-the-crop in such a short time before. It usually took several generations, two at least, working their entire lives to see this come to pass, but Lorist and House Norton did it in just ten years. Hansk, having lived in the middle of nowhere his entire life, was very conservative, shortsightedly so. Lorist, on the other hand, had spent half his life at the time of his return in the continent's capital. When given the choice between such a shortsighted man and his long-time friend and fellow progressive, he naturally trusted Charade more, and thus gave the position of head administrator to him.

He didn't neglect Hansk on purpose, the man just wasn't capable of performing satisfactorily in the positions Lorist had given him. Rather than learn from his mistakes, and ask for advice so he could become better, he resented the newcomers and formed his own faction to try to force things back to how they used to be, where he could do well. He'd also grown bold over the year and crossed Lorist numerous times, the worst of which saw him all but expelled from Lorist's inner circle and exiled to the bastide.

To think that would not be enough punishment for him, that he would come back with even greater schemes for trouble, going as far as to plunge the house proper into chaos just so he could get some power for his corner of it, was unbelievable. Lorist was reminded of the old saying, 'the enemies at the door will never kill you, it is the ones sitting at your table that will deal the killing blow.'

"Did the king agree?" Lorist asked.

"He did. I arrived too late. Hansk had already announced Lysecott's appointment to regent. Charade smuggled a letter to the king explaining everything, it reached the front-lines long after everything was done. The king only realised his mistake after reading the letter. The three legions returned after they read it as well."

So that's what Tarkel meant when he said the king was regretful. He'd not acted as the mastermind in this rebellion, but was instead a victim as well. He had thought he was doing Lorist a favour, instead he was throwing him under the bus. He thought the house was asking for his support in making Lysecott regent, and, by extent, heir de jure, because Lorist didn't want to play the bad guy and make his bastard son heir when he had a legitimate son that had a stronger claim to the position.

The king must have thought that he might as well do this favour for Lorist since he could and win some points with him. There would be no problem for Lysecott to become the heir de jure with the king's endorsement, so he didn't hesitate to write the decree.

"Hansk declared Ovidis the rebel the moment he received the decree and prepared to assault the city. He ordered Glacia to take command of the assaulting forces, but she refused. Instead, she went to Lady Sylvia, and the two negotiated a short ceasefire.

"With Kedan and Glacia, Lady Sylvia your concubines and children escaped the city and are now in Cherry Blossom Ridge. Howard and Ovidis left the city as well and, along with the forces they have with them and the three blademasters, are all now at the palace as well.

The only good news out of this whole debacle was that no one important had died yet and no major battles had been fought. This did not have to turn into a full blown civil war.

"Where are the three legions now?"

"They're still in Frederika. They've run into a little trouble."

"Oh? What kind of trouble?"

"Firmrock and Tigersoar occupied Bluwek and Ritt in the plains. The king had Whitelion take Krido and Jaeger raided the countryside in Gudlink and Mauvlin--"

"Wait, where is is that? I haven't heard of those places before."

"They're in the former Teribo kingdom. They split the kingdom into five provinces, those two border the plains."

"I see. Continue."

Lorist stroked his beard, somewhat embarrassed. He remembered now Tarkel had told him this in a report long ago but he was too focused on his own lands to listen properly.

"The Union is extremely rich, even its minor nobles are quite wealthy. We've inned quite the haul. We need at least a thousand carriages to transport everything, and then there's the 500 thousand migrants we caught as well."

Tarkel's face reddened somewhat as he spoke. If this was told to any outsider, they would think the house were nothing but land pirates. All they did was raid and plunder. Even Lorist had to admit that was pretty much what his armies were at this point; a bunch of well-trained nobility-sanctioned privateers. He would never admit it to anyone else, of course.

"That's all fine and good, but what's this trouble they ran into?"

"They're short on food, Milord. There are too many people for their current supplies. They can't start the journey back without a large resupply, and, given how things are looking in The Northlands, that won't be happening anytime soon."

"I know what you're thinking, Milord," Tarkel quickly added, "We did prepare enough for our forces in Winston, but then you sent back the immigrants from Anderwoff, Bodolger, and Kanbona. Three hundred thousand have been settled in The Northlands and can feed themselves, but 500 thousand are still waiting in Winston and are being fed by that stockpile. The only place that can spare the resources needed to resupply the legion and the refugees still in the south is The Northlands, but that's now under rebel control, so..."

Fuck you, Hansk!! Lorist slammed the table, disintegrating it.

"What are Potterfang, Loze, and Josk doing about it?"

"Potterfang will stay at Frederika to watch over the immigrants while Josk and Loze return to the plains. They hope to plunder enough supplies to be able to return by winter. They'll skip back on the snow."

"And what will they do when they're back in Winston? It's not like the city will have supplies waiting for them. Without proper preparations they'll only make things worse. We can't just suck in a million people like it's nothing," Lorist critiqued.

"I think they're planning to attack the rebels."

"Attack The Northlands? Do they think it's easy? There's a reason we chose to haul up there for so long before breaking out! All Hansk needs to do is destroy the bridges and all the forces in the world will do us no good! He'll just declare them rebels the moment they arrive.

"How is the situation on the information front?"

"When Supervisor Hansk gained control of the first local guard legion, he sent his men to take over the eagle hub at Firmrock Castle and forbade any contact with the outside world. We can't send letters in or get anything out. The Northlands is completely cut off from the rest of the world. Our only chance is by sea through Northsea. But Hansk sealed off that route as well. The ships are stopped at Bullhorn Bay and forced to anchor. He ordered the Northsea Fleet to stand by Lysecott's side, but Admiral Senbaud moved it to Silowas instead."

Lorist would have moved the eagle hub to Ragebear when he moved, but he couldn't do that without retraining them all, so it had been left there. It turned out to have been a fatal mistake. He had established a second hub in the capital, but it was still in the process of growing and was nowhere near ready to take over from the old hub. Hansk made brilliant use of this weakness and cut off all hope of calling for help and letting the world know what was really happening before anything could be done.

"--Apart from the messenger eagles, though, the rest of our network is intact, outside of the Northlands, of course. Without the eagles, however, we can't get the information within anything approaching a reasonable time," Tarkel continued.

"Silowas and Northsea?"

"Not good. I escaped The Northlands through a secret cave Furybear uses for covert travel. I headed for House Kenmays and switched to a larger ship from there and headed for Silowas. When I arrived I saw the island and Northsea were facing off. Hansk had sent word ahead of the fleet in case they didn't obey him. He told Pajik that the fleet was the one rebelling and ordered him to capture or eliminate the fleet. Pajik has no clue what's happening, so he believed you were the one that sent the order. When I told him what was going on, and to ignore all orders accept those coming directly from you, he stood down and the fleet was allowed to dock.

"I went to the plains from there to deliver news to the generals. The three nearly collapsed when they heard what was happening and began mobilizing immediately. The king tried to stop them, but Loze nearly jump on him and beat him, so he shut up and let them leave. I was heading back to The Northlands when I ran into Reidy on Silowas and he brought me here."

Lorist paced around the room, stroking his beard furiously. Hansk's rebellion was shaking the house to its core. Even if everything ended immediately and went back to how it was before, his plans were still set back by years. First things were first, though. The most immediate issue was the immigrants still waiting to go to Winston. In his dominion's current state, they would be nothing but a burden and a source of unneeded trouble. Luckily, Camorra wasn't in The Northlands when the rebellion broke out, but in Windbury, so he would deal with things in the short term.

"The rebellion isn't our biggest problem right now, I'll deal with it myself when I've completely recovered. Right now we need to settle the unrest in the rest of my lands. The immigrants should already be on their way to Winston, we need to deal with that first.

"I'll have orders ready for you shortly. Take them to Camorra. Hand it to him directly, the letter will only leave your hands to enter his, no one else's. First have him clean out our forces, anyone that rouses even the smallest amount of suspicion is to be executed. As for our legions, have Tigersoar and Jaeger borrow food from nearby friendly nobles. They have my permission to promise on my personal honour that the nobles will be paid back double what they give us.

"Also, Reidy, find the strongest whip you can and give Josk and Loze each a hundred lashes. Punishment for disobeying my orders and marching off on their own. Give their subordinates fifty lashes each for not stopping them. Potterfang will move two Firmrock divisions to Silowas where he'll wait for further orders. Senbaud and Pajik will get as many transport ships as they can together in the meantime."

"By your will, Your Grace."

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Chapter 485 - The Feral Wolves and the Magical Bear

Snow drizzled outside the window, everything was a wet white. The frozen wind descended in frigid gusts. The cabin jutted out of this white blanket, breaking the seamless purity of the mountainside, like a nail only half-hammered, three days abandoned.

Reidy and Tarkel had left for Windbury on skis a seven days ago. The letters they carried didn't have the customary household seal, but Lorist's handwriting was unmistakable, and his personal seal was worth far more than a household stamp in these trying times.

The order of most immediate concern was for Camorra. Lorist suggested a solution to the coming predicament, a simple, one word solution written in large bold strokes over half the page: borrow. No peasant, merchant, or noble household, no business, factory, storehouse, or other enterprise in his own lands or those of his allies was out of reach, as long as they had food, they had to lend it to him.

War had indeed ravaged the kingdom for years now, but none of the fighting had been done in either his or his allies' lands, so most of their stores were still wholly intact. On top of that, the years had been fair and gave good harvest, it would take a miracle, or an absolute idiot, for a house to not have full stores. Even Arriotoli's barony had overflowing vaults. The house usually bought most of their harvest, but they always held back some as a failsafe in case of famine or, indeed, war. Food was the most stable resource in the world, after all, because it was always needed, it always had value, and that only skyrocketed in wartime. Lorist trusted the three legions wouldn't have any problems borrowing from the nobles. No one would dare cross his forces when their master was the kingdom's only swordsaint, especially for a little food that was promised to be repaid with interest.

In a few more days the convoy would set out on their great pilgrimage. Even Arriotoli would not be spared. It displeased her quite a bit, but she knew how crucial this was to salvaging the situation so she could only stand by her lover's side.

The new year had rolled around three days ago, hence the abandoned cabin. Lorist spent the celebration in the castle with his lover and child. His injuried recovered, his lover had been demanding his undivided attention for these three days, determined to give Terryke a sibling.

"Crazy woman..." complained Lorist as he slapped his waist.

It was expected of lovers to be in each other's arms a lot of the time, but three days of uninterrupted loving was just punishment. If one put him out of commission for three days, what would five more, all two years deprived of his care, do to him? The thought sent shivers down his aching spine. Swordsaint or not, he could not handle so many women.

I'm overthinking... Lorist slapped his forehead.

He knocked the icicles off the sill above the door with his batons and entered. He took off his ludicrously thick clothing and put on something more reasonable, quickly lighting the brazier and fireplace to begin heating up the place. Next came the snow in the yard, lone man or not, housework had to be done.

It took him until early afternoon to finish the work needed outside and decided to patrol the forest before moving to dealing with the inside of the cabin. The decision came neither of a sense of duty to fulfill his temporary guard duties, and most certainly not out of a desire to avoid the work still needed inside the cabin. He just wanted to check the traps for any catches.

Many of his traps had indeed caught prey, but his three day absence was long enough for most of them to be devoured by passing predators, leaving only a bone or two connected to the actual snare. Some had no carcass at all, and only the blood and disturbance of the snare revealed they'd caught something. It was a shame. His traps had been set to catch turkeys and hare. They were plentiful and easy to find, and were the most delicious of all possible catches in early winter, having fattened themselves up for the season.

Seven of the 18 traps he'd set were undisturbed but empty. Three located in harder-to-reach places gave him two turkeys and a wild hare, but the remaining eight had been poached and the traps themselves ruined. The devastation he found at these traps and in the areas around them, convinced him several large predators had descended the mountain. At least two, maybe three wolves, and one magical bear. It seemed he would not be getting his much desired rest for a while.

Lorist had no thought of lighting the beacon though. He had returned to the peak of the Dan Ocean Ki-refining Technique's third stage, about rank 1 blademaster level, so the four pests, while irritating, were nothing he could not handle. He would be insulting himself if he lit the beacon, after all, the strongest person that could come to his aid would be Arriatoli herself, who was just a two-star silver rank.

He returned to the cabin, cleaned it, and made dinner -- turkey, hare, and mushroom soup, and a few sausages and several slices of black bread. He downed a few cups of raspberry wine, took another herbal bath, and went to bed.

The time was nearly right to begin training the Aquametal Technique again. The sooner he became a swordsaint again, the better. It would let him solve the house's troubles once and for all.

He found himself questioning the worth of being duke more often here in the mountain. It was true that nobles led far more luxurious lives than the peasantry, but with it came far greater stresses and troubles, most draining of which was the backstabbing and internal politics of their families. He had been the foreman of a workshop in his last life, these tribulations were far beyond his desire to deal with, and he didn't feel he really needed the luxuries he got in return. For all his stress and work he didn't get a television, a computer, the internet or a mobile phone. Had it been is old life, the only troubles he had to go through for all of the above was a day job and a little saving. No matter how high he rose in this worlds ranks, he could never even come close to the peasantry of his old life, and he certainly would never be as worry-free as them; if anything his worries would only grow and multiply. Oh, how he wished he could give all this up for a simple life like he'd had.

It did him no good to dwell on such things, however, however much he wished for it, he would never have his old life again, and pining for it would certainly not solve the very real tourbles he faced now. Besides, he was kept safe in this world not by his power or his position, but his cultivation. And what made it worthwhile for him were his loved ones, his responsibilities, and the joy of cultivating. His previous life could not give him the thrill of breaking through in his cultivation; he could not experience the pleasure of playing god with his enemies within his domain… He didn't think the joys of his previous life, missing them as much as he did, was worth giving up what he had now.

Besides, his family, friends, subordinates, allies, and vassals pinned their hopes and dreams on him. He could not let them down. And then there were his three disciples, the three stooges. He certainly could not give up the joy of teaching the young ones.

Young ones? Am I growing old? I never used to bother with this much idle pondering. Lorist stroked his finally smooth chin.

Arriotoli refused to let him keep it. 'It's all for your disguise and you don't have to be afraid of the blademaster anymore'. They both knew it was only a convenient excuse. She just didn't appreciate his grand facial hair. He eventually caved and let her shave it, but she even went as far as to apply oil to his jaw. It now felt like an egg, or a baby's arse...

The hare sizzled as it's fat dripped on the coals.

They had a really good fall, huh? Just a bit more. A pinch of salt… There we go. Now it just needs to crisp up.

Last night's put was heating up again, the leftovers of the soup slowly turning liquid again. Its fragrance slowly wafted out the half-open window and chimney and drifted into the forest.

Hmm! Not bad.

Lorist wasn't a chef by any stretch of the imagination, but he believed he had quite decent skills, it was definitely above average for males of his age and background. He moved the pot to the table, shifting the brazier into a corner with his foot and brought over the bread and a flask of wine. He was just marvelling at his handiwork when he heard claws scratching at the front door.

He shut the door to the kitchen, moved the brazier to one of the rooms -- plunging the rest of the place into darkness -- and made his gingerly way to the window. Below him three cattle-sized wolves circled the house, scratching at the door in turns. They stopped and sniffed the air every time the wind shifted, as if to make sure the sent was still coming from the odd landscape feature in front of them.

Great! I was going to look for you today anyway, but you were kind enough to spare me the trouble.

He closed the window carefully, got the sword on the table, and headed for his bedroom. He climbed out of the window onto the roof there and moved to the edge. The wolves continued to claw at the door and circle around in blissful ignorance of the devil looming over them, their minds wholly focused on getting to the source of the scent.

Lorist stepped off the roof and sunk into the soil beneath, crushing one of the wolves beneath him. His sword flung out and impaled itself in the second wolf through its eye. The poor puppy collapsed to the ground silently. The final wolf reacted in time, however, and flashed to the edge of the yard, preferring to stare at the intruder from a safe distance.

Lorist walked towards it calmly, sword in hand. The wolf glared at him but didn't make any moves. Instead, it backed of slowly, keeping a good distance. Lorist dashed at him the moment he reached the edge of the yard himself. The wolf responded in kind, leaping at him. Lorist flashed his blade and stepped out of the way, letting the lump of flesh crash into the other two lumps by the cabin.

"Dumb as always. Why do they insist on chasing everything they come across and think I'd stand nice and still for them to hit? Well, thanks to that the pelts are mostly intact so they should be worth a bit, and I don't even have to waste too much effort on cleaning them."

He returned to the crushed-but-still-whimpering wolf and finished it off with a stab through what remained of its eye socket. Just as he was about to open the door, however, he suddenly vanished. A miniscule moment later, a claw streaked by where he'd been standing. Leaving several deep etches on the door.

Lorist landed three meters away.

Today seems to be my lucky day! All four of my prey came to me. I didn't even have to leave the yard!

The beast that faced him now stood at least 2.5 meters on its hinds, about as big as a magical beast could get. Oh, how happy Arriotoli would be to get its pelt. She had a few magic pelts, but they were nowhere near as big as this one would be, and they were certainly not as intact.

She'll probably brag about how brave her house was and how valiantly they fought against the bear. I doubt she'll consider me an outsider for this, well, even if she did, I doubt she'd admit it and give up the glory.

The bear stared at its paw incredulously. How had its prey just vanished? It was certain it should be a paste by now. Its attention suddenly drifted to the wolf carcasses by the door and forgot about Lorist completely. It just wanted to enjoy the feast.

"Fuck off! They're mine!"

Lorist appeared in front of the beast and sheathed his sword in its eye. The bear roared in pain and flailed wildly for a few moments before it collapsed.

Arriotoli arrived a few hours later to check on her hubby, having heard the beast's cry all the way down in the valley. When she saw the creatures in the yard, she buried her tongue in Lorist's mouth for a few seconds before taking the carcasses away.

Chapter 486 - Karitoke

The white snow was already wiped away. Only the damaged walls and the burning farms of the small towns remained. Corpses, frozen green, and large black blood holes littered the ground. The wind carried stifled moans and agonized cries. The once prosperous plains were now the gateway to hell.

Of the seven cities, Morante was the sole shining pearl. The rest were built solely to protect it. The Union, having angered King Andinaq had lost 300 thousand men on the plains around these cities. It was the biggest blow the Union had ever suffered, not even the centuries of war with the old empire had anything comparable. The slap still sat red on the Union's faces. It was a painful lesson to learn, without a strong military, no superpower would be one for long.

Three of the cities had been lost to their enemy -- Bluwek, Ritt, and Krido. Two of the provinces on the plains, Gudlink and Mauvlin, and five neighboring provinces were also now completely empty wastelands, raided clean by two Norton legions.

Their only saving grace was that the offensive stirred up memories of the old war and whipped their citizens into a furor. Twinhead Dragon's president swore an oath to wipe Andinaq of the face of the world if it was the last thing he did.

"For two centuries we have stood against those wolves in the north," his words had rung, "They have lusted after our plains for centuries. For generations our people have shed their blood to keep them safe, in return they've wanted nothing by freedom! Four decades of peace our ancestors won with blood, sweat, and tears. Now, having barely licked their wounds clean, the wolves come for the plains again! Once again we must fight, bleed, and die for our freedom! Let us put them down once and for all!"

His words were fuel on the fire. Tens of thousands answered the call and the Union now had another legion to throw at their enemy. The new forces were moved to Mass, Gypsy, and Robertway, the four yet to fall to the enemy.

"Does the Union think the last two hundred years haven't happened? Do they really think we have not learned from our predecessor's mistakes? Ptooey!" Auguslo spat as he watched dozens of catapults smash another stronghold's walls and the grey mass of Whitelion soldiers storm through the gap.

The plains were rich and prosperous because of the natural causeways and man-made canals that ran through it like veins through flesh. They fed fields and carried goods year round. During war, they were barriers to hold back the enemy. A simple fort became an impenetrable citadel when there was water between it and it's assailants.

"Your Majesty, even if the Union knows we can attack in the winter they can't counter it. They can only watch their us streak across the canals and smash their walls!" Ripleid commented.

Auguslo finally had a successful winter campaign last year. The spoils meant he could finally afford form-fitting winter wear for all of Whitelion, which he promptly ordered from House Norton. It didn't look any different from their usual winter wear, so they could easily launch surprise attacks. He wanted to clear out the rest of the plains in one swoop and march on Morante.

Though the Union made some preparations, it didn't occur to them that their man-made canals would freeze over. The usual barriers were rendered useless and one stronghold after another fell to catapult barrages. The garrisons defending the strongholds had nowhere to run and could only fight to their deaths or surrender. In just tens of days, Whitelion broke through the first line made of hundreds of ad hoc strongholds and made their way to Robertway.

Karitoke stood on Robertway's walls and watched the distant crumbling strongholds and enemy gathering in the ruins. All of the soldiers understood the enemy would begin their attack at noon, and none could say for sure whether they would survive. He used to be one of the enemy. He used to be one of the enemy king's direct subordinates, actually. Now, however, he stood opposite his former liege. Where the king used to trust him, he now hated him.

Eighteen years earlier he was a student in Dawn Academy. He was enamored with Iron Locke, and joined the swordsmanship society to be close to his idol. He was excited for his bright future, certain he would be the next legendary swordsman in the academy.

His life changed radically when Lorist left for his ancestral home. Charade convinced him to give everything up and join his idol. He was excited to use his talents to make a name for himself and maybe even become a noble. Would it not be great to be a vassal under his idol? The journey was arduous, but it polished his swordsmanship. He was one of just ten councilors chosen from the 36 students and instructors that followed Lorist, he could weigh in on the convoy's future in Lorist's absence. He even stood at the head of a small faction loyal to him.

When they set foot in Andinaq, he ran into the king, then known only as the second highness, who spared no effort to woo him into switching sides. Maybe it was the thought of being an imperial knight, regardless, he accepted and switched sides with seven of his fellow former students. He could still see Charade, Terma, Dulles, and Lundmorde's looks of disdain as he left the convoy. They cut to the bone and his self-esteem had yet to recover. He, however -- being the arrogant, naive idiot he was, covered up his pain with anger. He thought they were the fools. Lorist would just be a count and they could never be anything more than simple knights. He now served the future king as an imperial knight!

Oh how great it all sounded in his head. His fantasies were quickly shattered. He and his companions were just pawns, used and disposed at their king's leisure. A single fight with Madras saw two of them dead. Flowater Creek followed, and, while Auguslo became famous as the new generation's first god of war, only two of the original seven remained, Karitoke and Sander.

Lorist came to find him for the paradise gathering, and, on hearing of his misadventures, offered him a chance to return to his side, promising to take care of any objections or obstacles in his way, but he hesitated when he thought of the disdain his former companions would have for him and the humiliation he would have to suffer and didn't rejoin his idol.

Sander fell in Auguslo's crossing of Cloudsnap. With his last friend, and his only reason for staying dead, Karitoke left Auguslo and snuck back to Morante. But he found both himself, and the Union unrecognizable. They had recently implemented their nobility system and occupied their neighbouring territories. His plan was initially to become a mercenary, but there were all but no mercenaries left. He tried to become an instructor at his old academy, but they could barely keep their doors open. He could not fathom what had ripped the world apart so thoroughly. He stayed at home for a full year before he had the strength to walk outside again. If not for the fact that his parents were industrious citizens and that his elder brother was afraid he had come back to fight him for their parents' inheritance, he might have stayed there until he died of old age.

His parents were thrilled that he had become a gold-ranked knight. They prettymuch threatened him with suicide if he didn't join his father's guild so the man could get a promotion.

Now, he stood opposite both his idol and his former king. His mouth smiled bitterly as he watched Whitelion's flag flap over the Union fort. The seven pale-faced men around him were fellow garrison commanders. None were from big guilds and none had fought any real battles.

Karitoke currently had the rank of colonel and command of the second sentry legion's eleventh division. A command of eight thousand men. Apart from the thousand men from the first regiment directly under his command, all the men were passionate and idealistic Morantians and guards from various merchant guilds.

"No reason to be nervous. Our walls are tougher than the small strongholds. The catapults will do nothing to them. They can only shoot 300 meters,which our ballistae can match. As long as we destroy the catapults, they have no hope of taking the walls," Karitoke consoled his subordinates.

"I'm not kidding! The catapults are nothing to fear. You know why I had you stack the walls with sandbags? It'll make them much stronger against the catapults. As long as we hide behind them, the catapults can't to anything. You don't think our luck is that bad, right?"

"B-but... The catapults could make a hole in our walls for the enemy to rush in..." said one of the pale-faced leaders.

"I already envisioned that long ago. If they make a hole in our walls, we can use these sandbags to fill it up," replied Karitoke calmly.

"W-we're definitely going to die! I-it's better if we run immediately..." Everyone was on the brink of breaking down.

"Bastard! Where do you plan to run, huh? It's snowing and freezing all over! And do you think you can outrun the two wooden sticks the enemies wear beneath their feet? If you say anything else that'll affect our morale, I'll kill you myself!" raged Karitoke. Just as he was about to give that man a slap to snap him out of it, what happened next was beyond anyone's imagination. A thin layer of ice that formed on the ground caused him to slip and almost fall.

"Who the f*ck poured tea on the ground?!" yeled he,  before an idea popped up in his head. He recalled what Lorist said about watering the walls to reinforce them to fend off the magic beast attacks.

Elated, Karitoke proclaimed, "I have a way! A way to prevent the catapults from pulverizing our walls!"

Chapter 487 - War on the Plains

On the 10th day of the 12th month, Year 1788, Andinaq launched another assault in the Falik Plains. Auguslo led Whitelion and crushed the first line of defense, strongholds across the man made canals, within four days and arrived at Robertway. Andinaq was among the first to use the catapult and almost all the Union higher-ups believed Robertway would fall in less than three days.

However, the defenders filled the walls and turned them into ice fortifications. No matter how many times Andinaq fired, they couldn't breach Robertway's walls. Angered and frustrated, Auguslo led Whitelion on a couple of direct attacks without any successes and moderate casualties.

Auguslo had planned to use no more than a month to deal with all the strongholds in the plains and conquer the three cities before moving on to Morante. He'd either conquer the city, if there were exploitable weaknesses in its defences, or besiege it and force the Union's leaders to surrender. In the following negotiations the Union would either have to ceded vast swathes of territory, or give up most of their wealth.

It wasn't that Auguslo wasn't willing to fight a protracted campaign; his vassals were getting tired and wanted to go home. They'd only joined the campaign because they thought it would be a quick campaign, not this now three-year-long war. They'd also been fighting for most of the three years and had suffered many casualties. Fatigue had weathered their resolve and enthusiasm. Some had even started finding excuses to sit out on battles.

Things had gotten worse much faster after the Nortons left. He had to move Pegasus and Fisablen's reserve and frontier legions in to fill in. They did well, but they didn't have the Nortons' staying power, they were being whittled down much faster and the two dukes had already asked to be allowed to return home and recouperate.

Auguslo had made the audacious declaration that he wouldn't stop until he set foot on Morante's central square as the city's new master, but he was actually fine with ending the war as it was now. The old empire had fought with the Union for centuries and had never even made it near the city, but he'd taken three of the Union's most powerful citadels on the plains and taken back everything the empire had lost and then some. This was already enough to cement his name in the history books for centuries to come. He was already on part with the Empire's founder.

The forty years of peace since the empire's fall had made the towns on the plains rich, especially the three citadels. The nobles didn't believe their eyes when they saw the inside of the vaults, filled to the brim with plunder. And this didn't even include House Norton's plunder, which they hadn't even let him see. This would normally be considered a supreme lese majeste, but since Lorist was now the kingdom's most powerful warrior, its sole swordsaint, Auguslo let it go.

Auguslo now turned his mind to the coronation ceremony he was going to have when he returned to the capital to crown himself First Emperor of the new empire. First, though, he had to wrap up this little war. He wanted to make sure it would be centuries before the Union ever thought of making trouble for the Empire again, and millennia before they actually could.

He didn't think he would be stopped at Robertway, the fucking ice-fortress. Karitoke, the leader of the city's garrison, had been holding him at bay for over a month now. He'd also heard that the man was made a baron for his efforts. He used to be one of Auguslo's subordinates, which stung even more. He'd defected to the Union several years earlier, and the Union made every effort to mock him for his inability to keep good subordinates on his side.

His advantage on the field in his most recent campaign was not because of his own tactical brilliance, or the power of his forces, it was thanks to the catapults he got from Lorist, in that sense his glory was only partially his. Karitoke's use of the canals to counter his tactic, however, was entirely to his own credit, all of that glory went to him. It bit at Auguslo's pride.

It was in the midst of this struggle that Tarkel and Reidy visited Lorist in his cabin again. Camorra had taken note of his lord's orders and had dealt with the situation. Loze and Potterfang had arrived with their legions and the immigrants and were resting up. Josk and Jaeger were still lagging behind though.

The great borrowing didn't run into any trouble, apart from a few unwilling nobles who had to be convinced with a firmer hand. Camorra had, however, sent word back with the messengers asking how to settle the immigrants since the food would only last them till the end of the rainy season and Winston couldn't accommodate anymore people.

Lorist prepared a letter to be taken back with Tarkel and Reidy ordering the baron to send 500 thousand to Wild Husbandry and start resettling the land. Josk would accompany them with Jaeger and see to their safety. A hundred thousand of the most skilled among the immigrants were to be settled in Windbury and Pedro to boost their industries. The new settlers in Wild Husbandry would also jumpstart the abandoned trade routes to and in the province. The rest would be used to finish any unfinished infrastructure projects. They would be settled in the Northlands once Lorist had taken care of the rebels.

Lorist continued his training after his two messenger boys left. The rest of winter and the rainy season passed, soon it was harvest season. Lorist was now back to rank 3 blademaster level and only needed another two month to be back to full strength.

Arriotoli was declared pregnant in the 6th month, finally putting and end to Lorist's torture.

Tarkel and Reidy came round again on the 17th of the 6th. Only Tarkel came to the cabin however, Reidy was rolling in the bedsheets with his little lover back at the castle. Tarkel brought news of Auguslo's defeat on the plains. He'd retreated to Krido and was standing his ground there. The confrontation had cost the two sides 170 thousand men, two thirds of which were Union dead.

Lorist was speechless when Tarkel informed him that it wasn't a set piece battle at all. Neither side had thought a big battle would happen. It had started as a skirmish, but both sides, each unwilling to lose it, kept piling in reinforcements. They only realised what was happening when it was already too late, and they were completely committed. Auguslo only withdrew because he realised he couldn't match the Union.

Tarkel also talked about the winter campaign between Auguslo and his former subordinate. Auguslo kept going at it until the snow melted, but was completed swamped when the rain fell. He couldn't cross the morass the excess water made before the Union's reinforcements arrived and was forced to fight the now numerically superior enemy. He called up his vassals, but the morass between the two forces kept both from making any decisive attacks. The forces were separated into many smaller units scattered across the morass on the small firmland islands.

Auguslo's forces were upstream of the Union and one of his vassals suggested they send fire boats down the river into the Union's wooden fortifications. It didn't do much, only burning a couple bridges and setting fire to a few camps. The Union retaliated a few days later. They set Auguslo's main camp on fire one night, killing almost a hundred men and burning almost a third of the camp to the ground.

Auguslo retaliated in kind, which prompted the same from the Union in a to-and-fro which lasted several weeks. In one of these exchanged, the attacking side got bogged down in the fight, and both sides kept sending in reinforcements, which eventually turned into a full-on battle. By the time the two sides realised what was happening, neither could back out. If they did, the enemy would push their forces forward and rush their camps, driving the other side out of the morass altogether and possibly crushing much of their army in the process.

Auguslo was slightly faster than the Union in committing all of his reserves and got the early upper hand, but the Union wasn't far behind and the stalemate was soon re-established. The forces were eventually forced to return to their camps, but the fighting didn't really stop. The islands became like a chess board. When one side lost an island, they would soon take another.

Seing where this was going, and with less forces he could afford to lose, Auguslo was forced to withdraw. Auguslo lost 60 thousand in the month-long campaign, the Union 110 thousand. Despite their heavier losses, however, the Union now had the initiative and drove Auguslo back to Krido. Auguslo had lost fewer forces, but he also had fewer to begin with.

"It's time I returned home," said Lorist.

"Is Your Grace fully recovered?" asked Tarkel.

"Yes. Come, let's go home. I have some house cleaning to do."

Chapter 488 - Bad News

Lorist's return to The Northlands was a breeze. No one was willing to fire at him. Wherever he went, the rebels surrendered obediently. They let Firmrock march across the river as well and didn't resist when they were arrested.

On the 21st day of the 7th month, Year 1789, Lorist, led the Northsea fleet to the city of Northsea. The sentry legion's third brigade, first division received him and surrendered. Lorist headed straight for Maplewoods and rescued Belnick, who was still sitting prisoner there, and arrested everyone related to the bastide, Irina and her sons included.

From there he retook the town of Poplar and marched onwards to Nico Academy where his visited Telesti and his daughters. He rested there for two days and then left for Firmrock Castle, making an appearance at every town along the way. The castle was taken without incident and Lorist ordered news of his return be spread to the rest of the world.

The first to bring bad news was Howard, who came from Cherry Blossom Ridge. The cannon foundry and training grounds were discovered by the blademasters after him. They thought he was hiding behind the guards, and attacked. Lorist read the damage report and exploded. Of the 200 cannons, 141 was destroyed, and 1377 of the 2000 artillerymen were dead or injured. The sentry regiment suffered 824 casualties. Their captain, Jim, was still recovering from his wounds and Regiment Sergeant-Major Paulobins was dead.

Lorist managed to keep himself under control, but completely lost it when he heard about what happened to his refineries in the Bladedge mountain range. Grandmaster Sid's research facilities and foundries as well as Grandmaster Felin's workshops were searched, by enemy blademasters, lead there by the constabulary. Most of the blueprints for his weaponry was stolen.

"Who... who gave the order?! Who revealed our top secret industrial centers to the enemy?!" Lorist's demanded, eyes bleeding.

"S-Supervisor Hansk. He sent the constabularies and the blademasters. He said he was forced to do so because they held Madam Irina and the second young master hostage, so he had no choice but to yield to their demands. He even said that since Your Grace wasn't there, there was no harm in letting them go...

"He even said the house spent too much money there without seeing any returns and wanted to uncover what was going on there. He said the mountains were part of the old house's domain and was thus under Lysecott's jurisdiction. As such, he had to root out the corruption there. He planned to investigate the accounts personally when he had the time.

"When the blademasters found the cannon ranges and the explosives research center, Sir Jim refused the search order and got into a fight. Several dozens were killed before they could chase the blademasters away. Which roused their suspicions.

They attacked the facilities 14 days later. Jim was prepared and had several canons aimed at the valley entrance. The first volley killed three blademasters and heavily wounded four. The remaining seven retreated with the dead and wounded. They snuck into the valley that night and slaughtered everyone and destroyed the cannons..."

"Where are they now?"

The cannons and the men that operated them were his trump cards. They were his house's greatest security. It had taken them years to build the cannons and train the men, this was an unbelievable setback. It would take years to recover, maybe even a decade.

"They left The Northlands in the 5th month. Supervisor Hansk issued arrest warrants for them, but he has no strength to actually carry it out. They left by sea and we only know they're heading south."

Lorist stroked his chin. So he had seen so few during his stay in the barony because they were mostly busy here.

"How many blueprints?"

"The ones for the super steel ballistae, three types of catapults, and 16 types of armor. They also took the designs for Jaeger's new crossbows. The rest are designs for failed projects. Fortunately, Master Julian's material recipes were kept safe. I don't think they knew what those recipes were so they just left them. Without them, it should be almost impossible to make the designs work."

Lorist breathed a sigh of relief. That they'd left behind the recipes was his only consolation. It was manageable to lose the designs, but the recipes could not be leaked. The former were pretty much useless without the latter.

"Is Sylvia and the others alright?"

"Lady Sylvia, your mistresses, and your children are fine. They told me to tell you not to worry about them and deal with the situation first. Lady Sylvia said they would spend the summer in the palace and return to Ragebear come autumn."

"I heard Jinolio and Shuss went there with the city's garrison. Reidy and I are worried, why didn't they come with you?"

"Jinolio's helping me investigate what let all this come about. Supervisor Hansk played a huge part, but he certainly can't be the sole reason behind this."

"No worries. You did well. Jinolio did great too. I heard the blademaster actually barged into the mansion in Ragebear and you even held one back for a time. Is it true?"

Howard scratched his head.

"I was at a disadvantage and even hurt my hand. I had no choice but to have Jinolio write the reports. He has pretty handwriting at least. I'm only at the level of a two-star gold rank. Your training is what let me fight a blademaster.

"Six came over to search the mansion. They were really careful since they knew you were a blademaster. They didn't cause anyone any trouble or hurt anyone. Apart from Blademaster Shuss, Lady Xanthi and Grandpa Engelich was there too. They were the ones who chased the blademasters away."

Howard didn't blow other people's horns, nor was he greedy with credit. His humility was refreshing.

"Since the cannon range is damaged, Paulobins is dead and Jim is injured, I need someone to take care of the mess. You will be the artillery brigade's major. Rebuild the brigade. I will have Sid restore the cannons. You can fill your command as you see fit. What do you think?"

"You wish is my command, Your Grace," Howard saluted, "It's just... Is it okay to hand internal security to Jinolio?"

Lorist shook his head.

"Jinolio is still young and naï¿½ve. He should focus on his training instead. He'll stand by my side again. Anyone else in mind?"

"Baron Calliston is a suitable candidate."

"How so?"

"Internal security is basically spying on the people in the house for the house's safety. I didn't get a grasp on things quick enough, Hansk rebelled before I could get everything in place. Baron Kriston is in charge of investigating crimes in a whole region and I've met with him a number of times. He was the one who pointed out the odd prejudice the constabulary and sentries have against the immigrants. I didn't take his warning seriously and investigate. I would have caught this before the rebellion if I had.

"While the constabulary is important, we shouldn't waste Baron Kriston's talent there. He is bright, capable, and -- most of all -- loyal. He is a perfect replacement."

"Alright. I'll summon him when I go back to Ragebear."

Lorist arrived in Ragebear on the 25th of the 7th. The moment the city gates opened, Glacia, the new general of the first sentry legion, paid her respects to him with her subordinates. Firmrock relieved the local garrison, which left the city, leaving only Glacia and Lorist to walk to the castle and mansion.

"This isn't fair, Locke. The men were just following orders. They didn't know they were betraying the house. They were actually the most loyal. You can't treat them like this."

"So I should, what? Reward them? Knowingly or not, they betrayed me and rebelled against my authority. You're my elder cousin sister. I really appreciate that you're willing to step out of the shadows to serve the house. I'm thankful for what you did for Sylvia and for keeping a battle from breaking out. But there's something you're failing to understand. You may think this is what's good for the house, but it's not. I'm already doing as little as possible. I am going to execute everyone involved in this rebellion knowingly, the legion should just be thankful their heads aren't going to roll as well."

"No! You can't, Locke! The men were following orders. They're loyal!" cried Glacia. She didn't understand why Lorist would be this angry.

Lorist smiled bitterly.

"Firmrock, Tigersoar, and Jaeger's men are the loyal ones. While the sentry legion are obedient, we don't know for sure where their loyalties lie. You know almost all the men in the legion used to be our prisoners. They're all former enemies. They were only recruited because they served us well for years. This is nothing but a way to feed their families to them.

"The policies I have for my men make them increasingly loyal over time, yes. Whether it be Firmrock, Tigersoar, or Jaeger, even if their general went missing and many of their superior officers were replaced, I am willing to bet they would never march on my capital even if they were ordered to. I would have to order them to do so myself, in person or they would kill anyone who showed any sign of listening to the order. They would never believe I gave such an order in my absence and would arrest the messengers immediately.

"Even a letter written in my handwriting and carrying my personal seal might not be enough for them to carry out such an order. Were they really following orders or are they just fools? Did they never question their orders? Is someone who follows a wrongful order loyal to the house?"

Glacia was speechless.

"...Then how will you deal with the men?"

"I will not let them stay in my demesne. They can settle in Wild Husbandry. If they don't want that, they can move to one of my other jurisdictions, but I will not let them set foot on my land again."

Chapter 489 - The Loyalty of a Scoundrel, The Loyalty of a Traitor

Spiel stared at Hans, who stood in front of the reception team, and felt like laughing. Hansk had held power for a few days, far above the command of anybody else and with the power to jail anyone, even Kedan was forced to go with the flow to make sure the administration's operations weren't impeded. However, when Hansk received word of Lorist's return, he aged ten years overnight. His aloofness and arrogance vanished; he now acted with earnest sincerity and a twang of fear. He had, after all, named himself chief administrator. Though Lorist might tolerate his son's appointment to heir, he wouldn't let Hansk off scot free.

Hansk appeared a martyr as he awaited Lorist's arrival. He instructed Lysecott in hushed tones how to greet his father and how to deal with his questions. He might even believe making Lysecott the heir in exchange for his life was the right and best thing he could do. If one viewed it in that light, he was indeed loyal to the house. Unfortunately Lorist didn't care for loyalty to the house, but about loyalty to him, personally. Besides, the house to which Hansk was loyal wasn't the same house Lorist was in.

Horses rumbled up the street. Lorist soon appeared round a curve in the road. Glacia rode behind him. Reidy, Tarkel, Potterfang, the guard brigade, and Firmrock followed behind her. The reception group started chattering, Hansk and Lysecott included. When Lorist stopped in front of them on horseback, they bowed. Everyone understood Lorist was House Norton's sky. He was now a swordsaint and the proudest protector of the house.

"We welcome Your Grace back to the house..."

According to noble etiquette, Lorist should get off his horse and ask them to drop the formalities before tending to the officials there to receive him one by one. He didn't need to say much, only a word or two of greeting and a pat on their shoulders to thank them for their hard work and express his gratitude. But their lord sat firmly in his saddle. Everyone felt his eyes stab the tops of their heads. Everything was quiet as a soft gust of wind blew across the yard. The pressure made some who knew what they did lower their heads further and bow deeper as if it would help them hide in the others' shadow.

"Your Grace!" Hansk finally stood straightened up proudly to dispel the atmosphere.

Lorist waved his hand without saying anything. Reidy, astride his horse, trotted in front of the group. He took a silver tube out of a pocket on his saddle. He removed from it a scroll which he unrolled and read.

"Grus! Ivanson! Ikefall! Moslin! Byschuss!..."

Two guards vanished into the reception party and dragged someone out with every name announced. A few realized they were all either Hansk's confidantes or people from the bastide. Most were retired soldiers who'd moved to the constabulary and had been deeply involved in the rebellion. Reidy didn't name either Hansk or Lysecott though.

"What are you doing?!" Hansk panicked and ran up to Reidy.

Reidy tightened his legs round the horse's middle, and it sidestepped Hansk, who now stood at its flank. Reidy slipped his foot out of the stirrup and slammed it into the man's face. The old man stumbled back several feet and fell to the ground. He raised his head heavily. A dirty boot print and bruise straddled his face. He spat out a mouthful of blood and two teeth. The names continued to be announced.

One after another the culprits were dragged out of the group. Reidy rolled the scroll up and return it to the tube when 45 stood on the side. Lorist dismounted behind him and walked up to the remaining officials, a sincere smile on his face. He raised each from the ground and thanked them warmly.

Kedan apologized to Lorist, tears running down his face incessantly on behalf of the thirty or so left.

"No apology can make up for this, Your Grace. It is our fault this could not be stopped or avoided."

Lorist waved dismissively.

"Don't say anything. You did what you could. You did well to not spill blood. You continued to perform your duties and waited for my return loyally. You did the right thing. I cannot express my gratitude adequately. But let these two words stand. Thank you."

The officials in the centre of the yards shuddered, tears running down their faces. The ones held by the guards on the side paled. Lorist had declared the incident a rebellion with these words. There were all now officially traitors, at least as far as everyone else was concerned, and they would be recorded as such in the house's records, if every mention of them was not erased entirely.

"We... we're not traitors! We're the ones most loyal to the house! We will not stand for this insult!" Hansk shouted, his face crimson. There was no greater insult to his loyalty. He stepped in front of Lorist in spite of his swollen face.

"Ho, look who we have here," Lorist chirped as he finally noticed Hansk's existence, "I'm curious, Baron. What are you doing here? Didn't I tell you to buzz off to your lands and reflect on your shitty attitude and behaviour? I resolved myself to not mention things further out of consideration for what you did for me in the past, but here you are. Tell me, who gave you permission to come here, and who told you you could open your mouth?"

"I..." Hansk suddenly realised his dilemma. His prepared arguments were useless. Lorist didn't recognise him as an official of the house, but spoke to him as just another vassal. Clearly he had no authority to meddle in the house's affairs as an outsider. Without recognition as a member of the house, he had no foot to stand on, no excuse for his presence or actions.

If he were indeed a loyal house official, he should have stayed in his dominion as ordered. He had no right to leave his lands if he still regarded himself as a house official. Being here was itself basically a declaration that he was no longer a house official, just a vassal.

"I... I was here to support Young Master Lysecott as regent and heir de jure. I was only doing my duty as a loyal servant," he replied after some thought.

"Hehe, regent? Heir de jure?" Lorist turned to the shivering ostrich. Hate flashed across his eyes as they gazed at the fat figure.

"I don't remember ever naming an heir," the man murmured, as if in thought to himself. "Lysecott, my son, time really flies. You're seventeen already. I was too busy, so I neglected your upbringing. I didn't think you were in such a rush to become heir de jure. Is this really what you want?"

Though Lysecott didn't frequently get to see his father, he feared him down to his bones. Lorist had tossed him to Malek's family to be disciplined. The man even had Reidy cane him thirty times in Nico Academy publicly because of a simple mistake and sent him back to the bastide, bloody and battered. He remembered the lessons and froze though Lorist asked him nicely. He couldn't stop teeth chattering.

When his father's gaze fell on him, he remembered his mother's instructions and Hansk's encouraging words. 'No matter what, you're His Grace's eldest son. He won't do much to you'. He mustered his courage and answered.

"Mo-mother a-and Ha-- Uncle Hansk said I am your rightful heir. Everything that belongs to the house also belongs to me and no-no one ca-can take it from m-me..."

"My rightful heir?" Lorist laughed, stretching out his hand.

Tarkel handed him a scroll.

"I was injured and lost contact. You declared yourself heir on your own, I never endorsed you. I can't fault you, having ambition isn't a bad thing, but you listened to others. You're just going along with the ambitions of others. Others used you and you were happy to be manipulated. You're nothing but a brainless fool--" Lorist opened the scroll. "--You've been in Ragebear for seven months, right? Let's see what you did."

"Wow, how amazing! You raped 21 maidservants, killed four servants and a cook because you didn't like their cooking and tossed their heads into the fire. Your uncle even went out of his way to gag everyone for your sake and buried the corpse in the garden...

"You ordered Dawn Academy to tie up Helias and send him to you so could get back at him for calling you out when you were harassing your half-sisters. The academy refused, so you ordered the legion to burn it to the ground. Luckily Glacia refused. In turn you cursed her in front of a lot of people.

"You sent your guards after Madam Malek so you could pay her back for the years of hard work she put in to raising you properly. Luckily she wasn't at the mansion, but in retaliation you burned it to the ground.

"You went out four times in the last seven months and raped three women and killed their families. You ran thirteen people over in the streets with your carriage, killing three and badly injuring the rest. You demanded tributes of interesting trinket from the merchants in the city...

"I admire that you did everything I wanted to, but didn't. I've always wanted to act like you did and ignore everything, I've always entertained the idea of being a tyrant. You know why I didn't become one? If I did, my father, your grandfather, would hang me to apologize to the ancestors and strike my name from the registry.

"Your mother spoiled you and raised you into a monster. You don't have empathy or humanity. As House Norton's lord, as your father, I have to correct my mistake. You are hereby struck from the family registry. Neither you, nor anyone else, may ever use your name and House Norton's name in the same sentence. You are unfit of my name, unfit to be even a bastard. I shall uphold my father's honour, the honour of my ancestors, and the honour of my name. The world will be told of your crimes. The names of every victim and the crime you committed against them will be tattooed on your body and you will be hanged in the city square. Once you're dead, your body will be left on the gallows to rot."

Lorist turned to everyone else present and raised his voice.

"From this day forth this shall be the fate of every man, woman, and child who tarnishes the Norton name! Be they peasant, soldier, official, noble, or family member!"

Lysecott paled and stumbled backwards as he listened to the lord. He never dreamt the man had been keeping such a close eye on him. His gaze flitted to the house's officials. He was certain they had ratted on
"F-f-f-father... F-f-forgive me..." he tripped and fell on his ass. His pants darkened, and a puddle formed under him.

"You can't do this, Your Grace! The king had recognized Lysecott as your heir. I have a sealed decree from His Majesty! You do not have the right or authority to harm him!" bellowed Hansk frantically as he scrambled in front of Lysecott and fumbled for Auguslo's decree.

"The king's decree?" Lorist chuckled, "Are you joking? Or did I hear wrong? Baron, when did I give the king the right to meddle in my personal affairs, or in the internal affairs of the house? Do you really think he can just appoint my heir on a whim? Is he trying to incite a rebellion and start another civil war?"

"H-He made his decree because you were absent and no one knew if you were still alive! We asked the king to endorse Lysecott because you weren't here to do so yourself!"

"And who told you I would ever have made him my heir?! So you didn't hear from me for a while, do you assume I'm dead the moment I walk out of the door and you can't see me? Do I have to stand in front of you every minute of every day so you can be sure I'm alive?! How quickly do you want me to die?" Lorist was a swordsaint, he could easily live for two or three centuries even if he never improved his cultivation another step. His endorsement aside, even if Lysecott was the best heir in the world, if he didn't become a swordsaint himself, he would never live long enough to inherit his father's position.

"Is that why you let the enemy blademaster go around looking for me? You were fine with revealing our secrets to the enemy as long as they could take me out of the picture for good, huh?! You killed 2000 of my loyal men!"

"I... I was just trying my best to ensure the house remained stable... and helping Young Master Lysecott manage the dominion. I am loyal..."

"Loyal? Ha! You soil the word with your lips!" Lorist sneered, "Even if I were dead, you of all people had the least right to step in! Imprisoning a gold-ranked knight and forging his order to take over his forces and attack the capital; sealing the dominion's entrances; cutting off supply to our forces on the front lines; and burying Lysecott's crimes... Is this what a loyal man would do? If it is, then I want nothing of this loyalty! This is the loyalty of a scoundrel, the loyalty of a traitor!

"Take them away. I don't want to soil my eyes with their visages. I will personally announce your crimes before I execute you!" ordered Lorist coldly. He watched on as the guards took the traitors away.

Glacia walked over.

"I'm sorry, Locke. I didn't understand what the brat was doing. I would've stopped him if I did. Are you really going to kill him? He's your eldest--"

"The law is the law. Princes and paupers are punished the same!"

Chapter 490 - Various Matters

Charade and Spiel rushed back to Ragebear a day later. Lorist felt a heavy burden lift from his shoulders when he saw them. He instantly let Charade, Spiel, and Kedan deal with the aftermath. Punishing Hansk and the traitors wasn't the highest priority at the moment. The highest priority was dealing with settling the hundreds of thousands of refugees in Winston.

Lorist rushed to the artillery range in the mountains with Reidy. It was the greatest insurance of their future and had to be set back on track. Howard had already taken up his post. He told Lorist that, so far, 342 artillerymen had recovered and rejoined the unit, which brought their functional size up to about 1300. A hundred were crippled and could never return even after they healed though. A full 1563 men died during the blademasters' attack and most of the unit's top artillerymen were among that number.

Lorist went to check on the brigade's former commander, Major Jim. His injuries had more or less recovered. He could sit and tell Lorist about his experiences, at least. He was now convinced, more than ever, that the cannons were the single greatest threat to blademasters. However, they complicated to operate and they hard to move.

When the blademasters attacked during the day, he lined up 46 cannons and fired a volley which broke the attackers. He didn't think the rest would attack again that night. He could do nothing once they were up close. Three thousand men faced the blademasters, but it was a complete slaughter. Paulobins leapt into the fray with a barrel of gunpowder and a torch. He blew himself up to take a few of the enemy with him. They couldn't find even a scrap of his flesh or armour to bury. The rest of the men also grabbed barrels of gunpowder and dozens blew themselves up as the blademasters got close. Another blademaster fell, and the rest retreated cursing the insane bastards as they let. Tears covered Jim's face as he described the scene. Lorist listened to him solemnly. All he could do was console the man. After telling him to get some rest, Lorist left.

In stark contrast to the two commanders, Professor Balbo and his wife who were hard at work in the research facility. Jim moved them to a safe location before the blademasters came to attack. Though the facility was flipped over, Balbo was unharmed.

Balbo introduced his latest breakthroughs as soon as Lorist arrived. He had successfully made the gunpowder into pellets. Though Lorist had only casually brought it up, Balbo managed to make it after years of work. It wasn't a small breakthrough either. It let the cannons fire with far greater power, or achieve the same power for much less gunpowder. He was currently working on how to dissipate the heat build-up from constant firing. He was just about to meet the two other masters for another consult in that regard, in fact.

His other great breakthrough was a new saltpeter harvesting technique. Lorist was convinced this, more than almost any other discovery, was the man's greatest achievement. Grindia wasn't Earth and the chemical principles of this universe were slightly different. On Earth, gunpowder was mainly made of one part sulfur, two parts nitrate or saltpeter, and three parts coal. The mixture added to some other ingredients produced standard black powder. But on Grindia, the recipe had one more part powdered fire crystal to react the way it did on Earth.

It was too bad Lorist had been just a workshop owner. Chemistry and physics weren't his strong suits. Though he had some basic knowledge, Grindia's laws were rather different from those of his former world, so the knowledge he had wasn't of much help.

On the continent there were two key factors that got in the way of his dream to make firearms. The first was the material. Grandmaster Sid's refinery still relied on ancient metallurgical methods to refine steel. Though he provided the man with the idea of water-powered machines that greatly increased House Norton's production efficiency, it was still far from what was necessary to produce the right materials required for firearms production. Before they could mold metal like liquid, the firearms from Lorist's world were still a pipe dream.

The second factor was the lack of saltpeter required to synthesize gunpowder. It was said that the dwarven kingdom had an underground saltpeter mine already running out. The dwarves considered the material very valuable. Lorist used nitrate in the soil to make what gunpowder he had. The biggest obstacle was the limited supply of gunpowder.

Lorist also had rather different experiences on Earth and Grindia. For instance, making gunpowder into pellets was easy on Earth. The powder only had to be wetted, shaped into pellets, and dried. However, the same process produced smoke-emitting powders on Grindia rather than gunpowder. Balbo thought the process destroyed the gunpowder's explosive effect. It took him three years to find a work-around.

Using gunpowder pellets not only raised its quality and increased its power, it also decreased the amount of saltpeter needed. At the same time, over his long years of research, Balbo found the ideal method of producing nitrate, doubling the yield. House Norton's gunpowder stores could now finally be stocked properly.

Lorist was sad and angry at the brigade's losses, but Balbo's good news lifted his mood considerably. He made Balbo a viscount on the spot. Balbo was pumped as he no longer had to act humbly around Sid since they were now all viscount.

Lorist loitered around the facility for ten days before going to Sid's refinery and staying there for half a month to optimize the production process and arranging for the construction of another batch of cannons before he returned to Ragebear.

He arrived back in the city on the 7th of the 10th. Sylvia, his concubines, and his children had returned to Ragebear at the end of the 9th. They welcomed him warmly.  Everything would have been perfect if the slow-witted Arriotoli had not bragged about her latest pregnancy in her latest communique.

Sylvia, being the jealous vixen she was when it came to Lorist, subjected Lorist to a thorough inquisition. It didn't help that his other concubines demanded fair treatment. Dilianna was completely unwilling to see someone not even recognized as a concubine have more children than her. It took Lorist several days to escape.

His three subordinates were ready with their reports when he got out. Each stared at him with a different expression. Charade appeared troubled, Spiel looked like he'd just walked through a field of flowers, and Kedan was completely stoic.

Charade was up first. He had completely the planning for the migrant settlement and was ready to begin implementing everything. Shadekampf and Camorra had already moved the migrants to their final destinations and they would be set by the 11th month. Once they were settled, the region's population would officially be over 3 million and all their goals would have been achieved. Charade was adamant that, at least for the time being, they not bring in anymore people; the natural population growth from those already present could take care of any future needs.

Mass immigration was not a sustainable model of population growth, least of all when it was done forcibly. It made for an unstable and volatile population and fundamentally changed the values and loyalties of the peasantry. It was also a pain in the neck to manage. Just looking at Charade was enough to convince Lorist. The poor man looked two decades older than he was. Lorist thanked him for his hard work and told him to take a long vacation. Shadekampf could handle things from here.

The final topic was reorganizing the military. Charade was put in charge of the new year's celebration for the foreseeable future. This upcoming one would be the first since Lorist's disappearance and was bound to be the grandest yet.

Spiel was next. It turned out his jubilance was because of the wealth the legions brought with their return. They had swept several provinces during their campaign and had brought back six million gold Fordes' worth of wealth. And this was before they were untethered from Lorist. The legions went haywire after Lorist vanished. They cleaned out five more provinces. Loze and Josk knew Lorist would be furious at their disobedience, so they were careful to bring back even every shiny stone they found. In total, they brought back 15 million gold, previous artwork, decorations, wares, jewels, and other valuables included. This was the second most profitable campaign in the house's history, only surpassed by the Hanayabarta campaign.

Lorist immediately got to work getting rid of his money like he was allergic to it.

The house had done nothing but fight for several years now. They needed rest. He decided to give everyone a fat bonus and a long vacation. Two million was gone immediately. Another million vanished into the research projects in the mountains and the pensions for the losses suffered there.

Spiel's wailed internally. His eternal crusade against the devil had not ended. He finally thought he'd won a small reprieve, a small victory, only to have the beast rear its head again.  Ah, if only he could shoo it back off to the battlefield. It just kept bleeding money. At least when it was off on campaign it bled everyone else dry and wasn't his problem, but now that it had returned he had to fight again.  Please, please, someone piss the devil off again!

Kedan was the last to report. He was in charge of the trials. He brought out the folder. The first row's names had yet to be judged. Their judgements were up to Lorist. First on the list was Lysecott. He was Lorist's eldest son, so Kedan didn't feel he had the right to judge. Lorist just asked what kind of punishment a peasant would get for such a crime. The answer was simple: death by beheading or hanging.

"Alright then. I said this before, but everyone will suffer the same fate for the same crime. He'll be hung then. I would kill him ten times in ten different ways if I had the choice. Letting himself be made a puppet is the worst shame he could have brought on himself and, by extension, to the house. His cruelty and lack of self-control are also unacceptable. If he didn't have such a rotten personality, and if he hadn't done those horrible deeds, I would have forgiven him. He would never have become my heir, but he would at least be able to live a normal life as a commoner or low level family official. But I will not suffer him to live and continue to stain our name, even if he's already been stripped of it."

Lorist filled his son's fate in personally. The kid was literally condemned by his father's hand. He didn't love the kid, he barely even knew him, but they were blood relatives and this came about because of his own shortcomings as a man and his failure as a father, so it was only right that he be the one to correct it. The memory of the first time he held his son came back to him and he couldn't stop the tears from rolling down his cheeks.

The fate of his erstwhile son and his role in bringing it about, both in terms of making the judgement that sent him to his death and letting it get to the point where this judgement was necessary, weighed heavy on his heart. Since this was his son's fate, he would not let those who also played a part in it get off any lighter. Hansk was stripped of his title and all his entire family's, all 17's, heads would roll along with his. Lysecott's personal guards would be hanged as well, their families would be spared but exiled to Hanayabarta. Every official and officer who openly supported Lysecott and his rebellion, about 300, and their families would suffer the same fate as his guards. The rest would be tried for whatever offences they committed during the rebellion, like robbery or murder. Those innocent of such crimes would be moved out of Lorist's demesne to Wild Husbandry, and those who served time for their offences would join them once their time was done. The judgements were to be announced publicly, ten thousand in all. It was a huge political shift in the house.

"As for the sentry legion's fate… Put them back to work for now. We'll deal with them when we do the restructuring."

Chapter 491 - Human Resources

Lorist didn't attend the execution. He shut himself in his study, turning away all audience requests. Charade and the other officials understood how he felt and made sure not to bother him. Sylvia couldn't hold back any longer and went to visit him that evening. She found him sitting in his chair, facing the window, watching the moon quietly as tears rolled down his face. This was the largest single-event execution the house had ever carried out. They hanged and beheaded 349 people in one go. Lysecott, the king-endorsed heir, was also hung from the gallows. Thousands more were exiled from Lorist's demesne.

Unsurprisingly, it sent waves across the entire kingdom. Outsiders considered it excessive for a bloodless revolt put down without incident. The rebels neither killed nor tortured anyone. Lorist looked like the tyrant by contrast. Especially on the matter of his son. Lysecott may be a legitimized bastard, but he was still the duke's son. His crimes were made public, but they were nothing untoward for nobles. No one in the nobility considered it something worth an execution. Even the strictest of nobles usually only demanded an apology and some form of compensation. Lorist had reacted way to excessively.

The other thing that brought up big discussions, was the fact that, under false impressions or not, the boy had the king's endorsement -- sealed decree and all. How it was obtained was irrelevant. Custom and norms dictated that Lorist accept it, or at the very least find a way of dealing with his son that wasn't a clear disregard of the royal decree. Instead, the duke just hanged his son. He acted like the decree didn't exist. His status as the country's only swordsaint protected him from public criticism, however.

Only the duke's inner circle knew the reason for his fury. Hansk's rebellion destroyed years of his hard work, especially where his cannons were concerned. Only the few that had seen them in action knew how much of a setback this was. The rebel had indeed sought his own death. When Kedan brought him his last meal, the old man cursed his lord for being blind to his loyalty and ignoring his advice. He cursed the house a fall from grace and a descent into ruin, proclaiming that he would laugh at the fools from beyond the grave.

Kedan watched on silently. He didn't speak until the old man was done with his food.

"Hansk, you've been blinded by power. Your talents weren't enough. I understand what you want. You want to be the next Gleis and control almost everything in the house. You would have been, too, if the house was still just a backwater barony, but it's not. His Grace has a full provinces and the equivalent of a second as his demesne, and two more under his jurisdiction.

"Lord Norton is the one that led us to the glory we have today. You just had to follow him obediently and serve him loyally. You're delusional if you think you can compare to Gleis. It's too bad your delusion is now your end. Why do you still pretend like this is out of loyalty?"

Kedan left as Hansk slumped. The man knew Kedan was right. Gleis had been in charge of everything, baron in all but name, until Lorist returned. Lorist's father couldn't be bothered with the small things so he left everything to Gleis. All he did was hunt magical beasts and barbarians. Hansk wanted to be the same for Lorist. He wanted the kid to go off hunting beasts and barbarians and leave him in command of everything. Had the new lord been anyone but Lorist, this would have been the case, but Lorist was different.

Hansk could not compare to any of the new officials, the only reason he and the rest of the old guard hadn't been forsaken already was because Lorist didn't want to step on Gleis' wishes. In his resentment he didn't work hard and even split the house between factions. He had undone the trust Lorist had in him himself. Lorist didn't give him special treatment, despite technically being the most senior servant, he was passed over for promotion and it took him years more to be enfeoffed than the newcomers. Rather than get his act together, he blamed everything on Lorist and the greenhorns and even started openly disobeying and lecturing his lord.

Some things could be tolerated, but this disrespect was not one. He had brought about his own downfall. If only he'd obediently reflected for a few years in his fief, but, instead, he returned to the bastide and fanned the flames of insurrection in his lord's son.

He'd dreamt of splitting the house's ancestral homelands off from the greater dominion and governing it under Lysecott, but dreams were far-fetched and reality cruel. His forces surrendered without even complaining when Lorist returned. They'd let the core of their plan, Lysecott, be captured. If they had kept him out of Lorist's reach, then even if the rebellion failed, they could still return with the heir and the decree when the house was weak and push their claim. But with him captured, there was no way out. They were tried for treason, heir included, and were now going to be executed.

His greatest mistake was underestimating how much control Lorist had over his lands. He now understood that the rebellion was only allowed to happen so Lorist had an excuse to get rid of him and everyone in his faction.

Three days after the execution, Baron Kriston rushed to Lorist's study. Lorist was back to normal, save the gloom in his forehead. He held a scroll containing Kriston's personal information.

"Please have a seat, Kriston. You have done well for several years now as security chief. You've formed multiple constabularies and organized the drafting of laws and regulations, with appropriate punishment for crimes. You've even been given a fief."

Kriston rose the moment his toosh touched the cushion and bowed.

"I'm only doing my duty. I do not deserve your praise."

"I'll get straight to the point. I summoned you because I have a new job for you. Furybear, my intelligence service, is being broken up into two smaller departments. Each will focus on a particular domain of security, one internal, the other external. The former I'll call the Department of Internal Affairs. It will be in charge of counter espionage, counter insurgency and maintain a stable, peaceful internal environment. Howard recommended you for the position of Head of Department. Any thoughts?"

Kriston's mouth dropped. He paid great attention to detail, and was aware of the two's relationship. So this was why the lord had sent a messenger directly to his castle to summon him.

"I am willing to serve you unreservedly, You Grace. I give you my word."

"Very well. I am happy you're up to the task. You have three days. Have Tarkel give you a crash course. I expect a report on my desk by sundown on the third day with your thoughts on how to structure the department and a complete preliminary budget."

"As you will, Your Grace."

Belnick entered the room shortly after Kriston left. The old white-haired man shuffled in and knelt as soon as he was through the doorway.

"This whole debacle is my fault, Your Grace. I beg for your punishment."

Lorist hurriedly pulled back on his feet and consoled him. The man had only been captured because he had been too trusting. Belnick was one of the house's oldest and longest-serving gold-ranked knights. His greatest claim to fame was facing a bear to save Lorist's younger brother when he was just a three-star silver rank. His efforts, unfortunately, were for naught. The young lord died soon after of the wounds from his fall from his horse. The fight injured him severely and a plot by the denizens of Wildnorth to poison him saw him bedridden for three years.

He only learned what was going on when Lorist informed him. Not only had his lord saved his life, he'd even given him the manual that let him finally break through into the gold rank. His loyalty was above reproach, which was why he was given command of a legion and stationed in the house's home territory.

His origin was his downfall during the rebellion. Being from the bastide as well, he didn't want to offend Hansk, so he went to the bastide at the latter's invitation and was captured. He would have been executed if Hansk did not believe he would eventually come round and join his side. Belnick could not contain his shame at being poisoned twice in his life.

Though Lorist spent lots of effort on consoling him, he wouldn't accept it. He had to be held accountable for his failures. Frustrated, Lorist relieved him of his command and fined him two years' bonus and salary. He transferred him to the three main legions. Belnick was only willing to leave after he heard he had a chance to go to the battlefield.

Chapter 492 - Heavy Military Reorganization

Lorist decided to reorganize his military yet again. He'd learned his lesson from the rebellion. This time he'd completely separate the military and administrative branches of the house. The only forces that had been separate from the administration thus far were the three legions and the Northsea fleet which could and would only move by Lorist's command. The rest of the house's forces, the sentry legions, the constabularies, and the other guard forces not associated with a legion, could be commanded by any household official of appropriate rank. Technically even Spiel, who was as far removed from a military commander as could be, could order any of the forces to do anything.

This was, as far as institutional structure was concerned, why the rebels could so quickly and so easily take over the forces within the Northlands. Take the local sentry legion, for example. It recruited almost exclusively from the house's captives. Since the legion worked almost more as a general labour force than a military unit per se, it was only natural for it to be closely entangled with the local administrations. It was neither uncommon, nor untoward for the legion to dispatch units to help administrative officials.

Hansk had asked for help with suppressing the mountain barbarian revolt during his final months as a legitimate household official, and Spiel had also asked for help on occasion with transporting spoils of war. Even Charade had, at times, mobilized the Ragebear Knights.

Lorist's plan now was to have dedicated and independent bureaucracies to deal with his military and administration. The department that was to handle the military would deal with everything related to it, from logistics to recruitment to compensation and deployment. Officials could only be part of one of the two bureaus and only officials from the military bureau could command forces.

Lorist's biggest issue was what to call these two new institutions. Maybe he could call it the military department, or perhaps the bureau of military administration? The People's Liberation Army? Or maybe the Self Defence Force? No, they all sounded to cringey. A severe headache pending, he decided to put the naming aside for now.

Lorist didn't have an issue finding people to head this new institution. Potterfang and Malek were the two most obvious choices. Putting either in charge of the institution was really no different from making them his knight commander. They would be answerable only to him and had authority over everyone else in the institution.

Charade had been Chief knight for over a decade now, but everyone knew he was not the most suited for the title. Charade's strength lay in his administrative capabilities to begin with. He was the only one to have not made a breakthrough in the last seven years and was the weakest of his peers in his rank. His father-in-law, being a blademaster, was not very happy this abysmal state of affairs.

If the position only needed combat ability, then Loze would be the obvious choice. His nickname, 'Fiercetiger', was indeed very apt. He stood above all the other knights -- whether it be as a general or a warrior. His approach to combat was simple, almost thuggish, he kept attacking like a crazed madman until his enemy collapsed. He was currently on the edge of becoming a blademaster and no one would be surprised if he announced a breakthrough in the next three years.

Unfortunately for Loze, the position required more than personal combat ability or general military leadership. He would no longer be the commander of a legion, but would stand at the head of a bureaucracy. He had to win people over with charm, not just brute force. In this regard, few could not best him. Loze was a proud, stubborn, and arrogant man. He didn't listen to anyone besides Lorist and a few close friends. Even Charade, as his superior, could not get him to do anything. He was the penultimate medieval warrior, fantastic at combat, to a fault, but horrible at everything else. Not only did he have a completely unlikable character, he was a drunkard and a lecher. If he was measured by any metric besides his combat ability, his uprightness as a man would be in doubt. Well, even if none of this was an issue, even if he were the perfect candidate, his recent insubordination meant he could not be trusted with overall command of the military.

Besides, Lorist did not think Loze would want the position, anyway. He was made for the battlefield, he would never be able to stomach the idea of sitting in an office thousands of kilometers away from the front line. Even if there were no battles to be fought, Lorist couldn't picture him sitting behind a desk and signing paperwork.

Potterfang one of the other options. He was the only knight able to compete with Loze in the arena. He was Loze's antithesis when it came to their combat style. If Loze was a thug, then Potterfang was a turtle. Make no mistake, he stood no chance of winning a fight against Loze, but Loze also stood no chance of winning a fight against him. While Potterfang had no strikes that could take Loze down, Loze had no strikes that could break his defence. All the fights they'd fought over the years also went the same way. Loze would attack furious and Potterfang would just defend until Loze either got exhausted or became completely furious with frustration and gave up.

The general defined the army. Tigersoar, which Loze commanded, was a ferocious beast on the battlefield. They specialized in offensive operations. Firmrock, on the other hand, under Potterfang's command, could hold any enemy force no matter how big, at bay. Tigersoar was Lorist's spear -- or, more aptly, his bludgeon -- and Firmrock was his shield.

Making Potterfang would be the obvious conclusion, and certainly the one with which the rest of the military would be most happy, if not for Malek. Lorist was of the opinion that Malek was the best candidate for the job. Lorist biggest concern with Potterfang was that he was too timid. He would likely try to play the good guy and would consequently be unable to make cold decisions. Malek, had no such inclinations.

He was the most feared night under Lorist's command. Some even questioned if he could even feel anything. He could not only make tough, impartial judgements, but he could enforce them no matter who the victim was. Even Loze could not escape him. He was also a very decisive man, and unwavering loyal to Lorist, almost to a fault. As far as Lorist was concerned, there just was no competition. The only issue was that Malek didn't have the greatest reputation, which wasn't surprising. Not many could like the stoic. He had few friends, and they were mostly officials of similar rank with whom he'd served for years.

Lorist would face stiff resistance if he tried to appoint him to the office. In the end he decided to compromise. He'd appoint both Potterfang and Malek to the position. Potterfang would be the head of whatever the military ended up being called, and Malek would be his second-in-command. Potterfang would be the military's face, whilst Malek would be the one doing all the actual work.

Besides preserving the military's integrity, Lorist also wanted to separate his government to bring down its overhead. The near constant war since his ascension had forced him to build a massive military, but now that the house was in a stable position and unlikely to expand in the near future, it could not afford to maintain such an extravagant force, much less justify the expense. Lorist could not afford to spend two thirds of his annual income on the military.

Hansk's rebellion was a painful wake-up call. The five sentry legions stood at 200 thousand men and manned his lands' defenses. They were reserve forces for all intents and purposes, they never saw combat, nor would they ever unless the house was put in a dire position. Certainly they didn't need to enjoy the same benefits as his front-line troops? In the past he had used these reserves as a way to quickly absorb the immigrants, but now that he would not see large force migrations for some time, he had no need of this bloated setup.

And Hansk's rebellion showed him how unreliable the setup was, anyway. The men in the reserves served there out of a pragmatic understanding of their need for money, not out of any sense of loyalty to him. Then again, this should be obvious, would Lorist serve a lord that had just ripped him and his family away from his ancestral homeland, marched them across the continent and told him that he now had to live here and serve him and that he didn't have a choice in the matter, loyally? Of course not. If the Auguslo had done this to him, he would have sworn on his ancestors and honour as a man that he would one day kill him. At the very least he would have no qualms joining a rebellion or in some other way betraying the man.

Since the reserve were only doing the job for the money, and had no sense of loyalty to him, they followed orders without questioning whether they were appropriate or not or whether they came from the right people. As long as their pay would be handed over as always, they didn't care. In that case there was no need to pay them any more than was necessary.

Lorist wrote down the names of the forces he considered part of the active military. 'Firmrock', 'Tigersoar', 'Jaeger', 'Northsea', 'Ragebear', and 'artillery brigade' were on the list. The rest were at best reserves. He decided to form a single legion out of the five current sentry legions which would join the others as active forces. The men not put in this new legion would be transferred to the local towns guard.

Each of the legions would be 48 thousand strong; Northsea was 12 thousand strong; and Ragebear 15 thousand strong. Lorist's personal guard had three thousand members, and the artillery had another three thousand. With this the military would stand at only 220 thousand. Until now no legion had less than 60 thousand men, but there was no need for such a bloated military. Years of experience had taught him why no legion was bigger than 50 thousand.

Most militaries actually only had 10 to 12 thousand men in a division. A few divisions would be groups together into a legion, which was what a general commanded. While his legions had 60 thousand men, his generals would only ever deploy about 40 thousand at a time, no more than a standard foreign legion. The rest stood in reserve. He had a force which looked impressive, but was no bigger than a small legion in effective size on the battlefield.

What, then, was the point to the extra 15 to 20 thousand troops? They were an extra expense that clearly had no effect on the actual combat strength of the legion in any given engagement. They were only a further financial, logistical, and command burden which slowed the legions down and meant that they couldn't respond as rapidly and effectively as their enemies. It wasn't, then, just about having the bigger force, but having a force of the right size that is used effectively.

Lorist cut one division out of each legion. The new legions were no different in size from other kingdom's legions. He could do this so easily now because none of the legions were at full strength after their last campaign. Had they been fully staffed, he would be trouble with what to do with the troops he removed, but, as things stood now, even with the cuts the legions would likely still need to recruit men to fill in their shortages.

With this matter dealt with, Lorist moved on to appointing new officers. Potterfang would stay in command of Firmrock; while he was the entire institution's head in name, it wouldn't add anything to his workload, so he could stay on as a field commander. Malek had an actual job to do, so his old position needed filling. Lorist put Belnick's name in the spot. It would be a demotion from general to legion sergeant-major and put him in a position that would see combat if they got involved in another war.

The commanders of Firmrock's third and fourth divisions were old schoolmates of Lorist, Wilson and Sybra. Wilson had asked for a leave of absence to focus on his training so he could break through to the gold rank. Lorist transferred the third sentry legion's general over to fill his command. It was technically both a demotion and not. While his rank dropped from general to colonel, he was also being moved from a reserve legion to an active force, so it balanced out. And, since his legion was going to be scrapped anyway, he couldn't really complain since this was the only way he could keep his job. Lorist decided to give him a fief, just to be on the safe side.

Tigersoar was the legion that would sea the smallest shuffle. Loze, Messen, Dulles and Eid Modrak all remained in their positions as commanders of the first through fourth divisions in order.

Jaeger would see the biggest changes in leadership, Colonel Freiyar, currently commander of the legion's fourth division, would be promoted to general and put in command of the entire legion. Josk would take his place as commander of the fourth division with a corresponding demotion to colonel for his disobedience. Loze and his legion were justified in returning to the frontline since they were responsible for moving the migrants and had to go back for the rest, but Josk had no reason, and no permission, to move. Lorist was already being very soft by demoting him just one rank. He could have stripped him of all command authority entirely if he wanted.

Besides being general of the army, Freiyar also took over command of the first division, Yuriy, Josk, and Waxima had command of the second through fourth divisions. However, Waxima had also submitted a request for a leave of absence for training. Rather than fill his spot himself, Lorist decided to leave it to them to decide.

The men and commanders from the now defunct sentry legions that weren't moved into the active units, were moved out of the military entirely and put into what was effectively civil law enforcement. They either fill in for the positions cleared in the constabulary by the rebellion, or joined town guards and other garrison forces. Lorist promoted Els to general and put him in command of the sole sentry legion, which he planned to make an all-rounder. Els would also command the legion's first division. Ovidis had command of the second division, Pajik would be put in command of the third, and the fourth would be filled at some point in the future. With the current leadership setup each legion had three gold-ranked knights in its senior most positions, so they wouldn't lose out to any enemy force.

Senbaud would stay on as Admiral and have command of Northsea and Terman stayed with Ragebear. Ragebear's function and position in the command structure was changed, however. They were no longer just a knight brigade, instead they were made effectively the military police and put under the direct command of whatever the institution would be named in the future. They would answer to Malek and Potterfang only, and to Potterfang only in his capacity as the institution's head, not as general of his legion.

Reidy stayed on as the captain of Lorist's personal guard, with the rank of major. As Sergeant-major Park had taken a leave of absence to focus on training for a year now, he was fortunate enough to not be embroiled in the rebellion. He had now successfully broke through and would return to his post at the end of the year. Howard was given command of the artillery brigade and was promoted to major. Sergeant-major Jim wanted to take a leave of absence once he recovered to focus on training as well.

As the sun grew lazy in the sky, Lorist finally finished the plans. Jinolio knocked on the door as Lorist stretched.

"Baron Kriston requests an audience."

Chapter 493 - Tying Up Loose Ends

Kriston had come to submit his report on the Bureau of Internal Affairs -- as the department was now called. Lorist initially thought he was there to ask for a bigger budget and more manpower. But such was not the case.

"How did you come up with using the constabulary? I thought you'd want to form a new department."

"In the old empire, Krissen III felt the garrisons were useless and made mistakes too frequently, so he formed an independent constabulary to patrol the settlements and keep the peace. When Krissen VI came into power, he gave the constabulary charge of solving crimes and combating the spread of underworld syndicates.

"They were also later put in charge of taxes and spying on political enemies of the crown. They were pretty much what you want me to set up now. So I thought we might as well make use of a similar model. Plus, it won't take as long as setting the bureau up from scratch."

"Did you forget about the constabulary cage incident at the end of Krissen VI's reign? They were given too many responsibilities so it could do none of them effectively. The citizens had also become afraid and untrusting of them.

"When the cage incident happened, the entire city took to the streets. Even the nobles, who usually never got involved in protests, much less joined the commoners in doing anything, joined in and demanded the emperor disband the constabulary. The emperor was so furious when he learned what had happened that he executed three thousand of their leaders in a single day and banished every constable and their family from the empire. He only formed a similar organisation ten years later and explicitly limited their powers to managing the cities.

"It's not a bad idea, mind you, but I cannot let the constabulary get involved in anything other than just doing some basic peace-keeping. Do you know why I decided to form the Bureau?--" Kriston shook his head, "--I need an organization that'll keep enemy spies off my lands and out of my organizations. I need an organization that'll stop anything like this rebellion from even coming up as a thought for any of my subjects, subordinates, or vassals. And I need an organization independent of all the others that'll keep my officials in line and punish them if need be.

"Think of it this way: if the house is a great tree, then I want to make the Bureau a gardening that'll prune the tree and keep it growing properly. That'll cut off all the dead and rotting branches and nip any ill-growth in the bud. At the same time, however, it must not have the size and power to take large scale action on its own. It's fine to reprimand a few solitary officials, but if you need to tackle something that requires a reasonably sized force, then you can just contact the constabulary or the guard and have them deal with it."

More than anything else, Lorist wanted to avoid something like the constabulary cage incident. It was a well-known scandal on the continent. The constabulary had gained too much power and had become the de facto rulers of the capital -- for as long as they could keep the emperor ignorant of their doings. They accused people they disliked or that crossed them of treason left, right, and center, often hanging entire families from the gallows at a time. Countless rich merchants disappeared overnight, families included, their property and estates were seized, and the story would be spun as the constabulary successfully unearthing yet another conspiracy against the crown. People were so terrified they didn't even greet each other in fear of it being used as an excuse to kill them.

Some nobles came home from their studies in the capital telling stories of hearing wails all over the city at night, like ghosts haunting the streets in search of revenge, especially near the canals. A small group of them went in search of the cause of the wails one night. They stumbled through the underground network of sewage tunnels, following the noise, until they found a stuffy room. Inside it large iron-barred cages hung from the roof, each had a single occupant, most barely any more than a skeleton with skin.

They ran away as fast as they could, their faces looking much like ghosts as well, and told their instructors. The news quickly spread to the citizens, whom were in an uproar. The constabulary could detain people for questioning, but they had no authority to imprison anyone, and yet here they were, locking poor souls up in cages and letting them slowly starve to death and rot away.

The entire city was whipped into a furor and marched in the streets in protest, joined even by the nobles. This had all be done behind the emperor's back, and he was just as furious when he heard what had been going on. It only took two days for the entire constabulary to be uprooted, their leadership executed, and the rest banished from the empire. Unfortunately, whilst their expulsion rested the hearts of the capital's citizens, it didn't make the city any safer. Gangs and syndicates quickly rose to fill the power vacuum their absence created. Krissen VII was forced to reform the constabulary when he took the throne a decade later. It was all fine and well to limit the new constabulary's power as he did, but he didn't create other bodies to do the jobs the constabulary was no longer allowed to. With their vigilant gaze keeping rebellions and conspiracies at bay, the emperor's death years later plunged the empire into a civil was which lead to its eventual break-up.

The rejection took the wind out of Kriston's sails, but he didn't give up.

"Your Grace is right. We must learn from the past, but that's just it. We did. We know how to avoid such a future now. Using the constabulary as the base for the bureau is the fastest way."

"Don't get me wrong. I'm not against the idea completely. While I won't allow you to merge the two organizations, you're welcome to poach some staff from the constabulary. Rather than merging the two to make a massive, bloated new constabulary, just work closely together, making use of each organization's strengths.

"I have other plans for the constabulary. The Northlands now has 3.2 million inhabitants. We have a lot on our plate to keep them safe. I want to have the constabularies specialize in peacekeeping and law-enforcement. They operate in the open light of day to keep the dominion safe from those who conspire against it in the open. The Bureau, however, works in the shadows to fight those that conspire against me and my people in the darkness. D'you understand?"

"I do, Your Grace. The constabulary will work to keep us safe from small criminals and those that conspire in the open, while the Bureau works against those that move in the shadows or whom the constabulary can't touch. I'll go revise my proposal immediately."

"Hold on. I have another job for you." Lorist turned to his desk and took out a black folder.

"This has been troubling me for a while but I don't know how I to deal with it. Take a look. I want nobody to get wind of this. If you have any bright ideas, have Reidy help you out. Return the folder if you can't think of anything."

Kriston took the black folder and shuddered.

"I will think with something."

Lorist waved without a word. When he was alone in the study again, He sighed deeply, a conflicted expression on his face.

An eagle arrived from the bastide three days later carrying news of Irina's death. He had died from a sudden illness while under house arrest.

Lorist was too busy, so he sent Glacia to handle the funeral in his stead. He also had her bring his second son, Koboshik back with her.

The council meeting lasted five days and the military department's name was settled by the end. It would henceforth be called the Ministry of Defence. It was also decided that any mobilization of more than ten men without Lorist's personal order or the Ministry's stamp of approval would automatically be considered treason. Even people like Charade had to go through the ministry to get permission.

Besides the 220 thousand men who stayed in active service, the rest were declared either reserves or civil defence and lost their benefits and half their salaries. 240 thousand were moved to local garrisons, now classified as reserve forces. About two legions' worth of garrisons spanned the Northlands, and all the other territories under Lorist's jurisdiction each had a legion of their own which had to protect every settlement, not one man more was allowed to be hired. With these reforms Lorist had cut his armed personnel in half.

Spiel had finally won a small victory; the military spending was finally less than a third of the entire annual budget. His euphoria was quickly shattered by all the other officials' protestations. Charade, Camorra, and several other official were dead set against demilitarization.

Their biggest issue was with the constabulary's downsizing in both manpower and responsibilities. Yes, it had been involved in the rebellion, but they all considered it an indispensable part of the house's forces. It was the only force over which the administration institution had any control. The constabulary was also only ever used by the administration. They were never involved in any military actions. Lorist had nearly entirely forgotten they even existed.

"This cannot be avoided. I've thought about this a lot. We must separate the branches of the government. And we cannot let any branch be a threat to the role of the other. The constabulary has no need for its current size, it can do its new job just fine with the numbers I am willing to give it. Anymore just makes it a threat to the military, a threat I will not tolerate. If you really want them to stay as big as they are now, then they have to become part of the military, which would only create more needless bureaucracy.

"We'll move the responsibilities I took from them to the military police. With the separation, no administration's official can mobilize the garrison on his own authority. Each garrison, barring a special order from the Ministry of Defence or myself, will have no right to mobilize outside the towns and its surrounding farmland.

"Everything else will be handled by the military police. We'll set up constable stations and booths in the towns and city neighbourhoods manned by the constabulary. They are the only ones the administration will get to control."

Lorist also made it clear that the administration would be responsible for covering the cost of running the constabulary, not the military, as had been the case thus far. Kedan was given interim command of the constabulary until a permanent appointment could be made.

When the meeting ended, everyone jumped into action. They wanted as much as possible done before the new year's celebration. Lorist had no free time until the 11th month came around.

Glacia was back by then. Irina had apparently died from a heart-attack after hearing what had happened to her son. She'd cried in her room for days on end, literally crying herself into the grave. In that time she only opened her mouth to curse Lorist to hell and back. She'd died in the evening. She cried herself to sleep every night, but not before midnight came around. The guards, confused as to why tonight she fell asleep so early, peeked into the room, and found her lying on the floor. They didn't check any further since she had fell asleep like that a few times before. When her maidservant went to wake her the next morning, however, she found her cold as ice and blue as water, still lying on the floor exactly as the guards had seen her the night before. Glacia had checked the corpse herself, and there were no wounds anywhere on her body, not even a needle prick or insect bite.

Glacia wanted to adopt Koboshik. The kid was completely terrified, having lost both his mother and brother in less than a month. He wasn't even thirteen yet. Lorist agreed after some consideration.

Chapter 494 - Reinforcement

There were some things Lorist had to do, but couldn't let his three disciples handle. Though Reidy was loyal, he was far too straight-laced and dealt with things too straightforwardly. While Howard seemed like he could handle everything perfectly, Lorist didn't want to stain his hands, at least not this early in his life. Most of all, though, he didn't want Howard's impression of him to change. And Jinolio was simply still too young.

The other reason was that everyone knew they were his disciples. He had no plausible deniability if any of them were caught doing something. Their involvement in something immediately implicated him. He needed a pair of hands that were not associated with him that could be stained on his behalf, a pair of gloves, as it were. Tarkel was a suitable candidate, but he was too well-known. It was not at all uncommon for random people to recognise and call out to him whenever he was out and about.

Kriston was another candidate. He was neither well-known nor closely linked to Lorist personally. Also, his position as the head of the Bureau of Internal Affairs made such things part of his job description.

Kriston had visited the bastide on the day of Irina's death to investigate a drowning. They didn't finish in time to make it to the first town on the road back to the capital, so they stayed over for the night. He did not join his two subordinates in the tavern below to drink and make merry, but had his food brought up to his room instead. The waitress that took it up to him praised him as a gentleman on her return. She was a little baffled, though, at how the madam's nightly wailing didn't seem to bother him at all. When she asked him about it, he just said she had lost her mind after losing her child so he didn't want to make a fuss.

Moved by his compassion and understanding, the waitress almost jumped into his arms to hump through the night. Now back in the tavern, she was even considering waking him in the middle of the night to a beautiful moonlit surprise. For some unknown reason, however, she chose not to, and she was happy she did the next morning. Just imagine, she'd have been bobbing away whilst the madam was dying just a couple dozen meters away. The thought sent a shiver down her spine.

It had to be admitted, though, that the madam, for all her insanity, had picked the perfect time to kick the bucket. She died on the very night the biggest shot in crime investigation was staying in the bastide and could quickly solve the case.

Lorist took the folder from the baron and tossed it in the fire.  He didn't take his eyes off it until its ashes scattered up the chimney.

The peasantry were very disappointed by this turn of events. They thought the only reason Lorist had yet to execute his old flair was because he couldn't be bothered while he reorganized his forces. But they'd hoped he would get around to it eventually and give them a good spectacle. Why did the hag have to be so inconsiderate and die before the duke could deal with her properly? Everything was pointing in the direction of the lord executing her in a grand fashion. Her curses and wails had spread through the lands very quickly and everyone was waiting to hear about her dramatic execution, only to hear that she'd went and died of a heart attack.  God, how selfish.

Lorist buried everything in the darkest corners of his mind and abandoned the bastide all together. It might be the place his family had come from, but did orphans revere their shitty orphanage when they were adults? When Glacia asked what he was going to do with the bastide, he told her to let it sit for now. He would just give it to Helias when he graduated from the academy.

Helias, Lorist's nephew via his elder brother, would thus get the family's ancestral homeland.  Unlike his bastard cousin, the kid was revered and praised by everyone he met, even Lorist fancied him quite a bit. Leaving the bastide for him would be considered a great honor by both the kid and outsiders, and let Lorist rid himself of the place easily.

Glacia asked to be made commander of the garrison forces in Wild Husbandry. Most of the old garrison forces now banished from the Northlands were now in it and she wanted to once again be their leader. Lorist agreed but refused to let Koboshik go with her. She insisted however, saying that it could only do him good, and that, since he was now her foster son, Lorist could not stop her.

Lorist called for another house meeting near the end of the 11th month. This time the meeting dealt with the main projects and targets the house would be undertaking in the following year. The administration would mainly be occupied with settling the immigrants in The Northlands. They would also resume construction on the palace, delayed by the rebellion. Their new task was to build the various constable stations across the lands.

Camorra was now the head of the armory under the Ministry of Defence. The reconstruction of the artillery brigade and the establishment of the Bureau of Internal Affairs were not on the docket since they were secret matters.

Lorist returned to his room to relax a little once the meeting finished. Winter was coming. Apart from the household forces, most of the officials had already gone on break. Only the last vestiges of paperwork were left. Charade and Spiel would be in charge of the celebration so Lorist didn't have to worry about it.

Dilianna and Maria were pregnant again, so they were off his back, but Sylvia and his two other concubines rode him enough to compensate, determined to be pregnant by new years.

Two unexpected guests showed up with the arrival of the 12th month. Kenmays and Fisablen had travelled all the way from the plains across the kingdom for the celebration, well, officially, anyway. They'd actually come to get reinforcements.

Lorist suddenly remembered the kingdom was at war. News from the front-lines was grim. They were at a stalemate. The Union had launched five offensives in the last 7 months alone, three of which were repelled, but two of which had forced them to give up land for better defenses. They'd lost control of Krido and Ritt, Bluwek was their last stronghold in the region. If they lost that final city, they would be driven back to the empire's historical borders.

Kenmays was particularly sour. He only had a single legion, and it was the one Auguslo put in front of the enemy the most. He only had 18 thousand of his original 45 thousand left when he left the front-lines. His losses meant that, despite having made a lot of money from plunder, he only just broke even. As things stood, however, he was not going to get anymore wealth out of this since he couldn't plunder friendly territory -- and even if he did, it was already cleaned out -- and he was still losing men. If this continued, it would turn into a loss and he couldn't get out of it.

Whilst Kenmays had suffered pretty badly, he was not the only one with severe losses. Less than a dozen nobles still had more than half their starting forces. Shazin's two light infantry divisions were completely lost, and Felim's Pegasus only had a third of its original forces. Whilst Fisablen's two legions looked to be in a much better state, most of their men were new recruits; of the original soldiers, only a tenth were left, if even that.

"Is Auguslo intentionally trying to cripple his vassals?" asked Lorist.

Fisablen shook his head. Apparently even the king's legions had lost at least 50 of his original 300 thousand men, a full sixth of his army. That was before the last five attacks. He only had three legions left over when the two left.

"He's losing too many men too fast," sighed Fisablen, "All-in-all we've lost 200 thousand men. No one has not suffered and no one will not have it hard after the war is over, if it ever ends. We can still just barely afford the loss if we win, but that's not going to happen. The Union has the upper hand. If the king takes steps to withdraw they'll charge in and we'll lose.

As far as they're concerned we're the old empire reborn. They won't let us stay united. They'll throw peasants at us until we crumble, even if their cities are left empty. They won't even take a rest between attacks and plan their moves properly, they just keep throwing people at us hoping to bury us under their corpses."

"Aren't they suffering a lot as well?"
"Yes. They've lost at least 300 thousand, maybe even as much as 400 if you count people who died of their injuries. The problem is they can afford to take the losses, and they're fine with taking them. They're willing to rebuild everything from scratch, but they're not willing to let us live in peace. Their new territory has also seen centuries of peace so they have a good population they can afford to thin out.

"We're different. We've seen non-stop war for nearly a century. Our people are few and our land barren. We can't neither stomach so many losses nor replace them easily. Auguslo wouldn't have accepted your conditions otherwise. If he'd known this would turn into such a slugging match, he would not have started this war. Now he can't back out and he can't keep going. He's been forced to send his personal guard onto the field more than once recently. If this keeps up, the Union will really bury us under the corpses and just walk over them into the kingdom. And if they do, they'll turn every inch of land into a desert so we won't ever be able to recover.

"Auguslo's even willing to give back some of the land he currently controls to end the war, but the Union will have none of it. He's willing to give you jurisdiction over Yungechandler if you'll help us end this.

"What will I do with that place?"

"You've already invested in it under your agreement with Duke Forund, Lorist," Kenmays reminded, "While you never finished the work, you would still start off far better than if you worked on any other province."

"The Union's using inferior versions of your catapults. They're not as strong or effective as yours, but they can field them in enough numbers that it doesn't matter. They've been the main killers on the battlefield," Fisablen chimed in.

Chapter 495 - To Deploy or to Not Deploy

Lorist initially refused, but eventually agreed to give it serious consideration. He called another meeting of his confidantes the moment the two dukes left.

"Should we consider it?" he asked after explaining everything.

"Do we even need to discuss it? The Union doesn't know what's good for them. We should teach them a good lesson. They should just sit in Morante like good little boys and not bother us. Plus, we can make a good profit while we're at it!" Loze chimed in almost before Lorist was finished.

Then again, he was a freak for battle so it would be stranger if this wasn't his answer.

"No! We shouldn't. The king can't make a good offer and we've never had a close relationship with him. The Union knows how thorny we are and they'll be stretched to the breaking point by the time they reach our borders; I seriously doubt they've march into our territory. Our men and stability are worth much more than the king's throne and delusions of grandeur. Besides, as Your Lordship just said, the plains are meat grinders. If we march onto them, we'll just be throwing our men away and we might become just as embroiled as the king and be unable to withdraw," said Charade.

He'd never had a good impression of the king. He'd also not grown up in the empire and had no loyalty to it. His only loyalty was to Lorist personally. He had no issue with abandoning the kingdom altogether. Lorist, however, could not be so carefree. House Norton was famous for its loyalty, and -- until recently -- only for its loyalty. If he had any hopes of preserving his house's standing and legitimacy with the rest of the continent's nobility, he could not just stand by and watch the kingdom crumble.

Charade, however, however much he disliked the king, didn't support abandoning him purely based on his distaste for the man.

"Next year will be crucial," he explained, "If we don't settle the immigrants, complete the palace, and complete our restructuring, we will be unstable for years to come. We can't afford to divert attention and resources from these endeavors. We've also not yet fully healed the wounds from the rebellion. We can't afford to move our forces out of our territory, especially not whilst those that stay behind will be in disarray while we restructure. You also can't go on your own, we need you here to keep what remnants of the rebels have yet to be uprooted at bay and the peasantry calm. You've just returned from a year's absence and injury in this very war, the people will be restless if you go back now. If you must help the king, at the very least wait for a year or two."

Lorist saw through Charade's charade. He wanted Auguslo to suffer a lot more and be in a far worse state. That way they could extort him for much more benefits and he would not be in a position to meddle with them for several years. He would have been inclined to go along with it as well if this did not concern the whole kingdom and not just the king. If nothing else, Houses Kenmays, Shazin, and Felim were still in an alliance with him, he had to step in and help them.

"What do you think, Pog?"

"We'll have to take the field eventually, even if it's only when the Union is on our doorstep. If the king can't hold on, the Union will not stop until they've wiped out every man, woman, and child that call themselves subjects of the king or any of his vassals. If we wait until they're on the river banks, we'll have to face them alone. Best settle this far away from our lands while we still have allies that can stand on our flanks.

"At the same time, fighting on the plains is definitely not acceptable. That whole area has been trodden into mud and both sides are completely entrenched. We won't be able to break through there no matter what plan we come up with. Especially not now that the Union also has siege weapons -- as inferior to ours as they are."

"We have to teach those merchants a lesson, even if just for the fact that they dare march blademasters into your lands and steal your plans!"

Freiyar's fervour was understandable. Until recently he'd served as the sentry legion's general and was only involved in logistics and security. Now that he'd been moved to a combat legion and finally had the chance to go to war, he would naturally jump at the chance. Ovidis, similarly, also wanted to take revenge for the blademasters sent into Lorist's dominion. The merchants would only get the message that House Norton was not to be trifled with through a beating or two.

"Well said!" Loze chimed in happily.

Lorist shot him a glare, and he shut up. He motioned for another bottle of wine, which Jinolio quickly supplied.

"Spiel, what are your thoughts?"

"Potterfang is right. We cannot allow the Union to defeat the king and march on our lands. The best option is to keep the war on the plains. If things are going to get wrecked anyway, we might as well make sure it's in the Union's territory. If we can get Yungechandler in the process, all the better."

Lorist saw Spiel in another light. He did not think the stingy man could think so far ahead.

"The king didn't mention anything about covering our costs, though, so this will be a big investment. At the very least we'll have to clean out any land we occupy to lessen the burden."

Lorist rolled his eyes immediately.

I knew he had another angle. He really only sees coins. Does he really think we can do it again so easily? Even if we do break through and get onto virgin territory, the king won't let us just take whatever we want again.

"With the king and the Union bogged down on the plains, we could just go around them and march straight into their under-defended territory. We can both take some pressure off the king, and will have untouched land to clean out."

It sounds great, doesn't it? But does he really think Auguslo hasn't thought of trying it himself? I knew you weren't a genius when it comes to military matter, but you're a complete idiot! Why'd I even ask you?

Charade was currently the house's chief administrator, but he had extensive experience with war. He knew how obscene Spiel's suggestion was and didn't know how to respond. In the end he decided to explain everything to the old man.

"That won't work. At best we'll just move the front-line a little, at worst we'll be surrounded and lose all the men we marched across the border.

"We caught the Union off guard last time, but they'll be ready for us this time. Even when we caught them off guard, we still lost 20 thousand men. This time we could easily lose everyone."

The Union was present in the area in force and woefully outnumbered the king's forces. Their recruitment and training machinery was also in full swing. It wouldn't take them long to respond to the new enemy with overwhelming force. They'd either be crushed, or, if they pulled out in time, they wouldn't even have raided enough to cover their deployment costs.

Spiel turned red in the face. The Union was a far bigger foe than he'd thought. The Union outclassed them in every metric that counted in a grand and long war like this. If they joined the fight, they were doomed to suffer heavy if not total casualties, but if they didn't, they would smear their names with shit and ruin their reputation. Besides, even if they could keep the enemy off their land their economy relied heavily on trade with the lands outside their own. If they were cut off from their trade, they would crumble within a few years. Even if the Union didn't besiege them, they certainly wouldn't allow them to trade, which was no different. Even if they someone managed to not crumble, they would not be able to grow at a rate comparable to the Union, if at all, and in a decade or maybe even less the Union would be big enough to steamroll them.

"I've thought things through, Your Grace," Malek interjected, "We have to strike the Union a fatal blow in one move. I have one idea that might let us do this. I don't think it'll defeat them, but it should damage them enough that they have to stop their attacks and recover, and it might even do enough damage to force them back to the negotiating table, even if only to sue for status quo."

He pointed at the map.

"Impossible!" Loze shouted, "We can't even march around the enemy to strike right behind their front line, how are we supposed to strike at Morante?"

"Who said anything about going in over land?" Malek asked, "Tarkel said Morante is their logistics hub. We can get in, burn their stores, and be out again before they can react. And since it's a port city, we can go by sea.

"Senbaud always boasts about Northsea's invincibility -- even the king agrees. I suggest we move Northsea on Morante. We can burn the Union's Invincible Fleet on the way there as well, then pull back to Hanayabarta to resupply before returning to Silowas."

Chapter 496 - Invincible Fleet

Northsea fleet, Hidegold Bay; Invincible fleet, Morante...

Everyone was shocked by the suggestion. The room was so quiet you could hear a needle drop. Lorist raised his brow, considering the proposition. Malek's suggestion was far too shocking. Even Lorist didn't think Northsea could defeat Invincible and still have the momentum to go on to Morante. It wasn't that his foresight was lacking. Invincible was known for its perfect record.

When the Union first formed it, it was known simply as Union. Its purpose was to defend Morante from pirates and keep Hidegold Bay safe. Eventually, but the scope of their operations soon expanded to the trade routes through the sunshine seas and the golden coast. They curbed piracy in the territorial waters of other nations. It had not suffered a single loss in the century of its commission thus far and its name was changed to Invincible somewhere along the way.

The merchants clamored for a downsizing of the fleet and their military in general when the empire fell into civil war. They first cut the garrisons, but when they went after the fleet, the big-seven vetoed their motion and nothing happened. While they could reform their mothballed land forces in a matter of months in the event of war, it would take years to bring the fleet back up to strength.

Can we really do it?

Senbaud declared Northsea undefeated and Lorist was keen on agreeing but there was a difference between claiming invincibility and actually having it. They had indeed never lost a fight, but they'd never faced an established navy, and they were just two-thirds the size of Invincible. That said, they did have the bronze cannons...

But Invincible had a completely different operation protocol and structure. They had decades of experience. At least eight tenths of their sailors and marines at any given time were veterans. He heard of their exploits almost every six months back in Morante. The thought of facing them had never even crossed his mind.

Northsea wasn't meant to be a wartime fleet. They were formed only to patrol local waters and take on small bands of pirates. Their ships, training, doctrines and command structure was not meant for fighting large scale naval engagements against even a similarly sized fleet, nevermind one one-and-a-half times larger.

It wasn't that he didn't have any ambition. Grindia was a single, massive landmass. Whilst travel by sea was faster, it wasn't necessary, besides a couple of islands, you could get everywhere without ever having to use a boat. He'd never made his fleet big enough to fight Invincible because it didn't mean much against the Union's incredible influence in the world of trade. If they announced a boycott against Norton goods and trade, then even if he could dominate the seas, the ports would still refuse to dock his ships and it meant nothing.

A strong fleet was neither necessary nor sufficient to keep a nation safe. Nor was it needed for trade. It made trade faster, easier, and less expensive, but one could still do just as much trade over land.

This all made it a pointless endeavour to invest in Northsea. Lorist might as well toss the money directly into the sea for all the good it did him. He had an unspoken agreement with Chikdor to not meddle in each other's waters. Each had their territory and neither would make trouble for the other.

The two fleets were the most powerful to have ever existed, each with its own speciality.  Northsea excelled at mobility and immense ranged attack capabilities while Invincible used numbers and superior crew for close combat. Invincible did not sail into the northern seas because the ships they had weren't suited to the stormy conditions there. Northsea also did not enter the southern seas because it was uncharted territory and they didn't want to face Chikdor on its home turf. The only time the two interacted was during the yearly House Norton's annual meeting and Chikdor and Peterson's fleets docked at Silowas, during which many spices and daily necessities would be traded. In some sense, the two guilds treated House Norton as a supplier. The two completely withdrew when the war started, however.

Northsea had 16 Blitz class warships were fitted with bronze cannons, 28 LLDAM, 56 MSM class and 26 Swift class. They were split into two flotillas and a patrol detachment. The flotillas each had a unit with 20 LLDM class because Northsea was also in charge transporting daily necessities to Hanayabarta and spices from Shyarsia. They had to escort the merchant fleets to the two archipelagos every year.

The great majority of Northsea's power was vested in the 16 Blitz class ships. The rest were almost entirely transport vessels. The fleet's combat detachment was far smaller than Invincible's. They had a good chance of winning if Invincible fought them in the north, but those chances dropped drastically the moment they went south.

"Tarkel, briefing them on Invincible's status. Jinolio, check the logs. See when your father will arrive for the celebration."

"Understood, Your Grace."

Tarkel took out a few files on Invincible.

"Invincible was formed 136 years ago with just 20 vessels. Now it has enough ships to fill four Northsea-style flotillas. It has at least a thousand ships. There is no fleet that can compare. It has a force of about 43 thousand men. Its operating cost stands at two million gold Fordes a year. And it's mostly responsible for patrol and escort duties in the sunshine seas and the golden coast. They charge a fifth of profit as tariff for their protection. We have on record two instances of noble fleets in their area of operations being attacked and wiped out by pirates, but we suspect Invincible to be the true culprits.

"Chikdor is in direct command of the fleet and take four tenths of the fleet's profits. The rest is split between the other big guilds. As for the fleet's structure, it is split into several flotillas. Each has two floating fortresses, known as Sabnim class vessels. They are only deployed when the fleet plans to annex a location.

"Each flotilla also has 50 LLDAM and MSAM class vessels and at least a hundred rammers. The small ships form the largest part of their combat operations. They're typical approach is to swarm the enemy and ram into them. If they want to wipe out a fleet, they'll just keep ramming the hips until they sink. If they want to take the ships intact, they'll ram into the ship and deposit their contingents of marines.

"In dire situations they have used the small ships as fire ships.

"Each flotilla has ten thousand crew and armed personnel. Civilian detachments, mainly traders and transport vessels and their crew add another 10 to 20 thousand. Whilst their assignments change from year to year, they always have at least on flotilla at Hidegold Bay--

"You mean the ships in the bay is only a quarter of the whole fleet?!" Lorist shouted.

"This is would be the case under normal circumstances. We're at war now though. While I don't know how much of their fleet is now in Hidegold, it's definitely not just one flotilla."

Lorist nodded. He was just about to speak when Jinolio returned.

"I've checked the logs and Admiral Senbaud left Silowas five days ago. He's expected to arrive in Northsea tomorrow and be in Ragebear in three days."

"You little rascal. He's your father; why call him 'Admiral Senbaud'?" Lorist asked, stroking the child's head.

"This is a formal meeting. You were the one that said private and official matters must not be confused."

"Hahaha," Lorist laughed, "Let's end it here for the day. It goes without saying that this is confidential and top secret. I'll speak with Senbaud about Malek's idea when he arrives. We can make our final decision with Senbaud's input. Dismissed."

Senbaud entered Lorist's study, the snow still perched on his shoulders.

"I can sink Invincible any day you want me to!" he proclaimed when he heard the plan.

Chapter 497 - Northsea

The cold breeze carried flecks of snow. The ships oscillated non-stop with the waves. The northern seas were the most terrifying in winter. Black dominated the world, a black abyss beyond the edge of the deck. The cold froze to the bone. Even the inside of the ship was never more than cool.

Senbaud stood undaunted at the helm of the ship, gazing into the black beyond like a king over his lands.

A decade. A full decade had come and gone since he swore fealty to His Lordship. For ten years he'd sailed in the cold, chasing pirates not much different from his former self. Barely not rotting away on Silowas and the surrounding waters. Now. Now, ten years after his fate changed, it was finally time to prove his loyalty, to show the extent of his skills, to demonstrate his worth to his liege.

He'd finally been given land and title by His Lordship. A reward for his years of service. His hands clenched when he thought about that night, to the promise His Lordship had made, almost casually, as he saw him off.

"If you pull this off, you'll come back a viscount."

God, wouldn't that be great? He would become the only knight under His Lordship to have risen to viscount.

"Invincible, we're finally going to have a good showdown. Let's see who's the real unbeatable one..."

Come on, Silowas, come on! Faster, faster! He would have loved to sail straight for Morant from Northsea, but he had to stop and stock up, and pick up eight Blitz class in Silowas. He was determined that he would not stay for more than three days though.

Loze, Freiyar, Josk, and the rest all look down on me. They think the only thing this old pirate can do is kiss His Lordship's ass. They think I sent Jinolio to buddy up to His Lordship. Hah! Do they really think His Lordship would have accepted him if he wasn't talented enough? They're just jealous! His Lordship didn't accept Freiyar's twins, now did he? I'll show them! I'll wipe Invincible out and lord over them as their senior noble! Just try and mock me and Northsea then!

A waved crested and crashed into the ship's flank, shaking the deck. Senbaud stood firm; his legs were long used to this. His gaze lifted to the sails, bulging in the wind. If the wind got any stronger, they'd have to lower the sails to keep them from tearing.

"Blow the horn! Remind the others to be alert! We'll reach Silowas tomorrow! I don't want any accidents!"

The wind wailed and howled across the deck and around the ships as eight black silhouettes cut through the black night.

Flagfish Ridge was Northsea's headquarters. The curled deep into the ocean, creating a small bay of calm water where the fleet sat at anchor. Senbaud jumped onto the jetty from his small row boat and headed for the castle. The few on guard shivered in the cold. They saluted him stiffly as he passed.

Inside, soothed by the relative warmth, he cuddled up to the fireplace, an open barrel of rum beside him and a dozen sausages on a plate, ready to be grilled over the fire, on the table on his other side.

"Why'd you come back so quickly? I thought you'd want to keep warm with the wife a little longer. I thought you said you were going to be made a noble. I thought you'd go look at your territory after the celebration and only come back after winter ended," a towering man grumbled as he stepped into the room. It was Tok, the second flotilla's commander -- a fellow former pirate.

"I was, and I would have, old friend, but we have a job to do. A change to not just gain glory that'll outstrip all the others', but to make history. To do something so huge our names will be sung in shanties for hundreds of years to come!

"I didn't hand in your request for leave. They wouldn't have allowed it, anyway. You'll only get it after we're done with this job. And trust me, you don't want to miss this!"

"Really?" Tok shrugged casually, "Let's hear it, then. I don't mind delaying a little if it's worth it. You sure you want to sail in this weather though?"

"Yes. We won't be in this weather for long though. We're heading for Hidegold Bay!"

"What?!" Tok dropped his chicken, "Does His Lordship know about this?!"

Chikdor and Peterson stopped all trade the moment they heard about Lorist wiping out Wessia. They didn't even bother to pay the 450 thousand gold Fordes' debt they still had. Senbaud had submitted requests to go take the money from Hidegold Bay several times, but was always refused. His Lordship thought the peace treaty would be signed quickly and trade would resume.

When the negotiations failed, Senbaud again asked to go and take the money several times, but with His Lordship's whereabouts unknown he couldn't leave, and later when the rebellion started leaving was even further out of the question.
Now, however, rather than Senbaud again submitting a request, His Lordship had ordered him to move out.

"Yes. In fact, it was his idea this time."

"Great! I'll ring the bell and gather the men! Let's show those monkeys who's boss!"

The two sides were not without their friction. While they had unofficially divided the ocean between them, Northsea's men weren't happy that Invincible had claimed the Sea of Grief, which was part of the north. But they couldn't do anything since Invincible insisted on holding on to it to keep Hidegold Bay safe. They'd tried numerous times to dislodge Invincible with small skirmishes, but they wouldn't budge, and they couldn't engage them with full force without permission from His Lordship. Invincible operated as if they thought they were the ones letting Northsea keep hold of the north only because they couldn't be bothered to clean them out.

Last summer, for example, two Invincible LLDAMs were out on patrol and tried to run into one of their ships. They could easily have avoided the collision, but they just kept their course. The men aboard the Northsea ship would have sunk them if only they weren't forbidden from firing their cannons unless openly attacked.

The bell rang loudly. Mountains of muscle soon burst through the doorway. When Senbaud announced their mission, they roared uncontrollably. Some even turned around and punched the men behind them.

"Tok and I will lead twelve Blitzes. Eight LLDAMs will follow with supplies. Well man each Blitz with a hundred corsairs. The other four will stay here and keep the peace. Don't worry. You won't be the first wave, but you'll get your chance. It's still mid-winter; we have all the time in the world.

"Those of you not taking part in this first attack will return to Northsea. Your ships will be overhauled and fitted with cannons. We'll keep harassing the enemy and keep them on the back foot until you're done. I want the big fight to be in the 4th or 5th month when you're all ready.

"We have 200 cannons to work with, so, while you won't match our Blitzes, you'll still have more than enough firepower. The men have to be able to fire blind once the training's done, you understand?"

"Understood!"

"You'll all get to join the fight, so don't worry. Concentrate on getting used to using the cannons, I won't have any mistakes, misfires, or friendly fire during the battle, you hear?!"

"Yessir!"

"Alright, go get the men ready and make your preparations, you leave tomorrow."

When the captains heading back to Northsea had left, Senbaud began his briefing.

"Our first target is the patrol ships in the sea of grief. There're still quite a few of them out despite it being winter. We'll sink them all.

"Our second target is Eilniba. It's the closest to Hidegold Bay and an important hub for ships going north. Everything sailing up from Morante has to stop there to resupply before sailing further north along the Golden Coast to Hidegold Bay. After we sink the patrols, we'll go around the bay and blow up the city's port. It'll cut the enemy fleet off from supplies. We'll also seal off the entire region. I don't want a single ship to pass us by!"

"Admiral, why don't we just rush into the bay and sink the fleet?" asked Tok.

"Are you out of your mind? You want to sail right into their trap? D'you know how many ships are docked there? We don't even have enough cannonballs and gunpowder on board to sink them all even if they don't move. No. We'll fight them on the open seas outside the bay when the time comes."

Chapter 498 - The First Encounter

Sylode was a newly minted captain. Thirty years had passed since he started sailing when he was 15, working his way up the chain of command step-by-step he was now finally a captain in Invincible. Who knew how much hardship he had gone through on the seas? He recalled that others called him an idiot for volunteering. But when he was officially included in the fleet's long-term roster, people envied him. He was only 30 when that happened, however the owner of the grocery shop in the street where he lived wedded his then-17-year-old daughter to him without hesitation. Sylode had two cute children.

His first command was an LLDAM vessel. Success was a simple affair. All it took was decades of hard work, following orders obediently, and handing out valuable gifts to curry favor with the right people. He never complained or cursed for having to go out on a mission in the middle of winter when everyone else was resting. He just nodded and made his preparations. Sailing in such cold stormy weather was risky, and he had to pay attention to the smallest details.If his luck were good, he would arrive at his destination without problems despite the weather.

His patrol path took him around the sea of grief in a wide circle before he returned to port. The sea of grief wasn't barren in winter; patrols came across a few ships from time to time. Everyone knew most of them were smugglers. Though Andinaq and the Union were at war, smuggling still persisted. The harder the two sides fought, the more egregious the smuggling got.

The captains didn't bother them, however. As long as they had the right colors, they were of no concern. It was known as 'having the colors'. Merchant captains paid several gold coins to loan a flag from the fleet that showed they had permission to sail in their waters. The flag had to be returned when they returned to port, or within a certain amount of time, whichever came first. It was a red flag with a single blue line from bottom mast to top fly. The end of the flag nearest the mast to which it was fixed was called the mast, and the end of the flag that flapped freely in the wind was called the fly. So a line that ran from bottom mast to top fly, ran from the bottom corner near the mast to the top corner flapping in the wind. As long as a ship flew that flag, they could sail unmolested in waters under Invincible control, and was entitled to their protection.

The best kind of find to make, thus, was not a smuggler that had the colors, but a smuggler without it, any ship without it, for that matter. If such a find was made, everyone would get a nice bonus. Ships captured at sea without the colours could be dealt with however the flotilla wished. Most would sell it and distribute the reward as a bonus among the crews. It didn't matter if it was a smuggler ship or the ship of some noble.

Fire crackled in a brazier in the middle of the captain's cabin. Sylode granted himself this luxury, he had earned it with his years of hard work, after all. A captain was entitled to his luxuries. Sylode wasn't content with his current station, however. He wanted to earn a title and a fief before his retirement. It was much easier to get a fief and a title in the Union that in any of the traditional aristocracies. Here, with enough wealth and the right connections, anyone could buy a title and a bit of land. Elsewhere, one could only serve one's lord loyally and hope they rewarded one with a bit of land and a title.

"Ship! Black ship! They fly the Raging Bear!" shivering voice descended from the black abyss above the ship.

Everyone was excited. Oh, they would make a great haul today! The Union had given permission, nay, ordered them to attack any Norton vessel they came across.

"Hahaa... So the rat came out of its hole at last!"

It seemed this had been good rather than bad luck. This was yet another silver medal for him. He just hoped it wasn't a mouse. They were impossible to capture.

When he stepped into the deck, the voice descended from the abyss again.

"It's not just one ship! I count twelve five hundreds marks away! They're coming straight for us! Alert!"

"Battlestations!" Sylode roared.

Five hundred marks was a kilometer. So they were coming for a fight, huh? At this distance it would be ten minutes before the fighting began, more than enough time to get ready. His gaze lifted to the abyss above him. The weather was perfect for a fight.

WHen he didn't hear any more reports, his frowned.

"Bastard, finish your report!"

"I did! Twelve black ships--"

"Only twelve?"

"Eye, captain! Just twelve! Four hundred marks yonder now!"

What're they thinking? They have 16 black ships, if they're finally moving to confront the fleet, then why bring only 12? Has the black fleet lost their rudder?

The men called House Norton's fleet the black fleet because they refused to acknowledge them. The seas belonged to Invincible, everyone else was just an imposter. As far as they were concerned, they were no different from noble-backed pirates.

Their 16 warships were said to be armed with dwarven cannons. A few patrols had seen one of them spewing flames and sinking a pirate ship. Sylode wasn't worried about it, however, because according to the people that saw it, the black ship could only hit its target from 50 or so meters. Even then their first volleys missed. That was even worse than their own catapults.

House Norton's black ships themselves however did interest the fleet somewhat. They had a weird ship in the middle of their formations with certain unique characteristics. For one, they could sail quite easily in the stormy north. But, when their shipwrights told them one cost at least six times as much as an LLDAW (large long distance armed warship), they lost interest. The fleet made a lot of money every year, but most of it had set recipients. It could not afford such a lavish expense.

Maybe I can capture one. If I can take it back to be checked out, and maybe even ask to be given one as my next command, I will be a lot closer to getting a title. We will win. We have twelve daws and 24 saws (moderate swift armed warship).

Sylode didn't drop his guard though. He thought the enemy commander had probably lost his rudder, he couldn't be careless. It wasn't that the black ships didn't have any chance of victory at all. If all twelve carried a hundred corsairs, they could still overwhelm his men.

Each patrol had at least twelve LLDAWs and 24 MSAWs. Half of the LLDAWs were fitted for close combat, the other half for ranged combat.

They may be trying to board us, Sylode smirked coldly, We've seen all sorts of situations. Do you think that'll work on us?

"Blow the horn! Have the saws split off and hold the flanks! Have six daws move forward and screen the centre. Avoid close combat for now! We'll move in to board when the enemy's crippled!"

The horn echoed across the black water soon after in a long series of blasts. When it was done it repeated. When it finished, Sylode ship, the Seahorse, a ranged LLDAW, led the charge. He stood on the deck like a mast and watched the crew prepare the stone slingers and ballistae.

When the twelve black ships were only 150 marks away, they suddenly turned broadside, exposing the port sides of their vessels.

What's going on?! Are they trying to flee? We're too close for that to work, aren't we? Even if they turned around and fled as fast as they could, the turn would cost them time and burn speed. They could not get away. Even the greenest captain knew this. If they wanted to flee, the best would be to charge through the enemy formation so they were the ones that had to turn around and bleed their speed.

He was still trying to figure out what they were thinking when dozens of windows suddenly appeared on the ships' sides. Moments later white smoke burst out of the windows.

Their cannons! But they can't hit us from that far, can they?!

The mast in front of his suddenly exploded into splinters. A moment later a cascade of bangs blasted into his ears as the sounds of the enemy's cannons finally caught up. The rest of the mast fell slowly, like a tree being felled in the forest, and crashed into the water. The rest of his ship's sails were shredded and their tatters danced in the wind.

The shockwave nearly toppled Sylode as he shielded his eyes and was showered with splinters. The ship immediately started slowing down and turning due to the mast dragging in the water on one side like a giant oar. His helmsmen was not as lucky as he and rolled on the ground grabbing his eyes, hundred of small cuts all over his face and several splinters stuck in his skin.

Just as the ship got back on course, the enemy's ships spewed white smoke again. The ship shook and splinters exploded everywhere again. An instant later the bangs echoed across the deck again. When his hearing recovered, he heard men wailing like dying dogs. He opened his eyes and saw his ship shattered. The deck was in tatters, the railings had dozens of holes in them, chunks of wood lay splattered across the deck and thousands of splinters covered it like snow. Here and there he could see splashes of red and the odd limb. A few men were rolling in the mess, some clutching stumps where once there were arms, others hold their intestines in their hands, and yet other clasping pieces of wood embedded in various places in their body. Two fist sized metal balls rolled across the deck, covered in blood, linked by a chain.

Seahorse wasn't the only one struck, either. Wails echoed from all six of the ships in the lead. The two further to port were on fire, their lamps toppled by the shocks and explosions, spilling their oil onto wood and rope, which quickly caught fire. The Octopus, the ship directly to starboard of the Seahorse had also lost its middle mast. It's however, had collapse backward onto the helm, crushing the captain, his helmsman, and the wheel. The ship was completely immobilised and out of control now.

The ships on the very flanks and to the rear were untouched and continued the charge. The 24 MSAWs sped through the floundering LLDAWs and moved in to screen them. The six remaining LLDAWs moved forward after them, charging straight for the enemy.

For several hours following that, he watched his flotilla get ripped apart. The enemy would sail away until they'd opened up enough distance, turn, fire a broadside, and sail away again. The scene was burned into his mind and haunted his nightmares.

The enemy's cannons roared across the sea further and further away. His men had no choice but to watch their comrades get torn to shreds and their ships explode in splinters with every volley. When they could no longer see the enemy, they just winced with every volley. The enemy didn't just hit the sails and decks of the other ships, they tore into the body of the ship. Most sunk, the worst kind of death sentence out here in the cold waters. And none of them could do anything.

The black silhouettes soon re-appeared on the horizon, like giant black demons. They sailed past the six crippled ships and chased down the running MSAMs. For several hours more roars sounded. Everything went quiet eventually. No one on the ship cried in pain or moaned either, they'd all died, and everyone else just stared at the horizon where the ships had vanished.

The black silhouettes eventually appeared again and came for them. This was it. Their end. Sylode knew he'd never see his wife or daughter again.

"Quick, hoist the white!" he suddenly yelled.

"What?!" his quartermaster yelled.

"Quick! Hoist the white! I'm saving your lives! If you don't want to be fish food, hoist the damned white!"

Chapter 499 - The Second Naval Battle

On the 17th day of the 1st month, Year 1790, Invincible's patrol flotilla heading to the sea of grief was attacked by Northsea and sunk. Captain Sylode surrendered six LLDAWs and nine MSAWs. This was the start of Invincible's fade into obscurity.

In the evening the 20th, Admiral Senbaud attacked Einiba. They sunk the 500 merchant vessels in the harbor and defeated Invincible's third flotilla. The fleet was completely unprepared. They did not think Northsea would be daring enough to strike their home port so deep in their territory. Most of the flotilla's men were ashore and could only watch as their ships were sunk.

Not even Senbaud thought everything would go so smoothly. His men couldn't stop laughing and kept joking around for hours afterwards.

The port was engulfed in flames. They had to stop firing after a while so the cannons could cool down, so Senbaud had the ships close in so they could use their backup catapults. The ships moved without hesitation. When the ships left, the entire city was burning. The flames didn't die down for two weeks. They left nothing but ash and cracked stone in their wake. The ships that arrived after the attack could only drift outside the port and watch the blaze from a distance. One or two ships tried to beach themselves nearby so their crew could help put out the fire, but were forced to turn around when gusts of wind blew sparks dangerously close to the sails.

The attack, the first port burning by sea -- soon called the Burning of Einiba -- instantly made the fleet and its admiral famous. Few people actually died, only a couple thousand, but the Union's material losses were enormous. And put the Union in a terrible position. The surviving sailors were forced to walk back to Morante and so were out of commission for several weeks. The ships burned in the harbor carried the weapons and armor intended for the next wave of reinforcement destined for Southern, which meant they had to be deployed unarmed and armored. It also didn't just destroy Invincible's reputation, but also the trust merchants had in them. Those who lost ships in the port and in the encounters with Northsea out at sea blamed Invincible and called them incapable and inept. Some even demanded outright compensation.

The city's inhabitants refused to leave their carcass of a city, which forced the Union to divert resources to tide them over for the winter. This one, single burning, the actual attack of which lasted only half a day, cost the Union at least 20 million gold Fordes. But the damage went far beyond monetary and resource loss. Without the port the Union couldn't adequately resupply the front line. Even worse, it shook their confidence and morale. And things only got worse.

They soon heard that a patrol flotilla had gone missing in the sea of grief, and rumours started trickling in of merchant ships going missing up and down the Golden Coast. A few incidents were even reported further south than Morante. The higher-ups didn't believe the last could possibly be Northsea, but after what happened in Einiba, they couldn't be sure. They were suddenly fighting an enemy that appeared to be popping in and out of existence everywhere.

The Union had gone from controlling most of the known world's oceans, to controlling only the port in Morante in a couple of days. At the very least the entire Hidegold Bay region was silent, as if it'd vanished off the face of the world. Any ship that sailed north of the ghost city vanished. And most of them carried much-needed supplies.

The plains could not hold without their supplies. The two years of war had stripped the plains clean, no crops were left in the field their forces could requisition, no rivers had any drinkable water left, no fruit tree or berry bush had not been picked clean. Their forces there were completely reliant on supplies shipped or carted in from elsewhere, and most of it was moved by ship. The forces could be kept alive by land supplies, but it was only barely enough to keep them from starving, not enough to keep them in fighting condition.

The Union had to retake the seas, only, they didn't have the manpower. The first flotilla was wintering in Jigda, and the second was wintering in Chikdor's new dominion. The first could not be pulled because they were there at Jigda's request, and moving them would break their agreement. The second could also not be moved because Chikdor's dominion was the source of most of the supplies heading to the front, and their coasts were rife with piracy, if they moved the fleet they would only be worsening their supply situation, not solving any problems.

The third flotilla didn't exist anymore, burned with Einiba and, though the crews were mostly alive, they had no ships. The fourth was on station in Hidegold Bay, but they were already engaged with Northsea, and had lost a flotilla of their own already. The biggest problem for the fourth was that they didn't know how to face their enemy. They didn't know how big their fleet was, but they clearly had enough strength to wipe out a patrol. How many should they mobilize, then? If they sent everything out, and the enemy could fight them, they'd only be destroying the flotilla. If they sent out less, but they weren't enough, they'd be whittling themselves down.

Most of the crews knew this, and many refused to sail unless the entire flotilla moved, some even refused to sail at all, regardless of whether the entire flotilla sailed together. By the second month, however, they'd finally come to a decision and convinced everyone to follow it. They sailed out of the bay to have a decisive battle with Northsea and let the gods of the sea decide the victor.

They sent out a different force than normal. They deployed all their ships save their two Subnims and their ramming ships, which stayed behind to protect the bay. They wouldn't be worth much in a confrontation with Northsea anyway since they couldn't sail well in the stormy winter sea in the north.

The second clash between the two fleets took place not long after. They came across the captured merchant vessels heading for Silowas a day after leaving the bay, escorted by just four Blitzes. They sent out 39 LLDAWs -- 28 of which had a hundred corsairs on board -- 83 MSAWs, and a blademaster.

The commander split the force into three waves, three kilometers apart. They knew from the one or two ships that had seen the burning of Einiba and survived, that Northsea only had 20 ships in the region, which operated in four contingents.

The day was dark, the black sky peppered with the occasional snowflake. The darkness blinded by the vicious rocking of the ship in the waves and the darkness. The two sides only noticed one another when they were 400 marks apart.

When the merchant vessels noticed the flotilla, they immediately swung out and ran strait for them. The Northsea contingent's commander made a grave mistake in that moment. Rather than immediately fire at the approaching enemy, he shot at the fleeing merchants instead.

The chaos destroyed the fourth's formation and they suffered heavy casualties as they tried to avoid the merchants. Things soon cleared up, however. The first wave was ordered to keep the enemy busy while the rest of the flotilla surrounded them. They new Northsea couldn't match their numbers, so they were willing to pay any price to sink the enemy. Unfortunately, they severely underestimated their enemy, for which they paid dearly.

The first volley aimed at the flotilla destroyed three LLDAWs. Another lost its masts and was dead in the water, though in no danger of sinking. A dozen MSAWs managed to close in, however, and started fighting the enemy's LLDAWs at close range. Those enemy ships weren't armed with cannons, only the usual ballistae, which the flotilla could match. Two of the four enemy LLDAWs were soon smoking.

"More enemy ships! They're six hundred marks away on our flanks!" cried a lookout.

Though his telescope increased his range, it was almost completely negated by the rough seas and the darkness. Though he noticed the second wave further than the first, it was still too late to pull out.  Right at that moment, however, several of the ships shuddered in explosions of splinters. Moments later a blur of booms echoed across the ocean. The lookout didn't even need to check to know who it was. Senbaud had arrived with the rest of the contingent.

Another volley from the four black ships wiped out the rest of the first wave. Six MSAWs were limping away. In exchange, however, Northsea's contingent had lost three LLDAWs.

"Give chase!  Sink every last ship!" Senbaud shouted.

His voice had barely faded when the lookout shouted.

"Enemy ships to port! More than 30! Currently 700 marks and closing!"

Moments later he shouted again.

"Another thirty to starboard! Six hundred marks and closing!"

It's a trap!

"To port! Broadside to the ship forward! Break through the encirclement!" the admiral ordered.

The fourth flotilla's commanders had predicted the enemy wouldn't give up easily, but they didn't think their cannons would pack such a punch and have such a range. The first wave was reduced to splinters in just a couple of volleys. The two enemy detachments were separated from one another however, and flotilla's blademaster was slaughtering his way across one of the encircled black ships' deck.

A few minutes later the other back ship was boarded as well.

"Turn broadside on our captured ships!  We must not let the enemy take them!" Senbaud ordered.

Invincible did not expect the enemy to fire on their own ships even before they had completely fallen. The two ships were quickly reduced to rubble, and the flotilla's only blademaster was dragged down with them.

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Chapter 500 - Conclusion of the Battle

The historical 'Clash of 218' was the second engagement between Northsea and Invincible. After the battle, Invincible declared itself victorious. Northsea did not contest.

The fleet announced they'd freed the thirty ships Northsea had captured and destroyed two of their black ships and four LLDAWs. What they didn't announce, however, were the losses on their side. If one considered losses, while Northsea got a slap in the face, they came out much better and might even be considered the overall victors. Of the just over one hundred ships Invincible deployed, fewer than 50 returned, and most needed months in drydock. The flotilla didn't send out a single ship for the rest of winter and the entirety of the rainy season. They lost 7000 men and a blademaster. The entire flotilla was now combat-ineffective and out of the fight.

No one expected Northsea to be so ferocious. They sunk their own ships when they were in danger of falling to the enemy, they didn't even wait to confirm that they had indeed fallen. Just a hint of the possibility was enough to make them fire on their own. The loss of their blademaster was a blow almost equal to all the ships and men they lost. While they technically won the battle, because the enemy was forced to retreat, in terms of losses, they were the clear loses.  Pyrrhic victory could not even describe this. If this went on, they'd lose the war even if they won every battle along the way.

The battle was over, but nobody expected the enemy admiral to leave things at that. This was a massive humiliation to Northsea. And indeed, the enemy admiral struck almost immediately. He charged at them as soon as the two remaining black ships joined the rest of the contingent. His contingent couldn't match the flotilla in numbers, but they had ranged superiority and, without being encircled, the speed and agility to keep their distance while they fired.

Knowing that they couldn't win unless they encircled the enemy, the fourth flotilla pulled back to the bay, but were dogged all the way and lost a number of vessels along the way, with many more severely or moderately damaged.  Not a single ship got back to port without some damage.

They did try the take out their pursuers halfway home, but the same tactic couldn't work on their enemy a second time. Shortly before they reached the bay, their pursuers changed tactic. The contingent split into three groups, on continued to chase them from behind, whilst the other two caught up along their flanks. The ships got into position, then closed to just within firing range, fired a volley, and retreated. The flotilla was on the brink of collapsing entirely, and were even preparing to raise the white, when Northsea ran out of gunpowder and was forced to withdraw.

The only real victory for the flotilla was their freeing of the captured merchants and sinking a couple of enemy ships. The freed merchants had some supplies onboard, and, while not enough to solve the military's problems, could take the worst edge of for a couple of days. Word finally reached Chikdor that the merchant ships weren't just being sunk, but taken by their enemies, supplies and all, and they stopped sending any ships at all.

The Union understood they had to finish off Northsea before they could use the seas again, so the bit the bullet and mobilized the second flotilla as well as Chikdor's personal fleet. They would also send every ship capable of sea travel north loaded to the brim with supplies under the flotilla's escort. If possible, they would conquer, or at the very least blockade Silowas.

Shortly before the fleet was to set sail, however, the fourth flotilla's report made it to the leaders. Every surviving captain had signed his name to it. It said that they stood no chance against Northsea. The report detailed meticulous the engagement. Most shocking was the black ship's range and destructive power and their willingness to sink their own ships to keep them out of enemy hands. Second was their maneuverability. Ships of any size were as mobile as ships one or even two classes smaller.

The only even remotely viable tactic was to swarm them with smaller ships, but those ships couldn't brave the rough north, so they only stood a chance in the south where the waters were calmer. The report concluded with a request of funds to research similar weaponry.

The leaders laughed bitterly. They knew of the cannons for a year already. Their blademasters sent into Norton territory brought back blueprints and news. Unfortunately, the cannons were too heavy to transport, and they none of the blueprints they had contained anything on the cannons. Even if they had them, they neither had the recipes for the metal they used, nor for the propellant. They'd hoped to solve at least the gunpowder problem by relying on the dwarves, but their negotiations had been less than smooth. They also didn't have the funds to rebuild the flotilla.

The Union was rich, but war was expensive, and it had been at war constantly for almost a decade and it had been unable to trade for several years prior to that. It was nearly bankrupt. It didn't have a single spare penny to rebuild any ship it lost, they could barely even afford to repair the damaged ones. They had only one option. They had to through every ship they had at the enemy and sink their ships. Even if they lost every last of their own ships in the process, at the very least they wouldn't have to worry about attacks by sea for several years thereafter and could focus on the war on land.

As long as they could conquer Silowas, they could write House Norton off for several years. The island and its ports were their headquarters, and its dry-docks were where all their ships were made. Without it they would lose the seas. Without their dry-docks, House Norton would never be able to build up at a pace matching the Union, who would control every other inch of coastline, and every dock outside Andinaq.

Their plans made, the Union deployed both the first and second flotillas. The two would meet up outside Morante before heading north together. They would escort the merchant convoy to Hidegold Bay before heading for Silowas with whatever was left of the fourth flotilla. Since they couldn't match Northsea ship for ship, they would just sink them with numbers.

Senbaud arrived at Silowas at about the same time as the Union settled their plans. His campaign was a massive humiliation, for himself, the fleet, and his lord. The shame nearly made him fling himself overboard several times on the way back. The only thing that kept his feet planted on the deck was his determination to clean up the mess. Killing himself and leaving this mess to his subordinates and his lord would only bring further shame.

He wanted to set out the moment the ships restocked their gunpowder stores and flatten Hidegold Bay, but the rainy season, known as the Season of Storms by sailors, started. He could not move the ships out. He also had to repair his ships, and it was time for their annual drydock maintenance. He spent the season locked in his office and study, studying sea charts and history books, planning his revenge.

Chapter 501 - Lorist's Preparations

The rain poured continuously.

"We'll rendezvous at Armatrin Harbor," Lorist said as he tapped the red dot on the map with his wooden pointer, "You know this was our first stop on our way north with the convoy. Armatrin is the only port within Lormo."

The meeting room was quite empty. Only Charade, Spiel, Kedan, Malek, Camorra, Terman, and Reidy were present. Apart from Spiel, Kedan, and Camorra, the rest went all the way back to the days of the convoy.

"I picked Armatrin because it's only a day and a half away from Hidegold Bay, and only two from the front-lines. Even if Northsea can't destroy Invincible as planned, it won't stop us from reinforcing Bluwek.

"It would be ideal if they did; then we could strike Morante from there, but failing that won't derail our plans. Our minimum goal, then, is to reinforce the king. We'll take over the city's defenses and free some of his troops up so he can go on the offensive. I have no intention of driving my men into the enemy lines for just Yungechandler. We might have invested some in its development, but it's still a very poor province. It's not worth thousands of my subjects' lives.

"If this were also the only motivation, I wouldn't even have bothered going to war. But we need to teach the Union a lesson. They crossed my bottom line when they marched into my territory and joined in on our personal internal issues. They even dared to march on our forbidden grounds, slaughter our people there, and steal our secrets! They will pay back their transgression ten times over!"

Everyone knew Lorist was spouting bullshit. He wanted to plunder Morante, and this was just a convenient excuse. It was the richest city on the continent, he could probably make his entire fortune over in just that city, a fortune that took him a year and 5 provinces to accumulate. It would also be the biggest medal under his belt possible since he would be the first man in history to conquer the city.

Lorist would never admit it, however. He had to have an excuse that included everyone. Even if everyone knew why they were really going, appearances were still important.

Jinolio sat in a corner of the room noting everything down. His transcript would be copied and sent out to every city, town, village, fort and outpost in Lorist's territories, it would eventually even make its way to Hanayabarta and Shyarsia. It was also meant to make the men more capable in combat. History had proven time and time again that troops that believed justice was on their side fought harder and raided more thoroughly than when they either didn't know, or thought it wasn't.

"This war should not have happened in the first place. The Union occupied the empire's territory unjustly. Andinaq bears the empire's heritage and had to retake its lands. His Majesty didn't want to fight this war, he just wanted to take the land rightfully his. The Union betrayed our trust and threw their name in the dirt. His Majesty even rolled out the white road for them, but they spat on it! They are the cause for this war!

"We must punish them for their shame and vile behaviour! You, my men, my trusted children, have been chosen to bring down the sword of justice down on these demons. Fight! Fight knowing that you don't do this for yourself or your kings or lords. You fight for your family, your parents, your siblings, your wives, and your children!"

Lorist wiped the sweat from his forehead. Fortunately, he only had to give the speech for a couple of people in a small room. He didn't think he had a thick enough skin to lie through his teeth to thousands of loyal subjects when he could see them staring at him. This whole business was Malek's idea, god smite him. Lorist really need to hire a speechwriter. He knew Charade was bad, but he didn't think he was no good either.

Jinolio finished recording the nonsense and handed the draft to him. He signed it after giving it the once over and handed it back. After finishing with the bullshittery, it was time for serious business.

"Our agreement to reinforce the king will give us Yungechandler. I'm making Shadekampf the governor. Charade, see to it that the necessary staff are assigned to him. He'll report to you, so you should also make sure everything stays on track."

"If I may, Your Grace, Shadekampf is dealing with Wild Husbandry. We'll need to fill his position there if we move him. How about Hector?"

"Make whatever arrangements are needed."

"Spiel, we'll develop Wild Husbandry and Yungechandler at the same time. Adjust the budget accordingly."

"I will, Your Grace."

"Kedan, I'm putting you in charge of the reformed constabulary. I want only the best, most loyal men. We can't afford mistakes, don't disappoint me."

"Don't worry Your Grace. I will make sure only the most loyal men are selected and I'll swap them out every couple of years to make sure they don't get too cozy anywhere."

"Good. We can't have anymore wavering or split loyalties. They have to be upright individuals whose lives will be the examples for the peasantry. They also won't be allowed to get involved in the local governments and other matters of administration."

"Understood, Your Grace."

"Malek, what's the status of our active forces?"

Malek stood up and flipped through a folder in his hands.

"Firmrock should be on Silowas by now. They'll weather the rainy season there before moving on to Armatrin where they'll wait for the go ahead to march to the king's aid. Tigersoar and Jaeger are camped outside Vanades. They'll march to Armatrin once the rains stop and join Firmrock. The sentry legion moved out by sled and ski a week ago and have reached Flowater Creek where they're busy setting up the first supply hub.

"Camorra is responsible for the supplies, and will take over all the Ministry's logistics once he takes his post. General Terman and I will stay here and retrain the domain's garrisons. They'll be a loyal, reliable force when we're done with them, I promise."

Lorist nodded. He looked at Terman, was seated beside Malek.

"Are you frustrated I didn't allow the knight brigade to deploy? You've had to sit back for two battles. I'm sure your knights are getting restless."

"We obey your orders without question. We just hope to be given a chance to prove ourselves."

"It's not that I don't want to let you take part, we need a reliable force to hold down the fort here, you saw what happened the last time we didn't. I made you the deputy chief of the Special Investigations Unit so you could help settle everything faster. You will get your chance, my friend."

"I will look forward to that day."

"The key to this battle is Northsea. Malek, Senbaud made his report and asked to be held responsible for the two Blitzes and four LLDAWs we lost. Does the Ministry have any thoughts?"

"We've looked into it determined that the admiral is not responsible. He didn't make any mistakes or give any wrong orders. The fault lies with the commodore who fell for the enemy's trap, but he went down with his ship, so there's no one to be held responsible. The admiral deserves praise for salvaging the situation and preventing the enemy from capturing out ships."

"Do you believe Northsea can defeat Invincible?"

"It will be difficult, but it's possible. We've only faced a flotilla in combat so far, not the whole fleet. We can be certain our next engagement will be with at least double that number. The Union will undoubtedly deploy their remaining two flotillas and sail into combat with whatever is left of the fourth. We just don't have the numbers. Fourteen Blitzes isn't enough, even with the other ships that will be armed with cannons added, we can't match Invincible."

"Don't worry about ships. Bullhorn Bay's shipyards are working day and night to finish every ship they can. Grandmaster Sid has fashioned 300 bronze cannons and 16 we had on the whaling ships have also been moved to the larger ships. By the fourth month we'll still have a further 80 ships waiting to be retrofitted. I don't doubt we'll have the numbers and firepower to fight the enemy. As long as our captains, commodores, and admiral are trustworthy, we'll win."

"We still have a shortage of capable high-tier fighters. Senbaud reported that he saw a blademaster slaughtering his way across one of the Blitzes' decks before he sank it. We don't currently have anything to match that."

A sinister smile cracked Lorist's face.

"High-tier fighters? No problem. I, Reidy, and Shuss will head for Silowas after the rainy season and join the fleet. I wonder if Invincible has a swordsaint."

Chapter 502 - Intel and Final Battle

"Urgent news, Your Grace!" cried Tarkel as he rushed into the study.

They were in Silowas's Seaview Manor. Lorist had been lodging there for a couple of days now. A little over 20 days past the end of the rainy season, he bade his wife and concubines farewell. He finally felt released from his cage.

It was all Arriotoli's fault for being such a busybody. She wrote after the rainy season to announce he had a new daughter, named Irie. Arriotoli gave her the Dina name, of course, and told Lorist he needed to prepare a dowry for when she eventually got married.

Arriotoli's letter made Sylvia go berserk. None of the three women who were not yet pregnant wanted to lose to this outside woman, so they kept riding Lorist for a child. Daisy finally fell pregnant near the end of winter, but Sylvia and Fennazalli were still barren. With half of the 4th month passed, Lorist finally excused himself for Silowas.

Women are nothing but trouble!

How on earth did people manage harems? Sylvia wanted another son, her eldest needed a little helper for when he inherited his father's title. His concubines didn't have any thoughts on the position of heir, they just wanted a lot of children that could accompany them when they got older.

Unfortunately children weren't born from will alone and desire alone. There was an element of luck involved, and their partner had to be fertile. Once a day was fine, and twice was exciting, but three times… Well, it was still bearable for a swordsaint, but he had two concubines and a wife who each wanted three rounds a day. He couldn't refuse the child-crazed Sylvia, and if she got it, then the other had to, as well, lest he have a second rebellion on his hands. And this one would make him the envy and laughingstock of the entire continent: a rebellion over his loins rather than his throne.

Now that he was at Silowas, there were no women by his side and he felt like the skies were bluer than ever, the air was fresher and he was more energetic. Before, his legs would feel soft when he woke up to train. But these days, he felt energized whenever he got up, filled to the brim with vigor. He couldn't help but admit his ancestors in his past life were right. Lust truly was the blade that shaved one's bones. Fortunately, he managed to weather through it.

Tarkel saw Lorist half asleep on his sunbathing chair when he entered the study. Lorist was making the best use of the calm before the storm to catch up on sleep he knew he would lose once things got going. Their offensive would be launched at the end of the month when the last ships' retrofits were complete.

Senbaud led the 14 Blitz-class warships back to sea when the rainy season ended. He didn't come across any enemy ships, however. Even smugglers were few and far in between. The whole stretch from Hidegold Bay to the Golden Coast was deserted. Something was obviously off. Senbaud took the risk to barge into Hidegold Bay only to be pushed back by the fourth flotilla. Tarkel sent a few agents to the bay, but he didn't hear back from them once they left. Not a peep.

"Well..." Lorist mumbled as he sat up, "What's going on? Do we have word from the bay?"

"Nothing. Our informants in Jigda sent word. Invincible's first flotilla and 50 thousand of the kingdom's forces are headed to Chikdor's dominion. They'll join up with the second flotilla and escort a massive convoy to the bay. From there they are set to move on Silowas."

"The reports are trustworthy?"

If the reports were right, then everything made sense. The Union's fleet was going all out and. They were no doubt betting everything on this convoy and wouldn't let it go easily. Jigda was also quite clearly completely in bed with the Union if there was any doubt. This also confirmed that the Union was not going to surrender. They had to be crushed completely.

"The reports are trustworthy, Your Grace. My agents are disguised as vets. There is no suspicion about them at all so there's no chance they were fed false information to fool us. They've also learned that the Jigda forces being sent with the fleet is the duke's most elite legion, the Firebirds. They bribed a captain to let them go along to Chikdor. They've confirmed everything in their report with their own eyes.

"Their original plan was to sail to Morante before heading to one of our hubs to report, but they ran into Tok along the way and were brought here. The two flotillas will set sail from Chikdor's harbours on the 10th of the 5th, they have to restock first. We expect at least 800 ships."

Lorist caught his breath. The entire fleet must be at least around 1300. That was nearly a hundred ships for every ship he had.

"They cannot reach the bay!" Lorist exclaimed.

If such a convoy's supplies were to reach the front-line, they would lose the plains within the month. They might even wipe Auguslo out completely, which would leave the path into the kingdom open and no one left to stand against them.

"Jinolio, gather everyone! Also, get me 100 gold Fordes."

Jinolio soon returned with five heavy pouches.

"Tarkel, give this to your agents. Tell them I'm giving this to them personally as thanks for their hard work."

"Understood, Your Grace," Tarkel bowed.

"Alright. Come back quickly. I need you in the meeting as well," said Lorist with a wave before he started brainstorming in front of the massive map of the continent.

The meeting started right after lunch. Every captain in the fleet was present. Tarkel brought them up to speed. The room burst into a roar the moment he finished. Everyone was shocked. Even if Northsea had superior ranged combat abilities, they didn't have the ammunition to sink 1300 ships, nevermind win in a fight.

The more extreme insisted they use the sea-wolf tactic. As long as there were enough ants, even an elephant could be bitten to death. The problem was that only the 14 Blitz-class warships could execute that tactic. Other ships weren't fast enough, if they got into a fight, they were committed.

Some conservatives suggested they withdraw and fortify Silowas instead. If they could put cannons on forts along the coast and draw the enemy fleet in, they stood a chance. If need be, they could draw the fight onto the island itself while the Blitzes whittled the enemy down from the sea.

Lorist slapped the table.

"That won't work! Yes, we can win against Invincible if we fight on Silowas, but then we'll lose the war, regardless. If that convoy reaches the bay, it won't matter whether we win against the fleet or not. The supplies and reinforcements will bolster the Union and we'll lose on land. They'll wipe out the king and his forces and take the entire kingdom!

"We have to sink the convoy, or at least force them to turn around. If we have to sacrifice Northsea, then that's what we have to do. We can rebuild the fleet, but we can't hold on to our lands if we lose the kingdom.

"Yes, we will face an unprecedented force. But don't forget that 800 of the fleet are just transports. We can ignore them mostly and focus on the escorts. Four hundred is still a lot, but it's manageable. Remember that by the time we face them, we'll have another 500 cannons."

Lorist was right. Apart from the 300 cannons Sid had made for the fleet the artillery brigade's cannons had also been requisitioned.

"Today's the 24th of the 4th. The convoy sets sail on the 10th of the 5th. We won't allow them to reach the bay. Senbaud, take our Blitzes to Chikdor. You're to harass them the moment they leave port. Don't stop until you run out of ammunition."

"We can't, Your Grace. We can at most be at sea for 20 days before our supplies run out, and it takes 17 just to get to Chikdor and we have no way to resupply along the way. We can't even manage a round trip."

"Then build supply points along the way. We can use Einiba. I'll send the whaling ships and 60 of our medium ships. We'll turn Einiba into our forward supply base."

"It's too dangerous. What if the fourth flotilla notices and attacks?" Senbaud asked.

"No worries. I've had Uncle Torin bring 40 ships to Silowas. He can keep the fourth flotilla busy. We don't have much time. We have to move quickly to turn this around! Alright, dismissed. Make your preparations, we depart in two days!"

"Yes, Your Grace!"

Chapter 503 - Captain Woodleis's Worries

Thunderous booms echoed across the waves. Captain Woodleis had heard it came from Norton cannon fire. He could only hear the cries and screams of terror around him. When he realized the nearby ships were still intact condition and maintained their formation, he breathed a sigh of relief.

Mermaid's Song, his LLDAM was his pride and joy; it could carry 5 tons of goods. The hard fight and sacrifice of three generations of his family, his grandfather, father, and now himself, had culminated in Mermaid's Song. She was his kingdom, and he was king. He had no interest in putting his ship on the line in someone else's war, but he had no choice. When one of the big-six demanded something, no one dared not give it. And so, he was now in the midst of a warzone, sailing with over a thousand other ships in what must be the biggest naval convoy in history, listening to ships exploding and people dying all around while he prayed he and his ship didn't become one of them.

When he first got the order, he quickly made inquiries with his connections and learned why they were mobilizing so many ships so forcefully. Invincible was fighting with Northsea and they'd lost badly. Port Einiba had also been torched.

Northsea had also captured almost every ship that sailed the surrounding waters for the whole season. Among them were ships and captain Woodleis knew, a few could even be counted as friends. Eima, Dragonfly, Molinmodren were just three that had been captured. He even heard rumours that Northsea's ships could spew fire and decimate ships from unheard of distances. One connection told him it had something to do with the dwarves and their gunpowder and cannons.

The Union was utterly reliant on the sea to keep their soldiers on the plains supplied and reinforced, they could not afford to lose the sea. But that's what had happened for the last four months. They were desperate, and this convoy was their last answer, their last hope. This was their life line, not just for their war on land, but for their war on the sea as well. They desperately needed to resupply their armies, but they also needed to boost their navy's morale. They had to win a victory, and one that didn't cost them half their deployed ships.

Captain Woodleis was one of the people they were trying to reassure. He suspected this voyage was not going to be peaceful, and, indeed, it wasn't. The danger began even before they'd left port. He was woken the night before they were scheduled to set sail by explosions. Northsea had attacked the bay where the convoy was anchored.

He couldn't be more thankful that his ship was anchored the furthest away from the bay's entrance. Smoke was blotting out the stars by the time he got onto the balcony and he could see the glow on the horizon from the burning ships. It might well have become a second Einiba had the fleet's Swifts not taken immediate action and chased their attackers away. He thought of that glow every time he went to bed.

The attack delayed their departure by a week while the bay's entrance was cleared of the burning wrecks. The men who saw the attack were forbidden to talk about it, but the grapevine could not be silenced. The fleet had apparently suffered heavy losses in the initial attack and during the chase that followed. They lost 50 medium supply ships and 20 Daws and 30 Swifts. The Nortons, on the other hand, didn't even suffer a single injury or a chip on their boats.

It seemed the flotilla's commanders finally realised they weren't up against mere pirates, because they issued a new voyage plan the day before departure. Instead of sailing straight across the open sea to Hidegold Bay, they would not hug the coast all the way. This upped the travel time from 21 days to over 40.

It was almost funny that the biggest fleet in history had to sneak along the coast like a small smuggler ship, but Woodleis knew this was the best option. The coast would force their enemy to attack from a predictable direction and kept them from being surrounded. Normally this would also mean that the ships would be cornered and could not escape, but the fleet's size made that a moot concern.

The escort's main concern wasn't defeating Northsea, at least not for now. They had to keep the convoy safe until they reached Hidegold Bay. They would focus on escort duty until then and only bother with a full on confrontation once they reached the bay.    The coast meant that the relatively smaller escort could better protect the convoy since they only had to defend one side, and it also meant that any damaged transports could beach themselves and save their cargo.

"This is the third time, huh?" mused Woodleis as he listened to the distant booms.

The coast was safer, but they weren't sailing fast enough for his taste. They were indeed crawling along. They'd been at sea for 21 days and they weren't even halfway yet. The first attack was the one in the bay. The second came fourteen days into their journey. It lasted three days. He suspected the enemy only withdrew because they ran out of either shells or gunpowder. Their escorts were quite a bit fewer when they returned. He couldn't be sure, but they certainly hadn't lost any less than 50, 70 was more likely.

After that attack, ten sailors were moved onto Mermaid's Song. Woodleis was told it was to protect the ship in case the enemy broke through, but everyone knew they were rescued from the sunken ships and the escort didn't have space for them. He had his quartermaster and a few midshipmen make merry with them for a few days, after which they let slip a few details of the battle.

The enemy admiral was very cunning, it seemed. He only had fourteen ships, but he sank numerous ships. He skilfully kept his fleet at their maximum range and peppered the escorts from there. If the escorts turned to pursue them, he'd run away and keep peppering the enemy as he withdrew. The escorts couldn't just keep chasing the detachment either, they had to stay close to the fleet. When they turned around to return to the fleet, the enemy admiral would also turn around and start peppering them again. The escort fleet had tried a couple of times to set a few traps for their harassers, but they never fell for them.

Woodleis also learned a bit about the ships attacking them. They were very powerful. Their cannons could do significant damage all the way up to what seemed to be their maximum effective range, about 300 meters. They fired iron balls about the size of a big fist which shredded through hull, deck, and mast alike.

The most talkative of the bunch was a man named Shira. He seemed very happy to babble about the enemy when alcohol lubed his lips. Woodleis didn't know how he'd gotten by without being whipped regularly all this time, the fleet didn't like babblers.

"So we really can't sink just a few enemy ships with our entire fleet? Surely their cannons can't sink our entire fleet before we've surrounded and closed in on them!" complained Woodleis.

Shira burped, "Y-you... you don' un'ershtan. Northshea iz really hard'o catchch. They shail much fashter an'r much more agile than'r warshipsh. If we chashe'em, they'll draw ush out to shea and shink ush'ere. We shent thiry shipsh af'er 'em onshe an' ony three came back.

"Initially, our rammersh poshed a huge threat'o 'em. The.. the lash'ime... we managed'o chashe 'em away with'ose little rammers lasht time... But recently, they come with a cruel countermeas-sure. You know norm'l met'l cannonballs're about the diameter'f a bowl, right? Hic B-but they've an ev'n small'r one... pelletsh ab't the shize of a fing'rtip... Eash shot they fire'll launch a hun'r'd an' they'll spread all ov'r...

"'Fore this, they'd ushe thoshe larg'r cannonballs'o fire a'the ramm'rsh a'miss seven ou'of ten. Now they've switched'o these pelletsh, they le'the ramm'rsh ge'closhe an' fire when they're 60 met'rsh away. The poor bast'rdsh jus'vanish..."

Woodleis cursed his curiosity from that day onwards. Every night he'd wake up in a cold sweat. Dreaming of his ship being torn to shreds, and watching his crew crawling into his cabin, half shredded, cursing at him for bringing them to their deaths.

He decided he'd escape the moment he got the chance. He'd wait for the escorts near him to chase after the Nortons and make a break for it. If he ran into the Nortons, he'd wave the white flag and plead for his ship. He was fine with having to spend some time under scrutiny if he could just keep his ship and crew. It wasn't like he really had a side in the war. He just wanted to keep trading.

The next attack started a week after the previous one. They definitely had a supply base nearby, no way they could get to Silowas, resupply, and return in just seven days. He didn't even want to think about the other possibility, which was that these weren't the same ships, and that they actually have a massive fleet waiting for them somewhere up ahead.

He didn't care who won the battle, he just wanted to make it out alive with his ship intact. He stroked the white flax cloth in his hands as the cannons boomed in the background. He carried the white flag with him all the time lately.

Chapter 504 - Confident of Victory

"Cape Romani. Also, the end of the Tedanini mountains. We can't hug the coast anymore. The reed ahead forces us to head out to sea. Once we're past the cape, it' just another three days to Einiba, then three more to Hidegold Bay.

"Unfortunately House Norton is waiting for us on the waters just off the cape. It seems they plan to stop us here or sink trying. We should thank Captain Bluden for risking his ship to bring us this intel. If he hadn't charged after the detachment after their last attack, we'd be sailing into their ambush blindly.

"He says the Nortons have deployed sixteen massive ships at least double our biggest Daw, but not as big as our Sabnim-class. They also have a hundred Daws and forty Sams on patrol. The twelve ships that've been harassing us are keeping an eye on our flank, sandwiching us to between them and the reef."

Lord Admiral, Viscount Penelope, tapped the map with his wooden pointer as he explained. His cabin on board the fleet's flagship was packed with the fleet's commodores and rear-admirals. The atmosphere was tense.

Penelope couldn't help but sigh. How many times already had he seen these faces? How many times had these commanders been ferried over by row-boat to his ship to sit in on the latest casualty report? When they first got together to get the announcement about this trip, they almost literally fought one another for a spot on the escort fleet. They only calmed down when they heard they were all going. Now they didn't even have the energy to frown or get angry when they heard how many ships were sunk and how many had died in the latest attack.

Then again, it would have been more surprising if they weren't like this now. They'd suffered four attacks and four pursuits; they'd lost 200 ships as a result. Most were rammers and Saws, but the enemy only had fourteen ships and they couldn't even scratch them. They couldn't even console themselves that their losses were suffered chasing off the enemy. The Nortons only left once they ran out of munitions, not because they were chased off.

Everyone's noses had been red with pride when the two flotillas met up, the two sides betting and having fights over who would get the most kills and the most glory, and laughing at the third and fourth flotillas' incompetence. They were all technically part of the same fleet, but each flotilla was backed by a different guild and crewed mainly by people from that guild, so competition was fierce and there was very little love lost between the four flotillas.

Twinhead Dragon backed the first flotilla, the second and third belonged to Chikdor, and the fourth was shared between the other five, now four, guilds.

While the first three were quite competitive against one another, it was all mostly just spirited banter and competition, but they all looked down on the fourth. It was the bastard child no one liked. Despite that, while it was in the worst shape of the three still standing, it still stood, whilst the third didn't exist anymore, so everyone mocked and insulted it ruthlessly. If the fourth could cause some damage to the Nortons, then the first and second could surely wipe them out completely.

The fourth had warned that the Nortons had very powerful ranged attacks, but because it was the fourth, the first and second didn't take it seriously. And even if what they said was true, the enemy only had a few left, what could they do against hundreds of ships all charging at them at once?

Their tune had changed now, however. These meeting were usually very boisterous, and it was hard to get everyone to settle down so the meeting could start, but now no one spoke. Everyone just sat quietly and waited for their admiral to start. When they first came together back in Chikdor's domain they didn't really do much planning. They just boasted about how many kills they'd get and betted on how quickly they'd take Silowas. Now, they sat quietly and waited to be told the latest bad news.

The first attack had shown them the enemy could be thorny, but they had still been very confident, especially when their response chased the attackers away, even if the losses were quite a bit more than expected. The subsequent attacks, however, shook them completely. They'd sailed for almost a month and had been attacked four times, but had not inflicted a single casualty on their enemy. They hadn't even caused a single gold Forde's damage to the ships' paint. They'd tried to take the initiative by setting a number of traps which they hoped the enemy commander would take in his arrogance and lack of understanding, but he didn't take the bait.

They'd thought they could swarm the Nortons with their rammers, but the enemy quickly identified and exploited the small ships' weakness. In order to maximise their boarding contingent, the ships didn't have any ranged weaponry or archers, so the Norton ships would just sit and wait for them to get close then shower them with volley after volley of small pellets pact like grapes into their cannons' barrels.

A single full broadside from one of those ships could make several rammers just disintegrate. It was like blowing a dandelion, everything was there the one moment, and gone the next. When the third attack came, the rammers refused to sail at all. Even the punishment for insubordination wasn't as bad as the fate of those that sailed against the Nortons' black ships.

And this came from men who crewed rammers. They were already the bravest in the fleet. If even they refused to face the enemy, how bad would it be if the rest of the fleet was to sail against the enemy once or twice? Rather than spend their time before each battle sharpening their swords and polishing their armor, the men on board the ships spent their time checking that they had enough rations to spend several days floating at sea, that the straps on either armor would come loose quickly enough so they wouldn't be dragged won and drown, and making sure which direction the coast was. They weren't men preparing for battle, but men preparing to abandon ship!

Once his briefing was finished, Penelope waited for his captains and rear-admirals to give their input, but even several minutes later they had yet to show even the tiniest hint of getting involved.

"Am I shouting at corpses?!" he barked, slamming his pointer into pieces on the desk, "Did someone cut off your balls last night? Or did they take your tongue instead? If you don't get your act together, I'll kill you myself and use your corpse as ammunition when we face Northsea! Are you captains and admirals of Invincible or pirates?"

His rage finally lit the last embers of pride left in the men's hearts. Their faces slowly regained color, and they stood up, hands on their hearts.

"If they want to kill us, we'll drag them down with us! No, we'll send them on their way alone!"

"I'll take the vanguard! I want the first kill!"

"I will sink five ships before I let mine drink water!"

"Let us fight, Admiral! We will not let those bastards sail on our waters any longer! Cannons? What cannons? They are no match for our courage!"

The cheers suddenly stopped, leaving the man who spoke last flailing his arm in the air in the silent room awkwardly. The mention of the enemy's cannon was like a bucket of cold water. It immediately sobered up everyone drunk on their own pride.

The man lowered his arms, coughed once and walked over to Penelope with a warm smile. THe captains wanted to ridicule him for bringing up their bane, but they couldn't. He was Chikdor's young master, Serihanem, and currently the read-admiral in command of Chikdor's fleet.

"Young Master, do you have any basis for your claims?" one captain asked, having finally scrounged up the courage.

"Yes. You will find out soon enough. They attacked us several times now. In total they've sunk 129 Swifts, 86 Saws, 13 Sams, and 15 Daws. See the pattern? They're sinking mostly small ships. Yes, part of it is because we've sent mostly small ships at them, but the bigger ships we did send out lost a much smaller proportion than the small ones, and many returned with damage from the engagements. This means they can take a few hits and still keep going.

"We lost seven Daws in the first attack, two of which sank because they caught fire, not because they were blown apart by cannon fire. We sent out a lot more Daws in the later attacks and they were only sunk after taking a heavy beating.

"Wingsoar, one of my ships, took several hours of beating and is still afloat. I also noticed something when I inspect the damage on some of the ships. One shot pierced through the ship's hull near the supply deck. It shot through the hull and into our stash of flour. It burned's heat scorched some of the flour, but besides that and the hole in the hull it did no damage.

"We tried something out when we sent Wingsoar after them after that last attack. We packed our stores against the hull to absorb more of the shock. As you know, Wingsoar made it out. We counted forty cannonballs when we checked the ship after it returned."

The meeting room erupted into cheers. If Serihanem wasn't lying, they now had an effective way to fight back. If they packed their supplies, especially their sacks of grain and flour against their hulls, they could ignore the fire and just charge right at the enemy ships. They would still suffer heavy casualties and lose many ships, but this gave them a much better chance. Seeing the atmosphere finally becoming rowdy again Penelope smiled and thanked the young master sincerely.

"House Norton won't think of this so they won't expect us to last this long or do what we're going to do. We now have a way to blast them to smithereens!"

Serihanem bowed at everyone's thanks.

"The Nortons are expecting a big fight, what will we do?" asked Penelope.

"Give it to them! Smash them to bits! Victory to Invincible!" roared the rest of the room.

Penelope nodded and tapped on the map with a splinter of his wooden pointer.

"They're planning to stop or sink our whole fleet in this fight. But we won't let that happen. We have three hundred ships, and all four our Sabnims. Chikdor has another 100 ships. We outnumber them and now have a counter for their cannons. We'll send them to the bottom of the sea! Victory is ours!"

Chapter 505 - Decisive Naval Battle

The waves roiled non-stop from all around. Lorist stood tall on the deck of his whaling boat, copper telescope in hand. He gazed at the shapes on the horizon. His lips crept into a smile.

"They still haven't had enough of Senbaud's beating. As expected of Invincible. I thought they would attack at night to avoid being shot at by the cannons. I didn't think they would actually come out to fight in the middle of the day. I don't know if they're brave or desperate. I shouldn't complain though; I like enemies better this way."

It was the 7th of the 6th. Dawn was fading, and the sun shone brightly -- a perfect day for barbeque. If only he hadn't stood watch the whole night. He fell asleep just before dawn and missed the most beautiful time of the day. Jinolio woke him shortly after it passed, informing him that the enemy had just come into sight.

He couldn't understand why they didn't attack at night. His cannons wouldn't be nearly as accurate then. They hadn't moved an inch the whole night and now they were charging with the sun to just above the horizon to the east.

"I doubt this is just a probe..." said he.

Wasn't the enemy commander being too foolish? They were charging right into what they had to know was a killzone. This wasn't bravery, it was suicide. The sea forced captains to be offensive, but one could be smart.

The 16 whaling ships lined up port broadside to the enemy. The wind blew along the line and tried to force them out of formation, so they had to drop anchor to stay in position. This also meant they couldn't run if things somehow went badly. It was do or die. This battle would decide everything. Lorist was confident though.

Ten windows opened on the first deck below on each ship. Each ship had ten to a side. It was nothing to smirk at, but it was just barely over half the complement of each Blitz, which had 18 to a side.

Sid had been busy the whole winter. He toiled day and night to retrofit the fleet. All in all the fleet was now 320 cannons stronger than before the retrofit. Half sat on these 16 whaling ships. The rest were put on Daws. Each ship only got four, so Lorist put the artillery regiment on them to make up for the shortfall. It added ten cannons to each ship on the top deck. They weren't limited to being 5 to a side though. The artillery regiment's cannons, being designed for land-based use, were wheeled, so they could be moved from one side to the other, making them far more powerful than their numbers suggested. The 40 surplus cannons were fitted on Saws; each got one on its nose with which to chase down fleeing enemies and take on the enemy's rammers.

Josk and Jinolio stood by Lorist's side. Reidy and Shuss were assigned to the two whaling ships at the end of the line. The three contingents could quickly respond to any enemy blademasters that attack anywhere on the line. Josk and Ovidis were the only men he'd brought with him from the legions.

Josk had disobeyed orders and should be in Wild Husbandry as punishment, but he was one of Lorist's most trusted subordinates and friends. It was tough on Freiyar to exercize authority over the man so close to his lord and who was the legion's father, so Lorist took this opportunity to give him a break. He could also use Josk's power and accuracy to incapacitate enemy ships as he had done all those years ago.

Ovidis was there to do what he did best -- fire catapults. Despite having ten cannons a piece, the whaling ships still felt under-armed, so Lorist fitted them with twenty catapults each. He could probably fit more carroballistae, but they weren't effective against big hulking masses of wood. And it never hurt to have more weaponry to take care of ships that got too close.

A horn echoed from above their heads; the lookout.

"Enemies spotted. 60 Daws in the front, those behind unknown. At least four hundred in total. Four Sabnims in their midst as well. 500 marks and closing!"

A kilometer. It wouldn't take long for them to arrive. The enemy had the one thing in their advantage that counted most for their tactic -- the wind. It had shifted in the last couple of minutes and now blew at their backs, giving them the maximum speed they could get.

"Tell Senbaud to flank them with the Blitzes. Keep them from going around the line. Push them into our killzone! Do they really think they can run us over with shear numbers?!"

Jinolio sent the order up to the crow's nest. The lookout blared a series of short, sharp horn blasts and started waving his signal flags. Soon the signals fluttered down the line to the two fringes where Senbaud's contingents sat, waiting. A few minutes later the flags fluttered his acknowledgment back and a number of black dots began pulling away from the formation, heading towards the enemy in a wide arc. Cannonfire soon followed.

Their ships were very close to the enemy formation, probably just 200 meters, making maximum use of their power. The ships left white snakes in their wakes which the wind carried over to the line of whaling ships. Their fire seemed to have no effect though. Two more volleys only made two Daws slow slightly, the rest continued on as if nothing was happening.

"200 marks and closing," the lookout reported.

Lorist focused on one of the struck ships and noticed white powder leaking out of the holes in its hull. When he checked the deck, he saw sacks stacked all along the outside of the deck.

"Smart little bastards..."

No wonder they'd yet to sink a single ship. If the enemy thought this was enough to turn the tide, they were sorely mistaken. Lorist would teach the entire continent what it meant to charge his fleet today.

"Fire the first volley when they're 300 meters away and switch to chain shot. Hit their masts and sails!"

The flags waved again, all the way down the line.

There was no point in switching to chain shot now. It would take them longer to reload than to fire and then load again. They could not afford to waste any firing time.

"Hundred and fifty marks and closing!"

The lookout's voice was drowned out by cannonfire. Every ship up and down the line shuddered as they spewed fire and smoke. It blinded everyone for a few dozen seconds, but the steady breeze pushed it over the decks and out of the way, revealing the enemy.

The largest barrage in history had just been fired, but to little effect. He could see the ripples of several hundred shots in the water -- two hundred had fallen short. Only the closest two Daws shook as dozens of holes popped into existence in their hulls. They lost direction, sliding to one side and slowly started to list.

Can't be helped, I suppose, Lorist sighed, The boys only have a few months of experience. How unlucky.

Five hundred cannonballs sank just two ships. Very disappointing.

"Fire!" Howard roared on his ship.

Everyone covered their ears, but they were still momentarily deafened but the roar. The ship shuddered. Their hearing recovered just in time to hear the last echoes of the low whistle as the cannonballs disappeared towards the enemy formation.

The 60 closest enemy ships lost their masts instantly. And started slowing down. The ships behind swerved violently to avoid running into them, some didn't make it and crashed into those in front. The enemy formation came to a halt just 200 meters from the line.

A copper whistle pierced the chaos. Dozens echoed down the line. The order to hold fire. Lorist didn't want to waste cannon ammunition. This was why he'd brought the catapults, after all.

"Fire!" cried Ovidis.

Wood and rope creaked up and down the line as hundreds of boulders arced through the sky. These boulders were different from those used on land. Those used on land were round so they could bounce better, but here they only hit or missed, they could not bounce off the water's surface. So they were as jagged as they could be found to cause as much damage as possible, even with glancing blows.

The first volley was very inaccurate, but that was to be expected; they were, after all, mostly range finding shots. A few quick adjustments later, the second volley was unleashed. This time the boulders were covered in a flax net, soaked in animal fat, oil, or tar, and set alight. The mixture was a nightmare to put out. Pouring water on it only made it spread faster.

The nearest several dozen Daws caught fire immediately. Every now and again one or two people would jump off, some covered in flames. The fire quickly spread to the ships that had crashed into their rear, hoping over using the fallen masts, or through sparks jumping to the sails. Those not on fire yet, though many were mastless, continued to drift towards the line on their own momentum.

A series of booms echoed from the flanks and small explosions of splinters racked the ships to the side, most of the rest losing their masts as well. The enemy was now completely caught. They couldn't sail forward since that way was blocked by burning and sinking ships, they couldn't sail sideways since they were constantly being peppered by Senbaud's ships, and their formation was too tight to turn around easily. Even if they did, the wind would be blowing against them. They could make a slow dash for the horizon, but no one expected them to make it.

An easy win. Lorist smiled.

Smoke rose into the skies and obscured the rest of the fleet, but the enemy could not use it. Senbaud would not let them.

"Enemies, 70 marks!" roared the lookout.

"What?" Lorist gasped.

"They're pushing the burning wrecks!"

"Ovidis! Switch fire to just behind the wrecks! Keep the rocks flying!"

A mistake, a big mistake. He never thought the enemy would use their own casualties against him.

"Danger!" cried Jinolio as he leapt over.

Lorist looked into the sky and saw thousands of glints descending on the ships.

This week's quiz question is: "Who saved Balor during his childhood confrontation with the necromancer?"

Those who answer correctly will get to read a chapter ahead of their current tier for all of next week!  Remember to send your answers along with your patreon name to [email protected]

Chapter 506 - Suicide Charge

"Why are you panicking?!" Lorist cried as he drew his sword and shielded Jinolio.

Clang! Clang! Clang! He parried more than ten arrows instantly. Cries of pain rang out all over the rest of his ship. The empty deck had been covered in arrows. The unshielded artillerymen and catapult operators had nowhere to hide and a third now lay dead and dying.

Damn it! Lorist's heart sunk.

Most of his men wore a layer of waterbeast leather that improved buoyancy instead of the usual armor. He trusted in his cannons and thought the enemy would be exterminated long before they had a chance to get into range to use their own weapons. His men were now paying for his shortsightedness.

He didn't think Invincible would drag them down with them. They ignored the fact that the 60 plus ships ahead of them had been immobilized and destroyed by the chain shot and flaming rocks. They didn't retreat. Instead, they charged right through their own wrecks. Now they were within range of their own weapons and were beginning to reap his men's lives.

The rain didn't stop.

Lorist never imagined this would happen. His men were cowering wherever they could, not one of his weapons was returning fire. Only the Invincible fleet could pull this off. They shot one ship at a time, when one had to reload, another took over, making sure that the arrows never stopped falling on their enemies. If only he'd kept a few ballistae he could have returned fire. He couldn't sink ships with them, but they could keep the enemy suppressed while the rest of his weaponry did that job.

"Sixty marks and -- agh!"

The crew soon plopped down, its nest empty.

Lorist jumped off the deck.

"Joe, protect Jinolio."

He rushed to one of the catapults, grabbing its leaver and trying to reset it. Ovidis rushed over.

"Let me do it, Your Grace."

Lorist drew his sword again and started parrying the incoming arrows.

"Get a few sacks of gunpowder from the cabin! Have the cannons fire again!"

Ovidis rushed into the cabin despite the rain. Soon, the bronze booming sounded again. They couldn't sink the firing ships easily, but the ones already on fire were a different matter. They were half-sunk already. As the flames faded away, the breeze unveiled the enemy. They were on half-sail. A few rows behind them came the Sabnims. Their decks teemed with archers.

Lorist kicked the lever, and a rock flew.

"Load the catapult with gunpowder and get me oiled rope! Cut off half and ignite it, quick!" shouted Lorist to Ovidis, who was coming out of the cabin with a few sacks of gunpowder.

Ovidis cut half a piece of oiled rope with his sword just as a flaming arrow landed by his feet, setting the rope on fire. Lorist pulled the lever again, and the catapult sent the bag flying.

It quickly turned into a tiny dot. A bright flash exploded just as it was about to hit the deck. The arches in the vicinity vanished.

"Quick, keep firing like that!"

Ovidis jumped in front of Lorist.

"Let us do it. Take back command."

The surviving sailors heeded the call and soon the second bag of gunpowder flew. There were enough uninjured crew to man seven catapults. Lorist had one run back and forth below decks ferrying bags of gunpowder for the rest to fire. Lorist and Ovidis focused on parrying the arrows.

After a flurry of flinging and explosions, the rain stopped. The charging wedge was reduced to a V, but they kept charging. The cannon-equipped ships continued to fire nonstop, with barely any effect. Mainly because the flaming ships shielded the rest. They weren't the usual, flimsy merchant ships. They were ablaze, but they just refused to sink.

......

Penelope hid his head in shame. He had fought a hundred battles, but he didn't have his men's bravery. When the 60 Daws lost their masts, collided with the second row, and were being assailed by catapults, he panicked. His first thought was to retreat. He did it in the name of preserving the fleet, but deep down he knew it was just to save his life. It didn't help that no one questioned his order. They'd finally found a countermeasure to the enemy, but these were losses they'd never suffered, and now they were using catapults as well? Was everything with the Norton name behind it destined to be more impressive than anything anyone else had? Even their catapults were better than what his side had.

"We can't retreat!" called a determined voice just as Penelope announced the order.

Serihanem stood out in the crucial moment and changed everyone's minds. They decided to fight the Norton bastards to the death even if they only bloodied their nose.  It wasn't like they would ever get such a chance again. The Nortons were bastards, but they weren't stupid. They'd have a new tactic or technology next time and things would only get worse. This was their one and only chance.

"We have a chance at victory as well!" Serihanem shouted.

He'd predicted this would happen to the vanguard, so he'd kept their corsairs back. If they could charge through and make it to the enemy ships, they still had all their close quarters strength intact and could wipe the enemy out.

Everyone cheered and their resolve returned. The enemy's painful wails shortly after only bolstered their resolve. Not long after, however, the enemy retaliated. A bag with a flaming rope soared over the burning ships and exploded right above their decks.

"What the hell?!"

"Forget about it!" Serihanem shouted, "Forget about everything! Just charge forward!"

The horns blared. The men shouted. The ships charged. Everyone ignored the intermittent explosions, the smell of burnt flesh, and the cries of their friends and comrades.

The enemy cannons fired incessantly. The ships shook with every boom. But no one cared anymore. They saw only the devils in front of them and heard only their own desire to kill.

......

A man-sized rock bounced on the deck next to Lorist. The man only glanced at it momentarily before turning back to the enemy ships barrelling towards them.

"Quick, prepare the chain shot!" instructed Howard impatiently.

Only four of the ten cannons on the deck were still manned. The rest were abandoned, their crew laying dead or dying somewhere nearby.

"We're out!" yelled an artilleryman.

Howard watched the enemy ships close in.

"Prepare the scatter shot, then! Get a sword or spear for each of you as well! Prepare to repel boarders!"

His words had barely left his mouth when a massive explosion wracked the ship to his left. His eye settled on it just in time to see one of the wheeled cannons splash into the water in front of the ship.

"Fuck them! What the hell are they doing?!" he roared.

Someone must have dropped a match onto the store, or they'd used too much gunpowder and blew up the cannon.

The enemy's cheers drifted on the breeze soon after. The enemy's weapon glints were starting to break through the smoke as they closed in. Each rammer had 24 rowers, twelve to a side, and they pulled with all their might.

"Rammers! Lower the cannons! Fire the scatter shot!"

All the artillerymen were familiar with these rammers. Scatter shot was the most effect. So everyone was ready with it. Unfortunately they were already too close. The shot didn't have time to spread out enough, so they couldn't hit multiple ships with one shot. Only thirty of the incoming 100 were hit.

A few seconds later the first rammers made contact. Grappling hooks soon sunk their teeth into the railings, and enemy corsairs started pouring onto the decks. Soon booming cannons were replaced with clanging swords.

Lorist's gaze settled on a Sabnim nearby. It was ramming into a whaling ship a bit down the line. The ship creaked and started to split in half. It held, only to be swarmed by enemy corsairs like ants swarming a carcass.

The crews still with their cannons turned them on the boarding enemies and turned them into a paste, but the rest just kept charging.

Lorist's gaze froze. "Jinolio!"

"Yes!"

"Order the Saws on the right flank to move in! Form a secondary firing line on the flank and splinter the enemy ships! Bring the guards in the cabin out as well!  I'm going to clean up the mess!"

"Yes!"

Chapter 507 - Messed Up Victory

Lorist was very frustrated. The overall battle was going as planned, but everything smaller than the broadest direction was completely messed up. This was his second lesson at sea, a second failure to be properly cautious of his enemy. He'd underestimated his enemy's resolve to kill him and his men.

There were no fools in the game. He had thought he could conquer the whole battlefield by using anachronistic bronze cannons, but the enemy used such a simple method to counteract him. He couldn't forget this lesson, lest he suffer an even worse one in the future.

Half a head wearing a black bandana rose from the railings. The first boarder. The whaling ships weren't very small or low in the water, so his arms had to be tired from the climb. The moment an artilleryman spotted him, he cried and hurriedly picked up the pike. An arrow dug into the head before the artilleryman could strike. The head vanished without a sound.

Lorist looked and saw Josk in the crow's nest. He held his green bow… truly domineering. Not only did he kill every boarder the moment their heads appeared, he even took care of the sailors climbing up the neighbouring ships. The enemy corsairs were nailed to the hull like sausages on toothpicks.

His display attracted the enemy's attention quickly. A dozen archers fortunate enough to survive the last barrage drew their bows and aimed. Josk, however, didn't dodge. He merely grabbed a few and shot them back.

"Howard! We're about to get into CQC. We'll deal with the boarders, you focus on the Sabnim just in front! Keep the rest from getting on board!" Lorist yelled.

"Understood!" Howard immediately moved four cannons to the helm.

Agitated cries echoed over from the left. A few Daws stuck to a whaling ship. The two sides were fighting on the deck already and its cannons were silent.

Of all the combatants fighting up and down the line, Reidy was the most ferocious. No one could stand against him. A few gold-ranked corsairs had charged at him at one point. They were all past on the deck now.

Two thousand guards had come with Lorist, spread across the whaling ships. Each ship had a hundred of his guards and 200 corsairs. Most were now caught up in the fighting. One ship's deck was still completely empty, however. The boarders were pouring onto the ship endlessly.

Lorist's own ship had no corsairs, just 500 of his guards. They stood side by side with Lorist, ready to face their enemy.

"Jinolio, have the Daws withdraw and put some distance between them and the enemy. They have to keep firing. Peal the ticks off our ship!"

"Right away!"

"Be careful! Collision imminent!"

The whaling ship shook horribly immediately and half the guards lost their footing.

The flaming ships clamped between the whaling ships and the Invincible's Daws creaked audibly. Their structures were crumbling. Only their frames still remained, like skeletons refusing to die.

A few of the burning planks fell onto the ships nearby but nobody bothered. They focused solely on their enemies.

"Kill them!"

Countless corsairs jumped over the small gap to the other ship. They couldn't get a grip, however, and simply tumbled into the water. They had to discard their weapons and climb up slowly, searching meticulously for places to grasp with every step. Despite this setback, the enemy ships were soon swarming with Invincible corsairs.

Those who had and used grappling hooks, were already on deck fighting. They died by the bushel, however. Lorist didn't even get a chance to kill a few, he just stood there watching his men slaughter the enemy. The deck was soon cleared, and the men started flinging javelins, spears, and axes at the men still climbing up the hull or waiting for their turn on the ships below. Those close to grappling hooks cut through the rope, sending those clinging onto them tumbling into the water below or onto the decks below.

The ship shook again, it was harsher this time, enough to make Lorist stumble to keep his balance. He turned his gaze in the direction the hit came from and noticed boarders pouring in from four Daws on the other side of the ship. He darted over and started harvesting.

Soon after the cannons fired again. He caught the aftermath in the corner of his eyes. Several dozen enemies on the nearby Sabnim's decks vanished. Only two of the four cannons were focused on the ship, however. The other two pointed in the opposite direction, firing at a Daw to the ship's stern. The charging enemies vanished in an instant, but a few swung onto the ship from their ship's masts. Howard made short work of them but was soon after pushed into a corner by several gold-ranked corsairs fighting together.

Josk noticed this as well and ended one. An instant later Howard struck another distracted by his comrade's demise. With that the last boarder on the deck was dead. They now only had to keep mopping up the rest as they tried to climb up.

The enemy noticed this unnaturally large ship in the middle of the formation seemed to be faring much better than the rest. It had to be their flagship. A horn sounded and another group of ships charged at it, firing as they went.

Howard didn't sit by idly, however. He immediately turned his cannons on the new foes. Josk jumped down from the nest. A rope caught his feet halfway down, however, and he was left swinging back and forth halfway to the deck. He quickly cut the rope, but landed awkwardly next to Lorist, cursing.

As the enemy ships closed in, their more accurate weapons such as bows could be used. The height of Lorist's ship, however, meant they couldn't target the deck directly. Josk in the crow's nest, however, was a different story.

"There are at least a hundred high-tier fighters and a thousand or so sailors in total." Howard reported.

"Let them come. We'll deal with them, you just focus on their decks and ranged weapons. I don't want any nasty surprises again," ordered Lorist.

He dearly wanted to have a good slaughter.

The enemy had indeed moved their elites to his ship. He saw just over a hundred golden blade glows. The rest had silver glows. The six in the middle must be their commanders, they gave off the most bloody feeling. Blademasters.

It only took Howards cannons two volleys to completely decimate the enemy ballistae. Howard was just about to order another volley when he noticed there was nothing left to shoot at.

Two figures landed on the deck and charged straight for Lorist. He smiled at them warmly, like he was welcoming dear friends to his home for tea; dodged their attacks and beheaded them. Their corpses collapsed limply, spewing fluids over the salty deck. The ten a bit further away also charging at him stopped and stared incredulously at the scene.

Huh? What's going on? Weren't you going to come and kill me? Don't chicken out, you cowards!  I want a good fight!

"Step back," Lorist ordered the guards beside him.

The men obliged, leaving a small arena in which their lord could enjoy himself. Three more figures leapt onto the deck and took up positions in front of the ten.

"What's going on?" asked Penelope.

He had held back and allowed his subordinates to go up first. He expected to be greeted by a chaotic melee. Instead his men were just standing there, staring at the enemy.

What the hell?!

"L-look..." said one.

Penelope turned his gaze to the two corpses. Weren't they Blademasters Abigail and Fezny?  He'd dueled Fezny before. The fight lasted a thousand bouts.

The gold-ranked swordsman muttered as he pointed at Lorist, "One... one move..."

Penelope's heart burst out of his chest. This was not good. He'd forgotten why he didn't want to join this fight. He licked his dry lips.

"I am the commander of Invincible, Viscount Penelope. Who are you?"

"This is my fleet," Lorist answered, "I am Norton Lorist, Duke of The Northlands. I will give you one chance. Everyone charge me at once. I've been waiting all day and my patience is running thin."

Come here you bastards! Fight me already!"

"The... the bloodblade saint..." muttered Penelope.

Penelope's companion dropped his sword, almost like it had just slipped out of his hand.

"I surrender. I ask only to be treated as befits my station."

"I... I--" Penelope discarded his weapon unwillingly as well. "--I... I also surrender and. I ask only to be treated as befits my station."

Chapter 508 - Meeting After the Battle

The clash, soon to be known as the Battle of Cape Romani would be a matter of debate among historians for generations. Many believed it was the beginning of the age of cannons. House Norton ruled the seas from that day onwards. Many others, however, believed the outcome wasn't as exaggerated as the other thought. They considered the cannons much less of a threat. Invincible did suffer heavy losses, but they didn't think the outcome was as much of an overwhelming victory for Northsea.

If Invincible hadn't attacked the three ships in the middle where duke Lorist had been and had instead focused on the flanks, they might even have won. It didn't help that Northsea's performance had been rather lackluster. They'd let their guard down, which was why they were forced into close quarters combat. Their saving grace was that the enemy focused all their elites on their flagship where their swordsaint was. Had the enemy instead deployed their elites to other ships, the situation would have been unsalvageable.

Unfortunately, that's not what they did. They could not be criticised for their choices too much. What normal force would deploy a newly ascended swordsaint to a naval engagement? And what swordsaint would agree to fighting on a ship in the middle of nowhere? Swordsaints were the absolute pinnacle of power on the continent. Why would they serve on a shitty ship?

Lorist, however, was not as pretentious and self-important as was the norm for those of his stature or power. He didn't mind going to the front or duking it out on ships. If his participation could spare his men and end the fighting quickly so he could get back to ruling his lands, he would gladly participate. And he had to admit that he really enjoyed slaughtering helpless weaklings, even more so killing strong opponents after a good fight.

For all the arguments about the details, one thing was not disputed. Penelope surrendered without so much as a single swordstroke. He was unlucky to meet such a strong opponent. His surrender broke the fleet's back, and it routed.

......

"Why would you do that?!" Lorist nearly screamed.

The enemy's strongest had finally come and he could have a good fight… only to surrender just as he was raising his sword! Is that why you rushed over? To fucking surrender?!

"I don't want to die," answered Penelope frankly. He regretted his actions already. Why did he have to come to the front-line? His gut had told him to steer clear of this place, but he still came! Then again, how was he supposed to know the enemy's single swordsaint would be here? He was not going to through his life away. He'd already earned a fief and a title, so why'd he fight to the death here if he could just surrender, pay the ransom, and return home and live out an early retirement at home?

He could not be blamed even if the entire fleet was wiped out. He had not made any mistakes, he had just been unlucky. In fact, the fleet would not have made it even this far if his leadership had not been spectacular. Surrendering to a swordsaint after meeting them on the field was no shame. No one could expect him to try to fight the man, nor could anyone criticize him for surrendering to him.

Lorist finally understood why his side had been so terrified when they'd run into the windstrom swordsaint that day. Even the usually brash Fisablen had curled up into a ball. Lorist had been the only one to face his enemy without fear because he already suspected that he himself was also a swordsaint. Despite that, he could not accept such an unseemly display, especially not when it robbed him of a good slaughter.

"Fine, you'll get your treatment. Pick up your swords again and I'll let you take two men with you. Order the rest of the fleet to surrender and I'll spare them as well. If you don't, then I'll kill you as well," Lorist gave in.

These fool's gaze made him feel uncomfortable. It felt like a bunch of kids were staring at him, and adult, bullying them; like he had no business being here. True, it was a little overkill for a swordsaint to be in this battle, but that was why he'd come in the first place. His presence could make things go a lot smoother, so why wouldn't he come?

"Thank you, Lord Norton," Penelope bowed elegantly.

He immediately ordered his men to surrender and had the order passed along to the rest of the fleet. Soon the rest of the ships raised the white.

Lorist left dealing with things to his subordinates. The battle had ended, but everyone was still running around like crazy, if anything, they were now even busier than during the battle. Things only calmed down as the sun began to drink water. Senbaud returned from chasing a couple of the stragglers that fled. All but two had been sunk, but unfortunately those two had escaped. When Senbaud described the two ships to the captives, they told Lorist and the admiral that one of the ships was Serihanem's, that old bastard acquaintance of Lorist's.

When Lorist enquired about the man's presence in the fleet, he finally learned that the brat was the one who came up with the counter to his cannons. Jinolio immediately tried to move Senbaud back out after the bastard, but Lorist stopped him.

Serihanem was a bastard, but not a fool. He would definitely have anticipated such a deployment and have made preparations accordingly. Sending any ships after him would only be putting what was left of their fleet in unnecessary danger. As such, news of Invincible's defeat and complete eradication reached the Union.

That night, Lorist held a massive banquet to celebrate the victory and remember the fallen. As custom dictated, the enemy nobles were invited as well. Among them, Lorist saw a familiar face, though he couldn't put a name to it.

"Revered Lord Duke, I am Archduke Lorf Fustat, a rank 1 blademaster," the duke replied upon Lorist's inquiry.

YOU! his voice shrilled in his head, No wonder you looked familiar, you fucker!

"Why are you here?"

He was supposed to be the archduke of Jigda, rumours had it that he had more power than the king. Why was he out here?

"The Union is an ally. We need their help against Romon and Khawistan, so we came to help them when they asked it. I deployed my Firebird legion with the fleet to help in the fight and any invasions it might have launched. It is troubling that my legion became captives before they could have a decent fight."

Fustat even joked about the shame the legion's capture would bring to his family. It was supposed to be the kingdom's greatest force, but it had fallen to the enemy without crossing swords even once. He just wanted to pay his ransom and leave with his legion as quickly as possible to mitigate the damage to his reputation.

"I beg that you allow me to pay my ransom and that of my legion and leave. I promise neither I, my legion, nor any of the people over which I have influence, will get involved with the Union and its conflicts with you again."

"Why rush, Archduke?--" Lorist waved his hand. "--It's great to meet you again after so many years. Speaking of meeting again, how's your wife, Duchess Prinna?"

Fustat stared at Lorist wide-eyed."Have we met before? You... you know of my wife, Wenna?"

Lorist cracked a smile.

"Of course. We met nearly two decades ago when I was still just a student at Dawn Academy. You were just a Marquis then. Your wife was still Miss Windsor Prinna. In fact, she and I were dating at the time. We competed against one another for her hand but you won. How fortunes can be fickle, heh Archduke? You won on the battlefield of love, but I've won on the field of war."

The archduke's face paled instantly. His fellow captives listened carefully, forgetting the decorum of nobility, and the humility of prisoners. Everyone loved gossip, especially where it concerned this enigmatic saint. This was far too enticing to ignore. Oh how their peers would love to hear this when they finally returned

"You... it was you..." Lorf muttered non-stop. He had completely forgotten about the little man his wife had liked when they met. Now the little man was Duke of the Northlands, the continents newest and youngest swordsaint, and his captor.

I'm dead... It's all over...

Chapter 509 - Decision and Promise

Lorist looked at the pale-faced archduke with an odd smile.

Kill you? Why would I? It's been 18 years. It's not like it was your fault either. That bitch left me for you because she wanted to. It doesn't really matter why she did either. She was the first one I loved, in both my lives, and she broke my heart for her greed.

First loves were the sweetest, but their pain was also the worse. While it didn't dominate his thoughts, the pain still ached in his heart. But it also revealed to him this world's true nature. Nobles were heroes and peasants were villains[1].

He'd never had the thought of getting back at the then marquis. And striking at him now would only make him seem like someone who was vindictive over things that should long since have been put to rest. Destiny was cruel and unpredictable. He'd never thought his former lover's husband would be in front of him now.

Were he still that same common mercenary Lorf would have given him a few gold coins and gone back to his wife to tell of the funny encounter. No doubt he'd have praised her foresight as she'd still be a commoner's wife if she'd turned him down. It might actually have spurred the woman on to work even harder for his favour.

That was not the timeline in which they lived, however. Lorist was a duke with the power of a king, perhaps even more if his swordsaint status was considered as well. He was a legend, a dragon amongst men. Archduke Lorf could not bend his neck back far enough to look up at him. Lorf was even less compared to Lorist now than Lorist had been to him all those years ago.

Lorist lost interest immediately, even as his ex-opponent in love's face continued to pale. He raised his cup with a smile.

"Don't worry, Archduke. I was just reminiscing on simpler days. Time had flown by us; eighteen years have passed and now we are involved in a continent-spanning war. Our last encounter saw me as just a lowly student-mercenary and you just a marquis. Neither of us are anywhere near where we were back then, though the rankings have reversed. Now you are an archduke and I am a duke-swordsaint. So much has changed. Here's to a past worth remembering. Cheers."

Lorf looked down at his cup to see it already empty. Wasn't it full just a moment ago? When had he emptied it? He couldn't even remember what it tasted like. When he sat back down a cold, wet shirt pressed against his back. Penelope, sat beside him, joined the toast.

"You mentioned you worked as a mercenary back in Morante? Could you tell us a few stories?"

Alcohol worked wonders on Lorist's tongue, so he quickly started reciting his autobiography. When his grand tale came to his fights against three thousand silver swordsmen, everyone's jaws met the ground.

"So Iron Locke, the Silver Undefeated was actually you?! Invincible sent hundreds of silvers to fight you. Obviously none won! I lost several hundred gold Fordes because you..."

Lorist laughed happily.

"Your ascension sounds much more plausible now. Iron Locke, the Silver Undefeated is still a legend in the city. I was just a two-star gold rank back then. If only I'd not been working on a breakthrough, I'd have loved to see your matches. You were gone by the time I emerged from my training retreat."

Penelope obviously spoke out of politeness. He hadn't been at all interested in meeting some nondescript iron rank. It was just a topic thrown around the dinner table and bar to liven up the conversation. He did feel it was a shame the young man returned to his homeland. If he'd stayed in the city, he'd have become the Union's first homebred swordsaint. He'd also have been one of its top nobles. Invincible would still rule the sea and might even have been armed with cannons! The Union really let their fortune slip through their fingers.

Lorist smiled silently. He had some idea what Penelope was thinking. It was great fantasizing but would likely never have happened. If he'd stayed in the Union, he would not have been under any of the pressures that forced his improvement. He'd likely just have spent his entire life as an instructor at Dawn Academy. The Union would also never have become the continent's largest power -- however brief their stint at the top ended up being -- since he was the spur that pushed them in that direction by leaking the techniques for making glass.

Penelope broke out of his reverie quickly.

"Milord, may I know how you plan to deal with Invincible?"

"I would have told you eventually, but, since you've asked... The top brass can pay a ransom for their freedom. We are all nobles so I'll adhere to custom. Lorf can ransom his legion as well. Granted they don't try anything or make any trouble for me or my men whilst we wait for the money I will not make trouble for him.

"Everyone will stay on Silowas Island until the war is over. Ransoming will happen thereafter. The fleet will stay there until the war is over as well. They can return once the Union pays their ransom. I will allow individual families to ransom their husbands, sons, brothers, and fathers as well.

"Those that don't have the money can earn their freedom. They can either serve in Northsea for a time, five years at least. They'll get half-pay in that time. If they choose not to, they can join my land-based forces for the same time, but they won't be paid, they'll only get room, board, and cloth. Either way, they'll be free to leave once their five years are up.

"You nobles may join me in Ragebear or stand by my side as I work to end this war quickly. You will be allowed to carry weapons as noble right dictates and keep two guards and two servants with you. Living conditions will unfortunately be less than ideal, this is a time of war, after all."

Such was the reality of feudal nobility. Nobles always had better treatment, even when captive. Their watchers still had to bow to them and speak and behave politely even though they were their prisoners.

Everyone was relieved. No one had wanted this. Everyone had thought it would end when the Union accepted Auguslo's offer for peace talks and sent an envoy. Those not at the very top of the Union's power structure were just as surprised by the Union's move as everyone else.

They'd also feared the duke would be as uncultured as his king. The bastard had declared their nobility void after the attack because they 'lacked the courage and decorum expected of nobles,' they 'knew only how to scheme and plot in the shadows like the lowly and shameless rats they were', and massacred thousands of nobles and their families as he marched across the plains.

The Union retaliated in kind and relieved thousand of Andinaq noble heads of their bodies when they counter-attacked. The three years of war which had now passed had engrained hatreds in the two sides' hearts that would remain for generations, even centuries even if the war ended today and never started up again.

Until their clashes with Northsea, Invincible had not seen any of the war, but news of the bloody battles and reprisals still reached their sails. Despite Lorist's assurances, they could not sleep easily. He did have a far greater reputation than his king though. He, at least, as not known for lying, breaking promises, and deceiving others, so his words carried more weight.

Lorf was also much calmer now. Lorist may be a swordsaint, but he had none of the pretension and arrogance Lorf had come to expect from people with that title. He was very reasonable, even likeable. It appeared that he treated everyone the same except when they acted in a way that made it necessary or appropriate to treat them otherwise. For one, he hadn't treated his captives as though he was looking down on them so far. Though he was bound to have different thoughts, that he kept them out of public was already a good sign.

"Duke Norton," Lorf said as he stood up, "may I contact my house so they can send someone to negotiate the ransom?"

"Hmm..." Lorist looked at Lorf and rapped his fingers on the table.

"I plan nothing, Lord Duke. I am fully willing to comply with what you've set out. I wish only for this war to an end as quickly as possible so the damage it wreaks can be limited as much as possible. I am still Jigda's Archduke and must tend to certain duties. I trust you know what I mean. We nobles are not truly free people. We must act in the interests of our houses.

"Jigda is far from this conflict and has no contact with Andinaq. We deployed only because of our friendship with the Union, not out of malice for Andinaq. We've not suffered any losses in this war yet and have not caused any harm to your side either. It could be said that we've not clashed with your house at all and as such have no grudge or bad blood between us. I wish only to explain this to my house clearly so they do not create conflict where there need be none. I also wish to keep my house from making mistakes and leaving themselves vulnerable to espionage from those that wish to take our place."

Most of the noble voiced their agreement. Everyone understood the predicament in which the archduke found himself. It wouldn't have been as pressing an issue had Serihanem not escaped. Word would have taken much longer to reach home and there would have been time to settle in and gain the duke's trust, but things were not that simple now. Serihanem had escaped and word was quickly on its way everywhere. Time was of the essence.

"Very well. I would be no less anxious were our roles reversed. You may send two servants back with the message, but they must return with your houses reply and negotiator. I will have a small boat ready when you are done."

Lorf bowed deeply.

"Thank you, Lord duke. May we never be enemies."

Lorist laughed heartily.

"While our reasons may be different, we do have that wish in common. I do not like war. If I had my way, I would live out my entire life without ever having to march onto the field. Unfortunately the world has not been cooperative.  A toast then, to a swift end to this bloody war!"

The banquet went on until the sun rose above the continent to the east. Everyone was drunk and merry. Lorist was cursed by his cultivation, however, cursed to be sober no matter how much he drank. He had his reasons for treating the nobles well. He was not one to bother with noble custom unless it was necessary. He cut corners where he could. No one would know what had really happened between him and the nobles out here, so he could have just killed them all. He didn't because he needed them to help keep the peace once he occupied Morante, and to force the Union to capitulate and surrender. Lorf was a great candidate to that end.

[1] Which is actually true. Villain comes from the Old French word vilein, and traditionally meant someone who was uncultured, uneducated, and boorish. Peasants were often referred to as villains and the language they spoke as vulgar (hence vulgar Latin and vulgar French). Which matches with the Latin origin of the word 'vulgus', which meant 'common people'.

Chapter 510 - Plan

Senbaud was ready to escort the 800 transport ships to Cape Romani three days later. He asked to meet Lorist when they were near the coast.

"Your Grace, this is the list of people for the transport fleet as well as an inventory of the supplies they're carrying. There are 843 large to medium ships. Among them, 103 Dams are carrying the 100 thousand Union recruits. Most are just barely more than kids. More than 500 ships carry food and most of the rest carry military supplies. Oh, 38 Dams are also carrying ten thousand buckets of green vine glue," Senbaud reported.

Why would the Union need so much green vine glue? That's almost how much Romon produces in a year! Lorist thought.

According to the list, Twinhead Dragon had spent a lot of money to purchase a year's worth of the green vine glue from Romon, at three-tenths more than market price.

Weird... Why does Twinhead Dragon need so much glue?

After some thought, Lorist began to understand what was going on. After three years of war, most of the plains were rubble. The guild purchased so much glue to rebuild the area. Perhaps they could even use the glue to rebuild the destroyed walls and fortifications.

Each bucket of weighed 50 kilograms, so ten thousand would make 500 thousand kilograms. With that much vine glue as a binder, Lorist could finally do something he'd thought of in the last couple of days.

"Wonderful. I was just lacking laborers," Lorist exclaimed, "When we get to short, let the recruits off. I need them for something. Tell them if they serve us properly for five years, they'll get their freedom back and be allowed to return home. Also, immediately offload the glue when you get to shore as well."

"Oh? Your Grace, aren't we sending the glue back to the dominion?"

"Follow me," said Lorist. He brought him out of the captain's cabin onto the deck.

"See that? I plan to build a crossing here. This will be where we start taking control of the sunshine seas and the golden coast."

Senbaud opened his eyes wide and stared out over the deck but saw nothing but ocean. His gaze finally settled where Lorist pointed and he saw Cape Romani. Cliffs burst out of the ocean like giant sea creatures coming up for air.

He wants to build a castle there?

Lorist, having not received a response, knew he was way off the mark.

"What are you looking at? I'm not going to build it on the cliff. I'm going to have something built on the reef."

Senbaud finally realized Lorist's finger was pointed at the ocean surface. However, it simply wasn't possible to build a castle on the reef. The deepest areas were ten meters while the shallower parts were around three meters. Even after the tide receded, only a part of the reef would be exposed. Unless Lorist was trying to fill up the reef to reclaim the land, there was no way a castle could be built.

"This reef is near the golden sea routes. If we build a castle and use it as a customs point, we only have to station a few Blitzes here and fit the walls with some cannons to control the entire region. We'll cut the Union off from the sea completely. We won't have to risk our ships in the south either. This will be our safe spot in the south as Silowas is in the north. It also allows us to have a supply station in the south."

Lorist had gotten the idea after receiving Howard's report and had already sent people to survey the region.

"But, Your Grace, this is too big," Senbaud said, "We are still at war. Even if we have the supplies and 100 thousand laborers, reclaiming the land around the reef isn't possible quickly enough to avoid getting attacked. This will take years. Isn't it a little too wasteful to invest so much into such a risky project?"

Lorist laughed.

"If we really have to spend three or four years, it really wouldn't be worth it. But we can begin construction in two months. We'll be done in half a year!"

"What?! Impossible! Your Grace, how are you going to fill this entire area in in just two months? Even if we have 100 thousand laborers, it's still impossible!"

"It's possible. We don't have to fill in the area at all," Lorist laughed, "Senbaud, the battle's outcome is out. Only 147 of INvincible's original 472 ship are still afloat. Putting aside the 74 Daws we destroyed, the remaining 250 ships are badly damaged.

"Fixing them temporarily will let us take them to Hidegold Bay, but they'll just sit there and rot. And we can't keep using them in their current state. They won't survive the north either, so there's no way to send them to Northsea to be repaired properly.

"They're useless to us. If so, then why not make some use of them? We'll fill them up and sunk them around the reef to make a dam. There's an oval-shaped lagoon in the middle of the reef around ten to twenty meters deep. If we remove a couple of the rocks, the lagoon can be a harbor. The buckets of glue will be really useful. We don't even need to stir them. We just have to thin the glue and pour it into the ships. When it solidifies and sinks, the ships will be walls."

Lorist had recycling on his mind all along. He would first build a makeshift dam before building a wall atop them where cannons could be installed so he could control the region. The house would also have a naval base near the sunshine seas.

Senbaud was struck and admired his lord so much he almost wanted to kneel on all fours. His lord was practically making something out of nothing. Castles built near reefs were usually unassailable. What kind of ship could take on a castle? It would create a massive chokepoint and they could use it to strangle the Union.

"Milord is wise," Senbaud said with a slap to his forehead, "I didn't think such a thing could be done. If we really build a castle here, we can get another source of income from the tolls as well. No private ships will be allowed, or able, to pass without paying. May I use the funds from that to expand our fleet?"

Lorist was surprised.

"Senbaud, I've already commissioned ten Blitzes. What more could you want? We're also going to change up the Daws and make them support ships. Besides, what do you mean by toll?"

The moment he heard Lorist was going to have ten more Blitzes built, Senbaud burst.

"A maritime toll is a hidden tax. When Invincible controlled the seas, all privately owned ships passing through had to pay a fee for use of the waters and protection from pirates. If a ship was caught without the right permit, it was confiscated and became property of the fleet. As far as I know, a Dam pays 25 gold Fordes a year for its permit."

"Wait, wasn't Chikdor the real hegemon of the south? When did Invincible become the lord?"

"It wouldn't be wrong to call Chikdor the hegemons since they do have a huge share of Invincible, but when Wessia was wiped out, Twinhead Dragon absorbed the rest of their shares in the fleet.

"On the surface, Invincible was the kings of the south. It could do anything in the Union's name and the nations near the golden coast had to endure everything. Chikdor managed to secretly assume control of Invincible while monopolizing most of the produce of the southern nations. Their ships and trading fleets are the largest apart from Invincible.

"Some ports and harbors are completely under Chikdor's control. They have a huge trading network in the nations in the south. However, they didn't really prioritize their business, they focused on taking advantage of the profits of other people instead." explained Senbaud.

"Oh, I see. You mentioned we can collect a huge sum from tolls? What if the ships don't want to come?"

"Hehe, don't worry, Milord. If the merchants only sail around the south, they won't earn anything. THe profitable routes are all between the north and south, going past here."

"Is that so? And why do you know so much? Are you privately in this line of business as

"I'm not doing anything like that. I heard this from the merchants I caught. They helped me a bunch and stopped the men of Invincible from sinking their ships and sabotaging the supplies. I asked them what they wanted as a reward and they mentioned wanting an audience with Your Lordship."

"Why do they want to meet me?"

Senbaud scratched his head.

"Their ships were requisitioned by Invincible. Now we have them. They hope you'll return their ships to them. I think the help they lent me in securing the fleet is worth only a few gold coins. We don't need to give them the ships."

"I guess I won't be meeting them then," Lorist said, scratching his chin, "Accept their request and return their ships."

"But, Milord, that's 300 ships! It's a lot of money!"

"Give the ships back. We have 800 ships in the transport fleet, so we'll still have 500 left. It doesn't matter if we have the ships or not anyway, we don't have the men to crew them. Besides, this is a great opportunity. We couldn't expand our trade routes before, but now we can. Chikdor and Peterson kept us out of business in the south, but now they can't. This is a great chance to take hold of their trade routes. We'll give the merchants their ships and offer them good prices and protection to trade with us rather than the Union. Also, we'll show them what we can sell them when they stop by Silowas to drop off the supplies."

"Understood, Milord."

"Alright. If we can make Silowas a trade centre, the checkpoint castle will rake in profit as well. I'll do a check by the end of the year. If the profits are huge, we can consider expanding Northsea to three flotillas. That should be enough for you to sail in the north freely."

"Thank you, Milord." Senbaud's smile cracked his face in two from ear to ear.

"Senbaud, your next mission is really important. Let Howard take control of your corsairs. He will need some people to supervise the 100 thousand laborers. Take ten Blitzes with you and move the rest of our haul and captives to Silowas. I have notified Camorra to head there and make arrangements.

"As for the remaining ships, I will take them to Armatrin to meet up with the sentry legion and Firmrock. Once you've dropped everything off on Silowas, come back and watch over the construction here. Once that's done, send the laborers to Kenmays's dominion in batches. They'll go to Yungechandler from Platinum Beach."

"But, Milord, aren't you going to attack Hidegold Bay and Morante?"

"We no longer need Northsea to attack Hidegold Bay. Just look at the ships we captured. We can use them to sneak into the bay and occupy Morante."

Disguising themselves as Invincible to sail into the bay was much safer and the enemy couldn't be prepared for it. If they sent Blitzes, they would only put the enemy on alert.

"Understood, Milord. I will complete my mission."

This week's TS2 Quiz is out! Answer it right and get to read one chapter ahead for the rest of next week! More details here:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/21062170/

Chapter 511 - Befuddle

On the 14th day of the 6th month, seven days after the Battle of Cape Romani, Lorist finally finished making his arrangements and led the remaining ships to Armatrin Harbor. Senbaud left for Silowas with Firebird legion, the other captured sailors, and more than 300 privately owned merchant vessels a day earlier.

The Battle of Cape Romani was a costly victory. They'd lost two thousand men, and serious damage to their ships. The 16 whaling ships were completely incapacitated. It would take them months to repair and costs thousands of gold coins. Lorist decided it wasn't worth it; they were weak and outdated, so they would join the enemy ships at the bottom of the ocean as the foundations for the new castle and harbour.

Lorist arrived at Armatrin Harbor on the 21st of the 6th.

"The king sent a messenger a while back. He's asked us to deploy as quickly as possible. We've stalled saying we're waiting for you to arrive. He will notice the ships you brought and demand we deploy immediately. No doubt he'll think it's our supplies and won't let us delay any longer," Potterfang immediately reported.

Lorist laughed and waved.

"No worries. If he sends another messenger, just tell him he doesn't have to worry about the Union launching an offensive this year. We've taken their supply fleets so they don't have the means. In fact, it'll be surprising if they can hold the front-lines."

"So, we're going to attack the bay and take Morante?"

"We don't need to anymore. We're going to disguise ourselves of survivors of the battle and sail straight for Morante. The sentry legion and Firmrock should start preparing and embarking immediately. Tigersoar and Jaeger will remain here. They'll leave for the front-lines only after we take Morante. Without support from the city, their forces will crumble quickly. Wait for them to receive news of the city falling, then attack. Hit them while they're panicking and disorganized. Take as many prisoners as you can. We need a lot of new subjects for our new province."

"Understood, Your Grace!" replied all the high officers.

Lorist didn't expect that, instead of just sending a messenger, Auguslo came personally with Kenmays and Fisablen the next day. Apparently the loss of two of their strongholds on the plains the previous year had put a lot of pressure on the young would-be emperor. His forces were on the brink of collapsing. The enemy need only give them a light shove and they'd crumble. But, they didn't. He'd not been attacked even once this entire year, and half of it had already come and gone. The thought that the Union might be saddled with a problem somewhere else didn't even cross his mind, so he was left sleepless, worrying about the plot the Union had to be brewing. As such he was desperate to get Lorist on the front-lines. A swordsaint and a couple hundred additional men would at least make him feel safer.

He was hysterical when he saw thousands embarking in the harbour. Lorist had to jump in and explain everything to him to calm him down. He quickly explained the goings-on on the sea for the last year. He made sure the emphasize that it was thanks to his and his men's valiant efforts that the Union could not launch any offensives, and to go into depth about how the Union had now shifted focus to him and his men. The Union had sent a hundred thousand men to Silowas, and he was moving to counter them with his two legions now embarking. He could not afford to lose Silowas, you sea. Without the island he could not support the front-lines.

Auguslo nearly emptied his stomach from relief. He could finally stop worrying about a Union plot. He decided to shower Lorist with praise rather than lunch. Among the many things he promised was to enshrine his name on a monument he was planning to build in celebration of the war and the empire's refounding.

He only stopped once Lorist tried to run away. He expressed his sincere understanding for Lorist's predicament, and suggested he give him control of the two legions he was leaving behind, Tigersoar and Jaeger. He promised to put pressure on the Union on land to pull some attention away from Lorist and increase his chances of victory at sea.

Lorist quickly turned him down.

"I appreciate Your Majesty's goodwill, but now isn't a good time. The kingdom is in a dangerous predicament and we have to remain united to resist the Union. It's not that I'm unwilling to hand Jaeger and Tigersoar over they just can't leave the harbour. I have a great track record but it is not perfect. If our retaliation fails, we have to be able to mobilize them immediately."

Lorist took out a map of the sea off the coast and showed it to the king.

"I have word that the Union gathered 100 thousand men in the south. Jigda's also sent 50 thousand. I suspect they sent Firebird.

"They are all going to be sent against Silowas. If that is the case, I need to be ready to stand against them. There is, however, a chance that it's a ruse to get me to move my forces away from Armatrin so they can attack it instead. If that is the case and they take the city, they'll cut off our supply lines. If that is their plan, then you can be sure they'll push on the front-lines at the same time.

"I have to keep the two legions here in case that is their plan, and for in case I fail to hold Silowas."

Auguslo wiped the sweat off his forehead. This scenario was enough to give him sleepless nights again. This plan was absolutely terrifying, partly because it would be devastating, and because it was just too innovative. This had never been done before. He would never have thought of it and would have been caught completely off guard. It wasn't that people were too dumb to think about it, it was that noble honour didn't make it an option to even think about. There was only honor in fighting for land on land and fighting for water on water. Using naval forces to win a fight on land just didn't make any sense. It was, in a word, ignoble, so no one would even think about doing it.

"Your considerations are all-encompassing as usual, Locke," Auguslo said, "Tell me if you need any help. We cannot afford to lose either Armatrin of Silowas, so I will help in any way I can to make sure that doesn't happen."

"You don't have to do anything on this end. Just keep the Union occupied so they can't afford to send even more men against me. I suggest striking at a few inconsequential places. You don't have to win any actual victories, just make the enemy think you're getting restless or are testing the waters for an impending major offensive. If you can make them burn supplies, that would be even better, since they can't resupply easily now.

"If you can hold on until I wipe out Invincible, then this was will end in our victory, even if it doesn't immediately."

"Alright," Auguslo agreed energetically, "Locke, I trust you will win and shatter the Union. Don't disappoint me."

I knew you loved to give out moral support, but this is just ridiculous...

"There is one more thing… I beg you treat the nobles I caught at sea as befits their standing. If we're to end this war quickly, we cannot make mortal enemies out of the entire Union. If we can show that we are the better men, the hearts of the Union's people will soften, if only slightly. If, however, we slaughter them again, the Union will only harden their hearts and resolve again to fight us to the death."

"You're right. I've vented my anger already, so now is the time to be pragmatic. I will spare the nobles and treat them as befits their standing."

Lorist returned to his tent after dealing with his visitors to find his men giggling uncontrollably.

"What's with you guys? Did you swallow too many poppy seeds?"

Loze smiled.

"Isn't turning the king down like that a little much, Your Grace? If he finds out you already destroyed Invincible, he'll not take it well and we might have him as an enemy again."

"You are right, but if he knows we're going after Morante, he'll demand to take part. When we take the city, he'll demand the lion's share of the plunder. Then he'll try to take all the glory. Morante's plunder and the glory of taking it is the lynchpin of our strategy for making a profit from this war. If we lose that, then why even bother?

"I'm also worried that if the king gets the glory for taking the city, then he'll expand his ambitions to the whole continent. He'll certainly demand to be given the plains, and the Union will never settle for that. They can still stomach losing the lands they took from the Empire, but they will never give up their historical territory. We can take and plunder the city, but we don't have the means to hold on to it long-term. If the Union refuses to come to the table, the citizens will eventually rise up. If they do, we'll lose the city and many good soldiers. Even if that doesn't happen, we can't keep this war going much longer. The kingdom will lose if we don't end this quickly.

"If we're the only people involved in taking the city, then we can just tear it down if worse comes to worst and leave. But the king will never let us abandon the city if he's involved. We'll have to hold it and we'll lose our entire army within its walls.

"Understand now? We must keep this plan a secret until it's accomplished."

"We won't disappoint, Your Grace!"

"Alright. Potterfang, Els, I want you ready to leave by tomorrow morning. We leave in the afternoon. Loze, Freiyar, head to the front-lines as soon as you hear we've taken the Morante. The Union has 400 thousand men on the plains. Even in their disarray they won't cave immediately. Push forward with the entire army, the king and our allies included when you see them start to withdraw or move forces away.

"We have to wipe that entire army out and leave the Union bare. They won't come to the table as long as they have a hope of winning."

"Yes, Your Grace."

Chapter 512 - Occupation

On the 26th of the 6th, the ships carrying Firmrock and the sentry legion arrived at Morante. Invincible's fourth flotilla never imagined House Norton's forces would disguise themselves as their own to sneak into the bay. The battle of Cape Romani took place almost 20 days earlier, but the fleet's complete defeat was still unknown.

Serihanem, who had successfully escaped, had struck bad luck. His ships were severely damaged from the battle. He was forced to beach them shortly after escaping to avoid sinking in the middle of the ocean. It took him much longer to get home as a result. His messenger to Morante was still on the road.

As far as the Union was concerned, Invincible must have won. They were just waiting for the good news. It was odd that it would take so long for news to get back, but they didn't dare send out anymore ships before they knew of the fleet's victory. It would be suicide. The fourth flotilla was no wiser either and they certainly didn't have the manpower to face the enemy, so they couldn't send out any ships either.

So, when ships with friendly flags sailed into the harbor, they immediately accepted the ruse and cheered. Lorist made it easy for them as well. He had some of his ships bombard the flotilla as his ships sailed into the harbor, making it look like these ships had broken through a gauntlet. The enemy rushed to defend them and didn't bother with the usual checks. They did eventually realize it was a ruse, but by then it was already too late.

Penelope watched two of his captor's blademasters leading units against the city's harbor defenses from the deck of one of the ships.

"This is the first time Morante has fallen. It's all my fault. If I hadn't been this incompetent..."

Lorist laughed.

"There's always a first. You should stop blaming yourself and giving credit where credit is due. It's not your incompetence that defeat your fleet, it's my brilliance. The Union wasn't built on a nobility system, it doesn't work with the kind of people and the kind of country the Union was. You destroyed yourselves. Morante used to be free and lively, I used to love the city.

"Now it's a rotting corpse. If by some miracle we don't conquer it today, it might hold out another decade, maybe even two or three, but it won't make it another fifty years. Someone else will come along and burn it. Seeing your city burn is much like a woman watching her rose being opened for the first time. It hurts really bad the first time, but by the third you hardly even notice, and by the fifth you enjoy it."

"Pffft!"

Jinolio and the guards burst out laughing. Even Duke Lorf couldn't contain his chuckle. The Union was his kingdom's overlords in all but name. He kept up a smile to placate them, but thought nothing of watching them burn if it didn't bode ill for him; in fact, he enjoyed the sight.

The Union officers within earshot turned red. They might have stabbed Lorist immediately of not for him being a swordsaint.

"D-d-duke Norton... Y-y-you're going too far. How is this noble behavior?" Penelope voiced his objection.

"My words may be crude, but they are true," Lorist rebutted calmly, "Apologies, gentlemen. I studied in this city for a decade and even worked as a mercenary here, so I tend to forget I'm a noble when I'm here. This is what Morante used to mean to me. If not for the sake of ending this war, I wouldn't have come for the city. I'd much rather burn everything outside the city and have it surrender without having to break a stone.

"Don't look at me like that. I've mastered gunpowder. If I move the cannons onto land, can you hold onto the plains? I am going straight for the city because I want to avoid another million deaths. My intentions are sincere. If the Union surrenders, we will withdraw without a word. Peace depends on you now, not me."

Penelope froze. Even Duke Lorf didn't think Lorist would start lecturing them. When Penelope snapped out of his reverie, he bowed respectfully.

"We will take your words to heart. We are willing to do all we can to stop this war."

Lorist stroked his nose as he nodded.

"If you do your best, we will soon have peace again. My word is my bond, I told you we'll leave once the Union surrenders, and we will. Alright, time is of the essence. Let us disembark. There is much to be done."

The surprise attack progressed quickly. Shuss and Els took the walls without trouble and the rest charged into the city. The locals even cheered them on, thinking they were reinforcements. The men didn't know how to react. Fortunately, they were disciplined and marched forward wordlessly. The invasion thus turned into a parade of sorts. Lorist's men marched through the streets in neat formation and the local spectated from the sidewalks, windows, and rooftops. Some of the more military-minded praised the army's armor and discipline. Everyone quickly cheered for their impending victory over the vile empire.

It wasn't that nobody questioned the Ragebear insignia on their armor. They just didn't think it was possible for House Norton's forces to march on Morante's streets openly. The men didn't lift their banners either, so they didn't have anything to corroborate the idea. In the end people assumed it must be a southern noble house that used a bear as well, but no one knew whom that might be.

The outer city's conquest was an easy matter. Most of the forces were on the front-lines, leaving the city only sparsely defended. Just eight thousand men manned the entire city's defenses and kept order in the streets. The two citadels nearby each only had a thousand men.

When Shuss and Els marched on the walls, the garrisons even thought they were their relief. They greeted the men smiling and gave up their positions willingly. They only realized something was off when their weapons were taken and their relief started tying them up. They fought as best they could, but without weapons, they were quickly overcome.

Reidy and Potterfang's march on the inner city failed, however. Unlike the outer walls' garrisons, the inner city's belonged to the big six guilds. Reidy was fortunate enough to capture 600 on the northern edge of the inner wall, but the patrols soon discovered them. The alarm sounded, and the enemy sent out blademasters to take care of the situation.

The two commanders were injured in the ensuing fight, though Reidy killed two blademasters, and they were chased out. Firmrock suffered a thousand casualties during their route. The enemy suffered three-fold losses, however; three thousand guards and two blademasters were dead. They shut the gates and holed up inside.

This was not unexpected, however. Lorist's men were much stronger and outnumbered them many times over, but he couldn't match their elites. He just had too few. He only had three blademasters, Reidy included. Engelich was a coward, though, and could only be trusted with guarding the Northlands, so in effect Lorist only had two.

Shuss was a former slave and became a blademaster through constant fighting on the brink of death. Though he was a rank 2 blademaster, he wasn't strong enough to match a rank 3 blademaster. Reidy was another story. He had trained to the late part of the Dan Ocean Ki-refining Technique's fourth stage. While he couldn't match a blademaster, a rank 3 blademaster wasn't a problem.

No matter how strong, however, two people were just two people. They couldn't fight the enemy's numbers. Every big-six guild had at least three blademasters, some even had four. Some second-rate guilds also had a blademaster, and a couple third rate guilds might have one as well. Reidy had been forced out of the inner city by a rank 3 blademaster and two rank 2 blademasters and had a serious wound on his back.

Morante's inner city was the main merchant guilds' main base. Every guild that had a blademaster kept them there. It was the most-defended place on the continent. Besides the blademasters, hundreds of gold ranks and thousands of silver ranks lined the walls and streets. It would be a near impossible task to take it quickly. Especially with the Union now keenly aware of what was happening.

Lorist took ten guards to Brinn Hill amidst the chaos now quickly spreading across the entire city. It was one of the most beautiful and expensive areas in the city. Only the rich and elite could afford a house there. He had dreamt of owning a house there himself and living out his days there with his then-girlfriend. He wasn't going there now to fulfill his old dream though. He headed there now to take care of the Union's sole swordsaint.

He'd been all but incapacitated in their last duel, but his opponent hadn't come off any lighter. It took him two years to recover, but his opponent was still licking his wounds. It was now the perfect time to plug this weed out by the root. Lorist wasn't foolish enough to wait until the man recovered before challenging him to another duel. Only unreasonably talented geniuses with plot-armor would do such a thing. While he enjoyed good fights, he would not suffer a truly threatening enemy to live, and, without the swordsaint, the Union would have no laurels on which to be stubborn.

The mansion was completely empty, however. The swordsaint was nowhere to be found. Lorist couldn't even find any traces of him. He learned from one of the servants that the man had been out on a stroll when he suddenly told his servant he had to leave and vanished, accompanied by his disciples.

Lorist ran to where the servant had last sen the swordsaint. It faced the bay and could clearly see everything. The old man's eyes were very sharp. He must hae noticed what was going on and made to get away. No wonder he had felt like he was being watched when he disembarked.

"Should we give chase, Your Grace?" asked a guard.

Lorist shook his head. More than 40 minutes had passed. It would be impossible to find the man in the current chaos.

"He is blessed," Lorist said through grit teeth, "Let's finish things here first."

Chapter 513 - Fall of the City

The Union always parroted freedom and justice as a virtue, but no Morantian was born equal even before the aristocracy. The twelve inner city districts, 24 outer city districts, slums, and external shelters, for example, were always had always been arranged in a hierarchy. The twelve inner city districts were the backbone of the various merchant guilds. The lowest position they usually occupied was that of supervisor. Most of the Union's military families also lived there. It was one of the unspoken benefits afforded their soldiers. At the same time, however, it made their families easy to reach in case a soldier went AWOL or chose to defect.

The 24 outer districts varied considerably even among themselves. The academy instructors, merchants, and foreign nobility drove up the price of property in the different districts. The cheapest and most basic properties were for servants and laborers. The mid-range ones were for artisans. Merchants and other mercantilely inclined individuals lived in the inner edges of high-end districts, a few closely associated or related to guilds might even live in the outskirts of inner districts.

The big-seven took the biggest pieces of the cake when the aristocracy was founded. They turned their focus from Morante to their far-flung demesnes and took most of their people with them, leaving a massive vacuum in the inner city. Usually second-rate guilds would have jumped to fill it in, but they, too, had left for lands outside the city.

It was a law of nature, however, that empty spaces were always filled in. The vacuum left in Morante was no different. As the Union accelerated its expansion, new guilds sprung up like weeds on an untilled field. They quickly bought places in the aristocracy and moved into the inner city. The price of land within the inner walls of the city quickly skyrocketed and the big-seven and second-rate guilds capitalized on it. They auctioned off all but their most sacred and secret land at exorbitant prices.

Currently, the inner city districts were no longer the place where the most influential merchant guilds were situated. Instead, they had become the place of residence for the Union nobles as well as the center of operations for many other merchant guilds as well as a place where wealth was stored. It was also the place where the most elite Morantians resided, hence the heavy security. After it suffered an attack by Firmrock, the guards of the inner city districts regrouped and rang the alarm bell apart from taking the northern walls back.

Lorist wasn't too worried about the inner city. His biggest concern was that the outer districts might rise up. The 24 outer districts each had about 20 thousand residents. If they all rose up at once, he would suddenly be facing a force of 480 thousand. And, unlike normal militaries, he could not just march in, take out the general, and watch the army collapsed. Every single man, woman, and child involved would be their own general. Even worse, if the slums joined the uprising, the enemy would stand near a million strong.

Lorist had taken the outer city first before moving on the inner city, but he had yet to march through the slums outside the city walls. If they rose up, he'd only know once the masses started rushing the gates. Luckily he had control of the walls.

The city had three gates, north, east, and south. The west of the city ran straight into the sea through the harbor, so it had no gate. Each of the roads leaving the city through the gates headed to three of the nine other major cities in the Union, three to a wind direction.

The few armed ships in the harbor had two choices, either surrender, or try to do as much damage to the enemy before they were killed. If they chose the latter, their best choice was to ram the ships into the enemy and set them on fire. The problem was that most of the enemy ships currently occupying the harbor were captured from Invincible, besides the manpower losses their loss would incur, the enemy wouldn't have suffered any real damage. The defenders weren't willing to sacrifice themselves without getting some worthwhile results, so this idea was abandoned in favor of surrender.

Though the inner city had yet to fall, they were completely surrounded. Nobody could escape. The forces still hidden within the outer city was thus cut off from their leadership and couldn't muster a serious defense. They were quickly quashed.

Despite the ease of his victory, Lorist didn't commit too many troops to the city. If a large-scale revolt broke out, most of the men in the city would be lost, so the fewer he had in the city, the better. He thus only committed the minimum necessary to keep the enemy in the inner city at bay and man the outer walls. Such a revolt was almost guaranteed the moment the people found out they were being occupied. Morante was famous for its pride and arrogance, the people would never accept a foreign occupier.

He thus kept his men out of the back alleys and side streets of the districts. He allowed his men only to patrol the main streets and set up checkpoints in major plazas and intersections. His men melted into the cityscape's background and behave like they were friendly visitors. They even obediently paid for drinks and chatted with interested people politely. When they bought something they paid the quoted price without haggling, which made them quite popular with the hawkers and merchants.

Despite this, however, some troubles still bubbled up here and there. A few women yelled at the men here and there about being invaders, though the soldiers never retaliated. They just kept their march or stood on guard like automata, even when several fingers were being shoved in their faces.

A few fools got it into their heads that they were easy pickings and tried their luck. A few mercenaries gathered and tried to chase a patrol out of the district, only to be crushed mercilessly. The soldiers lined up several ballistae and turned their would-be attackers into porcupines. Their corpses were then hung at key intersections with signs plastered on their chests.

The people's suspicions grew with each incident. And revolts soon began to spring up intermittently all over the city. Soon thousands of corpses lines the streets. Despite this, the Morantians kept rising up. They were nothing if not stubborn. The fighting left the street and went underground. Dozens of soldiers soon started to die after drinking or eating at local establishments or consuming their produce. Anyone even just suspected of having been even just remotely involved or related to someone who was involved in those incidents were hung, drawn, and quartered and displayed in front of their former establishments. Anyone who resisted the soldiers or impeded them were killed. An old, retired blademaster even got involved once. He gathered up everyone he knew and then some and charged at one of the outposts, only to be turned into a pin cushion.

While this drove fear into the hearts of many and finally made them obedient, it cemented an eternal hatred for these foreigners in everyone's hearts. No one associated with these devils would ever again be allowed into the city alive ever again.

Els and Ovidis moved out with a division to attack the nearby cities once everything calmed down. Shuss stayed behind to watch over the city. Mass and Gypsy, the two cities in question, were close behind the front-lines, and served as the final logistics hubs for resources being sent out to the front-lines.

As Lorist had too few soldiers with him, he was spreading himself a little too thin. He had to control a city with more than a million inhabitants, so he gave up on chasing down the windstorm swordsaint. Fortunately, the plan proceeded well despite some minor hitches. He now had to deal with inner Morante. He couldn't just let them be until the Union capitulated. His plan hinged on plundering the inner city for its wealth.

The two Firmrock divisions that encircled it had 24 thousand men. Naturally, only around 22 thousand remained as a thousand plus was lost during the failed initial assault.

Lorist and the legion's catapult brigade arrived at the same time. The 500 catapults were split into four regiments, one for each wall, and lined up horizontally.

"Your Grace, there's no need to bring the catapults. We have 40 cannons!" Jim, the artillery brigade's sergeant-major complained.

Lorist laughed and patted his shoulder.

"They're too advanced for those bumpkins. I don't want to flatten the walls completely. It's enough to terrify the bastards with the catapults. Besides, once they learn we have a swordsaint, they'll surrender. The artillery brigade is our most important reserve. We shouldn't waste it on something as trivial as this."

Firmrock's wheelbarrow-ballistae were spread out all over the city to maintain order there. Only the two divisions of swordsmen and pikemen surrounded the inner walls. Jim and the artillery brigade was only present in case any of the enemy blademasters tried to escape.

If Reidy and Potterfang managed to take down the walls, Jim would install the cannons on them and point them at the city below. It was a shame the two divisions didn't take the walls. Jim had no choice but to spread his cannons along the walls.

Though the Battle of Cape Romani ended in their victory, they lost nearly half of their 200 land-use cannons and a third of their crew. For the sake of monitoring the 100 thousand new laborers back at the reef, Lorist gave Howard control of all but a 100 of his personal guards.

Though only ten cannons could fire on any single part of the inner wall, they should be enough to take out a blademaster in a single volley. Jim had hoped the enemy would try to escape so he could show off his weapons, but no one did.

Lorist didn't understand why they weren't trying to escape either. They must be unwilling to leave their families behind. Either that, or they thought they could hold out until friendly forces took back the city.

"I count on you now, Penelope. If you can get them to surrender, I promise no one will be harmed. They'll be moved to the camps until the war ends, but they'll be safe. We won't let them ransom themselves, however. They must stay in the camps until the Union surrenders.

"They may not take any more than one wheelbarrow's worth of personal belongings with them, no more. We will not take it from them and they may trade freely if they wish. This is enough to show our sincerity. If they refuse, we will flatten the inner city with our catapults. I trust you've noticed them already."

"I understand, Lord Norton. I will convince them to surrender. I just hope you'll give me enough time. Besides, didn't you promise to return the city intact once the war ends?"

"That would certainly have been the case had we taken the inner city without a problem, but if they will not let us take it, we will flatten it. The outer city is a volcano waiting to erupt. If I am doomed to lose the city, I will burn it to the ground as I sail out of the harbor."

"I will go talk to them immediately," said Penelope with a deep bow before he rushed towards the gate.

The gates opened as the sun set and the inhabitants walked out with their wheelbarrows.

Chapter 514 - Trouble

"An urgent report, Your Grace. General Els has successfully occupied Gypsy. According to the captives' testimony, the next citadel, Robertway, is also defended by just a thousand men. The place is the Union's main medical facility in the theater. General Els has requested permission to continue his assault and take Robertway. He's confident he can take it before the Union can react."

Jinolio appeared troubled as he read the message with a yawn. Lorist hadn't slept for three days, not since Morante fell. Jinolio didn't do much better; just four hours of sleep. It wasn't that Lorist neglected his disciple; no one could afford to sleep. They had thousands of things to do.

"Have Els return. Taking Gypsy is enough. We don't need Robertway. Ovidis has secured 30 thousand laborers from the shelters outside the city so we don't need more. Els should focus on moving our supplies to Mass. We only have two days. Any supplies he can't take, he must burn. We cannot allow the Union to get anything back. Leave them only a ruin."

Both Lorist's eyes were bloodshot. A swordsaint had far more stamina than any ordinary mortal, but they were not exempt from the needs of man. He could only go so long without sleep.

"When the Union learns of Morante, Mass, and Gypsy's fall, they will respond. If we do not have our supply lines in place by that time, we will lose the city in no time. If, however, the Union is the one without their lines, they will fall in less than a month. We must hold on until then."

"Understood, Your Grace. I will write the general immediately," responded Jinolio, slapping himself lightly before leaving in a hurry.

"Lord Tarkel requests an audience," reported a guard.

"Let him in."

Tarkel appeared before Lorist, no less tired than him.

"Everything in order?"

"Yes, Your Grace. The high officials' and 17 blademasters' families have boarded the ships with the 92 Union nobles and gold-ranked swordsmen and their families. A total of 1784 people, sans the 648 servants going along. Jim has installed five bronze cannons on each of the eight Daws and the linked deck ensures the guests have nowhere to go," reported Tarkel.

"Phew... Now everyone can finally get some sleep. You should rest too. It has been a busy three days for us

The inner city's surrender didn't mean all was well. Instead, Lorist and his subordinates raised their guard, mainly because the 17 blademasters and 40 plus gold-ranked swordsmen were still present. It was a high-tier force Lorist could not ignore, even though they'd surrendered.

With Lorist there, all would be well, but should he ever be absent... A sudden uprising by the blademasters and gold ranks would be devastating. The issue was that Lorist couldn't be in charge of looking after all the prisoners, so Tarkel came up with a solution to it.

He suggested the captives be held on the ships. The bay was safe so the prisoners could be kept on ships in the middle of it.

Lorist loved the idea. He immediately had two captured Sabnims and several dozen Daws prepared. None had masts, so there was no threat of the captors using them to sail away. They were all fastened together, hull to hull and moved to the middle of the bay.

The bay was sheltered from the normal turbulence of the sea and now was not storm season. The ships were in no threat of coming loose and drifting. It did present a slight challenge, however. Most of the captives were nobles of one sort or another, and they had to have certain, luxuries. The ships had to be stocked beforehand. Some were even allowed a servant or two as company.

Naturally, Lorist was extra cautious. He moved several ships from the line defending the bay to keep watch on the floating prison.
"The nobles have been settled, Your Grace. But the rest of the prisoners from the inner city have complaints," Tarkel continued.

"Complaints? What complaints? We've done everything we promised!" Lorist exclaimed.

"They complain the food is too plain and too little."

"Hahaha! If they don't think it's enough, they can always buy more! It's not like I confiscated their wealth. They brought their wealth with them when they left. Remind them that they're captives. They should be happy to get any food at all!"

Lorist had indeed kept all his promises. He provided food and water and had not touched their wealth. Goods were very expensive at the moment though. He'd even gone as far as to set up a tavern in their camp. They could have good meals as long as they paid.

Lorist had a monopoly on anything going into the camp, so he set the prices as high as he could. He would bleed the people dry before he left the city.

"Alright. Pajik will take a sentry division to the camp and keep them all in their place.

"When Senbaud finishes escorting the captives to Silowas and hands us the name list, we can split the family members into two categories. Those sailors still alive may take their families to Silowas. Dead sailors' families will be sent to the camp in the city. I trust a 12-thousand-strong division is enough to keep them under control."

The 100 thousand captives from the inner city were Union loyalists and Lorist wasn't interested trying to get them to defect. They were nothing more than sacks of gold. He had agreed to great conditions to entice them to surrender, such as not taking their personal wealth and property, but he had his ways. He would leave with every penny this city had or his name wasn't Norton Lorist. Besides, everything belonged to him by right, anyway.

He would've had to be more careful were this the outer city -- it was just too large -- but the inner city was no trouble. He actually hoped they'd revolt. It would give him the perfect excuse to just take everything.

"Come to think of it, have the fourth flotilla's families boarded the ships?"

"They have, Your Grace. They will depart at three this afternoon," replied Tarkel.

Though Morante's port was for public use, the fleet area was reserved as the accommodation for the members of Invincible. Lorist set his sights on the surrendered sailors, all rich with seafaring experience. He planned to form a larger transport fleet in the future, so he turned to them sailors to solve his lack of manpower.

He didn't transport the families to Silowas to reunite with the sailors out of the goodness of his heart. He wanted to use them to make sure the sailors behaved, lived obediently, and served him. Their families were hostages. As long as they had lingering ties, they would serve him the best they could.

"Colonel Belnick took one division to occupy the warehouses outside the east gate. Colonel Jades took three brigades to the commercial area and Reidy is somewhere in the outer city. Potterfang occupies the inner city with a brigade. The whole of Morante is ours," concluded Tarkel.

"Sigh!"

I never have enough men when I need them.

The two legions had eight divisions, 96 thousand men in total, but it was spread very thin across the city. Men were needed everywhere. The city was a mass of holes in its defenses. Lorist had yet to get to plundering because he couldn't spare the men.

Of the sentry legion's four divisions, Els and Ovidis took one to Mass and Gypsy, Shuss put one on the walls, the third was guarding the port, and Pajik was on the prison ships with the last.

Of the four Firmrock divisions, Reidy was using two to watch other the outer city, one holding down the fort by the warehouses, and the final one had been split in two. Three of its brigades were with Jades, holding down the commercial area, and the last stood guard over the inner city with Potterfang. The treasuries, armories, and shrines were still unguarded, and Lorist's men had yet to set foot in the academy area and on Brinn Hill. Lorist couldn't watch over them all with just his 100 personal guards.

"Things should go better once Else returns," Lorist consoled himself, "Tarkel, any response from the dominion yet?"

"Not yet, Your Grace. It should be another day or two."

"Alright. That will do for now. With the blademasters gone, we can finally breathe, though just a little. I mean, come on... The Union actually has so many blademasters! Just the assholes left here to guard the city is more than the entire kingdom has. I never knew they were this common..."

"Do you want to try to recruit a few?"

"No. I cannot ensure their loyalty. Having a loose cannon that strong is a greater liability than it's worth. I would rather cultivate my own. Don't worry we'll have a few more soon enough. Loze and Potterfang might be our first ones next year."

Lorist yawned.

"Well, that's all. I'm going to take a nap. I haven't shut my eyes in three days. You get some rest too, Tarkel. Make sure you look after your health."

"Understood, Your Grace. Rest well. I take my leave now."

Lorist said he was just taking a nap, but only woke up seventeen hours later. He was greeted with Jinolio, red-eyed.

"What's wrong? Did something happen?"

"Bad news, Your Grace. Sir Belnick finished inventorying the warehouses. We don't have enough food to feed the city. We can last at best half a month!"

Chapter 515 - Crisis Control

Lorist got up after forcing Jinolio to sleep, took a bath, and filled his stomach before he started dealing with the food shortage, refreshed. He had predicted Morante would be short on food. That half the transport fleet was carrying food made it apparent.

The city housed a million people. Coupled with the 200 thousand laborers and poor folk outside the walls and the 400 thousand troops at the plains, it fed 1.7 million people a day. Falik Plains was a well-known agricultural region back in the day, but it now lay in ruin thanks to the war. It had supplied half of the Union's food. The other half came mostly from Callisto Hills, which was stressed to the breaking point.

Tarkel arrived and brought with him more bad news. Mass was supposed to be the region's granary, but it only had a day's worth of food.

The Union had betted on the shipment and carted most of their supplies to the front-lines. But now that food was Lorist's spoils. Lorist knew there would be a shortage, but this was far worse than he'd imagined. Their entire stores could only last 15 days, and all of it was rough, cheap foods like wheat and potatoes.

All the fleet's food had been sent to Cape Romani instead to feed the laborers working on the reef fortress. Howard had kept only what was necessary and sent the rest to Silowas.

Lorist had the ships to go get the food, but no one to man them. All the old crews were now laborers or captives somewhere else. Silowas had the food, but not the ships. He just had to make due without it. The few merchants who'd been in the city's harbor when he'd attacked, had fled already.

Senbaud's Blitz flotilla was heading to the bay to get the captured sailors' families and take them to Silowas. Everything would have been perfect if only the damned city had food!

When Senbaud arrived, he quickly loaded the families and left again. He would return with as much food as he could, but no sooner than 15 days. He would make it in time if nothing went wrong, but something always went wrong. And while the food would last 14-15 more days, the mere fact that the food was a danger.

Lorist expected the enemy to react in three or so days. If the enemy commanders were decisive, he'd be facing an army in ten days. The possibility of relief by their own side, coupled with knowledge that they didn't have much food left, might just be enough to push the 1.7 million people into a massive uprising.

Lorist had planned for the enemy's reaction and put Tigersoar and Jaeger on the front-lines to keep the enemy busy, but the Union had 400 thousand men. They could still send a massive force back compared to what he had in Morante.

His original plan had been to stand his ground in the city. He only needed to drag the fighting on for a week so Tigersoar and Jaeger could smash through the front-lines and march to the city. Or at least pressure them enough to threaten to do just that. The Union would crumble and surrender.

The city's lack of food made that plan nearly impossible. He could hold the enemy outside the city, but he couldn't fight the people inside it at the same time. Definitely not if a million rose up at the same time. They could crush his men under the weight of their corpses alone.

"How did the Union deal with this?" asked Lorist.

"They would supply some food every fortnight. Most would be coarse and every household could use their registered booklet to buy a set amount from the shops at a set price.

"Food aside, meat, wine, leather, even some other consumables were rationed. Any amount purchased within a set limit would cost little but they'd have to pay several times more for any more than the ration. A few of the ration ships are still open. Some even make a decent profit," said Tarkel.

Wait a second... Why does this sound familiar? This sounds just like planned allocation used during the time of the planned economy! My grandparents always took a large number of tickets with them for meat and cloth. I remember using a ticket to buy a piece of maltose candy only to be pummeled by my grandfather! He said he wasn't mad that I was eating candy, but that I took something without permission, I'd stolen.

I don't know what these Union merchants are thinking. They actually planned the whole economy.

"Weren't there objections? How are the shops managed?"

Tarkel shook his head.

"The people were easily swayed. The Union said everything was for the war effort. They said everything would return to normal once it ends. Everyone was willing to suffer to see the kingdom defeated.

"I sent men to investigate the outer city. Nothing seems out of order. The cheapest food right now is dried and salted fish, and potatoes. The potatoes come from Callisto Hills and the dried fish from the sea. The fish in particular is from an old stockpile. Nobody really ate it before so a large stockpile had built up.

"We've taken over the city, so Callisto Hills won't send anymore potatoes and the stockpiles are nearly completely dry. If we shrink the rations, we might be able to stretch it to 15 days.

"The guilds handle the trade directly. Forde handled fine goods and meat, Peterson handled leather and cloth, as usual, Mayflower dealt with honey, spices, and other luxuries, Riwald the allocation of daily necessities, Chikdor seafood and other related goods, and Twinhead Dragon various precious ingredients -- mostly to nobles.

"The divide between rich and poor has become binary and extreme. The rich ate like there was no war going on at all until we barged in, while the poor were barely getting by. I've even heard a market for rat meat has sprung up and many people spend their days hunting the gutters and slums for rats.

"All the guild shops are now closed, of course. Luckily people mostly only buy when there's a sale and we haven't missed one yet. The next sale is four days. If we don't have food ready and shops open by then, however, people might start getting uppity."

Lorist stroked his chin as he paced around. Tarkel's report was grave. It was imperative that the people were placated soon. They could not afford to let them rise up. They already hated him and his men to the bone, and the slightest excuse would sweep them up into full revolt.

"Send for Torin, Belnick, and Jades. Also, tell Els and Ovidis to finish up quickly and come back."

The guards by the door saluted and dashed off.

"Tarkel, send an eagle to Camorra and Spiel. Tell them to prepare a convoy as quickly as they can. Send as much beast fur and food as they can. Have them send administrators as well."

"Understood, Your Grace."

Tarkel turned to leave.

"Wait. Invite the syndicates in the slums to a meeting tomorrow."

Torin was Tok's father, the second-in-command of Northsea. He was old, so he was put in charge of logistics. An exception had been made however, and he had been given the task of sealing Hidegold Bay. He had performed admirably.

Torin was the first to arrive, Jades and Belnick came soon after. Lorist briefed them quickly.

"Uncle Torin, go to the docks. Tell Pajik to leave some sailors behind. Also, have him leave a brigade as an escort. Take as many ships as you can and head for Silowas and bring back as much food as you can. You have to be back in 12 days.

"If you come across Senbaud, show them the parchment I'll give you later. Take them back to Silowas with you and use them as transports as well."

He regretted having Invincible's fourth flotilla sent to Silowas early. He should've waited. He could really have made good use of them now. The remaining sailors either didn't have family members or lost family during the fight. They were considered unreliable.

"Understood, Your Grace. I will be back as soon as I can," assured Torin. He bid his farewell and left for the docks immediately.

"Jades. seal off the commercial area and start searching the stores. Transport everything valuable to the inner city and make and inventory."

"Understood, Your Grace," Jades saluted.

"Belnick, take a brigade to Callisto Hills. Buy as much food as you can. Buy, you hear, not take. You can offer 1.5 times the market price if you need to. You can double the offer if the farmers can transport the food to the city immediately. You have three days."

"Yes, Milord."

Lorist met syndicate bosses the next morning. Among them he knew Jindoz, Els's old friend. The man had changed considerably, however. He was not friendly towards Lorist, at least. It was to be expected, however. Back then Lorist had been the friend of a friend, now he was a bloodsworn enemy. Lorist had also turned from a simple mercenary into one of only a handful of swordsaints on the continent and the ruler of what was a kingdom in all but name.

"Gentlemen, I have conquered Morante for the sake of peace. I am not here to deprive you of your riches," Lorist became shamelessly. He rattled off a speech about establishing lasting peace between the two countries. It took him twenty minutes to get to the point.

"I promise to not mistreat the people as long as they don't fight me. As I said before, I'm only here for the guilds who drag you into their war. We will take only their wealth.

"Quiet down. I know what you want to say. It's true that many of the supplies and daily necessities are in their hands. If we take it, you will starve. I have no intent of doing this. I will show my sincerity by keeping you all fed. I'm willing to sell the food we take from the guilds to you cheaply.

"Gentlemen, before, you were all in charge of your districts' security, hygiene, and taxation while the guild handled supplies. The guilds are gone, so you must step up. You will sell the food to the people instead."

Lorist's lips curved.

"I will give everyone free food in three days. Every household will get 5 kilograms of potatoes and half a kilogram of dried fish. We'll also have a sale on some of the stuff we took from the guilds."

Chapter 516 - The Angle of Merchants

Just as Lorist was wracking his brains over the livelihoods of the city-folk on the 33rd day of the 6th month, the seventh day of House Norton's occupation of the city, the 400 thousand Union troops on the front-lines finally got word of the city's fall, as well as the occupation of Mass and Gypsy.

All the commanders seemed to have been done in the posterior. They instantly broke into a huge frenzy. The finally realized why the enemy had kept attacking them for the last two weeks.

The forces that had most troubled them, and continued to do so now, were House Norton's two other legions on the field: Tigersoar and Jaeger. They always had the upper hand in their confrontations and made the Union eat dust far too many times. They'd swept over every obstacle since the moment they showed back up on the front-lines and pushed the front-line back by a large stretch. If they hadn't had to return to the Northlands when the rebellion broke out, the war would likely have been over already.

They had to admit that House Norton and its damnable armies were far beyond their ability to fight. Luckily they were only a small fraction of the total enemy army. The rest of Andinaq's forces were incompetent at best, and downright dangerous to their own side at worst. A cake walk for the Union. So far they'd made up for the losses they suffered at the hands of House Norton's forces with victories against the rest of the enemy forces.

They won every battle in which House Norton was not involved. And beat Auguslo like a bully would beat a retard. It was almost sad. They'd done especially well during House Norton's absence and were on the brink of victory. But that damned fool just had to clean everything up just in time and send his men back into the fray. In just a few months they'd gone from being on the brink of victory to being on the brink of defeat. With Morante's fall, that was no longer just the brink of defeat, but the brink of total defeat.

The Nortons didn't strike their strongest fortresses; they hit only where the Union was weak. It wasn't very efficient and had confused the Union for a while. Why would House Norton, known for striking decisively and trying to end things as quickly as possible, now hit large inconsequential places? The attacked slowly opened a hole in the lines in the far north of the plains, and they rushed in, forcing the Union back quite a bit. It took the Union three days and a hundred thousand men to close the gap.

It wasn't enough to stop them, however. Jaeger and Tigersoar didn't meet them on the field. They just melted away whenever the Union showed up. They soon lost track of the two legions entirely. When next the two legions were sighted, they were opening another hole in the south of the plains. It took four days this time to close the hole. Again the enemy melted away when they showed up and struck somewhere else. This quickly sapped them of their momentum and soon Andinaq had the initiative.

The Union's upper command, led by Twinhead Dragon's president, Cobleit, was painfully aware of this fact, but they could do nothing. Most of their troops were infantry and could not keep up with the mounted enemy. What little cavalry they had were all in personal guard units and no noble was willing to let them go out and face an entire legion on their own, not to mention that it would leave the nobles unguarded. They'd considered, for a while, sticking infantry on horses and just throwing them at the enemy, but horses were in cripplingly short supply.

Only two places on the continent bred horses in any real quantities. One in Andinaq's territory, the other straddled the border between Romon and Khawistan.

The Union had once been capable of fielding a 30-thousand-strong cavalry force, back during the War of Glass, but it'd taken generations to build up the horses and expertise for that unit, and the wars since then had all but wiped it out. They couldn't replace them either since both powers had stopped their horse trading with the Union, and Andinaq would certainly not sell them horses.

Lorist had played with the thought of joining the horse business, but it wasn't lucrative enough to be worth it. It certainly didn't help that the horses native to his territory were lean, relatively small, and weak compared to proper warhorses. They were fine for farmwork and other civil duties such as transport, but ill-suited to warfare, especially if they were to be armored to keep them alive.

The Union had been on the brink of negotiating a deal with Duke Fisablen several years back, but then Lorist attacked the duke and destroyed their plans.

The Union now paid for their lack of cavalry. The Nortons bullied their men with impunity. They could strike at a moment's notice, and didn't even have to bother with planning since they could just run away if things were looking bad.

Fisablen and Felim's cavalry suffered heavy losses two years earlier because they used them to take on strongholds, the worst thing one could do with cavalry besides trying to fight a navy.  Tigersoar did not have that problem. They used their cavalry only to strike ill-defended positions and moved their catapult brigade against heavier positions.

The Union had built up their own catapult forces using the blueprints they got from The Northlands, but, while they were better than their old ones, without the right materials they were still no match for their Norton counterparts. Though every fort, castle, city, and stronghold was armed to the teeth with catapults and ballistae, they could do nothing as the enemy's rocks soared in from beyond their range and pummeled them into dust and bloody pulps.

Duke Cobleit, had been brainstorming plans to deal with the two legions for two days without sleep and was on the brink of collapse. He had just sent for his aides, advisors, and subordinates for the umpteenth time when he got news of Morante's fall. He fainted even before he could vomit the blood that suddenly burst into his mouth from that magical gland the people of Grindia had that stored blood for just such occasions. It was left to drool out of his mouth as he lay, convulsing, on the floor.

He was woken by his men several minutes later, his attack having passed, to hear of Mass and Gypsy's fall. He empty's that special gland, wiped his mouth, and started the meeting.

A few hot-headed youths among the junior staff clamored for revenge. They wanted to march on Morante with the entire army immediately. Their wiser seniors were wary of such a reckless move. They suggested redeploying only a part of the army. They suspected House Norton's two fielded legions would move the moment they noticed a thinning of the front-lines. If they turned their backs on them, they'd be wiped out.

The two sides fought endlessly in the tent. One side accused the other of cowardice, whilst the latter accused the former of stupidity. Cobleit was forced to adjourn the meeting for the day so everyone could calm down and think things through on their own.

He called a second, secret meeting with the other guild-heads in his private quarters.

Duke Peterson wanted to know why they had to have a secret meeting.

Cobleit smiled wryly.

"Information will leak easily with many people, and everyone is too emotional right now to think clearly. I'll be plain and direct. We've lost. This war is over. All we can hope for now is a good exit. We haven't lost because the Nortons took Morante, if only that we could still turn this around. We lost because those bastards sank the fleet and took the convoy. There's no coming back from this, there isn't even a stabilizing of this."

Duke Chikdor's expression fell apart.

"Impossible!"

"Nothing's impossible," Cobleit countered solemnly, "They started their attack from Hidegold Bay. We had a whole flotilla there, and the rest of the fleet was heading there. They've obviously been lost. You should've seen the fourth's report regarding their clash with the Norton fleet. They call it a victory, but it was a rout.

"We've not heard from the rest of the fleet for a month. They're gone as well. It's even more certain with the bastards having taking Morante. I suspect we'll hear of the fleet and convoys' demise in a few more days, but even if they weren't taken or sunk, we have no way of bringing supplies in by sea anymore and land transport is too slow. We should make our preparations."

"Shouldn't we take back Morante immediately even more if that's the case?" asked Peterson.

His angst to retake the city made sense, it was their capital. It wasn't just a matter of practical problems as a result of its loss. It having fallen to the enemy at all was bad enough for their honor and reputation already, but if it was still in enemy hands when they called it quits and surrendered, their honor would be completely destroyed and they'd never
"No, we can't turn back," said Cobleit, shaking his head.

"Why not?"

Peterson aside, the other presidents also let out shocked gasps.

"Think about it. What benefit does taking the city have? There are no food stores, so we don't get back supplies. Besides the losses we'd have to suffer to take it back, it would be a burden on us rather than a benefit. We'd have to find food elsewhere suddenly to feed the million people. We're already struggling to feed our million people here, how will we feed double that amount?

"Morante isn't the anchor for our rule anymore, we can do without it. If anything, losing Morante has lightened our burden quite a lot. The biggest benefit is that we don't have to worry about feeding a million people that don't give us anything in return. Without our extensive trade network, all those merchants and craftsmen in the city are worthless. The farmers and miners, woodcutters and hunters in the rest of our lands are worth far more right now. We don't have to worry about the enemy pushing beyond the city much either. They won't be able to hold the city for long, hell, I wouldn't be surprised if they're already losing dozens of men a day keeping the people at bay. Remember why we moved out of Morante in the first place, and why we didn't hand it over to someone as a fief. The people in the city are completely dedicated to the idea of freedom and equality because of our propaganda during our war with the Krissen Empire. They'll never accept being ruled over by nobles. That same sentiment will be even stronger when the noble took over by force and is a sworn enemy of the Union.

"Let them keep Morante. This is actually an opportunity to inflict heavy losses on them. Send agents to infiltrate the city and whip the people up into revolt. They want to take Morante from us? Let's show them how stubborn the people there can be, and bleed them dry while we're at it! Even if we have to lose the war, we'll make sure they don't have the people to work the land they'll get and will be forced to pull back to their stinking castles!

"We'll hold out in our dominions and wait for them to have to withdraw, and sweep in as the saviors again. If we play our cards right, they might even be so much weakened we can just march into their lands and wipe them out.

Cobleit's words didn't invigorate the other presidents.

Duke Forde sighed.

"Have we really lost the war, Cobleit? Can we not turn this around somehow?"

"I wish it were otherwise, We've not been bested on the field, but we can't keep this war going any longer. That bastard Norton struck us where we couldn't afford to be struck. We can't just keep fighting on the front-lines because we don't have the supplies, but we can't turn back and march on Morante because his allies will stab us in the back if we do. Not that taking back Morante will do anything, without the convoy and its resources, we'll starve in a few more weeks, anyway."

"We still have 400 thousand men, though, right? They can't just swallow us whole!" Duke Riwald interjected.

"Numbers alone don't matter. In fact, having that many makes us even weaker right now. Our supplies will run dry much faster because of our numbers. We can have all the men in the world, without food, every additional man just starves us out that much faster."

"What do we do now?" asked Peterson.

"We should conserve as much of our core and elite units as possible, the 200 thousand of our personal retinues, mainly. The rest can be sacrificed to cover our retreat. March the freedom zealots from Morante back to the city to hold them down. Charge the remaining hundred thousand against Andinaq here while we withdraw."

Cobleit brought over a map.

"We'll charge them into the enemy here, here, and here and withdraw while the enemy's focused on dealing with them. We'll head for Mauvlin as fast as we can. Everything between here and there is wasteland thanks to the war, so we lose nothing by giving that up. Mauvlin is the best place to defend. We can also keep our 200 thousand men fed with the rest of our territories and it's much closer to them so we will have an easier time getting the food there."

Chapter 517 - Miscalculation

I seem to feel like there's something off, thought Lorist as he paced about on the walls.

It was the 17th day of House Norton's occupation of Morante. A week ago, Lorist received urgent word from a scout that the Union troops have already begun heading for Morante with 100 thousand men in the vanguard and another 200 thousand in the rearguard spiritedly. It seemed that a huge, bloody battle was about to break out at the city.

With the huge army coming their way, Lorist and the officers of the two legions didn't manage to get any rest in the next few days and were busy with managing various defensive aspects of the battle. They spent a huge sum of money and resources and managed to rely on the citizens of Morante to clear out the shelters for the poor folk and dug out some trenches and built some mud walls. It was a busy time.

When everything was ready and done, the first wave of attackers arrived. Near 10 thousand Union soldiers swarmed in a disorganized manner and discarded their weapons and armor with both their hands waving all sorts of white cloth in surrender as they called out, "Have some mercy and give us something to eat!"

"Open the gates! We surrender!"

"I want to go home and stop fighting!"

By the time Lorist, Potterfang and the other officers of the legions saw that, they were so shocked that their teeth almost fell out. Nobody knew what was going on. It was obviously not a trick as never has there been a performance to bait an enemy that was so realistic. Those soldiers ran up to the walls with ragged breaths and sat straight down without bothering to stand up.

Only when Els sent someone to ask them what was going on did they begin to understand the situation. Seriously speaking, those ten thousand people were the survivors of the Union's vanguard. They had set out to take Morante back with only five days' worth of rations and the Union higher-ups told them that since Gypsy and Mass had fallen too, they would gain more supplies if they reconquered those places.

As those 100 thousand men were Morantian recruits, they set out without a second thought out of worry for their families' safety. However, they were only infantry men and no matter how quickly they marched, they only managed to reach Gypsy after they finished their food. It was unfortunate that only a husk of the citadel had been left behind by Lorist and the soldiers took the city back without shedding a drop of blood only to find that there wasn't the slightest bit of food there. There wasn't anything edible. It was bricks and stones galore, so they could only drink more water to fill their stomachs.

So, they placed their hopes on the citadel of Mass. The two citadels were only one day's travel away from each other. However, they were attacked by Tigersoar and Jaeger midway there. The 100 thousand soldiers were hungry and tired and crumbled immediately. That 10 thousand ran faster than most and managed to escape encirclement by the cavalrymen. However, they realized that there was nowhere else they could run to and thought of their family members in Morante and decided to surrender after some discussion.

Lorist really didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He had spent a few day's effort only for it to end up wasted. A day later, Tigersoar and Jaeger's men returned with a large number of captives, adding another 100 thousand mouths to feed on Morante's food. Fortunately, Senbaud and Uncle Torin had already brought food back from Silowas and they had enough for the moment to feed a population of more than a million people.

Tigersoar's general, Loze, and Jaeger's general, Freiyar, arrived with the captives. It was then when Lorist found out that the Union's 100 thousand men were separated from their support troops at the rear for a distance of two day's travel and weren't able to call for help. Tigersoar and Jaeger used that opportunity to encircle them and exterminate the force of 100 thousand.

Loze and Freiyar mentioned that their two legions would continue to mount a surprise rear assault on the 200 thousand forces that remained at the frontlines to debilitate the return of the Union troops to Morante. After some brief discussion, the two of them set out with two brigades of captive-escorting cavalrymen.

However, two days had passed and there wasn't a single report about incoming Union reinforcements. Lorist couldn't help but guess what was going on. Even if the Union reinforcements were frightened into retreat by the extermination of the 100 thousand vanguard troops, Loze and Freiyar should've sent messengers back to inform him about it. It would still be better than having him wait at the walls with nothing better to do than anxiously await further news.

Three columns of smoke could be seen in the distance. A rider on a magnificent warhorse stormed towards the walls, calling out, "Urgent report from the frontlines! Open the gates!"

Lorist opened the letter personally penned by Freiyar and almost started with shock. "What?! The 200 thousand Union reinforcements aren't heading for Morante at all and are instead going to Mauvlin?! What are they doing?! Giving up on Morante and the whole of Falik Plains?!"

"Yes, Your Grace. I also received Tigersoar's urgent report as I was on my way to deliver Sir Freiyar's letter. The Union forces that were left behind to defend Robertway, Krido and Ritt all sent Tigersoar messengers to surrender and Sir Loze has already taken the three citadels back. If that is true, there's no doubt that the official report would soon arrive," uttered the messenger another surprising thing.

What the hell is going on? Are they cutting off their tail to survive? What in the world is the Union planning?! Would they really sacrifice half their forces to protect a mere 200 thousand soldiers? How could that be possible? That's too huge a price to pay! Or have they actually changed their minds after finding out that their vanguard had been defeated and returned to Mauvlin to conserve their troops? Why would the soldiers left to defend the citadel surrender then? That's around 100 thousand men too... Lorist couldn't understand what was going on no matter how much he troubled himself over it. Regardless, the avoidance of a battle at Morante was a good thing.

A day later, Lorist received another report from the frontlines and understood what was happening. The heck! They're trying to move the warzone away. The Union is trying to conserve their elite forces by sacrificing their ragtag troops. This was something they had planned all along and they intend to let House Norton feed those 200 plus thousand hungry mouths. This number of captives will no doubt cost us a lot of food... But why would the Union forces give up on retaking Morante? Do they have any other aims?

In Loze's report, the troops that were guarding the three citadels had surrendered because of a lack of food and other supplies as the rear forces of the Union had brought most of the supplies with them when they departed, leaving behind only five days' worth of food. As the soldiers were afraid that the allied noble army of Andinaq that they had battled against for the past two years would do them ill after they surrendered, they took the opportunity to surrender to House Norton's troops instead.

Loze requested Lorist to send a batch of food to those three citadels as soon as they could because the 100 thousand captives were currently consuming Tigersoar's own rations. Even the Tigersoar soldiers were only half fed. At the same time, Auguslo also discovered that the three citadels were in Norton control and sent a messenger over to take over the citadels.

Sigh, I just hope this king of ours doesn't give us any more trouble in such a busy time. Lorist wrote an order for Loze to refuse Auguslo's request. There were seven citadel cities including Morante on Falik Plains and Auguslo had only control over one of them, Bluwek. If the three citadels were handed to Auguslo, he might stay there and refuse to leave, which would complicate negotiations in the future.

Lorist also had Loze borrow some food from the house's three allies and Duke Fisablen to overcome this obstacle. Jaeger was currently pursuing the 200 thousand Union forces that escaped and couldn't be mobilized for anything else. Lorist then had Firmrock take over the three citadels immediately. Only when Potterfang arrived would Loze escort the surrendered garrison soldiers over.

After dealing with the arrangements and ordering Potterfang to depart, Lorist gave it some thought before writing Auguslo a personal letter which detailed House Norton's successful defeat of Invincible Fleet and conquest of Morante. He mentioned that the change in the situation on the frontlines was the result of the capital being taken. It seemed that they had given up on the city and Falik Plains altogether and retreated to Mauvlin.
Lorist impolitely demanded for Auguslo to not make any rash moves to ruin the current state of affairs they had fought so hard for. Lorist was going to use Morante and Falik Plains as bargaining chips for a peace treaty between the two nations and he expressed his hopes that Auguslo should go find something else to do, such as going back to accompany his poor wife that had spent three years alone in the palace.

Lorist also promised auguslo that he would use his status as a swordsaint to negotiate with the Union and that he would bear any responsibilities for upcoming changes. Should the negotiations fail, it wouldn't be too late for Auguslo to come and wrap things up. It was still much better than having it be ruined by Auguslo's appearance. But if the negotiations were successful, he would still need Auguslo to show up and sign the peace treaty.

After sending his guards off with his letter, Lorist breathed a long sigh and began to consider what the Union really intended. Were they really going to ignore Morante altogether? That was the most famous trading capital on the whole of Grindia and the capital city of the Union.

Jinolio and Tarkel both came over, each holding a large stack of documents. But they wore rather grim expressions.

"What's going on with the two of you? You look so down," said Lorist with a laugh.

"Your Grace, the inventory of the inner city districts and the commercial area is ready..." Jinolio ignored Lorist's question and replied with a solemn look.

"Oh? Let's hear it. I wonder how much our accounts will grow after this." Lorist's mood improved. His wasn't doing charity by participating in the war. All the resources and riches in Morante were supposed to be his spoils and compensation for deploying his troops. He believed that they wouldn't let him down.

Jinolio replied with a pained look, "Your Grace, the spoils this time around wasn't as much as we expected. We only found around four million gold Fordes in the inner city and commercial district combined and another bunch of resources worth up to ten million gold Fordes, a small amount of which are expensive luxury goods. There are also many jewelries that are worth about a few million gold Fordes. That's all there is."

"What?! It's that little?!" Lorist said with a start, "That's impossible! How could there be so little spoils in Morante?! It's a city with a population of one million! Millions of gold Fordes circulate in the markets on a daily basis! Other things aside, the merchant guilds of the city should have a huge store of various treasures from all over the continent! How could the spoils be worth so little?"

If it were some other city, Lorist would be more than surprised at the amount of spoils he got. But this was Morante. How could the sum be so less? At that moment, Lorist wondered whether any of his subordinates were faking the accounts and trying to hide the spoils away. He definitely wouldn't believe that it was really that meager.

"Your Grace, that would be the case if it were a decade ago. The current Morante is not the trading capital it once was. To be honest, it's not even as influential as Jigda's capital, Saint Manarde. Ever since the Union fought Teribo in the War of Glass and the implementation of the nobility system, the midsouthern nations erected trade embargoes against the Union and that caused Morante's status as a trade city to fall way down. The number of people that come and go can't even be compared to a decade ago. It's not nearly as merry as it once was," said Jinolio calmly, shattering Lorist's good impression of the city in an instant.

Hmm... It really does seem to be the case. Otherwise, the various academies wouldn't close down because they didn't have any new applicants. Dawn Academy wouldn't have to start over in The Northlands either. Just like Knight Lundmorde had mentioned in his reports before, Morante's prosperity had declined and there hasn't been a single trading convoy coming in from the outside. The city's market seemed to be completely in the hands of the various merchant guilds and the profits have all been split between them already, leaving no room for others.

A few years back, Tarkel once drafted a plan for the formation of a new merchant guild in Morante, which they would spend years to nurture into one that had a huge influence in the city. It was too bad that even though Lorist approved of that plan, they found that it wasn't practically possible.

As Knight Lundmorde had said, all the industries in the city were monopolized by those merchant guilds, ranging from products citizens consumed to military equipment. Even if a new product was developed and put into the market, the related merchant guilds would come to force the manufacture and distribution of the product to be given to them and there would be terrible consequences for a refusal to comply.

"Your Grace, ever since the Union implemented the nobility system, the various merchant guilds gained their own dominion and they basically moved all their production centers and stores there. The commercial areas of Morante are only glorified storefronts for their products. Even though they still keep a substantial amount of stock here, it really isn't that much.

"And since the Union went to war with the midsouthern nations, the market in Morante had only grown colder by the day. Most of the goods stored in the city are bad-selling spoils of war or daily necessities required by the citizens. There's almost nothing valuable here. That's the case for almost all the store houses of the merchant guilds here," explained Tarkel more clearly.

Lorist slapped his forehead at how he still considered Morante to be how it was in its glory days when he was studying and working as a mercenary there. He didn't think that the passing of a decade would see the Union swallowing seven neighboring nations in the War of Glass and it being suppressed by the other neighboring nations due to its expansionist policies, which also resulted in the severing of the trade routes. A few years later, the Union waged war again to force the trade routes open, but that naturally didn't bring any good results for Morante itself. Could a trading capital without trade still be known as such?

Chapter 518 - Pitfall Trap

Jinolio put a large stack of documents on the table.

"Take a look, Your Grace. They document the money spent to maintain Morante for the last three years. The Union lost 3 million gold Fordes in the first year, 5 million in the second, and just over a million last year. The trend suggests they'll have evened things out by the end of this year.

"This suggests Morante's been made completely self-sufficient. It no longer needs trade to supply its own demand, or at least will have needed none very soon. The guilds have also become the direct employers of nine-plus-tenths of the people. They work for the union for money, then pay that money right back to the guilds to buy the things they need. The Union might as well have done away with money in the city altogether if this kept up for a couple more years.

"We discovered a few letters between a guild vice-president and a few of his associates in the inner city. They were arguing over whether it was worth feeding the people not involved in production in some way or another. It's actually pretty interesting. His associates were arguing that they should move half the city's population to the dominions.

"The vice-president argued against it. He believed the people in the city were far more educated than the obedient plebs in their dominions and that the Union could exploit this. He talked about having moved his operations to his dominion, but that it was not up to standard, so he had to move it back to the city.

"We've picked up from a number of letters and documents that the guilds are still debating how the city's management was to be handled in the years to come. The city is no longer as impressive as used to be. It is also no longer the biggest trade port on the continent.

"One document is a proposal to disband the city almost entirely and scatter its inhabitants across the entire country. The abandoned districts would then be turned into resorts, retreats, villas, and palaces for the nobles away from the plebs.

"The big-seven vetoed it. Twinhead Dragon's President Cobleit rejected it outright. In his statement he made it abundantly clear that the problem was temporary and that it would go away once the war ended. They were not to disband the city under any circumstances. He even went as far as saying that, rather than disbanding the city, they should expand the city. He wanted it to be the biggest and most glorious city on the continent when they were done, a worthy of being the Union's capital."

Lorist tapped the table lightly as he listened. He had to admit that Cobleit was brilliant. His foresight was far greater than the rest of the gold-grubbing merchants. The Union's current state was those fools' fault. If they hadn't implemented the aristocracy, Morante would've remained the number one trade city on the continent. They weren't happy being rich commoners, however. They just had to be nobles too. They were tired lowering their heads in front of nobles far poorer than they just because the latter had a title and the former didn't.

In their own greed, they forgot everyone else was greedy too. Everyone jumped to become nobles and abandoned the city, leaving it to fall into ruin. Factories and productories were moved out of the city in a couple of months and tens of thousands lost their jobs. Without salaries they couldn't pay taxes. Without taxes there wasn't money to maintain and run the city.

The people were turned into vagabonds. When the guilds finally took note and started doing something, they did it in such a way that the people were turned into slaves in all but name. The guilds and merchants shouted freedom from the rooftops, but clamored slavery in their homes. How pitiful…

At least the highest officials, those on the council, still had some sanity left. They knew this system would collapse once the war ended and saw the city's potential to grow back afterwards.

"That all? Well done, Jinolio. Quite comprehensive," praised Lorist.

Jinolio smiled in a troubled manner.

"It's not all good news, though..."

"Oh? Out with it. It can't be worse than our current situation, can it?"

"Our occupation has crushed what shadow of an economy was still alive in the city. The people are completely dependent on us for food, and without anything to do, they're lazing around all day. If this continues, they'll start making trouble if for no other reason then to beat back the boredom..."

"What?!"

How? I am this city's conqueror! I should be bleeding it dry of all its riches, not sinking all my money into feeding its sheep!

Jinolio shrugged.

"It's true, Your Grace. If we try to pack up and leave without leaving food for the people, they'll probably rise up and kill us before we get out. We could kill them all before we leave, but that'd ruin your reputation.

"I'm only speaking hypothetically. I know Your Grace would never kill so many people just because they're inconvenient. Callisto Hills isn't sending food anymore and nobody can work because the guilds are gone and with them the resources needed to keep business going."

It's like I dug a pitfall for the Union only to bury myself in it! Ah...

Lorist stood up frustratedly and knocked Jinolio's head.

"Aren't you a daring one? You dare speak to your teacher like this?"

He paced back and forth in the room, wracking his exhausted brain for a solution. His eyes flashed brightly several minutes later.

Is the Union not coming for the city so they don't have to worry about the city's people? Do they want to dump them all on me? No, that can't be. The food we got from the convoy was meant for the city...

Of course! We took the convoy! Without the convoy they can't feed the city! The bastards are leaving the city for me so they'll be spared the headache of having to figure out how to feed the city!

Callisto Hills had its harvest just before the convoy left. It'll be three months before they have another harvest and can send more food.

They were planning to tide themselves over until Callisto had its next harvest. But we've taken their convoy and their food. They'd only be making more trouble for themselves by retaking the city under these circumstances. So that's why they gave up on the city and pulled back to Mauvlin...

They really are shameless, honorless bastards. Morante is their capital but they'll give up on it because it's not convenient to have it right now. A noble would've rushed back without any hesitation.[1]

It can't be that simple. They know the food issue alone isn't enough to put us in a bad position. The real problem is the people that have nothing to do. They are going to start making trouble out of boredom.

"Jinolio, what were the people doing before we took the city? How are the rations distributed?"

"Sir Tarkel sent people to investigate. His report should be here..."

"Tarkel, speak."

"Yes, Your Grace. There were less than 800 thousand people in the city before the war. The slums had at best 100 thousand. The population skyrocketed when the war started as refugees fled from the plains. Some joined rich cousins or children. The richer ones bought houses and started small businesses.

"The Union conscripted 140 thousand from the city. Their families got more rations, which meant everyone else got less. They've lost 20 to 30 thousand in the two years since. Families included that's 400 thousand.

"Most were involved in production industries. The biggest was textiles, second is military equipment, mainly thanks to the war. Fishing is third. Fourth are jobs related to the guilds, but with them gone there's no bringing those back. Without the products to work, most of the production industry is gone. People have already started making trouble as a result."

Lorist smiled bitterly. He now suddenly had to both feed and work these people.

[1]Lorist calls it 'shameless and honorless', I call it smart and pragmatic. If your enemy wants to relieve you of such a burden, then why not let him? Never look a gift horse in the mouth.

Chapter 519 - Jindoz's Gift

I have to jump out of this pit, thought Lorist.

He did what he could immediately and invited Penelope and a few Union nobles to a banquet. After restating his reason for occupying the city, he spoke about the current state of affairs. Since hostilities on had ceased, it was a good time for negotiations to begin. He hoped those present would head to Mauvlin and tell the Union higher-ups to come negotiate.

Lorist also talked about the war.

"This is a war without a victor. Just look at the plains. It's been reduced to a wasteland. We can't hear the herder songs anymore; we can't see the farmers harvesting their crops; nor can we enjoy the sweet fruit of the orchards...

"This war must end. It has only brought destruction and pain. I refuse to believe the city I've lived in for so long is now bereft of life and hope."

Two perfectly, a little too perfectly, timed tears ran down his cheeks.

The crowd was moved by his speech and vowed to bring the Union to the table. Lorist thanked them. He promised that everyone would leave the city and the plains once the war was over.

After sending off the group, Lorist dunked his head straight into the water basin Jinolio brought. Too much powder. He'd put too much powder on his face. He couldn't stop tearing up and his eyes were swelling. Thank the gods they left so quickly.

Lorist weathered seven anxious days until Charade and Spiel arrived with his requested officials.

It had been two decades since the man had left Morante. He now finally stood on the soil of his homeland again. Charade's actual homeland was the now-defunct Teribo kingdom, but he spent most of his childhood here and knew this as his true home.

He'd looked forward to showing it off to his country-bumpkin peers, but Lorist, like a clingy wife, wouldn't let him have the time.

Lorist hid nothing from the group as he briefed them.

"What?! So we get nothing from this?! We just added another burden to our load?" shrieked Spiel. During his voyage to Morante, he had dreamed of getting tens of millions of Fordes into the house's treasury. What shitty city is this?! So much for the number one trading city on the continent!

Charade furrowed his brow. Morante's change was nothing like he'd envisioned. The city felt nothing like the homeland for which he yearned, which he'd tried to recreate in the new place he lived. It was completely foreign to him. Deep down, beneath his love for money, beneath even his loyalty to Lorist, he was a Morante man. But this was not his Morante, not anymore.

After reading the inventory and a few other documents, Charade spoke.

"Your Grace, give me three days. I'll form a unit to investigate the city. Let us decide what we will do afterwards."

Lorist smiled bitterly.

"I regret it now. Had I known, I wouldn't have refused His Majesty's request and left Morante and the five citadels in his care before returning to The Northlands. How nice it would have be to push everything onto him.

"I'm to blame. I shouldn't have used peace as our reason for conquest. We can only wait for the envoys to return and then negotiate the deal. We can only hope to minimize our losses."

Charade laughed dryly.

"Things aren't quite as bad as you think. Look here, isn't there good news too?"

Lorist read the document Charade put on the table. It was a report from the camp that held the captives from the inner city. The tavern there was finally open and was earning tens of thousands of Fordes every fortnight. Part of it was thanks to the decrease in free porridge. Each bowl was diluted with water. The hungry captives had no choice but to buy pricey bread.

"On the one hand, we have to keep our promise as nobles to not infringe on the captives' sacred right to private property. On the other, we have to find a way to suck them dry. This is just a small hustle. Our real problem is the million Morantians with nothing to occupy their time. They've started fighting out of boredom and I doubt a revolt is far off," said Lorist.

"I understand. The issue is finding suitable jobs. But we're not planning to occupy the city for long, so we can't invest too much."

"That's the gist of it. This will only work out if we use the food-work rationing system they had before. We'll pay them with food. The problem is they'll never trust us. We can try to force it, but they'll just riot. We can't pay them in gold either, though--"

Jinolio, burst into the room to report that Els had asked for an immediate audience.

Lorist then left to meet him. Els jumped to his feet to salute Lorist as he stepped into the study.

"Your Grace, can you follow me?"

"You're a close friend, Els. Don't act so formal. Let's go. Jinolio, tell Charade to head to Red Grace Inn and wait there. We haven't seen Old Char for quite a while. It'd be a good place to gather."

"Sigh... My uncle's inn has become one of the rationed inns in the city. Each customer can only drink a cup of wheat ale a day. Even the head chef, McDuffin, left with another viscount because there wasn't any more food to cook," said Els, crestfallen.

"You met Char already?"

Els nodded.

"I went there with Reidy. Uncle looks a lot older now, and he refuses many invitations from nobles who want him to be their knight. He's staying with his kids in peace. Aunt Louise takes care of the inn herself now though they serve nothing but a cup of ale. Reidy and I asked them to move to The Northlands instead. Our lands border each other and they can choose to stay anywhere they want. But Uncle refuses. He doesn't want to leave Morante. I tried to argue, but he chased me out..."

"Can I come with you?" asked Charade as the two stepped out.

Els hesitated for a moment.

"...Alright. But we can't attract any attention."

Els brought the two to the headquarters of his old syndicate. It was a three-story building next to a district with a large garden. An intricate angel fountain and a small forest of thirty or so trees stood in the middle of the garden.

According to Els, it used to be the property of a Teribo noble but it was confiscated by the Union during the War of Glass. It was auctioned off to Jindoz who bought it to use as the syndicate's headquarters.

Jindoz was no noble, but he was in charge of the taxes of three districts and quite well-known in the city. He was waiting for them at the entrance when they arrived. Lorist realized he was alone after entering. Jindoz didn't say a word. He just nodded before taking them to the kitchen. Lorist felt something was off, but followed quietly.

After entering the storeroom next to the kitchen, Jindoz lifted a trapdoor and revealed a ladder. Els climbed down.

"Your Grace..." said Charade, hesitation written on his face.

"It's fine."

The ladder led to a dark room connected to a tunnel. Several burning torches lined the walls into oblivion. Jindoz was the last one to descend and closed the trapdoor before leading the way.

"A subterranean waterway and the syndicate's private tunnel. Thanks to the rationing policy, they've had no choice but to use these routes to smuggle food and supplies," explained Els.

"What are we doing here? It's not like we're trying to smuggle anything. We didn't stop them from doing what they do either," protested Charade.

"Jindoz wants to give you something. There are lots of eyes on the surface and he's worried this will be bad for the syndicate if others find out. He has to hide it here," explained Els.

At Jindoz stopped in that moment and whispered over his shoulder.

"We're here."

They were near a hole dug in the ground, probably to use as a temporary store during smuggling operations. It was four by four meters. There were no supplies inside, just two dead-drunk men.

"Who are they?" asked Lorist.

"The bearded one is Riwald's chief supervisor. He used to be in charge of the rations. We had to kneel and beg in front of him to be given scraps. He was summoned back to the guild's dominion last year. The man behind him is the gold-ranked captain of the guild's guard. He's well-known in the city," replied Jindoz coldly.

"Why are they were in such a state?" asked Charade.

"They came to me and asked me to stir up a revolt. If we did well, they'd submit a request to the Council to make us nobles. I heard they came to us first because we had some ability to fight. I fed them something special when I treated them to a drink, and here we are."

Lorist looked at him with deep interest.

"Jindoz, why didn't you do as he asked?"

"I don't want to be cannon fodder. Not for them. They aren't nobles, but they offer it to us? They can't promise what is not theirs to give! Who would be that stupid? Most importantly, many in the outer city are family. I don't want them to get involved in this. It's easy to stir up a revolt, but people will die while they get to hide.

"They said they were only the first to be sent and there would be more later, so I thought they would still be of use. I'd have buried them alive long ago, otherwise. I'm not trying to get on your good side. We did this because of our brother, Els. We don't want a revolt that will kill many people," said Jindoz with the same cold expression.

"Thank you, Jindoz. I know you don't consider me a brother, but I see you as that loyal, passionate and sincere friend I made all those years ago," said Lorist.

"Oh..."

Jindoz froze and turned to see Els laughing.

"Just take them away. You can't go back the way we came. Someone will be watching. I'll take you to the other exit. It's in a derelict corner of an old slum outside the city."

Chapter 520 - Auguslo's Trust

"We've made preparations just in case. I don't think the negotiations will be successful," reminded Charade when he returned to the inner city.

Lorist nodded with a grim expression.

"I don't either. The Union might be counting on Morante to crumble us. If they can get the city to riot, they'll slander our reputation and inflict heavy casualties. They'll have an excuse to turn this into a holy crusade if we put the city down. Once they do that, we'll never get a day's rest until either of us are dead. Most immediately, the people will not hold back and we'll be buried under corpses. We'll be forced to pull out and they can then just march back into the city as saviors, and without spilling any of their own blood.

Lorist was enraged. The Union had chosen the path he'd feared most they might. He was infinitely tempted to hang an official or two to make an example. Riwald's vice-president and one of the rank 1 blademasters that guarded the place would make good sacrifices.

Charade coughed audibly.

"What's wrong? Catching a cold?"

"No… You seem not to have heard what I said."

Lorist blushed.

"Apologies, old friend. I was lost in thought. Say again."

"I said we should be patient. If things go as planned, Viscount Penelope and his companions should be arriving at Mauvlin as we speak. If the Union responds, it'll take another ten days for news to get back. As for Jindoz's gifts, they're just another arrangement the Union made before they retreated. They infiltrated the city to gain more information and to incite revolts. I doubt they know we're trying to negotiate."

"Makes sense. I'll have Tarkel interrogate them thoroughly and find out even their most embarrassing childhood secrets. I'll spare their lives until I hear from the Union. If they plan to play tricks, I'll leave them two corpses unlike any they've ever scene. Even their nightmares will be fantastical dreams by comparison! I'll kill everyone we have if they send people to make trouble." Lorist half-shouted.

Charade smiled, shaking his head.

"Tarkel will be blind as a bat if we lose the syndicates' cooperation. We cannot tell Morantians apart from informants. Meeting Jindoz gave me an idea. I need some time to investigate and consider a few things, but it might not only bring us out of this predicament, but unexpected benefits. I must get to work."

Lorist was curious, but the latter left too quickly. Charade left for the city with a bunch of officials the next day. Lorist was just about to call Charade to get more information, two days later, when Auguslo and a bunch of other nobles suddenly announced their arrival.

Auguslo shamelessly demanded a share of the spoils. It was only fair, you see, since everyone had played some part in this glorious victory. Everyone had done their bit, and now it was time they got their reward.

Shameless as he was, Auguslo knew better than to bring the matter up bluntly. Lorist was still the kingdom's swordsaint, after all. He instead put up a tragic performance during the banquet until Lorist brought it up himself.

He first bemoaned the long, bloody, taxing war, then, one teary-eyed noble after another told Lorist of their losses.

Lorist watched the show grimly. His patience finally burnt out, and he slammed his cup on the table, rising like an arrow loosed from a bow.

"Follow me!"

Elated, Auguslo and his cronies followed quickly. Lorist led them to the meeting room and asked the guards to bring him the inventory of their spoils. He tossed them to Auguslo.

"See for yourself. When did I say the city was full of gold and wealth? Well? Everything's there. I've not let anything out. Take your pick, what catches your eye?!"

Auguslo was dumbstruck. Neither he nor any of his cronies imagined the city had nothing to loot. Shazin looked at the accounts pale-faced.

"It's not as much as we'd expected, but 4 million Fordes is still a massive sum."

"Massive sum?" Lorist snapped, "I sacrificed almost my entire fleet to open the seas to Morante! The ships alone will cost more than ten million to repair or replace! Then there's the compensation I have to pay to the families of all the men I've lost! That aside, we'll be lucky to get half of this loot to help pay back that debt.  Look here!--" Lorist tossed another document in front of the king, "--The Union left their storehouses bare. We have to use most of the money we got from the city to feed the one and a third of a million people living in the city! This whole endeavor's been a massive loss! I'm shitting money down the long-drop like someone with dysentery!"

Kenmays flipped the new document open.

"Incredible! They made something out of nothing! They're even doing it with cloth instead of coins! They didn't just keep all their money, they even got monopolies over everything!" cried he.

"Wondrous my ass!" Lorist bellowed, "I conquered Morante, I took this city but I get nothing for it! The merchants and their wealth are gone! This stupid rationing system is also now gone and I have to feed the whole fucking city! I'm sitting on the edge of a volcano about to erupt!

"There is good news, however."

"Good news?" everyone asked in unison.

"Yes. Now that you're here I'll pass the city and the surrounding forts to you. You can do with them what you want, I don't care. I took part in this whole mess to end the war. I sank their fleets, took the plains, and even conquered their capital, and I've sent messengers to call for negotiation. My work is done so I'm heading home."

Lorist didn't care that he'd told the king he'd handle the negotiations to make sure things went smoothly. He just wanted to be rid of this whole business and go home, so he shameless tossed everything onto the king's shoulders and prepared to leave. This was one of the nice things about being someone else's vassal, you could just toss stuff to them if it was too much for you.

Auguslo was not about to be given such a hot potato, however. He smiled and patted Lorist's shoulder.

"Locke. You're the kingdom's swordsaint, you're the pinnacle of our power. It won't do to not have you at the negotiations. Your forces have also played a pivotal role in getting us this victory and this opportunity at peace. It would be a slander on your glory if you didn't get to sit at the table as we end this war. The plains and the city were taken by you, so it's only natural that you keep them until the negotiations are over."

With that Auguslo tossed everything back to Lorist. He made him Fieldmarshall and gave him overall command of the front-lines and all the newly occupied territories as well as putting him in charge of negotiations with the Union.

He had to actually help out with the situation in the city, though, so he decided to give all the food stores in Bluwek to Lorist to help him out a little.

Lorist almost fainted. He didn't think he'd not just fail to get rid of this nuisance, but be given every other nuisance the king had. He couldn't find a counter to the king's arguments, however. He was indeed the kingdom's only swordsaint, so he was the ideal pick to be the front-lines' guard dog. He'd never before wished so much to have a peer.

If only he'd killed the enemy swordsaint. He could just argue that it was completely unnecessary to have him sit on the front-lines if the enemy had no counter. But the old bastard had gotten away, so it seemed only natural that the kingdom keep its most powerful soldier on the front to defend against the enemy's swordsaint.

"This sounds all fine and good, Your Majesty, but where will you camp your forces if not in Bluwek?" asked Lorist.

"I do not think it's necessary to keep my men on the front anymore now that you're here and in command. We've all been fighting this war for two years and it's time to rest. I'll return to the capital and the other nobles can go home and rest some while you wrap things up here," said the shameless bastard.

Lorist's jaw fell through the floor.

This shameless bastard, this good-for-nothing dandy was shoving everything onto him! He summoned every ounce of restrained he had to respond calmly, but just as he began exhaling to speak, the king clutched his hands.

"Please, Locke, it all depends on you. We are in the perfect position to end this in our victory and only you can ensure that this ends well. If you can end this war as things are now, with a complete surrender from the Union, then you'll be inscribed in the history books and on every monument, palace, and city and town square in the kingdom as it's greatest noble for millennia to come!

"I believe the Union is no less wary of this war than we are, especially after this decisive strike. I do not think they have it left in them to fight on so there's no need for us all to stay on the front.

"Locke, my brother, please stay just a little longer. You can return to The Northlands the moment the treaty is signed. I'll send food as soon as I return to the capital. I won't let you bear this burden alone."

The visitors left early the next morning, before Lorist could come up with a counter argument. Lorist couldn't let them go empty handed, so he let each pick a single souvenir.

He saw them off with a smile.

It vanished the moment they were out of sight.

Why am I not reaping all the benefits?! Those fuckers pushed everything onto me! I'm a swordsaint, for crying out loud. I'm one of the most powerful people on the continent, probably the most if you count my forces as well. Why, then, am I driven like a common easel? Why must I suffer so many donkey years?

He spent the next day in self-loathing. He didn't even notice Charade coming into his study the next afternoon.

"When did you come in?" Lorist jumped when he finally noticed the figure. "Where have you been in the past few days?"

Charade took two sips of his wine before he replied.

"How long have you been snoozing on your desk? You really have it easy, don't you?"

"Don't get me started!"

Charade tossed him a handful of bound parchments.

"Take a look. It's the idea I mentioned a few days ago."

Lorist flipped the folder.

"What?! You want to form another Trade Union?!"

Chapter 521 - Charade's Plan

"One hundred and eighty-six years ago, Duke Forde Morante who controlled the Falik Plains made a sudden declaration that caused an immense upheaval that would end with the abolishment of feudal society within the lands he conquered and the establishment of the Union. Uniting with Twinhead Dragon, Wessia, Mayflower, Riwald, Peterson and Chikdor, Forde formed the Forde Trade Union and traded with the other nations from their heartland in the plains. The Union's formation allowed the merchants, usually oppressed by the nobles, to finally have a reliable and trustworthy backing. Their statuses rose considerably as a result. They had a sovereign voice in the continent's geo-politics for the first time in history."

The room was filled with all the house's administrative officials currently in Morante. Everyone had answered Lorist's summons.

Charade stood on the podium and lectured everyone on the Union's history, his proposal, and it's suspected benefits for the House.

To people who knew Morante well and had lived there for more than a decade like Lorist, Els, Charade, and Yuriy, the officials that didn't understand the history and background of the city were rather troublesome. Loze asked why Lorist wouldn't just force half of the citizens to the north, like Yungechandler. His thoughts were simple. They would move half of the population to one place and solve two problems at once.

Lorist smiled bitterly.It'd be great if things were that simple. The Union had fought against the Krissen Empire for at least a century. Its old principles were ingrained in the people deeper than even religion. The Krissen Empire was also their sworn enemies. They'd rather die than become their subjects. The people saw doing such a thing as disgracing their entire family line.

Moving them to his land would do nothing but invite the trouble into his home. Like zealots amongst heathens, they'd spread their beliefs to his people and eventually his own people would rise up against him. He couldn't even take willing people because they'd spread their ideals like a cancer, even if they didn't mean to.

"The time of its founding was very tough," Charade continued, "The surrounding nations refused to have anything to do with such heretics for years. Many sealed their borders entirely, killing anyone that tried to cross the border. For years it was as though the world outside the Union's borders didn't exist at all. The Krissen Empire saw their chance and tried to swallow it up.

"Krissen IV forgot one important thing, however. The Union was a heresy on the way the continent worked, but it was far less of a threat, at least militarily, than his empire. The other kingdoms were more than willing to work with the Union to stop him once he started mobilizing.

"When they joined sides, the Union undid their prejudice enough to let them accept them, even if begrudgingly, and even became somewhat admired.

"The decades of war that followed engrained their beliefs in them like a religious person suffering tribulations. Their final victory made them prideful and arrogant, on top of almost zealous belief in their principles. The people here would often tell me and His Grace that they were 'free men' with giant smirks on their faces. 'Here you are no different from all the other common people', their eyes always said. We can never accept them as subjects. They will never bow their heads to someone else.

"These people are a unique breed. They will never subjugate themselves to anyone. They are also, however, merchants. Gold is their god.

"The big heads in the guilds couldn't have made a bigger mistake by implementing the aristocracy. They wanted to be equals to the nobles from the kingdoms and empires, but they've broken their connection to the freedom-loving people as a result.

"They originally wanted to take land from the empire, but then the War of Glass broke out and their plans changed. The big guilds benefitted from the wars, but the rest of the Union suffered. Then the guilds went and moved their operations to their dominions, destroying the city's economy even further.

"The war with us is actually very convenient for the Union because they can shift blame to us for the suffering."

"All that said. We fought in this war for three years. We took this city to end the war but instead of negotiating with us, the bigwigs just pulled back and are preparing to drag this on even further. These merchants may have the titles of nobles, but they have none of the education and principles, none of the character, that has to come with it.

"I finished my investigation a few days ago. We wiped out all traces of the old guilds in the city, and with it their system to feed the people. As a result that burden now falls to us. If we treat all the old guilds as foreigners to the Union, which isn't far off since they're all now based outside the old Union territories, then wouldn't this basically be the same Union of old?"

What did Charade mean? Apart from Lorist, everyone stared at him blankly. A few realized what he was saying. He was going to form a second, a new, Union. Without all the old merchants.

Was this even possible?

"We can do it," Charade declared, as if reading everyone's thoughts, "Duke Forde did it with even fewer people than we have now. And none of them were as educated and skilled as the million plus we have now. A century of war against kingdoms and empires have sculpted these people into irreparable egalitarians. Why not give them their wish?"

Charade's words stunned everyone. Most were nobles or about to be nobles, how could such thoughts come into their minds. One of the oldest feudal societies on the continent was now discussing how to form a second egalitarian one? What kind of a joke was this? If irony could kill...

"B-but…" Potterfang stammered, "the Union had the support of the six largest guilds. Their support is what let it survive. Morante has nothing like that now. Most of the merchants hate us to the bone as well, as do many, if not most, of the people. Why would they work with us?"

"It is easier to draw on a blank canvas." Charade smiled, "This is exactly why this is the perfect time for something like this. Without any big forces to interfere and stamp their own mark on this, we can shape this new Union however we wish. We can lift the syndicates up to replace the old guilds if need be. Without big guilds holding small merchants and individual entrepreneurs down to hold on to their own hegemonies, I have no doubt we'll see a miracle."

Charade's plan had several key goals. First, uplifting the syndicates to fill in the space left by the now-absent guilds together with the shrine guilds and unions. Second, removing the old restrictions so everyone could trade, make, sell, and buy as they wished. The guilds were previously in control of lawmaking and set up policies that benefited their competing economic interests at the expense of everyone else. Charade would keep these two forces completely separate so the governing body could be objective and make laws that benefited everyone.

The house would only take recruits taken from the southern provinces as laborers, the rest would be used to fulfill his plan's third goal: forming a new defense force to man the city's surrounding citadels and, if possible, the rest of the positions in the plains. This would free up Lorist's legions to return home. It was not good to leave it so sparsely defended.

The fourth goal was to reinvigorate the new Union's industries. First on the list were the shipbuilding and fishing industries. These had the biggest potential for growth because they were now the most desolate. These were previously completely monopolized by the big guilds and had no small competitors. They were thus now completely empty and ripe for new guilds to take over.

Finally, bringing merchants back to the city from the surrounding lands so they could start up shops and other businesses in the city and begin rebuilding its trade economy. At the same time, some of them would be made to focus on farming on granges outside the city so the population could be moved there partially. The city had to be downscaled, and the farmlands repopulated, this was unavoidable.

Everything sounded great in theory, but Spiel knew the practical was far from it.

"And where will we find the money? Our coffers certainly can't pay for this," he asked.

"We don't have to put anything into this. Morante has enough money hidden in it. We just have yet to dig it out of the ground."

Chapter 522 - Economic Measures

"I went to check Morante's financial records while we were doing our investigation. Can you believe they've collected just 7.6 million gold Fordes in tax over the last three years?"

Charade opened a large sky-blue folder.

"It's all documented here. It's ridiculous. Back when His Grace and I were still students here, the Union collected 30 million every year. The greatest year was 69 million. Now it's just a fifth of that.

"Why? Simple. The Union is run by merchants, but the aristocracy has certain unavoidable consequences inherent in its structure. The Union used to rely purely on trade. But after it started expanding aggressively, trade ceased. It forced the Union to rely mostly on raiding and plundering. At the same time, these riches were sent to and hoarded in the guilds' new dominions, rather than being invested in Morante and put back into circulation.

"It's pretty good that we got even just four million Fordes from the city. It was almost exclusively meant to fund Invincible. My investigation revealed something else as well.

"I was told that when the high officials and the nobles were about to surrender, they tried to have the people leave their possessions behind and take as much of the money instead. If they claimed it was part of their personal property, we'd let them leave with it. They could then return it at a later date once we were gone. Luckily most of the civilians refused and took their personal stuff with them instead.

"Morante is full of riches, but most of it is not in the guilds' safes and coffers, but distributed amongst all the inhabitants. If things are still anything like what they used to be, every household should have about 40 gold Fordes stored away somewhere, whether in actual coinage or in valuable heirlooms. Take Sir Els's old friend, Jindoz. His syndicate earned nearly 100 thousand by smuggling meat into the city.

"The Union didn't resort to rations and handouts because nobody had any money, but because there weren't any resources. They tout their ideals so proudly, but they've nothing but slaves by some other name.

"Reinvigorating Morante's economy can be done. We just need a bit of money and some supplies to kickstart the market. Everything else will follow on its own. If we pump the four million we got from the city back into the economy and make our products available in the market, everything will be done."

Lorist rapped the table with his fist and stood up, stopping the chatter that followed Charade's declaration.

"Raiding and taking wealth is the easiest way to get rich. But as we take wealth away, we also gain grudges and animosity. I eliminated Hanayabarta, executed all its inhabitants, and built a pyramid with their skulls. I plundered their storehouses, coffers, and safes. I erased a kingdom built over a century. I feel no shame, I feel no guilt, I sleep soundly at night because they deserved everything I did to them and more. But we cannot do this everywhere we go.

"You've all heard Charade. Morante's wealth isn't somewhere we can conveniently take it and slip away. We'd have to pry it bit by bit from the hands of the city's people. I know you're itching for a fight, Loze, but how will this get us anywhere closer to a peaceful continent? And I know you would love to fill our coffers with the money we take from the city's people, but with the trade network Morante offers and the markets it has destroyed, where would we sell our products to make a profit in the coming years? We may on occasion act like bandits, but we must not let our foresight be that of bandits as well. My family did not survive for three hundred years by plundering everyone around them. We do not have the history of bandits, understand?

"I am ashamed that rather than banditry being a last resort, and you all jumping at a plan that meant we didn't have to steal from people, you all oppose the plan like a thief being told to do some honest work. You disappoint me, Loze… and all of you that stood with him and supported his call for plunder. Think carefully about the principles on which our society and our position in it as nobles is founded. I want a reflection in writing from each of you. Jinolio, you'll handle taking them in, report to me when you have them all. If anyone doesn't know these principles, please come to me and I'll happily drill them into your thick skulls."

Lorist didn't shout or yell, but his words exploded in his men's ears one by one. Their faces were so red one could swear they were bleeding under their skin. Everyone reflected on his words and quickly realized why he was so angry. Plundering the nobles and the leaders, plundering government coffers, and plundering the peasantry were two completely different things. They'd taken the city from the merchant guilds, so it was fine to take everything they owned, but the peasantry were a different matter. Shamelessly stealing them dry would stain Lorist's name and that of his house forever. It wasn't unlikely that he'd become known as the Bandit Duke.

It wasn't really so much that they'd be plundering the peasantry, it was not uncommon for invading armies to clean out the cities they invaded, nobles and peasants alike, but none did it after giving their word that they wouldn't. Keeping one's word was one of the most fundamental principles to nobles, it was the basis of all their authority and standing in society. Their word, their honor was everything. If Lorist stole from the normal cityfolk after vowing not to, and did so without a valid reason for breaking his word, he'd have no reputation left and no way to ever reclaim it because his very integrity as a noble would have been destroyed and no one would ever trust him again.

It would be even worse because Lorist had claimed he'd come only to end the war and bring peace to the ravaged lands where nobles fought for their own ambitions and bled their people dry. On top of all that he had vowed not just as one of the highest ranking nobles on the continent, but as one of it's less than a handful of swordsaints. He stood at the continent's peak in nearly every way, and his honor was held in far higher esteem than anyone else's. To break his word would mean the longest fall from grace ever recorded in Grindian history.

"Money is not like food or clothes or tools. It doesn't have any worth sitting in a coffer. It's only value is in being exchanged for other things. It's only worth something when it's flowing in a market, changing hands all the time. Sigh, talking to you feels like talking to a brick wall.

"I've gone through Charade's proposal, but we can't rush it. We mustn't agitate the Union unnecessarily before we know that they aren't willing to negotiate. Neither can we just sit around and wait for word that may never come. So, I've decided to take the following steps while we wait."

"First, we'll pass the Saw's we captured from Invincible out to the shipyards and hire technicians to turn them into fishing ships. Then we'll put them up for sale. We will encourage the peasants to buy them and start fishing. At the same time, we'll issue permits for fishing in the sunshine seas under Northsea's protection.

"If no one is willing to buy the ships, we'll recruit sailors. I don't doubt that things will pick up once the boys make a few successful trips. Also, the confiscated linen ropes can be used to make nets.

"Second, we'll form two garrison divisions by picking elite soldiers from the captives and let them take charge of patrolling the outer city. Potterfang, Els, that's your baby. We'll source their equipment from Firebird. If they are satisfactory, I will form a few more to replace our forces in the citadels on the plains.

"Third, we'll restore the farmland around Mass and Gypsy and start planting again. We will form granges and hire willing people to build them and sell them to the people left in the city once they're done.

"Pay everyone we hire in half-portions of money and supplies. We'll take the money for everything out of our plunder from the inner city. It should go without saying this isn't charity. I have every intent of making every copper and then some back once things are up and running.

"I have also ordered Northsea to move all the goods here from Silowas. I've seen a good opportunity to sell our stuff here in Morante. Most of the merchants we used to move our spoils to the island purchased a lot of our stuff before heading back. They have expressed their interest in continued trade with us, but complain that Silowas is too far and the seas too dangerous weather wise.

"Since they feel that way, we'll just move trade from Silowas to Morante. We'll ship everything from my lands to the island, and from there to Morante where we'll sell it to the merchants. We couldn't do this before because Chikdor and Peterson wouldn't let us, but they're completely out of the picture now so we can trade directly with the merchants.

"Moving trade here will jumpstart the economy whilst giving us direct access to the southern half of the continent. Both sides thus benefit greatly from this arrangement.

"Finally there's the question of who'll be my ambassador here and handle things on my behalf. I've put Charade in charge of that. He'll work with the council to set up the new government and put everything in place to get the city running again. Once the city is working again, we'll hand the plains over as well. Even if we don't declare this new Union officially formed, by setting up this 'interim' government in the meantime, even if our negotiation go through, we can still cause the Union trouble."

Lorist, Jinolio, and Reidy visited the slowly awakening commercial districts in disguise several days later. Life was slowly returning to the place and footfalls grew ever increasing in number with every day that passed.

The first of the products imported from The Northlands was finally hitting the stalls and shelves. It was a great set-up. Even if products were sold at three times what they'd cost back home, it was still considered cheap here and would sell out quickly. Lorist expected the first batches to result in a stampede sale as people stockpiled everything they could get their hands on, since they didn't know whether this was a once off thing or whether it was here to stay. Things should settle down in a few days and a more normal, healthy sales-rate should take hold.

Lorist was forced to swallow his words in laughter when Tarkel reported some of the discussions he'd overheard in the city. It turned out people weren't stampede-buying because they were unsure of whether it would last, but because everything was so cheap.

Peterson had bought its flower from Lorist at five times the kingdom's price but could still sell it for double that here because of the shortage. This had gone on for years so everyone had come to expect that to be the normal price. A market used to threefold the price they were now getting would naturally soak it up like dry earth soaks up the first rains of the season.

All the hatred towards him and his people built up because of their killings and gruesome displays were slowly beginning to fade. It would still take quite a bit more for them to become just normal foreigners again, but at least things were beginning to head in the right direction.

This slow change was helped along when the first payment cycle came around and Lorist's people paid everyone their full salaries on time.

A non-descript figure grew out of the crowds and whispered something in Jinolio's ear before melting back into the masses.

"Your Grace," Jinolio caried over the message, "Viscount Penelope is back. It's just him out of the group we sent though. He's not alone. It seems he has a Union ambassador with him. It's Peterson's vice-president, apparently."

Chapter 523 - Response to the Peace Negotiations

Lorist's gut told him there would either be no negotiations, or very bad ones, the moment he say Viscount Penelope.

Jinolio said Peterson's vice-president had come with him. What did this mean? He was an old acquaintance of Lorist's. He could not have come just to talk about those old days, could he?

As expected, Penelope's tone was moaning when he greeted Lorist.

"Revered Lord Norton, I apologize for not having fulfilled my task. I did my utmost, but the Union will not negotiate. They will not stop the war."

"This is disappointing to hear, but your efforts are dearly appreciated. This is not your fault, Penelope, and I do not hold it against you."

Lorist invited Penelope to sit with a warm smile and had Jinolio serve him fruit wine.

What is the Union planning?

Invincible was gone and Morante and the plains were in his hands. Their army was at half strength at best. Most were their elites, but even they could not compare to his men. The Union only held onto what it currently had because he had no desire to plunge his men back into war. Were he willing, however, he could smash through their lines and crush them completely without too heavy losses.

They can't just be doing this just to spite me.

There had to be something more to this. They had to have a trick still left up their sleeve. What, however, Lorist could not guess. Maybe he'd just not taught them a harsh enough lesson. This continued stubbornness angered him. They should just lie down and accept their fate. They were making things unnecessarily difficult for him. They should really just sit down and hand everything over to him. They had no right to be this stubborn.

"I have another confession, Your Grace. My companions became ill on the way to the Union strongholds. They are too sick to return so I had to come back alone. They hope you will release their families so they can reunite soon."

Jinolio clicked his tongue. What ill? They were fully kitted for the journey and they were all silver rank. No silver rank would fall ill so easily. This was nothing but an excuse to get out of captivity. It seemed Penelope was the only man with a good conscience and a working moral compass.

"Such a journey must surely be tiring for feeble silver ranks. I could not expect such weak bodies to come back through the cold so quickly. Don't worry, I'll look after their families carefully and they can reunite safely once the war ends."

"That will do as well."

Penelope was not inclined to argue on behalf of people unwilling to fulfill their tasks to earn their freedom, so he dropped the matter unceremoniously.

"The Union refused to negotiate, but they are willing to keep in touch with your captives and yourself. That's why they've sent Count Kaet, Peterson's vice-president. I am told you've had dealings with one another in the past, before the war, that is. He's come to be the Union's ambassador."

"Vice-President Kaet. Why would he come? Jinolio, quick! Get my old friend in here."

"Yes, Your Grace."

"President Peterson was very helpful when I left Morante all those years ago. I dealt with Vice-president Kaet when we started trading with the Union years later. Do you know what he has come to discuss?"

"I'm afraid I don't, Your Grace. It is a matter of discussion between two enemy factions. I, a captive of one side would not be told, certainly not when I'm a defeated and disgraced admiral. I tried to convey your intentions for peace to the Union, but they were only interested in the particulars of my defeat. I'm being blamed for the Union's current state. Honestly, it's a miracle I was even allowed to come back and wasn't just executed on the spot.

The general's face slowly reddened as he spoke and his heart raced.

"They know nothing of what happened. They know nothing of the circumstances of my defeat. They were so convinced of their superiority and the certainty of their victory that they wholly believe I must be the most incompetent admiral ever to have sailed on the sea, or have lost on purpose."

It could not be denied that the admiral had suffered a historic defeat, but he could not be accused of incompetence. Had the fight been any less one-sided technology wise, Lorist would have lost. Hell, even with his overwhelming superiority on the technology tree the admiral had brought him to the brink of defeat. Had the admiral not charged onto his ship, but one of the others, the fight might well have ended in Lorist's defeat.

Lorist searched awkwardly for consoling words, to no avail. Luckily only a few awkward seconds passed before Jinolio brought the Vice-president into the room.

"Ahah! Vice-president Kaet, my old friend, it's been too long! Are you well?"

"It is a happy day to meet you again, Lord Duke!" Kaet exclaimed as he greeted Lorist, "I didn't think you'd become my guild's enemy. Now you've even conquered our old capital and chased out of the plains. You've done what emperors and an entire empire could not! The world never ceases to amaze me."

"Old friend. I never wanted to be the Union's enemy. I want more than anyone else to end this horrible war and turn everything back to how it was before the war. I want not to point fingers and put blame on anyone's lap. I just want this to end. I have returned to the front-lines for this sole purpose. I had hoped that with this attack I could bring you stubborn boys back to the table, but now you've turned me down again. Tell me, have you grown fond of war?"

"Sigh..."

Kaet didn't know how to respond at first. Once Lorist's words sank in, however, he blasted back with a livid reply.

"Andinaq started all of this. That blasted king marched his men into our lands. You are the aggressors here. You started this bloody war. You were the first to slaughter our nobles, the first to break the age old taboo! You yourself wiped out one of our guilds like dogs. You disgraced us and then you have the nerve to criticize us for not surrendering to you tyrants? Tell me Lord Duke, is your skin thick enough to deny your crimes? If so, I don't know how you get out of bed in the morning!"

"Oh?" an alien smile cracked Lorist's face, "I don't know how the empire's territory became yours. Auguslo, my king, waged a just war to reclaim the lands rightfully his by inheritance. You are the invaders, the foreign settlers. You are the greedy bastards stretching your dog claws into what is rightfully ours.

"Whatever... You merchants know nothing about nobility, and noble honor and prestige. You wear the clothes and spout the words, but you do not live the lives. You do not inherit anything, you know nothing about family heritage so of course you would think something belongs to you just because you could steal it. We're just teaching you how to be proper nobles. Land belongs to you because you have a claim hundreds of years old and a centuries long history and bond with the land, not because you managed to chase the true owners off the land.

"See what you did? I said I didn't want to argue blame, but now you've made me go down that road. I can't sit idly by and watch you monkeys mock us for having tails. I don't know what you're up to, refusing my offer of peace when you're on the brink of being wiped out completely, nor do I particularly care. Tell me, what secret mission do you have?"

"You..." Kaet wanted to argue, but Lorist gazed at him with a murderous gaze, and he knew the man was a swordsaint, so he swallowed his words.

He acted with restraint and respect in their previous meetings, but he always looked down on this little noble from the barbarian north. Now, however, the man was a swordsaint. And one that could go toe-to-toe with the Union's. He could not offend this man.

Kaet dropped the familiarity with which he'd behaved before. His countenance became far and cold. He bowed stiffly.

"I am Count Kaet Wesrena and I serve in this meeting as the Forde Trade Union's ambassador. I greet the bloodblade saint, Norton Lorist, Duke of The Northlands with the respect his title is due. I come to bring the Union's official response regarding your suit for peace."

"Go on."

"The Union is willing to speak of peace, but such talks will not take place as long as even one Andinaq foot stands on our land. We will speak of peace only once you and your king withdraw from our lands, including the seven provinces and the lands of our allied countries in the north, pay reparations for your transgressions, and admit to your crimes. The Union was not comparable to the Krissen Empire when we last fought, but we still won. The war lasted fifty years, but we won. This was has lasted just three, do you really think we will give in now? Do you really think we can not fight you for the next fifty years until you've bled white? Even if we have to fight you for a century, we will do so. The Union is ever victorious!"

Lorist, Jinolio, and Penelope's mouths scraped the floor.

Did this man still have his brains? This sounded more like their declaration of war than a call for peace. What gave the Union their confidence? No. This could not be called confidence. This was a delusion. A collective insanity had swept over the entire Union.

"Nonsense! Men!" shouted Jinolio.

Kaet was being too rude. He'd insulted Lorist. Ambassadors were generally free to speak to their counterparts as equal, regardless of any rank difference so they could openly convey their messages, but this was an insult. Ambassadors, as unfettered as their speech may be, could not shout at their counterparts.

"Duke Norton! I am an ambassador! This is the Union's reply!"

Kaet remained stock straight.

"That all? Nothing else?"

Lorist stared at Kaet with an interested gaze. He waved his guards down. He could tell the ambassador had just recited the message. These were not his own words. There was no point in killing the messenger.

"Huh? You're not going to kill me?"

"Kill you? Why would I? I am not your heartless comrades. I am not an uncultured, uneducated, barbarous merchant. Your reply is perfectly understandable. You can't expect an idiot to speak in proper sentences, after all. I forgive your mistake. You guys are just being sore losers. You want to fight until there's nothing left of you. Fine by me. I'll just wipe you off the face of the continent for good, then.

"A proper noble treats his guest, an ambassador even more so, with all the etiquette and decorum he has, even if the poor sod is a monkey. You don't have to worry, you just barely qualify as a monkey, so I'll treat you properly. Now, tell, me. I know you didn't come here just to give me that little babble. What else are you here for?"

"I'm..." Kaet shook violently, "We're still at war, but hostilities have ceased for the time being, so I've been sent to come get our captives. We are willing to pay a fair price."

Chapter 524 - Leaving the Camps with Nothing

"Hahahaha..." Charade laughed badly in the couch, clutching his stomach.

It was far too much of a joke and such a foolish stroke would definitely remain one of the staple moments of history.

In the entire two thousand year history of the continent after the magic civilization, even including the millennium-long dark ages, there were countless unexpected results that came about from the interaction of two factions. However, not one was as laughable as the Union's reply. Lorist had suggested a peace negotiation, yet they came back with a declaration of war.

Usually, when nobles were at each other's necks, they would respond to requests or queries politely. If one side proposed peace, even if the other didn't agree, they would still be polite in their rejection. Such was the etiquette. No noble had ever broken this basic rule. The Union was the first.

"A bunch of fools! They don't know what's good for them!" Lorist barked.

Kaet's kamikaze-like attitude made him want to vomit. Did they really think Lorist was a complete fool and would anger so easily?

"They sent him here to piss you off," said Charade.

"I know. I won't fall for it. I don't understand what the Union is trying to achieve. How do they hope to continue this war?"

"They must think they can use the city's people as a bargaining chip. They must think we can't handle them, so if they anger you, you'll vent on them. It'll incite a massive uprising and we'll lose control of the city. Either they then get the city back, or we keep pouring in people to keep control, and we keep losing men."

"Hehe, aren't they idealistic?" Lorist laughed, "We'll make them regret it. Also, how are your negotiations?"

"I came precisely to make my report. I've not come across any problems with the syndicates. They're actually happy to see the guilds gone and are willing to be the new city administrators. Even if it's temporary, they stand to benefit a lot.

"The shrine sector is also responding positively. The 27 shrines couldn't be happier about our invitation. The shrines are the ones most harmed by the rationing system. They despise the guilds for sapping their income so badly. They are all too happy to take over governing the city.

"The two remaining academies aren't as cooperative. Saint William Academy and Saint Molinka Academy survived only because the guilds kept funding them. They're the last of the 28 academies the city used to have. They had a good relationship with the guilds since their students were mostly from the guilds. They've ignored my invitations completely."

"Haha, since they don't want grace, we'll kick them out. We still need a representative for the academy sector though... Have Tarkel track down all the former administrators and teachers. We'll found another academy, several if possible. Put them under the new government. There certainly is still a market for academies, Morante has a million inhabitants and thousands of prospective students. For now we'll offer loans so they can study."

"A good idea, Your Grace," Charade said as his eyes flashed brightly.

The 28 academies used to be open and assimilated all sorts of cultures and methods, making Morante the holy land for furthering one's studies and even earning it its moniker 'academy city', unlike its current state with only two academies that only served to train new personnel for the guilds. They also accepted normal citizens, but most couldn't afford the fees anymore.

"When Morante's economy stabilizes, the people will start to think about education. When we were studying in Dawn Academy, there were 28 academies and 200 thousand students. Morante's population was only 800 thousand. The academy sector used to be the most crowded. You remember when I followed you for patrols one day a student realized there were even quite a few senior students who'd studied in the academy for more than six years and even formed their families and had children in the student dorms?"

"Yeah. Studying a specialized course used to cost six gold Fordes. It was expensive for the average person, but many still paid so their children could study. If they used up their funds, the students could work for a period before resuming their studies and there were many ways to earn money. But ever since the War of Glass and the worsening relations between the Union and its neighbors, most foreign students left. They were also the majority of the student body. It's no surprise the academies closed."

"Even if we sponsor 10 thousand students, it won't cost more than ten thousand Fordes. I can bear that. Let's consider it a memento for my decade here. Alright, it's decided.

"Now that the Union has responded, we can go ahead with our plans. Take over everything trade and administration. We can even change the governing body into a new city council and set Morante up as the capital of the plains." instructed Lorist.

"Understood. They will be really delighted to hear they will become the new city council," replied Charade.

"Oh and tell Jindoz to be more loose and let others have a chance. It'll be enough for him to have a tight grip on the two new sentry divisions. Military power is most important during war after all."

Charade nodded.

"I'm sure Jindoz will understand."

Jinolio entered after knocking on the door.

"Your Grace, Supervisor Spiel and Sir Tarkel have arrived."

"Let them in."

Spiel and Tarkel entered.

"I've called you over to get your input. Count Kaet came yesterday. The Union rejected our offer and refuse to negotiate. They've instead demanded we release their prisoners for ransom. I've agreed," briefed Lorist.

"But, Milord, the prisoner still have most of their wealth. They're still spending it at the tavern. We'll lose all of that money!" Spiel griped.

"I know, don't worry. I won't let them leave with their wealth. We're holding Kaet in the military prison outside the city so he won't notice our moves. Charade, start negotiating the ransom with the count, begin with the blademasters and move down from there. The Hidegold Bay nobles will be last on the list. Increase their debts in the taverns tenfold. We'll only agree to paying the ransom once the Union settles those bills."

"As you wish. I shall do my best," sighed Charade.

"Don't do your best. Get it done. The Union is aware of our current situation, we have to keep them talking to stop them getting suspicious. Make us sound desperate. They'll want to drag negotiations on in that case as well."

"Tarkel, tell me about the docks camp."

"There've been 17 brawls and robberies, in the last week. Mostly because captives are preying on one another. They've formed gangs and are competing for territory. We've chosen to ignore everything as long as no one dies. I've given the order that it should be encouraged as subtly as possible.

"That's also what's behind the increase in recent spending. They aren't settling for porridge because they can't afford to become weak and have everything stolen. So they're coughing up the money to buy meat. Our profits should grow to 100 thousand gold a day soon."

Lorist shook his head.

"It's too slow. One tavern isn't enough, set up more all over the camp. Open a casino if you can, or a brothel. Start a few pawn shops as well. We don't just want their gold, we want their belongings as well."

"Your Grace is a true genius!" Tarkel exclaimed, "I haven't even thought of that!"

Lorist rolled his eyes.

"Buzz off. Don't let others know I was the one who came up with it. I just want the people to have as fun a time as is possible under the circumstances. The price is only high because it's difficult to provide everything in war time.

"Also, have Pajik set up another camp for the people who're out of money. They'll get only the normal rations. Kaet can negotiate for those prisoners only. We'll move people over as they use up their money and the Union can negotiate for them then.

"No matter how we do it, we have to bleed them dry. My only condition is you must not disrupt the camps. We can move behind the scenes, but we must not make promises we can't or won't keep."

"Understood, Your Grace," Tarkel saluted, "I know what to do."

Chapter 525 - Dinag's Encounters

Dinag used to be a mercenary. When he was fifteen, he took the sword his father left behind and joined his Uncle Wag's small but reputable mercenary band, the Bloodblade Squad. After five years of adventuring, Dinag grew from a rookie mercenary into a seasoned hunter and an expert scout. So, his uncle began to consider his future.

"You should go to the academy to study. There's no way you're going to work as a rough mercenary for the rest of your life like Uncle," his uncle had said all too often.

He hoped his nephew would study for a couple of years and learn something worthwhile rather than just mingling with the rough and rowdy mercenaries. He didn't want him to be a lowly poor peasant for his whole life.

Dinag, however, didn't want to study. He liked the free mercenary life, but his uncle was strict and unrelenting and forced him to go along with his plans. Just as Dinag helplessly resigned himself to becoming a student of Saint Marceau Academy in Morante, the War of Glass began. It changed his fate completely.

Though the hot-blooded mercenaries first banded together to resist Teribo's invasion, they eventually became the invaders like the Union itself. Bloodblade also served as a hired lance during the war and quickly expanded. They fought their way into Teribo and eventually turned into lawless bandits. They committed all sorts of crimes. To them, the war was a rave party. It was exactly the kind of days mercenaries desired.

But the good times didn't last long. The straight-laced Teribo VII suddenly offered huge bounties and turned the battle into a war of angels and demons, a battle in which mortal men had no future.

Dinag's uncle was among the first killed. As the first leader of Bloodblade and a two-star gold rank, he led a group of elite mercenaries and raided Teribo nobles' manors. During one such raid he was ambushed by two blademasters and his entire contingent was wiped out.

Dinag found only his uncle's decapitated body. He was still grieving when the band began to disintegrate. No one could agree how to split their plunder. Disagreements became fights, and fights became duels. Less than half of the surviving band were still alive when the fighting ended, and they left what whatever they could carry. The band was disbanded.

After burying his uncle, Dinag joined the guild army Twinhead Dragon formed, bent on taking revenge. He hoped to fight in the vanguard, to have as many enemies to kill as his blade could fell. He had no chance against the blademasters who killed his uncle, but he could go after the enemy king.

But the entire war was a joke. He never fought in field battles or siege, hell, there were none. He spent the entire war in camp waiting for a chance to fight, only to hear one day that they'd won the war. Rumor had it the king had killed himself. The Union bigwigs split the spoils and land and everything ended.

A single mercenary's hatred didn't matter. He didn't have anywhere to go either. His uncle was his only family, he had no idea what to do now. He eventually remembered his uncle's wish that he study, but he had no money. The survivors of the band had taken everything. He'd earned a good salary while in the army, but he'd blown everything on booze and women.

He had no choice but to keep working for the guild. He fought in all the Union's wars for the next decade. He'd been there for all the great victories and losses, and somehow survived. His track record eventually earned him the name Dinag the Lucky.

He'd need all of the luck for what he now faced.

His current mission was to infiltrate Morante. The guild's chief supervisor, Sloph, had personally met them and promised the president himself would promote them to knights and give them great rewards if they were successful.

More than ten years of experience had molded Dinag into a seasoned veteran. He knew the bigger the reward was, so too were the risks. However, having the chance to become a knight moved him. He had fought in many battles and had quite the reputation, but he was still just a mid-tier officer. He was a mercenary. Even when he had served for more than a decade and was a three-star silver rank, he couldn't compare with the new talent the guild was cultivating. To the guild, Dinag would forever be an outsider.

He didn't care about the money. As long as he could fulfill his mission, he would be promoted to a knight of Duke Cobleit himself. That meant the guild would have accepted him. From that day on, he would be treated the same as the talent the guild cultivated. He would definitely get a bigger salary and a higher position. Even his children would be accepted and receive proper training. His worries would be over.

This was a chance. Not one of his comrades turned the mission down. Dinag didn't think it would be that dangerous anyway. He just had to infiltrate the city and establish contact with his foregoers. From there he'd take them to a secret armory and help them distribute the weapons to the people and incite a revolt.

Simple, much easier than the one when he was trapped on a hill by the midsouthern nations' cavalry corps. He recalled he had been trapped for nearly ten days and even lacked water. He had to drink is pee to survive. To prevent the cavalrymen from discovering he was hiding there, he had to lie on the ground for three whole days.

The hardest thing about this mission, was that he had to survive through the uprising. He knew how dangerous a revolt could be. Especially for him, since the enemy was bound to come after the leaders first.

He chose a mercenary called Ricador as his partner. The mission had eight participants, all of them mercenaries. They split into four groups to infiltrate the city. They'd reunite inside. Sloph told them the city had a group inside already, but they'd been unable to achieve their goals.

The first group sent word that House Norton's tyranny had sparked a sense of resistance among the citizens, but they didn't have any weapons. The informants themselves were also understaffed and couldn't effectively incite a revolt. They hoped the guilds could send them some.

Sloph had said Riwald once transported three ships' worth of weapons from Hidegold Bay. They'd left the shipment in a warehouse in the city and never got around to moving it to their dominion.

Dinag and Ricador wandered for days to shake of any prying eyes suspicious of their activities. They passed through Tedanini Mountains and headed to Callisto Hills, pretending to be mercenaries returning from Khawistan and heading to Morante to sell their catch.

The Norton soldiers by the east gate weren't interested in them and casually let them in. They heded for their rendezvous point, a place called the Red Grace Inn.

A man in his twenties sat behind the counter. He complained when he saw the secret sign.

"What's the deal? The rest arrived days ago. We're only waiting for you."

"I'm sorry, We were playing it safe," Dinag apologized, "We didn't think House Norton's security would be so lax, unlike what you reported. We also saw many people walking about the streets doing shopping. The city seems very peaceful. Where is this revolt you talked about? What's going on?"

"You're a sharp one. You're much smarter than your partners. When they arrived, they started eating right away. They even told us to get them women. They didn't even know what got them. I didn't want to waste my energy here, but I guess you're not the type to yield without a struggle," said the youth as he smiled and put his sword on the counter.

Dinag and Ricador drew their own, retreating towards the door slowly.

"A trap then? The request was fake?" asked Dinag as he observed his surroundings.

"Yes. After we catch you, we will send another saying you're all idiots who got caught by the Nortons. Seven of you died and ne escaped. The revolt never happened. We'll ask for another batch of reinforcements," answered the young man.

He drew his sword from its scabbard lazily.

"You can bring out all your hiding friends," said Dinag.

The young man shook his head.

"Nobody is hiding. Don't worry, I'm the only one. You see that small door behind me? If you can defeat or kill me, you can leave through there safely. Nobody will stop you. As for the front door, forget it. My senior apprentice brother is outside and if you can't even defeat me, you'll have no hopes of escaping."

"You have a master?" Dinag squinted.

"Yes," the young man sighed, "Actually, I don't really like fighting and killing. But my master wanted me to come and said I could use the free training partners. This is much safer than fighting on the battlefield, he said. Alright, come on. I'll give you a chance. You're talented. Won't you serve House Norton?"

Ricador charged forward without saying a word. When Dinag saw the glow on the hot-blooded Ricador's blade, he cried loudly and charged as well.

......

The windstorm swordsaint's residence still stood atop Brinn Hills. It was now Lorist's residence.

Tarkel stepped onto the balcony hurriedly. Lorist lay on a chair in a corner.

"What's wrong? Jinolio fine?"

"He is, Your Grace. He captured the last informants. It's just he took longer than usual. Reidy's already scolded him. We just got a message from the capital."

"Oh. Didn't our king return already? Did he cause trouble again?"

"Well..." Tarkel hesitated. "I don't know how to say this, Your Grace..."

"What's so hard to say? Just read the message."

"Okay. The queen is seven months pregnant," said Tarkel, hiding his smile by lowering his head.

"The queen's pregnant? Great news. I guess we'll have to prepare some gifts to celebrate… Wait, seven months?!"

"Seven months?!" Lorist repeated.

"Yes."

What a scandal! Auguslo was gone from the capital for three years and had only just returned. Clearly the queen had had an affair! His crown was green![1] What was he going to do? He might normally just execute the woman, but she was a Fisablen.

"The letter says the queen didn't welcome the king when he returned. She tried to hide from him saying she was ill, but the king went with a bunch of nobles to check on her. The moment he saw her, the king realized she was pregnant. He slew her four servants on the spot. The queen fainted at the scene."

Lorist was speechless.

"The king won't be ascending to the imperial throne for at least two years..."

[1] Wearing a green cap is a popular Chinese saying of being cheated on. It's a reference to people losing their lovers to other men during their time in the military, hence the green cap. In this case, Auguslo was literally on a military campaign...

Chapter 526 - Protest

"I protest! I express my strong objections House Norton as a representative of the Union! You have violated your promise to respect the sacred right to private property and lust after the wealth of the family members of the merchant guild members! You are limiting their freedom..." Count Kaet was fuming with rage as he glared furiously at Charade, his voice hoarse from his outburst.

Charade dug his ear with his finger.

"Lord Kaet, please don't be so emotional. I acknowledge your protest. Then should we continue to discuss the transportation of the captives after you pay for their ransom? If you send carriages over, then each carriage will have to pay a toll of one gold Forde. If you hire us to transport those captives, it will cost two gold Fordes each if you include the food they will consume throughout the journey. We have already discounted this by half for you, our old friend. If someone else had come, we'd charge them three gold Fordes minimum without even including food."

Kaet sank into his chair angrily. It felt as if his fist had caught nothing but air. Not only did he not strike his enemy, he even injured his back in the process. He clutched his face and sighed deeply.

Who's the merchant here? Didn't they say nobles only care for face and merchants only care for profits? Why is it the opposite with House Norton? Do they not care about their reputation at all? It's all gold Fordes, gold Fordes, and more gold Fordes in their eyes! They're more merchant-like than merchants!

He'd thought the negotiations were going well, initially. The sum of two million gold Fordes would include the ransom for all surrendered blademasters, gold ranks, high officials of merchant guilds and their family members, attendants, as well as the guards that came along with them, numbering around two thousand people in total. However, the bill he received caused him to jump with anger.

"I wouldn't believe even if you killed me that two thousand people consumed more than 800 thousand gold Fordes in the span of 50 days! 80 thousand is more like it! Show me your menu! I want to see what they eat daily!" cried the count.

"Apologies, Count Kaet, you should know the state of Morante now. Actually, we spent lots of effort to provide for the food and drink as well as the parties these esteemed guest of ours hold. I I'm sure you understand how much ingredients of that caliber cost. Apart from this bill, there are around ten other blademasters' tabs. That's another two million. We won't release the blademasters in question until these tabs are settled. You pay their salaries, so just deduct it from their salary."

"Ridiculous! You even set up casinos!"

"That's not a big deal. You understand how terrible it must feel to lose one's freedom. They are our captives because of your incompetence. These people have big but brittle prides, so we gave them things with which to entertain themselves so they suffer as little as possible."

"Stop! Just stop!" Kaet looked at the tabs and quickly noticed something odd. "Tell me, why are these debts only for blademasters? Why does no one else have any debt?

"We don't allow them to make any debts. We trust the Union will foot the blademasters' bill, but not for anyone else. You might just choose to leave them with us."

It sounded bad, but it did make sense. The Union was hoping to put the elites to work, the blademasters were worth the debts they had, but no one else would be worth it if they had large debts.

The negotiations finally closed. Kaet hoped he could strike while the iron was still hot and ransom the rest of the inner city's residents. Most were family members of the Union's mid-tier military and guild officials, so getting them back would improve the forces' morale.

Charade wasn't against it, but the negotiations dragged on once again. They eventually settled on one gold per child and elder, two for women, and three for youths. Charade was about to have men go out and count the people to get a detailed price, Kaet declared he'd pay a million regardless of their number so there was no need for a survey.

"Deal!"

Kaet's face nearly exploded when he saw the first batch, however. What inner city residents was this? These were fucking refugees! They didn't have anything but the clothes on their back, some didn't even have that! The only difference was they were plump and fat!

Kaet quickly learned what had happened. The three thousand leapt at him like he was their father. Some accused House Norton of intentionally jacking up food prices while others asked him to go back and take back the goods stolen from their peers. Some even asked him to treat them to a good meal.

He had to be escorted out of the crowd, only to realise his clothes had been stolen in the turmoil. Even his wedding ring had been stolen. He couldn't even get angry. He was completely numb. He didn't forget his duty, however, and demanded to speak with Lorist.

He'd been housed outside the city in a small compound. The compound was completely surrounded by guards and Kaet was not allowed to leave it, even for meetings, everything happened within the compound.

He'd initially complained, but was told it was for his protection since the city was very unstable.

The few people he was allowed to meet described seeing fires in the city frequently, and fishing ships frequently sailed past the prison ships to go fishing. Everything matched what Charade had told him so for a while he was convinced it was true. It seemed House Norton had not gained anything from the city and was now losing men and money by the day. Now, however, he learned what was really happening from the released captives.

House Norton had defaulted on their promise to respect personal property rights and had started taking the property of the inner city residents. Their schemes were clever, so it wasn't blatant robbery, but it was still against their promise. Kaet could not let them do this.

He planned to give Lorist an earful and demand everything be returned, lest he return to the Union and they take military action. Lorist, however refused to see him. Charade also stopped visiting for three whole days.

When he finally saw the scoundrel again, Kaet unloaded on him like a catapult. Charade just kept saying they'd not broken their promise. The people had chosen to give up their riches on their own by using the services they'd offered.

"Is your situation in the north so bad that two bowls of watered-down porridge counts as a decent free ration?" Kaet laughed, both furious and disdainful.

"It is!" Charade replied shamelessly, "You must not know how lucky they are to get even this much. Things are so bad they've even started eating the bark of the trees in and around the city! Anyway, that's not important. I'm here to talk about the fees for transporting the people. We won't be feeding the people we've released, they're in your care now. If you want to keep them here, you'll have to send food yourself, we can sell you some, 50 kilograms of potatoes is one gold Forde. If you want to send them back to your territory, you have two options. If you want us to send them off, you have to pay the fee. If you transport them yourselves, you'll have to pay the toll."

Kaet inhaled deeply and forced his anger down.

"One question. Why did you offer to transport the first batch for free? I thought the transport fee was included in their ransom."

Kaet was referring to the blademasters, gold ranks, nobles, officials, and their familis. The two thousand people were transported to the new border for free.

"Don't take me for an idiot. That was just two thousand people. We're talking about 100 thousand now. We don't get the carts and drivers for free. We have to recoup the costs."

"I already paid the ransom..."

"Yes, the ransom. That's all we negotiated and all you paid. We're talking about the costs of transport now."

"You... You're shameless! I... I protest!"

"And I acknowledge your protest. Now, have you decided? Will you use our services or your own and pay the toll?"

Kaet did not have the energy to get angry again.

"I... I demand an audience with your duke. I will complain to him personally. Is this what you Nortons consider sincerity? Barbarians are more sincere! You've been away from civilization and mingling with the barbarians for too long. You don't know how to behave properly anymore! I warn you, the civilized people of the rest of the continent will not stand for this, you'll pay!"

Charade shrugged.

"Frankly, His Grace only met you because you had ties with us from before the war. You're just a count, don't get too big for your station. Even if His Grace was not a duke, he is a swordsaint, he is far above you.

"As for us paying for this, you're welcome to march your armies here. We'd be more than happy to hand the city over. It's just that if we're imminently handing over the city, we might not bother with putting out all those fires. Ah, I'm rambling. Send a letter to the Union and ask them to come for the city. The winner gets to keep it, how about that?"

When he finished, he noticed that Kaet was shaking his head forcefully, his mouth shut.

Chapter 527 - Shocking News

Lorist was incredibly busy with training and paying attention to the developments of the scandal of Auguslo and his pregnant wife. He was really interested in how it would turn out. If something like that happened in a commoner's or knight's family, Lorist would not be nearly as interested.

But this happened to the king. Lorist's craving for gossip shot through the roof. He lamented that Morante was too far from the capital and the gossip would take a day or two to arrive. So, when Charade placed the letter of protest Kaet spent three days penning in front of him, He crumpled it and tossed it into the rubbish bin.

"Protest my ass! All bark and no bite like a useless guard dog! If the Union really has any bargaining chips left, they would've sent their troops instead of sending an envoy. Ignore him."

"I know, but we should at least leave him some face," Charade answered, "Actually, this letter is quite well-written. I didn't know he had that kind of talent. He wrote it over several days and it has several good points. I was quite surprised that it doesn't openly criticize us. He's implied everything instead. It's a shame you want to throw it away without at least reading it."

"You can take it out of the bin if you want. I don't care about his talent. Talent that doesn't serve me is worthless. There are no problems with your arrangements, are there? How much did you squeeze out of the Union?"

"Everything's going fine. The people we released are settling in by the port. Kaet has agreed to use us to transport the people to the border and is buying the food from us as well.

"He should thank us for releasing them in small batches. He's already struggling with that along, if we released them all at once he'd collapse. He's blind to his blessing and protesting us only releasing the people that have no money left.

"The Union has given us 6.3 million of the ransom and the bills we slapped on them. Kaet complained about this as well. He mocked us for being rural bumpkins that only care about money and nothing for our reputation. He's also complained about being forced to cover his own expenses, but I've been deaf since he arrived.

"Spiel is personally managing the camp near the port. Tarkel secretly spread word that only those who spent all their money would be released, so everyone's rushing to get rid of their money. Tarkel spread two other rumors as well, that their wealth would be confiscated by the Union even if they managed to leave with it, and that, if they won the red betting chip in the casino, they would be released and House Norton would even ensure their personal safety and wealth. Two casinos have been overflowing for two days now.

"We've earned three million in the last ten days. Spiel's so happy he can't stop smiling or keep his mouth shut. He said the captives alone can give us ten million. Tarkel also had people put up a show at the port two days ago. He gathered two thousand outer city citizens and twenty buckets of cow and goat blood to put up a show on how our troops are trying hard to suppress a revolt. He wanted to scare the stubborn old folks in the camp so they think the city is very dangerous and won't try to escape, and so they'll believe we're barely keeping everything under control."

Charade's report made Lorist laugh. It all started when Jindoz handed over the two infiltrators, Riwald's chief supervisor, Mendauk, and the gold-ranked swordsman, Vingoff. The two didn't even last two days against Tarkel and spilled everything.

Lorist knew he could play this well. Since the two planned the whole operation, he would have them continue to send word back to the Union and ask for supplies and reinforcements. He wanted more training dummies for Jinolio. The kid had a good character, his only shortcoming was a lack of motivation; the kid barely touched weapons at all. He never strove to win and, at best, fought hard enough to get a draw.

Lorist's three disciples had been the center of attention since he'd become a swordsaint. His first disciple, Reidy, was already equal to a rank 2 blademaster and had a strong bloodlust. Howard was equal to a three-star gold-ranked swordsman and was calm and calculative. And his third disciple was tall and graced with a magnificent figure and was a peak three-star silver rank. In stark contrast to his physique, however, Jinolio had a soft heart and delicate handwriting, perhaps because he spent lots of time with his female tutor in his childhood.

Lorist was quite troubled by this kid. How could a pirate like Senbaud give birth to a good-boy son? The old pirate had sailed the seas to raid, kill, and commit all sorts crimes. Many of Lorist's knights were even ashamed to be in the same unit as him. But his eldest was loved by everyone. He was genuine and had a great temperament; his loyalty was also second to none. His aversion to combat was his only shortcoming.

Sending Jinolio to fight on the battlefield was too risky right now. Even a swordsaint could not be certain of his fate. And sparring with the guards was pointless. Jinolio didn't care about winning, and he couldn't be put in a real life-or-death situation that way. Having him fight Union operative trying to infiltrate the city was the best option. Hopefully, they would give him some spark of insight. The men would seriously aim for his life, whilst the situation meant Jinolio would not get ganged or surrounded as might happen on a battlefield.

Lorist didn't expect that Charade and Tarkel get involved as well. The two wanted to convince the Union they were really in trouble. They could buy more time for the new Union to stabilize and prepare the Union for a fatal blow once they met on the field.

"Alright, go all out," Lorist smiled, "Morante needs time. Let the Union think we are having a hard time dealing with the people and suffering severe losses. When they finally move on the city in force, we'll cut their head off. Morante needs just half a year then we can begin withdrawing. How about we call it Let's call it the Morantian Plutocracy? I want to see where the Union hides its shameful face next. Can they really still be called the Forde Trade Union after losing their headquarters? Once that's done we'll help the Plutocracy fend of the Union's invasion. I'm sure many will be too shocked to even react when the time comes."

"The Union will regret this. If they knew things will turn out like this, they would've surrendered long ago. Isn't a little too cruel, though, Your Grace? You're not just giving them a hard blow, you're completely uprooting them!"

Lorist shook his head.

"They asked for this. They want to enjoy the privileges of nobility, but won't uphold the dignity and honor that comes with that? They want to be both merchants and nobles? They can't have their cake and eat it too. They resisted outside forces because they were of singular purpose, but now they're fractured. Morante's deterioration is their fault. If Duke Forde Morante knew what would happen to the city, he would probably never had joined hands with the guilds. We have to turn the city back to how it used to be."

"Your Grace is right. Oh, has there been any news from the capital?"

As a staunch opposer of Auguslo, Charade was really interested in the scandal. He'd been pestering Lorist since he'd heard of the whole affair.

"Nothing new. The last news is that the cheater's been found. No details on him yet. The king's apparently threatened death on anyone who as much as thought a word on this matter. The funniest thing is people celebrated the king having an heir when the news first spread, you know, before everyone realized she must have cheated."

The two laughed together, schadenfreude filling the room. This scandal was the greatest entertainment they'd had in years.

Tarkel burst into the room as the two wrapped up their laughter.

"News from the capital!" he shouted as he waved a small piece of parchment around.

"Let's hear it," beckoned Charade.

"The queen cheated with the palace guards' vice-captain! Wicksas, a 27-year-old two-star silver rank."

"Wicksas? Two-star silver rank at 27? Which house? How did he become the palace guard's vice-captain?"

Lorist's first guess was that he had relied on secret connections to get his station. His station was usually occupied only by people in the gold rank. The rule was made even stricter after the blademaster breaking several years ago during Lorist's recovery. Auguslo had reorganized the palace's defenses in his rage and made sure all three hundred members of the palace guard were at least silver rank.

"Wicksas isn't a noble. He's just a squire. His adoptive father was a retired royal knight."

Tarkel's eyes suddenly popped out of his skull.

"Y-y-your Grace... The l-l-letter says W-w-wicksas is actually... the king's... illegitimate son..."

"What?!" Lorist snatched the letter from Tarkel and put it on the table.

Charade squeezed in to get a look as well.

It was true. Wicksas was indeed rumored to be Auguslo's bastard son. It was unproven, however. It was, however, fueled by the fact that Auguslo didn't kill Wicksas once he was discovered; he just locked him up.

Lorist's informant was a loyal and dutiful commander. He'd gone to great lengths to verify the rumor. He was told by a former servant to the king that when the king was 17, he had an affair with his father's maidservant which bore a child. The servant disappeared with her child soon after. There were no traces left over the years, so it wasn't certain whether the man was indeed the king's bastard, but his age did match.

Holy shit! This just keeps getting better and better! So Auguslo had an affair with his father's maidservant, and the son from that affair now had an affair with his father's wife, which also now bears a child! God, I bet this kid will have an affair with his own mother or sister, that family just keeps getting worse every generation!

"Tarkel, ask Glacia if she knows anything about this bastard of the king's."

"Understood, Your Grace," replied Tarkel.

Chapter 528 - Rather Miss Than Meet

Lorist focused intensely. A large piece of snow-white paper sat on the desk in front of his, aptly called 'snow paper'. Physical training stopped being worth it once he became a swordsaint.

The largest difference between him and other swordsaints was that he didn't train in battleforce. He had his own path. He had reached the fourth stage of the Aquametal Technique, the limit of what he knew of the technique. Any further growth would come not from training his body and swordsmanship, but from polishing this technique.

He'd only trained it because he had been desperate. No one else had ever walked this path in this world, besides for him, this path didn't even exist in this world. He could not turn to anyone for guidance. He was forging a whole new path of cultivation, but he did not think he had the genius to really do it. He had no choice but to trudge on blindly now that he'd reached the limits of his understanding. He hoped to pass this on to his disciples or descendants eventually so his family's legacy could continue.

He used to be an avid xianxia webnovel reader. In many of them the great characters could cut through space and time and destroy things from worlds away. His luck, of course, was to be born in a place with an ailing martial tradition where a few meters was the best possible, and only for the people at the very pinnacle of what still existed of the martial path. Not even magi existed anymore, and he didn't know if immortals were even possible in this world.

Even if he lived for several centuries, maybe a thousand years if he had heaven's blessing and stepped beyond swordsaint, he was doomed to die, eventually. He had no chance to gain immortality. His fated demise was not what saddened him most though. It was actually his long lifespan itself. Not because he despised living long, but because he despised the idea of living long when everyone else he knew would not. The thought of having to watch all his friends and loved ones grow old, decay, and eventually die, of having to attend their funerals, and then watch their descendants walk the same path, irked him. With all the ones close to him dead, in his dying days he would have no one to stand by him as he died. His descendents living in his final days would not be close to him, he would be an old monster to them. A shadow of which they could not get rid quickly enough.

If this was to be his end, what was the point of it all? People built up fortunes and glory so they could enjoy it with their loved ones, and then die when everything was at its peak, surrounded by the ones for whom they cared, not to watch it wilt away or be passed into the hands of others and die alone.

He'd been in this world for twenty years now, his body nearing 40. He'd climbed from an abandoned third son to a duke more powerful than most kings, able to rival even the emperors of old, and a swordsaint, an entity that stood at the pinnacle of mankind's current power. The entire species knew his name. Only one man had more authority than him, and stood above him, but it was more accurate to say that Lorist was humoring the man out of his respect for House Norton's heritage than to say that the man was an overpowering ruler Lorist had to obey.

He didn't have to commit treason to become king, his power, both his own and that of his domain, made that possible. The Krissen Empire was weakened by long periods of conflict and was severely wounded before it finally collapsed. Auguslo had saved it from complete death, but the kingdom was only just barely holding on. At best it was still in a coma and it would take decades, if not centuries, for it to return to its former glory. Lorist had no interest in playing doctor, definitely not for that long. As the saying went, 'first build walls, then gather food, and finally claim the throne'. The kingdom possesses all 29 provinces of the former Empire, and Lorist ruled over a quarter of them. He should first develop them before growing his branches into the rest. The royal family was rotten beyond any hope of saving, it was already hollow. Lorist just had to wait for that rot to cause the bark and reveal everything. The royal family would collapse and, if Lorist worked hard at building up his lands, he would be in the perfect position to take the throne.

This was the biggest reason for his interest in the king's little scandal. If this wasn't handled well, it might be the very crack he was waiting for. It certainly would be a brilliant crack. Lorist's biggest competition for the throne would be Duke Fisablen, and if this scandal was the crack, it would crack him as well and make it much easier for Lorist to take the throne. It was not unheard of for kings and queens to have affairs. But that didn't mean it did not reflect badly on the family from which the queen hailed. Especially not since the first child to be born from her womb was as a result of the affair rather than being an heir. This was enough to potential make any future children she bore unworthy as heir regardless of whether their father was indeed the king. Her womb was sullied and could thus not dam heirs.

Lorist was very interested in seeing how the king would deal with this. If the rumors were true, then his queen had had an affair with his bastard. The rumors being true, though dubious, the child did have the imperial bloodline. It was truly strange, though, for his wife's eldest -- should she have any other children -- to be his grandchild rather than his child.

He could spend more time on this affair because he didn't have anything to do in Morante, his subordinates were dealing with everything. The only reason he was still here was to intimidate the Union. He couldn't leave before he'd faced and ended their swordsaint. He thus spent all his time on his disciples and his contemplations.

He'd taken up painting. He'd meditate using that. He suspected his choice was influenced by the fact that his grandfather had used it to contemplate his cultivation. He remembered seeing the old man practise calligraphy and ink painting stroke by stroke often. He didn't understand how it was done, but he recalled his grandfather saying one had to write and draw with a calm mind. Only then would the strokes be infused with one's soul and essence. So, Lorist chose the same method.

However, Lorist had forgotten one thing. There was a developed art culture on Grindia, it resembled the dominant Renaissance style of realism. Even their tools were similar.

Fortunately, he could use his dominion's paper. He started with a mountain by the sea.

Charade came rushing over the moment he heard Lorist was painting. He thought he had finally begun to appreciate art and joined him in his passion. He took just one glance at the what Lorist was trying to do and left. Outside, he complained to Reidy that whatever it was Lorist was doing, it certainly wasn't painting. He had expected a swordsaint would have at least some talent for painting, but Lorist was worse than a 2-year-old slapping paint on their faces and slamming them into the paper.

Charade completely forgot that a swordsaint could hear what he was saying.

Two days later, when Charade finally finished his tasks and was about to take a breather, Lorist called him in. Lorist told him he had neglected his training after breaking through so he was going to spar with him a little.

His suffering had begun.

"Forgive me, Your Grace... I have more than enough guards... The kinds of people that can fight through them to me so that I'd have to face them are too strong for me to overpower regardless of how much I train..." begged Charade.

"No. None of my gold-ranked knights can be this weak, it's embarrassing. You have free time, so I'll train you. You should be happy, very few have the privilege of being trained by a swordsaint. Since you're ungrateful, I'll teach you how blessed you are, come, three more rounds!"

"Just kill me already! I'll die if I have to go three more rounds!" Charade lay on the ground, refusing to get up. He finally realized something was off.

"Did I offend you?"

"Of course not. I'm just worried for your safety. What if you encounter a gold-ranked assassin when you least expect it? You have to have the strength to fend off a couple of strikes so your guards have time to reach you. You occupy an important position under me, so you're a big target. Take the Union, they might send assassins after you if they learn that you're the one managing everything."

"Impossible," Charade denied, "Even the Union wouldn't go that far. They won't offend you for me. And killing me wouldn't do them any good. I'm just the chief administrator, not the head of the house. Would it be worth paying such a huge price?"

"Didn't I say just in case? Don't you know prevention is better than cure?"

Reidy, standing nearby, couldn't hold back anymore and made some brush stroke movements with his hands. Charade instantly understood. He breathed in deeply and apologized.

"I apologize, Your Grace. I shouldn't have commented on your painting. But being offended at my comments won't change the facts. You have no skill at painting."

"Your evaluation is honest, but you don't have to apologize. I would not be offended by something so trivial. Now get up and let's get back to training. I won't stop until your stomach is gone."

Jinolio came to Charade's rescue a few moments later.

"A merchant vessel has entered the bay. It's one of the people we captured during our fight with Invincible. The captain wants to buy goods. He's also brought a few nobles with him. One is Duchess Prinna. She's asked to see you."

Charade struggled up from the ground. Now it was his turn to watch a show.

Should I meet her? Lorist's mind raced.

She used to be the love of his life, the first in two lifetimes. She was also the first to utterly shatter his heart. And now she'd returned to him not to apologize for what she'd done to him, but to open the old wound and slam the knife back in. She was here to ransom her husband, the man for whom she'd left Lorist. The man had taken her from him, and now it was her turn to take him from Lorist.

"You should at least meet her. She's an old friend, after all. Your history has been clean for 20 years. It is time to move on," Charade smiled. He was there to watch a show, and by the gods he was not going to let Lorist not give him one.

"I won't meet her. I'd rather miss her than meet her. You will deal with her, Charade." Lorist suddenly realized something. "Why didn't Kaet negotiate for that duke and his legion? Aren't they allies?"

"I've asked. He says the Duke never actually fought, not even when we clashed on the sea, he surrendered without upholding his end of the agreement, so they have no interest in ransoming him."

Charade knew there was more going on, and Viscount Penelope supplied him with the answer. The Union was either preparing to betray their alliance, or they had completely incompetent officials. If the latter, they must have thought of their allies as just mere subordinates, and didn't want to put in the effort to free incompetent trash.

"Are they still on Silowas?" asked Lorist.

"Yes," Charade answered, "Duke Lorf probably knows he lost the Union's favor. He asked to be left on Silowas. He must have sent a message back home with the merchants. I didn't think his wife would respond so quickly. I'm sure Wenna is here to beg you to let her husband and his men go.

"Then take her to her husband. I'll leave everything to you. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Since the Union has already scrapped their alliance, we ought to stir up conflict between the two."

"By your command."

Chapter 529 - Merciless

Charade accompanied Madam Windsor Prinna to Silowas and negotiated her husband, and his men's ransom. The whole thing took almost a month. Fortunately, he could delegate his duties to Morante's new government before he left.

Lorist chose to meet the merchant captain. He was curious why the man had returned to quickly. His trip should have taken a month. He'd also had a full load of good that he would have had to sell before he could sail again. He didn't expect any merchants would be returning for at least another month, perhaps even longer sales weren't great.

The captain's name was Fodris a third-generation seafarer. He had worked with other captains to capture Invincible's men when they were ordered to burn his ship and other ships when the fleet surrendered. Senbaud had even given him a commendation for it.

The meeting both excited and unnerved the captain. He presented Lorist with the most expensive thing his family owned: a foot-long deep crimson coral. His father had found it while stranded out at sea. Many believed such corals were good luck charms, and the larger the coral, the greater the luck.

The piece of dead sea creatures fascinated Lorist. Fodris was very happy to answer the duke's questions, whether regarding the coral of other matters. It turned out he was a Jigdan. His ship was called the Mermaid's Song -- his family's first large ship. The ship's name gave him the boost he needed to secure a contract with the kingdom's largest guild, Mermaid, and they were his most frequent employers, even now.

The guild's backer was House Fustat, which was why he'd been the one to bring the duchess to Morante. The guild started with trade in luxury goods and clothing, mostly dresses and gowns. Recently, however, mostly over the last two decades, it had branched out to other industries as it rose to prominence alongside its backer, Duke Fustat.

Fodris had nothing but praise for the duchess. She was the entire kingdom's angel. A beautiful, gentle, and kind women of rare composure. She often donated vast sums of money to the poor and could even be found working in soup kitchens on occasion. She also chaired a number of charities alongside local religious groups. She was more beloved and well-known than even the queen.

A storm burst into being when he delivered the duke's letter, and the duke's house stood on the brink of being annihilated as new and old rivals alike took the chance to lash out. But the duchess took the reigns and beat back the attacks. Once everyone was on their back foot, she moved funds onto Captain Fordis's ship and the two left secretly to go get her husband.

The captain could leave so quickly because the guild, Mermaid, bought everything he'd brought with him wholesale. He left as soon as everything was offloaded. The products were bought at ludicrous prices so the duchess's funds could be smuggled on board and they set sail immediately.

Regarding the trade he was to do here, the guild had given him an interest free loan to buy stuffs from Lorist, specifically glassware and snow paper. The captain was certain they would sell for a great profit. He might even have enough to buy a second ship.

Even the most obscure products sold very well. Everything not produced in the south of the continent was in severe short supply. Romon mostly produced green glue and Khawistan herded horses and sheep. These were exported and traded for everything else the two empires needed, mainly with the midsouthern countries. Teribo provided mostly glass, the duchy of Pitlin gave wine, the kingdom of Abossen porcelain, and the duchy of Zikthor gold and silverware.

When the Union rose to prominence, everything shifted gear. Rather than direct trade between the countries, small, local trade aside, most bulk trade was done with the Union either as the middle-man, or just with the merchants from the countries operating there. The Union won most of the competitions for the markets where its products competed with other countries as well. Pitlin, for example, lost its share of the wine market, as did Abossen with gold and silverware.

The War of Glass was really just a good excuse, an excuse the midsouthern countries had been waiting for, for years, to cut the Union out. But the Union's control of the seas in the south made it almost impossible for large scale trade to take place.

However, whilst the countries couldn't trade their resources directly with the empires because of the Union's blockades, the Union, having lost its access to the raw resources with which to produce its products, sat with sea trade routes along which it had nothing to trade.

The war ravaged both sides, especially their industries, and everyone's economy was in shambles. It also didn't help that, with the Union's guilds moving everything to their dominions, what little they did produce were of very low quality.

This made House Norton's high-quality products a massive hit, they were exactly what the market was craving.

Lorist finally understood why Peterson and Chikdor were so strict with his products. They couldn't let him get even the tip of a toenail into the market because there was a vacuum they could not fill, and he'd immediately take over everything. They could do this, and keep anyone from bypassing them because they controlled the seas and its trade routes.

That, however, was no longer the case. Merchants could now trade as much as they could afford with House Norton and a flood was starting to form. It would probably take no more than six months before it roared over the seas and Lorist was drowned in orders.

He praised and rewarded Fodris lavishly. He even gave him a telescope. The captain almost jumped out the window when he realized what it could do.

"You should work and coordinate closely with the merchants. If you play your cards right, you can use them to gather information from the south and we won't have to risk agents there. You also won't have the risk of an incident when an agent is discovered, since they won't be directly related to the house, just good friends who talk about what they hear and see," Lorist whispered to Tarkel as they watched the merchant leave.

"I will make the arrangements."

Few people were as great gossips as merchants. If everything went well, Tarkel might soon even have a catalogue of all the queens, concubines, and daughters' taste in underwear.

Lorist now knew that the wide-eyed girl he had loved all those years ago was now a graceful duchess. He hated it. She'd been a pitiful girl, helpless when her family was in trouble. She'd tried to end her life, but he'd saved her. She depended on him from then on, but abandoned him when someone better came along.

She was supposed to have fallen into despair. She should have become a toy for the duke he'd abandon after he took everything from her. She was supposed to come back to Lorist, begging for his forgiveness and a second chance. She was supposed to cry snot and blood as he shoved her out of the castle and told her to stick it where the sun never shone and then die a lonely death in a brother, a marsh, or some other shithole.

But instead she'd become a dignified duchess, a noble of renown. Her backstabbing had paid off, and she was now an entire kingdom's idol. She had won happiness, love, riches, and recognition with her treachery. It was even worse that it seemed she wasn't hiding a dark, vile personality; she'd become a genuinely good person.

Lorist might have been able to take it if she'd become a vile bitch that would eventually fall from grace and tumble into hell. He could at least sooth the scar in his heart. But that was not to be, and it hurt. It hurt so bad he wanted to tear the nearest building apart. He wanted to run down the roads and avenues of the city and scream his dissatisfaction at the heavens. Was this justice? Where was the world's karma? Where was the heaven's righteousness?

"Sigh."

He shook his head and pushed his feelings into the back of his mind. He did not regret not meeting the woman. He would not have been able to contain himself if he saw her face, regardless of the look on it.

His thoughts came back just in time to hear Tarkel finish a shocking report.

"Hold on, say that again! The queen's dead?! She died of a sudden, mysterious illness?!"

"That is what I just said, You Grace. She passed on the 32nd of the 8th. Hd rushed to the capital that afternoon. He stayed there for the night and the next day it was announced the queen was dead."

That's two for one! What's wrong with Auguslo?

It had been just a month since the world learnt of the queen's affair and pregnancy, and now she was dead, just a month from the child's due birth.

The king had not given any ordered besides ordering silence on the queen's affair, and now suddenly she and her child was dead. Lorist had thought he'd only make his moves once the child was born, he did not think he and Duke Fisablen would send the unborn to its grave.

There was no way the duke was not involved. The two must have made a secret pact and immediately executed their plan.

"What about Knight Wecksas? Has he been punished?"

"No, but he's still being kept in the palace. There's been no word of him since his imprisonment."

Chapter 530 - Loan Problems

Lorist got a message from Silowas on the 21st of the 9th. Charade and Duke Fustat had come to an agreement. House Fustat would pay a million gold Fordes for the duke and his legion. House Norton would send them back with Northsea.

Each soldier's ransom was ten gold. Five hundred thousand in all. Fustat, the gold, and the silver knights combined were a million. Charade didn't hold back at all. Windsor Prinna didn't get much of a discount.

Duke Fustat made a tempting proposal when he was released. The legion was stripped of its weapons and armor when it surrendered. He wanted to buy equipment from Lorist before he returned home. Charade was all too happy to oblige the duke -- this was no small deal, at least 60 gold per soldier, three million in all. Unfortunately, Charade did not have the authority to sell equipment to technical enemies, so they had to talk to Lorist himself.

Charade also passed along news he got from Sylvia and the rest. They were heading to Silowas. They would all leave for Morante in a couple of days.

Why is Sylvia coming to Morante? Don't tell me she heard about Wenna and wants to keep an eye on me. No, surely not... Didn't Charade tell her I refused to see the woman? I haven't done anything to give her a reason to come...

Whatever. Those women are a force of nature. I'll worry about them when they arrive, no point in losing sleep before then.

If only she wasn't that young and Lorist wasn't always out on campaign. She missed him very much and worried incessantly. Perhaps he should treat this as a vacation and spend some time with them and show them around the city which was his hometown for over a decade.

Spiel requested an audience two days later. He had been given charge of the prison camp near the docks and had been trying his best to empty the inhabitants' wallets. This had been settled since Charade and Kaet made their agreement two months earlier. The second last group of 10 thousand were now being moved to Mauvlin, completely broke. In total, Spiel had brought in seven million gold, mostly in jewelry and other valuables.

He had come to complain because the last ten thousand refused to part with their money. They'd been living off the free food and weren't doing anything to spend their money. Lorist gave up, he couldn't get the people to let go of their money, and his patience was running thin with Kaet, who kept sending him letters of protest almost daily, so he ordered Spiel to just let them

"I need just one more month. I'll get their money if I have just another month," Spiel begged.

"Let them go. One more month would have been worth it for 20 thousand, but we'll lose more than we'll make for just 10 thousand people."

The money wasn't the only problem. Tarkel had done his best to put up their facade of struggle, but it was only a matter of time before their real situation leaked, and that became more likely with every passing day. For one, the Union had gotten sniff in the nose that something was off with the constant requests for more agents and had stopped sending them.

Morante was also starting to improve enough that a keen eye could see it even from outside the city walls. The factories were getting back up to speed and the merchants would soon come from the south to begin large scale trading again. Even if Lorist could keep up the facade until then, it would crumble the moment the merchant ships sailed into the harbor.

There was also the problem of Kaet noticing the livelier atmosphere and sending word back to the Union directly. He was being kept separate from the main population, but once things got really lively, he'd hear it. What city's people laughed and cheered whilst in the midst of constant uprisings and bloody street fighting?

No, it was time to wrap things up and pull out.

"The new government's made a request. They want to borrow ten million gold. Everything will be invested in the city and the surrounding areas, so I've agreed. I just need you to iron out the detail. Deal with it as soon as you're done with the final arrangements for the camp," commanded Lorist.

Such loans were usually issued at high interest rates. The shrine of the Goddess of Wealth and Trade's, Zejin's, primary income was from high-interest loans, though they also had a stake in the Forde bills industry. The guilds would deposit money with the shrine and get a bill of equal value which they could turn in at any other shrine for the money, for a fee, of course. The money was safe, both for storage and for transport since no one acted against the shrine.

It was much like the Catholic Church from Lorist's previous life. The shrine was as much a bank as it was a religious organisation. The Union had paid his ransoms completely in bills as well. They might have thought he'd ransack the shrines anyway, so they'd pay him in a way so he wouldn't get anything more, anyway. If he really did ransack the shrines, the bills would be worthless, anyway.

The shrine begged that they not cash all the bills at once when Charade and Spiel took them to the shrine. The shrine's entire vault came from the Union, so if everything was paid out, they'd be bankrupt.

Spiel jumped like a cat whose tail was stepped on.

"No, Your Grace! How can you agree to this? They already owe us four million! If we give them this as well, they'll owe us fourteen million! They can't service this loan, and even if they do, it'll take decades, maybe even a century for them to pay it back!"

If this was anyone else, Spiel would gladly have made the loan, but this was too risky. The new government didn't even have anything to put up as security!

Lorist had agreed, however, despite knowing how horrible a deal this was.

"Think about all of our people that've died in this war. We've gotten just barely more than nothing from this and now you want to piss millions away? You're pissing away everything we've worked decades to build!"

"Oh, tell me how much we made, then," said Lorist coldly.

"We got ten million from the city in gold and goods. We got ten million in basic material from the outskirts of the city, but it's all completely useless and there isn't a market for the stuff. The ransoms also got us just over six million, and we got just over seven from the prisoners."

"In all we made 23 million, but four of that's already been lent to the new government. If you take away the money we spent on food, we have just over fifteen million left. If you give them another ten, we'll have just three million!

"You said logistics is the key to war. Just the last three months of campaign have cost us one and a half million, and then you put aside another five for Northsea's retrofit. And then there're all the pensions for the wounded and the compensation for the dead, which is another half a million."

"Enough. I understand. This loan would put us in the red, yes? But what would you do with the ten if we kept it? You're just going to ship it back to the dominion and shove it into our vaults to rot. You remembered my comment about logistics, but it seems you forgot what I said about money. Money is worthless unless it's flowing in the economy.

"Besides, you forgot a lot of benefits. What about the money we got from selling food in the city? What about the money we got from the trade with the merchants? The four million we lent will earn us interest, and it'll help get the economy here back up and running and we can sell stuff here as a result.

"I trust your loyalty, but your eyes disappoint me. You know what we plan to do here. But the new government isn't yet sure if we'll be any better than the old Union. I bet you this loan is less about them lacking funds, though they no doubt do, and more about testing our commitment to supporting them. Loaning them this money is us guaranteeing them that we will stand by them and guarantee their independence. You talk about security on the loan, this loan itself is their security on our support.

"Stop questioning my financial decisions and just do what I say. This loan will let them form a decent military, which means we can pull out and send out people home. The rest will speed up their development and let us start selling into the market in larger volumes faster.

"This is a great deal for us, actually. Ten million now will get us a great buffer against the old Union, a decent ally, and a good share in a market that will earn us hundreds of millions over the coming decades."

"...I understand. I shall do as you wish, Your Grace."

Chapter 531 - Two Letters

Though Lorist was only a relatively skilled workshop owner in his past life, the influence of mass media and basic economic knowledge made him keenly aware that the four million gold Fordes he lent the new Morantian government was far from enough to kickstart an independent economy.

According to Charade, they had money; they were just forced to keep it for emergency use thanks to the years of monopoly under the various merchant guilds. Lorist had to instill confidence in the people for the market so they would take their money out and spend it.

While four million gold Fordes was a lot, it was nowhere near a lot in the long term. The two divisions' training and the establishment of institutions and facilities to encourage economic participation, as well as the cost of feeding the people until they became self-sufficient again,  would dry up the four million in just a couple of months. They needed more money, and Lorist was their only option.

No other faction or party was rich enough to lend that kind of money. Even the high-interest loaners from Zejin's shrine were powerless. The newly formed government didn't lack talent. Had they not been staunch believers in individual freedoms, Lorist would've recruited them.

Jindoz, for example, and the various shrine leaders, and a few old scholars, would all have made great officials. While they grasped power, they were willing to help House Norton form the Free Union to escape the Trade Union's rulers. They were weary of him, though, which was half the reason for their new loan application.

Lorist knew exactly what was going on in the market. The only reason it still existed was thanks to his support. Apart from a group of risk-taking pioneers that took the first step, most were still hiding their money and watching to see if the situation would change. Lorist had to continue investing, to assure them that he would keep the market stable.

His words to Spiel were his honest thoughts. He didn't care about being paid back the loan directly from the government. The indirect benefits he'd gain through the market would more than cover it even if not a penny was returned by the government.

The transport ships returned to Morante from Silowas, escorted by Northsea on the 20th of the 9th. Sylvia had come as well, so Lorist had little choice but to go down to the dock to meet her and risk seeing his old lover. He was shocked and utterly crushed to see his wife and the woman getting along well, even like sisters.

The hell is going on?

A sense of foreboding washed over Lorist the moment he saw the two disembark holding hands. He ignored Charade and Duke Fustat's greetings and rushed to hold Sylvia's right hand before she stepped off the board.

"Your Grace..." Sylvia hurriedly let go of Prinna's hand and curtsied.

"Why did you come without notice? It's still dangerous here," reprimanded Lorist in a low voice.

"I missed you," answered Sylvia coquettishly, stepping in for a hug.

"You..." Lorist laughed helplessly before turning to Prinna.

"My humble thanks, Revered Duke," Prinna said, taking a step back and curtsying.

There was nothing about her posture anyone could pick at.

Lorist returned her curtsy with a nod. it had been two decades. Time had flown. Nobody expected their reunion to happen like this.

Her eyes were still just as big, but her gaze had a trace of maturity. She had an air of grace her younger self had lacked. She had become an exemplary noblewoman. All trace of the fairy in her youth had vanished.

Time flies and people change, huh... Lorist sighed.

"Welcome, Lady Windsor. This visit must be a nostalgic visit for you," said he.

"Indeed. My most precious memories are rooted here. I treasure them dearly. It is a most glorious occasion to return to this great city and see the old friends from my youth," replied Prinna, gazing at Lorist.

Lorist averted his gaze slightly.

"Indeed? I can only wish you a joyous visit, then. I've arranged a residence worthy of you and your husband's grace. The two of you must be worn out. Please make use of the carriage I've prepared. Baron Charade will accompany you. I am hosting a banquet in two days. I hope you will attend."

"I am honored. We shall attend," said Duke Lorf, stepping forward.

Lorist nodded. "Then we shall see each other at the banquet."

Fennazali and Daisy came closer to greet Lorist when the foreign nobles left.

"Sheesh, you two came as well? I don't know what to say. Where's Anderbael?"

"I didn't bring him because Maria went home to deliver her child. Anna went back to her barony as well and Anderbael decided to tag along. He sticks to his elder brother like glue. Xanthi's with them as well. I got Cacanne's letter and wanted to stop by the capital on the way, I then that whole debacle happened and I decided to steer clear..."

Anderbael was five, the most rambunctious age for boys. His first older brother was Dilianna's son, Slophenk, three years his senior. The two got along pretty well.

Oh, right, Cacanne is Sylvia's cousin.

Why would she want to go see her, though, weren't they pretty antagonistic towards one another?

"I thought you didn't get along with her. Why would you suddenly want to go see her?"

"We may not have seen eye to eye, but she was still my cousin. Her message was a plea for help. I couldn't just ignore it. I didn't think she'd die like this. Her child was due soon."

Sylvia teared up. It took quite some work to get her in the carriage.

......

Two letters lay on Lorist's desk. One was the queen's letter. She'd written about her affair and her pregnancy. She said it was related to Lorist. Wecksas had saved her life when the blademasters attacked to kill Lorist and she fell in love.

She didn't mention his identity, so Lorist suspected she didn't know. She'd even seriously considered eloping with him.

Of course, Lorist was blamed for her not getting to elope. He chose to help the king, which allowed him to return before she could deliver the child. She'd hoped to use the child as leverage against Wecksas, who refused to run away, to convince him to do it.

If she'd not been as far pregnant when she heard Auguslo was returning, she could have run away, but she was seven months along and couldn't travel easily. She believed only Sylvia, duchess of the kingdom's largest duchy and wife to its strongest duke and only swordsaint, could save her, so she wrote to her. If Sylvia could drag her husband's name into the middle of the whole affair, then her grandfather and husband would have to tread lightly.

If she could hold out until she gave birth, she'd annul the marriage and go live in some small, isolated town. She no longer cared about title and prestige, she just wanted to live happily with her child and lover.

The messenger had left the capital three days before the king's return and had traveled with only a few hours rest a day for almost a month to deliver the message, Sylvia, a mother herself, was moved and immediately set out to help her estranged cousin. She would be heading into dangerous territory, so she chose to leave her son with Xanthi and Dilianna.

She planned to head to Morante to meet up with her husband either when the matter was resolved, or with her cousin, but learned of her death on the way to Silowas. She knew she could not show weakness in front of another noble, she had to maintain her appearance as a strong, noble wife to her swordsaint-duke husband, so she'd been bottling up her sorrow.

Now together with her beloved husband, and away from prying eyes, she broke down completely. She cried herself to sleep that night and continued even in her sleep.

Lorist shook his head as he thought of the scene. His wife was way too free with her emotions. She cried for a woman who'd done nothing but bully her her whole life because she sent a single message and then died.

She second letter was from Glacia. Lorist opened it slowly. It confirmed his suspicion that Wecksas was Auguslo's bastard. The knight's mother was the maidservant that had raised the now-king after his mother died. He had bedded her, then ten years his senior, on his 16th birthday. Wecksas was born nine months later.

She was, however, one of his father's concubines. Andinaq was so furious he killed the maid in front of his son by strangling her to death, beheading her corpse, feeding her body to the pigs, and mounting her head above his son's bed for three weeks. He also gave the bastard child to a random knight. It was the biggest reason his father also put him in the bottom of the line of succession. If not for the ongoing civil war, he'd have disowned him entirely.

Glacia had been his lover for decades. She knew his heart better than anyone else, even his now-late queen. The dead maid was a black hole in his heart. She was the reason he never took Glacia as his queen. For her part, Glacia refused to live in that long-dead woman's shadow any longer and left him.

Chapter 532 - Agreement and Rumors

The banquet continued as planned two days later. Duke Fustat and his wife attended as promised. During the proceedings, they brought up the duke's request for military equipment and Lorist agreed.

Sylvia, Fennazali, and Daisy attended as well, which saved Lorist from having to alone with Prinna. The best she could do was shoot him a begrudging glance to him from time to time. He, of course, never saw anything even when he was practically looking right at her. He instead discussed how Jigda took advantage of the Union and swallowed six kingdoms with the duke.

The duke casually admitted it was all part of his plan. Jigda had no choice but to borrow the Union's tactics and absorb nations once they started applying pressure on the alliance. Romon was threatening to invade and Khawistan was not far behind. The kingdom had to grow rapidly and become a force capable of giving the two empires enough of a fight to make them hesitate and think twice. Lorist's interference with the was between Andinaq and the Union ruined the alliance, however.

Luckily Fustat had been leading the kingdom's forces accompanying the navy, another commander might have chosen to go to war rather than surrender. Now his family had paid the ransom, the two sides could part amicably, and the kingdom didn't have to worry about a war with Lorist and his frightening armies. Despite their friendly conversations, neither was willing to ally with the other. Their lands were just too far apart. They could not offer each other effective support, and would instead just get dragged into a war in name in which they could do no actual fighting.

The banquet continued late into the night. Lorist's women only left for their bedrooms once they had promised to accompany Prinna around the city the next day. The group spent most of their trip talking about the duchess' business endeavors in her youth. Lorist had Reidy accompany them.

Charade and Duke Fustat concluded their negotiations several days later. The deal was for 100 thousand sets of armor and weaponry and two brigades' worth of catapults and carroballistae.  The latter two would make Jigda the strongest military force where siege was concerned on their half of the continent.

Duke Fustat was damn rich if he could throw away that much money so easily. Either that or he was in a very difficult situation.
Charade said that according to Duke Fustat, Wessia Merchant Guild, which he had recently exterminated, had monopolized the arms trade in the region. No one in the region had the mineral wealth to compete with them.

Wessia insisted on taking the old empire's territory as its dominion. It wanted all the mines there. They not only took all the mines, they also kept an iron grip on forging techniques and talents. They recruited or abducted every promising smith in their sphere of influence, and killed those they couldn't get.

Firebird's equipment came from Wessia and had cost the duke four million gold Fordes. With with Wessia gone, Lorist was the only major arms dealer left on the continent.

Lorist had always wondered why he could never sell his clearly superior equipment, now he knew. He had tried to work through Peterson, but Wessia vetoed the deal. They would never let any competitor, much less such a major one, get a foothold in the market.

Charade realized this as well, and understood his lord's intentions immediately, which was why he had pushed to sell them everything they needed at a reasonable price. This was their ticket, their chance to get a foot in the now empty market and swallow everything up.

The Union was already moving to get back into the market, but with how secretive Wessia had been, and how utterly they'd been wiped out, it would take years, even decades, before they had a comparable guild up and running, and by then the entire market would belong to Lorist.

Prinna had Sylvia tell Lorist she wanted to meet him. She had noticed a business opportunity in Morante and wanted him to give sole distribution rights of Norton goods in the southern half of the continent to Mermaid.

Lorist refused. He was fine with the arrangement in principle, though only for Jigda, but would not see that woman no matter what. He instead sent Charade to deal with her in his stead.

Northsea only had enough strength to control down to the southern seas, it could not take control of Sunshine Seas or the Golden Coast, so he had to allow free trade there, at least for the time being. Lorist had every intention of shutting such trade down as soon as he had the power, however. He would not let anyone do any trade that was not regulated and taxed by him.

Besides, letting trade run rampant had its benefits. For one, it would help speed up Morante's recovery. He would also not go as far as to monopolize the actual trading itself. He had no trouble with letting independent merchants have their share, but they could not be allowed to trade where he could not regulate and tax it.

For another, he could use a healthy independent merchant industry to further his spy network and also cut the Union out of their old home turf. The Union's guilds were not settled enough as land barons yet, they had to rely on trade, so without it, he could starve them without having to go to war.

Prinna's gotten sharp over the years. She saw the market immediately. She doesn't understand that monopolizing this will make her guild a public enemy.

Charade refused to budge, he could be really stubborn when it came to money and wealth. Prinna eventually gave up and settled on just the Jigda market.

The duchess handed Charade a half-book of a letter before she left with her husband, making him promise to hand it to Lorist personally and make sure he read it.

It turned out to be a complaint about his distance to her. Her age showed as she nostalgically recounted their love affair like an old maid on her deathbed telling her great grandchildren about her wild, long-forgotten youth. One of the worst things she said in her letter, was that she'd have stayed by Lorist's side if she could do everything over, even if it meant she'd have lost her home. She wrote an extensive allusion to Lorist's marriage, talking about the happiness she saw in her replacement, she even hinted at being jealous of her once or twice.

She didn't forget to gripe about Lorist's refusal to give her a good deal despite being an ex-lover of hers, her only one, in fact.

From there she launched into a long fantasy about opening up her old shop in Morante and a branch of the guild. At the very end, she spoke of her various ideas for opening a second branch in his lands to the far north.

Women...

Lorist dropped each page into the fireplace in his office as he finished reading it. If a druid or apothecary ever invented medicine for regret, the women in a single city would give him enough business to retire.

No matter how much Lorist might want to deny it, that little fairy in his memories, the little witch that had danced on his heart, his first love, would always have the sweetest place in his heart, even if it was now vacant. Even Sylvia, for all her charm and love, even if they were to be together happily for several centuries, could never take over that place, could never match this woman in his heart. And it made him furious.

The merchants started pouring into the docks a few days after the duke and duchess left. Soon businesses -- some buying and selling the merchant's goods, some serving the sailors, and others serving the workers working in the new businesses in, around, and near the docks -- sprung up almost daily. The city slowly came back to life, nightlights grew outward from the docks like long tendrils, like a glowing plant slowly extending its roots into the surrounding city.

A letter arrived from Cape Romani as well, from Howard. Three months had passed since he'd been left with the indentured workforce and things were finally coming together. The reef had been filled and had had enough time to set and dry. It was not finally time to start construction on the castle-port-town proper.

Most of the letter was a list of the materials the next phase of the project required. Lorist felt the boy's enthusiasm ooze out of his every pen stroke. He clearly wanted to build a grand citadel. Lorist was willing to indulge his second disciple a little -- a reward of sorts for all his hard work over the years, especially since they'd gotten involved in Auguslo's war again. He even decided to let him leave his name on his first great project as his disciple. He crossed out Howard's suggested name, 'Fort Romani', and wrote in 'Fort Howard'.

The next three months passed quickly. Falik Plains saw no conflict in that time, it was completely peaceful. The Union had not made any effort towards making peace, but they also didn't launch any offensives, not even skirmishes. An eerie peace reigned over the continent.

The front-lines may have been free of conflict for the last three months, but they were far from quiet. Pickaxes, axes, saws, shovels, and hammers clanged away day and night on the Trade Union's side of no-man's-land. Long, zigzagging lines were slowly criss-crossing the entire front, just like it had in Mauvlin several years earlier. The Free Union's side, on the other hand, was completely open. One could walk without paying attention to the ground from the citadels to the enemy front. Nothing but open, flat plains ran from horizon to horizon there. The only places evidence of military activity could be seen was on the various citadels' walls, where heads constantly moved back and forth across the crenels between the merlons, and in the barracks, training yards, and muster fields where men constantly shouted as they trained.

Lorist had no interest in the enemy's plots and plans, however. He just did what was necessary to keep his men fit and alert, and left the rest up to fate.

The Trade Union had started spreading rumors of the violence they believed was going on in Morante two months earlier, probably to drum up support from their subjects and from the remaining kingdoms, principalities, and duchies from the old alliance. Rumors spread like wildfires, and soon the entire continent was ablaze. House Norton was soon known to be killing tens of thousands of Morantians every week. Drinking babies' blood and eating young ladies' flesh after taking their innocence. They were crucifying anyone they didn't like and stoning whores who dissatisfied them. The city was always burning, and the entire plain in which it stood was constantly covered in a haze of smoke and the sickly sweet stench of death and rotting human flesh. A few even claim to have family members who'd seen Norton soldier do despicable, vile things to the corpses of young boys and girls, defiling them so badly that even the gods, even with their infinite mercy, could not accept their scarred, deformed souls into the heavens and they were left to haunt the city and the surrounding plains for all eternity.

The guilds owned all of the city's newspapers. They had closed when the city fell so no one had news directly from within the city. Similarly everyone in the camps had been kept in the dark about what was really going on in the city. They also hated House Norton for robbing them of their wealth and were all too happy to believe and spread, even exaggerate the rumors as they heard them.

As oblivious as the outside world was to the truth of what was going on within the city, so were its inhabitants to what was going on in the outside world. The first news of this came through the merchants sailing into and out of the city's harbor by the dozen every day now. House Norton didn't even lift a finger to counter the rumors. The Merchants, having a vested interest in people wanting to trade with the city and buy House Norton's goods, fought the rumors at every chance they got.

Even Duke Fustat did his bit. He wrote to every noble he knew and every merchant his wife knew to tell them what was really going on. Whilst this curbed the rumor's spread, people loved gossip and a new story made the rounds every couple of weeks. Luckily, people grew bored with a rumor just as quickly as they got excited by it, and they quickly vanished again, to be replaced by a new rumor a few weeks later.

Knowing all this, Lorist decided to just let whatever was destined to happen, happen, and instead focused his energy on helping to get the city back on its feet. He was training the city's new guard in policing and law-enforcement when he received news of Auguslo's impending arrival.

It was a surprise, but nothing really worth worrying about, only, he had come practically alone.

Chapter 533 - Two Conditions

"I will not be at the king's reception! He's a murderer!"

Sylvia was near thirty, just a few weeks off, in fact, but she still behaved like a little child. She threw a tantrum when she was told she was expected to attend the banquet and refused to go.

"Fine, you don't have to go. Fennazali is struggling with her pregnancy, so go look after her," Lorist said, finally giving up.

He'd been kept up every night for nearly three months and had only gotten rid of one of his women. Sylvia and Daisy were still pestering him nightly.

"Where's His Majesty currently?"

"I don't know," Jinolio replied, "His Majesty came to Morante disguised as a messenger. He didn't stop in any of the towns or cities along the way. We wouldn't have known he'd arrived even now if Reidy hadn't bumped into him. He should be bringing the king around soon."

Falik Plains was nothing but ruins. Mostly abandoned for three years now, it was rife with pests. One was stray dogs, which roamed the abandoned farmlands and villages looking for mice, rats, cats, and even human corpses, anything meat-like to eat. It had gotten so bad in and around Mass and Gypsy that Reidy had to go clear the packs out.

"Fine. I'll go look for them along the road. I hope I can bump into him quickly and get things over with."

Auguslo was inspecting the largest of the city Markets when Lorist found him. Reidy stood beside him. Twenty royal guards dragged horses along not too far away.

Lorist dismounted and greeted the king with a shallow bow.

"What brings Your Majesty here?"

"Oh, Locke, brother, you're here!" the king said, turning around, "I didn't think you'd get Morante back into shape in just half a year. It's nothing like when I was here last. No wonder you're so often called the kingdom's interior minister. What do you think about becoming the empire's first chancellor? I'll hand all internal affairs to you. I know you won't disappoint."

Lorist laughed bitterly.

"Please stop joking, Your Majesty. Do you know how much money House Norton had to invest to get it to where it is now? I've put 14 million in so far and I'll probably have to put in more over the next two or three years! My treasury is empty and I have to sleep with my sword under my bed otherwise my financial advisor will kill me in my sleep."

Auguslo almost slipped.

"How much?! 14 million?! Are you that rich?! You should lend me that money instead!"

"Rich my ass. I was forced! This whole campaign's been nothing but a massive loss! My fleet was ravaged, and I made nothing from Morante either. I had to bring everything I got from Invincible here to feed the people. I basically had to lend everything I made from Morante right back to it, as well as everything I made from the Union in the ransoms."

"I don't understand… Locke, I thought you were going to force the Union to negotiate for the city. Why are you investing in the city if it'll be back in their hands in a year or so? Do you plan to keep everything?"

Auguslo had to know. He could not allow Lorist to take Morante and Falik Plains. The duke would then have more land than he and all the other noble under him had! He could still exercise some measure of control over Lorist as long as he was based in the Northlands. While it was a great defensive location, it was also easy to cut off from the rest of the world if need be. It also helped that it was close by and he could thus quickly respond to anything happening there. If, however, Lorist made his primary title one based in Morante, and moved his family and headquarters here, the king would have no control over him. The duke could easily seceded and declare his independence and Auguslo would be unable to anything about it.

"You're Majesty's over-thinking," Lorist waved his hand, "How did you get the impression that Morante's people would accept being ruled by a foreigner, and a noble at that, much less the man that took their city from them? Even if we could maintain control, we'd never have any peace. I have no intention of taking such a troublesome place.

"As for our investment. It wasn't really by choice, but that's something to discuss in private."

The group returned to Lorist's study where he explained everything.

"What?!" Auguslo cried, "You're forming a new Union?!"

"It's not that simple, Your Majesty. We're forming a Free Union. Unlike the Trade Union, the Free Union has no large merchant guilds, and none have any say in its governance. It governed by a body the people will choose themselves periodically. They won't let another monopoly form. SO we can expect a competitive, high-profit market to emerge in the next decade," explained Lorist.

"What good is this to you?"

"Don't forget the old Union is still watching from the sidelines. They refuse to surrender. Even when we offered a mutual peace, they continued to be obstinate. They made demands we could never accept. When negotiations failed, they declared they'd fight us to the last man, that this war would not end until every last one of them was a corpse.

"I have no confidence in securing a peace deal. So, I decided to make Morante and the plains into a new Union that will be a buffer between us and the old Union, deny them access to the markets and trade routes, and be our ally and give us access to these markets and trade routes. The 14 million is to get the new Union on its feet so the old one can't just stomp it as soon as we withdraw.

"Isn't Morante and the plains mankind's bastion of freedom? I don't think they'd fight against the Union at the behest of a foreign noble," Auguslo interjected.

"That Union stopped being the government of freedom when they became nobles. The new Union is now the bastion of freedom and the people won't let the old one get control again," Lorist countered.

"But why would the Union refuse to come a reasonable agreement?"

"Simple. They have money and a monopoly of most of the market in the Alliance. They believe they can hold out until we collapse. They want us to beg them to take back Morante and the plains. They'll march in and take back everything, demand we return the provinces we took back, and demand complete monopoly of our entire economy.

"This war is not just kill or be killed for our soldiers.  It's kill or be killed for our kingdom as well. We're in at least as bad shape as they are, but we cut them off from their maritime routes, so they have to move their goods by land, which is prohibitively expensive.

"We're willing to invest in Morante so that we can get a harbor and a market halfway down the coast.  This will give us access to the southern half of the continent. It'll also destroy the old Union's monopoly. We just have to keep them out of Morant and away from the coast for a couple of years and they'll wither away on their own."

"I'm grateful for your service," the king said as he leaned forward on his chair, his elbow digging into the table, his chin rested on his hands, a serious expression on his face, "Few sovereigns could ask for a better vasal. If you can make things go as you have described to me now, you will be the greatest man in the empire's history besides its emperors, and your house the greatest besides the royal family. Is there anything I can do to help?"

Auguslo wanted part of the credit. He, as the king, could not be just a bystander in this historic moment. If that really happened, there might actually be calls for Lorist to become the new empire's emperor rather than him.

"We hope Your Majesty can help." Lorist had given his explanation precisely for this. "I know the kingdom is in bad shape right now, so I will not ask for what it cannot give. I ask only that Your Majesty send a light legion to Malivia in support of the new Union's forces--"

"That is reasonable. It shall be done," Auguslo quickly agreed. This was exactly what he hoped. This way he could claim an active role in the victory without having to make any actual sacrifices.

"... And I hope you can give me Jillin Harbor."

"Jillin Harbor? For what?" the king asked, his guard rising.

This was to be expected. Jillin Harbor was not far from the capital. If Lorist was given control of the city, he could land forces right in the king's backyard without any resistance, and, before anyone could react, he'd be in the capital. It could not be so he'd have a staging ground for trade and force transport further south, he already had Silowas and its harbors."

"You're Majesty's overthinking things again. I don't want the title, I just want the governorship."

"What governorship?"

"Governorship would be similar to the honorary titles you gave me before. I get to govern the land as if it were my own, but, unlike with honorary titles, the title dead for the city and the surrounding land remains with you. Think of it like me renting the harbor and the city from you. I will pay a fixed tax to you every year as well, regardless of how profitable I make the city or not."

Auguslo moved to the map on the wall and stared at the city for a long time.

"I cannot see the shop no matter how much I stare," he finally said, "Tell me, Locke, what do you plan to do with the city?"

"I want to make the city, specifically its harbor, the biggest, busiest, and most prosperous this side of the Golden Bay. I want to make it the first stop for any goods coming from the south. Everything will come here from the south, then from here it will go wherever else it wants in the kingdom and eventual empire."

"I can give you the governorship on two conditions," the king said, slowly, "You may not move any of your men into the city. Any disembarkation or travel through has to get my approval beforehand, like it would be if you had nothing to do with the place. I will provide the city guard, which will be independent of you but will cooperate to keep the peace. And I don't want a fixed tax for the city. If you're going to develop the city, it means it will become far more profitable than it is now. My tax will be half of the profits."

Lorist smiled bitterly, but nodded.

"Deal."

The big topics covered, Lorist poured them fruit wine.

"I heard you were going to survey the provinces. Why are you here?"

Auguslo downed his cup and held it out for Lorist to refill.

"I'm here to explain the scandal. I know you know of what I speak."

Lorist handed Auguslo the bottle.

"It is not my place as your vassal to comment on your personal affairs. It would certainly be hypocritical of me since I demand my vassals not comment on my personal affairs. However, my wife is Her Late Majesty's cousin, so I must speak and ask on her behalf. Your Majesty neglected the queen. Even with the scandal, did you and Duke Fisablen not go too far? Is the queen's paramour not your son? Her child, though not your offspring, is still of your bloodline. Could you not spare the queen 'till she birthed the child and punish her appropriately thereafter?"

Auguslo downed the bottle.

"It is not that simple, Locke. Were I certain the child was Wecksas', I would have let it come into the world, but the queen had two other lovers -- of which we know, at least. There was no certainty who's bastard it was. I had to preserve my bloodline's purity. I could not risk the possibility of someone from a bastard bloodline climbing into my family tree."

Lorist broke.

This... queen… deserved everything she got.

"If I may ask then, Your Majesty, what agreement did you reach with Duke Fisablen?"

"He apologized personally and was the one who sent that woman on her way. I will do my survey later this year and the duke promised to have a new wife ready when I pass by there. He'll adopt his choice as his daughter before I take her as my wife."

Chapter 534 - Callisto Hills

“You understand now, right? Your cousin hid a lot from you. She told you about her love for one of her lovers because she knew it would move you. She had no clue who the baby’s father was,” Lorist said finally, still stroking Sylvia’s long hair as she lay in his chest.

Sylvia gazed at him with teary eyes. Cacanne having multiple lovers didn’t change how cruel their deaths were. She didn’t lament the killing of her cousin, she lamented the killing of her cousin.

“I hate Grandfather... How could he kill her? Cacanne was his granddaughter, and the child was just a month away...”

“Stop grieving, dear. Let bygones be bygones. It wasn’t that His Majesty didn’t know about her promiscuity, he just didn’t care. He wedded her solely for political gain. He needed a queen from your grandfather’s bloodline, he didn’t care whom.

“If Cacanne had had a better sense of propriety and had been better at keeping secrets, the king wouldn’t have cared how many lovers she had. But she shouldn’t have seduced Wecksas and she most certainly shouldn’t have gotten pregnant. You know Wecksas is His Majesty’s bastard and the one he intends to make his heir. Why would Cacanne seduce him despite having so many lovers? She even let herself get pregnant! There is no way she did not know she’d get the guillotine if the king ever found out.

“The king told me he had no choice but to kill her before the bastard was born. He could not let his queen’s womb bear a bastard, especially not when it would be her first. I’m not sure whether it would be worse or better if the child was known to be Wecksas’s or not. But as things stood no one knew, and he could not have an heir that could become his enemies’ pawn. Yes, it’s cruel, but given what the king had to preserve, there was no other option. Your grandfather knew exactly how things stood. We are nobles, not commoners. We cannot allow cracks in our visage which other will use to ridicule us. We stand as the rulers of men as much because we have their respect as that we are better at ruling and fighting than they are. If we lose their respect, half our foundations will be gone and the slightest breeze could topple us.”

Sylvia was overcome with grief, but she had not lost her reason. She nuzzled into her husband’s chest and fell asleep. Lorist held her for a while before he lifted her off him gently. He rolled to the edge of the bed to think more comfortably.

Auguslo left as quickly as he had come. He had only come to inform Lorist about the goings-on in the capital. Lorist was his only swordsaint. Auguslo needed his support to steady his throne, and he certainly could not afford to have him possibly turn on him. His other wish was to have the man take his bastard as his disciple. His bastard lacked legitimacy by birth, so he had to make up for it by molding him into the perfect heir in every other right.

Lorist turned him down. His disciples could be no older than sixteen when the process began and had to be his attendant for two years before they stood a chance at becoming his disciples. Even then it was not guaranteed. During the two years Lorist would carefully watch them and put them through countless trials and tribulations. Only if they passed, and were deemed worthy, would they be accepted. Wecksas had missed his chance. He was too old. It didn’t matter how good he was, he could not become Lorist’s disciple.

He’d also come to invite Lorist to attend his ascension ceremony. He planned to take the name ‘Auguslo the Restorer’ with his ascension and become the first emperor of the restored empire. He had originally planned to hold the ceremony a few months after his return, but that was stopped by his former wife’s improprieties.

He did not have the gall to hold the ceremony so quickly after the scandal, and certainly not without a woman to sit next to him as empress. His inspection tour was an excuse to get out of the city and go get his new wife. He would marry the woman Duke Fisablen gave him and then ascend.

With that in mind, he’d hoped Lorist could end the war in less than two years. It was inauspicious to ascend to the throne during wartime, and he had no desire to have the Union barge into the ceremony. There was no such hope, however. It could only happen if he killed them all himself.

Tonight, Lorist lay contemplating a request the new government had made. They’d passed a motion in the council to ask and allow him to deploy a force to Callisto Hills. They hoped he could seize it for them. It was a historic part of the Morante governed Union, and was crucial to the city’s functioning as it provided them with most of their key daily resources such as charcoal, pigs, dogs, cows, sheep, potatoes, wheat amongst other things. Most importantly, any trade route to the Tedanini Mountains needed to pass through it. They had to control the region if they were to trade with the dwarves, trade vital to the city’s economy.

Change was forever faster than plans. He’d only formed the Free Union out of necessity to keep the Trade Union in check. He’d chosen people that could effectively govern the new country and keep it going, but as a result they were also good enough to exploit him. They knew they did not have the might to stand against the Union on their own, and they knew they could not keep Lorist and his forces here forever, so they were hellbent on making the best use of him while they could. They would not let him leave until they were in a good enough position to feel comfortable standing on their own without him present.  Callisto Hills was no doubt just the first of several moves they’d have him make.

He was becoming the buffer between the two Unions, rather than the Free Union becoming the buffer between him and the other Union. They were no doubt hoping this little excursion would boil over into another full-blown campaign would tie him and his forces down and keep him from withdrawing, thus giving them time to build up their forces.

Why do they have to be smart people? Can’t they just be decent administrators and governors but bad at strategy?

Lorist smiled bitterly.  They were sending three of their divisions to help him, but even in where they stationed the three they were holding back, they were shoving him in front of the Trade Union. Mass and Gypsy were the two cities closest to Morante. The surrounding land had been prepared for agriculture. They would soon be sold to farmers. They were the safest, and that was where Morante was putting its divisions. They, instead, shoved his Firmrock into the four cities closest to the front-lines and the ones most likely to be attacked.

Besides, there was no need to send him to retake the region. The people who’d been given the land were very loyal to Morante. They weren’t members of the guilds, but were instead independent entrepreneurs and specialists from the city. Few had even bothered to find out where their lands were, a couple had even burned the deeds and had refused to leave the city.

They also didn’t see the point to trying to manage such a backwater. The entire region was completely undeveloped. It had no infrastructure, even the biggest roads were just small dirt cart trails.

The region was so poorly defended they could take it with just a division. The trouble was holding on to it. The complete lack of infrastructure meant it would be near impossible to supply the necessary occupation forces. It didn’t help that the only port in the region, Einiba, had been crisped.

If he agreed to the request, he’d be in the quagmire and would likely be stuck here fighting for years to come. He couldn’t just say no either. The request was not obviously outlandish, so he’d seem like the untrustworthy one if he turned it down. He could also possibly lose his currently guaranteed unfettered access to the market in Morante. The Free Union needed his assistance and support to establish itself on the continent, and he’d promised it to them -- in return for unfettered access to their market. If he turned down such a reasonable request, they might have legitimate cause to renege on their guarantee of access.

He spent most of the night reasoning his way through the possible outcomes time and again, and finally decided to reject their request partially. He would send a small force out to take Callisto Hills, but he would not deploy a large force, nor would take over the defense of any of the surrounding cities.

He decided to lend them Els while they trained their commanders. He would take over the city’s defense. He was a native and had many connections to the new government through his acquaintances and former subordinates in the syndicates. He could most easily fit into the new system.

The plan was put into motion on the 21st of the 11th of Year 1779. A small contingent from Tigersoar marched into Callisto Hills, drove out the minimal Trade Union forces there, and occupied it. The Trade Union did not respond.

Chapter 535 - War Discussion

“Our dominion’s production rate of daily necessities in the 10th and 11th months have doubled. Perhaps the south’s private traders know this will be their last chance for the year. Either way, they’ve been buying like crazy, even our luxury products have grown wings. We’ve made three million’s profit in these two months alone.

“The 400 thousand units of magic beast fur winter clothing sold out in fifteen days. Morantians were scrambling to buy them. The only thing is, the local tailors have been complaining. They’re dissatisfied that we’d make bland winter clothing with magic beast fur. They’ve had to painstakingly remake the clothes to be at least somewhat decent. They want us to give them the loose fur itself next time and let them make clothes from scratch.”

Spiel’s face was positively glowing. He was the picture of bliss. He finally understood why Lorist insisted on investing in Morante. Other things aside, almost 60 percent of all their goods and materials were already sold. Three million had been made from daily necessities, and a further two million from more luxury items. Five million all-in-all in just two months.

And that was just in trade. They’d also been reaping benefits in industries as well. All their workshops were at full capacity and a few had even switched to 24 hour operations to keep up with demand. This investment’s knock-on effects were reaching all the way back to the Northlands. Next year would see him collecting a lot more in taxes as well.

Lorist didn’t have much to say. He had instructed Spiel to monitor the goods prices so a single bad apple didn’t ruin the whole batch. He had also prepared to build new factories to keep up had introduced new regulations for entry to the market to steer clear of over supplying.

All the necessary arrangements made, Spiel left.

Senbaud was next. He’d come to bid his farewells before he left with for Jigda with the convoy. It carried the first shipment in Lorist’s deal with his former lover. He did not expect to be back before the middle of the next year, but he hoped to return with products and good news from their new market in the south.

The southern seas had relatively good weather, but was rife with pirates. Half of his trip was to escort the convoy, the other half was to begin cleaning out the region. He would be accompanied by 11 Blitzes, besides his flagship, and a hundred Dams. This would be the first time a Norton ship crossed into the southern seas.
Charade was next. Sylvia interrupted their meeting by storming in unceremoniously. She had two pieces of good news. First was that Lorist’s youngest children had been born. Maria had birthed a son on the 21st of the 10th back in the north, and Dilianna a girl on the 27th.

Lorist’s family was becoming almost cumbersomely large. He now had three sons and three daughters, his dead bastard and the boy’s abandoned younger brother, and the other unregistered children -- Arriotoli’s two children, excluded. He had single-handedly turned around his family’s slow decline. The only disappointment was that all but one of his children were legitimised bastards, and were thus, at best, half-Norton. So, while he had reversed his family’s decline, he had only partially restored the bloodline. He had to have more legitimate children, children with Sylvia, to truly right his family’s fortunes. Regardless, this was something worth celebrating. He finished two bottles of fine wine with Charade.

Charade was there to discuss Mass and Gypsy’s agriculture. Thirty thousand households, 140 thousand Morantians, used cash or loans to buy the farmland. Half was profit. Together with the loan the government had secured from Lorist, they now had all the money they needed.

“They’ve asked for help expanding the military even further. They want to form four more divisions, two for Morante and one for Callisto Hills and Einiba each, and several cavalry divisions,” explained Charade.

“Aren’t they being too hasty?” Lorist asked, “Everyone knows Einiba is a wreck. Didn’t Loze complain his men were being used to help build new homes for the city’s inhabitants and to get them supplies? It hardly seems worth a division.”

“That’s exactly why they want to send a division there. They want to officiate their declaration of independence next year. You know the old Union will respond in force. They cannot allow this to happen.

“That said, they don’t have the forces to attack everything the new Union controls, so they’ll focus on the strategically important targets, which is neither Callisto Hills, nor Einiba. Those buggers plan to put us on the plains, where the old Union will no doubt strike first and most aggressively, and sequester themselves in the unimportant places, Callisto Hills and Einiba.”

Lorist shook his head.

“Tell them there is no need for a further expansion. As long as I’m still present, everyone will focus their attention on me, and since I’m too powerful for them to face head-on, they won’t attack in force.”

“You mean...”

“The windstorm swordsaint. The old Union is waiting for him to recover. They won’t attack until he is ready to keep me busy again. I suspect he’ll challenge me to a duel sometime late next year.”

The plains’ cities were now held by just a few new Union divisions. Lorist’s Firmrock had returned home, and Tigersoar was in Callisto Hills. There was no way the Trade Union did not know his current disposition. They quite possible already knew of the Free Union. His men had killed all the spies they’d sent, but they had occupied the city for decades, they could not be so easily cut out of the city.

If they really knew about everything, but had yet to respond, it could only be that they were waiting for their swordsaint to recover. They needed a counter to Lorist, they would attack the moment they had it.

“I see... So once again, Your Grace is the key to our victory or defeat.”

“No, My duel is unimportant. The windstorm swordsaint can keep me busy, but he cannot defeat me. Which means the deciding factor will be our two armies. All the windstorm swordsaint can do for the old Union is assuage their concerns that I will go on a rampage and wipe their army out. He cannot win victory for them, that they have to do on their own. The same goes for us. In this upcoming war, I can only keep their swordsaint from rampaging, you must claw victory from the old Union yourselves. With us out of the picture, the next most powerful people, the blademasters, will be the greatest deciding factor. No matter how strong our ranged weapons, they will struggle against dozens of blademasters.”

So that’s the problem! If they entrenched themselves, they could fight off the rank-and-file soldiers, but they’d be vulnerable to teams of blademasters striking from the shadows, and the Trade Union was certain to do this, they’d already used this tactic to great effect during the War of Glass.

“I knew we shouldn’t have let them ransom the blademasters and gold ranks,” complained Charade.

House Norton had barely 20 gold-ranked knights. Apart from the initial 16, only Patt and Pete had joined their ranks. Even if one was to count Glacia and Sylvia, they had twenty, but Lorist would never let his wife take the field, nor, he suspected, would any of the generals. And they could only truly count on Lorist’s disciples, Reidy and Shuss. His father, Engelich, would not take the field, and Xanthi would only act to protect her adopted daughter.

“Tarkel’s report,” Lorist said, dripping a thick stack of paper onto the desk, “The old Union has been busy. They’ve built up their forces and repaired their relationship with what’s left of the alliance. They’ve also been running an intense propaganda campaign against us. We’ve been painted as the ‘great northern threat’, and they’ve been painted as the south’s defender. They are the guardians of civilization and we the barbarians from the north.”

Charade chuckled. “Has it been effective?”

“Can’t be sure. They’ve salvaged their economy, at least. They’ve also gained permission to recruit in several nations’ lands. They’ve also reformed Wessia and plopped it in Kamott near Tedanini. They’ve set up several new factories there and are pumping out as much equipment as they can. They’ve even dared to begin using the technology they stole from us.”

“Those shameless bastards!”

“With all the effort they’re putting in, they must be betting everything on this one clash. It’s clear they can’t stay afloat as they are now, if they don’t win this with the next clash, they’ll crumble. If they do win, however, they’ll wipe out most of our forces and cripple us for years.”

“Are you confident?”

“Honestly? No. This could go our way just as easily as not. We cannot pull out, however. We have to fight this. If we withdraw we lose this war, or at the very least we go back to where we were before we sacrificed so many men and all their deaths will have been in vain. I cannot shame my men like that. We have to fight this battle, and we have to win. Besides, it’s not like we don’t have any tricks cards still up our sleeve.”

Chapter 536 - Approaching Battle

1780 was destined to be a tumultuous year. Senbaud’s flotilla was attacked on the 3rd of the 4th on their way back from Jigda. Their attackers were a pirate fleet led by what was left of Chikdor’s ships. They attacked under the cover of night, sneaking up to the fleet and setting fire to as many ships as they could.

Only forty ships were left by sunrise. The remaining 50 were sunk or sinking. Most of the ships were now also under-manned. Senbaud slammed his head so hard against the nearest mast he nearly cracked his skull. He chased down the fleet and sunk every ship, then sailed up and down the coast of Chikdor’s domain and flattened every building, town, and city he could find, as well as every ship, fisher, merchant or driftwood, flying their flag.

His cannons were still bellowing fire over the ocean while Morant held the signing ceremony. They signed their declaration of independence, thus officially establishing the Free Union. The day was filled with pomp and circumstance, the government made a point of holding a lavish parade to show of their military and declared the day ‘Declaration Day’.

They claimed Morante, Falik Plains and all its cities and settlements, Callisto Hills and all its settlements, and Einiba as their territory. Their first act as an established country was to extend formal invitations to all foreign nations, the Trade Union excluded, to come trade freely in their territory, especially Morante. The government declared that they’d be a representative parliamentary democracy. The citizens could vote and choose representatives for a national parliament, called the Council, which would make the laws and appoint ministers and a premier who would govern the country.

Jindoz was the current premier. He used his inaugural speech to declare that the Free Union would stand firmly alongside Andinaq. Andinaq’s king had also guaranteed the Union’s independence. Morante’s merchants were free to travel to the kingdom and to trade. As long as they respected the regulations, they would be welcome.

The new trading guilds rejoiced at the news. Now they could expand northward. They knew the kingdom had been ravaged by war, but it was still a massive market and would only grow in the coming years.

Word of the Free Union’s founding soon spread to the Trade Union. Duke, and President of Twinhead Dragon, Cobleit made an angry statement about it, declaring the Free Union traitors, along a slur of other swears.
The Alliance refused to acknowledge the Free Union, and the Trade Union put out a bounty on everyone in the upper echelon’s of the Free Union’s government. Jindoz, as the head of government and the nation, had the highest bounty: 100 thousand gold Fordes. Lorist had no choice but to make Reidy his bodyguard.

The Free Union didn’t let the Trade Union’s accusations go unanswered. They scrutinized Duke Cobleit’s arguments in their new newspaper, the Daily Liberty. Their main argument was that their forefathers sacrificed themselves so they could live freely, as equals, not as subjects under nobles, even if said nobles were from the Trade Union.

The Trade Union, in their estimation, was not what its founders desired it to be. It had become a tyrannical, imperial force that had even become exactly what the founders had rebelled against: an aristocracy.  The Free Union, they argued, were not the traitors. They were the ones restoring the ideals, the government, the country the founders had dreamt of when they first founded the Union. The Trade Union, instead, were the traitors.

Lorist joined in the response and declared that he’d kill every one of the guild-presidents-now-nobles and their families if any of the Free Union’s officials were assassinated. This was the first time any swordsaint had proactively declared their support for a nation, their own or otherwise. It shocked the entire Alliance.

Cobleit shot back that the Union was not like Teribo. The traitors would be captured during the upcoming war, not their killing. They were to be tried and executed properly for their treason. He also hinted at Lorist that making such a bold, proactive, public declaration was unfitting of a swordsaint, individuals who were supposed to be aloof to worldly concerns and only acted to protect their own country, and suggested he should reconsider his shameful actions.

Lorist responded in the Daily Liberty’s next issue. He declared that he was above sophistry. He had made his declaration to protect the integrity of the Union’s dream, which was rightly inherited by the Free Union after the Trade Union betrayed its founders’ ideals, and that he would stand by his oath.

He soon after sent his three women home, each finally pregnant.

A few days after their departure, Tarkel reported the windstorm swordsaint had completed his recovery. Surprisingly, he’d refused to take the field for the Trade Union, however. One of Tarkel’s top informers had told him the swordsaint had turned down their offers and made demands they could not meet.  It took several more months for them to finally come to an agreement and the windstorm swordsaint issued a challenge to Lorist. He demanded they fight on the 10th of the 10th.

The date surprised Lorist. Was the Union not anxious to chase him and his people out of their ancestral homeland?  Why set the date so far in the future?

Charade believed it was to give the swordsaint more time to get back into shape. Lorist didn’t really buy it.

Everything became clear, however, when the Trade Union mobilized in the middle of the 8th month. The enemy marched on the plains and Bluwek. They had the advantage of numbers, 300 thousand stood against just 190 thousand, Free Union included.

“Their legions are 48 thousand strong each. Each of the seven guilds have sent their strongest forces, and the eighth is made up mostly of Invincible’s survivors,” Yuriy reported, “They’ve split their army in two. And are moving in two groups five kilometers apart. They’ve been countering our scouts quite effectively so I’m afraid I don’t have anymore details than that.”

“They’ve been moving very slowly and deliberately. We won’t be able to catch them off guard. They also have a large contingent of siege equipment.”

“We do not have the numbers to face them on the field, so it’d be best to hunker down in Bluwek.” Loze suggested, “We can use the new Union’s divisions to harass them as they move and whittle away their numbers. We can strike once they’re at their weakest and do what damage we can.”

It was a decent idea. But Lorist could not agree. He could not fight another protracted war. He needed a decisive victory that would completely incapacitate the old Union.

“No. We must face them on the field of battle. We must win a decisive victory and end this in one fell swoop. We must wipe their force off the map so we can return home and leave everything to the new Union.”

“But, Your Grace, we do not have the numbers to face them on the field. They outnumber us at every level save that of swordsaint,” Charade interjected.

“We cannot let the thought of defenses bog us down. We must focus solely on attack. The Ragebear Knights will arrive in a few days. They bring with them 500 bronze cannons. We will use them alongside our ballistae to end this swiftly. They will all die before they reach our lines. Then, when they break, we will run them down like the dogs they are!”

The knights cheered.

“Freiyar, Josk, Yuriy, Waxima, the four of you will move with Jaeger and harass the enemy. Intercept their scouts and informants, but don’t face the main force. Strike quickly and precisely only if you can be certain of a quick and safe retreat. Understood?”

“Yes, Your Grace.”

“Els, Ovidis, take the sentry legion to Bluwek. Charade, tell Jindoz to mobilize his forces to Bluwek as well, the cavalry division in Callisto too. We don’t need them for the main battle, but they should gain some experience fighting against the old Union, they’ll have to do it on their own in the future, after all.”

“Yes, Your Grace.”

“Tigersoar will stay with me for the time being. We’ll escort the Ragebear knights and the cannons to the front.”

Chapter 537 - Duel

Lorist was annoyed. He had thought he would have long since returned to the dominion. He had no interest in the empire; he was content watching from the sidelines. He didn’t even take his upcoming duel seriously. The old man was much weaker than he had thought. He expected his recovery would take two years, not four.

The old man’s domain was larger than his and he had more experience, but they were only enough to even the playing field. Their last domain clash had dumped both into thick gruel. Neither had full control of their domains. The simplest explanation was that it felt like his inertia had suddenly multiplied, everything felt less willing to begin or stop moving or change direction.

The challenge had been a great chance. Despite his injuries, he had won. It seemed their domains only affected the physical body, and techniques that left it, techniques that stayed within his body were completely unaffected. It might even be better for him to fight with fists rather than swords.

The fleet returned on the 33rd of the 8th. His thousand Ragebear knights disembarked awkwardly after a fortnight at sea. Their full number was three thousand, but only the one thousand silver-rankers were considered ‘knights’, the remaining two thousand were iron-rankers, squires. Their size did not reduce their cost, however, the three thousand men in the unit cost Lorist as much as the entire Firmrock.

With them had come the 500 cannons and 800 catapults and the supplies needed to operate them.

Charade had wanted Firmrock to come as well, but Lorist didn’t see the point. Ragebear was far more effective and fewer men deployed meant fewer losses suffered, in victory and defeat. Besides, Firmrock shone when fighting from defenses, and the whole point of this battle was to avoid fighting from atop battlements and behind palisades. The forces on hand were enough to hold the line, so Ragebear would be a more worthwhile addition than Firmrock.

Howard, too, disembarked. His project had finished two months earlier. Fort Howard was now Northsea’s safe harbor in the south and more than doubled its effective operating range from the homeland. From it, they could now effectively control all but the most southern of coasts, mostly those controlled by the two empires. Most importantly, however, it meant that the fleet was out of commission for far shorter periods while it resupplied.

Howards next duty had been to form three new brigades of artillerymen. That he’d finished a month ago.

His three brigades had come with him and were currently hauling the cannons off the ships. The hundred surviving cannons from the battle with Invincible was now back under their command, so each brigade had 200 cannons. They’d spend a few days near the city, breaking in the new guns, and then leave for Bluwek.

Ragebear took leave for the days the artillery brigades checked the cannons and left together with Lorist and Tigersoar.

Military camps dotted the landscape around the city. Banners of every color pigments could make flapped in the wind. The Trade Union occupied the southern, eastern, and western fringes of the area, whilst the city itself and everything north of it flew Norton and Free Union banners.

The Trade Union’s generals had been arguing for three days. Duke Cobleit walked around with a perpetual headache. The enemy sent a messenger with a letter from Duke Norton the moment they arrived. He duke said he would not be standing aside, nor reserving any force necessary for victory. He challenged them to a battle in front of the city on the 10th of the 10th, the same day he chose for his duel with their swordsaint.

The heated debate revolved around this letter. Should they accept this? The enemy had not fortified the city at all. They had no retreat plan, no intent on falling back and holding the city if they lost the fight. This could only mean that they were certain of their victory.

Half of the commanders were in favor of storming the city before the enemy had time to organize their forces. They outnumbered the enemy 3 to 1, add to that the element of surprise and they had little chance of failure. Why sit around and wait for a month? Why give your enemy the time he so clearly needed to prepare for a confrontation? Was war not also a game of time and organization? He had clearly lost on both fronts so it was only right to clean him out now.

Cobleit would have been of the same mind, were the sender of the letter in question anyone else, anyone but the infamously brilliant Duke Norton, anyone other than one of only a handful of swordsaints on the entire continent.

The duke had also followed an important ancient custom. He’d declared a date and a place for a battle between their armies. Much like the duel between swordsaints, it morally bound them to honor his call. They could ignore it if they wanted, but they would lose what little standing they had in the continent’s noble circles, and their standing was shaky enough as it was already.

A break of this custom would also give the duke an excuse to target their upper echelons. Were he someone else, this would not be worth considering, but he was a swordsaint, he had the power, he just lacked the excuse.

The nobles were not pleased to hear this. This was news to them. Until recently they’d been mere commoners, rich merchants, sure, but still commoners. They’d known nothing of the intricacies of noble custom and etiquette, of the unspoken rules that governed noble life, and most of them had never made the effort to learn once they became peers.

But they had their own swordsaint, didn’t they? If he was dumb enough to barge into their camp with a few hundred, maybe one or two thousand of his personal bodyguard, they could just send the windstorm swordsaint after him and crush his bodyguard with their own forces.

Naturally that fool of a duke had only bothered with noble custom because they had the perfect counter his personal involvement in the war. He was known for his unannounced attacks, among his many other barbaric tactics, he would have used one of them instead if not for the fact that they had someone that could match him.

They now thanked their lucky stars for paying the price to get the windstorm swordsaint on their side. Many had thought it a waste, and even those that had supported the idea, thought of it as just obtaining another laurel for their wreaths, something to solidify their position and give them greater legitimacy, no one had thought he would be such a crucial force.

“Where’s the windstorm swordsaint?”

In the nearby city. He’s stopped there to meditate and prepare for the duel. He said he’d join us shortly before the date for his due," Duke Chikdor answered.

“Why? Doesn’t Duke Norton need to prepare for the duel as well? Why can he lead a legion and come to the front-line already, then? If we don’t take Bluwek now, we’ll sweat blood to take it later,” clamored a deputy-general. He used to be a mercenary, and he didn’t understand the frivolous rules nobles had to followed. It was all just pretentious horseshite to him.

“Stop talking nonsense,” Duke Peterson interjected, “Duke Norton sent us an official challenge. Such is only issued to nobles. He’s acknowledged us as peers, we have to respond according to noble etiquette. We’ll be discrediting his acknowledgement and slapping ourselves in the face otherwise. He could then just storm in and kill us as bandits.”

“But... Don’t we have the windstorm swordsaint? Isn’t he afraid Master Magrut would do the same to his forces?”

“Fool, we’d be the ones who would have broken the rules first. Why would Master Magrut stand up for us? Even if he did, it would be meaningless since we would be dead.”

Duke Cobleit finally hammered the table. Why was it that the Trade Union’s expansionist policy only worked well with the Alliance, why did it fail in the north? Andinaq, besides House Norton, was a shell of a country, teetering on the edge of complete collapse. House Norton, and, specifically, its duke, was the only thing keeping them from falling off the cliff. The Trade Union should thank its lucky stars he was a vassal of a stupid king, and not king himself, otherwise they’d long since have been made corpses.

Fuck!  We should have gone to the negotiating table... thought Duke Cobleit.

Unfortunately that was no longer an option. The door to the table closed the moment the Free Union declared independence. They had to win the war or be replaced by that puppet state. If they did not shatter from defeat and become just a collection of duchies and backwater villages, they’d forever exist in the new Union’s shadow.

The tent fell into silence. It lasted several minutes. Duke Cobleit’s sigh finally broke it.

“Duke Norton sent that letter as a warning. Look at the date he set for our fight. It’s the same as the duel. He’s warning us to follow the rules, or he’ll come sort us out personally. I expect he’ll respect his loss as well and withdraw without complaint, granted to do as he wishes and follow the rules.”

“How are we supposed to stay here for a month? We’re bleeding money!” someone cried.

“Gentlemen, let me remind you. We are nobles. You wanted the titles, and now you have it. It’s time you started acting the part! Yes, we have to make sacrifices, but his recognition of our status means we can expect the perks that go along with being nobles. Proper treatment if caught, for one. We could ignore the rules when we fought the Alliance because we were certain of victory. Things are different this time. There is a serious chance we might lose. If we do after breaking the rules, we’ll be hanged. If we do but we followed the rules, you get to keep your heads and go home.”

“If only Master Magrut was here...”

Duke Cobleit laughed bitterly.

“He is a swordsaint, our swordsaint, but he is far from reliable. You should not bet on his aid.”

“What?! We pay him a million gold Fordes a year! Does he want even more?”

“I won’t hide it. Master Magrut originally refused to duel Duke Norton. He only agreed after we made several concessions. Besides many benefits and rewards -- among which is a province as a fief -- he will not fight the duke to the death. He will only keep him busy and out of the main fight.”

“How dare he be so greedy! We’ve wasted our money!” yelled someone angrily.

It was one thing to be an exalted swordsaint, but to be both a swordsaint and a noble? One title was equal to the other, so a commoner swordsaint they could stomach, but a noble swordsaint would be their superior. This was unacceptable.

“We have no choice. We will not win this without him,” Peterson interjected, “The big seven had already made the decision. As long as Duke Norton is out of the picture, we can win this fight. It doesn’t matter if he’s killed or just occupied, we just need him out of the fight. We outnumber the enemy three-to-one. A field battle, even if the enemy has time to prepare, is still better for us than a siege where we’d either have to starve them out through the winter, where we’ll be sat in cold tents and they in warm houses behind high walls, or storm the walls and suffer heavy casualties.”

Chapter 538 - Day of the Grand Battle

On the 10th of the 10th, when the sky had just brightened, a horn blared lowly across Falik Plains. One tower of smoke rose after another amidst the camp’s forest of tents.

A fog rose from the rivers as dawn broke. The men screamed, cursed, and yelled. Metal clashed, horses neighed, and sounds of all kinds mixed together in a chaotic ensemble.

The day had come. Duke Cobleit woke early, or, more accurately, had yet to sleep. The day’s battle would decide both Unions’ fate. He couldn’t afford neglect. Stress weighed on him eternally. He had the advantage in numbers, so he could not understand why the enemy would choose to confront them on the field, in the open, where the terrain offered no advantage to either side. But he knew Duke Norton was no idiot, he would not do this without reason.

All the intelligence said House Norton only had three legions and a brigade of knights to field. They should number just 150 thousand at best. Cobleit didn’t count the Free Union troops of Whitelion legion, which King Andinaq had sent as reinforcements, they were not worth much and could not change the outcome of the battle.

House Norton was his true enemy. However, they had remained in their camp for the whole month. While the higher-ups wouldn’t claim they knew the Nortons inside out, they knew their specialties. House Norton had the advantage when it came to ranged weaponry. They used steel ballistae and catapults to break up their opponents’ formations before charging in with cavalry. This was how Tigersoar had defeated their 100 thousand reinforcements in Kanbona with only 40 thousand.

The mere thought of House Norton’s ballistae and catapults infuriated Cobleit. The big-six restored Wessia so they could produce House Norton’s weapons from the blueprints they’d stolen. It wasn’t that Twinhead Dragon didn’t want to just abandon them. It couldn’t, because the other five merchant guilds didn’t want to. Their compromise was to reform Wessia, this time, however, each of the guilds owned a tenth of Wessia just like they did Invincible.

Despite that, the new guild still disappointed. They had the real ballistae and catapults, but they couldn’t forge the same elastic steel. They spent over 500 thousand gold Fordes but the research still failed. They only produced barely functional arms that couldn’t compare.

Luckily they could counter the enemy’s ballistae with shield carts. Only the catapults were trouble. House Norton were experts at combining the two weapons in combat. The Trade Union’s forces had brainstormed many countermeasures, but only two were reliable. They were the elastic shield-carts, and long-armed trebuchets.

The elastic shield-carts were the result of a spark of inspiration from the carpenters that built the normal shield-carts. Normal giant shield-carts were mainly used to defend against ballista bolts, so they had to be firm. But that made them useless against rocks. In fact, the harder they were, the easier they broke. One of the carpenters had the bright idea of using bamboo, an elastic material, to support the shields. Not only did it increase its strength, but also made it possible to stop medium rocks. Heavy rocks were still a problem though.

With most of the ranged weapons nullified, they could rely on high tiers to eliminate enemy commanding officers and destroy their command infrastructure. They’d crumble soon after. The only problem was that they still had to cover a great distance under fire and casualties were unavoidable.

So far, the best way to stop the enemy’s catapults was their long-armed trebuchets. They could launch stones up to 30 kilograms 400 meters. They fired slower and couldn’t be moved, but they could match the enemy’s range and keep them at occupied. He did not hope they could defeat the enemy catapults, he just wanted them to divert attention away from his forces as they closed in.

The old times were far better... We’d just meet on the field and charge at one another. We might shoot a few volleys of arrows before we engaged in close quarters, but things were nice and simple. House Norton has ruined everything. We can’t get even get close to them normally. We’d just get wiped out as we approached. Even fighting from city walls is little better. They just smash the walls down over a couple of days and storm in...

“Please enjoy your meal, Your Grace,” said his attendant as he served breakfast.

Cobleit didn’t have much of an appetite. He took a few bites and fiddle around with the rest for a few minutes before giving up.

“Sollerson, anything happening on the other side?”

Sollerson was his trusted attendant. The man had been by his side for 20 years. He trusted the man implicitly.

“No, Your Grace. Apart from the mound they built two days ago, nothing has happened. The scouts said they have started to cook.”

The enemy built a small mound five kilometers from Bluwek, but nothing had happened since. The higher-ups thought they were setting up defensive fortifications, but it didn’t really seem like it. Cobleit couldn’t understand what Duke Norton was thinking. Maybe he wanted to use it to give him a better view of the battle? It certainly couldn’t be used for anything else. Some had suggested that he might want to use it to increase his catapults’ range, but it wasn’t tall enough to make much of a difference.

“You can have the rest,” Cobleit said generously, “What time is it?”

“Just before seven, Your Grace.”

“Make me a cup of tea and give the signal to sortie. It is time for our grand battle. We must make preparations early. Make sure the troops are in formation in two hours.”

“As you wish, Your Grace.”

“Has Master Magrut woken up yet? What’s the situation?”

The windstorm swordsaint arrived in with ten disciples three days earlier. After meeting him and the rest, he excused himself and wanted to set up his tent somewhere clean to rest. But where would they find a clean place in a military camp? Cobleit had no choice but to have ten tents taken down and moved to make space for the swordsaint. He even stationed guards around his tent to stop anyone from disrupting his rest.

“Master Magrut’s disciples are outside. They were just asking for breakfast. We didn’t see Master Magrut. We don’t know if he’s awake.”

Cobleit nodded.

“Since his disciples are here, Master Magrut will join them soon. Make sure the men are respectful and do whatever he asks. Master Magrut is the key to our victory today. We can’t mess things up. I won’t forgive anyone who upsets him.”

“Understood. I will make sure everyone is careful.”

Cobleit waited anxiously for their swordsaint to arrive. His eldest disciple came by near nine. Count Bolyde was the windstorm swordsaint’s eldest disciple, an arrogant bastard. He cared little for merchant wannabe nobles. He conveniently forgot that his own title was defunct along with Kalia, the kingdom that had given it to him.

“Lord Duke, I am here to get a pass,” said Count Bolyde.

“What’s going on?” asked Cobleit.

“My master will now leave for the duel grounds. I am here to get a pass to prove my and my fellow disciples’ identities so we may attend.”

“Huh? Wasn’t Master Magrut going to duel Duke Norton on the battlefield? He’s choosing another location?” asked Duke Chikdor.

Bolyde shot the duke a disdainful glare.

“You think Master is like your subordinates who want to duel in the middle of the battle to show off? Please understand, a duel between two swordsaints is sacred. Only those dedicated to the arts and chosen by the swordsaints themselves may be witness! Do you really think it’s just two people swinging swords at each other? If you don’t know what’s going on, don’t mouth off unnecessarily! Master issued the challenge and set the date, so the venue is naturally up to Duke Norton. We came here to get a pass to head to the other side so we can go to the grounds together.”

“But... But today’s the date of our battle...”

Duke Chikdor’s embarrassment turned to rage.

“If the date is so fixed, then fight it. House Norton has three centuries behind it. They will not break their promises even if their lord is absent. You go do your battle and Master will duel Duke Norton. Neither has anything to do with the other.”

These merchants want to come watch the duel just to make sure Master does not slack off!

“Haha, Lord Bolyde, we naturally know this is the day of our battle. We haven’t deployed yet was because we were worried we would steal the show. The duel is an eye-catching event. Our battle is nothing but a side show. Duke Chikdor is waiting with us because he is worried our battle will affect the duel. Since it won’t, there’s no issue. Sollerson, give the count my insignia and accompany him,” said Cobleit as he came to Duke Chikdor’s rescue.

“Thank you, Lord Duke,” Bolyde replied, turning stiffly and leaving, Sollerson jogging to keep up.

“Alright, gentlemen, it seems we don’t have to worry about the duel. Go and get our troops ready. You all know what our plans are, so let us not waste time and breathe reiterating them. Hold ranks, stick to the plan, obey any orders I might give, and fight bravely! By Singwa, this victory will be ours!”

“By Singwa! Victory! Victory!” responded the tent.

Horns reverberated across the plains as the Trade Union’s forces set off. House Norton responded in kind. The rumbling of drums jumped in and set the pace as the two forces marched towards one another, each’s cloud of dust obscuring the horizon for the other.

Bolyde, who had just rode out of camp, was shocked to hear the horn and cursed, but nobody heard him. The two armies were only kilometers apart and Bolyde and Sollerson were held up by a few light cavalry scouts when they were a kilometer away from the Norton camp. After checking their identification, the scouts took their weapons and escorted them to their lord.

Bolyde dismounted respectfully and gave his greetings before giving a noble salute and explaining his presence.

Lorist gazed at the map and picked a few remote locations. This was a duel between swordsaints after all, not just anybody could watch. The windstorm swordsaint was right about that. In the end, Lorist settled on Lone Peak.

Lone Peak was the mountain nearest Bluwek, around 5 kilometers away. Its name came from its isolation. It towered above the gently rolling hills of the region, reaching for the sky, alone.

Bolyde returned with the location. Fanfare echoed across the gap between the armies as the Union sent their swordsaint off. Lorist left his side quietly, followed only by Reidy and Jinolio.

Cobleit breathed a sigh of relief when his scouts reported Lorist’s departure. Looking at the murderous Norton soldiers in the distance, he waved and ordered in a deep voice, “Blow the horn! We move as planned! Begin our attack!”

Chapter 539 - Duel of the Swordsaints

“Lord Norton, please head up. Teacher arrived early,” said Bolyde with utmost respect as he saluted Lorist.

The other disciples spread out and surrounded the mountain. They appeared to be guarding the surroundings so nobody would interrupt the duel.

Lorist nodded. He turned to Reidy and Jinolio.

“Stay here, or go back if you want.”

Reidy glanced at Bolyde.

“We’ll wait here, Teacher. We pray for your victory.”

Lorist waved them off and dismounted before climbing the mountains.

This mountain had no path to the peak. The lower half had some greenery, mainly shrubs and grass, but the upper half was bare. It stood far from the coast and there were little in the way of prevailing winds, so no moisture was blown up it to wet the top. Only the hardiest of plants broke rock here and there.

The peak was a single, solid mass of gray rock. Lorist kicked up from a hole in the mountain and impaled a ledge with his sword before flipping off and ascending further. He peaked several flips later. The top was leveled, about a hundred meters square. A few hairline cracks danced like lightning in the shifting light, but the surface was stable. A few boulders lay on this surface, but not enough to severely hinder movement.

Lorist wondered where his opponent was. Had he not come early? Wind suddenly rose from behind him, lifting his cape and making it flap about aimlessly. He turned around and saw the battlefield stretched out from the bottom of the mountain to Bluwek. The two sides, like two blobs, covered two sides of the flatlands below. He felt like he should hear horns blaring and officers barking orders, but the sounds were long washed out by the time the wind reached him.

As he perked his ears to see if he could hear any lingering noise of the war beneath, he heard a gentle flutter behind him. He turned his gaze and saw the old swordsaint lumbering his way up the last couple of meters of slope. His face was slightly flush and his breathing heavier than would be expected of a swordsaint.

“When you are as old as me, your bones don’t hold up as well as they used to. Apologies for showing you such a sight, Your Grace,” the old man said shamelessly, bowing slightly, “Greetings Duke Norton. I am grateful for your acceptance. Looks like this old man won’t have to lose face.”

How odd. What was the old man up to? Why was he being so polite? Was he not an arrogant fool?

“Umm...” Lorist opened his mouth to speak, but the old man’s name escaped him. That Count Kris-whatsisname introduced him as Master Ma-something-ut...

He couldn’t be bothered to trawl the name up from his memory.

“Can we get going?” he snapped, unsheathing his sword.

The sooner he could finish, the sooner he could return to the battlefield. He was anxious. His plans were thorough, but he could not afford to be absent if something untoward happened.

The old man just shrugged and sat down.

“No rush. Let’s rest for a bit. I’m old. I’m not nearly as energetic as you. You can at least give this old man some time to catch his breath, can’t you?”

Lorist stared at the old man, speechless.

What the hell? Is this his house?! He even dares sit down! He’s not worried I’ll strike him like this at all?!

Then again, they were fifteen meters apart. Even if he dashed at full speed, the old man would still have enough time to react.

Whatever, just rest if you need it so badly. There’s no point in rushing. Shoved his sword into the stone and returned his attention to the battlefield.

From this vantage point, Falik Plains looked like a large chessboard, but the Union occupied two-thirds of it. Little squared of men checkered the landscape all the way to the horizon. The squares closest to his forces had been whittled down and were just small, scattered dots. He could just barely make out clumps where large numbers of men had died together, and a few pebble like dots sat scattered between them, probably shield carts of one kind or another.

“You seem rather confident in your forces. Is that why you’re fighting the battle on the same day as our duel? Where do you get that confidence? The Union is advancing very well. Your men are well-trained, but they’re completely outnumbered.”

“Had enough rest? Then let’s fight.”

“Anxious to get to join the battle?”

Lorist didn’t answer, but his face betrayed him.

The old swordsaint chortled.

“Frien-- Lord Norton. It’s true I challenged you to a duel, but the truth is I don’t want to fight you.”

“Then why’d you challenge me?”

The old man tapped the rock beside him.

“Do you know why I thanked you for accepting?”

Lorist shook his head.

Since you asked for a beating, I’ll give you want. I was having trouble finding you but now you’ve come to me. I should be the thankful one. With you out of the picture the Union will crumble. Why would I not grab such a chance?"

“You haven’t been a swordsaint for long, so you probably don’t know much about our way of doing things. But you’ll learn in good time.”

“What does that have to duel with our duel? Weren’t we both heavily injured in our last fight? You challenged me after you recovered because you want to get payback, right? I didn’t get enough in our last fight, so I want to fight you again.”

The old man burst into a short bout of laughter.

“I didn’t issue the challenge with the intention to fight. I know taking you on will be torturous and I’ll probably be just as badly injured as before. My old bones can’t take it anymore. Everyone knows about our last fight. If I didn’t challenge you they’d think I was afraid of you and I’d lose most of the respect and reputation I’ve earned. I had to challenge you to preserve my honor.”

“I’m a swordsaint, one of just a handful on the continent. We have transcended the ruling classes. Nobody dares offend us. Even in wars we don’t have to fight. We prefer it that way since we’d rather not fight and kill one another. There are few enough of us already, no need to lower that number ourselves. We don’t care which of us is considered the strongest. I doubt anyone would have a problem with you being put at the top of our rankings. You’re welcome to it. You’re a noble as well as a swordsaint, the rest of us are commoners. We may have high statuses, but they’re symbolic only. We have no real power.

“We’re seen as these sages, divorced of the mundane world, our only pursuit perfection of our cultivation. We are respected and stand equal even to kings and emperors in the eyes of the people, but we have no authority. We only fight to preserve our reputation so we can hold on to what little freedom and influence we have. That’s why I challenged you.

“Challenges are usually accepted as easily as this one. Most of the time a lot of conditions are negotiated first. We don’t face each other often as a result. Most fights are spars between friendly swordsaints. I am grateful that you accepted my challenge without a fuss. I will repay this favor.”

Lorist finally understood what was going on. The swordsaint wanted to put up a facade of a duel for the rest of the world to preserve his honor, but in reality he just wanted to chat. Even if he returned without a scratch, he could claim to have fought Lorist to a draw. It was far better than having to escape injury-ridden. And, given his status, there would be no need to try so hard on behalf of the Union, anyway.

Lorist was different. Like the old man had said, Lorist was a noble as well as a swordsaint. He had a domain and millions of people depending on him. He could not sit by like a detached bystander and just watch the fight play out either way. He had to make sure his forces won.

He prepared to leave.

“Let’s not be hasty now,” the old man hastened to stop him.

Lorist frowned and clutched his sword.

“You want to stop me?”

“You’re a swordsaint. Why bother with such petty things? We must not be too involved in the world of mortals. Even if you’re a duke, you can’t lead every charge, can you? You must be confident in your forces being able to win in your absence, otherwise you wouldn’t have set the battle on the same day as our duel. Why not watch it from here? We might be powerful, but swordsaints can’t single-handedly change the outcomes of battles such as these.”

“Did you make a deal with the Union concerning me?”

The old man nodded shamelessly.

“I cannot let you take part in the battle, so I cannot let you descend the mountain until the battle is over. Besides, a duel between swordsaints cannot end this quickly. No one will believe we’ve fought.”

“Oh really?” Lorist’s glare froze. “Do you really think you can keep me here?”

“I admit I’m not your match. But stopping you from leaving is not the same as winning the fight. I have several strategies to lock you down on this peak even if I can’t win. I’d prefer not to have to fight you, however. There’s no point in us being enemies.”

“So what did they promise you?”

“The duchy of Walinya. Well, they didn’t offer it to me, I demanded it. It’s one of the smaller duchies south of the Union, near Jigda. It used to be a protectorate of Kalia. It’s about the same size as one of your empire’s provinces.”

“Are you sure the Union will really give it to you?”

“They won’t dare lie to a swordsaint. As long as I keep you here until the battle ends and I’m not badly injured, they’ll give it to me. They’d like nothing more than for the two of us to fight one another until we’re just barely still alive.”

“Hey, old man,” Lorist interjected, “even if you get Walinya, aren’t you afraid the swordsaints from the Romon and Khawistan will come after you? I heard they chased you out of Kalia by working together.”

Lorist suddenly felt a desire to gossip. He had nothing better to do up here, so why not?

“Hehe. Kalia wasn’t ruined because I was chased out of the kingdom. It was ruined because I and the king had irreconcilable differences. I would have liked to kill the old bastard, but I couldn’t if I wanted to preserve my reputation, so for years I’d just sequestered myself away and ignored the king. The two empires didn’t dare make a move as long as I was in the kingdom, though. One day I received a letter from the two empire’s swordsaints saying they’d been asked to work together to chase me out of the kingdom or kill me so the two empires could split it up. It was the perfect excuse to get out, so I played along and pretended to be chased out of the kingdom by the two after a serious fight.”

“Being a swordsaint comes with a lot of annoying shackles. I realized when I first came across you and learned you were both a swordsaint and a noble that I can only really be free if I am both a noble and a swordsaint. So I demanded land and a title in exchange for keeping you out of the fight.”

A loud, sky-shattering rumble burst up the mountain from the lands below. A line of smoke rose up from Lorist’s forces, and towers of smoke rose from semi-random positions on the Union’s side. Their formations instantly crumbled. Soon after a soft blur of cries and wails clawed its way through the air to the peak.

Lorist finally breathed again and sat down.

“Don’t you still want to go back to the battlefield?”

“The battle’s over. The Union lost. I don’t need to go back in a hurry anymore.”

“How?!”

The old man jumped up and stared at the battlefield. Smoke covered most of it, but he could just make out the Union’s side retreating like ants on a table after someone hit it. The enemy side’s formation was also breaking up like a flood as it rushed over the battlefield, chasing the retreating Union.

“Gah!” cried the old man suddenly. He drew his sword and slashed the rock closest to him.

“The heck are you up to?” asked Lorist.

“Quick, help me. Leave a few sword marks on the rocks over there. This is the sacred ground of a swordsaint duel. We must leave some signs of the intense battle. You take that side, I’ll take this one, we can swap once we’re done.”

Chapter 540 - Grand Victory

Lorist descended from the mountain, his face covered in soot. His clothes were stained with mud and somewhat torn. Even his short cloak was torn in half. Each flapped like a flag behind him.

“Your Grace!”

“Teacher!”

Lorist smiled when he saw his two disciples. Their cries made him feel guilty. But, thinking back to what the windstorm swordsaint had said, there really was no reason for two people without any real grudges to fight each other to the death.

The old man had said it crudely, but it made sense. Lorist’s forces had won, so he had no reason to rush back. The windstorm swordsaint also didn’t have to tire himself out by holding him on the mountain. Everyone could part on good terms. Lorist would have free reign in the north and the two would have nothing to do with one another in the future. They might even become friends in time.

The only thing Lorist didn’t like was having to ‘decorate’ their dueling grounds. It was even more tiring than actually fighting. The practiced manner in which the old man went about his decorating also called into question the stories about all the previous confrontations between swordsaints. How many had been honest fights, and how many were just decorations? No one had ever imagined that swordsaints, so venerated by the world, would just sit side by side on mountaintops talking about trifles as hundreds of thousands fought to the death beneath.

He nearly broke out in a rage when the old man said they also had to look the part.

“You can see how epic our fight must’ve been. Look at that boulder. It’s cut in half! How can we walk out untouched by dust or dirt? Wouldn’t that rouse their suspicions?”

He didn’t wait for Lorist to respond. He immediately cut his clothes into thin strips and covered himself in dust. Lorist was quite impressed with the old man’s fashion sense. It was centuries ahead of its time. He had little choice once he started, so he joined in. Soon both were nearly half naked under strips of cloth completely unassociable with the clothes they had worn when they ascended the mountain.

Reidy and Jinolio rushed over excitedly. They breathed a sigh of relief once certain their master had not been seriously injured.

“Did Teacher win?”

Bolyde was pale and trembling. He clearly though his master had lost. The fight had lasted some time and the fact that his master had not returned when his opponent had said everything.

Lorist shook his head.

“We drawed. We fought for a while but stopped when we realized neither could of us could win without taking serious risks. I just came down first.”

Bolyde’s face immediately regained some semblance of color.

“Where is Master? Is he injured? Forgive my rudeness. I am just worried for Master.”

Lorist smiled.

“Your teacher is fine. He said he gained some insight from our fight and wants to meditate on it for a while. He’ll come down once he’s ready.”

That old guy had stubbornly insisted on Lorist saying this to his disciples. His disciples would go up to see what had happened and would come across their carefully prepared stage. He’d recount the grand battle and word would spread to the world from there.

“Thank you, Duke Norton,” said Bolyde before he called two other disciples and rushed up the mountain.

“Let’s go back.”

Lorist mounted his horse. Jinolio handed his cloak to him.

“Teacher, was the windstorm swordsaint strong?” asked Reidy as they rode.

“No,” Lorist said with a bitter smile, “He’s not very strong, but he’s as slippery as an eel. He couldn’t hurt me because I am too strong, but I couldn’t hurt him because I couldn’t corner him to land a strike.”

Such was the truth. The two had clashed with their domains to determine the most believable lie to tell. Though the old man was sly and lazy, his cultivation was the real deal. His Windstorm Domain spread out for 25 meters. Within it, stones flew and wind morphed into blades. Lorist’s Slaughter Domain, on the other hand, was like a physical manifestation of murderous intent. Everything inside was crimson and even the bravest turned into cowards. Its range, however, was a paltry 15 meters. It was a great improvement on what it had been when last the two had fought, however. The old man had been very impressed when he saw it.

Lorist had gained something from their agreement. Magrut had shared a lot of what he knew about the world of swordsaints with his younger protégé, such as what exactly domains were and how they worked. Lorist learned that swordsaints were divided into three classes, or stages, based on the size of their domain. First stage swordsaints had domains less than thirty meters but greater than 10 meters in radius. Anything less than that was a demi-swordsaint, not to be confused with a quasi-swordsaint, however. Quasi-swordsaints couldn’t manifest a domain at all, but were far more powerful than blademasters, whilst demi-swordsaints could manifest domains, though unstable, of short duration, and less than 10 meters in radius.

First stage swordsaints moved into the second stage when their domains crossed the 30 meter mark, and the third stage when they crossed the 50 meter mark. Of all the swordsaint still living, only one, the firesoar swordsaint, was in the third stage. Everyone else was still in the first stage. Romon and Khawistan’s swordsaints were comparable to Magrut. The firesoar swordsaint was the last surviving swordsaint from the previous generation, which was why he had such a large domain. The years of chaos of the last century and a half had prevented many new swordsaints from rising. Most of the current swordsaints were of roughly the same age. Lorist was in the trailing end of the current generation, quite possibly its last as well. The firesoar swordsaint was an incredible 260 years old, and few thought he could hold out much longer, if he were even still alive. It had been years since he was last seen.

Domains were also based on the fundamental attributes of their users’ battleforce. Magrut’s was of the rare wind attribute. The firesoar swordsaint’s was fire. His domain felt like an oven. When he exerted its full strength, he could even make bushes and grass burst into fire. Romon’s swordsaint had a wood-attribute domain. Plants grew wildly within it. Khawistan’s swordsaint had an earth attribute. It was great for defense and for limiting the enemy’s movement by constantly changing the landscape within.

Lorist’s was apparently the weirdest of all. Magrut had sparred with most of the known swordsaints, but he’d never encountered something like this. He’d especially never felt the kind of sludging effect he did when his domain clashed with Lorist’s. Usually their domains would overlap and their effect would manifest side by side, it was unheard of for the two domains to suppress each other and to instead slow down the swordsaints inside like they were fighting in a thick sludge.

As Lorist approached Bluwek, he encountered more and more scattered Union soldiers. Apart from some blind fools who tried to rob them of their war horses, Lorist didn’t go out of his way to chase the small fry soldiers down. He had to accept some of the points the windstorm swordsaint made. As a swordsaint, he should carry the kind of grace a swordsaint should have. Troubling a small soldier was beneath his status of a swordsaint. Come to think of it, the old guy was like ‘mortal’ this and ‘mortal’ that. He doesn’t even acknowledge their existence as individuals at all. Maybe he even considers himself as some sort of god.

Now, Lorist finally understood why the windstorm swordsaint seemed so arrogant when he tried to abduct Auguslo and the other nobles years ago. The old guy had been put on the high pedestal for far too long and started growing prideful. Had it not been for Lorist’s own status as a swordsaint, the old man wouldn’t even have bothered with him. To the windstorm swordsaint, anyone who wasn’t a swordsaint was not so different from little ants on the ground. Only by becoming a swordsaint would one be acknowledged as an equal by the old man. It was no wonder he was so casual and loose-lipped about how sleazy he was and how he tricked the Trade Union for his own benefits.

Whatever, there’s no sense in fussing with that old guy. I’ll just do what he wants this time. He should be going to claim Walinya as his dominion from the Trade Union later and probably wouldn’t have anything to do with me in the future. Lorist only felt pity for the Trade Union. Not only did they suffer a crippling loss on the battlefield, it was also quite obvious that the windstorm swordsaint would no longer move according to the merchants’ beck and call after he got Walinya. Whether he would still be in their employ was still unknown. That old man seemed like he was going to isolate himself after he got his dominion and nobody would be willing to invade the dominion of a swordsaint. It was no different from forming an irreconcilable grudge.

A group of sentries were bringing some Free Union soldiers along to chase down the retreating Trade Union troops. Upon seeing Lorist and the other two, they raised their weapons up high and called out their victory cry. The cheer soon spread all over the battlefield. A few Norton knights rushed over and Lorist waved them away to resume their assignment instead of escorting him. He would arrive at Bluwek soon, anyway.

Charade received a report that the premier of the Free Union, Jindoz, was waiting to welcome Lorist back at the citadel gates. The others had followed the rest to take as many captives as they could. Since the Free Union had settled on developing the rural Callisto Hills, they would be investing around one to two million gold Fordes annually into the projects and the most crucial thing that they currently lacked was cheap labor. This was a great chance to fill up that gap.

Since Lorist was able to return unscathed from a swordsaint duel, he hadn’t suffer any losses or conveniences. Charade didn’t really care about it after being told that it was a draw and started telling Lorist about the success they’d had with the battle. He had observed the battle from the beginning to its very end. Had it not been for the fact that others were worried about his lackluster swordsmanship and asked him to stay behind, Charade might have raised his sword and charged into the pursuit in the heat of excitement.

According to Charade, the Trade Union blew the horn for the battle to begin less than 15 minutes after Lorist left with Jinolio and Reidy. Everyone knew why they were so desperate to start. The Trade Union showed their might in the form of multiple formations spread across the plains and they applied huge pressure against the Norton forces, Whitelion legion and the defense divisions of the Free Union, which even saw some tens of soldiers desert.

The unit that launched the attack first was the Trade Union’s so-called vengeance legion that was formed mostly from inner city citizens, surrendered garrison members and Invincible Fleet members as well as some sailors. They hated how their wealth was scoured clean by House Norton when they were kept in the captive camps and hated the Nortons to the bone. They were willing to become cannon fodder than retreat.

They were the ones who pushed the gigantic wooden shield carts that counteracted the ballista attacks. Some of those carts even managed to weather strikes from catapult projectiles outside the range of 200 meters. Most rocks weighing below 30 kilograms didn’t have any effect on those carts. Only when projectiles weighing above 50 or so kilograms would crush the shield carts and cause some damage. That was how vengeance legion managed to approach the Norton formations and put up a short-lived assault. But they were eventually beaten after a few exchanges.

Perhaps because the success of the vengeance legion, the higher-ups of the Trade Union were encouraged, and they instantly threw half of their forces into the fray. Near 100 thousand people marched in multiple square formations and launched their heavy assault. They weathered the ranged weaponry of the Nortons using those gigantic wooden shield carts of theirs and made their approach. Behind the square formations were nearly 100 long-armed trebuchets that were also gradually being moved to the front of the battlefield.

The Norton commanding officers didn’t give much heed to those trebuchets and thought that their firing range only measured to be around 300 meters like their own catapults. They didn’t think that those trebuchets would be set down when they were still over 400 meters away before they were used to launch rocks weighing around 30 kilograms to the Norton ranks. That caused the unprepared Norton units a few hundred casualties and nearly crumbled the units.

Ovidis, who was commanding the catapult units, could only order his catapults to return fire. The worst part of that was that the enemy trebuchets were defended by those shield carts and most lighter projectiles didn’t have any effect unless they struck the trebuchets directly.

So, Howard instructed Ovidis to pack some gunpowder along with those projectiles and ordered the 600 plus cannons and their operators to get ready to fire. At that time, the Trade Union formations were less than a hundred meters away from the Norton forces and would soon go in on an all-out attack to break through the Norton formation.

When the Union forces’ 100 plus thousand soldiers finally began their final charge towards the Norton lines, what awaited them were countless thundering booms, whooshing cannonballs and endless tragedy. The Norton forces had completely swept the enemy forces clean, instantly creating rivers of blood and mountains of corpses. Soldiers from the Union and Norton ranks both vomited from the grotesque and cruelly stimulating sight.

It was then when the gunpowder-packed projectiles flung by the catapults detonated at the enemy’s rear lines. Smoke and fire spread all over the enemy ranks. The trebuchets and shield carts crumbled indiscriminately in the face of exploding gunpowder. Never would the Trade Union ever imagine that the Nortons had that trick up their sleeves. The remaining square formations of the Trade Union near the front of the battlefield crumbled almost right away and some other soldiers at the back were greatly unsettled.

Fiercetiger Loze and Freiyar grabbed the opening to blow the horn for Tigersoar and Jaeger to flank the enemy at that instant. Howard and Ovidis on the other hand led the cannon and catapult brigades forward to deal more suppression fire and to continue flinging more gunpowder bags to the rear camp of the Trade Union. Terman on the other hand mounted a frontal charge against the enemies. Els also led the sentry legion, Whitelion legion and the Free Union’s defense divisions to suppress the enemy.

The result was simple. The Trade Union forces had been completely decimated. The repeated blows from the Norton forces completely crushed the merchant guilds’ legions. Their soldiers escaped in all directions chaotically. The Norton troops thus dove into a delightful frenzy of pursuit and capture.

Chapter 541 - After the Battle

On the 10th of the 10th, Year 1780, the new swordsaint and Duke of The Northlands, Norton Lorist, headed for Lone Peak to face Windstorm Swordsaint Magrut in single combat. There were no spectators, but the clefts in the rock and the rubble left behind bared witness to their engagement.

The duke’s forces drove the Trade Union off the field during the fight as well. The duke didn’t even take a look at the battlefield after the fight. He just headed to Bluwek to rest. Magrut, while having not lost badly, was very exhausted and chose to remain on the peak for some time. He later revealed to his disciples that he’d gained a great insight during their battle and had wanted to meditate on it in the midst of their arena. The fight won him back the face he had lost during their last confrontation, and he praised the duke’s swordsmanship for years thereafter.

--extract from the Chronicles of Grindia

The battle was a complete route. House Norton was the undisputed victor. It was a historic battle for more than one reason. Not only was it the final nail in the Forde Trade Union’s coffin, but it was also the first land battle where firearms played a decisive role. The Union outnumbered House Norton just under 2 to 1, but they were complete routed once their enemy opened fire with their cannons.

It was not that their tactics were completely incorrect, at least not based on what they knew about the enemy. They were quite effective against House Norton’s conventional troops. They had never thought of the enemy suddenly using cannons, however.

Many of the battle’s survivors described the moment like suddenly finding oneself in the middle of a thunder storm, like waking up in the midst of a cyclone, like coming across the end of times. The more religiously inclined said they were weapons that unleashed the devil himself, a blasphemy, a heresy against the gods. You would notice a slight smudge in the sky tearing towards you, then suddenly be blinded by a bright sun flaring into existence right in front of you. If it was far enough away, which was far indeed, you’d survive past the flash to hear a thunderous roar like a dragon complaining about being rudely awoken. Once your vision returned -- your hearing would often be gone for several minutes after the explosion, some never got their hearing back for the whole battle, a new explosion taking it away before it’s even come back from the last one -- you’d be confronted by a blurry world spattered with little black or dark gray dots and your nose would be assaulted by an other-worldly stench.

Actually, it was not just one stench. One part of it was completely unrecognizable. One man who lived near a volcano described it as similar to what the world would smell like after it erupted. The other part was a sickly sweet stench of burning human flesh. Many of the survivors looked like corpses themselves, collapsed into catatonia at the hell around them.

The explosive shells eradicated the long-armed trebuchets and shield carts all the same. To the thousand-man formations, it was as if they had lost the safe space in which they could hide. If they remained, only being blasted away awaited them. The men, most of whom had sworn never to back down quickly, fell apart.

It was a humongous failure. This was the Union’s greatest loss to date. Most of their casualties were amongst their elite units at the front of their formation. They lost 70 thousand to death, and 200 thousand to the enemy.

The most bleeding loss, however, was the 14 blademasters and just over a 100 gold-rankers that fell with the cannons’ first volley. They had bet everything on this engagement, if they won, they would have won everything, but in defeat, they had now lost everything.

Their other losses could be recouped in a couple of years, two if they tried really hard, but blademasters took decades to make, and the success rate was very low. The loss was even worse because in Morante they’d lost the infrastructure, the academies, necessary to train them.

Howard scattered the cannon fire. He had a quarter of the cannons fire at a time, this way he could shorten the time between volleys by three quarters, and the cannons could more effectively use their shots by adjusting to his areas unaffected by the last volley. The first round of volley thus disintegrated several tens of thousands of enemies. They could not make an accurate estimate of the kills because there were no corpses left, just a field of small chips of flesh and bone.

The battle’s name quickly became known as the ‘Cry of the Cannons’. It marked the beginning of three hundred years of espionage. Every nation, every king, every noble, every merchant tried to steal the designs from House Norton, especially his gunpowder recipe. The funny thing is, they succeeded in less than two decades, but dismissed the recipe because they thought it was too simple and it got lost again amidst all the other fake ones.

In his twilight years, Duke Cobleit acceded to his granddaughter’s pleas and wrote his memoirs of the campaign and its aftermath. In it he made clear that this particular battle was the death knell for the Union. It still had a chance to recover until the first cannons fired, from that moment on, its fate was sealed.

The commanders were so shocked by their loss that they became dumb. They believed their tactics were sound and blamed everything on Duke Cobleit’s impatience and anxiety on the morning of the battle. The target of their ire, however, argued that they had little choice. They had little hope of their swordsaint winning the fight against the enemy duke, and once the fight there was over, the duke would rush to the battlefield and their chance at victory would be lost. They had to win the battle before the fight ended.

He believed the route of their loss lay in his and his fellow commanders’ acceptance of the duke’s suggestion that they fight on the same day as the duel. It meant that they had to stay on the field for a month longer than they had planned, which brought down their troops’ morale and gave the enemy the time they needed to prepare their cannons. If they’d attacked as planned, the enemy would have been ill-prepared and they would have lost.

He did, however, admit his fault in not thinking about the enemy’s cannons. They knew they possessed land-based cannons from the time they infiltrated the Norton homeland and stole their weaponry designs. They had become complacent because they had never featured in the battles since, other than at sea, and had completed forgotten about them by the time of the big final battle.

Since the land-based cannons never featured again, and since the defeat on sea was such a massive blow to the men’s confidence, he believed they had exaggerated the power of the cannons to soothe their egos. And had this discounted them as a possible factor in the battle.

Such recitations were matters of the future, however. In the present, Lorist had just returned to Brinn Hills. He had left dealing with the aftermath of the battle to his subordinates.

Loze was chasing down the enemy and plundering the Trade Union’s remaining territories. Carade and Dulles were working with the Free Union to deal with their captives, some 200 thousand. Their ally’s forces were eager to guard the captives. They were moved to the middle of nowhere on the plains where they were made to build large concentration camps where they would stay for the winter. Els was sorting out the loot he’d taken from the enemy camps and cleaning up the battlefield.

Howard was leading one of his brigades to Mauvlin to help out Jaeger and Whitelion while they cleaned the place out. Whitelion specifically was determined to bring back good loot to give to their king as a gift during his crowning ceremony.

The forces faced little resistance, partially because most of the men were either dead on the battlefield or in the concentration camps, and because what few were still at home, were either too few to fight back, or were scared shitless by what they’d heard from the escaped survivors. The legions returned with bounty a plenty, leaving empty wasteland in their wake, devoid of even people. They were all either killed or dragged back as prisoners.

House Norton returned much later than originally planned. They marched into Morante a few days after 1781’s rainy season began. Lorist had no need for more subjects, and certainly no desire for any of his subjects to be old Unionites, so he dumped all but the mist high-ranking captive on the Free Union.

He had Ragebear bring them to his manor. Duke Peterson, the unfortunate old clout, was an old acquaintance of Lorist’s. An explosive shell had detonated almost right next to him. Luckily the shot had gone of behind a nearby mounted soldier. The mount and man absorbed most of the shrapnel so the duke had escaped mostly unharmed. The blast had burst his eardrums, however, so he could currently not hear very well and walked around with a constant headache, and had knocked him from his horse, the fall knocking him out. His attendants rushed to his side, but by the time they had prepared a stretcher, they, their duke included, were captured.

The old man accepted a cup of milk-leaf macks Jinolio offered. The young man had come up with the drink himself. The leaves of a bush native to the plains was dried, then soaked in milk before being added to a cup of macks. It had a rich aroma and a creamy taste the duke had never come across before. Jinolio had proudly presented it to Reidy, who quickly spread it to the other servants. It would just a few years before the drink became popular all over the continent and the leaves from which it was made a staple of Free Union exports.

The duke only played with the odd-looking liquid absentmindedly, however. His gaze was fixed to his captor-host, Lorist. If only he had not broken ties with the man. He had first heard of him when he was still just a no-name instructor at Dawn Academy. Now, however, he stood on three of several mountain peaks on the continent. First, he was a noble as close to the top as a vassal could get, second, he was one of the most powerful fighters in the world, and third, he stood at the head of one of the most powerful families and militaries and economies on the continent.

Lorist briefly talked about the good old days when the two had been friendly acquaintances and business partners before moving on to business. He told the duke that the Trade Union had best surrender. There was no winning this war anymore, no drawing either. They had only two options, either continue on stubbornly and watch as their castles and cities were burnt one by one before they and their families were hanged, or surrender now and preserve what little dignity they had left, perhaps even keep their independence. The bastard dared to say that he wanted to bring peace to the countries as fast as possible. As if his men were not raping and plundering their way through the lands as he ran his disgusting mouth!

Chapter 542 - Year 1781

The icicles dangling from the roof’s edge dripped continuously. Today was the 15th of the 2nd of 1781, the time of snowmelt. Somewhat rarely, the sun hung visible in the sky. Morantian housewives busily hung their washing outside to dry.

Sigh, I wish we had cotton... Lorist suddenly missed the smell of freshly-dried cotton. Most of Grindia’s textiles were linen or hemp based, or made from animal fur. Winter clothing, especially, was very animal based. The 400 thousand furs brought here a few months earlier had been sold in just a fortnight.

The buyers changed everything they bought to fit their tastes. They could afford to waste material on such aesthetic alterations because the furs came cheap -- very, very cheap.

Thanks to the new clothes, the city had its busiest winter in years. Protected from the cold, everyone was out and about and busy being industrious. In winters past most would have stayed indoors for the whole three months of the season, but this time the streets were only empty in the night’s darkest hours.

This… This is the Morante I remember, thought Lorist.

He’d gotten to know the city during its two-decade golden age. It had been a merry and prosperous place, the most so on the continent. This was the true Morante in his mind, not the husk he had found when he occupied it, granted, he’d been at least partially responsible for that sorry state of affairs.

Charade’s voice danced down the garden from main gate.

“Where’s His Grace?”

“Over there enjoying the scenery.”

Clear footsteps soon rung over the gravel pathway.

“What’s up?” Lorist asked, his eyes fixed on the scenery in the valley below.

“Tigersoar and Jaeger have returned. They a few men too many. Jindoz is furious. He’s filed a complaint.”

“How many?”

“Seven... seven hundred thousand, at least...”

This was not a few! This was an entire province worth’s people! Had they at least left the dead in their graves, or had they exhumed their corpses and brought them along as well? No wonder Jindoz was mad. How on earth was he going to settle so many? Especially with the rainy season just around the corner.

“Nonsense!” Even Lorist was speechless.

How irresponsible! Did they not think at all? They had just sent everyone they came across back to the Free Union, they hadn’t, not even for one moment, stop to think whether the Free Union could actually deal with them.

“You damn well better have a solution to this!”

“Maybe we can send them to other places? We can send half to Yungechandler, it still needs people. Shadekampf wrote about working on Egret Swamp for more farmland, so they can do some farming. These have only been part of the old Union for a few years, they’ve not been indoctrinated to value freedom and equality yet, so they can still be worth something. We can leave the rest here with the new Union, they should have enough resources to deal with them.”

“What about Jindoz?”

“He’s biggest complaint is with the trouble the resettlers are causing. No one in the government is prepared to handle so many people, every penny’s already been invested in building up Callisto Hills and Einiba. We’d initially thought there’d still be a few more years of war after our battle, so we’d dissuaded them from moving there first.

“That’ no longer the case, however. They can now start thinking about developing the plains. Jindoz wants us to give them resources and supplies to help with feeding the captives. Only crying babies get candy.”

Charade’s answer made Lorist chuckle. News of the Trade Union’s invasion had spread to Morante in the 9th month the previous year and caused quite a bit of chaos. The last couple of years of ill-governance had not errased two centuries of good rule. Many people still felt some loyalty towards the Trade Union and decried the foundation of the Free Union a betrayal of the founding ideals and everyone who supported the new government a traitor.

No one, however, regardless of which side they took, was happy to see Lorist’s forces leave. When they returned triumphant, though, they returned to two halves of the city ecstatic with cheer, and the remaining third mourning the death of the continent’s only moral country.

This turn of events was most surprising. They’d started out their time of tenure in the city as the devil himself. As demons and vile monsters from the underworld who drenched the city in blood and wanted nothing but to slaughter everything and everyone within its walls, but had now become its liberators, angels descended from heaven to protect, guard, and benevolently watch over the people like a big brother or doting uncle. A few young maidens had even begun husband hunting near the camps.

Before the war, Lorist and his commanders had played a major part in forming the new government. But the execution of its policies was sluggish. Though the city market had returned to the right path, the people were still hesitant to invest their savings for fear of something bringing it down again.

The government pushed many policies and prepared to invest in the Callisto’s development, but the city’s residents had responded with lackluster enthusiasm. With the battle now over, however, and their future bright and secure, people were beginning to move.

It was only natural for Jindoz to complain. The raids of the Norton forces that produced so many refugees only added to the Free Union’s list of troubles. The government had no leeway to deal with the captives, neither in manpower nor in finances.

“How much wealth did Freiyar and Loze plunder?” asked Lorist.

“The five border provinces have been cleaned out. Ten million gold in all, not including the portion given to Whitelion or perishables. Spiel was planning to auction those things off in the city...”

Lorist shook his head.

“Take charge of settling the people in once the rainy season ends. You can pick out a few promising and capable once and send them to Yungechandler, but the rest stay. Take the supplies necessary from our spoils. The Free Union doesn’t have the foundation we do, it cannot settle so many people on its own. Use Tigersoar and Jaeger as labor; they have to clean up their mess themselves. Leave Spiel in charge of the rest of the supplies.”

“Understood.”

“I will send Howard to help you.”

“Thank you, Your Grace,” said Charade, relieved.

If he had had to deal with all 700 thousand captives himself, he’d have collapsed from exhaustion. They were nothing like the people he’d dealt with back north. They had no respect for his lord’s forces.

The rest of the year passed peacefully. The Trade Union focused its efforts on licking its wounds and feeling sorry for itself. No big factions went to war either. Peace reigned on Grindia. Peace, however, did not mean quiet. Falik Plains was like a termite mound. It teamed chaotically. Loze finally regretted going overboard. His head was in constant pain these days, ever since he had received the order to move some of the captives to Yungechandler. He tried many excuses to get out of the responsibility, all of which failed. But he finally brought up wanting to break through to become a blademaster, at which Lorist allowed him to recuse himself, but demanded he break through before he show his face again. His punishment this passed to Messen and Dulles.

Sylvia wrote to Lorist in the 7th month to inform him of Fennazali successful birth of a girl.  Sylvia and Daisy were due in three more months as well. She even demanded Lorist go back and join her for the birth.

Auguslo wrote Lorist soon after. He congratulated Lorist on his victory about a year earlier and asked about the possibility of getting some cannons for his army. Lorist wanted to laugh and cry at the same time. Talk about a belated congratulations, but that was the limitations of this world’s technology. News traveled slowly here, even letters meant for a single destination took months to travel between two points with a significant portion of the continent between them.

Even travel by sea, currently the fastest was to go, took months to cover some of the longer routes. A trip from Morante to Northsea was two months long, for example.

Lorist would have none of the king’s fancy, however. He said in as few words as he could, that it was impossible. The guns were just hunks of iron on their own. They needed gunpowder to propel their projectiles, and this one battle alone had used up all the gunpowder Lorist had produced over several years. He made sure to hint that there was no point, either, since it was now only a matter of time until the Trade Union surrendered.

“Any news from Duke Peterson?” Lorist asked as he handed the letter to the king’s messenger.

Jinolio shook his head.

“No. We’ve had no contact since he was released. We should not have let him go.”

“Whatever. I’ll wait another month. If we don’t get an answer by then, we’ll head home. We can let things be as they are for now. No rush.”

Chapter 543 - Arrangements

Duke Peterson finally sent a message in the 8th month. He said the Union had changed a lot. The guilds were drawing away from one another, which made it very hard to get them to agree to anything. Duke Cobleit, the nominal leader of the group had fallen sick and had not attended any of the meetings. He had only recently started recovering.

The remnants of the Alliance had started making moves on the Union’s territory after their defeat in front of Bluwek. The trouble occupied them for quite a while, and forced them to keep their word and hand over Walinya’s territory to the windstorm swordsaint, which quelled the Alliance’s ambitions.

Lorist had to admit the Union had handled the trouble with the Alliance quite well. They used Walinya and its title to kill several birds with one stone. By giving it to the swordsaint they fulfilled their obligation to him, tied him to them, and put an end to the Alliance’s ambitions for its old territory.

He didn’t quite understand why Magrut didn’t just declare independence the moment he arrived in his new fief. That had been his expressed intent on the mountain, at least. The Union must have offered him additional benefits. It would certainly sway him. He now had his own territory, but it was ravaged by years of war, so he needed resources and money to build it back up.

Duke Peterson only briefly touched on the Union’s plans for the future. But he did take quite a lot of space to put forth his proposal. He proposed Lorist double or triple the prices of his products; he was selling them way too cheap.

Lorist could contain his laughter when he read it. He was clearly trying to win back the market monopoly Lorist threatened with his goods. Free advice on how to make more profit? Did he really think Lorist was so greedy?

If he raised his prices, the products would lose their competitive edge and the Union would push him out of the market. He didn’t care about profit right now. He wanted to win market share. He could push his prices up later, right now he needed a foundation in the south -- loyal customers and a reputation. Another reason was to force the Union out of the market, or at the very least force them to sell their stuff at much lower prices. This way he could ensure that they would take decades to recover, if they ever did.

How could they still call themselves the Forde Trade Union when they were no longer real traders, much less the best on the continent? They were now just nobles slightly better at trade than others. It was his duty as one of the exemplar nobles on the continent to guide them down the right path and made sure they became proper nobles and left their trading and merchant days behind them for good. He couldn’t care less whether they wanted to or not, he had decided that was how it would be, so that was how it would be.

“So they don’t want to surrender, heh? Even after I give them such a good spanking?” Lorist spat as he waved Duke Peterson’s letter, “I don’t understand why... Shouldn’t merchants be smart and cunning? Why do they so stubbornly refuse to lower their heads? How could the old Union afford to continue this war? Do they really think they can mount a counterattack? Do they still have the ability?”

Tarkel bowed respectfully.

“Word from Twinhead Dragon’s dominion is that Duke Cobleit has recovered and has returned to his duties. The chaos has come to an end. Apart from Chikdor, who completely ignores orders now, the others stand firmly behind the duke.”

Chikdor was the only one to come out relatively unscathed. They were in the rear and were the first to retreat so they escaped without much loss. They were now the strongest force in the Union and had become arrogant. Even worse, they plundered everything all the way back to their dominion, including others’ lands.

Wessia was the worst hit. Chikdor abducted many of their best smiths and ores when they passed through their land. Most of the guilds wanted to punish them severely, a few had even called for their expulsion from the Union.

“Hehe, this is rather smart of Chikdor, hey? They fled as soon as they got even the smallest whiff something wasn’t right and even made a profit on the way home. The rest can’t do anything about it either since they are too weak right now. It’s destroyed their trust of each other though. No one will let another group move a large force through its land, or be willing to commit a majority of its forces to a campaign and leave its homeland unsecured. They’re too afraid someone else will try the same thing,” commented Lorist.

“You’re right, Your Grace. Apart from Forde, Riwald, and Wessia, the three guilds who lost their dominions, the other 20 second or third rate guilds who lost their territory as well still stand firmly with Duke Cobleit. Apart from them, Mayflower and seven other guilds formed a separate faction that blames the duke for everything. They’re calling for his removal as the nominal leader of the Union.

“Our informants say Peterson is treated like an outsider. He has chosen to remain neutral, but has in turn be ostracized. He has rejected the mission you gave him. He’s chosen to stand with the Union, whichever road they take.”

So he had trusted the wrong person, then?

“Are they up to anything else?”

“Yes. Duke Cobleit has formed a force, 100 thousand strong. He’s stationed them in Gudlink, Mauvlin, Sanganworb, Hasmok, and Klinkus. Besides that, nothing is happening in those provinces, it seems they intend to turn them into wilderness, a buffer between us and them.”

Lorist looked at the map and nodded.

“A wise decision. If they developed them again, we could just storm in, defeat their garrison forces and raid it. But if they leave them be, it’ll become a difficult stretch to pass through and dissuade us from attacking them without the resolve to see this fight through. And without any infrastructure, even if we make it through, we’ll have weak supply lines. And it’s not like we’d let them redevelop them, anyway. They’re too close to the Falik Plains. If only Duke Cobleit was not their leader, this would all be over already. He is too wise for his own good.”

“I have two other pieces of news,” Tarkel continued, “The duke will be hosting a meeting with the landless guilds to get them new lands in the south of the Union’s territory.

“The south is largely barren, left fallow since the Union took it. It’s also been almost completely depopulated by the war. The people don’t like the Union, they’ve been nothing but bad news since they went there, so they’ll be very hard to govern. It doesn’t help that Chikdor is close-by. Most of the guilds are demanding they be given land elsewhere.

“The other information concerns a communique the duke sent to the Alliance and Jigda. He’s been trying to turn them against us. They want them to stop trading with us and ban our products and stand with the Union against us. They’ve not-so-subtly hinted at us being a new Krissen Empire and tried to paint themselves as the rest of the continent’s protectors yet again,"

Lorist burst out laughing again.

“They are either incredible optimists or suffering the worst case of delusions I’ve ever seen. What nonsense is this about protectors? If anyone is the new Krissen Empire, they are! There used to be 36 countries in the Alliance. Thanks to the old Union there are now just 16, 17 if you include the now-independent Jigda.

“Your Grace needs not worry. The Alliance has seen through them completely. Their previous aggressions, coupled with us not swallowing the territory we captured, but instead forming the new Union has won them over to our side, or neutrality, at the very least. There’s also the matter that our products are far better than the Union’s, and far fairer priced. The old Union is just showing its desperation.”

“We should still teach them a proper lesson,” Lorist said, stroking his chin, “The army is too busy to deal with them this year… Maybe we should raid their territory next year after the rainy season. Oh, investigate something for me. I want to know what nations the territories of the five provinces belonged to. See if you can track down their descendants.”

“Understood, Your Grace.”

“Also, hasn’t Senbaud been sinking all the Chikdor vessels he encounters? I heard their people have been forced to buy fish since they can’t fish along the coast anymore. Tell Senbaud to contact Chikdor and offer to stop sinking their ships if they declare independence from the old Union and form a kingdom. We’ll also let them trade in Morante. He can use my name to guarantee the windstorm swordsaint won’t take action.”

Lorist secretly returned home at the end of the 8th month.

Sylvia gave birth to a healthy boy on the 11th of the 10th. Daisy gave Lorist another bastard son three days later. He stayed with them until the 4th month of the following year before returning to Morante.

Lorist’s family:

Irina, former maidservant and mother to Lorist’s two eldest bastards (deceased, died from natural causes)

Norton Lysecott, Lorist’s eldest bastard -- legitimized (deceased, hung for cruelty, crimes, and rebellion)

Norton Koboshik, second bastard -- legitimized (adopted by Knight Glacia after rebellion and death of his mother, Irina)

Nico Telesti. Lorist’s lover, Dean of Nico Academy, mother to Lorist’s two eldest bastard daughters.

Nico Olijess, eldest bastard daughter -- legitimized

Nico Freycia, second bastard daughter -- legitimized

Dina Arriotoli, Lorist’s lover, mother to two Norton bastards, female knight, and acting leader of House Dina.

Dina Terryke, bastard son -- acknowledged

Dina Iri, bastard daughter -- acknowledged

Duchess Fisablen Sylvia, Lorist’s wife, mother of Lorist’s only two legitimate children.

Norton Anderbael, heir apparent, eldest son

Norton Jadebins, pretender, second son (named after the perished Paulobins, sacrificed during assault on artillery school)

Dilianna, concubine, mother to two Norton bastards,Arriotoli and Fennazali’s aunt.

Norton Slophenk, bastard son -- legitimized

Norton Welianne, bastard daughter -- legitimized

Dina Fennazali, concubine, mother to a Norton bastard, Arriotoli’s younger sister.

Norton Dirolia, bastard daughter -- legitimized

Maria, concubine, eldest daughter of a noble family.

Norton Moypete, bastard son -- legitimized (named after Brigadier-General Pete, sacrificed himself heroically in battle)

Daisy, concubine, of noble descent, Maria’s close friend.

Norton Rolinors, bastard son -- legitimized (named after the two Dawn Academy students and Lorist’s friends, Lind and Moss, both deceased)

Chapter 544 - Report

“Your Grace, Tigersoar has sent the refugees to Yungechandler. Jaeger’s mission to help settle the refugees at Falik Plains was completed in the 2nd month. They’ve rested for two months now and are ready for another deployment,” reported Jinolio. He had been left in charge of Brinn Hills during Lorist’s absence. Apart from a select few, no one knew of the duke’s absence.

“Very well. How’s Reidy doing?” asked Lorist.

Lorist had sent his eldest disciple to fill in for Loze, who was on leave for his breakthrough, as general of Tigersoar. The men were very loyal to Loze, so only someone of Reidy’s stature could take command.

“Brother Reidy is doing quite well. Messen, Dulles, and Modrak are cooperating and the men obey his orders without complaint.”

Lorist nodded.

“What of the Free Union?”

“The government thinks our warning rings true. Premier Jindoz has started reorganizing the army. They will reduce the troops in the cities to brigade-strength. The leftovers will be merged into a new legion. The legion’s general is an old acquaintance of yours, I’m told. Someone called Brennan Charlando.”

“Oh? Old Char’s joining the army?”

Jindoz knew that if he was to stabilize the Union he had to keep a tight grip on the military, so he made Charlando its general.

The Free Union had a new name and clearly distinguished itself from the Trade Union, but it was essentially the Trade Union as it had been two decades before this fall. The central pillar of its economy was its trade; only, without the big guilds and there monopolies, the market was a frenzy of duels and competitions for the top spots.

Lorist didn’t want to interfere too much, but he had to put in some regulations to keep things from getting ugly. People were quick to throw away their morals when profit was involved. Hence his suggestion to Jindoz that he form a strong military and police force to keep a firm grip on things.

Another reason for his suggestion was so the Free Union could take up the gauntlet of guarding its peace on its own. He wanted to go home eventually, after all. He was an outsider, and his men were outsiders. Right now he had a good relationship with Morante and its people, but people would inevitably grow weary of having foreigners in positions of power, and, given how brutal the first months of his occupation had been, subversive elements had a lot of ammunition with which to sour people’s hearts.

Previously people had not thought much of his continued military presence because his forces were actively involved in restoring the capital, and the Trade Union was still a threat against which he protected them. Now however, the restoration was on track and could continue without his men, and the Trade Union was no longer a threat. The people saw no excuse for his continued presence so they would soon become resentful and suspicious.

It was also likely that the merchants would start questioning whether they wanted to keep paying money for someone else to hold military power and protect them now that such a massive threat was no longer there. They would want to keep their money and fund their own forces. Such decentralization of military power would weaken the government and prevent them from ruling over dissidents who might want to change things.

“Understood, Your Grace. Sir Jindoz initially wanted to talk Sir Els into going over to his side as general, but Els would have none of it.”

Ah, Old Char is beholden to his wife, Els knows. There shouldn’t be a problem now that he convinced Louise.

Lorist didn’t like that Jindoz, and through him a foreign power, had tried to poach his subordinates. He might have abandoned the Union if it were successful. Luckily, it wasn’t.

“Anything else?”

Jinolio nodded.

“Young Master Serihanem is here, the kid from Chikdor. He’s been waiting for an audience for three months. Chikdor responded to your letter by sending him and ten attendants.”

“I see.”

So they were interested?

“Did Serihanem seem rushed or agitated? What has he been doing?”

“We arranged a villa at the foot of the hill for him. He’s not done anything untoward as far as we can tell and we haven’t picked up any impatience. He does visit the markets almost daily though.”

“What does he do?”

“I’m not too sure. You should ask Sir Tarkel. He had men tail him. I have heard that his attention is mainly on our products.”

“I’ll talk to Tarkel. Tell Serihanem he can see me tomorrow morning.”

“Yes, Your Grace. Also, Baron Camorra sent a report from Jillin Harbor. The harbor and docks have been restored and its begun handling the many ships now streaming up and down the coast in the region. Baron Fenston has done his best to cooperate. He said he was one of Your Grace’s acquaintances and had been looking forward to the development. He provided whatever Baron Camorra asked. He’d even offered the contract to expand the city garrison to us.”

“Baron Fenston, huh?” Lorist laughed.

He can read between the lines, alright. He’s always been courteous.

“Alright. Tell Camorra to give the cooperative nobles a couple chances to make some money. We’ll turn a blind eye as long as they don’t go overboard. Also, didn’t His Majesty say he would send a division to watch over the city? When did he decide to expand the local garrison instead?”

“You forgot about that report? The king doesn’t have the manpower anymore. He’s had to reorganize his entire military just to keep things going with the forces he has left. He has only one legion and the royal guard that look after the capital.

“He’s had to make his garrisons independent since he doesn’t have the men to centralize them into regional legions, not to mention that the provinces are too barren to support large portions of the population locked in the military. That’s the big reason for his survey. He’s trying to figure out how to deal with this.

The only royal knights in Jillin will be the garrison’s commander and the couple of captains beneath him. Baron Fenston is not happy, but he has little choice, which is why he asked us to help out. He wants us to set things up so he, rather than the king’s knights, will have control of the forces.”

Lorist slapped his forehead. Auguslo’s army had been just 300 thousand, of which only 120 thousand were his men back then. He’d started out with 300 thousand personal forces, then lost two thirds of them.

“Camorra did well. I’m relieved he’s there. Did he talk about any difficulties?” he asked.

“Baron Camorra said the work has been welcomed. Most of the nobles in the region rely on the port for most of their purchases and imports, so everyone is happy to see it improved. Baron Camorra is troubled, however, by the cancellation of our food deal with the king. We heard it was cancelled by Wecksas, now in command of the city’s guard. Everyone now knows who he is, so no one dares argue with him.

“Wait, what?”

Auguslo had asked Lorist for ideas on solving the kingdom’s insolvency, from which the decision to upgrade Jillin’s docks and harbor. Lorist had also suggesting exporting the kingdom’s surplus agricultural produce to Morante. They’d done so for two years now under the deal which made them two million a year. Auguslo had finally paid his backlog of salaries and was slowly building up a stable, solvent, financial reputation. Lorist took a ten percent commission for his part in the work, mainly transport and sale.

“Baron Camorra inquired about it. Wecksas said the deal jeopardize the kingdom’s safety. He’d frozen the deal to give him time to properly evaluate how much could be sold.

“He later said that he would allow the trade to continue, but the buyers would have to come to Jillin to get their purchase. He would also not allow credit purchases, everything had to be paid for before it was loaded onto the ships. He also doubled the price and reduced the volume by half. The baron turned him down. In response Wecksas threatened to chase us out of the city if we didn’t agree.”

“What?! What kind of shit does that brat have for brains?! Is someone egging him on? Tell Camora to stop all trade with the kingdom immediately. We don’t need their food, so there’s no reason to play their games!” Lorist fumed.

So someone had set their sights on the harbor city and was using Wecksas to get it? They could go screw a boulder!

What a daredevil... Doesn’t he know Auguslo? Has he forgotten how he slaughtered almost every noble in the capital?

Auguslo had wanted to borrow money from Lorist back then, but he knew the king would never pay it back, which was why he proposed the Jillin business. But now someone was threatening such an income so vital to the king? The King was not going to react well to this.

Lorist couldn’t care less about Wecksas.

Auguslo had placed great hopes in his bastard. He hoped the brat could be turned into a decent heir. No doubt that was why he’d made him the city guard’s commander. It now seemed he was destined to be disappointed. The bastard was far too easily goaded. It seemed he was just a greedy, horny, fool. Auguslo’s only hope for a decent heir was for his new queen to birth him one he would have to raise from scratch.

“Send word of this to the king and tell Camorra to ready his defenses. It won’t be the end of the world if we lose the city, but give that royal bastard a good fight. If things go badly, he can withdraw to Silowas while we wait for the king.”

“Immediately, Your Grace. Sirs Charade and Tarkel have arrived and are awaiting an audience.”

“Let them in, and prepare a meal while you’re at

“Right away, Your Grace.”

Chapter 545 - Independence Pact

"Duke Norton, I, Serihanem, pay my utmost respect as the representative of Chikdor. I hope you will always be with good health and that things go according to your will," said Serihanem as he saluted respectfully.

"No need courtesy, Young Master Serihanem. You and I are old acquaintances; we can skip the pleasantries. I've always appreciated your talent. It's a shame you caused me quite a bit of trouble in the Battle of Cape Romani. The things that followed made me regret being unable to come to an agreement with you. I believe that if you had been by my side, you would've checked for loopholes in my security so people would not have escaped like that." smiled Lorist.

"I have embarrassed myself, Lord Duke. I did my best but couldn't change the outcome. In the end, I couldn't help but escape. The war has worn us down and we could not have afforded my ransom. I had a duty to avoid putting my guild in that position. I survived thanks only to your benevolence. Thank you for your grace."

"Haha, you're pretty good with words," Lorist smiled again, "Alright, let's talk business. Is Chikdor interested in breaking off from the Trade Union?"

"To be frank, Chikdor does want to break off. But we are one of the big seven. Our survival depends on the Union. Everyone knows we specialize in naval trade, and your ban keeps us from applying our only trade. Land trade is neither our specialty, nor in our hands. The Union controls it. Our largest market is also within the Union. Without our fleet, we can't trade, without the Union's market, we can't trade, and our domain cannot sustain us as it is now. We wish more than anything that we could take you up on your offer, but it would be signing our own funeral slips."

Lorist snickered to Charade and stretched out a hand, opening his palm. Charade unwillingly took out a gold Forde and handed it to the duke.

Serihanem gazed at the exchange, perplexed.

"What is this?"

"Nothing. I just won a bet. He thought you would agree in principle but put forth many conditions. I thought you would turn me down because of your difficulties."

"Uhh..."

Had this happened anywhere else, it would be a gross offense. But he couldn't get on his horse in front of this swordsaint duke. He had no choice, Chikdor was at a disadvantage; he had to endure.

Lorist tossed the coin in the air before returning it to Charade.

"Let's not play games. Charade should've won. The fact that you came to Morante shows Chikdor is interested. You are smart and I'm sure you can tell the old Union is beyond salvation. Your forces wouldn't have raided Wessia's dominion if you could not. You know what this means for the Union. Treason.

"To me, you are part of the Union, one of its claws, if you will, and our foe. We remember your aggressions along the Golden Coast. Our ban is in response to that. This is your only chance to make up for that mistake. It's really simple. Break from the Union, declare your independence.

"I'm not trying to trouble you, but there will be no games. You either do as we say, or there is no deal and you will continue to be our enemy -- with all that entails. And the Union will be wiped out. I have tried many times to negotiate, but they have refused, so I have no choice but to end them.

"You are no fool. What are your demands. Be quick and concise. If they are reasonable, I will consider them."

Serihanem blushed.

"You speak the truth. We have pushed countless times to end the war, but the other guilds will have none of it. We lost Invincible, which lost us our right to raise our voices during the meetings.

"We have no desire to stay in a country in which we have no voice. But it's not that simple. Especially not considering the history we have with you. Many don't trust you. They believe you will go back on your word and wipe us out the moment we secede from the Union.

"I am here to understand your intentions and make the final decision. We are weak, so we cannot stand on our own if the Union comes after us. We will only take up your offer if you will back our independence and defend us against any reprisals from the Union."

Lorist nodded.

"That's more like it. We are willing to guarantee your independence. Don't worry; I do not break my word. Sort out the details with Charade and we can get things rolling."

Charade returned two days later.

"This is the agreement. I believe they have more ambition than just gaining independence."

"And?"

Charade got to the map on the wall and pointed at the guild's territory.

"Chikdor doesn't want their original dominion when they declare independence. They want the land here. The land used to belong to the Duchy of Lauderta and the Kingdom of Engislun. If they get that, they'll possess seven provinces' worth of land. They'll be able to stand with the empire as an equal.

"When I asked why, Serihanem said that their dominion has little potential for growth. It's mountainous and has little surface area fit for farming, forestry, or any other economic activity. They will only have a good prospect of a bright future if they have lands with open, flat plains. I have acquiesced and made that territory part of their kingdom in our guarantee."

Lorist smirked.

"Having ambition is fine. I would be wary if they did not demand more territory. Everything around them is Union territory, and everything they want is Union territory, so I don't care what or how much they want. The more they demand, the greater the damage to the Union, and the better for us. Besides, they'll only get to keep what they can defend anyway. I actually think they're being a little meek with their demands."

"I don't understand why you're willing to help them," Charade griped, "They are our enemy. They've cause us much pain and suffering. Now, however, not only are you not getting back at them, you're rewarding them? This does not feel right."

"I understand, Charade. I have no choice. Look at the map. Morante and Chikdor areseparated by 500 kilometers of mountains. Their land is almost entirely mountains. They cannot stand with the land they have and I have no intention of putting my men on their soil, not as an ally, and certainly not as an enemy.

"We know what Serihanem hasn't said. You saw Tarkel's reports. Their dominion used to be the Duchy of Urubaha and the people are mostly poor and foolhardy. Apart from those enlisted in Duke Urubaha's rental armies, most became pirates. 'Seven of a pirate's fingers are Urubahan' as the saying goes.

"Chikdor brought down the piracy and put most of them in their navy. Now they no longer have a navy, however. Everyone is back to piracy. If we do not curb this, our trade with the south will become very costly.

"If we can get them to keep the peace in the south, then we have no issue. And that's only part of it. We can also use Chikdor against the Union. If Chikdor leaves with the lands they want, the Union will collapse. They cannot survive a blow like this, not in the state they're in already."

Charade nodded helplessly.

"Is this 'choosing the lesser two evils', and 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend'? Whatever, you don't have to mind me. Look at this. Everything we can do is signed. I can't guarantee they won't be threatened by the windstorm swordsaint in the future though..."

"No issue. I'll write them a letter they can show the old man. He will give me face and stay out of their business."

"Alright then, Your Grace. There are these as well. I've agreed to let them reform their trading fleet as long as they abide by our rules. They've agreed. I've also given them a similar exclusivity deal to the one we gave Mermaid.

"The other thing is… Serihanem asked that we strike the Union and damage them enough to give Chikdor cover to declare

"Alright, I have no problem with that," Lorist answered, "It's natural to have doubts. We have little ground for trust right now, so it's understandable. The legions will be here in a few more days. Set up a meeting with the Free Union council."

Chapter 546 - Debate

"Jindoz, aren't you daring? You actually dare solicit Els to leave House Norton?! Are you taking us for granted?" yelled Lorist as he entered the council chambers.

Jindoz shrugged helplessly. Charlando whistled and glared.

"What? Can't I get my nephew to come back to help his brothers? Locke, my boy, don't think you're some kind of bigshot just because you're a duke and a swordsaint. If you're really that capable, why wouldn't you let Els come home? The guilds have left and his brother controls much of the Union. What ought Els do other than come back?"

Jindoz looked at Charlando, smiling bitterly. Lorist instantly understood the geezer was probably the one behind it all. He remembered one night the previous year when he invited all the Dawn Academy alumni who had joined Lorist to the Red Grace Inn for a reunion. Els and Reidy were there too. Charlando nagged on about Els and Reidy leaving home without giving the slightest care about their uncle. He wanted the two to come back home.

Both suggested Charlando go north with them instead, but the old man was stubborn and refused to leave. When Lorist and Charade tried to convince him, he, somewhat drunk, said he would never become a subject. He was a proud, independent, free Morantian. He would never be someone else's slave.

Lorist gave up at that point and left.

He thought that would be the last of such talk, but now the old geezer was going after his disciples and followers!

Lorist smiled furiously.

"Old Char, stop messing around. People have different goals and paths. Els and Reidy are doing great with me. Els has a family, and Reidy has a bastard and a woman he loves, though he has yet to marry. Els will also soon be made a count and get more land. What can you give him if he stays here, huh? Els was Jindoz's boss before he left, it would be inappropriate for him to be his subordinate, especially given how high he's risen in the aristocracy."

Charlando was the two's senior, but he was just a commoner.  Hierarchy and social standing didn't impede his serving Jindoz, but Else was different. He was a minor noble, he would, in fact, soon be a major noble. He could not serve under a commoner. He also still had great prospects with Lorist, he had little future with Jindoz even if he didn't mind being under a commoner. He also had a family back north, his wife certainly wouldn't accept having to give up her title as Baroness - soon to be Countess to be a commoner and a foreigner here.

"What's the problem? They're brothers! It doesn't matter who's on top or at the bottom!" insisted the old man. He acted like he was still a mercenary, taking up the burden of band leader and looking out for his comrades. "What's the big deal with count? It doesn't matter how much land he gets, it'll be in that shithole of a place called the Northlands! Look at Morante! It couldn't be more prosperous!

"And then there's that whole nobility thing! Slavery by another name! All you do is scheme against each other and plot how to steal more money from your poor slaves! Els is an honest boy, he doesn't belong in such a degenerate place! So what if he's a general? You're only using him! You'll throw him away like an old napkin once you're done with him! Don't take it personally, Locke, even if you can take care of Els for his whole life, what about your son, or your grandson? Can you guarantee they'll have the same temperament and beliefs as you? How will they treat his descendents? If they're greedy and scheming they'll have the power and authority to take everything for him or his descendants! Here that can never happen! This is where he belongs and where he can live the best life!"

Lorist didn't know how to respond. He couldn't help but be amazed at his imagination.

"You're letting your imagine go again, old man. I'm a swordsaint, I will live for hundreds of years, but of course I can't guarantee what my descendents will do. But you can't guarantee what the people who will rule after Jindoz will do either. Morante might turn into the old Union again in half a century, then what? The north is neither as desolate nor as chaotic as you think. Nor the aristocracy as lawless. Every system has its bad eggs, yes, but our are no more than yours.  I'd even say ours are less than yours.

"I'm disappointed with you, old man. You know nothing about the rest of the world. My lands house three million people. At least three times what Morante has. Els's dominion is in Delamock as well, the empire's breadbasket. He and Reidy don't have to oppress their subjects. Their tax income is over ten thousand gold Fordes a year."

"They dominions each have around 13 thousand serfs and their personal retinues are no less than a hundred men each. Els has three knights under him, pledged to him personally, and Reidy is training two squires. They levy just a one-half tax on their lands' produce and only have to give one-fifth of their taxes to me. Then they also earn a good salary for being in the military and have a lot of other benefits. Altogether they earn at least 20 thousand a year.

"When they retire, they'll go home and focus on their dominions. They won't have to worry about anything. Hell, even if their dominions earned them nothing they'll have enough money to live lavishy for the rest of their lives. Their children will get the best education on the continent, the same as my children. Hell, they'll at some point probably be in the same class as some of mine. They'll attend both Nico and later Dawn Academy. If they have the skills they'll go on to serve in the military or administration of the house just like their fathers. So even those that don't inherit their father's title and land will have a rich live. I might even take one or two as my disciples, or my disciples might take them themselves if they're good enough."

"Hold on. Just one-half tax?!" Jindoz interjected. That must be the lowest tax on the continent. It was normally six- or seven-tenths, and that was if the lord was feeling generous. The average was eight-tenths, leaving just barely enough for the people to survive, sometimes not. The Free Union's tax was six-tenths. The old Union's tax had been eight-tenths.

"Yes, I only take one-half of the produce, and only allow my vassals to take up to six-tenths from their land. My other taxes are at most one-tenth on things like trade and factory production. And I also run a lot of programmes that reduce taxes as subsidies. Only luxury goods are taxed at more than one-tenth."

Lorist had wanted to set the crop tax at just one-third, but Charade wouldn't allow it. They could go beneath the average a little, but if they deviated from the norm too much, rocked the boat too much, they'd be ostracised.

"Why?" asked Jindoz curiously.

"Simple. The more loose money the people have, the more they can buy. They will be happy and live better and the moving money will let businesses do better. The better the businesses do the more money can be taxed, and the more they will pay their workers, which we can tax as well, which gives the workers more money to spend again, and it all starts over."

"You're just playing fancy with words! Even if you're a benevolent lord, what of your descendants? It takes just one bad heir to undo everything because he will have absolute power! The people will suffer the most and won't be able to do anything about it. Only by making sure that everyone is equal, and we give as little power to any one person as possible, can we protect ourselves from those kinds of people, can we live truly free," mocked Charlando.

Lorist smacked his forehead. Charlando was a staunch believer in freedom and liberty, as were most of the people in the city. That was why Lorist didn't want anyone from here to become his subjects and move to the north. They would only be trouble. Even worse, they were blind to the reality of the old Union. They were slaves in all but name to the big seven and their crony guilds as well.

There was no true freedom in the world. Lorist didn't even believe it was a goal worth pursuing, a dream to have, a wish to desire, to begin with. The Grindia's history was mostly talk of the of the dark ages after the end of the magical era. There were no more swordgods or swordsaints made by magi and the humans constantly struggled against magic beasts. People only barely began recovering after they rediscovered how to cultivate battleforce. The first people to do so obviously became kings and their vassals.

After the dark ages the nobles fought to establish the new hierarchy. From a certain point of view, it could be argued that these nobles brought war and suffering to the people. But on the other hand, they also brought order and development. In the following millennium, the nobles even established strict chivalric customs.

"Char," Lorist said as he shook his head and sighed, "I don't know how you managed to get the prejudice you hold against nobles. The noble code and customs no longer allow lieges to command their vassals or exploit them as they will since a thousand years ago. A liege also can't simply threaten the safety of the lives or wealth of their vassals. Unless the vassal commits an unforgivable crime or if there's proof of rebellious intent that has to be verified by other vassal nobles, only then can a liege punish the offending noble.

"In some sense, nobles are their own watchdogs. We also hope for peace and order to be maintained. An anarchy benefits nobody. Also, have you so-called believers in freedom forgot about the days when the merchant guilds ruled over you before our house came to Hidegold Bay and conquered Morante? Do you think that rationing system is what freedom looks like?

"I believe that freedom can only come from orderly governance. That way, everyone's rights can be ensured. For example, the rules and regulations of the Free Union can protect the freedom of its citizens. That is not too different from the regulations we nobles use. If the nobles are kind, their subjects will be no different than free citizens. If the nobles are cruel, they will be akin to the Trade Union. No matter how much you boast about your freedom, you're still beholden to those who rule. No matter whether you have a noble ruling you or not, it's all semantics. In the end, you're just a subject like everyone else."

Charlando no longer argued. Even though Lorist was straightforward with his arguments, they still made sense. Jindoz, on the other hand, had a question. "Brother Locke, there's something that has always been on my mind. Even though the formation of the Free Union hasn't posed any problems yet, would a repeat of what happened to the Trade Union occur again when the rich and powerful are no longer satisfied with the privileges that they already enjoy and start demanding for more?"

Lorist laughed and understood why Jindoz brought the question up. "Of course, there's a huge possibility for that to happen. But that is something that will only show up in many years ahead. To solve it, it's simple. Simply implement a nobility system."

"A nobility system?" Jindoz said anxiously, "Isn't that exactly what the Trade Union did?"

"No, the kind of nobility system I'm referring to is different from what the Trade Union implemented," Lorist said with a dismissive wave, "The Trade Union implemented a landed nobility system, and that proved to be the downfall of Morante and the nation as a whole. What I'm suggesting is an honors system. The noble titles given will be a symbol for their status. For example, each title will come with a set annual income and those who bear the titles will have special manors to live in. The treatment afforded by different titles vary. Apart from not having a fief, there's not much difference between an honorary noble like that and a landed noble. That way, you can avoid the fragmentation of power and resources to the different fiefs like what happened with the Trade Union. You'll also be able to motivate people to strive harder and contribute to the Free Union to be awarded those honors."

Jindoz looked like he was both enlightened and confused. He muttered in deep thought, "Is that really possible?"
"Just find someone to discuss it when you get back. Get their thoughts on the matter. I was only suggesting it casually."

At that moment, Jinolio entered the rom and reminded, "Your Grace, it's time. Please head to the meeting room with the other two sirs. The council will begin soon."

Chapter 547 - War Council

Baron Malek was hosting the war council, he was the Deputy Minister of War. He had yet to let Lorist down in the two years they had worked together. He managed his forces incredibly well and even restructured the garrisons based on their new military standards, with the ministry at the very top.

This time, Lorist was going to use war to pressure the Trade Union even more. He wanted to beat their stubborn asses for good so they would never pose a threat to the Free Union again. Malek had been called in from the Northlands to lead the charge himself. Lorist wanted him to be promoted to Minister of War.

Lorist, Jindoz, and Charlando were the last to arrive. The council chambers were filled with knights and commanding officers from Tigersoar, Jaeger, the sentry legion, and the Free Union's military. Even Whitelion's general, Sybek, and five imperial knights were present. Everyone was seated and waiting for the meeting to start.

Malek walked to the map with a small stick. He tapped the table a few times and turned around.

"Silence, the meeting will now begin. Please do not make any noise. If anyone has a question, please ask it after the briefing."

Malek waited expressionlessly for the hall to quiet down before he continued, "Our primary objective is to topple the old Union so they will never be a threat again. We will launch a large invasion and finish the Union off. We will target primarily Casirota, Tenelik, Feldunba, and Sylugnika.

"Please turn your attention to the map. You'll notice the old Union's territory form a 'T'. If we don't include Falik Plains, it looks more like an overturned 'L'. Our targets sit in that corner of the 'L'. If we take those provinces, we split the Union in two.

"This here is the territory the Union took from the Alliance. That arm at the top was taken during the War of Glass. The territory we are targeting is old Union territory, they've controlled it for years. Right now Twinhead Dragon, Peterson, and a number of smaller guilds reside there.

"If we don't include the five empty provinces next to the plains, Chikdor's territory, and the Duchy of Magrut, the old Union only has 23 provinces. Our goal is this split. We need to cut the Union in half. It'll cut the majority of the Union off from any decent supply lines.

"What is worth paying attention to here is that Feldunba, one of our targets, is within the dominion of Mayflower. Sylugnika used to be the Duchy of Zikdor. Zikdor produced fine gold and silverware. It still has two gold mines and five silver mines. Mayflower paid for the territory with the glass recipe.

"Mayflower's forces suffered heavily in our last confrontation, but a dead camel is still larger than a horse. Mayflower is a huge guild with a long history. They've already  formed a new legion. It now also contains a division of heavily armored troops. The guild appears to be opposing Duke Cobleit, there are a number of rumors claiming the guild's president is scheming to take over Cobleit's position and the Union's leader.

"I don't care why they aren't surrendering. We will kill them all since they insist on opposing us. Wessia, Forde, and Riwald are landless. They are demanding the Union take back their land and are thus refusing to let the Union come to the table. Mayflower and the rest are pro-war as well, but unlike the former, they want Ducke Cobleit to resign. Peterson has stayed on the sideline of the debate and Chikdor is abandoning them altogether.

"We've singled out Mayflower because they're one of the strongest. If we take them out, we'll not only cripple the Union even further, we'll also send a clear message to the rest that they best not mess with us ever again. Chikdor will declare its independence and ally with us once we've split the Union in two. It should be the final nail in the Union's coffin."

Malek drew a red line through the five provinces around Chikdor.

"Chikdor's forces will occupy this area before declaring their independence. It'll half the Union's territory in the south. I don't think the Alliance will let this opportunity pass, so we can expect them to take the rest."

"Lord Malek, a question," General Sybek interjected, "Why don't we just push all the way and wipe the Union out for good?"

"We considered this originally, but the price would be too big and the Free Union would be saddled with more territory than you can control. It'll make you a prime target for other's ambition at a time when you cannot afford war."

"The land has four million people. Peterson and Twinhead have invested everything they have there. If this war drags on any longer than is absolutely necessary, they'll bog us down in a second Falik Plains.

"Not to mention that he's fortified it immensely.  We'll lose half a million men if a complete push goes well, and up to as much as two million if this goes badly.  Can you afford that kind of loss?"

"How?" Sybek argued, "Doesn't House Norton have those amazing cannons? What kind of fortification can withstand a bombardment from them? Just blast through their forts."

"The cannons aren't infallible," Lorist interrupted, "Don't place all your hopes in them. We've used up all our gunpowder. We have no reserves, so they are useless until we get our reserves back. We've built up a small stockpile, but, even if we are ridiculously frugal, we'll till use everything up to take the land we've already planned for. We just don't have the supplies to push any further. The rest will have to be won with blood, and I, for one, will not bleed so much for the Union's land."

Sybek lowered his head.

"I apologize, Lord Duke. I didn't know. Please forgive me."

"Don't worry. I can see you're only anxious to end the Union's threat. If they refuse to surrender after this as well, we'll keep then in check for two more years. We'll have enough gunpowder then for that final push. At worst we'll attack in wave, taking a province or two each year until there's nothing left."

"Understood, Your Grace."

Jindoz was next.

"Lord Malek, a question. We won't be raiding the four provinces clean like last time, right?"

It was to be expected for Jindoz to be anxious about that. He was to inherit rule of the land, he certainly wouldn't want to get nothing but more wasteland. The current state of the Union could barely support the people it already had, if they got another influx from those provinces, it would be the Free Union that would collapse, not the Trade Union.

"Don't worry," Malek acknowledged, "Sir Tarkel has gone to the Alliance to find the heirs to the duchies that used to be there. We'll reform the countries that used to be there. They'll no doubt rejoin the Alliance, which will put a buffer between the two Unions."

Jindoz breathed a sigh of relief. Seeing as nobody else had questions, Malek pointed at the map and continued the briefing.

"Next, is deployments. We will attack from Gudlink. The Union had fortified the empty provinces with ten divisions, so we can't march through there, not to mention it would be a nightmare for our supply lines. That said, we have to maintain a force on our side of that border so they don't roll into the plains once we begin or attack and hit us in the rear. Jaeger will have that responsibility. It has to keep the enemy there occupied. Don't give them a chance to build up for an attack. Everyone else will be part of the invasion. Remember, our goal is to take the land as quickly as possible.  Don't get bogged down in sieges, if the settlement or castle won't be a quick conquest, leave a token force to keep up the siege and move on. They'll all surrender once we end the war."

"Understood," answered Freiyar.

"Tigersoar will clean Gudlink again before we deploy" Malek continued.

The main participants of the attack from Gudlink included House Norton's sentry legion and the Free Union's own legion. Feldunba and Tenelik had mostly mountainous terrain and the Trade Union had stationed four divisions there and fortified the area. So, house Norton would deploy two artillery brigades. Tigersoar would join the fray after the two provinces were taken. The remaining provinces of Casirota and Sylugnika covered mostly steppes and it was perfect for cavalry.

General Sybek was really unhappy that his men would not be on the front but instead had o be logistics. They had earned a huge haul when they raided the five provinces and were hoping to make more profit. In the end, Lorist said he would let Whitelion and Tigersoar pick one province each after Feldunba and Tenelik was conquered.

Chapter 548 - Mountain Path

"This freaking weather... It's so damn hot even though it's only the 6th month. Who can even stand it?" complained Carmen weakly. He was drenched in sweat and used his mithril spear as a walking stick. His helmet hung on his back. He couldn't wait to strip off his armor.

"Have the scouts not found any water yet? We're dying here! Carmen, give me some from your water," said Bell, sticking his spear into the ground in the shade of the tree. He looked even more haggard than Carmen.

"No. It's your fault for sipping yours non-stop. I gave you half of my water already. I don't even have enough left for me."

"We grew up together. We help each other out. I even stood up for you a number of times. Can't you give me a few mouthfuls?"

"Fine, fine... You always bring this up. Don't you ever get bored? And it's not like your help made us win the fights. You'd just end up getting beaten with me. If you didn't join the fights, they might've beaten me less. They only hit so hard because you're so huge... Only two mouthfuls. Open your trap," said Carmen as he carefully poured a set amount of water into Bell's mouth.

Bell immediately looked better. He soon stood up again and leaned against the tree. The two watched the other men trudge up the hill.

"I thought we would charge into battle courageously. That's everyone here's dream too. But all we've been doing for months now is marching. Those Nortons scared everyone away. The closest we get to battle is scouring the battlefield, gathering the corpses and sorting the loot." complained Bell.

"Fool, don't involve others in your deathwishes. Don't think you'll survive a battle. Fool like you are usually the first to die. And why are you always half-jogging? I thought something happened to you when I lost sight of you," said a bearded middle-aged man.

"Uncle Good," Carman and Bell greeted.

The man was their commanding officer, a lieutenant named Good. He was in his late forties and an experienced two-star silver mercenary. He quit when the mercenary guild was dissolved. But when the new Free Union issued a call to arms, he picked up his sword again.

"Make space, I need a rest," Good said as he wiped the sweat off his face, "I'm getting old and useless. Hills like this were nothing to me ten years ago, but now? I'm pooped after just half a day's march."

Carmen and Bell moved aside and gave the old man some space between them.

"Come, Uncle Good, sit here. It's cool and the breeze blows from time to time. It's real good," Carmen said, trying to curry favor, "Did you come to pick us up?"

"Yes. Who else would I look for? Your parents asked me to look after you two monkeys when you enlisted. Who asked you two to be my neighbors?"

Good took a few gulps of water from his canteen. Bell stared at him jealously but he didn't dare ask for some. Good noticed, however, and handed his canteen to the man when he finished, who almost swallowed the canteen whole.

"So why did you charge off like you were chasing something? If you were goofing around I'll cane you when we set up camp!"

"Bell forgot to refill his canteen this morning. He's already drunk half of mine. We were hoping to get to the next stream quicker, but no luck yet," explained Carmen hurriedly.

"Idiot, why didn't you tell me?" Good said as he knocked the two on their heads, "I've walked this path many times. We won't reach a stream before nightfall. I doubt we'll camp there, though. Our schedule's too tight. I've got two buckets of water on the ass. There's enough for a hundred people, so stop worrying."

"What do we do now? Head back?"

"Rest here for now. They have to come by us anyway."

A sudden boom blasted in from the distance.

"Are their cannons really that amazing?" Carmen eventually asked, "The fort was in shambles. I don't understand why they had us come along if they're so strong. They could've won everything on their own. It's not like we've been used in battle or anything. We could've just stayed home and kept on training."

Good laughed.

"Foolish child. They dragged us along so you greenhorns can get a taste of what war is like. Training won't teach you that. We might just be marching, but even that is important. You're learning what it's like to be on the campaign trail in enemy territory. I heard we'll finally get our chance tomorrow, anyway. They're going to have us take the fort after they're done bombarding it."

"They're just looking down on us!" Bell complained, "What's so amazing about them? It's all just the cannons. I could kill five of them if we fought fair and square."

Good flicked a finger at Bell's head.

"What are you saying, dumbass? You and Carmen are three-star iron ranks at just 23. But you'll die the moment the fight begins. Battles are nothing like fights in the streets, or even small skirmishes between mercenaries. You don't win with above average strength if you're fighting ten thousand enemies. It's all about teamwork! The average Norton soldier is nothing special, but put ten thousand of them in a line and they'll beat anything you can throw at them. The can take the Free Union five times over with just their infantry alone. Did you already forget how many of the old Union's legions they took out without cannons?"

"But didn't Colonel Husk say we shouldn't have joined House Norton? He said we broke away from the old Union to get rid of nobles, but now we're fighting alongside one. We should be against the Nortons. They don't believe in freedom and liberty. We should be working with the old Union to drive them out," said Carmen.

Good's face turned red.

"Didn't I tell you not to listen to that madman?! He's sick in the head. The Nortons are aristocrats, but the Trade Union is as well! They put us through three years of suffering because they wanted to be nobles too!

"Use your brains. Why were your parents so against you joining the army when the guilds were recruiting, but were fine with it when it was the new Union? Even an old guy near fifty like me wants to join. It's simple. The Free Union protects our freedom and liberty. We made it and we rule it. In its army, we aren't just cannon fodder for someone else's ambition.

"I am an old mercenary. I've lived in Morante for thirty years. I've seen everything and know this clearly. We think we're so proud and free, but in the old Union we were slaves by another name. Think about those last three years. Is that something a free man should have to go through? They restricted even what we could eat and we had to work more than 12 hours a day! You call that freedom? I'd rather not work and have my whole family starve to death if that were the case.

"Stop listening to that fool. Think about this: if it weren't for the Nortons, you two would still be hunting rats in the sewers. Why should we chase the Nortons away? Did they take anything from us? No. Not only did they not hurt us, they even gave us free food and brought new products to us and loaned us money. They rebuilt Morante and put us back in our golden age. And they're not even trying to rule over us in return!

"We must know gratitude and tolerance. So what if the Nortons are nobles? They've been nothing but good to us and haven't forced their system on us. We would still be under the guilds' heels if not for them. Why should we make enemies of them? Just because their political system is different? They haven't taken our lands, and they didn't take our money. Exactly the opposite. They're making us rich and helping us take care of the old Union. Is chasing away our benefactors something a sensible person should

"Only fools would say something like 'make peace with the Trade Union'. I am certain that if we do as they say, we will suffer the greatest loss. The old Union would still treat us as traitors and if Morante is ever returned to them, they will kill us all. Best case, we will be made into slaves and sent into the mines to work until we die.

"Seriously, I wonder how a fool like Husk made it into the military. Is he trying to cause trouble? Carmen, Bell, tell me when Husk said that. What else did he say? was there anyone else when he said it?"

Seeing how anxious Good was acting, Carmen and Bell looked panicked.

"It isn't that serious, right, Uncle?" Carmen muttered, "It happened the night before last. When Bell and I were on night duty and Cad was leading the patrol, we complained how tough the marching was. Ten Colonel Husk passed us and told us that, as well as a lot of other things that mocked the Nortons, mostly jokes about how nobles got toyed with by their subjects. We were only releasing stress, nothing serious."

"You're overreacting, Uncle. Colonel Hask doesn't mean ill. He's just a little loose-mouthed when he rants and doesn't think about what he says. Didn't you evaluate him back then?" Bell said, "His parents died on the battlefield during the last Krissen invasion and he was raised by his grandparents. That's why he hates everyone from the empire so much.

"Everyone knows how much he hates all northerners, the Nortons included. Also, Colonel Husk is only mouthing off. I bet he doesn't have the gall to actually go against them."

Good sighed.

"Whatever. I won't say anything else. Just don't spend too much time around him. If he continues what he's doing, he's bound to be killed, best not associate with him. The Nortons and their duke must not be crossed lightly. Think about it. Many of the duke's top subordinates are old Morantians, that's why they're so good to us."

"How can you know? Tell us!"

"No, I don't know the duke's subordinates very well, but I know the duke. He spent the last half of his childhood in Morante, and was a mercenary and instructor at Dawn Academy for many years. He lost contact with his family because of the empire's civil war and pretty much became one of us before he went back. Those bags you're carrying, the duke designed them himself. I was the first guy to buy one of them from him before he left."

A regiment passing by greeted them. Good picked up his stuff and prepared to leave.

"Come, the boys are here. Time to go. I'll tell you more stories about the duke as we march. I'm sure you know the name Iron Locke, Silver Undefeated..."

Chapter 549 - Sandbag

Howard appeared troubled. Though the artillery brigade he led was in the vanguard, he had been trapped in the area for more than three days. He had not expected this to happen. His brigade and the sentry legion had marched at the forefront since entering Feldunba. They never once encountered a fort that could weather their attack. The enemies ran in fear and most o the time after the first cannon shell hit.

The Trade Union had long been prepared for their attack, but they didn't know where it would happen. They thought it would most likely start in the south. Given that those areas were only recently conquered, not many nobles had moved in.

They'd also been severely depopulated by recruitment drives during the war. Most of the agricultural produce was also confiscated to fund the war.  The area was severely destabilized. If not for the depopulation, the revolts might have been large enough to kick the Union out.

They believed the Nortons would march through the area and charge straight into the Union's heartland. They planned to let them march deep into their own territory before cutting off their supply lines and letting them starve.

Lorist attacked Mayflower's Feldunba instead. The Union scrambled to reposition their forces, but it was a little late. Clearly the enemy wasn't aiming to take land, but to destroy the guilds.

Duke Cobleit, however, breathed a sigh of relief rather than stressing. The territory had been ruled for just five years, but it was already covered in forts. It would become a wall against which House Norton would smash itself to pieces.

The duke didn't think they could push through the province, even with their cannons. He'd let the two sides duke it out while his faction just provided logistical support.  With Mayflower weakened, his position within the Union would be secure again. Mayflower and its allies, however, put severe pressure on him and he was forced to deploy troops as well.

......

The thunderous booms bounced through the mountains.

Howard stared at the fort's walls but they just wouldn't collapse.

"How long 'till Ovidis arrives?" he asked between thunder strikes.

"Thunderbolt Brigade was deployed in the rear. It'll take them four days to get here," his subordinate shouted, "Sir Ovidis himself should arrive tomorrow."

"Sigh, I should've stopped His Grace from releasing those damned sailors," complained Howard.

He signalled for the bombardment to and and descended the hill.

"Sir, are we not continuing the bombardment?"

"Best save our gunpowder. Those walls aren't going to give. We'll have to wait for Ovidis. Only his catapults can get us inside now."

"I doubt he'll have any more luck than us, Sir. With the way the walls tower over the terrains outside, we'll have to be within their firing range to get things over the walls. Our cannons are already on the edge of being in range."

Howard stroked his chin frustratedly.

"We've no choice, commander. You saw yourself. They've lined the walls with sandbags. We don't have the firepower to blast through them and the walls quickly. It's those damned sailors! They must have told them about the tactics they used when we last fought them.

"We're just wasting gunpowder. Our only hope is lobbing sacks over the walls, which our cannons can't do. Any better ideas?"

The men kept quiet. There was indeed no other option. They couldn't go around the fort, the cliffs and marshes wouldn't let them, and the fort was on top of a big rocky mound which meant they had to fire up at it. They just had no options.

They couldn't charge in for a standard assault because the walls were littered with catapults and ballista. They could still take the fort, but with unacceptable casualties.

The fort was a crucial chokepoint, they could only push through into the rest of the province through here, otherwise they'd have to go a long way around to attack from the south, but both the delay and the new location were unacceptable.

Their approach was also severely limited by the cliffs. They had to approach the main gate via a thing outcrop which made their massive number advantage null and void.

"They're turtles!" shouted Lorist when he got the report.

While the Union didn't own a cannon or anything similar, they had learned how to deal with it quite effectively. There was no decent counter to this yet. There were only two options.  Either make the cannons bigger, which current metalworking technology didn't allow, and which would use to much gunpowder anyway, or develope howitzers and mortars, but they were years away from anything even resembling something like that.

The Union's main tactic to deal with cannons was to charge in a team of elite soldiers, mostly gold ranks and one or two blademasters, to take out the crews. Lorist was prepared for this, however. Reidy and Shuss always stood guard when the cannons were deployed in battle. The Union tried their tactic several times, but stopped after a whole team was wiped out, including a blademaster and three gold ranks.

One raid, however, was both very successful and catastrophic at the same time. One team, a blademaster and three gold ranks, caught a camp unprotected. They wiped out the crews and destroyed the cannons, but then discovered the gunpowder kegs. They carried torches since the attack was performed at night.  As one of the gold ranks leaned over the open keg to look at the strange black powder inside, a spark fell from the torch into the barrel. None of the four were found thereafter. In fact, no one ever knew it was an attack that killed the brigade. Everyone thought some nitwit in the unit decided to have a smoke in the tent housing the gunpowder and blew everyone to kingdom come.

The Union didn't have unlimited elites. The Battle of Bluwek had already cost them half their number, and Mayflower's loss was salt in the wound. But Lorist only had forty cannons after the ten in the camp were destroyed.

Mayflower never launched another raid with their elites and the forts continued to fall. That all stopped, however, with Fort Linston, where sandbags were used on land for the first time.

Chapter 550 - Duke Nikolas

In terms of appearance, Duke Nikolas, Mayflower’s president, could be considered the ugliest among the presidents. He had a long, horse-like face and two small eyes which he liked to squint at others. It made it appear that he was always scheming. Everyone called him ‘old snake’ behind his back as a result.

His eyes had, in fact, lost him the position as the Union’s premier. Duke Cobleit had the look of an upstanding old man. That damned goody-two-shoes-looking bastard.

Those that knew Nikolas, however, knew his looks belayed his true personality. He was sincere and gentle, and treated servant and noble alike respectfully. He never discriminated based on status. Among the guilds, Mayflower had the most loyal staff and anyone who interacted with the duke would disregard his appearance and be drawn in by his charisma.

Currently, Nikolas was subsumed with the map on his desk. He closed his eyes from time to time, falling into a kind of catatonic state of deep thought. House Norton had suddenly picked his lands as its target. He wondered whether their aim was to sweep through his territory or something else. Perhaps they were trying to push the Union into another stalemate to delay its recovery. Or were they just intent on pillaging some riches? HIs land was rich with gold and silver and they had concentrated their attack on the mining hotspots in Feldunba.

Captain of the Guard, Cyros, entered quietly, two letters in his hands.

“Your Grace, I have a report from Fort Linston. The front-lines have been quiet since the last assault. It looks like they’ve given up. They haven’t fired a single cannon shot in three days.

“I also have a message from Morante. Our informant says Duke Norton is heading to the front-
“Oh?” Nikolas raised his brow curiously and read the two letters.

His gaze returned to the map, which he surveyed for a few moments, before his eyes widened.

“Start the migration plan immediately! I want everyone ready to leave in three days!”

“But the front-lines are stable, my lord?”

This plan would see them abandon Feldunba entirely. But was there a need if things were stable? They’d given up so much to get the region, and then invested even more to develop it.

“The quiet front-lines mean nothing good. Just do it. We won’t get to leave at all if we don’t do it now.”

“Understood, my lord.”

Cyros immediately left. He was a loyal man. He obeyed his lord’s orders even when they weren’t understood.

However, Mayflower’s vice-president, Count Abraham, soon barged into the room.

“What’s going on, brother? You think the situation is bad?”

Nikolas nodded tiredly.

“Duke Cobleit just ask us to hold the Nortons back for half a month? Everything’s stabilized and the front is quiet. We can just sit tight until the reinforcements arrive.”

“It’s not that simple,” Nikolas countered, “That geezer isn’t going to do us any good. Think about it: he knew about the sandbag trick before this invasion even started, but he waited until we were about to crumble to tell us. We have only Fort Linston left. Once that fort falls they have a clear charge into the open plains and we’ll never stop them. They’ll wipe us out overnight before we can even get our pants on.”

“Didn’t the duke say we can still dig trenches to slow them down? We just have to hold on until reinforcements arrive,” insisted Abraham anxiously.

Nikolas sighed.

“Brother, I understand your feelings. But, whether you want to accept it or not, that bastard won’t send in his reinforcements until we’ve been sufficiently weakened. He wants to grind us into dust using House Norton as the grindstone so we won’t be a threat to his rule.”

“But... Fort Linston won’t fall that easily! We’re doing just fine against their cannons, aren’t we? And they won’t try to brute force it with numbers, it’ll be a bloodbath even they can’t afford. I’m sure they’ll grow impatient and move on and be someone else’s problem soon.”

“You’ve forgotten that they have a swordsaint. Fort Linston can defend against cannons, but it stands no chance against a swordsaint. It would have been fine if the duke had stayed in Morante, but I just got news that he’s heading for the front. He’s coming to take out Fort Linston himself. I also doubt he’d have come if they were just interested in a little pillaging.”

“That... that can’t be,” Abraham gasped, “Duke Norton is a swordsaint! How can he get involved in a war between normal people?! Master Magrut would never lower himself like that!”

“People are different, so are swordsaints,” Nikolas smiled bitterly, “Can the Magrut really compare to Duke Norton? Can any of the swordsaints really be used to judge Duke Norton? They’re all only associated with kingdoms and empires for the benefits. They have no reason to get involved in wars like this. If their kingdom or empire is destroyed, they can just attach themselves to someone else. Duke Norton is different. He is a noble with land to his name and a noble reputation to uphold. He has a vested interest in seeing his side win all the time. And he’s a tenacious one, just look at how he clawed his way to swordsaint and duke from iron rank and baron on the brink of losing his land and his title.

“And now that fool Cobleit went and gave Magrut a title and land at the other end of the country. Do you really think Magrut will ever leave his territory again? Do you think he’ll ever take to the field against Duke Norton as long as the duke doesn’t threaten his territory directly?

“Other swordsaints might want to stay aloof because actual fighting is rarely beneficial for them, but Duke Norton is different. He’s always led his men from the front, he’s always been the first one to charge into the enemy formations, and now he has every incentive to continue doing that. If this were before the War of Glass, we might have had the option of wearing him down and killing him in exchange for dozens of blademasters and one or two hundred gold ranks, but we don’t have the numbers for that anymore.  I doubt we have more than two dozen blademasters altogether, if even that, and our gold rank numbers are similarly abysmal.”

Abraham stood sadly. There was no way he was going to change Duke Nikolas’s mind. It stung badly. He had been responsible for Feldunba’s development and had invested the better part of fifteen years into it. It could even be considered his life’s work. But he trusted his older brother’s judgement implicitly, so he didn’t make a fuss.

“Where will we go? Even if we manage to get everyone out and no one scatters and leaves us, Cobleit will blame us and won’t let us settle somewhere else. He’ll probably take our army and leave us to rot.”

“You think we’ve going to that old bastard?” Nikolas asked as he stared at the map intensely, “We’ll go south.”

“South?”

“Yes, south. You remember the letter Duke Chikdor sent us last month? He said he was going to declare independence at the end of the year. I thought the letter was sent to provoke us, but then I started thinking. If that were his goal, then why send the letter to me and not Duke Cobleit?

“I finally understood his intent when the Nortons started pouring across the border. He’s offering us a chance at peace. If we pack up and head south, and make sure to cut ties with the Union, Duke Norton will leave us alone. It’s good for both of us. We get a new domain, so we get to continue existing, and Duke Chikdor gets a much needed ally. He wants us to seceded from the union and found a kingdom alongside him.”

Abraham stared at his brother blankly, his mouth agape.

“No way... You got all that from that letter?”

Nikolas nodded.

“Once we’re finished with the preparations, you’ll take the men to Casirota. If anyone asks what you’re doing, tell them you’re clearing out a piece of land so the young, the elderly, and the women can hide there until the war is over. It should be obvious to everyone that the Nortons will target Tenelik and Sylugnika once they break through Fort Linston. They want to cut the Union in half and that’s the best way to do it. We have to go to Sylugnika immediately and send an ambassador to Duke Norton. We’re ask for a short truce and negotiate our withdrawal from the region and the conflict. I don’t think the duke will have a problem letting us go.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. I wouldn’t be willing to make a move this daring otherwise. Duke Norton doesn’t care about the south at all. He just wants to cut the Union off from its trade routes. Getting us to back out so they don’t have to fight us, while adding another obstacle to the Union’s recovery will be a welcome development for him.”

Abraham bowed respectfully.

“I understand. I’ll get everything ready.”

......

The men were in the dumps when Lorist arrived. Ovidis had arrived two days earlier and, based on his experience and some experiments with some trebuchets constructed on the fly, it wasn’t practical to fling gunpowder sacks into the fortress. The largest obstacle was the fort’s location on elevated ground. They had to be within 200 meters of the fortress to get the sacks over the wall, but that would expose them to too much counter fire.

“We cannot push through without taking the fort, Your Grace, and we can’t do that without heavy casualties.”

Howard described the situation on the sand table. Lorist couldn’t help but admire the expert placement and design of the enemy fort. It was the greatest use of a fort he had ever seen. Even with his cannons, it was still a near impossible task to take it.

“I will take charge.”

If he couldn’t take it with cannons, or blow it up with gunpowder sacks, then he would just barge in himself and slaughter his way through. What use was being a swordsaint if he couldn’t flex his muscles to solve sticky situations like this? His men refused vehemently, however. Their self-esteem would not let them allow their lord, a swordsaint no less, take the field because of their inadequacy.

“Don’t worry, I’m not going to risk my life alone. Reidy, Els, pick out a few capable knights. We’ll take a few gunpowder sacks as well. After we get on the enemy walls, we will destroy their weapons. Howard will then roll the cannons up the hill and blast his way through the main gate.”

Chapter 551 - The Change of the Tides

Lorist started designing handmade grenades. They were simple porcelain containers with gunpowder pellets inside and an ignition fuse. The explosive force of a gunpowder sack was huge, but they were too big for easy use on the go. They were also vulnerable to premature ignition, especially in siege situations where fire sources were abundant.

Lorist came upon a satisfactory design after a few trial runs and ordered their production. They were very destructive against buildings, but they could clear out a room very effectively.  They were slightly unsafe, though. The fuses were unreliable, but they were good enough for a first design. Els’s eyes practically glowed when he saw the small balls of death and immediately demanded his sentry legion be the first armed with them.

Lorist couldn’t fulfill his request, however. Gunpowder was still at a premium and Northsea and the artillery brigade could not be under-supplied, so he could only make a small cache for specialist use.

Els almost cried when his dream was crushed.

“Please leave Fort Linston to me. It will be an easy victory with these bottles. Your Grace need not expose yourself,” Reidy asked.

But Lorist shook his head.

“Occupying Fort Linston isn’t about blowing people up. This is just a distraction. Our aim is to destroy the ranged weapons so our cannons can get close enough to do damage. You’ll be in trouble if they have a couple of top blademasters in the fort. I have to go to keep them off your back.”

Reality played out as Lorist expected. Reidy, Els, and six other strong and agile knights each carrying 20 grenades scaled the walls in the black of night. The enemy blademasters were nowhere to be seen. Only the common troops were left to try and repel them.

Lorist took out the projectiles as they entered his domain, keeping the pressure of the others as they went about destroying the weapons. They ran down the corridors on the inside of the wall, tossing a grenade into each room as they passed.  The explosions echoed up and down the wall, soon drowned out by agonised

The cannons moved up during this chaos and the first volley was rattling the gates of the main entrance by the time Lorist and his companions were descending the walls to clear out the catapults in the bailey. The remaining defenders realized it was only a matter of time until the fort fell, so they charged out of the eastern gate, abandoning the fort.

Lorist went to the commander’s quarters and slept for the whole morning, leaving everything to his subordinates. When he woke up, he felt more energetic than ever before. He activated his domain, suspecting something had changed, to see it a meter larger than it had been before.

So I just have to use the domain and then rest to make it bigger?

It was unfortunate this had not come up during his last meeting with the windstorm swordsaint. He suddenly realised he knew little about training and improving in the swordsaint realm, and he couldn’t just go find the old man for advice now. The two had agreed on a truce so he couldn’t meet him until after he was out of the Union, which was not likely to be very soon.

Malek’s arrival snapped Lorist out of his stupor. The general reported Fort Linston’s capture. The retreating enemy tried to burn the fort down, but the men reacted quickly enough to save it. Only a few food storehouses and the armory were lost.

“I’ve put you in charge of this operation, it’s up to you to decide what to do,” said Lorist when the general asked permission to press the attack.

Malek took it to heart and pushed Tigersoar and Whitelion into Sylugnika. He’d learned from a few captives that the Union was massing two legions to push against them and it would be best to take them out before they finished mustering.

The sentry legion and the Free Union’s army continued their attack on Feldunba. The remaining provinces of Casirota and Tenelik could be dealt with after Feldunba and Sylugnika were conquered.

Malek returned to Lorist with a report, grave faced. Word was that most of Fedunba and Sylugnika was abandoned. The villages, forts, towns, and cities were empty. The guild had packed up and left the region entirely. As such, this latest offensive turned into a marching exercise.

Mayflower fled?

This was completely unexpected. After a short discussion with Malek, Lorist decided Els would march his legion on Tenelik to seal off Mayflower’s escape route.

The four provinces being targeted were shaped roughly like a rhombus. North of the occupied Feldunba were Sylugnika and Tenelik, and south was Casirota. Lorist thought Mayflower was trying to retreat through Tenelik and return to the Union. He believed the guild would head north to huddle up with the other guilds. There was nothing for them in the south and thus no reason to go there.

With Sylugnika being conquered, Mayflower would naturally not head there, leaving Tenelik as the only path northward. A few days later, however, he learned that the guild had indeed gone south. They had last been seen entering Casirota.  When his men finally got there, they were gone from there as well. Where to, no one knew.

Tigersoar reported the enemy legions destruction a few days thereafter. Sylugnika was now completely conquered.

Lorist and his forces spend the next two months cleaning out the provinces.  Mayflower was the only guild to escape. But, just as Duke Nikolas had predicted, Lorist couldn’t pursue them so far south. The guild was safe.

The Union turned to the tried and tested strategy of trench warfare to stop House Norton’s advance. They had not expected Lorist to move that fast, however. Lorist declared the Kingdom of Mokby’s restoration a month after conquering the four provinces, a few days later the Duchy of Cabasy was reformed, and within the next week so, too, were the Duchies of Samarita and Zikdor. They immediately joined the Alliance and its mutual defense pact.

The Trade Union felt like it had been knocked hard on the back of its head. It had antagonized House Norton and Andinaq, and now it suddenly had another adversary in the Alliance. Even worse, Lorist withdrew his forces immediately after the new countries were founded, giving the Union little excuse to charge in without starting a war with the Alliance.

On the 1st day of the 10th month, Chikdor declared its secession from the Union. It sent out two legions to take over the five remaining Union provinces in the region. Ten days later, on the 10th of the 10th, Mayflower declared its independence and founded the Kingdom of Mayflower. Surprisingly, the now Duke and Swordsaint, Magrut, declared his guardianship over the two new kingdoms.

The two new kingdoms immediately signed a mutual defence pact and sent ambassadors to the Free Union and the Alliance’s member nations to establish diplomatic relations.

Chapter 552 - Knight Wecksas

There was a saying, 'die of boredom or perish from work'. Lorist was far too free. His forces had occupied the four provinces and Grindia was once again in turmoil. He'd restored four nations in one fell swoop. And he could not be said to be uninvolved in the founding of Chikdor and Mayflower.  He was shaping up to be the most influential and consequential noble, even person, in the history of the entire continent. Despite that, he was not directly involved in any of it, so he had nothing to do.

Charade, Malek, Reidy, Els, Howard, and all his other subordinates, however, were perishing from work. Charade often went one or two nights without sleep and got only four hours at the best of times. He was constantly embroiled in negotiations with ambassadors from other nations. He drunk excessively to cope with the stress, but that kept him up at night as he vomited all over the nearest lavatory. It didn't help that most of the ambassadors he hosted were heavy drinkers as well.

Even Ironface Malek, one of the greatest bear bags Charade knew, had vomited a couple of times in the last month.

Lorist was even willing to get involved with the negotiations to relieve his boredom, but he couldn't.  He was a swordsaint. People didn't think of him as a mortal; everyone put him on a pedestal. As such, nobody was willing to negotiate when he was involved.

Jindoz, however, envied Lorist's freedom. It couldn't be helped, unfortunately. Nobles greatly regarded status. Lorist did not have to, nay, couldn't get involved in the negotiations unless a king showed up. Charade also would not let him get involved; 'a swordsaint should be aloof and scarce,' he always insisted.

Lorist was bored to death as a result. Putting up airs was truly a soul-killing job. It was so bad he started to relish the occasional reception of nobles he did. He would personally receive one or two nobles, greet them, accept their gifts, and see them off to Charade for the negotiations. It didn't help that Charade had a very traditional outlook on what Lorist should do to keep busy. Nobles played with young women when they had free time, so he kept sending the daughters of nobles and other minor noble related ladies to entertain Lorist, despite his lack of interest.

Lorist would have been too happy to enjoy his toys were he still the bachelor mercenary from years ago, but now he was getting old, not to mention being married and having a number of concubines and mistresses already. Lorist was in his fifth decade, his lower body was beginning to hibernate and his mood was sobering.

Women were nice for company, but they always came with strings attached. He already had enough strings. Why did he want more women? He at times didn't even want the women he already had. He had few children, but unlike nobles native to their role, he had no inhibitions when it came to bastards, so he had enough gnomes running around. And with his hibernating lower body, he had little need of physical release. If anything, having so many women in his life had made him somewhat cynical.

After signing the Treaty of Misouthern Grindia, a renewal of the old Alliance's mutual defence pact, Lorist returned to Brinn Hills in Morante with his army. He married the women sent to him off to officers with the most achievements during the campaign as a reward, before leaving. The women weren't given a choice in the matter, they were literally asked to go somewhere, only to find a husband waiting for them.

Lorist was dragged into a meeting the moment he arrived in the city.

"His Majesty is back in the capital," reported Tarkel.

Auguslo's marriage happened in eleventh month of the previous year in Fisablen's dominion.  Apparently he'd lined up every young girl in his house fourteen years or older, and let the king take his pick. He would adopt whomever the king picked and they would be wedded within the week.

Lorist could have attended, since he had been in the Northlands at the time, but since he was in the North secretly, and since he was there to be with his wife and concubine during their births, he laid low. He sent Potterfang and Kedan to attend the wedding in his stead.

"The king relieved Wecksas of his position and left Ripleid in charge. I have something else, but there's no definite information.  The new queen is apparently pregnant already. Apparently she got pregnant practically the very night of the wedding."

"It seems our king is working hard. If it's a boy, his bastard will be in trouble. Best case scenario, he'll be exiled to some distant fief as a minor noble," laughed Lorist.

Wecksas was bringing ruin to himself. After Camorra turned him down, he actually moved the royal guard on the city. He sent a hundred men to Jillin. They must have thought no little noble would dare take action against them since their backer was the king's bastard, but they forgot who the little noble was.

They were quickly encircled and beat to a pulp. Everybody was deaf to their cries. They were stripped naked and sent back to the capital on foot. Everybody noticed the hundred naked bodies walking into the city and lined the streets to watch the parade. The women were most enthusiastic and a few well-practiced ladies took to critiquing the size and shape of their genitalia.

Predictably, Wecksas exploded.

Ridiculous! That little noble actually dared cross the heir apparent? The future king?! This was an affront to the entire kingdom! Swordsaint or not, the duke could not do something like that.  He would have to pay dearly for this affront.

Nobody knew where he'd gotten the idea that swordsaints had to bend the knee to their king like any normal noble.

If the royal guard wasn't enough, then he'd just send the entire army. He sent out summons… and nothing happened. It was like the wind blew his letters away on the way to their destination.

Positively fuming, he marched to the army's headquarters and personally ordered Ripleid to mobilize the army. Ripleid completely ignored him. He told him to calm down and wait for his father to come back and deal with it personally. He may be the heir apparent, but he was not yet king.

Wecksas lost it completely and accused the general of treason. He stormed back to the palace, took out a letter of command from his father, and marched back to the general to punish him. When he opened the letter, however, it didn't say what he thought it did.  It said Ripleid was only to keep an eye on Wecksas and could punish him if he stepped out of bounds.

Wecksas was completely flabbergasted.  This was not a letter of command! It was a damn letter of limitations!

Ripleid knew Auguslo had hope for his bastard, but knew his limitations. He decided to advise the man instead of punishing him. He told him that the king had given Lorist authority over the port city personally, so he had a plan with it. Wecksas should not interfere with his father's plans.  He did not have the authority to make and break agreements and treaties, he was only responsible for ensuring they were discharged properly.

Wecksas returned to the palace, still crimson-faced. He stopped making trouble for the Nortons, but refused to reinstate the food deals. Baron Camorra didn't make a fuss, though. It wasn't a loss for House Norton, they barely made any profit from it anyway.

The kingdom's treasury was running dry by the start of the 6th month. The biggest issue was the annual bonus they were supposed to give their military personnel. They had more than anough food, but they couldn't give food as a bonus. Auguslo didn't meddle much in internal affairs apart from matters of war, and without his aid the economy had been slow to recover. All the large-scale trade in the kingdom was done with House Kenmays.

It didn't help that the kingdom could not mint more money, since it didn't use its own currency.  It could only get more money by trading out its produce. And the only large deal that gave the kingdom money, was the deal Wecksas had stopped.

Wecksas was quick to send men to Jillin once the money ran out, but now it was Camorra's turn to play hard ball. Well, it wasn't really like he was playing hard ball. The trade was set for the 6th month, but it was not the 8th. The ships were no longer in the harbor, so there was no one to whom to sell the food.

Wecksas was forced to change food for money in his men's salary as a result.

Auguslo's messengers arrived in the rest of the kingdom in the 9th month to tell everyone about his impending return with his new queen. The letter he sent to Wecksas and Ripleid informed them of Wecksas relieval. Ripleid received an additional letter which told him to arrest Wecksas's conspirators.

Chapter 553 - Count Mireitas

Duke Peterson looked distraught. The decision he was about to make would decide his guild’s survival. He never imagined he would be pushed into such a corner, even less that the one pushing him would be an ex-Dawn Academy instructor. The man was now both a swordsaint and a duke. At the time they’d been worlds apart, but thanks to the duke’s penchant for treating everyone with a friendly grace, they had been on friendly, if not close, terms. No one would have thought such a minor figure would blossom into the continent’s most influential and consequential man in just a decade and a half.

He stood at his office’s window, staring out at the home he had built for himself, his family, and his guild, a letter from this ex-instructor clutched in his hand. It contained just three words, written in his by now iconic simple handwriting: ‘You are next.’

Sweat poured out of his forehead at such a rate that it threatened to overflow his eyebrows and flood his eyes. He swore he could feel the swordsaint’s murderous intent stabbing at him from the straight-lined characters. It left him with just two options, either walk the same path as Chikdor and Mayflower, or charge full-speed into the dead-end at the end of the road on which he was currently. He wanted to comfort himself with the dozens of fortresses he had built and the hundreds of kilometers of trenches he had dug, but he couldn’t.  A small, nagging voice at the back of his head kept screaming, ‘it isn’t enough!’

His regret stabbed him constantly.  If only he had pushed for peace with Duke Cobleit and the other guild leaders, if only he’d been stubborn in his insistence that they capitulate, this would not have come to pass.

But he had not.

The choice might seem obvious at first, death of kingship, but life was never that simple. If he stayed with the Union he had little doubt he would be a head on a stake in no more than two, maybe three, years. But he had no certainty that he could successfully secede from the Union either. His dominion was in the heart of Union territory, right next to Twinhead Dragon. He would be wiped out the moment he declared independence.

He couldn’t stand it. When had his guild become a pawn in others’ schemes? When had it lost its glory, its pride?

Duke Norton had moved his forces into Mauvlin, the perfect place from which to invade his territory. His territory occupied Chalbuk, a province-sized piece of land right next to Twinhead Dragon’s land, Leolika.

Peterson had to defend Jerotan as well now. Cobleit put him in charge of the province, which stood between Peterson’s territory and the land now occupied by Duke Norton.

Peterson was truly stuck between a rock and a hard place. His scouts told him the duke’s forces were building up at a rate that suggested they would attack in a year’s time. The knowledge did little for him though. The Union could have all the knowledge in the world, but they could not act on it. They barely had the men and the money to man their defenses, much less walk out onto the battlefield in any significant number. Their only hope was that, by some miracle, the duke lost interest in them or just forgot to give to order to attack, failing that, they could only hope their fortresses would drag the conflict on long enough that the man got tired of it and decided to go home.

Peterson didn’t put much stock in that hope. He knew the man too well to be that naïve. The duke was not easily provoked into action, but once he was, he always, always, saw things through to the end. It didn’t help that he had the force to end them six times over either. He had single-handedly all but wiped out the greatest nation Grindia had ever known - save the ancient magi empires, of course.

It didn’t matter whether the strategy worked on not either. They would not tire the duke out before Chalbuk, and with it Peterson’s guild, his life’s work, was conquered and destroyed. And with the hatred the continent had for everyone associated with the Union, if he was forced to start over from scratch, he would never stand back up again. No one would let him.

And it wasn’t like one choice would ruin him and the other would save him. If he stood with the Union, he would most certainly be wiped out, but betraying it had only a slightly smaller chance of leading to his destruction.

A knock on the door woke the duke from his rueful silence.

“Enter.”

A spindly servant stepped into his office.

“Count Mireitas is here, my lord.”

“Send him in.”

The servant bowed and disappeared again.

House Mireitas was a reputable house in the Union. They concerned themselves primarily with the hospitality business; a rare voice for peace. The wars and sanctions that resulted therefrom had ruined their industry. They had been forced to close most of their inns and taverns, and were hanging on by the skin of their teeth. They were most furious about losing their pride and joy, the jewel in their proverbial crown, Dauslyke, the famous Morantian hotel.

Mireitas stomped into the study grumpily.

“Why didn’t you turn down Cobleit’s suggestion to merge the dominions? That bastard has nothing but his own profit in mind. Do you really want to lose what little you have left, Zack?”

Ah, how nostalgic. Few of the people who called Peterson by his nickname were still alive. Hearing his childhood nickname had become a sad rarity. Mireitas was the only one he still saw with some sense of regularity that used that name. They practically grew up together.

“Sigh, you have a bad temper these days.” Peterson complained, “Cobleit was forced into this position by the war. We have just seven provinces left. We can’t afford to have our economy and governance as fractured and dispersed as it is now. Everything has to be directed by a single, unified vision.”

“Who do you think you’re fooling? Do you really think we stand a chance?” Mireitas snorted, “We’ve done nothing but lose, men and land alike, since this started. We had 37 provinces before the war, now we have 7, and who knows for how long that’ll hold? Your pride, and that bastard and everyone else like him’s pride is destroying us. Chikdor and Mayflower seceded because you are all blinded by your arrogance and refuse to do the sensible thing! We lost our newest forces to a man as well! How many more people need to die; how many more fortresses need to burn; how much more land needs to be lost before you fools will finally wake up?!”

“People must have hope, Meed. We all know how unrealistic that hope is, but we need it. Besides, we’re not out just yet. I’m busy recruiting more men and soon I’ll have another legion ready for the war. The duke must be getting tired of this constant war. He’s not been back home in years, he’s not seen his wife or concubines, or any of his children in years. We just need to hold out a little longer. We held out against the empire’s constant invasions for sixteen years. We still have a number to a go before we reach that point in this war.”

“So you really do eat shit, huh? I didn’t want to believe it, but it seems you gobble Cobleit’s shit up like it’s rosewater cake! Yes, we were the continent’s largest nation, but for just three years, then we started digging our grave, and that bastard was the first to pick up a shovel! Have you taken a look at a map lately? Why did we hold out for 167 years against the empire, hmm? We had extensive trade networks across the rest of the continent to fund our war, and we sent our allies out to do the fighting.

“This time we have neither trade nor allies. Not to mention that we’re not facing just one enemy, nor that our principle enemy this time is worth ten Krissen Empires, even without all the other champing at the bit to dig into us!”

“Ahhh...” Duke Peterson was speechless.

Indeed, they were completely surrounded, both by land and by enemies. They barely had the manpower to hold on, but it would have been okay if they had the supplies, but they didn’t have that either.

“The only thing we have in some measure of sufficiency is salt. And that’s what Cobleit is after with this merger of his. He wants to take your salt.”

Peterson was taken aback.

“I am completely baffled by this stupidity of yours, Zack. You weren’t this stupid when we were back in Morante.”

With Chikdor and Mayflower’s secession, and with the Alliance joining in on the Union dogpile, the Union had been completely cut off.  There was no one to turn to, no nation they bordered that was not an enemy. There was no one with whom to trade. Their only option was becoming self-sufficient, and that was only possible by unifying under a single ruler.

The landless guilds had nothing to lose, so they were staunch supporters of the move, but the guilds with land were absolutely opposed to it. Cobleit only got them to agree after promising to pay them back one and a half times what they would lose after the war was over.

A few of the smaller landed guilds, however, were still furiously resisting the change, Count Mireitas and his house was one of them. He’d lost his entire hospitality business, all he had left was his land. His guild had made the complete transition from guild to house. But now, just as he was finally beginning to tread water again, his former friends and allies were going to take that away from him as well.

“Look at the bigger picture, Meed. House Norton is at our doorstep. If they attack, even if we successfully repel them, we’ll either lose our territory, or it’ll be so ruined that it won’t be worth anything. Isn’t it better, then, to get guaranteed compensation?” Peterson countered.

“Compensation my ass! You still trust that bastard? He’ll only give us a five of our due now, the rest we can only get after the war. He’ll no doubt conveniently forget about that once the war is over, if we’re even still standing then.

“Have you completely lost it, Zack? Have you finally cracked? Tell me, if we keep fighting and somehow stay alive, how long will it be before this war ends, hmm?  A decade, two, three, five? A century, maybe? Maybe two?” Mireitas slammed his fist on the desk.

Duke Norton’s letter flapped open on the table.

“Oh, what’s this? ‘You are next’? Who wrote this? Lorist... Bloodblade Saint...”

“I have no time to worry about your concerns, Meed. This letter, Duke Norton, the Bloodblade Saint, wrote it. I am next on the chopping block!”

Mireitas burst out laughing.  He had to clutch the chair’s armrests to keep himself from falling off.

“So the gods haven’t completely abandoned us! Wonderful! This is our chance!”

Chapter 554 - Duke Peterson's Demands

“Count Mireitas is Duke Peterson’s representative. He says the duke is willing to secede from the Union, with our support. He wants us to move our forces in Mauvlin into Chalbuk in the second month and attack Quadro to cover his secession. Thereafter he wants us to keep the Union at bay until he has got his feet on the ground.”

Charade pointed at the map as he spoke, “The secession will deprive the Union of three more provinces: Jerotan, Chalbuk and Aligmai. Aligmai belongs to Mireitas, and he’s willing to secede with Duke Peterson.

“Aligmai used to belong to the Duchy of Teria. The duchy was split into two provinces after its conquest. The other province is Toscow. They’re separated from one another by a river, and from the rest of the Union’s territory by the Sunset mountain range. This means Aligmay doesn’t have to worry about Union retaliation. Our main concern, thus, is Chalbuk and Quadro. If the Union really wants to strike back at the duke, they will strike through here.

“The duke has three demands. The first, that we send forces to defend him. The second, to smooth things over between him and the Alliance so he can join it. Thirdly, to help them reform their military.

“If we fulfill these demands, he will cleanse his territory of loyalists and secede. Count Mireitas will do the same. Their declarations will come after next year’s rainy season. This will be the final nail in the Union’s coffin.

“Count Mireitas also gave us a key piece of information. The Union is running out of all kinds of supplies, salt most severely. None of their lands produce any salt. Peterson has a store of it thanks to a raid of the Kingdom of Wakaya years ago. If the Union gets its hand on it, it can last them another four years. Mireitas suspects that’s behind Duke Cobleit’s move to merge all the domains under his rule. If we get Peterson to break away, then we cut off their last hope at holding out.”

Lorist didn’t reply immediately. He tapped on the desk lightly as he considered his options. They were all old foxes. He should have expected that the old man would scheme, even in his current situation. He’d put the duke in the worst possible position to see what he’d do. But the man had hit back by putting him in an equally detestable position.

Everything came down to how much aid the duke was demanding. The first two requests weren’t much of an issue, the third was the problem. It was very vague and could technically mean anything.

Lorist humphed, dissatisfied. Peterson wanted his men to give their lives so he could live peacefully. In his dreams. Lorist had wanted him to become a Union pariah, instead he had been town into the oil himself. He could also not move forward unless the duke fell out with the Union completely. As long as the two sides weren’t mortal enemies, he could not be certain they weren’t playing him and would ambush him at a moment’s notice.

“Mireitas sounds like a familiar name. Do you know his background?” he finally asked.

Charade nodded.

“Tarkel submitted a detailed report yesterday. He’s an old acquaintance. He ran Dauslyke Hotel, along with many other all across the Union’s territory, as well as in most of the Alliance’s members.”

“Ah, so it was him. No wonder the name sounded familiar.”

Lorist slapped his forehead.

“He’s one of the anti-war’ers.”

“No wonder. They suffered the most when the Union and the Alliance fell out.”

“Yet, Mireitas doesn’t hate or blame the Alliance. He’s one of Duke Cobleit strongest critics. His primary criticism appears to be that the duke has turned on the principles that underpinned the Union for so many years. He is also the only one that has never joined any of the campaigns the Union has had since the war with the old empire ended. Which is why he’s only a count and has the desolate Aligmai as his territory.

“Turns out he’s not just a merchant either. Noble blood runs in his veins. His ancestors some six generations ago were Romon nobles. A baron and close friend of the crown prince of the time. The power struggle that took place when the crown prince was supposed to ascend to the throne killed Mireitas’s ancestor, however. The crown prince died soon after and his family was exiled. They came to the Union and started a guild. The rest is history.

“Mireitas is also related to Peterson. Duke Peterson’s mother is Mireitas’s aunt. The two had an affair after they met during his father’s stay at one of the guild’s taverns. House Mireitas refused to let the woman become his father’s mistress since he was already married, but she ran away and gave birth to the duke soon after.

“His father’s first wife died a few years later and he took his mistress as his wife. The relationship between the two guilds have recovered since. Peterson and Mireitas grew up together and are practically brothers. Mireitas has been kept out of harm’s way because Peterson’s been covering for him.”

Lorist nodded.

“Seems Peterson is set on leaving the Union. He wouldn’t send Mireitas here otherwise. Charade, ask the count to clarify what they mean by military aid. We can’t agree to something so vague. If it’s not excessive, we can see what we can do. Also, let’s make it a contract rather than aid. They’ll have to pay us for it, even if it is in installments for several years.

“It’s not that we don’t want to help them for free. But we cannot do so since the Free Union and our other allies will immediately demand the same treatment. We’re here to end the Union, not to give charity.”

Lorist had an agenda, but he wasn’t lying. The front was that he going to war with a distant enemy like the Trade Union. But he was really here for profit. It started because he was worried he would be surrounded by enemies if the kingdom lost the war, but now it was all about making money and gaining influence.

Lorist had achieved every goal he’d come here for and thought of since arriving. He didn’t need to chase the Union into oblivion, but why not? Especially since he could do it without actually fighting them. He had originally wanted to push Peterson into war with the rest of the Union so they could keep each other busy for a while and give him a chance to return home. But then Peterson sent his requests. Why should he help the old man for free? He had nothing with which to threaten him, after all. If he wanted help, he damn well had to be willing to pay it back several times over.

“But, Your Grace, Mireitas says the war has robbed them of all their wealth. They have nothing with which to pay us back,” said Charade.

Lorist smiled wryly.

“Yes they do. He has all that salt, doesn’t he? I’ll help him smuggle the salt out and then selling it to the Trade Union at a sky high price on the black market. We’ll decide how much is sold and at what price. Half of the profits will go to funding his new kingdom, and the rest to repaying his debt.”

Chapter 555 - Surrender

Reidy looked at the snow-covered hill and suddenly sighed. He took out an intricate silver wine bottle and gulped down its contents, before sighing again.

"What are you doing, sighing here and there?" asked Dulles, the commander of the carroballista division, as he put down the map he was drawing.

"Nothing, really. I just miss my son," Reidy said with a bitter smile, "Sunirulu wrote me a letter, saying that our kid's already almost three and hasn't met me more than a number of times. She said that the child is incredibly naughty and looks just like I do. For some reason, I felt the urge to go home to see my son and hug him..."

Sunirulu was the maidservant of Lorist's lover, Dina Arriotoli. When Lorist went to visit her, Reidy didn't waste precious time and also hooked up with her. The problem was that he didn't want to take responsibility even though he did the deed. Sunirulu ended up giving birth to Reidy's illegitimate son.

Arriotoli was so mad that she went to complain to Lorist about it and when Lorist asked Reidy what he was up to, Reidy said he wanted to focus on training first, and that children would only wear down his determination. He said he would only consider settling down and forming a family until he became a swordsaint like Lorist.

Lorist couldn't do much about it. But at the very least, Reidy brought the mother and child to the manor Lorist gave him and let her manage the fief. Practically speaking, they were husband and wife in all but name. Even Reidy's servants address her as 'Madam Baroness'.

Dulles laughed and said, "It's no surprise. We've been out for up to three years after all. You aside, even I want to go home to The Northlands as soon as we can. Even though Morante is really developed, The Northlands feel more like home to me. Had it not been for our urgent operation, we here at Tigersoar would've been allowed to go back to The Northlands after the new year's. Some soldiers are already complaining and want to head home soon."

Reidy nodded. "I know. Let's just weather through this for a few more months. Come the 4th month next year, Firmrock will come here to replace us and take over the defense line. The Trade Union is already doomed and Peterson Merchant Guild will be founding a kingdom. So, there's nothing they can do to stir things up any longer. All we have to do is to secure the defense line and resist the Trade Union's deathly struggle. After that, we can leave the rest to Firmrock to wear them down while we go back to see our wives and children."

"Oh, Reidy, I've always wanted to ask... Even though you get along with her quite well, why don't you take her as your formal wife? You only need a ceremony to fulfill the formalities," said Dulles finally. The two of them had been acquainted for many years and had a rather decent relationship. Dulles's wife was Sunirulu's close friend and they kept no secret from one another.

Reidy shrugged, gulped down more wine and said, "You know Sunirulu's identity, right? She's Arriotoli's maidservant, and you know what kind of a relationship Arriotoli has with His Grace. And you should know that Arriotoli isn't one to just sit back; she's always been competing with Matron Sylvia by pushing for her sister, Fennazali to be His Grace's second wife.

Under those circumstances, if I take Sunirulu as my wife formally, how do you think the matron will see me? Maybe His Grace will even shove me to where Madam Arriotoli is. How it is right now is far better. Madam Arriotoli has nothing on me and Matron Sylvia and His Grace trusts me greatly. Sunirulu doesn't really mind this anyway."

Dulles had his mouth wife open from shock. "No way... You thought so much over a simple wedding? This is ridiculous! Who taught you all that?"

Reidy glanced at Dulles and said, "Do you really need people to teach you that? Just read more books. When I was by His Grace's side back then, I read many of the books he collected, including those novels about courts and knights. There are lots of depictions of how chaotic and scheming noble houses are and the more I read, the more my eyes opened to the truth. Think about it, House Norton has managed to develop from a small barony to what it is today. His Grace is also quite promiscuous and has so many women with him. I'm afraid that if any of them get jealous, then I will be embroiled in the storm that ensues. So, I'm just preparing myself for the storm so that I don't get involved in it in the future."

Dulles's was a face full of admiration. "Reidy, I didn't think you'd become so smart. When I first got to know you back then, you were still a rash brat, yet now you're able to see so far into the future. His Grace really has a good eye for a disciple. He must've known that you'll become quite a big deal in the future."

"Hehe, Dulles, stop with the flattering," Reidy said, smiling, "I'm not the same as you. You met your wife during the northbound journey. Come to think of it, it was His Grace who let you and some others pick a maidservant. You even had your eyes on Donna on first sight and picked her, and the two of you supported each other during the journey and eventually got married in The Northlands. What a perfect ending. But me... As His Grace's eldest disciple, I have to always watch my actions so as to not harm His Grace's interests. SIgh... Let's chat another time. Is the defense layout complete yet?"

"Oh, almost. Look at here, here and here. I've marked the 17 highest points in the nearby area on the map. If we occupy the high ground, we will be able to set up a perfect defense line," said Dulles as he showed Reidy the map.

They were in the province of Quadro and the date was the 31st of the 12th month. After initial negotiations with Count Mireitas, Lorist ordered Tigersoar, the sentry legion and the Free Union legion to mobilize and they initiated their assault during winter. Thanks to Mireitas guiding the way, they managed to take control of Jerotan and Chalbuk.

The Free Union forces were stationed at Jerotan to dismantle the fortifications and fill up the tranches. The sentry legion on the other hand took control of the whole dominion of Peterson with the cover of 'helping the Peterson forces defend Chalbuk'. As for Tigersoar, Reidy led them to Quadro to set up a defense line to defend against frenzied Union retaliation when they found out about Duke Peterson's betrayal.

Sinjik, a city in Chalbuk, was Peterson Merchant Guild's base of operations and it would also become the new capital of the Peterson kingdom.

Currently, there were a group of people at the south of the city preparing to send Count Mireitas off. Accompanying the count were Charade, Shuss, Park, and a regiment of a thousand guards as well as a rank 1 blademaster sent by Duke Peterson, Cystin. Mireitas used the deployment to deal with the landed nobles of Aligmai, threatening or goading them to become part of the Peterson kingdom and wiping out those who were loyal to the Trade Union.

The wheels on the carriages had already been swapped out for smooth blades of the sleds. Charade and Mireitas sat in the same carriage. Looking at the ambitious-looking count, Charade smiled and took out a document from his pouch that was made out of a black fur skin and handed it to him.

"What is this?" asked Mireitas curiously as he received it.

"This is the deed of Dauslyke Hotel and the six adventurer's taverns in the Falik Plains," Charade explaiend, "After the formation of the Free Union, everything belonging to the Trade Union was confiscated and made public property. When His Grace heard about how you, Lord Count, had been fighting to stop the war only to be mistreated, His Grace was impressed and he paid 200 thousand gold Fordes out of his own pocket to purchase the deeds formerly belonging to your household with the intent to return it as gratitude for your contributions towards peace.

"After buying the deeds back, His Grace also dealt with the paperwork and vouched for your household. Lord Count, you may send your men back to Morante and Falik Plains to take over the hotel and taverns and start your business once more. His Grace even said that you should feel free to ask House Norton for any help should you need it.

"Additionally, there's another agreement over here. His Grace said that even though Aligmai's terrain is not suitable for large military mobilizations, we still have to defend against the guerilla attacks the Trade Union will carry out. So, His Grace has decided to lend supplies enough for a division of troops to your household at half price to help you form a division of elite troops. The term of this 'loan' is ten years. If you want it, just sign here and we'll send the supplies and gear to your dominion and help with the formation of your own force."

Mireitas held the document in his hands and froze. He shuddered, before his warm tears streaked all across his face. "I'm sigining it! Of course I am! Please thank Duke Norton for his kind intentions on my behalf... House Mireitas will never forget this boon you have granted us!"

Not signing the agreement was out of the question. Even though Duke Peterson spent nearly ten days to bargain with Charade, he only got enough supplies and gear enough for two legions for a quarter price off for a loan that had to be repaid in ten years. However, there was an interest of five percent for that loan. On the other hand, to thank Count Mireitas for playing a part in convincing Duke Peterson to secede from the Trade Union, Lorist rewarded him with all the deeds to House Mireitas's properties in Morante and the Falik Plains and even offered them a loan with such great conditions. That was precisely what Count Mireitas needed in a time of trouble, and he cried tears of joy on the spot.

"You're welcome, Lord Count. House Norton will never mistreat its friends. Friends should help each other out after all. We only act for justice and the restoration of peace, so we will still require your aid in ending the war. Also, Lord Count, please advise us on which nobles in Aligmai would agree with our plans and which ones are loyal and have to be removed."

Mireitas rubbed his eyes and smiled gratefully. "Alright, Lord Baron. I'll give you an introduction of the nobles in Aligmai. There are 42 noble houses here, among them..."

......

On the 10th day of the 4th month, Duke Peterson seceded from the Trade Union with Chalbuk, Aligmai and Jerotan to found the Peterson kingdom. At the same time, he sent an ambassador to the neighboring nations and the Free Union with a request to be accepted as a member state of the Treaty of Midsouthern Nations.

The premier of the Trade Union, Duke Cobleit, heard word of that and fainted from blood loss through excessive vomiting. Forde, Riwald and the other minor guilds were fueled by rage and they gathered their forces and mobilized them to Chalbuk in preparation to punish the traitorous Duke Peterson.

The army ended up being severely wounded by the Nortons that lied in wait and suffered horrendous losses. Tigersoar gave pursuit while they were ahead and took 27 fortresses in Chalbuk in quick succession, raided everything there was to raid, and returned to the rear of the defense line.

Once Cobleit heard the news of their huge loss the moment he regained consciousness, he shut himself in his study and spent a day and night without eating before he gathered all the nobles and said, "We've already lost this war. Let's send people to surrender to the Nortons."

"No, Your Grace! We have to fight to the end! Otherwise, we'll have lost too much..."

"We still have one million subjects! Enough food! We can still build an army of hundreds of thousands! We'll defeat House Norton by swarming them in numbers! We'll eradicate the Peterson kingdom!"

"Traitors must be punished! We can definitely not make peace with traitors!"

Cobleit's words were like a stone that sunk to the bottom of the well. The nobles were strongly against his suggestion and everyone was still willing to fight and unwilling to take the loss in the heat of the moment. Some of the more rational ones merely kept silent.

"We must surrender and ask for peace!" the duke yelled with a raised voice, suppressing the rambling nobles, "Do you know what the consequences are if we prolong the war? Our complete and total annihilation! House Norton is tightening the noose around our next step by step without fail! Compared to us, they can afford to be more patient and watch as we take one step after another towards the gallows!

"Even though the Trade Union has existed for nearly two centuries, we have never been in such a dire situation! Right now, we still have a million subjects and enough food, but we lack good weapons and equipment! We can't let our soldiers go on the battlefield with wooden weapons, can we? Look at the Norton forces! Steel ballistae, catapults, cannons, you name it, they have it all! But we can only rely on hand to hand combat! We can only resist our enemies' attacks by throwing the lives of our soldiers at them!

"In terms of weapons and equipment, we're far too inferior. If the Nortons are fully armored knights, we are nothing but stick-wielding farmers! We need time to catch up, time to develop weapons that can match up to our enemy's. Only then can we restore the Union to its former glory.

"But what we need now is time. More crucially, we have a fatal lack of salt in our territory."

"What? Salt?" All the nobles were dumbstruck.

"That's right, salt," Duke Cobleit nodded with a pained smile, "Back then, we could easily get salt when we were at Morante. But now, we have to surrender and make peace with the enemy to be able to obtain that crucial resource. The salt we have can only last us three more months. You all know what it's like when we don't have any salt. The body would grow weak and feeble. If we don't make peace as soon as possible, we'll implode in half a year without the enemy even having to attack!

"I locked myself up in my study to go over this for a day and night about how our Union fell so low to this point. It all started when we made the wrong choice! We had forgotten our roots as merchants. The moment we decided to use war to expand our influence, we became like the very nobles we so frowned upon! We raided for wealth because it was so much easier to make profit than running a legitimate business. It could even be said to be cost free!

"But as a result, we turned our allies into enemies. Because we lost none of our battles, we forgot about compromise. We only knew how to kill and maim. The more territory we conquered, the larger our pride grew, and we always assumed that we were the victors, high up and aloof. Even though we encountered House Norton and lost to them one battle after another we still didn't snap out of it. In fact, we doubled down like chronic gamblers and placed all our hopes in a single victory, only to have our forces decimated so badly.

"It's about time we woke up. We are merchants, and we should use a merchant's wit to tussle with the enemy instead of a noble's war. Our only option now is to surrender and make peace while we still have a chance to. As long as we change our approach and fight the enemy with trade, I doubt that anybody else can match up to us, even House Norton.

"We will have to spend the near future in lots of pain and hardship. Our enemies won't let us go so easily and we might have to pay a huge price to make peace. But we are merchants. We can endure our humiliation to trade with our enemy. We shall hide our gripes and desire for revenge deep in our hearts and use our cunning and wit to make profit from the hands of the enemy. By the time we recuperate to our full strength, we can once again rise to glory!

"Now, let's pick a suitable ambassador for ourselves."

Chapter 556 - Reconciliation

The Trade Union’s willingness to surrender came as a complete surprise to Lorist. Initially, most of the Norton higher ups believed they would continue the fight to the bitter end and would attack Peterson. That was why the Lorist’s forces prepared by sending Firmrock over to the defense line in Quadro.

Lorist and Malek had planned to use two years to slowly grind away at the strength and stamina of the Trade Union instead of going all out and defeating them in one blow. They would creep in step by step until their enemy could not resist any longer. From a militaristic view, it was the method that gave them the least casualties, Additionally, in another half a year, the Peterson’s royal army would take control of their own defenses. Only after they and the Union could face each other would Lorist sit on the sidelines.

As for the Trade Union’s salt problem, Lorist arranged with the duke to have a few people set up smuggling operations. They could keep the Trade Union teetering on the edge, whilst at the same time bleeding them dry. They would sell them rock salt at an exorbitant price and use the profit to fund their defenses. In essence, they were using the Union’s money to train soldiers against them. The duke was more than happy to agree.

But now, the Union had asked for peace.

Why didn’t you come earlier? You kept refusing when I was willing to negotiate, but now you want peace? Your doom is already rolling down the mountain towards you. Why do you have to go an make my plans a waste?

“Should we refuse?” Lorist asked Charade.

Knowing what was on his lord’s mind, he shook his head.

“The Union turned us down in the past because they thought we were being unreasonable and they still had breathing room. Now they have no choice, it’s either death or surrender. They may be suing for peace, but this is surrender by another name. We will be calling the shots since we have all the power. We can make whatever demands we want. If they don’t agree, we’ll just wipe them out. If we just chase them away, we’ll look like the bad guys and like our previous sweet words were lies.

“At the same time, we don’t have the authority to turn them down. Your royal mandate it to end the war and negotiate peace, so you don’t have the right to turn down overtures towards peace, only the king can do that. We should negotiate a deal that makes all our allies happy, then send it along to the king to give his final considerations.”

Lorist nodded. Charade’s words were true. The Union’s surrender meant they were giving up on making up for their losses. Acknowledging the four restored nations and Peterson and the Free Union’s sovereignty were the fundamental concessions. As for Chikdor and Mayflower’s territories, the Union had no choice but to give up on them because they could not contend with them in their current state.

All Lorist’s goals had indeed been met. He’d even got control of most of the continent’s market. Given that the Union was willing to surrender, Lorist didn’t have to play bad cop and could leave everything in Auguslo’s hands. Given the king’s nature, he would definitely not let the Union off easily, especially after how they had wronged him.

“Alright, I’ll do it your way. Tell our king to come here and handle the negotiations--“ Lorist suddenly thought of something. “--And, did the ambassador make any demands?”

“Only one. They demand unfettered access to the markets.”

“Hehe, so they’re not willing to give up yet. They want to move the war from the battlefield to the market square,” Lorist smiled, “The merchants are finally seeing the light. They know war is a matter for nobles. It’s still not too late. Looks like they still have some confidence, for them to be willing to return to mercantilism.”

“Should we refuse?”

Lorist rapped the desk with his fingers.

“No. The right to trade freely is no big deal. The alliance nobles also have all sorts of trading guilds selling their stuffs. The Union is just asking for the same rights. Agree to see them as equals.”

“Understood, Your Grace.” Charade stood up and prepared to leave.

“Hold on, Can you talk to Duke Peterson privately about the policy of his salt sale? Make sure he doesn’t allow anyone else to cross his borders. All salt sales to the Union must go through him. Since the Union lacks salt, if we have this exclusive arrangement, they can’t buy salt from anyone aside from Peterson. Tell the duke that, even though this agreement won’t be as profitable as smuggling, it would still net him a good profit. He will pay back the loan much faster. Also, tell the alliance forces stationed in Tenelik and Sylugnika to keep anyone from smuggling salt into the Union. As for the profit sharing, help mediate between them and Peterson and make sure things stay harmonious.”

Charade admirated his lord the more he listened.

“Your Grace’s suggestion is splendid! The Union will never climb back from this. No matter what they do, they’ll always be strangled by this noose. In the long term, their hate for the Peterson will fester...”

“Haha, the more hateful they become, the more assured I am. Even if they recover, they’ll have to go through the Peterson first. Otherwise, they’ll have to stay cooped up in their four provinces for good.”

Lorist raised his teacup and emptied it in one gulp.

Tarkel knocked and came in.

“A message from the capital. The new queen delivered a healthy young prince. His Majesty has named him Helleist.”

“Aha, looks like our king is quite industrious. Charade, prepare a congratulatory gift. Also, tell the king about the Union’s suit.”

“Understood, Your Grace. I’ll start immediately.

......

The Trade Union’s ambassador spoke with various representatives over the course of a month and finally took the first step to peace. The Union was incredibly humiliated. They had to recognize all the new nations, the kingdom of Chikdor, the duchies of Mokby, Cabasy, Samarita, and Zidkor, and the Free Union. As part of that recognition they had to forfeit all claims on the land the Free Union controlled. They were also saddled with 500 thousand gold Fordes in reparation payments.

The ambassador also met with Mireitas, who was now a duke under King Peterson, and they signed a non-aggression pact. They recognized each other’s territory and sovereignty.

Laughably, the two sides seemed to have forgotten that a third of the Union’s territory in Quadro was still controlled by House Norton. In their pact, they would respect each other’s rights and Mireitas welcomed Trade Union trade.

Charade, who presode over the negotiations, smiled secretly. I wonder how the Union will react after they learn that the Petersons have rallied the other four nations to an exclusive salt trade policy. Maybe they’ll tear the pact up and declare war again?

The pact allowed only Peterson salt to be traded within or transported through any of the kingdoms’ territories. Since they all but surrounded the Union, that meant that the Union could only buy Peterson salt. Even if they bought salt elsewhere, they could not get it back home.

The negotiations between the two Unions were far simpler. The Free Union did not put any airs. They immediately accepted the Trade Union’s offer of a million gold Fordes in reparations. They were also quick to agree on free trade and mutual recognition. Naturally, a large part of that was due to the ‘private visit’ the Trade Union ambassador paid to the Free Union negotiators.

The Trade Union’s only worry was that House Norton had yet to begin peace negotiations. The fat old fox Charade had publicly announced their peaceful intents for the war but now they were stalling for time.

The ambassador finally understood why when news arrived that King Auguslo was on his way south. He travelled with just a regiment of personal guards and started talks almost as he stepped through Morante’s gates.

The king had two demands. The Trade Union’s premier had to issue a public apology for their sins and the man had to boy before the king in apology to him personally. The second was a payment of ten million gold Fordes in war reparations.

The ambassador almost quit right there. The king had done nothing but almost lose the war. House Norton had won the war, but now he was making all the demands, and they were all focus on his personal prestige. He kept his cool, however, and sent the demands on to Duke Cobleit.

To his surprise, Duke Cobleit arrived a few weeks later and personally apologized to Auguslo. Auguslo settled on five million in reparations as a sign of good will after the duke’s show of sincerity. Two million would be an immediate deposit and the rest could be paid over the next five years.

Peace was finally restored.

Chapter 557 - Retreat and Leasing Land

The moment the Trade Union's premier, Duke Cobleit, signed the ceasefire and reconciliation agreement and bowed to him three times was the most glorious moment in Auguslo's life. None of his predecessors had ever even come close to defeating the Trade Union. A few had even been on the brink of defeat themselves. Today, however, he had achieved this century-old ambition passed on from generation to generation.

Auguslo completely forgot that he had little to do with the victory. He was Lorist's liege, so naturally his subordinates victories were his victories. Besides, his forces did take part in the final operation. That they never fought the enemy in actual combat didn't matter.

He was positively jovial during the celebrations and his goblet hat to be refilled frequently. Despite that, he was surprisingly sober when he approached Lorist.

"I can't thank you enough, Locke. This war would have lasted many more years if not for you, and we might not have been the victors when it finally ended."

<i>Well, at least you still know how to acknowledge someone's efforts, though you are still incapable of realising when you had nothing to do with a good result,</i> Lorist thought.

He'd been present for the whole banquet, but few had come to talk to him. He was a swordsaint, after all, few had the qualifications to be in his presence, much less speak to him. Everyone had come to greet him, but most had just lifted their cups to him from a distance. The few that did qualify to speak to him also just said a few words before taking their leave.

Lorist raised his goblet in reply.

"It's not much, Your Majesty. I am your vassal, my victory naturally is yours as well."

Auguslo sighed.

"I have to apologize to you, Locke. I didn't think that dumb son of mine would be so greedy. He's really bumbled into a mess he had no business even looking at. I've cleaned out the bastards egging him on, though, so I hope he will not be this dumb again. Please don't let this sour our relationship."

Lorist took a sip of wine, smiling, before he replied.

"I have not taken his mistakes to heart. He is young and ambitious and somewhat drunk on power and authority he does not know. His shenanigans didn't cost me much, so there is little to reckon with him. That said, I have a duty as your subject, and the kingdom's only swordsaint to say this. Wecksas does not have the dignity, wisdom, and character needed of a king. He must either be radically re-educated, or you must find a different heir apparent. It is your duty to your bloodline's legacy. You need not be rushed with it either. You already have a legitimate son, and you're a blademaster. You still have many decades of life left in which to raise the boy into a proper heir."

Lorist was not as blunt as he could be, but his stance was clear. He would not support Wecksas as heir. He did not like him, and while he could not use that alone as an excuse to break away from the kingdom, he could easily isolate himself in his fief and refuse to have anything further to do with the royal family and their troubles.

Auguslo smiled bitterly.

"Wecksas may not be a kid anymore, but he is still young. There is still much room to grow, yes, but also much time in which to do it. He doesn't have a bad heart, he was just too blind to other people's manipulations, too naive. He will learn from this mistake and become wiser for it. He may lack a proper education due to his circumstances, but he is bright and will learn quickly."

Lorist shook his head.

"I commend your loyalty to your son as a father myself, but as a noble and your vassal, I cannot approve of it. His flaws are not skin deep, Your Majesty. If only you'd put your emotions aside and consider everything objectively, you would see it too. Why would he have an affair with your wife, knowing who she was, if he respected you as his father? The late queen is not blameless, but had he had any sense of propriety he would have turned her down. I can see only two reasons why he would do what he did. He either has no respect for you at all, or he is such an idiot that he cannot understand such a simple moral and social principle. And I do not know which is worse.

"We have a saying in the north: One hand cannot clap. Your Majesty is smart, but your heart has clouded your mind. You let your emotions rule you rather than your wisdom so you let Wecksas shirk all responsibility and push everything onto the late queen. He lacks a father's love for their children, and a knights courage to accept responsibility for their mistakes.

"Do you not see your son's complicity? If he can do such things as a bastard, what would he do if he were made king? What would he have done then with Jillin Harbor? He would no doubt have marched his army on the port city and accused us of treason. You know my personality, Your Majesty, tell me, would I have not defended myself? And what would have happened the moment I took up arms to defend myself? It would have been a civil war, another one."

"Surely it wouldn't be that serious."

But the king knew Lorist spoke reasonably. Wecksas was planning to do just that even though he wasn't king. It might well have been another civil war had he not told Ripleid not to listen to the kid. A civil war would end the empire. Not to mention that Lorist had more than enough power to not just fight a civil war, but win it. The Krissen line would have been wiped out.

"You know I speak accurately, Your Majesty."

Lorist didn't give Auguslo face. He knew just as well as the king what Wecksas had tried to do.

"I know," Auguslo admitted bitterly, "I'll think on your words when I return. Maybe I should give him a fief. Such responsibility may change him. But, Locke, please grant me this one wish, if not as king, than at least as a father, promise to take Helleist as your disciple when he's old enough."

Helleist was the king's only legitimate offspring. If Lorist was so opposed to Wecksas, then hopefully he would take the king's legitimate son as his disciple and train him properly in both swordsmanship and statesmanship. Though Auguslo had not said anything about it, this showed he had given up on Wecksas.

It was a good political move on all levels as well. It not only ensured that his son would become a powerful warrior and a good statesman, it also cemented a relationship between him and Lorist. The duke could not turn on one of his own disciples, so he would naturally support his ascension to the throne when the time came, and with a swordsaint's support, Wecksas would not be able to make trouble even if he wanted.

Lorist smiled and raised his goblet.

"If the boy awakens his battleforce before he turns sixteen, I will take him as my disciple, but I will not lower my standards. He has to awaken his battleforce before his sixteenth birthday. And I will treat him no different from any of my other disciples. While he is my disciple, he is not the prince, nor even a noble, he is my disciple and my disciple only. And I will not let anyone interfere in my approach to training him."

"That is what I hope to see happen, Locke. Thank you."

The two emptied their goblets.

Auguslo quickly got out a bottle and refilled the goblets.

"I must speak to you regarding another matter. With the trade union's surrender we have no more immediate threats. And, with every square inch of the old empire's territory reclaimed, it is finally time to officially refound the empire. I plan to hold the ceremony on the anniversary of the first founding, the 10th of the 8th, next year. What are your thoughts?"

Lorist put the goblet down and lowered his head.

"This is indeed a joyous occasion. The empire was fractured by in-fighting among the imperial descendants, but now it is reunited again. All your vassals look forward to the ceremony."

How perfectly appropriate. Auguslo laughed.

"I will not let the historians forget your name when they write their chronicles. Your contributions will be detailed right alongside my honours. You are model vassals."

Auguslo stayed in Morante for three more days before returning to the capital.

Charade complained that the king had gone overboard when he returned. House Norton fought for his sake and lost so much money, but he didn't give them a single copper from the settlement he got from the Trade Union. He had never seen such a stingy king.

Lorist just shook his head, smiling.

"Forget it. We've benefitted decently from this campaign. Putting aside the Cape Romani, our sales in Morante will make us rich for decades, even centuries to come. Apart from that, even though we didn't get any apparent benefits, we get a stellar reputation. That's something money can't buy.

"The king is stingy, but he has his reasons. The kingdom is just barely staying solvent. He desperately needs the money. Not to mention that he will soon refound the empire.  It's not going to be cheap. There's also Jillin Harbor--"

"--Didn't we give half of the proceeds to the king from that? That reminds me. When are we going home? Should we leave some troops here? If something happens here and we're completely absent, it'll take months to respond. We should leave a legion here just in case. I have a feeling the Trade Union is concocting another scheme."

"No need. We have no excuse to stay here. We won such a great reputation, let's not piss it all away for the sake of greed. And it's not like we're leaving immediately anyway. We'll still be here for the rest of the year.

"Anyway, send Tigersoar and Jaeger back first. Have the sentry legion stay for a couple more months. We'll finish once they've finished training the Peterson's military. Firmrock will stay until the end of the year and we hand Quadro over to Peterson.

"As for the Trade Union, I'm sure their time in the limelight is eternally over. And they knew it the moment their ambassador left their territory. Peterson has his salt plan, and that alone will keep a lid on the Union for good. Their next war will be the war that sees them wiped off the map.

"Sending four of our main legions back will show our intent of maintaining peace. However, I don't plan to send our naval forces back. The Free Union won't have enough money to invest in a naval force in the near future, so their maritime safety is still dependent on the Northsea Fleet. Later, discuss with Jindoz about the land near Hidegold Bay. I want to construct a base for our forces and I doubt Jindoz would refuse such a reasonable request."

"Understood. I will negotiate with him about the lease," said Charade.

Chapter 558 - Dominion for Rent at 3000 Gold

Jindoz hurried to Lorist the next day.

“Your Grace, did we do something to offend you?” asked he.

“Huh? What do you mean?” asked Lorist.

“Why did Baron Charade come and ask us to lease the land next to the harbour to you?”

Ah, that was what he was talking about! So he'd over-thought things and come to the wrong conclusions.

“You misunderstand, Jindoz. I asked Charade to rent that land for you. Currently, peace has returned to Falik Plains and we have no reasons to be here. Our main forces are going home, they'll be almost entirely gone by the end of the year. The original plan was to send the fleet home as well, but then I remembered you guys don't have a fleet. It'll take you a lot of time to build a new one, so I thought of leasing an area next to the harbour from you as a base of operations for my fleet in the south.

“I'm also not very fond of putting military and civilian ships in the same place, it's not good for security. I also don't think it's right for us to use your facilities for free, especially not of we're going to be equals, so it would be best to lease some land from you and build a naval base.”

“I see,” Jindoz sighed with relief, “The Union is not yet ready to start building a fleet, so we'll be reliant on you for some time yet. But you don't have to pay for it. We'll give you a payment free lease.”

“No, we can't have that. You're at peace and you're an independent nation, plus Morante is your capital, we can't be rooming here without a proper agreement. If we aren't paying for the lease, others might suggest you're selling yourselves out. Besides, with how quickly trade is picking up, the harbour is due for an expansion, anyway.

“This isn't wild guesses either. People might not think much about us being here like this right now, but what about in three years? If things continue to pick up, we will be in the way soon and people will become irritated and start asking questions. Better to move out of the harbour before the situation sours.”

“Aren’t you over-thinking things a little?”

Lorist smiled.

“It’s just a precaution. I have always been straightforward with my intentions. I'm just looking at the bigger picture and taking preemptive measures.”

“...Alright. Where do you want to build your naval

Lorist tapped on the map on the wall depicting the greater Hidegold Bay area.

“Here. This is the place we want to rent.”

“What?! But, Your Grace, that's barren land. It's nothing but bedrock and reef!”

Hidegold Bay was almost more of an inland sea than just a bay, and its entrance was a large channel cleft between two mountains. It shielded the bay from storms and the worst of ocean weather, which made the bay ideal for fish colonies, and thus fishing and human settlement, but also for hosting large fleets of ships. The two mountains themselves and their surrounding mountainous ridges were bare rock. Only the occasional tree broke ground on their faces. The numerous cliffs were home to many birds of prey, most of whom hunted fish in the bay.

Millennia of such calm waters also let murky-water reefs grow quite extensively along the inner coast of the bay. They narrowed the channel down to a thin corridor which ships had to navigate to enter or exit the bay.

The inner reaches of the bay was shaped like a gourd, or a water droplet.  It opened up from the thin entryway to a large bulbous sea which terminated in a gentle curves coast like the bottom of a water droplet. The water inside was not just calm, but exceptionally warm and fertile, especially since the continent's largest river, the Silver River, fed into the bay. It was a large, muddy river that constantly carried rich sediment into the bay. It looked very much like the Yellow River of Lorist's old world, though it flowed much lazier.

Morant sat at the southern extreme of the bay where the bay was at its widest. The bay's shores were sparsely populated besides Morante, especially the riverbanks and bay entrance. That area was entirely unsuited for human settlement, but that was where Lorist wished to build his naval base, right by the entrance to the bay.

“Yes. I want to lease that land. Fifteen kilometers of coastline stretching several kilometers inland as well," Lorist nodded, “Military and civilian spheres of operation should be kept separated as much as possible.”

“But... isn’t it too far from the city? It'll be a task to move supplies, plus you'll have to build the base from scratch. And why so much land? That's an entire barony!”

It would be better for the fleet to be close to the city. Other things aside, the food they consumed was a good source of income, not to mention other money the sailors would spend in the city. Norton soldiers were generous with their spending and good, rule-abiding folk. They were far better than common freeloading soldiers and were most welcome in many taverns and brothels.

“That’s because apart from building the base, I plan to provider living space for the families of the men for the time they're stationed here. Naturally most of them will only be here or a few years before going back home, but in that time I'd like the families to stay together. We can set up a ferry to the city to solve the transport problems. It shouldn't be a problem, right? It's not like you have a use for the land, anyway.”

“This... for how long do you intend to lease it?"

“Well... we still have to make our final decision, part of it depends on what you want for the land. I’m sure you understand we're not just giving away money, we need a return on our investment. The lease will be for at least as long as it takes for us to earn back our setup costs, but you can discuss that with Charade.”

Jindoz bowed respectfully and bid his farewell.

Charade reported the deal's agreement three days later. The lease was for the next 99 years. Charade had wanted to push for 150, but Jindoz would have none of it. The rent was 3000 gold. Charade was, however, a little disconcerted that the land was desolate, it might be a waste to invest so much money to develop it.

“Hehe. Just 3000 a year? Charade, you've outdone yourself! That bit of land and coast is unbelievably valuable. It might be desolate, but it gives us a base of operations from which we can not just control Hidegold Bay, but project our power and influence to the rest of the southern half of the continent. And then there's the reef!”

Lorist took a pencil and began sketching the area in question.

“See?”

Lorist connected the reef area with the shore of the entry point of the bay. Now, it looked like an outstretched fist from the shore.

“Your Grace, you mean to build another seafort like the one we built near Cape Romani?”

Lorist nodded.

“The reef isn't very big, but it's still enough to let us put cannons there. We'll have iron-fisted control of the bay. Controlling that bit of land and sea is the same as controlling all of the bay, and with it all of the trade going on in Morante.”

“Who will you give the task of building the fort? How big do you want it?”

“I was only going to build a naval base for the fleet originally. I didn't expect the Union would give us the whole stretch of coast and land I demanded. I was only starting with a high bid so I had room to compromise and negotiate. And with the length of our lease contract, we have more than enough time to recoup the costs of developing the area. If everything works out, the entire fleet's operating costs could be covered by that little bit of land alone.

“As for the development itself, our first priority is sending out surveyors. Send a division along to occupy the territory as well. Since it's coastline, send an artillery brigade along. As for who to put in charge of the project, Howard is obviously the best choice, he's the only one with actual experience in this sort of thing. You can also put him in command of the base and make him the governor of the area. It will be good practice for when he retires to his own dominion. What do you think?”

“Everything seems in order. I have no worries with Howard in charge. I'll have Malek send some surveyors to the area as soon as possible. My only question is where we get the manpower?”

“Just contract a few guilds in the city and let them handle the civilian side of it. But the military installations and the harbour and docks we have to build ourselves.”

“Very well. Let me get to it immediately. I'll leave with Malek tomorrow.”

“I’ll come with you. I don’t have anything to do tomorrow, anyway.”

Chapter 559 - Study

Duke Cobleit rushed into his study furiously. The meeting had not gone well. His rage made the servants walk on eggshells, afraid the duke would vent on them.

The duke wasn't so petty, though. He had no desire to vent on his servants. Doing it would not help him and it would damage his reputation. He would be much better served turning his anger into a driving force to find a solution to the problem. He needed to convince the opposition to give up their power and centralize under his command.

"Are those blind fools making you angry again?" asked an eerie voice.

Cobleit started. He lifted his gaze and saw a man clad in black in the corner of the room. Only his pale white face was visible. He smelt bloody and medicinal.

"Why are you here? Isn't it inconvenient for you?" Cobleit asked.

"Same old same old, I didn't die so I have to live with this suffering. I thought of ending it a few times, but I can't forgive that bastard to turned me into this, so I can't die. I will drag him with me when I finally go."

A sinister smile flashed across the pale face.

"I'm sorry, Krilos, it's because of my incompetence. I failed to keep my promise. I couldn't bring your archenemy to you and I'm afraid I won't be able to for many years. Maybe not for the rest of my life."

Cobleits cousin lowered his head. He'd taken the swordsaint to the peace negotiations all those years ago as Twinhead Dragon's vice-president and representative. He had volunteered for the honour. It would have been a great achievement and would have ensured he became a duke as well, but alas Lorist intervened and ruined his plan. No, he hadn't just ruined his plan, he had ruined his body and his heart.

Nobody expected he was a swordsaint. He fought off the windstorm swordsaint, even horribly injuring him. Krilos and his companion blademasters were caught. The blademasters were torn to shreds by Andinaq's nobles. Krilos was only spared because the enemy king had an even worse fate in mind for him.

The king refused to acknowledge Krilos as a noble. He instead treated him like a charlatan. He stripped him naked, stuck feathers on him, and sent him back to the Union on horseback.

His treatment was worse than the old folk punishment. The feathers would normally be glued with honey. It could easily be washed off. Auguslo, however, broke all his limbs, destroyed his cultivation, and glued the feathers to him using laquer. His other injuries aside, the lacquer burnt his skin, it caused painful and itchy boils to form which would drive the victim mad. If they scratched the boils, however, the lacquer would get under the skin and fester, if it didn't kill him it would certainly force the healers to amputate the limb.

It was the greatest humiliation any one man had ever suffered. Before the ordeal his reputation was that of a graceful, well-spoken gentlemen adored by Morante's women. After, however, he was not just the Union's greatest laughingstock, but also its greatest shame. He had been forced since to listen to thousands call him "pigeon".

His physical pain was no small burden either. Had he still had his cultivation, he could have completely healed his limbs with just a few potions, but his weakened body could not handle them. He still took them to heal his limbs, otherwise he would never have been able to leave the bed again, but they ruined his nerves such that he was in constant pain in every cubic centimetre of his body.

Removing the feathers was just as bad. The raw lacquer could have been washed off it he was found and treated before it had set, but he was put on horseback in the cold plain air and sent off on a long trek to the capital. The lacquer had long set by the time he was found. With the lacquer set, the only way to remove the feathers and lacquer was to rip the skin off as well. It took months. His body was already weak because of his injuries and destroyed cultivation, so it couldn't all be removed at once. Instead it had to be removed bit by bit over time. As a result, Krilos not only had to live with at least part of his body constantly burning for several months, but there was always a patch of skin that had recently been ripped off and was either bleeding or yelling at him in painful complaint.

Even worse was that the lacquer had soaked into his skin and damaged the flesh underneath. His skin grew back deformed and discoloured. His entire body was a giant scar. The lacquer's work, combined with the side effects of taking a potion meant for Blademasters, was that the nerves under his skin flared up every now and again, plunging him once again into the pain he had felt when the lacquer was applied and later torn off. His damaged skin was also not just deformed, but also malgrown. It split frequently, causing him to bleed and later form puss-filled blisters as his weakened constitution couldn't fight off the infection effectively. Coupled with his damaged nerves, it meant that any physical contact with anything, even just the air moving over his skin gently, felt like knives being shoved into his flesh. This condition was unheard of, so no one new how to treat it. The healers had tried a number of treatments, but most only made it worse.

Krilos shuddered all of a sudden. His black robe shook with him and he bit his lip so hard he split a piece off, causing a thin trail of blood to run down his white face. A wave of guilt washed over Cobleit. Krilos's nerves were acting up again. The worst feeling was knowing that he was both responsible for his cousin's current suffering, and being unable to do anything or him. He couldn't even hold his hand and comfort him, the touch would make things only worse.

"I... I don't blame you..." Krilos spoke finally, what little colour his face did have slowly returning.

"You advised me against going. You wanted to end the war the good old way. I was the fool for insisting on going ahead. I have only one person to hate. He didn't just torture me, what he did should be a crime against all of humanity. No one could ever do anything to deserve this humiliation and torture. He should at least have executed me in a manner fitting of my status as a noble. But no, he instead denied my right to a dignified end and humiliated me in the worst way possible.

"I live for the day I watch him suffer the same fate and that day only.

"That said, you do disappoint me. Not for being unable to keep our promise, but or still lacking the resolve to make tough decisions."

There was no anger, no resentment in Kirlos voice, but that made him sound even worse. It made the hairs on Coblet's entire body stand on end.

"What's wrong? Why are you suddenly bringing this up?" he asked.

Krilos had isolated himself since his return. Apart from discussing the state of the Union in Cobleit's personal study and planning his revenge, he tended his wounds in his room and occasionally stalked the mansion at night. He had become the mansion's ghost, haunting it like a ghoul.

Krilos had been the one to work behind the scenes and organize the new forces after the defeat at Bluwek. He was also the mastermind behind Cobleit's bid to federalise the Union.

"I came to tell you I am leaving. I am leaving the Union as well."

"What? Where are you going? What will you do?"

"Since I can't get revenge using war against the kingdom, I'll get it with my own hands."

"You can't leave. I won't let you take such a risk. Your battleforce still hasn't recovered and you're often tortured by the pains. You know there's no way you can go to the enemy capital in your state. Your enemy isn't just any noble either. He's a king, soon-to-be emperor, in fact. Do you really think you can get past everyone that will be around him all the time? Not to mention that he's a blademaster.

"How would you take your revenge, anyway? Assassinate him? Killing a king will condemn your soul to the abyss for eternity. You'll not just be condemning yourself, but all your descendants as well. Your entire bloodline will be denied entry into the heavens. No deity will accept a soul connected to a kingslayer by blood. Only kings can kill kings. I promised you could torture him all you want when I bring him to you, but I never said you could kill him, and that's why."

A wry smile cracked Krilos's face.

"I won't kill him. I won't let him of that easy. He will go through the same thing he put me through, and I'll force him to live with this pain for decades until he finally croaks of old age. How many years have I waited, though? It's been five years, and now with the Union in ruins, how ma more will it be? You just told me yourself you can't do it anymore."

"If we work together I'm sure we can find another way. We'll restore the union. Twenty or thirty years, that's enough time to get back to where we were and take our revenge. You need to be patient. We still have time. I will keep my promise."

"Cobleit, don't spout that propaganda at me. It's good enough to fool the merchants and the other guilds, but you and I know better. I don't think any of the guilds believe it either. If they did, you wouldn't have stormed in her like you did. Let me guess, they rejected your later proposal, right? They've turned on you and are vetoing everything you propose."

"...I don't understand why. We're in the worst place we've ever been, but they're still being prideful and stubborn. We had to cough up so much to end the war, but now our new neighbors have formed a chokehold on us and are slowly squeezing the life out of the Union. We can't be stingy now, they can hoard all the money they want, but it will mean nothing if the Union collapses. They know we are in no position for a war, but they are demanding I tear up the peace treaty and go to war against our neighbors. Did they forget that they are part of the Alliance now? If we start a war against them, we're starting a war against the whole Alliance.

"So what if they have the exclusive rights to sell salt? Can the price be any higher than gold? We have to rebuild our economy now, no matter the cost. We must endure. We lost Falik Plains and Morante, but we still have Quartz Mountain. Teribo grew into the powerhouse it was because of that mountain. We can do it too.

"I've given them a way to get rich without losing a single life, but they still want war. They won't let me put into motion anything that could improve our position without going to war."

Reaching an understanding with Andinaq despite the consequences had caused Cobleit's status to fall heavily. The exclusive salt deal between Peterson, Zikdor, and their other neighbors added salt to the wound, literally. His opponents demanded war with their neighbors to win back the Union's honor and were vetoing every policy Cobleit proposed in an effort to force him to go to war.

"I told you there were too many merchant guilds in the Union years ago. But you didn't want to listen. Now look what that's got you.

"If I were you, I would cut them all out. You have to excise the boils before they burst or they'll spread their puss and only make things worse. If you let this continue, the Union will fall apart. Duke Forde Morante founded the Union 186 years ago on the plains with only the big seven. Now, you have more than 30 guilds. It's too many.

"Whether you object or not, I will leave for the enemy capital. There have been some developments that have piqued my interests. Before I leave, let me take the blame for you one last time. I know you're a good person and can't take that kind of action, so I'll do it. You just have to clean up the mess and declare me a traitor. That should keep you clean. Just give me your insignia. You don't have to worry about the rest, just let me decide."

Krilos left with Cobleit's command insignia shortly after.

Chapter 560 - Still so Busy at Home

Lorist returned to The Northlands during the 9th month along with Tigersoar and Charade. However, Tigersoar's acting general, Reidy, didn't follow them back. Instead, he was busy helping Malek and Howard out with the development of their rented dominion.

Malek stayed behind because he was one of the main people in charge as that base was to have heavy significance in the Norton military. He planned to only return after the project was in full swing.

Reidy stayed back for two reasons. The first was for his junior apprentice brother, Howard, who was tasked to become the main supervisor of the project, which meant that they might not be able to meet for the next few years. Reidy decided to stay for two to three months to help Howard continue to polish his swordsmanship. His uncle, Charlando, also wasn't willing to see him return to The Northlands so soon and managed to convince him to stay until the end of the year to return with Els and the sentry legion. That way, the old man wouldn't have to suffer parting with his beloved nephews twice.

Sylvia, Spiel, Kedan and the other officials of the house rushed to Northsea to receive Lorist and held a rather grand welcoming ceremony for him and the soldiers who had fought outside the dominion for years. A grand banquet was hosted in the army camp outside the city for the men of Tigersoar and Lorist.

At first Lorist wondered why a pauper like Spiel was willing to endorse frivolous spending such as that. During the end of last year, Spiel explained to Lorist with a smile on his face that thanks to the restoration of the market in Morante, House Norton's factories were in production nonstop and new factories were constantly being built. The dominion showed a prosperous sign. The increase in production during the past year alone had caused profits to increase by almost three million.

Spiel said that he had no choice but to save back then since the house didn't have much money. He was even more terrified when Lorist spent what little amount they had seemingly thoughtlessly. But now that the house was getting richer. Spiel finally understood the intent behind Lorist's spending and investment. For every gold coin thrown in, more would come back in profit.

That was why he gave his full approval when Sylvia got him to help out with a grand welcoming ceremony. Since they were pretty well off now, the celebration was definitely something they ought to hold as it was something that could affect the house's reputation. Lorist's status as a swordsaint could be upheld that way as well. At the same time, the soldiers that had been fighting abroad on behalf of the house for so many years would be able to feel how much the house cherished them, making them even more loyal to the house.

After the festivities, Lorist noticed that Sylvia and the four concubines seemed to be living in Northsea for the long term. He asked about it and found that the palace that was being built at the east side of Ragebear had been delayed. It would've been completed in another half a year, but Spiel decided that since the house was earning so much in recent days, he wanted to make sure that the palace was the grandest there ever would be for the sake of the house's reputation. So, he added a huge sum to the original budget, causing Ciroba to be even more invested in it and making sure that it would strike awe into the hearts of all in the next millennium about how grand House Norton was. As such, the construction of the palace was halted until the changes were made.

It was then when Lorist just recalled him receiving some documents requesting for additional budget from Spiel last year when he was in Morante. However, his mind was preoccupied with thinking of how to defeat the Trade Union back then that he didn't really bother to read it through. Given his trust for the supervisor, he signed his name on the document casually and sent it back to him.

Sylvia, being someone who obsessed over hygiene, didn't like to live at Ragebear, where construction was taking place all over. Given her liking for the seaside, she brought the whole family to Northsea and moved into the city hall. There was vacancy anyway and leaving the rooms empty would be a waste. And even though Bullhorn Bay was no Platinum Beach, there was a small sandy area that was more than large enough for the women to play with their children at.

At night within the city hall of Northsea within the grandest bedroom was an exceptionally large bed which was exquisitely decorated. Sylvia and the four concubines converted their longing for Lorist into kinetic energy to battle with his rod. Only after he was completely expended did he manage to appease the five ravenous women and survive their relentless attack.

"Why didn't you just bring the children to Platinum Beach for a vacation?" Lorist asked Sylvia, whom he hugged in his embrace, after the strenuous exercise they just had.

The afterglow of climax was still visible on her beautiful visage. She cuddled against Lorist like a little kitten and enjoyed the sense of security his chest gave him. Hearing Lorist's question, she buried herself deeper into his bosom and said, "I didn't feel like it. We went there once two years ago and happened to run into Duke Kenmays returning with his forces from Falik Plains. Only around 13 thousand of his 50 thousand troops returned, and that was a sad affair for the whole of Sidgler.

"The maidservants at Platinum Beach all seemed really down and many of their family members perished from the conflict. We could hear their cries from time to time and the only guests there were us. It wasn't merry like before at all and all we felt was cold emptiness. We also heard that most of the nobles of the kingdom participated in this war and suffered losses as heavy as House Kenmays's. I'm sure that no noble would go to Platinum Beach for vacation in the coming years, so after that, I went to Morante to find you just as the matter with Queen Cacanne came up. We were worried about you."

Lorist felt touched, so touched that his little member reacted once more. He gently kissed Sylvia on the forehead and said, "It's all fine now. You don't have to worry any longer. We've won and obtained peace. After that, I will stay by your side and spend the rest of my days with you all. I won't go out to war anymore. It's getting late, so we should go to sleep, after we have another quick one of course."

Sylvia smiled and looked reinvigorated. She felt up Lorist's bottom and asked, "You still have energy left? Weren't you half dead just now? Eh? You really got hard. Lie down and don't move, I want to take the top this time."

Lorist's legs felt completely weak the next day. Anyone who screwed with five women and only got three to four hours of sleep only to be screwed twice more during the morning would feel like that, even a swordsaint was no exception. That was a biological limitation. Even if Lorist was a swordsaint, he was still human, ways off from becoming a god. Sigh, even a swordsaint doesn't have any way to improve in that department, thought Lorist seriously.

However, there were indeed benefits of becoming a swordsaint. Duke Fisablen for instance was a rank 3 blademaster and was fit as a fiddle even in his seventies and could lie with two women without issue. Perhaps I should ask Duke Kenmays how. He's only a silver rank, but he must've used all his battleforce on his little junior... Kenmays was a famous playboy in the kingdom and the favorite of the loose noblewomen of the imperial capital.

He ceased his senseless thoughts as Sylvia, the concubines and their children were waiting for Lorist to join them for breakfast. Even though he had already met his children yesterday, he was still quite distant from his older children. Anderbael had long forgotten about the father he hadn't met for a year.

The younger children at ages one or two on the other hand thought of Lorist as a mysterious new toy and crawled all over him before claiming their own territory like dogs and marking Lorist with their urine, causing him to have to bathe and change midway through breakfast.

Since Sylvia and the others weren't willing to go back to Ragebear, Lorist decided to stay at Northsea as well. He happened to need to observe and manage the reorganization of the naval forces at Bullhorn Bay anyway. Some two years after the Battle of Cape Romani with Invincible Fleet, the shipyards at Bullhorn Bay had designed and experimented with more than ten new battleship designs. Lorist had to integrate those new ships into his navy according to their respective forms and functions.

Lorist mainly had to check three of those new designs. The first was the Blitz class warship which made up the main force of Northsea Fleet. Those were the ships that allowed the Nortons' fearsome name to spread throughout by demolishing countless enemy warships. Recently, there had been new developments on the Blitz class at the shipyards which increased their durability, speed, and stability. Lorist decided to order 30 of those new Blitz classes to replace the 14 old ones.

The next one was a Swift middle-class ship dubbed a Pursuer by Lorist. Compared to its Swift class predecessor, all these new ships were fitted with bronze cannons and made to have decks and cabins. Even if each of them were fitted with 18 bronze cannons, they would be stable enough to sustain the recoil from all those cannons firing at once. The streamlined shape of those ships could also weather the strong winds and waves of the northern seas and allowed it to travel double as quickly.

The Pursuers probably wouldn't be deployed in the northern seas since the Blitz class was more than enough for patrolling and securing the waters. Lorist had those ships made to deal with pirate ships in the southern seas instead. Blitz-class warships were large vessels that couldn't match up to the smaller pirate vessels in terms of speed and only stood a chance if the winds allowed for it. However, the pirate ships could rely on their familiarity with the local geography and evade pursuit from the Blitz class warships by sailing between the reefy areas.

Lorist believed that with the Pursuers, he could tackle piracy at a large scale in the southern seas. In terms of maneuverability and speed, no other middle-sized Swift class could compete with the Pursuers. The pirates would definitely be unable to escape the Pursuers that were armed with cannons. Their fate was to either surrender or sink.

The last new warship was dubbed the Patrollers. They were super large class warships that were partly based on the sea castle Sabnims used by Invincible Fleet. Each ship was fitted with 72 bronze cannons across two different storeys. The front and rear of the ships were also mounted with four cannons each. It was a complete monster that could carry a crew of 500 corsairs. It would dominate the oceans in both ranged and close combat.

There were three other new ships, with one of the being an improved whaling ship. Lorist had mobilized all the whaling ships in the grand battle with Invincible Fleet and all 16 of them had to be retired after the Battle of Cape Romani. They were used to fill up the reef area there and became the foundation on which Fort Howard was built.

The new whaling ship was larger and hardier, making it more suitable for whaling further out at sea. To Lorist, this was Grindia, not earth, and he wasn't some champion for nature and the environment. The sea of that world seemed endlessly wide and whales were loaded with treasure from head to tail. Whaling brought in more than 100 thousand gold Fordes in profits for the house and each whale could be harvested for more than a thousand. It was a thriving industry that House Norton wouldn't give up on easily.

One of the two remaining new ships were primarily guest vessels that were more or less the size of the Patrollers, but faster and more agile. Currently, a ferry line was established from Northsea to Morante with stops at Platinum Beach, Silowas, Jillin Harbor and Armatrin Harbor. Four of those guest vessels would be constructed and one of them would start sailing from Northsea every month while the other started sailing back from Hidegold Bay. Each voyage would take around 28 days and the passengers could get on or off at any given stop.

That was the ferry line through the northern seas. The one for the southern seas hadn't been decided on yet. Lorist felt that letting the private ship owners handle the ferry business in the southern seas would be better. House Norton could produce the ferry ships which the private ship owners could use to run such a business. They could work together, and form a relationship with the noble backers of those ship owners in the south. That could possibly be a goose that laid golden eggs.

The last new ship was an improved version of the LLDAM-class vessel. The capacity of good it could carry was doubled and it could sail quicker with more stability. It could also be used as a logistics vessel and sustain a supply chain effectively for Northsea Fleet. It was decided that 24 of those ships would be constructed and they would usually be used to ship goods to and from Morante.

What troubled Lorist was that they couldn't outsource the construction of those ships to other parties in the interest of confidentiality. All construction had to be done in Bullhorn Bay. House Norton's land and naval forces were already famous throughout the continent and everybody wanted to steal a piece of what made them so good. Only within the territory of the house could they effectively catch spies sent by other powers.

The shipyards in Bullhorn Bay occupied nearly half the area of the bay and had more than ten thousand skilled workers and laborers. That was where the largest industry of the house was located. However, as building ships was something that required skill and expertise, the production couldn't be increased with just an increase in personnel. Producing 20 new ships each year was the limit.

Given that there were up to 120 ships waiting to be constructed, Bullhorn Bay's shipyards were fully booked for the next six to seven years. After much consideration, Lorist decided to build some shipyards in Silowas and let them deal with the construction of the ferry and whaling ships. That way, they would be able to realize their plans within four years.

Apart from arranging for the construction of the ships, Lorist had to consult Spiel for the costs. In Morante, it cost around seven thousand gold Fordes for the construction of a LLDAM-class vessel. But House Norton required more than double that amount for one middle-class Pursuer to be constructed. Other things aside, the main body of the double-story warship cost 15 thousand gold Fordes to make. The bronze cannons and training of new cannoneers would bump up the costs of each Pursuer to around 50 thousand.

Fortunately, the house now had Fort Howard at Cape Romani and they would be able to legally collect toll from passing ships which amounted to no less than a million gold Fordes each year. That was enough to sustain fleet after the expansion and there might even be some left over for the house. Additionally, around 200 of the ships that were obtained after Invincible Fleet was defeated were auctioned off at Morante, bringing in another million plus gold Fordes for the house. That way, the house only had to pay another five million or so out of their pockets for the construction of those new ships. which was spread out across five years, lessening the burden on the house.

After more than a month of hard work, Lorist finally finished planning the whole expansion of the household fleet and the construction for the ships. The next big thing was the year-end celebration held by the house, during which a large number of vassal nobles would have their titles reissued by the house. There was also a large number of soldiers who earned noble titles and lands.

Chapter 561 - Enfeoffment Talks

"We have 48 people to enfeoff this time, Your Grace, 26 to raise to viscount, and two to raise to count. I've checked the list personally. There are no mistakes. The only problem is that Delamock and Winston has no free land left to enfeoff. Our only options are Yungechandler and Wild Husbandry, but they're practically desolate."

One of the sayings was, 'the subordinate runs all the way at the twitch of the superior's mouth'. Though Lorist was busy, storehouses of paperwork, and queues upon queues of official lined up outside his office, he could delegate all but the most essential bits to subordinates.

He pushed everything about the enfeoffment business into Charade so he could goof off with his wife and children. Charade, in turn, delegated much of his work to his direct subordinates. Unfortunately for him, though, he did not like to leave things up to others entirely, and so ended up working the late nights with them anyway.

Enfeoffment was a big deal. The new lands had to be parcelled. The land without deeds needed deeds, those with old ones that didn't match their new borders needed new deeds, new titles had to be grouped into larger titles, baronies assigned to viscounties and viscounties to counties and counties to duchies, all of the latter naturally held by Lorist. Some people were given additional titles, others gained a title above their old one, which they held with the old title, and others were relieved of their old titles and moved somewhere with a larger and higher title. Everything had to be planned, arranged, and all the triplicate papers handwritten and signed either by seal or signature before being arranged and stored for the end of year ceremony where they would be given to their new holders.

Lorist shook his head when he saw Charade slowly caving under a large stack of documents he was trying to carry to the appropriate room.

"No. Yungechandler is being under Shadekampf's jurisdiction. It'll be at least three more years before he's done with the place. I don't want to cause him more trouble. I am willing to manage the province directly for a few more decades.

"Hector, from Wild Husbandry, doesn't want me sending any nobles their either. The province's main purpose is a buffer between our heartland and the barbarians. Sending nobles there would undo that. Our hope is to assimilate the barbarians, and when that happens, they'll be moved into the province and settled there. Sending nobles there now would undo our plans. It's a delicate and sensitive procedure. Noble have the right to autonomy, which means if we settle them there, we can't properly control the area, which will likely cause our plans to fall apart as the nobles pursue their own agendas.

"I stayed away from those two provinces for the last decade for exactly these reasons."

Charade dropped the stack of documents onto the table, it creaked and dust flew everywhere.

"Then what will we do for the new nobles? Delamock and Winston just doesn't have space anymore."

Lorist took out a bottle of blackcurrant wine and two tall wine glasses. He filled them up and dropped a few ice shards into the cups before handing one to Charade.

"Have a drink. It's the vineyard's latest selection of blackcurrant wine. It's great chilled with ice."

"Not bad," Charade praised after a light sip, "But it's only the 10th month. Where did you get the ice?"

There were no such things as refrigerators on Grindia. Most nobles imported or gathered ice in the winter and stored them in massive underground caverns for use throughout the summer. It was expensive, so only the nobility could afford it. The ice would be used for making frozen or cooled delicacies, or cold drinks. The more extravagant might have ice baths to break away from the summer heat. In the hotter climates to the south, however, even storing masses of ice underground could not keep them for the whole nine months between the last snowfall and the first of the next winter. Most places ran out at around mid-to-late summer. The north's summers weren't as hot as further south, so they didn't generally store much ice, if any at all. What little ice they might store was usually gone by the end of spring. It was already autumn, so the ice should have been gone completely.

"Yyou remember the gunpowder research lab? Professor Balbo discovered during some of his experiments that certain chemical reactions using saltpeter would cool things, enough to freeze them in some cases. I simply had him use that to freeze some water. I made a trip there just a few days ago and brought a batch back with me along with some saltpeter to make ice here."

"You sure have a lot of free time, huh? Here I am working my ass off to keep things going, and you're off frolicking in the wilderness looking for ice… And not just that, you're using what little saltpeter we have for gunpowder to make ice? When did we suddenly get a surplus of saltpeter? Did you maybe discover a way to get lots more saltpeteR?"

"No, nothing like that. The salpeter is recyclable. You just need to boil the used crysstals in a specific water mixture and it's fine again. And I didn't just go for ice and saltpeter. I went to check on the two new mine shafts they've been working on. Balbo believes we can double gunpowder production over the next two years."

Charade finished the blackcurrant wine, poured himself another cup,and popped two large pieces of ice into the wine.

"Whatever. Back to the main topic. What do we do about the fiefs? We have no choice but to use Yungechandler. We've already invested a lot of time and money in the province and it's coming along nicely. Give the nobles the swamplands and the wilderness for which we don't have plans. Let them develop those areas using their own money."

Lorist considered it for a moment but shot it down as well. The problem wasn't money, but how to distribute the wealth. The nobles would not be happy with being given land so much worse than their peers elsewhere. There was still a few scraps left in Delamock and Winston, so why where they being sent to the wastelands of Yungechandler? Why should others get prosperous lands and they not? Was this a punishment, or was their loyalty just not appreciated?

"I've made up my mind. Find places for them somewhere in Delamock and Winston. The king's ascension ceremony is next year. We'll officially be the Krissen Empire again and it should be at least a decade or more before any new conflict arises.

"The chance to win land and titles through war is now over, for a generation at least. It's time we scaled out military back a little as well and let the men work in the economy. Even those that stay behind deserve a few years of calm and rest.

"We might even have to resort to promotions based on years of service, rather than achievements. This means this will be our last big enfeoffment ceremony for the foreseeable future. And our territory won't expand much either. The king certainly won't let us have any more than the five provinces we have already.

"The focus of our efforts after we finish with Yungechandler and Wild Husbandry should be the lands I hold the title deed for in perpetuity, the Northlands and our overseas territories. Besides developing those lands, I want to push our territory further north. We've cleaned out the barbarian threat quite deep into the mountain range there, so it's time we pushed our borders up. We'll be the ones conquering the lands of our own accord, so the king won't have a say in who gets the land or how it's used. There's also the wildlands to the east of the mountain range. You don't have to worry, Charade, we won't run out of land for some time to come."

"Ah, so that's what you had in mind. No wonder you had Balk send squads there to survey the land. I was wondering why you were doing that. All my troubles are solved, then."

Lorist nodded.

"When you return to Ragebear, take a box of blackcurrant with you. It's the Duchy of Morbit's secret brew. The brewers there came to us for asylum when the Union took the duchy. Now they run their famous breweries here. They supply me and House Norton alone, no one else can get any."

Charade smiled jovially.

"Well don't mind if I do! But just one box? Come on, give me three! You know I love fruit wine."

Lorist laughed.

"One bottle is worth four gold Fordes! You've really gotten used to raiding my cellar, huh? Sigh, two boxes is all you got from me. If you want more you have to buy them from my cellar. Go see Bowrey for the arrangements."

Bowrey was a man named Boris's eldest son. Boris was House Kenmays' supervisor before defecting to Lorist with his family. He used to govern Hanayabarta, but his term ran out a few years earlier and was brought back north. Upon his return Lorist made him a viscount and gave him land in Delamock. He left his oldest son with Lorist, hoping he'd catch Lorist's eye and be made a disciple, or learn a few things from him as his butler at the very least.

"Fine, but I demand a discount! I'll go see Bowrey later. Anyway, I'm returning to Ragebear tomorrow, want me to take anything with me?"

"No, you already have all my orders. I'll return with Sylvia at the end of the 11th month."

Charade downed the last bit of wine in his cup and stood up, slamming the cup into the table a little clumsily.

"Alright. I bid Your Grace farewell. Let's meet again in Ragebear."

Chapter 562 - Secret Intel from the Trade Union

Jinolio knocked on the door before he entered the study with a thick pile of pages in hand.

“Sir Tarkel sent us secret reports from the Trade Union.”

The house had an importance classification system for its reports and documents based on how sensitive and urgent or important the information contained within the reports and documents were. Urgent class documents contained information concerning household interests directly, and that needed immediate attention. They were usually sent via eagle and were thus short, concise, bare on the details, and in very simple terms. Secret class documents contained sensitive information, which could be about something concerning the household itself, or other forces, factions, places, people, or circumstances, that had to remain confidential either due to the content or nature of the information, or what the fact that House Norton possessed the information implied about its espionage activities or its possible future interests or actions. The documents were usually very thorough but at the same time somewhat circumspect. Due to their sensitive nature, the utmost care was taken to ensure the details inside were as accurate as possible, and any transport or storage of the documents was done under the utmost scrutiny. The queen’s affair would have been one such report, but Lorist didn’t care about its news spreading and wanted such news at the utmost speed, so it was handled as urgent instead.

“What is it?” Charade asked from his place on a nearby chair.

Jinolio opened the folder and glanced over its contents.

“There’s been a rebellion in the Trade Union. It started on the 15th of the 9th. Duke Cobleit mobilized Twinhead Dragon’s legion to purge the rebels. More than twenty guilds have been wiped out, seventeen completely, and the rest mostly. It says the prime suspect is Marquis Krilos, Twinhead Dragon’s old vice-president. He reached out to the nobles dissatisfied with Cobleit’s leadership and staged a coup.

“He’s now vanished and Duke Cobleit has declared him a traitor. The duke also put a bounty of 10 thousand gold on his head. He also enacted a few new policies changing the peerage. Nobles no longer hold titles to land, they only gain social status and an annual stipend. He’s sent ambassadors to the neighbouring nations to reassure them that he’s in control and that peace will continue.”

Lorist looked amused.

“It seems this more like a rebirth than a revolt. Cobleit is quite a talented man. He clearly intends to play the game seriously.”

“Who is this Krilos?” Charade asked, more interested in the revolt’s instigator.

“Marquis Krilos was the ambassador sent to the peace negotiations with the windstorm swordsaint. The one the king declared a fraud and sent back to the Union in feathers.”

“Oh, him.” Lorist mouthed absentmindedly.

“How’s he still alive? Wasn’t he covered in raw lacquer? He should’ve died from poisoning. How’s he still up and about?”

“Being covered in raw lacquer won’t necessarily kill you. It’s not like it’s actual poison. What’s so weird about him still being alive?” Jinolio countered.

“You don’t understand. I’ve seen something like this personally. There was a lacquer shop next to my house when I was still a child. A horse barged into it one day and knocked a large bucket of raw lacquer over. The lacquer fell on a nearby worker… He died of an allergic reaction two days later. His skin blistered. His employer hired the city’s greatest herbalist, but he could do nothing. The blisters festered, and he committed suicide a week later. The horse also got some on its fur and died a couple weeks later as well.

“The lacquer shop was forced to close after the scandal. The big-seven guilds required that all workers wear protective gear from then on. The job became very expensive as well since people demanded greater pay for the dangerous work. I spent a few years studying the lacquer at Dawn Academy trying to find out what cause the reaction, but I was no closer to discovering the secret behind its poison when I left with His Grace than when I started.”

Jinolio rolled his eyes.

“Don’t make yourself sound like an expert if you don’t actually know anything. Marquis Krilos was a blademaster when that happened, the lacquer wouldn’t have killed him. He was also a noble, he no doubt hired excellent herbalists to treat him. Besides, a lot of time passed between your tinkering and his punishment, I’m sure someone thought of a better treatment in that time.”

Charade was rendered speechless. He grabbed Jinolio in a fit of rage and ruffled his hair.

“You little... When did your balls grow big enough to talk back to me? Let’s see how I deal with you...”

Lorist didn’t know how to what to do, so he took the documents from the wrestling pair and skimmed them while he waited for things to calm down.

“Enough,” he eventually had to get involved when things didn’t calm down, “Charade, you’re my chief knight and Jinolio’s senior. You’re basically his uncle as well. Don’t go too far, Jinolio will eventually be your brat’s senior, and in a great position to pick on him if you push him too far now.”

“He would dare?”

Charade let go of Jinolio and opened another bottle of blackcurrant wine. His haste to get to work had vanished when the Trade Union came up.

“Your Grace can rest assured now. I doubt the revolt was anything less than a complete bloody massacre. Most of the nobles must have been put down and thousands of peasants executed. This may have secured Cobleit’s position, but I doubt the Union can recover from this.”

“You’re wrong. We should be more wary of the Union instead. Cobleit got the perfect excuse to kill off everyone who opposed him. His position is now more secure than it has ever been. Even if a few detractors escaped his purge, which I doubt, they no longer have the power to oppose him. He holds absolute power in the country and can have them killed for whatever reason he wishes.

“Cobleit will no doubt start consolidating his position and the Union’s remaining strength. He’ll first focus on developing his remaining territory. In service of that he’ll no doubt overhaul the entire political and legal system. I wouldn’t be surprised if eight-tenths of all the Union’s laws will either be replaced or amended. I give the current peace a decade. He’ll start threatening his neighbours before the next ten years are up.”

“Aren’t you overestimating Cobleit? He no longer has access to the markets like he used to. We dominate them all. He’ll have to fight us if he wants to get back into the market, and he’ll have to do it without a good foundation with which to compete. We all know they can’t compete with us in either volume or quality. How could they possible supplant us?” Charade argued.

“You’re right. We make more and better goods. But the Union has far more experience at mass production than we do. They may never be able to match our quality, but they sure can compete with us in terms of volume, especially where heavy industry is concerned. Tell me, who did their lands belong to before them?”

“Teribo, Teria, and Mokby. So the Union is going to focus on glass?”

“Yes. Most likely oil and green glass. We make a lot of glassware and sell a lot of it to the Alliance, but no one buys oil glass or green glass from us. The reason is simple. We are too far for the transport of those items to be profitable. They can’t be sold for a high price so merchants can’t make a profit if they buy from us, transport all the way south, and then sell there.

“Before we started producing our own glass, we bought everything from the Kenmayses. But the transport costs turned the cheapest glass in Morante into unbelievable luxuries here. And even then the Kenmeyses barely made a profit.

“That’s the main reason why I didn’t spare any effort to get the recipe from Teribo. The market here in the north is immense, and we can sell much cheaper than any competitors and still make a massive profit. But the same problem the Kenmayses had with getting glass here to the north counts for us when we want to send glass to the south.

“The Trade Union cannot steal our market here, but similarly we can’t compete with them there, at least not where oil and green glass are concerned. Even if we sell at cost, they can still undercut us and still make a profit.”

“Teribo relied on selling oil and green glass to make his fortunes. The Union is now doing the same. The market is also perfect for it now. The kingdoms have been ravaged by war and are busy rebuilding. Glassware was no doubt the thing most broken during the various raids and pillages, so everyone will want to re-buy everything.

“The entire continent is also at peace for once, well, the parts that matter, anyway, which is perfect for trade. It’s only a matter of time before the Union is back on its feet and rearing to get revenge and take back its lost glory. Cobleit did exactly what I proposed to Jindoz: turning the landed nobility into honorary nobility.

“Limiting salt sales and upping their prices won’t be enough to keep the Union at bay anymore. The Union can just smuggle it in, they certainly have the know-how and the connections. Our only saving grace is that they’re in one of the worst possible geographic locations for commerce. They’re land-locked and surrounded by mountain ranges and other impassable terrain.”

“Your Grace is overestimating the Union. If they’re really this eager to keep the fight going, why not just march back south and wipe them out for good?”

Jinolio nodded frantically as well. He was a little too fervent in his belief of the Norton forces’ invulnerability.

Lorist laughed.

“And what casus belli would we use? We better have a damn good excuse to break the peace treaty so soon after signing it. Otherwise no one will ever trust either us or the soon-to-be emperor again. No, this is beyond us now. We can’t make a move again until we’re asked for help.

“We should focus on supporting the Free Union and strengthen our grip on Morante and its markets. As long as we maintain control there, the Union can only become a local powerhouse, it won’t be able to threaten the empire.”

Charade and Jinolio nodded.

“Is there anything else?” Lorist asked.

“Yes,” Jinolio answered, “Lundmorde is here for a visit with his four wives and five children.” replied Jinolio.

Chapter 563 - Enfeoffment and Arrangements

"The four wives that came with him are all pregnant again," added Jinolio.

It was Lundmorde's personal affairs, but Jinolio couldn't avoid mentioning it.

Charade and Lorist shared a shocked glance. What was that man drinking?

Lorist wanted to curse the man. Did he has breeder pig in his bloodline?

"Doesn't the bastard already have 17 children?"

"He did,Your Grace. He's become a legend. A few call him the 'heroic father'. Men teach their sons to aspire to his state, to have seven wives and countless offspring. His eldest turned seventeen this year. His currently studying at Dawn Academy."

"His wives are all bears. Who would want that?" asked Charade, dissatisfied.

He had two sons and a daughter. His wife was no less fertile than any of Lundmorde's wives, but he had only a fraction of his children. His wife had spoilt his son too much while he grew up; the boy was no nothing more but a run-of-the-mill noble brat. He preferred lazing around all day and reading a book here and there to training his body properly. The boy was also a real lecher. He was just 20 but he already had three concubines. Charade wished he could have a couple of concubines or a few more wives, but his wife wouldn't allow it and her blademaster grandfather-in-law stood behind her.

His other children were about the same age, they differed just less than a year and a half from one another. His wife devoted herself to her daughter and neglected his second son. The boy was practically raised by his great grandfather, who spoilt him into a lawless brute with a superiority complex. He frequently picked fights with his older brother for the thrill of beating him. He'd even awakened his battleforce at just fourteen. Engelich had every intention of making the little barbarian his successor and was carefully teaching him everything he knew.

Charade was too busy to tend to his children himself, but he didn't approve of his grandfather-in-law's approach to rearing his second son. He was deathly afraid the old turtle would turn his son into a coward. The old man was a rank 1 blademaster, but he never did anything for the house. He hid away in his house and thought up every possible excuse not to be d up for service.

He'd also not made any progress in his cultivation since breaking through to become a blademaster, whilst Reidy and Shuss, both of whom started cultivating much later than Engelich, had not only caught up to him, but had surpassed him. Both were now rank 2 blademasters. The last time the old man had showed himself was when Lorist was being pursued by blademasters after his confrontation with the windstorm swordsaint. And he vanished the moment he received his first injury. It was barely more than a cut, but he refused to move again, claiming to need several years to recover from his grave wounds.

It took Charade a massive amount of effort to pry his second son away from the old man and send him to Nico Academy. He also courted Lorist as his son's future master for several years before he finally got him to agree to let the boy be his attendant when he turned sixteen. If the boy could gain Lorist's favor during his time as his attendant, he would have a swordsaint master. The eldest son was beyond salvation as far as martial ability went, but Charade was okay with letting him waste his life away since he could make his second son his heir instead.

He was betting House Charade's future on his second son and would even fight his grandfather-in-law to make sure the kid grew up to be a worthy heir. He was actually interested to see if the old coward would dare compete with a swordsaint for his great-grandson. He seriously doubted the old man would even manage to get a word of protest out of his mouth even if he somehow managed to muster the courage to confront him.

That was why Charade envied Lundmorde. It wasn't that his wife hadn't blessed him with children. He just couldn't compare, neither in terms of women, nor in terms of children. If he could have seven wives, his family would no doubt be merry. Even if he didn't have twenty plus children, he'd at least have more than ten. And it wasn't like he couldn't afford to raise them.

"Seventeen plus five and four more in four stomachs... It seems Lundmorde will soon be a father of 26... Looks like he's had quite a good life in Jekhano," joked Lorist.

Lundmorde was conscripted after offending a noble in Morante and sent to the battlefield. There he managed to save Jekhano's crown prince who took him in. His four wives left to search for him and eventually found him with the prince after several years. It was practically a play.

The Union declared him a traitor when he left with the crown prince and threatened his execution should he be caught. As a result, he was forced to stay in Jekhano until the Union could be removed from the picture. Only now that the Union was no longer a threat could he return.

"Don't forget he has three more wives in the dominion. I'm certain they won't let him rest until they're all pregnant again as well. It's quite likely he'll have more than 29 children before the end of next year. I don't think it'll stop there either. They'll probably keep popping out children until they're too old to keep going," spat Charade.

"I pity him. It must be tough to raise such a big family," said Jinolio.

"Yes. The poor sod only had one small silver as spending money last I heard. He became a doctor because he had to do extra work on the side to earn more money. He's probably more miserable than any of the peasants were before they became refugees and later our subjects. He can't spend just a little on his women, if he buys one of them something, the rest demand their share as well. Not to mention the birthday presents and parties," added Charade.

"Isn't he going to be made a baron this year? You did pick a decent piece of land for him, right?" asked Lorist.

"I did," Charade nodded, "Lundmorde's barony will be near Sanderson mountain range. It's a portion of a valley in the mountain range's foothills. It's borders lie on the shore of a small lake in the valley, and into the forest up the mountain. It already has a castle and there's also a small silver mine just into the forest. We've already made a lease agreement under the title so he'll get a third of the mine's profits. That alone should be two thousand gold Fordes a year. If he makes good use of the other resources, he should get three thousand gold a year. And if he develops the dominion well, it can be increased with taxes."

Lorist rapped his fingers on his desk and wrote a few lines on a piece of paper. He handed it to Jinolio as he spoke.

"Take this to Bowrey. Draw ten thousand gold from the vaults in my name. Charade, take Jinolio with you and visit Lundmorde. The money's a gift for him from to to thank him for his years of service and as a repayment for his years of hardship outside my territory and away from his family.

"I apologize for putting this on you as well, but Lundmorde will likely not have time to come visit me, and it isn't appropriate for me to go see him myself, so I have to saddle you with this. It should be enough money to have a good celebration of his return and take a good, long vacation whilst still having some left to start up operations in his barony. I don't want him to have to borrow money anymore.

"It's long overdue, Your Grace. Lundmorde's misery is your fault, after all. You were the one that forced him to marry all seven of them. I'm sure Lundmorde will be grateful for the gift. I doubt he'll have saved up much in his time in Jekhano; his wives wouldn't have allowed it."

Lorist laughed heartily.

"It's not like he didn't deserve it. He can only blame his lack of self control. He should've known what would come if he got any of them pregnant. And don't make it sound like you're pitiful. You're very fortunate. Your wife's given you three children already. Give Lundmorde leave till the fourth month next year. He should be pretty happy to be made chief inspector of the police and we could do with the extra pair of hands."

Lundmorde was given a wonderful job as a gift as well! Chief inspector was one of the highest positions in the force below central command. Felicitas had seven towns, and each only had one chief inspector. Apart from maintaining security, chief inspectors were responsible for solving crimes and ensuring their beats were clean and hygienic and that the roads were clear and people weren't doing funny things on them.

He would probably be given a beat close to or around his barony, so he could also do the job from home. Not to mention he would have a salary worth 300 gold a year, at least several times what he could earn as a healer.

More importantly, however, since he would still be an active servant in the house, he would continue to accrue merits and could get promotions in the future, which meant he would be continuing to climb the ladder rather than having to climb off it to look after his dominion. He had a good chance of becoming a count something in his later life.

"Your Grace, my praise in Lundmorde and Dawn Academy's alumni's place." said Charade, bowing deeply.

He had been the one to invite Lundmorde, then a herbalism lecturer, to join them. Eight had since left them. Seven switched sides and joined Auguslo, of whom all but one were now dead, and one had been killed on the journey north. The remaining 28 had all stayed with Lorist and now occupied high positions in House Norton's government and army. Lundmorde was the only exception, the only one who had yet to climb high up the ranks. Instead, however, he outshone everyone when it came to family and offspring.

Lorist pondered alone in his study after his friend and disciple had left.

Lundmorde could not compare to other humans. Was he doping himself with some kind of drug? Lorist had seven women as well, if his concubines were included, but he didn't even have half as many children, not to mention that most were bastards. And when Sylvia, Fennazali, and Daisy had wanted to become pregnant, it took him months to finally knock them up. Lundmorde, on the other hand, had his women pregnant within a couple of months of having given birth, consistently.

He was a legend for all the wrong reasons, especially now that he'd returned with yet more children and four wives pregnant yet again. Many shared Lorist's suspicions that he was using a special concoction to boost his performance. A few even held banquets to bribe him to give them some as well. Even Sylvia had asked Lorist to look into the rumours.

The days passed calmly otherwise. Lorist returned to Cherry Blossom Ridge with his family in the 10th month. He couldn't bear to stay in Northsea any longer, it was too cold. His years in the warm south had made him soft. He had originally wanted to return to Ragebear instead, but Sylvia refused to go with him, and wouldn't let him leave her either, so he was forced to accompany her to her mansion instead.

Lorist finally returned to his castle in Ragebear in the 12th month for the celebrations. The city was already bustling with parties and feasts. The new year's celebrations of his house had turned into a month of festivals and parties. The people were even calling the 12th month the Month of Joy. Even the cold weather and constant snowfall did little to dampen people's mood. The snow instead became sculptures that lined the street. A few artists had even begun specializing in frozen art and had exhibitions and sculpting competitions in the city's parks.

People didn't just do it because it was an excuse to have fun. They wanted to give thanks to their duke's exceptional leadership, his achievements on the battlefield, and to celebrate his return to the city and be thankful for being his subjects. House Norton had also pulled out all the stops and were sponsoring many of the large events held in and around the city.

It wasn't just the peasantry that were in a celebratory mood. The city was flooded with nobles from all over the soon-to-be empire. Many had come with hopes of meeting the kingdom's only swordsaint, others had come to attend the inauguration ceremony and to network with the new and up-and-coming Norton nobility, and yet others had come to network and socialize with those noble. It was quite possible that, despite Auguslo's best efforts, this celebration would match, if not eclipse his ascension ceremony and celebrations.

As for those to be made peers, they included Spiel and Kedan, who were being given the title of count. Sixteen knights, including Charade, Reidy, Shuss, Camorra, Hector, Kriston, Balk, Ciroba, and Tarkel, were being given the title of viscount in addition to their previous titles as barons.

Fourty six men were going to be made barons, one of which was Shadekampf. He'd been Lorist's attendant from the very beginning, and it was finally time to reward him for his decades of service. Howard was another. He was already a viscount thanks to Duke Felim, though he wasn't the duke's vassal. It was a dowry for marrying his daughter. He was technically a vassal directly under the king, since Duke Felim had given him the viscounty without demanding his allegiance, and since he had no title or land under Lorist. This barony would formally make him Lorist's vassal, if only in the capacity as a baron, since Howard's wife was technically the title holder of the viscounty.

Few doubted that this celebration would be remembered for years, if not generations to come, and not for being so close to the king's ascension to emperor.

Chapter 564 - Alisa's Marriage

The winter harvests came after the rainy season. Lorist’s lands were flooded with cheer. In fact, the weather had been nice since Lorist took over 20 years earlier. Despite the stormy ocean weather in the north, the coast had not been hit by a severe storm in over two decades, nor had there been any floods.

Spiel was not surprised when Lorist brought it up during one of their meetings, however. According to him, the Northlands was known for its calm weather; disasters were rare. The only reason it hadn’t been properly developed before Lorist came along was the chronic shortage of people. Few people were willing to brave the magic beasts that used to roam the region annually. With them gone, however, there was little to stop people from coming north.

The biggest problem the north used to face beside the magic beasts was the chronic belligerence of the region’s nobles. What little growth in population there was thanks to childbirth was quickly squandered in petty squabbles. There was also the issue of occasional barbarian raids from the mountains. The Nortons were especially plagued by them and spent most of the little wealth they saved up in campaigns against the hordes.

Things were different now, however. The beast waves were no more, the old squabbling nobles were gone and the new ones were all loyal to Lorist, and the barbarians had not come down from the mountains to raid in over a decade. The people were now free to unearth the region’s riches. It was certainly a great help that the region finally had decent infrastructure. The region’s population had seen a historic explosion and there was little sign that, even now that Lorist was no longer shipping tens of thousands of captured peasants north, the population would not continue to grow substantially for the foreseeable future.

The region was not just in a good present condition, but all forecasts predicted it would rise to rival even the most prosperous regions elsewhere in the empire. Lorist’s rule would no doubt go down in history as the greatest rule of any noble in the empire’s history, maybe even of any noble on the continent. There was little doubt in Spiel’s mind that Lorist would be remembered as Norton the Great, or something similar. He kept saying Lorist should take a few years off and spend some quality time with his family. His greatest duty now was to ensure that his successor would be educated enough and correctly such that he would not squander the glory his predecessor had built.

Lorist agreed. His life in the north to date had been a tale of continuous war and crisis. It was time to step away from the path of bloodshed and focus on letting his lands thrive.

Life, unfortunately, was not accommodating of man’s wishes. He had developed his dominion rapidly, but had done so without sufficiently overhauling its fundamental governing system. He was still ruling it like he was a baron only responsible for a single town, someone who could afford to be in direct control of everything. But his lands were now greater than most kingdoms. Despite that, he still had to keep watch over almost everything that happened. His desk was permanently buried under reports and documents that required his attention.

Viscount Josk, for one, had come to see him not long ago. He came to ask permission to take Jaeger to the wildlands to do training and run a few wargames.

“Do you have a fever? What’s going on?” Lorist had asked, putting his palm to the man’s forehead, “It’s mating season right now. We don’t go into the wildlands until the 10th month when the catch will be the best. You’re six months early!”

Freiyar had definitely opposed Josk as well, as was Malek, otherwise he wouldn’t have come to Lorist. Lorist was most puzzled that Josk would want to do anything with Jaeger at all, he rare got involved with the legion at all.

“What’s going on, Joe? You should be in your viscounty right now. You have to find yourself a woman and get to work on an heir, not running off to the wildlands to hunt. I understand you are very loyal to your late fiancée, but you have a responsibility to yourself and your subjects to secure your bloodline. Besides, would your late fiancée want you to live alone like this for the rest of your life? Wouldn’t she want you to have a family and experience the joy of being a father?” Lorist asked.

Josk didn’t meet Lorist’s gaze. He kept his head low and only muttered about wanted to do more for him. He had been forced to cancel the previous year’s hunt because of the new year’s celebration and wanted to make up for it. Many other nobles had begun forming winter armies as well and the price of fur had doubled. A missed hunt was hundreds of thousands of gold Fordes down the drain, at least.

Lorist smiled bitterly. The house’s finances were fine. They didn’t need to hunt every year just to stay solvent. A missed hunt wasn’t a big deal. Cutting supply to the market for a season or so might actually be a good thing since it would chase the price up.

Josk left with an odd expression as if he had trouble he couldn’t articulate but he didn’t say anything. Lorist grew suspicious and had Viscount Kriston investigate the matter.

Potterfang came two days later with a grim air about him. This time it was about his daughter’s marriage. His little elf-like brat of a girl, Alisa, had quickly grown into a beautiful young lady. He temperament, however, broke Potterfang’s heart.

Lorist’s impression of her was still that of the coquettish girl that mocked him whenever she saw him. It wasn’t his fault though. He had rarely, if ever, played with her again after the convoy arrived in the northlands. If his memory served, Telesti had taken her as a disciple a few years earlier, hoping to raise her into a proper lady.

“Hold on, she’s 28 already? And she’s the knight-commander the Order of the Cherry Blossom?” Lorist choked.

The Order of the Cherry Blossom occupied a very awkward position in the military. They were a small knightly order nominally in the military, but they weren’t subject to its chain of command. Sylvia was given command of the then ‘woman brigade’ when she married Lorist and turned it into a knightly order. Since she was the order’s captain, no one from the military brass had the authority to give any of the order’s members commands, not to mention that, as a knightly order, they were technically completely autonomous of any faction. The only reason Lorist could give them orders was because Sylvia was his wife and would listen to him, so technically he suggested something to Sylvia and she was the one that actually gave the order. The order was only peripherally trained in combat, however, since they were mostly a ceremonial force concerned with guarding Sylvia, though they were trained and deployed as healers from time to time.

Lorist had wanted to give them a more active role as combat medics, but they weren’t interested. Before they were turned into an order, when they were still known as just the woman brigade, they had been deployed against Iblia during the campaign against the second prince’s climax. Norton’s side had suffered few losses, but the woman from the brigade couldn’t handle the blood and gore. Many were struck with night sweats, angst, and incessant nightmares thereafter. The unit nearly disbanded after the battle, in fact.

The brigade was put under Tigersoar, but most of the women quickly paired up with men from the legion and retired after getting pregnant.

With the unit reduced to a mere husk, Lorist had to retrain the unit from the ground up. He took it out of Tigersoar and turned it into a reserve force that dealt mostly in paperwork and handled medical stations and hospitals behind the front lines. They did quite well in that role. They frequently put on shows for the recovering soldiers which boosted morale.

Sylvia found out about the brigade shortly before the marriage and asked to be given command of it as Lorist’s wedding gift, which Lorist was happy to do. She quickly went about turning the brigade into a proper knightly order with her as its captain. She didn’t get involved in most of its inner workings after it was set up, however, instead that duty fell to the unit’s technical second in command, but practical leader, the order’s knight-commander. The order operated out of Sylvia’s personal residence, Cherry Blossom Ridge, and she named the order after the place since she loved it so much. Thus Pesha’s pet project from two decades earlier had become the Duchess of the Northlands’ personal knightly order, a force none but the Duke and the Duchess could command.

“She decided to become a knight after seeing Pesha when she was young? I didn’t think that woman had any fans.”

“Yes, Your Grace. Alisa went to Dawn Academy to study and awake her battleforce when she turned 16. She spent several years there in the knighthood course. She went to Nico Academy and became Lady Telesti’s first knight. Her ambition get the better of her after a few years though. She grew restless and eventually joined the woman brigade. She advanced to two-star silver rank two years ago and became the order’s new knight-commander.”

Potterfang appeared frustrated. He had wanted to keep this under wraps at first, but his relationship with his daughter had always been tense. Had took the daughter of one of the house’s captured nobles as his wife, against the wishes of his children, Howard and Alisa. The two felt he had betrayed their deceased mother and Alisa stopped listening to her father. Potterfang couldn’t exactly barge in and take his daughter out of Nico Academy and away from Telesti as her knight since she was Lorist’s lover, though it had been years since the two had interacted.

“I see... So Alisa is both Telesti’s knight and knight-commander of the sylvia’s cherry blossoms. No wonder I haven’t heard anything about her for so long.”

Alisa would have been mentioned in at least one report if she’d pledged herself to House Norton. Lorist’s memory was quite good and he would have known it was her immediately. She had joined the Order of the Cherry Blossom, which was nominally part of House Norton, but knightly orders were a difficult thing. Even if their heads were members of a noble household, orders were never part of any political faction. They were independent military forces that operated according to their founding ideals, so even though Alisa was a part of Sylvia’s order, she was not technically a member of House Norton.

“So you want me to convince her to get married?”

“I don’t know how to say this, Your Grace. Howard is Your Grace’s disciple and is married. I don’t mind whether he remains your servant or found his own house. I trust my son, and with you there to guide him, I have nothing to worry about. But Alisa is 28, and she hasn’t married or had any children yet. She’s already very old to still be unmarried and I worry she’ll grow into an old, lonely woman if this goes on.

“I’m her father, so I should be the one to arrange a good husband for her, but she won’t listen to me. She has her own ideas about marriage and she’s been stirring up a big commotion in that regard lately. I shouldn’t be talking about her behind her back, but I worry as her father. Please, Your Grace, will you not help this old father and deal with this before it becomes a scandal?”

Potterfang left Lorist with many questions unanswered after only vaguely explaining the situation. Lorist was not about to get involved in something that could be hot water without knowing what was going on first, so he had Kriston look into it first.

When he got the report, he nearly jumped through his study’s roof.

Chapter 565 - Blissful Union

Fact was indeed stranger than fiction. Lorist checked the report to confirm he wasn't reading a romance novel.

Josk and Alisa's private affairs had little bearing on Lorist's lands as a whole, so the internal affair's department had not paid them any attention before. They naturally wouldn't skimp on investigating it once Lorist asked about it, however.

House Fisablen had gone to war with Lorist eight years earlier. Fisablen's sly manoeuvring had let him escape Southern as it fell to Wild Husbandry and set up an ambush with the grassland barbarian legion. He wiped the second and third Jaeger divisions out there and Colonel Pete died whilst Yuriy was heavily injured. Josk had pushed his men in to relieve his comrades and severely injured Duke Fisablen in the process.

It was the first, and one of the few, losses Lorist had ever suffered. He was short 30 thousand men by the time the dust settled. The two colonels were sent to the woman brigade to be treated, and there Alisa met Josk again. He was her first assignment as part of the brigade.

The first met when Josk was still a dashing young knight tagging along with her 'Uncle Lorist'. He wasn't a much of a talker and didn't smile often. Despite his youth at the time, he was still older than Alisa enough that there was a decent argument he should be called Uncle Josk. The two did nothing but see each other in passing once or two in the end, though.

The woman brigade gossiped about Josk being the most handsome of House Norton's knights during his stay at the field hospital. His lost love story only made him more attractive. Many were heartbroken when they heard about his injuries and wished they could have taken his place.

Alisa was 20 at the time, but Josk was already 36. She was likely at least partially influenced by her friends and comrades' worship of the man, but she quickly fell in love with him. She swore to herself, when Josk was about to leave the hospital, that she would marry him and no other man.

Josk, however, saw her affectations as just the crush of a young girl. He knew more than anyone the difference in their ages, he was practically brothers with her father. He had no intention of putting his friendship with Potterfang on the line for a likely messy relationship that had every chance of failing miserably. He believed Alisa would move on if he treated her coldly like so many of his fangirls.

But she just would not give up. She spent every waking moment by his side, regardless of how much Josk tried to get rid of her.

Josk was at the point of giving in when he was cleared to return to active duty and dashed out of the hospital like a man running from burning forest. Alisa would continue to visit him frequently, but he managed to avoid her most of the time.

Unfortunately she was a good tracker, at least when it came to him, so he still bumped into her more times than not. It didn't help that she would also come up with every excuse she could think of to either come visit him, or have to go to his compound, at which point she'd obviously go look for him. One of her favourite excuses was to put up a performance for the men in Josk's barracks with a troupe from the brigade. And she didn't miss any event related to him. She was there for his birthday, the day of his knighting, and the day of his entitlement as a baron. He also had to get letters from her every couple of days.

This had been going on non-stop for the entire eight years since she'd met again him again in that field hospital. Josk had been content with keeping her at arms length as he had been for however much longer it took. But Alisa's father was beginning to put more and more pressure on her to get married. Her brother and liege had also been getting involved lately.

But she didn't want to marry anyone but Josk, but Josk had no intention of getting involved with any women, period. He couldn't just continue to ignore her, but he also couldn't take her in because of his vow to his deceased fiancée, and he didn't know how to respond to her.

In the end, Alisa took matters into her own hands and forced herself on Josk. She visited Jaeger again with a troupe when they were returning from the campaign in the south. She fed everyone enough alcohol to make them pass out drunk, slipped Josk a nearly lethal dose of aphrodisiacs and spent the rest of the night with him.

Lorist's couldn't believe his eyes. He did not think the little girl he remembered had it in her to force herself on one of his subordinates. She didn't stop at that either. Since Josk had taken her virginity, she reasoned he had little choice but to take her in, so she moved into his castle and was practically viscountess already. Josk, in response, avoided his lands like death itself and thought up every excuse he could to stay with his forces or anywhere but home.

Lorist downed his cup of tea, only to spit it all over when he read about where Josk currently was.

Perfect! So he really was staying away because he didn't want to meet Alisa. Was he doing it out of guilt for having taken her virginity? Then again, she was the one to force herself on him, so he was the victim, really. And then she even took it upon herself to all but declare herself his wife already and take over governing his lands in his absence!

So that was why he wanted to take Jaeger out. He wanted to get as far away from the woman as possible. Unfortunately she had sent out every man she could to look for him and drag him to his dominion and force him to marry her. It was quickly turning into a massive scandal and would likely ruin Josk and Potterfang's family names. The one was inept at dealing with women and the other was a draconic vixen with no sense of propriety.

Lorist finally pitied Potterfang. Josk was Lorist's trusted subordinate and dear friend. Though his rank wasn't that high, Potterfang considered Josk his equal as well. Now, however, it was only a matter of time before Josk became his son-in-law, and the man would likely resent him for not stopping the marriage.

As such, there was a wild goose chase going on all across the Northlands that had been causing quite a stir. Many people watched on and gossiped about it like it was a comedy. The two responsible for this affair didn't care, but Potterfang was at his limit. He just wanted everything to go away even if it meant forcing his friend to marry Alisa. Josk, however, was perfectly willing to live like a vagabond if it meant he could avoid the woman.

"Jinolio!" Lorist called, "Tell Reidy to find Josk and tell him I order him to return to his dominion and marry Alisa. He can drag the man in front of me if he still refuses."

Josk was hiding in Reidy's manor. He didn't have many close friends in the army. He had wanted to hide it out with Yuriy, but Alisa kept sending men to his lands and castle to look for him.

Reidy's manor was one of the eight Lorist had confiscated when he conquered Ragebear. He gave the three left after his wife and concubines each took one to Glacia, and Reidy, and the last one was still up for grabs. Not many people knew about the manors, which made them the perfect place for Josk to hide.

This was perfect. Lorist could use the excuse of Josk having defiled Alisa to force him to marry her and it would solve a number of problems at once. He didn't really think about the fact that it was against Josk's wishes. She was young, beautiful, and attractive, Josk must have enjoyed it, so he simply had no say in the matter. It also didn't matter that Josk had made a vow on his deceased fiancée's grave to remain faithful to her for the rest of his live, Lorist wanted him to marry someone, so that's what would happen. He had bedded the girl, so he had to wed the girl as well. It didn't matter in the slightest that it had been against his will, his wishes, or his vows.

Lorist thought about his old neighbor, Li, from his past life. The man had a daughter who entered a trading company after graduating and became the mistress of the company's boss. After three years of struggling, she finally got the boss to kick away his old wife and be made the main wife instead. Every time the balding boss came to Li's house, he had to address Li, five years his senior, as 'Father'.

As he expected, Reidy soon dragged Josk into the study. He knew Josk would not accept it. He didn't even answer Lorist after the man had tried gently convincing him for several hours.

Lorist was forced to drag his wife and concubines into the mess so they could slap some sense into Josk. He knew that, them being women and wives and concubines, they would side with Alisa no matter what. So he could count on them dogging Josk until he gave in and he would not be able to convince them otherwise no matter what he said.

It took the women just half an hour to convince Josk that he had some responsibility in the matter and a duty to marry her. They also convinced him that he was wrong to keep his vow to his wife when he had another women pining for him.

Successfully indoctrinated, Lorist returned to his dominion and wedded Alisa. The woman really loved him after all, so it wasn't her fault. He had a duty to be loyal to her since he'd taken her virginity. Surely it would be a very happy time for him.

Lorist was very happy to hear Josk had finally seen things his way like he should have so long ago and immediately arranged the marriage. It took less than a week for the marriage to be held. He also made sure to keep Josk by his side until the wedding just in case, but his women had done a good job and Josk didn't try to run.

Lorist could finally breathe a sigh of relief when the pair strolled out of the hall, husband and wife.

Just as he was about to leave for a short trip with his family after seeing his subordinate off, however, trouble once again came his way. It was from Morante, again… But this time it was the religious trouble rather than political trouble. The shrines so prolific in Morante, had come to ask for permission to build shrines in the Northlands and convert the populace.

Chapter 566 - Belief and Supervision

“You can’t let these foreigners spread their superstitions in your land. These supposed representatives of the divine are just a bunch of power and wealth hungry dogs. They would pray for any place that’s prosperous and rich and use the excuse of converting people to scour wealth. Some of them even preach disloyalty to the secular lords. You can’t let the Morantian shrines into your land.”

Viscount Hector, governor of Wild Husbandry, was the first to oppose the shrines. He used to be an apprentice instructor in Mobel Academy in the imperial capital. He escaped the war and fled to Silowas, becoming Whitebird Town’s secretary. He was accepted into Lorist’s service when the duke retook the island and slowly rose through the ranks to the position of governor thanks to his excellent ability in administration.

It was common knowledge that back when the Krissen Empire was in its prime, a few emperors ignored the shrines. Krissen IV famously chased shrine ambassadors out of the empire when they went to ask him for permission to spread their faith in his empire.

He believed the empire was founded by the labour of man alone, the gods had no place in it. The only time he ever heard the gods mentioned, was in the prayers of soldier before going into battle, yet no god ever came to aid them. He believed in his hands and his sword alone.

In response, the shrines did most of their conversion and proselytizing near the empire’s borders were the emperor and his forces rare tread. The most prolific of the shrines worshipped the wargod, the god of wisdom, the goddess of the earth, and the goddess of the silver moon. But the emperor was considered the spirit of the nation, so since he did not believe, most of his people did not either and even those that were converted, were lukewarm believers at best. The shrines could thus not get enough money to fund their activities from the people and were forced to return to Morante after the war ended.

The instructors-in-training and budding officials in Mobel Academy were trained to follow in the footsteps of the imperial family. Since they practically worshipped the emperors, they were vehemently opposed to the shrines. The shrines claimed the gods were the ultimate authority over the world, which was an affront to the right of the emperor to rule over his empire.

Charade was of a different opinion, however. He believed it was inevitable that the shrines would wish to come north after they saw how prosperous the north was through the trade done in Morante. Lorist had many subjects and they were, on average, far more wealthy than any other land’s people. The shrines wanted a piece of the pie and there was no real way get them to give up.

The shrines couldn’t compare to House Norton’s might, but they had the commoners’ hearts. If Lorist blatantly opposed the shrines, he risked alienating his people. Most of his subjects had been forced to move into his lands from elsewhere, from places where the shrines were dominant. As a result most of his people were believers in the gods. Their hatred for Lorist and his forces had begun to mellow because he had given them good lives, but if he attacked or slighted their faith, that might all be undone.

There was also the matter of the political implications of turning away the shrines. Lorist was supporting the Free Union, and the shrines were one of the greatest factions there. Turning them away would strain his relationship with the Free Union.

Charade was in favour of letting the shrines operate within Lorist’s dominion, on condition that they were closely monitored and regulated to ensure they didn’t spread any messages or beliefs that conflicted with Lorist’s objectives and interests.

Kedan also shared his opinion, a rare occurrence. He was of the same mind as Charade. Being in charge of the police, he had a firm grasp on what was going on in Lorist’s dominions. The people were naturally superstitious, and needed some spiritual force in their lives. Without the shrines there to fill that role, countless cults had sprung up across the land and they were the primary source of crime and unrest at the moment.

The house had opened many halls of learning, but it would take decades for the population to become literate and be well-educated enough to not fall to superstition. And most of those being taught were children, the adults were all still just as uneducated and superstitious as before. Their superstition made them believe their good fortune was thanks to favour from the gods, rather than good governance by Lorist and his vassals and subordinates.

A couple of villages in Redriver Valley, for instance, had recently started worshipping a wiccan god said to live in the nearby Black Forest. They frequently made blood sacrifices under the full moon. Two children, a boy and a girl, would be killed as sacrifices. Another cult was becoming popular in the east of The Northlands. They worshipped Walis, a sun god and brother of Singwa. Walis was said to be immortal and could turn stone into gold and even pass on his divine abilities to a believer. Some were donating their wealth to the cult in hopes of being blessed by Walis and becoming richer. Naturally they ended up on the streets, some then killed their family believing they hadn’t donated enough, and sacrificing their family would make up the difference.

The shrines didn’t bother when the lands were desolate, but now they could make a lot of money, so of course they were coming. It helped that most people used to be so concerned with just putting food on the table and saving up to wait out the winter that they didn’t have time or energy for frivolous faiths. What little they could spare for prayer and faith was all directed at the sun and war gods. Now, however, they had more than enough time, energy, and money. A few religious scuffles had even broken out between fanatic groups.

If for nothing else, the shrines were not extremists, so it was better to have the people believe in mundane and benign faiths than have them fall to violent and deviant cults. And even better if they worshipped at shrines that could be closely monitored to ensure they toed the lord’s line.

The others present were silent as they carefully contemplated Kedan’s words. This was indeed a new and serious problem. At times of war people were easy to please and they all tended to worship gods related to war. Now, however, their beliefs were started to scatter in all strange directions.

Viscount Camorra agreed with his two foregoers, but also shared Hector’s concerns. The shrines had been willing to compromise so far because they didn’t have much influence among the people, but once they became entrenched, they would no doubt begin to think about throwing off Lorist’s overwatch and use the people to pressure him to agree to their demands.

At the very least, the shrines could not be allowed to congregate. Each shrine had to base itself in a different region, ideally, they’d also only be allowed to proselytize in their specific region so that their growth could be limited and they could be kept from coming into conflict with one another or uniting to form a single faction. It wouldn’t be too difficult to come up with good arguments for this either.

They could just argue that they’re letting each shrine build its headquarters in a place most relevant to its god, such as putting the god of the sea and god of storms shrines in Northsea since they’re all about the water and sailing. Putting the goddess of the earth and the goddess of the harvests’ shrine headquarters in Felicitas since they’re related to agriculture, which was that region’s specialty. The goddess of the forest and the goddess of the rivers could be put near Black Forest. And Firmrock and Ragebear would have the wargod.

In this way, Camorra quickly came up with a reasonable division of the land between the 20 or so deities and their shrines. They could put shrines in Wild Husbandry and the eastern parts of the Northlands to speed up the mountain and grassland barbarians’ assimilation.

The group quickly agreed with Camorra’s plan. They would let the shrines operate in their lands, but they had to headquarter themselves as directed. The next question, then, was how to regulate them. Charade supported Camorra’s idea that they be limited to operating only in their designated region. Spiel quickly added that they should limit the money the shrines were allowed to take from the people. Each believe could only donate up to a certain limit of his income in a year, any further donations would result in punitive taxes on his income. The shrines should also have to report their income and should be required to spend at least a specific portion thereof on charity work to support the poor, such as setting up and running charitable hospitals.

Kedan added that the shrines should not be allowed the right to give anyone sanctuary from the law, and any members of the clergy would also be subject to the law. They would also have the responsibility of maintain religious order by combatting any cults that appear in their region. Camorra chimed in again to suggest that the forceful conversion of people should also be forbidden, as well as any interference with another shrine’s operations. They would only be allowed to talk to people about their gods and their faith, but couldn’t force them to follow the faith, and they couldn’t try to make it so that businesses and other organisations required their workers to be of a certain faith to be hired or to continue to work there or get promotions.

With these regulations in place, Hector slowly came around to the idea that the shrines could be beneficial. In the end, everyone decided on 18 regulations and presented them to Lorist.

Lorist smiled.

“And who would enforce these regulations?”

Everyone was stunned. None of them had thought about who would be responsible for ensuring the shrines followed their regulations. The government didn’t have the spare manpower to allocate to this task, but they couldn’t let the shrines in without these regulations.

Lorist shook his head. He suggested that they have the shrines regulate each other alongside his government. They would form a regulatory council that would ensure everyone kept to the regulations and deal with any offenses.

The shrines would have to fund the council from their own pocket as well. The council officials could work in the administration on the side, but they couldn’t let that interfere with their council duties. The council could fine member shrines for offenses and the fines would be used to fund the council as well, though of course a portion would be taxed. If it came to the point where a shrine was banned and their region confiscated, the council could allocate it to bordering shrines by majority vote of the council. The council would also be called the Council of the Faiths.

Lorist was confident it would be a very tempting pot of gold for the shrines, so they would keep each other in check and look for any opportunity to call each other out to get a portion of the fine money. This would pit the shrines against one another and keep them from banding together against him and his government.

Charade led the negotiations. The negotiations took all the way to the 7th month to conclude. The next month, Lorist signed the regulations into law and the shrines were officially allowed to begin operating in his dominion within their designated regions.

The populace quickly calmed down and many of the cults vanished.

Chapter 567 - Dean Claude's Request

Lorist woke up in a bad mood on the morning of the 13th of the 7th. Anderbael had gotten into trouble again. He had grabbed a cockerel after getting up in the morning and blamed it for waking him up. He had decided to roast it, so he tied it over a fire with a rope.

It naturally didn’t end well. The cockerel became a dashing fireball. It set everything it passed alight, the small forest in the castle’s rear bailey, the chicken coop, the trees lining the road down to the main gate, and quite a few things in between. It looked like the castle was on fire from outside the inner skirting walls. The fireball even ran into a passing maid and lit the linen she was carrying on fire. It made it into the storeroom behind her as she ran of squealing, setting a number of things inside alight before collapsing by the entrance on its way out. Quite a resilient thing it turned out to be.

Lorist stormed out of his room to the balcony from the smoke, but luckily the fires were already being put out. He dragged Anderbeal to his study by the ear and gave his rear a good spanking. The child ran to his mother and wet her bosom for half an hour with his tears. Sylvia nagged Lorist the whole time to not be so harsh on the poor child, sapping what little appetite he had left for breakfast. He glugged down to mouthfuls of bread and stormed up to his study.

It was time for Anderbael to be properly tutored. Sylvia was raising the child to be just spoiled, which was not good. At least it wasn’t as bad as his first child. That said, the little brat was still very mischievous, though it stemmed less from a narcissistic egotism than healthy curiosity and a lack of boundaries. He was usually quite well-mannered, after all. Lorist’s main reason for punishing the little boy was because he’d interrupted his morning exercise with Fennazali.

Jinolio entered the study with a cup of fresh macks.

“Anything on the schedule?” Lorist asked lazily.

“Dean of Dawn Academy Blademaster Claude has an audience at nine this morning to discuss establishing a branch academy,” Jinolio answered promptly.

Time really flew. A decade had already passed since Dawn had moved over from Morante. Dean Levins had retired and handed his position to Claude. Dawn Academy was now the top school in the whole soon-to-be empire. Its student body numbered six thousand and the campus couldn’t handle them anymore. Most of the kingdom’s noble were sending their children to the academy, from barons to the other dukes and their family.

“Where does he want to set it up?”

Jinolio slapped his forehead.

“Didn’t I hand Your Grace the application a few days ago? Dean Claude is trying to decide between Vanades in Delamock, in which case he’d set up a business faculty, or Windbury in Winston, in which case it’d be a knight school.”

Lorist quickly recalled the matter. No wonder Claude wanted to see him. Kenmays and Felim were probably fighting over it again. Dawn Academy was a combined academy that taught multiple disciplines ranging from chivalry to accounting, the latter was a popular pick among many students for its potential to grant them well-paying jobs. They would be popular picks regardless of whether they applied to Lorist’s military or his administration. The skill was popular with other nobles as well, not to speak of merchants and guilds.

Lorist had made Kenmays mayor of Vanades. He’d done pretty well in the post too. He didn’t just turn the city into the salt merchant committee’s headquarters, but also turned it into the capital of the kingdom’s trade. Almost all of the kingdom’s guilds were headquartered there. Now it seemed he’d set his sites on Dawn Academy. He was no doubt doing his best to talk a hole into Claude’s head to start a business school in the city. A number of more mercantile nobles had started complaining to Kenmays recently that the competition for slots in Dawn Academy was too strong. They wanted a place closer to home to send their children, too.

Felim had his own plans for Dawn Academy. He wanted Claude to set up a knight school in Windbury so the more militarily inclined amongst the nobility wouldn’t have to compete as harshly for spaces at the main campus. It made sense that they coveted being able to send their children to the academy, its technique were far superior to anything they could teach their children. A big reason for that was that most families only had parts of their ancestor’s manuals regarding the training of battleforce. It was not good to train an incomplete technique. The Academy, however, could offer complete manuals. It also didn’t help that it was prohibitively expensive to get personal tutors who knew enough to train the child properly. It was much cheaper to ship the children off to the academy, not to mention that it would be a golden opportunity for the children to mingle with higher nobility and build out their network of contacts and acquaintances.

Claude was too happy to oblige. If he could set up branch academies he could spread Dawn’s reputation and influence and secure its position in the empire before any real competition even had a chance to get going. The academy had come a long way from its crisis days when it was on the brink of closing for good back in Morante. Lorist was the academy’s savior, having convinced the former dean to move it to the Northlands and funded the construction of the new campus himself. Claude felt, given the massive role the duke had played in bringing about the academy’s current fortune, and, in a way, his investment in the academy, he had a right to a say in such matters. Besides, both Vanades and Windbury were in his territory so he’d have to give his permission either way.

“It was blue, right? I probably threw it on that table there. Bring it for me, would you?” said Lorist, massaging his temples.

After much faffing, Jinolio finally found the application.

“What else is on the agenda?” Lorist asked, his eyes still closed and his fingers still massaging.

“Nobody else has asked for an audience. A messenger arrived from the king yesterday, though. The king summons Your Grace to the capital for his ascension. A reply is due. Also, Duke Kenmays wrote asking when His Grace should accompany Your Grace to the capital. Duke Felim and Duke Shazin have written to the same effect. They will leave for the capital on the 18th and hope Your Grace will accompany them.”

“Why would I bother going so early?” Lorist muttered, “The ceremony is on the 10th of next month. I’ll leave to I arrive three or four days ahead of the ceremony, but there’s no need to get there a month early… Ugh, fine. Write to the king and tell him I’m too busy to go now. I’ll leave so I arrive around the 5th. Tell Kenmays I’m sailing for the capital and I’ll meet him at Platinum Beach.”

“Your Grace, I need to know the date we leave,” complained Jinolio.

“Fine--“ Lorist counted the days on his fingers. “--It’ll take seven days from Northsea to Jillin Harbor, so make it eight to be safe. We’ll rest one day there, so that’s nine. And it’ll take another two to the capital. If we pick up Kenmays we can add another day. Twelve in all. On right, three days from here to Northsea, so 15 in all. We’ll leave on the 25th, then.”

“Which of the madams will accompany you?”

It went without saying that Sylvia would go, so Jinolio must be talking about one of his concubines.

“Just take them all, the children too. We can spend a few days at Seaview Manor on our way back.”

“Very well.”

Standard procedure was for Jinolio to relay the instructions to Bowrey who would tell Sylvia and the other ‘madams’. The date had been decided more than ten days in advance, but since the whole lot would be going, time was needed to make the arrangements, the escort, the supplies, the other staff that would accompany them, the ships and the naval escort, and so forth.

Claude walked into Lorist’s office exactly on time. The two hadn’t met in years and both were quite emotional. Claude had watched Lorist turn into a legendary figure from a mere instructor of the academy one step at a time. The iron-ranked instructor was now swordsaint and a duke. Claude felt like he hardly knew the man. How on earth was he ever going to stand on equal footing with this titan again? He had been a gold-ranked instructor when Lorist was just an iron rank, but now, despite being dean of the academy and a rank 2 blademaster, he was lifetimes behind his former peer.

He forcefully shoved the frivolous thoughts to the back of his mind. What point was there in comparing himself with Lorist? Lorist was equal to a swordsaint, but his battleforce was still iron rank. They walked completely different paths of cultivation, so there was no point in comparing them.

Jinolio served fragrant tea silently while Claude reminisced. Claude got straight down to business after taking a sip. He would love to open two branches but, despite being as popular as it was, the academy only had the funds and the surplus staff to open one branch right now. Most of the money was budgeted for expanding and upgrading the main campus in the Northlands. Lorist wouldn’t settle for a seizure of improvements there to be able to open two branches at the same time elsewhere, anyway. It wouldn’t have been such a big deal if the two dukes weren’t fighting tooth and nail over which branch should be opened.

Even if Lorist didn’t want to, he had to be the one to make the decision, otherwise the one who didn’t get their wish between the two dukes would never shut up.

“Open the business school. We won’t see wars for at least the next decade or two, so there’s no point in expanding your knight school. Besides, the empire will need administrative officials more than knights in the years of peace to come to help rebuild it.”

Claude nodded.

“Alright. I’ll make the arrangements.”

“Why did Duke Felim bring up a knight school at all?”

Turned out House Felim had suffered heavy losses on the plains three years earlier and were anxious to refill the empty positions and get their army back up to full strength.

“Then why not set up a few diploma courses? He can send some men over to be trained in that instead. There’s no need to start a new school just for that.”

Claude was still troubled.

“It would certainly be less difficult and permanent than setting up a new knight school, but it’s still very hard to do with our current resources, especially our staff numbers. We really only have enough to set up one new campus, we won’t have any men to spare, even for just a few extra diploma courses.”

Lorist burst out laughing.

“What? Come on, Claude. What about this? My men need a break from the military for a while, why not hire a few of our fellow alumni as temporary instructors? I’m sure they’d be more than happy to join the academy again for a while. You can only have them for three months though.”

“Thank you, Your Grace.”

Chapter 568 - Who Would Assassinate You?

On the 25th day of the 7th month, Lorist brought his family on the ferry ship, Blue Seagull, to head to the imperial capital to attend Auguslo's grand ceremony.

When they passed House Kenmays's domain, Sidgler, they stopped at Platinum Beach for half a day to pick up Duke Kenmays.

Blue Seagull was a new long-distance ferry ship made in the shipyards at Bullhorn Bay. It had 124 guest cabins in total and each round, it could carry up to 470 passengers. That was the first ship to exclusively transport passengers in the history of Grindia. Lorist already ordered three more such ships to be built to kick off the ferrying route from Northsea all the way to Hidegold Bay instead of using transport ships for that purpose.

This was Blue Seagull's maiden voyage. It would first sail to Jillin Harbor before continuing on to Hidegold Bay. Kenmays was given one and a half cabins because he unexpectedly wanted to bring two thousand people to the imperial capital. Fortunately, he also used two LLDAM-class ships of House Kenmays to ferry most of the others so that Blue Seagull wouldn't be overloaded with people.

"Locke, are you only bringing so few people to attend the ceremony?" asked Kenmays after he embarked.

Puzzled, Lorist asked, "What? Is there something wrong with that?"

He only brought a squad of 100 guards, his wife, lovers and children as well as around 200 servants. Put nicely, he was traveling light, but it could also be seen as him being stingy. Unlike the Duke of The Northlands, Kenmays brought more than two thousand people as was fitting for someone of his status. But since Lorist didn't really see grandeur with much favor, he preferred to travel with a smaller cohort.

Kenmays gingerly said, "Even though you're a swordsaint and won't have to worry about your personal safety when you travel, you at least have to bring a thousand guards out with you. Don't forget that dukes like us have to bring a thousand men from our forces to join parades for an event like these to show our loyalty to the king."

"That won't be a problem," Lorist said with a smile, "I can just bring a thousand garrison soldiers from Silowas to join the parade. Since we're only putting up airs, nobody will take this seriously. Given that our forces have only just returned during the end of last year, they're having their vacation now. So, I really shouldn't pick any of them to join the ceremony."

"Well, I suppose that works too." Kenmays nodded. "It's no wonder I didn't see Charade and Potterfang joining you. The subordinates of other lords on the other hand were scrambling for a chance to go mingle in the imperial capital."

"I already asked them to come with me, but they didn't want to. Perhaps they would rather spend time with their family than attend this ceremony. They've been out of home for three years after all, and they desperately need the kinship. So, I only brought Reidy and Jinolio with me as well as Patt, the commander of my guards."

Kenmays sighed with understanding. "I know. Three years back when I brought my ravaged forces back to Sidgler, I didn't feel like going anywhere at all and wanted to laze around at home. But you're different. You returned as a victor while we returned merely as bloodied survivors. I ate nonstop after I got back and laid with my maidservants like there was no tomorrow. It's only half a year later that I calmed down and took the reins of my house and trading guild again."

Lorist didn't say anything else. Back then, everyone was duped by Auguslo into thinking that the million-man army alone was enough to force the Trade Union to agree to return the two occupied provinces to Andinaq. Everyone thought they were just going to bring their forces for a walk in the park to get what Auguslo promised them. They didn't expect the Trade Union to completely disregard their enemy and choose to instigate the conflict themselves instead, leading into a three-year war that was bloody on both sides.

Lorist and the Union's swordsaint fought to a draw and left the frontlines, and then there was the revolt in the dominion. In the end, the three Norton legions had to return to the dominion to quell the problems, leaving the rest of Andinaq's forces to fend against the Union forces alone on Falik Plains. Thanks to the incessant human wave tactics the Union used which were enabled by their constant stream of recruits from the southern Union provinces, the noble army suffered great casualties and could barely hold the line.

Fortunately, Lorist led his forces back to the battlefield after he recovered from his injuries. First, he eliminated Invincible Fleet and sailed to Hidegold Bay to take Morante, turning the tables of the war in one move and forcing the Trade Union to leave Falik Plains, saving the skeletal noble army from total collapse and sending them back home. After that, they defeated the Union and forced them to surrender.

It could be said that had the Nortons not fought those battles, the upcoming ceremony would never see the light of day. Kenmays was well aware of that fact and he regretted being coaxed by Auguslo so easily for the benefits he promised. He joined as a result of impulse and a clouded mind and ended up losing half his total forces.

"It's always too late to regret!" Kenmays exclaimed, "You've said once that our king has ravenous ambition and doesn't know when to stop once he tastes success. I've forgotten that advice of yours almost completely back then. Had we not continued our assault on Falik Plains after exterminating more than half of the Union forces, we would probably have been able to restore peace with the Union. But our king wanted us to conquer Morante and shed its blood no matter what and ended up involving us in that bloody war. Every noble house that participated paid heavy consequences...

"Thankfully you were willing to come to our aid and bring us back from the swamps of blood. After our return, every noble in the kingdom knows that being able to return from Falik Plains would be difficult had the Nortons not stepped in, to say even less of holding this ceremony. If we had lost, the Union forces would have swarmed in with their momentum and whether the kingdom would still exist would be a question in itself, because we had already lost all our ability to resist back then..."

"The war is already over and the time of peace is upon us," Lorist interjected, "You didn't ask to travel with me just to complain about the bloody war, did you? What's past is beyond us, and the best we can do is to learn not to repeat our mistakes instead of dwelling over them. Tell me what you truly came here to say. Given how much you love the festivities and fun, you would've gone to the imperial capital long ago instead of waiting to join me."

Kenmays smiled bitterly. "Don't regard me like you did before. Ever since I returned from Falik Plains, I've lost interest in those balls and parties. But you were right in that I had a good reason to come with you. First, I want to thank you for agreeing to the launch of the business school branch of Dawn Academy in Vanades. This is great news for the city and the trading guilds within. Those guilds that want to expand will no longer have to worry about finding a place to cultivate their talents now that the school is going to launch and they'll be able to develop more smoothly without falling into common pitfalls with more educated people joining them."

Claude's meeting was around ten days ago and Kenmays had received word about it. His gratitude came as no surprise.

"Don't mention it. You developed Vanades rather well yourself, turning it into the trading capital of the empire. I was considering how I should reward you for that. However, I am curious about one thing. How did you convince those merchant guilds to set up branch in Vanades?"

That was a question Lorist had been dwelling on for a while. As he remembered it, even though Vanades was a prosperous trading city under Madras's rule, it couldn't be compared to Morante in terms of scale. The main reason for that was that Duke Madras mainly used Vanades to trade food. Ever since the extermination of the duchy, Lorist took the city under the house's rule.

After that, House Kenmays moved their dominion from the eastern part of The Northlands to Sidgler. Lorist negotiated with Kenmays and let him take the role of the mayor of Vanades, leaving all the trading guilds in the eastern part of The Northlands for him to operate. Salt merchant committee would also have a good place to take root and grow.

What Lorist didn't expect was that during Kenmays's term as mayor, not only did he manage to attract many merchant guilds to move to the city, he also made the city into the largest market in the northwestern area of the empire. Every year, House Norton earned around 400 thousand gold Fordes from Vanades, three times more than what they got from the largest livestock rearing grounds in the northeastern area, Windbury.

Kenmays cracked a smile. "Actually, the prosperity in Vanades is thanks to our king. Back when he was waging war against the four central duchies, His Majesty raised the taxes of all merchant guilds within the kingdom to 30 percent. Coupled with the other miscellaneous taxes like tariffs and tolls, the guilds effectively paid up to 60 percent of their total profit. Every sale under those conditions would be a loss, so they were forced to move away from the imperial capital.

"Vanades became the ideal choice for most of those guilds because it was under the rule of House Norton, so the taxes only amounted to around 40 percent. Since House Norton's territory was part of the commonwealth of our four houses, they only had to pay toll once. If they were based in Norton lands, they would also receive better treatment in the other provinces of the kingdom instead of being troubled to give away more of what they had.

"So, eventually, all the merchant guilds chose to move to Vanades. The more merchants there are, the merrier the city got. I used to be a merchant myself and I understand their needs well. So, I increased the security to maintain order in the city and cleared the trade routes of bandits and robbers to make the merchants feel safe. I also invested money to develop basic infrastructure to improve hygiene and provided protections for all trade conducted in the city. The city started to develop rampantly after that."

Lorist nodded and praised, "I didn't think you were so good at administering despite being a merchant apart from your amazing social connections and womanizing skills. Oh, apart from thanking me for the branch school, was there any other reason?"

Kenmays's face turned gloomy. "Yes. I also chose to travel with you for my safety."

"You mean.."

Kenmays slowly opened his robes and revealed his upper body. There were thick bandages wrapped around him with traces of fresh blood. Lorist finally realized what the odd smell he sensed was.

"During the past two months, I've been involved in three assassination attempts, and the most dire of them all is the one that happened this month The assassin knew that he wouldn't be able to get close to me, so he threw his longsword at me from a distance and made the wound you see here. That's why I wanted you to come as soon as possible. I could only relax after actually meeting you. Now, I won't have to worry about being assassinated anymore," said Kenmays painedly.

"Who did this? Did you catch the assassin? Why didn't you ask for help earlier?" asked Lorist angrily.

Kenmays shook his head. "I don't know who did it, but the assassin was a rank 1 blademaster. Even though our guards weren't able to capture him, he couldn't do anything much to me either. As for asking for help... I'm not shameless enough to ask a swordsaint like you to deal with something like that. House Kenmays would become a laughingstock among the other houses once word of this gets out."

"You'd rather suffer for the sake of your reputation?" Lorist thought for a bit with his brow furrowed. "This sounds weird. Why would they send a blademaster against you? Given your status and connections, there isn't a good reason why they would send a blademaster after you. You don't play that important a role in the kingdom anyway, so it'd be a waste to send a blademaster to kill you on three attempts.:

Kenmays objected, "Hey, what's with the slight? Did I say anything bad about you?!"

Lorist ignored his complains and continued to guess. "They're not giving up even though they weren't able to do much. After the first attempt, you must've increased your guard, yet the blademaster came back twice more. Nobody would do that unless they had a huge grudge against you. Did you put a green cap on some noble after cheating with his wife and not cleaning up properly or something? Perhaps that'd be a reason why someone would hire a blademaster to come for your life, at least, I think it's the most probable scenario."

"Don't joke around. What does putting on a green cap mean anyway? I like green caps. That aside, I'm sure it's not what you're thinking. I think somebody was trying to kill me because of the salt merchant committee."

"Salt merchant committee?"

"That's right. Do you remember Knight Wecksas, the one who cheated with the late queen? That bastard child of the king."

Lorist nodded.

"He was eyeing the market your house was trying to build in Jillin Harbor last year, right? Last year, he was made a count and give land in Majik, far away from the imperial capital. However, Wecksas hugged the leg of the king and bawled. He was allowed to stay in the imperial capital in the end, but his post as the commander of the royal guard was stripped from him.

"After that, Count Wecksas started a merchant guild called Andalou and I don't know how he did it, but he got the rights to the two salt mines in Koribia from His Majesty. So, during the latter half of last year, salt merchant committee got into a trade war to gain market share of salt in the kingdom. We lowered our prices so badly and won in the end, causing Wecksas to lose near 100 thousand gold Fordes," said Kenmays gleefully.

"So you suspect Wecksas to be the one who sent the blademaster after you? That can't be possible. He wouldn't be able to hire a blademaster with his status, and he must know that there's no salvation for him if he gets found out. The king will not be able to bear that kind of responsibility and Wecksas wouldn't be so reckless. I still maintain the cause to be your promiscuity," said Lorist doubtfully.

Kenmays sighed. "I knew you wouldn't trust my gut feeling."

"Don't worry, you won't have to worry about being assassinated from now on. When we're at the imperial capital, I'll get Reidy to protect you from the shadows. If the blademaster comes again, we'll capture him and find out who sent him."

"Alright. Thanks, Locke."

Wearing a green cap is a popular Chinese saying of being cheated on. It's a reference to people losing their lovers to other men during their time in the military, hence the green cap.

Chapter 569 - Arrival at the Imperial Capital

Who would want to kill Kenmays? Lorist dismissed it as a result of the duke's promiscuity, but he couldn't stop thinking about it. Lorist didn't even consider Kenmay's hypothesis. Everyone knew Wecksas was only a bastard. Auguslo had an heir now, so the bastard was worth very little, if anything.

While he was now a count, what little authority he had stemmed from that title, not from his connection to royalty, Auguslo had severed all of that. Wecksas started his guild to keep him busy, in part, because even he got bored of just sitting around in the city. Perhaps he was trying to take advantage of what little connection he had to the imperial bloodline to make money. Lorist had never taken him seriously and it wasn't like the brat could hire a blademaster, he had neither the status nor the funds.

Could the mastermind be Auguslo instead? He was the most likely candidate. It would be the perfect way to break the alliance apart, or at the very least cut of its best way to project and gather further influence within the empire. The alliance was the largest faction in the soon-to-be empire. Even Auguslo had to think six times before doing anything that was against their interests.

Lorist shook his head. He didn't know whether his guess was right or not. He knew Auguslo had the temerity to do something like this, but on the other hand he didn't think he was irrational enough to believe this could work. Besides, sending blademasters to assassinate people was a massive taboo. The risk of it becoming known that the emperor had tried to assassinate his vassals was too great, as was the damage it would do to his reputation. The empire would crumble overnight, all the dukes would declare independence at best, or march on the capital to depose him at worst.

Could someone be fanning the flames to get us to fight amongst ourselves? Maybe the Trade Union? No, couldn't be. They were still licking their stumps where arms used to be. They didn't have the men or energy to spare. Cobleit was even less likely to be this stupid than the emperor.

Lorist rubbed his temples. A headache was coming.

Reidy sat opposite him in the luxurious cabin. The two had been trying to figure out what was going on and how to deal with it since that morning. Nothing had come up yet,

"It can't be the duke. Why'd you even bring him up?" Lorist rebuked, "Fisablen has only three blademasters, including himself. Xanthi and Kristoph are the only other blademaster in his faction. House Fisablen hasn't recruited blademasters for years and they haven't produced one since Fisablen either. They're in the king's camp as well so they wouldn't act without his say so. Not to mention they'd gain nothing from Kenmays' death. The old man isn't dumb enough to offend me by doing something that benefits him none."

Reidy just shrugged his shoulders.

"Your Grace knows I don't like to get stuck on such difficult things. You're the one insisting I sit here with you. It's the king as far as I'm concerned. He's the only one with the funds to recruit blademasters and enough reason to do something like this. Duke Kenmays did mention the blademaster was foreign to him, and he knows all the blademasters in the kingdom. Didn't the king recruit two new blademasters last year? Maybe it's one of them."

Lorist still shook his head again.

"Even less likely. The king won't send his blademasters out to do something like this right after recruiting them. Kenmays is already familiar with the new ones anyway, he's certain its not one of them either."

"It's too weird. I wouldn't have believed Kenmays if not for the wounds on his body. Who would want someone as inconsequential as him dead? Kenmays isn't the only person in House Kenmays either. If he dies, someone else is ready to fill his shoes. The king most certainly wouldn't get anything from it. Maybe there really is a third party behind in all of this."

"No, it's even less likely that this is someone wanting to settle a personal grudge against Kenmays or someone in his family. He is a serial womanizer, but he never forced them and he never took married women. Certainly none of them had strong enough backings to do this, much less strong enough that their family might want to kill Kenmays because it was a humiliation."

Lorist rapped the desk with his fingers.

"And you're wrong about Kenmays being inconsequential. That's probably why someone wants him dead. I'm the strongest noble and my house is the strongest house in the empire, maybe even on the continent. Even the king can't go against us directly. This is prettymuch the only tactic he has if it really is him."

"But we don't need their help anymore. If anything, we're propping them up."

Lorist nodded.

"You're right, but that's only because our dominion is far more developed than theirs and they can't keep up. Do we tear our agreement up for that, though? House Norton is not so disloyal. We have no quarrel with one another and our best strategy for gaining more influence is to work together, especially since the king will do everything he can to undo us. So, if the king wants to deal with us, Duke Kenmays would be the best place to start. Don't underestimate him just because he's a womanizing merchant. He's the economic core of our alliance. Even I didn't think the salt merchant committee would become the centre of our alliance, and he's at its head.

"The salt merchant committee is the largest buyer of our products and our representative in the kingdom's market. The committee is also the backbone of Houses Felim and Shazin's income. Without it their domains would collapse in a year. House Kenmays has bet everything on the committee as well, it's what makes them worth keeping in the alliance, and their continued existence, much less their continued affluence, depends on being in the alliance.

"The better Duke Kenmays manages the committee, the more stable his house is and the longer our alliance will last. If the king is trying to destroy the the alliance, killing Kenmays is the best way to do it. The committee would collapse without him, and with it, the alliance.

"That's why I'm so furious about this. Our enemy, whoever it is, is targetting our weakest link from the get go."

"So Your Grace believes that, if Duke Kenmays isn't with us, Duke Shazin and Duke Felim will abandon us?"

"It's possible, though I can't be sure what will happen. None of it would be good, though… I know what you want to say. You think that, since we are so powerful, we don't have to take our allies seriously, right? You still have much to learn. Every noble must consider their interests first before they think about what would benefit their liege, allies, or kingdom.

"Without Duke Kenmays, the other dukes will have reevaluate whether the alliance is worth maintaining. It's true that we will decrease the pressure from Fisablen, but Felim worries that his house will be made our vassal. He won't allow it. They know how strong we are, but he doesn't want to stop being my equal. If he leaves, he'll switch sides.

"Unfortunately being too strong compared to your allies will make them weary of you rather than trust you more. Felim's lands are in Southern, right next to Winston. That's also where our first line of defense against Fisablen is. If he switches sides, we will be forced to garrison our border with him. It'll drive up our military costs and bog down our men. Our land trade with the Alliance will also be cut off.

"It's good to maintain the alliance. That's why I was willing to keep it for so long. You will go protect him for the time being. Wait in the shadows for the assassin's next attempt, and kill him. If you can, take him alive and find out who's behind this, but he cannot be allowed to get away no matter what."

"Rest assured, Your Grace. Duke Kenmays will not be harmed."

The voyage went smoothly and they arrived in Jillin harbor eleven days later. Lorist, Duke Kenmays, and the others stayed there for a day to wait for the guards from Silowas to arrive. They left the next morning after the men arrived and came ashore.

They arrived on the 4th of the 8th, a day ahead of schedule. Auguslo was quite gracious. He sent Knight Ripleid, general of the royal army, with a thousand ma regiment to escort them to the capital and waited for them by the city gate personally. Most of the kingdom's nobles already present waited in an entourage just inside the gate as well. Lorist had to dismount early and put up a courteous act, it pissed him off quite a bit.

He didn't like being cornered like this, but he had no choice. Auguslo had personally welcomed him. It was the biggest gesture the king could make and it would be unacceptable to not return the gesture in equal measure. He had to enter the city on foot. But it also signalled a submission to the king, an admission that he was a loyal dog and follower. It was made even worse by the fact that the king didn't refer to him using his title, but called him 'Brother Locke' instead. Others would see it as the king not caring about his title at all.

But there was just five days to the ceremony, so this was not the time to fight back. The whole city was decorated and everyone was watching.

Auguslo was happy to see Lorist had brought his family and lent him a grand villa near the palace and hosted a grand banquet to welcome the two dukes that very night.

Chapter 570 - Terrence-donkey Whip

"We're going for a stroll around town. Want to come along?" asked Sylvia, entering the study.

"Weren't you out the whole day yesterday?" asked Lorist, a book in hand.

"Come on, we only toured the palace with the new queen, stared at memorabilia, saw a few flowers, and played with the queen's pets a bit. That's not going out, it's socializing. It's just like how you men get together to drink.

"We're going to the most famous commercial street in the capital today. I heard they have sales all over to commemorate the ceremony. They even have dresses and accessories imported from Morante. I want to go have a look." Sylvia approached Lorist as she spoke and pulled him up from his chair.

Lorist got up unwillingly and pulled her into his armed, stealing a kiss.

"I'll stay here. I have several appointments today. Go have fun and buy whatever you fancy."

Sylvia stoop on her toes and returned the kiss.

"Alright, we're leaving now, then. Don't worry about us, Xanthi is coming along," said she.

Lorist had merely made an offhand comment for her to be careful, he didn't think she'd go and take that old woman with her. The capital was safe; it would be a slight to Auguslo's honour if something happened to a noble or his family right under his nose, after all. He would not forgive anyone that tried to disturb the ceremony.

Lorist scratched his nose as he watched his wife leave and thought about how women loved going out whether it was on Grindia or in his past life. Even his wife, Duchess of the Northlands got excited after hearing about sales, even if the goods weren't what she needed. She would always boy everything in a sale that caught her eye. In that moment it was about buying, she could figure out what to do with the stuff later.

There were five special noble districts outside Ragebear's east district and Lorist intentionally set up one luxury shopping and one entertainment district in the middle to exploit this very characteristic of women. It was the most luxurious area in the entire Northlands. Commoners couldn't go there if they weren't the guest of a noble. Even the staff were of the higher non-peer classes.

Lorist didn't expect his five women would become the district's most frequent customers. Almost their entire monthly allowances went into buying 'discounted' goods there. They even bought Norton products rather than just asking Lorist for them. They were definitely spending for spending's sake -- they never even touched most of what they bought.

Lorist once spoke with Kenmays about letting the maids dress more evocatively. Lorist came up with the trendy back-revealing design so popular among celebrities in his previous life. Kenmays made off with it like it was a treasure, but instead of making uniforms for his maids, he made a new line of dresses and sold them to nobles.

Sylvia and her sisters found out about it through their extensive social network the moment the dresses hit the shelves and nearly trampled someone under their carriage as they rushed to get the prettiest of the dresses. Sylvia got several dresses which she loved to bits, but when she tried them on in her room, she realised she could never wear these in front of anyone else. They were incredibly alluring, but she, as a duchess, had to be elegant, majestic, classy, not alluring. She was married, after all, what business had she wearing dresses designed to seduce men? In the end she gave her dresses to Fennazali. Her figure could make the most use of the dresses and she, being a concubine, was expected to dress seductively, her only purpose in life was to amuse and arouse her lover.

Dilianna, Fennazali, Daisy, and Maria however, also felt the dresses weren't fit for them once they got back to the castle. They may be concubines, but they weren't just any concubines, oh no, they were a duke, nay, a swordsaint's concubines. How could they dress as skimpily as other concubines did? They, being a swordsaint's concubines, were equal to the wives of other nobles, you know. They had to dress with accordant grace and elegance. They gave their dresses to Sylvia instead. If the head wife dressed like that, then they would only be following her lead and could not be criticised. They would just buy a new set for themselves later.

Sylvia had given one away and gotten four in return… They had each bought the dress separately from the others, so they only realised they'd all bought the same dresses after giving them to one another. Lorist couldn't stop laughing about it for two weeks. He couldn't argue, however, that the dresses were inappropriate for nobles of their standing. He suggested that they, instead, reserve the dresses for their nightly appointments with him.

Back in the present. Lorist wanted to avoid going anywhere in public with his women and children together at all costs. The last time had traumatized him more than that unrequested trip to the barbarians in the mountains all those years ago. He would rather fight someone even stronger than a swordsaint than go through that again.

Lorist didn't know where women got the energy to haggle for hours over a few coppers when they had a bag full of gold around their waist. The women, however, beamed more at winning a few coppers in a haggle than during the heights of their times with Lorist.

Sylvia, usually so concerned with appearing elegant and graceful, would hop around like a little girl, puffing out her cheeks and pouting so much Lorist could swear her lips would never return to normal, when she was having a particularly tough haggle.

Jinolio dashed in later that morning to find Lorist still stuck in his reverie.

"Your Grace, Sir Loze is back. He's a blademaster now!"

"Let him in, quick!" Lorist said, jumping from his seat.

Loze had disappeared two years earlier and left Tigersoar without a commander. The only trace of him was a letter he left on his desk in his office saying he was cultivating somewhere isolated and would return after making good progress. Now, two years later, the man had returned a blademaster.

Loze marched into the study proudly.

"I'm back, Your

He dropped a large bundle of bamboo containers. Lorist stared at the containers, trying to remember where he had seen them before. Why would Loze bring them into his study? Why not leave them outside? He couldn't find the answer and dropped the thought after a few moments.

"It's great you're back. Where did you disappear to? We couldn't find you these whole two years. We were really worried."

"Hehe… I was at the Relic Islands," Loze chuckled, "The magic beasts there are fierce and maniacal, just right for my training. Oh, I brought Your Grace a gift."

Lorist immediately knew what was in the containers. His expression turned a little awkward. Terrance-donkey Whip, the world's strongest aphrodisiac. Back when he was still an iron-ranked instructor at Dawn Academy, he had signed a few unreasonable agreements with Levins to be allowed to go to the Relic Islands to train.

Per Els's request, he returned with two Terrence-donkey Whips -- the genitals of those poor animals. Els cut them into slices and jarred them for a little business, but the venture didn't last long. A merchant guild that specialized in the product clamped down on it the moment the first batch was sold.

"Bastard, do I look like someone who needs that sort of thing?" Lorist barked, "But... since it's your gift, I'll force myself to accept it. Jinolio, put them away somewhere safe."

Loze glared at Lorist.

"Your skin is getting thicker by the day, as you sure you don't have a skin illness? Maybe it's malgrowth! I should call a doctor for an exfoliation treatment… I didn't say I was going to give everything to you either. It took me two years to get eleven sets, I'll give you three at most. Potterfang and Malek each have one reserved, and Dulles and Messen get a half each. The rest are for me. I didn't even tell Patt what these were when he asked. What if he wants some as well?"

Lorist's face turned red again.

"Why would you need so many? We'll split half between the two of us!"

"No. Your Grace gets three at most. Just cut the slices extra thin if you want more of it. You'll have enough for three years even if you use two portions a day! Didn't you say you didn't need any in the first place?"

"Fine."

Lorist didn't want to make too big of a fuss. His manhood didn't need others finding out about him using such things. Rumours of his dependence on such things would be even worse for him than being labelled a kingslayer.

"If you hadn't broken through, I would've thought you went there just to get these. I'm sure it wasn't easy getting so many," Lorist quickly changed the subject.

"Of course. Nobody can imagine how agile these beasts are. The slightest movement will send them scattering like bolts of lightning. Catching them is too difficult, to say nothing of hunting them. The 11 I got were wild as well. They work far better than bred ones. Hunting Terrence-Donkeys is the best kind of training, not least for the material rewards."

Terrence-donkey Whip was the concentration of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of sunjoy grass leaves. Terrence-donkeys loved to eat the grass and its meagre effects gathered in their whips over the years.

Loze happily rambled on about his heroic exploits for several hours. Lorist was forced to step in to silence him and get back on track. Loze then explained he had come to the capital after returning to Hidegold Bay to see Howard, who told him Lorist was in the capital for the king's ascension.

"I wanted to give him one since he's staying with his wife now, but he wouldn't take it. He kept saying his young and has more than enough energy for his wife. He'll regret it in a few years," complained Loze.

"Alright, enough," said Lorist exasperatedly, "I'm sure Malek and Potterfang will be really grateful. You should spar with Potterfang when you get back home. You're good at attacking while he's good at defending, it'll be good practice for you two. You should be able to suppress him as much as you can. He won't be happy with being at a disadvantage against you so it should pressure him into making his breakthrough."

Loze nodded seriously.

Kenmays stepped into the room at that moment. He was both Lorist's equal in title, his close friend, and his neighbour for the time being, so he could come and go as he pleased. He didn't see the bamboo containers and tripped over them, luckily none broke.

"What are these?" asked he.

"Terrence-donkey Whips. They're mine," snapped Loze as he quickly grabbed hold of them.

He had sensed the silver rank coming from a distance away, so he didn't even bother to look at him. Silver ranks were nothing in his eyes.

Kenmays's eyes brightened immediately.

"Dear Loze, it's wonderful to see you again. So, how much for a whip?"

"Not for sale."

Lorist shrugged at Kenmays, who shot him a hopeful glance. Loze had offered even his liege on three, how would he give some other noble any? Lorist happily picked up his three and handed them to Jinolio, whom he quickly shooed away before Kenmays had a chance to pester him for one.

He must need something even if not money... thought Kenmays.

He pulled the man to a corner and whispered something to him. Loze beamed happily and pushed a container into Kenmays's hands.

"Sheesh, we're friends, brothers even! No need for money! Take it as a gift!"

Lorist watched Kenmays unhappily.

Don't think I didn't hear you just because you were whispering in the corner.

Kenmays had promised to get Loze the most beautiful little flower buds amongst the lesser nobles to keep him company while he was in the capital. He made them out as open-minded and willing to do anything exciting. Loze immediately declared the duke his brother and gave him a whip.

"Did you come here for poppy-talk, or do you have an actual reason to come see me?" grimaced Lorist.

"Yes, yes, about that. I want you to come and check out the committee's new branch office."

Chapter 571 - Invitation and Murder

Lorist gazed at the crowd-filled streets.

“Didn’t you say the king was going to charge the guilds a three-tenths profit tax for owning shops in the capital? Why are there so many shops here when the guilds have left?” asked he.

“You got the wrong idea. The taxes aren’t on owning shops, but on having offices. His tax is three-tenths of the profit of any guild headquartered in the capital.

“As for the shops, they’re mostly backed by nobles and only have to pay a one-tenth goods tax, nothing else. The king can’t pocket the money belonging to nobles, right? Paying one-tenth tribute is already showing enough respect to him.

“Also, the king wanted guilds to pay an annual tribute as continual proof of their loyalty. This street would be completely deserted if not for how lucrative business is here. Even so, most are only just making it by. They consider it tossing a few bones to stray dogs. It’s fine as long as they’re still making some profit.”

Lorist shook his head. Auguslo was too biased against merchants. He was your stereotypical noble; he thought all merchants were rich men, and they were doing nothing but siphoning his wealth away by doing business in his lands.

The merchants certainly didn’t have a good picture of him. He was a parasite as far as they were concerned. He didn’t have the skills and wit to make money himself, so he just leached off them instead. Lorist didn’t know how the imperial bloodline had produced such an incompetent fool. Just one of his taxes was enough to chase all the merchants away. What good did a tax do him if there was no one who could be taxed?

At best, the king could possibly think on the most rudimentary level of taxation, taking a cut of exchanged goods. He was truly a fool. So that was why he was always running out of money when he needed it the most.

The carriage stopped at a four-story building. It had a grand gold-laden plaque. Kenmays had decorated the place according to his tastes, so their lavishness competed with the palace. Five buildings had been connected to great a single megastore. Most of its products came from the Northlands, mainly salt, glassware, and white paper. Kenmays did contribute a good item to the lineup, however: his maid uniforms.

Lorist, Kenmays, and Loze disembarked and walked inside. Kenmays chatted busily with the manager, letting Lorist stroll through the shop. He had to admit, Kenmays was decently talented at running businesses. Despite how messy and cluttered the shop was, it raked in a million gold in an average year.

Kenmays finished his business quickly and dragged his two companion to the back of the shop. A large yard filled the space between the five buildings. Most of the goods were held in crates under shed roofs there. Most of the shop’s guards also stood watch there. The shop had 18 silver ranks in their employ for the night shift alone.

“During the night?”

“Yes,” Kenmays nodded, “Three shops in the street were robbed during the night. It’s the most dangerous time of day.

“The thieves didn’t kill anyone though. They knocked the guards out and vanished with everything in the shops and their stores. It was an immense embarrassment for the king to be unable to solve the cases that he was forced to fire two consecutive chiefs of security.

“I sent a bunch of silvers over when I heard about it and we haven’t had any issues since.”

“How stupid... the thieves obviously left the moment they finished stealing. What is the man doing still looking for them in the city?” Loze snorted.

Kenmays nodded in agreement.

“I agree, but who am I to question how the king squanders his reputation? It’s also partially the shops’ fault for being so complacent and lax with their security.”

“What was their business?” asked Lorist.

“Lamando sells jade-studded products, Pistachio deals in gold and silverware, and Whiterose sells luxury crystal decorations… Wait a minute… They were here for riches! Those shops had the most expensive stuff and the things easiest to steal!”

Kenmays took them further into the maze to a large courtyard with a small door. The inside was as grand as a mansion, however.

“I usually stay here when visiting. The main door exits onto the main street, but I usually don’t use it. I brought you here so you can get a feel for the path,” Kenmays said to Loze, “Why don’t we hold a ball here tonight to celebrate you becoming a blademaster? I’ll organize a few good dancers and you can even stay overnight if you

“Alright, I’ll the details to you then,” Loze smiled.

Lorist was quite dissatisfied. He was a swordsaint, so he had to maintain a certain level of decorum. He couldn’t attend Kenmays’ balls. And it was even worse since his women were in the city.

“You could’ve brought Loze here yourself. Why bring me along?” complained Lorist.

“You own a tenth of the committee, it won’t do for you to be completely ignorant of our business in the capital.”

Ugh, why did he always have to have an answer for everything?

Kenmays vanished into what was probably his office for a while to organize things for the ball. He didn’t forget to tell Loze about every pretty women that might possibly attend. Lorist had little interest in such frivolous business so he strolled around the shop instead.

It was decently busy. There was always at least a couple of people in the middle of picking out something to buy. That said, few bought more than one or two things so the sum of money exchanged was never extravagant. He kept an eye on the counter for a while before losing interest and walking out onto the street.

He shouldn’t have come along. This was nothing but a waist. Lorist called out to a taxi. Just as one started slowing down, however, he noticed a commotion nearby. What was going on? It might be interesting, so he went over to take a look.

“Beautiful ladies, this one’s master graciously extends an invitation to the ball my master will be hosting tonight. Please accept this invitation and these gifts. My Lordship, a count, will gladly welcome you, ladies...”

So some noble was courting people again… Lorist might have thought it was one of Kenmays’s lackeys if the man hadn’t said his master was a count. His gaze sharpened on the man and he suddenly stomped forward, shoving the people in his way aside. Everyone quickly made way for him like a parting ocean once his temper flared.

The idiot’s poor victims were none other than Lorist’s women. Sylvia and the four concubines were trying to get rid of the bastard. Normally that would have been the job of their guards, but these were buried under shopping bags.

The bastard was trying to force his master’s invitations on them. The five women were acting as if he didn’t exist and trying to leave, but he had jumped in front of them and was bowing shamelessly as if his life would be over if they didn’t accept.

Lorist burst out of the crowd and grabbed the invitation. He flicked it once and tore it into shreds, letting them float to the ground in front of the man. He turned around to see his guard awkwardly trying to lower their heads for a bow.

“Forget it. You’ll drop something.”

“Why are you here?” asked Sylvia.

Despite her words, Lorist got the impression she was actually saying ‘look at what I’ve bought!’. Gah... women…

“Where are the children?”

“They’re playing in a pond nearby. Godmother and Patt are watching them, don’t worry. Oh, Locke, I bought you a new deerskin coat. It’s really soft and stylish. Come, let’s go try it on, that shop has a fitting room--“

“--You... how dare you tear up my master’s invitation? Are you insulting him?” said the man with a raspy voice.

His face looked like a tomato, glaring furiously at Lorist.

“Buzz off,” Lorist spat softly, “Get out of my sight before I run out of patience. If you piss me off I’ll wipe out your so-called master and his family.”

“How dare you!”

What gave this little man the guts to be so bold?

“How dare you say something so unreasonable and rude! Are you trying to commit treason?! Do you know who my lord is? I doubt you have the balls to do something like exterminate his whole family! Everyone has heard you! Don’t be surprised if you lose your land and title!”

Ugh, so he was of the sharp-tongued variety. How irritating.

“Hehe, I don’t know or care who your master is. How is killing a little count treason?”

“Because my master is Lord Wecksas, son of the king! Threatening to kill his family is threatening to kill the king!” said the butler proudly and gleefully.

“Oh? Just him? I thought he would at least have some clout, but it turns out your master is just a bastard. You should actually be caned for suggesting he has anything to do with the royal family. Know your place! I’ll forgive you this time, but there won’t be a next time, now scram!-- Lorist turned to the guards. “--How did you end up getting entangled with that fool?”

“We don’t know, Your Grace. The ladies were just shopping when he came out of nowhere and tried to invite the ladies to a ball. He wouldn’t stop pestering them and refused to let them go without accepting the invitation and promising to attend,” one of the guards answered from behind the gift packages.

“You... Slander! How dare you slander the royal family! Know your crimes for what they are!” the butler butted in again.

“What’s going on, Your Grace?” asked Patt as he pushed out of the crowd accompanied by a dozen guards.

“Just a pest. Kill quickly and we can be on our way.” Lorist said, pointing at the middle-aged man.

Lorist would have cut him down himself, but he felt it beneath him as a swordsaint to raise even just the finger needed to kill the man against him directly. In fact, it would be a great honor for the man’s family to have him killed by a swordsaint, and they didn’t deserve it.

“Yes.”

Patt immediately drew his sword without question and walked towards the butler, a sinister smile plastered on his face.

“You... you dare harm someone in broad daylight?!”

It finally dawned on the butler that he might be pissing against the wrong tree. He tried to make a run for it, but he was completely surrounded by an impenetrable crowd of his own making.

Patt finally made it to him and lifted him by the scruff of his neck before slamming him into the ground unceremoniously.

The butler shivered as all the color bled out of him.

“M-mercy...” he whispered through chattering teeth.

“Stop! Who dares kill in the capital?” cried a loud voice from outside the circle of the crowd.

So the watch had finally showed up.

Patt didn’t listen to them, however. He took orders from one man and one man only. Without his word, this man would be dead in a few moments. And indeed it was so. The man’s head soon rolled away from his body, his severed neck painting the cobblestones of the road.

The crowd withdrew several withering steps like leaves recoiling from the heat of a fire. No on None thought someone would actually kill in the capital in broad daylight, right in front of the watch as well. The police finally forced their way through a few moments later.

The leader, a burly and bearded man, glanced at the corpse and immediately took action.

“Capture all of them! Kill anyone who resists!”

His men blew their whistles before charging at the group, weapons drawn.

Chapter 572 - Kill Them All

"Teach them a lesson, but don't kill anyone," ordered Lorist.

"Understood, Your Grace."

Patt and his accompaniment rubbed their fists together. Soon sounds of thumping and cries echoed up and down the street. The watchmen tried to stop them but were beat up as well.

Patt lifted the sword with one hand and the bearded watchman with his other.

He dropped him in front of Lorist before announcing, "Done."

"Kneel" shouted he as he stomped on the man's thigh. Two guards came over and lifted the sack of flesh up.

He put up a token struggle but could do nothing.

"You... who are you... Who dares disobey... His Majesty's ban on k-killing and r-resists arrest... T... turn yourselves in... Just wait... When His Majesty finds out..."

Pat slapped him a few times.

"Are you blind? Can you not see our insignia? Aren't you brave? You actually dare disrespect His Grace? Are you sick of living?"

"Raging bear... You are Nortons?! D-duke... Duke Norton, the sw-swordsaint… S-sorry... Duke Norton... Y-your Grace, it's our fault. W-we shouldn't have b-been so restless... W-we deserve this... Please forgive u-us..."

The bearded man planted his head in the ground and begged for forgiveness.

"Alright, kneel properly. I only want to ask why you didn't stop the idiot when he was harassing my women?" replied Lorist indifferently.

"I-it's not our fault, Lord. His Majesty told us only to maintain order and stop fights. Ball invitations don't disturb the peace and aren't fights. We cannot interfere unless a fight breaks out. A-a-and... This is butler is Count Wecksas's servant. W-we can't afford to offend him... A-a few days ago, Duke Handra's daughter was pestered and had no choice but to take the invitation before being allowed to leave."

"Oh? Taking the invitation is all it takes? What if she didn't attend the ball?" asked Lorist.

"... I'm not too sure. It seems Duke Handra's daughter didn't attend and Count Wecksas visited her residence the next day. Duke Handra had to send the count away personally before he would leave. I heard the two got along very well though."

"Hehehe..." Lorist chuckled.

So that was why the bastard was being so shameless? Low-ranking nobles would have no choice but to have their daughters attend, and he'd personally visit nobles that had the power to ignore him and did so and use the chance to get on their good sides. Lorist, however, neither had to let his women attend the ball, nor had to give him face in any other way.

"Give them their weapons. We're leaving. You know how to deal with this, yes?"

Lorist was upset by this whole business. He might have killed the bastard that had pestered his women, but he'd lost a lot of face in doing so. He'd had someone killed for having a foul mouth, which everyone would consider very tyrannical.

"I do," the watchman answered, "Thank you for your mercy, Lord. I will deal with this properly."

Lorist nodded and left. A commotion marched down the street, however. The guards chased off earlier were returning with a hundred more. They pointed at the departing Lorist as they shouted.

"It's him! He ordered them to kill Butler Hamm!"

A man in his fifties stepped out of the crowd and pointed at Lorist with his sword.

"Kill them all. They're traitors. Leave the women, the lord will decided what to do with the."

The watchman lost his cool immediately.

"Stop! Are you crazy?! He's Duke No--"

But nobody listened to him. The new arrivals charged at Lorist and were met with his own men. His had no reservation about killing since they'd done so already just a few minutes earlier. They were outnumbered, however, and could only hold up so many. Twenty enemies met no resistance and charged at Lorist.

His expression darkened and he turned to Patt.

"Kill them all."

"No!" cried the watchmen.

"With pleasure!"

Patt charged into the fight with the two that had been holding the watchmen. The four gift-holders put their loads down and joined soon after.

It wasn't a slaughter as Lorist had expected, however. The enemy were far more capable than he'd expected. Their leader was a gold rank and could match Patt with the help of three of his subordinates. Patt was soon beginning to lose. If he hadn't been a shield-user adept at defense, he would've been injured already.

The two guards accompanying Patt fared no better. One was cut by a blade, though he avoided a serious injury. The other four barely held their ground. The bodies soon started piling up. Lorist's side wasn't spared injury, though none had died so far.

The crowd cleared enough space for the combatants but didn't disperse. New quickly spread of the fight and many more came to watch. Count Wecksas had finally run in with another noble. Everyone was curious to see who had the guts to go against the king's offspring, bastard as he may be. Not to mention that it was just days before the king's ascension. He would most certainly not take kindly to someone pooping on his parade like this.

Lorist was not amused. If only his men had been wearing legion armor, this wouldn't have happened. Everyone knew his armor. But he'd decided to travel light, they would never get into a fight in the capital after all, and if they did, it would not merit using their armour. So he had his men just wear some thick cloth and put on a couple small embroidered badges.

Nobody associate this with House Norton, however, and the badges were hidden behind the packages, so everyone thought they were just some inconsequential noble family. Even Kenmays had had to be told they were Norton uniforms. It worked well when nobody was making trouble, since you could move around incognito, but when it was good to have a big presence, it didn't help.

That butler no doubt thought exactly the same and tried to force the invitations on the women. Nobody would have expected them to actually be associated with a duke, much less Lorist, and that Wecksas, a mere count, would thus have no grounds for his invite and that they would thus naturally ignore him. Hamm naturally resorted to pestering when they did and this all came about...

Lorist could imagine the consequences, but he was suspicious of Wecksas' current wealth and position. He was a nobody before his father acknowledged him, and completely unknown before the incident with the late queen. Where had he gotten the money and influence to hire a gold rank as a guard and so many other powerful people?

And where did he get the savvy necessary to run a guild? The men weren't normal silver ranks either. Lorist's men were veterans and trained in some of the best techniques the continent knew, no ordinary silver rank could match them.

Even outnumbered as they were, ordinary silvers would not be able to give them this much trouble, but these managed to hold the fight at a stalemate. As Lorist watched, he noticed that the enemy was fighting using military tactics, not something civilians guards ought to know, and they appeared quite well-trained in them. Where did that little pest get them?

The only explanation Lorist could come up with was that it was actually Auguslo. The king must be backing his bastard from the shadows and using him to go against Lorist and the salt merchant committee.

His thoughts having gone to this point, he decided to act personally. He took a step forward, but was stopped by a familiar voice.

"I'm here!"

It was Loze. The man didn't stop to salute Lorist, he just charged right into the fight.

He took one enemy with a swing of his sword. Blood spurted everywhere behind his blade as he slaughtered his way up the street.

Fiercetiger Loze was too dominating. It only took a few minutes for the tide of the battle to turn as the numbers quickly evened. The enemy gold rank backed away as Loze closed in.

"Treasonous scum, en grade!"

Their swords met and the man screamed.

"Blademaster?!"

"Well done!" Loze smiled, "First time anyone's called House Norton traitors. You have a lot of balls, but not a lot of brains, huh? You gave me an excuse to fight a good fight right after I broke through. I owe you one. Now let's enjoy ourselves!"

The gold rank's expression changed immediately.

"H-house Norton?!?! Stop! This is all a misunderstanding!"

"Aaaah!"

Another cry. The men fighting Patt were no match without the gold rank's support and were cut up.

"His Grace told us to kill them all," Patt shouted at Loze before rushing off to another grou nearby.

"Hehe..." Loze licked his lips, "I love his orders the most. Now give me a good fight before dying for daring to go against my lord!"

"Nonono! This is a misunderstanding! We didn't know who you were!"

"I don't care. You raised your swords against us, so you will die!"

"Nooooo!"

The fight lasted all but ten seconds. The man screamed the whole way… until Loze's sword cut off his jaw and stoppered his throat.

The last enemy fell less than a minute later. No one had escaped. Patt had the men cut off their heads and stack them in a mini pyramid in the middle of the street, the third Lorist had built so far, if much less impressive.

The sun backed the street, but everyone watching the scene was shivering.

"What's going on, Locke?" Kenmays asked as he wobbled over.

Lorist had charged out as he'd been busy going over the arrangements for the night's ball with Loze. A few minutes later the shop manager ran into the office and gasped something about a fight outside and Loze charged out as well.

Kenmays had to wobble over awkwardly with his guards and try to push his way through the crowd.

The man stared at the headless corpses. For a few moments before he recognised the blood-stained uniforms.

"Why'd you kill Andalou's guards? What happened?"

"Andalou... Oh, it's Count Wecksas's business, right? Where's his shop?" Lorist asked, ignoring Kenmay's question.

"Over there. He has the best spot and the largest building," Kenmays answered, in a daze.

"Loze, Patt, tear it down! Kill everyone that resists!!"

"Yes, Your Grace!"

Kenmays watched on speechlessly.

Chapter 573 - Flipping Out and Falling Out

"Duke Nor...ton! What... What were you thinking?!" yelled Auguslo uncontrollably as he slapped the desk, causing it to shatter and crumble.

He was absolutely furious, so furious he even forgot to call Lorist 'Brother Locke'.

"Tell me, Duke Norton, what do you want?" Auguslo stared at Lorist, eyes literally bloodshot.

No sound could be heard in the hall. The dukes and counts were dead silent. Had Lorist not been a swordsaint and had House Norton not been the most powerful faction in the kingdom, Auguslo would've had Lorist torn apart alive and ate his flesh.

Auguslo was to become emperor in two days. And now House Norton had massacred his bastard's people in the most crowded street in the capital. Killing was one thing, but they even cut off the victim's heads and stacked them in the middle of the street!

The king had been modeling for a couple of famous artists when he learnt of the affront. He wanted to have his heroic form captured in a portrait to be hung alongside the seven other Krissen emperors.

He had kept one pose for two hours already and had just a few minutes left to go… There wouldn't be any time for this later, so he'd sent his guards out to deal with things and bring Lorist to him once he was done.

But his guards didn't come back. Instead, his bastard son ran to him like a fox being chased by hounds, snot and tears dripping on the floor to beg for help.

Wecksas told him he'd done nothing but admire the duke's women and invited them to a ball when the duke flipped out. He tore up the invitation and declared he was just a bastard and had no right to interact with him. The butler he had sent to deliver the invite spoke up on his behalf and was cut down.

The duke even had his men beat up the watchmen that tried to intervene and said that he would put anyone to death that stood up to him. A few bystanders criticized him from the crowd and he had them beheaded as well.

Auguslo couldn't believe his ears. He charged out of the palace with a troop of guards. He found the unit he sent out earlier standing by as Lorist's men tore up his son's guild's shop.

He almost cut the commander down right there, but the man told him he could not intervene since the duke was keeping an eye on the shop personally.

Kenmays had left with Lorist's women and sent someone to fetch Xanthi and the children. He was just returning with Loze.

Lorist had wanted to catch Wecksas, but the bastard had already run to the emperor.

Auguslo saw Lorist nearby, watching his men tear down the shop. It took all his energy not to scream.

"Come with me. We need to talk."

Lorist at least listened to him this much. He had his men stop and go to his women before leaving with the king.

Dukes Handra and Fisablen were present when the three arrived, Shazin and Felim were present as well. The other nobles arrived at almost the same time too.

Auguslo exploded the moment his ass touched the throne. He didn't care that the man at whom he was shouting was a swordsaint and a duke. He'd done something unforgivable and his dignity as a king demanded he respond accordingly.

"Well? Are you deaf? Duke Norton, why did you go on a killing spree in my city? You don't take me seriously, do you? Do you think my orders are jokes? Answer me! I'll hear what you have to say before deciding how to deal with you. You have to answer for this!"

Auguslo calmed down slightly as he vented and started thinking of a way to wrap this up. He couldn't really deal with Lorist, but he had to do something to put him in his place. He couldn't have his authority as emperor undermined before his reign even began. He also decided he would have to take away the noble's power once he ascended, starting with House Norton, so he'd best put those policies first on his agenda.

You better back down and lower your head. I'll have you hang the men involved in this, then pay a large some in reparation. How much should I deman? Ten million? Maybe eight... It can't be less than five!

Duke Kenmays rushed in.

"Your Majesty--"

"--Shut up! Duke Norton isn't a mute, he can explain himself!"

Lorist stood in the middle of the hall in front of the throne as if this had nothing to do with him. He let the king finish flailing before he finally spoke. When his voice left his mouth, the entire room froze, even Auguslo felt a chill run down his spine.

"I came to your ascension at your request, and brought my wife, mistresses and children to give you face. I didn't come here to have my women stopped in the streets like prostitutes and harrassed. I'd thought you were a king with some brains, that you could see right from wrong, who was the victim and who the perpetrator, but it seems you're blind. So you call me a crook? Fine then, I'm a crook. I'm sure you don't want a crook at your ascension ceremony, so I'll go home now. And don't worry, Your Majesty, you won't see me in the capital again, neither any of my people. We'll have nothing to do with this ceremony, this city, or this fucking king."

His piece said, Lorist turned and left. He didn't even bother opening the chamber's door, he simply slammed it off its hinges as he left. It flew several dozen meters, landing in a garden on the side of the main pathway, crushing an old fountain with a statue of Auguslo as its centerpiece.

The room died a little behind him. What was going on? Did Duke Norton just declare he would have nothing to do with the king again? This was just one step short of declaring rebellion!

"Stop him!" cried Auguslo.

"Take one step and you die!" roared Lorist, turning around and staring the king down.

The latter was suddenly plunged into a world of frozen blood. His hand hung in the air and drool ran down his chin. His knees threatened to give way and his bladder to spill under the swordsaint's killing intent. It was even worse than when he faced the old Union's swordsaint.

Despite the worst of the killing intent being directed at the king, the other nobles also had to clench their thighs to keep their clothes dry.

What was going on? Why would the duke be so furious? Was he not the one in the wrong?

Lorist pressed everyone down for a eternal seconds before turning and leaving. Nobody dared to stop him this time.

The hall was dead. Kenmays snapped out of his stupor first. He bowed to the king curtly and charged after Lorist. Shazin and Felim recovered as well when they saw Kenmays leave and followed. They didn't even bow to the king on their way out.

Auguslo collapsed into his throne. His fury was gone, replaced instead with an all-consuming dead. He replayed the last couple of minutes in his head and felt his blood boil furiously again. When his replay came to the duke's gaze, however, the fire was snuffed out immediately.

Had he just killed his empire before it had even been formed?

When he returned his attention to the hall, only his father-in-law was left.

"Fa... Father-in-law..."

Auguslo smiled difficultly. He was technically Lorist's uncle now, and he'd even been planning to have the duke and his wife call him as such.

"Can… can you face the alliance if we don't include Lorist?"

"What nonsense is this?!" the duke shouted, finally losing his cool.

Only a fool would force a conflict with that house. He doubted they'd win even if the whole continent fought against them as well! Even without Lorist they had enough power to flatten the entire continent if they wanted to.

Lorist was actually not the thorniest aspect of that faction. A single swordsaint could be handled. There were ways of dealing with swordsaints, but their military was unconquerable.

"But he-he's really gone too far... Didn't you see? He killed so many people… what was I supposed to do? He didn't even admit his mistakes and threatened me! It doesn't matter that he's a swordsaint, he's a noble first, my vassal at that. He can't behave that way. We should march our forces on his lands. Losing a battle against them would still be better than not answering this provocation. My honor demands I answer this."

"At least find out what really happened first. I've tested Lorist's limits before, he won't flip out like this for no reason. You must be missing something. I also know him a little, he won't kill innocent people easily, granted, did wipe out a million people in Hanayabarta..."

Ugh, the old man was right. Lorist wasn't a rash person, he always had good reason when he acted violently like that. Auguslo was very weary of House Norton's might, but he had to admit he admired their duke. He knew his saving grace was that the duke had no ambition for the throne, otherwise he'd have killed Auguslo many years ago. That said, he wasn't in absolute control of his faction. He might be pressured into taking action by those around him with more ambition. That was why he couldn't stand for him to have that much might.

He couldn't do away with that faction's power, however, so his only option was to give them as little reason to act against him as possible while slowly eroding away their influence. He reluctantly gave in and called up some witnesses to the day's events. Everything was quickly laid bare.

Auguslo was in a fury again when the last witness left. How dare his bastard of a son cause this much trouble! That useless shit just couldn't help himself, could he? He couldn't diligently build his own influence, nooo, he had to use his father's name at every corner!

Did the bastard not know he'd be dead already if Lorist was not so timid?! Stopping noble women and forcing them to attend his balls… was there a greater insult to a noble than to have their women toyed with? No wonder Lorist lost his cool! He was the greatest man in the kingdom besides Auguslo himself… how could his honor stand something like this? And from a bastard, no less!

Only, why would he direct that anger at him? If he knew Lorist well, which he liked to think he did, he would have just explained what had really happened with a smug smile on his face. Hold on… did he think he was behind everything? Indeed, it made sense, why would his spineless son dare do something this audacious if he didn't have the king's backing?

"Dukes Norton, Felim, Shazin, and Kenmays have left the city. They're heading for Jillin Harbor with their families and forces," a guard reported as he rushed in.

"What?!" Auguslo yelled, "Why didn't anyone stop them?"

The guard didn't answer. Auguslo finally realized no one dared stop a duke, especially not when four were travelling together, and when one was a swordsaint. That could only be done if the army was mobilized with an imperial decree, but was there a good reason? The dukes had not committed treason, and mobilizing the army would be an open declaration of war. Not to mention, the dukes came with their families, so if even one of them was hurt by the soldiers, then not a single noble would continue to support him and acknowledge him as king.

Auguslo was in full panic. Duke Fisablen yelled, "Go chase them, quick! Hold them back for now. I'll look for the other nobles to join us to convince them to stay. The grand ceremony is taking place two days later, and the four dukes must be there, especially a swordsaint like Duke Norton! The consequences are unimaginable if he isn't there!"

Auguslo snapped out of it. "I'll chase them down on horseback. I'll be counting on you for the rest, Father-in-law."

Chapter 574 - Turning Back Suspicion-filled

“Locke, do you think the king is behind this? You think Count Wecksas is only being used as a puppet?” asked Kenmays.

Lorist, Kenmays, Felim, and Shazin were heading to Jillin Harbor, the capital shrinking on the horizon behind them. They were accompanied by their family and forces. Their destination was Silowas, where they’d regroup and discuss what to do next.

The others were surprised that Lorist would turn his back on the king so resolutely. If Auguslo declared him a traitor, Andinaq would once again taste civil war. As his allies, they, too, would be dragged in against the rest of the kingdom.

“Actually, you can stand with the king and turn on Lorist if you want,” Kenmays told Shazin and Felim.

“We’re not idiots,” the two immediately answered.

It wasn’t that they hadn’t considered it, but, given the king’s personality, they would be used as cannon fodder. The king would never trust them. Siding with Lorist was the better choice. Even if they were wiped out, they wouldn’t have to worry about Lorist swallowing them. He would instead help them rebuild.

“Yes,” Lorist replied glumly, “You told me Andalou got into a trade war with you for the salt market last year, right? They suffered at least 100 thousand gold Fordes in losses. Think about it. That isn’t a small sum. Andalou should’ve been in bad shape. Tell, me, do they look hampered?

“Andalou isn’t like the Trade Union’s guilds. It’s a new establishment with shallow roots and even shallower pockets, or at least they should be, so how did they get out of this without collapsing? Someone is obviously footing the bill on their behalf, and who has that kind of money in this desolate kingdom besides the king? Then not long after you’re suddenly targeted by a blademaster? Tell me, what upstart guild can afford to order a blademaster around, much less after just suffering a crushing defeat?

“We can easily conclude who the mastermind behind Andalou is. Do you think a mere bastard child can plot against a duke like you? Can he take such a loss, not to mention sending a blademaster after you? Somebody is backing him. Do we even need to guess who?”

Kenmays paled. Lorist made him incredibly nervous.

“But why would the king want to lay his hands on salt merchant committee. I’m just a merchant. I didn’t touch any of his industries. I’m not a threat either.”

“You underestimate your importance,” Lorist smiled, “The war is over. Everyone knows we’ll have several decades of peace. Now that there are no more external threats, the king has to start considering internal ones. What, other than our alliance, could spark his worry? Nothing. If he wants to implement some kind of nationwide policy, he’ll have to go through us. He is desperate to break us up.

“I suspect he set his sights on salt merchant committee because you’re the sole common interest binding the four houses together. Shazin and Felim in particular are recovering quickly thanks to the kickbacks from the committee. They are rebuilding their militaries quickly as well. He first tried destroying the committee, now, failing that, he’s targeting you.

“It was only a wild guess at first, but when I learnt that the bastard child was harassing the nobles and saw how his guild could bring out a gold rank guard, my suspicions deepened. How could Andalou have such a strong force without the king? Even the committee only uses silver ranks.

“D’you remember the king’s fury when I had their guards killed? It was like a child’s toy had been broken. He was also way too keen to get an answer out of me. I knew it was him when I saw that. What else can I say at this point? Why should I care about his reputation? I’ll just leave.”

Felim, who had been listening from the side, nodded.

“Locke is right. What do you think the king will do next? Declare us traitors?”

“I don’t really care whether we’re traitors or not,” Shazin added, “We can win any war he starts. Other than House Fisablen, no one is willing to fight to the death for that man’s sake. Most will probably only voice their support while finding excuses to sit on the sidelines. I’m most worried that the king will try to catch us before we reach Jillin.”

Everyone fell silent. They didn’t have the forces to far the entire imperial guard right now. It would be very bad if he sent his army after them before they got to Jillin. Lorist could cause him some damage, but even he could not win against an entire legion on his own. Not to mention their family were still here and could easily be turned into hostages against

“If he really does something like that, we’ll turn against him for good. I don’t think he’ll be quite that reckless. He’d be betting his entire bloodline and legacy on very unfavorable odds, and he knows it.

“We should stay on guard just in case, though. We still have two days of travel ahead before we reach Jillin. I’ve left a few men at the gates to keep an eye on the enemy army. They’ll let us know as soon as the enemy begin mobilizing. If it comes to it, we’ll send our families ahead and hold the enemy at bay until they’ve reached safety.

“We can’t win a determined fight, but we can keep them busy long enough. We don’t have worry about Jillin’s garrison. They’re practically my men.”

Kenmays sighed.

“I knew you won’t allow the king to interfere with Jillin. Everything will be fine as long as the garrison stays with us. I doubt the legion is enough to hold us. Everything will be fine once we reach Jillin. We’ll secede from the Andinaq and make Lorist king. We can settle our debt once we’ve stabilized the situation thereafter.”

It would most likely take the rest of the year to set everything up, but they could attack after winter and have half the kingdom in their hands in two years. Given their vast influence, they could easily turn the rest of the kingdom’s nobles to their side and wipe out the empire within five years.

Lorist shook his head

“It’s not time for something like that yet. People will think we were planning this from the beginning and believe the king’s claims that we are traitors, rather than the victims. We should do nothing but take up our defenses. We should definitely not act before he does. Our secession should be a reaction to him.”

Felim sighed.

“Locke, it’s not that I want to criticize you, but you’re too soft. Don’t worry so much about your reputation as a loyal vassal, it’ll do you no good once you’re a sovereign. If we declare independence after he makes his claim, people will believe we’re doing damage control. We’ll be the rebels that wanted to take over the kingdom but got caught out. No one will accept our declaration if we do it after the fact, and we won’t be able to kill the king without being labeled kingslayers. If you declare independence beforehand, however, this will be a fair war between two kingdoms and we can kill that bastard without having to worry about being called kingslayers.

The guards Lorist had left at the city gates slowly caught up with them.

“The king is on his way, Your Grace,” announced the guard.

“Has the royal army been deployed?” asked Lorist.

“No. The king rides with only a small escort.”

“Maybe he wants to hold us down while the army deploys and catches up?” guessed Kenmays.

“Send our family ahead. We’ll following behind them a little slower and see what the king is up to.”

The group proceeded thusly for several more hours. The king only caught up with them at sunset, covered in sweet and breathing haggardly.

“Why did you leave without a word? I investigated the matter more thoroughly and know you are not to blame for what happened. That brat of mine stepped out of line. You were right to kill his henchmen. I shouldn’t have thought you were insulting me when you killed them. Please, there are only two days left until the ceremony and it wouldn’t do for you to not attend. I was too stressed about the arrangements and let it get the better of me.”

Auguslo dismounted and took hold of Lorist’s reins as he spoke. He begged Lorist to return. The group refused but the king wouldn’t let go of the reins. The two groups were left string at each others for half an hour until Duke Fisablen arrived with the rest of the attending nobles to persuade Lorist to stay.

Lorist stood firm, however, and the two groups were once again left staring at one another. The standoff continued until midnight, when the last of Lorist’s men returned from the capital to report the army had still shown no signs of mobilizing. Lorist only gave in once he heard the final report. He spoke with his three companions and agreed to return to the capital, but refused to send for their families.

Auguslo wasn’t very happy that the four dukes weren’t doing exactly as he asked, but he had to let it be, otherwise he’d get nothing. He was even more frustrated when each of the four only brought a hundred guards back with them.

Everyone could see the immense distrust in Lorist’s eyes and knew an irreparable rift had formed between the four and the king. It was unlikely that the king’s reign would be smooth going forward. A few even wondered if the emperor would live long enough to see his heir take the throne after him, if at all.

Chapter 575 - Marquis Krilos's Frustration

Bam! Krilos hurled away a purplish gold vase and it smashed against the ground and shattered into smithereens.

The precious item worth nearly a thousand gold Fordes disappeared just like that. Even when Krilos left the Trade Union during that chaotic night, he didn't forget to bring that vase with him. He treasured it so much that he would toy around with it from time to time. It could be seen how angry he must've been to smash it into the ground.

It was the 10th day of the 8th month of Year 1783, the day Andinaq would be restored to the Krissen Empire. Auguslo I, the king of Andinaq, would also ascend to the post of emperor. From that day onward, Auguslo I would be known as Krissen IX, or Emperor Auguslo. His unfortunate father, Andinaq I would be named posthumously as Krissen VIII.

The imperial capital was filled with a festive mood. Loud sounds of gongs and cheers could be heard in the streets. The parades were colorful and plentiful and the citizens dutifully celebrated to congratulate their great king's ascension. Now emperor, Auguslo announced that his citizens would be given free wine and meat to make the best of the day. They could eat all they want without spending a single cent.

Cheers of 'long live the emperor' and 'long live the Krissen Empire' reverberated throughout the city. What was an occasion of great joy to the people was instead a source of grief to Krilos. Ever since he left the Trade Union, he had been living in the imperial capital and managed to get to know Count Wecksas as he had planned. He used his startling intelligence to gain the count's favor and offered himself up as his most trusted advisor.

Back then, Wecksas was but a knight. As he had offended House Norton, his position as commander of the royal guard had been stripped of him. After Auguslo returned, he decided to entitle Wecksas to be a count in the faraway province of Majik and ordered him to leave for his dominion right away.

During that crucial time, it was Krilos that stopped Wecksas from leaving. He advised Wecksas to beg pitifully to be allowed to stay in the palace and use his relation as family to win Auguslo over. In the end, the king rescinded his order and allowed Wecksas to remain within the imperial capital. Since Wecksas had grown up on the streets of the capital and had never gone anywhere else before, sending him to Majik so abruptly was indeed a little too heartless.

Back then, Krilos told Wecksas that the moment he left the imperial capital, he would no longer have a chance of inheriting the throne. But if he stayed, he might still stand a chance. Even though Auguslo had a proper heir now, it would take more than a decade for the child to mature and anything could happen during that time.

Wecksas listened well and went to the palace to beg in the name of his dead mother and got what he wanted. After that, he started Andalou with the help of Krilos and used the excuse of earning money for the imperial family to gain Auguslo's trust and support, obtaining the rights to sell ores within the kingdom.

Yet another wave of pain assailed him. Krilos's body stiffened and the two scars that stretched from his pale forehead to his chin contorted into a deformed shape. At that moment, his expression was ever so demonic and sinister. He looked like the devil himself.

But he was alone in that room. For his revenge, Krilos made the two scars that were on his face and ruined his handsome face. Only by doing so could he move about in the imperial capital as he pleased without fear of being recognized as Marquis Krilos of the Trade Union.

Perhaps I shouldn't have placed my hopes in Wecksas, thought Krilos as he took out a bottle containing a blue concoction, loosened its cork, and poured the solution into his mouth. His expression finally returned to normal following the consumption of the medicine. He sat back down slowly and reached out for the purple-gold vase he usually toyed around with out of habit only to grab nothing but air. It was then when he recalled smashing his precious treasure in a fit of rage.

Giving a pained look at the pieces on the ground, Krilos began to coldly contemplate what happened. Why did Duke Norton, someone who fell out with the king, show up during the ceremony with the three other dukes as if nothing happened? They even seemed to get along well...

I heard Duke Norton flipped out against Auguslo in the palace before all the nobles present and kicked the great hall's doors flying before leaving with the other dukes and their families and servants to return to their dominion.

When Krilos first heard about that news, he was overjoyed. The alliance of four houses was the most powerful faction in Andinaq and House Norton had the strongest military in all of Grindia. The Trade Union could be said to have lost solely because of them. Lorist was not only Duke of The Northlands, but also the kingdom's swordsaint. A battle between him and Auguslo was the best thing Krilos could hope for.

Even though the gold rank Marcus that followed him and the 40 plus loyal silver ranks were killed on the streets by Duke Norton and his guards, Krilos believed that if he could incite conflict between Lorist and Auguslo, it would've been worth the sacrifice of his loyal men because his revenge would finally have a chance of coming true.

In fact, Lorist suspected Auguslo for being the mastermind behind Andalou and the one who tried to assassinate Kenmays. Both the blademaster that was involved in the assassination attempt and the gold rank that died by Loze's hands as well as the Andalou silver rank guards that were killed were all Krilos's men. Even the 100 thousand gold Fordes lost by Andalou during the trade war was paid out with Krilos's personal funds.

However, Lorist thought that it was Auguslo who was footing the bill for his illegitimate son. Yet, he didn't know of the loss Krilos had to bear nor about his close relationship with Wecksas. If he didn't show up to clean up after Wecksas's mess, the count would quickly be sent to Majik by Auguslo. If that happened, Krilos would have no chance of succeeding in his revenge plot.

The family members of the four dukes and their forces didn't return to the imperial capital two days ago. The man I sent to the city gates saw it himself. I only heard that Auguslo brought some men with him to chase them down and the other nobles of the kingdom also joined to persuade them, but the whole group didn't turn back, right? Auguslo wore a dark expression when he got back to the city and I even heard word of the group of people leaving Jillin Harbor on ships...

So what is with the four dukes' presence during the ceremony today? There are also near a thousand men flying the banner of the raging bear up high in the military parade and cheering 'long live the empire' and 'long live the emperor'! Where did those Norton soldiers come from? Even the forces of the three allies are the same. There were three thousand men following behind the Nortons and cheering all the same on the streets of the imperial capital!

Krilos was expecting to watch the consequences of the ruined parade without the four houses, yet he didn't expect that his plans were ruined. It was as if the murder two days ago didn't happen at all. That surprising outcome almost made Krilos freak out. The more he hoped, the more disappointed he became. When he returned to his residence, he began smashing things up.

The door was pushed open and a figure slipped into the room before closing the door. He then laid against the door with ragged breath and said, "That was terrifying... I almost bumped into Duke Norton. Thankfully, I managed to slip away. Otherwise, you won't be able to see me anymore, Selik."

Selik was the name Krilos used. He told Wecksas that he used to be an heir of a large merchant guild in the southern Romon Empire and escaped to the imperial capital because of offending a duke of the empire. As he wanted to found his own merchant guild, he teamed up with Wecksas and provided the funds.

I really got myself rubbish partners... thought Krilos as he touched his forehead. The person who slipped into his room without greeting was none other that Wecksas. Krilos thought that Wecksas inherited none of Auguslo's traits apart from his handsome appearance. He was nothing but a thug given his upbringing in the streets of the imperial capital.

Maybe he doesn't even qualify as a thug... If it weren't for his adoptive father that laid good foundations for him as a knight and awakened his battleforce during sixteen, he would've long starved to death during the war... He only managed to survive because of his battleforce until he was found by Auguslo's men...

Krilos thought that Wecksas didn't have any good qualities at all, not to mention his lack of noble etiquette, his greed and lust as well as recklessness. However, Wecksas was quite the loyal fellow. However, his loyalty to his friends only showed when he wanted to drag them down the pit along with him to suffer alongside him. Krilos had already suffered losses twice within the span of a year because of Wecksas's antics.

The first time was the trade war with salt merchant committee. Everyone knew that nobles preferred rock salt to sea salt because of the latter's bitterness. Usually, only commoners used sea salt. Even though the salt merchant committee's salt was white as snow, they were produced from seawater and were only used by nobles if they really didn't have rock salt.

Krilos managed to get the rights to sell the yield from three salt mines from Auguslo through Wecksas. In some sense, he would've monopolized the rock salt industry in the kingdom. He was going to market the rock salt to the nobles as a luxury seasoning. However, rock salt had to be processed quite extensively before they could be turned into fine salt. As Krilos wasn't in good physical condition, he left Wecksas in charge of those matters.

Krilos believed that as long as Wecksas used Auguslo's name to pay visits to those nobles and market his salt, the plan would soon come to fruition. What he didn't expect was that when Wecksas found that each bottle of salt made less than a small silver of profit, he felt that it was too much trouble. So, thanks to the advice from some friend of his, he bought lots of sea salt to be mixed together with rock salt before selling them out. He could increase the profit margin a few times more that way.

Wecksas gleefully thought that he had come up with a good plan, but he forgot that the nobles weren't idiots. Sea salt was white and rock salt was slightly greenish. It didn't take long before Wecksas's white-green salt became a huge joke. In the end, Krilos had lost nearly 100 thousand gold Fordes taken from his personal funds to fund the production of the rock salt. Incidentally, the friend that suggested the idea got a thousand gold Fordes as a reward.

The second loss he suffered was when he suggested Wecksas to hold more balls and invite nobles to join them to expand his network. Andalou would pay for the costs of those balls. Wecksas naturally found that idea to his liking as partying about was what he liked to do best. He even went so far as to stop nobles in public to force his invitations on them. They had no choice but to endure it and accept the invitation in consideration of Auguslo's power.

But the whole plan was ruined when they tried to invite the Norton ladies to the ball. That blunder caused Krilos to sacrifice Marcus, the gold rank, and more than 40 silver ranks. More than half of Andalou's shop was also torn down. When Krilos came to the imperial capital, he had less than a hundred men with him. Now, half of them were gone.

"Whoa, why did you smash this precious thing? It's such a shame. Miss Belise said that if I gave it to her, she would spend three romantic nights with me. I knew I should've given to her if it was going to be smashed anyway..." said Wecksas when he discovered the pieces o the ground.

"You..." Krilos felt a rush of anger, but he still had to give some explanation about it. "I accidentally knocked it down. Oh, do you know why Duke Norton showed up in the ceremony? I thought he flipped out against the king and left the imperial capital with his family."

"Oh, well, didn't my father chase after him? In the end, he managed to convince him to return. However, he only came back with the three dukes and ten or so guards. He's been staying within the palace for the past two days without leaving at all and the soldiers of those houses are all impostors. They're actually members of the royal army," replied Wecksas nonchalantly.

"Then why didn't you tell me about it earlier?" Krilos was really mad that he was happy for nothing.

"What's the use of telling you about it? Didn't you see that I was busy hiding? I almost bumped into Duke Norton just now too."

Krilos really didn't have anything to say about that. Sometimes, even he felt admiration for Wecksas's luck. Even though he was the main cause of the trouble with House Norton and twisted the truth when he reported to Auguslo about that incident and caused the argument between him and Lorist, Auguslo didn't seek Wecksas out to dish out the consequences after he chased Lorist down.

Auguslo had been quite annoyed that Lorist didn't allow his family members and forces to return to the imperial capital and was too busy arranging the faking of the forces of the four houses. Lorist and the other dukes also kept a low profile and didn't leave their residences and forgot about Wecksas completely, allowing him to travel about the imperial capital freely and even mingle among the other nobles during the ceremony.

"Lord count, as your friend, I have to advise you that if you still intend to sit in the throne one day, you should really change your bad habits and become a proper noble. Only then can you gain the heartfelt support of the other nobles in the kingdom and become a magnificent ruler in the future," said Krilos.

"Enough, Selik. I know that. Don't need to nag me about it. I'll definitely become the successor of the imperial family," Wecksas replied in annoyance, "Also, do you have any more of those purple-gold vases? I'll safekeep it for you lest you accidentally smash them again."

Krilos was at a loss for words.

Chapter 576 - Suggestion to Demilitarize

It was a sunny day at the beach.

Lorist lied down lazily under a shade made of fine, gray linen cloth.

He watched as his wife and children played by the seaside. This is the life... Lorist breathed a long sigh and tried to forget everything unhappy and troubling that occurred in the imperial capital.

Kenmays came over with a small wooden bucket. Within it was ice made from saltpeter and two bottles of chilled fruit wine. After taking a seat beside Lorist, he took out two glasses from the bucket and opened one bottle. The amber-colored wine looked ever so mesmerizing through the transparent glass.

He gave one glass to Lorist before taking a swig from his own. "I really don't know how you always come up with these little ideas. You were actually able to make ice during a hot summer like this. Being able to enjoy chilled fruit wine during such weather is truly a luxury..."

Lorist didn't speak and finished the wine in his glass before filling it halfway and popping two ice chunks into his glass.

It was currently the beginning of the 9th month. After participating in the ceremony held in the imperial capital, they parted with Auguslo during the night banquet on unfriendly terms because of another argument. Lorist, Kenmays, Shazin and Felim left the imperial capital with their guards early the next morning without bidding their farewell to go to Silowas and reunite with their families.

They were at a beach near Seaview Manor. Compared to House Kenmays's Platinum Beach, this one was far smaller, but it was more than enough for the dukes and their families to have fun. Looking at the people playing about, Kenmays breathed a deep sigh. He had spent lots of money to invest in Platinum Beach to make it the best vacation spot in the kingdom and was going to go there every summer with lots of other nobles. But Auguslo came over and brought the nobles to war. After the three bloody years, all the nobles suffered heavy losses and were no longer in the mood to spend their vacation at Platinum Beach. They were busy licking each other's wounds at home.

"Don't worry. Just invite the nobles to go to Platinum Beach next year. It's been five years already and I bet they must've forgotten about it by now. The empire has already been restored and there shouldn't be any wars in the foreseeable future, so I believe that they'll regain the mood to have fun once their wallets fatten up again." Lorist knew what Kenmays was mulling over when he saw him gaze blankly at the beach.

"Ah, it's not that..." Kenmays snapped out of his stupor and said, "I'm not worried about that. I was wondering what His Majesty meant when he suggested us to demilitarize during the banquet that night."

After the grand ceremony, Auguslo held a large banquet and invited all the nobles of the empire and their family members there. Even though some rather sour things happened before the ceremony, thanks to Auguslo's efforts, the ceremony was wrapped up properly in the end. Satisfied with how everything went down, Auguslo announced the policies he would be implementing across the next three years. Not only would he turn his focus on the life of the people and increase the income of the empire to fill its treasury, he also encouraged the development of trade and mineable resources as well as a decrease in scale of the military.

Focus was placed on the last part. Auguslo believed that since the empire had been restored, he would bring back the three-army policy used back in imperial days. The royal army would defend the imperial capital, Whitelion legion would deal with external threats, and Fiercegale legion would deal with bandits and other threats within the empire. Additionally, territories under imperial family rule would form their own garrison forces. Auguslo was also planning to rebuild the order of imperial knights and recruit talented descendants of nobles to serve the empire.

Those were mostly policies that existed since the old days of the empire and nobody minded them. The royal army, Whitelion legion and Fiercegale legion were the three main legions of the former empire that were under direct imperial control. As long as Auguslo was capable of rebuilding them, nobody would have anything to say about it. As for the order of imperial knights, it offered a career path for the noble descendants who wouldn't be inheriting the household and helped prevent strife during a time of peace. Those descendants wouldn't be allowed to join their household forces to prevent them posing a threat to the legitimate heirs. For instance, Lorist's second uncle who died on the battlefield served as the sergeant colonel in the Krissen imperial knight order.

What the nobles didn't expect was that after announcing the military policies of the empire, Auguslo suggested the nobles to scale down on their own forces. He reasoned that since peace was upon them, the nobles of the empire shouldn't continue to expand their household forces and instead invest their funds in development. So, he suggested for each noble house to demilitarized to a limited degree and adhere to the limits and standards he would set.

Auguslo believed that an imperial baron could have around two or three hundred-man squads in the household forces, a viscount could have around 500 men, a count could have around a thousand, and a marquis three thousand at most. As for dukes, they could form a division of troops or a small legion. For instance, a large legion of 45 thousand men should be shrinked into having only four six-thousand-strong divisions and another logistics unit of a thousand men, making the total number of men in a legion around 25 thousand people.

Auguslo emphasized that he made the suggestions for the sakes of the nobles' own wealth. Maintaining a large force during peacetime wasn't only a waste, it was a huge burden. He believed that they should decrease military spending so that the nobles can continue to enjoy lives of luxury and develop their dominions properly. As for bandits and the like, the empire's Fiercegale legion would take care of it after it was formed and the nobles didn't have to worry about it.

Auguslo expressed with great grief that the nobles of the empire had suffered enough losses during the bloody three years on Falik Plains, so his plan to help the nobles decrease their military spending was a boon from the empire to the nobles. In the future, all military deployments would be taken care of by the three imperial legions and all the nobles had to do was defend their dominions well. Unless the empire was in danger of being wiped out completely, Auguslo wouldn't call for the nobles to take up arms and send them to the battlefield.

As for conflicts between nobles themselves, Auguslo expressed that he didn't wish to see wars break out between noble houses and encouraged the settlement of issues in a noble court. Inter-domain wars were not beneficial for anybody involved after all. Regardless of who the victor was, the three imperial legions could step in between those wars and eliminate conflict so that the noble court could give its verdict on the conflict.

Everyone participating in the banquet turned their eyes to Lorist, Fisablen, Kenmays, Felim and Shazin. They knew that House Norton's forces had already exceeded the forces commanded by Auguslo in terms of might. Even if he managed to form the three imperial legions, he would find it hard pressed to fight House Norton. If the other dukes of the allied houses joined forces together, they could easily sweep through the empire. Even if Fisablen joined forces with Auguslo and all the other nobles in the empire, they wouldn't be able to stop the joint forces of the four allied houses.

It was quite apparent that Auguslo was intentionally bringing the demilitarization plan out to deal with the four allied houses. To the other landed nobles, the plan didn't affect them much. Even Handra, Forund, and Shabaj were in agreement with that plan. As Auguslo had said, the decrease in the scale of household forces would decrease the burden they had to bear to maintain them. Even if they received a call to arms from Auguslo, they wouldn't have to send as many men to help out.

Perhaps because they had rehearsed it beforehand, Duke Fisablen stood up and said, "Your Majesty, House Fisablen is extremely supportive of this policy. I am willing to give command of my Frontier legion back to the empire to Your Majesty's control."

Cunning old man! cried the nobles in their minds. Everyone with half a brain understood that Duke Fisablen obviously got something out of it from being so obedient. Even though the Frontier legion wasn't traditionally one of the three imperial legions, it had a stellar reputation. It was originally formed to curb raids from the grassland barbarians in the great northeastern plains at the borders of the empire. It was considered more to be a local force than a nationwide one.

However, when they were wiping out the barbarians, Frontier legion fell into the hands of House Fisablen and came under the household name. Currently, there were two legions in Frontier, numbering up to 80 thousand men. It was the main force of House Fisablen and Lorist formed Jaeger and stationed it in Wild Husbandry precisely to defend against them.

Duke Fisablen's ceding of control of the legion back to the empire meant that only 45 thousand men, one full legion, of them would be given back to the empire. Since it used to be considered a local force, it would still roam in the northeastern provinces and wouldn't be House Fisablen's troops in name only. Even though it sounded pleasant to say that the legion would return to Auguslo's control, it was still practically under Duke Fisablen's command.

The old guy truly was sly... He gave away one legion and kept the other as his own household force. In other words, it was just a subtle name change. Both legions were still controlled by House Fisablen. Not only that, the house only had to pay for the maintenance of one legion and the one that was given away would be funded by the empire, greatly decreasing the burden on the house. They could use the extra resource of their main household legion and the reserve legion, which used the mercenary model and was comprised of mostly grassland barbarians.

Auguslo nodded with a smile. "Duke Fisablen, you are truly loyal to the empire and your actions are deserving of respect and praise. I recall that Frontier legion's funding and equipment were provided by Wild Husbandry, Winston and Southern. We'll follow old conventions then. Duke Fisablen, you shall make a yearly budget for the legion to claim the subsidies from these three provinces."

That was nothing short of a slight to the alliance of four houses! Winston, Wild Husbandry and Southern used to be heavily raided by the grassland barbarians and it was only because of their common enemy back then that the three provinces united to fund the Frontier legion to curb the grassland barbarians. But ever since Frontier legion became House Fisablen's to control, that agreement was annulled. The expansion into Eastwild also removed the threat from Winston and Southern. Frontier legion was funded and commanded completely by House Fisablen after that.

Currently, Southern was House Felim's dominion and Winston and Wild Husbandry had become territories under Norton control. Auguslo's suggestion for the three provinces to fund Frontier legion was a malicious move against the alliance of four houses to make them fund a rival's force. It really took some talent and thick skin for one to say what Auguslo casually did.

Duke Felim slammed the golden goblet in his hand onto the table and stood up angrily. "Impossible! Back then, Frontier legion was formed to deal with the grassland barbarian threat! But are they still a danger to us? Frontier legion is now under House Fisablen's control, so why should we pay for it?"

Lorist sighed and stood up to calm felim down. "Back then, Southern wasn't Duke Felim's household dominion, so it was reasonable for it to bear part of the cost. But now, Southern belongs to House Felim. It wouldn't be appropriate to ask Southern to bear the cost of funding Frontier legion. How about this, House Norton shall bear the cost of Frontier legion and promises to make sure it is adequately funded."

Overjoyed, Auguslo said, "Brother Locke is understanding as always and ever willing to help the nation out."

Duke Fisablen also happily said, "Do you mean it, Duke Norton? You can't go back on your words before so many nobles here."

"Of course," Lorist said with a nod, "Apart from the cost of supplies, House Norton is also willing to provide complete equipment for Frontier legion. However, the condition for that is for the legion to be reorganized by our house and be trained according to the equipment we provide. It is no surprise to anyone that the forces of our house are inferior to none. We will be willing to provide training and impart our experiences learned through battle to Frontier legion without any holds barred. We only need half a year's time to ensure that Frontier returns to His Majesty as an elite force."

Duke Fisablen paled immediately. If Frontier legion gets brought into the Norton dominion to be trained by them, would they still listen to my orders? They'll become the Nortons' men for life! Since they count on the Nortons for everything from food to equipment, it goes without saying whose orders they will take! Only a fool will send Frontier legion to be train in the Norton dominion...

Auguslo also understood that point. Lorist found a way out of trouble with but a few simple statements. "We'll discuss this another day since there's no rush. Also, Brother Locke, what are your thoughts about the demilitarization plan I proposed? The empire is at peace now and House Norton no longer needs to sustain such a large force. I think your house can decrease from four to two legions. Maybe even one legion is enough."

He went straight to the point. Lorist shook his head. "Your Majesty, regrettably, I cannot agree to this proposal because that will affect the house's plans for more military excursions."

"Military excursions?" Auguslo said, startled, "Where does House Norton intend to conquer next?"

"It's no conquest, Your Majesty, don't worry. My house plans to expand into Magical Dragon Mountains and the wildlands further north in our next phase. We want to pave a new province in the north and expand the empire's territory. We will be needing all four of our legions for that, one to be stationed at Wild Husbandry to defend against the grassland barbarians, and one back in The Northlands to defend our home. Actually, our forces are being drawn rather thin and we might even need the help of the other dukes' household forces."

Lorist was referring to Kenmays, Shazin and Felim. That was in direct opposition to Auguslo's plan to have their forces decrease in scale.

Auguslo's expression darkened. He thought that Lorist was just finding a random excuse to refuse his proposal. But he took a few deep breaths and forced himself to calm down. "Locke, since you're unwilling to shrink your forces, I won't force the matter. But don't you think you should change the name of your sentry legion? It means the same thing as our royal guard and it can be confusing."

Lorist smiled and said, "Alright, Your Majesty. I shall do as you wish. From this day henceforth, the sentry legion shall be named Ironguard."

Lorist didn't really care about what his legions were called. Since Auguslo had a problem with sentry legion, he'd just change it to Ironguard, one he thought was easy to remember. What he didn't expect was that Auguslo would erupt in anger right after that. He kicked the table in front of him and turned to leave the hall. The banquet was over just like that.

Even after he left the palace, Lorist was still oblivious to what happened and felt a little mad. Is Auguslo throwing a tantrum at me? How ridiculous!

Kenmays laughed heartily and said, "Locke, you're really something, you know that? Calling your legion Ironguard is worse than not changing the name. You're insulting His Majesty straight to his face."

"Wait, I still don't know why it can't be called Ironguard."

"Hahaha, did you forget? Back then, the force Duke Madras formed was called Ironguard legion. The eight thousand men of the legion defended Kobo. His Majesty's father, the late King Andinaq, brought the 60 thousand men of the royal guard to besiege Kobo for six whole months and returned in failure with only 20 thousand men remaining. That was what caused the great destabilization in the empire and subsequently, its collapse. Yet, you started calling your legion Ironguard just like that... Aren't you trying to piss him off intentionally? You're pitting it against his royal guard..."

Lorist only just realized it. He had offhandedly named it Ironguard, but Auguslo took it as an affront. The rift between them only grew deeper. However, Lorist didn't bother to explain his actions either and left the imperial capital the next day.

As he lay comfortably on the beach, he said, "His Majesty's proposal really put us in a pickle. He didn't really care about whether we would decrease our forces at all. He only wanted a clear record of their sizes. If we expand in the future, he can accuse us for having ulterior motives for doing so. We'll have no choice but to request help from his forces if we need more men and that will result in the three legions being involved in our internal affairs. At least that's what I think he's planning."

Kenmays finished the wine in his glass. "His Majesty truly has lots on his mind."

"Of course." Lorist nodded. "Now that we no longer have external threats, the next biggest thing to worry about is our alliance. Maybe His Majesty sees us as even more threatening than the Trade Union. That's why we can't afford to demilitarize. We'll have to keep up the military drills to keep our forces trained to ensure the safety and longevity of our dominions and houses."

Chapter 577 - Entanglement

There was bound to be difference in opinion anyway so Lorist didn't really care what Auguslo thought. Even though the man was the emperor, Lorist would still do whatever he wanted.

Continuing to develop the house step by step according to his plan was the best thing to do and there was no need for him to change according to Auguslo's whims.

In some sense, Lorist was entangled with Auguslo somehow. Back then when Lorist was bringing the northbound convoy back to The Northlands, Charade who was in charge of it back then was used by Auguslo to further his own purposes when they passed through Andinaq. They had helped Auguslo turn from a relegated prince to the de-facto ruler of Andinaq.

Auguslo used the northbound convoy to exterminate any rebellious nobles within the kingdom and robbed power from his elder brother, the first highness. In the end, he also forced the refugees of the kingdom to tag along with the northbound convoy to force it to its doom so that he could enjoy its benefits. That was the reason Charade and Potterfang didn't have the slightest goodwill towards Auguslo.

With the northbound convoy facing oblivion, Lorist had to seek them out and leave The Northlands and come to an agreement with Auguslo. He swore allegiance to the true heirs of Krissen's legacy, the Andinaq royal family, in exchange for Silowas to be given to the house as their hereditary dominion.

In the end, Lorist led the convoy to cross Lake Egret at night and attack the duchy of Madras to open up a path for the convoy to travel north. Auguslo also used that chance to take Yungechandler from Madras and claim it as Andinaq's territory.

When they were working together to fight against Madras, Auguslo wanted to use the northbound convoy to deal with Second Prince Iblia's army as well and sent for people to destroy Kobo's walls, intentionally plotting against him. Yet, as fate wanted it, Lorist managed to arrive at The Northlands with the convoy intact.

During the next following years, Lorist and Auguslo had their own things to be busy with. After Auguslo defeated First Prince Redlis's invading army and signed a peace treaty with Duke Madras, Andinaq's territory doubled. He won the reputation as one of the new genius military minds of the new generation. He continued to build his army for his dream of reuniting the empire.

Lorist on the other hand defeated Duke Loggins when he returned to The Northlands and wiped out the magic beast wave that came to terrorize them on a yearly basis. He also defeated the second prince, who was pining for House Norton's wealth, causing the second prince to send a blademaster to assassinate Lorist. He then ended up among the mountain barbarians. By the time he returned home, Lorist led an attack on Iblia's capital,, Windbury, and captured the second prince and formed the alliance of four houses. He stabilized The Northlands and went to his dominion, Silowas, for the first time while he transported the second prince for Auguslo to deal with.

What he didn't expect to find was that the island had been messed up badly by Auguslo's tax collection officer and Seaview Manor had been occupied by some unruly descendants of other nobles. The subordinates Auguslo left behind also occupied the fertile land themselves and caused lots of trouble. Lorist decided to make a strong stand and captured the tax collection official and the colonel that was sent there, imprisoned the young nobles and attacked Farama Village before heading to the imperial capital to see Auguslo.

Auguslo on the other hand was busy building up his army of 300 thousand by emptying the kingdom's wealth in it. He was going to reunite the empire with only 300 thousand men and was feeling very good about himself. When he met Lorist, he even tried to convince House Norton to join the attempt. However, Lorist brought the tax collection official, colonel, and noble descendants there to him at that moment, which ended up being quite humiliating for him.

When Auguslo was about to defend the tax collection official, Lorist killed him on the spot. That was the first huge conflict between Lorist and Auguslo. Auguslo ordered his blademaster to give Lorist a lesson, but was surprised to find that the result was the opposite he had hoped for. Later, Lorist brought out King Iblia, the second prince, that had been taken captive. He was one of the main perpetrators of the civil war in the empire. Auguslo was overjoyed and Lorist used that opportunity to leave the imperial capital.

However, the tax collection official's elder brother and Auguslo's favored subordinate, General Count Aslan, brought five thousand men to stop Lorist. Auguslo pretended not to notice. Surprisingly, Lorist used 500 guards to ruin all five of the camps of Count Arslan and defeated them horribly. Even Count Arslan died from the battle. Just as Auguslo was still recovering from the shocking battle, the war with Redlis wa just about to begin, so he had no choice but to give up on pursuing the matter with Lorist.

When Lorist left the imperial capital, he went to Morante to obtain the glassmaking methods and got to know about the upcoming implementation of the nobility system by the Trade Union. He heard that the big seven guilds were trying to conquer Silowas, so to prevent the island from falling into Chikdor's hands, Lorist intentionally used the glassmaking method to incite war between the Trade Union and Teribo to force the Trade Union's focus to turn to the southern part of the continent, kicking them off on the route of expansion.

Lorist didn't expect that even though he had prevented Chikdor's plans from coming to fruition, Silowas would be attacked by the slaver kingdom of Hanayabarta. To have his revenge, he led his troops to the distant Hanayabarta archipelago and exterminated the whole kingdom before taking the archipelago under house rule.

As Lorist was preparing for that excursion, Auguslo paid a huge price to forcefully cross Cloudsnap Mountains during a harsh snowstorm and miraculously took Redlis's capital, Frederika. King Redlis, the first prince of the former empire, disappeared ever since and the kingdom of Redlis was no more.

That battle shocked the whole Grindia continent. Auguslo was named the new northern wargod, but he let the victory get to his head and made one mistake after another after he got the upper hand. He wanted to use force to deal with the nobles that aligned themselves with Redlis and made unreasonable demands to the four central dukes. In the end, the two factions united against Auguslo and defeated his army time and again.

At that moment, one of the big seven guilds, Wessia, started to pine after Frederika and Bodolger's rich resources and interfered with the war. Auguslo on the other hand fell sick badly after overexerting himself and crossing the mountains during winter, allowing Princess Carey, the daughter of the late first highness, to stage a revellion and cut off the supplies for Auguslo's army. The forces at the frontlines crumbled and Auguslo was trapped in Frederika.

Faced with such a desperate situation, Auguslo barely managed to survive his sickness and left most of his forces to defend Frederika before he left with an elite force of a few thousand through a secret path. He would cross Cloudsnap Mountains again to retake Andinaq and deal with the traitors. But due to his bad luck, he wandered into the place the first prince was hiding at and fought to a pyrrhic victory with the first prince's personal forces. Even though he managed to kill the first prince, who was another main cause of the empire's civil war, Auguslo's forces were greatly wounded and he could no longer take back his kingdom.

During the time when he was at his lowest, Lorist was busy developing his dominion after returning from a distant excursion. He reorganized his army and was going to tackle the backer of the Redlis regime, House Fisablen. He wanted to take the provinces in the northeastern area. It came as a surprise to him that Auguslo would show up within his dominion and request Lorist's help to restore him to his throne.

That was the third time Lorist met Auguslo in person. After much negotiation, Lorist got the right to rule Delamock and Winston from Auguslo. Those two provinces would become administrative areas of House Norton. He also managed to win the dominions of his allies, namely, Kenmays, Felim and Shazin, before agreeing to deploy his forces to retake the kingdom for Auguslo.

Lorist's forces attacked Sidgler from sea during winter and exterminated the duchy of Madras before Tigersoar was sent to Andinaq to take the imperial capital. The rebellious nobles were all exterminated and Auguslo was restored to his throne. At the same time, House Norton's amazing military prowess began to make Auguslo wary.

After helping Auguslo, Lorist turned his gaze to the decaying kingdom of Iblia. He led his forces to take Windbury by surprise and chased Duke Fisablen, who was prepared to reshape the kingdom to suit his needs, away, thereby exterminating Iblia for good. After that, the Nortons greatly wounded House Fisablen's forces and the 80 plus thousand of the four central duchies and cut off all relation between House Fisablen and the four central duchies.

However, the duke's reputation of wargod of the plains wasn't just for show. Even though he suffered a loss in Southern, he managed to deal Lorist a huge blow at Wild Husbandry. Duke Fisablen gathered 100 thousand grassland barbarians to lay in ambush in Wild Husbandry and almost defated the newly formed Jaeger legion in its entirety. That was the biggest loss Lorist sustained since he took over the house.

Just when Lorist thought that he could use the four allied houses to force Duke Fisablen to surrender and get the wealth of House Fisablen for his allies and him, Auguslo interfered and barged into House Fisablen's territory and made a deal with Duke Fisablen. House Fisablen was declared once more a part of Andinaq and Auguslo took the duke's granddaughter, Cacanne, as his wife, thwarting Lorist's plans and allowing House Fisablen to live.

Right after that, Auguslo planned to attack the four central duchies and managed to convince Lorist and Duke Fisablen to offer aid. During that battle, Lorist made up with Fisablen and no longer considered each other enemies, restoring a friendly trade relation. The duke also said that he wasn't interested in fighting Lorist for supremacy over the northeastern area and would be willing to settle into the new order set by the Nortons.

After attacking the four central duchies, Auguslo turned his sights to the remaining provinces by the empire currently occupied by the Trade Union. Once more, he got Lorist's help to conquer Anderwoff, Majik, Bodolger and Kanbona while exterminating one of the big seven guilds, Wessia. Auguslo also conquered the northwestern area. His own forces with the allied noble army and House Norton's forces allied together to form the million-man army that was stationed at the borders of the Trade Union.

Auguslo thought that he wouldn't have to actually fight a battle and could force the Trade Union to surrender with pressure alone. They would return the two provinces that were still occupied and sign a peace agreement with him. But the Trade Union chose instead to send the windstorm swordsaint to the negotiation to bring Auguslo and all the other nobles to Morante to confess their sins while the Trade Union launched their own attack to catch the million-man army off-guard.

Lorist stepped forward at the crucial moment and fought to a bloody draw with the windstorm swordsaint. House Norton's Firmrock legion managed to hold the Union forces back and won enough time for Auguslo to gather his forces and mount a counterattack. After that, House Norton's three legions joined Auguslo in wiping out the main force of the Trade Union.

That was the time Lorist and Auguslo's relationship was at their closest. Auguslo was filled with respect for Lorist, a swordsaint. That was why after he suffered such huge losses from the three years of war on Falik Plains and requested Lorist for aid, Lorist agreed.

After that, House Norton's Northsea Fleet exterminated Invincible Fleet and took Morante from Hidegold Bay, turning the tables on the battle at Falik Plains immediately and forcing the Union forces out. Lorist saved the nobles of Andinaq from losing all their forces and emerged victorious in the great Battle of Bluwek. In another three years' time, he would tear the Trade Union into multiple pieces and force it to surrender in the end.

But now that Auguslo no longer had the external threat that was the Trade Union and gotten his dream of becoming the emperor that restored the Krissen Empire, he became even more wary of House Norton's might. Even though Lorist had taken up the mantle of the kingdom's swordsaint, Auguslo was still filled with suspicion towards House Norton's power. His suggestion of downsizing their forces was merely a test he had for Lorist. Lorist was certain that the new emperor would definitely think up lots of other methods to test the patience of Lorist and the alliance of four houses.

Chapter 578 - Free Citizens

There were only two things in 1783 that concerned Lorist. The first was the grand ceremony of Auguslo's ascension. Even though it was already over, the falling out with him and the wariness he had for House Norton and the four allied houses only grew. The two factions were practically rivals and it seemed like their battle would be battled out in the arena that was the Krissen Empire. Before Lorist the swordsaint and Auguslo the emperor settled who won, the situation wouldn't calm down.

The other matter was the construction of the grand palace in Ragebear. After three hard three years, and the painstaking effort of nearly 200 thousand laborers, the grand palace was finally complete. On Grindia, there was no tax for constructing new properties. As long as nobles had the money and power, they could build a palace even grander than that of the royal family's and make it their residence. Not only was that a display of wealth, it would also serve as a legacy for their descendants to inherit, while also helping the house leave a mark in the annals of history. Handra's Inkcuby Palace and Forund's Summer Palace were such examples.

What dumbfounded Lorist was that he had made the decision to construct the Palace Ursa Rex wasn't for the fame, but rather to solve the issue with overproduction of a mineable resource in the dominion. In other words, he was increasing demand for the material to make up for the falling prices and also giving the farmers a chance to earn some extra money, which could then be used to stock up on more of House Norton's products. That way, the dominion's economy would get the stimulation it needed and the folk would lose the habit of saving every single coin they made.

That was why even though Palace Ursa Rex was grand in size, it wasn't very detailed and ornate to squinted eyes. The grandest palaces on Grindia were no different from several beautiful manors and castles linked together with a shared garden. They were far from what Lorist imagined fantasy-world castles would look like. And given that the term of the project was quite short, it couldn't compare to some palaces in his past life, which easily took more than a decade to construct. Then again, perhaps because of the advent of battleforce, the people in this world had an advantage when it came to building speed. Battleforce-using workers could easily lift large rocks and greatly increase the efficacy of construction.

Lorist had interfered with the design of Palace Ursa Rex to resemble the Forbidden City which he had seen during a visit with his secretary once. Even though he couldn't exactly replicate the whole thing, the grand scale of the whole project earned Ciroba's awe; the old architect's belief that Lorist had architectural talent was once again reinforced through the layout and design he provided of the buildings. But when Lorist received the final designs and saw the Gothic-style decorations on his Chinese-style palace, he thought that it felt a bit off, but it was already too late to change.

Ciroba on the other hand was filled to the brim with ambition. He was driven to make Palace Ursa Rex a Grindian structural marvel so as to leave his mark in the world of architecture. Had Lorist not decided on the name of the palace early on, Ciroba would be willing to give up on his riches, title and everything else to have the building named after him. If it were called Palace Ciroba, he would die with no regrets.

The grand architect spared no effort when it came to the construction and monitored the whole project closely, not letting off the slightest mistake. He even lived on the site itself. Given the humongous nature of the project, its term was set at two years and its budget, two million gold Fordes. But due to Ciroba's request, it swelled to three million, five million, and finally, eight million with Spiel's permission following the proposal to make it the greatest palace ever built on the continent. The term of construction was also lengthened to three and a half years while the 100 thousand laborers doubled. They were all brought over from various other project sites.

Spiel didn't think that spending so much on Palace Ursa Rex was a waste as it was a core matter of the house. Given House Norton's current might and prosperity, it required a palace just as grand to flaunt and make a statement. That was all the more justified taking into the fact that Lorist was a swordsaint of the kingdom. He was the greatest thing to ever come out of House Norton during the past three centuries. A residence fitting for his status was obligatory. After a few centuries, his descendants would also live in that palace proudly and admire his legacy.

When Lorist received that proposal, he was completely dumbstruck. A budget of eight million gold Fordes was more than three times the annual income received by the house a few years back. The usually stingy and pauper-like Spiel actually agreed to spend so much. If Lorist didn't trust in the chief finance supervisor's usual tact and wit and his scrutiny for every single bit of spending, he was going to send people to investigate whether there was corruption involved in the project.

Fortunately, the house had already established their trade route to the south of the continent and earned around six million gold Fordes yearly by exporting the goods it produced to Morante. Jillin Harbor's market also brought some one million gold Fordes in profit. Even though the house spent three hard years to defeat the Trade Union and lent so much money to the Free Union to aid their development, the income largely made up for the costs and there wasn't a need to worry about any financial crisis brewing in the following years.

Lorist smiled bitterly when he saw the figure of eight million. He was more than willing on spending that amount on raising living standards for the citizens or improving the gear of his forces. He didn't want a grand palace in the first place and how it had all come to this was genuinely a surprise to him. The budget for the palace that was planned to stimulate the household economy didn't require it to be grand or well decorated. But now, there was nothing he could change about the quadrupled budget. He had no choice but to live in the palace.

He didn't quite like living there. Unlike his expectant lovers and children, Lorist much preferred staying in simple fortress strongholds like Firmrock. He could hear the horns to wake the forces in the morning and listen to the grunts of the training soldiers. That was the life he truly wanted to read.

He recalled a saying in a webnovel he read in his past life: 'a beautiful palace is nothing but a beautiful cage in which the emperor locks himself. That's why there are no heroes after the wise founding emperor because they have been spoiled by their luxuries and lost touch with reality, being toyed around by the others like birds in a cage'. That was the case as well with the Song dynasty. The succeeding emperors were nothing but shipwreck after another.

During the 10th month, Lorist left Silowas with his family members and arrived in The Northlands. He was already preparing to move into Palace Ursa Rex. If he were honest, he didn't really like the name of the palace, which was set after the elders of the house all agreed to it. Since House Norton was called the Roaring, Raging Bear of The Northlands, the names suggested by the elders all had something to do with bears. Palace Ursa Rex was the one that was picked for its imposingness. Lorist settled with it because it was at least better than Palace Ciroba.

"Your Grace, in the palace are 3461 statues of a magic beast bear in various poses. To capture a sense of reality, we captured 17 magic beast bears from the wild and sketched them for reference and picked some poses that were most suited to be made into sculptures," introduced Ciroba as he pointed to the various bear statues place across the palace according to his design.

Ah, so all the money was spent by you! Do you think we're in a bear museum? commented Lorist in his mind. Unlike the heart-aching Lorist, his lovers and children were all stunned by the beauty and majesty of the palace. Sylvia loved her new abode. The children on the other hand had long dispersed and started playing tag around the bear statues. Anderbael climbed up the largest statue and stood proudly to show off, much to his personal caretakers' anxious worry.

I'm so busy and tired! Ever since returning to the dominion, Lorist had to move as well as plan the new year's celebration at Palace Ursa Rex. As it was the first time the celebration was being held at that venue, Lorist didn't dare to slack off. He welcomed one guest after another daily and missed the peaceful and relaxing days he spent at Cherry Blossom Ridge last year.

After the new year, everything finally quieted down for Lorist during the rainy season. The year of 1784 had arrived and i was when House Norton would begin their expansion towards the northern border of the empire into the Magical Dragon Mountains. A new province would be formed with Twinmont Town at its center, giving the house another province under their jurisdiction. The province would be henceforth named Montside after the fact that it was beside Magical Dragon Mountains.

"I intend to implement a policy that allows private ownership of land in this province," decided Lorist.

In some sense, the current three million plus subjects living in the Norton dominion were no different from tenants as all the land in The Northlands belonged to the house. Even though House Norton forcefully moved more than two million other citizens into their domain and gave them farmland and houses to settle down, they didn't really own those. They had to pay half of their crop harvest to the house as rent. Both the land and the house couldn't be sold away either, but they could be renovated and inherited by their descendants. But in doing so, they would have to pay a fee to the house for the procedures.

In The Northlands, apart from the manors given by House Norton to the gold-ranked knights, even the land of Dawn Academy and the special noble district belonged to House Norton. The lease of Dawn Academy's land was indefinitely termed and free for them to use, but if the academy wanted to move away, the land would be returned to House Norton unconditionally.

The special noble district was slightly different. House Norton sold them the right to use the land however they saw fit. The nobles were free to construct their own manors and castles and give them to their descendants and also sell and trade them without obstruction from the house. However, the current 'owner' of the land still had to pay a sum to the house on an annual basis. Even though the sum wasn't huge, if the sum wasn't paid and accumulated up to a certain amount, House Norton had the right to confiscate everything within it including any manors or castles built.

However, the house wasn't such a ravenous, blood-sucking vampire. They would auction the property away and only take what they were owed before returning the extra money to the debtor. Alternatively, a noble could pass on the property and debts to another for them to bear. However, that meant a departure from the noble circle in The Northlands and that was a method only employed during the most desperate of times. The nobles were even willing to borrow money from high-interest lenders just to be allowed to stay in the special noble district, because there was always hope for recovery as long as they remained.

As for the reason for the boost in real estate price in Felicitas's seven towns, it was due to the special districts that were built there. The only difference was that it wasn't exclusive to nobles. The treatment the residents there would receive was the same. That was an opportunity for the richer folk in the dominion as the houses in the special district were far better than the free ones they were given. Farmers that purchased the houses would be able to return their former one to House Norton and get a ten percent tax cut on their crops.

The largest difference between the household dominion and the territories under the house's jurisdiction was that in the household dominion, the main house was the highest power. The true people with power in territories under the house's jurisdiction were the nobles that were enfeoffed there. Apart from those lands, the remaining land belonged to the main house. So, for larger noble houses, they were really unwilling to make vassals of their subordinates because the produce of the dominion belonged to the house. The house stood to lose income after enfeoffing part of the dominion to a vassal noble.

Lorist intended to implement a private property policy in the new province on Montside. In other words, he was going to give away all the right to ownership to the land there of the house. The province would be the free domain of capitalists and it was done so because of need. Montside was a new province and it required people. However, most of the subjects of the house were forced to move to The Northlands. Given that Montside bordered Magical Dragon Mountains, not only were they exposed to barbarian raids, they also had to defend against magic beasts. The people living there required the ability to defend themselves to survive.

While most of the barbarians and magic beasts could be countered by the household forces, small scale bandit raids and random animal attacks were going to happen even with the precautions in place. So, Lorist set his sights on the retired household soldiers and mercenaries. He would offer them the tantalizing prospect of owning their own land in Montside and each retired soldier of the house would receive around 17 square meters of land in Montside and be allowed to do anything with it as they pleased. Ten They could transfer it to their descendants or sell them to other people without the permission of House Norton.

"Perhaps the land-owning citizens of Montside will become the first of truly free citizens in our domain," said Lorist.

Chapter 579 - Auguslo's Provocation

Oh? Where am I? Lorist opened his eyes groggily to the milk-yellow wooden wall beside him. The wooden patterns formed an odd picture. The soft bed veil fluttered above the gold-plated bronze bed rack with the wind.

The breeze of dawn entered his room from the two open windows, causing the violet crystal wind chimes that hung by them to ring a pleasant tune. Looking at the chandelier hanging from the white ceiling and the magic beast bear engraving on the wall, he finally snapped awake. Oh, this is Palace Ursa Rex, my new home. I'm within Maria's bedroom...

His initial puzzlement came as no surprise. Even though he had been living in the palace for three to four months already, he spent most of his time sleeping in his master bedroom with Sylvia or within his study. Last night, it was Maria's turn to accompany him. He didn't call her to him, but instead, went to her room and spent the night there. It was no wonder he didn't recognize where he was when he woke up.

"Dear, you're awake..." Maria opened her eyes groggily and brought her naked body towards Lorist. She reached her right hand out to feel Lorist's crotch up in a practiced manner and soon wrapped it around the morning-hardened shaft. Soon, she retreated into the blankets with the grace of a swan all the way until her head reached his crotch.

'I don't want any 'morning exercise' today.' That was what Lorist wanted to say at first, but his body responded more honestly than he wished. Even after going at it twice with Maria yesterday, Lorist's member hardened like steel from her playful tongue teasing. I think I'll have to get more rest in the study later today... thought Lorist as he raised her up and plunged himself deep into her.

What he didn't expect was that there would be so many things that he had to deal with.

"Your Grace, according to Tarkel's report, our emperor has just lowered the amount of money required for an honorary noble title. An honorary viscount title cost only five thousand gold Fordes, but the honorary count title is still the same at eight thousand."

Charade looked at the documents in his hand with a stricht expression. "During the latter half of last year, His Imperial Majesty has entitled more than 130 honorary nobles and gained no less than 500 thousand gold Fordes. What's worth noting is that most of the ones purchasing the titles are tycoons from our dominion who benefit most from the trade in Morante. After becoming rich, they hope to be able to mingle among high society, so they spent that money to gain imperial honorary noble status."

Lorist shrugged. "This isn't something we can do anything about. We can stop them from gaining honorary noble status, can we? The imperial decoration is far more glorious than our own after all."

Charade's response, however, put Lorist at a loss for words. "No, Your Grace, they purchased an honorary title from the empire and returned to convert them into noble titles conferred by our house after paying a fee. It costs about eight thousand gold Fordes to gain honorary baron status from our house, but the process of transferring an imperial honorary noble title to one of ours cost only two thousand plus. They will save three thousand gold Fordes in total by doing so."

"Pitiful merchants, wanting to save that small amount of money," muttered Lorist with admiration.

Offering honorary titles for sale was common among the kingdoms and powerful noble houses. For the rich, obtaining an honorary title was akin to making sure their family and household would be kept safe. They would also gain a hike in status and be allowed to mingle among the noble circle. If they were lucky, they might even gain ownership of land one day and become a proper landed noble. House Kenmays was one such example.

Only by mingling in the noble circle first could they stand a chance to serve a liege and possibly earn their favor. Becoming a proper landed noble would no longer be an impossible dream to achieve in the long term. That was why many of the new rich in the Norton dominion wanted to convert the titles. What dissatisfied Charade was how they'd buy titles from Auguslo for conversion. Wasn't that letting Auguslo benefit for nothing?

Lorist on the other hand was quite satisfied that those imperial honorary nobles converted their titles to Norton honorary titles. That meant that the confidence in House Norton's continued development in the future was high. They believed in the stability of the institution than in the empire. It was a sign that everyone still kept a clear head and didn't pay attention to Auguslo.

However, he also felt a little uncomfortable with the notion of having been taken advantage of. After some consideration, he instructed, "Well, just adjust the conversion fee for an imperial honorary title to about two times the total price. That will stop anyone from doing so, and His Imperial Majesty will no longer benefit from this conversion scheme.

Charade nodded. That was a surefire way to curb the matter. If the conversion ended up costing more than buying one from House Norton directly, they'd rather go for the latter option from the get go.

"Your Grace, as the number of honorary nobles in our dominion grew by quite a lot, many of them are petitioning for us to expand the special noble districts for them to purchase land and build manors and castles. After the administrative bureau made a survey, we believe that we can set up three more special noble districts between the existing ones and Palace Ursa Rex. We can link them together with the five older ones. It's still a rough draft for now, and we will naturally make sure that the districts are at least 300 meters away from the palace for security purposes."

Charade handed a document to Lorist, who gave it a look and signed. The request for three more special noble districts to be built was approved just like that.

"Another thing, the administrative bureau is preparing to move forward with our residential area construction plan in Redriver Valley and Salus in the coming two years. The house finance department has approved the plan and is ready to invest five million gold Fordes for the development over the course of five years. It's estimated to earn us around 37 million gold Fordes after that. This is the master plan, please sign here."

The real estate business of the seven towns of Felicitas had earned the house great returns for their investment. Even though there were quite a number of obstacles they had to work through and only finished development after six years, they were all solved in the end. It could be said that almost everyone living in Felicitas bought their own homes and started living in them. The house earned 13 million gold Fordes in profit from that, causing Viscount Spiel, the chief finance supervisor of the house, to turn his sights on the three million plus citizens in The Northlands.

Spiel came up with a plan to have almost all the citizens move into houses they bought within a span of ten years. He was intent on scouring their wealth clean. If they had no money, that was no matter. The house could let them take loans and buy houses, which would have to be repaid in a decade or two.

Two years ago when Lorist was still in Morante considering how to deal with the Trade Union, he sighed with awe at Spiel's harshness and sharp wit when he read that proposal. It could make almost all the citizens into workers slaving away for their own homes. Lorist understood that the house had invested no less than 50 million gold Fordes in the dominion during the past decade, including the salaries and bonuses of the soldiers, the costs of forcing the refugees to move and providing them with farmland and houses, the starting of new factories and mines, and so on. Behind all that was a huge, jaw-dropping budget.

The wealth in The Northlands didn't lie in the millions of gold Fordes it provided the house, but rather, the many factories and small business spread across it, such as food stalls, grocery shops, salons, tailors, the production of daily necessities, as well as the job opportunities they all provided workers. The passage of the past few years caused every commoner household in The Northlands to amass up to tens and hundreds of gold Fordes, which they kept for emergency use.

Spiel was gunning for the gold Fordes of these commoner households. If he could spur them to spend their hard earned stash on the newly developed houses, the amount the house would earn was unbelievable. Spiel's eyes were bloodshot at the thought of that. But considering that the house was fighting a war with the Trade Union and required time to recover, the plan was postponed back then.

Last year, Spiel brought that plan up again and Lorist finally allowed it to be carried out in Redriver Valley and Salus. Given that those two places were among the first territories of the house, they were the next candidates for the housing project as the citizens had lived there for quite some time and had amassed quite a bit of wealth.

After signing the document, Lorist handed it back to Charade and asked, "Is there anything notable about the situation with Montside?"

Charade replied, "Your Grace, because of the private land ownership policy, we received nearly 100 thousand applications. Currently, we are doing initial surveys and that will take another half a month before we have a conclusive picture on things. We estimate that we will approve around 30 thousand citizens in the first wave. There are around four thousand qualified mercenaries and retired soldiers which we requested. The rest are people who have only trained with the local garrison forces for a few days, only there to fill up the number."

"Montside is different from other provinces. We don't need to develop it as a whole for now. Everything must be done with proper pacing," Lorist said as he put his legs on his desk and leaned into his chair, "Sending powerless citizens there is exposing them to danger carelessly. The place is far too close to the wildlands and Magical Dragon Mountains. So far, Firmrock has set up defense lines around the most dangerous areas, while Tigersoar had almost exterminated all the magic beasts in the wildlands. I estimate that it will take around four to five years for the situation there to stabilize. The citizens we're recruiting to send to Montside now should be just enough to populate a few towns. We don't need to rush this."

"I understand," Charade said after some thought, "But, Your Grace, many honorary nobles wrote us or sent people on their behalf to ask about the private land-owning policy. I suspect that they're trying to rely on buying land in Montside to become recognized as landed nobles."

"Hehe, aren't they optimistic? Tell them that each person can only own up to 17 square meters of land at most. The allocation of land will also be based on drawn lots. Even if a mercenary band signs up for it, the land they receive might not be linked together. Also, not all the land in the province is for sale. At most, half is open for civilian purchase and the other half is to be used as land to enfeoff to people with contributions."

After Charade left, Malek and Tarkel entered right away, not giving Lorist any time to rest.

"Your Grace, we have news straight from the imperial capital. His Imperial Majesty has stationed Fiercegale legion in Messen. The reason they gave for that is that they're preparing to eliminate bandits in the eleven central provinces. There are also rumors that Whitelion legion is going to be called back and stationed in Welbassia," said Tarkel.

Lorist stood up from his desk right away. "What's that fool thinking? Is he going to declare war against our alliance?"

Malek and Tarkel knew who Lorist was referring to as a fool, but they feigned ignorance.

Welbassia neighbored Yungechandler and the two provinces were separated only by Egret Lake and linked by a single mountain path on land. Madras's Ironguard legion was stationed at the border in Lichtana Citadel back in the day and forbade Charade's convoy from passing. Auguslo was going to use more than 100 thousand refugees to besiege the citadel and opened up a bloody path for the northbound convoy to pass.

Fortunately, Lorist rushed all the way from the dominion and led the convoy through the frozen Egret Lake and used a night attack to cut of Ironguard legion's water supply, which allowed Auguslo to take the citadel with ease and storm Yungechandler. Currently, Auguslo was moving Whitelion legion back to Welbassia, obviously with ill intent against Yungechandler, which was under Norton control. Given that Whitelion legion was an army used to deal with internal threats, was Auguslo sending the message that House Norton was to be treated as an enemy nation?

The newly formed Fiercegale legion was also stationed at Messen, which was a blatant affront to the alliance of four houses! Apart from House Shazin, whose dominion had moved to Koribia, one of the central provinces, Fiercegale's presence in Messen seemed to aim to cut off House Norton, House Kenmays and House Felim's contact with the outside world just like Whitelion. It was no wonder Lorist called Auguslo a fool for intentionally doing something so provocative.

"Have Els bring Ironguard legion to Yungechandler and rebuild Lichtana Citadel. Include the mountain path into the defense perimeter and set up cannons on Bread Hills. Make sure to let it seem like our defenses are really tight. Also, build a few shipyards at Egret Lake to construct cannon-armed ships to sail and patrol the lake. Not a single boat or raft on the other shore should be allowed to enter the waters. Get the shipbuilders from Bullhorn Bay. Our house has invested near ten million gold Fordes in Yungechandler and the development is just about to finish. That fool is obviously not going to let us profit that easily."

Lorist quickly came up with countermeasures. "Also, have Jaeger travel to House Shazin's dominion. Give the reason that we've received an invitation from him to defend his dominion. That way, we can sandwich Fiercegale legion along with House Felim's Pegasus Legion in Southern. I wanna see how Auguslo gets Fiercegale out of there."

"Understood, Your Grace," said Malek.

Chapter 580 - Plundering Incident

Back during the attack on the four central duchies, Lorist led the alliance of four houses to attack the duchy of Shabaj and raided its territory of Rimad, Messen and Jigzai. The allied noble army that joined in to take advantage only made the three provinces nothing but hell on earth. About 800 thousand subjects became the spoils of the victors and were forced to move to different dominions. Had it not been for Auguslo's arrival, Jigzai would've ended up like Rimad and Messen: completely empty and desolate.

It had been almost a decade since that conflict, yet Messen and Rimad still hadn't recovered their vitality. The population was ever so dwindling. The central areas' predicament was also partly due to mismanagement. Auguslo didn't enact any civilian-friendly policies and focused on rebuilding his army. He raised taxes on the farmers to foot the cost of sustaining his army, resulting in the bandits within the eleven central provinces gathering together. Many nobles that were dissatisfied with Auguslo were in cahoots with them, adding to the difficulty of stabilizing the situation.

That was especially the case after Auguslo left with his 300 thousand troops he trained in the eleven provinces for the frontlines at the Trade Union. With the army gone, banditry rose significantly due to support from certain factions. The eleven central provinces had become the most chaotic area in the kingdom. Auguslo had sent a division of local noble troops to curb the matter, but when the bandits were no longer able to withstand the pressure, they simply went to the forested areas of Messen and Rimad. The pursuing soldiers had no choice but to give up on the bandits who had escaped deep into the woods.

It was not until House Norton prepared to attack the Trade-Union-controlled Majik and Anderwoff that the soldiers stationed in the eleven central provinces were provided with supplies to continue their bandit-curbing operation. Lorist ordered his eldest disciple, Reidy, and Blademaster Shuss to lead the guard brigade and aid Els's sentry legion on a large-scale cleanup operation to exterminate the bandits. Only then did the situation within the eleven central provinces stabilize slightly.

But following the war between the Trade Union and Andinaq, bandit activity in the central provinces recovered and grew even worse. The three bloody years on Falik Plains only served to chip away at the nobles' forces. Even the dukes, Forund, Fisablen and Shazin, returned to their dominions in the central provinces and were only barely able to defend their dominion. They weren't able to do anything about the neighboring provinces.

After Auguslo returned from Falik Plains, he disbanded the remainder of the kingdom's forces and spread them throughout the territory controlled by the royal family to form local garrisons to keep the peace. But due to a lack of funding, much of the plans were never implemented. The best Auguslo could do for the central provinces was send some men over to defend the more important towns without being able to help the smaller towns and villages at all.

When Auguslo's illegitimate son, Wecksas, was in charge of managing the defenses of the imperial capital, he gave the order for tax to be strictly collected in the form of cash due to their nearly emptied treasuries, causing many farmers in the central provinces to be unable to bear that kind of burden and side with the bandits, unleashing even more chaos. A few towns were even taken over by them.

Had Auguslo not taken another Fisablen as queen and relied on House Fisablen's funds and gear to quell those revolts, the consequences he would have to deal with would be even more troublelsome.

Currently, Auguslo was forming a new Fiercegale legion using the local garrison forces that were involved in quelling those revolts. Though the reason for its formation was the extermination of bandits, its placement was nothing short of in poor taste. Geographically speaking, that was a sound decision that showed Auguslo's trained eye for military affairs. Messen was the central hub of transportation and a strategic location in the northeastern area of the empire. The routes from Southern, Yungechandler and even Egret Lake passed through Messen.

For Lorist, Auguslo's stationing of Whitelion and Fiercegale to seal off the two ways out from the northeastern area of the empire was no big deal for House Norton, because they still had the sea route. However, that move severed the connection between the three houses of the alliance and House Shazin. Given that salt merchant committee had proliferated throughout the empire, the secession was even more crucial. In other words, it meant that the committee's activities would be at mercy to the two legions. Should any accident come to pass, the alliance of four houses wouldn't tolerate it.

In terms of strategic battle placement, stationing Fiercegale in Messen was a great move. Rimad and Southern neighbored each other and House Felim's might had recovered rather well over the past two years. Duke Felim ordered his household force, Pegasus, to continue eradicating bandits in Rimad to protect Southern from any raids. And as Messen was an important trade route for salt merchant committee, it wouldn't be out of place for House Felim and House Shazin to have their forces to conduct bandit sweeps there. That made the route from Southern to Shazin's dominion in the central province of Koribia a much safer one.

But after Fiercegale was moved to Messen, that trade route was cut off. That only served to intensify Lorist's suspicions that Auguslo was the one behind the attempted assassinations of Kenmays. Otherwise, why would he do something like cutting off the salt merchant committee's trade

Even more infuriating and causing Lorist to call him a fool was even though House Norton had gained access to a doorway to riches through trade in the south of the continent, he still couldn't give up on the market in the 30 plus provinces of the empire. The goods ordered by salt merchant committee annually would amount to around four million gold Fordes in total and the profit of one or two million was the key to maintaining the alliance. So, Lorist couldn't tolerate Auguslo for coming for the salt merchant committee.

If Auguslo was on good terms with the alliance, then Fiercegale legion might even be welcomed by them in Messen as House Felim could earn a bit from selling supplies to them.

But given their tense relations, Auguslo's actions only seemed to be of malign intent.

The current situation of Messen caused Fiercegale to be unable to sustain themselves from the land either. Rimad was also raided clean. Not only that, Jigzai and Samora were in a really bad economical state and wouldn't be able to offer Fiercegale any aid either. They had to depend on transporting large amounts of supplies from the southern provinces all the way to Messen.

Based on what was being transported, Lorist would never believe that Auguslo's reason for stationing Fiercegale there was to eliminate bandits. First of all, how could they deal with the bandits if they couldn't defend their supply line properly? If they were really going for the bandits, the right thing to do was to head to Handra's household dominion and start exterminating the bandits in provinces where their presence was weaker step by step. Only with that and good management could the situation really be stabilized. The towns and villages should be defended to wipe the bandits out completely instead of sending troops directly to Messen.

"Your Grace, Duke Kenmays sent an urgent letter to report that one of the salt merchant committee's trading convoys that left three days ago lost contact after passing through Egret Swamp. The duke has already requested Duke Felim to send Pegasus out to investigate," reported Jinolio. Lorist had been expecting news like that for a long time.

"Hehe, no need to wonder. Who else but Fiercegale can engulf a trade convoy of three thousand people? Send an eagle message to Freiyar and get him to work with Duke Shazin's forces. We can act now. NOtify Duke Felim to send Pegasus to seal off Rimad as well," ordered Lorist.

After waiting for three agonizing months, it was finally the time to strike. Lorist sent Jaeger to Koribia, Shazin's dominion, on the grounds that the duke himself requested aid to deal with bandits. Actually, they were there to disguise themselves as bandits to attack the supply line of Fiercegale. Auguslo's troop spent a grueling three months in Messen with huge ration shortages and their messengers they sent out would be spirited away for no reason. Their communication with the outside world could be said to have been cut off.

Under such circumstances, the trading convoy of salt merchant committee seemed like a juicy sheep waiting to be eaten. Other things aside, they could at least sate their hunger with the rations of the convoy and charge them a huge toll to be allowed to pass. Even though salt merchant committee was considered to be an imperial trading guild, Duke Kenmays usually didn't pay much heed to the officers of Fiercegale, especially elites like the general, so they had long received secret orders from Auguslo to cause trouble for salt merchant committee. That was a chance that they wouldn't miss.

Yet, the trading convoy refused to adhere to the legion's demands. Usually, the convoy would be refused passage if they refused to pay a toll. The convoy had two choices: give what was demanded of them or go home. But given how desperate Fiercegale was, they would never let the convoy go, so they acted and managed to force the rest of the convoy into their army camp after killing some hundreds of people.

It was only then that the general and commanding officers knew they screwed up big time. The most glaring fault of their actions lay with the casualties both sides suffered. Fiercegale suffered a few hundred casualties, and even more resisting merchants perished as a result. If it was a small trading convoy, the general could just give the order to silence them and toss the corpses into a valley somewhere and refuse to admit fault. But the large convoy had about three thousand people, and silencing them would prove to be no easy task. Now, they could only imprison them in the army camp and report it to Auguslo to await further instruction.

But the moment Fiercegale sent out the report, it was attacked by Jaeger, Pegasus and Shazin's forces. House Nortons stormed Fiercegale with tens of cannons and soon decimated them. The soldiers either discarded their weapons and surrendered or ran around chaotically. However, thanks to the tight encirclement of Pegasus and Jaeger, they were captured and taken prisoner in the end.

That incident proved to be the greatest scandal in the empire during Year 1784. One of the three newly formed imperial legions, Fiercegale, whose task was to exterminate bandits, had resorted to banditry themselves and were about to kill off three thousand people from salt merchant committee's trading convoy to silence them! Fortunately, the moment the alliance of four houses received word of the missing convoy, they immediately sent their troops to break into Fiercegale's camp before the convoy members were harmed, successfully saving them.

If the alliance of four houses attacked Fiercegale when nothing like that happened to the convoy, Auguslo could declare the alliance of four houses treasonous traitors and summon all other nobles in the empire to wipe them and their leader, House Norton, out. Even if they weren't able to win, it would help quench Auguslo's fire and he could apply more pressure on Lorist during negotiations to accept even the most egregious of Auguslo's demands.

However, Fiercegale was caught red-handed and the proof was undeniable. Not only did the merchants provide testimony to that case, even a few of the simpler-minded commanding officers of Fiercegale admitted everything, thinking that Auguslo would stand behind their backs. The report they were going to send to Auguslo was also intercepted and had the handwriting and personal seal of Fiercegale's general, making it undeniable proof. Even Auguslo wasn't able to explain his way out of it.

Duke Kenmays had a long novel written about the whole affair, containing the testimonies provided by the officers of Fiercegale, the accounts of the surviving merchants, as well as the report Fiercegale attempted to send Auguslo, and spread as many copies as far as he could. Virtually every noble in the empire received a copy and some even made their way to the Free Union. In a fit of rage, Auguslo was said to have destroyed every single article of furniture in his quarters. But he had no choice but to step out for damage control. He wrote Duke Kenmays a letter of apology and admitted his fault in trusting the wrong sort of people.

The Fiercegale plundering incident was a fatal blow to Auguslo that caused his reputation to suffer greatly. Not only was the new legion he spent so much effort to form completely wiped out, the eleven central provinces didn't have a single imperial force unit remaining, further exacerbating the bandit situation. But now, Auguslo no longer had the means to gather funds and rally more troops.

Lorist was quite glad that he managed to give Auguslo a square slap in the face, which he had to take without complaint. Some had noted in the testimonies of the officers that the reasoning for laying hands on the convoy was a shortage in supplies. However, when prompted for why they didn't have enough supplies, the response was always 'bandit attacks'. When further questioned on why they didn't wipe out the bandits that pillaged their supply line, those officers weren't able to come up with anything in response.

Auguslo was also at a loss for words. He couldn't acknowledge that the reason Fiercegale was stationed in Messen was to curb the alliance of four houses. Even though it was common knowledge, bringing it to light would only make it awkward for everyone. So, he didn't pay the 30 thousand captive soldiers of Fiercegale any heed as if the legion had never existed. Lorist wouldn't feed those parasites for nothing either, so he sent them to the newly established Montside to serve as laborers.

Chapter 581 - Auguslo's Objection

"Your Grace, His Imperial Majesty sent you a letter," reported Jinolio as he entered with an intricate, pale yellow envelope.

"Open it and let's see what our emperor is going to say this time." Lorist was currently quite preoccupied with something else. Since Jinolio was his third disciple, he had Lorist's trust and was allowed to deal with such matters.

It was currently tea time and Lorist was lying on a mat on the ground beneath a small pavilion in his garden. His two youngest children, Jadebins and Rolinors, were crawling all over his body. The two children were roughly born around the same time. One of them was Sylvia's youngest child and the other was Daisy's. The two of them were nearing the age of three and they were treating Lorist like a big, living toy, climbing all over him and tripping from time to time with joy.

To prevent displeasing the two little fellas, Lorist had no choice but to lay on the ground unmoving with a grim expression. He had to push the kids apart from time to time to prevent themselves from getting into a fight from overexcitement. Usually during tea time, Lorist would gather with his family and play around with his children. But when the women mentioned the new clothes that just arrived in stores for the autumn season, they all left their children to Lorist and swarmed to the markets. Lorist had his hands full looking after his children.

Fortunately, some of his elder children had to leave after tea time to receive lessons from their tutors, leaving behind the two energetic toddlers and a depressed Anderbael standing in a horse stance. Though he was supposed to attend two periods of additional vocabulary class, he slipped away when his tutor's attention slipped and used a stick to knock on a hornet's nest which he discovered in the garden. Had the leader of the guards, Patt, not passed through at that moment, Anderbael would definitely end up with swelling stings all over him.

When Patt brought Anderbael over, the tutor happened to be telling on him to Lorist. Lorist really couldn't deal with Anderbael. He tried corporal punishment and good old chiding, but the bear of a child stubbornly refused to change. In the end, he resorted to punishing him by getting him to get into the horse stance.

"Your Grace, His Imperial Majesty mentioned two things. The first concerns the Fiercegale plundering incident in Messen. He hinted at the scandal being a trap we set for him and asked us to not go too far and pursue the matter any longer since we obviously benefited from it."

Lorist snorted twice and said, "After all that, he's regretting it now? If he knew this was how it'd end up, why bother starting in the first place? If he didn't try to block our front door, why would we plot against him? He's not doing what he should and is paying pointless attention to our house, completely forgetting who saved him from Falik Plains in the first place. When it suits him, he'd come groveling to us and begging for our help, but when he no longer needs us, he tosses us away like a used rag.

"I more or less understand that he's a disloyal dog who sits when there's something in it for him and barks when there's not. Just ignore him. He's accusing us without any evidence anyway. Salt merchant committee sends out its convoys during the 4th and 9th months every year and the nobles were waiting to engage in their usual trade. It's Fiercegale's own fault for causing public outrage by preying on such a high-profile target. If the fish didn't bite the bait, how would we even get a hook on it in the first place?"

Lorist moved the snotty Jadebins off him and wanted to get a piece of cloth to wipe his face. But Jadebins simply rubbed his face on Lorist's pants. In fear of hurting him by pulling away, Lorist had no choice but to endure. He'd just have to change into another pair of pants.

"What's the second thing?" asked Lorist.

"Oh, His Imperial Majesty objects to the monopolization of the fishing catch in the whole of Egret Lake by Ironguard. He demands us to retreat to the center of the lake and not cross the middle line and also for us to not use the bank of the lake as a training ground for our cannons."

The year was going really sourly for Auguslo. Not only did the scandal with Fiercegale flare up, Whitelion, which he stationed in Welbassia and Yungechandler's border as well as House Norton's Ironguard which was stationed at Egret Lake displeased Auguslo greatly. He found himself in quite a difficult position as he didn't expect Whitelion to get along so well with Ironguard.

Back then, Auguslo had agreed to Lorist's request to send a legion of troops to Malivia to aid House Norton against the Trade Union as a reserve force. Based on Auguslo's three-year experience fighting the bloody battles in Falik Plains, he believed that the legion would be used as enemy fodder. There was a good chance that House Norton wouldn't be able to resist the assault of the Trade Union and use that legion to shield their own forces during their retreat.

At least, that was how Auguslo envisioned it. That was something he'd do if he was in that position. That was why when he returned to the imperial capital, he restructured the two legions under his control and shifted all the elite troops into the royal guard. Even the general of Whitelion, Ripleid, was moved to the royal guard to serve as general. Those that remained were knights that Auguslo didn't quite like for a variety of reasons like not willing to swear unconditional loyalty to him, so he stuffed them all in WHitelion and sent them to Malivia. In fact, Auguslo had practically given up on the entire legion.

The newly appointed general of Whitelion, Sybek, was a famous three-star gold-ranked knight in Andinaq who had pledged loyalty to Auguslo's father, the third prince. After the third prince's death, he wasn't regarded highly by Auguslo because he opposed one of his guerilla plans during the civil war. That marked the start of their cold relationship. Even when Auguslo was leading his 300-thousand-strong army to attack the Trade Union, Sybek only ever took the position of colonel or division sergeant major without ever being given a chance to take the helm.

However, during the bloody battles in Falik Plains, Sybek saved Auguslo's life once. That time, Auguslo was situated too far at the frontlines as he was inspecting the enemy encampments when two Trade Union blademasters attacked all of a sudden. Fortunately, Sybek happened to be passing through during a patrol. Otherwise, it would've been truly dangerous for Auguslo. The enemies were two rank 2 blademasters and even if Auguslo's own blademaster bodyguard could barely take on one, Auguslo wouldn't be able to fend off the other.

Now that Sybek had finally saved Auguslo's life, he began to catch his attention. However, given his straightforward personality that prompted him to say what he thought, he didn't give Auguslo any special care or respect. Naturally, Auguslo soon gave up on Sybek for his lack of sensibility. It was already quite surprising that he was even appointed the general of Whitelion.

Even though Sybek was a rather straightforward person, he was no fool. He knew why he was appointed to be Whitelion's general, but as a traditional royal family knight, he agreed to his assignment and started to reform his legion. He worked hard with his own troops and soon won their loyalty, managing to gain a thorough grasp on the legion.

Being sent to help the Norton forces out, Sybek understood his position and obediently followed any orders the Nortons gave them. The Nortons were quite satisfied with his cooperation and didn't neglect giving him some benefits as well, such as subsidizing some of their rations and giving a part of the supplies they obtained from the Trade Union. They even received some magic beast jerky that was shipped all the way from The Northlands.

In the end, Whitelion's troops had a better time at the frontlines than the royal guard in the imperial capital. That was especially the case given how they returned with lots of spoils after two raids in Trade Union territories with the Nortons. Not only could they switch out the cruddy bronze armor given to them by Auguslo for cutting-edge mithril armor of the Trade Union, the soldiers of Whitelion also earned quite a lot of coin for themselves.

Sybek greatly appreciated the Norton system of spoil distribution. It didn't have anything to do with who raided faster. Instead, the units received an amount of the spoils proportional to their contributions. There was a specialized unit that dealt with the pillaging, before an inventory of all the spoils was made for them to be appropriately distributed. Each soldier's due was accounted for clearly. Whitelion also received similar treatment as the Norton troops without any dicrimination, filling each soldier in their ranks with gratitude.

Under such circumstances, Auguslo's intent on causing trouble for the alliance of four houses by stationed Whitelion in Welbassia and Yungechandler's border had the opposite effect. When salt merchant committee sent a convoy to the imperial capital during the eighth month, Whitelion had requested a high toll price of one small silver per person. The convoy paid a total of 40 or so gold coins for the 4000 plus people and about 100 in total for the whole convoy.

However, after paying that sum, the convoy increased the prices of their goods by 20 percent a the imperial capital, causing Auguslo to be secretly cursed by the citizens, who attributed the rise in prices to the greed of the emperor, much to Kenmays's delight. By paying a small sum of 100 or so gold coins, he managed to earn a few thousand more in profits.

During the beginning of the 10th month, the scandal regarding Fiercegale spread to the imperial capital and everyone believed the rumor when they heard it. Some of them even believed that the one behind the incident was none other than Auguslo himself, given that the emperor had formerly established his greed with the populace. The last time, it was his collection of a toll that caused prices of goods to rise. So there was hardly anything surprising about him orchestrating the plundering of the trade convoy.

After hearing the rumors, Auguslo ransacked his bedroom once more. He only wanted to cause the alliance of four houses some trouble so that he would have better bargaining chips with Lorist to get something out of House Norton instead of antagonizing them fully. He was well aware that he couldn't match House Norton in terms of might, nor did he want to force Lorist to revolt. All he wanted was to show off his might as the emperor to make Lorist lower his head slightly. He wanted to let the other nobles in the kingdom understand that even a swordsaint wasn't exempt from following the orders of an emperor like him.

But how in the world did it devolve to this point? Auguslo still didn't understand it no matter how hard he thought. Though the crimes of Fiercegale were undeniable, why would they go so far as to plunder salt merchant committee's trading convoy? And even though Whitelion only collected around 100 gold Fordes as toll from the other convoy, why was the rise in price of goods sold blamed on him? He didn't have anything to do with it.

It was dinnertime and the main dish of the meal was two fishes. They're longtail whitefishes caught from Egret Lake, Auguslo's favorite.

"Oh? Where did longtail whitefishes this huge come from?" Auguslo didn't remember asking anyone to catch any for him.

"Your Imperial Majesty, they're gifts from Whitelion. There are 14 in total and they're being kept in the live well. They're incredibly fresh," replied a butler respectfully.

"Whitelion? Are they fishing at Egret Lake?" asked Auguslo.

"No. It seems that the fishes were given by House Norton's Ironguard legion. Apart from the 14 given to Your Imperial Majesty, there are tens of carriages of them being sold in the city. They were cleared out completely in around two hours. The Whitelion soldiers said that they would be bringing in another batch from Ironguard tomorrow to be sold," replied the butler.

What's going on here? Has my Whitelion legion turned into fishmongers? thought Auguslo angrily as he ate the fish and resolved himself to visit the legion tomorrow to find out what in the world was going on.

Early the next morning, Auguslo traveled lightly and only brought a squad of imperial guards with him to Whitelion's encampment in Welbassia. On the way, they encountered Whitelion soldiers escorting four carriages of fish, seemingly towards the imperial capital. Though Auguslo had wanted to stop them to ask about it, the soldiers didn't pay any attention and continued to travel at full speed, as if the fishes within the carriages were more important than anything else. After all, dead fish didn't sell as good as live ones.

Though filled with rage, he didn't bother to chase the fish-escorting soldiers down. He decided to deal with it when he arrived at camp. But when he finally arrived in the afternoon, his temper flared once more. Where's everyone? This camp is practically empty, save for a few people walking around!

Fortunately, the gates were still maned. Auguslo angrily asked where everyone had gone and received an answer he didn't expect: they went working. Work? What kind of work?! Auguslo felt like he was going to faint. The guard explained in more detail about the job.

Firstly, House Norton was rebuilding Lichtana Citadel and it was going to be a huge project. The uphill path to the citadel and down to Bread Hills were included within the scope of construction. Most of the Whitelion soldiers went to help construct the citadel and were paid on a daily basis. They were also provided with two meals daily and were allowed to drink ale.

The other one concerned helping Ironguard with the fishing at Egret Lake. The guard mentioned that the lake was covered almost entirely in sails. The soldiers were also paid on a daily basis and if they did well, they were also allowed to take a fish or two back for dinner. Currently, Sybek was negotiating with Ironguard because he felt that the share of ten percent of the catch Whitelion was getting was a little unfair. He hoped that it could be raised to three-tenths, but the stingy general of Ironguard, Els, didn't agree. The generals have been arguing about the matter for the past two days.

Soldiers not intending to work could in turn purchase fish from Ironguard to sell them in the various towns, but they would bear any risk by themselves. It was said that it sold rather well in the imperial capital yesterday, so they made off around three in the morning for another run. The guard said that if he wasn't on duty today, he would've joined in with them to share the profits.

Ridiculous! How could they do this? How could they work for House Norton?!

It seemed that the soldier standing guard didn't know that the elegantly dressed noble before him was the emperor himself. He rambled on and complained that they were only paid one month's salary in the past three, making them unable to feed their families well without doing any extra work. He also mentioned that if he weren't a soldier of Whitelion, he would want to move to The Northlands for a new career.

Auguslo blushed with embarrassment. He knew about the shortage of compensation for Whitelion. Initially, he wanted to get Whitelion to collect toll from passing trading convoys to make up for the lack, but so far, they've only collected toll from salt merchant committee once. Other trading guilds shifted their routes to the sea to dock at Jillin Harbor. Come to think of it, using 100 gold Fordes to make up for three months of payment was really laughable. It was no wonder the soldiers went to find work.

Auguslo then asked why Whitelion themselves didn't group together to fish for themselves.

The guard replied that firstly, they had come upon the idea too late. It was only after the soldiers of Ironguard set sail in their fishing boats did Whitelion understand their purpose. Additionally, the side of the lake Ironguard was on was filled with boats while not a single person dared to sail on Whitelion's side. That was because the boats of Ironguard had cannons installed on them and used the lake as their training ground. From time to time, they would fire their cannons, so nobody dared to stay near the side of Whitelion, to say no more of preparing to sail there.

Flipping out in rage, Auguslo couldn't resist writing a letter of complaint to Lorist. Currently, all he wanted was to be given a cut of the fishing operation at Egret Lake. That way, he would at least be able to earn around 100 thousand gold Fordes in a year.

Chapter 582 - Huge Blunder

It was said that Auguslo's blunder at the encampment of Whitelion became a huge joke. The incident stemmed from his deep dissatisfaction with the current state of the legion. He had intended to teach them a lesson. First, he rebuked Sybek, who had rushed back quickly after hearing the news, harshly and had him wait for his punishment while he blew the horn to gather the soldiers who had left to work.

But after three blows, only tens of Whitelion soldiers returned lazily after half an hour while complaining about some of them blowing the horn for no good reason and interrupting their earning a living for their families. Auguslo, greatly enraged, barked at the ten plus soldiers and had them scram immediately.

As one of the two main legions of the empire, the Whitelion soldiers and their family members enjoy certain tax benefits that the commoners don't. Auguslo had taken a page out of House Norton's book for that. Even though he couldn't afford to give identical benefits the Nortons gave their troops, decreasing some taxes and giving the families of the soldiers some extra care were within his capabilities. So, those two legions were easily able to attract lots of applicants.

Auguslo believed that firing the ten plus soldiers was a harsh punishment. Had it not been for the fact that most soldiers had gone to do a part time job, Auguslo would've wanted to kill them outright. But given the sheer number of people he was dealing with, that wouldn't be an appropriate punishment and the soldiers who went to work might be aggravated into revolt. After some thought, Auguslo decided to fire them from the legion and take back the benefits it afforded them. He was almost certain that the soldiers would regret right away before begging and groveling to be forgiven.

However, the soldiers couldn't be happier to leave. "Great! I can leave with my wife and children for Yungechandler immediately!"

"Yeah, I want to go too! My dad was grumbling that I shouldn't have joined the army in the first place. Our neighbors left for Yungechandler already and not only did they get farmland and houses, they also managed to secure a good living at the factories. They're earning around ten gold Fordes yearly..."

"That's great! Let's there together! I want to tell my family the good news first."

Auguslo was completely speechless. Seeing the fired soldiers leave the camp happily instead of crying and begging felt off somehow. Just as he was pondering the matter, more soldiers returned to camp from work. The moment they heard that some soldiers were fired and kicked out of the legion, the envious looks in their eyes couldn't be more apparent. They all swarmed to Auguslo and said, "Your Majesty, we violated military law as well. Please discharge also..."

Troubled, Auguslo pointed at the soldiers preparing to leave and cried, "Wait, before you leave, remove your equipment and armor! That's property of the military! You can't take them with you."

He didn't expect the soldiers to reply, "We bought these ourselves! They're private property and have nothing to do with the military!"

Bulltshit! These are specially made mithril armor! Each set cost 40 plus gold Fordes at least! How could those poor hicks afford it?! However, Auguslo immediately wondered, wait, since when did I provide mithril armor that good to Whitelion?

Most of the 50 thousand pieces of armor Lorist donated to Whitelion back then formerly belonged to Whitelion in the first place. They were mostly ruined after many battles, with only around ten thousand pieces remaining. Auguslo reclaimed them for use with the imperial guard. During the reformation of the two legions a few years ago, Auguslo recalled giving mostly cruddy old leather armor to Whitelion. There were less than a thousand sets of metal armor which were harvested from corpses and weren't maintained.

Yet, the armor worn by the Whitelion soldiers were of mithril make. Auguslo felt that the legion had almost changed completely. He looked closely and noticed that it was an elite legion that seemed even more disciplined and capable than the imperial guard he so painstakingly formed. Other things aside, the soldiers that returned to camp were decked out in complete gear and well-disciplined. They quickly formed together into many orderly square formations and appeared rather menacing.

"Your Imperial Majesty, the armor they are wearing are indeed their personal property. They spent their own money to buy them. Nobody was willing to wear the leather armor we provided given the quality and weak defense capabilities, so the soldiers spent their own money to buy those equipment. Right now, the equipment owned by the legion are mostly stored within the storehouses. There are inventories that take account of them," said Sybek, who was just reprimanded not long ago.

"How... how could that be possible?" Auguslo pointed oddly at the battle formations. "There are around 50 thousand troops here! They earn only around two gold Fordes per year and wouldn't be able to afford metal armor like that without saving for at least 20 years! How could there find the money to buy so many pieces of equipment that matched together?"

"It is true, Your Imperial Majesty," Sybek said a little troubledly, "Back during the Battle of Bluwek when House Norton defeated the Trade Union forces' army of 200 thousand, many of their soldiers were captured and these equipment were basically stripped from the prisoners. Since the Norton forces don't see much point in using them, they sold them to our soldiers in Whitelion for cheap."

"How cheap? Perhaps we can also..." Auguslo looked rather interested. If House Norton doesn't want them, they can sell it to me! I might be able to get some free food and supplies from them too.

Sybek shook his head awkwardly. "Your Imperial Majesty, back then, I also wanted to buy some equipment on behalf of the legion. However, House Norton refused to sell to our legion, but said that the soldiers could spend their own money to buy them. That way, they can take the gear back home when they retire as a sort of benefit for them. As that armor may be the difference between life or death on the battlefield, and our soldiers' spoils and bonuses happened to be distributed, almost all the soldiers bought a set. I heard that the cheapest ones sold for around eight large silvers..."

Auguslo's teeth were grit so hard that he didn't realize blood was coming out. Eight large silvers? That's dirt cheap! One gold Forde was worth 20 large silvers, and mithril armor like that was usually worth more than 40 gold Fordes. How could they have sold for so cheap? How could they have ended up in the hands of the Whitelion soldiers?

"H-h-house... House Norton... Do they still have any armor from captives for sale? I... I'll pay... one... no, two... two gold Fordes per set." Auguslo's eyes were bloodshot with his nose bulging. Who wouldn't take advantage of that kind of deal? Two gold Fordes was a far better price than eight large silvers anyway and he felt that the price he offered was really appropriate.

However, Sybek's reply completely extinguished his flaring expectations. "They're long gone, Your Imperial Majesty. Apart from the ones our soldiers bought, a part of the equipment was given to the newly formed defense forces of the Free Union. The remainder had been sold to the four restored nations in Falik Plains for a thirty percent discount. Each set was sold for the rough price of 30 gold Fordes."

Auguslo was both disappointed and angry. House Norton is obviously trying to mess with me... They actually sold such good armor to my soldiers for such a cheap price... Are they trying to butter up to them? Auguslo had already forgotten how he consigned them to their fates as enemy fodder in the first place.

He also conveniently forgot about the rations and payment he owed Whitelion. In his eyes were nothing but the armor worn by the Whitelion soldiers as well as the fine weapons they were carrying.

No nation on Grindia would forbid their members from buying their own weapons to use. Not only would that allow them to use the weapons they were most familiar with to achieve their full potential on the battlefield, that would also serve to decrease the burden on the military budget. In fact, they couldn't want anything more than getting the troops to use their own weapons. Whitelion was the perfect example of such a case.

Auguslo drooled as he saw the weapons and armor the Whitelion soldiers bought for themselves, but he had no reason whatsoever to claim the weapons that belonged to the individual soldiers. After much consideration, Auguslo made a tough decision. "Sybek, I'm going to use the high price of five gold Fordes to purchase each set of armor and weapons. Order them to remove their armor and discard their weapons for collection now. I will pay them the coins at a later date..."

"That's impossible!" Sybek refused the order almost immediately. The condescending glare he shot him cut ever so deep and discomforted Auguslo greatly. "Nobody's a fool, Your Imperial Majesty. If this order is announced, the whole legion will explode with rage. Even if you're the emperor, you can't use such a low price to purchase the personal property of the troops..."

"Such a low price? Didn't you say that they got them for a steal? Five gold Fordes is almost ten times the amount they bought it for! People can't be too greedy, General Sybek!" snapped Auguslo out of embarrassment and anger.

"These are the things the soldiers use to survive on the battlefield. Back then, salt merchant committee wanted to buy them for 35 gold Fordes a set, yet none of them were willing to sell! Many of the soldiers are going to pass them on through their families as heirlooms. So I seriously don't understand why Your Imperial Majesty thinks that five gold Fordes is enough for a set of armor and weapons. Does Your Imperial Majesty think that one gold Forde can be used as ten?" Sybek didn't bother with courtesy and spoke his mind without reservation.

Auguslo's face flushed red again, but he wasn't able to get angry no matter what. Fortunately, he hadn't given the order just now. Otherwise, the soldiers might just revolt. Though salt merchant committee had offered 35 gold coins to buy each set, the soldiers of Whitelion didn't take the deal. If Auguslo ordered them to sell them at five gold Fordes, he would end up a huge laughingstock once more should word of that spread. His reputation of greediness would only be reinforced.

Actually, Auguslo had a good eye for the equipment and he could tell that each set of armor was in fact worth more than 40 gold Fordes. If the pikes, shields and swords were included together, the price would go as high as 50, especially when the design and make of the equipment were of the same series. If sold in bulk, perhaps the price might even rise ten or twenty percent. After all, getting armor of completely similar design wasn't an easy task.

It was House Norton's invention of water-powered machines that greatly decreased the demand for manpower in the production of large quantities of weapons and armor. But due to the blademasters that were sent to assassinate Lorist in The Northlands, the designs of the machines were leaked. Following that, the Trade Union rebuilt the exterminated Wessia, that used to be known for their forging, to fashion their own water-powered machines. Only then did could large numbers of mithril armor and weapons be made for the Trade Union forces.

As General Sybek said, the weapons and armor were indeed what the soldiers of Whitelion were counting on to survive. Even though the world of Grindia was one of battleforce, with silver ranks and above being able to manifest threatening blade glows,s set of good mithril armor was still the best way to ensure their safety when facing the enemy.

For instance, people without battleforce wouldn't be able to pierce the mithril armor no matter how great their weapons, and enemies of iron or bronze rank would at best be able to wound mithril-armor-wearing soldiers without actually killing them. As for silver ranks and above who could use blade glows, they might run out of battleforce after facing around a hundred enemies wearing only leather armor. However, when faced with soldiers clad in mithril armor, they would only be able to take on around ten enemies before running out as the mithril would serve to drain away much of the energy of the battleforce and the blade glow.

Currently, Auguslo found himself in a rather troubled spot. He wasn't able to find a good way to step down. First, he had wanted to strip the leaving soldiers of their personal property in quite a hasty blunder. After that, he wanted to buy the equipment of the soldiers for a cheap price, only for that notion to be shot down by Sybek. He now hung in a position that couldn't be more awkward.

Inwardly, Auguslo felt a huge tantrum brewing. He really wanted to bark at the soldiers who went part timing for House Norton, but the joyful departure of the tens of soldiers had given Auguslo a strong reminder Perhaps the soldiers just couldn't wait to leave. He didn't exactly have a good reason to chide his troops either, as it was the lack of payment that caused them to go seek out other employment opportunities in the first place.

Looking at the troops that stood in neat formation, Auguslo felt an oncoming headache. He really wanted to completely kick them out and reform the whole legion. That way, the soldiers that would stand before him after that would all have poor equipment. But no matter how friendly Whitelion was with House Norton, he had to admit that the legion that stood in front of him was nothing short of elite. If they were disbanded, there wouldn't be a doubt that they would fall in with the Nortons. Wasn't that just making trouble for himself? Perhaps the Nortons would be able to form another legion from the soldiers who just lost their jobs...

No matter how he chose to deal with them, Whitelion would prove to be a huge problem. It was obvious that letting them stay in Southern was no longer acceptable. They were going to do nothing but fish for the Nortons and help them fill their labor needs. After much consideration, Auguslo finally thought of a solution. He gave Sybek the order for the troops to be relocated to the central provinces for the extermination of bandits. This time, they would do that for real instead of block the trade routes of the four houses.

"'His Imperial Majesty left just like that after the order without dealing with Whitelion in any other way,' was what was included in Els's report. General Sybek sends his regards and requests for Whitelion to be allowed to go through Yungechandler and Egret Swamp to head to the central provinces for bandit extermination. General Els also asks if our house be participating as well," reported Jinolio.

Yungechandler was a territory under Norton control, so Whitelion, a legion belonging to the imperial family, had to first apply to be let through. If Lorist refused, the legion would have to travel south through Bodolger and Frederika, which was a huge detour that almost doubled the distance they required to travel.

Lorist rapped the desk with his fingers. After a while, he nodded. "Of course we'll let them pass. Whitelion is a friend of our house. We will be more than willing to help. However, send Els an eagle message to tell General Sybek this: it's already the end of the 11th month, so if Whitelion is willing we can bring the legion to the central provinces during winter from the 12th to 1st month next year on sleds. That would spare them the need of traveling a long distance in the mud after the rainy season."

"Alright, I'll notify Lord Els about it," Jinolio said, "Is Your Grace going to respond to the letter His Imperial Majesty sent? It has been more than a month since it was received."

"Hahahaha..." Lorist cackled heartily. "Forget that letter. Let's pretend we didn't receive it. I just hope that His Imperial Majesty will grow wiser after these two incidents and stop ogling us with his greedy eyes in hopes of getting free stuff he doesn't deserve. What he really needs to do is to manage his empire properly and ensure the living standards of the people and the functioning of his administration instead of threatening others with force to get what he wants."

Chapter 583 - The Obstructive Andelou Merchant Guild

Time passed really quickly and soon, it was the 7th month of Year 1785.

"Your Grace, Whitelion spent three months to wipe out the bandits within Wesstwood and they are on their way to Phapsia next. What's surprising is that His Imperial Majesty started to properly supply the legion after the new year and no longer owe them any payments. Whitelion's morale is high now and they're fully confident that they'll be able to get rid of the bandits," read Jinolio from a secret report sent from the central provinces.

Lorist shook his head slightly. "Whitelion is going to have it tough soon... Sybek will not be able to take care of the bandits in Phapsia."

"Why does Your Grace think so?" asked Jinolio curiously.

"It's simple," Lorist said before he pointed at the map of the central area hanging from a wall, "Among the eleven central provinces, apart from the territories of dukes Handra, Forund and Shazin, Wesstwood is the least infested with bandits given that it's located between those three provinces. Whitelion made the correct first step and didn't let us down after we sent them there during the winter.

"Yet, they took three months for Wesstwood alone. That is also taking into account that the three dukes helped to seal off exit from the province using their respective household forces, leaving the bandits no way to escape and allowing for complete extermination. The current state of Whitelion makes it a heavy-armored legion. It doesn't have enough mobility and can't match the bandits in terms of speed. Instead, they are hugely disadvantaged in a pursuit.

"Phapsia used to be the territory of Duke Farkel, but during his resistance to our emperor's conquest, he chose to burn down the capital of his province, Freimox, and left for the Trade Union after he lost. His current whereabouts are unknown. Even though Farkel's burning of Freimox allowed our house to take advantage of the migrants, Loze had to raze down the territories of the landed nobles there to procure the food the refugees needed. Some of the nobles and knights that weren't captured are still unaccounted for.

"That's why the bandit crisis in Phapsia is the most serious. It is also the source of the farmer's revolt in the central provinces. Apart from some logistical support from Shazin, there's nothing else we can do to help Whitelion when they're in Phapsia. The immobile legion will have a long and grueling time ahead of them given how the bandits can simply outrun and evacuate the troops. I don't think the legion has any initiative in this battle at all."

"I understand now, Your Grace. So a heavy-armored infantry legion like Whitelion isn't much use for the extermination of bandits in a whole area. A highly mobile cavalry legion like Jaeger and the guard brigade would be a far better choice, right? As long as they set their sights on the bandits, there's no way they can escape."

Lorist nodded praiseworthily. "Not bad. The guard brigade is an elite force that can head the extermination of the bandits and a light cavalry unit like Jaeger can set up the defense perimeter and scout around. Whenever they find that the bandits are escaping elsewhere, they can give chase until the bandits have nowhere else to run. Either way, a defense perimeter will still have to be set up to prevent any of the bandits from slipping away and allowing the problem to spread."

Jinolio had been with Lorist for quite some time. Lorist was quite happy with his third disciple and taught him much in every facet he could. The only thing he found fault with Jinolio was his pacifism. Jinolio had always been avoidant of fighting others and he could be said to be the one with the least talent for battle among Lorist's three disciples. during the latter part of last year in the 10th month, Jinolio oly only just started learning the Dan Ocean Ki-Refining Technique from Reidy three years later than Howard.

"Your Grace, here's a report Viscount Camorra sent. The report was written by Baron Fenston, Jillin Harbor's security chief, and it states that since the 4th month of this year, nobles and trading fleets visiting the harbor have declined in number. This year's number is estimated to be less than half of last year's. Baron Fenston had conducted much research into the matter and discovered that Andalou Merchant Guild had set up a large trading point at Flowater Creek. Many of the traders stopped there instead. Baron Fenston hopes that our house will come up with a countermeasure for that."

The formation of the market at Jillin Harbor was an outlet Lorist used to sell the products and ores produced by the nobles in the northwestern area. There were 31 provinces in the Krissen Empire and the lands were vast with rich resources. Apart from the goods House Norton purchased to be resold and the ones they produced, the other goods would be transported to Morante and sold there. One such trip would double the revenue easily and around two million gold Fordes could be made per annum.

Even though he had to split half the profits with Auguslo, the million-Forde income was a reasonable amount for the house. More importantly, those imperial nobles were able to sell their goods through that channel too and earn some amount of money to be able to afford the luxury goods House Norton produced. The formation of the market at the harbor was good news for Auguslo, House Norton, the imperial nobles and the poor folk of Jillin Harbor.

But now, somebody lost to temptation and began to reach out for that delicious piece of cheese, and that was none other than the illegitimate son of Auguslo, Wecksas. What's he thinking? Does he really have that much capital to found a trading point just like that? If they were going to sell their gods at Morante as well, Lorist could write the Free Union a letter to cause them trouble and squash them like the ants they were. After all, the maritime trade route belonged to the Nortons, so Andalou would have no choice but to use the land route, which was easily much more expensive.

"Is there any word from Tarkel?" asked Lorist. Affairs concerning the interests of House Norton would be investigated by Furybear at first notice to gain a proper grasp on the situation.

"What do the reports say?"

"Yes, Your Grace. This is Sir Tarkel's investigation report," said Jinolio as he took out a thick folder.

"What does it say?"

"During the new-year celebration last year held at the imperial palace, Count Wecksas introduced the main investor of Andalou formally. It's said that he is the successor of a merchant guild from the Romon Empire that had already been exterminated. His name is Selik and he is preparing to restart his career in the Krissen Empire, so he joined hands with Count Wecksas to found Andalou Merchant Guild. But due to the count, the situation of Andalou doesn't seem optimistic. Probably as a token of apology, Count Wecksas introduced Selik to the emperor.

"According to Selik, his family offended a powerful duke in the Romon Empire and caused the downfall of the trading guild. Selik also suffered a huge injury during his escape and has two long scars on his face. So, he would often dress in a black robe and doesn't like to show his face. However, Selik's troubles weren't in vain as he managed to catch the attention of his pursuers to allow for most of his assets to be transferred out of Romon. He even managed to help a bunch of loyal subordinates to escape.

"Sir Tarkel has sent two informants to the Romon Empire to find out more about Selik, but they would take at least half a year before a conclusion can be reached. During the celebration, His Imperial Majesty showed admiration for Selik's talent and chatted with him personally for more than three hours. It's also rumored that Selik was even offered a chance to serve as well as a title. However, Selik refused His Imperial Majesty's request on grounds of his crippled and wounded body, which the emperor expressed great regret for.

"After the rainy season, Selik guided Andalou in the founding of a large trading point in Flowater Creek and promoted it aggressively. As the prices they purchased goods at are similar to the prices of Jillin Harbor, many landed nobles traded their household products to Andalou to avoid the trouble of traveling so far or to curry favor with Count Wecksas.

"In terms of funding, our informants have ascertained that Andalou received financial backing from the emperor. There is proof that His Imperial Majesty allocated around 800 thousand gold Fordes to Andalou. As for the traders mostly stopping at the trading point, our house has written a letter of objection to His Imperial Majesty, but the reply we got was that this is normal competition in trade and the imperial house has no right to meddle in it.

"The target of trading of the goods purchased from the nobles on the other hand isn't Morante. Instead, Andalou sends out trade convoys to the Trade Union. Our informants aren't sure what sort of relationship Andalou has with the Trade Union, but they've all heard Selik said one thing. 'Merchants have always strived for profit. Even an enemy or the devil himself is my friend and customer if he can bring me profits'."

Lorist furrowed his brow at the new conundrum. He didn't think that Andalou would have such a talented businessman who not only grabbed Jillin Harbor's business but also obtained Auguslo's support. Most importantly, they managed to circumvent the trade central Lorist forged in Morante and managed to form a relationship with the Trade Union. The Trade Union lacked lots of raw materials and resources, so that trade route was crucial to them. Only then would they stand a chance on growing powerful once more.

This is a truly surprising development, Lorist thought with a bitter smile, Who would expect the Krissen Empire to supply its sworn enemy, the Trade Union, with resources and raw materials? They also managed to perfectly outmaneuver our house's control. Even the new Peterson kingdom between the Trade Union and Krissen Empire won't be able to do anything about this...

With the support of the Krissen Empire, perhaps Peterson could still be able to stop the trade route to the Trade Union. However, the empire itself was supporting the use of that trade route, so Peterson could only begrudgingly accept the status quo. While he could afford to upset the Trade Union, King Peterson wouldn't dare to offend the new Krissen Empire. Even though House Norton had influence there, there was nothing that could be done. If the Trade Union partnered up with the Krissen Empire to deal with them, the newly independent Peterson kingdom would no doubt fall.

The sole goal of a merchant's actions was to make profit regardless of whether the customer was friend, foe or demon. That saying was just like the one Lorist heard in his past life: 'capitalists would even sell the rope that will be used to hang them'. Selik was a true merchant and that was the kind of thing Lorist found hard to deal with.

"Are there any suggested countermeasures in the report?" Lorist could only count on sourcing a solution from the others. Many brains were better than one after all.

Jinolio flipped to the last page of the report and shook his head. "Your Grace, Baron Fenston has suggested increasing the purchasing price for the goods by around ten percent. But Andalou raised the price to match us right after that, causing most of the traders to stop there instead of Jillin Harbor."

Lorist's eyes flashed as he paced around in the room twice. He stopped and said, "Send an eagle message to Jillin Harbor to raise the purchasing price by thirty percent. If Andalou matches up to us, raise it by 1.5 times!"

"But, Your Grace, we'd have almost no profits like that," Jinolio said, startled, "If we purchase at such a high price, the profits after we deduct manpower and transportation costs would be negligible! We can only barely break even. Your Grace, this would not just harm them, but ourselves as well! Even if Andalou gets suppressed, we would not be unscathed either!"

"Haha... That's exactly what I want: a pyrrhic victory. Think about it, Jinolio, if we raise the purchasing price and only break even, then Andalou would have to raise their prices as well. But if you take into account the higher cost for transporting on land, which they rely on, do you think they'll have any profits? I think they'll be losing money while we can at least break even."

"But what if they don't raise their prices to match ours?"

"If they don't, nobody would sell them any goods. Their trading point would fail if that's the case, Though there are some who would do barely profitable business, nobody would conduct business that lost money. They will be forced to give up on this trade route because they won't be able to make up to the emperor, their investor.

"As for our house, we will be able to continue breaking even for two to three years. The most important thing is for us to stop Andalou from trading with the Trade Union, the enemies of our house. We must always remain alert and anyone that tries to aid their recovery is going against us. That's why raising the price to match Andalou's is the only thing we can do now."

"Understood, Your Grace. I'll send the message immediately," said Jinolio.

Chapter 584 - Malek's Defenses

"Your Grace, Lord Malek and Lord Potterfang are waiting for you in the meeting room," hurried Jinolio.

"Alright, let's go. Anderbael, practice the basic sword moves a few more times before going to take a shower. Don't catch a cold now."

Lorist tapped Anderbael's head with a wooden sword before turning to leave.

Anderbael was getting more naughty than ever and didn't like academics. So, Lorist had no choice but to start teaching him swordsmanship to ensure that he had a good foundation. Surprisingly, the child showed great talent and keen interest and patience for martial arts. That attitude was a stark contrast to the one he had for studies; he would often slip away to play. Lorist spent only three days to teach him 28 basic sword moves, causing his pride to swell. He didn't think the bearish child would actually make him proud one day.

Potterfang and Malek had come to talk about the defense in Montside. The setting up of the defense lines around the borders of Magical Dragon Mountains and the wildlines was integral for the safety of the province, but due to the terranean restrictions, the survey team spent one year to discover that the complicated hilly and forested terrain made it really hard for the Norton forces to make a complete defense line to secure Montside's borders.

The border separating Montside from Magical Dragon Mountains and the wildlands stretched 236 kilometers long. Even though Firmrock had 45 thousand members, they wouldn't be able to spread themselves across the whole border. They would only be able to station a hundred-man unit for each half kilometer and not only would they lose the initiative to act, they would also have to rely on others behind them for logistics support.

Lorist wouldn't allow a main open-field battle legion to be stationed at the border either. But having only 45 thousand men securing the border to defend the new citizens of the province was not feasible. The thin defenses only invited attack and the slightest push would cause the defense line to lose all effect. While the trenches and sentry towers could hold the barbarians off, they might not be able to fend off magic beast attacks.

"Your Grace, those involved in the survey had a month-long discussion and concluded that if we want to satisfy Your Grace's wish to hold the defense line for the long term without using too many soldiers, the best solution is to dig a manmade river to stop the magic beasts from crossing. It'll also prove to be a good obstacle for the barbarians trying to attack. We'll have enough time to sound the alert and come up with a countermeasure as they cross the river," reported Malek.

The map of Montside was laid on the table and a thick, red line could be seen drawn across it.

"A man-made river?" Lorist mused with intrigue, "Tell me more about the plan."

"Understood, Your Grace. This river starts north from Azure River and will flow along the border of Montside all the way to Lake Tarinloz in the Black Forests, stretching for about 250 kilometers. We planned for the river to have a width of around 50 meters and a depth of ten. After some surveying by the Ministry of War, we confirmed that the area in the vicinity is suitable to be turned into a man-made river like that."

Lorist felt a headache coming. He thought they were only going to dig a river around ten meters wide and six meters deep, but he didn't think those of the ministry actually planned to make it 50 meters wide and ten meters deep. Can this still be considered a river? It's a whole water highway...

Malek's voice also sounded a little deep. The scale of the construction was a little too large. It meant that the house would have to invest large amounts of funding to complete. Even Lorist couldn't ensure whether the house could finish the project. Malek took out a few designs and showed them to Lorist.

"Those sent to survey the land and the designers of the engineering department made an estimation and found that only a river this wide can properly prevent the magic beasts from attempting to cross the river and wipe out any ambitions the barbarians have. Given the technical prowess of the barbarian military, it would take them at least three hours to send a thousand men over a 50-meter-wide river. That's enough time for our forces to call for reinforcements."

Malek pointed at the design and said, "The designers intend to use the mud unearthed from the construction to make mud bricks, which can be stacked up to form a stair-like embankment, on which sentry and alert towers can be built. That way, we would only require a small number of personnel to keep watch of the border. Both magic beast and barbarian would definitely be noticed if they approach the river. The guards can then warn the others with smoke signals and start attacking the incoming threats from the sentry towers while they waited for reinforcements to arrive."

The headache Lorist felt grew more intense. This is not even a water highway... It's the great wall... He could see countless gold Fordes grow wings and fly away as well as Spiel's angered expression. The proposal, however, did seem to be one of the most reliable methods to rid the province of the threat from the barbarians in the Magical Dragon Mountains and the magic beasts in the wildlands for good.

If there were no natural barriers, they could always build one. That was the train of thought of the designers in the engineering department and the surveyors of the Ministry of War. Fortunately, the river and wall stretched only 250 plus kilometers long. Lorist believed that the house would be able to barely afford such an undertaking instead of going bankrupt because of it.

After the construction of the embankment and river was completed, it would bring Montside and the house much benefit. Other things aside, Firmrock could be released from guard duty and taken back to become a main fighting force of the house. Not only that, Montside would be spared from the barbarian and magic beast threat and could even use the river as a transportation facility. That could allow the new desolate province to be developed into a thriving settlement.

"Pog, do you really think there's a need for such a large project like this?" asked Lorist to the quiet Potterfang.

"Your Grace, I really don't know what to say," Potterfang spoke with an awkward chuckle, "Theoretically, I should be against the project because this project will decrease the morale of our forces as it makes us out to be a turtle shirking back into our shell we built for ourselves instead of being courageous enough to face the threat of the barbarians and beasts directly. As it stands, we're going to be passively defending instead of launching counterattacks.

"But in fact, I can't wait to see this project completed. Though Firmrock will only have to be stationed here for another year, the casualties we suffered reached more than 1200 men. These casualties weren't incurred in battles or skirmishes, but rather guerilla attacks by the barbarian hunters or carnivorous beasts during patrols.

"And due to the complex terrain, and the lack of experience fighting in the mountains, we aren't able to properly face off against our foes. It's not that our equipment aren't good enough or we lack the will to fight our enemies, but among the seven hundred or so sacrificed troops, less than 200 died from an actual fight. Most of them lost their lives to poisoned arrows, traps, and encounters with magic beasts. When a squad calls for reinforcements, the enemy will be long gone by the time any arrives.

"The morale of Firmrock is a little on the low lately. Our troops are used to facing enemies head-on and won't even fear when they are outnumbered. What the troops aren't used to is the elusive enemy and the high rate of accidents and injuries from patrols. To the troops of Firmrock, digging the river and building a wall or embankment is a thing that'll raise their spirits."

Lorist slapped his forehead. He stationed Firmrock at the border of Montside because of their reputation for great defense, but he had forgotten that the enemies the legion wasn't wasn't tens of thousands of enemy troops. Instead, they had to man the 250-kilometer-long defense line of Montside and navigate the complex terrain, which weren't easy tasks for them. Had it not been for Potterfang's report, Lorist would still be unaware of what sort of trouble Firmrock ran into.

Looks like this project must be undertaken. Lorist turned to ask Malek, "Since the project has been planned, what is the budget and time it will take to complete it? Tell me how many gold Fordes I'll have to spend."

Malek, looking a little embarrassed, said, "Your Grace, this project to build the river and embankment is estimated to require 100 thousand laborers. At a rate of 50 kilometers per year, it would take five years at least. The initial budget is estimated to be around two million gold Fordes each year."

House Norton's frequent undertaking of huge development projects made them rather good at estimating costs. Without captives, they would have to recruit laborers from the dominion, and each youth could earn up to eight gold Fordes per year, meaning that 100 thousand of them would require around 800 thousand. Their food, drink and other bonuses would have to provided as well, not to mention the tools required for the project, vehicles, tents for accommodation and so on. Two million each year was a reasonable amount.

"However, given that the construction site is near Magical Dragon Mountains and the wildlands, we will need to mobilize our forces to keep the project safe. The house needs to deploy around three main legions to push the border 15 kilometers further and hold absolute control in that area. Only then can we ensure absolute safety for the construction site. The Ministry of War estimated the costs for each legion to be deployed would require an additional one million gold Fordes annually," said Malek as he closed the folder and concluded the report.

Lorist was quite satisfied with the ministry's effectiveness. They had a clear grasp on the spending required for such operations. That way, there would be a clear indication of how much they're expected to spend and the accounts wouldn't end up becoming a mess.

Deploying one main household legions for only an additional one million per year was already rather savvy. The bonuses given to the soldiers, repair and replenishment of used equipment, medical fees for injured soldiers and pension for dead soldiers all amounted to quite a large sum. That was why even though 100 thousand workers only had to be paid two million gold Fordes annually, a legion of 45 thousand men alone needed one million.

According to the proposal Malek brought out, the construction project would cost ten million gold Fordes and take five years and free Montside from the threat of barbarian and beast attacks. House Norton would gain a secure province to rule over, so the huge spending would be justified. The issue was that to ensure the safety of that project, three main household legions had to be deployed and would cost three million gold Fordes each year. Five years would bring that figure up to 15 million gold Fordes, so the total project would cost a staggering amount of 25 million gold Fordes.

The cost of deploying three legions and Northsea Fleet in the war with the Trade Union in Falik Plains cost the household an additional ten million gold Fordes. But House Norton didn't make a loss from that war and instead managed to establish a trade route to the south of the continent, took control of the sunshine seas and Golden Coast, and invest in the reborn market in Morante. The money earned far eclipsed money spent and it was definitely a profitable war and deal.

But the deployment of three legions to patrol the border and keep the project safe for the next five years added three million gold Fordes to the house's spending annually. The investing of 15 million gold Fordes for security wouldn't guarantee a return, and the cost might rise depending on how aggressive the conflicts with the mountain barbarians were.

As expected, the proposal for the project in Montside was greatly objected to among the house administration. Spiel was the strongest critic of the project, being the man who was stingy with military spending as always. He declared that he'd rather the house form two new legions to guard the border of Montside than to agree to go with the project for the province's defense.

Lorist had no choice but to hold a meeting among the top household officials to discuss the matter. This time around, one detailed analysis presented by Lorist changed Spiel's attitude towards the project completely. The staunchest objector became the strongest supporter right away. Lorist told him that if such a strong barrier was constructed, it could ensure the safety and stability of Montside for at least five decades. In other words, it could be considered an upfront payment for the defense of the province for the next fifty years, which would break down to about 500 thousand gold Fordes per year. Forming two new legions to defend Montside on the other hand not only increased the budget by one million gold Fordes on a yearly basis, additional costs would be incurred in the event of large conflicts with the mountain barbarians. The spending in five decades would definitely soar above 50 million gold Fordes.

After converting Spiel, the other officials soon achieved a consensus and decided to go forward with the undertaking of titanic proportions. The project was to be presided over by Malek. As such, Lorist jokingly suggested for the defense line formed by the river and the embankment to be known as the Malek Defense Line, but to his surprise, they actually adopted it as its proper name.

Chapter 585 - Taking a Few Steps Back

The decision that was made on Malek Defense Line meant that yet another huge matter of the house had been solved and Lorist could finally return to his days of tranquility. As for the whole effort to dig a man-made river and build the embankment as well as the mobilization of three main household legions to guard the border of Montside, the Ministry of War and engineering department would take care of them.

Lorist was quite assured that Malek was appointed as the supervisor of the project. All he did was personally talk to him about the details of mobilization and the schedule. Lorist believed that there would be no need to bring all three legions on site at Montside. Only the area being worked on had to be guarded after all. That way, they wouldn't have to guard the whole border. NOt only did that save much manpower, the legions could also guard them in shifts. In terms of funding, it would save up to five or six million gold Fordes in five years.

He had no choice but to make such an arrangement as Ironguard was still busy at Yungechandler with the renovation of Lichtana Citadel, which would only be completed by next year. Jaeger was stationed at Wild Husbandry and was the only mobilizable legion of the house. Firmrock and Tigersoar on the other hand were moved to Montside, leaving only Terman's Ragebear Knights in THe Northlands. They would be the first responders to any emergencies and buy time for the house to come up with a response.

Though Lorist believed that there wouldn't be any huge issues in the dominion, or the empire, for that matter, for the years to come, the completion of Lichtana Citadel and the relocation of Ironguard to Montside was the time when the house's forces were at their thinnest. The three provinces of Winston, Delamock and Yungechandler could only rely on their newly formed local garrison legions for defense.

Hopefully, the wary Auguslo doesn't cause me any trouble during the next few years... Lorist already made up his mind to not mess around with the emperor and spend his days in peace within the dominion. No matter what happened within the empire, as long as it wasn't a threat to the house's interest, Lorist wouldn't show up to solve it. Those responsible for instigating the matters would have to take care of their own ess.

It was currently the 10th day of the 8th month and Lorist would be traveling with his wife and four concubines and children to Northsea before taking the ferry to Platinum Beach for a vacation. That was in tandem with Kenmays's efforts to restore life to Platinum Beach. It was said that he invited many imperial nobles there to hold an exciting summer party.

Little did Lorist expect that he would hear news about Auguslo after just hoping that he wouldn't cause any trouble. Kenmays sent an urgent letter that Auguslo had accepted the invitation and showed up there. It was said that he wasn't there to join the fun, as stripping down on a beach to play around didn't really fit the image of an emperor. Initially, Auguslo refused to join the festivities using his busy schedule as an excuse, but surprisingly, he changed his mind in two days and replied to Kenmays that he would be going on a vacation as well.

So, Kenmays wrote Lorist an urgent letter to pose the question whether Auguslo had other intentions for going and asked him to be prepared for it.

Auguslo's going to Platinum Beach as well? Isn't that like the emperor wanting to have fun with commoners? I doubt he'd do something that meaningless. I'm sure he should be busy with all sorts of other stuff. How could he be in a mood to have fun? Lorist's eyes rolled; he more or less had a grasp of what was going on. "Jinolio, inform the matron to bring the four concubines and children to Platinum Beach. I won't be joining. If anyone asks, say that I'm busy dealing with a barbarian invasion in Montside."

"Is... is Your Grace intentionally avoiding His Imperial Majesty?" ask Jinolio with shock. The way he saw it, there was no reason to do so. Wasn't that intentionally causing House Norton's reputation to

Lorist could tell right away what Jinolio was thinking and gave him a pat on the head. "Kid, didn't you read about the secret report we received a few days ago? Ever since Jillin Harbor raised the purchasing price for ores and other raw materials, Andalou was forced to raise theirs as well, but that also means that they'll suffer even larger losses. That young master, Selik, went to see the emperor a few times possibly to discuss the matter.

"And now, His Imperial Majesty is coming to Platinum Beach for a vacation. I firmly believe it has something to do with a suggestion for me to lower the purchasing prices at Jillin Harbor so that the both of us don't end up battered. After all, the emperor invested 800 thousand gold Fordes in Andalou from behind the scenes. Since it has to do with His Imperial Majesty's investment, he has no choice but to come and settle the matter personally. I don't want to be forced to give face to him and yield to this request, so I've decided to avoid him. Let Andalou continue to suffer the loss."

"Will it really end like that?" asked Jinolio doubtfully while scratching his head.

"Of course," Lorist replied with certainty, "the empire's borders have been rather peaceful as of late and nothing huge worth paying attention to has occurred. Apart from the fact that Whitelion is still entangled with the bandits in Phapsia, the only other thing worth paying attention to is our commitment to build Malek Defense Line. His Imperial Majesty will definitely not allow us to help Whitelion out, and there wouldn't be anything anyone can do about Malek Defense Line. The only thing left must be the raise in purchasing price by our house. His Imperial Majesty made the excuse to go on a vacation to meet with me so that nobody else will make a big fuss out of this."

"I understand. Since His Imperial Majesty said that the merchants stopping at the new trading point at Flowater Creek is part of free market competition, then our house's act of raising the prices is part of that as well. Since His Imperial Majesty and Andalou can't do much about that, they have no choice but to come to Your Grace personally to negotiate the matter to prevent a long term trade war.

"Even though it has only been a month, Andalou is already unable to hold on, so our emperor decided to come personally for negotiations. And Your Grace is avoiding the meeting because Your Grace wants to extend the trade war. As Your Grace mentioned, House Norton has the advantage of transport by sea, so we can break even or even make a small profit even with the high prices while Andalou has to suffer more losses the more they purchase because they have to pay a huge price for transport to maintain the trade route with the Trade Union," summarized Jinolio with understanding.

"That's the idea. His Imperial Majesty initially refused the invitation, only to turn around two days later. It's obvious that the emperor wants to use this chance to meet with me and discuss the prices. You know our emperor has always loved to consolidate power and is all too busy doing other tasks on a daily basis. If it weren't because of his personal investment in Andalou, he wouldn't be in the mood to go to Platinum Beach for a vacation.

"I'm guessing that His Imperial Majesty wants to discuss boundaries on who is allowed to sell at which places. For instance, perhaps Jillin Harbor's market could handle sales from the northwestern area of the empire while Andalou can take care of the two southwestern provinces. That kind of compromise will help lower prices. It's too bad that the goal of our trade war is not to reach an agreement with Andalou, otherwise those terms would be rather appealing.

"The reason I don't want to go to Platinum Beach to meet His Imperial Majesty is because I can't be bothered to negotiate the prices. Andalou and His Imperial Majesty's investment is not the most important. What I'm concerned about is cutting off trade to the Trade Union altogether. For our house, any act that helps the Trade Union recover must be stopped. Before our emperor and the person in charge of Andalou, Selik, are aware of that, I refuse to negotiate with

"Jinolio, write Duke Kenmays a letter and tell him to receive His Imperial Majesty as usual. Don't need to make any fuss over it. Apologize on my behalf that I won't be able to be there," instructed Lorist.

"Understood, Your Grace."

Though Lorist wasn't going to spend his vacation in Platinum Beach, he still had to send Sylvia and the four concubines as well as the children to Northsea for them to take the ferry there. He would have Sylvia deliver the letter of apology to Kenmays on his behalf. After the ferry left, Lorist turned back to the docks and headed to Nico Academy with Jinolio and his guards.

He was going to visit many people on this trip of his. First, he would see his lover, Telesti, and the two princesses she birthed him. He would also have to visit Dilianna's eldest son, Slophenk. Other than that, he would be bringing Charade's second son, Freilyde, to replace Jinolio as Lorist's attendant. If he performed well, Lorist might take him as his fourth disciple.

However, only two days into his visit at the academy, he received a secret report from Northsea that Auguslo had arrived with a light cohort of a hundred guards on House Kenmay's trading vessel at Northsea and was on his way to Ragebear.

Looks like he won't rest until he sees me. Guess he decided to come knocking after not seeing my at Platinum Beach. Lorist sent an eagle message to task Charade with handling the emperor and tell him to inform Auguslo that he was in Montside. If Auguslo really went to Montside, Potterfang, Loze and Malek would inform him that Lorist left urgently to Silowas to deal with a trade conflict.

Lorist brought Jinolio, Freilyde and his guards to Northsea to take a ferry that was heading to Silowas. Even though The Northlands was the dominion of the Nortons, Lorist couldn't be sure whether Auguslo had spies within it. If it was discovered that he was hiding in Nico Academy and refusing to meet Auguslo, it would turn out really awkward if he was cornered, so he decided to make an actual trip to Silowas and believed that Auguslo wouldn't go so far to chase him down.

He was the emperor after all, and it was only custom for the duke to receive the emperor personally instead of playing hide and seek like he did. However, that wouldn't be the case if he really was at Silowas. Lorist couldn't do much to Auguslo since he was an emperor anyway. Auguslo wanted to seek him out for a private chat about trade instead of summoning him officially for a negotiation on prices as that would be hugely embarrassing for an emperor like him.

Surprisingly, Lorist didn't think that Auguslo would be that persistent. After six days in Silowas, Lorist received word that Auguslo ordered the people of the house to provide a ship for him to travel to Silowas once he heard that Lorist wasn't there.

What kind of person would be that thick-skinned? Lorist felt that he was defeated by Auguslo in some capacity. He's going to meet me no matter what? Since he's being so persistent, I'll go to Mornate. I doubt he'd actually follow me there. The current situation wasn't like when House Norton controlled the city and Auguslo was able to travel there as he wished. Currently, Morante was the territory of the Free Union and an emperor like Auguslo couldn't travel there with just a light guard.

Five days later, Auguslo arrived at Silowas on the ferry, Whitebird. Governor Hector and Jillin Harbor Chief of Finance Camorra politely welcomed Auguslo and informed him that Lorist had traveled to Morante to resolve a trade conflict ss the matter involved trade with Jigda in the south of the continent. As that would require quite some time, it wasn't certain when Lorist would return to Silowas.

It was then when Auguslo knew for sure that Lorist was avoiding him. After staying at Silowas for five days he prepared to leave for the imperial capital. Before he left, he had a deep discussion with Camorra and criticized House Norton's raising of prices was only harming others and themselves and wasn't sustainable in the long run.

But Camorra's reply almost caused Auguslo to spew blood in rage. He said that even though the high purchasing prices caused the house to lose a lot of profit, it also resulted in the imperial nobles having more money and that raised demand for the luxury goods sold at Jillin Harbor. They were more willing to spend even more money to purchase things. In terms of revenue, it rose by fifty percent compared to the previous year and increased House Norton's profits even more.

According to the agreement between Lorist and Auguslo, Jillin Harbor would be given to House Norton for management and a market would be formed there. The profits from that market would be split in two between House Norton and Auguslo. However, the Norton-produced goods were not part of that deal. The deal only applied to profits made from the sale of ores and raw materials purchased from Jillin Harbor.

In other words, Auguslo's support of Andalou from the background to wrestle trade from Jillin Harbor only harmed his own profits. House Norton was able to earn even more through the sale of their own luxury goods and products and make up for the losses at Jillin Harbor. How could Auguslo remain calm after hearing that news?

In the end, he left Silowas in low spirits. Camorra calmly instructed, "Write His Grace an eagle message to inform that His Imperial Majesty has left for the imperial capital. His Grace can come back now."

Chapter 586 - Auguslo's Handwritten Letter

How can anyone be so shameless, especially the emperor? He actually treats his word like nothing but a fart! thought Krilos as he held the written order Auguslo sent him, shaking from the anger. Auguslo just reinforced Krilos's belief that the father-and-son duo were shameless to the bone.

During the 7th month, House Norton raised the prices they were buying goods at Jillin Harbor greatly by up to thirty percent. Krilos didn't hesitate to get Andalou to meet that price. However, House Norton raised it once more, almost doubling the original price.

Andalou was in a tough position. Krilos was incredibly troubled as purchasing goods at that price not only didn't bring any profits, the more they purchased, the larger the loss.. The spending for a thousand-man trading convoy during their travels from the imperial capital to the Trade Union was no small amount either. Krilos realized that each trip would cost him around 80 thousand gold Fordes.

If the prices hadn't been raised, each trip would earn him around 500 thousand gold Fordes. But with the purchasing price doubled, transporting goods worth hundreds of thousands to the Trade Union wasn't only a loss, they couldn't even make enough to cover the cost of transportation. The expenses of the convoy aside, the convoy had to pay a huge toll while passing through the kingdom of Peterson, much to the heartache of Krilos.

Other merchant guilds would just quit the unprofitable business, but that wasn't an option for Krilos. He understood how important resources were to the resuscitation of the Trade Union. Given how resource-stripped they were, they required the goods Andalou could provide to make their own products and compete in the market. Only with mor raw materials and ores could they start fashioning tough armor and sharp weapons.

There was one way to resolve that issue, and that was to raise prices of goods sold so that a profit was made nevertheless despite the higher cost. Since the Trade Union were in urgent need of those resources, they would be willing to pay that price. But Krilos couldn't bring himself to do it as he was aware that it would cause quite a lot of trouble for Duke Cobleit; the various factions in the Trade Union would start pestering him with problems. After all, the current Trade Union was no longer the rich and powerful nation it used to be.

So, Krilos decided to solve the trade war with House Norton himself and had an audience with Auguslo in hopes that they could bring the ones in charge of trade of House Norton to negotiate. The best way to resolve the issue was trading in separate areas. Jillin Harbor and Andalou would do their business in their respective provinces without interfering with one another. That way, everyone could make profit. It was a win-win solution.

Krilos believed that Auguslo would help mediate the matter with House Norton, and that the house would go along with the emperor's demands to save him face. Given that Auguslo had a 800-thousand-gold-Forde stake in Andalou, he would also side with the guild more and try to get some benefits out of the negotiations.

However, Krilos didn't think that Auguslo would take matters into his own hands instead of holding a joint negotiation. Confidently, he told Krilos, "It's but a small matter. Let me handle it for you. I only need to meet Lorist and talk to solve the issue."

Lorist was the head of House Norton and Duke of The Northlands, as well as the imperial swordsaint. Krilos knew him as the Trade Union's greatest foe and the one that caused its demise. However, he was quite curious why Auguslo was so confident about resolving the issue.

Auguslo gleefully told Krilos that even though Lorist was a swordsaint, he had his own weaknesses: his weak will and penchant for reputation. Even though Lorist had a rather tumultuous history with him, as long as they met and he lay down his poise as emperor and had a heart-to-heart talk with him. Lorist would give in to any request. The trade war was a smaller matter in comparison. He only had to plead to get Lorist to agree to his terms.

Not to mention, the vacation party at Platinum Beach hosted by Duke Kenmays was the perfect chance, as he heard that Duke Norton would be heading there with his family. Auguslo decided to tell Duke Kenmays that he would be participating as well so that he could meet Lorist there. That way, he could resolve the matter without making it public and wouldn't feel ashamed about humbling himself as it would be a private conversation.

So, Krilos confidently awaited the good news from Auguslo. One month later, Auguslo sent an order that he had tried his best, but Duke Norton was nowhere to be found. Though he gave it his all to follow Lorist, the latter was obviously trying to avoid him and even went as far as traveling to Morante.

He also said in the order that he was incredibly angry and humiliated by Duke Norton's avoidant behavior and expressed his hopes that 'Selik' would help Andalou win the trade war with House Norton, saying that he would support them all the way. However, he did want to remind him that as the construction of the trading point at Flowater Creek caused him to lose a million gold Fordes in profit from Jillin Harbor, he said that he would be expecting that amount from Andalou.

Other than that, Auguslo emphasized the huge investment he made with Andalou, the 800 thousand gold Fordes he took from the treasury of the imperial family for them to use as capital to purchase the raw materials from nobles. Auguslo believes that if he left that sum to the Nortons to manage, earning back millions from that amount would only be expected. So, in light of the guild just being founded in the imperial capital recently, he said that he didn't hope for results the Nortons could provide. Instead, he was only looking forward to a small dividend payment of around 600 thousand gold Fordes.

This man's shamelessness knows no bounds... Krilos really wanted to rush into the palace and give Auguslo a slap in the face. On what basis did he think that Andalou should be responsible for the profits he lost at Jillin Harbor? However, Krilos knew that it was an argument he wouldn't win. It was he who had persuaded Auguslo to allow Andalou to start the trading point at Flowater Creek for the trading convoys of the imperial nobles in the first place. Had that not happened, Auguslo's yearly profit of a million gold Fordes would still be there. No matter how bad the relationship between the emperor and the duke, he would still receive one million gold Fordes annually.

But now, due to Andalou's interference, the prices were doubled and Auguslo proceeded to blame Andalou for the profits he lost. Even though Auguslo supported Andalou in a move to teach House Norton a lesson, that cost him his one million gold Fordes. So, he wasn't afraid of pissing Andalou off, causing Krilos to incur a debt of one million gold Fordes for no reason.

Krilos could only begrudgingly shoulder that debt. If the prices weren't doubled, that amount would be no pressure on him at all. However, given the losses Andalou was suffering, that million could well cost the life of the guild. They might have to shut down for good.

What the hell is with that 600 thousand gold Fordes of dividend?! Investments are risky in the first place! Losses are just as common as profits! It's already the 10th month now, and there are only two months left before the end of the year... Where would I get that kind of money for him?

At that moment, he was considering whether he should just ditch everything and leave. But considering the price he paid to approach Auguslo and gain his trust, how could he just leave without fulfilling his revenge? Was he going to consider the loss of 1.5 million gold Fordes by Auguslo payback enough? The thought of the pain Auguslo had caused him made him feel incredibly unwilling about the situation.

The door of the study was lightly knocked on. Krilos knew that only his subordinates could knock like that. He kept the order and said, "Come in."

The one who entered was the guard on duty. He delivered Krilos a letter which seemed like a normal price-inquiry letter. He would receive a few of those daily from the nobles dealing with the guild, but the one in his hand right now had the emblem of a twin-headed dragon. Krilos asked the guard to bring him a glass of milk, which he took a gulp out of before sprinkling all over the letter and baking it above hte candle fire.

Soon, dark blue text appeared on the letter. By the time the letter was completely dry, the text disappeared, but he had already memorized what it said. After some consideration, he instructed, "Prepare the carriage. I want to go out."

A week later, Krilos traveled nonstop for Malivia where a noble manor was built some ten years ago. It was abandoned after Malivia was taken back by the empire, but Andalou bought the ruined manor back for a cheap price and renovated it into one of the furthest rest stops for Andalou's men.

The week-long trip was quite hard on his weakened body. He flopped around like mud when he was helped off his carriage. After being bathed and bandaged up by his personal maidservants and taking two days of rest, Krilos finally recovered a sliver of energy.

A day later, a black carriage with no insignia drove into the manor. A black-robed man who dressed quite similarly to Krilos left the carriage. That was the guest Krilos had been waiting for. The guards showed him into the study without bothering to check his identity.

When the man removed his robes, Krilos stood up in shock and said, "Your Grace, why have you come?"

Nobody expected that the premier of the Trade Union, Duke Cobleit himself, would travel to a normal manor near the border of the empire's province, Malivia, not even Krilos.

"Is this odd? Long time no see, my fellow brother," said Cobleit with a relaxed smile as he gave Krilos a hug. He knew about the injuries, so he was very careful with the hug.

"I... I thought Your Grace would send a representative to talk with me. What prompted Your Grace to come personally? Was there a problem with our past transaction?" asked Krilos anxiously.

"No, the transaction was fine. Brother, the trade route you forged helped me out greatly. Even though peace has been restored with the midsouthern nations, they're still biased against our Union and are putting us down, especially with regards to one of the most crucial resources--mineral ores. Yet, your trade route was able to provide us with exactly what we needed and allow us to slowly recover our forces and equipment. We are also now able to produce some other goods apart from glass."

Cobleit looked at Krilos and thankfully said, "Brother, the Union is doing well, don't worry. But why didn't you tell us about the troubles you faced? We only just found out that you're taking losses for the sake of maintaining this trade route. You should've let us know earlier! You know how important this is to us. If you lose this trade war with House Norton, that will spell the end of the trade route."

Krilos smiled bitterly. "Even though I'm making a loss from the trade route, I don't really mind. I can make it up from endeavors elsewhere. However, this is what I'm having trouble with now..."

Krilos took out the written order of Auguslo. "I've never met someone as shameless as he is, a person who's emperor no less. It was he who encouraged me to cause trouble for House Norton and promised to support Andalou in the first place. But now, he's asking me for money! 1.5 million gold Fordes! It's a miracle that he's even able to make such a demand..."

Cobleit read the order and smiled after some thought. "No worries. I brought you something. Show it to your emperor and I'm sure he'll stop demanding money from you.

Chapter 587 - The Bird Called Bolga

"No, Your Grace! This won't do! How can we give these equipment and weapons to that guy?! Wouldn't that be increasing his strength? I'm definitely against it!"

Cobleit was talking about a large chest in which a set of fine, black metal armor could be seen. There was also a rectangular shield, a refined longsword, a sharp dagger and a foot-long spear head that glinted coldly. The chest was filled with a complete set of weapons and armor.

The moment Krilos took a good look at the chest's contents, he objected immediately. He knew what Cobleit was suggesting: providing those equipment to Auguslo to offset his debt of 1.5 million gold Fordes. That would also help him gain more trust and support, which were integral in his desire for revenge.

"No, listen to me first," Cobleit said with a wave of his hands, "This is the reason I've come to discuss the matter directly with you instead of sending someone

He took out the black metal armor and gave the breastplate a gentle caress. "Actually, these are the Trade Union's latest models. We just forged them not long ago, thanks to the tungsten and other metal ores you provided us with. If our forces can switch to these equipment, our fighting power might triple. Normal crossbows and longbows won't be able to deal troops wearing these armor any harm when fired from a hundred meters away.

"As you said, it's true that if these are provided to the emperor, his military might will rise. You mentioned that he was thinking about rebuilding Fiercegale back then in your letter to make them at least the Nortons' equal instead of being at a disadvantage by the four main Norton legions, right?

"Sometimes, I find myself wondering what the heck goes through this emperor's mind. It's the most peaceful time for his empire, yet he doesn't focus on raising standards of living to recover the empire's vitality, and instead pays attention to useless military reorganization, like reforming the three imperial legions. Since that's the case, the Trade Union doesn't mind giving him a little push from the back. We'll make him waste even more resources and funds on military equipment.

"The reason I brought the equipment here is for you to present it to the emperor so that he will protect and support the trade route between your guild and our Union. We will obtain even more resources from the empire and this will also help wipe away the debt the emperor placed on you. You can tell him that if he can provide the resources, the Union will be able to fashion 50 thousand such sets of equipment on a yearly basis."

"What? 50 thousand sets? Your Grace isn't joking, right? How could the number be so high?" said Krilos with shock. As the one in charge of logistics of the Twinhead Merchant Guild forces, he understood how much manpower it took for one set of equipment to be produced. It was no easy affair.

"If we have enough materials, making 100 thousand a year is incredibly easy," Cobleit said, "We now finally understand how the high quality equipment of the Nortons were made. Back then when our blademasters discovered the designs of the water-powered machines in The Northlands, we started researching and further developing them. Now, we have lots of such machines which can be used to replace humans in the forging process.

"Come to think of it, the forging process is basically a set of repetitive, simpler steps. An experienced forger or smith can only fashion two or three spearheads a day, or small parts required for two sets of armor. But with water-powered machines, we can produce hundreds to thousands of spearheads and around two hundred sets of armor in a day.

"I want you to present this set of equipment to the emperor and negotiate with him on how we can get more mineral resources from them. For instance, if you're able to gain permission to build a refinery, you can decrease the cost of transporting metals. At the same time, you can provide us with even more material to work with, since transporting ingots is much more worth it than unprocessed ores.

"If our plan works out, we can even ask for double the amount of resources we actually require. You might not know this, but, if we can get the metals for free, it would cost us only around eight gold Fordes for the production of a single set of equipment, mostly to pay for the assembly and the transportation. Each set can then be sold for around 50 gold Fordes on the market."

"But Your Grace, the Krissen Empire is our Union's archrival. Would the strengthening of their military affect our revival in the future? If we go to war with them in a few years' time, then the equipment we provided them will prove harmful to us!" said Krilos.

Cobleit took a long sigh. "Krilos, you're mistaken. Currently, war no longer depends on blades and spears. If we fight a war with the Nortons, even if our troops' courage and skill aren't inferior to theirs, they won't give us a chance to fight up close. Instead, they'll use all sorts of ranged weaponry to defeat us from afar.

"We failed at the Battle of Bluwek and lost Morante and Falik Plains for good. I've dreamed about that battle countless number of times. That wasn't a war, but a nightmarish massacre! Even though we took all sorts of preventive measures and prepared ourselves against the Nortons' catapults and carroballistae and finally approached the lines of our enemy and were just about to pay a steep price to take out their troops, they brought out their bronze cannons and flattened our ranks completely. Corpses piled like mountains, blood flowed in rivers. Our soldiers were defenselessly slaughtered.

"The troops rushing at the forefront back then wore this exact same black metal armor fashioned by Wessia. The one here in my hand. But these things didn't do much to protect them either. The troops were still completely obliterated from the cannonfire. So, tell me. Do you think this set of armor will be the key to the revival of our Union?"

Krilos was struck with sudden realization. Both in the Battle of Bluwek and the following Norton attacks on the Union, the bronze cannons played a pivotal part in their victory. Even though the Union used sandbags to temporarily stop the cannon attacks, that didn't change that they were still taking blows on the defensive. They weren't able to launch a counterattack at all.

"Currently, we are also researching ranged weaponry, such as the Norton carroballistae and catapults. We are also prepared to obtain the secret of gunpowder from the dwarven kingdom in Tedanini Mountains to make our own cannons. But that will require lots of time and resources. That is why the trade route is integral for us.

"Krilos, I know why you've gone to the imperial capital, but I must beg you to suppress your desire for revenge. Please temporarily get along with your nemesis for the sake of our grand ambition. Use the trust you've gained to help us on the path of victory. As long as this trade route can continue to supply us with resources, the day of our comeback will arrive soon."

Cobleit bowed deeply to Krilos, as if he was expressing his sincerest apologies for having to request something like this of him. Krilos hurriedly helped the man up and held him by the shoulders.

"Your Grace doesn't need to do this. I know what I have to do. Actually, even though I can meet that person now, I have no way of exacting revenge. Not only is he a blademaster, he's also the emperor. I have no way of doing anything to him. As for the trade route, I will do anything that will benefit our Union even if Your Grace doesn't tell me to.

"What I'm worried about now is House Norton. In their attempt to crush Andalou, they've doubled the purchasing price for raw materials and we have no way of dealing with it. It harms both sides, but they can afford to keep it this way. My guild on the other hand has been completely disrupted as a result. The more we purchase, the bigger our losses. Otherwise, the 1.5 million gold Fordes that person wants from me won't be a concern in the first place," said Krilos hatefully.

"No worries," Cobleit consoled, "Since House Norton wants a trade war, we'll fight them to the end. While we're not a match to them on the battlefield, can we really defeat merchants like us when it comes to trade? We can use the armor here to deal with your debt first and extract even more benefits from the emperor.

"Each set of armor like that won't cost more than 20 gold Fordes including materials and manpower to produce, but we'll be able to sell them to the emperor for 40 or 30 gold Fordes. We can even request him to provide us with the materials for free. We'll definitely earn quite a bit on that front. What you have to do for now is to refine the goods first. That way, you can transport more in bulk and save on transportation costs.

"Additionally, the reason the Nortons formed the market at Jillin Harbor is to buy raw materials as well as sell the goods they produce. Since they've engaged you in a trade war, why don't you start operating the trading point at Flowater Creek as a

"Even though our Union isn't what it used to be, we still have some vigor remaining. Now that we have the resources we need, the technicians and artisans of our guilds can finally put their talents to practice. Perhaps we aren't able to make products good enough to compete with the Nortons in the markets they occupy. However, when it comes to gold and silverware, wine, stone sculptures and art pieces, we are superior. If we can find a market for those in the empire, it would be a good income stream for us."

As expected of the president of Twinhead Dragon, Cobleit was able to give a few good business proposals to Krilos in the blink of an eye. Krilos looked more excited the more he heard. "That's right, I've only been focusing on how I can provide you with resources, but I forgot that I could buy products from you to sell too. Setting up a luxury goods market at Flowater Creek is a good idea. I'm sure the imperial nobles would love to buy expensive luxury items there to inflate their social status and cultured sense..."

The two of them laughed heartily. The war was over and peace had come. The imperial nobles no longer strove for courage and started to pay attention to arts and culture. That was the case with the nobles across the midsouthern nations as well. All of a sudden, the trend of odd-looking sculptures and colorful paintings which nobody could really make sense of saw a growing trend among the nobles and were at the height of their popularity. The two men believed that if the artisans of the Union could make some to cater to the imperial nobles, those products would be warmly received as well.

"Alright, Your Grace. I'll do what you say and present this set of exquisite armor to that fellow and try to get some benefits for our Union," Krilos said after a long sigh, "But I still feel unwilling to hand such good quality equipment to our enemy."

Cobleit chuckled. "Krilos, did you know that in the forests of our province of Leolika, there's a kind of bird called the Bolga. These birds don't hatch their own eggs. Instead, they'll steal eggs of other birds from their nests and place their own within so others can do the laying for it.

"What we are trying to do is not so different from the strategy of the Bolgas. If we use these equipment for ourselves, we'll once more catch the attention of the other midsouthern nations and get sanctioned by them. That wouldn't only cause the hard-achieved peace to crumble, we would also suffer the pushback from those nations in their markets.

"Let the warmonger emperor get his hands on these equipment. That way, he'd definitely form a new legion. The more we provide, the more he will form. Perhaps only through that can he feel safe and secure against the swordsaint Duke of The Northlands.

"What this emperor doesn't understand is that his military expansion during a time of peace that follows right after a war will only cause the other nations to worry. The empire will become a target to be observed and alert against. That will make it easier for our Union to move in the shadows. We might even be able to reform the century-long alliance that held against the empire back then too.

"And you, Krilos, only have to try to gain this emperor's trust. Work hard to try to make his frivolous illegitimate son the heir to the throne. If he can get the commanding rights to a legion, that'd be even better. I will be sending you lots of helpers, which you can place into that legion to control it. That way, we can cause another period of chaos within the empire with a power struggle just like our fathers did back then."

Krilos nodded emotionally. "I understand, Your Grace. I shall do as you say."

Chapter 588 - Trade War

Freilyde limped into the study and reported with a gloomy tone, "Your Grace, Duke Kenmays has arrived at Palace Ursa Rex. My father-- I mean, Baron Charade has gone to receive him."

Lorist closed the book in his hand and looked at the boy quietly. "Were you taught a lesson by your father again?"

"No..." Freilyde refused to admit.

"Then what's with the large boot mark on your pants? Apart from me and your father, I doubt anybody else would dare to do that to you. Tell me what you did this time to earn your father's wrath." Lorist could tell from how Freilyde looked that he had obviously been harshly beaten by Charade.

"Well, Your Grace... Young Master Anderbael and I were just coloring the smaller bear sculptures grey-white and we pushed them to the middle of a pavement. My father didn't pay attention to it and tripped badly, so he was really mad," conceded Freilyde.

"Pffft..." Lorist stifled his laughter with his hands. Charade's second son had a really easygoing personality. He wasn't as serious as Reidy, as studious as Howard, nor as reliable as Jinolio. He was nothing more than a curious child that was slightly hyperactive and wanted to try everything out once. Perhaps it was thanks to being spoiled by Engelich, Charade's father-in-law, since a young age, that he became a child so fearless.

The academy head of Nico Academy, Telesti, mentioned that though his innate personality was kind, his curiosity was far too heavy. He was also said to be filled with courage and was the biggest troublemaker in school, making him the biggest threat the instructors had to watch out for.

That was why when they heard that Freilyde was going to be made attendant of Lorist, the instructors of Nico Academy cheered with glee, though, they were quite disappointed that their colleagues at Dawn Academy wouldn't have to suffer the pain they did.

When he first came to Lorist's side, he felt a little timid, given that he was in a new place and Reidy and Jinolio were there. Even though he was only 16, he had already awakened his battleforce. And given his bright personality and tough build, Reidy and Jinolio liked him quite a lot and would often give him pointers on what to look out for as Lorist's attendant.

But since returning to Palace Ursa Rex, Reidy brought Jinolio to Firmrock to further train in the Dan Ocean Ki-refining Technique, so Freilyde was free to roam without supervision. Lorist wouldn't be paying attention to his every move anyway, so he went all out. And somehow, he got along well with Anderbael te moment they met and played together all the time, causing much chaos and unrest at the palace.

And then began Freilyde's tragedy.

As House Norton's chief minister, Charade would often seek Lorist out to discuss matters when he returned to the palace. Freilyde's actions didn't escape his notice and though Lorist wasn't too willing to go all out to educate Freilyde, Charade didn't hold such reservations. His punishment was the harshest it could get. Nowadays, Freilyde would always act like a timid mouse whenever he saw his father.

"Anderbael ran away first, right?" asked Lorist.

Lorist suspected the reason his son always had so much fun with Freilyde was because there was always someone there to bear the consequences. Even though Freilyde's so largely built, he didn't really have good observation, so who else but him to take the blame when there was trouble? That was probably what Anderbael was thinking.

"Yes... Young Master is..." Freilyde failed to come up with a reason to speak on Anderbael's behalf. The moment Charade tripped, Anderbael had run away immediately but Freilyde stopped to help his father up, only to get a beating in return.

Lorist pulled on the bell rope beside the wall and Patt, the leader of the guards, soon arrived.

"Go and fetch Anderbael and bring this fellow to the yard. Have the both of them stand in the horse stance for half an hour. Don't forget to put a bowl of water on each of their shoulders and ask them to do it over if the water tips over. Give Anderbael three canes to the rear as well and tell him that he should take the blame with his comrades if he did something wrong instead of escaping alone," instructed Lorist.

"Understood, Your Grace." Patt took the crestfallen Freilyde away with him.

Moments later, Charade came to Lorist accompanied by Kenmays. Given how unkempt Charade's clothes were and the slight red flush on his face, it could be seen how mad he was to be tripped by his child's antics.

But what piqued Lorist's curiosity was Kenmays instead. He brought a few large boxes into the study and instructed the servants to arrange them properly before asking them to leave. Only after that did he breathe a sigh of relief.

"Aha, my brother, you are far too generous, for you to bring me so many gifts," said Lorist intentionally. He knew that those were probably not gifts. Dukes like them usually brought each other a list of the gifts instead of bringing the boxes straight to the other person like a savage.

"In your dreams," Kenmays retorted, "There aren't gifts. Locke, I've decided to go to Flowater Creek and the boxes here contain the competing products of your enemy, Andalou. I brought them here for you to expand your horizons.

"Also, I heard that our emperor has ordered Flowater Creek to be rented to Andalou. A market will soon be built there. It's obvious that they're trying to compete with Jillin Harbor, which your house technically owns. Be it place or accessibility, Flowater Creek holds the advantage. Given that they have the emperor's support, don't you worry that the market at Jillin Harbor will suffer?"

Lorist smiled and shook his head. "I don't have to worry about this. Even though the trading point at Flowater Creek took up quite a bit of our sales volume, only raw materials and mineral ores are affected. On that front, but of us are taking huge losses to the benefit of the landed nobles that have these resources.

"But when the nobles gain more money, it'll benefit the market as they'll increase their purchases of other products. Andalou trying to start a market there is only them trying to get a piece of the pie. As for the nobles, they will still consider quality and price before they make their purchases."

Lorist was quite confident on that front. House Norton produced lots of products of varying types and also enjoyed the benefit of maritime transportation. Lorist believed that Andalou, who still relied on importing products from the Trade Union through land, wouldn't be able to compete with House Norton in terms of quality and cost.

"You're too confident, Locke," Kenmays said with a shake of his head, "Andalou isn't going to fight your house in the market of daily necessities. They chose to compete in high fashion and luxury goods."

Kenmays walked to the side of one box and opened it, bringing out an intricate-looking golden bowl, a golden plate, goblet, and so on. Soon, Lorist's desk was filled with golden dinery.

"Each set of 40 to 50 golden dinery cost me 70 thousand gold Fordes," boasted Kenmays gleefully.

"Are you crazy?" Charade jumped with shock and exclaimed, "Give me 20 thousand and I'll have someone make the exact same ones for you."

"Fool," snorted Kenmays. He held a golden plate up and ran his finger across the intricate engravings. "Look at these engravings and the brand on the bottom of the plate. See who made this set before you say something as stupid as making them for me at the cost of 20 thousand. These are no ordinary dining ware. I'm not just a rich fool, you know."

Lorist took a bowl and turned it over, only to see a rhombus-shaped signature which read Blueway.

"Blueway? This name sounds familiar," said Charade as he looked at the back of the plate he held.

"Hehe, do you remember the duchy of Zikdor?" asked Kenmays.

What does this have to do with Zikdor? Lorist turned the bowl in his hand around and didn't see anything that suggested any affiliation with the duchy.

Charade on the other hand widened his eyes with realization. "You mean the duchy famed for making gold and silverware? Weren't they eliminated by the Trade Union during the war in the midsouthern area? I think Mayflower's kingdom is founded on the territory that used to belong to Zikdor. The Zikdor we helped found again in the neighboring province of the Trade Union is headed only by the duke's nephew. He inherited the position of the current duke of Zikdor."

"The duchy you helped revive is completely different from the old one," Kenmays said without holding back, "Back then, Zikdor was famous for their gold and silverware. Blueway represents the most elite smithing family of the duchy. They produce less than ten such sets and the demand for their work is always through the roof. For the past two centuries, having a set of Blueway-made dining ware is something worth bragging about for a noble house.

"What I didn't think was that the Trade Union would manage to take the Blueway family for themselves after exterminating the duchy and gain control of their production line. They are no different from a tree that grows money. Locke, the glass dining ware produced by House Norton is indeed refined and intricate. But compared to those produced by the Trade Union's Blueway family, it still falls short. I believe that most imperial nobles will think the same as me and will be willing to buy a set of Blueway dining ware to be passed down through their family."

Lorist's expression turned serious. Kenmays was right; even though the dominion produced lots of different products and occupied most of the market for daily necessities on the continent, those were made for the common consumer. They weren't trendy or luxurious items.

The Trade Union had chosen to use history and branding as their weapons against House Norton and made a good move. House Norton only started to rise after Lorist returned to The Northlands after all. Even though the house had a history of three centuries, they had been a rather mediocre noble house at the empire's northern border during that time and didn't expend any effort on anything other than surviving.

"What else are in those boxes? Take them all out," said Lorist.

There were luxurious and expensive rugs, fine branded wine of the Petrin duchy, intricate jewelry from the kingdom of Abotan, as well as many famous branded products from nations wiped out by the Trade Union. Lastly, Kenmays brought out an odd-looking sculpture.

"What is this?" asked Lorist curiously. It depicted a voluptuous woman and a lanky man entangled together in a weird pose, giving others an uncomfortable vibe.

"Hehe, this is the magnum opus of the famous artist from five centuries ago, Carmen Sytoff. Well, a replica of it anyway. I spent 50 thousand gold Fordes to get my hand on this. Just look at how natural the curves on this is. This completely shows that women embody the essence of victors instead of men," said Kenmays with a sudden hipster-like expression.

Doesn't this just mean that women can go on all night while men tire out first? Lorist didn't know how to react at the sight of Kenmays caressing the sculpture of a man and woman so lovingly. "Alright, nobody will take your precious thing from you. Only a guy like you fancies these things anyway. Spending 50 thousand gold Fordes on a thing like this... do you have too much money or something?"

"Locke, you simply don't get it. This is art," said Kenmays, dissatisfied that Lorist was treating his treasure like a toy.

"Your Grace..." Charade spoke when he looked at the study that was piled up with products.

Lorist knew what he was going to say and shook his head with a smile. "No worries. Andalou's products won't have a huge effect on our own in Jillin Harbor. Perhaps there will be short term effects, but in the long term, it shouldn't matter. We provide daily necessities after all while they sell luxury goods which fetch high prices but has low overall demand."

"Aren't you worried that His Imperial Majesty would use this chance to put pressure on the market at Jillin Harbor? He might use this as an excuse to reclaim the rights to that place," said Kenmays.

"Relax, he won't dare to do it," Lorist said confidently, "Even though our emperor thinks himself smart to provide raw materials and mineral ores for Andalou and cancelled the business deal he has with our house, he still requires the cash from the food grown throughout the empire which is sold at Jillin Harbor to keep the empire functioning. He wouldn't touch Jillin Harbor before Andalou is able to provide him with a steady income stream."

Kenmays breathed a sigh of relief. "I can rest assured with what you just said. You should know that our salt merchant committee is the largest trading company in the empire and the competition between your house and Andalou allowed us to earn 30 percent more profit this year. Our fleets are doing our best to purchase the raw materials and ores from the nobles to resell them at Jillin Harbor or Flowater Creek. As long as you keep this up, I'm going to expand the scale of the purchases of the committee next year."

"The prices shouldn't change much," Lorist said, "We're in a hard position to step down from. Let's see who caves in first. In fact, I would rather you sell your goods at Flowater Creek to drain away the cashflow of Andalou."

Kenmays nodded and said, "Understood."

Chapter 589 - Lack of Manpower

Charade rushed into Lorist's study with a thick stack of documents. It had been a month since Duke Kenmays's visit and it was currently the 11th month of the year 1786.

In the office next to the study, Charade looked at his son happily. Freilyde was going through a bunch of official documents with a gloomy expression. Charade cleared his throat and waited for Freilyde to look up before he said, "Make an announcement that I've come to seek an audience with His Grace."

Freilyde's eyebrows lazily rose. "Father, just go in. His Grace said this morning that there wasn't a need to announce you."

Charade flipped out. "Darned kid, just make the announcement if I ask you to! His Grace is just being nice, but we subordinates have to always observe protocol, understood? Go, quick!"

Freilyde rose from his desk as he muttered, "This is so unnecessary... People like you who go about rules all the time just love to trouble other people..."

Soon, Freilyde darted out of the study and said, "Duke Norton invites you in..."

Lorist wasn't alone in the study. The head of intelligence of the house, Tarkel, was standing beside the desk.

"You're here. Well, take a look at these reports from the imperial capital first," said Lorist when he pointed to the documents on the desk.

Charade put down the folders in his hand and read out one of the reports. "His Imperial Majesty announced the reformation of Fiercegale Sand legion with a full 45 thousand men and will be stationing them in Malivia. It has so far been confirmed that the Trade Union will be supplying the legion's equipment through Andalou by selling each set at 30 gold Fordes, but the materials have to be provided as well. Currently, His Imperial Majesty hasn't paid a single coin for it and Andalou is bearing the cost for it. According to our informants in the palace, His Imperial Majesty ordered 100 thousand such sets of equipment. Is... Is His Imperial Majesty insane..."

It wasn't surprising for Charade to have such suspicions. What was Auguslo thinking/ Even though the Trade Union was the Krissen Empire's nemesis, Auguslo made an order for 100 thousand sets of equipment from them. It wasn't a small order and even at 30 gold Fordes per set would amount to three million for 100 thousand sets, not to mention the need to provide materials as well.

"What can you tell from this?" asked Lorist.

"I think the emperor is losing his marbles. It's a time of peace, yet he's trying to expand his military and tossing more money into this endless void. He's spending three million gold Fordes plus materials for 100 thousand sets of equipment! Did he forget how the Trade Union is our biggest enemy? He's giving them a helping hand!

"Not to mention, Fiercegale was involved in that scandal back then. Does he think that adding 'sand' to the name would make it a new legion? Stationing Fiercegale Sand at Malivia is him trying to replace Whitelion, right? Does His Imperial Majesty want to let Whitelion deal with bandit threats from now on and use Fiercegale Sand against outside threats?" questioned Charade.

"Read these reports as well. Andalou built a rather large refinery as well as a forgery near Flowater and preprocesses the raw materials so that the transportation costs are lowered and their efficiency heightened. They also footed the bill of three million gold Fordes for the 100 thousand sets of armor.

"These three million gold Fordes is said to be forced on Andalou by our emperor. As we increased the purchasing price, His Imperial Majesty lost one million gold Fordes this year and the previous year, so the losses were blamed on Andalou. As for the additional one million, that is the investment the emperor made in the guild, which actually only amounts to around 800 thousand gold Fordes. But he demanded for to be given a return for 500 thousand gold Fordes. What a great deal he got."

Lorist wore a mocking smile on his face. "I really applaud the talent this Selik of Andalou has. Not only did he manage to resist our high prices, he also managed to develop Andalou to this scale despite the emperor's greed. He truly is someone capable.

"I thought that our heightened purchasing prices will help stifle Andalou's cashflow and increase the costs of their transportation. After that, we can force His Imperial Majesty to blame his losses on Andalou and thereby restricting the trade with the Trade Union or cutting it off entirely. I didn't think they'd satisfy His Imperial Majesty's greed with quality equipment and manage to use trade with the Union to make up for their losses.

"I have to admit that our price hike strategy has lost its effect. Our emperor already gave Andalou the mining and managing rights of all seven mines in three provinces for the making of the 100 thousand sets of equipment..."

Back then, Andalou only had the rights to sell, so they weren't able to keep up with the Nortons in terms of purchasing price. But now, Auguslo gave the mining rights to Andalou, effectively ridding them of the need to buy the ores from anyone else. If allowed to continue, Andalou would definitely develop into a trade giant that could even influence the empire's policies. That should've been something a wise ruler would watch out for...

"Your Grace, how would we deal with this matter?" asked Charade with a furrowed brow.

"Deal? There's no way," Lorist said while shaking his head, "We don't have a say over the emperor's decision. How he wants to run his empire is his decision to make. As long as they don't directly cross our house's interests, we can do naught but watch from the sidelines. In fact, in the next few years, our house won't have any effort to spare on caring about other matters. We have no choice but to endure even if it means taking some loss.

"Currently, we have all our resources and manpower focused on Malek Defense Line in Montside. That is something that'll set our course for the next century to come. As long as it is complete, we will be rid of barbarian and magic beast attacks. Montside will be our backyard where our subjects can live their lives in peace and thrive. It'll become a firm power base for us in our expansion to the wildlands in the future."

Lorist pointed at the reports on the desk. "Actually, these reports don't just tell us about the affair between His Imperial Majesty and Andalou and their deals. If we look deeper, we can find out about even more secrets, such as what you guys think the 100 thousand sets of equipment imply."

Charade's expression changed immediately. "Two years to produce 100 thousand sets... Your Grace, that means that the Trade Union is most possibly using our water-powered machines. It won't be possible for them to finish the order within two years with manpower alone, and sell them at such a low price to boot."

"That's right," Lorist nodded and said, "This means that the Trade Union is recovering quickly. That's why they were able to research and implement these machines. Currently, our empire and the Trade Union have close ties with Andalou, so our arrangements against the Trade Union have been rendered useless. For instance, the exclusive salt deal Peterson carried out is for naught. They definitely wouldn't dare to stop Andalou from bringing in rock salt in large amounts. His Imperial Majesty is also going to station Fiercegale Sand in Malivia, obviously threatening Peterson to not interfere with future trade with the

"Your Grace, do you think that the Trade Union will start to trouble the kingdom of Peterson in the next few years?" asked Charade.

"There's that possibility. The Trade Union has to first establish a route to the Falik Plains if it is to come back in full force. It has to reclaim Morante and Falik Plains, and Peterson is the first obstacle they have to overcome. But given the current situation, I doubt that the Trade Union will do something so irrational. If they become the ones to instigate conflict, they'll definitely become an eyesore for the neighboring nations. After all, the flames of war just stopped burning for a few short years. The nations are still on alert," said Lorist as he mulled over the maps on the wall.

"Tarkel, increase the scale of observation on the Trade Union. Send word immediately if any military reorganization is being taken!"

"Understood, Your Grace."

"Your Grace, it's too bad we're located too far away from Peterson and Falik Plains. We won't be able to do much if something changes there," bemoaned Charade.

"Hehe, no worries. Don't forget we have a piece of rented land in Morante. As long as we can help defend Morante, it's fine if we lose Falik Plains. Sometimes, I really find myself wishing that the Trade Union will launch the first strike. That way, we would have a reason to exterminate them completely with our forces to rid ourselves of this worry. Sigh, it's too bad that we won't have this chance anymore." If Lorist hadn't cared about the casualties of his troops back then, he wouldn't be troubled over such matters now.

The Trade Union was a restless cockroach that just won't die and would be revitalized with just a bit of sunlight. Given that they were now working with Auguslo as allies thanks to Andalou's mediation, the trade between them was growing larger and larger and even affected House Norton's position in the empire. Lorist wasn't able to come up with a solution to deal with it immediately either, since a trade dispute couldn't just be settled with force. If he suppressed others with his status as swordsaint, it'd only earn him the derisive laughter of others.

Tarkel arranged the reports before respectfully taking his leave. Lorist opened a bottle of blackcurrant wine and poured Charade and himself a cup each.

Charade opened the thick folders he brought as he drank from his cup. "Your Grace, here is a report from Camorra. He said that His Imperial Majesty released a public notice in hopes that Jillin Harbor will be able to increase the purchase of food, at least double the amount this year."

Lorist shook his head. "Our emperor is going desperate from the lack of money. Most of Jillin Harbor's purchases are transported to Morante to be sold there and His Imperial Majesty gets around one million gold Fordes from this. Write him a letter to say that Morante's market is only so big and they only require so much. Selling even more food there will only cause the price to fall and won't earn much profit anyways. Refuse his request."

Charade nodded. "Grandmaster Ciroba sent word from Montside that he isn't confident that this year's target for Malek Defense Line won't be hit. The original plan states that we should be able to complete 50 kilometers of the line this year, but only around 30 is complete so far. A large reason behind that is the lack of manpower. We need more young laborers."

Lorist furrowed his brow. That was a huge problem the house currently faced. Perhaps life in the dominion was too good that not many folks of The Northlands were willing to leave their homes to go to a desolate province like Montside to work. They were already able to find a well-paying job in The Northlands, so House Norton's original plan to recruit 100 thousand youth laborers for the project didn't go through as well.

"Currently, we only have 40 thousand workers there, 30 thousand of whom are Fiercegale captives. They were punished for five years of labor and around a thousand die each year. Mainly, it's due to falling to plagues or mountain barbarian attacks. The morale is really low. The other ten thousand are citizens who have taken root in Montside and they understand what Malek Defense Line means to the province, so a group of them want to help out. It's too bad that their numbers are too low," summarized Charade.

Lorist rapped on the table and asked, "Does Malek and the others have any suggestions on what to do about the lack of manpower?"

"Lord Potterfang suggested for us to increase the pay for laborers since anyone well paid enough can do a job well. He thinks that if we increase the payment by a few times, we'll easily be able to recruit enough workers from the dominion to work on the project. However, Spiel shot down that idea as he thinks that we can't increase the budget of the project. Being able to pay for the security of the project is already the best the house can do.

"Lord Malek on the other hand suggested for the various garrison forces in the various provinces there to make up for the lack. However, Lord Hector suggested that with the three main legions stationed there, the garrison forces shouldn't be used as laborers as we won't have adequate defenses should an urgent situation arise."

Charade continued to read through the folders, reading the suggestions and objections of the other officials of the house. When he reached the last page, he stopped and laughed. "Your Grace, Fiercetiger Loze brought up a really interesting suggestion. He says that we can work with Whitelion to clear out the bandits and using the captive bandits as laborers. That way, we won't have to go through the trouble of recruiting laborers."

"Whoa... That's something I didn't expect from him. A good idea for once," Lorist said with a chuckle, "Are there any other suggestions?"

"Yes," Charade replied, "the head of the internal affairs department, Lord Kriston said that we could forcefully conscript our subjects to solve this problem. Serving the dominion lord is their duty anyway, but we just haven't ever used this method before."

Forcefully conscripting subjects was the right of all dominion lords. They could decide how much time a subject has to serve them for free. Some more benevolent lords only made them work a month and provided free food and drink, while some more stingy ones would have their subjects serve year long without food. However, that would cause the rate of escape to soar. Noble houses that didn't use their right to conscript subjects like the Nortons weren't uncommon either.

Lorist contemplated in silence. After a while, he shook his head and said, "We can't forcefully conscript our subjects. That will hurt their trust and loyalty to our house and also displease those within our dominion. Since our predecessors have never employed such a right, we won't establish this precedent either. Let's think of other methods first."

"Alright, Your Grace. Actually, I think Loze's suggestion is rather practical..."

Chapter 590 - Celebration and Budgets

Krilos got off his carriage and slowly made his way into the palace. The guards who saw him on the way saluted him respectfully.

Within three short years, the crippled man with two glaring scars on his face had put the finances of the empire into order. Not only did he help the emperor form three new legions, he also increased standards of living for the people, birthed new industries, and reinvigorated the empire's economy, allowing the emperor and the empress to finally host some activities in the palace.

"Respectful greetings, Count Selik," greeted the minister of the interior, Hendry, with a deep bow. "His Imperial Majesty is having tea in the garden with Her Imperial Majesty. As it is the young prince's birthday today, the empress is preparing to host a celebration. His Imperial Majesty has summoned you to ask for some funds for the celebration."

Henry revealed the reason Krilos was summoned without hiding anything. Krilos smiled at him and nodded. "Thank you, Sir Hendry. I recall that your wife mentioned that it would be your thirtieth marriage anniversary next month. I happened to get my hands on a bottle of Forest Moondew, also known as the perfume of fairies. I believe this is a fitting gift for your anniversary."

Hendry looked rather happy to hear that. Forest Moondew was a famous perfume on the continent and only few bottles were produced each year, with each costing more than ten gold Fordes. He believed that his wife would be able to show off to the other female party-goers with perfume like that and wouldn't come to pester him for the time being. "Thank you, Lord Count. I am humbled and grateful to receive such a gift."

It was quite laughable when one thought about it. Krilos currently served three roles. The first was as the mastermind behind Andalou to develop it into the largest trading guild in the empire. The second was his position as the finance minister of the empire, which was forced upon him by Auguslo. He was in charge of the empire's spending. The third position was that of the sponsor of the imperial treasury. In other words, he was the emperor's personal wallet, a thankless effort, really.

To make sure Krilos served him faithfully, Auguslo generously gave him the title of an honorary count and said that as long as he could serve the empire for a decade, he would be made a landed count.

Perhaps Auguslo believed that the son of a merchant who was exiled from his nation couldn't be any better. Auguslo, with his great judge of talent, didn't mind his status and crippled body and made him the finance minister straight away. Naturally, Selik didn't let his hopes down the slightest. He used three years to turn around the horrible financial situation of the empire to the point that Auguslo was in a mood good enough to celebrate his son's seventh birthday.

Krilos didn't like being called to the empire's central of administration, the palace. He preferred to work in his little office at Andalou where he felt his most free. But he didn't have a choice, the one who always summoned him was the emperor himself, his arch nemesis. He had to suppress his desire for revenge to meet the emperor and handle him.

Auguslo had long forgotten about the liar Marquis Krilos who used to serve as the Union's envoy. He was no more than a small figure. But the pain on Krilos's body and his need to ruin his face and hide always reminded him who he was and what his goals were. He was to be sneaky as a poisonous snake, striking fatally only when the opportunity presented itself.

After making his way through a few corridors and taking a few turns, he saw a lush and viridian garden basking under the warm glow of the 11th month son. Some maidservants were playing around on the beautiful grass, tossing sacks of spice at each other, their laughter sounding clear as bells.

It was tea time, the most relaxed period for the maidservants of the palace. As if he didn't see the beautiful scene before him, Krilos took out a grey cloth with a lowered head. Hendry hurriedly received it and carefully wrapped it around Krilos's face before tying it at the back of his head.

This had to be done because three years back when Krilos was summoned to the palace, the scars stretching from his forehead to his chin shocked the maidservants. So, Auguslo allowed Krilos to mask himself when he visited the palace. While others saw it as Auguslo showing benevolence towards a subordinate, Krilos thought it to be an insult. Auguslo just didn't want his face to terrify his wife and the maidservants.

"Aha, here comes our finance minister," said Auguslo with a smile and a golden goblet in his hand. He seemed to be in a rather good mood.

"My humblest greetings, Your Imperial Majesty," greeted Krilos expressionlessly, before he bowed formally to the empress. Per noble etiquette, the queen should reach her hand out for Krilos to kiss. However, she only bowed slightly before hurriedly making her way to a corner of the garden.

"My dear Selik, please forgive our empress's behavior. She has grown up in the great northeastern plains, so the scars on your face would remind her about the ferocious grassland barbarians that often attacked that area. Those wild folk love to trace a knife across their face to show their ferocity after all. When our queen was six, she hid in a pile of grass and witnessed the barbarians overrun her home and kill her parents right in front of her. That is a nightmare she will never be free from, so she's especially sensitive to your facial scars," apologized Auguslo on the empress's behalf.

"I am sorry for that," Krilos apologized without a change in tone, "But the scars on my face are far from voluntary. Your Imperial Majesty knows about my experiences being on the run. These scars are the ones that convinced my pursuers that I was dead and allowed me to escape with my life. So, I can only apologize if they cause any fright to Her Imperial Majesty."

"No worries." Auguslo waved the goblet in his hand, and a maidservant quickly came forward to serve Krilos a silver goblet filled with good wine.

"We had you come to the palace to discuss Helleist's seventh birthday, which is coming in another three months. We plan to hold a birthday celebration for him after our grand new year's celebration and all nobles are invited to attend. The empress and us would like to hear your thoughts on the budget of these two activities. Naturally, when permissible, we hope that the ceremony can be as grand as possible."

Krilos was speechless. What's the point of making such a big deal about it? Prince Helleist's birthday is on the 7th day of the 3rd month and there's more than three months remaining. There's no need to start planning for it now... But after some thought, Krilos remembered that it was the rainy season during the third month, which made it really inconvenient to leave home.

Usually, the celebrations on the 1st day of the 1st month would last for more than ten days. The nobles and their family members couldn't stay in the imperial capital until the rainy season was over, after all. They would usually leave before the ice melted in the 2nd month to their dominions to spend the rest of winter and the rainy season. Auguslo was worried that the nobles would not attend his son's birthday celebration because of the rainy season and that would absolutely embarrass him and his wife.

It was all to blame on the bad timing in which Helleist was born--right before the rainy season. The reason there wasn't any grand celebration in the past was because Auguslo would simply celebrate with his wife and some maidservants in the palace. Perhaps to make up for the simple parties they threw back then, they wanted to host a grand celebration for the prince's seventh birthday and invite all the nobles to attend.

The reason Auguslo brought up the new year's celebration alongside with the prince's birthday was so that he could give the nobles a reason to stay until the third month and attend his son's birthday, making it much merrier. But tending to those nobles and their families wasn't an easy affair. They had to be provided with places to roam and parties to attend so that they wouldn't feel bored waiting through winter and the rainy season. All that naturally cost quite a number of gold coins.

"Your Imperial Majesty, the financial situation of the empire is still a little tight. Much money still has to be invested in transportation and civilian development to fix the damage wrought by the war. Even though I wouldn't personally encourage for so much money to be spent on such an event, I recall that Your Imperial Majesty's personal treasury should have enough money to fund such a celebration. Perhaps--"

Krilos suddenly stopped speaking. He recalled that the reason Auguslo brought up the two events together was because he hoped that the spending of hundreds of thousands of gold Fordes could be taken from the national treasury instead of the emperor's own wallet, even though personal celebrations like that were usually paid for by the monarch himself.

"Well, Selik, even though our personal treasury has grown to contain near a million gold Fordes, allowing our family to live a rather prosperous life, I believe such a grand celebration will help boost the nobles and officials' solidarity, so it wouldn't be out of the question to foot that as a public expense, just like the new year celebrations. What do you say?" Auguslo's face didn't blush in the slightest when he said that.

Krilos sighed inwardly and bowed. "As Your Imperial Majesty wills, I will do my best to gather the funds needed for the prince's birthday celebration. I'll also arrange for appropriate accommodation for the nobles and source more supplies, as well as hire performers from across the land. I will come up with a budget for that within three days for Your Imperial Majesty's purview."

Auguslo smiled gladly. "We know that you won't disappoint us, Selik. We are assured with you in charge. The empire is at peace now and the people are enjoying a stable life, so a celebration like this is worth it. We have considered whether to announce Helleist as our crown prince during the celebration. That will also give the nobles who have waited so long to participate in it a good reason to stay..."

Krilos's eyes flashed. By the time Auguslo finished speaking his mind about his plans, he lowered his head and said, "This humble servant dares not question Your Imperial Majesty's decision. I shall return swiftly to draft up the budget for the celebration. I will be taking my leave now, as time is of essence."

Auguslo laughed dryly, but that was also a part of Krilos which he liked. The finance minister cared not for anything else but finance, which was why he appointed him to the post in the first place. Naturally, his innate talent for such matters was also a huge factor. Auguslo waved him away. "Be on your way then, Selik. We shall be counting on you for this matter."

Krilos nodded and bowed before he left with Hendry, the minister of the interior.

When he left the palace gates and got into his carriage, Krilos looked really excited. He knocked on the wall of the carriage. Soon, the guards asked from outside, "Milord, do you have any instructions?"

"Go to Count Wecksas and ask him to see me immediately," said Krilos.

"Understood, Milord."

END OF TRL

Table of Contents

Tales of the Reincarnated Lord

Synopsis
Copyright
World Map
Prologue
Chapter 1 Red Grace Inn (1)
Chapter 2 Red Grace Inn (2)
Chapter 3 Dawn Academy (1)
Chapter 4 Dawn Academy (2)
Chapter 5 Young Noble
Chapter 6 The Origins of Battle Force
Chapter 7 The First Days since Reincarnation

Chapter 8 Battle Force and His Days as a Mercenary

Chapter 9 Dynamic Vision
Chapter 10 Aquametal Technique
Chapter 11 Incador Medal
Chapter 12 The Pawn and the Announcement
Chapter 13 Academy Head Levins
Chapter 14 Lakefront Residence
Chapter 15 A Fleeting Moonlit Dream (1)
Chapter 16 A Fleeting Moonlit Dream (2)
Chapter 17 A Fleeting Moonlit Dream (3)
Chapter 18 A Fleeting Moonlit Dream (4)
Chapter 19 A Fleeting Moonlit Dream (5)
Chapter 20 A Fleeting Moonlit Dream (6)
Chapter 21 A Fleeting Moonlit Dream (7)
Chapter 22 Locke and Els (1)
Chapter 23 Locke and Els (2)
Chapter 24 Locke and Els (3)
Chapter 25 Locke and Els (4)
Chapter 26 Els’s Request
Chapter 27 Final Preparations
Chapter 28 Selling Books And Requesting Help
Chapter 29 Settling Bills at The Inn
Chapter 30 Battle Force Awakening Course
Chapter 31 Pulse Reading (1)
Chapter 32 Pulse Reading (2)
Chapter 33 Journal Entries and The Duels
Chapter 34 Dueling Period
Chapter 35 President Peterson’s Thanks
Chapter 36 Attendant and Carriage
Chapter 37 Ambush on the Streets
Chapter 38 Counter Kill
Chapter 39 Aftermath
Chapter 40 The Duels Continue
Chapter 41 Counting Earnings and Beggars

Chapter 42 Arrival of the People from the Family

Chapter 43 Troubles Within the Family
Chapter 44 The Fanatical Female Students
Chapter 45 The Decision

Chapter 46 Convoy Plans and the Oath of Allegiance

Chapter 47 Knights and Gifts
Chapter 48 Northbound Journey Strategy
Chapter 49 The Academy Armory
Chapter 50 In Which Els Reports for Duty
Chapter 51 The Sloph Slavers
Chapter 52 Slaughter
Chapter 53 Occupying the Bastide
Chapter 54 Reorganization and Maidservants
Chapter 55 Ambush and the Yields
Chapter 56 Baron Miranda

Chapter 57 Various Preparations for the Journey

Chapter 58 The Journey North Begins
Chapter 59 Kill Them All
Chapter 60 Camp Intrusion and Takeover
Chapter 61 Arrival of the Convoy
Chapter 62 Offense and Defense
Chapter 63 Breaching the Camp
Chapter 64 Winter Night Massacre
Chapter 65 Conclusion and Reorganization
Chapter 66 Mister Tim
Chapter 67 Josk’s Wish
Chapter 68 Strategizing
Chapter 69 The Battle Begins
Chapter 70 Troop Deployment
Chapter 71 Success
Chapter 72 Freiyar
Chapter 73 Trust
Chapter 74 Surprise Attack Successful
Chapter 75 The Final Assault
Chapter 76 Rounding
Chapter 77 Conference of the Nobles
Chapter 78 On the Road
Chapter 79 A Withered Tree Crumbles Easily
Chapter 80 Forming yet Another Convoy
Chapter 81 Telesti
Chapter 82 Viscount Kermas
Chapter 83 River-Crossing and Arrival
Chapter 84 Takeover
Chapter 85 The Plan of the Kenmays Family
Chapter 86 Construction Staff Appointment
Chapter 87 Homecoming
Chapter 88 Power Struggle Rumors
Chapter 89 Inheritance Ceremony
Chapter 90 Three Chief Supervisors and Irina
Chapter 91 Sword Crisis
Chapter 92 Knight Belnick
Chapter 93 Enticement
Chapter 94 Midway Skirmish
Chapter 95 Family’s Forbidden Area

Chapter 96 Whitedeer Mound, Bread and the Slave Camp

Chapter 97 Mercenaries and Metal Armor
Chapter 98 Lorist’s Plan
Chapter 99 Maplewoods Bastide

Chapter 100 Barbarians, Gold Mine and Plotting

Chapter 101 Mistakes
Chapter 102 Trap
Chapter 103 Melee Outbreak
Chapter 104 Bloodshed and Remorse
Chapter 105 Repercussions
Chapter 106 Reward
Chapter 107 Supply Transportation
Chapter 108 The Pitiful Grandmaster Ciroba
Chapter 109 A Meeting with Telesti
Chapter 110 Intermission
Chapter 111 Breakthrough
Chapter 112 Blissful Night Life
Chapter 113 The Chosen Location and the Duel
Chapter 114 News of the Mountain Barbarians
Chapter 115 An Unwelcome Guest
Chapter 116 Baron Camorra
Chapter 117 Tabik's Demand
Chapter 118 The Issue of Compensation
Chapter 119 The Decision to Deploy
Chapter 120 The Days of the Expedition
Chapter 121 Duke Loggins's Plot
Chapter 122 Return in Futility
Chapter 123 Urgent Reinforcement Request
Chapter 124 Warzone Merchants
Chapter 125 Battles of Nobles
Chapter 126 Knight Carnival

Chapter 127 The Plot of the Kenmays Family Head

Chapter 128 Request for Peace
Chapter 129 Knight Waxima
Chapter 130 Troop Deployment

Chapter 131 The Massacre and the Suspension Bridge

Chapter 132 Josk's Fire Arrows
Chapter 133 Rolling Boulders
Chapter 134 Surprise Takeover
Chapter 135 Completion
Chapter 136 Out of Options
Chapter 137 Aftermath Matters
Chapter 138 News of the Kenmays Family
Chapter 139 Celebratory Banquet
Chapter 140 Shock
Chapter 141 The Whereabouts of the Convoy
Chapter 142 Charade the Demon
Chapter 143 The Experiences of the Messengers
Chapter 144 Hennard's Ransom
Chapter 145 Release
Chapter 146 Departure
Chapter 147 Dilemma
Chapter 148 The Mounted Archers Unit
Chapter 149 Blockade
Chapter 150 Small Mountain Village
Chapter 151 Bypass
Chapter 152 Noble Rank Elevation
Chapter 153 Trivial Problems
Chapter 154 Lorist's Strategy
Chapter 155 The Citadel's Weakness

Chapter 156 Kill During the Darkness of the Night

Chapter 157 Burn When the Winds Are Strong
Chapter 158 Worriless Journey North
Chapter 159 Assault During a Snowy Night
Chapter 160 Strategies and Plans
Chapter 161 The Long Wintery Night
Chapter 162 Gentle Spring Rain
Chapter 163 River Crossing
Chapter 164 Conditions and Request
Chapter 165 Plunder, Move, and Destroy

Chapter 166 Battle Preparations at Firmrock Castle

Chapter 167 Auguslo's Counterattack
Chapter 168 Female Unit
Chapter 169 Felicitas Settlement
Chapter 170 Ridden with Matters
Chapter 171 Female Secretary
Chapter 172 Messenger and Alliance
Chapter 173 Top Kek
Chapter 174 Magical Beast Wave
Chapter 175 Central Town
Chapter 176 Goats in the Town
Chapter 177 Wrapping Up
Chapter 178 Ballistas and Metal Materials
Chapter 179 Daily Life Within the Dominion
Chapter 180 Count Kenmays's Visit

Chapter 181 Facing the Magical Beast Wave Again

Chapter 182 Military Reorganization
Chapter 183 Sid Steel Armor
Chapter 184 Princess Sylvia
Chapter 185 Count Kenmays's Letter
Chapter 186 A New Sea Port
Chapter 187 Development Plans
Chapter 188 The Ultimatum
Chapter 189 The Onset of War
Chapter 190 Before the Battle
Chapter 191 Ballista Storm
Chapter 192 The Unfortunate Blademaster

Chapter 193 Confrontation with Princess Sylvia

Chapter 194 Victor of the Duel
Chapter 195 Four Family Alliance
Chapter 196 Prisoners and Letter
Chapter 197 Escort
Chapter 198 Settling Down
Chapter 199 Master-Disciple Conversation
Chapter 200 Reidy's Request
Chapter 201 A Failed Experiment
Chapter 202 Assaulted [Cliffhanger 1 of 5]

Chapter 203 Grueling Battle [Cliffhanger 2 of 5]

Chapter 204 Bloody Battle [Cliffhanger 3 of 5]

Chapter 205 Executed [Cliffhanger 4 of 5]
Chapter 206 Enslaved [Cliffhanger 5 of 5]
Chapter 207 Mortification
Chapter 208 Wooden Shack
Chapter 209 House-building
Chapter 210 Barbarians
Chapter 211 Departure
Chapter 212 Setting Out
Chapter 213 Analysis
Chapter 214 Royal Capital
Chapter 215 Arrangements
Chapter 216 The Decision of the Duke
Chapter 217 Visit
Chapter 218 Whale Island
Chapter 219 Grandmaster Sid
Chapter 220 Flying Fish of Dawn
Chapter 221 Tax Collection
Chapter 222 Arrival of the Dominion Lord
Chapter 223 Tax Collector
Chapter 224 Hector
Chapter 225 Whitebird Restaurant
Chapter 226 Farama Village
Chapter 227 Imperial Capital
Chapter 228 Paradise Gathering
Chapter 229 Davey and the Princess
Chapter 230 Face-smacking
Chapter 231 Flipping Out
Chapter 232 Leaving
Chapter 233 Breaching Five Camps in the Night
Chapter 234 Investigation
Chapter 235 Discussion
Chapter 236 Heading to Morante City
Chapter 237 At Sea
Chapter 238 Matters Back at Home
Chapter 239 Port Troubles
Chapter 240 The Secret of Gunpowder
Chapter 241 Glassmith

Chapter 242 The Curious Case of Luxcrimson Winery

Chapter 243 Unforeseen Changes
Chapter 244 Shocking Developments
Chapter 245 Two Letters
Chapter 246 Blockade at Sea

Chapter 247 Bathing in Blood [Cliffhanger 2 of 3]

Chapter 248 Escape [Cliffhanger 3 of 3]
Chapter 249 Senbaud
Chapter 250 Threat and Expropriation

Chapter 251 Dispute within the Chikdor Merchant Guild (1)

Chapter 252 Dispute within the Chikdor Merchant Guild (2)

Chapter 253 Mayflower Merchant Guild Assault Incident

Chapter 254 Setup and Counters
Chapter 255 The Glass War
Chapter 256 The Haphazard War
Chapter 257 Clash of the High-Tiers
Chapter 258 President Peterson's Conditions
Chapter 259 The Second Highness's Assault
Chapter 260 The 5th Day of the 4th Month
Chapter 261 Furybear
Chapter 262 The First and Third Young Masters
Chapter 263 Research and Improvements

Chapter 264 Firearms, War News, and the Nightmare

Chapter 265 Assault from the Hanayabarta Kingdom

Chapter 266 The Aftermath and the March into Battle

Chapter 267 The Wait
Chapter 268 The Terrible State of Silowas
Chapter 269 The First Household Blademaster
Chapter 270 Meeting of the Four Families
Chapter 271 Battle Report
Chapter 272 The Death of Duke Urubaha
Chapter 273 Before the Expedition

Chapter 274 Money of All Things Comes the Fastest

Chapter 275 Battle on Shore
Chapter 276 Karman
Chapter 277 Hector and the Slave Camp
Chapter 278 News from Tarkel
Chapter 279 Changing Strategic Arrangements
Chapter 280 Encounter
Chapter 281 Setup
Chapter 282 Arrival
Chapter 283 Royal Capital
Chapter 284 Drunken
Chapter 285 Dueling Grounds
Chapter 286 Three Floors Underground
Chapter 287 Taking Action
Chapter 288 Secret Path
Chapter 289 Trap
Chapter 290 The Ploy
Chapter 291 The Persuasion
Chapter 292 Termination
Chapter 293 The Death of a Nation
Chapter 294 Arrangements
Chapter 295 Dread Monument
Chapter 296 Garrison Division
Chapter 297 Surrender
Chapter 298 Shocking News
Chapter 299 Reconciliation
Chapter 300 Refusal
Chapter 301 Jillin Harbor
Chapter 302 The Child's Play Siege
Chapter 303 Anna and Arri
Chapter 304 The God of War's End
Chapter 305 The Odd Situation
Chapter 306 Return to Morante
Chapter 307 The Plight of Dawn Academy
Chapter 308 Nostalgia
Chapter 309 Dauslyke Hotel
Chapter 310 President Bejisanro
Chapter 311 Preparations
Chapter 312 Arson
Chapter 313 Closing Act
Chapter 314 Ridden with Matters
Chapter 315 Reasons for Coming
Chapter 316 Huge Purchase
Chapter 317 Charade Returns from Seclusion
Chapter 318 Viscount Eidis
Chapter 319 The Duke's Welcome
Chapter 320 Welcoming Banquet
Chapter 321 Count Chujway's Narrative
Chapter 322 Duel
Chapter 323 Intelligence Center
Chapter 324 The Tournament Begins
Chapter 325 Three Requests
Chapter 326 Apologies
Chapter 327 The Princess's Heart
Chapter 328 Missed Initiative
Chapter 329 Dominion Replacement
Chapter 330 Plan of Attack
Chapter 331 Incident and New Equipment

Chapter 332 The Trouble with Compact Crossbows

Chapter 333 Arrival of the Second Highness
Chapter 334 Refusal
Chapter 335 Reinforcement
Chapter 336 Negotiations
Chapter 337 Conditions
Chapter 338 Pledging Allegiance
Chapter 339 Lobbying
Chapter 340 Regret
Chapter 341 Landing
Chapter 342 Occupation
Chapter 343 Suggestion
Chapter 344 Reason
Chapter 345 An Audience
Chapter 346 Settling Debt
Chapter 347 Letter
Chapter 348 Gold Coins (1)
Chapter 349 Gold Coins (2)
Chapter 350 Bank, Entitlement and Real Estate
Chapter 351 Update on Catapults and Cannons
Chapter 352 Reidy's Encounters
Chapter 353 Ambush, Pursuit and Assault
Chapter 354 Demongrass Swamp
Chapter 355 Gold Eagle
Chapter 356 Second Highness, The Path Seeker
Chapter 357 The Second Highness's Strategy
Chapter 358 Made it in Time
Chapter 359 Captive
Chapter 360 Igloo
Chapter 361 Drinking Session
Chapter 362 Surprising Pledge of Loyalty
Chapter 363 Banquet and Entitlement
Chapter 364 Strategy and Deployment Meeting
Chapter 365 Rainy Season
Chapter 366 Extermination
Chapter 367 City Entrance
Chapter 368 Escape
Chapter 369 Pursuit
Chapter 370 Humiliation of the Duke
Chapter 371 Arrival
Chapter 372 Tower Defense Tactic
Chapter 373 Onset of a Great Battle
Chapter 374 Open-Field Battle Preparation
Chapter 375 Victory
Chapter 376 Retreat
Chapter 377 Boblige Mountain Range
Chapter 378 Two Pieces of Bad News
Chapter 379 Eidelwoke
Chapter 380 100 Thousand Barbarian Cavalry
Chapter 381 The Bloody Battle of Pedro (1)
Chapter 382 The Bloody Battle of Pedro (2)
Chapter 383 The Eccentric Queen
Chapter 384 Scheme
Chapter 385 Galini Beloput
Chapter 386 Three Requests
Chapter 387 Property and Taxes
Chapter 388 Mayor Doboff
Chapter 389 Barbarians and Gold Mine
Chapter 390 Jaeger's Consolidation
Chapter 391 Persuasion
Chapter 392 Admitting Loss
Chapter 393 The Barbarians Cometh
Chapter 394 Defeating the Barbarians
Chapter 395 Gold Mine Obtained
Chapter 396 Insomnia
Chapter 397 Untitled
Chapter 398 Decision
Chapter 399 Effect
Chapter 400 Right of Inheritance
Chapter 401 Way to Settle the Debt
Chapter402 Marital Bliss
Chapter 403 Negotiations
Chapter 404 Salt Merchant Committee
Chapter 405 The Storm Brews Again
Chapter 406 Inspection
Chapter 407 The Oddity of the Second Highness
Chapter 408 Carriage Track
Chapter 409 War in the South
Chapter 410 Before the Grand Wedding
Chapter 411 The Wedding
Chapter 412 Survey
Chapter 413 Second Highness's Scheme
Chapter 414 Changes
Chapter 415 Crossing the Border
Chapter 416 Meeting
Chapter 417 The Allies
Chapter 418 Plotting
Chapter 419 Declaration
Chapter 420 The Battle Begins
Chapter 421 War
Chapter 422 Trenches and Mud Walls
Chapter 423 Stalemate
Chapter 424 Flooding
Chapter 425 The Two Dukes' Decisions
Chapter 426 Rescue
Chapter 427 Migration
Chapter 428 Hot Spring Valley
Chapter 429 Word of the Swordsaint
Chapter 430 Method
Chapter 431 Three Methods (1)
Chapter 432 Three Methods (2)
Chapter 433 All Quiet on the Southern Front
Chapter 434 The Line of Succession
Chapter 435 Round Up and Hunt
Chapter 436 Envoy and Conditions
Chapter 437 Moonlight Stones
Chapter 438 Argument
Chapter 439 House Nordingham
Chapter 440 Submission
Chapter 441 Distribution of Rewards
Chapter 442 Big Business
Chapter 443 Return to The Northlands
Chapter 444 Dealing with Matters
Chapter 445 Trouble and Busywork (1)
Chapter 446 Trouble and Busywork (2)
Chapter 447 - Knight Lundmorde
Chapter 448 - Conspiracy
Chapter 449 - Helplessness
Chapter 450 - A Peaceful Year
Chapter 451 - Joint Development
Chapter 452 - Contract Singing
Chapter 453 - Hostage
Chapter 454 - Rescue
Chapter 455 - Swordsaint's Domain
Chapter 456 - Platinum Beach
Chapter 457 - Refusal
Chapter 458 - Lorist's Considerations
Chapter 459 - Secret Plot
Chapter 460 - Deal Sealed
Chapter 461 - Prepare for War!
Chapter 462 - Start the War!
Chapter 463 - Baron Abott
Chapter 464 - Surprise Attack Ongoing
Chapter 465 - Siege
Chapter 466 - From Attack to Defense
Chapter 467 - Danger
Chapter 468 - Resolution
Chapter 469 - Triumph
Chapter 470 - Fall of the City
Chapter 471 - The Coming of the Rainy Season
Chapter 472 - Regroup
Chapter 473 - Banquet
Chapter 474 - Reply
Chapter 475 - Envoy Krilos
Chapter 476 - Invitation
Chapter 477 - Lashing Out
Chapter 478 - Severely Injured
Chapter 479 - Awakening
Chapter 480 - On the Run
Chapter 481 - Hunter's Cabin
Chapter 482 - Recuperation
Chapter 483 - Internal Strife (1)
Chapter 484 - Internal Strife (2)

Chapter 485 - The Feral Wolves and the Magical Bear

Chapter 486 - Karitoke
Chapter 487 - War on the Plains
Chapter 488 - Bad News

Chapter 489 - The Loyalty of a Scoundrel, The Loyalty of a Traitor

Chapter 490 - Various Matters
Chapter 491 - Human Resources
Chapter 492 - Heavy Military Reorganization
Chapter 493 - Tying Up Loose Ends
Chapter 494 - Reinforcement
Chapter 495 - To Deploy or to Not Deploy
Chapter 496 - Invincible Fleet
Chapter 497 - Northsea
Chapter 498 - The First Encounter
Chapter 499 - The Second Naval Battle
Chapter 500 - Conclusion of the Battle
Chapter 501 - Lorist's Preparations
Chapter 502 - Intel and Final Battle
Chapter 503 - Captain Woodleis's Worries
Chapter 504 - Confident of Victory
Chapter 505 - Decisive Naval Battle
Chapter 506 - Suicide Charge
Chapter 507 - Messed Up Victory
Chapter 508 - Meeting After the Battle
Chapter 509 - Decision and Promise
Chapter 510 - Plan
Chapter 511 - Befuddle
Chapter 512 - Occupation
Chapter 513 - Fall of the City
Chapter 514 - Trouble
Chapter 515 - Crisis Control
Chapter 516 - The Angle of Merchants
Chapter 517 - Miscalculation
Chapter 518 - Pitfall Trap
Chapter 519 - Jindoz's Gift
Chapter 520 - Auguslo's Trust
Chapter 521 - Charade's Plan
Chapter 522 - Economic Measures

Chapter 523 - Response to the Peace Negotiations

Chapter 524 - Leaving the Camps with Nothing
Chapter 525 - Dinag's Encounters
Chapter 526 - Protest
Chapter 527 - Shocking News
Chapter 528 - Rather Miss Than Meet
Chapter 529 - Merciless
Chapter 530 - Loan Problems
Chapter 531 - Two Letters
Chapter 532 - Agreement and Rumors
Chapter 533 - Two Conditions
Chapter 534 - Callisto Hills
Chapter 535 - War Discussion
Chapter 536 - Approaching Battle
Chapter 537 - Duel
Chapter 538 - Day of the Grand Battle
Chapter 539 - Duel of the Swordsaints
Chapter 540 - Grand Victory
Chapter 541 - After the Battle
Chapter 542 - Year 1781
Chapter 543 - Arrangements
Chapter 544 - Report
Chapter 545 - Independence Pact
Chapter 546 - Debate
Chapter 547 - War Council
Chapter 548 - Mountain Path
Chapter 549 - Sandbag
Chapter 550 - Duke Nikolas
Chapter 551 - The Change of the Tides
Chapter 552 - Knight Wecksas
Chapter 553 - Count Mireitas
Chapter 554 - Duke Peterson's Demands
Chapter 555 - Surrender
Chapter 556 - Reconciliation
Chapter 557 - Retreat and Leasing Land
Chapter 558 - Dominion for Rent at 3000 Gold
Chapter 559 - Study
Chapter 560 - Still so Busy at Home
Chapter 561 - Enfeoffment Talks

Chapter 562 - Secret Intel from the Trade Union

Chapter 563 - Enfeoffment and Arrangements
Chapter 564 - Alisa's Marriage
Chapter 565 - Blissful Union
Chapter 566 - Belief and Supervision
Chapter 567 - Dean Claude's Request
Chapter 568 - Who Would Assassinate You?
Chapter 569 - Arrival at the Imperial Capital
Chapter 570 - Terrence-donkey Whip
Chapter 571 - Invitation and Murder
Chapter 572 - Kill Them All
Chapter 573 - Flipping Out and Falling Out
Chapter 574 - Turning Back Suspicion-filled
Chapter 575 - Marquis Krilos's Frustration
Chapter 576 - Suggestion to Demilitarize
Chapter 577 - Entanglement
Chapter 578 - Free Citizens
Chapter 579 - Auguslo's Provocation
Chapter 580 - Plundering Incident
Chapter 581 - Auguslo's Objection
Chapter 582 - Huge Blunder

Chapter 583 - The Obstructive Andelou Merchant Guild

Chapter 584 - Malek's Defenses
Chapter 585 - Taking a Few Steps Back
Chapter 586 - Auguslo's Handwritten Letter
Chapter 587 - The Bird Called Bolga
Chapter 588 - Trade War
Chapter 589 - Lack of Manpower
Chapter 590 - Celebration and Budgets

Landmarks

1. Table of Contents

2. Cover

Table of Contents

Tales of the Reincarnated Lord

Synopsis
World Map
Prologue
Chapter 1 Red Grace Inn (1)
Chapter 2 Red Grace Inn (2)
Chapter 3 Dawn Academy (1)
Chapter 4 Dawn Academy (2)
Chapter 5 Young Noble
Chapter 6 The Origins of Battle Force
Chapter 7 The First Days since Reincarnation

Chapter 8 Battle Force and His Days as a Mercenary

Chapter 9 Dynamic Vision
Chapter 10 Aquametal Technique
Chapter 11 Incador Medal
Chapter 12 The Pawn and the Announcement
Chapter 13 Academy Head Levins
Chapter 14 Lakefront Residence
Chapter 15 A Fleeting Moonlit Dream (1)
Chapter 16 A Fleeting Moonlit Dream (2)
Chapter 17 A Fleeting Moonlit Dream (3)
Chapter 18 A Fleeting Moonlit Dream (4)
Chapter 19 A Fleeting Moonlit Dream (5)
Chapter 20 A Fleeting Moonlit Dream (6)
Chapter 21 A Fleeting Moonlit Dream (7)
Chapter 22 Locke and Els (1)
Chapter 23 Locke and Els (2)
Chapter 24 Locke and Els (3)
Chapter 25 Locke and Els (4)
Chapter 26 Els’s Request
Chapter 27 Final Preparations
Chapter 28 Selling Books And Requesting Help
Chapter 29 Settling Bills at The Inn
Chapter 30 Battle Force Awakening Course
Chapter 31 Pulse Reading (1)
Chapter 32 Pulse Reading (2)
Chapter 33 Journal Entries and The Duels
Chapter 34 Dueling Period
Chapter 35 President Peterson’s Thanks
Chapter 36 Attendant and Carriage
Chapter 37 Ambush on the Streets
Chapter 38 Counter Kill
Chapter 39 Aftermath
Chapter 40 The Duels Continue
Chapter 41 Counting Earnings and Beggars

Chapter 42 Arrival of the People from the Family

Chapter 43 Troubles Within the Family
Chapter 44 The Fanatical Female Students
Chapter 45 The Decision

Chapter 46 Convoy Plans and the Oath of Allegiance

Chapter 47 Knights and Gifts
Chapter 48 Northbound Journey Strategy
Chapter 49 The Academy Armory
Chapter 50 In Which Els Reports for Duty
Chapter 51 The Sloph Slavers
Chapter 52 Slaughter
Chapter 53 Occupying the Bastide
Chapter 54 Reorganization and Maidservants
Chapter 55 Ambush and the Yields
Chapter 56 Baron Miranda

Chapter 57 Various Preparations for the Journey

Chapter 58 The Journey North Begins
Chapter 59 Kill Them All
Chapter 60 Camp Intrusion and Takeover
Chapter 61 Arrival of the Convoy
Chapter 62 Offense and Defense
Chapter 63 Breaching the Camp
Chapter 64 Winter Night Massacre
Chapter 65 Conclusion and Reorganization
Chapter 66 Mister Tim
Chapter 67 Josk’s Wish
Chapter 68 Strategizing
Chapter 69 The Battle Begins
Chapter 70 Troop Deployment
Chapter 71 Success
Chapter 72 Freiyar
Chapter 73 Trust
Chapter 74 Surprise Attack Successful
Chapter 75 The Final Assault
Chapter 76 Rounding
Chapter 77 Conference of the Nobles
Chapter 78 On the Road
Chapter 79 A Withered Tree Crumbles Easily
Chapter 80 Forming yet Another Convoy
Chapter 81 Telesti
Chapter 82 Viscount Kermas
Chapter 83 River-Crossing and Arrival
Chapter 84 Takeover
Chapter 85 The Plan of the Kenmays Family
Chapter 86 Construction Staff Appointment
Chapter 87 Homecoming
Chapter 88 Power Struggle Rumors
Chapter 89 Inheritance Ceremony
Chapter 90 Three Chief Supervisors and Irina
Chapter 91 Sword Crisis
Chapter 92 Knight Belnick
Chapter 93 Enticement
Chapter 94 Midway Skirmish
Chapter 95 Family’s Forbidden Area

Chapter 96 Whitedeer Mound, Bread and the Slave Camp

Chapter 97 Mercenaries and Metal Armor
Chapter 98 Lorist’s Plan
Chapter 99 Maplewoods Bastide

Chapter 100 Barbarians, Gold Mine and Plotting

Chapter 101 Mistakes
Chapter 102 Trap
Chapter 103 Melee Outbreak
Chapter 104 Bloodshed and Remorse
Chapter 105 Repercussions
Chapter 106 Reward
Chapter 107 Supply Transportation
Chapter 108 The Pitiful Grandmaster Ciroba
Chapter 109 A Meeting with Telesti
Chapter 110 Intermission
Chapter 111 Breakthrough
Chapter 112 Blissful Night Life
Chapter 113 The Chosen Location and the Duel
Chapter 114 News of the Mountain Barbarians
Chapter 115 An Unwelcome Guest
Chapter 116 Baron Camorra
Chapter 117 Tabik's Demand
Chapter 118 The Issue of Compensation
Chapter 119 The Decision to Deploy
Chapter 120 The Days of the Expedition
Chapter 121 Duke Loggins's Plot
Chapter 122 Return in Futility
Chapter 123 Urgent Reinforcement Request
Chapter 124 Warzone Merchants
Chapter 125 Battles of Nobles
Chapter 126 Knight Carnival

Chapter 127 The Plot of the Kenmays Family Head

Chapter 128 Request for Peace
Chapter 129 Knight Waxima
Chapter 130 Troop Deployment

Chapter 131 The Massacre and the Suspension Bridge

Chapter 132 Josk's Fire Arrows
Chapter 133 Rolling Boulders
Chapter 134 Surprise Takeover
Chapter 135 Completion
Chapter 136 Out of Options
Chapter 137 Aftermath Matters
Chapter 138 News of the Kenmays Family
Chapter 139 Celebratory Banquet
Chapter 140 Shock
Chapter 141 The Whereabouts of the Convoy
Chapter 142 Charade the Demon
Chapter 143 The Experiences of the Messengers
Chapter 144 Hennard's Ransom
Chapter 145 Release
Chapter 146 Departure
Chapter 147 Dilemma
Chapter 148 The Mounted Archers Unit
Chapter 149 Blockade
Chapter 150 Small Mountain Village
Chapter 151 Bypass
Chapter 152 Noble Rank Elevation
Chapter 153 Trivial Problems
Chapter 154 Lorist's Strategy
Chapter 155 The Citadel's Weakness

Chapter 156 Kill During the Darkness of the Night

Chapter 157 Burn When the Winds Are Strong
Chapter 158 Worriless Journey North
Chapter 159 Assault During a Snowy Night
Chapter 160 Strategies and Plans
Chapter 161 The Long Wintery Night
Chapter 162 Gentle Spring Rain
Chapter 163 River Crossing
Chapter 164 Conditions and Request
Chapter 165 Plunder, Move, and Destroy

Chapter 166 Battle Preparations at Firmrock Castle

Chapter 167 Auguslo's Counterattack
Chapter 168 Female Unit
Chapter 169 Felicitas Settlement
Chapter 170 Ridden with Matters
Chapter 171 Female Secretary
Chapter 172 Messenger and Alliance
Chapter 173 Top Kek
Chapter 174 Magical Beast Wave
Chapter 175 Central Town
Chapter 176 Goats in the Town
Chapter 177 Wrapping Up
Chapter 178 Ballistas and Metal Materials
Chapter 179 Daily Life Within the Dominion
Chapter 180 Count Kenmays's Visit

Chapter 181 Facing the Magical Beast Wave Again

Chapter 182 Military Reorganization
Chapter 183 Sid Steel Armor
Chapter 184 Princess Sylvia
Chapter 185 Count Kenmays's Letter
Chapter 186 A New Sea Port
Chapter 187 Development Plans
Chapter 188 The Ultimatum
Chapter 189 The Onset of War
Chapter 190 Before the Battle
Chapter 191 Ballista Storm
Chapter 192 The Unfortunate Blademaster

Chapter 193 Confrontation with Princess Sylvia

Chapter 194 Victor of the Duel
Chapter 195 Four Family Alliance
Chapter 196 Prisoners and Letter
Chapter 197 Escort
Chapter 198 Settling Down
Chapter 199 Master-Disciple Conversation
Chapter 200 Reidy's Request
Chapter 201 A Failed Experiment
Chapter 202 Assaulted [Cliffhanger 1 of 5]

Chapter 203 Grueling Battle [Cliffhanger 2 of 5]

Chapter 204 Bloody Battle [Cliffhanger 3 of 5]

Chapter 205 Executed [Cliffhanger 4 of 5]
Chapter 206 Enslaved [Cliffhanger 5 of 5]
Chapter 207 Mortification
Chapter 208 Wooden Shack
Chapter 209 House-building
Chapter 210 Barbarians
Chapter 211 Departure
Chapter 212 Setting Out
Chapter 213 Analysis
Chapter 214 Royal Capital
Chapter 215 Arrangements
Chapter 216 The Decision of the Duke
Chapter 217 Visit
Chapter 218 Whale Island
Chapter 219 Grandmaster Sid
Chapter 220 Flying Fish of Dawn
Chapter 221 Tax Collection
Chapter 222 Arrival of the Dominion Lord
Chapter 223 Tax Collector
Chapter 224 Hector
Chapter 225 Whitebird Restaurant
Chapter 226 Farama Village
Chapter 227 Imperial Capital
Chapter 228 Paradise Gathering
Chapter 229 Davey and the Princess
Chapter 230 Face-smacking
Chapter 231 Flipping Out
Chapter 232 Leaving
Chapter 233 Breaching Five Camps in the Night
Chapter 234 Investigation
Chapter 235 Discussion
Chapter 236 Heading to Morante City
Chapter 237 At Sea
Chapter 238 Matters Back at Home
Chapter 239 Port Troubles
Chapter 240 The Secret of Gunpowder
Chapter 241 Glassmith

Chapter 242 The Curious Case of Luxcrimson Winery

Chapter 243 Unforeseen Changes
Chapter 244 Shocking Developments
Chapter 245 Two Letters
Chapter 246 Blockade at Sea

Chapter 247 Bathing in Blood [Cliffhanger 2 of 3]

Chapter 248 Escape [Cliffhanger 3 of 3]
Chapter 249 Senbaud
Chapter 250 Threat and Expropriation

Chapter 251 Dispute within the Chikdor Merchant Guild (1)

Chapter 252 Dispute within the Chikdor Merchant Guild (2)

Chapter 253 Mayflower Merchant Guild Assault Incident

Chapter 254 Setup and Counters
Chapter 255 The Glass War
Chapter 256 The Haphazard War
Chapter 257 Clash of the High-Tiers
Chapter 258 President Peterson's Conditions
Chapter 259 The Second Highness's Assault
Chapter 260 The 5th Day of the 4th Month
Chapter 261 Furybear
Chapter 262 The First and Third Young Masters
Chapter 263 Research and Improvements

Chapter 264 Firearms, War News, and the Nightmare

Chapter 265 Assault from the Hanayabarta Kingdom

Chapter 266 The Aftermath and the March into Battle

Chapter 267 The Wait
Chapter 268 The Terrible State of Silowas
Chapter 269 The First Household Blademaster
Chapter 270 Meeting of the Four Families
Chapter 271 Battle Report
Chapter 272 The Death of Duke Urubaha
Chapter 273 Before the Expedition

Chapter 274 Money of All Things Comes the Fastest

Chapter 275 Battle on Shore
Chapter 276 Karman
Chapter 277 Hector and the Slave Camp
Chapter 278 News from Tarkel
Chapter 279 Changing Strategic Arrangements
Chapter 280 Encounter
Chapter 281 Setup
Chapter 282 Arrival
Chapter 283 Royal Capital
Chapter 284 Drunken
Chapter 285 Dueling Grounds
Chapter 286 Three Floors Underground
Chapter 287 Taking Action
Chapter 288 Secret Path
Chapter 289 Trap
Chapter 290 The Ploy
Chapter 291 The Persuasion
Chapter 292 Termination
Chapter 293 The Death of a Nation
Chapter 294 Arrangements
Chapter 295 Dread Monument
Chapter 296 Garrison Division
Chapter 297 Surrender
Chapter 298 Shocking News
Chapter 299 Reconciliation
Chapter 300 Refusal
Chapter 301 Jillin Harbor
Chapter 302 The Child's Play Siege
Chapter 303 Anna and Arri
Chapter 304 The God of War's End
Chapter 305 The Odd Situation
Chapter 306 Return to Morante
Chapter 307 The Plight of Dawn Academy
Chapter 308 Nostalgia
Chapter 309 Dauslyke Hotel
Chapter 310 President Bejisanro
Chapter 311 Preparations
Chapter 312 Arson
Chapter 313 Closing Act
Chapter 314 Ridden with Matters
Chapter 315 Reasons for Coming
Chapter 316 Huge Purchase
Chapter 317 Charade Returns from Seclusion
Chapter 318 Viscount Eidis
Chapter 319 The Duke's Welcome
Chapter 320 Welcoming Banquet
Chapter 321 Count Chujway's Narrative
Chapter 322 Duel
Chapter 323 Intelligence Center
Chapter 324 The Tournament Begins
Chapter 325 Three Requests
Chapter 326 Apologies
Chapter 327 The Princess's Heart
Chapter 328 Missed Initiative
Chapter 329 Dominion Replacement
Chapter 330 Plan of Attack
Chapter 331 Incident and New Equipment

Chapter 332 The Trouble with Compact Crossbows

Chapter 333 Arrival of the Second Highness
Chapter 334 Refusal
Chapter 335 Reinforcement
Chapter 336 Negotiations
Chapter 337 Conditions
Chapter 338 Pledging Allegiance
Chapter 339 Lobbying
Chapter 340 Regret
Chapter 341 Landing
Chapter 342 Occupation
Chapter 343 Suggestion
Chapter 344 Reason
Chapter 345 An Audience
Chapter 346 Settling Debt
Chapter 347 Letter
Chapter 348 Gold Coins (1)
Chapter 349 Gold Coins (2)
Chapter 350 Bank, Entitlement and Real Estate
Chapter 351 Update on Catapults and Cannons
Chapter 352 Reidy's Encounters
Chapter 353 Ambush, Pursuit and Assault
Chapter 354 Demongrass Swamp
Chapter 355 Gold Eagle
Chapter 356 Second Highness, The Path Seeker
Chapter 357 The Second Highness's Strategy
Chapter 358 Made it in Time
Chapter 359 Captive
Chapter 360 Igloo
Chapter 361 Drinking Session
Chapter 362 Surprising Pledge of Loyalty
Chapter 363 Banquet and Entitlement
Chapter 364 Strategy and Deployment Meeting
Chapter 365 Rainy Season
Chapter 366 Extermination
Chapter 367 City Entrance
Chapter 368 Escape
Chapter 369 Pursuit
Chapter 370 Humiliation of the Duke
Chapter 371 Arrival
Chapter 372 Tower Defense Tactic
Chapter 373 Onset of a Great Battle
Chapter 374 Open-Field Battle Preparation
Chapter 375 Victory
Chapter 376 Retreat
Chapter 377 Boblige Mountain Range
Chapter 378 Two Pieces of Bad News
Chapter 379 Eidelwoke
Chapter 380 100 Thousand Barbarian Cavalry
Chapter 381 The Bloody Battle of Pedro (1)
Chapter 382 The Bloody Battle of Pedro (2)
Chapter 383 The Eccentric Queen
Chapter 384 Scheme
Chapter 385 Galini Beloput
Chapter 386 Three Requests
Chapter 387 Property and Taxes
Chapter 388 Mayor Doboff
Chapter 389 Barbarians and Gold Mine
Chapter 390 Jaeger's Consolidation
Chapter 391 Persuasion
Chapter 392 Admitting Loss
Chapter 393 The Barbarians Cometh
Chapter 394 Defeating the Barbarians
Chapter 395 Gold Mine Obtained
Chapter 396 Insomnia
Chapter 397 Untitled
Chapter 398 Decision
Chapter 399 Effect
Chapter 400 Right of Inheritance
Chapter 401 Way to Settle the Debt
Chapter402 Marital Bliss
Chapter 403 Negotiations
Chapter 404 Salt Merchant Committee
Chapter 405 The Storm Brews Again
Chapter 406 Inspection
Chapter 407 The Oddity of the Second Highness
Chapter 408 Carriage Track
Chapter 409 War in the South
Chapter 410 Before the Grand Wedding
Chapter 411 The Wedding
Chapter 412 Survey
Chapter 413 Second Highness's Scheme
Chapter 414 Changes
Chapter 415 Crossing the Border
Chapter 416 Meeting
Chapter 417 The Allies
Chapter 418 Plotting
Chapter 419 Declaration
Chapter 420 The Battle Begins
Chapter 421 War
Chapter 422 Trenches and Mud Walls
Chapter 423 Stalemate
Chapter 424 Flooding
Chapter 425 The Two Dukes' Decisions
Chapter 426 Rescue
Chapter 427 Migration
Chapter 428 Hot Spring Valley
Chapter 429 Word of the Swordsaint
Chapter 430 Method
Chapter 431 Three Methods (1)
Chapter 432 Three Methods (2)
Chapter 433 All Quiet on the Southern Front
Chapter 434 The Line of Succession
Chapter 435 Round Up and Hunt
Chapter 436 Envoy and Conditions
Chapter 437 Moonlight Stones
Chapter 438 Argument
Chapter 439 House Nordingham
Chapter 440 Submission
Chapter 441 Distribution of Rewards
Chapter 442 Big Business
Chapter 443 Return to The Northlands
Chapter 444 Dealing with Matters
Chapter 445 Trouble and Busywork (1)
Chapter 446 Trouble and Busywork (2)
Chapter 447 - Knight Lundmorde
Chapter 448 - Conspiracy
Chapter 449 - Helplessness
Chapter 450 - A Peaceful Year
Chapter 451 - Joint Development
Chapter 452 - Contract Singing
Chapter 453 - Hostage
Chapter 454 - Rescue
Chapter 455 - Swordsaint's Domain
Chapter 456 - Platinum Beach
Chapter 457 - Refusal
Chapter 458 - Lorist's Considerations
Chapter 459 - Secret Plot
Chapter 460 - Deal Sealed
Chapter 461 - Prepare for War!
Chapter 462 - Start the War!
Chapter 463 - Baron Abott
Chapter 464 - Surprise Attack Ongoing
Chapter 465 - Siege
Chapter 466 - From Attack to Defense
Chapter 467 - Danger
Chapter 468 - Resolution
Chapter 469 - Triumph
Chapter 470 - Fall of the City
Chapter 471 - The Coming of the Rainy Season
Chapter 472 - Regroup
Chapter 473 - Banquet
Chapter 474 - Reply
Chapter 475 - Envoy Krilos
Chapter 476 - Invitation
Chapter 477 - Lashing Out
Chapter 478 - Severely Injured
Chapter 479 - Awakening
Chapter 480 - On the Run
Chapter 481 - Hunter's Cabin
Chapter 482 - Recuperation
Chapter 483 - Internal Strife (1)
Chapter 484 - Internal Strife (2)

Chapter 485 - The Feral Wolves and the Magical Bear

Chapter 486 - Karitoke
Chapter 487 - War on the Plains
Chapter 488 - Bad News

Chapter 489 - The Loyalty of a Scoundrel, The Loyalty of a Traitor

Chapter 490 - Various Matters
Chapter 491 - Human Resources
Chapter 492 - Heavy Military Reorganization
Chapter 493 - Tying Up Loose Ends
Chapter 494 - Reinforcement
Chapter 495 - To Deploy or to Not Deploy
Chapter 496 - Invincible Fleet
Chapter 497 - Northsea
Chapter 498 - The First Encounter
Chapter 499 - The Second Naval Battle
Chapter 500 - Conclusion of the Battle
Chapter 501 - Lorist's Preparations
Chapter 502 - Intel and Final Battle
Chapter 503 - Captain Woodleis's Worries
Chapter 504 - Confident of Victory
Chapter 505 - Decisive Naval Battle
Chapter 506 - Suicide Charge
Chapter 507 - Messed Up Victory
Chapter 508 - Meeting After the Battle
Chapter 509 - Decision and Promise
Chapter 510 - Plan
Chapter 511 - Befuddle
Chapter 512 - Occupation
Chapter 513 - Fall of the City
Chapter 514 - Trouble
Chapter 515 - Crisis Control
Chapter 516 - The Angle of Merchants
Chapter 517 - Miscalculation
Chapter 518 - Pitfall Trap
Chapter 519 - Jindoz's Gift
Chapter 520 - Auguslo's Trust
Chapter 521 - Charade's Plan
Chapter 522 - Economic Measures

Chapter 523 - Response to the Peace Negotiations

Chapter 524 - Leaving the Camps with Nothing
Chapter 525 - Dinag's Encounters
Chapter 526 - Protest
Chapter 527 - Shocking News
Chapter 528 - Rather Miss Than Meet
Chapter 529 - Merciless
Chapter 530 - Loan Problems
Chapter 531 - Two Letters
Chapter 532 - Agreement and Rumors
Chapter 533 - Two Conditions
Chapter 534 - Callisto Hills
Chapter 535 - War Discussion
Chapter 536 - Approaching Battle
Chapter 537 - Duel
Chapter 538 - Day of the Grand Battle
Chapter 539 - Duel of the Swordsaints
Chapter 540 - Grand Victory
Chapter 541 - After the Battle
Chapter 542 - Year 1781
Chapter 543 - Arrangements
Chapter 544 - Report
Chapter 545 - Independence Pact
Chapter 546 - Debate
Chapter 547 - War Council
Chapter 548 - Mountain Path
Chapter 549 - Sandbag
Chapter 550 - Duke Nikolas
Chapter 551 - The Change of the Tides
Chapter 552 - Knight Wecksas
Chapter 553 - Count Mireitas
Chapter 554 - Duke Peterson's Demands
Chapter 555 - Surrender
Chapter 556 - Reconciliation
Chapter 557 - Retreat and Leasing Land
Chapter 558 - Dominion for Rent at 3000 Gold
Chapter 559 - Study
Chapter 560 - Still so Busy at Home
Chapter 561 - Enfeoffment Talks

Chapter 562 - Secret Intel from the Trade Union

Chapter 563 - Enfeoffment and Arrangements
Chapter 564 - Alisa's Marriage
Chapter 565 - Blissful Union
Chapter 566 - Belief and Supervision
Chapter 567 - Dean Claude's Request
Chapter 568 - Who Would Assassinate You?
Chapter 569 - Arrival at the Imperial Capital
Chapter 570 - Terrence-donkey Whip
Chapter 571 - Invitation and Murder
Chapter 572 - Kill Them All
Chapter 573 - Flipping Out and Falling Out
Chapter 574 - Turning Back Suspicion-filled
Chapter 575 - Marquis Krilos's Frustration
Chapter 576 - Suggestion to Demilitarize
Chapter 577 - Entanglement
Chapter 578 - Free Citizens
Chapter 579 - Auguslo's Provocation
Chapter 580 - Plundering Incident
Chapter 581 - Auguslo's Objection
Chapter 582 - Huge Blunder

Chapter 583 - The Obstructive Andelou Merchant Guild

Chapter 584 - Malek's Defenses
Chapter 585 - Taking a Few Steps Back
Chapter 586 - Auguslo's Handwritten Letter
Chapter 587 - The Bird Called Bolga
Chapter 588 - Trade War
Chapter 589 - Lack of Manpower
Chapter 590 - Celebration and Budgets